tarzan rides

slober knocker ride.

2012-01-29T18:48:00.000-08:00

Well I've been told to get my self off facebook with my long posts and back to write my blogs. I was always careful to have the blogs proof read by Trish to catch the mistakes. But since I'm going to do this more like a facebook post - you will be on your own to translate what is typed into what I really meant.

Today we had a group of about 20 people meet at lake sylvia to ride the slober knocker race course. The course is a 33 mile gravel grinder with 3330' of climb. Most of the climbing is under 10% but there several sections that kick up to 12%. The weather was perferct - in the mid 50's at start and around 60 at the finish.

The group was schedule to leave out at 12:30, but as is true with most large groups some weren't ready - oh well I left at 12:30 and was chased down by Patrick Emery on his single speed. We cruised around the first section of course which is about 5 miles of flat to downhill. Then we hit the first long climb of the ride which is about 5 miles at 6-8%. On the climb we past Brent who had decided he wasn't up for waiting around either and headed out on his own. Patrick and I pretty much climbed at about the same speed until it got steeper and he had to stand. He literally walked away from me up the mountain. Once we got to the and it levelled off I had to chase him down. Then it was another climb. That was the storyline for the day, watch Patrick climb away from me then chase him down on the flats and downhills.

We got to the last turn on the course about 2 miles before the finish and met Ryan Johnson. He had dropped his wife off for the ride and had been out explore the Wildcat Mt Trail. We stood around at B.S. for about 20 minutes and nobody from the group showed up and it started getting chilly since we were movings so we head down the hill to finish up the ride. When we got to the bottom we waited another 20 minute but nobody still had finished so I headed for home.

Training Summary:
30 Minute Leg Session
2 1/2 hour - 33 mile MTB ride.

People met:
Patrick Emery.

Things Accomplished:
Room booked for Sebring Race February 17th and 18th.
Getting Crew lined up for HOS 500 Race.
Scheduled with Brent to do White Rock Classic next weekend.

Colorado High Country 1200K.

2011-07-18T19:23:00.000-07:00

The Colorado High Country 1200K was my last planned long ride for the year. After DNF'ing the Texas Rando Stampede and DNS'ing RAW because of my crash I needed a good ride to get my mind-set back into the ultra.

Preride training: Two weeks before the start of the CHC I rode the Antlers 400K in Texas which included the Talamena Parkway and 14000' climb. I finished in 16 1/2 hours with a better than 15 mph ride average. During that week I put in a couple more century rides. Then the weekend before the start I rode back to back 200 milers with pretty good climbing, about 14000', for the two days. After that I had 8 days of small rides with the longest being a two 30 milers the Saturday and Sunday before the start.

Prerace Drive: The drive to Colorado was mostly a nice one if you consider 110 degrees crossing KS nice. We drove up to Hays, KS the day before the event and Sara Kay recommended a nice restaurant and a good route for a morning ride on Sunday. The morning ride took me by the Cathedral on the plains which is an impressive building in the middle of Victoria, KS otherwise known as nowhere. After the morning ride we continued on toward Louisville. The Sprinter started acting funny and threw a check engine light. We read the book and kept driving since it seemed to be an emissions problem and we weren't going to be able to get it looked at in the middle of KS on a Sunday. But the light meant that I wouldn't have my support crew for Monday morning because Trish would be at a dealership.

Prerace Festivities: We got to the hotel at around 2:00, checked in and got moved into the hotel just as a big storm cell moved thru with 60mph winds and hail. These storms, and avoiding them, would be a recurring theme for the 1200K. After the storm passed I called Larry Ide to get his current location. Just as I was telling him about the storm - he drove into it and had to drop his phone just to drive thru it. Larry got to the hotel about 15 minutes later and we went to registration together. Then Larry, Trish and I went off for a nice dinner at Outback and early turn-in to get ready for the 4:00am start.

Ride start: What happens when ultra racers have tapered for a week? You get a hammerfest. The ride started out at 4:00am with a front pack of between 12 and 15 riders and we took off at a pretty good clip. This may have been my fault since I was out front alot and would go off the front if the person pulling at the time wasn't keeping a 20+ pace. The pace was fast enough that if JLE hadn't thrown in a secret checkpoint on the ride to the first checkpoint, we would have gotten to the store before it opened.

The climb up Poudre Canyon: I left out from the store first and began my assault on the canyon. I was immediately caught up by the Nebraska Kid and shortly by the Colorado Climber. I give everyone nicknames because I can't remember names too well. Vernon (CC) and Ashton (NK) decide that they want to ride the climb at a more relaxed pace so I continue on alone up the climb. About 5 miles later my friend Larry Ide comes climbing up the canyon with two other riders in tow: The Young Canadian who spoke no English and Wet Warrior who was from Seattle and sported fenders. As we continued up the climb we dropped Wet Warrior so that left Larry and I to chat back and forth all the way to the 2nd stop at Rustic.

We made pretty quick work of the stop at Rustic and I began spinning up the mountain waiting for Larry and Michel Tardiff. After about a mile we were all together and started the harder part of the climb. At the bottom the climb was mostly < 3% with 2000' in 35 miles. From Rustic on we had 3000' to climb in under 26 miles. Larry had been riding real strong up the climb, even sprinting ahead to take a picture of us as we crossed under the tunnel, but after the stop he went into full tourist mode so that left me to follow a very skinny climber to the top. This was good because it made me work to keep him in sight.

Once we reached the top I stopped to put clothing on because it was chilly and the descent was going to be long and fast. Michel didn't stop at the top so away he went. He didn't stay gone for long though. Less than two miles down the descent he was on the side of the road putting on more clothes. That was the last time I rode with anyone for the rest of the 1200k. I was pretty much off the front to Walden which was very uneventful after the descent. As I was checking in at Walden my Sprinter drove up and I had my Trish Bear back as support crew. She said that the Check Engine light went off before she made it to the dealership so they couldn't tell her anything. Just as I was leaving Walden for Saratoga, Michel and Vernon were pulling in.

The next section from Walden to Saratoga was all in the high plains. When crossing the high plains you see mountains all around you and see the road unfold for miles and miles in front of you. Sometimes this can be good and sometimes it can be a little disheartening - especially when you see a descent into a valley followed by a long steep climb back out. The other thing you notice about the high plains is that roads are in pretty bad shape from freeze cracks. Most of the way to Saratoga wasn't bad, but when we turned due west and headed downhill into Riverside I could only muster 15mph. The headwind made me feel like I was suffering from some rare disease that zapped my strength. Once we turned north for the last 20 or so into Saratago, life was better.

I got to Saratoga at 5:45. Trish had everything ready: recovery drink, shower, and beer. She said that my request for pizza had been denied because both of the local pizza places in town were closed on Monday. We walked over to the store and I bought a 12 inches pastrami sub to supplement the soup and sandwiches that the support people had at the hotel. The people at the hotel did a wonderful job. My roommate for the night, the imfamous Larry Ide, rolled in at about 7:00 just as I was getting ready to sleep, so we chatted a little before I could finally rest.

Day 1 Totals: Miles 222.49 Climb: 10,865 On Bike: 13:06 or 17mph Ave.

Day 2 Started out around 1:45 with a great breakfast burrito and some coffee as I made my bike preparations. I left from Saratogo headed toward the Snowy Mountains and the pass 36 miles away. Three other riders had left earlier, a Recumbent and two REAL bikes :-). I caught the real bikes before we made the turn to the Snowy Range, but never could catch up to the recumbent ridden by Chris Kaiser. The climb up the mountains was hard, slow, and cold. At about the 3 hour/30 mile point I was ready to pack it in. I was thinking that as soon as I got to Laramie I was done. Another hour of riding with the sun coming up and the beautiful peaks and lakes at the top of the mountain as well as a great descent down the mountain and I was in a much better mood and ready to ride.

After the major descent you have a long gradual descent all the way to Laramie across the high plains again. I made a stop about 20 miles from Laramie to take off a layer of clothing and discovered why Tim "Foon" Feldman had recommended that you carry bug spray. I was swarmed with mosquitoes and had bites all up and down my legs. Now I was itchy and unhappy but I kept riding and the itching finally went away.

Laramie was a great stop. Trish had setup at McDonalds and had me some breakfast biscuits and coffee and there weren't any bugs. I told her that I felt slow today and asked her when Larry left. She said that she was going to wait for Larry at the stop and see if I was slow or if it was the terrain. Off I went for Walden again.

The ride from Laramie to Walden starts off as an extremely flat 20 where you are riding straight at the mountains. The only thing that broke up my riding southwest was an 8 penny nail that when through the tire and the tube, and then stuck in the rim strip. After a quick tube and tire change I was back on my way toward Woods Landing. They have an historical marker for a Dance Hall at Woods Landing, but it was the wrong time of day to stop off to have a beer and checkout the dancing girls so I began my climb up to Mountain Home. The was the 2nd of 4 climbs for the day. The climb just sort of kept going and going but eventually I popped out on top. The descent to Walden wasn't steep but was long and sweet.

I made Walden at 12:20 and Trish had everything ready to go. We had to grab another tire, tube and inflator for the stash and I was able to grab some left-over pizza from the control. Trish said that Larry took about as long as I did to climb the mountains so I wasn't slow it was just hard. I never did catch Chris on the Recumbent. He had made a wrong turn out of the hotel in the morning :(. I left out of the control headed for Steamboat Springs at about 12:30 and I told Trish that if I could get there before 5:00 we would go on to Kremmling and skip the overnight.

The ride to Steamboat was mostly uneventful for the first 2 hours, but then I got caught in my first rain of the day. It was time to pull out my brand new Showers Pass rain jacket and give it a try. The problem was that it would rain on and off so I would stop, put on the jacket, then it would stop raining. I could never seem to tell where the weather was coming from. By the time I got to the junction with US40 and the climb to the Rabbit Ears passes the rain was behind me and I had a nice climb or two. After the morning's climbs this one was a piece of cake and the ride between the two passes was fast rollers so I was making great time. Then came the 7 mile, 7%, drop to Steamboat. FAST and FASTER.

I got into the hotel at Steamboat at 4:15 and found my friend Kay manning the station. They slapped me together a pannini and out the door I went for my 4th climb pf the day up to Kremmling. Kay gave Trish a briefing on Kremmling about hotels and the like. I DZ'd up and was back on the road headed west toward Oak Creek.

I was a little confused when I looked at the direction on my GPS - it said I was headed west. I was pretty sure that Kremmling was south-east, but I was on the right road. In CO sometimes you have to go 10 miles west to get south east. The first 10 miles toward Oak Creek were relatively flat, which was okay, but I knew that Steamboat Springs was in a hole and that I would be climbing at least another 2500' to get over Gore Pass.

After the first 10 miles the road narrows and the pitch starts to kick up and so did the thunderstorms. The climb up to Oak Creek was very cool because you overlook the railroad as it climbs out but, unlike the railroad, you climb and drop and climb and drop while it just takes this nice gentle climb. All the while it was climbing and dropping it was pouring rain with lightning to make the ride just a little more exciting. As I was entering Oak Creek, I was thinking that I should look for shelter. Then I hit a blue hole. Perfectly clear skies and no rain. So on I went. The rest of the ride down to Topenas was pretty fast, because the strom had brought in a pretty strong wind from the northwest. Along the way is a Giant Domino stuck in the ground, at least thats what it looked like to me as I road by.

The turn at Topenas changed my speed drastically. The gentle climb with a tailwind morphed into a steeper climb with a head to cross wind. Pretty much as soon as you make the turn you start a very significant climb for 5 miles but then it dumps you down in to a very beautiful valley so you get to do most of the climbing again when you actually get to Gore Pass. It was great climbing the pass just before dusk, there were dozens of big deer along the road and almost no traffic. The nice end to my long day was about to change. As I reached the top of Gore Pass at around 8:30 or so the rain started again. All I could think was I did all that climbing and now I have to go slow down the other side. Slow was a realative term. I did get a 9 mile almost unbroken descent at about 30. It was dark and raining so I held way back on the speed. By the time that I hit US40 it was full dark and the rain started to come down hard. So the last 7 miles into town was a killer - I was shaking and chattering and riding as hard as I could to get to town and the hotel.

Trish was on her way out of town to find me so she could show me the route to the motel and caught me about 1 mile before the city. I followed the taillights to a really old 1800's maybe hotel. The main hotel in town was booked up due to some biker event. We got the bike put in the van because the staircases in the hotel were too narrow for me to carry the bike up and then I was up into the room and a hot shower. I think I was under the hot water for 15 minutes. When I came out I crawled under the sheets and just sort of shook for another 15 minutes. Trish had found me some pizza from the bar next door so it was pizza, recovery drink and I don't even think I had a beer I was so cold and tired. Pretty sure I got in around 19:45 and was asleep by 10:30

Day 2 Totals Miles: 264.94 Climb: 15257 On Bike: 17:54

Day 3 - The last day started with a run up to Grand Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. I hit the road around 4:20 in the morning with a cool but dry start to the day. The ride through the gorge with the Colorado River was neat and we kept following the river all the way up to the turn for Hwy 34 and Grand Lake. The road to Grand Lake has a couple of good climbs and is rather picturesque with the Lakes and the sun peeking thru the clouds. Again the ride in the morning felt pretty slow, but I'm guessing it's because it was just one continuous climb. When I got to the Citgo, TBear had some breakfast burritos from a local bakery and I tried them, but my stomach wasn't quite right. Trish said she thought it might have been the pizza since it didn't agree with her either.

Then it was back on the road and headed back to US-40 again around 7:15. The trip back to 40 was much faster, but once I made the turn onto 125 the climbing began again. This was also a very pretty climb all the way to the top. Just windy and not all that steep. I got passed by a girl about 5 miles into the climb and was going to try to chase her, but I had to take off my jacket because it was getting warm. By the time I changed she was too far ahead to catch. Then I saw her again coming back toward me about 5 miles later. About 2 miles before the summit another rider passed me. We rode together for a bit and talked, but I let him go. He was a little fresher that me since he had only been on his bike for about 10 miles. I stopped at the top and talked with him and another guy coming up the other way. They were asking questions about the 1200K and about the storms.

The descent down from the pass was not a continuous decent like some but had lots of oops - you need to climb this ridge so you can go down some more - points. It was kinda pretty until we dumped out onto the high plain and had to deal with broken pavement for the last 20 miles to my 3rd and final Walden stop. The only thing that broke up the monotony of that 20 was another flat. This time I think it was all the thumpa-thumpa of the road. I decided to pull out a new tire and make a complete switch out. Again, in the High Plains the mosquitos are thirsty and if you stop you will be their new watering hole.

I made it into Walden at about 12:15 and talked with Tim Foon Feldman for a moment about his mosquitoes and everything else to do with the brevet as I mentally began calculating how long it would take me to climb back up to the top of Cameron Pass and get my reward of a 60 mile descent. I told Trish that I should be to the top in less than 3 hours and to meet me there, (not for illegal support, just as a meeting place where I should be). So at 12:30 I headed out for the last climb of the brevet.

I made good speed on the way to the base of the mountains, keeping an average of about 16. Once I got past the base of the climb my speed reduced to less than 10 mph. I was beset by a new challenge. Biting Flies. They were really big enough to be called horse flies, but they dogged me all the way up the climb. I would be riding with one hand and swatting flies with the other. The climb went by rather quickly, but I couldn't stop to take in the view with the flies all around. I reached the top around 3:00 where I met Trish and said I should be able to cover the 26 miles to Rustic in an hour - it would be a fast downhill.

The downhill started out fast near the top. As I went to start braking, I found that I had forgotten to the tighten the rear brake after making the tire change. So I was sort of out of control on the descent. I used the front brake and the back brake all the way to the bars to stop, made the adjustment and down the hill I went again. Something was wrong though. I wasn't going as fast as I should be. This is when I discovered, to my dismay, that my 60 mile downhill was into a 15mph headwind. :(.

I got to Rustic in about an hour and 5 minutes and Trish had me a sandwich and gardettos and iced coffee and we even shared an ice cream cone. That was a very relaxing and pleasant stop. Then it was down the mountain into the headwind and on to Vern's. As I descended I watched the kayakers and fishermen and mostly just floated down the mountain with only a little effort to keep the speed up. Sometimes I would look up to see how high the canyon walls were. It was mostly a relaxing trip down the canyon.

When I got to Vern's at around 6:15 I went into the store to buy a chocolate milk and get my card stamped. The guy at the counter before me was talking about the T-Storms that were coming again tonight. I thought, no way - it's perfect blue skies, but in the back of my mind I was like - Okay, time to ride like hell to beat the storms.

