So yesterday I got chased by the same dog TWICE. Now is it my fault for riding by the dog twice? ORRRRR is it the dogs owner who didn't have him tied up either time?
Keep in mind the owner was outside both times and started yelling at the dog both times. OHH and this took place in the city.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
broken
Treadfest was more then two hours away. But it only took 3 seconds before it was all over for me. Yet another broken chain. http://vimeo.com/6600257
I'm the 3rd from the left in black.... The one who gets swallowed up.
I attempted to post this video in my blog but was unable to due to an error on the page.
I'm the 3rd from the left in black.... The one who gets swallowed up.
I attempted to post this video in my blog but was unable to due to an error on the page.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
back to the trails
After not being on my mountain bike for nearly a month before WORS # 9 I knew some changes were in order. I got a hold of Jim who was willing to show me some trails just out side of fondy that i had never heard of. I wasn't sure what to expect when we first got there. But it didn't take long for me to decide this would not be the last time I would ride there. It was alittle over grown but i could clearly see how great this place was. Now I don't want to miss lead you half the reason why this place is "great" is because it's only about a 30 min drive which is by far the closest mtb trails for me. And it's not nine mile comparable, it probably has 7 miles? of singletrack all together so there's not a ton but the stuff that's there is pretty good stuff. It's tight, some of it very tight! there's a creek crossing, some technical climbs, a small bridge, rocks, roots, a pine section that's very fast, and some great views of the lake. I have yet to buy a camera but when i do I'll be sure to post some pictures of this hidden treasure.
I saw another opertunity to get back on the trails for the second time in four days which hasn't happend for me since the franklin wors race. I went camping with some friends up north and decided that I'd make a stop on the way home and hit some trails. Those trails turned out to be the nine mile trails and as i was getting ready I saw a familur face riding tords me. It was no other than Justin Lund taking his new turner out for it's first spin. Now I don't ride nine mile that often, in fact I can count on one hand how many times I've been there outside of wors on one hand. So to say i don't know the trails very well would be and understatement. With Justin as my guide we headed out and rode for about an hour and a half before Justin called it quites. As he put in over an hour before i got there. So after he left i headed back out for another hour or so and had a good crash before i called it quites. I was sailing through a twistie singletrack section when i sholdered a tree and almost ended up head first into another tree. After that i called it quites and headed home.
Both days were ridin on my singlespeed. That beast is really growing on me.
I saw another opertunity to get back on the trails for the second time in four days which hasn't happend for me since the franklin wors race. I went camping with some friends up north and decided that I'd make a stop on the way home and hit some trails. Those trails turned out to be the nine mile trails and as i was getting ready I saw a familur face riding tords me. It was no other than Justin Lund taking his new turner out for it's first spin. Now I don't ride nine mile that often, in fact I can count on one hand how many times I've been there outside of wors on one hand. So to say i don't know the trails very well would be and understatement. With Justin as my guide we headed out and rode for about an hour and a half before Justin called it quites. As he put in over an hour before i got there. So after he left i headed back out for another hour or so and had a good crash before i called it quites. I was sailing through a twistie singletrack section when i sholdered a tree and almost ended up head first into another tree. After that i called it quites and headed home.
Both days were ridin on my singlespeed. That beast is really growing on me.
wors 9
The weekend of the race in the Green Bay area started of with rain which canceled the pre ride, damn! Race day came with two days of rested legs due to not pre riding. I wasn't sure how to feel about that but the race started and i felt pretty good. I was heading into the first section of singletrack in about 4th place in my wave with my teammate Jesse leading the charge on his home course. By the time we got out of the first singletrack section my lungs were burning from either the dust or the speed of the leadout. At which point I probably should have started pacing myself, instead I just kept the pedal on the gas. Somewhere during the first lap a nice fellow came up from behind me and we started chatting, this young mans goes by the name of Ben or BW if you will. He asked how far ahead Jesse was, i replied i wasn't sure. At this point we were slidding through the singletrack pretty good and BW said "don't worry, if we keep this up we'll catch Jesse" About a lap later i was cooked as i watched BW set out after Jesse by himself all I could do was watch. My legs were burning something ferce and I just couldn't keep the pace any longer. I couldn't help but wonder what had gone wrong? was it air pressure in my fork? air pressure in the tires? my fittness? my lack of taking a draft? a mix of all these things?
