Midweek info

Have ridden to work every day this week. Feels good. Took the LHT the first 3 days, loaded down with all of the bags. I notice the weight going up hills but the bike is very comfortable to ride with the bags on. Showed up and rode the Ritual Ride in full kit last night. I got a few odd looks from people, but had no issues completing the loop, even with the couple of hills that were tossed in. It was a good way to see how the bike would feel after a longer ride. I rode the big ring other than when climbing, so my legs were pretty tired after I got home. Not sure what my average speed was since I don't have a bike computer on it either. That will be fixed when the UPS driver shows up with my Garmin 605 sometime tomorrow. 

Took the 53 Schwinn into work today. I wanted to ride something different, and I also wanted to ride it before my short route to work is closed off until sometime this fall. It was definitely a different ride. The seat could stand to be moved back a bit, but other than that the ride wasn't bad. 

Taking the Karate Monkey to work tomorrow with the Bob trailer full of tools in tow. Heading out after work to help with some trail maintenance on the Center Trails. Then headed down to Banner on Saturday morning to help with the final stretch of work there. Here's hoping that the rain stays away long enough for us to be able to work.

IMBCS #2 - Ingawanis' Revenge

(Actual number worn by the author)

IMBCS #2 was today at Camp Ingawanis south of Waverly. The Rasmussen Squad was well represented with at least 8 riders toeing the line at the start of the sport and expert races. I haven't ridden at Ingawanis before, and the recent rains meant that the course was moved to the "upper half". Upper half meant the part of the course that was built into the side of the hills, and had a ton of off rocky off camber areas. To say that the course was challenging would be an understatement. Kent Carlson and I left around 6:30 AM to make the trip up. We arrived around 8:45 AM, said hi to Cam and Bruce who came up together, and then went to check in. The photo at the top shows the number I happened to get, and omen of things to come. The expert, sport and single speed fields were on course at the same time, with the expert field getting a 5 minute head start. The sport field was large, and although we had plenty of room going up the road to the single track entrance, we quickly formed a very slow single line of bikes. The off camber climbs and descents worked to really slow things down for everyone. Unfortunately, the number 13 struck about 5 minutes into my race, as the quick link in my chain decided to self destruct right at the start of a small climb.

I grabbed the bike and chain and ran out of the course to get a replacement link (note to self, carry a quick link in my seat bag from now on). At the start finish line, I asked if I could still race for points if I fixed my bike and got off course. After checking with someone else, the start/finish people said I could still race for points. I headed to the truck and fought with some regular chain links until a kind soul two trucks down asked if I could use a quick link. I put the link back in and headed out on course, dutifully finishing my alotted three laps, slowing down and letting everyone else coming up behind me pass unhindered. The course itself was very challenging, with only one really flat part, and the rest of it consisting of either fast descents with roots or other treachery along the route and at the bottom, or various long or switch backed climbs with roots at various points along the way. One broken chain, one scraped ankle and a good hour and forty minutes later, I crossed the finish line. After the awards ceremony, I checked my time and it was listed as DNF. Appears that the start/finish people were misinformed about the legality of me completing the race. So $25 entry fee, a tank and a half of gas later, I'm home, with only a nice piece of road rash around my left ankle and goose egg on my right hip to show for the effort. I did have a good conversation with Kent on the way up and back, and saw Paul Jacobson and Paul Varnum from Ames, so the day was not a complete loss.

The Rassy riders placed well, with Cam Kirkpatrick taking the Expert win, Kent Carlson taking the Sport Single Speed win, and another Rasmussen rider taking the win in the women's Sport class. Congrats to everyone who won and finished. It was sweet seeing all of the black kit on the start line.

The new hand grips Donny Q suggested I use worked out well. My hands felt fine after the race and my shoulders and neck have much less stress now than they did after Sylvan Island. Over all the fit that I had Donny do for me seems to have cured the issues I've had with my hamstrings, so it was well worth the time and effort to have the fit done. 

