Cyclocross Season

Cyclocross has been very hot and cold for me this year. I always go into cross really excited since I love to do it, but I'm often disappointed when I realize my endurance focus for most of the year doesn't fit well with the rigors of a cross race. This year has been no different. Through the end of August I focused pretty much solely on competing in endurance events like Dirty Kanza and Gravel Worlds. While these are very intense races that in some ways make a cross race seem easy, they don't require the top end power that cross demands throughout a race. Thus, while I've gotten some decent results (including some SS wins) and this has been my strongest year in cross, there have also been some struggles and frustrations as I have essentially been building as I go. In the past month or so I've really started to feel like I'm getting my feet under me in cross, which is good and bad. It is good because I'm now feeling better in cross races and during training. However, it is bad because cross will be over in a matter of weeks! I keep going back and forth over plans for next year and whether I should start my cross preparations earlier, but I'll leave that decision for a later date. That would require me to commit to skipping Gravel Worlds, which is going to be tough to do!

In those final weeks of the season, I'll be doing a couple of local races to get ready for my attempt at singlespeed nationals. It is never cheap to travel, but getting to CX nationals this year was about as cheap as I could have possibly imagined. So I booked everything and committed myself before I could reconsider! I'm pretty excited to experience the event, but it will not be an easy race. There are already 150 people signed up, which I'm pretty sure is the limit. As of now it appears I'll start somewhere near the back of the top 1/3 of riders, so hopefully it isn't too much of a cluster to move up. This is where I regret not being able to attend some bigger races this year where I could have potentially gotten some good points (and improved my starting position). But I guess it is better than starting in 150th place. 

While my training right now is solely focused on finishing cross season on a high note, I'm already looking forward to Dirty Kanza. Registration for that is just over two weeks away now, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to give gears a shot this year. A SS win and 12th overall finish last year has made me quite curious about how I can do with gears. There is certainly no guarantee that I'll do better, but I can't help but think that being able to shift into an easier gear on some of those monster climbs or shift into a gear I can really mash on flats and descents will make me faster. It's been a really fun year, and I'm excited to see how I can build off of it and get even stronger with the guidance of my coach!

2015 Gravel Worlds

I wrapped up my endurance racing this summer at Gravel Worlds. This was the third time I've done this event in three years, and I'd been lucky enough to win the SS category each of the previous two. So needless to say I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to make a good showing again and ideally come away with the win. I knew this year's jersey was a sweet looking bright pink one, so I really wanted to add it to my collection. My year had been excellent up to that point with wins in other gravel races, so I was feeling good as this race approached. I knew I had my work cut out for me since some stiff competition was going to be there, so I did my best to trust my training.

We started bright and early at 6:00 AM, which meant I was up super early in order to eat and ride the few miles to the start. It was a much more festive start than the previous two years, and it is pretty obvious this event is turning in to a pretty big deal! There were some pretty heavy hitters toeing the line with gears, including Brian Jensen (2014 DK overall winner), Yuri Hauswald (2015 DK winner), Dan Hughes (winner of several DKs), and Rebecca Rusch (aka the Queen of Pain). There were also a couple of SS guys I had my eye on, including the infamous Peat Henry and Rafal Doloto. I suspected there would probably be other fast SS guys, but I didn't know who they were.

The race started with a blistering pace through the dark Nebraska morning. There was quickly a gap between the front group and the rest of the field, and I was forcing myself to crush it to stick with it. This required a crazy fast cadence at times on my SS, but I made it happen. Very early on I noticed Peat and I were the only SS guys up there. Unfortunately, he flatted only a handful of miles in and I never saw him again. Rumor has it that was the first of at least two flats, so I felt pretty bad for him. Nonetheless, knowing I was the only SS guy in the front group from then on was not something to celebrate about. Frankly, I didn't have time to think about it too much since I was forced to crush it repeatedly to stick with the geared guys racing down hills.

About 30 miles in Brian Jenson put in a monster attack, and only Neil Shirley went with him. These two would never be seen again the entire day, with Neil winning and Brian coming in second. About 10 miles later the lead group (less the two attackers off the front) crushed it down a big hill and there was nothing I could do as I spun out and watched them drift away. We were just over 2 hours in to the race and had already completed 40 miles, so that is a testament to the fast pace. For the next 10 miles I rode solo into a south headwind that was easily 20-30 mph until I hit a checkpoint at around mile 50. I refilled my bottles and got out of there as quickly as I could since I had no idea how close the next SS guy would be.

