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Posts filed under 'Racing'
Fool's Gold 2014
Race Summary
10th place in the men's open category, 12th place overall with two very fast singlespeeders (Gordon Wadsworth and AJ Linnell) finishing ahead of me. It would have been three singlespeeders finishing ahead of me, except Bob Moss got a flat mid-race. I passed him while he was changing his flat, but then he passed me again a couple hours later. With just a couple miles left to race, I caught and passed him again to finish 12th overall and 10th in the men's open category. Perhaps the biggest highlight of the race for me was the Bull Gap descent and singletrack. It really clicked with me how to ride the berms both big and small throughout the doubletrack and singletrack portions of the descent knocking nearly 5 minutes off a six mile section of trail.
My finishing time was also 5 minutes faster, but it came through a much steadier pacing of my effort. I did the opening climb almost 5 minutes slower than 2012 – which means that I shaved at least 10 minutes off the more technical portions of the course … with the last 60 miles stuck in my big chainring. I missed a shift and bent the front derailleur cage so that it wouldn't shift back down into the little chainring. I thought about stopping and trying to bend it back, but I realized that I was pushing myself much harder when I was forced to stay in the big chainring. The only time I really missed it was the few super steep sections which I just got off and ran up.
Race Highlights
- One of the things that I love about mountain bike racing is the creek crossings. When you get caught up in a road season – a lot of times you forget about the fun of a legitimate creek crossing … i.e., enter the creek at full speed and the splash reaches above your head soaking you completely. Also, if you don't make it all the way across, you are submerged at least up to your knee if not up to your hip or higher. Fool's Gold didn't disappoint – even with a really dry course this year. The creek crossings were DEEP.
- Really deep field – Jeremiah Bishop, Tinker Juarez, Gerry Pflugg, Gordon Wadsworth, Rob Spreng, and a LOT of other strong racers.
- Just seeing so many people I haven't seen since Cohutta with my accident wiping out all the ultracx and mountain bike races I had wanted to do.
- Singletrack fun … first time riding singletrack since Cohutta.
Race Data
Zone summary … not much time spent in Zone 5, but a TON of time spent in Zone 4.
Annotated HR plot (click to enlarge)
Alabama Road Race State Championship
Pro/1/2 podium – Left to right – Said Assali (Shama Cycles), Me (Friends of the Great Smokies), and David Potter (Infinity Racing/Tom Williams BMW-Mini).
I'm super happy to take the win today in the Alabama state road race in Elkmont up near the border of Tennessee. We had a small 1/2 field combined with the 3s and the Masters for a grand total of maybe 15-20 people in the race. This led to interesting team dynamics with team members spread across different fields, but there wasn't a whole lot of choice for the officials given the small turnout. The race organizers did something awesome I've never seen before in 20 years of racing … they handed out black ribbons at the start for us to wear in honor of James Keith Green who was killed earlier this week bicycling in Lauderdale County not far from the race course. Given my accident earlier in the year, it meant a lot for me to be able to cross the line solo holding up the ribbon as a tribute to someone who was not as fortunate as I was.
The race itself played out differently than I had imagined … I was hoping for a break, which did happen — but not in the way I would have expected. On the first lap, there were a few attacks, but everything stayed together with everyone being fresh. Then across the top of the plateau after the first climb on the second lap, Said Assali and David Potter rolled off the front. I was near the front so I attacked to bridge across thinking that I would probably just pull the field up with me. Instead, I got away solo and when I caught up to them went flying by saying "let's go, this is it".
Sure enough, by the time the field started chasing we had already hit 53 mph on the steep descent off the plateau. We had maybe a 15-20 second gap as we started up the steeper longer second climb. I was thinking that somebody from the field might bridge across to us, but we stayed away to the top and then started really rolling well into the headwind part of the course. A few miles later, it seemed pretty clear that we were going to stay away. For the next 30 miles or so, we worked well together until I attacked at the entrance of the roubaix portion of the course (Robinson Rd – a mix of pavement and gravel and potholes).
I was hoping to reduce the break from 3 to 2, but both Said and David had no problem holding my wheel. The end of that section immediately transitions into the first climb. I hit it hard again … again hoping to get away with just one other rider … but both Said and David came off my pace, which meant I would have to push it HARD for the next 12 miles to the end of the lap if I was going to stay away for the win. Fortunately, I was able to hold them off for the win!
Here's my annotated heartrate and power data:
Annotated heartrate plot (click to enlarge)
Heartrate zone summary.
Also, I've linked to my shifting data (specifically lap 6) from the race. One of the things that I learned from the 24 hour race was that I tended to shift into easier gears when I started to get tired. So when I started to get tired on my solo break late in the race and my power started to drop well below threshold, I would shift down into a harder gear for a bit and pick up the pace. This plays out in the data as more frequent shifting on lap 6 as opposed to lap 5, which was entirely in the 3 man break. 11.6 seconds between shifts on lap 6 vs 14.1 seconds per shift on lap 5.
View lap 6 shifting data on di2stats.com.
Mid Atlantic 24 Hour Time Trial
Left to right – me (3rd place), Brian Jastrebsky (1st place), and Ray Brown (2nd place) after the race.
I took these screenshots of my Garmin 1000 at the farthest out point on the course a couple minutes before the clocked tick back over to 7AM Sunday morning 24 hours after starting the race at 7AM on Saturday. It seemed fitting to stop early at exactly 444 miles – the length of the Natchez Trace parkway – after last year's #epic444 which was not only an amazing time of camaraderie and support for Team Red White and Blue, but also a first experimental step towards ultracycling. It was also fitting to be on the farthest out point of the rural course away from everybody and everything. Ultra-endurance cycling is such an intriguing mix of both solo determination and team support. That makes Ray Brown's 2nd place finish all the more impressive as he did the event completely unsupported! Brian Jastrebsky's 1st place win is also phenomenal given that his longest ride prior to this 24 hour race was 150 miles.
