It’s May 30. The San Juan Hut 200 is now less than a month away. I’ve been getting in some ok miles, but a crap ton of work the last few weeks has made cycling take a back seat to making good money to get caught up on bills and start paying down some debt. This past weekend I had a chance to get in a really good ride and wanted to share some photos with you. I rode from town all the way up to Bolam Pass, which will be the first checkpoint of the race. Of course, the race will start at Durango Mountain Resort 28 miles north of Durango and about 2500′ higher, but I needed a hard ride and got one at about 52 miles and 7,000′ of climbing. To top it all off, I got to come back down to a campsite next to upper Hermosa Creek, prepare a good meal, and fall asleep under the stars at 9,000 feet.

Old Shalona Climb towards DMR

First peek of Engineer Peak

Starting ascent towards Bolam on Hermosa Creek Road. Notice wildflowers on left.

First Creek Crossing

Cruising along some awesome Colorado scenery

Nice woodsy section

Cool waterfall, among many

Steep switchback, one of many.

Graysill Mine close to top

Celebration Lake at Colorado Trail intersection

Still some snow left at very top

View from Bolam Pass 11,433′

Back at campsite

getting ready for dinner, old dog warming up by the fire

I must say after finishing this ride that I was thoroughly destroyed. It’s only about a quarter of what I will attempt to complete in about a month. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t harboring a little doubt about the task at hand, but I remain confident my fitness will come up to where it needs to be and I will run a smart, efficient race and make it through. At first, I was thinking of riding straight through and not sleeping, but I might be changing my mind to throw in a 3-4 hour nap in the colder hours of the night for a recharge. We’ll see when the time comes. Also, mystery race #2 is right around the corner. It promises to be a fantastic training opportunity for San Juan. Of course, I will fill you in as the time comes.

Here is a bonus snippet of me racing at the local short track series recently. These little $5 races remind me of the dirt derby back in Austin, except the courses are usually a little more technical and the competition is way fiercer.

Yes, I was going that fast.

Mystery race #1 of the year is in the books. I had long considered doing the 12 Hours of Mesa Verde ever since I learned about it last year, but wasn’t planning on actually doing it until 2013 or later.  I was checking out their site last week and noticed they had a waitlist. Fresh off the heels of a new job, new motivation, and a will to get back to racing, I signed up on the waitlist and wouldn’t you know it, I got in just 4 days before the start of the race.

Now, this race was nowhere remotely on my radar. Not just this race, but a 12 hour ride period. I kinda knew in the back of my head 12 hours might be problematic, but I was willing to give it a shot anyways. I’ve ridden Phil’s World before and thought “How hard could it be?”… famous last words, right?

I drove out to Cortez Friday evening, got my packet, ate dinner, bought a few necessities at the grocery store, setup camp, found some Durango buds ( The Rocky Mountain Chocolate 4 man team, and DEVO crew ) then hit the hay. By the way, thanks for the chocolate that  night guys.

Saturday morning went by quickly. Alarm went off at 5:30. Downed some raw eggs and a banana. Got the feed station setup in solo alley. Attended mandatory racer’s meeting. Got dressed, checked bike, and made it to the start line just in time for the LeMan’s run. The start of this race had a lot of traffic. There were 800 total racers, and split between solos, duos, and 3-4 person teams, there were probably 275 racers at the start. To help thin it out, we took a lap around the fairgrounds (the staging/start/finish area) and then onto a jeep road for about a mile before hitting the trail.

I wanted to be in decent position, but I also wanted to make sure I hit the singletrack with some reserve. After all, my game plan was to start slow and ramp it up/keep it steady. I probably could have gone a little harder since I spent the first 8 miles or so of the 16.4 mile 99% singletrack loop in traffic at a slow place, but oh well. Something told me the chill pace was a good thing. Besides, I was trying to maintain more of a “long ride” mentality rather than a race. It was going to be a long day.

Lap 1 just kind of floated along. Somewhere in my drivetrain this awful creaking noise started to develop. I remembered that at the last race I could feel my bottom bracket starting to loosen up, so I figured the bearings were finally crapping out. Oh well, they would just have to last for one more race I thought, even if it was a 12 hour.

By the end of lap 1, the field had mostly thinned out and my bike noise problem had escalated to a ” annoying bird in agonizing pain” kind of level. I don’t know how else to explain it. Every pedal stroke under power was just creaking horribly. Luckily, I had brought my singlespeed as a backup, and it had a bottom bracket I could yank out and switch with the dying one in Sally. However, having fought a little to get ahead of traffic, I wasn’t ready to do it on this break, so I grabbed some fruit, changed bottles, and kept going.

Lap 2 was a little smoother and quicker since I didn’t have as much traffic to deal with. I was also oriented with the course and felt comfortable railing turns and launching jumps. The noise problem just got worse. In fact, I think it kept other racers away from me, either allowing me to pass quickly, or vice versa. It was driving me nuts. I thought through how I could swap the bottom brackets without losing too much time. It occurred to me that fellow Texan Payson McElveen and his teammates were a few tents down from mine and probably wouldn’t mind giving me a hand. They could remove the part while I was on lap 3 and have it ready to put in for lap 4. After asking them, they graciously obliged, and I was off for lap 3.

The noise this lap was beyond horrible. It was now up to the level of “spoiled rotten 3 year old not getting her way and won’t shutup til she does” status. If you have ever encountered such a thing, you know that this is much worse than “annoying bird in agonizing pain” level. I couldn’t wait for this lap to finish and change that part out. I was starting to feel some fatigue at this point but wasn’t worried about it.

End of that lap, sure enough, my new bottom bracket was waiting for me. They had led me to believe they would help me switch it out too, but that wasn’t the case. I didn’t really care though, I was glad for the help I did get and wasn’t really opposed to a long break anyways while I did some wrenching.

