That Familiar Burn

Utah

noreply@blogger.com (Jake Boyce) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:55:00 +0000

After Montana it was off to Salt Lake City for a few days of skiing. Salt Lake is quite nice, not too big, and surrounded by mountains. I would recommend a trip there if you have not already been.

Snowbird gave us a nice view in the morning.

They also have a tunnel with a "magic carpet."

Next up was Alta, which is only for skiers.

Good terrain there too.

Downtown Salt LakeSolitude, a much smaller, more local place was beautiful.Despite 3 days without significant snow, we still found plenty of powder with a short hike.

Westward ho

noreply@blogger.com (Jake Boyce) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 05:08:00 +0000

On a ski trip. A nice big loop through the mountains, so far we have been to Bridger Bowl, Big Sky and Grand Targhee. The third has been by far the best of the trip thus far.

Day 1 Bridger

Bridger
Big Sky way up high

Grand Targhee, at least knee deep powder all day long...

Did a bit of hiking, found some thigh deep snow.
Oh the burn!

About time

noreply@blogger.com (Jake Boyce) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 23:26:00 +0000

For a snow storm. I can think about skiing now.
I am hereby offering my coaching services for cross country skiing to anyone who is interested, for a small price of course. I have good coaching experience, and can pretty much work with any level. I'll make you a faster skier, for sure. Charging will most likely be hourly, and I can do group or individual lessons. Let me know we will set up some lessons.

Also, it also happens to be that time of year when I start getting rid of bikes.
You've seen it here first!
For Sale:
2009 Specialized Tarmac SL Pro.
56 cm.
Full SRAM Red brakes, shifters, hoods.
Dura Ace 10 spd chain with Ultegra 12/25 cassette.
Bontrager Race X Lite wheels (Strange, I know) with white spokes, which have never been ridden!
Almost new bar tape, and Toupe seat.
FSA K-Force seat post.
Was raced and ridden a fair amount since April, but taken care of extremely well. One small chip in the white paint on the underside of the frame.
Selling on ebay right now for $3,000 I will sell it for less then that for sure. Email me and I'll let you know the price.
jwboyce@gmail.com

A week late

noreply@blogger.com (Jake Boyce) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 02:49:00 +0000

State CX was last weekend. Not quite the results I was hoping for, but training took a backseat this fall. I did as well as I expected to do. Despite not performing up to par, the race was fun, tons and tons of people out watching. Always a good time, hands down my favorite race of the year for and discipline.

Barriers

The delightful stairs.

Sandpit, Round 2.

My 2009 season has now been over for a week. I had planned to take a bit of a break, but the weather has been so damn nice that I just needed to go play outside. A few runs during the week and a good MTB ride yesterday, with a nice long ride with Timmer today. Had a nice chat about divorce and smells, really quite interesting. Nearly 3.5 hours of suburbia, endless I tell ya, endless...

School has been busy, great fun of course. I will shortly be a CPR/First Aid instructor, and will gladly teach some classes, if you want to get involved, lemme know.

Found one!

noreply@blogger.com (Jake Boyce) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:53:00 +0000

The winning crash.

Thanks for entertaining us Mr. Doig, and hopefully you are not too beat up.

Sugar High, and Northfield CX

noreply@blogger.com (Jake Boyce) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:43:00 +0000

It's been a busy weekend. Saturday was up at my Grandmother's farm looking for Bambi, he eluded me and sadly no venison for the freezer. One of these days... Once it got hot, the deer all went into hiding, no point hunting. So it was off to Northfield to set up course for the return of The Back To School CX race. Starting at 5 Ben, myself, and a some Olaf ski team members helped us set up course. Finished up there about 8:30, ate some dinner, then met a friend and did not get to sleep till 12:30. 5:30 AM to then is quite a long day.

No wonder I could not find the deer. They hid here.

