I Am Feeling IT...

Left the house about 4:30 to start a nice road ride over to the bi-parkal region. After a good warmup over to ILRA, I rode to the trailhead to see what was happening, and then made my way over to do my thing. Yup, it was hill repeat day. My plan was to do the loop-'o-hills 4 times all in the big ring. Well, I ended up doing them five times just to keep myself happy and motivated. My legs were in great shape and feeling good for the whole ride. I would go up farm center hill, then Spring hill, left over the rollers to the big "puke" and little "puke" hills, and finnaly back down Farm center before turning around and coming back. I beautiful day; although it is becoming fall WAAAAAAAAAAAY too early. If it keeps up, Iceman will be "snowshoe while holding your bike"MAN. Ended up with 55 miles on the day.

I had the long day at school today-got out around 1:30. Came home and did some homework before mowing the tall weed looking grass. Then it was time to get to work...yes, get the single speed back in order with the 36-16 for my ride down to Highland tommorrow and then all 4 loops. All is good and working well. Should be a fun ride if it doesn't rain.

Hammer Time

The first day of school was short and fairly uneventfull. I walked out of there around 11:30, and was home by 12 where I got ready to go ride. The clouds were still rain threatening, but I could not resist the urge to ride. I popped out of the house at 12:30 and headed out towards Kensington to hit the Kensington Rd Hill and the GM loop. From there I did the normal out through d-town Milford and back around Wixom before cruising back home. It never did rain on me, but 45 minutes after I got home it came down and has been raining ever since. 40 miles, 21.5 mph average felt good for the day. Unfortunatelty it kept rainng so I didn't get to go down to Hines, but I had time to work on my SS.

Plan was to ride the SS down the dirt roads tommorrow with the 44x18 gearing then hit up a few loops of ILRA and then back the roads home. After this 1" of rain so far and still coming, it looks like a hill repeat session is in store for tommorrow out at Kensington. Hopefully it will dry out soon so I can get some good FUN riding on the SS and for riding Addison and hopefully other trails on the east side Friday.

The Ohio Weekend

We left early Saturday morning at 6am sharp to get down to Mohican State Park in Loudenville, OH. We pulled in around 9:45 and relaxed while powering up on bagels and bananas. Once Deadman got to the park around 11:30, we all headed out to the Mohican Wilderness Trail 10 miles away to go for a ride. The trail starts off with a 1.2 mile climb with just under 400 vertical feet of climb sprinkeled with roots and rocks. Once at the top, we re-grouped as riders caught their breaths before going into the next singletrack section.

The trail then winds through the woods with minimal climbing, and then extends down a fire road before hopping back into the timbers downhill. The trail then becomes fast and fun. From to much speed to hammering up the hills, it was an adrenaline rush for all. After riding along a ridge, you come upon a nice long downhill technical section where you have to pick your line well or hit the ground. Near the bottom, the rocks become the trail and there must be no hesitation to ride over them because of the slick moss and tire catchers. Last year I walked this section, but this year I cleaned it easily, then went back and cleared it again for fun(It is nothing after riding out west on all rock!).

Once you get thrught that section the majority of the fun stuff is over, but the trail is still fast and enjoyable. We met back up down at the bottom of the first trail before heading into the second trail. It went through a few shallow creeks and then into some climbing singletrack before ending at a non-ridable horse trail.

We packed the bikes back up and headed back to the state park. Once there, I refilled bottles and took off. I went right up the 1.25 mile climb and kept on booking through the trail to get some good intensity in. I was having a great time dancing my bike around the rock sections and climbing up the hills. That was until my sweaty bike shorts decided to slide around. So, I turned onto a return loop at mile 4 and went back to change my shorts. I came back and started form the begining again to do the climb. I decided to go around race pace, but a little shy of it to get the the 8 mile end turnaound point where the group would meet. 43 minutes later, I was there, just behind them. We came back the trail, which was considerably downhill until mile 4 where we took the return route down to the valley. I ended up getting 27 miles in for the day of some decent riding with lots of fun.