I set out for lap 4 after the extended break. It was a little toasty by this point, but I could see some clouds coming in, a welcome reprieve. The noise issue was only slightly better. Apparently, the real problem was somewhere in the cassette. The chain was super dry, but I think there was something more at play. Whatever the case, that damn creaking was still persisting and driving me nuts. Even though my legs were really starting to hurt now, and this course had a fair amount of climbing, I wished I had setup the bike singlespeed just to not deal with this effin noise.

About halfway through the lap those clouds didn’t disappoint and it began to rain lightly, with a little bit of snow mixed in. The trail was so dry that it wasn’t really enough water to make things muddy. In fact, when the rain let up, it packed down the course and left it slightly tacky. It was now supersonic fast! If only my body would have been. Last years’ winner did 8 laps, it was pretty clear I wouldn’t make that, but I was still hoping for 7 at this point.

I rolled through the start/finish, refueled, and made my way out for lap 5. Stuff was really aching now, but I remained hopeful I would catch a second wind and at least be able to ride 6 laps. Halfway through the lap, I realized this wouldn’t be a good idea. I felt strong naseau and my back and shoulder muscles just felt taxed to the limit, especially that bad shoulder. After 82 miles of moderately technical singletrack, 8 1/2 hours in the saddle dealing with a dying drivetrain, I decided to call it a day. I knew going into the race 12 hours was probably pushing it, but still, I felt a little bummed I couldn’t ride the full 12. On the other hand, I was completely obliterated, hadn’t crashed, hadn’t torn anything up, had a lot of fun, and felt it was a pretty training gig on my way towards San Juan Huts 200 at the end of June.

There remains one more mystery race before then. In some ways it will be more difficult than Mesa Verde, in others, it will be easier. One thing is almost certain, I will be rocking the one cog. It is unforeseen whether I will kick major ass, but that is a primary goal, among others. Stay tuned to read the ride report for this one. Might be this weekend, might be middle of June. Ahh, the suspense.

 

Life is good here in Durango. There is of course the news that I started a little bike trailer business last month. I’ve had a few orders including a rather cool and large commission in Aspen, and lots of people are talking about it and getting the word out. That’s April news though. This month’s really big news is that I’ve been offered and have accepted an awesome opportunity to be the left hand man with Sunpeak Builders, a local green building construction and remodel company. I’ll be doing everything from marketing to supervising to managing to designing to actually hopping in projects and getting my hands dirty. The owner, Adam Fries, sees this position as someone who could take over the company and either become a partner or maybe full owner. That is a ways down the road, but for now, I don’t think I could have landed a better job that fits my skills, energy, and desires. I’ve always loved carpentry and designing, and after starting my own business 2 years ago have started to really like marketing, managing, and embracing the entrepreneurial spirit.

Landing this opportunity has been bigger and more emotional than I can even put in words. Ever since moving to Durango I have struggled to find good work. I have sold bikes to pay for groceries. I”ve taken all kinds of odd jobs and back breaking labor just to stay afloat. There’s been a few times I’ve gone hungry, never that hungry, but more than I’m used to. I have turned in application after application, some for jobs that I wasn’t ever excited about but at least I could do them and get a little money. I can’t count on two hands the number of times my hope for staying here has dangled on a tiny thread. I have prayed and practiced all the patience I have, and now finally, I feel the good Lord has blessed me.

What is even more ironic was that last week alone, I had about 4 calls out of the blue for other jobs, some of which sounded pretty cool too, others not so glamorous, but hey, at least I got calls. Even though I already agreed to a great position, having those calls come in reaffirmed my belonging and happiness here. I tell ya, when it rains, it pours.

Then there is racing… The first legit race of 2012 for me went down this past Wednesday at the DEVO short track series. Getting back into race shape has been painful to say the least. I can remember a time when fellow Texan Payson McElveen and I were duking it out neck and neck at the Tuesday night Dirt Derby in Austin. Now he’s racing for Ft. Lewis College here in Durango winning collegiate national championships and although I don’t see him at the short track races,  he would totally annihilate me. I didn’t finish last, but dang 15th of 18? I’ve got a ways to go!

Following this short little race, I decided that since I had a kick ass job these days and a little cash coming in to head down to Aztec Sunday for the Alien Run Mountain Bike race. What a week! First short track race in who knows long followed by the  first cross country race since early October. I went with no expectation of a high finish, but simply to ride hard, ride fast. and have fun. I almost thought of registering in the sport category but ultimately decided racing Expert would be more beneficial. The start really sucked since it involved lots of paved and dirt roads and I quickly fell to the back, but once we hit singletrack I found my groove and started picking people off one by one. This lasted all but 4 miles until I got off course. Suddenly, I was chasing imaginary people along an unmarked trail before the trail sort of died and I realized what had happened. Unfortunately, I had gone about 3 miles on said trail and was forced to backtrack to where I got off course.

I was a little bummed that I only got to really “race” 4 of the 25 mile course, but decided I didn’t drive 40 minutes to do an easy 10 miles, so I got back on course and finished the race as best I could. I’m glad I did. There were actually a lot of good things to come of the race. I didn’t crash, my bike felt great, I was happy with how I was doing those first 4 miles, I got in a little extra ride time, I didn’t bonk even though I finished in 2:45 without any food, and the heat didn’t bother me one bit. Now, If I can just take that effort and multiply by 10, I should be ready for the San Juan Hut race at the end of June.

Between now and then I have actually added 2 more rather large races to the calendar. I’m not going to announce them. I’m just going to show up and kick some ass, and maybe write a race report for you entertainment.

Thanks for checking in on my adventures. Life is good and only getting better. I hope the same is true for you.

-Caveman