Sunday, July 04, 2010

TransWisconsin


It's taking me a bit to get back in blog mode, so these last two posts here will be a work in progress. The raw data is here, but there is alot to think about behind that data. While all the many races this past winter and spring have had their lessons to be learned, TransWisconsin was the first I've felt warrants a complete writeup. So many things learned. Now to get them on this page...

The pictures(with captions).

The main website and audio updates

The Data(with some description on the Garmin page):
Day 1 112miles
Day 2 120miles
Day 3 120miles The day of sand, missing completely from my GPS. This annoys the crap out of me.
Day 4~90miles?
Day 5 140miles
Long damn day, less to do with mileage more to do with route.
Day 6 160miles
Mother. Rain, rain go away.
Day 7 Fin

Race Schedule: Past and Present

January 9th Triple D snowbike race 60miler, Dubuque IA(2nd place overall)

February 1/2nd Arrowhead 135 135miles snowbike race, International Falls MN(Perfect conditions, flat tire at mile ten, rode from last place bike to tenth overall)

Feb 27th Cirrem(should have taken the studded tires off)

March 13th Bonk Hard Chill adventure race(beating a fitness wakeup call into my head)

March 26/27/28 High Profile Adventure Camp(Awsome)

April 17 Bone Bender 6hr mtb, Smithville MO (Finished 4 of the 6hours. Not a rigid friendly course after all)

April 24/25 TransIA 300something gravel miles Grinnell and surrounding area(Epic conditions, used it all up to get further than most)

May 1st Syllamos Revenge 50mile mtb, Mountain View AR (Epic conditions, again. Crankarm started falling off at mile 2. Ran alot. McGuyvered a finish.)

May 9th Camp Ingawanis IORCA mtb, Waverly IA (A chain dropping good time)

May 15th Almanzo 100, gravel Rochester MN(Fast gravel. 21st overall)

May 22 Chequamegon 100, 100 miles of singletrack in the Cable WI area(Lost in Chequamegon national forest.)

May 29 Balltown Classic(dns, spent the weekend cheering friends at the memorial day weekend races and building bikes)

June 5th Dirty Kanza 200 gravel, Emporia KS (dnf at 100miles due to a crash at 20~30miles in. First visit to the hospital in 3 decades.)

June 12/13th Waterford HPRA races, human powered vehicle races, Waterford MI(1st Streamliner, 2nd Stock, 1st Trike. New trike 200ft record, real close to the course records for faired and unfaired hour races)

June 18-24th TransWisconsin(epic. 3rd person to finish on route)

July 10/11 Northbrook/Kenosha HPRA weekend, human powered vehicle races, Chicagoland

July 17/18 IA games road TT/MTB race

July24/25th Dusk till Dawn adventure race, Perry, KS

July 31st Spolka 6hr adventure race, Prairie du Sac, WI

August 7th Metamora 4x50, 200mile road, Metamora IL

Aug 14th Rapture in Misery 12hour mtb race, Trenton, MO

August 20th Gravel World Championships, 135-150is miles gravel, Lincoln NE

August 28-29 Thunder Rolls 12/24 hour adventure race, Oregon IL

Sept 4/5 Dakota 50

September 11/12th Hawkeye Downs HPRA, human powered vehicle race, Cedar Rapids IA I promote this one, come check it out.

Sept 25-26th Berryman Adventure race 12/36hour, StL MO

October 9/10 Xenia HPRA, human powered vehicle race, Xenia OH
or Milford Extreme 6/12hour adventure race, Milford KS

Some CX races in here

Dec 4th Castlewood 8hour adventure race, StL MO

Some more CX racing

Dec Tuscobia Ultra 75mile snowbike race

January Triple D snowbike race 60miler, Dubuque IA

February Arrowhead 135 135miles snowbike race, International Falls MN

Saturday, March 06, 2010

WWMD


One of the things Ford Prefect had always found hardest to understand about
humans was their habit of continually stating and repeating the very
very obvious, as in It's a nice day, or You're very tall, or Oh dear
you seem to have fallen down a thirty-foot well, are you alright?-
Douglas Adams, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Don't lose hope, there will be race reports. I've just got to put out some fires and start some others....

In the mean time, check out my yard sale here: www.dgyardsale.blogspot.com

DG

Friday, January 15, 2010

Triple D



After doing Arrowhead last year and the Tuscobia Ultra just a few weeks before, Triple D looked to me more like a sprint event. No matter how bad the conditions, it would still be much, much easier than either of those two.

As usual, Lance announced super fast conditions the weekend prior, which properly sets the scene for freak weather phenomena. Hence Thursday before the race, 8" of snow. Good. My specialty is attrition racing, not rail-trail time trialing. The intranets composed of much whining and talk of course re-route.

