shockey

making the most of it

2011-05-19T14:17:00.000-07:00

productive days tuesday and wednesday hunting morels and 45 minutes of trout fishing this morning contributed to a tasty lunch and is taking the sting out of not being able to ride. shoulder is definitely healing to the point that i'll probably be on pavement and gravels again soon and just need to get the last bit of pain gone and range of motion back and i should be riding trails again.

placed on the 10-day DL

2011-05-11T14:07:00.001-07:00

bad crash on the trails immediately following "i don't think this is a good idea" led to falling headfirst for what seemed like three stories into a ravine full of downed trees and landing squarely on my shoulder has me out of commission. phone call from the doctor just confirmed x-rays negative/normal so nothing torn or damaged but still lacking most of my range of motion with significant pain when not using the arm and worse when i try to use it. doctor's guess is 10ish days off the bike with lots of ice and range of motion exercises. legitimately could be worse and was planning on taking a couple of weeks off the bike after the royal 162 this saturday. timeframe has obviously been moved up but disappointed there's no way i can do the race.

royal 162

2011-05-09T07:26:00.000-07:00

so, the last 2 weeks can be boiled down to this: finish transiowa riding 33+ hours, bartend 98 hours, race the time trials somewhere in between. i'm tired and legitimately considered skipping next weekend, but i'm not that smart. i have a week to get "ready" for a the royal 162, which is a 162 mile gravel race for those that could care less about the gravel scene. i don't even know what getting ready means. the miles are there. i think i just want to sleep more and work less. might ride my bike a little this week also. then i think i'm going to lock my bikes away for a month and not allow myself to ride.

transiowa video

2011-05-03T14:10:00.000-07:00

youtube limitations forced me to split the video into 4 parts so follow the links below to watch it in order. this was definitely meant to be a bit of a scrapbook for me but figured there might be a couple people interested in what its like to go through one of these things.

DISCLAIMER: i swear. a lot. especially during transiowa. don't let your kids watch it if that bothers you.

CLICK HERE FOR PART 1

CLICK HERE FOR PART 2

CLICK HERE FOR PART 3

CLICK HERE FOR PART 4

time trials recap...

2011-05-02T08:06:00.001-07:00

here's my time trials recap as best i can remember...there might even be a few pictures as evidence. some of what i remember might not be entirely accurate...

chad wilson needed facial reconstruction surgery after somehow running headlong into a tree in death valley.

dave lunz is temporarily paralyzed after the greatest choke slam ever.

brad wicks required 30 stitches in his forehead although we're not actually sure he ever hit his head.

jesse reyerson required skin grafting on his face after messing with the unicorn and getting the horn.

jeff o'gara needed his arm amputated after having it broken in so many places that saving it was no longer a viable option.

i chased a woman with my beef stick.

i have a perfect handprint bruised into my ass. you can count jeff's individual pygmy fingers.

i demonstrated the proper way to eat unicorn meat.

gus white (shaun white's redneck cousin) is my other brother from another mother.

at least 5 people took beer hand-ups, the best being pat who slammed half my sam adams imperial white which is 10.3% alcohol.

oh...and some people raced. trevor kicked everybody's ass. nicole killed the women's race. evan hartig has grown 3 feet and should be feared in the years to come. i took 8th overall and am not disappointed at all considering how my body still feels following transiowa.

a few pics of my race. lots of pics of localish riders getting posted on the bike decorah blog.

because i'm tired

2011-04-29T13:33:00.000-07:00

i don't have much of a postrace write-up. and because i'm having trouble wrapping my head around this year's transiowa or putting it into words. i do have a pretty cool video that i'm almost done putting together that should be posted here soon. for now, relax, recover and check back often cause i know you're dying from the suspense.

another transiowa in the books...

2011-04-26T07:19:00.000-07:00

and thankfully another one finished. 322.8 miles (race miles...no idea how many we actually rode) in 33 hours and 11 minutes. absolutely brutal. never felt worse during a transiowa than i did from miles 30-50, which is a horrible way to start a 300+ mile race. took a video camera this year instead of stills so working on patching the videos together. not very high quality but more of a scrapbook for me anyway. might do a full write-up like i have in the past but struggling with motivation. after spending such an extended amount of time swinging like a pendulum between despair and elation its hard to feel normal emotions or to stay focused on anything. body feels pretty good. some numbness in the hands and might have done something to my achilles but we'll see in a few days. hopefully have something left in the legs for the time trials this weekend.
THANK YOU!!! barely seems to cut it, but that's all i've got right now. the lincoln/omaha crew are some of the best people you'll ever be lucky enough to meet. the friendship, support, hotel room floor, determination, riding ability...these men and women have this stuff down. congrats to the first ever women's finisher and last minute roommate janna vavra, also to the man of the weekend and overall winner dennis grelk, and most importantly to cornbread for continuing to roll to the end through diversity and to my fellow single speed champion aaron gammel. couldn't have done it without you guys.

transiowa v.7 arrival and updates

2011-04-22T13:50:00.000-07:00

in grinnell. relaxing and re-introducing. audio updates are gonna be HERE during the race. not intended to cover everyone the whole way so just cause you don't hear my name doesn't mean i'm dead. doesn't mean i'm not, either.

requisite pre-transiowa mental collapse

2011-04-19T07:09:00.000-07:00

fuck. how much longer do i think i can do this? i've questioned transiowa more this year than i ever have in years past. i don't even know where to start. it makes me feel like a mental fucking midget. all the questions that only have answers buried somewhere in the middle of nowhere on a gravel road in central iowa. how will the weather affect it? am i strong enough? did i train right? what about my nutrition before? during? who will i ride with? can i do it alone if necessary? will my knee hold up? will my mind hold up? will my bike hold up? how much pain am i willing to put myself through before pulling the plug this year? how long will my stubborness overpower my desire for physical comfort?

its really hard to explain this race to people that haven't done it or anything like it before. and that's not meant to sound arrogant about myself and those that choose to do it. it is what it is, and its brutal. the wilderness trail 101 out in pennsylvania was physically the hardest race i've ever done. this is just different. the combined mental and physical suffering, the sleep deprivation, the rollercoaster affect of poor nutrition maintenance, the fear of letting myself down, the fear of making all of the sacrifices made over the last 6 months of training seem wasted...i dunno. i feel like i go through this every year but this year it seems worse. maybe time just makes it harder to remember how bad it was the other years. maybe this year i'm just more willing to be honest about it.

i've got a few days. and chances are i'll be fine. i don't really have a choice. i know i'm stubborn and i know i'm competitive and i know that if its within my abilities to finish this year that i will. i just could have done without some of the mental body blows that i've gotten recently. the poison ivy i picked up at sylvan island isn't healing as quickly as id like. the weather is absolute shit. the forecast looks like it might be a coming around a bit but this snow is fucking ridiculous. and then there's the scotty issue. i can't say enough about scott and his impact on my transiowa training from day one back in the fall of 2007. he's the one guy that's always been there when i needed someone willing to train/ride/race even when no one else was stupid enough to do it, let alone enjoy it. then he jumped into transiowa last year and i was ecstatic about riding with him. then the rain dumped on us and the race became something else entirely and we pulled off and grabbed some beers. this year felt like the year. he's way stronger than he's ever been and after riding the spring training with him i knew he was strong enough to finish. this was going to be the year we crossed the finish line together. sunday, 6 days before the start this saturday, he fucked up his knee playing soccer. ugh. it took a bit for me to realize what i was feeling was obvious sadness for him and his lost opportunity especially with all the time he's put into getting fit for this year's attempt, but that what i was also feeling was a personal loss. i had allowed myself to become mentally dependent on the idea of having him to ride the entire 320 miles with and now i'm having to wrap my head around not having him there. yeah, i'm selfish. you don't train for or ride a 320 mile race for anything other than selfish reasons.

then there's the bike issues. all my plans of spending this week fine tuning the bike and making sure everything was dialed in is getting snowed over by this ridiculous weather. so instead i'm stuck inside overthinking and second-guessing everything. i know that ultimately this is simply "pre-race jitters" magnified proportionately to the size of the race. the fact is the race is going to happen. and i'll be there. and i'm not very good at doing anything half-assed. i know i'm strong enough to finish as long as the bike, body and weather hold up just enough to allow for the possibility of finishing. maybe i just wanted to offer a glimpse into the toll something like this takes on my mental state. maybe i'm just being a baby. maybe i'm just taking it too serious. choosing to suffer like this just begins to seem absurd on some level, but ultimately i wouldn't do it if i didn't enjoy it. but holy god this whole process is mentally exhausting before it even begins.

monday funday

2011-04-12T06:48:00.000-07:00

celebrated my finish at sylvan with new ink and some trout fishing with the little man. yeah, it has nothing to do with sylvan but was a perfect post-race day off.

bobber fishing at lake meyer didn't work out so well

so we headed for a trout stream and larsson pulled this guy out on his first cast

caught enough for dinner

this guy didn't make the cut but larsson thought it was hilarious

before

during

after

clean up on lap 5

2011-04-11T06:36:00.000-07:00

sylvan island stampede went down yesterday. as promised i showed up on my pugsley for the single speed race for two reasons: one being that this race is always a ridiculous mudpit and i didn't want my 3rd real ride on the superfly to be a bike-trashing of that magnitude and the other being less than 2 weeks to transiowa i figured racing the pugsley would force me to not race like an idiot and possibly blow up and wrap myself around a tree. this race and this course are a lot of fun and a good mental break from t.i. training. 2 problems... 1. the course was in perfect condition and the superfly would have been a great choice. 2. i am an idiot and can't hold back when i race no matter what bike i'm riding or what my intentions are going into it.

in the end, the race was as fun as ever and as is now expected. hooked up with the iowa city crew who are always very welcoming as well as trevor and fuhrman. got in a little preride with some of these guys then headed for the start. the start was an unfortunate debacle for everyone but the ss class which helped relieve the tension as we laughed at everyone else. ready set go and i hammered the pugsley through the opening straightaway and got the holeshot onto the singletrack. held the lead til near the end of the second lap when the eventual winner passed me and simply rode away. during the 3rd lap i passed robin williams who proceeded to latch onto my wheel. her conversation was a very welcome break as i was beginning to reel from the effects of something adam blake and i have discussed when riding a pugsley as a mountain bike. the cumulative weight of a pugsley effect. you can hammer a pugs for a short amount of time and it more or less feels like any other bike. then you hit a point where it all starts to add up and get exponentially more difficult. picture a tractor pull with the weight sliding toward the vehicle and therefore getting heavier. my upper body was getting shattered and i was beginning to catch glimpses of 3rd place.

having robin in tow was perfect. our conversation allowed the end of the 3rd lap and the 4th lap to click off despite my fading strength. somewhere along the 4th lap i dropped my water bottle. dad was there taking pics and doing water handups so i got another bottle going into the 5th and final lap. after drinking way too much i informed robin i was probably going to throw it back up and i recommended she stick to the left side of the trail and i would puke right. i held it together for a while but as we made our way onto the dike we began to hammer and pass an expert rider when i lost it. unfortunately i felt compelled to keep my promise and puke right, which is exactly where the slower expert was, leaving me no choice but to just unload most of the race worth of hydration down my own leg. yep....clean up on lap 5. robin and i rode most of the rest of the race together until the last couple straights where she politely asked to come around then proceeded to completely drop me. a minor crush to the ego considering i finished the race comfortably in second. on my pugsley. yeah...i'm alright with that.

after the race 3rd place, a rassy guy from des moines (jubil?) asked me if i was sandbagging. maybe? i've had my expert license for 2 years now. last year the only expert race i did was boone following a 3 month knee injury and i took dfl by like 5 or 10 minutes. and i raced this race on a pugsley. i guess sandbagging isn't for me to decide but i'm comfortable with my decision. big thanks again to the iowa city crew (kyle, kevin, tom, robnett, nick, etc.) for the company and beers and to robin for joining me for the last couple laps.

almost got the back wheel off the ground...

rolling laps and chatting with robin

36 pounds of bike but i think the back wheel did get off the ground this time

sylvan island trails were in phenomenal shape

chasing

o'gara modeling the skinsuit on the little big horn logride

sylvan island training=chasing the custom indy fab on the left with the pig on the right

in more important news, larsson had his spring concert and...

