Sorry about loading this. Made a trip to Copper Harbor, Ironwood, Hayward then another trip back up to Ironwood for my wedding!
5.08.2014
5.02.2014
Driftless Dessertion: June 7th/8th and the scenic route from Stewartville to Decorah and back
We are planning to ride to Decorah and back on these two days with route similar to the following-
Day 1-
Day 2-
Day 1-
Day 2-
There are 16 climbs on the route which mapmyride has denoted as a cat 5 and 4 cat 4s with the first three of the 4s being basically back to back to back on day one.
We have planned breakfast stop on day 1, lunch on day 1 and dinner in Decorah (hopefully). Day 2 we will eat breakfast in Decorah, lunch at the mexican place in Fountain at mile 60ish.
If you are interested send me an email or comment here. This would be a good training ride for the Pasty Chase (and may in fact be harder). We will want to work out some details. There is potential for drop bags to be sent to Decorah, but that's up in the air. Likely, camping that night.
4.21.2014
Ragnarok(ish) post
I called from my back, directly in front of the Kwik Trip in Lake City. My Dad was hitting golf balls in town, did I want a ride? I did not.
I continued to follow my Garmin's purple line as it wound me out of town. Near the edge of town a choice presented itself. Would I follow my guiding line or wasn't Territorial Rd the way to Heath's Hill?
Jumping back a full week, the Ragnarok had come over this road without me. It's sort of the crux of the event, the part where, when you dream about winning the Ragnarok, you ride away and stay away to the finish. However, I had only ridden just over 20 miles with the group. I'm used to not making it real far in my races these days. The disappointment is something I've become accustomed to. However, this wasn't the typical crap health, excuses, real issues whatever that had plagued my fall and winter. This was squarely on my shoulders. This time I'd just been an idiot and not worn enough clothing. My expectation was that one thing would happen with the weather but a totally different thing had happened. Pretty early on I looked around and noticed no one else had bare legs, my legs were turning a pinky red. I was hurting. I had a bit of chain suck and had to chase the lead group for a bit, but even that effort didn't warm me much. That was that. My first reaction had been to ride 100+ Sunday. I woke up Sunday sick. I had to wait and do nothing.
I put the whole thing out of my mind, focused on the Dickie Scramble stuff and family stuff that needed to be done during the week. It snowed to the north late in the week and the road race was cancelled. The Dairy Roubaix had called my name, but I was looking at waking up before 5 to get there and didn't want to do that to the 16 month old. It was looking like I should just stay home and do the group ride. Did some mapping, trying to come up with a group ride route that would take me somewhere inspiring. All of the routes kept creeping too long. It hit me that with all the wind out there that riding south for a while could be greatly rewarded and a plan formed.
In the end I made the right onto Territorial and up Heath's Hill. Like all the other hills I pushed the pace. A ride like this does way more than get rid of some frustration, but it did do some of that. More so it changed my perspective a bit. Being able to ride health wise and to enjoy the beauty of those roads is far more important than any race result.
I continued to follow my Garmin's purple line as it wound me out of town. Near the edge of town a choice presented itself. Would I follow my guiding line or wasn't Territorial Rd the way to Heath's Hill?
Jumping back a full week, the Ragnarok had come over this road without me. It's sort of the crux of the event, the part where, when you dream about winning the Ragnarok, you ride away and stay away to the finish. However, I had only ridden just over 20 miles with the group. I'm used to not making it real far in my races these days. The disappointment is something I've become accustomed to. However, this wasn't the typical crap health, excuses, real issues whatever that had plagued my fall and winter. This was squarely on my shoulders. This time I'd just been an idiot and not worn enough clothing. My expectation was that one thing would happen with the weather but a totally different thing had happened. Pretty early on I looked around and noticed no one else had bare legs, my legs were turning a pinky red. I was hurting. I had a bit of chain suck and had to chase the lead group for a bit, but even that effort didn't warm me much. That was that. My first reaction had been to ride 100+ Sunday. I woke up Sunday sick. I had to wait and do nothing.
