EveredE

2012...

2012-01-01T07:03:00.000-08:00

As i sit here, I ponder greater things...what does 2012 hold for me? Will it be riding and racing, or golf...

I did dig my clubs out and dust them off, and I did go on a 20 mile road ride to end 2011, the latter was to see if the time I've taken off the bike is doing any good.

Hmmm...yes and no...yes because I can actually walk today and no because a nerve in the middle of my right butt muscle woke me up at 4:45 this morning...it feels like someone is driving a knife in...repeatedly!!!

So progress, yes and no...I'm going to go for another ride today, an easy ride in the woods. The wind was howling yesterday and is doing the same today, so the woods is where it will be today!! Hopefully another ride will relieve the pain in my gluteus maximus...

It's funny, I haven't been out on the road for at least a month, probably longer. Yesterday, I was kinda half expecting some idiot in a car to do something stupid. I was not to be disappointed, a teenage kid with helmet hair (think beiber hair), waited til I was right in front of him to pull out on the road I was on...I gave him a nice loud shout, he stopped, then gave me an apology wave...I guess it's a good thing I was expecting it. It would be nice to go for an idiot free road ride...sadly...those days are gone and never to return...

E

The end.

2011-12-28T05:16:00.000-08:00

This season has been less than stellar for me, with the exception of some late season fitness for CX. Even that has a downside...in the time period that i was building up my fitness during CX, I managed to give myself a hamstring problem that still plagues me to this day.

At this point "the end" seems more fitting than ever. I've not raced since November 12, and maybe have accumulated. 4 hours of ride time since then. I guess listening to your body has its benefits, but in cycling, pain is the name of the game, and I think I've gotten pretty good at pushing it aside and focusing on the task at hand...maybe too good...

So now the goals I have for next season are seriously in doubt. I think it's time to play golf again...

E

Gran Prix HPT

2011-11-13T09:00:00.000-08:00

A pic from the Boulevard Cup

Another CX race has come and gone. The weather was good...again...Although, Mother Nature did finally allow the water to flow. That was early this past week, so again, the racing was in "good conditions" albeit a little soft here and there.

The week leading up to this race I didn't get as much saddle time as I would have liked, so I was a little worried about how I was gonna ride. Oh well...I know you get out what you put in and I wasn't going to complain about getting my ass handed to me...I decided to give it my best and see what happened. That's all I can do.

I get to Heartland Park with plenty of time to get signed up and give the course a proper inspection. One of the best parts of this particular track was the use of a dirt track, which was dry but really soft during my inspection. I tried a few different lines and came to the realization that the established race line will be the way to go. The race line on the dirt track got faster and faster as the night wore on. There was also a couple sets of stairs in place of traditional CX barriers. A few short power climbs to keep everyone honest. I thought it was a good track.

Fast forward to the race...I get to the start line early so I can line up in the front. As it turns out, I didn't need to worry about it, due to the points I earned in the series last weekend, I was called up to the front row...that was nice.

GO!! I get a decent start and we drag race along a gravel road for about an 1/8th mile into the first turn. At this point I'm in 5th. We wind our way around to the dirt track and the pace goes to warp speed. A small gap opened in front of me that I managed to close before a left hand downhill off camber sweeper. At this point I was eating a ton of roost...I was totally not expecting to eat roost in a CX race...I've never even eaten roost in a MTB race!!! This caught me off guard to say the least.

We are winding our way around to the infield of the dirt track and 2 guys make moves from the back to the front group. At this point I'm in 8th...I think...

Anyway, the front group starts riding away leaving me in no mans land for the next 2 laps. Towards the end of lap 2 in no mans land, I take a quick look back and the 2 guys I raced with last week are chasing hard. I get to the steps with about a 5 second gap, which was quickly gobbled up when I make a mistake in a slow uphill switchback...oh well, I needed a break anyway.

So now it's Jeff from slimenundgrossen, Roger from Lawrence, and me. We stay this way until the last part of the dirt track which led out to the rest of the course. Jeff pulls over and Roger and I pull through. We race our way around to the power climb and I hear Jeff say "I'm in the wrong gear"!! A gap was opened, Roger was on the front driving it. Jeff never closed the gap, so now it's Roger and me. We roll through the start/finish in that order and I think there was 3 to go at this point.

I follow Roger around to the dirt track. I'm feeling pretty good again and decide to attack Roger to give a solo run to the line a go. I go blasting by him on the first straight of the dirt track, I get a small gap. At this point I am haulin the mail!!! I set myself up for the left hand downhill off camber turn, I realize that I'm going too fast for a feet up turn, I stick my left leg out and lean in. This helps the shoulder knobs bite really well, which they did!! I guess I got the tire pressure right for the track, because I railed around this turn with a hint of a 2 wheel drift without sliding out. This move alone doubled the gap I had, I nail the pedal coming out of the turn and drill it again to the infield section.

At this point I'm still feeling good and riding well. At times, Roger closes the gap a little, but in other parts of the track I would take that time back. He got close but never close enough for me to really worry. I give Roger props for keeping me honest. He NEVER stopped chasing, until it was out of reach...which was on the last section leading to the start/finish. He was about 30 yards behind when I turned onto the start/finish straight, I pedal hard a few times give a quick look back and realize I can finally rest...I cruise across the line in 8th.

I'm pretty happy with that result considering I might have gotten 2 hours of saddle time last week. There's at least one more race for me to do...maybe 2...we will see after that. I'm thinkin it's time for a break this week though. I'm ready for it!!

E

360/Boulevard Cup

2011-11-07T15:33:00.000-08:00

This past weekend was the 360/Boulevard Cup CX. These 2 races are some of the best events to attend ever!!!

About 1 1/2 months ago I needed to find a goal so I wouldn't turn into a slob and stop riding altogether. What did I find? This 2 day CX weekend.

When I started "training" for this weekend my fitness was...hmmm...not even just okay...but forge ahead I did. I raced and did my training rides like a man on a mission. With the exception of one, I have toed the line every weekend since the beginning of October with the sole purpose of having a good weekend of racing at the 360/Blvd event.

360...

The week leading up to these races wasn't the week I wanted to have. The weather didn't cooperate, and my MTB was having issues...I did man up and ride the trainer, probably not as much as I should have...oh well...I was "tapering" for the weekend.

Saturday comes and I roll to the venue feeling good, and ready to do battle again. I get registered, change into the riding clothes, which was almost everything I own to stay warm...it was 45 degrees and the wind was howling...IT WAS SUCKIN BAD!!!

I do my inspection of the course, and the one feature that had me a little worried was a long uphill grind, I shrug it off and roll on with my warm up. Finally, the time to race comes.

I have learned my lesson when it comes to lining up. I was there with plenty of time to get a primo spot on the outside of the front row. Anyway, the gun goes off and away we go. I got a decent start and was immediately on the limit, but not feeling to bad yet. We wind our way towards the long climb and when we hit that I knew it was not going to be a good day...

The race progresses and I find a good rhythm...there was a few highlights but mostly just suffering and not having the ride I wanted to have...

I crossed the line in 21st out of 31. I wasn't too bent by my result at the time, but when I got home and reflected on my race, I got mad...so based on that performance, I said F**K IT...I'm not racing on Sunday.

The Boulevard race...

So I wake up on Sunday, and start my morning ritual, pour myself a French Press and start thinking about racing. At 8:00 I'm mad as hell and want redemption for my waaaaaay less than stellar performance on Saturday.

MEAN MAN!!!

I decided to level the playing for this race and borrow a CX machine from the great Bertonio Swiftinelli. I was feeling mean and I needed to take my aggressions out on the CX track and my fellow competitors. I pack my gear bag, take my pedals and cage off my MTB and head to Bertonio's house to pick up my ride for the day.

I arrive at the venue with plenty of time to sign up and do a proper inspection. Ready to ride now, I make a few adjustments to the bike and roll out to get a feel for the bike and check the course.

After about 100 yards of riding, I make a right turn behind the ball field and drill it...I knew at that point I was gonna have a good day. As I said before, I learned my lesson for the call up. I was the first to toe the line and stood there by myself for about 5 minutes...it was great!!!

GO!! We're off, I get a good start inside the top ten, and not suffering at all. We get to the first twisty section and the guys ahead of me stay upright and life is good, because the farther back in the group you were at this point, the bigger the bottle neck and the longer it took to get up to speed.

Racing along on a ridge the rider ahead of me bobbles and I pass him only to have the front end slide out from under me...I was up quickly and only one racer got by. At this point the leaders are gone and I have no idea what place I'm in and didn't really care at this point anyway.

About the 3rd lap, the guy I was racing with are joined by one more. The chess game has begun. For the next 2 or 3 laps we take turns beating on each other riding in no mans land. Eventually a 50+ rider comes up to us, he manages to get to the front of my little group and starts driving it. I'm sitting 4th wheel at this point and we are on one of the faster sections of the track. I look over 3rd wheels shoulder and see a gap open. I knew this was a good move to go with, I make a move to the right and 3rd wheel drifts over and closes the door...a good size gap of about 40 feet opens...I yell at 3rd wheel to go!! He speeds up and the gap stops growing.

The 3 man chess match has begun.

We get to the backside of the ball field and I hammer past 3rd wheel to close within 10 feet. I'm content with this because we are coming to the sand pit and I didn't want to be on his wheel in case he buried himself in the sand.

I hit the pit, get swapped off my line and more or less come to a stop...all the work I just did was gone. I got going again and couldn't close the gap...now in no mans land, there's 2 laps to go.

I put in 2 great laps and manage to keep the guy I rode around at a good distance...until I came to the sand again. I was thinking just get through the sand without stopping and it's over. Of course I get swapped off my line again...that's what I get for thinking!!! DON'T THINK, JUST PEDAL!!!

A few turns later he is on my wheel again, I turn and say to him, that was a gift...he says I'll take it!! At this point we have one long section around ball field number 2, and of course I let him come around me for this part. This leads to a left/right switch back, then on to a concrete path which led us to the final stretch of grass with the finish line.

I set up the switch backs perfectly and was on the gas before he was. He drills it and I'm in the drops drafting. We hit the grass to the finish line, I look over his shoulder and sprint past him to nail down 5th out of 26.

It wasn't a win, but it felt really good. Especially considering the ass kickin I received the day before. I guess the training worked, the timing was off by a day or two I think, but one good day at the races is better than NO good days at the races!! I think the bike had a lot to do with the result, but I felt really good also and I am totally stoked with the results of my efforts!!

E

Boss Cross 3

2011-10-31T14:36:00.000-07:00

My how time flies when you're having fun!! This past Sunday was the Boss Cross 3 CX event at the Raytown BMX track...it was FREAKIN COOL!!!!

Sunday morning the race day ritual began at 6:30 and for some strange reason I stayed focused and was ready to leave on time...It's a rarity for me these days folks.

Anyway, on Saturday night I checked the boss cross blog for the latest info, and what do I find? A couple of enticing pics of the soon to be CX course. One was of the section of BMX track we would be racing on, which consisted of 2 doubles right when entered the track, followed by a HUUUUUUGE 180 degree berm to the left, leading into a double, triple, double section of jumps. IT WAS AWESOME!!

The other pic was of a log barrier which ranged from a foot high on the left side to at least 2 feet on the right side. As I looked at these pics, I was thinking about catching air on the jumps and I'm totally riding that log crossing. I achieved both!! The air was while I was inspecting the course, and the log was during the race...the log was easy!! The air took 3 attempts to clear the double out of the left turn. I have to say, when I decided to go for it on the 3rd try I wasn't sure what was going to happen...I know how to jump, but it's something that I don't do everyday. I Came off the berm and drilled it to the double and launched over it and down the back side like I had been doing it everyday...I was immediately jacked on adrenaline, it was awesome!!!

On to the race...I gave myself plenty of time this time and as I ride up to the start line, they call us up and I keep on rollin to a front row spot on the grid.

GO!! We take off on a section of pavement hard dirt double track, I get a decent start, 4 guys pass me and before I could get through a small opening to get back around, the door slammed shut. We're flying into the first turn, and I didn't realize how sharp it was and just about blow through the tape, fortunately I lean the bike over, stick my leg out and rail right around it like it's on rails!!

A gap opens and the lead group of 4 is going to be gone soon...I dig down a little and manage to keep them within striking distance through the technical BMX section. Once we hit the open field they started gaping me right away...remember the short track comment from the last race?? This track was 2 miles long and FAST!!!

The next couple of laps are uneventful, I'm joined by 2 other racers and we play chess for a few laps. The Slimen racer is going pretty good out on the long fast section and gets a small gap. I'm not to worried, he wasn't quite as smooth as me and the racer from Sunflower. He's an MTB'er too. We get to the BMX section and the gap he created was gone.

The 2 guys I was racing with.

About 4 to go Sunflower and I get a gap and that's the end for Slimen. Sunflower and I trade places a few times on the next lap. At this point I put in a good effort and get a gap over Sunflower. With 2 to go I drill it coming out of the BMX section and increase my lead.

The bell lap...I'm rollin along with a good gap over Sunflower trying to go fast when I can. I turn into the headwind and start to die!! My gap is shrinking fast!! Going with the wind the Sunflower rider gets back on my wheel we make a left and turn back into the wind where I let him come by and I sit on him. We get to the barriers, off, run, and I was back on before he was, which made me happy. I didn't go around because we had 1 more headwind section to go...

We turn into the wind for the last time and Sunflower picks up the pace. We round a right hand sweeper to go with the wind, the pace picks up again. One more right turn onto the start/finish straight and we're rollin pretty good. I look over his shoulder and decide it's now or never...I grab a gear and jump...I gain about an inch and quickly realize the tank is empty...oh well at least I gave it a go.

I finished 10th out of 16. Not bad for such a fast track. The only thing I would have done different is to catch air over the double at least once during the race. I thought about it but didn't pull the trigger...I guess the great wheelie incident of 2009 made me think twice about it.

There's always next time!!

This is the double jump. The HUUUUUUGE berm in the background.

E

Epic Radcross

2011-10-23T13:05:00.000-07:00

I hate to say it (not really) but another big blue sky day for CX racing. I'm sure there are people that want cold, crappy, and muddy conditions to race in, but NOT ME!!!

Let's see...I don't remember if it was this morning or yesterday, but I was thinking I need a tight, twisty course with no long high speed sections to level the field a bit. Well today was one of those tracks!!

I managed to pull a 6th in the masters 40+ and this time there was 20 starters. 2 DNF'd, so it will be scored as 18 riders, oh well, I had a good ride today.

I managed to get to the venue with about 45 minutes to get squared away...I don't know where that time went but it wasn't enough. I had enough time to inspect the course, which had 2 sand pits, and 1 set of barriers, and to do one decent effort on a road with a good hill on it, then head to the line and you guessed it...line up DFL in my class...BAH!!!!

As I sit there in my DFL spot, the promoter says we are gonna send all classes at the same time, there was 44 total at that point. I think to myself, hmmm...good thing I didn't show up a minute later otherwise I would really be DFL!!! Starting behind 43 other loonies...That would have sucked IMMENSELY!! Thank you lucky penny!!!

They say go and I get a good start, not too fast but just right. I settle in about 13th-ish going into the first turn...I pass a few here and there on the first lap and find a rhythm that won't kill me.

As it turns out, I'm having a good day, and my pace is just a bit faster than some of the guys that have been putting the screws to me these last few weeks. So I pick one off, he says good job E!! I asked him what's up, he says I'm cramping...I look at the ride time on my computer and a measly 14 minutes of 45 have passed...it sucked to be him!!!

I press on, passing a few more here and there slowly gaining on what would eventually be 6th place, I finally make a pass on an uphill concrete sidewalk and drill it!! I slowly but surely increased my gap to something I was sure he wouldn't close.

With that effort, I got within 30 feet or so of the guy in 5th for a while. I would get a little closer on occasion, but for the most part I couldn't get to his wheel. With about a lap and a half to go, 5th stepped it up a little and put more time in. I managed to bring back a little of it going into the last lap, but not enough to really threaten him for the spot. With about a quarter of a lap to go I put it on cruise and finished 6th.

Like I said before, I had a good day on my bike!! The course was twisty and technical enough to afford me an advantage...I'll take it!!

E

Joules Cross

2011-10-16T06:48:00.000-07:00

Ah yes...another big blue sky day to race under!! The first day of the Joules Cross CX weekend was Saturday In Lawrence KS, and since my give-a-damn broke last weekend I was itching to race again!! I think the powers that be (the gods of dirt) had it in for me on this morning, I did eventually prevail and make it to the start line.

The wake up call was 6:00am, that gave me enough time to roll through my race day ritual and hit the road at 8:00am to give me enough time to sign up, and get ready to rumble.

8:00am rolls around and away we go...a small sidetrack to degrease a chain, then rollin again. So now totally wound and going nuts because it's race day life is good, or so I thought...As we head west the traffic signs are telling me my route is closed...Hmmm...this isn't good!!! I planned my day with no detours!!! At this point life isn't good!!!

We get back on the highway, I'm looking at the time thinking I'm not racing today...F**K!!!!!!

Oh well...I keep on truckin to the venue. We finally arrive at 9:15. My race is at 10:00...I still have time, WOOOOHOOOOOooooo!!!

I sign up, get changed, and have enough time to do an inspection/warm up lap, stretch, make clothing changes for temperature and roll to the line feeling ready...Sheesh...that felt like work!!!

The Boss Cross events found me rolling to the line after everybody had lined up, which meant DFL on the start line for me. Not today!!! I didn't matter though, there was only 6 racers in the 40+ masters...Oh well I'm thinkin at worst, a 6th place finish...It will sound good if anyone asks how I did...

I was sitting on the start line thinking how weird it was to have 6 racers total in the 40+...oh well...my race nerves got the best of me and I say to the 5 guys next to me...Don't let the MTB'er beat you!!! Not a word from any of them!!! This made me laugh!!!

We roll to the line as the 2nd wave to go. GO, and we're off!! I get a decent start, drag racing down the start/finish straight in lean into the first turn in 3rd. After catching air on a small roller!!! The first part of the course was fast and sweeping, good stuff!! Eventually the course made its way down by a pond, where we had to dive down the dam make a sweeping left and climb back up.

I was wheel to wheel with 1st and 2nd at the turn to bomb down. I down shift from the big to the middle ring, the chain bounced passed the middle to the small...I managed to get it back to the middle at the base of the dam and climb up. At this point a gap had opened that I couldn't close...oh well.

The race rolls on, and unbeknownst to me at the time, I was in third until about a half a lap to go...Going into the last lap, a Boulevard rider comes around me on the start/finish straight, which was fine with me, the wind had picked up and it was a headwind now on that part of the course. I jump on his wheel for the draft.

