Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Point Break

I love the movie Point Break. It's got Keanu Reeves as an FBI agent learning how to surf to catch some bank robbers. Patrick Swayze is the head of the "Dead Presidents" - the surfing crooks. Keanu is Johnny Utah in the film and he soon joins the gang doing all sorts of extreme sports stuff. One of the scenes has them surfing ... _at night_. Scary!

With lines like ...

"If you want the ultimate, you've got to be willing to pay the ultimate price. It's not tragic to die doing what you love."

... how could you _not_ love it?

The reason I bring up Point Break is because I always think of that surfing at night scene when I go on night rides. My buddies and I aren't just out there mountain biking ... we are doing it _at night_. Hahaha. It's one of those things that seems nuts when you first hear about it, but after you've gone a few times, it's really not a big deal.

Anyways to the ride ...

The ride was with Steve, Jeff, Andrew, Matt and Junior. Keith was supposed to come as well, but didn't show up for whatever reason. We started at about 7:45pm and the plan was to go up Maple Springs and then see what everyone felt like.

Even before we left the parking lot people were complaining about the cold. I usually get pretty cold on night rides, but I was feeling ok just standing in the parking lot. There wasn't any wind and my layers of clothing kept me feeling pretty good.

On the ride up the pavement I decided to challenge myself by riding only in the middle ring. I ended up going from my car to Four Corners in only the middle ring, which is a big deal for me. It's funny to realize that a month ago I was riding up the same trail in my lowest gear - and struggling at that. My sense of self importance was blown out of the water when Junior announced that he always rides in the middle ring when riding in the Santa Ana's. Hahaha.

There really isn't much that can happen on such a short ride, but I did set what I think is a personal best from the parking lot to Four Corners. I came in at a little under 1:15. I think my previous best was around 1:20.

When we got to the top it was obvious that everyone was freezing or frozen already. The tube from my camelback had actually frozen almost solid. The water was rapidly turning from liquid to solid.

It was funny to see everyone wait for someone else to suggest heading back down. I think we were all thinking we'd like to go back down instead of going to the peak or to the motorway, but no one wanted to be the guy to admit he had had enough. Haha.

Finally we came to a concensus to head back, which made me pretty happy.

The ride back was uneventful. I got back to my car in 1:39, which is a new personal best for Maple Springs to Four Corners. That's 20 minutes under the average time on GeoLadders, so that makes me feel good.

After the ride we all cruised over to In-n-Out off of Chapman to warm up and eat. It was funny because I couldn't stop shaking and moving once I got inside. It took a few of us 5-10 minutes to calm down to the point where we weren't shivering.

There might be some photos from Four Corners in the next few days. I know Jeff took some, but we'll see how they turn out.

Monday, March 26, 2007

Anatomy of a Crash

The title of the post pretty much says it all. Saturday I went out to do San Juan to Blue Jay and I crashed after Cocktail Rock. Quick ride report:

I met Andrew, Matt, Mark, Mark, Scott and Fabian (is this his name?!) at the San Juan parking lot at 7AM. We were all on time and we actually got going pretty fast. Usually it takes us around 30 minutes to get unpacked and get our bikes ready etc.

Me getting ready:



We started up the switchbacks and for some reason I was in front. I didn't want to lead the group, but I was the first one to go up, so whatever. I didn't make many of the lower switchbacks, but I made a few. I ended up stepping off the bike for one and Matt passed me. I saw Andrew right behind him and cut in front of Andrew before he could get in front. Hahaha. Andrew wasn't too happy about that because he didn't even get a chance to try to make the switchback. He had to come off and walk it. I only mention this because it makes for a funny story later.

The ride from the switchbacks to Cocktail Rock wasn't that eventful. It was cold and a bit windy, but I felt great on the climb up. I took one or two bad lines in some of the rutted out sections which forced me to walk a bit, but overall I did ok.

Coming in to Cocktail:



When we finally got to Cocktail Mark told us that he actually fell into one of the little gullies on the side of the trail. That's always been my biggest fear on trails like San Juan. There are tons of sections where you have to really commit to riding it, or you will tip over and fall down the hill a bit. I guess he didn't make one, but he looked ok and felt ok.

We all hung out for quite a while at Cocktail, which kind of sucked because it allowed my body to cool off, which makes climbing that much harder. I prefer to stop for 5 minutes or so and then get going again. That keeps the blood flowing and the riding good.

(Quick Note: Coming up to Cocktail I told Andrew he was "discouraging me" by riding in front of me and missing some technical climbing. Hahaha. I was giving him a hard time because I got in front of him on the earlier switchbacks. As soon as I said that he took off. I came up to Matt later and Matt asked me, "What did you say to him?!" ... Hahaha. Good times)

I had never been past Cocktail Rock, so I had no idea we were going to do a downhill section. Even worse it was a technical downhill section. Surprise! We decided to ride up "Old San Juan" and then to take the regular San Juan trail back from Blue Jay.

We came across this section on the way down with a ton of roots on the trail and I remember passing Matt standing next to his bike. He said he had a "mini endo", but was ok. I rode past and maybe 5 minutes later had an endo of my own.

It's so nuts when you crash. I don't remember why I fell at all. I was feeling great going over the roots. I felt strong, in control and pretty happy because it was a fun section. Next thing I know I'm rolling on the ground with my bike behind me. My very first thought was how embarrassed I was that I had crashed. My second thought was "Oh crap. That was a hard fall. My bike better be ok!" It would have been a long hike down the mountain if I had taco'ed my front rim.