his first day of spring soccer which begins my second season of coaching

transiowa v.7 gravel weapon

2011-04-07T07:11:00.000-07:00

this is my fourth year making an attempt at transiowa. so far i've ridden noticeable different setups each time and i've been successful once. this year is no different and is probably the most radical change i've made going away from a cross frame and riding an xc frame. i love the geometry of the jabber when riding an endless amount of hours. pics then specs:

frame/fork: vassago jabboerwocky/odis
hubs: hope pro II rear and hope xc front
rims: stan's arches
tires: ritchey speedmax 35c run tubeless at 60psi
headset: hope
stem: raceface cadence
bars: bontrager big sweep alloy flat bars w/serfas barends and esi chunky grips
seatpost: thomson masterpiece
seatpost clamp: salsa
saddle: oe specialized from singlecross
cranks/chainring: white industries w/32t
cog: cheap alloy 15t
bottom bracket: shimano square taper
brakes: formula oro bianco
pedals: shimano A520's
bags: epic ride research feedbag, jandd frame bag, epic designs mountain standard seatpack, camelbak mule
lights: princeton tec corona extreme (older model) headlight mounted to fork, princeton tec quad led head lamp on helmet, planet bike superflash tail light

std recap

2011-03-31T06:56:00.001-07:00

CLICK HERE for words and pics over-dramatizing a weekend of gravel abuse.

superfly debut

2011-03-30T09:05:00.000-07:00

finally got out and rode the superfly on trails. didnt break it yet after two rides so happy about that. need a longer seatpost and maybe flip the stem back to a positive rise to accommodate my lack of racerness. otherwise happy with how tight/light/fast the bike feels. never ridden a bike this small so getting used to a very different feel/geometry than anything else i've ridden. pics complete with snot on the toptube to prove i actually rode it. biggest problem right now is the bike is a fuckton faster than i am so it'll be a while before i feel comfortable really commenting on my impressions of it.

spring training itinerary/details

2011-03-22T06:27:00.000-07:00

available HERE

spring training update

2011-03-10T19:43:00.000-08:00

CLICK HERE to check out the latest on this year's std...

trails, gravels and snowdays

2011-03-09T14:54:00.001-08:00

got out on the trails with ogara again recently. interesting the way the conditions change so significantly during this time of year. it was a lot of fun, and then it was nasty/icy and almost impossible to even walk. great time though.
scotty showed up this weekend and we got a little std recon done in some pretty mild weather despite the strong headwind we were greeted with saturday morning. ended up riding the first 30ish miles of the saturday century as well as the final 10ish miles plus a hanful of miles thrown in between the two.
today brought a snow day which meant larsson and i got to hang out all day. after doing some work on donkey kong country returns we hit the trails for a solid day of hiking. perfect snowball day, found a cool shelter, a geocache we weren't even looking for and a whole lot of fresh air.

ogara on upper ice cave trails

glory hole rest stop

scotty

gravels went from fast and frozen to thawing and sloppy throughout the morning

author

stop 1 of 3 nursing a slow leak

downtube mohawk

somebody else's shelter

larsson hiking above ice cave

me and the king

pugsley worlds and random rides

2011-03-02T06:50:00.000-08:00

easy excuse but seriously have just been way too busy riding and working to get anything up on here for a couple of weeks. gonna dump some pictures with a few words. most importantly was the pugsley world championships. hit the link for some good pictures of that. not a huge field but a ton of fun. conditions were equally fast and sketchy. if you don't know this about winter riding...ice is FAST as long as you're vertical. i rode with the lead group long enough to make me happy then failed to keep it vertical. two spills in about ten yards trying to cross a farm field covered in ice with no real line left me unable to get my legs back under me and i tiptoed the rest of the way across. by the time i got to the other side the top 3 (hollywood, trevor, charlie tri) had put a gap between us. ezra was behind me after dumping his modified big dummy/pugsley shortly before i did. a little over 10 miles of icy/powdery snowmobile trails brought us to the prairie farmer trail which is a lot like triple d. i buried myself trying to catch back up to the top 3. as i did ezra slowly caught me. we hit the checkpoint in ridgeway and they were still well within eyesight and we hopped back on the prairie farmer. no snowmobiles here, just iced-over drifts undulating like a pump track from hell for like 3 more miles. id start to gain on what was now the top 4, only to lay it down on an ice patch again. this happened a couple of times before we inevitably hit the gravel. id say i was within 200-400 yards when i saw the four of them turn off and i knew it was over. 1 man alone (presumably weaker to begin with) is not going to catch 4 men pacelining on gravels. i'm thrilled with how the body felt and how close i was to hanging on. i'm not sure if i could have held the pace and stayed in line on the gravels but i would have liked the opportunity. ultimately my fault for failing to ride cleanly when others did. finished 5th as trevor beat out the rest near the end for the $500. awesome race, great course, stupid fast conditions/finishing times. ended at the bar for high life tallboys and ensuing shenanigans including failed teeter totter attempts, king of the hill, derbies and i don't really remember what else. resounding success for sure.
prior to the race i've gotten some solid rides in, although everyday seems to be a different story. crazy/scary fog, icy gravels, thawing nasty sloppy gravels, snowmobile trails, county blacktops, and best of all a few days of actual mountain bike trails. this crusty ice allowed ogara and i to take a look around and found one hell of a good time. rollercoaster, rocky road, little big horn, both sets of pines, north 40...all in various states of rideability and worth the trip. spent a couple days riding up there and probably heading back up again today. photo dump in no particular order cause i can't remember now what days i've ridden what. reminder std is coming up end of march...more info soon.

little big horn

ogara thinking the log ride seems appropriate covered in snow and ice

could be worse i guess

started fog ride on blacktops, scared the shit out of myself, opted for gravel

sloppy gravels

van peenen

little big horn

picking a good line was important

sloppier gravels

gravel weapon

alternative gravel weapon when gravels thaw

birthday weekend

2011-02-09T07:36:00.000-08:00

took off on my own for a couple days this weekend in an attempt to hang on to my youth. headed for milwaukee, watched the superbowl surrounded by packer fans in some brewpub, ended up at an irish pub, woke up and met up with scotty and got thoroughly dominated by rays indoor mountain bike park. i found out that i do in fact suck at doing backflips even when offered a foam pit, and also realized that when separating yourself from your bike to ensure a safe landing you should do so prior to being completely upside down. that way when you throw your bike you don't throw it straight up in the air with your body landing in the foam pit just in time to look up and see said bicycle coming straight down on your head like a javelin. walked away with a pretty nasty headache but think i managed to avoid a concussion. excluding the fact that the packers were in the superbowl rather than the bears it was a perfect birthday getaway.

fun on the pump track

scotty and i took a break after realizing shin pads seemed like a good idea. full body armor could be seen as appropriate with how poorly i was riding at times...

apparently i was employing the "frog-technique" for backflipping. its a bad technique...

scotty demonstrating proper bike-ejection form

"blizzard" ride...

2011-02-01T07:43:00.001-08:00

okay not sure if it constitutes a blizzard yet or not, but got out with jeff for a couple hours yesterday in the snow and wind. gonna get after it again pretty soon this morning and sounds like trevor might be joining us. interesting to see what happens with the snow later today/tonight/tomorrow and whether or not we'll even be able to push the pugs around the gravels by tomorrow.looking downtown around noon

not sure we could've ridden even the gravels on anything smaller

vanity

unicorn in snow

spring training in decorah 2011

2011-01-28T23:16:00.001-08:00

its happening again. ive got another std that i wanna share. march 26-27. 100 miles of gravel on saturday followed by beers and food then 100 kilometers of gravels on sunday. more info about routes and other randomness to follow.

the stars are aligning...

2011-01-25T20:48:00.000-08:00

fucking ecstatic. just noticed transiowa and decorah time trials are not on the same weekend. doing a happy dance. happy sock not necessary but happy dancing nonetheless.

wind ride

2011-01-20T14:26:00.000-08:00

spent the late morning chasing novian up and around bluffton. holy f-ing windy. riding a fairly easy gear and was still standing to pedal into the wind in the flats. he was of course riding effortlessly. thinking the training plan is gonna involve chasing novian and a pack of rabid roadies on geared cross machines on my ss graveljabber until i'm cross-eyed and dizzy a couple times a week. i'm really excited. i swear. relatively happy with how the legs felt following sunday's race although my climbing legs would have failed quickly had we ridden much longer. considering picking up some compression tights to sleep in...any feedback/recommendations?

side note...THIS is worth reading...still amazed by colin's sense of humor.

triple d 2011

2011-01-17T06:50:00.000-08:00

started out thinking this year was gonna be a mountain bike year, ended up thrilled to be racing it for the first time on a pugsley. no expectations going into it so very happy with 3rd place overall. drew was in 4th, 1st on a "skinny bike" and i'm pretty sure he would've ridden away from me on a pugsley the way lance (2nd overall) and drew's friend (overall winner) did. fairly "fast" conditions, finished in around six and a half hours. was completely wrecked after because the conditions made you want to try to ride so fast. great race again and a good time with the fam celebrating nephew's 1st birthday in the waterpark. some pics...

pre-race

gathering

the eventual top 4 rolling out from the start (l to r: drew, lance, me; drew's buddy back left)

halfway, chad's pizza in dyersville

rolling into durango checkpoint and hurting

finish line and sweet ice beard

new year...

2011-01-12T14:40:00.000-08:00

new bike, newish blog, new perspective (maybe) and a lot of the same old shit. quick update on the stable: currently own a surly pugsley which i ride the shit out of, a vassago jabberwocky built up as my long distance gravel weapon, an uber-pimp trek superfly i have yet to ride and an azonic steelhead which lives on through the miraculous powers of welding although my knee isn't allowing it to be ridden much. didn't write much after the knee injury last year cause i didn't feel much like writing about my struggles to get back into what i considered adequate shape. those struggles were as much mental as they were physical. i just had a really tough time getting back into training. right now im in a decent upswing that i'm cautiously optimistic will hold and get me ready for transiowa. been working a lot at the bar which limits my time to ride with other local hooligans but have been doing a fair job of enjoying riding in good balance with training (by good balance i mean far more enjoyable rides than training rides). i'm not in the shape i once was...i'm not sure if i ever will be but i'm getting back into something that resembles a shape i'm content with.
new year's day ride went down again. as did most of the riders. jesse's hamburger knee was self-induced but some of the other crashes were a result of a lot of ice and a little alcohol. although i'm sure i have that backward. as usual it was probably the best ride of the year and everything is downhill from there, which is awesome considering it was only the first day of the year.
next up for me on the calendar is triple d. certainly not going into expecting to reclaim my title but excited to race it for the first time on a pugsley in what is the race's and my 4th installment. after triple d i'll be "training" for the pugsley world championships we're throwing here in decorah. i think training will require spending as much time as possible in a bar with jesse rather than actually trianing on the bike. after that i'm hoping to "organize" another std this year which will probably just be a super shitty weather gravel century, most likely the same century as last year's std. other than that it'll be a whole lot of getting ready for transiowa and mixing in enough trail riding to justify the superfly purchase and to be ready to race xc after the royal 162.
yep...after 4 months of not writing that's about all i got. happy adam?

leaving soon...

2010-09-01T06:40:00.001-07:00

heading for spearfish, sd for the dakota 5-0 which is possibly the coolest race i've ever done. and i've been lucky enough to race some awesome races. perry, the director, is perfect for putting this thing on. the support, the setting, the course, the afterparty...its all amazing. adam, scotty and i will be heading that way on saturday, racing sunday, driving back monday most likely hungover with a stop to do some more cliff jumping.

packing list: shoes, bike, helmet and maybe some four loko...

last week in pics

2010-08-25T06:52:00.000-07:00

four loko receives adam blake's official seal of approval

riding/camping at levis with adam, zach and scotty

adam working on my bike. because i'm lazy.

appetizer

dinner

dessert

we were the only three people in the entire campground. probably was a good thing.

was super happy to have ari and fam walk into the bar so we planned a gravel excursion

nice gravel ride to bluffton and back with ari on thursday

hooked up with blackford on saturday for some trail time. awesome week of riding with some really good guys.

