I drove to Red Wing, Minnesota Sunday morning for the Memorial Classic (MNSCS #5). The drive was about 4 1/2 hours and I arrived with 45 minutes to register and warm-up before the 11 am starting gun. Weather was perfect (temps in the 70's) and the trails were dry and fast.
My legs were not feeling as fresh and ready to battle during the warm-up as I would have liked. I did enough warm-up to get me going, but I could feel the effort was going to not be as good as the previous weekend. Actually, I felt it all week long as I tried to recover from my effort at the Chippewa race. This was my 2nd Minnesota Series race and there were more riders at this event than the previous one at Mt. Kato. 150 CAT 2 (Sport) racers toed the line.
My group was in Wave 2 which included the 35 - 39, 40 - 44 and 45 - 49 year old age groups. After the call ups of the series leaders for those groups, the rest of us filled in the line. I had not done a pre-ride, so had no idea what to expect. The opening section was doubletrack through open fields giving riders plenty of time to jockey for position before entering the singletrack. My mind said this was the place to move forward. My desire said this was the place to move forward. But my legs were not keeping up with my mind and desire. I held on to my position, but maybe only passed a few in the opening section. When we hit the singletrack and all the bottlenecks and backed up traffic that ensued, I knew I should have forced myself to go cross eyed in the opening section in spite of my legs. Oh well, every week cannot be the same form...
The singletrack was filled with twists and turns and twists and turns and twists and turns. It was fun and a challenge - especially being filled with log piles, logs, roots, rocks, bridges, tight trees, climbs, berms, switchbacks, steep descents, etc... . There was a long climbing section on doubletrack that connected sections of singletrack. This was a chance to pick a good grinding spin and pass some riders. I made it by a few on lap 1, but I was just trying to keep pace. I was trading places back and forth with a couple of guys I recognized from my age group in the starting wave. There were two long steep climbs on loose rocks and roots that had everybody off their bikes walking. I chose to ride the first climb (did so on both laps), but the second climb had a big rock between two tight trees that forced me to dismount and walk the remaining portion (both laps). I'm sure that section can be ridden, but I didn't see anyone riding it both laps when I came to it.
I kept pushing myself in lap 2 and actually started to feel better in terms of my legs, but I don't think that meant my speed picked up. I just didn't have the push that I did last weekend and my only thought is I didn't fully recover from the effort and should have adjusted my training this past week to allow for more recovery. This week might dictate that!! Regardless, lap 2 was uneventful and I stayed upright. My hip brushed one tree on a high speed corner, but no bruise or pain today. The trail was really fun in the lower section with all the high speed turns, rocks and technical sections. And there was plenty of climbing to keep one happy and turning the screws. One guy in my age group went around me in some of the tight singletrack and I caught him on a climb, but in spite of my best effort to hang with him - he crossed the line before me and that cost me one place.
I crossed the line in 1:20 and change for 8th Place in CAT 2 (45-49). That's one position better than Mt. Kato where I thought I was in better form and got 9th Place racing the same guys. Had I pushed a bit harder, 6th and 7th place riders in my group were certainly within reach (30 seconds to a minute), but the top 5 were not. I was 65th Overall out of the 150 CAT 2 guys. Everyone's faces, arms and legs were covered in dirt since the dust was so thick during the race from the conditions being so dry. Had they had a nice rain on Friday or Saturday, conditions would probably have been perfect. I looked like a Raccoon with all the dust on my face. The event was very well run and goodies were there for all. I chowed down on some watermelon, a cookie and swigged an ice cold bottle of water before jumping in the car to head back to Iowa.
I wanted to be back for dinner with my Dad who was visiting from Rapid City. And I had to be back for work at 7:30 PM (music camp), so didn't have time to hang out after the race for more than a few minutes. It was certainly a full day of driving (9 hours on the pavement). But I enjoy seeing new areas and I had never been to Red Wing before. It's a beautiful area.
I'll add a picture or two if and when I can find some.
This week is our Orpheus Music Festival at Simpson, so I'll be teaching music lessons all day long to high school students.
7/13/09
7/6/09
Chippewa Valley Firecracker Race Report...
My wife and I got away this weekend for a mini-vacation (away from the teenagers and the dogs) as we drove to Eau Claire/Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin on Friday. Talk about good karma. I topped off the gas at Hy-Vee, my wife got a bottle of water and something to snack on and the cashier said "That'll be $17.76." I said ya gotta be kiddin'? 1776? What are the odds of things adding up to that amount on Independence Day weekend? ;-)
We took a quick tour of Chippewa Falls and settled into our motel in Eau Claire for the weekend. We hit up Grizzly's for dinner and then stopped at the mall for some July 4th shopping sales. Big discounts on stuff as the economy pretty much sucks enough to have stores attempting to clear inventory. I got 2 pair of Levi's at prices I haven't seen since the 80's in terms of jeans.
On Saturday, I dropped Tara off at the Old Abe Trail that runs from Lake Wissota State Park to Cornell, WI. She rode that while I went over to the XC race venue to do 2 laps on the race course to get it in my mind and body. A lot of great singletrack sections that were connected with long cross country ski trail sections. This course is well suited to big ring mashing on those sections and you can really hammer as there is not much climbing on the singletrack (at least compared to other race courses). I raced this course last year and this year's goal was to beat my time and position in the race and I knew I could not let up on the connector sections in the big ring.
After my pre-ride, I hooked up with Tara on the cellphone and picked her up at 2 pm. We stopped in at a place called Loopy's we had seen advertised and read about. It's a bar/restaurant/outdoor patio/outdoor volleyball/outdoor party place out in the country. We got there about 3 pm and a lot of people that had been on the river on innertubes were there eating and drinking. We sat outside and asked the waitress what they were known for as the best items on the menu. She said pizza and burgers. We went with the homemade pizza and some Leinenkügels. The pizza was fabulous!!! Wow! And of course, fresh Leinies on tap.....mmmmmmmmmmm.
We headed back to the motel, napped, showered and then headed out for a drive. We grabbed a light dinner at a Norwegian restaurant (Lefse, salad, salmon, etc...). We caught some of the fireworks at Carson Park and then headed back to the motel for our slumber.
Sunday's Race:
705 racers toed the line in various categories on Sunday. That's down about 100 from last year, but you have to factor in the economy for that. I had pre-registered in the 45-49 year old CAT 2 group. My race began at 11:30 and conditions were perfect. I did my usual warm-up, checked the air pressure, filled my water bottle and got a good luck kiss from the wife.
Chatting with Marty from the MTBR.com 29"er forum before I lined up. He was doing the Singlespeed Open race that started later...
It was about 74 degrees at the start and my wave of racers had about 40 - 50 guys in it. There were about 240 racers in the CAT 2 division, and they start us off in waves based on age. The call ups were for the top 10 in each age category. So my wave had the top 10 in the 40-44 and the 45-49 group move up to the line and then the rest of us moved into position behind them. I quickly found myself near the back of the group at the line while we waited for the gun, but I was not worried about that because the opening section was doubletrack for a long time before we would hit singletrack. This was a perfect course for all those 1, 2, 3 and 4 minute intervals where you go cross-eyed.