Today started at 7. Back to Olaf to reset up the course after drunks pulled a good portion of it down, and soon enough it was time to race. A beautiful day, and a great turnout was all I could ask for. For sure the most successful race we have had there. Including the most spectators ever. Course changed up a bit, I tried to make the hill easier, I am not quite sure if it was easier, but the course as a whole was more entertaining. It was very possible to ride the whole thing without getting off you bicycle, which many of the A racers did. Standard barriers are over rated.
I know there are some good videos of crashes and then "Pinwheel of Death," I'll collect them all and try to put an entertaining video together.
Congrats to Chris Doig for winning the best crash award.

Oh yeah, sugar high... It seems all I have come across to eat today involves way to much sugar. Cookies, rice crispy bars, coffee/hot chocolate, sports beans... No wonder my personal race sucked! I have never cramped up that bad during a cross race, and besides death cramps, was one of the top crampy races ever. After one of the bunny hops Both calfs froze up and I could only coast...

Some photos.

Pinwheel
Bike race! Even a good turnout for the A race.
Mr. Dan Swanson can fly.
So can young Jack. Not everyone though...
But he sure cleared the barrier.
I had fun too.
Must have been a close one there.
Hollywood

I did not enjoy the hill so much this year, thanks to Linda and the other guy getting me up.

Results

Thanks to everyone who came out today, and especially to Ben Witt of Milltown, St. Olaf, the St. Olaf Nordic Ski Team for all there help, Rawland Cycles, and anyone else who helped out! I'm sure it'll happen again. And until then, plan for another visit to Northfield for the 4th of July, big things are in the works.

School is cool

noreply@blogger.com (Jake Boyce) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:19:00 +0000

But first a short recap.
Jackson Meadows a few weeks back. Felt alright but lots of mechanical issues. Anyone want to buy all my SRAM stuff?

Last weekend was one of my favorite races up in Taylors Falls. The course was not quite as fun as usual, but still not bad. I got pushed way way to the back at the start, and spent the rest of the race trying to move up. It only kinda worked.
Halloween, was as usual a good time.

2 weekends left in the season for me I think. My ass hurts, time for some off season.

Ever since starting school, I have not really enjoyed it much. Olaf had some good classes that I did indeed enjoy (being there was a blast). But actually enjoying almost everything I am learning (or supposed to be) is a new experience for me. Today we got into starting IVs on each other, luckily the program is smart and limits us to being stabbed max. 3 times a day. It'll add up though. So if you do see my arms and they are full of holes, yes, I have been playing with needles. And no, I am not doping or doing other illegal activities!

It's Back!

noreply@blogger.com (Jake Boyce) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:59:00 +0000

The pinwheel of death.

It'll be badass, everyone show up. All proceeds benefit teams that keep kids from getting fat!

Bike Polo

noreply@blogger.com (Jake Boyce) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:51:00 +0000

I did not race last weekend. I simply did not want to drive, so I found other entertainment.
Saturday was quite nice, I got out for a good ride on the new mtb. and got some good sightseeing in.

For being a big city, Mpls is really quite nice.

This dog (center) was people watching, no owners in sight, just sitting enjoying life.

Sunday was again nice, the trails were all packed. I rode by these guys, then decided it looked like fun, asked if I could join in and played for an hour. Apparently they play Thursday nights, game on!

Bike polo.

Snow!

noreply@blogger.com (Jake Boyce) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:25:00 +0000

I woke up on Saturday morning with no plans to go bike racing, until I looked outside. There was snow, bike riding in the snow is fun... really.
So I went and raced. The snow turned to mud and it was real cross racing!
The race went ok, nothing special, but I had a good time.
I did get to whip the first sh!tty of the year though. Gotta practice that winter driving.

Sunday was racing at Theo Wirth, I rode my bike there. Such a nice option, after all the driving the past years for bike racing. Living in Mpls is indeed nice at times.
Hopefully I can steal some photos from somewhere soon, maybe a passerby could post a link?
Again, just an OK race, dropped my chain at one point and lost about 20 spots, could have been a whole different race had that not happened... Oh well, however, the race was fun as well.

Sunday night into Monday it snowed again,

Had to brush the car off in the morn.

