Little Debbie

    Our trip out west in September did not bring as much time on the bike as I had hoped, then life kept me off the bike for a few weeks upon our return. It gave me some unplanned rest time and left me with some good legs for some hard efforts on the new short trail loop at home. The Fall was very dry, which made for some great trails. It was the first time the trails were fully dry this year. I spent almost all my bike time on the mountain bike. My poor road bike must have been feeling neglected after never coming out of the car on our trip and then getting out on the local roads one time the entire month of October.

Sunrise over a field of soybeans on the way to work one morning

These birds sit on this church steeple near our house nearly every morning

    I put some major ride time in on my loner shock from MOAB as I waited for my shock to come back from Specialized. The loner shock behaved a bit differently on the trails, but after a few rides I had it dialed in and was having fun ripping off some fast laps. My goal was to get my lap time down below 12 minutes. It took several weeks, but I finally broke the 12-minute barrier. After that it seemed easy and nearly every lap was under 12. I had one day where I hammered six straight laps and my slowest lap was a 12:03. I don't feel like I am in great shape after more off time recently than I would like and a few extra pounds from not riding as much as usual, but my lap times speak for themselves. PRs are dropping on the dirt nearly every ride so I can't complain.

One of the best things about working with people is that you meet some great people with cool skills. One of my patients makes cakes and she's pretty good at it. Here'a Fall-themed pumpkin cake with mice climbing on it and one coming out of the inside. It tasted as good as it looks. The mice are still being passed around the clinics as pranks.

     One of the things keeping us busy is more work on our kitchen. The trip really gave me a break and I came back ready to get some projects done. The house is finally feeling like home now. We spent a week replacing our water heater, painting the laundry room and then installing a new wood laminate floor in both the kitchen and laundry room. The flooring pieces snap together which made installation a breeze, except for the trimming we had to do along the doorways and around vents. My Dad is pretty skilled with a saw so he was able to get it done, but I'm pretty sure he has a few more grey hairs now. We also got some new shelves for our garage, which has helped us finally get all of our boxes unpacked and has things semi-organized. I can at least find my tools and bike parts now.

     One thing I always planned to have once I got my own home was a flagpole. This house already had a flagpole in place out front, so now we have Old Glory flying high about our property. I am grateful for my country and everyone that has fought to maintain the freedoms we have. I hope people think about that when they come by our house and see the flags blowing in the breeze.

Finally got the flags on the pole

     The streak of cancelled and postponed races finally ended on October 23. I lined up for the Lock 4 Six Hour Challenge in Gallatin, TN to test my endurance. Despite my quick times at home, I was not very confident in my race speed, especially for an endurance race. I have always raced poorly at this event. I have a history of bad performances complete with bonking early, back pain, flat tires, and broken pedals. Back pain has affected me every single time I have raced the six hour here, and it's not a problem I usually have. My tactic has always been to start slow and hold a steady pace all day. It has never worked. I always find myself behind early and never have the gas in the tank to close it later in the race. I am learning from my mistakes though. This year I decided to go hard from the gun and see if I could crack some people early before I cracked. Then I would just try to outlast them from the lead. It is much easier to dig super deep when you are in front that when you are eight minutes behind in 5th. I really didn't care where I finished, I just wanted to put in a sold performance and complete seven laps.

     It was a small turnout with only a little over 40 riders total among all classes, solo and teams. Endurance races typically start with a Le Mans run-to-your-bike start, which I usually struggle with. But the low number of starters led race promoter David Hardin to go with a normal start. It played into my favor. I didn't get the holeshot, but I was top five entering the woods with only two solo riders ahead of me. This was definitely the best start I have ever had for this race.

