Pain Cave

I was in my own personal 'pain cave' this afternoon. Been reading suggestions on the Interweb about gear ratio for SS cross and I determined that the ratio on my 29er was to low (36x18) so last night I converted to 36x16. It was a great gear for riding into work today, but home was a different story.

I rode home from work via Forest Park (Thurman Gate to Lief to Ridge to St Johns, etc.). The minor gear change was PAINFUL. I think my experiment failed. Granted, it could be that it was my 4th hard ride in 4 days or that I had a pint at lunch today... Either way, my legs felt the gear modification. It is worth another test, but I think I am going to be converting back before Hornings (my first SS cross race)

Velog

So I've been checking out Velog ("the social cycling log") lately and finally went ahead and 'joined'. I also figured (not like it was hard) how to embed my training data into the side of my blog (see column to the right...). Cool beans.

Master As vs. Single Speed

I put cross tires on my mountain 29er a week ago and have been putting some miles on it (Forest Park, Tabor, Commuting, etc.). I loved the bike before, but am really loving it now. Skinny tires are fun & fast. The confidence of being upright and using disc brakes is so liberating. I feel like I’m pretty capable of at descending in the dirt on the cross bike, but when I do the same descents on the 29er, I absolutely slay them. I’m riding a 36x18, but need to test out 36x16 which I will try to swap out tonight for a ride on Thursday...

Which makes me wonder if I should plan on racing SS this year? Here is what my schedule is looking like right now.

Sept 30th: Battle at Barlow - Master As
Oct 4th: Alpenrose (Cross Crusade #1) – Master A’s
Oct 14th: Horning’s Hideout*: Single Speed
Oct 21st: Rainer High School: undecided. May take a by
Oct 28th: Astoria Fairgrounds: undecided: May take a by unless the family wants to make a weekend out of it…
November 4th: Barton Park: Master As
November 11th Estacada/ World Single Speed CX championships…: Undecided on which to race. SS might be more fun to watch
November 18th: Hillsboro Stadium: Master As
December 1st: PIR/ USGP of Cyclocross #5: Single Speed?
December 2nd: PIR/ USGP of Cyclocross #6: Single Speed?

* I won at Hornings last year in the Bs. Supposedly the course will be mixed up a bit from last year, but still, there is no pavement, so definitely a mtn SS course.

'cross season is underway

Wow, it's cyclocross season already. I've been getting as prepared as I can by logging as many miles as possible on the 'cross bike via Forest Park and Mount Tabor. I've also been running (and running stairs) when I get the chance.

I'm excited to start but very nervous about the whole prospect of racing with the As. I feel like I am in pretty good shape, but pretty good just doesn't cut it with the big guys...

Also been thinking about what I should do about a pit bike. I'd love to have another bike to keep in the pit (and to use as a road bike the rest of the year). I go back and forth on whether or not I should get another standard 'cross bike or whether it should be a disc brake cross bike. I'd love to have a disc brake bike...

Short Track #6

July 30, 2007
Portland International Raceway
Portland, OR

Per my earlier post, I'm way late on my post. So late, that I can't really remember all the details of the last race in the Portland Short Track series other than as usual it was a great race (as usual) and I'm sad (but also glad) that the series is over. To make a potentially long story short, I took 8th place (another top 10!). On a related note, Mr. Cross National Champ showed up for the first time of the year raced and took first...

Anyway, sweet race, sweet series.

Cross starts in 2 months...

Summit2Surf, STXC, Tahoe, oh my

Lots of things have been going on since my last post. In particular, I've done a few notable cycling events - Summit 2 Surf (a fund raiser for the American Diabetes Association), The last Short Track race of the season and a trip to Tahoe for my big sisters wedding (Congrats Barry & Michele!).

I'll followup with a separate post on the last short track race, but will mention a couple of the other events here. First and foremost, the the Summit 2 Surf (S2S). Megan and I rode on the WebMD 'team' which consisted of a coed group of hardy souls that opted to spend a beautiful Saturday going up and over Mt Hood from Welches to Hood River (a couple of us also extended the ride by going to Timberline Lodge (where the outside scenes of the first 'The Shining' was filmed. The one with Jack's famous line: 'Heeeeeeres Johnnnnnny').




Let me back up a bit though.

A week before S2S I did a ride with a visiting coworker from out Boston office. I took him on an early morning road ride in the hills above Portland. It rained HEAVILY. Anyway, my Paul cantilevers on my cross bike are usually bombproof, but on this particular ride they were just not working very well so I stopped periodically to adjust them. In the process, I managed to strip the cable holding bolt on my rear brake which forced me to remove it and bring the brake into Cyclepath. There, Bill did a helio coil fix (rethreading the threads) and I was back in business. 3 days before S2S, I had my bike up on the rack and I was putting the brake back on. I got it on and decided to oil my chain. Unfortunately, I had hung my bike on the rack via the top tube and when I adjusted the frame position I did the following...

uh oh

Total rookie maneuver... Note to self - in the future only clamp bike stand to seat post...