I put the whole thing out of my mind, focused on the Dickie Scramble stuff and family stuff that needed to be done during the week. It snowed to the north late in the week and the road race was cancelled. The Dairy Roubaix had called my name, but I was looking at waking up before 5 to get there and didn't want to do that to the 16 month old. It was looking like I should just stay home and do the group ride. Did some mapping, trying to come up with a group ride route that would take me somewhere inspiring. All of the routes kept creeping too long. It hit me that with all the wind out there that riding south for a while could be greatly rewarded and a plan formed.
In the end I made the right onto Territorial and up Heath's Hill. Like all the other hills I pushed the pace. A ride like this does way more than get rid of some frustration, but it did do some of that. More so it changed my perspective a bit. Being able to ride health wise and to enjoy the beauty of those roads is far more important than any race result.
Dickie Scramble on the news!
4.07.2014
Hills Iowa Spring Classic 2014 + General Update
I'm continuing to avoid many, many foods. At this point I believe the two most likely culprits are certain sugars and gluten. The list that I will continue to avoid is long though and I'm not sure when I will feel ready or comfortable to begin trying to re-diversity my diet. I've gotten stronger every day I've been on my bike since beginning the new diet.
The weather folks were calling for a good sized snow storm late last week, and Iowa started calling my name. I got into a great 5 man team for the Gent's ride down in Des Moines Saturday. We rode 68 miles at a comfortable pace with plenty of conversation and even a couple of sit down stops. It feels pretty good after a long winter to be able to sit down on your butt mid ride in the gravel and just take in the world. Here are a couple of pictures from the Gent's 'race'.
Almost immediately after the Gent's race I took off. I wish I had been able to stick around and see a lot of people there and hang out in the bar. The problem was that I knew I needed to get some food in me asap after 5+ hours on the bike and to do that effectively meant finding something I could eat! Burger's without buns are potentially on my menu, but I've yet to go that route. It just sounds terrible for some reason. Plus I can't eat most steak sauce, BBQ etc.. Anyways, we took off and found some food I could eat and then made our way to Iowa City.
We went for a hike at Sugar Bottoms. I try to make it out there every time I am in the area and it never disappoints. The dogs had a lot of fun running there too! I also learned some interesting history about Ding Darling. As a kid we used to go to Sanibel Island almost every year and I never had any idea there was a link between Sugar Bottoms and Ding Darling. He is quite interesting.
Late dinner at Monica's was a no-brainer as it was within walking distance of our hotel and they are very conscious of what they put in their food. The gluten free cheesecake and dinner rolls made my night. About half way through dinner we noticed flashing lights down the street. After dinner I wanted to go get some snacks at Walgreen's so we walked down that way to find this!
It was nice to be able to sleep in before one of the Iowa Spring Classic races rather than having to wake up at 6:30 to get to a noon race start. Two of my friends had come down from Rochester too and I was really looking forward to the race. Then I started looking around at all the fast guys I knew and noticing how many of them had on matching kits. I told Lew it was going to be a tough day out there, very fast at the least! Especially for this time of year. I won on this course last year and, of course, I wanted to try to win again! I think that mentally having won previously gave me a bit of an edge. It freed me to make an aggressive plan and to not worry about the potential consequences of riding very hard on new found "fitness" (fitness isn't the right word- but there isn't really a word for 'lack of poisoning or something which allows one to attempt to compete hard'). Anyways, I knew I would have to ride very aggressively and I was able to do so. It felt really, really good to be able to do so after so many cx races last fall, Triple D, CIRREM etc. etc. where it just wasn't there. Heck, where I was unable to feel like I was even pushing myself and competing for more than 2-3 minutes a lot of the time.
Here is my bike. There were some other pictures taken at the race but I don't have permission to post them. Plus I'm pretty much drafting as many people as possible in all of them, heh. Note my 'gravel' seatpost (google gravel seatpost if you don't find that funny).
