Opus Epic 8 or How I learned to Ride My Bike.

Here's the map and elevation changes for reference.

Rode this for 4 laps. Ryan and I got in 9 laps or so. We could have done much better. I could have done more, but I'll explain in a second. I'm actually kinda upset at my first lap, and the crash that ensued causing my day to get all borked up. No excuses though the crash was entirely my fault for being cocky.

First of all, that initial climb is just long. Its not intense or anything, just long, but I was on a SS and I was leaving along with a lot of fresh legs, and I found myself powering by people. I stood and cranked the entire thing really hammering my way to the top. The next little bit in there was some flowing single track, downs ups, downs, nothing crazy, some rooty sections but nothing I didn't just light bike my way over. Everything was holding up fantastically. I was getting more confident by the second... and continuing to pass people.

Into the first climb after the 5km mark. I got up this on my bike the first time. It was really rooty, but I've developed a very very bad habit of leaning WAY over my front and pedaling hard. I blame spin classes for this. I manage the hill but I'm actually gassed at this point. Not out of energy, but kinda light headed and kinda not really paying attention.... note, there is a big drop at the 8km mark.

I get through the next climb as well and at this point I have thrown everything I have at this course, into the down, and I think its going to be flowing and peaceful.... this is why you pre-ride.

Half way down, there's a shitty root section and a big dip.. and I'm leaning over the front. Full rigid means no contact except for on the other side of that dip, and I'm wondering why people in front of me are getting close fast..... ASS OVER TEAKETTLE. I hit hard. Like hardest crash so far since picking up biking. I check my bike over. My abs are on fire, and my knee is already showing signs of swelling. Not good. Get on my bike, and continue to push, surprise there's a lot of UP after that, and into the Solo area.

I take my time through here and assess how much damage I've done to myself. I'm kinda worried about my bike as the front has developed some weird chatter, but at this point now I realize I've cut myself on my torso as well. No head damage, and my knee is sore and swelling.... what comes after can only be explained as the biggest fuck you I've ever received.

The hill I stroll up to next is impossible for me to ride a SS up. I know it immediately when I see it. Its steep, its rooty, and its got a 180' switchback right in the middle of it, and it goes on FOREVER. I get off my bike half way up and walk the rest.

After this hill comes a single track flow and then into another downhill. I"m gassed, I'm hurt, and I'm not thinking, and I go into it without much thought, again, huge potholes in the steep fast down, and there are people everywhere who have crashed on it. I manage to hold the bike together, pop out the sandy road downhill to the exchange, pedal my ass off *haha SS* and then pass the keycard off. I'm hurt bad.

Head to the tent, Erika gives me a gatorade, and a clifbar. I down it. I head to first aid. The nurse tells me that I might have some insane injury. I tell her I hope she's wrong. I get ice, I pack it down. I wrap my leg. I pray.

Ryan comes in from his lap. This is where things go to shit. We WERE in 4th, our average lap times were actually really good. My knee is screaming though. Ryan has to do a double. He takes a 20 min break, and heads back out. During this time. I'm icing and massaging my knee like the armageddon is coming. I've worked out way to F'n hard and eaten too many goddamn salads to get knocked out this early. I'm not going home. I wrap my leg up, and I swap off when Ryan comes back.

The next lap I start off on that hill just pedaling and taking my time. I'm still faster then some on that hill but not a lot faster. I make sure to get to the top of the hill at a good pace but very calm, and with a heart rate that's not booming. This time through I pick my lines very carefully and really try to flow through the trail without being a goddamn Sasquatch. I notice that I'm much smoother, and actually WAY less tired, I also notice my knee is alright, sore, but its holding up well.

I pick my lines, I'm way more careful, I come up to, and pace a solo rider for a bit, pass around and continue. I get to the same down, I pick my lines, slow down, and make it out no problem. Again, doing the same with the second down. The second down was comedy cause I found a line that allowed me to ignore EVERYTHING. So I took it instead.

3rd lap, same thing.

4th lap, my calves went into fits before the second hill.

