dsm 2 u

out of retirement - 2010 in review

2012-01-04T14:43:00.002-06:00

bringing the blog back out of retirement. it's fun to look back through the years in this journal...looking forward to more of the same.
so basically about the time i left off since the last post i was focusing my training towards the 2010 leadville 100 race. that year i did a "bunch" of long rides. 5 am/early morning long gravel rides are perhaps my favorite bike rides i have ever taken. prior to 2010 i had never ridden 100 miles in a day. in march i headed to decorah for STD (spring training decorah). during those 3 days we put in 200 miles of hilly gravels including a metric and century in back to back days.
figured out what not to do in the may 2010 almanzo 100. took allergy medicine in an attempt to clear my sinuses, however that led to cramping 30 miles into the race. ended up being a long 70 miles to the finish. 2 weeks later...minus the meds...i was able to do 2 laps of the CIRREM route (130 miles and 10k climbing) without any issues. biking in 2010 culminated with the leadville 100 and my first mountain biking trip to colorado. spent a week hanging out with andy lueck and enjoying the outdoor life around silverthorne, breckenridge, and pb'ville. met up with a crew of bikers from des moines for a few rides as well. ended up racing well even though i had some pretty bad nutrition mishaps during the race. missed my hand-ups at 3 checkpoints. finished the day 8:28, good enough for 3rd single speed and 59th overall. great times out there and would love to do it again someday.
after pb'ville i took about 4 months off the bike. got life back in balance after spending every early morning i could pedaling my bike. amy made a lot of sacrifices the months leading up to the race, so for that i was extremely grateful. did i mention she was in her first trimester of reid's pregnancy, with awful morning sickness while i was in CO? also in november 2010 i had an emergency appendectomy which i guess if it's going to happen, it may as well be after the biking season...=) well that leads us up to 2011..more on that later.

CIRREM 2010

2010-03-01T20:26:00.007-06:00

this past weekend jed and i put on the 2nd annual CIRREM. 100k gravel bike race through the beautiful madison county countryside. last year we had 25 signed up, while this year we increased to 73 registered racers. who knows what next year holds, maybe a capped registration at 100 or 125? well all i know is jed and i will continue to throw this event as long as we get more of the same good folks who've shown up over the last couple of years. for those that volunteered, donated, or raced CIRREM...thanks for making the event a blast to put on!
now for a quick write up on my race. i decided to ride my freshly built single speed surly cross check with 32c cross tires. i had exactly one hour ride time in on the bike before CIRREM, so it was sink or swim time. luckily it was right at home on the gravels and gave me no mechanicals all day. just like last year jed and i had the pleasure of leading the group out of town. roads were frozen and conditions were perfect with the sun warming us while the actual temp was 18. the pace was pretty chill for the first few miles, but it wasn't long before the pace picked up and i moved back in the lead pack. after a missed turn by the lead group jed and i found ourselves in the lead. perfect timing for a photo op!

shortly there after a few of the guys riding geared cross bikes kicked up the pace and it made me question how hard i was willing to push it that early in the race. well i was just hanging a few yards behind the pack when we crested a hill and i saw jed pull off to the side. i stopped for a bit to see if jed needed anything that i had. he was having tubeless issues so i lent him my big air, but he couldn't get the bead to reseat. about the time he decided to put a tube in ben and adam road up and i said farewell to jed and latched on. chit chatted a bit with them before upping the pace a bit to see if anyone else had been dropped by the lead group. i picked up a few riders strung out from the pack, but figured the group was too strong for me to catch up to. i stuck with chris skogan for a few miles to discuss his upcoming race, the almonzo 100. 400 registered riders...wow! i have no doubt he will throw another outstanding event even with the huge number of racers. well chris wished me luck and let me continue on. about a mile from the checkpoint at mile 34 i saw the group. i stopped at the checkpoint just a minute after they left. ryan vh filled one of my bottles and told me that was the group but that 3 went off the front. in two or three miles i caught the group of 7 or 8 riders. i was just dangling off the back for a couple miles really getting no draft. that's when chris locke turned to me with kind of a surprised look and asked if i had bridged the gap by myself. i said yep and he joked back that i should continue on and pull the group to the 3 off the front. well i was already thinking about moving up front and continue on my pace that brought me up to the group. when we turned on to old portland road i waited for a climb and moved to the front.

four guys jumped on until the next climb broke 2 more off. nate hicks and steve robinson stayed with me through a few of the tougher climbs. i think nate was just resting a bit while with us because with 12 or so miles to go he just rode away from us. i looked at steve and said i had no intentions of chasing him down. steve agreed and we kept each other company to the finish. steve and i finished tied for 5th overall at 4:05, but that was good enough for me to take first single speed.
i had a great time talking to everyone along the route...another reason why gravel racing is such an excellent format. jed and i are already excited about next year and hope everyone returns for the 3rd installment. next up for me is spring training up in exotic decorah iowa. gravel goodness awaits...one can only hope the roads cooperate. thanks for reading..

CIRREM 2010...Registration Open

2010-01-10T09:45:00.002-06:00

back for another year CIRREM 2010 is set for saturday feb. 27th. register by the 14th of feb and get a shirt.
cirrem.blogspot.com

feeling the slow down

2009-09-28T20:49:00.010-05:00

the racing season is all but over...travel for work should also be wrapping up for the year. the last 2 months was a blur. 7 oaks mtb race then a week off before races for 3 weekends starting with a trip with jed gammell and brian fuhrmann to the black hills for the dakota five-o. return to des moines for a double dose of imbcs action with the center time trials and sycamore tt. ending a week ago with a trip up to northern wisconsin to hang out with a crew from decorah for the 27th running of the chequamegon fat tire festival.
the five-o adventure was a blast, and might very well receive an encore. fantastic trails (best i've ever ridden), perfect weather, tent camping next to a stream, crazy long road trip, very chill town, cliff jumping and an outstanding race made for a great weekend.
my first cheq fat was also an overwhelming success. spent some quality time in a condo with some ne iowa guys. they were full of endless shenanigans since none of them were racing, which kept the mood super light. to race along side 1777 other mountain bikers was a bit surreal. enjoy the photos...see you around.

too cheap to pay $40 for a digital copy of the cheq photos....

passed 4 guys in the final 100 yards of the race....

i'm pretty sure the dude walking the bike is lost...but i'm totally smoking him

taking in the view...

readying myself...

launch...

ahquabi race

2009-08-10T12:38:00.004-05:00

first bike race since back in may...it's good to be back. bruce brown did an excellent job last year putting on the inaugural "mob the quab" mountain bike race and after this year it's clear this event will continue to grow. 60+ racers enjoyed a 7.5 mile loop around lake ahquabi 30 minutes south of des moines.
mass start was at noon and we were off. i let cam take the lead and settled in behind him in 2nd. after a little flow we hit the first climb in the loop. cam kicked down a couple gears and was motoring smoothly up the hill. i called on your right as with singlespeeding you need to carry as much momentum up the hill as possible. so i passed and continued on straight up the hill apparently with my head down as cam hollered that i had missed the turn. i get turned around and fall back to 5th. i get almost caught back up by the time we hit a nice steep climb. i stand up to hammer the climb. i take one glance up the hill and see 3 or 4 guys dismounting and running up the hill. i yell on your left, but it was too late as nate(4th) was dismounting and stepped in my path. i run up the hill and eventually catch back on to the train of jed, aaron, and nate near the end of lap 1. so by the end of lap 1 cam decided he wanted some alone time and moved well off the front for the rest of the race.
i stayed with the train for a couple laps yo-yoing off the back at my own pace. by the end of lap 3 i had to let them go as i needed to start eating and drinking in hopes of staving off cramps. that idea worked for half a lap, then the muscle popping began. i happily got off and walked a couple of the hills to stretch out my legs. i ate and drank everything i had on me...it wasn't enough. i nursed my body through the last lap and managed to somehow finish out the race in 5th cat1/pro, 2:38 for my finishing time. it would have been nice if the cramps didn't come, but i doubt that would have changed the outcome too much as jed, aaron, and nate were all doing solid work together to keep a good pace. top 5 was cam, aaron, jed, nate, me.
after battling the cramps/dehydration/headaches for the majority of the afternoon amy again asked if this was fun. was it fun...yes. is cramping and hurting badly afterwards fun...no. when racing i enjoy hanging out with friends the most as well as enjoying the woods at a fast pace. the need to get smarter about what i take in before and during the race to prevent cramping is #1 on my "to do" list. with my seasons biggest races only a few weeks away i need to get a strangle hold on these cramps so to maximize my fun. any ideas..let me know.
next race is in 2 weeks up at seven oaks in boone. last year it was a scorcher, hopefully we catch a break this year. in any case it will be a good test as there will be a solid dose of heat and climbing....see you there.