Waiting around for my wave to get called up...
Tara took a shot of part of the 19 - 29 year old wave...
The WORS traditional "remove the helmet and listen to the Star Spangled Banner being sung" before each race...
It was our turn and at the gun, I clipped in and went with the pack. The first section was pavement and grass before we turned into the actual county park where the race trails were. Once we made the turn, I forced myself to go cross-eyed. I don't know the exact duration of the opening flat section, but I figure it would be about a 4-5 minute interval. With so many racers, the amount of dust made it difficult to see (and breathe). I was grinding it out, passing guys 2 and 3 at a time as I made my way up to get in at least the top 20 on this opening section. I went around one guy who yelled at me to call out when passing. If I had enough breath to speak, I may have, but what I really wanted to say was "Dude, we're on doubletrack and I went around you with 2 feet between our handlebars. There was no surprise or danger in that pass." But I was cross-eyed and no way could I speak. So I just flew on ahead and continued passing guys on the right and the left. I cut the inside corner coming off the doubletrack and entering the singletrack to pass my final two guys to settle in for the singletrack train. I had made it a long way through the pack in that opening "interval", but I could see I didn't make it far enough to catch the lead group as now the singletrack was so tight it was not possible to pass until the next open connector section.
There is a tricky little rock drop section that caused a major traffic jam last year. This year, in an effort to prevent such gridlock, WORS added some singletrack before it in hopes it would spread the field out enough to prevent gridlock. Unfortunately, no such luck. The same gridlock existed this year. I was fortunate enough to be up far enough in my wave that I only had to wait a few seconds before descending through the tricky rock section. I held the front wheel of the guy in front of me and at each connector section - I went cross-eyed and flew by as many as I could. It wasn't long before we caught up with slower riders from previous waves which spread out our group even more. If you didn't move by these slower riders in the connector sections, you were stuck for quite a while in the tight singletrack sections. I got stuck behind a group of riders like this 2 times during the race. It certainly allowed for recovery, but it cost me some time in both situations. How much time? I don't know, but we were going so slow in sections that my breathing and ability to talk told me I was racing in Zone 2 for those sections. That's not good enough for racing, but it is what it is. I was able to pass them all in the open sections, but I may have lost a total of 2 minutes overall. If it was one or two riders you can easily ask to move through, but these were large groups of 5, 7, 8 riders in both occasions where it would get messy for me to attempt passing. I'll have to figure out how to handle that the next time it occurs. I guess one is supposed to holler up that you are from an older age category and contending, and when you have a chance I'd love to get by - or something like that.
This is the first race (outside of a mountain bike TT) I have ever done (or at least I think so) where nobody passed me the entire race. There were guys on my wheel at times that I thought were going to pass me, but I was able to turn the screws enough each time to hold my position. On the 2nd lap, we had a bit of additional singletrack that included going over logs and winding through the forest. This had an area in the middle called "The Nucleus" where spectators could hike in and view the middle of the race. My wife was there and got a few photos of me passing through...
Working on closing another gap...
I had enough energy to say "Hi" as I rode by Tara...
Whoops, she didn't get the camera shot until I had passed...
Being such a short race (only 2 laps), I never let off the gas except those two singletrack sections where I got stuck behind a large group of riders. I stuck to my plan of going cross-eyed on every connector section and kept passing a lot of riders from various waves in these sections. There was plenty of time for recovery in the singletrack sections, so I was confident in my plan. I caught up with a group of 4 during the final singletrack section and again, could not get around them. They were riders from younger age group waves and although moving well, I wanted to go faster. Coming out of the singletrack for the final sprint in, I was able to big ring it by three of the four going to the line. I finished in 1:14:10 which beat my time from last year. I ended up in 6th place out of 20 for my age division (last year I was 9th out of 24), so again an improvement. I was 82nd Overall for all Sport Racers (236). Last year I was 110th out of 338. Small improvements, but that's about all one can expect once you reach your limitations and abilities. Regardless, I am happy with small improvements. Looking ahead to when I will race in the 50+ category (year after next), only 2 guys in that age group bested my time. ;-)
All in all, I was very happy with my performance, my form and my bike handling in this race. I've finally come into season form (for me) and it is fun to toe the line with a bunch of guys in my age category at the Wisconsin and Minnesota Series. I still have plenty of room for improvement, but I'm right in that comfort zone of mixing enjoyment with competitive drive without it taking too much of my time.
Today is back to summer chores and attending my son's high school double-header baseball game tonight up in Des Moines. I have another race this weekend to prepare for as well as attend a Masterclass tomorrow and see 2 operas this week. I might make it out to Lake Ahquabi for a few hours to do some trimming to get the trail in better shape for August 9th.
We took a quick tour of Chippewa Falls and settled into our motel in Eau Claire for the weekend. We hit up Grizzly's for dinner and then stopped at the mall for some July 4th shopping sales. Big discounts on stuff as the economy pretty much sucks enough to have stores attempting to clear inventory. I got 2 pair of Levi's at prices I haven't seen since the 80's in terms of jeans.
On Saturday, I dropped Tara off at the Old Abe Trail that runs from Lake Wissota State Park to Cornell, WI. She rode that while I went over to the XC race venue to do 2 laps on the race course to get it in my mind and body. A lot of great singletrack sections that were connected with long cross country ski trail sections. This course is well suited to big ring mashing on those sections and you can really hammer as there is not much climbing on the singletrack (at least compared to other race courses). I raced this course last year and this year's goal was to beat my time and position in the race and I knew I could not let up on the connector sections in the big ring.
After my pre-ride, I hooked up with Tara on the cellphone and picked her up at 2 pm. We stopped in at a place called Loopy's we had seen advertised and read about. It's a bar/restaurant/outdoor patio/outdoor volleyball/outdoor party place out in the country. We got there about 3 pm and a lot of people that had been on the river on innertubes were there eating and drinking. We sat outside and asked the waitress what they were known for as the best items on the menu. She said pizza and burgers. We went with the homemade pizza and some Leinenkügels. The pizza was fabulous!!! Wow! And of course, fresh Leinies on tap.....mmmmmmmmmmm.
We headed back to the motel, napped, showered and then headed out for a drive. We grabbed a light dinner at a Norwegian restaurant (Lefse, salad, salmon, etc...). We caught some of the fireworks at Carson Park and then headed back to the motel for our slumber.
Sunday's Race:
705 racers toed the line in various categories on Sunday. That's down about 100 from last year, but you have to factor in the economy for that. I had pre-registered in the 45-49 year old CAT 2 group. My race began at 11:30 and conditions were perfect. I did my usual warm-up, checked the air pressure, filled my water bottle and got a good luck kiss from the wife.
Chatting with Marty from the MTBR.com 29"er forum before I lined up. He was doing the Singlespeed Open race that started later...
It was about 74 degrees at the start and my wave of racers had about 40 - 50 guys in it. There were about 240 racers in the CAT 2 division, and they start us off in waves based on age. The call ups were for the top 10 in each age category. So my wave had the top 10 in the 40-44 and the 45-49 group move up to the line and then the rest of us moved into position behind them. I quickly found myself near the back of the group at the line while we waited for the gun, but I was not worried about that because the opening section was doubletrack for a long time before we would hit singletrack. This was a perfect course for all those 1, 2, 3 and 4 minute intervals where you go cross-eyed.
