Buck Hill #3

So I had fun this weekend on Proto (my super sweet prototype 9:ZERO:7 186 bike).  A...lot...of...fun.  Well, like a college frat boy downing beer bongs, I too had a wicked hangover.  Monday and Tuesday I woke up with an incredibly sore and swollen throat.  My body ached, I was exhausted, and had huge nasal pressure.  All thanks to a big hit from my allergies.  Wednesday was a bit better, and with Penn begging for more fat racers in the fat race I thought IF I were to head to Buck I would join the 3 lap fatties, not the 4 lap advanced.  My only disappointment would be knowing I wouldn't get my chance at Larry.  Well, just my luck he brought it to the fat race as well and it was game on. 

I'll tell you, the 20ish person start we had was SOOOOOO much nicer than the huge mess of the advanced start.  I led out and couldn't help but notice the 20 person line waiting to get in the singletrack STANDING at the top of the switchback climb as we hit the bottom.  The line cleared out just in time for us to start the process of picking through the back end of the advanced field that started 2 minutes ahead of us.  Hitting the the singletrack it was me in first, some advanced rider, and then Larry.  Not wanting to take advantage of the rider between us, I didn't try to move up until Larry got right on my wheel, then we started passing riders in the singletrack as they moved over to let us by.  At some point I heard some tangling behind me and realized Larry had some trouble.  Finished out the lap with Larry 10 seconds or so back.  After that it was a quagmire of riders that I would do my best to beat up the climb, coerce to let me by in the singletrack, and sprint by on the hill traverses.  I never saw Larry again, I rolled in for first, collecting beer vouchers in the process.  FYI, my breathing was not perfect, but quite a bit better.

And yes, I did go out for a 4th lap.   I did not race it as I was not racing, but I did keep pace with those around me.  The oddest thing was dabbing slightly in a corner towards the end and having my upper calf completely lock up for 10 seconds.  My calf is in a decent amount of pain still, I limp everywhere I go.  Such an odd thing to happen as I have not cramped since last year, much less in such a short race.

After the finish I think there is a new Tri Family tradition.  I roll through the parking lot cooling down with Abi my 4 year old on her Strider next to me, and me holding Seely in one arm.

Abi crushing it right at the start.  There were maybe 10 kids total, most out of view.

Abi would then go on to DOMINATE her kid's heat once again, finishing with second place out of view.  Brendan was a no show this week.  Probably because we had $5 riding on last weeks kid's race and my daughter whooped on his.  Will he hide from me all year trying to avoid paying me my money???

Day 2

Danky dank, explore logging road, rock lake, patsy lake, namekagon, rock lake, pavement back. Almost another 4 hours of Northwoods flow and chunk with just me and Proto.

Anti Epic

Hatchery Creek, Makwa, Seely Pass, New "Flow Trail", most of Ojibwe, pavement and dirt road home. Basically the Borah "epic" course plus more singletrack and road, BUT I did not pay $85 for the privilege. Seriously, $85 for a new 35 mile race? 35 miles is now epic? So confused.

Proto and I in a 4+ hour love fest.

Buck Hill #2

So far this year I have had real problems with my asthma twice, both at Buck.  Last week was about the worst I felt in a long, long time.  Our little Tuesday night hot lap had me feeling strong as I put in a time close to what I can do on a regular mountain bike, but with a tired body and fat wheels.  Buck time I got me a solid 90 second warm up.  My start was far from good, but better than last week.  I did almost get taken out by a few riders not accounting for the lead out terrain. By the top of the first switchbacks I was heavily gasping for air as my lungs tightened up and I went backwards.  I roughly maintained that position while gasping the first few laps and wishing in front of the wheels I had to follow in the singletrack.  It wasn't until lap 4 I could breath and off I went.  Last week I lost close to 2 minutes on the last lap as I suffered, this week I put a minute in to the closest rider on the 4th lap. Gun Show, give me at least 2 laps of proper breathing and you'll see what you saw in the Sandwich.  Yes, I used an emoticon.  Yes, Lance says grown men shouldn't use them.  However, I have 2 full sized testicles after years of drug free racing and Lance has one shrunken one.

Size matters?

Mtb, fat, and "holy crap" sized hubs. Building my second set of wheels with 9:zero:7 hubs. Bearing and freehub quality are second to none; highly recommend. Bearings spin for days (much better than the average high end hub) and have held up superbly. Freehub internals are much larger than average plus the pawl's give off that "not gonna bust me" loud clack/clack/clack. Tough, light, smoooooth.

A tale of three races.

