brickhouseracing

I don’t remember the last time I worked this hard on a Sunday-

This morning, I drove out to Shelby Forest for a hellacious interval workout that I’ve dubbed “8 minutes in Heaven.” You essentially start out at a tempo effort and increase the effort every minute. By minute 8, you hit your max heart rate, and you have various strings of drool and snot plastered to the side of your face (that means you’re doin’ it right). Rest eight minutes and repeat two more times.
I’ve found a nice, perfectly flat stretch of road out in Shelby Forest State Park (a gorgeous old growth oak forest along the Mississippi River) that rides like a trainer, except without the boredom. I took a few photos, but since my camera had been in my pocket during the sweatfest, the lens was a bit foggy-

After getting home & having a bit of lunch, Matt and I met back up for the (not-so)  top secret project (Eric stopped by after a while, too, bringing gifts of New Belgium beer). We arranged some dirt into neatly shaped piles until sunset, then called it a day. Mmm… Labor.

Matt and I have been scheming up a fall/winter project that should provide both hours of back breaking labor as well as hours of fun and enjoyment. First, though, the property owner needs a drainage ditch dug. It just so happens we need extra dirt, so…

Triathletes may be the most notorious for trying to “buy speed,” but I’m trying to break the stereotype by placing a bid on this gorgeous gem: Dave Weins Bagel from Leadville

Between the trading of a full-time teaching paycheck for a part-time bike-shop paycheck and employing someone to tell me how often and how hard I should ride my bike (a.k.a. “The Wizard”), I’m having to budget my funds wisely, so I only bid $25. If that wins, I’m planning on eating the bagel and posting multiple photos right here on my blog.

Supposedly, the bagel has magical power-increasing capabilities, so I’m guessing I’ll be out-bid by some triathlete or something (the money also goes to a local trail fund, so this auction would be very tempting to an x-terra triathlete) who wants to get the same magical FTP boost that this bagel promises to bring to its new owner.

EDIT: Damn, I went out for a 2 hr ride, and now it’s up to 10 bids and $45.44. Well, if any of you have spare money and want to see me eat Dave Weins’ bagel, feel free to put in a bid and send it my way.

Sort of, at least.

Yesterday when we got settled in at Copper Harbor, we decided to head out on some of the easier trails in the local trail system. However, I got sidetracked in thinking that maybe we could find the end of the Keweenaw out in Lake Superior. We passed a sign for the beginning of US Highway 41, but the road turned to gravel and kept going into the forest. Of course, I wanted to see where it went and what was at the end of it. It HAD to have an end, right?

Fast forward to half an hour and 600 feet of climbing later. We hadn’t found anything other than some nice forest roads. We figured we should turn back so we could get back to town before dark, so Ryan came up with a loop back based on his Garmin’s map. Though we ended up on at least one pretty sketchy section of “road,” we ended up having a great ride, and made it back in time to get to the last restaurant open before the town rolled up their sidewalks from the evening.

Photos…

Oh yeah, and, as you can see, I’m experimenting a bit with self-portrait type photos. Our motel also provides its guests with afro picks.

So, we’ve been in Fond du Lac since Saturday night, and both nights, it’s rained enough that we can’t (responsibly, at least) ride the Kettle Moraine trails that we were hoping to visit while we’re here. Yesterday, we headed out on the road, and along the way, we stopped by to check out a really small local system of trails. These are supposed to be multi-use, and the initial entrance to the different trails was marked with what uses are “OK” for what sections of trail, but we quickly found that if you took one trail marked for bikes, that it would dead end at another trail marked as “no bikes.” We rode in circles for about 45 minutes then got frustrated and hit the roads for another 15 miles or so.

After we were back and fed, we fished in the small canal behind the house. Surprisingly enough, remembering how to bait, cast, and un-fish a hook is kinda like remembering how to ride a bike…

We fished the rest of the day, had some dinner, and made preliminary plans to ride the trails since they “should” be dry. However, last night, another large patch of rain moved through the area and re-soaked the trail. So, if we want to ride, it’s out to the roads again. Normally, I wouldn’t mind that too much, but we only brought our mountain bikes, so it’s kinda boring. Ugh. Hopefully the rest of the trip isn’t so soggy.

I won’t try and keep it a secret- since I arrived home from Colorado, I’ve been sending my race resume and bio out to my favorite companies. Chances are, some of the people I’ve sent it to are reading this post right now. It feels like internet dating- I like you, I send you my info, then anxiously await a reply back, hoping to gain your approval.

I hope that you (people I’ve requested sponsorship from) realize that I’m more “e-harmony” than “adult friend finder.” I mean, I’m honestly looking for support from companies that I already really love and extole the virtues of to all of my friends and riding partners (both on the internet AND in real life). You got a request not just because I’m in need of some help for 2011, but also because I love your stuff, and I want to help spread the word so that you can keep on making awesome stuff for years to come.

