Ah, what a great day at work. I got a van ride up to the Trillium Lodge to help unload a dishwasher, then hopped on a borrowed coiler (i know i linked to a coilair and not a coiler. shoot me.) and rode down the mountain to town.

I made my way down the pavement and turned off onto a a steep rocky gravel road. The full suspension was super fun on the downhill. At the bottom the trail flattened out and ran parallel to some railroad tracks. Off in the distance, I saw a dog walking towards me.

"wow. thats a really large, muscular dog..." I thought

"Oh shit. That's a bear"

I got off my bike very slowly, turned around, and started riding away while humming a tune. As soon as I was out off sight from the bear I started to hammer up back up the mountain. Riding a geared full suspension is hard work. Damn it was hard. I think I could have climbed two mountains on my single speed with the calories I expended. Maybe I'm just not used to spinning in the granny ring.

At the top of the mountain I realized that I had made a very wrong turn. I should not have been on that road at all, and if I would have continued on it, I would have gotten farther and farther away from town. So the bear actually saved me from getting lost.

I have packing, laundering, and bottle washing to do to prep for my morning departure. So off I go.

I'm going to try to update everyday with pictures of the trip. Saturday is the big day. Hooo boy.

toot toot, i hear the shoe train a commin'

Its finally time to retire my old'e Shimano shoes. The soles were delaminating, I had sewn the velcro strips back together twice, and honestly I can't imagine that they were helping me get power to the pedals.

Enter the northwave raptor (and no nothwave, no link for you until i get free shoes)

From Drop Box

100% psick and in matching tenderfoot colors. huzzah.

My friends (i use that word extremely loosely. im nothing more than a number to them. anyhoo.) at backcountry outlet.com floated me a super secret pro 50% off coupon that they only give to people who sign up for their free news letter. I took the opportunity to order these little devils. (they actually didn't even ask for my coupon code at check out. that makes me feel a little less special.)

The shoes are much stiffer than my old ones, but more importantly, they have a clicky buckle. Ever since seeing photographs of the Pilgrims landing on Plymouth rock, I have wanted clicky buckles on my shoes. And now I have them (im hoping that this will lead to a massive increase in riding speed.)

Unfortunately, Northwave provides an insole with these shoes that is nothing more than a cruel joke. It's thinner than a saltine cracker. Until I can find a decent footbed, I put my old Shimano insoles in on top of the Northwave ones. So far so good.

My only other gripe with the shoes is the rubber on the tread. I can't wrap my head around why a cycling shoe maker wouldn't use a soft hiking sole. The zytel on the Northwaves is not terrible, but it has room for improvement. I guess I should be thankful that it isn't just a nylon plate with a couple token patches of black stuff like pearl izzume uses on their racing shoes.

Overall I'm quite happy with my new kicks. Hopefully the added stiffness will help during the multiple massive climbs of the 101.

I just stumbled across this blog about riding a 'scoot.' Apparently, its a big deal for this guy to ride a motorized scooter to work in slightly chilly weather. I wonder if scooter guys would find me as weird as I find them.

Nah. Not possible.

101 approaches

Two more days of work until I leave for the 101. I can't wait.

The lady bear and I are heading to sunny Philadelphia on Wednesday to stay with some friends. We're going to a show Thursday night, after which I'm going to book it back to my gracious host's residence and try to get as much sleep as possible. We'll make the trip out to Coburn on Friday morning and set up camp, and I'll try to sleep some more.

The grumbler is staying home for this race, because the lady bear can't drive a stick (can a stick be driven? it can't in my opinion. she can't shift a manual transmission. that's what i really mean), and I'm anticipating that after racing 100 miles, I will not be capable of driving anything.

My goal for this race is to place in the top quarter overall. (of course in the land of gilled water bunnys and lumberjacking bovines my goal is to win. but we'll stick to reality) I think that a top 25% finish is an attainable goal as long as I keep eating. I definitely cannot let my self start to run out of fuel this time. The newman-O's and brown rice syrup are on the ready.

After some digging I think I found the correct elevation profile for the course:

From Drop Box

There's gona be some hills. I can feel it.