cool website: 24hpassion.it

Check it out.

I started learning basic Italian a few years ago, maybe I will pull out my tapes again. All I remember is "Si prega di due birre" or something like that :)

return to the bike

I worked all day today and then headed out for an "easy" 2.5 hour road ride with eddie. this could have been the hardest "easy" road ride I've ever done! I was hurting really bad...my legs were so tight from the last two days of travel and wearing heels. I'm really lucky that I can wear chacos and sneakers all the time, heels suck! I guess I will have to ease back into it more slowly than I wanted to..getting old sucks:(

Speaking of shoes..we also just received our shipment of the brand new SOLE Sandals. OMG, they are AWESOME!!! The only problem is that I ordered one size too small so I'm going to give them to my mom and order a new pair. If anyone else wants some, let us know because it would be nice to place an order for more than just one pair of flip flops. They are honestly the most comfortable flip flops I've ever worn and there is a big selection of colors. I ordered the brown/light blue ones. Check them out here.

I'm also testing out some of the new FRS Healthy Energy products. So far I give it a thumbs up for taste and ingredients. It is full of antioxidants including Quercetin which I've heard a lot of good things about. Hopefully it lives up to the hype!

back home for good

The ASCM conference was a success but a really fast trip. I got to sit in on some good sessions on Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes, Marathons and heat, and dealing with the Underperforming Endurance Athlete. Cool stuff. It would have been good for me to stay the rest of the week as I would have learned A LOT more but it would have been quite expensive for me right now and I'm really anxious to get back to training. Training? I don't even remember what it's like. I'm going to start again tomorrow and I can't wait! Hopefully I can get some big hours through next week and this Saturday night is the Faster Mustache birthday party...it should be really fun.

FM/NOBRAKES/KAZANE GOLDSPRINTS! @ FM Bike Party '08

Start: May 31 2008 - 6:00pm
End: May 31 2008 - 11:59pm
Location:
Lenny's
Discussion Topic Name:
Faster Mustache 3 year Birthday Party and Race Team Fund Raiser - Discussion
Join us for Atlanta's FIRST GoldSprints Tournament!

Faster Mustache, NoBrakes, and Kazane Racing present:
GOLDSPRINTS!
Super Speedy Stationary Sprinting On-Stage Inside a Bar!

May 31st @ Lenny's, in conjunction with the Faster Mustache 3 Year Anniversary Party.

Prizes include a BRAND NEW KAZANE TRACK FRAME and other great prizes!

Ladies get a helping hand with a scientifically calibrated handicap!

Registration opens at 4:30 at Lenny's. Registration closes at 5:30. Racing starts at 6pm with heats all night long.

Single elimination, last-man-standing format.

Party and Race for $15 ($10 for party admission, $5 to race). $5 off if you have a mustache!

Sponsored by:
Kazane Racing (http://www.keirinculture.com)
No Brakes (http://nobrakesatl.com)
55nine Performance (http://www.55nine.com)
Gear Revival (http://gearrevival.com)
Faster Mustache (http://fastermustache.org)
Sopo Bicycles (http://sopobikes.org)

Back home...but not for long

I'm glad to be back home but I have to leave again tomorrow for Indianapolis to present at the American College of Sports Medicine Annual Meeting. That is a quick 24 hour trip, though, and then I can get back into "it". "It" would hopefully be riding as I haven't touched a bike in exactly one week now. My tendonitis is FINALLY starting to feel better today, but only slightly. I think I will have to stick to the roadie for several days and may not be able to do any out of the saddle climbing.

In Optimus Ti related news, some new parts will be coming in soon. One of them is ERGON related and one of them is fork related (thanks Addictive and Vassago). Hopefully some new wheels, too!

BURN 24 hour..done

It was awesome! The people, the course (so I heard..I still can't ride), the sponsors, the prizes, the weather..everything. So we had a couple issues like the BBQ caterers forgetting silverware and the same person (out of 350) winning two of the three Vassago frames..I mean, what are the chances??? He first won the Jabberwocky in the raffle, and then he won 1st place duo team for which the prize was Bandersnatch frames. I'm sure he was stoked but the whole point of the raffle was to spread the prizes out. Oh well, there's nothing we could have done this time.

