Heckle-cation the other months of the year.

pearl said:
Ugh those logovers in Belmont... I have nightmares of them still from a long ride I did with @1speed and that guy named Lou that used to ride... I do miss me some of the Wiss doe.
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@pearl it's even worse now - the access trail from over by Falls Bridge is so overgrown that you can't see five feet in front of you and thorns rip your arms and legs to shreds. Plus, I swear they will never, ever move any tree, branch, stick, twig or giant redwood that happens to fall out there. Everything that falls becomes a "trail feature". Everything. Someday I expect I'll see a couple meteorites, Sputnik, and a dead angel in the middle of a trail out there with nothing but a flimsy log ramp built to get over it.

I like riding there in the fall and winter but at this time of year, it's tough because it's mostly just a thorny, poison-ivy and horse-shit covered mess of Spartan Race obstacles out there.

Does Lou not ride anymore?
 
1speed said:
@pearl it's even worse now - the access trail from over by Falls Bridge is so overgrown that you can't see five feet in front of you and thorns rip your arms and legs to shreds. Plus, I swear they will never, ever move any tree, branch, stick, twig or giant redwood that happens to fall out there. Everything that falls becomes a "trail feature". Everything. Someday I expect I'll see a couple meteorites, Sputnik, and a dead angel in the middle of a trail out there with nothing but a flimsy log ramp built to get over it.

I like riding there in the fall and winter but at this time of year, it's tough because it's mostly just a thorny, poison-ivy and horse-shit covered mess of Spartan Race obstacles out there.

Does Lou not ride anymore?
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Lou :Rip that guy
 
soulchild said:
No. Ultimately health reasons.



If I ever race again, it would be CX, but as of this moment there is less than a 50% probability I would be doing any CX this year.
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Shit, man, that sucks. The dirt misses you! I get it though - but be careful on the road: in my experience, it's not much safer because ... drivers. I almost never have to worry about a distracted soccer mom in a 3,000 lb bullet on the trail.
 
I’m mostly packed for Alaska. Just have toiletries, CPU and chargers to deal with. I’m probably forgetting something but it’s not a trip unless you forget something. I have my roller carry on with all of my clothes and my 25L daypack which will hopefully qualify as a “store under your seat carry on.” It looks kinda big but it’s about the same size as my Chrome bag which I normally fly with. FINGERS CROSSED THEY DON’T GIVE ME SHIT.


Speaking of, did a quick TSA google on banned items to see if I was allowed to fly with my tiny pocket knife. You can check a knife, but more interestingly are the rest of the weapons they mention:

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A NICE LOOK BACK ON MTB SEASON

This year came and went pretty fast. It’s strange to me that Pisgah was only 3 months ago. It feels like ages. I had intended of racing a few more events but as per usual other things came up which kept me from competing. That’s okay though, this is supposed to be ‘Heckle-cation.’ Spring/summer is my time to ride, adventure, see friends/family and have good times. Fall is all about abandoning hope, suffering, driving and generally having a great time seeing different friends, making new ones along the way. Man, am I excited.


EVENTS
Pisgah Stage Race

Stage 1 – 2:15 course, raced like an XC event. Battled another duo team all the way to the line. Such an intense day of racing adjusting to wet Pisgah trails, pushing on the endless gravel climbs and ending up on the ground a few times.


Stage 2 – Tired from the day before, totally brutal start to the day with a road section. I got dropped of the lead group and was left chasing the rest of the stage. Got into a rhythm for the second half of the day.


Stage 3 – The longest day with a mile of climbing over 30ish miles. Such a great stage for me. I cleared everything on the black mountain DH that I messed up the day before. Endless legs and no crashes.


Stage 4 – Another great leg day. Amazing route up Laurel and down Pilot. Bummer of a crash at the last moment in the Pilot rock garden which messed my knee up pretty bad.


Stage 5 – Holy swollen knee Batman. Chased Matt the whole stage, climbed strong but ultimately was being slowed down by my fat knee. Matt won the stage for us in the Duo cat and I finished 4th after one of the other guys crashed and broke his hand. Supermaned the finish and was V-Proud of what I had completed!


SSaP – 12th place finishing just under 2 hours. Pretty happy with this ride, would have liked to maybe try 2:1 but maybe I would have popped earlier with that gear. Faded hard the last 30 minutes and was dealing with cramp management. Great party afterwards and so many awesome vibes.


