DINO Xterra New Castle 2peat

A large contingent of GetAGrip racers came to NewCastle for the xterra race Saturday – and I got to meet a few new faces from the team – Derrick even introduced himself with a handshake as he blew past me on the run! I had won the woman’s race here last year, so was hoping for a repeat. I had spoken with Bev earlier in the week and she had a calf muscle pull, so I knew she would just be managing herself on the run, and I had to wonder if any of the new faces at the race would be my competition. I exited the water same time as last, and heard them announcing the first woman was already heading out on her bike! I knew I had my work cut out. I did catch her within probably 3 miles on the bike, and I noticed her long skinny legs, and thought she must be one of those fast swimmer/runners! So I better get a good lead on the bike. I rode pretty well, nothing spectacular, I think with a couple of reroute they put on the course, it was a couple minutes faster than last years course. Heading out onto the run I heard Bev coming in from the bike –she out split me by 2 minutes – I better get working harder on the bike! I suffered on the run, my run has just abandoned me at every race this year. I’ve been working hard in training, but its just not showing on my run splits – 2 minutes slower run this year compared to last. But I did manage to hang on for the win by 4 minutes.

The team had a great showing! I admit its fun to have all you guys blast by me on the bike and run shouting encouragement – it gives me a lift each time someone goes by. Next up is Logansport Aug 16.

DINO New Castle XTERRA

I haven't been posting much, for no good reason. Well, other than being lazy I guess.

Ted did a nice job with the write-up for XTERRA ONE. Seems like whenever I make a decent trip with Ted the result is a good thing. Last year we went to Tennessee together and I got my first ever podium finish. Well, we made a trip to Ohio, and I once again came home with a 2nd place finish. I've decided that road trips racing with Ted are a good thing, even though the long drive sucks.

Coming off of my 2nd place in Ohio, Ted talked me into going to New Castle. I wasn't feeling it and was ready for a weekend off. Nisha made a good point though: once winter rolls around and 'cross season is over, I'll be kicking myself for not taking advantage of ever race I could. Sold.

Ted, Ken, and I made the drive down Friday night. We got a late start, we had planned on leaving around 1 pm to get a good pre-ride in. Arriving around 7:30 left us enough time to get in the first 3 miles of the course just in time to turn around and get stranded on the trails in the dark. We made it back safe and got ourselves a hotel.

The morning of the race, Tim showed up for the pre-ride early (he left later and slept in his car) while we set up in transition. With nearly the whole team assembled, we were ready to make an impact in New Castle. Tim, Ted, Ken, Cheryl, Derrick, and myself all showed up ready to race.

The gun went off and into the water we went. I haven't done any swim training this year (save for about 6,000m in 7 months...total), so I haven't seen Ted after the swim start since '07. I'll happily give up that minute or so in the water for my other gains, though.

The swim was uneventful through the swim out. At the first turn I took a foot to the face and incurred a rush of water into my goggles. I stopped for about 5 seconds to get them fixed and was back off. At the second turn I picked out some green sleeves and realized it was Tim. I latched onto his feet and made my way to shore.

Tim and I made our way into T1 right next to each other, and left in quick fashion together as well. That was all I saw of Tim's trail. I calmed my HR and got into a groove for about a mile, when I heard Tim yell to keep pushing. I looked up to see where he was and promptly lost my balance in a tight, uphill switchback. DOH!

Back onto the bike and I was off. About 6 miles in someone comes up behind me and tells me he lives across the street from the park and essentially gives me a guided tour for about 3 miles. The final mile I rode right behind him with Brian Hanson right behind me. I got a chance to meet Brian at Torn Shirt about a month back and knew if I was with him at this point I was happy with my positioning.

The final mile or so was pretty uneventful and I came into T2 easily in the top 20. I leave T2 with with Brian who wastes no time dropping me, but I also left T2 with Cheryl. We run together for about a quarter mile, and I was lucky enough to have the legs to pull ahead of her for the first time!

The remainder of the run went more or less as planned, and was very lonely. In 2007 I got used to being further back in the pack which meant a lot more people were around. I was passed by 2 people, passed 2 others, and finished all alone.

Once all is said and done, Ted won his AG, Tim took 2nd in ours, I took 3rd. Derrick 3rd in his AG, but none of this compares to Cheryl taking yet another overall female win!

Team Get a Grip Offroad left New Castle with 5 people in the top 10 overall, which seems pretty solid for a team if you ask me. Right now we are on pace to finish well in the overall standings in the North Central Region, but I'll bite my tongue until we can finish off with our best.

Xterra One

Brandon and I traveled to the greater Cleveland area for the inaugural Xterra O.N.E. at West Branch state park. I like racing in Ohio because one of my first Xterra's was at Paint Creek state park back in 2000, and in 2006 I won my only Xterra ever at the Mad Dog Triathlon.

After Brandon and I pre-rode the course on Saturday, I knew this would be a mountain bikers course. The track is scary fast with lots of tight turns between trees, and many roots and boulders to disrupt your momentum. This will be a fun race.

Race Day

At the gun I mark Cayo Ramirez, but I can't stay with him because he is drafting off Peter Hanson. At the turn around they have about 50 yards on me. I finally get past some dude who kept swimming into me and I get into a groove. I exit the water in 6th but my awesome transition skills get me to the single track in second place (I think).

Riding the middle ring, I feel good and quickly catch Hanson. After I pass him I lose control in a muddy section and crash into a tree and he catches up to me. Just as I build another lead a pedal catches a rock, nearly throwing me over my handlebars and derailing my chain off the crank. I get off the bike to fix it and Hanson catches me again. I take off riding a little more cautiously than before.

At about the halfway point I realize I'm in first because I surprise the spectators and course marshals as I ride by. At the only open section of the course I look back and see I have a big cushion because no one is in sight. The rest of the ride is lonely and I focus on riding smart to avoid any crashes or mechanicals. At T2 I confirm I'm in first because there are no other bikes in the rack.

I take off out of T2 like I stole something because I don't know if any of these local Ohio racers are good runners. I attack the boulder climb in the first mile and I feel good. About 3 miles in I get comfortable and put it on cruise control. All of a sudden someone sneaks up behind me and they are less than 30 seconds back. Fear and adrenalin kick in and I take off. I drill it to the end and end up taking the tape.

Mad props to Brandon for taking second in his age group. These points put us both in 1st in our respective age groups for the Xterra regional point series.

Next up Xterra DINO New Castle.

Doubling up on Superweek weekend

Superweek –

Blue Island Cat4/5 - 14th
Blue Island Cat4 – 14th
Olympia Fields Cat4/5 – 2nd
Olympia Fields Cat4 – 8th

I was only able to race these two Superweek events, so I decided to double up both days and do the 4/5 and 4 races back to back.

Blue Island Cat4/5 - 14th
The pace was pretty fast and there were several attacking attempts, including a couple myself. A Wild Card rider gets off the front and his teammates are blocking. Only 1 or 2 guys are working to reel him in. I help despite being outnumbered because I don't want to accept second place as the best possible scenario. I trade a few pulls with Loukas from XXX and we eventually retrieve the solo rider. I'm with the final group of 14 when the announcer calls the final lap. The pace slows to a crawl immediately, and a rider tried to squeeze through a quickly closing gap directly ahead of me. Of course the slight contact caused a meeting with the pavement for the poor fellow. I swerve to avoid and someone else rides into me from behind. My rear skids out a bit but I keep it upright and try to chase the pack who have now dropped the hammer. Frustratingly, the harder I pedal the more they pull away. I finally concede when I see no one else is chasing and I soft pedal through the line. Upon inspection I see my rear wheel was knocked out of true causing break rub. Damn. 14th place (They paid through 12)

Blue Island Cat4 – 14th
I rushed to my car and switched bib numbers to do the Cat4 race. I had just enough time to swap my wheel with neutral support and take a spot on the line. Compared to the 4/5 race, it seemed lethargic, which was fine for me because it allowed me some time to recover. Another hour of going around the rectangle and I stay with the lead pack of 20+ riders but get bad positioning and end up 14th in the group sprint. Not the results I had hoped for on the first day but a good 2hr training effort.

Day 2
Olympia Fields Cat4/5 – 2nd
I will let others disparage the course, I had my best road racing result yesterday so maybe the layout suited me. J The pace started out blazing fast with XXX intent on splitting the field early. I bridged a couple small gaps to hold onto the leaders (3 XXX riders, 1 VeePak, 1 Pegasus guy and some other dude) Outnumbered again, I still took a few pulls to help ensure we weren’t caught. We worked pretty well together, but I was always getting gapped on the 120 degree turn that had already claimed several other riders’ skin. I was able to sprint back on, but I didn’t have the nerve to lean in without scrubbing some speed first. With about 10 laps to go Loukas from XXX wrecked and took out another XXX teammate directly ahead of me on the 120degree turn. I had to swing wide and sprint even harder to make contact with the remaining 4 riders. The VeePak guy attacked immediately after the crash, so three of us worked together to reel him in. In the beautiful karmic justice, the solo VeePak rider took himself out of the race 5 laps later on the same 120degree. The remaining 3 of us shared 1 lap pulls and worked well together. At the start of the last lap the XXX rider jumped and managed to hold his lead. I was able to take second.