I met up with Brian Bradley at the checkpoint and we rode together for a while. I rode with him at the Hermann Gravel Challenge and the Farmhouse Classic this year, so it was fun to meet up again. At about mile 60 we came upon Yuri, who was not having his best day with the wind and heat that he isn't used to. The three of us rode together while working for each other as much as possible, but it seemed like we were all starting to show hints of suffering. Brian dropped off at mile 70 or 80, and Yuri and I rode and talked until about mile 100. I knew he was the winner of DK this year, but that was about it. It turns out he is a super cool guy and it was fun riding with him.

It was at mile 100 that we came upon another geared rider in a small Nebraska town, and the two of them used their gears and pulled away from me on a paved section. I was 100 miles into the race and I was starting to feel the effects of that first two hours. The strong headwind in the previous 60 miles didn't do me any favors, either. The next 35-40 miles were primarily assisted by a tailwind, but I was cooked and never really felt like it was helping. But I knew I was in the lead and didn't want to give up my SS throne easily!

With about 10-15 miles to go the course turned back to the west, which made it evident that we were on the way back to the start/finish area. However, the strong sidewind mixed with non-stop rolling hills made it pretty brutal. A couple riders caught up to me in this section, including Rebecca Rusch, and it was pretty obvious that she was feeling the effects of the tough day. This made me feel a bit better, but it didn't help the pain. With 5 or so miles left we turned back south directly into the stiff headwind to get to the finish line. This was a brutal section, but I managed to crawl my way through it while checking behind me periodically to ensure I didn't see anyone coming. I'm not sure if I would have had the energy to respond if another SS would have been approaching, but my curiosity made me look.

Turning on to the paved road leading to the finish was such a relief. I thought it would never come! One quick peek behind me and I knew all was well and I was going to win barring something extremely weird. I came to the finish line and saw that my time was something around 9:09, which was good but a bit of a disappointment since I was targeting 9:00. Nonetheless, it beat my time from last year by over 30 minutes and the year before by well over an hour. I had defended my SS Gravel Worlds title, but I was in no shape to celebrate it. I sprawled out on some grass near Dan, Yuri, and Rebecca and took a few minutes to start feeling normal again. It came rather quickly, and Michelle was there to help me out! I was stoked to win the pink jersey and a really cool trophy.

Now that Gravel Worlds is complete my focus is now on cyclocross. It has been a tough transition mentally from riding out long rides to short, intense work, but I think it will be a nice change for a few months. Next year I'll definitely be starting at least the first half of the year with endurance events, so I'll likely be involved in the Hermann gravel event and DK for sure. Beyond that I'm not too sure since I don't even know where I will live. Michelle will be starting a fellowship in July, so it all depends on where that is. It could be anywhere from Denver to St. Louis to Iowa City, so there are a lot of question marks right now. I'm also leaning toward using gears for most events next year to see how I can compete. I did pretty well on a SS against geared people this year, so theoretically I should be able to be relatively strong. I suspect I will have to do what I can to defend my Gravel Worlds title on a SS, but everything else will probably be geared.

2015 Dirty Kanza 200

The 2015 version of Dirty Kanza was epic.  This was my second go at this event, and I was intent on improving from my performance the previous year.  I did fine last year and ended up 5th in the SS category, but I failed pretty badly with my nutrition and that really made my riding suffer.  That was something I kept in mind as I prepared for this year's rendition of "the world's premier gravel grinder".  Weeks of unrelenting rain had me pretty concerned leading up to the event.  Only weeks before, Trans Iowa was pretty much a washout and only one person made it past the first checkpoint (he later DNFed).  I really didn't want all the hard work put into training for this event to be negated by bad weather. Since I knew that weather is something everyone has to deal with, I just hoped that it wasn't bad enough to make the race an impossible task.

