Beefcakes Bike Blog

Day 5 It’s the day after day 5, so I’ve been sleeping, eating, celebrating, socializing and basically enjoying the company of other similarly weird masocylcists (a new word combining masochism and cycling used to describe a cycling endurance competitor). The last day. There’s a podium spot on the line for me (since the race directors podium has two more spots than most) so I have to give it my all. Day three was my rest and relaxation day. I’m not sure why it ended up like that but sometimes things don’t always work out like we planned, like a career path or a marriage. So now I have no excuses for slow pedaling with a self-defeating attitude. We had a 6 mile paved road start then some technical climbing, followed by gravel climbing, more technical climbing, a super technical downhill, gravel, more technical up and down then gravel up and one last hurrah of a technical down. Overall, today’s course was on par with the four prior days but slightly leaning towards the technical side of t...

Ok. So I finally rode like I know I can. It took three days in a five day stage race to get some legs under me. Today’s route started from the Black Mountain Trailhead, otherwise known as “smokers cove”. The route included some of the second most technical trails in the forest I call home. We climbed up over Black Mountain via Thrift Cove then crossed Turkey Pen to Squirrel Gap. Lots of single track! Since I had my little vacation ride yesterday it was time to move. I started near the front of the pack and settled in around 15th or so. We had a rough climb up to Turkey Pen but I’ve completed that climb at race pace over eight times for other events, so I was ready for the ensuing pain for the next two hours. To my advantage, many of the other fellows in my class did not know what was before them and how to gage their effort. I finished the climb, crossed the 7 mile ridge and continued. Another twenty minutes of gear grinding went by and in the middle of the forest, I heard cowbells a ...

Day 3 All I can compare this feeling to is 2-a-day summer football practices. Although I definitely do not hate cycling. Today was billed as 9,000 feet elevation gain and 40 miles. My legs feel otherwise. Since the first two days of this adventure were rough, I decided to chill today. Chill I did. We had a running start to the bikes then a quick downhill to the main trail. Often a race promoter will make the racers run to their bikes from a distance of up to ¼ mile +/- but in todays start we had to do a summersault of some sort in the middle of the run. With me, summersaults died out with the last days of park rides that go round and round. Needless to say, my start was slow. I predetermined starting at the back of the pack and keeping myself from the front line hoopla. Trying to maintain a pace I’m not used to kicked my butt the last two days. My theory is that if you start in the back the only way you can go is up. My plan worked and I took my sweet time. I lost two spots in the over...

Day 2 Felt better this morning and actually got a good warm up under my belt. Thought it was going to be a better day then yesterday then cramps set in on the first third of squirrel gap. I passed a few fellows in my class and thought it was all coming together then crash - not into a tree, not like Dave Mathews but like I was going to barf or who knows what. I kept going, despite how horrible I felt. I guess I was dehydrated. Hammer Gel products in liquid form other than gels evidently disagree with my stomach. I can’t seem to absorb heed or any of that stuff. We’ll see if that was a contributing factor to my slow, slow, slow time today. I’m still in 4th due to some unfortunate mechanical problem to the fellow who was in first. I’ll try to bust a move tomorrow. Maybe the legs will cooperate. Off to bed. 4th in class. 40.31 miles. Max speed of 29.5. race time of 5 hours 12 minutes. 8.4 avg speed.

PMBST –Day 1 “Look mummy , there’s an aero plane up in the sky” – this lyric from oh so long ago sums up my somber mood for the beginning of the first day of the Pisgah Mountain Bike Stage Race. Most was perfect: the sky, the temperature, trail conditions, bike…everything except for my somber, melancholy attitude. I felt peaceful, speculative, wondering, almost out of sorts with the world and just there. I should be happy. I mean another week off work, 5 days on the bike, the best trails I know, the trails I love most…my trails. Maybe I need a lift. Spirits low, non-existent, where are you spirits? This is my first stage race. How should I feel? What does the rule book say? Is there an emotional rule book? There’s a book on etiquette but that won’t suit the situation. No. I have my own rules. And my rules are fine. There’s no right or wrong, just be and enjoy. A somber start on day one is no big deal. There’s still day 2, 3, 4 and 5, God willing. Hopefully the caldera known as Yello...

