A quarter buck of fun

I used to think the best thing in the world for a quarter of a buck was anything housed in those crappy plastic bubbles within the red metal and glass machines that you'd see at the entrance to every grocery and drug store growing up. Of course, now that I think about it, I'm not even sure when the last time I saw one of those was. Then again, even if you could find one, I'm sure the prizes are crappier than I remember and the cost has doubled or tripled as well. Ahh, the memories of childhood. For the mere price of a shiny quarter now, I enjoy something a bit more fulfilling. Quarter Rage has to be one of my favorite times on a bike or just in general. Like minded buddies doing some friendly smack talk, throwing down whatever they've got in their legs, and having a metric shitload of fun at the same time; what more could you ask for?! All for the low low price of 2 bits.

Last week was the first installment for the year. 5:30 being the start time, I showed up a shade before 5 and took and easy run through to get the legs warmed up. The trail was dry, fast, and loose. The singletrack was mostly clear with just a smattering of leaves and walnuts covering spots of the trail as autumn has started to press it's will upon the woods. Looking to better my time from last year of a 23:26, I knew wouldn't be too difficult. I had my sites set on something in the 20:xx range as a pretty decent goal. I started 2nd in line behind Jordan who was breaking in his new Raleigh 29'er from the shop in the best way possible.

I hosed the first section of trail dropping down from the levee as I tried keeping the bike under me rather than diving off into the chain link surrounding the pump station. The first few corners into the singletrack weren't treating me much better as I would hammer the pedals and slam on the brakes rather than flow through the corner. My heart was all ready jumping up in my throat and I knew I'd better find my form quickly. Sure enough, I backed off a tick and the form caught right back up as I hammered through the trail as quickly as possible. I caught Jordan just past the tractor tire and he let me fly past. With open trail in front of me, I just pushed on the pedals for all I was worth. Finally on the paved trail, I tried tucking in as tight as possible while cranking up the watts to the finish. My lungs and legs were burning as I crossed the line barely able to see straight.

My reward? Not only did I better my previous time, but I took down the course record and held on by 2 seconds to take 1st place overall for the night. I've got to say, even with all I've been lucky enough to accomplish on the bike this year, winning this little bragging rights race was one of the highlights for sure. I racked up a finish time of 19:22 according to Squirrel which knocked off the previous time by a scant 3 seconds.

Winning time:

The take:

She was briefly mine:

The second week commenced the online smack talking. Squirrel made up a pretty funny little ditty to encourage a few of the big boys to show up and strut their stuff. Basso answered the call and I pretty much knew things were going to be stepped up. Squirrel pre-rode the course and wasn't quite sure that the record would fall again tonight due to some trail moisture, leaf build-up, and extra walnut bombs throughout. I wasn't quite so optimistic, but I was still going to give it a run. I figured my plan from last week carried me pretty well through so I went for a repeat doing a warm up lap just prior to taking the line. I slowly worked up my speed and was feeling pretty confident as I headed into the last section of Denman's. I hit a hard left turn a little hot with a shade too much front brake and before I could even squeak a 4 letter word out, I was on the ground. The very combination Squirrel had been talking about had bit me square in the arse. Nothing hurt but my pride, I mounted back up, stuck a mental note in the bank and headed back for the start.

Lined up:

As Squirrel said go, I managed to repeat, if not worsen my screwups in the first section. Again, I nearly ran off the trail right at the start and didn't make anything better as I started into the first section of singletrack coming in too hot to the corners, nearly stopping, and then trying to hammer again. I knew tonight would be a push as I didn't feel quite as good as I had last week, but I intended to lay out whatever I had on the trail. I did get the flow going again, but it seemed more labored this week as my ragged breathing pounded in my ears and my heart surged to keep up with the effort I was begging from it. I took the short line through Little Italy this week which should have shaved a good 3-5 seconds from my time. I don't think I was quite as clean through a number of the turns this week, but my straightaway speed didn't seem to be suffering much. In all, I was still riding clean as I came up on Elaine as the first rider to get past. Just a brief second or two and I was by her. I rode the tractor tire again this week trying to get a better line for the follow up log. I caught up and passed a couple more riders along the way as well.

