Croom 35/50 Off Road Challange

This past weekend, Theresa and I had the opportunity to participate in the "Croom 35/50 Off Road Challenge". Yes, that's 35 or 50 miles of off road mountain biking. Click here to view the Map (highlighted section is the 35 mile tail). Most people, including me and Theresa, figure that Florida is pretty flat. After all, the parks that we typically ride are built on old sulfur mines with a just a few small hills here and there. Croom, on the other hand, reminded me of riding in Washington with long inclines and crazy descents! It was grueling!
Since we had the choice of either doing 35 or 50 miles, we had decided ahead of time that we were planning on riding the 35 mile trail, but would re-evaluate our decision at the 35-50 mile trail Y.

You could start the race any time between 8:30 and 9:30 in the morning. Croom is about 2 hours away from our home so we were up at 4:30 in order to get everything loaded up, get a shower, and get breakfast. When we left the house, it was pleasant & warm - we both had on shorts and sandals! But, when we got to Croom, it was only about 40 degrees! We were freezing! When the race started the temperature had risen to a scorching 46 degrees. Since we knew it was supposed to be in the high 70's later in the day we decided to start the race in shorts and short sleeve jerseys so we didn't get overheated as the day progressed. Needless to say we were quite cold for the first couple miles.


About 6.5 miles into the course we hit a Y in the trail where you could either take the "easy" route or the "hard" section of trail. We decided to go for the "hard" section. Theresa's front tire ended up in a rut and she landed 10 feet in front of her bike (ouch!) - almost like a head-first slide into home plate! Not wanting to take another fall she didn't want to finish the "hard" section. I wanted to finish it, so I told her to go on taking the regular trail with out me. The trail was only split for a few hundred yards, so we didn't plan on being separated for very long. Shortly after finishing the "hard" section of trial I broke my chain. I busted out the chain tool for the repair and a mere 20 minutes later I was back in the saddle. Unfortunately Theresa thought the "hard" section of trial dropped me off in front of her so she was trying to catch me. In the mean time I was haulin ass trying to catch her. Well we finally found each other about 4 miles later. And yes we were absolutely exhausted with about 25 miles to go.


Every 12 miles they place a rest area (nick named a SAG) that had water, Gatoraid, food...etc. We had a nice stop the first SAG and continued on. The second section of trail was by far the most difficult with crazy climbs and exhausting gradual inclines. We thoroughly enjoyed every downhill section we ran into. They were all a nice break from pedaling up hill. There were quite a few technical sections too - with lots of bumpy steep descents & quick turns in and out of trees.


We reached the second SAG and took our sweet time filling up on Gatoraid and granola bars. There was a bail out trail that would have taken us from this SAG to the parking lot but that was not an option (nevermind that the bailout was 8 miles long anyway - and we only had 11 left to go). We were GOING to finish this. Starting the ride from the second SAG was probably the most difficult thing we've have ever done. I felt like I was dying. It was definitely worse than any point in the half marathon last year. Luckily Theresa was up for leading for a while. So I used all my strength to keep up with her as she lead the way. Once the food kicked in we were good both to go. We struggled a little here and there with muscle fatigue (and probably sheer exhaustion) but we managed to make it to the point where the trail splits - to either continue onto the 50 mile section or last 5 miles of the the 35 mile section. Of course we opted for the 35 mile section and finished the ride in about 5 hours! It was quite a relief to see the parking lot as we approached the end of the trail!


When we finally got home, we celebrated with Champagne and tortilla chips for dinner because we were so exhausted we couldn't make a "real" dinner!


Needless to say, this was quite an adventure! And, yes, we are planning on doing it again next year!

New and Improved!!! NOW FITS 4!

