Ahquabi pictures

All photos stolen from Angy (thanks!) Here are some great shots from this weekend.

Towards the middle of lap 1 finding my groove:

Chasing Alread down the blacktop hill on lap 1:

Focus is good:

My current favorite race shot of me. The fire was definitely there:

Laying it all out on the final hill climb. I love seeing the elevation drop down to the lake:

Happy to be done:

Keith hammering home.

Gritting through the finish line:

IMBCS #7 Mob the Quab

The 7th race of the season for the IMBCS and 2nd year at Lake Ahquabi promised to be another fun race. A few tweaks to last years course would ensure that we'd all get our fill of climbing on this fast double track course. One tweak was a mass start of all classes at noon rather than the typical staggered start. The other main change was the start/finish area being moved to the main lodge with a final lap only hill climb to the finish line guaranteed to leave you gasping for air.

With a large turnout of people and a mass start, the doubletrack start was packed with people. A few people hollered for me to make my way forward in the starting grid which was pretty cool as I had been slotted about halfway back. Now I found myself somewhere in the top 10-20 starters. We were off and dumped straight onto the first section of grass with an off comber left hander. More than a few people went down last year on the grassy off camber sections so I was pretty cautious running through here, but still started passing a few people. Only a few tenths of a mile into the race, we hit our first climb which was grassy and rough. I put a few more people behind me as I kept a steady pace up the climb trying to get my legs warmed up.

Descending the back of the hill I was on the tail of a few more people and starting passing again as the trail flattened out. Only a mile or two into the race and the pack had started to string out pretty well in front of me with the experts leaving us in the dust for the most part. My legs were feeling pretty good at this point and I kept my output pretty steady. Slowly I rolled up on a couple of single speeders in the form of Sedore and Allread who were putting out a pretty good effort on a not quite single speed friendly course. I figured the strength of these two would be good to mark and stayed on their wheels for half of the first lap.

As we hit the final hilly section before the screaming blacktop descent Sedore gapped off the back leaving Jason and I to work together. I was feeling pretty good at this point and took the lead going into lap two. Jason gapped off as well at this point and I was pretty much alone from then on. I think I may have passed another person or two on this lap, but I mostly concentrated on bringing my effort up slightly from lap 1 without putting myself into the red yet. I knew there had to be some guys chasing me down and wasn't going to give in without a fight if I had a choice.

Lap two was down and I was well hydrated and not feeling the heat to any real extent yet. I knew the climbs on lap 3 would be getting tougher for everyone so I planned on hitting them as hard as I could and turn the screws a bit tighter overall for this lap. Towards the end of lap 2 I could start seeing another rider in front of me, but didn't catch him until the first climb of lap 3. I reeled him mostly in on the climb and then completed the pass after the descent. He stayed on my wheel for a fair amount of time, but I gapped him on the next climb as I was still feeling pretty fresh at that point.

As we crossed the dam for the last time, I had one more ride in my sites. As we worked through the campsite, I caught up to Chris Maharry and tailed him through the next section or two. He let me by and then stayed on my wheel. Determined to put on a show for him I slid my front tire out going down a grassy off camber section. I guess I forgot my lesson from last year! Luckily I was able to gather it back under me and only shaved a little speed off in the process. Chris gave the proper atta boy for making the save and off we went. I began to think he might be permanently attached to my wheel as he tailed me through most of the 3rd lap. I even managed one more front tire wash out as we turned at the bottom of the railroad tie climb. I gathered it back up one final time and motored on without further incident.

I hit the blacktop climb for the final time and did the same as the previous laps where I dieseled up the climb without standing. I finally dropped my follower and never looked back. With the end of the race closing in, I couldn't see anyone in front of me and it looked relatively clear behind me from what I'd see earlier in the lap. Knowing there were still plenty of chasers, I kept my pace up on the hills and looked forward to one more flier down the blacktop before hitting the finish climb. Amazingly I stayed alone and out in front as I rolled to the base of the climb to the finish. I powered my way up to a hearty round of clapping and cheering from all the spectators and a few fellow racers.

After I caught my breath for a second I looked around to only see 2 other racers at the finish. That surely couldn't be right. I was pretty sure I was riding a top 10 or maybe even top 5 race, but not near the podium. Sure enough, I was 3rd overall across the line and with the other two being a single speeder and in the 45+ category, I snagged my first win in the sport open class. I was about beside myself happiness as it sank in. I managed to play all of my strengths just right and execute the plan I had in my head to perfection. What a great day for Rassy's as the team ended up with a large contingent of guys in black taking wins and placing during the race.

My own Breck Epic- day 2

Map and ride info

The start of day 2 looked a bit on the chilly side. I thought for sure I was going to need some extra warmth, so I donned my arm warmers and jacket. Our first stop was a small pump track up on Boreas Pass road where we all tried (and failed) to make it around the entire track without pedalling. We got pretty close, but I didn't see anyone make the one big bump without needing a little extra oomph.

