Shadows on the Bike

Snow Sports

2012-01-08T18:06:00.000-08:00

Well, as we roll into a new year, it's about time to kick off training for the upcoming mountain bike season. I started January with a new work schedule to make sure I get 2 days/work-week outside on the bike, plus whatever weekend riding I can do along with the dreaded gym on those other nights. Definitely was glad to be back at it last week though I was a little sore from lifting for the first time since I don't know when. In other adventure news, last weekend we did a little x-c skiing and winter camping in the Indian Peaks Wilderness area, followed by a great weekend of skiing this weekend. Finally got a little more snow which even allowed us to hike up into a bowl and do some great tree skiing that hadn't been touched yet. Hopefully it will just keep dumping on the mountains now.

Cruisin through the wilderness

Steph being super warm in the tent at 10,800 feet

Hiking the bowl today

2011-12-22T09:05:00.000-08:00

Doing a little xc skiing over to the trails today!

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2012

2011-12-15T10:02:00.000-08:00

Well, just been chillin here lately with more and more skiing, both downhill and x-c. In the past few weeks I've gotten in a few good rides but mostly just for fun. I've made up my mind not to force myself to work out until after the new year...but then, it's go-time. As for next year, it looks like I'll be riding with High Gear/Trek once again. I'm also stoked to be riding on Maxxis rubber, and be fueled by Honey Stinger for another year. I also just put in my order for the new steed.

Goin back to the big wheels for the race bike once again with the addition of some more suspension. Out here there is no way to get around the need for full suspension however with the added bonus of big wheels, it should be unstoppable on the technical downhill. As much fun as the Top Fuel was (not that it wasn't blazing fast), I'm stoked to just plow over everything again on the 29er!

Change of Seasons

2011-12-01T07:02:00.001-08:00

Welp, after racing in Gunnison, it's on to winter here in the Rockies. The past few weeks have been rest weeks from serious training on the bike however there has still been plenty of activity. Plenty of skiing in the months ahead and even had a little time in the big city of Chicago for Thanksgiving.

Chillin on the Sears (now Willis) tower in Chicago

A little 5 mi Turkey Trot 30 min after getting out of the car from a 16 hr drive straight through

X-C skiing in Summit County

New 4 season tent ready for the winter in CO after freezing my old 3 season and ruining all of the seam tape. Yes, we HAD to set it up in my rather small living room...just to make sure it was all there and to make sure we knew how...obviously for safety reasons!In other news, I've been doing a lot of thinking about bikes/gear for next year and am pretty sure I've made up my mind finally. More on that to come once I put the order in officially!

Gunnison Trails Weekend

2011-10-24T10:14:00.000-07:00

Ok, well its been a while, but this past weekend I probably did the final MTB race for the season. We loaded up and headed over to Gunnison to support the Gunnison Trails organization in their yearly fundraiser. This year, unlike last year, they included a running race as well from 3-5-10 miles. Unfortunately they included a duo category, 5 mi run, 18 mi MTB. Well....I couldn't take seeing Steph head out for her 10 mile race all alone, so with 10 min to spare, I signed up for the running race too. We headed out and went absolutely straight up, then straight down...back up, back down...and so on. With all of the early climbing, I found myself in 2nd place overall pretty quick which had me a little concerned. As soon as the course flattened out a bit (3 mi in or so) I got run down by about 3 of the 10 mile guys. Ended up being the first 5 mile runner to the turn off and decided to crank it up and see if I could hold the position. As it turned out, I ended up with just enough to win by 30 sec -1 min.

Steph came in not too much longer with the "W" for the women's 10 mile category. All in all, the 5 mi race had 1700' of climbing, and the 10 had 2300', not too shabby!Immediately I started stretching as things were getting tight quick...After chilling for a few hours it was time to get on the bike. Now for those who haven't ridden at Hartmans Rocks in Gunnison..well, you haven't lived. There is so much diversity and sooo much sick single track it's not even funny. Ashley and I lined up with about 30 or so other MTBers and once again, headed straight up. In typical fashion, I just hopped on the first guy's wheel and red-lined it for the 20% climb. After cresting the hill we hit some road and someone took a flyer which I decided to chase...why, I don't know. As we caught on to him, another came around and we settled in to a decent pace. Luckily it was the other guy that was doing the duo so we weren't crushing the hills too hard and I never felt like the legs were near implosion. about 1/3 of the way through I pulled through on a road section to take over the lead for a little while. One of the other local Alpine Ortho riders came by on a downhill and we began to trade pulls for the 2nd half. All of the downhills there are super flowy and fast...if you know the trails. So I would try to hold on as best I could, then catch back on during the climbs. This went on until the final technical climb where he surged into 1st position in a rock garden. I made one failed attempt at jumping over a boulder to cut him off before the last downhill but it just wasn't to be. Ended up rolling in in 2nd for the MTB race, 1st in the duo for the day. All in all, a great race. Chilled at the after party that evening and stayed in the local KOA thanks to a super cool sponsor (KOA Dave). Sunday morning we took our sweet time crawling out of bed, then went to have a little coffee, and headed up to bum around Crested Butte a little as well.

Anyway, that'll probably be about it for the racing this season, however another season has already started here.

2 weeks ago on Monarch pass.

Last weekend at Buffalo Creek

Palmer Park 50

2011-09-19T07:35:00.000-07:00

Headed out this Sun for a romp in Palmer Park which would mark the first time I've ridden 50 miles on my mountain bike since....well, I don't know. Anyway, due to recent heavy rains, a bunch of the course had been washed out so the lap was shortened to 5 miles (10 laps). The lap was a mix of dirt road, a little rocky/technical singletrack, and some sweet smooth singletrack.Headed off the starting line at a conversational pace when one guy went around and started hammering...because why pace ourselves for 50 miles? Obviously everyone felt the same because the race was on. On the first technical downhill, I managed to lose a little connection due to a poor line but after about lap 2 I was feeling a little more in my groove. The next 5-6 laps went really well as I was able to move into 3rd and grow the gap each lap however it was not to be. Lap 8 I started feeling a little tired however was able to get enough Honey Stinger down the hatch to get the legs back around somewhat. I went at a moderate pace for lap 9, then decided to crank it up for lap 10 and make sure I could nail 3rd down....this is when things went backwards. I started hammering up the first climb when every pedal stroke I could feel my right hamstring cramping on the upstroke. I had to stand for most of the climb to keep out of too much knee flexion until I got to the top and could stand up on the pedals to stretch a little. From there, it was pretty much a soft-pedal/hammer the downhill for the last lap to hold on to 4th. Overall, not as I had hoped things would go, but not too disappointing for the amount of long distance training I've actually done to prepare. All of my equipment held up exceptionally well from the Top Fuel, to my Maxxis Ikon/Crossmark combo I couldn't have asked for better performing gear. The Top Fuel was a blast on this course with a number of huckable drops and some rough single track thrown in a few spots, my back never really felt sore like endurance races I've done in the past. Definitely may have to dabble in some more enduro races next year.

Next weekend is going to be spent in a continuing ed course but then I may have to mount up the cross tires for a little CX racing

Training Wheels

2011-09-13T07:34:00.000-07:00

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Got this new baby (Madone 6.5) a few weeks ago to start doing a little more training on the road. Not that the mountain bike isn't great training, but it was just about time to mix it up a tad. I haven't had a new road bike in a while, but let me just tell you...wow. This thing is stupid light and rides like a dream. I've never rode anything so smooth on the road, but at the same time is stiff enough that when you jump on it, the whole bike jumps. May even sign up for some more road racing again next year...we'll see.

This past weekend I threw down some good miles both on the road and on the trail with Ashley in order to prepare for the Palmer Park 50 this weekend. Not sure why I thought 50 miles was a good idea considering the most I've raced in a few years is 30...oh well, should be fun!

Sol Survivor-Mountain States Cup Solvista

2011-09-04T17:55:00.000-07:00

Went up to Solvista for 3 laps of "fun" on last year's MTB National XC course Sat. The quick was that it was over 5,200' of climbing and right around 3 hrs of getting beat to death. The race headed out with 12 Pro men straight up on a road for a bit to sort things out quickly. Ended up 3rd or so rolling into the singletrack and was quickly joined by Mike West and another Yeti rider. We chased up the gravel and turned into the final bit of technical singletrack climbing sitting in 4th place I believe. After going over the top, Mike quickly caught on and passed me where I put on chase for the remainder of the lap with another 500' or so of climbing on the "decent." Second lap went alright, largely riding by myself however I was able to reel in one of the guys in front that went off a little quick on the first lap. The third lap however was where things started to go backwards. My legs were a little cashed with the 1750' of climbing per lap starting to take their toll. Along with that, my back was starting to talk to me and of all things, my hands were feeling the worn grips of my bike and my front fork being about 5-10 psi high for this rough of a course. At any rate, I successfully limped over the final lap charging when I could, to hold onto 4th for the day. Felt completely cashed in once it was all done but it was a solid 3 hrs of racing which I haven't done for a while. After talking to the other guys, it sounded like everyone would have been more than happy with 2 laps!

In other news since the last post, last weekend was spent in the San Juans climbing Mt. Sneffels.

Doing a little off-roading

and some late August skiing

Just Training

2011-08-21T17:17:00.000-07:00

Welp, after my fantastic DNF (thanks to a broken chain 20 min in) at Keystone last month, I haven't actually been able to do any racing. Spent a weekend in class, and otherwise have been knocking out some big training rides mainly. Last weekend I went out with a friend here in the springs to climb Mt. Baldy which turned from a 3 hr ride up to the pipeline into a 5 hr day up to the top of 12,300' peak just behind Pikes Peak. Some sweet views to say the least. Followed that climb with a solid hour of descending down Jones Park which is some of the sweetest burmed trail in the area.

I actually was having fun on this ride...just was a little too low on oxygen to smile apparently.

This weekend I hung around locally again to knock out a few more rides and watch Steph run the Pikes Peak Ascent. Half marathon starting at 6300' climbing to over 14,000'. Pretty sweet race which I may have to look into next year. This year I just settled for riding my bike up the trail a few miles where I parked it for an hour or so to watch the madness and sip on my coffee which seemed like a much better idea!

So Steph was actually a ways ahead of this mess luckily, but that's the scene from the back of the pack. I failed miserably at the one picture I actually tried to take of her.

Next race up is in 2 weeks with Solvista cross country, followed by a possible shot at the Palmer Park 50 miler. Haven't done a race that long in a while, but how can you pass up an opportunity to suffer like that only a few miles from your doorstep?

July

2011-07-19T07:51:00.000-07:00

Quick update on life here before work this morning. Been pretty busy the last few weekends but that's not to say there hasn't been racing.

July 4th was time for a moto trip once again over on the west slope. 3 days of trail riding with 350 or so miles of dirt and snow.

Headed up for another Winter Park race which was fair. The course was super sweet with plenty of mud and singletrack this time. Definitely redeemed themselves on that one. I on the other hand now need to redeem myself as I was just tired. Still made it into the top half, but that's about all I can say about that.

Last weekend we did a little camping and hiked the west ridge of Quandry peak. More snow and lots of climbing, go figure.

Epic-ish Singletrack

2011-06-29T05:24:00.000-07:00

Headin out with 2 pairs of skis and a bike

This past weekend I headed over to Winter Park for one of the Epic Singletrack races they put on. Lining up it was looking to be a stout field as I stood next to Cameron Chambers among a number of Colorado Springs folks that made the trip. From the gun we headed straight up a fire road for 15 min or so. This blew up the field pretty good and I entered the singletrack somewhere around 15th I would guess. After traversing/descending for a little while, we started the fire road climbs that lasted nearly forever. I sat in a paceline with 2 Mafia Racing guys with it red-lined for quite a while trying to chase down the next group of racers. By the time we hit the next singletrack we had lost one of the Mafia guys but successfully run down the 3 ahead of us. This led to some more climbing only this climbing is the type I tend to do better with...steep. Managed to get away from most of the guys in the group on the fire roads and pulled in a few more guys that had fallen off pace earlier in the race. On the last descent I think I got caught by one rider which landed me 11th out of 35 or so. Great day despite the course re-routes onto the road due to snow pack.

Sat night we headed to Keystone to camp, only to wake up the next morning for a little skiing...yep. A-Basin was on it's next to last weekend so we figured, why not? Problem was, when we got to the lift line, for whatever reason Steph's season pass wouldn't work...long story short...They were idiots and "couldn't" help us so we started hiking. After about an hour we had wandered into "closed terrain" which ski patrol kindly reminded us of...grr...so from there we headed over to mid-station lift where they don't scan passes and proceeded to ski all day! Pretty slushy but really not terrible for 70 degrees and nearly July.

Hiking up A-basin, sticking it to the man

Durango- Iron Horse Bicycle Classic

2011-06-02T19:58:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Steph and I headed down to Durango for the Iron horse bicycle classic MTB race among other things. Rolled into town Sat to pre-ride with Ashley who came up from Phoenix. The course was on the college loop and had a solid 1000' of climbing per lap along with a lot of loose gravel to make things interesting. Sun ended up being pretty hot but we were given one huge surprise when I found out the Pros got to ride through the front window of Steamworks Brewery, through the inside, and out off the back porch. At the same time, each lap we rode over a wooden "overpass" where the crit races were going on underneath of us. Lets just say each lap through Steamworks was deafening with the few hundred people packed in there and the rest of the route had enough spectators making noise to keep it interesting.
Anyway, I got off to a pretty mediocre start in the race and entered the single track a ways back getting bunched up on the first climb which turned into a hike a bike. After we got rolling I was able to start reeling a few guys in and had worked into about 17th when I managed to burp my front tire pretty good when I tried to catch a little air coming onto the road. Got that all sorted out with my CO2 and worked the rest of the race to catch back on, ending up with 24th or so. Ended up doin a little camping that evening and a little more riding on the Durango trails Mon.

Tues, Steph and I took the moto out and headed for Telluride to chill out a little and mostly to just enjoy the ride.

All in all a great weekend. Probably stick around here this weekend and just get in some solid training miles. Not sure which race will be next but it's looking like Crested Butte MSC race may be the one here in a few weeks.

MSC Salida

2011-05-24T07:39:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I went down to Salida for the 3rd round of the Mountain Cup. The course didn't have any significant sustained climbs, but tons of smaller ones. There was a great mix of climb/descend/and just plain fun singletrack. The race started out on pavement for a little over 2 miles, slightly up hill. Lets just say that we were shooting for the hole shot into the singletrack as there wasn't any passing to speak of the next 8 miles. I was pretty well blown by the time we made it to the singletrack but managed to pull it together to start having some fun railing the course. There was one section of really technical downhill about 1/4 mile long but otherwise the course wasn't too technical (despite the major hype on their website). Came through the first lap in 12th to start lap #2. Pulled in a couple guys a little on the road but not quite enough to make contact by the singletrack. Second lap actually was much smoother than the first, and only about 30 sec slower to roll in for 12th on the day. Went to check out Absolute Bikes in town which was a great local bike shop, ate a pizza, and headed back home. Next up is Durango Iron Horse mountain bike race this weekend!

Kansas Fat Tire Fest

2011-05-04T07:55:00.001-07:00

Last weekend I made the trip back to the homeland with Steph for the Kansas Fat Tire Fest out at Wilson Lake. Got into Hays about 2am Fri night and got a couple hours of sleep before heading to Pheasant Run for a little peanut butter pancake/egg/ham for breakfast. Headed out to the hill climb Sat afternoon which is a solid 2-2.5 min of serious pain. For this one I decided to bust out the Superfly for the hard tail as it is pretty much a stand up and mash sort of climb. Even after pre-riding it 4-5 times, I still managed to miss a pedal off the start, then proceeded to slip out of both pedals about 10m into it. Once I got myself off the top tube and back on the seat, the rest of the ride up went well enough to land me in 1st for the hill climb.

The only picture I actually took of the weekend...sorry Steph

Had a fun time Sat night re-connecting with a bunch of KC/Emporia/Manhattan people and then went to bed early! Sun morning we woke up to gray skies and about 40 deg. Granted, it warmed up to about 55 for the race which was perfect. Off the start I decided to just peg it and see what happened. Ended up getting the hole shot into the single track and never really looked back. Made it through the course, focusing on not pushing the corners and riding smooth through the rock gardens, then pegging it on all of the climbs and straight sections. Ended up rolling in with a pretty comfortable lead on the day to score the cash prize and a new set of Ellsworth 29er wheels. Pretty stoked to get those in the mail here soon as they seem to be pretty light/tough set to roll with.

Photos by Mike Courson

Shred the Gnar

2011-04-27T07:30:00.001-07:00

So I was getting a little frustrated with training tires on the new rig lately. I hate putting all of the miles on my carbon rims with lighter race tires so I set up another wheelset a few weeks ago. Granted, I started with some super thin non-ust tires and managed to knock a hole in them 45 min after mounting them up while decending down Williams Canyon (a tad rocky/technical). Got a little frustrated with babying my bike down the descents so I ordered up a UST Ardent and Advantage from Maxxis. My how tires can change the ride. These things have completely transformed my bike and while definitely adding a little weight for the climbs, with that much tread on the ground you can absolutely shred the downhill while sticking through the loose/gravely corners we have here. They're also pretty thick which moves taking out a sidewall to the back of the mind.

Only a few more days and it'll be back to the race rims for the 2 day "Kansas Fat Tire Fest."

Hero Series MTB

2011-04-19T05:44:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I headed back out to Cheyenne State park once again for the Hero series MTB race put on by Ft. Carson. The basic layout was the same as last weekend only backwards. Had a great time battling it out with Cam Chambers the entire time, barely staying ahead despite Cameron's attempts at jumping over/through rock gardens for the pass. Really reminded me of the old "Blanket Series" races back home where everyone from all ages/abilities would just show up and tear around a short course for an hour just enjoying being on the mountain bikes! Here is a link to the story the Gazette put out on it.

Next race will be in 2 weeks when I head back to the homeland for the Kansas Fat Tire Fest at Wilson Lake! If you haven't ever ridden there, you're wrong.

MSC #1-Cheyenne Mountain Explosion

2011-04-11T05:00:00.000-07:00

Welp, race season has begun in the rockies. Went out for the first of the Mountain States Cup yesterday here on the home turf. Ended up 10th for the day which was a good starting point for the season. The race was basically a climb/descend course with a smooth climb, technical top section, and fast decent. Started out around 14th place off the line and pretty much stayed anywhere from 8-12th throughout the race. Considering it was the first race, I really felt pretty good, feeling like I could actually race the whole time as it never turned into survival mode. Maybe I should have ridden faster? Anyway, I definitely have some things to work on now but at least the season is rolling.

