[blog.]mountainbike.pro

Freestyle Swimming

The National Duathlon Festival’s Off-Road Sport race was my first multisport event.  The event I raced consisted of trail running, mountain biking and more trail running.  I have become very aware of my abilities (or lack thereof) and limitations in both trail running and mountain biking.  I spent a lot of time on the trails to prepare for the race and my hard work paid off.  I was very happy with how I did in the race and I had a blast.  I’m now hooked on multisports.

Now I’m getting ready for the XTERRA Sport triathlon.  If I maintain what I have with running and kick up my mountain biking a bit, I will be good-to-go with those. Swimming, however, is a big unknown. So I spent some time in the pool at my gym recently to get a feel for my ability.

I’ve found that I’m terrible at swimming.  I’m honestly surprised by how much I suck at it.  None of the cardio benefits from biking and running seem to have transferred to swimming and I definitely feel like I’m starting from ground zero.  My race is a month away and I don’t know how I’m going to pull this off.

The swim portion of the race is 500 meters of open water in the James River.  I think that if I can finish 750 meters non-stop in the pool, I’ll be able to deal with the current and getting kicked in the face by other swimmers.  And I don’t need to be able to swim it fast.  Getting the swim done in a certain amount of time is something I will worry about next year.  This year I want to focus on not getting hauled out of the river by a rescue boat.  750 meters may not seem like much, but currently the most I can swim without needing to rest (gasp desperately for air) is 50 meters.

My brute force approach of just getting to the other end of the pool seems to be wasting more energy that I have to spare.  And no amount of conditioning will make up for my complete lack of technique. Watching other swimmers glide though the water lap after lap makes me realize that I’m missing some key pieces of information that would make my life a lot easier.  Some quick googling gave me the answer:

I am doing everything wrong.  This is just one of the guy’s videos. Click here to see more. He does a great job of explaining it so simply that a complete newbie like me can understand. I have a lot of work to do.

Hopefully I can remember all of these pointers when I’m in the pool.  As long as I keep finding time to train (spring is such a busy time of the year) and get this swimming thing down, my first triathlon will be a success.

2007/2008 XTERRA East Championship Highlights

From 2007

Also from 2007. Longer video. Shows a lot of the Urban Assault mountain bike race, which is now part of Dominion Riverrock instead of XTERRA.

From 2008

It’s nice to see such experienced riders working so hard to ride our local trails. Watching these videos is getting me pumped up for the XTERRA and Dominion Riverrock races.

Belle Isle vehical bridge reopened

River District News is reporting that the vehicle bridge on the south side of Belle Isle has been reopened.

The article quotes a press release from the city that mentions that the re-opening of the bridge “provides a safe method of travel for emergency vehicles”.  Emergency vehicle access is really important as the weather improves and more people spend hot days sunning on the rocks and playing in the water.  But more importantly, the re-opening of the bridge will allow a vehicle to drive down to drain the port-o-poty.

I made the mistake of entering the port-o-poty back in February and it was one of the most disgusting things I had ever seen.  A park employee told me that no one had been able to drive down to change it out since the bridge was closed.  I imagine that the guy that ended up changing it out was either the new guy, or someone that lost a bet with his coworkers.

The re-opening of the bridge is good news for anyone interested in the XTERRA races, the Urban Assault or next year’s Duathlon.  It’s also good for people riding the Buttermilk/Northbank loop.  We’ve had to resort to throwing our bikes over the barricade and climbing over to avoid a detour over the rocks or the Lee Bridge.

Here’s an article that talks about the initial closing of the bridge and has a picture of the barricade.

Domininon Riverrock

More evidence that Richmond is an awesome place for the outdoor/active lifestyle.

The Sports Backers site for the Dominion Riverrock has a list of events.  The most exciting event is the Urban Assault mountain bike race (ok, I’m a little biased).  I won’t be riding it but I hope to next year.

Here’s a blurb about the course:

Competitors will choose between an 8 mile or 15 mile loop of the famous James River Park trails, which are considered one of the most technically challenging urban trail systems. The mountain bike course includes steep up hill and down hill single track trails, stairs over railroad tracks, tunnels, bridges, creek crossings and lots of natural obstacles. This is not your normal mountain bike course. Leave the beach comber bike in the garage for this one, mountain bikes only.

