Back in the saddle

Refueling at about 30 miles in before heading back
(left to right = Me, Shawn,Randy,Scott,Tim,Matt )

 

So its probably been a couple months since I have done any long rides. I have been just short 1 hour rides by myself. Most of my friends have been doing trail races and riding trails so haven’t got hit up for a training ride in a while.  Sunday morning Matt sent a text out to meet up for 3 or 4 hour ride. I was looking forward to it but at the same time a little worried as I didn’t know how my legs would hold up from the lack of training if we are going hard the hole ride.  I just figured I wouldn’t do any pulling , get in the draft and hopefully the pace would be mild.

I got over to Matt’s and was checking out his new ride. 2013 Madone with carbon fiber bontrager Aeolus 3 D3 wheelset. I was a little jealous of those sweet wheels 😉  I took a short little ride on it while waiting for the other guys and they are very stiff and rolls well as expected.  Anyways the rest of the group showed up and we headed off. Very nice weather conditions in the 70’s and not much wind. We headed out of town to the south then headed west towards chase county this is a pretty hilly area.  The pace felt pretty hard , I wasn’t sure if it was just me or if we were going fast or not but my heart rate was pretty high even  drafting. When we got to chase county Casey’s  about 30 miles in to refuel we had averaged 17.5mph so with the hills and loose gravel we were riding on it wasn’t  just in my mind we had a pretty good pace.

When we left my legs weren’t feeling so fresh and I had a feeling at some point I might blow up and be riding by myself, but would just try to hold on as long as I could. A few miles out of town we had a unfortunate event… we all were riding very close to each other I was 3rd back. We missed a turn and it caused a ripple effect and Tim towards the back went down. I didn’t see it just heard the sound of what sounded like a slab of meat hitting the ground. As we turned around and rode back I thought he broke his collar bone the way he was holding his shoulder area. He layed there for a while and then when he finally got up and discovered he was ok , with just some mild rash and I am sure some bruises as we were going 20+ mph when it happened.  After we confirmed he was ok we continued on.  The closer we got in to town , Matt picked up the pace some more and  most of the group got split up. I just keep trying to hold his wheel and stay in his draft as long as I could.  Surprisingly my legs held up long enough until I convinced him to slow down so rest of could catch back up. We rode into town together and it was about 55 miles total. I was glad to be done as I was pretty tired from my lack of current fitness. Luckily the other guys did most the pulling for me or I would of blown up long before.  Hopefully it will jump start my training again before the winter gravel races.

Olpe ride

Start of the ride

 

Been a little lazy updating recently. I did get a gravel century in with my buddy Randy Smith about 2 1/2 weeks ago , the week after was olpe 35 mile ride. Which always kinda turns into a race, well at least with the group I am with.  This year we started out pretty hard Matt was putting down a fast pace and I got on his wheel. Also had Randy Smith and Mike Wise with us. Didn’t take long and we couldn’t see anyone else anymore behind us.  We stayed at pretty good pace until some of our group started to fall off and we backed it off a little and rode in together. Afterwards headed back to Emporia and tried to empty the tank  . Was fun day and was early enough before it got way too hot out. Speaking of the heat it has been crazy hot out. Seems about 105 high everyday.  Today only got to 98 and it almost felt cool out, no joke.

Triple digits and TDF

Thats right its that time of year again. The Tour De France. I really look forward to watching it each year but it does eat up a lot of my time for 3 weeks 😉

As far as training I have been taking it fairly easy it has been over 100 degrees everyday and still training consistantly but cut back on volume the last couple weeks. Until I decide on what event I am doing next then will start increasing it back up.

2012 Dirty Kanza 200 recap

Getting ready for the start of the race. Look at all 420 riders! ( thats me on the left)

