Chasing the Nox full lap KOM

Last night I went out with the specific goal of giving my best go at Bob's ownership of the full Nox loop.

I had no expectations of coming in sub 50, much less challenging his time of 49 minutes dead -- but I figured I could put in something in the low 50s.

I started off with a lap of the Cold Spot loop backwards, to warm up and to check out the downed tree that Bob had warned me about.  Returned to the parking lot, talked to some guys, then headed out for my loop.  The downed tree wasn't too bad, had to get off the bike, hop the tree, and get back on, but I don't think I lost too much time.  On the northern Hammer loop, my phone starts going off.  There was an upgrade happening at work, and the notifications of stuff being unavailable started rolling in.  No big deal except I have my phone set up to keep notifying me until I actually look at the stuff.  Super.  So, I had to pull off my full-fingered glove, dig out the phone, unlock it, view the messages, lock the phone, and stick it back in my jersey.  This happened probably four or five times on the Hammer loop, all while I'm trying to maintain a race pace.  Looking at the results, it did affect my time -- my best there is 7:15, and this lap went down in 7:42.

I kept a steady pace on the connector trail, then got to the south loop.  Was going pretty well until I cut it a little too close to a tree, caught my jersey on the remnants of a branch, and had it quite literally ripped off my back.

 

Click the photo for more pics of my wrecked jersey.

This wouldn't have been much of a problem (except for it being my favorite jersey and favorite base layer) except two of my rear pockets ceased to exist, causing my phone, keys, and multi-tool to fly all over the place.  Had to stop, pick the chunk of jersey off the tree (now hanging in my cubicle) and pick up my stuff.  Then, I had to figure out where to put all this stuff, since I now had significantly less room to put it.  So, I tried what seemed like the best idea... tucked the stuff into the legs of my knickers.  I spent a bit more time looking for my second set of keys, but couldn't remember if I left them behind at the car or not, so I gave up the search for them so I could keep riding.  (more on those keys later)

Well, the legs of my knickers wasn't such a good spot.  As I pedalled, the stuff would migrate down, eventually heading for the spot behind my knee.  I managed to get the phone stuffed into my last remaining pocket once I realized it was still usable, but fought the multi-tool and keys for the remainder of the south loop, all while trying to maintain a "race pace".

Got to the end of the south loop, and had to take a moment to relocate my keys and multi-tool to my already overstuffed seat bag (yes, the one that looks like a racoon) because I wanted a good run on the Eastern Woods northbound trail.  See, a couple days ago I made a run at that trail with two phones recording.  (I've had some issues with great rides getting "lost" due to the GPS getting mental, so now run a backup) At the end of the day, one recorded a time of 5:32, and the other recorded a time of 5:56.  So I was either well faster than Bob on that segment, or two seconds behind.  That's a pretty big gap, so I had to go back and do it again.  I figured if I could do at least a 5:4x time, then my 5:32 was legit. (that phone typically is far more accurate, too)  So, I wanted to have a good run on there.

Well, it was a little wet, but most of the trails were solid.  A handful of spots which were a little slick, but nothing too bad.  My time was slower, but not massively slower, so when I came in with a 6:04 time, I realized my 5:32 was bullshit. Too bad, but beating Bob by 20 seconds anywhere smelled far too much like bullshit, no matter how much I wanted to believe it.  On the upside, his 5:54 is only 2 seconds faster than I've gone, so I can get that.  Will it happen before he's in the 5:40s?  we'll see.

I finished up with the Haycock Run uphill, on which, only an hour or two before -- Bob set the new KOM... and came in only a little bit behind at 2:15 to his 2:09.  Weird that I run that section faster uphill than down.  I think a sub 2 is possible.

So, I was a little disappointed with a 57 minute time, but at least I came in sub 1 hour, and considering my two stops and having to check my phone, it's not too bad.  I figure it would have been a solid 54 minute run, maaaaybe 53 minutes.  Dry trails and luck, I might be able to drop it to 52 minutes.  So Bob's time is pretty much unchallenged, thanks in no small part to his phenomenal bike handling.  The one time I rode with him, I went from right on his wheel to 50-60 feet back in the span of a couple tight downhill S-turns.  That shit just adds up.

All in all, though, it was a fantastic ride.  It's not often I just focus on going hard for an entire MTB ride like that, and the challenge is so much fun.  Thanks to Bob for giving me something to shoot for!  I will get to a 49 minute lap, but I'm pretty sure Bob will be sub 45 by that point. :D

Oh, and I mentioned the second set of keys.  Got back to the car, gave a good search, and discovered that set of keys was not in the car.  So, that meant I did have them, and they were still laying trailside by that tree.  So, I loaded up the bike, and headed for South Park Rd, where you can park on the side of the road and access the trails.  As you can see here, the trail gets really close to South Park Rd, climbs up for a while, then drops back down, getting very close to the trail you just rode.  I took advantage of this, rode cross-country between the two chunks of trail, and got back to the scene of the crime.  Using the light on my phone (it's past sundown and I'm losing light fast) I managed to find my keys about six feet down the trail from the tree.