Lumberjack Results

The official results have been posted for the Lumberjack 100. http://www.lumberjack100.com/results/lumberjack_results_2007.pdf

This year I finished almost half an hour faster than last year but dropped from 32nd to 56th overall among men. But this year there were 129 finishers where last year there were only 59. And we had more starting this year as well, 177 vs 135.

It was interesting to compare my lap times to others in my class. After 1 lap I was behind 1st by 4 minutes and up on 2nd by 6. After the second lap I was down by 5 and up by 9. Then things started going south as the third lap showed me down by 9 and only up by 6. In the end I was behind 1st place by 15 minutes and behind 2nd by 1 minutes and 40 seconds. Fourth place was only a minute behind me and 5th another minute and a half after that.

I did learn a few things about myself and my abilities. I was hanging with some of the faster racers early on but didn't have the endurance needed to keep up the pace. I have a few areas to work on for future races and also know some of my opponents weaknesses. Hopefully I can put all this to good use yet this year.

Depending on how they are doing the results for the series I may have moved into 1st by a slim margin since the current 1st place holder never actually raced even though he signed up. if not first, I definitely have a lock on second in the series.

Lumberjack Report

Well, I broke my streak of four consecutive 2nd place finishes but not on a good way. The short story is that I ended up 3rd. The long story is that I was in second for about 96 out of the 100 miles but faded on the last two laps allowing the competition to close the gap and catch me.

It was no body's fault but my own, I simply went out too hard on the first lap and built up about a 10 minute lead. I wanted to try something different this race, instead of trying to close a gap I want to create one. I felt pretty good going into the race so I got ahead on the first climb of the day and extended my lead.

I was surprised though when I came around at the end of the first lap and my crew told me someone was ahead of me by three minutes. I figured it was the first place guy in the national series. My second lap still felt pretty good but I could sense the power fading.

On the third and fourth laps I felt like I was starting to go backwards and got that awful feeling that people were starting to catch me. I still had a pretty good lead over second starting the final lap but I was having problems on the climbs. My heart rate was way down from previous laps.

Sure enough, with about 4 miles and some of the biggest climbs to go I saw 3rd and 4th place catching me. They soon passed me and I struggled to pass the 4th place guy and catch up to the 3rd place, or now 2nd place guy. He is the person who has traditionally beat me in these races and I didn't want to let him get away.

I managed to stay on his wheel and eventually passed him back, thinking I had opened back a small gap but he was right behind me. I was faster in the tight sections and downhills but he managed to pass me back on the last major climb of the day, probably the worst hill of the trail. I couldn't catch back up and ended up rolling under the finish banner 1:30 back. My finishing time was bout nine hours and 15 minutes. I was so disappointed in my result after all that effort, I know my pit crew was really pulling for me.

Speaking of pit crew, I had to have had the best crew out there, Shari had everything organized and ready and I felt like I was in a race car pit stop. Tracy was there to help as well as they got me into a fresh Camelbak, changed my bottles and Hammer products and got me back out in probably less than 3 minutes each time, maybe faster unless I asked for something. I owe them a great big thank you and am sorry I couldn't have hung in there for 2nd place.

The overall series has to be extremely close, depending on how they are doing the series calculation. The current leader was not the winner at Lumberjack but finished below 5th so I don't know what the actual standing look like now. I may have moved into 1st but it is an unknown.

The next race is in August near State College, PA. Unfortunately the person who always beats me has raced there quite a bit and won several times so he has that advantage. I will have to come up with a different strategy next time.

A big congratulation to Robin for completing his first 100, and on his SS. This was a tough course with no rest like the other 100's since this one was 100% singletrack. You were always pedaling and a lot of it was bumpy.

For the record Chris Eatough won the race for the second year in a row setting a new course record of six hours and 49 minutes. Our local racer Mike Simonson was 12 minutes back. The course was run in the reverse direction from last year and it seemed faster. Most riders reported faster times this year. It helped that the temperatures were about ten degrees cooler as well.

The 29'er was fantastic on this course with all the sand and loamy soil. I was blasting by people on the downhills and right with them in the twisty stuff. I am glad that I added a suspension seatpost due the bumps on the course.

Ready to go

The van is loaded and I'm heading over to pick up Robin and Shari for our trek up north to the next stop in the National Ultra Endurance Mountain Bike Series. This time the race is in the Manistee National Forest on a 25 mile course that will take four laps to complete the 100 mile distance.