I am now very very excited to...

Anyone want to take me on a trip?

Brought to my attention.

noreply@blogger.com (Jake Boyce) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 01:47:00 +0000

Why it should not be called football.

It will be worse tomorrow

noreply@blogger.com (Jake Boyce) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 23:34:00 +0000

Of course it started raining today just as class finished. Lucky me. However, I found out (again) what happens if I try to race without pedaling much during the week. In short I just suck. No excuses, just what it is. At least I know that, so let us see if I can remedy it!

Anyhow, I saw the weather will be even worse tomorrow, so I decided to suck it up and go pedaling.

Look at southwestern North Dakota...

I had a bit of other motivation (not that it is going anywhere), but today was map day in school, and I happen to run across a familiar street name, which just happen to be not very far away from home via the Greenway.

I should move there.

The rain kept the people off the trails, which meant I could do a few intervals and not feel like/look like a tool trying to show off (and not kill/be killed by anyone, safety first)!

I did have to watch out for these though.

I was also out of bread, so on the way home, already being soaked, I had no problem going the extra 10 minutes to the super secret bakery.

That costs the amount shown. Always impressed when I buy a loaf.

On another note, I need to sell

this, asap. Contact me if you are interested.

It's Here!

noreply@blogger.com (Jake Boyce) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 03:01:00 +0000

Yay, cross season. The best of all the world of bikes rolled into one delightful hour.
Today was my usual first of the year, out to St. Cloud it was. Usually a good course, with good food after, even though by the time the A race is done most of the chili is gone... Oh well.
Anyhow, after last weekend I did not expect anything much, but might as well go ride bikes if I can. Right from the start things felt good, and I guess for much of the race stayed so. I followed Mr. Dewey when he picked it up on lap 2 and that's how the race went. I kept him close for half of the race, then he just kinda rode away per usual. I tried to put time back but no good, I had a good pace going and was putting time on the chasers so just kept it there and came across 2nd. Quite a surprise, again considering last week and wanting to die. Who knows, but hey, I'll take it!

First barrier experience of the year!

I match...

Nice fast grass.

Win some, loose some

noreply@blogger.com (Jake Boyce) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 01:48:00 +0000

More often lose some, but I like to try... Ha!
Anyhow, as everyone knows this past weekend was Chequamegon. It was my first year joining the party, and I was very excited for it. I have heard so many fun things about the race.
After staying near OO at Mike and Michelle Haggs (thanks to them). Saturday morning came, and it was off to the bike race. Luckily I had preferred start so I did not have to get up at 5:00 A.M. to line up. Poor people...
After a few minutes warm up it was time to go. After hearing so many horror stories about the start, I was ready to fight some people to stay safe, did not have too, it was for the most part a calm start. Once to the open road it was fast, but sitting in not a problem. Although as soon as the speed picked up my legs said you are not ready yet, not enough warm up. In that race, I found out very quickly, if your not warmed up, things don't go well at the start. I did what I could, which was not enough to stay up. Hung with group 2 for a bit, then slowly drifted back as I simply could not recover from the simplest of hills. So I just held onto groups for as long as I could. About 45 minutes in I looked down and noticed my front skewer was open, strange, thought I tightened it real good. I had been in a good group, but lost that with that smart move...
About 80 minutes in I started feeling decent, and struck off to find the next group on the trail. However, I just ended up pulling a group of incredibly unhelpful riders. Only one Velorochester guy would help, everyone else just made me angry but I could not drop them and no matter how slow I would go (allowably slow) they would not go around.
The energy I had disappeared as fast as it came and I was left empty handed for the last 45 minutes of the race. I actually had to walk some worthless little bump because my legs were so crampy (crappy).
Eventually I finished, feeling like crap, dirty and dehydrated...

I rode with her for a good chunk of the race. As you can see I do not look pleased...

