I came, I saw and It kicked my a**

Yesterday was the annual XC race at Bloomer. I've spent the last two weeks either sick or preparing to sell our house so, I decided to give Bloomer a whirl. Not to mention, I need to do some catch up on Lumberjack training. I hadn't heard much about the course other than it was somewhere you should pre-ride. Good thing I hadn't heard too much or I would have likely bailed out.

Lap One:
After somewhat of a team warm up, Ray, Tom, Scott, Byran and I lined up in at the start of the expert race in the 30-39 wave. On the warm up, Tom had warned my that I was likely going to be hating life rockin' just one gear at Bloomer. In usual fashion, I shrugged it off and figured I'd show this place who was boss. After all, it'd never seen the likes of before. At the whistle, the race was on and we rolled out. I was happy to be able to hang with the geared riders with ease. Out climbing many at the ski hill to boot and throwing in some impressive moves for my skill level. I made my way through a few more rides and closed the gap considerably on Tom from the team and Gus who I met at the BTT ride. That was until we hit the switchback. That's where the Bloomer's harsh reality rocked my world. A relentless series of short downhills then up hills. Zapping every ounce of energy from my legs. Once clear of the switchbacks, I was sure the worst must have been over. Then I arrived at the scariest section of trail that I've ever been on in my life. I am not sure what's it's called or how to describe it but, it's pretty much what you'd expect riding in the Rocky Mountains. Switchbacks with the punishment of a 20 ft drop if you happen to make any errors. The rest of lap one wasn't so bad. I bailed out and ran the "stairs." It was very flat and the 2:1 gearing that zapped the strength from my legs simply wasn't enough on the flat and I lost a few positions.

Lap Two:
My surge to catch Tom and the switchbacks really took their toll on me. I was really suffering mentally on lap two. My lines were crap, I was all over the trail, making multiple point and made near full stop turns a points. That's when I started to hear it. The familiar buzzing of Scott's rear hub. Of course, right as we enter the relentless switchbacks. My lines were terrible, I was breaking down mentally but, tried hard not to be caught. Scott yelled out at one point. It was a real motivator and somehow I held him off from passing me in the single tracks. Only long enough for him to get around me at just before the crazy, mountain like switchback decent. I did what I could to stay with him but, I was just not on my game and Scott rolled away from with ease. A little farther out of the trail, I believe near the "stairs" I caught back up with Scott. He was sidelined for a moment with some chain suck and he jumped on my wheel as I passed. If I remember correctly, passed another rider just before or after the "stairs" but, took the worlds worst line and ended up in the woods. Resulting in being passed by the overtaken rider and shortly after again by Scott after I took yet only terrible line and ran off into the worlds being stopped by a branch in my spokes.

Lap Three:
Determined not to quit, I somehow caught up to Scott on the flats and actually passed him at the beginning of lap 3 as he slowed for a bottle swap. I Bryan as I headed out down the lightening fast start and gave him the fist pump. Scott caught back up to me as I spun wildly on the flats. We climbed the sled hill together and I waved him by me as we hit the first section of nutty single track. I was determined to pull it together and have a good race and was doing a pretty good job of hanging with Scott in the technical stuff. I had high hopes for this lap. I felt better or at least I had convinced myself and I felt that I'd recovered from my sprint to catch Tom on lap one. As Scott and I climbed the first real climb after the sled hill I was determined I was going to own this lap. No quitting, no slowing down, I'd hammer every hill and take every corner as fast as I could. I hammered up the climb hoping to close some of the gap Scott had put on me on the last decent. As I neared the top, my legs unwilling slowed and I struggled to maintain momentum. Just as I was about to crest the top of the hill, my legs came to a complete stop and my left leg completely locked up. I toppled right over on my left side. Thud! My left calve completely cramped up and I spent the next few minutes trying to stretch it out enough to ride again. This time around the switchbacks were unbelievably hard. Not to mention, I was making all sorts of bad decisions and taking bad lines. I wrecked at least one of the sandy turns. Ryan from KLM caught me just as we entered the mountain like descent. I was shocked when he called out to me. I asked him if he'd lapped me. Turns out he snapped his chain at the start of the race. As I did on lap one and two, I got passed in the flats. This time I was somehow able to take a position back. Most likely due to the climbing.

Lap Four:
Lap 4 was simply survival mode. I ran the sled hill and the stairs. I simply rode as hard as I could so, I could finish. As I neared the end of race and entered the last bit of single track, Lee from the team was taking picture and called out to me to chase after someone. I put my head down and tried to hammer, then almost immediately hooked my bar on a tree and went right over my handlebars managing not to split my skull on a log as I planted my hand on it to avoid hitting it face first. I crossed the finish line just happy to be done. At some point in the race. I am pretty sure lap two, it'd gotten very hot. The course had taken it's toll on me. I was spent. In the end, Tom pulled off a 3rd. Scott, myself and Bryan pulled off a 8th, 9th & 10th.

I made it back just in time to take my son Evan on a pre-ride lap of the kid's race course. Shortly after, my wife, daughter and I spread out along the course to cheer him and Miles, Jason's son on.