     Craig Evans came out of retirement to battle with us on a duo team. He led early on after taking the holeshot. Riders were clearly struggling to hold his pace through the singletrack with lots of mistakes being made. Two riders even went down in the first loop. I was feeling good so I jumped out of line at the first open section and moved to 2nd behind Craig. He sped up to keep the lead and that further strung out the riders behind us. On our first climb up the pavement on the peninsula, I passed Craig and upped the pace even more. Only Scott Marx, also on a duo team, managed to stay with us. I dropped back to third before we hit the singletrack again. My goal was now to hold onto the wheels of the teams for as long as I could. I followed them the rest of the lap and we cranked off a 41:30, which is a great lap time to start off a six hour race.

Craig leads on lap 1

     Both duo teams changed riders and the pace went up significantly, forcing me to push harder than I wanted, but I dug in and chased Harrison Klapheke and Joe Grubbs. They exchanged blows the first half of the lap, then slowed down a bit, allowing me to recover and get back into a smooth rhythm. I was focused on being smooth so I could save as much energy as possible for later in the race. We went even faster on lap 2 with a time of 40:34. I still felt good so I kept tying to hold the wheels after the exchange of riders to start lap 3. I was now following Scott and Craig again.

Joe Grubbs and Harrison Klapheke lead off the peninsula road section with me tucked in behind them trying to get a draft

    Scott and Craig were much more steady with their pace and it allowed me to hook on with ease. The only place they hurt me was on steeper climbs where I just didn't want to dig that deep yet. I let them gap me by a few bike lengths on the rocky jeep road climb after the peninsula. I planned to bridge back across on the next descent, but I dropped my chain and had to stop. That left me 15 seconds back and having to chase hard. I got them back in sight as we descended the rough jeep road descent about 2/3 of the way through the lap. I came up on a lap rider very quickly on this descent. The rider didn't have much warning to move over, so I took a line off to the left of the main line and caught a rock as I passed them. It blew my tire instantly. Luckily I had a huge lead of over six minutes at this point. I did a quick change, but then my inflator froze to my valve stem. When I tried to remove the inflator head it took the core of valve stem with it and all my air came shooting out. Luckily, we were allowed outside assistance. I had my phone on me and called Shannon. She was close to me and we were able to run toward each other, meeting up in less than a minute. I grabbed an extra CO2 from her and it jammed inside the inflator. The third cartridge worked and I was able to re-inflate the tube just a few seconds after the first chasing riders started to pass me. I restocked my SWAT box with a fresh tube and CO2 cartridge, then hopped back on the bike. I immediately had major shifting issues and had to stop again. I don't know what I did during the pit stop, but my shifting was awful afterwards. I made some adjustments and finally got it rideable and began my chase. Before I could catch anyone my shifting began acting crazy again and I was forced to make another stop. I loosened the rear derailleur cable and started over like I was putting on a new cable. It took a few minutes, but it fixed things. I gave up about 20 minutes on lap 3, clocking a 1:01:13 lap time and exchanging my six-minute lead for a 14-minute deficit in 8th place.

Tim Baker now leading after my flat and shifting issues

Logan Luker

David Carpenter and Jon Harrison pushing hard

     My legs felt terrible after all the stopping and then I bonked on lap 4. I was really focused on my eating so the bonk caught me off guard. The only thing I can figure that I did wrong was that I had based my eating schedule on running consistent lap times. All the stopping had me out on course for 20 extra minutes and I still ate at my normal eating spot, even though I was there much later. Twenty minutes does not sound like a lot, but it got me. I got desperate and started taking Little Debbie snack cakes to try to get some quick sugar and a high amount of calories in my system. I started with a zebra cake roll, which was not very filling. I followed that up with a peanut butter round which helped me feel better, but not great. I struggled on laps 4 and 5, dropping my lap times to 49:29 and 52:24.

Mike Taglio

    I was still in 8th starting lap 6, but several riders started the lap with a rest break so I instantly gained some positions. My time did not pick up that much, but I did begin to feel better. I took another peanut butter round on lap 5 and that seemed to get my body working right again. I moved from 8th to 4th overall on lap 6 with only passing one rider on course. I didn't know it at the time, but I was the only solo rider in my age group to go out for a seventh lap. I was still focused on catching the overall leaders as I did not realize they were splitting us out for age groups. I made up 2:30 on a rider in just the first two miles of lap 7 despite crashing to start the lap. I was so motivated that I just pushed a corner too hard and the tire didn't hold. I made the pass for 3rd overall out on the peninsula.

