So the Parham family made it back safe and sound from the Mesozoic preserved section of Texas otherwise known as Glen Rose. While the dinosaur tracks were a few miles down the road at Dinosaur Valley State Park, this race would prove to be a Brontosaurus-sized task.

We arrived at Solavaca ranch at about 4:30pm Friday, enough time to squeeze in a 5/8 lap preride and setup camp. By that point though, it was already hovering near freezing. I was suffering from a headache that aspirin had no effect on and feeling kind of ill (dehydrated I think), even after eating a tasty chicken fajita dinner cooked on the truck tailgate and consumed inside the truck cab that the truck engine was attempting to heat up without much luck since it was just idling in a desolate undeveloped patch of the ranch that the goat livestock usually occupied, but we had been assigned to by the ranch owner since we had brought our dog and apparently it had been advertised on every facet of the internet that dogs were strictly forbidden (that’s another story)… but we ate and hopped in the sleeping bag real quick and went to bed.

Before Colleen or I could fall into deep sleep, Ladybird (the bandito dog) had wet the bed. We’ve let her sleep with us in the sleeping bag before on cold nights, and it has never been a problem, but she’s had an incontinence problem as of late and it couldn’t have picked a worse time to rear its ugly head. All of a sudden, Colleen’s right arm and my left arm felt a little wet. Then the dog was licking her fur trying to get that smelly stuff off. By this time the temps were in the teens working their way down to an eventual low of about 15d F. That’s actually the coldest weather either one of us has ever camped in. Lucky for us, we had a two person zero degree bag. Unluckily, the center section was full of dog pee. We put the dog on top of the bag and I threw my coat over her for some warmth. Colleen and I spent the rest of the night hugging the edges of the bag and trying to find a suitable position that was 1. warm enough to tolerate 2. comfortable enough to tolerate and 3. kept us out of dog pee. It was not an easy task, and needless to say, we didn’t get much rest that night. It didn’t help the water bottle I was sipping on to try and hydrate froze up

After one of the worst nights of sleep in my entire life, the sun came out and brought some new hope. I cracked open 2 frozen eggs, gulped ’em down, and topped that off  with a hard banana and some slushy orange juice. Breakfast of champions. I took my time getting registered, but paid for it by rushing to get dressed and set for the start.

Normally MTB races are started in waves, divided into skill category and further divided by age group. This would just be one mass start: 54 four hour males, 61 six hour males, a handful of relay teams in each event, and a handful of women in each event. All at once. I tried to get as close to the front as possible, but still got caught in lots of traffic on the first lap while the leaders took off. Fast starts,even at 6,12, and 24 hour races are very important to get past the slower riders that may have a good hole shot but slow to a crawl once the singletrack starts. I would have to settle for a laid back pace this first lap as the trail didn’t offer many good places to pass.

Things cleared up a little by laps 2 and 3 and I was picking up the pace. By lap 4 my hands and feet had thawed out but so had the morning frost, leaving behind a soupy mud over hardpack that you don’t sink into, but rather splattered all over your bike and struggled to hold your line with, especially in the corners. Even if you had the fitness to go faster, the mud just wouldn’t let you. Halfway into lap 5 I sprung a leak in my rear tire. Not enough sealant to plug it, so I had to throw a tube in while forfeitting several positions. I didn’t know where I was in the race anyways, I was thinking somewhere around 5th or 6th. With this dropping me to maybe 10th, I was ready to change focus from racing to just finishing and enjoying the ride.

Our campground was stationed at mile 5 of the 7.5 mile loop and this was where Colleen gave me feeds. I came through, restocked liquids, asked her to get me another tube, and grab the rear wheel off her bike and bring it over to the start/finish so I could switch wheels there. Another 2.5 miles later we made the switch and I was out for lap 6. It’s just not my nature to sit back and let a race go by while I’m cruising around though. Yes, it was a rough night, a bad start, a unlucky flat, and yes, I was beginning to accept the fact that I was just plain out getting my butt handed to me, but I refused to die easy.

The sun was shining brightly, the temps were now around 60, most of the muck was drying up and turning into a fast tacky clay , I had found a second wind. I moved up maybe 4 spots but eventually gave up 1 on the last lap as my mental grit deteriorated. Ended up in 10th place out of 61 with 9 laps in 6:19:27. All things considered, I was pleased with the effort. I didn’t have much more to give, and the race was a good indicator of where my fitness stands right now in preparation for Warda-ok, but not where it needs to be- a B- at best. It’s normally a let down when you enter a race like this and expect to do better, but I’ll be able to take home some lessons and gains I can use down the road.

A few days rest, and its back to training. I should be meeting my new girlfriend in person by Friday. I’ll let you know how the first date goes…

It ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep… moving…forward.

-Rocky Balboa, the greatest motivator who ever lived.

It’s time to take a break from training and hit the road for the first test of 2011, a 6 hour MTB race at Solavaca ranch near Glen Rose, TX. I’m hungry for some competition, heck, I’m just plain hungry. P90X and riding in the cold have trimmed all that holiday fat off and worked up quite an appetite. Should be a great day to race with ample sunshine and temps in the 35-60 degree range.  Been a while since I’ve done a 6 hour race, the last one being at San Angelo in October 2008. The key here is to not pace yourself. Sure, you might blow up and bonk after 4 hours, but that is a chance one must take.

