Race Totals

Over the past few weeks, I have compiled a list of the races I've done since my first race in 1997. Depending on who you are it's possibly a staggering number, or just a "oh not bad" sort of number.   As of now, the total fitness event number is 104.  104 includes 11 non cycling or competitive but not cycling events.  Competitive non cycling events includes 5k's , Tri's, Crossfit, and if I ever do any swim only events those too.  Noncompetitive cycling events include Tours and the CTS camp. 

With that said this means I am keeping tabs on 2 totals, the other is cycling races, which includes mtb, road, CX, and gravel events, and that total is 93.  There's a fair chance I can make it to 100 yet this year, depends a bit on motivation and the weather.  There won't be any big party or anything like that when I make it to 100, but definitely a cool number to keep track of, and continue to keep it going up!

All this compiling of race data was motivated by an expected need for a racing resume.  I definitely am not going to get any sponsors based on my finishes, but lots of companies these days are looking for product ambassador's, which is a publicity type sponsorship and that's what I'll be going after. 

The few people that used to follow my old blog in 01-03 may remember I had a grass roots sponsorhip from Active.com.  Today's ambassador programs are pretty much the same thing.   I will note, that I will be very selective on which companies I'll apply too, if I don't believe in the products, I won't apply.

 

2014 Salsa Warbird Review

Salsa just released a sneak peak at their 2014 lineup today.  This is something I’ve sort of been nervous about, only because I’ve  been thinking “ what if I should have waited until 2014 to by a Warbird instead of buying my 2013 Warbird?”  My thoughts were:  What if the new colors are super awesome? what if the components are lots better? And worst case, what if there’s an important frame improvement…? Oh the horror… Well to be honest, I wasn’t all that worried about it, I happen to really like my 2013 Warbird 1 and with the few tweaks I’ve made to it, it’s nearly perfect.

 

First thing you’ll notice is they added a 3^rd bike to the lineup.  A much needed entry level price point I would suspect as it has Sora components and a few other downgrades, but don’t let that bother you, if this is your price point you’ll still love the bike.  The yellow color is super awesome, I like it! My final thought, even though I don’t know the price point, the 2014 Warbird 3 likely puts the Warbird at a price point that allows a lot more people to acquire one, kudos to Salsa for this addition,  Gravel races just got a lot safer and more comfortable for a lot of rider’s!

For me here’s the big comparison, how does my 2013 Warbird 2 stack up to the new 2014 Warbird 2?  This verdict is: this year Salsa got all the details right, pretty much all the complaints I had for 2013 are fixed for 2014.  This list is very short, and I’m pretty sure my issues were  caused by late design/production parts availability.  First the biggest issue, (remember I called this the “Shame on Salsa” error)  the narrow rim issue of 2013 is now solved by replacing the Sun Assault rims with Stan’s Iron Cross rims.   Interesting… Exactly the same thing I did!  Next issue, which is major (but minor) is the 105 STI shifters, which were advertised on last year’s bike should actually be delivered on this year’s bike!  That’s it, perfection.  One bonus for me, I like my Orange color better than this year’s red.  Red is still a nice color, but I’m glad I went ahead and bought the 2013 orange!

And for the flagship Warbird Ti.  Thank you for painting it!  I personally do not like plain Ti bikes, it’s too 90’s looking for me and just plain boring!  Painting some parts, and leaving other parts raw Ti is perfect, show off the fact it’s Ti, and yet put some pizazz to it.  Personally, I would have liked an actual color over just black, but still I like it!  Now the fork paint scheme… Wow!  If only there was a few more blue highlights in the frame, then this bike would have been incredible.  From a component standpoint,  I’m not sure how the previous HED Belgium rims compare, but it seems likely the Stan’s Iron Cross rims shown for 2014 are better.  Other than that an Ultegra grupo is the cat’s meow!

 

Definitely, I great line up of gravel machines for 2014 !

Columbus Duathlon

Columbus, NE

 

There was lots of races this weekend, Friday Saturday criteriums and a mtb race on Saturday too.  Despite lots of great cycling options, I chose to try out a Duathlon this weekend.  Reasoning was rather simple, my legs felt ok, but I knew they would disappoint me if I did the mtb race, and quite frankly my weight would disappoint me if I tried the crit.  Besides that lots of athletes from GI were headed to Columbus so it seemed like a nice no pressure event to be social at, a win win for the weekend.  Also, I got to break out my TT bike and race wheels!  First time, I’ve officially used the TT bike and only the second on the race wheels…!? 

 

The Duathlon stated with a 2 mile run, I managed a 7:12 pace, not too bad for a cyclist.  It did hurt though, I haven’t done much running since Feb/March…  Next up was a 13.8 mile bike, this didn’t go quite as well as I had hoped, which confirmed that my legs would have let me down had I done a bike only event…  Most likely, that is, the run definitely started things off in an very unusual pattern for me.  Even so, the bike leg went ok, I managed a 22.9 mph average, which was actually good enough to be the 3^rd fastest bike of the day.  There was several big climbs, one brought me to my knees, which I only crested at 10 mph…  That’s a pace killer for sure. 

 

Last leg was the same 2 mile run all over again.  This time my pace was still a respectable 7:52 but it felt much worse.  Nice thing is that it was an out and back so I could see all the competition and cool enough, I was sitting in 3^rd overall and a nice lead on the guy behind me.  I ended up getting caught by a coed team, but that really doesn’t count. 

 

So 3^rd overall for individuals which was also 2^nd in my age group.  I was 8 minutes off the leader, which is really quite a gap, but it makes for a fun day of feeling fast! 

Excellent results by the rest of the GI crew too, lots of hardware went back to GI that’s for sure. 

 

The Main Event is Coming Soon!

