Dawn 2 Dusk a 10hr Solo DH race

Run by the Rotorua Mountain Bike club, the Dawn 2 Dusk is a multi lap Downhill event (team or solo) into its 2nd year running.

There are 4 sets of tracks you ride to get to the bottom, you can ride these tracks in any order and any amount of times but you had to do a certain number of compulsory runs of each. This year there was a pedally loop which was Billy T, G-rock, Chestnut, Rollercoaster, Chinese menu. You had to do 1 lap of this, you had to do 2 of corners, 2 of Jumps and 2 of the National DH. You would get stickers at the end of each track to confirm you had done it. Unfortunately there was really no way to force people to ride the courses properly and people were taking shortcuts or missing sections of track out. The fastest tracks to the bottom were the DH and Jumps (with the shortcuts) and this is what people wanted to ride.

I entered last year as a solo but didn't take the race too seriously, I missed the start and treated the day as a fun day shuttling. This year I thought I would try and take the race a bit more seriously.

The race was a hard race to do competively as there are so many factors you need to take in to do well in this race. While the main factor is your riding ability and how quickly you can get downhill, your race can also depend on the shuttle trucks and how they transport you back up the hill. Last year there were problems with the shuttles, there were often huge wait times to get you back up the hill, thankfully this year this wasn't really a problem.

There were other problems though and myself and a couple of other riders faced them, this was where our bikes fell off a trailer transporting them to the top of the hill. The suspect trailer had been borrowed from the Christchurch Southstar shuttles operation where they drove smooth tarmac roads to the top of the Port hills, the Rotorua uphill was far from a smooth drive up.

If there was ever an argument for why someone would need a bashguard on their bike, I was a strong contender for one. At close to 12pm on the way back up to the top my bike was flung off the trailer wheel braces and landed hard onto the trailers edge hitting my bike's chainring square and hard warping it beyond belief. I guess I was pretty lucky that no other damage was caused. After assessing my bike I slowly rode down the jump track, I couldn't pedal, then went on the search for another chainring and some bolts for my bike.

My hopes for this race were now gone, I almost felt like giving up and thought I was going to have to. After asking around a bit, the Revolution Cycles (Transition Bikes) crew sorted me out. After a search, a replacement 34T chainring was found and a couple of bolts. I installed the chainring and bolts, I was only running 3 but this was enough if I took it easy and didn't pedal too hard out. I think I lost a couple of laps while I mucking around trying to fix my bike.

I continued the race but without the dedication I had had in the morning. The rest of the race was uneventful for me and I finished it getting 12th place (18 laps) out of the 36 solo riders.

Cheers to Helen for the photos

Running again

Busy today at work and then meetings after lunch I planned I could only get a 30 minute run in this lunch hour as it would take time for me to get ready before and after and of course I needed to eat lunch.

Of all the training I do I still find running the hardest. They say running requires 3-4 times more effort (energy) than cycling, so my 30 minute run today could be equalivant to a 2 hour bike ride.

It was raining and cold this lunch hour today and I forced myself out for a run, I thought today I would just run out to the point and back, a bit shorter than my short usual run. I would also step up the pace a bit too so that I would be sure to get back in my 30 minute allocated time frame. Out to the point and back was roughly 6kms. There wasn't many people running today, but this was understandable given the crap conditions.

Running on road doesn't do much for me in excitement terms, much like road bike riding. I need things to keep me interested, keep me going. One of those things is music via my iPod and the other is these little goals I set myself. When I talk about little goals I really mean I try to catch up to people and pass them, if someone passes me I try to match their pace. The catching people and passing them goal works well for me, its great passing people, makes me think I am doing well. The matching pace when I get passed goal often doesn't work so well and buggers me out quickly. Fortunately today I was only passing people.

Running today seemed like more work than last week, though I dont feel as sore it did feel harder. Not sure if that was due to the weather, my faster pace (was it really faster?) or was I just having an off day?
28.22 minutes later and I am back, happily under my 30 minute estimate. Shower, a quick lunch and i'm in time for my 1:30pm meeting.

A proper ride for the Nomad

Today was my 1st proper ride on my new Nomad bike, though technically it was the 3rd time I had ridden it. From the continuously non stop bad weather we have been having lately the rain had finally stopped for the morning. Riding in the rain I can do, riding in the cold I can do but both together I don't really enjoy. So fortunately it was just cold.

I rode to the top of Makara Peak, it was a pretty sifty ride, not too fast but a good pace. I was thinking North Face would be a muddy bog down so I opted for Ridgeline. When Ridgeline is this worn and slippery after rain, the track really shines - it was seriously a lot of fun.

