Rain, rain, f*%k off!

I've been really hoping to get back on the dirt lately. My focus for the year was to get mostly into dirt racing and shy away from all but a few crits and road races. That surely hasn't been happening with the rainfall pattern of dry for a couple days then rain and repeat for the past couple months. I snuck out last Monday for a couple hours of playing around the north side of Summerset and that's been pretty much it other than an out of town excursion to FDR which happened to be dry enough to ride.

I've been supplementing with plenty of road riding which is great for keeping up fitness, but surely doesn't help much with any technical skill. Eyeing the forecast for this week, I saw the heat and thought for sure we'd dry the trails out in time to do a taco ride tonight. Unless you've got flotation devices and a way to magically avoid mud, that's not gonna happen. I'd venture to say that even if it stays hot and dry, we'll be pushed off the trails until sometime Sunday at the earliest and even then it will be muddy in spots. Maybe this weekend will call for some gravel grinding instead.

I'm working the Hy-Vee tri wheel pit for the shop on Saturday during the elite race which should be pretty cool. I hear that's the gig to have as far as being easy and able to enjoy the racing. Sunday morning I might try to make my way out to the Fuller hill on Grand to help with some heckling/cheering on of the not-so-elite athletes. Good luck to all competing!

Tonight and tomorrow I'll be hanging with the PRC ladies for the Papajohn ride tonight and Race Like a Girl tomorrow night. Both are great events and beginner friendly if you're looking to come out and play for a bit. Beyond that, it looks like the next event on the calendar is the BBQ and Blues weekend in Clear Lake. With my schedule full for the 4th weekend, I won't be able to make the jaunt over to Cedar Rapids for the state crit race.

The ride that wasn't meant to be

Lacking dirt options for the MTB I opted to hit the PRC Wednesday night right last night. Rain was a definite chance and I forgot my raincoat that morning. Ahh well, I won't melt, right?! So, there I've all ready got a strike against the ride. Sure enough, as soon as its time to roll off, the droplets start pelting down. Luckily its a pretty short lived sprinkle and hardly enough to call rain. It just managed to wet the streets and trails back down to the point of being slick.

Just onto the paved trail by Denman's I noted something felt wrong with the bike. Sure enough, I had a flat. First of the year on the road bike so I'm not feeling too bad about it, plus we're early enough in the ride that I can haul ass and catch the group before hammering the loops out by Maffit. I pull off and change the flat pretty quickly and discarded the sharp little 3 point rock that started the problem. I'm off to the races through the connector trail leading to Water Works and noting that its pretty greasy with the dirt having turned to slime on top of the wet asphalt. A couple oncoming riders signal me that there's a large group stopped not far ahead. I'm wondering why on earth they'd be stopped since I know they're not waiting for me.

It would seem (from my observation) that a rider went off the edge of the paved trail and hit the mud. From there he dug it in pretty good looking at the mud caked on top of his helmet and covering half his handlebar. A few people were tending to him and it appeared he'd separated his shoulder or possibly fractured a collarbone. Just as I arrived, the call went up for something to use as a sling. As luck would have it, I happened to have a freshly pulled tube with a hole in it! At least I'm good for something. They wrapped him up and the group was off again.

Now we're all of 4 miles into the ride and I've been rained on, had a flat, and gave minor assistance to a fallen rider. Pretty eventful if you ask me. Halfway through Waterworks I hear something fall to the ground and skid across the pavement. Sure enough, after digging out the tube and being a good samaratin, I've left my bag open and spilled my inflater and remaining tube onto the ground. I stop, pick them up and sprint back to the group. We head on out to the course and just after we turn off Park Avenue, I've got the 2 tail end Charlies and I note my rear tire is feeling a bit "squishy" as I round a corner. Really?! No shit, another flat with less than 6 miles on the clock. I pull off and as luck would have it, I still have a spare tube considering I'd packed 2 in that bag for my weekend adventure on the CIRREM course.

I change the second flat and now I'm down to a single CO2 and patches so I say screw this and head for the truck. As I'm getting back to the Waterworks bridge I see another commuter needing some assistance with a flat. I offer up my last CO2 to help her out. Unfortunately, she has no spare tubes, and the current tube has 4+ patches on it all ready. We can't find the new leak so my CO2 is of no use and I leave her with having called for a ride home. Back at the shop the ordeal is over with all of 12 miles in. Not much in the way of a training ride considering I was hoping to get a good effort in and then do some pacing today in prep for this weekend's race. Definitely not a ride that was meant to be for me. I just hope I've gotten my hi jinks out of the way.

A week of riding and a weekend of not

I took a few days off the bike at the beginning of last week, but by Wednesday the pull was too strong to resist. I actually rode into work for the first time this year which was pretty damn nice if I do say so. I chased the gorgeous weather out the door in time to join Maria from PRC for a few hot laps doing hill repeats at McRea Park. She had to bail after just a lap or two so I stayed around for a couple more before heading off to the shop. I joined in on the Papa John's ride as the Paragon was still sitting broken. While I think my off road skills have been doing well, it seems to have come at a cost of my top end on the road. One lap of the route had me on the verge of hurling by the time we hit the top of the soccer hill so naturally, I opted to hit one more lap just to make it fun. Actually, lap #2 wasn't quite as bad as the lead group backed it down a few notches. We headed back to the shop for some free pizza! Woohoo. I took a slice and then hit the road to join the guys for a taco and beer at Gif's before winding my way home enjoying a perfect evening and a little after dark riding. I wound up with a bit over 65 miles on the day.


