Dirty Kanza 200 Prep

No posts lately due to spending almost all of my spare time the last month and a half preparing the body and the bike for the Dirty Kanza 200. 12 - 18 hour weeks on the bike have been the norm. It has been tiring, and it has been tough balancing work, home and riding, but I think I have things in a reasonable state, and the date is almost here. Have had a lot of 200 and nearly 300 mile weeks in my legs, with a good mix of short and long rides, plus intervals, gravel rides, and some mountain biking.

I've had some friends along on various training rides, but there's been a lot of riding alone, which is good as it gives me time to focus on my goal, which is to finish this beast of a race in 15 hours - an average speed of 13.6 MPH for 205 miles. This means minimal time off the bike, a flawlessly executed plan at the checkpoints, no hydration or nutrition mistakes, and some luck.

With 2 weeks of training left before a bit of taper before the race, time is running out. My weight is close to where I want it, and I have almost everything dialed in on the bike, other than some lighting decisions. JJ Bailey at Zoom Performance has been instrumental in getting me to where I'm at now. With a few tweaks these final three weeks, I'm going to be in the best shape I've ever been in for this event.

For now, I leave you with this. This beautiful, but isolated scenery is what keeps drawing me back to this race time and time again. You can lose and find yourself out here all at once. Click for a better view.

S24O

Left on a S24O on Friday afternoon with a bunch of friends. Plan was to camp by the river under the High Trestle Trail bridge, cook some meat over a big bonfire and enjoy a beverage or two. Everyone met at Kyle's Bikes in Ankeny around 3 and we headed down the trail towards Madrid. A few beverage stops later and we found ourselves inside of the Flat Tire Lounge for another beverage or two. We wanted to make the camp site before it got dark, so we finished our drinks, hit the store for some grub and made our way to our camp area.

Five of us rode (or walked) the steep gnarly descent under the bridge and started our firewood gathering. Meanwhile, the sound of the chainsaw, or an eagle eye tipped off the county sheriff to our presence under the bridge. A short conversation was had and soon we were pushing our bikes up 13 stories worth of hill to find another campground. A brief rainstorm during a flat change on the way back to Madrid left me soaked since I forgot to bring a rainshell with me. :(

We called a friend's coworker who lived in town and ended up camping in his yard, rather than ride another 3 miles to the closest campground. Thankfully we made a quick side trip to a convenience store before hand. Campfire wood was soaked, so I grabbed a package of ramen and two small bags of smoked almonds. After we arrived at our "campground" I set up my tarp, bivy and bag, then proceeded to pull my  supercat stove out and make a hot Snowpeak cup of ramen while I munched on the almonds. While others in the group opted for a couple more drinks, I slipped into my sleeping bag so I could get some rest.

Sleep was mostly good, if a bit restless after 4 AM or so. About 7 AM I finally got up, cleaned my cup out, and fired up the stove and made a cup of coffee after crawling back in my bag. We broke camp steadily, if slowly, then pedaled downtown for breakfast before heading back down the trail for the 90 minute ride home.

Some miscellaneous thoughts:

• I brought both my tarp/bivy setup and my hammock to sleep in, not being completely sure of how the area below the bridge would be for bivy setup. I ended up not using it, and carrying a couple of extra pounds for no reason. 
• The tarp/bivy combination worked out fairly well. I was dry and warm the entire night. Running my tyvek ground cloth through the washer, as suggested on Bikepacking.net, really helped to soften it up and make it a lot less noisy. The poles I took were hard to pack, and I had some issues with the grommet slipping down overnight since the tarp I'm using isn't really designed to be used in this way. I'll keep using this setup for a while before I invest in lighter, smaller poles and a lighter purpose built tarp.
• My $3 reflectix autoshade was awesome for helping keep me warm. It was the only thing between me and the ground other than the bottom of my bag and the tyvek. I think that next time I will put it inside of the bag or the bivy so that it doesn't move out from underneath me.
• Not bringing a rainshell was a completely boneheaded move. I had plenty of room in my seatpack for it so there was no excuse other than just being dumb. 
• Events of the evening reinforced my opinion that I should pack my stove, cup and fuel for any trip. Without them, I would have gone to bed colder and hungrier tan I would have liked. 
• Bike w water, food and gear was 52 lbs. Plenty of places to cut weight though. Removing the second sleep setup, cans of beer and the flask of whiskey will help a lot. 

Blog update - Seal Team 6 Edition

Targeting the Dirty Kanza 200 with a vengeance this year. Didn't enter in 2011 due to work commitments, and my 2010 entry ended with a complete shutdown at mile 85 (I'm still not sure how I could be falling asleep and pedaling at the same time). My first goal is to finish on Saturday, rather than Sunday morning. My second goal is an overall time of 15 hours with breaks. I think it's doable if I ride smart and avoid any mechanicals. I've engaged the services of Zoom Performance coach JJ Bailey. He's been a successful endurance athlete over the years and he had an opening in his schedule so I decided to go for it. My training has never been very organized. Ride, ride, ride, ride some more, rest when you tired, repeat. My coached sessions have me riding a lot of 1.5 - 2 hour blocks with specific goals in mind. Seat time, hard intervals, watching my heart rate, etc. Long rides have been in the 3.5 - 4 hour range. It's definitely a different approach. Despite the lack of distance so far, my weight is just under 200 lbs in March (woot!), and it feels like my fitness is the best it's been in a long time. Hopefully I can drop another 10 - 15 lbs before race weekend in early June to bring my power to weight ratio in line a bit more than it is. With vacation on the horizon this week, I hope to get my Triple-D and CIRREM race reports up as well. That's about all for now.