Back at the bottom carpark I thought I would give the bike a quick rinse with the hose before I continued, unfortunately someone else with more gusto than brains accidentally drenched me with their high pressured hose.  At least they thought it was funny...

I continued on, next I thought I would ride up Salvation and then down Deliverance. Deliverance is another one of those great tracks when its wet, it keeps you on your toes. Fortunately Deliverance wasn't muddy at all, plenty of slippery rocks though for shits and giggles :)

Post ride thinking about how the bike performed. I felt its uphill performance was as expected, I run a short stem on it and a burly build. The bike climbs well and comfortably, though I wouldn't do any serious XC races on it. Downhill performance was good also but not as great as I expected, I think this was due to the feeling the DHX Air rear shock gave. As mentioned below the shock has a factory tune of High Compression and I think this is where the problem is. While this tune aids climbing ability with pro-pedal, downhill with pro-pedal turned off the shock feels too bouncy.
I have read that the small bump sensitivity isnt the greatest on the DHX Air and I can agree to this. I am going to have to have a good play around with the settings on this shock, there are plenty of them. Santa Cruz forums suggest putting a coil shock such as a DHX RC4 on the Nomad makes a massive improvement, apparently Push Industries recommend this also.
Maybe this is something I can look into later.

Bitterly cold commute

Thankfully most mornings aren't this cold over winter (or summer).

I knew it was cold this morning before I stepped out of the house, I thought the cold would be comparable to how cold it was yesterday, boy I was wrong.

3 Merino tops, 1 Merino legging, pair of shorts, 1 Hi Vis jacket and 1 rain jacket later I was ready to go I also had a pair of waterproof/windproof riding gloves. I decided not to wear my water absorbing waterproof labelled pants I usually wear when it rained and just went with the merino leggings today. I was riding to work today, I am a rain or shine cycle commuter.

There was a more rain on this morning's commute and it was much colder than yesterday, this insured I got cold very quickly and remained cold until I got to work. Fortunately my commute is not a long commute and can do it in around 20 -25 minutes, if I were to take my road bike I could clean it in 15 minutes. My trusty commuter is a Generation 1 DMR Trailstar single speed, I run a 34:18 gearing which I can spin at a decent speed. My commute to work includes hills a couple of ups then downs into town. The uphill combined with the single speed gearing help on days like today, they are a great way to try and warm up a bit or adjust my temperature from "very cold" to "cold" as was the case this morning.

I only saw one other cycle commuter on the way to work this morning but that is hardly surprising given the circumstances. We both threw glances at each other our expressions confirming how crazy each of us were. I arrived at work to an empty bike cage aside from the few other bone dry bikes that staff seem to store in there for an eternity, I saw 1 other guy locking up his bike. In the changing room while warming up my hands with cold water I laughed with 1 other at how crazy the commute into work today was.

I'm now assessing my commute to work this morning, while my shell protected my top half from the water, my bottom half got soaked. My face, ears, feet and hands got so cold they hurt while the rest of my stayed a bearable cold. I need to get some better gloves, find my balaclava and maybe get some booties/covers or something for my shoes. I also need to get some mud guards again, for my bike.

Mornings like this morning

Mornings like this morning its hard to get motivated to train.

Tuesdays and Thursdays are my early morning training rides and I do these training ride with a friend Chris (great way to keep motivated). We meet at 6:30am then ride for around 1.5 hours then I will start work at 9am (instead of the usually 8am).

Chris was sick this week so that meant training Tuesday and Thursday was out for him and I didn't head out Tuesday morning as there was a lot of rain.

This morning I woke about 20 minutes before my alarm went off at 6am. While I lay in bed I listened to the gale force wind outside, the wind always sounds worse inside out house than it actually is but I knew it would still be strong. Strong winds meant a road ride was out for me. I had planned to do an easy ride this morning after the run I did yesterday, I was sore from my run. I though it would be nice to do an easy road ride out to Makara beach but this would not be the case.

After the alarm went off I got up and feed the cat and readied myself for a mountain bike ride, got my lights and some warm riding gear. I headed outside and went and got my bike. It was bitterly cold outside, I didn't have too many layers of clothes as I knew I would warm up soon after I had started. I was cold, it was windy and it was dark, I got my bike and then it started to rain. I thought things over briefly in my head and decided I could do early morning, cold, windy and dark but not rain as well. I put my bike away and headed back inside.

I still plan to fit in a training ride today, but I will do it tonight on my wind trainer and road bike.

Went for a run today

Got the new training schedule for the 4 week period the other day and coach has slotted in some weekly running.

