Thursday night races

We tried something new last night to change up the Thursday night ride. Bracket Racing!! This is a very simple type of racing that puts everyone on equal playing ground. We all went out and scoped the course. Then everyone did a second lap while timing themselves. Once back we wrote down the times and then in two groups of 6 they went out staggered from slowest to fastest. The point is two fold, not go faster than the time you wrote down, but to be the first one over the line. The first group out all got a little excited and Shawn, who was the last one in, actually won because he was the only one that didn't go over his time. The next group was a little better with the last 2-3 people all safe on their time, Jeff was the first "safe" person over the line so he got the win. It was all a lot of fun and really teaches you to ride your own race.

Pain and Suffering - Part 3

OK maybe not so much pain and suffering any more. I went into the doctor yesterday to get my hand looked and have them put a cast on. The doctor was poking around at it, twisting, and pulling trying to determine the point of pain. I told him that it really didn't hurt and actually felt much better than earlier in the week. He looked at the X-rays and wanted to get some others at different angles. We took a look at the new ones and the area that he though was broke didn't look quite right. He said their is a line in the bone but it looked kinda old. I wasn't going to tell him that I broke it about 5 years ago while racing Sno-X for fear he would put me in a cast for the rest of my life. I was at the first race of the year and overshot a double jump, I landed and jammed my wrist good. It swelled up so fast I couldn't get my glove off. I finished the race, went back to the truck and nursed it a little. I knew it was broken but had already paid for the races that weekend so after downing about 1/2 bottle of aspirin went back racing. I continued to race on it for the next 4 weekends before I couldn't take the pain any more. At that point I went into the doctor, he put a cast on it and said it was going to be on the rest of the winter...I took it off two weeks later and never went back. So that was then and apparently the bone didn't heal quite right leaving a crack looking scare in the bone. The doctor said just take it easy for a couple days and if it gets worse come back in. That was a serious close call, which could have made for a short season!

Pain and Suffering - Part 2

Ok, so I admit I did crash yestarday...ok maybe a couple times, but nothing that I thought was too bad. When I got up this morning my right wrist was pretty sore, but then again the only thing that wasn't sore was my left ear, so I didn't think much about it. When I got to work and started to get busy I noticed that it was still hurting. It was one of those weird pains that if I twisted it just right it hurt. Over lunch I decided I should stop by the doctor and let him tell me I had just sprained it and to suck up the pain.
45 minutes later I walked out with a splint and an appointment for a cast!! Well this wasn't exactly how I was planning on starting the season out. I will know more when I get the cast on, but from the sounds of things best case is going to be wearing this thing till July.
I am working on some new trainers so I guess I will be doing most of the ride testing on those over the summer. Next time you complain about riding in the rain - JUST BE HAPPY YOU CAN!!

Pain and Suffering

WORS #2 at Treadfest was the race of races. I had put some pretty good time in at the course of the past month and was very confident going into the race. I knew where I was going to attack and where to recover...if it stayed dry. We were up in Minnesota on Saturday for Cathy's grandpa's 90th birthday. We got back on the road later than planned putting us back in Janesville around 11pm.

Sunday I got up early and went for a ride to spin the legs up for the day. It was pretty cold but looked like the impending rain might hold off. I debated about bringing some mud tires but left them at home. The 15th position call up got me a decent second row start and then we were off. With 3 climbs right off the start I didn't want to over do it out of the gate. I hung on to the top 20 until I could get good and warmed up, which happened about half way through the first lap. I started to attack every chance I had and was really feeling good. On the second lap the rain started. I started steering with my rear tire which was sometimes in front anyway and was still picking people off. I was really liking the slippery conditions because it allowed for more recovery in the single track. Nathan was pushing the pace and hooking up like a rock-star. I had to let him ride away and the bridge up on the flats. By the end of the second lap I was sitting 7th only 30 seconds down from Chris in 5th!

Laps 3-4-5 were not pretty. Some time in there the rain had stopped and the mud went from non-sticking-to-your-bike grease to peanut butter that stuck to everything. The Anthem's rear triangle isn't good for mud clearance to start with so it packed in harder than I have ever experienced. I did a lot of running the last 3 laps and was stopping any time I could find water or a big stick to dig out the mud. By lap 5 the rear tire was so locked up that I had to keep pedaling just to keep it turning - yeah that's right if I would glide it would lock up!
I ended up finishing but that is about it, I rolled through the finish and right to the car, we loaded up and just left - I had had enough. Hopefully we will have better luck or better weather up in Wausau.

Thursday Mt.bike ride

This is the first PowerTap file from a Thursday Mt.bike ride...yes my bike has disk brakes.


More to come as things develop. Before to long I might be able to hang up the road bike for good!!

