Team Adventure 212/Specialized

S'more

2012-01-25T09:05:00.001-06:00

MMMmmm! So last night Michelle was making fun of me for roasting marshmallows in our indoor fireplace. I couldn't help it though, they tasted so good! I then moved onto making S'mores, even better!

So on the ride front things have slowed down some due to sickness and a recovery week. I guess if you have to get sick, a recovery week is the best time to plan it? It is hard though to have the pedal to the metal on training then hit the brakes as hard as you can. Lets hope the anti skid kicks in and I start feeling better so I do not slide all the way back down the hill!

On the bike side, I heard that there are some Specialized Epic 29er frames on the way for the team. I am super excited to see these new race rigs. They should also be followed up soon with a care package of XX from SRAM which will go very nice with the already received Truvativ pick me up and is going to give the 212 Team the best weapon a team can ask for! Thank you sponsors!!

Also the time has come to think about looking good. We always say if you are not going to race good, you better look good! For us to accomplish this we use Hidden Bay! They can not make it any easier or affordable to make a team look good with a high quality product. So if you are looking at new kits this year give them a call. You will not regret it. Most of the 212 squad actually orders extra clothing each year because of the comfort of their new shorts.

Race motivation

2012-01-24T10:37:00.000-06:00

Cohutta 100 press realease. Pretty excited for this race already, and it is still 4 months away! This is where I started doing the NUE 100s and I always enjoy going back here.

Over the river and down the snow covered road....

2012-01-23T09:20:00.000-06:00

.....to another 4 hrs of T.I.T.S I did go. For those new, that is Time in the Saddle. Saturday mother nature tried to deter me with the starting temp of -6F, but I made it.

Now is the good time to thank those that make products that you pay for no matter the cost! Bar Mitts! A must have for winter riding. Luckily for us they were a sponsor of ours a few years ago and they keep your hands warm no matter the temps.

Assos tights, yes they are really expensive, but they are the best! I have bought only 4 sets in my entire time of winter riding and they just last! So get over the price and Sponsor Yourself! That is there marketing slogan.

Hand warmers! You can get an entire box for something like $20. When the temps drop I usually will wear toe warmers, then stuff one of these between my shoe and toe warmer, then put a bootie over. Always works. I also take an extra pair just in case the bonk hits, or dreaded winter flat.

My routes:

Saturday Route:

Sunday Route:

Not all about fat!

2012-01-17T20:17:00.000-06:00

So there seems to be a 2nd 29er revolution starting and it has to do with the fat bike. It seems as everyone has given up this opportunity to ride a normal bike and learn some bike handling skills out in the snow. Don't get me wrong, I am sure they are fun to ride, just like mopeds and other things till your friends see you, and if you are a sport rider just looking to maintain some cardio through the winter they will work fine for you. As a training tool, I'm not buying it. I honestly thought I was cheating myself when I changed from a road bike all year round to a studded tire cross bike, but that now seems to be the bike I grab. It works just fine in the snow and I am able to mount the power tap up to it, train, not go bow legged from a 140mm stance, and not have one more bike to maintain. If Q factor doesn't matter then why does egg beater and speedplay make different axle lengths. So sorry Simonson, I will not be at Cohutta on that 19 lb fat bike you dreamed about.

So onto some training. It seems as things have ramped into full speed ahead with the the end goal of raising the bar going into the season, as it is every year. Lots of new plans in the works and some extra volume should help. The group of Sarah, Mark, Michelle, and I keep hitting the weights hard as well with Gabe to make sure come Sunday afternoon and a week of training the remote seems like a heavy object to lift.

Also on the training front, two camps are in the works. One for another trip to Cali in February with bossman to drag him around Mt Tam and Mt Diablo. We did this last year and it was such a blast. We have also completed plans for a team plus a couple extras camp in Prescott in March. This one will be for the MTB and will be our first MTB camp. Super excited about this.

Till then it seems as my anti fat bike riding will continue on the winter Wisco roads. Here are a few random shots:

Riding in the storm last week

Forgot, you are not supposed to be able to ride this without a fat bike.

Blazed a lot of tracks that day on the cross bike in 4 inches of snow.

Krayer's get y'er guns! Time to get some dinner!

My training weapon, minus the bar mitts which I swear by! Carbon and TI bolts = no rust!

Yeah, 5 degree wind chill and snow! That is ice on my nose and my glasses are frozen to my eye brows! So when is the Cali trip again!!!

Pinky and the........

2012-01-11T13:23:00.000-06:00

Agood reason why not to loose a bet, at least it was for a good cause though!

Full Swing

2012-01-10T07:22:00.000-06:00

The 2012 season is now in full swing without the end in sight. This year promises to be another fun year of racing, traveling, and goofing off with the team. The team will remain the same as last as we all continue to get older. Luckily we have Myles and Darrin on the team to make us feel young again! OK, not naming names, but there are a couple of us on the team that will never act a day over 12! So the race schedule, that is different for each rider and will become more concrete over the next month. I do know that my focus again will be on the NUE races and will be dragging Ryan into it as well this year. Ryan though will transition back into WORS for the late season races while I plan to blow the entire WORS season off again this year! Scott and Mark will also join us for some of the NUE races as well. The rest of the team will be focused on WORS.

Also with the start of the 2012 season, Mike and company at the Chicago headquarters have been busy coming up with some new cool kit designs. Once again Adventure 212 and Specialized will get a lot of real estate on the kit as we enter our 5th year as partners. We are so lucky to be riding the best bike on the market and equipment with adding huge support from SRAM and Truvativ.

So for training. Things are changing a little bit this year by adding a little more time on the bike for me. Luckily for all of us here in Wisconsin the weather has been great which means you can usually find company on your longer rides. This weekends ride at one point we had 10 riders made up of the Wildside team and A212. It was lots of fun as we cruised around the hills of Denzer!

So that is about it for my morning ramblings.

No other way

2012-01-09T13:28:00.002-06:00

We all have our issues

2012-01-02T10:27:00.000-06:00

If it happens once it is no big deal, but if it happens again then there might be an underlying issue. I am talking about drinking and riding. This past weekend Mark, Sarah, Todd, Di, Ryan, Lisa, and myself went out for a burn some calories before the eating and drinking begins ride. No big thing, that is until Ryan and Todd found an unopened 6 pack of poor quality beer in the ditch! Most people would ride by, not Ryan and Lisa though! They stopped and picked it up, Denzer style! Lets just say most of it was gone before we got back home! Good thing we were on the rail trail and close to home!

Power to the party

2011-12-31T08:56:00.000-06:00

So tonight is our annual Holiday Party, usually a Christmas party but with all the travel it turned into a New Years party. Either way usually a fun time and hoping for no broken bones this year. If you are reading this and did not get an invite, sorry, I do not do Facebook and handle no invitations. If you think you should of gotten an invite, you are probably right and are still invited!

Either way each year we have a good friend who is a DJ so he comes in and sets up lights and plugs into my home system. Now my home system is not the run of the mill. For those into AV, I have a set of Bowers and Wilkins 804s, an HTM 2 center, and 2 ASW750 subs. My problem was I have the seakers but was limited in the amp area so each year we did something to it. The first two years we actually smoked a couple channels on it then last year we kept kicking it out. So here is the before, or acutally in the middle of running some new speaker wire;

So what is leaving is the 9 year old Denon processor and the Rotel Amp. I also ran new Analysis Plus speaker wire and ended up bi amping the left and right speakers. So here is the almost finished product:

Ended up with a good upgrade. The processor is an Anthem AvM50v and the 2 amps are the Anthem Statement A2 and A5. Here is my speaker set up:

So now with all the upgrades done we are ready to rock out till both the ball drops and the partiers! Hapy New Year!

Come on feel the noise...

2011-12-29T06:53:00.000-06:00

It is time for an upgrade to the amplifier situation at my house! More to come, but it is good. No kicking the amp out at this years party!

Filth-a-delphia

2011-12-28T15:52:00.000-06:00

Just got back from Philly yesterday and Michelle and I are super sick! Guess that is what happens when you cram so many people into one space! I think my best experience of the trip was when this New Yorker was explaining how special Central Park was due to the size of the park being in the middle of a huge city. I looked at him and told him we do it better in Wisco, we left the state a park and scattered small towns throughout it.

Follow the herd

2011-12-24T11:35:00.000-06:00

Well we made it out to New Jersey! Yup New Jersey! Not sure I would head out for a ride around here. Michelle is wishing that she could go for a ride cause she got her Xmas present early. Mark and I spent the day building it. Here we are in the process:

A little disappointed in ourselves though, no beer consumption during the entire process! At least Michelle can feel good about riding it the first time cause it is put together right! Here is the final build:

Amazing the weights you can hit right out of the box, this is even with the Quarq Power Meter.

Lets just say she was a bit excited about it when I gave it to her!

Other than bike building we have been running around with the masses! Yesterday we took a limo into New York City and did some shopping. It was really funny cause when the pedestrian lights changed just masses of people moved, you had no choice but to follow the herd! We did hit Central Park, not sure how they were Ice Skating, it was 50 degrees out.

We did the lazy path through and took a carriage ride:

We also visited a nice candy store. I would of loved to eat my way out of there, but they told me there was not enough time:( bummer! While there we found something that made us think of R Krayer!

We also found his childhood haircut. He wishes that he could still grow it like this, but all of his hair has slid off the top of the head.

While in New York, you have to go out for a corned beef sandwich form Carnegie Deli.

After that, I am pretty sure that I will not need to eat till Xmas dinner!

Next stop please!

2011-12-21T08:09:00.001-06:00

So I know I keep promising pics, but for some reason I seem to be all over the place. Yesterday I didn't even turn my computer on and luckily with my phone I am still able to keep the ball rolling in all the things I dabble in. Yesterdays excitement was also turned up with a trip to the ER for Michelle. She is OK but has five stitches in her right hand now. it was a bit scary though cause it cut pretty deep and sent her into shock and she passed out for a bit. We made it all better by taking a trip to Red Eye last night to numb the pain with beer! Yum.

On the bike side of things, still no new bikes. We do still have a couple team bikes left so if you are looking let me know. We have and Era, an Epic 26er, and an Epic 29er. I have started back into the swing of things. Nothing really structured, just getting acquainted with the bike is what Bossman calls it. Luckily for us here in Wisco there is no snow and the temps have been good.

The morning Nemesis Gabe has also been taking shots at us. I think Monday we did about a million squats! The other issue is he learned that I HATE doing jump squats with the med ball and makes sure they are incorporated into every workout!!

Next up for us is a trip to New Jersey. I have been working on my dialect so that I can fit in. Every other word out there starts with "F" and they cannot even say water right! After a few days there I should be able to make the Jersey Shore transformation! Not Sweet!

In the meantime, more pics:

Cadiz, Spain:

Cruising the Atlantic:

Michelle on the switchbacks, Gran Canaria:

Valencia, Spain

2011-12-15T15:10:00.000-06:00

Some pics from the cruise, here is the concert hall in Valencia:

The Valencia Science Museum

A couple pics of us coming into port in Valencia.

Our accomodations for the two weeks on board:

I will post more in the next few days. Now that I am back and starting to get back on the right time zone! Overall the trip was a lot of fun and the highlite has to be the time in the Canary Islands. I will post some pics of that in the next couple days. In the meantime though the plans have been made for the year and the race schedule is almost set. The WORS cup moving is the only thing throwing a hitch in the schedule. I was going to go out east to the New Hampshire 100 that weekend, but hard to make that decision with a USProXCT in our backyard. I also feel like I should support Don at this race for everything he does to bring great racing to Wisco.

We are also working hard to finish up our bike orders. Lots of help from some great sponsors this year with Specialized, SRAM, Truvativ, Avid, Hidden Bay, and every rider on the team doing their own part to make us the best in the Midwest! It is going to be a great year for the Adventure 212/Specialized Team!

In the press

2011-12-14T11:19:00.000-06:00

Our own Mike P showing off his pain face in XXC mag:

Pastries!

2011-12-09T09:22:00.001-06:00

Mmmmm! All I have to say is Phillips and I would never get out of Lisbon! There is a pastry shop on every corner and they are all amazing! We have now made three trips to the Pasties de Belum and have found a chocolate pastry that, sorry bossman, beats the Nutella filled doughnut in Larskspur!So as you can see eating continues to be the trend! One more day in Lisbon then on our way home. I still have a bunch of pics and will try to get them on my computer and uploaded as time allows.Please tell me I am not coming home to snow!

Poor Connection

2011-12-07T09:09:00.001-06:00

Our internet is not that good, left the Canary Islands after a good ride and now headed to Lisbon!

Lost at sea......

2011-12-03T11:47:00.001-06:00

It has been almost 24hrs since I have seen land. My lungs are now clear of the Moroccan smogand my mind erased of the harassments we received from every passing streetvendor. Today there is nothing, nothingbut the great blue ocean rocking this giant vessel from side to side. The rocking becomes very noticeable as I getup from my slumber and proceed down the stairs to get my 2^nd latteof the day! Yes 2^ndlatte! Something has to get me awakeagain after the evening of 2 bottles of wine and the numerous drinks near thepool. I must be awake before the noonhour Mediterranean spread near the upper deck pool! I must make it to my 3^rd feedingof the day! Just in case pirates takethe ship by siege and deny me of my dinner! Don’t worry though, if I do missone of these feedings, I will survive on the padding I have developed around myrib cage. That padding that I ambuilding up before our New Years Eve party to protect from a repeat of lastyear! This same padding should keep mewarm if I make it back to Wisco to start riding my bike again! Oh how I miss riding my bike! So much that my main goal of the day is tofind bikes in Las Palmas. I am hopingthat the Specialized gods are looking down upon me and there is a nice Tarmacawaiting! Please do not disappoint! Speaking of disappoint, if anyone iswondering, no one from our group has made it over board yet. We are only half way in though, 8 more daysto go.

I wonder if the cat is alive?

Africa

2011-12-02T09:51:00.001-06:00

Well I can now say I have been to Africa. We are in Casablanca, Morocco today. Did not get the most warm fuzzy feeling so did not make it long. Ended up turning it into a pool day on the boat and just relaxed. The drinks here go down way to easy though and it is 3 in the afternoon and I am already thinking I have a hangover! Oops!

