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!!!!

Breck. 100

I have heard of 8 to 10 mile climbs, wondered what it would be like to climb them. over the past couple of years I have learned to love climbing, maybe more of an obsession with them. I had heard of the breck. race a couple of years ago but thought it would be imposable to do because of the whole acclimation thing. After doing the 24 last year and all of the miles I got in through the winter I figured at the very least it was worth a try. So before I knew it I was waking up at 4 in the morning looking out to some killer mountains that I would be climbing in a few hours. Race day mornings or all about the same, loads of energy and well loads of energy. other than waking up at about 2am with a major headache from the altitude? Things were off to a good start. Me and Mitch rode the bikes from the room over to the staging area at Carter Park. The most mellow pre race I have ever been at, most likely because it was not even 6 in the morning yet!! So before I knew it we were off. The first climb was pretty fun, you could see racers up around the switchbacks ahead of you and down below you. (very cool) Finishing out the climb we turned onto some single track. I guess the altitude was hitting me pretty good because I was having a hard time staying straight, Fun stuff!! The downhill off of wheeler pass was just killer. Still wished I could of hit it as hard as I normally would but between being pretty light headed and worrying about doing something stupid like tearing a sidewall I just road it very conservative. The first lap went by so fast. Highlights from the first loop, crossing my first snowfield and sinking up to my knee, again very cool stuff..

The second loop was a little tough. I always felt good on the bike and had it set in my mind that I wouldn't push anything above a 159 hrt rate on any climb. I did better than usual on drinking but never did have much of a appetite which caught up with me a little on the third loop. Anyway the second loop I was riding a lot by myself checking out some killer views and not really paying much attention to anything. I kind of felt like I was in a dream. This loop had pretty much everything you could think of. Big climbs fast downhills, technical stuff, loose stuff, a nice hike a bike section. The only real tough thing on this loop was I had a hard time staying on course. Missed a few arrows my own fault and stopped and waited for some racers to show up on a few other turns to make sure I was going the right way. This loop didn't go by as quick as the first loop and it felt like I had a ton of racers pass me. I was trying to keep a pace to finish in 12hrs. Before the race I had no idea how this race was going to go, how the altitude would affect me, basically you name it I thought about it. So going into this race I was just hoping to finish, dreaming of 11hrs hoping for 12. Finishing up on the second loop I felt confident that I could finish the race as long as I didn't have any major problems, and that was considering that I thought it was 2 30 when it was only 1 30 probably a polish thing thinking that the garmin would change from STL time to Breck. time on its own.....

Going into the third loop was cool. The legs were feeling better than they had on the second loop and other than the stomach feeling a little weird I was having fun. I new the third loop had a long climb up and over Boreas pass but past that my brain was filled up long ago with just trying to remember everything for the first and second loop. This was one of those climbs that just kept going. I remember at one point asking a person walking up the road how much farther to the top. Oh yeah its not that far, oh you mean the very top, the verrrrrry top! So when I got to the gravel road I thought I was getting close (not) I ended up stopping to get something to eat, I have only a few times ever stopped on a climb and took a break. The good thing is I ate pretty good, better than the rest of the day. So I got the wheels rolling made it to the top and hit the aid station and topped off the bottles. This was the part that I made the biggest mistake of the race. When I was going down the other side of Boreas Pass I am guessing that there were some bikers (non racers) standing in front of the arrow to go down the single track. Heck at this point in the race I couldn't remember what I was supposed to be riding on, all I knew is I had to go down the mountain and get to Como so I could come back up and over the Pass to finish the race. So long story short I went at least 3 miles down the mountain turned around and road back up to the top to get on the single track. Pretty much the single track went fast, was unsure until I came out to the road that I was even going the right way so seeing the aid station got me pretty stoked. From there I hammered the 8 mile climb up to the pass in about 50 minutes. ( probably should not of done that) I felt great going up but not so good going down. Luckily we got to turn off of the dirt road on to some cool single track. There was a another guy with me that was hurting pretty good also, so I stopped and asked him if he needed anything. He was pretty much cooked so other than just wanting this thing to be done he was good. Myself I was craving caffeine, so I offered some to the other guy, he was good so I ate the whole thing. It was just what I needed to finish up the rest of the downhill back to Carter park. The cool thing was I ran into Mitch somewhere on that downhill and got to ride back with him to the finish. If I could do it all over again I would of figured out a way for me and Mitch to of rode the whole thing together. Maybe next year!

Finishing this race was for me was the biggest accomplishment yet. total time 12.47 I had 107 miles in at the top of Boreas Pass when the battery went dead in the garmin. other than a few mistakes the race went perfect. and thank god no mechanical or flats!! Thanks big again to Mitch and Michael for making it a more than perfect trip. there is so much more I could say about that but this post is waaay to long already......

Mitch's awesome write up! Colorado

We made it! What a trip. Michael, Dwayne and I with Dan Libby for a few days had a picture perfect trip in the mountains with the help of Jim and Judy. It started after an all night drive with almost no sleep by first picking up Michael in Denver Friday morning. Breakfast and picking up supplies and we were soon in Breckenridge at 9600'. Little time to settle in and go for a 3 mile ride with over 1000' of climbing. Tough to get much sleep that night.

