ADHD Bike!

I do not race much cross, but my favorite bike has to be my cross bike.  I call it my ADHD bike cause I can go anywhere with it! Trails, road, rail trail, Green Circle, and can't believe this is getting close but even in the snow with studded tires!  That last one is right up there with racing in a circle in the park!  Blah!  Anyway the last week I have been pounding out the junk miles with no purpose whatsoever but to enjoy the ride!  What a good time.  Last Friday I randomly went out and ended up with almost 4 hrs. Then on Sunday Michelle and I ended up riding around Castle Rock Lake after clubing it in the Dells on Saturday night, that's another story!  Either way the ride was fun even with the lack of sleep and the wind.  Then again last night I went out for a couple hours on the rail trail.  The rail trail is always nice cause it protects you form the wind, which we have not been lacking lately!  A couple shots:

Besides the riding the team has been working hard on getting things set for the 2012 season.  The sponsor thing has been going good for us this year and we are excited to add a couple new ones for 2012.  We have a new bar, stem, and seatpost sponsor.  We have used their products for years and they have an extensive product line to make sure every rider is comfortable on their bike, so while buillding or upgrading your bike for the 2012 season be sure to check truvativ out:

I have also been working hard at getting my schedule in place for next year.  At least as hard as I can be without a published NUE schedule.  I have been looking at maybe doing a European race too.  I have always wanted too, but just has not worked out yet.  The closest I have been to one is when I did Master Worlds for a couple years, unfortunately the 2 years I went they were held in the exotic locale of Canada.  I did manage a 5th one year!

By the way, the Belgium leading us out there ended up kicking our ass!  Really bad!

So for a schedule this is what I am looking at with some of the dates still questionable.

Date	Event	Option
4/7/2011		UCI Marathon -France
4/14/2011
4/21/2012
4/28/2012	NUE #1 Cohutta 100????
5/6/2012	WORS #1 Iola
5/12/2012
5/20/2012	WORS#2 Crystal Lake	NUE #2 Syllamos Revenge?????
5/26/2012
6/3/2012	NUE #3 Mohican 100	WORS #3 Big Ring Classic
6/9/2012
6/16/2012	NUE #4 LumberJack 100
6/24/2012	WORS #5 Eau Claire
6/30/2012
7/7/2012		Siditrol Dolomiti Superbike UCI- Marathon
7/14/2012	WORS #6 WORS Cup
7/21/2012	NUE #6 High Cascades 100
7/29/2012	WORS #7 Alterra	NUE Wilderness 101????
8/4/2012		NUE Pierres Hole 100 ??????
8/11/2012	Ore to Shore
8/19/2012	NUE Fools Gold 100	WORS #8 Kewauskum
8/26/2012	WORS #9 Green Bay
9/1/2012	NUE Shenandoah
9/9/2012	WORS #10 Grand Geneva
9/15/2012	Marathon Nationals	Chequamegon Fat Tire
9/22/2012
9/30/2012	WORS #11 Bear Paw
10/6/2012
10/14/2012	WORS #12 Sheboygan
10/20/2012

Amateur hour

So yesterday I took the day off work, loaded up the dirty from Sheboygan Specialized Epic up and headed out the door.  The first stop was at Scott's house since he had the day off as well and we went north.  North up to 9 mile that is.  Just as we were rolling into the parking lot there was our tour guide for the day, Ben Koenig.  We rolled down the window and yelled at him to get off the road as we blew past him.  Taking the show off the road was definitely the plan for the day, even though mother nature decided to make it rain on our parade!  That lady is not nice!  Either way we headed out on the trails and the day was set in on the 2nd corner when Ben decided to show us how slippery the new fallen wet leaves were and fell over!  Oops.  We slipped and slid the entire day!  Guess we can chalk it up as a skills day, or the way we were looking, lack of skills!  I then added to our amateur ways by not changing my tire that I flatted 4 times on Sunday and decided to make it 5!  I decided to put a tube in it and the tube was bad!  I think that thing has been on the bike almost all year!  I ended up riding the flat in and luckily had another tube in the truck! After fixing it we headed back out and had this great idea to ride up Ho Chi Min, or however you want to spell it.  That did not work at all.  There was not enough traction to get up it so we bailed on that idea in dreams of coming back to it and riding down it!  Sounds like a good idea!  If it is too slippery to go up, then change your route and come down it?  Hmmm? Who made that decision!  By the time the day was done we hit every trail out there and have some more bruises to show for our adventure! 

