Dirty Kanza Prep

I spent a little time today cleaning up my cross bike in preparation for the DK200. I took the chain off and cleaned and lubed it up, cleaned the cassette, and wiped down my sweet ride. Got it put back together and also got my saddle bag, blinkie, headlight, triangle bag, hand pump, and both bottle cages put on. It is a little tight to get the rear bottle in place but it won't fall out.

Also got a light mounted on my second helmet so it is ready to go at the third checkpoint, I hope I make the third checkpoint and feel like going on. I'm considering getting butt implants to help with the pain!!!

137.38 Miles Of Ouch

I got in a really long ride yesterday, it wasn't what I would describe as fun....in fact it was a struggle. I didn't get to start until about 10:45 a.m. but I headed out on my road bike and did the ride to Roads which is 64 miles round trip. This is the same ride that Coach took me on when it was blowing about 1000 mph. I should have run both bottles dry by mile 45 but I nursed them the whole way back to town. Heading North on Hwy F wasn't as much fun as the day I rode with Coach because we had a monster tailwind that day and I had a very slight headwind yesterday. In fact the only things missing that day on that coaster was a lap bar, a chicken exit, and a small child blowing chunks over the rail after exiting the ride. Those are some fun downhills but not the best I have ridden, that would have to be the downhill on one of the horse trails at North Poosey......if that hill doesn't make your butthole pucker, I don't know what will.

After hydrating and eating a small snack I headed out for a round trip to Jamesport, I nearly emptied both bottles by the time I got there on this trip. I stopped at the grocery store there and purchased a gallon of water, I filled both bottles and drank a lot out of the container and then enjoyed pouring a lot over my head. The start of this ride was very painful and slow but after the stop in Jamesport the ride back home was better....not great but better. The 190 alps were taking there toll on my already tired legs but I pushed on. I did catch myself coasting often to stretch my legs, back, and to give my rear a breather. When I got home I drank some recoverite and ate a small grilled chicken sandwich and realized that I had time to get some more riding in, I was at 114 miles by this point. I loaded up my bottles and grabbed a gel and my endurolytes and headed out to ride the loop.

The loop started out fairly well and then I hit a wall, starting the long gradual climb shortly after Brent's house my right hamstring (which had been getting tender) started to lock up on me. I pulled out 2 endurolytes and bit them open and let the powder totally dry up my mouth (Yummm) and then washed it down with water, within about 5 seconds the muscle started to relax. It didn't fix it for the whole ride, I still had to baby it on the climbs but I was able to pedal. Just before crossing the bridge I took off my glasses, all of a sudden it felt like I was riding a really small bike. It almost felt like I could reach out and touch the ground, it was really weird....I didn't like that feeling. My total moving time on the bike was 7 hr 44 min.

Don't Wait On Weight

I love endurance riding but the caloric build up goes against everything natural in my mind, I know it is neccesary to success but it is still hard to eat solid for a week to prepare for the long miles ahead. I am riding very strong right now, I'm climbing well and have been able to find a groove fairly easily on rides. The problem is that I have not got the real long rides in this year with schedule and crap weather. I have gotten a lot of windy rides in but they have been 25-65 miles in length instead of the 3 or 4 100 milers that I had hoped to achieve up to this point. I can't dwell on that right now because there is nothing that I can do about the past, I can only work towards the future. I am on my first day of antibiotics today with a chest cold and sinus congestion, but that is just an opportunity to rise above the circumstances and not an excuse for poor riding. With DK200 only 10 days away I am hesitant to put too many miles in especially after Saturday, but that shouldn't be a problem because it is a holiday weekend and that just means I won't have any days off anyway. There is a 60% chance of rain tomorrow but I plan to ride anyway at some point in the day. I plan to do a little riding throughout the week and a moderate/solid ride Monday night and then really start to taper off all while building up my caloric intake to build back up gylogen stores and let that spill over to fat stores for the upcoming race.

The DK200 at this point is more of a training race for Lumberjack which is 2 weeks after DK, I hope to ride well but I really hope it will catapoult me toward a very strong Lumberjack this year. I can't be concerned with how I stack up against the competition because there are some real studs riding this year. I was in contact with my team captain (Joe Fox) today and he said he is feeling really fit right now and even with a 4th place finish last year in the DK he said he will be happy with a top 15 finish with the talent that is racing this year. I do hope that there is less wind than last year but I guess I really don't get much say on that. I also hope that I don't have any cattle run out in front of me while cranking down the road like they did twice last year, I was grabbing some serious brakes.....at least I didn't have one headbutt my bike like they did to Damon a couple years ago.

