Confusion..........

I heard once that you should always surround yourself with those that add clarity to the day to day issues and avoid those that choose to clutter the path:

Thanks friend:

Yup

Bad Combo

Do a bunch of this then drink a couple of these:

and you have a possibility of a disastrous one of these!!

Nuts and bolts of it.....

So 100 miles on a MTB.... Hmmm never thought I would say that.  But been saying it more these days and I seem to really dig it.  Makes all the travel seem worth while to me and I guess it puts my body into such a calorie deficit that I get to eat what ever I want!  Not that it has stopped me in the past. Gaining weight, diet? Nope, ride my bike more!  6100 Kjs this past go round at the Mohican 100.  I was actually shocked by the numbers for this past weekend that I received thanks to my Quarq powermeter. 

So do you want to know what it takes for me to finish in the top 5 at a 100 mile race.  I say me cause it would be so different for everyone.  I know people that have the same numbers that I do and cause of difference in powermeters and more so mental state while racing they will beat me everytime.  It could have something to do with me talking to much on the course?? Sorry to anyone who has ever ridden with me and been annoyed by that, but we are supposed to be out there having fun! Which I do, cause I love to ride my bike! 

So the numbers....

I will start with the typical, you know you are on the gas when the KJs are ticking away at 1000KJs/hr!  Especially at my weight! Thats when you know the hinges will be worn out on the pantry door cause you cannot keep up with the jet powered metabolism you have kicked started.  Well, that is where I was at the 4hr mark.  No wonder I was getting tired and was starting to think about the 3 hrs left to go:

Now during the 100's, this is usually the way I break it down in my head.  I pay no attention to my garmin till I am at least 4 hrs in.  This is usually over the half way point and in my mind I like to think it is downhill from there.  Usually works for me and it keeps me motivated.  That doesn't mean that the demons never talk to me telling me to get off the bike and just take a nap in the ditch till someone comes to pick me up.  The 7AM start does not help that much either! 

So now the 2nd half??  Survival, that is the only way to sum it up.  You have already either made the selection or which usually seems to be my case..... chasing.  It is always weird cause the fatigue sets in the thoughts of the post race bad food spree that is going to happen as you reward your mind with burgers, ice cream, and beer.   Once those thoughts hit, you just push to get the race over with.  So the 2nd half numbers always seem to look worse than the first:

I usually get a bit of a spike towards the end as the moral improves and the finish line seems to be within reach. 

So the overall numbers:  Ouch!  A Tss of 512 and 6106KJs.  As Ryan would say, that is getting right after it. 

 

Mohican 100

This sums it up. More to come.....

Ohio bound!

Rain in the forecast so I picked up a new bike that is easy to carry just in case the course gets water logged like a couple years ago!

U.P. Weekend, eh!

What a fun trip to the UP this past weekend!  Lots of riding, lots of gabbing, and maybe too much beer??  So we started out by picking Mark up from work and driving straight north for 4 hrs where we met the McFadden's in Houghton Friday night.  We hung out there and started with the Tech trails on Saturday morning. After some Bontrager tire issues:

Some skills work:

Funny thing is that I made this one but could not make the rainbow??  Mark tried to get video of my failed attempt, but he did not get the camera out in time to catch me taking a dirt nap:)  They couldn't tease me too much though cause I was the only one trying all the attractions! 

So after the tech trails, Todd moved onto dad duty and Mark and I decided to ride over to the Churning Rapids Trails.  We rode over there for the rest of the afternoon and finished it off with a tostado pizza, beer, and fishbowls at Ambassador.  What a great training day! 

After Ambassador we continued North to Copper Harbor.  After a night of more beer at the Mariner and lots of stupid talk, we woke up the next morning to rain!  Yuck!  the rain finally let up around 11 and then it was out the door to enjoy all the great trails around Copper Harbor.  By the end of the day I think I went up Brockway something like 8 times and probably four or five trips up to the Mountain Lodge to make up some 6000 ft of climbing on the day!   My last trip up included a trip down the red trail and my body was so smoked from the tech nature of the trails that I could barely hang on anymore.  In the end it was another fun day of riding. 

All the riding was topped off with the celebration of the Copper Harbor Trails getting IMBA Ride Center status.  Congrats to them, I know all the work that goes into these trails and it shows!  If you have not made the trip north you are missing out! 

