Abba Zabba you my only friend... and Ben Shockey

First off lucky for me I actually do have a few more friends than just Ben and a candy bar. I had the pleasure of seeing a lot of them today at CIRREM, a 62 mile gravel race. It was good to see all the Rassy guys, Oakley Rob, and Sedore among others. The folks can up too which was nice. Let's get to the meat and potatoes of this post though... race recap, it's what you came for. The weather was beautiful: probably mid 20s and not too windy (maybe low double digit wind speed). The turn out of excellent as well, 73 riders started and 57 finished. There was a good mix of cross and mtn. bikes, geared and singlespeed. I chose to ride the Eriksen geared 34x17. The race started off and the pace was furious from the onset. I tried hanging onto a group that had Jed Gammell and Kent Carlson who were also singlespeed, and some other guys... all on geared cross bikes. That appeared to be futile so I hung back and met up with a group that had Shockey and Kyle Sedore. We rode together for probably eight miles until the first real climb of the day. Ben and I rode off the front and no one came with us. He even asked if I thought that we actually could stay away from the group, and neither of us were convinced it was possible. Two guys, Mike from Cedar Falls, and Andrew from Ankeny, ended up catching back on and riding with us for a while. Once again I didn't really feel like I had legs under me until about two hours in, something I will have to work on for sure. Ben and I decided to just roll through the checkpoint at mile 34 and not get more water because we were both feeling good and had an extra bottle each. In hindsight refilling a bottle probably would have encouraged more drinking and wouldn't have changed the outcome of the race at all. The roads deteriorated as the day progressed changing from very firm to basically soup in the latter half. At about mile 40 I found myself screaming down a hill, snot flying from both nostrils, riding a patch of gravel maybe five inches wide, techno on the ipod and I looked down... 35.8 mph... I started laughing so hard. I couldn't help it, something about the whole situation just got me. I cramped up twice during the race, once at mile 44 and again at 56, but all in all a very successful ride... OH YEAH I got third in the SS class behind Jed and Kent, whoop whoop.

Race stats: 62.8 miles, 2705 ft of elevation gain, 6000 ish calories, 4 pop tarts, 1 bag of beef jerky nuggets, 1 bag of cliff-bloks, 46 oz of tea, 1 wreck that actually had the guy falling into my wheel and somehow not knocking me down, 3 dogs on the road. Post ride included: 4 beers...for free, 1 pork sandwich, 1 helping of chips, 1 helping of delicious baked beans with little smokeys in them, 2 slices of Pagliai's pizza, 1 20oz Mtn. Dew, 1 8 oz Redbull, 1 little bag of sport beans.

All in all a heck of a fun day. I am proud to finish behind guys like Kent and Jed who I really respect and have a lot of fun riding with. CIRREM has probably earned its spot on the annual race list.

This is some new shhhhhhhh..

Adam be puttin it down, I'm the hottest round, I'll tell ya mutha whaaa, yall can't stop me now. Yes, that's right, Missy Elliot lyrics to start off this post... you are welcome. New bike time baby: whoop whoop. The Soul Cycles Dillinger frame showed up today and I got it all built up. Preliminary rides are good, gearing is at 36x19 with the Schwalbe Racing Ralph 2.4's and it rolls pretty decent. The bar set-up will take some tinkering, and probably cutting, but for now it is all good. I am pleased with how it looks too, the white parts really stand out I think. I'll get back to this bike more after a few good rides. I want to do a metric in the near future on it, and a goal I guess is to ride a gravel century fixed... we'll see if that happens. Getting used to riding a bike fixed again may take a bit of time, but I think I am going to like it. The frame is designed around a 100mm fork (a pet peeve of mine in most cases) but in this case it will give me a slightly taller front end hopefully helping to keep the weight back over the rear wheel. That is also why there is such a big space between the crown of the fork and the tire. Here it is:



CIRREM on Saturday. I am leaning towards the cross-check with 42c tires. I think that gives me the best blend of float and speed. Plus I am already registered geared, and while I am sure it would not ruffle any feathers if I showed up on a singlespeed I really want to test where my fitness is at a month before Ouachita. It obviously won't be the same as 60 miles of singletrack but it will be a good representation of how I feel after going hard for around five hours. The rides I have been doing haven't simulated the type of intensity I am sure I will try and put out, so I am curious as to what happens. I am bummed at myself for letting CX skiing fall to the wayside this year, and try to find solace in the fact that I have spent more time on the bike outdoors than in past years. Wish me luck, ride recap to follow CIRREM without a doubt.

Project Starting

Good things are happening. Good things...









































The Soul Cycles Dillinger should be here on Thursday, and other parts showed up today. This is
kind of Frankenbiking trying to keep cost down as much as possible. The brake and seatpost are coming from the Pugsley (which got Sram X9 hubs, and Larry), the saddle is Aaron's old Inform, the Surly hubs came off the wheels that were on the Gryphon, and the Racing Ralph 2.4's are just here. The new stuff looks good. The wheels built up nicely, and the Tomicog looks really cool, as do the white spokes. It will be interesting to try and find good gear ratios. I am thinking 34x19 and 36x19 are going to be my two starting attempts. The Eriksen has a King bottom bracket sitting here waiting to go in, but I figure I'll just kill the Truvativ one I have before I put in the King bling. My goal is to have all the bikes up and running by the summer. They may not all be in finalized states, but at least running. I need some wheels for the cross bike or road bike, the Pugsley needs wheels built up and shifting figured out, Eriksen is fine, Gryphon has color issues: orange hubs with purple nips- bought a green headset but now think I'll use orange.

The next few days I'll be on the trainer, and depending on the weather, I may go out for a nice night ride after class on Thursday... if the frame shows up.

Sunday Hun(dred)day

First I want to thank each of the SIX people that accompanied me on this ride. I know each of them really likes riding their bikes, but in a way they are doing it for me. I'm the one that decided I needed to put in a 100 miler every month, and I am just dragging them down to my level. One hundred miles in snow and cold and mud is daunting enough with company, solo is really really difficult. So I want to thank Doc, Robin, Kyle, Kevin, Nick, and Steve for enduring on this ride with me. The ride left at ten in the morning and headed northeast. The roads were wet and squishy for sure, but luckily there were usually lines of snow/ice to ride. The preferred line was actually the sketchiest... all ice and snow. The mud road was just so soft it was like riding in sand and increased effort exponentially. Riding was going well, missed a turn here and there as per usual. I have noticed something that Shockey has talked about before: due to the training I have been doing it takes me around an hour to really start feeling good on the bike. At about 30 miles in Doc, Robin, and Kyle had to split due to time constraints, and then there was four. We grabbed some food at Jersey's pub in Cedar Rapids at 36 miles. Then the four of us headed out. We rode from Jersey's and didn't stop until mile 73 in West Branch. From there we headed back home on Lower West Branch Road. Realizing earlier that we were going to come up short on our quest for 100 I had to make a decision. So at mile 77 I took off from the group and ended up riding the last 1:42 by myself. It was brutal to go from having such a good group of support to being by myself, especially as the wind and snow picked up. I was happy at how good I felt for the entire ride, specifically being able to accelerate and then continue to hold a good pace even after 70+ miles of riding. Ride Stats: 100.26 miles, 9 hours and change on the bike, 2800 feet of climbing, 8950 calories burned, 7 people...4 people...1 person, 4 pop tarts, 1 bag of beef jerky, 30 ish oz of Mtn Dew, 80 oz of water, 1 roast beef sandwich, 1 12oz red bull, and 6 hand warmers. Post ride included: 1 24 oz Mtn Dew, 1 32 oz Lemon Lime Gatorade, 1 entire medium sausage pizza from Casey's, and 4 Advil.