So tomorrow is a sea day as we make our way to the Canary Islands. First stop is Las Palmas, or something like that?? Michelle and I are working on renting bikes and want to cruise the island. It is not turning out to be that easy though. Hopefully something works out? If you know of anyone there who has a couple bikes let me know! I have to do something before I need to buy another suit before the last formal night!

Where in da world?

2011-12-01T04:29:00.001-06:00

Not sure, but the wine is good, the beer is better, and the food rocks! Gonna need the entire base period to get rid of my insulation this year!

For now we have camped out for the day in Cadiz, Spain. I have some pics, but not even going to attempt that since I am using the satellite on the boat and it really sucks!

Tonight we take off for Casablanca where Michelle is going to try and teach me to cook again. We will be doing a local market trip where we have to get the ingredients for our dinner then come back and cook with the chefs! Should be fun!

In the mean time though we are doing a taste of Cadiz tour. Walking around town sampling local food and cerveza! MMMmmmmm! Oh yeah, in the 70 degree heat. Which feels like 80 with the intense sun this far south! Hope everyone is good back home!

Airplane butt!

2011-11-25T08:13:00.001-06:00

Wow that was rough! Flew first class this time and made the trip so much easier. All I wanted to do was sleep but they were too busy filling my wine glass and bringing me food. I think Michelle had the flight attendant trying to get me to pass out so they did not have to deal with me! We had one stop in Amsterdam at 6am in the morning. That is a huge airport! We made our destination this morning and after a taxi ride where the driver finally decided he had no clue where we were supposed to be. Finally he dropped us off on the side of the street and we were on our own. Luckily Michelle made friends with a couple of the locals and we found our first stop! Here is our view from the patio:

So that is the Mediterranean in the background, so any guesses yet? Sure wish I had a bike though, The Pyrennes are just north of us and look like they need some exploring!! Alright, we are sitting in Barcelona right now and sure could use a coffee.

Today will be our first exploring day, but in the meantime here is Michelle's tower. I think she was going to go up there and wait for a prince to rescue her?

T-Day

2011-11-24T06:13:00.001-06:00

Happy Turkey Day Everyone! Hope there are 5 meals in your plans today! I love this time of year, cause it is the off season and there is food everywhere. Oh yeah if that was not a hint enough, I love to eat! Welcome to the fat season!

I will not be getting my Turkey dinner today but will instead be enduring a long flight! We leave today at noon and get to our destination tomorrow at noon! Oh ADHD, please let me make it through this! I think Michelle has packed everything to try and keep me entertained, and if that does not work good thing the plane is serving!

More to come on where we are off to and up to, but in the meantime I hope everyone enjoys their Turkey Burner rides!

Tru -motiv

2011-11-22T20:38:00.001-06:00

Motivation! That is what the boxes should be labeled. Everytime we get spoiled and receive stuff in the form of support it makes me want to go out and train hard. I know that my training has nothing to do with the support but it is about us representing and selling product. So what bettter way to start that process for the 2012 season but to let you look at our new addition! It came in the form of a couple boxes of brand new carbon pieces and have Truvativ written on them! Sweet!!

Lets start with the handlebar. Most of the team opted for a wider bar and what better bar is there but the Truvativ T30 10S flat carbon bar. It measure in at 700 mm wide and no, most of us will not run it that wide. The best feature has to be the generoous sweep they give the bar! In the ever shortening USProXCT races this kind of comfort might not matter, but when you hang onto your bar for 7 hrs in a NUE race this is key! Check out the curve!

Next is the stem. Nothing too fancy here, but this is a stem we have used to build all the bikes up with over the past few years. It has a good stiffness and is very comparable to a vast majority of the more expensive stems out there. We will be using the Stylo T40 stem and most will be using a 100 mm length.

Last in the collection is the seatpost and it adds a bit more carbon to the bikes! The graphics change to all the componennts is also very nice and should match our Specialized Epics. For the Epics, it requres a 30.9 mm diameter post and most of our riders require a 400mm length and a 25mm setback due to some long legs on the team.

Thank you very much Truvativ for the support of the team!

So this is about all that has been happening on the bike front. I have even slacked a lot with riding. I did try to go out on the road bike Monday, but there was still a lot of orange out in the woods so I decided to give them their hunting space, they do carry guns, and let them have the 2weeks. Anyway we get the remaining 50 weeks of the year.

The morning abuse has been going good as well. Gabe has been doing some xFit style training with us which keeps my ADHD in check since we are alwasy doing something, nothing like calling recovery 400 m on a row machine! Sarah makes fun of me though, cause I have a tendancy to strike up a lot of random converstions with 212 memebers. This usually lets me know when she is suffering though, cuase she lets me go on chatting if she is tired!

Packing, that is what I have also been working on. I will elaborate more on this hopefully by the end of the week so check back. Nothing at all to do with bikes, at least that I know of. I did put some shoes, pedals, helmet, and a kit in there just in case I get the itch! Till then, enjoy some turkey or the "Fat" Season as I call it. Happy Thanksgiving!

Random Ramblings

2011-11-16T13:22:00.001-06:00

A whole lot of transition time has been happening. Transitioning into more blacktop at 212 with a parking lot expansion. Getting the blog updated with new sponsors, thanks Mark and the sponsors. It is great to see the response and support of the team. We are trying to create a group of great riders that actually like to ride and race their bikes for fun and are easily approachable at the events. This also makes it easy on each rider as well cause the events are so much fun just hanging out, the race seems like a bonus!

So new on the sponsor front is SRAM, Truvativ, Rudy Project, and Keen. This is already on top of the awesome support we have been receiving! Thanks to all the sponsors.

More on this in the future. I will work at getting a review of the product as we receive it.

So more on the transition time. I have started working in the gym with Sarah and Mark. Our Nemesis in the morning is one of our personal trainers at 212, Gabe! He puts us through the ringer and is going to either kill one of us or make us faster? I will probably be the first to go, my ADD will kick in and I will drop one of those med balls on my head! Other than that, the bike has not collected dust, here are some random shots from the last week or so in no order:

Occupy Iceman

2011-11-03T11:48:00.000-05:00

No I will not get into opinion here, but if you ask I will tell. Either way I plan to be the 99% this weekend that puts a wrap on the season and drinks too much beer at the after parties throughout Traverse City. Hope to see you there.

I am also going as a spectator. Seems weird to go to a race with no bike, but if you need a super water wench let me know. If you are too far back in the pack you might get a brown bottle though! Just saying by then I might not know any better, but then again you might not care either cause I do drink good beer. No PBR hand up from me.

So from the team we have Scott, Michelle, Myles, and Mikee racing. I can't wait to heckle Mikee and get him back for his torment at Kewauskum a few years back! Gonna be a fun one.

Other than that, my riding has slowed some due to playing in the dirt at 212. We have been busy expanding our parking lot before winter. Just wish the city would cooperate a bit more. I have a meeting about that next week when I get home.

Back on the bike front, Ryan, Michelle, Mark, Scott, Sarah, and I are registered for Cohutta. We also booked our sweet lodging again! I am already excited for next year! That is until it starts snowing here! Blah!

Going back

2011-11-02T07:51:00.001-05:00

Just a couple weeks though, since I have been slacking on the blog front. Either way, it is that time of year to blow off a lot of things cycling related. Which I have not been doing real well on the riding side. With the weather trying to stay half way descent I still can not hang up my bike for the 2011 season.

Zoom Zoom!

Riding with a good friend of mine! Love it when the sun is out!

Bummer, the end of this trail! Off to the next one!

Hmmm, decision??

Our pre WORS banquet ride, has become the tradition. Of course there is a stop fro coffee.

Even got the girls to go!

Why even mark this, isn't this a form of natural selection if you are this dumb?

That's tongue in the ear hot!

I always wanted to try ordering from this menu, should I have the dragon or the tiger?

Ahh, this was fun, Tower Road up near Tigerton.

ADHD Bike!

2011-10-20T10:42:00.000-05:00

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

2011-10-12T14:59:00.000-05:00

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?

2011-10-10T09:56:00.001-05:00

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

2011-10-04T15:44:00.002-05:00

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!

Spare Time

2011-09-29T12:45:00.001-05:00

Big D always makes fun of me cause I cannot sit still and am always working on something! I think he gets a kick out of it and sometimes just calls to see what random thing I am working on. The last couple months my random project was an outside kitchen on my patio. I finished it up yesterday so now it will probably snow next week! Mother Nature is not kind! Either way the final result just in time for the get fat season:

The end is here

2011-09-26T10:57:00.002-05:00

Of my season that is!! It feels really good to pull the plug and put it into neautral for a bit! Especially with the struggles as of late. Tons of things not working out as planned and some health things that have been plagueing me. either way I really enjoy racing/riding my bike and would miss my bike family if I didn't go! Especially the team, half the fun of racing is hanging out and making fun of each other every week!!

So let me go back some, but now that I drug my feet on blogging you get the abreviated version. Nationals were fun and I had a great start. Settled in with Dave Wiens and was riding in the top 15. Body issues decided to come up and got me off my bike for just a bit, back on after losing spots and chased for the next 20 miles. Had a group of 5 or 6 not 45 seconds up, but could not close the gap, rolled in for 25th. Not what I had in mind, but I know I had better fitness and still had a blast! Bend rocks! Yes I did look at some houses out there! Sorry Tyler!

Chequamegon! The team rocked it! Mike in 5th was a great result for the weekend and there is a great shot of him leading things out! Ryan and Scott also had great races with the talent in the field. On the girls side of things Di came in 4th, Sarah 6th, and Lisa 9th! Nice work! It also sounds like I missed some fun post race antics! Bummer!

Now onto Bear Paw. I took the whole week off after Nationals and have been pretty chilled. I was debating on racing or not and with the rain, that sealed it for me, I was a definite in! Love racing in the mud! I got a pretty good start and was comfortable heading up the first hill! Surprised after the only thing I rode all week was the couch! It was also awesome to see Scott make the lead group and not sure what happened behind us, but everyone was gone?? Either way, I kept things smooth and just had some fun. I lost my brakes right away the first lap and the only way I was slowing down was by putting my feet out or crashing! First lap it was mainly crashing and I have the bruises to prove it today! So I lost the group pretty much right away but rode with Scott after I picked myself off the ground a couple times. Then on the start of the 3rd lap Timster told me Big D and Ben were only 30 seconds up so up the climb I put the hammer down. I caught them as Big D was having a pity party on the big rock we had to go around. I told him to grab his tissue box, dry his eyes, and lets ride some bikes :) Too much fun. As soon as I got to them the fun started. We kept gabbing and having fun! Then as we came out of the last singletrack section they said they were calling the race one lap short! Oops, I was giving Ben 15 seconds or so in case he bobbled in the singletrack and he was happy to have that!! I yelled at him to get back here, but he was not listening to me. Why not?? I caught up to him in one of the right hand corners and actually had the inside line, but also had tons of speed and a big risk of taking us both out if I tried it so I put my foot down to slow and that was enough for him to get the final gap! I ended up 7th on the day. Big D rolled in 8th and Scott gets the ride of the day and finished 10th. Ryan slip and slid the Renegades for a finish! Lisa had a good day and came in 3rd. Michelle crashed again on here same leg with the PCL tear and Sarah stopped to help. She is doing OK today so hopefully just a scare. Myles ended up flatting out.

Next up, after completely rebuilding bikes is Sheboygan. Then some beer drinking to usher out the 2011 Season!

Entropy balance

2011-09-15T16:32:00.000-05:00

This is for the geek in all of us. Back in my Chem Eng studies we learned that energy is never created nor destroyed. So then the overall entropy of the universe never changes and ΔS_universe = ΔS_surroundings + ΔS _system So what am I getting at, who knows? I am just thinking that I have done everything in my power to make my ΔS _system work as it is supposed to on Saturday and give me the output required to perform at my ability. I have done nothing but focus on this race for the last 2 weeks. the bike is dialed, I think my legs have come back around, and despite a little bit of allergies from the forrest fire smoke out here I am ready to rip!! So my goal is to try and get in the top 10. Not sure if that is possible, but I will fail trying. The field continues to grow and the depth of talent gets deeper each day! My excitement level grows each day as well and I cannot wait to rip the trails here in Bend one more time! Right now I am thinking that the T.I.T.S(Time In The Saddle) will be around 3:30. Seems short to me for a marathon race!! I would prefer to see the time be more in the 5 to 6 hr range, but I guess no one ever asked me:(

This is where ΔS_surroundings comes into play!! Bend rocks. I understand why they have so many high level athletes coming out of here. The vibe of the city makes you want to be outside and be active! The trails are also some of the best I have ever ridden and they make me not want to stop riding! So even though I am missing Chequamegon this weekend and the companionship of my teammates, my surroundings are good.

As for my teammates, I hope they all have a great ride at Chequamegon and make it to Rosie's Field in one piece! That leadout for me will not be missed!!

My inner child!

2011-09-12T20:39:00.003-05:00

Or in my case my inner adult! My inner child is always visible and shared with others around me, it is the adult aspect of me that does not come out very often! Luckily for me, Michelle puts up with it! Once again my inner child took over decision making and I am out in Bend riding bikes while she is at home getting ready for her brother's wedding and a slew of other grown up things. Not sure if it counts that I am here for the Marathon National Championships?? In my childish mind, all signs point to it being OK? I am so glad that she supports me in this "so called" dream of wanting to ride bikes fast!

So now the next timing issue with this trip. This Friday will be our 11 year anniversary as well? Luckily again she knows I will make it up to her and fully supports my inner, or have we decided now that it is my outer childs urge to travel around and ride bicycles? Either way I am here to do the best I can and I feel as if the legs are coming around. They should! I having no responsibility besides riding and recovery!

So a little about the trip! It started out in Portland with Bossman and I doing some urban assault on the city!

It is not too bad of a gig cause there is gelato and espresso on every corner in Portland! While out I also made a new friend!

With all this work, the hunger settled in and it was time for some snacking!

Mmmm, I'll take one of everything!!

So after terrorizing Portland, I headed my way to bend for some sweet singletrack riding! The first couple days I tore around on the Nationals Course. It seems OK, not what I would say is the best course, but I have seen worse, Idaho anyone!! Here is a nice look of the course profile! Cant go wrong with 25 miles up and 25 miles down!

