A week to breathe...

So often I have every intention of updating this blog more frequently, where does that time seem to go? Maybe the colder dark winter will improve that. I find it so hard not to stay busy. If it’s not riding and training, it’s running the business, and most everything else gets swallowed up in taking care of the family and enjoying the kids.

With the exception of the Iceman, the MTB race season wrapped up a few weeks back and it’s been onto cyclo-cross and that “Transition” period of the season. Generally, Oct thru December fits that bill. Training is important but also has a great deal of flexibility. If one’s body (& mind) ultimately needs recovery time from a particularly hard racing season now is a great time to get that in. Getting a jump start on base training isn’t necessarily that bad of an idea either and with the challenging conditions and temps of Jan & Feb it’s a precautionary training measure I like to take in case conditions this far North don’t work out as planned for those two months.

Cyclo-cross racing I’m finding to be most enjoyable this year, with little self-pressure to have to do well and the most delightfully shorter time period for the races of right around an hour. For the most part you can go all out and bonking generally won’t be an issue. Depending on weather and whatever other events come up, I’m hoping to jump into a couple more races while the season is going on. Plus it sure helps the body not to lose it’s high end fitness that one fights so hard to gain from earlier in the season.

One big aspect I’m taking charge of this year, that I can’t recommend highly enough, is that a person get an effective cross training or “pre-hab” workout program integrated in what they do this time of year. Something I don’t make known to a lot of people -- but I’ve gotten a chronic sore back and spent a good share of time in P.T. office & massage therapists getting worked on. This past year was probably my most difficult. Throughout the season, I struggled along dealing with it the best I could, fortunately I came across two things that have done something to immensely change what I thought would be a chronic lifetime problem. One was a book my P.T. got me onto, the other a program that put a 41 year old within .01 seconds of an Olympic gold medal & world record in Swimming.

The first was the book Core Performance – yes, we’ve all seen some fitness guru preaching there methods of how to build muscles, strength and/or endurance. Don’t discount this one or pass this one off. It’s the real deal and used as a bible of sorts in many P.T. clinics. Any endurance athlete due to the nature of their sport is begging for muscular imbalance. It’s a fact of life. Learn that and find out ways to round out your entire body’s needs and you’ll be doing yourself some huge favors in reducing injuries, doctor’s visits, hours of physical therapy or lost work time. The second is Dara Torres’ Resistance Stretching program – sure, yoga, pilates, give you good stuff, I’m not discounting them one bit. In fact the two things I’m doing share a lot in common with those two disciplines. I just found both Core Performance & Resistance Stretching gave better insight of the how’s and why’s.

Once you get some routines down they don’t take much time and doing something is always better than nothing. I don’t necessarily like to give away “training secrets” but I don’t believe anyone should have to deal with pain and stop doing something they love just because of ignorance or misinformation. I’m not saying these are the only programs out there, or that P.T. work may not beneficial. What I am saying is that I’ve had nothing short of incredible results in getting rid of pain I FELT EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Being 35 and able to tumble around with and chase my kids is totally worth the small investment for the information and 10,15,20 or 50 minutes a day it might take to do some of the routines. If anyone reading takes in this info and gives it a try I’d be interested in hearing back on what results it gives you. (There’s especially a certain Duluthian rider I hope takes up and finds benefit in it!)

