Race report: XC at Pine Mountain; Cloudy, OK

[ccdhowell]

I know I'm late getting this report up, for the same reason that I'm not at Trikefest. I just got back into town from a weeklong Cyberspace Discovery Camp at Louisiana Tech University. My boss is trying to be first in on all things cyberspace and he sent me to attend what turned out to be 20+ hour days of intense emersion cyber learning and frankly, I'm getting to old for this scit and I don't care enough to sustain me for that many hours a day. I made it through and will stop bitchin now cause I really don't ever complain, I usually just suck-it-up, but I hadn't expected what I got and I'm still not over the shock of it all.

I did race Sunday June 8 on my big new Maxxis 4speed tires front and rear. For those of you that may have followed my previous thread on big tires on my Raptor and that debate, I have to say that the Raptor is totally different on giant rubber; it pushes like a Mack truck in the tighter courners, won't slide nearly as well as with the 20" rears, and my I would have sworn my new Gibson stick stabilizer had fallen off a quarter of the way through the first lap, I didn't think it was working with the big rubber(it was doing it's best). Anyway, one important thing that the big rubber can do and did for me in this race is handle the rocks. The 10.3 mile race course was up, down, around, and through Pine mountain, which means rocks, and plenty of them. No water or mud, just dry rocks, everywhere and the big tires gave me a distict advantage; point-and-shoot capability. Hell, I just aimed the big Raptor at a field of rocks and nailed the throttle, the big tires glided right over the tops of even the bigest rocks on the trail. It was really cool and was an advantage. I didn't have to pick and choose my way through any of the boulder fields like everyone else and the tires being made for heavier quads made for a stiffer sidewall that is plenty tough and stood up well on all the rocks. I give a big thumbs up for the new rubber, and I will use them again, on the right course, at the right time.

The start was a left-hand 90* turn about 30 yeards after the start and a 90* right-hander 50 or so yards farther on before you hit the woods. I started on the far outside right; put me on the outside of turn one and inside of turn two. I was fourth after turn two and headed into the woods. The tires were great, I needed more practice on them and I bet I coulda gone faster. Third place slowly pulled away from me over the course of the first three miles or so. I held fourth down solid for a little more than 7 miles before I overshot a corner and one rider got around me. At the nine mile marker on lap one I looked back and saw a fast rider from the class that started behind me, I waved him by on the left, too bad for me there were two riders from my class on his tail and I couldn't get the door closed fast enough to prevent those two from getting by...now I'm running seventh, bummer. I went through the scoring shoot for lap one in seventh, 18 seconds behind the sixth place rider. Ran a 30 minute lap.

I guess I'm not in as good of shape as I thought and it was danged hot, I started fatiging on the second lap. The big front tires were beating the hell out of my arms; I woulda sworn my steering stabilizer had fallen off, I was actually surprized to see it still attached and in working order at the end of the race. I'm really not proud to say that two riders got past me on lap two and I only turned a 35 minute lap. I slowed down 5 minutes on lap two; just makes me mad when I think about it. I spend hours at the gym every week, I'm running 15 to 18 miles a week with some time spent on weight machines too...all for naught. Nah, not really, just need to set my sights a little higher and push a little harder at the gym. What I really need is a riding partner to push me so I can practice as hard as I race. The real problem is that I never can ride as hard when practicing as when racing, not even close. Seems to me that I should practice hard, but can't seem to get the adrenaline up and running during practice. Any suggestions on this would be great. I don't need to whimp out of another race like I did on this one, leaves too big a hole in my psychie.

:beer , Chris

Just after the start, I'm number 443.
http://216.77.188.54/coDataImages/p/Groups/345/345135/folders/289991/2320975DSC06875.JPG
http://216.77.188.54/coDataImages/p/Groups/345/345135/folders/289991/2320976of50,590,392.jpg

Somewhere on the track.
http://216.77.188.54/coDataImages/p/Groups/345/345135/folders/289991/2320977of50,590,394.jpg

http://216.77.188.54/coDataImages/p/Groups/345/345135/folders/289991/2320978of50,590,393b.jpg

http://216.77.188.54/coDataImages/p/Groups/345/345135/folders/289991/2320979of50,590,393nnnnnnnnnn.jpg

[BigGreenMachine]

Very cool Chris! Going back to the smaller rubber next race?

