2015 Paul's Dirty Enduro

The night before the 2015 edition of Paul's loomed and this year was kind of ominous. I say that as as the evening progressed noted some signs that I was getting sick. Oh, great. Not a third year of Paul's being difficult.

Hoping to at best delay the inevitable, off to bed. Woke up and still felt the same but no worse symptoms. Okay...so not worse but tried to do some damage control. Grabbed some cold meds and making sure to take them with enough time to still cover the race. Hoped for the best. And off to Ganaraska.

Got there and felt okay. At the start since the year so far has not gone as well as hoped and not knowing how the cold would effect the day. Decided to go out harder than a normally do. Well turns out went way faster then I thought for the first 10k, at least what a course marshal said. Which I was okay with as I knew there was more technical coming and would see how it went.

Now, I do admit to losing some time as was laughing. Laughing you say? Well, there was a section of a kind of quad track which had on the right lot's of shrapnel from windfall and such. Lots of potential derailleur benders and wheel destroyers. So...leading into this section a guy had been following closely. Once in the section he half wheeled me a couple of times but said nothing. I held my line as it's the job of the rider making the pass to call the side. Now with a nice big space on my left that three guys abreast could pass you would think he would. But no....without saying a word. Genius goes for the pass on the right through through shrapnel. Yep...brilliant idea. Let's try and wreck your bike so I can't finish. About 4 of us are laughing at what we just saw. Thanks  for the laughs dude.

 Last years bike but lighter parts this year.

After our laugh of the day. It was back to work.

Unfortunately once into the later sections the cold did have an effect. Didn't have the feel to push it like I thought. But there was something else bugging me which I couldn't put my finger on.  But still didn't have the same speed as 4 years ago on the heavier Stylus. But as I mentioned before this year was not a good year riding and fitness wise.

Got to the aid station and heard it was 10k left. So resumed the steady riding for the finish. After some more flowing through the trees and ups and downs came out on the double track back to the start. Crossed the finish line and got a moist hug from the great KT Misner. Who despite barely knowing me and seeing me once a year remembered me, full name, and only interacting via the web. What can you say about that? Especially when she remembered last years  60k of Pain.

Always happy and smiling

Just glad that this year the most was my usual EIA induced coughing fit. A while later it was great to see my Lapdogs teammate Alex Bowling finally nail the 100k.

Thanks for the always great day KT and the evening hanging out with the legendary Paul's race crew. Think next year will finally camp out Saturday night instead after the 30k.

Guide Filing

It takes time to find the right part to meet your application. It is not always easy to do this. Especially when you are not exactly going to fit and forget.

The Mistress V1 has needed a chain guide for sometime which sounds easy. Till you factor in that I will more than likely be needing to modify whatever I get to meet my needs. Made even more challenging when dealing with ISCG old mountings. So knowing I will need to modify in some way it gets a little hard to consider paying $50-100 for new. So lots of stalking EBay and Pinkbike to meet my needs. With many false starts on Pinkbike's buy and sell.

Finally got my hands on a Race Face guide for $20. Once it arrived it was to the work shop to start the mods.

Lower guide parts where not needed so to work with the hacksaw we went. While not pretty it is simple and effective. After cutting a little bit of filing to remove any rough edges and such.

Next phase....mounting.

And installation of cranks with a quick neighbourhood street text.

Rode Route 66 and nary a chain drop. Did some downhill runs today and no chain drop. 

Kingston Cup Half Marathon

Sat Sept 19th was the day of Substance Projects Kingston Cup. And is the last major event prior to Paul's Dirty Enduro aka Riding For My Love. And the way this year has gone my fitness aka waistline is not where I had wanted it to be. Okay...I admit it I am pulling the 3 months of minus 30 and being tag teamed by a line up of various illnesses because no one went outside excuse. And no I won't be posting cutsie Couch Dog Photo's as a distraction. That just wouldn't be my style.

So while I did have insiders knowledge of the trails as I spend many hours riding and doing trail work at the Farm. You never know what Substance Projects course setter is thinking up.

The half marathon course this year was 37km over the singletrack and farm tracks of the http://www.mtbkingston.ca/ system. Sounds good in theory till you add in temps of about 36 degrees celsius then add in supposedly a 75% humidity. Made even harder when you are a Clydesdale and have to work harder than the Greyhounds. In my mind this was the final race before Paul's Dirty Enduro.

 Knowing the easy part of the course at Collins Lake was first plan was to be smart and save energy for Route 66 and Pete's Loop. I knew that these sections where technical especially Route 66 and alot of time could be wasted if not enough energy was saved. This in my mind is where the race actually starts.

Unfortunately screwed up in the beginning as missed the half marathon start by a minute. After a bit of mental ass kicking. Started trying to not over due the ride angry to make up time. Shortly after entering the first singletrack came upon Shannon a friend who had issues with a bent hanger. It became the bike version of the moment in Dante's Peak where the tech is telling everyone to turn around so as to not see the brute force handi work......in this case to a carbon Kona frame. After a few minutes of combat bike surgery. Shannon was back to racing albiet with maybe 4 gears. But better than a mechanical DNF.

After that back to racing. Well kind of as I had to fix a bit of a bike issue and Shannon got away. But eventually caught back up on the long bumpy farm track back. Once the road crossing was done said see you at the finish to Shannon as I could see a rider off in the distance. Maybe it's my time racing Tri and Du especially Tri as a stone with arms swimmer aka the Kenny Souza style triathlete. And being forced to pursue on the bike and run. And have it fully ingrained because my better results are when I am the hunter.

After the Soyfield it was the aid station for a slam down of coke and then into the Fun Track section. Which put us into the first half of home loop. Focused on being smooth and flowing through the track. Then it was Burbrook and a bit of singletrack and then the swamp crossing till reached Route 66.  This is where the work began as Route 66 was designed by Rob to be more like a BC XC trail. So if you keep your focus the whole loops you can nail it. But under race conditions it is a whole different animal as some found out. Made it through no issues other than the right hander around the big rock screwed up the turn. No biggee.

After Route 66 was back across the swamp and through some singletrack back to Burbrook. Then a grind along the gravel of Burbrook to the climb up to Pete's Loop. After a stop at the aid station at the top it was into Pete's. Another trail of rock and twisting fun. It was after leaving the singletrack and coming round the cornfield after ignoring the timer on the bar. I finally took a look and realized I was riding faster than I thought. After stopping again at the aid station before descending the singletrack back down to Burbrook and the grind to the second half of Home Loop.

I had caught and kept close to a guy on a True North singlespeed through all of it. And looking back just before entering the singletrack could see no one behind. Huge ass gap. But about 5 minutes into the last half of Home Loop decided to let him go. I decided I had achieved the goal of the day and it being a training race for Paul's to ride smart....smooth. Though gotta say..nailed the swamp berm perfectly. It turns out this was a smart decision as on the last grunt after the DH and silo panel road. Could feel the heat and low energy levels starting to have an effect. That last hill sucked.

 Was a good day as I had achieved what I set out. Never checked the results as I wasn't concerned. So was surprised to hear I got third in the Clydesdale Category. Happy with that. Guess this means I have to start doing this thing called proper training for next years season.