Usual ride

Just another big ride, one that I felt like I could of rode forever. Sometimes it is good to enjoy the surroundings within your own mind by yourself. Something different about suffering alone. The pure pleasure of heaven and hell enjoyed by my own obsession, why is it that we limit ourselves to this very freedom. If you could do 2 miles then why would you only do 1, unfortunately time is my own enemy. http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/5341750 I think the elevation is off some, had a flat 2 miles from the house kind of sucked but cant complain only the second one since Oct. of last year. This is a very beautiful loop. thinking of adding in the Covered bridge ride with it soon. Then perhaps the super loop!

great day

Took a few days off after the race on Saturday. Which is what I normally do after a race, but this time it was tough. Landahl is such a blast to ride and my brain has been buzzing every since. But I stuck to my routine, last night got back on the spin bike to get ready for this evenings ride. This ride worked out good made it home from work at a decent time and road with the wife and kido to the park. While they stayed and played on the swings I headed out to meet Jim. Congrats to Jim on finishing second place at the Hillsboro road race on Saturday. We headed out to the basic loop, kept the pace high and the legs felt 100% recovered. Man I love riding my bike! But what I love more than that is the smile on my family's face when i get home...

6hr Landahl

So I went to the 6hr race at Landahl because first I love the trails there and second because why do a 3hr race when there is a good chance of rain when you can race on a perfectly dry course for 6. This race was a blast, I will never complain about mechanicals or usually mention it to much because I think its part of racing, but it made things very interesting in this race.





The race started off like any normal cross country expert race, but not normal for what I thought would be for 6. I was digging it though, and was easily keeping the heart rate in check. It was hard to figure out off of the start who was in what category and I recognized a lot of fast people including Matt Gersib http://dirtstories.blogspot.com/ from the 24 and also 6hr winner from last year.





The first lap went great ended up coming through right behind a fast dude from Colorado who was there training for the NUE series coming up. Had no idea were I was at that point as far as placing probably 3rd in the 6hr solo class. the second lap was going smooth, the new salsa was awesome and just a very smooth bike to ride for the technical stuff. Some how though about a 1/4 of the way into the third lap I managed to get a stick jambed in my rear cassette and stuck my derailleur into my spokes, not good. seemed like half the racers went by me and everybody was just flying! I did manage to get it some what straightened out but couldn't get it to shift right, fought with that thing the whole lap. not a big deal when I made it back one of the guys working the race, terrible with names. tried to help me fix it. worked good for part of the next lap then for some reason I was basically stuck with the small cog in back middle up front the only way the thing would not jump around on the cassette. So much more impressed with single speed guys now cause that lap hurt!





Coming through on the end of the fourth lap it was a given I had to switch bikes, should of had the other one ready to go but didn't want to jinx myself. So by the time I switched the tires, seat bag, pump, # plate etc. etc. and with screwing with the derailleur for the lap before, I new I had lost a lot of time. After getting back on the fisher it was kind of weird, I think the salsa is a way sweeter ride but I think I get more power out of the fisher. cant wait to get more rides on both of these to compare times.





Everything was back to normal just trying to keep a hard pace make up as much time as I could and try not to loose any to anybody behind me. road with Doug Long for a bit, I hate to say it like this but his riding ability and speed on the technical stuff for his age is amazing.





Going into the second to last lap, matt Gersib was making up good time on me and kind of thinking maybe he was lapping me, I was sure he passed me when i had the der. problem. After chatting with him for a bit he pretty much took off. I was kind of in a recovery lap and was wanting to have a fast last lap. I did manage to catch back up to him at the end of that lap going into the last lap. we did compare some miles, I was lost on what lap I was on so that didn't help things. anyway I had it figured we were on the same lap. So when Matt let me pass on the first big climb I pretty much road as hard as i possible could to get a gap on him, It seemed like I would get a head a bit and then you would be right there again, dude you made me ride harder than I ever had that deep into a race. Way more intensity went into that lap then the first by a long shot!! Because of that I managed to come back within 1 minute of first place in age group. and third overall down by I think 10 minutes from Cam Kirkpatrick http://www.rasmussenbikeshop.blogspot.com/ a seriously fast older dude. The heartland guys put on a perfect race, manage to get in 9 laps counting the warm up lap. lots of great mountain biking for one day! The best part is even when little things go wrong things can still turn out great if you can just stay focused on moving forward!