I can also say that I couldn't be happier with my Top Fuel and Maxxis tire combo. I was running a Crossmark on the rear and Ikon on the front with about 18lbs of pressure in it. Never lost contact on the loose stuff and never pinched on the rocks. The full suspension ended up getting pulled out for 3 reasons...it's lighter than my 29er, there was a pretty good decent each lap, and full suspension is just more fun.

So Close

2011-04-01T05:28:00.000-07:00

Welp, as we near 1 week away from the first MTB race of the season, I couldn't be more excited. Last weekend I got in a solid 6+ hrs of singletrack goodness in preparation followed by a pretty solid week this week. This weekend I'll be spending in class learning about the lumbar spine while the weather is 80 deg outside. I'm sure you can sense my enthusiasm! Otherwise all I have left for preparation is figuring out whether to ride full suspension or my hardtail 29er next weekend...ahh the tough decisions in life!

Ramping it up

2011-03-16T15:05:00.000-07:00

Went out today in the 70 degree Colorado air for a good 3 hour recon mission at Cheyenne St park, home of the first Mountain States Cup race for the year. I didn't know the exact course so I just rode everything, including lapping the technical sections a number of times. I never really liked those trails as they're pretty wide, very non-technical, and really loose in a lot of spots, but it was still a fun day. I've also been out on the Top Fuel, finally getting everything dialed in and ready to race here in a few weeks. Granted, I may actually race the Superfly for this first race since it's so wide open and smooth. Still need to get the Top Fuel out there to put in a few hot laps and see which is more suited to the course.

Another exciting thing for 2011 is that I'll be fueling up with Honey Stinger products. I haven't had a nutrition sponsor in a few years and was excited to be paired up with a great Colorado based company. Got in some gel which is oh so good. Literally tastes like flavored honey (go figure) and is pretty thin so it goes down easy. I also got in a few of the waffles, and let me tell you, if you haven't tried these yet...do it. They are incredible to say the least! I only ordered 2 on this order to try em, but there will be a case on the way soon.

Hopefully get in another day or 2 of skiing for the year, and then be on to spring/summer!

Cross training, Top Fueling, busy days.

2011-02-23T07:52:00.000-08:00

So I am still here...not sure why most of my blog posts seem to start with this line lately. Still no racing for the year (5 weeks and counting) however I have been picking up the training intensity a tad. Been out testing the Top Fuel a little which I will say first impressions are awesome. Took a couple rides to dial the suspension and tweak the position but I'm quickly remembering how much fun a light 26 inch bike is to throw around on the trails. Just mounted up some new Maxxis rubber on it and am even more excited to finally be tubeless again (only took 3 flats with tubes for me to quit being lazy and set it up!).

Up riding in Greeley with the sis.

Top Fuel in its natural habitat

Still been hitting the x-c ski trails some too and even doing some running to cross train here lately. Not that I wouldn't be on the bike 6 days/week if I could but sometimes this stinkin work thing gets in the way of riding outside every day. Went up to Assssspen last weekend and did a little x-c skiing/making fun of rich people. Even got scolded on the nordic center trails for being a tad out of control...oops :) Guess that's why I need to stay in the back country.

Hut Trip

2011-01-30T17:12:00.000-08:00

Quick update on life here. Haven't been able to ride the Top Fuel a ton but that update will come later. Things have been really busy this past week however last weekend was part of the cause of that. Steph and I went over to the western slope in the San Juans for a 3 day hut-to-hut x-c ski trip last Fri. The route was supposed to be 9 miles the first day, 7, then 5 out. Well, to summarize the trip...Epic. Day 1: Started with bluebird skies rolling up a road for 4 miles. Ended up getting to the trail after 4 hours or so right about when a blizzard rolled in...and it got dark. Made it up a large ridge postholeing (walking, falling through the snow to your waist every step) the whole way. Ended up finding our reflective markers on the trees and skied until about 10:00 pm when we finally found the first hut. Day 2: figured it'd be an easy day with only 1,000 feet of climbing (compared to 2,000 on day 1). Started reasonably early and headed off in a foot of fresh snow. Managed to hit our second trail around 1 pm which was shin to knee deep all day. Well...this significantly slowed progress, leading us into NIGHT 2. This night didn't go as well as we lost the trail due to the heavy snow the night before and lack of markers. Ended up getting pretty close to digging in for the night in a snow cave however we did manage to find some tracks after a few hours of route finding through the trees off trail. Rolled into cabin 2 after 11.5 hours of skiing and 2,500 feet of climbing (still not sure where we picked up the extra 1,500 feet). Day 3: Up early, skied out 5 miles in 2 hours, no complications....FINALLY. Absolutely one of the most unreal trips I've been on, definitely not the last one I'll be doing.

Here are some pictures of the huts, some of the many trees we had to climb over (not as easy as it sounds when your skis are on), and some of the scenery. They are out of order but the ones on the road were about 2 hours of the whole trip...never saw another track or human the rest of the 3 days!

2011 Race Machine

2011-01-19T19:40:00.000-08:00

Just got this guy put together this evening. Should do the trick for this year.

2010 in review

2011-01-02T14:47:00.001-08:00

Well, to say 2010 was a big year for me would have to be the understatement of the century. I can’t even begin to explain how much has happened since Jan 2010…hence the idea for this blog post. I decided to post pictures from the past year in chronological order, most of which won’t need much explanation.

Jan/Feb clinical rotation in Phoenix

Feb/March in Raton, NM

April/May clinical in CO Springs

Graduation from PT school

Living in Woodland Park, CO starting work as a PT in The Springs.

MTB Nationals

Capulin Volcano Half Marathon

X-C skiing above Leadville

Well, that pretty much sums up a lot of 2010…As for 2011, I’m not even going to bother making predictions on what will happen. I did get in a pretty epic day of backcountry x-c skiing with a friend (6 hours of –20 degrees) to kick it off yesterday so we’ll see how the rest of the year goes!

2011

2010-12-12T19:57:00.001-08:00

Since there's not much to report on in the way of MTB racing as of lately, I will say this. I just discovered a pseudo schedule for the 2011 season and am already getting pretty stoked about it. Tons of racing to be had for sure. Also excited about riding for High Gear/Trek again in the 2011 season. Definitely some cool changes in store for the team next year. As for my exact schedule next year, I haven't quite nailed it all down yet, but I'll try to post details as soon as I have em. Just re-newed my UCI MTB license for next year so the plan is to try and focus in on some key races, but in between I'm just going to try and race as much as possible to build up the fitness and get used to racing on the Pro level.

In the mean time, I'm going to try not to go completely nuts "resting" through the remainder of this month. Took off 3 days in a row last week and was cranky to say the least. Rest can't mean "don't do anything" apparently. I did however get up in the hills this weekend for an epic day on the x-c skis. Went in to one of the 10th mountain division huts through 8in to knee deep powder on Sat, largely by myself...then turned around and headed back out immediately. Having a hard time walking today after 12 mi of skiing through that crap...can't wait for next weekend to go find some more though! May have to start strapping the running shoes on a bit more this month too just to mix it up.

Froze Toes Riding

2010-12-04T13:19:00.000-08:00

Well the racing season is quickly coming to an end for me, or has already ended for that matter. Haven't really done much cross this season with the discovery of a couple late season MTB races along with an off-road duathlon a couple weeks ago. This year I've pretty much just decided to take December as my chill out month, and plan to start to crank up the training more seriously in mid Jan. Until then, I'll definitely still be hitting the trails, just no intervals for a while! Otherwise things are pretty mellow here in The Springs with our first good snow in town last week which did allow me to try out my x-c skis a little up in the mountains above Woodland Park last week. For now I think I'm back out for a hike this afternoon being that it is close to 40 degrees here, not bad for December.

Fresh Tracks

Couldn't leave out a little Black Friday mayhem back home

Return of Darkness MTB Race

2010-11-09T05:32:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I headed up to Gunnison for a last minute MTB race put on by Dave Wiens and the Gunnison Trails Crew. The race was contested at Hartman's rocks which is a super fun bit of 100+ mi of single track outside of Gunnison. Temps were in the mid 60's which are unreal this time of year. Since it was a 20 mi loop, there was no way to ride the entire course before hand, however the race started up a steep road followed by another 2 mi or so of rollers before dumping into the single track. Ended up pulling around the lead group going up the first climb and tried to set a quick tempo on the road to blow off any locals who might have got the best of us on the single track. I let the chase group of 2 (with one more close) catch me as we rolled up to the first single track and it was apparent who the local in the group was as soon as we hit the first descent. We were rolling a good tempo trading pulls with 3 of us when Len Zani (the other "non local") ended up flatting at about the half way point, leaving me to fend for myself. On the next bit of singletrack, I got gapped a little bit which was hard to reel back with some technical sections thrown in the mix of super fast flowy stuff. There looked to be a little hope for me in the last half as I was able to reel our leader back in on a big climb however I was pretty gassed and just couldn't follow on the flats to follow. Ended up getting run down by 3rd place which I tried to drop on a big climb near the end...only to realize I was no where near the end, and settled in to hold onto my 3rd place.

Super fun day overall on some unreal trails. The Gunnison Trails crew threw a great party that night with tons of schwag and raised some good $$ for their organization. If you're ever in the area, I'd highly recommend hitting up Hartmans!

Next up looks to be pheasant hunting next weekend, followed by an off-road duathlon here in the springs in 2 weeks. Then may finish off the year with a little more cross before taking a little time off the bike.

Here is another good race recap by the folks at Mountain Flyer (another great thing out of Gunnison valley)

http://www.mountainflyermagazine.com/view.php/edge-of-darkness-bring-a-bright-future-to-the-gunnison-valley-trails.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Blue Sky Velo Cross

2010-10-27T10:19:00.000-07:00

Mountain Flyer magazine snapped this pic at the start

This past weekend was back to the races finally. Went up to Boulder for the Blue Sky Velo Cup which was at one of my favorite race venues up there. Since I haven't raced the past few weeks I was lined up on the second to back row...again...behind a solid 55 man field. From the gun my strategy was to pound as hard as I could to break my terrible start streak. This was going pretty well until the first set of tall barriers where I managed to spin my cranks backward and knock my chain off. Well, I managed to get the chain back on, but pulling this move the first lap is no bueno for position. Sooo, for the remainder of the race I was in attack mode, working back up through the field. Race highlights included bunny hoppable barriers which I decided to start doing mid way through the race. There also happened to be a heavy metal band on course, some good single track sections, and barriers on a hill that were so tall I busted my knee on em...Anyway, I managed to work up to 17th place for the day which I was ok with considering I dropped my chain 3 times....Need to figure out a good chain catcher it looks like, this is starting to become very annoying.

Sunday, I went out with my sister and Dave who were staying with me this weekend, for a little CO Springs single track riding to spin out the legs.

This coming weekend I may head back to Boulder for the big Halloween race and try to get in some more MTBing before this snow crap starts to stick.

As of lately

2010-10-17T17:12:00.001-07:00

Not a whole lot goin on here lately. Ran a 5K last weekend just to mix things up a bit, then managed to get a bit of a cold this last week so I've mostly been trying to recover from that junk. Thought about racing this weekend but then thought again and just stayed in town and laid low with some good training miles in on the ole single speed. Did find a gorgeous trail called 7 bridges...shoulda known when 5 min in, an old man told me he'd never seen a mountain biker up this trail and that it was pretty tough. Figured I'd show him a thing or two...yeah...I pushed my bike....a lot. Pretty fun once I got over the top and rode down Jones downhill back home. Finished with a good 3 hrs and close to 4000' of climibing...so much for an easy Saturday. Hopefully will be back to 100% by next weekend for some more excitement...I've had about as much resting as I can stand!

Frisco Cross

2010-10-02T18:46:00.000-07:00

Headed up to Frisco for a little CX action this morning. I was pretty beat from the week but figured I’d give it a run anyway as I couldn’t do the Sun race due to other plans already.

Headed out for a few warm up laps in the 70 deg weather and the course was one that could very well favor my abilities. It involved a rather large (annoying) paved climb into a head wind, then a descent down some mulchy loose junk that was borderline sketchy. From there it went into a sand pit, short barriers, and then my personal favorite part down a steep washed out rocky hill to turn around and run up a nearly identical hill. After the warm up I sat down in the car for a sec and fell asleep for 20 min which could have had something to do with my phenomenal start!

Managed to get a 3rd row call up…behind 30 or so other riders…woohoo. From the gun the pace was ridiculous, I found myself downshifting all the way UP the hill as we just kept going faster and faster. All the while, dodging a pretty bad pileup right in front of me which sent bikes everywhere and I was nearly passed by a guy sliding up the gravel road…ouch. Got a solid 5th from the back position into the singletrack and rode around the first 2 laps wondering if this was a good idea at all. Somewhere in there though, my legs eventually turned on and I was able to start working up through some riders. For the remainder of the race I managed to ride a strong tempo and keep reeling people in to end up finishing 9th (per my friend’s report). Only one crash which was rather unremarkable, so no bike components were destroyed in today’s race which was a win in my book!

Sooo, it looks like there may be some more power intervals in the future for this guy…dangit. Not sure yet where I’ll be racing next weekend, but there are a few around. Also just considering taking the weekend off depending on how I’m feeling this week. It may be time for a weekend to recover…but then again, maybe not.

Capulin Volcano Run

2010-09-29T16:54:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I ended up heading down to Folsom, NM for the 3rd annual Capulin Volcano run. As some remember, I did a clinical in Raton, NM back in Feb and my clinical instructor told me about this run up the local volcano and told me I should come down. Well why not...there was a half marathon, 10k, and 5k. Earlier I had mistakenly looked and thought that the 10k went up the volcano and then finished...excellent. Well, when I went to register last week I discovered that only the half marathon went up the mountain...sooo after much debate I went ahead and signed up for the half. Up until this point, I'd run 13 miles twice...in my life. Both times were over 4 years ago, maybe even further back than that. Recently I'd run about 1 time/week for the last month for about 1 hour/run. This will turn out well...yeah.

Well, after an intense session on my IT-band the night before, we headed to the start at 7am. Sorta kinda warmed up and then lined up with the other 62 people who had showed up (last year they had 18!). As the gun went off, one guy took off clear of the field, and I quickly found myself worked into the 2nd-3rd spot with last years winner. My plan of attack was to run as hard as I could for the first hour since I knew I could run that far, then kinda see what happened. Well...ended up coming off the top of the volcano in 2nd place, however this wasn't to last long. Last year's winner came blowing by, as did one other runner. It was quickly apparent I had zero turnover in my legs. As we reached the bottom of the mountain 10k into it, my hip flexors started to talk to me a bit. Had a quick stretch session of about 20 sec, and then was off again. The next 10k consisted of a lot of run upright to stretch hip flexors...hunch over and let calf muscles tighten up...run upright stretch hip flexors.....and so on. Fitness wise I felt pretty good, but yeah...my muscles were not fans of that running thing. Also ended up doing a lot of swerving from side to side of the highway to avoid the eminent IT band freakout! Somehow I did manage to make it to the finish line in 5th place with a time of 1hr 42ish minutes...

What did I learn from this experience? 1)My body still likes bikes better than running. 2) I think I could run faster if I trained for 2 weeks prior to the next one. 3) There may be a next one. 5) It won't be anytime soon .

Next up is cyclocross in Frisco this weekend. More on that later.

Pikes Peak Velo Cyclocross

2010-09-22T12:58:00.001-07:00

This weekend kicked off my second favorite bicycle racing season, known as cyclocross! The even better part was that the race venue was only a few miles from my house in the Springs. Soo, Sat morning I managed to put my bike together and mount up some new Maxxis Mud Wrestler rubber right before the race. Headed over the hill and started my cyclocross training for the year with a few laps on the course…luckily I did still remember how to dismount/remount. Apparently I didn’t remember how to ride my cross bike down stairs as I tried this next to registration and managed to pile it up right in front of a few people….oops.

Anyway, started the open division with about 15 and rolled off the pavement in about 10th position . Managed to start working up to a few guys and rolling past a few when about 2-3 laps in I came off the pavement too hot onto the rough stuff and dropped my chain…back 5 places instantly. Spent the remainder of the race working back up into 6th place. Felt decent for most of the day, however 85 deg is just too stinkin hot to be racing cross no matter what. That combined with the “talcum powder and kitty litter” ( as said by Brad Cole) course material made it interesting. More than anything, the first race is out of the way and we’re officially into cross season!

Sat night I ended up going up to Boulder to get about 3 hours of sleep and head up Longs Peak Sunday. Pretty fun hike, at least at the top. Super long approach to get to the fun stuff, but we managed to knock out the mountain in 9 hours which apparently is pretty quick…still felt about 3 hours longer than I’d have liked to been up there! Monday and Tuesday could just be described by soreness!

This weekend I believe it’s going to be back to a little running race in Raton, NM. We’ll see which one I end up doing…depends how sore I feel like making myself again.

Pikes Peak Velo Cyclocross

2010-09-22T12:58:00.000-07:00

MSC Fall Classic-Breckenridge

2010-09-12T16:39:00.000-07:00

Rolled up to Breckenridge this weekend for the final race of the Mountain States Cup. It was actually a stage race over Sat and Sun, but I had a bunch of things to take care of here Sat and decided to just go up for the big XC race on Sun. Ended up being a 32 mile course with 80% single track, 19% double track (really rough double track in parts), and 1% road…maybe. First though, my pre-ride on Sat night around the Springs almost had me pulling out of the race. Was out tearing around Red Rocks Canyon and popped a rear spoke and tore the sidewall out of my tire at 5:00. Limped back to town on it and was able to find a new spoke at Pro Cycling and throw on a different tire to be ready to race in the morning luckily.

Back to the race…Headed up the mountain in about 10th position or so and was hanging pretty good for the first climb. The first descent however was another story. Ended up getting caught by about 5 riders and just hung on to them for a bit on the downhill and some flat, super fun single track. As soon as we hit the first really big climb at 8 miles or so in, I was able to reel in and pass all of these riders. Got a decent gap on them and settled in for the long climb. Since this was a super loop course, there was no way I had time to ride it beforehand, so I was pretty much going at this thing blind. Anyway, the doubletrack got pretty rocky and super steep. I hate to admit this but I was definitely in my grannygear for most of it. Finally crested that sucker and started a fun descent on some old mining roads that were pretty much just good singletrack these days.

