Iola = maybe a little too much excitment and prep

Well I need to pretext this weekend saying I did 22 miles of riding @ John Muir on Wednesday which felt great. When I say felt great I mean, I felt very comfortable on the bike as far as handling and my aerobic and anaerobic abilities. Saturday, I packed Saturday morning and headed out around noon, I got up there around 2:30 ish. I registered did 1 lap of pre-ride, which felt decent, I made it up all the hills w/ my 32-17 gear. the hill in the back of the property kills me though and it would be the only time I made it up that hill all weekend w/o walking.

After my lap of pre-ride I went and picked up my 9004 number plate and back numbers. I went back to my car and cooked up a few brats and sour kraut and snacked a little. I waited for it to get dark and then the fun began. Only I know what its like to have an entire WORS Race course to myself. I think that I wished the race was on Saturday, the two abbreviated laps I did of night riding were very fast and very fun. I skipped the lead out to the top of hill by the jump scaffolds and the bowl. It was the first time I had spent a good amount of time on quality single track at night and it was fun. I think I was riding sections faster at night than during the day, because during the daylight I was looking too far in advance and riding accordingly. The short course/long course sign for trail run was already up for the trail run in the morning which confused me a little bit.

Sunday rolled around and it was pretty darn cold in the morning, as I camped out but I knew that was going to happen and had made preparations accordingly, lots of blankets. I slept through the night and that was good. I went to sleep around midnight and woke up around 8.

After I left some leftovers from the night before for breakfast and banana I went for a ride around the parking lot to find anyone I knew. I found Gus, Theo, and Jordan a.k.a. J-dog was sporting his 2008 Big Sur, he hadn't even ridden it on dirt yet. So Iola would be a little bit of a learning experience for him. I did not get his post race reaction but I think things went well.

My race time was rolling around and I rode on the road some, did some last minute checks of my bolts and stuff, I hopped on the Cyclops trainers by registration for like 10-minutes and my legs felt very very loose. It was still 15-20 minutes before race time so I just chilled hung out and talked to some people. Race time rolled around and I found out my class was pretty big. Only after my race did I find out how big that actually was. I Chugged up the start hill alright, lot better than last fall where I endo'd in the first 100' of the race. Everything was going OK but I didn't have the power in my legs like I did the night before. I don't know if I had prerode too much or my legs had too much to tighten up or I was running the wrong gear. I know that my Heart doesn't like deviation, it like static wattage and a static HR. Big surges of power are not my forte. I did have a pretty decent day in the single track though, faster than I think I ever have before. I pretty much did an aggressive sunday ride rather than "race mode" and clocked in at a modest 1:46 putting me around 36 minute laps, not great but not terrible. I later found out I got 17th out of 19. I looked at other peoples numbers and realized there is at least like 16 series registered racers in my class. I know a few people within my own class that have openly admitted they should upgrade. Granted not everyone ends up competing for the whole series, you naturally get degretion. As long as I pile up the finishes and continue to work on my conditioning faster than the other people, thing SHOULD improve but I've already made it clear that WORS isn't my #1 focus this year.

I will do the Muskego Crit. Next week because I like that course and after that It will be a return to WORS in Lake Geneva's treadfest.

Thursday Night Ride

I am going to be leading the Thursday night ride out of Expedition Supply starting tonight and every Thursday from not through September. expect 25-35 miles @ 16-18mph. It leaves 20 W. Sumner in Hartford @ 530.

Just call me 9004

I did the WORS Series Registration (not all-in-one) but I got assigned 9004 which for those of you who are playing @ home is Male Sport Singlespeed. I will be rocking the Trek "Cogitory"w/ pride. Hopefully I will actually bring home a few decent finishes including a podium or two would be nice.

I'm hoping that on Wednesday I will be able to pick up my Redline Monocog, bad thing is I have to drive all the way to Rockford to get it.

Words Cannot Describe how happy I am...

That I did not take part in Trans Iowa. The course was cut short @ the 240 mile mark around 4am ish. Former teammates Aris Peters and Constantine Peters Exact mileage is unknown to me at this time. I'm fairly certain they made it past checkpoint 1 but I'm not 100% certain and I know they quit sometime before 9pm putting them in the 100-170 mile neighborhood. If the course conditions would have been hospitable it more than likely would have been an entirely different story for all parties involved.

Next week I'm planning to go up Saturday morning to Iola, I would like to do some pre-ride. Some muscles are still on the mend a little from last weeks "Do the Rock". I was going to riding Saturday @ muir but the huge amounts of rain we got saturday screwed that idea up.

You know that Bike Raffle that RC Trail Crew had @ Rock Cut

ya, well I will be the prowd owner of a new Monocog 29er soon. Its $10 mountain bike Race ready, how many people can say that.

http://www.redlinebicycles.com/adultbikes/monocog-29er.html

Last weekend didn't happen

I woke up on Saturday with good intentions but ended up just doing some cleaning and unpacking. Exciting huh? This weekend I'm all but entirely certain I will do Great Dane #1 as it is one of the few races I have done both of the last two years, this sunday will be 3. In that same group is the Crit in Muskego, the Road Race in Baraboo which I think I'm going to miss this year, and the Elm Grove Criterium. I have done Iola on dirt both of the last two years, but I missed the spring race last year and did the September race instead. Same Course though. When in Madison I might try to squeeze some dirt in, but we'll see.

Century #1 and 24-9 Announcement

I'm possibly planning to do my first Century tomorrow on the Glacial Drumlin State Trail. W/ a planned departure @ 8am from the trailhead in Waukesha, at a minimum I will round trip Cottage grove unless I'm ambitious and round trip Madison, but I'm thinking I don't want to kill myself this early in the season I'm not training for Trans Iowa. I could hurt myself and hamper further training. 104 Miles are garanteed, 52 miles each way. It won't be warm enough for shorts or short sleeves though, but I could probably do gloveless.



I have not formally made the announcement yet, but I'm saying today, the 4th of April 2008, I plan to enter the 24 hours of 9 Mile in the Solo Singlespeed category. I'm banking my entire year on that race. I plan to duo in the WEMS series and will be doing Sport Singlespeed for WORS, but those are just supplement, however I hope to win both of those series titles. My 24-9 Goal is simply put is 12+ laps and no significant time off the bike in the pits. As of right now, I have Ashley James to support me in the pits as the rest of my team will be focusing on their various team efforts, primarily focusing on the Mens Junior Team National Championship.

As the year progresses I might have 1 more 24 hour solo race announcement to be made.