I finished the 4th lap, and Ryan was done. He said I could do a double. I quit at that point fearing my calves. On the otherhand.... looking back now, I should have given it a go. I coulda taken my time and finished for another lap putting us 2 ranks higher.. FFFFFFFFuu.

It was a good eye opener for me. I need more technical training. The fitness is there, but I learned the hard way that you can't just roll over everything with the setup I have. I'll actually consider a full sus bike in the future as those guys just hoverboated through the downs.

Was a good day over all though. Just wish the crash didn't happen.

OH just FYI. Trek had a bunch of demo bikes there. Including a $7000 full carbon XC bike. You could take it, crash it, and they didn't care. So that was actually very cool of Trek. Makes me think about looking at Trek for a Super D bike.

All my times were relatively close to eachother, low 40s. Some of the top racers were in the high 20s low 30s. That's pretty intense.


Things I learned:

1. DO NOT SIT SO FAR FORWARD, YOU WILL GO OVER YOUR BARS.

2. Pick your lines properly.

3. Full rigid bikes require way more thought riding then full Sus, this is actually not a cool thing as it can get you into trouble.

4. Singlespeed is progressively harder and harder as the race goes on... and while I said SS is just as easy to ride... I should probably just keep my mouth shut, cause once you get into some of the areas where you're climbing forever... I was praying for a granny.

5. Singlespeeding and full rigid is fun as all hell.

6. People can tell what kind of hub I have on my bike by the sound... that's kinda cool.

7. Flowing single track with good skill doesn't require you to pedal much if you pick your lines right.

8. My times didn't have much variation to them... which was awesome.

I wanna thank my wife for giving me time to train, and I want to thank my cousin for coming and feeding me Gatorade and cliff bars. Also for comic relief as I was raging hard about my knee.

Weighing My Options

Century mark hit + a half pound.

I'm done with weight loss. I'm going to finish off this months supplementation and then just move to an Omega-3 / 6 + Multi Vitamin and be done with dieting down.

Its actually starting to weigh down on me psychologically. Ever LB lost for the last 20 has been a painful process of watching what I eat like a hawk, then fending off cravings every day with an iron will, only to crash and burn on a pizza or something when something didn't go right at work, or it rained hard on a day that I was really keen on riding or running.

Its no longer working for me the way it used to and the way it used to motivate me as I saw the lbs peeling off and eating is turning into a comforting experience again, and that's what got me there in the first place. College, coming home from college, finding my way through my 20s, all lead to comfort eating on a record scale. It honestly was a pretty normal evening to come home, fire up a thick crust meat lovers pizza, then coat it with sauces *could be anything from Ranch dressing, to Onion Dip* and down it with a 2L bottle of coke.

A 4000 calorie dinner in a matter of 20 minutes of eating. More then I eat in a day in a half now.

I also developed and still have an eating disorder that I work on every day. I eat too fast. Like WAY to fast. I can literally fire through 50 wings before I even register being full. I developed this problem back when I was a teenager. I used to work in a factory where you got 30 min to clean  yourself off, sit down, collect yourself *The work was brutally hard... try shoveling shit for 8 hours straight... I was crazy buff back then due to this*, eat down your lunch, hydrate, and then get ready for the next 3.5 hours of work. Naturally lunches started getting rifled down to maximize social time with others. This translated to what I can do now by way of stuffing my face.

I can literally fire down a large pizza in 15 min if nobody says anything to me. Meaghan is good for letting me know when I'm doing this. Its a disorder and one I fight with every meal.

So I'm going to stop. I'm going to put the scale somewhere out of sight. I'll get my body fat counter, and use that to judge. I'm at the point now where I'm not ashamed of my body anymore. I still have some bulges where there shouldn't be any, and I still have love handles, but everything else dwarfs it so it really hides well.

I wear Lycra now. Proudly. I look decent in it, and I've seen worse wear far tighter. There was a massive psychological block for me when I was heavy. The fact that I did not have the perception of having a typical body to do the exercises I was fully capable of doing would roadblock me to stationary items such as the treadmill *poorly* and stationary bike *terrible workout if you're not HIITing it*.