The plan for today was to get up and ride the 16 miles of the state park again before packing up the tent and heading home. Wel, at about 3am it started raining and didn't let up until 7:30 when I got up and packed up most of the stuff. We hung out helping for a while before coming home where it was also raining. No riding today which was a bummer, but I should tommorrow after my first day of school. I am hoping to be home around noon and get a 40 mile road ride in before hitting up the Monday night RR on Hines Dr.

Back on Track!

I finally saw the knee doctor and he told me that I have Chrondomalacia in my knee. I had it a few years ago in my right knee and I guess it often comes back in the other. It is something like flamed up cartlige due to a knee displacement. It has been feeling better lately, and I am going to go to PT to get a refresher course. I am already doing some exercises that I can remember to get the ball rolling.

I took Monday off after the hundie and then went back hard and rode 40 miles of MTB on Tuesday with some good intervals. My speed is really coming along, especially on the flats where I needed the work. I rode over to ILRA and did a double B/Y then home to make dinner.

Wednesday I took off from work to get stuff done.
#1-Buy books for school. ONLY $400!!!
#2-Order bike parts
#3-Go to Maybury and demo Kona Bikes
#4-Go to USA Hockey Referee Seminar

The Kona demo at Maybury was a ton of fun. I first took out the King Supreme and rode a lap on that with my friend Dave who had just happened to show up. I threw it down a few times to see how it handled and WOW. That little 2.5" of rear travel flew over the roots really well. I overshot the first few corners, but that was the 5" handlebar differencial and slacker headtube-I got the hang of it and took the rest much smoother.

Next up was the Coilair. Now that was FUN. 6" front and rear travel with air shocks made for a pavement-type feel. It soaked everthing up and was exceptionally fast for the type of bike. I cooked through the trail much faster than I thought. I figured it would be a squishy pedaling bike, but I was shown wrong. I went back after a lap and did some more of the rock piles over to have some more fun.

A good day of riding and trying out cool new stuff. Next up is a trip to Ohio this weekend to ride the Mohican Wilderness and State Park Trails. Maybe after that I will think about this for next year.

3+3=6

The knee has been feeling much better lately. Maybe the extra rest and not riding has hopefully helped it. I went out and rode a decent clip on Tuesday at Maybury after riding through Amish country SAT and Grubers Grinder SUN. Friday I decided to test out the knee on a harder ride, so I took the MTB out on the dirt roads and rode 15 miles out to Highland Rec, rode the D loop, then came back. I gave it a few good efforts early on going to Highland, and then did intervals on the way back. I pushed it pretty good and averaged 19.2 coming back home.

Today was the Assenmacher 100 out in Flint. We headed out there with a big group and I knew the average would only be around 18ish so I grabbed the Yeti and went. It made it for a better 100 mile workout. I wanted to even out the bike on centuries with 3 on the Yeti(2 off road) and 3 on the C-Dale. It turned out to be a nice day-a little cool for me, but I'll take it over rain. Last 8 miles was fun pulling 25mph on buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzing knobbies then gettin' her going up to 30mph before I slowed up to be nice!

Hoping the knee will continue to get better and get back to normal. Plan on hitting up some trail or road ride Tuesday then going to the KONA demo day at Maybury Wednesday before going to a USA Hockey certification for my winter work/off-season training!!!!

What can I do?

I had to cut my ride short on Saturday because of more knee pains. I have decided to take it easy and give the Doc a call. I have an appointment tommorrow where I am assuming I will be told to go see a knee doctor. I just want the pain to go away. Without riding, I have nothing to do. I have been working, but I get home and do nothing and have nothing to look foreward to.

Recovery Week

After the WAM and the knee pains, I decided to take it easy and let my body and knee recover for a while. I didn't ride Monday or Tuesday, but I did get ot for a quick hour MTB ride from home to ILRA Yellow and then back in the early AM. I took Thursday off and then hopped back on the bike for an easy ride tonight. I decided to hit up the dirt roads and then join into some Multi-Use singletrack(mostly horse traffic) from Kensington Metropark until Old Plank road where I headed down to Garden Rd and through Proud Lake. Came out at Wixom Rd and brought Buno Rd back home for a decent 23.6 m,ile ride. I kept the HR at a low 136avg and the knee felt pretty good. Hopefully it will just go back to normal and I can ride free again.

