Word

My world is always better when a bike is under me.

I had a very nice converstation with a client of mine today. Watching the emotion in his face as he explained his massive lose of weight by riding a stationary bike was exciting. He told me how when he first started, he could barely ride 10 minutes. Then it was 15, then 20, 30, all the way up to an hour and a half. He lost 40 pounds just like that.

It was cool. Unfortunately his wife has some serious health problems that curtailed his biking, but she's better now, and I hope our talk today re-ignited his fire to get back on.

We got hit with a tornado yesterday. It was pretty crazy, but the great news is everyone is ok. There's a lot of damage. Especially to a few of my clients. Nothing compared to Joplin, but crazy none the less.



I was at work... The safest place in town. It's an old bank. Limestone built, with bomb shelter underneath. We missed it by a mile.

It's Memorial Day weekend. Sounds like most are headed up North to race skinny tires. Not me. Just relaxing. One week left till the next big show.

G

Dirty Little Secret Recap

That's a pretty spot on discription of that trail. It's a Dirty Little Secret. Nestled in the hills just north of Manhatten lie a sweet little gem of singletrack. It's a very sweet mix of fast, flowy, techy goodness. Within it await a couple of nice size rock gardens that take skill to manuever, and a few hills that take legs to conquer.

I somehow got away to race this UFD race. It wasn't in the plans, but late Friday night, I got the go ahead from Jamie to leave Sunday and race. I say permission because I told her I wasn't going to race this weekend. We had a friends wedding, and the last wedding we had, I was a little of a Debbie Downer due to having race the next day. She told me as long I promised to have fun and keep from being a DD, then it was no problem. It also didn't hurt she had a baby shower to attend all day Sunday.

The wedding was very interesting. The pastor seemed to be on another planet, and made the Bride and Groom say "I Do" three times. It was a very interesting ceramony. The after party was fun. I ate a moderate feast, but then preceded to eat well over a half dozen fat pieces of the most amazing wedding cake I've ever had. That along with the sixxer of Hoegaarden, and a few jello shots, had me feeling pretty good.

I woke up feeling great somehow. The drive to KC was good, but the drive from KC to Manhatten was rough. Sick to my stomach, tired, and overall a pretty crappy feeling. Luckily Nestle makes some life saving chocolate milk, and I was back to feeling good again.

We arrived a bit late, and kind of rushed getting ready, and going through our pre-ride. We hit the first rock garden and I figured the day would favor Travis more than I. He seems to ride rocks better than I do, although my new steed makes it much easier for me to hide my technical deficiences.

Upon getting ready to have our neutral roll out by a man in blue, they asked us if we wanted to do 3 or 4 laps. I didn't really care, but luckily the main census was to cut it a lap down to 3. This turned out to be a great choice.

We start to roll out, and at the blacktop corner, the cop pulls off and we're off up the pavement to the singletrack. I hit the woods in 4th spot, right behind Aaron. The first technical section had everyone stumped, and I was the last man in the train meaning I got gapped. Getting caught up behind 3 other riders was no fun. This happend twice before we popped out on the long grass section. I was pretty spent from having to bridge back up twice, but luckily the grass proved to be in my favor.

I jumped Farmer and Ryan Feagan to slot in behind Aaron again who was just behind Trav leading the pack. We cruised the grass at a comfortable pace, and put a small gap on Farmer and Ryan. Once we hit the trail we gapped them a bit more, and then came another big rocky section. It was pretty comical. Travis bobbled, then Aaron bobbled, then I bobbled. It was a cluster.


Travis continued to lead, due to some sweet blocking techniques. The pace was seemed almost lazy like. We were still holding a consistant pace, but I knew it wouldn't last all race. Anytime you have three guys riding together joking and talking during a race, you know they're not going hard enough.

Well the moment came, and Aaron attacked Trav on a hill, and put in a quick 10 second gap. This was towards the end of the first lap.

We hit the pavement with Aaron up the road. I told Travis we had to reattach and to grab my wheel. I powered up the engine and crushed it to the singletrack, and proceeded to make back our lost time. Unfortunatly Travis blew up in the process, and luckily I just barely kept from doing so myself. I had caught Aaron's wheel again.

Photo thanks to Kenneth Rodriguez. Photos of the race here...

We rode together for awhile, until the grass section. Aaron put in a pretty hard dig, and put in another 10 second gap. It gassed me pretty well, and in the process I tried to take a drink after hitting my gel flask, and dropped my bottle. I was hualing, and there was no salvaging it. I had to finish the lap waterless...

Aaron dropped his chain and I caught back up, only to loose him again not long after. My hungoverness started to rear it's ugly head again, and I was lacking the power to keep on his wheel. My back started to throw fits, and not having water was keeping me from recovering as well after the hills. Luckily I didn't loose much time.