Over the course of the loss there were a lot of psychological changes that happened for me. I have a better grasp on my emotions. I understand myself more through each competition. I realize that for most of my life I have only pushed myself a fraction of what I am capable of out of fear of failure.

I have realized that ultimately that winning is not everything. Its more about the journey and the blood sweat and tears that you endure to get to where you're going. I've realized that training and digging deeper is how you beat people, not just by looking the part. Though having the right gear helps a lot. Being lighter helps, but you have to get to the race and get on your bike/shoes to compete. That's where a lot of people fail.

Its a new path from here really. Its a fairly large milestone. I've just started on my endurance athlete quest, at 30. I've performed admirably in 3 races, with my 4th coming up this weekend. I've signed up for a triathlon, and have dreams of an Ironman in a few years. I will run one, its just a matter of time. I've realized that winning one of these things will probably never happen, but I'm okay with this. Winning isn't the goal.

Finding myself is, and I find something new about myself every time I crank 1 more time around the ring when that voice inside my head tells me that I can quit any time I want.

And that voice gets quieter every single time.

And that voice has less say in every thing I do.

PS.

100lb marker hit.

Diet and hard work. There is no magic solution apart from surgery.

MAN UP, GEAR DOWN...... oh wait.

I went out this weekend for my first real forest ride with the SS. A group ride, so I was forced to stay fast and not take many breaks.

I felt bad for the riders I was with as one of the dogs up and ran off with another biker while we were on some single track, nobody noticed. Puppy's alright though. The rider brought her back to the parking lot at the end of the ride.

I'm not sure what people believe about SSing. I mean, there are obviously some hills that aren't going to happen on a SS, and attack position only came back to bite me in the ass once when the rear tire bounced over a root on a hill. *Read: Groin and bike trying to occupy space at the same time.. bike won.*. But apart from that I rode everything relatively well and quickly, hills I felt I needed to go faster on, but slow and purposeful develops power, so I didn't mind.

Full rigid also another thing people seem to think is dumb. Honestly I didn't notice a difference between my 80mm front Norco, and the rigid. Like at all. If anything I found the Kona WAY more responsive to what I wanted it to do, and any misfires on picking lines, it just seemed to eat up anyway. Finally letting the 29er do what its supposed to, just roll over crap without worrying much. Its possible I'm just in bike love and it can do no wrong, but I don't see it. Its super comfy to ride. I think I may just stay away from full sus bikes entirely. I rode ONE, and really hated the way the bike felt.

But no, hills were totally fine, I didn't see any issues with the bike after the new skewers were on as well. I've really had to spend time adjusting my rear brakes though, but I have that thing cranked down tight now, so there's no wheel movement, so no adjustments after rides anymore. I'm gonna go do a couple of heber climbs tonight just to test the theory. The hills there are a bit more intense and sustained so its much more stand and crank, but I've never seen a hill like that in any race... well one that I've ridden anyway.

Downs feel in control. I never felt the bike was getting away from me, and dropping into things was very easy and almost systematic. Nothing intense though. Albion has one major stair drop that I know of, but its nothing nasty. It felt good and in control. I also rode berms and rockbed well.

I also was dumb, and didn't bring water or hammergel with me, so by an hour and a half of riding, hills started getting very slow. The ride out I finally had to foot down on a hill, I was kinda pissed at myself for doing that. I need a small camelpack for my Kona, I don't wanna put a cage on it :)

After some water, and a clifbar, I was ready to rock that forest again. I was going to ride later that evening, but then weather got silly.

I did try to ride yesterday, I got in about 10KM on the CX bike before the thunder started.

Overall I'm really happy with the bike, and am really looking forward to the 8H tag team on Saturday.

Recent Pic:

I'm down to about 249 now. I feel light. I SHOULD be 245 by the time the 24H hits in June. I'm on target. Once down to 235 I'm going to maintain for the summer. Then actually try to put on some upper body muscle for the winter weight loss.

Oh... I signed up for a Triathlon in August.... haha oh man I'm dumb.

Ran 5K.

To some people... this means nothing. In fact, some people, its a warm up.