Last year over Winter I did quite a bit of running, usually once a week, sometimes twice. It was an easy training session to fit in as I could do it in my lunch hour at work, rain or shine. Sometimes I couldn't get out for a training session on the bike so running was a great way to keep me fit.

Today was my 1st run since the Business House Relay event about 2 months ago. The Business House Relay was a 2.5km team event I did with some work mates, that was my 1st run in several months and before then I had only run twice this year.

My 4th run this year was today, coach had slotted me in for a 20 minute run and I thought I would take it easy as I hadn't been out for a while. 20 minutes and taking it easy went out the window shortly after starting and I did my regular (last year "regular") 8km run around the bays, up the hill and back. I got back in around 37 minutes which I think is a fairly average time for me for this distance and route and I think because of this I will be sore tomorrow, possibly be walking funny.

One thing riding the 24hr Moonride solo taught me better was to keep pace and in today's run I felt I kept pace a lot better than I used to do. Previous runs I remember my pace often varied, I would start out fast, then slow down a bit and then die (but still keep going) for the return run home. Today's run felt like an even pace right through to the end and I event felt I could speed up a bit on my last leg home. And gone were the times I felt I had to chase down everyone who passed me, I did pass people but this was from just running at my set pace.

Because of this, post run I didn't feel destroyed like I used to and this meant it was easier to get on with my afternoon's work. Though like I said above, I will be sore tomorrow.

I think this running will be a good thing for me again and I will keep it up, over this winter.

Wainui Winter Weekender

After suffering from a virus since Tuesday this week, I was hoping I may have come right by today and raced tomorrow. But i'm still not well so have pulled the plug for my race.
Good luck to everyone racing tomorrow.

A new bike for me

I have just built up my Nomad Mk2 frame, I used all the parts from the Blur LT2 hence the frame on sale now.
This bike is to replace my Blur LT2 and Driver 8, the bike will be used as an all rounder from Trail riding to Downhill.
I have ridden the bike only once so far but I am very impressed already. The bike feels like it has a lot more travel than my Blur LT2 had.
The bike feels great with the Talas fork set to both 130mm and 160mm, this is surprising as the Nomad geometry is based around a 160mm - 180mm travel fork. With the build the Nomad feels very well balanced and I dont really notice it being heavier than what my Blur LT felt.
The Nomad pedals up hills very well. I was surprised to see the max compression tuned DHX air on the bike, but I am told this is standard. The shock feels very plush with Pro-pedal turned off and turned on it feels very stable, this makes the bike pedal up hills easily. With the Blur LT, I never noticed a difference between Pro-pedal on or off but this bike climbed great regardless.
Cant wait to hit some more trails on this bike.

2008 Santa Cruz Blur LT2 Frame for sale

The Blur LT rules. Seriously. It has a super-durable and comfortably light aluminum frame with 140mm of VPP suspension travel, featuring grease ports in the lower link, carbon fiber upper link, and big 15mm alloy pivot axles running on adjustable angular contact bearings. Straddling the line between XC performance and all-mountain abuse, the LT is a leggy trailbike that climbs sweetly, throws nicely into turns, and flat hauls ass downhill. If you could only have one bike, this would be a hard choice to beat...


2008 medium Santa Cruz Blur LT 2 with Fox RP23 shock

Shock has recently been serviced by Rick at Krankin

Frame has recently been professionally painted (powder coated), this was done through Santa Cruz NZ.

Frame includes q/r seatpost Collar and FSA headset.

This bike is the best bike I have ever owned and I feel sad to sell it but I have just picked up a new frame so I no longer require this.

2010 Moonride 24 Hour Solo

2 weeks up to the event I was off work feeling sick for 2 days, then on the Monday my cold hit me a bit worse. I was back at work, I still did my Tuesday morning training ride though it was a struggle. Each day I would turn up to work and in the morning load myself full of Zinc, Berrocca, Panadol and nasal spray.

Thursday we drove up to Rotorua and met a Mark and Arthur - 2 of my work colleagues also doing a 24hr solo, we had gone 3rds on a Camper Van for the event.

I still was sick on Thursday and the nasty asthma attack I had on Wednesday night worried me. Friday swung around and my cold was mysteriously gone, just in time.

Friday was a bit of a waiting day, we waited all day so that we could register at 4pm, but this also meant we relaxed. After registration we headed down to the event and started the setup. A few hours later some more friends from Wellington turned up to race the 24hr Solo.

After we were setup we had a bit of time to kill before the race started so I thought I would try and get a few winks in. Sleeping can be pretty hard to do when your excited about something and I think in the 2ish hours I put my head down I only dozed off once for a short period.