I then watched some of the Cascades 24 hr race and watched as people became delusional!! Man, I will never do another one of those races unless it is just to have fun and if I oversleep my turn, oh well!

Today was the first set back to the trip. I woke with a thick smoke haze from all the fires happening around here! It is so dry that I am afraid to nick a pedal on a rock thinking that it might spark and burn the whole place down!! Luckily though the winds picked up and the smoke was gone by mid morning. Today I did an out and back loop. It was a nice ride with 20 miles of climbing and 20 miles of descending! You starting to get the idea! You can take shuttles if you want to start at the top, but I actually like the climb!! Lots more time to look around! At least when you are not bleeding out your eyes at race pace! Today was pretty chill up the Mrazek trail with some nice views of Mt Bachelor once you get to the top!

Now I am back at the condo in recovery mode! It is easy to relax when this is the view you get every night from your patio!

Say ya to Da UP eh!

2011-09-07T13:35:00.001-05:00

So this past weekend was one of my favorite races ever! The Copper Harbor Fat Tire Fest! The race is on some real mountain bike trails that keeps you challenged and smiling ear to ear the whole day and this year did not dissapoint.

First up after the 5 hr trip north was a spin with Sarah, Tim, and Michelle while we waited for everyone else to arrive! We decided to head out of town and just keep going off the end of 41 to Horseshoe Bay. This was Tim's first real venture offroad and we all laughed as he came down the path that leads down to the water. The whole time, oh my, Oh no, oh I will walk that... as the rest of us laughed! Tim is alwasy good for some entertainment!

On Saturday it was Super D. I woke up not real motivated so I did not bother changing the Renegades and rocked them, or should I say slid them all the way down the hill. It worked out OK and I had a blast on the new flow trail! Tons of fun rocketing down this new trail full of berms, bridges, and just fun full out speed down the trail! In the end I ended up 4th and TSP got his revenge by 8 seconds this year! He is now 7 seconds in the good on me after I beat him by only 1 sec last year!

Michelle, Di, and Lisa(Not Krayer) rocked the Super D as well. Sarah, Scott, and Mark bailed on Super D to get a loop of the course in. Di ended up taking hte win and Michelle was 3rd. Here is Michelle coming in hot for Super D!! Sweet!

After riding Super D, TSP and I decided to do a lap of the course! What a blast. I really liked the changes to the course this year cause it used all the fun stuff!! At the end of the day we had 3.5 hrs in, sounds like a good race warm up to me!!

Then Sunday was the XC race. We woke up to rain coming in sideways off from the cold, Lake Superior waters! Motivation crushed! Made me think of the end of summer! Blah! So race morning I knew I was going to have fun for the day with Brian Matter and Tyler coming up to ride with me. We made the deal to chill and just ride! That is the whole point of this race, to make it not seem like a race. Brian and I hit the bottom of the climb and were sitting in about 30th. We looked up the road and Ben Koenig was already about 30 seconds up. We looked at each other and basically said, whatever not too motivated to chase. We set a nice pace up Brockway and still entered into the flow trail 2nd and 3rd wheel. By the time we hit the bottom Ben had almost a minute on a chase group of myself, Brian, Tyler, TSP, Tom Carpenter, and the young stud Peter Karinen. We then started up Garden Brook and by the time we rounded around near the tennis courts we had brought the gap down to about 30 seconds and had Brian, Tyler, TSP, and myself left in the group and already traded 2 cookie recipes!! Yeah,we were talking A LOT!! Then when we rounded the bottom of the descent off from Say Hello and started the climb back to the golf course, there was Ben standing off from a bridge in the middle of a bunnch of ferns. We stopped to make sure he was OK and that is when he told us he broke his handle bars! Bummer, cause he missed the descent down the red trail!!

After we found out he was OK we countinued to climb back to the top of the red climb. At the top of the red climb Tyler continued on, while Brian and I stopped to work on tire pressure issues, low for me, high for him. That is when TSP went by asking what we were up to?? "Holding hands" was the response Brian gave him! TSP's response was, remember you paid money to race your bikes! Oh yeah, forgot!

We adjusted pressure and we were off in search of Tyler. We caught him toward the bottom of the Red trail and came around for lap 2, a group of 4. After a quick hand up from Timster, we were off. At the start of the 2nd lap, it was a good thing I knew what was happening, cause the lap person tried to send us the wrong way!

The 2nd lap went off without a hitch and everyone was happy to just let me set the pace as we chatted and had fun on the trails. We did loose TSP on the 2nd climb upto the golf course due to him breaking his "Wreck" Top Fuel on the rear chainstay.

We all made it down the Red Trail the 2nd time together and for some reason Brian let a gap open exiting the Ma Maki trail onto Manganese Road. I turned around and smiled, then punched it. I failed to realize that I had a 39 on the front and Brian a 42, cause he came up on me as I was all spun out! Luckily he let up just enough to let me get on his wheel, but we went fast enough to not allow Tyler back on, sorry Tyler! I followed Brian's wheel around the pond and knew the finish well. I jumped as we rounded the building and was dissapointed that Brian didn't sprint me for the win! He said he was looking for a banner, but I feel like he let me have it. Guess we will never know! Either way we had so much fun up there and I had fun riding and trading stories with Brian, Tyler, and TSP.

Here are some more pics of the weekend!

After the race, it was travel home, clean bikes, pack, and more travel! I am now sitting in Portland and will be traveling to Bend later today after some urban assault with Bossman this aftternoon. So stay tuned, more adventueres to come!!

Whatever!!

2011-09-01T11:17:00.000-05:00

Who cares what the masses say! Riding bikes is cool! 3 x 20s this morning while the fog was lifting off the country roads! Sweet! I did it all on my skinny wheel bike too, it was complaining that it missed me! Plus bossman wanted numbers! I am waiting on one of these!

But in the meantime, when numbers are required I have to ride this. I must admit though, it is still a REALLY nice option!

The begining of the end?

2011-08-29T09:31:00.001-05:00

I think my body is starting ot tell me that the 2011 season is almost over. It has been a struggle the last few weeks. It is hard though cause the motivation is still there but cannot get the legs there. This past weekend was no exception. I got a good start and felt very comfortable. Unfortunately though my lack of wanting to sprint out of every singletrack section ended up being the demise of me in the lead group as a gap opened up in one of the singletrack sections. After that I ended up in the first chase group and we picked up Big D and Brian Eppen before coming around on the 2nd lap. That is when my stomach started to give me problems again. This is something I have not been able to figure out? I have tried about everything and I think my next step is going to be going back to just straight water during races?

Anyway, I ended up falling off the group after the first section of singletrack on the 2nd lap and pretty much tempo rode for the remainder of the race. I could not believe that no one caught me beside Matt Shriver, and he was in a hurry! He came by me with motivation to ride with him cause he was bored riding by himself. Unfortunately I could not go and just kept my pace. Then not 3 miles out from the finish and Big D saw me through a section of trees and slowed to wait up for me. Same response, I am bored riding by myself, get up here! So Big D and I finished the race togetther with some fun, while we were pushing and tugging on each other for 12th and 13th!

Scott sent me the pic, not sure where it came from but thanks to whomever took it!!

The rest of the team rocked it! Ryan had a good race and had 6th place wrapped up from what I hear, until a spectator stopped his progress and let the 3 chasers close the gap, then it sounds as if the same happened again with a lapped sport racer coming into the finish. He ended up 9th on the day!

The girls ripped it up! Sarah came in 2nd overall on the day, Lisa 4th, and Michelle 7th!

We also had lots of fun Saturday night enjoying some Dark Helmet Schwartz Beer and some Hopasaurus Rex! This team knows how to turn a race weekend into a fun weekend!!!

Next up is the Copper Harbor Fat Tire Fest. I have been working on the Matters to join us up there with my main goal to get Brian to enjoy a beer with me! Sounds like the probability of him drinking with me is pretty low, but I will keep working on him. As for the Copper Harbor race, the best race in the Midwest! I am actually going to skip the Park City Point to Point 80 to go! So if you have nothing going this weekend I highly recommend the drive north!

Are you happy......

2011-08-24T07:40:00.000-05:00

For anyone that is a Mudvayne fan, for some reason that is the song that pops into my head during long climbs?? Not sure why but gets me over the top? Unfortunately the climbs were not even climbs this past weekend but enough to keep me in the game a little and I was happy with how I felt after really no riding for 3 weeks due to some body issues that we still have not figured out after visits to a worthless doctor at the Ministry Medical Group! For me to really have a good ride, the rocky climb needed to be about 30 minutes longer! Either way, the course this weekend was a lot of fun. There was no where really to use a lot of power and was all about being smooth and keeping your momentum. You quickly learned where you were fast and where everyone else was fast. I learned quickly that Chad Sova was faster than me in the singletrack and for the first couple laps we traded back and forth depending on what section of the trails we were in. Then on the singletrack after the start finish area he got the gap and I never closed it. I kept things going and on the last lap i was still by myself coming through the field before the finish, at least I thought!! Somehow TSP(Todd McFadden) snuck up on me! It was really funny cause he sadi he was tryiing to be as quite as possible cause he knew I did not see him. When we came out of the woods there he was. I gave a little go down the last flat before the 180 going into the finish shoot. We rounded the corner and TSP wanted to have a standoff for the finish! Ryan and I did that at Ore to Shore and was pretty funny. Unfortunately I was cramping and a track stand at the finish line was not going to work for me so I rolled across in 10th place.

The rest of the team had a great day as well. Mikee P finished 2nd while Big D took it at the line over another Specialized Rider Ben Koenig! From the pics by Nikki it looks like it was a pretty good battle!

Scott and Ryan also came through together for 18th and 19th. Myles was fighting some shifting issues, but was able to hold it together to finish 2nd overall in the Junior X field.

As for the girls, it sound like they all had good rides with Di and Lisa sprinting for the 3rd spot, with Di taking 3rd and Lisa 4th. More photos by Nikki:

Sarah rolled across for 6th and Michelle for 12th. Overall it was a great time and thanks to all the sponsors! Including our new sponsor Infinit! A killer product. My drink design allows me to do an entire 100 miler without even a Gu. Talk about simplifying things!

Yesterday was an awesome day! Scott, Ben, and I rolled out of 212 with the intention of an hour recovery ride around the Green Circle trail on the mountain bikes . After an hour it turned into a coffee stop, then another hour! The whole time lots of working on the jaw muscles while we chit chatted about nothing and spun the legs! A perfect way to spend a Tuesday afternoon! Not sure why we have not made that a weekly ride yet?????

Next up is Green Bay, then a trip to the best race in the Midwest! the Copper Harbor Fat tire Fest. I was not supposed to be there due to the Point to Point 80 in Park City, but after seeing the course for Marathon Nationals, bossman and I decided that the shorter races would be more beneficial to gain back some of that kick that I lost while training for the 100's. Lets hope it works!

Barely made it to the shore....

2011-08-18T14:08:00.000-05:00

So with Ore to Shore now behind us, the list of races left keeps dwindling! It is even less while I am in a year that WORS is not a priority and the last race I have on the Calender that I really care about is the Marathon National Championships!! I am super excited for this and not sure if it is the race or the fact I get to go back to Bend! This go around I plan to do some house hunting out there just to see what is available? The trails are awesome and the community was fun! This time I will also get to spend almost 2 weeks there to get a real feel.

The trip will also be made more fun with Bossman coming down to visit and Simonson coming out to share the condo I have rented and to race. At least that way I will not be out there by myself since Michelle needs to stay home for her brothers wedding. I probably should too, but I want to give it a good push for Nationals and see what happens and Michelle's brother was cool with that.

So now to the Ore to Shore. Lots of fun staying at Tim's parents house in Marquette and we cannot thank them enough for opening their place up for the 212/Specialized misfits! Luckily, I think the comments were a bit more filtered or it is just hard to top last year?? Either way we had so much fun over the weekend. As for the race, most of us had great races. Mike was able to hang with the lead group and push the pace a bit before crashing and loosing his rear brake completely. He then had to ride in and finished a record 6th place. We call it a record cause he has been 6th place at the triple crowns like 100 times!! Big D also had a good race, even though he was carrying extra weight in the form of Phillip's bottles and finished 12th on the day. Ryan had a flat about 7 miles in! I stopped to help chase him back, but we ended up having to put a tube in it and ended the day. TSP had a really good race and I believe finished 14th on the day, not bad for a "really" old guy with an AARP card!

The girls also did well with Sarah finishing 7th and Lisa 8th! Michelle had a good race while trying to come back from a PCL tear and was 13th overall.

For my race, still missing? I have been down and out for a couple weeks now and not figuring anything out. Went this week and had a lot of blood work and still waiting for the results. The initial thought was Lyme's, but the first test came back negative. Still waiting on a couple other tests. Either way just super fatigued, with joint pain, and stomach issues? So I have not been on a bike since Sunday and yesterday was the first day I felt normal in a while! That trend seems to have continued today so I am hoping that I am turning the corner. On a plus not , I stopped to help Ryan on Saturday and we ended up being able to ride together. It made it a lot more fun! We went back to the girls and checked up on them, then started to come back up through the field. That was a new perspective to say the least!

So who knows for this weekend. I am going to just wing it and hope for the best. Either way I get to ride my bike and hang out with the team!

Behind the scenes

2011-08-12T10:54:00.001-05:00

Great team dynamics!! The girls love to cook, and the guys love to eat!!! No microwave burritos here, full on gourmet pre race meal for the team!!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.4

The downhill race!

2011-08-10T10:04:00.001-05:00

Ore to shore this weekend! Not sure what is more fun, the race or the party after! We will have almost the entire team up there and look to terrorize Marquette! Sarah even found a new bike to ride while up there a couple weeks ago and is hoping that it goes downhill fast! Those look like 29er wheels so it will ride smooth despite the design! Just like the wind is at her back!

In the meantime, thanks to Mike Simonson for writing up an article for MTBracenews and mentioning Mike and I! It is always nice to see the Midwest races in the press. I really do not think that people in other parts of the country understand the caliber of races and racers we have! I am even guilty of taking the quality of races for granted! We as racers are definitely spoiled in the Midwest!