I did not have a very enjoyable Chequamegon, but I can easily see how if one is feeling good, it would be a wonderful bike race. I will be back in the future to redeem myself.
I know why I sucked to. The past month (like I said before) has been crazy busy with school. Thus training has gone down the crapper, hopefully I won't be suffering like this for CX season which I guess has now started. Just gotta wait on the CX weather, not this nice stuff!

Busy Busy

noreply@blogger.com (Jake Boyce) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 03:07:00 +0000

Since the start of school I have been swamped. Rides have been a bit short because of so much studying that needs to be done, I guess that works out since I am just now getting rid of a cold I have had for a week.
I meant to write after State road race, but ran out of time. So long ago now, but all I remember is that it was one of the most fun races of the year...
Road season is finally done, next up is Chequamegon . It should be a great time, I have been riding my 29er as much as I can, mostly at Theo Wirth, since it is so close. Not a very challenging course, but lots of twists and turns, which is exactly what I need to work on. After that cross starts, how exciting, I love cross! I think I like it more then road racing...

But this is what is on my mind right now.

Back to the neurons!

Moved

noreply@blogger.com (Jake Boyce) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:59:00 +0000

As many know, I no longer live in Duluth. Last Thursday I packed the Subaru full and headed south to my new home near "The Wedge" in Minneapolis. I am now also attending paramedic school, thus the move, I was perfectly content in Duluth. Despite having stupidly long drives for bike races and similar cold weather...

The quiver ready to go.

Anyhow, after staying up way to late for various reasons on Friday night I woke up, and with a horrible stomach ache was off for 85 miles of fun just west of St. Cloud.

With the help of a 1/2/3 field the race was quite large, and with extreme luck for me nearly the entire first lap was really quite easy. The other 4, for many sections were not at all easy. Great course though, had good hills, and nice little towns that we rolled through. I felt ok for most of the race, hurt a little on the finish hill when the hammer fell, but considering the night before things were great. The final climb did not go well for me though. I cramped up pretty bad and just had to limp it in, such is life. However, I can attribute my issues (all the following completely my fault) to staying up to late, not drinking enough water, and failing to be able to stomach breakfast. Even though I hate to show up to a race without the aspiration of winning, or putting some serious work in to help someone win I had fun.

Sunday I did some mountain bike trail exploring. Someone tell me more trails, besides Lebanon.

I cruised around Theo Wirth. Nice, but small.

Today (Monday) I had class number one of paramedic school. 7:45-2:15 every day. I am quite pleased with the subject matter, and hopefully it will be a good time. My only issue is that class is in White Bear Lake, and I am all the way over in Minneapolis. Thus a (for me) long commute. For the last year and a half I have commuted 4 km to work. I am not a big fan of driving so I used this website to map out a route for me.
If you have never used this website and live in the Mpls/St. Paul area, and you like bikes, use it. It will blow your mind how cool it is. Mapquest for bikes!
A quick search showed the way, after class today I took off to see what the commute would take. About 75 minutes. There are tons of bike trails and lanes the whole way there.

Como

Victory! Heading home.

Absence

noreply@blogger.com (Jake Boyce) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 04:53:00 +0000

I've been out and about one could say.
Today I got a new bike.

I think Chequamegon will go well on this. ZOOM!

Well, maybe not on that bike, but I did get a new bike today. Big tires are fun.

They allow you to go where ever you want...

and do wheelies there!

On the search for Sasquatch again.
No luck this time.

Apparently the link to Mr. Kask's website did not work on the last post. Try again here.

Test

noreply@blogger.com (Jake Boyce) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 04:05:00 +0000

I have been unhappy with my training and racing for over a month now, and things I have been doing, have not been working. It just so happens that I have a good buddy (Jason Kask) that has majored in performance coaching, and is going to grad school for high performance science. Read make you go faster.
I finally got Powertap back from the company, thus getting all the data I need for the test. This evening it went down and fun information was found

Post test sweaty.

Anyhow, check him out. He knows his shit.

Even his own legit website.