Here’s the course description:

The start is the same for both races:

Start on Tredegar Street heading west and cross over to Belle Isle underneath the Lee Bridge. Take a left turn after the pedestrian bridge towards the east end of Belle Isle and right turn onto the “Lost Trail”. Make a left turn when you exit the “Lost Trail” and ride over the vehicle access bridge to the south side of the river. Follow the fire road past the 22nd St. stairs, past the Nature Center/Reedy Creek to the 42nd St stairs. Climb the 42nd St. stairs and ride the trail taking the higher of the options. You will shortly come to a “T” intersection.

From this point follow the directions below depending on your race:

Short Course:

The riders will start at the vehicle access bridge to Brown’s Island and go west on Tredegar Street.  They will go behind the Belle Isle parking lot and head west on the North Trail.  At the Texas Avenue Parking lot they will exit and go left on Kansas Avenue.  At the end of Kansas Avenue they will rejoin the North Trail.  At the end of the North Trail, you will stay to your right and cross over the Boulevard Bridge.  After crossing the bridge stay to your right and get on the Buttermilk trail heading east.  Stay on this to the Lee Bridge.  You will then ride against traffic on the western side of the bridge and exit at the 2nd street on ramp.  You will then take the road to your left and up a steep hill before descending onto the gravel road that you will then u-turn on and take to the east and finish by 5th Street.

Long Course:

This will be a giant lollipop course.  The riders will start at the vehicle access bridge to Brown’s Island and go west on Tredegar Street.  They will go behind the Belle Isle parking lot and head west on the North Trail.  At the Texas Avenue Parking lot they will exit and go left on Kansas Avenue.  At the end of Kansas they rejoin the North Trail.  At the end of the North Trail you will stay to your right and cross over the Boulevard Bridge.  After crossing the bridge stay to your right and get on the Buttermilk trail heading east.  When you get to Reedy Creek you will make a right through a tunnel and do a 3.7-mile loop in Forest Hill Park.  When you leave Forest Hill Park you will rejoin the buttermilk trail to the east and drop down the 22nd street stairs.  You will head west on the gravel road.  At the 42nd Street stairs you will go up and head west on the Buttermilk trail to the Boulevard Bridge.  After crossing the bridge you will turn left and re-enter the North Trail but this time heading east.  Take the North Trail back to the Lee Bridge.  Stay straight under the Lee Bridge to the finish at 5th Street.

Other events I’m looking forward to are the free concerts and the James River Scramble 10k Trail Run.  The run is definitely a blast.

Swine Flu Ground Zero

No need to panic quite yet.  A helpful website has been created that is able to determine, through the miracle of modern internet technology, if you have contracted swine flu.

Bike Trials (not trails) Riding

This guy is pretty incredible:

From the description on YouTube:

Filmed over the period of a few months in and around Edinburgh by Dave Sowerby, this video of Inspired Bicycles team rider Danny MacAskill features probably the best collection of street/street trials riding ever seen. There’s some huge riding, but also some of the most technically difficult and imaginative lines you will ever see. Without a doubt, this video pushes the envelope of what is perceived as possible on a trials bike.

It’s the kind of thing that I shouldn’t watch before I go riding.

Apparently this style of riding is called Bike Trials (not trails) Riding.  I had seen it before but I never knew what it was called.  Here’s the wikipedia article about the style.

If you click through to YouTube you can see a lot more videos from these guys.

Sweetwater 420

Happy 420 everyone!

Recently some friends and I went to Asheville, North Carolina for a bachelor party.  On this trip our friend introduced us to the nectar of the gods known as Sweetwater 420 Extra Pale Ale.  We fell in love with this brew over the long weekend and a few of us brought cases of it north to our homes where Sweetwater 420 can’t be found.  The last of my stash ended up in the recycle bin a few days ago and I’m still barely able to cope.

The beer is relatively light which makes it a crowd-pleaser.  But it’s also complex and balanced enough to draw in the beer snob.  It’s hoppy in a light, floral, cirtiusy sense, without being overly hoppy or bitter.  It’s  just enough hops get your attention and make you notice the other subtle characteristics of this beer.

