JesseParker.com

My First Solo 24hr Mountain Bike Race

2009-10-13T19:45:00.010-06:00

Quick run through for those that don't want to read the play by play:

10 laps completed
Distance Travelled: 149.1 miles
Elevation Gain: 13600 ft
Class place: 6/28
Overall Men's Solo Class place: 22/49 (included those going for the national championships)
Overall place: 283/365 (I beat 82 teams, 60 of them were multi person!)

This first picture links to an album with a few more than shown here.

From 24hrs of Moab

Lap 1:

So the race started out with a 300ish yard run down a field and around a bush. I haven’t run more than 100 yards since 2004, so that was fun. Especially when it got so ridiculously dusty I could hardly breathe for the trip back. I took it pretty easy and got back to my bike somewhere in the front of the back third of the riders. Instead of the singletrack in the beginning we were routed onto the road for about 2 miles of steady climbing. I rode a very comfortable pace and kept my place in the pack. After this the trail turned steeper and had some technical ledgy climbing type stuff. There were quite a few ledgy downhill spots too that had a few good lines and lots of crappy ones. I managed to ride all of these sections, and managed to watch a few sweet wrecks as people took the wrong lines or just plain screwed up on the right lines. Halfway through the first climb there was a sweet descent where you could let off the brakes and ride way up on these berms at a very exciting rate of speed. Again surrounded by sand traps, you knew that a mistake wouldn’t be all that painful as you would fall into a foot of sand. Not that I did (at least not in the daylight), but it was comforting to know I could of

After climbing on and off for around 5.5 miles the trail sorta leveled off for a bit and got into some faster doubletrack with two established lines and loose sand on the sides… Fun and fast, I drafted some people on these sections at several points during the race. People knew you were solo because of your number (low double digits) and were always offering encouragement throughout the race. There were some slickrock portions and sections with amazing views of hoodoos and various other cool red desert monoliths. Then some fast doubletrack back torwards the starting area. About 10 miles in there was another climb up a dirt road. It started out pretty friendly, but turned into a sandy rocky mess about halfway through the race (or was it my brain that was a sandy rocky mess?) and got a bit disheartening. Of course you knew you were approaching the finish so that was nice. But in my case, how nice was it really? All it meant was I was closer to the longer crappier climb in the beginning of the course. Anyways, finished in around an hour and a half. Pretty good time really, best I would be able to do…

Lap 2:
The second lap began differently as we were now riding singletrack for the first 2 miles. Fun, right? More so than a road except the climbing part was over broken rocks and was just rough enough to make it suck just a bit more than a regular climb would. Wasn’t so bad now though….. This lap progressed simililarly to the first one, shoulders were tensing up like crazy though and starting to hurt pretty badly. I was expecting pain, but not this much and not 2 hours in. I was starting to cramp a bit too.. I had a bunch of Endurolytes (electrolyte pills) and had been popping them like candy, so the cramps never got very bad. Everything else went pretty well on this lap and I finished in a similar amount of time. When I rolled into camp I decided to switch bikes to my full suspension bike to add a little comfort to the riding. I sat down on my chair for about 5 minutes and literally felt the tension leave my shoulders.

Lap 3:
When I started the lap my shoulders felt pretty damn good, I think the overall fatigue was starting to override the tension and forcing me to loosen up. Cool! I was in good spirits as I was nearly (relatively?) pain free and 40 miles in. This lap was a bit slower than the last one, I think the fact the bike weighed a good 6 pounds more and my brain was slowing down had something to do with it. I walked a few more of the climbs than last time and was a little more hesitant on the descents. Overall, the time was maybe 10 minutes slower than the last one. I arrived at camp and had a PBJ and went out for one more before dark.

Lap 4:
Another lap down, this was the lap where I officially rode further on a mountain bike than I ever had before (around 50 miles before I think?). Again, slightly slower. I think the mental fatigue was slowing me down more than anything else, my legs felt surprisingly good. I was sucking down about 300-400 calories per lap and I’m pretty sure that’s why I was still doing alright. I hear I should of been force feeding more calories to keep the brain going a bit faster. Finished in the dark without any issues.