Here are a few pics, thanks to Misty. Check out the blogs of Darkwing Duck(man), Jeremy Mountaingoat, Eddie O, and Fixie Dave Nice for more pics and writeups.





All I have to say is I need to shop where Dicky's daughter shops because his pants this morning were A-W-E-S-O-M-E. And, I'm racing this one again next year. Sitting it out is just not as much fun!

BURN 24...ready to go

We're leaving tomorrow morning! I have a feeling this will be the best BURN 24 hour ever..the trail is longer, we have zillions of prizes to give out, and the weather looks great. Not only do we have prizes for podium finishers, but also strategic prizes such as 10th/15th places and maybe more..and a Vassago 29er frame that will be up for FREE raffle, any of the racers can win it!

We really did put some effort into the alien abduction this year..so beware ;)

See y'all there for the party!

Taylor Brooks Foundation

Vassago Cycles has teamed up with Dirty Spokes to support the Taylor Brooks Foundation. Vassago Cycles is very passionate about childhood cancer and raising awareness to an amazing foundation that does not receive half the research funds it needs. It has become a mission we are proud to be part of.

Vassago Cycles has donated a frame that will be raffled between now and October 11th, 2008 at the Dirty Spokes 12/6 Hour Mountain Bike Race - Georgia International Horse Park, Conyers, Ga (ALL proceeds from the raffle go to the Taylor Brooks Foundation). Raffle tickets are $10.00 and can be purchased through the Dirty Spokes web site.
We urge you to read the story of mountain bike racer Jeff Brooks and his wife. their daughter lost her fight against cancer on April 1, 2008.

a visual of the pain felt (at conyers)

Check out these pictures from one of the race photographers. Early on, it's all smiles. The later in the race it gets, the more the pain sets in (as you can see on my face). Eddie's got it going on, too, just not as bad :)

mark d i borrowed your pics...

They're here!!!!

You need to BUY ONE NOW

24/conyers race report

It's true that the Olympic MTB course in Conyers, GA may be the toughest 24 hour course to race solo. It is anything but smooth, you are either on bumpy granite or rolling through roots and technical sections. And, erosion has definitely taken a toll on this trail in the last several years as the brake bumps on even the non-technical descents have the feel of a washboard.

Eddie and I were both having fork problems three days before the race and Vassago sent us a brand new fork via 2-day air. We received it on Friday and I let Eddie use it since I really wanted him to win this race and didn't want him to have to stop b/c of mechanicals. I used Eddie's fork on my Optimus Ti and had my Jabberwocky as backup with the ODIS rigid fork (BTW, rigid is NOT the preferred choice for this race course).

Cody convinced me to do my first lap on the rigid bike because then the Ti bike with suspension would feel awesomely light and cushy, good idea Cody. After one lap, I happily ditched the suspensionless bike and went for titanium.

My first few laps were consistent at about an hour each and 2nd place was dropping further back. After a few hours, though, my forearms were really bothering me. I didn't realize that my fork was compressing but not rebounding, so all the little bumps on the course were giving me a beating. Hodge convinced me that the steel fork would actually be a smoother ride so I took his advice.

Somewhere in the middle of the night I was near tears as I couldn't ride anything as my arms hurt so bad. Cody massaged them and him, Richard, and Hodge kept me motivated to get back out there even if I had to do a lot of walking. The problem with singlespeeding is you use your forearms A LOT even when climbing, so not only was I descending like a snail to reduce the jarring effect, I was either walking or wincing when I was climbing.

My lap times got slower and slower but I stayed out there despite taking a few hour or so breaks (I was always 2 to 3 laps up on 2nd place so I felt comfortable resting). I contemplated quitting several times, I even told everyone I was quitting. What really kept me from doing it, though, was the fact Hodge & Cody had done so much for us all day and night and I didn't want to let them or Vassago down.

I ended up with 15 laps and I can definitely say it was the most grueling 24 hour race I've ever done. As if the course wasn't hard enough, singlespeed and rigid made it stupidly hard. Now I have to live with a huge swollen right arm in hopes that this tendonitis (or whatever it is) does not ruin any of my remaining season. I do not foresee me being able to mountain bike anytime soon, though :( Too bad, I wanted to do some laps at the BURN 24 hour race this weekend. Oh well, at least it doesn't hurt too bad to eat ice cream and drink beer.