I may need work a bit on adjusting the angle of the grips relative to my arms as I had some issues with burning sensation along the two tendons in the middle of my left wrist during the last lap. It was making it difficult to use the front brake, and hard to put any weight on the wrist on descents. Sitting here now, I'm feeling the same thing in my right wrist too.

I didn't bring a camera, so no photos from the day. If I find some, I'll link to them.

Update: Appears that the computer had it wrong. I actually was counted among the finishers of the race. I'm happy to report that I was not DFL either. :) Thanks to Mr Bidwell for getting to the bottom of things.

Another week

Monday - Rode LHT to work. Rode home, changed clothes and rode to Denman's. Rode Denmans and J11 from 6:00 - 7:30. Rode to CITA meeting. Rode home and pulled in at 10:15 PM. Damn it's dark w/o a headlight.

Tuesday - Rode LHT to work. Rode to Rassys, picked up my rear Surly Nice Rack. Rode home Installed and admired.

Wednesday - Rode Karate Monkey to work. Rode to Rassy's for Taco Ride at 6. Good sized group (10 - 12). Denmans, Squirrel's Nest, Rhythm, Hillside, beer break, Rollercoaster, J11. Rode to Windsor Heights on the trails and then home in the car. Paul Jacobson and gravelo make it down from Ames to join us.

Thursday - Drove to work. Left at 3:45 to help with PRC Duathlon. Enjoyable afternoon/evening watching people run and relaxing by Big Creek Lake.

Friday - Rode LHT to work with the new racks and trunk bag. Polk County Sheriff squeezes between me and an oncoming car while I'm riding 3 feet off the white line. I'm not pleased. Arkel Tailrider trunk bag rocks for the work commute. Drove to Ankeny. Visited Kyle's bikes and hang out for a while. Pick up a 53 Schwinn Traveler that I found on Craigslist earlier in the morning.



I have a habit that needs intervention. Get home from dinner and finish the installation of my handlebar bag on the LHT.

Saturday - Took 83 Schwinn Traveler down to DM Bike Kollective as a donation. Check that a bike is ready for delivery and help move some benches around at the Kollective. Stop at Rassy's and get some bar tape for Conor's road bike. Later in the evening, install the bar tape on Conor's bike. Photograph and weigh the LHT. 40 lbs w/o bags. 57 lbs with. 5 lbs of that is the Surly racks. Prep Karate Monkey for Sunday's IMBCS race #2 at Ingawanis. Pack and stack the other stuff that needs to go with.

Weekend Update

Friday started out early, as I had an appointment at Rasmussen's for a bike fitting with Donny Quixote. The session started out with Donny attaching a road bike wheel to my Karate Monkey since my bike wouldn't fit the trainer. It looked rather odd to say the least. He conducted a brief interview, asking me about what issues I was having, and took my measurements. Adjustments led to additional questions and more adjustments. In the end, my seat is now higher (to eliminate the knee pain, and move some of the work from my hamstrings to my quadriceps), I have a different saddle (same width, but slightly more padding to assist with comfort on longer rides), and new grips (to adjust my shoulder and arm position, and to help with some hand numbness issues). The seat height was the biggest change, and although I expected a change, I thought he would set it lower. I have about 30 miles on the new positioning and it does feel better. However, it will take some time to get used to the change in my center of gravity as well as some time to get my quadriceps built up for riding longer distances.

After my fitting, I loaded my bike on the Explorer and headed north of Ames pick up friend Paul and his friend Cory and head off to TransIowa v4. Paul and Corey were both riding, and I was volunteering my time to assist with the event. We had a pre-race meeting at T-Bocks in Decorah on Friday night and then went back to the hotel so Paul and Cory could prep for an early 4 AM start. We were up at 3 AM Saturday morning, and I followed Paul, Corey and some others to the start line. Temps were in the mid 30s, and the winds were out of the west at well over 20 MPH. After the start, I packed all of our stuff up, checked out of the hotel and headed off to man the check point at Wadena, Iowa. The checkpoint was officially open from 9 AM to 2 PM. However, due to the head and crosswinds the riders were subjected to, the first riders did not arrive until around 12:15 PM. In the end, only 23 riders made it to the checkpoint on time. Of those that did arrive, only 17 decided to continue on towards checkpoint two. The road conditions were on everyone's mind after the soaking the area received over the previous two days. However, the wind is what sapped the strength of most of the riders that day.

