Pedal or Die

Did You Miss Me????

2012-01-19T13:08:00.000-06:00

Well, maybe I haven't spent the entire time on the floor, but I have been down and a little out. I've spent the past two years injured and tired. The layoff was a cathartic one. I've renewed my body and spirit and rekindled my desire for many things. Cycling was just one of them, but so too were being a good husband and father, being a better leader at work, and simply enjoying life.

I am back from the dead...Pedal or Die!

Moving Time

2009-01-31T08:55:00.004-06:00

I'm moving to a new home. Greener pastures, better views.

www.twowheelblogs.com/boz

If you're in the neighborhood stop by and say hello.

PS3 and Call of Duty

2009-01-30T03:59:00.004-06:00

Okay, I bought this Playstation 3 for the Blu-ray player, but my 11 year old son tells me about Call of Duty and how you can play online. (He already has the game on his Xbox360, but hasn't been playing it online.) I agree to spend $60 for the game and now I'm hooked on it. It's a first person shooter game, but the objective is to run around and destroy the enemy. In short, it's what we did for hours at a time as kids in my neighborhood. If you get 'shot' you were to lie on the ground, slowly count to 10, and then re-join the game. Same premise here. If you get shot, you respawn and then look for the guy who nailed you and even the score.

All in all, I can pass at least 30 minutes playing the game before I realize it. I'm not hooked on the idea of beating the other players as much as I am at beating my dexterity which seems to hold me back. Fun stuff. Maybe this would be a good carrot to get me back on the trainer??

Nowhere Man

2009-01-25T18:13:00.002-06:00

Man, the crash really took it out of me. However, this isn't a complaint so much as it's a reflection. I really wanted a break but left up to my modus operandi I would never take serious time off. That is, not while I'm around the house and the bikes. Sure, send me to Europe or a warm, sandy beach and I'll forget to ride as soon as the plane lifts off. But hanging around the house and being available to my friends, I'm too tempted to grab a bike and hit the trails or roll down the roads. When I think back to the night I crashed, my desire to just get out with my buddies is what put me in the saddle. I think this happened for a reason and I'm glad for the break. I'll have some weight to lose, but it will help me focus. I like hard training, because the pain in preparing your body gets to compete with the pain of preparing your mind. For those of us who race cross and TT's, you understand getting your mind prepared is sometimes the bigger battle. I'm going nowhere in a hurry and for the first time in a long time, I'm off the front of the pack!

And the Award Goes to

2009-01-19T14:54:00.003-06:00

Acromioclavicular Joint Sprain.

Doctor called this afternoon to say it was a sprain of my Acromioclavicular Joint or AC sprain. The severity isn't high, so the treatment is with pain meds and physical therapy. The plan is to keep the range of motion high and work through some of the pain. I'm okay with that I guess. Albeit that's what I've been trying to do to some extent and at times it feels at though my arm is moving out of socket. That pain is intense and very similar to the pain from the accident. Since no further damage should incur, I suppose it's time to harden up, grit my teeth, and push for the line. Overall she thinks I should be able to get back on the bike for some light riding in the next couple of weeks and resume regular riding sometime in February.

Thanks again for all the prayers and well wishes.

No News is Good News....I Guess

2009-01-18T19:34:00.002-06:00

Still waiting on the results of Wednesday's MRI. Arm hasn't been much better. Stable was the term I was using until yesterday. My arm was consistently sore yesterday and today it was really bothersome. I can't lift anything that has any weight to it and putting any pressure on it is out of the question. I guess I should be a little bummed out, but everything happens for a reason and I'm going to make the best of this deal.

Besides, Charter Communications gave me more than enough to get angry at today by wasting 6+ hours of my time trying to troubleshoot a crappy modem they sent me. Maybe in my downtime I'll finally figure out this techno-computer stuff.

I appreciate all of the positive comments and will give an update as soon as I hear from my doctors. Peace!

Short Season

2009-01-10T04:34:00.003-06:00

Got out Thursday night with some guys from the team for a night ride on the mountain bikes. Great night, cold and clear, frozen trails, and a very bright moon. Joining us was my brother-in-law, Andy, who's taking up mountain biking. My goal (as well as my wife and Andy's) was that he didn't get hurt. He didn't.

Towards the end of the ride, I planned to bunny hop a fallen tree and I guess I misjudged the distance. (Night riding can have its disadvantages.) As a result my rear wheel clipped the tree which acted like a diving board propelling my rear wheel upward and me headfirst over the bars onto my right shoulder. Result was a trip to the ER, xrays, and my arm in a sling. The good news is nothing is broken or dislocated. But, I don't see the orthopedic surgeon til Monday. Right now it's classified as a severe sprain and hope it remains the case otherwise it could be a short season.

More good news is the state TT isn't until August and cross follows 2 months later. I'll be ready regardless.

2008 Results

2009-01-02T07:15:00.002-06:00

My first full season of bicycle racing and I did 26 races in 2008. Averages out to one race every other weekend. 2009 is shaping up to be something in the same neighborhood, albeit with greater focus on TT's and CX.

I-64 TT - 6th place Masters 40+
MO State CX Championships - 4th place Masters 40+
Bubba Cross #8 Hermann - 10th place "B" race
Bubba Cross #7 Queeny Park - 25th place "B" race
Bubba Cross #6 Creve Coeur - 23rd place "B" race
Bubba Cross #5 Suson Park - 30th place "B" race
Bubba Cross #4 Creve Coeur - 17th place "B" race
Bubba Cross #3 Faust Park - 33rd place "B" race
Bubba Cross #2 Spanish Lake - 31st place "B" race
Bubba Cross #1 Jefferson Barracks - 30th place "B" race
ICCC Spanish Lake MTB - 12th Sport class
Castlewood Short Track Race - 8th place "B" race (finale)
Ronde Von Evergreen CX - 14th place "B" race
Hermann Cross Invitational - 23rd place Intermediate Race
Castlewood Short Track Race - 7th place "B" race (week 5)
Castlewood Short Track Race - 17th place "A" race (week 4)
Castlewood Short Track Race - 15th place "A" race (week 1)
O'Fallon Grand Prix - DNF Cat 4
Velo in the Valley TT - 5th place Cat 4
National City Castlewood Classic MTB - DNF Sport class (mechanical)
Tour of St. Louis Forest Park Crit - DNP Cat 4
Tour of St. Louis Columbia Bottoms TT - 12th place Cat 4
Tour of St. Louis Carondolet Crit - 34th place Cat 4
Tilles Park Crit - 16th place Cat 4/5 won 1 prime
St. Joes Mountain Bike Race - 8th place Sport Class
Froze Toes Road Race - 1st place Cat 5 Masters - fastest time overall in Cat 5

I May be Fat, but I'm Rested

2008-12-28T16:55:00.002-06:00

Dang, it doesn't take long for the pounds to come roaring back with a vengeance! I really haven't cared about what I was eating for the last month or so. My early November birthday sort of kickstarted the whole affair. While I knew there was another month to go in the cross season, the cooler November caused my body to respond with a seemingly natural desire to increase caloric intake. Call it an inate survival mentality. Cold temps require more fuel for the fire. Unfortunately, calories come in at a higher rate, but my body gets more sedentary. As a result, I get fat. Quickly.

I'm okay with it to some extent. It's been good enjoying food and drinks with my friends and family. Really nice not worrying about when I'll get on the bike and what foods I'll skip vs what I'll eat. However, that fire is quickly burning itself out. This morning's weigh-in was shocking! Once again it's time to start each day with stretching, lifting, riding, and focusing a little more on what doesn't get consumed. Not my formal training mind you, just getting ready to train. Base building...getting ready for training camp you might say.

I'm not going to begin my formal training until the end of January and yes, that's 3 months behind last year's schedule. Why the change this year? Less focus on MTB and Road and more focus on TT's and CX. I think I'm looking at 5-6 MTB races, 4-5 crits, and all of the TT's I can find, as well as another full season of CX. I've had a blast racing TT's and loved the CX experience. Therefore, they will become my main focus. I also like the similarities in what it takes to excel at each. Riding a solo effort with a willingness to push your body harder than the next guy.

I look forward to this year. Stay tuned.

Wow, am I that Famous???

2008-12-17T04:24:00.004-06:00

Was surfing around on Fuhrman's website Route66bicycles.com and noticed the MTB Name Generator. I put in my name and what was the result....

Big Boss Hoss

Huh, I guess I'm a little more widely know than I thought.

Go Out on a Good Note

2008-12-14T20:53:00.002-06:00

Finished my 26th race of 2008 with the I-64 TT today. Don't know my official finishing place yet, but I do know that I ran it in just over 20 minutes and averaged just under 24mph. Considering there was some considerable climbing (for a TT) in that short distance as well as gusting winds, I'm pleased with my effort more than ready to drop the curtain on this season.

The new bike was very fast (more than I can say for the pilot's legs) and it really responds well when the pace quickens. I'm looking forward to making some tweaks in the off-season and getting the bike ready for quite a few TT's this next year.

Looks Fast Just Sittin' Here

2008-12-13T09:42:00.002-06:00

I'm not sure I can reign in this locomotive. We'll see tomorrow. Big, big thanks go out to Russ and Dave down at Mesa Cycles for the fit and the good deal. Let's just hope she's as fast as she looks.

That's All Folks!

2008-12-08T21:11:00.003-06:00

Officially, Bubba Cross is done for the year. The State Championships have come and gone and it's now time for the silly season, I guess. I-64 TT, Team Seagal's CXMas, and Cross-Ocalypse are the only events left before I really start to focus on next year. Next year is my year!

First off, let me say that Jeff Yielding and the city of
Hermann put together one of the best races of the year! Very gracious hosts and a tremendous event thanks to Jeff, Dawndi, and their crew from Hermann!!!

Saturday, I raced the B's (along with 11 other dudes who are much faster than me) and finished 10th. I had a good race and kept guys in sight of me the entire time. A good race for me but overall it was very uneventful. I tried different lines and put in a good effort to shake the cobwebs off in preparation for Sunday's state championship race. Two key things I learned on Saturday were that you can ride the uphill, W-shaped run-up section and if you carry enough big mo' you can ride the entire sandpit.

Sunday, the temps were cooler by at least 20 degrees, which put them somewhere in the high 20's to low 30's. Crisp was an understatement. I lined up with the Masters (about 30-35 of us) and actually got one of my best starts of the year. I tucked in around the top 12 or so and really tried to keep my eyes on the other Master 40+ guys. Chris from Big Shark was one of them and I knew he'd be strong (having just taken 2nd place in the C's on Saturday.) We rolled together for the better part of 2 laps before I somehow got around him. I tried to keep putting the pressure on and did until 1 1/2 laps to go when my bike started mis-shifting. I think the old Shimano 9spd stuff has seen better days. Luckily, I had a spare bike in the pits and my teammate, Rick, was there to have it ready for me without too much time lost. The bike change did cost me a little bit of concentration and momentum though, but it wasn't too much in the end.

After the bike change, James Nelson, rolled past me and towed me around for a short while before he busted a move and rode me off his wheel. He's looking super fit and ready to tackle the SS class at Nats this week. I kept hammering in my own little world keeping an eye on the competition. If they got close, I stood and powered up, otherwise I just tried to stay out of trouble. In the end, I held off the guys I wanted to hold off and finished 4th in my class. I really don't know how close 3rd place (and the podium) was from me, but it really doesn't matter. I rode my best race of the season and it was all I could do. In the end, I was pleased with my effort and it gave me something to build on for next year.

Here are a few pics from Mike Dawson and Jeff Yielding.

Queeny Update

2008-12-02T19:48:00.004-06:00

Sunday was Bubba #7 or #8. Officially, it was to be Bubba #7, but with the additional night race at Creve Coeur, I guess it was bumped to #8. Doesn't really matter in the scheme of things, I guess. What did matter was that we finally got a little taste of Northern Belgium weather with light snow, bracing winds from the north, and temps in the low 30's. The feeling was right and the course was within a mile from my house, so there was no way I was skipping out. I can't say the same feelings were had by others as we only had 30 B racers on the line at the start. And as I looked around, they were most of the serious (read fast) dudes, too. I quickly shaped my strategy as this...don't come in last place.

I had a decent start and was riding somewhere around 20th and doing fine in most of the technical sections. I really could never find the right way to make the grass climb and seemed to always lose places on that part of the course. I seemed to make it back in the turns, but that climb really set the tone for my day of suffering. Most of my race was with Bill Howells (The Hub) and Ian Sasek (WildTraks). We traded punches riding different parts of the course with differing levels of proficiency. I can't say that I made a whole lot of mistakes, I just didn't have anything extra to bring to the fight. Bill always seems to have a little extra boost when he needs it and Sunday was no exception. His greatest win was surprising me as we made the gravel road climb up the center of the course late in the race. As I reeled in Ian, I looked off to my right to see where Bill was and to see if we'd dropped him. I didn't see him, didn't hear him, and was briefly confused. Then, I turned to my left to see him standing on the pedals and gassing away from us. Mentally, that effort (or my lapse of thinking) really broke me down.

The see-sawing continued back and forth and in the end, Bill and Ian got a nice gap on me going up the grass climb. I purposely backed off a little hoping they'd ease up heading into the more technical sections of the course. My feigned backing off seemed to work and as I turned off the paved road, I pinned it and made an attempt to get back onto their wheels by the barriers. Unfortunately, Bill looked back to see me attacking out of the saddle and he accelerated a little. I had already accelerated hard enough and carried a lot of speed towards the barriers and that's were I caught Ian. Problem was that I stuffed my bars right in behind his right foot and he hooked his leg dismounting his bike. Knowing that was a very UNsportsmanlike move, I yielded the barriers to him and let him cross without further challenge. Unfortunately, my gaff also let Bill get a few bike lengths on us that he promptly carried to the line. Make no mistakes, Bill would have had us anyway, but it took away the drama from the final moments of the race.

All in all I raced a good race and didn't hit the deck, so I consider that a personal victory. I came in 25th place which means I wasn't last. This week I'm planning to recover a little more as prep for the dual race weekend and the State Championships. I'm entered in the Masters 40+ class and am shooting for top 3 in my class. We'll see how that pans out.

Here are a few pics courtesy of Mike Dawson:

Me and Klages on the run-up (aka $1 alley)

Howells leading me into the slick downhiller. (Anyone else think this section was like trying to ride on a slip and slide?)

Suson Bubba - quick recap

2008-11-23T21:16:00.004-06:00

Notice the different bikes in the above pictures??? (Thanks to Mike D. for the pics)

Don't ever race a new bike in a race. Lesson learned. First lap, don't know if someone ran into my rear derailleur on the start or the bike decided to begin mis-shifting all of a sudden, but within 100' of the starting line my bike wouldn't stay in any gear. As a result, I was off the back and almost a half-lap down by the end of the first lap. Luckily, I did have a spare bike in the pits and jumped on it and began my chase. I was able to chase down 13 racers by the end of the race, which I consider a personal victory.

The fans on the hillside were a tremendous boost for me, too. El Cavano, Slick Willy, and of course Team Seagal. My favorite chant of the day...."Welcome to Hell!"