DFL > DNF

2010-07-26T08:28:00.000-07:00

the good: i rode my bike. i rode my mountain bike on mountain bike trails. i rode my mountain bike on mountain bike trails for 18 miles. i "raced" my bike for 18 miles. i finished the race. i can still walk. the knee doesn't seem to be swelling up in a debilitating manner.

the bad: i finished d.f.l. the ego is slightly bruised. my fitness is nowhere close to what it was 3 months ago. i have a long, long way to go. my body hurts like it hasn't for a while, back and shoulders especially.

the conclusion: trying to stay positive that i was finally able to ride again. i was able to push my knee through the climbing at 7 oaks without reaggravating it. pretty disappointed with how out of shape i felt and trying to accept how long its going to take me just to get back to where i was. gravel worlds is now unfortunately a pretty big uncertainty. 150 miles of gravels just seems a bit much with how i feel but i'll wait a little longer to make that decision. going to focus training on being in good enough shape to ride dakota 5-0 somewhat comfortably understanding i still won't be as competitive as i would like. then see how i feel by the time adam's party goes down. the day definitely went better than it could have gone...just wasn't quite ready to accept how much i've lost.

or not

2010-07-16T07:52:00.000-07:00

nothing's torn. nasty bone bruise in the knee that pretty much means anything more aggressive than walking or riding a geared bike on a paved bike trail will aggravate the knee and make it impossible to do anything. no time frame on when i'll be back on the bike but eventually and no surgery.

that didn't last long

2010-07-12T07:17:00.000-07:00

tried to ride back-to-back days. 90 minutes gravel then two hours gravel, the second with gears. knee blew up again. called doctor. xrays were friday and mri was this morning. ugghhh.

riding

2010-07-01T07:42:00.001-07:00

got in a gravel ride and a trail ride already. both short/low intensity in relative terms. both rides left me trying to balance my intense desire to ride myself back into race shape, the necessity of taking it easy and not risking reaggravating the knee, and ultimately realizing that i should just be happy that i'm riding again. sucks being able to feel how much i've lost already but riding slow is infinitely better than not riding at all.

torn meniscus

2010-06-28T06:08:00.001-07:00

damn. no surgery for now. gonna try to live with/manage it as long as possible hoping to prolong my now inevitable knee replacement(s?). huge suck right now but gonna start trying to ride again.

could be worse. didn't break my face. keep laughing colin...still amazed by your perspective.

not writing=not riding

2010-05-27T20:19:00.000-07:00

knee is pretty jacked. worst its been aggravated since i first injured it roughly 5 years ago. that time i was off the bike for over half a year. hurts to walk, work, play with the little man, ride...incredibly frustrating. ice/rest seems to be helping but not nearly fast enough to keep me from being concerned. probably get in to see someone soon if it doesn't really come around by the end of the weekend.

dhpt may tt results posted

2010-05-19T08:01:00.001-07:00

here

debacles, failures, successes, almanzo and a few more pictures

2010-05-17T07:07:00.001-07:00

finally getting some pics up now that i have time and my camera was graciously mailed back to me by gersib after my inability to keep track of it during post transiowa recovery.

recovery in said hotel room after t.i. with bonsall, scotty and mg

bailing on sugar bottom with adam after the rain picked up last monday. headed into town for some local dirt

thirsty? this is what last tuesday's metric was like. the bike was worse and so was i.

scotty. says. hi.

mere seconds before scotty and i both passed out headed back to the hotel after being saved sixty some miles into t.i.

yes. following transiowa i cry dirt.

the breaking point. bonsall walking the b road that officially ended transiowa v.6 for me.

scotty and i with a shred of optimism remaining at the starting line just before t.i.

the almanzo setup: fisty fixed at 37x16 with mary bars and foam grips

cornbread

drew

kent

verbage: almanzo was a throwdown and a beatdown, as expected. if was glaringly obvious from the start...everything was perfect. the weather conditions as well as the gravel conditions. throw in an eppen tandem and the stage was set...people were going to hard and fast and it was going to go off like that from the start. the best part about this is that i'm an idiot. and i will go with them. as long and hard as i can. fixed. and. i. will. die. so we go off and about 3 1/2 miles in we come screaming down a winding descent and there are bodies and bikes EVERYWHERE. scary doesn't even come close to explaining the scene. nobody seemed to be screaming anything other than "slow down!" so it didn't seem anyone was hurt too bad but you couldn't even tell who was hurt and who was helping or what had happened. it was just carnage. continuing on, the race was pretty much the same the whole way. i was going way faster than i had any right to but it felt good so i went with it. rode with some great people, hooked up with gunner and wes from time to time as the yo-yo effect of trying to ride fixed with geared guys did its thing. chose to blow through preston 40-some miles in and rode up on a lady from geoff's in iowa city (sorry i suck at names). she had ended up solo and didn't know where she was at on her cue sheets. we rode a couple miles and she was frustrated by a stem that was off center and i needed to stop and rest the legs anyway so we pulled off and i straightened things out for her while a group caught us. we hooked up with the group and rode into the checkpiont 65ish miles in. knowing how these things can play out i quickly refilled 2 bottles, grabbed a sandwich out of my camelbak and the new cue sheets and was out as fast as i could. best estimate is i picked up 20 spots on people just hanging out. i'm no expert but a lesson to people new at this...the single easiest place to cut time out of long events is at aid stations/checkpoints. its so easy to get lulled into relaxing. get in, get out and don't get stuck there mentally or physically. back on the bike, up a big paved climb, down into a valley, up a big gravel climb, down into a big valley, POP!!! there go the legs. third big climb right out of the checkpoint and i was a bit toasted. got my shit back together for a while but had to solo to the finish. about 80 miles in i was beat up from the effort i was putting out. i had considered the realistic possiblity of a sub-7hour century fixed and i would have been ecstatic with it. after passing 80 miles and feeling the body start to fail the math was becoming simple. i would be close but would have to ride as well as i did at the start to make it under 7. i just didn't have it in me. came to a very cool water crossing that i cleaned which i think should take 20 minutes off my time thus giving me my sub-7 century. anyway, somewhere around 90 miles in the cramps hit hard and i walked 3 pretty big hills and was stuck pedaling in the flats through cramps that simply alternated legs. limped in just shy of 7hrs20min and finished in the top 100 of a field almost 300 deep. pretty sure one guy fixed behind me and sounds like maybe one guy killing it fixed ahead of me. kinda hard to compare myself from a competitive standpoint so i try to find other measurements. happy, not ecstatic, but happy with my time. happy with how long my body held up but disappionted it wasn't to the end but considering how hard i rode from the start i shouldn't complain too much. food/water was well planned and effective (minus the cramping). i will be stronger because of this.

the race itself was incredibly well put together. many have said much about chris skogen and what he has put together and pulled off with this race and i would simply echo those setiments. not gonna lie, i had my doubts with the size of field but i was beyond impressed. well done chris. as usual, the number of people i got to see and ride is a list beyond my capabilities. but i'll try: gunner, wes, kirk (all from decorah), squirrel, rick, steve, kent (dsm boys), HUGE iowa city/geoff's/q7 crew, dennis the grelk, cornbread, charlie, drew, mr. skogen, shively, moffit, paul jacobsen, joe meiser, i'm sure i'm missing people and i apologize. it was a long, beautiful day and i got my ass kicked...by the course, the bike, myself and a whole lot of crazy strong riders.

laying low

2010-05-12T06:30:00.000-07:00

transiowa officially left me not feeling the need for much gravel riding, a feeling which was encouraged by a bottom bracket that was left almost completely seized up from said gravel adventure. fortunately the trails up here have been in phenomenal shape following the time trials so i've spent a fair amount of time on those. good to get back to the mountain bike for a while. also spent a little time mushroom hunting for the first time. always enjoyed eating them and finally getting out to find some of my own. in the meantime i've been making some small changes with the fisticuff as well. new bottom bracket out of necessity, went back to the mary bars, removed the rear brake entirely and switched it back to a fixed gear. planning to do almanzo and gravel worlds fixed as well as heck of the north if they go ridiculously deep into the waiting list. honestly, i just felt stronger/faster when i was doing all of my gravel riding/training fixed and i've realized that long rides hurt no matter what...geared/single/fixed/hiking b-roads/etc. might as well get more out of it so i'll be pushing the fixed gear again...most likely for a while.

took off monday and headed down to iowa city and met up with adam and borrowed his buddy brett's bike for which i am extremely grateful. got in what i think i understand to be about half of sugar bottom. grew up an hour from there and had never ridden it. planned to ride more of it but the rain had other ideas. knowing how protective they are of that trail system we decided to bail before doing any damage and headed back into town. adam showed me around some local, in-town trails that some guys are working on. always fun to ride with adam and definitely worth the trip despite the weather, which really just seemed fitting for a ride the two of us planned.

headed out tuesday then to take care of some unfinished business. a few months ago adam and i failed a gravel metric due to winter weather and a road not marked as a b-road but apparently not plowed in the winter. wanting to get some good time on the new fisty set-up before this weekend's almanzo, this seemed an appropriate route. it rained all day on us while we rode monday but stopped overnight so i had hopes of a not-so-awful ride. hope is dumb. i got dominated. hit the metric distance at around 5 hours and ended up somewhere around 66 miles in 5.5 hours. bike is absolutely trashed. i'm pretty beat up. gravels were certainly not as bad as transiowa but man they were awful. first time riding fixed since cirrem i think and the back took a solid beating. gonna take a couple rest days to let the body recover before this weekend and hope (dumb) the weather cooperates.

one pic...

2010-04-28T06:30:00.001-07:00

thanks to paul jacobson for this picture. its at the 45 mile checkpiont. no way did i think i'd look or feel like this so early in the race.

thank you cornbread...

2010-04-28T06:15:00.001-07:00

for your comment in my last post. i am reminded of some work that must be done prior to next year. "TEAM LIMIT" shirts. that's right, anyone who wants in on this slow rolling train that plans to use up ever second of our time limits is more than welcome. wills, bonsall, scotty-i'm looking squarely in your direction. gersib, i'll hang on to yours til the first checkpoint. if you're there waiting for us again i'll give it to you there. don't doubt this groups ability to finish or their willingness to have a riot of a good time as the founding members of team limit. man...really wish i could make a list of all the guys i was excited to see again this year. hopefully gravel worlds means i won't go a full year without see many of them again.

got drunk and lost my camera

2010-04-27T06:42:00.000-07:00

so no pics from me from transiowa. or the time trials. maybe i'll find it. in the meantime just know that transiowa was an absolute beatdown and the time trials were some of the most fun i've ever had at a bike race. and i didn't race. our little setup in death valley was a hell of a good time and from what i can tell the racers really enjoyed it as well. marty killed half my 40 the first time through then half my pint can the second time through, chased mr. sedore a long way down the trail, gave adam a rabbit to chase, witnessed more than i care to admit to when jesse came through, heard something over a megaphone about a muffin top, some trail hippies, something about following the pink and i'm not sure what else. congrats to those that really threw down some hellish times and thanks to everyone for making it such a great time.

until i get my camera back i'm officially stealing from others...really dug this post from defending t.i. champ joe meiser. i have a ton of respect for both joe and charlie farrow (pictured). the picture tells a lot of stories, the words have certainly helped me put this year's transiowa in perspective.

Look at this man. He is whole. All of his desires have been fullfilled. To what does this man owe his fulfillment? To TransIowa.

Photo courtesy of Kevin Wilson, gracious volunteer and observer of the grotesque.

Look for a full report when the sand and grit are washed away. Until then ponder the great unknowns, the questions of your life, while knowing that this man no longer needs to.

tiv6 recap...already

2010-04-24T13:24:00.000-07:00

short version: brutal gravel conditions=epic failure. honestly have doubts that anyone will finish. if anyone does i will be impressed beyond words by their superhuman efforts. felt like i was riding in wet concrete. on a positive note the 5a.m. lightning storm was absolutely amazing.

possible transiowa updates

2010-04-23T14:41:00.000-07:00

just over 11 hours from the start of this year's spring monster and im pretty well situated in grinnell. scotty and i headed to the prerace dinner/meeting soon. a note on updates: guitar ted will understandably not be doing the radio updates he has done in the past. this is unfortunate but completely understandable. he is encouraging twitter updates so if you're into twitter check out his blog on how to find updates from riders and possibly himself. if it works and falls within the rules, i may have some periodic updates on my facebook page as well. not sure if it will be kosher or if it will work out at all so no promises. just picked up some strawberry cheesecake to go with the summer sausage, cojack cheese and slimfast breakfast. sometimes i think riding is just a really good excuse to eat like a hippo. and i'm okay with that.

solitary, 60/60, 4

2010-04-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

random thoughts from the last few days and on the next few.

solitary: took off on sunday for yellow river for about 24 hours of self-imposed solitude trying to get my head straight and relax a little bit. made good time getting out there and getting camp set up (spotted a couple cars in the parking lot...pretty sure marty and the fuhrnmanator were out on the trails somewhere) so got out for a hike and then jumped in the van to check out more of the park that i'd never seen before. fire, beer, brats, dark, sleep, cold, sunrise, fire, bacon, lemon streussel, coke, ride. ride was awesome and pretty sure it became recon for next years std. if i can find a route out that direction, through what i rode and back and still have it fall within 100 miles it will be next years century. between what i saw in person and on the map, it looks like there could be some pretty cool unimproved adventures along the way as well but it wasn't the day for me to be exploring. lunch, break down camp, realization that the night away was exactly what i needed.

