Finally a Road Ride Again

After a long time without a road ride, I decided to take a journey in the decent MI weather. I started off with almost falling over and dropping my bike when trying to unhook the rearwheel. I have been loading my MTB on the truck for the past almost month and totally forgot how heavy my roadbike is. Yes it is sad I have a heavier road bike than MTB. Priorities...that's all I will say.

I took my dad out for the ride so he could get in a fast hammerfest for him while I pulled his ass around. I am sick of ILRA and Kensington so I ventured off by riding out to Wixom Rd then taking it around to Duck Lake and Atlantic Rd. I rode into the center of Milford via Commerce Rd and took that all the way back to Hickory Ridge Stobart(GM Loop) and eventually ended up back on Kensington Rd. My dad was whipped after the string of hills so we didn't ride into the parks at all. Rode in the driveway at an even 40.00 miles and 19mph average.

The wind was in my face the first half of the ride and then it was pretty calm the rest of the way. My legs were burning the first 8-10 miles, but once I got in the groove, they felt snappy and I was riding well. Someday I will ride with a group of fast people, see how nice drafting is then probably get my ass kicked when I am not paying attention. Good training ride today. If I hadn't spent the last 3 hrs doing homework than I would have mapped the ride out. It's Ok. Only 19 more days left of school, Custer Race Sunday, Camping/Training Trip in 3 weeks and then 24 Hours of Boyne. Speaking of that I have to find some people to ride with. Maybe 2 or 4 man team. Only 1.5 months from Lumberjack...Hoping for under 9 hrs?!

Fort Custer

I went to school for 3 days this week, then left Thursday to go camp and ride at Fort Custer. The place has so many trails that link together that you can ride many miles and not get bored. We rode the blue and red loop and went to ride green(which is the best), but it was closed for a controlled fire. I ended up riding blue/red for multiple loops Thursday and Friday. Today I went around he barricades and rode the green trail since the sign did say closed UNTIL Saturday. The trail was a great change from the same old blue and red. It was good preperation for the race next weekend.

I have to do a little make-up school work in the morning, then I am off for a nice 60 mileish road ride where I am going to pull my dad from our house to ILRA and around, then out to Wixom and ride out through Commerce/Milford area and sweep around back to the GM loop then back home. Maybe a few loops of Kensington will go good at the end of the ride!!! I need to figure out when I can take a recovery day. I will need one but it is hard to take. I hope it rains Wednesday.

To Michigan, Race, and Juicy!

The trip out west was just plain awesome. Bets MTBing I have done and I can't wait to go back again. We got back in MI about 7pm on Friday after driving through the night Thursday. We ended up in Middleville so we could get ready for the Yankee Springs Race. We pre-rode the 11 mile course on Saturday before chilling out for the day.

Race day was a great way to come back to Michigan. I go t to see all my race friends and meet up and talk with everyone again after the long winter. I was able to test my winter training skills out on the course, and I think it payed off. I rode my geared bike to a 3rd place out of 7 in Expert Men 15-19 with a time of 47:15. I was happy with my time, but a little more training and recovery I will be faster. I beat most of the people who had beat me last year. About half-way through the race it started raining. It felt good, but I had the chills afterwards even though I was in dry clothes. A few hours later and in a steady rain, I pulled the SS out for the second race of the day. I rode good, but braked more and took the downhills and technical stuff a little slower. I didn't want to injure myself since I have a busy schedule in the next weeks of...Custer camping/riding trip(Thurs), Custer Race, Training week, Custer training weekend, 24 Hours of Boyne, Hanson Hills, GRADUATION and party, the LUMBERJACK 100. That spells out why I didn't want to kill myself. I thought I was going soooo slow, but I pulled a time of 50:05. Not bad, but I know I could have done better. I came 11 out of 16 in all Men Elite/Expert SS.

Today was a recovery day for me. I went from a long day at school, out to REI!!! I ordered some stuff that I needed when I was out west. I put on my new AVID JUICY 7 hydrolic disc brakes. I installed, cut, and figured out how to get them going all by common sense...It works for now. I didn't even have to bleed them!

Back in the GREAT Fruita

Today we made the drive back from Moab to Fruita to do some technical singletrack riding. We went to the Colorado National Monument to ride the trails that we really didn't have time for last week. We rode around 8.5 miles of some rocky technical trail with some awesome views and nice ridges. It was quite the scenic and fun ride.
Here is my mom clearing some rocks early on in the trail.

Me navigating my way around some large rocks.

My dad riding his way around the singletrack.

Riding down the trail in a nice scenic trail.