It's getting here faster than I would like.  Not that I'm not excited for it, I just with I had more time to train!

Silver Rush 50

Leadville, CO
13 July 2013

This year, I dedicated more vacation to staying in Leadville, partly because I am making it a tradition to do these races annually and also because I actually thought ahead enough to get the hostel reserved far enough in advance to ensure that I have a place to stay (and at a reasonable cost).

So this year, I arrived Thursday night in Leadville.  Up to this point I really believed I was in better shape than last year, I felt like I had more long term endurance, and best yet, I thought I could suffer at a new level…  All of which I thought would net me an estimated 30 min PR.

I suppose it’s possible all that is true, but being at altitude 31 hours before the race started, seems to have nullified any increased fitness I may have thought I had…  Conventional wisdom says to go to altitude as close to the race as possible, or give yourself several weeks to acclimate.  I never doubted this wisdom, but can now confirm it’s true.

So here’s how the weekend went:

At the start line, my heart rate was ranging from 98-102, last year it was 106,  that seemed like a real good indicator.  Once the race started though I knew I was in trouble ¾ the way up Dutch Henri ski hill, (which you hike/run) my HR was pegged and I was out of oxygen, this was not good.  For the next hour I rode an ok pace, but I knew it was slower than last year…  Something wasn’t right, there is really only two options:  I didn’t have my legs up to speed yet after taking a rest week last week, and/or the altitude was kicking my ass.  I’m sure it was both.

As the race progressed, I never really did get tired, in fact, around halfway I felt like I was riding stronger.  The main indicator besides feeling better is that I was now passing people, unlike the first half where I was constantly getting passed.  This is the opposite of last year, where I started faster but got slower as the day went on.  The fact that I rode a stronger second half is actually a really good sign.

So overall I achieved a new PR, 6 min faster than last year, definitely not as good as I wanted to do, but I’ll take it.  The finisher medal is really cool this year too, the back has a bottle opener built in to it, but IMO it doesn’t open any good beer as the New Belgium products I like are not twist caps,  no matter, I really wouldn’t use it as a bottle opener anyway.  I was actually glad not to get the Silver bracelet, instead they handed out a coffee mug, which is nothing all that great, but better than the useless bracelet.  Some people were irritated by not getting the bracelet, I suppose if you had a shelf full of them you wouldn’t like the change, but, they are hard to display, and I don’t miss them, even if they were tradition.

Next up, after the race was over was the lottery for a 100mtb spot.  This year Silver Rush is the only qualifier I have on my schedule, unlike last year where I nearly did them all… So, I had my finger’s crossed as it was my only chance to avoid the general lottery in January.   After the lottery slots were awarded to the guys that won them, the random draw was up.  Looking around, I noticed not that many people were standing around waiting for the drawing.  After name after name was called and very few were claiming the coins, the promoter finally had a show of hands for how many people were waiting,  there was approximately 59 people waiting for 60 coins, we were all in!  Awesome! my 2014 entry is in the books and I have another cool coin!

The next morning I woke up at 4am to volunteer for the 50 run.  At 4am I helped with late packet pick up, after that I was off to my main job for the day which was  traffic control at 5^th and Jeep road, which is where the runners take a right turn onto the private land.  9 hrs might seem like a long time to stand on a gravel road, but it went fast and was a lot of fun.  Primarily, I got to cheer every runner as they headed outbound and then again inbound.  It was really an awesome thing to see these ultra-endurance runner’s in action.  I’ve certainly done longer bike rides, but I can’t hardly imagine running that long…  Majority of my time was taken up cheering the runners (there was actually nothing to do for traffic, the jerks were a few locals that didn’t care, and no one else needed instructions to slow down…

In the few moments of down time I had, I invented a game throwing rocks at a piece of metal in the ditch, I also explored the opposite side of the road as it appeared to be an old mining site, where I FOUND GOLD!  OK, so it was pyrite, aka “Fool’s Gold,” but it was an interesting find.   Additionally, I ran up and down the trail a few times, just to feel the thrill of being a trail runner, I’m definitely not in shape for running.  Also, I checked out a hidden cooler, which did have drugs in it, (as was suspected by a fellow runner), but I’m fairly certain they were legal supplements, one pill had TEVA on it, which seems like a shoe company to me…  A cooler hidden in the trees is not particularly legal, but the race director didn’t seem to care when I mentioned it…

After all this I was cashed in.  A couple big days in the mountains and it’s back to Nebraska for some post vacation depression… or wait a minute, I mean “The Good Life

Buffalo Stampede 5k

Registered today for my second 5k this summer (and ever).  Not that I've been doing any running lately, but it sounded fun and it's out at the Crane Trust Nature Center. I'll report back after Saturday with how it went!  Still time to sign up if your interested!

It's Official, I'm in Gravel World's

Not that I thought my postcard didn't arrive in time, but now that it's posted to the website, my entry is official.

Gravel World's Postcard

Here's the postcard I sent in for my registration for Gravel Worlds!

Odin's Revenge

Gothenburg, NE
29 June 2013

 

The name is inspired by the Swedish and German heritage of the host town of Gothenburg. Odin was known as the "king of the Norse gods" and is known for his penchant for wisdom and suffering.
Source:  www.odinsrevenge.com

 

I thought I should know a little more about Odin and here’s the really interesting and relevant part of what I found: according to the mythology Odin the Wanderer is known to suffer to gain wisdom.  In one instance he traded 1 of his eyeballs to drink from the Fountain of Wisdom.  In another instance, he hung for 9 day, pierced by his own spear, on the world tree.  There he learned 9 powerful songs and 18 runes (basically he killed himself and while dead gained magical powers).  Without a doubt, Odin was willing to suffer to gain knowledge, for this trait I find the name Odin to be very suitable for this race.  However, the “revenge” part of the race name makes no sense to me, I did not run across any information that would lead me to believe that Odin has reason to be vengeful to cyclist’s on an adventure similar to his own.  I would suggest the following name for the race: 

 

Odin’s Quest for Knowledge

Perhaps even with this subtitle:  Through suffering wisdom is obtained

 

Whatever the name means, one thing is for sure, if you’re looking for a great gravel grinder, this one should be on your annual race calendar, or tour calendar, or bucket list, or bicycle adventure, this ride doesn't have to be a race.  It can be any sort of adventure you want it to be!

