Ships Log: Fat Aircraft carrier war games

stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
lincoln-versailles-2.jpg

Kudos for OJ as a model though
 

UtahJoe

Team Workhorse
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Unfortunelty as of today im going to have to switch the dial on this thing from neat car pics, to stupid biking stories. Apologize in advance

Short Track #1
PREFACE:

The race itself is such a small part of this first post, really the effort to get the new portion of the course done has been pretty extensive for the past few months or so and I wanted to make mention of it. We have always intended for the loop to go all the way around the lake since first moving to the wheeler side of the camp, but there was just no way were were going to get it all done in one winter. Big props to everyone on the team chipping in some time to make that happen. It is a crazy amount of work. I cant remember if it was @Chris26er or @pooriggy who suggested the mini-ex, but holy hell was that thing worth the money. If we didnt have that thing...well it would have gotten done somehow, but im sure it wouldn't be nearly as nice.

So friday/saturday we had one final trail maintenance session to wrap up everything...We had to bag last week because of the snow. I got out there at 7, rode around for 90min, then moved wheelbarrels and 5 gallon buckets of stone for ~4 hours or so. I think we made it about as reasonably smooth as you are going to get in Allamuchy. Then I went home, took bob biking with the dogs at our lake...after putting him to bed I decided to make a few last tweaks to the new scalpel. This turned into cutting the bar down 2", mounting up some new tires on my backup wheels, neat seat/post, adjusting the stem him a number of times, just alot of tweaking...Before I realized, it was 12:30. Woke at 4:30 thinking about...holy shit there are like 150 people coming to a short track race...God I remember when we were stoked that we had 40 people sign up. For me, day of..I just try to be around and help out with whatever might be needed, but the real professionals are actually running the show. I did get to ride around some before my race, thankfully, despite the heavy rain, there was really very little mud on the course.

Fast forward to the race...I lined up with the usual crew..CCI gang, @Superfly100guy etc...I try not to take this first one too seriously...I know im going to suck...after not doing any real training for like 7 months, it feels like being hit with a stun gun. As I sit on the line I try to reset my garmin...its frozen..@norm does not stop the race despite this crisis situation....The horn goes off and we go. I pedal up the road with one hand on my garmin trying to reset it...@muddybike comes up on my left and tells me to get moving....I explain that "I CANT GET MY GARMIN STARTED!!!!" I mean the race should have red flagged and restarted, but whatever. Eventually i give up and stare at the screen that tells me my recovery time from my last ride..."10 HOURS"...So the entire rest of my race I just kept thinking I had ten hours left to go. Like I mentioned. I have not done a sustained effort of note since last June at the lewis morris race....I ride all the time of course, but I havent turned it to 11 in a super long time. Its not so much that my power goes away, what takes time to get back it my ability to recover between efforts and keep steady power for the entire race. First lap I settle in around 10th-12th or so...Then after the switchbacks I made a push past a few guys. By the second lap I get up to 5th and im catching Ben W @Hey Now (see that Ben...I can tag you in my recaps now) :) I push hard and keep ben in sight for about a half a lap, but by lap 3, im burning out. He soon pulls away and I just try to hold off Roger and Nick M. Roger repassed me with about a lap to go and I held off Nick for the last lap to finish 6th. After this past week, im very happy with that. Hopefully in the next few weeks ill be able to throw down a little better. I almost like sucking for the first one...its a great motivator to get my ass back in gear.

Bike was good during the race..I actually found myself using that full lockout at several points during climbs. I screwed with the lever reach on my rear brake the night before and by the middle of the race it was on my bar...so that was dumb, but otherwise I thought of it like this...It felt just like my old scalpel until i was hitting the downhills where I felt considerably more confident.

All the time I got for now...See you all next week!
 
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pooriggy

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
6er and I have talked construction in the past and he knows I'm an equipment operator. He knows of the rental shop near Mooch and suggested renting a little ho to Kirt. Kirt was all for it and pushed it to Norm...next thing I know I'm knee deep in rocks at Mooch with my little ho.

The course is good and the fact that we were able to get that trail around the lake is impressive. It could use some handwork to smooth out some sections but overall the layout is awesome.

Glad to see you have the new Scalpel dialed, good race.
 

UtahJoe

Team Workhorse
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Short track #2

So exactly like last year, I used the first short track race as my first real hard effort of the year. Then I follow that up with taking the road bike out of my closet (it lives there all winter) and spending the week remembering how to ride properly. Its amazing what a week on the road bike does for me with regards to mountain bike racing. I went out and did my typical week of intervals, with a small adjustment in power #s for winter rust....by the time I get to thursday and im doing a longer tempo ride...I can really feel my ability to pedal, sustain an effort, breathe, recover start to come around. And while there are short duration's of the ST races where im suffering, its like a day at the beach for me compared to doing a 2hr tempo ride.... On the road, in the cold, in the dark with nothing but my power number to keep me pushing. Once I start doing this routine, my weight usually comes around pretty fast...something about high intensity workouts just kills my appetite.