Olympia Fields Cat4 – 8th
Another quick change and I was back on the line. The pace started just as fast and I had to work even harder to keep from being gapped. I was using blockers on the back straightaway to bring me back to the pack. 7 riders got off the front and I was in the second group of about 6 with 3MetCycling riders. We were a bit disorganized, but everyone put in an effort. I took a lesson from the last race and attacked at the same spot as the winner from the previous race. Suprisingly only a 2CC rider was able to match and then pass me. He took the final turn quicker but I dug in and beat him to the line. The 2 man break was absolutely flying, almost lapping the entire field.

I wish I could continue with Superweek but work wouldn’t allow it. I had a great time and was able to meet some cool people from the local road scene. Part of the Criterium poker game is knowing who the real threats are. Tough luck to Loukas for the wreck, but thankfully his sweet powder blue Indy Fab bike is fine. Next up … Whitewater Rafting in Maine and then the Chicago Criterium

PALOS MELTDOWN 2008

Hey everyone the Palos Meltdown Registration is up. Last year was a mess if you tried to register late. I would suggest that if you plan to race you get on it. I pasted the link in to help out a bit.

http://cambr.org/SMF/index.php?action=irace

Just click on Registration at the top of the page and you should be all set.

Drilled

Hey Guys,
I've been feeling pretty motivated this week and I decided to jump in on the local group ride. I've known of the local Hammerheads' "Tuesday Night World Championship" for the past year, but never joined because of many different but equally weak excuses. I finally made a point to leave work early on Tuesdayy and jump in. I rode twenty minutes to the spot, introduced myself and asked if I would have enough gears on my cross bike (46-12). They said that I was more than welcome to join and try to hang on. As I was waiting the local strong dudes trickled in (TJ Tollackson - Pro long course triathlete, Stuart Hayes - UK ITU pro, Cam Kirkpatrick - 5th Elite at WORS Subaru cup, JJ Bailey - Elite national AG triathlete, and sevearl CAT1 fast cats that I couldn't identify). I was looking for a challenge and I was going to get my wish ... and then some.
The first 30 minutes were at a nice easy pace as we rode away from downtown Des Moines to the country roads. It is awesome to ride for just a few miles before your out on smooth country roads with minimal traffic and plenty of rolling hills. There were a few decent hills and a couple hard accelerations out of corners that got the heart pumping early. The next thing I know I had slipped near the back of the group and the front blew the doors off. Before I realized what happened I was already gapped. I turned myself inside out for 1 minute ... 2 minutes ... 3 minutes .... sit up and spin. Boy, that escalated quickly... I mean, that really got out of hand fast! It really jumped up a notch. I wish I could blame it on running out of gears, but unfortunately that was not the case. I formed a small group with a few other shredded riders and pacelined in the wake of the larger group up the road. I took a little pride in the fact that I had never been dropped in a race or by a group before. I guess my number was up.
I know that I've been coasting with my training this year, making small improvements on inconsistent training. These hard group efforts are exactly what I've needed to remind me of where I'm at (spit out the back of the pack) and where I'm trying to go (trading pulls at the front). I'm going to keep going back and getting knocked out until I run out of gear before I run out of leg.

Tim

Motivation check

Watching international pros at the top of their game is a guaranteed way to stoke the competitive fires and think about what we need to work on to keep improving. I have no delusions of racing ITU or as a pro, but I want to keep closing the time gap.

I am here in Des Moines and just watched the 2nd Annual HyVee Triathlon. The flooding forced them to move away from the downtown, but the RDs did a phenominal job of staging this race and maintaining the swim for both elites and Age Groupers. I can't complain about the Chicago Triathlon's early start anymore. The AG transition opened at 4:30 am and closed at 5:45 am with a 6:00 start. I wonder if they had to light the sighting bouys.

Congrats to Hunter Kemper on clinching the final USA Olympic team spot. These guys are amazing athletes, running sub 33:00 10K times. Rasmus Henning wins for the 2nd time, taking home a huge pro payday of $200K. Emma Snowsill won the women's event. I'm still hoping that I see her whenever the elevator doors open in the hotel. :-)

I'm not the only one ...

I saw this in O'Hare a while back and snapped a pic with my phone. Travelling for work everyweek does present some challenges. I've been creative with my workouts and I appreciate the Marriott staff's flexibility in allowing me to store a bike (among other things) year round. It has definitely been my home away from home over the past 20 months. If only the hotel pool was 25yds instead of 12. :-)

xterra richmond - way to go , grace!

Whenever I ride and do stupid things (which is quite often) I call myself grace, you know, way to go grace.Yesterday I did xterra richmond and I lost count of thenumber of times I said this to myself. Let's start at the beginning. The swim is in the James river, light current, shallow water - 1-6 feet deep. Check out the link above to see photos of the boulders that are strewn throughout the river (and hence the swim course), and even the 'Mayan' ruin like thing we had to climb on the run. Anyways, the swim was wave starts, which was awful for me! Pros first, 2 minutes later were men 15-35, 2 minutes later were men above 35, 2 minutes later were women and relays. So, not only did I have the pleasure of trying to navigate lots of slower men who had a head start, since I couldn't take decent lines, I was swimming into boulders all the time. Most of them would just brush right under me, one I swam right up onto. The orange cone sitting on it was not supposed to be a magnet attracting me to it, but rather a warning to stay away from it. But my mind was not thinking except to get around the men, and I beached myself on it. The kayakers must have had a good laugh at that! WAY TO GO GRACE! I finished the swim with lots of abrasions on my arms chest. Not pretty. Then the run to T1 was .25-.5 miles long. No big deal except for the rocks you have to run over. ANd I mean a good solid 50 feet of those big chunky 2inch gravel pieces laid down for pavement. Many people stashed shoes at the swim to wear, but not me. Oh no, I had to do it barefoot - WAY TO GO GRACE! Then onto my sweet little mountain bike for a pretty technical 18+ mile course. The biggest problem was since the men had a head start on the swim I had even less of a lead on them so the first hour of the bike was jam packed with people. I stopped counting the number of crashes I had. One time I wiped out, got up and thought my handlebars seemed weird, and the front wheel and bars were completely turned around and I was sitting on my bike with them backwards! WAY TO GO GRACE! So, like I said, many crashes, none of them bad. Lots of dabbing, and several places I had to get off the bike and walk - a couple of steep switchbacks I didn't make it down, 3 short steep uphills that were littered with people - many times it was people in front of you that prevented you from riding something, and unfortunately I probably kept a few people from riding things - but that's mountain biking - crazy, fun, stressful, tiring - just so different from riding on the road. I should also mention that there werethese small bridges that cross the river so people can ride and walk across. And they all had these ridiculous stairs to climb. So around mile 3 we climbed the first, carrying our bikes, up 10 flights of 10 stairs each. Then ride singletrack, techincal sections, fun sections, crowded sections. This trail had everything you can imagine - and its right in the middle of a city. I wish our trails around here offered more variety. The more I get to ride other trails, I see more things I'd like to see on our local trails. Oh well, we did get to carry our bikes down the stairs next. Then more riding, and back up one more time - yep! That was F.U.N. FInally into t2, and I saw a gal who I met form Purdue, she cheered me along. I fumbled with my race belt for some reason, and my socks were full of sand and I tried to decide if I should empty them or just run. I opted for just run, and have a few blisters to show for that. But the run was pretty flat, except for more climbing up stairs to cross a foot bridge. A climb up the mayan ruin like structure, which was a hand and foot climb up a 75 foot steep hill with railroad ties every couple of feet to grab onto. One very cool section of the huge boulders that you scamper across, then climb up a ladder bolted into a wall. Then some trails, one long climb on the trails, back up to the footbridge and the finish. I was 3rd in my AG. I won't do this race next year. The swim is too short and negates any lead I can get on my strength, and its too far to drive, and it was way to difficult to do two A races two weekends in a row (Pelham then Richmond). Difficult to recover from Pelham, and then figure how to train for Richmond. Too bad, because the Richmond bike course has tons of room for improvement for me!My running is pretty slow now. I'll be adding some speedwork next because I was just plodding along. My overall pace was 9min miles, which probably meant I was running 8:30 pace when I could actually run, and that just won't cut it.And my swimming sucks too. So, I have to bump the swimming up starting NOW.

I'm happy to be home.