Started the next climb with one other rider as we rolled up a forest service road trading pulls the whole way. Finally rolled onto some single track and started to feel the effects of the race at about 22 miles in. Had to back down a little bit and let that rider go to try and recover a tad. Eventually we started yet another descent and I was trying to find my energy before the last little dirt road climb. This climb wasn’t steep by any means, but my legs were completely gassed and on the verge of cramping. A small road downhill section followed by some singletrack/riding down the middle of a river and we finally found the finish line at just under 3 hours. Ended up rolling in with 7th for the day. Went straight to town, ate a cheese burger, and slept in the park for 30 min before heading home.

Up this weekend, cyclocross season!

Cascade Drop-not for the faint of heart

2010-08-30T19:28:00.001-07:00

Yes, I am still here. Just haven't been racing these last few weekends. Training however, has been going pretty well. A few more MTB races up for the season, then on to cross very very soon.

This Sat I finally did the ride that drops off Rampart Range road down into Waldo canyon. Let me first back up here. Started on my single speed for the 3000' climb to the top of Rampart, following 2 sets of MTB tracks the whole way. As I approached the top, I finally saw the owner's to the tracks. Talked to them a bit and they informed me, the place we were was where you dropped into Waldo Canyon. Figured he may have been joking when he said it was pretty gnarly....not the case. Pretty much DROPPED 2000' down a washed out "trail" with my chest on my seat and brakes mashed most of the way. Only took one header, which was fairly magnificent...only because you can no longer tell what was written on my top cap. Anyway, after I found the actual Waldo canyon, I was a little bummed to find hoards of people (go figure, it was Sat on an easy trail). Finally neared a fork in the trail and picked right...wrong. Ended up climbing another 500' of switch backs before ducking off on a what looked like a less traveled trail only to ride up on the two guys I saw on top. Apparently left was the correct (or shorter) choice at the fork. Finished out a beautiful canyon through multiple stream crossings/waterfalls, and back into Manitou for a good 3 hrs on the bike.

Sun ended up being a 2 hr day of climbing and descending Jones Park trail finally. End of story.

Heading back to western KS next weekend for a little dove hunting, then probably up to Breck for the finale of the Mountain States Cup races!

MSC Keystone Revival

2010-08-08T18:59:00.000-07:00

This weekend was time for the Keystone Revival MSC race. Last time I raced this was about 4 years ago when I drove out from Hays, KS and got WORKED with a 1.5 hr climb, and 30 min descend course. Luckily this year was a much better course. Rolled into the venue Sat morning and tried to figure out the new course which was 2-9.8 mi laps, with 1900 feet of climbing per lap. That part alone made it swing slightly in my favor. The course turned out to be 90 percent single track climbing and none of it all that steep. The descent was a mix of some rocky sections and blazing fast windy singletrack with one 1/2 mi climb half way down.

The race- We headed up the mountain at a pretty good clip in the front group of the Pro riders and dumped into the singletrack somewhere around mid pack or a little back. We rolled up the climb riding tempo and then started the gnarly top portion of the downhill. I was hammering for all I was worth, but the current US Super D champ Mike West came by me like I was standing still. Hopped on his wheel for a bit, but wouldn't end up seeing him until the climb again. Second lap went pretty much like the first, giving everything I had on the uphills to put some distance in between Mike and I, however he ended up catching me in the final DH section which put me in 20th for the day. Felt pretty good overall, and am already looking forward to the next one.

Funny part of the weekend was that on the way up to Keystone on Fri night I randomly called a good buddy I worked with a few years ago in Durango and he happened to be staying in Georgetown this weekend. We pretty much decided on the spot that we needed to ride Sun, and pretty much decided that we needed to ride Monarch Crest trail. All I can say about this is wow. Shuttled to the top of the pass for the start of what we thought was a 20 mi ride. Well....36 miles later and 3,600' of climbing later we rolled back into Poncha Springs completely cooked. Still not sure how we ended up 4,000 feet lower than the start after that much climbing, but there was obviously a small amount of descending too :) We left at 9am from the top and were completely in the clouds as the pictures kind of show. It was ridiculous riding at 12,000' with 50' visibility for a few hours until we dropped into the Silver Creek trail and instead of riding the road out, opted for more climbing along the Rainbow trail which was full of super smooth, flowy singletrack. Honestly, I'd go back and ride the Rainbow trail alone it was so good, but was even better to top off such an epic ride.

No idea what next weekend will hold but I may take a break from racing and just hit up some big single track rides. And for tonight, I'm going to bed, my body hates me right now!

Brad tearin it up

Not looking good weather wise at the start of the ride, but never even got a drop of rain!

Rocky Mountain State Games

2010-08-02T20:34:00.000-07:00

This weekend was low on the travel for once. Had my good buddy Ashley come in for the weekend from Phoenix so we had to go explore some of the local single track all day Sat. Bombed around all day and then went to have some coffee and talk about good times in the desert that evening.

Sunday was the Rocky Mtn State Games down at the Airforce Academy so I figured why not...Ok, so maybe I dragged myself out of bed at 6am kicking and screaming all the way. By the time I got to the race I was getting amped up again. Lined up with the group for the 2 lap, 26 mi version. This was opposed to the 100k race happening at the same time. Headed out fast and kept the pace high headin into the single track. Ended up getting a good gap from the gun. Somewhere in the first lap a SS rider started gaining, but after a few downhill sections and flats was able to open the gap back up and hold it to the finish line.

Nothing huge this weekend besides big rides. Got in 4 hrs Sat on the "ring the peak" trail. Tryin out some new nutritional supplements which actually worked well...pop tarts and fig newtons. Best calories for the money and for the ease of carrying. Also managed to do a little fly fishing on this way cool lake I found. Took a beating of a ride on my dirtbike to get there, but it was absolutely worth it. Another few hrs of exploration tonight on the local singletrack and then off to work tomorrow. Probably be racin here in the Springs at the state games next weekend.

Last but not least, this weekend I finally got the coveted "Pro" mountain bike upgrade I've been working at for the last few years. Pretty stoked to try it out the rest of the season...definitely going to step things up a notch or two :)

XC Mountain Bike Nationals

2010-07-18T16:29:00.000-07:00

Well, believe it or not, I am still here. I've just gotten a tad busy with life here these last few weeks. Managed to pass my National Physical Therapy boards, and have promptly been slammed with patients more than before...woohoo. Anyway, I have still been squeezing in bike rides, and running the nights I can't ride which leads us up to this weekend. This was one race I couldn't miss no matter what, being that XC Nats were in my backyard essentially. Ended up not riding much this last week thanks to work...so I figured this would either leave my legs with zero kick in them, or leave me recovered. Psychologically it wasn't all that great but I was going regardless.

Worked another 12 hr day Fri and then headed for my room in Winter Park for the night...5 am wake up and off to my pre-race meal (McDonalds burrito and coffee) then up to the race venue. With an 8am start time I figured I may be missing my arm warmers that I forgot, however it was probably already up to 65 for the start of our race. Lined up in about 3rd row and headed straight up after the gun went off. We led it out pretty fast and made a pretty early selection. By the time we rolled off the fire roads it was me and one other guy off the front and rolling. We worked together taking pulls (or digs at eachother) the rest of the way up and eventually were joined by a HoneyStinger rider who I had to let ride away. The descent consisted of mostly super rocky sections, along with a couple popper climbs, and one 3-4 min climb followed by one SICK burmed section toward the bottom.

Started the second lap in 4th but quickly passed 3rd as we headed up again and tried to put as much distance into him before the descent as I could...Meanwhile, another rider in my division came blowing by and kind of freaked me out...back to 4th. Entered the singletrack once again and noticed he wasn't pulling away much, and then started even reeling him in on the first section of downhill. As soon as we hit the climb half way down it was time to turn on the gas. Rode tempo until I was close then put it in "big gear single speed" mode and proceeded to turn myself inside out passing him/putting some space in between us, not to mention another rider was creeping up on us in this section. As we neared the finishing stretch I was pretty much riding my Superfly at it's absolute max capacity railing a smooth grassy section and burms alike. Final corner and one last dig as we sprinted for the finish line for 3rd which I pulled out by a nose. As it finished up, 2nd-4th all finished within 3 seconds of eachother, with 5th only another 11 sec behind that.

Sprint finish for 3rd

Overall was an absolute battle of a race, which in my mind represents how nationals should be. Of course all of the shoulda, woulda, coulda's run through my mind on how I could have put 2 more seconds into 2nd, but hey...maybe next time. Also have to give a shout out to fellow Kansas natives Cam Chambers (2nd SS), Brad Cole (4th SS), and Aaron Elwell tearin it up in the Pro race.

Not real sure on what's up next, but this definitely got me amped up for the next one. May be Winter Park in 2 weeks, unless I can find a local race sooner!

Sand Creek Series #4

2010-06-20T13:52:00.000-07:00

This weekend I decided to stick close to town and hit up the 4th and final Sand Creek race. I did the third race 2 weeks ago on a Wed night, and let me tell ya...it goes to show what the local MTB scene is like here. That race didn't go so hot for me, but definitely functioned as a decent training race. For this series they went ahead and grouped the Cat 1 19-29 yr olds in with the Pros which makes the pursuit for hardware fairly pointless, however does make for a pretty speedy race!

2 weeks ago on the line

Suffering like a dog this week

Sat I went on down to town and lined up with about 12-13 others to head out on the 90 min (+1 lap) of pain and suffering. The course was only about 2.5 mi/lap, however featured a pretty significant amount of climbing each lap and a few little techy sections to keep it interesting. To be honest, by the time it was over it felt more like a cross race considering we did 8 laps! It was about 95 deg on the starting line so I knew from the beginning that I had better chill out and pace myself or implosion was eminent. Well...after the starting gun went off, I quickly forgot my pre-race peptalk and jumped on the wheel of the race leaders. I had one guy in between us and the front 5 got a small gap which I tried to close solo on a double track climb, but was unable to do. From there I decided to ride tempo and see what happened. Bounced back and forth with a ProCycling rider as I struggled with the heat around the 1 hour mark. Eventually I rallied and started pulling him back in but didn't have quite enough time in the end. Still not sure on my overall finish position but I'd guess somewhere in the middle of the group.

Next up is a possible trip to Crested Butte or Winter Park next weekend, all in prep for the big XCT race here in a few weeks, followed by MTB Nationals up in Granby.

"Chile Challenge" Mountain States Cup #3

2010-06-05T21:29:00.000-07:00

Sat morning I loaded up with western KS bike racing transplant cohort, Cam Chambers and headed south to Angel Fire, NM for the third round of the Mountain Cup. Now, for those of you who have been following my race season up to this point, you'll know why I could have been a tad frustrated going into this race. Up until this point I have yet to get through a race (MTB or road) without a flat. But anyway, that's nither here nor there...Sat would be a new day, a chance for redemption. I mounted up a beefy rear tire to try and avoid flatting on this notoriously rocky course. Everyone we talked to talked it up to be a completely miserable race course so I figured I'd be better safe than sorry with tire choices.

Anyway, as we rolled up, temps were hovering in the 85-90 deg range which would be toasty, however it was a dry heat :) The course was pretty exposed for being on the side of a mountain, but actually looked to suite my abilities as it was pretty much a climb/descend course. 2 laps, 9 mi each...mucho climbing, getting progressively more technical the farther up you got.

Start line...lined up with 15ish guys and hit it from the gun to try and sort things out...well....ended up riding off the front alone with 2 that looked to be putting on a chase. After cresting the top on the first lap it looked more like I'd be putting in a solo effort for the remainder. It wasn't quite that simple as I had one guy putting on a pretty good chase the second lap and my legs were starting to talk to me a tad about half way up the climb. Luckily they came around and I was able to cruise on over the top and avoid any major crashes on the descent to cruise in for the win. Also important to note that Cam ended up cruising to the win in the single speed category so we were both pretty stoked for the ride back to the springs.

Next up...well, I don't know. May be hitting up more MSC races, plus a few local races around the springs...otherwise there will be some training/exploring the local MTB scene! Hopefully I'll be able to post a few pics again one of these days.

Sand Creek Series #1 and exploration

2010-05-25T09:08:00.000-07:00

Definitely not completely totally lost yet

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This past week has been a blast as I started my existence in the loverly state of CO. To start, there has been mucho mtb exploration going on. From where I'm staying in Woodland Park, there is such a ridiculous amount of trail it's well...ridiculous. The great part is, almost none of it is on the maps. I found this out pretty quickly when I went on a Thurs night shop ride with some local guys. We rode from town over 3 hours of single track, never crossing our own path, and most of which I had ridden by before and never even noticed. Now my new game is "map all the single track on my GPS." Could be a long summer to say the least :)

Also managed to NOT get registered for the Iron Horse next weekend, registration closed. Not too heartbroken as there was a local MTB race in The Springs this weekend as part of the sand creek series. Got everything dialed in and headed down Sat to the hottest day of the year out here at 85 deg. The Cat 1 29-29 and Pro were grouped together and headed out at a pretty quick pace, climbing up for about a half mile or so. Hit the single track in 4th-5th place I think. Not long after, Cameron Chambers had run us down on his single speed and we commenced working over the single track western KS style. I was sort of floundering around for the first lap as I wasn't able to really pre-ride the course, but eventually did find my handling again. Granted, this was only after a rather large equipment fail...again! Only made it half way through the first lap and came off a lip, landed perfectly...and blew the sidewall in my back tire. Tires were about a year and a half old and might have been showing signs of needing replaced, but that's neither here nor there....I was pretty ticked but managed to get it to seal, however, after hitting it with CO2, it blew back open. So, I puttered around putting in a tube knowing that the front of the race was long gone. Ended up hopping back on and tearing around the course for the next 3 laps just to get some good race intensity in before MSC #3 Angel Fire in 2 weeks. Hopefully by then I can be over this equipment malfunction rut I've been in this season.

One hilarious thing to note was that half way through the race, it was momentarily delayed due to a bear/cubs on the course...can't say that's ever happened to me before.

Anywhoo...hopefully I'll get some new rubber from Maxxis this week and be ready to hit up the Mountain Cup again in 2 weeks. For now, it's back to studying for the National PT boards...until I "have" to get back to mapping :)

Happenings

2010-05-18T20:18:00.001-07:00

Ok, long time, no post. I do have an excuse...I think. Since the last post lets see, I had to finish my clinical rotation (which involved lots of paperwork/presentation building), finish editing my research paper with my research partner who happened to be 800 mi away and on a completely different schedule, and last but not least, graduation/finding a job. Well I'm happy to say, I passed the clinical, graduated, and landed a job in Colorado Springs at the clinic I was working at. Now it's time to crack down on the studying for national boards and catching back up on the riding. Pretty stoked to be done with all of that and now it's back to riding lots once again. Next up on the ole race schedule is probably the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic road race. I know I know, but I've done this race the last 4 years or so and why mess up that streak? Should be good and painful.

A couple pictures to prove that I did graduate...obviously a very serious occasion

"Rabbit Valley Rampage" Mountain States Cup #1

2010-04-26T18:01:00.000-07:00

Made the trip west this weekend...and by west, I mean WAY west. After finishing up work late Fri night in the middle of a blizzard here in the springs, there was no way I was heading over to Fruita until Sat morning. Even at that, I figured if I left by 4:30 AM I could be there in time for the offroad TT. Needless to say, I didn't make the TT. Instead I headed to Gunnison to hang with my buddy Double D whom I worked with in Durango a few years ago. We ended up hitting up the local trails called Hartmans Rocks which were pretty sweet. There are apparently over 100 mi of trails out there and many of which were super buff. Dave was ripping it up on his CX bike and loving life they were so smooth. That is until he found a rock with his front tire on the last 1/4 mi...oh well...cross is all about carrying your bike right?

Sun I headed out to Rabbit Valley which happens to be the very last exit off I-70 in Colorado. Lined up in the C1 19-29 with a pretty big field (20ish) of guys ready to kick off the MTB season. Needless to say, we were all a little excited I think. The race started off on double track for 30-40 min where we averaged at least 25 mph. I kid you not, we were absolutely flying in a paceline. After quite a bit of this it got a little more technical and as we were flying around a corner and down a hill I saw some guys start sliding out ahead...Turns out there was a lip that no one in the paceline could see. Ended up burping my front tire pretty good coming off it sideways. Luckily my Stans sealed it up after hissing a little while. Climbed a huge mesa after that and rode around on top for a while where it got pretty rough. Definitely was feeling that in the ole triceps. At this point I was still sitting in 4th and not out of contact with the leaders. I had fallen off a little at the base of the climb thanks to come sweet stomach cramps compliments of my energy drink! Anyway, as we started the decent I was hammering it pretty good to try and catch back on. This is when my air leak came back to haunt me as I rolled my tire and got pitched over the handlebars and down the mountain. Somewhere in my airborne journey, my fall was broken with a rock to the quad, my arm, and a bush. After this my race only went one way...backwards. Had to stop a few min later to hit the front tire with some CO2 which sealed it up finally, but my biggest problem was my left quad which was no longer functioning. Still was able to ride (or limp) out a spectacular course with some unreal ledge rides along a 1500' high canyon and some more blazing fast road to finish it out in 6th place. Overall the pace was pretty fast for the amount of slow technical stuff thrown in with winning times averaging just over 15 mph (mine was closer to 14).

After the race I wasn't feeling hot at all...Definitely didn't get enough calories in during the race after throwing my bottle of stomach cramps off a cliff..and the body definitely wasn't keeping any calories down after, to spare the fun details.

Overall not a terrible way to start the MTB season, but it definitely could have gone better. I guess there is always the next one to work things out. The Superfly was everything I could have asked from it. It was blazing fast on the flats, and handled the rough stuff as well as anything out there. I need to check it over again, but I think my Trek helmet survived the beating it got dealt too...it's too early in the season to be breaking helmets! Hopefully I'll find some pics to post up here later...For now it's off to another week of madness!

It lives!!

2010-04-12T18:03:00.001-07:00

Just got my frame and all the parts in today, direct from Emporia...hours later, it lives. Pretty stinkin light too.

Riding has been going better this past week. Got in my rides after work and then 8 hrs on the MTB this weekend, which is basically the first time I've ridden it since living in Phoenix. Lets just say it was a long time coming. Loved every minute of it, except the 3,000+ feet of climbing on the Yeti beast (but even that was better than being on the road). Can't wait to get the new Superfly out this week to climb with something light again!

Sunday's ride starting from our front porch here in Manitou Springs

CO Springs

2010-04-07T20:01:00.000-07:00

Been blowing up to 60 mph gusts nearly every day since I got here last week...nice. Ended up taking off a few days last week due to some good ole 13-14 hr work days starting off in a new clinic location. Went home for Easter last weekend and got back on the bike with some nice county road rides in the warm weather. Then, back to it here again with more wind and some of this white crap again this morning...
again, not amused. Looks like the forecast is beautiful though as far out as you can see so hopefully there will be mucho riding the remainder of the week. I've been getting em in, but definitely could use some longer miles.