Well I should probably do a recap while it’s still fresh in my head. Last year I only had 2 hours sleep before the race. I was able to double that and get 4 hours this year. I actually felt like I slept plenty and was feeling pretty good.  We had some rain the day before and was a little worried about some of the dirt roads that is only about 5 to 10 miles into the race after what happened year, I also still had a game plan of taking it easy the first leg and stay consistent the whole race and take short rest stops. Right before the start I moved back a little bit so I wouldn’t be holding up anyone wanting to go fast at the beginning I was probably still about half to 3/4 the way up. The race started and while still on pavement just focused on not tangling up with any other riders. We quickly hit the gravel and I felt like I had a pretty mild pace but soon I was passing a quite a few people and I wasn’t really expecting that. I soon caught up to friend and teammate Scott O’mara we stuck together and when we got to the dirt roads luckily they were a little soft but not too bad. I felt a lot less worried now and we had a good pace. Soon after we found one of the very front groups got slightly off course and was coming back towards us so we were in a good spot. Not too long after that about 15 miles in on a climb my chain came off and fell on the inside between my wheel and cassette we stopped I got it back on in less then a min  Scott stopped and made sure I was ok and we back off again. At this point Randy Smith and Garret Seacat some other teamates that were actually ahead but got off course caught back up.  The chain coming off may of been a blessing atleast this first time because shortly after the group I was in went down in a wreck I would of been caught up in it. Luckily no one was seriously hurt.  So we keep going and later climb texaco hill which is a cat 5 climb which is about 30 ish miles in , I was still keeping a decent pace but was feeling good on the climb. Rebecca Rusch came up and passed me which surprised me because I thought she would of been way ahead but she must of got off course earlier too. There defiantly was some times where I was probably going a little harder then I wanted but sometimes you had to or you wouldn’t be in a draft. Not too much farther in my chain started popping off again more frequently I figured I would try to adjust my limit screw on my rear derailur a little then double check it at the checkpoint. Well I accidently went the wrong direction which made it worse and it came off again and this time got wedged somewhere to cause the wheel to lock up. I was lucky enough I got it out and got back moving again but now my chain was skipping.  I was starting to lose a lot of time now and decided to go ahead and adjust my limit screw again Garret was with me at this point still and realized my mistake and we got it corrected now and was no longer popping off but was still skipping. I was not sure at first what was causing it or what I had damaged, I tried adjusting tension with no luck,  but as I got closer to the check point I thought it could be a sticking link.  We got into the check point and although I lost a lot of time from the chain I was still ahead of my planned time. As I was looking my chain over I did find the link was stuck but it was from being bent probably when it locked my wheel up. Some friends tried to help get the link out and put a link from a used chain on, then we used a spare master link I had with to connect it but was having trouble getting it on. Long story short link shot out into the grass and had a heck of a time trying to find it. Finally it was ready to go but had lost another 1 hour and 15 min now at the checkpoint. I was frustrated to say the least watching several other people come and leave and lose all that time. Luckily my good friend and one of my training partners getting ready for the DK Shawn O’mara came in and said he was going to stay until the bike was ready and we road off together.

When we first took off my legs felt like crap from sitting that long he pulled for me and then I started to warm back up and felt a little better and we started picking up the pace but legs still didn’t feel great. Luckily Shawn did a lot of pulling for me and we were making good time and he helped me mentally get back in the game. I did get a tire puncture on my rear and was thinking great lady luck just isn’t on my side today. Luckily it sealed within a min or so and we were back going again. We pulled into checkpoint 2 and people were surprised we had made up as much ground as we had so were doing good. We stopped and tried not too take too long , changed clothes in to fresh dry ones and refueled. We were back off.  A few miles in we caught up to our good friends Bobby Wintle and Mike Wise they were in good spirits and we chatted breifly.The day had been really great cool weather ( well for DK weather anyways) and we thought it was not going to get any warmer. Well it did and although not horrible it was getting a lot warmer now.  It was kinda funny because last year the beginning was much hotter but now that we were on the third leg last year a cold front moved in and we got rained on it was then much cooler then it was this year.  About half way in was probably the worst I felt for the day but  just had to suck it up and keep going. We passed were I had to walk in mud for 2 hours last year and was very thankful it was dry. About 20 miles left we stopped briefly and ate rested our sore butt and feet for a couple min while we eat some food then got back on.  The next 20 miles seemed like it took forever. And about 10 miles out we were on a low maint road and there was a drop off with some broken concrete chunks I about wiped out on that, luckily saved it. That woke me back up. Rolling in the council grove was a great feeling. We got our final map and only 37 miles left. We got refueled. I really didn’t want to stay there long as I was ready to get this done.  Shawn took a little longer then me getting ready , but no big deal. I defiantly wasn’t going to leave him after all he did for me. We got going and was probably about 8pm at this point. I was actually feeling the best I had in a while , the temps were dropping and it was a nice night.  Once it hit dark though It was a little nerve racking. My headlight doesn’t work very well and goes in and out on bumps… yeah I should of got a new one lol, yeah not one of my best decisions. I had really wanted to get in before dark and convinced myself I didn’t need to worry about it ( I probably would of if not for the chain issues)  Anyways I had to concentrate , luckily at one point we came up to someone with a light brighter then a car and I rode his wheel a good chunk of it which helped. When got right before town you hop on the pavement for the last mile or so and it was a great feeling. I felt a lot better then I did the year before at this point. We came into the finish line around 10:30pm to lots of people at the finish line (most of them drunk) I hugged a lot of my friends and some people I didn’t know 😉
I stayed for a while and watched some other friends come in. It sure was a relief to be done and to get home and relax. I really need to think my wife Renee’ and nephew Kyler for doing my support at the stops. I also need to thank Shawn for helping out on the ride after my chain issues. My friends Matt and Stephanie Brown of High Gear for all they do for me.And of course have to thank God for helping get through it all. I think the gravel is my church because that is when I do the most praying 😉