Andrew even wrote a small Haiku for my crash since he witnessed it:

Deftly Dodges Roots
Ryan Becomes Superman
Tire Is Modern Art

He said of the crash, "You're cruising along, then next thing I know, your tire twists & you are airborn in some sort of odd combination of flesh & bike." Sweet.

What the heck?!?! ...


Another view:


I'll write more about the crash at the end of this post, but thank God I was ok and my bike was fine. I can't believe my tube just popped out and my front tire came off. We ended up just deflating the tube, stuffing it back in and then pumping it up. Hahaha. It was fine for the rest of the ride!

After the fall, we didn't make it very far before Fabian said he had some bike trouble. Turns out his frame had bent and his rear derailleur was just thrashed. It took us a _really long time_ to fix his bike, but we eventually turned it into a single speed and removed the entire rear derailleur. When I say "we", I mean everyone but me. Hahaha.

At this point a lot of time had been spent fixing bikes, recoving from falls, etc. so our group split up. Mark, Mark, Fabian and Scott all headed back while Matt, Andrew and I kept going. Kind of sucked to have a bunch of people have to turn around, but there was a time constraint on a few of them.

The remainder of the ride to Blue Jay was pretty cool. I didn't realize how many options there were for riding in this area. It seems like we could have turned left or right in 3-4 different areas. Easy to get lost if you don't know where you're going.

We stopped at Blue Jay for just a bit to eat and "relieve ourselves" before heading back. I was a little gunshy after my fall, but whatever. I just rode pretty conservatively and took my time.

The last section before hitting Cocktail again was pretty lame. I can't remember the last trail I've been on (if any trail at all) where my cranks and pedals kept hitting stuff. It felt like every down stroke would hit a rock or the side of a rut. It got really frustrating by the time we hit Cocktail.

I also ended up falling over a few times because I couldn't get unclipped on a few technical sections. Andrew also got a flat, which just added to our already long day.


Back to the crash ...

I got a little freaked out after the crash. I thought about it and it didn't make sense because one week prior I had fallen and it didn't phase me that much. I finally realized what the big deal was.

The crash in Malibu was the result of a bad decision. I picked a bad line and got stuck in a rut. My fault. The crash at San Juan just happened. It was a total accident. I understood that on some level and it made me lose trust in my bike. If I could suddenly lose control when I thought I had it and crash once, then it could surely happen again.

I guess I just need to trust my bike more and put those bad thoughts out of my head. I'm hoping the ramp up back to full downhill confidence won't take long.

My right shoulder and right knee are pretty sore and kind of stiff, but I'll be ok. It's funny that this would be the first ride in a while where my legs felt great, no cramping before, after or during, and yet I eat it and get banged up anyways.


My shoulder (the picture doesn't do it justice):





I'm not in this picture, but I like it because it shows how much fun we were all having:

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Fun in Malibu (Part 2 of 2)

A few quick notes about both rides in general before I post about the second ride of the day ...

1. I changed my saddle (seat) back to the saddle that came with my bike. It's a lot smaller and a lot narrower. It has less padding, but my shorts have padding and my butt has become used to being on the bike for long periods of time.

I think the change had a huge impact though. My butt hurt more, but I didn't feel cramping. When I pre-rode Counting Coup with the original narrow saddle I never cramped. Then I used my super big padded saddle and ended up cramping all over during the actual race.

I'm sticking with the narrow saddle and we'll see how it goes.

2. I tried a new sports drink mix called "e gel" and it seemed to work really well. It has 0 sugar in it (unlike Cytomax) and that means it won't leave my water bottles all disgusting after a ride.

Last time I washed my bottles I thought there was dirt on the outside of it, but it turned out to be mold and mildew on the _inside_. I can't even count how many times I've shrugged off the visual cues thinking it was dirt and then used the bottle. Hahaha.

Anyways back to the Malibu adventure ...

We ended up driving around after the first ride looking for lunch - which took longer than I thought it would. Andrew decided on La Salsa and we all ate quite a bit since we were empty from the first ride of the day. This was a mistake on my part. Later on the tacos, rice and chips tried to escape my belly on a tough climb.

Unloading the Fit:



It took us longer and longer to load and unload our bikes as the day went on. The park we were in had some old sets from the TV show M*A*S*H and we were excited to see what the deal was. I had mental pictures of huge fields with buildings and old props, but I was wrong.

The trail started like most trails do ... on a fire road. After a brief period on that, we got to a section called "Crags". It's named "Crags" because of how rocky it is. It was a pretty fun little singletrack because of all the obstacles we had to clear. We also ran into a boy-scout troop that was impressed that we were riding over all the rocks and roots.

After "Crags" we hit the M*A*S*H stuff.

On an abandoned car:



That's right. It's an abandoned jeep. From M*A*S*H. With us in it. From M*A*S*H.

After taking a few pictures, we rode on to the climb. I say _the_ climb because on this trail there was really only one climb. It was only maybe 4 miles (5 at the very most) long, but ascended about 2,500 over that stretch. That just means there were some steep parts, making the climbing not so enjoyable.

As a side note ... we had met another rider before we started and he bummed some water and food off of Andrew. He said the climb we were going to do was tough and warned us by suggesting we do the trail backwards. Andrew thought the guy was a weak rider and we all decided to ignore his advice. Well, the guy was right. It was a tough climb.

