Crazy Riot

Penn State riot the other night after beating Ohio State. It's sad that this happens when we win a big game.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Izj8TGFZE6U

IMBA R3 Epic

R3 stands for Rothrock 3 Loops. A 32 mile course that was set up 9 or 10 years ago. First loop takes you to the top of Bald Knob, rides across it and descends into Shingletown. Climbs back out and you ride towards Croyle. Down Croyle and up one of the longest climbs, going from a little above the lowest point in the forest to the top of one of the highest mountains. Then down a jeep trail to Long Mountain, where there is an extremely steep hike-a-bike to the top. 3 years ago, there was a sign of a hiker, which marked a designated hiking route. Someone spraypainted a bike on it, and drew an arrow to this trail. It isn't there anymore. Anyway, the trail is so steep that the first time I did it (back in 2005 on my 24inch Specialized Hotrock), my dad had to carry my bike up as I crawled up the trail. Down the never ridden Long Mountain descent and up a long road to Upper and Lower Longberger. I'm apologizing to myself for accidentally deleting all the video and pictures I took for this ride. Wow. How could I have done that?

The Watershed

So all 3 times we've made it down to Gambrill State Park to ride, we haven't ever gotten to the Watershed due to time constraints and other stuff like that. But today my dad, Fernando Torres, his friend Rob, and I met at one of the trailheads and I got to ride the area for the first time. It was a good ride; about 18 miles and 2:20. Started off with a nice descent, then around a lake. At the lake there was a nice jump into a steep pitch, which was really fun. I just kept falling and falling, but the landing was very soft. It's a natural jump off a rock, but it is perfect. Then rode a short technical trail down to some road, down that and on to what Fernando called the Death March climb. From there we turned right and on to a really fun downhill. At the bottom, you go through these huge boulders, some being close to 20 feet above you in places. Then onto the road. We did some more fun stuff like that, got on the Blue trail at some point, and eventually worked back to the car. It was one of those days where everything worked perfectly -- the bike did everything I wanted it to, and I was having a great day both physically and technically. Numerous times during the ride, we'd pass these really nice looking rocks. Of course I never really noticed how nice they were, just tried to figure out if I could ride them. Chances are that if it's a big rock and it's on the side of the trail, ride up it and you'll find some interesting way back down. At one point in the ride, we passed this big metal box, which used to be someone's trash. Everyone tried to figure out what the thing was. I saw it as someone's junk that shouldn't be in a forest, but since it was there I might as well try to ride it. It was built up, so I gave it a shot. This was my mental state the entire ride and it turned out to be really fun. Can't wait to go back. Pictures should be coming soon.

Grizvitational

Rob Ginieczki used to live here in State College. He has written many mountain biking guide books. His book of our own Rothrock State Forest helped my dad and I find a lot of the trails here. Every year, there is a big group ride for him, and he usually shows up. He lives out in Colorado now, and didn't make it to this year's ride. The ride started at Penn Roosevelt State Park, the same place as the Stoopid 50. We climbed to the top of Thickhead mountain, and descended the steeper side. 31 mph without pedaling on a jeep trail. Then we turned onto the John Wert Path, a trail known for it's technical rock gardens, and is a must-do for anyone visiting the area. Then up to Upper and Lower Longberger. Upper and lower are completely different trails; lower is one of the only beginner trails in the area, and upper is a 1 mile rock garden. Turned on to 3 Bridges trail and up Laurel Run road to Charcoal Flats trail. Starts off fast, then stops descending and turns into a 3 mile string of rock gardens. Steep, technical descent into Shingletown Gap, with lots of big rocks and ledges. Then a rocky climb back out to the road. We turned back into 3 Bridges and took it down to Bear Meadows road, and climbed that to Kettle trail. Kettle is a short, but steep and washed out climb up to Tussey Ridge. I've only cleared it once, and my dad is the only other person I know that has done it. Tussey Mountain trail isn't as rocky as John Wert or Charcoal flats, but it's still technical. Rode it passed the forest fire that burned the whole ridge 2 years ago and across the gasline to Tussey Extension. The extension finishes the ridge, then descends, but goes back uphill to the gasline, and descends the gasline down to Treaster Kettle road. The climb up Thickhead from that side is really hard when you're only 1 hour into the ride. We started around 11 and the sun was beginning to set while we climbed. The only race that this side of Thickhead has been in was the Singlespeed World Championships in 2005. My dad climbed it that night and all he saw were footprints. By the time I got to the top, it was almost dark. We descended the other side with just enough daylight to see the bumps on the way down.

