Far, Far East

I'm leaving the country. Tomorrow I board a plane bound for Dallas, TX, then Honolulu, Hi, then the final destination Pago Pago, American Samoa....I challenge you to find that on a map. A good friend of mine works for a recently established non-profit Christian organization(TWCD-That's What Christians Do) that does International disaster recovery work....and he needs a hand. The plan is to develop contacts within the Red-Cross so that in the future when disasters occur we can rally a team and head to ground-zero at a moments notice, wherever that may be. There's plenty of work to be done on the island of American Samoa...if you remember they had a HUGE tsunami hit their island about a month ago, a thousand plus dead and millions of property damaged or loss. Matt and I aren't really sure what we're getting into once we land there, or who to even talk with...we're basically winging it and praying for some things to fall into place. Luckily I'm able to leave the tent at home, Matt just yesterday found us a place to stay in AS...fingers crossed it has a/c!! The pictures I'm sure don't do the beauty justice, or even the devastation...hopefully we can make a difference.
I'll spare you the details of the remoteness of the island as well as how small it is to everything we know here in the States...you can Google it and find out for yourself. I'm fortunate that my job situation, or lack there of, allows me to take part in such a beautiful endeavor, helping mankind, as well as traveling to the other side of the world to explore a strange new place....I've no doubt that it will be an adventure, in every sense of the word. Needless to say i won't be blogging for a bit, sorry, you'll have to get your "fix" from somewhere else...might I suggest coming up with ways to ditch work for a few days and come help us on the next disaster??? The organization is called TWCD-That's What Christians Do, and it absolutely should be, however regardless of your "religious" views, it's what we should ALL do. Start small, help an old lady across the street or something....it's the "Theory of Momentum", once you get started, it's hard to stop. I'll see you in a few weeks, with plenty of stories I'm sure. Filemu Tofa.

Update

Thea finally made it home last week. After 5 days in the hospital and one Xena, "Warrior Princess" style back brace she was able to make her way down the elevator then onto "Recovery Road".
I had the opportunity to go visit her Friday night and thankfully see a completely different look in her eye...though still in crazy pain, she was coherent and joking....a stark contrast to a few days prior. As of right now no surgery is scheduled but she is going to have to travel back in a week for a check-up to determine if surgery is needed. She's one tough gal. Unfortunately she is going to have one GIGANTIC bill at the end of this so the shop we work at is setting up several benefit rides on her behalf. The man himself, George Hincapie, has agreed to do a "Win a ride with George" raffle on November 15th...what an awesome thing to do George...thanks.

Things have been rather slow here..not much going on. The "NO-RIDE" bug continues to bite, leaving me completely unmotivated to train or even race. This past weekend was the last event in the Dirty Spokes 12Hr series, so "Doctor J" and I packed the Element and headed over to meet up with our friends, Kevin and Ashley. Neither Kevin and I were completely stoked about the race...the course was two days deep in rain with a 60% chance for race day....not fun news to start a 12hr race. The abridged version of the race as follows: Start off unmotivated...race a lap hoping to "get in the mood", nothing...race another three laps, still not in the mood, legs weak, no power...race a fourth lap...wreck, tweak wrist....good excuse to pull out. Kevin ended up knocking out two more laps then saw all the fun we were having in transition and called it quits as well...no worries, Oktoberfest was happening just a few miles away in downtown Helen...off we went.



















We spotted this little gem on the way out...I know the Element is versatile but this thing is ridiculous!!!
















Sunday we did a little sight seeing, well as much as possible with rain clouds looming overhead. We drove up to Brasstown Bald, highest point in Georgia, just to check out how disgusting the climb was that the Tour de Georgia riders had to do....i was gonna take a pic, but there was just no way to get perspective on just how steep this road was....absolutely brutal. Snapped a few pics of the leaves in full "change" mode then said our goodbyes and headed our separate ways. Obviously the race didn't go according to plan, but at least we got to hang with good friends. Kevin and I both decided that next season the 6hr series sounds much more appealing.

Like I said, pretty boring around here now that the race season is coming to an end. I'm still ironing out details for the winter training schedule....as for now though it's just long slow rides with local Upstate riders. See you on the road...

I can wear heels now...

...was one of the first things she said when the doctor told her she had crushed her T8 vertebra and that she would be over a 1/2 inch shorter.

A good friend of mine and I went mtn biking yesterday at the US Whitewater Center up in Charlotte...you know the trails...I've blogged on them before. Ten minutes into the ride she wrecked, bad. Thea is the girl i spoke of in earlier blogs who just won the Cat1 SC State Road Race a few weeks ago...she's also raced in 24 Hours of Moab....so she's no stranger to riding. Today was just one of those days.

