PMBAR, the small things

More PMBAR stuff until it's outta my head.

I ran on the lean side Saturday.  Since our pace wasn't overly aggressive, I thought maybe I could burn a little more fat off the midsection for the Pisgah 111/55.5k races coming up in two weeks.  My race nutrition for ten hours of riding was thus:

1.5 bottles of full strength Gatorade
2-3 bottles of treated creek water
9 gels
2 mustard packs
1/3 of a can of Coke
2 energy bars... one of which was new to the market and the guy who handed it to me said, "Maybe you could do a review on it," to which I replied, "If I can remember what it is after the race."

I don't remember, but it was quite delicious and we did win the race, so there's that.

After the race, there was burrito... because burrito.

And beer.  There was lots of beer.  I stuck around to help clean up because that's just what you do at PMBAR as long as they haven't ran outta beer (and it's not pouring rain).

The next day, two sausage biscuits with gravy at the hotel and enough eggs to determine that they were not eggs in any manner I'm used to.

I got home and hopped on the scale.  131.8lbs.  Sweet.

And then I did things around the house and ate constantly, pretty much anything not breathing was fair game.  I was going to list everything, but my lack of self control when left alone in the house?  Sad.  By the next day, I was sitting at 134.8lbs.  I remember Selene Yeager wrote something about being bloated as a tick after a good race, so I'm pretty sure I had a great one.

The bike.

This is awesome.  I just found out this morning that the team that came in right behind us... yeah, they were one of the teams I hiked past going up the backside of lower Black Mountain Trail.  Zac and I managed to open up a four minute gap going down, even though we got stymied behind a slower rider on the bottom third of the descent.   This bike goes fast... of course if Matt Fusco and his teammate woulda known they were losing their top five position?  Mebbe they woulda picked up the picante sauce a bit.

To say that I'm very comfortable with the VerDickgo Meatplow V.7, even in full-on squish/droop mode?  Understatement.

The Thomson Elite Drooper.

It's 50% of 90% of getting the most out of 100% of my fork travel.

I used to feel so fatigued coming down Black after a long day in the saddle.  I've been a real shit show countless times before.  Now I just droop and lean back.  That's it.  The bike does the rest.  Haters say what they want, but a prooper drooper will change the way you ride.

Conditions were dry, so I stuck with the 2.35 Ikon 3C MAXX Speed EXO TR tire up front.  I considered going back to my standard 2.4 Ardent, but this thing just rolls so fast.  I never felt like it was slowing me down in the technical stuff or fast descents.  So fast on the gravel and such.

It's still coming off the front for the Trans-Sylvania Epic... or not... just to keep The Angry Singlespeeder on his toes.

I'll be running the Maxxis Nunya B at TSE.

And in the "You're only as prepared as you're prepared to be" category...

Upon inspection, it seems I was still running a standard thickness tube somewhere on my bike, the one with a patch on it.  I'm gonna have to talk to whoever is in charge of making sure I put the A-list stuff on before I head out to make great bike race in the woods.