Last year, I rode the 17 mile version of the Snake Creek Gap Time Trial (and wrote about it here) on a full suspension bike in January at 50F. This year, I rode the 34 mile version on a hard-tail bike at 25F. I've written about not enjoying mass start, short, XC races, and SCGTT is definitely a different sort of beast. Spaced individual starts so there is no constant battle to stay out in front, and completion time instead of crossing the line first is what counts so passing is generally pretty spread out and done safely at good places. Additionally, the section of the Pinhoti that this race takes place on is extremely brutal with lots of climbing (6000+ feet on the 34 mile) and miles and miles of technical rocky sections that had most people walking. The 34 mile version had the special treat of a knee high stream crossing:

Photo taken one mile into the course (and at 22F) by mtbepic61.

Some people did what I did and had a dry rest of the day. Other people attempted to put bags over their shoes or ride it and many of them were wet and miserable for the rest of the day, experiencing fun things like frozen solid rear derailleurs. The only thing that froze up on me was my camel-bak hose, which was new and surprising, but made a lot of sense, and was fixed by re-routing the hose under my jersey. My ride started at around 22F at around 10am and finished up over five hours later at around 28F and I finished 14th of 21 people in the male 30-and-under 34-mile category, including 3 or 4 people that didn't finish.

As awful as this race sounds, I actually had a lot of fun! I took this event as a "pre-ride" of the 34 mile course because the first half was new to me and I'll have two more chances to push for a better time, so I pretty much took it easy riding the entire time and even stopped to give a guy a tube and let him use my pump to fix a flat. This was the longest time I've been in the saddle on a mountain bike which was fine, and the coldest weather I've ridden in which was great. Smartwool socks, neoprene toe covers and keeping my feet dry kept them nice and warm, Smartwool glove liners under my usual cold-weather bike gloves kept all my fingers happy, and by the end of the race I was down to (and plenty warm in) a longsleeve Smartwool base layer under a short-sleeve wool jersey on the top and insulated tights on the bottom. I've heard stories from other people about feeling horribly cold and getting frostbite on fingers and toes, but I think it mostly comes down to clothing and a tiny bit of luck. The only uncomfortable part of my ride was lower back pain from an extra liter of water or so in my camel-bak that I didn't need and the extra clothing I packed and removed while riding. These things would have saved me from freezing if I had a nasty mechanical and had to walk out, but my back just wasn't use to carrying them.

Unlike last year, I remembered to eat enough and felt pretty good energy-wise until the end, but it does make sense to be kind of worn out after 5 hours of riding. I was pretty tired afterwards and slept like a rock, but got up Sunday morning feeling pretty good and had the energy and the legs for a 5K run.

I'm looking forward to riding this course again in February and March, and I'm trying to figure out what my next mountain biking adventure will be that can outdo the Snake.

This was the last week of track racing season at the Dick Lane Velodrome, and the end of my first year of track racing. This was supposed to happen last year, but a pesky broken collarbone got in the way so my first race wasn't until the beginner races this year on April 7th. This was 2 days after a mountain bike race, and this would be pretty consistent for a while: racing mountain bikes on Sunday and track bikes a few days later. My only goal for year 1 was to move up from the D beginner category (which races on Tuesdays) to the C category which races on wednesdays, and to be slightly competitive in the Cs. After 4 days of beginner racing, I'd collected enough points to move up to the Cs just in time for the first of 3 Need For Speed events that preclude the 3 pro racing series events each year. My 200m sprint that Friday was the first one I've ever had timed, and I pulled a 13.03s which, while not a world record by any stretch of the imagination, did place me smack in the middle of a field of familiar names. That night, I got to race with some Cs and Bs for the first time, and had a blast.

Because I wasn't a B, I couldn't race in the Pro series on Saturday, but the following week I started up racing with the Cs and continued to improve over the summer. I'd occasionally get a 1st place in a single event, but never for the points total for the evening because there was always someone really fast (Cat 1 roadies for example) that was quickly moving through the Ds, Cs, and Bs, up to the As. However, I consistently was in the top 3 by the end of the evening and on September 2nd, none of those crazy fast people showed up, so I got first place in the C 8 lap scratch, the C miss-n-out, and the C tempo race (what all these mean) which placed me 1st out of 11 that night and I figured that meant it was time for me to move up to the Bs. I'd sat down and taken off my helmet, but heard Hoppy call out my name "Chris Kelly, you're up!" and after a bit of heckling from the B field, I geared back up and climbed onto the back of the B tempo race.

