Centerlockness Monster Crossness

All Hands on Deck: Handmade mug, handmade frame.

Today started off innocently enough. A nice lay in after a night of Primus at the Ryman with the Clays of Clayetteville. Some routine bike maintenance and prepping for a mid-morning ride with the pup.

Are we gonna ride ride sometime today?

A lil' taste of PMBAR for today's ride. 

A short catch up chat with a sleepy H. who's working her 4th weekend in a row and whom I'd not seen nor spoken to since early Friday morning, then off to ride. Initially I'd planned to do a 30-ish mile road ride then grab the Moots, the pup and head out back for an hour of trail riding capping it off with a swim. But the temp outside was way too nice to waste on pavement and it was time to run the pup down, or at least attempt to.

Seriously, sometime today?

I've had to make some changes due to my work schedule (or lack of schedule) and it's taken me a while to adjust to the changes. My annoying stomach issue has also pushed the change along. No more can I enjoy the long hours on the bike or the ample time to ride. An hour here, forty-five minutes there, maybe two hours over there is about all I can regularly get. I also have a very active and bored-with-yard-captivity year old pup who deserves (demands) some attention, along with the daily chores of life and maintenance needs of many things. The short free hours are stretched thin, but I'm adapting.

Woohoo!

With all the endurance races passing me by due to work weekends, I'm trying to adapt from long distance / endurance / steady-eddie rider to short (shrinking isn't easy), fast, power rider. Which is something with which I'm not really all that adept. The focus now is on preparing for the self flagellating that is cyclocross racing. I'm probably sabotaging myself with my regularly irregular "training" regime too. One that looks more like something taken from the book of T.roy training methodology (50k run plan, eh?) than of the more proven tactics, but you use what you have available and I've got irregularity galore (no not that kind).

It's still several months out before cross season, but it's all I have to look forward to at this juncture (though I'm still anxiously awaiting a date (edit: Nov 27th, book it!) for the gravel grovel and will be keeping to some distance work to try to defend my rock). I don't really have much faith in my transformation. I've never been one who can just pin it from the gun for as long as needed. I pretty much rev it up, hold it as high as I can and try to out steady the other contenders. Sometimes this works as they pop from pinning it and sometimes it fails and The 'Dorfer gets the 'W'. Since I can go an hour without eating or drinking, it's what works out best with my current health situation and my un-allottment of allotted free time. I wonder how the 3 days of "specific training" over the past 2.5 weeks is panning out for my goal? Like I said, Book of T.roy training.

Then I got a few words of encouragement from recently returned from the woodwork KRS1. He reminded me that before I became an enduro nut I had a pretty good cache of ye olde XC racin' wins based not on skills, but pure power and speed. Ah, those were the days. Back when my power and speed quickly (and vastly) overshadowed my skills and wrecks were often and colossal. Back when I used to regularly whoop up on Todd "at least my wife has a World caliber engine" Park (aka Pepe) all around the Southeast on a 34 lbs $400 hardtail (4900: race proven). Then (thanks to folks like T.roy, Jut, and Ivory) my skills caught up and then quickly overcame my power and speed. And I've pretty much been a slacker ever since.

I am Hour Man!

But that is all about to change. I'm destined to return. I shall become the Hour of Power once again. I'll retrain my "steady as she goes" pacing brain to only think "you've got to pin it to win it!"  No more watching the 'Dorfer collapse into a heap of cramping fast twitch muscles at the end of a cross race with jealousy and still-able-to-ride-for-several-more-hours comfort. I, too, want to collapse at minute 61 into a knotted up mess. Show up at a mtb trail and only ride 1 lap. Have to be helped off my trainer or wiped up off the floor next to my rollers after pinning it for an hour and one minute. Legs up and cytomaxing. Maybe even sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber and learning to pee on my bike. Goodbye Hours Man, hello Hour Man. Think of all the extra un-free free time I'll have at my non-disposal?

 Co-pilot Riley

So after and hour and a half of trying to wear out myself and the pup and a relaxing 1/2 hour of swimming laps around the lake, I loaded up the truck and headed to Beverly, er, Jeanie, that is. Tommy and Riley are getting to spend the weekend with Uncle Thad and all the pups were heading down to MOAB with me to waste some hours swapping stories and sniffing grease.

SS specific this time. BAM!

Several years ago Hodge build me up a set of "will only last about a season" stupidly uber light weight set of wheels. They've been bomber even with my ramming speed, wheel casing, charging rhino style. Amazing really. I think they've only seen 2 or 3 dry races the entire time I've had them, all the rest have been the worse mud conditions out side of the Mohican (DSG 2011 motto should be: "DSG: At least it's not the Mohican 2010"). They'd never been serviced. I did have Mark and Rick at MOAB take a peak inside before I headed off to Kanza with them to make sure since I'd had some noise worry me, but they were good to go and put back together without any work done to them. They're still going strong even with my recent nipple breakage. So long rambling cut short, they've been more than stellarly fantastic. 

Look Dicky, even more centerlock-ness (FTW!) and I don't even fly! 

But if I truly want to emerge from this interwebber vanity cocoon as The Hour of Power, I needed some decent FRO (for racing only) hoops. I mean you can't be all that and a bag of chips with years old hoops that might or might not have been stressed in such a way as to pop a spoke at the most inopportune moment in a race. Nope it was time. I've not purchased a set of wheels since late 2004 when I got a set of dt hoops for my old 4900. It was time to reward myself. And I spared no boneheaded requests. I asked for the SS specific bolt on hub (the price of which rivals other big name sky high priced hubs and prompted such remarks as "wow, I've got new respect for DT Swiss hubs now") vs the geared quick release hub I'm rolling now which has proven to be plenty strong, but I want it stronger-er. Plus bolt-on is great for quick cross style wheel changes (doh!). I also asked for XC light but all-mountain strong. And brass nipples because strength tops weight and weight carries momentum.

FRO wheels when you're not racing = Best Wall Art Ever!

Now if only Miss Phat would get on with the Misfit Parody Fork realizational rationalization incantation I can up my FRO fear factor to eleven...