Just What I Need!

I would like to send a shout out to Poto-THANKS for giving me Poison Ivy! It came out Monday morning, my first case of poison ivy ever...and it keeps poping up over my arm.

I took Monday off to recover and then I went out this morning and did trail work at Maybury for 4 hrs. We got a lot of trimming done and by the end we were all spent. After a nice lunch in d-town Northville, I went over to pick up the new fork. Put the race on, cut it and installed the star nut before heading home to install it on the Yeti. I got it set up, but it will need to be adjusted better. I rode to ILRA today, did a loop, then came home. The fork seemed to work well, but I can see that it needs to be worked in and dialed in better. It felt pretty good and the legs were in good shape. I put in a decent effort when I wasn't behind groups of people to get the legs moving again before the WAM 300. I ended up with a 50 minute loop and then a good ride back home. I am taking tommorrow off and then probably a short spin in Traverse City on Thursday afternoon/night.

A Nice Weather Weekend

The knee is not too bad considering the amount of blood loss. At least I didn't slice it up at ILRA! It is a little stiff when I am sitting around-mostly because of the crusted up scabs. The hip is tender and hurts a bit whne I start riding but goes away once warmed-up.

I hit up the Poto on Saturday with the SS and was thinking that I was going to be doing quite a bit of walking since I was running a 44-18. Last year I missed at least 3 hills on a 36-16, therefore I thought I was going to die. Little did I know I am a much better rider this year and can handle a larger gear. I went right up the first climb out of the parking lot and across the dirt road. I surprided the hell out of myself. I ended up not able to top off 4 hills, the same ones on both loops I rode. There was one around mile 2 after the gaurdrail, two steep ones in the "steep hills" section that switchback around roots, and then the sandy, SANDY climb before the shortcut at mile 9. I rode 2 loops and was a minute faster on lap 2 than 1. I had a great time riding even though the course had trees down all over the place.

High gears, high Heart Rate!

Today turned into a recovery road ride with the parental figures. It was a 2 hr ride that was painfully slow at times. The weather was beautiful and I spent some good time outside washing, vacuuming, whiping, and waxing my car.

You can't have a sparkiling clean bike and a dirty bike rack

I spent the rest of the day reading Bicycling mag outside, tuning up the road bike to get it ready for WAM, an of course watching the hour recap show on regular TV showing the great Floyd Landis winning the Tour de France. On a related note, Pres. Bush has raised the terror alert to RED in suspicion that the French might attack after the Americans kick the French's ass in their own country. Good job Floyd-now go get a new hip!

DAMN CHAINS

I got a tight link from a ding in my chain before Lumberjack, replaced it, then broke the new one at Boyne Marathon, and now I am riding my SS. Today I go out for a backroads ride, and what better happens than I break my chain. Great. I was just going for an 11 mile ride to spin the legs before hitting up a double at the Poto on the SS tommorrow. So there I was standing up climbing a hill and BAM! I was down again. This has happened too much. I immidiately knew what had happened. This is a SS chain and I broke the special connecter part of the chain. The SS chain is a 3/32 and is thicker than a normal 9speed chain...so I couldn't use a master link. 5 miles of walking and trying to coast down hills, I was back at home. The chain wasn't the only bad part. I was going quick up the hill when I fell in the gravel and I cut up my knee and smacked my hip pretty bad.

Now the dilema is what to do at Poto. I can't use my SS chain and a normal chain won't fit on my chainring and rear cog, so the only thing that works is BIG. I am running a 44-18 at Poto tommorrow. It should be really fast on the FLATS!!! It will only make me stronger...or maybe more sore.

The past week went well with long ride and some good times. After some hard riding this weekend, I will taper off to be fresh for WAM next week.

Rollin' 3,000 in da SUN!!!

Yes I did. I rolled over 3,000 miles this past weekend. That was my goal for last week, to hit 3,000 by Monday. I rode a nice 76 mile road ride on Saturday from Brighton, through Milford, Commerce, Wixom, New Hudson, South Lyon, and Whitmore Lk. I attacked hills for the first 40 miles and put in some hard efforts. The last 35 miles where a little more layed back with some riding on Rail Trail and around Whitmore Lk. Near the end I could feel my body shut down more, and I think I was low on electrolytes. I only had 2 bottles of GU20 and I should have taken some endurolytes to keep me going. That 90+ deg heat plus humidity gets it screamin' out but ya just have to live with it. I love the heat...HATE the humidity.

Today was a road ride with my parents and Glen and Lynn. He just came off a 14 week back surgery recovery, so he is just getting back into it. I pulled out the MTN bike to ride today so I would have a little better workout. My favorite today was the triathletes who were on their nice aero bikes who I passed or got in front of and saw I was on a fat tire bike. The best was-"I can't draft off you(riding a MTN bike) or I will get depressed." I ended up going by her and never saw her again. After a few hill repeates at Kensington, I was back off to ILRA to hit the trails and then go home. After passing tons of people(and a-holes with mp3 players tooooo loud) on blue, I decided to cut out at 7-11 and ride home. A nice 46 miles for the day put me over 3000.