 

After Dirty Kanza only 28 days earlier, I was hooked on these gravel events.  They are definitely something different; low or no entry fee, lots of hills/climbing, and  local (or at least an easy drive).  Also, lots of time on the bike, a great combination of training  for strengths I’ll need for Leadville later this summer.

 

First thing I did after the DK200 was sell my Orbea CX bike and buy a Salsa Warbird 2.  The Warbird is inspired and designed specifically for gravel grinders.  I already posted my review on the bike so check out that blog if you haven’t seen it already.  The Warbird was everything it was supposed to be and it really exceeded my expectations.

 

This is the second year for Odin's race.  Last year, was super-hot and many people didn’t finish.  Today wasn’t supposed to be all that hot and really after the 200 miles at Kanza, 150 seemed like a walk in the park.  Well, maybe it wouldn’t be that easy, but certainly it was 50 miles shorter.  Although, it’s advertised at 180, so maybe next year…?

 

Since Kanza I was now in a lot better shape, with lots more miles behind me and a few less pounds to pedal around.  I felt I started too easy at Kanza and this time I was going to stay up front as long as I could.  After the Enduro a week earlier I was positive that even if I went out too hard, it wouldn’t be detrimental to the whole day.

 

 

At the KOA, waiting for the start.

At 6:00 am the ride was started and we were on our way.  I quickly grabbed a wheel in the front pack and settled into a nice pace.  It wasn’t long at all and we were into the hilly terrain South of Gothenburg.   One major mental strategy I had wrong was assuming that I would not be able to hang with the front group for very long.  Sadly, as the race started I already assumed I would not be strong enough to hang up front.  This really was a great insight for future races, that I’ll consider a gift from Odin himself, for today though it really wasn’t a big deal.

The pace was crisp, but really no one was in all that big of a hurry, considering there was still 120+ miles left to go the pace was fine.  Since, I assumed I could not stay up here all day, I decided I would lead the race for a while,  I jumped out front and lead the pack up a few hills. The best part of this was the scenic vista’s I was rewarded with as I crested the hill.  I actually had a descent gap on the pack and this allowed me to spend a few moment’s taking in the great scenery.  I’ll note that this is not something I usually do, I’m typically in a head down and ride/survive mode.

 

 

 

Super cool photo by Cory Cornbread Godfrey, early in the race when I was still with the lead pack.

Thanks to Cory Cornbread Godfrey for the photo.  Notice way up front is a bull!  He was a big dude, I would estimate 1000-1200 lbs, he ran in front of us for awhile and eventually got back to where he had jumped the fence.

 

A few miles later, I had held off on a bathroom break too long and after stopping this is when I lost contact with the main group.  Although, my plan was flawed I was right on track with my game plan.  Next I learned that if your riding by yourself you have to pay very close attention to the cue sheet.  Fortunately, I was only a ½ mile past the turn when I realized this.  1 mile is a small price to pay for this lesson.

 

Next up, was the first aid station,  I filled up a few bottles and was on my way.  Over the next few miles I noticed the tendons in my right leg were complaining, which was not a good sign of how the day might go.  Finally as I turned with the wind heading South, my right leg was telling me my day was over.  I couldn’t apply any power through it, all I could do was soft pedal.  I was really dumbfounded by this as the muscles felt great,  why all the sudden do I have tendon issues…?  Finally, I decided it had to be the seat position, I knew it wasn’t quite right, but could it really cause all this?  I hated to stop, but I did and made a few adjustments, actually they were pretty big adjustments…  It immediately felt better, but was my leg done, and was the seat position really the cause?  The aid station at Potter’s pasture, approximately mile 70 came round about this time, and I asked the volunteers if anyone could “Mr Miagi my leg”  you know, rub your hands together and generate a searing heat infused chi, which would instantly heal my leg…  That got a few laughs, but no one seemed to know this lost art, so I headed off again.

 

Amazingly, about 5 miles later, my leg was fine!  To celebrate, I put my headphones in and the hammer down.  I was off again, and still feeling strong with over half the race behind me.

Mile 96 of the course was back at the KOA where we started.  I refueled, grabbed a fresh bladder of Skratch Labs hydration mix and was back on the road headed North through town.  Going through town was energizing, but that feeling quickly disappeared as I left town and found myself headed straight into a North headwind and from what I could tell from the cue sheet, I would be riding into this wind for another hour at least…

 

The wind was slowly beating me down, I already had to watch the SS guy (who I now know to be Anatoly Zlotnik from St Louis area)  disappear over the horizon, and now the guy that used to be a mile back was gaining on me.  Finally, the guy behind me caught me and instead of being discouraged about this I figured it was an opportunity to get some free drafting in.  Unfortunately, there was a small series of hills right where he caught me and I suffered trying to stay with him!  I did manage to stay with him and when we got back out into the wind, we started working as a team, this was a great turn of events for both of us, as it turned out, each of us had a different set of strengths and we were able to push each other the whole way back to the finish.  It’s funny, that if you ask either of us who was the stronger one, we’ll both point our finger at the other guy.  Awesome to meet you out on the course Josh Lederman, and many thanks for getting me through the final 40 miles!

