Having said that, before heading to Pennsylvania I swung by the airport to pick up Sheila–someone I had never met nor trained with before. She was a last-minute sub for Cassie, who unfortunately had recently broken her foot. We were going to miss that mountain biking powerhouse we have come to know and love, but she could not subject her still tender foot to untold trekking miles on rough terrain. Seven days prior, through a chain of requests and a flurry of email, Sheila had bravely bitten the bullet and volunteered her time to come and join Jeff and me on our 24-hour adventure. To jump on a plane in Texas and come race with complete strangers takes some serious guts. Hats off to Sheila.

We arrived…

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Categories: Triathlons

Last night Mike, Dennis, and I headed out to Hemlock after dark to do the fixed orienteering course. We were looking to bone up on our night O skills but also try out some new gear that our sponsors had sent us. Mountain Khakis sent us some newly rename  Granite Creek Covertible Pant (Formally Snake River Convertible Pants) and DeFeet sent us some socks. When racing I always wear convertible pants with tri shorts beneath. I find they not only offer the best protection when bushwhacking through heavy undergrowth, but also provide the flexibility of being able to remove the legs in warm weather and not having to increase the load in your pack by too much. In the past I have used both North Face and REI branded convertibles and was keen to see how the Mountain Khakis held up.

DeFeet had also sent us some of their Trail 19 socks. I am a big believer of the new style wool blend socks and was looking forward to testing another brand apart from my standard Smart Wools.

We met at around 10pm and set out to individually clear different sections of the course before meeting back at a central checkpoint. The evening was perfect. It was a warm and clear night, and although there were a few bugs, if I kept moving, they didn’t bother me too much. The wild deer eyes…

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Categories: Adventure Racing, Product Reviews

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Categories: Biking, Events, Family & Friends

Team Trakkers is very excited to be heading out to Moab, Utah to take place in the Checkpoint Trackers National Championship on October, 29^th. Trakkers secured early entrance after some hard fought racers throughout the season that placed them as one of the top ranked teams in the 2010 Checkpoint Tracker series. Details of the race are still emerging but with the back drop of Moab, the recently announced 350’ Tyrolean Traverse and the strong completion, the weekend of the October, 29^th is set to be one filled with lots of fun, excitement and hard core adventure racing.

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Categories: Adventure Racing

We woke early grabbed some breakfast and headed to Brecon, a short 15 minute drive north. Ian and I picked up our race numbers and set about getting our bikes ready.  There were a lot of riders taking part in the Beast. The final number of racers was around 800. Most were doing the 60k route with the rest doing the 100k. It was fun to check out all the different bikes.  Lots of Giants, Orange and Cube models. I was stand out with the only 29er bike. Not something that has started to gain traction in the UK yet.

I received a text from an old school buddy William who we had arranged to hook with at the race line up. We ended up toward the back of the line up and planned to take the route at a more leisurely rate rather than try to race. I had planned to hang with Ian throughout the ride. The mass start was slow and we took it easy through Brecon.  The roads had been closed to the out skirts of the town where we hit the first hills and climbed out toward the first mountain range on some very narrow country lanes. We hung with Will and Julian, a buddy he was riding with, through the first few climbs and then pulled away from them after a few hours quickening the pace to ensure we made the cut off. 

The terrain was extremely…

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Categories: Biking, Race Reports

We planned on doing a short ride today.  Something to keep the legs warmed up but nothing too strenuous.  Typical Welsh weather set in from the word go.  Low cloud cover and constant drizzle.  Fortunately it was not too cold. Ian and I got a late start and headed into Crickhowell to get some energy bars etc and a map from the local outfitter.  Amazingly neither was available so we planned our route on a 1:50,000 map we had and hoped there would be some trails where were thought there were some but were not shown on the map.  The ride went from Llanbedr on a few miles of road before hitting double track near an old Hermitage.  The drizzle was constant and the ground was very wet.  We cut up a valley for about five miles before heading up toward the ridge of  the mountain we were going to follow back home.  At the top of the ridge visibility dropped to about 20 feet and the wind must have been blowing at about 30-40 mph.  Nice.  The ride back along the ridge was fun until we dropped off the wrong side and ended up having to hike-a-bike back up about 500 feet with no trail over steep gnarly terrain. Visibility was zero and we were saved by the compass on my iPhone.  The final drop back into Llanbedr was fun.  Trails were mostly grass and extremely slick.  We are hoping…

