Cross The Way #1 @ CCRC

Despite Ma Nature's best attempts at submerging the farm the weeks leading up to the Cross The Way race at our Cadence Creek Riding Center, we ended up with a great event. What we lacked in elevation gain (about 18' per lap) we made up for with some sloggy Belgian style mud, super fast hard pack, a crowd dividing Green Monster-esque fly-over, and a bottom bracket deep swamp feature that made for some fantastically fun Mid-TN cross racing.

photo cred: Tara Roper Ludwig

Jess O. charging through the return field.

Swampy.

Photo Cred: Tara Roper Ludwig

The Simms Bros. Wrecking Crew.

Trashy racers.

A lot of effort and stress went into creating the event and I'm thrilled of what a success it was. We are still dealing with a little of the collateral damage - ie. trash in the fields and a super high water bill due to the nearly 8 hours of constant bike washing going, but for the most part it went swimmingly. I couldn't be happier. Huge thanks out to everyone who came out and helped and who came out and raced/supported.

Photo Cred: Lisa Brantley Myers via Patrick Smith's Camera

Photo Cred: Lisa Brantley Myers via Patrick Smith's Camera

Note: More photos available here and some really entertaining ones here. 

However, I am damn glad it is done and over. Tuesday was the first relaxing day off I've had in months. I was able to focus on items needing done around the farm and just take time to ride and hang out. It was wonderful. Time to get back to riding and enjoying just being. Maybe even start racing again.

Photo Cred: Lisa Brantley Myers via Patrick Smith's Camera

H. Mud boggin'.

Pond horsin'.

Tending to the herd.

The roaming barriers atop the fly-over.

Taming of the Few

Roaming barrier practice. 

Every day off I've had available since August 14th has been spent working on creating a cycling park similar to the Eva Bandman Cyclocross Venue. Nashville really needs something like it and not being a very patient person, I'm trying to create one we can use. It's also to better the farm for equine boarders (which help pay the rent) so it's not all just cycling. It's a riding center.

When a local race promoter was in need of a venue, I was quick to offer up my services. For one it would light a fire under my butt and force me to get stuff done. For two, it would allow me to have a race to help burn in the trail. I've spent upwards of 15 8+ hour days cutting trees, hauling brush, clearing brush, sculpting dirt, and trying to improve drainage trying to make the course the best it can be. It's mostly been a one man/three dog show with the occasional help (and lots of coordinating and purchasing of machinery) from H. and the last 2 Sundays with the Simms Wrecking Crew. We've made some incredible progress. It's shaping up nicely but there's still a lot to do. We've only been at the farm since March and we've barely scratched the surface of all the improvements needed and wanted. But it is coming along beautifully.

You learn a lot about people when you start working with them. There are those like Jim who tear through a list of items to get done, get them done in half the time and above expectation, and ask what else they can do. Selfless and happy to be of service.  Those like H. who work hard after coming off of several 12 hour night shift days and miss out on sleep. There are those like Cooper who drive over an hour each way to help work on something he'll probably only ride once or twice. There are those that offer to come out but never seem to make time to show up. And then there are those that never miss a ride, never lift a tool, but have a whole lot to say about how things should be done.

The latter has really been chaffing my hide a lot lately. I've been busting my back. Missing rides. Missing out with friends. Missing out on races. Missing out on days off all in order to try to make this race course be the best that it can be.  I don't know if we'll have a cross race near Nashville on a more groomed course unless one pops up on a golf course. And yet still all I hear complaints about parts being too bumpy, too narrow, too laden with something that isn't pavement. I listen to them all and try to fix and groom. But still it's more complaint than appreciation of effort or lifting of tools to help. So be it, but my patience is growing thin (Remember, not a very patient person here).

H. asked me recently what I was getting out of hosting this race to which I answered "a great course and a slipped disc". I just need to let go of the frustrations caused by the few.

Once this race is over and done with, we'll be hosting some family oriented fun night time short track/CX races I'm dubbing the Winter Solstice Series. Each one will be held at night similar to the Knog Muddy Hell and Memphis' Cyclocrunk. I think Nashville is way over due for nighttime racing.