Dwayne woke up first at 4am bouncing all over the crowded room like he was on crack, we couldn't stop laughing. I soon rose to nervously get ready for our 6am start (total sleep in the last two days, about 6 hours). 5:15 and we were off, riding to the staging area with everything we hoped we would need for the next 14 hours.The race began with a slow ride to the gravel road that led to Wheeler Pass. As soon as we got to the dirt it was on and we began our 7 mile, 2900' climb, 1:35 for me, a lot less for D and a ton of others. A killer downhill with a near death experience at the bottom made it worth it. The next 5 miles was a downhill bike path and we had a serious advantage with the typically over geared 44 X 11, 29" wheeled bikes, dropping all the 26" bikes. The remaining miles were beautiful but really tough, climbing another 1200' to finish the 30+ mile loop in a little over 3:35, six minutes behind Dwayne. The second loop did me in. Tons of climbing (not my thing), an intense sun and a lack of acclimation made any steep climb nearly impossible. My heart rate would remain low, legs were weak but still fresh and my breathing out of control. I had to walk a lot and stop a lot. I would let everything go any chance I could going down. I rode with Michael and Dan for a bunch of it, although Dan was just hangin out with us. We thought we were almost finished when we began a long ass gravel road climb with about 1000' of climbing. Before that I was thinking about finishing the race, after I was done. We finished at 2:30. Dwayne was over an hour ahead by this time. He took over 5 1/2 hours to do the last loop with a little bad luck. He missed a turn and added a bunch of miles and a fair amount of climbing. He said I made the right call, the last loop was hard. He finished in 12:47, I'd probably still be out there right now. I had about 8900' climbing we figured Dwayne had well over 14000'!

The next morning we drove to the base of the first descent and rode(walked) up to Wheeler pass the opposite direction of the race, another 2650' of climbing in about 3 1/2 miles topping out above 12400 feet! We looked around, took pictures and cruised to the bottom. Both Dwayne and I felt better climbing that morning than we had all through the race. I had a close call with Dwayne on my heals but pulled it out with some fan fair, only he knows just how close! At the bottom both Michael and Dan avoided the section I almost died on the day before. It was a series of big drops with bad spacing and we were going crazy fast in the race so I had no choice but to hang on and I made it. Dan went back to Denver and we made our way to Jimmer's.

J&J then took us out for a fast 13 mile ride that was a blast. Some BBQ and we were off to bed.Monday morning, day 4, ride 5, Monarch Crest. We shuttled to the top of Monarch Pass after leaving Judy's Jeep at the bottom. I won't go into detail but the Crest, Silver Creek and Rainbow trail is a must. You climb to way above tree line and ride there for a long time, ride scree fields(rock slide remains), fast stuff, technical stuff, flowy stuff and everything in between. Jimmer-4 flats. Dwayne-2 flats. Michael-2 flats. Me-1 flat. Add em up, NINE. Oh, Judy-no flats! We used every tube we had and still had a blast. Crossed 3 snow fields but no bad weather. I would do it again tomorrow. 35 miles with 2700' climbing, 6200' descending.

Michael, Dwayne and I drove north a little to the Mount Elbert section of the Colorado Trail the next day. A two mile climb took us to some of the most beautiful single track you will ever see, I'll leave it at that. We got to see a male and female Moose reasonably close, a rarity. 12 1/2 miles with 2200' climbing. Dan met us the next morning after sadly parting with Jim and Judy to ride the Kenosha Pass to Georgia Pass section of the CT. As soon as we started the thunder began as did the rain and lightning. We retreated at 3 1/2 miles in and rode back to a dry parking lot, Oh well.

After driving back to Denver, spending a nice evening with Dan's family and staying the night, the next morning Michael caught his flight back to camp and Dwayne and I rode every trail Mount Falcon had to offer. As dusty, hot and dry as could be, we loved every minute of it. Another 13+ miles and 2600' of climbing. Topping out at 7800' we noticed easier breathing.

Dwayne and I had hoped to ride Landahl on our way home but woke up this morning to a rain soaked parking lot in KC. Got home early and surprised the kids. Thanks to Jim and Judy, it couldn't have been more perfect! Thanks to Dan and his family. Thanks to Michael and Sherri for the use of the van. Thanks to Michael and Dwayne for making every minute fun. Thanks to all our families for letting us go! Mitch

I could not have said it better my self. climbing for me in the mountains was awesome, it made me realize how much more I love going up! Following Mitch on some of the downhills was totally crazy!! As for as the race I think sometimes we have to question how far we should go and I think its easy to know when its enough. Mitch found his limit for this day and did the right thing by stopping and recovering. When I was on my way down from the last mountain Mitch had met me about half way up to see if I needed anything. He had recovered quick and was ready to ride again. If it wouldn't of been for the time cut off I thing he probably would of went and finished the race. Everyday of this trip Mitch and Michael were always ready to ride. For me the race was

awesome and maybe I will actually do a write up of my own....