Fat Bike Season

So close, so far.

Fat bike season for me runs from October through February.

I like to get out a little early and resolve any issues that might be lingering on the bike while it is still semi-warm out. There is nothing worse than trying to adjust a derailleur in 15 degree weather. It also opens up some other riding options that would not really be fun on a standard MTB.

Once the snow flies the real riding begins. The trails at BC no longer allow biking (But they still allow every other activity)  so that means I either have to drive to Carver/Leb or blaze my own trail. There are plenty of woods in the area so I usually just find my own route.

My favorite fat bike picture ever.

I have a couple of things that I want to do this winter.

1. Ride the creek from McKnight to the lower lot. On the upper half there are a few small drops that are easily manageable, but on the lower half there are some bigger, 3 tier drops that I think I will have to ride around unless there is a ton of snow.

The waters a little too gross for me to do this in the summer

2.    Find a route to Carver that covers as much woods as possible. There's a nice plot of land that has some small, but steep elevation changes and has a nice wide trail that goes through some of the woods. From what I can tell it only gets used by locals walking their dogs.

Enter on Henry Lane

3.   Get to know Mounds Park a little better, clear some downed trees or create ride arounds, blaze some trails to connect things, and get ready for some hard training once conditions permit.

Old trails, fun times.

Quick note: I upload photos for my posts before I write anything from my phone. The blogger app doesn't allow you to "Save as Draft" (It used to) So if you just see pictures, it means that I haven't had a chance to get on blogger and revert it back to draft.

Army vs. Navy

This past weekend I head to Philadelphia for my second trip to the Arny vs. Navy game. My good buddy Dave is a Naval Academy graduate and gets some premo seats for the game.

I flight was to leave at 3:50 on Friday afternoon headed for Chicago. There were issues with the plane after we boarded and we had to get off and were told it would be several hours before the plane was repaired. I got out my phone and call United right away and I was sitting on a  plane headed to Charlotte within 10 minutes. It worked out the best it could given the situation. I ended up arriving to Philadelphia two hours later than expected, but no big deal.



Wright Brothers first aircraft!



I woke up early Saturday morning, ate some breakfast and started getting ready for the game. By 11 we were in a hotel bar  waiting for a couple people and drinking some beers. Philly's craft beer selection is no where near what we have here in MN. I ordered an I.P.A. that I had never heard of but was not impressed. I saw that they had cans of Dale's Pale Ale in the fridge and went with that for the rest of the time.

Heavy Seas Loose Cannon

We caught the subway to the game and were in our seats in no time taking in the pre-game festivities. Philly has a great set up to get to and from a sporting event. All 3 stadiums are right next to each other, with plenty of parking if you choose to drive. The subway was fast and very efficient and only cost $3.10 round trip. I wish we had this sort of set up in MN. I would go to a lot more games.

The Secretary of the Navy stopped by to welcome me to the game.

 

For those unfamiliar, Navy has won for 10 straight years. Many of the years have been blowouts but Army had a fairly decent team this year. Both teams had beaten Air Force so for the first time since 2005 the Commander in Chiefs trophy was up for grabs at the game. As with both these teams there was a lot of run plays and little passing. The score was tied 10-10 going into the half and you could see Army gaining some momentum. Army kicked a field goal in the 3rd quarter and held on to the lead for a long time. Navy finally put a good drive together capped of by a long pass and a 12 yard run on the following play for a TD with 4:41 to play. Army put together a great drive but fumbled on the Navy 14 with 1:14 to play. Not the prettiest win, but we'll take 11 in a row. 

Another win

View exiting the subway

The following morning I had a run planned out that would take me to the Liberty Bell and to the Philadelphia Art Museum to run the famous "Rocky Steps"

I got outside and it was raining pretty good, but I decided to make a go of it. I started on my pre-planned route and when I got to where I thought the Liberty Bell was realized that it was the Liberty Bell Center. Fuck google. I then backtracked to try and find it but was never able to. Turns out I ran right by it. So I headed towards the museum. After another mile my phone inexplicably died and now I had no music or hard directions in case I got lost again. I decided to keep heading in the general direction of the museum and knew that I would eventually run into it. I was beginning to feel some knee pain for all the stopping and starting at crosswalks and trying to figure out where to go. At one stop I felt a twinge and decided that it would be best just to head back to the hotel. I was defeated. I ran with a slight limp for another mile and was really bummed. It ended up being about a 4 mile run and I got to see some cool buildings, but nothing that I intended to see. I will try again next year and plan things out a little better. Hopefully the weather will cooperate as well.

