Monday, November 8, 2010

Iceman 2010

Another Iceman is in the books! Overall a great weekend with plenty of fun both on and off the bike. The drive is about 8 hours from Sheboygan to Traverse City so the plan was to leave Friday morning at 7am. Normally I'm the one heckled about being a little behind schedule when we wanna leave....NOT this year, not even close! Wally Kunstman decided to be 45 minutes behind schedule because his little girl didn't want him to go. It's not like we were in a super hurry to get there but the daylight was going to be lacking when we got there.

Finally at Timber Ridge with daylight falling fast we suited up for a ride of the last 8-9 miles of the course. 33 degrees and a inch of snow on most of the course made for an interesting warmup. I didn't have a problem and surprisingly felt great but the rest of the crew was slipping, sliding and shivering their way around the course. With the legs feeling better than I anticipated and ready to kill it we took care of the last couple items of the day.... eating, registration and a good nights sleep. A last minute ice-cream snack before bed completed the pre-race rituals :)

Saturday morning came early and everything was going smoothly. A short but solid warmup came and went being in the 3rd wave of the day. With the countdown lacking a little enthusiasm compared to the all famous GOOOOOOOOOOOOO from Don Edburg the race was off and I knew instantly it was going to be a great day! Up the right side straight into the front 3 riders in less than 10 seconds. Years of cross racing balls to the wall left me wondering why the pace wasn't at least 5 mph faster and I had all I could do to contain myself from drilling it by myself like the year before. I played my cards perfect and just sat in the top 5 guys through the entire lead out and into the woods. There were a few surges in speed as fresh legs tried to make their way to the front but soon found they couldn't handle their own pace and fell back just as quick as they came. I stayed calm and focused on the 2-3 guys in front of me just following wheels and closing the small gaps that opened when they attacked. The miles ticked by pretty fast.... the first mile marker I saw was 27 to go and the next couple were 22, 18 and 16. The pace was perfect and I only really felt red lined once as I had to close a decent gap around the 17 to go marker. That effort left me a little queasy but a couple deep breaths got the heart rate back down and settled in.

Somewhere around 15 or 14 miles to go I was at the front setting the pace and bobbled over a little icy log pile that forced me off the bike. I quickly ran the hill after the log and did a smooth cross mount to catch back on to the back of the group I was riding with. This effort and the attack that followed put me on the edge again as I yo-yo'd my way to the group. It seemed like the group was just in front of me but the gap never really got smaller or bigger for the next couple miles. By Williamsburg Road I could still see the main group in the not to far distance as I desperately tried to get into a rhythm and close the gap. I looked down at the Garmin and saw I was more than half way there in 51 minutes! This put me on track to finish around 1:45 and crush my best time. By this point my back was starting to get pretty tight and uncomfortable for some reason unknown to me and making it more and more difficult to pedal hard like I had been for the last hour. I was trying not to panic but knew the pain was getting pretty bad fast and crippling my ability to pedal hard or fast. I knew I hadn't gone out to hard and had plenty left in the tank to keep the pace at that level. It was becoming a helpless feeling as I watched what I'm quite confident was my best Iceman and season result taken away from me with nothing I could do about it! I tried to reassure myself the pain wasn't that bad and I should quit being a sally and crush it for the less than 10 miles of racing ahead of me. This thinking only worked for so long and the only relief in pain came when I was out of the saddle. Again this lasted for only so long and soon I was unable to ride up the steep climbs. My pace and heart rate were falling fast and soon I wasn't able to stay with the big groups that were passing me. The damage was done and I was going backwards fast!

The last 5 miles were the worst and found myself diminished to walking almost every hill in a feeling of helplessness. The root of the problem is still unknown but I'm guessing a pinched nerve that I've been battling with this entire season from time to time. I managed to limp my way to the finish and complete the race in a disappointing 2:06. Some how I finished 8th in my age group out of 83 to give myself a little reassurance it was not as bad of a race as it felt. Congrats to Brian Matter for his 3rd Iceman victory in 6 years! His success never ceases to amaze me and helped me to forget about my sub-par race.

No Iceman is complete without an appearance at the Bells MTB Team end of the season party! As usual it was a great time with plenty of stories from the season. Next up is late season training block to keep the fitness up for the last couple cross races. 4-5 weekends left with a couple local races, state championships, Jingle Cross and last but least Cross Nationals in Bend, OR.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Thank You

I just wanted to take this time between races to thank a few of my sponsors.