Anyway, so the race. Pretty sure that was the coldest starting temps of any race we have put on...probably that I have ever done actually...I mean I usually race in the summer in NJ...im not doing @jimvreeland stuff, so 9 or 16, or what it was...pretty cold. Actually, with the exception of my head being cold for the first lap..(I cant wear a hat and do race pace) I didnt really pay it much notice. Felt rather nice actually...I wish the bulldog guys could switch the KVSP race to this kind of weather. @Rich W had an interesting comment at the starting line...I love Richs stories because hes been doing this forever and hes seen just about everything...so when he starts a sentence with..."in twenty five years of racing...this is the first time...." my ears usually perk up. In this case, it was the first time that rich actually drove to a race in his kit due to the cold.....which I did as well.

So Kristine sent us on our way and for the first 5 minutes I kept wondering if it was a mistake not to wear my hat. Ben and Vic opened up a gap pretty quickly, I think I settled in around 6th or so. Eventually, Rich was leading Roger myself and @jShort ...I passed frank early on, which I have done many times..only to watch him come screaming by again later on in the race. After a couple of laps we pass nick, then I started passing and leading through the rocky section....so im thinking ill let rich follow me though here, he will always repass me on the climbs and the back and forth pulls might get us back up to ben and vic...maybe. On lap 3 or maybe 4, rich wasnt putting the same hurting on me on the climb as he usually does...@jshort was still right us...So I kept telling rich to hurry up as there is no way I can let Jeremy beat me :)...I have to give a shot out to Jeremy for surviving the lap 2-3 surge...Usually thats when I start to take stock of where we are at and if I need to, throw down and move ahead of some people. Yesterday I did this a few times with Rich and Roger and really tried driving up the pace in an effort to catch Vic and Ben...Jeremy hung right in there..nice work man.

Maybe lap 4 or 5...Rich was not able to make the pass on me going up the climb....im like WHAAATTT???? is the master..maybe...just a little off today? for ONCE? lol. I saw frank was still around back there as well...About this time I felt like I was finally starting to gain some ground on vic. This kept me motivated to keep drilling it. Last two laps I made up more and more time and opened up a smalll gap on Rich, frank and Roger....The last time through the rocks I got pretty close, but Vic would have had to make a big mistake for me to pass him. So I finished in 3rd. Pretty happy with that, unlike last week where the last two laps I was dying, this week I had a good surge on the last lap and it was my second fastest lap. Good race, very fun. I love the frozen ground as you just feel like you are moving at mach speed.

All I got for now...#3...maybe this week it will be 92degrees.
 

UtahJoe

Team Workhorse
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I also have a quick mustang update...The guys at the shop have been trying to get to it soon. They had a few cars in front of it still...couple of the cars are for the classic car club of Manhattan and they are way more demanding and pay a shit load better than I do...so I get it and its no big deal to me if I have to wait a little longer. The mustang doesnt have an appointment I have to get it to...its a relaxation project, so the whole point of it to me is to be stress relief, not stress inducing. Anyway Kade just painted this beautiful 58 Mercedes convertible
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Oh my headers are done...I had actually forgotten about them lol...Now ceramic coated in a cast iron grey so they look somewhat stock-ish lets say.
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The guy painting my car, Kade...interesting guy. He used to be a pro snowboarder....while I was out doing the ST race, he was over at big boulder doing this
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I asked him if he could kindly knock that shit off as its difficult to paint cars from a hospital bed :)

Next couple of weeks should see some nice progress on the mustang. Just in time for me to start racing again and put it on the back burner lol
 

UtahJoe

Team Workhorse
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Short track #3

So progress on getting myself into form has been going well. I did my full week of 3 hard workouts, then 3hr mtb ride saturday....im down about 8lbs now...This year @jdog mentioned something to me about cutting out dairy...so I decided to try this. Typically in my experience, its not the cutting x y or z out that helps me lose weights...its 2 things...A. cutting out anything makes me pay attention to what im eating. B when i pay attention to what i eat, i realize that overall im eating too much and I scale back how much im eating in general. Additionally, after an intense workout, my appetite is usually less anyway so its easier for me to just eat my dinner and be done for the night.

Other than the snow, same deal this week with the race...Oh and Lando was on spring break so he decided to come out and remind us how slow we really are. He was telling me his power #s, its like we all have ferrari v-12s, but he has a Pratt&Whitney J-79...its ridiculous...I think I need to lose another 85-90lbs. Usually after the races, i switch my wheelsets from my valors back to my crests since racing ralphs are expensive and they wear kinda fast. This week with the snow, I figured I would just leave my beater wheelset on so I could run my tire pressure low if need be and not worry about possibly smashing my valor on a rock. My beater wheelset has some old tires I found in my bin, one is an ignitor from like 3 years ago that I grabbed bc it had tread. Its been fine for a month or so now...I guess when I was warming up sweeping the kids race I must have put a hole in the sidewall...Or it quite possibly had one already, not sure. I was going to put a tube in, but it seemed to be holding so I said fuck it.

