Jaw, Pennsylvania Racing

Holy Hell. 6 weeks of training my immunity and my body’s ability to race while it is at war with itself is enough! I learned two very valuable things this past while.

A) if a tooth is being a bastard, get it fixed. Ignoring pain is good while racing but not when its in your mouth!
B) if penicillin doesn’t work the first time, don’t try it again. Get something stronger!

After 14 days of Penicillin and 7 more of a super dose of Amoxicillin the brutal pain/ odd tingling in my jaw is gone. Health is a very valuable thing and I have my fingers crossed I have found it again.

Looking back I have dedicated the past 6 weeks of training as a training block for the last 12 hrs of a 24 hr race. Hours 12-24 of a 24 hr race there are wars going on inside your head and body and I feel I found the perfect way of simulating that. I don’t recommend this type of training to anyone, although I guarantee it will make you stronger!

Racing the Transylvania Epic May 26-June 3 was a stellar week. I was zoned out for much of the week as I had other things to deal with, but that being said the racing was rad! Our team manager/Racer, Barry Wicks was ripping on the week and was putting the hurt on potential USA Olympian Jeremiah Bishop. The racers were loving watching the race videos of Barry laying the smackdown on Bishop during the first few stages, unfortunetly for him flat tires put an end to this.

The riding was really cool, but also very awkward to say the least as the trails were littered with sticks and inbedded rocks. Forget trying to find a line, the best technique seemed to be hovering over the lowest portion of obstacles. Our 29’r Kona Hei Hei’s were bullets over this stuff. Those on hard tails for the week had a very suffary time..

Kona basecamp for the week was a rustic cabin at a boyscout camp. It was awesome. We made it as redneck as was redneck possible. Our unreal team mechanic, Dave Mcnaughton lead the charge. Country music, burn outs, 4×4’ing on the Pennsylvanian back roads and trash pile burning. It was getting out of hand, and then it did once we bought a pellet gun. We began shooting empty cans, then full cans of pop to see them explode and then whatever else was around. It eventually got to the point were my team manager aka Wicknasty shot me in the back of the leg with a pellet. I don’t know why I volunteered for this but it wasn’t quite as bad as it sounds. From there it escalated to shooting a full co2 can of Big Air into our burning trash pile. This is highly not recommended!
The Big Air caught fire, jumped 10 ft in the air and exploded into a huge fire ball. At dinner that night everyone was talking about what the big BANG was in camp. Only Team Kona and a few close friends will ever know..

By the end of the week we were all pretty burnt out and ready for some time off of riding and being rednecks!

I can’t wait to get back there next year for some redemption in the race, and for some more good old hill billy times.

The next couple weeks have been shifted around as I look to regain some form. The idea of flying out to Quebec and traveling around the countryside to Nationals and a World Cup were put to rest. Its possible to suffer through anything, but there comes a time you gotta try and be smart. Staying home to rest & recover and staying close to the dentist/ doc was the option that had to be taken this time to make sure things stay on track and continue to improve. It was a hard decision to make but it was right.

Off to eat yogurt and replenish those good flora’s which the drugs weren’t so nice too!

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