Heading towards the pump track:

After playing around and warming up a bit, I knew the jacket was going to be over the top for sure. We started up the singletrack out of the pump track parking lot and headed up. We road some urban singletrack through some more populated areas and eventually wound our way out to Highway 9 and paralleled it for a bit. We finally came to the turnoff to head up Boreas Pass Road and found ourselves confronted with the choice of another section of singletrack (going straight up) or road to ride. After a bit of discussion, we hit the dirt and headed up. Pretty quickly it became evident that hike-a-bike would most likely be the best case scenario for these flatlanders as the trail turned from fun climbing to steep and less than ridable (for us). A few sprinkles starting hitting us in this section and we took a collective vote that we were here to ride whether that meant pavement or singletrack rather than push our bikes up hills. We turned and headed back to the pavement. I was treated to a pretty cool switchback climb that headed up and up until we got to the park service road at the top.

I rolled in a few minutes after Kyle and was nothing but smiles:

From the park service road we jumped back on singletrack through some sections of the Colorado trail that Andy had led the guys through earlier in the week. This was probably some of the sweetest track we ran while I was out there. It had a bit of everything from flat, to climbs, to rocks and roots. Kyle and I checked out a bit on some of these sections and had time to stop and ponder the scenery at a couple points as we waited to regroup.

Old mining ruin on the climb up:

As we crested the climb, we were treated to more downhilling. Sitting on my hardtail, I was faster than the previous day, but still no match for the full suspension bikes so we stopped once more to regroup on the way down.

Overlooking Breck on the way down:

From here we hit a nice switchbacked road and the boys really let loose. I hit a little over 30 mph, but they had to be closing in on 40 as they accelerated out of site. From here we hit some nice black diamond sections of trail. Supposedly this is the more advanced stuff, but other than being tight and twisty (think Denman's on a downhill with rocks and roots), it really wasn't that bad. Somewhere in here, the other Rick lodged his foot between a rock and a hard place- literally. It didn't stop him or pop him off the bike, but the damage was definitely done as his foot swelled and turned nasty colors during the remainder of our trip. The guys also made sure to drag me through the "north shore" section of elevated trails that had been built as a bit of a playground. I'm not much on skinnies or elevated platforms, but with enough goading, I gingerly made my way up and through the easy section.

North shore style:

As evidenced by my heart rate jumping 20 beats per minute just going through that, I wasn't too excited about doing it again. Once through was plenty for me and fun to say I'd done it once. By then, it was closing in on lunch time and looking like possible rain again. We dropped back into Breck on this wild track that seemed to resemble a luge track more than singletrack. The grade was steep, the turns were complete bowls and if you had the balls, you could absolutely fly. Let's just say I get my nuts firmly in check on that descent, but still had fun!

Lunch was beckoning us:

Lunch time brought a brief shower through the area, but nothing to keep us off the trails. We decided to check out Burro Trail after lunch since Taylor had ridden it previously and thought it was pretty fun. The start was just up from the condo and some nice lady even managed to point out the trail head we were searching for. The lower section was sweet pine track with some good rooty sections and as we gained elevation, it turned to rocks. We started hitting some nice rock gardens and then the challenge was put down. Kyle and Taylor remembered this big rock garden from a previous trip that had them both trying again and again to get through. As well as I'd been riding the rocks (thanks 29'er), they wanted to see if I could tame this section of trail.

Almost to the top:

Apparently, there used to be two large log crossings in here as well. In any case, I cleaned it the first pass and then Taylor decided since he didn't see it, I should do it again. The 2nd pass was cleaned as well. I was definitely digging on the rocks. As we kept on climbing, the route would alternate between steep and long sections of all rock uphills and then flatten out for a bit with less rocks and more dirt. I was really enjoying this section of trail as it was challenging and technical, but definitely ridable. However, along this point, lunch decided it was time to make it's 2nd calling for the day.

Good riding fuel, bad pass through timing:

I definitely wasn't feeling the love by the time we flattened out and came to a fork in the road. With a possible wild descent coming up, I decided it was time to make like a bear in the woods. I garnered a bit of flack for it, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Wow, what a load off my mind!

At this point, the rain and clouds were threatening again, and worse yet, threatening to turn the descent nasty. We decided it was time to call it a day and let the fun really begin. To someone who's never been there or done it, it's hard to describe how fun, thrilling, and wild, careening down the side of a mountain as fast as your brake fingers will let you go can be. The upper sections were a bit slow, but as we hit the pine forest below, most of us were flying and grinning from ear to ear. It was an absolute blast that left a smile plastered on my face the rest of the day.

We wound our way back to the condo to wind down the day with some pizza at Fatty's (6 of us devoured 3 large pizzas) and some brews. Another cap to an amazing day.

My own Breck Epic- prologue and day 1

Oh sure the title may be a bit over the top, but my trip to Breckenridge for the first (and hopefully not the last) time was definitely epic and memorable to me. The prologue came in the form of a few guys putting together a week of biking and whatever mischief could be mustered in a rented condo for a week in Breck. One more slot was open and through some sort of cosmic alignment I was able to fill it. Fast forward to the week before we leave and now my grandma is in hospice care and things are looking a bit "iffy". Grandma indeed passes away and I'm to be a pall bearer in her funeral. I'm honored to do it, but it precludes me leaving on Friday night with the rest of the gang. I load my bike and gear with everyone else on Friday and bid them adieu. I secured my transfer out there via Greyhound bus leaving Monday evening after the funeral.