I'm skipping ahead of myself, though. How did we get to this moment in time? It all started 24 hours earlier at Washington High School in rural, flat, coastal Washington, North Carolina. How flat is it? The climbing ratio for this ride was 54:1, which means that I had to ride 54 miles to climb 100 feet. To put that in perspective, in Birmingham I frequently climb 10,000 feet in that same distance … in other words, the course was 100 times flatter than my normal routes and over 10 times flatter than my previous flattest ride (Tour of Elk Grove in Chicago). A lot of times with this kind of flat coastal terrain, you get strong coastal winds. But the course and entire area was heavily forested and sheltered from the wind. As a storm rolled in later in the day, the winds picked up to maybe 5-10mph max.
Annotated topocreator map of the course (click to enlarge)
It was an interesting mix of bikes at the start line — everything from time trial bikes with disc wheels to road bikes with clip-on TT bars and several recumbents. I think I may have been the only rider doing it Mercx style with no TT bars – but I did have my Martindale 6.0 wheels, which are some of the most aero and smoothest rolling wheels I've ever used.
Here's me and my bike before the start … Mercx style!
The race started with a neutral roll-out, but then it became obvious (to me at least) that there is a problem in trying to separate everyone in a non-drafting race?? I was told by a few people that it would "take care of itself" within a few miles – but there was still basically an awkward group together near the end of the first 25 mile lap. I took off and passed everyone so that I could give Kristine something to cheer for and not get caught up waiting on others to queue up in the slow 10mph section through the start/finish. Going through the start/finish plus my acceleration split the group up. I led for the next half lap until someone on a recumbent very gradually reeled me in. I dropped back behind him to what I hope was a legal follow distance of something in the neighborhood of 75-100 feet and tried to match my pace to his. This lasted for most of that lap until in pretty close succession a second recumbent who had been gradually closing the gap finally caught up to me and then simultaneously another rider (full TT bike, aero helmet, and disc wheel) passed me.
This was towards the end of the second lap. For the third lap, one of the recumbents stopped for an extended period so it was just me, the first recumbent, and the TT rider who set out at nearly the same time. I was in third position keeping an eye on what the other two were doing up the road. It's deceiving on such a flat course that it looks like they are drafting, but I realized eventually that what they were doing is exchanging positions every 10-15 minutes within what looked like all the acceptable parameters. This seemed like a good idea because you got a bit of a draft during the pass so I sped up to catch up to them and immediately passed both of them. Eventually the recumbent passed me and a few minutes later so did the TT rider. Both of these "passes" gave me a bit of a break as you got a bit of a draft when they pulled over in front of you. It's only a few seconds worth of drafting, but it is within the rules and it gives you a good mental break.
In third position, I dropped off the pace a bit but after a few miles I started catching back up to them when I felt like they were slowing down. I moved to pass both of them again. I made it past the TT rider who was falling off the pace a bit with no problem, but when I started to pass the recumbent a few minutes later, he jacked his speed up to match mine as I went by him. I thought that was interesting so I pushed even harder and harder eventually topping out at close to 30 mph before I realized that he absolutely didn't want me to pass him. This all took about a minute and then I said to myself "forget it, you can have it" and let him go up the road. This was all about a mile or two before the finish of the third lap.
The recumbent rider stopped for an extended period after this lap, and I kept going so that meant I led from that point about 75 miles into the race until about mile 200 when I made an extended stop to use the bathroom, change clothes, eat, and rest. Leading up to mile 200 I pushed it really hard because I thought I had a legitimate shot at breaking the 9 hour mark for 200 miles given that the first 100 miles was in less than 4.5 hours. Unfortunately, I missed the mark by about 20 minutes and paid dearly for my hard effort later when I got tired. During my extended stop after 8 laps, eventual winner Brian Jastrebsky caught and passed me. I would catch him a couple laps later, and we ended up riding side by side for a bit chatting about racing and our backgrounds. It was a huge mental break to have someone to talk to for a while. I'm not sure how long we were together (maybe 15-20 minutes), but eventually I got a phone call from my kids back home in Alabama before they were going to bed so I fell off the pace to chat with them. Definitely a highlight of the race for me.
I never caught back up to Brian because I think my earlier efforts during the first 200 miles really started to catch back up to me, and I couldn't hold more than about 150-175 watts consistently any more. I knew when I was pushing the pace really hard earlier that it was a big "no-no", but it is something I wanted to do because how often do you get a chance to set those kinds of speed records for that distance??? For the Race Across America, I'm going to have to be more disciplined and keep my pace and effort under control even when I get uber-excited about racing and riding.
"In case you're wondering what @kartoone76 looks like 20 hours into a race… still managing a tired smile, munching on a homemade rice cake (thanks Feedzone cookbook! These were the go-to food when his stomach went downhill). #myhusbandisepic"
One of the things I struggled with after about 18 hours was queasiness. I've done several long extended 22+ hour rides, one 24 hour race, and a 32 hour race (516 miles) and never had stomach problems, but about 18 hours into this race I kept on feeling like I was going to throw up if I turned my head too often to see if any riders were catching up to me. Even during this time of nausea, I was able to chow down on the peanut butter and jelly rice cakes that Kristine made at the end of each lap. I also would get one bottle of coke and one bottle of water (I stopped drinking gatorade about 16 hours into the race) and two energy gels. This was my nutrition very consistently for the last 150 miles or so of the race.
The picture above is right about the time that eventual 2nd place finisher Ray Brown caught up to me in the rest area. I watched from a chair next to our car as he pulled in to refill his bottles and rest for a minute. I left shortly afterwards and about halfway through the lap, he came flying by me. He was so much fresher than I was nearly 21 hours into the race. In the ensuing 3 hours of the race, he would pull almost exactly half a lap ahead of me (13 miles) almost catching the first place winner in the process!
The beauty of starting a 24 hour race at 7AM is that you are basically racing to the sunrise the next day. If you start the race later at say 10 or 11AM, then just having the sun come up doesn't mean you are almost done. But with this race, as the day started to get brighter you got physical confirmation every second that the race was almost over. This picture above was on the final half lap that I did. Another nice thing about the setup of this particular race is that you could ride all the way out to 24 hours and report your finishing location. I worked it out in my head with about 2 laps to go that I would probably finish somewhere at the farthest out point of the course — and that's exactly what happened!