On the start as im standing my chain skipped on the cassette and i missed a few pedal strokes, didnt get a great drive...settled in behind @Chris26er and @jShort...CCI guys and roger in front of us. I let 6er borrow my old scalpel for this race...so its funny sitting behind my old race bike for 1/2 a lap...We stay like this until the split where 6er drops to the low line and I tell Jeremy that if he lets 6er cut him off im going to be pissed :).....As I say this chris blitzs the rock garden, but gets hung up somewhere and goes flying. Suck, but if anyone was going to make that line work, it would be chris....Anyway, after we leave 6er behind us in a pile I said to Jeremy..."not sure if I told 6er about the head angle on that bike" :) All in good fun. Meantime Rich is falling off of Ben who is in 2nd.

Lap two, on the bridge I look over and see nick is already through the following ST and climbing...holy mother of god...Like left us for dead is not the word. I pass Jeremy on the climb on lap 2 because i want to make sure we keep the pressure on Rich and Roger....After the lake i tried booking around them into the single track but with the snow, there was one fast track and riding in the powder meant I could not power past them...So i sat in until the end, them motored past rich and roger near the finish line....Hit the turn, realized my tire is now low....By the climb its now really low and the rim is hitting shit. I slow down and people go by. Make it to the finish line and @Ryan.P was awesome enough to lend me his tallboy. The seat was too low, but hey it works. I keep hammering as hard as i can, catch back up to a few people and finish up....All good, got my workout in so successful day.

For some reason I cannot explain...3 st races in a row, all 3...my garmin just stops, then shuts off. I have been using it for ~7 months now...only time it has ever done this. No idea wtf the deal is. I have done laps on the st course, fine....race, shuts off.

Anyway, had to make it quick today...fingers crossed we figure out how to get #4 in without the use of shovels.
 

pooriggy

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
He was telling me his power #s, its like we all have ferrari v-12s, but he has a Pratt&Whitney J-79

Wasn't the J79 made by GE and then modified by Pratt&Whitney incorporating afterburner turbo fans in the TF30 which went onto power the F-11 and F-14. Is that what u where going for?

Also are you sure you are hitting your start button on your Garmin. It could be powered on however if you forget to hit start it will shut down.

Good racing bruh.
 

UtahJoe

Team Workhorse
Team MTBNJ Halter's
March mayhem 2017

And just like that the blissful season of XC racing in now upon us. Let us all take a moment and rejoice......then after this first race, let us all take several hours to bemoan, grieve, lament, and mourn. So march mayhem, I usually skip this race bc my training season officially starts on the first short track race...I basically do a giant block in march where I ride almost every day....Then that last weekend, whether it be blue moutain in the past, or this race, I usually skip it and rest. But with the season being more compacted this year, and the last short track being canceled, I wanted to get in a real race effort sooner.

I hadnt been to this course before, but from last years reports I know it's very flat and very fast. The average speeds from last year were absurd, like 15.5 mph average. Metric shit ton of pedaling....wide open throttle the whole time. As I discussed this race with @jShort, I was trying to think of a race that i might have done that sounded similar, but i couldnt think of one.

After riding down with @Kirt, we signed up met up with @jShort and @muddybike and headed out for a warm up lap. Ok flat is not the word for this loop... We think of Allaire as flat, but Allaire is like a tram ride to the summit of the Matterhorn compared to this place. Its FLAT. Lot of wide open single track tied together with Sandy fire roads then some new tight single track mixed in. The loop is actually really fun, but what's fun to ride and what's fun to race pro on are not always the same. And one other thing...um its hot? my gamins said 82...Where the fuck did this come from?

So I got down to the start a little late....Big group in pro, about 20 or more. I head to the back and like up 4th row with @Joe J and @Superfly100guy . We were a little boxed in on the start and I new on the roll out we would have to be patient to not get tangled up....However, someone bumped Joe, who then bumped Vic, who then got tangled up with me...Really nothing of note in the grand scheme of this course...But for that first minute or two the three of us scrambled to back with the group.