I wasn't at all prepared for this, but the field was very slow to get going and I knew I wouldn't have a chance to get any points later in the race so I headed up to the boards in turn 2 and took off the front. As I came around turn 4, the field was pretty far back, Jason Atwood was right behind me yelling "GO GO GO it's just us!" and I got points on the first lap of my first B race! Right before crossing the finish line on lap 2, twotone inched by me on the outside and said something along the lines of "in your face!" but I managed to stay at the back of the pack for the rest of the 20 lap race and got to do the same thing to him on the last lap. Lots of fun, and I ended up in 5th place out of 11 which got me 8th place overall for the evening for Bs points on top of my 1st place for Cs.

It was close to the end of the season and due to weather complications, there were only 2 more nights of B racing. The first one, I didn't get any points but played a part in setting the 8 mile scratch record by pulling for 4 or 5 laps, and at the second one (this past Wednesday) I managed to get 3rd place in a win-n-in which got me 6th place overall for the evening. Not too bad for just planning on being in the Cs all year. I was 1st of 28 for points overall in Ds when I moved up, 2nd of 53 in the Cs when I moved up, and with my tiny venture in to B racing, I managed to get 38th of 55 in the Bs. Using some crazy formulas, this got me 25th overall in Mens for the year of atleast 75 but probably around 120 people that raced at the track in 2009.

Next year I'll continue racing in the Bs and will be able to participate in all of the pro events now that I'm out of the Cs, and we'll see what happens! I've met a lot of people including a few that may be on FM:Race for next year, and even if I don't get too much better I'll definitely have a good time. Check dicklanevelodrome.com for the next beginner class, take it, and come out for some races next year! And heres my full results.

Yesterday, cyclists gathered in Dahlonega, GA for the 21st annual Six Gap Century. For some reason, Jim and I decided we would participate, though on the drive up at 4:30am on Sunday neither of us could figure out why. What could be more fun than 100+ miles climbing over 6 gaps in North Georgia totaling over 11,000ft of elevation gain? Probably a lot of things...

With a "our only goal is to not be so slow that we get cut off and are forced to do the 50 mile route" mindset, we started the loop at 7:30am with either hundreds or thousands of other people on bikes. Things started out pretty slow and, well, stayed that way. We made the cutoff point with plenty of time to spare and for pretty much the entire time that the sun was up, we rode along the course:

The crowds thinned out and at some points we were the only two people that either of us could see, and for the vast majority of time the time rode pretty close to each other so that we could try and figure out why we were doing this ride. I took off the front on the two timed climbs, if you can call 8mph taking off the front. Jim got to the top of the 10k and 5k climbs just a few minutes after me. These two climbs were pretty ridiculous, enough that some people were walking faster than others were riding, and at 8mph I was _flying_ past some people. Heres what the elevation profile looked like overall:

Jim and I finished before the sun went down, with less than 10 hours of wall time and I came in at right under 8 hours of wheel moving time with Jim a few minutes more. Not bad considering he hasn't really done anything since his Ironman Triathlon a few weeks ago, and I haven't really been on a bike much at all over the past 3 weeks due to the crazy rains in Atlanta, and the fact that we took our sweet time. Overall, Jim and I share the sentiment that we're glad we did this once and don't really need to do it again. The only "terrible" part were the rolling hills at the end of the course because each of our computers and my GPS all had different total mileage numbers and each time we thought we were going to come around the corner to the finish, there was another rolling hill to climb.

We finished off the day with a Bloomin Onion and some grilled meat at Outback Steakhouse and headed home, meeting our two goals for the day: 1. finish the 100 mile route and 2. eat a Bloomin Onion. I also didn't have any nutrition related issues which caused problems the last two 100+ mile rides I completed.

I won't be doing this ride next year, but given my policy of "pay to ride one century each year and don't ride the same one twice" I'll probably end up doing a flatter century like MACC One Love or something else, and maybe I'll set a finishing time goal too. Today, I'm feeling pretty good aside from some minor leg soreness, and it's kinda neat that I can do a ride like this without any real planning or preparation other than finding someone to drive up there with!