Yesterday, though, the miles and laps piled on and a combination of my attacks, people flatting out and luck reduced the size of the group quickly. About halfway through the race there were 6 people in a lead group with 4 of them being riders from the same team. They sent a very strong/big guy up the road on the flat, paved, downwind section of the course. I tried to jump across to him and just wound up dangling 100 yards back and 200 yards in front of the remaining 4. Eventually he rode away and I accepted my fate. I sat in for a while and waited. Figuring the one guy was gone and that the remaining teammates would make it hard to compete for second. I attacked them hoping to split them up before they could make it harder for me and only managed to drop the one remaining rider not from their team. This worked out really well because then they took some pulls and we rotated as they wanted to keep that guy out of the race. Partly due to their help though we were only about 45 seconds down on the solo leader with 1.5 laps to go and I could see he was struggling on the hills. I went all in on the last climb of the lap, caught the solo leader within about 2 miles on the back stretch of the course where he had ridden away from me previously and then pressed on with him on my wheel. I knew he would be a passenger and just rode tempo to try to make sure the other people couldn't come across, then repeated the same attack on the very last climb and jumped cleanly away. It was emotional for me to ride that back stretch knowing that I was going to win a bike race. My friends have been saying all along that I would be fine, but I have definitely faced the possibility of never feeling that strong on the bike again and it wasn't a feeling I wanted to make peace with.
The weather folks were calling for a good sized snow storm late last week, and Iowa started calling my name. I got into a great 5 man team for the Gent's ride down in Des Moines Saturday. We rode 68 miles at a comfortable pace with plenty of conversation and even a couple of sit down stops. It feels pretty good after a long winter to be able to sit down on your butt mid ride in the gravel and just take in the world. Here are a couple of pictures from the Gent's 'race'.
Almost immediately after the Gent's race I took off. I wish I had been able to stick around and see a lot of people there and hang out in the bar. The problem was that I knew I needed to get some food in me asap after 5+ hours on the bike and to do that effectively meant finding something I could eat! Burger's without buns are potentially on my menu, but I've yet to go that route. It just sounds terrible for some reason. Plus I can't eat most steak sauce, BBQ etc.. Anyways, we took off and found some food I could eat and then made our way to Iowa City.
We went for a hike at Sugar Bottoms. I try to make it out there every time I am in the area and it never disappoints. The dogs had a lot of fun running there too! I also learned some interesting history about Ding Darling. As a kid we used to go to Sanibel Island almost every year and I never had any idea there was a link between Sugar Bottoms and Ding Darling. He is quite interesting.
Late dinner at Monica's was a no-brainer as it was within walking distance of our hotel and they are very conscious of what they put in their food. The gluten free cheesecake and dinner rolls made my night. About half way through dinner we noticed flashing lights down the street. After dinner I wanted to go get some snacks at Walgreen's so we walked down that way to find this!
It was nice to be able to sleep in before one of the Iowa Spring Classic races rather than having to wake up at 6:30 to get to a noon race start. Two of my friends had come down from Rochester too and I was really looking forward to the race. Then I started looking around at all the fast guys I knew and noticing how many of them had on matching kits. I told Lew it was going to be a tough day out there, very fast at the least! Especially for this time of year. I won on this course last year and, of course, I wanted to try to win again! I think that mentally having won previously gave me a bit of an edge. It freed me to make an aggressive plan and to not worry about the potential consequences of riding very hard on new found "fitness" (fitness isn't the right word- but there isn't really a word for 'lack of poisoning or something which allows one to attempt to compete hard'). Anyways, I knew I would have to ride very aggressively and I was able to do so. It felt really, really good to be able to do so after so many cx races last fall, Triple D, CIRREM etc. etc. where it just wasn't there. Heck, where I was unable to feel like I was even pushing myself and competing for more than 2-3 minutes a lot of the time.
Here is my bike. There were some other pictures taken at the race but I don't have permission to post them. Plus I'm pretty much drafting as many people as possible in all of them, heh. Note my 'gravel' seatpost (google gravel seatpost if you don't find that funny).