It was very hot for some reason even though it was around 5pm when we were on the mountain. There were some pretty tough technical sections that took a lot out of me when I climbed them. After one particular section we all stopped to take pictures and rest and all three of us were soaked in sweat. Andrew squeezed his shirt and water just came pouring out.

Me climbing:



It doesn't look that bad in the picture, but trust me ... it was steep and after 3-4 miles of non-stop climbing in the heat ... it's not easy.

A view from the climb:



We eventually hit what I thought was the end of the climbing. I was wrong, but the worst of the climbing was behind us at this point. We stopped near a gate on the fire road and ate and drank before moving on.

The next landmark was a small climb into some odd looking rocks. When we got there we weren't sure if the trail really went over the rocks we saw. They looked steep and it was far from obvious that the trail continued into the rocks. We decided to give it a try.

We ended up hiking our bikes up almost all of the rocks to get to the most exciting part of the entire trail.

Matt on the rocks:



You can see some of the rock formations above. There was a ton of it all around. Really cool looking stuff, but also a bit scary. You don't know what is around the next corner and after riding around 30 miles, you're pretty tired and that's when mistakes happen.

I was hiking down a large rock "waterfall" when Matt came up to the top of the same section. He road down the entire thing without a problem, but I was worried he'd eat it. I finished by riding down the bottom half of it, which gave Matt an idea. We should go back and take videos of us riding down the entire thing.

My video:



It looks pretty boring, but trust me ... just like the climbing picture, the true angle and grade is lost in the video. It was more impressive in person. Haha.

I have videos of Matt and Andrew doing it, as well as another version of my descent, but since it's my blog, I'm only posting my video. I also have a bunch of pictures of us going up, but those aren't that great either. There is a link in the previous post to those pictures if anyone is curious.

After spending a lot of time taking pictures and videos, we moved on to the rest of the ride. It was pretty boring as it involved more climbing (I thought we were done?!) and a steep, fast fire road descent.

We ended up hitting one short singletrack section near the top of the mountain and after I came out of it I looked around to find no one else. No Matt and no Andrew. Haha. They came out before me and took off. I made all the right decisions though at each fork in the road and found them without incident.

The very end of the trail had a nice singletrack, but it was way too short and not quite fun enough to combat the climbing we had to do. It really wasn't worth it at that point.

The last few miles of the official route were on the side of a very narrow road. This part sucked big time. I don't like riding a few feet away from cars going 50-60 mph. Especially on a tight windy road. Needless to say we won't be doing that again.

By the time we got back to the Honda, it was around 7pm I think. We met at Andrew's place at the start of the day at 7am, so it had been a long day. Even though it was a long time to be gone, it was totally worth it. I will definitely remember this trip as one of the best days I've ever had on a bike.

Fun in Malibu (Part 1 of 2)

I've been super busy the past few days and haven't had time to properly write up the trip to Malibu, so I'll do that ... ... ... now.

There is so much to put down and I have a ton of pictures, so I'll try and keep things short.

Matt, Andrew and I planned a day trip to the Malibu area this past Saturday (March, 17th) to see what kind of trails were out there. We have been getting tired of riding in the Santa Ana's and figured a change would be good. We found two routes to do in the area and the plan was to ride the first one, eat lunch and then finish with the second trail. First ride would be ~22 miles and the second would be ~14 miles.

I showed up to Andrew's at 7AM and we somehow got all three bikes and the three of us into his Honda Fit. For those of you that don't know ... a Honda Fit is even smaller than a Civic. Hahaha.

Pic of the bikes in the Fit:



We grabbed some donuts and took off for the trailhead. Malibu is not close, so it took quite a while to actually get there. I didn't know it at the time, but Andrew had gone to school at Pepperdine, so he knew the area pretty well. Good thing too because I found the entire place pretty confusing.

When we got to the trail we parked on the side of PCH and rode to the start of the ride which was in Point Mugu State Park.

Parked on PCH:



Matt and I both went over and pee'd in the ocean, which helped relieve a lot of pressure and stress. Haha.

To the ride ...

What can I say about this ride? It was an _insanely_ awesome trail. I would ride this loop every day if I could. It started out like a lot of trails with a boring fire road into the park, but pretty quickly turned into a shallow climb up into the hills.

Unfortunately there was a thick fog over the entire park until a little past 11am, but it was still awesome. I think if there had been no fog we would have been able to see the ocean pretty well at the start of the ride. Oh well.

The climbing wasn't tough at all and the pace we set was pretty mellow. We eventually got to the first descent on a trail called "Backbone". There has been some confusion with the trail because apparently there is a trail called "Backbone" that runs for 40+ miles through the Santa Monica Mountains, but we doubted this was part of that trail. Who knows.

Me with a dumb smile before going down "Backbone":



The ride down was all singletrack and really nice. It was hard packed without anything really technical on it. We ran into quite a few guys riding up, but other than that there was no reason to put a foot down. It felt a little like going down Holy Jim, but without the exposure (read: cliffs).

After getting to the bottom, we rode over to the next climb and met some park rangers. I've never seen park rangers on mountain bikes before, but there they were. We talked with the older ranger (must have been in his 60's) for a while and he knew about GeoLadders and even dropped the name "Pacman". Hahaha. He asked us if we were strong riders to which we replied "Yes." Apparently we were headed for "Hell Hill" and needed to be good riders to conquer it.