 

Probably the last interesting event in the final 50miles was a near over-the-cliff incident.  Josh and I were screaming down a huge descent,  the top of this descent was shrouded in hills and somewhat out of the wind.  Halfway down the descent I was slightly ahead of Josh and on the left side of the road.  The road was headed West and the wind was from the North, this made for one serious crosswind, and when that hurricane force wind was no longer shrouded by a hill to my right, I nearly got blown off the road, I can’t recall the last time I was that scared on the bike, but at 35+ mph and 20+ foot plummet off the side of the road, I knew it was going to be bad.  Luckly, about a foot from the side of the road I managed to get slowed down and back under control.  I probably maxed out my heart rate just from fear alone, not the adrenaline rush I am usually looking for while riding!

 

Eventually we turned with the wind, and screamed back to the finish at the KOA.  Along the way, we caught and passed Anatoly, I know we only caught him because he was out of gear for the wind…   Back at the finish line we learned that first place was shared by 3 people that worked together for the whole race, none of them chose to sprint it out at the end.  Kudos to their camaraderie!  Also, myself and Josh rolled in to the finish at the exact same time, I was glad to see that they gave us the same finish time/place also.  We ended up in 5^th place  or 7/8 overall if you want to count the actual number of individuals ahead of us.

 

This event was shining star example of the power of working together.  According to the results of the 27 individual finishers,  there were two groups of 3 and 3 groups of 2 for a total of 12 finisher’s that worked at a team (either for the whole race, as the top 3 did, or at least for some of the race).  This teamwork was part of the lesson Odin taught some of us today.

 

I personally learned several other lessons from Odin on this day.  I learned I could push myself a lot harder and lot longer than I thought I was capable of.  This is no minor statement, I have 3 Leadville 100mtb buckles and while those finishes ranged in the 10.5 to 11.5 hr range, I felt like I just survived those races, today, I felt like I rode hard from the start to the finish.   The big lesson was that I could have stayed at the front longer than I did, so no more coffee addiction during race season (this is the primary culprit of having to take a pee so early in the race), also if you’re going to ride a new bike 11 hours, make sure the seat is adjusted properly…

 

I learned a little more about nutrition and the Skratch Labs portables and drink mix.  More so, some fine tuning on recipes I already had in-progress.

 

A technical thing I learned was to navigate from a cue sheet and that it requires a lot of attention to not miss a turn, especially when you’re tired or just randomly looking around not paying attention.

I learned I should not go to Runza and eat fast food crap after the race.  I didn’t yak or anything, but I did feel like I polluted my system with toxic crap after a great day of fitness.

 

Last lesson of the day, was that there is time to enjoy the view while racing.  You just have to remember it’s there and look for it!

 

Many thanks to Chad Quigley and the many volunteers that helped make this day possible.  Kudo’s and positive Karma to you all.  See you next year, or maybe sooner!

Odin's Revenge Postcard

Here's the postcard I sent in for my registration into the Odin's Revenge race.

2013 Salsa Warbird 2 Review

There’s a few reviews out on this bike and they are all good, but typically they tested an early Titatinum prototype.  This review is for an (almost) straight from the factory production Warbird 2.  Yes, the aluminum version with (mostly) factory components. 

I added a Flybar Garmin mount to move the GPS out of the way of the stem, my thought was that is where I would put the map or cue sheet.  Also, note the carbon stem and bars I swapped out.

Bosses for 3 water bottle cages (or accessories), I'm not a fan of having a cage below the top tube as it's not accessible while riding, but it's nice to have!

 

Full length cable housings to keep the dirt out and shifting smooth, also note the flattened top tube shape.

Rear disk, 30 tooth low gear, and note the flattened seat and chain stays, those flatter tubes give an amazing ride!

Here's the top speced item on the bike the Enve CX carbon disk fork, tapered tube, integrated cable holder.  The color is race car flat black (just like the flat black hoods on the classic mopar muscle cars!)

First off why did I buy this bike?  Early this year I was trash talked by a friend to sign up for the Dirty Kanza 200,  letting my ego get the best of me, I signed up and did no specific training for it other than my usual schedule.   Unfortunately, my usual training schedule has me prepared for Leadville in August.  With all the cold weather and rain this spring, I was way behind on training come June 1.  However, I’m 3 for 3 at Leadville and had no reason to believe I couldn’t finish the DK200…  Since this isn’t a write-up for the DK200, I’ll just say that it was the worst day on the bike I’ve ever had, so bad in fact, I was going to quit cycling forever!   That was miles 65 to 113, thankfully things turned around, and I finished the race in 18 hrs 55 min.  I didn’t even need several days to forget the pain and suffering, I woke up the next morning and was hooked! This gravel thing was addictive and all I could think about was when could I do another race, and of course I need a better bike!

Over the next few days I started researching bike options, and I quickly came across Salsa’s Warbird, I was sold instantly, inspired by and designed for the Midwest gravel scene!  I instantly felt a personal connection to Salsa for already anticipating my needs and making a specific bike geometry to fit it!  So the big questions:  Can I get one, will it ride as great as they say it will, and finally can I afford it?

Luckily, one of my two favorite bike shops, Monkey Wrench Cycles in Lincoln, NE had several bikes on the sales floor.  Which was a great find as these things are rare online, especially in the common 56cm size I need.  So that week, I made the drive to Lincoln and test rode a 55cm, (no 56 in stock),  I could instantly feel the things I knew would make it great on the gravel: more upright/touring geometry, longer wheelbase (no toe overlap to front wheel), and for Alum it felt amazingly soft, definitely not the harsh ride I expected.  (I’m not a fan of aluminum frames at all) However, I’ve never taken CX bikes seriously and the CX bike I did DK200 on was Alum and I survived ok, so I figured I could live with an Aluminum Warbird.  Besides that, I was barely scraping the money together, so Ti wasn’t even an option.  I was amazed on the test ride at how soft the bike felt, so there really must be something to the flattened oval tube shape that Salsa promotes as softening the ride.  Hard to believe, but it felt good.  So after the test ride I’m sold, can I get one?  Lucky for me, there was still nine 56cm bike left in-stock at Salsa, and one now had my name on it!