Jungle – 2nd Place after battling with Tommy the whole ride. He had hella more top end the whole race. I reeled him on the last time through otterslide and Warthog but couldn’t get around a SS racer. It would have been no hope anyway once we hit the pavement, KID WAS GONE!


Bulldog – 3rd, I still don’t really know how after two tire cuts which I co2’d and basically feeling like I was dying. This was a season low point for me, I hurt so bad and suffered from what I would call a case of the Vacations. OUCH.


LewMo – 1st After a 2 lap battle with the most agro racer I’ve raced on MTBs. I attacked with 1 to go after he dropped a chain and held it together to achieve something that’s always alluded me in every category – a win at Lewis Morris. “My home course” and most ridden venue. Oh, I was also sick, then was basically dying the Monday after. Enough to leave work and go home after 2 hours.


A week basically off the bike from being sick sucked then a 14 hour week last week has me back finally feeling better on the bike now. I’ll do a 2 hour ride today then hang it up for another 8 days while I’m in Alaska. The last time I took 8 days off was my road trip last year. Wow. Once I get back it’s basically full time prep for CX. NOT LONG NOW!


Overall I’m very happy with my results this year. I improved last from last year in both fitness and bike skill and found myself clearing things with confidence this year (which I attribute to that Pisgah beat down). I wish I had time for a couple more races but life isn’t just about racing your bike (unless it’s fall). I’d like to try some open class events next year to see how horrible Utah makes me feel. I think he owes me some punishing after 3 years of tire hexes which may have finally been lifted as of SSaP.


Heckle-cation 2017 – What lies ahead? I’m entertaining the idea of possibly racing TSE, an attempt at Pro/Open H2H, I really would like to check out a Kenda Cup event, possibly a few road races because It’s been a couple years since I tried that. Next year is a long way off, but also right around the corner. I’m not going to go to crazy thinking about it – there is a lot of work to do between now and then and a lot of racing to be had.


Thanks for reading this season, after an Alaska photo dump next week I’ll be taking this back to The Heckle Report.
 
It's funny you mentioned the gains from Pisgah. When I was a kid racing BMX at national events or "big" regional events, for some reason, I always came out of them somewhat more advanced in either skill or something. The exposure to the older experts and pros were big eye openers and racing among different talent somehow influences you to evolve to the next level of competition. I would return to the local scene and winning was less of a challenge, ripping through rhythm sections became easier, spinning a smooth fast cadence became second nature, continuously hammering and requiring less recovery time happened . That said - as long as you keep putting yourself into these situations and leveling up, you will continue to advance.
Great work with your MTB season, your first Cat1 win @ your home course in the LBS kit and Kudos on doing epic shit. :thumbsup:

P.S. - I hope I have the opportunity to battle it out with you next season and not just watch you ride away. As it will be my last year in the 19-39 class and probably the last time we'll ever be in the same class together. :hugs:
 
The Heckler said:
Speaking of, did a quick TSA google on banned items to see if I was allowed to fly with my tiny pocket knife.
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Got dinged on the way home from Denver last month for my multi-tool. Didn't check baggage, everything was carry on. Older Park Tool, had a blade on it. Been in my CamelBak for 5+ years and never used it. No idea it was even there. Way to go TSA @EWR, missed that on the way out, TSA @DEN was all over it.

Great MTB season for you. #CXisComing
 
Soooooooo Alaska was pretty great. How should I do this? How about a quick summary then I'll dump a few pictures.

Departed Friday 7-15 at 2:30PM EST to Fairbanks, no delays, easy layover. Crushed a MASSIVE Ben and Jerry's at Minneapolis. High point of my flight.

Picked up my rental car from Budget, $200 for 8 days, unlimited miles. LUCKY find, totally made the trip. Maureen got dropped off at the airport just as I arrived. Stopped at Fred Meyer for food which is basically a food store inside of a department store inside of a Walmart or something. What an experience.

Left for Denali Education Center outside of Denali around 2:00AM EST. Arrived 2 hours later at 4:00AM EST. Drove until the last 20 minutes, then I threw in the towel.

SATURDAY
Took the shuttle into the park. Of the 6 million acres that is Denali National Park there are only about 30 miles of marked trails or something. Whatever it is, its a pretty tiny number. THOUGH, unlike most of Grand Teton and Yellowstone they don't discourage off trail hiking. So basically you buy a shuttle ticket and yell "LET ME OFF HERE" where ever you decide you'd like to and they dump you off and drive away. I believe we got dumped off around mile 30 with a goal to hike up Cathedral Mountain. Maureen was told by a friend in the know to "follow the second drainage."