I was just getting a good eyeball on Jacob who was the minute man I was chasing as I entered the firepit section of Denman's. I had a couple bobbles up to this point, but was still keeping it sunny side up. I finally ran out of luck as I came around the big tree with the muddy spot on the inside of the right hand sweeper. I carried good speed into the turn and had a good weight balance, but the traction wasn't there. Both tires scrubbed out sideways trying to find any bit of dry ground available and I swung the bike nearly 180 degrees past the corner putting my inside knee down to the ground as I slid along for the ride. Still clipped in with my left foot, I righted my course pretty quickly and headed back down the trail.

A mere flesh wound:

I ran pretty cleanly through the rest of the trail and hit the pavement return section once again. I didn't have quite the legs under me as I did last week and couldn't spit out the speed I wanted to. Overall though I finished in 19:26 only 4 seconds off my time last week. I think I've got an 18:xx tucked away somewhere with the right trail conditions and a bit better run through on my end. However, Pete proved for all that the big dogs have the skill to show us how it's done running an 18:21!

Hurting at the finish:

Pete enjoying the spoils of victory:

Pics stolen from Courtney. See you out there next week!

Dirt is hard

Or at least harder when it's frozen solid. Tired of spinning away and going nowhere inside, I headed out early on Sunday morning. As most of my fellow partners in crime are prepping for the sunny skies of Tucson this week, I didn't think anyone would be interested in several hours of cold riding so I headed off alone. On Saturday I tried to get a 2 hour ride in on the trainer and was finding it so monotonous, I hung up the towel after 70 or so minutes. I'll post more about that later as I have some thoughts on training that are starting to creep into my head.

In any case, after 70 minutes, I knew I needed to be outside to get properly motivated. Sunday dawned with a blue bird sky and unbeknowst to me, below zero wind chills. I headed out on the 3 hour tour route knowing that I could cut it short in a couple different spots in case I wasn't maintaining a quick enough pace to roll it all in my 3 hour block. I was a bit excited as I had mapped out a route that would leave me rolling new stretches of gravel and exploring a bit more of the local countryside while still being within the safe confines of being semi local to home in case the need arose. I imagine that I'm not unique in the fact that there are probably hundreds of miles of roadway within 10 miles of home that I've never explored.

I added a dirt road loop that Brian had taken me on last summer during our exploration down to Summerset. It looked like this during the summer: (oops guess it's time to upgrade my flickr account as it's more than 200 pics back!). In any case, at that point in time it was a rut laden treacherous stretch of road where we had to pick our lines through ruts 1-2 foot deep in spots. I guess I was expecting something a bit better for the winter, but as you can see, that wasn't to happen.

This is actually the more rideable section of road. Beyond the hill behind my bike in the top picture was a mass of solid ruts spanning the entire width of the road requiring full concentration to navigate including walking a short stretch or two. However, I navigated that section just fine, but my luck soon ran out as I botched moving from one rut to another shortly after I stopped to shoot these pics. One second I'm upright and moving forward, the next I'm still moving forward, but now I'm sliding along my left hip and shoulder. Ya, dirt is hard when it's frozen! Ouch. No damaged to the riding gear and bruises will heal so off I head again.

Just before rolling into Summerset park I came across thousands of geese setting on the ice at one of the conservation areas. It was cool to see so many of them just hanging out in one spot.

I also managed to catch a nice tailwind at this point of the ride. Though I was routed mostly east/west today, the few sections heading south were tempered by sucking it up as I had to roll north into the wind. Amazing how much stronger 10-15 mph winds feel when they're piggy backed on 10 degree temps. I began to notice as I rolled west that the right side of my face and my right foot were getting increasingly cold. Not much to do at this point but soldier on.

I stopped to consult my map a few times, but for the most part the route was pretty easy to follow. I had one major run in with a pack of 3 dogs just south of Norwalk that got my heart pumping a bit. As I rolled up to the house, 3 medium dogs came running and barking straight at me. I didn't try to out sprint them and opted for the loud voice and yelling at them. Luckily they stayed just far enough back for me to roll past without getting nipped. A few other dogs barked and showed a little attempt at giving chase, but nothing major. It had been so long since I rolled through the countryside, I'd almost forgotten about dogs.