So, I immediately changed a few things about the bike before even riding it.  Here’s the changes I made and why:

·         The Clement X’plor USH tires that were on it would have been a great tire, but I didn’t need them as I have plenty of other tires sitting around.  So those went straight to ebay as new take offs.  I know several guys that love the tire, so a great spec from the factory. 

·         In taking the tires off I was horrified at the rim choice on the bike!  I’m sure this was due to availability,  hopefully it was a situation where these were the only rims Salsa could get to even making selling this bike possible.  The Sun Assaults are 13.3mm wide…!  Really?  On a gravel CX bike, way too narrow,  this is the only real “shame on you Salsa” part of the bike.  This is the sort of thing that causes good tires to ride terrible and potentially damage the reputation of the bike, not a good thing for the first year of production…!  Fortunately, I kept my set of Stan’s Alpha 340’s and swapped out the wheel set immediately. 

Sun Assault rims in the middle 13.3mm wide, compared to the Stan's Iron Cross rims which are 19mm wide

 

·         My 340 alphas were already set up tubeless with Bontrager CX0’s. 

·         I’ll note that I love the orange anodized hubs that came on the bike, so I ordered some Stan’s Iron Cross rims and am building up an ultimate set of wheels for this bike.  Here's the wheels just after re-lacing (spokes are not tightened up yet):

Original hubs, spokes, and nipples rebuilt onto the Iron Cross rims,  16 spokes were cut and re-threaded, 32 spokes used as is, and 16 had to be made new.  Besides the rims, total cost of $18 for spokes (and I rebuilt them myself).

 

·         Next, I swapped out the seatpost, stem, and handlebars to all carbon.  To help finance this bike I parted out my old CX bike on ebay, but kept the high end components.  I had specifically bought these carbon parts for Kanza to help soften the ride up.  And they certainly help, EC70 post and bars, and an EC90 stem.  Very nice combo.  Only downside is that the bars are narrower than the cowbell 2’s I took off, the wider bars were a nice spec, and this is probably the only real loss I made in these swaps.

·         I also swapped the seat out to my favorite (that I’ve found thus far)  Fizik Aliate VS, the WTB Vector was not for me. No fault here though, seats are a personal preference item.

Those are some big changes, but the ride of the Aluminum frame will still be obvious, especially for me as these are the same components I had on my previous CX bike.

The Ride and Handling:

Night and Day difference!  If this was a blind ride test, you would have a hard time convincing me this is an aluminum bike, it is stiff, but it doesn’t have that bone jarring harshness to it that I associate with aluminum frames.  Certainly, I noticed this difference on the test ride, but now that I have a few hours in the saddle it’s spectacularly comfortable.  The geometry is right in the middle of my old CX bike, which I’ll call traditional geometry (Orbea Lobular) and my 29er Giant XTC mtb.  The Warbird still gives you a stretched out road bike feel for being more aero and fast, but yet has this uprightness to it that gives you the confidence and aggressive feel of a mountain bike.  It’s perfect, the control you want for gravel, yet aero with a touring feel for long hours and distances.  It’s a very elegant design and well executed by Salsa. 

Odin’s Revenge in Gothenburg, NE was my next big gravel event.  150 miles of back roads gravel, dirt, and MMR’s, pretty much the exact playground you would expect a gravel race to be!  The bike handled superbly, I had high expectations for it and it delivered.  Here’s some of the scenario’s I ran into that tested the bike out to the maximum:

·         30+ mph descents on washed out and rutted dirt/gravel MMR’s.  I felt confident at all times, the bike stuck to the road like a race car,  I found myself pushed to my confidence limit, and had to remind myself to stay off the brakes.  Sweeping turns especially pushed my own limits, the bike was going where I told it to, I just needed to learn to trust it!

·         Rock side bounce stability, if you ride gravel you know what I’m talking about, even on an average gravel road, you’ll hit a rock, not even all that big, and your tire jumps sideways and the whole bike gets sketchy.  Not the Warbird, yes you still get bounced, but you don’t lose temporary confidence in the bike, you just keep riding, it’s no big deal.

·         Deep gravel and soupy dirt,  these power draining conditions also cause average CX bikes to wander and destabilize.  I still had to pay attention in these conditions, but the Warbird was right at home, “keep pedaling he told me, I’ll stay upright, you get us out of here!”

·         Probably the most amazing thing is that this bike doesn’t feel like an Aluminum bike,  there’s no bone jarring feedback from the Warbird, the bike has that stiff race bike feel, but doesn’t beat you up with it.  The flattened oval  frame tubing is magical.  I originally thought this was a brand new design, but it turns out Salsa has been working on this for some time…  I have noticed similar tubing shapes on the Chili Con Crosso.  I don’t know how long they have been working on this tubing shape geometry, but the result is a long hour comfortable ride.  Kudo’s Salsa!

So, are there any downsides to the bike?  I really don’t have much, but here’s a few things I noticed, really though, I’m not sure they even qualify as negatives…

·         When standing up and grinding out a steep climb, I found you have to watch your weight distribution to keep the rear wheel from spinning.  I broke the rear wheel loose multiple times when standing, just lost traction, didn’t cause any problems, obvious fix was to not lean over the handlebars so far.