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Categories: Family & Friends

Not trying to fight the time difference too much we rose early and headed out to Afan Forest Park. Trails parks are becoming a popular tourist attraction in the UK. They are dedicate MTB trails with facilities at the trail head catering to the mountain biker and outdoor enthusiast. Afan Forest is located in an area of South Wales that was heavily mined in the industrial revolution and has seen a massive amount of unemployment and depressed communities in the past 30 years since a lot of the coal mines shut in the early 80’s. The park is designed to help revitalize the area and from the number of people we saw riding on a Thursday, it looks like the plan is working.
 After stopping in at the full service bike shop and buying some new pads (I have spent a fortune on brake pads this week) we saddled up and hit the trails. After a 6km ascent though ever green forest we topped out near a wind farm. The trails were all single track, well maintained and a blast to ride. Wales gets a huge amount of rain but the trails drain very well and are good to ride in any condition. The remained of the 14k of trails flowed very smoothly. There were some great TTF sections with raised boardwalks that has been constructed to flow very nicely. We finished the…

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Categories: Family & Friends

Travel to Wales went well. Virgin Atlantic had no issues with my bike case and took it on board in addition to a piece of checked baggage for no extra charge. The 6.5 hour flight from Dulles to Heathrow was uneventful although a little choppy. Caught the train from London to Newport. Traveling with the bike case and a roll bag was not a bad as I thought it would be. Reminded of when my kids were little and in strollers and we spent a lot of time looking for elevators to get to different levels. Ian, mum and dad picked me up from the train station and after 13 hours on various transports, made it to my final destination, Llanbedr, tired from jet lag and travel.
After a superb fry up brunch Ian and I spent the afternoon putting bikes together. We took them to a LBS to get them tuned in as we didn’t have a work stand. I found I needed new brake pads and put in a quick order with Chain Reaction in hopes they will arrive before the big ride on Sunday. Tomorrow we plan to hit the Afan Forest to check out some of the best purpose built trails in the UK. Missing Margo and the Kids already but it’s nice to be with my brother and parents again.

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Categories: Family & Friends

It has been a busy two weekends on the bike. Last weekend I took part in the EX2 Cranky Monkey race at Fountain Head and this weekend Spiller, Manning and I went and pre-rode part of the REV3 Epic Adventure Race scheduled for April 2011.

The Cranky Monkey was a blast. I have never raced at Fountain Head but ride there all the time. I consider it my home course. Because this is such a technical and probably most challenging course out of the three race series (other locations were Shaffer Farms and Wakefield) the field was smallish. There were 23 racers in my category and I figured I’d try and get in the top ten. After a few rain scares the race went off as planned. There was a prolog on the road to split up the field somewhat before hitting the single track and I got into the single track relatively close to the front so I didn’t have to worry about passing only being passed. I rode fairly well. I didn’t feel like I was crushing it but making good time. I had a few mechanicals along the way with my chain and I lost my saddle pack and had to stop and get it. I also had a couple of minor wrecks. Clipped a tree once and took a slow tumble of the bars at another point. I figure I lost about 4 minutes along the…

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Categories: Adventure Racing, Training

On August 8th Team Trakkers competed in the 3rd Annual LionHeart 24-Hour Adventure Race at Ohiopyle State Park, PA, hosted by American Adventure Sports. I was teamed up with Dennis and Cassie for a great weekend of racing that was filled with many highs and lows.

Dennis picked me up on Friday and we headed up to Ohiopyle, a very cool little town that I had never been to before. The trip took about 4 hours, and when we arrived we hooked up with Cassie at Falls City Pub for some food and to chat about the race. I had never raced with either Dennis or Cassie before but had trained with them both, saw how they raced with others, and was excited to be part of such a great team. Dennis is multi-talented: a great climber, kayaker, mountain biker, and adventure racer. Cassie, ranked the number one mountain biking female in West Virginia, is just an outstanding rider and over the next 36 hours humbled both Dennis and I with her fitness and mountain biking skills.

After food we checked in at our lodging, a single-wide setup at the top end of the town owned by a friendly old man who told us a few of his life stories as we watched about 50 hummingbirds fly around a nearby feeder. The digs weren’t called the Humming Bird Nest for nothing.

At 7pm we headed down to the Wilderness Outfitters…

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Categories: Adventure Racing, Race Reports