Vitamin G

110th on the East side of town is the best cure for a case of the Mondays.

Missed the kolaches but still had kraut!

did a mix of the Wilber ride with GLGA revisit (cortland to ash rd to 98th to apple to 110); a sweet side trip to Wagon Train single track and back to the house to share a post ride refreshment with JV and show off my basement finish.

Wilber ride had Cornbread, JP, Syd, Aaron, MG, JV and JXW to battle headwind to Cortland together. I had to peel off there and enjoyed the awesome northeasterly jaunt with JV.
Ran into Coach and PC headed the opposite direction on Wagon Train single track. What a great resource, I need to get down there more often.

Hope everyone got out and enjoyed it today!

11 P.M.

Just watched NE pull out a win.

Went out back and finished dialing in my new brakepads after the new game. Damn, I go through those fast (kool-stop) on commutes with the CX. BTW, reached 2000 ish since Aug 8 on the commute.

Contemplating tomorrow's activies. Been invited to a game of "paintball", will plan to try that one out. For the first 1/2 of the day, I'm still planning my ride. You see, I have a family that likes their sleep and my ideas for 6 a.m. gravel get in the way of that. I would love to meet at Meadowlark for a Wilber 80, but more realistically will be looking to go to Wagon Train for a gravel 30 with some singletrack solo.

Or just the usual 130 mile commute week and call it good.

Goodnight.

See ya later cough and chills!

OK...feeling much better (100%?) now but I did get a nasty bout of cough and chills 1.5 weeks ago. Spent thurs-sunday sick and the rest of last week recovering (on the bike--4 commutes in hard rain to boot!). This week I coughed out the last of the congestion, but was off the bike Saturday until now and was in California with the fam. Should be able to consistently train from now until Pioneers CX. Definitely had a rest week, full of pizza and pop. Everyone else seems busy racing every weekend. I couldn't wait to get on the blogs and check CX results when we got home from vaca. It will be interesting to see if I can keep up in 3 ish weeks!

Fall

Sunday CX Swanson

Final results in 1,2,3's

Left yesterday feeling that my technique was lacking and I had the fitness to advance a few places. I felt today I may have misjudged my form after all.

I had a good start and was hanging with the top 5 for the majority of a lap. I started slipping back after lap 1 and fell into a good battle with MOD (who was on a single speed I may add!). I could sense Cornbread gaining on us. MOD stuck to my wheel for a few laps and finally passed me on a long straight away. Cornbread was on our heels! I passed MOD back a while later and CB passed both of us shortly after. He came on strong! I tried to hold his wheel but it was clear that he was feeling it and I wasn't at that point. With 1 lap to go, I noticed MOD surging back on me a bit. When I came around the lap cards read zero and I asked the official what was up...he gave me the option of retiring and prorating my time at that point. Because I had been bonking a bit, it was all I needed as an excuse and I rolled off the course.

Before November, I need to increase endurance and work on some technical riding skills. Not out of reach and I look forward to the road ahead. All in all, it was an awesome weekend...

D. Farnham's photos

There was a little power-climb before the long fireroad downhill. For some reason I felt like pushing too big of gear early on...I got smart and started spinning later in the race.

Dan Farhnam captured the chaos the sand pit can throw at you. I found (later) that the deep ruts were very ridable and this was my only sand pit dismount on the day.

Perfect day for a race--Omaha Day 1

The view from the cockpit.

Took a graceful? spill on off camber turn leading up to the barriers with one foot out and back up and running, but the bars were stuck this way and I didn't take the time to fix them. At least the left shifter was bent further in, keeping it straight even though it was "set back" due to the angle of the bar. Seemed to work great actually!

I had a blast. Great seeing everyone, like a big family reunion. I felt good too, just needed to fine tune my technique and I think this could be a good cross season for me.

Thanks to Randy Crist and Velo Veloce for laying out a great course and pulling off this huge event!!

I'll be back tomorrow!

Ill be pushing it this weekend!

Cross Tune Up Summary

Mileage so far in fall of 2009 has reached 850...should eclipse 1000 next week. Folks probably laugh at the lack of miles, but it has been a hectic summer which wiped out any miles and I don't get out on weekends. Started intervals 2 weeks ago on the trips home. 3 sessions last week, 1 day this week (due to a cold and job stress). Kicked the cold in 3 days which is much faster recovery than I've had from colds in the past. Luck? Or a tribute to 2 hours/day on the bike and good nutrition? Need to go tune up my cross skills, but not to worried, may just head to the park across the street a few times next week. Looking forward to Omaha and it will also be a wakeup call for what needs to be done before Pioneers in Nov. All in all, I will be happy to complete 2009 based on two cross race weekends!

Scotts bike.

GLGA Truely Was the Good Life

--RESULTS
--The guy's wheel I followed for 80 miles

Finished the GLGA yesterday. Showed up with lots of questions about my ability to "just" finish as I have only biked (not even trained!) for 3 weeks. I really didn't get on a bike ALL summer! Good turnout at the MOPAC east trailhead at 5:40 a.m.; not sure if we got the 60 that had signed up, but there were lots of faces. My light ran out of battery, so I started in the dark. Neutral roll out to 112th and HWY 34 and then the pace picked up. The front group went out so fast, by the time we hit Adams, I could see riders stretched out 1/2 mi ahead of me. I did chase a little (against my better judgment), as we had many many miles to go. I ended up settling in with Mike Miles (?) and the promoter of Dirty Kanza. We picked up Burke and made our way to the monster rollers on Branched Oak Road. Burke rolled away and Mike and I stayed together until almost Valperaso. I was feeling spent. Current milage: 44/140. Ouch. Long day ahead. Made our first checkpoint and I told Mike to go on without me. Headed out alone north of Valpo. Settled into a rhythm between Valpo and Malcolm. Lots of guys passing me but didn't care, I'm going for a strong finish and trying to ride within myself. Hit Malcolm (66ish/140) and rode out with Burke. Denton came quickly with a nice tailwind. Now we were at mile 88. Between Denton and Cortland, started feeling motion sickness...only way I could explain it, but the legs were OK. Still enjoying tailwind! Cortland stop (110/140) I was tired and not looking forward to the last 35 miles into the wind. I was chicken leaving Cortland and drafted off Burke to Wagon Train lake. I did cramp up a little for a short while, so with out Burke I might have had trouble! Fortunately he waited and I grabbed his wheel again. Feeling guilty, I started taking pulls at Wagon Train. All of a sudden, I was feeling great again! Now we were at like 120/140, and I was back. I finished the day strong and feeling pretty good. In the open category I finished 13th. There were a few single speeders ahead of me also. Total time just over 10 hours. Computer had my average speed as 15.8, although that doesn't figure in the 1 hour we spent (total) over 4 stops. I heard Troy Krause, the overall winner, finished 2 hours ahead of me! Wow.

Thanks to Cornbread, TK, and all the others who laid out this awesome course and event. I had a blast.