Hell Hill wasn't that bad. It was long and it had a few steep parts, but I managed to make it up without having to get off and without pushing all that hard. My heart rate never crossed into the danger zone and I felt ok when I finished it. I think making it up Hell Hill made us all feel pretty good because the ranger was trying to talk us out of doing it. Ha.

We then cruised over to another singletrack descent, which had to be my favorite downhill section of the entire day. We all flew down pretty fast and just had a fantastic time.

I ended up eating it at the very end of the down section, but came away ok. I realized that riding really fast means making really fast decisions about which line you want. Left, right, left, left, right ... you need to make up your mind fast. Unfortunately I picked a bad line, rode into a rut and hit the end of the rut with my front wheel. I couldn't slow down in time and I went tumbling off to the side into the bushes. Matt was right behind me and almost ran over me after I fell in front of him. Whew!

Once we finished the singletrack we stopped to eat and some guy came up from behind us and told us we were flying on the down. That made me feel good since I'm better on the climbs than I am on the downs.

Pic of me after the singletrack:



I'm smiling in the picture above because I think we were talking about pooping or something. Hahaha. It's an inside joke.

We then rode to an abandoned ranger station where I realized my front tire was slightly off due to my crash. We stopped to pee and fix our bikes before moving on.

Matt and I:



Matt used the outhouse to pee in. I would have just gone in the bushes. It feels better you know?

We then rode on to another amazing section of the trail. We climbed a singletrack section to get to this awesome open meadow. It was just ... I've already used all the adjectives I can think of to describe it. The best part of this part of the ride was that you couldn't see anything other than nature. No cars, no other people, no antennas ... just gorgeous green trees and a huge open meadow. It was perfect.

On the way back to the car we hit a singletrack called "Two Foxes" after riding through an oak forest. It was pretty fun and all three of us couldn't stop talking about how great the trail was.

Right before getting back to the car I saw Matt go up the side of small climb and do a cool jump. We rode past this part and then decided to go back and take pictures of all us doing the jump. We spent maybe 20-30 minutes taking pictures of all three of us doing it. Haha.

Here are some of the best shots from the jumping (we don't get much air, but it felt cool):

Andrew Jump 1:


Andrew Jump 2:


Matt Jump 1:


Matt Jump 2:


Ryan Jump 1:


Ryan Jump 2:


I have a pretty serious look on my face. I'm going to make two mental notes for the next jump pictures we take ...

1. Smile and relax
2. Realize I have no events coming up and I have medical insurance. GO HIGHER AND BIGGER!

We rode to the car after and had to pack up our stuff, which took forever. Apparently I had a large wet spot on my shorts and it looked like I had "relieved" myself. I have a picture of it, but I'll spare you.

You can see the rest of the pictures from the trip here:

Malibu


It was an amazing trip and I will definitely make time to visit this park again.

Friday, March 16, 2007

Return of the Dreaded

Dreaded Hill:



(There is a nice monument to Mark Reynolds at the top. He is the guy that got killed by a mountain lion in Whiting. He actually lived in the apartment complex I'm living in now.)

Just a quick post about a ride I did on Wednesday of this week. I met Joe in the parking lot near Wahoo's for our Bible study ride (only two of us showed up out of maybe 10-12 guys) and he wanted to climb Dreaded Hill. We usually do Mustard to Cactus, but he wanted something different.

I haven't been up Dreaded Hill since my accident on it almost a year ago. I have stayed away because I didn't want a repeat of the incident. Realistically though, the odds of it happening again are very, very slim.

So I went with Joe and we rode up. It was a really tough climb for me. A lot harder than I remember. It was funny because the first section felt really good, but the hill just seemed to never end. I was breathing really heavy and barely able to turn the cranks even in my lowest gear.

I made it up without stopping though ... way behind Joe.

We then went down Cactus to finish and ate and talked at Wahoo's after. I realized going down Cactus that a fatigued body makes for bad downhill. I need to catch up on some sleep and rest from riding if I want my downhill sections to be easier.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

The Shifting Loop

The chief editor at Mountain Bike Action is Rich Cunningham. I found out a while ago that he _invented_ the Fullerton Loop. Pretty cool.

Here is a pic of Rich:



Anyways I did the Fullerton Loop twice last night with Matt and Andrew. I was telling Andrew it should really be called the "shifting" loop, since I always find myself constantly shifting from one cog and one ring to another. The terrain is just too varied to stay in one gear for too long. Bleh.

The first loop was pretty uneventful. We took the easy way around most of the trail. The first time I did this loop was at night as well and the guide I had took me down almost every drop and singletrack that was available. We only hit maybe 30% of that stuff on the first loop.

The last drop out of the trail to the street was pretty steep and I had totally forgotten about it. Matt and Andrew gave me a hard time for whining about it, but I really didn't care for it. Hahaha. It was long, rutted and pretty steep. I guess I just need to get used to that kind of thing and shut up.

Second loop had roughly the same pace and I hit more of the little drops and jumps. I knew where they were and had some fun. I want to hit more jumps on different trails. I'll have a chance tonight when I do Whiting with some friends.

A funny note ... Andrew took a detour on some singletrack that Matt and I skipped - and he saw some hippies or something having a campfire. Haha. Only Andrew would find those people. First he stops during Counting Coup to pick up a 5 dollar bill and next he runs into hippies at 9:30pm in the bushes in Fullerton.