Paul and Corey ended up pulling out about 80 miles in after it became apparent that they were not going to be able to make the checkpoint in time. After they received a ride to checkpoint 1, we stood around, drank some beers with the other riders and headed off to checkpoint 2 in Earlville, Iowa. While checking in with the RD, I was informed that they were marking yet another detour in the route near the Buchanan county border due to flooding. We arrived in Earlville a while later, and met up with Joe (a fellow Karate Monkey owner) and some others at a nice park and waited for the riders to arrive. During this time, Paul decided to put another 4 miles on his bike and get his dirty century in towards the Cup O Dirt. The RD's showed up a while later and we determined that the race was down to just 5 riders. After having some beers, and some delicious stakes courtesy of Joe's grill, we decided to head for home as 10:00 PM would be the earliest the riders could arrive. After a stop for food and caffeine in Cedar Falls, I dropped Corey off in Nevada, Paul off in Gilbert and made my way home, pulling into the driveway at 1 AM, tired, but happy.

In the end, the race was called 40 miles into the 3rd leg due to treacherous conditions. As TransIowa participants are routinely subjected to some of the "best" level B and C roads that the state has to offer, this was saying a lot for the conditions. The winner of the event was John Gorrilla, closely followed by Joe Kucharski and Charlie Farrow for second and third place respectively. Fourth place finisher Charles Parsons arrived about 75 minutes later with fifth and final finisher Corey Godfrey
arriving another two hours after Parsons.

My time volunteering for TransIowa was time well spent. I had the opportunity to support friend, make a new one, meet some people who I knew only through blog postings, as well as see some incredible athletes driven to their limits. As a bike person, the array of bikes and setups people used during the event was an incredibly interesting thing to see as well. If I don't participate in next year's TI (and that thought is running through my head), I will definitely volunteer again.

Photos I took at Checkpoint 1
Guitar Ted's detailed analysis of the events
MTBR TI thread

Busier week

On Monday night, I went to Paglai's pizza for the PRC/All 9 Yards Women's Team sponsored talk on group riding. USAC Cat 1 racer Lou Waugamann gave a good talk on group riding and race tactics. Turnout was good and covered everyone from recreational riders, to racers, as well as a few of us ultra endurance nuts. Congrats to everyone involved for putting this on.

Tuesday night I cleaned up the Karate Monkey and relubed the chain and the rest of the driveline. Sunday's ride had left it pretty well encrusted, so the easiest thing to do was use a low pressure hose and some elbow grease. I also needed it cleaned off to take it into Rasmussen's to have a bent spoke replaced and the rear mech adjusted. I need to invest in a work stand and a book or two so I can start to do this kind of work myself.

With the Monkey out of service, I took the Paramount and went on the Wednesday night ritual ride. The weather was beautiful and about 50 riders showed up at the start in front of the Ritual Cafe (thanks for staying open late for us!). The ride is billed as being a recovery ride at a social pace. Social pace can mean different things to different people however. The group of 50 broke into two groups in Waterworks Park as some of us wanted to get a few more miles in, and opted to ride the back loop first rather than the trail. We had a good sized group riding together for most of the ride, using the trails and the roads around Moffit Lake. We had an impromptu sprint up a hill by Browns Woods state park. I made a feeble attempt to catch Lou after letting him get out in front of me a bit. Needless to say I lost that "race". After the ride, I went with Rick, Sweet Jane and Donny Q over to A Dong for some post ride dinner.

Tonight, I'll be working the registration table for the first race of the PRC Race Like a Girl series.

