Internet Relocation

Starting up a new blog elsewhere: http://johnproppe.com/blog. Keeping this up for posterity I'd guess.

Blog Hiatus

Been busy doing other stuff and the blog has taken a backburner. Will eventually come back in full force.

Cross season has been going well. Hope to catch up with this writing about myself on the internet thing soon.

Vultures Knob Double Down Pukefest

Twice the laps twice the fun!

The good folks at 331 Racing put an event on at the Knob. Twice the laps as a normal cross country race, pretty simple huh.

It was about a million degrees out, so I figured that since I was running so damn late (huge surprise) I'd forgo the usual warmup. Worst idea ever. My start sucked, and I wasn't able to get into the groove until towards the end of the second lap.

By that time, the superheroes of local mountain biking: Walker and Twining were long gone. Time to stay steady and finish.

Shit it was hot. I kept drinking and pouring water on myself and trying to stay cool, but not much was helping. I soldiered on.

Kept it steady, but the heat was really wearing on me. I was riding super sloppy and just couldn't wait to be done.

After crossing the line I knew I was in bad shape. The goosebumps started and I started getting dizzy.

Drank a rootbeer and sat in the shade for a minute. Uh Oh....

Ran behind a car and started puking any and everything out of my body. Fun stuff.

My teammates took good care of me, as did Mindy, Rody and the rest of the 331 crew. After a cold compress and some more fluids into my body I was back with the living.

Nothing huge on the horizon for me, rest week and about to start base for my cross season. Fun stuff.

Tour of the Valley Days 1 and 2

TT went well enough. Should have prerode the course as I goofed my pacing up a little bit with a few unexpected rollers here and there that got me.

Went out way way too hard, was able to settle into a decent groove and had to fight the mental battle of wanting to give up on the way back. Toughed it out, and after all was said and done:

20:25
9 miles
26.44mph
6th place cat three.

Shoulda did better but oh well.

Road race was a battle of attrition.

On the second lap of the race, a gap opened at the top of the first steep kicker before pancake hill. Worked like a dog to try to bridge the gap right before the KOM pancake hill.

Finally closed it at the foot of the hill. Oh happy days. Got over the hill ok and began cramping super bad and limped in super slow.

Oh well.

Gartman has phat GC points after having a phenomenal ride both Friday and Saturday, so seems like I'll be working for him in the crit tomorrow. He's my hero.

Don't stop being my friend...

I did a time trial under my own volition. Oof.

Headed out with Rudy and Robert to the Leroy TT put on every Thursday at 6:30 by Jim Behrens.

My legs were cooked from 4 hours and half a pizza with Gartman earlier in the day, but with Tour of the Valley coming up I figured that I would need at least one race effort on my TT bike and all my matching spaceman costume.

The course was a pretty simple L-shaped out and back with a steep little kicker right near the turn around.

During warmup my legs felt horrible and I seriously debated not racing and helping Jim with timing or sitting around or bullshitting or whatever. But when it was go time, I decided to give it a crack.

Once I started rolling, my comptetitive juices or whatever must have kicked in. Either that or the pizza had unearthed itself from my stomach. I started going ok. My legs were cooked, so the little grade up to the steep kicker was really taxing on me, and I lost a ton of time from being unable to stay on top my gear. I kept having to upshift until I was probably in my 53/21 and spinning for dear life.

Felt ok on the home stretch. Tried my damnedest to keep the power down, but the old legs weren't exactly snappy.

Finished in 17:57, which I'm happy with. I'm thinking with fresh legs and more aero bullshit I can cut a decent amount of time off of that too. Plus it would help if I could turn my TT bike without killing myself!

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time 00:17:57
Distance, mi 7.77
Work, kJ 342
Temperature, °F --
Average Power, Watts 317
Average Cadence 86
Average Speed, mph 25.89
Average Heart Rate 179

Reagan Park TT

Trying to get back into the swing of blogging.



The Reagan Park TT has come and gone another year.

I went for a little course recon on Friday with Chip Meek and Jeff Pendlebury, and the trails were ripping fast. Chip had the lines down, and following him through a few laps definitely helped a ton.

Come raceday, the trails were a bit greasy at spots from the previous night's rain, but all things considered, weren't too bad.

I had maybe ten riders start before me, within maybe 10 minutes I started picking people off one by one. Staying smooth in the corners and jumping hard at every opportunity. For once in my life I felt good.

All was going well, until I ran into a slower vet open expert. Being the considerate mountain biker I am, I tried to politely ask for a pass when he got the chance to slide out of my way.

No response...

Getting a bit less patient, I started demanding a pass: "Yo man coming through... move it!"

Still nothing. I started looking for a split second in which the twisty trail would allow me to pass without crashing into a tree. Lo-and-behold I got a little too ahead of myself and washed my front wheel out on a stick outside the trail. Fucking splendid. Note to everyone, if you're getting passed in a TT by someone who started like 5 minutes after you, get the hell out the way.

Back on the horse. I saw Chip gaining on me through the switchbacks. It was now my goal to not get passed by him. About 2 seconds after thinking this, I ate shit. Whoops.

He went by me like I was standing still. Impressive.

Motoring back to the finish, I ended up in third place with a time of 43:29. That's like 4 minutes faster than when I did the race in 2009, so not complaining.

Expert turnout was weak with 5 people. I got 3rd, which rules, but out of 4 finishers, it could be a lot better. Where's everyone at?

Home Free

Made it back to the 'burbs last night at about 11. 12 hours to get home. Ouch.

23 hours of riding in the last 5 days = tired me.

Tired me = no blog updates.

Now that I'm at home and near the coffee machine I'll put some updates together!