There was some pretty heavy rain in the area during the morning of the day before the race.  The rest of the day was pretty cloudy, and I was hopeful the weather would be pleasant on race day even though I knew conditions wouldn't be perfect no matter what considering the amount of rain the area had received in the previous weeks.  Michelle and I got to Emporia early enough to check in to our hotel room and get situated before heading to one of the mandatory riders meetings.  The meeting was full of some of the normal stuff you expect to hear at these things (such as "you are on your own"), and there was a nice tribute to Joel Dyke.  Joel was one of the founders of the DK200 and he died in a tragic accident only months before the event.  Near the end of the meeting it was noted that due to some pretty severe flooding, with 8 foot high streams specifically mentioned, the race course was subject to modification as late as the race start time.  This concerned me since I had the planned course loaded into my Garmin and I really didn't want to use cue sheets, but I was ready to deal with whatever I needed to do.  After the meeting we ate some Bobby D's BBQ, which has turned into a Cycle City tradition, and then headed back to our hotel so I could rest up.

I woke up at around 4:00 AM on the morning of the race to find that the pavement outside was wet and it seemed to be misting.  This wasn't promising, but again I just rolled with the punches since it was out of my control.  I ate some food, had some coffee, and got my stuff ready before we headed to the start/finish line in downtown Emporia.  We got there and I proceeded to ride around briefly just to open up my legs a little bit.  Last year's race started with a bang, so I wanted to be at least slightly warmed up so I was ready to hammer it.  I then got to the start line with just a few minutes to spare, and before I knew it we were off.  Michelle barely found me in time and literally came and gave me a kiss as the front of the pack had started rolling off.  This year's start was a bit more controlled since the pace vehicles kept it at 15mph.  But about a mile or so in the leadout was stopped at the train tracks on the south side of Emporia since there was a train approaching.  This was probably a great move since crazy people would have almost certainly cut it too close trying to beat the train, and rumor has it that exact thing happened in the 2014 edition of DK.  The train passed and we were again led off by the pace vehicles.  I started near the front, and with the controlled lead I was able to stay there with ease as we approached the turn onto gravel.

We approached the turn onto gravel and the leadout vehicles pulled to the side.  This is when the race really started since it was a free for all from this point on.  The lead group was moving at a pretty swift pace, but I was able to stick with it as planned.  It was at about the 6 mile mark I'm guessing that Dan Hughes, who has won this event on multiple occasions, somehow got involved in a crash about 5 bike lengths in front of me.  I was able to stop and the damage was limited to him and at least one other person.  I wasn't even aware it was him who had crashed until I saw him on the course later. He would recover not only to continue the race, but to win the 45-49 age group. Only a handful of miles after that, probably somewhere between miles 10 and 15, we encountered thick mud that was more or less impossible to ride through.  I attempted to ride into it as far as possible to stay with the handful of people that were still on their bikes, but another rider made an ill-timed decision to cut right in front of my lane and I was forced to put my foot down.  Restarting in the thick mud was impossible I found, so that was when I was forced to start walking.  For the next couple miles or so it was mostly walking with a few areas where briefly riding again was possible. This really strung out the lead group since some were able to ride pretty far into it, some had to walk most of it, some people ended up with broken derailleurs, and others had to stop repeatedly to clear built up mud that was hindering wheels from spinning (myself included).  This section made me really concerned that it could be a really long day or maybe even a day that was impossible to finish. But after that section of mud was cleared Joe Fox and I pressed on since we had met up in the mud after he had addressed an issue caused by another rider running in to him (potentially the same rider that cut me off in the mud it turns out).

I think it was near the end of this first muddy walking section that the picture below was taken on a very greasy, slippery hill. Eric Benjamin of Adventure Monkey fame took it, and he is good at what he does. This was one of several times I walked throughout this race.  It was primarily mud-related, but at one point I walked a few hills because my chain had been so thoroughly un-lubed (is that a word?) by mud and water that it was creaking very loudly. I was concerned about breaking it by continually torquing it up hills, so I decided to play it safe. I even started to target puddles of muddy water as I got closer to checkpoint 2 just to lube my chain with something. I don't know if it was the best idea, but it did seem to work temporarily.

The rest of the ride leading up to checkpoint 1 wasn't overly eventful, but I did think my day was over at about mile 25.  On numerous occasions there was no choice but to ride blindly into pretty large puddles covering the road.  On one of these I must have hit a large rock because I was jarred forward and my left brake lever came loose on the handlebar.  The lever was locked closed and my wheel wouldn't spin, and I didn't know what the problem was and I feared the worst.  I got the brake loose and was able to proceed without losing much time.  Although I did have a multitool with me that probably could have helped with the loose lever, I didn't want to waste the time rummaging through my tightly packed saddle bag in order to dig it out and then work on it.  So for the next 55 miles I was lucky enough to deal with a loose lever that would move around as I applied my front brake.  There were some pretty high stream crossings that were at least to my knees during the rest of the section leading up to checkpoint 1, but it was nothing impassable. However, there were several reroutes that made it a bit confusing to navigate up to checkpoint 1 in Madison, but we made it there in under 5 hours despite the mud delay and confusion.