After the ride, we went to downtown Grand Junction to puts around. While we were there, I was caught in a picture wearing street clothes around a bike.

We are going out for an early ride tommorrow morning at 18Rd., coming back to the hotel to clean up, then heading out to downtown Boulder to check out the city. We will be eating with relatives then driving the night and into Friday ending at a hotel near Yankee Springs. Pre-ride Yankee on Sat, clean the bikes, the race the geared and SS Sun and come back home! Not ready to leave yet:-(

From Slickrock Heaven Back to Singletrack Heaven

We went out and rode Slickrock this morning and then my dad and I went out and rode Amasa Back this afternoon. We are closing up shop here in Moab and are headed back to Fruita tommorrow morning to go ride some more SWEET singletrack!

Pics

This is me climbing the long climb from the trailhead at Colorado National Monument all the way to the top which was about 4 miles later.
My dad climbing part of the 4 mile hill. This is very tame. Some parts we had to hike a while up 2-3 foot steps that are impossible to ride.
Here I am at the top of the climb. It took us much longer than expected and we had a time limit, so we rode downhill on the trail until it hit the rode and we flew back down to the trailhead.

Today was extremely windy=not good for riding in moab, so we went for a hike in the Arches National Park and saw the famous arch. Tommorrow should be better and good for a ride at Slickrock and Amasa Back.

In Moab

I am to tired to0 sit around for a while and load the pics on a 31.2 kbps dial up right now so I will load them after breakfast tommorrow. We rode and hiked! at the Monument today then headed off for the 100 mile trip to Moab. We rode Klondike Bluffs and then checked in at the hotel before checking out the town. This weekend was the Jeep challenge in Moab, so if you don't have a Jeep, you don't fit in. Check back for pics later.

Fruita Day 4-Kokopelli Trails

We woke up this morning to a wet town. There was some wind and rain last night to dampen down the trails a little. We went over to Grand Junction to check out some bike shops and cruise around town. The downtown is really nice and has some really cool artwork sculptures of a 3x dowbhill bike, a bike messanger, and a dinosaur riding a bike. The trails are mainly a hardpacked sand or "moab mud" type of trails that dry out really quick. INstead of going to the Monument, we heard the trails over at Kokopelli were the dryest. We rode Mary's loop over to Steve's Loop and took Moore Fun trail back to the trailhead. Overall was 14 miles and the Moore Fun trail which is one of the most difficult trails around was awesome. The first quarter mile was hike-a-bike, then I was able to clean most of the trail after that with a few dabs and getting off only a couple times. I was very surprised by how much I was able to do and handle. My dad rode well and is becoming a better technical rider and my mom had an awesome day of climbing great through the 1450 ft.
Here I am with an amazing view over the Colorado River

Me riding down some Slickrock steps on Moore Fun before a switchback dropoff

My mom riding arounda scenic cliff

My dad riding up a step

My mom riding up a slickrock step

A look at some of the rocky desert terrain

Tommorrow morning my dad and I are going to ride at the Monument and then drive the 100 miles over to Moab and do a ride later in the afternoon over there!

Fruita Day 3-Kokopelli Trails

Today we met up with Craig and Bill and went down a few miles to the Loma area to ride some of the Kokopelli trails. We rode 17.6 miles today of some of the best singletrack I have ever ridden. It consisted of a warmup of dirt road, dirt singletrack with rocks all over, boulders, shale, and some sections of Slickrock. The oly carnage was a few scrapes and bruises, but no one was hurt and best of all the bikes are still all OK!!! Here are some pics of the days riding.
A nice family pic...we don't have too many of these.

Some of the rock we rode over

Some of the first Slickrock we hit

Me riding up one of the steeps on Mary's Loop

This is how you endo people. And yes, he did crash!

My mom coming off of a nice downhill on Lions Loop

A nice view from atop Mary's Loop looking down over the Colorado River and other singletrack

We climbed 1680 feet today, but the trail was more tech than climbing. Tommorrow is off to the Monument to ride some hills and rock. The cool thing about the trails out here is that the terrain is all different and nothing is the same.

FROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTA!!!

So the 23 hour drive was much better than I thought. We made it to Fruita at 1:30ish on Wed. and got a nice little 7 mile ride in at 18 road.

The drive was much more interesting once we hit Colorado.

Here is my Dad riding Chutes and Ladders

My mom clearing a nice boulder on the trail

This is what it is all about. Seeing the trails miles away!!!

Me climbing one of the steeps. Cameras have horrible depth perception

Some of the downhills are really steep and fast, but they are smooth.