I suffered through the rest of the race and finnished 36th or something to that effect. Although i didn't finnish very well I was proud of myself that I didn't let up. I left what i had on the course and had a blast in doing so. It may not have been a victory but I'll take a "bad day" like that over a good day on the road any day.
I suffered through the rest of the race and finnished 36th or something to that effect. Although i didn't finnish very well I was proud of myself that I didn't let up. I left what i had on the course and had a blast in doing so. It may not have been a victory but I'll take a "bad day" like that over a good day on the road any day.
Friday, August 28, 2009
i'm back
So it looks like it's been awhile and I have enough to report on to say the least. I'm going to try and sum up the month that was as short as I can... Ready?? GO!
The WORS mountain bike race in Franklin kinda sucked, I was looking forward to this race all year in part due to the long switch back climb. But I got off to a slow start and got stuck on the back end of a really slow single track train that was lead by two "pinball wizards"
(translation- see pinball machine) Finished 25th overall eeeeeek! But not all was wasted, I did catch the biggest bass ever!! while camping before the race. She was over 21 inches.
Race the lake had all the makings of a great race/time. Jesse came into town the night before so we talked race strategy and then hit the hay. We awoke at 4:15 am? yes to early for jvog.
The race started before we knew it. I started in the first wave and was alittle nervice about it but handled it ok until we got through Oshkosh where I found myself in the middle of a big crash. I surprised myself by getting up and actually catching the lead group. twenty mins later I and some others were droped. Around mile 62 my knee started acting up and I choose to call in my support van (my mom and dad) to pick me up and call it quites for the day in hopes of saving the season. I hate quiting but the thought of going through what i went through last year with my knee after this race wasn't really an option.
After a week and some change of some reasonable training I have reason to belive I'm ready for the next WORS race in the GB area. Should be a great weekend and an even better race.
I hope to write up a race report shortly following the race. But we all know how that goes.
The WORS mountain bike race in Franklin kinda sucked, I was looking forward to this race all year in part due to the long switch back climb. But I got off to a slow start and got stuck on the back end of a really slow single track train that was lead by two "pinball wizards"
(translation- see pinball machine) Finished 25th overall eeeeeek! But not all was wasted, I did catch the biggest bass ever!! while camping before the race. She was over 21 inches.
Race the lake had all the makings of a great race/time. Jesse came into town the night before so we talked race strategy and then hit the hay. We awoke at 4:15 am? yes to early for jvog.
The race started before we knew it. I started in the first wave and was alittle nervice about it but handled it ok until we got through Oshkosh where I found myself in the middle of a big crash. I surprised myself by getting up and actually catching the lead group. twenty mins later I and some others were droped. Around mile 62 my knee started acting up and I choose to call in my support van (my mom and dad) to pick me up and call it quites for the day in hopes of saving the season. I hate quiting but the thought of going through what i went through last year with my knee after this race wasn't really an option.
After a week and some change of some reasonable training I have reason to belive I'm ready for the next WORS race in the GB area. Should be a great weekend and an even better race.
I hope to write up a race report shortly following the race. But we all know how that goes.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
kewasted (kewaskum)
Kewaskum, race number 6 in the wors series. I felt pretty good going into this race, I've raced here three years and had good results every time including an overall victory. Before the race the biggest worry i had was getting a good start and staying in contact with the leaders. I'm notorious for bad starts. As the GOOOOOOOO sounded i found both of my pedals pretty quick and had myself a good start, goal accomplished. Shortly after the start there was a crash that my teammate Jesse was in that i narrowly missed. I reached the first climb in the top 10 in my wave, right where i wanted to be. After cruising through the corn field, and going back and forth in an open field to complete the lap I was feeling good about where i was, i'm guessing fourth in my wave. The second lap came and went with little to no change in my position or my fatigue level. The third lap started alright enough but ended with me on the brink of bonking. Not what i needed going into the long strung out and at some points pretty steep climb at the start of each lap. The fourth lap was where i started to feel like a real big "shit burger"(name that movie). Racers started to pass me one after the other. I finally made it to the finish line and once i stopped racing i figured i would start to feel better....Not the case, I in fact felt worse. My stomach was tight, my head hurt and i felt like i was on heavy drugs. After getting some water from some caring teammates i started to feel alittle better. I took 25th overall and 4th in my age group, a far cry from what i was hoping for. All and all it was a rough course, and a rough race for many.
Looking forward to Franklin!