Around 2 hours in, the cold was starting to get me down a bit. For the most part I was staying pretty toasty, but my cold toes were nagging as they'd go from cold to seriously cold, to almost numb and then back to cold again. Seeing that I was going to be running way over time if I rolled the additional 3 miles into Cumming, I headed back north at Orilla catching some pavement before I logged back onto the gravel that runs just south of the golf course on old Army Post.

It was on this stretch I had an almost oh shit moment. After reading too many blogs about crazy guys doing crazy things on their bikes in way below zero temps, I tend to be a little more mindful of my own vulnerability when riding in cold temps. I had no idea what the temp was other than I knew it was as cold or a little colder than I'd ridden in before when I factored in the wind. As the gravel passed under the 65 bypass I stopped to adjust my IPOD armband as it was slinking its way down past my elbow and beginning to bother me. I pealed off my jacket noting the solid layer of frost I'd been building up under it (nothing new) and pulled off my gloves as well. My hands had been comfortably warm all morning and were actually a bit damp with sweat, again nothing new. I got the armband adjusted and put the coat back on. Now time for the gloves. Oh shit, my left hand had stiffened up in the cold air and nearly become immobilized in just a minute or two. With a sweaty inner liner to my gloves and barely able to wiggle my fingers, I literally yanked the glove down over my hand to get the glove back in place. I was amazed at how hard it was getting the glove back on and felt lucky to get it on when I did. I realize I wasn't really in any major danger of losing an appendage to the cold as I had a number of alternate ways to heat it up, but it brought the risk involved with cold weather riding back to the forefront of my attention.

By now I was 2.5 hours in and ready for home. I rolled back in jumping on Army Post to head back to my place and got home with just over 3 hours on the clock and 37 miles down. Not a barn burner pace by any means, but it was good to get out and suffer for a bit. I'll need to draw on that this coming weekend when I head out for CIRREM. I'm short on long distance rides and though I know I can get it done, I need to know that I can put up with a little suffering too. I hope to see a number of you there.

Today's post brought to you by the letter tree

OK, so tree isn't exactly a letter, but today's post is still sponsored by trees. I don't think trees get enough due, they provide shade, leaves to play in during the fall, lifesaving oxygen, and obstacles. Yes, obstacles. Of course the first rule of an obstacle is that you're supposed to avoid it. Hence, the name- Obstacle. Say it with me now...

Last night was another rendition of the taco ride. Yet, it wasn't exactly the taco ride as a group of us met and headed out early to make sure we had enough time to fully enjoy the awesome weather and our great trail system. Lou, Andy, Matt, and I headed out from the shop at 5. I was rolling on a new bike to test ride. Timing couldn't have been better as it gave me a chance to drop my battered front wheel off to have a new spoke put in, trued, and have the bearings cleaned and packed. The bearings were feeling a bit "crunchy" last time I checked.

As soon as we hit the trail, the race was on. Andy and Lou were attempting to drive each other into the dirt as Matt and I headed up the rear. We cruised at a pretty good clip through the woods and made it through unscathed. We stopped for a quick beer break provided by Matt in the form of MGD cans he was hauling on the pave trail above the exit to Denman's. The opening of the beer can must have been some type of signal as we were soon surrounded by a large group of additional riders. A few more minutes of shooting the breeze and it was time for a loop of Hillside and Rollercoaster. My climbing legs weren't quite with me, but I still made the best of it and enjoyed the workout.

Dusk was starting to settle in as we headed back for a reverse loop in Denman's. Lou, Matt, and Tom were in the lead as I worked on hanging on with them. We met a few more taco riders coming through Denmans forward so they turned back to follow us as well. Tom was gassed at this point so he let me by in attempt to close the gap that the other two opened up. I was railing the turns and hauling down the trail pretty good on the test steed. Definitely impressed thus far. Then came the moment.

Damn, now I was two for two. It wasn't a narrow gap or even a tricky part of the trail. I just hung my shoulder out too far and the tree leaned in just a bit. Trees don't move. They move you. I nailed my left shoulder on a small tree and blew off the bike to the right jamming my other arm and shoulder into the ground. I rolled around to assess my damages. Luckily no damage to the bike (whew) though the sudden stop did kill my little commuter headlight, my left shoulder definitely felt the impact along with the left hand, and the right shoulder was pretty jammed up feeling. Nothing to keep me from jumping back on so I waited for Tom (and his lights) to show back up and tooled the rest of the way back following him (and his light).