In the distance, I hear mooing.

And I wished I had some money with which to buy a round
I wish I'd cashed my paycheck before I came to town
But I reached into my pocket, found three twenties and a ten
It feels so good feelin' good again

It's been an eventful week and not a lot of down time. Sometimes you just have to kick off the work shoes, clip in and be a kid. After the shop closed Saturday, the 4 of us went to blow off some stress. We got in 10 miles of fun before the rain set in. Sunday was more of the same. Feels so good feelin' good again.

Empty Harvest

It's taken me a while to get words to flow. Last Tuesday my family got some bad news, my cousin Bobby had a stroke at the ripe young age of 42. By Friday the news was even worse, we'd lost him.

Over 1000 people came out to pay respects to an amazing person.

The news hit me hard. In fact, it hit everybody pretty hard. Not only was Bobby close to my age, he was the cousin I grew up looking up to. It was his hand-me-down jeans that I got to wear (finally getting some "cool" clothes), he was an all-star basketball player (just like his dad), and he was just old enough to be into things I didn't even know about until we hung out. Things like "Beverly Hills Cop" and the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders.

After news of his death, area farmers banded together and harvested his crops in a single day.

The drive down to Jacksonville was the storied one I remember from my childhood. The same 2 lane country highways. The same run down farm towns. The windmill. The turtle. The Carnation (now Nestle) plant. It wasn't just a drive, it was a trip down memory lane. Dad and I reminisced all the way down and back. Two hours each way. I owe Bobby for that. It was time I think we both needed.

In a 52 hour trip (24 hours of it in a car), I tried to maximize the time I had available. I got over to see the grandparents, got 2 breakfasts in with Dad, a few evening hours with the family, and a two hour ride with JD to escape the heaviness that is reality. It makes me miss having a two day weekend. Not having consecutive days off of work has really limited my ability to get home and spend time with the family. Time that seems to be passing by faster year after year.

It also marked the first time for me to have social media be the delivery of the information. Most of us found out via Facebook. We kept tabs, shared stories, shared grief all on Facebook. Friends, family, and strangers alike. All while I'm watching another friend battle an advanced and aggressive cancer via Facebook. It's really made me rethink social media.

And just like that it's back to normal, though I've not been able to shake the emptiness created by the loss. I'm sure that will fade with time, but as it stands now, every time I fire up the tractor, I think of Bobby. When I pass the basketball hoop in the drive, I think of Bobby. And when I see the red top cap on my bike, I think of Bobby. All in all not bad things. 

Cross Farming

The cooler temps are signalling the onset of two of my favorite seasons: cyclocross season and caramel season. I love fall. Crisp clear air, low humidity, cold mornings, cool afternoons. Perfect for campfires, camping, riding, and just being outside. We're hosting a TBRA cross race out at our Cadence Creek Riding Center with the fine folks at Cross The Way. We've been working hard to get the course ready for racing. Grooming it for bikes rather than just marking a path in a field. I really want this course to shine, taking cues from the recent Olympic XC course and the Eva Bandman cyclocross park in Louisville. I want it to be a groomed course ready for riding at all times, competitively, for recreation, with your dog, or on a horse.

We've  been working really hard, but we won't have it 100% as I want it before the race, but it will be close. The new 3 in 1 rake tool H. bought for the tractor has really sped up the grooming of the lanes. It's also allowed for some new fire roads to be cleared through the woods. Not to bad considering we've only been here since February and I'm averaging 1 day off to work a week.

Along with cleared fire road lanes and groomed field sections, we've been clearing trail in the woods. There is a creek that runs along the back of our property that has been dry all spring and summer. The base is solid even when wet so I've been working to clear it for additional riding fun. Unfortunately, the banks are the only "hill/run-up" options on the property. However there are plans for building a fly-over and creating some technical sections with the ton of large rock we have still piled up at the barn.