In the meantime, I am starting to feel better and I hope that I am feeling better come Saturday. If not I will be looking for a beer hand up instead of water! I prefer quality beer hand ups, but if going bad will accept anything!

Rest required?

2011-08-08T12:55:00.000-05:00

So I forgot how taxing it is to travel and race! Seems like it has been pretty non stop since April and my "I care" is at a low right now. The weird thing is the legs still feel good just think I need to get some rest and spend some time doing nothing this week! The thought of the travel got me thinking of back in the day when Mike, Bender, Paul, and others were traveling and hitting up all the Norbas at that time. It was a blast and was the reason for the whole start of the Adventure 212 Team. Mike, Michelle, and I have formed this team with help from so many people to give some of the better midwest riders the ability to travel and test their abilities amongst the best in the nation if they choose. We travel less now for USProXCT races, but the team is still there and we watch for the talent and the right fit in the team.

So back when Mike and I did this, I remember it taking over a year for us to finally get the call ups we desereved and we realized quikly that the call up mattered amongst the norms like us, but not amongst the top guys! They were just one more notch above us, and then there was still one more notch above them, World Cups. The travels were fun though so I thought I would bring out some of the pics:

Who can forget having to always pack and unpack the bike, Sugar NC, Our first Pro race.

AZ Norba 2007, Mike took the win after I flatted with 2 miles to go! Looked up the winning time 2 hrs and 41 min!

Paul making lunch for us on our way out to Snowmass, CO! This is no tlong after he almost run us out of gas in the middle of Nebraska at 5am!

More on the Snowmass trip, who can forget being stranded in Stewart, IA for 2 days cause the transfer case went out on the truck! There is nothing in Stewart, Mike and I rode bikes for 8 hrs a day and lived of the local fruit stand peaches!

AZ NORBA 2006, 1st semi pro win

Chequamegon Finish Line!

Thanks to the team for making this so much fun!! Also good work to the entire team this past weekend at the Cam Rock WORS race!! Lots of fun and cannot wait for the travels this weekend to Marquette for Ore to Shore!! See everyone there!

MIA

2011-08-05T12:50:00.000-05:00

Wow! Where have I been and where am I going! Crazy whirlwind and I do not recommend the cross continent drive. So after getting out of Montana, which I had to do after driving across that state for 12 hrs, we could not find a hotel to stay in! We ended up getting lucky and found something in Bismark, about 3 hrs after we wanted and at 1AM in the morning and no dinner later! That pretty much sucked!! So after that experience there, which included a bad coffee experience, we are almost a week and a half later, one 6 hr race in, lots of training rides, my new cabinets installed, set up for the recumbent rally, and registered for Marathon National Championships back out in Bend! Sweet!!

So starting with the 6 hr race. I decided after not riding since the High Cascades 100, which saw me on the bike for 9 hrs and 44 mins and yes that is my longest time in the saddle(TITS) ever! Oh yeah, and 30 hrs in a car to make sure the legs were nice and stiff like cement! And don't forget the stupid Le Mans start! What is the point of that! Worthless in my eyes! So the 6 hr race I am talking about is the Wausau 24, version 6.0 hr. I lined up with no real ambition and just wanted to ride my MTB. That was until I had a complete meltdown going on 3 hrs into the race and Trevor Olson slipped by me! Then my internal light switch went on and it was game on! Is that normal?? Either way it was awesome to see Trevor riding so well and he made me work for it the entire time! Now I just need to convince him to do some of the 100's with us!!

Next up was some training rides on the curly bar bike to make sure power is there and to start some speed work before National Championships. I always wish that the Marathon races were longer to give some of us endurance guys the edge over the XC guys, but it will never happen. So looks like it will be a good field in Bend and I am super excited for the trip back!

So between then and now! Looks like some XC racing. I plan to hit up Camrock this weekend, Ore to Shore next, then whatever WORS race after that, and now the plan is to skip the Point to Point 80 in favor of staying home and doing the Copper Harbor Fat Tire Fest! Fun times!! If you only do one race a year, this is it!!! After that I will leave for Bend for 2 weeks and will be skipping Chequamegon this year!

So that is my mid afternoon ramble and I will see everyone this weekend! Seems like it has been awhile!

Easterly progress.

2011-07-26T12:49:00.001-05:00

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Voodoo donuts!

2011-07-25T11:41:00.001-05:00

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Seeing eye dog

2011-07-24T12:37:00.001-05:00

So the High Cascadeds went off yesterday. Michelle and I took our 3:45AM wake up call directly on the chin and drug our carcases out of bed. The morning started with some blueberry pancakes, eggs and a cold brewed coffee from Backporch coffee roasters! That last one is not really recommended! From there we loaded the bike, the clothes and made our way to the start. Rolling up towards Mt Bachelor the temp continued to drop till the thermometer on the truck was reading a not so balmy 36 degrees while rolling into the parking lot of Wanoga Ski Park. After checking tires, shocks, and finishing kitting up it left not more than 15 minutes till go time. I opted for leg warmers, and my jacket for the start with my arm warmers on as well.

At about 5:40 AM the lead truck pulled out in front of us and the day started! It was a nice roll out while talking with Troy Berry and Josh Tosatado, a couple nice guy regulars on the scene! Then right before the crest of the hill I opened it up a little just to make sure I was placed towards the front of the group going into the 4 mile, washed out descent. It worked well and by then the sun was starting to peak out. With the sun coming out and knowing that there was a good climb coming ahead I decided to drop back behind the group of 6 or so and take my leg warmers off so that I would not cook on the first climb of the day! I no sooner finished getting them off and Josh decided it was time. He took off with myself and Carey Smith in tow. We entered the first section of singletrack and already had formed a gap between us and the rest. The pace remained high, but I had good legs and settled in for the long day ahead. Just as we crested the top of our first climb I decided to through myself on the ground in the first banked switchback. I popped up, grabbed my bottle and computer that was laying on the grund and took up chase. I could see the two maybe 10 seconds up so I was calm and knew I could get back on. That is when the bike gods struck. Not sure what it is with the long races, but luck is not on my side! A stick came off from my front wheel and took the rear derailleur right off the bike. I stopped and started to fix my bike, yes I do carry a spare derraileur pin for my bike. On the new epics it is a shear pin set up so the derraileur hanger is never the problem, you just change the bolt. My tool was being a pain since the allen key was not long enough to allow me to get a full revolution of the bolt. By now almost 2 minutes passed before the now 3rd place rider went by! We had a good gap for it only being 45 minutes into the race. I struggled getting the new bolt started but finally did and got the derailleur back on. I then went to put my wheel in and for some reason the skewer was not tightening in?? Who new, the threads on the driveside of the bike are held in with the deraileur hanger bolt!! I proceded to look around for it in the dirt. I finally found it and after about 10 minutes of monkeying around I was off again. By now I am guessing I was back in the 40's and I just put the hammer down! I was passing people left and right and by the time I had hit aid station 1 I had moved upto 19th place. I kept the pace high and between the 8 miles between aid 1 and aid 2 I picked off 10 more riders to move into 9th place.

Now the fun part of the trail starts with just fast, flowing singletrack that begs for you to go fast! I rallied this getting one more rider. I then stopped at aid 3, 57 miles in, and got 2 more bottles before the next 10 mile uphill section. While climbing I saw Gerry Phlug up ahead on the climb and he was climbing well. We stayed about the same gap for the entire climb and I caught him just before the descent down to Tumalo Creek, which is this fun switch back descent that drops you almost a 1000ft in less than 2 miles. I kept going and rolled into aid 5 pretty blown and looking for some nurishment. Luckily Michelle was there and had my bottles ready to go. I rolled out with her telling me that 4th, 5th, and 6th were no more than 2 minutes up and were riding as a group. I decided to drop the hammer and go for a podium spot. All was going well and I rolled into aid 6, where Troy Berry was standing there getting a new wheel after geting hit by a leasure cyclist going the wrong way on the race course. I grabbed a coke and my last bottle and headed out for the death march back over the mountain. I kept the pedals turning but by now it was 8 hrs and 30 minutes into the race, and for me I had the hammer down the entire way. Then at about mile 93 the wheels came off! Troy came flying past me and I tried to just hang with him but that was not happening so I settled back into my off pace. Then just before the last descent of the day, Gerry came back around me. I kept my wits about me and just kept the cranks turning. I made it up the last climb on the road section with no one behind me and knew I was in the clear for 8th place. I was happy with that after over 9hrs in the saddle and the bonk hitting me hard. That is when I came to the dreaded turn with less than a mile to go and I went the wrong way!! You have got to be kidding!! Anyway I wandered around a bit, loaded the GPS files I had on my Garmin, but still could not find where to go. By now there were 4 of us wandering around looking for the finish!! After finally making it back out we found some arrows and started to follow them! We rolled the last mile down the road and there it was!!! The finish!! I was so over my limit I could not barely stand! I immediately just fell off my bike and tried to catch my breath! Was not happening. Michelle went off in search of nurishments and came back with water and licorice! Sweet. So after the epic 9 hr and 44 minute day I ended up in 17th spot. Pretty upset about it cause I had good legs and think I had a good shot of the top 3, probably not enough for the win cause Cary was riding really well but for sure a top 5.

I guess now with 2 occassions of wrong turns in the hundreds, maybe I should put my request in for the seeing eye dog to get me around the course! I am blind in one eye so maybe they will take that into consideration!!

A whole lotta nothing

2011-07-21T12:12:00.000-05:00

That is what is beween Bend and home!The landsape never seemed to change except for hills thrown in every once in a while. Then all of a sudden there's Bend! So far it seems to be a pretty cool town and has a lot of things to occup your day,hence the reason I have been slacking on posting anything. Right now we are setting in front of the Backporch Coffee Roasters and watching the riders warm up for todays TT in the Cascads Cycling Classic. Not bad! I guess I still owe race reports from this past weekend as well so here is the abbreviated version

Me, the race course climb was way over what I was even capable of! Each lap i found myself completely blown at the top when the grade notched upto 25%! Good thing the downhill was a lot of fun! Then is Stxc, I blew again. The story of the weekend. This time it was different. I got a killer start by going low into a off camber corner while everyone else fought for the line at the top. When everyone slowed I just rode by and the next thing I know I am sitting in the group with Wicks! Really kind of funny and I decided to just go with it. Unfortunately my mind and legs had different ideas cause the legs said that's enough righ at the 18 minute mark! Suck!

Myles, He had a last row call up due to the flat the previous day and rode a smart race to come back up and batlle it out with Jake! Was exciting to watch the 2 as they rode a smart race and ended up sprinting for 16th and 17th with Jake juwt edging Myles out!

Sarah, she had a similar thing with the call up after flatting XC. Not to mention the race delay after a racer in her field crashed bad coming over the pedestrian bridge. Once th erace got going again Sarah made her way through the field and finished an awesome 7th!

Michelle, she did not get to race STXC cause she was in the process of seeing an orthopedic surgeon and getting the new that she has a torn miniscous! We are not sure what this is going tom mean for the rest of the season yet cause we had to leave before an MRI could be scheduled. Hopefully she heals fast!

Now back to Bend! I have been out on the first two loops of the trail for Saturday, and yup, the best 100 mile course yet!!!! Lots of good steady climbing and fun, flowing, fast singletrack! It is just too much fun to ride, so even if I am hurting on Saturday it is still going to be a good day rallying the course! I have some pics of the course that are on my phone, but too lazy to go through the effort to try and get them on my crap-pad to post here! Maybe later tonight?

There is one problem with Bend, Michelle and I both really like it here! Everyone is active and they have a strong cycling base so we keep seeing people we know! Not to mention the condo we have rented is really cool and forsale! Hmmmm?

The good and the bad.....

2011-07-15T20:55:00.001-05:00

We had the first podium of the trip last night. Our wanna be roadie decided to try her hand at the Fat Tire Crit! She ended up making it through the carnage of the womens field and even took out a couple of the preems. In the end Sarah ended up 2nd to Rebeccs Rusch to be the first person actually on knobby tires(Rebecca raced the fat tire crit on the new fate with road wheels?)

Rebecca obviously didn't feel safe around the rest of the girls cause she kept her helmet on for the podium!

Today was Myle's race and he was nervous. Rightfully so, he was lining up with the nations best. He was ready and said he felt good. Here is a good mental prep photo at the start line:

He lined up in the 2nd row but was not enough to keep him on his bike once the field made the left hander to climb to the sky! He ended up dimounting a couple times and settled into the later half of the field. It was good to see him hold his composure and get to the task at hand! Each lap he pulled back a few riders and worked his way back up into the top 20 going into his final lap. He said he felt good and was riding very well!! It was a bummer to us all to see him running down the last switch backs to come into the finish shoot with a torn side wall. Bummer! Unfortunately that is the breaks and now he is looking forward to some short track revenge on Sunday!!

Next up for the team is the Cat 1 women tomorrow at 10 AM for Sarah and Michelle, then myself at 3PM. I am still trying to figure out how I am gong to get myself up that climb 6 times in a row??? And I like to climb????

U-da-ho

2011-07-14T11:57:00.000-05:00

Made it out to Idaho! We drove to Fargo the night after Eau Claire, then did the rally drive out here on Monday! After getting here we have done some exploring and the town is fun! The course on the other hand is hard! There is a trail that Myles and I ride called up the gut and I think they need to rename it to Out of the Gut cause I think I am going to toss my cookies trying to climb it 6 times!! It is steep, it is loose, and the oxygen level is low!! Ouch! After a couple laps yesterday I was thinking that I could not even make it 6 laps! I did com eback and put the 26 tooth front granny gear on and I am hoping that helps me out!! Will know after re-ride today. In the mean time enjoy the time lapsed photo gallery of our trip here!

Hmm, good thing you can fly through this state!

Can't figure out why almost no one lives here??

Suposedly the largest metal sculpture! the artist must of been thinking if I cant make it look good then lets make it big??

Was hard to pass up the exit for the Ma Dah Hey Trails!

How much longer!! Forever!

Getting more entertaining!

Can we tube there!

Mmmm, Sugar!!

Ooops, sugar crash!!

There has to be trails in there!

Let me out! I am goinng ot jump to end this drive!

Now way, U da HO!!

One lonely Butte, pronounced Boo-Teh in Sarah's Vocab!!

Just over that mountain pass, no roads though so we have to go around!!

