Mafia Racing Blog

Wouldn’t it be nice if all xc courses had jumps on them?

Well, racing is pretty much done for me this summer. I wrapped up with Eldora, which went really well, actually. Nice to cap off the season with a relatively solid top-10 in the Semi-Slow category. Now, it’s time to just go riding. Sounds silly, but as most of you know, the race season is rarely a time when you can just go for a bike ride. It’s either a recovery ride, intervals, race warmup, overdistance, bla bla bla. No, what I’m talking about is leaving the stopwatch (or hr monitor or whatever) at home, getting on the bike, going somewhere and then eventually coming back. It’s fun. Try it sometime!
Last week was about as good as it gets for riding. Despite being almost entirely blown out from volunteering at the DNC with the bike share program, “Freewheelin,’” I managed to rock out on Kenosha Pass, the Monarch Crest Trail and the Lenawee Trail. Awesome, awesome singletrack. Check out the pic below from Lenawee. It’s a pretty quick and dirty ride — climb up to the top of A-Basin and descend the backside on the some of the raddist trail around. If you do it, just please be careful on the way down. People like to hike up it, so keep you head up and behave!

Here is what went down at the Skull Valley Road Race yesterday.

 8 miles in a guy crossed wheels and went down infront of me.  I instantly bunny hopped him and tagged him with my rear wheel in the back.  Nice to see that my mad CX skills are put to good use.

Agress were sending guys off. all day but  I didn’t respond until later.  I finially chased one and got into the break but it came backtogether.

The turnaround feedzone was at the bottom of the canyon and the steady climb out is my forte.  Me and 1 other naturally pulled away.  We cought the 1 guy that was out front all day and put him to work.

We all worked well together.  Last 2k, 1 guy seemed tired, I tried to attack a couple times to lose him, we all stuck together.  With 200m left, the sprint was on but I had no kick.  I finished 3rd.

I had no kick because at the last minute I let a guy give me water at the feed instead of taking the 3rd bottle with me.  The dude was still driving in his car as I was 1 mile out of the feed.  I had no water the whole day.  This coupled with my recent strength training for CX left me flat for the finish.  This does not bother me as I am in a different mode as everyone else right now. 

 The bottle of Nuun and GU2O actually got me through the race and was amazing.  Also the Optygen for First Endurance really work, don’t listen to the negative commentary out there, the stuff is bringing me to a whole other level!!!

After the race some guys gave me some congradulatory comments.  One said “I heard you Mafia Dudes were tough!”

No sooner had I cliked the post button on yesterday’s blog update, Linda was making a mad dash to the toilet.  Tatum had gotten sick on the way here on Tuesday, but we just assumed she was a little car sick.  I was able to hold it all off until around 11:00 pm.  Then it was all over.  All the work I had done to try and re-hydrate was literally flushed down the toilet.  A little more violently at times.  Needless to say after staying up all night and loosing about 7lbs of body weight, there is no way I can start today’s stage. So now its back to Colorado, once we get enough energy to load the van.  Bummin’!  

Today I raced the first stage of the American Mountain Classic.  Stage 1 was 56 miles with 5700 feet of vert.  Since the prologue didn’t count toward overall time some people opted out.  Namely Ryan Trebone, and Tinker.  I was under the impression I would get a call up or at least a front row spot, but they only called up the top five.  Really not a big deal since it was such a long stage, and a really wide open start, but still a little confusing.  The stage started out on a forest service road with a consistent climb and then fast fire road decent, before entering the Virgin River Rim singletrack. I was able to get in with a good group on the fire road, but we separated once we got on the singletrack.  We predominately stayed on this trail the entire day, with a couple of detours here and there.  Some amazing singletrack and views, some brutal steep climbs and some super fast fire road decents.  I was really glad to be on my Felt RXC hardtail for this stage.  I haven’t seen updated results yet, but I know I finished the day somewhere between 11^th and 13^th, about 2 min behind Tinker, (who is racing the 40+ masters, pretty impressive). So, now all I can do is rest, refuel and avoid walking down stairs.  Tomorrow’s stage is another 56 mile stage, and 4800 ft of vert, but definitely a full suspension day.  The trail will go in and out of the forest canopy, so I will be opting for the amber lens selection for my Rooly Prospects.  Now time to get some sleep, and get up and do it all again tomorrow.  