·         Note to self: don’t have too much confidence in high side winds.  This is not really a fault of the bike, late in the race, I decided to bomb a steep descent and forgot about the crosswind, I nearly got pushed off the side of the road.  This incident is really due to the gravel surface, 35c wide tires, and 20+ mph wind, but it was certainly scary as there was a 20 foot drop off into the ditch!

·         I think a few more negatives would have showed up, had I kept the bike at factory spec.  The narrow rims would have added bad handling characteristics, as would have tubes in the tires.  My carbon upgrades certainly helped damp the road vibration, but honestly, I feel they were only the icing on the cake! 

·         The wider Cowbell bars would have been nice, but honestly, I don’t think they are needed, I felt plenty stable on

·         After 11 hours on the bike and 150+ miles, this is all I got, so maybe the bike is perfect.

Lastly, the bike turns heads and gets noticed, I don’t have to even tell you that, you already know the sparkly bright orange frame and flat black fork are as flashy as a race car.  The bike is specifically designed for gravel,  any gravel junkie knows this also, and if they haven’t already seen one, they are now looking at yours.  I would venture to say even the “custom frame, single speeder, and I think I’m the most unique individual you’ve ever met” person is jealous of this bike! After all, it is a Salsa, and there’s no argument they are the coolest name in the gravel scene.

So I’m really not sure how this bike can get any better, but if there is a way, Salsa will find it and we’ll all look forward to it in 2014.

Big Ring Ranch Enduro

Lincoln, NE
22 June 2013

Report Coming Soon.

Dirty Kanza 200: My Worst & Best Day Ever Riding a Bicycle

Emporia, Kansas
01 June 2013

Okay, okay, I’ll sign up…  I finally gave in after getting relentlessly trash talked for several weeks.  Besides being a sucker to my buddies trash talk, I really didn’t have any races planned that weekend or shortly after, so why not sign up for the Dirty Kanza 200...?  It’s just another bike ride and besides, it’s months away yet.  Plenty of time to train.

 

1 month away, the weather in Nebraska has been cold, it’s been raining, and I haven’t been real motivated, so now the race is a few weeks out and I’m nowhere near the shape I should be in, overall, I’m in good position for a great second half of the summer, but right now, I just don’t have the miles in for the DK200.  So for the next 3 weeks, I finally started toughening up, went out on the less than ideal days, and started getting some saddle time in.  At 1 week before the race, I needed to rest, and all of the sudden it hit me that I’ve never rode that far, even on a road bike…!  Sure I’ve got 3 Leadville buckles, but those were 11 hour days on the bike.  The winner of the DK200 last year finished in 12 hours.  A few calculations later, I decided if I could do the race in 16 hrs that would be awesome…  Crap, that’s a long day in the saddle.

Fortunately, my Leadville experience was valuable in that I’m a preparation master,  it took me all week, but I had a whole food nutrition & hydration plan cooked and ready, coolers, gear, and clothes, all stocked and labeled for each checkpoint drops. 

 

Race Day.  It was an out of body experience standing at the start line, I knew I was in for one of the biggest days on the bicycle I’ve ever had, I knew there would be highs and definitely lows, my mind would go through a roller coaster of emotions over the course of the day.  How would my legs respond?  I had no idea, I knew they were good for 5 hours no problem, I figured I could suffer for another 5, but what happens after that?  I didn’t know.  All these unknowns brought me to the realization that I was about to face unchartered waters, and this likely meant I was in for one of the toughest mental challenges I’ve ever faced.  I knew I would not quit, or did I really…?  My usual motto is:  There’s 2 ways to finish a race, the finish line or an ambulance!  It’s the finish line today… yes, the finish line…

 

And so it began,  Seems like every battle scene in the movies is prefaced by that statement.  Actually the start was nothing dramatic, we just started riding, no one was in a hurry (surprisingly), and we were off.  The first nice surprise of the day is that the roads were pretty much the same as the roads at home.  I figured eventually we would get to this the highly dramatized “Flint Hills rock”, but so far I wasn’t seeing it.  This was good, because I had been imagining a bed of razor sharp Indian arrow heads sticking out of the ground.  Riding through it was going to be a game of Russian Roulette with 5 chambers loaded.

We started hitting some rather steep hills, but they were quick and minimally taxing, there were a few water crossings, but overall the first 50 was going along as expected and planned:  A nice easy ride.

Did I just say that?  Mile 35: A Knee Deep River Crossing!  This was the first event that started my downward spiral…  The day was cold enough I did not want wet feet, so I forded it with bare feet, and perhaps this is where the razor sharp flint rocks were at!  I ended up slicing my right heel open and then on the other side was slimy mud…  that was no fun to try and clean off and get back into my socks…  Well the trouble was worth it as I had dry feet, and the cut on my heel was not somewhere that bothered me.  Thankfully this was the last water crossing that required getting off the bike.

Still feeling good I only stopped at the first checkpoint for maybe 5 minutes and I was off again. I was still feeling fine at this point, and as expected the route turned into the wind and I found myself looking for a group to ride with.  The wind was from the NW, which meant no matter how you tried to draft the guy in front of you there was minimal draft advantage. I decided I would draft a fast moving rider and just get through this part of the course.  It turns out it wasn’t worth it, this guy was cruising and he pulled me for miles, but the saved energy was minimal and I was approaching  5 hours on the bike and I was running out of energy, mostly my back and shoulders hurt, my legs weren’t all that bad, but they were fatigued.  Mentally, I was crushed, I was only on mile 65 and I hurt worse than any other race I had ever been in.  Worst part I wasn’t even close to halfway yet!  I slowed dredged on, everyone I knew passed me at this point, and finally I stopped on the side of the trail to rest and put a jacket on.  It was borderline cold, I had hand knee, arm, and toe warmers on, but the wind was cutting through me.  The jacket at least helped me mentally for a while, it did warm me up, but mostly I was just beat down and any small thing was a comfort.  The next stretch of road to get to the 100 mile checkpoint was straight into the wind.  My plan was to just get to the checkpoint, besides that I forgot the phone numbers to call for help anyway.  That turned out to be a good thing as quitting wasn’t an option.