This is where I'll make note of how much a good support team can be invaluable at Dirty Kanza.  My wife was my main support person, and she was riding along with Celeste Mathias.  Celeste has supported John Mathias on countless bike rides, so she is pretty much a pro at it.  Their kids Stina and Cody were also there to help out and support at least one other rider aside from John and myself. At the Madison checkpoint the whole team was there to do whatever I needed them to do since all of us riders typically arrive at different times.  Michelle replaced my bottles and food, Cody tightened my loose lever, and either Celeste or Stina lubed my chain. This was all priceless since their help allowed me to just stand there and eat.  I have thanked the group on multiple occasions for their help, but there really is no way to express my gratitude.

I got out of the Madison checkpoint as quickly as I could, and then it was back to riding. This was used as a checkpoint in last year's DK, so I knew leaving the checkpoint town involved riding up a steep hill with brick cobbles.  It didn't seem as bad as it did last year, but it was a bear of a hill nonetheless.  Not more than 10-15 miles past the checkpoint was the second muddy walking section of the day.  It was not as long as the first section, but it caused some havoc.  I probably tried to ride too much of it and that caused my chainring to become completely clogged with mud, which forced my chain to drop off.  This is normally a quick and easy fix, but when I couldn't get the wheel far enough toward the back of the bike to get into the dropout I knew I would have to remove some of the mud from the chainring.  This took what seemed like several minutes, but I finally got it figured out.  I caught back up with Joe and off we went after spending several more minutes getting the peanut butter-like mud cleared out of our forks and chainstays.

At mile 102 we crossed a creek followed by a STEEP hill.  The below photo was shot at the top of that climb.  Thanks to Dave Leiker for sharing (http://prairiedust.zenfolio.com/)!  The climb wasn't that long, but it took all the torque I could put on my pedals and handlebars to get up it.  At this point I found a groove and just rode.  I looked back soon after the climb and Joe was out of sight.  With the Tour Divide less than two weeks away, I'm glad he didn't try to hammer it too hard.  Having said that, he still finished 30th if I'm not mistaken, so pretty impressive!

After riding solo for a few miles I came upon a group of three riders, including another singlespeed that I'd been going back and forth with throughout the first half of the race.  I'm not sure how he knew this, but he said that he and I were in 2nd and 3rd place in the SS category.  I thought it sounded cool, but I couldn't figure out how he would know that.  I knew another SS guy had passed Joe and I earlier that I didn't stress too much about since it was still pretty early, but I had assume more would be in front of us.  So I just assumed he was wrong and kept at it. After about 10 miles with that group, I went to the front and pulled away.  At this point I rode mostly solo for around 40 miles until the second checkpoint in Cottonwood Falls, which was at around mile 152.

As I was approaching the 145-150 mile mark I came upon another rider that I thought looked like a SS rider that had passed Joe and me earlier that I didn't worry about at the time.  As I got closer and knew it was him that was the first time all day the thought of possibly winning crossed my mind.  I was skeptical of the one SS guy's claims that I was in third (before I passed him), but I thought it was possible.  I was feeling great and was 3/4 done, so that was a confidence booster even if I wasn't taking the lead as I passed him.  I pulled away by a couple minutes in the few miles before the checkpoint, and my support crew again killed it at helping me out.  Cody soaked my chain that was in dire need of lubrication with some Tri-Flow, Michelle again took care of my food and drinks, Celeste cleaned my mud-caked glasses for me, and Stina gave me some very encouraging words.  This is when I realized that I almost had to be in the lead because Michelle was having a hard time controlling how amped up she was with excitement.  She told me I was 10th overall, but she didn't mention that part where I was winning SS.  She would later tell me that she knew, but she didn't want to tell me for whatever reason.  I remember commenting about how amazingly well I felt compared to the same point last year, which is when I felt so bad I just laid down in the grass and had to be convinced to get up and finish.  I wrapped up my "pit stop" as the SS guy I had passed earlier was pulling in, and I took off again.