Only a couple more weeks to prep for the first Mountain States Cup race over in Fruita. Looks like my Superfly should be ready for it too! The frame is sitting in Emporia and should get shipped out this week with some new goodies to lighten it up quite a bit from my previous one. I'll be sure to post some pictures as soon as it's all built up.

USAC pulled through and re figured the results from 2 weeks ago in Grand Junction at the road race and I got my 1 upgrade point. Better than the original DNF they had for me. Hopefully I don't have to worry about many more of those road points this yr...we'll see...

Mad Cow Classic RR: day 2

2010-03-29T19:39:00.000-07:00

Quick update on the weekend. Got the results for the TT and ended up 6th which I was fairly pleased with. Never like losing, but oh well. Headed out to the course Sun morning for the 72ish mile road race. Got there plenty early, and realized I had forgot my 12-27 cassette...sweet...12-25 was borderline for the 12% climbs each lap but it did the trick. The course: 8 miles out/up the mesa then you start the loops (4, 11 mi for us) which consisted of a LONG false flat section, some downhill, 1/2 mi 12% climb, flat curves, and repeat. We headed out with a whopping 7 Pro1/2 guys in our field. There was talk of combining with 3s but it didn't happen. Temps were perfect at 50 deg, and 15 mph winds meant getting dropped would make for a long day. We took out pretty easy and rotated through for the first 2 laps, each taking our pulls riding tempo. By the start of lap 3 we had dropped one guy on the false flat and started taking some tough pulls to test the field. There were definitely going to be a few guys suffering in the following laps. Anyway, coming around to the climb on the 3rd lap, guess who had a flat...yep. Yours truly. Got to watch the 5 in the group ride away at 30+ mph, and with no wheel vehicle I was pretty much toast. Changed the tube and took off again riding tempo for the heck of it to finish out a good training day. Ended up catching one more guy that was dropped riding the final 20 mi by myself to finish 5th. Granted, USA Cycling listed me as DNF now after I clearly remembered finishing...glad I checked results before leaving. Not exactly how I planned it out in my head, but it was a decent day none the less and got the legs going with a little longer race distance.

Next race will most likely be a stage race here in the springs in 2 weeks. Hopefully I'll have this tire thing sorted out by then and be rolling on some Maxxis rubber.

Mad Cow Classic RR- Fruita/Grand Junction, CO

2010-03-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

Ok ok ok, I know, road racing again. In my defense, there just isn't any MTB racing here in CO yet as most of the trails are still wet up high and down low it is too hard to predict snow fall still. Soooo, I made it over to Junction for the weekend to hit a stage race and get some more fitness. Yesterday I did the hill climb ITT up CO natl. monument. It was 4 miles of pure bliss, climbing just over 1,000 feet. No results up yet, but I felt decent about the ride regardless. Got that "I'm going to puke in my mouth" special feeling toward the top, so I definitely was at red line. Hopefully results will be posted today at the RR. Because there are just 3 individual events I definitely skipped the crit yesterday and chilled in preparation for the 72 mi RR today. Not sure if my legs are ready to race that far yet, but we'll find out soon enough. I'll be sure to do a full writeup this week.
Speaking of this week, I just moved up to CO Springs Thurs after finishing up work in Raton, NM. Pretty excited to finally be in CO with TONS of riding. Was getting a little sick of the 3 (not an exaggeration) out and back routes I had in raton for 6 weeks! 6 more weeks of this clinical stuff and it'll be on to the real world finally.

Talking with one of the local C2 guys (Dave I think) after the race. Stole this pic off his blog. Oh, and I didn't race up with my seat bag and 2 full bottles either...actually remembered to take em off before the race :)

Bikes and Buffaloes

2010-03-14T06:37:00.000-07:00

This weekend finally kicked off my racing season up in Boulder, CO. I made the trip up for the CU crits on Sat to try and get some race fitness in. Debated pretty hard early in the week which race to do (collegiate or C1/2), but ended up just doing the Pro 1/2 race. Being that I am such a crit monster, I figured one race would be enough. Lined up with a LOT of riders from Garmin, Jelly belly, Fly V, and took off for 60 min. Early in the race we were cruising around at 30 mph so I knew it'd be a pretty quick one for the duration; turns out I was right. As the breaks started heading up the road, the field would take off and chase them down one at a time with little to no rest between breaks. I personally decided to just hang in the pack and work on my form/fitness rather than trying to make a dig. Nothing too exciting really happened but I definitely got my racing season started with average speeds for the hour being right on 30mph. I believe a Fly V guy took the win and I ended up somewhere about top 25, though I really don't know for sure. Pretty wild when the biggest field is the Pro 1/2...just a tad of a contrast to back home.

As for today...staying in Boulder to knock out a good training ride, then back to Raton, NM for the last 2 weeks of my clinical. Next race will probably be in 2 weeks over in Grand Junction, CO where they'll include some hills for me! Another road race, but that'll do for now. Should help me be ready for em as soon as the new MTB gets here and the Mountain Cup races start next month.

Cross Training

2010-03-08T16:09:00.000-08:00

This weekend I went for something a little less traditional for myself this time of year. Took a beating with my sister down in Red River, NM most call X-C skiing. It was actually a blast...after we sort of figured out how to go downhills. Basically went out for 4 hours without a break or food, completely bonked, ate lots of food in Red River...ate more food in Taos, went home (to Raton). Definitely something I'll be looking into doing more next winter if I end up out here somewhere. Last week we had great weather here in Raton so I got some good miles in outside finally. Rain/snow mix today so it'll be trainer time tonight then hopefully more sorta nice weather to ride outside. This coming weekend I think I'm actually going to pull the trigger on starting out the race season with a crit up in Boulder, CO. As much as I hate crits, it's time to get the racing fitness coming along.

Deciding that gloves may not be needed for the cold, but for protection

Somehow we kept ending up on these

Basically just me training for the 2014 biathlon, no big deal.

Raton, NM...Pop. 6,465, Cyclists: 1

2010-02-26T08:42:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm just finishing my second week here in Raton, NM and lets just say the riding hasn't quite matched up to Phoenix. Drove in 2 weeks ago Sat and the wind was blowing no less than 40mph with 25 deg air temps, putting the windchill well below 0. Now to all of my KS brethern, this probably seems pretty normal this year, but after 6 weeks in Phx, it was a little shock to the system. That paired with the town being located at 6600' elevation made for a tough week. So far I've found a few routes, though there are only about 3 paved roads leading out of town and one dirt one that I've found. All of the land around here is privately owned, so even though there are county roads all over the maps, all the pastures are gated and no one is allowed to travel on them....interesting. Soooo, I do believe I'll be getting to know these few roads quite well in the remaining 4 weeks I'm here. That is unless the weather is like this past week...been on the trainer every night with snow/ice everyday. There is a little trail up at a lake in a small state park north of town, however that is now under at least 2 feet of snow...prob won't be seeing that one. Otherwise, the clinical is going well with a great mix of hospital, home health, nursing home, and the rest of the time (at least 50%) being spent in the outpatient clinic. It's a fun rural setting, but I'll be ready to get to a little better riding in CO springs next month. In other news...I still am waiting on my new Superfly....one of these days :) I guess it's not like I could be riding it a lot here anyway.

First ride after I got into town...

Heading out today to get a little road time in as soon as the snow melts off a little. Too much trainer is bad for your health. Just have to keep on cross training during my lunch breaks and hitting the trainer when I get home until the roads/conditions improve.

I'll try and post some more pics of the area ASAP. No internet at my apt here so it's a little far and few between my internet access times.

One of down town, and a view of the town from "Goat Hill"....actually captured most of the town in that shot believe it or not :)

Whirlwind

2010-02-11T18:49:00.001-08:00

My how time flies when you're having fun. Just wrapping up my final week here in Phoenix and its been a little crazy. On the up side, I've been able to get in some great riding (as usual) before heading up to elevation. I like to think I'm just moving to my high altitude training camp now...which I am...It also happens to be my next clinical rotation in Raton, NM elev. 6600'. Good luck finding that on the map. Pretty small town in northern NM but I'm sure they have roads/trails around there somewhere so it should be all good. Sooo for all of you in the midwest that have been mad at me for being in 75 deg weather all this time...fear not, I am returning to winter shortly. Current plan is to get off work here tomorrow, pack, drive to Raton on Sat, unpack, start work Mon. I'll be sure to post pics of the area when I get there...for now, I can just imagine what it'll look like. For your viewing pleasure, here are a some proofs of the new kits which are on order for this season.

Gear

2010-01-30T18:04:00.000-08:00

Still truckin along down here in the Phx. Not a whole lot to report since last time other than some of the new gear has started to show up for the 2010 season. First off was my new helmet from Trek (the Circut) which seems to be pretty good so far. Already crashed pretty bad wearing it and I'm still alive...so that's good. Actually, for once I didn't hit my head, and therefor did NOT break a helmet! Some of the team have started to receive their new Fishers, so hopefully my new Superfly isn't that far off. The other little gems that showed up a few weeks ago were some sweet new tires from Maxxis
.
Threw the Xeniths on the roadie bike and have already racked up quite a few miles up on em. These guys ride really nice, although they are a little soft for all the glass on the roads down here. Still seem to be a great tire so far. Then for the UST Crossmark 26x2.25 I already had one of these on the front of the Yeti beast, but finally completed the set this weekend. I had thrown a Hutchinson on the back before I left home to get me by and lets just say that's about all it did. Nothing against em, but this place is way too rough/rocky for that soft of a mtb tire. Got chewed up pretty bad in the last 4 weeks and finally cut it pretty deep, enough that I was forced to mount up the new Maxxis. Pretty stoked to finally be running 2 big tires and they actually handle the terrain pretty well. They are definitely more of a hard pack tire and here there is a LOT of loose rock and sharp stuff. However, with that big of a casing, they handle it just fine down around 28 psi. I've now had about 3 sets of Crossmarks 26x2.0, 29x2.0, 26x2.25...and they really handle just about everything I can throw at them besides thick mud. I did get a little carried away again Fri and instead of riding my bike down the mtn, tried to slide down on my belly...stupid. Little tore up (again), so today was a day for the road bike unfortunately. Still got a really nice ride in and am amped to heal up and get back out there some more! In case you were wondering...no Yetis were harmed in this week's crash...phew.

View from the ridge on S. Mtn

Another week or so down

2010-01-22T12:48:00.001-08:00

Not a whole lot new to report besides a ton of great riding once again. A few good stories to note though. First was last Fri on my half day of work. I got off earlier than normal even so I was out to South Mountain by 1:00 and on the trail. Being the beautiful day that it was, I decided to try and get at least 2.5 hrs in on the trail…yeah….Went up a great trail called Ranger that was a steep, but very rideable climb to the top where I could hook up with National trail. This is opposed to Holbert Trail (I think that’s the name) that I tried to ride up last week. Should have known when 4 different groups of people told me “wow, never seen anyone ride up this trail.” Turns out they had good reason to be surprised…lots of big ledgy sections with big loose rocks that were unrideable. But, thats nither here nor there. This was a new week. National runs the length of S. Mtn park along the top of the southern “range” of mountains in it and is a blast to ride. Soooo, after riding to the end of National, I came to a fork in the road….Take either Bajado, or Alta….hmmmm……looking on the map, there looked like a little climbing on Alta, but hey…I like to climb…and I wanted some more time on the bike….what the heck! WELL, about 20 min into Alta, I remembered a bit of my Spanish from high school and realized the potential error in my decision. Yeah….basically pushed/carried the bike 60% of the way to the top. The decent was mostly rideable so it wasn’t all bad luckily.

Sat I went out for a 50 mi road ride up north…long story short…cut the sidewall out of a brand new tire…booted it with a piece of paper/cardboard, put the new tube in…which had a hole in it…patched the hole with a crappy glueless patch…aired it up to 40ish psi to keep from blowing my boot out…got extremely lost on the ride home (somehow went 10 mi out of my way)…eventually made it.

Sun…put my old tire back on the road bike and went climbing. We went up a road north of Scottsdale into the mountains for about 17 mi until it turned to rock/gravel and pitched up some more. Ended up climbing up to a weather tower eventually, with the last 4 mi turning back to pavement and kicking up at an average of 12%. Ended up with 54 mi or so with over 5,000’ of climbing! Made it back home without any flats/mechanicals too!!!! Ate a medium pizza at Barros and took a nap!

view from the top

This week has been kinda crappy actually with record rainfall amounts (yes, apparently it rains here…what the crap?). Still got in a fair amount of riding though it’s never as much as a guy wants…such is life I guess.

Hoping for a hot dry weekend to knock out some big miles to make up for the rainy week!

A few more pics from the ride last weekend

guess who didn’t get their seat tight enough?

Funny how you don’t remember the downhills when you are riding out….

Non-race weekend

2010-01-11T19:04:00.000-08:00

Well, while I originally had plans to race at McDowell mountain this weekend, things came up and that didn't happen. However, there was no shortage of mountain biking to be had.

Wed is one of my half days (I work 3-10s and 2-5s) so I went to South Mountain Park here in the middle of Phoenix...unreal. Huge climbs, super ledgy descents...over 50 miles of single track right in the middle of Phoenix (and 8 miles from our door). Tore it up (single track and my body) for about 2 hours before heading in for the day and going to bed with a smile on.

A couple pics of South Mtn Park

Fri I got off early, as did my roommate Ashley. Soooo, to celebrate, we headed out to McDowell to pre-ride the race course. After riding about an hour of unreal buttery smooth single track, with a few rock sections thrown in for good measure, tragedy struck. We spun through after our first lap and headed back out to get another hour in when we spun up over a little rise and the back side just vanished. I managed to air off and land half way down...no problem...The problem came upon the 2nd one like this directly after...Skidded over the edge, rolled/bounced to the bottom, breaking both my helmet and bike in the process. Was able to spin back to the car, but racing on this bike wasn't going to happen this weekend. Never mind that the left side of my body is covered in road rash too.

Sun we actually went out to the race, but discovered quickly that there was a $50 day-of entry fee which they definitely did NOT mention on-line. After some quick discussion and under the circumstances (no xc bike) we decided to just cut our losses and go bust out a long day on the trail instead. Went out to Haus trails and got in around 3 hours of single track bliss.

On the Haus trail system

I'm still blown away on a daily basis by the cactus and the palm trees here, not to mention the 70 deg weather. Easily amused...I think so :) Hopefully my patients won't wonder too much when I can't kneel down to show them exercises this week, but hey....it was sooo worth it. One night ride on the road tomorrow, then off to explore some more single track Wed afternoon.

New years, Moab, Phoenix....

2010-01-04T18:58:00.000-08:00

Ok, here's a brief overview of the whirlwind last week. Headed for Phoenix via Denver. Stayed in Denver new yrs eve to hang out with some great friends that I don't see enough. Then thought about hitting up the epicness that is Fruita/Moab. Well..as I approached Fruita it was pretty apparent that wasn't going to happen as there was 1.5 feet of snow on the ground...fine..I'd just push on to Moab for the night where I had a room anyway...yeah right. They had record snowfall there which = no riding. Was able to cancel that room and just drove south until I couldn't stay awake any longer. Sat afternoon I finally made it to Phoenix and was it ever glorious. Unloaded some of my junk and hit the road immediately with Ashley for a 63 mile WARM ride! 75 degrees people...I love this place. Then Sun we went out and hit up another good day up south mountain and around. So far, Phoenix is lookin up. Started my clinical rotation today and it was rather uneventful (until I got off and rode in the dark, still sweating). Anyway, we're thinking about going out to race at McDowell Mountain this weekend on the ole mountain bikes, so we'll see how that all pans out. Hope everyone stays warm out in the midwest.

AHHHHHH

2009-12-26T17:17:00.001-08:00

To start...this is what I've felt like the past few days. Pretty much going nuts with these 40-50 mi wind gusts the last 4 days out here in Hays. Now normally I'd just quit crying around and go ride the creek trails, however, they are covered in ice and now another few inches of drifted snow from the winds...I know it's the off-season, but give me a break! Lately I've been doing a little pheasant hunting as cross training, and even a short run or two with the sister. Also got in a few nice long rides last week during a couple days of 35 degree snow-free weather. Tonight I had to resort back to the trainer while watching the tube...got in an hour of steady state with LT intervals during commercials (which can last FOREVER during an LT effort). Anyway, the countdown continues, with plans to start heading toward AZ this coming Thurs. Probably hit up Denver for new yrs eve and then go to Phoenix via Cortex, CO and Moab :)

Here's a pic of my hunting dog Max that I took last week out chasing some pheasants around. He'll turn 10 yrs old in Jan and is still going strong!

2010 Plans

2009-12-15T18:02:00.000-08:00

Well, it's not 2010 yet, but it is time to unveil the plans for it...or at least some details of them. For 2010 I'll be traveling the first 6 months on my final clinical rotations all over the country. Starting Jan 4th I'll be in Phoenix for 6 weeks, then to Raton, NM for 6 weeks, finishing up in CO Springs for 6 weeks. Following that, I have no idea where I'll be...most likely wherever I find a job.

Anyway, as far as riding goes, I'm happy to announce that I'll be riding for the 2010 High Gear Cyclery, Inc. / Trek and Gary Fisher Midwest regional team, co-sponsored by Planet Sub, Emporia Fitness, IM Design, Oakley and NOS energy drink. I'm also going to be riding on Maxxis tires next year. While I may or may not be racing in the KC area next year, I'm stoked to be riding with all the guys from Emporia. If you are looking for a bike or gear, you'll definitely have to give Matt Brown at High Gear a shout. I've got my order in on a new Gary Fisher Superfly 29er which I'm super stoked about racing on next year. I raced one of these the last few years (which I bought from Matt) and absolutely loved it.

I haven't lined up my entire racing season, but one of my goals is to really hit the MTB circuit up hard and then cross again depending on where I live. The main series I'm focusing on is the Mountain States Cup which is throughout CO and NM, putting on a solid set of races every year. I've hit most of these races in the past 5 years, but never have been able to put the entire series together with the small travel requirements from KS to CO. Other than those, I'm sure there will be a few small races thrown in there. I already found some early season racing in Phoenix, but I'm debating on whether I want to start up that early. I was planning on using Phoenix as purely base miles, but may have to throw in a race or two for fun. Hopefully I'll get up a full schedule before long, but until then you'll have to check out our sponsors to the right.

