Rasta Rally

I drove up early Saturday morning to Rhinelander (pit stop in Tomahawk for Dairy Queen of course) and met up with Justin Riebe to set up accomodations and go for a ride on the Hanson Lake Trail System. I gotta tell ya I miss living up there. even the newest and barely put together trails up there are better than most if not all in the Green Bay, Appleton, and Oshkosh areas combined. That makes it so much easier to pack up and move to Wausau. The single is confusing but it's fun and somewhat decent laps around 4.5 miles not too bad.

Sunday was a different story. This course was difficult lots of climbing and even some of it was on the difficult side, this was a great early season test especially now that I know I need to work on my lower back issues since I've been neglecting this area in the weight room.

Now to the good stuff Results and photos.

After a 4-5 year hiatus Justin Riebe grabbed 3 in his age group in the beginner/sport class and better than mid pack overall. Solid effort from him.

I ended up 8th out of 21 in my expert age group and 11th of 43 overall. So a decent effort, but I know what I need to work on. Can't wait for WORS next week. See ya there.

Later
Justin

Are you Ready for some singletrack?

It's getting closer and closer to race day. Tonight I'll get everything all packed up and run around trying to find my Gatorade Endurance Formula in powder form more and more places I think stopped carrying it but then again we are in Wisconsin where a majority of the people are not exactly "active" so sales may not be high enough to stock it for only myself to buy it, but if you want some deep fried chicken there's plenty of that so enjoy.

I am going to head up to the nort-woods Saturday morning and shack up with the parents for the night. Weather is supposed to be in the upper 70's all weekend so that definitely will be nice for a change since this race has a history of cold and rainy weather. I think Justin R. will be making a race debut this weekend. He used to race in the WORS series back before 2000, but recently getting back into it after a long layoff, he has a Fisher Hoo Koo E Koo (spelling) that's pretty old school but when I saw it last summer it was still in awesome shape.....good singlespeed conversion material....

I received my copy of 24 solo Wednesday and it is great story. Gordon destroyed himself trying to beat Chris. I love the opening scene with 24-9 what the hell were we all doing there I didn't realize how bad the weather really was.....but hey I wouldn't change anything about that weekend, what an experience...next year...2008 I will be going solo 24.

Add some fuel to the fire

I am beyond stoked for the race this weekend. It's been a very long winter and my MTB might be feeling quite neglected by now, but no worries I did manage to get it dialed in this weekend and she's ready to go.

I signed up for the race over in Minnesota in which it will be exciting to race on the same course as the pros like JHK, Geoff Kabush, Shonny Vanlandingham...etc....you get the picture. Those guys and gals race on Saturday so I'll be able to watch and take some snap shots and video. It's a UCI points race so it does mean something, but for me it's an opportunity to get out of Wisconsin and race on some different terrain well sort of it's still Minnesota.

Tonight I wasn't expecting a whole hell of a lot out of my ride considering yesterdays gale force winds, but I some how kept my pace at reasonable level over 37 miles. I don't think I left it all on the road either as I feel fresh and no muscle soreness to speak of, this ought to change after the 15 hill repeats I have planned for Wednesday.

Rasta Rally this weekend.....be there....even if you're not an avid cyclist that's why there is a citizen class. Get out there and ride! I better see some of you guys there. Mountaingoat has an excuse and I can except that, but you other suckas better find a way to get up there unless your doing the Rock Cut race down in Ill-noise.

So I leave you with this

Later

Crazier by the day!

Tuesday I went to do the hill repeats at high cliff again and ended up meeting Brett and Jim there as they were just finishing their workout. I finished just as it was getting dark again caught a nice shot of the sunset and decided to do a couple more. I only planned on doing 10, but by the time I uploaded the data from my Motionlingo ADEO GPS. It appears I did 13...this would explain why I was dead on Wednesday. The total workout was 48 miles only 20 were for the trip on the way out and back the rest was on the hill.

I couldn't believe how many deer were out and about after 7 its like happy hour or something and they all flock from everywhere and I was within punching distance if any of them wanted to try anything funny...

Rasta Rally is next weekend. I don't know what the Mountaingoat is doing, but I am all registered and ready to go. Hopefully I'll see some of you punks there.

Got this in the mail today.

Signing up for it tonight....I think I'll have to check the logistics and stuff, but looks like fun.

Is it time for WORS yet.

The Weekend

The end of the week gut feeling was to take it easy Friday and Saturday. So Sam and I took a trip up to Tomahawk so that she can get some wedding stuff done and so I can get away from the city for a couple of days and relax.

Friday:

Got off of work and cruised up North and stopped at one of the greatest establishments in town for burgers Dairy Queen. I wanted the the kit kat blizzard, but I had to keep the slender figure alive. We then ended up at Sam's parents house and just kicked it a bit before going to sleep

Saturday:

Got some Chineese at the Beking Restaraunt....Good Stuff. Nothing in Crappleton even comes close to this place...no joke and up to Rhinelander for some flower shopping...I had other plans. My front tire got punctured on my roadie so I dropped Sam and my mom off at Wal-mart and continued to Bikes-N-Boards to get said tire fixed. I then killed more time at Jake's Tatooing and got a rough idea of what my next piece is going to cost me and I am pretty excited about it hopefully this gets done in May or early June.

