Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Movie Night

Tonight I spent the evening sitting in the basement watching a moving and trying to avoid the heat outside.
Tonights movie, Kung Fu Hustle


The Movie Poster reads, "Imagine a film which Jackie Jan and Buster Keaton meet Quentin Tarantino and Bugs Bunny". I can't say I fully endorse this movie and encourage everyone to go out get it. But I would say if you like Tom and Jerry type violence and choreographed kung fu this is a movie for you.

I recommend switching the language to English, turning off the subtitles and watching the movie with the voice over. It just ads to the comedy.

Enjoy!

Sunday, July 29, 2007

12 hours of 9-mile "The Bloody Steak"

Take a second and think of your absolute favorite thing to do. Reading, Watching T.V., Running, Eating, Drinking, whatever. Now imagine doing this activity non stop for 12 hours. Doing something you really love for half a day may sound fun at first, but consider the physical and mental efforts needed to accomplish this task for 12 straight hours. I love to ride my bike, and this weekend I signed up to participate in a 12 hour mountain bike race. The objective is simple, ride as many laps as I can from 10am to 10pm. If a I finish a lap before the 12 hours is up, I have two choices. 1. Cross the starting line and do another lap, or 2. Wait for the 12th hour to end and finish the race.

When riding a long distance like this the most important thing to do is make sure to eat and drink enough to keep your body working properly. This sounds easy at first, but after 6 or more hours your mind starts to lose focus, your digestive system isn’t happy and it is easy to stop eating. That is why going into a ride like this you need to come prepared and have a lot of foods available that sound appealing when you are absolutely exhausted. My food list included, some energy gels, potato chips, Oreos, pasta salad with tuna, grapes, lots of water, an energy drink and some cola soda. The nutritional value of the food isn’t as important as just getting calories back in your body.

Another thing that makes a race like this much easier is having someone at your camp who can support you as you come through lap after lap, refilling your water bottles, having food options ready for you and doing minor bike adjustment like lubing your chain or putting your lights on when night comes. It is also nice for this person to give you race updates to let you know what place you are in or where the other riders at your pace are in the race compared to you. I was lucky to have Katie give up a nice sunny weekend to come and be my race support. This is not an easy job, there can be a lot of responsibility and at some times you are doing some really crappy jobs to help the rider out. Katie did a great job helping me and I am very thankful for everything she did, even when she sent me out on my last lap at 9:20pm.

Yep, thats a pink head band. They really work, I got it for free, and luckily most cyclist accept silly clothing as tools of the trait.

Going into the race I had set a goal of riding 10, 12-mile laps. If I could finish 10 laps, I was hoping to finish in the 5 of the participants. The course this year had some new trail cut so it was longer than past year. I was told each lap was close to 14 miles. In the beginning, my average lap times were around 1 hour and 17 minutes. The first 6 or so hours went really well, I was riding good, eating food and putting down enough fluids to keep me hydrated in the mid-80 degree heat. After the halfway point in the race I was having a harder time keeping my pace up. My feet were starting to go numb and my arms were really sore from the relentless jarring of the rocky single track, not to mention my butt was starting to feel the effects of sitting for over 6 hours in the saddle. My lap times started slowing a bit the second have of the race but still managed to keep them around 1:20.

After 6:30pm every rider had to have lights on their bike when they went out for another lap. I managed to start my 6th lap around 6:00 and avoided hooking up my lights until later in the evening. When I did put my lights on my lap times started to slow down. I am not used to riding at night with lights on, obstacles came up much faster than I was used to and I was reacting much slower, making me more tense and I was not riding as smooth as I was during the day. Plus, I was becoming exhausted and my body had reached that point I mentioned earlier where I didn’t want to eat and I was getting deprived of fuel.

During my night laps I started adding my lap times up in my head and I started to realize I would be finish my 8th lap well before 10pm. At this point I didn’t want to go out and do another lap. I wanted to do more than 8 laps but I was really starting to hit the wall and I wanted to stop riding. I finished my 8th lap around 9:30. When I reach my tent Katie and our friend Johnny Mohawk presented me with my options. There were other riders who just started their 9th lap, I could go and try to catch them and move up in the standings, or I could sit at camp for half an hour and hope that no riders behind my would start another lap before 10. If they did they would move a head of me in the standings.

At that point it seemed like I didn’t have much of a choice. So, I gingerly got back on my bike and pedaled off into the dark. That is when everything took a dramatic change for the worse. Not more than a ¼ mile into my last lap my legs started crapping up. I tried to pedal nice and easy and try and ride through the cramps. This was technique was working until I got into the single track and I crashed on a rock I didn’t see in time. I fell over the handlebars and landed on a pile of rocks, bike on top of me, with cramps shooting up my legs. I was able to rub out the cramps and slowly get going again, only to crash again. This time I taco’d my rear wheel to the point that it was rubbing on my frame as it turned. At this point I was completely worked and demoralized. I was walking my bike through the rock gardens and I was starting to get cold. All I wanted to do was finish this lap. I did everything I could to stop myself from sitting down and taking a nap. Finally around 11pm I finished my 9 lap, it took my over 2 hours, I scrapped up my arms and legs and wrecked my rear wheel, but I was ecstatic to be done with the race. I finished 7 out of 57 riders and moved up one place by going out for a 9th lap. If I didn’t go out I would have lost 2 places, or something like that.