You have to be willing to lose the race in order to win the race. If you are not willing to make that risk, you will never win the big races.

-I have no clue who said this, but it is true

So that is the game plan. Someone on the DORBA forum challenged who would be the one to crank out 11 laps. If I have any say, it’ll be ME! Proud Mary is dialed in with gears and a squishy fork (apologies to my hardcore rigid SS fans, but the course has some fast sections that favor tall gears) and ready to rip it. Win or lose, should be a great time and some great preparation for the Warda 12 hour coming up.

Now for some unrelated news. This past week I got a sneak peek at my new mail order girlfriend. Her favorite color is blue. She is old school, but new school. Hard, yet soft. Elegant and refined, yet gritty. She is a smoking hot redhead.

Colleen is likely to harbor feelings of jealousy towards this beauty, much like the wife did towards the leg lamp in Christmas Story, but that’s tough luck, because I won her fair and square, and I expect her to provide years of faithful service. Here is a little sneak peek for those of you a little bit curious about this new female figure in my life:

Check back in next week for a race update and more info about the new girlfriend.

-Caveman

It’s 5:30pm on a Friday. The bars across town are just starting to stir from the white collar 5 o’clock whistle. Comrades are striking up cheerful conversation over beer and maybe talking bad things about their bosses behind their backs. Me? I’m throwing on my wool kit getting ready to hop on my rigid single speed and head down to the greenbelt for a long night ride. It’s cold out, and drizzly. I make it to the trail and let the gray day burn off its last bit of twilight before switching on my Ayup lights. The fast trip through downtown left me wondering if my wool jersey and arm warmers would be enough to keep me warm, especially since it was drizzling, but that became an afterthought as the trees  broke the wind and the demands of the trail elevated my heartrate. Soon, it was just me, some rabbits, my bike, a little bit of mud, and a lot of very slippery rocks out in the Barton Creek Wilderness contemplating the night. The overgrown vegetation was happy to share its excess moisture with my shoes and leg warmers. No biggie until another hour passed and all of sudden my legs and feet felt cold. Hunger began to enter my stomach. My body was feeling the fatigue of a week full of hard workouts after much time away. No matter. I put these superficial feelings away in the hurt locker, but not before throwing away the key. My prize is greater than warmth, food, or rest. It is knowing that when the time comes, I’ll be ready to overcome such adversities. There is a lot of truth in the saying about football: “It’s 10% physical and 90% mental.” That doesn’t quite translate to mountain biking, but in several instances the difference between 1st and 5th is decided by mental grit.

There’s no easy way out in this sport. You want results? You gotta work for them. When it’s cold, dark, and rainy, but it’s the only time you have to ride, you gotta leave that trainer at home and suck it up. When you’d rather watch TV than do an excruciating strength session, don’t expect to beat that guy who always beats you because he pays his dues. You get the picture. Now sit back and enjoy the greatest training montage of all time from Rocky IV. It came in fromNetflix yesterday and I was super pumped I got to watch it one more time…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8xHjC27YvM&fs=1&hl=en_US]

Now, turn your computer off, get up off your rump, and go do something.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D5PtyrewSs&fs=1&hl=en_US]

What a long December it was indeed. 2010 had its ups and down, its successes and failures. I spent the beginning of the year without a job trying to figure out where I wanted to take my career. Then I saw an infomercial on late night TV about real estate investing and thought that it could be something I enjoyed and be good at. The income potential looked pretty good too!  So it was, I got some credit cards, bought some real estate study courses, went to seminars, racked up a little debt, went through a crazy intense process to purchase a house with hardly any money, fixed it up on my home depot card and lots of elbow grease, tried to sell it, didn’t work out, and so now I’ll be renting it instead, only, all the debt it took to get it is still on the books… Meanwhile, racing was out of the picture. Couldn’t afford it and didn’t have time to train. It was a necessary sacrifice, but one I knew I’d be able to redeem when the business was up and running…Meanwhile, I got married to my Colleen Rose. We moved in together, got a dog, consolidated stuff, and began our life as a happily married couple. Then one day late summer I noticed this 24 hour race was around the corner and even though I had sworn off racing in 2010, this one race I had to prepare for and do…and so I did, and somehow won. Then a month later another 24 hour race that wasn’t even on the radar but netted a big return. Then it was December. Colleen was out of work and real estate investing wasn’t quite what the gurus had said it would be, at least not yet, so it was back to good ole contract architecture work. Lots of it. It’s been enough to pay the bills and put food on the table, thank God, but nothing more. To say that things have been a little tight at the Parham house is a slight understatement, but we’ve got all the necessities of life and lots of love. It’s actually nice going through a period like this because you learn to truly separate need from want. After a few weeks of living without some of those “wants” you wonder why you ever wanted them in the first place, and all of sudden you are spiritually and financially more independent. But I digress…