For now, it's another few days of "off season" and shooting stuff!

Small side note: went out for a snow ride with my sister today at 12 degrees and it was no bueno. We nearly froze to death, almost fell in the creek 4 times, and had to take a 30 min break at the bike shop to de-thaw before attempting our 5 mile commute back out to the house. Tomorrow we're supposed to see 20's so it should be back to shorts and t-shirts!

Boss Cross #4

2009-12-06T05:47:00.000-08:00

After a great break from racing last weekend (Thanksgiving back in western KS), I was ready to wrap up the season with the final race of the Boss Cross series. I came into this weekend sitting in 3rd in the overall points standings and looked like I'd stay there depending on who showed up. Well, unfortunately there only ended up being 4 racers in the open category (including Zach Dubas who had just finished the 3 race!). Figured that if I finished the race, I'd end up winning the series since neither 1st or 2nd place bothered to show up. The course for the day was pretty cool with some paved path sections, 2 LONG sand pits, and plenty of tight/twisty/flowy/off-camber stuff.

Rolled off the start line with the intent of using the first 2 laps to warm up since it was a balmy 30 degrees outside and I didn't get on the course much prior to our race. Good thing everyone else decided to do the same, as my legs were not having any of the "go fast" in them for a bit. Eventually they started to loosen up and we were gaining speed. Andrew Coe and I were blasting around together with me leading the first 3 or 4 laps having a pretty good time. Well, as Andrew came around to start leading, disaster struck. Ok, maybe not total disaster, but it basically was the end of my day. We came into one of the sand pits and as I was shouldering my bike I bumped the cranks and spun them backwards. This knocked my chain off the small cog so I decided to try just jumping on and shifting it back on. Didn't work....Andrew got a pretty healthy gap as I was putting it back on and the chase was on. Tried to chase for a while, but after blowing a few corners and sliding out here and there, decided I'd just ride steady for the remainder of the race and see what happened. Well, as you can imagine, I ended up 2nd, still taking 1st in the series. I think with a larger field it would have been a really fun course/day, but all things considered it was pretty fun anyway.

Still debating doing Barnyard Cross next weekend in Manhattan, but with finals/projects this week and trying to move out of my apartment, it's not looking good. Definitely looking forward to some time off the bike in the next few weeks. Its been a long cross season, but definitely one of my favorite years. I'm already getting pumped for 2010 with some exciting new things on the horizon...which I'll discuss at a later date :)

Good luck to everyone racing MO State today, and Nats next weekend!

Lincoln Cyclocross Weekend

2009-11-22T18:34:00.000-08:00

This weekend I decided to make the trip up to Lincoln, NE for a great weekend of racing. I've been up the last 2 yrs, but only for a single day. This year I ended up going up with Mark Studnicki and hitting up both days.

The course: Pretty long road section, a bunch of rolling climbing stuff, Hooligan Hill (named for the sort of character that hangs out up there to cheer), and then a bunch of flowy flat grassy sections. Found out fairly quickly that it was definitely a course for as low of tire pressure as possible with all of the fast, sharp turns.

Day 1: Got the hole shot and tried to drill it and see if I could open any gaps up. Chris Wallace was right on my wheel for a long time, but ended up going down late in the first lap. After we hit the pavement, Brian Jensen was right on my wheel and holding on tight. Pulled around for another lap, then followed Jensen for a lap. After hitting the pavement on the 3rd lap, Jensen put on the attack and got a gap on the paved section that I just couldn't close into the headwind. Had a small group somewhere behind me so there was definitely no easy riding for the remainder of the 11 total laps for day 1. Ended up rolling in for a 2nd place finish on day 1.

Day 2: Felt decent this morning...until I tried to go down stairs to hit up Perkins. Definitely was feeling the 11 laps up Hooligan Hill in my calves. Rolled out to the course around noon and got a few laps in to warm up the body for day 2. They ended up reversing the direction of the race which meant more climbing, and a little different routing for the hill. Today I decided to not go for the hole shot and rolled into the grass in 3rd behind Jensen and Nate Woodman. Most of the way through the first lap, I moved around Nate and jumped on Brian's wheel. Followed him around for another lap or so and then once again it happened. Much like Sat, Jensen opened a small gap on the pavement and grew it over the following lap. From here I ended up holding right in the same spot behind Jensen, never really falling back at all, but never really gaining either. Rolled in once again for 2nd. Props to Mark, who rolled a tire mid-race, ran/rode on his rim for half a lap, and still finished in the money. Mad props to the Lincoln crew too for another great weekend of racing up there. If you didn't go, you missed out.

No racing for me next weekend as I'll be heading back west for a little Thanksgiving, bird hunting, and gravel road riding!

Opening Weekend

2009-11-17T05:00:00.000-08:00

Well...unfortunately, the KS state cx championships were held on opening weekend this year. This is one of the cardinal sins of western ks, to schedule anything on opening weekend, but these easterners just didn't know any better. Anyway, I headed back to Hays to kill some birds for the weekend with my Dad, gramps, and a few other guys. Ended up with close to my limit on Sat, but nearly got skunked on Sun hunting in the rain. Here is a pic of Saturday's kill (pheasant and quail) and my trusty dog Max.

Max and I were in the middle of taking a nap in the filed during a break in the action.

We had about 4 more pheasants, but we gave them to a guy whose land we hunted on.

Cross Under the Lights and DeStad #4

2009-11-08T15:32:00.000-08:00

First up for the weekend was Grand Prix HPT in Topeka. This race is fairly unique for a number of reasons so there was some excitement about doing it. Number one reason was that the mens 1/2/3 didn't start until 6:45 pm...yes, that would be well after dark. Reason number 2 is the fact that it is held partially on a dirt track which = wicked fast. The organizers did a great job of lighting up EVERYTHING with either the track lights or rented generator/light poles for all of the stuff on the back side of the track. Initial impressions were wicked fast straights, sketchy corners with loose, rough stuff in most, 2 sets of stair run ups, and some tight twisties in the infield.

Got a pretty good start and headed up the first little hill on Joe Schmalzs' wheel, taking the lead once we got on the track. I hated to lead the race out, but it was better than sitting 4 wheels back trying to catch back on after blazing out of every corner. Somewhere in the first lap a small group formed with Joe, myself, Brian Jensen, and Chris Wallace. Joe and Jensen started getting a gap on Wallace and I, however Joe crashed after the steps which allowed Chris and I to catch back on to him. Granted, it was fairly short lived as he went flying off after Jensen again. Some time later I got a slight gap over Chris and started reeling Jensen in a bit. Then I started closing on him pretty quick and it became apparent why. I saw his seat/seatpost come flying off his bike, leaving him to pedal over half a lap standing up (try remounts without a seat). Note to self...don't use a carbon post on a cross bike...Got a pretty good gap on him as you can imagine before he could get a bike out of the pits and ended up finishing in that order. Joe, me, Jensen, Wallace, and Nate Woodman out of Nebraska rounded out the podium. For the type of course it was (smooth, fast, non-technical) I actually ended up having a lot of fun. Ended up rolling back into KC around 10:30 and was lights out by 11.

Got up this morning and headed up for what was promised to be a painful day in Leavenworth for round 4 of the DeStad series. This course was quite a bit like the Chris Cross course from a few weeks ago up there. Lots of climbing, lots of soft grass, bricked uphill every lap. There was also a little bump at the bottom of a downhill that you could get some pretty sweet air off of so that was definitely a highlight! Got a pretty good start, rolling into the grass in 2nd spot behind Shadd Smith and was definitely feeling the effort from last night. Probably didn't warm up enough because luckily the legs let go after a little while. Not even half way through the first lap I managed to get a handful of leaves stuck in my cassette and wow...my chain was skipping everywhere. I tried to just ride them out of the cassette but it was no use. I fell back about 10 spots while my chain was bouncing around like crazy. Spent half the lap yelling at my bike until I figured out I could still use the top 4 cogs of my rear cassette. This paired with my big ring would have to do. Finally got that figured out and started working back through the field. After another lap or so I had bridged up to Shadd and Chris Wallace and sat on for a lap trying to catch my breath. No one was really around so I figured I'd take a dig for a lap or so. Pretty soon we had a little gap on Chris so it looked like I'd be pulling a while longer. As it turns out, Shadd and Chris both ride for KCCX so I ended up pulling most of the race as I didn't figure it'd be good for me to have Chris join up with us again. Second to last lap I forced Shadd around and he kept it pretty easy with a couple digs that I was able to counter. Decided I'd just go back and pull and hope for a bobble. I got my chance when I heard him slide out a bit coming around a corner so I made my run. Held the gap for most of the rest of the lap, however I knew I was in trouble when he caught back on just before the bricks. Yep...down to a sprint....with a sprinter...Made my move (from the front) but couldn't quite hold it so I ended up with 2nd for the day.

Near the start, right before I jammed my drivetrain full of leaves

All in all a pretty good weekend. Had a bunch of fun with some descent field sizes again and some great courses. As for next weekend, I'll be heading back to Western KS for opening weekend of pheasant season taking a break from the CX bike for the first time since early Sept! Then it'll be up to Lincoln, NE for a great 2 day weekend the following week.

Also, as a small side note I'm going to be selling my Gary Fisher Superfly if anyone would be interested. Here's the link to the add on Craig's List http://kansascity.craigslist.org/bik/1452343778.html Thing is still like new, but I've been working on a few new things for next year and it may be time for us to part ways :)

Boss Cross #3 and Sunflower Cross

2009-11-01T04:14:00.000-08:00

Saturday was round 3 of the Boss cross series held up in Platte City, MO. I remembered this course from 2 years ago which involved a lot of climbing and a few rocky sections which claimed my tube (and my race) in a pinch flat. This year it was a lot the same only quite a bit shorter with one of the big climbs taken out. Initially I was kind of bummed about this, however around lap 11 of our race I couldn't have been happier. After talking to my teammates who just finished the Masters race they claimed there was no recovery and just a tough race overall. Surely not...well, I went out to pre-ride and yep...it was like riding through 6" deep mud, only there was no mud, and there was lots of climbing. It rained all week so the entire course was just like a sponge. There was a bunch of off camber, rough stuff thrown in too which I didn't figure would hurt the MTBers chances.

From the gun I jumped in at about 4th wheel heading off the road following Wallace, Jensen, and Bill Marshall. It was fairly apparent from the get go that I was riding the technical stuff a little faster but I tried to sit on for the first lap and not pull one of my "lead the race for a lap and blow up" moves. Managed to stay on their wheel the remainder of the first lap and then hit the pavement on Jensen's wheel and into the dirt once again. Made one failed attempt at a pass early, but then finally moved around. From here I tried to just keep it steady and ride strong without blowing up...I was also keeping an eye on Winkler who was steadily making his way through the field. Luckily I was able to ride smooth the entire race yesterday, not crashing or slamming my bike into anything...a success in itself. Ended up finishing the 239 laps in first for the day and mostly just glad to be done. Definitely one of the tougher courses I've raced on this year. That being said, it was one of the best courses I've been on this year too (a close second to Smithville).

Surprisingly I wasn't that sore this morning and was kind of excited to hit it again over in Lawrence at Sunflower Cross. After getting there I rolled around the course a bit and was pleasantly surprised at what they had done with the venue. This campground as many of you know is super flat and relatively featureless, however they threw together a pretty fun course running back through the trees and over enough gravel to really force you to keep on top of things. From the gun today, Shadd Smith rode away for the first half of the race or so making Jensen, Winkler and I battle it out a bit from behind. After some monkeying around we sort of got organized and put the chase on Shadd. After we got close we moved through the "technical" section of the course and I bridged up to Shadd getting a small gap over Jensen. Ended up starting to open a gap on Shadd after a lap or so and was feeling decent. With about 3 to go I noticed Jensen start coming up fast. He came by me like I was standing still with 2 to go...Thought I could lock up 2nd from here, but it was not to be. Somewhere, Shadd came back to life and caught back on during the last half of the last lap. I figured if I could ride the sand pit I may be able to put a small gap on him and get to the finish first. Yeah...didn't happen, with my mid-sand pit dismount, Shadd came around and the race was basically over. Rolled in with 3rd on the day which was hard earned for sure. For the small field we had on the starting line, it was actually a really fun race both due to course and competition.

Another double header on tap for next weekend in Topeka and Leavenworth.

Smithville Cross

2009-10-26T16:11:00.000-07:00

Headed up for round 3 of the DeStad Series this weekend in Smithville, MO. To be completely honest, my aims weren't set overly high as I spent most of last week trying to recover from my beating in Boulder. Just couldn't get my legs under me early in the week, but towards the end I had a couple good days so I felt a little better. Lined up on the front row this weekend with the intent of pegging it and staying toward the front for once. Lined up with 15 this weekend as a bunch of the KCCX crew was down in Louisville. Still had a plenty fast field with Shadd Smith, Jeff Winkler, Andrew Coe, Aaron Elwell, Studnicki, and Cam on the fixie MTB all in the mix.

Hit it from the gun and rolled off the pavement in 2nd position behind Shadd. Cruised through all the twistys and then came into the first barrier set hot...this was my first of 3 "rookie" barrier moves for the day. In my defense, they were on a downhill so it was easy to overcook them...bad :) With the group all together and hot on our heels, I went ahead and slammed my front tire into the first barrier, and then hit the back tire on the 2nd (I wasn't trying to bunny hop them...I just couldn't lift my bike up high enough). Anyway, as I was fumbling over the 2nd one I noticed my back wheel lock up and realized I had popped my rear QR loose. After slamming it back on the ground and shutting the QR on the run, I only cost myself 4 spots or so...ugh. Luckily it was the first lap and I still had a lot of that "first lap adrenaline" so I was able to pass a few guys and chase back onto Shadds wheel. The next feature was one of my favorites as we rode along the shore of Smithville Lake through some sorta deep sand. Getting out of this there were steps cut in a steep "wall," however if you played your cards right and hit it with enough speed it was fairly easy to ride. From here Shadd and I established a small gap with Winkler and Coe chasing hard. I eventually lost contact with Shadd and had Winkler close in on me. After a few well planned attacks, I could no longer counter and lost contact with Jeff. A few laps later we rode up on Shadd re-mounting from a pretty bad crash that unfortunately (for him) took a while to re-group from. Ended up finishing in the same positions with Jeff taking the "W", I was 2nd, Shadd 3rd, and Aaron in 4th. On a side note, by the end of the race I only crashed my bike into the barriers 2 more times, smoking my elbow on something in the process once, and mowing over a stake trying to regain my footing another time...wow...Aaron may have been right with the "rookie" shout out on the first lap.

Probably hang around next weekend for a double header in Lawrence and Platte City.

Climbing up one of the walls in the course

Morning Thoughts

2009-10-23T06:43:00.000-07:00

Been up this morning with no class to go to, so what have I been doing....building bikes (in my mind) of course. Contemplating what to saddle up on next summer when I actually can chase some big races, and that illusive Pro upgrade. Finally figured out that the mountain states cup aren't ranked high enough to upgrade, so it looks like I'll be doing a bit more traveling in 2010 which is fine. It looks like I'll be focusing all of my efforts on the MTB next year basing out of CO somewhere. Anyway, here are a few thoughts from my searching this morning. For now I'm thinking about going back the way of the 26" HT. Dropping 5lbs off of my pretty light 29er is just hard to beat. Then again, I may just end up racing the Fisher again, but hey, it's sure fun to look.

Valmont CX - Boulder, CO

2009-10-19T08:22:00.000-07:00

Made the long trip out to Boulder, CO this weekend for a little change of scenery. A bunch of friends were getting together for the weekend in Denver too, so that was another reason to just get out of town. Anyway, cruised out Fri morning and got a great warm-up ride in on my MTB up and around Green Mountain.
Sat I headed up to Valmont park which is outside of Boulder and is the future site of a new bike park. Eventually it's supposed to be pretty sweet, but yeah...it's still just a bit under construction. It had a fair amount of elevation for a future dirt jump course so that added a little bit of climbing for me which was nice. They had literally gone out and graded a cross course in and then mowed a bit of grass off. The dirt was all super hard packed with a lot of loose rocks working their way up. Then a number of corners were full of loose dirt/rocks. Out in the "grass" section it was mowed super short and was mostly dirt again. The grass was so stinkin rough I literally had a tough time holding on to my bike in a number of sections. The positive for the day, 75 degrees, and a 15mph breeze to keep the dirt moving. After freezing here last weekend, it was pretty great to play in the sun for a change.

Anyway, that is the skinny on the course. Since it's the front range...they only use the ACA instead of USA Cycling so I got to purchase a 1 day license which landed me a spot on the back (6th) row of staging. Lined up with 40 in the pro field and got a decent line leading into the first climb but from 40 back, had to breathe in a LOT of dirt. It was fairly miserable being at elevation, then riding through a fog of dirt as hard as you can made it all the better. I was just kind of hoping that the guy in front of me could see where he was going, because I definitely couldn't.

After the first lap I had slotted into about 20th place or so and began working with about 4 different guys. It was fairly entertaining as we all were breaking out of the group or falling off the group at one point, but just kept shuffling around the entire time. I decided if it was fast/flat, I'd just have to let them go but as soon as we hit the tight stuff I could easily close any gaps. Continued the dirt bath for 60 min and eventually came through for 16th place. I felt ok, but never spectacular. Just didn't have a whole lot of punch, but that's what I get for that little 5 thousand foot increase. JHK took top honors for the day, proving that not only is he the XC national champ, but the dude can ride his CX bike as well.

Originally I thought about hitting another race Sun in Golden, but the body said otherwise Sun morning. Decided to just peace out and bust it back home. Planning on hitting up Smithville CX next weekend for another round of the De Stad series.

Some friends after my dirt bath

My sweet staging position

Chris Cross

2009-10-11T18:12:00.001-07:00

This week was the Chris Cross race up in Leavenworth, KS. Last year I was out in Denver at a buddies wedding (and racing in Boulder) during this race, so it was all new to me. Pretty cool course as it was fairly wide and had a lot of climbing. Also had a long section of bricks (we'll call them cobblestones though since it's more Euro). We also had our first dose of winter for the year. Wed I was riding in shorts and short sleeves, today was a windchill in the 30s...I hate the cold, but that's neither here nor there. Pre-riding it looked like it would be wide open so I wasn't really that concerned with the start. Well 25 strong guys lined up again and I got staged on the 3rd row. While I still was not concerned, I soon would be. As soon as they hit the gun, it was single file up the hill and through the first turns. As wide as the course was, there just wasn't that much room to pass as there was only one good line. I spent the first two laps trying to get around people and working my way up. After I got into 6th position, this is where I'd stay for the remaining 5 laps. There was no moving up, and luckily no moving back. Although I will say Tom Price and Shadd Smith had me wondering a bit. They joined forces about lap 4 and kept me honest for the entire race!