Waiting around for my wave to get called up...
Tara took a shot of part of the 19 - 29 year old wave...
The WORS traditional "remove the helmet and listen to the Star Spangled Banner being sung" before each race...
It was our turn and at the gun, I clipped in and went with the pack. The first section was pavement and grass before we turned into the actual county park where the race trails were. Once we made the turn, I forced myself to go cross-eyed. I don't know the exact duration of the opening flat section, but I figure it would be about a 4-5 minute interval. With so many racers, the amount of dust made it difficult to see (and breathe). I was grinding it out, passing guys 2 and 3 at a time as I made my way up to get in at least the top 20 on this opening section. I went around one guy who yelled at me to call out when passing. If I had enough breath to speak, I may have, but what I really wanted to say was "Dude, we're on doubletrack and I went around you with 2 feet between our handlebars. There was no surprise or danger in that pass." But I was cross-eyed and no way could I speak. So I just flew on ahead and continued passing guys on the right and the left. I cut the inside corner coming off the doubletrack and entering the singletrack to pass my final two guys to settle in for the singletrack train. I had made it a long way through the pack in that opening "interval", but I could see I didn't make it far enough to catch the lead group as now the singletrack was so tight it was not possible to pass until the next open connector section.
There is a tricky little rock drop section that caused a major traffic jam last year. This year, in an effort to prevent such gridlock, WORS added some singletrack before it in hopes it would spread the field out enough to prevent gridlock. Unfortunately, no such luck. The same gridlock existed this year. I was fortunate enough to be up far enough in my wave that I only had to wait a few seconds before descending through the tricky rock section. I held the front wheel of the guy in front of me and at each connector section - I went cross-eyed and flew by as many as I could. It wasn't long before we caught up with slower riders from previous waves which spread out our group even more. If you didn't move by these slower riders in the connector sections, you were stuck for quite a while in the tight singletrack sections. I got stuck behind a group of riders like this 2 times during the race. It certainly allowed for recovery, but it cost me some time in both situations. How much time? I don't know, but we were going so slow in sections that my breathing and ability to talk told me I was racing in Zone 2 for those sections. That's not good enough for racing, but it is what it is. I was able to pass them all in the open sections, but I may have lost a total of 2 minutes overall. If it was one or two riders you can easily ask to move through, but these were large groups of 5, 7, 8 riders in both occasions where it would get messy for me to attempt passing. I'll have to figure out how to handle that the next time it occurs. I guess one is supposed to holler up that you are from an older age category and contending, and when you have a chance I'd love to get by - or something like that.
This is the first race (outside of a mountain bike TT) I have ever done (or at least I think so) where nobody passed me the entire race. There were guys on my wheel at times that I thought were going to pass me, but I was able to turn the screws enough each time to hold my position. On the 2nd lap, we had a bit of additional singletrack that included going over logs and winding through the forest. This had an area in the middle called "The Nucleus" where spectators could hike in and view the middle of the race. My wife was there and got a few photos of me passing through...
Working on closing another gap...
I had enough energy to say "Hi" as I rode by Tara...
Whoops, she didn't get the camera shot until I had passed...
Being such a short race (only 2 laps), I never let off the gas except those two singletrack sections where I got stuck behind a large group of riders. I stuck to my plan of going cross-eyed on every connector section and kept passing a lot of riders from various waves in these sections. There was plenty of time for recovery in the singletrack sections, so I was confident in my plan. I caught up with a group of 4 during the final singletrack section and again, could not get around them. They were riders from younger age group waves and although moving well, I wanted to go faster. Coming out of the singletrack for the final sprint in, I was able to big ring it by three of the four going to the line. I finished in 1:14:10 which beat my time from last year. I ended up in 6th place out of 20 for my age division (last year I was 9th out of 24), so again an improvement. I was 82nd Overall for all Sport Racers (236). Last year I was 110th out of 338. Small improvements, but that's about all one can expect once you reach your limitations and abilities. Regardless, I am happy with small improvements. Looking ahead to when I will race in the 50+ category (year after next), only 2 guys in that age group bested my time. ;-)
All in all, I was very happy with my performance, my form and my bike handling in this race. I've finally come into season form (for me) and it is fun to toe the line with a bunch of guys in my age category at the Wisconsin and Minnesota Series. I still have plenty of room for improvement, but I'm right in that comfort zone of mixing enjoyment with competitive drive without it taking too much of my time.
Today is back to summer chores and attending my son's high school double-header baseball game tonight up in Des Moines. I have another race this weekend to prepare for as well as attend a Masterclass tomorrow and see 2 operas this week. I might make it out to Lake Ahquabi for a few hours to do some trimming to get the trail in better shape for August 9th.
6/30/09
Gorgeous Summer Weather....!
We were planning some mini-weekend getaways to take advantage of some cooler weather instead of an outright "vacation" where we head off to some location. For instance, this weekend I am heading - with my wife - to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin for a WORS race and a brief respite from the hot and humid Iowa weather. However, the Wisconsin/Michigan weather has made its way down to southern Iowa and we are enjoying a gorgeous week of low humidity and temps in the upper 70's to low 80's. We'll take it! Who needs to travel when the good weather is right at home?
I think we will drive out to the Black Hills on July 26th for a week. We'll take a couple of teenagers to Wounded Knee Indian Reservation (including our son) for a week of mission work and Tara, Alexa and I will hang out at my Dad's with the dogs and do the Black Hills thing for a week to get some dry, higher altitude weather. We might get over to Wisconsin for another weekend, but who knows?
Tara had a baseline colonoscopy today which required me to take her and drive her home due to the medications/sedatives given. All checked out good and she can now eat again. I'm not looking forward to mine in a couple of years once I hit 50....
I hit Lake Ahquabi today for the 2nd time this season and it was dry enough to really get a good training ride in on the climbs. I kept the intensity short to about 35 minutes as I am doing some block training this week. Tomorrow is longer before an easy day on Thursday and then a day off the bike on Friday to get ready for the WORS race on Sunday. I will pre-ride the Firecracker course in Wisconsin on Saturday afternoon. In terms of Lake Ahquabi, I think I've come up with a few new route adjustments to the August 9th IMBCS #7 race that I am hosting to keep it a bit fresh from last year's MOB the Quab! race.
We ran it clockwise last year, but I am thinking things over for this year to keep the challenge, but change it up a bit from last year. The trails are in good shape out there and just need a little trimming and some gravel to fill in a few spots that were washed away in the spring rains. I counted 6 felled trees today that the DNR will hit with their chainsaws sooner or later before the race. The start/finish line will be different this year over last year and fun will be had by all I don't think I will rake it and make it so super-fast and clutter free this year like I did last year. I knocked myself out, but keeping things a little more natural this year might add some allure to the event. I will meet with the DNR in July to come up with a route that meets their needs and can logistically be pruned by the DNR staff without too much trouble. Just like last year, there will be a lot of climbing. A lot...
