Weekend

What a weekend, driving 20 hours out of 32 between Friday afternoon and Saturday night was pretty trying though. I got in a good ride in the Poconos while I was out there. I stopped at a shop called Cedar Bike on the eastern side of Scranton, PA. They gave me great directions and even drew a map of a nice road loop with about 1800 feet of climbing in the first 8 miles. Made for a good solid warm up. Of course the ride down in 50 degree rain was not as pleasant.
Sunday was a longish ride, 70 miles ending right at dark, always nice to be chased in by darkness falling, adds that little extra kick to the finishing stretch. This week is a bunch of shifts at work, people are out of town for a conference, so I am covering extra stuff. Wednesday will be a brownie Crit on the Farm, so that will be fun.

Off to do some homework.

-Shawn

Brownie Crit Results 9/13

Last nights crit went great. Not a huge turn-out, but a group that was on the gas pretty strong. Here are a few pictures and the results from it. The pictures are sure not of "Buffalo-2-Step" Bill quality, but they are what I can do....at least with this camera. Speaking of that guy, Man are we gonna miss him in this area.
www.buffalo2step.com



Place Name Lap 1 Lap2 Total
1 Dave 12:39 12:42 25:21
2 Mike 13:00 12:54 25:54
3 Kyle 13:15 13:38 26:53
4 Scott 15:24 15:15 30:39
5 Denelle 17:29 17:39 35:08
6 Michele 18:05 17:48 35:53
DNF Jason 16:56 -----------



-Shawn

First Ever TevenDu

Do you ever take pictures that make you realize you really need a better camera?


Tonight was the first ever Duathlon on the farm. A Run-Ride-Run moment of zen for all involved. With late notice we only had three runner-rider-runners, but they seemed to have fun anyway. Mostly I just rode around and heckled the three participants with a camera. Dave had a "you-aint-mountain-bikin-if-you-aint-breakin-stuff" moment and snapped his chain----three times. We gotta get that boy on a maintanence plan or something.
Tomorrow is a Brownie Crit here on the farm. I am gonna take the day off the mtn bike, I gotta a road workout to do, and my shoulder is actualy more uncomfortable now than it was five days ago.....I think I have tried to push it too hard too early.

-Shawn

Day of Ease

Today was a day of ease before I fire back into full on training tomorrow. I rode for an hour easy, that was it. I also had a massage therapy appointment with Danielle at Body Revolutions today. What a difference this is making with my legs. It used to be that my IT bands would get tight and painful towards the end of a big ride, but after just a few sessions, things are much smoother, I have noticed less back pain on the bike, less ITB pain, and less fatigue in general on the long rides. I kinda doubted this would make such a big difference, but it really has
I also visited a few potential sponsors today, it seems like the ad line I should really give is, "For the cost of a single ad in the C'ville weekly, you get our jerseys and trailer for a year." But how do you make that sound smooth......good thing I don't work in sales.
On another interesting note, I managed to take the deraileur hanger off of the new EX 8 last night through a moment of shear stupidity, and guess what.....it's non standard. Thankfully Bike Factory had the answer, all will be well soon.
Some new pics will be up on the website tomorrow AM as well. Shannon (our photo queen) emailed me a bunch from different events this past year. Some darn good ones too. I had forgotten about some of the ones in Sedona that she took, you will have to check those out....

-Shawn

Road Riding

I got out on the Trek Madone for a bit today. I always forget how much fun that bike is to ride. Man what a great time. I got in 45 miles with with some good short hill efforts thrown in as well. The legs are feeling strong and the shoulder has come around nicely. We got another sponor on board this past week for the team. SixSixOne stepped up and took us under their wing. They make some really great gloves for cross country riding, so I am psyched by this one. This week will see a big jump in my training. I have a feeling that Adnan (my coach at TrainingPeaks) has some special abuse in store for me. I kinda hope so actually as I need to get some serious work done, mostly for my mental sanity.

There are a number of local to semi local events this weekend that look like fun.
The Cheat Mtn 100 (I think it is up on Active.com)
The Barry Saunders Off-Road Duathlon (http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=4915)

Back in the Saddle

I got back out for my first ride since hitting a tree at the SM-100. It was a short night ride at Walnut Creek Park. I rode solid and I felt good on the bike, at least the legs did. My shoulder let me know about every bump on the way though. I kept thinking I had accidently locked out my Fork on the bike......and that thing is set up soft. Things are going well for the team right now. We have managed to get bikes for almost everyone so far, and new labels went on the trailer the other night as well. It is looking pretty killer. Tonight will be a Brownie Crit on the family farm at 6pm. Look for those results up here soon.

-Shawn

SM-100

Floyd came, Floyd saw, Floyd was beaten. Jeff Schalk, Trek-VW East Coast Regional Rider took him out by a huge margin. Jeff was on a new Fuel EX....infact one of the proto-types that He and Chris Eatough used to win the BC race a month ago. Jeff set a new course record at 7:06. Blisteringly fast, reports were that he was through the 5th rest station at 5 minutes BEFORE noon....incredible.
The local Charlottesville Riders did an incredible job, most hit their goal times or very close. I think every local rider other than myself finished the race.
I managed to separate my left shoulder on a tree at about mile 60 or so. I tried to continue on, but could not grasp the bar and safely climb or descend....so my SM-100 ended at the 75 mile aid station. Needless to say I am down about this one. Some races are just your season standard; They define your performance, your training, and your entire seasonal success .....the Sm-100 is this for me. To take a DNF is devastating. I will have to work through it, but first I gotta get this shoulder better.

On a positive note, My father helped me get things together a bit more in the new Team Trailer. This thing is really coming together, now we just gotta find an event to haul it to....that and a few more sponsors for the group as well.

-Shawn