Im now in a spot that is dangerous...I have been here before and it can be a killer. Just about last in a line of 20 plus riding at max speed through tight single track. Dangling, hard decelerations, crazy hard accelerations....im trying to fight that yo-yo effect, but in my mind I want to be as close to an attack position as possible when we break out onto a road...My goal is to make a big jump and get up with the CCI guys if I can...In a normal race, I wait until the first climb and attack, thats not an option here. So I wait and wait and wait...And while im sitting in line with Vic and Joe, im working really hard. Finally after about 8 min or so we hit a fire road....I followed Joe around a couple of guys, now going way way into the red as I was already pretty close to red. Then you really start to notice there there will be no recovery on this loop, at all. On the next fire road segment I power past a few more guys, then vic. Joe is right ahead of me but hes slowly opening up a gap. We then power up the one climb on this loop that might be 30 feet high...its short, but its like 1st steep for maybe 30sec or so....Then you roll down and power though about 1/4mile of dead flat sandy fire road. And im on the gas hard trying to get back up to the cci guy that I can see in the distance....In my head im thinking...Well if i can get up there, I can try and settle into some kind of a pace. Then we hit the newly cut single track and im closing in on another guy in front of me. I make no effort to ease up and instead, im just trying to get past him and stay with Joe. This in hindsight is causing me to micro burst my way though for the next 5 or so minutes.....Then more fire road...I passed and just pegged it trying to get back up to Joe...Passed Szymon who was remounting....he put on a mad charge, so I hit it hard again to stay with him.

Roll though lap 1 in ~23min and notice my garmin says my lap HR 166 and my power 372w...this is garmin power with no 0's which is not something that will mean anything to anyone but me....But to me...as someone whose familiar with my own numbers....If I were playing excitebike, the screen would be blinking at me right about now telling me to stop holding the B button. This is where the first race, first whatever race of the year...you just let it fly....And I kept the B button down...I looked back at some point, vic, Jeff, few others were now out of site....But im still fighting to stay in contact with Joe. 30min and im at that point were my body is saying: WE MIGHT HAVE A PROBLEM.....35min....Vic and Jeff have now caught me and dont pass, just blow by....I try and regroup but now that overheating dizzyness has crept in....I just keep pushing, but by 40min I can see that there will be no recovery and this day is now over.

I finish lap 2 in 25min and really I wanted to call it a day at this point...My back was hurting and I was pretty miserable. When you truly blow up, it really is astounding awful you feel...its like "well I could be having elective surgery night now to have a third arm grafted onto my ass....but instead im out here doing this shit" I will say though, after many years and several of these episodes I have learned that its better to suck it up, crawl around and finish the workout. So I do.....Into the 3rd lap im just hoping people I know catch me and want to talk about random stuff. All of the pro guys repass me, my back is now complete toast and im really not able to put down much if any power. I contemplated not going out for lap 4, but then i say to myself....no no no asshole...this last lap will be pure misery and you will remember it well...proceed on.

So I roll on...a big group of 19-39 guys catch me and I ride with them for a bit....Then eventually @jShort and mancuso.....I gave them a good 5 minutes, but after that I had to let off.....I pulled over for a min and waited for @Kirt who caught me on one of the faster fire roads....I thought I would be able to jump back up to speed with him, but wasnt happening...he soon left me....Then i just crawled the rest of the way home.

While as a whole, it was a giant mess...for me, i always feel like these are the days where you learn things...Its hard to remember feeling good, but misery is usually memorable. I mean the main thing is that its been since last june that I have done an XC race....that point at which I need to transition from full sprint to steady pace gets lost sometimes. Looking at my power curve on strava, it was my highest ever for 40min, so thats saying something....STUPID in big letters...So nutrition and rest, etc...all important, but all do nothing but tweak the meltdown time slightly when you have the throttle down too hard. That said, I ate breakfast at 7:30 and nothing else until my race minus 1 gel, then drank a bottle when pre riding....I didnt do this right given the unexpected temps. So as im coasting around on lap 4, im making mental notes. All good though, you have to have days like these from time to time....in my case they keep me focused and remind me that at this level, I cannot wing it...ever.

No joke though, that was probably one of the hardest h2h races I can remember effort wise....has to be one of the hardest course I have raced on in terms of punishing yourself. If and when i do this race again, I will definitely avoid winging it. Seems odd to say but our mooch course is a walk in the park compared to to racing that stuff.

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1speed

Incredibly profound yet fantastically flawed
Nice write-up. It's funny how a course that looks easy on paper can sometimes yield the toughest days. Way to hang in there, though - when it's your turn to be the fly to someone else's windshield, it takes a lot to make it to the finish line. Well done!
 

JDurk

Well-Known Member
Great job finishing. When you passed our team tent, definitely looked like you were struggling. Not many places to recover with a course that flat.
 

Pearl

THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
your recap is exactly how all the racing ive done in the local area is like. full gas, dumb mph's.
 

Superfly100guy

Well-Known Member
I looked at your 20 min power on Strava and that explains a lot on that day for me. All that on/ off power and dangling off the back really cost me big time. I knew right from the start when we got caught out it was going to be really bad. Oh yeah that fire road where we attacked each other didn't help. Jeff had the right idea just diesel on.
 
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