I spent the rest of the afternoon watching the sport and beginner races. We had a great showing John, Joe, Roger, Jason and Lee from the team showed up and raced. Andy had made it out and had handed me a water bottle on lap 4 and raced as well. Jim rode up to the race from the BTT ride to cheer us on and had logged 77 miles for the day at that point.

In the end it was a great day. Even considering I admitted defeat to the superior adversary "Bloomer." We had a large group show up, my family had a blast and the mood and venue was great. I expect to be back for some serious punishment next year.

Pictures my wife took:

From Bloomer XC

Sick again!

Ugh. So, first it's Strep Throat that takes me out for a week and some. Then Michigan decides to dump April and May's worth of precipitation in early May. Then I get sick again. I new it was coming. I ran yesterday and felt amazing. As good or better than I did when I was a real runner. This is historically the sign of me about to be very sick. I think it must be all of the endorphyns running around in my body trying to cover up that I am getting sick. It hit me yesterday afternoon. I knew I was in trouble when I took a near involuntary nap from 6-9 last night. At first I feared it was Strep Throat again. Now, I nearly convinced it's a sinus infection. Basically, a month until Lumberjack, I need to get my house ready for the potential move and work is BUSY. I don't have time for this sick BS!

Beat the Train Epic - 5/15

Another great BTT this morning. Woke up at the butt crack of the morning and got rolling about 5am for a BTT Epic from my house. Rode into Detroit to Fort Wayne with teammates Andy Straub, Jim Senska and Andy E. Met up with Dearborn Don on the way too. The way in was awefully chilly. I was sporting tights and my new Kenda arm warmers and pretty cold in the sub 50 temps. Somehow Jim powered in with nothing more than shorts and a TShirt.
The ride was great. 31 riders in total. Temps ended up being perfert and in the 60's. Plus, the sun was shining with barely a cloud in the sky. Andy changed it up this week and we hit some new landmarks. At least new to me. Such as the pump track, a flame throwing car, the Motown Muesem and the new foot bridge. We even spotted a peacock and a rooster.  All of which was of course mixed in with favorites such as Bell Isle, the cemetary and the river walk  in front of the Ren Cen. Best of all only one flat in the group for the day.

Today was the first ride on the new Kenda Kwick Roller Sports on my CX bike. They do a great job of absorbing bumps and pot holes with their beefy 700x32 size. I even tested their Iron Cap flat prevention when I involuntarily ran over glass multiple times. The big draw back is they simply a beast to turn over. They feel like they weigh double what my Kenda Small blocks do on my mountain bike. We picked it up on Belle Isle and I was really struggling maintaining 21mph. Which may partially be due to running the past two days. My legs did feel pretty beat today. Regardless, I doubt I'll be running them on any fast group rides.

After the ride, Jim S. and I rode back together. Neither of us could stay for breakfast. Wish I was able to stay but, I had a funeral service to attend.

Basically 68, not necessarily hard but, fun filled miles for the day.
Garmin Data

From BTT - 5/15

Ugh, Michigan

Where have I been? Tucked away in my cave, AKA house. Avoiding this crappy weather. Rain, Rain, Rain... I though April showers were supposed to bring May flowers. Don't see many flowers recently, just showers. And it's May! On top of that, work has been a beast lately. I am way behind on getting the house ready for a potential sale and I've done little to no training since Yankee. Which means my mood is beyond tolerable. To top it off, my cell and laptop die. Yes, it could be worse but, this stuff is a pain in the a**.

Looks like the weather will turn around soon, I should get some time to work on the house and I should get some training in too. Hoping to hit BTT on Saturday. That's 60+ miles before noon baby. H*ll Yes!

36 days until LJ. OMG! I am not ready.

Mud, Sweat and Beers

2010 Mud, Sweat and Beers is in the books. Turned out to be a great, well run and organized event.
The race started and ended at Mt. Holiday. A place, I spent a fair share of my youth during the winter time, endlessly riding the chair lifts and carving up the hills on my skis. The course consisted of some serious hilly sections of trails, roads through a subdivision and then some variation of the Vasa. Depending on whether you were riding the 10 or 20 miler. Which, made for a very interesting course with a wide variety of terrain.

