I am ready to race.  Famous last words.  How about I am finished my practice runs for the day?  Better. Tomorrows DH race should be real fun. The course is much like the Kung Fu downhill from years past  Many years ago that is.

Notice I said “like”.  Lots of changes to the course, none of them good.  The first thing I noticed was that this course had not cut out some of the loops on Snakes and Ladders that had a fair amount of uphill climbing. Suxor.  That will such the life out of me if I am not careful.

Next the gulley section had been cut in favor of Shars Choice.  Again, suxor.  Shar’s choice is fun, but way slower, and more dangerous due to the tight trees one must negotiate at speed.  A couple inches off course and blam. I’ve been known to hit trees so I will have to go slower than I would like here.

Also, much to my dismay they blocked off the Gay Terrace Drop.  That is such a fun drop and allows racers to carry lots of speed into the fireroad.  Instead there is a chunky, chundry section that is really slow, and has a tight left turn onto the fireroad that sheds almost all of your gained speed. Suxor.

Once on the fireroad there is a long section with enough downhill to make it fun, but enough uphill to make you feel pain. 

The other big change was the lack of Skull trail.  Instead we pass Skull on the fireroad, head down towards Pooh corner, then turn in to Shortcut.  Tight corner, on a downhill, off camber.  Again, you must lose all your speed to make the corner.  Shortcut crosses the fireroad with a fun jump, then it is into Shock Treatment, along the fenceline, then down into the TTA via a tight twisty trali that I have ridden countless times. I’ll miss Skull since I love that trail and I think it was a great addition to the course.

Todays practice consisted mainly of running sections a few times to make sure that I knew the line I wanted to take.  Some sections I repeated many times, others just one pass.  The turn in off the fireroad to Shortcut I hit a lot.Get off course there and I will lose lots of time. I also practiced the chundry section from Shar’s Choice to the fireroad a lot. 

I feel confident that I know the course, but I just hve no idea how my cardio will come into play.  I am going to conserve my energy on Snakes and Ladders, push hard on the uphill fireroad sections, recover on the downhill fireroad, then push as hard as I can through Shortcut and Shock Treatment. That’s the plan anyway. 🙂

More tomorrow on how I fare.

Last night after work I went for a mountain bike ride with some co-workers. Great ride. I took the Bullit out to get some quality time in the saddle for the race. I haven’t been on the Bullit much lately, so I wanted to make sure I was comfortable on the bike before the race this weekend.

Mission accomplised. I felt really good. Maybe the riding to work is paying off little by little. My legs felt really strong, and my balance was good. I practiced short downhill sprinting sections, braking and leaning into corners, tight twisties at speed, and the occasional jump. I also rode with the saddle lower than normal to get used to that too.

I feel pretty good about the race, and it is still 2 days away. Tomorrow I will actually get out onto the course for a bit of practice there. There are a couple sections I don’t ride very often so I need to work the kinks out there. Also, the last DH race at the dump had a couple loops on Snakes and Ladders cut out. Not sure if they will be doing that again.

I do need to do a bit of work on the bullit today. Top up the fork fluids (bottomed out a few times yesterday), clean and lube everything up, and add a big ring. I will need that for the race. I may also need a fender. As of right now 80% chance of light rain for Sunday. I hate waiting at the top of the course in the rain. You get cold and wet. Shitty way to start a race where you go balls out, fast as you can down technical and challenging trails.

Just got home from my first night ride in a very long time. I needed to get out and test the lighting system out on the trails at least once before the big race. Everythign works great, even the new battery that I had to solder into place. I had forgotten how much fun night riding can be too. I am starting to look forward to the race. Although, I think that getting out of bed at 2am to go ride my bike might be a little painful.

Wht a blast this weekend was. Yesterday was a very hard day. When I woke up this morning, instantly I could feel that my legs were a little stiff and sore. I knew that the race should be very interesting.

When I got to the race site I went and registered, then headed up for my mandatory run. As soon as I started down the hill, I knew that my race run was going to be difficult. My legs were pretty tight, and not comfortable at all. My grip strenght was also not its normal self, so hanging on to the bars was a challenge. I remembered the upper section pretty well, but messed up the first road crossing, and almost t-boned a stump. I hiked back up a ways and tried that road crossing again, and messed up again! The third time was the charm, and I had to remember that during my race run I needed to stay pretty far left.

The bottom two sections flew by pretty quickly, and by the bottom I was pretty tuckered. I had originally thought that I was going to do two preruns, but I quickly changed that plan.

I then started the waiting. I had close to two hours to wait before my class started racing. Oh well.

Just as I was about to make my way to the top, Su eand Yoshi showed up. I talked with her for a little bit, then jumped in the shuttle, and made my way to the top.

There I had to wait some more, but when time came to line up, the anxiousness set in. I wasn’t nervous, but I was biting at the Bullit. I just wanted to get out there and go.

Soon enough, it was my turn. I lined up and got my right foot set on the pedal. Then I waited. The 10 seconds to go came, then I waited. The countdown started 3…2…1…go! Down the ramp, and into the course. I flowed the first few corners really well. The course had settled in nicely, and the berms were pretty sweet.

I railed the corners, pedalling out of the last half. Lefts and rights just came to me, as if I knew the course like the back of my hand (which I don’t). Over a couple jumps, through some more corners. I had one slight bobble over one jump, but recovered quite quickly. I remembered all the lines I wanted to get, and the tricky corners. I dropped down into the ravine, and as I was cresting the other side I kept thinking about the upcoming road crossing that I messed up earlier in the day.