April Gravel Hundy: Building the Church

I've had a lot of time to think and reflect on things riding the rural roads of Iowa the last four months. Much of this occurs during the periods of the ride when I am mentally "down". The typical themes are usually "What am I doing here?" and "Why am I doing this to my body?". This reminded me of a song on one of my favorite Steve Vai albums, Real Illusions: Reflections. The opening song is titled "Building the Church". Steve has detailed his thoughts and notes about the track . One paragraph in particular really sums up the last few months of riding for me.

"The name of the Church is “Under It All.” This is where the towns people are enticed to enter and be subjected to the enchanting and engaging music of Pomposh, which in turn seduces them to see and speak of their inner selves things that they were not aware of."

The building of muscle, the stretching of sinew, hours spent in the saddle, the constant mental struggles. This is the "church" I've been visiting once a month since the start of the year, accustoming myself to its music, made by my tires crunching against the gravel, chain and sprockets singing at my feet. I am certainly starting to see myself become capable of things I didn't think were possible a few short months ago. On January's ride, I was so excited to even be in the game, that I was able ignore the problems that occurred. On February's ride, I found both physical and mental weak spots that made me not want to continue. On Graid in March, I was doing well until poor planning and mental weakness caused me to drop out short of my goal. On yesterday's ride, I finally started to see what I am capable of if I get into the right frame of mind and focus on me and not on anyone else. Determination can overpower the body's exhaustion. Even the worst sections of road have a good line.


Tom Anderson and I have a really good ride on Sunday. For the day, we rode just short of 20 miles of pavement, 35 miles of actual gravel, and the remainder of the mileage came in the form of an often thin line of rideable gravel between the ditch and the highway; what Tom Anderson and I came to call "graveltrack" or "shoulder track". From a mental standpoint this was the most difficult part of the ride, as the comfort of the pavement was sitting no more than 6 inches from our tires for the better part of half of a day. It was much harder to ride on than a regular gravel road due to the narrowness of many portions. 45+ miles of dead straight single track gets really old after a while.

The next month's challenge is a big one. Dirty Kanza. A 200 mile self supported gravel road race taking place in the Flint Hills area of Kansas. I signed up for this event almost the minute it opened earlier this year. Even after all of the riding, I might have bitten off more than I can chew. I have no delusions of winning. At this point, crossing the finish line within the time limits will be a win. One month left to prepare for the pain.

Photos from the ride are here. Ride route is located here courtesy of Tom's GPS.

Mayor's Ride

My son and I left the house around 8:00 AM to ride down to the mayor's ride. On Friday night, Conor had decided that we should ride downtown, rather than drive. Somewhat right before we went to bed, he remembered that we no longer live 3 miles from downtown. We were greeted by temps in the low 40s and light fog. I gave him the warmer of my sets of riding clothes, prepped the bikes and we were off. We took the Trestle to Trestle and the Neal Smith trail down to the start, grabbed some coffee and a muffin at the downtown Amici Espresso and registered for the ride. A little bit of drizzle at the start and then nothing but gray overcast and some wind for the remainder of the ride. The ride itself was pretty uneventful. Lots of chatting among people as we took a leisurely ride around town. They took riders through a couple of hilly areas that caught many people unprepared. I saw a number of people walking their bikes up the hill on 56th Street.

Conor doesn't realize it but he's a stronger rider than he gives himself credit for. This was only his second ride of the year, and he rode downtown wiithout taking any breaks, and he rode the entire 20 mile loop of the mayor's ride without stopping, or walking his bike, including the climb up 56th street. All of this on a 12 speed with a 12-21 rear cassette. It's obvious that it's time to put a little bit of TLC into the bike he's riding. The handlebars need to be rewrapped, the driveline and frame could use a good cleaning, and the derailers need some adjustment as well.

Tonight we're headed over to a talk at Paglai's Pizza on group riding and etiquette. Lou Waugamann is the presenter. Conor had mentioned that he's not comfortable riding with groups of people and that he has problems holding a straight line with riding. We discussed some ways to better control his bike and ride straighter (don't stare at your front wheel), and the fact that practice makes perfect. This talk couldn't have come at a better time for him. Lou has a lot of experience, so it will be good for Conor to take advantage of that.