Ben Franklin is buried here.

Heading home I knew that there was a ton of snow, but United kept telling me that the flight was on time. Once I got to Chicago the flight was delayed by 20 minutes, then a hour.
There was 45 people on the standby list and some people had waited through 4 flights. I bet most won't be back till today. I just sat and enjoyed watching the Packer Lions game was on TV while waiting to board. I was happy to be home around 10:45pm and was semi-excited to see all the snow.

I'm going to have to get out on the fat bike soon and pack some rouge local trails...

Lately

This blog usually just talks about my biking and rarely about what else I have going on so I thought I should write a little something about the kids.

This is Cooper's 5th, and last, year of Mite hockey. He is no Mario Lemieux, by far. For 3 years he gave little effort and was just happy to skate around and be with his friends. Well, something happened last year. All of his friends made the top "D" team and he was on the "C" team, and rightfully so. This started to motivate him to try harder. I kept telling him that it's only one hour of practice. He doesn't need to talk to anyone and to just focus on hockey. There was a period where he was unhappy about going to hockey because he was trying hard, but failing. But of course we kept going and he finally saw that all the hard work was beginning to develop into some skill. 

This year at tryouts I told him that if he doesn't skate hard, he once again will not make the top team. He listened and skated hard and was over joyed to when he found out that he had made the "D" team.

It was proof to him that hard work would pay off. He still has a ways to go, but with practicing 3-4 times a week now he has plenty of time to work on things. We are about to begin outdoor practices which is a great time. I don't know what it is about it, but the kids seem to skate harder and have more fun when we practice outdoors.  

Last weekend Diana was out of town and Cooper had one of his friends sleep over. I didn't want them just sitting around playing Pokemon like they usually do so I planned a full day for them. After we picked his friend up we went to a taco feed fundraiser for hockey and ate 12 tacos between the 4 of us (I ate 6...) The place was packed and it took over a hour to get tacos, but it is what it is and the kids really behaved themselves so that made it a little easier. After that we headed to the Science Museum to catch the latest Omnitheater movie, Tornado Alley. I have begun to loathe the Omnitheater because the movies are old and when they basically show the same shows that you can now watch at home in HD is loses some of its luster. The only movie that I really enjoyed this year was Shackelton's. The rest are just overly funded scientist taking you on a bullshit tour. Tornado Alley was no different. The claim was that they were trying to figure out what signals in the weather can predict a tornado in this area. They already have it down to 35-40 minutes in advance. I understand that people are out and about and that a farmer driving a tractor in a field may require that amount of time or possibly longer. What I don't get is the need to drive around a tank that can get as close to the tornado as possible. I am sure that it is a huge adrenaline rush, but I fail to see where useful data comes from by doing this. They have pods that they place in the roads that can detect speeds, direction changes etc.

The kids enjoyed it as usual and then we headed into the museum. I let Cooper and his friend run around and me and Aurora went to learn something. We messed around with the floating ball and the wave machine, then we found a new station involving pneumatics. The point was to build link from the low end of a pegboard, and using pneumatics and gravity get a ball to go about 4 feet to the middle of the pegboard. Me and Aurora worked at it for about 10 minutes before we thought we had a good track. It took Rora a few try's using all the pneumatics but eventfully she figured out which ones to push slow, and which ones to push fast and our track was a success.



T-Rora



I was getting tired so we headed home where I made dinner and then attempted to start a fire in the fire pit, but couldn't keep it lit with the lack of kindling and some strong winds. I felt like an idiot. I suppose I could have resorted to gas to get things going, but didn't want to mess around with it since there was still embers at the bottom. Oh well, the kids still had a pretty good day.

Icebox 240

This Saturday was the Icebox 240 at White Tail Ridge in River Falls, WI. I went to this race last year on a last minute whim and wound up having a really good time. So when I got the KORC email about this years event I knew that I had to make it. The first year I believe they raced for 240 minutes and whichever team had the most laps won. That format seems to have been abandoned and now it's total number of team laps. I really like the set up of this race. At the beginning you either put your name on the Comp, Sport, or Beginner list and your team is randomly chosen from one person in category. It gives everyone some bit of hope at the beginning that they could place. This year the race started at 4pm and I knew that I would  be late because we had hockey till 3, so I had Larry put my name on the list for me. When I got to the race they had just started so I had no idea who my other teammates were. After asking around quickly I found out I was on a team called the "No shows" and that Jeremy had already started and our other teammate Matt was not there yet either. So I waited at the start/finish and tried to figure out who my teammate was. Just before Jeremy came in one of the KORC guys pointed him out to me so we had a fairly quick trade off. This years event consisted of 13 laps with a minimum of 3 per person. I figured if it came down to it I would take the 5th lap. The course was in great shape with the exception of a few greasy spots on the Jeep road climb and the switch back climb at towards the end of the lap. I felt good all day and was doing 18 minute laps on the shortened course. I can't think of one spot where I "took a break." I went as hard as I could at all times.