Congrats Mikee

2011-07-10T18:40:00.001-05:00

Hit the top step today. Looks like he likes the new Specialized Epic 29er and the hard work is paying off!!

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Mid July, Really!!

2011-07-08T12:45:00.001-05:00

Summer has finally hit her in Wisconsin, it only took till July this year! Anyway, sorry about the lack of updates but things are in full tilt getting ready for the out West trip. I now have all the bikes dialed and my truck is almost completed with some new entertainment goodies to pass the time while driving. Fun stuff!

This past week has also been filled with some good rides, some hard, some just for fun! I love the just for fun ones! The older I get the more I hate the hard ones but know that they are good to keep the engine going for those random WORS races thrown into the middle of the 100 miles races. My weekend rides started with some nice 40 sec bursts, while the Heat index tickled upwards near 110!! That was not real pleasant but somewhat got the job done! My next day was a nice long JRA(Just Riding Along), or as Todd(TSP) and I like to refer to them as T.I.T.S(Time in the Saddle!) That day was also fun and if I tresspassed on your property to get water from your outdoor water spicket, thanks!! I ended up going through 8 bottles during a 4.5 hr ride with the heat index once again above the 100 degree mark! Then the next day was a nice hr LT ride and pretty much taxed my entire system between the hard rides and the heat. Here are some pics form my ride!

The storms made me practice some hike a bike, even on the curly bar bike!!

It was also a perfect day, cause anyone who has ever ridden with me knows I do not plan routes! I just go and if it ends up longer, bonus, cause riding bikes is fun! On Saturday I managed to get lost!

I love the dead end sign hidden in the bushes on Lost Road!

So with Michelle and I both tired from the rides, the trip to Green Bay for her Birthday, and just day to day activities we left and went to her parents house to hang out near the water and do absolutely nothing!! That was nice, but with the big trip coming we didn't even make it 24 hrs before jetting back home to start getting things done!

We have most everything done now and will be leaving tomorrow. We have a short stop at Eau Claire for some WORS racing, then a week in Idaho for Nationals, then another week in Bend for the High Cascades 100. Super excited for the packing to be done and the trip to start!!

Oops, blew that one!

2011-06-30T09:50:00.001-05:00

Wow, it is already Thursday! I haven't even done a race report from the WORS cup! I am guessing by now everyone already knows what went down and it was good!! Thanks to Don and all his support for putting on a fun weekend! The trail was good, the racing was fun, and I didn't even mind hanging out all day watching all of the classes race! I will say though, that come Monday most of us were not moving very fast and could not wait to find our pillow again that evening!!

Now I seem all rested and starting to get things in line for our trip out west. For Michelle Sarah, Myles and I we will be at Eau Claire for the Firecracker then it is off to Idaho for Nationals! It is exciting to travel to some of these places that I have never raced at! After nationals we will be dropping Myles and Sarah on the side of the road to hitch a ride home and Michelle and I will be off to Bend for the High Cascades 100! Super excited for this event as well, cause everyone says that Bend is awesome for riding your Mountain Bike! Also during that week is the Cascades Cycling Classic so hopefully we can catch some getting dizzy with it Crit action! Also with bossman only up the street in Portland, there might be a sighting?? Time will tell!

Other than that not much happening, kind of a lull in training right now and getting ready to reload for the 2nd half. Cannot believe July is around the corner and I will stop there before I bum myself out thinking of the Wisconsin winter that lurks in the distance :(

Looking to the future!

2011-06-22T12:01:00.000-05:00

Not more than a few years ago I would of been so stoked to have a race of this caliber in my back yard and eliminate some of the travel that Mikee and I were doing around the nation. Don't get me wrong the butterflies will still be there and it will be awesome to see some of the guys that I came up through the semi pro ranks with. With my new focus of the endurance races though, the legs just do not respond the same to the jockeying for position surges required to do as well and I am OK with it. Luckily for me there will be enough excitment out of the Adventure 212/Specialized Team with most of the team really getting up to speed and looking for some top form going into this weekend! It is going to be fun!!

See everyone out there and if you are looking for anything to do come out and cheer all the riders on. Cat 1 races at 11, which is Michelle, Sarah, Mark, Ryan, Todd, Di, and Myles. Pro Women go off at 12:30 and will include Lisa. Then the Pro men go off at 3:30 PM and will include Mike, Darrin, Scott, and myself. Hope to see you there!!

Lumberjack 100 report

2011-06-21T10:25:00.000-05:00

What a fun race!! Much different than the other 100 mile races with the course just straight fast, flowing, singletrack!!

The race started promptly at 7AM with a 1.5 mile paved road roll out that found me sandwiched in the middle of the pack behind Mike Simonson and Jeff Schalk. It was a bit nerve racking to be stuck there but in the end it worked out when one of the Quiring Cycles riders asked if I wanted to get to the outside. I said yes and just at that time Jeff went to the left of the pack and pulled me right to the almost front of the race. I found it a little weird that he set up just before the singletrack and let a couple of riders in front of him. I was not complaining cause I knew this would keep the pace a little lower and let us all settle in! When things calmed and the splits were made we had one rider at the front running a very conservative pace so we ended up with a group of about 15 riders at the lead of the race! Way different than norm, usually the selection is made early and you fight to be there! At one point during the first lap I had Lee ride up to me and ask me how I was feeling and what was up? I was a bit confused by his questions but after talking to him after the race he thought he was in the chase group until he saw Jeff, Mike, Christian, and I all in the same group. Kind of funny cause he said he was moving up to go to the front of the group!

The first lap stayed pretty chilled and things started in the pits at the start of the 2nd lap. I was fortunate and had Cam, Molly Wolf's son, giving me feeds!! With a rockstar feed I was off in under 5 seconds and it was a good thing cause Michael attacked out of the feed area and the group went from 15 down to 8. Michael hammered up the first couple of hills then it looked like he put the anchor out. I thought about going to the front to see how much he had left, but decided against it and just settled into Robert Marion's pace since he seemed to want to sit on the front and control the pace. Then about half way through the 2nd lap, I guess Christian had enough and decided that the last 50 miles should be run at a XC race pace. I made the decision right then to just go for it! The last races I have been conservative and rode my own pace knowing I would pick up straglers to maybe grab that 4th or 5th spot. I hung in there as riders were falling off the back at Christian's eye bleeding pace, after about 20 minutes of his pace I was the next casualty and I went into that bad spot to finish off the 2nd lap. Coming in for the 2nd lap I could barely keep the pedals turning and if I could of found a chair I probably would of taken it. Cam was there again with my feeds and Chuck Naughton gave me a Coke, that turned out to be my lifesaver!! The other interesting thing in the pits was Scott and Mark's mom! As I was getting my feeds she introduced hersefl to me and asked if the weather was warm? Really funny and I must of had a really weird look on my face because it became a conversation piece later at dinner! Either way, thanks to Scott and Mark's parents for coming out to watch! Spectators are always good!

Now onto the 3rd lap and my 33 mile death march! I knew that I had settled into 8th spot, but had no clue how well anyone was riding. I knew how I was riding and it was not that well! I was way off my original pace and had to get the demons to go away! I continued to push through the head games, the thoughts that I made a wrong turn, the cramps after my Heed at the aid station, and the continual noises in the woods of other riders that I thought were catching me! Even though my last lap was almost 15 minutes slower, I still managed to hang on for the 8th spot in a solid field of riders.

The whole day the Specialized Epic was awesome and made it easy to carve the singletrack by smoothing out all the bumps. The new scrub rotors and scrub pads are a huge improvement over running Kool stop pads. Thanks to the rest of the sponsors, No tubes for keeping air in my tires, Optic Nerve for keeping the dirt out of my eyes, Crankbrothers for keeping my feet attached to my bike and that wicked light, sweet looking seatpost, and also thanks to the Hostel Shoppe for keeping me equiped with all the goods needed to do this every weekend!! Also to Bossman for keeping the enging going! Also thanks to Michelle for putting up with me as I get cranky during the later parts of my training blocks and coffee no longer helps!!

Also to the rest of the team for making it fun! One of the best things from the weekend! Scott and Mark's mom telling me that she reads this blog! I told here that I hope I was never offensive! Right at the time she said no, Lee pipes up and says that she must not read his blog cause she would find it offensive! She looked at him and said I did not know you had a blog, what is the address? Lee " Scotts n ass .com !! Too funny! Here is Mark doubled over when we told him!! This is also after his feat of being the 3rd ever to finish the 2 half pound patty, bacon cheeseburger with fries at this restaurant in Manistee so..... I think it about came up.

So how many of you went and looked for the site??

Going Plaid!

2011-06-17T17:30:00.000-05:00

Sitting here in waiting at the hotel room for the Lumberjack 100! Super excited for the day after the pre ride. The trails made me feel like this!

Just tons of super fast, flowing single track, 90% of the course to be exact!! A much different feel to the course than any of the 100 mile courses that I have done so far and the Specialized Epic felt like a rocket ship!

There is one problem with tomorrow though, they already gave us our pint glass at registration so it will be hard to lap through knowing there are kegs of Founders and I have a glass!! Can I get that as a hand up??? Please, I promise not to crash like last time I took a beer hand up!!

I will update on the flip side. In the meantime Good luck to Ryan, Lisa, and maybe Mike at the Southern Kettles WEMS race. Then also to Michelle, Sarah, Darrin, Todd, and Di up at the Chain Drive this weekend!

Hmmmm

2011-06-15T19:54:00.001-05:00

This is an interesting showdown!

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Lumberjacked!!

2011-06-14T14:34:00.000-05:00

Not sure why, but I get all jacked up for the 100 milers! Must be the fact that the riding makes the travel worth while since we are competing on a single 100 mile loop, or I think this weekend will be my worst case scenario of 3 x 33 mile loops! I have heard some great things about this course and cannot wait to toe the line and let it rip for 7 hours! Yesteday I got the Specialized Epic all ready and put new Specialized Renegade tires on it, a new chain, and some new scrub rotors and brake pads! Thanks Chris from Scrub Components for making such an awesome product and supporting the Adventure 212/Specialized Team!!

If you are looking for some bling on your bike and want to lighten the bike, give them a call. The new pads are a nice addition too. Works way better than using any other manufacturers product and reduces the break in period.

So this week I will be loading the boat, yup taking the ferry accross on Thursday afternoon. The rest of the group is taking the midnight crossing, but I value my sleep too much and did not want to try sleeping on the boat all night. So I will meet up with them in Ludington for breakfast on Friday morning before heading to the course. I am hoping for some good weather on Thursday cause it is really nice to just chill on the deck of the boat!

In the meantime, some good riding tonight on the curly bar bike and then if the weather holds I might try to go riding at Nordic tomorrow to check out the new course for the Wisconsin USProXCT. Heard there have been some good changes there??

Team Style Points

2011-06-13T19:40:00.001-05:00

This past weekend was awesome!! Lots of laughs as everyone made it to our house for some good food prepped by Michelle with everyone else chipping in with Mikey and Lynn bringing desserts and Sarah bringing a salad! Not sure if it was Sarah's prep, or maybe the content, but the desserts are all gone and there is still a full salad left? hmmm? Maybe next time we will need 3 people to bring dessert! Pigs!
Saturday was a good race prep and a shake down of how to ride a bike again for me. With all the travels and the 100s, rest was in order and that is kind of what I did, minus the pool draining, the VGBA drain updates, the State inspection(which was a joke), and the refilling, balancing and starting of the Pool and Hot Tub. Oh yeah, and a trip to the Dells for some overdue Crestron programming. Either way after a week of not touching a bike, the legs were never found! Oops.

So back to the team. We have a great group of personalities that makes each race a blast!! There is always lots of banter, some rude comments, and some just funny antics going on all the time! They all ride bikes really fast too and are supportive of each other! Mikey showed us this weekend as well that retiring from bike racing sucks and decided to sprint with Tristan and Brian this weekend! He came out with the 3rd place finish, even on the borrowed bike! Not that it matters for him, he has the tech skills to make any bike fly through the singletrack and taught me! Darrrin pulled out a good finish as well racing with a broken rib to finish 7th, Ryan held it together to come in 12th and I just fell apart after a pretty good 1st lap to finish 17th.

The girls rocked again and took 4th, 5th, and 6th in the womens field. They have all been working really hard and keep each other motivated. It is good to see them racing hard each weekend!

Myles also had a good race and took 2nd in the juniors!

Nice work to the team and everyone else out at Wausau! Next up for me is the Lumberjack 100. Super excited for this event! I have heard tons of good things about the course! For Michelle, Sarah, Darrin, and maybe the Krayer's it is the Chaindrive.

Mohican 100K Race Recap (the boy’s will have to recap the 100 Mile for you…they’re just crazy!)

2011-06-05T18:19:00.006-05:00

So some people have been bugging me for a race recap of Mohican...I normally don’t like to talk about myself but I do realize others like to read it, so here goes:

Coming off a rest week (I’m usually really, really flat off of them) I wasn’t expecting too much at the Mohican 100K race….just ride and have some fun, get in some good endurance training time…so when I had a guy tell me about 45 miles into the race that I was the first female I was pretty stoked (although still wary because you never know if they’ve missed someone, etc when you get sideline reports like that!). My legs were a bit flat off the start so I just eased into the race…it starts out with a killer road climb which my normal race start etiquette would have had me hammering, but knowing it was going to be a long, hot day I just went my pace and didn’t worry about staying with the leaders.

In the first section of single-track I got hooked up with a girl, Lauren Mika from Team CF/Pro Bikes out of Pittsburgh, that learned how to ride on these very trails and since it was just one long line of people all trying to get somewhere fast, but not working out so well she and I had a chance to talk and meet each other! She was totally cool, riding well and I just sat on her wheel and had her pull me around the single-track, from watching her ride I was very confident she wouldn’t lead me astray and she was picking good lines which was nice! We got into some climbing section and open double-track which is my strong suit so I ended up getting a gap on her, but got into some traffic later on and she caught back on for a while until we hit some more uphill single track climbs. So for a while it was just me catching guys, passing and generally keeping a good endurance pace through the miles (feeling sorry for the 100 mile girls that I was passing already when we started 15mins behind them…ouch, that’s going to be a really, really long day in the saddle!).