Stacey Kukkonen/Daily Mining Gazette

So the party was a lot of fun and yes it included more of the same, beer and stupid talk.  Mark and I really started talking stupid about bikes.  Thinking this needs to be my next bike???

We returned home on Monday to some bike cleaning and the start of prep for this coming weekend, the Mohican 100.  Looks like it going to be cooler than it should be for Ohio this time of year.  Either way I am hoping that it goes better than last and Ryan does something with the trail markings! 

For the rest of the team, Ryan, Mark, and Scott will be at the Mohican with me and Michelle, Sarah, Lisa, Darrin, Mikey, and Myles will be at Wausau. 

Yowza!

Been here, there, over there.  Doing this and that and about everything in between.  Been fun though.  I think I need to go all the way back to 2 weekends ago at the Rasta Rally!  Fun, Fun, Fun!  Still sick but could not miss this ride!  They take all the good trails at the camp there and make just an outstanding 12 mile loop that you just have to enjoy.  This year they made it better for Mark and I by delaying the race start this year and giving us time to get in a full lap of the course before the race!  Thanks!  I would eventually finish 2nd on the day and could not match Justin.  Congrats to him! 

From here it was clean the bikes pack, grab RK and Scott and head off to Ar-Kansas for the Syllamos Revenge.  Still hacking up a lung, but at least starting to turn the corner.  We arrived down in the dirty south just in time to ride the Green Loop and start the Nasty Catch Scratch weekend of overgrown trails.  Ouch!

Here is a nice shot of some of the singletrack.  This trail system has IMBA Epic status and it is sad after talking to the race director he was mentioning that in a couple years the trails might not even be there anymore do to the lack of community support and riders.  That sucks!

With the early arrival it felt as if we ended up with all this extra time.  Ryan wanted us to take him into town so that he could show off his down south attire, but Scott and I were not up to beating all the ladies off him so we hung out at the cabin most of the day.

Thats hot!  Michelle said that if he wore them again she would kick him off the team!!   To try and get that image out of your head here is a shot from the trails:

So for the race.  I went into this one not knowing what to expect after being sick for so long so at the start I just rode my pace up the first climb and entered the first section of singletrack sitting about 8th wheel or so.  I immediately let a gap open between me and the front group so that I could have a clean line going into all the sections.  I rode alright up to the first aid station, but was no match for the leaders.  With the technical nature of the trail though I found myself sitting 4th at aid station 1 with Drew, Christian, and Brandon off the front.  I was happy with that and just kept my pace.  Then just before aid 2 I saw Christian off the side of the trail with some pretty good scraps and a pretty good gouge in his knee.  I stopped to help and he told me to keep going.  I kept going then stopped at aid 2 to try and get someone to go back and help him.  The staff at aid 2 just stood there and looked at me!!  I finally got someone to go back for him, but in all the confusion, I rolled out of that aid stop without my bottles!  Not good, and I did not realize the mistake till almost 10 min later.  That just meant I had to make it the next 1.5hrs in 85 degree weather with no water!  I made it, but I was way behind on hydration now.  I stopped at aid 3 and put down an extra bottle before heading out on the red loop.  I came into aid 4 feeling fine and did the same, an extra bottle and I even stopped and ate some food as well.  I continued to the 2nd time around the yellow loop and this is when everything went wrong.  I was so overheated and dehydrated I had to take my helmet and gloves off, jersey completely unzipped and I just walked.  I had the chills, vomiting, and was completely bonked.  I just tried to walk and keep forward motion!  I finally cooled down some and got back on the bike and spun back to aid 5, but not before a couple riders got by me.  Luckily for me Kevin was at aid 5.  Unfortunate for him though, cause he broke his bike earlier in the day and had to DNF.  At aid station 5 he pretty much put me back together with lots of ice, water, Gatorade, and electrolytes.  Not sure how but after a few minutes he had me back on my bike for one more death march around the red loop!!  Thanks Kevin! In the end I finished 4th in the open field.  Then not far behind me was RK taking the sprint over Ernesto and the last podium spot in 5th! 

So if you have not seen some of the press, I think this is the best race recap.  Press can also be found here and here.