60/60: percent chance of rain saturday and sunday. listen, i want to finish transiowa. transiowa is brutal in perfect weather. but something about the challenge of epic brutality makes me smile a little a bit. how miserable can we be and still finish? what can we push our bodies through and still come out the other side? that being said...i think i'd prefer sunny and 60 degrees.

4: days. vomit. brush teeth to remove vomit taste. ride, check list, get organized. realize vomiting won't help. try to avoid vomiting again. try to avoid last minute changes to bike that i'm tempted to do but will inevitably cause catastrophic failure mid-ride. working tonight, tomorrow night, double thursday, leaving friday. figure out saturday's 3a.m. breakfast. sleeping arrangements secured. need to purchase pre-cooked bacon and orange slices. make a decision on fenders in light of the forecast. amazing this is what i'm left with despite all the good sunday night's camping trip did for me. maybe the thoughts haven't changed much, but there organization has which really does help the stress.

one more

2010-04-17T10:20:00.000-07:00

from sylvan island. brother adam got this from someone and sent it on to me. good look at the train we had rolling for the first couple laps.

epic designs seat bag-first impressions

2010-04-15T07:41:00.000-07:00

opened the box, looked at the bag, thought...this isn't as big as i expected.

installed on bike, started packing the bag, thought...holy shit this thing is huge.

finished packing 90% of what i'll take on transiowa, thought...wow, i think i've barely filled half the bag.

strapped on lights, left for solo gravel night mission fully packed, thought...yikes this bike is heavy, but my back feels a hell of a lot lighter/more relaxed than last year.

hit first big climb, thought...wow, this bag actually has a fair amount of sway in it.

finished ride, rode again fully packed the next day, thought...same as the night before.

final thoughts: TONS of room to pack in this thing. overall ecstatic with the bag. better for geared riders because it doesn't get much sway until you attempt to stand and climb. obviously well constructed and presumably very waterproof. definitely thinking it will be better than last year without all the weight on my back but that much weight on the bike is noticeable, especially into the headwinds i've ridden into the last couple of days.

the island, the t.i., the bag, the photos

2010-04-13T06:31:00.000-07:00

so...the pictures in this post make absolutely no sense in the order that they're in...get over it. for some reason this laptop sucks at reordering pics. or i do. don't care.

first...the stampede. got to sylvan island feeling pretty good. walked up to the registration tent and signed up for the expert class. a 5th place finish in last year's mudfest in the expert class left me feeling plenty comfortable racing expert again this year. then ran into adam. first words out of his mouth "did you see who all is here? yeah, a bunch of us are just doing the single speed race." my first thought...damn, that was eppen that i saw. so i headed back to the tent completely comfortable dropping to the ss class, especially since i was standing in line behind jesse lalonde as he registered. considered tapping him on the shoulder and informing him that he was one of the reasons i wasn't racing expert, smiled to myself and left him alone to avoid seeming like a stalker. experts went off and i was happy to not be with them. along with eppen and lalonde, cam made his mark and knowing robnett was there and then the ride that kingsbury put in...i'm completely comfortable with my decision. our group went off a couple minutes after the experts and i was into the singletrack first after a couple hundred yard sprint. was feeling pretty good about not blowing up completely at the start then totally blew a 180 degree turn (should probably pre-ride in the future). adam took the lead and looked strong. i got it back and led a fair amount of the first 2 laps feeling pretty strong and being coached around the course by local guy ryan neipert. was wondering why he wasn't coming around but he seemed comfortable and i was appreciative of the advice. lap 3 came and i got passed like i had an orange triangle on my back. neipert recommended we chase him down. i wanted to recommend that neipert fuck off but my manners were still in tact. he metioned that he was inclined to do it so i made room and never saw them again. the next guy in line then sat on my wheel for the remainder of the 3rd and all of the 4th lap. as expected on the 5th and final lap he was done toying with me, moved around me and was gone. i settled into cruise control accepting the fact that i could have ridden another 5 hours but was powerless to accelerate, chase or really race at all. my acceptance of 4th overall was short lived when i got tracked down and passed again and rolled in for a 5th place finish ecstatic not to have another 2 laps like the experts did. the race was a blast, justified my decision to bail on the experts and a testament to my training. realistically evaluating my performance, not making excuses, i have lost my high end. i averaged 164 heartrate for 1hr45min. that hurt and my back is toast. but i was smiling in the end and more and more that's all the reward i need. maybe someday i'll get back to focusing on xc racing but for now i'm happy riding as hard as i can as long as i can. huge congrats to neipert for taking the ss race. eppen, lalonde and cam killed the expert race but for me kingsbury was the story. 4th place and the first of what i would consider non-pros. pretty damn impressive. good to see everyone else out there as well...all the iowa city folk, trevor, brian, grelk, jed (tough day with the tubeless set-up), i'm sure i'm missing people cause that's what i do...tons of people out for this one and was cool to see the big fields.

the new seatpack came in from epic designs and is looking every bit as promised. got it installed this morning and looking to get out for a ride with it today. probably pack it with useless shit just to see what its like. the next week will be a lot of shorter gravel rides making sure everything is dialed.

transiowa v.6 is virtually upon us. i leave in 10 days. getting lodging/support/food/packing/etc dialed so i can pretty much wake up friday and leave. anxious, nervous, excited, scared, hopeful and a whole host of other emotions. the 2nd guessing is hitting the point of absurdity. most of all is the excitement though. having been through 2 and finished 1 i have an idea what i'm in for and i know how much i enjoy it. having scotty along this year will add a whole other reason to be excited. we've trained hard together in the past and i know what its like to put in some truly suffering-filled rides with him. looking forward to tackling this monster together.

now...the pics. again, totally random order cause i suck.
jesse lalonde: reason #1 i bailed on the expert race

the fuhrmanator

the little man showing off the fully packed ride

the new bag installed and in its smallest state

recovering with adam

recovering with a tallboy of highlife

brian eppen: reason #2 (cam: reason #3, not pictured)

single speed race pain train (before i derailed)

coming off the wall with neipert and adam in tow

plenty of places to have fun once you know you're out of the race

early on, before neipert took charge of the race

125 miles...

2010-04-08T07:36:00.000-07:00

according to the most recent information provided by mr. guitar ted that's roughly how far we'll be riding to end transiowa without a refueling station along the route. apparently if we're willing to add a couple miles and venture off course we can find something but otherwise the last stop is approx 10 miles from the final checkpoint which is approx 115 miles from the finish. damn. 125 miles. from experience we'll be lucky to still be moving at 10mph. that means we're looking at needing to pack enough food and water to ride self-sustained for 10-14 hours. two things come to mind. 1) this sucks. 2) i like it. i've seen a lot of people very stripped down at the starting line. i've been very jealous of them as i am a notorious over-packer but i guess for me i've always felt like a self-supported 320 mile gravel race shouldn't be accomplished with two water bottles, a tube, pump, multi-tool, clif bar and 2 gus. i want to see people suffer. i want to see people survive. huge props to those possessing the physical body and mental fortitude to truly race this thing. but i'd be lying if i said i'm not a little bit excited to see how people handle 125 miles without refueling after having already ridden 200 miles while packing only minimal supplies. i wish them absolutely no ill will...maybe i just want a little company in the pain cave. something about collective suffering and all...

rambling...

2010-04-06T07:11:00.000-07:00

after getting the jabber put back together and riding trails a couple times i broke down and took it to travis to have him set up the brakes. because. i. suck. left it for a few days cuz he's busy and figured i wouldn't get in any trail time. i was wrong. so grabbed the pugsley and tried my best to rage trails but raging doesn't really happen with a pug. fun anyway. ran into matt (i think-in case i haven't said it for a while i suck at names) from roch down riding trails in what i'm assuming is getting ready for the trials. lots of fun and a hell of a workout pushing trails with that beast.

later that day (saturday) worked trails with a good size group from dhpt. built a new section through the top of pali. i don't do the most work on the trails, but i do a hell of a lot more than some people. i don't care where you live or what your trail system is like-you can find something to do to make them better. if you ride trails, work trails. build, clean, maintain, fix...pick up litter if nothing else. and tell your friends they suck at life if they refuse to do anything.

transiowa is about two and a half weeks away. yikes.

15 deep on the waiting list for heck of the north. not gonna hold my breath for that one but i guess i have a chance.

sylvan island this weekend. funny much less worked up i get about xc races these last couple of years. don't care any less, don't look any less forward to them, just starting to relax a bit. also accepting my endurance training and its affect on my xc racing. mostly excited hoping brother adam will throw down his first ever attempt at racing a bicycle like the rest of us overgrown children. hoping to see a solid group of friends hanging out there as well.

still waiting on new seatpack from epic design which hopefully will be here soon. that will leave me with a couple weeks to dial in bike setup and pack organization.

hopefully get a break in this rain and go slow roll some gravels for a bit today.

1st trail ride of the year today!

2010-03-30T19:33:00.000-07:00

not much else to say. trails are in great shape. i'm not in great trail shape. that's absolutely no surprise. probably arrogantly trying to push too big of a gear on top of being in "long-slow-gravel-grinding" shape. donated a minimal amount of blood. was coerced into riding a section i didn't intend to, but glad i did. climbed almost everything. felt slow on almost everything. i suck at setting up brakes. the end.

tick...

2010-03-29T07:37:00.000-07:00

tock...

the obsession worsens.

its almost comical. to step outside myself and realize that thoughts of riding my bicycle become so consuming at this time every year. could be worse i guess. i could be addicted to crack. or farm animals.

still slacking

2010-03-23T06:40:00.000-07:00

mostly with the blogging, less with the riding though. not sure what to do about that since i really don't feel like dropping the money on internet access at home. good excuse to get coffee or beer i guess. just need to drink more coffee and beer and i'd blog more. seems to make sense.

so, i've got this dry erase calendar that hangs on my fridge that i use for my training. actually, i use it as a training log. how long i ride, what surface i ride, average heartrate and whether or not i work out. i don't use it as a training plan, simply as a record. at the end of the month i don't keep it for posterity, just look at it and make some mental notes then erase it and start clean. being a re-writeable kind of calendar its actually got 35 days on it to accomodate any month with any starting day. so i fill all 35 days rather than doing calendar months. just worked out perfectly that as i erased it after saturday and started anew on sunday that the 35th and final day on the calendar happened to be transiowa. that puts me just over 4 weeks away. i have about a week and half left of my current workout cycle which will simply be followed by maintenance work until a week prior at which time i will stop working out completely. i have about two and half weeks left of heavy riding which will end with sylvan island. after that the plan is a two-week taper. the first of those weeks means riding often but not very hard or very far, the second week will be very limited riding. been talking/texting with scotty a lot as he's getting ready for his first transiowa. funny how his feelings have brought back very vivid memories of virtually identical fears/concerns/anxiousness leading into my first two. i'm definitely more relaxed going into transiowa this year having finished last year, possibly more confident, but definitely no more arrogant. i, like scotty, am having concerns as to whether or not i've been riding enough. reassuring him has really just been a way of helping my own psyche. if you can ride 100 you can ride 320. you have to believe that. nobody does a 320 mile training ride to test their ability. beyond 100-150 miles it comes down to mental preparation. how willing and how able are you to suffer? how excited are you to suffer? how well prepared are you to battle the demons that crawl out of the shadows in the darkness of pre-morning when you've been pedaling yourself blind for 24 hours? if you have allowed the fear of failing transiowa to motivate your training, chances are you're physically capable of finishing. being physically capable of finishing transiowa MIGHT be half of what's necessary to actually finish it though.

so, i've been trying to train at varying heartrates on different surfaces in different conditions for different lengths of time. that's the extent of my training plan. keep mixing it up so you're prepared for anything although maybe not great at anything (which will probably become obvious in my cross country racing). but lately i've also started doing more solo touring style rides. getting used to carrying more weight on the bike and the back. riding easier and trying to keep my heartrate controled. stopping and being deliberate without hurrying through my pack to find the things i need. mentally figuring out the organization of my packs and working on memorizing it to minimize wasted time off the bike. i don't know if its possible to ever feel completely confident that you are ready for transiowa...at least not for me/my mentality. but i've been here before and i know how it will go. i will stress/overthink/overanalyze/second-guess every decision i make and every ride i've done or gonna do. i will do this obsessively until about a week before transiowa. that's about the time i take a huge breath, let out an even bigger sigh and realize it doesn't matter anymore. i've done what i've done and i can't change it. i can't fix gaps in my riding over the last six months, i can't put on enough miles in that last week to matter, in fact i can only make it worse. i will be as ready as i am and stressing about it will do absolutely no good. the body will realize that and start to relax. that's when the mental preparations really take over. lots of focusing on accepting the pain. focusing on the end when there doesn't seem to be one. strategizing how to deal with the devastating effects of those final hours of darkness. transiowa will happen whether i'm ready or not. the suffering will happen no matter how well prepared i am. somehow i'll find a way to enjoy it.

std wrap-up

2010-03-16T18:17:00.000-07:00

recap finally posted in words. hell of a weekend.

gravels and feedbags

2010-03-09T07:52:00.000-08:00

monday's recon of friday's metric. gravels starting to get wet and a little soft with more rain coming. bike stayed surprisingly cleanish.

warmer temps+fewer layers=bigger smiles

awesome ride friday doing some more recon of saturday's century. riders are gonna be treated to some beautiful scenery.

been rocking my new mountain feedbag. love this thing. packing way more food within easy reach and works really well for the camera and phone on shorter rides. looking forward to this think earning its keep during the std.

std schedule posted

2010-03-08T06:39:00.000-08:00

click here to see the schedule if you're interested in joining. considering selling rain jackets and fenders with the std logo...