The course may not have as much elevation gain as the other races in the series but then there is no rest either since you almost always pedalling. Last year's race had an extremely high attrition race as 162 racers started and only 62 finished. The temperature was really hot last year but it is only supposed to be in the 80's this year.

Both of the other two guys that are close in the standings will be there so I will have to have the A game going to keep in the hunt for a top three placing. But with Shari in the pit handling things at least that part should be a breeze. We were supposed to share a pit with the legendary Tinker Juarez but he had to cancel at the last minute. Maybe next year.

Weekly update 6/10/07

At the Stony trail head

Seems like I only get around to posting about once a week now. Not a lot going on during the week that is different and worth reading. Just a lot of riding or working on bikes or even a day or two of real work every once in a while.

This weekend was more of the same but with some longer rides but not too much intensity. I'm trying to still recover but get ready for the Lumberjack 100 next weekend. Last year I over did it the weekend before the race and paid the price of not being at my best. I feel a lot better now and still did some hard efforts.

After riding early on Saturday, I met some of the team later in the day at a graduation party for another team member's graduation from high school. I seems hard to remember that far back, it was 32 years ago.

Today Robin and Shari came over so we could do a back road ride and also take in a partial lap at Stony Creek before heading over to Bloomer to watch part of the XC race going on in case any of our team members were there. Where yesterdays' ride was chilly enough to have me in knee and arm warmers, today's ride started a little later in the day and the weather was perfect.

Early on in the ride we came up a hill by the state recreation area and there was a female turkey herding her brood of chicks across the road. There must have been about 15 little ones all scrambling to get up the embankment into the woods. They couldn't have been much more than a week old, if that.

We met team members Joel and his son TJ at the entrance to Stony Creek Metropark and we all rode part of the trail there before heading over to Bloomer. At Stony Shari's bike started squealing pretty good and we discovered her rear brake pads were almost worn down and the vibration was causing the noise. Robins swapped the pads front and rear and all was quiet again.

At Bloomer we got there in time to see our team mate Jeff come through on his first lap in his Sport race. We left and headed back to catch the Paint Creek Trail up to my house. While riding through Rochester we caught a few heats of the Soap Box Derby. I ran across this last year too.

All in all it was a great day for a ride and we will probably plan more of them to come.

Fixing Shari's brakes

The winner of this heat by .004 seconds was the white car on the right

Mohican 100 - A Bridesmaid Again

John Majors, winner of the master's class and me, 2nd place
(Photo from Jeff Kerkove)

Our travelling crew (Shari, Shirlee, Robin and myself) left early Friday afternoon for the four hour drive to the Mohican 100 race near Loudonville, Ohio. Last year Jason was home and the two of us did the race. That race was very muddy at the start due to week long rain prior to the race and we hoped this year would be drier.

The weather forecast was calling for occasional showers and we ran into some rain on the way down. Arriving at the race venue we could tell it had rained at some point during the day. After registering and checking into our dorm room we headed out for a short ride. The heat and humidity was enough of a reason to take it slow plus we had the race the next day. After riding some of the great paved back roads around the Mohican Forest area we rode the last mile of the trail to the finish, a new route that wound it's way though the forest to the finish. It was still wet and muddy in some spots under the trees causing me to make a tire change that night to accommodate wet conditions.

We had dinner at a nice restaurant in town, it seemed slightly out of character with the rest of the local establishments. Back at our rooms we were glad to find that the staff had provided a fan for our room. The race start and finish was at Camp Nuhop, a typical camp that had dorm rooms, cabins and big area for camping. Everything was right there in one spot. It was the perfect setting to host a race.

Race morning we did a mass start that was supposed to be a neutral roll-out for the first few miles until we reached a designated spot on the road. About 200 riders took off and out the reverse of the finish route. Riding the route yesterday we had taken note of a particular ditch that could cause problems if you were not aware. Sure enough, as I was going through it my front wheel turned sideways and flipped me over the bars. I got up and my left thumb was hurting to the point where I could hardly hold onto the bar and shifting was difficult. Great, only a mile in to the race and I was in trouble.

The first part of the race had a lot more singletrack than last year, probably about 30 miles of the first 35 miles of the course. Fortunately the trail was pretty dry but it was a lot of work in the high humidity and increasing temperatures. I managed to crash three more times in the first three hours. One was at a pretty good speed when the front wheel slipped off into the edge of the bench cut trail and I slid out. Sort of reminded me of when I was road racing. I was glad when we finally turned onto some back roads.