Bubb-a-Rama

2008-11-23T20:49:00.003-06:00

What a weekend of racing, spectating, and partying. Mike and the Big Shark boys along with Jay Strothman, Anthony Dust and others totally outdid themselves with the courses and creating the foundation for the atmosphere. Also props go out to my racing bud, Ralph Pfremmer for his continued pfood sponsorship for the series.

Saturday night, I got all decked out in a full Santa Claus suit and made myself fat again (this time not with all-you-can-eat buffets), but with 2 pillows stuffed into an older pair of bibs.

It was actually a perfect get up considering it was in the 20's when the race started and I decided since I was goofing around, I jumped into the C race, so as to not mess up that many serious racers. I started with a reverse hole shot and waved to the crowd as we tore it up the paved start. I think I passed 20-25 racers throughout the evening while working hard to not work that hard. Each time I crossed the start finish line I would work the fans into a little pre-Christmas frenzy!

Aaro Froese looking quite the playa in the leopard print robe was a big help on the PA announcing me several times. The only real problem I had was that I couldn't see my feet or the bike on the remounts thanks to the pillows. However, since I really wasn't racing hard, it wasn't too much of an issue. In the end, I brought it home to 42nd place. Afterwards, I hooked up with the Team Seagal gang for a rowdy evening of cheering, jeering, and beering. Fun times. Casey Ryback was looking splendid as ever....

Sunday meant some serious racing and I had a 2nd row starting position (why I'm not sure) and promptly turned it into something towards midpack as the race unfurled in a fairly brisk tempo. I grabbed a small chase group and yo-yo'd with them for a good part of the race.

However, in the end they lit it up and dropped me when I really wasn't paying much attention. As many of you know, it's much easier to keep a wheel than it is to bridge back up to a lost wheel. I need to get that through my thick head, quickly. Ralph and I had our early battle, but he had gone out a little too hard too soon and while he was trying to recover, I bolted around him and kept increasing the gap. He's fun to race with and I really look forward to our races. However, today my race became a race of trying to stay ahead of Craig Farrell. Craig is uber strong and usually starts slower and winds it up as the race goes on. He's that rider you keep seeing out of the corner of your eye and before too long, bang. He's passed you and put a sizeable gap on you within the blink of an eye. Today I was able to hold him off even though my bike started misshifting again on the last lap. He certainly pushed me to my limit. In the end, I think I eaked out a 23rd place finish and while I could have pushed a little harder for a top 20 finish, I'm happy with how I ran the race.

Next weekend, is my 'home' course in Queeny Park. I say 'home' because it's directly across the street from my house and I look forward to racing there. I can't say that I'll have a great result because of that, but looking forward to it nevertheless.

Bubba Faust (The Pictorial)

2008-11-13T05:34:00.006-06:00

The Race is on.

Now, I know why BillH reels me in so easily. His legs are gigantic!!

Craig Farrell and Pfoodman in hot pursuit.

Mouth wide open...can't get enough air!!!

This is beginning to be a very common scene this year. Howells reeling me in and dropping me.

It was so bad I was getting jeered at by a street woman! (She was very ugly by the way.)

I was wondering why the crowd was yelling "go get him Craig!" because there wasn't anyone in front of me. Then I realized they weren't cheering for me.

Gassed across the line. Note the wide open mouth gasping for air.

Scott Mortimer looking fresh as a daisy after the race while Ralph teaches him proper technique for doing a bench press. Bob Crow and I are waiting to cough up a lung.

The podium girls for my race.

Special thanks to my good buddy and brother in Christ, Tom Heinze, for coming out to cheer me on and take the photos. Nice work!!

Who's Side You On?

2008-11-11T21:55:00.002-06:00

For me, the answer to this question is a simple one. Always has been. I'm on God's side.

God has always been a part of my life. Notice I say "part". Why do I say "part" and not "whole." I'm a sinner. I'll always be a sinner. Sin is what works to separate me from God. Sin wants me in a full-time relationship. But so does God. Guess what? In the end God wins. Sin loses. Therefore, the choice to me is a simple one. I don't need to question it and I don't desire scientific proof (even though I love scientific studies.) Faith. Pure and simple. I pray and work hard each day to make God more than a part of my life. Faith is what I can control.

Consider this, Romans 3:23-24 says, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ." It's simple for me. During the race this past Sunday, I put this verse on my bike and read it several times during the race. The verse was Psalm 119:50 "My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life." God promises us an eternal life in heaven by accepting his son, Jesus Christ, as our personal savior.

Who's side you on?

Finally, Real CX Weather

2008-11-10T06:31:00.003-06:00

Yesterday's temperatures were ideal for a cx race. Cold, windy, overcast. A raw Belgian day if there ever was. Possibly the only thing missing was some form of precipitation, but I suspect there's plenty of time for that. Seeing as the weather was below 40 degrees, many were faced with the dilemma of shorts, knickers, or tights. Not being a fan of the two latter choices, I opted for the "Belgian Knee Warmers" option and used embrocation. My choices for the day were a double layer of:

Qoleum #3

Mad Alchemy

The Qoleum #3 is the hottest of the trio of embrocations produced by Qoleum. The consistency is somewhat similar to mayo (don't know what it would taste like with frites, though) and it goes on in a sticky fashion. You really have to work it into your skin, but when it's on, it's on. You feel it begin to work almost immediately. When you're not moving around and creating wind chill on the bike, your legs will feel prickly and hot. In other words, you'll know it's working.

The Mad Alchemy medium on the other hand is a easily spread ointment of sorts quite similar to the consistency of butter. Goes on smooth and works into the skin nicely. The added benefit of the Mad Alchemy is the fact that it has a reddish copper coloring to it (all natural by the way) and it gives a nice PRO sheen to your legs. As was reported on Belgium Knee Warmers the natural color of this stuff "would convert George Hamilton to cycling." They are right, this stuff is PRO all the way!

I guess it worked for me, I had my best finish of the year, a 17th place, and my legs were perfectly warm and rockin' throughout the race. Heck, even after my shower this stuff was still keeping my legs warm throughout the evening.

Another Year in the Books

2008-11-09T07:37:00.004-06:00

Turned 44 yesterday. Spent the entire day with my wife and kids at the Mizzou game. Eventhough it was the coldest day of the fall season, it was great being together and having no pressing bike race, soccer game, or school-driven commitments. Forty-four is also an odd birthday. From a racing perspective I'm not on the cusp of being able to race 45+, which is good. But otherwise, no real feelings or frames of reference.

Although I did get one frame of reference today (and unfortunately it's one that is too often getting repeated). The checker at Schnuck's was prompted for my birthday when he rang up my beer purchase. I responded that it was actually today. He smiled and too cheerfully said, "yeah, I just turned 19 this week!" I smiled, shook my head and replied, "well, I could be your father!" This is getting more and more prevolent for me. Just at work the other day, I was talking with some younger associates about college and when I started. That prompted one young lady to respond, "wow, I was only 1 then."

All I can say is that I'm in better shape (and weigh less) than I was when I graduated college. How many of them can say that? Although it's just another year in the books, it's been another great year and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Flying Blind

2008-11-08T11:24:00.002-06:00

Yesterday morning, a handful of us played hooky or took the day off and rolled out of Greensfelder at 7:30am. If you recall yesterday morning, the temps were in the low 40's and the wind was brisk. Fearing not the troops (Pierce, Grothoff, Melies, Struckman, Peiffer, and I) staged at the Muckerman Shelter for a few hours of singletrack bliss. I took the lead and led the gang on the race loop. Little did we know the leaves were completely covering the trails making our navigation something more akin to heading off for a ride through the woods. Funny how the absence of a sight line really throws off your desire to bomb an otherwise fast trail. Furthermore, when the singletrack would appear the leaves made for minimal tread bite and therefore, sketchy lines.

Most of the ride was without injury or mishap, although Matt G did take an ejection seat ride at the expense of a leaf covered rock outcropping. No harm, though. JP fell at the hands of a root that was hiding rather sinisterly in the corner just below the shelter. He was riding at a good clip directly in front of me when his pedal caught and he shot skyward. Unfortunately, so did his bike and let's just say his saddle found it's home in a rather forceful manner. Again, he was fine, but the nose of the saddle looked a little down.

Most of us ran our s/s bikes and JP was a good sport to stick to similar gearing for most of the ride. Climbing was a little tougher due to leaf-induced lack of traction, but who's complaining when you're not working.

Great Deal My Butt!

2008-11-03T21:26:00.004-06:00

October 10th of last year our old dishwasher shot craps. I trudged out to Lowes in search of a replacement. Much to my delight they had a KitchenAid unit that originally sold for $1200 on closeout for $739. This was a beautiful stainless steel unit that had every bell and whistle and the only reason it was deeply discounted was because it was a display model and the store was in the process of updating the old models with the new one. Everything was included (manuals, hook-ups, etc) and it carried a full warranty.

The unit sucked. It never cleaned well and my wife complained the entire time we owned it. To top it all off, I just discovered it's been leaking from under the motor for most likely the last week or so. I pulled the unit out tonight and it's sitting in the garage awaiting the trash pick-up. The 1 year parts and labor warranty ran out 20 days ago and now we're left with the parts are covered but not the labor. I don't have the time or inclination to put up with the pains of calling, scheduling service, and dealing with what's going to go wrong next with this lemon. I'm chalking it up to I should have known better. Tomorrow, I'll pick up a new unit and then I'll be installing it or I'll be doing the dishes like I did tonight. Trust me, if it's too good to be true...it is.

Faust Park quick update

2008-11-03T06:54:00.002-06:00

Felt better on the bike at Bubba 3, albeit that doesn't mean there wasn't any suffering. Towards the end of the race, my lower back was hurting but I have to say my legs actually felt good. I had some power and I think the worm is starting to turn. I'm going to keep hammering this upcoming week and building more strength. I'm also going to tweak my bike set-up a little more. Based on my cursory glance at the results, looks like I finished around 33 out of 51, so I'm moving up (or should I say I'm moving farther away from the back of the pack.)

More later and hopefully some good pics. I had a friend out there watching and he was snapping a lot of pics, so I'll post them up later along with a preview of the new cross ride.

Just Keep on Building

2008-11-01T06:18:00.003-05:00

Friday afternoon I decided to again hit the 'wood before the Halloween frenzy began. It was an awesome day weather wise and I worked my butt off in hopes that I would be able to steal some time to get in another ride before dark. Luck was on my side and I was able to get out around 2:00pm. I arrived at the park and was ready to roll by 2:30. The only bad thing was that I didn't have any short sleeve jerseys in the car, so I rolled the l/s team jersey. Not too warm, but definitely not my first choice for the indian summer day.

I warmed up with 2 laps on the dirt crit loop and then headed for Justin's trail. My new goal (and no this wasn't a result of my exploding rear derailleur) is to climb as much as I can in nothing lower than the middle ring. I've never really been a fan of the granny gear, as it just seems as though you can climb anything as long as you're willing to plod along at a snail's pace. My bike choice of the day was my fully rigid Mamasita that currently tips the scales at 22.5 pounds. This bike was originally built up as such for the dirt crits, but I've got to tell you, this has become my go to bike. It climbs like a mountain goat on EPO and descends fairly well thanks to the carbon Origin 8 Black Ops fork.

From Justin's trail, I crossed over to the Rollercoast and enjoyed one of the sweetest trails in the area. To me that trail is just fun. Keep your head up and your eyes down the trail and you can really rail. I'm really not the best at carving a trail with pace and little braking. For me, the ultimate test for that sort of riding are the trails at SIUE. However, the Rollercoaster is the next best one to practice on if you want to learn to stay off the brakes and pin it.

I hooked up with Cody for the bike shop and we tackled the back part of the park. The washout (scene of the drivetrain mishap) is really getting bad. You can ride the entire section when coming from the back to the front, but on the way out you'd need some trials skills to clear the steep, uphill step over the tree root. Cody and I took turns of leading and carving the trail. On one particular section I refer to as "Misery" you're forced to make a choice to dive between two trees just barely wider than your handlebars or take the sissy route and shortcut the corner. I was leading and came into the corner really hot and had to dive to the outside of the corner and Cody took the opportunity to put a wheel underneath me and take the lead. We weren't racing per se, but certainly had fun riding at tempo and testing each other's handling limits. All in all a great 90 minute workout and that marks the longest training week I've had in the last several months. I was able to get on the bike 5 times in the past week and that certainly should start to help me a little in the cross races.

$200 mistake

2008-10-30T06:40:00.002-05:00

Hit the 'wood yesterday with Pfood and Thrasher yesterday for some miles before dark. After attacking the upper trails of the park we rolled the River Scene trail enroute to the back side of the park. I decided to lead the gang and was mashing the big ring trying to put a little pain into Ralph. I don't know that I did as he was right on my wheel at the end. I backed off before popping into the field but forget to shift out of my big ring. As we rolled back towards the 'illegal' washout area, I went to upshift into the 34T in the back when I started hearing banging and grinding coming from the drivetrain. Thrasher was dodging carbon and metal behind me as my rear derailleur ripped itself to shreds as the chain stretched between the big chainring and the largest cog.

What resulted was a derailleur with no cage left and a bent derailleur hanger. I nursed the bike back to the truck, called the shop, and had them hang around so I could drop another $200 on a new SRAM X.0. I saved the old derailleur and I think I'll make a necklace out of it to remind me what a dumba$$ I am.

New Kicks

2008-10-30T05:48:00.003-05:00

I picked up a new pair of mountain bike/cross shoes last week. Richard and Christopher down at Mesa helped me wisely spend my money on the new Shimano SH-M300's.

Truth be told I had heard of the shoes, but was really heading down there to pick up some Specialized shoes. Yes, the Shimanos are pricey (not much more than a pair of Sidi's) but their benefit is the individual customization which comes as a part of a heat-induced, vaccuum molding process.

I've been running my shoes with custom insoles and I have to say the new Shimanos blow them all away. The shoes actually feel comfortable. No hot spots, no tightness in the wrong areas. You slide your foot in, tightening the straps, adjust the buckles click in and ride. No second thoughts of your feet. Very nice all around. The only negative I can recall with this shoe is the actual vaccuum process. It becomes a little uncomfortable due to the force of the vaccuum, however that feeling is temporary and the fit is permanent.

Is Anybody Home???

2008-10-28T06:36:00.005-05:00

(Thanks to Mike D. for the pictures)

Mike Weiss and the crafty cx boyz set-up a mad course this past weekend. Of particular interest was the "spiral of fear and death".

Okay, no one died, but it was damn confusing at the start. I was spinning around in a hallucinogenic fashion due to the colors of the jerseys, helmets, and bikes. At one point I thought I was riding around in a kaleidoscope. Definitely interesting.

The course was set-up a power course which generally should bode well for me. It didn't. I think the only time I was in contact with other riders and moving up was near the start of the race. Quickly after this picture was taken I began getting caught and moving backwards.

I'm a little confused by all of it too. I feel good on the bike, but I really feel as though I have no power when I need it. I've been changing my diet around lately and trimming back on the carbs. Now I'm starting to wonder if that isn't hurting me a little. It's certainly a possibility. I'm sure missing almost two weeks on the bike in the last month hasn't helped either. Back to the race, there's not much to report other than Bill Howells and John Reimbold put me in arrears fairly easily during the race and they are two guys I look forward to being able to race with. I should say they are riding really well and I don't have anything on them right now.

