The Road to Somewhere

I know you haven't posted in a while, but I was checking on some races in my area and say you were registered for the URE race in a couple of weeks!? I think imma do the Saturday one. Why you coming down this way anyway?!
 
Pearl said:
I know you haven't posted in a while, but I was checking on some races in my area and say you were registered for the URE race in a couple of weeks!? I think imma do the Saturday one. Why you coming down this way anyway?!
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You should start a thread of all the races down there worth us coming down for.
 
Pearl said:
I know you haven't posted in a while, but I was checking on some races in my area and say you were registered for the URE race in a couple of weeks!? I think imma do the Saturday one. Why you coming down this way anyway?!
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Because I want to get out of Jerz! It is an excuse to go play in a new area and then wife ok’d it so I’m goin!
 
Santapez said:
You should start a thread of all the races down there worth us coming down for.
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there is a ton of really cool gravel events popping up. you could almost do a whole season just of those. let me know what you are looking for in an event and i can link you up with something super rad.

xc62701 said:
Because I want to get out of Jerz! It is an excuse to go play in a new area and then wife ok’d it so I’m goin!
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word! i was thinking of pre riding the course this weekend on the singlespeed just because!

i wish they did this in like march/april, it would be a lot cooler to go and camp if it wasnt in february and probably close to freezing at night out that way!
 
Pearl said:
there is a ton of really cool gravel events popping up. you could almost do a whole season just of those. let me know what you are looking for in an event and i can link you up with something super rad.


word! i was thinking of pre riding the course this weekend on the singlespeed just because!

i wish they did this in like march/april, it would be a lot cooler to go and camp if it wasnt in february and probably close to freezing at night out that way!
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Yea they advertised free camping but I’m not falling for that. Hotel is getting booked ASAP.
 
Pearl said:
...you found a hotel out that way?
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So since Pearl reminded me that I haven't written anything here in a while here's an update. Why doesn't anyone tell you that your kids are actively trying to kill you? Between the random sicknesses that I've gotten lately and the fact that I haven't had 1 night of regular sleep in a month is really negating any motivation I have to get out and get some fitness. I'm just eeking by and hoping that each day is ok. I'm still riding but I feel like at any moment the next problem will arise and I'll be scattered again. I'm keeping my head afloat but some days it seems like no matter what I do I can't get any progress going. Somehow I'm still positive and plugging along, but man some days are excruciatingly draining.

So on a good note...if things go as planned, I have some things coming up. First of all Lucky's Revenge is back on August 1st!

https://www.bikereg.com/luckys-revenge

Yay!!! We have a lot of details to work out but it will be just as brutal, if not more brutal this year. Hopefully the weather at least cooperates this time around. Secondly I will be racing(if that's what you call it) Feb 22 and 23 in the NC boondocks. That should give me a nice early season kick in the pants and help drive motivation as I have a bunch of endurance and XC races planned for this season. I'm still going back and forth as to what category I'll be racing but Fatbike, Cat1, and Endurance are all on the table at this point. I did get a new plus bike so that's keeping me entertained at the moment. I do fear this will be the downfall of my fatty though. I love the fatbike and still love to race it but the plus game is pretty fun as well. So we will see where that leads. I just want to have fun riding my bike and if I can get some fitness going, I'll be happy to mash some pedals and see if I can be competitive in something this year.
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What’s scary is this race is end of February, but people are already 100% in full swing fitness wise. Our short track series is just finishing up the weekend before this race. It’s frightening. Not sure who’s going to show up to this thing since it’s a first year event and on trails that people don’t normally ride on. I’ll post a guys recap that did the loop a couple months ago.
 
Pearl said:
What’s scary is this race is end of February, but people are already 100% in full swing fitness wise. Our short track series is just finishing up the weekend before this race. It’s frightening. Not sure who’s going to show up to this thing since it’s a first year event and on trails that people don’t normally ride on. I’ll post a guys recap that did the loop a couple months ago.
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Please do as I have zero clue what the trails are like down there.
 
Here is what the mountain bike trails look like, granted, none of these are in the race.


and from the guy who rode it a couple months ago:

thatguy said:
So i downloaded the route to my GPS and off i went! 25 mile route and 4 hours of daylight. Now I may not be the fastest in Charlotte but i got game and regularly ride 25 over on the "real" mountain bike trails at URE. Four hours seemed like a reasonable amount of time, would be no problem on the other side. Took my lights just because I had a vague ideal of what to expect, Damn glad I did! if you ride Pisgah and have done the 55k or pretty much any of the Pisgah Production events then you have a good ideal what to expect. Short version of a long day on the bike, 5.5 mile an hour average lots of hike a bike sun went down got lost found a gravel road. Went wrong way finally flagged down a truck full of dirtbikes in the dark and got directions for an 8 mile gravel ride back to car! Actually was a fun day all things aside. Everybody needs an adventure once in awhile.
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thatguy2 said:
Sorry for the delay, several trees down but not to bad. Those trails where laid out for horses and hikers, bikes weren't considered when it was laid out. Climbs are mostly straight up a hill side and not back and forth like you tend to find on mtn bike trails. That and throw in the horse traffic and the climbs are chewed up pretty good. Plus horses tend to expose the roots so a climb straight up a hillside and then the roots you be pushing! The creek crossings were not to bad the direct route through them tended to be pretty deep and rough. But I had no trouble finding a way over them. Just had to look a little and go up or down stream a few feet. I hope they put the word out in the horse community about the weekend of the race. I literally saw groups of 10-15 horses at a time! As all bikers should know horses have the right of way. All of them seemed surprised to even see a bike on those trails. When I explained to several the reason I was out there, they all were surprised to hear about a bike race coming there. Yes I plan to go back and ride the FULL route. Hope this helps!
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Pearl said:
Here is what the mountain bike trails look like, granted, none of these are in the race.


and from the guy who rode it a couple months ago:
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I was all set to bring the hardtail but now with the mention of horse trails I may want to rethink that. Hmm looks like I’m in for an adventure.
 
Last night was another good WNR in Wildcat. I get there early thinking I might ride before the group ride but was actually thinking of napping in the car. That plan was ruined when @JimN showed up and then I wanted to ride my bike. So off we went to do 4 birds the hard way and get some extra rock practice before meeting up with the group. That was awesome and the group ride to follow was just as good.

I’m beat today but I want to get out again. Maybe in the rain but probably on the trainer. I had another bad nights sleep as my son was screaming again but this time it was cause he had an issue and wasn’t just craving attention. So I felt a little better helping and trying to get back to sleep, which thankfully he did too. The weather doesn’t look like it’s going to cooperate this week or next week so it may be a bunch of road for a bit. That’s probably good as I jammed my wrist last night on a downhill and it’s a little sore. Some road is good for the soul and to relieve the pain of riding constant rocks.
 
Pearl said:
Here is what the mountain bike trails look like, granted, none of these are in the race.


and from the guy who rode it a couple months ago:
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Given this I’m rethinking taking the hardtail. Seems like the FS may be the way to go to be safe. I previously figured it should be about 3+ hours to do the loop each day. I have to drive home Sunday so we’ll see if I have to bail early to make it back before sunup.

Also I just remembered that my FS has no cassette and Cx tires on it right now. I probably should get my shit together and put that back together and make sure it works for the race.
 
I got some inside info on the NC race that I can't say yet but it sounds like I'll have a good time when I get down to NC and at least I'll know which bike to bring.
 
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