Reforestration Ramble

I have heard that every racer has good and bad years. I have experienced a few good years and some learning years but have never really had a bad year...until now. Having not finished the past two races my goal had changed from finishing in the top 10 or top 20 but just to get through the race. With the marathon being 46 miles I knew that was going to be a tough enough goal. We started out at a really comfortable pace with the entire pack together. The leaders drilled it a couple times but that only strung things out but we all stayed together. The first single track was about 5 miles in and that was what ended up breaking it up. Jumping back onto the ski trail the leaders had a gap and I was with 2 other guys in a chase group with a larger pack behind us. I was pushing hard to get back on with the lead group but didn't want to over do it and blow up. Coming through the lap area I was looking for Cloe for my water bottle but there was a ton of people around and missed her. I panicked for a second thinking how am I going to get through another lap without any water!? The lead group was just up the road and I knew if I could get up to them life would be alot easier. I kept the pace at Steady State, something I knew wouldn't blow me up and finally we closed the gap. I was able to bum some water off Nate Guerra which was a life saver. I was dangling off the back trying to conserve as much energy and water as possible. Finally the lead group got away and I settled in with the second group. Cory was riding really good so I let him by and he was gone. Finishing that lap was really tough, I was totally dried out. I found my water bottles through the lap and grabbed two hoping to pull things together. I soft pedaled for a while and polished off one of my bottles almost instantly. Things weren't coming around like I was hoping so I took the 3rd lap really slow and hoped I could gain some ground on the last lap. Coming through the lap I stopped for a second and grabbed 2 bottles, a banana, a granola bar, and some fig newtons. I was starting to get frustrated because things were just not coming together. I tried to jump on with Comp riders as they were coming around me but there was no response in my legs. Finally about half way through the last lap some riders came up to me and said they were in my class I got really mad and just punched it this time the legs gave me a little feed back and I was able to get away from them through the finish.
Cathy didn't come up because of the no dog ruling. Sunday she headed down to Janesville and did a ride with Christina. Things were going really good until her valve stem broke off, resulting in a flat tire. Christina rode back to her place got an extra tube and then drove back to the park. Between the two of them they got the tire fixed and finished up riding the trails. Cathy has been back on the mt.bike a couple times and really has a lot more energy. We have some really easy trails around so that is good for her to get out without having to worry about crashing.
No races for a couple weeks so it will be nice to get refocused...again...and get the rest of the season planned out.

IT'S going to be A BOY!!!!

Cathy had her Ultra sound today and we got to see our little baby. It was super cool how they could do cross section views to see the heart pumping, all the blood veins, the spine, ribs, hands, toes and everything super clear. Cathy is right on track for a November 13 due date so that is really exciting.

This is a really cool 3D thing that they do. They take a few pictures at different angles and then put them together to get a 3D image. Some of the areas didn't register in all the pictures so that is why he kinda has a funny head. (I am sure it's not just my genetics)

A really nice side picture

Last but not least the feet that are going to keep Cathy up kicking all night. This is going to be the only time he can kick his mother and get away with it.

Crashed and Burnt

After a really slow start to the season I was hoping Eau Claire would be the turning point. This is a really good course and always draws some really strong riders. Cory and I pre-rode on Saturday and the course was awesome, I kept joking that I should just ride 6 laps Saturday and scrap the race...hindsight that would have been a good idea! Sunday we got to the race, it was really nice and everyone was saying the course was in great shape. I had a better start than I was expecting and was quickly sitting in the top 10 on the lead out. It was really dusty, but not THAT bad and then all of the sudden some guy come blasting up next to me and drills my handle bars. Everything happened in slow motion which was really sweet! As my bars spun around my tire blew off the rim and the rim dug into the gravel. I went over the bars and landed on my head HARD! I tumbled a couple times while thinking 'nobody is going to see me in all this dust and there are about 50 guys coming really fast'. About midway through that thought I took the first hit to the ribs. By the time the dust settled and everyone was gone Sam Oftedahl and myself were down and out pretty hard. I pulled myself and bike off the trail knowing the women weren't far behind us. On the way back to the car I assest the damage; seriously broken helmet (2 large dents and cracked in 6 places), gash on four head, bloody nose, gravel rash on both elbows, both shoulders, and entire right calf, and a pretty sizable gash on my left knee. The bike didn't fair to well either with 2 broken spokes, bent wheel, bent brake rotor, grips are ripped off, and the seat took a pretty hard beating.
After checking in with Cathy I headed to first aid and they got me all fixed up. I spent the rest of the day cleaning dirt and gravel out of my wounds while Cathy handed bottles and proceeded to get burnt. Needless to say neither of us slept at all last night!
I will get some pictures of the carnage up here soon.