Here is my mom and I after a long climb up to 5600ft.

The weather has been great. Both days have been in the 80's and the biker tans are starting to take shape. Tommorrow we are off to meet one of my mom's relatives (Craig) and go ride the Kokapelli trails. These trails are supposed to be a little more technical and rocky. The riding here is awesome, fast singletrack. We will be riding in the Colorado National Monument Sat then somewhere in Fruita Sun morning before heading off to Moab after our ride on Sunday morning.

Yankee Today

After a Thursday of a nice recovery ride at ILRA with my mom, I took Friday off to feel good for today. I went out to Yankee Springs to pre-ride with Glen and Trevor. I had never ridden the trail before, but it is sweet. It seems like PLRA but backwards. There is more downhill in the beginning, but then the end of the trail seems to be more uphill. I was riding the course pretty well and taking the downhills fast, but I didn't crash so all is good. Going to ride a double Torn Shirt tommorrow and then taking a few days off before the warm rides begin.

Recovery, Well that didn't quite work

Today was surprisingly nice after I woke up with snow on the ground and car. After school I went out on my own little jaunt which ended up being a nice Wednesday Epic Ride. This time I wanted to go to Commerce Park through Proud Lake, and I made it!!! I didn't end up at Highland this time. Dirt roads and then through Proud Lake campground path out to Glengary Rd a little ways down to the park. I only rode 2.5 miles of the trail since I had to meet my dad at ILRA at 5:30. The way back I took the rail-trail around a few parks that parallel Glengary and ended up behind the VFW Hall in Wixom. I took that out to Loon Lake then hammered down Wixom Rd. until I snuck in behind te factories befor Pontiac trail and rode the singletrack through there. Took the railtrail then all the way to ILRA and pulled into the parking lot at 5:33. Not bad since I had no idea how long it would take and the fact that there was a 15-20mph wind coming out of the west right into my face. Rode blue and yellow with my dad, had a quick chat with Kevin and Danielle(who informed me that I need to eat a sandwich!?) and then I went off for another Yellow until I cut off at Kensington Rd. Took that up to Buno and back home. Alltogether the ride was 3:49 and I rode 60 miles all on the MTB. After I downloaded my HRM into my laptop, I noticed my ride from Commerce to ILRA was 56min. and averaged 164 heart rate. It felt good and I think that is a good sign for the upcoming races!!!
To see most of my route without trails and the ride back home, Click Here. The elevation looks weird because there are two spots where it dips to 0. I found out that that was water where I went over a bride on Garden Rd. and somewhere else. Work and a light spin tommorrow then off to Yankee Sat morning.

Recovery Week

This week I am holding back and only doing a few days of riding to build up for next week. I took today and yesterday off and got a lot of homework and projects done that are due next week. It is nice to not prorastinate once in a while. Looking to ride dirt roads out to Hickory Glen Park via Proud Lake, do a lap, then ride dirt and rail-trails over to ILRA for a Blue/Yellow and finally back home. Haven't mapped it out yet, but I will and see how far the ride will take me. Thursday also looks good for a ride which will probably be the road bike. Friday will be another recovery day for the legs and off to YANKEE SPRINGS for a few laps of pre-ride before the April 23rd race. Never ridden Yankee, but I heard it is really fun and I am ready to ride.

Trail Work then Ride

This morning was off to Maybury to go do some trailwork. We got in two good re-routes that are extremely soft and need to be ridden on. After the work, there was pizza, then most people went out for a ride. I pulled out the SS again and went and rode lap 1 with Jon Heft which turned out to be a good social ride with a few hard efforts(mainly in the new soft areas). I went out and did another lap and then was done. It felt good to ride a little afte the past week of 14.5 hrs in the saddle.

Tommorrow its going to rain, which is good because I need a recovery day and if it was warm and sunny I would end up riding again. I find it hard not to ride on beautiful days.

Ridw w/ AAVC

This morning I met up with Brent Rohrs and rode with the AAVC for a nice 60 mile ride. The pace was nice down Huron River drive, then we went down some other rode and had a good effort type of pace with the back of the paceline rotating to the front. I was glad I didn't bonk cause I had no flippin idea as in where the hell I was. All I know was that one time we were on M-36 and the sign said 28 miles to I-96. After M-36, some hammerheads took off and a group of 9 of us rode hard-I was in the 170 heart rate zone for around 20 minutes. We had some good long intevals that should really help my riding. The wind was horrible in some directions, but that is what a pelaton is for huh. Total was 60 miles averaging 21 mph. Definitely a sweet ride that I surely will do again.