We hit the trail like normal, nothing out of the ordinary. Took a right onto the black diamond trail, across the bridges, up the climbs....chilling. I roll into an 8ft drop in not even thinking about it...pause and wait for Thea to hit it. She stops at the top, questions it, then rolls in.

That was it, the moment when the day took a very surreal turn.

I can only assume that as she gripped the bars she didn't feather the brakes at all, cause when she rolled in...she was hot...hit the small two foot bump at the bottom which sent her rear wheel over the front. If you're a mtn biker then you know how scary and helpless this feeling can be. I equate it to learning to do a front flip off a diving board as a kid...your feet just weren't meant to travel over your head. Standing a few feet away I witness as her body is horizontal in the air and see it crash head first into a root the size of your forearm....causing her body to immediately go limp, only for a second before it seizes. Rushing over i can see her eyes roll back and body tense up, luckily this only last for 5-6 seconds. I immediately grab her neck to keep her from moving or even trying to stand, she's stubborn. At this point she cant speak for lack of breath, think wind knocked out of you x10. I lay her back against the embankment stabilizing her neck, her breath is shallow and now she's beginning to put words together. Luckily I have experience in wilderness/back country medicine....thank goodness...just enough knowledge to keep her stable till the real medics arrive. I do pray that I never have to see the look that was in her eyes again...on anyone...absolute 100% sheer panic. Not sure how to breath or let alone move your toes....that was the worst part for me, looking in her eyes.
Pictures of this helmet are proof that you should always were one. There are ten more cracks that you can't see...imagine.

Taking my gloves off i run my hands around checking for any blood, none. Next was arms and legs...quick prayer...luckily she was able to move her toes, feet, etc...as well as arms...and she still had one hell of a grip. So far no nerve damage. Certain her collar bone was broke i unzip her jersey, to my surprise it's not. Still no blood. During this little exchange she is gasping and trying to tell me that she can't breath. Ya, i got that one Thea, thanks. Pulse was strong, circulation was good...no immediate danger...I called 911. There was just barely enough cell service to get a call out and to let them know our rough location...all the while I'm fighting with Thea to not pass out and to keep breathing.

Luckily 15 minutes after the incident another biker came by....I told him to head back to the start and let a staff member know exactly where we were so the paramedics could find us. Hard part is that in terms of civilization we weren't very far out, but from any form of a road we were a good 300+ yards away. There was a long thirty minute period of keeping her calm and trying to keep her awake before the paramedics show up. At this point Thea is still gasping for air but has been able to muster some courage to at least calm down a little. After they check her out we slide her on a back board and start the hike out...she moans the whole way.

After finally getting into a room at the ER they begin testing and hooking up some xrays. Looks like you might have broken a rib and fractured your scapula....but we have to do a CT to be certain. These were some very painful test...unfortunately they have to manipulate your body to the desired position to snap the pic....she almost passed out several times. It took a couple of hours before the CT results came back....she'd really done a number on her back. 6 broken ribs, 6 transverse process'(the little nub between each rib on your spine), crushed her T8 vertebra and had a slight puncture in her lung. Thank god no spinal cord damage. It's pretty evident now why she was having trouble breathing...each breath causing your lungs to expand and pushing out on all those breaks.....BRUTAL!!!

As of right now she's still in the hospital in Charlotte with doctors trying to decide if she needs surgery or not...hopefully not. This was definitely not the day that I thought I was gonna have, but then again that's when accidents strike. You ride like we ride long enough and sooner or later Betty, the cycling goddess, will strike. Our thoughts and prayers are with you Thea during your recovery...may it be full and swift.

SRAM for President!!