12 hours of John Muir

Last week I got an e-mail from Mark over at Vesrah asking if I could fill in for him this weekend at the 12 hours of Kettle. I had a pretty hard day scheduled anyway for Saturday so I figured why not.
Saturday morning I got to the parking lot at 7am. I didn't know the guys I was going to be riding with and one guy flagged me down to go park with them. Turns out they weren't my team but the guys we were going to be racing against. I walked around for a while looking for my team but with no luck. I checked with registration and they hadn't even signed in yet. Finally at 7:45, 15 minutes before the start I decided that I would just register for the 12 hour solo and ride as long as I could. As I was going up to registration I seen their tent. That was a close one...I really didn't want to ride for 12 hours!! Mark was the first guy to go off and got us a really good start. With only 2 duo teams in front of us he gave me clear sailing for my lap. I got around the 2 guys in about 2-3 miles and then put it in TT mode racing the clock. There was a ton of new single track and it was a little wet, I didn't want to start the day off crashing my brains out, so I pushed hard on the flats and took it pretty easy in the tight stuff.
The rest of the day was like any other team endurance race, warm up - ride - cool down - eat - repeat. At 3pm Mark had to leave so he jumped one position in the order and threw down a smoke'n lap joining me in the 40 minute club. With him gone our rides got a little closer, I think that worked good because I wouldn't get as relaxed and wound down between rides. As the day progressed the trails got faster and faster I was throwing the bike into corners just taunting the tires to break loose but they refused, I should have been running this all season they are definitely staying on for the rest!
By the end of the day we had knocked off 14 laps and the win!! We finished about 15 minutes up on second place, who had been consitantly on our heals the entire day. I had achieved my goal to set the fastest lap of the day at 46:34 minutes, although I wish they would have let the 6 hour guys do the same course as us. There were some really fast guys that showed up and it would have been fun to see what they could have turned. My legs finally felt like they had come around, when I wanted power they were there. Hopefully we can carry that over into this weekend.
I will try to get some pictures up here as soon as I can.

SOLD!!!

Finally, after a year of being on the market and about 1040 gallons of gas burned in commuting we are finally moving to Madison!

We had an offer on our house a few weeks ago but it was contigent that they sold theirs first. They had just put it on the market so I wasn't too optumistic about it selling fast. In the mean time we heard that Jerry and Jessica Long were moving to Idaho. Cathy stopped by there place last friday and just fell in love. When she picked me up she was telling me all about it, right then as luck would have it we got a call from our buyers saying they had just sold their house and set a closing date for ours. We turned around and headed back to the Long's so I could look at the place. It was really nice, just how Cathy described it. We thought about it over the weekend and on Tuesday sat down with their realtor and wrote up the offer. They are moving monday and I think we are going to start moving some small things up as soon as Wednesday. This is a huge answer of prayer, going from not looking to moving in only 10 days!!

Gun Show

That is what our Saris vs. Pacific Cycle group ride has been dubbed. The past two times I have shown up on the MTB bike. Today was pretty rough, with 20-35mph winds heading south was pretty painful - for everyone else, I had plenty of gears left going slow! Once we got out to Paoli and started to make our way home is when I started to suffer. A now HUGE tail wind pushed the pace over the 30mph mark so I single speeded it home in my 42-11. I felt a lot better, probably because it was a smaller group and wasn't quite as crazy fast.
We were planning on heading out to the kettles tonight but sounds like the weather is going to keep us in Janesville. I will get enough of the kettles this weekend during the race.

Big Ring Classic = MORE MUD!!

I really hope we are getting our muddy races done early this year. We left Madison right after work and headed up to Wausau. My parents were coming over so we wanted to get our riding done early and then hang out with them Saturday afternoon. We drove through rain most of the trip up and just hardly got ahead of the storm when we rolled into the Nine Mile Park. We set up the tent and no sooner had we finished then the rain caught back up with us. Rain all night, off and on all the next morning. I help set up the start and finish area and then about 2pm the sun came out. We quickly got changed and headed out for a ride. I happy that even after a full day of rain how well the course felt. That night we filled a hotel room with my parents, us, the dog, and Cory.
The next morning I got up early and went for a short ride to wake the legs up before breakfast and then off to the course for an early 10:15am start. I got called up and squeezed into the last front row position. The start was pretty melo we picked up the pace at the gravel road, I shuffled back to about 10th position and sat in the draft. All of the sudden I see Marko get loose and go down. He took someone with him and with nowhere to go I preload and give him the best bunny hop I had. I think I cleared him for the most part but landed on his bike, I looked back and he was getting back on so no harm done. Instantly I was another 20 spots back. I moved up a little but mostly just wanted to get my legs warmed up. The rest of the first lap was passing people getting into position. I hooked up with a group of 3 other guys, I was hanging on for everything I had. At some point Tim dropped off and then I got stuck in some traffic and they put a gap on me. I was keeping them in sight for most of the lap and then about 1 mile from the end of the 3rd lap I BONKED. I new I was sitting in a decent spot so I sat up and spun it in easy to Cathy. She got me a breakfast bar, banana, I finished my clif blocks, and downed a half of bottle of gatorade. Cory rolled through and I tried to jump on his wheel but the legs just wouldn't move. I rode through the lap area and out for my last lap. About 5 minutes in I was only getting worse so I pulled the plug. First DNF in something like 2 years.
I was hoping for a better finish after my parents and Cathy had to stand out in the rain for 2 hours. I don't know how she did it but Cathy rocked the bottle handups as we came through at full on speed.
The season has had a rough start but it is still early, so hopefully we can start getting up to speed here over the next couple weeks.