Just a little bit of carnage... that's a whole other story, very funny one...

Lost Valley race, All I wanted to do at this race was go as hard as I could for as long as I could. All the big rides I did all winter and there was a lot of them, I kept the average heart rate below 135. So now the race season is here it was time to see if all the training was worth it. I had no problem pushing the average up to 164 for 3 hrs 15 minutes. At the beginning of the year I was thinking about racing cross country again but man I just love the long races. Endurance more than anything is about finishing and In a 3hr race so many things can go wrong, go out to hard, not hard enough, flat tear a side wall and have to run the rest of the race, don't eat enough, cramps you name it it can happen and probably will at some point I guess. put those things out of your head and your asking for trouble think about them to much and your go crazy. Sometimes I do a little of both bust mostly I just spin the peddles at a pace I think I can hold for the time needed. This race went perfect for myself and having the garmin made it really cool averaged over 14mph. and felt so much stronger than last year at this time. Hopefully things will stay dry for the 6hr next weekend if not probably do council bluff race or maybe both who knows!!

Vertical Century

So I wanted something big to work on this year. pretty basic 5280 ft is a mile. 528,000 ft of ascending is 100 miles straight up. Trying to do it in the least amount of miles possible, hopefully by Christmas.... other than that looking forward to the local stuff and some big out of town races.

another year

last weekend did a double chubb on Saturday, enjoyed the ride with Bob its not often I get a chance to ride with the DRJ guys. Sunday was the big loop from the house, there is so many options for this ride, I think by late spring we will have the super loop planned out just need more daylight for it. There has to be a point when your legs say it is enough. I will find it, and then do more!

What a way to start the new year, Wed. and Thurs. worked out in the cold all day, I guess I got sick from it cause Saturday I think half of my brains came out of my nose. But with the temps going to hit 70 for Sunday I didn't want to miss the big ride. good thing is as much as my legs felt like jelly for the first 15 miles to the meeting spot for Dave. Jim had mentioned that we were averaging 18+ guess that's why the legs felt like jelly! So once we meet Dave the ride is usually toned down a bit, okay not really. But the fun doesn't start until we get to the park. there is a pretty good climb in the park then we drop down to cross this old bridge. At 58 miles in, the hill in the background is the perfect spot to attack on. Jim usually gets it rolling and I do what I can to hang on. Some very hard efforts from here to De Soto that are sure to make you hurt. Other than the stomach still felling a little weird by the end of the ride the rest of me felt great. Cure for the common cold, drink lots of caffeine and go do a 100 miles. and to end a almost perfect weekend played in the sandbox with Lucas and BBQ up some stuff, in a tee shirt, in January that will probably never happen again......

good times

Its hard to believe this little guy is going to be 3 in march already!

But anyway have not written much because my laptop crashed and the other computer sucks, but with all the great deals going on I finally found a new laptop. So since my last post I met a new friend who likes to do a lot of miles as much if not more than myself and of course throw in a lot of hill climbs. That guy would be Jim Van Deven (sp) He has been around for a while and lives down the street from me, and does not have a problem kicking my ass on a regular basis truly good times though! So in the last 2 1/2 months I have done 7 centuries and a good number of 40 mile night time rides, add in the spin bike and I already have more miles at this point then I did all of last winter. For some reason this year is different it seems the worst the condition the more I want to ride in it, although today's ride hurt.

Riding wouldn't be anything if it wasn't for a great family life and a ton of support from my two favorite people who are always waiting patiently for me to finish my ride. you 2 or the best!