Next week, due to a scheduling issue I will be running the C race. Yes, down a class and my goal there is to not get passed by as many guys. Let's face it, the fields are getting strong and the race paces are fast. That's all good for the local scene, but leaves you feeling like the lights are on but nobody's home when your legs can't respond.

Weekend Update

2008-10-20T17:40:00.003-05:00

(Thanks Mike D. for the photos)

I hadn't been on the bike since the Dirt Crits on 10/5 and thought it was high time to break free and double up on the weekend. Work has been nuts lately and I've been regularly putting in 12-15 hour days so suffice it to say I would be in "less-than-perfect" racing form. Saturday our team hosted the area's mtb race finale at Spanish Lake and Sunday was the official opening to the Bubba Cross series. I planned on racing both. The heck with official training plans, let the games begin.

The first game I had planned was to start at the back of the Sport class in the mtb race and then see how many rider I could pick off. We started with 21 or 22 and I proceeded to reel in over 1/2 the field before having an epic wipeout in the slick, long grass. I was running a Kenda Small Block 8 in the back and when I grabbed a little rear brake to set-up the 90 degree right-hander, all hell broke loose and the next thing I know I'm flying through the air and then slamming my head into the ground. In flight I must have punctured the side of my knee cap and it was swelling and bleeding for the rest of the race. I then bridged back up to 8th place or so and ran in a train with several other racers (one of them Sam Yount of Ghisallo) who were running very well. Just as I was setting up Sam for what I hoped was the last time, I sucked my chain and away the 4 of them went. I charged as hard as I could on the final lap to catch them. I did catch onto the back of them at the top of the final gravel climb, but it was too late. They had started their initial decent and it was directly into where I had crashed earlier. No need to tempt fate twice, so I let it be and settled for 12th. All credit to Sam and the others. They rode strong and kept me pressured the entire time.

Sunday, Bubba Cross #1 was laid out at JB Park and the course was painful. 3 decent climbs in the day and it proved to be too much for me and the single 42T chainring to handle. I didn't start fast (knowing this was a day to suffer, not race in the front) and tried to pass some riders. Out of the 35-40 that started the race, I think I made it as high as 22 or so before giving a lot of it back late in the race. I really had hoped to avoid getting passed, but that wasn't happening either. I got passed with 2 to go by the race winner, and then passed by the chasers 1 lap later. Right about the time Drew Black and the others came through, my shoe decided to let loose and I was trying to stay out of their way, cross the barriers, and keep my shoe from flying off. I kept the 'wheels' on and made it back to the start finish. Exhausted, I called it an officially hard weekend.

I'm glad I didn't wuss out and not race because of my work-induced layoff. Won't get back into form watching races, so the time was right. Thanks to my wife and son for coming out to watch me race! Sorry I stunk, but thanks for helping me turn the pedals over. Great cowbell ringing!!!

My knee is quite sore, as is my neck, but they're better when iced down and I'm getting ready for week #2 and Spanish Lake. Perhaps a little relegation to the C race until my fitness resumes. Look out LC and gang, I may be paying you a visit!

Not for Long

2008-10-17T06:35:00.003-05:00

In this Oct. 13, 2008, photo released by Denny's Beer Barrel Pub, Brad Sciullo of Uniontown, Pa., is seen before attempting to eat a 15-pound cheeseburger with five-pounds of toppings including bun, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, onions, mild banana peppers and a cup each of ketchup, mustard, relish, and mayonnaise.

"The 5-foot-11, 180-pound western Pennsylvania chef..." not for long.

GoPro Hero

2008-10-12T14:55:00.002-05:00

I picked up one of these the other day. I plan on filming some of our upcoming Bubba series races and from everything I've read on these, they are easy to use and shoot respectable pictures and footage. Truth is, they are cheap and I'm not making a large investment in something that could easily get broken. I'm going to be doing some 'beta' testing in the upcoming week, so look forward to a little cutting room floor clips.

Someday

2008-10-12T14:40:00.003-05:00

Today, was the first day of singletrack for my son, Collin. He's 11 and he's always wanted to test his skills off-road. We loaded up after church and headed over to the 'wood for a little workshop. Now, the bike he's riding is at least 10-15 years old and it's a 14.5" Giant fully rigid mtb. It sports the tiny wheels - 26ers, so his learning will continue the curve until he hits the 29ers. At least that keeps him away from my bikes for a while, too.

I have to say he did a really good job with the trails. Granted, we didn't roll anything beyond the dirt crit loop or the River Scene trails, but he handled the roots, rocks, and sand portions without so much as a little braking. I told him the bike would be much more stable at speed so don't go too slowly if you think the particular section of trail begins to look more technical. He kept his speed up and many times, I'd look back to see him rolling right up to my wheel. I'd hit the gas and put some daylight in between us and he'd roll right back up to me. I rode in front of him to help show the lines and call out what I wanted him to do or think about. He was a good student and had a fun time on the bike. At the end, his hands were getting tired, as the rigid bike was fairly unforgiving.

Our next stop will be to Ballwin Cycles to get a real bike for him to ride. We'll donate the old one to charity and get one that fits him a little better and is updated with some better functioning gear. I look forward to the day when he feels strong enough to actually push me on a ride. I've got a feeling that 'someday' will come sooner than I think.

Dirt Crits & Creek Crossings

2008-10-07T05:54:00.003-05:00

(Thanks to Mike D. and Pfoodman for the photos)

As you can see from the photos, this weekend gassed me. First the B race and some serious racing for sure and then the PF race, which is when this pic was taken. I had just come off one of the first laps having really put the hammer down. As you can see, neither me or Jeremiah were looking ready to hit it again. The PF race was like riding hard intervals in front of a crowd. Fun stuff. In the end, I made too many riding mistakes and it cost our team. Most of my mistakes involved the creek crossing. I could never pick the right line and as a result, I often dabbed or in the case of one crossing, crashed on the far bank of the creek. On the time I crashed, I was unlucky enough to snag my necklace around my handlebars and since I had one arm pinned under the bike, it was a little awkward getting up. That crash left me with some nice bruises on my legs. However, on my second to last lap our team was about to get put a lap down by the Ploch-Cash powerhouse. As we took our hand-off's Carrie was about 3 bike lengths behind me. Carrie and I had a good race together in the B race and I was going to give it everything to keep her from passing me. I was mostly successful until we were about to pop in the start/finish area wherein I hit a tree with my right shoulder while flying along pretty well. It certainly got my attention (as well as the attention of the spectators and even Carrie.) Stunned and with my right arm hanging, I made it to my teammate and evaluated another lap. I did finish, but it was only because I had one lap to go. I felt bad for my teammate Rob Oellerman. We certainly could have finished closer to the top, but it was fun racing with him nonetheless.

During the B race, we had a train of 6 in the first chase group which included two of my teammates, Kent Jones & Mark Hasler, racing with Carrie Cash, Todd Holtman, and another rider. We were putting down some serious efforts hoping to catch a glimpse of the lead group of 4, but it never materialized. It was okay for us, as we had a teammate in the lead group, Zak Hafner, but he was up against some serious competition in the form of John Peiffer, Jeff Powell, and Devin Clark. Those guys were thrashing each other with Devin, John, Zak, and Jeff going 1-2-3-4, respectively.

Here I am after my teammates broke free of the train before the creek crossing to get away and I'm waiting to get through traffic and bridge up to Todd Holtman. Carrie Cash is so pro, she offered so much encouragement to people during the race. I really enjoyed the competition with her during the race. (Little did I know one, Casey Ryback was lurking in the pack as well.)

I made the bridge up to Todd, but in the end he had too much for me to deal with and he beat me out. He's a strong dude that will be more competition for the Sport racers next year.

In the end, I finished 8th out of 29 racers and that was a solid effort. Big thanks to my teammates and to Pfoodman for putting the series together! Well done and look forward to next year!!!

Dirt Crit Finale (aka I hate creek crossings)

2008-10-06T06:58:00.002-05:00

Very sore shoulder, multiple bruises, big ol' smile knowing our team had 4 guys in the top 10. More to come later.

I'm Yearnin' for Burnin'

2008-10-03T18:19:00.002-05:00

Last year was my first year racing and I had no idea what Burnin' was or what I was missing. After living vicariously through others, I made a vow that come hell or high water, Burnin' would be on my calendar as a main event in 2008. It was the first race on the calendar and everything in the fall revolved around the event. That is until my wife's cousin decided to plan her wedding for the same weekend in Omaha. Now, I'm missing the race so she and her sister can fly to Omaha to attend the wedding. You know what, it's cool. Yes, I'll miss the event, race, and party of the year but I'll get to spend a little time with my kids and rest up before Bubba hits full swing the following weekend. It just leaves me with another year of Yearnin' for the Burnin'.

Push-Ups...Day 2

2008-10-03T03:21:00.002-05:00

Yesterday morning was push-up workout #2. The Perfect Pushup workouts schedule a day off between each workout. My arms felt a little better following the first workout, but they never really quit aching altogether. Many years ago I remember doing weight-lifting workouts with a trainer and recall the same kind of soreness. I began the second workout feeling a little better. The regular pushups went by okay, the wide set was a little harder, but by time I attempted the close arm pushups, my arms were again fried. While doing the first 8 close arm push-ups I was using ever fiber in my body to complete these. Chance of doing the remaining 6, then 4, and 2??? Dwindling quickly. I rested a few seconds, and then got 4 more push-ups before my arms were toasted.

Overall, are these "Perfect Push-ups" doing anything for my arms and upper body??? Way too soon to tell, but I am definitely feeling the soreness in the muscles I've never focused in much (mainly triceps, pecs, and abdominals.)

I Can't Touch My Head

2008-10-01T06:30:00.003-05:00

I decided to focus more on my upper body and core development for this part of the season. More sit-ups, crunches, planks, etc. I always wanted to do push-ups as a part of my workouts, but ever since I had a cyst removed from my wrist, the outward flex on my wrist required for push-ups would greatly aggravate my wrist. I decided to take a look at the Perfect Pushup. My thought was that would be a solution to not putting undue flex into my wrist and also provide a little more than the standard push-up. It did seem gimmicky to me, however. But for a $39 investment, I figured it was worth a try.

Here's what the marketing lingo says about the product:
"The Perfect Pushup's rotating handles allow your arms to rotate naturally the same way they do when you throw a punch or press up a dumb bell. This unique feature engages more muscles and helps reduce joint strain. Works for any fitness level – from beginner through professional athlete. The Perfect Pushup was developed by a US Navy SEAL using the latest in biomechanics and engineering to help you achieve better results from your pushup workouts. Smooth rotating handles accelerate results by engaging more muscles in the arms, chest, shoulders, and back. It also helps reduce strain on wrists and elbows, and helps to stabilize and strengthen the shoulder joint."

Now I know many of you can do push-ups, do them well, and do a heckuva lot more than I can. I'm a whimp, I know that, and I'm okay with that. I have no upper body strength and I could never do many push-ups. As you read the instructions for they ask you to do a maximum number of pushups using the product and several times they mention "be honest," "don't cheat." I could do 10. Now, I've been able to do as many as 30 'regular' pushups at one time, but with these I thought something's gotta be wrong, because at 10 I'm quivering. The workout is simple.

For the first set-up, your arms are placed in the normal position (shoulder width) and in the span of 2 minutes do 8 pushups, then 6, then 4, and then 2. Then put your hands wider than your shoulders and do the same (8-6-4-2) in 2 minutes. Finally, you put them together near your belly button and do (8-6-4-2) in 2 minutes. That's it, you're done. Hmmm. Seems easy enough.

I tried it last night after my interval workout on the bike. I BARELY completed the workout. I'm serious. On the final 2 pushups I was quivering and wished I was back doing 30 second sprints with 30 second recoveries. They were brutal. When I was finished, I did crunches, sit-ups, and leg lifts. When I jumped in the shower, I attempted to wash my hair, but it was hard getting my arms up to my head. The rest of the night, simple tasks like scratching my nose or rubbing my eyes were a real chore. I'm not being melodramatic here, I'm being brutally honest. If a regular pushup is great, I'm wondering what in the heck these things are going to do for me. In addition, I felt no wrist pains or soreness while using them. I'll keep you updated.

Ronde von Deathmarch

2008-09-29T06:24:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, I loaded up with 3 other teammates, Kent, Rudy, and Zak for a trip down south to Carbondale and the Ronde von Evergreen cx race. The weather was absolutely perfect for a picnic or a BBQ, but a little warm for a cx race. Sunny, clear, and 82 degrees for the start with a slight breeze. Most of the course was in the sun, so that meant even more heat on the body during the race. I mention all of this because it was one of my biggest days of suffering on the bike.

I ate breakfast at 8am and then failed to eat again before my race at 1pm. That's a recipe for disaster for me. Also, the course, while a good course, just didn't set-up well for me. It contained a lot of places where you had to reaccelerate your bike. Over the course of the race, the combination of my weight, the heat, my lower back aching, and my lack of fuel it didn't take long before I was toast. How much so? Let's put it this way, my final lap was my cool down ride. We had enough of a gap on the following 8-10 racers, that I was able to keep anyone from passing me, but let's just say I wasn't breaking any speed records.

Bob Crow and Bill Howells worked me over really well. Bill did it early in the race and he seemed to be riding with a great rhythm and was having a great day on the bike. Bob and I punched back and forth at each other, but in the end, he too had too much for me to hold off and at the pea gravel pit, he put the final nail in my coffin. After the race Anthony Dust told me, "sometimes your the hammer and sometimes your the nail." I responded and said, "well today I felt like the nail and the board."

I finished 14th, while my teammates Zak and Kent finished 6th and 9th, respectively. Rudy had a fantastic effort in the C race with an 8th place finish. He absolutely carved his way through the field picking off racers. After the first lap, he was 20th but rolled a very strong effort to close down on the guys ahead of him and was successful. I think he just needed 1 more lap and there would have been a podium in his sights.

A great day with my teammates however. The ride home is always the best and these guys didn't disappoint me. We were amazed by Zak's nutritional advice and his insights on racing with Kent. Dr. Pierce called us to get a report on the day and tossed in a little good humor that had us laughing for miles. Good tonic to cure and aching body. I'm happy God put these men in my life. And I'm also glad He gives me days like yesterday to keep me humble.

And the Only Prescription...

2008-09-27T05:55:00.001-05:00

Made the Leap

2008-09-23T05:46:00.003-05:00

Took the plunge and finally upgraded the road bikes to SRAM Force 10-speed. I was probably the only guy left in the Lou running Dura-Ace 9-speed stuff, but once I started having problems with one of the bikes, I figured it was time to replace all of it. The bad news is that I never lost a neutral wheel to someone during a race but I guess that's about to change. The good news is the SRAM stuff rocks. Technically, I made the leap to SRAM two years ago on my mountain bikes, but the double-tap technology on the road bikes just works and works really, really well. Learning to shift the SRAM way took me every bit of 500 feet. Now the only question I ask myself is "why didn't I do this sooner?" Which reminds me, I'll need to start looking more closely for my wheels after races.