The stats:

• 105.8 miles on the bike computer
• 7:58:54 time on the bike computer
• 10607 ft of climbing on the GPS
• 7169 calories burned according to the heart rate monitor
• 905th of 999 6-Gap finishers, with several hundred that did not finish
• 9:42:34.426 finishing wall time. Fastest was 5:22:17.679, slowest was 12:54:53.980
• 311 of 999 in the King of The Mountain timed hill climbs
• full results!

This past weekend I was part of the Faster Mustache Race Team's contingent to #3 of the South-Eastern Regional Championship series. We drove up Saturday morning, set up camp, and pre-rode the full race course:

I'd ridden at Tsali before, but only on the Western half, and while similar, the Eastern side seems to cover a lot more distance. 18.6 miles later, we had a good idea of what we were in store for on Sunday, but for some reason Adrian and I kept on riding and did a loop on Thompson Loop:

This added in another 7.7 miles for the day and the 26.3 miles at 9.3mph turned out to be a bit much for a pre-ride. I downed my OJ+Protein recovery drink (quite foul tasting) and some PowerBar Recovery (delicious!) and we drove back to the campsite. The 20 or so of us were quite the crowd with mtb racers, little kids, and dogs running around everywhere, but there was plenty of food and everyone seemed to have a blast. I squeezed a ~30 minute nap in and felt a lot better, and we all sat around the fire passing around a guitar and making smores as the sun went down.

I rolled out pretty early Sunday morning to catch my 9:30am start time (Most people didn't start until 11:30), and rode my race. The first mile or two felt great, but on the first big climb the mileage from Saturday quickly caught up with me. I was 5.5% faster during the race than on the pre-ride and my heart rate was up from 159 to 166, so I was working harder and going faster, but not as fast as I could have been without the Saturday riding. Official results aren't up yet, but I know I stayed in front of at least 2 other people in my category and passed at least 2 people. Here's a map with all 3 loops from the weekend on it:

After a little cooling off, I set out to take photos, not just of Faster Mustache (Faster Mustache SERC#3 photos), but of everyone in the yellow wave. Hopefully some people will want to buy some of these SERC#3 Photos this go around. Below is Eric and Alex at the start of their single speed category, which they won 1st and 3rd place in:

And a closing shot of FM:Race's temporary world headquarters next to the start line, where we waited on everyone to finish up and for awards to be given out:

I had a pretty good time, but it's definitely a lot of trouble "just" for an hour long race. Plenty more races to go this summer, and in theory my first race at the velodrome will be tomorrow evening.

FM:Race is off to a great start this year. Our kits finally came in and we think they look pretty awesome. Here's a group shot from a casual road ride we did on Saturday:

The rest of the photos from that set are available here: Faster Mustache Race Team Spring Leisure Ride. Interested in buying something? Find out how to do this here.

Though they weren't here in time for the Snake Creek Gap races, they are here before track racing season begins, and came in just in time for the first race of the Georgia State Championship series of cross country mountain bike races. GSC#1 was on Sunday at East Macon Park, and FM:Race had a crew of 6 racing everything from full suspension to single speeds, in beginner to expert classes. Eric N was the 2nd fastest person on a single speed bike there, and Aaron managed to get 8th place in the expert category averaging 11.86mph over 30 miles:

This was my first ever XC mountain bike race. I did The 2005 24 Hours of Adrenalin at Conyers (pictures), as well as #1 and #3 of the Snake Creek Gap time trial this year (blog on #1, video from #2); but XC is a little different: Mass start pretty fast loops around a small XC course (instead of ultra-endurance or crazy hill climbing and descending), easy enough for the kids group to do a lap, but the fastest people still win.

I was 9th in a field of 17 in the Beginners 19-29 group, which isn't a bad start! (Full results - I was in the "white wave") My average speed was 10.31mph which is my fastest on record for mountain biking since I started keeping track a year or so ago, and this was my first mountain bike ride not carrying my backpack which meant no water. I may look into a smaller bag or a water bottle for future XC races. For the entire race, Bob was never more than a minute or so behind me, and the trail looped back and forth on itself so constantly seeing eachother was probably helpful motivation for both of us. I took some pictures during the yellow wave but no photos of me riding have surfaced yet. This was definitely a great first XC race, and I'll be doing a lot more of these as the season continues! Up next is SERC#3 at Tsali, and something tells me FM:Race will be there in full force again:

Here's another bike video post, and I have most of the generes covered now so the rate at which these are produced should slow down a bit. First is an 11 minute video from the third round of the Snake Creek Gap Time Trial Series. You can read more about the series here. I missed the second race due to work travel, and for the third one I didn't improve my time much (just a minute or so) because I started too strongly on Adrian's tail, stopped a few times to tinker with the camera, and got leg cramps 200 feet from the top of the last uphill which was a new experience for me. Here's the video:

2009 Snake Creek Gap Time Trial #3 from Chris Kelly on Vimeo.

A few days later I went to the velodrome with Gregory and David to do my first round of training there for the season, and put together a brief teaser video for that:

Track Season 2009 from Chris Kelly on Vimeo.