Thursday was the return of the "Race like a girl" series at Union Park. I headed over early to help with setup and get a few warmup laps in as well. I felt decent during the warmup and thought the racing would be pretty fun. The racing was fun even though I really didn't do much for results other than act as a good lead out guy only to get dropped as soon as the real roadies turned up the volume to 11. I think there's just a combination of things that I need to work on that are keeping me from having that top end snap. I need some more work on sprinting and high end interval training for sure, but having relatively heavy equipment and wheels doesn't do a whole lot for me either. I was really excited to have Miranda and Corley come out to watch the races as it gave me a chance to share more of what I do with them. We also had a nice group of other spectators which was great to see.


I enjoyed Wednesday's ride in so much, I repeated for Friday. I hopped on the cross bike this time and was even pondering a long route home with a detour through Denmans. I haven't had the chance to ride the dirt on anything other than my fat tires, so I was looking forward to the excursion. Fast forward and the plans changed as we got late notice the zoo was having an event that night. Not one to pass up too many opportunities to hang with my girls, it was a no brainer that we were headed to the zoo. We got to watch the trainers put the sea lions and seals through their paces, do a few activities, and wander around a bit before they kicked us out and we went in search of frozen custard to top off the evening.

And that my friends kicked off the weekend of not riding. Oh sure, I had great intentions of riding, but they never materialized. Saturday morning I woke up to threatening skies and decided to give into to snoozing and lounging around for a while longer. I finally made my way out to the garage and got a few things done on the motor I've been tinkering along with. I can't say really that I've been working on it as its taking me forever so I think tinkering is much more apropos.

Miranda was working Saturday night so it was Corley and I hanging for the evening. We ventured off to a friend's wedding to watch them share in the nuptials. It was a really laid back affair and more of a formality than anything else so we just kicked back, enjoyed some free food and cake, bid our best wishes and headed out. We capped off the evening with a trot our Jordan Creek including (to the horror of my wife) a trip into the germ pen of destruction aka the mall play area. Corley had a blast and as figured I had to peel her away from the play area when it came time to depart. I've been in search of a winter coat to replace the trusty yellow steed that has served me the past 4 or so years. I'm about a month late catching the end of season sales and now I can't find a damn thing so I'm thinking I'll have to resort to online clearance houses such as REI and Sierra Trading Post. Anyone got a link to a favorite winter coat they want to share? Preferably, I'd like to find something with a zip out liner so I can use it multi-season.

Sunday dawned overcast and wet. Though it wasn't raining, I didn't feel like taking the risk of getting soaked by going for a ride so I pitched that out the window again. I opted for a bit more time working in the garage and tinkered a bit further along. Miranda had a gift show that seemed to be a bit of a flop (per most of our excursions) and Corley and I loaded up to do dinner with friends. Miranda joined up with us after her show and me made quite the evening getting together with friends to create a fancy meal with new flavors. All in all, quite an evening. Yup welcome to my life.

A bit more like it

As I mentioned yesterday, I have been feeling like my training efforts have been a bit substandard so to speak. That's not to say that I haven't been riding hard here and there, but the times I'm supposed to be going out for a truly hard ride/race simulation, I've been giving only 80-90% effort and getting done with the ride having some gas left in the tank.

Last night I was lucky enough to get a preview of the new PRC Papa John's route. Its similar to last years Wednesday night route, but with a new start location and some interesting routing to get the group out to the same area as last year. It should be a great time.

Roughly 8-10 of us rolled out from Rassy's and some indecision left myself and Courtney off the front and on our own. We rolled a light or two the others didn't make and even with a slow down on the way out to our loop, we didn't see the pack again. Once we hit the loop which consists of 6.75 miles of rolling hills interspersed with a couple decent climbs, I hammered it. Soon enough I was on my own completely which was fine by me as I wasn't planning on it being otherwise. A good breeze out of the west at 15mph hampered things a bit, but in reality didn't even phase me compared to the struggle from the night before. I was on the cross bike to keep things a bit more challenging and to get some additional seat time in prep for taking it on the Almanzo 100.

The first lap clicked off in 22:05 and I kept on it for another lap finishing out in 22:29. Pretty even considering I was covering almost 7 miles each lap. By the end of the 2nd lap I had hoped to catch the rest of the group, but alas they were nowhere in sight. I was feeling the burn pretty good and satisfied with having put in a good effort. I guess my designation for a good effort is determined by how light headed and slightly nauseous I feel at the end before I start recovering. There was definitely a tinge of burn in the stomach last night and just enough bending around the edges to call it quits. I backed things off a bit and still moved along at a decent clip back to my truck. 31 miles and a shade under 2 hours off the clock. I did meet up with a few riders still chatting back at the shop and talked to them for a minute.

After that, it was off to the nirvana of tacos, beer, and buddies. Tom joined me for some chatting as we chowed on tacos and Courtney showed up a bit later as well since he had a few extra miles needed to finish out his century. A good effort rewarded by some indulgent fueling. Probably not the best solution on keeping myself lean and mean, but you just gotta enjoy the spoils sometimes.