This week it was pretty damn warm for January. I decided to take full advantage of it and why not? It is looking as though the following week is going to struggle out of negative temperatures.
Monday: 2.5 hour skate ski at nine mile beating my previous record of 6 and did 8 night laps.
Tuesday: 1.25 hours at the gym
Wednesday: 2 hours on the skate skis
Thursday: 1.5 hours at the gym
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 3 hours of skate skiing at nine mile
Sunday: 2 hours of snowshoe hiking/running
Total Workout Time: 12.25 hours
Last year at this time I was close to 158lbs with about 14% body fat.....ooops!
This year I am a robust 161lbs with about 8% body fat....
I love it when a plan comes together. I can't wait to get on the bike.
Maybe I'll have some B.A.L.L.S come April!!!!
Also, see the new link at the right www.gravelgrindernews.com
Justin Lund - Endurance Racer
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
A Little Spice In Life Never Hurts
I was able to pick up Salsa this weekend and I love it already. The paint is cool and the lettering isn't the run of the mill decals like other bikes I've owned, plus the carbon rear seatstays are nicely detailed as well.
My first impressions were that this is a damn cool looking rig. After further examination you can see a pivot point at the bottom of the seatstays by the dropouts. This bike is designed to be a little forgiving and all of that energy needs to be dampened somewhere right??? I could see this being a big advantage in the kind of racing we do in this area as we don't necessarily have to "huck" anything (right Nate?). Another thing I liked right off the bat was the inclusion of reuseable cable routers (see seat stay) these little black wonders are so small in the broad scheme of things but just the attention to detail and the non-use of zip ties made me pretty happy.
This bike came with a full Shimano XT group minus the crank in which that was a Raceface DeusXC (heavy is a nice way to put it). A Salsa stem, bars, grips, and seatpost also came with. I quickly got rid of that stuff and replaced with Titec Ti 118 bar, Titec Pluto Prolite Stem, Titec Duke Carbon seatpost and prolite gel saddle. I also swapped out the xt brakes for my Hayes Stroker Trail brakes. I added a little weight with the addition of some Ergon GX2 grips but they are a must have on all of my bikes.
What's next for the Mamasita diet? Well Starting with the wheels I am going to lace up my American classic hubs to some of Stans NEW ZTR Crest 29er hoops with DT Revolution Spokes and Prolock nipples should come out to around 1400g for the set which is damn good for a set of 29er wheels. The crank comes next. Rotor Bike has a killer crankset called Agilis and I am going to go the route of 2x9 40t/27t. Really once those two things are done I would imagine the final weight would be somewhere between 21-23lbs depending on what tires I use. I do like the wtb prowlers it came with cause of treat pattern, but they are pretty heavy. I could drop about a half pound just by switching to some Maxxis tires.
Other than that I have just been skiing whenever I get a chance. This week will be a tough one as I have no weekend plans so skiing will reign supreme and I am back in the weight room again this week after missing last week due to meetings and not feeling good for a little bit. There is a long time before the first race of the year and I can't wait to ditch the skis and heat up the trails with a little Salsa action, until then I ski till my legs fall off then I ski some more.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Birthday Crosstraining "Ride"
2009 Yamaha Apex GT = Fast!!!
Well with this weekend being the first of many 29th birthdays I decided to get out on the snowmobile with some friends one of which having a prominent stable of very high quality sleds. We started out with a quick ride to Rick's parents house to swap sleds and from there we rode the twisty stuff which would compare to mtb singletrack. Diving into corners and opening it up on the wide open double track and finally squeezing the throttle to bar and seeing how fast you shoot across a frozen lake and on the sled above it was extremely fast in the respect that going 70 felt comfortable I didn't care to look down on the lakes but 100mph couldn't have been out of the question. The end of the ride led us to a local bar/campground for pizza and soda (no really, soda, I don't drink on the sled). What a ride, What a weekend with great friends time to go to sheboygan this upcoming weekend to pick up a toy the people that typically follow this site are used to seeing. The Salsa Mamasita!!! Who wants to ski at the camp next weekend?
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
10 Notes for 2010: Part 1
A list of sorts. What I want to do, what not to do, plus any goals I have. Really, and I've said this about a million times, 2009 was an epic failure. This past year I experienced and made many changes, but really I did learn a lot and grew as a better person and will hopefully translate to a better racer, which leads me to note number ONE.
1. Mono and Bronchitis is not an effective training tool if after 6 months you still feel tired from walking a flight of steps or can't have a month without getting sick, do not get stubborn and think it's just a little bug. I will be sure to keep tabs on my health for I am not invincible.