Raspberry Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Jake Boyce) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:56:00 +0000

I have never found the real raspberries at the Hopkins Raspberry Festival. It is at least a month before they are ripe and for the picking, maybe they should change the name to strawberry festival or something that they can actually provide...
Despite not finding any fruit, there were quite a few figurative raspberries to be found after the races yesterday. A big field and flat fast course caused some problems in the 1/2 field. There were a couple of broken bikes, hopefully no bones, and lots of road rash. No fun.
Despite the crashes here and there the race was pretty fun. We were cruising right from the start and did not let up too often. There were all kinds of attacks, but nothing could stay away. I think the longest break was all of two laps. Instead of my usual dumb racing I tried to race at least somewhat intelligently, just covering attacks that no other teammates were in and generally just be ready to go if I needed too. I was feeling good coming into the finish, but a crash right in front of me on the final corner proved difficult to sprint around. Plus I was much further back then I had thought I was.

I need to sell my mountain bike still. I know someone out there wants it!
800 bucks for an S-Works, can't get any better then that.

Northfield Crit and associated events

noreply@blogger.com (Jake Boyce) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 02:33:00 +0000

Huge thanks to everyone who helped out with the race this year. Especially Ben Witt of Milltown Cycles and Olivier Vrambout of The Bikery . Also to Northfield itself, the Witt Family, all the volunteers who came out, and all the racers for showing up. It was a great day.
Other information including results can be found here.

Not wanting to miss out on the action, I raced as well. I think I am starting to get some energy back in my legs. Definitely not where I was in early May, but much better then at NVGP. Now I just need to concentrate my energies into one move rather then a whole bunch of little worthless ones. Time to race smart again.
Besides that I had a good time during the race. It was nice and safe and decently fast, not that hard, but still fast enough to be a bike race!

Also thanks to the Casper/Sone house for putting on a kick ass after party.

After watching the fireworks, a couple of us had the urge to go put some holes in the ground. So on Sunday Ben, Ben's friend Curtis, Daniel, and I rolled up just north of Northfield with a small arsenal. Daniel and I rode bikes there, the others played convoy. For the next few hours we pumped the gravel put full of hot lead.

Daniel saw some bad guys, hopped off the bike and saved the day.
Then fended them off with one hand.

Helmets are always a good idea.

BOOOM!

I need a break

noreply@blogger.com (Jake Boyce) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 01:44:00 +0000

But first, a discussion on running vs. bike riding. Whoever left the comment about the marathon being the same as a 7 hour century needs to work on math skills. Sure the common belief is that running is 2x as much as bike riding (although I disagree, 60 min. run or bike feel pretty dang similar to me...) Anyhow, the math on the number of miles does not add up. 26.2 x 2 = 100?
Let do some comparing. Average people first
On average, while running, someone burns 100 calories per mile. So if the average person runs about 9 minute miles, they go about 6.5 miles. 650 calories.
Now to bike riding. The tear out from some magazine on my door says the average person burns 200 calories on a 20 minute bike ride. 20x3=60. 200x3=600. 600 calories per hour. Not 325 like a simple divide by two would suggest. Therefor for an average person running 30 minutes is not the same as 60 minutes of bicycle riding.

Although this chart says 450 for an hour of running, we will stick with 9 minute miles.

For more serious athletes like you and I. We tend to use more energy. I like turn run trails, which take more word then running on a road, thus burn a few more calories. So lets say I run with an average Heart Rate of 130 for 60 minutes. That on trails is most likely a bit less then 8 minute miles, but to keep it easy. 60/8=7.5x100= 750 calories per hour running
Bike practice with an average HR of 130 is pretty dang hard. In a random 60 minute time block from one of the past Wednesday night rides here in Duluth I had a HR avg. of 131. In that 60 minutes I burned 806 calories.
In conclusion, if you have the same HR (thus presumably the same effort) 60 minutes of running is almost exactly the same as 60 minutes of bike riding.