I headed out south with a goal of being done by 10 o'clock. As I head south I passed by a Fire truck on the other side of the road that was stopped with a downed biker. It looked like a recreational biker had crashed and there were other bikers around him on comfort bikes. I tried not to think about crashing and kept riding south. Two miles down the road there was a car on the other side of the road with someone just sitting in it. I looked around and saw a herd of big deer and I kept pedaling south. I could see the thunderheads developing as I neared Loveland. I could see what appeared to be two distinct storms cells. I wanted to split them and make it thru so I was cruising at 20+ all the way to Loveland.

Just as I got to the turn on First Street in Loveland the storm really started to get strong so I made a quick u-turn and headed back two blocks to a firehouse that I had seen as I was coming to the corner. There were two people outside as I pulled up. I asked if I could hang around under the overhang while the storm went thru, they said sure and invited me into the firehouse and gave me a bottle of water. They pulled up weather on the computer and we watched the storms for about 20 minutes. Then I got back on the road again and headed south and west and south and west. South was fast, but the turns west were into the wind and slow.

As nightfall approached I could see a storm that seemed to be parked over Louisville. I was 30 miles out, then 20 miles out, and the storm didn't seem to move off to the east. After making the turn onto 95th street you climb up to the top of a hill and have a good view. The lightning was flashing, but still no rain, so I kept pressing on to Louisville. About 1 mile before Louisville the wind direction changed and started blowing into my face. I knew that wasn't good. Just as I got into town around 10:10 the rain started so I made a quick exit to the left and got under cover at the 7-11. Less than 2 minutes later the storm let go with a wicked amount of hail and lightning. I was glad I had made it under cover. To get hailed out less than 5 miles before the end would have sucked hard.

After leaving the 7-11 I crossed Base-Line Road and entered the construction zone. Next you make the turn onto South Boulder and you think - I'm home now. Then I get stopped by a freight train running thru the middle of town at 10:20 at night. So now I'm at the train crossing with all the cars backed up. There is no bike lane and the curb is full of running water. Oh well, the cars will just have to go around me. I hope.

I make it up South Boulder with a turn on A-V way and think now I'm done, right - wrong. The storm has dropped a bunch of tree debris in the bike lane and there is a car right beside me. Well, since I'm writing this, you know that I cleared the debris and kept riding to the finish where Trish met me at the front door and ushered in one very wet and tired puppy.

Day 3 Totals: Miles: 259.07 Climb 10319 On Bike: 16:30

Totals Miles 746.50 Climb: 36,441 On Bike: 47:30 Total 66:40 Riding Average 15.7

Post Ride: To show how much Trish knows me better than I know myselft, the van had a recall on it so she scheduled an appointment for 10:00am on Thrudsay. She knew I was riding this in 3 days before I knew I was riding this in 3 days. After we got the recall on the van fixed, Trish and I had some Mexican food for dinner and we went out to find Larry so I could ride in with him. We caught up with Larry's group about 10 miles outside of the finish and I got a nice easy ride in with Julie, Carl, and Ann. Then Larry and I took off for a loop of the Baseline Reservoir in Boulder.

After the Post Ride ride it was time for the after party. Since, when I ride I generally ride solo, it was nice to get to talk to so many people at the hotel. I talked with George Hiscox from Jackson, TN which is probably the closest rider to where I live and to James Solanick who knows good wheels and tires. Also Micheal, Mark, The Petty's, Ken, Vincent, Hamid, Chris, and many others and some whose name I can't remember. Please find me on FB if you want to chat or keep up - I'm the only Kurt Searvogel on Facebook because my son goes by Allen :-)

I hope everyone that rode has interesting stories to tell even if the event didn't end like you wanted. Enjoy Life and Ride On.

Changing Directions.

2011-05-08T10:15:00.000-07:00

Well I thought this next blog was going to be about Calvins Challenge and the lessons I learned from that race, but a 1" bobble at less than 15 mph changed my trajectory for the moment and for most of the summer.

First I will cover Calvins Challenge by highlighting the 3 things that I relearned at Calvins Challenge. Nutrition, Pace, and Perseverance.

Nutrition isn't a race day or race weekend thing. Its an all week thing. I came into Calvins after a week of eating poorly and drinking too much. Which meant that by race day I was 5 lbs over my target weight. I pretty much did my prerace and race day nutrition exactly as was needed, but carrying that extra weight contributed to my not winning.

I went into Calvins Challenge with a goal of winning the Race and setting the course record which meant keeping an average of better than 22 mph. I knew that we needed to keep pushing the pace and get the first lap in around 2:10 and follow with it with laps of around 2:15, 2:20, 2:25 if we were going to have a chance. We hit the target on the first lap of 2:09, but we had too few workers and too many riders. I pushed myself too much during that section and the next 15 miles of the 2nd lap so that when the HPV came around us and started pulling into the wind at 21 I could no longer hold with the group. So, persuing my time goal guaranteed I would not win the race. This should have been learned from my experience at Sebring but I'm evidently a slow learner.

I also relearned that perseverance pays. I went off the back at 68 miles into the race which left a pack of an HPV, 2 bents and 3 diamond frames in front. I knew that I could no longer win the race, but I also knew that I was probably the strongest person riding on the course (J.S and Bryce probably don't agree) and that if I kept pushing I would come back. I did keep pushing into the ugly head wind and was able to come back to finish ahead of everyone except John Schlitter and Bryce Walsh - HPV's don't count :).

After a long trip back from Ohio that involved 12 hours of driving through storms, changing flats and watching lots of flood waters, I was ready to get back to my training and nutrition plan and put into practice what I had learned and resolved to do.

Tuesday was my day to swim in the morning and do an upperbody workout in the afternoon with my son, Allen. We finished up the lifting session and went out for an easy spin on our bikes along with Ralph. We rode out to Hurricane Creek to check out how flooded everything was and were on our way back to the house. We played bike tag and were generally messing around as we rode.

I had ridden up to Allen and we were talking when suddenly we were too close. Not a problem. I had taught Allen how to ride shoulder to shoulder on MTB's. Problem - we weren't on MTB's. Allen was on his road bike in the areo bars and I was on my bike-polo bike with supper narrow bars. I'm not sure exactly what happened, just remember my bike stopping and me flying.

Being an ex-wrestler and MTB'er, I've become very good at rolling thru crashes - this is probably the reason I don't have a broken collar bone right now. What I do have is a messed up shoulder.

I was able to get out and do a century ride on Friday and keep my streak of at least 1 double a week alive on Saturday, so the pain is something I can ride with, but it has caused me to make some changes in my plans for the summer. All of which will probably lead to a much happier and stress free me.

I have decided to remove RAW from my competition plans. I'm going to need to modify my training plans to take into consideration rehab time for the shoulder. If I'm not training to win the race, I'm not going to spend the $5,000+ plus it takes, plus jump thru all of the hoops that Raw requires just to ride 800 miles. I can do that for next to free any time I want.

When you combine that with the fact that Allen, my 13 year old, wants to go hiking the Rockies this summer you can see where I would much rather allocate my time.

Not training for RAW will also allow me to do Texas Rando Stampede as a much more leisurely and laid back ride. I think these changes will make life much more enjoyable for both Trish and I.

Happy Mother's Day, Trisha Bear.

Heart of the South 200 - Take 2.

2011-04-05T03:56:00.000-07:00

Last year I raced the Heart of the South 200 and finished 2nd with a time of 10:46. I had finished 11 minutes behind Ed Walker, who had won the race the year earlier and held the course record at 10:24. I had led that race to the 150 mile point when I flatted. I flatted a second time, which made up most of the difference in the race. This year I was returning with two goals: to win and to set the course record.

As fate would have it, I ran into Ed at race registration and he asked, "Aren't you the guy that finished 2nd last year?" - My snarky reply was, "Yep, but I won't finish 2nd this year. I'll win". Guess that sort of set the tone for the race the next morning.

The Heart Of South 200 begins with a nice 2 mile downhill then a quick pop of a climb - I ran the climb and Ed and his friend Matt Murrell were the only ones to come with me so after 2 miles it turned into a 3 person race.

I set the pace for the first 70 miles of the race, doing most of the pulling - I would pull for 4 miles then rest for a mile with Ed pulling and occasionally Matt would take a pull, but we pretty much rode as a group. At mile 70 we had a little climb into Jacksonville. Ed turned the corner just before a truck and that put the truck between me and Matt. This was a problem because we got stuck behind the truck at a stop sign and Ed was able to put some distance between us.

I went into chase mode coming out of Jacksonville for the next 20 miles. I didn't see Ed for about 30 minutes, but finally caught sight of him as he was topping the climb out of the hollow. Then he was gone again until the flats leading to the Pac and Sak at CP 2. I passed Ed just as he stopped to refuel, but my stop was another 2 miles down the road at the bottom of the climbs, and Ed went by me as I got bottles and food.

I chased Ed up the first mountain climb and was gaining. As we got to the first top, I rode by him as he stopped to blow chunks. I thought, cool I can back off now because he's done. Wrong. Less than 2 miles down the road he came back around me and the battle was joined again. We suffered together for the next 8 miles riding up multiple long 20% grade climbs. Somewhere around mile 110 we hit a downhill with a quick climb out the other side that I was able to run up and put a gap on him. That was the last time we were together, but not the last time that he kept me pushing hard.

During the 3 mile climb to Cheaha, the highest point in Alabama, I thought I saw him behind me again, so I kicked it a little harder. I knew if he caught me he could ride my wheel, but if he didn't he couldn't catch me on the flats. So I pushed over the top of the mountain with a 2 minute or so lead.

After Cheaha, you have a long descent toward Talladega where the last official stop was. At the rest stop I was 3 minutes up. Trisha, my super excellent support crew, caught up to me about 10 miles past Talladega and said that Ed was 3 minutes back as of the Walmart in Talladega. I decided to kick it up a gear and had her wait and give me a status report. He had dropped to 4 minutes back. So I had her wait again and he had dropped to 9 minutes back.

I kept pushing hard through the last two ridge climbs and had Trish wait again at the top, about 20 miles from the end, to see how far back Ed had dropped. As I was riding in to the finish, the race support crew of Tanya and Josh came by me and told me that race record was 10:24 and that I should be able to beat it easily if I kept my pace. I stepped it up a little more.

Trish caught up to me about 5 miles from the finish and said Ed was 15 back as of the Top of the Ridge so I stopped pushing so hard. I knew I had the record and that Ed wasn't going to catch me. I cruised in with a 10:08 finish for the 197 miles and 12000' climb and set the new course record with a 19.4 average speed. I was off the bike for less than 4 minutes the entire race, which included stops and lights so obviously my crew did a great job!

Ed came in at 10:22 so he had ridden a personal best for the course, beating his record from 2 years ago and Matt finished in 10:29.

CREW notes:
Kurt said I'm supposed to write about the crew exploits. In this case, me, myself, and I were the crew. First you must understand that I have absolutely NO sense of direction. Please bear this in mind while reading the post as it has a definite bearing on the performance of my duties.
I got up at 3am. This is extraordinary in and of itself. I never knew for sure that the world actually existed at this time of morning. I had previously just taken it on faith. After I saw the racers off, I plugged in the computer and began charging Kurt's ipod so he could use it later in the race. Then I set off to gas up the van and catch up to Kurt. I took off in the wrong direction and turned around about 5 miles down the road. I backtracked and tried again. I finally caught up to the end of the racers and started the slow process of passing them. I found a station with diesel and started refueling while I went inside to get some coffee. I got stuck behind a person who was paying with nickels and dimes. Argh! Finally got back outside and realised that I had the slowest pump ever. The pump had only put in 4 gallons of gas. I gave up, got in the van, and set off again. Yep, I was at the end of the line again. Pass, pass, pass. I went by a group of 4 with one of them in black and white and thought, "Yay, I finally caught up with him". I went another 3 miles down the road, parked, and waited with a bottle. It wasn't him. Back in the van again and pass, pass, pass. I get to the first CP and 2 guys are there in black & white. They see me and start waving me on down the road. Still not Kurt. I finally catch up to him, go down the road a few miles and set up for a full restock. Everything goes well and I start patting myself on the back as I put the supplies away. This is when I slip in the gravel and do a belly flop in the parking lot of the church. It's no fair to hurt yourself at a church because you just can't say all the things you're thinking!

Okay, now all the bad stuff is out of the way and it will be smooth sailing. I mean, I finally found Kurt so it was all good, right? The oil light comes on. Oh, boy. I am about as good with vehicles as I am with directions. I am fairly certain, however, that this is not a good thing. I begin leapfrogging and turn the motor off while I wait. Eureka! The light didn't come back on. Life is good again.

We make it to the top of the mountain and I am quite brave and turn around and go to Talladega via real highways. Or maybe it wasn't bravery but cowardice. Last year I drove the road the racers were going down and it scared me witless. Uh, uh, no way was I going down those roads if there was an alternative.

Relief! I made it to the Walmart before Kurt. I also made it there before anyone from the race did either. This was a bit problematic because I had a drop bag from Peggy that I needed to leave there with the race people. Kurt left completely restocked and Ed came by about 3 minutes later. Tanya and Josh, part of the HOS crew, drove in just as I was looking up the number for the race HQ to find out what to do with the bag. Yay! Now I can go back to following my favorite biker. A plug here for Tanya and Josh. They were absolutely great. They were always willing to go the extra mile for any of the racers or crew members. Thanks!!

The rest of the race was fairly routine leapfrogging. Go ahead 2 miles on climbs or 3 to 4 miles in relatively flat areas, get out and stand by the road to be able to hear Kurt tell me what he needs, if anything. Or stand by the road with a bottle in hand and retrieve/refill the one he slings toward me. The entire time I'm driving I'm watching the road like a madwoman for the little white arrows telling me when I need to turn. Remember, it's the directionally challenged person driving here.
The last stop I make is at a little, abandoned, I thought, gas station. There is a hand-made sign stapled to the light pole saying they buy junk cars. Lovely. I make a hand-off and Kurt tells me to wait for Ed so he knows how close Ed is to him. A few minutes later a really old and rusted truck pulls up. A guy that would be an excellent advertisement for a hill-billy, complete with spit cup, climbs out and goes into the store. Eek! Guess it's not abandoned, it just looks like it. I exercise fortitude and wait for almost 15 minutes. I decided that was long enough and start to get into the van when Ed comes by. He says he is okay, just tired and I go into zoom, zoom mode trying to get past Kurt to the finish line.

I make it to finish in time to hear a lady asking directions from Tanya. She is supposed to meet her husband 25 miles from the finish to give him supplies. She then tells about missing him on one of their agreed upon stops because she saw a sign for fresh strawberries and went to buy some. Her husband went by and she can't find him again so she is going to drive the route backwards. I feel better about all the snafu's during the day after hearing that one.

Woo-hoo! Kurt makes it in 10:08. Ed comes in faster than his previous best and Matt, Ed's teammate, does really well too. It's a good day.

Tarzan Trains.

2011-03-29T07:52:00.001-07:00

After completing the Texas Hill Country 600K it was time for me to do two solid weeks of training at Texas Hell Week and PAC Tours Century Week. My goal was to put in 600+ miles in 5 days at Hell Week - drive to Arizona and put in 700+ miles in 6 days at Century Week.

I had been recruited by George Thomas to drive Marko back to Fredricksburg with me on Sunday night after awards presentation for THC. We made it back to Fred somewhere around 8 pm. I dropped him off and headed to the Sunset hotel to meet my new roommate, Greg Gross.

Hell week rides.
Monday started off with what Marko and I were calling our recovery 200k. It was a 130 mile ride with lots of climbing. I think we finished in around 7 hours - not a super speedy ride but a good day on the bike.

Tuesday was going to be a 1/2 recovery day. I started out fast, playing the rabbit. Marko and Tom Rodgers rode me down about 10 miles outside of town. We rode together for the next 20 miles until Sisterdale where we turned for Kendalia. I had hated this road in the middle of the night on Saturday and hated it again as I chased Marko and Tom up and down for 15 miles. When we hit Kendalia I decided the rest of the day was a recovery ride. 100 miles

Wednesday was the Comfort Ride with the steepest climbs of the week. Marko and I rode pretty steady and fast for most of the ride with Marko climbing away from me on the big climbs on Sky Line Drive. We had ridden down to Comfort into the wind so once we got back to Old San Antonio Road we were able to fly north and fly we did, doing multiple 5-10 minute TT's at 35-40. 100 miles.

Thursday's ride was the whole enchilada. It took us down to Luckenback then up thru Willow and down this fantastic scenic descent. The only problem with the descent was that we now had a 1000 feet of climb into a head wind to get home. I had started the day with Marko and Tom, but after the descent I went into recovery ride mode to get ready for Friday's double. 100 miles.