Powerbar for the amazing fuel to keep my going and help me recover after races. The long hours of training are that much more enjoyable when you don't have to suffer on the bike and suffer to eat something. Powerbar has done a great job of making products that actually taste good and replenish the calories and nutrients you use while training.



Easton for the FAST wheels and fork that take a beating day in and day out during cross season and hold up strong.


Sisu for the great bikes that much like the wheels are abused on regular basis and keep on ticking.
Thank you so much for the stellar products and your support in my cycling endeavors and goals now and in the future!


Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Collegiate Mtb Nationals


Sweet view from the place we stayed.... everything is bigger out west.


I'll do a formal write up soon when I'm finally caught up with hw and life in general.... till then here are a couple sweet pics from collegiate mountain bike nationals in Truckee, CA.

Your Toast hahaha!Finally using my little ring for the first time!

Short Track rocking the downhill ahead of a Fort Lewis rider
Northstar Resort short track
Wisco homies at awards


Awards



Group ride after short track with a couple guys from the conference
Everything is big out west
Four Cross course



Tuesday, October 12, 2010

UCI3 Day 2 and 3

Overall this was a great weekend of racing and a confidence booster for the rest of the season. I got a taste of some good luck and my true abilities form wise. There is a night and day difference in my form from last year and I finally feel like I can be a little bit competitive within the elite class.

Day 2's start was my best without a doubt this year as I managed to file into the top 20 with the hole-shot and maintain it for a solid lap. The course has a little bit of everything including a ton of tight u-turn corners to put the mtb skills to good use again and get a little bit of recovery time. As the race progressed my placings in the race started to fall off a little and I drifted my way back a little bit every lap. I can't say if it was the lack of sleep or just not my day because I managed to find the back portion of the race by the end and finished 40th overall. The good news is I raced a full hour and finished with 1 lap to go in the race for the first time ever on an elite level. The one time I really hope for Trebon and Powers to lap me and relieve me of a my racing duties they don't show up and leave me to suffer like a dog haha. In hind sight I'm glad they didn't catch me until the last lap and gave me a chance to really dig deep for a whole hour.

Day 3 was another ridiculously hot day with temps in the 80's again and a scorching fast dry-dusty course. 2 days in a row I managed to avoid the crashes in the hole-shot and file into a good position some where in the 20's for the first lap. I thought for sure my legs would be toast asking them to race 3 cross races in a row but they decided to show up and surprisingly not control my pace for the day. I was able to push them as hard as I could and leave it all out there for 2 days in a row. Jason Karew was my carrot for the day and gave me a good run for my money as we rode together for the majority of the race. Jason gapped me with 3 to go and I gave up mentally for a little bit until I realized I was giving up to easily and should probably go catch him again. The gap started to come down and he was back within sight a lap later when I bombed a steep downhill section too hard and punctured my from tubular.....game over. I ended up finishing with 1 lap to go and in 35th place in the weekends premier C1 race. The calendar is marked and I'm definitely going to race the UCI3 Cincinnati weekend next year!!!

Next up is Collegiate Mountain Bike Nationals in Truckee, CA this coming weekend.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Cincinnati Cross Day 1

Day 1 is in the books. 28th was the final result which just so happened to be the bib number they gave me for the weekend. It's pretty sweet having your name on your bib number.


This race goes down as one of the bumpiest cross races I have ever done! I would have gladly ridden my full suspension Trek Top Fuel if I could have. Not only was the course bumpy but lacking a flat section for more than a couple hundred feet leaving for an up or down feeling the whole race. Surprisingly my legs weren't wasted from the 3:30am wakeup call and 8 hours in the car but never really felt good enough to really push the pace. Mountain bike skills definitely came into play today and worked to my advantage to make up for the bla legs. Thanks to the new Easton wheels and Tufo tires which got glued less than 48 hours earlier I would say the race went pretty well.

Dinner was quick at a place called the Spagetti Factory and back to the hotel to rest up. 2 hours into recovery mode Brian is fine one minute and the next he is saying he doesn't feel good at all. All SHIT BROKE LOOSE and he was running for the bathroom. A little scare and a trip over to the ER we were back in the hotel room. The doctor still doesn't really know what happened....maybe food poisoning or an allergic reaction. It's too bad I thought I was going to be one spot better in the race today lol jk. Brian seems fine today and should be back on the bike without a hitch.
Hopefully today goes a little better than yesterday and nothing to crazy afterwards.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Welcome Back

It's time to dust off the keys and start blogging again!
Welcome back and what better way to start it off then with a little diddy by Mase.


Lots of entries to follow but for now enjoy the song and check back soon.



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