I think we will drive out to the Black Hills on July 26th for a week. We'll take a couple of teenagers to Wounded Knee Indian Reservation (including our son) for a week of mission work and Tara, Alexa and I will hang out at my Dad's with the dogs and do the Black Hills thing for a week to get some dry, higher altitude weather. We might get over to Wisconsin for another weekend, but who knows?
Tara had a baseline colonoscopy today which required me to take her and drive her home due to the medications/sedatives given. All checked out good and she can now eat again. I'm not looking forward to mine in a couple of years once I hit 50....
I hit Lake Ahquabi today for the 2nd time this season and it was dry enough to really get a good training ride in on the climbs. I kept the intensity short to about 35 minutes as I am doing some block training this week. Tomorrow is longer before an easy day on Thursday and then a day off the bike on Friday to get ready for the WORS race on Sunday. I will pre-ride the Firecracker course in Wisconsin on Saturday afternoon. In terms of Lake Ahquabi, I think I've come up with a few new route adjustments to the August 9th IMBCS #7 race that I am hosting to keep it a bit fresh from last year's MOB the Quab! race.
We ran it clockwise last year, but I am thinking things over for this year to keep the challenge, but change it up a bit from last year. The trails are in good shape out there and just need a little trimming and some gravel to fill in a few spots that were washed away in the spring rains. I counted 6 felled trees today that the DNR will hit with their chainsaws sooner or later before the race. The start/finish line will be different this year over last year and fun will be had by all I don't think I will rake it and make it so super-fast and clutter free this year like I did last year. I knocked myself out, but keeping things a little more natural this year might add some allure to the event. I will meet with the DNR in July to come up with a route that meets their needs and can logistically be pruned by the DNR staff without too much trouble. Just like last year, there will be a lot of climbing. A lot...
6/28/09
Weekend Fun and race report...
I drove up to Ft. Dodge on Saturday morning for the one day sophomore baseball tournament my son was playing in with the Indianola Indians. They beat the Waukee Warriors in the first game and advanced to the championship game at 5 pm. In the championship game, they lit up their bats well enough to beat Ft. Dodge in the championship game and win the tournament. Zack played 1st base in both games and pitched 2 innings at the end of the first game. He had 3 solid hits, a couple of fly outs, and a ground out. I should have taken some pictures because the outfield fence at the Ft. Dodge High School field looks like Wrigley field as it is totally covered in ivy and vines. If a ball hits the wall - it's pretty much lost and an automatic ground rule double is issued. The boys played great and are coming together as a team. It's a mix of Sophomores and some Freshmen as there were not enough sophomores to field a team this year and they had 34 Freshmen go out for baseball. 4 guys quit the sophomore team this year after playing as Freshmen and one guy transferred to the Catholic high school in Des Moines, so they needed to move some guys up to fill those 5 spots. It took a few weeks for these guys to gel playing together, but they are playing well together now with the new guys.
After the team headed to the bus for the trip home, I continued on up to Mankato, Minnesota to look for a motel room. It was about 2 hours up the road from Ft. Dodge and I figured it would be easier just to drive from there rather than drive the 2 hours back home and repeat it on Sunday morning.
I got to Mankato about 9:30 p.m. and started looking for a motel room. I quickly found out that an unusual confluence of events had no rooms available in town. A huge baseball tournament had tons of kids and their families checked into all the motels, a bunch of weddings, a triathalon and a mountain bike race had every room booked in town - and all the surrounding towns. But I found a room at Americas Best Value Inn. Nobody wanted to recommend it to me at the other motels. Finally one guy at the desk at Days Inn sent me over warning me that I better check the room before I pay. He said it was a place to stay as a "last resort". I asked what he meant by that and he replied "you get what you pay for". Whatever. It was cheap, but the bed was comfy. I'm glad I found it because I was about to pick up a pillow and a blanket at Wal-Mart and camp out in the car.
I got a good night's sleep, showered and headed over to Perkins for my oatmeal, coffee and a muffin. Then I headed out to Mt. Kato, the site of the MNSCS race.
MNSCS Race # 4 Bluff Riders Charge - Sunday, June 28, 2009:
I was looking forward to doing my first race in the Minnesota series as I had heard a lot about it. I read the Minnesota XC series experienced 12% growth last year in the number of riders participating. According to the guidelines book, they had shortened up and taken some of the climbing out of the entry level classes in hopes of attracting more riders last season. Looks like it is working. There were no shortage of riders yesterday at the Bluff Riders Charge - that's for sure. The weather was perfect. Sunny. Low 80's. A nice breeze. Not humid. And a perfect course with not a single spot of mud to be found. 130 lined up in Sport Class alone and overall there were 380 racers. The other big series in the region is WORS in Wisconsin which averages 800+. When you start to get the numbers like Minnesota and Wisconsin has you have nice start/finish chutes, chip timing, instant results posted on the wall thanks to the computer chip timing, lots of amenities such as grills going, food, beverages, sponsorship, spectators, etc... .
A fellow poster on MTBR.com recognized my bike he had seen in photos on the 29"er forum. He introduced himself (Steve) and we got to chatting about our tires and XC racing. He lives in Wisconsin and actually grew up in Newton. It turns out I had purchased my Kenda Small Block 8's from him on eBay last year. There were oodles of 29"ers in all classes and age groups. Wisconsin and Minnesota (and Nebraska) are filled with guys racing XC on the big wheels.
One thing about racing at a ski area, you know there are going to be some climbs. ;-)
Here I am at the base of the ski area with a shot looking up the hill...
I didn't get a chance to pre-ride the course. I had hoped to get there earlier on Saturday night and do a pre-ride, but the baseball tournament outcome changed those plans. The rules state that once the first race starts, no riding on the course is allowed except for your race. I did manage to pre-ride the opening climb to spectate the Citizen categories to see how they handled it. I warmed up on the bike trails that ran along the highway, got my water bottle ready and headed to the start area for my 11 am start. According to the guidelines book, the start/finish chute area is also a new addition for the 2009 series as are the call ups.
The call ups this year are for the first 5 racers in terms of points for the series in each class and age group. Those racers get called up to the starting line in front of everyone else as the theory is they have "earned it" and it is a nice touch. My wave (I think we were the 4th wave) at the starting line was the largest wave of the CAT 2 category as it included 45-49 year olds, all singlespeeds (all ages) and all Clydes (all ages) in the CAT 2 division. Too large of a group, if you ask me, compared to all the other waves that were more like 8 racers to maybe a number like 25 or 30. Our wave was huge which meant jockeying for position is tough. Why? Because quite a few SS's, Clydes and the top 5 in my age division got called up as the rest of us tried to sneak up and get as close to behind them at the starting line as possible. With the new start/finish chute, we were probably about 6 - 8 riders across and I was quite a ways back. Maybe about 40+ racers in front of me. Not a great place to start, but it is what it is and I was just happy to be there racing my first Minnesota race and enjoying the weather, crowd and beauty of the Mt. Kato ski area.