So after riding all day what better way to spend a wasted day then going to a bike shop!  We stopped at Rib Mountain Cyclery for a while, had coffee, looked at bikes, and talked a lot!  A lot!  All that talking made us thirsty, hungry, and then really thirsty so we made our way to Red Eye Brewery for pizza and beer! Mmmmm. 

We then finished off our day visiting with Brenda and making sure she was doing well.  She was up and about with the use of her walker and was actually out in the barn.  Think she just wanted to be around the bikes. Either way she is healing well and seemed in really good spirits.  We wished her a speedy recovery and cannot wait to see our cheerleader back on the trails and at the races!! 

After a day like that, I learned one thing!  I need to take more days off!!!   

Whats that noise?

That was my tire!  I could not get it to hold air yesterday for some reason.  It was good for the first 2 laps, but the 3rd and 4th required a couple stops then it was fine on the 5th?  It sucked cause I worked my way up to Kevin and Brian and the 3 of us were riding in 6th, 7th, and 8th I believe and having lots of fun.  Either way the course was a blast once again and the dual suspension of the Specialized Epic smoothed the roots out! My butt thanks you! Also on a plus note leaking air is better than leaking blood, so it could of been worse.  I think at my lowest placing I was riding around 25th at the start of the 5th lap and my legs felt better as the laps ticked away. Which is a good sign that the transformation is happening to the word of endurance.  Or I am just getting that old man power to settle in.  Speaking of old man, today is my 37th birthday!  I really hope Kim is right when she said that 37 will be the fastest year you will have on a bike.  It is the magic number that everything comes together!  I like that! 

Next up for me is the fat season!  I get to eat, ride when I want, and maybe show up at a couple cross races if I am bored?  Probably not though!  Not a big fan of riding in circles in a park.  I do really hope that this weather trend sticks around, straight through the winter would be OK with me!  I know it won't happen, but we can dream!

On another front. Ordered up some of these for next year! Yup for everyone on the team, minus Myles who will be on the Stumpjumper. 

If you get bike envy from this then get a hold of one of us on the team, cause we are all selling our bikes from this year. 

One Lump or two

So this past weekend Michelle felt like riding her bike and talked me into travelling to Levis with her to race the final WEMS race.  We ended up deciding on the 50 mile race since the last time I did the 100 there I got so bored doing laps that I pulled the plug and went home!  With the rain finally ending and the forecast calling for sun and upper 50's I said I was in. 

My parents were also in town so it gave them a chance to see me race, not that watching bike racing is exciting by any means! 

So I toed the line, or the spot that we all decided was good enough for the LeMans start and the gun went off.  It was nice that no one wanted to run to their bikes so it was a nice moderate jog and we were off.  I took the hole shot into the first singletrack section and just got into a good rhythm.  That is until I missed the first bridge completely and was half way out in the swamp!  Oops!  Luckily I was close enough to put my foot down on the bridge and pull the bike back on. From here on it was pretty smooth sailing for lap one. 

Then on lap 2, you think I would learn, but I missed the bridge again!  Oh yeah and again on the 3rd lap as well.  At least I was consistent!  So the rest of the race went well except for deciding to throw myself on the ground, hitting a tree, then another, then on the ground again, but at least I made the bridge on the 4th lap!!  Either way I added to the bruise count after the mud race at Bear Paw and shook the bike out after it got new brake pads, front chainring, chain, derailleur pulleys, and completely overhauled!  I ended up coming across the line and was ready to be done.  That course beats you up and it is hard to keep from making mistakes as you get tired.  Luckily for me I ended up riding with one of the Rib Mountain Cycle Riders who was competing in the 3 hr race!  He made that last lap enjoyable and gave me someone to talk to for a bit! Thanks! 

So once done it was time to move onto the barley-hop recovery drink why waiting for awards.  We then finished the evening off with a stop in Marshfield for more recovery drink at the Blue Heron Brew Pub and to start replenishing the 4200 calorie deficit from the race!

No there is just one more race that I currently have planned for the year and it is the last WORS race in Sheboygan.  I can tell that it has been a long season of learning cause there are a lot of aches and pains from the 100 milers.  On a plus note though the mind is still into loving the ride!  Usually this time of year I am ready to hang up my bike and walk away for a bit but I am already thinking about the NUE series next year and how to improve.  Also looking at maybe trying to make a stop on the UCI Marathon series somewhere in Europe.  Right now there is one in the Dolomites of Italy that has my interest?  Hmmm?  Guess I will need to wait and see how the season plan comes together! In the meantime, see everyone at Sheboygan!