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Mountain biking is an inherently dangerous sport. Riding through the woods on two wheels with branches, roots, and other nonsuch leads to the very high potential of being injured. The injuries can rank from the minor scratch to ending up in a cast, or two. Even with these dangers, I would rather run into a tree than to be taken out by an auto while on a road bike.

Recently at a race, I took a bad spill on a downhill section. While nothing was broken, I had some major bruising. I had to take about a week off to recuperate, but no major issues. These types of crashes are the ones that you are glad to have.

Now last week, my foot came unclipped due to sliding on a root, and my eggbeaters (pedals) swung around and slapped me in the shin. For all intents and purposes it was a minor accident. However, the shin is a bad place for wounds. The skin is taunt and shallow depth to the bone. Needless to say after continuous bleeding for 4 hours I went the emergency medical clinic.

No stiches (because it was a puncture wound and there was not enough skin to bind), but a tetnus shot and compression pack to stop the bleeding, and I was fine. However, I was asked that famous question of “How painful on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the worst pain you have ever felt.” So when I saw the XKCD comic today I laughed, because of the slight change in the question, “worst pain you can imagine.”

I have had my shares of scrapes and injuries over the years so it is rare for anything to break a 2 or 3 any more. But I would have to agree with this comic, that my imagination holds much worse things than I have ever felt. If I do ever get asked that question, my response will have to be much the same.

Hopefully though, injuries will be kept to a minimum, and I will never have to answer this question.

There are five weeks until the next mountain bike race at Fort Yargo. I am hoping to get in four laps this year instead of 3. 44 miles in 6 hours on my single speed.

So today I went running for 23 minutes. The goal is to do some cross training, and improve my overall health. We will see.The goal for tomorrow is a ride.

Today was the first race  in the 6/12 hour endurance mountain bike  race series by Chain Buster Racing at Heritage Park. These are endurance races where you try to complete as many laps as possible in the time allotted. In this case it happens that there is only a 6 hour option, but the points go to whichever you do in later races, either 6 or 12 hour.

The course this year was 2 miles shorter than last year, and seemed in my opinion to be much improved. The conditions were great considering all the rain, however Heritage Park is quite full of roots so you have to be on your toes.

Race Review.

Something seemed to be in the air today. The energy was almost electric. People that were normally calm and cool before a race were bouncing around. Seems as if the shining sun after days of rain was enough to get people into the mood to ride. I found myself getting antsy before the race started, and normally that is not the case.

Start and Lap 1

Since today was my first time racing with platform pedals and skate shoes, I was not interested in trying to hang with the big boys at the front of the pack. Instead I chose a spot near the middle to rear of the pack so that I would not burn out to quickly. They skipped the lamans style start, and just had us all on our bikes. As the number of riders was lower than that of last year, this was fine with everyone that I was with. At 10:00 AM on the dot, they started the race. Take note, my first lap is almost always my fastest. One of these days I need to learn to pace myself better.

The first lap included the parade lap which takes you out on the finishing gravel road back to the start, and as usual it was the normal chaos. I ended up passing a good number of people before we got to the trail head, and was having a great time. Turns out I should have moved myself up a bit further in the group. It took almost 2 miles to pass a guy that would come to a crawl at any bump, turn, or obstacle. Once I passed him, the first lap proved to be fun and quick. My legs warmed up and I felt good. There were a few climbs that I jumped off and pushed my bike up, but for the most part I was feeling good.

Lap 2.

Once I made it back to the Gwinnett Area Trail Riders (G.A.T.R.) tent, I stopped to drink half a bottle of Cliff Energy Mix and a Gu gel. I felt great on the second lap as well. While on the second lap, I met up with Fred, a fellow G.A.T.R, and we finished the lap together. Overall I was feeling good, but riding on platform pedals did require more muscle than with clipless.

Lap 3.