Ashland Baycross Part II

BayCross #2: Sunday 19th – unlike Saturday’s sunny beautiful weather this was a bit cooler and overcast. I’d not gotten in on any of the pre-rides or course work so I was riding it for the first time about 20 minutes before the race as I was warming up. Initially I had my doubts when I was told of where BayCX #2 was being held, at Bay View Park in Ashland, but that was quickly erased upon riding the mile plus course. It was one of the most perfect courses I’d ever seen, great use of small rollers for good cornering and momentum. Excellent variety, use of terrain/conditions including a beach crossing, a rock bed profile and a good sized run up.
Added to the mix was Shawn’s comment the previous day about some “better” cross competition coming down from the Twin Ports. Which I certainly welcome anytime. The more & better the racers -- the better the challenge. So I was definitely pumped up at those prospects and looking to put down some pain, as I was just having one of those strange masochistic-like-feeling days. The desire to go out and drill it from the start for one sole purpose of making myself and others hurt.
Lining up at the start among others was apparently a sponsored Specialized rider which was going to hopefully make things interesting. Scott “superman” Chapin was there on his Gary Fisher SuperFly with 1.75’s and rigid fork and most of the crew from yesterday. What I’ve learned is never try to gauge your competition from the bike they ride. It might just surprise you. The start had Specialized guy pull to the front only to nearly hit the deck rounding the first corner 50-75 yards out as we rounded a pair of crab apple trees. It’s October in northern Wisconsin… you can’t tell me you expect the apples to still be on the trees? Must have been like marbles under the wheels of roller skates. Nonetheless he got right up as the jamming up continued behind – then it was off to the next series of corners, straightaways, bridge crossing and then a quick dive down to the beach. Specialized lead to this point with Scott Chapin in tow followed by me. I knew I wasn’t going to be backing off today. When we ramped up over the rise that lead to the beach, Scottie & I pushed hard through the 50 yards of beach and Specialized got off and ran. We hit the 40 foot(?) run up close to the same time. As I recall Scott got to the top first but I clipped in sooner and jumped to the lead giving it my all as we crossed the 150 yard section of loose rock. This was a power zapper for sure but like any good course a great challenge where you could inflict damage on the competition. Apparently it worked cuz when I got to the end only Scott was remotely close by, within a short bit I eased up alittle and asked him to take over and continue to put the distance on the Specialized rider. By the time we reached the S-curves and rollers 3/4ths the way through the course we’d had maybe 15 seconds on him. I took one corner too sharp and slip down to the ground momentarily, it was enough for Scottie to get a gap and run with it. I thought oh, no not this again! I’d be chasing his tail around by myself for the next 55 minutes, great!! Scottie is an awesome endurance athlete, outside of some asthma and allegories he’s certainly the best all around endurance athlete I know. If I remember correctly he was 17th in the US Olympic marathon trials a few Olympics back, if that gives any perspective to the physical capacities he has. He may be a genetic freak, but I hope he stays around racing for a long time because somehow one of these days I’m going to finally catch him.
My next goal was to maintain and grow the distance on the Specialized rider, cuz you don’t generally come decked out in full bike sponsored gear without a resume for being half ways decent and the back side of the course lent itself very well to the cross bike he had. Sometime in racing it’s about breaking someone’s spirit, if you can do that enough times repeatedly, you’ve got them frustrated and if they’re frustrated it certainly doesn’t hurt your chances. So if I could maintain the distance or even grow it on the SuperFly (don’t rule this machine out as a very suitable cross bike!) he might start getting bummed and realize he didn’t come to just any cakewalk race.
Going into Lap 2 the distance I had was a good 50 yards so I’d been able to pretty much maintained the lead over the back half of the course, but in front Scottie had gotten a good 20 yards in front of me now and he was looking even stronger than yesterday.

The layout of the course was great from a spectator point of view as they essentially sat at a higher vantage point, were in middle of the course and could see a large distance both ways. So you’d get lots of cheering and encouragement. Knowing my bike handling skills I could probably gain time on the third place person and with any luck make small advances towards Scottie at the beginning of each new lap. And lap after lap, it seemed like the same thing was happening, the gap was growing in two directions, I was putting distance into third place but Scottie was putting time into me. I was content with the position for awhile until Kelly McKnight, who got lapped earlier due to breaking his pedal off and was now riding behind Scott Chapin and yelling back to me how it was too bad I was in third place now. His smartass remark got me to kick it up a notch to finally catch him when he had to drop off Chapin’s pace. I worked with Kelly for while his back & body held up before he decided to drop off.

Getting a bigger lead on Specialized guy with each lap gave me confidence going into the final three laps so I let up somewhat, and the fact is I wasn’t shrinking the distance to Chapin (but at least I would yell at him most times about how I was going to catch up when the trail would double back, if he heard me I think he just chuckled). I saved up alittle those final laps just in case I’d need it for a late surge from behind and I wanted to experiment with how much I could back off and how it drop my heart rate, as I had my PowerTap heartrate monitor on. From what I could tell, backing off didn’t do much to change the heartrate. Normally I’m 177 to 178 beats per minute at race pace but dropping to 175 and 176 in a long race.

This day, I wasn’t getting fatigued or symptoms of cramping like yesterday and it felt so good to be riding that well relative to the rest of the field. Shawn Gort road a decent race but either he didn’t have the effort of the previous day or I was doing that much better. He told me earlier he wasn’t giving me any freebie’s today, fortunately I didn’t need them and he wasn’t handing any out. I believe he was 5th on the day.