A Week of Fun Riding

On Sunday, my dad and I woke up early and left from the house for a ride. It was really foggy when we left, but as we started climbing, we went right through the clouds. By the time we got back down, the sun had burned off most of it though. Rode a rockey trail down and almost out of the forest, then turned around and took a different one back up. Climbed a steep and loose trail to the top of the mountain, which is one of the big ones you can see from my house. The mountain is called Bald Knob, because of the large boulders at the top, where there aren't any trees. Ride passed that and you come to that steep, technical descent that I talked about earlier. Did it in the daylight, and it was much more fun. Down the road, up a trail, and back another rocky ridge to the house. Ride time was about 3 hours, and we had to get back to help get ready for a party that we were having for the local mountain bike club.

On Tuesday was the Bicycle Shop group ride, and it also turned out to be really fun. Up a climb, then down a really fun 20 minute singletrack descent. Usually at this point, you take a fire road through a gap, and connect to a rocky trail that goes through a really dense hollow. Instead, we took the gasline up and over that ridge to the trail. Up an encredibly steep wall, then down the other side. By the time we got to this difficult trail, my dad had already snapped a chain, but we got that fixed pretty fast. While we rode off the gasline, another mechanical occured, and a derraileur got snapped. Threw a singulator on it and singlespeeded out. At that point, it was night. The John Wert path is a difficult trail in the day; riding it at night was completely different. Big rock gardens, and low trees and other plants that try to grab ahold of your light. I'm 2 for 3 this year on the "Sea of Rocks" rock garden. It's one of the hardest ones around, and when I did it the first time I thought I would never be able to do it again.

Today was my birthday, and I got mostly riding gear. Which I'd actually rather have than anything else. Some new gloves (I tore mine when I broke my collarbone and they started giving me blisters), a waterproof jacket and baggy shorts (I was borrowing my mom's jacket because mine leaks through). I also got a helmet cam. It's the same one that Gunnar used to record his Bear Creek videos, I'm looking forward to learning how it works. On Sunday we'll go out to R.B. Winter and do a fun group ride out there. It's hard to believe that it's only 45 minutes from my house and I've never been there. Can't wait.

Way, Way Off

Based on the calculations for lactate threshold heart rate and max heart rate, I was able to redo my zones. They were way off. It makes a little more sense that I didn't recover until I didn't ride outside for a month. When I was doing "recovery" rides in "zone 1," I was really in high zone 2 and in zone 3. It wasn't really any kind of recovery. My perceived effort was screwed up because I got into a rhythm of hammering. The rides felt easy because they were easier, not because I was recovering.

Yesterday was my first real night ride of the year. My dad and I started off in the day, as soon as I got back from school. We rode many of the trails from the Stoopid 50 (from the first fun downhill almost to the first aid station, then picked it up again towards the end). We're kinda spoiled since we can ride from our house, so we hadn't really ridden on that side of the forest many times this year. The trails aren't as rocky but are just as fun. The one part that we did get to ride at night was the last 5 or 6 miles. It's the part of the Stoopid after the rocky ridge, where you cross the road and continue along the ridge, through some nicely built piles of rocks and some clearings. It was really fun at night. When I was riding that trail, I noticed that a few trees had a reflective dot on them. Not even ones that were close to the trail. It looked perfectly round and was probably a big nail, but I don't know why they were there.