It's that time of the month again! Robi came to town yesterday for more tattoo work. This time he drove in early, spent the whole day getting tattooed and stayed overnight.
This morning we went to Dryer and rode muni. Robi's good like that. Just because he was tortured with needles the previous day doesn't mean he can't ride.
Jim met us there. Diane couldn't make it this time.
It was a great ride. We rode some of the good trails I usually ride there and a number of harder trails I had never ventured down, like Black Widow and The Den. They're mostly rideable but with a number of more difficult drops or log obstacles. Jim managed most of the obstacles. Robi was surprisingly strong despite being tortured the previous day. I did well too, even though I hadn't ridden since the Empire State Muni Fest... and entire month ago. Yikes. Life has been busy.
Robi came to visit for his third tattoo appointment. We rode today at Harriet Hollister Spencer State Recreation Area (apparently it's a recreation area, not a park). Robi knew that two other Albany area riders were going to be somewhat near Rochester and so we added Jim and Diane to our group! I had met Jim and Diane at last year's Empire State Muni Festival.
HHS is where the Suicide Six mountain bike race is held. It's tough with plenty of climbing and technical trails. Robi and I had talked about riding some tougher trails so this was good. Jim is an amazing rider so he was game. Diane planned to ride what she could and at her own pace.
It was a gorgeous day with thunderstorms predicted in the afternoon, so we met up at 9 am. The trails were in great condition, damp and only muddy in spots. These trails are serious work! I hadn't ridden in weeks thanks mostly to being super busy at work. My cardio had weakened and I wasn't really well rested. I felt a bit of vertigo at times when I stopped to catch my breath. I'm pretty sure I was just tired... but not two tir.. oh never mind. :P
The trails are a lot of work but a lot of fun too. After a respectable distance into the trail Diane decided to ride at her own pace. The rest of us broke away and followed the nicely marked S6 trail markers. I has never seen those before so I assume they were put up since I last rode there over a year ago. Some of the trail was new to me too so I guess the race course has been extended. I rode my fat tire 26 and was happy I did. The fat soft tire gave me some much appreciated suspension!
After riding the 3 mile south-west portion, Robi, Jim, and I headed back to the parking loop to reconnect with Diane, assuming she probably headed back. We weren't able to find her, so we decided to backtrack the trail we just rode. Riding it the other way is always different. It wasn't until we were back at the parking lot that we found her again. After a break we all agreed to be insane and ride some more. We continued the ride up the east side which has some good fun flowy parts, followed by more challenging climbs and technical.
At the end of the trail we followed the crushed rock road back to our cars. On the last hill climb my quads cramped like they have in the past. Even though I drink a lot of water during the ride, maybe I'm not hydrating enough in the day or so before riding.
This year's Empire State Muni Festival is happening this weekend
and I believe Jim, Diane, and Robi are going, so I'll likely ride with them again very soon!
Robi came back to town again for more work on his tat. This time we rode at Dryer Park in Victor.
It was in the 60's and low humidity and trail conditions were perfect. We rode about 80% of last year's Fat Tire Festival course, but then broke away from it. I think we both had the most fun on Owl's Maze. We were both riding 24" wheels but Robi rides faster and seemed to have endless energy. After leading for a minute, I let Robi pass. I kept losing ground and it wasn't long before we were passing by each other in opposite directions. Owl's Maze is rather awesome like that. The trail winds so much and keeps passing by a place you were just at a minute ago. It seems never ending. Looking back at my GPS, it took about 8 minutes to get down. It must have taken some real dedication to build that trail and to make it fill in the all the space that it does.
Robi had asked what size muni to bring and with Dryer in mind I thought I'd ride my 24". My 26" fat tire wouldn't be ideal because of the fat tire, and I think my 29er is too big for me on tight hilly trails. Robi brought his 24" but in hindsight thought his 26" would have been better. I too thought a bigger wheel would have been smoother. I sure could use a non-fat tire 26" muni, don't you think?