SO we did! For about 100 yards before leaving the drainage to the west and climbing a different mountain.

Off trail hiking is super fun, ESPECIALLY in the tundra. It's so squishy with so much grip you can basically walk up a wall of the stuff. Not too long in we stopped and Moe shed her jacket leaving the Bear Spray at that spot, which we realized maybe 30 minutes later. Sweet.

We basically picked a ridge to follow and went up it until we couldn't go any further, picked a new ridge, crossed a small drainage and continued. We made it SO close to the top before we hit dangerous loose stuff. The rock there was super crumbly and soft. The landscape that's not tundra is dirt gravel. We scoot along a rock outcrop and up until we hit a vertical wall of dirt. It's soft and I decide EFF it, I'm going to bear crawl up this sucker. I make about 10 steps before thinking, this isn't too bad going up, how am I going to get down. I attempt to reverse my crawl and start to slowly slide. Fuck. I get back control but then the Elvis Leg comes in. If I actually let loose I would have ended up at the bottom of a steep 100 foot slide in a large rock pile.

I slowly worked down and found Moe waiting for me. We traversed down and crossed a couple small drainages to the east where we identified the actual cathedral MTN. And look, that first drainage we were in leads right up 80% of it. O well. We take in the landscapes and head back down to grab a bus back. All in all we hiked/ran/climbed/frolicked about for 4 hours. Saw lots of ground squirrels and 4 dall sheep about half a mile away the ridge of a neighboring peak.

THEN we went rafting! Pretty cool, never been rafting, the river was high from rain. Pretty amazing views.

SUNDAY/MONDAY
Moe had to work in the morning then we set out to hike Kasugi Ridge. We planned on completing either the 27 mile full thing or the 20 mile "first half to bail out trail." We started around 4:30 PM local time and completed 8 miles that first night. Kesugi is in Denali State Park which is across AK-3 from the National Park. The ridge overlooks the Nat Park Range. Around 8:00 the clouds across the way started breaking up and at 9:30 we basically hit the golden hour and had some pretty epic views.

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Since we only knocked out 8 miles on Day 1 we pulled the plug and took the bailout. AND since we were still 6 miles up the road HITCHED back to the car. Never done that, it took 50 minutes to find a ride and we got picked up bu a couple women a couple years younger then us. The driver was from Anchorage and her cousin was visiting from Salt Lake. They were headed to Fairbanks.

SO many mosquitos on Kesugi. As soon as you stopped walking you were swarmed. I really hate skeeters, but I survived.

More stuff later, need to resize pictures.
 
*singing*

What's this? What's this? Blog rising from the grave!
What's this?
It's cookies that I crave
WHATS THIS?!?!

HEY HOWDY WELCOME BACK TO THIS YEAR'S EDITION OF HECKL-CATION. You know, the other non CX months of the year.

In short I raced CX natz, got home, and drank for 3 weeks straight and didn't even think about touching my bikes. Sick.

Then I rose from the ashes for some Z2 and got sick, more Z2 then got sick again, then tried to make something of my fitness this last week and raced yesterday with great results. 1st Cat 1 19-29! How about that? Ya know, how about a little recap!

Friday afternoon I did a 45 minute tempo block, Saturday morning I woke up at 6:30 for a 2:40 Z2 ride and my legs were TRASH. I think 50% of that was me not having coffee until my cookie stop at the Oldwick general store. THEN I drove up to Mohonk for the Gertrude's Nose hike which worked out to be a 4 hour - 7 mile hike. We took our time, took some pictures and hung around with some great views. OPENED!

It was WINDY!
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H2H #2 Ringwood Rumble
7:30 alarm, yogurt granola, honey, coffee, water out the door at 8:45 at the venue at 9:40. Banana. I passed Morristown just as teammate Andres pulled onto the highway so we caravaned the rest of the way.

Picked up #77 found the start chatted with some familiar faces and was stoked about the news of Motown Revolutions placings. 1st for Tommy and 3rd for Junior in Cat 2. VERY RAD!

Caught up with Andres and Leo and rode up the starting fire trail climb, chatting and getting some warmth into the legs. That start was going to REALLY hurt.