Coming through on the bell lap, even if I wasn’t going to catch Scott, I was pretty pleased on the day. I had the distance now to hold onto second barring any mechanical malfunctions and it felt pretty good to have been able to put together such a strong race, feel strong throughout and put away a sponsored rider. I thought perhaps we’d demoralized him early but my wife, Kate said he looked just as determined as ever with each lap. He’s probably a real good rider normally, just having a tough day. We’ve all been there. He commented later on the rock section.… Well, we’re all entitled to an opinion -- I guess I could have complained about the smooth blacktop sections or having a shoulder/push a MTB over a lightweight CX bike. But in the end Scottie was the best and nothing on the course would have changed that outcome Sunday.

What was great about the race course was because it was so open you could see how other parts of the race were unfolding among other riders. Scott Nesvold had a good race nailing down 4th place, Kelly would have probably done significantly better without snapping off his pedal with his monsterous downstoke. Matt Hudson and Mike Weispfenning seemed to have good rides as well. We seem to have in the last few years gotten a great group of racers over here not to mention some super quality people. The biking outlook in the area would appear to be very positive for years to come.

Perhaps, the Baycross’s are the last races of the year for me but with how good I felt and having strong results it going to be hard to fight the temptation of tracking down another CX race or breaking down and finding an Ebay entry ticket to the Iceman Cometh in lower Michigan.

Ashland Baycross Part I

Anybody looking for a great cross race weekend to put on your calendar seriously consider the Ashland Baycross races! Fantastic courses with good variety & put together in a top notch way. I may be from around the area but I was seriously impressed with the quality and work put into them and the great environment of the events. The settings for both couldn’t be better, with the Sunday event overlooking the shores of Lake Superior and the Saturday event held at one of Ashland’s oldest parks that offers great variety.

Saturday 18th: Baycross #1 – with Kate’s family in town she got the opportunity to partake in her first race in…..well…. quite a while. Having three baby’s in the course of 4 years puts a crimp in your racing schedule. But she did us all proud giving it a go in the B race despite having just given birth 3 weeks ago to our wonderful baby girl, Grace on Sept 26th.
As she was wrapping up that race I was prepping for the A race in what appeared to be a nice strong field of racers that showed up. I was however sorely disappointed to see that a favorite hard core racer, Duluthian, Charlie Farrow was no where to be found however (camping in the Porcupine Mts or something was his story I guess). He put on a heck of a strong race last year and I was hoping for a rematch.
I placed my bike way out front for the lemonds start so I didn’t get caught behind anyone as I was fairly certain from other events like this that my legs are in alittle better condition for sprint running that most cyclists. To my bike first, but late to clip in I grab the fourth position in the leadout train behind, Craig Kalscheur, Scott Chapin & Shawn Gort. Craig was hell bent on a fast start and it strung people out. When we hit the railroad corridor section a half mile in and a gap of a few bike lengths had seemingly extended to Bay City cyclists Kelly Mcknight & Matt Hudson. After Craig pulled off, Scottie took over and I/we probably made a critical error at that point, handing him a 20 yard lead and not closing it down. I figured if the three of us could back off alittle but keep it together and rotate through we’d have a better shot. Only thing was Shawn surprisingly dropped off before the end of the first lap when I was pulling and Craig was over the limit early in Lap 2. And Scottie now had a 15 second lead I’d be trying to chase down all day…. Only now by myself. So much for that brilliant opening lap strategy. If I’d only stuck with him instead. I think the closest count I could make was getting his lead down to seven seconds at some mid point in the race but by the final 15 minutes I was getting toasty from chasing and the unfamiliar all out effort and he was up by 45seconds to a minute.
That however didn’t make for a boring race by any means because for some crazy reason I still shake my head about, Shawn Gort comes storming back into my rearview mirror after I’d thought he’d been dropped out of sight. I shouldn’t be surprise because he did the exact same thing last year, dropping off early only to finally warm up and get all the cyclinders firing later and pour it on. I’d messed up the lap count and was expecting a bell lap when .....the official announced two laps to go, that with an overly rough remount had me off the bike fixing my saddle that was pointing to heaven – hence enabling Shawn to close the gap entirely.
It was now that I was really out of gas and on the edge of cramping so I just stuck to Shawns wheel as best as I could, if he’d only know how spent I was he could have ditched me with 3 or 4 hard efforts. I followed him around that next to last lap and on the bell lap I did the same. At one point trying to get to the front but the single track didn’t do make way for any kind of passing. Here I was at odds with how to finish, I generally hate sucking someone’s wheel and with Shawn doing all the hard work at the end it was going to be hard to try and take it away from him. But with about 100yards to go on this old railroad grade finish he made a strong move to pass a lap racer, I was tentative at first but soon shot around to follow and start to close the gap. From there the corridor opened up and the people and fans were getting loud seeing this close finish coming on. I figured to push and make for a good show and a tight finish so went to the left and pulled near even with Shawn. As we were nearing the chute I put my hand on his back to push him across first, but my momentum still had me carrying past him, so I hit my brakes putting in a skid 3 or 4 yards before the finish. We crossed the line pretty near simultaneously, not to the delight of the Liphart Brother race officials who weren’t too anxious about trying to make that close of call. When I looked down as we crossed I’d assumed he’d crossed about an inch in front me. But neither of us bothered to check with the officials who had actually crossed first. I assumed he had and I think he probably assumed the same. However when they did the awards later, they ruled I’d crossed first?! Wow, what a surprise to me. Who would have thought pushing someone in the back and hitting your brakes ain’t enough to lose a sprint to the finish line? I felt bad for Shawn but it was nice to get second place again after a disappointing 5th place finish at last years BayCross.
The rest of the afternoon was a great time, playing with the kids at the park and also getting to visit and catch up with everyone.
Paul Belknap, Sara Hudson & their crew (of the McKnights, Klines, Lipharts and more) put on one of the best races I’d ever been at. Little did I know that the next day they’d at least equal or top Day 1 of Baycross…. More later.