Sunday:

I had originally commited to doing about 100 miles, but that vanished when I woke with the headache from hell and cut the ride short at 43 miles. I did average 20mph over the 2 hour ride so the rest certainly paid off.

I'm tired time for bed. Exclusive pre-season interview on me coming up soon....be excited....very excited.

Later Player catch ya on the flip side.

Hola Me Llamo Justin

And I am a "Climbaholic" (latin: Climaholibus)

Nevermind the Spanish talk (lack of Oxygen to the brain as always)

After riding the trainer last night (first time in a while mountiangoat), I decided to do the workout I had originally planned and ride out to High Cliff State Park for some hill repeats and I was excited.

I must be sick in the head if this is something I actually enjoy, but there is just something about giving a good effort up a pretty decent climb and then doing it ten consecutive times (20 is my record so far on that climb). I am listening to my Ipod and nodding my head to the music as I go up. Last year at this time, it wouldn't have entered my mind that I could do this 3 times yet alone 10 and certainly not 20 repeats, but I gotta tell ya I feel like I am leaps and bounds ahead of where I was last year...only a race with all of the WORS heads will be the true test of that.

Also, while I have racing on the brain, good luck to everybody this year. I want to get that out of the way before I become an arrogant, stuck on myself, think I am better than everyone (which I am ooops started already) prick. Just kidding, I look forward to seeing everyone and with a possible move to Wausau I may have room for some guests, but I'll post more about that later on after Treadfast.

Later Player!

Another day another....Snowstorm

What the hell happend today now? For Example, I go out for lunch and when I go out to refill my water bottle it's a white out....You know something, with about 2 weeks away till Rasta Rally in Rhinelander there better be a warm spell coming on fast.

I decided to ride on the trainer tonight. Tonight was supposed to be the night where I go out to highcliff and do hill repeats followed by 6 minute sprints on the way home. Well I guess that's getting pushed back to Tuesday night. Weather isn't looking great, but who knows, maybe there will be a pleasant suprise.

Later

Think Spring!

Take a look at this sign and tell me you don't want to climb it.
(Washburn Lake Trail - Rhinelander, WI)

What's a guy to do?

I'll tell ya what. There are a bunch of races I should be doing this year, but virtually can't due to restrictions on budget from the wedding and a possible move to Wausau Wisconsin.

I would love to do some of the 24 Hours of Adrenalin Races, but there are none to speak of in Wisconsin and would require a rather lengthy road trip amongst other expenses. I also would love to do the Lumberjack 100 but a ferry ride across Lake Michigan is 209 bucks round trip. What's a guy to do. I want to compete against the best in the biz, but I can't get those kinds of funds together to do it.

The WEMS Series is going to be my main focus this year as WORS will always be on the schedule, but if there is an endurance race to be had well that where I am going.

In other news, Nike and Trek Bikes have severed ties going into 08' and rumor has it they may drop cycling all together. My thought, In Nike's eyes, Lance is gone and so is their cash cow. I guess we might as well leave it to the companies that contribute to the cycling community instead of strictly the pro teams cause it all starts in the grassroots of the sport.

More riding completed today and it wasn't very comfortable at all, but it was still on the bike and that's what matters. This season is going to be different. We are going to see who's been defying the odds and training in all conditions compared to those that whine and complain that they can't get out cause it's raining and 40 degrees. We'll see how this works out for ya in Iola punks!

Wisconsin Might as Well.....

Be known as the "Bullshit Weather State"

I mean come on, one week you're comfortable in 50 degree weather although not ideal, but withstandable and not 24 hours later your digging for your ice scrapper and winter jacket which you had already had put away and taken back out at least 3 or 4 times already this year.

With that being said it's hard to pick and choose your long times on the bike or doing any activity outside and makes it that much harder to train effectively, but still have to find a way to get out there and tough it out....I mean who cares about the 25-30mph head winds with rain beginning to fall right. I did manage to do about 3 hours on the trainer, but I was watching "Off Road to Athens" so that made me excited to get out there and race and also made those 3 hours fly by.

Saturday I managed to break down and do some shopping for cars again.....why does this process of paperwork and what not have to take sooooooo long? I mean they ran the credit, I found what I wanted, and put some $$$$ down, but after the 4 hour ordeal they say "the banks are not open on Saturdays and will have to wait till monday for it to go through" I could have easily filled out the paper work left for my saturday ride and came back later if that was the case....day waisted and I needed a nap.

I normally don't take naps but that changed yesterday. I got home around 4ish and slept till about 8. I think I was just beat down from a full week of work, riding, weight lifting at the YMCA.

Tommorow morning I will be riding to work lets not get by any cars shall we? Some people just have no respect for bike commuters, but hey all it takes is one lawsuit to make it come full circle.

Later,