Mayhem off the starting line pic from Roger

Trying to re-mount/hold my bike down on the rough section after the barriers (pic by Lyle Reynolds)

Next weekend I'm still a little up in the air about what to do but current plans are looking like a possible trip to CO is in the works. There are a bunch of friends coming into Denver for the weekend and races in Boulder and Golden. May have to bust it out there and suffer a little at altitude.

Boss Cross #1 and 2

2009-10-04T17:36:00.000-07:00

Another double header weekend, and what a weekend it was. Day one...got a terrible start and was basically behind everyone going into the first corner. Someone ahead of me missed the turn and smoked a stake taking themself and all of us out for a sec. Got around that mess and was starting to catch back on when I heard something pop...not sure if it was on my bike or Alex Edwards' however, after I heard MY spoke go flying out of the rim, it was fairly apparent. Thought about riding on it, however, after feeling the brakes drag and feeling my wheel flex like crazy in the turns it was time to jump on the pit bike...This is where it gets really funny. Wednesday this week I just sold my old pit bike because I hadn't used it in the last 3 years...soooo, I got to ride out the remainder of the race on my 29er mountain bike. Just held steady in my position and had a good time bunny hoping barriers and riding the sand pits.

Josh Patterson took this pic on day 2 of a sand trap/tight section where my spoke failed the first day.

Day 2: Luckily I found a spoke for my 2005 model Ksyrium SLs last night at the Trek Store and was back up and running today. Felt pretty good warming up, but ya never really know till the race is underway. Gun went off and I was in pretty decent position going into the first turn. Worked my way up to 3rd spot at one point but that quickly ended when I bobbled coming out of the long sand pit. By bobbled, I mean I completely missed the seat when re-mounting and somehow ended up over the handlebars, through the tape with my bike on top of me....there goes 5 spots....chased back on to a group with Shadd Smith, Brian Jensen, Bill Stolte and GT guy to ride a lap or so. I was feeling really good sitting on their wheels, however all good things must end. GT guy washed out his front end as we were railing a corner hard...It was one of those moments where I had time to think "boy, I could totally bunny hop this guy" however, my mind apparently works faster than my body as I was soon over the bars again, sliding through the tape...again. Popped back up and put on a chase, running down Bill eventually, and one more guy by the end of the last lap to roll through with the 7th spot. The course was so fast that there was a ton of crashing going on all day I guess. Everyone just kept blowing the corners going into em too hot. This evening, my body hurts...although I can still say it was a fun day.

Diamond Blackfan Cyclocross

2009-09-27T16:31:00.000-07:00

Men's Cat 1/2/3 lined up (pictures stolen from Chris Locke)

Rolled out to the first race of the DeStad series today down in Lenexa. Was spinning around before the race and it looked to be quite the different field than last weekend. Had 28 racers line up in the open field, which is pretty healthy for an open race. Not to mention there were just a few quick guys toeing the line (Shadd Smith, Steve Tillford, Brian Jensen, Josh Johnson....). Gun went off and it was a mad dash for the first turn onto the grass. Rolled onto the course in 10-12th spot and hit the curves. Started working by a few guys and was up as high as 4th spot for a little while. The course was fairly tight in some spots, but had some wide open sections too. Regardless, there was hardly any place to recover. Ended up staying right in that 4th-6th range the whole race but couldn't hold on when Johnson came by with a couple laps left. Tried to keep it steady and not go backwards, rolling in for a fairly solid 6th. We were pretty close to the end and I was definitely starting to get goose bumps from that whole lack of water thing. It was a steamy 85 out which for a cross race is way too hot in my book. I can't say I wasn't prepared (I had a water bottle at the start of the race) but ended up losing it when I caught some air coming off a dam on the first lap...It was a little tough riding by it every lap, just laying on the side of the course as I was slowly dehydrating! Anyway...a tough/fun day for sure.

Full results are up at www.kansascitycross.com

Off-Road Weekend

2009-09-20T18:24:00.001-07:00

It finally came, cross season. Headed out to Swope park early Sat to help the team set up for what was to be a great day of racing. Worked a while in the morning and then hopped on the bike to check out the course. First impressions were lots of turns, some single track, a little road, and one bunny hop log (more on this later). Due to the race in Herman the 1/2/3 field was a little smaller than normal, but we still lined up with 9 guys plus a pile of single speeders. We started on an uphill and from the gun Brian Jensen was looking to have the holeshot but flew through the first turn straight down the pavement. From here I was second onto the turns right behind Mark Studnicki followed close by Cam (on his MTB) and company. Kept right on Mark (who had already done the masters race earlier) for the first lap and a half and then decided to take the lead for a while. Ended up opening up a little gap and tried to keep it up for the remainder of the race. There were some sections so tight it was WAY more efficient to just take it easy through them and make up time on the flowier stuff. Somewhere in the 4th lap I got a little sloppy, or just hit the log hop section a bit fast, but I caught the back wheel and went flying! Smoked my knee on the ground and bent my left shifter around, but was able to get on and beat my bike back into submission pretty quick. Tried to keep it smooth and steady the next 2 laps and ended up cruising in for the win. Great course for the mountain bikers.

A couple pictures of crossing through the trees

Sunday Sunday Sunday...headed back out for the first ever Swope Park MTB race. Everyone kept telling me how technical it was so I figured I'd head out for a little pre-ride action. Got in a lap and yup...fairly technical, definitely was going to be a day you had to pay attention the entire time. Lined up with a pretty stout field including once again Cam, Tige Lamb, and Jeff Winkler to name a few. Got the hole-shot today, but ended up following Craig into the trees after our half mile of pavement. Craig helped build the trails out there and it showed. He was flying leading us in, so much so that coming around a corner I hit a burm hard enough to burp my rear tire a bit. About 4 minutes later, Craig hit a rock/corner hard enough to completely blow his tire off the rim. From here I ended up in the lead with Cam and Jeff in hot pursuit. After one technical short cut/rock drop section, Cam had bridged up and we had a gap on Jeff. I rode the rest of the first lap like a small child, sliding out on corners and bashing my other knee on a rock. 2nd lap was led by Cam...much like the first only a little smoother. Cam had ridden out there quite a bit, and it showed. Turns out there were some lines better than others. 3rd lap I led in and was able to keep it upright, and smoothed it out quite a bit again. There wasn't really anyone in sight behind us so I relaxed a little and started having a little fun hitting some sweet jumps and what not. Ended up hitting the final paved climb just ahead of Cam and punched it. I figured if I kept the pace high enough I could avoid the final all out sprint for the line...well, it ended up being pretty durn near to sprinting the rest of the way up but I was able to come in with the "W" again. Absolutely fantastic weekend all around. Even aside from that whole racing thing, it was just a lot of fun.

Next weekend, it's Diamond Blackfan cyclocross down in Lenexa. Peace

It's that time of year

2009-09-11T14:52:00.000-07:00

Yes folks, as you all may know, it's fast becoming that time of year...you know the time I'm talking about. The leaves are falling, mornings/nights are getting cool, days are getting shorter...it's a little thing I like to call cyclocross season. Now I know that everyone has already had blog entries about this very thing but hey, why not add my 2 cents on the topic?

Got back to KC last Monday and realized that my cross bike was still in pieces. I had scavenged parts off of it this summer for our bike study which finished up right before I left on clinical and didn't have time before I left to get it back together. Regardless, Tues night it took about an hour or so and it was all dialed back in. Now for the tough part...riding it again. Went out last night and wow... Took her for a descent spin on one of my hour routes with a fair amount of hills and got to where I was feeling fairly comfortable on it doing a few intervals. After this I worked a bit more specific sort of training and lets just say my body reminded me this morning...yep. Probably should have started this whole "training" thing a bit sooner, but hey, it's a long season. Looks like I'll just be riding myself into cross shape once again.

This weekend it looks like there won't be much in the way of racing going on, besides that little Tour of Missouri thing coming to town. Sat I'll be in conferences all day (woo-hoo), and hopefully Sun will be a little break from the craziness of this first week back in class. Then next week the mayhem begins with the first cross race of the year out at Swope park on Sat. Check it out at 360racing.org

Mountain States Cup #6 Copper Cup

2009-08-31T18:11:00.000-07:00

Welp, this weekend marked my last race in CO for this summer, and what better place to do it than Copper Mountain...I guess. Ended up car pooling up with Kyle, who is also interning in Denver and lives up in Golden. Got there plenty early and had a good time just messing around watching everyone else suffer in the Cat 2 races that went off. Also had a good buddy from Gunnison come up to hang out for the day. Hung around until about an hour before race time and decided it was finally time to get dressed and warm up.

Me and Double posing for a self portrait.

Rode the first part of the course to warm up, and in typical CO fashion, you pretty much climbed up fireroads/singletrack all the way to the top of the mountain, come back down, and repeat...fantastic! In all seriousness, these courses are pretty great because the fire roads help sort things out right off the bat so you aren't sprinting for hole shots all the time. We lined up with a pretty big field of all the singlespeed guys, and Cat 1's from 15-39. As soon as the gun went off, Kyle pegged it and led us through our first lap around the village before heading up the fire roads. As soon as we hit the climb, I decided to punch it a little and see who wanted to play. Pulled 3 guys out of the pack and we started working it pretty good. We pretty much stuck together, with a Honey Stinger guy going off the front towards the top of the first lap. Never saw him again, but re-grouped with 2 others on the descent to start lap 2. This went basically like the first, only I didn't have to lead it. Half way up or so I started to notice a squishy rear tire...great...another repeat of Winter Park. Jumped off and was ready to hit it with CO2, but decided it wasn't THAT bad and continued. Hit the fire roads toward the top and punched it again, to pop one guy off. Ended up getting attacked towards the top and couldn't respond. With my rear tire still loosing air, I couldn't really gain any on the down hill either, so I tried to not crush my rim on the rocks, or roll my tire completely over and pulled in for a solid 3rd. As it turned out, the 2 in front of me were in my age cat too, so it was 3rd 19-29 and 3rd overall. All in all, not a bad day. The 29er hard tail is about the perfect weapon of choice out here (and there's starting to be a TON of em). It took a little longer to catch on here, but with all the climbing, and then the descending that isn't generally that bad, it's pretty hard to beat. I know I could roll down hill a little faster on my FS bike, but dang...I'm pretty sure it wouldn't climb like my big wheeler.

Had some good burgers for linner (lunch/dinner) and then went to check out this.

Woodward is this indoor snowboard jumping/skatepark thing where you go down what felt like velcro and jump into foam pits. We didn't actually do it, but it looked way cool...the blur in the pic is a dude pulling some trick...no idea. Didn't even bother asking if they'd let me take my MTB off that sucker!

Anyway, one more week of CO bliss, and then back to KS just in time for CYCLOCROSS!!!

Winter Park MTB Series "Marry Jane Circut"

2009-08-16T14:28:00.000-07:00

Well, after last weekend, and starting in the clinic this week, I was a little less than pumped for this race. Put in some long days getting used to this clinic, not to mention trying to get rides in at dusk every night. Ended up staying up a little later than I wanted Fri night hanging out with a bunch of friends, and after a few hrs of sleep, jumped in the car and headed for Winter Park early Sat morning. The forecast was for spotty rain, but as soon as I pulled up it was bluebird skies! Well, after I registered and warmed up it turned to downpour...yeah. To top it off, the race actually started at the top of one of the ski lifts where we started the circut. Luckily the rain died down for our 15 min ride up the stupid ski lift (which I vowed I'd never ride with my XC bike...ugh). Now, just because the race starts at the top of a lift doesn't mean there isn't still a lot of climbing to do.

Gun went off and we started up 3/4 mi of fire road before jumping in the single track. Rolled into the single track off the front with another guy who happened to be on a single speed (they started with our wave). After about half way through the first of 3 laps we started running down a few of the stragglers from the pro category which didn't seem to slow us down much. Somewhere the SS rider disappeared and I was able to just keep riding a steady strong pace by myself. In my 2nd lap, I noticed my bike pulling to the left on some bridges...wierd...Well, turns out at the start of my 3rd lap it was still doing this. My first thought was that I somehow wrecked something switching out stems last week..turns out it was just a flat front tire...oh goody. Jumped off and tried hitting it with my big air. For whatever reason (un-tested equipment) I ended up fiddling around trying to get my CO2 to work and in the process blasted my hand, burning the crap out of my fingers...Luckily I got it to work and after a good 30 seconds of shaking/yelling at my front tire got it to seal up. By this time a number of pro guys and my single speed buddies had passed me again. Back on the chase....Made up a lot of time on the fire road climbs and after finishing the 3rd lap on top, we started our descent. This was oh so sweet, with a great mix of blazing fast fire road and technical single track. The rain storm ended up making the single track pretty slick with all of the rooty and rocky sections, but it packed the fire roads so you could really bomb...after the race, the guys I was descending with who had computers said we had hit 40+ :) Ended up rolling in with 1st in my age category and 2nd overall for the Cat 1 guys.

The rest of the day I took it pretty easy with a little fly fishing, and the camped up somewhere in my hypoxic altitude tent (my regular tent at altitude). A little more fishing this morning and some more great single track up here! May have blown my rear shock on my Anthem trying to manual through a waterhole but it was worth it it was so fun! I don't think there is any racing next weekend but I may be going to hit up some riding with the guy who got 2nd in my category yesterday. Turns out he is on an internship in Denver too only he is with the Federal Dept. Should be fun.

"Blast The Mass" Mountain States Cup Snowmass, CO

2009-08-08T20:52:00.000-07:00

Well, the day finally came. Mountain States Cup at Snowmass! Pre-rode this course on the way out here last week and found out there was a lot (approx 4700' in 20 mi)of climbing. Climbed up fire roads for a long time, then traverse across/climb singletrack, then DROP the singletrack. Good mix of rocky/technical and blazing fast smooth singletrack throughout the course. Oh, and that other small thing...Lance decided to show up. Figured this could make for HUGE turnout, or maybe not. Since it was the CO state MTB championships, the racer turnout was still pretty good, however the crowds were pretty much normal for US mountain biking :) Sadly, Lance started 2 min ahead of me since I'm still Cat 1 but it was pretty cool to be warming up with him on the roads.

After the Pros took off, we lined up next. Whistle blew and we were off...going straight up fire roads for the first mile or two. Pretty quickly made my way to the front, and then off the front which I was wondering about a bit...Turns out instead of climbing fire roads clear to the top (like the flyer said) you start switching back on singletrack to the top. This wasn't quite as steep, but definitely way longer than my pre-ride. I was riding with a single speeder for the first part and we quickly started making our way through the pro field. After topping out the climb finally, we continued moving up when a CU rider came by who I thought may have been C1. Put on chase for a bit but was having trouble recovering when I pushed to hard...decided to ease off a bit and try to run him down later. Finally made it to the descent which we flat out bombed! It was such a blast being almost spun out on single track. It was so smooth and parts were straight enough that you could get some scary speed going. Started into the second lap and had the CU guy in sight. Took over half the climb, but finally ran him down and went around. Somewhere near the top again, he came by and I never saw him again. The remainder of the traverse/descent was fairly uneventful (way fun though) and ended up coming in for 2nd place. Oh yeah...Lance CRUSHED the pro field, who woulda guessed?

Felt decent about the whole performance but still disappointed I couldn't pull out the W. It feels like I can put down the power up here, but backing off a little doesn't lead to a fast recovery like it would back home. Hopefully with a few more weeks of acclimatization things will be different in Copper Mountain. Next weekend it looks like Winter Park Series will be the order. Between now and then, my clinical rotations start in Denver. Should be a great month of learning :) Just found out too that I work 4- 10 hour days which is a bummer during the week, but should make for some GREAT weekends.

Peace!

Me suffering like a dog

"The Boss" suffering like...well maybe suffering

Fun Stuff

2009-08-06T15:02:00.000-07:00

Been out here in CO since Sun, riding and fishing a lot mostly. Just sittin in Durango right now checkin out the race details for this Sat in Aspen. Pre-rode the course on the way out here and yeah....lots of climbing. Mostly all climbing on fire roads, then traverse/descend mostly smooth single track...should be fun :) Also just read that Lance is going to be there. Too bad he'll be in the Pro race, 1 min ahead of the lowly CAT 1 fellers...then again, by the end of the race it may be a bit more than a minute I'm afraid.

Almost there.....

2009-07-28T19:59:00.001-07:00

No racing this past weekend. Decided to just hit up some base miles with the team. Also figured it was good to take a weekend off to get a couple tough weeks of training in prior to heading out to Colorado. That's right, as of Thurs, I HAVE to relocate to Denver for a month for another clinical rotation. We actually have a week off between the end of the semester (thurs) and the start of this rotation, so I'll be touring CO for most of it. Planning on hitting up some fly-fishing with my Gramps, pre-riding the race course in Snowmass, and goin down to Durango for a couple days to see my sister and a bunch of friends working there this summer. Pretty stoked to say the least. Hopefully while I'm out there I'll get in 3-4 big mountain bike races to work on that upgrade too. Looks like between the Mountain States Cup and Winter Park Series it shouldn't be too hard to do. Should get me back here then just in time for CX season!!!

Camp Alexander MTB

2009-07-20T20:22:00.000-07:00

This weekend I headed down to Emporia with teammate Brendan Jenks to hit up the first ever Camp Alexander Mountain Bike Race. We got down there plenty early so we could hang out a bit and get a pre-ride lap in before hand. I was actually really surprised to see my dad there when we got out of the car. He ended up coming out from Hays on his motorcycle to check out the racing action. After we registered we headed out to get in a lap on the course. Initial impressions were: super tight and twisty single track with a few short, punchy, loose climbs...a little pasture riding...and a 3 mile section of gravel roads. I was definitely impressed with what they did in a fairly small area and the fact that it reminded me a bit of our trails out west, meandering through the pastures. Also very impressed with the mid-July weather that they ordered in for this race...80 degrees, low humidity, bluebird skies, no wind...what in the world?