Falling off the wagon may hurt a little, but getting back on is what really hurts. Riding, nutrition, sleep, and general health/sanity have all taken a back seat to work and just trying to make end’s meat since the 24 hour race in November. I did dabble a little in some cross races mid december, but the last one in Pflugerville was a real butt whoopin and set up a slew of sickness that Colleen and I are just now getting over. I ate horribly over the holidays. I didn’t exercise at all. I’ve been putting in 18 hour work days.  It isn’t the most interesting work, but it’s paying the bills and putting food on the table while Colleen seeks out a new job. I really hate to abandon my real estate efforts since I had just covered an exciting new program that I felt pretty confident in, but the problem was that it would need more money to start marketing and I wasn’t guaranteed a profit for perhaps 60 days+. So I went back to doing something I’m good at and pays a bit quicker. As mentioned, I’ll be holding on to the first investment house as a rental. After weeks of looking for an investor friendly lender and countless “Sorry, we can’t help you’s”, Colleen’s folks agreed to co-sign (Thank you so much Quindlens!) and the refinance was approved. I’ve very good tenants in place so at least it will start cash flowing instead of cash sucking and this December headache will be a nice asset in the years to come. I just wrapped up a large architecture project, so I’ll be able to go back to 8 hour work days and start training again. I would like to try for a 3 peat at the Dirty Dozen 12 hour in a month. That gives me 3 solid weeks of training. Not much to work with, but I’ve done it before and I reckon I’ll do it again. Hopefully the new custom made frame from YBS bikes will be ready to try out by then. If not, Proud Mary is always ready to go. Speaking of bikes, I’m thinning the herd to make room for the new bike, and to pay off some debt that is dragging me down. Big Tex the fully 29er, Miller the singlespeed cross bike, and Ross the lugged steel commuter are all for sale. I’m also considering selling the 1986 Trek Elance 440 road bike. Let me know if you or anyone you know is interested!

So, it’s back to the saddle, back to P90X, back to strict Paleo Diet, back to caveman workouts, and back to pain. Lots of character building pain. Maybe mother nature will throw me a little luck again this year with some epic mud and freezing weather to slow the competition down. I can’t say that I particularly enjoy these conditions, but I do excel in them! On a positive note, I did get off to a good start New Years day with the Polar Bear Swim at Barton Springs, then a nice 3 mile run in my boxers for the 2011 underwear run, and topped off the day with a nice mountain bike ride at Walnut Creek. Here’s to a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2011!

So, after getting my racing bug back at the dirt derby last week, i did indeed make it out to Pflugerville Saturday to race the singlespeed category in the afternoon. I had planned on doing the Category 3/4 race in the morning, but got stuck at Frankenbike trying to sell parts. I’m glad it worked out this way because the race course absolutely sucked and I was blown from just doing the singlespeed race.

It was a relatively flat course through black dirt prairie, except the dead clumps of grass and cracked dirt from a long drought made it deceivingly bumpy. There was one long run up a levee, and as soon as you got to the top, you were greeted with 30mph crosswinds for a few hundred yards before dropping back down just to ascend a really bumpy climb that dropped you into a long sand pit. The pit was mostly rideable, but only having one gear forced me to dismount every lap anyways. After exiting the sand

pit, you had a nice long stretch of gravel pathway with a healthy dose of strong headwinds. You eventually made a u-turn and started heading back to the start finish on a long stretch of rough grass. The only thing nice about this section was the tailwind, and maybe the fact that you were heading back towards some resemblance of

encouragement as all the spectators were hanging out near the start finish area.

Once the master of the singlespeed cyclocross bike in Texas, I am no more. Some new faces have appeared in the singlespeed category this year and they have blown me out of the water. I finished the race a very distant 2nd place and had given all I had to give, to no avail. The hard effort left me with

a side stitch and a sore throat. I was in such

dissarray that I had to forego the Sunday races completely and get some work done around the house. I was really looking forward to the Sunday race because I’ve raced the course before and knew it would be a fun one. Oh well, you can’t win them all, sometimes you can’t even race them all.

Following the weekend my sore throat turned into a pretty nasty little cold. I wasn’t going to race the derby Tuesday night to try and rest up, but it was the last Dirt Derby for another 9 months so I decided to push my immune system to the breaking point. I took the cross bike and Big Tex, the only working mountain bike I have at the moment. The B cross race went pretty smooth. I sat in for a while but got tired of running into other riders through the technical turns and run up, so I finally squeaked on by to cruise in for an easy victory. Next would the A mountain short track race. I hopped off the cross bike and onto the 10 lb heavier full suspension 100mm travel Big Tex for some fat tire action.  The bike was noticeably more sluggish. Not only that, but the competition was much stiffer. We get going and by the end of lap 1 I am struggling to stay in 4th place. I eventually get a little wind back and initiate an attack to move up to third, but 4th sticks with me for a few laps until I drill the technical turn section only to look back and notice 4th is nowhere to be found. 1st and 2nd were long gone so I settled for third.

So, all in all, not a horrible way to end the race year. That’s it for 2010. I might start training again in January in preparation for the Dirty Dozen, if I decide to give it a go a third time. Right now I am sick (most likely because of that Saturday race) and just need to focus on getting well. Thanks for reading. Have a safe and enjoyable Holiday Season.