After my second lap our third teammate, Matt, showed up and did two laps in a row to catch up with us. From there we each took one lap turns. We were far back at that point and I could see that a place was not really within our grasp. On my last lap though I passed 5 people and almost a 6th on the final stretch so I checked the leader board again, but there were already 4 teams out on there 13th lap as we were about to start our 12th. So we all decided to end with 12 laps and drink some of the free Rush River beer (Little know fact: The brewery is right next to the trail and they fill growlers for $5.) Jeremy had also stopped at Casanova's on the way over and shared some of his growler of Ale Asylum Hopalicious.

There was also pizza, brats and burgers.

The weather was perfect and once again I had a really good time once again. It is a great event put on by Nick and all the other KORC volunteers. I need to start making it over there a little more often and riding, racing, and doing trail work. The trail has come a long way in the past two years and is a great alternative to Battle Creek to get some climbing in.

Thanks again to KORC for putting this race on!!

Update on the deer hunting post:

The rut was ON this weekend and two bucks are now hanging in my Dad's garage. With the very early start this year the bucks were not quite as ready to chase some tail as they usually are during hunting season. This made the 2nd weekend much better. I'm tired of typing so if you want the full story (or the short version) of these two guys, just ask next time you see me.

Post Dirt Bag

I woke up a little later than I wanted to so I felt a little pressed for time trying to get out of the house. While quickly getting ready I realized that with the 34-40 degree weather for the day I should wear my Lake winter riding boots. I don't know why I didn't think of using them sooner, but I am glad that I did as my feet stay fairly warm all day.
(Quick aside: I got the Lakes last year on Ebay for $115. They look brand new. Deal of the century)

Getting to the start a little later than I usualy do was nice. I didn't have to stand around much and things got started shortly after I was ready to go.

The first few miles were a slow pace and I stayed with the lead group (as did most others) for the first 7 miles. We got to a sandy section that I knew was coming, but still surprised me a bit. I rode though it fairly easily and tried to catch up to the lead group but it was not happening. I found myself alone between the lead group and a decent size chase group. I was about 30 seconds off the lead so I decided to not wait for the chase group. Around mile 15 I could no longer see the lead group and shortly after that the chase group caught and passed me. I didn't like that. I waited till the next hill and dropped them all. I would never see that group again.

I rode with another SS for about 15 miles and we "battled" back and forth, never working together. The checkpoint came and I was feeling good so I went right through it. I finally pulled away around mile 60 and would ride by myself for the remainder.

I started to get a little fatigued around mile 80 and was having a hard time eating because my waffles and bars were cold and hard. I kept going as hard as I could so that I wouldn't get passed by someone near the end. I noticed that the last 10 miles or so was the same route as we had rode out on. I was starting to dread the sand that was up ahead. Once I got there I tried my best to stay on the bike but the last section had been torn up so much when we headed out and again by everyone in front of me that I didn't have the power left in my legs to negotiate it. I hopped off and jogged for about 50 yards and hopped back on the bike. Once I hit the pavement I went as hard as I could and made the final climb fairly quickly.

I was happy to have finished and had a great time. My unofficial time is 6h27m. (No results posted yet). That beats my previous best from the Heck of 7h25m. This course was fairly flat as the GPS only registered about 1,700 ft of climbing. 48x18 proved to be the perfect gear for me and I felt that I gave it my all.

Thanks to all the volunteers who did a great job and for the chili afterwards. This was my first time at the Dirt Bag and I look forward to racing it again.

Deer Hunting

My view for the weekend

Deer hunting is something that I only get to do so often. For whatever reason I am always busy on the first weekend in November. While sitting in the stand I realized that I had only gone hunting six times in the last 12 years. That's not a good percentage when the hunting is good and easy to get to.

I worked a few hours extra so that I could leave work early on Friday and headed up to the Farm around 2pm. Once I got up there I had to get in the woods and set my stand up. I usually choose the same tree every year, but last time I noticed that there were a lot of branches that had grown and made visibility a little less than I would like. I got the stand up in about 20 minutes and was back to the house to drink some beers. I picked up a 6-pack of 21st Amendment's Live Free or Die IPA. It was alright and my Dad's buddies kept making jokes about how it looked like a root beer can.