By the time race day rolled around snowmobile traffic had compacted most of the trail back to super fast condition. Re-routes were minimized to staying on the Heritage trail for all but the first and last 2-3 miles of the course to minimize the amount of hike-a-bike.

Competition was much the same as the previous years. No Pramann this year, but I knew I'd still have to work to stay ahead of Cory, Lance, Adam, Trevor, Ben, and Nick.

I made sure to pay close attention to the roads as we rolled through town on the way to the pavetrail. I could see how I got off track the first year. The pavetrail was 8" of un-packed snow over iced over footprints, pretty much unrideable for 90% of us. Cory got off the front early here. Sometimes breaking trail is easier than following, I believe this was one of those times, as he rode away on a 29er as the rest us were left to flail and walk in the tracks left behind. Trevor ran close behind Cory, and soon enough Ben and Lance rode away as well.

The trail eventually popped out into a bar parking lot where I found no trail markers or riders in sight. Great, 2 miles into the race and not only have I let the lead pack get away, but I've lost the trail. I was hearing a whistle tho. Lance was on the edge of the woods behind the bar blowing his emergency whistle. Turns out one of the key trail markers was missing. As soon as I hit the snowmobile trail behind the bar I knew I was going to have to hammer to catch the leaders and keep the rest of the 29ers behind me, the trail was indeed very fast. It didn't take long and I'd caught Lance, then Ben, then Trevor. Cory was way out there though.

Ten minutes of hammering brought him back, but then I couldn't get rid of him. I would punch it and he'd drift back a bit, but as soon as I let up he was right there again. The trail was too fast for the snowbike to have any sort of advantage. So I towed Cory for a couple hours, never really letting up, as I knew if I let up at all the rest of my competition would be rolling right back up to me. Then I saw the strangest thing coming down the trail at us, a trail groomer.

I had no idea they groomed the snowmobile trails here. My first thought was, "sweet, fresh packed trail". Then after actually getting on the groomed trail I found it slightly harder to ride than the snowmobile pack. Stopped and dropped tire pressure here after zig zagging a few times, and then it was much better. Well, for me anyways. A few minutes later and I could no longer see Cory behind me, sweet. Still wasn't going to let up as I knew Lance would be rolling faster on the groomed stuff with his wider rims and lighter weight.

The trail between Farley and Dyersville is always windblown and this year was no different. There was a fair amount of gravel showing, but there were also lightly drifted sections that could have used some increased floatation. I cranked into Dyersville with no one in site. Checked in, swapped water bottles, downed a chocolate milk, grabbed a hamburger, and started heading for the door just as Lance came in. Crap, he closed that gap way too fast. I jumped back on the bike, burger in hand and started cranking back down the trail.

I passed the rest of the crew still struggling their way into Dyersville, many of them making more progress sideways than forward. Keeping the bike heading straight while riding across their ruts was a challenge. Lance was only a hundred yards back or so. Every time I dabbed or zig zagged the distance between us halved. He caught me by the overpass at Farley. I tried to stay on his wheel, but he was floating where I was not. A couple more flails and he was out of site. I got back on the bike and rode tempo, taking my time finishing off the burger and hydrating.

The ruts kept me from getting too much speed built back up. It would start to roll pretty good, then I'd catch someones zig zag rut and have to catch myself from falling. Rewind, repeat, a dozen times or so. Then the groomer came back, how strange. Sweet, no more ruts. But it was soft. after awhile I could see where Lance had floated across the top where I was still punching through. I stopped and dropped my pressure some more. Back to rideable again, why didn't I do that sooner?

Back to hammering. New goals:A)keep Lances split to less than an hour ahead of me B)finish in the daylight. Unlike the previous two years where it was getting dark by the halfway point, I was now nearly 3/4 of the way finished and the orange ball was still above the horizon. It was nice to ride past the Sundown resort in the cold shadow of the bluff during daylight hours, I still remembered those chilling miles from the first year. Step into Durango, make sure I'm seen, step out, continue hammering. Even if I had caught Lance in this section, I'm sure he would have dropped me on the foot pocketed pavetrail massacre on the way back into town. It was like trying to do a trials competition on a loaded touring bike, not pretty. I finally escaped the pavetrail and managed to find the ribbons guiding me back to the finish. I was happy to be doing this in the daylight and not completely drained like last time.

I finished in 6:59, Lance finished 11 minutes ahead of me, in the daylight, no mechanical issues, and I learned a thing or two. Arrowhead is now less than a week and a half away. I've dropped about 20lbs off the total weight of bike and gear I'm hauling this year. I'm not entirely happy with my fitness. The competition for Arrowhead is the most stacked I've ever seen it, but I guess I just don't know how it will go until it's happened. I only hope to learn as much as I did last year.

DG

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

XC ski season



Everybody's doing it. Hope for snow!

DG