Xterra Southeast Champs

I came back to Alabama again this year, because last year this race was such a challenge, I thought I had room to improve. For some reason, the xterra people like to start the regional championship races at 9:30am! In Alabama in June, at 9:30am its already 90 degrees! By race end this year it was 100. Challenge #1. So, this year, I was sporting a new GAG race kit! New shorts and tri-top. In knew the top had pockets in back, which is a big no-no for me in a swim. So I broke down and bought a Desoto speedsuit, knowing the speedsuit would eliminate that problem, and also might help compensate for my absolutely dismal swim training this year. My swim was still a little off last year, even with the speedsuit, but it serves me right. I have been swimming 30 minutes twice a week at absolutely pathetic paces. Such a waste for me to give up precious minutes on my best of the three legs, so its time to get back to normal swim workouts when I get home. Challenge #2, the water was a way too balmy 82 degrees. I swam the whole swim next to Melanie McQuaid, 3-time xterra world champion, so that's always fun. but of course she blew me away in T1 and everywhere else! In T1, there was one other age grouper just ahead of me. I started the bike knowing I should hydrate a lot, and I tried to ride smoothly. Challenge #3: In the first 10 minutes, tons of pro men, women and fast men age groupers need to get by. Its super stressful, because its all singletrack for the stretch, so I have to try to slow down which looses my rhythm, make room for them, try not to crash myself and not to take anyone else out. Its just not fun. One corner I tried to go too tight to give them room, and washed out. Lots of trail rash on the right leg (hard to see in the photo, but its really pretty!) , and I held up several people as I tried to pull my bike off the trail. Once I was going again, things were uneventful, the first AG woman passed me at the single track just before the doubletrack long uphill. She didn't pull away until I let some other guy go by near the top of the long hill, and I lost contact, because there's just inches of decent trail to ride on just on the side of the double track- the rest is rocks, gravel, and on the uphill its too easy to loose traction and then you can't get going again. So I watched her go. One more AG woman passed me just before blood rock, and the woman who was first in t1, was fixing a flat and I passed her. Of these 3, one was world champion last year, one was second at world championships last year (to a now first year pro), the other was just plain fast (20-24 ag, I'm guessing she will be pro one day soon). So I was not feeling too bad. Challenge #4: blood rock. I got to blood rock, rode half, then hopped off. I'm just not ready to tackle it yet. I've ridden the course 5 times now, and still do not have the confidence to ride the whole stretch. Lots of people stand there to cheer and watch people crash. I told them I was walking, and they cheered me anyways - all are so supportive. Its a nasty stretch of rocky trail. No more women passes before the end of the bike. My bike plus t2 was also a few minutes slower than last year. I'm not sure where Ilost the time, maybe just overall heat fatigue, and the little wipeout at the start, maybe I'm just getting slower as I get older! (I hope not). Challenge #5 - the run. The run scared me, as it is a beast. The first mile or two are relatively flat, and I ran the whole thing, moderately paced, taking gatorade and water twice. Then the run goes vertical on trail that is often loose, debris covered, and steep. And I mean steep. There is no hill in Bloomington that I can think of that compares - maybe that gravel road that Ange and I rode in January. Then back down. And the downs are steep, quad busting steep. I am slow on the steeps - down or up, doesn't matter. I had to walk a lot of the ups. I'd bargain with myself to run 40 more steps when I was ready to walk because my heart was ready to bust out of my chest. There are 5 or so big hills like this in 4 miles. It is an absolute beast. Did I mention its a beast? Well, it is. My run was 5 minutes slower than last year. The woman who I passed fixing her flat, passed me running, looking so strong. Then one more woman passed me on the run (she was world champ last year, and at this race I beat her by 10 seconds last year, this year, she beat me by about 30). This race I always am so happy to stop running at the finish. I hit the misting tent, which is just the most awesome thing at the end of a hot race. I need to set one of these up for my dogs. I finished 1st in my AG (there were only two of us), and I was 5th amateur woman overall. I got to meet Conrad Stoltz after the race. That was so very cool - he is an amazing athlete and mountain bike rider, and a super nice guy, and his blog/website is very entertaining.

So, I did qualify for the World Championships in Maui, so I'm thrilled about that. Not so thrilled that I was 7 minutes slower than last year. Next up is Richmond , now just 5 days away. In two days since Pelham, I'm not recovering well. Every muscle in my legs hurt. I hope that gets better as the days go by.

2008 XTERRA Southeast Championship

There haven't been many posts lately, but that doesn't mean that our crew hasn't been racing.
We had a great showing in XTERRA Last Stand in May. Netting 3rd, 6th and 10th overall. Winning the M25-29 and M30-34 age groups and 2nd in the M35-39 AG.

Dean flew to AZ to race in the Deuces Wild XTERRA and represented the Midwest well. He finished 3rd overall again, and 2nd in his AG AGAIN! Geez, tough AG, bud.

The next XTERRA on the radar was the XTERRA SE Championship near Birmingham, AL. 4 of us raced it in '07 and it was a well run event. The bike course is f-a-s-t and the run course wickedly steep, both up and down. I did ok in '07, but a mis-firing bike kept me from my best race possible.

Ted and Cheryl were both signed up for the '08 version and had their travel planned. After waffling for a few weeks then deciding not to race, I did a 180 and booked a last minute ticket. This was definitely a trip with a purpose, fly down Saturday, race Sunday morning, fly back Sunday night. I finally arrived on Saturday at noon, after a 2 hour flight delay. When we got to the race site I realized that it was going to be another brutally hot and muggy race, just like last year. We went for a swim but didn't find relief. It was actually worse in the bathwater warm lake.

We put our bikes together and waited a bit longer for the temps to drop a few degrees before pre-riding, finally heading out around 5:00pm. I vaguely remembered the course, but there were a lot of tricky root and rock sections. Bike handling, not cardio, would be the speed limiter in the first 1/3 of the course. The 2nd 1/3 was a series of rocky climbs and false flats leading up to Blood Rock and the 3rd section. A rocky, filling rattling downhill section where fearlessness would be rewarded. Wipe out here and you'll slide across large sharp rocks. Road rash would be a blessing compared to the aftermath of falling here.

Ted and I were riding the 1st section when I hear a large crack and my rear wheel grinds to a halt. Crap! I look down, expecting a minor mechanical problem but what I saw was worse. My rear derailluer hanger had snapped in two. This is very very bad and it was multiplied by the fact that I didn't have a replacement. I just flew to AL, registered for the race, and now I can't race?!?!?! We disassemble it so I can walk the bike out and Ted gets the car. It is now 6:00pm, the race village had vacated for the night., and Ted was talking about turning my beautiful Alma into a single speed. This can't be happening! I tried a last ditch effort and called Cahaba Cycles, which was near the park. They closed at 6:00pm, but after hearing my situation they offered to see what they could do for me. They were an Orbea dealer, but they only stocked Orca road bikes and the chance of having the part I needed was slim.

The shop owner took my bike into the back and I waited like a nervous father in a hospital waiting for a prognosis. They only had one bike that was available to rent, a full squish Gary Fisher High-Fi that was a size too big. Please, please, please let my bike pull through. I hear some rattling and wrenching in back but no indication of success. I'm pacing around shop when he finally comes out with the news. Miraculously the hanger from an Orca road bike fit on my Alma!!! I had to restrain myself from shouting my relief. Not only did he fix it, he re-tuned it and it ran like a fine swiss watch. If you're ever in the southeast Cahaba cycles is the place to go!

Fast forward to race day (this is taking way too long) :-) Roughly 200 people line up at the waters edge and the cannon sounds. We all head into the bathtub for our first of 2 laps. My first lap was about as fast (slow?) as I expected and I went out for lap two. I finish, transition and then hit the bike course at 32:51. Ouch. I get a bit anxious in the early sections, understeer a corner, ram my wheel into a tree stump step up, stop dead in my tracks and someone runs into me. Sorry bud! I get back on and try to settle in. The bike shifting is crisp and I pace with a couple other riders. As soon as we hit the climb my carbon hardtail Alma shines and I quickly drop everyone in sight and crack a smile. From here on out I'm flying blind, I rode here last year and that is the extent of my course knowledge. I'm forced to dismount and run down blood rock, but I ride the rest of the rocky downhill section aggressively and finally head back to transition. Bike: 1:19:04. A six minute improvement over '07.

I nailed the difficult run last year and was trying to match my time this year. Long story short (I ran up hill and I tried to keep my feet in front of me on the downhills)x6. The first 35 minutes of the run was tough, but the last 10 was real suffering. I alwasy know that I'm pushing my limits when the thoughts of "Why am I doing this!?! This isn't fun, this is torture!!" start creeping into my head and I decide to start playing video games instead of racing. Several time my eyes played tricks on me when I would see a 25 on another racers calf, which was motivating at first and then a relief to find it actually a 50 or 35. I exit the forest and head back to the race village. I'm glad that there are no threatening pursuers, but also I bit dejected that I only passed 1 25-29 racer. I finish and head for the rain tent. Run 46:30.

Total time: 2:38:25

After mustering the strength and nerve I get my 'stat' card to see how I stacked up. The top 2 guy in my AG qualify to race in Maui Hawaii at the XTERRA World Chamipionship. I find my AG results and see I finished 3rd. I had mixed emotions. Obviously I was disappointed to miss my qualifying spot by 1, but I had met another goal of finishing 3rd or higher to score 82 series points.

Congrats to Cheryl Stine, winner her AG and qualifying for Maui for her 2nd consecutive year!
Best of luck next weekend to Ted and Cheryl in Richmond at the XTERRA East Championship. Who knows, maybe I'll book another last minute ticket to race again this weekend :-)

Signing off.
Tim

Dirt Sweat and Gears - 12 Hour Solo

My excitement when registering must have prevented me from noticing how far away Fayetteville was (9 hours each way, $200 of gas and within 100 miles of Birmingham, AL). I planned on leaving at 11:00am on Friday, but work was a nightmare and I wasn't able to leave until 3:30, just in time to hit Chicago rush hour traffic. Nicole rode with and we finally arrived at our hotel at 1:00am. Thankfully Fayetteville was on CST, so I didn't lose an hour. There was a significant amount of rain that night and I got to talk with Mark Hendershot about how the course handles water at the hotel's b-fast bar in the morning. Mark said, "Not well."

There's no way I can detail everything, but I'll say it was a tale of two halves. The first 3 laps were a energy sapping, sticky muddy mess. There were several spots where there were 5-10 racers all on the side of the trail pulling large globs of mud from their forks, bottom bracket and stays near their tires. After cleaning the bike you push it through the un-rideable section, just to have it muck up again. I switched between carrying and dragging a 30+ pound brick for the first couple laps. After finishing lap #3 I was completely fried and lethargic. I ate and drank and ate some more trying to replenish energy and took a 30 minutes nap.