Back to the shop I rode before heading to Giff's to drown my pain with beer and tacos. I enjoyed some beers with the guys before heading off to Squirrel's to grab some parts for my costume. I hope to see the rest of you sometime this weekend either at Spooky Woods or the Dirty Du.

All banged up and no place to go

At least that's what my knees are telling me this morning. I took off a bit early to make sure I got plenty of quality time on the bike last night. I hit one loop of Denman's before the taco ride. On the very first logover I ate dirt. I stuck my chain ring right into the log, rotated forward on it, and slammed my ass into the ground. Apparently I took the brunt of the impact on both knees though one shoulder is showing some signs of battle damage as well.

I got back on and tried to ride out the pain as I typically do. Nothing doing today so I settled for the fact that I'd be hurting for the ride and just enjoyed the scenery instead. The good news is there were no further incidents of eating it, at least for me... I finished up my loop and headed over to the shop to meet up with the rest of the group.

We only had 5 or 6 of us leave from the shop, but apparently there was a big group waiting somewhere in Denman's. Pete and Lou announced at the beginning they were resting and anyone wanting to go fast was welcome to head out in front. Ya right, their resting is flat out haulin ass for the mere mortals we are. As expected, they were moving along well with Fuller behind them and me sitting 4th wheel. I just about clipped Steve on the big log pile as he slowed more than I expected, but luckily we avoided a tangle. After that we swapped back and forth a bit before I slowly fell off the pace.

about 3/4 of the way through, we hit the other group enjoying beers and waiting for us. We shot the breeze a few minutes and then turned around to ride Denman's in revers and then head for tacos. I was happy I'd taken the time earlier to get a full loop in as we were now shorted some of the trail. The fast guys took off again while I just held steady. One of the guys I don't know too well apparently bit it on an optional log over and then had his bike run over by Pete causing a bigger pile up. Nobody hurt, but one set of handlebars was slightly bent up. No other incidents, but I did ride the log in reverse that threw me down earlier.

Off to Giff's for tacos and Olde Style we headed. It was pretty cool having a big pack of muddy, happy mountain bikers weaving through the streets just like we owned the place. Since I didn't have to ride back home, I opted for doubling up on both tacos and beer. I was happy as a pig in shit! It's hard to beat good friends, good riding, and good times. Thanks to all you guys that I get a chance to hang out with. Riding is good, but enjoying the company just adds to the pot.

Whirlwind weekend

What a wild ass weekend. It involved work, but in a different kind of way. We signed up a couple months ago to do a booth at the Women's expo at Hy-Vee hall with some friends of ours. We shared space with Kee's Camp and Morning Rain Massage. We set up on Friday night after I took off early from work to go home and load up. It was interesting to say the least considering we had 3 booths within a single space and also temped together a dressing room and spray taning station.

Saturday morning found us rushing back to the expo at 8 to finish setting up and wait for customers. We had pretty high hopes with forecasted visitors we thought we'd heard to be 17,000 or more. I'd say that was optimistic by roughly double or possibly even more. Add in that we also had to donate a $100+ prize pack to get our name on this treasure hunt type card that was supposed to draw more people to our booth that got printed without our name on it... and we'd be fighting hard to make our investment back. Being a Women's expo I felt like a duck out of water when it came to selling/pushing our product. I let Miranda take lead and was hoping just to fill orders and write up receipts. I talked to a few ladies all weekend put for the most part I was about useless in the sales department. I tried making up for it by doing some grunt work in helping set up and tear down various things for all 3 of the vendors, but that was about as good as I got.

Saturday ended ok with some decent sales, but roughly only half of what we needed for a break even day. We were pretty tired and starving so we headed out in search of some food. We floated a few high brow ideas such as Dos Rios, but ended up at one of our favorite Thai places in Des Moines called Cafe Fusion. They've got the best pad thai in my opinion and the rest of the menu isn't too shabby either. they're also cheap and hardly ever crowded. We enjoyed our meal until we were pretty well stuffed and headed home to drift off into a coma before repeating our performances again on Sunday.