At the gun, I hammered and went off the singletrack once we got out of the chute into the grass and got around about 20 racers as I bounced through divots and ruts with my fork doing some mad work trying to keep up. The opening singletrack climb meant that with all the Clydes and SS's that lined up in front, there would be some chance to make my way forward as it was open climbing with no trees right in the middle of a ski run. I started passing when and where I could without blowing up by going into the weeds too much and picked my way through another 5 or so riders. About 1/2 way up the opening climb I took some time for recovery and kept telling myself that now was the time to make my move to move up some more spots. I had not seen any of the trail, but heard the rest was singletrack through the woods with a couple of open places where we would traverse the ski slopes. My mind knew what to do (that I should pass some more before entering the woods at the top of the climb), but I was a little worried about pacing, not blowing up on the opening climb and the decision was made to settle in as it looked like I was up with the top 15 - 20 in my wave at this point. That would prove to be a tactical rookie mistake. I should have picked off some more of those call up Clydes and SS's while I had the chance as once we got into the singletrack some bottlenecks took place and it was difficult to pass. What it would have cost me to burn the matches on the climb I would have recovered from enough to benefit more from moving up some spots than hanging back.
The new Raven 2.2's were flying. I never once lost traction on any climb or corner and they handled a lot like my Nanoraptors - only were lighter and quicker on the flats. I've learned not to hang behind riders if I feel I can go faster, so I passed a few more (and a few fast guys passed me) as we worked our way through lap one. The singletrack trails are named during various sections, and I remember going into one area called "stair climber". As you can imagine, this section had a series of switchbacks that ended with a nice steep 30 - 50 yard section over roots, rocks that challenged the SS's, those that would rather walk and those not used to climbing such stuff. I managed to pass riders each time we hit that section as many jumped off their bikes to walk and I just ground it out staying seated on the JET 9. I had to yell out "rider riding" each time so those pushing would yield the way. Each lap, it allowed me to overtake a few spots. Following that section, there was the most technical part of the course called the "Luge". And, true to its name, it was swooping, steep, root filled and took some balance and muscle to navigate. This first lap I was hot on the tail of 2 guys in front of me who went flying into the Luge section. I figured they knew the trail and stayed right with them. I came into the last turn of this technical section pretty hot and was sure I was going down as I slipped off the edge of the singletrack. Somehow, I stuck with the bike and muscled my way back on the trail while staying upright. One of the course marshals yelled at us to slow down since it was only the first lap. Slow down? This was a race, right?
I had thought that the opening climb on lap 2 would give me opportunity to catch up or pass some weaker than me climbers, but I only went around one as the gaps were too large between riders. Lap 2 was uneventful until I got to the Luge. This time, my speed was more in control and on the last corner - even with a more controlled tempo I did a slow motion fall. Nothing hurt, it just cost me 1 position as a guy went around me while I picked my bike up. Then I couldn't get clipped in and going again for the next several hundred yards which all in all probably cost me 20 - 40 seconds (or so it seemed).
At the start of lap 3, I gave it my all for the entire lap. I realized that the laps and times were shorter than what we do in Sport in Iowa/Nebraska, so I turned it up a notch (as did everyone else). I picked off three more riders in this lap (they all were younger riders who had started in prior waves to mine). I got picked off by a strong SS'er and grabbed his wheel as we flew through the singletrack on the backside of the mountain. As we approached the stair climber section, I heard and saw a group of about 5 coming up behind me and closing the gap. I let it all out on the stair climb section, staying seated and grinding my way up the hill. When I came out, I saw three ahead of me who were off their bikes walking the last little stretch of the climb. I got by all three and never looked back. Flew through the Luge and thought I heard somebody on my tail coming out into the final section down to the start/finish area. So I jumped on the big ring and sprinted all the way to the line to come in at 1:11 and change 56th place out of the 130 in CAT 2 and 9th place in the 45-49 age group.
It was an excellent race course that reminded me a lot of Seven Oaks at Boone, but didn't quite have as much climbing as that course does. I like the format of race time and distance at WORS - and now the Minnesota series - where they both try to keep the winning time for the Sport class in the 65 - 70 minute time frame. Overall sport winner was 58 minutes (2nd place was 1:03 and change) and the winner in my age group was 1:06 and change. The Comp category which is CAT 2 Sport, but one more lap, is more the distance and time we use in Nebraska and Iowa. And at my age, that's starting to get a bit long and might keep some riders away (I never thought I would say that). I can see how the larger series strategy is paying off by attracting more racers by keeping the distances and times down a bit. There were still 15 or so riders in CAT 2 that came in 1:30 - 1:50, but the majority of the 130 CAT 2's came in under 1:20. And for those wanting more of a challenge in terms of distance, the Comp class if perfect.
Spectator friendly at the base of the ski area...
My wife, daughter and friend (as well as our dogs) are going along this weekend for a camping trip to the WORS Chippewa Valley Firecracker. I did the race last year and it's a great course as well as a very pretty area of Wisconsin. The weather forecast looks good, so we'll head out Friday to get there in time to set up camp. A new waterpark opened across the road from the race site, so the girls are looking forward to that.
After the team headed to the bus for the trip home, I continued on up to Mankato, Minnesota to look for a motel room. It was about 2 hours up the road from Ft. Dodge and I figured it would be easier just to drive from there rather than drive the 2 hours back home and repeat it on Sunday morning.
I got to Mankato about 9:30 p.m. and started looking for a motel room. I quickly found out that an unusual confluence of events had no rooms available in town. A huge baseball tournament had tons of kids and their families checked into all the motels, a bunch of weddings, a triathalon and a mountain bike race had every room booked in town - and all the surrounding towns. But I found a room at Americas Best Value Inn. Nobody wanted to recommend it to me at the other motels. Finally one guy at the desk at Days Inn sent me over warning me that I better check the room before I pay. He said it was a place to stay as a "last resort". I asked what he meant by that and he replied "you get what you pay for". Whatever. It was cheap, but the bed was comfy. I'm glad I found it because I was about to pick up a pillow and a blanket at Wal-Mart and camp out in the car.
I got a good night's sleep, showered and headed over to Perkins for my oatmeal, coffee and a muffin. Then I headed out to Mt. Kato, the site of the MNSCS race.
MNSCS Race # 4 Bluff Riders Charge - Sunday, June 28, 2009:
I was looking forward to doing my first race in the Minnesota series as I had heard a lot about it. I read the Minnesota XC series experienced 12% growth last year in the number of riders participating. According to the guidelines book, they had shortened up and taken some of the climbing out of the entry level classes in hopes of attracting more riders last season. Looks like it is working. There were no shortage of riders yesterday at the Bluff Riders Charge - that's for sure. The weather was perfect. Sunny. Low 80's. A nice breeze. Not humid. And a perfect course with not a single spot of mud to be found. 130 lined up in Sport Class alone and overall there were 380 racers. The other big series in the region is WORS in Wisconsin which averages 800+. When you start to get the numbers like Minnesota and Wisconsin has you have nice start/finish chutes, chip timing, instant results posted on the wall thanks to the computer chip timing, lots of amenities such as grills going, food, beverages, sponsorship, spectators, etc... .
A fellow poster on MTBR.com recognized my bike he had seen in photos on the 29"er forum. He introduced himself (Steve) and we got to chatting about our tires and XC racing. He lives in Wisconsin and actually grew up in Newton. It turns out I had purchased my Kenda Small Block 8's from him on eBay last year. There were oodles of 29"ers in all classes and age groups. Wisconsin and Minnesota (and Nebraska) are filled with guys racing XC on the big wheels.
