Memorial Day Ride at PLRA

After the awesome weekend of racing at Boyne, I decided to hit up the trails at Pontiac Lake. I had yesterday as a recovery, and my body has felt really good since the end of the race. I grabbed the SS and did a double PLRA starting at about 11:15 this morning. The weather was great, hot and sunny. My legs felt pretty good and I decided to call it a days after the 2 laps so I can let my legs and WHOLE body recover for Hanson Hills on Sunday. I looked at the weather forcast which shows rain in the pm tommorrow. I am looking at a road ride in the morning to get some good efforts in and then cruise along back home at an easier pace.

12H of Boyne Race Report

What a great weekend for endurance racing. The temperature was into the 80's and the sun was blasting away. I woke up at 7 am to go out to the race site and secure a good stop for my pit area tent. We set it up then went back to the hotel where I chilled out. I ate some whole wheat pancakes and a banana for some good pre-race food. I sata round for a while hydrating, until later on when I went to check in a check out the pre-race festivities.

The start of the race was a 50 yard or so lemonds start. You run with your wheel and put it on your bike and then ride off for 12 long hours!

I rode the first two laps without stopping in the pits. I ended up running both o the laps under 50 minutes while trying to keep my heartrate down. My adrenaline must have been pumping since I was not pushing myself terribly hard, but my heartrate would not lower. My first 2 laps were at XC race pace. It was not what I wanted. I came in after the second lap and got a cliff bar. Note to self-no dense cliff bars on hot days in endurance events-I wanted to puke.

I came in to the pits after every lap to get more energy food and endurolytes so I didn't cramp. I had fig bars, twizzlers, cliff bar, powerbars, cliff blocks, and gu. It worked pretty well, except I think I got low on glucose during the end of my 6th lap. I took a Gu, then I stopped in the pits for 15minutes to stretch out my neck and recover. I went back out and was on fire. I changed my riding style from shifting down and spinning to keeping a lower cadence while in a higher gear to keep the heart rate down.

After lap #6, I was on fire. The next few laps were all around the 55 minute mark with heart rate averages in the 140's. I was very happy and kept going. After lap 9, I came in and put the lights on. I used them for the last half of the course on #10, then rode number 11 in the dark. My night lap was still under the hour mark with and average HR of 140. So, at 10:45pm, I called it a day with 11 laps, my first off road century-ever, and over 11,000 feet of climbing. It was awesome trainging for the Lumberjack 100 which is only 3 weeks away. I feel like I am ready to go for that race. I heard that Lumberjack is easier than Boyne. We will see.

After my 10:45 worth of riding, here is what I looked like!

As for the course-Boyne is awesome. I love the trail and most of it has great flow. whenever you are pedaling, you are going uphill, and the downhills are fast and curvy, so if you can control your bike, you are set. The new re-route up the ski hill is tough. It firt starts off with a few long steep "grinder" climbs, then it goes into SOFT, offcamber, BUMPY singletrack. The singletrack up the mountain was the most exhausting aprt of the course, both mentally and physically. It was so soft and bumpy that you couldn't coast at all and I had to be standing up for most of it. After the 11 laps, I was happy with over 100 miles for the day, andI was set. I still had time to put in 2 more laps, but my body-mind and physial parts were just tired. My legs didn't burn, so I was happy. Now the real test will be how fast I can do Lumberjack in. But first, I have to recover my body for the XC race at Hanson Hills this weekend, then try to get some long road rides in with HILLZ!!!

I am OFFICIALLY done with High School

Today was my last day of high school. I started it with a nice morning road ride at 8:30 am. Fresh air and a nice 22.5 miles on the road felt great. Then I went to take my last 2 exams. After 200 questions and 2 essays, I am DONE!!! It doesn't feel like it now, but I am sure it will when I am riding all days next week. Well, maybe I won't ride all days-I might be sore from Boyne. So I fininshed school and to celebrate I am going to ride 12H of Boyne. I am so friggin' ready. The adrenaline has been pumping the last few dys and I am getting stoked. I am all packed with my food and nutritional sources and with all of my clothes. I will post up on Monday as to how it went. I am hoping to get around 10 laps of the 9 mile hilly loop in. I love Boyne-now we'll see how much I love it after 12 Hours.