The alarm went off a bit early for me on Sunday as I was roused to join in on a mountain bike ride with some of the guys. Breakfast at 6 bells and riding by 6:30 makes for an early start. I hustled around and was right on time to meet up. Unfortunately as is often the case, we didn't hop on the bikes until 7. We were greeted with a pretty spectacular view as we headed out on the trail. The sun was just rising through the fog and I couldn't resist.

My revelry was short lived as I heard the hissing of a flat. Luckily it was on a different Rick's bike. He stopped to change while we hit Denman's in reverse so he could ride it forward and meet us along the way. We dropped in and took a nice uptempo pace through the woods. There were a few spills that I managed to avoid and I stayed on the back of the pack for the most part. Not having ridden more than a handful of times over the past month definitely put me in an overdrive state for heart rate and I was feeling it just a bit. We turned back around and after a pile up right off the bat (again by others) I stuck to the pack again until we hit a particular log crossing.

I'm not quite sure how many times this particular crossing has slammed me to the ground, but it's more than times I've made it over. It comes across the trail at roughly a 60 degree angle so it makes it not only wider than normal, but also a weird approach angle to get the tires to bite on without slipping. Just as the last time, I ate shit trying to cross it. Ass over appetite with the bike making sure to whack me pretty good on the way down just so I knew I indeed crash landed. I jumped back up without surveying the injuries and started pedalling again. My knee and calf were smarting pretty good, but still functioning, so on I road.

At this point I got gapped so I just held steady to the end without any more fanfare and caught up to the pack as we made our way to Hillside. As soon as we hit Hillside, I knew I was in for it. My heart rate pegged in the high 180's and didn't waiver much until we finished our loops a half hour or so later. I was hurting, but I made all the climbs without walking or falling including climbing a pretty steep new piece that I'd only ridden down once in the past. Overall a great morning of riding with about 15 miles and 90 minutes under our belts.

After busting butt home and finding my wife in a compromisable state of mind... we showered and headed off to our second day at the expo. We made a couple quick sales and then nothing. Crowds were steady but overall down from Saturday. We sold a few more lotions and candles, but the only real sales came from the other ladies within our booth finding pieces of lingerie they couldn't live without. I know we didn't break even in regards to what we spent to show up. I'm also pretty doubtful that we'll really get any business from handing out our cards and info all weekend. I'm pretty disappointed to say the least. We're dangling preciously close to that point where it's time to cut and run or really dig ourselves into a big hole by going all out with a storefront. I'm just not sure which way to go in this type of situation. We're working on a business plan to see if it's even viable as a store, but who knows since the actual financial info has to be more or less fudged.

That's the weekend in a wrap.

TNWC #2

Last night was my second run with the boys on the TNWC ride. The warm weather had people coming out in droves. I bet there was 50 riders minimum. As I showed up almost an hour early, I ran into Lou and was invited to meet up with some people at Grounds for Celebration to hang out a bit before the ride. I figured it would at least stretch my legs a bit so I tooled slowly up there and hung out with a few people. We rolled back down to the ride start in lieu of waiting for them to ride by and hopping on.

A huge pack headed out around 5:45 from Bike World on Merle Hay. From the sounds of it, the night might get interesting as Kim all ready was telling a tale of an angry motorist incident. I think the nice days bring out the idiots in swarms. We roll off and pretty much right away I'm pretty uncomfortable with the size, tightness, and attitude of the group. We're just stacked on top of each other and while it might just be my inexperience with racing, it seemed to me that it was a bit over the top. I know you have to stay close to draft, but the surging and slowing just seemed like it was begging for people to run into each other. I know I almost tagged a rear wheel and I was paying careful attention.

I made it to the top of the first sprint hill with the group and then lost it again. The problem is I hit almost my max heart rate (194 last night) by the time I crest the main hill and then we have a false flat all the way into Ankeny. I just can't get my heart rate back down enough to get any recovery in and by the time I do, the group has long since pulled away. So, as a repeat of the first ride, I was again first off the back of the group. At least this time a few others were spit out pretty close to the same time and I could keep my sites on them. Emily and Maria from Punk Rock Cycling were two of them and I caught them as we rolled into Ankeny. I figured it would be best to work together with them so we started trading pulls. One other rider showed up and we jumped on his wheel again working together to trade off. About that time we noticed the main peleton had stopped on the road about a mile north of town.