When I hit a huge, steep, hike-a-bike horse trail uphill that everyone was walking around mile 25 (or so, I wasn't keeping track at that point) I ended up catching and passing the girl with the 500 plate, which gave me hope that I might be doing okay in the race since she’s won the race for the past 4 years…Amanda Virostko (Shamrock/Biowheels). Just after passing Amanda I came upon my friend Molly Wolf from Team Wheel Werks (we had hoped to ride together from the start, but she was doing the 100mi race)…she was having cramping issues so it wasn’t going so well for her at that point, but she was a huge cheer squad for me as I went by! I was so proud of her, she rebounded well and ended up 5th overall in the Women’s 100 mile race…great job girl! She told me she thought I was in 2nd so at that point I was very happy and excited to be in a podium position.

Around mile 30-35 I ended up catching a great single-speeder (crazy!!), Michael Gorman (Orrville Cycling Club) that was a long-time rider of these trails….he warned me about every tight switch-back uphill, every slippery drop-off coming up, you name it…he warned me; so I stuck on his wheel forever! We had great chats, he was setting a great pace (although he’d gap me on the downhill’s and I’d gap him on the super-steep uphill’s and flats) and I knew following him I’d not miss any course markings and he’d keep me upright on my bike with all the warnings. He was a great partner to ride with. I ended up losing him at Aid 3 and then I was pretty much in no man’s land…although I did catch Joe Orlando with about 8-10 miles to go (for a while he was the rabbit I was chasing cause I could see him just up the road but couldn’t close the gap) and finally on a good power climb uphill (not the 20+% one’s that were killing me…I was wishing I had a 26T front chain ring…those 5-10 min 20% climbs just kept coming!) I finally closed it down and we rode together nearly the rest of the way home until we got to about 4 miles to go and my legs did the 100% full-on cramp…inner thighs and claves on both legs at the same time…ouch! I slammed more GU and downed more water just praying they would get me to the finish since is was SOOOOO close. The loosened up enough that I could soft pedal another 3 miles and then they locked up tight again and I had to get off and walk a little bit…slammed more water and squeezed every little ounce I had in the GU flask and was able to get back onto the bike and could ride out of the saddle which was enough to get me to the finish in 6:17:27. I crossed and they told me I was had taken first!!!! It was super exciting!

Now the best part...the podium shot including the Champagne (yeah!) and the check (and it was pretty nice!). I feel so pro with the Champagne though…the girls are still dripping….it’s fun passing the bottle around!
The boys are teasing me now…”2 endurance wins in a row (WEMS 6 hour solo last weekend)..maybe the Endurance races should become you’re A races and WORS should be C’s”. Not sure I’m ready to take that leap yet….6-7 hours is still a long time to be on a bike racing in my opinion, but fun to do once in a while!

I’d like to thank all the great riders that made the course so much fun for me….Lauren (who I know would have been 2nd or 3rd overall the way she was riding had she not taken a wrong turn…sucks!), Michael and Joe and also the very cool group of Ohio girls that I met….Amanda Sporat(get that arm better and we need to do a race together) and Heidi Shilling (the Ohio series race leader who rides for Combo Race team/Whole Foods/Roll)…they were very nice and welcoming!!! And of course I need to thank my current coach Jeb Stewart of Endrofit and my teammate Lisa Krayer to trained me last year for my great endurance base that lead me to this point, and my training partner and teammate Sarah Agena-Wright that helped keep us both on track of actually doing our prescribed training plans! And last but certainly not least, my husband for being so supportive and dialing in my amazingly fast Specialized Era (man those bikes are crazy fast and fly through the single-track…so incredibly stable!)just right in all these races to make me so fast! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!

For the love of Training?

2011-05-31T14:31:00.000-05:00

The older I get the more I think about why I ride and how it makes me feel to finish any type of workout or race. The races now a days, seem to be more relaxed, don't get me wrong, I will be shaking in my shoes this weekend at the Mohican 100 start. Besides the 100's though everything else seems more what happens, happens? I still race hard and put 100% in every time but as I do this more I realize that I am the only one I have to satisfy with the results, no one else really cares. So I do this for the love of the ride and I love to ride. These past 3 weeks were loaded with rides that saw me on the MTB a lot. I trained through the last WORS race and kept the hammer down in search of a new peak in my training. Playing the fine line of giving it all I have but not diving off the other side into just completely drained and wiped out. I think we hit that and the icing on the cake was the 6 hr ride this weekend at the Northern Kettles.

If you have not ridden there, I recommend it! There has been a lot of work put into the trails and it made for a good time. I usually do not like doing laps, but the trails were long enough and technical enough to keep me entertained for the entire 6 hrs. Also Matt Shriver and rkL kept me entertained for the first few laps. This weekend was the first time meeting Matt. I know he has a long list of accolades and it was nice to talk with him! Very likable and made the circuits very enjoyable! I wish him luck in all his travels and hope he continues to find time for the bike!

So either way, I capped off my training block on Saturday and it is now time to rebuild and get ready for the Mohican 100. Last year I had to DNF due to the tornado warning and the mud sucking the will out of me. This year looks to be set up different with very warm temps and sun! I am running a pretty conservative set up and after using this weekends race to dial in nutrition a bit more I think I am ready. So here we come Ohio!

Curly Bar Neglect!

2011-05-26T11:17:00.000-05:00

So my new mountian bike has been getting all the love as of late. Yesterday was no different as Michelle and I beat Mother Nature and made our way up to Wausau to ride nine mile in the morning. It was 10 degrees warmer and the sun even came out a couple times, while it was raining in Amherst? Weird, it is only a 40 minute drive away!

So ended up with 3 hrs on the bike and rode about every trail up there forward and backwards! Including some new trail that is looking like it might be race worthy that ties back into the flower trail? Good stuff!

So now back to the other bike. The curly bar Tarmac! I have this sweet Sworks Tarmac with a Quarq power meter on it that will be useful for my ride today. When I grabbed the bike this morning though, to my surprise, it has dust on it!! Sorry bike! At least it didnt have a flat tire as well!!

I do not see an end to this trend though! This weekend if the weather holds off there might even be a strong Adventure 212 showing at a WEMS race near you! Time will tell......

Short Distance Race'n WORS Style

2011-05-23T12:07:00.000-05:00

This past weekend was the WORS race in Rhinelander. This course is one of my favorites and despite my complaining about the changes after preride, it raced well and kept me entertained the entire time.

So after the warm up with the team we toed the line. Since I missed Iola, I ended up getting called up in 13th and lined up next to Brian. After some chatting with him and Andrea it was time to go and we went. The initial lead out down the road was chill but as soon as we hit the singletrack I felt as if the race exploded. Think it was mainly due to some tired legs from all the riding this past week, but I had one speed! Luckily it was just over my 100 mile pace and was good enough to keep bringing people back. I think I settled into 9th spot at the start and just picked one or 2 off as they blew from the front group. Then coming around on the 2nd lap I saw Big D up ahead. He hopped on then pulled me down the road section before letting me go again.

Later I found out that he fell back and ended up crashing pretty good on a bridge falling on some already injured ribs. Guess the doc is saying one broken rib! Ouch! I have been there and it is not a fun injury. I heard Ryan stopped with him as well as Mike Anderson and Brian Eppen! Thanks to all of you that helped and forfeited your race. Lets hope for a speedy recovery from him, he makes our trips entertaining!!

Now onto the 3rd lap I rolled upto Tyler and we rode together for about a lap talking about how good a concrete mixer from Culvers sounded! He was riding well and I kept tyring to get him to hang on, but in the singletrack I lost him due to the efficiency of the Specialized Epic! That bike is like cheating and this years bike is one of the most stable and most confidence boosting bikes I have ever ridden!

Onto the 4th lap I came upto Ben Koeneg and we rode together the entire 4th lap. He was also riding very well but I use the dual suspension coming off the last bridge to open a 5 second gap and hung on to take 4th overall.

After crossing the line I learned that I was actually bringing the leaders back each lap, minus the 4th lap where I chilled a bit thinking it was just down to Ben and I. Either way, don't think I had much more than I was putting to the pedals and without any highend training I was happy with the result. Looking at the data I pretty much flat lined the HR at 171 for the entire race. To put it in perspective I will do a 100 and average 165 to 168.

As fro the rest of the team, Myles came in for 3rd in the Juniors, Ryan still came back for 16th after helping Big D, Scott was 33rd, and Mark 43rd.

The girls had another good showing and keep improving. It is good to hear them having so much fun and getting in some tight racing action! I will let one of them tell their side of teh story but Lisa was 4th, Michelle 5th, and Sarah 7th.

My next big race will be the Mohican 100 as long as mother nature cooperates and it does not look like a mud bath is going to happen down there!

Here Chic-ee Chic-ee

2011-05-20T18:35:00.001-05:00

The girls new addition to the bike. Mark might of made them but deep down he hopes to never see them. That would make him a victim of his own creation!

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Bad morning!

2011-05-18T10:25:00.001-05:00

I think the pic says it all even though it is blurry, no espresso! Had the feeling that the Mayans might be right, the world is ending and it will start with a series of bad events! After a little trouble shooting, problem found and parts ordered. Next day air of course!!!

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Wind from my sails

2011-05-16T14:27:00.000-05:00

Not sure it was so much wind, but the loss of air form my tires. I knew that the wrong tires were selected when as a team we had 3 flats during preride! Oops. We mounted up all the LKs we had and made do with the rest. The rock down in Arkansas is like running over small razor blades and they took there toll!

So the race started out with "Johnny Holeshot" leading us out with his 30 seconds of power before fading back. I then took over the front of the race at the start of the first climb and set it at a comfortable pace up the steep gravel climb. About half way up Jeff uped the pace and we ended up hitting the first section of single track with a break of 4 riders and myself placed in 2nd behind Jeff. The other two riders were Christian and Brandon from Team CF. I felt really comfortable on the technical trail and had really good legs. Then my race started to come apart, not 8 miles in a stick flew through my rear deraileur and pulled the cable right out of the holder! I stopped to fix it and was able to get the high gears out of the fix with help from Ryan who stopped to help and was not going anywhere till I was back on my bike! Thanks! I then went to put the rear tire back in the bike and noticed the rear tire was flat so I aired it up and got going again. I quicky caught up to Scott and Ryan and they let me roll through cause my adrenaline was in high gear as well. I was taking some chance on the downhills to get back towards the front and didn't even make it another mile before flatting again and burping the front! I started with 25 PSI which is 5 pounds more than I usually run! It sealed so I put air back in both tires and started down the trail once again. This time Ryan latched on and followed me and kept tabs of the hissing sound coming from my rear tire. By now all hopes of getting towards the front again were gone so I found a nice rock, set down, and decided to put a tube in the rear tire. Once going again I decided that I was going to ride the rest of the day and enjoy the awesome, technical, trails there!!

I rolled along blowing through aid station one, then stopping at aid 2 to grab my bottles. By now my legs were really feeling good and I started to pick riders off again. I made it to aid station 3 and rolled right thorugh. We were now on the red loop, which was a fast flowing loop that reminded me a lot of nine mile. I kept the pace high and before I knew it I had moved back into the top 10. I knew Ryan was my next rider and I did not want him to ride by himself, he gets lonely, so I kept the hammer down. Then I heard that aweful noise and all the air escape my tire all at once! Not good, I was out of tubes!! My day was done!

My next hour was spent walking out of the woods and back to aid station 3 where I booted my tire and put another tube in. My tire had a good 3/4" slit in it so I pulled the plug and rolled back to the start line to accept my DNF! Bummer!

The rest of the team did well, besides the bumps and bruises that the girls have. Mcihelle ended up in 4th overall in the 50 miler, Sarah was around 8th I believe even after taking the not so scenic loop down the gravel road for 6 extra miles! Ryan had an awesome NUE debut with 8th overall, Scott also had 2 flats and finished 21st, and Mark said enough of the tech trail and went back to the cars early looking for where the beer was hidding!

So after a DNF, now I am obligated to go back and race again! Cannot leave a race like that and I will make sure I have some sturdier tires the next time!

Next up for the team is WORS #2. Not expecting a lot from myself, but the res tof the team is fired up and the Rhinelander course is one of my favorites! See you there!

Making it

2011-05-13T11:55:00.001-05:00

So this is the view from our so called cabin. Michelle did well to find us a nice place to stay in the middle of no where.

Making it, or living the dream. How many times have you heard that? I think this counts. Michelle and I with tons of help from every team member has built the best group of individuals and riders and put them on one team. We are all fast in our own right, but each of us get it. The understanding of balance. Yes there are a few cyclists in the world that get to do this on a full time, paid basis, but not very many. We all work full time jobs, but take the time to do the things we love, riding bikes and travelling with friends!! Luckily our employees at 212 allow us more freedom in the summer to get out more frequently as well.

So as we sit here and get ourselves mentally prepared for the Syllamo's revenge, thanks to all family, sponsors, coaches, bike shops, friends, and each other as we have made it and are living the dream!

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On the road again...

2011-05-12T07:10:00.000-05:00

Off to Arkansas!

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Randomness

2011-05-10T13:08:00.000-05:00

So things have been pretty busy with a bunch of odd things! Riding has still been at the center of it all with the Syllamo's Revenge coming up this weekend. I took a look at some of the trails down there and it looks like it is going to be a blast! Guess the trails did not get IMBA Epic status for nothing! Will be a much different race than Cohutta I am expecting!

Last night I worked on bikes and started packing for Michelle and I. We will have a total of 6 Adventure 212/Specialized riders down there and then Lee.

On the non bike side, I had some programming changes to make with the XM/Sirius satellite radio channel line up changes made this past week. I wonder if anyone ever thinks about custom home automation when they propose things like moving channels. Luckily I did not have anything to change on the Crestron system thanks to the dynamic presets, but on the Elan system I have 9 buttons on 8 different touchpanels and a remote. Sweet!

Back on the bike side of things, Michelle and Sarah went to Milwaukee for some curly bar racing. Sarah won one of the races and in the open race Michelle was 7th and Sarah 9th. I stayed home and pulled my curly bar Tarmac back out for some long hours. Made for a fun weekend that even included a destination trip from my house down towards the Wisconsin Dells. It was awesome cause I had a tail wind almost the whole way and most of the roads I was on were freshly paved! Double bonus! I made it down there just in time to fire up the grill and finish off the BBQ ribs! Mmmmm!