One final picture to include before all my data is one I snapped of the motocross race that happened late in the afternoon carrying on into one of the night laps of our race. Even on the first lap at 7 in the morning, there was some activity at the track. Each lap as we passed the course, there was more activity. Eventually racers started to show up, but they were still working on the track so they were riding their dirt bikes around in the parking lot. Late in the day, about the time the storm started to pass through the course, the race started and I came around one lap to see dirt bikes flying over the jumps. The next lap I was fortunate to see the checkered flag out for one of the races. There must have been more races, though, because they were still racing during the first night lap. It was all over by the second night lap, and people were leaving the course. A lap or two later, the last clean-up crew worker was leaving, and the lights at the track were turned off. It was very cool to see the evolution of a motocross event from start to finish while racing our own race right by the track!
LAP DATA Lap Speed HR Power Time 1 23.6 mi/h 148bpm 202W 1:04:02 2 22.5 mi/h 146bpm 223W 1:07:09 3 23.2 mi/h 151bpm 236W 1:05:04 4 22.7 mi/h 148bpm 227W 1:06:24 5 21.9 mi/h 148bpm 218W 1:08:46 6 21.7 mi/h 146bpm 209W 1:09:31 7 21.4 mi/h 143bpm 200W 1:10:36 8 21.2 mi/h 144bpm 201W 1:11:02 9 20.9 mi/h 137bpm 186W 1:12:15 10 20.3 mi/h 135bpm 185W 1:14:18 11 20.2 mi/h 133bpm 177W 1:14:43 12 20.0 mi/h 127bpm 176W 1:15:38 13 19.5 mi/h 122bpm 168W 1:17:33 14 18.2 mi/h 114bpm 143W 1:22:56 15 17.6 mi/h 110bpm 134W 1:25:55 16 17.3 mi/h 109bpm 132W 1:27:04 17 17.4 mi/h 110bpm 134W 1:26:52
RIDE AND SHIFTING STATISTISTICS http://di2stats.com/rides/view/211 # Total shifts 2694 # Front shifts 77 # Rear shifts 2617 Time b/t shifts 29.9 seconds Elapsed time 23:58:39 Moving time 22:22:46 Distance 444.41 mi. Ascent 820 ft Descent 866 ft Climbing ratio 54.18 (miles per 100 feet climbed) Climbing rate 37 ft/hour Avg/max speed 19.86 / 29.45 mph Avg/nrm/max pow 177 / 189 / 558 watts Avg/max HR 131 / 180 bpm Avg/max cadence 74 / 113 rpm
di2stats.com – gear shifting pie chart – click to view more statistics
Annotated heartrate/power/speed plot (click to enlarge)
fi'zi:k ambassador
Very, very happy to announce that I've been selected to be a fi'zi:k ambassador. As a cycling adventure racing addict as well as a geeky computer scientist, how cool is it that I get to promote products specific for racers and competitive enthusiasts made by a company with all kinds of funky punctuation in their name?!
Already, I've learned that they make more than just saddles and bar tape … shoes, bars, seatposts, and stems are also part of the fi'zi:k brand. Not only that, but they have developed something called the spine concept which is designed to match up all the right products for your desired level of comfort/performance based on your flexibility and racing/riding goals. Check out their whole line-up and the spine concept here: http://www.fizik.com/en/
I'll be participating and racing in the Roswell, Atlanta race on October 19th of the Gran Fondo Italia series promoted by fi'zi:k. The race series also includes races in Beverly Hills on September 28th, Miami on November 9th, and Rio de Janeiro on November 16th. Check out the series here: http://thegranfondoitalia.com/
Wisconsin Racing and Riding
Pre-race pic, happy with 65th given this was only my second road event of the year.
Beautiful cool weather this year unlike last year's scorcher, so hydration was easy. Sad that this will be the last year for Madison hosting the race, but perhaps Northern California hosting it will be a good reason to take a trip out there in 2016. Next year, however, I am aiming for a Southern California trip for the Race Across America. Already starting my training for RAAM 2015, I thought it would be good to do the race and then do a long point-to-point ride while still tired from the race. With my wife's family in Northwestern Wisconsin, it made sense for me to ride up there from Madison for the rest of our vacation up here.
Race summary
I got a good start near the front, but not having ridden in a pack much this year I wasn't good at keeping my position as other riders edged beside me. By the end of the neutral section I was already near the back of the field. I felt good on the Cat 3 climb to finish the lap and started feeling more comfortable moving around in the pack. On the third lap, I found myself near the back again when the field slowed down on the county road before the climb. I noticed on the previous lap that the shoulder is very nice, rideable gravel. So I ended up passing almost the entire field in the gravel. In retrospect, I wish I had attacked instead of pulling back into line because there was still a few more miles of slow riding. How epic would that have been to have attacked in the gravel in the national championship road race. Oh well!
Instead, by the time we reached the bottom of the climb on that lap I had already slid back to mid-pack. I was running out of nutrition so I asked Kristine to feed me gels on the next lap. I was near the back the next time through the climb and pulled over to grab the gels. I grabbed them with no problem and chased back onto the back of the field, but by this point the back of the field had splintered and there wasn't enough of us to chase back on even though we tried an entire lap plus mixing it up with the large caravan of vehicles.
Many people pulled out, but Shawn Gravois (Lupus) and I soldiered on eventually catching Andy Scarano (UHC/706). Together the three of us rolled the last half lap until we caught a few more people coming off the lead group. The last person we caught was near the top of the climb, and he came back around us which was kind of the universal sign that we're still racing. I took off up the final climb to end up finishing 65th.
Annotated heartrate plot for national road race (click to enlarge)
Cave of the mounds
After the race, we wanted to check out the cave of the mounds since it was right by the course … an hour long tour was worth it even though my legs were tired and my stomach very hungry. By the end of the tour, we were practically running to the car to get to the nearest place to eat. We ended up at the Grumpy Troll in Mount Horeb. Very good, in-house produced root beer and cheese curds. Mmmmm, mmmm, mmmm.