This week will be trainer riding and maybe some racquetball, trying to get a little intensity built up preparing for CIRREM. If the roads are like today it will be a survival race. Gotta build up that intensity so that if I do any of the spring classic races I won't just start feeling good at mile 20 and finish at mile 30.

February 21 century

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Prepping for a hundie

Sunday Sunday Sunday we're heading out for one hundred miles tomorrow.
Quick thoughts: We are all going to ride mountain bikes... sweet.
We are all going to ride singlespeeds... also sweet.
By we all, I mean all seven of us: Doc, Steve, Robin, Kyle, Kevin, Nick, and myself.
It is going to happen on Feb. 21, and it will be snowing on us.

I am going to go out on a limb and say that this has a definite potential for a new favorite day on a bike. I am really excited to get to ride in this group. It is going to be really interesting to see how each person progresses throughout the long day. I am sure some interesting eating habits will form. Lucky for us it should be fairly warm tomorrow (upper 20's-lower 30's). Also something that may be lucky, may be terrible is that it is going to snow. The question is how much. Either way it should be a fun day, with a lot of good people and a rare opportunity. Getting seven people together for a century is hard enough... three is good, five is wonderful. Then to have everyone riding a singlespeed mountain bike, and everyone is running a very similar gear ratio, is so cool. I think looking from the side when we hit a hill would be awesome: cadence increase, cadence decrease, standing... all in unison. Hopefully we'll get some good pictures, ride 100 miles, and have a good time. Ride recap of course coming either way... unless I die.

New tools, new bike

Ooh, I am kinda sore today. My lower back was quite tight this morning, probably due to trying to stay tucked in for two hours yesterday. Just about an hour of yoga tonight. Tomorrow is going to be a weird, broken up day so I am going to bring the gps and may spend some time in parking ramps and climbing hills around town to get in a workout. To help me feel better about being sore I ate good food and bought bike stuff. Made some homemade chicken strips with thai chili sauce, worked out pretty well. Good things happened today: got new, previously ordered, wheelbuilding tools, and ordered the frame and needed parts for the fixie 29er. Wheelbuilding is so much fun, and I have been lucky to get so much experience doing it at work. I finally bought a Park tensiometer, a new nice spoke wrench, and tilting base for the truing stand. I have a few wheels coming in the future to be built and I am excited to use all this stuff.
One pair of wheels will be the set of Surly hubs from the Gryphon laced to some new Flows. I am currently debating white spokes... but I think that may be excessive. Either way the Racing Ralph 2.4's are going on. These will be under a Soul Cycles Dillinger. I ordered their frame and fork in root beer brown, with a purple ebb. The only choices are: blue, red, or purple so that seemed like an obvious choice. I am ordering a Salsa 17 degree bar, white FSA headset, GX1's, and a Truvativ Stylo crankset. I am iffy on the crankset... I may change it up. I am robbing some other bikes for the remaining parts. I'm going to start by running it fixed 34x18 with the tomicog, but I'll have the 17t White Industry freewheel on the other side. I am excited to build this thing up, I think it will be the perfect bike for short, easy cruising recovery rides, and snowmobile trails. Agent is really excited for it, as am I.