Robi visited from Albany and he, Dustin and I rode at Webster Park. We're not quite thawed out around town yet and, as expected, the trails are significantly worse. Trampled snow in the shade takes longer to melt. Every part of the trail was cratered with frozen boot-prints and many parts that got sun were solid ice. It reminded us of a similar ride we did over a year ago when Robi visited... bad conditions. Next time he visits we better have dry trails!
The rough conditions made riding at least twice the normal effort. Robi and I both have fat tire munis that helped a lot. Dustin made the best of it with his standard muni tire and was never too far behind. Dismounts and hiking were frequent for us all. Sometimes we'd hit a section of dirt or smoother harder snow and we got a glimpse of the good old days when trails were smooth and dry.
Robi's right foot misses his pedal
The primary reason Robi was in town was to get the start of some tattoo work done. Check it out! Muni themed and quite awesome! There's a local tattoo artist who is worth the drive. The plan is for him to come back for more tattoo work, so hopefully we'll ride again soon!
My muni friend Robi came to town from Albany today. He was here to buy a 29er from Mj and wanted to go for a ride after. Fortunately I had vacation time to use and Dustin was able to use some of his. Unfortunately Mj wasn't able to, but maybe next time.
It's been frozen around here for some time, but we've experienced a thaw for the past few days. It was just over 50°F today and I knew the trails would at least be soft, but feared they might be muddy and slick. Robi had visited in the past and we rode at Whiting and Webster Park. Given that, I thought Bay Park West would be an ok choice. With it's hills and sustainable trail design maybe the trails wouldn't be too muddy, despite the melting snow water and overnight rain.
Wrong. The trails were messy. Normally I avoid riding in these conditions, but when another muni rider comes to town, we gotta ride. There were occasional sections of trail that were just moist dirt and rode well, but most of it was wetter than we like and we left tire marks or varying degree. Wheels spun on steeper climbs and slid on steeper descents and off the side of off-camber trails. At times the best we could do was tread lightly and prepare for the inevitable slip. Occasionally we actually found riding off the trail was easier and safer. The ground leaves and lack of anything green made that possible. Robi and I both fell on our asses on some slippery downhills, and Dustin got a nice ding on his shin, but thankfully no one got any serious injuries. Mostly we just rode what we could and laughed about the rest.
more Red Trail rock features
Bay Park West is a lot of work when it's dry. But today with all the dismounting, walking, and waiting for each other, I think it was actually a bit easier than normal. We were able to cover most of the park, only missing a few of the middle trails. Dustin had some impressive log-over moments and continues to improve. Robi demonstrated his hopping skills nicely, and had a few record breaking mud slides. I tried to demonstrate my hill climbing abilities when conditions allowed.
yet more Red Trail rock features
Hopefully Robi and his muni-riding wife, Liz, will be able to visit in the summer and see what Bay Park West is supposed to be like. Maybe Dryer Rd Park too.
Aside from the good time of riding with friends, I was also glad to get out and ride muni this time of year. I've been exercising almost daily with P90X and similar workouts in an attempt to stay fit through these cold months. My quads were moderately sore when I started today's ride and on fire at times during it. I hope that means I'm building more strength.
Update 2013-12-07:
Robi sent me the images below.
Robi was the only one to make it over this particular log pile. Nice!
This weekend the family and I camped at Buttermilk Falls State Park in Ithaca. We wanted to go camping and it just so happened there was a mountain biking festival at the nearby Shindagin Hollow State Forest. I had wanted to ride muni at Shindagin for over a year, so this seemed like a great opportunity.
I had sent a request out to the closest muni riders to join me. Dustin was in, and Robi and Liz from Albany were too. We all camped at Buttermilk in adjacent sites and on Saturday we rode at Shindagin.