This brewery is in Atlanta.  Currently distribution goes as far north as some cities in North Carolina.  I’ve heard that the reason it isn’t in Virginia yet is because of a trademark issue with the Sweetwater Tavern which has its own brewery.  I don’t know if this is truly the case but, if so, hopefully they can work something out.  As for now the best we can do is hope that stores in the closest North Carolina city, Raleigh, start carrying it (which they should in a couple of weeks), and that any friends coming north to visit make a stop in North Carolina to pick us up a few cases.

I would point you to their website for more info, but their site is terrible.  Here it is if you want an example of how unusable a website can be.  Here is the (slightly more usable) site for the Sweetwater 420 Festival going on right now in Atlanta.  I bet it’s a lot of fun.

RIP Blue Collar MTB

I was checking my RSS feeds this morning and I saw this when I clicked on the feed for Blue Collar Mountain Biking:

“Thanks For Reading!” can only mean one of two things.  The optimist in me wants to think that they’re giving away free gear to all of their faithful readers.  The realist in me knows that the site is a goner.  So I click on the link to find out who’s right.

What a sad day.  When I first got my bike and started riding I quickly needed pointers.  This blog became my favorite.  The authors were cool and each had their own style.  The tips and advice they gave was down-to-earth and perfect for a beginner like me.  The most helpful to me as I was starting out were the post about when to go clipless and the post about which pedals people prefer.  I ended up getting a pair of  Shimano shoes and Time ATAC pedals and I love them both.

Their archives have so much valuable information for beginners that I hope they keep the site up for a long time.  I definitely recommend checking them out if you ever need mountain biking advice or knowledge.

I’ve already added their RSS feed for their new site to my favorites and I wish them well.

Course Preview – National Duathlon Festival Off-Road Sport Race

Yesterday my buddy and I spent the morning (Easter Sunday) exploring the National Duathlon Festival Off-Road Sport Race course. The race consists of a 5k trail run, 11k bike (mountain) and a 3k trail run. The National Duathlon Festival website had maps of last year’s courses, but the race organizers definitely needed to change them due to repairs being done to the Belle Isle vehicle bridge. So we were exploring the area trying to guess how the course would be revised.

Following last year’s course maps we ran from the Tredegar parking lot, along the Northbank trail to the turn-around point for the 5k section, and then back to Tredegar. It was not quite as challenging as I thought it was going to be. The trail is very narrow in sections, which wouldn’t be a big deal, except for the fact that any quick divergence from the trail could result in a long fall down an embankment.  It’s really difficult to image people running both directions on the trail at the same time.  But this trail has been used before for the race, so we figured that this section wouldn’t change because access to the trail isn’t affected by the Belle Isle vehicle bridge issue.

Next we tried to figure out which bridge the race organizers would use for the biking course to get from the transition point to the Buttermilk trail. We rode our bikes along the same course as the James River Scramble 10k which brought us east to the 14th Street bridge and west along the floodwall. Using this bridge to get to the south side of the James River was more out of the way than we had expected and was obviously not the route they would pick. After looking around we realized that the Lee Bridge would be the best choice. But how they would make up for the mileage lost by bypassing Belle Isle?

Well, today we got our answer (opens pdf).

Run #1

The 5k run course leaves transition and takes runners to Belle Isle via the footbridge. The course will loop the gravel road around the base of the island and turn left to the top of the island. On top of the island the route will do a complete loop of the top of the island before descending a trail off the south east side of the island. The missing trail on the east end of the island will bring the runners back to the footbridge and back to transition.

It’s pretty disappointing to see that the Northbank Trail run got axed completely. Running over the footbridge to Belle Isle is boring, and running on Belle Isle is also boring. There are a few singletrack sections on the hill at Belle Isle, but the course is now only about 10% trail. The rest is the footbridge (concrete) and gravel road (booo). Here is the track of the new Run #1 course

Bike

The bike course will leave transition and go across the Lee Bridge on the vehicle portion (which will be coned off from the cars) of the road. The course goes parallel to Riverside drive and then goes down the stairs at 22nd street. The course goes west along a gravel road until the 42nd Street stairs. Go up the stairs and stay to the right. This trail will do a cloverleaf and head back toward the east. Stay on the Buttermilk trail and take a right turn into Forest Hill Park just after crossing the Reedy Creek parking lot. You will make a right turn across the concrete bridge and around a parking lot before heading down the lake. Once at the lake, take the trail back to the pipes under Riverside Drive. Head east on the Buttermilk trail until the Lee Bridge. Take the Lee Bridge back to transition.

