TOAD.. Fondy road race

So it was to be this year that I did my first tour of Americas dairy land road race, a four lap race that equaled 40 miles. I took off of work and headed down to Fond du lac. When I got there I was pretty nervice as I don't do many road races, but once the race started I was fine. The race started pretty slow and it windy so I tried to stay near the front on the corners. The first two laps were carbon copies of one another, hammer the corners and hills and take it easy on the straights and know what way the wind is going to be coming from on the next corner. Lap three started out the same until we got to the hills. I over geared one of the hills and found myself shot out the back of the group, I played it cool though and waited for someone behind me to pull through to pull us the rest of the way back to the group. Once we got done with lap three I wasn't really sure what to expect from lap four and I told myself to be extra alert for crazy stuff. The first half of the fourth lap was fine but the start of the second half I found myself off the road more than once and I hit a biiiiiig! pot hole that you'd think I would have saw before the fourth lap. The last mile or two of the race sucked. I was boxed in, people were getting jumpie and at that point I just wanted to get to the finish with all of my skin still on my body. When we got to the finishing climb which was about 1/4 mile long I was still on the right side of the road (boxed in) but as people started making there moves I moved to the left and made mine, by the time I saw day light I wanted to get as far away from those jumpie roadies as I could. I put in a huge effort and kind of surprised  myself when I started pulling away from the group and only saw four riders ahead of me. Buuut I burned out a little to early and two guys caught me right at the line so I settled for 7th. They paid out 10 deep in the race so I even got some cash!

Now, back to the trails!

Tennessee 2012

Three days of riding in and 160 miles so far. The first day started out pretty chill, nice easy pace. When we got to cades cove, a seven mile climb it started to hurt a little bit, but over all not to hard of a day. Day two we headed for the top of the world climb. Top of the world starts out with two miles worth of steep switch back climbing. After that I took the guys on what was supposed to be a loop of climbing on tower road, but it turned out to be a dead end of very steep and rough climbing. Good times! After descending tower road we headed the rest of the way up top of the world. The second part is longer at six miles but there are spots to recover that make it easier than the first section. What goes up must come down and after all that climbing my legs welcomed the few mile decent down foothills parkway. Day three the boys did a longer dancing bear loop, I went shorter and did the day one ride adding webb and lovers road.

NEUBAUER POISED IN COME BACK.. STILL NO SIGN OF
ROAD BIKE, BIKE SHORTS.

changing gears

It's been awhile since my last post, I feel like I say that alittle to much. With the knee problem not getting better and not being able to train on the bike I've decided to switch gears and hit the hard road RUNNING. The knee doesn't show any signs of weakness while running and with running really being my first love it works out alright I guess. The past few years have been hard on me with the biking knee problem which is still yet to be figured out and the running knee problem which is the IT band that I've been able to keep under rapes here for the past 6 weeks or so. Not to long ago I found myself at the doctor telling him if I could just have one or the other I'd be alright. Well no thanks to the doc, it seems running has gone on a bit of a flyer and the biking has taken a bit of a back seat for the time being. With that said as of now I do plan on racing ore to shore with what little bike fittness I have in ealry august. As for running I am planning to run a half marathon september 4th in green lake with a few 5k races before september for prep.

Training pictures and results to follow.

Keep riding!

First Bonk of the year

So the day after Iola I rode my bike to work. I wasn't feeling to sore or tired so I figured why not. I made it to work no problem, felt good. Work ended, I started riding home and out of no where BANG. My legs just go dead and my stomach is telling me to get some pickles. really pickles? yes pickles. When I bonk I start craving food like a pregnant woman and that day it was pickles. That has to be the craziest bonk ever, who bonks riding home from work.

thanks for reading

Iola race report

So I am back and racing, ya! After taking a year off to work on the house it seems as though I haven't missed a beat........... Iola still chews me up and spits me out. It may be a fitness thing? : ) Alright lets get to the race already. Sunday was windy and cold, to cold to be trying to warm up for a race in spandex, so I compromised. I warmed up with my team bike hub/specialized jacket annnnnnd a winter jacket over that. After warming up I waited in my car until right before the race started. GOOOOOOOOOO and just like that the 2011 season was under way. My plan going into the race was to lay back a bit and not blow up on the first two laps . I got through about a lap and a half before I caught up to fellow teammate Erin, who had no idea I was behind him until I started yelling at him about how much of a sandbagger he is. I think it was the next hill, still right behind Erin that I tip over into the brush. geee heck, ya know. One second I am making fun of the guy a head of me and the next I am laying in some sort of pokie bush trying to get my foot unclipped from my peddle. It took me about a lap to get back to where I was in the world. With about half a lap to go something clicked and I mustered a decent kick to finnish off the first race of the year. I think I ended up around 50th out of 108, I should be able to work on that before my next planned race in early June.

Thanks for reading

Townsend TN

There can't be to many people in this world that miss Townsend Tennessee. But I will admit I am one of those few that do. I was there for nine days and getting into a routine of waking up late, drinking coffee, watching river monsters with Jeremy Wade, riding my bike in the smokies, and living with four boy friends in the coolest A frame ever. It got to be a way of life...... A life I could get used to. Going into the week my highest weekly mileage was 20 so I wasn't hoping to keep up with the big boys who mustard around 340 miles on the week I was happy with getting just over 170 not to mention making a good push to the top of the grand daddy of them all CLINGMANS! 20 miles up equals two hours of climbing and 20 miles down equals 45 mins ha! that was fun. The trick I used to get me through the week with the bad knee was a combo of drugs, river soaking (with the river monsters), and stretching. I hope I can find a way to ride with out the drugs but It's a start. Can't wait for next year!

know your fit

http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bc/SBCEqProduct.jsp?spid=57243

every vote counts

cat 2 racers!
Make sure to vote on the start time for this years Subaru cup. I personally liked having our race before the cat 1 and pro racers because that way I was able to run around the course watching my favorite racers with out having to worry about conserving energy for my race.http://www.wors.org/news/article.php?id=1602&utm_source=WORS+Racing+LLC+List&utm_campaign=ccf5f2259b-February_Campaign2_4_2011&utm_medium=email

BAAAM!

I fixed my garmin forerunner 305 heart rate monitor with the help of http://www.runbulldogrun.com/forerunner-305/i-fixed-my-garmin-forerunner-305-heart-rate-monitor/
Thanks run bulldog run

The new set up

Before

After

simple is good

So I took a little time off house work and went skiing for the first time this year. I thought I'd try Kiekhaefer since I had mtbed here in the past and heard they had xc ski trails. I wondered around until I found the ski trails which turns out to only be about a mile long. But if you're not a groomed trail snob there's more than enough other trails to keep you busy. I Skied for about two hours and for that being my first time out, I can tell I will be sore tomorrow. But like a bumper sticker I once saw " sometimes fun can hurt pretty f?$&ing bad".

http://www.zapiks.com/life-cycles-teaser-1.html

long over due

So 2010 has gotten off to a slow start to say the least. All of my riding as come in the form of commuting to work and back. With that being said I am planning on making a come back June 26th at nordic.
That's all for now. over and out

dog days of fall

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.

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.

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.

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'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.

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!