We lean into turn 1, bomb the fast sweepers, he has an issue and slows a bit, so I gun it past him. We roll that way onto the dam, where a lapped rider is going to be in the way as I turn down the dam. Fortunately he drifts wide to the left and I dive down the right and rail around him on the outside of the left hand sweeper before the climb back up...That made laugh on the inside a bit, it was a good clean pass!!

Moving forward, we are heading into the last section, which is another fast sweeping set of turns that end on the start finish straight. There was a set of 3, 2x6 barriers that had finally be knocked over. The Boulevard rider dismounts and runs them. I just rolled over them. Doing this had me pass him, I told him I wouldn't take an advantage and let him have his spot back.

Another rider has joined us now. At the time I didn't know he was in my class, he passes me and a small gap opens between me and the 2 was battling with...Time to man up, I close the gap and we make our way onto the finish straight.

I'm sitting 3rd wheel, drafting, in the cat bird seat. The pace increases, and about halfway down the straight I jump and start grabbing gears. I get to about the lead man front wheel, he sees me and starts to sprint, I gain a little more, but ran out of track...he got me by about a foot. I would have gotten him if I started a bit earlier and taken 3rd in my class...at least I gave it a go!!

Oh well that's racing, I felt tons better this time, and hope to improve upon this fitness. It's nice to feel "good" while suffering again.

E

Focus

2011-10-09T09:40:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about racing CX today, but after what I heard about last years race and how boring of a course it was, my give-a-damn broke...So as I mulled it over...and over and over and over!! I just couldn't make myself do it.

I told leadfoot recently, for me, I have to be 100% in mentally to race. Meaning I have made up my mind and am going no matter what. It makes suffering a bit easier too...

Today wasn't one of those days...The last time I wasn't 100% sure I ended up giving the earth a hug, getting a mild concussion, a very nice black eye and the most bruises from one digger EVER!!! I curse you 8 pins...

With that in mind I pulled the pin on lining up today. So I sat and pondered what I should do...riding is starting to suck and I definitely need something to keep me motivated!!

I looked at the race schedule and there's 26 days til the 360/Boulevard cup weekend. So I'm gonna focus on that weekend, and between now and then try to bring my fitness up a notch.

I gotta throw a race or two in there for intensity purposes, so next weekend is the beginning of that with the Joules cross in Lawrence. It's a 2 day race and I'm doing at least one fo sho!!!!

Hmmm...maybe a coach one day...

E

2011 Boss Cross 1&2

2011-10-03T14:48:00.000-07:00

The first CX races of the year have come to pass for me. I couldn't have asked for better weather!! At the gun, the temps were mid 60's and climbing under a big blue sky day.

It's Monday now and I have had a bit of time to reflect on my races. Let me say this first. I do CX races for fun, I put absolutely no pressure on myself to do well, and it's easier to have fun...well...as much fun as one can have suffering!! ;)

Anyway, I wasn't sure of my fitness going into this melee, but was ready to find out. On Saturday, I do a couple of inspection/warm up laps. I get around to the sand pit. I stop to take a look, it has a concrete border about 10 inches wide, sand that is bone dry and easily 4-6 inches deep that will prevent any attempts at riding this section. One other section of note was a short steep uphill followed by an off camber hairpin left. Other than that it was pretty much straight forward with a little gravel thrown in for good measure.

So finally the time to line up comes and of course I line up DFL...oh well, why make it easy!!! GO...and we're off. I hit the pedal on the first try and managed to get to about 10th. We race along and finally come to the sand. (A side note...I did not step one foot into the sand on my inspection...BIG MISTAKE!! I did however consider riding the concrete border). I get off and start running through the sand pit from HELL!! It was probably 75 feet across, it felt like a mile. Finally through the first time and back on the bike.

I'm suffering greatly now and look at the ride time on my computer. BIG MISTAKE #2...It said 12 minutes of 45 have elapsed...at this point the mental struggle began. I recover a bit from the course tipping down ever so slightly. I still want to quit, into the sand again. In my haze of blinding pain, a moment of clarity. I will put my bike on the concrete border and run through the sand next to it while it rolls smoothly along!! Suddenly life got a little better. My method to the pit actually had me gaining time on racers that hit the sand ahead of me!! Look at the big brain on me!!!

Time rolls by, eventually I settle in and start feeling better, Suddenly I start seeing racers in my class coming back to me...game on!! I start picking them off 1 by 1. This was little past halfway through the race.

At this point, I'm chasing a guy and keeping him close. Remember the short steep uphill...he couldn't ride it and I could. Any time he gained was lost right here.

With the race winding down, I pass him in the hair pin after the short steep up, put it on kill, and tried to ride away. I put a little time in, but he managed to reel me in again. He brought another with him though...BOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

The last lap is uneventful, I keep the 2 in front of me close with the idea of sprinting them...this didn't work...we all jumped at the same time and this is where I stayed...11th out of 22. Waaaaaaaay better than I thought I did.

Race #2

After the race on Saturday, and how bad I felt early on, I wasn't too keen on lining up on Sunday but was going to anyway.

I get signed up and head out for my inspection of the course. They changed it a little. The course is run backwards and they removed the short steep up. Probably because there would have been dead bodies everywhere had they left it in...

One sad realization set in when I came to the sand...I wouldn't be using the border...my dismount is on the left, and the course direction dictated that I man up and run through the sand on day 2...

I felt better on day 2, the mental struggle with the quit in me began a few minutes earlier, I REALLY HATE THAT F***ING VOICE!!!!! Anyway...I finally make it shut the hell up and get on with the task at hand.

The race is uneventful for the most part. About the middle of the race a guy passed me, he put a little time on me but I managed to have a little more flow to my style than he and closed the gap. He fumbled and had to dismount, and I ride by him. He stays there until we hit the straight with the barriers. He pulls along side of me, we dismount at the same time, run the barriers, and remount. I was faster back to the pedals and on the gas. This made me laugh at him in a cocky sort of way, he acknowledged it with a yeah you got me...this made me punch it and I didn't see this guy again!!

The last lap. I have about a 10 second lead on 1 guy trying to run me down and one about 5 seconds ahead. I roll through the start finish area, by the pit and out onto a downhill gravel road. I stand and sprint down the gravel road and blow by the guy ahead of me and put another 10 seconds on the guy chasing.

Life is good...or so I thought. One last technical section and 2 more chugs through the sand and it's over...I enter the first hairpin turn and the 2 guys I had worked so hard to get rid of are wheel to wheel and on mine....

I think the last part of this section got he best of one of them. I drill it to the sand and put time in again. It's time to suffer!! I go as hard as I can go around to the last crossing of the Mojave, out of the sand and on the bike, I'm blind with pain and bury it to the line...I look back and I broke him!!! 9th out of 17.

I rode better on Sunday, and I can't think of anything I would've done different either day. I said earlier I don't put any pressure on myself dong these races, I guess that's not really true. I do want to finish 10th or better...it's minor. I had moments of weakness and totally wanted to quit I'm glad I didn't!! It was a groooovy time and I look forward to the next race!!

There you go, now you know.

E

Hmmm....

2011-09-29T14:58:00.000-07:00

Let's see...I'm still alive, which is a good thing!! I still ride a bike, which is definitely a good thing!!! I guess I just haven't had much to write about since the DK 200.

Scratch that...there's been stuff to write about, albeit not very much, I'm just a little lazy!!!

A condensed version of the last however many months it has been since the last post...

After the DK 200 my friend the IT band issue came back and pretty much screwed my training up AGAIN!! So another week off the bike followed by some easy rides blah blah blah...you know the story.

Which brings me to the State MTB race. A state bike race in my neck of the woods for a change and a race that I circled in late January to do well at. I was a little worried about my fitness with the freakin IT thing having it's way with me...The week I took off the bike for recovery from the DK put me right at a month away. That month rolled by with no real pain form my IT and to the start line I went.

By the way, eating spaghetti and trying to type is not so easy....

Anyhoo...That race went better than I had expected. I bought mud tires for that race mainly because I knew it would be muddy!! Guess what...IT WAS FREAKIN MUDDY!!!!

If you've read this blog for a while, I have talked about how much of an advantage it is to inspect the course the day before. In this case it was definitely an advantage, not so much for the course but mostly for figuring out the right tire pressure, which eventually I found the right number and stopped pinballing and loosing traction, woooohooooo life just got a lot easier!!!

Race day morning, I'm getting my bike ready and think, surely it has dried out some, I'm gonna add 2 pounds of pressure front and rear to my tires because it won't be as slick as it was yesterday...WRONG!!!! The conditions were exactly the same...there goes my advantage. Which in the end would have gotten me 3rd in state, I could not not pinball long enough on the last lap to catch and pass the guy in third...I would reel him in and start to put pressure on and then a greasy rock or root or both would bring that to a screaming halt...I've said it before and I will say it again...listen to your gut...IT'S ALWAYS RIGHT!!!!!

Hmmm....oh yeah!! I managed to go on a vacation this year. An epic journey to the Colorado high country. Did I mention we were camping? Before this trip I was all about camping in the high country, now, HELL NO!!! I'm officially done camping. It's not that it was crappy weather, the weather was great, with the exception of the straw that broke camels back. It rained on us for a good 5 hours one night. I wasn't too worried about that til the tent started dripping on me about 2 hours into this event...at that point it was game over for camping.

Moving on...We started in Crested Butte for 3 days, had to stay long enough to watch the pros go flying by on the 2nd stage of the Tour of Colorado. As soon as the road was clear, we burned down the road and headed north to Vail.

We get to Vail about 8:30pm...We try to find a campground with no luck. So we get a hotel room, which I must say was a nice respite from the tent if only for one night. We wake up fairly early and head down for some free breakfast. A local coffee joint that was highly recommended by the paper was spied by the keen eye of Leadfoot and off we go.

The coffee shop was a definite highlight of this trip, just for the fact the locals that were coming in were freakin hilarious for the most part, telling a few great stories whilst we drank waaaaaaaaaaaay too much espresso and coffee. After the first round of espresso and coffee, I get back in line and order the exact same thing for round 2 and the barista says "YOU WANT ANOTHER ROUND...ARE YOU SERIOUS"?!?!
Yes I am. We drank coffee and shots for about 2 hours...it was awesome, I have never shook so much from coffee!! Oh...and a mexican fellow come strolling in bout 8:00 and orders a jack and coke and a beer...odd...very odd...

We head to a bike shop for a trial map to find a campsite only to realize there aren't any in decent proximity to a lot of riding...so we asked the bike shop guy and he points us in a direction and off we go.

We drive up a dirt road where there's free camping only to find nowhere to set up our camp. We drive a little further and end up at a trail head. We stop to ponder for a minute and decide to ride this trail which was about a 12 mile round trip.

This was a good ride, it had a little of everything on it, I would recommend it to anyone!! We finish the ride and Leadfoot rolls down the road to an opening in the trees. About the time I come rolling up he screams in agonizing pain, rips his helmet off and continues to hate life!! I ask him what happened and look down and see the bee that stung him on his forehead try to fly away and die...I was laughing my ass off and I have a great picture of it!!! If I had better computer skills it would be on this blog!!! So we load up and drive from there to Frisco Colorado.

We find a campground and set up house. The next morning we do a ride which was really cool and this one I would also recommend to anyone!! It was a lot of climbing on the way out with some great views but the return trip was a screamin fast descent on some sweeeeeeeet single track!! The one thing I noticed when we were in Vail is there are a lot of dead pine trees. I guess the pine beetle is the cause of this...it's kinda depressing, because everywhere you look, entire mountainsides are brown with dead trees...It wasn't like that in Crested Butte. I'm sure in time it will be unless they are on top of it now...

We finish our ride and decide to pack it up and head to Winter Park for the final leg of this epic journey...it's Thursday at this point. I make the call to stay in a pay campground by St. Louis creek just outside of Fraser Colorado...The last time I was there you couldn't see the sky for the trees...now it's more or less clear cut from the pine beetle devastation...I was bummed!!!

On to the backup campsite in Winter Park, which was heavily forested, and free HOORAY!!! Once again we set up camp and chill for a bit. A quick Eye to the sky says it's gonna rain soon...an hour later it starts. After an hour or so it stops and it's time to feast. It's too wet to try and cook so off we go to town for food.

As I mentioned earlier this is the night that did camping in for me...Fast forward to morning. We get a fire going, boil some water for coffee and oatmeal, and set of for what would be our last ride.

We had initially planned on ending our trip with the King of the Rockies series finale. A 26 mile point to point MTB race. That wasn't going to happen...on the way to inspect this course I throw out when we get back to camp we should pack up and get a hotel room and bail in the morning. This was met with no resistance.

After riding that course I can honestly say that it would have been a brutal race. We get back to camp and Leadfoot suggests we pack up and head home...be on the road by 3:00pm...I'm in!!! We finished the drive at 2:00am...I was retarded tired for the next week...It was a blast though. NO MORE CAMPING!!!! There's a ton more to this whole adventure...

let's see...this is going longer than I had anticipated...so I wanted to use that riding as a spring board for R.I.M. That was not to happen...for some reason it got cancelled...This made me mad!!! I had circled this race to do well at in January when the schedule was posted...GRRRRRRrrrrr!!!!

So instead of that race, I do a standard MTB race. It was 27.5 miles in length, and since I'm getting tired of typing, you get the really short version. I was in 2nd place going into the 4th lap of 4. About halfway through that lap my 1 1/2 month old new bike starts ghost shifting at the rear derailleur...I think it's cable stretch so I try to dial it out at the barrel adjuster on the shifter only to find out it's not working and getting worse. While I'm doing this my pace has slowed, I take a quick peek over my shoulder and 3rd place is at the bottom of the climb i was about to finish. I put it on kill and put some time on him only to be passed on the 2nd to last hill from trying to remedy my shifting.

He goes by and I keep him in site, we hit the last climb and about halfway up I finally find out what was wrong...the rear derailleur hanger snapped in half...game over with 2 miles to go...I finished 4th.

Now that's an update...sheesh!!! I should really post more often so I don't have to sit here this long!!

The first CX race for me is this weekend, I can't wait!!! Race report to follow!!!

E

DK 200 recap...

2011-06-05T06:35:00.000-07:00

The big day has come and gone. Although I didn't reach my goal of 100 miles, I did reach part of it. That was meeting the time goal and average speed, which was 4 hours or better to the first checkpoint at an average speed of 14.5 or better. I was 3:48 ride time and 14.8 average speed.

There were a few factors in my demise...I wasn't hydrated to the level I should have been at the start. I decided to sit in with the lead group for the first hour, which I did, only to realize that it was a mistake when I finally came off...we were flat out killing it...I had an 18.7 avg. speed when I came off...That's when I knew that my day was gonna get really LOOOOOOoooooong...Shortly thereafter, I'm rolling along and I'm riding with a teammate who was smarter than me in the approach to this melee, he points off in the distance and says that's where we're headed, "Texaco" hill, it's a 3 mile climb...hmmm...

The way I was feeling at that point a 3 mile climb was not what I wanted to do...so I spin along finally reaching this climb, and realize that I will need to put the Truth in the granny gear...it was that steep and loose. I finally reach the top and look around as I ride on...I was taken by the beauty and vast expanse of green that stretched in all directions and of this place I was riding.

I rolled along making sure I drank and ate on a regular basis, groups of riders would come by and I would jump on to their train as long as I could and then back to spinning along by myself...

Many conversations were had with myself. Most riders had ipods going, I chose and I choose to not ride with music, but to face the mental battle with one's self head on...this day was one for the ages...

As the miles rolled by, some faster than others, I would check the mileage. When I reached 50 miles in, I got a small lift...I'm getting close to a much needed break. 10ish to go to the first checkpoint...

Then the course makes a left turn, now headed west into an ever increasing SW headwind. The gravel road I was on wasn't bad, a false flat with a quartering headwind...I push on. With about 8 miles to go, the "okay" gravel road turns to shit!!! It was soft with no discernible line...welcome to hell...this continued on for what seemed like an eternity to a right turn where the wind was giving a much needed push and the surface was back to something a little more friendly...about 2 miles later I roll into the first checkpoint...

As I refueled to prepare for the next leg, I realized that I was pretty much dehydrated, so I decided to sit and drink until I had to pee. After about 30 minutes of waiting for number one to come around, I decided to pull the pin, I was a little bummed about it, but was okay with it. It was 2 hours later when number 1 finally came knocking...so it was a good decision, because I knew that if I took off for the next checkpoint and fell to pieces out in the middle of nowhere, it would be a long time before I would get any assistance. It's better to fight and run away, to live to fight another day. I don't regret pulling the pin at the first checkpoint, which was 58 miles in.

What did I take from this bout of mental and physical testing? A new respect for those who compete in these events and even more for those who have the guts and will to keep going to the finish!!! Will I give the Dirty Kanza 200 another try...I seriously doubt it!!

What follows are the lyrics to a song called "The Badlands" by Metal Church. It's a favorite song of mine and fits the DK 200 to perfection. I changed a few of the lyrics to make it more fitting to the ride. Anytime Flint hills is used it replaces either the word wasteland or badlands...so minor changes...

I ride alone, the Flint hills that I cross
Will take another life, we'll take another loss
I feel a dry wind, dust is in my eyes
The Arctic cold at night, the earth, it tells me lies

God in heaven, my only friend
Will I live to see my journey's end?
As the world awakens me so hard, my values have been changed
I make a promise to myself: Never again
A dusty godforsaken path, endless to my dismay
I know these are the Flint hills, somehow I'll find my way

No more paradise, no more soothing rain
All the sacrifice, the pain is all the same
Still I'm pushing onward, alone I can't deny
My presence fills the Flint hills, my spirit never dies

Will these lonely miles ever end?
Will I live to see my journey's end?
As the world awakens me so hard, my values have been changed
I make a promise to myself: Never again
A dusty godforsaken path, endless to my dismay
I know these are the Flint Hills, somehow I'll find my way

The vultures that circle, cloud the empty sky,
Patiently waiting, they wait for me to die
Tortured and beaten, blistered by the sun
Forceful and heartless, have the Flint hills won?

At one point a turkey vulture circled above me for a short time...this song popped into my head...

E

DK 200

2011-06-03T06:43:00.000-07:00

The Dirty Kanza 200 has been around for a little while and this is the year I give it a go...why, you ask? Why not??

I recall reading the event description for the first edition of this melee and thinking to myself, that's just crazy!! I guess at this point the last of my marbles have finally rolled away...Welcome to the looney bin!!!

