Council bluff race 09

First off, I love it when a promoter says were racing rain are shine. What about some snow too! It was awesome, when it was done! Me and the Masher talked before the race and I think we were both thinking the same thing pace and nutrition were going to be the key. We both knew it was probably going to be a 3 lap race unless something went wrong. Doing 3 laps in these conditions was easily going to be a 4hr plus race. Cold temps at the start made it hard to figure out what to wear. My only mistake was wearing the shoe covers, my feet got wet pretty quick from the deep creek crossings and the shoe covers just weighed me down. Everything else went awesome. The race started off pretty mellow. The first downhill was a blast and it didn't take long to get a gap on everybody. Mitch finally got around some slower racers and made quick work to catch up to me. I stuck on Mitch's wheel for a while. That was fun. I think by the time I got to the first big climb (the wall) I was by myself. I was keeping a good pace through the first lap no real hard efforts until I got to the climb to go up to the campground. As I started the climb I noticed another marathon racer closing in. I put in probably to hard of a effort on that climb. Coming out on to the road I was greeted by motivation! Thanks for riding along with me for a bit, it got my head back to were it needed to be, ready to snap some wrists! Going into the second lap was good I new I would get a third lap as long as the bike held up. Nutrition was dialed, biggest thing I worked on this winter. Never felt tired but never felt fast either. Hitting the ( wall of a climb) on the second lap was now a hike a bike. About mid way up looking back Mr Sager was at the bottom. I was thinking this is turning into being a really good race. I was wanting to up the pace but didn't want to burn myself for the last lap, done that way to many times before. So I stuck to the plan. Getting to the campground climb at the end of the second lap I was figuring at some point I would see Mr Sager again. I never did. Going out onto the third lap was great. I was using the Bonty XDX which isn't the lightest tires but were doing the trick. I used them all winter on the SS without any problems and had full confidence they would get me through the race as long as I rode some what clean. I couldn't imagine having to change a flat in these conditions. At some point Chris came by me. I was wondering how long it would take before the Cross country racers started catching me. I thought it would be cool to stick on his wheel, that lasted about a minute dude was on a mission. Crossing that big creek leading up to the wall Mr Breslin came flying by me, dude was on a mission too! This was cool. On this climb it was no longer a mountain bike race it was a running race. It was awesome watching these two battle so hard up that climb. Congrats Chris on the win!! I finished out the rest of the race just keeping a good pace. Mitch finished up a little behind me for a strong second. It was awesome having a big field in the marathon class again. Pretty stoked at all the people that came out and did this race. And the promotors that took the time to set up the course in this mess and have to go back after the race and take it back down, that had to be fun! Results. Garmin link.

Council Bluff.

The second race of the Midwest Fat tire series is coming up on Sunday and me and Nick had the same thing in mind. So we headed down there yesterday after work for some recon. I have ridden the trail a ton of times counter clockwise but not to much clockwise so I wanted to get a feel for it. Other than a couple of flats between me and Nick everything went great. We even got in about a hour of night riding. Maybe we will be lucky enough to have a little snow on the ground to race in, that would be sweet!! I have a feeling this one is going to hurt real bad.

Me and Lucas showing what little abs is all about.

Lost Valley race.

I'm not sure what I was thinking here, but I guess it was pretty funny. So anyway the race went a lot better than I thought it would. With 31 marathon racers at the start and a pretty stacked field at that. I was thinking it was going to be a really tough race which it was! I stayed off of the caffeine more than usual before the race. which left me pretty mellow. The good news is Hammer makes a new caffe latte perpetium with caffeine!! So I figured I would be good to go not long into the race. and for back up I had the pocket rocket, don't ask. This stuff will make you feel like superman for about 5 seconds than your done! But I do enjoy its company. So the plan was to stick with the pack for the first lap then figure it out from there. Jay led us out which was nice, when I came around him Dave came around me leading us into the downhill. We hit the climb pretty fast and I figured why not keep it rolling. When I topped out I figured Dave was on my wheel. I had a little gap and figured I would keep a good pace until everybody caught up. By the time I hit the single track I was still alone and thinking this isn't a good thing but at this point I wasn't thinking about slowing up either. I figured I would push as hard as I could on all of the normal stuff and conserve energy on everything else. When I got into the single track on the second lap I pretty much drifted into my own world. Thoughts of all the sunrise laps I did at Berryman were getting me stoked. This song was kicking in my head. The laps started flying by, at times I would wonder were everybody was and if they were enjoying the pain as much as I was. I think at the beginning of a race you start out worrying about how you will finish. The thing I love most about endurance racing is by the time you really get rolling into the race you just focus on finishing strong and or just finishing. Its amazing how many things could go wrong in a 3hr race and I think your lucky if everything goes perfect. A lot of respect goes out to all of the people who raced, especially my buddy Nick. With only a hand full of good rides in this year after taking a few years off came out to race the marathon class. I don't think it matters how many laps you do, one thing is for sure we all suffer the same. Laps 4 and 5 for me were tough I wanted to save a little for the last lap but didn't want to give up any time either. I think it was going into the 4th lap when I was passing the sport racers, Thanks big for letting me get by so easy on the single track! Lap 6 was cool I rode it harder than I probably should of but was feeling really good. I think I did like a 35 minute last lap, pretty stoked on that. It was awesome seeing Mitch out so early in the year tearing it up! And good to see all of the usual suspects in the Marathon class again. Here are the results, Here are the stats.