After the race it was a 14 hr death drive home that we started at 4am due to none of us sleeping cause of the fire scratches we received from the trails, so that is what Syallamos Revenge is all about! 

Now back home it was back to cleaning bikes and training again.  It is nice to be back to a training schedule and not feeling just awful!  Yesterday I had a great ride that included a covered bridge:

and a total of 5 hrs and 100 miles for my commute to work! 

Next up, a trip north to ride all the trails in the Keweenaw for the weekend!  Cant wait!



Down with the sickness.....

Deep down I knew I should not of raced this weekend, but I did not listen to that inner voice and decided to get even sicker than I already was!  It was hard to say no to a race that is so close though!  Also it is the only WORS race I have on the calendar till late June now and it is always nice to see some of the people we race with!  So to say the least my race did not go well and I made it worse by throwing my bike on the ground and breaking the rear deraileur so that it would not stay in a gear and did not allow me to put much force to the pedals!  Oh well I guess. Either way I think the big news is the girls.  They showed up ready to go and had some good results, finishing in 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th.  Nice work to them!  Must be their mechanics taking good care of their bikes?  Here is the race report on cyclingnews for those who have not seen it. 

Besides the race, I think the best part of the weekend was spent in Amherst doing some Redneck weeding with firecrackers.  Yeah Ryan and Lisa brought bottle rockets up and it entertained us for most of Saturday afternoon!  Luckily we ended up getting out of it with all our fingers and did not catch anything on fire!  Flipp'n sweet! 

We then pre rode and had like 25 people over for dinner which made for even more fun!!  Starting to think that the race is the least exciting part of the weekend when you have a team like ours! 

Elvis, was that you?

So if you have not heard this past weekend at Cohutta was a bit of a roller coaster.  I got a  great start and actually took the hole shot into the first section of singletrack.  I set my pace early and tried to keep things controlled a bit even though Bishop was not happy with it.  I finally let him around me and the games started.  We hit the first section pretty hard then after we went down this road section, someone went to the front and set a pretty fast pace along the river.  It was like everyone wanted to win in the singletrack?  Everyone seemed nervous so I just backed off Christian a little and left enough gap to react if someone did end up going down.  Luckily that never happened!  So with everyone so amped up I tried to play it calm and it almost did not work out.  I laid back about 6th or 7th wheel with Christian just in front of me.  I ended up getting too relaxed and the next time I looked up a group of 4 were off the front!  Oops.  From then on the chase started.  Luckily I had some good help with Christian for a while, then Alexander for Costa Rica, and Christopher Michaels.  We ended up making it back on the lead group just before aide station 2 when Kevin Carter came up to us and finished the chase off!  Thanks!  We rolled pretty chilled for a while and I think that was the slowest I ever went up the long climb to aid 3.  Then through aid 3 Simonson attacked like normal since he receives feeds out there.  We all let him hang out there for awhile thinking it was too long for someone to go solo for that long and questioning what he was up to.  Justin Lindine and I would go to the front on the downhills to pull a few second back and then Christian would go to the front on the climbs.  After about 15 to 20 minutes of that we brought Mike back into the group.  Then at about 47 miles in, I got a glimpse of Elvis.  We were descending and at the bottom was a left hand corner.  I grabbed the brakes, and the entire front rotor flew apart.  Talk about panic!!  Luckily I yanked on the rear brake and slid it to a stop!  The skid though would of won any skid mark competition out there!   I took inventory and I made it out alive to fight another day!  At first I was disappointed cause we had a group of 7 that was away and not going to be caught and my legs were starting to feel good.  But in the end I thought about it and I was just happy that the front end did not lock up with a stray rotor piece.

So my next thought was, what next?  I was 10 miles from aid 3 and 4 miles to aid 4 so I started towards aid 4.  Well it was ALL downhill to aid 4 and it is very unnerving to be accelerating with the brakes on so I started to drag my feet.  I finally came around a corner and found the Michigan group standing there cheering everyone on.  I stopped and talked with them for a bit.  Asked if they had a spare rotor, they said no. Bummer!  Then I asked for the next best thing, you have a beer?  That was a yes!  So I set there and had a beer while waiting for Ryan and Scott to come through.  After they came through I made my way down to aid 4 to help with their support when they came back through and to work on how to get out of the woods! 