One more note ... some guy on GeoLadders has done this trail _178 times_. Dude! Try something else! Hahaha.

After the ride we went over to In and Out for some good times. I ended up throwing some trash into a container with no trash bag/trash can. Oops. Haha.

This Saturday looks like a trip to Malibu for some new trails. HOORAY!

Monday, March 12, 2007

Joplin!

Joplin Trailhead (pic from GeoLadders):



First some quick context ...

Last year around this time Matt and I were climbing to Santiago Peak when we ran across some Warrior's Society guy named Mark. He told us we should join him by going down Joplin instead of going back down Harding, the way we came up.

He said it was the "jewel of the Santa Ana Mountains" and so we figured we'd give it a try. We should have known better when we got to the trail and he was putting on sleeves and leg warmers to protect himself from poison oak. Then he dropped his seat to get ready. It was at this time that I realized the seat on my stupid bike couldn't drop very far because it would hit the rear shock.

Matt and I didn't make it very far before I endo'ed and hit him on his bike causing both of us to go into the bushes. Mark told us the trail only got much tougher, so we hiked back out and forgot about it.

... fast forward one year ...

Lots of guys I ride with have been down Joplin and over time I had forgotten how miserable I was when I first tried it. I figured after a year of riding I would be better equipped to handle it. Plus I had been down some hyper-technical trails in the mean time and have a good gauge on what to ride and what to walk.

Adding to my excitement was the fact that I was able to get my seatpost cut so that I could drop and extra inch or two. I was hoping that would really help with the descent.

TO THE RIDE! ...

I met Troy, Matt and Andrew at 8am at the bottom of Harding and we were all in really good spirits. It's just so awesome to be riding for the pure fun of it now instead of riding to train.

I felt crappy for the first third of the ascent to Four Corners, but I gutted it out. My legs felt pretty tired and sore and I had a drape of general fatigue over me, but it left after the first hour or so.

Matt bonked halfway up but was able to recover after a bit more riding. It's amazing how riding can cure cramps, bonking and whatever else. I suppose there is a point where riding more can only hurt, but I'm always surprised to see how riding MORE can make you feel better when riding was what hurt you in the first place.

When we got to Four Corners I thought we'd stop to eat and relax, but Troy kept going. What the heck Troy?! Haha.

We met a friend of Troy's on the way to Modjeska Peak and stopped to talk to him for a while. That allowed all of us to get the break we needed.

When we finally got to the Joplin trailhead I was pretty nervous. I had built up the descent in my mind, and it was looming large in my head. Here is a brief description of Joplin from Mountain Bike Bill's website:

"It starts at the saddle of Modjeska and Santiago Peaks and drops down the west slope of the mountains to an area called Old Camp. Drops is a good word to describe this trail as it sheds off nearly 2,000 feet of elevation in about 2 miles. The trail is often loose and rocky with some chunky stuff here and there. Combined with an average grade of 20 percent this is one of those places where you need to bring your "A" game to fully appreciate this trail."

So the jist of that is that the trail loses elevation really fast and the surface is loose and rocky.

We all lowered our seats and took off. We tried to space out a decent amount to make sure that if one of us crashed, the person behind wouldn't crash into them and make things worse. I was the last guy to go down.

The top section wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be. It was definitely loose though. The dirt and leaves made the surface almost like ice. You need to be really comfortable fish-tailing on the bike to do this trail. My bike tire was constantly going back and forth behind me.

The top of Joplin (pretty steep):



I ended up catching up to Andrew (who was the guy in front of me) a few times at some tricky spots. I'm glad he stopped in a few places because it forced me to walk and if he hadn't been there I might have tried some things that were out of my league.

There was one prolonged section in the middle of the descent that I am very proud to have ridden through. It was a steep section with lots of large rocks in it. I don't know if I would call it a rock garden though. It was such a long section, but I rode down all of it and was exhausted after finishing it. It took a lot of energy to constantly make sure I was going where I wanted to go and making sure I could clear the little drops and rocks in my way.

The only tough parts were easy to spot and easy enough for me to understand I didn't want to try them. Matt made it down a pretty tricky spot and impressed everyone. Haha. He always does that.

Section Matt cleared (that isn't Matt though):



There really isn't much else to say about the descent. There was poison oak on the side of the trail in a few spots, but we all came out ok. If it wasn't for the poison oak, I think I'd want to do this trail a lot more. It's really great downhill training.

We finally rolled into Old Camp proper and then made a really crappy climb up to what most people think of as Old Camp. The ride back was pretty fun and I think we were all feeling a bit more aggressive than usual having made it down Joplin. I know I was riding fast and confidently since the terrain and grade was so much easier.

Matt ended up taking a dive on a turn and fell right on his butt. Took him a few minutes to get himself together, but it didn't seem to be a really bad crash.

The ride back out to the gate at the start of the truck trail wasn't bad, but it was definitely tougher than it should have been for me. I ran out of water way too early in the ride and started to cramp on the climbs out. I've gotten really used to cramping though and can ride without getting too messed up.

Riding this trail was one of my major goals for this year and I'm super stoked to have finished it.

West Horsethief is the next trail to conquer!

Mountain Bike Bill's description of Joplin

A video of a guy doing Joplin

Friday, March 9, 2007

Last Counting Coup Pic

This should be the last picture from the Counting Coup ride this past Saturday. Unless some other random picture pops up somewhere, this should be it.