So now it is coast time with one more workout tomorrow before this weekends 2nd race in the NUE series! Can't wait!

WORS #1: Iola

2011-05-02T11:06:00.005-05:00

Well the race season officially begun this weekend for the Adventure 212/Specialized team, and all I can say is....it's going to be a good, good year! It's always nerve-racking to get to the first race to see how your off-season of training stacks up...and it was certainly evident this weekend that the 212 team trained really, really hard!

So how well did the race go for Adventure 212/Specialized...for the girls this photo tells it all!

The race started fast (the course was very dry despite all the rain and snow lately...great job Iola race directors and crew!), despite the very chilly 40 degree weather...with Kim Eppen and Abby Strigel (two incredibly strong women who we can only admire) leading the way with the 212 girls and Robin Williams (Kim's teamate from Mercy-Speciliazed). Abby unfortunatly barely even began the race and broke her chain and was out, leaving Kim to continue her moster pace while the 212 girls and Robin came around after the first lap as one unit (despite Di dropping her chain and coming back from DFL)...something we've never, ever been able to do before due to all of our fitness/tech skill differences. It was quite a site and took the onlooking crowd by surprise!!! And we had quite a gap (couple minutes already) on any girls behind us. All in all the girls did amazing and we ended up taking the 2-5th Pro/Elite podium spots. (5th just by 2 seconds as Michelle was able to grab the sprint from another really strong rider Robin Williams). The girls couldn't stop smiling...this is what team racing is all about...the guys have had years of feeling this way and had talked about it often but for the girls it was a dream come true yesterday!

Not to be outdone...the Adventure 212/Specialized men also all took Pro/Elite podium spots:

The men's race was extremly fast with Tristan Schoutan and Brian Matter leading the way and creating a gap early on, followed by another group of Brian Eppen and Michal Anderson, and then Adventure 212's own Mike Phillips and Darrin Braun. Ryan Krayer and Todd McFadden ended up rounding out the elite podium taking 12th and 13th respectively. It was a great day!

In the junior race, despite leg cramps all race Myles Beach was able to pull-out a sixth place finish. I know he's a bit disappointed in that...but it's a long season and he'll be back up top soon no doubt!

One thing the whole team can agree on...the 2011 Specialized bikes are FAST, FAST, FAST!!!! All of us are just raving about how well they handle, especially cornering and their responsiveness is amazing!!! We thought they couldn't get better from last year, but we were definitly wrong!!! THANK YOU SPECIALIZED!!!!

The team would also like to give a special thanks to our support crew this weekend who braved the cold temps and harsh winds to make sure we were well fed and hydrated! Thanks Tim, Lynn, Jaime, Nicky, Kylie, Kelsey and the Beach family! Couldn't have done it without you!

What's next for the team....Sarah, Michelle, Chris, Ryan, Mark and Scott will be racing the NUE Arkansas race on the 14th followed by the team regrouping less Mike, Di and Todd for WORS#2 at Rhinelander!

The Cohutta 100

2011-05-02T08:46:00.000-05:00

Mark, Scott, and I rolled into the Ocoee Whitewater Center at about 5:30 AM EST and just chilled in the truck instead of being chilled by the 42 degree outside temp. After listening to the radio and maybe even taking a little nap, we rolled out of the truck and started to get things put together. I jumped on the bike around 6:40 and rolled up to the line, went about a half mile up the start hill then the call up started. After losing the leg warmers and coat, the countdown started. The gun went off quickly and most of us were caught not paying attention and not even clipped in! I rolled out sitting not further back than the top 5 and at the top of the climb found myself sitting behind Christian in 2nd place. After the slight downhill and the loss of a couple spots I ended up hitting the first section of single track sitting in 5th position. We were riding really chill and felt nice to finally ride some fun dirt. I was riding right behind Michael Simonson so it was good to catch up a bit! Nice to see how well he is riding!

The positions stayed the same while we cruised the fun single track this area had to offer, until we hit the rooted single track near the river where we piled up last year. I picked the upper line while everyone else went to the bottom and I cruised right through and to the front of the race with little effort due to the efficiency of the Specialized Epic! I opened a small gap and it gave me time to peel off my arm warmers before we headed out for the remaining 6 hrs of fun.

By this time we had a group of 8 riders away and I lead through the rest of the single track. The Epic was rocking it and made the single track seem effortless. Love the new bike if you have not picked up on that yet! We then came out to the gravel road and we chilled a bit. The chill pace continued until Simonson gave a go on one of the flats. After Jeff chased him back down with the rest in tow, we rolled easily and chatted a bit. Then right before aid 2, the games began. I was unable to match the power of the others and fell off right before aid 2 in 6th place to settle into a pace I could manage. Sucked, cause it meant I was looking at the next 70 miles riding by myself! Which is not good, cause I like to talk while racing!

After stopping at Aid 2 I continued to climb at my pace and then rocketed down the other side at the 50 mile mark. Looking at my data, I hit this point almost 20 minutes faster than 2010, so I knew they were flying ahead of me. I rallied the down hill with the voice of Mike P ringing in my ear, "Don't know why I work on brakes, really don't believe in them on bikes!"

I then hit aid #4 and stopped to grab my food. By now I was feeling pretty good and was rolling well down the flat road section. Then right before hitting the climb, before the short and long course comes together, I saw Tom Turner. I went by him, asked if he needed anything, then continued on. I kept my pace and thought I was in the clear for the 5th spot on the podium after stopping at aid 5 for my last 2 bottles.

I took it pretty easy on the downhill going into the last section of single track due to the fresh rock that was so deep, it felt like riding on sand. After making it down this and entering the single track, I had a sigh of relief thinking I was in the clear! That is when I hit a root and noticed I had a flat tire! Not sure if it really counts as a flat or not? I always debate if it counts as a flat if you did not have to put a tube in it? So I will call it a loss of air! I stopped, grabbed my CO2, and filled the tire. As I was about to get back on the bike a 100 mile rider passed me!! Determined not to lose that last podium spot, I put the hammer down! I went by him and never looked back. I hammered through the last single track section and ended up finishing in 5th spot with a 3 minute buffer!

I was very happy to finish on the podium and feel like I showed that last year was not a fluke! Nice work to the rest of the guys on the podium, it was great riding with them and look forward to the next one in Arkansas!

Also Nice work to the rest of the Adventure 212/Specialized team for the WORS opener. I will let one of the girls write that post and give their perspective!

The bottom step

2011-05-01T12:16:00.001-05:00

Race update to come, need all that I have left to survive this 14hr drive!

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Go time?

2011-04-30T04:54:00.001-05:00

Yup, that is AM and we are at the race site! Started eating at 3:15 our time. So do we get a nap break somewhere on course??

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Let the games begin

2011-04-29T17:55:00.001-05:00

Pre ride done, bikes clean, food bags dropped off, and the number plates are on the bikes!! Let the season start with a good 100 mile race in Cohutta!

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Options are good!

2011-04-26T18:46:00.001-05:00

Never know what you might want to eat while out there for 100 miles. So now the question is where to put the beer and cheeseburger!!!

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Dirt, here we come!!

2011-04-24T08:18:00.001-05:00

Another day of 5x3, 5hrs driving and 3 hrs riding.

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Good Friday?

2011-04-23T09:22:00.000-05:00

I thought every Friday was a good Friday cause it means the next 2 days are filled with riding bikes, racing bikes, hanging with friends, talking about bikes, and not working!
Anyway, we can tell everyone has the day off! 212 is really busy this morning! Always a good thing cause it gives me more people to talk to!!

So on the bike front, just got the last of the parts to finish off Darrin's bike. Should be nice. I am calling it the basement bike cause I am just taking things off the shelves in my basement and putting it together! I think once assembled we might meet up this weekend and try to find some dirt to ride it around on, maybe the Kettles will be open. I think Michelle and Sarah are looking ot find some dirt as well. They just reallized that the guys will be south at the Cohutta and their mechanical support will be missing! So the need is high to shake the bikes down before next weekend!

As for Cohutta, the workouts have been further between and my legs are starting to really feel good. I am excited to give it a go. The field looks to be a little deeper this year and hopefully the weather will be better as well. I am gunning for this one, but would be more than happy with a top 5. In a 100 miles you have several times where you doubt yourself and the pain cave is really deep! You will always have a bad stretch in their as well, or two. It all comes down to how bad it is and how prepared you are. The last two I did my nutrition was different for each of them due to just my appetite at the time. The first year I lived on cookies and clif blocks, last year I lived on gels, water, and Dr Pepper! Yup, made Ryan proud!! Either way you finish up with beer and food, bonus!

For the bike, 26" Epic is my choice and always will be. Thursday I spent time with Scott to dial the bike in! If you are looking for a good fit, get a hold of him. I have been fitted before and Scott is very maticulous and remeasures! Good for an engineer like myself that sometime over analyzes things.

So now it is just finishing plans and making sure we are prepared for anything that could go wrong!

My hell freezing over..........

2011-04-19T16:34:00.001-05:00

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Enough already of the........

2011-04-16T07:56:00.000-05:00

Nose dripping!
Eye watering!
Brain freezing!
Toe numbing!
350 watt!
12 mph!
Snow bringing!
Cold, windy Wisconsic weather!

5 x 3

2011-04-14T10:57:00.000-05:00

So yesterday I went in search of dirt, ended up with 5 hrs of driving to get in 3 hrs of riding on the trails down at the Southern Kettles. Another wasted afternoon in search of a mental escape riding bikes! Sweet!

Hopefully Mike P will forgive me since my ride time was shorter than the drive time? Maybe the fact that it was mountain biking I get some sort of multiplier!

On another note, good luck to those at Sea Otter! Did you bring your road bike or MTB? I will never return till we do the original 19 mile lap! Here is the map of course, 5 miles long. Oh yeah, the race track is 2.25 miles long and you use almost the whole thing!

In search of dirt...

2011-04-12T18:07:00.000-05:00

Today Scott and I met up at Adventure 212 on the Mountain Bikes and decided to do some urban assault on Stevens Point in search of some rideable dirt!!

When we first met up the Lil Colonel was at the Hostel Shoppe so we started in with the typical triathlon banter and I finished with the usual "If you can't bike........"

Scott and I decided to start with the typical Green Circle trail but were soon turned around several times due to the Wisconsin River being above flood stage.

We then decided to make our own trails, lots of hike a bike but really did not care cause there were no other plans for the day.

It worked for a while, then we got thirsty, lots of bikes here! They must have coffee!! Actually we knew they did! Killed an hour here drinking coffee and planning our Cohutta trip.

We then finished home with another afternooon wasted away riding bikes! Sweet!

Dang that wheel looks too big!

Yup it is!

Ready to rip!!

2011-04-11T20:40:00.001-05:00

The bike is set for Cohutta! Not very many 4 " suspended bikes can claim the sub 20 lb mark and still be ready to race!

Specs:

Specialized "kick ass" Epic 26" - Large

Wheels: Roval Carbons or Stan's Podium MMX

Discs: Scrub "my breaks are lighter then yours" Racedays

Drivetrain: SRAM "I always work" XX

Brakes: SRAM World Cups

Bar: Truvativ Noir World Cup

Stem: Ritchey 4 axis 100mm

Seatpost: Crankbrothers "sweet" Cobalt 11

Saddle: Selle Italia SLR

Pedal: Eggbeater 11

Crankset: Specialized FACT 26 x 39 (28 x 42 @ Cohutta) Quarq ready!

Tires: Specialized Renegade 26 x 1.9" with Stan's Raceday Sealant

Thanks Bill, Pete, Specialized, Crank Brothers, Scrub, Hostel Shoppe, and Stan's No Tubes! Bike is awesome!!

Bike Building 101...not

2011-04-09T22:00:00.003-05:00

We made the girls build their own bikes...with a little bit of help.

It was a good learning process for all of us!

Webs of Waupaca

2011-04-09T15:32:00.000-05:00

How come everytime I ride towards Waupaca I always end up circling through it 2 or 3 times! I call it the webs of Waupaca! I swear every road just keeps turning around on itself and you end up back into town!! Today was no different, I ended up back in town on 3 different occcasions. I finally got fed up trying to use the back roads and hopped on Hwy 22 and got out of there and no I did not use the Wau-King Trail! For those not from around here they literally named a trail that just cause it goes between Waupaca and King. I might of used it but it did not say the Wau- Bi-King trail! How lame!
Anyway, the mountain bikes are getting ready for the season. Tonight it is Sarah and Michelle's turn to build up their bikes. Mark and maybe Scott are going to join, as well as our water wench Tim(Sarah's Husband)! Sounds like some growlers from Centrals Waters for the guys while we sit back and watch the girls get their bikes put together! Moral support? Nah, just some ribbing and help when needed. Maybe Tim and I will even get some shoot 'em up PS 3 action going! Seems to be our new thing and what better way to spend some recovery time but killing zombies!

Resting up

2011-04-06T08:56:00.000-05:00

So after completely destroying my body this past month in prep for the NUE series, I have found myself doing absolutely nothing for a couple of days and for the first time in my ADD life enjoying it??? Hmmm, what's up with that? Maybe it is a sign of me getting old? Nah, I will never grow up if you ask Michelle!

Anyway, stuff keeps rolling in for the team and it always amazes me how product continually improves! You think that there is nothing they can do to make things better, then bam, the next best thing! This has happened again with almost everything this year! We received our new kits yesterday from Hidden Bay and they look awesome! Most of the riders on the team love the new shorts so much that we order extras for training cause they are that good!

Another huge improvement of the year are the Specialized Prevail helmets. The most comfortable helmet I have ever owned and I have had helmets from almost every manufacturer! They have so much adjustability that you can make them fit any size/shape head, even Scott's big head!

Now the bikes! How do you take the best cross country race bike out there and make it better? Rear thru axle, beef up the chainstays and seat stays, and make it lighter!! Yup, mine looks like it will be 20lbs race ready! Crazy for a dual suspension bike!

One last thing that I have to give a shout out to is Raw Revolution. I usually do not get excited about nutritition products, but these are actually really good and I find myself grabbing one for snacks sometimes cause they are that good!