Tommorrows plan is to ride over to ILRA and then cut out on Blue and head over to Brighton REc to ride Torn Shirt/Murray Lake before heading back to finish up ILRA and come back home. Should be a good ride if I don't get lost!

2006 WAM 300 Recap

I left Thursday morning and headed off to the Chelsea fairgrounds to throw the bikes in the semis, register, and get on the bus and head for Traverse City to start the 300 mile ride back to Chelsea for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Michigan. We finally departed around 11:00 after a delay thanks to traffic on US23. We were off and into construction sites all over us127 until we reached lunch about 1pm. We had bag lunches at a rest area 60 miles south of Grayling. After lunch, our bus broke off from the others and headed some strange way up to TC. Surprisingly, we were the last bus to arrive at the TC HIgh School where we grabbed our bags and searched for our bikes before finding a spot in the HOT gym to sleep. Dinner was tasty and snacks were ate later after we took a little stroll around the penninsula on the bikes for a total of 7.5 miles. Went to bed around 10 when they turned the lights off and slep well all through the night.
FRIDAY
Day 1 of the riding was just ahead of us and all we had to do was pedal 117.5 miles and climb 4500ft. We left as a mass start at 7am and were off towards Caberfae Ski Resort for lunch 56 miles later. I rode with a good group of guys for the first 15 miles before I went back to ride with my dad. Not to loong after riding with him, we hit heavy fog which soaked us and had us with our glasses off trying to see 100ft in front of us. We got to the first main rest stop 30 miles in and were still shocked that we had not hit any hills yet. We jumped on a group and headed out for another 26 miles for lunch with a group who was doing a good comfortable pace. That was when the hills started. There were some rollers, then there was one big climb that resembled the Kensington Rd hill. I was at the back of the train, pulled out, and went by everyone as the group split apart. I rode with 4 other guys who kept up for the next 5 miles until I dropped them on a 1 mile long gradual hill. From there I figured I would just ride into lunch since I was only 12 miles out. So I hammered away by myself passing some people and mostly looking at the scenery. 7 miles before lunch I caught another rider Ted, who picked it up and jumped on my wheel. I pulled for 1.5 miles before he came up and decided to do his duty as we went into the Caberfae area. We climbed a decent hill and he stayed on, then we hit the 1.5 mile long climb into Caberfae where I left him behind. I just set my pace and pedaled up the climb as it didn't bother me much at all. I had plenty of gears left, and I just tried to find my line(the road was in horrible shape and a base that seemed like compacted peastone). One at the top, you ride over some small rollers and then decend into Caberfae pedaling the whole time to get some speed. Lunch was 10am for me and my dad came in about 15 minutes later after I was done with my few bites of hamburger, couple noodles, and peanut butter on bread. Back on the bikes, we jumped on the group of Matt Henkel, Jon Heft-from Trails-Edge, and some other strong riders-Jeff, Scott, Barry, and Tim. After some more hilly roads 10miles later after my pull, I dropped of the back to ride with my dad. We rode together until mile marker 99 where there was a rest area. From there, I jumped back on the group that only consisted of Matt, Jeff, and Scott and rode the remining 18.5 miles into Big Rapids. We were on the chase for the beggining trying to catch a group that went by the rest area, and soon enough, we reeled them in a few miles later. Rode the rest of the ride with the group and came in 15th overall with just two groups in front of us. I ended with a 19.5 avg and my dad came in 18minutes later with a very good ride. From there it was waster time before dinner whic was still 3 hrs away. At 5pm, we went for the food and were told tha only 152 people had come through and that they sent out a semi and ordered shuttle services to pick up riders. We were in awe at the amount of riders who couldn't do it out of 650. Dinner was good and the massage afterwards was decent, but good conversations were had and listening to people complain about the course left and right was quite amusing.
SATURDAY
5AM came and everybody was alarmingly still laying there in the 100 degree gymnasium where I got 2 hours of total sleep. We headed off to breakfast and came back to roll pack up, stretch, and burn some time. We decided to get going since everbody was leaving quite early to get on the road. We saw people departing at 5:40 and were sure there were more before that. We hit the road at 6:40am and started passing people left and right. I rode with my dad and pulled him until the 30-some mile rest area where we hooked up with the group we rode with during the first day after the rest area and hills. It was a good clip and we were going about 24 when I came up and pulled and kept it there and more up the grade until the group blew apart and I was left riding with my dad into lunch at mile 52. We were there at 9:30,so we decided to kill some time and get a 10 minute massage. After that it was lunch and then back on the bikes for another 49 miles. It was all my dad and I after that. We just went through it seeing just a few people here and there. With 20 miles to go, we pulled out of the rest stop and cruised down the road until we headed south and had a nice tailwind up a long section of a false flat. We pulled into St Johns middle school at 12:44 and were again around 15th back at the school with an avg of 19.6mph. With no food until another 4+ hours, Jon and I went off to Subway with orders for some chow. We sat around in the A/C building and chatted for a while before I went for a nap and woke up around dinner time. Went for a quick dinner in the HOT cafeteria an then searched for the audetorium where the WAMMY Awards were going to be held. We got on the massage list and thn went into the A/C audetorium and waited for the start. We sat there for a while listening to the speakers before we left the 90+ degree room and went and got a massage. We were informed later that the money raised by the WAM riders was $942,000. It was lights out at 10PM and I got some better sleep in that night thank to the cooler air.
SUNDAY
People were up at 4am getting ready and it was disturbing, even though I managed to fall back asleep. We went out for breafast and people were all ready on the road a 5:15-It was friggin' dark. With nothing to do and almost no one left, we headed out at 6:30 to get the last 92 miles in. A few miles down, we hooked up with the group of Matt, Jon, and those guys. At mile 11, my knee went south on me and I couldn;t pedal on it at ALL. It was sore the day before, but I don't know what the deal was. So, I pedaled into luck at mile 50, mostly using my right leg while my leg leg spun around the pedals. It was so frustrating and painful, but it got better after lunch. I ate some food, and threw down a few Motrin before heading out for the last leg of the ride. A few miles in my pain went away and I picked it up. 5 miles in, we passed 2 guys who jumped on and I pulled them up to the next rest area 20 miles up. They were loving it and the sounds coming from the back made my day! With 10 miles to go, they couldn't hold on any more and went off the back. I rode with my dad as we went by the marking counting our miles down for us. Finally we came back to the Chelsea fairgounds where we finished in a cheering crowd of people(again15th back and an average of 19.1 after a 18.5avg at lunch), had our bikes taken away for us, and went to find our luggage and change. We came in at 11:54 and were just in time for a good lunch thanks to Caraba's. It was good and the cold drinks were resfreshing. We went and recieved our medals by the Wish Heros and then went over to the massage area. We stood around talking with some fun guys and had our massage and left before the rain came. Just as we unpacked the car, the storm rolled though!