2009-06-07T17:35:00.007-05:00

a few photos over the last couple weeks. first my summerset race didn't start too well as a third of the way through my first lap i snapped my chain on a steep climb. proof..

even though my race was over i decided to head back out and complete my 5 laps...glad i did as it was a blast riding the new trail we've spent so much effort to build.

the week prior to the race my bro from california stopped by for a few days to hangout and relax before heading up to orange city for my grandpa's 90th birthday party. apparently his chalk drawing skills are not quite up to taylor's standards.

taylor "helping" in the kitchen

gone fishing

2009-05-17T21:40:00.005-05:00

snuck out for a little fishing with taylor. mandatory stop by walmart to get my yearly license.....and a pink fishing pole. turns out taylor is quite the little fishergirl. her fish total for the day was 4 while mine was zero.

and here are the rest of my ladies....

decorah time trials recap

2009-04-27T13:19:00.005-05:00

every year i am surprised at how great of an event the folks up at decorah put on for the time trials. all the locals really pull together to showcase their trail system and create a one of a kind race. part of that might be because they have been doing this for 19 years. my hopes going in for the weekend were to ride the trails for 3 days, socialize, and come back with a top 10 finish in the TT. this year ryan vanhouweling joined me for a weekend of camping and riding. other des moines peeps to make the journey north included kyle sedore, taylor webb, kurt benson, bruce reese and squirrel. friday ryan and i managed to head out of town early enough to get in a solid ride in the sunny 85 degree weather and really take in what the decorah bluffs have to offer. well the camping turned into living room camping at ben shockey's household as thunderstorms moved in friday night.

saturday the rain cleared off long enough for a nice group ride of the tt course. conditions were greasy, roots were deadly slippery, and rocks were slimy. everyone went down at least once, i had a nice flying squirrel manuver as both my tires washed out on a downhill hairpin. after the preride though it was a concensus that if the rain held off the trails would be prime for race day. that afternoon...rain. then thunderstorms all night.

race day came and so did the rain. thunderstorms hit just as registration opened. ryan and squirrel had seen enough of the rain and packed up for des moines. it was simple for me, if the race was on i was racing. well shockey, scotty and myself drove over to registration and to my surprise i see a bunch of mates running around getting things lined up for the race. no doubt the race was on as there wasn't even mention of canceling while rain was pouring down from above. after registration thoughts of changing my tires and/or gearing entered my head, but i figured we wouldn't be riding much anyway so why risk a new setup in poor conditions. i left the bike the way i planned and got suited up.

as the 10 a.m. first rider off start time rolled around the rain stopped. tried to get my legs warmed up on a paved road for a couple minutes as i was penciled in for the 3rd start position. i had no idea what to expect the conditions of the trails to be. i imagined hiking almost all the climbs since the day before i was spinning my back tire on about every climb with what i thought were better conditions than race day. i knew the two racers in front of me and one, brian fuhrmann, was my pick to win the TT. shockey was 2 or 3 spots behind me, but with this being his backyard i expected him to catch me on the course. so it was my mini goal not to get passed by him. well the first two riders went off at 1 minute intervals so now it was my turn at 10:02. i was off...first thought going up the first climb.."don't go down." to my surprise the trail was in decent condition considering the amount of rain. overall they were somehow in better condition than they were the day before. after getting acclimated to the tread, i turned to tt mode. with the course only 7 miles or so i knew i had to lay it down to get a top 10. well if you haven't been to decorah that's easier said than done as they are the most technical trails in iowa. crazy amounts of climbing followed by loose rocky off camber descents and now add a nice coating of slime to the trails makes for an interesting race. about 15-20 minutes in i passed the 1st rider. on the nastiest climb i caught a glimpse of shockey starting the climb i just finished. it was after that point that i began to hit a pace i liked. with only a couple miles to go i really pushed it on the climbs and could feel the top 10 growing closer with every pedal stoke. 48 minutes after it started, it was over. i never did see the 2nd rider off...as expected. now it was a waiting game to see who would throw down faster times. i don't know the exact times as they are not posted yet, but my race favorite bested me by around 2 minutes while shockey got a minute on me. so with 4 riders done i was in 3rd....not looking too good. then a few minutes later the fastest time of the day came in at 44 minutes from a wiscy native. i was now in 4th. i stayed to congratulate kyle, taylor, kurt and bruce as they all came flying through the finish, then it was off to get cleaned up. when the results were first posted after everyone was done racing i was still sitting in 4th. turns out they miscalculated one time and i got pushed back one spot to 5th. still i am ecstatic with 5th up there on my 3rd attempt. finished in the money, got a plaque, met my goal of top 10 and had a blast hanging with the local decorah guys as well as the des moines folks.

cheq cashed

2009-04-09T14:56:00.003-05:00

looks like i'm in. should be good times as it will be my first trip up to the fat tire fest.

try me punk.....

2009-03-18T20:36:00.004-05:00

happy baby

bits

2009-03-15T23:23:00.004-05:00

the girls left me for a long weekend up in ne iowa. i took advantage of the nice weather and rode my bicycle. saturday hooked up with ryan vh for some gravel on the jabbers, then setup his new wheels tubeless. sunday i basically destroyed myself...but had a lot of fun doing so. never underestimate what sport beans and a good song can do. turns out the cirrem route is more enjoyable when you're not riding in 35 degree rain/sleet weather...odd.

looking forward to some park time with the ladies tomorrow. gotta enjoy the weather while it lasts.

if you want to build some trails saturday, cita's got the first spring workday down at banner. i hear something about free burritos from chipotle....mmmmmm. does this mean we're now members of the argyle club?

fine threads

2009-03-11T19:57:00.002-05:00

cirrem

2009-03-08T22:24:00.002-05:00

where to start? wet and cold conditions really limited participation, but we ended up getting 25 or so hearty souls to pound out some gravel miles. sleet/rain and wind all greeted the racers. some mechanical were also had. i was cruising along in the lead group of 5 or 6 at mile 16 when my pawls in my rear hub decided to stick down, thus no engagement occurred when i tried to pedal. ran up the hill and spent 30 minutes working with a super nice farming couple on the hub. eventually got it apart, wd-40 cleaned it out and it worked the rest of the ride. my ride time on my bike computer says 4:30.47..while my official time was 5:02, 6th overall, 2nd single speed. dennis grelk had his own issues with a crank arm falling off, cutting his day short. half the field dnf'd, while the other half endured some brutal conditions to finish out the 62.5 miles.
i couldn't be happier with the way everything went down with the event given the weather. jed and i are already excited for next year...oh yeah, jed ended up tying for the overall win..right on.

cirrem recon

2009-02-24T22:30:00.004-06:00

needed a co-pilot to keep me entertained for a little gravel travel.

CIRREM awards

2009-02-12T19:41:00.004-06:00

squirrel straight up doing work son!! original cycling lyfestyle chain art for CIRREM awards.

ne iowa gravel

2009-02-11T22:27:00.008-06:00

spent this past weekend up in ne iowa visiting family, taking ella's first pictures, swapped out my jabber frame and managed to get in a few nice gravel rides. met up with decorah locals shockey, wild bill, scotty, and jesse on saturday for a little social ride to blufton. the gravels were a bit sloppy, but nothing that slowed you down much. here are a few pics from my rides.

here's to you

2009-02-09T09:36:00.003-06:00

just wanted to say thanks to the red pickup driver who decided to put the old squeeze maneuver on me this morning. he then continued to run the stop sign just 50 feet after passing me (feeling guilty?). here's what makes this a funny story...the guy was carrying a new surly long haul trucker and what really brought a smile to my face was the fact that he had a share the road personalized license plate. =)
so here's to you little buddy.....thanks for bringing a smile to my face this morning.

t6 support

2009-02-05T13:17:00.007-06:00

i have recently inked a very lucrative deal with twin six for the 09 race season. so maybe it's not so much a lucrative deal, but i am pretty stoked to be on board with the creative masterminds behind some seriously smooth cycling threads. if you need something to kick up your style a notch...check them out.

why you should buy your t6 cycling gear tomorrow.

CIRREM

2009-01-19T09:36:00.005-06:00

jed gammell and i decided we needed something different to kickstart the year/season. we give you...CIRREM...(central iowa rock road enduro metric)
-100k (62mi.) gravel race sw of des moines
-sunday, march 8 2009
-8a.m. registration, 9a.m. start
-categories- geared, single speed, fixed
-freewill donation grants you entry
-all proceeds to benefit Des Moines Bike Collective
-awards and schwag following the race

more details to come...just plan to be there!

under pressure

2009-01-16T00:38:00.008-06:00

david bowie/queen anyone? still dig that song.
swung by the shop after work today because sterling had my wheels done and laced up to some new stans arches. they're so pretty. stickers have to go though, although better than the old ones, still i prefer the clean lines. got them home cleaned the rims with a scotchbrite pad and brakleen before applying the yellow tape. installed a couple of tubes for the night to make sure the yellow tape is 100% free of air bubbles.

this weekend i will throw a sealant solution in to see how my tape job holds up. going to put a little slime in with the stans hoping that will keep the stans rubber balls from forming and drying up the goo.
while i had the wheels side by side i noticed that the 2.4 conti mountain king is indeed smaller than the 2.25 schwalbe racing ralph. no big deal, just an observation. i do like the mountain king on the front for winter riding. i had but a brief 3 week break-in period before the ice covered all, however it was a very solid performer in the packed snow.

in other news taylor is loving her new sister. when she's not holding the real baby, she's practicing with george.

and the obligatory updated photo of ella...3 weeks old here

that's all i got....later

new pact

2009-01-14T22:46:00.003-06:00

no bike commuting when temp is below zero.