While there are many stories regarding the Leadville trip still in the vault..this one is a "must hear". The night before I was to meet the crew in Jackson, Ms to begin our journey, I was packing up a few things and doing exactly what you shouldn't do to your bike before a big event....check it over, just one more time. I did absolutely nothing to it, except literally look it over and squeeze the rear brake...dead. Lever squeezed all the way to bar. For those that don't know, this is bad..especially on a hydraulic brake. I looked at the clock saw it was 30 minutes till closing time at the shop, packed up and headed there. Due to a "one in a million wreck" in the 1 mile between my house and the shop i arrived with 15 minutes to go. No worries i can bleed brakes that fast, maybe. Luckily i did and everything was right and I packed up and went on my merry way....not so much. I did get the brakes bled in time, but 5 minutes after i was bragging about my work, squeezed the lever and it's dead again. A few curses were thrown out, but i decided to "run what i brung", i can do Leadville with just a front brake....no worries. In the words of my pal Tagg, "No one ever stands on the podium and thanks a brake sponsor." Good point Tagg. Luckily I caught myself before this stupid thought grew to an even larger mistake which would of course left me in a "hail marry" attempt and utterly out of control headed down Powerline. There were a few more attempts made that night to remedy the situation, but nothing stuck. Broken, but not beaten I stripped the Cannondale of it's BB7 in the event that i wouldn't be able to fix the Elixir prior to race day.
Fast forward two days: We arrived at Wizzers house in Denver, caught some shut eye, then awoke to realize I still had a nasty brake situation going on. Now let me say this, I know that the BB7 would have worked great, fine, no problems...but after going hydraulic, you don't go back...there in lies the problem. I had to fix this prior to race day. We tried once more to bleed, even reading the instructions this time....but once again they were fine for five minutes then, dead. In a last ditch effort I decided to call SRAM, they have an amazing Customer Service dept. as well as an even better warrenty policy. Putting on my best, "Daddy I have a flat and I can't fix it," voice I dialed up SRAM. Ten minutes later, there was a new Elixir on it's way to a shop close to our house in Frisco...no questions asked. I'm sure there are numerous companies that would do this and ensure that the product would be "over-nighted" for the customer to make the race-day cut toff...or are there? I know SRAM is one of them.

But here's the rest of the story: The brake didn't arrive. We woke Friday morning, headed to Leadville to pick up our goodies and see all the hoopla about Mr. Armstrong and were going to stop at the shop on the way back and pick up the brake. No dice. Evidently the "Big Brown" shipping company was late that day and missed the store closing, therefore, no brake. BOO!!! What can brown do for me? GET THERE ON TIME!!!!!! All hope wasn't lost thanks to the owner of Gravitee, the bike shop. Call it what you want, luck, karma..whatever...but the owner of the shop actually lived in the apartment that was attached to our condo in Frisco...ya, small world. After hearing my problem, he in that cool, Colorado way said, "No worries bro, take mine." Life saver. He had a 2009 Giant Anthem in the garage where we were staying that had some Hayes Stokers on it...luckily it fit and I was able to race with two functioning hydraulic brakes. The brakes did eventually show up on Monday, picked them up, slapped them on, and spent another week riding Crested Butte and Durango with no problems. Moral of the story, BUY SRAM....and don't forget the kindness of strangers. Pay it forward.

Lazy Days

We've all been bit by the bug of laziness here...even the weather has joined in...instead of working hard to provide glorious sunshine, it's been overcast and spitting rain now all week. The dogs have the right idea. I did somehow muster the strength to get out and grab a few rides this week, nothing to exciting but it was new roads/routes so that was nice. One of the nice things here in the Upstate is that all the "popular" routes to ride are marked...all you have to do is pick a route then follow the colored arrows on the road to find your way around, really makes it nice. One of the more popular rides is the "Bakery" ride...basically head up to Tigerville, Sc, park and ride the watershed up to Saluda, SC where there is a nice little local bakery, fuel up, then cruise home. Nothing special about the ride, pretty mellow...it is pretty much up-hill all the way there(16 miles)then you get to cruise home. To my knowledge there is nothing special about the little town of Saluda, as you can see by the pic of main st., other than being just another small town tucked in the shadows of the Blue Ridge mtns, regardless, it's a nice turn-a-round spot. JeffP and I decided to make the ride a bit longer on Tuesday...riding from my house, rolled by his house and let him jump in the draft then headed north towards Saluda. Weather held off on the way there, but inevitably on the way home it dumped....i said it dumped...for about an hour solid we road in POURING rain. Awesome. Luckily on the way home we were able to cut it a bit short and hop on the new Swamp Rabbbit trail and avoid what was certain death on wet roads with huge traffic. Day ended with 85 miles and 4500ft gained...oh and did i mention it was wet? Wednesday i got out and just road from Tigerville up to Saluda, only 35 miles, with TheaK in what turned into a 2 hour rain ride....wet again, not sure if the bike is ever gonna dry out. TheaK just won the SC Cat1 State Championships as well as becoming the newest member of the Colavita women's team...ya she's a strong rider...but she can't touch me on the downhills!! Here's a video of her a few weeks ago winning the SC Cat1 State Championship...congrats kid, I'm sure there are many more to come.