Other than that it's been work as usual with some riding thrown in for good measure for both me and the pups. Days are growing shorter, work hours seem to be growing longer, and time keeps tick, tick, ticking into the future. Some days it feels as though we'll never catch up to the laundry list of "to do" chores.

But just because there is still a lot of work to get done it doesn't mean we don't take the time to enjoy a little down time every now and then. All this trail work has stacked up plenty of fire wood and the camp fires have been roaring most of the week. I think it's going to be a good fall.

Prematurely 40

Not a complaint, but Saturdays at the shop are rough. High traffic of new customers and old regulars, kids, dogs, fits, test rides, last minute repairs, endlessly ringing phones, no lunch.  Beautiful chaos but it leaves you wrecked at the end of the week. The lack of food and water during the day leaves getting in a good ride after work hard to do because your body just isn't in the mood for it, nor your mind. So, on occasion, we make it a point to get out and just enjoy the remnants of the day, just being alive, and on bikes. I guess I should back up a bit...

Another missed memo. Camo short day.

Early mornings at the bike shop are some of my favorite times to be at the bike shop. This is when and where we can get things done that need to be done like pricing up builds, building sold units, and last minute rush jobs for the faithful. Pretty much the same as after hours at the bike shop only without the beer. Two things ruin the mornings for me: 1. customers who bang on the door an hour before we open and expect to be able to shop (I don't mind if they would just browse, but it's never that simple and we spend an hour serving them and can't get what needs to be done done and then catch hell from the customer who played by the rules and is expecting their bike to be ready at 10) and 2. continuing to miss out on camo short day. Damn it! I've been searching for some with no avail too. Alas, I digress,  I didn't need to go back that far, let's skip ahead a bit.

Bread pudding for the table. 

Patrico, The White Apollo Creed (Adam) and I met up with friend/customer Rob after work for some dinner and conversation at a relatively new restaurant in Franktown along the river. We rode over there to meet up and had a table ready for us outside along the Asphalt River (Franktown Road) and a waiter with a sense of humor and a camo hat. As we ordered food, Gino our waiter asked who wanted to start and Rob, pointing towards me, said "Better start with the birthday boy." Gino's face brightened and he wished me a happy birthday before letting me know that I would be getting a free desert. Bread pudding bitches!

Patrico the American Eagle Model

After dinner we got distracted riding back to the shop and cut through a field to a new stretch of greenway going in which has a nice new curb. Adam likes to "Gleam the Curb" so we spent some time riding to see who could gleam the whole thing. This was after surprising some teens making out at the end of the greenway. Ah youth.

And Apollo goes down!

After tiring of the curb gleaming I got distracted by a pile of dirt and rock. Soon we were each riding up and over the peaks in the loose dirt/concrete chunk pile. Adam's road tires on the Travelers Check were knifing in and giving him some issues so he tried my bike and had me try his. I made it, he, well, didn't at first.

Suck-cess.

Once the dirt got old, we found some logs to ride. The urban playground abounds in Frantown.  Deciding flip-flops and sandals on spd pedals wasn't the best combination for more advanced shenanigans, we rolled on back to the shop with plans to buy a broom.

A broom? Big Saturday night plans of broom shopping? Don't ask. Apparently there is some sort of differing opinions upon brooms. Some believe in having an indoor broom and an outdoor broom. Rational people believe in indoor/outdoor brooms. But, yet again, I digress.

Back at Adam's pad his loverly wife Lauren, knowing our fondness for sushi, had Swedish fish rice crispy rolls waiting for us while we waited for Adam's fresh homemade limeade.  We relaxed and ate our fill of sushi and limeade until it was time to roll out to "Premium Rush." Yeah, the reviews aren't great but how often does a movie centered around a bike really get made?

Sunday was spent breaking my back in the dirt so Mr. Norris won't hurt his when he comes out to ride. The trail was trimmed, the trail bed action hoed to sculpt it and smooth out the crawfish mounds, some new paths cut, and the dogs got a lot of trail and run time.

Charlie and the chicken. 

All in all a pretty quiet and laid back Sunday. Pretty perfect. For the first time since Colorado I'm feeling recharged. Time to run the batteries down again.