Lined up with Cam and Matt Brown (in our <35 age group) among others for a faster than expected start. More like, I wasn't in the right gear at all and then proceeded to slam gears, almost going over the handle bars trying to get the hole-shot. Went into the trees in 3rd position behind Cam, with Matt blazing the trail. I was definitely holding on for dear life through that first bit of singletrack. About the time we hit the pasture, Cam and I went around Matt and started workin the open spaces. Followed until we hit the road and then took the lead to pace for Cam a bit. Threw it in the big ring and railed the road section hard to hopefully get a good gap over the field. Pushed hard the next 2 laps and I will say, by the 4th time out on the road I was getting to the end. Every time I'd start pushing it, I'd hit red-line pretty quick (arms go numb, fingers tingle, legs burn...that lovely feeling). In the end, I ended up chalkin up the win and bringin home a nice payout. Props to the Emporia crew for putting on a great first race down there...lookin forward to it again next year. Mark Studnicki, Tige Lamb, and Brendon all went 1-2-3 in the >35 age group as well, so it was a good time had by all!

Midwest Fat Tire, SAC River

2009-07-12T15:00:00.000-07:00

Well, this past weekend I was finally able to get back on the MTB, and absolutely had a blast. Luckily it was dry enough last week to get out on the local trails a bit to freshen up the handling skills, but let me tell you, on the way down to the race I had my doubts it would happen. All of us from the KC area drove through a minimum of 1-1.5 hours of rain...and I mean pouring rain. Fortunately, upon arriving at the Sac River trails I was stoked to find out they hadn't had hardly any rain. Right after I got there I met up with Aaron Elwell and we headed out to do a little pre-riding. The trails were definitely tight/twisty, but also nice and tacky...perfect. It was nearly perfect, except the whole thing with Aaron doing an endo (on his 29er) and shoving a thorn in his palm...oops. Gotta watch those roots in the trail.

Lined up to race with a descent sized field, but with Chris Ploch, Aaron, and Cameron Chambers all in the mix it looked to be a pretty fast day. The race headed up a paved road for the first 1/4 mile before we dipped into the single track. Chris led us in, followed by Cam, Aaron, and then me. We opened up a gap pretty quick and were riding a descent pace, but definitely not your typical cross eyed, foaming at the mouth scenario. I was actually enjoying myself just riding the single track with some good friends. About a third of the way into the first (of 3) laps, Aaron's pedal fell off so he had to pull over to put that back on (twice) and was never able to catch back up. Following the first lap I went around and started pushing it a bit on some of the climbs. As soon as I saw Cam come around Chris and we hit the open start/finish area I tried to push it again through the long steady climb in the field. We ended up gaping Chris, although I heard he had raced the day before, and were tearing through the last lap when Cam had a piece of wire go through his tire. Ended up riding in alone for the win followed by Chris, Aaron, and then Cam who still got 4th after fixing a flat.

This race was really put on well with the promoter giving out a ton of swag and 3 redline singlespeed bikes. I would definitely recommend checking it out in years to come. While I've really had a good time racing road this year, this race reminded me why I got into cycling. I LOVE mountain biking! The bikes, the trails, and the people are just hard to beat. Definitely gets me all jacked up for next month when I head out to Denver for a 4 week clinical rotation and plenty of mountain bike action on the weekends!

As for this coming weekend, it's looking like I'll be heading down to Emporia for their MTB race (providing it doesn't rain out).

Tour of Lawrence

2009-07-05T20:02:00.000-07:00

Well, this weekend was finally back to racing after a few weeks hiatus. Decided to go hit up the Tour of Lawrence for one of my last road races of the season probably (MTB pickin back up!). Wasn't really feelin the crit on Sat (do I ever?) so I decided to just volunteer to watch a corner for a few hours and see who all was out there for Sun.

Sun I headed over to Lawrence for the C3 circut race. The weather was perfect with a few clouds and 80-85 degrees out. There were two massive hills too, so that was good...seemingly. Talking to Andy and Steve before the race, it sounded like every race previously had just completely blown up instantly. I decided I'd go ahead and try to establish that early so I wouldn't have to watch for breaks. Plan of attack for today: Get away or blow up trying....Well first time up the back side of the course I pushed it pretty hard and what do ya know, everyone came along...great. From here we tried to keep the pace fairly high with a few others up front including Andrew Coe of SKC and Kevin Limpacht who came down from NE to name a few. After a few laps it looked like the break would have to be established on the front side of the course. Not sure what lap it was, but I tried to drill it pretty good up this one and ended up bringing Andrew and Trey Harrison out. We came off the top with a small gap on the field and only kept it for a mile or so and were run back down. A few more failed attempts to blow up the filed on the climbs led to the inevitable group sprint up the last climb and down the final stretch. Came into the last climb a little too far back and let Andrew and another rider get a gap. Still was able to come over the top in 3rd position, but my legs were pretty cooked. 2 more got by, bringing me in for 5th overall.

All in all, not a bad day. Absolutely great race course and a pretty fun race at that. Next up...mountain bike season (finally!). Depending on the weather, I may try to head down to Springfield next weekend for a little knobby tire action.

Home on the Range

2009-06-28T13:45:00.000-07:00

Came home for a little low traffic riding this weekend...probably the understatement of the century. We did have some fantastic weather in western KS so it was actually (finally) some productive time on the bike. Should help to be all geared up for Lawrence next weekend.

Still here

2009-06-19T04:26:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long break between posts here, but there really hasn't been anything to speak of as far as racing goes since the KS road races. Thought about going over to Winghaven this weekend, but since I haven't stayed home for a weekend in a month or more, I decided to sit this one out. Long story short, I've decided to take a couple weeks to really focus my training in a little bit different direction. The reason being, in the month of Aug I'll be in Denver on a clinical rotation and be right in the heart of the Mountain Cup and Winter Park mountain bike series. That being said, the month of July is jam packed with racing too. A little break from racing should have me excited for that 2 month stretch of back to back to back racing.

The research project has also been going big guns this last couple of weeks, but we're still looking for subjects. The basic idea of it is that we are measuring VO2, pedaling efficiency, and power in two different hand positions on your bike. If you're interested, ride more than 50 mi per week and are between 18-45 years old, let me know and I can send you details on getting scheduled.

KS State Championships

2009-06-09T19:03:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, I opted to head down to race the KS state road championships in Arma, KS. Looked to be a windy, hot, long day right off the bat. We lined up with 38 Cat 3 guys and started out on our first (of 5) 14 mile laps. A couple guys went right off the gun, but seeing as we headed straight into a head wind, it didn't take to long to run them down. After about 10 miles sitting in the middle of the pack, chatting with a few guys, I decided to head up to the front and work with my teammates to keep any breaks under control when one of the Tulsa guys went off the front. I started to pull to get him reeled back in and ended up opening a small gap on the pack. From here, I decided to go ahead and put on a chase to get him reeled back in. After hanging out in no-man's-land for a bit, I finally caught him and was joined by a couple other riders. After the remainder of the first lap, it was down to a Tulsa rider, myself, and a Colavita dude. After another lap of working our tails off in the wind, the Colavita rider was pretty spent and decided to sit in for a bit before picking up pulls again. Well, needless to say, the Tulsa rider and I ended up pulling the remaining 50 or so miles alone. Pretty uneventful day, just pull until I was ready to blow, let "Tulsa guy" pull, then go pull until I was ready to blow again, and repeat. The final time up the only "hill" in the race and we sorta punched it a little but I wasn't able to pull around him on the last flat 1/4 mile or so which landed me 2nd overall, and 1st place KS rider.

All in all a good solid day on the bike that has left my legs pretty shot this week. No racing this coming weekend due to a wedding which will hopefully give me enough time to find my legs again.

As for now, it's back to working on this lovely research project :)

Emporia MTB

2009-06-01T19:32:00.000-07:00

Some buddies are putting on a XC race in Emporia on July 19th. Event info can be found at crampalexanderrace.blogspot.com. Looks like it could be a fun weekend close to KC. Check it out

Iron Horse Bicycle Classic

2009-05-26T14:41:00.000-07:00

Another pic of Fruita...I love this place!

Well, I finally got to race the Iron Horse this year. Ryan and I spent the previous week riding all over CO in prep for the big race which seems to be one of the highlights of my year always. Not just for the race, but the fact that I get to go out to Durango and see all my friends that I worked with in previous summers at Kanakuk Camps where I guided MTB trips everyday (tough job).

Upon arriving in Durango, we were a little disappointed to see the forecast of 60% chance of snow for all day Sat...great! The race got canceled last year due to a blizzard and let me tell ya, I was pretty ticked at the thought of another 65$ entry fee down the tubes. Well, after raining ALL night, it turned out to be a gorgeous morning. It was about 50 degrees and overcast, but no rain.

Had a nice roll out for the first 13 or so miles of 24mph sitting in the pack just waiting for the first climbs. Once we finally hit the climbing, it goes up at a steady grade up to the 25 mi mark. The pack just held steady and started popping guys off. After getting to the base of the first "real" pass we were down to 20 or so riders. At the base of Colebank pass, things started to pick up. Immediately guys started attacking for what would be 6 mi of an average of 6.5% grade. I made it half way up with the lead group and eventually fell off a little. Luckily a few others did too and we joined forces to pull over the top with 3 of us in the 5,6, and 7th spots. Flew down Colebank and got caught by a couple guys at the base of Mollas (a 4 mi pass). We immediately started attacking again, and I got away with one other guy to be joined by a 3rd rider half way up. We pulled steady over the top and then drilled it on a false flat and on down in to Silverton. After we rolled into Silverton, there is a 1 mi 2-3% grade "climb" up to the finish. No one was really going for it, so I took off and only one rider went with me. After he pulled around me it was pretty apparent that he was as spent as I was so at the 200m mark I made what may be the most pathetic excuse at a sprint ever, and pulled around him for 5th place.

Hangin out here for a few more days and then headin back to KC on the 6th or so to start the summer semester/research.

CO

2009-05-21T10:42:00.000-07:00

Quick update on life here. I've been out in CO all week touring around the state riding wherever we see fit. Started in Boulder where we visited some friends/slept on their floor, moved to Fruita (above pic), Grand Mesa, and now I'm chillin in/around Telluride today. Got in some epic riding so far and plan on plenty more to come. I'll post more pics when I get time. Off to rest the legs today before destroying em in the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic on Saturday. Peace!

Nebraska Battle Royale

2009-05-11T18:28:00.000-07:00

The pack up the first hill-I'm sure if you look really hard, you can see my white helmet in the back

After much debate about what to do this weekend, I ended up heading up to NE for a little MTB action. With half of my finals done last week (the hard half), it was high time for some dry mountain biking. Headed up early Sat morning with Scott Stevens and Ben Perkins from the KC Trek Store. As we rolled up it was looking like a pretty stacked filed with all of the Nebraska Trek Store guys rolling around, Tom Price, and Aaron Elwell to name a few. I figured that despite not riding my MTB for a month (thank you rain), the one big hill at the beginning of the race could put me in a descent start position for hitting the single track...wrong. After missing my pedal at the start, it was 3 wide blazing up the hill, elbows flying. Hit the single track somewhere near the back of the pack and just sat in a paceline of 9-10 guys for half of the first lap. Finally hit an open field and was able to punch it past a few guys. Ended up catching up to Steven Jarett and eventually Aaron on the 2nd lap who all traded places here and there for the remainder of the race. While my technical skills were lacking a bit I figured I could at least hold on and sprint it out for 2nd. Well, I ended up sliding out around a corner, then dropped my front tire off the trail later, which pretty much clinched my 4th place finish. Tried to ride strong and steady the last lap for a finish in the money. All in all, a great race with Cam Kirkpatrick taking the win, followed by Steven Jarret, Aaron, and myself. Full results will be up on nebraskacyclingnews.com later this week I'm sure.

Thanks for all of the interest in the research project as well. We'll still be looking for participants, so please let me know if you're interested.

Research Participants Needed

2009-05-06T04:21:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, a partner and I are conducting a research study involving cycling and bike fitting. In our study you will be doing a max test in two different positions (on the hoods and on aero bars). We are looking to see both power output, pedaling efficiency, and VO2 max in both of these positions. Please contact me if you meet our inclusion criteria on the form below, and wish to know your VO2 max/max power output, and anaerobic threshold. Testing will begin June 10th but we would like to start scheduling participants now. My e-mail/phone number are on the form below if you have any questions.

CYCLING AND POWER OUTPUT STUDY

We are looking for 20 cyclists to participate in a study to determine maximal aerobic fitness and power output during 2 different riding positions.

Do I qualify?
• Males between the ages of 18 and 45 years of age
• People who cycle a minimum of 50 miles per week
• Able to attend two (2), 60-minute sessions at the University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC)

What would I have to do?
• Participate in 2 maximal effort cycling exercise tests (lasting about 25 minutes in length) on 2 separate days at KUMC
• Able to provide individual bicycle and cycling shoes

For More Information Contact:

Shad Schreiner, SPT
785-623-7928
sschreiner@kumc.edu

Finals

2009-05-05T19:54:00.000-07:00

Didn't do any racing this weekend thanks to final exam season and the lack of any races close by. Needless to say, it will be controlling my life for the remainder of this week and half of next. This may be the reason I won't be posting much in the next bit here. However, following finals I'll be heading out to CO with a buddy for a week of riding in prep for the Iron Horse (finally). Then I'll join up with my parents for another week of mountain bliss before our summer semester starts. Just have to survive one....more....week!

VeloTek GP

2009-04-27T11:34:00.001-07:00

This weekend was one I had been waiting on for a while now. With all the mud lately canceling MTB races, and the majority of the road races being miserable that I've done, it was high time for a good weekend of racing. I decided to head to Lawrence and try my hand at the stage racing thing. Sat consisted of a TT and a crit out at Clinton lake. First thoughts were to just hang in there since I'd never raced an individual TT before and crits are far from my strong point in cycling. The TT was only a little over a mile so I figured TT bars wouldn't be necessary despite urging from teammates. Well, still not sure whether they would have helped me that much, but needless to say, following the TT I was already sitting 34th out of the 46 cat 3 riders (20 seconds down on the leader)...ouch. Despite my performance, I did have a couple teammates sitting up in the top 15 or so with Dave Hedujk in 4th. The crit was next...yippie. We thought if there was a chance to maybe nab some bonus points in an intermediate sprint we would try so I wasn't so far behind leading into the road race Sun. This plan really went nowhere as I could never get up to the front for those sprint laps. I had pretty much figured to just try and hang in for the pack sprint and finish with the group, but was almost derailed from that plan when on the next to last lap going through the chicane, the whole pack shifted and sent me off-road at 30+mph. Luckily I kept it upright and rode it out to jump in the back of the pack and finish up with the same time as the group.

Sun I went into the road race knowing my only chance for salvation was to gain some points in the KoM sprints and/or get in a break to put some time on the pack. Most of the first lap was fairly uneventful . I tried a little 5-10 min break with one other rider, but after we hit the 25mph headwind it was pretty apparent that it was going nowhere, so we sat up. Things did get interesting about 8 mi from the end of the first lap when Dave informed me that there was a big hill approaching and to be ready. As we rolled up it, a few guys had gone off the front, and we started pushing the pace a little bit. Without trying much, 4 of us had broken free of the pack and started working it a little off the top of the hill. Didn't take very long to join the other 3 escaped riders, and the break was moving. Crossed the dam at the end of the first lab and I was able to nab 2nd on the king of the mountain points to get me 5 bonus seconds. Rode out the second lap with our group of 7 taking pretty even pulls working it pretty hard the whole time. Came around for the final sprint well ahead of the main field and ended up 2nd to Trey Harrison. With the points I had gotten in the intermediate KoM and the bonus for finishing second, I ended up moving up in the GC from 34th to 3rd. Had my time trial been 4 seconds faster, it would have been 2nd, but hey...guess I know for next time (to use aero bars). As a team, 360 ended up doing really well with 4 of us in the top 15. Final team results aren't up yet, but we were really close between 1st and 2nd of the team category.

In other news...my research partner and I just found out last week that our proposal FINALLY went through and we can start testing! Next week we are having a meeting to set up testing time slots with the research center and can hopefully get this thing moving along as soon as final exams are over. More details will follow if anyone is interested in participating.

Sunflower Seeds and Coffee

2009-04-17T19:33:00.000-07:00

Been a while since an update, but here goes. Last weekend was Easter, so I ended up heading back home for a few days to hang with the family. Then this week included a LOT of studying as we had our yearly comp exam today. This is an annual event that is comprehensive....dur...over everything we have learned in the program thus far. Last year it wasn't terrible as we had only been in the swing of things for a year. Needless to say, I underestimated how much more material we covered in the last year to add on to that. So this last week was survived with the above combination of coffee and sunflower seeds. Not that they go together terribly well, but the coffee obviously is used to keep me awake via large doses of caffeine and the sunflower seeds...well...I've found that they keep me focused. I tend to fiddle around a LOT when I sit still, so for whatever reason, sunflower seeds keep me on track. The good ole comp is 2 hrs, 100 questions multiple choice on the computer (in a closed testing center with 18 cameras) so you know whether or not you passed immediately. Not passing = retaking it until you do pass, which you must do before you are allowed to advance in the program. Luckily I passed the first time and am done with it for another year.

In other cycling news, I did do the Wed night hill ride again this week. Was having my usual amount of pain and suffering up front with my teammates, however things went terribly wrong at the bottom of the Woodland climb. As soon as we crossed the tracks I dropped my chain, and as I shifted it back on and took off, it just popped. Keep in mind that this chain probably didn't even have a thousand miles on it! So, I watched EVERYONE ride by as I fixed my chain, breaking my chaintool in the process. Took off again and as I shifted in my big ring following this climb, I realized I had bent my big ring in the process too...down to small ring. As I was enjoying my solo catch-back-on attempt, I pulled up to a stop sign and what do ya know, flat tire. Made it home eventually and then had the joy of splurging for another new chain today, yeha.

Tomorrow is hopefully going to include a bit of suffering on the MTB up at the Bone Bender 3/6. I'll give a race report when/if it's over :)

Spring anyone?