This timeframe of the DK200 is the darkest part of the story, I was so deep in the hurt locker, it was somewhere I had never been before, I was mad at myself for not training more, my ego was crushed, and I was absolutely convinced  I was selling off all my bikes and never riding again.  This was it, after today,  I was done cycling forever!  I was 100% serious about this.  Perhaps it was a game I had to play with my sub-conscious to keep going, I really don’t know but I really did have this thought and decided it would be the best thing to do.  Not at this exact moment, but tomorrow when I got home…

Finally, I made it to the checkpoint, I refueled, refilled water, and sat down, ate some more, and sat down again,  I don’t think I was really even contemplating quitting, but it was nearly 40 minutes before I got back on the bike to keep moving.  My plan was to at least ride 13 more miles, the wind was at my back it would be a nice break and quitting at 113 miles was better than 100…  The next 13 miles were rolling hills and there was nothing enjoyable about it.  I was back to suffering.  Or was I suffering?  Yes my back and shoulders were killing me, but my legs didn’t hurt…?  I decided my lack of will power and energy had to be in my head, I was telling myself I couldn’t do it.  It’s really not a dramatic event when you change your attitude and decide you can keep going.  Eye of the Tiger does not start playing in the background, there’s no cheering crowd, no adrenaline rush, actually there’s nothing, I felt just like I did a minute ago, but things did start improving!

The next few miles, I did some calculating and realized that when I made it to the 150 mile checkpoint they were going to pull me, I wasn’t on pace.  I also realized that a lot of the people around me were talking about quitting.  I wanted to encourage them to keep moving, but I didn’t have the energy to tell them anything, I just did what I knew needed to be done, I kept moving! 

The next 40 miles would be the climax of this story,  in addition to changing my mental attitude, the roads flattened out.  It didn’t even matter that they were now headed straight into the wind, they were flat, flat I said, this is where my legs work the best!  You would think everyone has this advantage, but it’s just not true, if you ride in hills all the time, the flats seem endless and never give you a break.  Well, for me they felt like resting!  All the sudden my speed went up to 15 mph into the wind! And I was cruising easy, I also started passing riders every ½ mile, rider after rider, one down and on to the next.  Another thing I did was walk a hill every 5 to 8 miles, no stopping, it was a double win, rest the legs while knocking a hill out and keep on going.  This strategy was so fast, unless I had just passed someone at the bottom of the hill, they never caught up to me again.  This pace also put me back into the green!  I was no longer going to get cut at the next checkpoint, which meant I was going to finish the race!

I continued this same strategy all the way to the finish line,  there was only 1 event worth telling on the last 50 miles and that was the near flat.  I think it was around mile 180, it was pitch black around 11pm.  I of course had my NiteRider mega light on, so I could see really well, but not perfectly.  Washboards were hard to distinguish at any time, and above 20mph small rocks were even blurry…  Well I crested a hill on a Min Maint Road, and right in my way is a rider fixing a flat.  I quickly changed to the other side of the road, but all the sudden it’s a mine field of rocks and I’m going way too fast over them, I hear them bouncing off my down tube and then I hear my tire crash into one so hard the tire compresses and the rock hits the rim.  That one seemed ok, but then it happens again and I hear a rush of air coming out of the  tire, I was already trying to get slowed down and I finally got stopped and first thing to do is get the leak down.  I run tubeless tires and this means I have liquid sealant in the tire and I needed gravity to get it all to the leak to hopefully stop it.  It seemed like forever, but finally the leak stops!  I looked down and at least an ounce of fluid is on the ground, wow it must have been a big cut! 

At this point the jerk that was in the road asks me if I got a flat too?  Besides being a “here’s your sign” question, he seemed rather happy to have company in this mis-fortune.  I tried to be nice, and replied yes, but as I did this I was pulling a CO2 cartridge out of my pocket and I knew in about 10 seconds I would be rolling again.  He was sitting down with a wheel off the bike putting a new tube in…  I refilled the lost air and disappeared into the night.  Usually, I’m a very friendly comrade out on the trail, but part of me hopes he’s still sitting there wondering where I went and how I did it so fast.

About a mile later, I did have to add some more air, but that was it, the tire was still holding air the next day.  Turns out it was a ¼” cut!  Pretty much the maximum any sealant is good for.  Explains why I lost so much before it sealed.

After a few mile detour, I finally made it to the finish line.  Honestly, I didn’t even care I just wanted off the bike and to go back to the hotel room.  Amazingly, at the finish line was my friends from Kearney and Hastings.  On the surface, they said congratulations and were truly happy I finished the race, but they also saw me at mile 65, and really the look on their face was saying “holy crap I can’t believe you made it!” 

Actually, that’s what I was thinking too.