the arrival

2008-12-22T19:42:00.006-06:00

welcome to the fam Ella Marie-

-born 11:38 a.m. 12-22-08

-7lbs. 4oz. and 19.5 in. long

we are thankful that everything went well and it looks like we will all make it home for Christmas eve.

all the cool kids are doing it

2008-12-12T18:01:00.005-06:00

left work friday afternoon to hit up the trails for a quick loop. temps would be hitting the mid 20's leaving the conditions perfect for a little moonlit run through center on the commuter. 3/4 of a mile from the office i heard a little pop and my crank arm bolt backed out causing the left arm to become lose. no problem i happen to carry a crank bros m-17 whenever i ride a bicycle, so i could just tighten down the crank-arm bolt and i would resume the relaxing friday evening commute and ride. "weird...the bolt just keeps spinning in the bottom bracket." sweet i have a non-functioning bike because it looks like the bolt threads are stripped.
my options..
a) call amy to come get me
b) call a friend with a truck to pick me up so amy wouldn't have to move the car seat to the jedi and haul taylor along
c) do the walk of shame...walk the remaining 6.5 miles home

well i chose d) pedal with only my right leg the rest of the way. so you think single speed is tough, try the single speed and single crank-arm combo for some fun. and for an added bonus throw ice/snow packed trails as icing on the cake. i'm pretty sure every car i encountered stopped to check me out for at least 10 seconds before continuing on past. you can't tell me this is the first time they've seen a winter bicycle commuter pedaling with one leg and the other foot resting on the top tube.
needless to say after 6.5 miles of one-legged pedaling my right leg was excited to be home.
the thing is this will finally push me to toss my middleburn cranks on the jabberwocky and migrate the race face set over to the haro. cool.
enjoy the weekend....peace

J money

2008-12-06T00:04:00.001-06:00

the return

2008-12-02T12:46:00.003-06:00

it's officially winter commuting weather here in central iowa, and i'm up for the challenge. was able to ride the decorah trails on friday with locals shockey and ogara. then out again saturday for my first ne iowa gravel ride on the mary. glad i was able to get the time on the bike as it looks like snow is here to stay for a while. see you commuting crazies on the streets....

2008 dirty duathlon

2008-11-04T08:53:00.007-06:00

my final race of 2008 was one of, if not the toughest race of my race schedule. it was cita's 2008 dirty duathlon. amy and taylor decided it would be fun to watch me beat myself up to the point of exhaustion, so it was great having them there. the race would all be run on the hilly off road trails in greenwood park or near the old science center in des moines. 2 mile run, 15 mile bike, then 2 mile run to finish. my goal going in was top 5, but at the tail end of a week long cold, breathing would make that difficult.

i started out fast as i just let the adrenaline do the work during the first run. i think i can in to the transition 4th open. threw on my bike shoes, helmet and gloves for the bike stint. i felt really good on the bike all day long. we did 4 laps on the bike and i passed all the other solo riders within the first lap. at the end of my 4th and final lap i knew i hadn't taken in enough fluids or any calories. i grabbed one cup of gatorade and downed the rest of my bottle of water while changing shoes and off i went on my run. basically i knew i was in big trouble once i hit the fist hill. i managed to make it through half of the run slowly but still moving. at the start of the second half my heart rate was pegged and i started feeling dizzy. i slowed to a walk, just trying to bring down my heart rate so i could make it to the finish. andy passed me, then shortly after another solo passed me. i was able to start jogging after a minute or two walking. not too long later i was pushing up the final switchbacks and to the finishing pavement. in the final 100 feet another solo dashed past me to nip me at the line. i had absolutely nothing left and was just glad i didn't collapse on the course. if you would have told me at the beginning of the race i would get 4th i would have been ecstatic. the way my body shut down on the run having a 2+ minute lead after the bike was tough. andy raced perfectly leaving enough in the tank to catch me on the run and go on to take the win. congrats man!! now he's off to keystone colorado, where he's sure to have a spare couch when i drop in..=)

photo credit goes to my man justin...thanks for the cookie and muffin! i inhaled them, water and gatorade right after crossing the line. once i arrived home i took a 6 hour nap before i could eat a full meal. yeah, i might have asked my body to do too much after being sick, but the du is just something you've got to do! see you next year.

catching up

2008-10-29T21:11:00.006-05:00

yeah...it's been a while. sorry for leaving you hanging like that. a couple highlights from the last few weeks.
taylor's first haircut...

reroofing our house....with my father-in-law taking the lead and both brother-in-laws putting in time removing 3 layers of shingles.

turns out the stucco is having issues and will need to be replaced. turning a roofing job into a much bigger project. yippy

i've been sick for almost a week now and haven't spent a second on the trails since working on them during the rollercoaster reroute almost 3 weeks ago now. with the dirty du going down this weekend i hope i can finally kick the sickness and try to spin out the cobb webs of 3 weeks of inactivity. hopefully i'll run into most of you at some point this weekend....later

quick notes

2008-10-07T08:44:00.004-05:00

actually been riding some lately, besides my daily commuter. got out on sunday for a few hours at center while the fam was out of town. i was stuck oncall for work, but decided it was way too nice to sit around all day sunday like i had to do on friday and saturday. then pottorff said he would be out at center again monday night at 5 for some dirt goodness. since the girls were still away i suited up and ran down to center even though it looked like rain. managed to get in an hour and a half of riding through a few sprinkles but before the sky let loose. never found pottorff, turns out he was doing some bike practice for quarter rage over at denmans.

did you know? this weekend is the biggest trail building effort of the year in central iowa. we will be giving rollercoaster (trail just west of ashworth pool in greenwood park) a much need facelift on saturday the 11th from 1-5 p.m. please plan to join us even if it's for just an hour. see you there.

sugarbottom race report

2008-09-24T12:09:00.005-05:00

sunday marked my final imbcs race of the season as this weekend i will not be able to attend the manawa race. the first and last time i road sugarbottom was back in 2001 or 2002, so my course knowledge was not exactly helpful. i road up with steve fuller and we arrived with enough time to preride the course a bit. rooty is about all you need to know about sugar right now. the projected length of the race was to be around 3 hours. my longest xc race of this season i believe was around 1:40, so i knew it might get ugly the last part of this race.

experts and single speeders were to do 3 laps with the ss'ers starting a few minutes behind the experts. i hit the singletrack first, with 2 on my tail. it remained that way through the 1st lap as we pushed a pretty good time. i felt strong and like i could push harder, but i tried to maintain a constant pace throughout. i let one of the trailers take the lead for a bit until he crashed, then i took back over. it was around 3/4 way through lap 2 i starting feeling leg cramps come on when pushing up hill. i let the 2 chasers pass in hopes of warding off the cramps. i finished lap 2 30 seconds off the lead.

lap 3 was all about damage control. i took in as much gu and fluids as i could stomach. by mid way through the final lap dnf'ing crossed my mind with pretty constant quad cramps. i decided i am going to be fighting off cramps even if i quit now, may as well finish. about that time "bang"...i flatted. hopped off grabbed my co2 and filled it up as much as i could. jumped back on and it was still squishy, but hopefully enough to finish. back on the trail 15 minutes later i ran into the guy who was in first. he too was cramping and was trying to stretch them out. he hopped on my wheel and we continued on. after getting his legs back he pulled away. i still could not hammer the longer climbs, but took my time and eased into them. the finish came with the toughest 3rd place finish of the season.

hats off to mark savery from omaha on his win and a great ride. i ended up 5 minutes off the lead at 2:44:54 and second was 1:30 up on me. on the other hand cam had a great showing taking the expert win by almost 2 minutes. with the busy weekend behind me...quarter rage friday, 5k saturday, sugarbottom sunday...it's officially time to rest.
thanks for reading.

zoo time

2008-09-19T20:37:00.005-05:00

with having the day off the fam cruised out to the zoo today. taylor produced some priceless moments along the way and it was beautiful weather to boot. here are a couple photos of the action at blank park zoo. take note of what the zebras think about us taking a family photo.

quarter rage

2008-09-19T20:13:00.004-05:00

squirrel continues to promote mountain biking in central iowa by hosting quarter rage. everyone should make it out to these races. for one it's an excuse to hang out with a bunch of cool folks, and it only costs you a quarter to enter. a lot of fun was had talking with andy, squirrel, bruce reese and others. quarters and a bonus prize from rassys was my take. see you next time....

rollin on

2008-09-09T21:46:00.001-05:00

center trails time trial race report

2008-09-07T23:50:00.007-05:00

(photo by andy's dad.)

today marked the 6th race of the imbcs, the center trails time trial in des moines. perfect weather and trail conditions greeted the racers this morning. my parents , amy and taylor all made it out to watch the local event. around 40 total racers took part in chris maharry's annual event. nice to see a couple roadies out there mixing it up on there mountain bikes. squirrel and andy mapped out the course and andy flagged it before the race...and ana and emily from prc helped out with timing. thanks to all you guys!

on to the race. racers went off in 1 minute intervals and i was to go 6th. i took one quick practice lap with a few too many bobbles for my liking, but ready or not it was go time. soon i was off. up the paved road a quarter mile before entering the single track. after 200 yards i was spun out on my single speed. i managed to keep the tempo high and recover a bit in the first section of trail. soon i made it up to rollercoaster passing my minute-man. i had a good run through rollercoaster picking off another racer before exiting.

