Prescott Sixxer

Well not sure how to start this other than I finished and how it was an experience and endurance athletes are animals. Prescott Sixxer (http://www.dcbadventures.com/) is a 6 hour endurance race held in Prescott, AZ at Pioneer Park on November 19th, 2011. Weather was not too bad other than chilly between 30's and 40's. It was windy on the first half of the course. Course started with a half lap of the 9 mile loop then continuing on to the full loop. The course was a mixture of double track and single track. Terrain was rocky with lots of differing gradients with a few longer climbs. The course wasn't the best I have ever ridden but defiantly not the worst. Not warming up before the start was very hard not to do but with my usual race taking less than 2 hours I didn't want to over do it. Overall I had a good race no mechanical other than my chain dropping off small ring a couple times. Had plenty of water and Hammer gel. I drank a bottle every lap, each bottle was filled with water and whey protein to keep the calories coming in. The people all around where great the promoter DCB Adventures did as always a fa nominal job.

Let get to the racing!! We lined up and the horn went off! Right from the get go was about 5 places back. A lady was walking across the course with a stroller and stopped everyone in there tracks. I road in a circle so I didn't have to clip out, she jumped out of the way. Again we started and everyone took off again now I was in about 20th. My legs didn't seem to want to turn over and felt like lead weights. After about 2 hours of riding my legs seem to get better but my stomach started to have a pain. With every jolt it felt like someone was stabbing me in the side,  the pain grew worst as time went on but I was convinced it would go away if I kept riding. Hour 2-4 was kinda a blur just kept my moving forward with the stabbing in my side. Mile by mile and lap by lap the time disappeared. I passing riders here and their and continued on. Still with every jolt my side continued to get worse. Pushing through the pain I continued on. As time drew on the climbs went from not so bad to starting to hurt. Pushing with every pedal stoke keeping my momentum up. I passed a few more on climbs by this time I was on my 5th lap. The leaders came by my like I was at a stand still. Pushing on and feeling the fatigue set in I kept on keeping on with my steady pace. 6th lap felt like an eternity it was never going to end watching my time and came across the the start line with 15min to spare continuing on with my seventh lap. Now the climbs felt like endless mountain as my legs throbbed from the 6 + hours of riding and my side still getting stabbed. Only a few miles out still keeping tire side down and maintaining a steady pace. The final climb was great knowing I only had a few more minutes. The final down hill I couldn't even get myself to push it. I crossed the finished with 6 hours and 48 minutes of riding time and about 70 miles of mountain biking! Today was a good day!! I will say overall the experience was good and I will probably do another 6 hour race! But I am defiantly sticking with XC racing the endurance racing is too much with kids and starting a career. Thank you Susie and Ashley for cheering me on and keeping me going. The pain almost unbearable and I almost gave in and went to the hospital! Thank you for reading and for supporting me!!

Training Ride Brad

So went out for with my buddy brad who is an animal on the road and come to find out is also a animal on the mtn. He doesn't even have a mtn bike. We set out for a long ride in sycamore canyon road typical loop and head toward Sedona area. Maintained a good pace up and down climbs. The ride was good was out for 4.5 hours not much happen . But wow was I beat afterwards. Covered about 40 miles.