One thing about racing at a ski area, you know there are going to be some climbs. ;-)
Here I am at the base of the ski area with a shot looking up the hill...
I didn't get a chance to pre-ride the course. I had hoped to get there earlier on Saturday night and do a pre-ride, but the baseball tournament outcome changed those plans. The rules state that once the first race starts, no riding on the course is allowed except for your race. I did manage to pre-ride the opening climb to spectate the Citizen categories to see how they handled it. I warmed up on the bike trails that ran along the highway, got my water bottle ready and headed to the start area for my 11 am start. According to the guidelines book, the start/finish chute area is also a new addition for the 2009 series as are the call ups.
The call ups this year are for the first 5 racers in terms of points for the series in each class and age group. Those racers get called up to the starting line in front of everyone else as the theory is they have "earned it" and it is a nice touch. My wave (I think we were the 4th wave) at the starting line was the largest wave of the CAT 2 category as it included 45-49 year olds, all singlespeeds (all ages) and all Clydes (all ages) in the CAT 2 division. Too large of a group, if you ask me, compared to all the other waves that were more like 8 racers to maybe a number like 25 or 30. Our wave was huge which meant jockeying for position is tough. Why? Because quite a few SS's, Clydes and the top 5 in my age division got called up as the rest of us tried to sneak up and get as close to behind them at the starting line as possible. With the new start/finish chute, we were probably about 6 - 8 riders across and I was quite a ways back. Maybe about 40+ racers in front of me. Not a great place to start, but it is what it is and I was just happy to be there racing my first Minnesota race and enjoying the weather, crowd and beauty of the Mt. Kato ski area.
At the gun, I hammered and went off the singletrack once we got out of the chute into the grass and got around about 20 racers as I bounced through divots and ruts with my fork doing some mad work trying to keep up. The opening singletrack climb meant that with all the Clydes and SS's that lined up in front, there would be some chance to make my way forward as it was open climbing with no trees right in the middle of a ski run. I started passing when and where I could without blowing up by going into the weeds too much and picked my way through another 5 or so riders. About 1/2 way up the opening climb I took some time for recovery and kept telling myself that now was the time to make my move to move up some more spots. I had not seen any of the trail, but heard the rest was singletrack through the woods with a couple of open places where we would traverse the ski slopes. My mind knew what to do (that I should pass some more before entering the woods at the top of the climb), but I was a little worried about pacing, not blowing up on the opening climb and the decision was made to settle in as it looked like I was up with the top 15 - 20 in my wave at this point. That would prove to be a tactical rookie mistake. I should have picked off some more of those call up Clydes and SS's while I had the chance as once we got into the singletrack some bottlenecks took place and it was difficult to pass. What it would have cost me to burn the matches on the climb I would have recovered from enough to benefit more from moving up some spots than hanging back.
The new Raven 2.2's were flying. I never once lost traction on any climb or corner and they handled a lot like my Nanoraptors - only were lighter and quicker on the flats. I've learned not to hang behind riders if I feel I can go faster, so I passed a few more (and a few fast guys passed me) as we worked our way through lap one. The singletrack trails are named during various sections, and I remember going into one area called "stair climber". As you can imagine, this section had a series of switchbacks that ended with a nice steep 30 - 50 yard section over roots, rocks that challenged the SS's, those that would rather walk and those not used to climbing such stuff. I managed to pass riders each time we hit that section as many jumped off their bikes to walk and I just ground it out staying seated on the JET 9. I had to yell out "rider riding" each time so those pushing would yield the way. Each lap, it allowed me to overtake a few spots. Following that section, there was the most technical part of the course called the "Luge". And, true to its name, it was swooping, steep, root filled and took some balance and muscle to navigate. This first lap I was hot on the tail of 2 guys in front of me who went flying into the Luge section. I figured they knew the trail and stayed right with them. I came into the last turn of this technical section pretty hot and was sure I was going down as I slipped off the edge of the singletrack. Somehow, I stuck with the bike and muscled my way back on the trail while staying upright. One of the course marshals yelled at us to slow down since it was only the first lap. Slow down? This was a race, right?
I had thought that the opening climb on lap 2 would give me opportunity to catch up or pass some weaker than me climbers, but I only went around one as the gaps were too large between riders. Lap 2 was uneventful until I got to the Luge. This time, my speed was more in control and on the last corner - even with a more controlled tempo I did a slow motion fall. Nothing hurt, it just cost me 1 position as a guy went around me while I picked my bike up. Then I couldn't get clipped in and going again for the next several hundred yards which all in all probably cost me 20 - 40 seconds (or so it seemed).
At the start of lap 3, I gave it my all for the entire lap. I realized that the laps and times were shorter than what we do in Sport in Iowa/Nebraska, so I turned it up a notch (as did everyone else). I picked off three more riders in this lap (they all were younger riders who had started in prior waves to mine). I got picked off by a strong SS'er and grabbed his wheel as we flew through the singletrack on the backside of the mountain. As we approached the stair climber section, I heard and saw a group of about 5 coming up behind me and closing the gap. I let it all out on the stair climb section, staying seated and grinding my way up the hill. When I came out, I saw three ahead of me who were off their bikes walking the last little stretch of the climb. I got by all three and never looked back. Flew through the Luge and thought I heard somebody on my tail coming out into the final section down to the start/finish area. So I jumped on the big ring and sprinted all the way to the line to come in at 1:11 and change 56th place out of the 130 in CAT 2 and 9th place in the 45-49 age group.
It was an excellent race course that reminded me a lot of Seven Oaks at Boone, but didn't quite have as much climbing as that course does. I like the format of race time and distance at WORS - and now the Minnesota series - where they both try to keep the winning time for the Sport class in the 65 - 70 minute time frame. Overall sport winner was 58 minutes (2nd place was 1:03 and change) and the winner in my age group was 1:06 and change. The Comp category which is CAT 2 Sport, but one more lap, is more the distance and time we use in Nebraska and Iowa. And at my age, that's starting to get a bit long and might keep some riders away (I never thought I would say that). I can see how the larger series strategy is paying off by attracting more racers by keeping the distances and times down a bit. There were still 15 or so riders in CAT 2 that came in 1:30 - 1:50, but the majority of the 130 CAT 2's came in under 1:20. And for those wanting more of a challenge in terms of distance, the Comp class if perfect.
Spectator friendly at the base of the ski area...
My wife, daughter and friend (as well as our dogs) are going along this weekend for a camping trip to the WORS Chippewa Valley Firecracker. I did the race last year and it's a great course as well as a very pretty area of Wisconsin. The weather forecast looks good, so we'll head out Friday to get there in time to set up camp. A new waterpark opened across the road from the race site, so the girls are looking forward to that.
6/26/09
Productive Week (a bit of this and a bit of that)...
Here's the week in a nutshell...
Friday: Tara and I attended the opening night of Des Moines Metro Opera's 37th Summer Season by attending Tosca. We enjoyed it as Puccini is so lush and rich no matter where you see a performance.