My blogging has sucked lately.  OK, maybe it is not a recent thing.  Anyways, I've lined up for three races since you've seen this blog chugging along.

Dickie Scramble
A 120 mile gravel road race, much of it on roads I've been on, some of which I wanted to check out.  It was the first year running, things went well, roads were good (would have been better if not for the forced reroutes).  I ended up pulling out early after having extreme IT band pain up a climb around 50ish miles in.  Up until that the pace was modest and I felt no problems except the tightness in the leg muscles/IT band.  I spent the rest of the night stretching and dealing with the knee pain that comes with the tight IT.

Sandwich 50 ENDURO
Might I say, this is the most premier race that is not broadly covered on Cyclingnews.com or Velonews.com.  A 50 mile mountain bike race in my home town on the world famous Eastwood singletrack; also known as the MN endurance state championships.  I am rolling all fatty 9:zero:7 off road this year, and was unsure of the toll my body would take during a long mountain bike race with lots of accelerations and punchy climbs on a fat bike.  My goal was to start steady, and that worked out well as my body did not want to go into 5th gear.  I rode, talked smack, and watched the top 2 disappear into the distance for the first three laps.  After the 3 lap mark it seemed everyone around me slowed down and disappeared.  I was in 3rd place with no one anywhere in front of or behind me.  So, I set the body in "cruise", finishing out the last lap with a mouthful bacon and the burn of a bourbon shot from a mid lap pit stop.  I came away very happy with the fact I didn't even start feeling tired until the end of lap 5 (there were 7), and ended with plenty in the tank.  I am starting to think there is something to this proper sleep thing, as I felt great after a few nights of good sleep leading up to the race.  Also, 3rd on a fat bike in a field that contained roughly 10 Pro/cat 1's is not to shabby.

Thursday Nights at Buck #1
Remember that sleep thing I just mentioned?  My sleep lacked significantly the 3 nights leading up to Buck.  Add in I could tell my allergies were kicking in made me wish I had entered the 3 lap fat race and not the 4 lap advanced.  Well, after a getting bogged down way in the back at the start my chest tightened, mouth dried up no matter what, and I only went backwards.  I tried to rally, but my body only revolted worse.  I pitifully rode the 4th lap as I did not want to dnf, losing several minutes to those around me.  Not sure how I placed, but it was way way back.  This morning I woke as if I got hit by a truck, so either I am sick, or allergies are kicking my butt right now.  It is probably allergies.

Any who, that is that.  I got my hands on a cool new product that I'll mention here soon after getting at least another ride on.

Rolling dirt fatness, squeeging white slop

So, last week on Friday I took my first ride off road.  Saturday was the first mountain bike race; the Decorah TT's.  Now, off and on, I have been racing this exact race since around 1995ish.  Crazy how old I have gotten. Well, there were several shocks. -My body was shocked by the 75ish degree weather.  Racing I felt like it was 95.  After months and months of cold weather riding, I was now in shorts and a jersey. -The shock of the TT is always jolting.  I think this was about the longest (time wise) they have had there. -I am on my fat bike all year on the dirt.  Why?  Because, that's why.  I was asked were my new Superfly was hiding more than once only to show them Proto, my faithful 9:zero:7.  Granted, the Superfly's are awesome.  However, I am old now.  I have the privilege of looking back at my time racing my bike and proud of what I have been able to accomplish so far.  I have taken wins in many disciplines of bike racing, primarily all off road.  I figured why not take the game at a different angle.  Plus, I just really enjoy riding Proto and hope to continue the streak all the way to Alaska (currently on the wait list for Iditarod). Anyways, I have been racing a mountain bike for more than half my aged life.  Trying to garner the maximum amount of speed on huge (heavy) fat bike tires is so, so different in feel and ride.  Doing so at Decorah were the trails are nasty, short steep speed killers was a shock indeed on that bike.  To compare for you Twin Cities trail riders, Martha Stewart is to Lebanon hills as Courtney Love is to Decorah Human Powered Trails. Well, I ended up 14th overall in probably the deepest field of strong guys that I can remember; 1st in the limited 34-35 age group.  The odd thing was is I went out for almost 2 hours the next day and felt much stronger.  Weird. This is looking down my street, 2 days ago, May 2nd.  Somehow Mother Nature decided we needed 15 inches of wet sloppy snow, in May; the first May snowfall in roughly 40 years and even then they only got a few inches.  Trees and power lines were down everywhere.  Crazy since last year we were 4 weeks or more into the mountain bike season the last several years at this time.  This week looks like highs in the 70's, so The Sandwich Enduro should hopefully be fine for next weekend.