We weren't sure what trails to ride and we were directed to the nearest trail head. The place is huge so we only rode a small percentage of the trails. The ones we rode were rooty, rocky, and hilly. I enjoyed the challenge. Weather and trail conditions were ideal. Robi and I tended to lead and Dustin and Liz were never too far behind. We rode for over 3.5 hours, but we only covered about 7 miles. We stopped and played around on a good number of log obstacles, and as with any group ride, we tended to stop a socialize from time to time.
I saw some mountain bikers I knew from Park Ave Bike, Tryon Bike, and GROC.
Dustin won the award for most improved. I could see him getting better along the ride. He attempted and accomplished many obstacles. Nice!
It was great to see Robi and Liz again. I hope the trip was worth it for them! Hopefully there will be another Albany event this fall and we'll all ride again.
I would like to ride Shindagin Hollow again and check out more of the trails.
On Sunday we all went and played some disc golf in the town on Danby. Dustin recently got me and a few other coworkers into it, and we've played a few times. Robi and Liz have played some too, so it worked out great.
The family and I visited a nature center and beach on Sunday, and a science center on Monday before heading home. It was a good weekend.
This weekend the family and I drove to Montgomery, New York for the SingleSpeed-A-Palooza race I've been preparing for.
A few hours before we left I went to an appointment at Pittsford Performance Care to see Dr. Luckey. He had fixed my knee problems in the past. This time we were able to see that my left leg was not reacting a strongly as my right. This was likely putting extra strain on my right knee as it was trying to compensate. Dr. Luckey made an adjustment and I left hoping it would feel good for a 25 mile ride.
The race was at Stewart State Forest. There were 297 mountain bikers registered and 3 unicyclists: Claude, Robi, and myself. Being the slowest cyclists, we started last. Claude rode a 36er, and Robi and I each rode 29ers. Trail conditions and weather were both perfect.
The race started on a dirt road that would last nearly three miles. We all separated right away. Claude took the lead and continued to gain distance. Robi was maybe 30 seconds ahead of me towards the end of the road. I wasn't pushing too hard, concerned this was going to be a long race.
Minutes into the race the sweeper rode up along side me. This is one of the race marshals that rides last and makes sure no one gets left behind. Yay! I'm the last guy. Haha. Of course we chatted a bunch. If I recall, his name was Rick. It wasn't long before we encountered a group of cyclists standing around, one of them lying on the ground. Rick stopped to help. I continued riding, and soon Rick showed up again. The injured biker had gotten caught up with others in the pack and had a concussion. He didn't know where he was. Scary.
The first dirt road section ended with the course heading into single track. It's kind of cool how I suddenly felt at home. Yeah... that's the stuff. It wasn't long before I caught up to Robi. I passed and he commented that he was feeling dead. Months ago he separated his shoulder and between that and winter, he wasn't able to exercise as much as he had hoped. Going into this race he was concerned about his endurance. I hoped he'd be ok.
I think he was behind me for a while, but it wasn't long before I lost track of him. Soon I heard some big huffing and puffing coming up from behind and wondered if that was him. It turned out to be a mountain biker. I'm sure it was one who stopped for the injured guy. He was ready to pass just as I was heading into a rocky down section. Unfortunately his sudden approach and my indecisiveness to dismount and let him go led me to fall back as I failed to step off properly. I got a nice pedal bite and demonstrated to at least one mountain biker just how much I suck. Haha.
The trails were pretty cool. There were many occurrences of these mini rock gardens, about three feet long. It was almost like a wall made of rock had been broken through. Most of the climbs and descents were short, but many were technical, at least for muni. Some sections were smooth and flowy. Most of it could be ridden, but an occasion climb was nearly impossible for me, some just weren't worth remounting for a second go, and some technical downhills just weren't worth the risk during a long race.
At one point I encountered a mountain biker who had stepped off. I passed and we rode in the general vicinity of each other for some time. I told her to just tell me when she wanted to pass, but she was content and suggested I would just end up passing her again. She obviously wasn't the strongest rider. At one point I rode down the most technical section of my day (that I actually rode) with success. She was behind me and I heard a pretty good metal against rock smash. I yelled back and she confirmed she was ok. Yikes. Eventually she passed me and I never caught back up.