When it appeared, all I could think was keep left. And I did. Pain was starting to set in. My legs were on fire, my feet were cramping up, I was breathing heavily, and my forearms were getting very, very tight. I knew to keep pushing though because the end would be coming up very quickly. Throught the second section I manualled the dips, and sucked up the humps, and when I could snuck in a couple pedal strokes.

I slowed for the second crossing, and in some far off place I could hear Sue cheering for me. I sprinted across the road, and dropped back into the trail. The pain was getting intense, and all I could concentrate on was the finish line. From the second road crossing it was mostly a straight shot to the line. Except for one corner with a log drop at the apex. Right on cue I slammed on the brakes, lifted and tuend the bike, and started pedalling. I had made it through the last corner, and it was only a short sprint to the finish line.

Once across I just needed to spin along the fire road to work out the lactic acid, but I had to stop to give up my plate first. I took off my helmet, and spun away from the finish line. I was happy with my race. No crashes or wipeouts on my race run. That was a good thing. I probably could have gone a little faster on the first section, but then I would have been more tired near the end of the race. Oh well.

I wanted to stick around to get my results, but they were having problems. They did the draw prizes (I won a t Shirt), then announced results would be ready in about a half hour. I didn’t want to wait around any more, so I took off. I know I didn’t win, but I am happy with my result. As of this writing, results aren’t posted yet, but I have my fingers crossed that I placed mid pack in the intermediate men.

Another crazy fun DH weekend. No crashes, nothing broken.

This morning myself. Sue, Yoshi and Mark all met at the dump for a ride. Another awesome fall day. The sun was out, the temp was perfect, and lots of fun was had.

Yoshi was so full of energy. I am not sure what was up with him, but he was totally “into” sticks today. Not for retrieving either. He just wanted to carry them around, and chew on them! He is weird sometimes.

Back to the ride. It was a fun, relaxed ride for me. I think Mark and Sue pushed themselves a bit. Sue rode a couple rock faces that she was a little nervous of at first. She hesitated a little, but with me spotting, she gave them a go. In the end there was nothing for her to worry about. She did great!

For the last trail that took us back to the vehicles, Sue wanted to try my bike, so we swapped. Sue on my bike with the seat waaay down, and me on Sue’s bike, with the seat too far down. 🙂 It was comical for me. Her bike needs a little work. There is something loose that makes a scary noise. It make the rider feel as if something is about to fall apart.

When I caught back up, Sue had a huge grin. She had a blast on my bike, and felt really comfortable on it, even if it was a little big on her. She thought my bike was really comfortable, and confidence inspiring. Something about not getting the feeling like the bike was about to fall apart! I think the setup also put her centre of gravity higher, so she didn’t feel like she was going to crash. For her it was a great test ride.

Sunday morning arrived too early. I didn’t get to bed until some time after 2am, so when my 8am alarm went off, I wasn’t at my best. My goal was to pick up Mike at quarter to nine, then head to Duncan to ride on Tzuhalem.

After eating some toast, drinking some coffee, and getting changes, I was already running late. Shortening the story a lot, I picked up Mike, we zipped up to Duncan, and discovered that James was running late.

When everyone finally showed up and was fully geared up, we started the long march to the top. Tzuhalem has lots of climbing followed by lots of really fast, fun, swoopy downhill, punctuated by a smattering of stunts along the way.

It was a hard ride for me. I was a little hung over, which for me means I was very lethargic. By the time we got to the top I was wiped. I really wanted to ride some of the stunts on Sunday, but I was just too out of it to do it safely. Plus, I wasn’t a big fan of the construction technique used on the stunts. The rung on the ladders were very angular pieces of wood that were set quite far apart. This made traction (in my mind) spotty. Mentally I wasn’t on my game, and I didn’t want to push myself too much, so I took it easy and tried to have fun.

In the end it was a great ride. I was thoroughly exhausted by the time we got back to the vehicles, but I was glad I got out. The whole ride had a wonderful chill in the air. I love fall riding!

Yesterday was a great ride out at the dump. Myself, Mike, Shane, Sean, James, Val, and Dave??? headed out for a great ride. The highlight trail was Snakes and Ladders, but we tooled around on lots of different features on several trails.

After warming up at the TTA, we headed up Skull, Inventive, and up to C-Section. After C-Section it was up the Switchbacks we headed up to Snakes and Ladders, then it was down to Skull, and back to the vehicles.

Skip to the pics.

The temp was awesome, the blue skies spectacular, the trees beautiful, and the trails difficult. Swooping down some of them reminded me of summer times, yet here it is in the waning days of October. Crazy!

Mike and Shane tried their hands at riding a skinny, skinny, skinny. I have ridden this one to the end exactly once. It is hard since getting on to it requires lofting the front tire onto it, and lifting the rear on as well. Then you have to negotiate a twenty foot long log that widens from 4 inches wide to about 6 inches wide. The exit is a 2 foot wheelie drop. I gave it a go yesterday, and got about three quarters of the way down the log before I lost my balance and jumped off the left side.

The rest of the ride was too fun for me to stop and take out the camera. We blasted down Snakes and Ladders, then went up the fire road and raced down Skull trail.

Back at the vehicles Sean wanted to give a skinny a go, so he attempted the barrier ride a few times.

Great ride. I totally forgot to mention that Yoshi was with us too. He had fun, but he was pretty pooped by the end. He was tired before we left the lot, so he was pretty slow the whole ride. Being th good pooch that he is, he hung in there until the end.