Psycowpath #5 Race on Saturday, June 20th at Ponca State Park: After a week of not riding due to working on the taxes, filing all three years of paperwork back into their respective places in the filing cabinets, setting up 2009's paperwork trail, etc... I made the drive to Ponca State Park just west of Sioux City. Last year it was very, very hot and humid during Ponca's Revenge and I made it through the 96-98 degree suffer fest. This year was not quite as hot and humid - thankfully.
In spite of not having the legs/lungs being in tip-top racing shape after a week off, I wanted to race to take advantage of the climbing as training. Knowing my condition, I lined up at the back of the group at the starting line because my goals were lined up with my legs. ;-) I was interested in survival. And survive I did. Not much to say except that the climbing worked me over really well (especially when not running a granny ring!!!) and I rolled across the line in 14th place after the 1 1/2 hour ordeal. As always, Jay Chesterman and his crew put on a great event at Ponca. I was glad he turned the heat down about 10 degrees or so from last year's heat wave.
I was so hungry that I stopped at a Wendy's at one of the south Sioux City exits on I-29. That's a big deal for me since I eat at Wendy's about once every two years or so. About 30 minutes after eating, I was feeling really drowsy (typical effects of eating such food) and pulled over at a rest stop. I rolled the windows down, stretched out and put my feet up on the dash and napped for about 20 - 30 minutes. I felt refreshed and was very alert the rest of the drive home. Nothing like climbing hills and eating fast food to create a nice nap....
Sunday: The IMBCS #5 was postponed due to muddy conditions, so I did a recovery ride and then some yard work at home. The family took me to a matinee movie (we saw Proposal) and then to Centro in Des Moines for Father's Day dinner. It was a nice time and we had a lively discussion - boisterous actually.
Monday: An easy effort 90 minute ride to Summerset and back (too muddy to hit the mountain biking trails). I came home and did the weekly maintenance weights for the over 40 cycling crowd. Then I went out in the heat and mowed the crazy man that I am in such heat. It was 98 and humid, but I went to the double-header baseball game where Zack's team managed to beat Johnston in both games. Zack was 5 for 6 for the day at the plate.
Tuesday: Another easy effort 90 minute ride to Summerset and back in the morning before the real heat hit. I taught lessons all afternoon right through the severe weather of massive rain, wind and what not. By the time I got home, it had cleared enough for firing up the grill on the deck.
Wednesday: I got up early and took Zoey to the vet for surgery to repair her torn ACL and meniscus. Tara and I did a 2 hour ride with me splitting off for the second hour to do intensity work of intervals, hill climbs and a 25 minute LT interval to get everything going again after the Ponca "event". We met up at Subway for a 6" sub before riding home. Grilling again in the evening. The Raven's arrived at the door, so I aired them up with tubes on a spare set of rims to give them a 24 hour stretch before mounting them up tubeless on the JET 9.
They are a decent size width racing tire. 57mm compared to the narrower Crows pictured below them at a bit under 52mm.
Thursday: I did a 100 minute recovery pace ride in the morning heat, came home and had breakfast before heading out to pick up Zoey from her overnight stay at the animal clinic. She is all wrapped up in a cast on her leg (comes off Saturday). $1261 for this procedure. We've got Max and Zoey both on diets in an effort for Zoey to lose 15 (she's lost 3 already) and Max to lose 22 (he's lost 7 already) to get them down to leaner weights in hopes of preventing more ACL tears. Dang! They sound like football player injuries...
Then I had to mow again as the grass is growing so fast with all of this heat and rain. I swapped out my Nanoraptors on the JET for the new pair of Raven 2.2's....
Attended Zack's double-header against Urbandale. Indianola is heading to a tournament on Saturday, so the best pitchers were being saved for that. So the first game was a drubbing due to our pitching. We lost 15-1. It couldn't have been worse. Errors. No hitting. It was Bad News Bears at its best. Zack was pitching the second game and we were behind 6-0 when Zack hit a 2 run homer over the centerfield fence and got the rally started. We were ahead 10 - 9 in late innnings when Urbandale scored another run to tie the game 10-10. We failed to score at our last at bat and the Umpires called the game saying the 2 hour time limit had been reached. Of course all the players, parents and fans were upset and couldn't understand why they were not allowed to play out the game to finish it. Oh well....so that's a first for a high school baseball game to end in a tie. It happens in Little League all the time, but high school baseball? The team travels to Fort Dodge on Saturday for the tournament.
Friday: I was totally off the bike today. I went in this morning for 1/2 day of work to get caught up on paperwork. I had to opt out of my insurance coverage for the coming academic year (I'm on my wife's plan instead), sign a pair of waiver forms for medical as well as dental/vision and allocate the montly extra cash to either a lump sum payment next June, or use it as additional retirement allocation funds. I chose the lump sum again just like last year. The good news is I get a lump sum next week for this past year which will just about take care of Zoey's surgery. Then I caught a movie at Jordan Creek in the afternoon while the gals shopped. I saw The Taking of Pelham 123 which I thought was really well done and a good suspense flick. I ate far too much salty popcorn....
Came home and fired up the grill for some nice salmon, vin blanc and fresh goodies from the garden on top of warm bread.
This weekend: The plan is to attend the Fort Dodge tournament and then head to Mankato for my first ever Minnesota Mountain Bike race at Mt. Kato outside of Mankato, MN. I will finally be able to line up and compete in my proper age category with the 45-49 year olds there as well as the next weekend in Wisconsin at a WORS race.
Who knows if the weather will cooperate or not?
Friday: Tara and I attended the opening night of Des Moines Metro Opera's 37th Summer Season by attending Tosca. We enjoyed it as Puccini is so lush and rich no matter where you see a performance.
Psycowpath #5 Race on Saturday, June 20th at Ponca State Park: After a week of not riding due to working on the taxes, filing all three years of paperwork back into their respective places in the filing cabinets, setting up 2009's paperwork trail, etc... I made the drive to Ponca State Park just west of Sioux City. Last year it was very, very hot and humid during Ponca's Revenge and I made it through the 96-98 degree suffer fest. This year was not quite as hot and humid - thankfully.
In spite of not having the legs/lungs being in tip-top racing shape after a week off, I wanted to race to take advantage of the climbing as training. Knowing my condition, I lined up at the back of the group at the starting line because my goals were lined up with my legs. ;-) I was interested in survival. And survive I did. Not much to say except that the climbing worked me over really well (especially when not running a granny ring!!!) and I rolled across the line in 14th place after the 1 1/2 hour ordeal. As always, Jay Chesterman and his crew put on a great event at Ponca. I was glad he turned the heat down about 10 degrees or so from last year's heat wave.
I was so hungry that I stopped at a Wendy's at one of the south Sioux City exits on I-29. That's a big deal for me since I eat at Wendy's about once every two years or so. About 30 minutes after eating, I was feeling really drowsy (typical effects of eating such food) and pulled over at a rest stop. I rolled the windows down, stretched out and put my feet up on the dash and napped for about 20 - 30 minutes. I felt refreshed and was very alert the rest of the drive home. Nothing like climbing hills and eating fast food to create a nice nap....