Now onto only bike news. As the title of this post suggests I need a break, but unlike when I am usually burned out, I still want to ride my bicycle. This obviously puts me in a bit of a predicament...
Today was the State crit in St. Cloud, it was windy. Never show up to a bike race if you don't want to win, a half lap into the race I saw Timmer at the front and the pace was slow. Why not give it a go. Off I went with Mr. Brabbit and Hackworthy coming shortly after. After not very long things in the field changed and Doug and some others showed up. I was tired and thought the field was really close, it was not, and it was not going that fast. I hurt a whole lot already and could not go very fast (thus the reason for the needed break). I rejoined the pack for lack of better options. A series of action packed laps followed between attacks and crashes, and before we knew it. Doug, Mean Dog, Hackworthy and Jens rejoined the group from behind. Shit, that was my break, this hurts, were the thoughts running through my head at that moment.
The rest of the race was not slow, the Ghost got away with a few others, again a break I should have been able to get into, but just don't have it recently. The rest of the race was fast with more and more people blowing up. I tried to get up front, but my legs were not having it. On the final lap Hackworthy took off, Doug in tow, then followed by Woel and myself. Despite sucking most of the race I had a decent sprint and finished in the frustratingly similar 9th place (this year I have had lots of 6-10 placings...)
This week I will ride easy and enjoy the wheather. Maybe even go for a run or two.

I might also do some more paddle boarding. It's the cool new thing to do out on the West Coast. A long board (surf board) and a long paddle. You stand up and cruise, it is really quite fun.

Sadly she was not with me...

The real cool people actually surf with them. I need to work on my balance first.

Next time Lake Superior has good surf, I'll give it a try. We are due for a strong east wind.

I thought about chasing the ship, but it was going fast.

So I looked at the bridge.

Ahhh. Duluth in the summer. If you are stopping through, give me a call a few days in advance, we could probably set up a paddle boarding adventure.

Don't forget. You better be here!

Grandma's Marathon

noreply@blogger.com (Jake Boyce) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:54:00 +0000

About 3 weeks ago I was contemplating the layout of the rest of the season. With NVGP being over, and not a whole lot of races that I will be able to get to in July, I figured I might as well try a marathon to see what all the fuss was about.

Saturday I did just that. It was the 33rd annual Grandma's Marathon here in Duluth. It has alway been one of my favorite weekends to be here with all the people that come to do it. Word on the street is that there are about 65,000 people that come for it. And all the action in town and pretty girls make it fun to just watch the race... In my younger days I ran the half marathon. Always thought it sucked, and swore I'd never do a full. But, peer pressure works pretty well. Ha.
Anyhow, after getting up at 4:45 (runners get up way to early) and waiting in lines for the biffies, the race was off at 7:30. My only goals were too get under 4 hours and have a negative half marathon split.
Marathoning is not really anything at all like the bike races I am used to. Granted I was not racing to win or anything, just going, but still simple things like taking leaks and such is greatly simplified by not having the fear of getting dropped and not catching on. In general it is an easier concept. Drafting does not really apply, no KOM no sprints, just go. Kinda boring if you ask me... For much of the race I just ran my own pace, once in a while I would come across friends and would run with them for a bit, but I think most started to fast and were dying, which is why I caught them.
The course goes along the north shore from Two Harboors to downtown Duluth. The fans and fun started when we got to the city limits. Beer handups started showing up, I had some friends share some champange. I even found "The official Grandma's beer feed," complete with a slip-n-slide. That was quite entertaining and was a good break from the heat.
A bit before the slip-n-slide the 3:40 pace setter appeared next to me, giving me a good pace for the 7 miles I had left. Most people I have talked to say the race starts to hurt around mile 20, which gives you almost an hour to wallow in pain. I really did not feel fatigued till 24, at that point with only 2 miles left, there was not enough race left to hurt. It worked out quite well.
All in all I was out in the sun for 3:38.52. Not to bad for not training for this, plus I had a pretty good time doing it.
My legs feel great right now, the muscles at least. The most painful thing are the blisters... And the sorest muscles are my shoulders. Victory!

Damn shoes.