I was wondering what was happening and why they had stopped. The realization quickly set in that there was most likely an accident where someone was pretty hurt for the whole group to stop like that. Sure enough, as we rolled up and came to a stop, there were a few people gathered around a rider in the ditch. The bits and pieces I gathered were that the group antics from earlier had continued pretty much unabated and the result was predictable. A few crossed wheels, someone went down, and others were collected. There were some torn clothes, a bit of road rash, and a few minor looking cuts on a few guys, but the brunt of the crash fell on Kelli from Punk Rock Cycling. She appeared to have landed mostly on her left cheek and had a pretty good contusion from what I could see. Emergency services were called and seemed to take forever to show up. Amazing we were only a mile outside of town and I think the total time to get there was in the neighborhood of 10-15 minutes. Definitely too long in my book. Kelli got a one way ticket to the hospital and I haven't heard the final outcome. I'm not one for prayer, but she was definitely in my thoughts for the rest of the night and will be for a while. I hope she heals fast and is back on the bike very soon.

After the ambulance showed up, a few stayed back with Kelli, but the rest of the group took off in two main packs. I headed out with the second pack and got blown out another mile down the road with another rider. I tried to keep pace with him, but slowed and he pedalled off as well. I focused on keeping my heart rate in the 180-185 range and pegged it for the next hour. I could always see a rider or two out in front of me, but they never seemed to really get any closer. Finally, as we came back into the north side of Johnston, I was about to roll up on a couple guys. Of course I managed to catch a red light and they rolled off again. A few lights later though, my luck changed and I caught up. They were rolling a pretty leisurely pace cooling down as they headed back to the start. Good thing as I was out of gas by then. Another Tuesday night in the books.

Hey y'all watch this...

I'm beginning to think I should change my screen name. After Sunday's ride, it seemed fitting that I should change it to something like the title of this post. I think my purpose of riding is starting to be humor for other participant in this sport. I know accidents, bumps, and bruises are pretty much inevitable along with flats, broken parts, and maintenance.

I'm hitting all of the above, but I think I'm hogging more than my fair share. Today was no exception to that rule. I even elicited a comment of "hey go first, you're more fun to watch." This was after my double gainer over the handlebars of my mountain bike before we even hit the singletrack. I was following the group up to the entrance to Denman's woods and prepared to hop the curb back onto the short section of pave trail. Not being the most adept at riding yet, I managed to misjudge the speed I was travelling at and pulled up way to early. Upon my front tire returning to earth, it was immediately confronted by the front of the curb. Apparently it was completely surprised by this turn of events and decided the best course of action would be to stop its forward momentum post haste. Unfortunately for me, I wasn't informed of this executive decision and haven't perfected instantaneous reversal of my own personal heft. I.E. I flipped my ass straight over the bars, landing head and should first onto the pavement. Apparently I hit with enough force that several riders in front cringed just from the noise.

Everyone stopped and returned to my wallowing about on the sidewalk to see if I was injured. After loosing a small stream of obscenities that really didn't do my current state of feelings justice. I regained my feet. Inspecting my helmet led to finding two cracks in it. Scratch another helmet for the season. I was all ready onto my second helmet after lawn darting straight into a tree last December. About the only redeeming quality is the ability to brag about cracking a helmet and that the current model I have is on clearance. I'm debating about buying a stock of them...

As of this writing, I'm feeling a little banged and bruised. Strangely enough, my head appears to be hard enough to not be affected in the least. My wife won't be surprised by that fact. However, my shoulder took a nasty hit and currently has a chunk of road rash on top of my shoulder blade. My jersey wasn't damaged in the least, but I somehow managed a nice welt and rash. I also managed to take a couple small bites out of my achilles apparently from a rogue pedal seeking revenge at the same time.

The rest of our ride was mostly uneventful, but enjoyable. I took one small spill attempting a log climb as my rear tire spun out. There were some icy spots on the trail, some new routing due to recent flooding, and the ground was spongy sucking a lot of energy to ride through.