Adventure in the hills of Southwestern, Western, and Northwestern Wisconsin
After dinner I drove Kristine and the kids on some of the routes through the hills between Blue Mounds and Middleton where we were staying – including Observatory Rd – the views are spectacular. One more trip to Starbucks, and I started this blog while the kids were swimming in the hotel pool. I tried to time my sleep so that I would get exactly 3 hours of sleep (two 90 minute sleep cycles) before getting up. Unfortunately, they were playing a replay of the highlights of last year's Tour de France so I think I only ended up with one sleep cycle.
"Heading out for a little ride across the state of Wisconsin – 1:15am" – my instagram caption from the hotel elevator as I headed out for an approx 350 mile ride through the hills of southwestern, western, and northwestern Wisconsin.
I've included my route map below. I tried to pick the hilliest route I could find through all the hills that was still relatively straight heading in the northwesterly direction. There were many climbs I had to skip because they went too far out of the way, but I was still surprised when I was riding at just how many hills and valleys I went through — totaling just over 20,000 feet of climbing. The upper midwest has had quite a bit of flooding problems this late spring / early summer from all the rain combined with snowmelt. This translated to many bridges being out. That makes for quite the challenge on a point-to-point ride. Only two of the bridges that were out were on my direct path. The first bridge out I came to was actually not completely out, and I was able to cross it by hanging off the side of the bridge. The second bridge was really out with no bridge left. I wouldn't have any problems with taking my shoes and socks off and fording the water, but it was very deep mud and grass that I would need to traverse — not something I wanted to do within the first 100 miles of a 350ish mile ride. The official detour was miles and miles out of the way, so I took an unofficial detour through several miles of gravel on steep rollers, whole fields of bunnies, and endless fields of corn. Some of the other bridges out meant that the larger roads were detouring onto the route that I was already planning on taking. Fortunately, this part of Wisconsin is really rural … no cellphone coverage for over 100 miles from Blue Mounds to Sparta. Then another 100 miles of no cellphone coverage until the outskirts of Eau Claire. So the traffic was minimal pretty much the entire day.
"All kinds of awesome on a point-to-point ride" – my instagram caption at the first bridge out … before holding onto the outside of what was left of the bridge to cross the creek. They had fenced off the bridge itself well enough that I couldn't just climb over or around the fence.
western wisconsin – ultra resolution annotated topocreator map (click to enlarge).
western wisconsin – topocreator county map (click to enlarge). my route traversed 13 counties.
I started out at 1:15 in the morning with the moon having already set. The Milky Way galaxy was bright enough to ride through open fields with no lights on! I tried this a couple times on the climbs up to Blue Mounds which have some stretches of open fields. Absolutely amazing. I had a four light setup for negotiating some of the fast descents in the dark – rear taillight, two handlebar mounted front lights (a 200 lumen and a small 50 lumen), plus a helmet mounted 200 lumen headlight. I thought I needed to conserve battery so on all the uphills I rode with just the 50 lumen light on. Then for the faster downhills I turned on the 200 lumen light at its lowest setting, and if the descent really started to turn downhill I flipped on the helmet light at its brightest setting. It turns out I didn't need to worry about battery at all because this far north, it starts getting light outside by about 4:30AM. By 5AM, you can ride without a light other than a blinkie light for visibility for cars. Plus, sunset isn't until 9PM with the afterglow lasting until about 10PM!
I also had two Garmins and a cellphone to keep charged during the ride. The cellphone was the most challenging to keep charged because there was so little coverage my phone battery was constantly draining as it boosted the signal to try to find coverage — unsuccessfully. Unfortunately, we had not anticipated so much non-coverage and Kristine was tracking me online. We pretty much gave up on the tracking after Blue Mounds, and I texted her in the two towns that had coverage (Sparta and Eau Claire).
I had split the route into five separate 70 mile courses, which I loaded onto my Garmin 1000. This was my first real course test for the 1000. It followed the courses with no problems, no crashes, no glitches. I know from much experience that my Garmin 800 cannot follow long courses with hundreds of turns without eventually crashing. But since I was doing all the navigation on my 1000, I was able to leave the 800 running without messing with it at all. It made it the entire 315 mile ride without crashing. I had to recharge both Garmins twice. I brought an Anker Astro Mini charger and a Gomadic Solar charger. I completely drained the Anker keeping the cellphone charged but it made it the entire day (21 hours) with a large part of the day spent searching for signals.
The Gomadic I split between the 800 and 1000 and was able to keep both charged although both ended the day with low battery and my Gomadic also with its low battery signal on. Also, in Sparta I knew that I might need extra battery so I bought a wall charger which I also used to charge the cellphone during an extended Starbucks stop in Eau Claire.
I'll finish this post just with some pictures showing the scenery and describing the road as mixed conditions, a lot of smooth pavement with minimal cracking, the occasional perfectly smooth road, some larger cracks on a few of the heavier traveled roads, a few rough gravel roads, and one smooth fast dirt road which I think was being prepped for paving (county ww outside of eau claire). The terrain was steep rolling hills, long gradual climbs and descents in river valleys, plus the occasional long and steep cat 3 climb up to some of the higher ridges. Usually the top of the ridge would be flat to gently rolling with sweeping views of other ridges and valleys dotted with farms, barns, silos, forests … in other words flat out beautiful.
Western Wisconsin annotated heartrate plot (click to enlarge – look at all the steep hills)
24 hour mountain bike nationals – data and details
My adventure out west to race 24 hour mountain bike nationals led to a 7th place finish and lots of lessons learned for next year's Race Across America. Here is all my heartrate data and a map annotating the course as well as a general description of the course. The lap times on my heartrate graph do not include time spent resting between laps, so this gives a better picture of how my legs/body were feeling on any given lap than the official lap times which include time spent in the pit between laps. One of the things I was really happy with for this race is that after an hour and a half of sleep, I put in negative splits on my last four laps. In other words, each of my last four laps was faster than the one before. That is very encouraging for RAAM how my body was able to recover and respond after such a short rest.
Heartrate zone summary
Annotated heartrate plot (click to enlarge and see lap times)
Annotated topocreator map of the entire course. One of the advantages of the topocreator map over Google terrain view is that it is very easy to pick out the high points on a course like this with all its gentle sloping. Click to enlarge. Or you may also download a high resolution version of this map.