I could see that my pace was still ahead of last year's but I didn't feel particularly strong, especially when climbing. I'm not sure what is going on with my legs this year but hopefully they will recover in time for the Lumberjack 100 in two weeks.

The next seven hours was spent on a mixture of back roads, farm trails and secret singletrack that is not open to bikers at any other time of the year. There were also a few hike a bike sections where everyone was off there bike pushing, because it was either too steep, muddy or technical to ride. One section had us going along an old two tack trail only to come to a stream with a washed out concrete bridge abutment on the other side with no other trail across. So we had to cross the stream, throw the bikes up on to the top of the bank and then hoist ourselves up. I felt sorry for the shorter riders.

Later in the race with about 7 miles to go we had to go down a trail that ran along the river. The trail was full of big rocks, roots and drop offs that would have been almost impossible to ride at any time, let alone after racing for 93 miles. Then, after navigating that section you had another 3/4 mile section that was super muddy, the only way was to ride right through it.

Just when you though you were safe the trail exited you out to the bottom of the dam where you had to climb (walk) up the back side. Of course at the top you got back on the road with an uphill climb to take you back to the last mile trail section to the finish. At least I didn't crash in the ditch this time.

I ended up in second in my class, just like last year. And the same guy who beat me last year and won the national series beat me again. But this time instead of beating me by 42 minutes I think it was under 5. That makes four of the national 100 milers I've done and four second place finishes.

Robin raced again on his single speed but opted to do the 100k loop instead of the 100 mile after determining that he may not make the 100 mile cutoff time. I used every one of my 27 gears, I don't know if I could have done it single speed. And Shirlee finished as usual, with the regular grin on her face as she crossed the line. Several other riders from Michigan made the trip down to race, including Danielle who finished 2nd in the women's field and Mike Simonson who finished 4th overall.

I have to thank our support person, Shari Scurr for being there at the aid stations to look after our need and cheer us on. At some point almost everyone racing thinks about quitting a race, for one reason or another. Shari provided just the motivation we needed to keep going.

Approaching the bottom of the dam

Time to start walking

Getting closer

Almost there

Coming up the last paved climb

At the finish

Danielle and I, looking a little muddy and me with some of it in my eyes

My left thumb, about twice the size of my right

If I could stay on the trail these things wouldn't happen

Memorial Day Thoughts

Yesterday I waited until AFTER the rain to ride, unlike the day before. I rode the SS again and got in almost three hours. It was strange that my legs didn't feel particularly strong but I could see by the bike computer that I was travelling about 2 mph faster than normal for the same route and heart range.

Today was a light ride and I felt just the opposite of yesterday. Even at an easy pace the legs felt heavy and slow. I think a lot of it has to do with my diet of the last 18 hours. We cooked up some traditional holiday fare which was OK but we also had ice cream in the house. This a weakness of mine so I try to avoid it by not buying any.

Between yesterday and today the simple sugars in the ice cream were causing me problems and lack of energy. Not that I eat a 100% healthy or organic diet but I have pretty much eliminated most sugars. I think my body was having a hard time processing what I was putting in it. It really made me see the connection between diet and performance. At least I've got a little time to get it out of my body before the next race.

While riding through my neighborhood this afternoon I noticed that very few houses had the US flag displayed. There might have been one for every 30-40 houses. Growing up everyone had flags flying on the holidays. It is a shame that most people seem to view today as just another day off work.

Timing is everything

They say timing is everything, today then I had nothing. I had planned for a long ride today but last night they were calling for rain. When I woke up I went to the weather site, hoping for good news and to see if there was and update. Almost as soon as the site came up the rain started to fall.

I delayed my ride for a few hours hoping it would stop. I planned on riding the pavement on the SS rather than trash a drivetrain on a geared bike so I dropped a tooth on the back to 42x16. Once the rain let up I put on my rain gear and headed out the door.

About 15 minutes into my ride it started to rain harder and soon my rain gear was functioning more like a wetsuit. I was wet underneath but it was stopping the wind so my body was keeping the wet clothing warm. After another 30 minutes the rain seemed to stop but it was the proverbial calm before the storm.