I took 3 days off from the bike and actually just did a hour tonight and felt pretty good. Looking foward to next year.

My fearless leader Matt Brown , was nice enough to spray me with water in my face when I came in.

O’mara brothers. Scott on the left and Shawn on the right.

Painfully Close

I stole that title from my buddy Garret Seacat. This was the title of his last blog post before the Dirty Kanza 200 back in 2010. Hard to believe it has been 2 years since then.  The DK this year is a week and a half away now.  At the moment still planning on decent volume ride this Saturday then just a few short easy ones after that with 2 days off prior the race to make sure legs are fresh.  Also give some my nagging injuries some rest also.  Been a lot going since last post. We did have a gravel ride “Gravel Ride for Maisie’s Pride” this is the second annual one, and it was a week and a half ago. It’s a race/ride fundraiser to help keep the local pool open in eskridge ks . They have a couple shorter rides and the longer 70+ mile ride. Its extremely hilly to say the least. Also with 2009 DK 200 winner Mike Marchand and several other fast riders the pace was very fast right out the gate as I expected.  There was a large turnout and a lot of riders but after a few miles we had got in a pretty select group of about 5 or 6 riders. It was raining a little bit but not bad, there was a few spots where is was a little muddy. About 30 miles in we went thru “little Egypt” it is very rocky and hilly about 5 miles later my legs started feeling the effects on the climbs and then started to yo-yo off the back and the top 4 guys Marchand, Kevin Collings, Matt Brown and Bobby Smith started to fade away in the distance.   I spent most the time by myself the rest of the way. It was a lot of fun though and got to hang out with some good people.

Last weekend got a 50 mile’r on Saturday and then did a 75 mile road ride mixed with some nature trails. It was a fun ride with the O’mara “twins”

In other news not sure if anyone watched any of the tour of california road race. My buddy Lelan Dains who works for CTS traveled out to the event for “work” and even got to see him on TV. There was a awesome battle on stage 7 and at about 200 meters from the finish seen him running and cheering next to the top two riders battling for the finish.

 

 

Wilson lake fat tire race, and back to the Grind.

Some of the High Gear crew before the race.

The front of the Elite group early in the race. Shad Schreiner in front, Aaron Elwell behind him , Cam Chambers , then Garret Steinmetz 

Matt Brown coming in at the finish line. 

(see my facebook page for a lot more pics)

I really should of been training with DK coming up so soon, but last Sunday Matt needed support to hand bottles during the race and I had some nagging old injuries bothering me so figured it was meant to be. Plus some friends from Colorado and Oklahoma were there so I had to go. They had a Elite group above Cat 1 that a $1000 payout for first place and a lot of high level riders showed up.  The race started out fast and furious as expected. Elite class was about 30 miles of trail that is pretty tricky in some places. Cat 1 and 2 was about 21 miles. Matt Brown was in the Elite group and did a awesome job, he got either 7th or 8th against some of the best riders in the country. My good friend Lelan Dains got 1st in cat 1 which was very impressive. It was a great race and got to see a lot of friends so it was good times. I have to admit was feeling guilty about not riding though as Sunday is usually my longer rides. And it would not of been so bad as I was planning on making up on that the day before on Saturday but cut my tire about 40 min in and had to limp back home.  Anyways yesterday got back to the gravel grinding and got in 35 miles with the O’mara brothers Shawn and Scott after we got off work, and then I had scheduled today off a while back and luckily the weather was awesome 70ish and sunny mild winds. I got in 51 miles of the most hilly gravel roads around here this morning. I averaged around 16.5mph which was good for some if the hills I was on but legs were more fatigued towards the end then I expected which not good with a hard 70 mile gravel race/ride this Saturday which is extremely fast and hilly coming up in a few days. I guess we will see what happens. I will report back afterwards.