What's been shaking?

Alright Swanson, what’s with the bum of blog have you been keeping lately?
Let’s try this…

--stock market crumbling...

--a most precious gift...
--and a few more bike races...

Chequamegon 40 .....Explosion

Subtle hints should lead you up to what one can expect heading into weekend #7 in a row of MTB racing. But why look for sutble when the definitive is so much better.

This past weekend was Chequamegon Fat Tire Fest and it's hard core 40 mile off road race. The strategy going in was -- rest, rest, and more rest and then leave it all out on the course. It's the fourth year in a row I've gone after it and with the exception of one year not played out to expectation.

From the training progress I'd been making this past year both in terms of power & endurance a finish in the top 30 to 50 was not out of reach. And from a skill & ability strength & weakness assessment, next to the Ore to Shore there isn't a better MTB race course on paper suited to me on a bike. So I came in with confidence, alittle better game plan, ....but with a long season of racing & training in my legs.

I road down with local Ashland rider Suzie Sanders and she was nervous but excited in her own way for the race (I must say congrats to her because she did by all consideration hit her goal in the race -- Way to go Suzie!) We got there in adequate time, picked up our race packets and with the weather a perfect temperature it made for a easy warmup and no logistical challenges. My plan was to position myself better in the preferred start area but again even at 20minutes before start 150 of the 200 racers had already lined up. Depending on where you want to finish in that race the start can mean nothing and everything. Huge gaps can develop in the front of the race between the start and Rosie's field 3 or 4 miles in. If you're not in the top 65 odds are remote you'll get in the top 50 at the finish. Whereas you could be in 200 or 300th place by Rosie's and still make it up to 80-100th place by the finish.

My goal was to get a better start than years past and true to form that didn't really happen AGAIN. Though I'd worked myself up to the very tail end of the 2nd pack at Rosie's field I was still probably between 80th -100th place. I did find one manuever to be very helpful and that was side walk jumping after a crash just before Hwy 77 involve Scott Kylander Johnson, I'm not sure what happened but I'll have to check Sara KJ's blog. It pushed everyone out of the center I was able to get up on the sidewalk and tear down the road grapping as many positions as I could.

Knowing my approximate position and what goal I'd set for myself I was in a bit of a dilemma once getting out of Rosie's field. Do I continue to go hard and work through each pack of riders effectively doing a time trial or do I sit back in a group work hard only as my turn comes up and save some for later. Well, unless I'm already hurting, sitting and having patience isn't my forte' and I felt fairly good so on I went chasing down racer after racer, Carlos Hackel, Matt Muyres, on & on passing through several groups. About 40 minutes into the race the pickings started looking lean and it was 200 yards up was the next group. I'd only had 2 other guys remotely close. So then becomes an even greater dilemma -- effectively I'm in No Mans land and you're truly by yourself, do you sit up take a break until the next group catches up again or bury yourself to bridge up to the next gap. Again, I opted for the latter. So at where the course crosses Cty OO I'd just about caught the tail end of a 8-10 person group and come across in 68th place. And got my water handoff from my ever wonderful wife, Kate while little Marshall was clicking away taking pictures with the digital camera -- viewing the pictures later it's interesting to see the perspective of a 4 yr old.