Caveman

It has been almost 3 weeks now since the 24 hour race in Coldspring. Thanksgiving break in Terrell was all the recovery time I needed. I always look forward to cyclocross season in the fall-winter, but this year has been a little different. With the fall 24 hour races and my busy work schedule, I haven’t had the time for any of the statewide races. I’ve also put them off for financial reasons since Colleen lost her job at the end of October and things are tight on the homestead. A little racing bug came and visited me this past Tuesday though. There are two cross races in Austin this weekend and there just happened to be a Dirt Derby going on that night. I thought it would be a good way to jumpstart the old cross legs so we drove on out to Del Valle and I ended up 2nd in both the B and A races. The winner of each of those races totally destroyed me, but I figured for having a fall full of 24 hour races and having a two week break and hardly ridden a cross bike all season, those results were just fine by me. Plus I got my entry fee back so it was good motivation to race this weekend. My new racing rule is to not enter any race where I don’t stand a chance to win my entry back. Such are the compromises a broke architect/real estate entrepreneur who just can’t seem to ever fully give up racing must live with.

Here are the race flyers for anyone interested.

http://www.txbra.org/db/events/2011AlphaCross.pdf

http://www.txbra.org/db/events/2011CyclocrossScuffle4.pdf

I will probably be in the Men’s 3/4 and singlespeed races Saturday, and maybe singlespeed and Men’s Open on Sunday. Stop on by. Bring some beer. Bring a cowbell. Do some heckling!

Not even a full month removed from 24 hours of Rocky Hill, the Parham family packed up shop and made the jaunt east to the piney woods of Coldspring, TX to take on yet another 24 Hour mountain bike race as part of the Ultacentric Experience. Normally I race for fun, I race for camaraderie, I race for the challenge. If I get a little pay, that’s always a bonus. This race would be a little backwards. The course at Double Lake is fun for a few laps, but riding for 24 hours was sure to get boring. Non of my usual competitors would be out there, and in fact I had heard from the race director the week previous that pre registration was pretty low. Doing any kind of race for 24 hours is likely going to be a challenge, but I wasn’t particularly turned on by the flat, twisty, non-technical, non varying terrain of Double Lake. If you’ve never been there it’s in the Sam Houston National forest. It is flowy singletrack through heavily wooded areas with very little climbing and a lot of roots thrown in to keep you honest. What it lacks in technical difficulty, it makes up for in raw speed. It’s kinda like this:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goYs047SoGE&fs=1&hl=en_US]

Like I said, fun for a few laps but boring after a while. It was going to take something a little more exciting to get me to go through the entire 24 hour routine once more, especially less than 30 days from the last one. That motivation would be a 1 ounce American Eagle gold coin. This would be the prize for the winner of each solo category: male and female, run or mountain bike, 72, 48,or 24 hour. Gold was going for about $1400 an ounce last week, and only going up, so that would be all the motivation I needed.

We arrived at the park Friday night, setup camp, cooked dinner, and went over to the neutral food zone/timing area to get some hot tea (it was a little chilly out) and watch some of the 48 hour runners who had been out since 10am that morning. The 24 hour competitors would start at 10am Saturday morning and everyone would conclude at 10am Sunday.

Come Saturday morning, I picked up my race packet while Colleen continued to debate whether or not she would do the race. She had not planned on participating, but there were no other female solo racers signed up. If there was a nice gold coin at the finish line, why not!? There was completely neutral race support available so I wouldn’t need her to be there for me. We had barely brought enough lights and batteries for both of us to use at night, but they would suffice. I had brought three bikes, she brought hers, we had extra parts and plenty of food, so our change of plans would not be a problem to accommodate. Two gold coins would be better than one, and hers would be nice insurance in case I didn’t win mine. We spent the rest of our short morning setting up the Parham base camp. There was neutral support where the laps started/ended, but there wasn’t much room to put our EZ up or tent and athletes would be passing by and scanning in all night so if either one of us wanted some shut eye it would’ve been difficult. Racers have to wear these little computer chips on their ankles so when they cross an electronic mat it keeps track of race data-and makes a long loud beep.

At 10am, all MTB racers lined up and took off. There was one 6 hour racer, four 24 hour solo men, one 24 hour 4 man team, and one 24 hour solo woman. A far different cry from Rocky Hill attendance, but I would still have my work cut out for me. As mentioned earlier, I brought three bikes along. Big Tex, the full suspension 29er for when fatigue began to sit in and I needed some extra cush. Proud Mary, still setup single speed in case we got rain and the trail turned muddy. The third bike was a special one built up just for this race. Friend and former Pedalmasher David Kessler loaned me his Niner Air 9 frame and I threw on a light but solid 1×9 drivetrain. I started the race with this bike and rode it until dark. It made easy work out of the 9.2 mile loop building a comfortable lead by lap9.