on to hillside and up the first climb. after making my first little loop up top i caught a glimpse of a familier mug...ole cam kirkpatrick trying to reel me in. turned out to be just what i needed to push me a bit. after every log-over i would listen for the sound of a derailer picking up the chain slack, giving me a split on cam. he kept gaining, but the finish was now just ahead. we got to one of my favorite sections on top of hillside with a couple nice log-overs. i made short work of those and felt like i flew through that section. after grabbing a little too much brake on a sharp rooty section cam was all but on top of me. there was only one last climb before a short paved downhill to the finish. i pushed it through the climb and kept the flow smooth. luckily another racer heard us coming and pulled off the trail just in time to see us fly by. the finish was a blast with cam and i hammering on the paved downhill. i managed to stay one second ahead...although really finishing 59 seconds back of cam. turns out it was good enough for second overall and 1st single speed. jed threw down the exact same time as mine 40 minutes later. so we tied for 2nd overall, then andy got 3rd just a few seconds back. not a bad showing for the rassy 24hr team..1,2,2,4.

thanks to my parents, amy and taylor for giving me the best cheering section!
next up the imbcs visits sugar bottom in north liberty 2 weeks from now. good luck to all those making the trek up to wiscy for the chequammy...make some noise iowa boys..and girls!!

24 hours of seven oaks

2008-09-02T08:14:00.005-05:00

(photo cred to julie)

the goal...bring back the 4-man team 24 hour championship and the $1000 check that goes with it. andy lueck, cam kirkpatrick, jed gammell and myself comprised the rassy a-team this year. i got the call up to join these dudes who are used to winning. a little bit of pressure to perform.....yep. this being my first 24hr race i was a little unsure what to expect through the night and into the morning. the weapon of choice would be the rigid single speed vassago jabberwocky. not exactly the ideal setup for 24 hours of boone's technical rooty singletrack, but it's what i've got. andy drove up the rassy truck and setup a couple of large tents, complete with tables, lounge chairs, full toolbox, workstand, truing stand, bike stands, lights, generator, food and drinks. yeah...we do it up right.

kyle, troy and co had the seven oaks course in primo race day condition. temps were in the upper 80's during the day but dropped quickly in the evening hours. noon marked the start and andy was chosen as the lead out man....after the gun i quickly figured out why. he had us sitting in first team position, second overall. the start included a 100 meter dash to your bike and then a 1/4 mile nasty gravel hill climb into the singletrack. a solo 24 contender ben shockey threw down a crazy fast first lap, giving cam a rabbit to chase on the second lap. cam...well in typical cam fashion pulled away from the rest of the field giving me a nice cushion for our 3rd lap. shortly after heading out i started hitting a little lapped traffic. with the adrenaline pumping i was able to continue extending our lead while handing off to jed. keeping in our ways jed pushed the pace, further gapping the contenders.

by nightfall we had a lap lead on the other teams. throughout the night our goal was to stay clean and clear of trouble, while still pushing a solid pace. we ended up doubling up laps after midnight to allow for some sleep. i got an hour of sleep in, which turned out to be just what i needed to finish out my remaining laps. oddly enough the time passed by really fast, both while riding and also when hanging out at our sweet rassy camp. quickly it was sun up and we all had one more lap to do before noon. we all had 7 laps under our belts, so 28 total by 10:15 a.m. or so. there was a little confusion as to how big of a lead we had if it was two or 3 laps on the next closest team, ("get a grip" from chicago). andy made the sacrifice and headed out for his 8th and final lap to seal the deal for the rassy team's 3rd consecutive 24 hours of iowa win.

thanks have to go out to rasmussen's for hooking us up with the truck and equipment for the camp. and also for getting me some much needed cogs and gear in short order for the race. a big thanks to sterling for letting me use his light setup for the dark weee hours of the night/morning. and i couldn't have asked for a better group of guys to race with in my first 24 hour race. i had a great time hanging out at our camp with them and others like, sedore, grelk, shockey, lebeda, and everyone else who swung by. glad to see shockey back to himself sunday after getting hit hard with heat stroke. i'm already looking forward to the 7th running of 24-7 in 2009. next up is this weekends imbcs time trial race at des moines' center trails.

cam....we want our money....no seriously.......

final preparations

2008-08-28T07:57:00.003-05:00

the plan was to take the jabberwocky out on the taco ride to make sure it's dialed for the 24 this weekend. we got a little rain, but that didn't deter any of us from resuming our taco ride at denmans since mid may. turns out it was a mud-fest of sorts. lots of falls, a broken chain, inoperable derailers, and mud caked everywhere....good times. after making it out of denmans jeff and i decided to get away from the bugs and road up to the paved trail. after hanging out talking and cleaning our bikes for a bit we cruised back to the shop and on home.

with the "help" of taylor i cleaned up the bike and gave it the official green light for the 24 hours of seven oaks. the chain appears to be functioning fine after having lengthened it to allow for the larger cogs. the task for this evening is getting absolutely everything laid out that i will need for this weekend.

commuting milestone...

2008-08-15T10:07:00.002-05:00

...crossed the 2000 mile mark for the year yesterday on the commuter. and to think the baby blue schwinn's life was almost over before being rescued to become an extremely dependable daily driver. here's to you blue!!

training done right

2008-08-13T07:27:00.002-05:00

coach pushing my limits...

imbcs #5 lake ahquabi race report

2008-08-10T17:07:00.005-05:00

photo credit to indianola record-herald
rolled down to lake ahquabi state park just south of indianola, ia for the 5th imbcs race of the year. bruce brown put on this inaugural race, which went off in great fashion. not a hiccup was noticed over the entire event. i made it down around 9:30 or 10 with enough time to preride the course before the noon start. the course was fast double track but still had a few really nice climbs as well as a couple good descents. the single speeds and sports were to do 3 laps of the 6.75 mile course. we also started 5 minutes behind the experts.

3...2..1. good start...felt strong...found myself in 2nd or 3rd when we hit the trail. moved up to 1st just in time for the first nice climb. hammered and made a little gap. next climb was a bit more tricky and steeper than the first. gassed it going up and lost number 2. a casualty of my fast descent was my water bottle...meaning no water for lap one. well with number 2 behind me i was now on a mission to start catching some experts. first was kim west as well as one or two more by the end of lap number one.

lap 2 no single speeds or sport gearies to be seen. quickly hop off the bike grab another water bottle from the start finish area and get back on course. pass a couple more experts over the lap. continued to hammer the climbs..(guessing that's where i gained a lot of my time)

lap 3 not much excitement...managed to get a glob of mud in my eye.(thoughts of my first race of the season cornea scratch er visit danced in my head) flushed a quarter of my water bottle into my eye and all seems good now. somewhere along the way i pass chad vandelune on a climb and before the 2nd to last tough climb i make my way past matt gersib. it was definitely cool when matt was yelling some single speed love when hitting that climb. he was stoked i made it up on my gearing choice. i think i finished 9 or 10 minutes ahead of the first sport and or 2nd single speed dude.

had a lot of fun hanging with the usuals; kyle, taylor, cam, sterling, steve, sumpter, rick. also had great conversations with chad, matt, and the iowa city crew. the people always make the mtb racing environment so much fun to be around.
oh, and watch the indianola paper for some "fantastic" dialog from yours truly...might not be so fantastic as he grabbed me right after finishing.
next up sounds like the 24 hours of iowa/7 oaks at the end of the month. should be good times with the rassy team. stopped by rasmussens to get a couple larger cogs in case i need them. guessing i will at some point during the night.

imbcs 4: 7 oaks race report

2008-08-03T19:36:00.004-05:00

hot hot heat today for the fourth installment of the imbcs. this week found us up at 7 oaks ski hill in boone, ia. with squirrel, kyle sedore and taylor web signed up for single speed action the table was set for a great race. add the bonus of the toughest course of the series on the hottest day and i knew i was going to hurt.

at the gun it was squirrel then myself first into the singletrack, which is always important while racing amongst the geared sport class. squirrel was looking strong early through the technical trail sections. i had a lot of adrenaline pumping so on an uphill section so i zipped around pottorff and was ready to bring the pain. a tight downhill rooty switchback required some concentration then i was through, one big pedal stroke and wham...my front tire must have hit another root that i missed and i was on the ground. squirrel cruised past and 2 other riders were now stuck to my wheel. shortly after that i had a bobble and one of the sport riders shot by. i latched on to him and he fell off some of the off-camber trail and into the sticks. i was now on a mission to catch pottorff. when i did he was looking a little beat down. he offered up some words of encouragement and let me pass. i was now in first and looking to gap the followers. no matter how hard i pushed i was not getting more the 10-15 yards on second place. knowing that i could not keep this pace up and be able to finish the race i decided to let number 2 pass 3/4 way through the 1st of 2 laps. he was a gearie so i could afford to let him go. i still tried to keep my tempo up and finished out the 1st lap as 1st single speed 2nd overall.