Me late in the race

     I was able to keep pushing the rest of the final lap, getting better all the way to the line. Tim Baker outsprinted Jon Harrison for the 40+ and overall solo win. That's right. After six hours of racing they came in together and had to sprint for the win. I ended up a little over 10 minutes back in 3rd overall, but 1st in my category. I was pumped to get a win, but I wanted to overall it with as good as I felt. I know I would have done it without the flat and shifting issues, but that's the way it goes some days. I was happy to see two of my old friends, Tim and Jon, give everyone a good thumping. Congrats to both of them! Better than my result was having no back pain whatsoever and finishing while still feeling good. I have never felt that good after any race longer than three hours. Maybe it was the Little Debbie snacks...

Harrison Klapheke during his last lap on the way to the duo win with Scott Marx

Me on my last lap

Harrison comes off the peninsula

A rider comes by the trash piled up during a litter pick-up day

Me heading onto the peninsula

Me taking over 3rd overall

Still pushing it real good

Hanging the berm near the end of the lap

Last section for me today

     Despite the low turnout David still paid us full prize money and gave us great swag and plenty of food. He really did a great job with this event and I am sure he lost money putting on this race considering how few riders he had. It is a really fun, well-run race so I encourage you to try this race next year. You can always ride on a team if you are not feeling up to six hours of riding on your own. I will definitely continue supporting this event in the future.

Solo Female Podium

Solo Male Overall Podium

Duo Female Podium

Duo Male Podium

Solo Male 19-39 Podium

     Thanks go to Shannon for all the pictures and the video clips. A short video is posted below from today's action. After that there is a few pictures from a really nice sunset we viewed on our drive home from Lock 4. What a day!

Video: Lock 4 Six Hour Challenge

Awesome sunset in Pleasant View

No Brainer

     We came home after our trip to find my parents had installed our kitchen cabinet doors. That was a nice surprise. We got them painted before we left, but they needed to be hung and have handles attached. My parents have been helping us a lot lately with various home-improvement tasks.

     It was hot and dry while we were gone, but the cool air followed us home. We had several chilly days our first week back in Tennessee with some rain. I don't think it rained much while we were gone. Our garden looked like it was on its last leg, but we were able to save it. It recovered nicely and I was able to get two more big sales of peppers before the season was over. I sold enough peppers to buy all of our winter seeds and supplies. That was nice. I have still given away much more than I have sold, which is something I want to continue doing. A lot of the members of my family have made fun of me for trying to get this farm thing going. Suddenly they are thinking this isn't such a bad idea  now that I've started selling 10+ pounds of peppers at a time. Patients at work, on the other hand, have been very supportive. One guy gave me some really good advice on different farming techniques as he used to raise several acres of ghost peppers. I see some ghosts in my future.

Planting garlic for the winter season

    I have caught a lot of slack about my pictures from the trip. I thought we got some really great pictures. With the scenery we encountered, it was almost impossible not to take a great picture. Some of the people that have seen them thought they were a little too good. I got accused of lying about the photos. Some people didn't think they were real photos. Some people said I didn't take them and others said I didn't even really go to those places. I'll take that as a compliment! Aside from a little adjusting of the contrast on the pictures from the GoPro, those pictures were untouched. Most of that criticism came from Facebook. I really dislike social media. There's too much negativity posted on those sites for my liking. People are so quick to criticize every single word you post, taking everything out of context. Reading text has no emotion from the writer connected with it. I try to keep my posts to pictures to avoid people adding meaning to my words that I didn't intend on being portrayed, but even just a single picture can get some people fired up. I hope that when you read this blog you read it with a grain of salt, knowing I am sarcastic and want it to be fun to read. If I mean something negative with my writing I will just come out and say so there will be nothing left to the imagination. With that being said, I have stopped adding people I don't know to my list of friends on Facebook. Please don't be offended if you randomly send me a friends request and I don't accept it. Shoot me a personal message if I don't know you personally and let me know who you are. I will accept it...so long as you don't become a troll. We have plenty of those on the internet already.

