Sunday = Bike and Bears

Katy and I met "Bike" Tom and Dominik from Masters out at Palos this morning for some Bears Pre Game riding.  Even Tom's primary concern was the Bears game, so you know how important the Bears game was today!  We road some of the regular routes today while Katy did some cross country skiing.  There were a TON of riders out there today and the temp was below 20 degrees for sure.  I had more technical problems today, FRONT FLAT, but we got it dealt with relatively quickly.  Side note, 3 CO2's per Fat tire, but we didn't have enough CO2 so I did some pumping.



I got Dominik to ride the Pugsley today and I heard him laughing a few times while riding it.  It really is that fun.  Great to have him out riding today.  Probably the craziest part of the day was at the end of the out and back trail we were chatting with about 10-12 other riders when someone found a cell phone laying in the snow.  It was Katy's!  Evidentally it fell out of her pocket while skiing.  What are the odds of actually recovering a lost phone at Palos in the snow??  I guess there goes all our luck for winning the lottery.  Damn it!

DA BEARS WIN!  DA BEARS WIN!

NFC Championship game next week! against the Packers........Its going to be a battle!

Saturday = Bike Day

After Masters this morning, Katy and I headed to Palos so she could check out some cross country ski trails and I could ride some trails. I got about .75 miles into my ride and the bolt for my seat clamp broke putting me dangerously close to an uncomfortable situation. After spending some time looking for the tapered nut, I gave up as it was long gone somewhere in the snow. So I called Katy on her cell and told her to return to the truck. I rode "out of the saddle" back to the truck and we left. Not really what I was looking for. So when I got home, Katy headed into Bemis and I headed to the bike shop where I picked up a new cheap seat post to get me by until I order a Thompson post for the Pugsley. This is a mandatory upgrade!
I then headed out to meet up with CK to go ride Fermi for a while. It was CK's first real ride on his fat bike. It was a great day out, but bitterly cold by the end. I actually called our ride short because I couldn't feel my fingertips anymore or at least I was on the verge of the pain going away......it was in the teens and very windy out there.  We rode a total of about 12 miles.  It was a day totally dedicated to riding, the good and the bad.  My kind of day!

Fresh Snow @ Palos

On Tuesday I "clocked out" around 2:30 due to the weather.  6-8" of fresh snow!  How can I be expected to work!? Tom came and grabbed me and we headed to Palos and rode about 12.5 miles of fresh snow.  Tom likes to ride fast and I am pretty sure he said that exact phrase at one point in the day.



I just tried to hang on his back wheel as much as possible.  We rode the main trail from Bullfrog lake to Turf 1 and then checked out the new XX trail.



We continued on past Saganaski Slough, past the "Throne Room" and then I was in completely uncharted territory for me.  It was a great to check out these new trails, which I guess see quite a bit of ATV and dirt bike traffic.

It gets dark pretty early and the sun had definitely set by the time I got back to Tom's truck.  He was already there since my legs by this point were barely working.  I learned a lot about what the Pugsley can do and how to ride it properly.  Thanks Tom.  Great day out at Palos!  I have never had this much fun on a bike.  I love my Pugsley.

Pugsley Adventures

After screwing around on some of the dirt trails near Bob Mann Woods, I rode from the shelter on the main trail to the bridge by Brainard along the shoreline of Salt Creek. It is/should be completely unrideable, but the Pugsley makes it TOTALLY rideable.

Halloween Cross #7

I raced again on Halloween in "4B".  Yes I was dressed as Luke Skywalker with Yoda on my back.  The course was way more fun than the last one but also had a few more hills.  I need to work on my off camber turns, as Yoda always seemed to want to lean the wrong way.

While this course was much harder than the last one, I certainly wasn't riding as hard as I could.

Yoda was starting to get pretty heavy by the end of the race but I did manage to make it on the podium!

 But it was for best costume as I finished about 7th from last.   I did win a bottle of Jagermeister and a stuffed pig for best costume however.  I also made the CCC newsletter.