The morning came and I was up before everyone. I think that Saturday morning is your best chance at getting a deer and I don't want it squandered by trying to get 20 minutes more sleep. I got to my stand and had to wait about 40 minutes before things became somewhat visible. I had heard a few shots before then and wondered how people could even see a deer unless it was only 20 yards away.

Not long after sunrise I saw three deer. A doe and two fawns. They were walking from the field down to the river. I didn't really give them much thought and went back to listening to a podcast. About 30 minutes later I spotted two deer across the river. It was hard to see, but when I put the scope on them I could see they were both does. Still waiting. Time went by and I heard something coming up from directly behind me. I turned my head to look and it was a decent sized fork horn. He caught my eyes right a way and I knew that things would be difficult. He was not only behind me, but he started walking to my right side which meant I was going to have to stand up and turn around without him noticing if I was going to get him. I turned and there went the flag. To my surprise he only went about 15 feet and then turned back around. He was staring right at me and slowly walking away. By the time he went behind a tree so I could put my gun up I could barely see him in the scope. I thought I had his head in my sights, but since I wasn't too excited about shooting a fork horn so I decided to just let him go. Just before lunch there was a doe and a fawn that walked right in front of me. I had the sights on the doe... for practice. I just couldn't bring myself to shooting a doe yet.

Can you spot the doe?

When I got back to the house Matt told me that he had gotten a deer at about 8:30. We ate lunch and I went over with him to drag it out of the woods and hang it up in the shed. You can't really tell from the photo, but the other antler is messed up. It looks like it only sprouted out about a 1/3 of the way.

I headed back out to the stand around 1:30 and waited for a long time before I saw anything. There was a small doe that walked in front of me and once again I wasn't interested in shooting it. From there I thought I saw two deer off in the distance but I'm not sure as I only got a glimpse. Once it got too dark for me to see very far I started walking back to the house and in the field between me and the house was another good sized doe and a fawn. I thought about shooting the doe just to be done hunting, but the backdrop was the house and if I missed some bad things could have happened so I started walking again and scared them off.

I had four Sierra Nevada Torpedo's waiting for me when I got back. They were ok. nothing that I would buy again.

Once again I was the first one up and got out to my stand Sunday morning before the sun even thought of coming up. The next 4 hours were a nightmare. No deer, lots of squirrels, and it was cold. I had planned on staying in the stand till 10 (I had to get back for hockey at 2) but decided to call it a day at 9:30. Back at the house Roger had gotten a deer in the morning and was loading it into his trailer.

This deer was a "12 pointer" but I say it's a nice 8.

It was a good size deer and I was happy that two of the four of us got a deer.

I packed up and headed out around 10:30. I called my Dad at 4 and he said that he didn't see a deer all day. He has a lot more patience than me. I am still undecided if I am going to go back this Saturday morning. I have hockey again at 2 and there is a bike race at 4 in River Falls. It would make for a very long day. We'll see how the weather goes. I may end up only going to hockey and having a boring weekend.

I decided that I am going to stop being so picky and just shoot a deer when a decent opportunity is presented. I like venison jerky and sticks too much to not have anything for a year because I am waiting for the monster buck to come through.

Either way I had a good weekend and enjoyed some good beers and great food.

Pre-Dirt Bag

Well tomorrow is the Dirt Bag race in Clearwater, MN. It is the final race in the AGRS series. I have done every race this year except for the Dirty Benjamin and completed all of them. I don't know how many people have done that, but I'd guess that the list is short.

I have never done this race, but I hear that it is pretty flat. I am going to try a high gearing of 48x18 (2.66) to see if I can latch on to some pace lines rather than spinning like crazy to try and keep up. For the Heck of the North I went with 42x16 (2.62) so there is not a lot of difference, but it may help over the course of 100 miles.

I have not gotten a lot time to ride this month, which is unfortunate since fall is great riding whether, but with kids sports 4 times a week it leaves little extra time to go for a ride. The GF's work schedule has been different as of late too so that doesn't help any. Other than riding to work (Which I think has only happened 3 or 4 times in October) I have only ridden twice. Once a Wednesday night group ride that I was pressed for time and only got in 8 miles and a BC-Carver fat bike ride that was about 21 miles. Oh, and the Adventure Ride that was about 22 miles. Needless to say, not exactly the prep that you would want heading into a 100 mile ride.

Despite all that, I am shooting for a 6 hour 30 minutes or under time. My previous best 100 is 7h25m, so this would be quite a leap. I think you gotta set goals to push yourself. I'm at the point where I don't take a 100 miles for granted, but "Just finishing" is not a positive for me.