2009-04-05T18:25:00.000-07:00

One word to describe today....COLD! To replicate the sensation felt today I suggest you go stand in the shower with it turned all the way to cold...then put a fan in the bathroom blowing 35 mph...now stand there for 3 hrs and you kind of get the sensation. Went up to Leavenworth to the Joseph Sheehan road race with the idea that it would be cool, and maybe rain at the very end of the race a little. Boy was I wrong! Got up there around 8:00 and the temp was around 38 or 40...very promising. Well, by the time the race was lining up to start at 8:45 it was sprinkling out. By the time we started the neutral roll out, it was raining. In typical Shad fashion, I didn't take a raincoat or vest because, why would it ever rain here? Luckily I was able to borrow a 360 wind vest from Joel which kept me alive for the entirety of the race. Within the first mile, every part of my (along with everyone elses) body was frozen solid. Couldn't feel my fingers/toes/face...you get the point. At about mile 4 we started up a descent hill and I decided to punch it a little. Pretty soon I had a little gap, and Alex Edwards came up to ride away with me. We were later joined by one guy from Tulsa and proceded to hammer away on about a 10 mile break. During this time the wind was blowing about 35mph, and the rain sorta stopped. By stopped, I mean it changed from rain to sleet. Then from sleet into hail, followed by a little snow. Basically it felt like riding our bikes in a very cold sandblaster for 30 min or so. Eventuall the rain eased up and as we were riding straight into the headwind at 8mph, where we were finally (luckily) caught. Rolled along with a group of 8 or so for another 5 miles and was really starting to feel the cold. Every time we would descend I would start shivering so bad, I'd throw my bike into a speed wobble. This made me grab the brakes, which I was squeezing as hard as I could and was getting nothing. Still don't know if it was because my hands were that numb or if my brakes suck that bad. This was also about the time I noticed my jaw was hurting so bad I couldn't open my mouth due to clenching it so hard the past 20 miles.

As we were rolling through the hills Andrew Coe took off at one point and no one really went with him...there was no way I could go at the time since it was a downhill and it was already all I could do to hold onto my bike. Up the next hill, the field kind of blew up and it was down to me, Justin, and a guy from Texas I think. We ended up hammering away until we got to the turn and FINALLY had a tail wind for the last 18 miles or so. Rolled in, finishing up a hill and I was able to get 2nd to Andrew Coe who we never could catch.

It was a little humerus trying to drink coffee with everyone after the race. No one could get it to their mouths because we were all shaking so bad from the cold, even with dry clothes on. All in all, a fun day regardless :)

Finally back in the swing of things

2009-04-01T18:50:00.001-07:00

Finally made it back to KC last weekend after a month in western KS. Let's just say the drive Sat was a little worse than I expected. There was no snow in Hays, but around Salina, there was still 6-8" of packed snow/ice on the road. All the trucks were chaining up and we were in a paceline of cars going about 20mph. Finally made it back through that and a white-out around Junction, followed by rain from Topeka to KC. Anyway, I thought that I'd finally be away from the winds of Western KS but yeah...still fightin it every day here too. Between the wind here, and getting rolled with 2 tests our first week back from a month of clinical rotation, it has been an intersting week to say the least.

Probably the highlight of my week was getting to go to the Wed night hill ride again tonight. Its almost been a year since I was at one, and forgot how much I missed them. That and getting to ride with my teammates and other guys at the ride. It makes you appreciate having a great group of strong guys to ride with when you are out completely by yourself everyday in the land of no bicycles :)

As for this weekend, I think it's going to be up to Leavenworth for the Joseph Sheehan road race. Sounds like there are a few hills on the route so that should be fun. I think the closest MTB race is 5 hrs away up in NE so yeah...back on the road again.

Lastly, my exciting bit of motivation to keep pounding the hills was signing up for the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic in Durango, CO. This is a great road race with a TON of climbing that I've done the last 3 years and goes from Durango to Silverton over 3 absolutely miserable passes. A buddy and I are goin to road trip it out for the week leading up to it on memorial day weekend. Should be a good test of the ole climbin legs. That and it'll just be a good week to get my mountain fix in for a while. Now I just have to hurry up and wait for it to come!

I HATE WESTERN KS

2009-03-23T18:41:00.000-07:00

Ok, I GIVE UP...yesterday was only 40 mph winds..today was gusting over 50. I went out for an hour yesterday and no joke, could hardly pedal into the wind. Then the crosswind...well, let me tell you...it literally blew me off the county roads 3 times. I was a bit ticked to say the least. Then after watching the trees bent over all day today from in the hospital I decided to call it a "rest day." It was actually hazy out because there was so much dirt blowing...eat your heart out dirty 30s.

On another note, last weekend I ended up stayin in Hays and not traveling. Had a good buddy from grade school get hitched. Good relaxing weekend for once...we'll c what happens next weekend....if I haven't blown away!

Road Racing

2009-03-16T19:51:00.000-07:00

This weekend I made the trip back to KC to pick up my road bike and get to the Perry Dam race since the MTB race got rained out. I knew 360 was going to have a presence there so I was pretty excited going in. We talked a bit before the race and got a basic plan of attack laid out. The first lap we decided to try and get Andy some bonus KoM points which were up for grabs. Since he was the only one on the team who was going to be going after overall points we were going to try to help him out there. As we neared the base of the hill, a kid from Velotek took off and I decided to be smart (for once) and stick with Andy in case he wanted to go after the points. As we got about half way up, no one else was going for it, so Lucas hollered up and I pulled up almost to the top and let him slip through to nab 2nd place for the points. Well, Walt Blesser went up and pulled his guts out for the first half of the race before he finally popped (who wouldn't have?). This left Lucas, Doug Obershaw and I to fend for ourselves against the pack. Throughout the race Tom Price tried a number of times to get off the front, but finally bridged up to a rider and took off. We weren't too concerned early as there were still a few of us left and the pack was riding ok, however, the pack had another idea. The basic consensus seemed to be "lets all let the break go and race for 5th...unless 360 wants to pull it in." Well, originally we were going to try to save both Andy and my legs for the last sprint up the hill, but it was pretty apparent it would all be to no avail if we couldn't reel in the break. After we came around for the 4th time up the dam, Doug just drilled the pace all the way up. At this point we were pretty sunk if someone didn't go pull, so I decided to just get up and try to reel in the break with Doug for Andy. We sat on the front and kept it pegged all the way across the dam at 28mph or so and almost had the break within striking distance, however we were both toast from the effort. As we waited for someone...anyone to help us out, we ended up watching the break of 4 riders ride back away from the pack. We came around for the last time up the hill and it was rather uneventfull for us as we all were pretty shot from working the last 5 miles completely alone.

This leads me to my next point...why road racing annoys me. I know there are tactics and all with riders in breaks, but dang...even if you're out there by yourself (which I have been a lot) wouldn't it be better to help reel in a break and at least fight for a descent spot rather than not work because there are 2 riders of the same team in your pack?

Regardless, we had a good time workin together and definitely had yet another learning experience in road racing :) May or may not go back for vengance this coming Sun. The last 3 weekends I've spent between 6 and 14 hours on the road every weekend. May just sit this one out...we'll see when it gets closer.

12 "ish" Miles of Hell

2009-03-09T18:17:00.000-07:00

Welp, it's been a while since an update, but here goes. Made it back to Hays just over a week ago and got rollin on this clinical affil in the in-patient department at Hays Medical Center. It's definitely been a great learning experience thus far. Only bummer was getting a bit sick early last week. Took it easy for a few days and I was feelin good enough to make the trip south to race Hills of Hell in Lawton, OK.

It was a good 7 hr drive and I was pretty excited to race a short track down there but was a little bummed when we got there to see the course. No joke, they literally went up the hill and spray painted over the grass/weeds/cacti/rocks. It was even a pretty sweet course, but they did absolutely NO prep work and it wasn't worth ruining a tire on a hidden rock to me. As luck would have it, no one else felt the need to push their bikes through 3 foot tall weeds either! So...went out and pre-rode the whole course for somethin to do. Needless to say, it only took me an hour and 10 min to leisurely ride the entire 1 lap course...yeah....

Sun morning we headed over for the actual 8ish miles of Hell...yeah...Felt pretty good warming up before the race as I did a couple sprints up "the hill." I lined up with 200 or so other mtbers and tried to talk myself into staying on the second row and just riding easy to the base of the hill before I attacked. Well.....they called us up to the starting line and I ended up on the front row....gun (cannon) went off and I suddenly found myself leading the race down the pavement. Smooth move Schreiner. Decided to just soft pedal to the base, and no one seemed to mind as they all just sat in my draft the 1/4 mile up there. After we hit the hill, I tried to hit it pretty hard and as luck would have it, I was able to crest the hill with a pretty good gap on the field. Rode the rest of the race alone trying desperately to not puncture on a rock, and at the same time, keep growing my lead to buy some time for when I inevitably punctured a tire. Somehow I made it through with no flats and cruised in for the overall win down there finally. All in all, it was a pretty good weekend despite everything...Pumped to get back to racin in KC next weekend at either the Bone Bender or at the Perry Road Race should rain hit and cancel the Bone Bender.

Here are some pictures of our Hays group with our trophies and a few shots from pre-riding the course

On to the next thing

2009-02-26T17:15:00.001-08:00

Well it's been an interesting week here. Had to finish up with midterms since we're gettin ready for yet another clinical rotation which means no classwork for a month. Just a super busy week with tests and trying to get research stuff ready to go before we leave.

Last weekend had a great time as Sat I went out to Swope Park with a group of 360 guys to build some mtb trails. They're really shaping up to to be a great system out there and once it connects up with Minor Park in the next few years it'll be a ton of riding! Sun I ended up heading to Lawrence to meet up with Aaron to do some mtbing out at Clinton. I've been gettin in a fair amount of miles, but thanks to the weather, I haven't been able to get that many in on the mountain bike. Figured if I didn't get with it pretty quick I'd be flailing all over the place in these first few MTB races. The trails out there were great as usual and we even got in some north shore style riding...not really, but it made it more fun to imagine it was 20 feet off the ground.

So anyway...tomorrow or Sat I'll be packin up my life yet again to head back to Hays for a 4 week clinical rotation. I'll be in the hospital there, which isn't my preferred place to practice, but hey...should be a learning experience regardless :) It'll be good to be back training in my ole stomping grounds too...gettin the cx bike ready for some endless dirt road bliss. I'll try to keep this updated with any interesting news while I'm out there.

Some days are better than others

2009-02-20T18:00:00.000-08:00

All I can say is WOW. The ride today was a bit interesting...enough for its own blog post. To start things off, I was cruising up Holliday Dr. about 3 miles from home and came to a stop sign. This is not just any stop sign, but one at a T in the road. I was just going straight AND had a bike lane that I was rolling in so I didn't figure it'd be a huge issue if I just rolled the stop sign. Well.....apparently 2...yes 2 cop cars had snuck in behind me somewhere in the mile before that and felt they could best serve Kansas City in crime fighting by pulling me over :) Oh yes, sirens, lights and all! Got chewed out royally for a min or so, threatened with a $135 ticket and then let go. What could I say, other than "my bad." Luckily that was enough...I guess I could have thanked him for keeping me safe too...or not.

So, after that I continued on with my ride only to be chased down outside of Bonner Springs by a German Shepard. Got the HR up to 185 bpm trying to drop this stupid friggin dog that would NOT let up. I've been chased by dogs before, but dang...we're 5 houses down and this thing is still intent on eating me!....Finally got away though and rolled on into DeSoto. Thought I'd try to take a new route going south on Kill Creek Road and come back into KC from the south....Well, after 2 or 3 dead end paved roads going East I was starting to get frustrated with this as well. Apparently there are NO cross roads (at least paved ones) out there. Just kept winding south and further south. Finally popped out at 135th and The Middle of Nowhere Rd. and started picking my way back North (after 2 more dead ends). All in all a good ride regardless. Got in 3 hrs or so and got to enjoy some beautiful weather finally.

Is it race season yet?

2009-02-12T18:32:00.000-08:00

Welp, just rolled back into KC Thurs after a good week of pain...Mostly stuck with longer rides every day for the last week, and being back in western KS helped that. I always forget how nice it is to ride with NO cars around. Only out there can you ride 3+ hrs and never see another car (or form of life for that matter). Anyway, after Wednesday's ride I decided to call Thurs a rest day and get ready for another weekend of long group rides.

Today we (Team 360 and company) got out for a good long COLD ride. I decided to ride to the group ride start point(12 mi) which felt pretty good as I had a tailwind most of the way. On a side note- while trying to decide how many layers to wear...standing in the garage with the door open does NOT represent a 20 mph headwind at 28 deg. Anyway, after the group got moving into the North headwind it took about 30-45 min to gain some feeling back in my fingers. Was off and on the whole ride what parts of my body I could/couldn't feel. Gotta love the cold! Turned out to be a great ride and with the ride to/from the group, got in around 70 miles. Goin to get after it again tomorrow morning for another long, cold ride. Should be a good time.

Still debating what will be my first race of 2009. Looking at Froze Toes RR in Columbia, MO next weekend depending on teammates going and whether or not I can find someone to share a ride there or not. Regardless of whether that works out or not, I will be going down to Lawton, OK for the formerly known 12 Miles of Hell (Hills of Hell now??) on about the 8th. This is a super cool MTB race in the Wichita Mountains with what has been as many as 750 man mass start before. After that I will be doing the Bone Bender MTB 3/6 hour in KC. The rest of the year is basically up in the air as far as I am concerned.

On a side note: did yet another max exercise test on the bike this week which finally solidified a protocol for our research project. Hammered out the proposal with one of our advisors for about 5 hrs and will hopefully be able to submit it for review later next week. Slowly but surely getting this thing going.

"Training Camp"

2009-02-07T18:20:00.000-08:00

Well I finally made it through this awful week. Only had one major freak out which occurred Thurs (aka. longest day of my life). Long story short, between 8-5 classes back to back to back to back...., a test Fri, and a research project that is a bit larger than originally planned, it was about enough. WELL, now that's behind me and it all came out just fine. On to this next week which may just be the best week I've had in a while.

Reason: This week is the national physical therapy conferences in Las Vegas, NV. Now you may be thinking, how/where do you ride bikes in Vegas? Well, my thoughts exactly! After careful thought...about how much I hate cities, lights, large crowds, overpriced EVERYTHING, and being away from my bike right before season....I decided to not go. This worked out even better than I originally thought. I decided to stick around KC for the weekend and then head back out to western KS for a few days of LONG rides. So far so good...as the weather took a turn for fantastic! Got in a long ride Fri after class, and today hit the road with a big group of 360 guys for 50 mi.

We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Another week down

2009-02-01T17:58:00.001-08:00

Last week was brutally cold early in the week, forcing me onto the trainer a couple of nights but I got mine this weekend. Luckily, I had Fri off from class so I got a solid ride in with 40 deg temps. Sat the parents were in town so I missed the big group ride, however it was probably for the best as my legs were pretty toasted from Fri...still got in an hour and a half or so. Today had a great 60ish mile road ride with a group of 25 or so.

on a side note: the further east into Missouri you go, the more ways there are to die! Dogs, squirrels, goats, cars backing down the street, potholes EVERYWHERE.....I could go on, but you get the picture. Kept us on our toes at least :)

On to this week which looks to be a bit brutal as far as hours in class and a number of lab practical/lecture exams hitting. There are a number of days we don't get out until practically dark, so I'm not real sure how that's going to go down. Oh well, I'm sure we'll all get through it just fine.

Heat anyone?

2009-01-26T04:49:00.000-08:00

Well, another lovely week of a good Kansas winter. I guess I can't be to upset since it is January, but dang. Up until this point I've been doing pretty good with the cold compared to previous years. I've somehow been motivated enough to get on the bike every day and be on with training as usual but I'm not sure if I can deal with potentially 2-3 more months of this. As long as we have a few of those 65 degree days like last week thrown in there I'll be alright! It's only a few weeks until the first road race of the year which usually helps to motivate the training as well. As for now though...more aimless riding around in below freezing temperatures which is still WAY better than riding the trainer!

This weekend actually turned out pretty good regarding training. Obviously there was Thursday...enough said. Sat I met a group out at Landahl to ride for a couple hours and despite the 4 degree temps it was a lot of fun. The trails were all snow covered, but traction was great save for a few ice spots. Sun, although 20 degrees warmer, still felt really stinkin cold on the ride up to Shawnee Mission Park for another MTB ride. Met up with Andy and then once we were on the trails ended up hooking up with Tom Price to hammer out a few more laps. Had a good time, but when Andy offered to give me a lift home, I gladly took it. It was one of those mornings that I'm pretty sure just got colder as it went on and I wasn't looking forward to 30 min of busting into the north wind to get home.

Notice in the first picture Brian and "guy behind tree" trying to deal with frozen up waterbottles. Even my PolarBottle was subject to the freezingness.

Ok, on to another lovely week of school. May throw in a couple of interval sessions this week just to kind of check the legs and I'm re-checking the VO2 Max this week. Not completely for training as it is for a pilot study we're doing regarding our research at KU Med, but I like to think it's all just to re-check/get a baseline on my fitness :) Look for more information on here in the coming months if you're interested in participating in our study. I'll have an official plug for it once our proposal gets passed. Until next time...stay warm

Shadows on the Bike

Snow Sports

2012

Change of Seasons

Gunnison Trails Weekend

Palmer Park 50

Training Wheels

Sol Survivor-Mountain States Cup Solvista

Just Training

July

Epic-ish Singletrack

Durango- Iron Horse Bicycle Classic

MSC Salida

Kansas Fat Tire Fest

Shred the Gnar

Hero Series MTB

MSC #1-Cheyenne Mountain Explosion

So Close

Ramping it up

Cross training, Top Fueling, busy days.

Hut Trip

2011 Race Machine

2010 in review

2011

Froze Toes Riding

Return of Darkness MTB Race

Blue Sky Velo Cross

As of lately

Frisco Cross

Capulin Volcano Run

Pikes Peak Velo Cyclocross

Pikes Peak Velo Cyclocross

MSC Fall Classic-Breckenridge

Cascade Drop-not for the faint of heart

MSC Keystone Revival

Rocky Mountain State Games

Power bar?

XC Mountain Bike Nationals

Sand Creek Series #4

"Chile Challenge" Mountain States Cup #3

Sand Creek Series #1 and exploration

Happenings

"Rabbit Valley Rampage" Mountain States Cup #1

It lives!!

CO Springs

Mad Cow Classic RR: day 2

Mad Cow Classic RR- Fruita/Grand Junction, CO

Bikes and Buffaloes

Cross Training

Raton, NM...Pop. 6,465, Cyclists: 1

Whirlwind

Gear

Another week or so down

Non-race weekend

New years, Moab, Phoenix....

AHHHHHH

2010 Plans

Boss Cross #4

Lincoln Cyclocross Weekend

Opening Weekend

Cross Under the Lights and DeStad #4

Boss Cross #3 and Sunflower Cross

Smithville Cross

Morning Thoughts

Valmont CX - Boulder, CO

Chris Cross

Boss Cross #1 and 2

Diamond Blackfan Cyclocross

Off-Road Weekend

It's that time of year

Mountain States Cup #6 Copper Cup

Winter Park MTB Series "Marry Jane Circut"

"Blast The Mass" Mountain States Cup Snowmass, CO

Fun Stuff

Almost there.....

Camp Alexander MTB

Midwest Fat Tire, SAC River

Tour of Lawrence

Home on the Range

Still here