Another Good Week of Riding

After the Addison race, I took some good measures of recovery to be able to train hard this week. Monday I was planning on a 60 mile road ride through the parks and around my Milford/Wixom route. That was changed when the forecast called for 20-30mph winds. I decided instead to go ride the MTB. I went over to ILRA and rode three loops of blue/yellow and then came back home for a good 52 miles. For most of the ride, I had about 20psi in my tires just like at Addison. I guess my tires didn't seal to well and the Stan's sealant wasn't working well around the rim.

Tuesday was less wind, but a nice looking day out. I took a long route on the road bke over to Novi Tree Farm. I got in 39 miles on the road and put in some good efforts along the way. I jumped on the SS and did the 10 mile loop over at the Farm with a group at a nice social pace. The weather turned out great and no extra clothing was required at all.

I took Wednesday off as a recovery day and because of the rain that was coming down sparatically. At one time, I was cleaning all of the mud from Addison off of my bike when it started raining. I pulled it in the garage before the sky let loose and hail was coming down! I also decided to re-seal my rear tire and put fresh sealant in to try and fix my leaking problem. Later on in the evening I went off and reffed a hockey game. It was a good way to move the legs and get payed:-)

Thursday I came home and sealed my front tire up. It seemed like it was working, so I headed off to the Poto to ride. I ended up riding with Crispy, Bryan, and Amanda from the KONA Team. The trail was in the best shape I have seen it in a long time. There was even some guy who had raked all of the sand off to the side of the trail. Almost every sand pit or sandy climb had been raked until it was like concrete. Kudos to that guy, but why the hell would anyone do that-especially on 18 miles at the Poto. It turned out to be a fun ride with a few good efforts thrown in near the end. I could tell my downhill skills improved just by riding behind those guys!

Friday was my day off school, so I took a ride in the morning on the back roads. I rode out to Milford and around the dirt roads back and forth and to Charms Rd. in Wixom. I was planning on coming back the same way I came, but the cholride trucks were soaking the road around Kensington. In return, I decided to ride through D-Town Milford and over to the new Hubble Pond Park to ride the new 3.5 mile loop. For a new trail, it was great-and I figured out where to go without getting too lost. After a little single-track to keep myself motivated, I rode the road back home going around the GM proving grounds and then down the Kensington Rd. Hill beofre hitting the dirt roads bac home.

Was supposed to ride the Poto today; it's really wet and more rain is forecasted. That just means I have to get a good ride in before the baptism tommorrow.

Addison Oaks XC Race Recap

The last of the CPS races is now over. The Addison Oaks XC was this morning held under slimy conditions, but better than anticipated. The past week was spent tapering for a few days and only putting in 145 miles. I rode the course this morning to check it out before the race and it was a little greasy in the corners. You just had to be careful in a few and slow down instead of blowing through them. I came out of the race clean-no crashes that is. I was pretty muddy from my pre-ride and the race. The course dried out and the mud was pushed off for the most part after 2 laps.

It started off with only me and Kyle Stange showing up to race. He is winning(now won) the CPS sereis, and is some good competition. I let him take the lead into the woods as I followed him for the first two laps. Lap 3 I took the lead on a stupid decision and then tried to give it back. On the beginning of lap 4, we were going slow through the grass trying to make the other lead. Finally he took the lead after one of the Elites(we had already passed) decided to not play our games and go by. I went for it on a climb and through some two-track, but it was too late in the two-track. I should have done it earlier-lessons learned. On the last gravely climb, I was leading and he stood up and flew around me before I could see it coming. He put a nice gap in and it wasn't too far from the end. Just some singletrack that was hard to make time up on. After going back and forth the whole race, he ended up sliding by me and winning by 17 seconds. It was a good strong race and I had fun. We both handed it to the other Expert calsses as the next closest time was 3.5 minutes later. I learned a lot as far as decisions and what I need to work on. I will focus on those as I train for the next races. Boyne Championships in 2 weeks and then Iceman in November.

FS: 2006 19" Giant XTC Carbon Fiber Bike

A friend has their bike up for sale. It is a 2006 19" Giant XTC Carbon Fiber bike only ridden since the beginning of the year. It is full stock setup and the info can be seen HERE. It is a light hardtail racing machine. If you are interested, leave a comment below and I will get you in touch with the owner.

Well, I got 2 up...I guess I should get a Wirless Card

Leelanau's Largest Cup of Cofee
Your's Truly at the top of Inspiration Point

A Weekend of Riding in Leelanau

What a fantastic weekend. We left early Friday morning ready to go north to Leelanau County. ONly 4.5hrs later, we arrived at our little motel a few miles from d-town Glen Arbor(can you say no night life). After indulging in a few bagels, we headed out to do part of the TDL race loop around Maple City, Empire, Glen Haven and Glen Arbor. I ended up hitting 2 of the KOM's and then a turnoff to Tower road to ride the 20% grade. All of the route was rideable in the big ring except for Tower Rd. It was a great ride with some awesome views of both Glen Lakes, the Sand Dunes, and cool small towns in-between. There were a few fun sweeping downhills that were easy to hit 45mph with some fun no-braking corners!

