Fun stuff!

Its amazing how busy you can get, I got in like 55hrs or something at work this week. I hate passing up money more than a bike ride and when its there you have to take it. Worked 13hrs yesterday, I like to think of it as endurance working! Building houses is like a giant 3D puzzle there is nothing real hard about it once you understand how it goes together. Picture of the garage header and the trusses for the second floor. This picture is of a second story walkway overlooking the great room. This house is going to be pretty sweet... Anyway as for as riding goes just been doing the usual stuff to get ready for this .

Wed. on a Thursday

The usual Wednesday ride got rained out so we went out on Thursday. The guys at
The happiest place on earth hooked me up with some new sram stuff for the road bike, pretty awesome stuff. I could say this was just another normal ride but with Jim that doesn't exist, there is either hard rides or really hard rides! This one kind of fit between the two, Ron split early and the rain came. Ended up getting pretty wet but still another great ride. I am still amazed at how well I felt after all of the riding last weekend. I am thinking of something pretty big coming up!!

2 ways to hell. Landahl 12hr, Cape 3hr

Rapture in Misery 12hr solo

Thought it would be something fun to try. Do the 12hr race Saturday heartland mtb race series. Then do the 3hr race Sunday August 17, 2008 - Cape Race, Cape Girardeau, MO. The biggest issue was the 12hr race ended at midnight and the Cape race started at 9am. Also the 340 miles between the two! So I packed up Friday night and left early Saturday Morning for the 4hr drive to Landahl. The idea for the 12 was to keep the heart rate in the 140s, keep a comfortable pace, stay hydrated and try and save something for Sundays race. The 12hr race went perfect, no mechanical which on this technical course is awesome. Took a good few minutes between each lap to eat and drink even though I disappointed the guys next to me ringing the bells cheering everybody on! (you guys rock) The first 5hrs went by really fast, had no idea were I was as far as placing goes, for all I knew I could of been in dead last and didn't give much thought to it.

I am thinking it was going into the Sixth lap when I found out I was in third overall only a minute back from second. This was cool but what was even better is I had a really good average speed and was keeping the heart rate exactly were I wanted it to be. Going into the seventh lap most of the six hr racers were finishing up. Getting towards the end I saw The Itch... up ahead, riding super strong and finishing his race up in style, great job Zach, and also killer performance to Matt Keeven for dominating the 6hr race. Pretty much from this point on I felt great had the course dialed and was getting stoked on some night riding. The night was good but I haven't ridden on the mtb at night since the Bluff 12hr race last year so it took me a little bit to get used to again. Amazingly before I knew it I had 10 laps done in a little over 10hrs, way faster than i thought that would happen. Going into the 11th lap I knew this would be my last lap, at least if I really wanted to be driving back and racing the next day. The guys at the desk said second place wasn't that far ahead but Cameron was pretty much gone. Talked to Chad for a bit then went back out for a nice last lap. Finished up the race feeling way better than I ever have at any previous 12hr races. The biggest thing I noticed from the results is how close me and Graham were at times, would love to hear how his race went. The kid rode amazingly strong for what I think was his first 12hr!

Finishing up the race I got everything packed up pretty quick and got some seriously cool north face stuff from the heartland guys. The heartland crew put on a perfect race as usual! The only thing that would make this race better is if they would add a 24hr race for next year!!

The drive was tough but not as bad as I thought it would be. It was close to 1am by the time I hit the highway, spent to much time in the Mc Ds drive through for a crap burger, at least the shake was awesome. Did the rest stop thing for about an hour. Made it home by 5 30, unpacked all of the stuff i didn't need and got the truck a little organized for the wife and kid to go down to the Cape race with me. By the time I made it in and got a shower and was thinking of taking a nap, I figured out the little guy snagged my side of the bed so it was off to the couch. That lasted about 5 minutes when my wife's alarm went off and we were up and eating breakfast and packing up all of the necessities for bringing a family to a mtb race. So at this point it had been 25hrs since I left for Landahl and I was back on the road driving down to Cape, I think my wife would of rather been driving and don't worry she drove us home! But on the way down I needed to make some good time, wanted to get there and check over the bike again and spin the legs a little bit.

The start of the race I did what I usually do off of the start, go as hard as I can. With Andy Gibbs, Brad Brown, and Mitch just out of the picture at the race, all three of these guys really fast.I knew it was going to be fun to see how long I could last on this very fast course. Stuck with Brad for the first 1 1/2 laps and then he was gone. I rode the hardest pace I could for the first 3 laps, and then just set a pace I thought I could hold for the rest of the race. In the end a big Congrats goes to Brad who beat up on all of us pretty good, And to Mitch also who was coming off of the Moonlight ramble and being up all night too stuck second place solid beating me by 2 minutes. Between trying to catch Mitch and stay ahead of Andy I think I fought for third place more than I have for any race I have ever won. Great times!! Thanks to John of Cyclewerx for putting on another great race on a super fun course...
Thanks Dustin of Cyclewerx for the massive burrito!

coming around one of the last corners to the finish... Up for most of 30hrs at this point and still feeling good.

Stuck in my head!

The Colorado Trail Race. It usually doesnt take long to get hooked on something usually to the point of obsessing a little bit over it. I first heard about this race last year, and love the self supported idea. One of the reasons for going to Colorado and doing the Breckinridge race was to see how I would feel just riding there. http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=436927

After following it this year it is defenitely something I would love to start training for.

Johnson Shut-ins State Park

http://www.mostateparks.com/jshutins.htm

Daddy can I climb up that rock?

Let go, I can do it!

Dude check me out, I am almost there...
We made it.

another Wednesday...

Finally getting back into the Wednesday night rides with Mr Jim Vandeven and crew. Last nights ride was mellow compared to last week. Last week I hit a all time high 190 on the heart monitor. We hammered the first 15 miles as usual to the covered bridge to meet up with Dave and Ron. Past that its right back up Old Lemay then up Wedde rd down and back up Old Lemay going back to Covered bridge and then out past hwy A for some more hills. usually once me and Jim top out over a climb we will back off and wait for Ron and Dave, It seemed like every time they would catch up they would attack, so game on! This pretty much went on all night, me and Jim attacked each other on every climb all the way home, pretty much towards the end it was all Jim though even on the last climb up to my house. Anyway back to last night, last night was pretty easy for the most part. Jim was going easy to get ready for the race this weekend. Jim actually take a day off never happen, but he did behave and not pull any crazy attacks. For myself having a little bit of fun attacking the crap out of Ron on Wedde rd from pretty much the bottom. Had to be the fastest I have ever climbed that road and actually felt great doing it! The ride was pretty much just a average pace ride for the 3hrs we were out. The rest of the next week will be getting ready for some races coming up, not totally sure what I am going to do but hopefully its got a lot of miles involved!!!!