Yesterday, though, the miles and laps piled on and a combination of my attacks, people flatting out and luck reduced the size of the group quickly. About halfway through the race there were 6 people in a lead group with 4 of them being riders from the same team. They sent a very strong/big guy up the road on the flat, paved, downwind section of the course. I tried to jump across to him and just wound up dangling 100 yards back and 200 yards in front of the remaining 4. Eventually he rode away and I accepted my fate. I sat in for a while and waited. Figuring the one guy was gone and that the remaining teammates would make it hard to compete for second. I attacked them hoping to split them up before they could make it harder for me and only managed to drop the one remaining rider not from their team. This worked out really well because then they took some pulls and we rotated as they wanted to keep that guy out of the race. Partly due to their help though we were only about 45 seconds down on the solo leader with 1.5 laps to go and I could see he was struggling on the hills. I went all in on the last climb of the lap, caught the solo leader within about 2 miles on the back stretch of the course where he had ridden away from me previously and then pressed on with him on my wheel. I knew he would be a passenger and just rode tempo to try to make sure the other people couldn't come across, then repeated the same attack on the very last climb and jumped cleanly away. It was emotional for me to ride that back stretch knowing that I was going to win a bike race. My friends have been saying all along that I would be fine, but I have definitely faced the possibility of never feeling that strong on the bike again and it wasn't a feeling I wanted to make peace with.
3.31.2014
Lakeville Milltown Lakeville
I was thinking about waiting for pictures to post a recap, but I don't think I'm going to feature real prominently in any. I spent most the day following wheels as hidden as I could get. I know I am weak, but at the same time I'm feeling so much better than just two weeks ago I can hardly believe it. I've gone on a very strict diet. Eating primarily of almond snickers (seriously one of the very few snack foods that seem 'safe' for whatever reason), pork, steak, chicken, potatoes and corn meal. I started it on the 20th and felt so good by the 22nd that I went and raced aggressively on the road in Iowa.
So, I was feeling better for about a week then found myself trying to defend my title from last year... and riding "as if" and I wasn't dropped at mile 12 (like CIRREM). Then I wasn't dropped at mile 30. Then I realized I felt pretty normal. Then somewhere around mile 50 I started getting real real tired, but I was able to hang in there at the front. I found myself in a group of 5 and was forced to get out in the wind some, but I didn't blow up. Then I found myself in a group of 3 and I really was forced to rotate. It hurt, but I knew the other two riders were really strong and I was so happy to be there. I attacked on the last hill out of fear of anyone else attacking and the legs felt pretty good but it was covered well. I knew we were going to the finish line together then. I tried to jump the sprint as I saw an opening and knew I was likely the weakest and it didn't work.
Later we found out that we had short cut the course a bit accidentally. We had missed an out and back climb! The riders who rode the whole course were, therefore, the first real finishers. We had known it was out there and had actually talked about how it must have been missed while riding. We had though it was about 10 miles from the checkpoint and therefore the entire large lead group had missed it before any splitting? But it turned out we were wrong. Such is gravel racing.
I was very pleased with how I was able to ride. I hope that if I stay on this path diet wise that I'll be able to make something of the next couple of months. It's nice to be a bit "fresher" than normal I suppose.
I have some suspicions about what the diet issue is yet, but plan to hold the line with the diet for the full 8 weeks regardless. I do not want to mess up feeling better.
So, I was feeling better for about a week then found myself trying to defend my title from last year... and riding "as if" and I wasn't dropped at mile 12 (like CIRREM). Then I wasn't dropped at mile 30. Then I realized I felt pretty normal. Then somewhere around mile 50 I started getting real real tired, but I was able to hang in there at the front. I found myself in a group of 5 and was forced to get out in the wind some, but I didn't blow up. Then I found myself in a group of 3 and I really was forced to rotate. It hurt, but I knew the other two riders were really strong and I was so happy to be there. I attacked on the last hill out of fear of anyone else attacking and the legs felt pretty good but it was covered well. I knew we were going to the finish line together then. I tried to jump the sprint as I saw an opening and knew I was likely the weakest and it didn't work.
Later we found out that we had short cut the course a bit accidentally. We had missed an out and back climb! The riders who rode the whole course were, therefore, the first real finishers. We had known it was out there and had actually talked about how it must have been missed while riding. We had though it was about 10 miles from the checkpoint and therefore the entire large lead group had missed it before any splitting? But it turned out we were wrong. Such is gravel racing.
I was very pleased with how I was able to ride. I hope that if I stay on this path diet wise that I'll be able to make something of the next couple of months. It's nice to be a bit "fresher" than normal I suppose.
I have some suspicions about what the diet issue is yet, but plan to hold the line with the diet for the full 8 weeks regardless. I do not want to mess up feeling better.
Batman seatpost
This has to be some of dumbest cycling related crap I've read in a while but I bet you can guess what image they used to get people to click on it.... yup, a BATMAN SEATPOST!