Now I've travelled Greyhound before. Its not the end of the world and certainly not my favorite way to travel, but in all, its good for the cost. The epic portion of my trip started less than 2 hours into the ride out when I realized my money clip with ID, credit cards, and cash were indeed missing. I searched my person, bag, and the bus thoroughly to no avail which left me believing I was pick pocketed most likely before I even left the terminal. I now was down to about 38 cents to my name and still had another 14 hours of bus travel left. I have to say I received a number of encouraging texts and even a call or two offering to help out any way they could. The guys rang and said to get my butt out there and all would be fine as there was more than enough money to buy beer! Thanks for the support!

Midway into the trip, I dubbed the bus home sweet hell:

The rest of the trip was a blur of trying to get some sleep, transferring buses in Denver and then gazing at the scenery was we wound our way towards Frisco where the guys would be waiting. As we rolled into the parking lot around 9:30, I scanned for the truck. Indeed the guys were ready and waiting to ferry me back to the condo for our adventure to begin.

Ride map and info.

By noon we were off and rolling after I had hauled my junk up 3 flights of stairs and scarfed down some real food. Our first foray for the day was to take the Peaks Trail from Breckenridge to Frisco. I'd been forewarned of the altitude issues I'd face of being short on air, energy, and general ability. As we turned up the paved hill to the trail, I found a groove, but noted it was roughly two-thirds of what I thought I should be functioning at. There's no way around altitude! The Peaks trail was a nice beginning with some rocky and rooty sections separated by rough bridges and smooth pine forest tracks. As we descended into Frisco the first and only real jerk of the trip showed his colors by attempting to rip past us on a fast downhill. I heard callouts of left, right, and a bunch of jumbles only to start to turn right to avoid a large puddle as a biker came barreling down on me. I quick dab of the foot into a deep puddle (soaking my whole foot), a few words exchanged, and we were back on our way. The rest of the downhill was a blast and punctuated at the end with some steep step downs that were fun to ride.

The rest of the day is a bit hazy, but definitely gave me a trial by fire. We road the paved trail from Frisco to Copper Mountain. We made a pit stop along the way to fuel up for what we knew was going to be a challenging climb ahead.

Lunch break

Start of Wheeler Trail:

The first sections of trail were pretty ridable and not overly steep. As we started to gain more elevation, we'd hit spots of trail that were too steep or too rock strewn to ride. Eventually, this gave way to more rocks and more steepness. Eventually, we would all hike-a-bike over 50% of the trail. at just over 2.5 miles in length, the average gradient ended up being over 16.5% with most of the last mile or so being over 20% grade. In case you're wondering, that's damn steep! Most of the time I was walking on my toes and the balls of my feet to create enough leverage to push my bike up the slopes. Finally, we made it above tree line only to discover a chilling wind and the threat of rain to be upon us.

Nearing the top, looking back at Chuck (the fluorescent blob):

Kyle and the other Rick were the first to the summit with me dragging up a good 5-10 minutes back. They had found a place to wait out the minutes for the remaining 3 chasers. It took me several minutes to snap a picture of my bike against the sign as the wind was so strong, it continually blew it down.

Final destination- 12,400':

Finally, it was time to descend. I'm not sure why, but I never snapped a picture of the singletrack descent. Either my mind was toast due to lack of oxygen and over exertion or I was too damn scared to think about taking a picture of what I was about to take on. I started the descent gingerly and made it to the fist nasty drop/switchback. At this point in time, I decided, I walk down to a slightly less intimidating portion only to realize my left foot was now stuck to my bike due to losing a screw from my cleats on the hike to the summit. Luckily I was basically stopped and could fall against the mountain side (only a foot or so away). I worked a good 10 minutes or so getting my shoe unlodged from the pedals and now was faced with the fact I couldn't clip back in without fear of being stuck on the bike when I might need to make a hasty exit. Considering the steepness of the trail and my apprehension about riding it in a fully functional mode, it made the decision to walk that chunk a no-brainer. Actually, I think almost all of us walked that portion and a good chunk of the remaining alpine sidehill we had to traverse.

Finally we came to the jeep trail/fire road section of the descent. Still unable to clip/unclip as needed, I mounted up and rode my brakes down the loose rocky section of jeep trail with my left foot resting on the pedal not clipped in and my legs taking the brunt of the force required to keep my foot from slipping off. Indeed, I was cramping up just staying on the bike on the downhill! As we finally came to a more groomed gravel portion of the road, we regrouped. Kyle suggested fixing my cleat with a bottle cage screw and it actually worked. Now I could clip in, however I had to be a bit careful of the now too long screw poking me in the bottom of the foot. I gained speed on this descent, but the rest of the guys flew away in excess of 30 mph on the downhill as we slalomed our way back to Breck.

We were grinning from ear to ear as we hit the edge of town and pedalled off in search of a bike shop to help with some woes including a broken spoke, destroyed shoes, and my cleat issue. On top of that, as we started to crank the pedals, Kurt's crank arm literally detached from the bottom bracket leaving him with quite a befuddled look as it was still clipped to his shoe. Luck must have been smiling as that would have meant almost sure disaster on the downhill we'd done literally minutes before. Luckily it was nothing more than a screw coming loose and we fixed it before heading on our way.

With sushi and a big beer in my belly for dinner, it wasn't long before I was sawing logs and dreaming of what day 2 might hold.