Any, return to story. I had just catastrophically damaged my bike in a single maneuver... I freaked out, went online and found out that others have had the same issue (I love the Internets). I went ahead and JB welded the piece back on, let it set for 24 hours, added more JB Weld, let that cure and then went on a test ride the day before S2S! SUCCESS!

I was very close to riding the 68 miles with 6200 feet of gain and 7K of decline on my fixed gear (I really need to get a 'real' road bike... anyone out there have any connections????). Although that would have been a great story, I think I would be needing knee surgery...

Anyway, back to the story. On Saturday July 28th a group of WebMD employees, spouses and friends earned some cash for the ADA. Good times, extremely well organized and well worth it.

Andrew & I starting off.

The more beautiful half of team Porter

On another note, as mentioned above, the family converged on Lake Tahoe for a combo 'Granny Camp'/ Wedding celebration. I managed to sneak in a few rides as well. One on Mr Toads Wild Ride (my favorite trail of all time), and one on the X-mas Valley Trail with Megan and "Grandpa' Dave. Another epic ride in the area of my folks cabin. Speaking of which, if anyone out there ever wants to vacation in South Lake Tahoe, my folks have a great rental property, and my step dad Dave is a great mtn bike tour guide.

Portland Short track #4

July 16, 2007
Portland International Raceway
Portland, OR

I'm tardy in publishing this race report as I've had a ton going on with a really busy work schedule, our kitchen remodel and of course the recent trip we (the Porter clan) just took to Disneyland!!! (tons of fun, but word to the wise - Thunder mountain railroad is not the most appropriate ride for a 3 & 6 year old. I think both kids may have almost had heart attacks and Megan & I had to build up their trust again for the next 2 days!)

The race as usual was great. I completed 7 quick laps along with the rest of the race leaders and managed to hang on for a series best of 8th place. One thing really exciting, is the number of riders from "Team Cyclepath" in the top 10!

Order Plate Name Team
1 90 Andy McKerrow Bike Gallery
2 141 Ryan Weaver (prime) River City Bicycles
3 30 Patrick Wilder Cyclepath
4 114 Martin Baker bicycleattorney.com
5 64 Jacob Furniss Eddy Merkin
6 11 Pete Zlatnik Bike Gallery
7 31 Nelson Snyder Cyclepath
8 13 Daniel Porter Cyclepath
9 353 Michael Gallagher River City Bicycles
10 240 Matt Hall Ira Ryan Cycles/Veloshop

34 single speeders started the race which was a decent sized group. The course was more like a cyclocross race than a mtn bike race, though it did not contain any dismounts.
I missed this past weeks race (July 23) as we were still traveling, but I am anxious for the series final on July 30th. Stay tuned!

Fear and panic on the way to work

The other day I had one of the worst possible situations happen to a parent and a cyclist. The morning started usually. I was in charge of getting Kendall to camp and Megan is in charge of Simon. I asked both the kids in the morning "How do you want to get to camp today?". Kendall was tired and wanted to drive (some days we take the trail-a-bike) so I loaded up my bike into the car (I leave the car at her camp and ride the remaining part into work. Simon wanted to ride so I set up his trail-a-bike to Megan's bike and after breakfast, making lunch, getting the kids dressed we were out in front of the house ready to go.

Kendall saw Mom & Simon jump on her bike and decided that she too wanted to ride in. I was already running late, so I quickly grabbed the bike and connected her trail a bike to it. I locked up the house, closed the garage, got the two of us situated and we were off.

We made it about 3 blocks from the house when the worst possible scenario happened. I felt my bike suddenly lighten, I heard a scraping sound and looked behind me to see my poor sweet daughter skidding along he pavement tangled in her bike. I pulled to the side of the road, ran back to get her and pull her to the safety of my arms. I checked her out for broken bones and calmed her down. I cleaned her up and bandaided her scrapes as much as I could. She was a trooper and let me load her back on the bike to get her home where I did some more extensive first aid.

I eventually got her to camp (we drove) and she was ultimately ok (and I think she likes the attention she has gotten from all of her various bandaids). However I shudder to think how bad this could have been.

BTW: the trail a bike detached due to my error. In my haste, I didn't push the connector in far enough to get the pin to engage... I just hope I can get her to get back on the bike again..

Tabor #6

Mt Tabor Park
Portland, OR
July 11, 2007

It's funny writing race reports about a race that has the same course each week. I could really shorten the report by saying, that we went around and around a bunch of times, my heart and lungs almost exploded and I ended up in XYZ place... Thankfully, I hopefully can add a bit more spice to the report than that.