The picture was taken after the race at the finish line. I had been sitting for maybe 20 minutes recovering when I realized I could get a free picture with my bike. I think I look kind of retarded, but whatever. The other thing I noticed is that the distance from my bars to my saddle is really short. I'm going to be working on that tomorrow (Saturday) before my first ride down Joplin.

I do have the picture in a very large format if anyone wants to print it out and make a poster. I can be very inspirational. Haha.

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Another Counting Coup Pic

Some other guy was on the Motorway and I guess he is charging for prints of the pictures he took. I think I might order one, but we'll see. I think the other picture (the free one) looks better.

Should have at least one more picture in the next week or so from the finish line. I tried to smile.

Monday, March 5, 2007

Counting Coup - Finally Done

I'll start with a picture. Me coming down the Motorway:



Every year around March the Southern California mountain bike scene gets a shot in the arm with Vision Quest and Counting Coup. They are both long rides (55 miles and 43 miles respectively) in the Santa Ana Mountains. Some people race for time and some people are just content to finish.

I remember trying to climb the ladder (GeoLadders) last year and seeing a ton of people out training for VQ/CC. I also remember feeling left out the day after the event as it seemed that everyone in Orange County with a bike had done the race.

I decided to sign up maybe 6 months ago with Matt with the goal of just finishing Counting Coup. I would have signed up for Vision Quest but didn't think I was capable of finishing it.

Every week for the last 5-6 months I've been thinking about the race and what I need to do to train for it. My first goal - as I mentioned earlier - was just to finish. Then as I got faster on the bike I turned it into finishing in under 7 hours. Then 6 and a half, and then finally under 6 hours. It felt like an ambitious goal, but what fun would it be if I didn't push myself? I wanted to have _nothing_ left when I finished the ride. I wanted to ride myself into the ground and make every second count.

The ride report below is going to be insanely long because there is a lot to write for a 6 hour ride. I'm going to break it into sections though to try and make it easier to read. Almost like a book with chapters. Haha. I need to get it all down while the event is still fresh in my mind.

Chapter 1: The Start

I got up at 3:30am to get over to the carpool spot my friends and I had arranged. I had all my stuff ready to go and just sat and watched ESPN while trying to eat. Met up with Mark, Troy, Matt, Andrew and John at a shopping center near the finish line and got my stuff ready. It was so exciting to see everyone ready to go. All our training would soon pay off.

Usually I'm a walking zombie in the morning, but with all the excitement I felt great on the drive over to the start of the race. Good times.

The parking was insane as I had imagined it would be. It was a fantastic surprise to see that the weather was actually warm. I had been out at 5am the week before and it was _freezing_. Everyone was very excited to be able to take off an extra layer of clothing for the ride.

I ended up waiting in line with my friends to use the port-a-potty at the start, but everyone was taking way too long. We all ended up going in the bushes on the side of the road. Haha. Who waits to take a dump at the start of the race?!

It was also crazy to see the serious racers warming up on trainers. I had no idea they did that before races. It was just nuts to see them cranking away super hard _before_ starting the race.

I really thought that the start of the race would be a disaster. I was expecting 300-400 people cramped together very tight so that you could barely ride without hitting someone. The group at the front of the gate however wasn't that bad. I had plenty of room and never felt like I would be held back by people in front of me.


Chapter 2: The Climb to Beek's

The race officially started as the staff opened the gate to the fire road leading to Beek's. I said "good luck" to Matt and Andrew as I knew it would be the last I'd see of them until the end of the race.

It was pretty dark out even with a full moon shining down. I found it hard to see some sections of the road and that worried me slightly. A lot of people had lights on their bikes and I tried my best to bum illumination off of them. It worked sometimes and sometimes it didn't. Lots of people with lights would pass me and I didn't feel like pacing anyone with a light just for the sake of having light.

Halfway to the first switchback (where the climbing really starts) I saw a huge pile up in a rutted part of the road. It was nuts. There must have been 10-15 people off their bikes trying to get around and recover. I kind of laughed to myself because I'm competitive and I thought it would give me a chance to pass some of them. Haha.

Going up in the dark was pretty cool. I remember looking down and seeing a trail of riders with lights which looked kind of like a snake winding through the woods below. I looked ahead on the trail and saw the same thing - people climbing up the switchbacks in droves.

I had expected a lot of people around me on the climb to Beek's, but not as many as I actually had. I was constantly surrounded by other riders on the ascent to Beek's. It was tough trying to pace myself as I want to pass any rider that is anywhere near me.

I saw quite a few people on the climb with various bike issues. I felt bad for them because it was very early in the ride to have those kinds of problems.

It was pretty frustrating in a few spots to have a rider that was in front of me hog a good line and force me into a bad line. Either that or just slowing down in general in a spot where I wanted to gear up.

Final notes for Chapter 2: On the way out of Hidden Valley a motorcycle rode past me and sprayed mud all over me. Thanks guy. Some older Warrior's Society lady passed me on the climb and made me feel weak and inferior. I passed her later which made me feel my usual dominant self. Haha.


Chapter 3: Beek's to Motorway

When I got to the ball (a big communications tower) I noticed a handful of riders stopping to take a break. I chuckled to myself again thinking they were stupid because it was cutting into their overall time. It gave me a little more motivation to keep going knowing that they might have beat me to the top, but that I would beat them in the end because I wasn't stopping if I could help it.

