dark funnel shaped secrets

things have been really busy around here but i have nothing specific to speak of for it. i will share some highlights.

there were a couple firsts last week... i finally went to Bear Creek for the first time and rode every square foot of it. the trail was featured in last month's Bike Magazine as Georgia's representative. to be honest, i don't fully understand why they chose BC, but what is there is super fun. lots of gravel road climbs and super fast single track (but not enough to rep GA!). the skies were finally blue, there was still snow on the ground and the water crossings were deep and cold. beautiful! that was Sunday... i would love to tell the 'first' i rode on Monday, but then i'd have to go into some witness protection program or something. it was so great that i don't mind keeping it a secret and i'm stoked to have been invited back. there was also some riding at the track and some Planet Earth watched while on the trainer.

then came Friday... i had been debating on riding this year's first Dirty Spokes 6 hour race at Heritage Park. once i saw the weather moving in for the weekend and noticed the late registration fee and then also realized that my mom was coming Saturday and staying at my house, my decision was pretty easy (i didn't go if you were still wondering). i was at home Friday night getting the house ~clean when the weather became loud. it was about 9:35PM. Buckley and i went onto the front porch because we're be fans of loud violent storms. it began to hail and the rain was flying completely sideways. Friday was trash day and i was laughing because all of the trash can's that people had left at the street were now cruising down the street in a raging river. they were all piling up against my neighbors truck which was parked on the street. it was dark and crazy and maybe the worst 'thunderstorm' i had ever seen. then my phone rings and it was a buddy telling me to turn on the news. he just had a funnel cloud hop over his truck. he was downtown at Philip's Arena and a tornado in downtown Atlanta was unheard of. well... turns out that it was a tornado. it was later determined to be a high F2 with winds over 135mph. it left a 6 mile seam through downtown into the in-town neighborhoods and then lifted up about 1000' feet from my house.

we took the mountain bikes out on Saturday for a destruction tour ride. the news did not come close to capturing what the damage looked like in person. downtown was practically shut down because of falling glass and clean up efforts. people were out helping their neighbors. at times i felt like i was in the Will Smith NY vampire movie. we had the downtown streets to ourselves but we had to watch out for police tape, broken glass and sheet metal. crumbled brick buildings and abandoned wrecked cars littered many corners. it was just plain surreal. after seeing the damage and hearing the stories, it is really amazing that so few people were hurt and no one in Atlanta was killed. some close friends had some close calls and will be a little uncomfortable for a while. we were caught in another wave of storms Saturday afternoon and as it started to hail pretty big we ditched the bikes and ran into the closest Willy's. we had a burrito and a beer while we watched the warnings on the news and the weather out the window.

**i only took a few pictures. didn't want to be too much of a gawker.

family came in town the the weather finally blew over. we had a cookout and all was well... it was my niece's birthday on Sunday so the plan was to go over to their place for breakfast. once i thought about it, i actually had 3 birthday get togethers on Sunday and i was really excited about the opportunity to squeeze in a couple hour road ride between what ended up being a noon breakfast at Cafe 458 and another birthday cookout on the A&P rooftop. i took an in-town loop which tours my favorite in-town neighborhoods. i was feeling a little guilty because i was enjoying the weather and my ride so much but i was having to weave through some seriously damaged parts of town. i got my first ridiculous tan line of the year and made it to A&P for some beverages and grilled foods. i had to take off from there for another friend's birthday dinner which happened to be at a restaurant in the first floor of 101 Marietta St. the building was all busted up and we were surrounded by damage again. our party of 8 was the only table in the place the entire night (weird) and that was the end of a roller coaster weekend.

last night was the first Monday night advanced training session at the velodrome. it was tough and i threw up a little. 4 separate 8 minute intervals with 100% sprint efforts at random will pretty much do it... green beer followed and i was real happy.

Buckley and i just got back from the Oakhurst dogpark and it is officially spring-ish (when does spring start?). the place was slammed with lots of rowdy pups and i couldn't help but notice the bikes. i honestly saw at least 60 people ride by while i was tossing the ball. there were three different group rides that went by. each group had between 10 and 20 riders and a completely different paces/age/vibe. then there were several small groups of friends just cruising and some soloist doing hard efforts. bring on spring and good/dry/non-funnel shaped weather!!

it's official - i'm sort of a sell out?

i’m excited to announce (to both of my readers – hi mom!) that i’m officially part of the Atlanta Pro Bikes 2008 roster (website is not '08 ready). the team has been around since 1995 and i’ve personally been dusted by a couple of the guys in the recent past. don’t let the name fool you… this is no “pro” deal by any means but there are some perks. with a list of sponsors including Sweetwater, Highland Bakery, Maxxis, Willy’s, The Highlander, etc… i hope to get a burrito and maybe a beer out of the season. in fact, i’ve already learned that anytime i stop by the shop on North Highland Ave i’m greeted with a PBR (and occasionally the chance to dance the polka). combine the PBRs with the experience of being on a team with some really strong riders and to say i’m excited is probably an understatement. i’m still planning on hitting it on the mountain bike and will continue to ride at the track this year. some of the team has started with the first couple road races of ’08 with some very impressive results. while i had not intended on doing road this year i may have to jump into a couple races just to see what it’s like.