Monday Fatbike Adventure

Shot some emails around earlier this weekend and got some takers for exploring the shores of a very low Saylorville reservoir this morning. I got up early, and made a thermos of hot tea with honey and some soup in case I got hungry.

Scott Sumpter, Kyle Sedore, Taylor Webb and I all met at the Lincoln Access boat ramp at 8 AM and headed north along the shore. With temps in the 20s and the wind blowing at a steady 20 MPH, movement was required just to stay warm unless you had some sort of windbreak. Recalling that my back tire felt low on a post Christmas ride, I put some extra air into it before I left. I didn't think the front tire was that low, until we hit the first of a few rocky sections and the rocks were dinging into my rims. I found an out of the wind spot, pulled out my Quicker Pro pump and was good to go in a few minutes. We spent the next couple of hours riding along the shorelines of the lake, and back away a bit on the interesting parts. We made it as far as the Hwy 17 bridge about 5.5 miles north. We took a quick break there, had a hot drink and then headed back south with the wind at our backs.

The ride back was uneventful for everyone other than Kyle. About halfway back he snagged a a metal cable and tumbed ass over tea-kettle down the hill a ways. Other than a few bruises Kyle was undamaged. The large rocks strewn about on the hillside didn't help with the bruising. About a mile from the boat ramp, Kyle's rear derailer hanger snapped off. I'm not sure if it was damaged during the earlier fall or if it got snagged on something else. I pulled out a multitool so Kyle could remove the derailer, and between coasting, walking and some pushing we were able to get him back to Taylor's van.

All in all, a good fun couple of hours on the bike with good friends. Looking at the shoreline, I think it's possible that we could ride up to the High Trestle Bridge just by going along the shore. Another adventure for another time.

While my thermos was fine, the canteen I used for the soup was definitely not insulated and it ended up chilling fairly quickly. I'll have to track down a small thermos if I want to try that again. I opened up some toe warmers for the days ride and applied them to my feet. It didn't take too much riding to figure out that they weren't working terribly well. When I got home from the ride, I noticed that they expired in 2007. I won't make that mistake again. Thankfully no toe issues other than just being cold.

Route

New Year - New Stuff

Been spending a lot of time the past few weeks on my Mukluk trying to get ready for the Triple-D Adventure Race coming up on January 15th. This has been greatly complicated by the lack of snow and 40 - 50 degree temps we've had throughout most of November and December. I've been making due by riding the Mukluk everywhere I can and on any surface possible. 30 mile pavement rides, sandbar excursions, singletrack, long driveline killing gravel rides, and every empty bean and clover field I can find during my morning commute. With just a couple of weeks left before the race, the chances for snow are still looking fairly slim. I'm still not sure if I'll be on the Mukluk or my Dos Niner for the race. Knowing Lance Andre, the Dos Niner won't be a safe choice, even if there isn't any snow.


The 2012 running of the CIRREM is happening again this February. For the first time, the field was capped at 125 riders. Due to the cap, the race field filled up in just over 24 hours. I know a lot of people that didn't make it in due to the cap and the speed that it filled. I managed to get my registration completed in time to make the field, so late February will be another opportunity to test my fitness before heading into the spring gravel race season.

I'm passing on racing TransIowa V8 for the opportunity to record the event in photographs again. I really enjoyed recording the event last year, and based on the feedback I received, the riders enjoyed the photos of themselves too. Last year was a learning experience and I hope to apply some of those lessons to this year's photos. I can't begin to thank Guitar Ted for allowing me out on the course again this year.

That's the update for now. I'm headed out with some friends tomorrow on a fatbike adventure. Hoping to get some good photos and have a memorable day on the bike.

2012

In with the new, out with the old

Lots of changes here at the House of Zen. While work is preventing me from getting in a lot of long rides this year, it hasn't prevented me from riding, or making some changes to the stable. My beloved 1990 Paramount has been sold to a local rider who fits the bike much better than I did. A bittersweet goodbye, but when a bike isn't right for you, you don't ride it, and all bikes deserve to be ridden rather than sit hanging unused in a garage.

New to the fleet is a 2011 Surly Big Dummy. I've been intrigued by the BD since it first came out a few years ago with it's sexy curved top tube. The new incarnation loses the fancy top tube, but is still a cool bike. I picked this up from a local rider as a frame/fork/vrack/freeloaders package. As is normal, what was planned to be a cheap quick build turned into something a little fancier as I got into the project.



The final build list:

• Shimano XT Hubs laced to Mavic XM321 rims. Shod with 2.5" Maxxis Hookworm tires
• Race Face triple crankset mated to a Shimano 122mm square taper BB
• Shimano Deore front and rear derailleurs
• SRAM attack shifters
• Jeff Jones Aluminum loop bars
• Salsa 110mm stem
• Chris King headset
• Salsa Promoto 2 seatpost with Brooks B17 on top
• Salsa seat collar
• Ping bell
• Origin 8 platform pedals
• Avid speed dial levers running BB7 brakes
• Avid 203mm rotors (F & R)
• Planet Bike Cascadia 29er fenders
• Pump
• Bell
• kickstand
• Some inner tubes and electrical tape to keep the paint wear to a minimum

I painted the V racks black to match the frame. I also ordered in a set of wide loaders and painted them black too, as well as adding some well placed innertube to potential wear/bump spots. The bike is sporting a black Flightdesk as well.

Initial ride impressions after a couple hundred miles with and without cargo are positive. A bit of work uphill, but it cruises at 15-18 on flats just fine. Handling is great, and the bike is well balanced, both loaded and unloaded. Loads so far include 70 lbs of groceries, empty and full LP tanks, a case of beer in two Rubbermaid coolers, and my lovely wife. I'm looking forward to many miles on this bike over the coming months. It will be interesting to see how well it handles once the weather starts getting colder and snowier.