I'd come across OO faster than I'd ever in the past and wasn't really feeling that bad, I could still go pretty good, but I was rather uncertain. Uncertain of how much longer I'd be able to pursue without getting some kind of break being in a group. Because I slowed down in the spectator area of OO I let the gap get bigger to group in front & wasn't thinking to catch it again. So again I was in No Man's land. I don't know much about that place but it sure costs you alot of time and energy. And if it's energy you don't have to spare it can start causing problems.

The next 8 miles or so either myself or one or two guys that came along would push up to another group as there were scattered groups but instead of taking a break I would just keep pushing through. It was a 11:19am, around 24 miles into the race when I realized two things had happened. One, I was now aware I was running out of juice and two, the long season of racing and the season long burn out in my legs was moments away from exploding. So, like a lollipop thrown to the playground by a third grader I cracked.

I'd been with Adam Swank, Mike Johnson and a few other guys when no matter how much gel or water I took in, I was condemned to a much slower sustainable pace.

The remainder of the ride was one of no longer trying to race but to enjoy this festival of riders... and figure out just how many flippin' people can pass you!!!! How I didn't finish 300th place is beyond me because that's what it felt like. If you've never understood the term "riding backwards" it does give you the impression that is what is happening.

Not much longer Paul Belknap came crusing by and in that crew of riders was also Kelly McKnight. They both had super races by anyone's standards coming back from the 120's at the OO point to get in the 65th & 83rd respectfully. I still gotta figure out how Paul & I swapped out racing styles this year. It's down right bizzare. The single speeds which he rides ultimately get their advantage in courses with alot of single track yet somehow this year he came out on top in the two non single track MTB races while I, barring any mechanicals, had the advantage in the technical courses.

I walked much of the Seeley Fire Tower and just before hitting the top another Ashland racer, Matt Hudson came by and he likewise finished a strong race. Basically a top 100 finish to a guy that sporadically road his bike this year. That's some awesome riding.

About the best thing after bonking is you get to take the spectator point of view. I was quick to enjoy the donut holes at the aid stations, (donut holes at a race? Just doesn't make sense to me, ya know -- but who am I to judge as a bag of Baked Lays & Coca Cola will pull me out of any post race funk).

The race wasn't without a mechanical issue, my rear hydraulic brake failed completely half way through which lead to some excitement on some fast corners but apparently from comments of nearby racers they got a good show of some pretty good moves to save the ride.

Did the Cable Criterium on Sunday and on a Gary Fisher SuperFly... maybe if I get it dialed in I'll like it better but I certainly can't complain how well the Trek Top Fuel 69er was this year.

All in all, I'm happy with the effort I gave sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't but with a few more weeks of rest and some fun riding there'll still be a few more MTB races or at least cyclocross races to take in.

On another cycling topic... really read this.

I'm not one to spend much time on stuff like this and being an armchair cyclists doesn't hold much interest to me. But with the recent Lance announcement of coming back to professional road cycling, it triggered my curiosity of what the other biggest "L" name in cycling has been up to -- Landis. Mr. Floyd Landis.

Being the armchair cyclist unfortunately provides the position of judge, jury & executioner. As such probably alot of people have already dropped their hammer in a way the doesn't favor Floyd. I found the entire ordeal rather strange -- two things stuck out to me -- one, is why the heck would you do some form of doping and win a big stage knowing you automatically get tested. Two, the guy in everything I ever saw, looked so bewildered by what had happened. Call me gullible but his doping story & persona never seemed to make sense to me. So why the heck am I bringing this up. Because of this recent article published last month. What follows is a snippet with links to the full article. I'm not putting it above other motives, other facts and evidence -- just read it for what it's worth ..... and as I read in another article you might wonder if Floyd got Richard Kimbled (reference... Harrision Ford, The Fugitive) in this one.

A study published last month highlights just how variable testosterone test results can be from one individual to the next.
Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm gave a single dose of testosterone to three groups of men who had either one, two or zero copies of a particular gene, known as UGT2B17. More than 40 percent of the men missing the gene went undetected by the doping test, while those with two copies of the gene showed testosterone levels 20 times higher.
Once statistical adjustments were made for the genotypes, the differences disappeared.Berry also pointed to the need for careful sample handling, advanced technician training, and precise instrument calibration during the lab analysis of the urine samples upon which the doping tests are based."The process in unlikely to be error free," he said, pointing out that the American Arbitration Association that ultimately ruled against Landis initially threw out the result of the French lab screening due to improper procedures.

http://www.velonews.com/article/81414/scientist-anti-doping-tests-don-t-pass-statistical-muster

Rhinelander Smokin Spoke .... What? Called short?