Lap 5:
First night lap, all of a sudden my time jumped about half an hour in the wrong direction. This race involved about twice as much night riding as I’d ever done previously, so needless to say I wasn’t exactly comfortable out there. My light didn’t have enough battery to last the whole night on full power either so I had to run it on medium which also didn’t help the confidence and depth perception. Overall it was a pretty fun lap though, I was forced into a sandpit by some guy chickening out on the chicane berms and sliding off. Apparently he wasn’t on his fifth lap and didn’t have it memorized yet. Fell over with no injury and the guy let me by apologizing profusely. “Don’t worry about it dude, I’m in no hurry.” Walked a lot of the technical climbs and descents on this lap, I don’t want to fall and hurt my wrist doing something I didn’t need to do. Arrived at camp at 9:38 pm to a warm fire and a hot cup of chicken soup. Thanks team IMBA!

Lap 6:
Out for another one, I switched jerseys and things were starting to cool down quite a bit. My headlamp went out halfway through the lap, but I managed to keep a similar pace anyways. This lap ended at 90 miles, almost a century! I started compiling a list of things that hurt and when they came and went. Overall, I felt pretty good except for the fact I was cold, tired, and it was dark out. My left hip was bothering me on and off, but nothing bigger than that at this point. Liberal application of chamois butter was part of the reason for this. Nothing is more miserable at 4am in the cold is applying cold chamois butter before riding out.. Well, actually forcing yourself to ride out of camp at 4am was pretty miserable in itself..

Lap 7:
Left camp a bit after midnight and didn’t really want to go. I knew it was going to be hard to get going through the night and purposely didn’t set up any amenities except a chair by the fire so I wouldn’t be tempted to stay very long. It worked, ad none of my breaks lasted more than a half an hour. I still left camp cold but with decent spirits for yet another lap out in the darkness. People were pretty spaced out at this point, so I was pretty alone for good stretches. Night riding can be a really peaceful experience. The moon had just come out, looked pretty cool. Unfortunately the clouds blocked most of it’s light so the hoodoos weren’t visible. At this point I hardly even paid attention to the laps. There were times where I tried to remember what parts I had ridden already and what was left and I just couldn’t figure it out. It was all so blended together. With five miles to go I officially rode further than I ever had on a bike. I did a road century before, but this was way worse. Rolled back to camp around 2:30.

Lap 8:
I knew this was going to be my last lap completely in the dark, but it still took quite a bit of effort to get back out there. The fire was out and camp was quiet. I shook it off and got back out there, knowing the cold and fatigue was much more manageable when I was on the bike.

About 3 miles in there was a camp set up with a giant fire and some very drunk fans with cowbells. I noticed a sign that read “free beer and brats for solo riders”. I stopped and had half a brat. I think it was the best brat I’ve ever had. The rest of the lap was a blur if remembering sections just fast enough to ride them without adequate light. There was a section of loose descent where half way down you could let off the brakes and rocket down this little trail of hardpack surrounded by rocks and sand. I couldn't see the whole thing, but knew exactly where it was so I let off the brakes and went off into the dark.. What I didn't know was someone had kicked a rock into the middle of it and I didn’t see it until it was too late to stop. I slowed most of the way down and then got pitched out into the darkness and sand. Got up unscathed and carried on. The rest of the lap was pretty uneventful. I was hoping for some hallucinations or anything at this point to no avail. I felt weird, but not anything more than that. I was talking to myself and my bike quite a bit more than usual though..

Lap 9:
Sunrise lap! After all the fun fast descents the sun came up and I could see again! It was fantastic and really helped raise the spirits. The dark was my biggest problem in this race and it was finally gone. About halfway through this lap my right knee started to hurt, and by the time I was on the final climb it wasn’t just a nagging pain. I arrived at camp knowing I could fit two more laps in if I wanted, but didn’t know if my knee would allow it. My goal was 10, so I knew I had one more in me and also knew I’d be totally fine with just that one. I was going to set out and see how it felt on the first climb, then make my decision there.

Lap 10:
This was the last lap, the knee was hurting pretty badly. What was I going to do about it? I stopped at the free brats/beer tent again and the people were up and about again. I hung out for a good 15-20 minutes and drank a beer. We talked about the race and some of the other riders they knew and generally cheered on all the team riders as they pushed by, tired but still going all out for their team. My knee hurt and I knew it was my last lap so I was in no hurry. I had 5 hours to do a lap I knew would only take 2.5 at the most. After leaving the camp I rode with the current solo leader Josh Tostada for a bit and we talked about a bunch of stuff. He gave me some advice on my knee and we talked about whether or not we were going to do any more laps. I was on lap 17 and said he didn’t need to do any more to win but was thinking about it. He went on to do one more and set a world record of 180 miles in 24 hours.. What a badass. Nice guy too, the thing about all the solo riders is none of them were in too much of a hurry to chat at the pace of the other rider, we all slowed and hung with whoever and traded tips and things like that. I soft pedaled with my right leg most of this lap because of the pain in my knee, but finished with a sprint and a smile. I finished with plenty of time and legs to go out for another lap, but not with my knee feeling like this. I figure it’s a bike fit issue that caused this, and I have plenty of time in the future to go further.

