WORS Suamico

Here's a fun one. What a great day it was. Just enough rain in the prior days to harden up the trails. Then "bam!" race day it was nice and sunny.

I had to pack in a full day of 2x2hr driving, a race, and yukking it up with the boys. All of this while "watching the dogs".. Meaning I left home at 8:30, just in time to squeak into the last parking spot before the hwy (yeah that was me on the corner). I got geared up and registered, low stress pace but "just in time" all the same.

Sans watch, I was hanging out by the start, then heard "hey the singlespeeders are going".. This allowed me to roll up the back all covert style before anyone knows they even have to deal with me.

Having geared up one, it took everyone a bit longer to get away from me on the flat. I hadn't ridden trails for a few weeks, and so my brain needed some time to get used to single track mode. The second half of the course seem to go smoother on single track. Mostly, I focused on staying out of the way, and trying to "give it the beans" the Chequamegon like sections.

I must say, getting passed by the two elite trains is super impressive. They are about the easiest folks to get passed by and call out way ahead. Their speed is unfathomable.

I thought I held off the comp riders, but looking at the results, perhaps a few of them got a lap on me before I finished.

When all was said and done, I busted out a "top 10 finish" in Sport SS. You'll have to look at the results if you want to know how many of us there were. I'm good with this. My numbers are improving.

A quick cup of smoothie at the "Muddy Cup", and I was headed home to let the dogs out. Missed out on post race food, I'll catch you all at Chequamegon.

P.S. Still digging that new Singular Swift 29er hard.

Trust Your Feelings

Come (go?) to the dark side.

Any of you trail riders who are starting to think your biking needs a swim and a run added might take a look here.

Look, I know WORS has their stuff together for a reasonable price. And, it's tough to want to out of state. I'm just sayin' here it is. If you click, you click.

Rollin' Again

I went back and read my prayers from before LFM. Last night, I got my bike and rollers all ready to go. This morning I managed a mere 25 minutes. My knee is still ginger. Clipping my left foot out is quite painful.

On the plus side, this is my first roller ride of the post season. I managed to do a one-handed sweat wipe several times. I've got my forearm lean on the treadmill down already. In a week or so, maybe I will be able to drink while riding. I don't dare put a time on being able to watch TV while riding.

As of today, I don't see CX or WORS shevegas happening this weekend. But as always, my favorite things about these races are the ability to make a game day call. (now that I look CX is next weekend). No excuses.

What a Great Week

Taking right off from the momentum of the WORS race at Suamico, I had a great week. Man, I really felt good after Suamico. I put in some good miles and good hours this week. I think I even managed a perfect LSD bike today, though only 2:40 in duration. I got home hit the rainbox. Then we were all off to the boy's tee ball game.

If everyone is good maybe we will see Wall-E later.

Numbers: ~8 hours, 2500 yards, 81 miles, 10 miles. Unless I squeeze in a long slow run in the morning.

See you out there.

Race Report: WORS The Reforestation Ramble

At the last minute urging from a few more or less local, would be troublemakers gone mountain bikers. I showed up to WORS numero 5 Suamico Reforestation Ramble. "It's a good pre-Chequamegon ride", they said.

So, I threw the results of my daughter's pre-op tests to get her out of surgery at the last minute on Friday (read "threw" as "answered truthfully"). We had to wait out the effects of the pre-op "I care about nothing" juice. Awful fun to watch on a 5 year old. Once we got out of there, I was cleared for Sunday racin'.

I watched the weather all day Saturday with a nervous eye. I had a hunch I was going to get to drive up north just to get to watch a thunderstorm. As fate would have it, I wasn't going to get off so easy.

It was odd shoving off at 8am for a race 2 hours away. I felt like I slept in. An odd feeling for race days. To boot, I had yet to sign up. I didn't spend a week prepping for it. I didn't even spend a week knowing about it. I love that about WORS races.

I arrived a short bit after 10:00 AM and headed for registration. I got the gory details out of the way quick. Before I knew it, I was all stamped and ready for my first Sport SS race.

For the technical details on my bike. I used 2x1 gear ratio and some continental 1.95 width tires. I've got a Surley singulator on a spacer style converted Giant ATX 780 from 10+ years ago with a mag21 on the front. A.K.A. "what I own".

On to the race. I lined up about where I thought I should (read "at the back of sport men"). Early on I passed a few riders at the back. Then we headed into the singletrack section. This is where my experience (one trail ride this year) started to show. I had a blast and just tried to relax and flow with it, but I need more practice. At some point fairly early on, an invisible tree stump grabbed my right pedal and sent me down. My front broke loose at the headset a bit. I tightened it up and carried on. Unfortunately, I didn't get quite as battle scar muddy as I had hoped. Better luck next time.

I hit a few dark spots in the middle. "Why am I here?" But I was listening to the Conrad Stolz interview from SimplyStu on my way up. He talked about keeping your mental picture good and just enough rubbed off. I got in a slow groove and my spirits rose shortly.

On the second lap the elite and comp folks started coming by. Man, they are beyond fast. All were incredibly courteous. I was admittedly a bit nervous about being in they way. In short order, I was pretty good at getting out of the way and getting back going.

Well, long story short, I made it around twice. Nothing speedy, but I got to the line. I had fun and didn't break anything important. I'm slightly more confident that after the RickW prescribed North Ave. hills "until you cramp, then 4 more repeats" I should be ready for this Fat tire 40 thing.

Recovery was good. I felt great the rest of the day and today too. I had a good swim this morning, and a much better run tonight. My knee has stopped bugging me. WORS must be just what I needed! Magic elixir!

Speaking of magic elixir, I hit up the mobile Muddy Cup Cafe post race for some coffee.. After yukking it up with the regulars, the caffeine got me home.

Thanks to TmonT and crew, RickW, Liz, R. Tool man, Bubba, Coop, and those others that were all cool to me but I didn't list here. Special thanks to Gretchen for not running over me when I crashed.

See you out there.

Praying for No Rain

Yep, I'm way behind on my blogging. More on that later.

I've got as much of a green light as a guy is going to get. Please no rain. See you at Suamico! Don't forget the new start times.