CCC#7

I am signed up for another cyclocross race this weekend.  It is in St. Charles at Campton Park. I registered too late it appears, so I am in 4B(3:30pm start time) instead 4A(last race).  I will probably fare better in this category, but I wish I was in 4A getting beat on.

Here is a great slideshow/article about cyclocross in Bicycling Magazine, Check it out.

Cyclocross is War

I have only done one other cyclocross race before this one.  I have interesting memories of that first race.  I remember the mud.  I remember puking mid race.  I remember it being one of the hardest, if not hardest sporting activities I have ever done.

 So going into this race I kinda had an idea of what I was getting myself into.  Thanks Aaron for blindsiding me last time!  I knew this was going to be painful.  I knew I was no where near where I needed to be fitness wise to survive.  Its such a different type of bike riding than I normally do.  While 100 miles is a long way to bike, I know I am strong enough to get through it at a moments notice, regardless of how much I have been riding.  This was going to be less than 10 miles and I knew I was in big trouble...

The race atmosphere was pretty great, no "Cross Crusade", but pretty great.  We got there a few hours early and set up camp at a picnic table right alongside the course.  We met up with Tom and a buddy of his who did the race in the am.  Tom got 14th while riding a mountain bike, he is a total freak on the bike.  Awesome.  We got some beta from him about the course and then pre road a few sections of it in between races.  I really struggled with one section that was a series of 2' moguls about 20 yards long.  This made me really concerned for the race, this was for sure a section I would be laying face down in the dirt at. 

About 20 minutes before the start of the race, I went and lined up.   Everyone around me seemed so "pro", it was scary.  Maybe I should have registered for 4B instead of 4A??

I was lined up pretty far back, knowing I had no shot in being up in the front.  When the race went off I seemed to pass a bunch of people on the outside and quickly made up quite a bit of ground.

  The first obstacle was a small hill section with a few switchbacks coming down from the top.  It was madness.  Some one crashed in front of me and then everyone started dismounting and running.  The guy next to me jammed his pedal into my back.  Lots of elbows and shoulders banging around, but I got through.

  Then there was a barricade that you had to run over and then jump a dry creek bed.

At this point in the race, I was DYING.  I looked at my watch and I was only about 4 minutes into the race.  All I could taste was blood in my mouth.  My lungs were burning.  I was most certainly drooling.  Only 26 more minutes.......great.  I surprisingly went through the mogul section with no problem, I think race speed was the key.  I just powered through, pumping my arms and rode out of the saddle the whole time.

A few more barricades and a sand section left me with a bunch of sections on grass that switch backed continuously to the end of the first lap of what would be 3 laps.



I felt like I was not really "in the mix" but not "out of the mix" either at the end of the first lap.  The rest of the race's technical sections went fine for me, but anytime I just had to ride, I could barely keep pedaling.  At the 15 minute mark, Katy yelled to me that I was about half way done.  I responded something like "might not be able to finish", although I am not sure how audible it was.

That last lap I am pretty much consisted of this:

• ride through the technical section with everything I had
• completely space out, spitting constantly looking for the blood I could taste.  Never saw anything.  just try to keep pedaling...pedal...pedal...
• repeat

I am pretty sure I got passed by about 20 - 30 people on that last lap, but I really have no idea.  I ended up finishing in front of only 5 people, something like 69th out of 75, covering about 6 MILES! 6 MILES!  HOW CAN 6 MILES BE SO HARD!

Cyclocross is War
War with the course
War with the racers
and most importantly War within yourself

I won the war with myself, as I didn't quit when that was all i could think about doing.  I lost on just about every other front, but I can't wait to do my next race!

CCC#5

Here is more info on the cyclocross race this weekend.  Looks like its Octoberfest as well going on at the same time.  Should be a good time.

Check out the course here, it looks a little painful.