The original course for the biking course used Belle Isle. While running on Belle Isle is pretty boring, biking on Belle Isle is slightly less boring. The gravel road parts go by faster and the challenge of the climbs and the singletrack section are a lot more fun. The new course completely bypasses Belle Isle and compensates by adding in some of the trails in Forest Hill Park. Adding these trails instead of Belle Isle definitely makes the biking section a lot more challenging. I’m not 100% sure about how the course will work going in to Forest Hill, but I plan on checking it out this coming weekend.

After riding the Buttermilk this past weekend I’ve realized that parts of it are a lot more technical than I remember. I’ll definitely need to spend some time down there to figure out which technical sections I can complete in the saddle and which ones I will have to bail on and walk. There are a few that I might master before the race but I’m definitely not too proud to hoof the rest.

Here is the track of the new Bike course

Also, here are a couple of videos I found on YouTube of Forest Hill and the Buttermik. The Forest Hill video also includes some footage of the Buttermilk trail.

(YouTube blocked the audio from the first one due to copyright issues. Just play some music while you watch it.)

(The music on this one is kind of cutesy. You might want to mute it and listen to some Rage Against the Machine instead.)

Run #2

The 3k run leaves transition and goes to Belle Isle via the foot bridge. After a short loop on Belle Isle the runners will cross back on the footbridge and return to transition.

There is nothing cool about the second Run secition of the race. It just burns off some mileage. I’m still baffled by the fact that they cut out the Northbank section. It would have been so much fun.

Here is the track of the new Run #2 course.

Hopefully next year the courses will be back to normal. I’m a little nervous about the biking section of the race, but I’m sure that I’ll feel better once I spend some more time on the trails. But I’m not too proud to walk sections and I’m not afraid of being last. I just want to get my first multisport race under my belt.

I also want to get my grubby hands on the slick backpack they give to the participants:

Changing it up

Around this time last year I ran the Shamrock half marathon.  It was my first half marathon and I finished with an average pace that, while not fast by any stretch of the imagination, was a lot faster than I had anticipated.  At the time I felt that the obvious next step for me would have been to complete a full marathon.  It’s now a year later I’ve finally come to grips with the fact that I really have no desire to run a full marathon.

Since that first race I’ve run a few more half marathons, a 15k, some 10k’s and a bunch of shorter races.  Training for these races has become my hobby.  Running is relaxing.  It’s a nice break from my daily stresses and a great time to think about stuff without distractions.  And afterwards I’m left feeling a lot better about life than I did before the run.

But it’s also tedious.  Hanging out drinking beer on Friday night isn’t as fun when you have a 10 mile run the next day.  I might as well write off any chance of hanging out by the fire pit with my buddies until the wee hours of the morning.  Having these long runs hanging over my head every weekend gets old quick.  The thought of multiplying the tedium to get ready for a full marathon gives me a knot in my stomach.  Which brings me to my point.  A full marathon, while still not out of the question, is definitely not my next step.  My next step is multisports.

Don’t get me wrong.  The commitment required for multisports training isn’t any less than for full marathons.  In fact, it’s probably more of a commitment.  But at least it doesn’t consist of running, rest, running, rest and more running.  I can feel better about going to bed early if I know that I’m doing it for a reason other than just being ready to run really far the next day.

My legs and cardio are ready for my 2nd running of the Shamrock half marathon.  My only goals for the race are to beat my time from the year before and to avoid injury.

The thing that excites me most about the race is that once it’s over I will start training for some multisport races.  I’m going to ride the local trails with a purpose, start looking at upgrading my road bike, and spend some time figuring out the whole swimming thing.  I’ll still enjoy running but I’m happy that it won’t be the main focus.