    My gloomy week back was spent getting back into the rhythm of work. It was right back to it for both of my normal jobs. We nearly found ourselves in a bad situation during a school cookie dough delivery. Sycamore Middle School in Pleasant View had a child bring a loaded weapons] to school the day before we did our delivery. Sadly, shootings have become a regular thing in our society. People still like to think it won't happen to them or in their town, but they can, and nearly did, right where I went to middle school. The child went to the guidance counselor and told her he was going to kill teachers and other adults in the building. He said he didn't really want to do it, so he came to her because he knew she would talk him out of it. Thankfully, she did and he handed over the guns and ammo he had in a backpack. He was obviously a troubled young man, but at least he did listen to that small voice inside telling him not to do it. Our delivery was the following day, but it could have easily been the day he decided to go through with his plan and fire on adults. It was scary to know we were that close to being part of a tragedy. It's a humbling moment that makes you appreciate the many blessings you have in your life.

     Back before our tip I wrote about the logging that had started on the land where most of our backyard trail is located. It is a mess now. We have lost the majority of our trail. The logging is a complete disaster, as you can see by some of the pictures below. If you ever think about logging some property of your own, just realize it is messy and your place will never be the same. Not only do you lose the big trees that are being cut out, but when they fall they cause much destruction to the smaller trees around them. The land owner says it should only take a few weeks, so I hope to be back in there clearing trails and rerouting sections soon, with a loop established by winter. For now we have a 1.9-mile loop that my family cleaned up while we were in Utah. It's a fast, fun loop, but I miss the longer lap times. Doing 8-10 laps a day gets old quick.

Logging destruction in the woods. There's a trail in there somewhere.

Again, there was a trail here.

     My shock decided to lose its Brain after the trip. I got it off the rack and could tell right away that something was wrong. It had no stable-platform at all. Just riding around the driveway feels like being on a pogo-stick, so it had to go back to the shop. The shock has been sent back to Specialized to see if they can figure out what happened. MOAB is such a great shop that they gave me a loner shock until Specialized sends mine back, so at least I won't miss any trail time.

     My race schedule is falling apart here at the end of the season. Not only did I miss the postponed Snowbird Ultra Hill Climb in Utah, but I came home to find out my next planned race was cancelled. Dirt, Guts & Donuts was to be resurrected this year, but it was cancelled due to the new promoter's fear of lack of interest. I can't imagine that it would have had a low turnout. That race was a big event in middle Tennessee. It is unique and a lot of fun! I sure was sad to hear it was not going to happen again this year. I am ready to race!

     The lack of racing gave me time to address some body issues. Both of my gastrocs were tight and sore after the past few weeks of riding. They started to bother me right before Gateway Cup, but really haven't gotten worse. I am not ignoring them this year. I spent the last two winters recovering from pain with exercise and I am not about to do that again. I've also been looking at getting another mountain bike, something I can play on with more travel and the ability to race enduros. I really want 29" wheels so that limits my choices as many manufacturers are putting 27.5" wheels on those types of bikes. I was really motivated to get one after riding my Epic out west on trails that I really could have had more fun on if I'd had a bigger bike, but I just haven't seen anything I really like. The prices of good bikes are getting ridiculous so it's going to have to be the right bike for me to lay down that much cash for it. Hopefully this search won't take as long as it did for me to find the right XC bike.

     We also scored some free tickets to see a college football game just a few days after we got home. My favorite team, the Florida Gators, came to Nashville to face off with the Vanderbilt Commodores. It wasn't a pretty game, but Florida got the win over a Vandy team that is really playing good defense right now. We had fun at the game and enjoyed seeing the Vandy stands with more orange and blue in them than black and gold.