Race briefing rolled around at 9:30pm then Race start at 10am. The 1^st lap started off with a race down the road and back before we jumped onto the course. There is always a scramble at the start of these races and since we were racing solo –  we were in no rush, the 6 of us took up the rear of the field.

Laps were 8km long (apart from the 1^st being a bit longer) and my plan was to ride each lap at a good pace but not raising my heart rate over 130bpm which I worked out was approx 55% effort. I had a menu prepared that my manager (my partner, Candice) used to feed me every 2^nd lap and replace my drinking bottle. I had my race pretty well planned out and  with my manager this worked great for me.

I planned to sleep at 4am for 2.5 hours, then start the race again at 7am. I felt this sleep would be important for my energy levels as well as to warm up. I wanted to get 12 laps in before 4am but only managed to get 11 in.

The 1^st – 3^rd laps of the race I was cold, it was 7 degrees outside and I had trouble warming up riding at my slow under 130bpm pace (Actually this pace ended up being a bit faster than I had initially thought).
I rode laps at around 30 minutes each, stopping every 2^nd lap for a refuel in our pit area.

Having a Camper Van made a huge impact on us for the event, my manager could stay warm between my laps and when I came to sleep at 4am I really did sleep and slept well.

After a solid 2.5 hours sleep I got up and changed into some new clothes and ate breakfast, I was away again by 7am. I stuck to my 130bpm heart rate pace and continued around knocking laps off at around 30 minutes each. My next challenge was the 10am start for the 12 hour and 6 hour teams and I managed to time it perfectly where I started a new lap at 9:45am. I completed this lap and had about 10 minutes in the pit area while I waited for the majority of fast riders from the 10am start get through. Then back on my bike and I was off again.

Over the course of the day there was a lot of hustle and bustle on the track as riders tried to push past us solos and other slower riders out there. There were many good places to pass which riders used and there were bad places where riders tried to push through. I saw quite a bit of carnage out there including a young kid getting taken out by a pushy rider and one of my fellow solo riders getting taken out of the race by someone crashing into him. Fortunately for me I was pretty lucky, I had only one incident where I rider tried to pass me on a narrow section of track and pranged into the back of me causing no injury – after shouting at the rider he claimed he could do as he wanted as he was “leading the race”. Of course this is all pretty normal for the Moonride, I would hate to be one of the more inexperienced riders out there as I am sure it would not be an enjoyable race. Most riders were pretty good though and called “on your left” before passing and waited for you to let them do so.

At 3pm I put on a change of clothes as I had sweated quite a bit and was feeling cold.

Close to 4pm was the last lap for the 6 hour teams and so there was a lot more pushing and bad riding as people tried to get through to finish. After this the field obviously thinned out and laps became easier to ride.

I stopped for a short Dinner at 5pm and was told I was coming a disappointingly 9th (out of 17 male solo riders). I ate a bit too much lasagna and when I started again I felt terrible, but came right after 3 laps. At this point after dinner I also put my lights on and within 1 hour it was dark again.
All of a sudden it felt like a lot of people had stopped riding or were riding much slower, this made for easier laps and I also quickened my pace a little, riding to a heart rate bpm of 140. It was great knowing there was only 4 hours to go and I counted down the time each lap I did.

At around 7pm I was told I was now coming 6^th, this gave me a new lease almost to try a bit harder and try and move up the rankings. 1-3 placings were far off but 4,5,6 were close. It was around 8:20pm and I was told I was coming 5, but I had just squeezed in, I was beating the rider by 1 lap. I knew I could get 3 more laps in and it was great knowing there were 3 to go. I picked up my speed, I no longer tried to follow my heart rate pace. I knew if I could get these 3 laps in that was all I needed to do to hold this position and the next placing up was quite far off so I didn’t aim for that.
I completed my last lap with just under 25 minutes to spare, I figured I may have been able to get 1 more lap in if I really went for it but I didn’t need to. I was stoked that I had come 5^th.

Later on I had found out there were a duo of Tandem riders who had entered as Solo riders. The woman was disqualified as she would have gotten 1^st place in the women’s, though they let the male rider have his podium 3^rd. The results later showed differently though and I had been bumped to 4^th in the male riders.
I am very happy with this result, I felt I had put a lot into this race in preparation and training everything worked really well for me and I cant thank my manager Candice enough for looking after me while I was out there.

This is my 2nd 24 hour solo for the Moonride, though this time round I was more organized and experienced.
4^th Place in the Men’s 24 hour solo, 40 laps, approx 320kms

Bring on the World Champs Canberra!!