 

Final Paleo Thoughts

So if you happen to be looking for my last post, which used to be my PIB AMFAT Essay, well... you won't find it, I deleted it.  Why?  Well, new evidence and experiences have come to light.  First of all, most of the essay, was true, but I'll admit it was slightly embellished as I wanted to win the challenge.  My new experience is that since switching back to cycling (and no Crossfit) I've found that Paleo alone doesn't cut it.  So what does this mean?  Actually, I've been bewildered since trying to figure it out.  So first let me clarify this point:

 

"Strict paleo is not adequate for endurance sports"

 

 

There just isn't enough carbs in strict paleo, I suppose it's possible I wasn't doing it right, but let's face it, the definition of what's paleo and what isn't paleo is a very blurry line.  One point I want to make about the PIB system is that as the name suggests, it's designed for Crossfit, and actually if that's all your doing for fitness, then it's a great system.  The key is the 4:1 carbohydrate to protein shake, all those carbs make up for the lack of extra carbs in the paleo diet.  So if you're contemplating whether or not to try the system, I would say go for it, you'll learn a lot about nutrition.  Especially if you're a cross-fitter, but if you're an endurance athlete, then I would advise that you proceed with caution.  Paleo is great nutritional plan, but the lack of carbs will cost you in performance, big time! 

 

I'm not really going to get into much detail on this, but here's what I've found works.

 

1.  Paleo really just amounts to EAT WHOLEFOOD (no processed foods, no fake additives)

2.  The key to losing weight on pale, you're not going to like this but its:  NO SUGAR !!!!!

3.  The PIB system keeps your performance up by prescribing the shakes after WOD's, works great for Crossfit

4.  If you're an endurance athlete, then I suggest stay GLUTEN FREE and ADD RICE back in for carbs, also add in any of the other grains, I suggest minimal corn, but you can make your own mind up on that.

 

So where should you get your info for my suggestion of #4, your go to book is " Feed Zone Cookbook" and "Feed Zone Portables"  by Dr Allen Lim and Biju Thomas.  Awesome selection of recipes and great on the bike food.

 

Essentially, these books promote, whole foods too, same concept just geared toward endurance cycling.  Besides the books, you'll also want to start using the hydration mixes by Skratch Labs, which is also Dr. Allen Lim's company, the ultimate food and nutrition combo!

 

My conclusion is you have to decide what you want to do for fitness, but your diet has to be tailored to it and capable of supporting it.  Lastly, I'll say that if your trying to just lose weight, then keep battling, I'm not sure there is any easy plan, other than staying consistent with the battle and continuing to improve your nutrition everyday.

Lastly, I'll note that I came in as one of the 3 runner's up in the AMFAT Challenge!  Scored me a hundred bucks and a free pair of custom Reebok Nanos!  Super cool.

I chose black toes to hide the scuff marks and then a red, white, blue America theme:

 

 

 

AMFAT Challenge Week 12

Continuing the story from week 10...

So I just recovered from being sick, The Open was finished and this weekend was the first local Mountain bike race, and better yet the weather was going to be nice.  The weather actually turned out to be the best day we've had so far this month!

Since I need time in on the bike, I decided I would race the Marathon category, which is a 4 to 4.5 hour race, in total I ended up riding 5 hours, with a practice/warm-up lap.  Overall my performance was good, I rode harder than I thought I would be able to for 3 hours and then for the last 1.5 my legs cramped up and I went into survival mode just to keep moving, not a great finish, but I was glad to find out what my legs could do and where I was at for the year.  I was actually really happy with how I performed.
Sadly I revereted back to sugar gel packs and drinks for this race, I do have Paleo recipes to replace these, but I just wasn't organized enough to get everything ready this week.  I will be posting in the future as I switch to all Paleo nutrition on-the-bike!

I expected to be hungry after the race, but my hunger was uncontrollable!  I'm talking ridiculously uncontrollable.  I would eat until I was full, then an hour later I would eat until I was full again and so on, I did this for several days and it was frustrating because I knew I was overeating, but why, and how come I couldn't stop? 

Despite gaining weight by the day, the good part is that this pattern is identical to what happened after the indoor tri, (although much more severe) Wow! I'm an engineer and it's a good thing being able to identify a repeatable pattern, especially when you have somewhere you can go to help identify and fix it:  I immediately went to the PIB VIP group on Facebook and posted this problem.

I got some good responses, and even more awesome I got a direct response from Justin via video blog, he had been getting a lot of endurance questions recently, and with my question, he decided it was time to post a capture-all response.

To put it simply, I wasn't eating enough carbs, seems way too simple, but there was no way I would have been able to identify this myself.  It was now about 4 days after the race and I was still suffering the constant eating, although perhaps a bit less frequently, so I decided I would go home and eat some carbs, better late than never.  Here's the response I posted to the group after doing so:

I don't think I need to say anymore!  Only real bummer is that I wish I could have identified this issue the week after the Indoor Triathlon.  Then I could have made a lot more progress in the second half of the challenge.  Now I'm only days away from the end of the challenge, my performance has flat lined and I've gained back a couple pounds.  Even with the anti-progress, I'm still way ahead of where I was at for the start of the challenge, but I really wanted to post some amazing results and win this thing!

That's the competitor in me speaking, stepping back and looking at the big picture, this discovery is monumental!  "revolutionary" as I quoted above, this unlocks my future potential and looking at the long term, I now have all the puzzle pieces figured out to apply the PIB system to Endurance Cycling which is my primary sport/hobby/passion!   Sure I would like to have won the AMFAT challenge (and who knows maybe I still will), but this knowledge is a far bigger prize! 

Just for the sake of arguement, lets say I hadn't figured this out and did win the challenge, that actually would have been really bad, a great short term battle won for sure, but I would have lost the war...  In that scenario I would never have even known I had lost the war.  That is what makes this discovery so great, it was something that I didn't even know I needed to figure out!

So for the rest of week (after eating lots more carbs), I was feeling better by the day, but was I still drained for my benchmark WOD's, so they are nothing to get excited about for performance gains. Well, actually I've made a lot of performance gains, but they are just not apparent in the benchmarks.   So stay tuned, I'll be posting my final essay for the Competition soon!

The essay I wrote is like a term paper, quite a few pages, graphs, pictures, and lots of pictures (yes, before and after photos)!