Friday is 300K which is actually 201 miles with about 9000' climb. Last year I had done the route in 12:09 to set the course record. This year I was riding with Marko so I hoped to better it. The ride started out in the dark at 6 am, which meant that Marko followed me for the first 25 miles, because his light was useless (only met the specs for night riding with follow vehicle). Once it got light Marko and I worked together to the first stop about 5 minutes ahead of last years rate. From CP 1 we had to head south to CP 2 with some climbing so Marko and I rode our own paces and met at the CP. We were about 15 minutes up on last years time. This was pretty much the case back to CP1 which was also CP 3 for the route. I caught up after some flats and we rode a little together then we hit a large climb and Marko was off again. We were about 25 minutes ahead when we left CP3. Marco stayed out in front of me for the rest of the ride, leaving the CP's as I was coming in. I beat my time by 40 minutes, but Marco came in 10 minutes ahead of me.

The Roommate:
I got my room for Hell Week from Dan Driscoll, who couldn't use it because of conflicts. The room was a double queen room so I posted on the LSR website that I needed a roommate. Greg, who I didn't know before, said that his roommate had bailed and he would be intersted. He was doing the 200 mile THC and so we met there and then drove down to Fred. I got very lucky. Greg is easy going and knew lots of the people that I knew. He also helped me program my Garmin so I could use preset courses and didn't need the cue sheets.

The Routine.
Pretty much every day I get up, do my yoga and head out the door for my ride. Then once Greg got in, I would drive us over to Marko's and we would go in search of food. We ended up with some pretty good meals at the Rathskeller, Andy's Steak and Seafood Grill, Fredricksbug Pizza and the best was the Cotton Gin Village - go there if you are in Fredricksburg. We also stopped by the Fredricksburg Brewing Company.

Overview.
Hellweek was great. I had a great roommate, a great training partner, and great food all the while getting in over 640 miles in 5 days.

I woke up at 4:00am on Saturday for an 11+ hour drive to Tucson to start my next week of training. Got in just before 2:00 MST and began the process of getting ready for 6 days of century rides and trying to figure out when to do my double for the week. I had moved everything into one Pac Tours bag, one supplies box and my computer bag from the haphazardly packed van. After an hour I was organized and ready to go. I met lots of old friends at the rider's meeting, then it was off to dinner with my new roommate, Stuart Levy, Terry Gooch and her daughter Amelia. We went to Morgans, which had changed its menu to just bar food. Disappointment.

PAC Tour Rides.
The Sunday ride down to Sierra Vista from Tucson was a harbinger of things to come. We started off the morning into an unfriendly head wind for the climb up to Sierra Vista. I rode for most of the morning with Mark Mandel who is training for a perimeter ride around AZ. We skipped the first stop and met Susan at the 2nd stop and found out we were way off the front. So we decided to add 20 miles before heading to lunch. After lunch I decided to ride the last 30 into SV alone.

Monday was the wind day from Hell. When we got on the bikes at 7:30 the wind was blowing from the south at 35 gusting to 50. Many riders, including my roomie Stuart, opted out of riding. I rode the first 15 with Mark and John, but they decided to do the short route while I turned and did the climb to the Coranado Monument. Then it was on to Bisbee, where I missed the lunch truck, then over to Tucson and finally back to Seirra Vista. It took me 7+ hours riding time to do just over 100 miles.

Tuesday was a great day to ride. We headed north, mostly downhill, into a slight head wind toward Benson. I saw a shadow jump on my wheel just after the stoplight in SV, so I kept bumping up my speed to see if they would hang. Started out at 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 - so I let up to see that Jay Torburg had jumped on my wheel. Jay and I had spent the better part of two weeks following each other around in Alaska back in 2006. Jay said that was all he had so I continued on down the road with a goal to not let anyone or any group catch me. Out of SV to Benson I rode to the 2nd Stop and turned around to meet the next riders and rode back with them into the Sag. I was about 4 miles up. Out of the Sag I took off chasing Joe Webster and caught him about 3 miles down the road. Joe and I stayed together for about 10 miles but he dropped off on a climb so I continued on to Tombstone alone. I got to Tombstone about 15 minutes before lunch was scheduled to open so I rode past the town for two miles then came back to lunch. I now was 8 miles up for the ride so I wouldn't have to look for extra miles when I got back to SV. Joe left lunch with me and we rode pretty much up to the Bisbee turn off together. Not sure exactly when he went off the back, but I finished up the day in 4:55 for just over 100.

Lon had convinced me to do my double century on Wednesday, because of how lunch was going to be done. We would leave on the exact same route as the rest of the group but extend our turn around point to Nogales which would give us an extra 40 miles, but we would still be back in time to make lunch. Then after lunch we turned north and did the Tuesday route to get us 203 miles. Mark said he'd go with me, but I had to not drop him out on the route. That didn't turn out to be much of a problem. Mark was able to suck wheel great and get out and pull some too. The ride started out slow going across the fort and we were only averaging 16 for the first 2 hours thru the hills. By the time we had hit lunch at 107 miles we had the average up to 18 and had pushed it over 19 by the time we hit Benson. The winds caught up to us as we started to climb into Tucson and it was a struggle to keep the average at 18.6 for the whole ride. We were able to meet our goals of a sub 11 ride time and no more than 30 minutes off the bike.

Thursday was a recovery ride with my roommate Stuart. He said he'd buy me a cookie if I pulled him around for the day. I thought that was a pretty good deal, so we headed out at a pretty brisk pace towards Bisbee. We rode together to Mule Pass, then we climbed the pass at our own pace. On the climb I passed by Megan and caught David at the turn, where we waited for Megan and Stuart. We then climbed up over the pass and down to Bisbee for coffee and my cookie. After relaxing in the sun for awhile, Stuart, Joe and I took off on a screaming downhill section. Stuart and I did some serious sling shot drafting pulls down the hill while Joe decided to ride behind us because we were just a little too crazy for his liking. We waited for Joe at the turn and rode the next 20 miles into the rest stop together. There we met up with Mark and John and headed off together. I went off the front to do an interval and part of the group chased, so I went back and picked up Stuart who didn't chase and we rode most of the route to Tombstone. About 3 miles outside of Tombstone, Stuart said he wanted to ride easy into lunch so I took off for another TT into lunch. After lunch Stuart and I rode back to Moson road where I detoured off the route to get my 100+ in for the day.

Friday was the ride back from Sierra Vista to Tucson. Since the route was only 80 miles I decided to go thru the Fort and turn south and do the ride to Parker Canyon Lake. Riding thru the fort is a pretty good climb with 1500' in the 20 miles, but the climb to Parker Canyon is another 11 miles with 1200' climb. The climb consists of about 800 feet of almost steady climb up a ridge line with great vistas for 6 miles. Then 4 miles of going up and down and up and down until you get to the lake. The views and the ride were well worth the climb. The ride to the lake added another degree of difficulty to the ride, because as I was going the wrong way the wind was shifting so that the rest of my ride was going to be into a north west wind. I made it to lunch just as they were closing up the lunch wagon. It was still 15 minutes before closing so they made me a great big ham sandwitch and I was on my way again. I finished up the last 15 miles of ride pulling Terri Gooch into the finish.

The Roommate.
My roommate for this tour was Stuart Levy. Stuart is an all around great guy and great roommate. Stuart used to be an ultra racer like myself until lyme disease sidelined him and now he is dealing with RA. He is working himself back into shape. Stuart and I had never met before, but we had 15+ facebook friends in common, so we had lots of common groups to deal with. Stuart also bought me a cookie, washed my jersey's on Monday when he didn't ride, and donated 1/2 hour massage time on Monday since he didn't ride.

PAC Tour Meals.
When I ride I'm there to ride - so meal time and the time by the pool are more important social events than the rides. The first night at Morgans had been a good chance to get to know my roommate Stuart and Terri Gooch and Amelia, which carried over into Sunday afternoon at the pool, where I became Amelia's new best friend. The pool was too cold for any serious swimming and the hot tub was just ok - so I didn't spend much time there this year.

Sunday night dinner was at Texas Roadhouse. Stuart and I were headed out and we picked up Stuart's friend David Solomen and David's Friend Megan Mebberson and started the trek. On the way out we picked up Veronica Beagan, Susan Reed, Mark Mandel and Mark's roommate Glen. We picked out our Ribeyes on the way into the restaurant and headed for a big table. It turned out to be a great meal with lots of good conversation and Lone Star Dark Beer.

Monday night was Applebees. I was on my own Monday night, because Stuart was off visiting a friend that had crashed his bike the day before. I went to Applebees to get their 2 for 20 special with an appetizer and two entrees for $20 and to drink me some Blue Moon. As I was waiting for my food I slid back in my booth and noticed that Mark and John were in the Booth next to me and David and Megan were in the Booth behind them. When my food came, David said that I couldn't eat alone and grabbed one of my plates and I grabbed the other and my beer and jumped tables. David and Megan are Aussie's and I enjoyed their company immensely. I especially like their straight forward manner. David and Megan had done a Tequilla shot and asked me if I wanted to join them. About 3 shots later David said he was done for the night.

Tuesday night was My Big Fat Greek Restaurant and I had two Gyro Dinners, one with a Salad and one with Fries. I was preloading for Wednesday's big ride. Good Restaurant for a chain.

Wednesday night Mark and I headed accross the street to celebrate the 200 miler with some pizza and beer at Vinny's. I definitely recommend Vinny's Pizza.

Thurday after the ride I had a meeting with Jay Torburg, who is the GM of Bike Tires Direct, about sponsoring me for the 2011 Ultra Race season and for RAAM Quest 2012. Jay offered me a great deal and is also trying to get me setup with a wheel sponsor (to be named later).

After the meeting I headed back to the Texas Roadhouse with Stuart, David, Megan, Jay and his roommate. Again we picked out some awesome steaks as we entered, then proceeded to have a great dinner. Warning - if you are looking for a good wine, don't go to Texas Roadhouse. Since Stuart has RA he is on a gluten free diet and can't have beer so I tried to buy him a bottle of wine and Jay also bought a bottle of wine. Neither were overly impressive. Good people, good food, and a shot of tequilla made for a great evening.

The last supper was at ?????? Grill with Stuart, David and Megan. David ordered a bottle of champagne. I had a taste and said I would stick with a red wine. The food was ok, but it was a great night because of the people I was with.

Lastly, I want to give a shout out to: Micheal Kantner for loaning me a spare tire to carry with me on the 200, friends Robin and Gerhard, Lon and Susan, crew Doug and Susie Slack, and Gladys. There were many others I met in AZ, but I'm horrible with names - it was great time.

The last piece of training was a 1300 mile, 17 hour drive home with no more than 30 minutes of break time. Just like doing a long race.

Best of all: two weeks of eating and drinking anything I wanted and I didn't gain a pound. Just think how much I could have lost if I would have stuck to my diet.
2nd Best: I met my training goals with 375 miles in the race 640 miles at Hell Week and 720 miles at Century Week. Time to taper for HOS 200 on Saturday.

Texas Hill Country 600k

2011-03-17T05:05:00.000-07:00

We started out for the Texas Hill Country 600K on Thursday afternoon by driving to Shreveport. I drove my minivan because I was heading to Hell Week after the race. Trish and Ralph drove the Race RV and Katelyn drove her car because she needed to return ro Natchitoches after the race. I got down to Shreveport about 5 and put in some speed work on the river trail then met my crew at the Horseshoe Casino.

Trish was just checking us in when I got there, so we headed to the room to unpack and then to the buffet for some dinner. After dinner I gave my crew each $100 to go play with, so Big Ralph and Trisha headed off to the casino while Katy and I headed up to the room to catch some AI results for Trish.

After about an hour I went back down to the casino and found Trish. She had made over $200 on video poker so I made her buy me a drink at the Crossroads bar. The band was loud and just ok - so I went back to the room and she headed back to the casino. Ralph got up to the room not much after me and he had also been very successful and pocketed over $1000.

We were up early Friday morning, and after a quick stop at I-Hop down the road we were off. I drove with Trish in the minivan and Ralph and Katy were in the Race RV. After about 3 hours we switched vehicles and drivers. This time Katy is driving the lead vehicle and we come to a point where we turn west and Katy doesn't make the turn. I call and talk to Ralph and he said the GPS in the van says go straight. I told them ok, keep following the GPS. But I was a little worried. I have Internet in the RV so I got on Google maps and could not figure out why their GPS was taking them to College Station, so I called back and asked them where the next turn was. They said the GPS didn't have a next turn. Rut-Roh - the GPS was just on map viewer and not headed anywhere. They were now 30 minutes down the road in the wrong direction.

Plan B - Instead of all of us heading to the hotel - Trisha and I diverted to the race course and drove the last 35 miles from Kendalia back to the Tri-shop (race start/finish) while Ralph and Katy navigated to the hotel.

We finally got back together around 4 and headed to an early dinner at the Outback Steak house, wjere I ate one of my standard prerace meals: Rack of Lamb with Garlic mashed potatos, loads of bread and topped it off with an excellent dessert. Then over to the Tri Shop for the pre race briefing. We got our race numbers and some instruction and then back to hotel we went.

Rise and Shine at 4:30, at least for Ralph and I in the Guys Room. A nice yoga session, breakfast, bike loading, 2nd breakfast and we were on the road to the start by 6:10.

I finally get to the race after a page of previews - what type of write up is this? I'm guessing it is my type of write up, because the race is about the before and after as well as the during. Now for the Race details.

We started out with a neutral roll out at 7:00 - George led us out and onto the main hwy to head out of Helotes. Once on the main highway I went to the front of the group to sort of move the nuetral roll along at a faster pace to keep warm. Bryan M on the B-Bike rolled up and we chatted until the go Line.

Someone always needs to be the race rabbit and I like the job so I got the race started out right, by taking off up the first slight incline and into the rollers. I was doing a good job of pushing the pace for the first 5 miles or so until we caught a steeper grade. This is when Chris, Marko, and Bryce all rode by me. Once we top the hill - we had a nice downhill section and I rode back to the front of the pack. This went on for a couple of more hilly sections, but finally Chris and Marko established a good lead and with the aid of stoplights were able to clear Bryce and I. There was a third rider that was with us for a couple of miles on a tri bike with aero helment, but I didn't know him and didn't see him after the first 20.

As we were leaving Banderas I got caught at a light and Bryce timed it right and rode thru as it turned green. So I played follow-the-Bryce for the next 50 miles or so all the way thru Vanderpool and most of the way to Leaky. I caught him on a climb into town and that was the last time I saw Bryce during the Race. After Leaky we still had some big climbs to Camp Wood then we turned north with the tailwind toward Rock Springs.

In Rock Springs my crew told me I was only 5 minutes behind Chris, which I thought was amazing because I had figured he and Marko were up the road a good ways. With the tailwind behind me - I started my serious chase to catch Chris and hopefully Marko. It took me all the way to Junction to catch Chris and it didn't last for long. I had a planned 2 minute stop at hour 9 which ended up being a few miles past Junction.

My crew did their stuff while I did mine and I was back on the bike and chasing again. This time it only took me 15 minutes to catch back up and this time I rode with Chris for a minute as passing him to see if he knew how far ahead Marko was. He said about 15 minutes so I set off to chase Marko and Chris decided to use me as a pace dog.

After the race Chris said he would watch me ride away on the downhill and flats then catch me back on the climb on the other side of the valleys. Typical - picking on the big guy that can't climb.

This kept on until Mason when we actually saw Marko's Crew who had waited for us so they could let Marko know how close we were. I think that was the closest we had gotten to Marko - we were 11 hours into the race averaging 21 miles per hour with over 10,000 climb done and we were still about 12 minutes back.

We pushed on to Llano with Chris following close behind. I didn't know how close he was until I stopped at 6:45 for lights and I came out of the van and he and his support crew were doing the exact same thing 50 feet behind me. Time to get a move on. We powered into Llano and made the turn South and into a very stiff head wind.

This is when Chris decided to say goodbye. He passed me and we never saw anything but taillights on the climb uphill and into the wind to Fredricksburg. I made an unscheduled stop because it felt like I wasn't getting anywhere. That's when Katy piped up - don't worry Dad - it's not you - it's just uphill all the way to Fredericksburg. Ok, that was great news. I'm back on the bike and grinding to Fred.

Once we popped up on 87 the wind was more of a quatering headwind and I think most of the climb was over so we made our 15 hours stop (we had planned stops every 3 hours). The next part of the ride was fairly uneventful with the ride down to Sisterdale not being too bad. Then we hit my own personal "I don't like this" moment. From Sisterdale to Kendalia is big roller country - you are either going up a hill or down a hill and not little hills and they just keep coming at you. I had to just stop about half way thru and take a 2 minute time out to drink some pedialyte. It think is was probably near my 18 break anyway.