I have a goal for this race/ride, and that is to roll 100 miles in 6-7 hours, asses how I'm feeling, and either call it good, or continue on. As I write this, it's more of a bucket list kinda thing and completion is not a high priority so pulling the plug at 100 is probably what will happen.

If I think completion of this event while being competitive is attainable, then there is always next year, but for now I'm just gonna rub my big toe in the gravel to see how it feels...

As of 6:00 am tomorrow I will be spinning through the flint hills of Kansas...

E

Chrisstrong

2011-04-30T10:11:00.000-07:00

Small steps suck to take this time of the year but it's what I have to do at this point...Today was the first ride outside since the bone bender, it felt good to get out on the bike again!! My knee felt pretty good, not 100% but not bad either.

I had more incentive to ride today and that was to benefit the owner of the shop I ride for, The Bicycle Shack. I was going to ride today no matter what my knee felt like, just to show support for a man who has helped me and a bazillion others in and around cycling.

There was a group ride followed by a waffle breakfast to collect donations to help Chris Smedley win his battle with pancreatic cancer. The volunteers were also selling team green Chrisstrong bands. I don't know how many people read this, but you should buy a Chrisstrong band if you see it. He's a good owner to ride for and a good person in general!!

E

IT

2011-04-26T16:46:00.000-07:00

I'm feelin a little better about my IT issues these days. I jumped on the trainer yesterday to find out if I could pedal without pain and sho nuff...pain free!!! I did ride really easy though.

Today, I did the same and again the result was good. I was feelin mighty low based on the pain I had and how long it took to recover from it the first time. So with this bit of encouraging news I think my "A" race will still be intact...HOORAY!!!

E

2011 Bone Bender

2011-04-23T07:45:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it's been more than a day since this race...There's a few good reasons why!!

1. It's hard to write an interesting blog when you're freakin tired!!

2. I've been a bit depressed about the IT band issue that I currently have and was feeling waaaaay uninspired!!!

I spent the majority of the day on Saturday getting ready for this race. I had forgotten how much stuff you need to rumble in the jungle. By 10pm I was finally done with the race prep. It kinda sucked that it took that long, but there was an hour and a half nap and a 16 mile ride to prime the legs in there also...

At this point the truck was loaded and all I had to do in the morning was pack my cooler and head to Leadfoots house to be on the road to Lawrence by 7:30. We hit the road at 7:25...Wooooooohooooooo!!!

We get to the venue, park the war wagon, and proceed to get ready for the impending 3 hour melee. Both of us were already registered, so all there was to do was the minor things...We finally head out for a warm up/recon. The promoter had changed the first part of the course to aid in parking, so we scoped it as part of the warm up.

Sufficiently warmed, we realize the rider meeting is going on and by the time we get there it's over...ooooops!!!

On to the start...the start for this race was a LeMans start...We had to run up about 100 yards of rocky jeep road. They say go and I start running, some are sprinting, some are running (me), and some are jogging. Out of about 250 racers, I make it to my bike inside the top 20. I jump on, jam it into the big ring, and pin it!! The first section to string out the race was about a mile of pavement onto double track, into a field, and then into the singletrack.

My plan was to be inside the top 20 headed into the woods and I accomplished this!! The very good reason behind killing it at the start was to avoid having to walk on a lot of the first section of singletrack due to the amount of technical riding there.

As it turns out, the further back you were going into this section, riding became an impossibility. Due to the amount of people and the nature of the track.

At this point I'm inside the top 10 and riding well!! I managed to make it through the technical stuff without being bitched at for going to slow. Out of the gnarly and onto what most would consider sweeeeeet singletrack. I pick up the pace and at this point I realize that an massive explosion is imminent if I don't back off a bit. I ease off a bit to recover, I let a few riders pass and jump right on their wheels and maintain the spot for the 1st lap. I rode into the transition in 11th...

Lap 2...I stop in my pit to grab another bottle and my camelbak. I jump on and punch it down the road again...I get to the first section of singletrack and I'm not riding so well at this point...I think I went a little too hard on the first lap and didn't drink enough water either...

I pinball through the gnarly stuff fairly quickly, get to the sweeeeet stuff and motor along feeling just ok. About half way through this lap my legs start to cramp a little...I'm thinkin this is not good!!! Oh well, I have my camelbak on and proceed to drink as much as I can stand because I'm not using it on the last lap. Hopefully this will help...not so much...

A little while later on the same lap my knee starts to ache...remember the IT issue at the beginning?! I'm thinking at this point...fuck...if this get worse, Im screwed!! So now I'm wrestling with myself with about 3 miles to go on the 2nd lap. I'm not riding well, my legs are cramping, and now my IT band is about to go on strike...FUCK THIS, I'm calling it a day...

This goes on for a bit, and then I see Weedhopper...A young roadie, that has more or less just started MTBing, is a 2 on the road, races for the Mercy team, who was on a team that beat Leadfoot and myself at R.I.M. 2 years ago, and hasn't let me live it down since!! Oh no!!! I think if he beats me today I will never hear the end of it...needless to say I get to the transition and keep going...

Lap 3. In my pit. I take one more huge drink from the camelbak, throw it down, grab a mini coke and chug it, drink as much of my carbie drink as I can stand, eat a gel, wash it down it a bit more coke, and hit it again...

I am now at this point focused again, must not be passed by Weedhopper. Into the gnarly for the last time. On lap 2 I decided that walking briskly up the handful of technical power climbs was a better idea than using 200% effort to try and climb these with the outcome being not making it and having to catch myself, get off my steed and walk anyway...I think it was a good idea, I used waaaaay less energy but didn't look as cool....oh well...

I'm about out of the gnarly on a farily tricky descent when my focus runs away screaming I QUIT, FUCK YO COUCH!!! At this point I proceed to pinball and get bucked off my steed and land on my side in the rocks...I'm almost certain that when I got bucked off I was holding on to the bar going down this hill with my feet following behind me like superman...then I hit the eject button...

None the worse for wear, I laugh it off and get going again. Finally through the gnarly, I proceed to just move toward the finish as fast as I can, which isn't very fast at this point.

Suffering greatly now, I'm about 3 miles from the end and my knee says I quit. It felt like someone stabbed me with a knife...IT SUCKED!!! I had to stop and try and stretch it out so I could finish...which I did. Finally I get to the transition, and say NO MAS!!!!

MY goal for this race was to do four laps. I kinda met that goal. I finished the 3rd lap with 8 minutes to spare, so I could've gone out again. As it was, I finished 14th out of 23 in the mens open (pro,1,2) and 24th out of 134 overall in the 3 hour.

I think if my knee wouldn't have been toast I probably would have gone out for one more. It's easy to say now, but who knows...

I thought about this race for a few days and the only thing I would've done different would be to use the camelbak on the first lap and then ditch it from there...oh well...lesson learned.

As I write this, I haven't been on my bike for a week due to my knee issues. I'm gonna give the trainer a go for a really easy spin, hopefully I make it through with no pain, because my A race is coming up in June...This was to be the start of preparation for that...we shall see...

Oh yeah, Weedhopper finished 2 spots behind me in the class. A small positve!!

E

Race prep...

2011-04-16T06:41:00.000-07:00

A rant first...so the first race I had planned on doing was cancelled...due to the promoter being a dumb ass!!! The weather was perfect, the course would've been crazy fast, but noOOOOOoooo!!! I'm sure I'm not the only one who was a bit mad about this knucklehead dropping the ball. Deep breath...in through the nose, out through the mouth...that's better...mostly.

Today is the day before the 2011 Bone Bender 3/6 hour race. I have much to do today. I need to get a ride in, but as of right now, the weather is 39 degrees, the wind is howling from the NW at 20-30 mph and I'm not really feeling the whole winter riding gear to get what I need at this point. It's supposed to clear off and the temp move into the 60's, that's when the rubber will meet the road.

Before I do that, I gotta gather all my stuff, mix the bottles I'm gonna use, four I think. Prep the Truth for a 3 hour melee in the mud. I'm bringing the fast tires just in case the conditions are better than expected, but the mud tires will be mounted for the race.

Last weekend, due to the race being cancelled, I spent my time wisely inspecting the course. Just like any MTB race the start will be crucial!!! The first section of singletrack is crazy technical for at least a mile, after that the course has it's moments, but no extended sections like the first.

With that being said, drilling it to the first section will be a painfully
wise decision!! I heard nothing but horror stories of the bottleneck at the entrance to the singletrack last year, fortunately I beat myself blind at that start to avoid such a disaster, it worked!! This year will be no different!!

The race nerves have just arrived...it's a good thing, it's been a while and to be honest, I've missed them.

Stay tuned kiddies, race report tomorrow.

Faster...

2011-03-25T08:57:00.000-07:00

I'm bored and shaking from caffeine so here's a new post!!

When this year began I decided to focus once again on racing in the woods. As of this post my training has been coming along nicely, I managed to stay motivated through the dark times and make it to March with a little (very little) fitness.

With March comes daylight savings, which I think should be done away with but anyway, this means group rides, riding after work, and hopefully the end of the trainer...For the most part this has been the case.

The past few weeks the singletrack at Swope has been perfect!! It's been dry enough to be fast with enough moisture to provide tons of grip everywhere!! This is also known as "hero dirt". Meaning you can ride as fast as you dare with the fear of sliding out or losing traction at a really inopportune moment. FREAKIN EPIC!!!

Anyway...I like to think I can ride with the best of 'em, and for the most part I can. There's not much terrain out there that I fear on a MTB, and for the most part can ride everthing fast...or so I thought...

On this past Wednesday I agreed to meet a friend at Swope for a ride and to give some pointers to help this weedhopper along. I show up and notice another rider with the same team kit he wears, I immediately think to myself, this is not good...I don't know the guy personally but recognize him from racing in the woods and finishing behind him...

So we mount up and decide to spin up the pavement to the trailhead, which is about a 1/4 mile. In this time this guy Tom says he has already ridden a lap, meaning he's warmed up and you guys are gonna go blind as soon as we hit the dirt...remember the "this is not good thought"??? I was right!!!

We drop into the trail, and immediately go to warp speed. The order is Tom, Weedhopper, and myself. Weedhopper is doing good considering this is his 2nd time on his new MTB, and probably his 10th ish time in the woods. He was definitely riding on the ragged edge of his ability!! I was impressed though.

So we're hammering along, the gap from Tom to Weedhopper is getting wider, but there's no place to pass, and even if there was, no warm up and the fact I was going blind from pain would've prevented a pass anyway. The first loop is about 2.5 miles long, mostly flat and and FAST!!

We finish the first loop, and roll across to the technical loop, now I'm thinkin this should slow down A LOT, because it gets crazy technical, with big rocks and Tom is riding a 29er hardtail. I'm thinking oh yeah, gonna return the favor now...WRONG!!! The first section of rocks comes and I stay with him. It smooths out a bit and a small gap opens. No worries, there is plenty more technical riding to come!!

Well...I was wrong. Tom is a freakin machine on a hardtail!! He flat out rode away from me. I was totally impressed and will give props where they are due...he got 'em!!

It has been a long time since I had my ass handed to me on dirt outside of an MTB race. It was humbling to say the least. I kinda knew it was gonna be fast, but it was BRUTAL. Oh well, I needed the eye opener for the season ahead.

This may sound like an excuse but it's a fact. Tom is at least a 2 on the road, and Rides for the Mercy team with Weedhopper. They have been racing on the road already and have held their training camp in the mountains of Arkansas.

I on the other hand, have just introduced high intensity riding into my training about 2 weeks ago...With that being said, I did better than I thought I would. I think a warm up lap would've made it a little easier, but the result would have been the same...getting my ass handed to me and suffering greatly in the process.

If you know me, you have probably heard me say "it doesn't matter what level you ride or race, there will always be someone faster". It's a fact.

So if you ride a lot, check your ego at the door, because at some point it's gonna get stomped on by someone faster.

January

2011-01-30T06:03:00.000-08:00

Hmmm...It's January 30th and I've managed to get out on the bike 5 times this month...I think. As for the rest of the month, I was pretty productive on the trainer which is good.

At this point I'm still motivated to train, HOORAY!! Sort of. Anyway, this time last year, my give-a-damn broke!!! February was a month of NO TRAINING, there was a few reasons why, but the main one was the weather...

Every year that I've been training, I've always looked forward to the extra light that February brings, getting out on the road after work and slowly but surely getting away from the trainer!!

This was not the case last year...Mutha Nature was a Dirty HOOKER and maybe my lack of motivation was bit my fault. Going into December 2009, I started riding the trainer and outside whenever I could to carry some of the fitness I had through the dark times...I'm pretty sure this backfired...Between being productive through January and Mutha Nature slamming the door to small doses of riding in February after work, my motivation BLEW UP into a bazillion bitty pieces!!!

Learning from mistakes of the past, I'm feeling good going into February. The month of February is a tough one. Racing starts, the weather should co-operate but probably won't, and the light at the end of the tunnel is right there!!

Bring it February!!! I'm ready!!

E

The end of the road...or...singletrack...

2010-12-31T05:10:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe another year has rolled by...it didn't feel like it!! As I look back, there were highs and lows, but for the most part I rode right down the middle.

DING!! Coffee is done!!! I planned on racing in the woods this year, which I did, but between Mutha Nature and my Truth breaking, the amount of racing was reduced GREATLY!! BAH!!!

The highlights...The Bone Bender 3/6 hour race is probably the race that stands out the most. That was the biggest field of racers I have ever lined up in, bar none!! There was 128 in my class, and 300ish overall. I pulled down a 10th in class and 12th overall. A great ride!!

The Swope CX was a great race for me for a few reasons...It was the first time I lined up in a masters race since learning masters races are generally the really fast guys using those races to warm up for their main event...That race is also put on by a bunch of old school MTB'ers from waaaaay back, who put emphasis on bike handling skills into their courses, which is good for me!!

I too am an old school MTB'er from waaaay back, and you KNOW I gots me some MAD NINJA bike handling skills!!!

Anyway...I pulled down a 4th in a race where I had no idea what place I was in, I just kept the hammer down, and was rewarded with a good result!!

So there you go...the top 2 races for me this year. As I write this I'm looking forward to 2011. I have again decided to focus on slugging it out in the woods, with 2 "A" races for 2011.

Hopefully I can hone my focus to a fine point this year to have the those elusive peaks come around at the right time. At this point I'm a little excited about 2011 and looking forward to the next few months...sort of...I have a game plan that I think will work, so bring on the dark times...January and February...

There you go...my take, albeit a short one, on 2010.

E

Urban assualt...

2010-09-27T14:41:00.000-07:00

So yesterday, Sunday, I was supposed to ride gravel with this dirt lovin biker chic I know...that didn't happen, mostly because she had just gotten home from vacation the night before...

So what do we do...we go on a recon mission into downtown K.C. to find the best route for her to start commuting to work on her CX bike. Since we had planned on a gravel ride and I don't have a CX bike I was on my MTB.

We take off on the road from her house, after a wheelie or two I settle down and we spin down the road. About a mile later I'm getting bored and we are rolling through this industrial area that has a sidewalk and tons of stuff to ride on, over and catch air off of.

So what do I do...Start riding the sidewalks, swerving in and out of parking lots at speed and catching air off the curbs...it was a BLAST!!

On this day I got a huge dose of why I ride...I ride because it makes me feel like a kid everytime. Well this time, I was damn near giddy I was having so much fun, and totally felt like a kid again!!!

IT WAS THE BEST 10 MILE RIDE I'VE DONE IN A LONG TIME!!! It also didn't hurt that company was good too!!

We found a good route to work, rode across the Heart of America bridge over the mighty MO, and just had a kickass time riding!!!

I love riding!!!

E

Swope CX...The Sequel

2010-09-20T17:16:00.000-07:00

Has it really been a year since the great wheelie incident?! How time flies...

So this past weekend was the KC Cup CX and MTB event held at Swope Park. This is the event where in '09 my mad bike handling skills outweighed my better judgement to the tune of a wheelie and 2nd place is better than a win...Is it? No...but it still makes me laugh when I think about it!!

Moving on...This year I decide to race in the masters category for a few reasons. I'm 40 now so why not, the cat 3 race was at 2pm and the masters race was at 11am...oh yeah, there was a mtb race the next day at Swope that I was planning on doing, weather permitting...so early race means more time to recover...

I wake up on Saturday morning and start the race day ritual...Start with a French press to get whacked out on the goofballs!! Next, when I finally feel coherent enough to function...CRANK THE METAL and watch the neighbors yard die, get my stuff loaded and head out. Which for some strange reason, this time, I left right on time...woohoooooo!!!

I get to the venue, and with the lessons I learned last year planted firmly in the front row of my thoughts, I grab my bike and ride the never ending road that I ran last year to sign up...Look at the big brain on me!!

I'm signed up, number is pinned, it's time to warm up with...a wheelie!!! Most people don't care about that stuff, but when I ride a good one, deep down inside they're sayin...god I hope he doesn't beat me!!! HA!!! MAD MUTHA EFF'N SKILLS.

Anyway...I rode the course the day before for about 30 minutes and then headed to the woods to inspect the MTB race course...which by the way would've been really fast and fun...but that whore, Mutha Nature, decided that a dry race 2 days in a row was waaaaaaaaaay too much to ask for...so it HURRICANED, and I didn't race...bitch!!

Sorry...bit of a rant there...onward!! So the rules for CX have changed, and I'm not sure about the barriers, but the barriers that were on this course were 2 x 10's...I think. There were 3 of them space far enough apart that if your skills were up to it you could ride over them as opposed to running them. Riding was faster. Also this particular course had a ton of singletrack incorporated into it which I thought was SWEEEEET!!!

Sufficiently warmed up, this HOT girl asks me to pin her number on...I say HELL YEAH, it's about 20 minutes til the start, no worries!! All done there, I decide to ride a little more, and as I take off I check the time and it's 10 til...damn, better head to the start.

Of course everybody and their mommas are already lined up, I'm thinkin great!! Starting D.F.L.!!! This ought ta be fun...as I walk by I'm asking where's the 40+?? No answer, oh well I can pass these chumps in the turns, no worries!! The official comes down and says "I need the 30+ followed by the 40+" and so on...WOOHOOOO!!! Not starting D.F.L.!!!

The age groups are sent off in waves with 30 second intervals between. 40+ is the second group. GO!! Me and the Truth are in a fight with a bunch of CX bike riding Nancys!! I'm thinkin I'm gonna get my ass handed to me, as my experience with masters races has been brutal!! It usually consists of the really fast guys using this race as a warm-up for their respective main event.

