Mystical Wiss

I made it out to the park late last night to get some riding in on my cross bike, its been warm here so a nice misty fog had settled on the trail. My light beam lit up the little molecules of water hanging in the air, I got up to speed, the music was good and I hammered away into a vapor cloud training ride. I thought of The Flying Scotsman. I thought about how last weeks cross race, the Hillbilly Hustle v.3 was one of the most enjoyable races I had ever done. I thought about pushing a bigger gear, the bike was skipping across the trail, losing contact with the ground, I though about nothing and just enjoyed the speed I was able to make the bike go.


"The Cave of Kelpius"

I have always wanted to know more about the monks of the Wissahickon, I'm ordering the book "Woman in the Wilderness" by Jonathan D. Scott.




Made it again to Wissahickon, this morning for a ride with Anthony, got some MTB'ing in, tried out his new 69er, which is cool. and just in general had a nice time. cheers. dlowe

F' Trebon, Wicks, TJ, Powers, Wells, ect. We've got CHARLES!

I ended up 13th in the C race of the Hillbilly Hustle, but I beat everyone named Charles. There were 3 Charles' in the race. I had just caught a group of 4 sitting in top ten when I crashed in a tight right turn. Then I made the mistake of letting two guys get me at the end. Rookie mistakes.
Pulling a Erik Mitchel, I decided to hop in the B race and not get lapped. I was just barely successful at achieving that goal and did not come in last.
This race report makes me think of the Primus song, "Jerry was a race car driver, drove so goddamn fast, never did win a checkered flag, but he never came in last."
Charles

Stan's to the rescue

So Sunday at the Hillbilly Hustle I flatted on the last lap. Flats are a horrible consequence in any form of racing, but the last lap of a cross race just plain sucks. Worst yet when your running tubulars, $80 - $100 a tire when it goes flat at the beginning of the season sucks. That was until last year when I invested $10 in a little device from Stans No Tube. If you are a mountain biker then you have no doubt messed with Stans tire sealant before or at least your shop has setup a wheelset or two. Stans is amazing stuff and with the Injector kit, saves you the money and hassle of dealing with a new tire. It also makes the tire hold air for an extremely extended time. I put Stans in a tubular last December and it still had air it in June. So last night after I woke up from my post race meal coma, I injected the flat tire with a scoop of sealant. I went ahead and injected the other tire along with my spare wheelset. I pumped each tire to about 50psi and I'm glad to announce that each tire was rock hard this morning. Sealing up four wheels took me about 35 minutes and 1 beer. Well worth it if you ask me!

Later readers

Nick

Race preperations

I've slipped into my Kurta Pajamas, and cracked a couple of beers.

I'm a grip, sometimes I work hard, that's me on the left pushing the dolly. Maybe about a 60' run, tracking a guy throwing a javelin. We did the run a dozen or so times. Good cross workout, right? Well I like the standard stuff better, you know, intervals, tempo, skills. I got out on my cross bike today with Chad, putzed about, did some of those leg opening stuff, up the back side of parachute hill, cranking it up over the top and bombed down the chute and on to belmont plateau. A few efforts and I think I'm ready for the Hillbilly Hustle. My friend Kevin gave the Kurta PJ's, he also gave me some good advice, its simple, you gotta "believe you can do it", seriously, all them cow bells a ringing, recognizing your friends voice yelling you on, knowing that there is a red plastic cup of beer waiting for you, it all really helps.