To me, this is a massive achievement. Most of the time I bike. I HAVE fast walked this on a tread mill just about in a jogging speed but never at full out jog, and never for a sustained time because it destroys my knees... till yesterday.

I took place in the Toronto Goodlife Marathon. Nothing huge, it was a relay team, and all I did was 5k.

The thing that set it apart for me was that I did it in 32 min. On a bummed hamstring, and with shoes that came undone twice. I'm not making excuses. I went out and ran it as hard as I could.... to set myself up with a personal best 32 min. Nowhere near some of the pace the better racers can hold, but for someone who didn't ever thing running was for him, this is actually pretty decent for a big guy.

So I'm going to plant down tonight, and take a stab at a Triathlon in August. Just a sprint. 750 swim, 20km bike, 5k run.

So there.

I like running now. Cause I'm not half bad at it.

Sprint Triathlon....

Here I come.

Eating Right, Training Harder

Been busy with a lot of stuff, but still managed to squeak out 100kms last week of riding. Nothing spectacular. This week I'm going to start to seriously work on my eating habits again. I've been eating some pretty naughty food lately *Read: 4 italian sausages with full trimmings* in one run. No weight gain, and good for the soul for sure, but makes me feel sluggish. Also, skipping lunch bad.

I got in a 30KM ride this weekend. I feel strong, but get bored with the ride. I could easily extend this to 50km or so. I think I may need to start implementing my one "mother of god" ride every month. Mind you with 8 hour and 24 hour races starting up, shouldn't be an issue.

I've ridden the single speed a crapload lately... I really can't explain how it feels to ride it apart from that it spans a lot of different feelings. I'm kinda pissed I don't have gears on the road. Then I get to the forest, and it climbs and trucks like nothing. 32/19 is almost a bit too easy, but on the steepest hill in Heber which is about a 300m ride and about 300ft of climbing in that, I truck that sumbitch like nothing. I'm more gassed cause I'm sprinting up the hill rather then just chugging up. If I take my time I'm strong at the top. If I sprint, I'm up that hill fast, but I'm a bit too mouthbreather for my liking. Either way, it's not like it kills me, and I do it about 3-4 times per ride. Then on the ride home I'm just giddy cause I love the bike so I don't care anymore about the road, so I don't complain anymore.

Kinda like this:

I'm unsure of how this is going to affect my racing in long events. The CX bike really works for me for climbing now that I've figured out gearing a bit. I still hate the fact that I'm not kind to derailleurs.. they never stay true for more then 3-4 rides. I imagine that its because I still don't have a very smooth pedal stroke. I'll also blame it on stand and crank SS bike.... but I doubt I can keep that up for 90+ KM in a 24h.

We'll see though, I still blame the P2A leg freeze on poor nutrition / hydration during the race.

Hamstring injury is keeping me from running right now, I can tough out biking, but my god that stupid thing is making baseball more painful then it should be..... also makes sitting more painful then it should be. My own dumb fault for being a smartass.

Anyway, flirting with low 250s right now, this bodes well for me to be 240s by the time the first 24 hour shows up.

Training continues.

Weekend Rides!

DMBA announced that they're starting up the 3 Rocks rides again this Saturday. I'm so there. Can't wait to see how I handle a SS in the forest. Heber is great for climbs and stuff but not a lot of single track.

Pretty excited!

NO-Cup

Witty I know.


I didn't end up going to the O-Cup this weekend as Meaghan and I are extremely busy right now. It sucks as there was only 14 people in my category. I will miss the next one on the 15th as well as I'm running in a Marathon as part of a team.

I will NOT miss the Spring Epic 8. I'm part of a team there, and I'm very motivated to ride well. I'm also re-energized to drop the last 30lbs from my body. Its going to be grueling, but I'm aiming to start passing the 120KM a week riding.

Its getting warmer out. Still very wet but I'll deal with wet. Cold... I had enough of that at P2A.

Still can't wait to do that again next year though.

Anyway, the summer starts soon enough, and I'm super pumped to ride in the dirt. The CX bike has been good to me, but I can't climb anything nasty with it. 

Also new helmet, putting a decal on it. Will post pics when done.