Just like at Rocky Hill, I left the gate charging hard. My goal was to build up an insurmountable lead and retire early, perhaps even early enough to get some sleep. The competition wasn’t as stiff as Rocky Hill, but it still kept me on the gas harder and longer than I really wanted to. I only had a 16 minute lead by lap 7, but the blistering pace began to take its toll on the field by lap 10, when I finally jumped a lap ahead of 2^nd place. The pace had taken a toll on me too. For the first night lap I switched to Big Tex since I was fatigued and knew I wouldn’t be able to see the trail as well. I know a lot of you reading my blog don’t know much about bike tech, but the way a bike is built affects the way it handles. The Niner bike is very light and zippy-it turns and accelerates quickly. Big Tex is heavier and more stable-it turns and accelerates slower, but it is also more shock absorbing and forgiving. The bike switch combined with fatigue and night darkness made for a sloppy lap. I was sliding around, oversteering off the trail, understeeing off the trail, taking horrible lines and just having a tough time.

Despite the troubles I carried on. The folks in the neutral support tent kept telling me fajitas would be ready for dinner, but I remember having to ride 2 more laps before they were. I don’t know what the lap count was, but it was 9 ½ hours into the race. I stopped for my first long break and chowed down on some fajitas. That stop was a lifesaver. Normally delirium and feelings of quitting don’t set in until 2:30 in the morning, but here they were haunting me at 7:30.

The food, drink, and rest were just what I needed to hop back on the trail and crank out about 5 more laps to get me into the middle of the night and build a lead of 3 laps or so. From this point on, I started taking longer breaks and riding much slower laps. The 3 lap lead wasn’t enough to safely throw in the towel so I trudged on.

Around 6:30am, I was wrapping up a long break when twilight began to break. Morning twilight is always my favorite lap. The creatures are out stirring, the morning twinkle gradually overpowers my Ayup lights, and I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. If I’m losing steam it always gives me the recharge I need to finish strong.

I didn’t need a recharge for this particular lap. I just needed to enjoy it and finish it, because it would wrap up the win for sure.  Colleen had started this lap not far behind me, and I didn’t know whether or not it would be her last, but I waited for her at our camp (about a 1/2 mile from the finish) so we could ride the last part together. Even Ladybird got to tag along. There we were. The 24 hour champs. Husband, wife, and dog, rolling across the finish line together. I was now 5 laps up on 2nd place and done. 202.2 miles in 21.5 hours. A new personal best. Colleen would go out for one more lap so she could finish over 100 miles, 11 laps and 101.1 miles to be exact, a new personal best for her also. 2nd place (Daniel Ramos) went out for one more lap as well, cutting the margin down to 4 laps.  Looking back at the splits, he ran a damn fine race too. His early laps were almost as fast as mine. He was on a 26″ hardtail the entire race and didn’t have the liberty of a bike like Big Tex when things got rough. Even his last two laps were under an hour, a great effort for that late in the race. Third place rider Vance McMurray of Austin also had some fast early laps but decided to pull out after 15 laps. Vance is pretty much the founder of the High School Mountain bike organization here in Texas. We chatted a while after the race and it was cool hanging out with him.

The support crew had a full hot breakfast ready right as the race was ending and awards followed shortly after. Colleen and I got our 1 ounce American Eagle gold coins, picked up some other goodies and then everything sort of shut down. We packed up and hit the road for Terrell where gobs of food and sleep awaited.

I’d like to wrap up the race report by complimenting the race director and support crew. Normally setting up camp and preparing my own food and support is an advantage I like to think I have over my opponents. I make my own energy bars, Colleen cuts up fruits I scarf down in between laps, she refills my bottles, I have all my tools, extra parts, lights, clothes and any other item I might need right in reach at our base camp. With this being a relatively local race for me, it’s not a huge problem to bring all that stuff. The people that run this race truly strive to have it setup such that an athlete could fly in from anywhere in the US or even the world, have a short drive from the airport, and do the race with minimal supplies. I have never in my entire racing career seen a race, or even a charity ride for that matter, as well supported as this race. They had any kind of food or drink a racer could have needed. Hammer Nutrition was the title sponsor, so there was an endless supply of HEED, endurolytes, energy bars, and other Hammer products, but there were also sodas, juice, tea, and coffee. They had fruit, candy, crackers, pretzels, and all kinds of snacks laid out for racers to choose from the entire race. There were 4-5 hot meals per day made fresh in a portable kitchen. Those fajitas at 8pm hit the spot. I had some hot soup around 3am that was comforting too. The awards brunch was amazing. The support didn’t stop at nourishment. They had a mechanic on standby, places to charge light batteries, chairs to hang out in, professional timing, and cheery staff of volunteers that never failed to meet your needs. The course was well marked. The race director Robert Tavernini answered all my questions quickly when I was considering doing the race, and everyone was compensated as advertised. There was a lot negative hoopla on the DORBA forum about this race and a few people even tried to talk me out of it, but I’m glad I trusted my own instinct and am here to say that Colleen and I couldn’t have had a better experience. I only wish that more riders would have turned out. I would definitely do it again. That’s my .o2.