The remaining 42 miles was a solo effort that consisted of a stiff headwind for the first 12 miles or so. I had been dreading this section all day because I knew the north winds would make it tough, but in all honesty it could have been much worse.  I kept my head down and watched the miles tick down to the point where I knew I'd be turning out of the wind for good.  It is around this turn where I stopped last year to regain my wits since I borderline didn't know where I was, and feeling so great this time around was a nice feeling. I passed several riders that were doing the Dirty Kanza Half Pint (the 100 mile race), and with about 15 miles to go a guy approached from behind me at a blistering pace.  If I'm not mistaken it was a guy named Jason Siegle.  I wasn't going slow by any means, and he just kept gaining on me.  I was prepared to have a tough finish if I had to fight for the top step of the SS podium, but he came next to me and I stopped worrying about him when I saw he had gears on his bike.  One lower place in the overall standings wasn't something I was going to lose sleep over.  I could have jumped on his wheel to keep up, but he appeared to be in a zone that I didn't to mess with since he wasn't putting my SS chances in jeopardy.

As I approached Americus and knew I only had about 10 miles left with mostly a tailwind, I started to come to grips with the possibility that I might actually win this thing.  That combined with the fact that I was going to get to eat some real food soon, grab a cold beer, and kids running up to the road cheering made the next 10 miles really fun.  It was an experience unlike anything I have ever felt.  I don't know if it was emotions or what, but it was almost as if I was outside of my own body. I kept what felt like a fast pace while also keeping an eye out behind me to make sure nobody was coming, and before I knew it I was back on pavement pulling into Emporia.  I followed the course through Emporia State University, and then I was heading down Commercial Street with the finish line in sight.  I won't even try to explain how good it feels to see the finish line approaching after 200 miles, but it's pretty awesome to say the least!  People were lined up along the cones and gates outlining the path riders took the the finish line, and they were cheering like mad.  After waving at my support team and giving fives to random outstretched hands I hopped over the finish line and that was it. Below is a shot of me waving at my crew at I approach the finish that Michelle took with a Garmin Virb.

As I approached the tent past the finish line where they give riders their DK finisher pint glasses, "200" stickers, and "Race the Sun" prints (if they finished before 14:42, which I did), I was curious to know what my result was.  Jim Cummins (the DK co-founder) handed me my stuff, shook my hand, and congratulated my finish, but I still had no idea what my result was.  As I exited the tent and found Michelle she was super excited, so I hoped for the best.  She pulled out her iPhone since she was tracking the results and showed me my 12th overall finish.  Right next to that said "Single Speed 1st". I'm not one to get overly outwardly excited, but for obvious reasons I was elated.  I'm not really sure how I went from 10th at the last checkpoint to 12th at the finish since only 1 person went by me, but in the big picture it isn't terribly relevant. I also increased my lead from the two minutes it took for the second place SS guy to pull in to Cottonwood Falls after me to 8 minutes by the end. After months of often brutal training in nasty weather and long sessions on the turbo trainer my efforts had paid off! After the race I signed the sponsor board and then wanted something to eat!

The rest of the evening was full of congratulations, food, and watching other people finish. Joe rolled in about 42 minutes after me and seemed elated when Michelle told him I had won as I was approaching them.  He gave me a big hug, I gave him a beer, and we chatted a bit before he went off to clean the mud off his bike and his body. Michelle and I milled around the street party for a while with Celeste until John rolled in with what is at least his 5th DK finish.  Then we headed back to the hotel to clean up and get some much needed sleep.

I probably slept a total of 5 restless hours on and off throughout the night.  A very soft bed coupled with a really sore back made sleeping pretty difficult.  When morning finally rolled around we went and grabbed some coffee and donuts (I'm not embarrassed to say I ate a lot of donuts) before heading to the awards breakfast.  It started with the 1000 mile club goblets being handed out (Joe and John both got one), and then they gave away a bunch of swag in a drawing (I didn't win anything).  There were a lot of category awards to hand out, and it was fun to hear my name when it was my turn.  I won the trophy I'm pictured holding below, a cycling vest indicating I'm a "DK200 Champion", and some swag from Orange Seal. Contrary to my brother's assumption, I did not win tons of cash, sponsorship deals, etc, which actually made me laugh.