I finally mustered the energy to go out for lap 4. A combination of the course drying out, getting comfortable with the course, and possibly switching to Ted's full suspension bike helped a lot. After my legs warmed up I felt great, spinning the short steep hills and flowing on the downhills trying not to scrub speed and conserve energy. It worked and I posted my fastest lap time by 10+ minutes (1:13ish). I felt great, ate a bit, and then rushed back out for lap 5 with similar results. I had some crazy cramping issues that I think I understand now, but at the time were a mystery (hint: too much salt, not enough water). I fought through one last lap and ran to the tent to ask were I sat. She told me I was in 8th and 2 guys went out 10 minutes earlier. In hindsight maybe I could have caught them, but I decided that I had enough and my cramping was getting worse,

I finished 6 laps, 64 miles and finished as 8th solo amateur geared. Tinker finished 11 laps, that dude is amazing, killing guys half his age. Dave Norton, Team Pegasus rider who Ted and I edged out at Rock Cut by mere seconds is apparently an enduro-freak and did 9 laps. I congratulated him on a great race. He finished as the 7th pro.

There is too much that happened during those 12 hours to list everything, but my main takeaway from this race was 1) I love the atmosphere of these races, the people are all laid back and super cool. I got to see some legends of the sport up close and personal as they lapped me and everyone was supportive of each other. Over the course of 12 hours, you are fighting yourself more than any other race on the course. I'm not interested in doing a 24 solo (yet) but I will definitely look for more of these type of races soon. I definitely see myself doing this again next year. Next up: XTERRA LAST STAND

Gator Terra Xterra

I didn't quite know what to expect going into the weekend, but any expectations I could have set wouldn't have measured up to how well things turned out. The Gator Terra Xterra in Ruston, LA is the oldest Xterra branded event and has quite an illustrious past. The bike course is my favorite in the series. I'm not alone in that preference, none other than Ned Overend listed it as his favorite back when he was competing in Xterras. The famous camera-friendly "Tomac" hill is a close simile to a ski jump and always draws a crowd.

The Gator Terra is a tradition for me and my good friend Joey Guajardo, we've competed for the last four years with varying degrees of success. Last year neither of us were really in top form coming out of injuries and lags in training. This year we had no excuses. We'd done the training. We were injury-free. We were both sporting brand new no-expense-spared hardtails. Everything was lined up. This year was a chance to redeem ourselves.

There was some hard rain on Friday night, but the sandy course soaked it all up and on race morning the course was perfect. The weather was beautiful, sunny and in the 70's. The water temp was 74 degrees, wetsuit legal. I put in some warm up strokes and my swim felt strong. All winter I'd worked on building up my shoulder strength. I been training to develop more of a "wetsuit" stroke (more glide, more upper body power, less kick) since almost all my races are wetsuit legal. It seemed to have paid off, I felt great about the day.

At the start I positioned in the middle of the pack right behind the course favorites. The race starts, I feel good, and about ten strokes in, my wetsuit pops open in the back. I'm cursing myself and giving it my all to stay with the group as I drag what feels like a parachute through the water. I'm debating whether to strip it or try to fix it on the beach. I opt to strip it and confuse quite a few spectators and competitors as I quickly strip the wetsuit on the beach run between swim laps. Back in the water and I'm on a mission. I come out of the second lap with Joey right on my tail. I know I've lost time because I always beat Joey out of the water, but I know I'm not too far down because he puts in a good split.

I'm quick out of transition and on to the bike course. About two miles in, Joey passes by me at a fast pace, and I know he's going to have a good day. He's found some serious mountain bike speed in the last couple years. In our history on this course, he is usually chasing me down on the run. If he passes me on the bike, I know that our mano-e-mano race is over. I've become a faster runner, but he's become a seriously fast runner. After that I reel a few bikers in and swap places with another in a black jersey, and feel great. The pace feels as fast as I've ever ridden, the legs are solid, and I only dab once. About 7 miles into the bike a volunteer yells out "You're only four and a half minutes back! You're in the top ten". I'm doing the math in my head, and realize I usually finish 15+ minutes back and place in the teens. This is going to be a good race! Me and the black jersey swap places a few more times. He beats me at the end, but I pass him in transition. I'm out on the run quick and the legs are solid. I'm keeping a pace that is fast enough to feel unfamiliar on dirt. Can I keep it up? My heart feels good, legs feel good. The black jersey is chasing me down. He's flying. I'll let him pass. He's a couple age groups up. Usually, I always get passed on the run. Running's never been my strength, so I'm running scared. I want to leave a little in the tank in case I have to turn it up when I hear footsteps, but I also want to keep those footsteps from coming. A mile left and no other runners in sight, I turn it up a little. I sprint to the finish in a time of 1:37 and change. I finish 8^th overall and 1^st in my age group. My time is ten minutes better than last year with most of that gain coming on the run. Joey had a phenomenal race. He placed 3^rd overall and had the fastest run split. Keep in mind that neither of us had ever placed better than 17^th before. This was a breakthrough year.

While the Xterra was the focus, we both did the Rustman triple which consisted of a 2 mile run on Saturday night and a Sprint triathlon on Sunday morning. I ran a 12:29 in the hilly 2 miler and placed second in my age group in the sprint tri. I ended up 5^th overall in the triple challenge. Joey won the 2 miler in 10:59, took 3^rd overall in the sprint with a smoking 17:39 5k to close it and won the Rustman triple overall. Go Joey! It's going to be a great year. I'm looking forward to the next race.

- Bill Driegert

My First Expert Race

So, I've only ever done two mountain bike races, and a handful of xterras, been riding mtb for two years now. The girls I train with upgraded to expert this year, and the Indiana series is not heavy on the women's side, so I decided to upgrade to expert also. My upgrade was approved a few weeks ago. We decided to venture down to one of the Kentucky Points Series races, at Younger's Creek. We prerode the 14 mile loop Saturday afternoon. And I was a bit worried for the 2 laps due the experts on Sunday. There are switchbacks, steep, and very loose, the likes of which I have never ridden before. A long set for 500 feet elevation up at the start, lots of fun stuff on top, more switchbacks in the middle, down and back up, more fun stuff, including the drop, what looked to me like straight down for 30 feet, off a completely horizontal lip. More hard stuff, and more awful switchbacks down. I seriously thought about dropping after one lap, but I thought if I could just pedal one more stroke, each pedal moved me past the half way point and toward the finish. The second lap was hard. I felt slow, and tired, and sloppy. But I managed a big smile going down the drop, as it was incredible fun, like an amusement park. I finished third. Out of only four women racing expert. Fourth dnf'd. One of my friends opted to not even start. ok, so I felt a little out of my league, but I'm happy that I did the race, and finished, and had a few smiles along the way. I think there were only 9 women total at all levels of the race, its a challenging course. Every ride is a new learning experience for me, since I've only been doing this for a short time. And this one was probably the hardest course I've ever ridden. And had things I don't get to ever practice, so maybe I'll get myself back down there some weekend just for some switchback practice.

First (and Last?) Race of the Year...

So I just finally got around to putting a post up for my first race of the year. I ended up getting dragged into racing the Rock Cut Race in Sport class. That means its almost a marathon length race 25 miles to be exact.

The race started out pretty good almost getting the hole shot and hitting the pavement at a good pace. That was until I hit the first patch of bog mud. I was trying to spin through a good 3-4 inches of mud. Looking back it would have been probably smarter to just run through it but inexperience told me otherwise.

As I got to the end of the first lap (out of two) at least two dozen comments in my mind told me to DNF. The joys of DNFing and just crying in my car from all the pains this race had given me was something to look forward to. By the time I got to the end of that loop I was looking forward to being that quitter. That was until I saw my gf just waiting there enthusiastically waiting to hand off the next water bottle. Little did she know I was running low on energy and ready to bonk any time.

During the second lap I was pretty much warmed up and ready for the nasties to come. I took the mud like a champ and was able to keep up with the pack that was miserably slower than me. I was feeling ok... not good but ok... Then came the second half of the lap, out of any drink and having used up almost all of my GU, I started feeling the typical muscle cramps. As I pedaled I felt my inner quads firing off. Imagine those good old oil cool Harley Davidsons on a hot day in traffic. One second they are running, the next - boom - engine seize. Yep that was what my quad's were heading straight into a slow but sure muscle failure.

I thought to myself if I can just keep the blood flowing I can get them slowly hydrated and just to keep the muscles moving they wont seize. All was good until I hit a hill I lost momentum on. I was forced to get off the bike. And when I did that... thats when it happened... my quads locked up and was a goner. Two thirds into the last lap and I just screwed myself by getting off my bike.

After 30 seconds of doing some basic quad stretches I decided to get on the bike and head backwards towards the last course marshal. I thought I had thrown in the towel and given up. On my way back to the marshal my legs gave a glimpse of hope. That had briefly settled into a rhythm again. There was a little pain but not the locking I felt before. And at that point I decided that I might as well turn around and finish this thing. Even if it takes me till dusk.

By this time about 5 more racers passed me up. I'd like to thank my fellow Get-A-Grip teammates for not pushing me over as they lapped me :) I was feeling good about getting my ass kicked because my legs gave up on me and all I was using were the stupid granny gears to wheelchair my way back to the finish line. At this point I was wishing that the whole way through would have been downhill.. unfortunately that was only about 20 percent of the trail. The rest was either flat or up hill.