It was a great weekend, nice to meet some new people and good riders, and had an overall GREAT experience on the WAM. I will surely be back next year. The volunteers are amazing and will do anything for you. All of the people are nice and courteous and best of all it is for a great couse which I learned much more about this past weekend.

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.

Down Week

After the Lumberjack, I am just chillin out and resting. As they say, "ride hard, rest harder." I rode an easy 30 miles on Tuesday from home to ILRA and did a lap with the group before coming back home. It poured rain almost all day yesterday, so I got organized and did some stuff around the house. I rode this morning for another easy 25 miles on the roadbike. Just doing some light spinning to try and get my legs refreshed. I will be packing up tonight and leaving in the morning for a trip back up to Manistee fore the weekend. I will be riding the North Country Trail, Big M-Lumberjack Loop, and hanging out on the beach playing some frizbee. It will be with a group, so I should be able to just enjoy it without straining my legs too much. Looking foreward to next week, I am thinking about doing the Monday NIght ride and then judging how my legs feel. If they feel good, I will keep on riding, but if not, I will need to recover. Boyne Marathon is in 2 weeks, so I need to be fresh for that. No more of the having fun at Endurance races, and then not recovering enough before the local XC races.

LUMBERJACK 100 RACE REPORT

That was the most FUN I have ever had at a bike race. I was so into it and never doubted myself once or even thought about quitting. I will be there again next year to try and improve my time.