At this point there was a fair bit of mud on the bike, and my shirt was starting to get soaked with sweat. A quick change out of the clothes, and then Fred and I headed over to the bike wash to do a quick clean of the bikes before heading out. The third lap was going well till about 2/3′s of the way through. At this point when I went to stand up to climb my quadriceps twinged. Not sure if I had pushed them beyond their limits or if they were about to cramp on me. As a result, I had to be careful standing up to climb, and resulted in walking the bike up most of the longer/steeper climbs. Fred left me behind as he was keeping a faster pace on the climbs.

The next issue that I had was on the last fast downhill section of the course. I took a berm to high, and the top washed out on me. My front wheel and bike went one way, I went the other. Luckily, I only bruised my arm, scratched up my knee and leg, and my hip a bit. It could have been much worse. Not being stuck to the pedals can be a real godsend sometimes. I did find out that I bent my rear rotor, but that was fixed well enough by bending it. Even with the wreck I finished the lap in decent time.

Lap 4

Before heading out on lap four, it was time to refuel. Peanut butter and jelly, snickers bar, Cliff drink, and some nuts. I thought that I felt ok, and Fred agreed to head out with me on yet another lap. Five minutes into it I was miserable. My triceps were sore from breaking, my legs felt gassed, and I was ready to throw in the towel. Fred took off, and I just kept plodding along. Before he headed out, I told him I was done. There was no way that I planned on going on a fifth lap. Somewhere during that loop though the food kicked in. I felt better, and decided that a fifth lap was in the works.

Lap 5

I came into the pits feeling like a million dollars. Now don’t get me wrong, I was sore, bruised, and tired, but I was going to get in my 5 laps. I had almost 2 hours to do it in, and even if I had to push my bike around the course I was going to make 5 laps. I tried to talk Fred into going with me, but he was done for the day. Lap 5 was my victory lap. I had done what I set out to do, and enjoyed the ride. My last lap took just under an hour, and was fun.

Overall it was a great day and a great race. The weather held out and the trail was in great shape for all the rain we had received. I raced in “expert class” and came in 14th out of 15 people. At least I was not last. The next race will be May 1st at Ft. Yargo. Had a good time hanging out with the other riders, could not have asked for a better day.

It seems that there is never enough time in the day to do all the things that I would like to be able to do. Between work, family, and sleep, it is hard to find time for much of anything else. To be honest the first two take up the most time, while I strive to survive on as little sleep as possible. Luckily for me, I can survive on 5-6 hours of sleep a night for about 2 weeks before I need a good 8 hours of sleep.

Most people that know me, understand that I have an almost unhealthy addiction to mountain bike riding. The unhealthy comes from the fact that I am almost always more than willing to share with others thoughts and ideas or recent rides when it comes to mountain biking. The funny thing is that I am not the fastest or the best rider out there by a long shot. The truth of the matter is that I am faster than the slow group, but not quite able to hang with the fast riders. Sure, I can keep up for an hour or two, but on longer rides I lag while they keep punching away at it.

The brings me to the topic of discussion for today. Last year I started to ride in 6 hour endurance mountain bike events. On my first race I came in dead last. Since then I have ended up in the middle of the pack slowly, but never anywhere near the top of the rankings. I have also shifted from riding a geared bike to a single speed, and from clipless to platform pedals. So, this year I want to be able to do better in the races that I am going to enter into.

So recently I found out about a program geared for mountain bikers. It is by James Wilson and is a simple Dumbell Strength program. The entire program consist of a warmup, 2 main exercises, and then a couple combos that fluctuate depending on the day. My goal is to go through this program, and to see how well it helps. While the program does not look like much, once you read through all the documents and watch the videos it answers most of your questions.

To be fair, I am in my second week of the program. I was planning on doing 3 days the first week and on every week after, but instead I only got in 2 days of the program done the first week. Having seen the videos, and then doing the work out, I am able to say that it does beat you up a bit. Overall, for a guy that does not like working out with weights, it is an easy to follow and fairly fun program. The fact that I can do it with just 2 dumbbells does not hurt either.

So the goal is to stick with it for the next 11.5 weeks, and see where it gets me. I think that it will take a couple of weeks before I know if it is going to provide great results, but only time will tell. I can say that so far so good.