Of death and dishonor

I apologize for the dearth of posts lately. I've actually been riding and doing quite a bit, but the urge to jot it down has been.... lacking. I'm supposed to be headed to Colorado for a week of nothing but fun, frivolity, and mountain biking. Unfortunately, I'm in town until Monday before I can head out. You see, my grandmother passed away yesterday. Before you go on getting all misty, weepy, and offering your condolences, let me share some thoughts with you. Trust me, I appreciate those thoughts and appreciate those friends that want to share them with me, but I think my take on it might bear a bit of different light.

In this particular case, my grandma ceased to be several years back as series of small strokes and general age induced decline robbed her of being a sentient person and left a living shell that we still called grandma. Myself and other family members have basically said our goodbyes all ready and are at peace with her having been gone. This instance happens to be the physical death of the body and while still sad, we've all ready mourned the true loss. In reality, the hard part on my end comes not from feeling the loss, but more so from seeing the impact on my grandfather and mother and lending a supportive shoulder for them to lean on.

The dishonor portion of this comes in to the fact that I've been asked to be a pall bearer for the service. I feel a sense of duty to honor her memory and to honor the wishes of my mother as well. However, that's more or less in conflict with my own views and personal preferences of how I currently would wish to have my own demise received.

We have our chance to enjoy each other's friendship, wit, and wisdom while we're alive. My passing may or may not affect. Obviously, that shouldn't bother me much as I've all ready passed. However, I don't want it to bother you either. I'd like to have my closest family present to say their goodbyes and such as they need and then its off to be turned to ash for my wishes. Possibly, I'll eventually find some place that I'd like a small remembrance put just so I can leave my indelible stamp on the world for at least a bit longer, but other than that, no formal services, no funeral where people feel regret, sorrow, and try to regain the time lost while I was living. No need to take time off work, dress up, and spend the day in a somber mood.

I'd rather have you note my passing, feel how you choose about it, and then wait for an invitation to arrive. I'd like to see my friends and family come together and have a celebration. Plan food, fun, and enjoyment in my honor. Show everyone how my company and friendship was enjoyed, by coming together and doing the same as you would if I were there to enjoy it as well.

I know this flies in the face of the conventional process of death and grieving, but to me it seems to make much more sense. Anyone else share this sentiment in part or full? Feel free to criticize as you will, but I'd like to hear some compelling arguments if you have them.

A bit of this 'n' that (big old recap)

Last week was a bit of everything combined into one. I headed over to the inaugural PRC Monday mountain bike ride to kick off the week. The trails were just dry enough to be perfect. Somehow I ended up more or less the defacto ride leader and led everyone through a nice round of J11, Denman's, Squirrels nest, Hillside, and Rollercoaster to cap off the evening. 5:30 on Mondays at Ashworth Park Pool for those interested. Just keep an eye on the PRC site to make sure its still on as the rain we've been getting lately has made it interesting for any of us wanting some dirt action.

With full dryness setting in last week, the taco ride was on in full force. Nearly 20 of us rolled out from the shop at 6. I had run 1 loop of Denmans before meeting up with everyone so as to get a little extra action in. After that, we rolled a nice brisk pace through Denmans before stopping for trail beer courtesy of Jacob. Thanks dude!

We finished up with various laps of Hillside and Rollercoaster. My massive power afforded me my first broken chain experience on Hillside. With Squirrel hot on my tail (and barely working), I was powering my way through when the chain starting making some not so friendly grinding and popping noises. Squirrel wisely advised I back off and sure enough, on the next little grunt, the chain popped. All was good as I had tools and a quick link with me. Funny enough, it was just the quick link that broke. I figured it must have just been a bad one, replaced it in about 10 seconds, and hopped right back on the main group like nothing had happened. The chain still made a few grunts and groans the rest of the night, but nothing like before, so I didn't think much of it.

Thursday night we took in our first Cubs game of the year and the first ever for C. She had a blast and did remarkably well throughout the game and watched a good portion of it. She even got to meet Cubby Bear. We stuck around for the free fireworks and I was a bit surprised that she didn't enjoy it quite as much as I thought she would. All in all, a great night with the family.

With Friday off, I opted out of doing the coffee ride and took off with Squirrel to get my first full laps of Boone under my belt. The 24 hour race is looming and having never ridden a full lap there, I thought it might be wise to get a preview while I could. The original plan was for 6ish laps, but we shortened it to 3 with weather looking to move in. The first lap was filled with various grunts and oh shits as I got to know the varying undulations of the trail and what gears to not be in. My chain started making a little noise and skipped a time or two on this lap, but nothing too terribly. We stopped after the first lap to do some more inspection thinking I'd missed something when checking out the chain and cassette after Wednesday's mishap. Still nothing jumping out at us, we headed off for lap 2.

Squirrel cranked up his pace a bit and I followed suit though not nearly as fast. I managed along a lot better on round 2 with only a few dabs here and there and 1 or 2 dismounts/falls to go along with. Almost done on the upper trail getting ready to hit the descent I hit one of those downhills that runs up to a small ascent you can really hammer up. Sure enough, I hammered it and my bike hammered me back. The chain popped from the middle ring to the little and in the process I pulled something in my left knee and slammed that quad into the underside of my shifters. Youch! I had a perfect bullseye the shape of the screw clamping my shifters onto the bar tattooed on my leg now. The chain was still good, so I limped my way back down the trail to the truck. Once at the truck a bit further investigation had the problem jumping out at me. The middle chain ring (where I spend most of my time) was looking pretty well worn. When hitting the climbs, I'd shift to the bigger cogs in my cassette and put strain on the middle ring. Enough strain or enough chain line difference and the chain would be pulled off the middle ring into the small ring. Nothing I could do in the field, but I was determined to finish out my laps.