At aid 4 they told me that a ride would not be coming through till after the sweep vehicle, in about 6 hrs!!!!  Really!  Since I smoked my rear pads trying to get down the hill I now have no brakes and need to somehow get back to aid 6 where I knew Chuck was there giving us support.  I did have an extra set of brake pads with me so I changed them out.  I supported Ryan then when Scott came up I have never seen him in such a bad spot!  I made him take as much as I could stuff in his pockets and then I threw everything else in my pockets to get him back up the hill that we just came down.  The whole time back towards aid 6 I talked Scott's ear off and tried to get him to focus on anything but riding his bike.  I was getting no where!  All my questions and continual yapping went on without even an attempt to acknowledge.  Then out of the blue, Scott's alive!!  An event on the trail made him come to life, thanks to the person who offered the encouragement he needed!!  I will not go into what that was here, but it was pretty funny! 

So we finished our way back to Aid 6 where I finally pulled the plug on my day and got a ride back to the start with Chuck!  Once back there I learned that Sarah finished 2nd and Michelle 5th in the 65 mile race!  Nice way to start the season!!

So now onto the evening!  We decided to through Mark under the train, not sure what for, but it sounded like a good idea at the time!

Some more randomness, not just for bike anymore(you might have to zoom this one in?):

So next up is some training race for me in Iola!  Should be fun to see everyone again though and sounds like we might be racing in the rain?  See you there! 

Number on....

Just finished putting the first number plate on for 2012 and now chill'n with the rest of the team on the porch of our so called cabin on the river. Super excited for go time......... In the meantime here is the pre race press release. The stacked field is going to make it even more fun!

Game face

OK, not for me cause I really don't have one. What can I say, I like to mess around too much on the bike and race day is no different.  Either way the Cohutta 100 is just a few short days away and I am really excited.  It is going to be a fun time for sure and the race is sold out with a lot of familiar names on the start list.  I for some reason have had some good luck here and I hope that it continues this weekend.  The bike set up for the weekend is the Specialized Epic 29er, yes a 29er for me this year??  I will be running the Specialized renegades for tires, scrub rotors, Truvativ cockpit, and I will be doing my first race with the Quarq Power Meter.  Might have to just send that file to bossman without looking at it.  Not real sure I want to know what the power is at the end of 7hrs in the saddle??  Maybe I will post it here?? 

So to finish the prep for the big weekend, I ended up doing a big weekend of rides.  Started on Saturday on  the Tarmac.  Lets just say it was not a motivational ride by any means as I struggled to get my carcass back home.  Not sure what was a miss, but ouch that hurt.  Then I am not sure this is a bad day cause it happened, or a good day that a Pro bar wrapper became my tire tread and made it 40 miles back home???

 I know the picture is a little blurry but you get the idea.  I then decided to get the proper nutrient in my body so I was ready to go again on Sunday:

Come on, there is a water bottle back there, probably empty though!  That is also not Sprecher in the glass.  Timster stopped and picked up a couple growlers of Central Waters Belgian Blond.  One of the better brews that they make.  Next weekend at Iola I highly recommend you hit them up in Amherst.  Also hersheys was the only chocolate I could find in Tim and Sarah's house! I was going to say that is not right, but I probably ate it all the last time I was there:)   Also the last time we were there we had a beer from Mikkeller Brewery in Norway.  It was really expensive at $13 for a 8.5oz bottle.  It was their Brunch Weasel aged in Cognac barrels.  The interesting thing about it, well read the description of the stock beer before putting it in the Cognac barrels to age for 3 months.  Yup, it said what you thought it did.  Right from the Weasels butt.  I knew that they made coffee this way and it is the most expensive coffee that you could buy, but I swore you would never get me to try it.  That is unless you mask it in the beer form.  All I have to say is the beer is awesome, unfortunately we found out that we got 1 of 48 bottles brought into the state of Wisconsin!! As for the weasel, Mark mentioned he was OK with it cause he was going to just tell himself it was a free range weasel and that somehow made it better in his world??? 

So now that I was fueled back up, I was ready for some team action at the Kettles with Big D, Ryan, and Brian.  Was a good time for sure as we just traded leads and attacks on each other for the entire day!  By the end I think we all had a muffin moment and put in a little under 4 hrs, and a little over 40 miles of fun!! Was also a good last shake down on the bike leading into the first race. 