The third and final lap was pretty uneventful. I had water again, but still no power. I put it in cruise control and finished something like 30 seconds or so behind Aaron. I would catch a glimpse of him from time to time, and I would dig, but my digs weren't very impressive. Just didn't have it all together. Travis rounded out the top 3 just a few minutes behind me.

In the end I was glad to be done, and glad I had done it. I was also glad not to have ripped a deruilleur off, and I was glad I was bashing my training Flows vs. my carbon Rovals. The rovals are fast by far, but when it comes to a training race with rocks like that, I stick to the wheels I don't mind beating up. It was a great race, a good workout, not to mention a very generous payday. The BBQ was awesome refuel, and the beer wasn't bad either. Not Weston quality though, which we somehow forgot to pack. The raffle proved to be uneventful for me, as they always do, but they gave away a ton of stuff.

The crew at Big Poppi did a damn fine job putting on their first race, and we'll all be back next year. The only part of the day that wasn't top notch was the scoring, but I'm sure they'll have it ironed out by next year.

If you near Manhatten, give the boys at the shop a call, and they'll give you the skinny on the Dirty Little Secret. If your into fun, fast, and challenging trails, then this one will suite you well.

One more week of hammering it, and then some rest before the big race. Time to dig deep.

G

Make Your Moment

I had a conversation with my father the other day. It's a pretty on par converstation that randomely occurs when talking to people who don't understand why we do what we do. Most people can't possibly comprehend why we would ride bikes like we do.

What suprised me about this convesation with him was the fact that he says he used to be full of adventure too. I remember the fishing trips we would go on as a kid. He always seemed to enjoy that. He was also a bullrider, a boxer, and played football in HS. So it was unusual to me to hear his particular perspective on this conversation.

We were talking about life moments. I expressed that money wasn't as big of a deal to me, because I value the moments in life over the amount of money in my bank account. Sure I enjoy having enough money to do those things that I love, but ultimately I base my life fullness not on my possessions, but the memories that I possess. Sure, I bought a crazy expensive bike, but it was a means to a way. I could do probably as well on a less expensive bike, but I also recieved such a great deal on the bike that in the end I'll at least break even. But back to the means to a way, it's a way to help me possess the memories that I'm after. My sought after memories are different than your's, but that doesn't matter as long as you're depositing memories that mean something to you into your memory bank.

He said as he's grown older, that memories don't mean anything anymore. The past is dead and none of it matters. As he's aged, the things that matter to him the most are what lies ahead. It seemed to me that what he meant by that was having a house that's paid off, a retirement account, and a secure future.

I can't blame him I guess. To each their own. Maybe I'm wrong in my thinking that the only thing that matters to me are the places, people, and experiences that I have encountered and still seek to encounter. Life outside the confines of an office have always been what drive my life's ambitions. The office isn't what fuels my soul. Money isn't the root of my happiness. I don't care as much about what the future holds, because the future may very well not extend past tommorow. I've had moments in my life where if luck had not been on my side, I could very well not be here.

Most people seem to share his thinking. They focus on all the wrong things too much. Sure, there's still a place in making sure that your future will be stable, but making your whole life about just securing a secure future doesn't make sense to me. What's a secure future mean if you had to waste you life getting it?

Money won't go with you. Possessions won't follow you. Memories will always remain. I'll remain on my path of memory collection, and continue not to sweat the details of life. Work will always be there. The future can always wait.

Today is primed for memory making.

Hope you make some sweet memories this weekend.

Bikes are a great way to do so...

Clif Bar brought this post up... Check out their Make Memoments website. Pretty cool.

G

This Weekends Races and Syllamo Reports

Looks like there's going to be plenty of opportunities to race this weekend. Granted this crazy weather holds up.

There's a XC race in Manhatten, part of the UFD West Series.

Want to go a little longer? Try the Indian Creek 3/6 Hour race out East, part of UFD East.

Doesn't look like I'll be doing either one, against my will of course. Sometimes other shit just gets in the way.

Next big race looks to be the Bump and Grind down in Alabama. I've heard good things about this race, and it should be plenty of fun to warrent the 20 hour roundtrip drive.

Sweet vid of the course.

Check out the Ethos blog. Some pretty good Syllamo report reads from our boys Dave Wilson, SSP, and JessieGFunk. Looks like they had quite the time down south last weekend. Also a big shout out to our gal Sara Worthington for taking a hard fought 3rd in the Womens division. Apparently she lost 2nd by a second due to a soft tire.

I found this old race report from the last time I did Syllamo. I was a different cat back then. I think it's time for a little ramatch. Can you say Syllamo 2012?

That's all for now, good luck to all you punks who get to race dirt this weekend.

G

Battle At Rhetts

Not often do I feel like racing in the mud. Something about trashing the bike, and trashing the trails doesn't sit well with me. But... there are those times when I make exceptions, and yesterday was one of those days. I had a SS I didn't mind trashing, and the trails at Rhett's are used to wet abuse.