Busy Weekend

I think we packed just about everything possible into this weekend. Saturday we got up early stopped by Mocha Moment and then were off to Madison for the Saris Spoke Out. We signed up for the 30 mile loop but really wanted to do the 15 around the lake and through town. As we got back into town instead of turning back to the park we jumped on the 15 mile route and toured the city. It was a perfect day to be riding and was a lot of fun seeing the city. After that we headed down to State Street and the farmers market. I couldn't believe how busy it was, it looked like a Badger vs. Ohio game weekend!
Once we finished up in Madison we headed home and just relaxed for a bit. A group ride was going out from the shop at 5:30 so I got back on the bike and met up with them. We headed out to Whitewater lake and I think we went over ever hill out there! With over 5 hours on the bike for the day I was pretty smoked and ate everything in site as soon as I got in the door back home.
Sunday; after church Cathy made a fabulous mother's day brunch. I headed out to Menards and got some more wood for planters. I think we are going to redo part of our driveway over Memorial day and plan on having some planters instead of grass along one side of it. I got about 1/2 done with those before having to load up and head out for some secret training...at Lake Geneva. Ray and his guys have put together a SWEET course!! Right off the start there is a ton of climbing, can you say 3 times up the ski hill in the first 10 minutes! There aren't too many recovery sections, if you are not climbing you are bombing down single track. This is going to be a race of trust - trust your tires. All the trails are laid out very well and if you are on your game and can keep your tires under you then speed shouldn't be an issue. As I was riding I couldn't help but think that 29" tires could have the advantage holding better traction and rolling through the sand. I ran two laps as hard as I could and turned a 22:03 & 21:38, I am not saying that is fast or slow it is just a number I guess we will find out this weekend what combination of time and set up it takes to win.

Champions!!!

I think I am absolutely last person to write about last weekend...so I won't. The race didn't go as planned, I brought everything but the legs so I just rode around and enjoyed the trails.
On a better note, Cathy had her last Volleyball game on Tuesday. They typically don't have a championship tournament but her team and another were so close they had to play each other one last time. The first game her team was doing really good, they were following the ball and getting in some good hits. Cathy was bumming because she didn't think she was getting up on the net as high as before. She had a couple good hits and was serving really good which help them take the first game easily. The second game wasn't so good. They dug themselves in a hole and even with a good rally at the end just couldn't make up the points. Finally the last game, the one for all the marbles! It was a pretty close game and then Cathy's team pulled ahead. They were playing rally scoring and at game point lost the serve. All they needed was for a side out and they would win. The other team served in 3-4 points before they could return one. They played a good couple volleys and then Cathy got set. It was a perfect set and she got every ounce of power on it, drilling it in the back corner for an ACE shot win!!!!!
This winter has been a lot of fun watching her play. Hopefully we can find another league in Madison once we get moved up there.

A new year...and new changes

It really just seems like last weekend we were out at Sheboygan finishing up the series. It is so weird how long the winter dragged on, countless hours on the trainer just itching to get back outside and now that we are back on the dirt it seems like that long winter was only a week long!
So this weekend we are heading up to Iola. It is going to be a lot of fun getting to see everyone again. I am sure everyone has been working on their A-game so it should be interesting who is going to be chasing who.
As many of you know Cathy is taking the role of water bottle girl this year. We just went in for her 3 month check up and got to hear the heartbeat!! That was one of the coolest things I think I have heard!! She has been staying really active and has been feeling pretty good. Word on the street is that the first 3 months are the worst(as far as the way you feel). We haven't found out the sex of the baby yet, that will happen in 2 more months. Although racing is out of the question this year she has still been getting out on the bike, and is hoping to be able to pre-ride all the courses.

Did the Rock

I can't remember the last time we actually had nice weather for this race. With rain earlier in the week the trails were in perfect condition! I thought this was supposed to be a pretty low key event until I lined up next to the likes of Brian Matter, both Lalonde's, Carlos, and Thomas Bender. The start was kinda crazy we were all just standing around our bikes talking then people started yelling GOOOOOOO! People started jumping on their bikes and others were just looking around. I had a good start and moved to the front, I wanted to be leading over the first logs to keep from getting tangled with anyone. After that Matter and the LaLondes came around and poured on the coals. Bender was on my wheel and I was pushing about as hard as I wanted to for a 38 mile race. About 8 miles into the 12 mile lap Bender started complaining about the hills. I turned up the heat on a few to see how he would respond and sure enough he started to fade. By the end of the first lap he was gone. Marko had flatted so I was stuck in 3rd place no-mans land. I put down my head and hammered knowing that there was a strong field chasing, and hoping my legs would hold out the distance.
Lap 3 I was starting to suffer but was still pushing a big gear and had the power I needed to get over the climbs. Mid lap Bender and Marko caught me, I jumped in the middle and tried to recover a bit. Bender put down the hammer on a long sticky climb, Marko responded but I couldn't hang. My legs were cramping and I knew I had to back off if I wanted to finish. I tried to keep them in site as long as I could to keep my pace from falling off too bad.
I managed to hold off a hard charging Jim Peterson to roll in 5th. The race really felt good and only went to prove that this is going to be a tough year, seems like everyone has been doing their homework this winter!