at the start of lap 2 my body was telling me to ease it down else i would be dnf'ing. the heat was really starting to get to me. i dumped half my water bottle over my head and forged ahead. with the 2nd lap halfway in the books i had to give way to another geared rider. putting me back to 3rd overall and 1st single speed. that would where i would finish. happy with the w in single speed, not satisfied with 2 gearies beating me. if i had to run the race again i would have chose a 19t in back instead of my 18 on the 29er. for the 24 hours of seven oaks race i might even run a 20t in back. i will be teaming up with cam, andy, and jed on the rassy-a team at the end of the month for 24 hours of pain.

next weekend is imbcs #5 down at lake ahqaubi.

photo by teri pottorff...

dos

2008-07-29T21:53:00.006-05:00

a quick photo from taylor's birthday party...which reminds me i need to update picasa. been doing a lot of hanging out with taylor lately....running, biking, making/eating fake food (her new favorite thing to do).

i was able to sneak in a ride tonight before the showers? what? the storms actually missed us for once. hopefully the same can be said for boone, the site of the imbcs race this weekend. kyle and co have been working super hard to get bridges built and trail rerouted for the imbcs race as well as the 24 hour race at the end of august. i have yet to ride the trails up at boone so i'm stoked to see what they have to offer. word on the street is it's some of the best singletrack in central iowa.

also been commuting every day and loving it. now the dahls up the street is giving me a nickle off my purchase when i use my timbuk2 to carry my groceries...right on. coming up on a nice little commuter milestone...i'll keep you posted.

quick stats

2008-07-23T06:49:00.005-05:00

left by bike at 1p.m. monday....returned 3p.m. tuesday. overnight monday in jefferson, then picked up the ragbrai route to ames. with the legs still doing fine marc hollander and i continued on to des moines.

the inside of my left knee was getting a little tender when we finally arrived in beaverdale. no mechanical issues from the single speed schwinn or the trailer. the commuter gearing of 42 x 16 and pulling the fully packed trailer was fine, but i doubt i will pull the trailer over that distance again. too much weight on a spring hitch causes it to bounce badly when standing and pedaling hard on steep uphills. the trip was a great time and a good workout.

final stats were 175 miles in 26 hours.

CYcling country

2008-07-22T11:54:00.001-05:00

We have arrived in the land of cy. Now to continue on to des moines or not?

On the way

2008-07-21T19:37:00.001-05:00

24 miles to go. Rain stop.

a couple days on the bike

2008-07-21T08:17:00.003-05:00

hooking up with hanser, sammy, and marc hollander in the afternoon for the first leg of our mini tour. i will meet up with the boys in west des moines on my way to the raccoon river trail. then it's 60 miles to jefferson via the rrt to hookup with the ragbrai folks for the overnight. including my work commute i should have no problem hitting 80 miles for the day. we will then pickup on the 3rd day of ragbrai from jefferson to ames, 57 miles. after the overnight in ames i will be heading south to des moines via gravel, 35-40 miles. the trailer is packed with all the goods; tent, sleeping bag, water, food, clothes, and other supplies to get me by. spent some time yesterday giving the baby blue schwinn a once over to make sure all will be fine mechanically.

i might submit a post or two via my smart phone over the tour...so be ready for super poor quality photos.

hatching a plan and tacos

2008-07-16T13:20:00.003-05:00

thinking of doing a self-sufficient leg of ragbrai. i would take the commuter with child carrier in tow on monday afternoon and head to jefferson for the overnight via raccoon river trail. then join the tour to ames for the night and back home on wednesday. more details to come as i get things squared away.

tonight it's taco ride time baby....rassy's 6 p.m....we ride!!

forc side thrill ride

2008-07-13T19:42:00.009-05:00

sunday marked the 3rd race of the imbcs, 2 postponements, as i attended the forc side thrill ride at sunderbruch park in davenport, ia. the day started at 6 am teaming up with steve fuller for the trip over. as we reached the outer limits of des moines i figured out i forgot something rather important...directions. turned out to be no big deal for a couple of techies desperately trying to function in the real world. 2 smart phones with internet access and one with gps made quick work of the lack of direction.
we arrived at the thrill ride with plenty of time to register and head out for a quick recon lap. since the novice riders were first not all the course was open for pre-riding, but what was available was nice and fast. guessing 60 or so racers toed the line in my race. at the gun it was ben shockey and myself leading out the 1/4 mile climb to the singletrack. we both hit the climb pretty hard to make sure we were 1-2 entering the trail. before too long i was feeling antsy behind ben so he let me pass. i was riding pretty well and feeling good. i had a small lead when i made my first mistake. i came around a turn and started to hammer pretty hard when the trail i was on was taped off, so you had to do kind of a 180 turn. i flew under the tape and was just coming back out when i hear ben yell "whoops," meaning he saw my snafu and was now right behind me. it was towards the end of the lap that i had another mishap. i went straight when the trail went left. locked up the brakes and shockey flew by. with no momentum i was forced to hike/run the next 2 climbs. ben was gone...i would only see him from afar the rest of the lap. on the 3rd and final lap there was no sign of him nor anyone else behind me so since i burped some air out of my front tire it was smooth sailing to the finish. ben bested me by 2 or 3 minutes and i finished 3 minutes ahead of 3rd place for 2nd single speed and 2nd sport overall.
i had a great time at the race hanging with good folks, enjoying perfect trails and beautiful weather. the bike performed well and no falls/injuries was a bonus. hats off to ben for a great win, steve for hanging tough with his first season of racing, and rassy member andy lueck, returned snow bum, for an impressive 2nd place expert showing. next race is when the imbcs next rolls into seven oaks in boone, ia august 3.

another meaningful event of the week was the 2555th day of married life with amy. seems like we might be sticking this thing out. =)

keep - nokeep

2008-07-03T11:35:00.004-05:00

looking for a card game to play over the holiday...look no further.
http://keepnokeep.com/
i was blindsided by this site a couple years ago. a friend of ours created this site without my knowledge...good times.

otherwise it seems taylor and i are on the upward swing of our sickness. we should be able to enjoy the festivities that this weekend has to offer and maybe even sneak out for a little dirt riding.

hope everyone has a happy and safe 4th.

weekend happenings and more

2008-07-01T19:54:00.003-05:00

saturday morning i put in a few hours with cita building bridges for hillside. a lot of folks turned up to support the cause. new trail also got cut in to add a couple switchbacks thwarting erosion. i got a chance to roll a couple laps on the freshly groomed trail on sunday.....nice to have it back. the new trail just needs to get ridden a little bit and it'll be solid.
after trail work i had to run off to my nephew's 3rd birthday party. jackson never disappoints with his chaotic energy.

taylor and jackson in the midst of an "eat off" competition.

i managed to catch a cold over the weekend with a sore throat. sick in july?!? hopefully i can kick it by the weekend so i can get outside with the fam and maybe even hit the trails.
commuting has been much better this week with the various cities cleaning up the mud on the trails. now if we can just go 2 weeks without getting 3 inches of rain in a day.

wal-mart derby

2008-06-27T20:47:00.005-05:00

decided to get in a little longer ride in after work, so i took the long way home. not sure how or why but here it is....

black friday deal gone wrong? i did see tracks along the bike path as well. glad they weren't having their urban drifting session while i was rocking the commute.

you can see the tracks in the grass leading to the car on the left.

when i got home the entire fam made it out on a nice little ride before the rain came. you can't beat cruising the neighborhood with the fam by bicycle. good time indeed.

center trails saturday

2008-06-27T08:32:00.004-05:00

i will be at center trails tomorrow morning for some cleanup and construction of some bridges. join in on the party...cita blog. we'll see what 2 more inches of rain did to center, as well as whatever we get today.
other than that i've just been commuting and hanging out with the fam. amy is now finally starting to feel better...bonus. that's it for now. enjoy the weekend.

biking decorah style

2008-06-23T23:50:00.000-05:00

this weekend i took a vacation from the flooded trails we have in central iowa and headed to decorah for a long weekend. with the official ballyhoo cancelled, my plan was still to camp, hang out, and ride...a lot. the weather was beautiful all weekend long, making it possible for me to go on 4 groups rides and 4 solid solo efforts during my 4 day vacation. for those of you not familiar with the decorah area in ne iowa, they have 17 miles of singletrack which lies on 3 bluffs on the northern side of town. great photos of the trails can be found here. the photos are the only way to do the trails any sort of justice.

the jabberwocky performed really well all weekend and the origin 8 black ops carbon fork helped a lot with dampening the chatter on the rocky/rooty decents. it also dropped almost a pound off the front end.

to sum it up the weekend was a huge success. everyone i met was super cool, weather was beautiful, trails were perfect, and great camping made for an addictive atmosphere which was difficult to leave behind. i had one nice crash...all beit on the burliest spot of trail, it's never good when you have time to think to yourself "this is going to hurt" while mid-flight over your handlebars. even a little beatdown didn't detract from the good times offered up by the weekend. thanks to all the decorah locals for the work they put into the trails, and for providing non-stop entertainment well into the morning hours.

a few of us leaving the campsite sunday morning to grab some breakfast before the final group ride.

on the local front cita will be having a trail rebuilding day this saturday from 9-1 p.m. if you ride the local trails, help us to bring them back to form.