That was the week in a nutshell...pretty boring. Next on the table is the last race of the Dirty Spokes series. Right now I'm in the points lead for Clydesdale and sitting somewhere in the top 5 expert...after that it's the Swank65. Then it's time to let the bike hibernate for a few weeks while the fork is sent off to S-EX for some much needed TLC after a long season. Peace out.

It's just what I do.

So i just got this email from Specialized saying that they are looking for a "few" new Trail Crew members for the next year...all you have to do is write a blog and "tweet" to them the address and if chosen, you win a 2010 S-Works FSR and a bunch of other swag. So....let me get this straight?.....blog about bikes,check....write about new trails and blog about them weekly,check.....get all your friends excited about mountain biking(especially on Specialized bikes),check.....this seems oddly familiar? Almost like what I am already doing? Maybe it's just me, but this seems like a perfect match, almost a match made in heaven? Who knows, maybe it's just me? For those that know me...they are certain of two things...1)Dude has a hot wife who also rides...and 2)Dude is passionate about some biking. For better or worse this is me.

I thought about what to write so that hopefully I would be chosen as a 2010 Trail Crew member....but nothing inspiring came to mind. Maybe jot down a few lines about all the places mtn biking has taken me over the years and how most of the good things that have happened to me are as a result of friends that I've made on the trail while either riding, racing or doing a little trail maintenance....but then i thought that would be too lame. So what to write? How my first 4 mtn bikes were Specialized bikes and how they were for a very long time the stick by which every other bike was measured? No, that's even lamer. So finally i just said screw it, I'm gonna blog like it's any other day and just tell you, my faithful readers, about the latest and greatest trail that i hit up last week, and for better or worse, let the excess lube drip off my chain and fall where it may....so que sera, sera.

Since returning from Leadville I've had ZERO desire to ride...much less ride SS. Not sure if it's the culmination of the big "A" race of the year finally coming to an end or just late season blues....not sure. Whatever the reason there are still two more races left on the calender, actually three but i punted one, so knowing this, training must still go on. JeffP and I decided to head up to Pisgah last week and meet up with some other "guest" riders and give them a taste of true Pisgah Forrest mtn biking. I guess it was actually my first time to hit up the "classics" that make Pisgah what it is...Mulinax, Squirrel Gap, Burnt Mtn...and Turkey Pen trails were all on the agenda for the day. After a way too long detour at Sycamore Cycles(Specialized dealer...see them for all the Specialized HI-ZOOT needs)in Pisgah Forrest we made our way to Turkey Pen trail head and quickly hit the trail.

Some of the guys were, pretty green to mtn biking...no worries, we were all there at one point...just nice to get more folks out on the dirt. We finally crossed one of two suspension bridges of the day, headed up Mulinax and made our way to Squirrel Gap through some absolutely amazing single track, some of the crown jewels of Pisgah....rhododendrons provided the canopy, and yellow jackets provided the need speed. One of the dudes, we'll call him Popeye, had a avery bad day....he amassed 8+ bites, on his head and back....for me, I'd be done...but he's a military man and to Popeye...this was nothing. We forged on. Twenty minutes later his front wheel goes one way, handlebars the other....curses...that Cannondale Lefty fork is so finicky. Needless to say his day was over. Popeye and his three musketeers headed back down to their car while JeffP and I rambled on.

Barring a wreck, or a mechanical it's incredibly difficult to have a bad day up in Pisgah...gorgeous views and amazing vegetation woven together with some of the sweetest single track found on the east coast make for very good days. We rode for hours without seeing a soul...just the sound of the 29er crunching up the trail....all the way up to Burnt Mtn which somehow actually seems to overlook Ceasers Head....awesome. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of STEEP hike-a-bike sections that require some desire/tenacity to want to summit...but for those that do...it's worth it. The single track off the other side is a white knuckled, rear wheel locked kinda good. I fancy myself a solid rider, but when the trail is damp(as it always is in Pisgah, evidently it's classified as a rain forest)and the terrain is stooopid steep...i loose some nerve. Somehow when both wheels are locked and your still flying down the hill, you tend to loose some of your swagger! Fun nonetheless. 35 miles, 4500ft, 5ish hours....all in all it was another great day just North of the border.

Not sure if this is what the big red "S" is looking for, but it's what i do....weekly, for swag or not. Lord willing...I will continue to ride trails, both old and new, till the day i die...white knuckled, encouraging newbs and hopefully gaining some fitness along the way for another Leadville attempt next year. See you on the trail.

Here ya go...

Found this today after the Leadville post. Pretty good video with his majesty Lance...accompanied with a weird arrangement of songs, cool nonetheless.