Big thanks goes out to the Gorc guys for the new single track, good stuff. And to Mesa for putting on a great race, the payout was incredible and not at all expected.

Don't ask!!!

What do you do.

So far we are 2 for 2 with cancelled races. At least the Bone Bender will be rescheduled for next month. I had full intentions of riding something big and was wondering what to do. Some others had the same thing in mind. Me Mitch and Greg had already planned on riding something on the Ozark trail. A short conversation with Mike Best about the Berryman to Council bluff connector and there plans on camping and I was thinking we should all just hook up and ride. So me and Mitch got it worked out and I decided to give Chris a call figured he would definitely want in on this. Mike, Doug Davis, Nate Means and Jason ? were planning on meeting us for the ride at 10am. The idea was to get there early enough to do the Berryman first. I had just got the 1x9 HIFi fully set up and was dying to get a ride in on it. I got started about 15 minutes later than what I wanted but still was out on the trail to see the sun come up. The Berryman loop went perfect. I got back, ate changed clothes and headed back out with everybody else. The Ozark trail was great, we made it down to the Council Bluff connector in good time but not enough time to do the CB loop. Next time we will have to leave a car down there with food and Lights. Its pretty easy to say that everybody got out this ride what they wanted. Good times! The Berryman loop. The connector trail out and back. Thanks for the food you guys hooked me up with after the ride.

5 five 5

Get up at 5am with 5hrs of sleep to go ride for 5+hrs of Berryman. The 5hrs of sleep wasn't planned just worked out that a way. Getting up at 5am is the usual especially if I want to be on the trail by 6 or so. Doing a double Berryman in between 5 and 5 1/2hrs isn't to tough if everything goes good. So the first lap went great I had the super fly out for the first time since last Oct. I did good on trying to keep a even pace. With the warm temps it was easy to want to go real fast. I was hoping to get the first lap done in under 2.5hrs was pretty much right there. The second lap was just to get some good miles in to get ready for The Bone Bender next weekend. I didn't want to do any real hard efforts other than the normal with all of the climbing on this trail. Things were flying along as usual when I ran into the first set of horses. I don't have any problem with horses on the trails it is just a bummer to have to stop and wait for them to come through and that is only from a training perspective. Once I get rolling I hate to ever have to stop until the ride is done of course for anything other than refuelling. I did run into another couple of sets of horses and had some good conversations on trail maintenance and just sharing the trail in general. I am all for it as long as everybody respects the trail and the other people on it, whether its horses, hikers or bikers. and it was cool that they were there cleaning the trail. There are always bad things you can say about the other users and I could go on and on about the things I don't like. But all in all I am just stoked to see people out having a good time. I don't know how many times I have done this trail and not seen one other person on the trail. So with all of the stopped times it pretty much killed my momentum I hate having to get the legs warmed up again. I did run into some bikers heading back towards the Berryman campground good to see other bikers on the trail.

Big group pretty cool route.

Last Sunday Jim convinced me to go ride with some of the guys from his team (Gateway cycling club). We met up with a couple of Momentum cycles guys in Arnold and then headed north to meet the rest of the guys. The ride was pretty cold off of the start in the low 20s with a pretty strong head wind. The ride was a lot of fun other than having a lot of stopped time which happens when you get a bigger group are when you have a few guys that are on a strict training program. I think it was driving Jim a little nuts, usually when its just us its go until there is no more go! And that seems to be the easiest thing for myself. We did knock down some pretty big hills along the way which was fun. I would of loved to have done Franks rd. though when I usually get up that way I always try to do it. I wont complain by the time it was all done I got a lot of good intensity in. Figured out during the ride that I was riding with Dave Cummings a guy I did some skateboarding with back in the day and if I remember correctly he was pretty dang good. Would love to hook up with these guys more often. Here is the Garmin link from the ride.