camping and riding

2008-06-20T15:47:00.005-05:00

got into decorah thursday morning. swung by decorah bicycles to see what the fellas were up to and they had a little surprise for me. my carbon fork i speced with my bike build back in january arrived. they installed it on the spot and i was on my way to setup camp. i was told the trails were in great condition, and wow...they could not be any better. see for yourself...

that's all for now...back to slacking off.

ride dirt this weekend

2008-06-17T09:05:00.003-05:00

from bikedecorah.com
"The BALLYHOO may be cancelled, but WE'RE STILL PARTYING!
Even though the official event has been cancelled, our trails will be in good shape and we're anxious to hold an event. If you're interested in coming down to Decorah, there will be Camping, Group Rides, Events, Beverages, Campfires and Grilling in the Van Peenen Prarie. Contact Deke at Oneota River Cycles (563) 382-0421 or Ben at Decorah Bicycles (563) 382-8209 for more information."

i don't know about you but riding some dirt sounds good to me after the last couple weeks we've had.

park double dip

2008-06-16T20:49:00.005-05:00

quick bike ride after work with taylor to hit up a couple parks as well as hills for me...grabbed this vid.

commuting is back to normal as des moines and urbandale got out to open up the trail underpasses. this is the best time of year to commute by bike as far as weather is concerned...get out and enjoy it!!

soaking up the day

2008-06-15T21:25:00.008-05:00

what better way to spend the day than chilling with the monkey. it was only a matter of time before i broke out the stunt wood. it's been 3 or 4 years since my last stint, but i figured taylor would get a kick out of seeing me in action. amy threatened me with the standard "so help me if we have to go to the e.r. again!!" yeah, i've had a few unfortunate incidents lately. luckily today would be incident free.

what can i say....the kid's got some skills.

we finished off the day with a quick trip to the local park. it's good being a dad.
on the biking front yesterday i put in a 3 hour effort on the fixie. still no love for the road. then this morning i rolled the jabber down to hillside to check out the trails. i managed to hit up some of higher ridgeline trails, making sure to avoid any of the low valley passes which i'm sure were trashed or gone. the condition of the higher ground trail was pretty good. we need to get a few folks together and do some general cleanup to open up a nice chunk of trail. watch the cita site for when you can help us bring our trails back to their glory.

friday...right on!!

2008-06-13T01:06:00.009-05:00

it's been a long week, but with sunshine predicted for the next couple of days it's time to get back outside. anyone know of trails that aren't flooded? i thought having mud on the trails was bad...i didn't know large trees could flow down such a small stream. the photo was taken thursday morning, on the way back through the logjam was twice as large. i will say this, even with all the rain and hassle of rerouting my commute i still arrive at work with a grin on my face because there simply is no better way to start your day. if you are like me your friday mornings at work start off with filling my nalgene (what bpa?), catching up on emails, then most importantly....where's lunch?? decision time...tasty tacos, cactus bob's, jimmy john's, pancheros, famous dave's, subway....what will it be? what's your favorite friday eatery?

if you would like to continue slacking off check out dirty moines for a good post on the current dirt happenings in and around des moines.

the unofficial ballyhoo

2008-06-12T08:49:00.003-05:00

with the 500 year floods upon iowa the news was no surprise...no "official" 2008 ballyhoo.

-update- word on the street is good times will still be had minus vendors and 29 inches. i still plan on camping, chilling, and enjoying the amazing singletrack that decorah has to offer. join in on the action if you like to ride dirt. later.

readying the city

2008-06-11T22:47:00.005-05:00

after work i decided to extend my commute down the raccoon river trail to rassy's. the entire trail was passable, however there were some muddy patches under 63rd and then under college. after saying hello to the fellas i was off to downtown to check out the river progress while also putting on a few miles. it was reported that court ave was flooding by the storm drains backing up, however the dm city folks had everything cleaned up and pumping the water out of the manhole and back into the river. with the prediction being that the 08 floods are worse than 93 i just hope we get little of the expected storm showers the next couple days. we'll see if all the sandbagging pays off....

bad news for the hy-vee triathlon...the field will do a dry tri meaning run-bike-run in west des moines. i know a lot of the fellow rassy team members will be bummed by the news as they were all looking forward to showing off the dividends of those countless training hours. i'm sure hy-vee will still make it a stellar event as it was last year when i helped out. too bad it lines up with the ballyhoo this year so i won't be able to volunteer.
on a side note i have seen more biking commuters this year than in any other year. enjoy the ride my friends and stay dry.

enjoying the little things

2008-06-10T22:23:00.007-05:00

took the monkey over to the little playground near our house tonight. since it would appear we are in for even more rain i had to get outside while i could. i always get super excited when teaching taylor something new, and tonight was the rock wall...

i had to help her out a couple times but then she made it on her own. she's the only 22 month old i've ever seen do that. well ok..she's the only 22 month old i know, but aren't you impressed by the crazy skills??

the jabberwocky made a short appearance as well. this rain needs to stop!! the big wheeled ballyhoo is in jeopardy! i know you all are crushed, but this was to be my big mountain biking trip of the year.
anyways on the biking front my commuting has been made bearable with the use of my friendly fenders. without them i would be a muddy mess as mud has caked the trails i take into work. yesterday i headed out on a little ride around johnston with dan. picked up the trestle to trestle trail on beaver heading to targetto. jumped on the neal smith and road north. we managed a full half mile before literally running into a foot of water. with water draining out of my shoe we chose to take the trestle to johnston. that kept us riding and dry for a decent ride. i need to practice the action shots better...dan's half in the photo.

hope you all are not affected by the floods...we'll see what happens over the next couple of days.

to the streets!!

2008-06-09T09:08:00.006-05:00

commuting has become a little adventurous with the flooding of the bike path. all of the underpasses were closed because of the water level and/or mud residue. my basement continues to see water, but since it's unfinished it's not a big deal. just getting a little sick of cleaning up rain water. saw my good friends the geese today. the mother is always excited to see me with her mouth open hissing and flapping her wings...i think someone needs a hug.

the cita banner work day sunday was cancelled due to storms and the park is pretty much underwater. so too was the copper creek tri. i took advantage of saturday's sunny afternoon by jumping on my jabberwocky and rolling around the local playground for while. looks like the fixie will see some more time on the road this week when we're not getting slammed with more rain.

hot prc du action

2008-06-05T22:30:00.005-05:00

the weather appeared to be holding for the punk rock cycling duathlon, so i gathered the schwinn fixie, running shoes, helmet and off i went to big creak after work. i was excited to see what duathlons were like as this would be the first of my career. thought about running the schwinn in freewheel mode, however donny made a strong argument for fixed. both my front and rear brakes were jacked up and rubbing making the fixed decision a no brainer. i flipped the brakes open and would run it urban style/brakeless. with the other competitors arriving it was looking as though i would get dusted in the bike portion. the majority of the racers had the tri/time trial bikes that weigh less than half of my steel steed. i also do not have a tri outfit so i wore my standard rassy mtb race kit...making it a little odd to run in, but i doubt it slowed me down. shortly after 6p.m. we started the race with what appeared to be around 30 folks. the first run was 2 miles and when we got to transition one i was in 4th place. cool...my first transition ever went just fine changing my shoes, tossing on my helmet and glasses and taking a couple quick sips of water. you see my bike does not have water bottle mounts, this was it for water until i got off the bike. off i went on the bike. when starting i could barely see the bike of 3rd place in front of me, but i passed him probably around mile 2 or 3. it was around mile 4 when nathan cruised by me on an uphill into the wind. uneventful rest of the 12 miles on the bike as i road it entirely by myself. that is until another guy passed me within the last mile before the transition. i stayed 50-100 yards behind him and met him in the transition. i swapped shoes, tossed the helmet and glasses, grabbed my water bottle and off i went back in 4th by a hair. i took two quick drinks of water and tossed the bottle. i could not see 3rd place until we came near the turn-around point at 1 mile. the gap was shrinking. i got as close as 20 yards at the end, but had to settle for 4th. my time was 1:01 something. for my first du format race, this was a good event. rick, donny, kelli, jane and the other volunteers did a great job and i appreciated their cheers and laughs...they were laughing with me right??

unfortunately this is the kind of training i will be doing until it stops raining every day. i'm just itching to get back on the jabberwocky and cruise some dirt. hopefully it at least is bearable on sunday for our trail work down at banner. come join us sunday afternoon for a bit if you can. that's all i've got...have a great friday and weekend!!!

flooded dirt = ritual ride

2008-06-04T21:02:00.010-05:00

joined the good folks on the ritual road ride this evening. i had to bike home from work, change bikes and head downtown to catch the group before they left at 5:30. luckily they were running a few minutes late so i made it to the ritual cafe right as they were leaving. i was looking for an easy ride to let my body recover from the last week of training. still looking for that easy ride. i road the schwinn 52x17 fixed which turned out to be a solid workout. no computer on the schwinn, i wish i would have known my speed on some of the descents guessing i hit near 40mph. the legs really could have used some coasting midway through the ride, but i figure it all just makes me stronger. had some good company with rick and/or hanser hanging with me the majority of the ride. stats...14 miles commuting, 9 miles to/from downtown, 22 miles ritual ride equals me getting in better shape today. not sure if i'll make the duathlon tomorrow night, but we'll see.
hanser/zippie sleeping????

hanging on the tail end of the lead pack....