This race was so well-organized by the folks at Zia Rides, and one of the great things about the course was having big red mile markers every mile on the course. This meant that you could break the course up into smaller sections and tackle each section independently – super important for a 24 hour race where you are looking for those boosts of achievement when you are super tired … so reaching the next mile marker meant you were one mile closer to the end of the lap. On the topocreator map above, I have labeled each of the miles in black M1, M2, etc…
We started the race out on the wide dirt road so that we would have a chance to sort out positions before the start of the singletrack. I had been worried all week that we would start in the campground under the finishing banner, which would mean a very short dash of 100 meters or so to the start of the singletrack before the dirt road. This singletrack was a climb through the campground followed by a descent to a bridge with a 90 degree turn entering and exiting the bridge – then more descending down through a cow field before a gentle climb up to the dirt road. When they announced during our pre-race meeting that the start would be on the dirt road, this was a huge relief that I wouldn't be pressured to going really fast through the opening singletrack.
Opening singletrack through the cow field … storm approaching on Friday's ride.
Still, it is tough to get everything organized for a 24 hour race and I didn't hop onto my bike to ride over to the start at 11AM until after 10:30AM. Jake Wade (friend from ultracx racing) and I rode over past the start together and then out to the start of the singletrack and back as warmup. Even though we were back at the start by 10:45, there was already a ton of people lined up. So I started in the third or fourth row thinking that it was going to be tough to make up much ground before the start of the singletrack. Fortunately, I was on the righthand side and there was a 30+mph crosswind blowing from the left. I passed a ton of people and settled into line somewhere in the top 10 before the start of the singletrack.
The opening singletrack dropped down briefly before climbing steeply for about a quarter mile. Then it rolled along the side of a hill eventually making a 90 degree turn to head back down into the valley. But before hitting the valley, the trail went straight up a rock ledge. This was totally rideable as long as you had some momentum. I was worried that if you weren't far enough forward somebody would goof this up and everybody behind would have to walk. I'm not sure if that happened or not because I was far enough forward that everybody could ride it. Dropping off the ledge on the other side was a dip down to a bicycle-specific cattle guard to take you into the long climb to the top of the course.
Collage of pics from my first ride on the course after arriving on Wednesday.
This climb started out very steeply but then rolled a bit before settling into a gradual gradient for several miles. The gradual climb was easy and non-technical except you did have to pick your line carefully to avoid riding over some big rocks. Those rocks were also rideable, but for a 24 hour race you are looking to save every ounce of energy and save your body from as many rock-jolts as possible … so you wanted to ride around those rocks instead of over them. The climb was about half-way over by the time you made it to the cat-tail pond where the junior course split off to the right.
The cattail pond between mile 5 and 6.
After the pond, the course continued to climb through miles 6 and 7. Topping out for the first time shortly after mile 7, there was a gentle fast downhill with lots of sandy turns before a gradual climb up through mile 8. This process repeated itself several times through the rim trail until you finally made it to mile marker 10 which was the high point on the course and the start of a long gradual descent peppered with a short steep climb at mile 11 and a few other small rollers. The climb at mile 11 started out with a short rock slab section followed by a turn straight up a steep hill. I rode it every lap except lap 8 where I was so exhausted I walked the whole section (including the flat parts) just to change up the pace a bit and give my hands a rest from gripping the handlebars.
One of my favorite parts of the course was shortly after this short steep climb – the singletrack continued climbing for a bit before diving back down one more time into a gulley followed by another steep climb on the other side. I figured out in my pre-rides that even with the rocks and roots on the climb, your best bet for this was to fly down the hill and hit the gulley at full speed. You popped up over the rocks and were more than halfway out of the gulley before you even had to pedal. Almost immediately after this, you rode straight towards a property line fence. The singletrack followed the fence very closely for about a mile. Each lap I looked forward to this fence because it meant you had about a mile of easy, smooth, fun riding before the rocky section of the downhill and then the long "berma" section of downhill. I didn't get any pictures of this part of the course in any of my pre-rides because I never wanted to stop to take one.
The first major jump on the downhill section came right before mile 14 (red mileage marker visible in the middle of this picture) and was followed immediately by a 90 degree turn. Early on when you were fresh you had to make sure to keep your speed under control so that you didn't endo on the landing.
The strava segment for this long downhill is called "Berma" presumably because after the jumps you have a number of partially banked turns. The dirt was quite loose so you had to get your line right or risk having your wheel washout. I had a couple close calls during my pre-rides, but by race day had nailed it down pretty good. Once you hit the bottom of Berma, you basically had a 4 mile rolling climb to the finish. The rollers were pretty steep (both up and down) so you got to do a lot of resting on the downhill parts which made the uphill sections more manageable after you had been racing for a long time.
The last mile was some narrow, bumpy singletrack alongside a beautifully paved road. No paved road for the race course, however, with 18 miles of single track and just over a mile of dirt road for a grand total of 19.15 miles per lap. In this picture the righthand side is looking up towards the campground / finishing area and the left side is looking back down the final mile of singletrack alongside the paved road.
That takes you through a single lap of the course. I was fortunate to pre-ride the course four times during the week leading up to the race and then twelve times during the race for a grand total of approximately 325 miles of singletrack — easily surpassing any kind of all-time personal record of number of miles of singletrack ridden in a single week. The course was perfect for a 24 hour mtb race, fast, diverse, safe, fun, and challenging. I'm very sad that USA Cycling is dropping this event off the national championship calendar, but the event was so well run we are definitely going to have to make this a future family vacation sometime in the next few years … maybe even next year!
24 hours in the enchanted forest
"Finished, 23:01, 12 laps, about 230 miles of singletrack"
Race summary
Amazing race, awesome adventure. My race was quite the roller coaster. I started out well sitting in 2nd or 3rd place through the first 100 miles (6 laps). Eventual winner Josh Tostado was flying and had a 5 minute lead on me by the end of the second lap. But even as early as the third lap, I was starting to struggle with breathing. I'm not sure if it was the altitude or the dust from the 30 mph sustained winds with all the racers on a very dry course. But I dialed my pace way back starting at Lap 4 and that didn't really help much. By the end of Lap 7, Tostado had lapped me and I had slid back to 5th. The picture below is right before I started my 8th lap and pretty much says how I was feeling by that point.