Tommorrow is a busy day of work, maybe getting the new fork-if it comes in, and watching Stage 15-L' Alp d'Huez at Glen's on OLN. Yes, mooching the Tour off other people's TV!!! 90 degree temps all week should put the FUN in riding.

Good days of riding

Monday we came back early from Gaylord since it was misty out and 59 degrees. We drove back down state and I unpacked then went out to Hines Drive for the Monday night ride. It was a really good group and a quick pace. The legs were a little sore, but the efforts were still good.

I worked Tuesday and took the day off from riding to recover my legs and watch the rain. What fun!

I got up and did a nice 57 mile road ride yesterday morning. The body was feeling pretty good so I did 5-3minute intervals and then did hill repeats over at Kensington Metropark. After sitting around later, my legs started to feel a little sore and stiffen up. I will see how they feel tonight when I grab the MTB for some loops over at Brighton Rec.

It is hard to see, but yes...this is DNR workers WORKING!!!

Hey its a nice day, why is no one on the beach-ahh, I forgot-everyone's watching Le Tour

The road was still a bit wet, but no spray

Just read up on the Tour. Looks like Landis is doing good, OK Yellow is great. Levi came back from a horrible TT and came second today. Too bad for Zabriskie, it looks like he was 40 minutes back.

I took my SS fork apart yesterday since it wasn't working well at all. My springs had a problem and then a bolt sheared off on my oil side great. So, I looked all around for forks, but no luck. I ordered a Manitou R7 Platinum fork I will put on my Yeti and put the skareb with remote lockout on the SS. I was told no rigid!

Boyne Marathon Race Report

Thursday, I came up to Boyne to pre-ride the course. The race was said to be four 14 mile loops for a 56 mile total. The pre-ride took around an hour at an easy pace and turned out to be 10 miles. That made it interesting, would they add laps or not. Since all of my races this time of the year have been endurance races, I haven't realy trained for XC races at all.

Race day, I did my norm-ate whole wheat pancakes and a banana, filled bottles, and went to the venue. It turned out that they put in about 11 miles for a loop and we were still doing 4 laps. My hopes were for more laps, but I was alone on that one. The race turned into a 44 mile XC race, so I had to figure out how to race it. It is a good course, but I had to back off to not push the HR to high. The first lap was back and forth and 3 of us came in together. Lap 2, I lead a bit then backed off and let the 2 go on. On the last downhill, I caught 2nd place and rode for a while until he went by when I tried to keep it down. I caught up to both of them during the middle of lap 3, then let them go again. On lap 4, I passed Mike Anderson and kept up a quick pace for a while. Just before the finish, there is one last downhill, then a long flat section behind the hotels before a paved downhill to the finish. Luck has it, my chain snapped and flew off on the downhill. I jumped off and ran the flat section before I jumped on in an aero tuck on the paved downhill for the finish. I ended up second was pretty happy with the result. I really had to figure out what pace to do, and in the end I averaged 164 bpm compared to my XC race pace of 168.

Today I watched the tour-finally a good race with some strong attacks and surprises. Better than the horrible TT for the Americans yesterday...except I broke my bars LANDIS. I went out for a road ride around Gaylord for my usual 34 mile hilly loop. My legs felt really good and they were not even sore on the hills. A great ride today, and it should be the same when I do it again tommorrow before coming home later in the day.

Happy 4th of July

I got a nice backroad ride in this morning before hitting up a 4th of July party. I headed out down Buno Rd down to Wixom, where I took Glengary/Bike Path over to Hickory Glen park to ride the 5 mile loop. It is a nice easy ride that just goes back and forth around trees the whole loop. From there I rode back towards Wixom Rd and hooked in behind the VFW hall where I rode the dirt loop a couple times before riding some more road for cool down before the party. It was a nice relaxing day watching the boats swing by on Loon Lake and just sit and relax. The ride felt good, I am glad I got it in. My legs were not tired, which is a good sign for the Boyne Marathon this weekend.

I am working tommorrow, then it is off to ride Boyne Mt on Thursday for a pre-ride and then kill time before the 56 mile race on Saturday. It should be a really fun weekend...I always have the urge to go race/ride at Boyne. A bonus for me, in my downtime up north, I can watch the Tour since the lodging has cable and I don't!

Work, Ride, and Watch

I worked Monday through Thursday this week and only had a small amount of time to ride thanks to the enjoyable rains. I got a quick 45 minute ride in on Tuesday with some good hill repeats and speed work. Wednesday, again I snuck out after a quick storm and put in 32 miles. I threw down some intervals and some more speed work to help with keeping up the cadence during endurance races. Friday I got out for a nice 62 mile road ride which felt good to do, but my legs were burning on the climbs. Today was a rest day while I went to Stony to watch the Marathon race. It was a good time and the weather was extremely nice, a little warm for the racers, but my type of weather. Tommorrow loks like it will shape up for a long backroads ride. I just have to figure out where I want to ride to and then go. I am leaving Thursday morning for Boyne where I will pre-ride the marathon course that day before the race on Saturday. It should be a fun time and hopefully the weather cooperates. Time will tell.