This is my first mtn. bike stage race.  I am really looking forward to doing some killer racing at altitude, and rolling the fitness gained into ‘cross season.  I pulled the new VDub in to Brian Head on Tuesday, early afternoon.  Jungle had turned me on to a little place about a mile from the start called TimberBrook Village.  These are killer little studios with a full kitchen, and pretty affordable.  I haven’t been back to BH since 05’ when I double flatted and finished 7^th out of 7 in the Expert race.  So I am definitely looking for some redemption.  All I remember is the amazing views above tree line and the super tech DH.  I pre-rode the prologue course a couple of times and got settled in.  On Thursday, morning I woke up and went for a pretty easy ride to check out part of Sunday’s loop.  The prologue didn’t start until 3pm so I had plenty of time to ride and get some food down.  Sunday’s loop is exactly as I remember. All I can say is Dark Hollow is Muy Bueno! The prologue was a mass start in waves, on a 6 mile, total anaerobic, loop through town.  Perfect way to start a 160 mile stage race.  The prologue time does not count toward over all.  It only establishes the starting position for the next day.  I was pleased to finish 10^th, 2 min behind Jeremiah Bishop. At least I get a front row start tomorrow.  I’m anxious to get rollin.   

I have a tendency to plan ahead, almost to the point where I think it may be kind of a problem. I’m always looking forward to the next season, which makes it kind of hard sometimes to stay focused on the here and now. Xterra just wrapped up for me last weekend. Ogden was hard, as usual, and lots of big ballers came out to play, so I wasn’t terribly psyched on my result. Now, I feel like it’s time to move on to the next thing. The only problem is, I’m not sure what that next thing will be. I’m definitely going to do some ‘cross this fall, which will be a blast, but what about the winter? For the past couple years, I’ve been in full-on winter triathlon mode, but for now, I’m not sure whether that’s even going to happen this year. I haven’t heard anything about any races planned for this year. Maybe I’ll just do nordic ski racing, maybe I’ll do more tele skiing, maybe I’ll get into rando’, maybe I’ll do Xterra Winter Worlds, maybe I’ll try improving my swimming and really focus on the summer. Too many choices! We’ll just have to see how it all sugars out. For the time being, I’m psyched for Eldora this weekend. Hope to see you up there!

It always breaks my balls to show up at a race and realize that the mountain biking is non-technical. In all honesty, the Xterra Beaver Creek course was one of the worst examples of that phenomenon, which has stymied me throughout my racing career, whether it be at plain-old mountain bike races or Xterras. Let me break it down for you: the course begins by climbing a lot, on ski hill access roads, with steep pitches and no major obstacles. Then, it proceeds to climb further up but on a road this time because, you know, sometimes you gotta get a break from the off-road climbing. Next we descend… but it’s about 75% on dirt road. Then we traverse for a looooonng time on a woodchip path – great for pushing a baby jogger, lame for a race. Finally, there is a nice, but short, singletrack downhill to conclude a course that is a net elevation gain (the swim starts about 800 ft below the start of the run). It’s about as perfect as it gets for big dumb animals who have unfairly high VO2 Maxes, but tragically unfair for someone like me who relies on technical riding and slightly above-average physical condition to get by.

oh well.

At least I turned in a pretty quick swim and had a nice run. Thanks to Jake for coming out and cheering, and props to fellow Mafioso Courtney Gregory for kicking ass in the age group.

Last Xterra of the season (for me) is next weekend in Ogden. Then, I’ll see you all at Eldora!

Last weekend’s Xterra Indian Peaks, in Eldora, was kind of a mixed bag.  I went into it with pretty low expectations — my hand was still a bit jacked from last weekend, and I’d spent most of my time and energy that week moving into a new apartment with Kate (S.), my girlfriend.  So here’s how I break it down:

Good:
Didn’t get a nasty infection in my hand from the brackish snowmaking water we swam in… yay!
Didn’t really make the hand injury worse.
Finished top-5
Didn’t get lost and accidentally cut the course (happened way more than it should have)

Bad:
Legs felt like grade-A scheisse!
Probably could have taken 3rd and some cash
Still haven’t unlocked the mystery of swimming fast.

Oh well.  I’ll be ready to rock for Beaver Creek this weekend, and after that, it’s the big one, Regional Championships in Ogden.  I hope you enjoy this photo I snaked from the skipix site.  Sorry, I know it’s pretty ghetto, but I just don’t like spending money on that kind of stuff.

Cheers!

So, we always hear about folks crashing on their bike and getting hurt, but how often does one get injured while trail running?  No so often I imagine.  This past weekend I went out to Crested Butte for the Crested Butte Bank Xterra, which is one of my all-time favorites.  Although I smoked the bike, I had a little bit of trouble on the run.  I tripped, fell, and put a pretty massive gash in my left palm, courtesy of a rock.

So, does this mean I’m a super-extreme pinner runner?  No way.  That I’m just born to be on a bike, not my own two feet?  Hardly.  That I’m a bit clumsy and was feeling pretty tired after 1,000 m of swimming and 24 k of mountain biking?  I’d say definitely.

Despite my running crash (that sounds so embarrassing), I finished to a gloriously bloody 4th place overall, which I was super-psyched with.  I’m going to ignore all of my doctor’s best recommendations and race the Eldora Xterra on Saturday.  Hopefully my hand won’t get infected and fall off.  I’m still to young to get a hook for a hand and enter the pirate stage of my life (I reckon that should kick in around age 42).

If you want to see my hand, here it is: My poor hand.