[ccdhowell]

James, I'm gonna let track conditions direct which tire combination I run. The big rubber worked well in the last race with lots of rocks and not allot of twisty turn sections. In fact, this was the ideal track, short of the mud race back in March, for these tires. I would not have run them at Cisco, Texas even though that track had rocks, there were too many twisty high-speed sections through the woods. The big rubber doesn't slide well at all, you have to drive it through a corner, feels funny, different. It's not hard changing sets of tires, I also changed the front sprocket which takes about 20 minutes. Maybe 30 minutes total to do a swap.

Chris

[The Goat]

just wanted to suggest, if you can find a mma gym in your area...those guys know more about full body endurance training than most athletes in other sports would care to admit...and advice should be free for the most part.

also, if you get some light gloves with a wrist brace and do body shots to a heavy bag, you can considerably strengthen your arms, and over time the hollow spheroids inside your bones used to absorb impact will fill with calcium. long story short, nothing should be able to jar you too badly.

glad to hear those big tires have their time and place.

I'm gonna be hitting the horizontal legpress consistently for the next few weeks, kicking this 350x straight down aggravates a bad knee, so I get to build muscle to wack it from the seat.

[ccdhowell]

if you get some light gloves with a wrist brace and do body shots to a heavy bag, you can considerably strengthen your arms, and over time the hollow spheroids inside your bones used to absorb impact will fill with calcium. long story short, nothing should be able to jar you too badly.

I like this idea allot. I had not thought of adding a bag to the routine, I may ask my gym manager to put one in, can't hurt to ask. I don't think we have a mma gym in the area, but I'll check around with some friends.

Thanks man, this is the kind info I'm looking for.

Chris

[SYKO]

also to reduce arm fatige and wrist fatiqe go with a thin style handlebar gripp, like renthal or otherwise a larger grip makes it harder to hold onto the bars wich makes it harder on your arms, also use street bike gloves, instead of mx gloves, some are super thin but extrememly durable, I have been using the same ones for 4 years now! racing and riding! I find that If I can gripp the whole way around a gripp I dont have any fatige in my arms or hands/wrists, but if ride my gfs blaster with big thick orley grips my arms and hands hurt like hell only after a few minutes. try it out man I think it may help you out some.

[250rfan]

In may experiance, training in the gym and dieting will take you so far, but nothing
prepares you better than actual time spent on the quad practising.

In my opinoin there's fit and there's RACE fit.

Ye, train in the gym and eat well but you need to put lots of time in on YOUR bike, the fastest guys i know spend hours and hours training on the track and racing most weekends.

[ccdhowell]

In may experiance, training in the gym and dieting will take you so far, but nothing
prepares you better than actual time spent on the quad practising.

In my opinoin there's fit and there's RACE fit.

Ye, train in the gym and eat well but you need to put lots of time in on YOUR bike, the fastest guys i know spend hours and hours training on the track and racing most weekends.

I know, hard to find a place to practice XC racing, maybe I could go up to our local MX track and just ride the track. At least I would be riding and taking the wrist and arm abuse that I'm gonna need to get over this hump.


Syko, I would have thought just the oposite. I am a big guy with big hands and I was looking for big grips. I have Ouray grips on my Quadracer and like them.

Chris

[The Goat]

back in highschool, while lifting, I'd punch an old wooden door in between lifts. at first, it hurt my hands ungodly amounts and cut the knuckles...after about 6 months, i could punch something that doesn't yield as hard as possible and not feel it. the nerves in the skin were gone, but more importantly, the bones in your hands and arms get ridiculously hard.

also...the more you hit that heavy bag, try to consistently hit it while its moving, it'll strengthen the muscles in your wrists, but be warned, if you screw up and hit it oddly, you're gonna know it. it's gonna feel just like your bars jerked the hell out of you.