“Where’s this David Cook guy?” ripped me out of a semi relaxed state of welcomed non-stimulus after 101 miles of rushing thoughts, focus, attentiveness and sweat. I was sitting on the grass, cross legged, eyes closed, with my back against the blow up Kenda banner at the race finish. Apparently another Clydesdale racer didn’t like seeing his name in second place on the results page because he was questioning the race director for David Cook and a scale. Much to this fellows surprise, “he’s right here” directed at him from my mouth with the same tone he addressed the race director, seemed to stop him in his tracks. I guess he heard me, but assumed someone would present them self to him. I didn’t. I knew what he wanted…my digits on a scale. The race director, went for the scale with said questioning racer in tow. The racer came back to where he heard me announce my presence from the comfort of my make shift Kenda pillow and was looking around. I looked up at him and said “I’...

Pisgah Mountain Bike Adventure Race 2010. I've finished last in this race and now I've finished 8th. Wide spread. So is Pisgah. So is the difference in my mind, body and soul compared to how it was when i arrived in Hendersonville in 2004. I knew it would be hard here, but not to the extent it is. Now i know why mountain people often emanate a quiet presence...with hard skin and a squint in their eyes. They know what hard living is but the beauty of the mountains and all the mountains give is worth the price we pay. That price is acknowledged by the silence. Yes it's hard here. We overcome. We realize lack and shed layers of glitter but end up with all we need, sometimes more. Hard. Ever seen the winners? I have maybe once or twice. Spoke to a winner before. He didn't talk much and his skin looked hard, clothes worn and he carried an air of unspoken mountain confidence...the quiet kind that makes some people uncomfortable. Yeah, you know he could crank out 50 miles or 1...

i don't have kids. i don't have a real job. iv'e non verbally dedicated my present life to self gratification via bicycle. by nothing else do i measure my success, with exception of woman. but woman seems to measure her successes in similar fashion. am i wrong? maybe. am i correct? maybe. does it matter once i'm dead? no. so why should it matter now if i have successfully brought a company to a 50 billion IPO? it shouldn't. fuck it. i'm going to Dupont. it's how i measure up. if it's wrong on your ruler, use mine. peace. your rules rule...so do mine.

This was supposed to be a 70-80 miler but as things went along i thought "ah, why not?". Started as the "Flat Rock Village Bakery" Saturday morning road ride at 9. We rolled down the water shed, cranked two laps around camp old indian, hit Hwy 11, Oak Grove, Lake Lanier, Tryon, Mill Spring, Green River Switch backs, Thompson, Fork Creek, Greenville St to Saluda, 176, roper, flat rock, little river, middleton, crail farm, old kanuga, 2 and 1/2 laps around Osceola then to the crib. tired as all get out. things went swell till mile 75 then i got tired. Joe and Cissy and David G. and Alexis came along as well but DG and Alexis split off after first lap of camp old indian casuse they had better stuff to do than suffer with Joe, Cissy and myself. Joe gets the spirit award for starting to feel great around mile 75 and puttin on the hurt. Cissy gets the "back to back" ribbon for mountain biking 7 hours in Pisgah till the wee hours of the evening on Friday then get...

I'll call this route "hilly from the hood" because i leave from my hood and travel through some of the more (put on your best Mr. Howell-speak down your nose voice) "well to do" neighborhoods of the area. Some wonderful climbing though. 03/08/2010 Route Find more Bike Rides in Hendersonville, North Carolina

What's a wheel? Isn't that cheese? or something you spin and hope your ticker doesn't designate bankrupt? No biking since early December. I vaugely remember a mental note to "buy the chris king lubricating tool" for that fancy bottom bracket that's barely spun enough to substantiate it's super cost. Stir Crazy I am. So run i must. It started with a run/walk jaunt along the beach in Isabella, Puerto Rico - where it is sunny and warm, not frozen and icy. Here is my longest run for 2010 (and 2009 and 2008 and 2007 and 2006): 01/19/2010 Route auction day Find more Runs in Hendersonville, North Carolina It was pain, in that good way. Maybe doors are opening up that were once closed...like adventure racing???? mucho tacos amigos.

Is it better to be calm and centered in your enviornment when it's 12 degrees and miserable or frustrated and pissed off in a warm place in the middle of winter. Yin and Yang prevails in my life...a constant reminder of the other side. Just remember, whatever you experience has an equal or opposite side that you will also encounter. If you are down in the dumps an opposite good time will be around the corner and vice-versa. Yin and Yang makes the world go round.