I headed off with my new knowledge for lap 3. I knew the middle ring was now dangerous for most area of the course as I wouldn't have time to downshift to the little ring and upshift in back to maintain the needed momentum for the quick up and downs. I dropped it to my baby ring up front and listened to the grind on the front derailleur as much as I could stand and would alternately slow down and downshift or temporarily put my faith in the middle ring when it became too unbearable. I made the lap about 2 minutes slower than previous laps, but without any chain slippage or further injury which I considered a success. I felt decent about my 3 laps up there averaging in the 49 minute range for a first time through. I've definitely got a lot of time left in the bank with a higher effort and more comfort on the course so things are looking good. The IMBCS race should be a good gauge of my timing as well.

The 4th was pretty low key with the rain and cool temps not being too conducive to a lot of outside activities. I got up early on Sunday and thought I'd spin my legs out a bit with a nice run down to Martensdale and back. Somewhere I got it in my head instead to put in a personal TT effort to see what kind of time I could turn for the down and back. After all the climbing and knee strain from Friday, my legs felt like total junk at the start of the ride even after having ridden almost 20 minutes to the start of the trail. I got the pace cranked up though and headed off for Martensdale. I made pretty decent time down there and almost bonked once I got there. I was quickly running out of energy so a gel and a quick sit under the shelter canopy was in order before blasting back. I felt a bit better on the ride back once I got my legs under me again. Downloading the info showed a pretty big surprise that my out and back times were within seconds of each other. I averaged 20.5 mph for the out and back so I was pretty happy about doing that for 33 miles on my own.

During lunch on Monday I decided to have some fun and did a little recon of the south end of the Sycamore Trail. All looked good a rideable from my vantage point on foot. The bugs would carry you off if you stopped for more than a second though. The wildlife was out in full form as well. I snapped a picture of this guy and thought better of snapping the 2nd one as he coiled up into a strike position.

Monday night I headed out with the Bike World gang in the form of Tom, Courtney, and Joe. They had been riding the Neil Smith most of the year and were getting pretty tired of the nasty surface and various hazards found along the way. The option was to run the TNWC route, so away we went. I proclaimed I was mostly there for a recovery ride, but knew that was only half true in my head. I have a hard time staying off the front and pushing pace when the opportunity presents itself, so I took my share of pulls, but I did manage to set in for a bit as well. I was watching my heart rate pretty close and it was fun to watch my heart rate go from 173 BPM (middle of Z4) where I'd end my pulls and drop 30+ BPM as I'd jump back in line. We ended up right at 40 miles since we didn't hit the Slater loop, but overall a great ride.

Weekend kickoff

Happy 4th of July to everyone. Time to kick off the weekend!

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Happiness and Heckling

The weekend was packed full of fun and frivolity. I kicked off with Friday night spent enjoying the arts festival with Miranda and Corley before heading down to the longest yard to enjoy some food and beverage with the shop guys as a thanks for working the triathlon. Saturday found us up and at 'em for a quick stop at Gray's lake to enjoy story time with the family before heading off to my prescribed volunteerism at the tri. Fuller and I worked the wheel pit for the pro athletes races setting up on 35th and Grand at the far end turn around. After a bit of convincing the various police and volunteers that we really were supposed to be there, we finally got things set up and began the afternoon of waiting around. Luckily we had a few additional revelers stop by to keep things lively.

It was pretty awesome watching the various packs of pro men and women fly by us as we cheered them all on. Trading a few hours of easy work was well worth the front row access we had. About the only regret is that the single request for help we fielded (a woman needing a 4mm allen wrench) had to be left unanswered as we had only brought wheels and no tools. From then, it was time to pack up and hopefully get some relaxation in before the evening activities commenced.

Rumors about a gravel overnighter started flying around a week or two back. It seems the loose plan was to start around 10 in the evening, ride enough gravel to last through the night and then end up heckling the tri people somewhere on course. Sounds like a great plan to me.

Kyle Sedore, Oakley Rob, Kurt Benson, Fuller, Joe from BW West, and myself took off from Legends on 60th and Ashworth and the crack of dark Saturday night which equates to roughly 10:20 PM after some food and liquid fueling. Heading west on EP True we went baja style riding through the dead end past Jordan Creek and eventually worked our way down to Booneville road and over to Booneville proper by 11. We briefly debated the first beer stop of the evening, but eventually bypassed the Waveland in favor of heading to the Cumming Tap for our first round of the evening. We hit the tap somewhere need midnight and split a pitcher between us while Kurt also thought it was necessary to bolster our spirits with a round of Red Bulls as well. Most everyone chugged theirs down, but I wisely packed away that gem for a later pick me up.

From Cumming we decided to try for last call in Martensdale. A mile or so out of town we had our first flat of the evening on Joe’s trusty La Cruz. Now here’s how you can tell you’re in Iowa. Here we were at 1ish in the morning, a group of 6 guys standing around working on a bike and 2 separate cars happened to roll by, both checking to make sure we were good to go and offering to shine their headlights on the situation to help. We got the flat repaired in time to make last call.