Ronde von Evergreen

2008-09-23T05:43:00.001-05:00

Taking another carload of teammates this weekend to Ronde von Evergreen in Carbondale. Looking forward to a good race and another good time.

Cross Bike

2008-09-23T05:39:00.002-05:00

I should comment that the new cross bike set-up performed flawlessly at Hermann. The single ring 42T chainring with the 12/27 was perfect. No problems with shifting in the front and plenty of tall gear in the back. The only complaint I had was the 42T in the front made it a little too much gear while trying to pedal through the mud as it was putting too much torque on the rear wheel. As a result, my back hurt like hell and I lost a lot of places to people in the mud. Finally, with two laps to go, I started running the mud and that was way better in every way. Lesson learned, but the bike rocks!

Opening Night

2008-09-21T15:50:00.002-05:00

Last night was the season opener for the local cross races and our host, Jeff Yielding, put on a heck of a race. We were treated with everything you could want in a race. Chip timing, large fields, tight turns, a sand pit, a mud bog, smoking fast paved sections, and the dreaded stairs. In addition, it was rockstar status for the racers with tons of volunteers and screaming fans at every turn. Toss in the live band and you've got one hell of a fun night!!

I started 12th on the grid and was thankful once I saw the twisty sections that would come early in the race. I really hadn't planned for a fast start, but was lucky enough to come out of the first section around 8th. However, the front guys were pegging it and since I was racing with some guys clearly ahead of my level, I didn't want to burst too soon so I backed the pace off a little. That allowed several people to pass me early in the race, but I was okay with that. I settled into the top 20 riders and began a tempo that would bring me to the end. My teammate Zak Hafner, passed me (from the back of the pack) around the 3rd lap enroute to his 6th place finish.

I kept tempo riding with Kent Jones and Jeremie Meitz and I think we also had Andy Schuette and a couple of other riders in a train on the last couple of laps. I was hesitant to get into a battle with either Kent or Jeremie on the paved sections as they are both strong riders, but now I wished I would have challenged them a little more in the lower field before the sand pit. I don't think I could have made it stick but it would have been nice to make the try. Kent ended up dropping his chain with 1 1/2 laps to go and ended up with a DNF.

On the last lap, Jeremie and others hit the gas in the mud bog and I was too far gone to go with them. I checked our gap to the riders behind and we were clear by several seconds, so I worked enough to stay ahead and took it to the line for 23rd place (out of 58.)

BIG BIG Thanks go out to Matt Grothoff and Robert Metz and the Team Seagal warriors as they were out in full force with cowbells and loud cheering just when you needed it most. They must have had the VIP passes as they were at all the critical sections throughout the race. Top of the stairs, mud bog, barriers, you name it they were there. Best of all, they were at the end of the race handing out cold PBR's!

James Nelson had a great race too finishing in 27th from a back of the pack start. I would see him several times during the race and knew he was certainly capable of bridging up to me, but was lucky enough to hold him back. Rich Pierce was out on the "Deer Dozer" and had a great time mixing it up in the field. James, Rich, Zak and I rode out to the race together and had many laughs on the way out and the way home. True Epicnicity!!

Almost Here....

2008-09-16T20:45:00.002-05:00

It's getting closer and closer. Almost like Christmas morning is upon us. Cross season begins Saturday night under the lights and I couldn't be more excited. Last year was an abbreviated season, but this year I hope to do upwards of 12=13 races. I can't say I've been training super hard, but I have been training with the focus of being competitive. Based on the pre-season buzz in the local scene, cross will be hot this year. I'm looking forward to mixing it up with my buddies on the course and then hoisting a cold beer with them afterwards. HUP, HUP!

New Math

2008-09-16T18:44:00.001-05:00

Sometimes I feel as though these two are teaching my children the "new mathematics."

I'll Give You a Run-Up

2008-09-13T18:06:00.002-05:00

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Saturday morning I held another cross practice in Queeny Park. The early course didn't feature a run-up, so I tossed in a little "heinous epinicity" (local phrase) for the boys. Suffice it to say it had them squealing like piglets. Perhaps, I led the squealin'. The run-up was from near the entrance of the park to the upper road. Approximately 120 steps to the top. HRM blowout to say the least, but look at it this way, the 61 steps at
Hermann will be next to nothing.

Drew showed again, as did Curt, and Dennis. We ran several laps and tossed in some of the gravel roads to work the lactic out of the legs. Great ride overall and spent roughly 2 hours working on our mad skillz.

Queeny Park - Thursday night CX practice

2008-09-10T19:28:00.002-05:00

Thursday night at 6pm. Turn on the first left upon entering the Weidman Road side of Queeny Park. We'll practice near the upper parking lot (where last year's Bubba race was held.) I'll have barriers, but at this point, we don't have a stair run-up area. I'll try to work one in on future practices.

Have Barriers, Have Entry

2008-09-09T20:39:00.005-05:00

Just completed cutting and fitting the PVC for my new cyclocross barriers. Got the idea from Mud & Cowbells but I made a few modifications of my own. I built 4 barriers so that will give me a couple of spares in the event someone (namely me) heavy foots a crossing. I used the following pieces:

PVC Corner

PVC Tee

I used 10' lengths of 3/4" PVC pipe. I cut the legs 20" long placed them in the PVC corner. I cut two 4' cross members and inserted one end in the PVC Corner and then joined each of them in the center via the PVC Tee. I inserted a 14" leg in the PVC Tee and viola, barriers. Overall, they are just over 8' long and 15.75" high. I'll take some pictures of them at one of the upcoming Queeny Park practices and post it up. For now, it's time for a little HUP, HUP.

We've Got it, It's Not About the Bike

2008-09-09T05:48:00.002-05:00

VeloNews Article

Should he come back? Is he coming back? I don't know and really, I couldn't care less. Will it change anything about the sport? Personally, I wish the sport would clean itself up and keep the wind at it's back. Or the sport can continue to operate like an ostrich and bury it's head in the sand. If LA is truly entertaining a comeback, click in, and ride on. Personally, I'd like to see LA compete in some high level cx and xc races.

All Signs Point to "No Go"

2008-09-07T20:12:00.003-05:00

This past week was busy with work meetings. All day and into the night through midday Saturday. No time to ride, little time to sleep, and virtually no time with my family. When the meetings concluded on Saturday around noon, I high-tailed it out of downtown and sped for the ranch in hopes of loading up the mountain bike and getting in a few laps at Greensfelder. Jennifer and Collin were at the PGA event and Kelsey was with her grandparents, so the afternoon was mine.

I grabbed the Spider, an extra set of wheels (different tread options), a set of clothes and headed out the door. As it turns out, I forgot to grab a spare tube, pump, or mini-tool of any sort. Luckily, the tires looked okay, but I really had no idea of what sort of air pressure I had in the the wheels. As I suited up and started to roll the race loop, I noticed Team Pirtle-slager climbing up and asked who else was on the course. Word was Pfoodman and Schuck were out and coming up on a lap. I waited and was met by RP and Eric, as well as Mike Gibson. We chatted for a while comparing loop times. The fast experts were quoting something in the 13 min range, while Pfood was more confident of 15 min times.

Once the gang left, I set my watch and rolled to the shelter to begin a lap. I thought my rear tire seemed a little low, but thought I'd give it a go on the course and compare whether or not it was faster due to the better traction. I was definitely grabbing better, but I was also noticing the tire wanted to roll on hard corners. Sure enough, I pressed hard into the bermed corner and rolled the tire off the rim. Hike a bike #1. Up to the car, wherein I grabbed another rear wheel and started to head out. However, that one seemed low on air as well. Luckily, I spotted El Cavano prepping for his throwdown with Senor Grumpke and begged use of a pump. We chatted for a while and then I began another lap.

Not more than 4 minutes into the ride, my front tire started losing air. Within seconds, it was completely flat. Since I was running tubeless, I suspected a decent cut in the tire. Back to the car and tire number three. Quick change, back into the trail, started lap number three. This time it was clean. I pushed hard, but not until the end did I really start pushing my self. As a result, I ran a 15:30 on the nose. I think I could have run a sub 15 minute lap, so I started off on my second loop and right behind the shelter, I tagged a rock and blew out my front tire. Sheer stupidity was the culprit this time. As I had locked out my front shock on the prior lap's climb and since I was bombing downhill into rocks it was only a matter of time before something bad happened.

I was only a slight possibility for the race on Sunday. After my experiences on the trail Saturday, I took those as signs pointing to 'no' and gladly filled the day with church, a round of golf with Collin, and then baseball and dinner. All in all this was a scheduled rest day and it felt like one too.

Time for Practice

2008-09-02T06:13:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, I took the cross bike to Queeny Park for some practice on last year's cx course. With the exception of the short, steep uphill section above the parking lot, I was able to run the entire course weed-free several times. After 40 minutes of course loops, I worked my way over to the Dog Museum side of the park to do some hill run-ups. I figured the hill would be the closest thing to the 61 steps we'll be running at Hermann. I did 3 run ups and I'm sure people walking through the park were trying to figure out why a middle aged man was running a perfectly good (and ultra sexy) bike on his shoulder up a very steep hill. Afterwards, I took a lap around the park to cool down a little and then headed for home just across the street. All in all a great workout and the only thing missing was my ability to practice my barrier crossings. However, thanks to Greg at Mud & Cowbells I'm going to be building myself a nice set of portable barriers for practice.

An Evening with Jennifer (and Katy)

2008-08-31T14:28:00.003-05:00

About 10 days ago, I was in need of a recovery spin so Jenifer and I dropped Collin off at soccer practice and drove over to the Katy trail for a just that. Jennifer had the benefit of gears, while I chose the s/s mtb. She rolled off a few minutes ahead of me and I found myself pedaling as fast as I could to catch her some 10 minutes later. (I guess her spinning classes are paying off.) After I caught up with her we pedalled for an hour and then buzzed back to pick up Collin. It was a perfect day for both of us and perhaps this could become a regular date??

Ready to Roll

2008-08-31T14:04:00.005-05:00

Here's the re-painted Redline Conquest. Les at Powder Coat Specialists did the stripping and repainting and did an excellent job. Not a flaw to be found anywhere. The decals were created online at SpeedySigns.com and I took the liberty of choosing a font that appealed to me and not one that matched the Redline company font. I also must thank Dave Schindler at FitPro for putting the bike back together to meet all of my fitting specs. Dave took the time to get the single chainring set-up just right and I couldn't be happier with the results. As always, I have to thank Mark and Cody back at my home shop, Ballwin Cycles, for their help with the parts I needed and the deals they give me.

The bike weighs in at 19.3 pounds and features the following options:
Ritchey WCS full carbon fork
Cane Creek SCX-5 brakes with Kool Stop black/red pads
FSA Carbon Pro crankset with Salsa 42T single ring and Salsa chainguards
Crank Bros Twin Ti pedals
Dura Ace shifters
Dura Ace rear derailleur with VCRC ceramic pulleys
SRAM 12-27 rear cassette
Nokon cable housing
Ritchey WCS stem and bars
Fizik bar tape
FSA carbon seatpost
Selle Italia SLR Gel Flow saddle
Neuvation R28 SL3 wheels
Michelin Jet S rear / Michelin Mud front tire

This will most likely be the last time the bike is clean as it's time to start putting some training efforts in and the early season races will be dusty or muddy.

Not so Lost Valley

2008-08-27T06:58:00.002-05:00

Had every intention of heading down to the TNW's last night to put in a hard effort workout. Wasn't planning to race as much as I was planning to do sprints and push some harder gears up the hill at pace. However, the need to help my daughter with her homework won over (rightfully so) and before long I was staring at a clock which read 6:30pm and knowing my chances at riding were dimishing quickly. I thought if I left immediately, I could get out to Greensfelder for a few quick loops on the race course for Sunday, but by the time I threw everything together, that idea was also a mirage.

So, as I organized my bike stuff I had the plan of heading out to Lost Valley and riding in the darkness with me, myself, and I. Luckily when I got home yesterday, I was thinking a little in advance and tossed the Light & Motion Arc Li-Ion battery on the charger. As I rolled into the parking lot at the Mound, I saw several GORC-sters changing and cracking open their post-ride bottles of hops. Envious, I continued to suit up, do a battery check, and roll down the Hamburg Trail for a little me time. As I descended into the trail, I used the waning sunlight to guide my way. However, as I crossed the creek and headed into the singletrack, I was quickly met with darkness. I flipped on the headlight and lit up the trails. I buzzed along for 45 minutes on the trails and decided to point back to the car. During the ride, I saw two very nice trophy bucks and a bazillion frogs. I even passed a rider going up the last hill. I went from feeling like no ride was going to happen to getting a great, albeit less than planned, ride in.

Dr. Strangecross (How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the 'Cross)

2008-08-25T21:32:00.004-05:00

Mud, slop, ruts, roots, run-ups, barriers, sand pits, and stairs. Sun, rain, wind, snow, and ice. Gin, trombones, beer, frites, and cowbells. Those words conjure up wild images of pay-per-view excitement more akin to the likes of this Japanese Game Show than the real, fall/winter season Belgian-based spectacle that is Cyclocross.

Why did I choose cyclocross? Heck, like almost everything I've ever done competitively on a bike it's because of Pfoodman. Nah, he just mentioned it to me (over and over and over). More likely is the fact that I've always loved the fringe sports. No, I'm not talking trampoline, rhythmic gymnastics, or dressage. I'm talking real sports where skills are involved and subjectivity are eliminated. Sports were healthy doses of intestinal fortitude, addictions to pain, and embarrassment are very real possibilities. Cyclocross is one of those sports where you feel like the guys in the video. Their options for success look slim, but doggone they put forth the effort and they don't care if they survive or not. Participation isn't an option, but a calling or a duty. A duty to push your body and mind in a manner few others would dare. In the end, others may shake their head in wonder and ask, "what's the point?" Fellow crossers only you and I will know the real answer.

So, what's left to worry about. We'll never have any barriers in our Bubba Cross series that remotely resemble the ones in the game show. But then again wouldn't it be great if we did???

Happy Birthday RP!

2008-08-25T21:23:00.004-05:00

You're a great Christian man and I'm proud to call you a friend! Happy Birthday!

Say What???

2008-08-23T11:24:00.002-05:00

I don't know what the heck they're saying, but I'm certain is something along the lines of "Ouch, that's gonna leave a mark!"

Not much going on this weekend. More riding and this morning was 60 miles including the Big Shark team ride. Rolled with Theo down to BS and then met up with Damien and the rest of the gang for an easy paced ride. I guess that was good enough for me because I really never felt good the entire morning. I never felt like my lungs opened up and was working harder than normal when the pace quickened or the road tilted upward.

Right now, it's time to take the kids to Carl's for cheeseburgers and root beers. Seeing that I rode 60 miles this morning, I think I'll have the same.

An Hour in Hell

2008-08-21T06:39:00.001-05:00

Fitness

2008-08-20T06:06:00.003-05:00

After my strong build-up earlier this year, I was highly confident in a lot of my rides and races. Then the mid-year funk set-in, my confident waned, and my desire to ride and race seemed to evaporate overnight. I literally walked away from the bikes for a week and never gave them another thought. During that period, I also formulated a plan to take more time off the bike, focus on doing fewer races, and set some late season goals.