2nd Metric and one nasty headwind

Good Deal, I not only got in a ride, I got in my second metric of the year. I felt really good for like four hours. I got out on the Eriksen and was comfy, I may have to rotate the grips a little. I decided to try a different gearing today, and threw on a 34t Surly chainring. 34x16 may be good on some days, not as much on this day. The roads were squishy, and it was windy. Feeling good for four hours would be good except that I fell in the most rookie mistake. I know better. My intended route through Oxford and Amana fell through when a series of level b's were impassible. So I headed south with the winds coming strong, 15-20 mph, out of the WNW...and I went too far. I felt too good with the tailwind, and although I knew that the wind was strong, I thought I could staircase back. I was wrong. I ended up in Lone Tree feeling good and then turned north and got punched by a nasty headwind, directly in the face. The pace changed from 16-18 mph to 9-11. It got real cold, and real tough. Worth it though as it got me my second metric of the year and fifth ride over 50 miles so far this year, including one century. Almost one per week isn't too bad. It will be really interesting this year to see how the easy races play out. Last year I was religious on the trainer, probably five to seven hours a week. Unfortunately, that only got me interval style training, and my longest rides were maybe 40 miles, and that was only two or three times. This year I haven't ridden as consistently, some due to laziness some to surgeries. I have though gotten in much longer sessions of time actually riding the bike. The long rides are good mental training for the endurance races this year. Being broken down to where you think you may fail and then not being able to and having to suffer is good. The more times you get put down to that level of thinking, and then work yourself through and succeed, the easier it is to stay positive deep in a race, or when something happens like a flat or hitting a tree and pulling your grip off ten miles into a 50 mile race...grr. Hopefully doing the Feb. century with Steve on Sunday. So a lighter ride Thursday will be in order and then after Sunday get ready for CIRREM. If it is like today it is MTB for sure... dries up I'll bring the Cross-check. Eriksen would probably go back to 32x16 unless it is going to be a nice day. Ride breakdowns like this: 5 hours 21 minutes on the bike, 64.88 miles, 1183 ft climbed, calories burned in the 6000's, 2 strawberry pop-tarts, 2 cinnamon brown sugar pop-tarts, 1 cherry pie Larabar, 48 oz of green tea, 1 8 oz diet Redbull, 2 impassible roads, 1 bad decision (which led to), 1 nasty headwind.

Oh and I made tater tot casserole after the ride... it was delicious... then I had some Frosted Flakes... and a Mtn. Dew.

February 16 metric

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Bike decision taking shape/ upcoming rides

So in the continuing saga that is me and my undeniable thirst for bicycles I made some calls today. First call was to No tubes. I ordered a pair of 36h Flows to pair with the Surly hubs that are currently on the gryphon. I may ride them still on the gryphon, but I bought a tomicog so the plan is to ride these wheels fixed... and I don't plan to ride the gryphon fixed. So that led me to my next phone call: Soul Cycles. I am interested in a Dillinger from them. This may replace the previously mentioned k monkey. Aaron had one and he liked his, and I think they have improved the geometry in the latter two generations. That frame set up fixed with the wheels and some fattie tires I think could be a really fun gravel/singletrack/snowmobile bike. I want something lighter than the puglsey and more the feel of an actual mountain bike, but I still want something that can tackle the snow covered level-b roads. I have been reflecting on a ride done with Aaron and Shockey in December. We hit some roads that even on our mountain bikes were tough to ride, if possible at all. I think that a bike with 2.4 tires on wide rims and a tall front end to keep the weight on the back wheel could be so much fun on that nasty kind of terrain.

This thought plus the fact that I talked to Rock Lobster and their time-frame didn't work with mine, although I was happy with the interaction I had talking to them. So without that idea working out I am really still not sold that any cross frame does exactly what I want. I guess the Cross-check will work for now... it IS going to get new wheels.

Rode around today and plan to go for a ride tomorrow so I did some yoga tonight. The dvd I got from QBP is really fun. I did it for a little over an hour and it was like seven sequences of poses. I wasn't worried about riding more than just the normal school loop today so I relaxed, had a good salad at Airliner and got surprise company. Riding tomorrow, Thursday, and then Sunday. Tomorrow I think I will head south for my normal Lone Tree loop. I haven't mapped that one yet and it will be a fun course to "race" my Garmin on. Thursday I'll probably head north and try to get in a metric, although I have been really wanting to head back through Oxford and to Amana. Sunday is the monthly century with Steve. I am forgoing an opportunity to go to QBP's open house, but I need to get the hundred day in February, and it will be a great ride one week before CIRREM in Des Moines. Maybe someone else will take the plunge, I told Steve today to plan to route so time for some Eriksen time.