It soon started raining so hard that I could barely see. Fortunately at this point I was riding laps around the Chrysler complex where I work so there wasn't much traffic. I wasn't too concerned until I heard the thunder. I don't think bicycle tires will protect me too much from a lightning strike.

I considered pulling into a parking garage and calling my wife to pick me up but since I wasn't hearing any more thunder, I decided to keep riding. When I got home I found out my wife had tried calling ME to see if I wanted a ride. I couldn't hear my cell phone though. Usually my wife jokes about not coming to get me if I am stupid enough to be out riding in bad weather so the storm must have been worse than I thought if she made the call.

When I got home I took off most of my garments in the garage and formed big puddles when I rung out my gloves and socks. And of course the rain had about stopped by then and here it is six hours later and it still hasn't rained again. Timing is everything.

Feeling stronger

After doing a preride of Addison Oaks with a couple of my team mates and feeling a little fatigued in the legs I was beginning to wonder if my legs were ever going to recover from racing the past few weeks. It has been a long time since I really felt good on the bike, way before the Cohutta 100.

Since I wasn't racing on Saturday I planned on doing a long ride instead and catch some of the race. Once I got out of my subdivision and onto the dirt roads I felt completely different from the day before. My legs had the snap in them that had been missing and my HR was where it should be as well, quickly moving up and down depending on the effort.

I did a lap of Addison before the race started and then went to the start area to cheer on those I knew, especially my team mate Shari Scurr. Watching everyone take off at the start made me wish I was racing, especially since I was feeling so good. I had to keep telling myself to remember the races coming up. No sense racing only to have to try and recover for an even bigger effort in two weeks.

After waiting for Shari to complete her first lap I rode over to Stony Creek and did a lap there before riding back to Addison for a race update. Joel was there with a mini camera, we had arranged to video a lap of the course. Robin got ready and was the "rabbit" while I rode behind him with the camera on my bike. Robin set a pretty good pace and we were soon passing some of the racers. Of course we were careful to not interfere with their racing.

The video was a little jumpy but looked pretty good from what I saw. Hopefully it will be able to be put up on the web site. We are experimenting with the best way to mount the camera and may have two cameras, one on the bike looking at the lead rider and another on the lead rider pointing back. We are going to try and video a lot of the trails in the area once we figure out the best way to do it.

I don't know the official results of the race but I understand that Shari finished 2nd, and was able to finish a little early after riding for 11.5 hours since the third place women would not be able to catch her. Amazing considering Shari had knee surgery not too long ago. My friend Chris W got his first win in the 12 hour SS class. Congratulations, I understand a tattoo is in the works?

Change in race plans

I decided the other day to not race the Addison Oaks 6/12 hour race. Since the Mohican 100 is only two weeks after Addison and the Lumberjack 100 two weeks after that, it would not be wise to attempt to do all three races in a 4 week period. It takes me longer to recover from hard efforts as I get older and I want to do well in the national series so it is better to prepare for those.

I would really like to race at Addison since it is my home course, only 15 minutes away and I ride there quite often. It would be nice to race where I don't have to drive three hours or overnight to get there. I plan on racing the fall XC race there so I will have one nearby race. And the Stony time trial later this summer is also close.

I will ride out and watch part of the race as my team mate Shari will be racing. Good luck to everyone racing there, the weather looks better than last year's mudfest.

Weekly update

Last week was non-exciting during the week, just riding and preparing for the Addison Oaks race this weekend. Same for this week, just not as much riding or as hard.

I rode a few laps at Island Lake on Saturday, a trail I have rarely ridden since it is over on the western side of the city and I rarely venture to that side because I have so many great areas to ride out my front door. The trail is relatively flat and has a nice flow to it but it is all big ring, and mostly flat. The trail attracts a lot of riders due to it's location and the fact that is a good place to learn to mountain bike.

The main reason I was at Island Lake was that there was a bike demo day at the park. Many of the dealers in the metro area had demo bikes available and our team was there to support the Cannondale brand. Cannondale was unable to get one of their factory trucks with demo bikes available so we helped one of the local Cannondale bike shops. We also got to hang out with our Cannondale area sales rep, it's always a plus to see and talk to him.

After church on Sunday ( a rarity for me) the family went to brunch to enjoy Mother's day. in spite of eating too much I went out for a four hour ride later in the afternoon. I did a lap at Addison Oaks so I could compare lap times with the Scalpel I was on vs. laps I had done earlier in the week on the 29'er. I felt a lot faster on the Scalpel but the lap time was only marginally faster and it was a lot drier on Sunday. Maybe I was more efficient on the 29'er so it didn't feel as fast.