We drag race for an eternity up a paved hill which flattens out for about 100 yards leading into the first turn. At this point I'm sitting about 12th, no worries I'm on the Truth and I start taking tight inside lines that the CX bikes with super stubby knob tires can't get enough grip to rail these lines and ride a wide arc through the turns.

I start passing riders with ease...I made some sweeeeet passes, inside lines, outside lines...I sliced right up the middle of a group of 4 riders through a chicane and every pass was clean!!! It' makes me giddy...teeheee!!!!!

At this point I'm headed onto the paved section of this track which I thought for sure I was going to go straight back to where I started...fortunately when I built the Truth I spec'd it with a 46 tooth big ring!! I jam it into the big ring and drill it, no one passes me. I looked at the speed and I was rollin 22mph...gotta love the big ring!!

Fast forward to the middle of this race. I'm on the long paved section and I'm dying big time!! I look down and I'm going 18mph, I take a look back and a racer is coming to me and there's nothing I can do about it right now. He makes the pass and I jump on his wheel just as we roll onto the grass again. He's twisting the screws on me but I have recovered!!

We come to the hairpin turn that leads to the 3 barriers that I can ride. I'm thinkin, if he runs these I'm gonna pass him and put it on kill...sure enough, that's what happened!! I ride by him as he runs over the last barrier, I grab a gear or 2 and punch it!! I create a good gap going into the next section, which was 5 or 6 switchbacks that emptied into the woods on the singletrack. I go as hard as I can through the trees, the gap gets bigger.

I roll through the start finish into the first turn again and the gap was at least 75 yards...where'd who go?!?!

2 laps to go...The gap I created is about 100 yards now...I have punched through the pain and I'm just killing it...back up to 21-22mph on the road again, and definitely making time in the turns on the grass.

Near the end this lap, a rider crashes in front of me and lands on his side on some rocks at the end of the singletrack where there was no way around...I yell at him get up, get up, get up!!!! This seemed to make him move slower...I slow down , and say MOOOOOOOVE!!!! He finally drags himself out of my way, he says something to me as I go by...I think he was mad at me for telling him to move...Whatev...I say thanks and punch it again...

Now on the last lap, the nice cushion I had created for myself was now about half...THANKS MR. NO SKILLS!!! There's a group of about 5 riders being lead by one who, by the looks of his face and riding style is on a mission to run me down...

Fortunately I'm having a great day on the bike, realize this go absolutely as hard as I can on the last lap. Through the 1st grass section the gap stays the same...onto the pavement...time to die...I wind it up to 22mph, I gain a bit, back on the grass again headed to the barriers, the gap is about the same...I think to myself, hit the marks through the next set of 5 switchbacks and kill in the woods and it will be over...I nailed my lines, hit the woods and drilled it to the end...

I popped out of the woods onto the start/finish straight, I look behind me, there's no one behind me, it's time for a finish line wheelie!! I ride a sweet one, good enough to actually coast on the back wheel across the line in 4th place out of 27!! The official says don't do that again...THAT MADE ME LAUGH!!

There you go now you know...It's not win, but I'm stoked with how I rode!! I rode well enough to pass the eventual 30+ winner with a lap and a half to go...CX on the Truth...Gotta love it!!!

E

2 in 1

2010-08-22T17:21:00.000-07:00

Alright peeps...I'm back!! So it's been a while and I have a good reason...I haven't been racing as much as I would like. This year was supposed to be the season of dirt...you know, back to where the EveredE started.

I fully planned on doing battle in the woods on a regular basis this season, then Mother Nature decided to RAIN on my parade...literally...bitch!! Also the dirt gods stopped smiling upon me...the Truth broke...sadness.

So I get in touch with the local Ellsworth rep to try and remedy this problem. He comes back to me with "it's too old, they don't make that design anymore and they aren't going to warranty your frame"...I kinda thought that might happen...I hoped it wouldn't but WTF!! That frame was $2000.00...so I welded it. It just needs to get me to winter.

A side note...SPECIALIZED BICYCLES stand behind their bikes. I had a 97 model MTB that failed, they didn't produce that model anymore and still warrantied it with a current model no questions. SUCK IT ELLSWORTH!!!

The dirt season started out promising...I managed to get some good racing under my wheels before the skies opened on what seemed like a daily basis...so much for that idea. I have said it before and I'll say it again...MTB racing in the mud is not racing.

Moving on...R.I.M. As I said earlier I welded my MTB frame. I did this a week or so before the Rapture in Misery so I could ride it and make sure it was going to hold. The 1st ride back was at Shawnee Mission park, a great place to test my weld. It's rocks with a little dirt thrown in to keep the ants happy...very technical riding and pretty demanding on equipment...the Truth survives so it's game on for R.I.M. I do 2 more rides on it before the race with no worries.

The night before R.I.M. it hurricanes...imagine that...rain the night before an MTB race...Thanks Mother Nature...HOOKER!!! Anyway, I'm set to do the 1st lap and I decide to line up on the front of the LeMans start...never done this, thought I would try it.

Go!!! I start running and quickly realize that the rest of the racers are SPRINTING...I threw out a couple of good obscenities and finally get to my bike...As I look back on that I laugh...I totally didn't expect to have to do my best Carl Lewis impersonation to get to my bike. My legs were shot for a week from that 75 yard sprint.

I roll out of the start area in about 13th, proceed to slide my way around the 9 mile loop fairly fast with no diggers and came into the transition inside the top 10 overall and 4th in class. It would've been faster had I listened to my gut and put my FREAKIN MUD TIRES ON!!! I did the first loop on hard pack tires...not mud friendly at all.

I hand off to Leadfoot, and he comes back right at an hour later. No worries it's a long race and it's hell hot...we'll be fine. I now have a mud tire on the front as I head out on lap number 2 and I'm on a mission. I'm now railing through the muddy turns I skated through on the 1st lap and I'm flying...about 3.5 miles into my lap, I hear a loud SNAP!! I stop thinking my rear hub just exploded, but no...the Truth had once again broke...but this time not a crack, the seat tube was now 2 pieces...GAME OVER.

The next day I looked at the weld I had put on it and I didn't put enough heat into it...as of now it's welded...again...but this time I put the heat to it and it has a solid weld on it. I went into it thinking it's broke and not rideable what's the worst that can happen...I fuck it up more!! OOOoooooo...so it has a solid no fear of screwing it up weld on it now...

Next!!

I did the Bicycle Shack TT today. It was pretty much fun, they had a Merckx division, which means NO AREO EQUIPMENT. Of the 12 riders in the group, I think I was the only one with 32 spoke wheels...Shoulda protested!! ;)

Anyway, my previous best time for a 10 mile TT on standard stuff was 26:31. Today I turned a 26:25, this made me happy. As I look back on this ride, I'm happy with how I rode today!! I was on the limit and focused the whole way...no complaints...well...there is the wheel thing, but it's no big deal...really!! Next time tho!!!

E

The tale of a 3...

2010-06-26T05:35:00.000-07:00

It finally happened...I have officially lined up as a 3. I have to be honest, I was a bit nervous the week leading up to this race, after all it was a new group of racers that are faster, and my training for various reasons is not at the level it was last year...

On to the race...My race day ritual, like most racers, is timing based. You know...leave on time to give yourself plenty of time to get ready, eat at a certain time before the race so you don't chuck, and so you're not starving when you line up. This day was no different.

So I get to the venue with the first race going off as I sign up, meaning I have about 45 minutes to get ready. No worries...then I find out that the start of the 3's race will be delayed due to some poor fool throwing his manhood into the meat grinder of marriage!! There's a church on the course that was being used for this man card termination!!

Anyway...it's a good thing this was happening, because with 3 laps to go on the 1st race, I was just getting on my bike to warm up...not good!!! I jump on the course just as the last few 4's are finishing. I roll past the start line to find out the race will indeed be delayed...WOOOOHOOOOOOoooooo!!! I now have time for a warm up!!

The race was supposed to start at 6:40...it started at 7:30. After riding around the course for what felt like an eternity I see riders starting to line up, so I head to the start line. I'm sitting there for about a minute and another rider asked me "did they call us to the line"? I say no we're just greedy!!

As of late I have had issues with hitting my pedal on the first try...about a minute before the race rolls out I say to myself, relax, you know how to do it, you'll hit on the first try. It worked!! The wedding finally rolls out and they say GO!!

I get a great start, I'm sitting about 7th heading into the first turn. We roll through this turn and the screws are immediately turned...no worries I'm feeling good. On lap 2 a rider goes on a flier with about a half lap to go, at this point we are rolling through the lower parking lot, the field slows a bit and I maintain my speed and attempt to jump across the gap. I get separation from the field and make it across...woohoooo...that was painful!!

That attack was short lived...it lasted about a lap. The field was still fresh...As I have said to some people in the past...If you never try, you never win!!!

About 2 laps later we diving down into turn 1 (which is a technical, 1 lane 90 degree, downhill left with square curbs at the apex and outside exit) and I'm sitting 7th. A rider 3 spots ahead pushes the front and down he goes!! The 2 riders immediately behind him rail inside of this knucklehead, at this point, I can see his carcass will be where I'm headed...OH SH*T!!! So I grab fists full of stoppers, the guy slides across my intended line into the curb, and I crank my bike hard to the right and managed to avoid him and the curb...a hollow victory...as this happened the front 4 riders drill it and create a gap.

At this point I'm pissed...Jackass gets up and starts to ride in the direction of the race...I'm ranting aloud at this point and say F**K THIS...I'M TAKING A FREE LAP!!! Captain Road rash hears me and says "we can do that"?!?! I responded with a HELL YEAH and proceed to ride to the officials. Road rash and I get there about the same time, and I tell the official I was caught behind him and had to avoid him or meet certain pain!! They grant us a free lap...

As we sit there, the official asks us if we were with the leaders, I say hell yeah, the field was still solid when he hit the pavement!! He says ok, I'll put you back with the 4 man break when it comes by...SWEEEEET!!!

The break is about to come by and the announcer says "put them in with the field"...So much for a repeat victory...The gap was not very big and had I not been sitting there for an eternity I think I could've jumped across to join the front. As it was, my legs immediately loaded up and I suffered greatly for a lap and a half!!

Back under control, my job at this point was to manage the field because I had a teammate in the break...There was 4 of us flying the Shack colors left in the field and once we were on the same page, we shut down pretty much everything that tried to go from then on!!

The last lap...Due to our efforts at controlling the field, everyone, I felt, was rested...This is gonna be interesting...A little less than half way through the last lap the pace goes straight to the redline!! Up the hill, left, down a short straight, right into a parking lot going at least 30mph at this point...at the end of this parking lot, there's a chicane that sets up into an uphill right.

I'm sitting about 15th going into this turn. I set up for a wide line on the outside...I'm carrying a ton of speed, the riders in front of me grab brakes and dive for the inside line...I think about the stoppers but that's about it...I rail around the outside and my line is going to take me to the curb...I realize this and put total faith in my tires and my bike handling skills and lean a little more...I missed the square curb by couple of inches at the most!! I say out loud...OH YEAH!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE I DIDN'T HIT THE CURB!!! I would have bet money I was gonna wad it up and find myself on the ground in the grass, that's how close it was!! At this point I had moved into the top 10...A great move!!!

While I was yelling this, we were climbing, headed to the last turn and the sprint finish. We all start sprinting and in the end my spectacular move and adrenaline fueled comments ran me out of gas about 30 meters short of the line...after all, if you're talking, you're not breathing...so a potential top 10 turned into 13th...

There you go now you know...No one knows how a race will play out and crashes happen!! All you can do is stay at or near the front and be attentive. Sometimes this is not enough but that's racing...

Overall I felt better than I thought I would, this is encouraging!! The Tour of Lawrence is up next and after this ride I'm pretty sure I will be lining up!!

Racing Mother Nature...

2010-06-14T14:38:00.000-07:00

The pic was taken about 45 minutes after this ride ended!!

Hmmm...If you are an avid cyclist this dilemma has probably presented itself to you at least once...probably more!! I'm talking about looking at the radar, seeing rain headed your way, and thinking to yourself...That's about an hour away, I can get a quick 20 miler in.

I have taken this dare from Mother Nature numerous times, and for quite a while I had a winning percentage. She can talk trash with the best of 'em and get you out on your bike in the smallest of weather windows...BEEHATCH!!!

Saturday was one of these days. The storms were more than an hour away, so I saddle up for the Saturday ritual which usually nets me 50-60 miles...or roughly 3 hours-ish of ride time.

Fast forward 2 hours...As the group I'm riding with rides north, Mother Nature shows her hand...Aces and 8's...the dead mans hand!! The sky was BLACK!! So we roll into the college where the group ride ends with thunder and lightning all around. I sit there for a few minutes and ponder what to do while I wait on Leadfoot. He rolls in a couple of minutes later and offers me a ride home, but we have to ride to his house...I say HELL YEAH!!!

At this point Mother Nature is poised to deliver THE sucker punch of the season so far!! The wind had been out of the south all morning, now it's out of the northwest and freakin howling!! Fortunately Leadfoot lives east of the college about 5 or 6 miles...so the wind was helping!!

We had just finished the hammer portion of the Saturday ride only to follow it up with a race with Mother Nature!!! Yay...so we take off and start killing it again. We get about a mile up the road I turn and look back and the Mother Nature is right on our wheels...I think she was drafting!! Anyhoo...we proceed to kill it all the way back Leadfoot's house and about a mile out it starts sprinkling, so Leadfoot kicks it up a notch and we get to his house about 5 minutes before she pulled the plug!!

WE WIN THIS TIME!!!

A new level...

2010-05-29T13:36:00.000-07:00

I have said this before and now I'm saying it again...Missouri is one of the most unfriendly states for cycling EVER!!! This was reaffirmed for me just this morning.

My usual Saturday revolves around "The Saturday Ride" that leaves and finishes at LVCC. Today was no different, it was a nice morning and for the most part a nice day...with one exception.

A teammate and I were on the last section of road before the end of this ride rolling along at least 20mph, more or less riding on the stripe on a road that passes a golf course. In the past, impatient golfers have buzzed me, sped up to get by me only to have to jam on the brakes to make the turn into this goat ranch, and today a new level!!!

My teammate and I were at the most 50 yards away from the goat ranch entrance, rolling at least 20mph. All of the sudden to my right ON THE SHOULDER OF THIS ROAD, an EFFING B***H GOLFER is passing us...That's right...on the shoulder!!! While she's passing us, she's looking at us like we are in the wrong!!! It was so surreal, I actually took a double take...I couldn't believe my eyes!!!

This more or less infuriated me, so I started mother effing and showing her she's number one. I see her turn into the goat ranch a whole 40 or 50 feet ahead of us...and I follow. I'll give the clean version here...I asked her what her problem was and she said we need to ride on the shoulder...I said you passed us on the shoulder and that she should use her brakes and wait a few seconds...it went on a few seconds more...you get the point.

The thing that got me the most was the pass on the shoulder only to turn in to this place 3 seconds ahead of us...would it have been so bad to wait 10 seconds at the very most and not risk running down 2 cyclists to get to a tee time?!?! I think so but what do I know...I'm a cyclist.

I guess patience is a lost art...and to me, riding around here is only getting more and more dangerous...THAT SUCKS!!! Just thought I would share this one...it was a new level of ridiculous!!!

AHHHHhhhhh.....deep breath....I feel better....Watch out for the stupid people, because they're NOT gonna watch out for you...

The ToM and shtuff...

2010-05-28T05:29:00.000-07:00

First, I would like to say how much of a JACKASS the gov. of MO (Jay Nixon) is!!! To be the cause of the downfall of one the greatest events in MO is FREAKIN REDICULOUS!!! As I have read the facts being posted FB, the 1 million dollar investment last year netted the state 38 million...Where's the "good reason" to let the ToM die...THERE ISN'T ANY!!!

I have always said that MO is one of the least cycle friendly states EVER!!! This just reaffirms that belief from the top down!!! Jay Nixon is a JACKASS!!!

Moving on...as of late my cycling ritual has been feeling a bit stale. So I decide to change it up a bit by rolling over to the Tuesday night crit. This was a good move on a few levels!! First, it wasn't the same ol same ol...Second, it rained like we needed to build an ark on the route where my usual Tuesday ride rolls...and third...hmmm...I had FUN!!!

I've done the crit a handful of times, and it's been years since the last time. Since the last time, the promoters have made a few changes to make it safer for all racers involved.

Way back when it was one group of all abilities. Now it's 2 seperate races, the A race...cat 1,2,3's and the B race 4,5's. Apparently the fields were getting to big and slower riders were crashing and taking out the big dogs...not good!!!

So knowing this, I head over and line up anyway. The race started at 6:30 and was 45 minutes in length. The first time check was 20 minutes to go. At this point I'm thinking that's a long time and I'm kinda dying right now...I punch the little voice inside my head right in the eye, suck it up, and keep on riding!!

For the most part I sat in and rode pretty conservatively, mostly because this was the first time this year doing anything like that on the road machine. Also it was my way of making sure that I had a little gas left in the tank if the really fast guys turned the screws...which they did...a few times...

All in all it was a good experience and I'll probably do it a few more times this year. I don't think it's worth 10 bucks...but for a change of scenery, I'll pay!!

Oh yeah...The first Thursday after this holiday, the Thursday night short track xc racing starts...weather permitting. Big ringin on the Truth!!! WOOOOHOOOOOooooo...can't wait!!! Another change in scenery!!

I have dirt in my blood...mostly from the diggers in the woods over the years...but anyway.

E

The thorn of Krugg....

2010-05-14T06:28:00.000-07:00

I had a race recap posted a few days ago, but the more I thought about the race and the DNF I scored, the more it made me mad!! So to magnetic heaven it went!!

Hind sight is 20/20, and I should have hardened the F**K up and finished...As I have always said, the only lessons you remember are the ones learned the hard way...Lesson learned.

Where'd who go....

2010-04-23T14:05:00.000-07:00

How to motivate one's self...Mr, Miyagi says...oh weedhooper, you racka disiprin!! I don't lack discipline...I lack motivation.

Let's back up a week...Saturday night before the 3 hour race, my sinuses started draining shortly before I went to bed. Needless to say, I woke up with a GINORMOUS headache. So now only hours before a race that I wanted to do, I'm generally not feeling it...As I get ready to head to leadfoots house, I keep saying to myself listen to your gut...repeatedly.

You all know I did the race, and the whole time I was blasting through the woods I'm thinking I'm gonna be sick on Monday, yet I keep it on kill. Monday rolls around and I feel about half crappy...Half beat up from racing and half crappy from the freakin head cold I now have...Once again I should've listened to the gut...