CIRREM recap

2010-02-28T07:41:00.000-08:00

was thinking about taking the slacker way out and just linking adam's race recap from this year's cirrem since we rode pretty much the entire race together. but i guess i'm above that...barely.

three times as many racers, gorgeous weather, rocket fast start. kept looking at my speed and refusing to look at my heart rate cause i knew i was well beyond what i had planned and i wasn't able to pull myself back and chill out. the lead group was gone quickly and people started to settle in when i found myself rolling along with squirrel who was also riding fixed. different setups but seemed that we had very similar gear ratios so riding together was comfortable. eventually we caught sight of a bigger group and decided to work together to latch on and get pulled along for a bit. i pulled for a bit then squirrel put in a big pull and we were on with mg, kyle, fuhrman, adam and a few others. the group was moving comfortably when we hit a decent hill and adam and i took the lead without realizing or attempting to pull away from the group. when we got to the top and looked back we had put a bit of a gap on them. with some serious indecision we decided to keep moving at our pace rather than slowing up and waiting for the group to share the work load. andy from ankeny was able to bridge up and push with us and eventually mike from cedar falls did as well although he didn't seem to be able to hang on after what must have been a tough solo effort to grab onto our threesome. adam and i collectively decided to bypass the water station halfway, both unsure if we had enough fluid to finish but wanting to increase our lead on the group chasing us. the three of us worked together and pushed hard and slowly worked past a couple riders that appeared to have been blown off the lead group and left to fend for themselves. about 15 miles out i was getting rocked by some rollers on the fixie and the gravels were really starting to soften up and demand far more effort. rationing the water may have been a bad decision as adam started to fight a couple cramps. i told andy i was gonna slow up to give my legs a break and let adam catch back on and that he should go on if he felt up to it. he continued on still looking fairly strong. adam and i hooked back up and it became obvious if we held a decent pace we wouldn't have to kill ourselves on the climbs and most likely no one would be catching us. about 8 miles out we got out of the headwind and cruised in to the finish. completely worked.

stats: 1st fixed, 4hr30min, 90min faster than last year, 14+mph, 146 avg hr (yikes), 4 gus, 15 slices bacon, 40oz carborocket, ran out of fluids with about 10 miles left, about 10 candy orange slices, free beer, awesome handmade trophy from squirrel, $50 gift certificate to scheels will most likely be going toward a new bikecamping tent, got to see TONS of friends i haven't seen in a while...want to drop names but so many people i would undoubtedly leave some out. awesome day, thrilled with how the body held up despite pushing much harder than planned out of the gates. a few recovery days then finalizing plans for the std.

huge thanks to kent and jed for throwing this party again. hopefully they'll get it figured out for next year despite the obvious increase in numbers and presumable increase again next year. congrats to kent on a super strong ride, jed for riding back from an early flat, bill had a great race, mg pushing through an illness and early morning drive, nick pushing a pugsley and matt pushing a studded 29er. thanks to adam for keeping the whole thing lighthearted despite the silence that began to creep in around mile 50 when we both started to hurt.

catching up again

2010-02-24T06:42:00.001-08:00

really hoping this doesn't become habit only posting once a week but still haven't figured out the internet situation at home so until then this is what i've got.friday morning brought an awesome pugsley ride with jeff with a solid mix of snowmobile trails and groomed xc ski trails. note: ski trails were not harmed. we didn't touch the classical tracks and the skating area had firmed up enough we were barely leaving tread patterns in the snow. that and the walkers had rutted it out so bad we should be the least of anyone's concern.
friday afternoon brought a beautiful drive through the backcountry roads of winneshiek and allamakee counties scouting and doing final recon on the saturday century for std.
sunday was larsson's birthday party at the roller skating rink. lots of chaos and plenty of opportunities for disaster but all went well. he got to open a few gifts sunday night and showed off his engineering skills with some star wars legos.
monday morning headed out for some snowmobile trails around vernon springs in cresco. this is about as close as you'll get to mountain biking around here in the winter. rolling, wooded terrain with snow conditions that require a certain level of bike handling skills. awesome stuff. only because i'm really smart did i decide to play volleyball monday night. which became a double header. which became pissed off knees and a reminder of my rotator cuff issue. tuesday morning took off with a group of high-end roadies on lightweight geared carbon weapons for 50+ miles of gravel. yes, i was on a single speed. yes, i got completely worked. yes, i slept very well that night.
tuesday night brought larsson's birthday dinner (almost had him talked into mexican but in the end he chose mcdonald's), more gifts and some more lego work. dude doesn't like cake so he got a cinnamon roll with six candles this morning for breakfast. final bike work today preparing for cirrem, riding friday fixed to make sure everything's dialed, suffering to begin at 10a.m. saturday.

tuesday night ride

2010-02-17T20:14:00.000-08:00

std recon and cirrem training

2010-02-16T12:23:00.000-08:00

considering cirrem is only a week and a half away and i hastily decided one day to ride it fixed, it seemed like a good idea to get in my first ride fixed in a very long time today. also made sense to start checking out parts of the std century that i've never actually seen. temps were up and so was the sun which worked up a serious sweat, unfortunately the wind was up as well and that turned the sweat into a bad thing. rode about the first third of the century before breaking off the route and heading home, finishing with about 40 miles. of the parts i hadn't ridden before...gonna have some raging fast/fun downhills, pretty good climbs, and as of today i even had to walk some due to the snow drifting. all in all very pleased with this section of the route but definitely realizing that if we have this many hills in the first third of the route we're gonna be feeling it by the end.
got pretty good windburn but the legs felt pretty good in general and starting to feel stronger overall. not bad timing with cirrem next weekend, std a few weeks after that and transiowa in two and a half months. about time i got my shit together.

birthday ride recap

2010-02-10T21:18:00.000-08:00

plan: 5 riders. lots of snow recently so snowmobile trails are out. meet at bar. ride 15 miles gravel to a bar with food. eat. drink. ride 15 miles back possibly stopping through jam night on our way back.

seemed simple. the plan, however, did not include high winds and unrideable gravels with foot-and-a-half deep drifts all the way across them. thus, no one packed food and this began to hurt. planned bar was closed, alternate bar was closed, convenience store was closed. lost one rider to a full-blown bonk with no food options available. the other four continued back. ended up an almost three and a half hour trip to travel approximately 30 miles with about half of that being on pavement. no food, high winds, lots of snow, dark, cold and a couple of stops to polish off the beer we'd brought along with some cherry brandy, firewater, and jager. finally found an open bar in town with chips and salsa, more beer and peanuts. pretty good beatdown for what should have been a casual gravel tour on my birthday. i suppose we're better for it.

catching up

2010-02-09T09:14:00.000-08:00

so...due to events beyond my control i am now without internet at the apt and life/work/riding has been to busy for me to get to the bar and using their wireless as an excuse to drink until today. being my birthday and all it seemed reasonable enough to head to the bar fairly early today.
pugsley build was finished on thursday and i was able to get a good ride in on it friday and sunday. its an absolute riot and already worth the money spent on it. future posts will probably include a detailed spec for the sake of laughing at the semi-ghetto build. saturday brought the annual barnelopet kids xc ski "race" and a 14+ hour day at work. sunday night was the necessary super bowl watching and the first 140 of 800ish jello shots being made for this weekend's party at the bar. oh, and my birthday celebration which pretty much ruined any chance of me being functional or productive yesterday.
however many inches of snow being dumped on us over the past 24 hours has made the decision for tonight's group ride pretty easy...pugsley on gravel about 15 miles to a bar. eventually return. not a bad plan for a birthday ride.

rethinking success and failure

2010-02-03T19:56:00.001-08:00

adam's got a pretty good write-up of yesterday's ride. short version is we headed out for a gravel metric and came up about 8 miles short ending around 54 miles in around 5 hours. it was cold, much colder and windier than expected. other than the second triple d i'm pretty sure this is the first time i've planned to ride a metric and "failed". as we were riding back in and discussing how close we'd be and whether or not we could ride around town to finish up the metric i mentioned something about failing which led to a pretty interesting conversation. we had planned to ride at least 62 miles and didn't. that's what we didn't do. here's what we DID do...rode 54 miles of gravel slightly underprepared for how nasty the cold and wind were. we rode into the dark and felt the bottom drop out of the temperature even when riding with the wind. we ate a lot, talked and laughed a lot and got in 5 solid hours of riding on a day when most people probably chose to sit inside and watch t.v. we laughed at aaron's comment about needing a full epic set-up to ride with us, then laughed again when we realized he was right (though he unfortunately wasn't able to make it for the ride). i learned that poptarts don't freeze. i laughed at adam having a pretty deep conversation with some turkeys while i got my bacon and orange slices situated, suffered from my worst case of frozen feet since the first year of triple d and adam brought me my new pugsley wheels he just finished building. yeah, we didn't ride 62 miles. but we didn't fail either. perspective...

getting caught up and some serious bike love

2010-02-01T18:06:00.000-08:00

definitely got in some awesome ride time in the last week. tuesday night's group ride turned out to be just trevor, jeff and i and we completely hammered some raging fast snowmobile trails. the rain has frozen over the surface of the snow and we were riding on top just crushing it. friday brought a mid-day mission with jeff. i can honestly say i watched a unicorn ride a pugsley and it has absolutely nothing to do with a new sub-culture of sexual deviancy. we actually rode a good deal of our singletrack as it was in the same condition as the snowmobile trails. he was on his new pug and i was pushing my jabber with a 32x16 gear and actually climbed in the rollercoaster and up the rocky road without a dab. that's a bigger gear than i ride in the summer and i still cleaned it. through pines east then down gunnar and out onto the road. took the gravel uphill then rode the snowmobile trails all the way back around town before calling it a day. the jabber in triple d mode was a champ in these conditions. yesterday brought what might be the last day of these conditions as the snow is falling right now and they'll probably soften up a bit. which is perfect timing with tomorrow's Operation Fatty McFat-Fat Metric with adam and aaron. pretty much just an excuse to pick up my new pugsley wheelset which means wednesday will finish the build in time to ride the now-softer snowmobile trails.

today brought the first serious day of bike love in a LONG time. the winter months had taken their toll on both the jabber and the fisty. geared fisty donated pedals to ss/fixie fisty which donated pedals to pugsley while jabber lost its pedals to lots of miles and a questionable one-year warranty policy form xpedo (new pedals for jabber should have arrived this afternoon...not xpedo). jabber got its low-tread speed tires (nano/weirwolf) back since the pugsley will handle snow duties from now on and a 17t boone cog as i'm planning to try to push 32x17 around decorah this year instead of last year's 18t. the boone was donated from fisty which got a 16t to match the 16t fixed tomicog so no more messing with the brakes everytime i flip the wheel. jabber also got its bottle cages back and gave up the flask cage to the pug. both bikes got much needed baths and the fisty got set up for tomorrow's mission as well as the expectation that cirrem will suck ass weather-wise again. it got its seat pack back, a feed bag, light, moose mitts and is now rocking a 42c rear tire and a full 2.1 nano up front. 3 hours of sideways hail and peanut butter conditions watching the mtbs ride away at cirrem last year won't be an issue this year. that and choosing to ride it with brother adam this year means riding fixed and comfortable rather than trying to force it into race-mode. took it out on gravels today with the new tire set up and a 37x16 freewheel gearing...absolutely loved it. oh, and it got a new bottom bracket since i trashed yet another one of those with winter gravel riding. travis even had a custom ano'd blue one sitting around and i no longer feel like i'm pulling a sled from the drag in the bearings.

feels good to have the bikes dialed again. probably a result of getting the new race schedule put together. clean bikes are happy bikes and happy bikes make me want to ride them more. lots and lots of training on the agenda for the next few months.

fisty's new monster truck look...whole lot of fun

ggrrrrrr....