I rode over to Stony to do a lap there as well. They had done a reroute on one section of the trail that had become badly eroded. The managed to increase the trail length slightly but I didn't care for the new section. It doesn't have the same flow to it that the rest of that section has and the trail construction makes me wonder how long it will hold up. Much of the trail is built on an off-camber including some of the corners. I think it will start to break down after a while and have to be redone.

It looks like we should have a dry Addison Oaks race. Last year's race turned into a mud bath that also ruined the trail. Many hours were spent to get the trail back in shape. We have added some new trail so that the course will be a little longer this year and have more climbing. I'm only doing the 6 hour race, not the whole 12 hour race. I don't want to completely ruin my legs two weeks before the Mohican 100 miler.

Ft. Custer in the books

Photo from our team web site


Today was a day of a few firsts; the first xc race of the year, the first race in Michigan this year and my first race as Expert. I was not sure what to expect other than it would hurt, especially after racing in Tennessee the past two weekends. I haven't done much high intensity training so I planned on using this race more for training; I figured the pain would be over with a lot sooner than the previous weeks so at least I could look forward to that.

They created a new class in the Expert category for us old guys, 50+. Many racers were dropping out or moving back to Sport rather than race the old 40+ Expert class. It would be nice to have a few more move up as the Sport class was pretty big today and some of those guys could have raced with us instead.

When the gun went off our class seemed to move out pretty slow, certainly slower than the Sport class last year. It didn't take too long for the pace to pick up though and starting in 5th I slowly worked my way up to 3rd until we passed the first place guy who had gone out hard and then started to fade.

I stayed on the new 1st place guy's wheel pretty much for the first two laps when he started to open a gap and pull away. I could see him sometimes but my legs were starting to protest whenever the trail turned uphill. I guess the previous two weeks were starting to catch up to me.

I eventually lost sight of him about half way through the third and final lap so I put it in cruise mode just trying to make it to the finish and not give up 2nd place. I ended up holding on to 2nd , about a minute and a half back but almost cruised too much as third was only 24 seconds behind me. Overall I am happy with my first Expert race and think the results might have been different with a fresher set of legs. I can't say enough good things about the Cannondale F29 that I used today. The bike handled great and the larger wheels rolled over the log piles with no problems and tracked straight through all the sand.

Ft. Custer is probably one of the most fun trails to ride or race on in the lower part of Michigan. The weather was perfect and the race turnout was huge.

Next up is the 12 Hours of Addison Oaks on May 18. It will be nice to have a race only 20 minutes away.

Tennessee Dirt Sweat & Gears 12 Hour report or Act Naturally

Well I hope you come and see me in the movies
Then I know that you will plainly see
The biggest fool that ever hit the big time
And all I gotta do is act naturally

Those lyrics to the Beatles song seem appropriate for this past weekend's race in Tennessee and I'll explain why later. I went down with the plan to ride for fun and have a good time with the other team members, six of us in total. I didn't plan on being competitive after racing the 100 miler last weekend.

We arrived at the race site on Friday afternoon to find a lot of pits already set up but we managed a good one across from the Dirt Rag crew and with some of the top pros a few tents away from us on either side. We took an easy prelap, well as easy as you can with 1,200 feet of climbing in10.5 miles. The course is fairly new but was really fun, lots of singletrack, fast downhills and some killer uphills. Also lots of jagged rock in places that would come into play in the race the next day. I'm glad it was dry, the trail would have been difficult in the wet.

Back at the race site they had a vendor area with local merchants, food concessions, and some national sponsor tents . In the evening some of the top pros held a meet and greet and we talked with Tinker and had a team picture taken with him. Tinker is sponsored by Cannondale, our primary team sponsor as well. One of our team members used to race with Tinker on a BMX team a long time ago.

While the pros were signing autographs Robin and I started talking to someone who does reports for a Tennessee public TV program, Tennessee's Wild Side. We explained a little about the sport and what would happen in the race and then he asked if we would mind being interviewed for their show. Robin and I each had a chance to talk while the camera was rolling. They wanted to get some on course video footage but by this time the light was fading so I volunteered to start the race with the camera on the bike.