I’ll be gorging my face with food for the next two weeks and letting my butt heal up. Maybe then I’ll think about the next race. Thanks for reading. I wish you and yours a happy and joyous Thanksgiving.
Caveman

Photos by Vance McMurray

Almost exactly 2 weeks after finishing the 24 hour race at Rocky Hill, the Pro/Cat 1 men started the final race of the 2010 TMBRA fall cup at Cameron Park in Waco. I had no intent to do this race this year, but it just happened to coincide with a real estate deal I wanted to take a look at, plus I hadn’t done any substantial riding for 2 weeks, plus I hadn’t ridden Cameron Park in about 4 years, plus it offered a chance for Colleen to attend the free women’s riding clinic on Saturday and see friend/Xterra world champion Shonny Vanlandingham, so we drove up Saturday morning for the clinic and festivities and I did the race on Sunday.

It was a tough dang race. Maybe I was fully recovered from Rocky Hill, or maybe I wasn’t. What I do know is that I hadn’t ridden since that race nor had I taken good care of myself. Not anticipating any hard racing after the 24, I ate lots of junk and as much calorie dense food as I could get my hands on to satisfy my uncontrollable hunger. I neglected stretching and good practice recovery protocols, except for a little extra sleep. I wasn’t getting drunk on homemade Mead or Shiner, but I wasn’t turning down such tasty beverages. No riding, no P90X, no caveman workouts, I pretty much hadn’t been doing anything conducive to producing good race results.   Oh well, I’m always up for an impromptu challenge.

The Pro/Cat 1 roster this day would not be doing me any favors. Most of you reading this blog will have no idea who I’m talking about if I threw out all the names, but all you need to know is that the best of the best showed up this very Sunday. It was a confluence of speed, skill, and gut determination I haven’t seen since the glory days of TMBRA. My chances for pay would be little; a podium even less likely. Such is the nature of the beast when you get to this level. You are too fast to sandbag the age group, but still, the difference between 3rd place and 12th might only be 1-2 minutes. For a race about 2 hours long, that isn’t much. This is no room to let off the gas, even less room for error. Every racer is strong; every racer is good. As long you did your best, there is no shame in finishing mid pack or even near the end.

In hindsight, I probably could’ve left about 5% more effort out on the course that day, but switching from about a 75% effort to 105% with two weeks in between of keeping that couch warm, it was mentally tough. Cameron park is not a particularly technical course, but taken at warp speed it can become one. There are ample turns, rocks, roots, ledges, tree branches, climbs, descents, and other fun things that make the race equally demanding on  brainpower and coordination skills as it does leg and lung capacity. I ended up 13th of 19, out of the money (top 50%), but I knew I had raced about as hard as could be expected, plus it was a beautiful day out and post race beer was tasty so all was good.

While registering for the race, I happened to see this flyer sitting on the table. A 6/12/24/48/72 Hour mountain bike race in Coldspring, TX on November 20-21? A 1 ounce American Eagle gold coin awarded to the solo winner of the 24,48, 72 hour races? I wasn’t particularly glutton for more 24 hour punishment this year, let alone a month after Rocky Hill, but last I checked, I don’t have any other plans that weekend and the going rate for 1 ounce of gold is about $1400. That would really go a long way in my new business and help cover bills while Colleen is searching for a new job. An 8 mile lap at Coldspring is sure to get boring as hell, and I hate the prospect of having to race for money, but I’ve got a skill that the market is willing to pay for and $1400 for a days work ain’t so bad. So barring catastrophy between now and then (knock on wood), I think I’m going to give it a go.

Stay tuned for more details leading up to this next [possible] adventure. Thanks for reading!

Word is probably out by now that Caveman Productions once again brought home the win at this years 24 Hours of Rocky Hill. I feel like I’m beginning to make it look easy. At the least the people who’ve done a 24 hour race know this couldn’t be farther from the truth. These races take an enormous amount of preparation, the highest level of execution, and indescribable physical pain and emotional battering. My lap times from this year make it look like clock work, and to some extent it was, but those numbers don’t come close to telling the whole story. Just ask the guys who spent the entire race chasing me. Ask my pit crew. Ask the neighboring pit crews who saw the pain, fear, and doubt in my face after blazing 6 laps to start the race out.

A 24 Hour Solo win is rarely ever solo at all. Before I get into race details, I have to thank the following folks. Kathy and Scott Hudson and everyone else at Terra Firma Promotions for putting on the race. The course was well marked, the scoring area well staffed, and the event was well organized and sponsored. My wonderful pit crew started out with my lovely wife but somehow overnight grew to arch rival Adrian “Little Man” Barron ( he himself was racing solo but decided to pull the plug on lap 9), the crew that was supporting him ( Jeff McMahan and Heather Herrick ), and Derek Delpero, who, unbeknown to me, had loaded his 29er with a tent and sleeping gear and rode from Austin to watch the race and camp. Ladybird was there too, but I can’t say she really helped that much. Many, many thanks to Carlos Matutes, a massage therapist who come up from San Antonio to work the race. He worked on me before, twice during, and after the race. That mid race work was clutch to keeping me on the trail. As always, many many thanks to my awesome sponsors: Eastside Pedalpushers for parts and service, Puresport for liquid nutrition, Performance Wellness for pre and post race therapy, Bobcat13 for race photos, and Chipotle Congress for weekly Caveman Salads.

