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Monday, July 25, 2011
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Seeing eye dog
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!!
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!!
Thursday, July 21, 2011
A whole lotta nothing
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?
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?
Friday, July 15, 2011
The good and the bad.....
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!
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????
Thursday, July 14, 2011
U-da-ho
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!!
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Congrats Mikee
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Friday, July 8, 2011
Mid July, Really!!
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!!
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!!
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!!
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Oops, blew that one!
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 :(
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 :(
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Looking to the future!
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!!
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!!
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Lumberjack 100 report
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??
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??
Friday, June 17, 2011
Going Plaid!
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!
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!
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Lumberjacked!!
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??
Monday, June 13, 2011
Team Style Points
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.
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.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Mohican 100K Race Recap (the boy’s will have to recap the 100 Mile for you…they’re just crazy!)
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!!!!
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!!!!
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