also met some new folks including chris, newest member of the prc ladies. yep, she's fast.

sandbagging slacker

2008-06-03T20:18:00.010-05:00

this is what i saw 10 minutes into my ride tonight...i knew something was up when we crossed the raging des moines river and i didn't hear her yelling "water!" yeah, we don't have to do much to entertain our little one. with showers spotty around the area i didn't want to venture too far so we shot up the neal smith trail to the saylorville dam. (had to get at least one good climb in.) tonight i also forgot my glasses....a huge no-no when the trail you're riding is a swamp and the gnats are thick. minus the gnats in my eyes it was great to get out this evening when i feared it would be raining. something like 22 miles, fast pace solid quick workout with the monkey.

yesterday's workout consisted of a mini duathlon, biked home from work taking the long route passed rassy's 10-12 miles, then grabbed taylor and ran 4 miles. i'm not going to lie, i was struggling. tossing around the idea of entering the prc duathlon on thursday. if i do it will be using my 80's schwinn singlespeed road bike 52x17 gearing =). the format is 2 mile run then 12 mile bike and 2 mile run to finish. should be fun if the weather cooperates a little bit.

hope you all are managing to stay dry. we'll see what happens over the next couple of days, but it looks like the flooding will continue through the week and maybe even next. i hope decorah is missing some of this rain as the big wheeled ballyhoo is coming up in a couple weeks. word on the street is salsa cycles will be introducing 2 new bikes at the ballyhoo and you can demo them on the sweet decorah singletrack. come join the fun if you're not checking out the hy-vee tri that weekend.

dudes with kids...

2008-06-01T23:38:00.006-05:00

squirrel, rick, and myself took our little ladies out for a ride and hit up a couple parks sunday afternoon. headed due west on the trails...guessing taylor and i logged 15-20 miles round trip. i got a big kick out the expression on peoples faces as we rolled on by, each of us pulling our young ones by trailer. definitely will have to do this again...good times.

backyard camping

2008-06-01T09:51:00.005-05:00

since there was no race saturday taylor and i took off on a bike ride downtown. we saw the dam to dam festivities as well as the farmers market. we did not let those distract us from our goal though as we were headed to gray's lake. taylor wanted to see water, boats and a park all of which could be found at gray's. after all the fun was had at grey's we returned home. 1.5 hours medium pace on the bike.

i've had this idea since last year about going camping with taylor at some point, well i decided to do a trial run last night. i pitched the tent in the backyard, and had to explain to one neighbor that i had not been forced out of the house by my wife but rather testing the tenting waters of my almost 2 year old. we were left alone around 9 to start reading books and begin the relaxing period. there was a point around 10 or shortly after that i thought about aborting the city camping mission. with sirens, motorcycles, airplanes, and normal saturday night city sounds it would be difficult for me to sleep let alone taylor. well shortly after that moment taylor laid down and got really quiet. by 10:30 she was out cold and i was shortly after. the next thing i knew i awoke to "boo!" taylor was nose to nose with me at 6:15 a.m. being my alarm clock. good times. so the camping test went well. we'll see if i'm brave enough to try it again without the comfort of our house 20 feet away.

rain = no racing

2008-05-31T10:02:00.002-05:00

friday afternoon i got the email....
"Due to heavy rains and flooding, Psycowpath MTB Series race #4 / IMBCS race #3 is cancelled for this weekend.
A new date will be announced soon."
hard to get that news when friday and saturday are sunny 80 degree days.

broken

2008-05-30T10:30:00.004-05:00

last night i decided to quick go through the jabberwocky for the race this saturday (manawa mayhem imbcs #3), making sure everything is cranked down, chain tension is good, and wipe off the majority of the caked on mud. everything appeared to be in good shape until i spotted my right egg beater pedal. one of the clip supports was gone! so instead of having 4 sides to clip in, i was down to only 2 spots.

a quick trip to rassy’s and they will send them in under warranty (whew.. i did not want to be the one to tell a pregnant amy i needed to buy more bike parts…yikes! =)..). also sterling has an extra set of sl’s that he’s loaning me for the race. talk about helping me out in a pinch. thanks man!!
i have always been a big supporter of the egg beaters because i’m still running a set of the originals from 6 years ago on another bike. shockstar warned me of the problems he’s seen with the pedals, really only springs breaking though. with the “c” style of egg beater i have the support that broke is only half as wide at the base as the others to accommodate the spring. my originals and the sl’s are designed around all four supports having the same sized full base. i am interested to hear what crank bros says about the failure as it would appear to be a design flaw. hopefully they send back a redesigned pair of the “c” model.

work and ride

2008-05-25T17:56:00.008-05:00

not planned, but excited amy and i should have a new addition by december 30....come on tax break!! luckily i worked nights this last week as i could then watch taylor while amy tried to make it through the mornings. we'll see how next week goes.

saturday morning i hooked up with the cita boys to build some trail and bridges down at banner. with the rain stopping shortly after arriving at the park, building went on as planned. once work was complete sammy lopez grilled up some fine beef and buffalo burgers with beans. good times were had, but better times will come on race day june 29.

today i took taylor on a bike ride up to saylorville to see the weekend boaters. she had a great time seeing all the boats on the lake and river, as well as all the bikers on the trail. i got a solid workout in after 2.5 hours of towing the sandbagger around. hope you all enjoy your day off tomorrow...cheers!

still no wooden shoe...

2008-05-19T20:57:00.006-05:00

the wooden shoe will have to wait for another year. i am happy with the time i ran at the tulip time road race, just not the result. 7th overall and 3rd in my age group. time to start preparing for a flat and fast IMBCS race in council bluffs on the 31st. squirrel says the council bluffs course is flat tight singletrack with logovers. a heavy dose of denmans aught to do the trick.

also picked up a strider from rassy's for taylor. she was just a little bit excited to say the least. i was shocked at how well she could control it already. if you've got a little dude or dute make sure to check them out. the idea is to learn their balance on the strider and move straight to a real deal bike minus training wheels. we'll see how that pans out.

lastly i've got to give some props to my little sister in-law megan. after years of hard work and a few different colleges she has finished up her forestry degree at the university of minnesota. cheers megan!!!

rollin with the monkey

2008-05-06T21:20:00.006-05:00

uploaded some taylor spring photos. last night taylor and i zipped around the neighborhood...too nice of weather to be indoors.

tonight was a short 4 mile run pushing the monkey in the jogging stroller. in case you didn't already know just because you can ride a bike semi-fast does not correlate with the ability to run fast. i have a week and a half to get whipped into shape for my hometown 5k. my goal....bring home 1st in my age group and the coveted prize...a dutch wooden shoe. i have a lot of work to do just to not make a fool of myself though. we'll see how the rest of this week shakes out.

what are the chances rain will stay away for the taco ride tomorrow night?? hopefully it does as i'd like to get back on the jabber.

ingawanis race report

2008-05-04T19:30:00.006-05:00

today was the second stop in the imbcs which was at ingawanis camp south of waverly. with little of the rain projected during the week actually falling the course was in great condition. steve fuller and i teamed up for the commute to the race...which made the drive time fly by. we arrived with enough time to grab the bikes and head out on a pre-ride/recon of the course. wow..not what i was expecting at all. last time i was up there it was fast and flat. the course was mostly tight technical singletrack with a lot of climbing mixed in. after the pre-ride i was ready to go. a good number of folks showed up, around 40 or so, for the sport and singlespeed race. after the semi-pro/expert racers were off...surprise surprise fellow rassy member cam took the win...the sport/singlespeed class was ready to roll. the start was about a quarter mile of gravel until the singletrack trail started. for some reason i always have slow starts so going into the start of the singletrack i was in 10th or worse. while we all tried to funnel through the first section i could see the leaders gaping the little cluster i was in. i waited for little gaps and quickly started making ground...mostly taking advantage of the climbs. i soon was sitting behind kyle sedore half way through the first lap of three. luckily i hadn't blown up yet and kyle let me past shortly before the end of the first lap. as i was heading around kyle i asked if he was 1st and to my surprise he said yes. i then layed the hammer down as best i could. all the way through the second lap i would catch glimpses of some commotion behind me. on my third and final lap my thoughts turned to take the downhills with caution and continue to hammer the climbs. i pulled into the finish feeling strong and super happy as i pulled down my first win of the season. my prize for my efforts. all day long i felt great and everything fell into place for me to have a good race. my lingering effects from my cold didn't seem to bother my breathing and the body held up well. the bike keeps surprising me with the punishment it takes and keeps coming back for more. i'm glad rassys was able to get my oury grips in super fast...they stuck to my hands like glue all day long. good times were had milling about amongst my fellow racers. ben shockey made it down from decorah bicycles, marty from prarie du chein, and many more from the des moines area. next race will be the last weekend in may over in council bluffs for imbcs 3.

are you kidding me?

