The Bike Transplant

Ok, as I have mentioned before, Becky  is doing her Tri in Boulder in September and its the Tri for your Cause. She’s doing it to raise funds for the Lupus Foundation and their search for a cure. You can donate here, even if its just a dollar. As you may know, Becky does have Lupus and its awesome to see her doing the Tri as many with Lupus suffer from serious fatigue and other health complications which make them unable to do things like this.

In support of Becky this year, I’m going to ride with the purple armband she gave me in all of my races. So for 09, wear purple. Also I should mention May is Lupus Awareness Month. For more info check out The Lupus Foundation.

I’ll provide more updates on Becky’s efforts later….thanks for the support.

So, finally at long last mountain bike racing season is here in Nebraska. The weather forecast is touch and go for this weekend but I’m hoping it holds out. First up is the Swanson River City Shootout. After the last couple of road races I’m anxious to see how the legs hold up on singletrack racing. This course for those who haven’t ridden it, is fairly flat, but still makes you hurt. Its fairly technical and does not have any sections that are smooth. It requires alot of concentration for the 70 minutes of xc racing and is almost as much mentally taxing as it is physical. On the physical side, the many roots, drops, g-outs, powerclimbs, and switchbacks really take a toll as you spent most of the race sprinting out of turns. Should be fun as always!

The race starts at 12 but i’m toying with the idea of entering the 3 hour marathon category, stay tuned for my decision. I’ve also convinced Mike Farrell (senior nugget) to enter his first mtnbike race so he should be doing the Mens Cat 3 45+ category. Good luck Mike!

Now, also this weekend Becky and Beth are doing there second indoor Tri of the year on Sunday. Beth I hope your hip holds out. As I mentioned the other day, Becky’s definitely gotten stronger from last year. Her winter training both at the gym and on the trainer have made a big difference in her bike skills. Previously (and I’m sorry honey for pointing this out again) her cadence was so so slow…it hurt to watch. And I mean slow, we’re talking maybe 50 rpm. And as any cyclist will tell you that is not good especially for hills, she always struggled to power over them. Last friday on our ride I was delighted to see the new training pay off as she was maintaining a nice solid 70-80 rpm cadence. With a cross wind we started out warming up out of Waterloo, NE doing about 13-15 mph. As we turned north we picked up the tailwind. Now, by this point we were 5 miles into the ride a point at which even with a tailwind Beck would slow down. Instead, I had to work for the next 7 miles to stay with her, we quickly got up to about 17-18 mph and Becky never let up (again a new feature of Becky 2.0). As we turned back west onto Hwy 36 we had the one long hill up to elk city. Again Becky struggled in the past to keep a good cadence. We agreed to regroup at the top. As I got to the intersection and stopped to wait, I turned and began looking to see where she was expecting to be waiting a few. I was quickly surprised to see her cresting the hill with still the same cadence only a little over a minute behind me. After that we finished our ride back into the headwind and down to Waterloo. The wind took a little out of Becky’s sails but we finished the 20 miles in just about an 1.5 hours. Considering becky used to ride to Zorinsky lake and back 20 miles in 2 hours, she has managed to shave 30 minutes off a 20 mile ride while adding a strong headwind and long hill.

So anywho, looking forward to Becky’s performance this weekend, if you get a chance wish her goodluck this weekend.

Ciao,

J

Hello everyone,

So the last couple weeks have been really hectic. Two out of town trips for work, a bike race, training, and crazy busy at work. So here goes…..First and foremost, the second road race of the year was a criterium at the tour de husker. Here’s some pics:

Warming up

the tractor test loop criterium, yes they actually tested tractors on it once upon a time….yay banked corners…almost a velodrome.

driving to the race

My winnings.

So yes it was a good race, I won two of the 5 prime laps (in criteriums they are 1 lap races within the overall race for prizes). Training is paying off. Here’s how it went down.

Started off easy, waited to see how the field would work itself out and let others tire themselves jockying for position and the first two primes. After lap 5 I moved to the front and stayed at about 3rd wheel for the rest of the race and to stay out of trouble. With 16 laps to go another prime came up. On the back straight I moved immediately to the front to lift the pace and test my legs. I looked back and had opened a 40ft gap on the field and saw guys hurting. A couple of guys put on pressure and the field splintered to real me in. I stayed out in front and took the prime easily. After that I settled back into the field and continued to take turns at the front. Me and two others led the last 15 laps and ripped the field apart leaving only 6 guys including myself in the lead group. With 3 laps to go the 5th and final prime came up. After the 4th turn I immediately opened a sprint down the main straight for the finish line. From behind I heard someone say Uh-oh he went to quick and saw someone coming from the corner of my eye. I decided to put my head down, I was committed now. I pushed hard and looked back as I crossed the line, I again had a nice 30-40ft gap for an easy prime win. I settled again into the field and led the last 3 laps. I tried to get others to take their turns at the front, but everyone sat on my wheel. I kept the pressure hi at a nice 40km/hr pace but it also cooked my legs, out of the final turn everyone sprinted out of my draft and I couldn’t go anymore, I settle for 6th but felt great with my performance.

As I mentioned I’ve also been to Wyoming and Western Nebraska in the last two weeks. So sorry that’s held up my communication with everyone I owe emails too.

Couple of other quick notes. Becky and I went for a group ride the other day, she’s definitely improving. Here’s a shot from that ride.

And I also repeated my attempt at shoulder vs. tree and now the tally is tree 2 shoulder 0. here’s the evidence from last weeks mtn bike training ride.

It’s not as bad as the last time, probably b/c I was only going 15mph instead of the last time when I was going 22.

Ok, finally two last things, my Polar HRM died so I have a new tech toy coming, a Garmin Forerunner 305. So new updates soon will have maps and realtime HRM graphs. woohoo…better training analysis.

The first mtnbike race of the season is this weekend. Stay tuned!

More later I’m tired.

J

Ok,

Beck and I had a great weekend….computers are fully functional. Was so excited to get my Office 2007 disk last Friday and get it installed on the Macbook under bootcamp XP. Yay, productivity at home.

Also the blog content is coming along now…just ironing out a few bugs and filling in content. Still have a sh** load of photos to organize before I can begin uploading content to the new flickr site so new photos coming eventually.

Becky and I are also having a blast watching  Donny and Beths dog Vegas this weekend. Trey and her get along great as you can see here.

They actually did more than that. They played quite a bit and we generally had a good time wearing Trey out.

Also, Becky and I kept the Easter tradition we have been doing the last couple years going strong. First up on the day was a bike ride on dirt out at tranquility park.

Two sweet C’dales. Yes the Taurine is a rocket ship. While getting ready I noticed this on the car parked next to us.

That’s my kind of obsession. I now wonder why I don’t have that on my car. Maybe SRAM would be a good one. Here’s Beck working the pose getting ready.

We capped it all off with a great dinner…yummy home cooked veggie lasagna, caesar salad, cherry cheesecake, and a good bottle of Reisling.

Again great easter and then it was back to work.

Happy trails!

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