"- This year’s course is a mix of classic Carpentersville features such as creek crossings, one of the CCC’s longer sand pits, a little nub of a hill that always gets people. Returning from 2009 but still somehow new for 2010, the course now goes through 100 yards of sweet black mother earth in the adjoining bean field to the East of the park. The dirt stretch will contain a section of plump dirt rollers (aka the pump/rhythm section) finely tuned for your pleasure. Dirty Mudders, pray for rain. Check out Sven Nys flying through one here (0:11)."

CCC #5

 

I will be competing in the Chicago Cyclocross Cup #5 in Carpentersville on Oct 17th @ 2:45pm(4A).  The race is 30 minutes long.   Should be brutal and fun!  For more information click here

Endurance Cycling - 140 miles

My next big ride I am planning on doing is from LGP to the Wisconsin border and back.  I have done the ride before, but over the course of 2 days.  This time it will be one epic day of about 140 miles.  The weather is about to take a turn for the worse, so this is going to have to happen in the near future.  I have not been on the bike as much as I should, but I should be able to do it with a few weeks of roller work.

This is a great route composed of almost all trail, mix of paved and crushed limestone.  It is one of the great perks of the Chicago area, the bike infrastructure just keeps growing.  It's remarkable that I can ride to the WI border with only a handful of miles done on roads.

Here is the route, Google Maps has it as at 68.9 miles one way:

More than I bargained for

I went on a night ride last night that turned out to be more adventure than I bargained for.

I left around 10:15pm and headed to MB's in DG.  While riding through WS I got my first flat tire in a seemly very long time.  I rode through a construction zone and got a really nice snakebite flat.  I got it changed pretty quickly as I consider myself very quick and efficient at changing out a tube.  I got moving and ended up at MB's place around 11pm.  We chatted for a while and had a drink or two and then the weather turned to windy and rainy.  I decided to try to wait it out for a bit, but eventually I decided it was now or never.  The ability to sleep late in my own bed was my main motivator as Masters coaching is starting up next week.  Early Saturdays for months to come for me.  MB gave me a pullover coat and I verified my tire pressures and also inspected my tires.  My rear tire got a small hole in the sidewall, which is surprising considering they were Conti Gator Skins and are seemly bombproof.  I must have really done a number on them in the construction zone.

Well I set off at around 1:15am and got as far as the Hinsdale Golf Course when I flatted again!  Same tire!  So I pulled into a parkway and started changing my tire.  I used my spare tube on my first flat, but i had plenty of scabs with me that I figured I would just patch the tube, no big deal.  What I didn't factor in was that in the dark and rain, finding the hole proved to be difficult, eventually leading to impossible.  There was rain on everything and all the drops looked like holes.  Please keep in mind that I am running 2 Niterider lights and a back up Cat Eye.  It was as bright as daylight with these all pointing at the tube.  I would pump up the tire and then it would deflate before I could find the hole.  It was maddening and frustrating.  How can I not fix this flat?!?!

So after about 20 minutes of trying to fix it, I decided to just walk home, about 4.5 miles according to Google.  I have after all been really needing a good "adventure".  Not exactly what I had in mind, but I had to make the best of it.  Yes, I could have called Katy, but she had just gotten home from a business trip and was pretty tired.  Keep in mind I was kinda laughing this whole time and had committed mentally to the walk home.  So I called probably the one person who I new would be awake and completely unable to help me, Aaron in Portland.  We talked briefly as I packed back up all my gear and just started walking and listening to music.

It was quite a realization that my walk actually was a lot further than I could visualize.  I have ridden this route so many times that in my head it all seems so close.  It took me a little over 2 hours to walk home; about 4:00am (My Sidi Dominator 5's were surprisingly comfortable, I was really thankful that mountain shoes are my preferred choice.  I could never have done that walk in the slick carbon soles of a road shoe).  While it was really not a good situation, it wasn't really all that bad either.  I needed to suffer a little bit.  I really felt alive.  Some how I even enjoyed myself.

mental note: carry more than one extra tube