I built up the Stumpjumper 29er I've had sitting in my living room for the last few months late Saturday afternoon. After a quick stop in to the bike store, I had everything I needed. Well, as it always goes with doing shit last minute, I ran into minor problems. Mostly the tensioner I was going to use to run it SS was broke, but luck would strike in the form of a 32x18 magic gear. Basically that means that that specific gear was perfect to run without a tensioner, and the chain was nice and taught. The new Hive BB went on nicely, and the crank fit like a charm (which wasn't the case when I original went to build it.) That's part of the reason it's been sitting for the last few months. You might remember a picture I took back after one of our Arkansas trips, when I snapped the rear triangle of the original Stumpy.
The New Ride!

So off to Rhetts Sunday morning with Travis, misting and looking like rain the whole way. We show up and do a pre-lap, joined by Justin Farmer, and I immediately think it's going to suck. It was slick, muddy, and the I wasn't feeling worth a shit after two hard days of back to back training Friday and Saturday. Luckily, towards the end of the lap the legs loosend up a bit, and I started getting my mud skillz back.

We lined up with a few of the Lou crew, Aaron Elwell, Dan Miller, and a handful of other experts. 5,4,3,2,1, we're off and Travis takes off to lead just like he so loudly announced he would before we started. The beginning was hectic for me. I couldn't get going, and found myself 6th wheel or so.

The first half of the lap everyone stayed together. Then it all came unglued up the "FU" hill we'll call it. It was basically a quarter mile hike a bike. Well, at least for me it was. Some guys were able to make it up the first part with gears, but this steep and muddy hill was very unpassable on the SS. So you basically ran up this steep face, on a flat for 20 yards, tight uphill switchback, another 20 yard flat, another tight uphill switchback, one more quick flat and then up the last tight uphill switchback hill. It sucked. I ran/walked it everytime.

After that hill I was 4th sitting behind Travis, with Aaron and Dan about 20 seconds in front of us. Coming though the start/finish I pinned it a bit to try to catch them, and Travis decided not to chase. I spent that lap pretty much solo in between Trav and just a bit off of Dan.


Coming into lap 3, I was only a bit behind Dan, and in somewhere in that lap, I caught on to his wheel. He endoed something pretty amazing coming into the FU hill, which put me in the lead.

Coming into lap 4 I had Dan right on my wheel, and figured it was time to strategize a bit. There was a rocky uphill, followed by a quick downhill, and another rocky uphill not long after the soupy powerline section. I had held Dan off through that said soupy powerline section, and figured that hill would be where I would make my attack. It was one of those hills I made only half the time, because if you didn't play it just right, you would slid on the big rock and have to run it. Well, I played my card perfectly, and made it up as clean as ever and followed it up with a quick ascent of the following hill only to look back and see Dan right on my heels. That didn't work so well.

I figured at that point it would come to a sprint finish only as long as I could hold him off till the FU hill and lead coming into it. I hate to block, but it's a race, he had gears and I didn't, so block would be what I was after. Well on another big hill, I lost traction, and he slipped by. He gapped, and I had to put in another dig to catch back up. Catch back up I did, and I was riding his wheel right up to the FU hill. This is were he made the play of the day. All be damned if he didn't clean the first section like he was completly fresh. I surrendered defeat. There was no catching him at that point. He had 30 seconds in that short period and I had to walk the whole damn hill. That was the 4th time up it, and I was all but done with it at that point.


Cruise control to the end, and a 3rd overall. I was happy with it. Travis came in a minute behind me, I was 30 seconds or so off of Dan, and exactly 3 minutes off Aaron. He pretty much checked out for the day and showed us how it was done.

To bad I was the only 19-29 expert. That's twice now. Unfortnately my main competition for the year in my age group, (if I can even be called competition), is Shottler, and he was out with a broken wrists. He was however out there bouncing all over the course cheering and heckling us on. He was also the one who took those sweet pics.

Aaron made a mention over on his blog about doing the payout for the overall. I'm all for it. They did it in Nebraska, and it seems to work out fine. Pay out the top 5 overall. You can still use the age groups for points, and USAC classification, but lump the payout in the overall. I think that would draw more racers to the races from all over. The top guys from the region would travel if they knew they could make a little dough to cover the cost. When you can only make 60 bucks max, traveling 2-4 hours to race doesn't seem as appealing. Now I know there's plenty of you that race just for fun, and that's all gravy. I'm no different. But if I'm going to travel, which we do often and sometimes very far, I'd like to know the incentive is there to make my travel expenses back at least.

Just a thought.

No racing for me this weekend. I don't think. Wedding to attend. More training. Go. Go. GO.