The frame bag has been a life saver. I have done two races with it now and can't say enough positive things about it. It holds everything that I need and allows me easy access to anything. I no longer need the small feed bag on my top tube that would rub my knees when I climb and bothered me. It allows me to wear nothing on my back which no matter how light, would start to bother me around mile 60 and put me in full on pain around mile 80. I think it would also put more pressure on my ass which would start to bother me around mile 70 and force me to stand and glide or become more willing to walk a hill towards the end just to relieve some pain for a little bit. There is also a trash pocket on the side, but I found it nice to put the trash in my jersey pocket and use the pocket to hold my note cards.
If there's any negative at all, it's that drinking is a little harder. I bought a longer tube, but I still have to lean forward some to drink. I didn't want the tube to be too long otherwise it will just flop all over the place while riding.


The weather will be interesting. Weather.com is currently showing:

Saturday, Oct 27
Hi: 43°
Lo: 29°
Mostly Sunny
Chance of rain: 10%
Wind: S at 5 mph Sun

Sunday, Oct 28
Hi: 43°
Lo: 28°
Rain / Snow Showers
Chance of rain: 40%
Wind: ESE at 8 mph

That's fairly chilly. I'll have to at least start with a jacket and pants on. The jacket keeps me pretty warm so I won't need to layer much underneath it. I'll also start with fleece gloves, thin UA winter cap, and wool socks.

I still need to get to the grocery store to pick up some last minute items and then I will be ready to go. I'll post a race recap some time early next week and I'll try and get some pictures as well.

Favorite Races

The other day while out riding I had the idea that I should post up my favorite races. I am not really one that gets into the "atmosphere" of a race, because I'm not really there to be social, but to try my best at racing my bike. I don't take racing serious, at all, so the perspective that I provide is just that of a dude who likes to stay in shape and needs some races along the way to keep motivation up. I think that I'll just do a Top 5 because 1. I haven't been in that many different races, and 2. I don't really feel like writing that much. I'll probably spread these out over the course of the first half of the winter as my riding will be much less and I'm pretty sure none of the three people who read this blog care about how my Mite hockey team is doing week after week.

So, without further ado...my 2012 edition of my Top 5 races.

#5

Any race at Hillside in Elk River, MN.

These are always great races to attend and when I do miss them (As been the case for most of them this year) I actually feel bad about it. I find myself thinking "What could I have done differently so that I could have made it." Most of the time there is a very logical reason why I was unable to go, but the thoughts still pop into my head.

The races is always well organized and there are a lot of fast people who show up. At only $10 per event it is also a great value. All of the state races are $25-$30 depending on when you register and I don't think there is half the amount of give-a-ways.
I also like that everyone races at the same time. Have a slow friend who races the recreational class? No worries, they start just after you and will finish before you. At the state races each class is on the course by themselves and if you race the Comp class while your buddy races the Sport class, you have to get to the race about 2 1/2 hours before you even toe the line.

I also enjoy hanging out and drinking beers afterwards.

Finally is the race director, promoter, organizer, trail steward...Rich Omdahl. He does a great job of making sure that the trail is in good shape and ensuring that everyone has a good time. It seems that he comes up with something slightly different for each race to keep it fresh.

Hopefully I can make it out to more races in 2013, starting with the Cold Bear Challenge and Fat Bike Fest.

Check back later for #4.

Fat Saturday

This past Saturday was a ride that I knew would be coming up in the fall and I wasn't going to miss it. Last years ride was a blast and I wanted to see if I could find some more winter riding spots. I had already missed two of Rora's soccer games this year due to bike races so I decided to go to her last game and then meet up with the group as soon as the game was over.

I parked at Lucky's 13 and gave Josh a call around 11:10. No answer, so I headed towards the river bottoms where I thought they might be. I called again when I got to Big River park and he answered and told me that they were under the 35E bridge. I hauled ass to get there as fast as possible to not slow down the group. When I arrived four people were already bailing because it was beyond there riding ability. I don't know what they expected from an adventure ride put on by a guy who goes by Death Rider.

We rode on rarely used walking trails, up steep hills, through mud and water, and down sketchy foot paths. The rain held off enough to keep things enjoyable, and before I knew it we were climbing the Lilydale Lungbuster and eating lunch.

We headed back down the hill and across the river into St. Paul for some river riding. I had ridden this area a few times before and need to make it a point to get out there more often. When it was all said in done we had 7 people remaining from the original 15 who started and myself. It was a good day to be outside when I normally would have looked at the forecast and just considered it a lost day.