2010-01-29T07:42:00.001-08:00

too much computery crap today but the 2010 race schedule seems complete-ish. and some race registrations done. and odds and ends caught up on. race schedule is over there somewhere ----->. computer's getting put away for a few days.

2010 race schedule

2010-01-28T06:44:00.001-08:00

finally getting around to setting my schedule for 2010. some races were assumed and been kinda waiting for series schedules to be posted (anybody see anything from mnscs yet?!?!?) to finalize things. interesting the way the economy (broke as shit budget constraints) have affected my race planning. unfortunately, no return trip to pennsylvania with its $100+ price tag and 4-5 day trip. definitely planning to head back to the dakota 5-0...what an awesome trip that was and easy to do on the cheap if you're smart about it. of course transiowa. gonna try to hit up lincoln for the gravel worlds and get up to charlie's neighborhood for heck of the north. throw in some iowa series stuff, decorah based events and a couple of wems races this year as well. hopefully make it back to jingle cross just cause i look THAT good in a speedo and gonna keep an eye on tuscobia seeing as how i'll have a pugsley this year....oh, and i suppose a few cross races just cause i like pain.

thought cloud

2010-01-26T05:57:00.000-08:00

from last night's ride: cold, dark, snow, ice, gravel, wind, solo, sketchy, sketchy, sketchy. i'm not normally one to complain about the weather. i enjoy the winter, the snow and for the most part the cold is bearable. but 4 days of rain and slop followed by a temperature drop accompanied by snow and high winds has made riding outdoors damn near impossible especially since my lazy ass hasn't put studded tires on. more snow or more sun...either cover the ice or melt it but right now its just treacherous.

std saturday century

2010-01-25T08:19:00.000-08:00

route posted for the std's saturday century.

best group ride ever

2010-01-20T08:33:00.000-08:00

this one competed with new year's day. gravels, jam band in a shed out in the country with a wood burning stove, sled/luge racing at high speed in total darkness, beers and more general jackassery. not too high on miles but tons of fun which suited my post-metric recovery just fine.

today's plan

2010-01-19T06:43:00.000-08:00

pre-ride the std's friday metric route. eat a lot. group ride. maybe some mix of snowmobile trails, gravels and bars. looks like tuesdays are gonna become the new group ride night and as long as we're gonna be riding under lights anyway we'll probably be starting at 8p.m. so those of us with kids can stick around til bedtime. not sure where we're leaving from tonight but i'm sure you can figure out a way to get ahold of one of us. if nothing else call a bike shop.

STD FAQ's

2010-01-15T06:37:00.000-08:00

got an update on some questions about my STD. still considering joining us for some gravelly goodness in early march check it out.

tuesday night meeting/ride

2010-01-13T07:21:00.001-08:00

i had a talk with god...

2010-01-10T17:30:00.001-08:00

and he assured me that the man driving the snowmobile trail grooming machine along the heritage trail saturday will be going directly to hell and will be forced to walk a bike along freshly groomed trail for all eternity. seriously, that guy ruined my day. yep, triple d race recap here.

emotions heading into the race went from excited about the conditions to deathly afraid just a day or two before as it seemed a death march would be on tap again. then lance started talking reroute which was intriguing, then conditions improved and the original route was back on. the start of the race after getting through town sucked as it normally did. a stretch of trail not used for snowmobiles was unrideable for anyone of my ability and bike setup. couple pugsleys had mediocre success and somehow cory just killed that section, very impressive to watch. hit the heritage trail around 7th or something like that and it was instant excitement and overflowing optimism. we were FLYING! found myself as high as third after passing drew taking care of something. he quickly caught back up to me, chatted briefly, shifted and dropped me. soon after that lance and i were riding near each other and i was thinking to myself there is no way a pugsley is gonna finish in the top 10. the speeds were just too fast for them to keep up over the 60+ miles. not sure that's entirely true considering the effort dennis and lance were putting in but "skinny" bikes were most certainly gonna hold their own.

and then came the groomer and life as we knew it ceased to exist. lance was nearby and dropped me instantly as painful memories of last year's death march began to bury my early and foolish optimism. a total of 3 pugsleys passed me within 15 minutes of the groomer coming by and i walked and walked and walked. the cold certainly wasn't as bad as 2 years ago but it was still cold. the incredibly frustrating walk/ride cycle continued in total isolation for me all the way into dyersville. sanity was kept by repeatedly doing the math to figure out what place i was in (8th as best i could figure) and making a plan for what i needed to accomplish at the gas station.

a few miles outside of dyersville i met dennis and lance on their return trip and holy god they were crushing it. i was absolutely blown away by the effort they were putting in. also saw cory and nick in dyersville but on their bikes heading back. so that was 4 people and i met up with adam at the gas station. i was confused and he confirmed my confusion when he told me he was 5th and i was 6th. i knew for sure i was missing drew and i thought one other guy. apparently drew's crank arm had fallen off and i didn't catch why the other guy had dropped but i was left in 6th. adam was gone fairly soon after i arrived and i continued my efforts at staying very deliberate and focused on what was necessary. then scott showed up. he was only 5 or so minutes behind me and trevor showed up shortly after him. i was impressed and instantly forced back into race mode. so i got packed back up after some pizza and pepsi and headed for dubuque with renewed optimism that all the riders had created a faster line headed back.

the first few miles out of dyersville were very fast again and after that open section i found what i'd been looking for in a super hard pack line left from all the riders heading out to dubuque. after meeting 5 sleds the line deteriorated. it was a little hit and miss but mostly rideable until the one thing that hadn't occurred to me happened...that f-ing groomer came back. strangely this time i was able to find some rideable lines but if there was any doubt about the epic nature of this year's race before, those doubts were immediately gone. i was able to ride more than i'd been able to after the first time i met the groomer but it was very, very slow going and still a lot of walking. eventually the sun went down and the demons started their attacks. cold and hunger fueled them as i began to doubt myself and my possible finish. durango became my sole focus. i knew it wasn't the end but i knew i could stop there, get off the bike and take care of some necessities to prepare for the final push. holy god durango was a long way away. it just never came and never came and never came. the trail was again fairly rideable but the sections that had been so fast on the way out were notw totally ruined by the groomer and sled traffic.

finally reached the bar in durango and saw some friendly faces as jesse had pulled the plug in dyersville and had met up with burky to assume his expected role of putting a huge dent in the bar tab. i got situated in durango and headed for the finish. leaving durango was hands down the coldest i was the whole ride. i'd started to lose feeling in my toes and they were now beginning to hurt and my decision not to change to dry gloves under my moose mitts proved to be frustraingly naive. i've done this enough to know the importance of dry gloves but skipped it in haste. so my only choice was putting on my big goretex/fleece mittens. downside of this...no more eating or drinking for the rest of the trip. i held out okay until i hit city limits. i got onto the paved trail and city streets in the full depths of a massive bonk. even on pavement i doubt i was moving even 7mph. finally made it back to the hotel/finish line some nine and half hours after i'd started. that was a damn long time. i was 6th, having been bested by 4 pugsleys (one of them ss...well done nick) and one geared skinny bike as cory rode very strong. very impressed by everybody's effort out there. super happy for scott who came in also on a single speed jabber in 7th some 15-20 minutes behind me. i think 2 more guys came in after scott for a total of 9 finishers. a lot of guys slayed some dragons that day. i'm pretty sure lance, cory, adam and scott have done all three years and finished this year for the first time.

eventually we ended up at the busted lift in full celebratory mode then got to spend sunday playing in the water park with the little man. i am absolutely crushed. very frustrated too because i was lazy about getting around to registering for dirty kanza and missed out as it filled up before i could get online to register. was really looking forward to that one...guess i'll be rethinking my summer race plans.

pre-race

starting line

finish

recovery day sunday

SPRING TRAINING IN DECORAH!!!

2010-01-07T06:07:00.000-08:00

you know you've been wanting an excuse to spend 3 days riding 200 miles of gravels around decorah and now you finally have it and you don't even have to find a place to crash! the first annual Spring Training in Decorah is going to happen march 11-13 and is guaranteed to be your favorite STD ever. check out the site for more information. email with questions and registration. honestly, like you have anything better to do. huge thanks to colin for the art and a ton of help with the web stuff. if you need really smart computery artsy designy kinda stuff...he's your dude.

cross training

2010-01-06T06:50:00.000-08:00

got out riding snowmobile trails with ogara for a couple hours yesterday then headed down to the bike shop and picked up a couple pairs of xc skis. i'm not a huge fan of skiing but don't mind it and larsson was super excited about it. so after picking him up from school we headed out and had a little fun in the snow.

looking back at 2009

2010-01-05T06:53:00.000-08:00

this post will be noticeably lacking any sort of top ten list cause i just don't feel like getting that organized. its mostly a random collection of memories from the last year of riding bicycles. funny also that most of the memories will involve rides that included finish lines despite the fact that such a limited number of rides actually include stopwatches and trophies. whatever, i'm overly competitive and masochistic and have no plans to stop racing anytime soon. so, in absolutely no order whatsoever here are some highs and lows from 2009:

-first of all, its necessary to understand that i (with absolutely no doubt in my mind) accomplished more on a bike in 2009 than i ever thought i would in my entire life. that simple fact helps put a lot of things in perspective for me.

-highlight of the year was finishing transiowa. i have chronicled what this meant to me and the time and effort thrown at it and don't plan to do it again here, but becoming the second person to ever finish this monster fixed was the single biggest physical accomplishment of my life. included in this should be the fact that transiowa 2008 is what started my riding relationship with vassago cycles. following their support of my failed effort in 2008, they offered me a spot as a team rider in 2009. i've never thought myself a pro or anyone with enough talent to deserve a spot riding for a company like this. finishing in 2009 after a year and a half of support from such an awesome company, i finally felt like i had justified their continued support of my riding. huge thank you to vassago and the people that run it.

-winning the single speed division of the 60-mile ouachita challenge was as much of a surprise to me as anything else. with no concept of where i was sitting during the race i was amazed at the end when they told me i'd won. fun race, good result, hard to complain.

-made the move to the expert class in cross country racing. felt like the right move racing in iowa. felt like a massive blow to the ego in minnesota. still was finishing roughly mid-pack in the 50-60 rider expert fields in minnesota. 2 years ago i never thought i'd race above sport class. perspective.

-triple d was the epitome of a death march. at least we partied well.

-wilderness trail 101 sucked. nope. i sucked. i've never hurt so bad in my life and never wanted to quit something so bad in my life. 10 hours of riding, the last 6.5 of which were spent suffering from paralyzing cramps. possibly the most beautiful place i've ever been. definitely some of the coolest trails i've ever ridden. full blown gut check.

-top 3 decorah time trials finish. this race will always hold a special place. hometown trails, cool people, grassroots feel despite how long its been going and how smoothly its run...now if it just wouldn't be the same weekend as transiowa...

-dakota 5-0. the whole trip. the people we hung out with, the ride went well, the scenery, the broken mirror, the cliff jumping, the big rock with peoples faces on it.

-breaking my steer tube and surviving.

-all the people i've gotten to meet, ride and race with this year. and the great people i've renewed friendships with. its really difficult to explain to people what its like to have such a sense of shared suffering during some of these events and the bonds that it can form. i feel very lucky that something i love to do has allowed me to meet such incredible people.

-making charlie farrow's list. this is both flattering and humbling. charlie is nothing short of a legend in midwest endurance events, but more importantly he is obviously just a truly good guy.