Prologue:
I get back into camp after my 10th and final lap and sat down next to the fire with a 100yd stare. The team imba guy Mark disappears into the trailer and emerges with a down jacket and a beer. He said, “Here’s a jacket, this beer is nice and cold”. I was in a daze, staring blankly at things and smiling. I did it.

My three goals were as follows:

Don’t sleep or stay in camp more than half an hour
Ride at least 10 laps
Pass someone on my final lap (several actually, go me!)

And I was tired..

I slowly got my stuff together and was offered a bed in a cabin by my IMBA teammates Noreen and Stewart with them and their two kids. Let see, camping in the sandstorm and the cold or a cabin with a hot shower, a hot tub, and a bed? I slept for 12.5 hours that night after a 30 minute shower and 30 minute soak in the hot tub. I was sore but well rested for the drive home the next day. My feet hurt more than anything right now, I can feel where the pedals were and the broken heelcup in my right shoe. I see more of these in my future, but need to work out a few equipment issues first.

Stuff that worked:
Perpetuem
Hammer Gel
Enduralytes
PB&J
Hot Chicken Soup
Belgum Budder (lots of it, that stuff is fantastic)

Stuff that didn't
My shoes and pedals (knee pain and feet that still hurt)
Crappy water bottle mount on yeti downtube
would of been nice to skip the camelback and have everything attached to the bikes..

New Mexico

2009-09-07T19:50:00.002-06:00

From South Boundary Trail

Went to Taos, NM this weekend and rode a classic ride called the South Boundary trail. It's a shuttled ride with about a 1000 feet of climbing in the beginning, another 700ish later, and about 6000 of descending along cool singletrack like what you see above. More pictures if you click on the link..

Living Room!

2009-08-16T12:29:00.000-06:00

So after all kinds of work the living room is finally painted and finished.. There was quite a bit of construction involved in this, and for a long time it looked worse than it was.. But now it's done and I'm pretty happy how it turned out.. Click on the Picture for a whole slideshow of before and after.

From Living Room

Rob's Wedding

2009-07-12T15:16:00.000-06:00

From Rob's Wedding

Was a bunch of fun, here are a few pictures.

House!

2009-07-11T15:09:00.004-06:00

Okay, enough waiting for google to get their crap together (my online picture storage went to crap). I knew I made a second email back in the day for a reason.

Here are three shots of my new house, more inside the album if you click on the first one.

From My House

Atlanta Aquarium

2009-07-11T15:00:00.000-06:00

Pretty cool aquarium, the biggest in the world.. I have pictures from the wedding to share too, some are in that new picasaweb account the the rest will follow..

Atlanta Aquarium

Red and Green

2009-06-07T17:22:00.003-06:00

Red Rocks Open Space was at one time a quarry and a dump, now it's a pretty sweet piece of city owned land with nice trails and connections to even more nice trails.. Click on the photo for a few more.

House

2009-06-07T17:15:00.000-06:00

redrocks and house 031 corrected, originally uploaded by Jesse Parker.

So here's the front. It's an old Victorian built in 1899 and will be mine on the 28th if everything goes to schedule..

2009-06-07T17:14:00.001-06:00

redrocks and house 025, originally uploaded by Jesse Parker.

Another. I took these during my inspection, hence the ladder in the lawn.

Post Op

2009-05-22T11:05:00.000-06:00

Well, the surgery went just fine. I was hoping I'd be awake for it but apparently the Versed and the other drug they gave me just put me to sleep during the half hour operation. They gave me a nerve block so my arm was completely dead and I could of been awake if I wanted. Whatever, it was over before I knew it and I was on my way home shortly after I woke up.