Wednesday night was the first of the season for Aaron's Cycling's Wednesday night ride which was very fast (though I somehow avoided getting dropped), and tonight was FM:Race's first weekly Thursday night ride. It's been a very fast paced week on bikes and I'm beat, so it's a good thing that I'm not riding tomorrow. The training plan probably needs some adjustments, as trying to race both track and mountain bikes this year is going to be quite a mess.

I've known for a while that some FM:Race people were signed up to do the Snake Creek Gap Time Trial Series but I didn't decide until late last night that I would race too... today! I signed up online last night, figured out carpooling, and got about 5 hours of sleep before my first mountain bike race of 2009 (and my first mountain bike race since 24 Hours of Adrenalin at Conyers in 2005 which was my first mountain bike race ever). Last year, FM:Race cleaned up most of the Under-35 17 mile category in this series with 9 out of the top 11 placings (2008 results) so Christopher, Aaron, Eric N, and Emily did the 34 mile route this year while Bob, Eric B, and I took over the 17 mile.

The forecast called for rain, but it was really more like being inside a cloud the whole time. You can see what this was like here. Official start time for the 14milers was 10am and my spot in line ended up being at about 10:20am. I was right behind Bob but passed him pretty quickly on the first climb thanks to my granny gear because he was riding the course on a single-speed. Over the next few hours, I passed a good number of people and got passed by a few people. As the minutes ticked by, things got more and more spread out and by the second half of the course, I almost never saw anyone in front of me or behind me. This was nice when I was cursing out loud while walking up steep hills after bashing my shins on crazy piles of rocks that seemed to make up the majority of some miles. My legs don't look as damaged as I think they should!

This course, part of the Pinhoti trail (Snake Creek Gap to Dug Gap), was by far the most technical mountain biking I've ever done: miles and miles of rock gardens, super sketchy descents covered in wet leaves and mud, and steep long uphills that many say are unrideable. This was definitely the most walking I've ever done mountain biking anywhere and the rocks, descents, and climbs all outdid the previous personal "most" for me: Porcupine Rim in Moab, Utah. For both the conditions (riding inside a gross muddy cloud) and the terrain, this trail is not one that I would do for fun because it's mostly painful with few rewards. On a nice sunny and clear 60F day, the view would be nice, but still might not be worth it!

My official time was 2:40:56 which is a bit longer than FM:Race was doing last year, but everyone agreed that the conditions slowed things down a lot. We'll see how I stack up against my category when they put all the results online. Even though I looked alright after finishing, according to my heart rate monitor I averaged 90% intensity on this and "only" managed to average 6.3MPH with that. Ouch! Regardless, I'm pretty happy with how I did, and it's a good way to start off a year of riding. My muscles are feeling pretty good and I think it's mostly the added difficulty that the wetness gave the technical sections (the entire course) that slowed me down. I'll miss the February stage of this series due to work travel, but should be able to do the March one and go significantly faster if it's not muddy-cloudy.

Here's what the hills were like:

And here are some more pictures.

EDIT: Results are in, I was 4th out of 12 and would have been 3rd if I shaved 1 minute off my time!

EDIT2: The pictures are starting to show up online too. Here is me in one of the many rock gardens. (Thankfully they didn't post the picture of me falling ~20ft back or so!). More details also now up at http://fastermustache.org/node/6040.

EDIT3: more me pics

It's that time of year again: In a few weeks, we at Faster Mustache are putting on our 4th annual 24 hour urban relay! Head on over to 24.fastermustache.org to pre-register to guarantee your spot, as this is the cycling event of the year in the south east, and the only event of it's kind in the world.

September 6th and 7th at Johnny's Pizza on North Highland. Take it easy on a 6 person team and just have a good time doing at least one lap a person (~10 miles or so), or go for the solo win which will take 300+ miles of riding! Trust me, the prizes are worth it!