Sponsoring me is a hell of a lot cooler than a first date, because, unlike the date, you know you love me already ;)

Dear legs,

I know that Saturday was hard for you two, so I’ll forgive you for being so weak today. However, you’ve got 4 nights worth of sleep to recover before ORAMM. Just making sure you know. Thanks!

Andrea

I can’t get quite in to the detail that I normally do since I’m trying to wrap up packing for a month long trip out West for some training and racing, but here’s a bit of a rundown on the Memphis Velo/Smith & Nephew Grand Prix…

Thursday morning, I woke up feeling kinda cruddy. My head hurt, and I generally felt tired. As the day progressed, I kept feeling worse, and ended up with a sore throat and fever that lasted through friday night. So, even though I’d had every intention of racing with my team Saturday morning, I decided to skip the road race in order to keep recovering from whatever bug had struck me down.

The race itself had a great turnout (as far as women’s races are concerned). 31 ladies signed up for the omnium, including Debbie Milne, who also registered (and raced) in the men’s P/1/2 race. Spoiler alert- she won all three of the women’s  omnium events, and held her own in the men’s races. M-B fielded 6 total (though only 4 completed all 3 events).

Saturday afternoon (after pacing around the house all day like a hungry tiger at the zoo), I mustered the energy to head to Germantown for the short, painful time trial. I didn’t feel great, but I still managed to pull off a 3rd place finish behind Debbie and my teammate Marda. Even though I had some issues with chest & throat congestion, I was glad to get out and open my leg muscles a bit.

Sunday morning, I wasn’t very sure how I’d feel. I was rested, but also still not quite feeling like myself. Given the results of the RR and TT, my position was of workhorse. Job #1 was to mark several riders who were placed well in the overall points. If they tried to escape, I was to chase and be absolutely unhelpful in their efforts to get away.

Check.

Job #2 was to try and get Marda and Kat up the road. After nearly spacing out halfway through the race, I remembered them. I attacked, looking for one of them to counter. Alas, Kat tried a couple of times. I knew I didn’t have much left, so with 1 lap to go, I went for broke with an all out effort that left me close to passing out on the back side of the course. I’m not sure exactly what happened after that, but Marda ended up 3rd, and the others were up high enough in the placings to end up 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in the Overall placing. Generally a sucess, I’d like to think.

This week, I’ve been trying to prep to leave town. I’ll be heading to Cimarron, Dolores, Breckenridge, Winter Park, and lord only knows where else. I’ll be gone ’til mid-july. Today was a good One9 shakedown at Clear Creek. That bike freaking ROCKS. I love SS… I even bought some fun socks to celebrate.

Keep watching for some awesome road trip adventures.

After having to DNF Mohican, I was looking to take my frustrations out on some steep climby goodness (yeah, I just made that up. You can use it if you want). I loaded up the car with my sweet new tent and my beanpole buddy for a quick trip out to Lake Sylvia for some Ouachita gravel grinding.

Some random camp photos:

We prettymuch followed this route, though at about mile 27.5, we stayed on the main forest road and went a little further north up that ridge that runs parallel to the route marked here. We also took another side trip up North Fork Pinnacle (the steepest, rockiest climb of the day- as far as I can tell from my Garmin data, it was 270 feet of elevation gain at an average grade of 12.1%), which is the high point directly north of the 30 mile marker on this screenshot:

Matt showing off over the Rocky creek crossing on the southeast corner of Lake Winona:

…and a few from on top of North Fork Pinnacle (temps were getting hot at that point):

The Garmin says 4600 feet of ascent for the loop. It usually overestimates those things, but I don’t see any glaring elevation jumps when looking at the profile, so I’d guess it was somewhere upwards of 3500 feet of gain. Not a bad training ride for a couple of flatlanders…

After we arrived back at camp, we cleaned up, had a snack, then headed back to Little Rock for a side trip to Pinnacle Mountain. I’d hiked it once before during the Ouachita 50k trail run, and I wanted to show Matt how “awesome” it was. He’s got the photos on his camera, so I’ll load them as soon as they’re in my possesion.

When I was in training-zombie mode the other day on the Outdoors Inc. ride, I was spacing out and thinking about the absurdity of “hammerfest” group rides. We gather up socially, dress in costumes of our respective tribes, then proceed to thrash the hell out of each other on bicycles. Watching (and participating in) this ritual reminds me of territorial and mate battles between animals. Is it some sort of evolutionary thing? Am I supposed to choose a mate based on who gets to the city limits sign first? I sure as hell love watching it.