The weather had been brutal the night before the race. Around 11pm, it was raining as hard I ever remember it raining. Things didn't look good for the race. The morning was a different story, the clouds had disappeared and the rain was quickly drying up. The race was a true XC mass start and race with Men and Women Experts and Single Speeds going off in one wave. I started with Melissa from the Team and Jimmie from Mom and Pop Racing. Knowing that it was a long race, wide open for passing, we started a little ways back in the pack. A decision that pre-riding the course would have told us wasn't the wisest. At the gun, I chased Jim through the pack until we reached the trail head. With such a big group, space quickly became a premium and Jim slipped away from me when I was pinched off by a group on the first climb. Luckily, the first climb did seem to thin the group out quite a bit and the group fell into mostly a single file line. I had made some moves as we hit the first serious climb and caught up to Jimmie and the group he was in at the base. This time the climb was basically all loose sand and the group was hugging the edge when climbing. Being single speed, I was struggling to stay upright and not rubbing people's rear wheels so, I dove out into the middle of the trail and eventually had to bail and run the rest of the hill, passing the group with Jimmie in it, in the process. After the crest of the hill, I seemed put a decent gap on the group on the decent and trail. That was, until, I hit the pavement shortly after. Which was where the group I had passed on the hill climb blew buy me, lead by Jimmie as I spun wildly, struggling to maintain 18mph and they blew by at 20+. Out of the sub, we hit the trailhead and I was able to quickly reel the group back in. Well, until we started hitting some flat and downhill sections. We'd stretch out and on the flats and I'd reel everyone back in on the turns and hills. However, I was noticing that was not the case with Jimmie. The gap was not decreasing but, increasing. I was making up some but, not nearly enough on the climbs. We hit a section of power lines with quite a bit of flat and downhill sections and that was all it took. I realized that Jimmie was likely gone for the duration of the race and I wouldn't see him again. I just didn't have the gearing to keep up.

For awhile there, I was hoping to be able mix it up with Jimmie for as much of the race as possible race. Especially, given I was sure we'd be able catch quite a few people just racing each other. Time for a new plan. I was pretty sure that I had just passed the lead woman and didn't see any single speeders. Which meant, I was not only probably in a pretty good spot in the race overall and pretty far in the front of the single speeders to. So, new goal. Beat the ladies and don't get passed by any single speeds. The second goal turned out to be not too difficult, the first however, was a different story. From that point on, I raced the same group of guys and gals. A handful of guys from Haggerty's team, the lead woman, also from Haggerty and a guy from RBS. It was a real shoot out for a long time. We'd hit a flat section, they'd all gap me and I'd make it all up and pass the group in the turns and/or climbing. I was pretty happy and held my own until we hit some very long sections of flat and downhill stretches towards the end of the race. At that point, I was simply out geared and got gapped. There just weren’t enough hills for me to catch the group again. As we neared the end of the Vasa, I was passed by 4 more geared bikes on the flats. Just nothing I could do at that point. Well, except for be a little more careful and stay upright in a loose turn. We hit the trail section near the pavement and I was shocked at how much I made up in trail. I almost caught everyone back up. All for not. We hit the pavement and they were gone. I think I looked down at one point on a downhill and saw 27mph. No way I could even pedal at that speed. I was able to reel in the group quite a bit again on the trail after the pavement but, not enough to be striking distance. The last hill before the decent to the finish was a beast. I was really hurting at that point and pretty happy when I recognized the area when I crested the hill. We were at the top of the ski hill and all that was left was a descent down the face of the main slope to the finish.

At the end, I was pretty happy to be finished. Turned out I was the 5th person in on a single speed in the 20 miler. The course was very demanding but it was in great shape and I had rode hard. There were a couple of points I lost focus and became complacent on the flats but, I am not sure I could have done much about it given my gearing. All of the rain helped keep the loose sand together and from kicking up. Plus, there were only a couple of muddy spots on the course. Tons of climbs and load, deceiving graded ascents. I was beat and the temperature must have increased 15 degrees during the race. It was near 80, barely a cloud in the sky and beautiful. I was also pretty thirsty given I lost one of my water bottles in a botched attempt to put it back in my cage near the beginning of the race. I headed over to the refreshment table at the end for a bit and pounded Gatorade and ate orange slices until I felt that I had had enough. Then headed out to see how the rest of the folks I knew at the race did.

Jimmie ended up 12th in the Expert Category and about 4 minutes ahead of me. Melissa ended up taking 4th overall Women’s Expert.

The race was also a bit of a Traverse City and EMU Alumni gathering. My former EMU teammate, Clint Verran ended up 3rd overall. TC alumni and honorary EMU alum ended up pulling of an overall win on his SS in the 10 miler. His brother Sam, TC and EMU alum, finished up the 20 miler on his SS in a respectable time. Mike Franko didn’t fair so well and was having trouble with his headset before the race. His race ended near the start when his bars twisted, resulting in a splash in one of the only muddy sections of the trail.
After the race, we all hung out at the beer tent and enjoyed some of Right Brain Brewery’s special brews for the day. I was so, beat and all of the sun seemed to seep the energy from my legs making it hard to even stand so, I headed back to my parent’s for a shower and a nap. I spent the evening hanging our around a keg of Sam Sheffer’s finest home brew, reminiscing about the race and the ol’ days at EMU and TC with the rest of the Alumni. Definitely a reminder of how much I miss those guys and need to do a better job of putting some time aside to get together with them.

So, Mud, Sweat and Beers is in the books. I am pretty happy with my performance, learned I am going have to turn some serious gears if I want to be competitive on a SS at Iceman and generally had a great time. This mountain biking stuff is a real blast.

Mud, Sweat and Beers 2010 Results

Click here for some pics during and after the race:

From Mud, Sweat & Beers

47 days until the Lumberjack!