3.24.2014
my ultimate trek 720 multitrack
I still love this thing!
A lot has changed since I first built this bike and some of those changes have meant that the parts are "trickling down" off of my 'race' bikes are a bit ridiculous. However, a lot of them are too worn cosmetically to sell for a fair price and others may as well get used rather than just sitting around the garage until they perennially get the nod for the gravel conspiracy.
Anyways, here goes-
1999 58cm trek 720 with a 1" winwood/nashbar carbon disc fork
dt240/zipp 404 wheelset- built by a famous wheel builder in CO, possibly finished tour divide multiple times in the early years of the event. Ridden by me over 5k miles after repairing a spoke that pulled through.
Shimano 10 speed drivetrain with 105 shifters, ultegra rear derailleur, slx front derailleur, 32/44 sram noir carbon crankset.
Random nice cockpit parts.
Might be the bike I'd keep if I could just have one and I originally purchased it for $30.
3.19.2014
"new" drivetrain tech: wide range cassette 1x "XX1 style" vs. electronic
I guess these are the two biggest recent drivetrain innovations. I have both- my thoughts...
My wide range cassette bike build is my new fatbike with a shimano 11-36 cassette converted to 11-42 with a WC Giant Cog. I'm running SRAM X9 type 2 derailleur and X0 grip shift (which I also run with a more traditional double on my 'race' 29er). The quality of the shifting is great. It doesn't care if it gets muddy or covered in snow. The wide range does provide me with enough of a range with a 34t front ring to do most any type of offroad riding. I am not tempted to convert my 2x10 race bike to the same type of setup, not even in the least. For mountain bike racing at any level or distance I would prefer a double. The XX front derailleur on my 29er shifts very well and it is so effective to dump "many" gears with just one shift. I also do use a wider range than 1x10 or 1x11 currently offers on a fairly consistent basis. The weight savings from the 1x are nice, but not worth what you lose.
My electronic setups are 10 speed shimano ultegra on my road bike and my 'gravel' CX bike. I don't think I'll ever be able to go fully back to cable actuated shifting. I want electronic on my mountain bike, my fatbike and my beach cruiser if it had gears. Riding up to the base of a hill and essentially simultaneously shifting the front down and the rear three to the right without even thinking is basically sublime.
The electronic I'm running is also surprisingly cheap. I was able to put together add-on kits (using my existing cranksets and brakes) for just about $650 a bike.
The currently available wide range stuff is incredibly expensive.
As soon as I figure out a reasonably priced way to get long cages on electronic rear derailleurs I will be hacking together a mountain bike kit with custom push button shifters. I have been dreaming about electronic shifting.
3.17.2014
Road riding and ski season: Riley's first time skiing
It finally warmed up enough for babies to ski and for this guy to ride the road bike. I got in 60 miles Saturday with friends on a nice ride out to Elgin. Another 55 or 60? Sunday riding back from my Parent's in Red Wing via Lake City. Sunday was particularly not warm as there was a 10-20 mph headwind the entire way. Anyways, it was fun. Electronic shifting is awesome. Bikes are fun.
Skiing actually really sucked conditions wise, but the bunny hill was great! Thanks to Pierce Skate and Ski/Bart for getting us the mini equipment!
3.06.2014
The Great Pasty Chase
Info here
Three days of adventure out of Wolverine Village. The best rides of my life have been up here and it is time to share.
The final routes are not now finalized. Expect to spend Saturday 'out' on our bikes, making our own dinner and sleeping arrangements along the route. Expect to ride 130-180 miles Saturday and Sunday. We will return to Wolverine on Sunday evening and go out for dinner in Ironwood. Monday will be a day for packrafting, kayaking, mountain biking, hiking and exploring.
Overall- the vibe will be one of hanging out and exploring. We will pool our resources and skills, dirtbag style.
Overall- the vibe will be one of hanging out and exploring. We will pool our resources and skills, dirtbag style.
Here are a few images to get you started on what this will be about.
You can email me if you want or get ahold of me on facebook
For extra credit you might want to look through my old blogs at rideonpurpose.blogspot.com with regards to riding in this area ("gorge", "epic", "wolverine village").
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