The nerve block was wicked weird, it was like I was touching someone else's hand. Felt like John's hand actually. I'd take it out of the sling and it would just flop around like it was dead. That wore off by around 4 last night and I took a coupla vicadin to fend off the pain. I haven't had anything since, and it's starting to ache a bit as I use it for typing. I'll probably just take some ibuprofen and save the good stuff for sleeping. Doctors apt on the first of June, until then I'm back to showering with a bag on my hand.

The doctor made me a copy of the fluoroscope stills, we'd talked about the screw he was going to use and he made me a copy because he knew I'd be asking for one. I ended up with a 22mm long one. 02.226.122 to be exact. I'm going to try and get a sample of that exact screw from my friends in product development as a souvenir. Pictures in the album below, I'll have more later once I get the digital files from the doctor.

From 2009-05-21 Kompressionsschraube

Under the Knife

2009-05-19T17:34:00.005-06:00

This Thursday (5/21) I'm going to get a Synthes 3.0mm headless compression screw put into my scaphoid bone in my wrist. This option will get me out of a cast and back into my normal activities faster and also ensure proper healing of the bone. Should take around 45min surgery time. In the hospital at 12:45, out around 4. This was the option I was hoping for, fixation an reduction of broken bones is something I believe in.. and it should be considering what I do for a living. Unfortunately, these screws aren't made in my plant, I believe they are made in PA somewhere. I'll figure that out at work tomorrow. I'm going to get the long thread version in stainless. I have alot of the cancellous (spongy inside bone) on the other side of the fracture for the threads to bite into. It's going into my scaphoid, which is in the wrist and shown in the picture below (with the titanium short thread version).

The tip of the screw has a steeper (faster) pitch than the head so as the head starts to enter the bone, it pushes the two halves together in a way that the doctor can control by how far he puts the head in. The stardrive (torx) T8 drive makes for a more definite torque transfer and reduces the chance of the driver slipping during insertion. My particular fracture isn't displaced (broken in half), so this will serve to hold it together more tightly and make it possible to just wear a splint instead of a cast while it heals. This will also reduce the chance of a non-union, which would of resulted in surgery anyways after wearing a cast over my elbow for 6 weeks.

2009-05-15T18:58:00.000-06:00

Online tilt-shift lens image manipulator makes things look like they're toys instead of full scale. This sorta turned out, I need to find a better subject photo..

I liked this one..

2009-05-15T18:49:00.000-06:00

Mortality

2009-05-08T20:10:00.002-06:00

Lately it seems things aren't going so well for me. My back hurts, my hands and feet are tingling at random times due to some unknown nerve problem, and then I go and break my wrist... I was starting to get bitter at all the healthy people around me who don't even know what it's like to hurt constantly. People who go on abusing their body with grease and television while I do the best I know how to my body and repeatedly get the short end of the stick.

Then I find out this morning that a friend I've been on a few rides with and some generally great fun with died last night in his sleep. A mid-late 30's friend who rode more than anyone I know, and was apparently one of the healthiest people I've had the pleasure to hang out with. Cause of death, unknown but natural. This person, this picture of what I was starting to get frustrated seeing is now gone.. forever.

It's quite the reality check when you are put back into the realization that you could be gone in the next minute and there is nothing you can do about it.

So I'm not bitter anymore..

New Post

2009-04-17T19:38:00.002-06:00

Forgive me, I've been busy doing other things like riding my bike and spending time off the internets. I have a backlog of pictures from some random rides, so here they are... The first one will link to a few more.

This is a ride near where I work, It's currently covered in snow.

From Random

Then we move on to a lesser known ride around here, it starts with a dirt road climb for nearly an hour. Good scenery:

Then you descend into a cool limestone canyon with trail unlike most of what you find around here. Creek crossings, real dirt, more like the east coast than here.. The canyon itself is quite scenic too, limestone isn't very common around here. I did this ride last Friday and it was really cool to be able to have a place all to my own, I spent a fair amount of time just enjoying the scenery.

Then there was the ride on Wednesday before the snowstorm. My friend Kristian just got a Truvativ Hammershmidt, a two speed epicyclic gearbox that replaces the front derrailler and chainrings.

Epicyclic gearing isn't new by any means, but the presentation is spot on for this application. Ground clearance is the biggest benefit, as shown below. It's a way smaller diameter than the typical front chainrings (gears) on a mountain bike. On my Yeti I would of destroyed my chainrings doing this:

Instant shifting is another benefit, you don't even have to be riding to do it..