Tire Selection

Tire selection is everything, with so many brands of tires on the market and each brand carrying so many models there are numerous tire choices for any trail type and condition. I'm sure that we are all partial to a certain type of tires because of how it handles and probably prefer not to ride another type due to a bad experience or simply bad publicity. Mountain biking is a pretty tight group and brand recommendation goes a long ways between fellow riders. I tend to prefer Specialized Fast Trak and the Specialized Captains, I also like Kenda Nevegal for some riding and was hoping to get some Kenda Small Block 8's for the Lumberjack, which is less than 4 weeks away.

This past weekend Molly and I rode at the Levee Trail in Lawrence, I was riding my single speed and currently I have a Kenda Nevegal on the rear and a Hutchinson Python in the front. This tire selection ended up being about perfect for this trail, the larger profile rear tire seems to work well in an all rigid situation and the large outer knobs of the tire hooked up great in the tight and twisty single track. The low profile front tire was easy to guide into turns, I found it very similar to the Fast Trak.

I have purchased some Pythons to use for Lumberjack this year, I haven't used them on a rear tire yet but if they are as similar to Fast Trak's as I think then I believe I will really like them.

The Search For Dirt

Since I work more weekend days than weekend days I have off and I tend to race when I can on the weekend days that I do get off my wife could be called a "single mom" on most weekends and pretty much all holidays. I took this past weekend off for a special weekend for my wife, she knew we were going out of town and where we were staying but she didn't know what we would be doing so she was pretty excited. I had the kids all set to stay with my parents and Molly had a Dr. appointment Friday afternoon in Liberty so our weekend started about Noon on Friday.

Before we went to the Dr. appointment we stopped by the Liberty Hy-Vee (one of my previous work locations) to pick up some Royals tickets for that night, my former boss hooked me up with some great seats. So now the first night was no mystery to Molly, she was pretty excited to go to the game. After the Dr. appointment we went and checked into the hotel and then headed for the ballpark. It was a really good game, Royals beat the Rockies 9-2, and there were fireworks after the game......it was a great show. Saturday morning we got up and headed to Lawrence to ride the Levee trails (I guess the bikes in the van was a clue that we might go ride), I knew that if any place was rideable that it would be there as with the sand it drains well with only a few soft spots. We rode out as far as we could but I was pretty sure that when we got to the low areas toward the back of the trail it would probably be unrideable and it was. I was riding Mary so I had my coffee cup bell on my bike and was ringing it often as we back tracked to where we could access the other side of the trail. We had to double back to where we cut across for the River Trail race, there were a few greasy spots on the trip back (I'm sure if you have ridden there before you know the areas that I am referring to, they seem to be soft even when it's dry). It was an easy ride since Molly has only been on trail 3 times now but she had a lot of fun. When we got back to the parking lot we decided to go back out but by ourselves, I was going to do 2 laps at race pace and she was going to do 1 lap at whatever speed she wanted. I took off and was having a blast riding that bike there, that is a perfect single speed course and it was the first time I had ridden Mary there. When I ride my geared bike I ride the whole thing in my big ring but my gearing on Mary was 32 x 18, I was wishing I had 32 x 16 but it was still a blast. Since I had that gearing I was riding as fast as I could go but was not redlining, also when riding into the tight twisty sections I wasn't bogged down if I missed a line and had to brake suddenly. Also the 29er aspect of Mary was great on that course, I only wish I had a computer on that bike......I need more toys!!! I have been fighting a cough for 2 weeks and have been having trouble breathing so that made some of the ride a struggle but I will take any single track time right now.

After our ride we drove back to the hotel and relaxed for a little bit and then headed to Legends, we grabbed a bite for dinner and then I had reserved 2 seats at Stanfords Comedy Club. We were at the 7:45 show and the headliner was Michael Sommerville, he was really funny. The first two comics were not that great, they had some funny material but not great. After the comedy club we grabbed movie tickets to see Robin Hood, that show didn't start until 10 p.m. so by the time we were out of there and back at the hotel it was almost my normal time to get up (well not that close but it was late for me). Molly and I had a great time, it was almost exhausting since we did so much but it was great.