I want to again note how awesome my support crew was during this race.  I owe them a lot of gratitude!  Related to that, I owe my wife Michelle tons of gratitude for dealing with me disappearing for hours at a time or building our schedule around my riding at times.  She is busy herself a lot of times since her resident physician duties often see her busting her butt from dusk until dawn at the hospital, clinic, etc, but other times when she is free what we do revolves around my training.  I also owe her tons of thanks because for the second year in a row I rode DK on our anniversary weekend, so she is cool for tolerating that from me!  Luckily next year DK will be the week after our Anniversary. I also owe my coach tons of thanks for putting me through the wringer in preparation for this event. There were a lot of sucky rides that made me hate my life, but I trusted in this person's knowledge and tried to do exactly what I was supposed to (and will continue to do so). As I have mentioned in previous posts, I still don't know if I'm supposed to say his (or her?) name or not since our arrangement is a side project for him, so I'll err on the side of caution.  Nonetheless, this person has done great things for me.

It was a memorable weekend to say the least!  I'm happy to know that I have the mental strength, determination, stubbornness, or whatever it took to push through.  I'm also excited to continue to build on the fitness I've developed and see where it leads me in the future.  I'm hoping for a race next year with dry conditions and pleasant weather, and luckily for my wife it comes several days after our anniversary!  Despite the obstacles that this year's DK200 required racers to overcome, I still beat my time from last year by 14 minutes even though last year had about the most ideal conditions one could imagine. I'm now very curious to see what would happen in ideal conditions with better fitness and smarter planning.  Either way, from a big picture point of view this is all for fun, so I'll just keep approaching it that way as much as I can.

Finally, I must mention a comment I made some time ago about what I would do if I actually won DK.  To paraphrase what I said at some point in the past, I noted that winning DK would warrant a tatoo to commemorate the occasion. Well now I have a choice to make! I don't have any tatoos primarily because I've never been confident enough with anything to permanently affix it to my body, but I suspect this is something I'll never be ashamed of.  Perhaps something like the DK logo with "Winner" and/or the year, category, etc in a location that will not be visible unless I want it to be.  Maybe a future post will outline the details of that. Some people may not agree, but for me this is a pretty big deal.  I know there are detractors out there that talk about how DK has sold out from its roots, but I don't think what they have done is necessarily bad. Has the race gotten massive? Absolutely.  Has the organization that Dirty Kanza has turned into become more of a business than a group organizing fun rides?  Probably.  But that same organization also does a lot to benefit the community of Emporia, and it also contributes money to good causes, such as children with cancer. I know some people prefer the grassroots feel of some gravel events, but I experienced nothing negative this entire weekend - and that is with or without the win.

Hermann Gravel Challenge

I tried my hand at the Hermann Gravel Challenge for the first time this year as a nice primer for Dirty Kanza.  It is 200 miles over 2 days, so I figured that would be a good way to slowly get myself ready for the better part of a day on the bike.  This used to be a road race, but Jeff Yielding changed it to a gravel grinder in recent years, which is awesome in my opinion.  I wasn't sure what to expect, but as hard as I had been working in training over the previous few months I was hopeful things would go well.  There wasn't a SS category, but since that is what I'll be riding for DK I figured it would be the best route to take.

The first day consisted of 3 loops of just over 30 miles each.  The first loop started pretty flat and ended up utilizing the Katy Trail for several miles.  I was shocked when the race started and people started flying off the front!  So much for this being an endurance race!  The same thing happens at just about any gravel race it seems, so I'm not sure why I was surprised.  I managed to catch up to the front group and stick with them for the entire day.  It started with about 10-15 guys and slowly dwindled throughout the rest of the day (especially on loop 3).  There were some fast dudes up there, including (among others) my buddy Peat Henry who is always entertaining and Josh Johnson, who is one you can always count on being super fast.  The first two loops went well and I did a really nice job of making sure I conserved power when possible and continually nourished myself.  Eating/drinking is something I have struggled with in the past, so making sure I'm better at that is a major goal.  The third loop had some monster hills on it.  I even ended up walking up one since my 42x18 SS gear was just a bit too big, but it worked out because walk/jogging up the hill pretty much kept me on pace with the geared dudes riding up it.  The front group finally dwindled down to me and two other guys (Lawrence Simonson and Bryce Hylton), and on the last few miles of pavement they clicked their gears down and hammered away while I was spinning out on my SS.  So on the first day I came in just a minute or two back of those two.