2008-04-30T14:24:00.001-05:00

taken from a dmregister.com article
"Grassley said the best solution to stem high gas prices is to do more drilling in Alaska or other areas where oil is available."

what about better mass transit systems? more bike lanes? incentives for alternative transportation methods?

man down

2008-04-28T16:30:00.006-05:00

my body has finally succumbed to the sickness taylor and amy had last week. head cold plus trashed throat. i felt it coming on friday, then it hit full force on saturday. it looked as though i would not be making it to the decorah time trials this year. well i woke up on sunday without a lot of the pressure in my head, so off to decorah i went. stopped by wal-mart for some dayquil (my energy drink for the day) and got my packet and start time as i already pre-registered months ago. i chose to start 10th out of 90 riders. we are released at 1 minute intervals. i figured the sooner the better. i knew it was going to be a ruff day for me when i started coughing every time i tried to give quick bursts on the bike to warm up. oh well, i had a new bike (got it on friday), i was in ne iowa, and for getting 4 inches of rain on thursday night the course looked great...so i was going to ride. 10:10 i was off on to the 12 mile course with 5400ft of vertical climbing. we started off on brand new trail they built this spring consisting mainly of loose rocks. my bike slid out from under me at least 3 times in the first 200 yards. any second i was expecting the rider starting behind me to pass while i was frantically scurrying over the tumbling rocks. luckily i soon made it out of the first section passing a rider in front of me. now i was on solid trail and time to climb. my throat was trashed from breathing the cold air so i reached for my water bottle....it was gone. no doubt it flew out in the first section. the race went on with me passing 3 more riders. all race my legs felt great, but my lungs just couldn't keep up. probably near the last mile bill fanter, previously of des moines, passed me. i later found out he started 19th and bested my time by almost 11 minutes. when the results finally became available i was surprised to see i had placed 17th overall and 3rd in my age group. despite the head cold i managed to have a great time riding the new bike on some of the best trails in iowa. at the schwag giveaway i picked up a nightpro light system which will be great for my winter commuting...bonus!! unfortunately the price paid for my fun on the bike is the return of the head cold full force and my throat is trashed. with plenty of sleep and hydration hopefully i can send this cold packing in a hurry....at least that's the plan. next weekend it's off to waverly for the second stop in the imbcs series.

the sickness is upon us

2008-04-19T17:14:00.006-05:00

the sickness has hit amy and taylor hard. with both of them down for the count i hit up the mayors ride with the schwinn in fixed gear mode. met some nice folks on the ride excited to tell me of their single and fixed gear bikes. not quite the upper 60's like the weatherman was projecting more like 40's. at least it wasn't raining.

capital view west

sylvan island stampede

2008-04-15T18:55:00.005-05:00

last sunday marked my return to mountain bike racing after a 5 year hiatus with the sylvan island stampede in moline, il. this year i will be racing the single speed class in the imbcs (iowa mountain bike championship series). i will be sporting the kit of the best bike shop in des moines...rasmussen bike shop.(thanks fellas!) so my first race went in the books with me pulling off a 3rd place finish. after an hour and a half of racing my body was holding up great. i need to work on better hydration as on my last lap my left quad felt like it wanted to cramp up a bit. at the end of the race i must have gotten some sand or dirt in my eyes because they really started itching and became very irritated. after getting home and crashing for a couple hours amy woke me up and i was in quite a bit of pain. a quick trip to the er proved that i had scratched my cornea in a couple spots. this is about the first i can look at a computer screen for more than a few seconds at a time. luckily i have 2 weeks until i'm headed up to decorah for their time trials. here is a pic of me from this weekend taken by marty, who owns the bike shop in prarie du chien.

great PSA

2008-04-11T13:20:00.002-05:00

taylor's first ride of 08..

2008-04-05T20:04:00.005-05:00

so i was left home alone with taylor today as amy had to go on a shopping extravaganza with her sister. luckily it was the nicest day of the year and i asked dan if he wanted to join taylor and i on a little ride. since wind was out of the south at 15-20 mph we headed south from my house to the great western trail. taylor loved every minute of it. we only stopped once at midway point mile 13 for about 3 minutes. when we arrived back home after 2 hours of riding bike, taylor's first words were "ride bike fun." now that's my kinda girl!

picasa updated

2008-04-04T11:04:00.001-05:00

threw up some more taylor photos on picasa

one last time..............i hope

2008-04-03T21:35:00.003-05:00

a nice wintery mix to complete the longest winter in recent memory.

learning the hard way

2008-03-18T19:51:00.007-05:00

first beatdown taken on the stairs.....the result..

the remedy....

memories....

ice week

2008-02-22T17:44:00.006-06:00

so this weeks commuting has been the worst of the year. yes it was cold, but worse than that was my trail condition with the frozen slush footprints from walkers over the weekend.

a nice full-suspension commuter would have done the trick better than my baby blue rigid. the headset came loose twice and the front fender just about came off because of the continual beating the bike was taking running over the frozen footsteps.
on my way home the sun was out melting some parts of the icy trail. with 30s expected through the weekend the trails should be back to normal winter condition on monday. enjoy the outdoors this weekend...i know i will.

virtual Christmas card....

2007-12-17T23:25:00.000-06:00

merry Christmas from kent, amy and taylor........and jasmin!

some would say this was a bad year for me. the day I got my new to me 98 jetta in mnpls someone hit me, then that night on the way home i hit a buck on the interstate. two months later i had it back running. then commuting by bike in june i hit a slick spot of pavement while taking a turn....and broke my jaw in two places. so just when i was thinking biking was the safe way of transportation....wam, broken jaw.

still this year was an amazing year for our family. amy has been able to stay home to raise taylor. my father-in-law and i were able to build my 2 car garage. taylor has gone from rolling over to crawling, walking, running/falling, and talking our ears off. amy's sister sarah and family moved to pella by way of great falls, montana. sarah also stays at home, so amy has enjoyed spending time with sarah and the kids while the men are hard at work. =) we were able to find our new church home at walnut creek community church, where we have made numerous new friendships. I was able to visit my brothers in chicago and san francisco. our family of three made its first "road trip" of more than 3 hours to see our good friends, nate and alesa..and halene, in duluth. i learned how to fly fish from the best fly fisherman i know, nate.

so we have a lot to be thankful for this year including each and everyone of you, our famlies and friends. Thanks for making this a great year!!

snow is here

2007-11-21T17:07:00.000-06:00

so today the forecast was calling for a dusting of snow late in the day. well the dusting late in the day turned into 4 inches of snowfall during the day, meaning i was in for an adventurous ride home. good thing i just completed my winter commuter bike this week. The bike handled like a dream in the slush and snow. brakes wet never work real well, but being wet and freezing is a bad combo. as long as i used them every 30 seconds or so they worked ok. very cool being the only one on the trails again, well besides the deer i see daily. the first photo is one i took during my commute with my phone. the second amy took when arriving home. have a good thanksgiving!!!

cranksgiving

2007-11-19T17:30:00.000-06:00

this past saturday was cranksgiving in des moines. the event raised donations and food for the food bank of iowa.(1300 pounds of food donated) i read about last year's event and right away knew i had to participate in the 2007 version. with golden cranks going to the winners, there was pride at stake. we had to bike out to 12 different stores to buy 12 items. I started out very quick, the first to the closest store. then i made the mistake of following a couple other riders instead of my planned route. I had lost valuable time, but that really didn't matter since i was in it for the goodwill and pure enjoyment of riding my 80's schwinn roadie singlespeed with 112 other cycling folks. i ended up finishing better than expected but well down in the pack. this is on my list as a must do for next year already. donny quixote and punkrockcycling put on an amazing event, and will undoubtedly be only better next year.

big day

2007-10-28T22:24:00.000-05:00

After lunch today we decided it was way too nice of a fall day to stay inside, so we headed down to center trails for a hike. As you can clearly see Taylor did the majority of the work, and it shows....
Yesterday I spent the morning working on mountain bike trails just south of Des Moines in Summerset State Park. I joined CITA to contribute to the trails I use weekly. I guess that's what spurred our little adventure today.

work in progress

2007-10-22T23:10:00.000-05:00

so one of my friends asked if I could use an old schwinn road bike. I hadn't ridden a road bike since the 7th grade, so it took a little time to warm to the idea. After giving it a thought I was thinking it would probably work good for my winter trainer bike. Two years ago I purchased a trainer that locks onto the back tire of your bike to make it a stationary bike, and this would be a better fit for it than Amy's bike. well, I got it on saturday and on sunday i was able to tinker with it a bit. It's a mid to early 80's schwinn world bike. I removed the front and rear derailers, shortened the chain to make it a singlespeed, removed inner chainring, replaced rear tire and tube, and slapped on some new grip tape. wait no more for the city cruiser....(check out the color scheme)

workbench project

2007-10-09T23:15:00.000-05:00

Seeing my tools laying scattered on the garage floor Sunday provided me with enough motivation to slap together a simple workbench. I had the majority of wood left over from the garage project, so it was done very much on the cheap. As some of you know the vast majority of my wood working skills have come from building various ramps, so I had to slap on a nice sheet of masonite for the top. I think it turned out pretty good....check it out.

fun with dad

2007-09-29T17:14:00.000-05:00

so taylor and I decided to enjoy the nice weather and headed outside today. while taylor is down for a nap i quick put together a couple videos. i hope you get a kick out of them....

The start of dsm2u or Des Moines to You

2007-09-29T11:04:00.000-05:00

I decided while Amy was out shopping to take some video of Taylor doing what she does. I hope to keep this blog updated with the latest happenings about us, so keep checking back for updates. I hope you enjoy.