The day started off at 4:20am for some whole wheat pancakes and banana for a breakfst under the lantern. I mixed all of my drinks and gel flasks, stretched, got in bike clothes and was ready to go. We got to Big M around 5:45am and put up the tent(which was moved later) and I got everythig ready. The race started off on the road with 162 racers taking up the entire road. Gotta love it when the cars came through. After a faster than inticipated leadout by the van, I started passing people and went into the woods in the second large group.

I ended up passing all of these people shortly and I picked up the pace and started to find a group of people to ride with. The first 8 miles was an inner loop with some short hills thrown in all over. It ended with a nice sandy trechorous downhill. I rode the first lap with a good group of Dustin Cheney of CycleTherapy, a guy riding a 29'er from Minnesota, and a guy from State College, PA.

After lap one, I went in and out of the pits faster than anyone in the group. I felt like I could go faster than the group, and took off at a quicker pace. Just before the 8 mile mark, I was caught by the guy from MN. We rode together for another 5 miles before he took off and I crahed. It was getting sandier and warmer every loop, and that sand caught be and threw my bars into a tree. I wasn't going very fast, so I jumped up and went. The lap was slower than the first, but I was feeling good.

Lap three came and it was getting hot. At the pits, I threw down some more endurolytes and chugged some water. I took a 24 and 28oz bottle and had them both gone before the end of the lap. I rode by myself during this lap and started pushing the hills a little harder about 1/2 way through. Once you get past mile 14-15ish, it stays flat for a while and has some small hills, but it is hard to mantain speed. It turns and is bumpy, therefore you can't hammer it away. A guy from Titus passed me, then stopped at the aid station. He passed me and I immediately picked up my pace and it actually felt better. When I went by him, I kept up the pace and never saw him again. I was well into the 90's and I was just keeping hydrated and keeping myself mentally in the race.

As lap 4 came, I drank 1/2 of a nalgene bottle in around 10 seconds, and took 2 bottles of Gu20, both 28 ounces. After the innerloop, I met my GREAT support(my mom, thanks) and she filled up my already empty bottle 40 minutes in! 4 miles into my outer 17 mile loop, I crahed hard. My front tire caught some of the benchcut and shot me across the sand and into a tree. My bike hit the tree and my hip hit something. I layed in the trail for at least a minute. It is the spot where your hip meets the pevic bone and moves every pedal stroke. I knew it would hurt bad, but I got up and went. I couldn't seem to keep a fast pace up in the falst bumpy woods, but 5 miles from the end I picked it up hoping to beat the 8:30 mark. I passed a few more people, lapping them and kept on pushing. I kept looking down at my HR monitor for the time. I stood up for 1/2 mile through the BUMPY pines section 1-2 miles from the end. When my monitor hit 8:30, I sat down and brought it home.

I finished 12th overall out of 162 racers. I was happy and surprised at how well I did compared to the elite racers. I finished in a pack of excellent riders and big name sponsors. My time was 8:32:10, and I was the youngest rider to do the race. I came across the line and Rick announced I was only 18 and 12th overall. I was 10th in mens, but Dan Jansen and Eric Tompkin were ahead of me on SS, so 12 overall. After the race, I had tons and tons of people coming up to me and congratulating me over and over and saying how good I did. I didn't even know most of the people, but I was a great feeling of encouragement and I knew I did well.

It was a great weekend and I had a blast. It was hot, but I stayed hydrated unlike 100 or so racers who DNFed. It was a hard race, but I will be back for more.

13 Hrs

That is my total so far for the week. I took Wednesday off since it rained almost all day and then took out the road bike today. I rode form my house up the big Kensington Hill, then around the GM proving grounds. We kept on riding through Milford and out through Wixom. We ended up back at ILRA where I did 3 laps since Kensington has road constuction. The ride was good. The pace was 17.8 avg with my mom, but it was okay since my legs are sore from the previous days of riding. ONce we hit ILRA, I split off and tried to raise my heartrate. After the first loop, I was able to comfortably hold it in the 160's without my legs burning too bad. I ended the ride with 76.2 miles and picked my average speed back up to 19mph. I was averageing above 20mph on the last 44 miles, so I am happy with the progress. I am heading off to Stoney Creek tommorrow to go ride the trails and then I will either ride Saturday and take Sunday off and get one last hard ride in on Monday before I wind down and recover for the race. Word on the trail is that Chris Eatough-the 6 time 24H solo NAtional Champion from Trek/VW is coming. Should be fun to see him the first 10ft!!!
Here are a couple pics from the race.