This was the last race of the series so I had a bit to prove. My previous results weren't as spectacular as I would have like, plus this race brought out the largest field of the series (22 freaks on fixed gear bikes!). As mentioned in previous reports, this is was the fixed gear category - We go around the circuit 4 times and the majority of the strategy surrounds the following elements:
1) Gearing choice (over the years I've settled on 42x15)
2) Strategy.

Like a normal crit, unless you are super strong, you don't want to totally take off from the gun. Instead, you want to go as fast as you can to tire out your opponents without totally blowing yourself up. There are always a few guys that try the break off the first lap and it is almost never successful - especially with a big field. I try to hang with the guys that I know will be tough to beat. In this particular race, there at least 2 guys that I knew I wouldn't be able to beat on a normal race (ie I've never beaten them before). When they took off I would chase, when they slowed down I'd slow down... In the end this strategy worked as well as I could have hoped. I took 4th - my best result of the series.

Now it's time to do some necessary maintenance on the bike.

Until next year.

Portland Short Track #3

Lucky # 13

I should have published this photo last week, as it was during last weeks race that I crashed, almost lost my front wheel (had to stop and tighten the skewer) and got off course requiring a reride of a section I already completed. I'm not a superstitious person, and this week the #13 worked just fine. I moved up 12 spots from last week to finish in the top 10 (10th place to be exact). The race was course was a little more technical and longer than the week before and although it was a hot night, we had a nice summer breeze that kept the temps in check.

Single speeders finished 6 laps in the 30 minute race. Each lap was about 1 mile long. I'll let you do the math on how fast that is. As mentioned earlier, the course was a bit more technical and quite a bit longer (though strangely we did the same number of laps). I managed to keep the rubber side down this week, however the same could not be said for everyone. Lots of guys were going down on the course. I removed the bar ends (that although I like) caused me problems in the last race. Also, I lowered my wheel pressure down a bit which gave me a tad more traction. Next week I might try making my gear ratio bigger (or is it smaller?) Anyway, easier.... Currently riding 36 x 18 which is a great forest park gear range. Not so great for slow flats where I need to have quick etup & go. I think.... If I have a 20 tooth rear cog I might try that instead.

Totally unrelated to bike racing, but just curious if you know what stress is. Here is a picture of stress:

My Kitchen
(actually, sheetrock was installed today, so it looks a bit better)

Actually, it does have something to do with bikes & bike racing. Kitchen remodels are stressful. They are expensive (this one is costing us 50% of what we paid for our first house!), you have to eat out a lot or devise creative ways to cook with a skillet and a microwave and if you have kids, you have to keep them from playing with/eating/etc. the insulation. The list goes on and on. Anyway, riding my bike and racing my bike seems to melt that stress away. Try it, I promise, you'll like it.

Ergon Grips Gear Review

A friend of mine recently loaned me some Ergon R2 Magnesium grips to try out. I put them on my 29er Single Speed (Soma Juice). The bike has a rigid fork, so I thought that the Ergonomic shape of the grips would provide a bit of padding on my hands. Also, although I don't like bar ends, there is something to be said about them for their hand positions - especially when you are climbing a fireroad on a single speed.


In the past month that I've had them installed, I've ridden them on quite a few rides - mostly in Forest Park and I really like them as they did help pad my hands - providing just enough to take the edge off as well as take away unnecessary pressure.

The exception to this, is I had them on my bike for the first Short Track Race. If you read that report, you'll notice that it really wasn't my best showing. I kind of blame the crash on the grips. At the start I was neck and neck with the front of the pack. The bar ends seemed to have gotten caught a couple of times on other riders and I think ultimately resulted in me losing control.

So, in summary, these are great grips, just don't to a tight fast race with them.

Portland Short Track #2

Portland Short Track Series
Race #2
July 2nd, 2007
Portland International Raceway (PIR)

Picture courtesy of bikeportland.org

Like the Mount Tabor Series, Portland Short Track is another week day (after work) racing series that happens every year here in Portland.

I missed the first one as it happened to land on my wife's birthday, so I was quite anxious at the start of this weeks race.

I rode out to Portland International Raceway (about a 6-7 mile ride from downtown) to revel in the whoops, turns and twists of the popular MTB Short Track course. (200+ racers showed up this week (for all categories).

The gun went off, I tore into the first turn hot, and bam next thing I knew, I was on the ground along with a couple of other guys. I picked myself and my bike out of the dirt and jump back on the saddle. Unfortunately, the damage was done and I lost my chance at a good placing. I played the rest of the race trying to catch up. I had a few more problems over the next 6 laps - my front skewer was loose (due to the crash) and I opted to stop and fix it over the chance of losing teeth in the event of my front wheel coming off. Then, I got lost on the course (how does one get lost on a STX course?).