since this blog is in the spirit of being green to all of this cycling stuff… i have to let you know that the thought of riding with a team and having a logo covered ‘kit’ never occurred to me a couple years ago. Example… i raced in a 24 hour road race,FM.24.06, a couple years ago on a fully fixed gear all jeans and t-shirt team. my only road bike for a couple years was my fixie beater that was intended for commuting and the occasional alleycat or bar ride. we, DREADNOK, finished in fourth place (out of 37) and were the only team in the top six riding all fixed gear and not on a ‘squid’ team. DREADNOK came back this past September for FM.24.07. we had ridden enough to learn about the relief of chamois and half of us rode geared bikes. we finished second (out of 59) behind the same AVX team that won the previous year. I knew the transition had started… by transition, i don’t mean that i’m moving away from the fixie and the in town cycling culture, but i have begun the leap into trying all facets of riding/racing and putting in the effort to do so while wearing the funny clothes that make everything much more comfortable. i'm getting a little old to be racing down Peachtree St at midnight on a Friday for $5 - not to say that i won't be doing that on occasion. hey, at least i don’t shave my legs – yet. we’ll see what this year brings.

i’m looking forward to the APB ‘camp’. i’ve actually only met five of the riders so far so it will be great to put faces with the e-mail chatter. we’ll all be in Pisgah for a long weekend, March 21-23.

**keep an eye out… another perk – by getting into an APB kit, i’ve just reduced my chances of being hit by a car by at least some. that is the brightest green I’ve ever seen.

Snake '08 - Version 3.0 - Finale

the third and final 2008 Snake Creek time trial was this past Saturday. the weather was amazing and the trail was nearly perfect. some wet spots and deep water crossings, but probably the best condition of the three events. i felt a little unprepared going in but i was relaxed and looking forward to it. we get there and as usual we are the stragglers. we load up our bikes on the trailers and jump in shuttles for the start line. for some reason the trailer with my bike doesn't show up until most of the riders had already started. i had hoped that i would get an early start so i wouldn't be spending excess energy making passes. while i waited for my bike i talked with last year's winner and find out that even though he wasn’t registered for the 17 miler, he was sent to be the spoiler – to “knock me down” - by an APB rider no less... it was cool and friendly and i was actually thinking that if i could get him to start right before me he could be a good rabbit to chase.

i finally get my bike and spin around the parking lot for a quick ~warm-up. i decide to go ahead and shed the leg and arm warmers and before completing the first climb i knew i had made a wise decision for once. i start my ride at 10:59AM and there isn't a whole lot to tell. i rode hard and hoped for the best. i felt pretty good and made it to the long gravel road climb before my only split marker - no Les Savy Fav yet! this made me really excited and i started to push harder. i made it over the climb and back into the second half of the course just as the song came on so i knew i was probably around 3 minutes ahead of my January pace. i was sloppy in parts, slow in parts and fast in other parts. i had no falls this time and a handful less dabs. i did suffer through the couple usual hike-a-bikes and the long one took a lot out of me. in the previous events i pretty much forgot about water and nutrition. this time i had decided to try to remember to take down a gel during the ~100' hike. that may have been the toughest moment... being completely anaerobic while dragging a bike one handed up the climb and digging for a gel with the other and then trying to get it down and drink water all without stopping. i nearly gagged, but i think it helped in those last brutal miles where fatigue won't allow you to concentrate on finding a line. i had one close call that was a lot of fun... i was pretty much screaming on a downhill and there was a quick left that i missed. i ended up off the trail and endoing through briars and dips just between trees. i somehow stayed upright and clipped in and eventually made it back up to the trail and later got my heart rate down after letting out a 'HOLY CRAP!!' or something.

it was the same bumpy (gross understatement) trail and i was feeling the same fatigue but having a really good time. i realize that it's almost over and i'm approaching the last ridge and eventually the towers (if you've ever been on this trail you know how important 'the towers' are). i come across some spectators hiking up the trail and they give me some words of encouragement. i think they said something to the effect of "looking good! only 200 more yards and then it's all downhill!" no more than 20 yards later and i thought i was going to bonk. for some reason those last '200 yards' were really tough and felt like 2 miles. i reach the towers and hammer down to the finish line and this time there are 10 songs left on the playlist. SWEET!!! i was happy to have improved my time from January and after the mechanicals i had in Arizona, i was super relieved that my bike performed like a champ. funny thing though, both of my tires were completely flat by Sunday morning. i somehow got a slow leak in both of my tires but no flats on the trail. that is some good luck!

so... i guess i closed the series with the proverbial 'hat trick' and first overall for 17 miles. the after party was great. we enjoyed some 'sports beverages' and lots of free food. the supergroup, A Fine Mess (i think?), dad-rocked our faces off with covers of everything from Billy Idol to Puddle Of Stained. joking... but seriously, i hope to have some pictures just so you can see these guys. there was also a father/son trials duo in the lot giving a really cool demo.

unfortunately our brofessional FasterMustache crew suffered an upset in the end. we went into the finale with seven of the top eight times between the four of us. we were shooting for finishing with first through fourth overall in the end. there was a 34 second spoiler that showed up and knocked our number three guy off the podium. he only rode the March event and finished with third overall but i guess that's the way it goes at Snake Creek.

Here are the Overall Results.

i felt pretty good once we got back to Atlanta. we decided to ride to get some celebratory Mexican food and then possibly find something to get into. i ended up riding to a couple parties and then to see some friends in the Highlands. i think the combination of being up and riding the fixie around town until 3AM finished me off and left me with some blasted legs yesterday.