-that's all i got for now...i'm sure i've missed some stuff and i'll probably post an updated "shit i forgot to mention" list. might even do a list of my favorite products of 2009. suppose i'll probably put together a list of expected races for 2010 too. but the temps are pushing double digits so i think i'm gonna go ride. triple d is like 5 days away. transiowa is less than 4 months away. yeah, it probably is time to go ride.

new year's eve is overrated

2010-01-04T10:55:00.001-08:00

for those of you who spent the first of the year recovering, here's what you missed (as best as i can remember):
-30ish miles
-0 degree/-12 windchill start
-15ish riders
-1st ride i've ever seen leave on time (pretty sure this was temperature related)
-spinner flats before we're out of town
-1st beer a quarter mile onto the gravel
-pork fritter
-steak
-massive bucket of fries
-pbr
-high life
-mich golden
-coors lt
-blackberry brandy
-firewater
-baileys
-creme de cacao
-creme de menthe
-doctor
-cherry doctor
-jag
-kahlua
-5hr energy (x2)
-taco'd front wheel from a 4-person pile up and the sov-monster landing on my wheel
-broken blood vessel in my eye
-very sore neck (although i tapped out due to boredom/stalemate not because jeff actually had the choke deep enough)
-locked myself out of my apartment
-i did make one mistake and that was not charging the camera battery. didn't even get one picture out of it.
-always a bit of a downer that the best ride of the year happens to fall on the first day of the year. thinking we need to do a new year's day ride in july.

wow.

2009-12-29T09:38:00.000-08:00

click here. stole this cause it deserves to be shared. see if you can watch this and not cry.

NEW YEAR'S DAY RIDE!

2009-12-29T05:50:00.000-08:00

don't forget, 10a.m. new year's day leaving from decorah bicycles. 15 miles of no-matter-what-the-weather-gravels out to bluffton with plenty of hair of the dog on the way. hang out in bluffton til we forget how to get back, then see how long a 15 mile gravel derby takes on the return trip. actual details may vary but that's about how it went last year.

triple d training

2009-12-22T06:36:00.000-08:00

loaded the jabber and headed down to iowa city on sunday and met up with adam blake and aaron robnett for some gravel goodness that ended up more closely resembling triple d than i would have expected. after some chastising along the route i've decided to provide adam with this half-assed attempt at a post-ride recap. the temps were somewhere in the low to mid 20's and very mild, wind was noticeable but not devastating by any means. we started in the midst of a gorgeous snowfall that was making driving somewhat tricky but simply added to the aesthectics of a mid-december gravel ride. in order to keep this some what concise, here is a list of the things i learned on this ride:
-otter creek is the only gravel road around iowa city that is not 100% straight
-b roads, when rideable, can be tricky
-sometimes i sound like i'm dying when i crash
-adam can ride a bike sideways
-aaron can ride a bike while hopping on one foot
-sometimes its better to ride in the neighboring cornfield rather than the impassable b road you're walking
-ice-filled beards will always look funny
-walking miles of knee deep snow while pushing a bike isn't for everyone so choose your company wisely
-BACON!!!!!! bacon is my new favorite endurance ride food. pre-cooked and edible straight from the package. doesn't get all frozen and hard to eat cause there's just too much glorious fat.
-fenders...when riding through iowa city in the snow a fender is a good idea
-total ride was around 50 miles and about 5 hours. think we hiked probably 2-3 miles of the maybe 5 or 6 b roads that we ventured on to. snowed at the start, turned to sleet, ice under the snow was fun.
-between the walking, ice, snow, bonks, pizza and beer this definitely qualified as triple d training. thanks to adam and aaron for an awesome day.
-no pictures cause i suck and forgot my camera

one of those days

2009-12-16T08:58:00.000-08:00

actually its more like that time of year. yesterday on the fisty around zero degrees and today on the jabber with a windchill around -10. i'm gonna be looking like this a lot for the next few months.

arrowhead 2011?

2009-12-02T06:37:00.000-08:00

after much harassing by the likes of mr. charlie farrow regarding arrowhead and spending way too much time around people that own pugsley's, i finally broke down and ordered one. rig will be ebayed after donating a few parts to the new bike and will leave me with a suspension fork and backup wheelset for the jabber, which is the only reason i got the rig in the first place so seems to make sense. should have the frame any day then figuring out how to come up with the cash for wheels. so, winter training will have a new element, triple d sounds like fun again (for now) and i might start making plans to take a stab at the arrowhead 135 in 2011. my goal is to learn how to pack a little lighter than dennis before my first shot at arrowhead.

dennis at the arrowhead in 2009

beefy

jingle cross 2009 (saturday)

2009-11-30T06:57:00.000-08:00

i apologize in advance...

lined up for saturday's race. apparently EVERYONE else decided to wait til sunday to break out the speedos. damn.

mud skills...didn't help much. neither did wearing the speedo. i'm still pretty bad at cross racing.this is my favorite picture. dude on the left is checking out my ass. chick in the background is either diggin me or laughing at me. 2 cans of busch light on the light pole. both brothers obviously jealous of my physique. chris's father in-law whom i haven't seen in years forced to witness the debacle. 2 of chris's sons scarred for life.

austin powers inspired strategically placed bike parts.yep...just hangin out... thank you vassago for making such ridiculous clearance. side note...never seen so many derailleurs ripped off in my life.

filthy bike

absolutely love this bike...

sunday century

2009-11-25T07:02:00.000-08:00

last minute planning of a gravel century seemed like a good idea. with interest from decorah, iowa city, dubuque and the hopes of pulling some people from des moines, cedar falls seemed an appropriate place to start/end. 20 minutes on mapmyride.com left me hoping my route would lead us to gravel bliss and not a lot of missed turns, pavement and road construction. adam showed from iowa city and lance from dubuque so the three of us headed out. missed our first turn less than 10 miles in but didn't affect the route much at all. other than that we had tons of gravel, a handful of b roads, i think something resembling a d road that i thankfully didn't flat on, mild temps, occasional drizzle and some pretty good wind. nice tailwind all the way to the 50 mile halfway point then turned straight into it for 7 miles which really beat me down. one pretty good bonk about 85 miles in and made it back to cedar falls without having to get the big lights out. something like 7 hours ride time and just shy of 8 hours total time. not bad coming off a 12 hour work shift, 3 hours sleep and an hour and a half drive. adam rode impressively strong and both he and lance thankfully pulled me in the last couple of hours. fantastic time with some really good riders. some of the more memorable moments involve incredible disappointment over a bridge out that wouldn't allow us to ride an awesome looking b road we could see across the river, deciding to turn right on trapper rd without a sign telling us it was trapper just to avoid the hill in front of us, "you guys are craaaazy" from the convenience store worker in dumont, lance almot ending the ride for him and i after letting go of his bars in the wind, "i kinda hope i don't get into transiowa so i don't end up like ben" from adam and "good fucking lord let this be butler" spoken from the depths of my bonk fantasizing about the jerky
and orange slices i couldn't reach in my camelbak.

adam admiring the promise of another b road

apparently not everyone shares our love of the b road...that's a lot of bullets...

lance saying "this bike will make it through this ride without falling apart"...oops.

headed out...feeling pretty good at this point

the drive down, still dark out, still thinking this is a good idea

staring at the backs of lance and adam...got pretty used to this sight

devil's cross and a peace offering

2009-11-17T09:41:00.000-08:00

finally hit my first cross race of the season sunday. devil's cross in bettendorf, fun course, kinda chilly weather, good people i haven't seen in some time.
-facts: cat 3/4 race; geared 37X17; dropped chain on second lap and was passed by the entire field; went over my handlebars bunny hopping barriers on lap 7; beat one person.
-option 1 (excuses): completely focused on endurance training doesn't allow me to train for top-end ouput like this, i don't race an uber-light carbon rig with carbon rims and tubulars, my steel single speed is built for long distance gravel riding with no regard for weight or race-inspired body position, i had no support or hand-ups
-option 2 (reasons): i really do suck at cross racing. fitness and technical abilities both are lacking tremendously.
pretty sure option 2 is the more accurate explanation of my finish on sunday. regardless, it was good to see the iowa city crew and some of the locals. well run race. after dropping my chain and getting dropped by the field i decided to have fun practicing hopping the barriers rather than dismounting. first three went well, #4 caught my rear wheel and sent me over the bars providing some entertainment for the spectators which led to a slightly larger group demanding i try again on the 8th and final lap (which i had NO intentions of doing but couldn't let the mob down). cleaned them in rather ugly fashion, finished, changed into some warmer clothes and grabbed a beer. the race hurt...a lot. man i'd rather suffer an ultra than the acute pain of these races.
monday brought a trip to cedar falls to see the mastermind behind transiowa to drop off my registration and offer guitar ted some gifts as though he has some say in the weather on the last weekend of april. was good to share some war stories with him and get excited about t.i. again. given sunday's performance and monday's visit i'm thinking this sunday is gonna involve skipping the cross race and getting in a gravel century.

colin's version

2009-11-12T06:17:00.000-08:00

i think i'm going to reserve my moral judgment of colin's decision to one-up my 5 year-old's drawing of my recent trail ride simply because its pretty funny. or epic. or metal. or righteous(yes, my morals are subject to the whims of my entertainment). best guess is colin was listening to the original rocker knife album while working on this...this...um..."illustration". thanks colin.

pretty sure it happened something like how colin has it shown above

for those who don't know colin or his humor, a rocker knife is actually a untensil given to him by an als association to help him cut up his own food. he's also a self-admitted computer geek. the name "rocker knife" just happens to be about as metal as metal gets. so it became a band that now rules the underworld of death metal and i believe also eats children.

i lied

2009-11-11T08:24:00.000-08:00

larsson asked what happened to my arm and i told him that i got a little scratched up wrestling a bear. surprisingly he didn't believe me but the picture is his dry erase marker/bathroom mirror depiction of me wrestling the bear on my bike.

note to self...

2009-11-10T11:43:00.000-08:00

when chasing mythical creatures through the forest at the speed of light it is important to remember a couple of things: a) mythical creatures are in fact...mythical b) by nature mythical creatures are not held to the conventional laws of nature or physics c) mythical creatures are most likely fast d) faster than you are, were or ever will be e) attempting never-before-attempted shortcuts at the speed of light while chasing said mythical creature through a maze of pine trees is ill-advised and should probably be reconsidered.

dilemma

2009-11-06T06:58:00.000-08:00

mostly thinking out loud here so feel free to ignore this post entirely. scenario: custom bike part breaks, builder offers repair/replace/refund. i chose a replacement. i waited some months for the original build after being told build time would be 2-3 weeks. the wait on the replacement has now been pushing a few months after promises of a quick turnaround. i don't mind waiting longer than expected for a custom part but when a few weeks becomes a few months it gets a little ridiculous. and the explanations provided actually showed said bike part moving backward in the building process making it difficult to believe i was being told the truth. in the meantime a friend with another product from the same builder has huge issues with his product cracking and getting a suitable replacement product. he is put off over and over and when the replacement arrives its just plain wrong. he battles for well over a year before demanding a refund. its been quite some time and he still only has half of his refund and is still waiting for a fairly large amount of money to be returned. ignoring my issue and this other guys, the builder makes a ridiculously awesome product. the part i am waiting on is damn near the best/lightest you can buy and really no one else is making anything else comparable. morally (for lack of a better word) i have no desire to ride this guys product. i want to feel for him, want to be sympathetic but when it APPEARS to be a string of lies and putting people off and poor business practices it gets difficult to continue to give him the benefit of the doubt. i have chosen to receive a replacement and i will stick with that, but i know that if i receive it and immediately put it on ebay i could get ahold of a pretty good chunk of money that would pay for a substantial amount of new parts/gear (transiowa/arrowhead kind of parts/gear). but, again, this individual part is virtually without substitute. given this guys business practices i don't know how long he'll be in business and not sure i'm really that moral of a person to not ride his product on principle and so to give up this product and risk regretting it later is difficult as well. hhmmmm....