Another Pint Glass!
However my sweeper friend, Rick, found me once again. He told me that Robi was calling it quits and would be heading off the course and back to the start, led by another marshal. So, I was last again. I didn't really care if I finished last, but it was a bit distracting having a mountain biker riding my tail. For one, I'm just not use to it, but mostly I just felt like I was holding him up. Hearing his freewheel clicking, or brakes, and knowing that he'd rather be going about triple the speed. It always seemed like he was only a few feet from my tire. Occasionally I encouraged him to pass and go have some fun. He seemed content to stay back. A few times he passed just because he could fly down a hill and use the momentum to climb up the next. Must be nice. He stopped to talk to other marshals or EMTs when we crossed dirt roads once every few miles. For one part an EMT rode with us. With their freewheels clicking away I heard Rick informing the EMT of how easy these trails are. Yup.
It was probably at about mile 12 that my right knee eventually started hurting like it has been. I think my visit to Dr. Luckey probably got me that far. I may have to see him again, or maybe my IT band still needs time to recover after being fixed. We'll see. Anyway it wasn't bad enough to stop me from continuing.
At mile 15 there was a water station. I opted to refill my CamelBak with water rather than beer, leaving more for the crew. I ate a Stinger Waffle bar and stretched. Rick had stopped to talk with other marshals and showed up when I was about ready to move on. He mentioned to the water station crew that I was the last guy, and so they could pack up. He questioned if I was going to continue or not. I was still ok to ride a bit more, but I wasn't really seeing how I'd make it 10 for miles.
We continued on. I was feeling weaker and my quads were starting to twitch and burn at the first few cranks of any climb causing me to dismount more frequently. Crap... it wasn't looking good. I asked Rick how long it was going to take me to finish at this rate. He confirmed we'd be here a long time. He seemed to be riding more and more ahead of me and waiting. I found myself walking up smaller hills and taking three to five attempts to free mount. I was clearly done.
As soon as I informed Rick, I knew I had made the right choice. All I wanted to do was get out and be done, but we still had a few miles to make that happen. Eventually we hit a dirt road and he told me how to get out, and he continued to sweep the course. It was probably a mile and a half of road before I got back to the start. My GPS said I rode about 18 miles and my cycle computer said 18.8.
There were about 300 mountain bikers in the start/finish area and awards were being given out. I looked around for my people, but my family hadn't returned from an outing and Robi and Claude had not come back yet. I felt like the guy who brings a unicycle to a bike race.
Later it turned out that Robi's marshal had given him bad directions and Robi had to use his GPS to navigate his own way out. Part of that included riding more of the course. He ran out of water, and entered the water station just as the truck with crew and supplies was pulling away. They didn't see him. Once he made it back, he had ridden 18 miles and his voice was raspy. That had to suck.
Eventually Claude showed up the way you're supposed to. He crossed the finish line with a time of 3:55. He looked happy and he probably could have done another 10 miles. Nice! Claude rocks!
It wasn't long before the event started closing down and that was that. I was disappointed to have not finished. It was a long weekend, with a lot of driving and trying to keep the family happy along the way. In hindsight, it probably wasn't worth the trip. I'd rather have just met up with the guys for a few 10 miles fun rides over a few days.
Robi of Schenectady offered to make the long drive to Rochester so that we could ride some muni! He stayed overnight and we rode at Whiting and Webster Park this morning.
Forgot to take a picture on the trail!
I met Robi at the past two Schenectady Muni-Only Races and he organized this year's race. He rides very well, especially given he has only been on one wheel for not much more than a year.
It's always fun to talk with someone who is really into the sport. I also learned a thing or two from him on the trails.
We rode about 10 miles, but sessioned a number of hills and obstacles.
We're hoping to find some cool spots to ride halfway between Albany and Rochester and plan another meetup.
I'm giving Endomondo a try to display my GPS data:
