The edge of the Artic circle

This weekend was the Ham Lake CX and the Blain CX, both up on the north edge of the cities. Close to the arctic.
On the way up to Ham Lake we came across some road construction, we followed the 35W detour, and ended up doing a large circle, ending up right where we had been 25 minutes before. We were on track for the detour until the large 35W north sign came along. Naturally we took that, as I saw no detour signs to say otherwise. I guess MNdot forgot to make it an easy to follow detour.
Anyways all the usual pre-race stuff and it was time to go. The course was on sandy trail and a road, not to technical or hard. Just fast. The whole race held together for nearly two laps, then started thinning out. I ended up being on the front of a group of about 12. After the first barrier on the course it was the road, for some reason people were always hurting after that, I took advantage of that and really pushed the pace on there, eventually we were down to 4 that stayed together until the last lap. I screwed up pretty much every corner on the last lap and paid for it. 2 guys got just enough of a gap I could not close it in the sprint. The 4th guy got dropped.
Overall it was a good race. Fast and fun, it was great to ride with some people for a change.

Glad I was leading...

Dwindling in numbers.
(I stole these from Linda, thanks!)

Today, however, was a different story. We set off to Blaine for the "Velocross" race. Logically this would involve riding around the track and then doing some other stuff. While riding the course during warm up it was obvious the track was not going to be used. Then when we were all line up, we were told that if we did go on the track we would be disqualified. Lame, part of the reason I came up was so I could say I rode on a track. So much for the "velo(drome)" part.
The rest of the course was...dumb. In my opinion the worst I have yet ridden.
Anyways, the race was off. In a starting zone much to small, I never start fast so I was right near the back. The course was not wide at all so passing was hard. Eventually I moved up a bit. Then the course got really shitty.
A mud pit the length of a soccer field, which was actually a drainage ditch, so it smelled awful. One lap I heard some spectators saying as I trudged past, "These guys don't look like they are having any fun at all." They were right, I was not. Really slow thick mud, off camber (which I am usually a fan off) that was to steep, and in some places so muddy that I would just slip down and fall. Bad barrier placement, it was just plain bad. It was not that I was feeling bad, it was just that I could not go hard due to the course. I just got sick of riding in shit water, falling down, and the like. I just quit, I had no desire to ride any more so I just quit. I wasn't the only one...

One of the worthless additions.

Half way through the mud pit. I got yelled at for being outside of the flags on this lap...

Thinking how worthless this is.

Hurry up and wait.

That statement holds an immense amount of truth at the Mayo.
Yesterday I got there at 8:30 for an 8:45 appt and did not get in until 9:30ish. I just met with the doctor here, tried to explain what happens and all. It is quite challenging as I am not even sure what the heck is happening.
After that I got scheduled for some afternoon heart exams, to make sure I was not dead or something. The Echocardiogram was entertaining, I got to watch pictures of my heart beating.

This morning was not fun however. First off I had to be at the Mayo at 6:40 am. to get blood drawn. Which means I had to get up at 5, and could not eat anything. Soon after loosing my blood it was time for another EMG.
First they put some wires on your legs, then take what is basically a taser, and go and zap your nerves. Not very fun.
After that was the really fun part. They take a 3 inch needle and stick it into any given muscle. First while relaxed then while tensed. The tensed part hurts a fair amount. Apparently this lets the doctors hear the muscle working? That took a good hour.5. Then I got to leave. Hopefully I don't need to go back.

Home turf

But first, a drive up to Taylors Falls to take part in the Red Barn CX. I really enjoy this race. Good course, lots of people, good times. The only problem is that they always run out of beer before I get a chance to get any. Lame...
The race itself went pretty well. With almost all the top dogs present I raced exactly where I was last weekend. Which was again rounding out the top 10. Hopefully I can put some good training in these next few weeks and move up for the State CX.

I love mid-air pictures...

Sunday it was Sean and my race. We learned last year how to set the course right, and with a good amount of help did it all in 1.75 hours. Thanks to those who helped out, made my life much better. I even got the pinwheel on the first try this year. Took all of 20 minutes instead of 2 hours.
Race day brought a decent number of people, down a bit from last year sadly. That was partly due to the large turnout at the Red Barn CX. I guess people are just lazy, oh well. I was really annoyed about the fact that there was some grumbling going on about problems with the B/womens A race and how there was confusion with laps and placing and all. We held the first separate womens race of the year, advertised it well, and guess what, 3 people showed up. If I hear complaining about it again I'll give them my thoughts...Thanks to those who did come out, it was still a good race.
As I hoped Herr Swanson showed up,

and kicked all of our asses. Again.

My own race went alright. I was quite tired from a late night of...race preparation...
I still managed to pull off 5th. But there were a bunch of guys missing unfortunately.

Jump into the arctic.

You try to figure it out...

Up, up and away

Run

Thanks to all who came out and helped. It made Sean's and my life so much better. And made the race better too.
Also thanks to all those who took pictures (I think most of these are from Jim Wellbrock) Check out skinnyski.com where there are about 50000000000 more. Coverage is important!

It is nice out.

I'm to lazy to write about it so the Doughboy did.

Not bad

I am starting to feel a bit faster for whatever reason.
It was the Hub race today. The course was changed up, it was much much better than last year. A good mix of hard, recovery, technical and fast places. The only bad part was the barrier set up. 180 deg. turn, barrier, barrier on a 180 deg. turn, then straight then another barrier.
I have come to accept my slow starting, I just can't put it all down right away I guess. As long as I am no more than 1/3 of the race back I can usually make it up by the end of the first lap. That happened today. I rode with 4 others for 2 laps, then got dropped on a descent because I was being to cautious. I then rode the rest of the race all by my lonesome. By the end a large gap in front of me, and a huge gap behind me. Good TT practice I guess.
The course had a nice long steep climb, perfect for riding. At the top is where all the people hung out, it was really fun to ride through a tunnel of people yelling and ringing bells. Makes you feel important.

My saddle height looks way to low, but I am having trouble figuring out if it is or not...

Up up and away

All alone

Evolutionary racing

In Darwin.
Finally a day without rain and some sun, without temps above 80. A good day for racing. The course was, alright. Basically up, up and up, then down down, run a bit, then go fast. During the warm up I was not a fan of the course, but by the end I approved.
I was off to an awful start, near the back of the pack the first time up, then as usual, I slowly made my way up. I rode with a guy from the Hub for a most of the race, then got away on the steep part of the climb with 1.5 laps to go. Overall a fairly good race, the only problem was that my front wheel came unglued. I figured out the reason for all the tires coming unglued, and now that I glued both front and rear myself, it should not happen any more. During the race the tire made a very annoying squeak which I think both hurt and helped my result since no one wanted to be around the noise.

After hanging out a bit at the race Casper the ghost and wife Linda invited the Doughboy and I to Vietnamese food in Minneapolis due to the fact that Daniel is stronger than metal and broke his chain, and since he had put Sean's bike in the pit it was fair game. ha! And also since they are really nice people.
Anyway we had a bit of a drive. I think Daniel thought he was driving a
because the subaru had troubles keeping up. Either that or him being a ghost and all made him invisible to cop cars. Either way after not so long, we ate good food. Thanks guys for that. After dinner Sean and I got dropped like it were a bike race.

Sean's future job

No costume required!

Last weekend

was muddy. Looks like it will be this week as well....

I am sick of this...

All it ever does anymore is

And it looks like it will continue.
We need more

Then I will be happier.
Thanks to NOAA for the nice pictures.

Despite that, I had a good ride with lots of intervals today. It was also Bon Appétit's (school food service) 20th birthday today. That means they tried extra hard on the food. I hear for its birthday next year they are going to serve beer and wine with dinner. Maybe I should come back for that...

Nice...

Death cramps and mud baths

Sean and I went south through the endless fields of corn to race some bikes near Des Moines. I had a hard time deciding whether to brave the weather or not by going to the arctic (Duluth) or going south to try and win some cash.
We got down yonder just earlier enough to get a few laps of the course in before it got dark, a whole whopping 45 minutes of easy riding.
It rained a bit that night, but by the time we raced at 3:45 it was pretty dry. There were a few places with really sticky mud, but nothing dirty.
I had always thought MN races were small, but Iowa A races are tiny. 15 people the first day, I knew a couple of guys were fast, including Patty who came down from MN to try and win some money as well. Soon the race was off, the first laps went great, there were 4 of us, JJ (promoter), Epin (won the Olaf race last year), Patty, and myself out front. We were even rotating pulls for a bit. Then all of a sudden it felt like someone put the breaks on. Just like that, things went from good to shitty. Needless to say I got gapped and could not get back on, I had to slow way down. A lap later I started getting death cramps, not bad, but enough to effect performance. This was the first time it has ever happened in a cross race. I slowed down even more and was just tried to push through it. The guy who was in 5th at that point caught me, I was able to bring it back up at that point and stick to his wheel, then eventually I started feeling better. I pulled a bit, then on the last lap I felt good again and put the hammer down opening up a big gap and finishing 4th.
To bad for the cramps though, I was having a blast up front and think I could have stayed there.

Saturday night and Sunday it rained and rained. By race time the course was one big pile of mud. The muddiest I have raced in. Only 10 people this time, with both Patty and Epin gone JJ was my competition. Sean had a good first 3/4 of a lap and was right there with us, then he disappeared. By that time there were 3 of us out front, JJ, Troy (was 5th Sat.) and me. The mud was very slow going, and was hard to plow through. We stayed together until nearly the end of the 2nd to last lap. Somehow JJ got away and went way away. I chased but could not catch him and managed a 2nd place.
I did end up getting some cash this weekend, which I needed really badly...
Hopefully I can find some pictures soon.

Now it is back to Olaf, where most people are gone for fall break. And the weather is really crappy. I guess I have to do homework.

And then there was cold.

Sunday a tropical mid 80's. Monday 50. Just like that the weather changed. But hey no rain while riding bikes!
It has been a good week of training so far. A bunch of intervals and 3 plus hour rides. Good times.
Time to rest up for the weekend.
Des Moines or Duluth?

I don't think they will be naming roads like this anytime soon...

A bit better

Yesterday was the Lake Rebecca CX race. The weather, as most of you know has been unseasonably hot. Yesterday when I looked at the temp after the race was 84. Too hot for cross.
The course was not technical at all, and pretty fast.
Due to the fact that Saturdays race was canceled (or at least I think due to it) there was quite a turnout for the day at the races, for sure the biggest A race thus far.
There was a crash at the end of the B race, so once all of us had lined up to start on time, we got sent out for a lap so they could get a car in to get people out. Nothing wrong with that, except some people like to race those laps, thus I was even further back on the line then I was before. Being that the race started on a narrow rode (most people can go fast there) and soon went to trail. A bad starting position was not good at all.
Eventually we were off, nothing but good racing for the first few laps. Then on the 3 or 4th lap I was mounting to go up a hill and I somehow caught my chainring with part of my shoe and broke the strap. The group I was with then gapped me and I tried and tried to catch back on. Not that the shoe made too much of a difference after the fact, the initial confusion is what hurt me. Oh well. There are some more chances left.
Over all though it was a decent race, I felt pretty good, at times I should have pushed it more. Just have to do that next time.

broke.
I have a replacement on the way, hopefully I get it by Friday.

Midweek fun

Yesterday it was raining, again, and as of Monday night my bike had all new cables and housing, I was in no mood to go make everything not work again. So Sean and I went running. We did what the ski team calls "the campus tour" Which is hitting up 3 of the bigger hills on campus 3 times each with going hard in between. It hurts a bit.
Anyways, the sun was finally out today, and I was itching to ride. As soon as I was done with class I was off. On my way to Faribault I did a whole bunch of 30 second sprints. Got to Faribault, had Ben look over my bike to see what else was wrong. Got a new cassette and a tooth on one of the chain rings bent back into place, the front derailleur dropped, and the rear derailleur hanger bent. My bike is basically running better then it did new. Finally.
After that it was off to meet the wanna be Ole. I found him 5 min. into a 15 min interval. Finished that up with him.
Then cruised on past the site of the crash from last week, I stayed rubber side down this time.

None of this crap today.

Then more interval, where I got a big enough gap on him that he could not even smell the farts I left along the way.

It was then back to Olaf where 10 start sprints were done, I have never been a fast starter. It seems to work out most of the time, but it would be nice to get a bit faster. Sean starts fast, I usually just hung onto his wheel, only twice on the longer ones, did I get by him.
All in all it was a good 4 hours 1 minute and 35 seconds.
Some interesting info courtesy of powertap...
Max speed: 3754.35 kph
Max Watts: 107,456 Watts

Damn, I guess I am getting faster/stronger.

Some days you got, some days you don't

This weekend was the first of the dual cyclo-cross racing for the season. From here on out it is pretty much that way.
Yesterday (Sat.) was the Hudson race. After just making it to the starting line on time (unlike Sean who missed the start). It was off on a course that was nearly half single track. I was able to hold my ground though the mud and roots and due to an early end because of lightning I finished 7th. Being that my technical riding is not where I need it to be right now I was fairly pleased. A top 10 most days is nothing to bad.
Then it was out to lunch with the parents (no dogs as they were not allowed in the restraint), Herr Langely and Adam and his wife from Zumbrota.

Today it was raining again (but unlike yesterday no wind) as we lined up in Orono. For some odd reason the A race was first today a very early 10 A.M. which meant I had to get up fairly early. Anyways, it was off on the long muddy course. I was not feeling so hot at the start, in part due to lack of warm up, I figured the sluggishness would eventually go away. I just tried to keep going, but simply could not go fast. With 4 or so laps left, I began to feel a large hop in my rear wheel. Turns out my tubular started to come unglued, that was pretty annoying. However, I was not quite as unlucky as Casper, who I saw running his bike with his rear wheel halfway off. Anyhow, I have been trying to come up with reasons for my poor performance today, but I think that I just did not have it today, and thats bike racing I guess.

Before I lost it

But at least I got a cool picture out of it.

Hittin it hard

After being completely shot in class today I decided to take a short nap. nearly 2 hours later I woke up and it was time to go ride bikes. I cruised on over to Carleton to get Sean. From there we cruised on out to Big Woods State park going pretty hard up some of the hills. My legs were still asleep at the start, but soon enough they were ready to go. We then did 2 of the big laps (somewhere around 20 min each), the second was race pace. It felt pretty good to kick it in again. After that we cruised around on a shorter lap then headed back out on to the road heading into Nerstrand. That means a town line, which in turn means a sprint. So off we went I was leading it out and as Sean was throwing it down I stood up and went full bore 1165 watts to be more exact, a blink of an eye later my chain skipped and then things got interesting. My feet both unclipped, and I did some pavement skiing, then that stopped and I proceeded to smash my elbow, ass, and head on my left side into the blacktop, while my front tire ripped skin of my right leg twice. Shortly after that I was sitting in the shoulder wondering what the hell just happened. After a few minutes of recovery, it was up an at em again. As I recently have had no desire to ride on pavement lightly, (and crashing did not change that) and the fact that I had a large whole in my shorts, I said we should take gravel back. So we had a nice easy cruise back to town. For the Northfield town line I lead Sean out, while in top gear my chain was skipping, I am pretty sure that is what caused the crash.
We then met up with some of Seans friends and cruised for another 30 min. All in all it was a 3 hr 10 min ride, and I hit it hard in multiple ways...

Dazed.

Tire burns

Did not quite make the line
Back on the road again

Well then

Cross has started, it has been a few weeks since the last race, so it was good to start hammering it again.
This morning Sean and I cruised on up to St. Cloud. It is really nice doing the top level races, as they are always late. I did not have to wake up very early at all. Anyway, I was exhausted the whole way up, I think it was because of lack of sleep Friday night. But hey, thats college!
Even while I was warming up I thought I was going to fall asleep, I envisioned getting to the start line and just tipping over fast asleep. But luckily that did not happen and it was off for the first 60 minutes of cross of the year.
St. Cloud has a nice course set up. This year they even added a hill and barriers to make it even more fun. The course starts on top of a hill, weaves around for a bit then drops down to the Mississippi back up, right back down. A bit of flat then up and down and up again. It is not very technical and does not have a whole lot of recovery.
My start sucked, I felt well not good at all. I was just not able to push it super hard. After a bit over 2 laps I guess I got warmed up, and brought the pace up high to try and catch Herr Casper who had just blown by the small group I was in. I just went and kept going (never catching the ghost), but thanks to him I actually started racing. At the start I was a good 15 places back or so, and I had no idea how many people were in front of me. I just assumed it was 10 or so since that is where I finished up last year. About halfway in the Duluth guys started yelling that I was 6th. I was quite surprised at that, and noticed that 4 and 5 were not far. So I did the only thing that makes sense and chased hard. With about 4 laps left I caught them (Micha and Matt of Grandstay), Matt got on my wheel and we rode together for the rest of the race. He sat on, and said that I could have the sprint, but I think he coulda kicked my ass if he had wanted. ha! But anyway, the race ended up going surprisingly well. I had no idea that I was going that fast, I was not feeling all that great, or so I thought, but I guess I was. I wonder what will happen if I feel good for a race?
But it was a good time. I am off to a much better start than last year. Where I finished 30 out of 37 or so in this race compared to this year which was 5 out of 33. I'll take it! Now lets just hope I keep getting faster and not stay the same or get slow while everyone else flies by me.

Lets get the party started.
Sean leading me out for the barriers. ha!

Casper the ghost about to eat me up and spit me out.
Starting to hurt

Turn!

First time one has ever been able to read Milltown of the back of the shorts.

Colds, cramps, cross and homework...

The title pretty much somes up what has been happening lightly. Last Friday morning I woke with a light tickle in the throat, thought nothing of it and thus went hard on the bike. Not a good idea, Saturday I woke up with a sore throat and stuff nose. Sunday was worse. Monday was better, so I did a few hard hills, thus giving the cold another chance. Damn, that was dumb. Tuesday hurt a bit, then it started tapering off more. Today was insanely easy so hopefully tomorrow I will finally feel good again.
A large population of Oles are sick, so I know where I got it from. But usually my immune system can kick the common campus colds. I guess training was to hard?

Along with this cold I have had some death cramps. The first was just randomly (not that the other dont) started on a recent ride. It was concentrated and contained to the numb spot on my right leg from surgery. Just as random as it started it went away. Yesterday, I was riding out of Faribault and got on my seat a bit weird. This somehow caused a cramp that lasted for a good hour. Then today riding in the Arb, again for no reason my left leg started doing the classic death cramp. Not cool, I dont know why they are happening now. Ive been riding everyday, and except for Monday all easy.
In other news, I finally got an appt. at the Mayo.

Cross riding is all Sean and I have been doing. Lots of trail and gravel. Yesterday I went out early, thus by solo. I was only planning on going to the shop and back, but due to there being no wind I just kept going and ended up with 3.5. I rode some new gravel, always exciting. Anyways, this weekend is supposed to be the first cross race of the year. I really want to do it, but if I feel like I do now, there is not much point....

Other then riding bikes, all I have time for is homework. The professors are really piling it on these days. I don't really get it, I am in the same level classes (if not easier) as last year, but am doing much more work. Not fun. But at least some of it is interesting.

Cross time.

Time for cross riding, got the bike all set up, even with Powertap. Sean and I have been riping up the trails and gravel. Today we went up to Lebanan Hills and I had a nice face plant.
Time to go "recover."

Class, Power, and Jesse James

Last week classes started. Unlike most other semesters most of my classes should be really good.
I have: the ethics of war, Chinese, German, and it's about sex. I think they all have the potential of being very good.

Last week Powertap came as well. It is really quite fun to look at all the information I get out of it. While riding today I was just watching the watt reading. The reading is always changing, very hard to keep it consistent. I am wondering if I am putting more power in with my right leg then left, the reading kept varying 5-10 watts and seemed to be in unison with the push of each different leg. I'll have to look into that.
Now that I have the information, I just need to figure out how to use it to get faster...

Yesterday was the annual Jesse James bike tour. There is a 10, 30, 60, and 100 mile ride. On Friday night, while out and about, I had convinced two others to come with me. However, that was at 1 a.m., thus when 7:30 came around both were not to be seen. So off I went by myself. I rode with a doctor from the Mayo for just over 50 miles, then he said he was to tired to carry on at my pace so I took off for the rest solo. I only started getting tired in the last 30 minutes of the ride, which was after the 100 mile mark. On the way through the outskirts of Northfield I came across and art show, and they were selling kettle corn, I love that stuff, so I bought some and had to carry a giant bag of popcorn a good 5 miles. Ha.
All in all the ride was 181 km (108 miles) and 6 hrs 4 min long. I hit the 100 mile mark at 5 hrs 15. I had an ok avg. of 205 watts for the century. After that I just cruised back.

Today I woke with tired legs, but after breakfast I felt great. I went out for 2 hours, just me Powertap and iPod. During the ride I came to the realization that I really do enjoy riding solo. The iPod talks to me, and Powertap tells me how my form is, even better than other riders can. Group rides with the Olaf "team" a few times a week will be good this year, but not everyday like in the past. I need to do my own thing, train right, and now train really smart.

It's 101, lets go race.

Apparently it gets hot in Missouri. And yesterdays race started at 2, while 3 is usually the hottest part of the day. Good timing, eh?
Anyway, despite it being hot (the hottest I've ever raced in) I was pretty much ready to rock for the final day of the Gateway Cup. I did what I thought was a good enough warm up, and soon the race was on. The first 15 minutes sucked, I was no where near warmed up enough so I was suffering on the hot gradual uphill that was half the course. Eventually I started feeling better and started moving up. Up and up I went, it was great. After some time I was exactly where I had wanted to be the entire weekend (with the exception of a break), I was sitting comfortably in the position 1 to 20 of the peloton. Nice and safe and yet plenty of wind block, I sat on Dan Schamtz's (the local BMC pro that won the weekend) wheel for quite some time. I went with some break attempts, but nothing got away after the first break of the day.
As the race went on it got hotter and hotter. Most of the hill was in the shade, but the top was not, every time we went over it felt like stepping into a sauna.
Unfortunately my good positioning was suddenly lost with about 20 minutes to go. The peloton simply engulfed the front and it changed. I spent the rest of the race trying to get back up. I did not make it to the front, but came in with the main sprint group. so around 30 or so back I think. But it was a good day in all.

I wore the Olaf kit because white is cooler...

The weekend was a great time. For sure the fastest crits I've done. the 130 man peloton and the fast teams are really great. I need to do more big races. I am pleased with my form at this point, on most occasions I was able to make my body do what my mind wanted. Unlike Sean who had some trouble. It is always fun to see my training working right. Also this was my first real test of multiple days of racing. My body handled it great. My legs are not fried at all right now, but recovery ride is still in order. The only thing I wish I would have done was to go out and attack more. I was to afraid in the first few days because I did not know if I would have the energy to make it through. And the last day I had some chances, I just did not take them for some dumb reason. Oh well, I've still got a long time to race bikes. There will be more chances.

Next up Cross!

Days 3 and 4

Yesterday was the "Tour of Washington Ave." The course was right on the edge of downtown St. Louis in an area where they are remodeling a bunch of old buildings into new apartments. The loop started at the top of a longish low gradient hill, went down for two corners then up the backside which was also a long not steep hill, back down for 2 corners and back up to this finish. The hills were not hard enough to split things up, but hard enough to make it hurt.
I had decent position most of the race. A few time I made it right up near the front. With about 10 laps left I was right where I wanted to be, then all of a sudden I was 50 back and could not move up. Oh well, at least I finished unlike Sean. Ha!

The course

The fans are always a good time

Fun on the corners

This evening was the "Giro Della Montagna." It was in the Italian section of town called The Hill. The course was not really hilly, but it did have a nice long hill, one side of the course was up, the other down.
The race was going well until about 20 minutes to go. I was in good position and all, I took a shot of Hammer Gel from one of the refillable containers since that is all I have left. My throat really did not like it and for the last bit of the race I had the coughs. It sucked. I finished again in the 40s or so. Nothing special. Hopefully I'll find some pictures.

Tomorrow is the last stage, and my legs feel great right now. Hopefully that will carry through the night, and I'll be strong tomorrow.

Nighttime fun

Thursday I arrived in Des Moines, and Sean and I cruised on over the the local "race like a girl" training race. It was alright, short races, the longest being 20 minutes, the shortest being 2.
Nothing special happened, but it was a good warm up for this weekend.

Friday morning we cruised on down the road to St. Louis, MO to take part in the Gateway Cup. Four crits over the four day weekend.
The first of which started last night at 9:30. It was really quite strange to be warming up for a race when I am usually getting ready for bed. The course was pretty much flat, a little bit of elevation change, but nothing significant. It was nice and wide with mostly good roads, and only decently lit.
So at 9:30 all 121 racers took off for 75 minutes (plus 5 laps) of fun. I was about mid pack at the start and stayed there for 20 minutes or so while I adjusted to bike racing again. Eventually I found my lines and got the courage and the legs to start moving up. It took quite some time to get anywhere. On a few occasions throughout the race (after halfway) I managed to get to the front and I tried bridging up to random breaks. Of course all I managed to do was drag the field with me, but it was still fun to be up on the front of over 100 people. Just over halfway through my right contact got tired of the wind and decided to jump ship. That made the corners a bit harder, but luckily I had my lines all figured out so I just stuck to those. I was able to stay in the top 30-40 for pretty much the rest of the race. As the race wound down (and sped up) I was about 20th wheel or so for awhile. With 5 laps or so to go there was a crash on the outside going into a corner. On the 4th lap to go I lost my left contact, thus was nearly blind...With 2 laps to go some guy did not hold his line and cut the corner to much, bounced of me and the proceeded to cause a really loud crash.
The last lap all I did was try not to run into anything and hold my place. I estimate between a 30 and 40 finish place. It was a fun race, nighttime made it fun.

There were lots of house parties going on during the races...

I managed to sneak into a photo (Olaf skinsuit) on the inside

The line

After a short spin this morning its off to downtown for race 2.

Enjoy

the add if you have not already, it's from the Australian DOT.

An ad campaign aimed at preventing traffic deaths in Australia mocks the manhood of speed-obsessed drivers by having women waggle a little finger at them.
The pinky gesture, meant to symbolize a small penis, hits male drivers where their sense of humour stops: below the belt.
The new ads show one young driver at a traffic light revving his engine and burning rubber in front of two young women.

As the car speeds off, the women exchange a knowing glance and slowly wave their little finger. The ads' tagline? "Speed: No one thinks big of you."
The Road and Traffic Authority (RTA) in New South Wales opted for the cheeky campaign when recent research showed its previous ads with images of horrific car crashes and fatalities were not working.
The statewide ad campaign coincides with the introduction of new restrictions on learner drivers, including a ban on all cellphone use, limits on the number of young passengers allowed and tougher speeding penalties.
Speeding is a factor in about 40 per cent of road deaths in New South Wales each year, according to RTA figures.
"We accept this campaign is controversial, but we must find new ways to make our anti-message sink in," said RTA spokesman John Whelan.
"This campaign continues RTA's efforts to do all we can to save lives on our roads.
If the road toll is to be reduced further, we must make speeding socially unacceptable," Mr. Whelan added.
"We will do what we feel we have to, to get the message through."
The ads provide new meaning to giving someone the finger.
One of the 45-second ads shows a female pedestrian being forced back to the curb by a speeding driver.
As she glares in disgust, the pinky gesture is made by a grandmotherly woman sitting on a nearby bench.
Their unmistakable message to the speeder is, you drive like a jerk so you must be compensating for your paltry physical endowment.
The first stage of the $2-million campaign includes television, movie theatre, and bus shelter advertisements.

Hitchhiking.

Hi, my name is Jake and I break way to many Bontrager wheels...
As I was finishing up my 499th recorded hour (plus or minus a bunch of hours) of training this year, I heard the now all to familiar pop of a breaking spoke. I was 58 minutes straight out from home. Luckily my wheel broke today while I was on a fairly busy road, rather that way the heck out in the middle of nowhere on some random gravel road that there is one car per hour on. Especially because there is no cell phone service way out yonder, not that there was any where I was either. But hey, thats when your hand comes in handy.
I had to ride a bit with the broken spoke, the last few breakings have been quite bad. Just throws the wheel way out of true, it must be the paired spoke design. I was always able to ride broken wheels home in the early days.
Anyway after about 30 min of waving at cars I finally got one to stop. An old guy named Ed. The car ride home was nearly 30 min long as well. So we had a nice chat about life. He was even nice enough to go 20 minutes out of his way to bring me all the way home. I know he most likely will never read this, but thanks Ed!
He said he picked me up because I looked nice, and non-threatening. The matching kit does it I guess. I like nice people.
Anyway, back to wheels. That is the third wheel I broke this summer, and 4th or 5th for the year. I don't really know why I do it so often, maybe because Duluth roads are basically like single track, or maybe its all the gravel, or maybe its the single track...hmmm. Whatever the reason they should not break so much, I am down to my last rear wheel, which is my race wheel.
Oh, I also went to the State Fair, all the food is always a good time. Just think of it as energy, then eating all the crap is just fine.

Rippin legs off

Tonight I rode with the mountain bikers from Ski Hut. I did so because they were going hard often, and on gravel. Both things are exactly what I wanted, and of course I rode my madone (I also rode 2 and a quarter this morning with Christoph. Not hard, but not easy).
Anyways back to the action. We rode out on pavement for about 50 minutes to the first gravel. I pulled the whole time at a good 34 km/h or so. The gravel was a road I had never been on before, so I had no idea what was coming. More fun...I took off right away and dropped all but one guy who did all he could to hold on for the next 24 minutes. It was great, the road was a bit sketchy at times for a road bike, but no all that bad. After about 15 minutes of easy it was time to light it up again. This road I somehow managed to get a good gap early on and just kept making it bigger. This road was about 10 minutes long, I came to the pavement over a minute ahead of the others. On most of the gravel I was going about 35-37 kmh, but saw up to 53, never below 30 though. Shortly after everyone was back together we took off again. I was out front at first pulling, but got a little at the start of a nice hill. I was still recovering when the guy who held on during the first interval took off with a great attack, there was nothing left to respond right away, and he got a good 100 meter gap quickly. After a short decent I got it back and just flew up the next small hill and on the next flat section just blew by him. Good times. Another 15 minutes of balls to the wall done. Just one little section remained, which we did not go super hard, but hard, only for about 5 min though.
Anyways it was a great ride, exactly what I needed. I showed myself that I am feeling quite strong and have lots of power when I need it. And it looks like my battery has a pretty damn good charge at this point too. I guess I have been doing something right in my training...
The whole ride the others were waiting for me to get a flat, the Refuse tires refused everything and baffled everyone, and made them hurt. HA!

Bikes and Beer

This past weekend I attended Trek Worlds down in Madison. Trek gives anyone who carries Trek in their shop to come and see all the new products, eat good food, drink free beer, and visit the factory. Usually the new bikes are available for demoing, but because of the rain they canceled the demo just for my group. Lucky me.
Anyway, it was a good weekend. I got to look at all the new stuff Trek and bontrager (and any company affiliated with them) have out now. To bad I dont have any money to buy a couple of those fancy bikes. I guess I'll just keep plugin away with mine. However, I am pretty sure I will be getting a powertap. If I am training as much as I am currently, I should probably do it right as to not hurt myself. All I have to do is suck it up and dish out the cash...

Other than that the big new is that summer is officially over up here in the arctic. Last week it started. Two weeks ago the high temps were 85 or so, and cooling off down to higher 50s at night. Last week up until Wednesday it was down to 75 as a high and low 50s at night. Then by the end of the week highs were less than 70 dropping to mid 40s. One evening last week I walked out of the house and smelled fall. Today the high was 62 with a 25 mph wind off the lake...
Which brings me to my next topic, along with a strong lake wind. Comes large waves on Park Point. These large waves are really fun to play in. Last year a friend and I took out the lazer (14 foot sailboat) in 14 foot waves. Todays waves were 5-7 feet I heard. Unfortunately we were low on time, thus could not sail. However, I did go surfing for the first time in my life. It was quite fun, I was able to stand up on the board. Sadly, most of the time, right after standing the wave would die and I would fall in. Even with all the surface water being pushed in the lake was still really quite cold. I only laster about 20 minutes with a 3/4 body wet suit on. On my way to the car a lady asked if she could have her son take a picture with me. Ha!
I forgot to mention that riding in Madison I got no cramps. Upon my return home (yesterday) I got pretty bad cramps when I rode. I tried to get them out, but only dulled them a bit. I ran this morning on the beach and cramped up in strange places. No fun. Then I hit it hard on todays ride and managed to get rid of most of them. But now my legs are more tired than they should be. Damn Cramps. I called Mayo after that, they have not looked into my case yet....

6 hours and a nagging question

Tone and I rode just over 6 good hours today. I felt wonderful the entire time. Even coming back up the hills home. I had forgotten how nice it is to have a training partner. The time goes by so much quicker.

Anyway, and more importantly. I was browsing the Olaf website the other day and came across this picture.

One can't really see that well in this picture. But the guy in the light blue shirt looks quite (if not exactly) like me. However, I know for a fact that it is not me because I don't wear button up shirts, and the guy has a bracelet on, another thing I do not wear. I have never seen anyone on campus that looks that similar to me. I am wondering who my clone is...

Pain be gone.

For awhile now I have been getting pretty bad hot foot. I don't remember it much from before getting new shoes, but can't say it was not there. Im told the stiffer shoe will cause a more noticeable pain because the foot won't move around as much. Anyway like I mentioned before I was messing around with cleat position and all. Nothing seemed to be helping relieve the pain. Whitey at Ski Hut and some others eventually figured out that it may be because the crank-bro pedals have to small a platform. It was concentrating to much pressure on the ball of my foot. So today I switched back to my old looks to see if the bigger platform would help. It for sure did. My feet hardly burned at all. Finally! Next week I am going to try out some different types of pedals to see which work best.
Also I finally got the seat height exactly right. No knee pain anymore either. Now I just need to figure out how to get rid of my upper back pain...

Finding a fit

I decided that I actually need to get my bike fit properly. I stopped at Ski Hut on the way home today. I changed a few things a bit. Seat up, and forward. I still need to work on the cleat position. My 3 hours of straight ride time had my feet burning almost the whole time...

Yesterday was the Brewhouse Triathalon. I have gotten to know the director (and owner of all Brewhouse establishments) pretty well. He put me in charge of the bike course and all involved. It was really good to be a part of a bigger event (there were 690 entries). Good experience to bring to my smaller races.

Other than that things have been pretty low key. After getting back from the BW I have picked up my training again. I did not have a whole lot of time on Fri. or Sat. so I only got to ride about an hour each of those days. But other than that I have been doing at the minimum 2 hours training, with 2 hours total of commuting. With commuting today is 5 hours. Good deal.
Rowing is going, but it just makes me so tired. This summer I have come to realize how important sleep is for good training. I can't wait until rowing is over...

Also I am a published writer!
The website makes you register. I will just put what I wrote on here. It was published in the Sunday paper. I posted something very similar before, but this is all jazzed up.
Recently, I have noticed a drastic increase in the amount of road rage toward cyclists. In the last week I have been honked at, yelled at, swerved at, sworn at in a variety of ways, and nearly been hit by passing cars in multiple areas of Duluth.
What I don't understand is why riding a bicycle angers some motorists so much. Honestly, he or she will maybe, just maybe need to slow down. Most likely all one must do is nudge the steering wheel just a little in order to not come dangerously close to hitting a cyclist. Maybe the motorist will be another 20 seconds late to getting to where he or she is going, surely no more.
Back to my question, why do some motorists hate cyclists so much? Is it because we cyclists are out using our bodies in the beautiful summer sun while they are sitting in hot cars? Is it because we are enjoying our ride for training or commuting? Or is there some other reason. And as long as a cyclist is going the speed limit (or the speed of traffic when it’s faster) there is no reason we cannot use the main roadway. Often, it is yelled by someone in a passing car to “get on the sidewalk,” when in fact riding on a sidewalk is prohibited by law.
All I have to say is that motorists should get accustomed to cyclists, because our numbers will grow as the price of gas goes up. Why not stop fighting a losing battle and get out, get in shape, save the planet by enjoying one of life’s simple pleasures. If you are unable to then please give us some space, wave and smile instead of honking and swearing. Is that really too much to ask?

Way up North..

Where border rules don't matter and there is no news of doping (which it appears they all did dope now)!

I just got back from a nice trip in the Boundary Waters. It was great, I really love leaving civilization behind and going off into the woods. No news, no phones, just rocks, trees, and water.
Our route took us along the US-Canadian border for quite some time. It was my chance to get out of the country this year, so I took multiple excursions off into the Canadian wilderness. Good times. Other than the trip being really enjoyable, it was made even more enjoyable by the absence of cramps. I felt them coming on lightly on some portages, but never lasting.
Today when I got home I had a bit of energy so I got in the saddle again for the first time in a week and a half. And again, no cramps. Good deal. The ride felt great, nice and hot out. I also had lots of bounce in my legs, but I could tell the top gears are gone now. It will take a bit of work to get back up. But it was a much needed week.5 off.
Here are a few photos from the woods...

Up I go

Fearless four
Into the abyss

This is how you keep beer cold up yonder.
flying food.
A giant fish.