"About to head out on lap 8. Just got lapped by Tostado, but I think I'm still in top 5. Fading…"
Lap 8 was the culmination of everything – unable to breathe, unable to put any power into the pedals even though my legs felt fine, I couldn't figure out what was wrong. I was passed by so many people – of all ages and genders. When I would see headlights coming up behind me, I'd pull over, stop, lean over the handlebars and wait/rest. Then I'd sit there for 30 seconds or so to let the dust settle (dust at night is similar to fog at night in terms of headlights and visibility) until the next rider came. That lap ended up taking over 2.5 hours – almost twice as long as my fastest lap. Speaking of laps, here is my timing breakdown:
Lap 1 - 1:12 (17.5 miles, started us out on course) Lap 2 - 1:20 (19.15 miles for all subsequent laps) Lap 3 - 1:27 Lap 4 - 1:33 Lap 5 - 1:40 Lap 6 - 1:39 Lap 7 - 1:59 (about half lap was at night) Lap 8 - 2:32 (night lap, exhausted lap) Lap 9 - 3:59 (Slept for 1.5 hours before starting this lap) Lap 10 - 2:06 (night lap) Lap 11 - 1:51 (only the first couple miles with lights) Lap 12 - 1:40 Total time: 23:01
Towards the middle of Lap 8, I had thoughts of just quitting after that lap since I couldn't hold onto the handlebars very well and just felt miserable getting passed by everyone. When I'd see someone's headlights come up behind me, I'd pull over to the side of the trail and just rest for a few seconds until they caught up to me. By the end of the lap, I knew I didn't want to quit but I also knew I needed to rest for a long time. So I sat in the chair, propped my feet up on the ice chest, and covered up with a big towel (temps were already down into the 40s). I didn't fall asleep, though, I just laid there watching racers go by — including Tostado who lapped me for a second time. I got so cold after maybe 15 minutes like this that I moved everything out of the way and crawled into the back of the car to escape the 5-10 mph wind that was still blowing.
Joe Coffelt, who was helping me and whose wife got second place in the women's race – see thank you section below, asked me what time I wanted him to wake me up. I told him I'd like to do 12 laps total, which meant four more laps. We calculated that 2AM would be a nice safe time to wake me up with enough leeway to get ready to ride again and have enough time to finish the last four laps. He ended up letting me sleep an extra 15 minutes – probably because I looked so miserable in the back of the car – but those 15 minutes may have been really important for me to finish the race at all. When I woke up, I had to change back into cycling clothes and then get ready to ride. I was so stiff I couldn't imagine being able to complete another lap, but by the time I had made it to the top of the campground I was feeling tons better than before I went to sleep. Perhaps those extra 15 minutes were just enough to let my body and mind recover.
Also, there is no point in imagining how I might have done if I hadn't slept at all. There's no way of knowing whether my lap times would have continued to get slower and slower until I was forced to sleep either out on the trail somewhere or back in the pit area. That is what I think would have happened – although how epic would that have been to have pulled my bike off the trail, made a nest in the pine straw, and gone to sleep in the middle of the race. Or perhaps my body would have eventually recovered while riding. I'd like to think that I made the best choice I could have made given the circumstances. Those last four laps were the funnest of the whole race! I finally figured out all the sandy turns and was hitting those much faster and just generally enjoyed more of the course. I had expected that my last night lap on Berma (3 mile descent with jumps and fast turns) would have been my fastest because I hit everything perfectly, but it must have just been the illusion of descending at night that made it feel faster as it was only my 4th fastest time of the day.
Also, during that same lap I caught the 2nd place woman a mile or two before she caught the 1st place woman. I was in no hurry so I asked if I could just ride behind her for a while. Shortly before catching the 1st place woman, she surged and dropped me on the climb and attacked the woman who had been in first. I eventually caught the now second place woman and tried to encourage her before passing her with about a mile to go on the climb. It was really cool to see what I thought was the battle for first and second in the women's race play out in the middle of the night. But as it turns out, one of the women had problems with their eyes on the next lap and had to stop, which moved my friend Laureen Coffelt, whose husband was helping me in the pit, up into 2nd place by the end of the race. I didn't see Laureen the entire race until about mile 4 of the last lap when we were both on our 12th lap. I encouraged her and then raced on by imagining that 9th and 10th place were catching up on me and would boot me out of the top 10. As it turns out, though, I caught and exchanged positions with 7th place sometime during that last lap — although it's impossible to know exactly when since there were teams, women, and singlespeed riders still out on course – and I passed a lot of people on that last lap.
I uploaded a higher res version of the results below – there were about 60 solo males that started the national championship race, so I was happy to finish 7th in my first 24 hour mountain bike race.
Men's solo championship final results (click to enlarge)
Thank yous!!!
Huge thanks and shout-out to Joe and Laureen Coffelt (and Scott Kuppersmith for connecting me with them). Joe was supporting his wife, Laureen, who got 2nd in the women's race. It worked out awesome that we were never in the pit at the same time, and Joe took complete care of everything (greasing the chain, refilling my camelbak, getting me food, drink, and coaching me through my first 24 hour race to a top 10 finish with some really strong guys here!) Also, a big shout-out to Kyle Taylor who inspired me to do this race early in the season when he invited me to do this race as part of a four-man team. But then I had my crazy bike-car accident which left me in the hospital for a week only six weeks before this race. Nobody, including myself, thought I'd be able to do the race which threw everybody's plans for the race into confusion. My jaws were still wired shut a little more than a week before the race. I had to beg the doctor to cut the wires off, and was still ordered on a strict no-chew diet – but this race officially ended that. If I'm able to survive a rough 24 hour mountain bike race with no impact to my jaw, I think it is safe to eat again! My jaw and accident may have impacted my performance a bit – one very positive way and one very negative way. The positive way is that I essentially had 6 weeks of altitude training with me having to breathe entirely through my nose. I believe this really did help with the altitude (the entire race was above 7000 feet, and maxed out at 8300 feet). But the negative impact was my nutrition. I am a powerbar kinda guy. I like to eat bars, and that is how I have raced for years and years. For this race, I mixed up 10 bottles of a meal replacement drink and put them into my bottles to drink between laps for calories. This worked OK, but I was hungry and I started eating stuff after Lap 8 – chocolate chip cookies, snickers bars, whatever I could find at the aid stations. And I think my exhaustion by Laps 7 and Lap 8 may have been because of a calorie deficit. No excuses, though, because my altitude training may have offset the calorie deficit so that it all worked out even in the end.