I am SO proud of Eddie for finally winning at Conyers! I did support for him in October 2004, and that is how we met. He has been trying to win this race since then and this was finally his year. Now we NEVER have to race solo there again and I couldn't be happier about that!

I know I already thanked them, but I have to do it again:

THANKS TO ADDICTIVE CYCLES, SCOTT HODGE AND CODY YANCEY ARE THE BEST MECHANICS AND BIKE SHOP GUYS IN GEORGIA! Why else would we drive an hour to go to a bike shop? Because we trust them and they are really cool guys.

THANKS also to VASSAGO CYCLES, the Optimus Ti 29er is truly the perfect endurance racing machine!

If anyone has pics from the race, please email them to me..we didn't get any! Thanks!

24 hrs of conyers

this will be a short one as my right arm is not working :(

thanks to:
vassago cycles
hodge and cody from addictive cycles
richard walker
mr and mrs o'dea
sorba
mark d
faster mustache and everyone else that was so cool this weekend
and of course all our sponsors (see them on the left)


pic borrowed from think1

in case you haven't heard: optimus ti now made in the USA

pre-race

I'm still sitting here with a heating pad on my shoulder/rotator cuff. I think vitamin I might be in order for this race. The only thing I'm nervous about for this race is the course beating me up. It's soooo bumpy. The granite is bumpy, but so are the dirt descents because the brake bumps are as big as ever. I'm worried about my back and shoulders, mostly, since they are still messed up. And, I'm going to get a pedicure today as the bottoms of my feet are still kind of sore from Vail Lake! My backup bike has the rigid ODIS fork, so I'll be riding that when I need to. I just hope I don't flat b/c we didn't get a chance to install the No Tubes setup this week (just not enough time to test it out comfortably).

OK, going to go finish packing, walk the dogs, finish up the bikes, etc. Richard W (Eddie's support guy from previous races) is coming up to help out Hodge & Cody this weekend, so that's cool.

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend, I'm hoping Danielle wins 12 hours of Tsali again, I'm pretty sure she will!

Oh, by the way..Conyers is going to be really quiet, so if you have nothing else to do please come out and spectate! (And keep Hodge & Cody company..they do like beer ;) And, if anyone wants to go above and beyond...there is a Mellow Mushroom in Conyers and salty parmesan pretzels sometime tomorrow night would rock! Thanks, in advance :)

stuck together

That's been me for the last couple weeks. I finally got a massage yesterday from Collette (IMO, the best sports massage therapist in the state) and she found that my shoulder blades were both "stuck" to my ribcage (..using laymans terms here..) and my rotator cuff was also extremely jacked on both sides. Can I tell you..the pain I felt while she tried to "unstick" them was insane. It felt like she was driving nails through my shoulders and armpits..that, and it kind of tickled at the same time. Awful!! But, I'm so much better off for it now. I didn't realize that racing without my Wobble-naught fit for one race (even though it was a 24 hour) could mess me up so badly. Today, I'm really sore and will be heating and gently stretching as much as possible.

There's still only two women signed up (including me) for the 24 hours of Conyers. I'm still optimistic someone else will show up but there is a chance it may not happen. I guess that's ok, in that case I will just try to beat Eddie.

just kidding.

bike to work week

It's bike to work week but what do you do when you work from home? You bike to get ice cream, of course! My back and shoulders are STILL jacked up from a crash I took 3 weeks ago at Vail Lake, so I finally got to see Dr. Josh Glass yesterday and I'm going to see his wife Collette today. In the meantime, instead of aggravating it on the road bike, I decided to ride my mountain bike around town.

Bikes:



We rode the long way to get ice cream at Jakes. mmmm caramel. Eddie says it's better than McDonalds ice cream, but I don't know..I like McDonanlds, personally.