2. Race and train like I mean it and smile so much in the process it hurts. This sport can burn you out if you view it like a job and that can be easily said for those that simply stick to WORS. Now take that time and dedication and bump it up to a rider that does all of these 12 hour and above races. It's not a matter of "if" you burn out, it's a matter of "when". I have made the executive mental decision that if I can maintain a smile throughout and enjoy the backdrop in which I am blessed to ride in, I would be selfish for not enjoying it and therefore not have that burn out phase. My though is if I can ride happy I can ride more. If I ride more I hope I could become competitive once again. Simple math people! Well at least I hope it's simple math anyway.
3. I hope to have trails completed in Bradley Park by the time the leaves start to fall. The approval process and working with the city has been smooth so far, but it is like I mentioned above in that it is a process and like all processes they take a while to complete. From there it's adding snowshoe and xc ski trails on a smaller loop. Goal from there is to maybe have a cyclocross race or trail run event.
4. Support the sport, local shops, and greatful sponsors. I've been lucky enough to find my way into this sport. I can pinpoint the day, time, and even weather of the day I decided I was going to race bikes. A lot of people along the way helped me in various different ways from Scoots introducing me to singletrack at Alpine Valley to Bryan at Evomo hosting me at the Sea Otter. Without the state series like WORS, WEMS, and organizations like WORBA these trails may not even exist. Sites like fattireguides, xxc magazine, and MTB Racenews give us, Wisconsin, a pulse on the national scene. Companies like Redeye Brewing Company, Sprocketz Bike Shop in Weston, EVOMO, are all run by cycling enthusiasts and they pull no punches on supporting the industry and it's population of riders.
My sponsors make all of this racing stuff possible and in return I try to broadcast their message to as many people that care to listen and in short to all of the great support, thanks!
5. Preparing for future endeavours and putting to rest my internal thoughts that the tour divide can't be done. This will be the start of a long process to learning the fine art of bikepacking and self supported ultra long distance rides. Chris Plesko got me very intrigued with his stories about his journey along the continental divide. I don't know when and for what year I will send my letter of intent, but the preparation begins now.
Really, since the week of November 1st I haven't taken a complete week off and got back into the gym this year. I think it's going to be a fantastic year.
1. Mono and Bronchitis is not an effective training tool if after 6 months you still feel tired from walking a flight of steps or can't have a month without getting sick, do not get stubborn and think it's just a little bug. I will be sure to keep tabs on my health for I am not invincible.
2. Race and train like I mean it and smile so much in the process it hurts. This sport can burn you out if you view it like a job and that can be easily said for those that simply stick to WORS. Now take that time and dedication and bump it up to a rider that does all of these 12 hour and above races. It's not a matter of "if" you burn out, it's a matter of "when". I have made the executive mental decision that if I can maintain a smile throughout and enjoy the backdrop in which I am blessed to ride in, I would be selfish for not enjoying it and therefore not have that burn out phase. My though is if I can ride happy I can ride more. If I ride more I hope I could become competitive once again. Simple math people! Well at least I hope it's simple math anyway.
3. I hope to have trails completed in Bradley Park by the time the leaves start to fall. The approval process and working with the city has been smooth so far, but it is like I mentioned above in that it is a process and like all processes they take a while to complete. From there it's adding snowshoe and xc ski trails on a smaller loop. Goal from there is to maybe have a cyclocross race or trail run event.
4. Support the sport, local shops, and greatful sponsors. I've been lucky enough to find my way into this sport. I can pinpoint the day, time, and even weather of the day I decided I was going to race bikes. A lot of people along the way helped me in various different ways from Scoots introducing me to singletrack at Alpine Valley to Bryan at Evomo hosting me at the Sea Otter. Without the state series like WORS, WEMS, and organizations like WORBA these trails may not even exist. Sites like fattireguides, xxc magazine, and MTB Racenews give us, Wisconsin, a pulse on the national scene. Companies like Redeye Brewing Company, Sprocketz Bike Shop in Weston, EVOMO, are all run by cycling enthusiasts and they pull no punches on supporting the industry and it's population of riders.
My sponsors make all of this racing stuff possible and in return I try to broadcast their message to as many people that care to listen and in short to all of the great support, thanks!
5. Preparing for future endeavours and putting to rest my internal thoughts that the tour divide can't be done. This will be the start of a long process to learning the fine art of bikepacking and self supported ultra long distance rides. Chris Plesko got me very intrigued with his stories about his journey along the continental divide. I don't know when and for what year I will send my letter of intent, but the preparation begins now.
Really, since the week of November 1st I haven't taken a complete week off and got back into the gym this year. I think it's going to be a fantastic year.
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