Looking forward to Franklin!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
been lazy
I know i missed a write up on the mt morris race so i'll say this. It was really HOT and i took 10th overall and 1st in my age group. It was a hard grind it out kind of race. Moving on.......
Eau Claire/ Chippewa Valley firecracker. Race number five in the WORS series.The fun started saturday when Jesse, Tyler and myself pre rode the course. It was a good course, it had just about everything you could want in a mountain bike course. Fast flowing singletrack with corners you could really carve hard, well.... most of the corners i should say. I did find one that had a tree with my name on it. (Tina strikes again) There were creek crossings, switchback climbs, log piles, technical decents and more. They also added a new section this year, I'll call it "the drainage ditch". Because that's exactly what it was, a ditch with big, loose, sharp rocks. The trail led you down into this thing coming off a small hill so you had some speed and WAAAM you'd hit it, bounce around in it for about 20 feet and then you had to try to climb this small incline to get out of it. To put it into perspective, some of the elite guys were having trouble with this so called rock garden. After the pre ride we went and fueled up at the spaghetti dinner. The spaghetti was good but the apple Cinnamon desert was great! While digesting dinner Jesse, Jenny and I went "alittle early" to the movie but we did get great seats for "freedom riders".Sunday morning came and Kristi, Jenny and I did the trail run. Kristi and I doing the 5K and Jenny doing the 10k. After that it was time to rest up for the bike race. While resting under the team canape a woman walked by our camp and asked while pointing at the performa banner, if we were going to make a jump again. I found it funny that she associated the performa banner with the jumps built at past races. After resting a bit more it was time to mix some bottles and get ready to do some racin'. The lead out was quick but Jesse and i found ourselves in the front 8-10 riders. During the first two laps i could see him on the switchbacks so i knew we were both holding up pretty well going into the last lap. We both had to deal with lap traffic due to our wave going out last. But we were both able to weave our way through the rocks, the twisty singletrack and WORS racers to the podium. Jesse taking 23rd overall, 3rd in our age group missing 2nd by .3 seconds.I took 12th overall and 1st in the 25-29 age group.Good times had by all!I hope to see everyone at the sunburst showdown. P.S. Don't forget to take off of work october 12th for camping after sheboygan. There are only two group sites and if we get more than six people we're going to need a group site. They do have showers on site. These sites fill up quick so let me know, the sooner the better.
Eau Claire/ Chippewa Valley firecracker. Race number five in the WORS series.The fun started saturday when Jesse, Tyler and myself pre rode the course. It was a good course, it had just about everything you could want in a mountain bike course. Fast flowing singletrack with corners you could really carve hard, well.... most of the corners i should say. I did find one that had a tree with my name on it. (Tina strikes again) There were creek crossings, switchback climbs, log piles, technical decents and more. They also added a new section this year, I'll call it "the drainage ditch". Because that's exactly what it was, a ditch with big, loose, sharp rocks. The trail led you down into this thing coming off a small hill so you had some speed and WAAAM you'd hit it, bounce around in it for about 20 feet and then you had to try to climb this small incline to get out of it. To put it into perspective, some of the elite guys were having trouble with this so called rock garden. After the pre ride we went and fueled up at the spaghetti dinner. The spaghetti was good but the apple Cinnamon desert was great! While digesting dinner Jesse, Jenny and I went "alittle early" to the movie but we did get great seats for "freedom riders".Sunday morning came and Kristi, Jenny and I did the trail run. Kristi and I doing the 5K and Jenny doing the 10k. After that it was time to rest up for the bike race. While resting under the team canape a woman walked by our camp and asked while pointing at the performa banner, if we were going to make a jump again. I found it funny that she associated the performa banner with the jumps built at past races. After resting a bit more it was time to mix some bottles and get ready to do some racin'. The lead out was quick but Jesse and i found ourselves in the front 8-10 riders. During the first two laps i could see him on the switchbacks so i knew we were both holding up pretty well going into the last lap. We both had to deal with lap traffic due to our wave going out last. But we were both able to weave our way through the rocks, the twisty singletrack and WORS racers to the podium. Jesse taking 23rd overall, 3rd in our age group missing 2nd by .3 seconds.I took 12th overall and 1st in the 25-29 age group.Good times had by all!I hope to see everyone at the sunburst showdown. P.S. Don't forget to take off of work october 12th for camping after sheboygan. There are only two group sites and if we get more than six people we're going to need a group site. They do have showers on site. These sites fill up quick so let me know, the sooner the better.
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