Now it's Friday and I have only ridden once this week, and that was a recovery ride on Tuesday. Why you ask...I say to you...I left my motivation in Smithville...

Does anyone else find it difficult to get out and ride/train when you feel crappy or is it just me? I'm thinking that my motivation will show up tomorrow, and I will be back on track for the goals I have set for this season. But for now, one more day of being a waste of space is what I'm feeling.

Hello couch!!

3 hours

2010-04-20T17:44:00.000-07:00

So this day started out with me having to do very little to get out the door...Of course you know that got screwed up!!! I had all day Saturday to get shtuff ready and I did just that!! Sunday morning I was 90% ready to go...Time to go...out the door I went. I told Leadfoot I would be at his house by 7:30am. I'm about to get on the highway, OH S**T!!! I forgot my cooler, back to the house. Ok...now I'm ready.

I get to Leadfoots' house about 7:45, load up the war wagon and head to Smithville for 3 hours of blasting around on sweeeeeet single track!!! About 15 minutes down the road I realize I forgot my gel flasks...F*****************k!!! Fortunately I know myself fairly well and bought a handful of individual gel packs for just such an emergency!! Look at the big brain on me!!! ;)

Fast forward an hour...We are now at the venue, and as we try to find a place to park we realize that this is gonna be a huge field!! We head to registration and the line there is a mile long, luckily Leadfoot has connections and we pre-registered...tons of time saved there!!!

Back to the war wagon to get ready. Everything ready...find a place for the cooler...off to the meeting...meeting done...park bike at the end of the run...line up for the Le Mans start. Which was about 200ish yards.

GO!!! We're off and running...somewhere in the middle of 200+ crazy MTBer's...it was NUTS!!! As I approach the bikes I turn to look for my trusty steed, I see it and run right to it!! Leadfoot on the other hand, runs right by his bike and can't find it right away...this to me was FREAKIN HILARIOUS!!! I found this out after the race. The best part of that was he put his bike next to mine...so that waste of time put him more or less DFL going into the woods.

I'm on my Truth now, rolling down a paved path dodging people and trying to go fast at the same time. Finally out of the madhouse, I jam it into the big ring and start hammering. My best guess would be about 80th on the bike and about 25th when I hit the single track!! WOOOHOOOOOooooo for good starts!!! Those who were slow or couldn't find their bikes, came to a standstill at the entrance to the single track...HA HA!!!

In the woods now, most racers ahead of me are rolling along pretty fast and I'm content for now!! About 4 miles in to an 11 mile loop, I end up behind a single speed and a hard tail with a racer behind me. The 4 of us are flying along no worries...but I'm getting itchy and want to pass. About that time the course spit us out into a field, so I make my move...I blow by the single speed, roll up to the hard tail about the time the trail makes an off camber downhill right hand sweeper. Hard tail rolls wide into the tall grass and I go railing by on the inside...WOOOHOOOoooo clear sailing ahead, PUNCH IT!!

About a 1/4 mile later we roll into one of the technical sections...I pick a line and go for it. I was being a Nancy and didn't have enough speed to do what I wanted to do and wadded myself up in front of the 2 guys I had just passed...I clanked my elbow on a rock, and jam my 3rd finger hard enough that I thought it was broken...I get out of the way, I can still move my finger...game on keep going!! I say My bad guys...I let them go by and away we went again...

A mile or so later, I'm looking up the trail at the guy driving our little train and slug a tree with my left shoulder...That really hurt...at this point I'm getting pissed. I think to myself, if this doesn't get better soon I'm pulling out after a lap and finding some beer!!! Luckily no more incidents from that point on!!

A little while later in the same lap I pass Leadfoot walking his bike. I was like dude what's up?? He held up his chain...game over for Leadfoot...

Our train rolls on through the woods and we complete the first lap in under an hour...I think sweet...if I can do that again I should be able to get 4 laps in.

Lap 2 rolls by uneventful. I roll through the transition in under an hour again!! Out of the transition I roll, time for a pit-stop. On my way into the transition I told Leadfoot to grab my other camel-back and get a bottle out of the cooler. I roll up to him get off my bike, old camel-back on the ground, new one on the back, fresh bottle on the bike and away I go. As I rode away, I thought to myself...wow that was the best pit-stop EVER!!! Smooth like butter!!!

Lap 3...I rolling along feeling good until I get to a climb...I manage to get up the hill not to slowly but certainly not as fast as the first 2 laps. I think nothing of it...I'm still rolling along pretty good!! Another climb...I fully suffer on this one!! At the top...on I go...I get to the technical section, which was about a mile long and blast right through it like it was smooth!!

I get to a short power climb,I punch it at the bottom, carrying good speed, I hit a rock and get pin balled off the line and had to stop...The first hill I walked all day!! Oh well...at this point I was looking closely at the ride time on my computer...it was gonna be close.

I get to the last paved section that led to the transition and I'm going as hard as I can, which at this point isn't very fast. I get to the dismount and the official say thats 3 hours...I missed another lap by 1 minute and 8 seconds...stupid hills!!!

Another enduro in the books...35 miles at 11.5 mph average. This was good for 10th out of 54 in my class, and 12th out of 129 overall. I had no expectations going in to this race, so I'm totally happy with what I did!!

As A parting shot...same day of the race...I'm home now, I get a call from Leadfoot. He says "I raced in the woods for 5 miles today...didn't hit a tree and I thought I was riding really well for those 5 miles and after all of that...I fall down my stairs, clank my elbow on the wall and put a couple of bruises on it...what the F**K"?!?!

There's a pause...I bust out laughing hysterically and say to him...that's going in the blog and laugh some more!!! Had to share that!!

DIRT!!!

River trail rumble...

2010-04-15T15:20:00.000-07:00

So finally I'M BACK!!! It's about freakin time!!! This past weekend was my first race of the season, I know I talked about racing the spring fling...but between the weather and my motivation telling me I'm number one (the middle finger)and hiding out for a month, the spring fling rolled by without me...no worries!!

Moving on...Over the winter a new promoter of MTB races popped up, so I look at what they have to offer only to find out to race expert I have to carry a FREAKIN LICENSE!!! LAME!!! So I sat and ponderer for a moment...DING...I'll go to the USA cycling website and check it out. As I look around the site, it says I have to have a race resume to upgrade...imagine that...I also find out the last time I carried a license for the woods was 2000.

So I decide to ask the race promoter of the river trail race what I should do. I tell him I've been racing expert since 2001, and didn't have to carry a license due to the race promoters no requiring them. He forwards my dilema to the midwest USA cycling MTB rep. He and I email back and forth a few times and voila...I'm a licensed expert MTBer...At this point I'm thinkin the caliber of racers will be higher due to the license factor...wooo...

On to the race...I ride to the race with a teammate, who has a LEAD FOOT!! Anyway we get there with plenty of time to do everything. We sign up and find out the expert race is 23.5 miles in length, sport is 18.8.

Back to speed racers war wagon to get the bikes ready...bikes ready, we have an hour to sit and get motivated. No worries, I pick the appropriate tunes to get the blood flowing!! I like me some METAL!!!

With about 45 minutes before the gun, we set off for a warm up, which was about 5 miles long and one really good effort on the way back. At this point I'm feeling good, back to the wagon for the final prep.

We head to the start line, listen to the officials for a few minutes, then they start sending the age groups off at whatever interval they decide. My group is called to the line...TWEEEEET!!! Off we go, a flat out drag race to the first turn into the single track...I was 3rd.

At this point I'm content with 3rd, and I ride the 2nd place wheel for 2 1/2 laps. The whole time making mental notes where I'm faster. As I follow this guy I finally realize that he hasn't had a drink of water for 2 laps...so I think to myself, if I can pass him when goes for his bottle it's on!!!

A mile or so later he reaches for his bottle and I call left side, make the pass, and put it on kill for the next 2 1/2 laps. At this point every section I came to that I knew I carried more speed, I had it pinned and was railing through the woods!!

As I look back, my bike was dialed in perfectly!! Every turn I leaned in on, I could feel the Truth settle down in the travel and claw it's way around the turns at warp speed...like a cat on carpet!!!

At the finish I put 1 minute 40 seconds on 3rd, on the other hand, I waited long enough to make the pass into 2nd that 1st handed me my ass by 7 minutes...oh well, I didn't have any expectations going in so it didn't bother me so much!! All in all it was a good day...I don't think I would have done anything different.

I covered the 23.5 mile distance in 1:33:00, this is good for a 15.2 mph average, with a max of 24.6 mph. The seven minute margin to 1st equates to a 16.1 mph average...BUM!!! The Lead Foot finished 4th in sport by the way.

Up next...Bone Bender...3 hours of solo fun!!!

It draws near...

2010-02-01T16:15:00.001-08:00

It's February 1st...I'm about sick of riding my trainer!!! If the weather would cooperate just a little more, I would be rolling down the road after work!!! At this point I would rather be a little cold out on the road, then melting down on the trainer wishing I would have used the big fan!!!

Ahhh....done with the rant!!!

The Spring Fling starts at the end of this month, and I'm racing in the 3's...I'm not sure if I'm stoked about that or not, I guess I'll find out in a few weeks. I'm in better shape going into this year than I have been in...oh...for ever!!!! This should make it a little easier...little being the key word!!

Oh well, gotta stay focused!!! BRING THE PAIN!!!

And away we go...

2010-01-01T06:03:00.000-08:00

The new year...Here's to everybody reaching the goals they have set for themselves!!! The real training starts tomorrow!!

The CX race was fun, but a DNF was scored next to my name, due to my pedals turning into blocks of ice!!! Oh well...I wanted to race in the snow and now I can check that one off of the want to do list...Up next...The Spring Fling...Cat 3.

This is the end....

2009-12-31T05:19:00.000-08:00

So I started this blog installment earlier this week, and had a month by month account of my year going...I decided that this was too much, so I hit the file 13 button!!!

This year absolutely FLEW by!!! It's really hard to believe that it's New Years eve day!!! Anyway...My year was jammed with ups and downs, and I think my only saviour was my trusty steed!! It's amazing what a 50 or 60 mile solo ride will do for ya!!

So what to write about now...I set out this year to have a good season, as I have for every season I have been racing!! I had a great season, I wish I could have raced more!! I recall a coversation I had with a long time riding buddy that happened in January. We were talking about doing a trip to Colorado and riding Mount Evans. During that conversation I told him it would be good motivation for me to get into good shape and that I wanted to win a race this year.

Well...The trip to Colorado didn't happen due to a severely crappy job!!! I will say this, the crappy job allowed me to ride A LOT during the middle of the day when all of the CYCLIST HATIN JACKASSES were at work!!! The only good thing about it!!!

Moving on!! Those of you that follow know how my season went, I won a race and came close on a second, had I not been a bit cocky in my ability on my MTB it probably would have been another...oh well!! :)

So today is the last CX race of 2009, it's 17 degrees, there's at least 6 inches of snow still on the ground, and I'm going!!! My fitness is severely lacking, it's F**KING COLD, and I wanna do it!!! CRACKHEAD!!! Oh well one more race to get so wound up I can't see straight!! WOOOOHOOOOOOOooooooo!!!!

So here's to watching the old year do a one handed wheelie off into the sunset, and watching the new year stick the landing down the backside of the new year TABLETOP JUMP after blasting a crossed up, one handed (so the new year can wave goodbye to the old year), layed over flat, BIG F**KING AIR!!!!!!!!

Oh yeah...I have my work cut out for me in the new year...I'm a 3...can you say more trainer time!!!

Happy New Year FREAKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Trail 10 and 11...

2009-11-29T09:35:00.000-08:00

The weather over the holiday was FREAKIN EPIC!!! 65 degrees at the end of November...SWEEEEEET!!! Anyway, Saturday was supposed to be an epic MTB ride at Smithville...that didn't happen, mostly due to being a lot tired!!! We ended up doing an epic at Landahl park. Which back in the day was the home of some of the GNARLIEST, MOST ROCK AND ROOT INFESTED single track around!!! Oh yeah...and for good measure, it was either up, down, off camber, or all of the above!!!

On to the ride...I was told earlier this year that the epic trails known as 10 and 11 were open again...with that in the back of my mind, we take off. We drop into the single track and wind our way to the bottom, we make our way across the scout camp and decide to ride the boulevard around to what we thought we be a trail to take us to the creek which accesses the trails...No joy there...someone or some company has purchased some of the land on which we USED to ride...FUCKERS!!!

We sit there for a minute, ponder what to do, and end up going back the way we came...After a scenic route to where we wanted to be, we come to a fork in the trail, decide to drop in and head down. This section of trail is new, it was rocks, roots and off camber...IT WAS SWEET!!!

Fast forward a mile...we get to the creek, and as far as I can tell the place we used to cross says CLOSED!!! We ride on about 100 yards and spy what looks to be another point to cross, that looks "used". So we drop in and cross to see if the infamous trails 10 and 11 are open. We start climbing and finally arrive at an intersection that has new trail markers pointing to trail 10 forward, and trail 11 to the right...hmmm...this is a good sign!! Oh yeah...they are designated black diamonds...the good stuff!!!

Off we go on trail 10. We ride along and I start to remember what it was like. Slowly it starts to get more and more technical, to the point where I have to put the Truth in granny and leave it for extended periods!! We keep on keepin on and I'm having a blast!!

The trails that I have been riding over the years since they closed 10 and 11, are fun, but are nowhere near as technical and challenging as these 2 trails. There's no trail that I have ridden lately that forces you to be in granny for that long...It was GREAT!!!

In the end, this portion of Landahl is a loop. Not a bad thing, it means who ever yanked up the land got some of that primo gnarly stuff that I used to call home!!

I think I managed to clean about 60% of the technical stuff on these trails, would have been more, but the fallen leaves offer no love when it come to needing traction!!! I did make it up some stuff I thought I wouldn't...that called for nice and loud WOOOHOOO!!!

We make it around the loop, head back down to the creek, and proceed to cross again. This is where I did something I haven't done in years!! I fumbled my attempt at crossing this creek and had to put my foot in the water...I just laughed!!!

We grind our way back to the trail head, take a short break, and go back for a 2 mile high speed pass. This particular trail was clean of any leaves and the dirt was hero dirt...which means fast and all of the traction you could ever want...hero dirt!!! I pretty much killed it for 2 miles and managed to go 22 mph somewhere along the way. It was sweeeet and I was flying!!!

It was a good day to ride, and it got even better finding out that the epic gnarly trails 10 and 11 are open again!!

RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE!!!

Caffeine induced boredom post...

2009-11-15T06:42:00.000-08:00

So it's been a while since I've posted so here's a new one!!! We are now into the off season, which is also cross season. That being said I have been riding more this year than previous years. The main reason is to maintain some fitness and to race in some cross events!!

As I have said before...I go into these races with no expectations, just to have fun and do my best!! Which theses days the fitness and fun factor is a quite a bit below the first cross race I did waaaaaay back in September...stupid MTB race!!!!!

Oh well I'm over it and slowly clawing back some fitness, I know I won't reach the level I was at in September and I'm good with that!! I just want to ease the suffering when I'm out on the cross course!!! So at this point that means one of two things...riding the trainer, or going out with the head light and riding at night...

I did my first night road ride last week and it was interesting!! You loose a lot of sensation of speed, because of the darkness and lack of info from your computer. I ended up riding a bit harder due to this but that's okay!! The way I see it...I needed to do a stronger effort in order to ease the CX suffering!!!

Hmmm...It's raining today and that means no riding outside...BOOOOOOooooo!!! On that note, the Weather Channel has rain in the forecast until Thursday...Mutha Nature is a HO!!!! That means no more riding in the woods either...Oh well...we got a good ride in the jungle...Hmmmm...I guess it's not jungle at this point...so woods on Saturday, and last week at Smithville...We rumbled for 23 miles there, it was SWEET!!!

I think I'm rambling now!! So I'm done, time to ride the freakin trainer...YEA YEA THAT'S GREAT!!!

Racing starts in about 3 and a half months...

The Dot CX

2009-10-23T06:16:00.000-07:00

Hmmmm...not much to say about this race. This was my first attempt at racing again following the Dirt Gods vengeful wrath for doing a CX race on my MTB!! It was also the debut of the helmet cam...Unfortunately my aim pretty much sucks so all I got was a close up of the course 10 feet in front of me, and some pretty good quotes from the audio!!!

A few of my favorites..."Giggety", that was going into the first turn after the start. "POWERTAP...I can't compete with that"!!! A racer passed me that had a Powertap hub. "I'd go faster if I was a pro like you"!!! This was to a junior teammate that is a cat 2 rider, he started at the back of all the cat 4 racers which was about 100ish, I was about 10th at the time and started with the first wave of 4's.

Anyhoo...I started riding again on the Tuesday before this race. My ribs were finally good to go and started pedalling again!! I knew going in that my motor would be lacking a bit of top end, and I was right!!

On to the race...We arrive with plenty of time to get ready, so we watch some racing, sign up, eat some of the tasty confections that were available, and just generally kill time. The time comes to get ready, it's still pretty freakin cold!!! I grab the winter riding jacket and heavy gloves and off we go. Good warm up done, time to decide the dress for the race. I shed everything but a base layer and go with regular MTB gloves, which was the way to go!!!

Aaaaand...we're off!!! I stab the pedal on the first try, and the drag race to the first turn begins. I checked my max speed, it was at the start and was 28.5 mph...love that 46 tooth big ring!!! I lean into the first turn in about 4th or 5th out of 53 and proceed to catch air off of the roller that drops down to the course....WOOOHOOOO!!!!

Rolling along, I'm suffering pretty good, trying to maintain my position in the race. It's kinda working...a rider every now and again rolls by and I just try to maintain my effort and stay steady. Somewhere on lap 3 of 4 I finally breakthrough the pain, settle into feeling good and pick up the pace a bit. I start reeling in a trio of riders that are in front of me, and manage to pass all three on a short off camber uphill left...

One of the three passes me back, and rides me off his wheel. I slowly start reeling him in and get to his wheel at the second dismount. Up the hill and back on the bike, I say to him "kick it in big dog"...the guy was taller than me. He puts the hammer down and I manage to stay with him through the last headwind section and proceed to run out of gas just as we hit the pavement to the finish. Fortunately my last effort was enough to create a big gap and had time to do a wheelie across the line in 12th!!!

Good thing it's been raining, because I would really like to be blasting through the woods on some sweet single track ANYWHERE...and since I've done another CX race on the Truth, the the Dirt Gods might feel it necessary to take revenge again for the desecration of an Ellsworth Truth, whose origins are sown deeply in the roots, rocks, and sweet technical single track of the WOODS!!! Not a CX course...to this I say...It's fun and I await the vengeful hand of the Dirt Gods for lining up on the Truth in yet another CX race.