Next up is a 15 hrs drive to the south, east corner of Tennessee. 

All quiet on the bike front

So it is one week till the start of the season and everything seems to be in a nice place of zen.  It has been a long time sincee things were smooth sailing and everyday I woke up excited to ride my bike no matter the workout! Don't get me wrong VO2 workouts still suck, but they are more bareable when you are riding well.  It has also been nice cause I have parked the Tarmac and have been on the Epic 29er for the last week now.  I always find a day of soreness associated with a bike change.  I have tried everything and even have used Scott's Specialized BG fit knowledge on several occasions to make sure everything is dialed.  Everything that we can think of seems dead on , but there is something missing so going into bigger races I do all my rides on the MTB.  Using this plan has become easier this year because of the addition of the Quarq Powermeter to my MTB.  This allows me to still send bossman numbers of what I am doing instead of guessing at a TSS score for every ride.  Although I have noticed a huge difference between your TSS and KJs for the day on the MTB.  Especially when you get on a technical trail.  I really think that formula needs to be re-worked a little!  I can come off a hard mtb ride with several accelerations over 400 watts just completely tanked.  Then if I compare it to one of my road files it is not even close!  Must mean that I am efficient at just setting my pace and leaving it for hours on end and the accelerations are what kill me?  Could also explain why the 100 mile races keep calling my name.  This year I have added even more of them to the schedule and will be less present at the WORS racees, especially the early season ones.  So here is a peak at my schedule for the year:
  

This should keep me busy for the year.  I am still undecided for the PROXct race though.  It is the same weekend as the New Hamshire 100 and I really want to do that one but hard to skip a National race that allows you to sleep in your own bed.  Speaking of sleeping, I found this one the other day while riding.  I guess you never know when you might need a break.  From now on, this is where I will be doing all my intervals, just in case I need a nap!

If anyone knows me though, I do not nap!  I never really even sit down.  The one thing that I do get called out on is that I am always eating!  So my brother in law and his wife decided to help out with some extra calories! 

Yup, that is a 5KG(11lb) tub of Nutella!  So Michelle figured it out and I guess I need to get in something like 88 hrs of race pace workouts to use up all the calories in this thing! So if you have any good Nutella recipes send them my way! 

In other news, Big D has a birthday yesterday.  I think he turned 18 or so?? Acutally I think it was 27, so I started thinking about what was popular in 2001 when I was 27.  Well at the time I was riding a Litespeed Ocoee:

So after thinking about that I started thinking about Scott(oh yeah and McFadden), sorry older men.  I believe at that time Scott was riding a Yeti and McFadden a DBR, but not real sure so here is what Ned was riding in 1992.

Too funny! 

Just another day........

So there has not been much to talk about.  Been riding my bike a lot, having fun with it, and there are good leg days and some bad leg days.  All in all though I still love riding the bike.  Since being back from Prescott the road bike has been getting the love and I have chalked up some good miles on it.  Amazing how the difference in bike can affect the amount of miles.  Even between my cross bike to my Tarmac.  On my cross bike I would go out on a 4 hr ride and put out 60 or 65 miles, but on the Tarmac you can rip out 80 to 85 miles.  It seems to add to my motivation when you see more mileage. All in all I know it is still 4 hrs but it is not very often that someone actually asks you how many hrs you ride,  they always want to know the mileage. 

So with the change in weather and spring coming a lot of people have been getting that racing bug and it is coming quick.  I have my race schedule set for the year and it is heavily weighted with the long distance stuff.  Even skipping Chequamegon again this year.  I really thought I would miss this event, but I don't.  Yeah I miss the after race antics of the team, but the race itself has been my achilles heal for a number of years.  All I ever wanted was to hit the podium once and I have been close on a number of occasions but cant seem to get the job done.  So what takes its place, Marathon National Championships.  This year they are in Bend again and I cannot turn down another oppurtunity to head out there. I love the town and all the trails that surround it!  This year Michelle and I will be spending 2 different 2 week periods out there and one might include some house hunting?  Time will tell. 

Just might be.....

The best use for a Crap Pad!