Like I hinted at above, I was doing this thing to see what all the fuss was about, see how hard they actually are, and to say I've done one.
I am not sure what the fuss was about, I could find many more fun things to do besides running for slightly over 3.5 hours on hot blacktop. Marathoning is definitely not something I am going to get too serious about, I have no desire to run copious numbers of them.
Again, I did not run hard in the race, I just did it. But still compared to bike racing it was easy. My heart rate was a stable 140 or so the whole time, never got out of breath or went anerobic. I know there have been bike races where I've just sat in and they have been easy, and I feel no more tired today, then after one of those. My feet hurt more, but other then that not to bad.
I'm not going to say I am not ever going to do another marathon. I can see someday actually racing one, and finding out how fast I can do one. But that would require training for it, and bike racing is more fun. So for now, I'll stick with that.

Change of pace

noreply@blogger.com (Jake Boyce) — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 23:30:00 +0000

Before I left for NVGP I promised a co-worker (Mr J. Ross Fraboni) that if I got for some reason got shelled from the race, and the weather was nice, I would do the MN mountain bike race on my cross bike (it was in Duluth). So going from the peloton to the trails was on the menu.
The race was out at Mont Du Lac, one of the lesser known ski hills in the area. The local MTB association COGGS has put in some solid work there and made some really nice trails. Quite a few roots, but besides that real nice.
Anyhow, for the hell of it I did the expert race to see what would happen. With there being a long steep climb every lap, and extra long and steep for the start, I was sitting pretty with the cross bike. I was expecting a cross style start, but it was much slower then that. Kinda nice...
The only sections that I really lost time were the descending single track. The first 3 laps I got smoked there. But as soon as the trail went up I would gain all the lost time back. On the big climb I would usually gain enough time to stay ahead of anyone close to me. The 3rd time up the big hill my arms started cramping, so I trotted up it nice and easy, my gearing was a bit hard. Two guys caught me and I knew that in order to beat them, I just had to stay close through the tricky stuff. I did just that, one guy crashed, and the other never got more the 20 meters ahead. Coming into the final climb I blasted off. I think I ended up in the top half.
Take that all you who said it was not possible and that I would get last.

Pictures are from where the watermark says they are.

Mountain bike racing is really quite different from the road. When you get tired, slow down and recover, then go hard again. It was not bad. Despite my arms cramping I had a good time, I dont really think I want to do too many mountain bike races on my cross bike. But a few is not going to hurt! I also saw Super Rookie, did not expect that at all. So despite rumors that he does not ride bike, he maybe just chillin with Sasquatch.

Looks like they are having a good time!
Also watch these.

On a completely different note. I looked at my training journals from the last 3 years. A very obvious pattern of me racing poorly nearly exactly one month after I have "legs tired" written down, I'd say 90% of the races I felt like shit fit the pattern. As well as often after time off or easy weeks, the races one month following my results were strong. To bad I just found that out now, instead of using my logs like I should. I really need to pay more attention to the information I collect. I've got the tools, now to try and figure out how to put it in action.

Missing

noreply@blogger.com (Jake Boyce) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 18:03:00 +0000

My legs.
Last seen May 10th, 2009. Somewhere north of Duluth.
There have been a few reports of sightings, but no solid leads.
Reward if found, please contact with any information you may have.

As many of you know, I had my second attempt at the Nature Valley GP these past few days. Right from the start of the TT on Wednesday morning my legs were not under me. I just don't have the get up and go I did this spring. And it is really starting to frustrate me. I thought I was decently rested, and felt fine going easy, but as soon as hit the throttle things go south.
I got smoked in the TT pulling 4th to last, I was quite disappointed as I know I can go faster. But made it through.

Sucking wind in the rain.