Thanks again to Josh for putting this all together and providing food at the break! I know that he puts in a lot of time to find all these cool paths so that we can all go through it was as much "ease" as possible.

As I left Josh told me that he expects me to put on a ride in the future. That's a tall task to live up to. I'll have to see if I can find 20-25 miles worth of riding that doesn't cover any of the same ground. I have some ideas already... Think early March.

Some Thoughts

I saw over at the Almanzo site that Chris is looking to take a back seat for the race and bring in a new director. The amount of work that he puts into this race is enormous. I can't even begin to think about how to get an event to the point he has grown the race to, but I think therein lies the problem. Too much growth. There was a market two years ago and talks of a band playing in 2013 the night before. All of this is great for the participants, but for one man to take on, especially running on donations and personal money, has to bring on a ton of pressure. There is a reason that most races charge $50-$100. There are a lot of costs associated with putting on a race and the people who put these things together deserve some compensation for their efforts. I've raced the Almanzo for the past three years and the Gentleman's Ride once and can not express how much I love the race course and all the work that goes into it. Above and beyond that I am grateful for all the races that have sprung up inspired by Chris. Being unemployed for over a year it was about the only racing that I could afford, and it helped keep me inspired to get out and do things, rather than sulking about not having a job.

I am grateful for all that Chris has done and I wish only the best for him.


Other note:

I have been backing off of Strava quite a bit lately. I still post my rides there, but I rarely look to see what others are doing. My latest gripe is with elevation. I don't know all the ins and outs of it, but on a Garmin device you can choose to enable elevation correction or not. (The default is "enabled") So when you do a race and you get two VERY different elevation profiles you have to wonder why someone, more than likely, has disabled elevation correction to make it look as if there ride was more difficult than it actually was.
At this years Almanzo there were people who posted elevations around 7,600ft, while others were around 4,600ft. Where did they do 3,000  more feet of climbing? I've climbed 10,000ft in a day before, and I can tell that the Almanzo is not even close to that. Anyway, people use the site differently, I would just think that when you look back at a week, month, or years from now, you'd prefer accurate data so that you truly know what you are capable of.

Heck of the North

This past Saturday was the Heck of the North in Duluth. I had heard good things about it but was never able to make it till this year. I knew that the course was relatively flat but had plenty of challenges along the way. My original plan was to drive up late on Friday and sleep in the car. This got scrapped when I wasn't able to drop the kids off until 8pm. I decided to stay home and just go to sleep early and wake up at 4:15am. This had me a little worried because if anything went awry it could mean missing the race. I packed the car up with everything except my bike so that I could just wake up, grab a couple things and go. I fell asleep early  and got up right on time. I noticed though that I did not plug my phone in knew that it would cause a couple issues. I then grabbed a Monster and hit the road. As I was on 35 I saw a cop pulled over a guy and was giving him the DUI test. I then did a wallet check and realized that I had forgotten mine. I did a quick pros/cons thought and decided to turn around on 36. Now I started to stress a bit about being there by the 7:30 registration deadline. I got home, grabbed my wallet and headed out again. I normally drive fast, but now I made it a point to drive fast. I cruised at 80mph almost the entire way and made it to the lot about 7:20am. I felt relieved and got ready to ride.

The race start was a little warmer than I expected, which was nice so I only wore a long sleeve shirt to keep me warm for a bit. We did about a 2 mile roll out and then the race was on. I was able to stay with the lead pack till about mile 7 where it got too fast for me. At mile 8 there was an eight foot pipe in the middle of the road. Some people choose to walk around it, while others were trying to go over it. I was about to go over when I remembered that the bottom of my shoes are a hardened plastic and would not grip well, and decided to go around. As I was waiting to get across the creek, I saw two people trying to go over fall flat on their face. I was now very happy I didn't try and go over.

Not too long after that we were on to snowmobile trails. I started with a big group of people but they were hopping off of their bikes frequently and messing with my "flow" so I decided to stop and turn my headphones on and let them spread out. This worked pretty well. I caught back up to the group and was able to pass all of them before we exited back onto the gravel.

From there it was a pretty standard ride. Just before the checkpoint the wash boarding in the road that had been sporadically present was now unavoidable. It slowed my pace of 16-17mph to 13-14. After the checkpoint and off the road (I think it is called Drummond) the wash boarding became minimal again. 

We hit another section of snowmobile trail that was a little rocky, but once again a lot of fun. It's always good to break up the monotony of strictly gravel roads. Once we turned back on to gravel I took the opportunity to snap this photo: 

Off in the distance is Lake Superior. I think we had about 20 miles to go at this point.