After Kendalia we got on a back country road that I liked and had predriven. As we were riding toward San Antonio you could see a red orange glow in the distance. I was thinking city lights but as we got close we found a grass/forest fire on the course. The firemen were cool and waved us thru, but it was a quite a sight at 2 in the morning or somewhere around there. Sort of lost track of time.

The major problem at Kendalia was that we turned south again into the wind. You get kinda disheartened when your crusing speed has dropped from 20+ to 15-18 to 12-15. About 20 miles from the finish there is a school with a big wide shoulder and I decided to just stop. This is when my wife got out and played crew chief all over my ass. It went something like this.

Trish - What do you need?
Me - Just to Rest.
Trish - You can't stop to just rest. If don't need something you have to keep going.
Me - Ok give me an iced coffe.
Trish - 10 seconds later - Here's the coffee.
Me - Two Chugs later - handed Trish the coffee and down the road I went to the finish.

Finish Time was 20:25 and 3rd place. A race handicapper who shall go unnamed told me I'd do 22 and finish in 4th. I knew that he was predicting both Marko and Chris would beat me but he didn't tell me if he thought Bryce or Thomas would be 3rd.

This is not the end of the story. We return to the hotel and crash. Somewhere in the next 1-2 hours some dumb ass sets the fire alarm off in the hotel. I can attest to the fact that the fire alarm is loud and obnoxious.

That's the end of this tale. Stay tuned for Texas Hell Week.

A short Bio.

2011-02-27T13:56:00.000-08:00

I was asked to write a short bio for a race I was entering. The first copy I emailed the race director wasn't even proofed, but after writing it I thought that it would make an interesting Blog Post.

Enclosed are the highlights of my 48 years on Earth as they apply to ultra racing. They are almost in chronological order although some are continuous and can't be put at any one place on the list.

1st - I was a Paper Boy back in Waupun, WI. I believe every great ultra racer starts as a paperboy in the North. Riding your bike everyday in all types of weather is a good beginning for a 12-15 year kid. It kinda makes you tough.

2nd - I was a wrestler. As a sport, wrestling is probably the most demanding. I was also a very determined wrestler, placing 2nd in the WI High School State Championship and winning the AAU Championship in 1981. This was at a weight of 155 lbs. This is the same weight of many of my current ultra racing competitors. I grew up in college and was a Division 3 All American at 177 lbs. A weight I still wish I was. Most ultra athletes were involved in some sort of athletics before moving to long distance.

3rd – I was a soldier and a Military Officer – My short and varied military career began in 1982. I ran out of mony to go to college after my freshman year so I signed up for ROTC. However, it was so late in the year that all of the Army Boot Camps were full. My only recourse was Marine Corps Boot. MCRD San Diego will kinda change your mind set. I completed Marine Boot and was transferred into the National Guard where I was commissioned after two years. Officer Basic Course also had an impact on my life. It led to my relocation to Arkansas and taught me the very important saying, "What, are they going to do take away your birthday?". Once you understand that concept you free yourself.

4th - I am the first Computer Science major from Ripon College. It took me 6 years with a couple of semesters in other places as I made enough money to finish up, but I was the first Computer Science major at the Liberal Arts School. I wrote the major, and I think they wanted me to leave so much that they let me count any class I took toward the major.

5th – I am the owner of Applied Computer Solutions, Inc. Building a company into a very successful and profitable venture requires the ability to plan and execute as well as learning that recurring revenues are much more important than one-time sales. Owning the company also provides the needed income that is required to travel all over the USA to compete in ultracycling events.

6th – I am married to Trish. Trish is what keeps me going in the right direction. If you have met Trish, then you already understand. If you haven't, then when you do meet her you will understand.

7th – I am the father of three kids. Katelyn, Rachel and Allen. The girls are high school senior and crew members. My son Allen is 13 and is my weight lift and yoga buddy as well as my spin riding buddy. Raising kids teaches you patience and, in my case, it brought me back from being a workaholic business owner that was 60 lbs overweight to being the inner competitor that I am. About 10 years ago my daughters wanted to play soccer and they needed a coach. It got me off my ass and turned me into a coach and an adult soccer player. Next, they wanted to do a kids tri which got me into triathlons and mountain biking.

8th – I decided to become a Mtn Bike Champion. The year I did my first Tri I also did a MTB Race as a Clydesdale. It hurt bad. It was on the hilliest course in Arkansas and I almost walked away. Instead, I set my goal for the following year on becoming the AMBCS Clydesdale Champion. To do this, I built a training plan that included attending PAC tours coaching week. That year I went on to win most of the races in the Clydesdale division and win the champsionship. I've met many great people and learned lots in MTB Racing. I’ve continued to race MTB’s over the years and even won my first Cat 1 Race in ‘09.

9th – I am the 2007 USAT Long Course National Champion in the old fat man (clydesdale masters) category. I had done a number of tris in 2005 and in 2006 I set my goal as completing IM Wisconsion. 2007 was my year to train for 30 days with PAC tours on the northern Transcontinental in preparation for Nationals. Triathlon has taught me balance in my training. This now includes swimming, yoga, weight lifting and, of course, cycling. I’ve had toe and ankle injuries that have really curtailed my running, but hopefully after surgery last year my toe will heal enough for me to start running again and make a run at a National Championship in the 50-54 age group.

10 – I am a PAC Tours veteran with almost 10,000 miles with Lon and Susan. I’ve done numerous desert camps, Alaska which was summer prep for IM Wisconsin, and a Northern Transcontinental which was my summer training for USAT Championships. Living in Arkansas isn’t great for cycling in the summer so I like to join PAC when I can for a summer outing.

11. I am the 2010 Ultra Cup Champion. An epic fail at the 2009 Tejas 500 showed me that I was a great 12 hour racer. So in 2010 I decided to see how good I could be competing at that type of race. I raced Sebring, HOS, Calvins, Balltown, Saratoga, Metamora and Ultra Midwest. I finished five times in the top 2 with 3rd and 4th in the other two races. I also tried a 24 hour race in Michigan with 449 miles, set cross state records in Arkansas and went back to Tejas to finish the 500. This was not a super fast time, but I only had to finish to win the ultra so I took a 6 hour nap.

With my exposure to Lon and Susan for more than 6 years now and my ultra cup background, I had thought about making a run at RAAM in 2011 and have been training with that as my goal. I haven’t been able to put together a crew that I think would get me across the US, but have decided that a better test for 2011 than the ultra will be to do many more longer races and two 1200k multiday events. The year started out with an attempt to break Chris Ragsdale's 502 mark down in Sebring 24 hour drafting race, but mechanical problems and the lack of drafting partners left me with a 473.

Now I have somehow been coerced into racing the Texas Hill Country 600k against some of the top ultra riders in the world on a course that will highlight the fact that gravity is a harsh reality. Both my wife and my friend, Larry Ide, said that I need to see where I’m at and that I do belong racing against these people. We’ll see.

Lonestar Randoneurs 400K.

2011-02-27T09:47:00.000-08:00

The Lonestar Rando Group is a great bunch of people and one of the treats of a ride is the pre-race dinner on longer rides, or the post-race dinner on short ones - if you can find enough people. I was sad this time. Putting out fires at work kept me from making it to the pre-race meal.

The morning started out a little cooler than predicted and I was happy that I had brought my jacket. This ride started fast with Bryan McKenney and two other riders. Bryan and I started fast, working at 24+ and we were down to 3 riders by the 5 mile point. Byran was using this as his last training ride before Texas Hill Country so he was hammering all day long. I was hammering because that is how I ride. The third rider, who I didn't know, was doing the 200k and sat in for the first 30 but dropped when it got hilly.

I dropped off Byran's wheel at about mile 40 but caught him just as we got to the first control at 62 miles. We averaged just over 20 with better than 2500' climb. I was in and out a little quicker than him so I rode alone for about 6 miles until he caught me. Then we rode together for another 10 then he out clmbed me on his bent and I chased him into the next control at mile 101.

When I got off my bike, I found that I had lost a bolt on my cleat and had to rip my foot out which turned my cleat sideways. I was in and out of the control fast, but stopped about 1 mile down the road to fix the cleat. I couldn't find my tool and Bryan stopped and loaned me his. He said he would drop me on the hills if I couldn't keep up, but wouldn't leave me behind due to mechanical problems. I straightened the cleat and got clipped in and Byran and I rode to the turn around at mile 126 together.

When we got to the turn around I had to step off the bike with one foot and loosen the straps on the shoe so I could pull my foot out. I walked into the store with one sock and one shoe, got some drinks and headed back to the bike. Getting off the bike proved easier than remounting the bike though. It was rather comical. We were out of the turn around in 6:45 with over 5000' climb and we were at the low point of the ride so we had the hills to do backward plus we were climbing up hill.

Byran again dropped me on the way back and I didn't see him at CP 4, which was CP 2 in reverse, but I caught him as we came up to CP5 at 5:30pm or 10 1/2 hours into the ride with 190 miles down. He said he thought he had dropped me for good. I told him I get stronger as the day goes on. The truth be told, I think I may fade less. We got our food and put on our reflective gear and lights and left out of the last control and rode together for about 10 miles.

This time I left him on the hills and headed toward the finish just as it was getting full dark. I rode on my own until Mineola, which was easy because we were on a 22 mile section with no turns, but once we got there I needed to try to read the cue sheet. This proved to be hard since my glasses were fogged and I was permanently clipped in unless I wanted to take my foot out the shoe. I stopped once in town to read the sheet to see that I needed to go 6 miles to the next turn. Then as I was riding I realized the glasses were so bad that I couldn't read the garmin. So I stopped again and tried to do a back bend to get to my bag and find something to clean them. I gave up and relied on my seeing the road signs and my fading memory for the turns.

Also, somewhere during this stretch, I tweaked my hamstring and had no power up the hills without standing. So, with all of my faffing around and my slower pace, Bryan caught back up to me. He had his garmin preprogrammed so I let him do the navigating and pressed as hard as I could with my messed up leg. Byran had a target of 14:30 to finish so we pushed as hard as we could with 14 hours of hard riding already on us. We pulled into the Walmart parking lot at 9:28 with 252+ miles.

Next time you see Bryan ask him about sleep riding.

Garmin total was 252.72 back to the car with a total time of 14:30 and a riding time of 13:50. Total average was 17.5 with a riding average of 18.3. Not a bad day.

My apologies to Gary and crew that rode again on Sunday for not making the 200k permanent, but with the messed up cleat and the tweaked hamstring I decided to call it a rest day and came home and go bowling with the family.

Sebring 24.

2011-02-22T17:51:00.000-08:00

Trish and I left for Sebring in the Sprinter on Thursday morning. The weather had finally turned from winter to spring and it looked like it was going to be a great weekend to be riding a bike. We stopped on the way down and caught a quick 30 minute ride on the long-leaf trace in Mississippi before stopping for the night in Tallahasse.

This was our first trip with the Sprinter as the race support vehicle so everything had to find a new storage spot for everything we wanted to carry. The van travelled extremely well and it was great being able to go in the back and jump on the internet or make a sandwich while travelling. Overall, I think the Sprinter will be a great race van. I just have to convince race directors that their rules need to be written so Sprinters are allowed as a follow vehicle, or I just won't worry about those races. Also, everyone at the race seemed to want to get a look at the Sprinter and see how it packed. Had a couple of offers, but it's hard to find a low mileage Sprinter at a decent price and I'm not ready to part with mine just yet.

Friday's drive from Tallahasse to Sebring was a tale of two citys or actually two drives. I drove the first part down to the rest stop at Gainesville and since we were flowing on interstate we cruised along just fine. The second half of the trip was more like dying a death of a 1000 cuts at every stop light on hwy 27. Based on the GPS estimate of when we should get there versus when we finally arrived - we had burned an hour waiting on lights. I was lucky because for most of that section I was in the back working on the computer when not being bounced by the bumps, but Trish kept us going and we finally arrived at the race site around 2.

Once we got to the hotel, I started to setup the bikes and get ready for a hot lap around the middle loop while the Tbear checked us into the hotel. We parked next to the b-boys and I talked with John S, Sara K, Jackie and Jay Yost for a while as I was unpacking. After about 30 minutes of B.S. and prep I headed out for a fast lap around the middle loop. I was able to push better than a 23 average for the 11 miles without working too hard and I was feeling great. I had come with a goal of beating Chris Ragsdale's 502 mark and this seemed like a good omen.

After cleaning up and moving all of the bikes and luggage to the room we headed off to Publix for some last minute purchases and then to Ouback for one of my standard prerace dinners. Every time I eat at Outback before a race I get the New Zealand Rack of Lamb, Cabernette sauce with Garlic Mashed Potato, Black Bread (lots of Bread) and a Stella. A balanced loading of carbs/fats and proteins. As Mr T would say, "I Pity The Fool" that carb loads eating only cheap pasta that doesn't give you the balance that you need in your prerace meal. Enough Preaching.

As usual my dinner was excellent and as I had talked Trish into ordering a Steak at Outback, hers sucked. Outback sucks at steaks and Trish never orders them, but they had a special Tucson ribeye that waitress said was "so good" that I talked trish into trying it. Bad Choice. Medium, came out rare on one side and medium rare on the other with a crappy cut of meat. Thing is that Outback is good about not wanting you to pay for food you don't like so Trisha's steak was free so it was a cheap date.

As we were walking out I was able to add to my carb loading and do my good deed for the day by buying two boxes of Girl Scout cookies. I got the berry flavored one and Trish got the thin mints. They were a great dessert.

Once we got back to the hotel it was time for check-in and more B.S. with people, then up to the room for last minute preparations and a bottle of pedialyte. The forecast was for highs in the 80's so I knew it was going to be a day I needed to prehydrate and prefeed correctly.

Well, we finally made it to race morning. It's 4:30 and time for me to do my morning yoga then it was time to take the bike down to the race van and cook my first omelette. Back up to the room and another trip to the van to get everything laid out and cook my second omelette. Then after some more Faffin' around I got on my Race bike and rode to the timing mat to check the chip and pick my spot at the start.

Sometimes when you line up at the front of the pack you get some posers but, as it would play out, the people that got up front Saturday morning knew where they wanted to be and why. To the left of me was Brett Walker, the top RAAM Race Finisher at the event and to the right of me were two of the top 12 racers who stuck with the group for the 100 miles. As we took off Brett sprinted off the line and led everyone out. I was close behind, but since he was a RAAM racer I let him go and didn't see him again until mile 40. The group was content to hang behind me for the first lap, but then I was able to drop into a rotation with Wes and Jeff and a couple of other 12 hour riders.

Our group set a fast pace on the way out to the turn around with an average 23.5 mph. We caught and dueled with Brett for about 4 miles and finally were able to put him back after 3 stong pulls in a row. The turn around at the race was a mess. It wasn't marked well and didn't have a cone to signify where to turn just a couple of buckets on the side of the road to throw the chips. So we all came to a screaching stop and threw our chips and headed back. The ride back was even faster than the way out and we had gotten our average up to 23.7.

Mile 84 is where things started to come apart on my run at 502. My shifter cable broke and I was left with 53x11 or 39x11 which isn't that bad a deal when you're in Florida, but will get old after 24 hours. As we cruised back into the turn around at the 100 mile point our group had dropped down to 8 people and we formulated our stop strategy to allow for a quick bathroom break and the shedding of clothes and picking up some bottles.

Some people stuck with the plan and some didn't. We left the first stop with 3 in our group and two in front of the group and the other 3 nowhere to be seen. Our group of 3 caught the two that didn't stop within the first two miles and one of the riders jumped on so we were a group of 4 for about 1/2 a lap until the one that didn't stop decided he now needed a pee break and we were a group of 3 again.

On the next lap I had to stop to change bikes to my backup bike. This is a change because you have to move the timing chip from the front fork of one bike to the other. The change only took me two minutes, but the two guys I was riding with decided they couldn't wait for me. This toasted both them and my 502 run. So after mile 112 I went from a drafting race to non drafting race. I rode alone for the next lap and 1/2 until I caught my two riding buddies, but by then they were fading and only rode with me for another lap and 1/2.

While I was out riding in the 80+ heat Trish had been trying to get a new shifter cable put on my bike so I could switch back to my race bike. Finally, she got it back after having 3 different people work on the bike. So I came in with 216 miles in the books, switched the bike chip again and jumped on the race bike. Then I started to really get mad. Somebody, claiming to be a bike mechanic had completely toasted my shifters. I could only shift up not back down. I got it to work for a while, but then I had to jump off the bike and undo the bike cable and go back to riding 53x11 or 39x11 for the next lap.

Back in at mile 228 to switch bikes and this time pedals also because the cleat had broken on the backup bike. So I was finaly back out on the road. During the heat I hadn't eaten much so I was starting to get slow with my lap times dropping from 32-35 range to the 39 range and I was finally caught at mile 239 by John, Jacquie and either Troy or Kent, so I jumped on as we headed into the track for the rest of the night. I finished up the 12 hour with the B-Boys with 256ish miles and kept riding.