I'm now one month into my second half fitness and planning for upcoming events. Today is the "one month to go" date for the Hermann Cross Invitational and as I assess where I am at in preparation for the start of cross season, I'd say I'm right where I want to be. My legs and lungs are responding nicely and mentally, I'm starting to get into racing mode. Ah, racing mode. That 'mode' was a primary contributor to some of my mid-season malaise. So, I'm working on channeling my energy and truly racing when I need to race, not when I want to race. I guess I suffered from a little bit of the porch dog syndrome. You know, laying calmly on the front porch until a vehicle rolls by and then it's GO TIME!

As I train, I'm training my body and mind. Fitness will come in terms of how my body responds to efforts physically AND mentally. Responding to race choices and responding within races. I'm chasing fewer race choices and I'm responding to more strategic opportunities within races. I can't race every race and I'll only race within the race when it strategically suits my game plan. Most of you know this about bike racing already. I didn't. I tend to learn best by experience. In bike racing, experience is a dangerous and painful teacher.

So how's it going? Fitness is on track. During our last team ride, we were approaching the last 2 miles of the ride and there's always a sprint finish on this particular route. As I was riding front wheel in our group of 4, I was fighting back every urge to put the hammer down and push the guys to their redlines. However, Kent Jones was in our group and he's got some serious fire power. So instead of riding harder for the last 5 or so miles (which is what usually happens), I kept the pace down. Actually, I was testing myself. I was strategically riding easy and waiting for someone else to tire of the pedestrian pace and start the sprint. To my delight, I hear Kent say, "watch it, this is where Boz likes to attack." My plan was perfect. I had no intentions of attacking. I had every intention of ambushing. I continued to spin and they took the bait hook, line, and sinker. First attack, I didn't respond by staying at the front. I actually sat in the back. Only until I got on top of my gears and let the others attack did I proceed. When I was second wheel again, I attacked and succeeded. My patience actually paid off and as a result, my fitness grows.

A Little Bit of Everything

2008-08-17T07:49:00.003-05:00

Yesterday's ride was a team ride on the Covered Bridge route. I really enjoy the route and use it as a gauge of fitness and training, as it has a little bit of everything tempo climbs, steep hills, false flats, rollers, and technical downhills. Of course, it's also what the route doesn't have (stop signs, stop lights, heavy traffic, too many homes, stores, buildings) that makes the ride appealing to me. When you throw in the awesome natural beauty of the valleys and ridgelines, it's just a great, great ride.

However, yesterday's ride also included a lost teammate and me getting hit by a car (or me hitting a car depending on your point of view.) The lost teammate was the result of him taking a wrong turn near the top of the first climb away from the bridge and resulted in two teammates spending the better part of an hour and a lot of climbing tracking him down. Unfortunately, this was his first ride on the route and he had no clue where he was or where to go. Thankfully, our two "search and rescue" teammates were diligent and found him and had enough gas in the tank to bring him back safely. The other four of us sped for home with the full intention of bringing the vehicles back to drive them home, but after a final phone call they decided to pedal their way back. They looked a little tired, but all survived without too much additional drama.

As the four of us sped for home, I was on the front as we started our descent out of High Ridge. As we dropped onto Hillsboro-High Ridge Road, I noticed a car further up the road backing out of their driveway onto the road. Sensing this car will be in our path soon enough, I sat up and waved to the group to slow and called out "car up." Once the car backed out of the drive and blocked the lane, they began to pull forward and then stopped again in the middle of the road. By this time, we were rolling slowly enough, but also not understanding why the car stopped again. I yelled out to the driver to "go" and she started moving (I don't think she saw us or the car behind us.) Unfortunately, she quickly stopped again and caused us to scatter to avoid a collision. Two riders made it around her left and thankfully there was no oncoming traffic while me and another rider tried to squeeze between the car and the ditch. I didn't make it and banged into her right rear tail light and rear quarter panel. No damage was done to her car (other than my sweaty arm leaving a streak of sweat on her black car), nor was my body damaged. My elbow was a little sore, but I knew I would be okay. I signaled "OK" to the driver, but shook my head in disbelief. She rolled along behind me and at the stop sign I fully figured she'd roll her window down to say "Sorry." Nope. Just rolled on.

I'm thankful God watched over us on our ride. Next time, I'll get everyone's cell numbers before we take off and we'll all just try to watch over each other.

Insight

2008-08-13T06:50:00.003-05:00

I'm training, resting, and eating very well. I'm not racing road bikes the rest of the year. I'm not racing mountain bikes (with the exception of Burnin') the rest of the year. My next race will be the Hermann Cross Invitational on September 20th. I chased after too many race distractions this year and as a result I didn't have great results at anything, including my personal life. With all due respect to El Cavano, there is still time left for me to lay claim to the year as "my year."

I'm also dealing with some personal issues. While everything in my immediate family is good and all are healthy, I was thrown a major knockdown pitch last week pertaining to my brother. I'm really not prepared to write about it here and those close to me know what's going on. It's very tough to handle. I pray constantly and have asked others to pray for God's grace, mercy, and healing for the situation. While I'm better than I initially was, I'm still in shock. Little things can set me off and I'm reduced to tears. Riding the bike has been a good outlet for the pain of my heart. I simply replace it with pain in my legs or lungs. God will see us through this valley and in Him I put my faith and trust.

Commuting

2008-08-04T07:10:00.002-05:00

I've dabbled with commuting to work by bike a few times. I enjoy it, but I also work in a suit and tie environment and our work facilities aren't equipped with showers and changing rooms. For the times I've ridden to work, my bike comes into my office (cubicle) and remains propped against the wall like a piece of art and a source of questions for all who enter. "What's that?" being one of my favorites.

While traveling with the family in Munich this summer, we noticed more bikers than motorists. Everyone, I mean everyone, rides a bicycle in Munich. Grandmothers in housecoats, businessmen in suits, children, families, dogs. Yep, we even saw dogs sitting prouding in the baskets while their owners pedaled merrily on their way. I'm thinking to myself why can't I do that? Why do I let some of the work inconveniences rule my life. No more.

I'm building up a full-time dedicated commuting machine. Complete with fenders, baskets, lights, funny handlebars, and one gear. A utilitarian machine. Something the likes of Ultra Scott's current machine. Laugh if that sort of thing is not your bag or if it looks too old-school but remember two things. My legs are getting stronger and I'm not the one burning $4 fuel.

Putting in the Miles

2008-07-30T20:18:00.002-05:00

Did the TNW's B race last night. Planned to do some hard efforts with some short recoveries. I went hard and stayed in the top 1/3 of the pack until 20 minutes in and then jumped out for 1 1/2 laps (I soft pedaled 1/2 lap) and then finished with 1 to go. I wasn't going to contest the race, so another bike in the mix wasn't going to do any good.

Today, I rode for 60 minutes of recovery in the rain. I love riding in the rain (weird, I know) but it's just a fun time for me. The only down side is the bike cleaning that must occur following a ride. Nice recovery miles today with little issues. In fact the only issue (which is actually major) is that I came the closest I ever have to being hit by a car. Someone decided they didn't want to wait for oncoming traffic to clear before passing me on Weidman Road and drove their Subaru Outback station wagon to within 6-8 inches of my left leg at 30 mph. I had nowhere to go and it certainly got my attention. At times I think it's inevitable (getting hit by a car) and other times I feel invincible. Just another reason to pray before, during, and after my rides.

My legs really seem to be coming back around. I was a little worried early on, but the miles seem to be healing the time off the bike. I'm sticking to my schedule of ride hard, recover on bike, and rest. It's working well thus far, but there are a lot of miles left to go.

More teasers

2008-07-28T20:38:00.002-05:00

Racing under the lights interest you?

What are you waiting for? Hermann Cross - Saturday, 9/20

Weekend Recap

2008-07-28T06:38:00.003-05:00

Saturday morning was a team/group ride out to the West Co. hills. Several teammates showed up, as did a few potentially new teammates. The idea was to ride several climbs, but to do them in a no-drop fashion, with some good tempo riding in between. Since this was my ride and route, and most didn't know the route, I found myself rotating to the front to yell out directions and then circling to the back to ensure everyone made it through the various turns and terrain. The route was:

Einstein's on Clayton at 141
Clayton west
R on Valley to Strecker
L on Shepard
R on Orrville
R on Eatherton
L on WHC
R on Ossenfort
Cross T
R on Melrose
L on Bouquet
L on Manchester
Cross 100
Continue on Fox Creek
L on Six Flags-Allenton
L on Melrose
R on 100
R on Woodlands Meadows (tackle the 24% beast)
R on Manchester
R on Glencoe (through Rockwoods)
L on Woods
L on Manchester
R on 109
R on Clayton to Einstein's

Everyone had a good time and put in a relatively good effort. The 24% gradient on Woodlands Meadows certainly humbled some on the ride and left them shaking their heads in amazement. Jim Moore actually spun his rear wheel almost a full revolution when he pedaled over a wet patch of road sealant while tackling the climb. Looked like a dragster doing a burnout. The good news is he completed the climb!

My legs continue to come around nicely and I should be back in shape for some racing starting next month. This week will be another round of recovery loops in the valley with some weight-lifting and a few spin ups thrown in for good measure.

After church on Sunday, we took our son to lunch and then off to church camp. There were some logistical issues with the busses not arriving for the campers, so at the last minute I decided to drive him up to Carlinville, IL for camp. That put me on the road for 3 hours but in the end I think he enjoyed getting a little time with me and the chance to take a nap on the way.

God was certainly providing for me as I was able to drop him off and make it back to our church just in time to see the start of Drama Night. Members of our youth group (including my daughter) worked the past week to put together vignettes from 4 Broadway plays. They did a remarkable job and it was a funny way to unwind from impromptu travels.

Just Around the Corner

2008-07-25T04:29:00.002-05:00

Cross season is just around the corner. While reviewing videos of what makes cyclocross so fun, I came across this humorous clip. In particular I like the footage around 0:50 and right at the end. Listen closely to the end when the fallen rider is asked if he's okay and the commentary from the onlookers. Good stuff. While cross isn't about falling, it's inevitable that you're going to mess up some part of the course during some part of the race.

Goings On

2008-07-22T05:21:00.002-05:00

Been riding a little more lately. In the last week, I've ridden 4 times and today will be the first back to back day I've had in a while. Last night was 90 minutes out in the valley doing loops. Yep, those boring 18-19mph loops just riding recovery around and around. My legs really seemed to feel better at the end of the night, too. Saturday was another edition of the Covered Bridge route. Man, that ride kicked me hard. It was fun to share the ride with 3 teammates and a buddy from work who races for Manchester Trek, because without them, I'm sure it would have taken me twice as long.

For the rest of the year, I will be focusing my efforts off-road. Mountain biking and cyclocross will fill out the remainder of the competitive events. I may jump into 1 race at the Gateway Cup, but it's been too much this year trying to balance all of the options of racing road and off-road. Besides, there are some great events coming up in the next few months. Greensfelder, Cape Girardeau, Rapture in Misery, and Burnin' at the Bluff just to name a few.

From the training perspective, I made a decision to drop my coach, Andy Gibbs. This was a very difficult decision for me. Andy helped me prepare myself far beyond what I thought was possible. I recall thinking about what sort of times I would need running to be competitve in the sport class this year and simply shook my head in disbelief. Andy helped me prepare a plan to cover those gaps and do it in a way that was right for me, not a 'one size fits all' plan. He studied my workouts and made changes or offered the right amount of advice at the right times. All in all, he deserves a lot of credit for the success I had this year and my decision to stop working with him was tough to say the least. My decision wasn't based on any negatives with Andy, but rather due to a commitment to my family. If you're looking for a great coach, look no further that AGCoaching

Fat Chance

2008-07-16T20:37:00.005-05:00

In a recently published article regarding 'caloric sticker shock' NY'ers were shocked, horrified, and angered by the caloric levels of some of their favorite treats, snacks, and meals. Thinking the change to publish calorie levels may shift their choices towards healthier options appears to be a pipe dream. Take a look at some of these quotes from the article:

"Some people actually tell us we should take off the labels, because it discourages them from ordering what they want," he said.....says a spokesperson from Outback Steakhouse.

"I’m so upset," she said, noting some entrees — like the Jack Daniels ribs and shrimp dinner — contain almost 2,000 calories, and the desserts were more of the same (the brownie obsession is 1,500 calories). "I wish they wouldn’t have done this."....says a customer of TGI Fridays.

So, are people shocked to learn when calories in exceed calories out they get fat? or are they shocked to learn a muffin, cheeseburger & fries, several cokes throughout the day, a cookie snack, and a dinner out is more than a human being needs to consume in any given day? I guess I shouldn't be shocked, but perhaps it was just a fat chance to begin with.

European Tour de France coverage

2008-07-15T05:36:00.004-05:00

In 3 of the last 4 years, I've been lucky enough to be in Europe during the Tour de France. In 2005 and 2007, we watched the race firsthand but in all cases we watched to tour on EuroSport TV. I've got to say the coverage is second to none. Unlike Versus' coverage, they actually show the race. How's that different you ask? In a stage that takes 5 hours, you'll most likely see a total of 30 minutes of commercials. On Versus, on a 5 hour stage you're likely to see the exact opposite. Last night, I literally felt like I was being brainwashed to buy a Saab. Ever wondered what happens when the riders need to answer the call to nature? Want to see what happens in the pack when there's no one to chase or the peloton is content letting riders with no chance of being GC contenders go off the front? You'll find out if you watch the EuroSport coverage.

I'm thankful for the sponsors paying the bills so Versus can bring us at least glimpses of the tour, but it sure would be nice to actually watch a race compared to watching commercials that permit viewers to see a bike from time to time. Tivo is a magical machine.

You're Better than That

2008-07-15T05:15:00.003-05:00

During last night's coverage of Stage 10, Bobke muttered the words, "He's as cool as the other side of the pillow" to described a racer climbing the Col de Tourmalet. I shook my head in disbelief. Bobke, you're better than those pop-culture-appeasing talking heads on ESPN. Keep using your Bobcabulary to entertain us. Don't steal from the guys who live vicariously through the athletes they never were. You're better than that. You've climbed the mountains, suffered at the pack of the pack,
or shot the gutters in an attempt to gain position. In short, you talk and we listen.

Just be the Bobke we know and love.

Now That Was Pfun!

2008-06-27T06:05:00.002-05:00

Last night was the kickoff for the Short Track Training Series hosted by our local food and hospitality guru, Ralph Pfremmer, and his VeloForce teammates. They had laid out a very nice combination of technical sections and uber-fast dirt flats. The result was one narrow, but ultra quick loop that took riders roughly 5 minutes to complete and a honking large BBQ and beer party following the races.

Registering for the race, I had all the plans to jump into the B race but since Ralph has been bugging me to go head to head with him in a race, I elected for the A race at the last minute. I actually paid and registered for both races with the idea that if I got shelled in the A race, I could drop out and then race the B race. As it turns out, no shelling occured. My goal was simply don't get lapped by the pro-level racers. (I held off Chris Ploch until the final creek crossing and then he got me.)

