Saturday, July 26, 2008

Do you have an EZ UP I can borrow?

As I'm getting ready for my first attempt to Solo 24 I'm lacking a small but crucial Item, I do not have an EZ-up for my pits. If you or someone you know of has one I could borrow that would be fantastic. Just comment or email me.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Still looking for a duo partner @ 24 hours of seven oaks

August 30th/31st I'm still hoping to find a DUO Partner for the 24 Hours of Seven Oaks in Boone, IA. If you or anyone you know might have interest in this races, let me know.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

The possibilities are "Infinit"

I will be running the best @ 24-9

Monday, July 21, 2008

50 mile pavement ride on a mountain bike

I'm going to keep it short but today I went on a road ride with my Mountain bike since its the only bike I have with me in Traverse City, MI. for about 50 miles. Up mission peninsula which is the the peninsula on the east side of Traverse City. I haven't gotten much training in as I would like to as of late due to work stuff.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

I tell you the Truth...

...Ellsworth that is. Team Mata has graciously extended their hand to me and I will be riding an Ellsworth Truth for 24-9, my first 24 hour solo attempt. Its nice to know that I'm going to be riding the best equipment out there.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Did you hear about 12 hours of Blue Mounds?

It was canceled until October... bummer, I was so looking forward to that beat down that course beats down. I won't even be home. Kudos to Rachel for alerting me.

That whole thing about The Gary Fisher 29er guy...

ya, turns out he has a conflict that he cannot race, of some kind. So I guess that means I'm still taking applications . Come on People, its Labor Day weekend You don't even have to be back to work 'till Tuesday.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Wednesday Night Race Report

Last night I decided to hit up the Wednesday night races @ Crystal Ridge. I didn't have terribly high aspirations, I just wanted to stretch my legs out and see what condition Crystal Ridge was in. Craters of the Moon Still need a lot of work. If you saw it, you'd agree. I will miss both the WEMS Metro Challenge and the Alterra Coffee Bean Roasters WORS Race. There, the only other race I will do @ Crystal Ridge will be the Wisconsin State Night Racing Championship race. I knew going in to last night race I wouldn't have a very stellar night, I did beat someone in my age group, Tim Strege of Half Acre Cycling. When the results got read off and the door prizes were given away I won a TUBE! If you go back an look at my blog from last year, I also won a tube.

I should point out that yesterday was the 1 year anniversary of my first blog post, "Doingsomethingtothemax" Turns 1 today

-CG

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Small Announcement

I have a small announcement to make in regards to 24 hours of Seven Oaks. I have found a duo partner. He races for Gary Fisher 29er... I'm going to leave people in suspense for right now as to whom it may be for now.

My plan is still to solo @ 24-9 however I'm undecided to race Single speed, Solo Freak or Solo Championship. I know I could get a top 5 in Singlespeed but even a top 20 in Solo championship would look good on a racing resume. As this is the last year the race will be in WI, I'm thinking I should take my oppertunity while I can.

I'm going to race geared @ 12 hours of Blue Mounds to get a good idea what endurance is like on gears as I have a good experience singlespeed from 12 hours of Gears in May.

Monday, July 7, 2008

The weekend that wasn't meant to be

On wednesday night 7/2, my dad realized that he needed a ride to the airport to make his 6:15 flight, since it takes an hour to get there and you are supposed to get there at least an hour before your flight that meant we needed to leave hartford @ 4am. I got done with work @ 2pm and then I followed that up by cutting 25-30 acres of Hay, it doesn't end there. Just as I finish my eyes were a little sore I noticed, went inside and noticed my eyes were totally and utterly bloodshot. Well shortly after that my eyes but more so my right eye began to swell, I quickly took some benedryl but the damage was done. It took until later of friday for my eye to reside. I decided early on that it probably wouldn't be a wise decision to go Mountain bike riding with a partially swollen eye. I was planning to do alot of riding on friday at the John Muir Trails, it just wasn't meant to be. On saturday I went to go see my 97 y/o Great Grandma and my 101 y/o Great Grandma. The 101 y/o Grandma still lives at home by herself and is very very mobile and is not on any regimented prescriptions.

Sunday, I finally decided it was time to do a race. UWW Cycling team put on a 20K TT in La Grange, actually using the same facilities as the John Muir Trails. Well I time trialed then went riding the trails, about 6 or so miles in all of sudden it feels like my ass end it crazy loose turns out got my first flat while riding, EVER. I was like crap, I don't carry a pump or CO2 or a tube or anything, I was in the farthest corner of the trails and with all the moisture we've had recently the mosquitos were really bad. Once you stop in the woods, its doesn't take long for the mosquitos to find you. so I decided, what the hell, I'll ride out of here, so I rode about 4ish miles out of the trail system. I thought for sure I would have destroyed either the rim or the tire, I got back to the car and both were find, I couldn't even tell I had done what I just did. I was riding a completely flat tire over rocks and roots. The wheel only cost me like $30 and the tire was like $10 so I didn't care. The tire got really hot, but other than that I was fine. I went to go change the tub to find out why it blew or should I say more likely to blow. the tube said 1.25"-1.75" I was running a 2" tire. I know you can do this but it effectively makes the tubewall thinner. It was the first time I had ever blown a tube and flatted while riding. I have ridden punctured but not bled down till the next day. 

Instead of fixing it, I threw the bike in my car and just grabbed another bike, I wasn't sure what I wanted to ride, I was riding my salsa, I also had my Trek "cogitory" or my Redline Monocog 29er. Since I was in a 26er mood I decided to give that a go. I rode about another 15 ish miles sticking to the shorter trails and just doing more laps now that I was a little gun shy to go deep into the woods. Called it a day around 6ish and so concluded my weekend of excitment.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

400+ Mountain Miles in 1 month?

I'm kicking around the idea of doing the 24 hours of Seven Oaks. Nothing in Stone but it does sound like a blast, I will know what I want to do after 24-9 Aug. 2nd and 3rd. 24 Hours of Seven Oaks is August 30-31, plenty of time to recooperate. No single speed class
there however. I would be giving up another endurance race, 12 hours of stump farm however. My job has thrown out any possibility of challenging any kind of series standings this year anyway. I did stump farm last year and I got bored... Its not a very challenging in my opinion.



If I race in Iowa this year and I follow through with my Iceman Entry I will Race in WI, IL, MN, IA, MI, and FL This year. Before this year I had only raced in WI and IL. Every year brings firsts for me. 24-9 will be my first attempt at a 24 hour race. I only completed my first 12 hour in May, I still have the 12 hours of Blue Mounds left for a tune up before my first 24 though. I'm thinking about trying to do 60-100 miles at the John Muir Trails tomorrow as kind of a "12 Hour Simulation" I still have a number of questions I need to answer for myself most of which are nutrition oriented. related to the how. I don't know how I'm going to replenish protein yet. I may do soy, but I'm hoping to take it in solids and not liquids. I think I have a decent Idea of what I want to do with hydration though. Cramps have been an issue in the past but did not rear its head at 12 hours of Gears.