The next morning we took some footage with the camera pointed in different positions prior to the start. The start itself was a running start, you had to run to where the bike was and then take off. When the gun went off I was in about the top 1/3 to the bike but had to wait for the camera man to help me with the recorder waist pack and make sure the tape was rolling. I ended up dead last out of the start area.

I put it into XC race mode and hustled to try and catch up so that other riders would be in the footage and not just an empty trail. I started passing people as well as my HR reached it highest point it has been all year, not exactly the usual endurance pace I have been running. I was wired for sound and they promised to edit anything I said that might not be acceptable on the air. I think I was polite, besides it's hard to say much when you are huffing and puffing besides "on your right", or "when you get a chance".

I stopped shortly before the end of the lap to give back the camera and recorder. I saw the camera man in the wood later shooting additional footage. The show is supposed to air in a few months and they will send a DVD of it to us.

I was pretty well cooked after the first lap and decided to call it a day after only 3.5 hours. I have a whole season ahead of me and didn't want to push to the point of physical exhaustion for this particular race.

The race took its toll on a lot of racers and bikes with flats being the number one problem. Even Tinker had two flats on the first lap but still managed a third place in the pro division.

I can't say enough about the race venue and hospitality of the people in the area. The town really supported the race; the mayor was selling clothing items including the shirt showing at the top of the page. She was delighted to have everyone in town.

I think this may have been the first race where I left weighing more than when I arrived. The race entry fee got us dinner Friday night, pancake breakfast race morning (I didn't partake) and dinner after the race. We had a chance to sample a lot of southern cuisine since the post race dinner was excellent pulled pork and we bought a Cajun sampler for lunch which contained red beans and rice, crawfish etouffee, and jambalaya. Later in the afternoon we sampled homemade fried pies.

The awards after saw our team member Shirlee Finch get second place for solo amateur women. The amount of prize drawings they had was amazing including 7 bikes and frames, a Fox fork and a complete SRAM gruppo. None of us won anything big but scored some smaller items that were tossed to the crowd.

We had a good time and I would recommend the race to anyone for next year. We are talking about doing it again and maybe extending our time to take in some of the other trails in the TN/GA area.

Check out some other pictures and video of the pit area. http://www.jeffkerkove.net/2007/04/dirt-sweat-and-gears-12-hour-brief.html

Next up on the race calendar is Fort Custer XC on May 6th.

Tinker with some of the team

Listening to the band


The had trial demos during the day


This helicopter showed off landing a few times

Interesting sculpture at the entrance to the trail

Tinker getting ready to start another lap

Tennessee bound again

I have just about finished getting everything packed again for another trip to Tennessee this weekend. it seems like I just got unpacked. This time it is a 12 hour race which means doing laps. That also means a support crew and the ability to stop each time around. I may be doing a lot of stopping this race.

My legs felt OK after the race last weekend and riding on Monday. Yesterday they felt pretty dead and I didn't ride today and won't tomorrow either since I am leaving after work. My plan is to just take it easy and have fun. The have a lot of give aways at this race so maybe some of us will come home with some.

Hopefully the rain won't come in but they are calling for some on the day of the race. Since thins race doesn't mean much I don't plan on riding in mud. No sense messing up my bike and replacing parts so early in the year.

Cohutta 100

Just got back from the trip to Tennessee for the Cohutta 100. I managed to finish 2nd in the Master's class. The race had a lot of climbing and some sweet singletrack at the beginning and the end. I wish I wasn't so tired for the last section, it would have been a lot more fun.

The fireroad climbs seemed to go on forever but you were rewarded with some super fast decents. The scary parts weren't so much from the downhills themselves but that the roads were open to traffic and there seemed to be quite a few cars and trucks on them. You had to be careful rounding corners when you couldn't see what was coming. The best lines were usually on the inside of the corners where they were banked.

The race started and ended at the Ocoee White Water Center, site of the 1996 Olympic whitewater competition. There are over 30 miles of marked singletrack trails plus the options of hundreds of miles of fire roads to connect other trails. We all agreed that we would like to come back and ride the trails for fun. Make a week out of it and do some whitewater rafting as well.

My travelling companions were Shari and Robin Scurr and Shirlee Finch, all Cannondale Midwest team members. We had a great time travelling together and were certainly never bored. Robin and Shirlee both raced as well, Robin did almost half the course on his singlespeed before dropping out, the gearing on his bike was a little tough for the amount of climbing required. I don't think I would have gotten that far on a SS, hats off to anyone using only one gear. Shirlee finished with the usual smile on her face. I don't know if anything fazes her.

