MOUTH FULL OF DIRT : Super D's Blog: Give It Away

I finally got back on the road near the end of November. I have spent all my time on the dirt lately, so it was exciting to be out on the road with the cooler air blowing on me as the weather is finally starting to cool down.

I often find my way to the woods on road rides too

Fall road riding scenery

Sulphur Fork Creek

Sulphur Fork Creek at Port Royal State Park near Clarksville

If it wasn't for sports, there would be no need for any sort of television in the Greer house. There are very few shows that we watch. That is partly due to lack of time and partly due to the current crop of shows just not catching our interest. I do enjoy NCIS (the original only) and the occasional old Seinfeld episode for some laughs, but most of the time I'm watching cycling, motocross, auto racing or football. It happens to be football season right now. Our only TV in the house is a really old and really heavy one that sits out in our sunroom where we ride our indoor trainers. I finally decided it was time to get a nice TV for the living room and set out to buy one on Black Friday. Before I could get to the store, Shannon had a patient at work that gave us a really nice TV that was a little over a year old for free. That same day my Dad came home with a projector that was being trashed where he works. The projector was fully functional and not very old, but they were replacing it anyway. We sat the projector up first and it provided a clear 109-inch screen on our biggest wall in the living room. After watching football on it all afternoon and evening, there is no need to hook up that new TV in the living room. I'm thinking it'll look good in the garage and this 109 inches can stay in the house.

109-inches of football goodness. Go gators!

We had a dry and hot Fall, but the break we were looking for arrived to start December. What leaves were left on the trees finally changed colors and quickly fell to the ground. The warm weather allowed for an extended growing season so I was still picking produce until the very end of November. People couldn't believe we were still producing tomatoes, beans and peppers on the farm. The ones picked late in the season were probably the best tasting of the whole year. I managed to sell another batch of peppers to my usual buyer. I had a lot of people say they wanted to buy some from me when they saw what I sold to him, but when I would show up with peppers they wouldn't buy them. Some told me they would just get some at the store later. Colored bells were selling for $2-3 a piece at the local grocery store, while I was selling them for $1 each. I thought for sure I could sell some at that price and with the convenience of having them right there so you wouldn't need to stop by the grocery store. After a few days of everyone turning me down, I tried to give away what I had left and couldn't even get anyone to take them. We froze what we could hold in our freezer and fed the rest to the worms. I guess I still have a lot to learn when it comes to selling veggies. If I can't figure out how to give them away for free, then I'm going to have a really hard time selling them! We tried some winter crops again this year, but so far the deer are eating more of them than we are.

November green beans and Lunchbox peppers

Ripe habaneros

I finally got my Brain shock back from Specialized. MOAB handled that for me and fixed an issue I had with my front hub. I cleaned the bearings and then had a tool tip break off in the tiny bolt head that holds the hub cover on when I was reinstalling everything. We got it drilled out and a new bolt to hold things together. Dina had to get a wheel repaired at the shop at the same time due to a crash while riding with my Dad at Montgomery Bell. She fell on the derailleur and it took a few spokes out with it. We have her back up and rolling now too.

Dina's bike was fixed, but I couldn't talk her into racing School of Cross in Nashville. It was the first race in a set of three race weekends in December that ended the cross season in Tennessee. I hadn't been interested in cross at all so far this season, but the cooler temps and lack of racing over the past two months finally had me itching to dust off the cross bike.

We definitely got cross weather for this race. Winter was finally arriving. It was a 44-degree day with steady rain. Like the name suggests, the race takes place at a school, Fall-Hamilton Elementary to be exact. Ride For Reading founder Mathew Portell is now the principal at Fall-Hamilton, so he got permission for Michael Edens to host a race on the school grounds. It wasn't a big piece of land, but it had several cool features, which Michael took full advantage of like he always does. It was a twisty course with some tight turns, a giant spiral, one long climb, a hop over a playground bench and several transitions from pavement to dirt and back. The rain made for some slick mud and made those surface transitions very tricky.

I signed up for both the Pro/1/2/3 and Singlespeed races. Pro/1/2/3 came first. I got a terrible start out of nine starters for the 60-minute race. We started at the bottom of the big climb of the course so it was a tough start just by the terrain, but it was made even harder by some good cross riders on the line with me. I was in the back up the hill and then slowly started to pick my way up through the turns. By halfway through lap 1, I was up to 5th. The leading four had a gap already so I set out to close that down, but I was doing it smoothly. I knew I didn't have the legs and lungs to just stand up and cross a gap on the first lap. It's too fast at that point and I would blow up for sure.

I was feeling good and started to push the corners near the end of the lap. My legs were strong and it was the first ride since Race to the Canal that my right knee wasn't sore. I have fallen on that knee so many times in the past month. It's like I have a magnet in my patella and every now and then I pass over a piece of ground that has the matching magnet buried in it and the two must connect. I must have passed by one of those buried magnets. I took a tight S-turn too quick and caught one of the stakes on the exit of the turn with my brake lever. It locked up my front brake and I went over the bars in slow motion. I was coming down on top of the stake so I tried to roll off to the left to keep from being impaled. The tape suspended me long enough for me to spin a couple of times before I hit the ground. I was wrapped up in the tape and couldn't get up. It was wrapped around my leg and my bike. I had one loop around just my leg and another loop actually taping my leg to the frame. I couldn't do that again if I tried it a thousand times. I flopped on the ground for a few seconds before John Carr came by. He saw that I couldn't get up and stopped to help untangle me. He gave up his own race to help me out, which I greatly appreciate. Not only did I lose a lot of time with that incident, but I came down hard on my right knee yet again.

I spent the rest of the race steadily working my way back up with my sore knee. I ended up getting back to 5th by the finish and nearly caught 4th. I had been over a minute behind with three laps to go and came in just 10 seconds back. John got up to 6th, so we both ended up finishing exactly where we were when the crash happened. The transitions claimed many people in this race. Several hit the ground rather hard. Muddy pavement is slick so you have to take the corners wide and not get on the brakes or back into the power on the pedals too quickly. There was a nice concrete curb on the exit of one paved turn that I used as a berm every lap. I didn't see anyone else using it, but they should have because it was much faster and also safer.

I had a few minutes to get cold before the start of the 30-minute Singlespeed race. We had six riders signed-up for the race, but only four started. They started us just ahead of the Juniors, who looked like they were going to eat us up on this course. As usual, my gear was way too big, especially on the big climb so I got smoked on the start. I was 4th and off the back of the other three until we hit the bench hop where I started to gain some time. By the end of lap 1, I was in 2nd and chasing down the leader Michael Edens. I was able to crank my gear up the big hill each lap, but not as fast as Edens and Paul Gates could turn their gear. I lost 2nd to Gates on lap 2. Edens pulled away, but never really got out of reach. I yo-yoed with Gates the rest of the race. I would catch him in the turns, then he would pull away on the hill. The last lap he was able to hold a few bike lengths on me through the turns and I had to settle with third. I was tired in this race, but I actually think I rode it better than the Pro/1/2/3 race. I just need an easier gear! My knee was feeling better by the end of the day and we kept the Juniors at bay so it was a good, fast race.