The Road to Somewhere

xc62701

Well-Known Member
If you don't contemplate selling your bike at least 3 times during a 100 your going to easy. Way to push through the endurance demons.

Agreed. I know it’s not supposed to be easy but man I was crawling for a lot of the course. It was nice in a different way as I got to enjoy the scenery more.
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
I looked back at my log and the first time I did this race was in 2008! Holy crap. My finishing time was 10:24, so at least I got 10 minutes quicker lol. I thought I'd done the race 6 or 7 times but I've raced it 9 times now. Still one of my favorite places to ride. One of the bad parts is every time I was dying on a hill I'd flash back to 2012/13? and remember when I had each climb dialed and flew up them. That was not the case this year. But at least I can say I did go up them fast at some point.

I went for a recovery ride last night just to try and get the legs to feel better and of course it failed. I got less than a mile from my house and I picked up 4 2" brads that sliced right through my tire. I had my deep wheels on so I had to patch the tube. So I sat on some dood's lawn and glued the patch on and popped it in only to have it fail. So I opened the tire up again and reglued it and it seemed to hold. With my luck I wasn't going to press on as I was just too tired. So I soft pedaled back towards my house and made sure if it failed I could easily walk home. It held but I'm skeptical it will stay that way.

After the ride I got the kids and met my wife in Roxbury for their 5k. She was running I was pushing the kids in their jogger and goofing around. I'm hoping that we can do some of these 5k's as a family. The scene is always cool and the kids love their jogger so I could probably run the race pushing them. I've seen it before and now I get it. It's a way to stay active and be with the family. My daughter could almost run the 5k already. She's done almost 2 miles and maybe another year or so we'll get her out for a fun run or a 5k. For the meantime the jogger is doing the trick as she gets to see the events and play with my son as daddy gets a workout running/pushing them around. My wife finished pretty well and my kids were excited to see her out there racing. I'm not saying that I enjoy running but I enjoy being in better shape. It's a necessary evil at this point.
 
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Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
i was passed by a guy pushing a jogging stroller last year. he went sub 20:00.....some people!!!

Nice job on the 100 & family 5k. good stuff.
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
Yea I’d like to attempt it. It could be entertaining with this thing and these two.
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Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
I can’t go out like that. They announced the 2020 date for Mohican 100. I’m going back to do this thing like I should.

was doing a 5k with my kid a few years back - he was shadowing me the whole race, and attacked with 300M to go, and i couldn't answer.....

you are a bit young for this, as are the kids. enjoy the next 10 years or so. They are coming for you! :D

BTW - if you want it, you'll own it next year.
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
They are coming for you! :D

BTW - if you want it, you'll own it next year.

Oh Yes I realize this. I will give them one hell of a fight before they break me.

Yea this year I have been riding but not been striving towards anything in particular. I need to get my head in the game and set some goals and that will help not feel so crappy at these events.
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
This week has been me trying to come back from the dead. While my post race ride in Ohio felt pretty good. Everything else this week has not. Super tired legs, lack of motivation, and just overall fatigue. It's mostly from the effort I put in at the last race but also since I'm mixing up my diet and eating fewer calories. That usually makes me tired and hangry. I got out in Jungle with one of my students in the MTB club and then followed that up by an almost 2 hour ride in Splitrock. I felt ok at Splitrock and I hit a few climbs at an ok pace and didn't want to crawl up in a ball and die. That's gotta say something for recovery. I'll be riding today after work and Friday after work but then a big ride doing the Lucky's Revenge scouting ride Saturday. Hopefully that will be solid and I'll have an actual map of what the course may look like. I'm debating a few options through the camp so I should be able to sort this out this weekend. More to come after I get that ride in.
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
I got out again last night and still didn't feel super energetic but I got the time in and I'm forcing myself to stop making excuses. The down side is that I got in at 10 and then I can't go to sleep for at least an hour. With waking up at 5 that makes a rougher morning but the riding helps for sure. Today will be a nice flowy mtb then tomorrow I tackle the Lucky 25 course to get some recon in and see how the whole race is going to feel. If you're not sure what I'm talking about check it out here: https://www.bikereg.com/luckys-revenge
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
I'm still beat from Saturday's Lucky's preride. I'm going to try to go back at some point and make another full pull at the loop. This was with a group of 5 so there was a fair bit of stopping. I'd like to see what the whole lap would be with a continuous effort. On a side note I was one rock away from cleaning Lumpy Bumpy so the ride was going well. That was with almost running over a good size black snake. I've got a few more connections to look at to see if I can make things smoother/more interesting or not. It's riding well. We have a few trees and some overgrowth to address before the issue but this will be epic for sure. I'm super stoked to see people racing this. We're expecting full lap times to be 2:45 or maybe even 2:30 for the 25. So leader for the 50 will potentially be done in 5:00-5:15 or so.
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
Commute into work today since the car is getting the A/C repaired at the dealership. It was misty from the moisture we got last night but otherwise good. I’m hoping the commute home is a little sunny and dry.

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xc62701

Well-Known Member
Lewis Morris Challenge and the Lewis Morris Recovery Ride:

The last couple of weeks have been more of the same. Wrapping up work, taking care of the family as both kids have been sick, and riding a bit but not as much as I would like. So with that I went into the Lewis Morris race underprepared as usual. It's usually one of my worst races as it's climby and an all horsepower course. I like things a bit more techy, but it's still fun to go fast. As the siren goes off we start up the first hill and I'm DYING! I was pedaling hard but I was ready to crawl up on a ball and die. I kept on it hoping that things would get better and it did a few minutes later but holy crap I need to throw in more intensity in riding and in warming up for these races. I'm always afraid to do too much before a race but I think I need this in order to be able to ride harder at the start. I was able to get myself going better as I got though lap 1 but I could tell how my lack of riding lately has hurt my ability to ride hard and dig deep. I lost the first two riders early on in the first lap and they were riding well so I thought I wouldn't see them again and I was right. I finished the first lap in 3rd and started lap 2 and just hoped to maintain my placing. I was hoping the other two guys in front would blow themselves up but that wasn't the case. I was hurting in lap 2 so I rode hard but tried not to completely blow up. I just kept thinking that 4th had to be somewhere close, so I kept the pedals going and got to the finish line as quickly as I could. I finished in 3rd. It was good to be out there and pushing myself but I really just wanted to be riding my bike chill for a long time in the woods.

So @Santa said prior to Lewis Morris that he wanted to do a long road ride Monday since he was going away with the family for a vacation for the rest of the week. We met early and hit the road on a beautiful day and headed from Succasunna to PA. We aimed for a mildy hilly day and to ride along the Delaware for a bit before crossing back into NJ. I drew up a route that went through hackettstown to Belvidere and crossing into PA there. We rode down the PA side of the Delaware and made a refuel stop in Easton. From there we kept riding down the PA side to Riegelsville and crossed back into NJ. From there we headed back to Califon for our last stop before making it back to the cars. We both felt good until the latter part of the ride which was to be expected. But we kept the legs moving and the wheels spinning. We both finished tired but happy to have put down a great loop out there. 100 miles done in some beautiful weather for once.
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