We encountered more commuters than usual, probably because it's bike to work week..that or the price of gas is now almost $4/gallon!! Either way, it was cool. Then, we hit the disgruntled driver on the way home..we were on a two lane downhill and most cars were going around us in the left lane (keep in mind we are probably going 35mph which is the speed limit anyway), and some jerk starts honking and riding up on us. Now, I can't help myself and started waving, then he came around and I asked if he had a problem. All I heard him say was "No, but.." but I was going too fast down the hill and wasn't about to start braking to hear the rest. However, Eddie heard him and I guess he said "No but you shouldn't be taking up the lane". Anyway, they had some words and then the guy sped off only to be caught at the same red light that we did. Ha. Then, we proceeded to be buzzed by another 4 or so cars in a row before we were able to get home safely. Nice end to the ride! Did I mention I hate riding in my neighborhood? That cabin in North Georgia is sounding real nice.

good news

Addictive Cycles a.k.a. Hodge & Cody will be doing 24 hour support for us at Conyers this weekend! This would be the same crew that helped Mr. World Champion Craig Gordon in 2006. Maybe they can help me refine my pit stops to a reasonable amount of time! :)

We still need more women racers. There are currently two of us. TWO. Somebody please sign up otherwise it's going to be a really boring race!

productivity!

It feels so good. In the last 24 hours we've started turning our backyard into something more like an outdoor living space, cleaned 2/3 of the house up, ordered me a new cell phone (it was way overdue), and done a ton of work on the BURN 24 hour and the Fool's Gold races. We've lined up some sweet bands for the Fool's Gold Festival and have some kick ass sponsors that will give y'all some great prizes. If you thought last year was good, this year will be a thousand times better!

Tonight is the Seasons (by the Collective) film premiere at Sweetwater Brewery. $15 for all you can drink Sweetwater and a mountain bike film..sounds like the makings of a good night to me!

Taper week and Ranger 34K report

On Friday, Eddie and I decided to go up to the Ranger base and do their annual 34K mountain bike race. The course is all gravel road and starts with the first climb to Cooper Gap that is included in the Fool's Gold 50/100 course. It then rolls over the ridge and descends the fun and fast road from Winding Stair Gap, and finishes with another climb to the finish. We stayed at our friends' amazing cabin near Blue Ridge on Friday night so we'd be closer in the morning.

Unfortunately, we underestimated the time it would take to get there in the morning and we arrived at 7:15 am. Except, we still had to register both of us and the race started at 7:30! I don't know how we made it on time as the registration line was at least 20 people long. There was also a 5K/15K run and a duathlon that people were doing.

I rolled up to the start line and 2 minutes later we were off. My HR was already soaring from the pre-race stress. I settled into a nice brisk pace on the first climb and was able to keep 2nd and 3rd place in sight (1st took off like a rocket from the start and there was no catching her). Then, 2nd place started to look farther and farther away..but 3rd was still with me at the top of Cooper Gap. I don't think she liked me sitting on her wheel because the next thing I knew was she turned around, clicked up into the big ring, and hammered away. Too bad I didn't have the gears to respond and I was left to myself spinning along. I lost a ton of time on the flats and rollers along the ridge, only hoping to reel her in on the somewhat techy gravelroad descent. Not so, they graded it so it was smooth and fast, it would have been more to my advantage had they left the rocks and waterbars in, but oh well! I came in 4th female overall, and 1st in my age group. They do age group categories at this one which is different than most races I do. Eddie also got 1st in his AG.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out at Rich & Donna's cabin which has now given me huge cabin envy. I can't wait to be out of grad school and have an income again because this cabin was perfect for mountain weekends!

Pics borrowed from the NC Hillbilly:

Jackson and me waiting for the awards



Eddie getting his 1st place award



This week is full on taper for 24 hours of Conyers this weekend. I sure hope I feel better in a week than I did at the race yesterday!

Monday May 12: Seasons Premiere @ Sweetwater Brewery

Tickets here

What a joke!