I eventually made it to the end after sprinting out some rider from some Oshkosh/Fond du Lac team. But obviously there was a price. After my tag was pulled at the finish I sat down and locked up again.

And so today it took me about 3 days to get my legs back to where I can hit the gym again and not worry about feeling geriatric.

I can confidently say though that this has given me insight as to what will come in the up coming months. Because this will not be my last race. It was the first of many since my 9 year hiatus from mountain bike racing.

Dare I say comeback? We'll see...

The 2008 Rock Cut Race Results can be viewed here

Do The Rock

I was stoked to finally get on the trails and kick off the Midwest MTB season. Adam at the shop had recently changed my bike position and I've been feeling much more 1) powerful and 2) comfortable on my Alma. This is something I've had difficulty with in the past on my old Epic. My Orbea was also setup with a new front rim thanks to a last minute build by Matt.

Race Day: I was ready to race but I tried to stay relaxed. Unfortunately I was too relaxed which cost both Ted and me valuable starting line real estate and we were stuck near the back. I should have learned from my Chicross experience to sit on the start line for 15 minutes (note to self, look for LeMans start races)

Anyway, the director sends us of and Ted and I are trying to work our way up before entering the single-track, with little luck, and we’re still somewhere near the back 1/2 of the field. There were a few switchbacks and log crossings before we hit the first bog and the race blew apart. It was chaos with people slipping, sliding and falling in the muck.

Less than three miles into the race and I have lost any idea about where I sit overall. Do I sit up and soft pedal like a roadie because I lost my warm, sweet, nurturing draft or hope of an overall win? No, I turn it into a 2 person battle between the rider immediately ahead of me and myself. This is why I love MTBing and that was all that mattered for the ensuing laps. How much suffering can you take to bridge to the next rider?

My bike handling got a bit better with each lap I was slowly working my way through the field. By the end of the 2nd lap Ted had caught back up to me and we were able to work together. We both tried to help each other and push that pace when the other was lagging. It kept us honest for the final lap and we finished the race in succession. I think we went 16, 17 or something close. A good place to set the bar for the season.

I learned some valuable thinks to build on and I had a great time at the race. We’ve got a great group of guys and this should be a fun year. Next up: Dirt Sweat and Gears Solo 12 hour

Burnham Racing Spring Super Criterium

My first crit of the year. Hell, my first crit EVER. My expectations? Don't crash (or cause a crash) and finish in one piece, walk away with some experience, and have a good time.

I was lucky enough to accomplish every one of those tasks.

My day started at 12:50 with the Men 4/5 race. Honestly, I should have done the Men 5 race, but it started too early. Either way, I was a little late to the line (still got there before the gun went off of course!) and was stuck at the back of the pack for the start. I thought this would be a bigger issue than it was, but I was able to get mid-pack within about 1/2 lap.

By the way, the best part about this race was the course! It was a 1.9 mi motorcycle course! I believe 8 turns, plenty of grip, and a great place to race.

Anyway, right off the bat we lost Brian. He dropped his chain, then when trying to fix it went down. It looked nasty, but he came out "ok" compared to how he went down.

Honestly, the race was semi-uneventful for me because I was just doing what I could to play it safe, have fun, and not get hurt. I did have one lap where I was leading, but Tim told me to back off since we had 4 or 5 laps left. Come to find out, that lap had a prime that he cost me. Luckily, I think it was for some Accelerade or something which I already have WAY too much of.

All in all, I finished 39th, Tim finished 33rd (he blew up about 400-ish meters from the end), and Ted finished 9th. Not bad for a group of guys who formed around off-road racing!

Check out some photos from the Burnham Racing website (www.burnhamracing.com):

Building and Prepping

Coming into '08 without a road bike, and having my first race be a road race, meant one thing: a new bike!

It took me a while to pick the parts. I knew I'd go with SRAM (I loved Rival on my 'cross bike) and Force just looks so nice. Now, what to do about picking up the pieces? Well, retail is pretty high, so I went to eBay and the Slowtwitch.com classifieds. After weeks of searching and piecing this bike together, I'm finally almost done!

What's left? Obviously a seat and seatpost have to be put on. I also need a qualified mechanic to check the cables (I can get them to about 85% functionality, but a quick stop by GaG and Matt and they'll be working perfectly), both shifting and brakes.

Matt's also in the process of building my PowerTap wheels; a PT 2.4 SL rear hub and matching PT front hub, laced to DT Swiss 1.2 RR rims and Revolution spokes.

Here she is:



Once I can throw my new wheels on and a seat/seatpost, I'll get her weight. I'm not sure what to expect at the final weigh in, since she'll have the PT and is an all-aluminum CAAD 9 frame, but is loaded up with full SRAM Force.

Specs:

Frame: Cannondale CAAD 9 Get a Grip Team Frame, 56cm
Fork: Cannondale Premium all-carbon
Rims: DT Swiss 1.2 RR
Hubs: PowerTap 2.4 SL Wireless
Spokes: DT Swiss Revolution
Tires: Michelin Pro2 Race
Crankset: SRAM Force 53/39
Bottom Bracket: SRAM GXP
Front Derailleur: SRAM Force
Rear Derailleur: SRAM Force
Shifters: SRAM Force
Handlebars: Cannondale C3
Brakeset: SRAM Force
Saddle: ??
Seatpost: ??
Bar Tape: Fizik Silver

2008 Is On It's Way!

As of today, we have 5 guys registered to race the Hillsboro Roubaix on 3/29. Get a Grip Off Road Racing is making it's true TEAM debut in about 6 weeks on the road circuit of all places. Racers in the 4/5 are as follows:

Tim Yuska
Ted Ramos
Brandon Elliott
Brian Hill
Derrick Fluegge

Being my first road race, I'm in it for the experience and to help pull whenever I can. We'll be working on our team tactics over the next few weeks, but I fully expect a powerful debut out of our team. I know everyone has been putting in a lot of trainer time (not much riding outdoors to be had when we are consistently getting hit with snow, ice, and -20 degree temps with windchill).

Here's to a strong 2008 out of our team.

Columbia Cyclocross

Cyclocross season is not over... or maybe it's just begining. In any case, I am driving down to Tennessee this weekend to do a couple races at Chicksaw Trace Park. I'm in pretty good shape running and swimming wise, but I have hardly been riding at all. We'll see how it goes.

First (Virtual) Race of '08

Today I logged the first official race result for "Get A Grip Off-Road," newly recognized by USA Cycling. The irony was that it was done indoors on a Computrainer. Another funny thing is that I placed 4th in CAT4, but my result would have won the Cat3 race and placed 4th for the Cat1/2 race. Oh well, I can only control my results, not who shows up.

ABD Mid-America Time Trial Series

Tim

40% and still moving!

This challenge has been an interesting experience so far. It's gotten me out the door for a runs when I had absolutely no desire to do so. It's made me run more time and distance than I've ever done on a monthly basis. Luckily it's gone well, hasn't left me injured, and has me running faster than before.

Back in the day (before 12/1/07) when I went out for a 4-5 mile steady run, I'd pace myself around 8:45-9:00/mi to keep my HR around 155. If I wanted to go a little faster I could, but that'd leave me dogged. Yesterday I went out for one of those runs, 4.4 miles, and averaged 7:45/mi with an avg. HR of 156.

More really is MORE.

Now for the bad news:

My biggest month of running in history, and I'm only in 8th place in my AG! Now, 8th place isn't so bad, until you realize I only have 16 people to compete against...hmmm. What to do? Talk Tim into heading out to Palos with me today. He's a much better runner than I am, so hopefully he'll drag me along for 6-8 miles or so. That'll help me make up some time!

The thing that really kills me about this whole challenge is that I am averaging slightly over 40 minutes and 4.9 miles EVERY DAY for the last 36 days. That's a huge jump for me, and I'm still lagging behind!

Here is my AG standing as of this AM:



Here you can see the top ten overall (out of about 190) based on number of runs. I'm sitting at #9 on this chart, after this weekend I hope to jump up a spot or two:



Here's to finishing the first half of this challenge this week!

A Quick Congratulations!

In our first formal season, we have to send a congratulations out to Cheryl! Having a great year capped off by a solid race in Maui has landed Cheryl on the 2007 XTERRA All Americans list!

From insidetri.com:

2007 XTERRA ALL-AMERICANS LIST

Wow! What a rockin' year of off-road action! Now that the dirt has settled, the mud has dried up and the lakes have frozen, we bring you the top XTERRA age-group athletes of the '07 season. We've listed the top five athletes in each category. Selections were based primarily on points scored during the 50+ race XTERRA America Tour season, taking into consideration national and world championship contests and head-to-head competition. An asterisk denotes the XTERRA world champion in each group.

You can check out the site here.

Congratulations Cheryl! It's great to have you on the team. Hopefully this gives you and the rest of us something to shoot for in 2008!

As 2007 came to a close, it found Ted as the 30-34 M XTERRA Points Series Champion in and Cheryl as the 40-44 F XTERRA Points Series Champion, both in the North Central Region.

Ted had two 1st place and one 2nd place finish to his credit in Points Series Races to give him 217 points total. Cheryl had two 1st place finishes at Points Series Races, and a 2nd in a Regional Championship Race to end 2007 with 240 points.