Several of us didn't really contest the start and let the really fast dudes take full advantage of the open field to narrow singletrack flow of the race. As a result, we found ourselves near the back of the pack very early in the race. However, we quickly formed our freight train and begin to hammer through quite nicely. I passed several riders over the next few laps and then settled into a good rhythm with teammate, Kent Jones, and DRJ rider, Mark Bauer (Lil' Buddy.) Those two were running 29er s/s with 44/20 and 44/21 gearing respectively. I was running the big ring on most of the course and then the middle ring for the creek crossing section. We yo-yo'd back and forth until Kent took a corner too hot and then it became a race with me and Mark.

At the end, Mark's teammate, Chris Ploch, popped out of the creek behind us and immediately passed us and Mark jumped onto his wheel and got a pretty good gap on me at the same time. I fought really hard to get back onto Mark's wheel and by the time we entered the grass field for the last time, I had bridged up to Mark (and felt like he didn't know it.) I thought this was my only chance, but it would require me to outsprint him in the field. As we cleared into the field, his cadence went into hyperdrive on that s/s just as my right leg cramped (again) blowing me up in the process. My gears offered no advantage and the race was done.

I was spent, but smiling like it was Christmas morning and I was 5 again. What a cool race format. Reminded me of cyclocross and mountain biking. No elitist attitudes, nothing but slaps on the back and smiles galore. (Okay, maybe my teammate Mark Hasler wasn't smiling when he double flatted leading the B race, but that's a different story.) I'm going to miss the next two weeks while the family and I are in Germany and Austria, but you'll know where to find me on Thursday evenings.

Thanks again to Mark & Cody and the gang at Ballwin Cycles. They got the Gunnar Rockhound dialed in and it rocked last night. That bike floated underneath me and was ripping fast.

Time to Get Dirty

2008-06-26T06:16:00.003-05:00

If you're like me, watching that video gets your blood pumping for some racing in the dirt. Tonight is the first installment of Pfoodman's Velo Force dirt crits and I'm bringing back the Gunnar h/t. Mark and Cody at Ballwin Cycles helped yesterday with the finishing touches and she's smoking hot! Crossmax 29'er wheels, white cables, and carbon galore. I've never raced a dirt crit, but I settle that score tonight. No plans, no goals, just riding to have fun!

On another dirt related note, I opted for a Kona Explosif s/s frame. Thanks to one Matt Grothoff (Casey Ryback for the insiders) I was given a deal I couldn't refuse. I figured the sooner I took the deal, the sooner I'd be on the trail learning to snap some wrists with Team Seagal! Hopefully, this is the path to enlightment. If not, it's certainly the path to a "superior attitude and a superior state of mind."

Finally, on the subject of snapped wrists. "Heal well" wishes go out to Mike Gibson for his broken wrists (yes, as in both) and for a damaged hip. Mike suffered 3 breaks in one wrist and 8 breaks in the other. Tough stuff for sure, but if you know Gibson, I'm sure he'll be training while he's recovering. Mike come on out to the dirt crits, I'm sure you can yell from the sidelines and have a beverage or two to kill the pain.

Possible New Pony

2008-06-22T00:45:00.003-05:00

Vassago Jabberwocky

Been having problems with the bolts on the Niner One9's BB and am looking for a possible s/s replacement. I discovered this frame by talking with a buddy from my company. He has one and says several of his buddies are riding them and loving the heck out of them. Price is good and seems worthy of checking out. I think I'll get one on order and have it built up when I return from Europe in mid-may.

If You Can't Laugh at Yourself....

2008-06-20T19:57:00.003-05:00

Happy Father's Day

2008-06-15T15:23:00.003-05:00

I lost my own father back in 1991. He died at an early age (50) and lived a tough life. Unfortunately, he made his life much tougher with an addiction to prescription painkillers. I recall the day he died like it was yesterday. The phone rang at 5:00 in the morning and the first words out of my mouth were, "when did it happen?" No "hello," no "who is this?"

By the above description, my father wouldn't seem to be the role model for fatherhood or parenting. However, he was in many ways. He and my mother divorced when I was in the 6th grade. I remember crying at my parents' announcement to us and wondering where I was going to live. My father made it very clear we were to live with him and there was nothing to worry about. When I was sick (and as a child I suffered badly from asthma) my father was the person sitting on the edge of my bed rubbing my chest until I fell asleep.

He was also one of the funniest guys I knew. I loved to make people laugh and could make any tense situation loose, almost hilarious, with something as simple as a facial expression. He was a darn good baseball and softball player, too. I followed in his footsteps to become a catcher and have him to thank for my bad knees and back, but wouldn't have it any other way. To a fault, he would give someone the shirt off his back if it meant helping them out.

All in all, he was a great guy and I miss him a lot.

Happy Father's Day, Pop.

Let's Roll

2008-06-10T21:29:00.004-05:00

I'm back to riding and having fun. Two nights in the saddle this week and the next few days will include some spinning goodness. Tuesday night I rolled through the 'wood with Mikey Teiber and found time to hammer a few miles and laugh many more. Even found some time to 'yard sale' while jumping a log on the rollercoaster. While I didn't think much of it at the time, the wreck cost me the upper swingarm bolt on my Intense Spider 29 and real pain deep in my shoulder. While nothing seems to be broken, the simple task of lifting my arm causes significant pain. I'm holding off going to the doctor, but will proceed cautiously.

The pain wasn't too bad to pull the road bike out for 90 minutes of spinning in the flats last night. I rode 3 Kaspar loops and then went out with a buddy from work who's just getting into road biking. It's nice to see another person joining our ranks and asking more questions than a 3-year-old.

I've also talked with Gibbs and we seem to have a good training plan for the second half of the season. I look forward to getting more miles in the legs and smiling a lot more while doing it. For the rest of the year, I'll be focusing more on the mtb and then the 'cross season in the fall. Til then, let's roll.

All Decked Out

2008-06-08T20:13:00.002-05:00

I haven't touched a bike in over a week now. I may ride tomorrow, I may not. I've spent the better part of this week finishing the new deck at my house. It's complete and I'll feature some photos as soon as I find my camera. I spent Friday and Saturday putting in 9+ hours each day and another 4+ hours today getting it completed. I did it all by my lonesome and it's ready to be broken in as soon as we solve one major problem...furniture.

We looked around today for patio furniture but couldn't decide whether or not we wanted an outdoor living room set or a traditional 6 chairs and rectangular table. I'm sort of leaning towards the sofa and chairs with ottomans for the deck. I like the idea of hanging out on the deck in the mornings drinking coffee. Also, we don't eat outside a lot, so this just may make more sense.

As a result of my efforts on the deck in the scorching heat yesterday, I opted to skip the KC Cup MTB race. I really would have loved to go with Pfoodman but it was just too much to ask my tired body. Besides, I have the finishing touches to get done today. There's plenty of summer left and I'll get back on the bike soon enough. That is if I don't find some outdoor furniture that's too comfortable.

What Time is It?

2008-06-06T06:36:00.001-05:00

Time to get this on the trails here.

In Case You're Wondering

2008-06-05T07:07:00.003-05:00

I'm in the middle of a week off the bike. Maybe it will last longer, maybe it won't. I'm in a good frame of mind for the rest of the year and by no means am I quitting or going back to being a casual rider. Thanks for all the positive comments I've received from friends and teammates. I greatly appreciate the support. However, I am going to make some changes in my approach to racing (what and when) and my life in general. Spend more time living and less time focused on results. I was getting too consumed with the outcomes and less concerned with the journey. (Johan, you were right. I should have listened, but I thought I was immune.)

In the meantime, I'll be perfectly content building the deck at home, dropping another 5+ pounds, and ignoring my bikes like broccoli at dinner. It's been a very good year and I'm going to make it even better.

Suddenly Your Heart is Pounding, Wishing Secretly You Were a Star

2008-06-01T06:08:00.002-05:00

The race went as planned. I was on my first peak of the year and I DNF'd. Excuse? I'm fighting an injury right now and while I hoped it wouldn't bother me in the race, it did. I made it through 1 1/4 laps of the race, but in the end I was fooling myself. Hated the idea of quitting, but everything happens for a reason.

I'm taking a break from the bike. Not because I'm discourage, upset, or changing my approach on my training. I'm going to spend a little more time with my family, get some things done around the house, do some work travel, and get my body recovered and healed up. Don't think I'm coming to terms with a defeatist mentality, here. Rather, I'm understanding where and how God is leading me to bring glory to Him. The bible verse on my bike held true this weekend. Psalm 7:1, "O Lord my God, in you I have taken refuge; Save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me." God did save me and delivered me from all who pursue me. In the end of my race, no one was pursuing me and I was at peace with His will.

My teammates were a great group today. First of all, we met and traveled together in Todd's RV to the race. I can't tell you how enjoyable it was to ride together and have good fun and fellowship before and after the race. Everybody rode the race in a strong fashion and most importantly had fun doing it. They are an amazing group of men and I am humbled by their physical and spiritual gifts.

On a final note, the race was a great race. Very well organized and the route, while challenging, was a good route. I certainly think it has the potential to be one of the better races in the metro St. Louis area. Thanks to the good folks at Metro East Cycling for putting the race together and giving of their time.

The Stage is Set, The Band Starts Playing

2008-05-30T08:08:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow is my second road race of the year, the inaugural O'Fallon Grand Prix. My first road race, Froze Toes back in February, will seem like a ride around the neighborhood compared to this race. The course involves a great deal of corners (18-20 or so), narrow backcountry roads, and a few short, but strategic climbs. The chatter on the local boards hasn't been too excessive, so I don't know if others don't know what to expect, they don't care (just show up and race), or they're skipping the race altogether.

As prep, I put in a few hours this week of spinning to open up the legs. A few hard sprints and hill attacks here and there, but nothing too sustained. This morning was an hour on a small loop down Clayton road to Spoede and back along Conway to Mason. Nothing major but enough to get a little oxygen into the lungs and some tightness out of the legs. Saw several riders out this morning including local mtb star, Drew Black, replete in his Mesa digs. Drew's off to a great season on the mtb and as soon as he's wrapped up the Sport series title, will be thrashing riders in the Expert class.

Our team seems to be ready and I look forward to riding with them tomorrow. We've got a great group of racers and I'm honored to get to put a wheel on the line with them. Tomorrow's bible verse to be placed on the bike will be from Psalm 7:1, "O Lord my God, in you I have taken refuge; Save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me." Let's have a great race!

Wiffle Ball

2008-05-27T20:46:00.003-05:00

Tonight, I got home and was greeted by my son and his friend. They were looking to install a video baseball game on the computer and were asking for my permission. My response, "No. By the way, go outside and play catch or something." Amidst the grumbles and huffs, I decided it was time to teach the boys a new game. Wiffle ball. Yeah, they've messed around with it, but they've never played with the lawnchair, 1 pitcher, and 1 fielder.

I changed clothes, asked my wife to hold dinner for a while, and proceeded to explain the rules of the game. Within a matter of minutes they were hooked by the game and the physics of the pitches. While I'm no pitching ace with the ball, I can make it move around with enough movement to buckle your knees or fool you into thinking this pitch has no chance of making the strike zone. After 1 hour of playing, we had a brief intermission for dinner and resumed the game. The boys love it now. Hopefully, they'll play during the day, but I think the video games may lure them back. I recall my father and his best friend taking me, my brother, and the best friend's son on in a game of wiffle. They beat us like rented mules. They could hit and throw mesmerizing pitches. After that, we played for hours on end trying to get good enough to beat them. It never happened.

In an attempt to learn even more pitches, I stumbled across this dude's video which shows how to really throw a wiffle ball. Amazing stuff. Perhaps with a little practice, I'll be in his league. More likely, the boys will learn how to throw it like this and start schooling me.

A 'Perfect' TT

2008-05-25T06:42:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was Ghisallo's Velo in the Valley Time Trial. Over 130 racers lined up to test their meddle against the clock for a 12 mile race of truth. Originally, the TT was to be on Saturday and a criterium was to be held on Sunday. Unfortunately, after a great deal of work the plans with Chesterfield just wouldn't come together and the crit had to be scrapped. Let me say the good folks from Ghisallo made up for the cancelation of the crit by putting together a fantastic TT for racers. Kudos all around.

I was 9th man (or racer to be politically and technically correct) off the line. I did my warm-up, settled into the line-up and soon enough was off. My goal this race was to get to my target heart rate as quickly as possible and stay there for the entire race. For me, that's a HR of 165 beats a minute. I averaged 166 beats a minute for the race. My other goal was to finish in 28 minutes. I finished in 28:32. That's close enough for me. Albeit in the world of TT, 32 seconds can be the difference between 1st and 20th. Although in this race, the difference between 1st and my 5th place finish was 74 seconds. During the race, I used two gears. I would shift up to keep my cadence over the rollers while attempting to keep the lactic acid buildup in my legs down. Cresting the rollers, I would downshift and use the incline to pick my pace back up. Talking to several racers afterwards, they did the same.

This was also my first TT with my new rear wheel. Mark at Ballwin Cycles provided me with a sweet team deal on a Mavic Comete for my TT bike. The wheel was definitely a plus during the ride and I'm thankful to Mark for the help. My good buddy, Mark Ewers, took advantage of his recent upgrade to the Cat 4's to put his foot down and acknowledge his presence as a super solid contender for today, and future TT's, with an impressive 2nd place and a time of 27:25. Also, it was good to see a couple of my teammates, Theo Vander Velde and Rob Oellermann racing in the Cat 3's. Theo finished in the money with a 4th place and Rob got himself a top 10 place. Well done gentlemen!!

Looking back on my race I really couldn't have changed much. Technically, I messed up one of the only 90 degree corners on the course, but that was with the help of a non-racing rider on the course. He cut across the apex of the corner on my line and I had to seriously come out of the pace. Didn't cost me any finishing spots, but certainly took me out of my rhythm. I'll just say it was a good thing I have been racing crits because I ended up taking a very aggressive line on a bike ill-suited for such cornering.

Finally, I must mention the bible verse I put on my bike. 2 Samuel 22:33 "It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect." While I didn't win my race, God certainly was with me and made my way perfect.

Gone Fishin'

2008-05-21T06:46:00.003-05:00

Today is going to be a beautiful day. I'm skipping work and going fishing with my son. How nice, eh? What a dad, you say? Keep this in mind. Joining us will be the remainder of my son's 4th grade class. All 61 of them! Yep, I'm one of the parent sponsors for the field trip and my job...baiting hooks and removing any fish which may be caught.

Joking aside, my wife is joining me and I'm actually looking forward to spending the day with her, my son, and the kids. Fishing is a great way to pass the time and relax the body. If you're a parent and you've never taken you child(ren) fishing, you're missing a good opportunity to connect with them in God's nature. The goal is never to catch a lot of fish or even your next meal, just relax and have fun. And that is exactly what I intend on doing today.

Chasing a Dream

2008-05-20T16:01:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I decided to get in one of the Monday night rides. This ride is fast group ride and it usually draws a large group of diverse cyclists. Generally, all of the hammering starts out early and the pack dwindles as riders are spit out the back the further the ride continues. Last night was a particularly fast ride and early on, Shawn O'Neal decided the pace was going to be kept high. Immediately, we rolled out stringing the group down the road. I was joined by Kent Jones from my team and we took up spots near the front of the pack. As we rolled out of the first turn, we decided to slide back to recover.