Now, on to the nitty gritty. This year 27 men entered the Solo Open category, 13 more than last year. Not only that, some really fast names showed up that left me knowing I’d have my work cut out for me this year. John Russell, last years runner up was returning to make another run for the gold. I had the chance to ride with John at Walnut Creek a few weeks back and he had me hurting like a dog. I could tell his hard training had paid off and he would be a formidable foe. I found out a few days before the race that respected adversary Wink (Nathan Winkelman) would be there. I’d never raced Wink head on at a 12 or 24 hour race but had always wanted to-yet feared the day I’d actually get the chance. Little Man Adrian Barron would there. He “unofficially” beat me at the 2009 Dirty Dozen, not to mention every Xterra race we’ve ever done together. 24’s are totally different beasts, but he is always a wild card. Bicycle Sport Shop Cat 1 phenom Marshall Bell also showed up. I’ve raced him at the dirt derby before and and have seen his times at XC races this year so I was aware of his threat potential.

So, I knew I had my work cut out for me. I said in previous posts that I would keep an eye on solo racers, but try to race against the teams to up the ante. So, I ditched the usual game plan of starting easy/moderate and finishing strong in lieu of a race plan that entailed starting ridiculously fast, staying stupid fast by the half way mark, and finishing pretty fast by the final laps. It would be great way to get a good jump on the solo field and totally demoralize and beat them down, while staying in “contention” with the teams. I was going to lay it all on the line, or go down in flaming ball of glory trying to. In the end, it kinda worked.

Gun goes off of and the crazy LeMan’s running start ensues. I didn’t break out in a full sprint, but I didn’t lollygag it either. Once on the bike, I didn’t waste much time moving up. Proud Mary was setup for speed with 34-18 gearing on a course that had a lot of climbing on the front end. With that kind of gearing, fresh legs, and good adrenaline pumping, the climbs flew right by. Fastest first lap of the race belonged to Sol Frost of Austin Bikes at 46:28. Second fastest? Yours truly at 47:13. I didn’t

know that at the time, I just felt good and knew I was on a mission. Second lap came in at 46:18 with no run to deal with this time. I got edged again by the Austin Bikes 4 man team at 45:43, but again, I didn’t know this and just kept going. Lap 3 48:04 . A little fatigue starting to set in at this point. I hopped on the Dark Knight with 34-19 gearing for 2 laps while Proud Mary got dropped down to 34-20 gearing. I was happy with the fast start and knew I was starting to settle down to my 24 hour pace.

By the end of lap 6 those blazing fast laps came back to slap me in the face, or adductor muscles actually. The race had started at noon and the high temps for the day were unseasonably high at 86-88 degrees. The combination of heat, singlespeed, and hard efforts had left my legs cramping badly. Adrian had fallen off pace, and John, Wink, and Marshall were apparently riding together about 20 minutes back at that point, so I felt I could spare a little time in the massage tent to loosen those tight legs up. Carlos was quick and effective and I was back out on the trail. It didn’t take long before I started cramping again and began having serious doubts of whether I’d be able to finish the race. It’s one thing to have sore muscles, it’s another when they’re locked up and refuse to fire. I remember stopping at the top of Fat Chuck’s, slapping my legs and massaging them to flush the pain out and forcing them to keep turning the cranks over. I knew if I could get past these first climbs and into the twisty forest singletrack I’d be ok-and I was.

Getting past these painful climbs at the beginning of loop became my primary focus of each lap. I’m not sure if the cramping went away or I built up enough cortisol in my system to just not feel it anymore, but either way it became a non issue each lap I was able to complete. Lap 7 was the last day lap for Saturday and Lap 8 was the first of several night laps.

Things always slow down a little at night, but I tried to keep the pace up as best I could. I was putting 1-2 minutes on the competition each lap and I figured if I maintained consistency that I’d be able to lap 2nd place by morning. Hydration and nutrition was keeping up with demand. By laps 11 and 12 I really didn’t want to turn fast night laps anymore to try and slow the race down. I was on pace to complete 24-25 laps and having just done 12, I couldn’t fathom actually riding another 12 more. Pressure from a new dominant 2nd place kept the pace up though. Adrian had dropped out at 9. Marshall had bailed at 10. Wink took a long break after13. John Russell was comfortably in 2nd and he wasn’t going down without a fight. All I remember about those 14-15-16 laps was that I was 21 minutes up, then 25, then 29, then I took another massage break, and all of a sudden I was back down to 20 minutes.

It was time to put the nail in the coffin and deal 2nd place a blow so large he’d have no way of catching back up. I gathered all the strength I had and rode every bit of that course except for that stupid climb before crossing the road and heading into the Grind. I knew no other solo racer was riding it anyways, so that part I could afford to walk. I wouldn’t know the end result of that effort until coming back from my next lap since John would have to scan in before my pit crew could get the split. It was very favorable though. 53 minute lead, almost a full lap. Not only that, but the lap I had done in waiting was quick enough to actually catch him. That hard early morning lap had cost me a bit, but it had cost him even more. The win was all but tied up, all I had to do was ride with him until the clock expired-or until he decided to quit. Having amassed a 4 lap lead over 3rd place, John was in a position to throw in the towel. We rode my lap 20 and 21, his 19 and 20 together for good measure. Lap 20 was the twilight lap, the most coveted and celebrated lap at a 24 hour race, and oh was it sweet. 21 was a full morning light lap and it wasn’t so bad either.  Riding with John those 2 laps was enjoyable, albeit a little painful because I was so saddle sore by this point that I was relegated to standing most of the loop and we were “trying” to ride slow since it wasn’t even 9am yet and the race had another 3 hours left to go.