Warm-ups

Game underway

Coach Mac on the sidelines

Lots of orange and blue in the stands

Vandy helicopter landing behind the scoreboard

Video: Clips from Florida vs. Vanderbilt

Epic Rush

     Wednesday turned out to be my last day of riding on our trip. I went over to Corner Canyon in Draper, UT, a place I first rode on our trip last year. I had terrible legs, but they got better as I climbed the canyon. I ended up climbing the full mountain three times. I was just going to do it twice, but after making a run down the Rush Flow trail I just had to go back and do it again. There are some rough spots on the descent where I definitely would have liked more suspension, but the Epic was pretty good for this trail. I just love the confidence I get after these trips to places with big jumps and gnarly trails. I come back home ready to take it to a new level in the skills department.

Climbing at colorful Corner Canyon

     The Fall colors were starting to appear in the valley which made the climb much more tolerable on tired legs. By the time I finished the ride, the legs felt much better. Now it was time for some rest before the Snowbird Ultra Hill Climb coming on Saturday. The weather forecast was not looking great. It was calling for a lot of rain coming on Thursday and into Friday with a chance of snow accumulation in the mountains. I squeezed in my Thursday plans of yard work on Wednesday evening to beat the bad weather. Shannon and I did our annual trimming of the trees, picked grapes, repaired the deck and weeded the landscaping. The beautiful landscaping we did last year was a mess of weeds. The mower of the lawn was shooting the grass into the landscaping beds. The breakdown of the grass blades made for a dirt layer on top of the bark chips. Then weeds grew everywhere and completely covered the bark in some areas. It's always something when it comes to Gma's yard.

Flying down the Rattler trail in Corner Canyon towards Draper

     I was hoping to get some of the delicious apples Gma had on her tree last year. I wanted to take a few seeds home and try to grow a tree like that at our house. But there were only two apples on the tree this year. The first had no seeds. I ate the second apple and set the seeds out in a paper cup, which somebody thought was trash and tossed in the garbage. Maybe next year...

    It didn't rain on Thursday, but it looked nasty all day. Storm after storm came through the valley, all of them curving around West Jordan during daylight hours. The north side of Salt Lake City was not so fortunate. They actually had a tornado touch down in the town of Riverdale, which is pretty rare for this part of Utah. It was sad to see some homes get torn up by the storm, but I was amazed at how the community came together so quickly and got it cleaned up. School was already planned to be out for Friday so a lot of the students came to the aid of their neighbors on their off day. By the end of Friday, a few of the streets looked just like they did before the storm arrived.

    Some of the family came over for their annual cooking contest at the end of the week. That meant some good eating for me. There was a Fall theme, so plenty of apple and pumpkin dishes to fill my belly with before I watched the livestream from CrossVegas to get cross season going.

     I got the disappointing news on Friday that the Hill Climb had been postponed for a week due to the forecast which was looking more and more bleak. The chance of snow now extended all the way down to the valley with large amounts expected in the higher elevations. We went from 80 degrees on Wednesday to holding at 45 degrees for most of the day on Friday and Saturday. I was really bummed that I would not be able to do the race I had set as a target all season, but it was a good call to postpone. The Snowbird Ski Resort received 10 inches of snow at the resort itself, which is where the race transitions from road to trail. Another 3,300 feet further up at Hidden Peak where we were to finish the mountain bike portion of the race got much more. They didn't even bother to measure it. They simply stated there was "feet" of snow up there. Park City got 14 inches by the time Saturday was over. It was a good thing we were planning to leave on Sunday because riding around here was over for a while.

     The weather may have kept us indoors the last few days, but it did not hamper our drive home. We had beautiful weather the entire way. It was the first time I have ever driven across the country without it raining at some point along the way. We pulled an all-nighter again, clocking 24 straight hours to get us back to Tennessee on Monday afternoon.

Snow in the mountains as seen from the end of Gma's driveway as we hit the road for home

Snowy peaks at Park City as we passed by

Lincoln's head was in place on the monument in Laramie, WY this year.