Tim finished in 3rd position, Brandon in 4th, both in the 25-29 M. Tim had a 2nd and 3rd in Points Series Races, and 6th in a Regional Championship to round out his best three finishes (191 total points). Brandon had a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in Points Series Races to leave him 7 points behind Tim (184 total points).

I fully expect Tim and I to both move up next year, and have my fingers crossed for each of us to work at least one Points Series win into our schedules.

Ted has already voiced his points series goals for 2008, if I remember correctly he is shooting for 232, which would be two Points Series wins and a 3rd place in a Regional Championship. I'd like to see at least 209 (one Points Series win and two 2nd place finishes), and I expect Tim to do just as well, and hopefully better.

As for Cheryl, well anything short of the 240 points she posted in 2007 just won't hold water with me! ;-)

Best of luck guys training through the winter. My running is going well so far, I hope you all can keep up come spring!

100/100 Challenge

Tomorrow will bring me to 30% complete! I just realized tonight though, that I've been posting about this challenge for a couple of weeks and I've never added a link!

Click here to go to the Google Doc and check out the progress of all of the athletes.

Speaking of Google Docs, if you haven't used them and share any documents within a group, I highly recommend checking it out. It allows a group to keep a document posted online without having multiple versions of the document floating around via email. You can edit and save online, just like you would on your own computer, and publish safely for your group to see only, or invite others to check if out.

Here is a screen shot from my computer tonight looking at the docs I share:



That's it for now. 13.4 miles today and I am beat. I had to get the miles in though, how often is it nearly 50 degrees outside in late December in Chicago?!

More than 20%!

The 100/100 challenge is well underway at this point. Yesterday was my 20th run, it turned out to be just short of 6 miles holding a steady 8:08/mi pace.

I'm seeing some improvements already, and I'm only 20 days in. I guess this "training" stuff really does work. I've heard "more is more" for quite some time, but never had the enthusiasm/work ethic/patience to test it out. With a summer PB 5k time of 20:40, I hope to see if all of this running actually pays off this winter.

Now, onto something new for me: RaceDay and TriUtilities software. I'm just in the free trial period right now trying to get the hang of it, but basically it's software that takes input from each of your training sessions, uses a training score for that workout, and logs net positive effect (fitness), negative effect (fatigue), and balances those out to predict future performance.

In the long run, it should aid in showing your fitness and fatigue, and could potentially be used to help with preparation, program design, and taper for a race. Will this work as advertised? We shall see!

Here are a few screen shots from Race Day. First is the basic home page:



Here is a shot of the "overview" page showing training effect (positive and negative) as well as performance prediction:



Next is a photo from the Training page, which is more or less a log of each days' activity level:



Where do each days "Training" numbers come from? For me, they come from TriUtilities. I have been using the TRIMP Calculator to find the net effect from each session. This is a simple plug of information and it spits out a number. That result gets plugged into the RaceDay software, and we're done!

Here is a screen shot from yesterdays run, slightly under 6 miles at an 8:08/mi pace:



That's it for now. The more I record, the more I tend to want to train the next day. Will all of this pay off in the long run? I sure hope so, but only time will tell!

Surviving (and Enjoying) the Snow!

Well, Chicago was hit with 5-6" of snow last night. Many people will remain indoors and off the roads to avoid this mess. What does one do when trying to build their best triathlon off-season after getting hit with snow? They get creative.

Check out this blast from last night:



Running in snow can be fun for a little while, but when trying to log some miles I get tired of "dancing" around trying to stay upright. What makes it even worse is having a spastic dog pulling you around wanting nothing more than to sprint, leaving me flailing to keep from landing on my back.

In the true spirit of slowtwitch.com, I found I thread of a fellow "snow leopard" sharing his secret to winter running: sheet metal screws. With the correct placement you don't stab yourself in the foot and end up with great traction.

Thank you GregX for the recommendation, I'm going to be trying your method today! Here is a photo of GregX's shoes already done:



I only hope mine turn out well. Tonight I'm shooting for about 7 miles, and if these screws work it should save me 4-5 minutes on the round trip. Wish me luck!

What a Bunch of Idiots

Today I overheard a conversation at work where one broker was asking the other guy from the office who rides his bike in to work, "Did you ride in today?"

The dude replied that it was too cold and icy today.

Then the broker said, "yeah, I still see guys out there on their bikes. What a bunch of f_ _ _in' idiots."

After work I felt like a champ riding home in the rain.

Only 10%?

I am officially 10 days into my 100/100 challenge. So far I am running injury free (thanks in part to my Newtons, a b-day gift from Nisha) and feeling good.

Last week was just a hair over 30 miles, roughly 4.5 hours of running not including warm-ups. I'm shocked at how well my body seems to be doing with this, but I keep reminding myself I still have 90 more days and at least 340 more miles!

With that said, here is a link to the spreadsheet tracking the runs:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pGfgkRUvLwmFwPN-1XWFWbQ&hl=en

Feel free to follow along! As you can see, we have about 180 people participating, I can be found on rows 117-119.

As of today, I am ranked 53rd in time, 49th in distance, 59th in speed, and 11th in total number of runs. As you can see, there is some room for improvement!!

Montrose Cross

The last few weeks I have been questioning my effort in my races. I have moments where I'm at the limit, but at the end of the race I question whether or not I could have gone harder.

This being my last race of the season I decided I was not going to hold anything back. I'm going 100% from the gun and I'll have no regrets over the off season that I could have done better.

I had extra motivation too. This was my first big race in the 1/2 ranks. As an average cat 3 crosser, if I didn't want to get embarrassed by these guys I would have to really bring it so they don't drop me at the start. In addition to that I actually had a contingent of fans out along the course cheering for me. I have to have a good race and show them that I haven't been wasting my time training all year long.

I could tell this race was going to be different because I had butterflies in my stomach. Over the years I've become so numb to the excitement of racing that it has been a long time since i had the butterflies before the start of a race.

Tristan Schouten lines up next to me and I know I'm in trouble.



Off the line I went hard to the pavement section and surprisingly I was in fifth place. From that point on I was redlining it for the next hour just trying to hang with anybody who inevitably passed me. I would lose time on the run ups and the straightaways, but could catch back up in the slippery turns.



There wasn't anyplace on the course for me to recover. I blew up about halfway through the race for riding at a pace over my head, but since everyone came to watch I kept pushing through to the end battling to catch the guys ahead of me. I don't think I caught any, but I tried.



When it was all said and done I held on for 10th place.



Afterwards, my chakra was completely drained from my body and I was utterly exhausted for the next day and half. This is how racing used to feel like and even though my result wasn't so great, I was glad to see I could still push myself to the limit.

Chris from Turin designed a short but challenging course. I liked it a lot. Thanks to everyone who came out to the race and was cheering me on. I really needed it.

Illinois CX Championship and ’07 Season Sign-off

I finally got the upgrade points I needed last weekend in WI to race as Cat3. I was in 3rd place for the Cat4 series, but out of striking distance to take the overall, so I decided to upgrade before the IL State Championship at Montrose Park. This was a no pressure race and a measuring stick before heading into the off-season.

I helped create the course for about 4 hours on Saturday. Thankfully my back and shoulder felt fine. I got a late start on Sunday and didn’t have a chance to pre-ride. I knew most of the course layout, but I never took the time to ride it Saturday.

20 people line up and I allow the CHICROSS Cat3 Series contenders to take the front row. The official sends us off 2 minutes after the Cat1/2s and I quickly find myself dropped to near the back of the pack.

It would take too long to describe the entire course, but it was my favorite of the year, even better than JingleCross in Iowa City, IA. It had everything from deep snow to slop, mud and long run-ups. I thought that I had an advantage with the long uphill runs and technical turns on slippery mud.

Back to the race … after a lap I was able to catch and pass 3-4 people on the uphill run.





Coming back down the hill we were sent underneath a soccer goal with the metal base exposed above ground. I misjudged my approach, leaning in too hard when riding over the metal base and I paid for it. My back tire slid out and I was thrown from the bike and skidded off-course across the snow. I smashed my knee against something and my shifters were bent in at a severe angle. Everyone I had passed on the hill, re-passed me as I ripped at my shifters trying to get them straight again.





The bike was fine and my knee seemed ok. I hopped back on and started my chase again. For the next several laps I held my position and was able to reel in everyone that I had lost position too. I got lapped by pro rider Tristan Schouten who fly past like he was riding a dirt bike. There were no other major mistakes and I finshed the race in the middle, 10 of 20.



I’m content with my finish (for now) and confident heading into the off-season. I have a marathon scheduled for Feb 2nd and I’ll start bike racing again in mid to late March. If I can handle freezing temps in December, March will feel balmy in comparison.

I want to thank Get a Grip for their support. Thanks Jason, Matt, Saj, Kevin and Geoff. Our team only worked with the shop for half the racing season, but they have been incredibly helpful, knowledgeable and accommodating. I’m really looking forward to doing it again in ’08.

I also want to thank Nicole for coming along for many of my races and cheering me on, including a very long day and night in Madison during the Ironman, and harrowing adventures to the far west suburbs where we nearly ran out of gas. You’re a trooper.

Best Regards to All,
Tim

Pop Quiz!

What is Ted doing in this picture?