Successfull Training at the Fort

Friday was a quick day at school and then the drive down to the Fort. We got there and set up the tent fast, got a bite to eat and then realized I had time to ride. I went out with my dad and rode the red loop at a decent speed on the SS. He was done after that jaunt, so I speed off into the woods to ride the green and the blue loops. I love single speeds. They are just so fun to ride. Fort Custer seemed like a good place for the SS and I was having a blast on it. I logged 21 miles on Friday night before going in for dinner.

I woke up Saturday morning after sleeping great in the tent and quickly found some food at 7 am. I sat by the fire and hydrated before pulling the geared bike out to ride. At about 8:45, I went out and did a red to green and back to red loop while coming back to camp via the blue trial. I came back to camp and grabbed some fig nuetons and twizzlers for some more energy. Went back out with Trevor and my dad-who rode my SS for the first time and rode the red loop. I kept on riding and hooked up on Green and blue again. Back at camp, the rest of the group showed up and was getting ready for a ride. I switched bikes and went for 20 miles on the SS with the group, but I was leading so I got a good ride while being able to socialize. Went back out later and rode more blue and red, then Danielle and I went and rode green at a slower pace. After the 78 miles, I was still feeling good, and the energy food was wroking for me. Hoepfully it will work good at Boyne next weekend.

Sunday I rode with my family for a recovery ride. We got in 20 miles and my legs actuall felt fresh. I couldn't notice much fatigue or pain at all. I am looking for this as a sign that I will feel good after endurace events-yeah right! If its sunny tommorrow, I will be heading down to Hines Drive for the Monday Night ride. I hope it is a hammerfest, therefore can get a good hard ride in before I wind down and do light rides along with recovery to get the legs snappy for 12H of Boyne!

Ride and Recovery

After the trainer rides and the 60 miler yesterday, I took today off as recovery. I packed everything up for Fort Custer this weekend. I am hoping to maybe get a ride in tommorrow night and the ride most of all day Saturday to get a boat load of miles in. I packed my HID so I can get used to night riding again before the 12H of Boyne. I packed the Gu, Gu2O, Cliff Bars, Cliff Blocks, E-caps and fid nutons to see how I can get it all in and eat right while riding all day. It should be fun.

I came home from school and also got a good ride in. It wasn't a leg burning ride, but it was painful. I rode one of these!

The painful part was not being able to go full speed since the grass was looooong and wet. Should be a fun weekend. I will be riding both the YETI on my own, and the SS while I ride with the group.

A sunny day-Well, kind of

The last few days I have been inside riding on the trainer doing intervals. Today was b-e-a-utiful. Sunny and in the 70's after a weeks worth of rain. I got home, stretched, at a granola bar, pumped up the tires, and then I was off for the first ride of the past week outside. It felt as if it was the first ride of the year after riding the trainer all year long. So I was off riding from home to the back of ILRA then to Kensington. The ride was good and I looped Kensington and came back to ILRA and headed to the back again. About halfway through ILRA, the sky was dark and it started pouring. It didn't bother me even though all other bikers left or sat under pavilians. I kept riding and rode for about 30 minutes until the steady rain stopped. The temp went from 73 to 54 in the time that the rain came and went. I wasn't too cold, but I figured wy ride home when I was already soaked and my shoes were puddles. I rode back into Kensington and around back to ILRA. I then headed off for home. On the way home the sun shot out again and it looked good. I got in 6o miles with a 19.1 mph average riding endurance pace with a 158 avg HR. The first 40 miles that were dry had a average speed of 20.1. I took some caution once the rain came figuring that it might be a little slick-especially the freshly paved section in Kensington. The rain came again later in the ride for a quick 5 minute downfall, but that was it. It felt good to get outside and the rain wasn;t much of a factor. After all, there are random quick showers up at high altitude in CO!

Depending on the weather, I might ride again tommorrow then off to Fort Custer for some long training days getting ready for Boyne and Lumberjack. 12 Hours of Boyne is only 10 days away. I can't wait to suffer!

More Rain=More Trainer Riding

The rain is still pouring. One minute it is just drizzling, the next it is downpuring. It is totally random and sucks. This crappy drawn out span of weather reminded me about the 17 days we had at the end of November into December that was all cloudy and 17 minutes of sun. How great can the weather be.