Once I got to the track the temps started dropping and I got into a pretty good rhythm turning 12 minute laps and getting down a pretty good feeding and drinking schedule. For most of the night I would have a cheese sandwich on the even hours and a starbucks coffee and ibuprofen on the odd hours with cytomax to drink along the way.

As the night progressed the wind kept changing directions - for a while it was from the east then swung back to the west. That's when the racers were treated to a rare south Florida treat - the bog fire. About 2 miles west of the track was a bog fire backlit by the lights from Sebring. So when you would make the turn west on the long back straighaway you could see what looked light a volcano of smoke billowing into the sky. The problem was temperature inversion which brought the smoke back down on the track, which meant we were treated to a large dose of second hand smoke during the last few hours of the race.

Overall it was a good race for me finishing up with 473.3 miles. The race could have been much better but if it weren't for the Bear keeping me going I could have just quit and walked away after all the bike B.S. So a large thanks to my TBear.

The best part of the race was how I felt after the race. After I finished, I turned in the chip, got in the van and went back to the hotel for a quick shower then back for awards. While waiting for the awards a person told me that it wasn't fair because I looked like I wasn't even tired and the thing was that I wasn't I could have kept riding and riding at the pace I had set up.

After awards I did go back to the hotel and Trish said it was like I just passed out as she posted the last race report on F.B. But I was up in two hours and packed the van while the bear slept. So, I'm happy with this race and now it's on to the Texas Hill Country 600K.

No RAAM This Year.

2011-02-09T12:57:00.000-08:00

It looks like RAAM isn't going to happen in 2011, and it may never happen because the logistical demands of RAAM and putting together the requisite crew is a nightmare.

After I started my "lets do RAAM" dance in January, I was told that you need to start planning for RAAM at least 12 months before the race start to have everyone and everything ready for the race. I now believe this person was right. I wish RAAM was run like it was back in 80's, when you could get by with smaller crews and you didn't need to be a lawyer to be able to read and comply with all the race rules.

A Big "Thank you" to the people that have offered to help in many different ways. I'm glad I have people that I know I can call on if I need help.

I'm at peace with the fact that RAAM may not be in my future.

Stay tuned for the new plan to be announced shortly.

To RAAM or to Ramp it up?

2011-01-05T05:20:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted on the blog in quite a while. Maybe I'll go back and catch up on the events that I missed at the end of last season, but for now it is time to plan a new season. I know that lots of cyclists have contemplated doing RAAM, few have tried and even fewer have succeeded. I'm not talking team RAAM, because that isn't RAAM, that's a way for the race to be profitable. I'm talking about the Solo race across America.

I've been thinking about doing RAAM since my first Pac Tour training camp back in 2005. Since that time I've ridden many miles and done many races. In 2005 thru 2008 I focused on triathlons, mountain biking and adventure racing. In 2009 I made my first foray in ultra cycling and last year I set my goal as winning the Ultra Cup.

I was able to accomplish this goal thanks to a great training plan, the advice of many people and the loyal support of my family who provided me with a great crew for many of the events. This year it is time to take it to the next level. Time to increase the distance and difficulty of the events and to maybe reach for the top of ultra racing. RAAM.

The difference between the ultra races and RAAM is not night and day, but it is large. This year I have the finances and time to do the training to complete RAAM, but I do lack one very important ingredient, a crew that can take me across the US. I have 4 people committed to my crew right now and need to recruit 4 more. I specifically need a bike mechanic and nurse/doctor, (someone that can give I.V.'s), and at least two other people.

Right now I'm ramping up everything. I've developed a training and racing plan that includes a 24 hour race, a brevet series, 600K race , a 500 miler, a 12 hour race and 1200K. This will at least double and maybe triple the number of 20+ hour rides I have done. Yep, to date I've only done three 20 plus hour rides so I definitely need some seasoning and this training plan has at least four 20+ hour rides and 3 days straight of riding 250 miles on the 1200K.

I've also updated my www.kash-web.com site with all of the information regarding RAAM-Quest 2011. Please visit the site and check it out. If you're an English major, email me with any incorrect grammar. If you're a bike mechanic, email me with your resume. If you own a company, email me with a sponsorship offer.

So, right now I'm ramping it up and hoping to get the crew I need to be able to do RAAM. Next up is a 300K in Texas and then the 24 hour at Sebring. I hope to see alot of you at Sebring. By then, I should have a definite plan to accomplish my new goal.

2nd Riding Vacation.

2010-08-22T10:43:00.000-07:00

My second riding vacation actually included two races: the Metamora 4x50 on-road and the Leadville 100 offroad bike races. I'll post about those seperately. This post will just be related to the travels and travails of the last two weeks.

Trisha, Katelyn and I took off for Metamora, IL in the hairless mammoth pulling the bike trailer on Thursday morning, August 5th. This would be Katelyn's last trip for the summer as she had to start school down in Natchitoches on the 14th. Allen and Rachel were burned out on traveling on the last road trip to NY. Their loss.

The first day we drove up to Perryville, MO. There is a nice RV Park right near the interstate on the way to St. Louis. We stopped in and got a great spot that allowed us to power both the van and trailer which meant Katy had the trailer to herself and didn't have to use the small bed in the van. It also meant Trish and I got the camper all to ourselves.

The next morning I got in a little ride on the frontage road on the interstate and we jumped in the RV so we could get to Van City RV when they opened. The new RV had a couple of warranty issues and they were able to knock them out quickly. Then we went to Walmart to get some last minute items and emerged a half hour later after spending well over $200. We had decided to pickup a small portable printer to hook up to the computer and some movies to watch in the RV along with other spur of the moment items.

We headed out toward Metamora around 10:00. It was a nice day (first day below 100 in a month) so we stopped at a wayside to eat some lunch then finished the drive up to Peoria and checked into the hotel. After getting everything situated at the hotel we drove over to Metamora to find the race site and to predrive the course. This turned out to be more of a challenge than I had hoped. After getting to the race site we headed north on the course. Less than 1/2 mile into the race - fresh chip seal. I mean, put down that mornng fresh. So we continued on, but missed the first turn. There is no place for turning the hairless mammoth with trailer around on IL farming roads, so it was up to the next interestion then back to the route, almost. We missed the turn back onto the route because the road was called something different. So we went back almost to the start and did it again.

By the time we got back on route we decided that we should try to find the 2nd support location which was supposed to be on road 1800. So we continued on 1800 road east. Oops, Road Closed. We drove a mile south to 1700 road. Road Closed. Down to 1600 Road. Same thing, but now we head to 1600 west and it was only gravel. Oh well, so much for preriding the course and finding the support location. It was time to drive to the host hotel and register. At least this went well. No roads were closed and the hotel had a good parking spot for the beast.

Registration started at 5 and was quick and painless. Joe got Trisha a route around the construction so she could get to the 2nd support location. We cooled our heels in the lobby chatting with racers as they came and went, waiting for the pre race dinner at a chain Italian restaurant and pizzaria. The food was much better than we were led to believe and the conversation was excellent.

Saturday, August 7th, Race Day - Finished 5th overall. Larry Ide didn't race but came down after the race and Trish and I went with Larry and John and Jay for dinner and talked about long races and how to finish them - something that I was very interested in with the Tejas 500 looming in the back of my mind.

Sunday was a travel day and was pretty much an unevenful crossing of Iowa and 1/2 of Nebraska as we came to rest at Ft Kearny State Park around 4 in the afternoon. Once we got to camp things got more interesting. Trish and Katy took off shoping while I stayed back at the site and did some bike maintenance.

My bike maintenance consisted of lubing up the the chain and cleaning off all of the road grime from the road bike and putting on a new chain on my mountain bike. Cleaning and lubing the road bike went fine. Then I removed the old chain from the mtn bike and cut the new chain to the same length and put in on the MTB. This process went fine, but the bike had a tremendous amount of chainsuck. I shifted into BIG/BIG and oops - it wouldn't shift back out. The chain was too small. The only way to fix the problem was to break a link and put the old chain back on. After putting the chain back on I did some spinning around the campsite and down a local trail and waited for the women to return.

Their shopping experience wasn't as smooth as the wanted it to be, but they returned with the essentials for camping in the park. Beer, Burgers, Buns, Bug Spray, Charcoal, and Lighter Fluid? Nope, no lighter fluid. This posed a small problem - how to light charcoal without lighter fluid. We gather some small twigs and paper to try to get the fire going, but no luck. Then Katy said - "Dad, the bug spray says its extremely flamable". Don't try this at home, but Off bug spray pretty much works like a torch. We got the paper and sticks to light and then applied THE TORCH. After awhile we had the charcoal lit and were grilling some burgers.

Our goal for Monday was to get to Oscar's home around 6 in the evening so that meant we had a little time to kill in Kearny. I woke up and did a quiet 20 mile road ride to the south of the park and then came back and cooked up some breakfast for everyone. We had a slight problem at the campsite. The showers took quarters and we only had enough for Katy to get a shower. After Katy was all cleaned up we headed to a mountain bike trail on the northwest side of the city, where Trish dropped me off at the trail head and took Katy to the washateria to start a couple loads of laundry and pickup quarters so we could go back and shower. I rode for about an hour then Trish and I headed back to the campsite and cleaned up, packed up and picked up Katelyn and headed for Denver.

We arrived at Oscar and Hala's place around 5:30 and proceeded to dinner at Pappadeaux Restaurant. The have some of the best canjun foods in or out of Louisiana. After dinner we headed back to the house to smoke a hookah. The hookah, or what I would have called an extremely fancy bong back in college, was from Lebanon where Hala was born. We had some apple flavored concoction which was ok but??? Then it was off to bed.

The goal for Tuesday was to preride the first section of the Leadville course and get a feel for riding at about 10,000 ft elevation. After Oscar and Hala headed off to work we made the two hour drive up the mountain to Leadville. I broke out my bike and headed off for a 3 hour tour, while Katy and Trisha explored the city. The ride was ok, missed a turned and had to climb back up the mountain on the road but all was good. I got back to the van and the girls were napping inside so we packed up and headed back down the mountain. I think Trish was suffering a little from the altitude and maybe some bad chili, but we made it back down to Oscars at around 5.

My BIL (Brother-In-Law) Ralph, or Skip as he is also known, met us at about 5:30 with Trisha's Car. Trish and Katy were headed home on Wednesday and Skip was going to be my crew for Leadville and then we were going to do some riding on the way back. We moved stuff between the car and van and got ready to out to Hala's brother's Lebanese restaurant. I couldn't tell you anything that I ate, but it was all delicious.

Wednesday morning saw Trisha and Katy heading home and Skip and I on a bike tour of southern Denver. Denver has one of the greatest bike trail systems I've ever seen - only rivalled by Anchorage, AK. We started out our exploration by picking up the trail about 1/2 mile from Oscars house in Centennial and heading north. We rode the Canal trail in Cherry Creek until it dead ended at a golf course. If you ever want to go on a tour of homes by bike this would be the way to go. Many multi-million dollar properties along the route. Once the trail dead eneded, we back tracked to Quincy Avenue and rode the bike path east.

We stopped around 10:00 in the morning at Subway for some breakfast and then continued east to Cherry Creek state park and rode there until noonish. We started our trek back and found the bar that was in the same shopping center as Subway. It was good for a couple of pints and burger and fries. Then it was time for the ride home. Ralph was pretty much done - we had gotten in 44 miles which was about 10 miles further than he had ever ridden so it was a good day for him and fun day for me. We had about 5 hours until Oscar was going to be home so we started sampling the beers that were in the cooler and chilaxing at the house. We celebrated Ralph's long ride by going out for sushi. Lava Rolls are a spicy shrimp, cream cheese deep fried sushi and they are the best sushi ever.

Thursday morning was the day we headed up to Dillon to stage for the Leadville race, but first Oscar wanted us to try a Denver Delicacy. Santiagos breakfast burritos. So we drove with Oscar to Santiago on our way out of town and his way to work. We picked up a couple of burritos and some coffee. The burritos were good, but a little spicy.

We arrived in Dillon at about 10:30 and parked at the hotel and broke out the bikes. Today we were going to be riding the bike path around Lake Dillon. We found that this was not an easy ride. It starts off nice and easy in Dillon at around 9000', but once you make your way to the south side of the lake you must climb over a pretty good mountain at about 9600' to get to the west side and Frisco.

Frisco is a great place and has a nice brew pub called the Back Country Brewery which has an awesome beer called Switchback Amber. I know this because after we climbed over the mountain and started making our way back to Dillon we decided to stop for lunch. The BCB is on the 2nd story and has a back deck that looks out over the mountains. Since the temp was in the 70's it was definitely the place to be. We sat outside and enjoyed the cuisine and brew and talked with a couple of frisbee golfers from Illinois that were out for the week. Ask me later about one guy's stories about Amsterdam. After lunch we spun back to the hotel.

Friday was Leadville check in and racer briefing. The check in was at 8 and went smoothly and the racer briefing wasn't until 11:00 so we had time to drive out to the two aid stations so that Ralph could figure out where he would park and do hands-ups. There wasn't very good information or markings for either but I had a general idea of where he would be so we were set and headed back for the briefing. This was both a joke and pain in the ass. The briefing was set to begin at 11:00 so, after wandering the town, we meandered over to the location at 10:40 and found a line 3 blocks long. We walked to the end of the line and ran into Mike F from Little Rock. The line got longer and finally started moving at about 11. I finally got to the door at about 11:10 and they said that the auditorium was full, but it didn't matter because they weren't taking attendance. Afterward I was told it was nothing but a pep rally. It annoyed me to stand around for nothing, so Skip and I headed down to a local watering hole for some lunch and beverages.

To get from Leadville to Dillon you travel on CO 91 which is about 20 miles long and crosses the continental divide at the headwaters of the Arkansas River. It meets I70 at Cooper Mountain which is about 7 miles west of Frisco and it's all downhill. There is a bike trail that runs along I70 from Vail to Dillon. I jumped on the trail at Cooper Mountain and raced Ralph down to Back Country Brewery. He won, but only by a couple of minutes. We grabbed another Switchback Amber at the bar. We were going to buy a pig of it (mini keg) but they wanted a 16 dollar deposit so we just bought a 12 pack of 22 ouncers for the rest of trip.

I rode back into Dillon and met Skip at the hotel where we got on the bikes and headed out to find another pub. This might not have been the greatest race prep but it was fun. We stopped and played a game of pool and drank a beer at a hole-in-the-wall bar then meandered back to the hotel to clean up for dinner. We stopped at the Araphoe Cafe. I ordered a full rack of ribs because I thought I was hungry and I thought I knew how big a full rack of ribs was. I was wrong. I was hungry, but their full rack of ribs was cut in half and both halves covered the plate. I've been getting ripped off at most rib places, especially at Chili's. Speaking of Chili's, skip it unless it the only restaurant in town. Most everything is over priced, undersized and accompanied with poor service. Okay. that's just Chili's in North Little Rock.

Saturday was Leadville: 10:36 minutes. 3rd Arkansan to Finish and 474th out of 1022 that actually finished out of 1600+ that started. Details in the Leadville Blog.

Sunday was Leadville Adwards Ceremony. This was another cluster like the pre-race breifing. It was held in the same auditorium so you know there wasn't room for everyone. It started at 8:30 and was nothing but an over-priced waste of time (much like most Ironman Awards Breakfasts). But they have you captive if you want to pickup your finishers belt buckle and sweatshirt - both of which are cool. Levi Leipheimer scored big with the fans by being too lazy to show up for the ceremonies. Nice - win the race, but snub everyone by being an hour late to the ceremony. Problem was the promoter made a big deal of him showing up and gave him the mike to speak. Solution to everyone that does Leadville. If you want to claim your awards, skip the first hour of the ceremony then divide your position by 10 to figure out when to show to collect your award. Since I was 474th, I could have been an hour and 47 minute late and still been there in time. Enough bitching about the awards.

After the award ceremony we went back Frisco to hook up the trailer and drive to Grand Junction for the next couple of days. We had a coupon for Smash Burger so we stopped in - they are goooood. The drive put us in Grand Junction around 5:00 with the temps back around 100 degrees... so long to the mountains and 70's for highs. We hit the grocery store and bought burgers, other stuff and lighter fluid so that we could cook us some good burgers and have a great meal.

Monday was Moab. Skip had been mountain biking in WY during the summer and somebody told him Moab was the place to go. While we were at Smash Burger a rider said that if we were there for a day we need to hit Slick Rock because it was like noplace else on earth so we got up at 4:30 on Monday and made the 2 hour drive to Moab and Slick Rock.