A) Making a landing strip for Santa’s sleigh.
B) Sulking about Illinois’ OT loss to Arizona
C) Helping to clear the CHICROSS course at Montrose Park

The answer is D) All of the above. We both showed up on Saturday and helped the Turin RD clear sections of the course, drive stakes (sometimes into frozen solid groud) and tape off. Part of the course was a blank canvas that we got to decide the layout. I can’t decide if we helped or hurt our own placing with the sections of course we created. I enjoyed helping and the race was top notch.

Hales Corner CX

If I didn't crash so much and I could avoid bike malfunctions, I would be such an awesome racer.

Ha, just kidding. I might move up a spot or two but i'd still finish far from glory, fame and beautiful women.

Under dry conditions Hales corner would be a nice fast course, but the previous days snowfall added an additional challenge. The day went to those who could churn out the most power while grinding through snow and mud at 8 or 9 MPH. Guiding my bike through the worn in, muddy track was a constant challenge.

When it was all said and done I was exhauasted but i still questioned whether or not I left it all on the course. And if I did, did I expend my energy at the right times to my maximum advantage. I think the key to racing is knowing when are the right times to expend your energy and when to ease off the accelerator. After all these years of racing, I don't know if I figured it out yet.

One small rant, when a race goes off in waves everyone should start in the wave they registered for. Don't pimp everyone else you're competing against by jumping in a different wave. That's cheating and you might as well just cut the course or take EPO too. I guess the blame lies partially with the officials for not checking race numbers before each start.

WI State CX Championship

The race that almost didn't happen (for me). Chicago got some nasty freezing rain on Saturday and I was questioning if I would be able to safely drive up to Milwaukee the next morning. Thankfully temps rose above 40 and the ice quickly thawed. Against better judgement, I left my warm bed and got ready to race.

As I was driving North I noticed that WI had received much more snow and much less ice. The course was under about 3 inches of snow with an icy crust on top, it was the consistency of a snow cone. I tried a test lap on my cross bike with comical results. My hubs, rims, brakes and bottom bracket were like magnets for this snow and it quickly built up, adding several pounds to the bike. I thought that the Orbea Alma would ride better in the snow. Wrong. It just spun and spun on top of the snow, never able to get purchase. I needed skinny tires that could cut through the snow down to the ground.

We lined up and the starters told us that we will only have 2 laps instead of a 30 minute race and then sends us off. Getting some momentum took a while and hammering didn't work because you would spin out if you applied too much torque.

The course would have been nice under ideal conditions. A couple switchbacks, a sand pit, a medium length climb and barrier sections with 3 barriers instead of just 2. During the climb on lap one I hopped off the bike and ran faster than the two guys ahead of my rode/spun it. A downhill left turn was interesting because my breaks were working at about 20% efficiency; it was more of a controlled skid.

After the first lap I was in 4th place between the usual CHICROSS suspects. Lap two was a bit easier to ride as the snow was displaced, lines were created and the tires could get to the dirt. I passed Aspen who was hindered by a slipping seat, and I overtook 2nd who broke a chain (Props to "Newt" for shouldering the bike and running the next 1.5 laps instead of DNFing).

I thought that the race was over when I came in after lap number two, but the RD decided to let us go for three. I tried to chase 1st down but I couldn't do it and the race finished in the same order as the Jackson Park Chicross (Zoller, Yuska, Gorry).

Thanks to Aspen for the encouragement during the race. Unfortunately I didn't have enough in the tank, but I got what I needed, 7 upgrade points so I can move up to Cat3. It is usually the races in these crazy conditions that you will remember the most. I will always remember the '06 Chicross Championship at Montrose Harbor and the insane iced over course and chilling winds. It will be interesting to see what Mother Nature has in store for us this Sunday.

Check In

It's been a while since I've posted. No racing to speak of has turned me into a visitor of the site rather than a participating member!

With that said, I have my phase of burn-out out of the way and training is going strong. I've joined the 100 in 100 Challenge, 100 runs in 100 days, all a minimum of 30 minutes or running (no walks!), you can do two-a-days if you like to give yourself a day off.

This whole disaster started 12/1, so I'm 4 days in at this point with 5 runs under my belt. I figure since I am brimming with enthusiasm to train, I should get some extra work in. Tomorrow I have the morning off from work, so I'll get run #6 in then, and #7 tomorrow night.

I've been keeping the runs short, no more than 40 minutes, to allow for the possibility of a second run and to be sure the next day I feel fine. I've been doing a lot of speed work as well to keep my mind occupied on the "dreadmill".

As a final note, check this out:



The new Alma for 2008! Now I don't have to feel left out! This guy will look great next to my Oiz and I can be a part of the Alma Team with Tim and Ted.

Jingle Cross

Jingle cross in Coralville Iowa features one of the toughest cross courses in the Midwest. White knuckle descents, slick, muddy run-ups, log jumps and a technical sand pit favor the mountain biker skill set yet the many wide open power sections and relentless hill climbs favor the roadie type that can churn out huge power.

Big payouts in all categories and UCI status ensured a big turn out for the weekend of racing.

On both days the 3/4 field was over 100 deep. In terms of field size, it was probably the biggest cross race I ever lined up for. There was no cat 2 race at jingle cross so the field was probably filled with a bunch of cat 2 sand baggers such as myself who did not have the required UCI license to do the elite race.

It was the first time I got to line up next to Tim all season, and he gave me a beat down on both days. Well done Tim. You're performance shows you are ready to bump it up a category and do well in the 3's next year.

One of the highlights of the weekend was getting to see the elites race. I learned a few things by watching their technique, how they ration out their effort, and studying their bike set up. I also learned that I have a long way to go if I plan on racing with them in the future.

It was a good weekend of training and even though I was disappointed in my results, I am glad I went to this race.

I would like to send a special thanks to Tim for getting us a nice hotel room with all the sweet hook ups for a pretty good price. I would also like to send a thanks out to the Coralville police department for having pity on a poor bike racer and not issuing him a ticket for speeding.

Happy Cranksgiving from Iowa

I'm back home in rural Iowa for Thanksgiving and we received a nice snow cover yesterday. I went for a short gravel grinder ride this morning (after throwing on several layers). Everyone talks about the new XTR's mud shedding ability, but i wanted to test their snow shedding ability. I might turn this morning workout into a 2-a-day with some Wii Sports this afternoon.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Tim

Asheville NC

Is it worth driving 10 hours to ride some sweet trails in the Appalacian mountains for just a few hours? Yes, it is, and that is what I did this past weekend.

Derrick, Eli and I went drove out to Asheville for a weekend of riding and partying. I was also able to fit in a cross race into the busy schedule.

On the drive there we stopped in Oak Ridge TN to ride at Haw Ridge Park.The trails were pretty good, but I didn't fully enjoy it because my brakes were not working. It felt good to break up the long drive and get the legs moving though. The trails were not too far out of the way located only about 10 miles off the interstate. We rode until sunset and continued on to Asheville.

When we got to Asheville we were hungry so we went to Limones, an upscale Mexican restaurant. Derrick's freind Amy owns the restauraunt and her husband Hugo is a really good cook. I had a lobster, crab and shrip quesadilla and it was awesome.

After that we explored the local bar scene looking for beer and women. What happens in Asheville stays in Asheville, but i can say that Eli made me an honorary member of Blue Racing for my exceptional wing man abilities.

The next morning I did a cat 2/3 cross race called the North Carolina Grand Prix. It was a really challenging course with lots of elevation changes, a steep hill called the wall and a sand pit. I had a last row call up so I spent the entire race trying to pick off the next person ahead of me.

My finish was middle of the pack, but I was happy with how I finished the race. With one and a half laps to go I caught three other riders. We rode together until I pushed it on barriers and the steep wall. After that it was just me and one other guy. We rode together until I attacked in the sand pit with about 1/4 mile to go. I got a gap, but when I tried to shift from my small ring to my big ring it kept misshifting and the gap I had was closed down.

The race finishes with 3/4 of a lap around a track. He was on my wheel and I couldn't shake him. Coming around the last turn he jumps with 50 meters to go. He moved ahead but I refused to give up. We came across the line in a photo finish and the officials gave it to me. The sprint was only for 24th place, but this finish means a lot to me because in most races this year when I'm in a group at the end of a race, I usually find some way to lose. It was a big race and the competition was tough so I think this was my best 24th place finish ever.

After the race Derrick was feeling sick and didn't want to ride so Eli and I went out for a 45 minute trail run along the Blueridge Parkway. I think running the undulating mountain terrain is going to help me next week at Jingle Cross when I'm running up Mount Krumpet.

The next day we went to DuPont state forest to ride the trails out there. These trails are nice. There are some long climbs but they are not too long. Once you get to the top the trails flows nicely and you bareley have to pedal to get back down the hill. Each trail connected to one or two other trails yet were connected to fireroads so you could ride all day and yet not get too far from where you parked. I've ridden a lot of nice trails in the western North Carolina area, but these are some of the best.

The next day I woke up early and did hill run repeats while carrying my bike. After that everyone else woke up and we drove home. It was a lot of fun and a great place to train.

Estabrook Park cross

I straightened my derailleur hanger and adjusted my brake which were both messed up from the crash yesterday, but I decided to skip today's race in Milwaukee.

I just finished up an intense training block and I need a recovery week RIGHT NOW. Yesterdays lackluster results could have been the result of cumulative fatige, so racing today won't help my training at all.

This will be the transition to the second half of the season. I have some big races coming up and I'll need to have fresh legs.