This is what I read on cyclingnews.com today:

The anatomy of bike position
In this article Cyclingnews' Form and Fitness panel member and renowned bike fit specialist, Steve Hogg, takes you through his thoughts on bike position. The following is a transcript of a speech Steve gave in 2007.
All modern thinking about how to fit a human to a bike is reductionist in approach. Take a complex system of interactions like a human being, quantify it somehow and fit it to a bike. Because it's a complex system, break down that complexity into bite size pieces by examining aspects of its interaction with the bike in a narrow sense. The approach might be strictly biomechanical, perhaps measurement based, statistical norm based or whatever. It may have a proprietary name; Fit Kit, Bio Racer and Wobblenaught spring to mind, though there are others. That is how the world thinks of a bike fit process. It's a succession of steps of narrow focus but without any overarching idea of holistic intent, and this is what I mean by a reductionist approach. The formula driven methods this type of approach engenders are prevalent throughout the cycling world and don't work optimally for large numbers of people in any way that can be shown or explained. I spend a large part of my working life getting results for the people that the above style of thinking has failed.

This is just my opinion but this guy obviously doesn't know what a Wobble-naught fit really is. It is anything but "reductionist" in approach. He considers it "reductionist" because WN takes into account several precision skeletal measurements? How else do you fit the bike to an invididual's specific structure? Since I came across Wobble-naught I have viewed it as a more holistic approach to fitting a bike to a rider than any other fitting approach, and I've had numerous types of fits before this one. Not to mention, Wobble-naught doesn't go by "the eye" or "by feel". It's based on science and measurement which eliminates any guesswork and subjectivity. It does work for large numbers of people and it is shown and explained. That's exactly what Dartfish and the Myo-facts EMG do. The results are proven.

Hmmmm...let's see who else agrees? Here are all the people at one race alone (Dirt Sweat & Gears) that are on the Wobble-naught fit, and did pretty damn well (as usual)!

Pua Sawicki (1st)
Rebecca Rusch (2nd)
Carey Lowery (3rd)
Nat Ross (4th)
Rebecca Tomawicki (5th)
Ernesto Marenchin (6th)
Chris Janiszewski (11th)

Not to mention others such as Mark Hekman, Georgia Gould, and Shonny Vanlandingham.

That's a pretty impressive list if you ask me. It's sad to see someone that has no idea what Wobble-naught is about write this stuff on cyclingnews.com, but I guess everyone is allowed to have an opinion whether it is informed or not. Unfortunately for everyone, the uninformed opinions seem to come out more frequently on the internet.

quiet..for now

Things have been really quiet around here lately. I just finished up my final exams and have not been riding much at all. I only have less than two weeks left until the next 24 hour race, so I've been trying to recover as quickly as possible..though the greater than usual alcohol consumption might be hindering that process! Vassago and White Brothers sent me a temporary 80mm fork that we will install today so I can get back on the mountain bike. I'd like to go check out the race course today to try the gear I want to use for the 24 hour. I have a feeling it will be something significantly easier than what I normally use to ride there.

After Conyers, we pretty much head straight to the BURN 24 hour race to direct it, then I head straight to Indy for the American College of Sports Medicine Annual Meeting to present my Abstract, then we go to Michigan to visit the family and race Lumberjack, then I start my summer internship. Sometime in between all that I will have to get in a few more weeks of training for 24 hour Nationals.

I think I'll take the dogs for a walk and go to the pool today to enjoy the relaxation time while it lasts!

some pics from CA

pics courtesy of the Vassago pit crew:

finally!

After probably almost a year, my younger sister has finally built up her first mountain bike. Well, actually Eddie and I put it together for her and shipped it out several months ago. Yesterday, Eddie talked her through how to assemble it. I know there are pros and cons to this but she is going singlespeed on her first mountain bike! She's 5'5" and went for the 16" 29er. The SS might be a challenge in Nor Cal where she lives but if she gets too frustrated with it then she can always add some gears. I'm proud of her for giving it a chance. Check out her new Black Vassago Jabberwocky:

rough weekend

We did bail on SSUSA/Dirt Sweat & Gears which sounds like was a fun time. Instead, Eddie and I headed to FL on Thursday to be with our friend whose lovely wife passed away earlier this week. It has been a hard weekend but I'm glad we were able to come down here to be with him, even if for a short time. We were also able to spend some time with the O'Dea family today which was nice. Tomorrow we are heading back to Georgia so I can finish up my final exams and get one more week of intense training before starting the taper for 24 hours of Conyers! The race is May 17/18 in Conyers, GA and I'm looking forward to it.