O gods of dirt and singletrack
Bow down and hear this cry
This Truth rider has faltered
Cross is fun, this is why...
The course of tape guides me
The barriers of wood divide
Take not my mad skeelz from me
NO!!! Not another black eye!!!

I love riding my bike!!!!

The next step...

2009-10-09T14:09:00.000-07:00

It finally happened...I am now a 3...The last time I tried to upgrade was 2003. I did a ton of racing that year, but ultimately not enough...not enough of the right kind of racing I should say!!

As I look back on 2003, I did at least 15 MTB races, about 15 crits, and a couple of TT's just for kicks!!! A lot of racing for anyone!!! It turns out that TT's and slogging it out in the woods don't count towards an upgrade...who knew...I didn't at the time!!!

Today...after being called sandbagger for a half and hour by a teammate, I decided to give it another go...You need 20 points or 25 races as a 4 to move up to a 3. I had 17 points from 4 races, I bet my teammate a dollar that I would be denied...I lost a dollar...

So from this day forward I will race as a 3 or not race!! This means my next CX race will be as a 3...hmmm...stupid peer pressure!!!!

Racing as a 3...Lead, follow, or get the fuck outta the way!!!!!

Pay to play...

2009-09-27T11:33:00.000-07:00

I lined up on Saturday and Sunday last weekend and managed to hit the ground twice...One because I'm a knucklehead and I like to show off a bit (this one was the least painful of the two!!!), and the other was on Sunday in an expert MTB race. I was lucky enough...or unlucky I should say, to wad it up on the most technical section of the track. This happened so fast I didn't even have time to put my hand out to try and catch myself!!

What I did was an endo at speed and stop myself with my cheekbone...I was 3rd and having a great race up until this point...I got up, out of the way and watched all of the work that I had just put in go by. I tried to get going again, but sometimes when you bail really hard, the flow you once had is gone and never to return until the next race...which is what happened to me!!! I realized this and rode the next 2 miles out of the woods like I was out on a fun ride...NICE AND SLOW!!!

Fast forward a week...I was planning on doing another cross on the 27th, but hammering myself into the rocks on last Sunday put an end to that, due to a vertebrae in my back between my shoulders that's out of place, making it painful to breath really deep!!! I see a chiropractor in my future because this SUCKS!!!

The title of this post is "Pay to Play"...This means if you play hard enough long enough, you will be asked to pay...Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot...

With any sport, this is the case...I have been pretty fortunate and not had to pay very much in the 14 years I have been riding and racing!! But when I have to it just SUCKS!!! I also know that it's part of racing, and move on eventually!!

Pay to play...if you didn't know about this...you do now!!! Welcome to racing!!!

Cross rewind!!!

2009-09-20T17:55:00.000-07:00

So the first cross race of the season has come and gone, my 2nd CX race ever by the way!! I'll just say that it ended up waaaaaaay better than I had expected!!

So I get to the venue with a little over an hour to spare, plenty of time to get signed up and ready to race...I grab my license and my race pen, look at my bike and think for a second I should ride to the registration...NAH!!! Can't be that far, so off I go striding along. I wear my running shoes on the way to races for the very reason I'm about to tell...

I'm walking along for about 4 or 5 minutes and start thinking where is registration??? I ask a volunteer and he says keep going the same direction...off I go. A few more minutes of walking and I'm like WTF!!! Here's where the running shoes come into play!!! I start running, and after about 4 minutes of running, not jogging, I finally arrive at registration...at least a mile from where I parked!!! Damn!!! I knew I shoulda rode my bike!!! It's too far to just walk back, so being the whacked ball of race nerves that I am...I run...not jog RUN!! I haven't run that far since high school!!! I've said it before and I'll say it again...Why walk when you can ride!!! I hate running!!!

On to the race!!! I finally get on my bike and start warming up, there is a race in progress so I just ride around on the road doing wheelies...I love doing wheelies, don't get to do them on the road bike. Anyhoo, the race is over and the course is open for inspection...So I jump on it and speed up a little testing the traction in the turns, and just looking at the course all the while still doing wheelies!!

As I'm riding around the course, I come to the first set of barriers. You make a left turn onto this straight that is slightly canted downhill and about 75 yards from the turn are the barriers where low and behold...there's a photographer...So I yank the front wheel up and ride it until I had to set it down to dismount and run the barriers!!! The photog says I wasn't ready...do that in the race...I said HELL YEAH I'LL DO IT IN THE RACE!!!

So the inspection is over and they call us to the line...I farted around to long getting to the line so I was in the middle of the pack...SUCK!!!

They started us a little ways down this hill to try and string it out before the first turn. GO!!! We're off, I stab the pedal on the first try!! Grab a gear and start moving forward, grab another gear and start passing more and more...I'm thinking why the hell are you sissies going so slow!!! We hit the grass and I'm about 7th into the first turn.

At this point I'm on a mission and the MAD NINJA MTB SKEELZ kick in!! I made some of the sweetest and cleanest passes in the tightest spots EVER!! That just fueled the fire!!! We roll into a left hand hairpin and the guy in front of me is going slower than I want to be, so I start a pass around the outside and as I pull along side of this guy he starts to drift to my line, and I say to him "YOU BETTER TURN THAT BITCH"!!! As I say this I stick my left elbow out to ride wide and protect my line, and as soon as my elbow touches him he goes down!! I grab a gear and hammer away!!! It was a clean tactic!!!

Fast forward...still on lap 1. I think I'm sitting about 5th with a gap of about 5 seconds to 3rd and 4th as we roll onto the long pavement section. I jam the Truth into the big ring and start hammering, I close the gap quickly. I sit there for a few seconds and punch it again and go blasting by to the next grass section on the wheel of 2nd. He fumbles in a turn, I rail underneath him and set the sites on 1st, who wasn't but a few seconds ahead.

I get to his wheel and pressure him into a mistake and make the pass for 1st!!! So now I'm in first, we cross the road and make the left turn and head toward the barriers with the photographer...I see him so I grab a gear and yank the wheel up...the first attempt sucked!! So going faster now, I yank the wheel up and ride it baby!!! I set it down, look up, and realize that I'm waaaaay to close to the barriers and going waaaaay to fast!!! I grab as much brake as I can, start my dismount...At this point I'm doing a full on brake slide, totally sideways, standing on the left side of my bike on one pedal!!! IT WAS FREAKIN SWEEEEEEET!!!

I unclip, take a step and yank the bike up by the handle bar, (I didn't have time to grab the top tube because I was going to fast and too close), I make it over the first barrier, and in between I lose grip of the right side, so now the bike is in the air, I'm running with it with my left hand still attached between the barriers. The rear wheel hits the second barrier the same time as I jump it, the bike and myself flip to the ground...

As I scramble to my feet I get passed and drop back to 3rd...At this point I panicked...a lot...and start hammering again while trying to puke my guts out!!! It SUCKED!! I get back to 2nd's wheel and start pushing him again, he asks if I want by, I say no you're fine(I'm still trying to puke at this point). So I finally recover about the time we hit the pavement again, and proceed to ride him off of my wheel.

The next couple of laps I sat in no man's land slowly gaining time on 1st. On the last lap I put it on kill and got within 20 feet of him on the last climb to the finish line...I couldn't close it and he couldn't make it bigger...

I sat out to do this race for fun, which I did!!! As I think about the wheelie incident I laugh every time!!! Go big or don't go!!!! I'm sure the next one I do will not be so easy, because they know now!!! Insert evil tee hee here!!!! It makes me giddy!!!!

Cyclocross

2009-09-19T04:59:00.000-07:00

It's Saturday morning and I'm waiting on my coffee, so I thought I would throw a few words down...I have about 4 hours to get my bike and all of my stuff together for this race today!! I was less than motivated last night due to sushi and beer on Thursday night, staying out too late and getting up waaaaaay to early!! Ding!! Coffee is done!!!

MMMmmmm CAFFEINE!!! Anyway, today is the first cross race I plan on doing, last week was a good taper week, one less day of riding than I would have liked but oh well...I'll be fine!! The race starts at 12:15 I think...I should probably look into that!! Should be fun!!!

Race report later!!!

The end...

2009-08-28T16:31:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that it's the end of August already...What a year it's been so far!!! Rolling into September means the end of another season is rapidly approaching, which kinda sucks...mostly due to the days getting shorter and the cold...oh happy days the cold is coming back...woo.

Back in the day when I raced a ton in the woods, the end of the season couldn't get here fast enough...MTB season is crazy long!!! I kept a journal one season and leading up to the last race of the year at Snow Creek, which was in the first week of November, and the season started at the end of February!!! I was totally burned out and just going through the motions so I would have a decent race, well...like this year Mutha Nature didn't care to much for MTBers and it rained like it was time build an ark!!! That pretty much ended my season because racing up and down BIG ASS HILLS in the mud SUCKS!!! The last entry into my journal said "IT RAINED...THANK GOD IT'S F**KING OVER"!!!

Anyway...racing for me is for the most part finished!!! I didn't race as much as I wanted to but I did have a good season with good results overall!!

As the days get shorter, crit racing turns into cross racing. I plan on doing a few of these races, mostly because it's fun and I will be racing my MTB!!! That's right I'm lining up on the Truth...I've done it before and had a good time!!! This time I have better fitness and my goal last time was to do a wheelie as I pass someone during the race...I did the wheelie...but my fitness was not up to snuff and didn't have the umph to go blazing by anyone on one wheel...

This year I might just irritate a roadie or two cuz I'm bringing good fitness into the cross season!!! ;) The main goal still remains, and that is to go blazing by at least one poor roadie on one wheel!!! Talk about crushed ego!!! The other goal is to have fun...let's face it, it's on the dirt, I have mad ninja handling skeelz and most roadies don't have any off road skills...

With all of that being said, a decent result or two would be icing on the cake, making it even better would be the fact that I was blasting around on my Truth doing wheelies and cool feet up brake slides into the turns, having a KICK ASS TIME!!!! I'm not setting out to try and win or anything like that just to have fun and let the MTB'er in me shine brightly like back inthe day!!!

Hmmmm.....if I didn't know any better I would think that I'm a little stoked about lining up again!!! The end of the season...

So there you go...keep on riding until Ullr the god of snow says ride the trainer, get in the woods if it ever dries out again, drink more beers, and just have fun until it's time to train again...

Rapture in Misery...part 2

2009-08-16T06:20:00.001-07:00

Well...another 6 hour 2 man race has come and gone...and the dirt gods smiled on my team ever so brightly!!!

Let me say this first...A 6 hour race is a LONG FREAKIN DAY!!!! My day started at 6am, the morning ritual and load up the stuff and out the door by 8:15. Arrive at teammates house, unload and reload, hit the road to Crowder State Park...2 hours northeast.

We arrive at the venue and head straight to sign up, sign up done, back to the war wagon to set up our pit for the ensuing 6 hour melee, pit set up, time for the racers meeting...at this point it's 11:30 and the race starts at noon. The racers meeting drags on and on and ON!!! Now I'm starting to freak out a little, because I am NOWHERE EVEN CLOSE TO BEING READY TO RACE, AND I'M GOING OUT ON THE FIRST LAP!!!!!!!

So I duck out of the meeting and haul ass back to the pit, change into riding clothes...good thing there wasn't anyone around cuz I didn't cover up at all!!! I was in a HUGE RUSH!!! Put the number on the Truth, and head to the staging area to park my woods rocket, and head to the start line for the Le Mans start...which was 5 minutes later.

My warm up consisted of me riding from our pit to the staging area a grand total of 1/4 mile...The shortest warm up for me for a MTB race EVER!!!!!

On to the race...The start is a Le Mans style...meaning a short run of about 100 yards or so. This one we had to run up a wide rocky trail out onto a flat grassy area to where the bikes were staged. Fortunately I found a tree to lean my bike against that was as close to the start line as you could get, this was a good thing!!!

The course was a 9.1 mile loop with one gnarly section of rocks, which I didn't think it was that bad but anyway, two big climbs that would pretty much suck ass later in the race...I was right on that!!! Lots of fast flowing single track, some screaming fast descents, and a long grinder of a climb!!! Overall it was a good track, it kinda catered to the roadies meaning there wasn't very much technical riding...and those of us that have MAD HANDLING SKEELZ could've benefited from more gnarly sections!!!

Go!!! A mass of loonies is off and running, I grab my bike and head off to the course...I don't know how far back I was from the first rider on the trail, but I'm pretty sure that I was in the top 20.

The first lap rolls by and I come into the transition area and hand off to my teammate and at this point we're in 2nd place 45 seconds back. So I roll to our pit and take a break, refuel, check the bike, get cleaned up, and rest for about 15 minutes after all of that, then it's time to head back to the transition area and wait...

About 5 minutes rolls by and here comes my hommie, I grab the baton and off I go into the woods again. At this point in the race you really can't tell who, by looking at people, your competition is. My second lap rolls by and I crank out a lap 30 seconds faster than the first!!! Into the transition for the hand off and away goes the teammate still in 2nd.

Back to the pit, do the pit ritual and head back to the transition...The hand off is made and away I go for my third lap, now in 4th, hommie got passed some where out on the course...At this point I know who our competition is. So I go hammering along and as I see a rider I make them my carrot. Eventually I see my competition about 3.5 miles into my lap and I put him in the crosshairs, run him down and put it on kill to finish my lap 2 minutes ahead of him and put us back into 3rd!!! At the transition I tell my teammate to not make me have to chase that guy again!!!

Off he goes for his third lap. I go do the pit ritual and head back and wait...he comes in and we are now in 2nd going into my last lap, I grab the baton and head out going as hard as I can possibly go to get as far away from the transition as possible thinking the whole time I gotta get out of sight!!! Out of sight, out of mind...right?!?! In doing this I came to the rock section and bombed it faster than I had all day, I didn't even touch the brakes!!! On I go like my life depended on it. At one point on the course you are out in the open riding across a pond dam, I get to this part and pin it to get across as fast as I can...again...out of sight out of mind!!!

I look back right before I head back into the woods and see no one...yea a small victory at this point. I start this climb and both legs start to cramp at the bottom and I'm like WTF!!! NOT NOW!!! So I keep going and rub them out while I climb...I get to the top and the cramps have gone away, So I punch it and hammer on. Eventually this part of the course winds around and spits you back out on the dam, I get there and beat myself BLIND to get across without being seen...success!!!

So I race on and try to go fast and stay consistent. At about 2.5 miles to go I'm suffering badly and I feel a HUGE BONK coming on quickly and the last long grinder of a climb is about 1/4 of a mile ahead...so I freak out a little because I don't know how far behind third is and if I bonk it's OVER!!! So I grab my gel flask that has my tried and true strawberry-banana power gel in it and gulp down as much as I can, then wash it down with as much carbo drink as I can take!!!

I get to the climb and make it up the first steep section and spin up my speed and try to recover on this flat part that took about 2 minutes to traverse. By the time I hit the first switchback the bonk was gone and I kicked it in again!!!

I finish my last lap and hand off to my hommie and told him to bring it home!!! I wait for third to come in and it's 5 minutes later, so I gave my hommie a 5 minute lead going into his last lap...I think to myself hopefully it's enough!!!

Back to the pit to get cleaned up and get some real food and wait!!!

I'm sitting at the transition waiting and shoveling food in my face like I haven't eaten in days, and about 20 minutes later...my teammate comes rolling in and we nail down 2nd place!!!

No bad considering we were in 4th at one point. Cranking out some good laps and a bit of misfortune by another team paid off!!!

Here are some numbers from the race...36.4 miles at an average of 11.3 mph. I had a max speed of 26.9 mph. I spent 30 minutes and change over 190 bpm, maxed at 198 bpm, averaged 181 bpm for the entire race, and burned 3398 calories for 3 hours and 48 minutes of ride time!!

As I write this, I am flat out SMOKED!!! Racing on the road is hard, but racing in the woods waaaaaaay more difficult!!!

Rapture in Misery...

2009-08-14T05:18:00.000-07:00

The title pretty much speaks for itself!! The Rapture in Misery is a 6/12 hour MTB race, a race that I have participated in twice.

The first melee was of course the 12 hour...I competed in this race on a 3 man team. We had no expectations going in to this race, and we ended up on the podium, 3rd overall in the Supa-fast (expert) class. Not bad for some 12 hour rookies!!!

The second incarnation of this race was a 6 hour 2 man team...I chose the 6 hour for a variety of reasons. Mainly because we couldn't find a third to race with...Gotta have standards!!! One more reason is doing a 12 hour race is about the hardest race I have ever been a part of...hence 6 hours.We did pretty good at this one, we managed 5th overall, not bad.

The Rapture in Misery has been traditionally held at Landahl park, this year it will be held at Crowder State Park up north by Trenton. I love riding and racing here, lots of good fast flowing single track punctuated by some pretty long climbs...good stuff I tell ya!!!

This year I will be racing the 6 hour duo again, I briefly considered the 6 hour solo then I came to my senses!!!

Race report on Sunday...maybe...;) The Gods of Dirt beckon!!!

OP crit...

2009-08-09T11:52:00.000-07:00

A short story first...I was pinning my number on my jersey when a teammate of mine who lives close to the venue shows up, he has his number in hand and asks me to pin it on...OK I say...As I'm doing this a pterodactyl sized bumble starts to buzz me...I don't dig be stung so I ran like a girl!!! I go back to teammate that's standing there with a look that says...SISSY!!! I'm like whatever dude...

Back to pinning his number...I'm almost done and I see the king bee again for a second and then no more, his number is done and I say to him pull the jersey down to check it, as he does this he puts his hand on the king bee and it stings the piss out of him!!!!

If that's not karma, I don't know what is!!!! On to the race!!!

Today was the OP crit, a race I have done I don't know how many times. Today the field size was 69...Giggety!!!

They say go and we're off!! I stab the pedal first time, which always makes me happy!! I pedal hard a few times and move up close to the front. The first few laps are pretty much a group cluster F**K!!! On the 3rd lap I decide that the pace is too low and pin it for about a lap and a half, fortunately there were other racers that were on the same page with me so the pace remained high for quite a few laps and the field was dwindling because of it!!!

The race rolls on, about a third of the way through the first crash happens...right behind me, so I scream at the guys in front of me to pin it!! We get a small gap for about a lap and it's back together...