After another pitcher split, we headed back from whence we came. Somewhere about halfway back to Cumming we decided to stop and break out some food. I think we were all feeling a bit punchy at the time as the stop also included a rousing game of duck-duck goose played in the midst of the gravel road in the wee hours of Sunday morning. We wound our way back through the Booneville loop and made our final break at the Waveland west where we enjoyed their great hospitality. Of course they weren’t actually open at 4 in the morning (who knew?), but we did find the patio furniture to be quite inviting. After a bit more snacking on processed meat sticks aka Slim Jim’s, we headed back towards town only to stop for the 2nd flat of the evening.

Rather than run through the bigger rollers on Booneville road, we opted to head back out to Grand and roll it double file paceline style clear down to Raccoon River Park to let the heckling and shenanigans begin for the Hy-Vee Tri. We actually started off with some varying congratulations to friends at the swim start where roughly 1 billion people were milling about.

From there we headed up to heckler's hill which ended up being just west of 35th street going up Grand. We scoped out our spot in time to head off to Kum and Go/McD's for food and supplies aka beer. Apparently there is some conspiracy going on to keep people from thoroughly enjoying themselves on Sunday mornings as beer sales don't start until 8 AM. Alas, we were relegated to various energy drinks which, at that point, probably wasn't a bad call. When we got back to our spot, Kyle showed us all how to properly get in the spirit of heckling.

All told, I showed 68 miles and change with 3000’ of climbing for our overnighter along with more laughing, fun, and folly than I can remember having for a long time. One punctuation to the evening was experiencing flying down the various hills at 25+ mph in the pitch of night which was thrilling and terrifying at the same time. I finally rolled back home and to bed around 10:30 after having eclipsed the 26th hour of awake time before dropping like a ton of bricks for a few hours nap.

Tire changing in the dark

Kyle changing a flat on Booneville gravel at 4:30 am. So far so good for the overnighter. Lots of slim jims and shenanigans.

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Gravel in the dark

Made the final call in Martensdale. Got another 3 hours of riding in before breakfast and heckling the tri people.

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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.

Green days race recap

In retrospect, I was a bit worried with Pete giving me cornering lessons for the race. However, all went well though with me sitting in roughly 4th wheel the entire race and letting the DMOS guys wear themselves out. Herb from A9Y got a small gap with roughly 5 laps left after a prime and the pack seemed pretty intent on letting him set out there. I had the crazy idea of bridging up and trying to make a two man break stick since he only had one other rider in the pack the same as I surrounded by the DMOS guys out in full force. I hit the gas into the corner and thought I opened it up a bit after the corner and started pulling him back in. Alas, my breakaway horsepower is a bit... lacking. I succeeded in dragging the full pack back up with me, oops.

Pete giving me pointers on where to be and something about staying off the front...

With 1 to go I was still in good position and thought I'd try hammering the corners again as I had noted most everyone was a bit lax in charging into the corners letting me come up the outside, late brake, and get a small lead. I looked great for about a 1/4 of a lap and then had plenty of people with me going into the last corner. I took too wide of a line and had a couple guys all ready in front of me heading towards the finish. As mentioned previously, my sprint is nothing short of mediocre and another 3 guys slipped past before we made the line. 6th place out of 17ish riders at the line. With my crit/road racing experience amounting to last year's Green Days and a couple Race like a girl nights, I was pretty happy with the outcome. Thanks to Pete for yelling out the instructions and the rest of the men in black sticking around to cheer on the 5's.

In comparison to last year, I can definitely tell I'm a much stronger rider. It was relatively easy to stay up front, I "think" I possibly had the power to make a break had I truly hammered it and sprinted up to speed versus sitting and trying to pound out the power in my 1 attempt to bridge up. Last year I sat much further back in the pack just trying to hold on and not get tangled up with anyone. I yo-yoed pretty constantly in that attempt and a late race crash pretty much helped me crack the top 10. I feel like I earned the placing this year rather than circumstance dictating as much. I think I probably left too much on the table in regards to effort as once I finished the last lap I still felt pretty fresh even after sprinting up to the middle of zone 5 (193 bpm for me) at the finish line. In the pack I was sitting pretty much in the middle of zone 4 or a little less and feeling like I wasn't making much of an effort other than spinning it back up out of every corner. I've still got a lot to learn and a lot of work to do on my short term explosive power.

No apologies dads day part 2

As I said, no apologies for enjoying myself thoroughly today. I put my bad influence on Squirrel (though it didn't take much arm twisting) and we grabbed a couple tall boys mid ride on our black label putt putt. Had a nice little roll out towards Clive and back for an hour and a half. Headed down to the farm for some fishing and such this afternoon and hanging with my dad.

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Happy father's day!

Happy father's day to all. My plans for the day are a no apologies day. I started off with a shopping trip to the store for biscuits, sausage, beer, muffins, and some fruit pies. I may well be following up today with cardiologist Monday, but no apologies! Hope everyone enjoys their day as thoroughly as I plan to.

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FDR Park!

Fdr park in Dubuque kicked all sorts of ass. Wild mix of easy to expert type stuff with a lot of mossy rocks and roots interspersed with buttery smooth singletrack. Definitely a good amount of climbing, but nothing too gnarly that I found anyway. And ya I rode the "skinny" more rickety than anything else.