Making my way to the finish my legs felt good and was decided to push a little harder. I stopped at mile 91 to get some water from some kids cheering us on. It's always nice to get some cold water. Shortly after that I was flagged down by a lady holding a clipboard and almost didn't stop because I thought she wanted me to take a survey. Turns out, there was a power line down up ahead and we needed to be rerouted.

From there I kept a good pace and other than a little walking up Pleasant View finished strong.

My time was 7 hours and 25 minutes, a personal best.

The event was very well organized and I had a great time. Thanks to all the volunteers that make these events so great! The organizers always seem to go above and beyond expectations.

The Farm (Updated 9/28)

My family has a piece of property about a hour and a half north of the cities. I think that it has been in the family for a little over a hundred years now. My Great Grandfather bought 40 acres of land and began to farm it. He quickly realized that he was not making as much money as he would have liked and quit to pursue other endeavors. As time went on he bought surrounding properties and there is now 280 acres of land. There are two good sized fields, lots of woods, and a river that runs through. It is a good place to go deer hunting and that is about it right now... Everything else to do with the property is work. There is always something that needs to be fixed or updated, but it keeps my Grandpa and Dad busy so that is good.

1953(?) Farmall Super M

Today's project is building a large shed that will house the above tractor and some other odds and ends. Three years ago my Dad restored another old Farmall and enjoyed it so much he decided to do it again. He says that this one has "Live" hydraulics so you can use the hydraulics while you are driving rather than having to come to a stop. It also has a wide base on the front rather than the narrow base on his other tractor.



 

Two trusses up.

When I got up there in the morning the walls were already up and the trusses were built. We had to lift the trusses up on to the frame, stand them up and put the supports across from one to the other. My Grandpa being an old Honeywell engineer is very meticulous with how things must be done and in what order. There is no convincing him to deviate from his plan. Sometimes this proves to be frustrating, but today everything went together very smoothly. No CAD  needed, just a pencil and a few pieces of graphing paper.

Getting there.

After we had everything up it was time for me to go up top and start screwing down the roofing. This is where having a nice drill comes into play. I have a cordless Ryobi that is adequate for small projects around the house, but is heavy and the battery life isn't great. My Dad brought his DeWalt with and it worked great. It was light, powerful and the battery lasted. The only issue that we ran into was the metal getting too hot. My shoes started to slip and I couldn't put my hands down because it would burn. There was one point where I though I was stuck sitting down and started to slowly slip down. I wasn't real worried because it was only about an eight foot drop, but I managed to get up and back to the peak where I could put a foot on each side. I screwed in the top, and they screwed in the bottom for the remainder of the day. I need to go back there and finish screwing it down in the middle.

From the inside.




From the outside



Done for the day.



At the end of the day we got everything accomplished that we set out to do and no one got hurt! It is fun working on projects where things are planned out properly and everything goes the way it should.





59 Cadillac



Side story. This is a 59 Cadillac DeVille that my Great Grandpa drove. It is the last year the they put the wings on the back and has the first stereo that you could preset the stations. He was t-boned by a drunk driver in Mora where the Vasaloppet statue sits in 1964 and there the car has sat since.

It is smashed in pretty good on the other side. There is no doubt that if the same thing happened today he would have been crushed to death. Instead, he had a few bumps and bruises and walked away relatively unscathed. 

Gents Ride

I wanted to do this race for a while but getting a team together proved harder than I thought. The week before I had no team and just planned on going down and enjoying the ride. On Tuesday I got an email about being on a team and decided to go for it. When I got to Spring Valley in the morning I met up with my team and we made our way to the start line across the street. We started out at a good pace with all of us riding together at a comfortable pace. With a little leapfrogging we made our way to Preston together. They wanted to stop at the store, but I hate stopping so I continued on at a slightly slower pace. It is hard to ride slow with all the rollers on the course. You either have to hammer up a hill or coast down it. It was cold and windy and all I could think of was this video:



 I arrived at the checkpoint where there was water, coke, cured meats, cheese, the works really. Shortly after I stopped my teammates arrived as well. We hung out for about 10 minutes and then got back on the road. I decided to  snap a few pictures with the day old iPhone 5 before we left though.



35 miles to go.