The race rolls on, 2 laps to go bombing into the fastest turn on the course at 30+ mph there's another crash...behind me again, so I yell at the guys in front of me to go again, and off we go. We get a rotation started, and that lasted about 1/4 of a mile before a knucklehead screwed it up!!! Shortly after that the riders that were able to get around the crash catch back up.

We roll back around to where the crash was and the course workers are telling us to slow down...which was a good thing and a bad thing...good because it was a break, bad because it was a break for everybody, know what I mean???

So we poke along to the last corner and a rider who ended up 2nd goes to the front and put the pace on KILL for the entire last lap, up the last hill into the last turn I was absolutely DYING!!! I thought to myself going around the last turn I can't go anymore, and that pissed me off!!! So I grab a handful of gears and proceeded to go blind with PAIN to the line!!! I cross the line in 7th, I think I was 12th coming out of the last turn, so I guess I wasn't dying as bad as I felt!!!

On the other hand, after I crossed the line I tried to puke my guts out for the next what felt like an eternity!!!

So I would say I had a good race!!! there's not much if anything I would have done different.

The numbers...we averaged 25.1 mph for 46:30. I averaged 189 bpm and maxed at 199 on the sprint!!

I would like thank the lucky penny I received at the Breakthrough Tour of KC!!! I had a good race and was ahead of the carnage both times!!!!!

Thank you lucky penny!!! You will always be in my gear bag and go to every race until I race no more!!!

Losing all...

2009-08-02T10:48:00.000-07:00

At some point in the last year or two I have come to the realization that I have put a lot of time and effort over the last 14 years into what I'm pretty sure I can't live without...RIDING!!!

I am more or less afraid to quit riding because of what you gain over time and what you lose when you quit!! I'm not talking about taking a month off, I'm talking about stepping away for an extended period of time...6 months or more.

Not only do you lose fitness, but the cumulative effect of logging mile after mile, and hour after hour in the saddle. Then there's the one thing you can NEVER get back...age...You quit riding, you get older. Your fitness goes away, you get older. If and when you get back in the saddle, you can regain a lot, but with age you may never be where you were when you stopped again!!!

This is why I am afraid to quit riding...

In the woods...

2009-07-29T15:32:00.000-07:00

Hmmm...This year I had decided to play more in the woods, but Mutha Nature, I'm convinced, hates MTBer's...So at this point I have only lined up once, sad I know!!!

When I started riding, my first bike was a mountain bike. The first few months were spent on bike paths and on the road. Then a friend of mine suggested going out to Minor Park and check out the trails there...that was all it took to get me hooked on riding in the woods!!

From that point on me and my riding buddies were in the woods. It's funny as I think back to those days, we would ride for an hour and just be flat out toast when we were done. As we progressed the rides got faster and longer...to the point where we would be wheel to wheel inches apart going as fast as we could go on every stretch of single track we rode. Most of the time it wasn't a problem hammering down the trails this way...most of the time...

One instance stands out to me...this trail at Minor is an old railroad bed and is slightly canted downhill, about a mile long and straight. Big ringing this section at 20mph+ is easy!!!

This day we had been riding for quite a while and were on the return trip back to the trail head. Once we got on this trail the speed went up to at least 20mph probably more...and in usual fashion we were wheel to wheel on semi loose single track trying to go faster!!!

About a 1/4 of a mile into this, a trail intersects the one we're on and there's a small jump...you know we jumped it!!!! That's just the way it is...speed and a small jump what could go wrong???

As this freight train rolled on as fast as we could go, rider number 1 hits the jump a little sideways and flies to the side of the trail, rider number 2 was over lapped a bit and grabs 2 fists full of stoppers, touches rider 1's wheel, starts to wad it up in front of...you guessed it...me...of course I was 2 inches away from his wheel, so I grab as much brake as my hands can hold....

Rider 1 recovers and rides away, rider 2 ends up in the weeds on the ground, and I ended up in the weeds on the ground with a toasted front wheel...to add insult to injury I had to walk out...

Ah yes...the good old days...how I miss it!!!

It's over...

2009-07-26T16:10:00.000-07:00

Let the withdrawal begin...The 3 week ass kickin session known as the Tour de France is over... : (

If the powers that be weren't REDNECKS, we would be salivating at the fact the Vuelta a Espana is set to start in September!! Since they are REDNECKS...We get no such love!!! If you like watching bull riding you're golden...I have to admit seeing a dumb ass get on a 1200 pound bull that's pissed off and then get thrown, dragged, and stomped makes me laugh!!!

Anyway...we will have to wait another year...365 days...to see the greatest bike race on the planet...THAT'S FREAKIN FOREVER!!!!

I think it was a good race, and I also think that Alberto Contador is a PUNK ASS BITCH!!! Don't get me wrong, he's a great rider, but he had to steal time from the man because he knew he couldn't deliver the goods!!!

CHUMP!!!

Visualization

2009-07-21T15:57:00.000-07:00

So...This is about the race I won...again...not to brag or anything like that!!

As I have said before, I found out about that race and decided to train specifically for it. In that 2 month span I'm pretty sure I started this blog. Anyway...I started paying attention to the effort I was putting in out on the bike, and started sharing this with anyone that cares to read this.

Fast forward a few weeks and the race is pretty much all I think about when I'm at work or out on the bike...I was visualizing how I wanted it to go down...

The race comes and goes, if you read this you know how it went...Anyhoo, a few days after the race I went back and looked at what I had written in the days and weeks leading up to the race, and was pretty much surprised at what I read!!!

Of the 5 or 6 entries that have anything to do with this race, there is one that is more or less word for word on how the race went down...The only things that aren't accurate are the wind direction, which was out of the east...and that's just weird considering it was 96 degrees that day and usually means a south wind...The other thing was the small group of guys that I went up the road with...they were my teammates!!!

After I read this, I was amazed at how accurate it was. I sat there for a few minutes and thought about how much time I had spent thinking about this race and playing it out in my head and was kinda shocked. For at least 3 or 4 days, probably more, while I was at work, I thought a lot about this race!!

I have a friend that has told me that visualization works and I have never put much thought into it up until now...I'm pretty sure it WORKS!!!

If you are out there training everyday for a specific race and wonder what else you can do...See yourself racing...See yourself going as hard as you can, think about how you want it to happen and believe in what you see!!!

I don't know if it was a fluke or what, but if I pick another race that I want to do well at, I can assure you that I will visualize how it's going to happen!!!

I LOVE RIDING MY BIKE!!!

Student of the game

2009-07-11T05:35:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about mountain biking the other day, and how much racing in the woods I used to do...I want to do more but Mutha Nature hates mountain bikers!!!

Anyhoo, back in the day when me and my hommies were chasing MTB championship points all over Missouri, we were students of the game!!! By that I mean we knew everything there was to know about our bikes, what tires to use when, the proper tire pressure for the course, how much everything weighed, and the right suspension set up!!

The thing that I think made the most difference in our game planning, was going to the venue the day before and doing an inspection lap of the race course.

We would go out and just ride the course, which had a few benefits, but the main one was learning the fast line and alternate lines through the technical sections. In my experience this generally paid off, especially early in a race when the bottlenecks occurred.

The one instance that I know it paid off for me, was a race at Landahl Park. I went out to ride the course and ended up going alone which is no big deal. As I rode that day I looked at every section I thought I might have problems with from going into and riding out of angles.

There was one section I remember clearly...It was a short climb, not too steep, but it had lots of big rocks...at the top you made a right turn and it dropped away into a rock garden of good sized rocks. The key to this section was to make it up the short climb before it...do this and you will put time on anyone who doesn't clean this section. So I stopped and found the good line up it, and tried to clear it twice with no luck. I thought to myself oh well it would probably be faster to run anyway. So I finish the lap confident with what I learned on my inspection of the course.

On to the race...GO, were off, up the first climb and a small group of 3 ride away, and i'm at the front of the rest. We get out of the first section of single track and I pin it WFO to get across...YEA I made it!! so we keep hammering and hit the next section of single track, there are 4 of us now.

Fast forward a bit...the guy that's on the front tells us that his front derailleur is broke so he will pull out of the way when we get to the next climb. Down to 3 of us. We keep it on kill for the next 3 or 4 miles and shuck the number 3 guy. Down to 2. Racing along and the guy in front of me rides away and i'm all alone now...I think to myself...Great...2nd place isn't so bad. So I keep riding what I thought was a good pace and sure enough I run him down. I get to his wheel and follow for a while, he hits a stick and flips it up into his rear wheel...I say to him...dude you got a stick...as soon as I say this it locks up his rear wheel, around I go and put the hammer down to lead the 1st lap.

Lap number 2 was uneventful...I get to the section I described earlier, and fly up it like it was flat, make the turn and roll down the rock garden and on to the smooth stuff, put it on kill again, and won the race by over 3 minutes!!!

I'm pretty sure that being a student of the game went a long way in that victory!!!

That win is the one I hold the highest over all of my wins!!!

So needless to say, knowing as much as possible about any battle you are about participate in, is a huge advantage!!!

Tour of Lawrence

2009-07-05T05:43:00.000-07:00

July 4th I decided to line up in downtown Lawrence, I knew going in it was going to be a fast race..I was right!!! The course had 8 turns, nice and wide, with good pavement...for the most part.

On to the race...Let's start with the wind...It had been blowing out of the southwest all day, which if it had stayed that way the race might have been a little easier, but NOOOOOOooooo Mutha Nature decided to flip it to out of the northwest about 15 minutes before the race...not a bad thing, it meant headwind on the uphill section and tailwind on the start/finish straight. It would have been nice rolling downhill into a headwind and hammering uphill with a tailwind...oh well...

The course is open for inspection and we start riding the course and quickly realize that it will be a very fast race with a blistering fast finish...downhill with a tailwind!!! At about 7 minutes til 4:00, the race started at 4:00 by the way, I realize that I am a wee bit hungry and hadn't gulped the hammergel that I should have ingested 30 minutes ago!!! So I hammer back to the car, and eat it up yum!!!

By the time I get to the start line they are in the middle of the racers meeting...talk about cutting it close!!! So I weasel into line and try to calm down before the race, I look down at my heart rate and it's 155, it was at that point that I started to TRY and relax!!! They call us to the line, tell us it's going to be a 40 minute race with 3 prime laps.

GO!!! For the first time in I don't know how long I miss my pedal TWICE!!! Not a good start...I finally get my foot on and I'm mad as hell!!! I grab 3 gears and hammer up the outside of the race and get to the front. Ahhh that's better...I sit in about 5 riders from the front for a minute to recover a bit, then go to the front and hammer it to try and shuck as many riders as possible, after all...smaller field...better chance...right...right!!!

We had been racing along for about 5 laps, and the first prime is called, the pace is lifted, shortly after and this huge behemoth of a rider attacks with a half a lap to the finish line and sticks it!! I hope it was worth it, because i'm pretty sure he went out of the back shortly after!!!

We've been racing along for about 20 minutes, and an SKC racer attacks at a time that the field was rolling along fairly slow...I'm sitting pretty close to the front and think to myself he looks strong I should go to him, and launch out of the pack and proceed to ride across the gap, fortunately he see me and slows up a bit, which is a totally classy move!!! I get across the gap on the hardest part of the course, uphill into a headwind...can you say DUMB ASS!!! Anyhoo i'm on his wheel and say to him I need a minute and i'll work, to that he says OK...again another classy move!!!

At this point he pulls for another 1/4 of a lap and I come around on the downhill tail wind section and pin it at 31 mph to increase our gap. Our gap increased to 10 seconds, at this point i'm hoping that the fairly large group of SKC riders and my fellow Bicycle Shack hommies are on the front of the main field slowing it down!! My teammates say they went to the front...I never looked back to see, even if I had I wouldn't have been able to see, due to the BLINDING PAIN I was in!!!

For 4 laps it's just the 2 of us and it was by far the most pain I have been in for a looooooong time!!! About half way through our 4th lap off of the front the field has cut down our lead a bit and a rider comes across, I look back and think SWEET!!! I take another pull and SKC pulls through again...new guy doesn't come through, so I go through again followed by SKC and new guy pulls through. This lasts about 2 rotations and he stops again, at this point another rider joins us and I pull through 1 more time followed by SKC, and team Flying Monkey...I wave through new guy and he looks at me, hesitates and then goes by so hard that none of us can follow...This guy is a DUMB ASS!!!!!

At this point the field is on top of us, and we reintegrate...I drift back about 15 spots to recover and punch the gas again to get close to the front. We race on and the 2nd prime goes by and we keep racing. The 3rd prime is announced and a half a lap later my teammate attacks and 2 other rides go with...They get a gap and proceed to keep going after the prime. I have another teammate on the front of the pack, and I think to myself sweet he's going to slow down and I will join him on the front to help, at this point I was 5 riders back, and all of the sudden I see him put his head down and start hammering...WHAT THE FUCK!!!!! I yell at him but he can't hear me and he starts to drag the field up to the break...I was MAD AS HELL at this point!!! Fortunately him and 2 other riders create a small gap and the 2 riders in front of me have riders up the road.

At this point one of the riders in front of me starts hammering, and I yell at him...SLOW DOWN DUMB ASS YOU HAVE A RIDER UP THE ROAD!!!! Surprisingly it worked...we slowed the field for about 1/3rd of a lap and it swarmed around us at the first opportunity.

3 laps to go I'm working way too hard on the easy part and trying to recover on the hard part...Thankfully I realize this and sit in close to the front to recover...going into the last lap i'm sitting about 20th, My teammate goes to the front and proceeds to pin it at 28mph for the entire lap including the up hill head wind section to string it out and it works!!

We get to the top of the hill and start heading towards home and I move up a few spots, we're flying at this point...about 30ish, on to the last turn we lean into that one at 28mph+ I grab a handful of gears and start my sprint I pick off a few guys, grab 2 more gears pass a couple more and it's over...I count the riders in front of me and I nail down 15th...out of 60.

I had a good race, the only thing I would have done different would be to make sure I was closer to the front going into the last turn...closer than 20th more like 10th or better!!!

That's racing...Here are some of my computer numbers...We averaged 25.5 mph, I averaged 190 bpm heart rate for 43 minutes, and maxed at 200 bpm on the finish sprint at 39 mph!! Like I said it was PAINFUL!!!

The Tour of KC is next in about a month...

Racing racing racing...

2009-07-02T10:39:00.000-07:00

It's official, I'm lining up in Lawrence this Saturday...Should be a good race, and it won't be HELL HOT!!!! Just now I got a touch of the race nerves thinking about it!! It makes me giddy...TEEHEE!!!

I'll go out for an easy spin tomorrow, then spin my legs out on the trainer on Saturday morning, then blast down the highway to Larry town at 2:00 to race a 4:00!!!

Race recap on Sunday!!!

Addiction

2009-06-30T19:26:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of things to be addicted to in life. I have a couple of itches that need to be scratched on a regular basis!!

One is caffeine...gotta have it!! As of late I have incorporated it into my training rides when it's not hell hot!!! I ride about 25 miles and stop for a double shot of espresso with a little vanilla...MMMM MMMM, love it, hang out til I get the shakes and head out again for another 20 to 30 miles.

My other itch is riding, and racing...again!!! There are more, but those are not what i'm talking about here!!! I love to race, I love getting ready the night before, waking up on race day and going absolutely NUTS with race day nerves. Heading to the race cranking as much MOTIVATIONAL METAL as I can stand. I love being in such frenzy that signing up is almost an impossibility. Heading out to warm up usually burns up a lot of the nerves, but they always come back when I roll up to the starting line...

After my race on Friday I can't wait to race again!!! Winning the race pretty much sealed my fate on that!!! So I sit here and punch in my thoughts and think about my next race, which if everything goes as planned, will be Saturday in Lawrence. It will be a big race, there's like 20,000.00 dollars in prize money for the weekend series...which is HUGE!!!

The last race was a good sized field of 70 riders, this one will be maxed out at 125 I'm sure. I will definitely have my work cut out to place well...that's most of the reason I want to go...the level of the riders will be higher therefore a faster and more painful race!!! Sounds good to me!!!!

I've said it before and i'll say it again...

I LOVE PAIN, AND I LOVE TO RACE!!!

Competition

2009-06-28T06:52:00.000-07:00

Over the years I have asked people why they are competing in whatever race or sport it is they are doing. More often than not the answer is "for fun". The next question is...do you have a goal for this, and the answer is usually "to have fun".

I don't have a problem with any of these answers, the problem I have is...I believe that no one pays to line up and race or compete in any event and not want to win or at least do their very best.

To me doing your very best means selling out and leaving everything you have out there on your chosen field of battle...that in itself is where the fun comes in to play...knowing that you did your best regardless of the outcome!!

I understand being active, hanging out and having a good time with friends...even then...the will to win is there!!!

So next time you are asked why you are doing whatever sport it is that you do...It may be for fun, but ultimately deep down inside...you want to put the screws to that person in front of you, or stomp ass on the team that's on the field with you!!!

Everybody wants to win!!!

Victory is mine!!!

2009-06-26T20:20:00.000-07:00

Today is a day that I will never forget!!! I won my race today!!!

The march to this race started about 2 months ago. I heard there was going to be a race REALLY close to home, so I decided to train specifically for that race. I guess whatever I did worked because I crossed the line first!!

On to the race...It was about 95 degrees today, no clouds and an east wind at about 10mph, an east wind...WTF!!! So I get to the venue and register, pin the number on, get dressed and go for a short warm up spin and look at the course.

The course was 1.2 miles in length, with 2 pretty technical turns and the rest were pretty much standard. The warm up is done...me and the rest of the Shacksters get to the line first, which is a good thing, because it was a good sized field of at least 50 riders, probably more!!

GO!! We're off, I get a decent start hitting the pedal on the first try and settling in about 5th or 6th. The 1st lap goes by and I go to the front and push the pace a little, I do this for a couple of laps and a teammate rolls by me to give me a break...WOOHOO!!! He and I sit on the front for a couple more laps and another teammate joins us, just as we head into a prime lap. The pace remains the same and the field is strung out into a long line, we make the turn onto the start finish straight and my teammate takes the prime...YEA YEA THAT'S GREAT!!!

At this point we pick it up another notch and we create a gap, the first time check I heard was 6 seconds, and I think to myself there's no way we are getting away!!! The next one I heard was 12 seconds and about this time another rider bridged across to us. I think to myself SWEET longer break off of the front...we shot him out the back about a lap later...good one less person to sprint at the end!!!

At this point i'm mostly incoherent and thinking to myself when is this going to end!!! The next thing I hear is 6 laps to go. Back to talking to myself...FUCK that's a long time...keep pedaling!!!
We keep the hammer down and before I knew it we have a half a lap left. So as I pull through I say to the Shacksters we are pooling the money and splitting it 3 ways...the right thing to do!! In the end we put a minute on the field.