BACK TO STAGING! I rip a gel, and find my way to staging and line up front row slightly right of center. Normal start line banter ensues. Man, start line banter is the best. Really makes up for early alarms, and miles driving.

GO!

I go out second wheel behind a dude that said "first one to manual the finish hill wins," and "If you're first you're last," I questioned, what if you win and manual the hill first - "you're last!" Homie throws a big whip off a tiny bump for some fans then falls off the front and I take lead. Shortly after Neil makes a move and comes around me establishing a 5 bike gap up that first kicker hill. I 'm feeling that start already. I think Andrew comes around me and Seth for a minute. I get around Seth before the fire train DH and am sending it behind Andrew. I fall off my line into a gutter for a moment, get reaallll squirly, and bring it back with a "WOOO, DAMN!"

I'm right with Andrew and see Neil just ahead through the technical rocky double track climb. I see Andrew bog down on the right line and I make a move one the left and find a rock and foot down. I have to run some of the section but ultimately only lose a few bike lengths. I forget when but I get around Andrew.

The rocky switchback climb was a shit show. We began eating up the SS class by then and had 2 groups running, riding, and yelling up that hill. I got jammed up in traffic and ran the first section or so. I think just past the top I begin reeling in Neil. He's moving at a good clip but seems like he's easing up. Unsure if he's tired or saving some. We ride with @pooriggy for a little. Iggy says to run the wet switchback, totally good advice. I should say now all I saw of this course was the start, none of these trails are familiar to me.

Iggy goes down in a weird spot between two trees, I get around, and then it's me and Neil. We come down to the start chute to finish lap 1. 25:30. DAMN! Short laps, no wonder pro is doing 4!

Neil slows up and me being the sucker I am come around and pull up the fire road. I eat, drink and start chatting by the steep kicker. Now that I'm setting pace I'm stomping up the climbs. Without traffic the techy rock sections become a breeze. I clear most of the switchback climb and establish a gap. By the end of the lap I can't see Neil.

Sucking air.
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Coming around for lap 3 I get cheers which helps. I feel like I went out CX hard and am starting to feel it. I take my time on some stuff the last lap. Focusing on being clean and not cramping that right leg or breaking my carbon hoops. I Hit rim 3 times running 19F/20R (pumped at home) pressure was great for the rocky climbs. I absolutely ripped up the rocky double track last lap and found #famous @muddybike.

The 40's leader blows by and drops me up the steep switchbacks.

And how about that I don't blow up, flat, crash or get caught and finish with the win!

25:31 24:54 25:31

https://www.strava.com/activities/935095688/

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I realized 2 sicknesses in the last two months has basically put me back 4 weeks in my base training. Every good push I make is knocked back down. Figure a week off and a week rebuilding is really two weeks of gains lost. Yesterday really helped me feel a little better about where I'm at right now. Hell, I did my first intervals since natz on Wednesday. Maybe with another month of structure I'll really be cookin!

Maureen went to Ramapo so we detoured to Mahwah Bar and Grill for a brew and her favorite wings. These suckers are LIT.

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HOW ABOUT THAT! OUTDOOR SEATING, SUN, BEER, WINGS, BAE, what more could you ask for?

On tap for the rest of the (off) season:
4/23 H2H #3 Mooch Madness - Pro/Open
4/29 Orchard Hill Assault - On campus MTB race at UMass!
5/6 (maybe) Myles Standish Road Race - Plymouth, MA
5/27-29 TSE 3 Day MTB Stage Race!!!
6/11 Bulldog Rump
6-25 Lewis Morris Challenge

Planning a dope mini-tour / bike-camping trip for mid June and a trip out West for my rest week before the big CX push. My friend in Seattle just bought a place we we may fly out there for a week, spend few days in the city and then maybe drive to Glacier, or just do a mini pacific NW road trip with hikes and camping. Pretty excited to hash out those plans!

This spring/summer is looking like it's going to be pretty amazing.

Heckler out!
 
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Congrats on the win. Must be good to know that you aren't cookin' and beating the guys that probably are.

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Is the guy on the left of the picture (your right) standing in for someone? There is some reason he doesn't fit into the bike culture of your age, but I can't put my finger on it.
 
was getting sweaty just looking at those hiking photos, shitttt

Keith M has been asking about you and @Consult_Ant coming down for TSE for a while now, didn't know if you were making the trek or not!
 
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