Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Assistance tonight

My two co-workers helping me out tonight. Good night at work with my little buddies, Pavlov and Julius. They just scored a treat!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Chequamegon 100 Completed

This past weekend I made my way over to compete in the inaugural Chequamegon 100. The race started in Seeley, WI at 7 a.m. on Saturday with about 170 riders in attendance. The start of the race rolled us out on gravel roads, very soon to double track and not more than 3 miles in we were on the promised singletrack. More than 75 miles of singletrack for the day.
From the start we rode back to Hayward on singletrack with a little mix of the Chequamegon 40 trail backwards. I was very happy to ride the singletrack instead of the 40 trail. Too open and boring but still very beautiful. Once we arrived at Hatchery Creek trailhead, the group of us amounted to 7. Yes, we were the lead group.
At about mile 30 something we stopped to make sure we were going to correct way. A couple more riders joined us that were riding very fast. We had a great group now. Now at 40 miles in, we were unsure where we were and what direction to go. Yes, we are not on trail and a little lost. We have now rode the same singletrack 3 times back and forth trying to find our way, and riding way out of our way. Some tempers started to flare but I just thought to myself that I am riding my bike and enjoying myself.
We found our way onto the trail and arrived at the drop point where we were able to have some nutrition or whatever one may need dropped off. I used a Victoria's Secret bag to identify my bag so I had zero time trying to find mine amonst all the others. I was glad to see that bag!
Seven minutes and we were off again. Some riders chose one way, we chose another, and we soon found out that neither of us were on the correct trail. At this point, we were about 6.5 miles over out targeted mileage. We, Horkey and Heath, agreed that we couldn't waste time or energy going in the wrong direction anymore. From the 65 mile cue point, we made sure that we were going in the right direction. I wanted to take that 3 seconds to keep my mental sanity at each marker. It worked kind of. One more time being unsure of our route through some logging area and then we were on track again. Just three of us on trail together and there was not too much talking going on but we were on our way. Just more and more singletrack to one last big climb on the Birkie trail that lead us to the final gravel road to bring us home. The day ended with close to 110 miles traveled in 9 hours with a tie for 3rd place.
Cheers to a great event with great people. Great job Tim and Joe.
I tried to load a pic but was unable at this time.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Good Luck

This weekend I am standing on the other side of the fence as a supporter. Tomorrow, Angela is running the half marathon here in Green Bay, WI. Also running tomorrow is Jenny, Angela's sister, and Danny(Jenny's husband). Should be a great time with good weather in the forecast for the morning.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Time Flies

One week ago was the start of the 3 days of intense, long hours in the morning before putting in a full days worth of work. My goal was to ride for 6-7 hours each day Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I pretty much achieved this in my little world, but the days proved to be a challenge set forth from Mother Nature.
Wednesday started out a little chilly in the morning and it felt cooler from the winds gusting to 30 mph. With the winds that fierce I planned a route to take me SW to Paynesville, MN. With hitting the wind directly for 4 hours in the face any chance to take cover or get a cross wind was well liked. Making my way around Lake Kronus I found a little shelter on the lake road. As I found my way into Paynesville the skies started to spit on my a little bit. No big deal I thought. When I rolled into the Casey's gas station for the scheduled refueling, the skies started to open up. I kept the break very short and headed North out of Paynesville. This part of the ride was the toughest. With the cross winds and the rain feeling like needles, the trip about 15 miles to the North felt like it took forever. Once I turned back to the East I was moving very fast. Too fast! By this time and where I was in the route, I was headed home. Luckly the trip home went well and I rolled in very close to 7 hours that day.

Thursday morning Ben and I headed out again at 6 a.m. The route planned for the day was to go North on the East side of the river to gain a little coverage from the wind. Destination was Little Falls and by going up the East side we were able to enjoy the views as we were doing a usual route backwards. Once we arrived in Little Falls we started to roll back to the South, then to the West, then further West, then South, and then back to the East. This brought us home in just 6.25 hours of riding. We had a couple stops, with one top fix a flat. Thanks for joining my Ben.
Friday morning when I woke up it was raining. Not to mention it was cold also. I had to do everything I could to convince myself to swing my leg over the bike outside. I did and it was brutual. I have to admit that I could only make it 4 hours though. I was extremely cold, wet and tired after 13 hours of riding in the last two days. I planned a route to keep me on the outskirts of the town just incase I needed to pull the plug. Honestly I made it longer than I thought considering that I was soaked all the way through in the first 45 min. All in all I was glad that I toughed it out that day. I looked as if that morning had been a race, I would have done it. By doing what I did over the last three days, I hope the training will pay off come 20 hours into a 24 hour race.

On Satudarday Angela graduated with a double master's degree. An outstanding achievement for you! I am very proud of you.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Check back

Just a quick update for now. With the last three days of very long training, I made it through and I feel pretty good. A total of about 270 miles with some very tough conditions. I will post about it later tonight when I have some down time.
Today is all about Angela. She is going through graduation with achieving here double Masters Degree. Way to go. I will post a pick later.