As we rolled along, the traffic was a little heavy and the front of the group used that to their advantage by blocking off the back half of the group. They immediately sensed blood and surged the pace. Gapped, we fought to get back into the crowd. Kent and I found ourselves with 11 other riders in a chase group. The lead group kept the pace high and with the headwinds, we organized into a good rotating paceline to keep our own pace high. We seemed to be gaining some ground, but never enough to close the deal. Our group eliminated 1-2 rider and then it was 9. One two occasions, I decided to ride off the front of the group. While I wasn't expecting to bridge up, I was effectively working on the effort it would take to do so under race conditions. Suffice it to say I need more work in this area. I'm not sure it was the wind or the unrelenting gears we were pushing but my back was really starting to ache.

With 5 or 6 miles to go, I again decided to ride off the front to see if we could get our group's pace up and reel in the lead pack. While I did get off the front for a while, I basically burned my self up in the process and was done for the night. With 4 miles to go, I was fighting to stay in the chase group and once that feeling hit me, I shut it down and cruised solo at 23mph in no man's land finishing 45 seconds behind the chase group.

After I finished I cooled down with Kent and listened to his advice. Don't pull too hard into the headwind and don't do more work than you need to. I've got a lot to learn in this sport. I'm thankful men like Kent are there to help point out my faults and keep me coming back. In the end, it was one of the fastest rides I've done this year and that includes all the races I've done. I'm shutting it down for the rest of the week and only doing recovery spins until the TT on Saturday. And then, I'll chase down that elusive dream. A dream of speed.

Castlewood 2, Boz 0

2008-05-19T06:11:00.001-05:00

Sunday marked my return to the 'wood for a few hard race laps and a strong desire to even the score. As you recall, Grotpeter knocked me out 2/3rd's of the way through last weekends race. I needed to put in 2 hours of hard hill efforts and after a 30 minute warm-up, that's exactly what I intended to do. Unfortunately, the 'wood had other plans for me.

The river trails are worthless right now. I didn't know that and cluelessly headed down to find repeated sections of either mud, water, or large sections of fallen treelimbs and many cases large fallen trees. After hiking the bike in several sections, I made a beeline back to the front of the park and some race loop laps. However, by this time my bike was considerably caked with mud. (Sorry GORC-sters, but trust me on this you have fewer issues to deal with than my muddy groves in already decimated trails.)

I began the loops on the painful Lone Wolf climb, my Garmin was registering 22% gradient on that beast, but I wasn't buying into the pain. I kept the cadence strong and the power on until the chainsuck started. At all of the right places, I would have to come out of the gas, backpedal, and restart the spinning. Happened 4-5 times until just before reaching the castle and bang, the chain breaks. Luckily, it was the Connex quick link which separated and after working with it for what seemed like 10-15 minutes, I got it to re-connect and I rolled down towards the parking lot. Being slightly angry, I was hammering the downhill and entering the small hairpin ditch crossing (the one armored with rocks that you cross when coming off the downhill of LW) I pressed a bad line and paid dearly. The result was an ejection seat like dismount over the handlebars. The kind where you get propelled over the bars but have enough time to attempt to jump from the bike as a rodeo cowboy leaves a buckin' bronco. The damage? A rather large bruise on the front of my right shin.

Mumbling under my breath, I rolled back to the truck to cleaned the chain as best I could and apply some White Lightning lube to help coax the chain into another hour or so of riding. The chain seemed fine as I rolled up Love trail passing several riders moseying along. The park was packed with picnics, hikers, and bikers. As I passed several riders of all levels at what seemed like a breakneck speed, I wondered if this is how the race felt for Matt Keevan last weekend? The upper trails were in remarkably fast shape and I was hammering along grinning like Dwayne G. Dropping out of the upper waterbars I muttered a few words that had something to do with renovation plans for said area that included a pickaxe and shovel. (See prior post for reason why.)

On the second lap, more of the same. However, this time just as I reached the connector turn-off to head to roller coaster I heard the screech of car tires, a very loud boom, and then a car horn blaring non-stop. Immediately sensing this was a car wreck I turn and start pedaling for Ries road to see if I could help. As I pedal I'm thinking I'm not a doctor, I don't have any medical experience, and I nearly faint at the sight of someone getting a shot. Yeah, I'll be helpful.

I pop out onto the road and sure enough it's a head-on collision. The occupants are standing outside of their cars, airbags are all out, and one driver has bloody hands. As I ask if everyone is okay, they all respond 'yes'(thank God.) As I continue to ask them if they are okay they keep saying something about the other driver. I look back at the cars and don't see another person in or near the cars. Then they say the other driver took off running. Now I'm trying to decide if I need to ride after the runaway driver. After confirming they were okay (they were talking with family and friends on their cell phones) I decide to go get the park ranger. About this time the other driver (shirtless and looking rather angry) comes walking back up the hill. I turn around and see the park ranger coming and ride up to point out the runaway driver to him and explain what the people told me. He shifts into serious mode, cuffs the driver, and proceeds to get the situation under control.

I get back to my riding, say a prayer for the people involved in the crash, and attack roller coaster one last time. I pour out everything I have into the trail and scoot on down to the truck. I'm thankful for the day, but feel the 'wood took another bite out of me. I'm keeping score and I'll be back. The ride wasn't a complete waste of time and I got in some hard efforts. My legs are feeling great and my mind is getting stronger. That's the plan and the plan is coming together.

Just Ride

2008-05-16T06:51:00.002-05:00

This week is filled with a lot of recovery rides. Totally cool. Seems like a gift in a way. Riding a bike with the sole purpose of doing nothing. Recovery rides call for keeping my heart rate under zone 2, which for me is under 142 beats per minute. In the flats to rollers, that means I can still get up to a little over 20mph without moving the needle on the HRM above the governor limited 'redline.'

Tomorrow, I hope to 'just ride' a few miles with my good friend Scott Thompson as he begins his 400km brevet ride. Nope, I wrote 400km. Yep, that's 248 miles in one day. Scott's done several of these before, too. Why do you think his blog is called Ultra Scott? Last year, Ultra Scott completed the 248 miles in just under 20 hours. While I know Scott isn't usually focused on the speed of a ride, I'm sure he's looking to improve his time overall. Based on the weather forecast for the weekend, looks like he'll have favorable conditions for his effort.

If things go well, I'll roll out with him for the first hour and a half and then bid him well. I'd ride longer with him, but my son has a full slate of baseball and soccer tomorrow. Besides, I just need to ride a little, not a lot. I'm not going to deviate from my training, either. I can really feel my legs coming on now and I'm optimistic for some upcoming races. While I've been just riding this week, I have never felt stronger on the bike and I'm sure the best is yet to come. The good news is that the fun factor of being on the bike has never been higher.

Castlewood 1, Boz 0

2008-05-11T19:40:00.003-05:00

Saturday was the do or die day. Depending on my results in the race, I was either sticking to the roads for the rest of the season or continuing my plans to race both mountain and road for the remainder of the year. Specifically what sort of result was I looking for? Depended on the field. As it turns out, we had 40 racers in the Sport class field. Nope, that's not a misprint, 40 racers. It was an awesome sight for sure. Actually looked like the start of a crit race. The only sight that surpassed that was the sight of 7 of my ICCC brothers lined up to represent.

I felt good coming into the race. I had two weeks of good training coming into the race and took a few days off before the race. I lined up near the front, but I wasn't overly worried about staying in front leaving the field. I knew there would be plenty of legs and lungs exploding on the Lone Wolf climb. My plan was to start hitting the gas near the top waterbar and begin picking off riders. I was fairly successful, but watched the top 5-6 guys immediately open a gap as we neared the castle. About that time, Superman Matt Keevan was killing the pace on his singlespeed (his race started 1 minute behind ours) as he began picking his way through our field. I rode behind him until the first bridge on Love and then he was gone like a rocket.

The first lap was a train of riders heading through Love and Rollercoaster. Good clean racing all around. As we neared the lower Grotpeter fireroad descent, I grabbed a little gel and drank three big swigs of Heed and settled in for the second climb of Lone Wolf. As we climbed Lone Wolf, our pack of riders splintered a little but regrouped closer to the Ranger Station. The pace was not overly fast, but it was strong as we rolled towards the top of Love. As we started to dump onto the connector I missed two upshift attempts and that brought the group right on me. Having snapped out of my rhythm, I also fought hard to get back into the flow of the trail and that brought everyone onto my tail.

I was second in the train of 5 riders all within seconds of each other and I knew I needed to keep it moving. About that time, John Peiffer made a totally legit, albeit stealthy pass on me. Surprising, with plenty of trail for all, and as quietly as a tiger. Within the blink of an eye, he was riding second in the train and putting pressure on our leader. At the next possible chance he took over on the front of the pack and was immediately gapping us by busting down Grotpeter. I didn't want to get gapped badly and was beginning to get anxious to get around my rider. As we neared the upper waterbars, I decided to back off a little, recover, and then hit the gas hard coming out of the tree root hairpin. As we flew down the last waterbar, I aggressively grabbed a little too much air and landed hard on a rock immediately blowing my front tire off the rim. The tire exploded with a large crack similar to the sound of a rifle. The rider ahead of me yelled out, "What was that!" while I rode the rim down the rocks and narrowly avoided a massive crash.

As I assessed the situation, I realized I had rocks in my rim and tire and not much Stan's left. Within seconds, I removed the valve core and put in a tube. As I wiped the Stan's and rocks from my tire and got it all put together. As soon as I hit the valve with the CO2, the side of the tire blew out and the tube swelled to the size of a football. Disgusted, I threw everything down and knew it was a DNF. A good friend, Greg Suter, caught it all on video tape and as soon as I've got it loaded up, I'll have the whole thing on the blog for your viewing pleasure. (Inspecting the rim after getting back to the car revealed several chunks of the rim have been burred or ground down. Good thing I purchased the Mavic MP3 protection plan.)

Walking down the trail, I knew a top 10 was thrown out the window. I had the legs, the lungs, and the positioning. I discovered our group had almost 2 minutes on the rest of the field and while we weren't going to catch the top guys in the race, the field wasn't likely to catch us either. In the grand scheme of things, it was just one race and I didn't get hurt. That's cool. God has plans for all of us and this was his plan for me in this race. While I had a hard time dealing with the DNF, once I got my head around the bigger picture, I was okay with it.

It was so awesome seeing out ICCC'ers out there in full force. Congratulations to all of them!

3rd Zak Hafner
13th Bert Carlen
16th William Cahill
19th Rich Pierce
26th Todd Harris
30th Rob Oellermann
DNF Eric Lewis
DNF Scot Wallace

Thanks to Jim Moore, Kent Jones, and Scott & Babette Melies for cheering us on and giving us race support, too.

I'm definitely going to be mountain biking the rest of the season, along with the road events. I knew the sport would keep me tied in and I'm glad to see I'm ready to compete. Thanks to Bob Arnold and the DRJ crew, for putting together such a great race and Bill Howard for his officiating duties. It was a great day all around. I'll be back.

Izzy Isn't

2008-05-09T21:59:00.002-05:00

After blowing your 5th save of the year and the second Friday night in a row, perhaps he doesn't have the arm anymore. Who knows? Frustrating. Sad. I hope he figures out his funk. At this point, it's gut wrenching for everyone.

Losing Time and Tubes

2008-05-08T20:42:00.002-05:00

It's been another crazy week of work. I finally get a recovery week from the bike and work goes crazy. Nothing bad, mind you, just busy with an assortment of things coming to a boil at the same time. Today was the peak of the week's activity and in anticipation of it I slept like crap last night. (My sleep has been hit or miss at best. I finally broke down and went to the doctor seeking help and he recommended I start taking Melatonin, which works for approximately 5-6 hours before I wake up for good. That's an entirely different story, however.)

Today, I was scheduled to be in two places (30 miles apart from each other) at the same time, but I worked out an arrangement to be at one meeting until noon and then get to the other meeting by 1pm. To make matters worse, I was told I'd have a lunch waiting for me when I got to the second meeting only to find out that was bungled up. (No big deal really, I'll just use some of the glycogen I'm trying to store up for this weekend's race.) I covered both meetings and felt the day was positive, but mentally exhausting.

Driving home I was thinking I'd still give tonight's TT a try when I discovered my kids needed some help around the house and it was more than I needed to ask my wife to cover. I hate to skip a day of training, but my family is more important and after the day I had, it was really what I needed most.

On another front, I've finally gone tubeless for the mtb. I removed the tubes from the Schwalbe Little Alberts, added some Stan's, and converted the valve cores on the Mavic Crossmax 29er wheels for the no-tube experience. So far, the conversion seems to be holding. It was far easier than I thought to make the switch. The tires mounted without problem and have held air for a day now. Hopefully, they hold up well for the race. My greatest concern is the fact that I saw Pfoodman's Little Alberts at the shop and they look like he ran through razor wire with them. I know he hammers the terrain, but the knobs on the tires were ripped off in several places. Ain't enough Stan's in the world to hold a tire together if it does that. We'll see where it goes from here. Hopefully no more pinch flats and greater traction. All you guys who busted my chops for the past year, look out.

Chicago Cubs

2008-05-03T15:36:00.003-05:00

In St. Louis it's always been popular to 'hate' the Cubbies. I guess being a fan of baseball, I love all teams who've pulled for their the fans in regardless of their post-season prowess. Besides, the Cards and Cubs rivalry is one of the oldest in baseball and it's as good today as it's ever been. Having said that, you just have to chuckle at some of the Cubbie jokes that have circulated for years. Here a sample of a few:

How do you stop a red hot Cubs team???
Wait until the end of June.

**************

What does a bear on the pill and the World Series have in common?
No Cubs.

**************

A man was at Wrigley Field watching a Cubs game, when he called a security officer over and said, 'Those people are bothering me.' The security officer looked around him at all the well-behaved spectators and said 'Who, sir?' Wearily, the man pointed out to the Cubs players on the field and said 'Them'.

**************

What's the difference between the Cubs and tissue paper?
The Cubs fold easier.

**************

A little boy is walking down the street one day and finds a genie jar. He opens it and out comes a genie.

Genie: I'll give you three wishes.

Boy: I wish for an XBOX 360, and a PSP and....peace in the middle east.

Genie: Where is the middle east little boy?

The boy pull out a map and shows him where the middle east is.

Genie: Uhm, I dont think I can do that little boy. Do you have another wish?

Boy: Well, could you make the Cubs win the World Series?

The genie pauses and then says:

Genie: Lemme see that map of the middle east again.

Training and Training...for what?

2008-05-02T19:50:00.003-05:00

I'm on the tail end of a stretch of 13 day stretch of training and racing. The legs are starting to respond less and less and I'm certainly feeling it throughout the rest of my body. Over the next two days, I'm going to get another 5 hours of effort in and then begin a little recovery week in preparation for the Castlewood mtb race on 5/10. The race will be the first time I've been back on a mountain bike (for any reason) since the St. Joe's race back on March 2nd.