I'll upload more data and comment more about the course and event when I get home, but I just managed to lose this entire post and had to type it in a second time so I've left out some of the fun details of the race. Also, I'm in Albuquerque, New Mexico and for RAAM training for next year I'm going to go get back on the bike even though I'm very sore and climb Sandia Peak – should be fun!


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Mine Spill Costs to Be Covered by Imperial Convertible Bond Sale
Aug. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Imperial Metals Corp. plans to raise C$100 million ($92 million) selling convertible notes to help pay for the cleanup at its Mount Polley mine, the scene of the worst waste spill in Canada in at least two decades.
Imperial's largest shareholder, oil-sands investor Murray Edwards, has committed to buying C$40 million of the 6 percent, 6-year senior unsecured convertible debentures via Edco Capital Corp., a company controlled by Edwards.
The Fairholme Partnership LP committed to another C$40 million of the notes. If the issuance fails to raise the full C$100 million, Edco will buy non-convertible notes bearing interest at 12 percent to make up the shortfall, Imperial said.
Funds from the sale and Imperial's operations, and insurance proceeds, will be enough to cover costs at Mount Polley as well as the completion of its Red Chris project, which like Mount Polley is in British Columbia, Imperial said in a statement after the close of trading yesterday.
"While the precise costs of remediation and repair are presently unknown, the company believes that the costs can be managed over time," Vancouver-based Imperial said.
British Columbia officials are investigating the Aug. 4 failure of a dam at the waste pond at Mount Polley. The resulting torrent of waste poured into local waterways, leaving local people without drinking water. Operations at the copper and gold mine are still suspended.
Shares of Imperial have plunged 48 percent since the accident and closed yesterday at C$8.73 in Toronto.
Edwards has a 36 percent stake in Imperial, according to the company's website.

subset: commoncrawl


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Award Winning Artist
and vintage works at:
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Festival of Art
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Nov. 14, 15, 16
One of many fine new works being made available during the upcoming
Dear Friends and Collectors
Thank you for visiting my site. The links to the left will navigate you through the different pages on the site.
If you have any questions about my work, shows, framing, commissions, ordering, shipping, or anything at all, please feel free to call me!
(602) 478-2192
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7 Things Houstonians Don't Care About
By Chris Lane
The Weirdest Texas School Mascots
By Jeff Balke
By Aaron Reiss
By Angelica Leicht
Behind the Doors of the Spy Store
By Dianna Wray
The Best Things in Houston Pawn Shops
By Aaron Reiss
Ten Underrated Things About Houston
By Camilo Smith
Pet Products for the Rich and Insane
By Craig Malisow
Tucked snugly away in the Cherryhurst section of Montrose, this single concrete court is perfect for a quiet match or for showing off your skills. Get there early and squat the court, but if you notice dirty looks from local residents waiting to play, you may want to concede. Looking to stage a grudge match? Invite your friends and the opponent, and let them arrive to find you pummeling the expansive backboard with your ferocious forehand. Treat everyone to a match worthy of Westside, and after your big win, head to nearby Cafe Montrose and entertain your fantasies of being a Belgian tennis star.


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Ratso is one of the major characters from The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars and The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue. He is voiced by Andy Milder.
The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue
In his first appearance, he is shown to be very grumpy and angry, as if mad about being kept as a pet. He's rude to pretty much everyone, but he eventually does come through in the end for Toaster and his friends, while also putting himself at great risk.
The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars
In his second appearance, he is shown to be very kind and helpful to Toaster and the other appliances. He stays behind and stands watch while Toaster and his friends go on a mission to rescue Robbie, who is referred to as the "Little Master" by the appliances.
- Ratso bears some resemblance to The Rat from Lady and the Tramp, but unlike Ratso, he's an antagonist.
- He is the first Disney rat character who is a protagonist, the second being Remy from Ratatouille.


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89407 is utilized for post office box purposes only in approximate location displayed above. No relevant statistics are associated with this ZIP Code.
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Meyerland residents on alert after 2 armed robberies on same block
Published On: Dec 12 2013 11:59:26 AM CST
Constables are boosting patrols in a Meyerland neighborhood after armed robbers struck two homes on the same block in a week.
Both incidents happened about a week from each other on Grape Street. Most recently robbers stole a cell phone, credit cards and keys from two people.
Before that, armed men held a family at gunpoint while they were cleaning out their car.
Police don't believe the two crimes are connected, but they are urging people to stay safe in the area.
The views expressed are not those of this company or its affiliated companies. Please note by clicking on "Post" you acknowledge that you have read the Terms Of Service and the comment you are posting is in compliance with such terms.blog comments powered by Disqus


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When enjoying the great outdoors, you never know what will happen or if your life will be imperiled, so it's always a good move to get the best survival gear. A deep gash, a fractured bone, a snake bite, a bear attack, or dehydration are not remote possibilities. Any of these may occur in the blink of an eye. On top of accidents, extreme weather conditions may not only spoil your outdoor adventure but also cause near-death experiences.Hence, you need to have at hand a complete set of survival gear from a first aid kit with bandages, medicines (and also supplements), tweezer, alcohol and cotton, gloves, etc., to a blanket, antibacterial soap, pocket rain jacket, emergency light devices, water bottle, and so on. Look around and purchase very useful items like a stainless steel razor knife you may use for a wide range of purposes like skinning fish, paring fruit, or as defense from unwanted intruders in your camping grounds. Check out testimonials online or survival kit reviews from credible sources to find the best survival gear. Veer away from substandard or poor quality survival tools offered at discount prices. www.metroholistic.com
A basic survival kit usually has a flashlight with new batteries, an emergency blanket, matches (make sure they're windproof and last long), a whistle (for sending a signal for help or calling a companion from a distance), a poncho, signal mirror, a general purpose rope & cord, antiseptic pads and other medical supplies. Continue reading


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LYONS - Rosewood Services Inc. had eleven experienced riders climb back onto the saddle for another season of horse-show competitions.
