Philip Mooney's Blog (12)

After missing a great race last week, I was excited to toe the line this week with a solid group of racers. After racing twice before, my mind and body knew fully well what I was about to endure. With a sick daughter at home, I've been quite low on sleep. I asked my race strategists, Simon and Mandy, what I should do this week. Knowing I was tired, they told me to sit in for 2 laps and go hard up the climb the 3rd time. So that's what I did.

The race started quite civilized,…

After a week off the bike and missing the 2nd race in the series last week, I was back once again for round 3 of the Shorty. I rolled up with my wife and little one early to soak in the vibe of the middle school races. They are so cool and it's fun to watch those little rippers! 

We had another nice turnout, and lots of the familiar cast of characters from a couple weeks ago were back. One notable addition was my Acme Bikes team mate Wilson Perry. I hadn't seen him for a while, and I…

Hi All. This will be quick post here because I'm short on time at the moment but still want to tell everyone about the Hopper last weekend.

Lake Sonoma Grasshopper. 23 miles, almost all on single track. The fast guys can finish in 2:15 or so. Perfect course for a hardtail or short travel XC bike. I was on my hardtail with Racing Ralph tires at 27/29psi under my 180 lbs of dad-bod. Course starts with a 10ish minute paved climb before jumping straight into smooth ribbon…

Yesterday was the first of the 6 consecutive Wednesday night races that make up the Shortys, and it was awesome. This event is fun for the whole family, and a perfect way to spend a beautiful evening in Marin. I pulled up with my 19 month old daughter to a lively crowd and fun music booming out of the speakers on the hill atop McInnis Park around 4:45pm. I had packed her scoot bike and a picnic dinner, and we had a blast riding around park, meeting the doggies, and watching all of the middle…

The Annadel XC is my favorite XC race on the NorCal calendar. The race is relatively long (25 miles and ~2hrs), features some fun technical rocky bits, and includes plenty of fitness testing climbing. With many friends and good racers lining up for the Pro Men’s event, I hoped it would be a good battle all day.

I drove up to the start with Jim and Cathy, chatting about the course and breaking the race up into segments to plan our approach to the race. My plan was to start…

Many of the folks out at the Shorty's are pretty young, and they likely don't recognize the comedic genius of the show Seinfeld. Today we're going to talk about Festivus. Festivus is a holiday that includes a Festivus dinner, an unadorned Festivus aluminum pole, practices such as the airing of grievances, feats of strength, and the labeling of easily explainable events as Festivus miracles. Although normally celebrated on Dec 23rd, the grand finale of the Summit Shortys covered all the…

It's the last week of classes here at SSU (where I work in the geology department) and I want to take my spare hour to go for a bike ride this afternoon, so this blog post will be short and straightforward (editor's note: the post ended up being long anyway).

Week 5 of the series. 6 laps on tap. Some new faces on the start line with the notable addition of young stud roadie Ben Cook joining us just off of his 9th place finish in the varsity category at the MTB State Champs…

This was the 4th race of the Shorty series. I hope my previous posts have let you know that I love these events, the people that come to them, and racing my mountain bike. By now, you're all used to reading the facts about these race. You don't need another one of those race reports to read, so I'll present you with some "alternative facts" about the race. I'll note my alternative facts with an asterisk (*).

Same fun and painful course as always. In contrast to last week, we…

Spring in Marin is a happy time of year. Good weather. Green landscape. Great trail conditions. More daylight to ride. And to bump it off the charts on the good living scale, I can race the local Summit Shortys every Wednesday! Have I mentioned I love these events?

I was lucky enough to have a special cheering section come watch me at the race. My wife, Mandy, and our 8 month old daughter, Matilda, came out to cheer on daddy and enjoy the beautiful day. Normally I'd try to…

The Shorty's are everything I love about bike racing. 6 laps on the mountain bike on a course that's half easy climbing and half tight singletrack during a series that consists of 6 consecutive races in the spring. It's a mid week series that doesn't take up the weekend and valuable family time. It's close to home, and it takes me 20 minutes to ride there. You race with your friends (or soon-to-be-friends) in the local community. Plus you get to smash on the pedals! I was out of town last…

As one of the new members of the Acme Bikes family, it seems appropriate to start this post with a brief introduction. So hi, I'm Phil Mooney. I like riding and racing bikes, and I've been off-and-on serious about riding bikes for more than a decade. I live in San Rafael, and Jimbo is one of my best friends and regular training partners. I'm honored to be associated with the shop!