I'm enjoying the road bike quite a bit right now and based on how I do at the 'Wood will determine whether or not I commit to the rest of the mtb season or shift my focus over to the roads. I really enjoyed the TT and I'm enjoying the crits, as well. The weird issue on the crits is that there is such a steep learning curve for me. The races aren't necessarily about who's the fastest. They are much more about strategy and positioning than I ever realized. That appeals to my problem solving mentality so much more than the mtb races ever did. Yes, they may be easier than a mtb race (based on duration and effort) but I'm amazed at how the races unfold and how experience will trump power almost every time.

The biggest problem will be this. Bob Arnold and the DRJ-ers are hosting the C'Wood race again and I know I'll have a blast. After the race, I'm sure I'll rekindle the love I have for the mountain bike and make the decision that much more difficult. That is, if there is a decision to be made. Stay tuned. Perhaps I'll know. Bugman raced a mountain bike last year and I made a commitment to try road racing in return. What did he know when he offered the challenge???

Catching Up

2008-04-30T05:51:00.004-05:00

Last week was a hard training week which culminated in 2 days and 3 races. This was my multi-day, multi-race weekend and I've got to say, it's a little taxing on the body and mind. The races were 'C' priority races for me and coming into the weekend, I had just completed a really focused and strong effort on the bike. In the prior week, I included a 30 min TT, crit sprints, and hill intervals, so my legs certainly weren't rested.

I was optimistic for the weekend and took it as an opportunity to see how my body would respond to the increased loads. Surprisingly enough, Saturday went well. During the crit I rode strong, at the front on a few occasions, and even brought the field back up to catch a rider who had gone off the front. As I made that move to bridge the field up (was never intending to bridge up in an attempt to make it a two man break) one of my team mates immediately responded with, "go Boz, I'll block for you." Saturday's race also gave me my closest glimpse at life during a crash. I was very slightly caught up in a big crash in the first turn. I saw everything going on in slow motion and while I did my best to steer clear of it, I began running out of room as the portable fence barricades pinned me in. After taking an extremely quick inventory of myself and my bike, I was left with a handful of riders who had suffered no damage and were forced to race to catch the back of the pack. Bridge on we did, but the effort took just a little bit out of my 'bank account' for the weekend. The rest of the race unfolded well, and at the final lap I was at the front with 3 other team mates, but our acceleration was timed a little early and we were caught by the masses at the end. Fine with me, we are starting to ride well together and we're having fun doing it.

Saturday's TT went as expected. I had hoped to post a time of 22mins or less and I posted a time of 21:46. That was good enough for 12th in the Cat 4's. I caught my 2 minute man (had a ghost rider as my 1 minute man) by the 5th mile and was chugging for home when I felt a twinge in my left hip flexor. That caused me to shift gears a little in an attempt to work out what I thought was the start of a cramp. About 1 1/2 miles from the finish, I was able to bring the speed back up and I finished strong. Overall, I was pleased with my effort.

Sunday's crit was fun, but very tough for me. I never really felt good the entire race. I had warmed-up on the trainer with the guys from our team, but once we got on the course, I never felt comfortable. I moved around the pack looking for the right lines (I'd never ridden the course before) and once I had my feel for it, I settled in. The race was to be 35 mins + 5 laps. At the 25 min mark, the final prime bell was rung and it was also about the time that I wanted to start sliding towards the front. As we arrived on the backside of the course, I found myself on the front of the pack and decided to slow the pace down a little. That worked for 1/4 a lap and then a team mate, Todd Harris, came up with 2 or 3 other riders. As I felt a little recovered at that point, I simply mentioned to him that I was on his wheel. We were 4th wheel at this point and Todd decided to ride me to the front in the final corner and turn me loose.
As I left Todd's wheel I was on top of the gear pretty good and decided to give it a go. I knew I had at least 1-2 other riders on my wheel but kept spinning madly. As I neared the line and decided to stand and sprint, my left hip flexor again signaled enough and I responded in submission. I was beaten at the line by 1/2 bike by Ryan Michaels. He rode the sprint to perfection and deserved to win it. After that, I was spent and my leg was sore. I soft pedaled as the pack caught us and then fought to stay on. I bridged back up once with the help of a team mate, Mike McKee, but just couldn't maintain tempo. I bagged the results, but finished the race as I hate to quit. I did 3 solo laps with another rider and finished as the latern rouge runner-up.

Overall, the weekend was fun and a great effort for me. I learned a lot more and was humbled at the same time. God has blessed me with gifts that I'm trying to use wisely and a fantastic group of racers who are extremely helpful to me. I'm proud to wear their colors and hope I do nothing but bring glory to God and to them.

The Price of Speed

2008-04-20T19:01:00.003-05:00

Can you buy speed? I don't mean the street slang term for amphetamines, but rather miles per hour? Yes, yes, you can.

Here's my new TT bike. I went with a Leader LD-735TT frame and carbon fork. Total price of the frame, full carbon fork, and headset was $600. I decided on this route, as I didn't want to put a ton of money into a TT frame in the event I didn't use it a lot. I'd also read up on the Leader frames and for the money, they seemed like a great deal. The bike is outfitted with a combination of parts from my trainer bike and miscellaneous parts from around my workshop. The only new parts on the bike are the Profile Design T2 cobra aero bars, a Profile Design Razor aero seatpost, and the Mavic Cosmic Carbone SL wheels. Fully equipped as you see it here, the bike weighs 20.4 lbs. The key is that the rotational weight is low and the right parts are aero shaped.

I took the bike out the last few days and it fits me really well. I had Dave Schindler at FitPro dial in the aero position for me and I think he did a fine job. My first two rides on the bike were less than ideal and the post-fit ride was darn near perfect. No pain in the neck, back, or shoulders, and I felt like I was in a powerful position the entire time.

I chose Mavic Cosmic Carbone SL's for TT wheels because they can also double as crit and road race wheels. They really maintain the pace once up to speed and from everything I've been told by people, they are a darn durable wheelset. (Thanks for the deal Mark and Cody at Ballwin Cycles.)

So how did it perform compared to my standard road bike in a 30 min TT? My mph average over the 30 minutes increased by 2.5mph. (And that was with me being sick, too.)

What's Worse?

2008-04-20T17:57:00.002-05:00

The Paris-Roubaix was held on April 13th but wasn't being shown on Versus until today. I did everything I could to avoid learning who won, what happened, how was the weather, everything. I succeeded. I knew nothing, I mean nothing about the outcome. However, to make things worse, I also knew nothing about when it was coming on Versus today. I assumed it was coming on at 4pm today. WRONG-O. As my luck would have it, coverage started at 2pm and I turned on the TV just in time to see the last 3 minutes of wrap-up.

Is stupidity a valid excuse?

Feels a little bit like battling your way back onto the lead group only to have them make another acceleration and drop you as reward for your effort.

I Can Only Imagine

2008-04-19T08:13:00.002-05:00

I've written before how I am putting a Bible verse on my bike during races as my way of glorifying and thanking God for the gifts and talents he has blessed me with. In my last race, I didn't put a verse on my bike. Instead, I carried the funeral program for Hank Murphy, the brother of a friend of ours, in my back jersey pocket. On the bottom of the program was a simple quote from Hank, "I am blessed, and highly favored."

Hank passed away on April 3rd after a lingering battle with cancer. I only had the pleasure of meeting Hank a couple of times. Our family is very good friends with his brother's family we've come to learn Hank was a very strong Christian man, as well as a loving husband and father. At Hank's service, his pastor (from the Dallas area) spoke of Hank's servanthood to God and his many blessings in the lives of others. Later, in the service, they showed a photo/video montage of Hank's life while the song, "I Can Only Imagine" by MercyMe played in the background. As I watched and cried, I decided I would race in honor of Hank and thank God for the blessing he gave us in Hank.

While it would have been glorious (and very Hollywood-ish) to come across the line way ahead of the pack and hold the program high and praise God and Hank, but it didn't work out that way. My result in the race wasn't an important outcome this time. Seeing the lasting works of Hank and the lives he touched was. I felt humbled. Hank knew even in his darkest moments God would bless him and shine His glorious light on him. Hank was a beacon for Christ to all of us who knew him.

I know Hank is blessed, and highly favored and that's the greatest victory of all.

Tilles Park

2008-04-13T07:00:00.004-05:00

First official crit is in the books. I raced the 4/5's race and from the folks I know in the race there appeared to be more 4's than 5's in the race. Not really sure how many were in the pack, but I'd guess somewhere around 50???

Overall a good race for me. I went to the front several times and actually led a few laps. Won 1 prime, too. My official finishing spot was 16th, but the officials had problems with the finishing line camera and failed to catch the numbers of several riders. I actually thought I was around 10th, but since I couldn't recall the riders around me (I guess a sprint finish does that) I didn't feel right taking the 10th place spot. When I got home, I talked with my wife and she said she thought I finished 10th and a couple of people around her (from my team) thought the same. Oh well, that's racing and it's in the books. I feel better knowing I had a great race and was mixing the field up whenever I could.

The prime lap was funny to me. Bill Howells and I were rounding the corner before the back straighaway and he looked over and said, "I really don't like Red Bull, it's yours." I laughed and said "I'll split it with you" and dropped the hammer. Bill is such a strong rider and I always enjoy seeing that lime green Specialized of his. Don't ever paint that thing man!

Overall, our ICCC team rode a strong race. We had 5 guys in the 4/5 race and our goal was to get someone (namely Scot Wallace or Jim Moore) launched off the front and then block like mad. As it turns out, we got Mike McKee off the front on one lap and then Rich Pierce, Scot, and Jim were blocking up the front. I was recovering midpack and trying to work my way to the front again, when Mike and the guy he was with started to slow. The field accelerated and the sight of the riders and soon enough they were back in the fold.

I'd say it was a fun day for all. It was awesome having my wife, Jennifer, and my kids, Kelsey and Collin, there cheering me on in spite of the chilly 42 degree weather. I'm sure they would have rather been sitting in a warm house instead of watch me play around on a bike. Next race for me will be the Tour of St. Louis on 4/26 & 4/27. If those races go well, you may not see too much of me off-road this year. I'm really enjoying the road right now and it seems to suit my body a little more. I'll be at Castlewood on 5/10 and will make my final assessment based on that race.

Yours truly winning a prime.

Greg Lyeki from Trek on the lead.

Rich Pierce, Jim Moore, and me taking care of business.

Rich Pierce and Scot Wallace keeping the pace high.

Me (left of center) and Jim Moore (right of center) mixing it up at the front.

I Pledge (Part Deux)

2008-04-12T06:29:00.003-05:00

Last month, I pledged to no longer wear my winter clothes as a gesture of solidarity with Spring and Summer. Winter, I no longer acknowledge your existence! This weekend's forecast:

So at the race, I'll be the guy in the shorts shivering and turning a rosy hue of rare tuna. Jacket, perhaps. Qoleum #3 Extra Hot embrocation? You betcha!! Time to start acting like a man!

Betcha Won't Eat That

2008-04-12T06:07:00.003-05:00

Last night our family headed out to JJ Twigs for some pizza and family time. For our dinner, we ordered a Bacon Cheeseburger pizza and a Grilled Chicken and Mushroom pizza. The Bacon CB pizza was advertised with the special JJ Twigs sauce, bacon, hamburger, onions, dill pickle slices, cheddar and mozzarella cheese. After it was baked, they were to add shredded lettuce and tomatoes. My son and I thought that would be a decent pizza, so we ordered it sans the lettuce and tomatoes. (It's a little to much meat for me, but I figured I'd give it a go.)

We were having a great time talking and catching up with each other's week. As the NCAA men's basketball was now complete it was time to discuss the winner's prize of our family pool. My wife, Jennifer, won in a tiebreaker over my son by guessing the score of the final game. Mind you, the objective was to be the closest to the total points for the final game. My wife hit the tally on the nose. Her prize, a foot massage to be delivered by me and my son. As we discussed the foot massage, my son reminded her that foot is singular and feet is plural, so she still needed to determine which FOOT was getting massaged. (We think he has the right skillset to become an attorney or worse yet, a politician.)

During my attempt to weasel my way out of the bet, my wife commented that she didn't want me to just write a check to a spa. I began seeking other alternatives when I spied one of my daughter's remaining chicken tender appetizers along with the ranch dip. I quickly asked if the massage would be waived if I were to eat the chicken dipped in the ranch dip. As they laughed and piled on conditions for the bet, the deal was struck and I was eye to eye with a ranch dip coated chicken tender. Let me just stop right here and say that I H-A-T-E dips, dressings, mayos, mustards, and anything else that resembles any of the above. I could tell this would be a big deal for me and them.....but I chickened out. I couldn't get past the smell of the dip. I'm a weenie.

Now the pizza arrives. Looks awesome, it's hot, smells great. I grab a piece of the CB pizza, take a big bite, and frown. Maybe it's the tang of the pickles?? No, it's too tangy to my taste buds. I think to myself, that tastes a lot like yellow mustard. Weird. I take another bike. Bingo! Yellow mustard. And I'm thinking is this some cruel joke to get me for the failure to eat the chicken? I call the waiter over and he says, yeah, it's got mustard on it. I ask, what a part of the description on the menu? He says, absolutely, but let me bring you a menu. Here is their menu description:

"Made with our own Special Sauce, hamburger, crispy bacon, onions, Cheddar & Mozzarella Cheeses and dill pickle chips. Topped off with lettuce and fresh Roma tomatoes. Tastes just like a cheeseburger!" Dang. Why didn't that register with me? Long story short, they made us a new one with the regular tomato based sauce and it was great. Again, a little too much meat on it for my tastes, but it really did remind you of a burger. Actually, it reminded you a little of a white castle.

Overall, it was a great meal and we laughed a lot. Good Times!

A Good Ride

2008-04-10T06:23:00.003-05:00

Yesterday called for 2 hours of easy spinning. The weather was still cooperating, so I gave Mark Ewers a call and arranged a 4pm start time in the valley. The plan was to ride along the new Monarch Levee trail and then head over for a few 'Kaspar loops' on the business park side of the valley. If you're wondering what the Kaspar loops are, read this blog courtesy of a buddy, Pfoodman. (Did I just break the record for the most hyperlinks in a single paragraph??)

Surprisingly, the weather cooperated for the entire ride. With the exception of freshening winds, we were able to complete 2 hours of riding and even get in a few spirited efforts (making up for my shortened workout from Tuesday night.) As we did the 'Kaspar' loops, we would take turns pulling into the wind. As we rolled around we got to talk a lot and catch up on things. I got to ask a lot of questions about wattages, TT bikes, and training while Mark obliged me and answered all of them with his polite, friendly manner.

In all my training efforts this year, I haven't had too many rides like last night's. The perfect combination of effort, mileage, weather, and companionship. A Good Ride!

I'm Fine, Really

2008-04-08T17:18:00.004-05:00

Thanks for all the cards and letters, but I'm fine. Yes, I know you're concerned that I've done myself serious harm, but really, I'm great. No, I didn't do any serious trauma to my head. It's nothing. I'm wearing this:

Now, I can safely dress as fast as I want and not personally endanger myself. Go back to worrying about whether or not folks are wearing their helmets while riding on the streets, or drinking from water bottles found along the side of the road, or whether or not shopping center developers hate cyclists (even though they may sponsor their teams!!) I'm fine, really.