Then the St. Paul Crit, unlike last year it was dry, luckily. Even with that Right from the start I was not feeling very good. And just like last year it was on the straights that I would get gapped. I cornered plenty fast to stay right in there, and even move up, but after a few laps I would simply get gapped on the straights. The legs just would not turn. However, I squeaked by and made it to round 3.
Cannon Falls was thankfully a calm weather day too. The rolling enclosure provided at the NVGP is always fun, makes it much more official. The race was not hard, I just had a good time hanging out in the peloton watching the fields zip by. I got comfortable moving around in the pack which was a change from before, and not being able to move at all. Eventually we came into the finishing circuits, I felt ok. After 3 circuits I lost focus for a second and clipped a wheel in front of me and nearly went down, I did not, but my seat nose went down nearly 45 degrees. I just could not pedal like that and got popped. I was feeling confident that I was going to make it at that point too. Shit... I rolled in with a group a few minutes after the pack. (Unlike last year I did not get lapped).
The circuits gave me confidence that I would make it through round 4. Off we were into the streets of Uptown, I had decent starting position. not super far back. The first laps I felt ok, not having to many problems. Then all of a sudden I could not go, I started getting gapped on the straights again and nothing I could do about it. I just could not pedal. Thus my NVGP bid came to a bitter end.

I am just very frustrated with my lack of performance. This year I have done crits that have close to the same average speed (LaCrosse), and hung out on the front. All I had to do was make it half the race and I would have made it. But nope, I could not even make it 1/3. All the other MN boys had no problems, I know I can hang with them no problem. So why the hell can't I do it now?

I have no excuses for being slow this week. But I have some therioes that I am going to look into. Last year I thought it was because I had not raced enough leading into NVGP, I found that that is not the case as this year I race plenty leading up to it, pretty much as much as I could.
The past week or two I have been sleeping 8, 9 or 10 hours a night, and waking up tired. Perhaps I have a virus of some sort that is not strong enough to show outright, but when I try to race my bike it is enough to stop me from doing well.
Perhaps it is overtraining. The past week.5 I have gone pretty easy. A bit of speed work to try and keep the intensity there, but obviously it's not there so it was a waste. But anyway I did a bit of research and overtraining really does not show itself for at least 3 weeks after the fact. Almost exactly 1 month ago my legs were so tired that I was getting crampy just sitting around. I would consider that overtrained. And now it caught up to me. I bet if I look at my logs from last year, at about the same time I had the same issue... Another thing that leads me to believe the overtraining theory is that I cannot get my HR to go up. My avg. HR in the 6 miles TT was 179, the last truly good race I had was at the LaCrosse crit where my HR was 174 for 65 minutes. Hmmmm... Something is not quite right with that.
It sucks that I have to learn about my body at a race like this. But at least I am figuring it out.

Due to the fact that I have no high end power at the moment. And just want to race my bike. Tomorrow (Sunday) instead of racing in Stillwater like I should be I will be doing a mountain bike race on my CX bike. I'll let you know how it ends up...

Bite your stem and hold on

noreply@blogger.com (Jake Boyce) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 01:23:00 +0000

Last night was the final Nature Valley qualifier race. I had been sitting pretty good in the points for the individuals and wanted another shot at the race, so I got to drive all the way down to the cities for the evening.
For some reason I did not do any recovery ride since Saturday, oops. After getting out of the car yesterday I could tell. The batteries were already low. I figured it would be like most other crits, and I would just sit on till my legs came around. However, with the wind, and the course (that Hollywood, Casper and I made up) sitting in was damn hard to do. 70 some riders lined up, making it my biggest race of the year. And right from the start it was balls fast. The group split up real quickly into two main parts. Luckily I was far enough up to be in group A. Group B was pulled before the end. Anyhow, we just went fast, and with a 180 in the course taking away any advantage to cornering fast I was hurting. Plus everyone guttered each other, it was a full on bike race!
With about 6 laps to go I just could not go. Luckily the pack sat up just then so I quick caught back on and held it in for 5 laps. On the last lap I just had nothing and came in in a small group behind the field sprint. Even with getting popped I managed a few points and squeaked into NVGP.

This crit was a good practice round for next week. Bite your stem and hold on. My goal is to finish somewhere in the top half. Lofty I know, but I'll see what I can manage. Unlike last year I've been racing right up to the event, and know I am in already so I can get some good recovery.
See you all next week.