Sunday: The IMBCS #5 was postponed due to muddy conditions, so I did a recovery ride and then some yard work at home. The family took me to a matinee movie (we saw Proposal) and then to Centro in Des Moines for Father's Day dinner. It was a nice time and we had a lively discussion - boisterous actually.
Monday: An easy effort 90 minute ride to Summerset and back (too muddy to hit the mountain biking trails). I came home and did the weekly maintenance weights for the over 40 cycling crowd. Then I went out in the heat and mowed the crazy man that I am in such heat. It was 98 and humid, but I went to the double-header baseball game where Zack's team managed to beat Johnston in both games. Zack was 5 for 6 for the day at the plate.
Tuesday: Another easy effort 90 minute ride to Summerset and back in the morning before the real heat hit. I taught lessons all afternoon right through the severe weather of massive rain, wind and what not. By the time I got home, it had cleared enough for firing up the grill on the deck.
Wednesday: I got up early and took Zoey to the vet for surgery to repair her torn ACL and meniscus. Tara and I did a 2 hour ride with me splitting off for the second hour to do intensity work of intervals, hill climbs and a 25 minute LT interval to get everything going again after the Ponca "event". We met up at Subway for a 6" sub before riding home. Grilling again in the evening. The Raven's arrived at the door, so I aired them up with tubes on a spare set of rims to give them a 24 hour stretch before mounting them up tubeless on the JET 9.
They are a decent size width racing tire. 57mm compared to the narrower Crows pictured below them at a bit under 52mm.
Thursday: I did a 100 minute recovery pace ride in the morning heat, came home and had breakfast before heading out to pick up Zoey from her overnight stay at the animal clinic. She is all wrapped up in a cast on her leg (comes off Saturday). $1261 for this procedure. We've got Max and Zoey both on diets in an effort for Zoey to lose 15 (she's lost 3 already) and Max to lose 22 (he's lost 7 already) to get them down to leaner weights in hopes of preventing more ACL tears. Dang! They sound like football player injuries...
Then I had to mow again as the grass is growing so fast with all of this heat and rain. I swapped out my Nanoraptors on the JET for the new pair of Raven 2.2's....
Attended Zack's double-header against Urbandale. Indianola is heading to a tournament on Saturday, so the best pitchers were being saved for that. So the first game was a drubbing due to our pitching. We lost 15-1. It couldn't have been worse. Errors. No hitting. It was Bad News Bears at its best. Zack was pitching the second game and we were behind 6-0 when Zack hit a 2 run homer over the centerfield fence and got the rally started. We were ahead 10 - 9 in late innnings when Urbandale scored another run to tie the game 10-10. We failed to score at our last at bat and the Umpires called the game saying the 2 hour time limit had been reached. Of course all the players, parents and fans were upset and couldn't understand why they were not allowed to play out the game to finish it. Oh well....so that's a first for a high school baseball game to end in a tie. It happens in Little League all the time, but high school baseball? The team travels to Fort Dodge on Saturday for the tournament.
Friday: I was totally off the bike today. I went in this morning for 1/2 day of work to get caught up on paperwork. I had to opt out of my insurance coverage for the coming academic year (I'm on my wife's plan instead), sign a pair of waiver forms for medical as well as dental/vision and allocate the montly extra cash to either a lump sum payment next June, or use it as additional retirement allocation funds. I chose the lump sum again just like last year. The good news is I get a lump sum next week for this past year which will just about take care of Zoey's surgery. Then I caught a movie at Jordan Creek in the afternoon while the gals shopped. I saw The Taking of Pelham 123 which I thought was really well done and a good suspense flick. I ate far too much salty popcorn....
Came home and fired up the grill for some nice salmon, vin blanc and fresh goodies from the garden on top of warm bread.
This weekend: The plan is to attend the Fort Dodge tournament and then head to Mankato for my first ever Minnesota Mountain Bike race at Mt. Kato outside of Mankato, MN. I will finally be able to line up and compete in my proper age category with the 45-49 year olds there as well as the next weekend in Wisconsin at a WORS race.
Who knows if the weather will cooperate or not?
6/19/09
One race cancelled for the weekend, what about the other....?
I just read that the IMBCS #5 Race on the Sycamore Trail in Des Moines has been cancelled for Sunday due to the extreme wet and muddy conditions of the trail. It's that time of year - Rain Of Biblical Proportions.
Radar shows it is dumping as I write this in the Ponca State Park area. Time will tell, but I will keep checking to see any updates at Nebraska Cycling.
Good news!! As of 2 pm today, everything is fine and dandy for tomorrow's Psycowpath #5 at Ponca State Park with an excellent forecast. Perrrrrrrrfect.
For what's it worth, a lot of my son's high school baseball games have been cancelled in the past couple of weeks as well due to all the rain. Sump Pumps are going full bore...
Radar shows it is dumping as I write this in the Ponca State Park area. Time will tell, but I will keep checking to see any updates at Nebraska Cycling.
Good news!! As of 2 pm today, everything is fine and dandy for tomorrow's Psycowpath #5 at Ponca State Park with an excellent forecast. Perrrrrrrrfect.
For what's it worth, a lot of my son's high school baseball games have been cancelled in the past couple of weeks as well due to all the rain. Sump Pumps are going full bore...
6/18/09
The Sugar is all ready to go...
After close inspection by a representative from Trek/Fisher, it was determined my rear triangle is still within the "safe" boundaries for operation in spite of about 1mm of tire rub wear through on the left carbon seatstay. It's not ideal, but the replacement triangle is $475 and only comes in black these days. So I set the bike up with stiffer wheels and will only run narrower casing/tread tires in the rear to prevent any more wear through on the seatstay. If it cracks or breaks, then I will make the decision of either tracking down a used rear triangle in my size or replacing it with the new Fisher price through my LBS.
I took the bike out for a 2 1/2 hour intensity session this week as pictured and it is good to go for racing on appropriate courses. It's the plushest bike I own with 100mm up front and a custom adjusted rear shock that PUSH in Colorado adjusted for my height/weight XC racing and terrain here in the middle of the country. If I ever chose to run it at 80mm up front, it would be a lot snappier - but I've got the JET and Dos Niner for that. I like the plushness. It allows me to go over logs, curbs and what not with smaller volume race tires and hardly feel anything at all. It's a great bike to stay seated on and let the suspension keep the tires glued to the track.
Training this week included some days off. I did an intensity session with my daughter who had her final physical therapy session on Tuesday (sessions were for her dislocated knee that happened in March). She is good to go for running and the muscles are symmetrical again. We did sprints on our bikes and this girl can fly in short duration sprints (10 - 20 seconds). Makes sense since she is one of the top 100m sprinters in Iowa for her age group. I did some road work (longer, less intense intervals) to keep the top end in shape. But most of the week was devoted to taxes, filing things, teaching lessons and home/house duties.
Two races on tap for this weekend (weather and conditions permitting of course): Psycowpath #5 on Saturday on the grueling Ponca climbing course in Nebraska and IMBCS #5 on Sunday in Des Moines on the Sycamore Trail in TT format.
After that, a father's day celebration at 6:30 at an undisclosed location to me. The kids are all secretive about it at this point.
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