We unloaded the bikes and away we went. Slick Rock really is like no place I've ever ridden before. It's nothing but barren rock with a white dotted line painted on the ground to tell you where to ride. Sometimes it up the side of big rock, in which case I dismount and push, and sometimes it's down the same rock which is much more fun. After two miles of the trail Ralph decided that he had bit off a little more that he could chew so we turned around and headed back to the trail head.

I told Ralph "No worries". I know there is much better riding than Moab and that's Fruita, CO which was only 30 minutes from where we were camping. So we drove back to the Kokopeli trail head in Fruita and got in some good riding before the T-Storm hit. We drove into Fruita for lunch then came back out and put in some more time on the trails until another storm hit. It was only about two oclock so we headed up to the Colorado National Monument for some site seeing.

Coming back off the mountain into Grand Junction we could tell that there had been some significant rain for the area and some of the roads were closed due to flash floods. We meandered back to the RV Park, picking up some steaks to cook on the grill for dinner. Only problem was we had to cook in the rain. The steaks kept the charcoal dry enough once we got it started.

Tuesday morning we began our drive home. We decided to take the scenic route to Colorado Springs using US50 via Gunnison. This was a cool drive back over the continental divide. We got into Colorado Springs around 2 in the afternoon and rode up Red Rocks Canyon for our last MTB session of the Trip. This was by far Skip's favorite place to ride and I have always liked it. After the ride we continued driving thru Southeast Colorado. This is one of the most desolate places on earth. We got gas just outside of CO Springs and it's a good thing we did because we didn't see another gas station for over 100 miles. We ended up spending the night in Garden City, KS.

The reason we stopped in Garden City was that the bike map we had for KS showed a good route starting there, running south and turning east on US160. I got up in the morning and the place was fogged in so Skip and I caught some breakfast and loaded up and drove till about 7:15. The fog had finally lifted so I jumped out on 160 and got my century training ride in by 12:00. It was a fast ride.

The rest is just a drive home and I'm tired of typing so bye.

Riding Vacation.

2010-07-22T03:17:00.001-07:00

I originally setup this blog to be able to chronicle my rides during the elite tour in May and June, but I was unable to do the elite tour and turned the blog into my race reports. Well, after the Saratoga 12 hour race I did a tour of sorts and found that it wouldn't have been practical to try to keep up the blog while doing the elite anyway. It takes more time and energy to write about what you did than to do what you did.

My plan was to try to integrate a family vacation and bike riding tour into one event. This plan had some epic fails and epic successes along the way, but mostly was a success and mostly due to Trisha keeping everything going.

To begin the epic journey to the northeast, we needed transportation and accommodations. Here is where all of my planning and energy were devoted for the week leading up to trip. I purchased a RoadTrek 210 which could carry up to 5 people and sleep Trish and I and Allen. I also recently purchased an Ultra Light Toy Hauler Trailer that would act as a bike hauler and could be transformed to sleep Katelyn and Rachel at night.

Day 1 of the Trip, (Wednesday), was traveling from Sheridan To Louisville with a stay at the KOA Campground. Here is where my daughters say my first Epic Fail of the trip occured. Basically I had two campers requiring 2 power plugs, but most campsites only have one place to plug in a 30 amp connection. We arrived at the campground around 9 at night just as it was getting dark. The temps were in the 90s so we decided to run the A/C in the Ultralite first and get it cold then switch it over to the RoadTrek for the night. My daughters were not happy by the time the morning rolled around.

Day 2 was a pretty uneventful travel day - during which time we stayed at a hotel for the night.

On Day 3 we arrived at the Schuyler Yacht Basin at noon on Friday. The husband and wife that owned the yatch basin were able to help me with my dilema regarding the power. They had a 50 amp to two 30 amp conversion cable so we had A/C in both units. The Yatch basin was a really cool place to camp.

Day 4 is covered in the race report is in a seperate blog post.

Day 5 was a travel day up to Ticonderoga to start section 11 of the Adventure Cycling's Northern Tier which runs from Ticonderoga, NY to Bar Habor, ME. After catching breakfast with the race director, we headed north for the 2 hour drive to Ticonderoga. Upon arriving in Ticonderoga we found that you had to cross to VT by Ferry and that the Ferry only operated from 8-5. Since I wanted to start riding by 6 in morning I decided that I needed to start on VT side of the water, so we drove to Middlebury and checked into a hotel around 3pm. I got my touring bike out and decided to go for a little ride around Middlebury and back to the State line.

The warmup ride from hell. I headed out of the hotel parking lot with the intention of riding the alternate route around Middlebury. I started out by missing the first turn on the map and got in about 5 bonus miles before getting back to my turn. Using the Adventure Cycle maps was going to prove to be a challenge, because the print is far too small to read without stopping. I'm used to using route sheets that are readable as you ride. After getting back on course for about 6 miles I missed another turn and hit a gravel road. I knew I was off course again so I turned around, but too late. I had flatted. This was not going to prove to be any ordinary flat changing experince. This was special. Tube 1 - I pumped up the tube with my frame pump and had it just about hard enought when, SNAP. I broke off the stem. Tube 2 - Ok, I'm going to use the inflator. Tube is changed, tire is pumped up and back on bike and I'm loading up the detritus. POP....the tube blows. TUBE 3- my last tube. I didn't know if there was a problem with the tire so I put on a new tire, put in the new tube and hand pump it up gently, because I'm out of inflators and tubes. It holds and I start riding back to the hotel. But the tire feels flat so I stop and pump in more air. Finally I make it back to the hotel. 17.2 miles.

Day 6 was the first long ride of the vacation. Trish and the kids were headed back to the Fort at Ticonderoga and I was up before 6 and headed to NH. Right out of the box I started with a 1600' climb upto Breadloaf and the SnowBowl which are at 2000'. This was a long steady steep climb topping out at 15% some places but usually 6 to 8% for about 10 miles. BreadLoaf is a really cool kind of resort with all of the buildings painted the same color. It was cool enough that I stopped and took pictures. After the SnowBowl was a 5 mile super fast down hill where I was topping 40 a couple of times but staying about 30 for the complete descent. The rest of the morning was a great ride into New Hamshire. A point of note would be Royalton which was neat and had the VT Law School. I had one other long climb in the morning at mile 55 to 60. Once I crossed the Connecticut River into New Hamshire I got the pleasure of riding some dirt back roads with covered bridges. The plan was that I would call Trisha when I got to North Haverhill, NH to see about stopping for the day. The only problem was that my phone was dead so my daughter gave me her phone to use. She neglected to give me the unlock code. Around 11:00 I stopped at an ice cream stand to get some ice cream. They were also kind enough to let me use their phone to call Trish. Problem - Trish didn't answer so I had to leave a message that I was continuing on and that I didn't have the unlock code for the phone. So I'm headed out of North Haverhill climbing away from the Connecticut river valley into white mtns. About 30 minutes outside of town my phone beeps at me telling me I have a message. I can't read the message, but since I got the message I know that my family is trying to contact me. I stopped at a greenhouse alongside the rode and they let me use the phone to call and get the unlock code. Back onto the bike and back to climbing. I climb past the appalachian trail and back up 2000'. Then I get a nice 5 mile descent into Lincoln. Its 2:30 in the afternoon and I have 118.6 miles and 10,000 climb done. With Kancamangus Pass in front of me I decide Lincoln is great place to stop for the night. I grab two rooms at the Comfort Inn and wait for Trish and the kids to show. They had some GPS difficulties which led to some gravel roads driving thru the mountains with the RV. Not Fun.

Day 7's plan was for Trish and Kids to play some adventure golf then catch up with me some where in Maine. My day started off pretty much like the day before with a long extended climb over Kancamangus Pass. It was a 2000' climb over 15 miles. It was steady and not as steep as yesterdays climb and peaked out at 2800'. After reaching the summit I had a nice screaming down hill for 5 miles then a 20 mile long downhill ride into Conway. This section of the road was really great. The rest of the day was spent doing hill repeats to Brunswick, ME. Never anything over 200' at a time and usually only 50' but over 40 10% climbs and 5 15% climbs. Once I got to Brunswick I dropped onto a bike path along the river for awhile and continued on to Bath. 134.3 miles and 10800 climbing. We stayed at a Holiday Inn at Bath that had a resturaunt (The Bounty I think) attached. The resturaunt had a menu item called the Maine Shore Dinner - Clam Chowder, Salad, Lobster, Corn, Bread, and Pie which I enjoyed immensely with 4 of the local brews.

Day 8 started out in the rain. I left the hotel headed north to Bar Harbor. This was another death by a 1000 paper cuts day. Lots of up and down. Most of this ride was done on US1 and for the most part sucked. Too much Traffic and not very good road. The only parts of it that were nice were when you got off 1. For the most part it was a good ride, but I was glad when I arrived at the Bar Harbor Campground and Trish and the kids had camp setup. I finished the day with 127.2 miles and 9800' of climb. It was cool enought to camp without A/C. Campgrounds are always better than hotels. You get to meet cool peeps. We were parked next to a group of girls that were part of a bike tour/camp. One of the people working for the group was a MTB'er riding for NC - Jeremy. Jeremy saw my bike setup and came over and we spent a bunch of time talking.

Day 9 was hiking/site seeing/travel/recovery ride day. At 5 in the morning we were up with the sun to start our climb up Cadillac Mountain - the highest point on the eastern seaboard. The early start was Rachel's idea because she wanted to do the climb before it got hot. Trish jumped out of the RV and back into the trailer for some more sleep while the rest of us took off for the base of the mountain. We started our climb up the mountain about 6am. The climb was great. It felt good to be doing something not on a bike and the views from the trail looking out over the bay to the north were fantastic. The climb was very decieving, with alot of false tops as you are looking up. That was probably a good thing. The higher you climbed the better the views got. It took us over an hour to make the 2.2 mile 1500' climb up the mountain. Allen, Rachel and I left Katelyn at the top and hiked back down to the RV. Then we had to drive around the whole island (1 way road) to get back to where you can drive to the top of the mountain and pick up Katelyn. The views were great so we decided we needed to go back to camp and take Trish on the quickee island tour and up to the top of mountain in the afternoon. After being tourist for the afternoon we started the drive back to Brunswick. I wasn't a fan of riding hwy 1 back to there so they dropped me at Wiscasset on the way back and I did an early evening 23 mile recovery ride back to the hotel.

The plan for day 10 was that Trisha and the kids would go rope climbing and zip lining while I rode down to Derry NH. This was a much better ride than the ride up to Bar Harbor and got to do a little Seaside riding on the way. It was a long day with 150 miles and 11,500 of climbing.

Day 11 was my day to attempt a Boston Excursion. I did about 30 miles before I got to the Boston Extension, so I turned east and headed toward the city. It was Saturday and there were alot of riders out riding so I thought that I must be in a really good area to ride. It turned out that I was riding against the flow of the Mass MS100 ride. I continued east riding toward town. At about 11:00 I talked with Trish and decided there was too much traffic so I'd head back out to Concord to meet her and the kids for lunch. Epic Success. We ate at the Concord Grill and the food was awesome. After lunch I had to finish my ride down to Marlborough Mass. It was hot and took way too long, but I finished the day with 105.3 and 7800 climb.

Day 12 was the day I tried to do too much. I started out early - I had made a detour in the route so I could ride in Rhode Island and then get to Connecticut. The ride thru Massachusets and Rhode Island was pleasant with gentler sloping hills. More like my type of riding. Then I hit Connecticut and had 25 miles of serious climbing and descending. The ride ended with about 15 miles of gently sloping downhill to the Connecticut river and a finish around noon with 100.7 miles and 8600 climb. Then we loaded up in the RV and headed for Philly. I wanted to get a ride in NJ in the early evening and then hit 3 states (PA, DE, MD) the next day. On the trip to Philly we drove thru NYC. Not a place I'd ever want to stop. Timing for getting a ride didn't happen and by the time I got to my room I was exhausted.

Day 13 turned into a travel day. We had thought about riding and site seeing, but decided against it when it started to rain in the morning. So we drove 800 miles from Philly to Nashville.

Day 14 the last day. We had picked the hotel in Brentwood so that I could ride over to the Natchez Trace and then ride down to Alabama. I started out about 5:30 and rode to the trace. The Natchez Trace is probably one of the nicest places to ride you can find, but bring support. There is limited water supplies and no food on the trace. I rode down to HWY 72 in AL. 150.9 miles and 8800' climb. Then we drove home.

Saratoga 12 Hour.

2010-07-11T04:17:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm sitting here at a picnic table the Schuyler Yacht Basin trying to recall exactly how the race went yesterday.

I prerode the Saratoga 12 or Hudson River Ramble course on Friday and knew that it was a fast 32.5 mile loop with 4 good hill climbs. Two of the climbs required dropping to the little chain ring after lap 4 and two rollers that you could get half way up with momentum. I also knew that the weather was supposed to be overcast with a high near 80 and light winds. The final piece of knowledge I had was that the record to beat was 251.1 miles. So, if I was going to set a course record, Saratoga was my best bet.

The morning started out rainy, but the rain stopped by 7:00 so we were just dealing with overcast skies for the start of the race at 8:00. Since this was a non-drafting event, I wanted to start off in the front so I wouldn't have to worry about getting caught behind other riders. John Schlitter, who has been resting his postierior, decided that he would come along for the ride. We rode to the base of the first hill climb at mile 2. Since John was on his recumbent, I was able to out climb him to the top of the hill. John, however, was feeling his wheaties and came around me at mile five and I used him to pace me around the course. He got caught by the light at mile 13 and I was able to get around him, but he sprinted to the 1st checkpoint to clock in first.

The next section was very bent friendly and John left me behind until mile 23 when he came riding backwards thinking he missed a turn. He got turned back around and led me back in to finish the first lap. Lap Time 1:28

My crew of Trisha, Rachel and Allen was setup right before the lap counter. I pulled in and was gone again in less than 10 seconds. The crew did an excellent job. I was off the bike for less than 6 minutes for the entire race. 2 of those minutes were at stop 6 when I had to pee and 2 at stop 7 when I got in before they were ready for me.

Lap 2 was alot like lap 3, but I was pretty much pushing John a little hard and passing him more often. I did get the aid of the stop light again to catch him. Lap Time was 1:28.

Lap 3 was another strong lap I caught John by the top of the big climb again and we traded places until mile 8 when John said it was time for me to ride on my own. He was idling it back a little. So I took off and finished the lap on my own. Lap Time was 1:28.

Lap 4 was ridden all by my lonesone and it was starting to get warm so my lap time dropped to 1:35 which was still better than 20 but not the 22 that I was turning on the the first 3 laps.

On Lap 5 was caught by Oyler at mile 12. He told me to shift up and spin more. With the heat and exertion, I had sort of fallen into a funk and was pedalling the sames gears I was using when I was hammering the first 3 laps. It seemed to help for awhile. I finished that lap with a 1:36.

Lap six is when my shot at the record went to hell. The sun came out and the temp got into the upper 80's so it was getting warm. I did a 1:47, which was down in the 18's. I came in and decided I needed to actually get off the bike for a minute. I got off the bike and went into the RV to take a leak, then came back out and got a starbucks coffee instead of a boost. Then I got back on the bike. Total time off the bike: 2 minutes.

Lap seven was much better. I turned another 1:36. The problem with that was that I had told my crew to expect another 1:45 so they weren't ready with everything like they had been all day. So I had another 2 minute break.

I was down to less than an hour to ride and wanted another 20 miles, so I took off pushing as hard as I could go. I caught up with a 12 hour night racer. We passed each other back and forth and chatted a little as we did. I was able to cross checkpoint 19 just before 8:00 so they give you credit to the next point. So I ended up with 7 laps plus 20 miles or 247.5 miles.

After putting myself over 4 miles down at lap 6 I worked my way back, but fell 3 miles short of both the win and the new couse record. It was a great ride with great support.

Now I'm on to my next adventure. Going to ride the Northern Tier Route section from Ticonderoga to Bar Harbor and the Eastern Route from Bar Harbour down to Connecticutt. Should be about 800 miles in 6 riding days with possibly a rest day in Bar Harbor .

Comparison ride Titus VS Giant.

2010-07-04T12:08:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I did a fast 100 mile loop on my Titus Vuelo averaging just over 19. So today since the weather was suppose to be close to yesterday I went out I my Giant TCR Advanced and did the exact same 100 mile course to see how much faster my race bike is than my touring bike.

The combatants:

My Titus Vuelo is my touring bike. It weighs in at 26.2 lbs, which includes everything but the water bottles. Its a titanium bike with carbon fork and krysium elite wheelset. What makes this my touring bike is the fact that it has a circlular seat post that can accept the rack and bag that I carry off the back. This bag carries 3 space tubes, 1 spare tire, 90% of the tools you need to run a bike shop, 12 hours of food, enough free storage to carry shed clothes and TP. This is the bike I take when I go off I my own for a 12 hour ride.