Next week the four of us plus two more team members head back to Tennessee south of Nashville for a 12 hour race. I'm just doing this one for fun, no serious competition hopes on the line.

On to Tennessee

Tomorrow I leave for Tennessee along with three of my team mates to compete in the Cohutta 100. This will be my first race of the year but many of the competition have been already racing. I haven't had a lot of training time lately so I'm not sure what to expect.

Next weekend several of us will be back down in Tennessee for a 12 hour race. What a way to start the season. Usually the first race of the year is a time trial that is under an hour long.

The weather will be good and the company a lot of fun. So no matter what happens in the race the trip will still be a good time.

Wedding Part 2

Yesterday I posted some pictures, here are some of the details. The wedding was in Spokane, Washington at Mount St. Michaels, the church/school where Jason taught a few years ago. The facility was originally a Jesuit center that in addition to teaching, also helped supply Gonzaga University which is in Spokane.

The wedding was small, especially since most of the guests had to come in from all over the country. We were fortunate so many were able to do so and make it special for Emily and Jason. While Sandy and I struggled with our emotions at times during the events of the weekend it was harder a few years ago when we moved Jason to Spokane.

The rehearsal dinner was in a restored mansion that is also a bed and breakfast. The female side of the bridal party had all the rooms reserved so we basically had the whole place to ourselves. The same caterer did both the rehearsal and the reception and the food was excellent.

The reception was at a local winery. It started in the cliff house overlooking the valley before moving to the tasting room. A DJ kept things moving as nearly everyone made it onto the dance floor at some point during the evening.

Jason and Emily are honeymooning in Mexico at a resort called Verana. It looks to be pretty secluded.

We are happy to have Emily come into our family and wish both of them the very best of everything.

The Wedding!

It' official. Jason and Emily were married this past Saturday in Spokane. More to follow later. Additional pictures here http://kinley.smugmug.com/gallery/2722048#144387260

Better

Since we didn't head over to the west side of the state today I was able to get some other things done but rode later in the day. Despite my fears of muddy roads they were in pretty good shape.

My legs felt a lot better, maybe it was all the Easter candy. I could still feel a little muscle soreness in the one quad but it was better than before. I was able to get in a few short sprints and the legs and HR seemed to respond well. I will still need to be careful to not overdo it in the next two weeks.

Happy Easter

There is something wrong when there is more snow at Easter than there is at Christmas. The weather has put a damper on my training. I find it hard to get motivated to ride when the wind chill is 12 degrees.

I rode outside Friday and Saturday but not today. Some of us were planning on riding on the west side of the state on Monday but we cancelled the trip. We could have ridden but it wouldn't have been much fun in 39 degree temps with snow.

The lack of riding time on my recently built 29'er is causing me some concern with the Cohutta 100 only two weeks away. it seems to feel about right but I had hoped to put some longer rides in to make sure I have the bike set up the way I like it. Plus I want to get the spokes and rims some mileage on them in case they need some tweaking. I've heard that a lighter version of the rims I am using require some readjusting after some time on them. Maybe these won't but I want to make sure.

The other thing that is bothering me a little is a deep pull or something in the left quad. I may have strained something a few weeks ago when doing two back to back heavy strength days. So I am trying to take it easy and add extra massage and muscle stimulation along with Hammer Nutrition Tissue Rejuvenator. Hopefully the legs respond in time for the race.

Here are some pictures of the recently built Cannondale Caffeine F29.

The weather matched the way I felt

I pretty much finished building the Cannondale F29 late Friday night. I was trying to get it done in time to go on a longer ride Saturday morning but I could tell as I was working on the bike that I was starting to come down with something. The throat was getting scratchy and eyes started to get that itchy feeling. I was hoping it was just that I was tired.

I got up early the next morning not feeling 100% but decided to meet the group anyway. About a half hour later I headed for home, knowing that it was the prudent thing to do.
The weather was cloudy and spitting rain anyway. I spent most of the day lounging around the house or sleeping.

Today I didn't feel much better and didn't ride either. The sun came out for a while so we took the dogs for a walk.

That is a total of one hour of riding in the last four days. Maybe I needed the rest but now I have some catching up to do. After Tuesday the temperatures are falling again but I have a few days off on either side of Easter and plan on riding regardless.