Camp Alexander race and DK training

Was a great weekend of riding. This last Saturday was a local Camp Alexander race which started with 5 miles of gravel then 2 laps of the trails. I didn’t race this time as I was going to hand bottles to Matt Brown, but also I was planning a long gravel ride for my DK200 training. Plus sometimes its fun just to sit back and be the cheerleader and watch other people suffer 😉

The race was at 9:30 in the morning I met up with Matt at 8am and we got in about 45 min to a hour of gravel to warm up , the race got delayed some because of the trail run before that was still going on so not sure how much the warm up helped though.  The race started off pretty fast. Matt , Scott, and Tim had teamed up on the gravel and came in together on the trail, when I seen them about half way thru Matt had opened up a huge gap that kept getting bigger. At the finish he came in at about 51 min I believe. This is including the gravel and 2 laps. Scott came in a few min later in 2nd and Tim in 3rd. I believe Shawn came in around 6th. Afterwards we rode back into town and hung out for a bit I then went out for some gravel and got about 40 miles in.   The next morning Sunday went out with Shawn for some more gravel DK training. It was typical super windy kansas day 30 mph winds with some nasty gusts that was pushing my front tire several times in the crosswind. We got about 60 miles in with some pretty steep climbs north of Kahola lake.  I took monday off, then I just got another 35 mile gravel ride in after work I just got home from so training is going pretty good. Below is some pics from the race that Shawn Honea from IM design took.

Matt Brown crushing the field

 

Scott O'mara charging hard

Tim Mohn

Shawn O'mara and Rick Becker coming in from the gravel section.

After work training

It sure is nice the sun is staying out til 8pm now. The last couple Tuesdays been able to squeeze in some 35 mile rides. Shawn again came along with me and we got nice fairly hard ride in. Beautiful weather out tonight. I had brought my camera as there is a climb I wanted to get a picture of this cool gravel road climb that looks like a winding staircase as you get a couple hundred meters out from it. A couple weeks ago I came up to it and wished I had my camera as I had never seen it before. So I brought it this time, but I was disappointed that the trees had grown up so much you couldn’t see anything coming up to it like before.  All the rain and warmer weather everything is growing really fast.

On to the next

Well its time to start training for the next up and coming events. The main race on the calender is Dirty Kanza 200 on June 2nd. For those who don’t know is a local race of 200 miles on gravel thru the flint hills.Which is now only about 7 weeks away. Before that we have a difficult 70 mile gravel race on May 12th.  I am in pretty decent shape right now , but not where I need to be yet for the DK.  I am going to try to start increasing my volume and hopefully peak about the right time.

Yesterday most of my friends were racing nearby in Lawrence KS, at “bone bender” I got with my buddy Shawn who is also training for the dk. After heavy storms and still having 30-50mph winds we decided to do a hilly road ride instead of gravel so we didn’t get blown off the road (almost happened anyways)  we planned on a 70 mile ride on a road that doesn’t get much traffic and pretty hilly. We had a slight tail wind, but mostly crosswind the first half. It was tricky at times when we would get a 50 mile gust it would about rip the front wheel a couple feet over few times.  The second half of the ride wind had shifted a little and was now mostly a 30-50mph headwind coming back into town.  The wind sucked to say the least and really had slowed us down, but really good training I guess. We about ran out of food and water because the second half took so much longer with the headwind. We were defiantly glad to get out of the wind when it was over.

 

Ouachita report

We headed down Friday morning, we had a group of 4. Matt and Stephanie Brown, Randy Smith and myself. Our plan was to get down there ride that afternoon the first leg , then take it easy Saturday , then we would race Sunday morning.

Once we started getting close to Arkansas , you could see the Ouachita mountains on the horizon. I really hadn’t traveled much to any area’s with mountains in the last few years so seeing the mountains was pretty cool. The roads were curvy and hilly and reminded me when I was a teen living in Springfield Mo.

After we got down and checked in Steph has been getting some motion sickness lately when traveling for long distance so she laid down and rested. The rest of us headed over to the trail about 20 min away.