So now we have orders out for Scrub, which I am excited for their new brake pad compounds not to mention their trick, lightweight rotors. Crankbrothers with their new seatposts to add to the awesome pedals, and Stan's No Tubes for their light race wheels and their not sitting on the side of the trail, flat protectant, sealant!

So now all we nead is the snow to melt and some trails to open up so that my first ride on a MTB is not the Cohutta 100!!

Cali Totals and sights!

2011-04-03T19:48:00.001-05:00

I feel at home there! Took some time for me to get used to the traffic riding out of town, but I always love riding and spending time in Marin! Can't wait for my next trip back!!

Totals

Hours:42 hrs

Miles: 564 miles

Pastry Calories Required: 24000 KJs

Latte Count: Who knows, but I am on first name basis with most coffee shop baristas from Sausalito to Fairfax!!

My Climbing Speed by the end of the week!

Sweet!, the Dam loop! Killer in both directions!

I'm on a boat!!

Amazing how the camera can actually capture things exactly how I saw them while climbing with Mike!

Michelle dopping us on the last day!

I don't have a descending muscle at 140 lbs, but these are still a lot of fun!

Great view of the bridge from the Marin Headlands

What, good thing I found dessert! Could of ruined an evening!

Cruising the Paradise loop, did I say something wrong?

Bridge view from prison, Alcatraz

Alcatraz, actually a fun tour!

Bolinas Lagoon from Seven Sisters!

San Francisco from the top of Tam!

TT practice!

2011-04-03T00:20:00.001-05:00

Bike path style!! Way too funny!! The Marin DB kept speeding up whenever Michelle would come up next to him, the funny thing was his speeding still was slow enough to allow me to laugh out loud, ride no handed, and take pictures!! By the way he ended up getting chicked big time on the climb out of Sausalito! At least he was riding his bike though!

So vacation/training camp is over! Hope the weather is planning to be warm at home by the time I have to start training again. I haven't even looked yet cause I do not think I could handle the disappointment!!

Tomorrow I will work at gathering totals after I recover from the red eye home tonight! All I do know is I lost track of the latte count!! Sorry to disappoint!!

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Market Research

2011-04-01T18:39:00.001-05:00

The group is out in Napa looking for a new beverage sponsor!!

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J.R.A.

2011-03-29T14:47:00.001-05:00

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2011 Barry Roubaix Video

2011-03-28T19:46:00.002-05:00

A tough, but good day of racing at the 65 mile "Killer Gravel" road race in Middleville, MI. Mike and I finished just inside the top 25 on the challenging course that entertained 1,000 racers with a very cool starting temp of just 19F. Next up for the team is the NUE Cohutta 100 and the WORS Iola Bump & Jump.

Superjuice

2011-03-28T09:34:00.001-05:00

Gotta be what the "S" is for!!

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Camp round 1

2011-03-27T20:22:00.001-05:00

Made it through camp version one this past week. The weather didn't always cooperate, but we managed and seemed to get lucky every day but one. That day it was raining pretty good and we could tell because everyone from Portland stayed inside while everyone from the east side of the Mississippi chamoised up and showed them how tough we are! Hell, the way we looked at it was it did not require studded tires and was above freezin, lets ride!!!!

The rest of the days we just hit some patches of rain and some wet roads at times so it was fine. I will work on getting totals up, but it was a lot of riding, tons of calories needed to be replaced and by the end of the week only the caffeine in my coffee was motivating me! Once the camp camera gets charged I will also work on some pictures.

Today we moved on to part 2 of our Cali trip and checked into this sweet home we are renting in Larkspur. Bossman and his misses joined us and Mike P and his misses join us tomorrow night! Looking forward to another good week of riding and the weather looks to be shaping up for some shorts and shortsleeve weather. In the meantime spent most of the time cleaning the bikes up today after trashing them last week. Once done, new brake pads, new chains, and Jen from Easton was awesome and helped us out with a new set of killer wheels for Michelle's bike!!! Thanks so much!

Also thanks to Troy from Quarq! It was great to have him at camp and if you are looking for a new power meter, look no further! Great service and some cool stuff coming down the pipeline, cannot wait!

One last thing, nice work to Scott and Mike for starting their season in March. From the pics looks like it was epic, but still a lot of fun!

Soggy Chamois and Landslides

2011-03-25T22:44:00.001-05:00

Yup, rain, and lots of it came yesterday and even came accross a couple of landslides on Mt Tam. We did get out for a couple hours and hammered up Mt Tam just to get some short and sweet intensity in. Then today was the long day, 90 miles of one of the best rides around. Mill Valley to Marshall to Point Reyes for pastries, then back over Mt Tam to Mill Valley! Sweet!! Lots of fun and beating up on each other! By the end we were all pretty smoked and stopped for coffee and milkshakes! One more day to go of camp then we have to start cooking for ourselves again! Bummer!

Nice side of things, the house we have rented looks really nice and the weather is supposed to dry up next week. Still working on getting some pics from the week, but not doing a good job. I promise they will come!

In the meantime, good luck to Scott and Mike at Barry Rubaix this weekend!

Marin Camp

2011-03-23T22:08:00.000-05:00

Well mother nature has been good to us so far, lets hope that trend continues and the weather forecast is wrong. So far, miles has been the name of the game. Continue to ride with the group inthe mornign then head out for more punishment afterwards. Kind of sucks cause usually lunch is picked over pretty good upon my reutrn! Not good! The rides have consisted of some Mt Tam, some paradise loop and then some more Mt Tam. Including tomorrow being the race up Tam. Should be a big suffer fest cause I pretty much hit the wall during my tempo set today and was forced to cruise home with my tail between my legs.

Anyway here are some shots of the day:

The first ever!

2011-03-21T10:39:00.000-05:00

Yup, this is it, the first ever in flight blog update! Lets hope the Crappad can make it through and Bill Gates has not decided that this is not in direct violation of what he believes is its intended use. I have heard of no fights between blogger and Apple so hopefully we are safe.

Anyway, on our way to Cali. The weather forecast for the week looks pretty grim with rain, but it will beat the snow coming into the home front on Tuesday. Spring had better be in full swing by the time we get back in 2 weeks!!

The first week is camp with bossman in Marin. Michelle and I had so much fun there last year we decided to go back. How couldn't you enjoy it, great food, good company, and the only things you need to worry about are waking up and riding your bike! The 2nd week we have a house rented in Larkspur and will be joined by bossman and his wife Stacey and then Mikey P and Chimene will be coming in as well. Rumor has it there have been some crazy sightings in the Chicago area of a guy in 212 clothing sporting some wicked beard styles?? Sounds like there might even be a sighting at the Barry Rubaix next weekend so we will have Mike and Scott at the race! Good luck to everyone racing next week!

The demons are awake!

2011-03-17T07:59:00.000-05:00

Well the demon has been brought out of hibernation with the riding that has been going on. He seems to devour everything that I put in my body, leaving me waking up in the middle of the night looking for some munchies! With this happening the pounds have been falling off and I am already at race weight, oops! Guess I might need to pull out some Mikey P training?

So what woke up the demon? Lots of riding and the start of a nice build period leading up to Cohutta. This is where I put my first shot out to Simonson to make sure he is doing what is needed and to check on his weight! Ha! We are going to work on some Midwest representation in the NUE series this year so wish us luck!

This past weekend was also a good weekend of riding, with Ryan and Lisa coming up to get their bikes before they are off to Dallas and Michelle and I are off to Cali. Sure hope the weather forecast changes for Cali before we get there! So Sunday we got a good ride in with the central WI portion of the team, Krayers, Peariso's, Scott, and Sarah. Yeah I want to know what Mark was up to as well?? It was a lot of fun and we had a lot of laughs making the ride go by fast despite spanning 4 counties! By the way, the girls were the instigators during the ride!! Good times!

Well I am out the door to finish trashing my legs before heading to camp and doing it some more. Happy St Patty's Day!

WORS Complaint Department

2011-03-10T11:46:00.000-06:00

So once a year the top 5 in both the women and men's categories are given an opportunity, and a stage, to thank those that make it possible for us to race throughout the year. This year seems to be a bit different though. This year my bio, and I now know Lisa's, was changed drastically and eliminated our thanks that we feel are important!! I understand the page restraint and getting everything to fit, but as I see it 10 racers times the $360 all in one and you are getting close to the same amount of support that some of headline sponsors are paying!! Or if that is not justification enough then give us a word count constraint!!

This also brings up another complaint. I am not a fan of when someone makes their problem, my problem. This year we got a last minute email stating to get our Bio in immediately! If you are going to procrastinate, that is not my fault! Then this is how it was followed up "Get them to me by Friday at the latest or I'll get creative (just look at what I did to Tom Bender last year!)." I have no clue what was done to Bender, but sounds more like a threat and not needed.

So to get my just due and thanks to those that support me, and the Adventure 212 Team, here is what I wrote:

WORS 2010, top 5? What a great group of riders and a fun way to spend the summer. We have a great thing happening in the Midwest and the talent that we get to race against on a bi-weekly basis is awesome! I enjoy being a part of the series as a racer and as a team sponsor.

In 2010 the Adventure 212/Specialized Team had another great year and each individual rider continues to improve. In 2011, much will remain the same. We will still be on the best bike in the business, Specialized! We will also be continuing with great support from the Hostel Shoppe in Stevens Point and Hidden Bay will be supplying all of our clothing. Thank you for building a long term relationship with the team and supplying us with such great products. Our other sponsors also include Crankbrothers, Scrub Components, Optic Nerve, No Tubes, Raw Revolution, and random ice cream shops near the races!!

So that is the team stuff, now a bit about me. 2011 will mark my 14th season racing Mountain Bikes and because of that I plan to mix it up a bit and try new venues. So I am going to pack the bike up and travel the nation in search of some great riding. My first big stop of the season will be the Cohutta 100, where I plan to better my last year finish of 2nd place! Wish me luck! After that my main goal will be a top 3 overall in the NUE 100 series and then the XC Marathon National Championships. I will still plan to attend as many WORS races as possible, but more in the support role for the rest of my teammates.

As for the thanks: Thanks Michelle for letting me continue my hobby, to bossman(Adnan Kadir) for keeping me fast as I ripen, to all the people who cheer us on at the races, and to all my teammates for making each stop memorable with all the fun antics and random blurted out, inappropriate comments! Lisa!

Until go time, follow the team and support crew at: http://team-adventure212.blogspot.com

Once again, Thank You to all our AWESOME Sponsors!!!

Missing Guam

2011-03-07T13:49:00.000-06:00

Well I am missing that weather, and the people of Guam! Here are some nice shots of my morning commute! Brrr..........

Sights of Guam

2011-03-05T17:09:00.000-06:00

brain bucket

2011-03-03T17:31:00.000-06:00

We have Brains on our S-Works...but this bucket protects our thinker!

Tour de Guahan

2011-02-27T17:13:00.000-06:00

What a fun event!!! I also must say hard event!! The weather turned out to be warm, humid, windy, with just a little rain. Hmmm, surprised? No, it has been like that all week.

The hardest part of the day was the 4am up and about with no where to get food. Michelle and I did some shopping the day before so it was cereal and bananas in the room before riding our bike down to the Pacific Island Club for our shuttle pic up. We were greeted down there by "Joe the Bus Driver" and Peter Ford from Cycling Sport News. Nothing like starting your morning with some comedic relief from Peter! What a character! Still waiting to see his article that he is publishing about this new wave of naked, brakeless, downhill MTB that was discussed at dinner! Should be fun!

So we loaded the bus and started the trek to the south part of the island for the race start at Jeff's Pirate Cove. Once we arrived there, it was great to talk to the rest of the competitors and some last minute ribbing for wearing MTB shoes and using Crankbrother Eggbeaters on my Specializd SL3 Rocket Ship. Good thing I can take it, cause it was the topic of discussion all weekend and some think my demise at the finish, maybe??

Anyway, the gun went off and we followed the pace car out. We had a pretty easy roll out and once the car pulled away, the action started. I think the first major thing that happened was when Kyle from Australia flatted less than 5K into the race. I was ridding next to Malcolm at the time and was content to set up and wait a bit, but the other riders were having none of it and took advantage of the situation. So game on. We came across the top part of the loop in a pretty good paceline keeping the speeds high. Then on the first climb of the day Malcolm hit the throttle. I glued myself to his wheel and when we crested the top we had about 30 seconds on the group. Once over the top he gave me a smirk and said "just checking to see who is strong!" We then set up and let everything come back together. We then rolled the flats and a pretty moderate pace and that is when Kyle bridged back up. From there it was tame down the lower part of the island with just some acceleration up the hills. I think this is what hurt me most, cause when we hit the first of the climbs, my legs were not ready to go. Malcolm got about a 20 yd gap on me, and then about another 20 yds to the group.

Photo: Peter Ford, Cycle Sport News

I chased for a bit, but was really struggling with the first climb so I set up and let the group join me again. Unfortunately once they were back on I noticed that the rest were hurting as well and was not able to offer a lot of help. So on the 2nd climb I kept the pace a bit higher and only Kyle (from Australia) and Hamada (from Japan) were able to go. I kept hitting the small rises as hard as I could and finally unhitched Hamada, who was riding really strong that day. Kyle and I then hit the cross island road with a horrible head wind that pretty much made sure no one was going anywhere. I tried a couple attacks but they were matched every time. So it came down to a sprint. Not what I wanted since Kyle is a track rider! We made the last turn and I told Kyle, no crashing, and that I have never contested a sprint on a road bike before! He looked back at me and said "Good!" There was a bridge about 100 yds out and I remembered when we did our pre ride the other day he said that would be his launch pad so I decided to attack him just before and try to catch him off guard. It worked, but I did not have the power to match his sprint and ended up 3rd on the day.

Michelle also had a really good ride and pulled the guys around for the day. She did struggle some with the nutrition and the heat and humidity, but prevailed and finished 3rd on the day. I think she is super excited cause now when she downloads her power files they have mileage associated with them! She has done nothing but ride the rollers all winter! I was looking to find a good podium shot of her, but cannot find one. The 2 girls that beat her can't be 90 lbs and 5 feet tall, so she looked super tall on the podium!

Once again thanks to everyone here on Guam for the hospitality! They keep making sure Michelle and I have all the support we need and have been so pleasant to share our vacation with. We will definitely be back!