The remaining 6 races on the schedule looks like this:

North Carolina Grand Prix 2/3 race (2)
Iowa Jingle Cross 3/4 race (2)
Wisconsin State Championship master's race
Illinois State Championship 1/2 race

My goal for the remainder of the season is to start accumulating as many points as I can so I can upgrade to cat 1 next year.

Campton Cross

Today I figured I would try to do 2 races in one day and see how that goes. Looking at the results sheet I see that a lot of people do it. How hard could it be?

This will be the first time I am racing in the master category and the 1/2 category this year so I'll have a chance to race against different people.

1) Master's Race. This was the first race of the day and the course was very slippery from the morning dew. I crashed three times and lost a little skin, but my bike was fine. My goal was to start out slowly and build to a hard pace by the end of the race while saving something in tank for the afternoon race. My competitiveness got the best of me and I was quite spent by the end of the race with just a 9th place finish to show for it. The masters guys may be old, but they're still quite fast.

2) Cat 1/2 Race. I was in trouble from the beginning. I didn't have the gas in the tank to power the open sections and was dropped quickly. Welcome to the elite race. My legs were dead and I probably would have quit then, but my parents came to watch this race. I rode tempo and eventually caught one guy who also looked pretty tired from doing the earlier race. Half way through the race I had trouble dismounting coming into a downhill, high speed barrier. I barely clipped out before the barrier, but I couldn't get the footing to jump over and ran straight into the barrier and somehow landed on top of my bicycle. I was right by the pit, and I could have swapped bikes, but I was hurting pretty bad and figured it would be better to call it a day and recover.

My friend Kelsall said I took a chunk out of the barrier. I'm lucky I didn't break any bones and that I only did minimal damage to my bike.

I learned today that if I am going to race the 1/2's, I will have to focus all my energy on that. 2 races is too much for me at this point in the season. I give much respect to all those who do 2 races. Your endurance is impressive.

2007 Xterra World Championships Race Report

We arrived on the island of Maui on Wednesday before the Sunday race. I spent three days flipping between bouts of anxiety over the race, and being able to relax and enjoy some sightseeing around the island.

They have a practice course available to ride (no pre-riding of the actual race course at Maui). But it’s only about 4 miles, and gives you just a very small taste of the real deal. So, going into Sunday, I really felt like I had no idea what was in store for me.

On Friday I went to the xterra university mtb clinic, hosted by pros Jamie Whitmore and Mike Vine. They struck the fear of god into me, about being prepared for mechanicals, flats, and crashes. They both recommended 36-40psi, which threw me for a loop, because I practiced the course at 26psi! They also said don’t go out with spare tubes that don’t have slime, because if you flat once, a regular tube won’t hold up. So I panicked and bought 2 slime tubes – those are not light weight to carry! I was way over-prepared for flats and mechanicals, but better than being unprepared! After the session I inflated the tires to 40psi, but stewed over it. On Saturday I went to my second clinic, on the art of xterra, hosted by Conrad Stoltz and Melanie McQuaid. I asked for advice to Maui first timers. They both said ‘have fun!’ and ‘do whatever you have to do to finish!’. So, that was my mantra for race day. They also both recommended 29-32psi! Ack! Now what to do??? After the session I asked the Maui bike mechanic, and he said I should go with 30-35 when I’m on tubeless, and if I have to put a tube in, pump that up to 40 psi. So, I did that, pumped to just 32 and went with that. (and no flats!)

I organized myself Saturday afternoon, and Sunday morning had my cheerios and poptart, and rode down the elevator to set up my transition area, talked with a few people I knew, and went back to the room and watched some football to escape the race craziness for a while.

Once it was time to really get ready, I headed down to the beach. I wanted to seed myself right behind the pro men, and get a nice clean start. They kept inching into the water, and everyone followed. Someone on a bullhorn called us out of the water, so I walked back out, and stood next to a pro woman, and she laughed that no one was getting out. She said this happens every year, and they just shoot the cannon anyways. And sure enough – they did just that – with me on the beach and about 100 people already in the water in front of me! I was so pissed! The first ten minutes were fighting a losing battle with a mass of people who were slower than me. I can’t even call what I was doing swimming. We were all fighting the 3 foot swells, and I was fighting to find a way through the pack, when some guy next to me hit my head with his arm. And again, 4 more times. The last time he just pulled my goggles right off! Uh-oh!!!! Somehow my hand found them, and I started swimming water polo head-up freestyle with goggles in one hand, eyes getting sprayed with salt water, and people all around me, I was looking to the right, I had to swim through maybe ten people to get clear of the mass. Finally clear, I got on my back, put my goggles on, and started swimming. I swam the rest of the lap and the entire second lap out to the right of the pack, no drafting. I just swam on my own. No doubt I gave up 3+ minutes on my swim time, with precious energy wasted fighting through all of that. This was a huge lesson learned!

Out of the water, with a less than stellar 25 min swim (for me), and running the path to transition, I was pushed out of the way by several men who didn’t seem to think there was enough room on the 5 foot wide path to get by big ole me, without throwing a few elbows!

Finally onto the bike, and now I was going to learn what this race is all about. The first mile or so takes you out of the hotel and up the street. Then you start climbing. First on a small golf cart path, then gravel road, then dirt and sand road, then red dirt/silt path, with lava rocks marbled throughout. It goes up. And up. And up. Sometimes its gradual, sometimes it jumps up steeply – steeply enough that sometimes you have to walk a section – and lots of people do. This first climb seems to go on for about 5-6 miles. It was a much longer initial climb than I expected, without any real flats to give you a break. Heartbreak hill comes in that section. I’m not even sure which steep section was heartbreak hill, because there were a few sections I thought were going to break my heart! My heartrate felt maxed out the whole race. A little respite now, and some rollers, some short and steep, some less so. Plenty of lava rock scattered about, but no stretches where you have lava rock covering a hill from top to bottom and side to side – that was to come later! I think Ned’s climb comes next. I swear you climb steeply most of that climb for several miles. It is a brutal climb, on sand and loose debris. By this point several women I knew had passed me, and I was trying to key off another woman with a 40 on her calf. We went back and forth, until after one stretch on Ned’s climb that we walked, I couldn’t get clipped back into one pedal, and had to stop and operate on my shoe and unwedge a rock from my cleat. I lost contact with her then. The plunge is next, and it’s steep, and sometimes not too steep, the top was not bad, if I stayed relaxed, and only used my rear brake. I made it through without any catastrophes, but I was cautious, and probably should have gone faster. Then a section with softball and larger and smaller sized lava rocks, covering an entire steep slope. It looked scary, and about half way down, I drifted too far left, and started to head off the trail, into grass and rocks (and possibly the dreaded kiave thorns). Somehow I managed to stop the bike without wiping out, let a couple of folks go by, and then got going again. You’d think you are done climbing by now, 16 miles into it, but somehow they manage to throw in a few more climbs, not long, but long enough that you have to really work each one for several minutes, putting in some real effort to make it up the rock strewn hills. About one mile out, you are at the top of a hill, that is now turning into sand/gravel, and runners are going up the same one. A little demoralizing to know they have close to 2 miles on you, but you keep going. I can’t count the number of people on the bike course I saw stopped fixing flats, and some riding home on flats. I felt so fortunate to have escaped without any problems – despite carrying my camelback with what must have been 10 extra pounds of spare tubes and tools, just in case!

Back toward t2, and I saw Todd and he had recruited some folks standing near him to cheer for me. At my rack, I wanted to sit down and stretch my back, but there was so much activity, I thought I better get my ass going, and stretch at the finish. So off I went. The first three miles are up hill. Yes, three miles. Up hill. Maybe a short flat section, or maybe it was just a false flat. But plenty of steep up hill. And it was not pavement, or hard packed dirt trails like we have. It was broken pavement, sand and gravel. I had to walk a few stretches, as I thought I might implode at any moment if I didn’t. There was no shade yet. Thankfully, mother nature found it in her heart to send cloud cover – 85 degrees and cloudy was better than 90 and sunny! I was so happy to hit the turn at mile three, because I knew I was going to head back down toward the beach now. But first the down hill was at least one mile of lava rock, and red dust. Jeez, that red dust is messy. Its so fine, and just rises up like a powdery cloud, and coats your skin, your nostrils. Ick. I was already covered in it from the bike – only the lead cyclist and runner don’t have to deal with that red dust! I was happy to enter spooky forest, some sand trails through the crazy Maui trees. Then the sand beach. This was energy sucking at its best, especially after what we’d already been through. Now it was maybe a little over a half mile on the sand beach. Just painfully slow. I was happy (yes I was happy at this point) to get off the beach, until my calf twinged and scared the crap out of me. I did not want to hobble the last mile to the finish. Just one step more, and it was ok. Now I was smiling (inside) again. Next surface was a rocky point of hardened black lava that you had to pick your way over. Its short, but jagged, and you don’t run this section. Another calf twinge! Ugh. Its walk and pick your way for 20 yards or so. Then the little salt and pepper rock beach, a little more sand, and then you see the resort – its right in front of you! And the twinges that kept coming to the calf through that last half mile, don’t matter now, because I run up the path and cross the line with a smile – I think I was smiling!

Wow!!! That was incredible. It is the hardest race I have ever done. I felt like I gave it everything I had on this day. I also learned what this course is about. And that my training next time must be better, and different. And I will work hard next year for another shot at this now not-so-mysterious-Maui course.

Finish time was 4:08. 8th out of 15 in my AG, 62 out of 131 for all women.