Saturday was race day in Leelanau County. I went out and watched the Tour de Leelanau at 4 different spots. First was about 25 miles in at Fredrickson Rd which had a good steep climb for 1/3 of a mile or so. From there it was over to Tower Rd. to watch the guys and gals climb the 20% grade. That was a good site to see struggling and progressing. Then it was off to M-22 and Carlson Rd where we saw the lead guy riding for Priority Health come by 3:00 ahead of everyone else. There was also a small group of 4 off the front a couple of minutes before the peleton came sweeping through the turn. Following that sighting, we drove a mile down the road to see them returning with 6 miles to go. There were no marshalls or cops, so the 10minute car threw me and another person an orange vest and had us stop traffic and guide the racers left. It was fun watching how the group really split up by then. It turned out to be a gorgeous day and a fun day of watching cycling. After the race we went into Leland's "fish-town" ad cruised around for a while before heading off to the Dunes to run around.

Sunday was the Leelanau Harvest Tour. All of the people we were with decided on the 67 miler. There is no way I can turn down a hundie, so I went off solo. It was another good scenic ride-some of which we dd a few days prior. At the 52.5 mile mark, I had an average of 21.5 and was feeling pretty good overall. From that stop at Lake Leelanau, the route headed up into Northport and rode by Lk. MI for a while. The wind really picked up there and was a steady 15-25mph the whole way back. At mile 83, I joined up with a group of 8, eventually splitting it up a few iles down the road. I took a few 10 minute pulls and helped the guys out in the wind. At the end of the ride, I had and average of 20.6 and feeling good. I ended up getting back just minutes after evryone else, so it all worked out. The CCCC put on a good route, only confusing me on the route a minimal amount of times. I was dissapointed that there was only 3500ish feet of climbing, but I guess the wind made up for it.

This week I am tapering for the Addison race after 4 good solid weeks of XC training. I went to PT for me knee after school, put on some new rubber on the Yeti along with grips, and took a 35 minute ride on the trainer while studying to make me smarter and flush the lactic acid out.

Blogger is being lame. I actually have some good pics to put up but it's not working for me. I will get them up tommorrow. I have one of the TDL here with this guy solo off the front.

Slip Slide and Away

This damn rain stuff is messing with me. As of right know, it is raining, lightning, and thundering like a bitch. Good thing I finished my ride 30 minutes ago. It was a nice sunny ride with some decent wind and dry streets. I even took the time to look at the trees between my intervals on the road and noticed that the leaves are already changing colors. It must be this annoying fall like weather destrying everything and its pattern. The road ride today was dry until the ride home where I turned around in the park and said, "Ah, no," when the first bolt of lightning struck. It was all downhill from there with torrential downpours and dark skies. Morelightning came to follow, but I got home in time to survive.

The training has been going well lately. After 13 days straight of riding, (yes, I had recovery rides in there) I took Monday off, then rode the TRAINER (ugh) yesterday for some quick power intervals to keep me in check. Tonight I start my winter job up again. I am off to ref hockey this evening for good money and great cross training for cycling.

I leave you with a picture to make this and the rest of the dreary days better.

Met the quota

After my 47 mile hill repeat ride today, I was able to meet my quita for the week. The ride put me over 211 miles and I should have more coming for tommorrow. This end of the season training for me has been going really well. It helps tremendously when the weather cooperates. I got in a recovery road ride on Wednesday out on the roads around here. Thursday I went out on a dirt road ride and did intervals and then went for a group ride on the SS out at Brighton Rec.

Today was a good hill repeat day out at Kensington. There was a US Ametuer Disc Golf tournament that I was able to scan as I road up Spring Hill by the tobaggon runs. Weather was great in the 80's like it should be, but it is looking down from here. Now comes the fall leave color changing, arm warmer wearing, night riding season. Should be a fun on as long as it stays free of the white stuff by November 4th!!!

Tommorrow I am off early at 7:30 t ride out to the South Lyon High School where I am supposed to lead a group of runners out for the Witch's Hat 10K run. I belted up the SS with a 44x18 which will be good for the dirt roads. If the rain holds off, I plan on riding a loop of ILRA before venturing home. If you've got nothing better to do on Sunday, come out to ILRA to help fix the trail.

Thank You Mr. Weatherman

I would like to first send a shout out to the Fox 2 weatherman who said it wasn't going to rain, and the weather.com doppler who showed no large grren areas in the vicinity of SE MI. Yep, I started my ride over to ILRA for a lap then out to Novi tree farm. What are the chances I am riding through Yellow and BAM! rain. It was raining although it was quite nice in the trails besides all of the puddles that haven't drained yet. So I decided to ride home after my lap and it just downpoured. The 5 miles home the rain never let up one bit. At one point it was raining so hard it was stinging pretty bad. Came home and pampered my bike with a wipedown, greasing and some oil. Got it all nice and purdy for its next adventure.

The holiday weekend was a good one for riding. I was able to get in about 35 miles on the SS out to Highland Rec and the trails out there on Thursday. Friday was a successful day of riding the eastside loop of Addison, Bald Mt, PCT, and Stony. It was a really nice ride-only if I knew my way around Bloomer would it be better. Saturday was a 30 some mile roadride over through the parks and back home before I hit up a double Poto on the SS Sunday. Poto was awesome-great condition and extremely fast no-brakes downhills. I finished the Labor Day weekend off with a Double PLRA on the SS with a little extra riding. It has been some good training getting ready for the end of the year races of Addison, Boyne, and Iceman.

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.