The climb out of Forrestville State Park is always tough because your legs are not quite back into riding yet. I managed to climb every hill until the 92? mile mark. This Oriole hill is a pain i the ass at this point. truth be told, I don't know if I could climb it if it were at mile 5. Anyway, I got to the top and rode the rest of the way back to the finish. 99.7 miles. This felt like my best gravel race yet. I never went to a dark, f this, place or didn't want to be on the course anymore. The clock however would show that I was 8 minutes slower than in May. I analyzed some data and am still baffled by this, but hey, the clock doesn't lie.

I had a great time and am looking forward to the 2013 Almanzo/Gentlemans Ride.

The panoramic shot is not easy to take

It looks a little hazy, but the day was beautiful.

Recap

Family evening ride to the city.

Work is going well, but keeps me away from posting updates. The last thing I want to do when I get home is sit in front of the computer again. Maybe I should start writing my updates at work. Anyway, August was a fun month. We went to the Wisconsin Dells for a weekend and had a great time. I've also been riding my bike to work so that helps me get that in without taking time away from the kids. I got in about 430 miles for August, I am happy with that.

DT Stillwater

Yesterday I went on a river ride with Josh, Ben, and Marty. We started just outside Cannon Falls on the Cannon Falls river and rode our fat bikes through the river until Welch where we had lunch and took the Cannon Valley trail back to the cars. It started out so so, but after some experimentation you can really see what these bikes are capable of. There were times my handle bars were underwater and I was still pedaling along. Those guys took a bunch of pictures and video that I will link to later. All in all it was a great day.

This month I am riding in the Heck of the North in Duluth and am going to try and get on a team for the gentleness ride in Spring Valley.

I'll try and update more and take some pictures, because a blog without pictures is pretty lame.

Rora checking out the bikes at the fair

Out.

There hasn't been much going on this summer. Just riding my bike around and that's about it. No races, no weekend trips, nothing note worthy. What I have been doing is working and it can be a real pain in the ass. I've been on about 11 interviews in the past month and a half. It is a process that I hate so much.  Not the interview itself, but the runaround that follows afterward. Everyone takes forever to get back to you and it gets real nerve racking. The average wait time seems to be three weeks. So I got notified that I had gotten a position at US Bank in downtown St. Paul in the administrative services unit closing out Trusts. I had to fill out a bunch of paperwork and then wait almost a week to get fingerprinted to make sure that I am not a criminal. The day I did the fingerprinting I found out that I got an interview at Prime Therapeutics for the following Wednesday. So I started at US Bank and everyone there was really cool and welcoming. It was an alright job, but I could see that I would be bored with it after a few months. I went to the Prime interview and things went well. I got a call that Friday that I had gotten the position at Prime and I was very excited because the pay was almost double that of US Bank. It brought a sense of relief that I wasn't going to have to struggle to make ends meet and that I would be able to get back to be able to go do shit that I wanted to do. I needed to go to some training the following Monday so I had to let US Bank know that I was not coming back. They were not too happy about it, but you have to look out for number one. US Bank wasn't exactly looking out for me either... So this past week I went to training which wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Now I have this coming week off and start full time at Prime on the 6th. I am really looking forward to it. It seems like a great place to work. I still have 2 interviews pending but unless they make me a GREAT offer, I will be staying at Prime.

The Strava

The Strava App (or website) has become pretty popular amongst road and mountain bikers. It is a good way to log your miles and the website has turned me on to some big hills in the area that I was unaware of, and that's about it.

The one feature that I have come to dislike is the King of the Mountain (KOM). At first I thought that it was cool that I could "race" against local strangers and compare times, but this has proven to be almost pointless. Sure, I am the "King" of this hill or that hill, but that only includes the small group of Strava users. I have never finished in the top 30 of a big (100+ people) race so how could I even begin to think that I am the fastest up a particular hill? I've also never been in a true road race and if I was I bet I'd be even further back once I reached my expected category.

I also don't like that people make downhill KOM's, or even flats for that matter. You can't go on the website without seeing orange lines all over the map. The other thing that gets me is when people make the same hill into several different KOM's. Take this hill in South Saint Paul for example:

There are 3 different routes, all up the same hill that vary by .1 mile. Are the users who created the 2nd and 3rd segments bitter that they didn't get the KOM so they tweaked it slightly so that they would?

I think that Strava needs to make a few tweaks to its KOM formula. In order to create a KOM the route should have to exceed a formula of distance vs. grade. I am sure this is how Cat. 4 and above climbs are measured, but they could just drop the scoring down a bit.

I'll still continue to use Strava to track my miles and so that I have the ability on group rides to yell at people to go faster because they are "Screwing up my Strava time." But as far as the KOMs go, I'll just assume that there is a non-Strava user who commutes to work and crushes my times on a daily basis.