Day 2 consisted of two longer loops that were just over 50 miles each.  It started a little bit slower on this day since I assume people were tired from the day before, and that was nice so I could work out the legs from the previous day.  It ended up being about 10-15 guys in the front group again, and it slowly shrank in size throughout the day.  I lost a full bottle on a swift descent in the first loop, so that had me worried that I would put myself into a nutritional deficit.  I would have picked it up, but that would have meant losing the front group and never catching them again.  It was a really nice and cool morning, though, so I managed to get through to the halfway point in good shape.  The second loop went really well, and I ended up at the front again alone with the same two guys from the previous day.  It started raining pretty heavily in the latter stages of the second loop, and to my dismay Lawrence and Bryce decided to finish together instead of trying to kill each other to finish first.  I was prepared to sit back and enjoy the show!  But we all finished together and it turned out to be an incredible weekend.  I'm really seeing the benefits of my training in recent months and the leadership of my mystery coach.

Overall it was a really fun event that I'm sure I'll do again if it works with my schedule.  My wife and in-laws accompanied me on the trip, so it was fun to have stuff to do during the afternoon/evening after the rides.  Hermann is a really cool city with fun stuff to do, so I'll be back!  Another cool thing about a race close to St. Louis is that Dan Singer was present taking pictures.  I always love going to events he attends because he is really good at what he does.  I hope I'm not breaking any rules by sharing this, but below is a picture he snapped of me.

I'm now out sick for a handful of days with some allergy issues, so that is a major bummer since coach wants me off the bike so I can get better and not make my problems worse.  I'm so paranoid I'm going to lose all the fitness I've worked for, but my goal with the whole coaching situation is to do whatever he says since he is the expert.  I'm supposed to do the OMBA Caramba in Springfield this weekend, but we'll see how my health is doing.  Until next time...

Semi-annual Update

As the post hints at, this is what is apparently going to start becoming semi-annual updates to this thing. It's not a big deal since I mainly write to read again later when I'm 75 and laugh at myself.  The past year has been interesting to say the least.  Cross could have gone better, but I'll probably always say that. Even if I won every race by some miracle I'd probably still find something to be critical about with myself.  The worst part was that I was just feeling dead tired during the entire last race of the year at Cross off the Old Year in Shawnee, KS, and I couldn't understand why people were passing me that I usually finish ahead of.  I just chalked it up to being tired from a long year of riding and racing, or at least until I got home.  That's when I realized that my rear disc rotor was rubbing on the caliper pretty severely, and it was bad enough that the wheel wouldn't even spin around once before it stopped.  So not only was I battling the wind and cold, but I was also fighting my rear brake. I had switched out wheels and had to adjust my calipers before the previous race, so I must have just completely forgot for this race when I switched the wheels back.  Embarrassing, but oh well.

This year has been awesome and draining at the same time.  Aside from  my real job of being a professor, I have been putting a lot into training.  I don't want to include a name since our arrangement is more or less off the record, but I started getting coached in January.  I'll first say that not having to plan out my rides is amazing.  Simply looking at the calendar and doing what I'm told takes a lot of stress out of the process.  However, doing what I'm told is easier said than done since I've been getting worked over pretty hard with intervals!  I've already noticed a lot of positive changes after just over 2 months, so the benefits are showing and if I'm not faster than I've ever been this year then it just isn't meant to be.  I've always been pretty hot and cold on using a power meter since on my own it was tough to utilize properly, but now I'd be lost without it since being in the proper zones at all times has become such a priority.  I'm not saying riders shouldn't use power without a coach, but comparing now to when I used to do exactly that I feel like I was not using it to its full potential.

I've got a few races coming up in April that I may write something about, and I'll definitely write something about Dirty Kanza (maybe).  On 4/11-12 I've got the Hermann Gravel Challenge, which is a 2 day event that I believe works out to be about 100 miles each day.  There isn't a singlespeed category, but I'll be riding it anyway since it will help with DK.  I may be less competitive than I would be with people that can shift and really drop the hammer on the flats, but it should be beneficial when the end of May gets here.  I'm also doing at least 1 and perhaps 2 MTB races in April, so that will be fun.

As always, I'll try to be better about updating this for the entertainment of my future self!  Finally, here is a picture of Freckles to laugh at.