I was still amazed to be surrounded by so many riders during this section. I just couldn't believe how many people were around me. What made it worse was that several of them were older guys in their 50's or 60's. Also a lot of girls were out, which surprised me. I mean I should be faster than 60 year old men and 40 year old women, right?!

The area where I dropped most of the aforementioned people was the first really tough climb after Beek's. I looked up and saw tons of people on this section, some of them walking their bikes. I knew I could do the entire section without having to get off and I must have passed 10+ people on the way up. It felt great because I knew a lot of them would have to take it easy after the climb/walk, but I was able to recover on the bike without any trouble.

There wasn't anything else especially noteworthy on this section except for maybe the wind. I've heard various people say it was anywhere between 20 and 40mph. Whatever it was, it definitely affected my riding in some key sections. The flat parts where I wanted to really fly turned into struggles because of the strong wind.

I reached the top of the Motorway at about 2:20, which was right on schedule. I hadn't stopped once and that helped my time considerably.

I got around the barrier to the Motorway and started down. I was worried about having to pass people on the way down, but figured I could just go around anyone that was too slow.

I ended up riding directly behind some girl from Sho-Air for the first section of the Motorway. She was going pretty slow on the loose parts and I was trying to give her room, but it was frustrating since I wanted to go much faster. She ended up stopping near the "big rut" and tipped over into the bushes. Haha.

I walked down the top of the rut and then go on the bike pretty fast to finish the Motorway. I passed two guys on the way down and felt pretty fast in general. I've been riding this trail so much lately that my confidence level is pretty high.

I noticed two guys taking pictures on the way down and it's always cool to know you have some evidence that you really did the race. I'll try and get all the pictures later.

Apparently I was #126 out of #400 to come down the Motorway. Yikes. Next year I'll be faster.


Chapter 4: Maple Springs

As I came over the last hump at the bottom of the Motorway I saw an insane scene. The first aid station was just chaos. People everywhere, bikes on the ground, cars, cameras and who knows what else. It was a bit much to take in.

I put my bike down and went over to the back of a truck to re-fill my water bottle and camelback. It was nice to have people help me fill both up. It made the transition very quick.

I grabbed maybe 1/3 a glass of orange juice which caused me to burp later on the way up Maple Springs. Right before I was ready to leave I saw Troy come down. I was really surprised because usually Troy is way out in front of me. I found out later that he ended up starting farther back in the pack at the start and I'm sure that cost him some time. Maybe even 10-15 minutes.

I ended up spending only about 4 minutes at the aid station before starting up the pavement. Man I really hate that section so much. It's just boring and after 20 miles it feels cumbersome. I noticed my legs starting to twitch a tiny bit - an early sign of cramping. I decided to drink a lot more at that point in an effort to catch it before it was too late.

About halfway up Maple Springs someone rides up behind me and pushes me forward. Haha. Turns out it was Troy. Thanks for the push dude! Haha. He then rode with me for a bit before turning on the jets. Thinking fast must really pay off.

I ended up in a loose knit group for the rest of the climb on the dirt up Maple Springs. I would get close to someone, pass them, then be passed by them. I did however manage to pull away from a few people near the end of the climb. There is one section I really love that I can always find energy to hammer on. I passed some Sho-Air dude and that made me feel REALLY good.

Right before getting to Four Corners I looked over and thought I recognized a guy I had been tracking with for a bit. Finally he talked to me and I realized it was Jeff from GeoLadders (jcampbell). We talked for a while before we ultimately separated just before Four Corners.

I remember seeing an orange jersey ahead of me just before Four Corners and thought it might be a GeoLadders guy. Sure enough it was. I don't know who it was, but I ended up passing him after Four Corners and never saw him again. Just like passing the Sho-Air guy, passing the GeoLadders guy felt REALLY good. I consider everyone on the GeoLadders and Sho-Air teams to be head and shoulders better than I am, so leaving one of them behind feels just awesome.


Chapter 5: To The Peak!

My strategy for the ride was to keep a fairly mellow pace until after Four Corners. I knew that would be the place where training and determination would pay off and I could improve my riding time. My hope was to be at Four Corners at about 4 hours and I rolled in at about 4:10. I knew I had to kick it way up if I was going to get in under 6 hours.

The climb to Modjeska was pretty miserable. My legs were starting to cramp at this point. I even felt cramps in places I had never felt them before, most notably my inner knees.

Again I was surrounded by a group of riders up to Modjeska. I remember telling one guy that I was doing Counting Coup and needed to step up my pace. He said something like "Yeah! You need to get going!" Haha. I stepped it up and passed 3-4 guys before reaching Modjeska. I was hoping to coast down to the saddle, but the wind made that impossible.

I've never been so affected by the wind on a ride before. I almost came to a dead stop on the ride to the saddle. Usually I would put the bike into a huge gear and hammer down, but with the wind and with fatigue I had to settle for the middle ring and push through the wind.

Another interesting note is that my hands were pretty numb at this point. My left hand was numb in all fingers and the palm. I need to change my bike setup to help me with this because it makes shifting impossible. My right hand was tired and numb as well and it made shifting very difficult.

When I got to the saddle I started to feel better and the climb at first wasn't so bad. There was this cute girl that I had been chasing since the start of the dirt on Maple Springs and I just could not get ahead of her. It was really frustrating, but then again, if I had to have company I guess a cute girl is better than some old sweaty dude.

