Endurance races, ski trips, musings, and adventures on the East Coast.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Riding Motos

Nina and I took advantage of a chance to do some unorthodox (or maybe not, depending on who you talk to) training this past weekend - riding motocross. Neither of us had actually ridden dirt bikes before, and yup, they're pretty rad. Amazing to get to go that fast on dirt. Just had to remember that the right brake lever was actually the front brake. Fortunately there were no over-the-bar fiascos.


Gotta say, being able to just open up the throttle in the middle of a berm is so rad - not that cornering on a mountain bike is lame but.....


....dang. I can see how people get hooked on this stuff. Plus, I was tired at the end. Just having a motor doesn't make it a cake walk by any stretch of the imagination.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Trying hard to get the last sections of trail done here to open our training loop. The descent is pretty darn close, with reviews tending to place it on the fast, steep, and technical end of the spectrum. The rest of the trails should be decidedly more mild though.


We did do some test riding this weekend, which is the best part for sure. The drop below comes right at the end and should be a good way to cap things off.


In other news the new Zaboo full suspension 29er should come this week. Pretty stoked on that one for sure. More details soon.

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Coyote Hill Classic Race Report

Well, it's been a week since the Coyote Hill Classic, which also happens to be the Vermont State Championships. Guess it's about time to write a race report. If you want the report on the fast folks and some results, check out my MTBRacenews.com report. Here's the more personal take.
First of all, I love racing at Coyote Hill. I can ride to the race course from my parents house, which is always sweet. And the course is mostly singletrack, with lots of roots and mud thrown in for good measure. In short, it's a mountain bike course, not a glorified cross course, and good technical riders tend to win there. That's the way it should be if you ask me, so it's always a blast to show up and race. Of course, racing is more fun if you're feeling fast, which I wasn't this year. I've been training a lot, and I feel like I could be fast, but my allergies and asthma have had other plans of late. Slowly but surely I'm getting on top of it, but I knew that Sunday was not going to be stellar. Nonetheless, I punched it on the first open climbing section and put myself, very temporarily, into the top 5. While that was a dumb move, it probably only accelerated the inevitable, and 15 minutes later I was sitting on the side of the trail, light-headed and wheezing, with a core temperature that felt like it was well over 100 degrees. Not so good.
Lucky for me Nina was racing the women's race not too far behind. By the time she passed me I was in good enough shape to pedal, and we cruised the next few laps together. Super fun. I was taking advantage of the dropper post on the (little) descents to have some fun, and rolling through the techy sections with the suspension wide open. Way more fun than racing a hardtail (though probably not faster, oh well). Apparently our combined efforts weren't for naught either, as Nina snagged a Cat. 1 State Title and I brought home 10th in the Pro field. Didn't see that one coming. Sweet. Maybe next time I can make the podium. That would be fun.