During our two laps together, we made a gentleman’s agreement to end the race after my 21st lap. It was a mathematical impossibility for 3rd place to catch either one of us, and there wasn’t much sense beating the crap out of each other for three more hours when the outcome wasn’t likely to change, but just for fun he still wanted to ride one more lap when we finished those two. I had lost my focus and desire to compete with the teams at this point and didn’t feel like riding lap 22, so I let John take off on his lap 21 resting assured he wouldn’t punk me and go out on another lap. I was done. John held up his word and after the clock rolled over 24:00:00 our 1-2 finish was official once again. Kind of a non-climactic finish to a 24 hour race, but if you look at it from the standpoint of a poker game, and you have so many cards and chips to work with for a set amount of time, you can take a gamble and use it all up front and hopefully walk away big or you can be calculated spread it out over the course of time. I went big up front and it paid off, so I got to enjoy the victory early!

I pretty much did nothing but get a massage from Carlos and sleep those last three hours before the clock expired. I had done 21 laps to last years 18. The laps were about a mile shorter this year, but that still came out to more mileage, about 193. All done in 21 hours too, instead of 23.5 compared to last year. I’ve got a little hand numbness and saddle soreness to contend with, but otherwise I’m very happy to report that physically I am much better shape than in years past following the event. I only had two very minor mechanicals the entire race and neither set me back more than 30 seconds. Payout was $730 plus a custom painted carbon frame from YBS bikes. It’s a 26″ frame, unfortunately, but those guys are working with me to swap it for a 29er frame. Check them out if you are interested in a custom bike from a Texas builder. To top it all off, it was my birthday and Colleen presented me with a little chocolate cake. I can’t tell you the last time I had cake since clamping down hard on the paleo diet to prepare for the race. I won’t lie-it was pretty tasty. The cold Shiner on tap wasn’t bad either All in all, couldn’t have asked for a better race.

Editors note: the magazine  published below is purely fictional and for entertainment purposes only.The responses are mostly real.

Modern Caveman Magazine caught up with Caveman to discuss the upcoming 24 Hour mountain bike shin-dig going down this weekend.

MC:So what exactly are you doing this weekend?
CM:Racing a mountain bike for 24 hours straight.

MC: Cool. Sounds tough, and fun. Do you ever sleep during the race?

CM: I can sleep when I die. The people that sleep lose the race.

MC: What do you eat and drink?

CM: I try to keep it real. I do have a sports drink called Puresport. It has a lot of protein compared to other sports drinks, and doesn’t upset my stomach. on the munchie side of things, I mostly eat fruit and homemade caveman energy bars, which have stuff like dates, nuts, berries, and honey in them. I’ve been known to take a rabbit or two on the side of the trail for a little midnight snack when fruit sugar isn’t doing it. I probably consume about 50 grams of insects throughout the race as well.

MC: tell us about your ride?

CM: ha. Velocave just published an article about it. My ride is pimp this year. Check it out here.

MC: sweet. why singlespeed?

CM: well Zuzar, why does a woodchuck chuck wood? It’s just the way I roll. Why run gears? SS is lighter and more reliable. Plus, some sections that one would ride lazily on with gears, I am forced to ride harder so I actually feel like SS is an advantage. The few parts I have to walk, the geared guys are probably walking too so it’s no big deal. Last year the creek crossings were muddy, and this wreaked havoc on a lot of geared drivetrains. Plus chicks dig singlespeeders.

MC: How do you ride at night?

CM: I have Caveman night vision. Just kidding, dude. I have a cool lighting system called Ayup. A bunch of kangoroos from Australia make them, that’s why they’re so “cute”

MC: what about when “nature calls”

CM: hey man, that’s personal. but you know, it’s a serious issue that no one ever tells you how to deal with during a 24 hour race. If it’s #1, you try to wait for a long flat or slightly downhill section of trail. Make sure no one is looking and whip it out while cruzin. Takes practice, but you’ll get it down. Pray to God #2 doesn’t come up, but if it does, about your only option is to hold it thereby making you go super duper fast to put a little time on your opponent so that you can spare a minute or two in the port o john when you roll into the pit.

MC: how do you plan on celebrating if you win?

CM: The competition figures to be pretty stiff this year, and I’m not as welled trained as in years past, but I’ll still give ’em hell. If I win, the Caveman victory ceremony will be enacted. A raw steak and Lonestar beer will be consumed. I will look pretty for the cameras, get my pottery, go home, and then sleep for 16 hours straight.

MC: I hear your birthday is on Sunday, the day the race finishes?

CM: Yep, it will be cool riding a bike through the night into the morning of my birthday. I hope I win, that would be the bestest birthday gift ever!

Check back in Sunday night, or more likely Monday afternoon to see if Caveman can once again pull off this incredible feat. Good luck to all competitors.