I remember playing songs in my head and praying to God for the strength to finish the race strong. I knew if I could just push hard to Santiago Peak that I would have all downhill left and could fly.

I kept gearing up when I felt tired and somehow managed to push harder and harder. I passed quite a few people on the last climb and almost caught the guy that would ultimately finish 10 seconds ahead of me.

Right before reaching the peak some guy caught me and then amazingly stopped at the peak to rest or something. Once again I remember laughing to myself because he had worked so hard to catch me, only to stop and let me go. Never saw him again.


Chapter 6: The Down

The downhill section on the backside of the peak had snow as expected. I really didn't care because it wasn't deep, but the guy in front of me did. He went slower than I wanted to go and I didn't have the guts to pass him in the snow.

He ended up getting to Upper Holy Jim maybe 20 seconds ahead of me. I saw ch4os as a support guy at the top of UHJ which was cool. I thought I recognized him but wasn't sure. I was in such a rush to get down to the finish line I wasn't really paying close attention to anything.

Upper Holy Jim was forgettable for me. I ended up catching the guy in front of me, but it didn't pay off. I was too tired to make a lot of sections I would normally ride over. I was rushing to get on and off the bike and ended up almost eating it a few times. It was really frustrating not being able to ride most of the trail. I would guess I only rode 60-70% of it, whereas in the past I've done 90%. I need to work on my downhill ability for sure.

When I got to the top of Holy Jim the girl I had passed had caught up with me. Bummer. We both hiked down the drop in and I let her go ahead of me since I was going to have to walk up the climb out. After walking/running up the last climb out I ended up flying down the rest of the trail.

I caught the guy I had been tracking and the girl I had let go ahead of me. I descended Holy Jim faster than ever. I was on a mission to get to the finish line and nothing was going to stop me. It felt really great to let it all out and go really fast.

At the bottom of the trail I thought I had ditched the dude behind me, but he was right there. I ended up cramping as I negotiated the lower switchbacks in my right hamstring. The guy behind me ended up passing me because I was getting tired on the switchbacks and it was better for him to go ahead of me. I told myself I wasn't racing him as much as I was racing my goal of 6 hours.

My hamstring ended up cramping again before reaching the stream crossings, but the second time I didn't stop to wait for it to relax. I just kept my right leg unclipped and rode stiff legged until it was ok. Every second counts!


Chapter 7: The Finish

I must admit that I'm getting tired writing this novelette. But then again, this is for my own use and not really for other people to read. I can't imagine how boring it would be for someone else to read.

Once I reached the stream crossings at the bottom of Holy Jim everything kind of came apart. I started making really stupid mistakes and started to stumble and fall all over trying to get on and off the bike. I was trying to rush to save time and ended up probably making things worse by trying to hurry.

When I finally got to the gate to start Trabuco Creek Road I was just crazy with the thought of finishing. I had a super serious look on my face as I ran with the bike to get started for the final push out.

I looked at the clock and saw it was about 11:15ish. I knew I had to fly for the last 5 miles if I wanted to get in under 11:30.

I got into my big ring as quick as I could and just flew to the finish line. Some lady at the second aid station told me to slow down which made me pretty mad. I mean come on! Every second counts, I'm doing a race and you want me to slow down?! I don't think so!

When I got to the finish line I was in my highest gear and at the last second my legs both cramped up pretty good all over. It didn't matter though because I knew I had gotten in under 6 hours. Even the fact that I missed the finish line entirely didn't upset me. Haha.


Chapter 8: It's Over

I saw Matt at the finish and the first thing he said to me was "You got top 20!" I couldn't believe it. I thought I was way behind and that everyone else had finished way before me. I was thrilled to learn I had ended up top 20. I didn't find out till later that I had actually finished 13th.

Matt got 8th and Andrew got 6th, which is really impressive. I'm proud to be able to ride with such strong and fast riders. Troy did well in Vision Quest and Mark and John did well also. It was great to be out and see so many riding buddies and to celebrate finishing an event we had all trained so hard for.


I think next year I'm going to try to do Vision Quest with an initial goal of just finishing.

I'll post more pictures in other posts as they come in. I'm expecting at least 2-3 more. My final time was 5:57:39 and I placed 13th out of 106 riders that did Counting Coup. I thought it was about 150 riders, but I was wrong.

Training for next year starts soon! Haha.

Friday, March 2, 2007

Quick Luge

Just one quick pre Counting Coup post before the weekend. I did a quick Luge lap yesterday after work with Troy to make sure the bike was in good condition. For the most part it is. I just need to tighten the rear brake cable and take some air out of the rear shock and I should be good to go.

It was quite a shock (pun intended) to ride on a full suspension bike after three weeks. I hope it's just because the shock is too full of air because climbing with some give in the back is just not fun. I lose so much energy to the bike digging in to the dirt and it's really hard to build up good momentum for a given hill.

Troy and I caught two guys on the last climb before the flag and that felt good. I was riding at a pretty high heart rate, but felt really strong and solid. I never felt like I was pushing too high a gear or pushing past my limits. I won't be riding in the 180 range very much Saturday, but it felt good to get out and push a little.

I'll do one more small loop after work today (Friday) to fine tune the bike and keep my legs somewhat fresh. I was having small aches and pains in my legs yesterday and it's amazing how much better they feel after a quick lap. All the aches and pains are totally gone and I feel really good today.

Let's hope getting up at 3:30am tomorrow morning won't totally kill me.