In the end the race was a lot of fun. I am proud of my accomplishments; I am glad I did an extra lap at the end and am happy to have a solo 12 hour race crossed off my list of rides to do.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Congratulations "Zacca"

This past weekend Katie and I attended the wedding of Zach Fink and Becca Styba. The new super duo now known as "Zacca" will be a power house and will let nothing step between them. The ceremony was a beautiful and Katie and I had a great time. Congratulations!


Ladies and Gentlemen, I introduce to you, Zacca!

As for me, I got all dressed up in my Big Boy clothes and was accompanied by Katie in her fabulous black evening gown.


No it's not a rental, the suit is part of my personal collection.


Saturday, July 21, 2007

New Post

It has been a while since I posted last, my apologies. This past week I had been living the bachelor life at home while Katie went to Massachusetts for a bike event with Salsa. In Katie's absence, I was able to get in a lot of riding. Last weekend I rode in Elk River with Schroden and got to take a nice trip to Cable WI, to ride the Rock Lake trails. I am doing a solo 12 hour race this coming weekend in WI, so I want to put in as many hours as I can on the bike.

12 hour race bike.

Yesterday, I rode the river trail to and from work again. When I got home I had put in close to 4 hours on the bike, over 3 hours of dirt. What a great way to get to work. The trail was really dry and fast b/c of the lack of rain here. Unfortunately, the river is pretty low as well.

In the Spring the river is up to the middle of the steps.

The picture is of the raft build to cross the MN river which splits the trail in half. Normally 4 people can get on board and float across. Not the case now, yesterday we were able to pull two at a time across with the shallow water.

Thanks for checking in, Sorry I have been slacking to keep this site up to date.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Kentucky Zach lied to me

This weekend Zack brought me a movie to watch when I had some spare time. Since Katie is at Pedro's fest this week, I thought tonight would be the perfect opportunity to chill out watching my newly recommended flick.


The Movie, Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter.
Summary, "Forget that hack Man Helsing, for true exterination of the fanged undead believers turn to the one and only Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter. Having returned to Earth for the eagerly anticipated Second Coming, Jesus finds his bid to judge the living interrupted by a horde of angry bloodsuckers who possess the ability to walk in daylight."

Sounds entertaining right? Well at least I thought I could get a good laugh out of it.
Don't bother, it is 85 minuets of my life I will never get back.

I don't recommend this movie to anyone, except Luby he may actually like it.

At least I will sleep better tonight knowing JC is looking out for me, after all Jesus saves!



Thursday, July 5, 2007

July 4th

This Wednesday I went to St. Cloud to spend Independence day with some old friends and ride with the Revolution Cycle group.

Mike and Ben sporting the new Revolution Team kits.

There was 10 of us in our group, 12 if you count the Daughter's of Doom riding in the Burley. Our ride took a leisure pace down the Woebegone Trail for about 20 miles where we stopped for Dilly Bars at the DQ and turned home.

Ben Doom hauling the kids the girls on an ice cream ride.

The ride was followed with a trip to the granite quarry for some swimming and a great BBQ at Mikes. On the way home I watched all of the fireworks from the towns between St. Cloud and Minneapolis from the window of the Jeep as I cruised down 94.

Sunday, July 1, 2007

It was a hot Firecracker

Today I drove to Eau Claire, WI for the Chippewa Valley Firecracker race.
I went to the race with my friend Mike from St. Cloud. Mike got me started racing when I was in college and I blame him for all of the bikes hanging in our basement. It has been a long time since I have been able to go to a race with Mike. Now that Mike is running his own bike shop, http://revolutioncycleandski.com/, he says he is too busy to come and ride with me. Go figure.

So anyway, the race went alright. It was a really hot afternoon, the race was 32 miles long, and I was short one member of my team to give me water hand ups, Katie was unable to attend today. The first lap was chaotic, no more the 5 minutes in there was a pile up in front of the pack and some of the top riders went down. Two of them pulled out of the race and I saw one guy later with some nice cuts on his head, he said he cracked his helmet in 6 places from the fall. As the first lap continued the trail was really congested with riders and I was having a hard time pacing myself. I was on the gas then immediately on the brakes again. This technique didn't make for an enjoyable ride and I was getting frustrated.

During the second lap I wasn't feeling it and was already thinking about slowing down and cruisin the rest of the race. Fortunately, near the end of the lap a female rider, another St. Cloud friend, came up behind me and was leading the women's field. I figured if I wasn't going to hammer on the course I would do what I could to help Kyia out. I pulled Kyia along for the rest of the lap and to the finish on her 3rd lap.
It was nice to see Kyia win

After my 3rd lap the field had spread out, my legs were feeling good and I knew I could open it up for the last lap. I rode really well on the final lap. I was able to pass three of the riders I originally started riding with and continued to pass a few more. Unfortunately, one rider was not happy with my passing edicate and cursed me when I passed. We exchanged some choice words and I continued to pull away from him. (Disclaimer. I am normally I very polite rider, but when I am on my last lap, have to pass someone going up a hill, and my heart rate is at 180 bpm, I may not call out what side I am going to pass on. We are supposed to be advanced riders so if I got a little too close to you, that's racing, don't curse me out.) So yeah, I finished strong and felt good about the race.

Afterward I found out Mike didn't have the best luck. He got slowed down by the crash in the beginning of the race, ripped his new shorts, and was stung in the head by a hornet or something. He finished, but was happy to be going home. Thats racing folks.

One last shout out to Kyia and Evil for the Spotted Cow. I needed a proper recovery drink after the race.