Mount Washington NH

Last week James Goyet, Mike Tamayo went up to New Hampshire to climb Mount Washington. Probley on of the most difficult climbs due to the weather changes that can occur. After flying into Manchester, NH with no problems. We got our rental car and drove up to North Conway. Pretty killer town with 3 ski resorts almost on top of each other. We must have spent 3 hours in Eastern Mountain Sports just checking everything out. Well with an early rise on Wed we got in the car and dove about 25 mins to the mountain. On the way there it was pretty nice outside with temps in the low 30s and little wind. We got all dressed and signed in and hit the trail up to the summit. The snow was pretty packed down for the most part on the first trail. With in about 15 mins we had to stop and start shedding layers. I was down to a dry fit tee shirt and opened the zippers on the legs of my pants to let some cool air in so I would not overheat. We made it up to Lions Head trail head in about 45 mins. Pretty good time. That is when we put our crampons on and long sleeves back on since we were not going to be moving as fast up Lions Head trail. It was my first time using crampons so it took a little getting use to them. Some parts of the trail were almost vertical. It was crazy to use the ice ax's and crampons to climb up the trail. Now were are getting above the tree line. The winds started picking up and gusting pretty good. We trekked up to this big rock pile and used it for a wind block. Ate a little and readjusted our boots and crampons. At this time we could see a front coming in but we could still see the summit. So we started up to the summit. While trekking up the side of the mountain we were almost being blown over with 70mph+ gust winds and temps down -10. The winds were steady about 60+. So the summit we were. Not bad we made it up in 3 hours. 4miles with 4000 feet elevation change. Then it was gore tex pants and jackets put on. James showed us how to glaciade (slide down on your butt) down the mountain. So we started sliding down. Parts of the mountain that took us like 25 mins to climb only took like 20 seconds to slide down. So we did that when we could. It got pretty crazy when we were doing that in the tree areas. I got a little nervous then. A awesome trip if you like hiking this is a mountain to climb.

Williamsburg Ride

Sunday 3 of us from our team and James friend Drag went out to ride the old Williamsburg Road Race course. We parked at Wallers Mill Park and went on our journey. I have rode most of the roads with XXX Todd back a few years ago but could not rember all the turns. Luckly we had maps and people that could read them. It was nice to get out and ride some different roads. We ended up with 57 miles. We hit a few small climbs nothing really big. The car wash climb was the worse but still not to bad we all powered up it with no problem. We slowed down once we reached William and Mary's campus. We were flat free all day til about 1mile from Wallers Mill Park. James picked up some glass from a broken 40 oz bottle that was on the road. Over all a great day for riding in Williamsburg. Great temps as well.

Thanks for the picture Josh.

Fuji SL-1

Well I finally got around to building up my new bike frame that I got from our sponsor All About Bikes. I built it up the other day. The bike is built with Sram Red drive train. This bike is super light and really responsive. This bike is ready to hit the mountains for some good climbing with my new 11-28 cassette. I switched saddles to the Bontrager RL. WOW what a nice saddle. After a decent time in the saddle with my old Specialized saddle my butt would begin to get sore not with this new Bontrager saddle. I wish I would have made the switch a long time ago. If anyone is looking for a '06 Specialized S-Works Tarmac in a 56cm let me know I have one in the garage that will soon be on eBay.

Loft Mountain

Just got back from a weekend of hiking and camping at Loft Mountain. Went up to the mountains with some guys from work. Some just wanted to get away and others wanted to get away and do some hiking along the AT and other trails. We arrived friday around 2. Set up camp and hit the trails for some 5 miles of hiking. Along The Frazier Discovery trail we saw some bear poo but no bears in sight. Like to see one but glad we did not see any. At the halfway point we took a break some took the paved path back to camp and the rest of us head back up the trail for some nice evelvation gain. Back at camp ate some dinner and got in the tent knowing we were going out for about 10 miles the next day.

Day 2:

The day started with a nice view of the sunrise through the trees and cool temps. We all got some breakfast in us and hit the AT. We hiked the AT for about 30 mins and broke off the AT to Doyles Run and Jones Run trail to see some nice water falls. The trails took us down from the summit to the valley. After passing all 3 water falls it was now time to hike up out of the valley. It was about 1500 ft of evelvation gain for us to get back up to the top. Once back up at the summit of the mountain we stopped for a break and some lunch. After lunch we hiked back up the AT for the next 5 miles to get back to camp. Some guys were getting tired and sore. But we all finished back at the campsite with about 6 hours of hiking.

Here are some pictures enjoy!

New View!

Well the house in VB finally sold and we are now located in Chesapeake,VA. We are very with our house choice. We are in a very quite neighborhood with NO jets flying over our heads shacking our pictures in our house. I'm able to commute to work via my road bike. Very short ride like 20 mins at a easy pace. I'm pretty stoked about being able to do that since fuel prices are still through the roof. I have only had to drive twice since we have moved in. ( approx a month now) Well here is a view of our backyard. More house pictures of the house to come.

ID3 Racing

Well Allison, Lauren and I packed up the car and headed out to Salem to her sisters house for a weekend of racing. The first day we went to Downtown Roanoake to race. The course was kinda techincal to what I have been racing on this year. It had 5 turns with in 0.7 of a mile. The field started off with about 30 racers. 15 mins into the race my computer fell off. Not sure if that was a good thing or not. So no more mointoring of the heart then. So a few attacks nothing was sticking. Then 2 guys got away and stayed away. After a few more laps there was only 12 guys on the lead lap. I was feeling ok at this time. Heart rate was kinda up but not too bad. On the second to last lap the acceleration went up and I was fighting for a good position. I was kinida hard to move up. So I know that I had to put in a good sprint. The sprint came up and I finished 10th place. Not bad at all I was pleased.

Off to Blacksburg for the final race of the series. Once again the field was a decent size of 30 racers. We started the race on a climb. We all stayed together for the first few laps. The first half of the race was a climb and then on the back side was a nice decent. I was feeling really good in this race. It was kinda techincal with the climbs and decents. About midway through the race the field was destroyed leaving only 8 riders on the lead lap I belive. With the bell lap comming up I placed myself in 3rd wheel. Knowing that the finish was going to be a climb sprint. I was ready for it. We started the back of the course and started to decent through the turns when my rear tire blew out and tacoed the rear wheel. That was pretty scary since we were in a turn at about 30mph. Needless to say that I DNFed the race. Well that is racing but I was pretty upset not to finish the race when I was feeling so good. Next year I will be back!


Thanks to Allison for talking all the pictures.

In the zone

Yesterday Todd and I went up to Sherando to do some mountain biking. The tempature was in the upper 80's. The only time the heat was an issue was on the switch back climb. I did alot better this time then last. Only had to walk the last switchback and ahalf. Still not good on riding the switch back so I have to walk the bike around the switch back. After we finished the climb it was on to Torey's ridge. That place will put you in the zone, as Todd told me it would. Once at the top on the ridge line it was very breezy and that felt good. Over all it was a good day in the mountains. I felt like I lost like 5lbs of sweet.