Its Been Busy

FRIDAY
I packed up all of my stuff and headed off to Gaylord where we stayed with my cousin's grandma again. We made the trip in pretty good time which gave us lots of time to spare. We went to Latitude 45 Bike Shop where I was looking for a road bike. I tried out a Cannondale CADD8 R5000 with full Dura-Ace road groupo. I asked if they had anything similar-especially in an '05 so I could get a better price. they called the other shop and had them send a '05 R1000 down with Ultegra and the same sweet Mavic Kyserium Elite wheels.

SATURDAY
We got up early and ate breakfast before we got ready to go pre-ride the race course at Hanson Hills. I rode easy and went in 44 minutes which felt good to get out on the bike again. The down side...I was not ONE with my bike. I think I over shot just about EVERY corner. I could not ride worth a damn. After the ride we went back to the house for some chow. I ate a sandwich and a few sun chips. Then it was off to the bike shop. I tried out the bike and it felt better than the R5000. The setup was a little different and I felt great. It was nice to have some higher bars and to be stretched out with a longer top-tube. That growing 6" after buying a 54cm bike didn't work out too well.

SUNDAY
Race Day. Did my usual, got up and ate some whole wheat pancakes. Went out to the race and warmed up for a while. At the start line, we went off then road the flat 2-track for a short section before the singletrack. I could not keep up on the friggin' flats. We hit the climb and I was on the tire-literally. I rubbed tires twice and had to step off. The pace was so fast then slow, we all had troubles leaving just enough space. I followed a guy the first loop and then knew I had to hammer it to bridge the 30 second gap between me and the others-yes I fell on lap 1 and got further behind. I rode hard and about 3/4 of the way through lap 2(after singlespeeding it up a few hills) I caught the pack. There was the 2 guys in my group, and Elite, and a 20-29 guy. I passed the Elite, then shortly after passing the 20-29 guy, I was standing up pedaling while following the guys in my class, I hit a log off the side of the trail with my foot and bam...I was flat on my face. I didn't have enough time to even get some hands down. I got up and had to get my cahin back on the third ring and jam it through the front derailluer since it fell off and wrapped around the crankarm. Then I was out of it. I could not keep going and riding as well after that. I felt better later in the third lap, and ended up coming third-by 1 second. Another hundred feet and I would have had it as the other guy was near the finish line when I cam e around and sprinted to the end once I saw him. I was told by everyone that I didn't look fresh and as good as I normally do in XC races. Huh, maybe that 12H race and then PLRA on the SS double after that hurt me-nah, how could it! Oh well, I got 20 bucks out of it. Next race is LUMBERJACK 100. It is going to be awesome!
MONDAY
My mom and I stayed in Gaylord and did a road ride. I did this route last year and it was really good with some long sustained climbs along with some good steeps. The new road bike was nice. I could ride in the drops and push comfortably with no back pain, and throughout the whole ride, I had not back pain at all. The longer top tube is really nice to have. The frame with the flexy aluminum seat stays soak up the road vibration more than the carbon stays on my Felt. All in all, itwas a great ride and my legs felt pretty good. A total of 35.6 miles and 1600 feet of climbing for the day.
TUESDAY
Lumberjack, here I come. I am keeping up the longer endurance rides and training for Lumberjack. I will ride a lot this week, then fade off next week as recovery before the big race on Saturday!!! I did trailwork at ILRA traimming the faceslappers on the beginning of Yellow for 2 hrs. At 3pm, I went out and road to ILRA and did a Yellow, then Blue/Yellow. Then I rode over to the Tree Farm via rail trail-dirt paths, and roads. I rode a few miles of the trail until my brother got there and I rode the 10mi loop with him. I then roade back home through dirt roads most of the way for a good 4 hr 45minute ride. I felt great even after all of the riding lately. Man, I haven't done intervals or LT training for a while. Good thing my next CPS race is the Boyne marathon of 56 miles. Perfect for my schedule and training regimen! I will see what tommorrow holds, maybe a recovery road ride, then a long road ride on Thursday..if it doesn't rain-but it probably will.

It's not letting me post my pics, so I will try later.