That's right, the new and improved 4 bike system is here. What used to carry only two now carries four!!! Absolutely amazing, space age, and stunningly sexy! Ok, So maybe I over exaggerated a bit. But it does carry 4 now...and I think that's an improvement over 2. I'm talking about the number of bikes that we can carry in the bed of our HUGE Toyota Tacoma. DOI! Thus far we have been traveling around from park to park with the ability to carry only two bikes in the truck. We actually do have friends here and some of them even ride bikes. Wouldn't It be awesome if we could pile 4 bikes in the bed of the truck and 4 people into the cab? Well the 4 people thing came standard when we bought the truck but the 4 bike thing wasn't even an option. So...I sat down in front of the drawing board (My work laptop with CADD) and started working on the patented "4 Bike System". After considering multiple ideas and possibilities I decided on the most "stunningly sexy" one (Got the idea from my friend Steve) and set out to make my dream a reality. It took me about 45 min, some hardware from Lowes, and a 2x4 from my garage. The result..."Pure Magic" (The slogan from a great seasoning salt). You can view the result from the "Fortune 500" photo shoot below. Let me know what you think!

Theresa's gone clipless!!!!

Today was Theresa's first try at clipless peddles. When she first got her fisher she had me take off the clipless pedals and put on some platforms. Real nasty ones too! She said that she was scared to use clipless because she thought she might fall. Whatever!!! Anyways...After she got 10 stitches in her shin form the nasty platform pedals she decided that she might want to try riding clipless. Weired! Anyways, we bought her some clipless shoes...and...get this...she still didn't want to try them. So...I made her agree on a day to try em out. After switching out the pedals and prepping the bikes we headed out to Emerson Point. She didn't even fall!! Can you believe it!!! No scratches, No bumps, No Bruises, and No injuries to the ego. What a great ride! She even admitted that they made her feel more confident on the bike. Why didn't any one think of these "clipless pedals" before?

Join us next update...same clipless blog...same clipless time!

Keep on ridin!

Our Week in Georgia.

Theresa and I spent a week in and around Cleveland, Ga. Some of our activities included panning for gold in an old gold mine, Mountain Bike Riding, Running in the Peach Tree Road Race, 4th of July festivities, and Hiking up Blood Mountain. And those are just a few. Check out the pictures below. They tell a much better story than I. Keep in mind that Theresa did all of this with 10 stitches in her shin!

A Wee Bit of an Accident

Theresa and I were up to our usual today...riding out at Alafia. We were having a great time riding on new trail...well...new to us. Anyways, the trail was a bit rough. Theresa was headed down a hill when her foot slipped off her pedal. She came to a stop at the bottom and was catching her breath. All of the sudden a baby alligator came out of the shrubs and latched on to her leg. She started FREAKING out and was trying to get it to let go. I came flying down the hill to try to help her. My swift and sly movements must have scared it. It let go and went scurrying back into the bushes as fast as it could. The damage was done. She had some nasty cuts on her shin so we were going to head straight to the emergency room. We were still about a mile from the car and she still rode all the way back, sporting her battle wounds the whole way. 10 stitches later we were walking out of the ER.

Did you actually believe that?!?!?!?HA HA!!!

She got cut when her pedal came up and smacked her leg. I can't believe you actually bought that!!! Good Grief. She did get 10 stitches though. BAD ASS!!!

29ers

Theresa and I recently got new bikes. As many of you know I was really into mountain bike ridding while I was up in Washington. Well...after listening to me whine and complain since the day we met, Theresa decided that she'd had enough. We got her a Gary Fisher Marlin to start out on. I on the other hand ordered a Gary Fisher Paragon 29er!!! After one ride together out at Alafia River State Park we realized that Theresa was going to tear through that Marlin pretty quick. We returned it for a Gary Fisher X-Caliber 29er and she loves it! Now for those of you who are not familiar with all the bike lingo, 29er refers to the wheel size. Most mountain bikes come with 26" wheels but the 29ers come with...well...29ers. They Kick Ass!!!

We don't have any photos of us ridding yet but you can see the bikes if you follow this links above.