My Giant TCR Advanced is my race bike. It weighs in at 22 lbs, with lights, food bag, and seat post bag. Its a full carbon bike with Rolf Vigor Wheelset with carbon bearings. I think that Rolf's are the best wheelset you can race regardless of the $ you want to spend. The Giant is also much stiffer that Titus. This is the bike I race when I have support.

The results.
Titus 5:14 - or 19.1 MPH
Giant 4:55 - or 20.3 MPH

I also have two different Garmin 705's that I was testing out. The difference between the two was .2 miles over the 100 mile difference. I think one is set to record data every second and the other is when ever the device feels like it. The big difference though was in the amount of climb that the two devices recorded. Yesterday I did 5800 feet of climbing today I did 2500 feet of climbing. Maybe if climb over them faster it doesn't record as much. Don't trust your garmin for climb data.

Arkansas State Time Trials.

2010-06-30T05:30:00.000-07:00

I am both happy with the result and a little disappointed with my time at the Arkansas State Time Trials. I finally won my age group after finishing 2nd the last two times I did this race. This was kind of bittersweet since the time I posted was the slowest of my 3 attempts.

The first year I did the TT I posted a 58:58, then last year I was 1:00:10. This year I posted a 1:01:40. I was hoping that my long distance training would just carry me throught the time trial and it pretty much did. I rode nice and easy at 24+ MPH. I wasn't tired and I didn't hurt, in fact I rode another 70+ miles after the race. The problem was that I could not longer push myself to get almost aerobic and ride at 26+.

I rode just like I have been training to ride for the last 8 months: Strong and consistant. So I guess I just shut up and be happy with my win and maybe throw some more TT training days into my ride schedule to work on speed.

My first 24 hour Race.

2010-06-25T13:15:00.000-07:00

Well, it was time to tackle my first 24 hour race. On Thursday morning, my family and I packed up the van and the trailer and headed off to Middleville, MI. My first 24 hour would be the National 24 Hour Challenge, which is one of the largest 24 hour events in the US. This meant I knew that there would be some pretty stiff competition. But, I was headed there to win. That was what I put on the entry form when answering, "Why are you doing this race?".

The trip up to MI was a chore in itself. I had planned on taking an easy day and a half to get there. The road construction and stopping every 2 hours to gas up (the van only got 10 MPG while towing), turned into a long day and half. We made Champaign IL about 8 pm on Thursday and were ready to get started again at 7 on Friday, but we had to wait out the tornado warnings.

We finally made it up to Middleville about 1:00pm and began the setup process. N24HC has a special place for people with trailers - about 1/2 mile away from where everyone else gets to setup. So we dropped the trailer in the parking lot and started mixing the bottles, assembling the bikes, and all the other little prep stuff necessary to the race. Number pickup wasn't until 5:30 so we took off to pre-drive the course. I had heard that the road conditions weren't the greatest and wanted to visually verify the status of the course. We found some fresh chipseal near mile 15 and one section just after the 2nd checkpoint that weren't great but other than that the course was pretty nice.

We got back to Middleville at around 5:45 - timed perfectly so that the line was nice and small - and went thru packet pickup. Then we loaded up and headed to Grand Rapids and my favorite prerace meal at Outback: Rack of lamb with mashed potatos and 2 loaves of their great bread and two big blokes of Fosters to complete my carb loading.

Saturday started out too early with a wake up call at 4:30 - Me and the first shift of the support crew, Trisha and Allen, were up and headed out to the race site by 5:30 and at the trailer way before 6:00. I had the bike loaded with food/drink and the van loaded up with everything Trish would need by 6:30. Oops, race doesn't start until 8:00. This is a bad habit that I picked up from racing tri's - always get there early to get the prime TA.

Since I was ready to race with more than an hour to spare, it became social hour. I talked with Jim Hlvaka (from PAC Tours), Paul Danhaus (Big Dogs), and Bryan Kortness (Facebook) and just did a little riding around to loosen up. Trish and Allen hit the Crew prerace meeting at 7:30 and were on the frontline to start the race at 8:00.

We started at 8:00 straight up with no delays and I was off the front to lead the pack out. I know that Larry told me to draft, draft, draft and when you get tired of drafting to suck wheel, but I still like to lead the race out :-). The first section of the race was rather uneventful with a group of about 35 or 40 riders in the pack and about 8 -10 of us doing all of the pulls. At about mile 10 we hit a couple of hills and 2 riders went off the front, but the group, at the urging of Chris Ragsdale, (last year's winner), sort of let them stay about 1/8 mile ahead of the group. They rode out there for about 10 miles when I decided that it would be fun to break away from the group and ride them down. You got to play games or it gets boring. So I rode them down and the group caught up and we rode off toward checkpoint 1 were they had 4 lanes for you to get punched.

Once we hit checkpoint 1 the fun ended. We turned south into a 15+ mph wind from the southwest which would be with us all day. The group rode together down to checkpoint 2 with the same 8-10 people doing most of the work. As we were pulling into checkpoint 2, the group started attacking hard. This checkpoint only had 2 lanes to get punched, so it was a big cluster and I was the last person thru the station, but Trish and Allen were there with everything I needed so as soon as I got punched I was ready to head down the road. I was afraid this cluster in the checkpoint had cost me the main group, but I was wrong. Just after stop 2 is the unofficial Pee break. So the only thing that I lost was a chance to take a leak.

We cruised on toward checkpoint 3, riding the the roughest section of the road and dodging a lot of tree debris that had been blow down from the storm the previous night. At mile 80 the debris caught me, or I caught it, and the front tire made the s's's's's sound as air was escaping. I knew it was my wheel, but it was funny to watch all the other rider's start looking a their bikes to see if they had a problem.

Time for a quick tire change. The race had just been lost. There was no way I could win without riding with the lead group into the wind. Oh well, I had a new goal. How many of the 30+ rides could I catch and pass riding on my own? Someone had said that there was often a 2nd group that forms and works together, but I never saw them. I just rode my own pace, pushing as hard as felt good, and made it back to the finish of the big loop in just over 5:30 for 121.6 miles.

I had talked with Larry Graham before the race and he said that you wanted to do as many middle loops as you could before getting put on the short course at 7:15. I started pushing hard because I wanted to make sure I completed at least 5 middle (23.7) loops. This part of the ride was rather uneventful until the 5th lap. During the laps 1 thru 4, I would ride by people but never was passed. My support crew kept me flying around the track giving me bottles and food every lap, but I was waiting for the fast group to catch me and put me 23.7 miles down. About 1/2 way around lap 5 I was flying down a downhill section at about 25 when a car passed me and started to make a right turn in front me. I screamed F!!!!!! Thankfully, they stopped and I didn't become imbedded in the side door of their car.

About 5 minutes later, a group of 5 riders including Charles Knott came by me. So, I jumped on with them and started chatting with them. They said they were the second part of the fast group with the fastest 6 riders riding in a group ahead of them. This sort of confused me because nobody had passed me. Then I found out that I had passed these guys in transition. I had worked my way up to a top ten spot by mile 240. They were also impressed that I had ridden alone and was in front of them.

Charles, one other rider and I rode away from the rest of the group to finish up our last middle loop with 240.1 miles and start riding the 5.5 loop. As I transitioned to the short loop, my night crew showed up for work. Trish had taken Allen back to the hotel and picked up Rachel and Katelyn to work the night shift. Support on the night section of the race wasn't nearly as set as the day section. When I wanted something, I would tell my crew the lap before that I would stop and what I needed.

Night riding was mostly a mind game of setting a goal of the number of laps to do and counting down while continuously riding hard. My goal when I started was to get 40 laps. So I just kept counting down and riding. I switched from Boost at the stops to Starbucks coffee and my food went from sausage to a slice of pizza, but only one - it didn't settle all that well. I also downed a bag a frito's.

I was passed once during the night by Chris Ragsdale (494.8) and Chris Gottwald (483.8) and jumped on and rode with them for 3 laps before they stop to refuel. I hadn't told my crew I was stopping so I kept riding, then on the next lap I told them I was stopping. Just as I was pulling in to stop, the Chrises caught me so I lost the fast group again.

The rest of the night was pretty uneventful. Just riding and getting a little slower. Once the sun came out a lot of the riders that had stopped to sleep came back on the course, so there were more people again. I got together with Charles Knott a little after 6:15. He was on mile 399.6, about 16.5 miles behind me. He said his goal was to set the new 55-59 record and he needed to do 5 more laps, so he and I started working hard and pushed. Charles had the record with 20 minutes to spare. We took the last lap pretty easy, (20 minutes), and we came in with 20 minutes left. I decided to go out for one more lap. I time trialed the last lap in under 16 minutes, which was probably my fastest of the day, to end up with 449.1 - 38 short laps - 2 short of what I had set for my goal about 12 hours before.

I had come to win or at least challenge for the win. A pretty lofty goal for a first time 24 hour race. That went out the door with the flat. I set my new goal and passed all but 4 of the racers

ending up as 5th overall finisher and 1st in 45-49.

The Competition was pretty good.

1st - Chris Ragsdale, (494.8), Furnace Creek 508 Winner

2nd - Chris Gottwald, (483.8), Solo RAAM Finisher 2009

3rd - Bryce Walsh (460.1) Solo RAAM 2006

4th - Dennis Delong (454.6) RAAM Qualified

After the race is pretty hazy. We waited around for awards until 9:00 - then went to pack up the trailer to head back to the hotel, but we couldn't find a key for the trailer hitch. After searching high and low, Trisha found it in her shirt pocket. We were all really tired. We finished hooking up everything and drove back to the hotel at about 11:00. I went to the front desk and said I needed a wake up call for 1:30 and she looked at me like I was crazy. I explained the reason for late check out, (it's good to be a member of their club), and crashed for a couple of hours.

At 2 o'clock we were on the road heading for Ludington and the Ferry to WI. We had a 3 hour drive up to Ludington during which I slept again. We had enough time to have a picnic with KFC at the park then drove up to the dunes north of town and walked on the beach. We got on the ferry at 8:00pm and I walked back to the state room and slept until we reached Manitowoc around 11:00pm . I then drove 1 mile to the nearest hotel and fell back asleep again :-)

Hobbs Mountain Bike Race.

2010-06-14T04:56:00.001-07:00

I needed a change of pace from my ultra distance riding and the Hobbs MTB Race just happened to be the right thing to do at the right time for a number of reasons. It fell the weekend before National 24 Hour Challenge so I'm tapering and I won't feel guilty about only getting in 4 hours of riding this weekend instead of 16. I hadn't seen all my MTB Racing friends since last November and need the comraderie and it was also a great race for my son, Allen, to ride in because the course is sweeeet.

Since I hadn't been on my MTB since the fall, I added a couple of MTB sessions to my training schedule so I could try to get back some of the handing skills that you lose if you don't use. Allen and I put on about 40 miles of short track laps in the week leading up to the race and I was able to hit Burns Park for one lap. This would prove to be enough training for a Junior 12 and under racer, but not enough for Cat 1 40-49.

Trish, Allen and I loaded up Saturday morning and headed north to race. I just got a new Van with a built in GPS so I let it guide me up to Hobbs. This proved both to be good and bad at the same time. The route it took us on brought us up from the south through War Eagle so we got to see the old mill and bridge. Pretty cool. The problem was that when we got to Hwy 12 it had me turn east instead of west. So we added a few extra miles to the route.

Once we were up at Hobbs, I took Allen for a preride of the Junior course and we worked on some of his biking skills. Then I took off and did a warmup lap around my course. The people putting on the race had done an excellent job of trail maintenance - the course was fast. Maybe even a little too fast. After the preride we drove back into Bentonville to the hotel for a shower and then on to Phat tire to register. Phat tire is a cool little bike shop in downtown Bentonville and you should stop by if you get the chance.

Once we left the bike shop we used the GPS to take us to the Outback for my standard pre race meal. The only problem is the GPS couldn't find the Outback. The Outback in Rogers is hidden behind some hotels with an address that the GPS wouldn't even let you enter. So we went to O'Charleys instead. Good dinner, but not my normal meal. We saw the Outback sign as we were headed back to the hotel.

Race morning started out well with us back out to Hobbs at about 7:45. This gave us a decent parking spot and plenty of time to get setup for Allen's race which started out at 8:30. During the preride we had determined that Allen's brake levers were tipped too far down for him to reach them easily, so we adjusted them and we bled a little air of his tires to give him a little better traction.

Allen took off on his 2 lap race at about 8:40 and did a kick butt job finishing up about an hour later with his first MTB win. He has been doing races on and off for about 3 years and this was his first win so he was happy. The race timing worked out well because it gave me time to watch him start and finish and still get to my race on time.

Cat 1 - 40-49 went off at about 10:05 in the moring with the temp already up to 90. It was going to be a hot one. The race started out with a 500 yard sprint to the trail entrace on a gravel road. I took off down the road and led the sprint to the trail head, but Richard decided that he was in such a hurry that he cut me off going into the trail head. Good move on his part because he is so much faster on the trail. I was on the trail 2nd and being pushed really hard by the group. The trail starts out pretty twisty and windy and I was riding faster than I could corner so less than 1 minute into the trail I had my first crash as my front tire slid out from in front of me. The bike slid left and I jumped right and everyone sort of rode between me and the bike.

I get back to the bike and have to get the chain back on and get back on the trail. I've gone from 2nd back to 9th and a minute behind the lead group with my confidence already shaken. Back on the bike I go. Next we hit the quick downhill and across the bridge to the 1st climb. I can see 3 riders - Scott Dollar, Bob Ocken, and Scott Shoals, ahead me on the climb so I keep working to catch them. After making the climb, you get into a set of rollers along the west side of the course that is very fun and very fast and I rip through this section working my way back up to 6th place. I can see Eli just ahead of me so I try to catch him and get very close while we are on the top, but then we hit the downhill on the back side of the course and he disappeared again.

The downhills on the course are very sketchy in the turns. I love this course and if I lived near Rogers I'm pretty sure that I would have the lines thru them to make the downhill as fast as the rest of the course, but it was my weakest point of the race. After the downhill you cross a bridge and hit the hard climb of the race. Eli was on a single speed so I was able to catch him at the top of climb and he followed me into the fast and flowing last section of the trail and passed me back just at I was getting my hand off from Trish at the feed zone.

The 2nd lap wasn't a great lap either. I caught Eli again on the 1st climb this time, but he caught me back on the downhills on the back side. Then I crashed again on the downhills. This crash was alot harder that my first crash so I resolved that I was now riding to not crash with my 24 hour race coming up next week. The 2nd time up the big climb I got off and pushed the hard section and was working on keeping my head up and looking ahead and was getting faster on the sweeping parts of the course. I was creeping on the downhills though and the climbs were eating me alive. To give you an idea, my garmin was turning off and back on. (3mph threshold).

I worked my way around the 3rd lap with no incidents and feeling pretty good. I finished the race in 6th place and had a great workout - probably much more effort than I would have put into a century ride.

After the race we hung with the ACF crew - (Dan is actually building a good race team) and the Bell and Company Crew, (thanks for the food!), for about an hour then head back south to recover. I will probably do an easy century ride on Tuesday, then start driving up to MI for an 8:00am Saturday morning start for a little 24 hour ride.

Congrats to Allen on his first win and to the whole ACF team - I'm pretty sure we scored the team win yesterday.

What I've learned from the race. 1 - Follow your prerace feed schedule do not vary it - ask Scott Penrod about bad food choices. 2 - If you're going to do a MTB Race you need to train on a mountain bike.

Tour De Hoot.

2010-06-05T16:54:00.000-07:00

I caught a blurb about the Tour De Hoot on facebook yesterday, so I decided that instead of a long day of riding by myselft I would opt for a more high-intensity workout with a group. So this morning I jumped in the van and headed for McGehee.

The drive down was rather uneventful and arrived at the start at about 7:30. I had plenty of time go get registered and get everything ready for the start. Especially since the race director was giving out road ID packages and the ride started 10 minutes late.

We left out of McGehee headed east with me pulling the group for the first 4 miles. We countinued on toward the first rest station at between 22 and 24 miles per hour and the group quickly broke down to 5 people in the lead group. We pulled into Arkansas City and the first stop at mile 12. This is where the road markings were very iffy.

Note to promoter - Don't mark the stops with arrows leaving the route - just put up signs. We weren't stopping but couldn't figure out where to go. I was entering the rest area to turn around, but the rest of the group continued down the road. So, against my better judgement, I followed them for 3 block to where we had to turn. I turned, went a block and turned back toward where I knew hwy 4 was located and took off.