I rode the trainer again today. It actually felt really good and I got in some great strength training and sprinting intervals. I am really in the mood for an outside ride. At least I didn't do 12 Hours of Addison in the rain today. That turned out to be a drivetrain mess and a torn up trail. Boyne better be dry in 2 weeks when I attempt 12H solo for prep for Lumberjack.

So my parents asked me about what I wanted for a graduation gift. I didn't know, but know that I have time to look, I think I found it. Here is the deal. I am thinking of buying a new roadbike that will FIT me. Right now I am riding a 54cm Felt and I am 5'11". The seat is high and the habdlerbars are too low and can't go higher along with a top tube too short. I have put in tons of hours on it already and its only May. I am thinking a bike that fits and is comfortable should be nice. I am really enjoying road riding more this year that I have become better and more independent. The bike I am looking at is a Cannondale Six13 Pro 2. It is aluminum frame with carbon downtube, Ultegra gruppo, and Mavic Kyserium Elite wheels. I am going to go to REI to see if I can get one. I am looking into some road racing next year with maybe one or two later this year. The road bike might be able to be ridden while I am at college too!

Are You Kidding Me Mother Nature?

What a joke. It has rained here the past 3 days. This morning we looked at the raingauge and saw 2"...yes 2" of rain. WTF it is May and I need to get long rides in for 12H of Boyne Solo and Lumberjack 100. I took the last 2 days off and finally broke down today. I brought the bike inside and put it on the trainer. I rode after dinner and put in an hour of riding with intervals going 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1. How exciting. Now I remember how horrible the training in winter was. At least in winter I got used to it and had nothing better to do since it was cold and snow. Now it SHOULD be 65-70degrees out and sunny, but NO it is raining. Checked weather.coma nd saw no hope. The next 7-10 days shows rain. Sweet more interval trainer rides. I hope all other racers in MI are not riding so I can improve on them:-). The dopplar shows a nice bike green area of rain that is just swirling around Iowa, Wisconsin and of course MI. Ok, rant off. I think I am going to ride the trainer again tommorrow, then maybe the 5 days after that!
There is a good picture of the dopplar over HERE. Can't I just go back to the warm desert of CO.

About time for recovery

MONDAY
I went down to Trail's Edge for the Monday night ride to see how the legs felt on Hines Drive after the Custer race. I felt great and pushed it pretty good when I was leading. The A group turned out to be decent with John, Jim, Josh, Mike and I doing the main work. We rode out to Newburg Rd for a warmup then I took off and the ride started. Near the end, we all atacked on the only big hill on Hines which ended up leading to a faster end. Jim attacked the group before Haggerty, but we all stayed. A few minutes later after we had gone through the light, I was pulling 26mph when Jim flew by followed by Mike. I sprinted and caught back on. Jim fell off to the side and Mike attaked. I caught back up to him and threw in a hard effort before we got stopped by the light at Northville Rd. We stopped and looked around as we were huffing and realized that Josh, Mike, and I were the only ones there and the rest of the group was way back. I was fun and some good sprinting intervals. The avg was 22.7 over the 30miles which wasn't too bad considering the slow start and easy riding from Outer Drive to Ford Rd.

TODAY
I went to Brighton Rec after school and put in a lap of Torn Shirt/Murray Lake. My legs were flat, so I just rode at an easier pace and didn't push the hills at all. I met up with a few friends from school and had a nice social ride with them on Torn Shirt before I went off for another lap of Murray Lake. Tommorrow looks good for recovery, then I am going to try to get on the SS for a few rides later in the week! Hope it rains tommorrow then gets nice for the rest of the week.

Fort Custer XC Race Report

What a day. I placed 2nd in Expert Men 15-18 and was just over a minute behind 1st place. I finished with a time of 1:59, so I was happy to break the 2hr mark for the 28ish miles.

The race started off with me so confused that I didn't know when to start. I got to the start line late and were calling the 18-29 up to the line. Well, the 15-18's always go after elites, but I didn't think they went, and the catagory os 19-29, but the race timer was not informed. I was asking around to see if it was also 15-18's and no one was sure. The 19-29's went off then about 10-15 seconds later I went after being told to do so. So here I was at the back of the peloton with not much room to pass. A few miles in I had passed all but 2 Expert 19-29's.