Not to complain. The race was great fun and well run as always. Plus, you need to have bad races to appreciate the good ones. I ended up in 22nd place out of about 40 single speeders. We all did 6 laps on a beautiful summer evening. How bad can it be?

Mount Tabor #5

Mount Tabor Park
Portland Oregon
June 27, 2007

By Daniel Porter

I missed Tabor 2,3 & 4 for a variety of reasons (injury, work, etc.), but was back in the saddle on June 27th for the 5th and second to last race in the 2007 'Velo on the Volcano' series.

Started out a bit nervous as I had basically been off the bike for 3-4 weeks. I rode hard on Monday and Tuesday (the 25th & 26th) to try to get back into shape.
The racers were basically the same cast of characters as previous weeks with only a couple notable exceptions (JV?, Jackson?). Still a good turn out of 15 riders (which is pretty high for a fixed gear ride.

The first lap was pretty mellow with no one wanting to attack to soon. The group stayed pretty much bunched up making it feel like a real race. SUbsequent laps got progressively faster and faster with different guys trading off at the front (me included) until the final lap where a few guys attacked and took off from the front. I tried to get on the wheel of the top guys and only remotely did so coming out of the flat (prior to the climbing finish) in 6th place. On the climb, I dug a little deeper and passed a guy resulting in a 5th place finish. Yippee, I'm number 5, I'm number 5...

Actually, it was a good race and it proved that I didn't 'fall out of shape' as fast or as hard as I had thought.

Next & final Tabor is on July 11th.

BTW: I absolutely love the Rush. It is a truly great bike with a really nice feel. Funny thing - there was another guy with an identical red frame as I in the race. (I beat him)

You Know How Certain Things Make You Feel Old?

This is one of those things...

http://www.digg.com/music/The_baby_on_Nirvana_s_Nevermind_album_is_17_Pic

Old, damn old...

My wife says I have problem

Do I have a problem? I don't have a problem, do you?

(note, this doesn't include my 4 camel backs)

Seriously, I don't have a problem.

Back in the saddle again

or Why I hate running.

I rode my bike to work today for the first time in over a week. In the process I missed 2 Tabor races and lots of training rides. That being said, the ride in this morning was relatively uneventful (ie no nagging pain). There is still some lingering 'uncomfort', however for the most part I am (almost) good as new.

For whatever reason, the only thing that hurt was riding, so I opted to stay in shape by running. There is very little to like about running. It's slow, it hurts, and my legs hurt for days after each run. On the plus side, my office backs up to Forest Park, so I was able to run in the woods on Trails I'm not allowed to ride on. Also, one can get a quick workout in and still get a workout in.

I'm going to be taking it easy for the next week (I'll be in Vegas for a conference) and I'll probably miss the first Short Track race (It occurs on my wife's Birthday), but I should be good to go for Tabor #5! (and hopefully 6).

peace.

Look how young and cute we were

9 years ago today!

Happy Anniversary Love!

2007 Cross Crusade Schedule Posted!

Summer hasn't even officially begun and the 2007 cross crusade schedule has been posted!

http://www.crosscrusade.com/schedule/2007/index.html

looks like a great mix of old and new venues.

Yippee!

Taking a break is ok, right?

Mt Tabor #2 is happening tonight. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to make it.

I somehow hurt myself last Thursday while on a night mountain bike ride (at least that is where I noticed it). I won't go into the details, but the pain is in a sensitive 'guy' area. Although I have been trying to ride since the incident (still not sure what it is that I did), I don't think I can concentrate on both racing hard and on the weird way I need to sit to avoid the pain. I can see catastrophic results. I have an appt with a doc tomorrow to see what is going on.

I'm bummed. I love Tabor and I looked forward to improving my result this week. Also, next week is my anniversary (9 years!) of marriage to my wonderful wife thus I am unsure of whether I can race then or not and the following weekend I'll be in Lost Wages, NV for a conference at work.

I keep thinking that I should be able to just tough it out, but is it really worth the pain?

Mount Tabor #1: 2007 Mt Tabor Series

Shortest Race Report Ever...

Mt Tabor Park: Portland OR
May 30th 2007
Circuit Race
Category: Fixed Gear

The stats:
17 riders
Temp: about a gazillion degrees
4 laps
4th place!

First Tabor race of the year. Turnout in the fixed gear category (the sideshow) was the biggest ever. We took off, raced around the park multiple times and I was beat by a 15 year old... (he then raced again and one the men's cat 3 race, so I *think* he'll be someone to watch) Made me feel old.

This was my first race on the Soma Rush, though I have been riding it alot since I built it up. The ride performed as expected. I absolutely love the bike. I also received a few compliments on "my fancy new bike" from the usual suspects.

I am going to try to race again this wednesday, unfortunately I pulled something the next evening on a mountain bike ride and may be out of commission. :(

peace