I got out ahead of the group and decided that I wanted to be the rabbit so I put myself in TT mode and started to hammer north toward Dumas. After about 5 miles, I couldn't see the group of 4 anymore, so I kept pushing. I hit Dumas at mile 50 with a 22.5 MPH average. This is where things got a little more interesting.

I tried to shift and to my dismay - nothing happened. I had broken the head off the shifter cable so I was down to 2 gears (53x11 or 39x11). This was ok since on the way out I had a tail wind and rode 53x11 to the turn around at Arkansas Post at mile 65. Then I switched to 39x11 for the return trip. If I had to break a shifter cable, I was lucky it was on this ride because there was only 997 feet of climb.

The turn around for the ride was at Arkansas Post at mile 65. Up to this point I was still over 22.5 miles per hour, but it was about to start dropping on the return. The return trip was from Arkansas Post to Dumas then down to McGehee. This section was extremely tiring since it was into a 10mph head wind and could only use 1 gear so I couldn't change up the resistance while standing, sitting or aero. So I stayed areo and pushed back.

I ended the ride with 101.2 miles in 4:40:51 for a 21.6 mile average. Pretty fast day, fast enough to be able to catch a shower and drink my recovery mix and jump in the car without seeing the next finisher. The Rabbit Won :-).

On the way home I continued to push the speed and had to take a time out in Gould for doing 78 in 65. OOPS.

Kurt

My First Ultra Cup Win.

2010-06-03T16:36:00.000-07:00

This is my race write up for the Balltown Double. Thanks Joe and Dave for putting on a fun event.

The race weekend started with a road trip with my daughters, Katelyn and Rachel. We drove up to St Louis on Thursday before the race. We got into town about 7 and stopped to see the arch up close and personal. Rachel decided that she really needed to go to the top of the arch so we grabbed a close hotel for the night. We returned first thing Friday morning and took the trolley ride to the top and then headed on our way to De Witt - via Monmouth to visit college.

We got to De Witt about 4:00 on Friday which gave me enough time to do a 11 mile leg stretch in the early afternoon to recover from two days in the car. I rode out with Wendel Hyink and got a chance to talk with him about his riding. After this quick preride, I took a quick shower then we were off to "Happy Joes" for a group dinner which was quite enjoyable. I was hanging with Larry, but also met Steve Wartenburg who is writing a book about ultra racing.

The race started off at 5:30. It was already light enough that we did not need our lights so it was a great time of the morning to ride. The temp was in the low 60's but wouldn't stay that way for long. We headed east thru town and then turned north. I pulled the group out for about the first 5 miles then started working in a group with Steph M and a couple of others. For about the first 35 miles I did about 1/2 the pulls and Steph did about 1/4 with everyone else working in as they were able.

At mile 37, I decided to go it on my own. We had hit a couple of hills and I got out in front of the group, so I decided that now was the time to go. We had a couple of more hills and I was completely away from group. The first stop was around mile 50 when Katy and Rach had me all set and I was in and out of the stop in less than 2 minutes.

I continued to cruise along until mile 80, where a pot hole met my rear wheel. I just had a feeling that I would be flat in the next mile and, as predicted, I was on the side of the road changing my tire in 1/2 a mile. Since nobody caught up to me during the tube change, I decided that I really had a chance to win the race. I got on the bike and kept pushing hard, keeping a 20+ MPH average.

At about mile 90 we hit a road detour and had to take a gravel road. That would have been just fine, but a farmer had just oiled the part of the road that went past his house so we had a 300 foot stretch of road full of fresh oil. Time to suck it up and ride thru it and keep going. The 2nd stop was at about mile 105 and the girls were ready again. This stop was going to take a little longer though because I needed to pump up my rear tire, get a new tube and inflator, and completely reload my camel back and food stash for the return trip.

Just as I was leaving the 2nd station, a group of 5 riders pulled in including Paul C and Steph M. As they were pulling in, Steph said this is probably the only time we'll see you and she was right. I was thru the first 105 miles in just over 5 hours but the return trip was going to be much harder.

The return trip was much harder due to two factors - wind and heat. When we left in the morning the wind was from the north east, but had switched around to the east during the ride up and now was from the south east for the return trip. It also went from 5 to 15 mph. The day had started out mild and was supposed to stay in the low 80's but had reach 90 in the early afternoon. Both of these factors made the return trip much harder and take longer.

At around mile 107 we hit the steepest climbs of the day, which hit around 15%. The biggest problem was that after the climb the downhill section that followed was kind of sketchy. This meant you couldn't get aero and fly down the hill. You had to stand and maneuver around the pot holes. As I was standing and weaving - I took a direct hit from a bee/wasp (some stingy son of a b. about 2" from dead center). This made the downhill so much more interesting.

We had a couple more testy climbs in the next 10 miles, then the course leveled out to rollers again so I was just fighting the wind, the heat and a new enemy - the black birds. Somewhere between mile 125 and 130 I had the not-so-pleasant experience of having a bird hit my helmet. The first time it happened I really wasn't sure what hit me. The second time, the bird tried to lift the helmet off my head. So if you need a reason to wear a helmet - it's for protection from crazed starlings.

The race proceeded from here as more of a test of survival than a race. My average speed kept dropping as the wind speed and temperature kept increasing. Stop 3 at mile 150 was another good stop by the sisters - who had done a great job in keeping me going. At about mile 170 Joe passed me on the way in and asked if there was anying I needed. I justed wanted to know if anyone was close. He said everyone was quite aways back. This made me feel pretty good and I kept pushing on and looking back every 5 miles or so. Don't know what I would have done if I had seen someone, because I don't think I had any more to give.

I finished in 11:06, about 1 hour more than I thought it should have taken, but 40 minutes ahead of the next finishers.

Arkansas State Record Attempt

2010-05-09T13:06:00.001-07:00

The alarm went off at 2:00 am. I got up and grabbed a frozen omelet and pancakes while packing everything in the van. We started rolling down Stateline in Texarakana to the Courthouse with two missions to accomplish. First, to break the existing West to East record for the state - this meant covering the 190 miles in less than 10:38. The 2nd mission was to turn around and ride the same 190 miles backward for a total of 380 miles in under 24 hours.

Mission 1.
On the way, we stopped at EZ mart so my morning Crew, (Big Ralph and Little Ralph and the official Lanie), could grab some large coffees for the road. I was sitting in the car and could see them in the EZ mart joking with the clerk. When they came out, they said they told the clerk what we were doing and the clerk asked if he could have some of whatever I was smoking. I'm guessin' alot of people would have that reaction.

We rolled over to the courthouse and finished setting up and got all of the paraphenalia on the van and ready to start. 3am rolls around and Me and My Giant headed east down U.S. 82. The first 10 miles out of Texarkana are gradual rolls that drop you down the red river basin. Just as we are coming out to the flats, the van starts flashing it's lights at me and we have to pull over. The flashing lights on the rear of the van had stopped working. Here it is, not 30 minutes into the ride and I'm thinking that the attempt is toast because the Honda has an electrical problem. Nope, it is just that the splitter cable is slipping out of the connection. The crew fixes the problem and we are off again.

Once we dropped down into the flats, I started to feel the NE wind that will be the bane of the Eastward attempt. We countinued cruising east through Lewisville, Stamps and Magnolia, mostly a flat ride. The 3rd bottle exchange and first food exchange was set at the junction of 96 and 82. I pulled off the side of the road and looked to my crew to get my bottles and food to keep going. Little Ralph, who was in charge, was smoking a cirgarette. 3 hours was a little much to go without. I asked him for my supplies and he said, "Oops", refocused, and got the stuff and I was back on the road.

After stop 3 the sun had come up so the follow vehicle could now leap in front of me. This meant that Lanie and Ralph had time catch a smoke break every two hours or so on the bottle exchanges and even in between. Life was much easier on the crew when they didn't have to follow me down the road, but riding at night was so much easier with a crew vehicle, with its brights on, lighting up the road.

The section from Magnolia to Stamps is the hilliest by far with continuous rollers, but the wind wasn't too bad because you're mostly in pine forests and on a East-South-Easterly heading. During this section I was able to keep up a 19+ mph average.

At Stamps, we turned almost due east and the wind speed picked up to over 10. My pace decreased slightly, but enough for Lanie to comment about it. By our 6th checkpont, just west of Crosset, my average speed had decreased to 19. When Lanie commented about me needing to pickup the pace, I did the math in my head. I knew we had to maintain an 18 mph average to beat the record by 8 minutes. So, at the turn in Crosset, I calculated that I had 26 minute cushion built up and I was going to need it.

At Crosset, you turn North East to head to Lake Village, you also leave the pine forests and enter the delta, which means you lose most of the wind break effect. We made the turn around 10am and the wind began to pickup to over 15 mph and really made me work my butt off. About 10 miles outside of Lake Village, Ralph pulled the van up and said that Trish was in place with the 2nd bike.

2nd Bike? Why a 2nd bike? Thanks to the Arkansas Highway Department, the last 10 miles of this run were under serious construction. They had grooved the main pavement and completely removed the shoulders of the road. I had scouted the route on Monday and found no way around the construction. I decided then that it would be best if I rode this section on my Gary Fisher MTB with cyclocross tires.

Checkpoint 8. I lifted the road bike into the back of the Jungle Pickup and grabbed the MTB. I gave Trish my order for some real food (chocolate shake and sub) and I took off across the demolished road to finish the West East leg of the Journey. After a long and bumpy 10 miles, I crossed the state line on the MS river bridge and set the record for the West-East crossing at 10:16, beating the old record by 22 minutes with an 18.35 average speed.

After riding off the bridge and talking with the crew in the Casino parking lot, we got ready for the start of the East-West Crossing.

Mission 2.
The East to West crossing record wasn't supposed to be as hard since we weren't under time pressure. I just had to ride another 190 miles. The only problem is that I have never ridden more than 14 hours or 250 miles in one day so this was new territory for me.

I cruised back to the welcome center and met Trisha and Rachel who were taking over the afternoon crew duties. I grabbed half my sandwitch and the chocolate shake and laid down under a shade tree in the grass for a couple of minutes just eating and talking, while the crew restocked the van and filled it up with gas. Then it was time to get back on the Giant and hit the road again for the last 180 miles.

I was cruising along just fine doing 20 miles per hour on that same road I was having a hard time doing 17mph on just 2 hours before. I was just past Montrose, around mile 35 of the return trip, when I flatted. The crew had leap frogged in front of me so I rode on the flat tire up to the back of the van, but they started to drive away. I was yelling at them and they pulled back over. Trisha opened the lift gate and I grabbed a spare wheel out of the back and quickly mounted it on the bike and was headed back down the road.

Here is where it started to get hard. I felt like I was working my butt off and not making any speed and my right achilles started to ache. I could no longer stand up to pedal because it hurt too much. I talked with the crew, I could eat sugars and was stopping every hour taking 2 Ibuprofen, a piece of meat and a starbuck coffee from stop 2 to stop 5. We had been going through the flats without much climbing and with a tail wind and I had only been able to keep a 16 mph average. I was wondering if I was out of my league. Should I just stick to 12 hour races? Had I worked so hard on the first half that I was too tired to do the 2nd half? At the stop at hour 5, I told Lanie and Trish that if the med didn't stop the pain by hour 6 I was going to have to call it a day. I couldn't walk and had been unable to eat anything sugary for the last 3 hours and it just wasn't fun anymore.

At mile 85 my Ipod stopped and I started to hear this scraping noise on the bike. So I got off the bike and was bending over to see what was making the awful racket. Trish had been about a 100 yards ahead and whipped a U turn because she thought I was getting sick. After inspecting the bike, I found that I had knocked the rear brake out of alignment when I changed the tire at mile 35. I had been riding with the brake on for the last 3+ hours. I got back on the bike and was instantly 3-4 miles per hour faster and it didn't hurt the ankle to pedal. I still couldn't stand because the damage was done but it didn't hurt to pedal. My outlook changed from, If we stop now I can sleep in my own bed, to how fast can I finish this thing.

I had cost myself 45-60 minutes and a messed up achilles because I was in such a hurry to get back on the bike, but I was jubilant. I went from a DNF to we got this in the bag. I had kept myself going during the time that hurt so bad by thinking that it was just a beautiful day to be outside on the bike and now it was a great day on the bike.

The next part of the ride was great but uneventful - just riding into the night watching the sky slowly change colors with a beautiful pink-red-orange sunset. The problem was that I still had 4 hours to go when we stopped at mile 65 to put back on arm warmers and wind vest. Temps were already colder than they had been that morning but I rode on.

The 2nd to last stop of the day was around 11:00pm in Stamps. We pulled into the convenience store so the crew could smoke and use the bathrooms. (which they close at nights???) There was a small crowd outside and they asked what we were doing. After chatting for awhile we started to head out and one of the guys commented "You must be a pedaling fool". I'm guessing he is correct.

From Stamps to Texarkana is about 35 miles of mostly flat until you get within 10 miles of town. Then you get to the rollers that climb back into the city. At 1 in the morning, 10 miles of rolling climbs weren't my friend. You climb one and then see the headlights of a car on the next one ahead. Slowly going up and up and thinking will I ever be done? Sort of like you reading this and wondering if I'll ever finish :-)

Well, I did finish. 1:09am, I believe, was the official time. So the East West Time was 11:49 and the record for the total was 22:09. Which is around 17.5 mph round trip.

Thanks to:
Lanie Smith, UMCA Official.
J Ralph Huneycutt, Morning Crew
Ralph M Huneycutt, Morning Crew
Trish Searvogel, Evening Crew
Rachel Searvogel, Evening Crew

Crew Notes:
Yep, what he said.
A huge "Thank You" to Lanie for all the advice and humorous commentary during the trip. He talked me through changing out my first tube. I'm sure it was truly comical to watch and I'm thankful Kurt didn't need to use that wheel since it certainly wasn't an expert job!
The closer we got to the end goal the more hilarious everything appeared. The grinding noise made by the rear flashers, (or as one of the onlookers in Stamps named them, "Cool, they even got strobes!"), the clickety-click of the van flashers and the constant flashing green lights on the dash were all fodder for jokes. This was a tiring, (I was on the road at 9am and finished at the hotel at 1:30am), nerve-wracking, (it's difficult to drive within a car's length behind someone riding a bicycle), fun experience that I won't ever forget. Kurt, we love ya! :)
Trish Searvogel

Tarzan may not ride.

2010-05-06T15:16:00.000-07:00

If our friends at Fedex don't get their shit straight Tarzan may not ride accross the country.

I shipped my touring bike with Fedex last friday before I left for Calvins Challenge. It was on its way to San Deigo for the start of the tour. It made it as far as Pheonix before the package had some problems. Evidently the box had sustainted some sort of damage and the shipping label had been ripped off. Can't wait to see the inside of the package. :(

Here is where it gets interesting. The label underneath the shipping label had the box going to Arkansas Cycling and Fitness - the place that packaged my bike for me. The box had contained a Trek delivered to the store a month ago.

So I get a call this morning from Eric at ACF saying that Fedex Delivered my bike to him. Eric packed the bike so he would know whose bike it was, but when they called Fedex they wouldn't beleive Teresa our shipping clerk.

We are trying to get the bike picked up from the shop today and back on its way to California. It needs to be there by next Friday.

I think it would have been easier to collect the $6000 insurance on the bike and by one when I got to San Diego. I'm pretty sure this will be the last time I ship my bike anywhere and I already don't fly my bike anywhere. So I'll be restricted to races I can drive to.

Now on too better news. We are less than 36 hours away from the start of my Arkansas West-East-West crossing Record Attempt. With have all of the paperwork filed with the UMCA we have our Official Lanie Smith coming from Texas. I have my crew Trisha, Skip, Rachel, and Big Ralph ready for me to make this 380 mile trip in under 24 hours. We will be leaving from Texarkana where US-82 crosses the state line somewhere between midnight and 6 am depending on the weather and wind forcasts. We hope to make the West to east run in under 10 hours. We will be turning around on the US82 bridge at the MS line and probably take 12 hours for the return trip.

Tonight its time to make all of the cytomax bottles and get the cooler ready. Will leave around 10:30 tomorrow to check the route from Magnolia to Texarkana and meet with Lanie at the hotel for vehicle inspection and then off dinner and an early bed time.

Thats all for now

The First Post.

2010-05-05T15:10:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Tarzan Rides

Many people believe that riding my bike is all I do. Some days riding is all that I do, but most days I balance out my riding with managing Applied Computer Solutions and try to keep up with my family.

With the PAC Tours - Elite Cross Country tour fast approaching, a number of people have asked if I will have somewhere that they can read about the tour and what I'm doing to during my training or racing season this. So I started this blog to record where I'm riding and what is going on in my little corner of the world.