The beginning of the race this year starts out on pavement for a few miles then gets to a long gravel climb not sure how miles but I loved it, not anything like this around here in Kansas. Once you get to the top of the gravel climb you cut into the trails , the first part is called “big brushy” a few hundred meters in and I realized this is way more technical then I was expecting. I enjoyed the step climbs, but was riding the brakes like a old lady on the decents as there are big rocks all of the place and just next to the trail wanting to reach and grab your pedals and you get going pretty fast. I managed to get thru big brusy without any wrecks or anything, but I knew I wasn’t going to finish as fast I was hoping. Once we got done with the pre-ride I told the guys I may be over my head as I don’t ride trails much, and the “ blowout mountain” that is next is supposed to be even more difficult on its decent. I would just have to make up time on the long gravel and road rides in between the trails. The next day we all got together for a easy hour ride around town and spent most the day just resting. Didn’t sleep that well that night , but still got enough I didn’t feel it was going to be a issue on the race and it wasn’t

The weather was calling for 89 degree’s with like 90% humidity I think. When we got to the the school where the race begins it was still nice and cool out. We ran into our buddy and ex-emporian Bobby and Crystal Wintle who are good friends and was happy to see them. We got warmed up and got ready for the race. I was about midpack on the starting line close to Bobby and Stephanie. The race started and I heard normally it breaks into two groups. Not this time the front group went really fast and then where were just clusters of the 250 riders just here and there we took it pretty easy although we were still doing 20mph and was able to chat with Bobby and Stephanie once the long gravel climb started I set in a good rythm watching my heart rate too make sure I don’t go too hard early. Even though not working that hard to save my legs for later in the race  I think a lot of people went way to hard on the pavement as was slowly starting to pass a quite a few people on the gravel climb already. As we got to the top the cool air turned in to a hot sauna feeling, it was steamy already and it was only 8:30am. The rocks and everything were wet from the humidity. I had a comfortable pace and surprisingly was passing people on the trail which was a welcome surprise again may of just been people that went way to hard and the beginning. It was about halfway thru big brushy when I hit a rocky area although nothing too serious. I was in a little bit too tall of gear and stalled out. No big deal I would unclip and get going again. Well I remember yanking to unclip twice and couldn’t get out of my pedal. Next thing I know I fall to the right side into some big rocks that were a couple feet below the trail. My hip tailbone area slammed into one of the big ones and the felt the bone hitting the rock, it hurt like hell and the sound was loud enough the guy coming up behind me though I broke my pelvis. I laid in pain for a min or so and got up and sat there for a few min, It hurt like heck but I was pretty sure nothing was broke. I decided to go on, really wasn’t an option anyways as I was half way in the trail there is no escape route. It was in a bad spot to try to get going again as it starts to going on a rocky climb so I had to be careful to get going without stalling anyone or they would be walking that spot too. I waited and watched what seemed 50 plus riders pass me to find a open spot, I start going again with the adrenaline going I thought I was going to be able to continue, but a couple min later when that started to wear off it was hurting really bad in my hip area to put any power down on my right leg. I kept riding trying to decide what I was going to do and about 10 min later I decided once I got to the checkpoint I would have to turn it in or risk hurting it worse as I still had probably 6 hours to go if I made it worse I would not be doing the DK200 in 2 months. I got to the checkpoint in a lot of pain and let the officials know I was out. One of the local teens offered to drive me back to the start point. Once I got back I ate and changed into some dry clothes. I seen Bobby’s wife Crystal with thier cute little daughter Emory. We got together and drove to one of the later check points. We hung out for a while and seen Matt Brown roll thru, I think he was probably top 20ish at that point about 3/4 the way thru. A while later we seen Bobby Wintle and he was doing good and still feeling good and had the toughest part behind him. We waited for a while for Stephanie after 1pm we realized probably had a issue somewhere and figured we may have missed the front guys finishing at the start finish line. We got back and she was in the vehicle and had got sick, she made it thru the toughest parts so we felt bad she had to turn in as well. We missed the first 15 or so finishes already I found out our buddy from Lawrence Aaron Elwell who is usually top 5 finisher dominated and got 1st place with a incredible time of 4:38 min , the fastest time in recent years even with the high heat and humidity. Very impressive.

About a little over hour later Matt rolled in, the heat was affecting him a lot and he was feeling sick so his pace slowed at the end, but thought it was impressive to stick with it and finish and still got top 50. Randy Smith wasn’t too far behind he usually handles the heat well and finished about 15 min later which is a entire hour quicker then he did last year and 2 hours quicker then 2 years ago.

Bobby came in at 7:30 hour mark which bested his previous time out here by almost a hour and a half several years ago.

Right now I am going to take a few days off the bike then try a light ride and see how things feel.  BTW I forgot to bring my camera but did get some pics on other peoples camera once I get them I will get them uploaded.