G

Hello Again Cross Eyes

Inside everyone lies a deep dark cave that most never venture to explore. Inside this dark place awaites a creature that most never get to meet. Some call it the pain cave, or the hurt locker. I call it my happy place. Inside my cave lies Cross Eyes. When I venture deep enough into my cave I meet Cross Eyes, and at that moment I know I've reached my destination.

Intervals always get me to that deep dark happy place. The feeling of finishing a set and barely being able to see straight always brings me a feeling of accomplishment afterwards. It's also in this dark place that you become familiar with the feeling of being on the edge of making it, and breaking it. Flirting with this edge will teach you just how deep and far you can push the body before it truely crumbles into submission. This place is almost always farther than you'd expect. I like to flirt with that line because when we race, that moment almost always rears it's head. It's being able to understand how to deal with that moment, and to keep pushing on that allows you to keep pounding pedals, and not stopping by the side of the trail hunched over feeling like death.

Last night the intervals went something like this...

Warm up for 15 minutes.

13 minutes of 15 seconds on, 15 seconds off

3-4 minutes recovery

7 60 second intervals with 30 seconds rest between

3-4 minutes recovery

12 minutes of 15 scconds on, 15 seconds off

These interval mimic mountain biking to a good degree. There's alot of stop and go with mountain biking, because most courses are far from straight. Corner, explode, corner, explode. That's the 15 seconds on, 15 seconds off. The one minute intervals are almost like hill repeats. Most hills don't last longer than a minute around here, and you're lucky to get a 30 second break before hitting it hard again.

Find your deep dark cave sometime. Push just a little harder than you think your capable of. You'll find you'll be able to go harder than you expected. And when you bust, take a break, and then hit it hard again. Then next time your out hammering it and that feeling starts to take over, you'll know exactly what to do...


Rhett's is ran or shine this weekend. Come have some fun...

G

Robidoux Roundup Recap

If you climbed a set of stairs in your home 360 times, that would roughly be how much climbing we encountered at Krug last weekend. And if you happend to miss that fun, well my appologies in advance for you missing out on the complete awesomeness that was the Robidoux Roundup.

A stroke of luck hit St. Joe in the form of no rain Sunday morning. That stroke of luck missed KC, as I remember waking up to pounding rain in the wee hours of the morning. Luckily for us, the trails remained bone dry and ready to roll.

My race went well. Something like this...

Line up with 14 total experts. We had a nice little paved climbed to start, and I figured I'd punch it from the start to see if I could string everyone out. Look back and everyone is still bunched up not doing anything. So I let off the power and regrouped, only to come bombing down the grassy noll and hit some major air coming into the single track right where I wanted to be, behind Aaron. Trav slotted in right behind me, so overall we had a pretty good postition.

I rode Aaron's wheel, which had me about as pinned as I wanted to be, and just past the cedar section, he took a wide line and had to dismount, leaving me to the front. Pinned it from there, looking to gap him, he rejoins, and I make some comment on how I'm pretty sure I shouldn't be leading him.

Somewhere near the end of the lap I look back and he's not to be found, so I pinned it again down the last downhill and up the big grass finish hill. I was the only 19-29 Expert so I wasn't racing for the winnings, but there was a $50 gift card to Bike Source for the fastest lap. I was all over that...


I had about a 20 second gap after lap one. Lap 2 came together nicely and I was able to ride my own pace which happend to feel really good. I was covering the hills quickly, and pushing through the corners knowing Aarons tires weren't treating him the best. Lap two actually ended up being the fastest lap of the day.


Lap 3 was uneventful. I was still thinking Aaron was behind me, and every once in a while during lap two I would catch a glimpse of Travis also. I did make another rookie mistake and totally forgot to grab my second bottle for the last lap. So I ended up only having one bottle to drink during the entire race. I came in after lap 3 at 1:46 for the overall win.


Trav came in about 3 minutes behind me, and Justin Farmer took 3rd overall about 3 minutes back from Trav. All in all it was a great race. What made me feel even better was having a good race after training hard the day before. I'm doing things different this year, and training through all of the local races, and tapering for a select few like Subaru Cup and Nationals. This way I can still get my training in without wasting training time always trying to be fresh for every race.

Big thanks to the teamates up in St. Joe for pulling the big weight to get this race put on. Also got to give thanks to everyone else who went up and helped prep the course, set up, and tear down. I think Ethos put on a pretty sweet race. You can expect even bigger and better next time.

It's looking good for a trip to Tennessee this weekend. My man Steve is game. Travis got swamped at work. There's a US East Cup race, and from the description, it should be interesting. Three 11 mile laps. Six miles to the top, a couple flat, 3 or so down, and one on the road to the finish. Should be great training for the Nationals in which I'm sure they'll have us climb and then decend.

If not TN, then maybe Como. They have a race going on down there this weekend. You should go.

G