Weather has been really weird lately, that last two day's I've seen lightning and heard thunder while it's been snowing.. From Wednsday as well:

On a different note, I'm sort of half-assed house hunting right now. Real estate around here is at an all time low and I'm in a pretty good position to buy, so It's pretty much a no-brainer to do it. I'm thinking withing the next 3 months I'll be a real live homeowner.. But that doesn't make me an adult.. that's scary.

2009-04-01T18:46:00.001-06:00

A few more pictures taken with the rental lens I took to Silverton. Click the thumbnails to see the wicked sharpness..

This is Ute Valley Park, a city park in the middle of town. It was in the 70's when I took this a month ago. Now it's dumping snow.. Go figure

Ruby!

2009-03-29T11:11:00.000-06:00

Silverton

2009-03-09T20:14:00.003-06:00

I met Matt Kocubinski ( a very old friend) in Montrose and we spent two days up at Silverton Mountain , a unique cross between backcountry and lift accessed ski resort. The most notable part of the trip was the heli drop we got to the other of the draw.. Riding in a heli in the mountains was every bit as awesome as I thought it would be. Click the first picture for 100+ more.

From Silverton!!!

Plus our pilot reminded me of Ice Man from Top GUN.. which was also cool

The speaker in the hotel that pumped the xm channel "simply Sinatra" at the mere flick of a toggle switch was probably the coolest part though..

2009-03-07T16:40:00.000-07:00

That's what John gets for hogging the placenta.....

Tetons!

2009-02-22T20:08:00.002-07:00

Spent three days up in the Tetons, it was really fun.

From Tetons Day Two

From Tetons Day One

Dogsitting

2009-02-15T14:22:00.002-07:00

Dog!

Be There or Be Square

2009-02-14T18:00:00.003-07:00

I guess I'm a square..

John Parker

M. S. Thesis Defense

Mechanical Engineering

      Fiber reinforced Plastics (FRPs) are becoming increasingly popular for use as primary structures in the energy, aerospace, and other industries. With this increased use comes an increased need for an inexpensive way to test and qualify these materials and structures. Since FRPs are anisotropic materials, characterizing them generally requires multiple single-axis tests on several different test coupon geometries and fiber orientations. Multi-axial testing allows for the same coupon geometry and fiber orientation to be used for all tests, therefore eliminating the need for many different coupon geometries and fiber orientations and tests. The MSU In Plane Loader (IPL) is a multi-axial testing machine that has been in use for some time but has always been hindered by its ability to measure full field displacements on a sample during testing.
      Typical methods for measuring displacements during uni-axial materials testing will not work on the IPL. The previous method used measured displacement at the grips but has been shown to be limited and inaccurate. This project developed a Digital Image Correlation (DIC) based system that can measure full-field displacements and strain directly from images taken during the testing process. Images are taken during testing by a Canon digital single-lens-reflex camera controlled by the IPL test software. These images are then processed and imported into Matlab software where a series of programs output the displacement of any number of user-selected points on the surface of the sample during the test. Strains are then calculated by numerical differentiation of the displacement values.
      The system has been successfully used to measure surface and boundary displacements on composite and aluminum samples, as well as on glued aluminum joints. The software system has been shown to perform as an extensometer with a strain error of less then 0.0002 m/m or 0.5% placing it within ASTM-B2classification. It also has been shown to measure displacement to within 0.02 pixel accuracy; which for tests on the IPL translates to 0.007mm.
      Full-field strain data from these tests can also be used in the development of a Dissipated Energy Density (DED) function, a subject which has been of considerable interest at MSU. Full field strain data eliminates the need to model strains on the samples using FEA as has been done in the past and increases the test data that can be used for the development of the DED function, ostensibly increasing its accuracy when used to predict the post-damage response of a composite.

Wednesday, February 25^th, 2009

10:00 a.m.

Location TBA

2009-02-10T19:40:00.004-07:00

Biking is fun

No Snow Here

2009-02-08T16:45:00.008-07:00

Rode home from work Friday night and rode again on Saturday in 60deg weather. Then thing's turned cold overnight, probably around 36 max today. Today consisted of errands and cleaning my damn room.

Watching Shawn:

From Palmer 2009-02-07

Shawn:

More Pueblo

2009-02-01T12:01:00.007-07:00

Album link below. Another day of 60 degree snow free biking in Pueblo, CO. My friend Nicholas posing for the camera:

From Pueblo 2009-01-31