I rode well and was playing leap frog with one of the racers. He would lead on the flats where he was faster and I would go in on the singletrack sections where I could accelerate better. We went back and forth and pushed eachother well. I felt good and realized my 40 mile training rides were a good idea.

The last lap I rode had but didn't kill myself on. I had left the guy I was riding with and kept going at about the same pace. I had no idea where I was or if there were evem 15-18's in the race, so I had no one to gauge off of. I rode lap 3 with Dan S which turned out to be pretty consistent speed and lap time. Near the end of the lap I broke off and hammered it home.

I was informed that thw whole start was confusing for 15-18's and the timer was also confused. They started a minute or so later. I went over to the timing booth to let them know I had started in a different group so I wouldn't cheat everyone else. When I saw the results and read I was just over a minute behind I knew I could have put up a battle. With 15 seconds off the line and someone to chase or attack, I would have pushed harder. Its over and I had fun so it didn't matter. At least the Expert times weren't as screwed up as the Sport/Beg times that had a huge protest line and ended at 6:15pm.

MTB Training Ride

I have decided that I am now in the "get ready for Lumberjack 100" phase. Instead of driving out for the group ride at Highland today, I rode there on hilly-for MI- dirt roads. I rode about 10 miles of the trail with the group before heading back on my way home before it got dark. My time home was only 25 seconds slower than my 16.5 mile ride there. I was happy with the consistency since that is what I need for the endurance races. This weekend is the Custer race where I am looking to do well and then I have a week dedicated to longer training rides. In two weeks I am going down to the Fort with a group and plan on riding a ton of miles. Rest the next week then ride 12H of Boyne solo. It should be fun to be part of the festivities and I think it should be good training for the Lumberjack. Headed off to Custer tommorrow and chill as it is my recovery day. A nice light ride on Saturday and then lay down the hammer and get ready to suffer the 28 miles on Sunday!!!

No Rain...Today

The last couple of days have been rainy and just plain crappy as far as I am concerned. I had two recovery days when I only wanted one. Oh well, it's Michigan-what can you do? Move, yes but that ain't going to happen anytime soon. I was able to get home from the doc's fairly early, so I dressed, filled bottles, grabbed the bike and went. I was planning on doing a hard ride once I got to ILRA, but I couldn't help myself. I ended up putting in a nice TT effort-which I haven 't really been able to do yet this year. My legs were burning within the first mile and a half, so I looked down only to realize my warmup was 25mph and big ring. Once I hit ILRA my legs felt good, therefore I was able to keep cruising. I had some hard intervals thrown in followed by some steady state riding. I ended up with 40 miles at 20.5mph average with a 166 heart rate. The first half of the ride I was averaging over 21.5, then I decided to slow it down a bit and rode the rail trail up and around Mt Trashmore. It was nice outside and an awesome ride.

I am hoping the weather hold so I can get some good backroad hills and intervals in tommorrow when I ride to Highland, ride some of the trail and home if my legs are fresh. Recovery Friday then ready to race Sunday.

Normality?

During 6th Hour AP Statistics class today preparing for the AP test tommorrow, we started talking a little about normality. This got me thinking later in the day of what is normal. The normal 18 year old male drives their car everywhere, hangs out and drinks with friends regularly, goes on spring break for weeklong drunk fest, and tries to work out their upper body to show off their guns. I must not be normal. Lets see...I ride more miles on my bike than even come close to deiving(even though I have a really nice car), I come home after school, eat, then head off from home to go ride for a few hours and usually ride with people older than me, I drink Gu2O and Endurox, I went to Colorado and Utah to ride my bike for spring break, and when I go in the weight room-it is leg press, leg extention, squats, lunges, and hamstring curls!

I am not normal in the average 18 year old male world, but I fit in with the biking clan. How many high school seniors would have double the pair of lycra and tight shirts than casual shorts?

What does the normal room look like-well probably messy like mine but not the same type of stuff.

And the drinks-not typical

I guess we(cyclists) are in a world of our own!!! Fine with me.

On another note, today I had a much needed recovery day and then I plan on hitting it hard tommorrow with a 40+ fat tire ride along with a 40 mile road ride on Wed, ride to HIghland-ride some loops-then maybe back on Thursday. I will take Friday off to recover and a light spin around Fort Custer on Saturday before the first XC race of the season on Sunday!