We come off of the last turn and i'm second wheel and it looked to me that my teammate jumped so I grabbed 2 gears and hammered by him like he had the brakes on to a hands up victory!!!

I have targeted races in the past and not had the success I had today for various reasons, but today was my day, and DID IT EVER FEEL GOOD!!!!

I LOVE RIDING MY BIKE!!!

Fine tuning...

2009-06-25T16:11:00.000-07:00

So today at work I realize that my getaway sticks are sore from the past few days of riding. This means one thing...trainer ride...I chose to ride the trainer because it's waaaaaay more controlled, which means an "easy" ride fo sho!!!

I rode this device of winter torture for about 23 minutes. It's hydraulic so there is resistance, I put it in a not too easy and not too hard of a gear, and spun it out at 95 rpm. Good bye sore legs!!

24 hours from now I will be racing, my legs are feeling good...The rest is up to me to be in the right place at the right time.

Closer

2009-06-24T18:45:00.000-07:00

Man...it's been freakin HOT!!! I don't mind the heat because I work in it. I think it will help on Friday, you know...acclimatization. The poor souls that work in the A/C are gonna be hatin it!!

Went out for an easy ride today to flush out the legs from the Tuesday ride. I wanted to ride 20 miles but ended with 16 due to Mutha Nature. She was rolling in some weather, and I didn't feel like getting caught in a Missouri hurricane....highly overrated!!!

Legs are feeling good, I think i'm going to be on good form for this race...Now all I have to do is an easy spin tomorrow, probably on the trainer, lay around on Friday for a while, clean the bike...everybody knows a clean bike is a fast bike!!! Then head to the race.

Oh man is this gonna be fun!!!

I'm in...

2009-06-23T02:58:00.000-07:00

It's official, I registered for the races this weekend!! So i'm at least racing on Friday night, might do Saturday, depends on how I do on Friday...Anyhoo there will be a story to tell so stay tuned...it'll be a good one!!!

Taper

2009-06-21T10:20:00.000-07:00

Taper: A gradual decrease in effort or force. I've only done this purposefully once before. I suppose will do it again this week. The race i've been working towards is on Friday, and I want to be as rested and ready as possible!!

The race...It's a 1.2 mile circuit, and the only real problem I see is the long grinder of a hill that will surely blow the field apart...which is a good thing, unless you are a casualty of it...I'm also sure that this hill is where the race will be won or lost!! I don't know how far past the top the finish line will be, i'm betting at least 200 meters more...It's gonna be a PAINFUL finish!!! On the plus side, the wind will more than likely be blowing up this hill...which is a good thing!!!

I don't know if I will go after any primes on the prime laps...Hmmm...I plan on launching an attack, if i'm in a good position to do so, directly after one of the primes are contested. There are usually at least 2 during a race, hopefully a small group will go with me or I with them.

Either way I would rather race for a win in a small group as opposed to trying to go blasting by a bunch of BITCHES that have been sitting in the group the whole race!!!

From what I rode on Wednesday, it should be fast, with a HUGE dose of PAIN thrown in for good measure!!!

Get your game face on because it's time to play!!!

Saturday ride...

2009-06-20T05:04:00.000-07:00

It's waaaaay too early to be awake!!! I have my LEETLE FRIEN caffeine to cure that.

Today is the Saturday ride from the rec center at Longview. It's a good ride, i'll get about 55 miles today. I'll ride to the start, with a pit stop at JP coffee for a double shot of espresso, then it's a huge mass of riders of all abilities that head south to a Caseys in Raymore for a break to refuel and off load extra water...

Now for the fun part...The 17 mile trip back is a hammerfest, which I have been watching my performance on the way back to gauge my fitness for racing. This part lasts anywhere from 38:00 minutes, which is the fastest time back to date, to about 45:00 minutes. This is the length of a cat. 4 crit, which i'm going to line up in on Friday the 26th weather permitting...

It's a good ride, with a little bit of everthing...Time to get ready to roll.

Bonk

2009-06-17T15:32:00.000-07:00

Today I did something I haven't done in...well...I don't remember the last time I bonked. If you have never done this, let me assure you are missing nothing!!!

I rode 29 miles today, and 25 of it was the most miserable i've been on a bike in a long time!!! I take off and head south into a medium head wind, get about 5 miles in and just flat run out of gas...I think to my self, i'm not riding hard i'll keep going. That was a mistake...I can usually poke along at 17 mph with no problem, today I was doing good to roll at 16 mph...it was suckin big time!!!

I get to my turn around point, stop and grab a granola bar and a Pepsi so my return ride with the wind won't be so bad, eat and drink and off I go.

So I'm headed with the wind now, still not enjoying the ride at all, and come to a detour on my route that I didn't know was there...That added 6 miles to my personal hell...yea! It's a good thing I brought a little money or I would've been screwed!!!

One more thing...being chased by dogs when you don't have the energy to sprint by them SUCKS!!! Stupid dogs...That happened 3 times...Yes today was a long day in the saddle...

Tomorrow will be better...

Gambling and beer...

2009-06-17T10:18:00.000-07:00

The Stanley Cup finals are in the book...Which means there are no sports worth watching until football rolls around, and that means nothing to make bets on for beers!!!

The only good thing coming up is the Tour de France, and I guess I could bet on that but it would take forever...don't get me wrong, I love me some TdF...but trying to talk trash while watching a stage would be like watching the grass grow and yelling at it for taking so long...It just doesn't work!!

For now I will wait patiently for football, in the mean time I will soak up as much of the Tour de France as I can!!!

Motivation

2009-06-10T18:13:00.000-07:00

Last week, I had a great week of riding...12 hours in the saddle. This week my motivation is about -4 on a scale of 1 to 10. I haven't thrown a leg over my bike at all this week...It's not a bad thing, I probably needed to take some days off anyway!!

I'm going to do a crit or two at the end of this month, the first in a few years. The time off now will probably end up being a good thing by the time those races roll around.

Ah yes crit racing...If you have never been to a crit, you should go to at least one and check it out!! It is flat out after the gun goes off and just plain NUTS!!! To ride well in a crit you have to be fearless, afterall riding shoulder to shoulder with 60+ riders through 90 degree turns at 25mph+ or faster is totally intense or insane...more like both, mostly due to the fact that the line you want to be on going through the turns is usually taken by 4 or 5 other riders.

After writing this I think my motivation came back, and I have the itch to go crit racing...again...WOOHOOOOOO!!!!!

PAIN!!!

2009-06-06T09:51:00.000-07:00

There are some things about riding and racing that will never change!!

1. There will always be someone faster than you!!

2. Pain...If you go on fast group rides or race, the one thing you can always count on coming along with you is...PAIN.

Some days the pain is easy to push aside, and other days you just suffer...

If you like to ride a lot, race, or both, you like to suffer, and PAIN is your LEETL FRIEN!!!!

I love PAIN!!!

Karma revisited...

2009-06-05T12:24:00.000-07:00

I have already thrown my thoughts out there on the subject of karmic retribution...Now I have an example...

Yesterday on my 60 mile jaunt I was buzzed by a JACKASS that was a lot to impatient to wait 10 seconds...Up until this point my ride had been uneventful and enjoyable. Dillhole goes by and disappears up the road. I shrugg it off keep pedaling towards home.

A few miles later, i'm climbing a hill on the 4 hill road and spy Mr. Law has somebody nailed to the radar gun...As I get closer I realize it's the JACKASS that buzzed me, since i'm riding uphill, i'm not going very fast and as I pass, I eyeball this knucklehead until he looks at me and when he does...I laugh...and throw the victory fist pump for good...insult to injury!!!

Karmic retribution people...I LOVE IT!!!!

Monday...

2009-06-01T19:52:00.000-07:00

Monday was such a beat down!!! I am at a loss for words...I hate Mondays!!!!!!!!!!!

Wind

2009-05-29T12:22:00.000-07:00

I have just realized that most of my topics come to me when i'm out riding by myself...more time to think about everything...

As i was riding along and letting my mind wander, I heard the wind blowing past my ears...I don't use an ipod or anything of the sort, mainly because of stupid drivers that refuse to give more than an inch...FUCKERS!!! That's a different topic altogether. Anyway, so I got to thinking about my favorite sounds, I have a few that are my absolute favs, again...another topic...;) But the wind blowing past my ears as I move along is one of them!!

I found that I like this sound when I was a ski bum in Colorado. I was doing some early morning bomb runs on the corduroy and was going 70ish mph, just before I started to slow down I heard the wind blastin past my ears and it was as loud as thunder!!! It was the coolest thing I think I have ever heard!!

If you care to experience this, there are a few ways to get there, 1. is to go skiing and make 11's (go straight) and 2. is to stick your head out the window of a moving vehicle at 70, you will be amazed at how loud the wind is!!!

One of my favorite sounds is the wind...

Karmic Retribution

2009-05-28T12:16:00.000-07:00

I am a firm believer in karmic retribution...Most of the time I run my mouth and talk shit for fun and usually don't mean anything by it!! Well...karma is a fickle BITCH, and sometimes she feels the need to remind me she's listening. Might take a second or it might take a lifetime...No matter how long, karma will get you!!!

For instance...A friend of mine is a HUGE FAN of the Egg McMuffin, so I took it upon myself to tell her that I was going to get one and just basically rub it in!! No big deal, i've done it before and will probably do it again!!! So I dole out the ration of padoobie, eat down my Egg McMuffin and head home to go for a ride...HOORAY!!!

Fast forward about an hour...I'm just about ready to go, gotta pump up the tires still. I grab my pump and hook it on the valve, up to 120psi, go to pull the pump head off of the valve..and the valve comes with it...insta flat, gotta change the tube...

So I change it, finish getting ready, then send a text retracting all statements made towards her regarding Egg McMuffins...Karma!!!

I said once and I will say it again, karma will get you...Might take a second...might take a lifetime, but she will exact herself on you!!!

Lies...

2009-05-26T19:39:00.000-07:00

Hmmm.......Why does anyone lie?

The people I really don't understand are the ones who tell lie after lie after lie...They all get caught eventually, then they throw a lie when they get caught...To me this is waaaaaaay beyond stupid, so much so that I can't wrap my head around why!!! It gives me a headache to even try!!!

I don't know...I work with a guy that does this and it baffles me. I am a firm believer in karma, and what goes around comes around!!! I think that sooner or later his sac is going to get ripped off like a paper towel!!!

I would rather say nothing than toss out lie after lie!!! I'm not perfect by any means but WTF!!!

Quotes

2009-05-25T09:45:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I get really bored, that leads to sitting at the computer...kinda like now, I have ridden 7 days in a row, I could probably ride today, but I just don't see it happening...at least right now.

Anyway...when I'm bored I root around on the world wide web for shtuff, not anything in particular, just whatever pops into my grey matter whilst I look. Lately it's quotes...quotes on everything...mostly to put on FB, and a little for knowledge,but it helps pass the time.

So as I looked at my notebook of these quotes, I figured I would share some of the ones I like.

When I'm mad and I remember this one it makes me laugh...most of the time...."Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent"

I found this one and I like it a lot just because I think too much...a lot of the time!!! "Thinking is the talking of the soul with itself"

This one I just like!!! "A word to the wise isn't necessary, it's the stupid ones who need the advice!!"

As I was digging one day I came across some of Bruce Lee's quotes...These are a few..."Using no way...as a way, and using no limitation...as a limitation" Kinda makes you go hmmmm...

A simple one..."As you think....so shall you become"

This one I have seen in action several times, and it never ceases to amaze me when the "smart" people don't see or get it!!! "Simplicity is the key to brilliance"

Now back to some random quotes...This one fits just about everything, but for me it's cycling..."The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it"

This one fits a few of my friends, but one in particular...I don't think she ever stops moving from the time she wakes until her head hits the bed...she is a FREAK!!! "Be the first to the field and the last to the couch" I'm telling you it fits perfectly!!!!

I think I have a few more...This one, I wasn't even looking quotes, but it caught my eye..."What a man does for pay is of little significance. What he is, as a sensitive instrument responsive to the worlds beauty, is everything!!" By the master of horror H.P. Lovecraft.

I think ill call it even after this one...if you never ask you will never know..."He who asks is a fool for 5 minutes...but he who does not ask remains a fool for ever"

There you go...some of my favorite quotes.

The simple things

2009-05-24T08:31:00.000-07:00

I figured this one out a long time ago, and had forgotten about it until yesterday.

So yesterday was the Saturday morning ride from the rec center at Longview C.C. and I decided to not go the usual way and take the scenic route. The usual way requires me to do a 110% effort after 1 mile...I FUCKING HATE THIS!!!!

I was thinking the scenic route would take longer so I left 10 minutes early just in case...It turns out the this way is a mile less WOOHOO!!! That gave me a lot of time to just ride and enjoy the morning. So i'm riding along and realize that I have a ton of time and start to poke along and notice these purple wild flowers, so I stop and take out my phone, snap a shot and roll on. While I was doing that I realized that all I could hear was the breeze blowing through the trees and the birds, no traffic, no people, no nothing...Just the simple things right?

I wasn't at a good place on the road to be sitting, so I rode up the hill to the intersection and stopped...just to take in what nature has to offer, I sat there for about 5 minutes and thought...wow it's been a long time since I stopped to look around.

It's funny, when me and the hommies would go on MTB trips, I would constantly preach to them to just look around see what's there...If you never look you never see!!! I do look around when i'm out riding, it's a rare thing anymore for me on anybody for that matter, to just stop and look around.

I guess I don't really have a point with this, i'm just saying that it was nice to stop and forget about everything and enjoy some of the simple things for a few!!!

The Stanley Cup

2009-05-22T14:42:00.000-07:00

If you're not a fan of hockey, you probably rode the short bus to school!!

I think I have always liked hockey, but since i've lived in a state (Colorado) that has the NHL, and watched it on a regular basis...I LOVE ME SOME HOCKEY!!!

Let's look at this...It's generally a fast paced game, they get to smash each other in to plexi-glass and wood walls...not sure about the wood part...anyhoo, they get to beat the HELL out of each other with bare knuckles whenever the players feel it necessary, and the playoffs consist of at least 5 games!!! A lot of the time 7!!!

So I ask you...How can anyone not like hockey...?!?! Someday in the not too distant future K.C. will have another minor league team...Praise the gods of blood on the ice!!!! You know i'll be there as much as I can handle!!

If that goes well maybe someday the NHL will give us a team, and we will be able to go to a Stanley Cup play off game or 3...and maybe just maybe the Stanley Cup will be hoisted over a K.C. teams head!!!

I LOVE HOCKEY!!!

Ride...

2009-05-20T14:14:00.000-07:00

If you know me, you know that I have been riding for a long time...since 1995. As I have progressed through the years, the ride times and mileage for each ride have gone up.

One day many moons ago, someone asked me why I ride, and why so far...I couldn't come with an answer right away, so I pondered for a few days, and sure enough the answer came to me, you guessed it, out on a ride.

The main reason I ride is it makes me feel like a kid!!! Everytime, not for the whole ride, but there is always a moment. Who doesn't want that!!!

Another reason came to me just today, and that is pain!!! Not like broken bone pain, but the pain you feel from digging down deep and pushing yourself beyond your limits. To be honest I don't really know why, but I love it, actually I think i'm kinda addicted to it.

This was another answer I came up with when people pose the question of why...Because I like to suffer and because I CAN!!!!

I LOVE TO RIDE!!!!

Race review...

2009-05-17T14:49:00.000-07:00

So I got up at 5:00am to go racing today. I didn't sleep very well at all...thinking about racing I suppose. It's funny, the races i've gone to and not slept very well the night before, I usually do pretty good. Today was no exception...

So we get there, sign up, change, and go for a little warm up spin...luckily we decide to ride a couple of miles on the start finish road...It ends up being a good thing...The big red, white, and blue flag marked the finish line...More on that later. The race ended up being 66 miles, I lined up with 4 other Bike Shack racers in a field of 33.

Go!!! We're off, cruising along at about 30 mph with a little tail wind, no big deal. About a half an hour later the attacks start coming, 4 or 5 go up the road and are brought back pretty quickly. It settles down for a few minutes, then another attack goes, one guy from the shack is in this group of 4. We let it get out there pretty far, and I decide to try to bridge across, I attacked on a small hill and get a gap quickly...HOORAY!!! I beat myself blind to get across, I get about 2/3rds of the way across and run out of gas...BOOOO!!! Oh well, I got a man in the break, time for others to take hold and chase...life is good.

Well that lasted all of about 3 minutes, the other 3 riders were so strong they shot my man out the back...Time to work again, so for the next 30 miles me and my teammates and a couple others go to the front and proceed to kill it to bring this break back...never happened...They got away and stayed away.

Lap number 2...was pretty uneventful, more or less a fast group ride with some of the leaches finally putting their faces into the wind...BITCHES!!!

Okay, back to the start finish. We finally make the turn onto the finish straight, and have about 5 miles to go. At this point I have been sitting in for the last 15-18 miles, I didn't care anymore, I busted my ass for at least 30 miles so FUCK EM!!! Any way we're about 1 1/2 miles from the finish hill and the road is arrow straight, so you can see it.

We are now at the 1 k to go marker, the pace is picking up. the group is rolling along at about 26 mph now. the final attack is launched, 5 guys and myself are getting after the finish line. The 1st guy blows up into a million bitty pieces, guys 2-5 sprint to the 200 meters to line...they sit up because they thought they were done, and I go blowing by like they had the brakes on all the way to the flag, and take 4th!! WOOOOHOOOO!!!!! Not a win but I will take it anyday!!!

Racing

2009-05-16T19:33:00.000-07:00

So I decided to start racing on the road again, and tomorrow is the first installment of the year. I've raced in the woods, now it's time to bring it to the pavement.

The race is in Topeka KS, it's 67 miles in length. My longest ride to date is 52 miles...I have done a lot of 40 milers, some with good intensity. I think i'll be okay. The course is mostly flat to rolling from what I saw on google earth, this is a good thing...it means the race pace should be at least 20mph+ and be over in 3 hours...ish. Breaking out the 303's for the race!!! It will be a nice change to ride some light wheels, and it will SUCK to go back to the everyday wheels after!!

Update tomorrow...I'm setting my goal for a top 10...not to lofty, but a pretty good goal none the less!!!

Boredom

2009-05-16T12:06:00.000-07:00

So i'm wandering through the world wide web looking at various things and whatnot, and decided to become a blogger...I don't know if anyone will ever read this, but what the hell, i'm bored!!!