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The next Punk Rock Girl?

PRC training on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

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Like an old friend..

That you owe money to and is waiting around every corner to sucker punch you, until its fully repaid. What can I say, its bittersweet being back on the road bike, by choice or by happenstance. With a severe dearth of pavement training miles and really no structure ever since I moved from the trainer onto pavement, I wasn't expecting much and rightfully, didn't get a whole lot either. Friday I met up with a few of the guys for some time spent at Center since we'd sadly been beaten back from them due to the rain sporadically hosing down our plans. I got in a nice 2 hour relaxed pace ride and pretty much hit everything twice. I even managed to ride a bit with Keely from PRC who was reacquainting herself with some dirt lovin fun.

The weekend found me logged in to work and off the bike for the most part. a good chunk of Saturday I was able to get my enclosed trailer back into shape after the shellacking it took on one CITA work day last fall. The concrete buggies we rented had no problem going straight through the rotted wood on the tailgate and consequently also tore off part of the metal exterior of the gate. Team Cow and I made a pretty excellent deal that he'd buy the necessary repair materials and help do the work in exchange for a couple weeks use of the trailer during the summer.

I hit TNWC for the first time in a few weeks. I just about lost the pack before we even were off Morningstar Drive and knew it probably wouldn't be much fun beyond that. I made my way up to the front for a bit drafting as much as possible, but the same old song was playing. As soon as the pace cranked up north of Ankeny I was straight out the back. About the only difference is I happened to be 4th or 5th wheel when the pace cranked up so I got the pleasure of the entire pack passing me. Shortly thereafter I saw the B group form up about a 1/4 mile up the road, but I couldn't bridge the gap and decided not to chase them up to Slater opting for the turn back towards Polk City. By the end of the ride, I was so far off the back, it appeared I was off the front as the lead riders pulled within eyesight after I turned on Meredith past the Perkins and they were cooling down at that point so I still made it back to the cars first/last.

Wednesday I was in charge of little one for the evening and she'd been dying to go for a ride so in lieu of attempting the feat of dragging her along on the PRC ride, I opted for Kim's Dogtown Cruiser night leaving from the Drake Farmer's Market and cruising through the various neighborhoods in the area. Kim and I were the only takers so we very leisurely paced our way around town for about 45 minutes before heading off to BBQ at Jethro's. I think eating there 2 nights in a row, may have been a bit much, but at least my BBQ appetite has been quenched for a bit. A word of warning though for those that may be interested in hitting it up- the beer prices are f'ing ridiculous. $4.50 for a pint or $13 for a pitcher of Fat Tire is just highway robbery in my book.

On to Thursday and I steeled myself for my wildly varying TT effort in the form of the Elkhart TT series. My whole goal was to break 20 minutes which hadn't happened in my 3 previous attempts. I assumed I'd be able to break it handily with the bit of training I'd had this year and at least feeling like I'm faster than previous years. The wind was pretty calm, but still felt like a slap in the face on the turnaround portion. In retrospect I could've stood to warm up a bit longer and hit the starting line a little closer to my time rather than waiting in line. My legs didn't feel like they were really going well until almost 2 miles into the course. As the finish cone finally came into site, I was setting right at 19 minutes. I had to hustle pretty good to meet my goal, but luckily the clock showed 19:43 as I crossed the line. At least I made one of my goals this week.

Kris inquired as to whether or not I'd be hitting the coffee ride this morning and I decided I may as well hit it since the rain looks to be moving in for various parts of the weekend. The reports I've heard on this ride vary greatly on what the pace is. Some say it's a nice relatively easy paced hour long ride and others call it the coffee crit. Being this is the only time I've ridden it, my experience was of the crit variety with a few decent sprint points thrown in and a lot of high paced paceline riding going on along with a pretty high end (for me) pace being averaged. I hung on (with some help of the stop lights) until roughly 3/4 through the ride where I got gapped as we turned on to Westown parkway. I finished a few minutes back, but was pretty happy that my legs felt decent for the majority of the ride. I'm even contemplating the "shootout" tomorrow AM to cap off a week of getting reacquainted with the road bike.

So, in all, it was a good week back on the bike. The new road bike (I still need to find a name) has been pretty kick ass even if it really hasn't made me any better of a rider. I finally changed out the seat last night to my original (Fizik Alliante) in lieu of the ass hatchet that came on the bike. The Toupe that came with the bike feels great for about 20 miles and then I get various nasty pains shooting from my backside down through my legs. Tuesday night I got to a point where I wondered if I was going to have to stop and call for a ride it was so painful. This morning I felt great with the new saddle. I'm hoping a longer ride will prove the same.

That not so fresh feeling

I jumped on the new bike this morning (I gotta come up with a better name soon!) and headed off on my commute. Obviously this brand new ultra-light wonderbike should have pedalled itself, but I couldn't figure out how to activate that option. Alas, I was resigned to pedal my own ass to work. At least the ass I'm pedalling is less substantial thanks to the bikes.

But, I digress, as soon as the pedals started cranking over, I was hit by the oh so familiar, yet not exactly welcome, not so fresh feeling of the legs. Yup, sure I raced Sunday, plus am sporting a softball sized bruise on one quad, but the legs definitely didn't have a whole lotta zip in them. I wasn't necessarily surprised by this fact, but it got me to thinking. When was the last time I really felt like my legs were "fresh" and ready to rock.