"offseason"

2009-11-04T06:30:00.000-08:00

i've known the day was coming for some time now. i wouldn't say i've been putting it off, just simply getting mentally prepared for the inevitable. i ran myself a little ragged this year and was a bit burnt out by the end of the season so i took some time off the bike and have since focused on riding when and where i want with no intentions of truly training. all of this has gotten me back into the right mindset of truly enjoying my riding and starting to really look forward to next year's events...especially the big one. and then a few things all sort of happened together and i knew it was time. a very long weekend of work with far too little sleep led to sleeping for a solid 11 hours monday night. waking up tuesday morning knowing i had to be extremely productive to not be disappointed in myself i also came across this blog post from charlie farrow.

so, tuesday became my first big day in a while. a couple hours of gravels in the morning to avoid the frost/thaw of the trails, followed by getting back into my workout routine, a whole lot of lasagna, and an hour and a half on the trails. considering i still had to shower and get to work i was a bit shot by the end of the night but felt good to really work hard again. point being...the "offseason" is far from what its name implies. the next six months will be a collection of "this could be our last trail ride of the season" rides, thousands of miles of snow covered and well below-freezing gravel rides, lots of riding in the dark, working out to improve lacking core and upper body strength, and regularly pushing myself to the brink of failure in an attempt to remind myself how truly difficult and painful rides like transiowa can be. having finished it last year and planning to run it with a freewheel this year has left me fearful of becoming complacent and possibly arrogant about the ease of finishing it. so the plan is to return to my training plan from the past 2 years. ride, ride, ride, ride. ride because i want to. ride because i need to. ride when its nice out, ride when it flat out sucks. ride until it hurts, then ride until i'm delirious. ride until i know i'm stronger than i was last year. wake up everyday with such an intense fear of failing again that i continue to bury myself on the bike. should be a fun offseason. and i guess its officially started.

tuesday morning

2009-10-27T09:56:00.000-07:00

decent miles yesterday so opted for a walk/hike this morning. absolutely beautiful. followed this by having lunch at school with larsson. hot lunch rules. chicken fingers, mashed potatoes, corn, buttered bread, and a carton of chocolate milk (might just taste better out of a carton...).

good days and photos

2009-10-22T06:01:00.001-07:00

gravels in fall, riding with the little man and new ink. been a good stretch of days.

wet gravels lead to filthy bikes
not all fall gravel rides are sloppy

plenty of sun and fall colors

larsson tearing up the pines

how long til i'm chasing him cause i can't keep up?

working back through the prairie

end of what turned out to be an awesome monday

new ink...before pic

drawing and a little bit of outline done

sun rays filled

brock doing his thing

getting the clouds filled

sleeve's getting close to finished...gotta get the moon and clouds filled/finished, color the night sky, add a little more water then go around and touch up the entire leg. it'll be done someday.

loving fall

2009-10-12T08:11:00.000-07:00

havent been writing much, but definitely been riding. enjoying a break from racing. great trail conditions, low temps, changing leaves, knee warmers, wool cap, shuffle's been throwing out some great music at the right time, hard to complain. flurries this morning and thinking a good day for a cold, gray gravel ride.

2009-09-30T06:41:00.000-07:00

hangin' with colin at the end of the als walk in minneapolis

mail day brought a new shirt from xxcmag.com

HUGE THANKS! to everyone who helped support colin's als walk this past saturday. donations are still coming in and very much appreciated. individual thanks will hopefully be on their way soon.

if you haven't checked out xxcmag.com yet, get your head out of your ass. online magazine dedicated to endurance mountain biking/racing. its very cool and easy way to waste time in your cubicle when most of you 9-5ers are looking for something to do other than work.

just realized sugarbottom scramble is sunday. never ridden there even though i grew up like an hour from there. not sure why i haven't, just never worked out. looking at my schedule i might try to make it down for this one. a bit out of race shape which means it should hurt just a little bit more. awesome. anybody with experience wanna share what they typically run for gearing 29/ss?

been riding in knickers and long sleeve jersey and wool cap and...shit its getting cold. especially on morning rides. pearl/qbp is replacing my barrier boots that blew out a zipper. thank god for companies that stand behind their stuff. glad i don't have to drop another $250 after less than a year of use. might also look into some hotronics that ogara got me interested in last winter.

enough randomness for now. i'm going riding.

one last time...

2009-09-25T06:22:00.000-07:00

please help me support colin and others living with als. i'll be joining him along with some friends for the als walk in minneapolis tomorrow. click here to donate.

there's no way you've got something better to do...

2009-09-21T07:42:00.000-07:00

night race time. click click to check out the details. mass start. dark as hell. incredible trails. last year's race didn't last very long for me as a camoflauged ninja tree stopped my steed dead in its trails and sent me flying superman down fred's trail. kinda hoping this year i actually make it to the finish line on my wheels rather than my feet. either way, the race and the post-race should prove to be plenty of fun.

5-0 info

2009-09-14T06:25:00.000-07:00

dakota 5-0 write-up...finally...mostly pics. computer and laziness have put this off so here goes. one hell of a good time. lots of pbr. 7th ss. not sure overall. 4 hours 25 minutes-ish. going back next year hands freaking down. rode the middle 30 miles with kent and felt like we were just out on vacation somewhere. cliff jumping. rushmore. black hills. chophouse. free micro brews. coolest awards party i've been to. drank a beer at the bacon station 38 miles in. no cramps. felt great. awesome trails. limited pavement/gravel. favorite mtb race of the year. pics couldn't be in anymore random of an order. yes, scotty broke my mirror running into road construction thing on the way out doing like 80 mph. jabber rode great again. probably run a squishy fork next year.

coming soon...

2009-09-08T07:30:00.000-07:00

full write up of the labor trip to wyomi...i mean south dakota. i don't think we were in wyoming. anyway, full race report and random useless information including plenty of unnecessary pbr refrences.

honing my assassaination skills

2009-09-02T09:03:00.000-07:00

really struggling with trying to make this post as funny or as light-hearted as colin does. dude has a knack of making me laugh about the fact that he's living with and will eventually be dying from ALS. if you want a better idea of this then check out his blog from time to time. if you've got some free time do yourself a favor and dig through the posts til you find the rocker knife albums. point is, before i get too long winded, i'm asking you all for money. i'll be joining colin for the ALS walk in minneapolis on september 26th and i/we are shamelessly asking that you donate to the cause. as colin has already pointed out, these donations will not help him live any longer or make his life any better, but they might someday for someone who is also fighting ALS.

colin is much better (and again, much funnier) at telling his story than i am, so please take time to check out both his blog and his website (he's a computer guy so he gets both). he even has a game you can play if you're not good with words/reading. CLICK HERE to donate. keep reading if you want the sappy story as to why i give a shit.

colin was the first person i ever talked to from college. a phone conversation the summer before our freshman year after finding out we'd be living together in a 3 person room along with jason ended up being about an hour of pretty much talking music and dorm room necessities. we got along well enough on the phone and despite his first impressions of me we had an awesome freshman year. i couldn't have been happier/luckier getting to spend my entire first year with those two roommates. colin had been athletic and shared similar interests in soccer, running, was into cycling long before me, alcohol and general debauchery. he even forgave me for attempting to ruin everything he owned after one particularly devastating night (for the record, the only thing that didn't actually survive was his graphing calculator). although we never lived together again after that we stayed friends and hung out in the same group of friends. after school he and everyone else i think headed up to the twin cities. i got into riding and he was seeming to be doing more of it as well. my focus turned to mountain bike while he had a broader spectrum but was really getting into the triathalon scene. at one point, a few years after college, i remember wondering if he ever worked given the physical shape he was in. he was looking incredibly fit and obviously digging the tri stuff. i raced with him at a couple of mtb races and took him out on a gravel ride around decorah after he got his crosscheck built up. not long after this he began to mention something weird going on with his thumb/hand and some tests he was having run. over the course of several months it was obvious that the hand/arm were beginning to deteriorate. the contraptions he and his dad were coming up with to keep him on the bike as he began to lose control of his hand were evidence of his love/need to be active. knowing that his mma diagnosis was enough to suck but not enough to kill him was sad but his attitude toward the whole thing made it impossible to feel bad for him. he was laughing about it so how could you not? earlier this year when he broke the news that his other arm was beginning to be affected and that he was now being diagnosed with probable-ALS was devastating. he began talking time frames and i couldn't wrap my head around it. colin has attacked this with the same amount of humor as he has anything else in his life. as he said, he ain't dead yet and i'm pretty sure he's just telling ALS to fuck off and smiling while he does it.

so...yeah...i give a shit. colin's an awesome guy and you should consider yourself fortunate if you've ever gotten to meet or hang out with him. part triathlete, part weezer-like slacker, part computer geek, a lingering dab of hippy, and just an absolutely righteous guy to party with.

please CLICK and donate.

labor day plans

2009-08-31T14:22:00.000-07:00

despite struggling with motivation issues right now, the excitement over this weekend's trip is building rapidly. scotty will hopefully be here thursday and we'll leave at some stupid time saturday morning headed for the wilds (?) of south dakota (think wayne's world "hi...we're in...delaware"). the jedi himself has procured us a camping spot which i may just graciously give to scott so he can snore in peace while i sleep in the van. besides scott, jed and myself, we should be running into kent, iowa city adam, fuhr-man-chu, moffitt, rochester trevor and god knows who else. point is, race starts stupid early on sunday which means the post-race festivities start stupid early. i've heard nothing but great things about this race and the trail and knowing the group we have to celebrate with at the finish...yeah, i'm excited for this one. seems like a great way to end one hell of a season. then its onto the wonderful pain of cyclocross racing and transiowa training. after some self-imposed time off that is.

7 oaks...as expected

2009-08-25T05:50:00.000-07:00

two things are very predictable when racing at 7 oaks in boone. 1) its gonna hurt. 2) its gonna be a lot of fun cause you know there's gonna be a lot of good guys there. showed up early with promises of incredible weather (rare for this race). wasn't long before all the expected faces started to show up. trevor, kent, cam, jed, jay, aaron, kevin, steve, wild bill showed up!, kyle, taylor, bruce, a good chunk of the iowa city crew, met jacob after helping get him set up with a jabber test ride on adam's bike, met some other new (to me) guys. adam and amy came up with amy dragging emma along. had enough fun hanging out before the race that i was somewhat seriously trying to convince everyone to just dig into the 30 pack of pbr in my van rather than race but it seems everyone else had other plans. which meant it was time to hurt.
the deal with 7 oaks is that it has this perfect amount of climbing that makes you force yourself to climb everything because you know that its climbable...but barely for a ss over the course of an expert race. 1st lap had us stacked up a couple times early but people worked well together and things fell into place. biggest problem with the first lap is that the riding didn't flow well. it was very stop and go because of how tight we were so coming out of every corner and into every climb you were starting from nothing instead of carrying flow into it. that meant plenty of hard grunting efforts that would later take its toll. it was obvious early on that cam was off the front as expected. glimpses of jed (his 2nd race ever on a single) told me that he was riding damn strong. i found myself in a loose group with kevin, aaron, jay and kent with trevor not far behind. some dabs by guys in front of me along with just getting things sorted out led to some positions swapping throughout the first lap. by the time the second lap started my legs felt like shit. kevin and aaron had started to put a gap on me but i could still feel jay and kent behind me. second lap became about survival. pushing as hard as my dead weight legs would allow me. finally near the end of the second lap something happened and it was like someone took 10 pounds off my bike. legs finally felt good (product of too much endurance training?) and i finally started to enjoy the race. the entire third/final lap i could see aaron and kevin in front of me (lots of switchbacks) and jay and kent behind me. the gaps between us never really seemed to change. my legs were a strange mix of feeling good but also threatening to cramp if i wasn't smart about my efforts. so i pretty much just settled in knowing that if i tried for some herculean effort to reach the two in front of my i would put myself at serious risk of blowing up and standing on the side of the trail watching at least jay and kent ride by me. so i rode as close as i could to the red line and just smiled knowing that i don't get to ride these trails often enough. ended up 5th overall, unofficially 3rd in the ss state championships. happy enough with that considering the talent that was there.
post race was plenty of fun...donating 12 of pbr to jed for taking the ss race, drinking a piss warm abbott ale, having another one spray all over the inside of my van after aaron couldn't seem to keep it in his hands, hanging out with guys i don't see often enough and making plans for what should be a raging party in south dakota. i'm getting more and more excited for that trip as people continue to step up and throw their hats in the ring. long, sore drive home broken up by a nice, long, relaxing dinner stop halfway. recovery day yesterday at the pool with larsson. might spin the legs a bit today and try to fix the drag brake someone apparently installed halfway through the race.

starting line...WAY to many rasmussen's jerseys...

climbing...weird
spentglad adam was there to help hold the bike so i could go find my beer
thanks for the pics amy

wow.

2009-08-22T11:22:00.000-07:00

good for flip. amazing to see him continue to succeed. read this.

definitely excited

2009-08-22T11:13:00.001-07:00

racing at 7 oaks tomorrow. absolutely love this course. it makes for fun xc racing and there should be some awesome guys there that i haven't seen for a while. feels like a very long time since i did an xc race which has me wondering what my expectations should even be. pretty sure if anyone's looking for me after the race i'll be the one puking in the corner. should get to see some family while i'm there as well. weather looks amazing for the rest of the weekend...hope some folks are getting miles in.