     I was sad that the trip was over, but I was glad to be home. Immediately upon entering the driveway I felt some excitement about working on the house. I haven't had that since June right after we moved in. That first month was so tough that it burned me out for the whole summer. The break was refreshing, but I did wish I could camp a few more days in the Tetons. That was a really cool place.

Can't Get Enough

     After a rest day to start of our time in Utah, I was on my bike first thing Monday morning in Park City. I wanted to do a long day, so with the Snowbird Ultra Hill Climb coming on Saturday it pretty much forced me to do my long day on Monday if I wanted any chance to recover. The weather was perfect! It was the first time I have ever had an XC bike at Park City. It made the climbing much more fun and most of the descents were just as good. The Epic can be quite plush when you back off the Brain valve. I was quite impressed by how good it was on bigger hits and on jumps.

Fall colors on the drive over at Guardsman Pass

     I started with a ride up Bald Mountain on the Deer Valley trails, one of my favorite places to visit when in Park City. I enjoyed the view at the top, then came down the new Tidal Wave trail. Tidal Wave is a massive downhill trail with big jumps and even bigger berms. There are berms so big that you could hide a semi behind them. I kid you not. All of the jumps are super smooth tabletops that are built perfectly. I wasn't going super fast since I was on a carbon Epic, but I still floated right over most of the jumps and landed oh-so-smoothly on the downside. The trail was closed on the bottom third, but I still had fun up top, then finished with some of the trails I have ridden before like Dog Pound, which has some fun wooden obstacles.

Tidal Wave has some big tabletops and nice views

Looking west from Bald Mountain toward Guardsman Pass

Nice view of Park City from these chairs on top of Bald Mountain

Looking south from Bald Mountain. That thing that looks like a cloud on the left of the picture is smoke from a forest fire.

One of my most-favorite views. Overlooking Jordanelle Reservoir.

Rocky peak on Bald Mountain

     I climbed up Empire Pass next for a fun descent down the classic Corvair trail, then worked my way over to the Park City Mountain Resort trails. I couldn't decide which way I wanted to climb up and which descent I wanted to do, so I just did them all. My goal climb for the day was Pinecone Ridge, which I have not climbed in several years. It was just as tough and just as beautiful as I remember. I rode the ridge on a gravel road for an extra mile or two after the summit just to see the fall colors over at the Brighton area.

Empire Pass

Looking toward Park City from Empire Pass

The colors were very bright on the Mid Mountain trail near Pinecone Ridge

The view of Brighton was nice today

     After sightseeing for a bit, I got back on the trails and climbed Scott's Hill to Guardsman Pass before descending back down past Shadow Lake. I went through my favorite trail in Park City, Webster. Somebody beat my Strava KOM this summer so I tried to take it back, but I was a few seconds slower than my PR. My legs just didn't have it as I was over 4 1/2 hours into the ride at this point.

Shadow Lake

     My body was whipped by the time I got back to the car. I ended the ride after 5:35 and 41.7 miles. I climbed over 6,300 feet during the ride, all of it coming at above 8,000 feet elevation. The elevation for the ride ranged from 8,082 feet to 9,949 feet. It was a heck of a day, one of the most fun days on the bike I have had this year. I really didn't want to stop, but my body said that was enough at this kind of elevation.

    Here is some video footage from my handlebar cam as I rode some really sweet singletrack.

Video: Park City riding from the GoPro handlebar cam

     I took the next day off the bike just to let my body rest. I worked on organizing the hundreds of pictures we have taken on the trip thus far. We have so many great shots from Grand Teton and Yellowstone. You really can't take a bad picture in those parks. I also got caught up on the Vuelta a Espana. I thought it was very exciting, as good as the Tour de France in my opinion. Chris Froome's performance in the Stage 19 time trial was amazing. Dude absolutely threw down and took many chances. I never really cared for him because he was so calculated with his race efforts and pretty conservative when it came to attacks. After his attack at the Tour and now this TT, I'm slowly becoming a Froome fan.