MANHATTAN - Kansas State linebacker Arthur Brown and defensive back Nigel Malone both earned their second preseason honor of the week on Thursday as they were named to the 2012 Bronko Nagurski Trophy watch list for the nation's most outstanding defensive player, the Charlotte Touchdown Club and Football Writers Association of America announced.
WASHINGTON – The surging natural gas industry has sparked a hiring frenzy in Ohio.
HOISINGTON - Food Preservation Classes will be offered from 4-8 p.m. July 24 and July 31 at the Hoisington First United Methodist Church, 3rd and Clay.
Well, it's that time of year again and the annual After Harvest Festival is upon us. I hope everyone who chooses to attend the festival has a very enjoyable time and takes in every event made available to them. With that said, I believe it necessary to remind everyone who attends the After Harvest Festival to be aware that there will also be an increase in law enforcement during this time. There will be saturation patrols by the Kansas Highway Patrol and the Barton County Sheriff. So please don't drink and drive. Have a designated driver so everyone ...
Dear Editor,
Dear Editor,
Thursday, July 12
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Magic general manager Rob Hennigan said Wednesday that trade talks involving Dwight Howard with the Brooklyn Nets are "stationary," but that discussions remain open with them and other teams.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints still must close a significant gap in guaranteed money if they are to agree on a five-year contract worth about $100 million by Monday's looming deadline for a long-term deal, said a person familiar with the negotiations.
The recent Great Bend High School wrestling camp had almost 50 young wrestlers working in the offseason to improve their skills.
HAYS - The Great Bend Braves split their Class A American Legion doubleheader on Tuesday against the Hays Renegades.
Barton Community College had seven sophomore student-athletes receive national academic honors for the 2011-12 season.
The Principles of Agriculture Economics class at Barton Community College is currently exploring consumer choices and how they make those choices when selecting foodstuffs at the store. This discussion also includes the direct buyers of crops and livestock off the farm and ranch. It is helpful to remember that while economics is rife with numbers, charts, and statistics, economics is at its core a social science trying to explain and predict human behavior. This week's column explains how these choices made. Next week - how does agriculture respond?


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You may not recognize these stars
Even the stars get dressed up! Find out who your favorites went as!
Katy Perry wins for best costume! She came to Kate Hudson's Halloween party dressed as a Flaming Hot Crunchy Cheeto!
Photo: Splash News
Listen to Halloween Radio on iHeartRadio
Photo: Getty Images
Photo: plash News
Photo: Splash News
Photo: FilmMagic
Photo: Splash News
Photo: Pacific Coast News
Photo: Getty Images
Photo: FilmMagic
Photo: WireImage
2014 American Music Awards Red Carpet
100 Hilarious Dog Shaming Photos
Sleep in Bieber's Bed for $270K


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I'm not sure anyone actually discusses sports around the water cooler, any more. Somehow, the idea of water-cooler conversations entered our collective minds, but with the rise of computer communication, the idea of having to wait to talk to a co-worker until you see him at the water cooler seems touchingly quaint. If water cooler conversations exist, though, sports fandom is fragmented enough that there isn't just one "Game of the Week" that's part of our common knowledge. (Except for the NFL, I mean. Everybody watches the NFL.)
With that fragmentation in mind, we've taken it upon ourselves to find multiple Games of the Week, listed out by sport. Maybe you know your co-worker loves racing, or golf; here's what he or she is likely to be talking about come Monday.
Soccer: Minnesota vs. Edmonton, 7pm Saturday (Channel 45)
United has lost just one game in 2014, and has five wins and a draw in six home games – and that doesn't even count home wins over Premier League side Swansea City and the Mexico U-21 team. Edmonton, though, has beaten high-flying San Antonio and tied powerhouse New York in the span of a week, and will be looking to do the same to the Loons.
Basketball: Lynx at Phoenix, 9pm Saturday (NBA TV)
Make your jokes about the WNBA if you wish, but your hometown team is an astonishing 24-6 and has won eleven straight – and is still a game and a half behind Phoenix, which is 25-4. The Lynx beat the Mercury last week at home, but now have to head south to attempt to repeat the feat – and Phoenix has lost just one home game all season.
Golf: PGA Championship, Saturday/Sunday (TNT / CBS)
The PGA is the major that looks most like golf does the rest of the year, something that's confirmed by the red numbers that have been hitting the scoreboard at Valhalla. Maybe the course will toughen up this weekend… or maybe Rory McIlroy will shoot 264 and dust the field.
Euro Soccer: Arsenal vs. Manchester City, FA Community Shield, 9am Sunday (FS1)
Man City won the Premier League last year and Arsenal won the FA Cup, and so the two square off in the traditional season-opening exhibition between England's two champions from last year. Meaningless in the standings, maybe, but both clubs can set a tone for the season to come with a victory.
Football: Cleveland at Detroit, Sat 7:30pm (NFL Network)
Remember when Tim Tebow was the biggest story in the league, except he'd never do anything interesting except play his hardest? Johnny Manziel isn't like that. Johnny Manziel could do anything. This is why you'll probably flip on a preseason football game today, just to check in; Johnny Football will be there.
Baseball: Los Angeles Dodgers at Milwaukee, Sun 1pm (TBS)
Clayton Kershaw is pitching.
Racing: NASCAR Cheez-It 355 at Watkins Glen, noon Sunday (ESPN)
Dale Jr. won last week, he said with an impossible-to-resist Southern accent, and is leading the Cup. But Jeff Gordon loves himself a trip around the road course at the Glen. Tune in to see what NASCAR looks like when it turns both ways!