Strangely enough, I can't quite pin down that time. Oh sure, some days they feel decent and don't hurt as much as others, but I was having a hard time really nailing down when they felt like I would define fresh and full of energy. I'm beginning to think it may have to do with my training structure or more accurately my lack thereof. Riding 5-10 hours per week on average really isn't much in the way of training, but its what I've got. As such, I haven't bothered to put together any type of training regimen other than hit the gas and hang on as long as I can typically somewhere in a zone 4 average for the ride.

It actually felt good in somewhat of a twisted way to get my heart cranked up for this weekend's race. I kept an average of 184 for almost 90 minutes and it felt like I'd blown the cobwebs out pretty well once I got done wheezing and gasping after the finish. I'm beginning to suspect that I'm hitting that NO zone during my riding. No really hard efforts, no really easy efforts, and sitting in no man's land. This would also explain my legs never really feeling like they're ready to go. I just push them, take a day or two off, and repeat. They really never get the chance to do active recovery and never get over stressed to the point where I can feel the difference when backing down.

Anyone else sitting in the no zone, when it comes to "training"?

Race Report- Summerset Shootout

CITA put on the Summerset Shootout just north of Indianola this weekend. The race that was supposed to go down last summer, but had to be postponed due to flooding of epic proportions was well worth the wait. I think the trail crew put the extra year to great use extending and dialing in many sections on the north end and while some trail was lost on the south, I don't think too many people noticed through the haze of pounding hearts.

Quick Stats:
Placing- 8th Men's Cat 2 (9th overall)
Time: 1:23:26
Avg Heart Rate: 184 (max seen 195)

Must be early in the race since I'm still smiling

With the rainy mud race at Sylvan Island and a rainout postponement for Ingawanis, I was predicting a pretty heavy turnout for IMBCS #3 if the sunshine held as predicted. It turned out to be a beautiful day and the racers turned out in what appeared to be excellent numbers as well. Considering I'd ridden a whopping 3 beginner races and the Dirty Du to round out my impressive racing resume, I wasn't quite sure what to expect moving up to the sport class aka "Cat 2" this year. I'm not sure if I made a faux-pas or not, but I wandered my way to the front row as everyone lined up. Having ridden at least a few laps at Summerset, I knew the key was going to be a holeshot into the first section and then work it out from there. Obviously this was a loosely guarded secret as most of the field went for the holeshot.

Woohoo, downhilling

And then locking up the rear

I decided it was best that I not contest for a top spot going into the woods and drifted back somewhere mid-pack as I entered the singletrack. As I expected the first section of the north side was hurry up and wait. I passed a couple people that were having issues with the technical terrain and were kind enough to pull off. I also passed one guy on a run up that I'm not too sure he was entirely happy about as I squeezed him as the trail came back to one, but I never saw him again. After that it was concentrate on trying to keep as much flow going as possible without running over the guys in front of me. I know I went down at least a couple times on the first lap and donated some skin and blood from my elbow on once occasion, but I really couldn't tell you where as I was mostly concentrating on the line and listening to my heart pound in my ears.

Fullers Drop (the easy way)

As the trail opened up to the first section of double track, I put the hammer down and rounded 2 or 3 riders. I also gained another spot from Bruce Brown on the 2nd section of the north side and then promptly fell down a couple more times so I let him have it back. I waited for further passing until we hit the pavement and then hightailed it past another rider or two as I hustled towards Riverside. I really wasn't that worried about Riverside, but in hindsight, I probably should have ridden it one more time before the race. I nearly went down on the first sandy corner and narrowly avoided a stabbing hazard as I started into the sand. At the first deep spot my wheel sank in to a sudden stop and tried to throw me over the bars. Thus far the "easy" section was handling me about as roughly as the north side. I managed to find my way out though and hit the gas again once we were back on the tarmac.

Throughout the 2nd lap I started passing more riders that appeared to have gone out a bit hard and were losing steam. I fell a few more times, let a few riders both in my class and single speeders by, and got my flow a bit more. At the end of the 2nd lap I tossed one empty bottle only to have it wound a spectator as it slid across the grass and bounced off her foot. Sorry! I was starting to feel some signs of cramping on the 3rd lap, but knew it would be over soon enough. I finally managed to not slide off the trail in a spot that had been plaguing me, but still had to run several of the loose rocky climbs after stalling out.

Somewhere in the bikini beach section (I think)

As I hit the next to last section of pavement I had a rider bridge up to me only to set up in my draft. I told him to go ahead and pass, but he said he was a single speed so it didn't matter. It actually turned out to be Matt from down Creston way. I gave him the lead as we hit Riverside and figured he'd be gone. I tailed him all the way through the trail and actually picked up the pace from previous laps on that section. We both pushed each other to race this section rather than using it as recovery. Once we hit the final stretch of pavement I put it in the big ring and gave it all I had left. I was gassed as I shot across the line and happy we weren't doing 4 laps.

Photos stolen from Courtney, Jared, and possibly some others in the flickr pool.

New bike day!

Happy new bike day to me. I happened across this 08 tarmac pro with less than 100 miles on it and couldn't pass up the deal. Just gotta sell my giant now... Anyone need a nice carbon road bike?

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