Molly and I have another get away in 2 weeks except I am suppose to ride my cross bike 200 miles on gravel roads and she is suppose to drive to the check points to refuel me, that's close to the same thing.....isn't it???

Speed Vs. Crawl

Since I had been saving my legs for a long ride last Saturday and ended up not riding, my ride Sunday afternoon found me with fresh legs and an eager attitude to go fast. It was a pretty stout wind out of the South but as we all know it is usually blowing some direction this time of year. I went out 190 and up Y and then turned North on A and rode over to U. I was feeling good all the way there, of course I had the wind at my back for a lot of that ride. I turned South on U and headed for 190, this is where the fun began. Well, one persons fun is another persons kick in the crotch. The wind was steady, I prefer steady to gusty, and the long flat sections it was taking it's toll on me. I tried to ride steady without letting the lactic acid build too quickly, I told Molly that I rode the lactic acid bus that night. I decided I could ride more efficient if I was riding in my drops so I made the decision to do so.....but wait, I was already in my drops, Son of a Buck!!! Finally got to 190 and started heading back toward town. My legs were already feeling the burn from pushing hard and riding into the wind. I managed to get back home and complete the 35 mile ride with a 20.5 avg, I was really pleased with my efforts that day.

Yesterday I decided to get a longer ride in since it is too wet to ride trail. I didn't have time to get a real long ride so I did an out and back to Jamesport. The wind was out of the WNW and was pretty strong, most of the ride there was into the wind so my avg was suffering. I felt good but I was not riding fast at all. I went 190 to Y to W to F and into Jamesport. There is a long gradual climb on F and I got a visit from a very eager 4 legged friend. He was showing teeth as he approached, so I yelled at him and that slowed him a bit and then he came in again but this time he was biting at my shoe. I managed to keep my shoe out of his mouth while swerving away from him and he made another attempt in my direction. This time I reached for my bottle to give him a squirt, he must have been given a blast before because I didn't even get the bottle out of the cage before he started hauling a$$ back toward the house. I took 190 for the ride back to town, the first few miles South of Jamesport has cracks every 10-15 yards and they were a little hard on the bike. My speed picked up with the tailwind but still wasn't blazin' fast. My avg was only 18.1 for the 50 mile ride, not real fast but still good saddle time. On a side note, I could have used a little more Chamios Butt'r (just what you wanted to know isn't it? Try and get that image out of your head).

Sometimes Plans Change....Darn it.

I had been limiting my riding this past week to save my legs for today, I planned on getting in some long road miles. My plan was to get up at 5 a.m. and be on the road at 5:45 and start by doing the ride to roads that Coach took me on earlier in the year, this ride was about 65 miles from my house. Then I was going to refill bottles and my gel flask and ride to Jamesport and back, this is a 50 mile ride from my house. Then as long as everything was going well I was going to refill bottles again and ride to Chula and then take K Hwy over to KK Hwy and work my way over to B Hwy and take that into Wheeling and then turn around and ride back, this would be another 60-65 miles. And if I hadn't had enough I was going to try and get the loop in for another 25 miles. I had been so excited for today all week long, in fact I was giving up an opportunity to do a marathon race in St. Joe for the extended saddle time. I had not expected the weather to change like it did at the end of this week. I was watching the weather yesterday and saw the chance of colder temps and wind, normally I would ride in the cold but I have been fighting off a cough for about a week and the last thing I need to do is keep from getting over it. Also riding in the wind for 25-30 miles makes for a great workout but well over 100 miles in wind was not what I was planning on. Maybe I was a wuss, I would like to think I was being smart by not weakening my immune system more. I will say that I was still VERY productive today in regards to biking, not so much fitness but definitely biking. I will fill you in more on that soon, it's still too early to let the cat out of the bag but we are getting closer!!!

The Laws Of Geometry

I have a ton of miles on my road bike vs. my cross bike, they both feel good in their own different way. When I am on my road bike I know how and where to shift my body to power up a climb and it just feels right. When I ride my cross bike on the road I shift into that position and it is totally different. I understand why with the different geometry of the bike but it can be frustrating to have a lack of power when you are really looking for it. Now on the other hand, when I ride my cross bike on gravel or off road it has that "race" feel to it. Depending on the vocabulary you want to use I think my cross bike is "more responsive" than my road bike, or some might say it is "less forgiving". Again, I know this all goes back to the geometry of the design. Maybe teachers should teach a "Cyclocross Theorem" and a "Road Theorem" to students today.....maybe to me!!!