Ya-ow! Hitting a course like the Smokin' Spoke in Rhinelander isn't for the faint of heart. The word "Committed" comes to mind. Committed to seeing it through to completion and committed to break the beast before it breaks you.

It's the second year of it's tour on the WORS race circuit -- the trails tend to be newer and the topography plays into something of a body shuddering experience. A year since I last visited left my memory foggy of just how challenging it was. It's one of those courses you take your best super fast roadie buddy and watch him suffer and break like a small child as payback for all the road rides he has left your legs in smoldering ashes and eye's crossing til they bled. There's no faking it on this course -- you're either a mountain biker or not. Ya gotta love it.

Now, first & foremost, it's probably the wildest thing to think "Swanson, what the heck is up? A race report in the same afternoon as the race. How is that possible?" Huh? Well, that's part of how this race gets interesting.

It's a 1:30 start time. I arrive just about 45minutes early (without Kate, Marshall & Hope for the first time in memory. Kate's at the 8 1/2 month stage of pregnancy and been a trooper coming to the last several races despite dealing with contractions the past 2 weeks. I don't know how she does it, I just chalked it up to having one very special lady). Upon getting registered, I tried to squeeze in a quick warm up & pre-ride only to get to the start line about 2 minutes to start. Getting a back row spot ain't that bad because this was probably the smallest Elite field of the year at a WORS race, I want to guess 35-40 racers. The distance to the race for alot of the regulars and the time of year all play into it. I line up next to Adam Swank & Josh Tesch, listen to the National Athemn and before I know it we're off.

The winding lead out stretched things but gave ample opportunity to pass and get into a likeable position. When compared to the last several races in the U.P. and locally, it's always a reality check lining up in the WORS Elite field. Instead of 5 maybe 10 top end racers, it's everyone in the starting chute. There's a big boatload of racers that can kick ass, some even more than others, and there is no one you can take for granted. You gotta work really hard for your position and work even harder to keep it.

It was probably close to a 9 mile lap course with the Elite field set to do 3 laps. I was feeling decent so I moved from back row to mid pack in the initial forest roads in the first mile or two. I followed Ray Nelson of IL into the single track -- shortly there after the jackhammering began. Maybe it's a slight exaggeration, but I couldn't help but sympathize for anyone riding a hardtail (29er or not). I think anyone riding without a seat would have been best off because even with my full suspension 69er I was testing the limits of my back, forearms & triceps. Standing was almost the best way to deal with it. In hindsight, returning the pressure in my suspension(s) to normal limits would have help tremendously. Up until this course I've been very happy riding it "firmed up".

The great challenge of the course is that it really never gave you relief. Yes, there were open roads at the beginning & end of the laps but in between, back to my point above you were definitely "committed". You were either going to adapt or continue to take a beating. I settled somewhere in between. For a good share of the first lap I was able to hold my own, I think only little Carlos Haeckel got by me. At the end of lap one, single track pergatory ended and the flats and rollers gave me the opportunity to push the pace again.... but also drag along a 3-4 person contingent.

One of the best things about this year is finally seeing a step up in performance I'm experiencing. It feels like it's been a pretty big jump, as many of the guys I'm racing with I'd previously never been able to keep up to let alone stay ahead of. Now that's becoming a more regular experience. It's funny how when for years in race after race you get accustom to where you place and who places in front of you almost so much so that you don't think it will ever change. But I can attest if you keep up the diligence and perserverance and most of all have patience eventually things will turn around. I've found we all grow differently and our bodies adapt to the stress load we place on them in different time frames. Whatever you do, don't give up. Stay true to your goals as some of the biggest rewards come when you just about think they might be beyond your grasp.

Well, back to the race, the guys following -- it's John Lirette on his Superfly, Scott (?) and another guy I didn't recognize. We were able to catch up to Tim Drankus & another guy and ride through the first lap in about 45 minutes. At that point, I couldn't help but think -- oh, my god, 2 more of these -- it's going to be a lonnnng day.

Lap 2, didn't go as smoothly, going with a subsitute water bottle handling person ain't ever as good as the original. Kate's pretty awesome at doing handoff's. I missed the first attempt with my subsitute but got it the second time as part of the trail horseshoed around to give us another try. As an hour into the race was closing in I was feeling though I was losing a touch of that normal power output I've been used to having all race long in previous weeks. Despite gels & Endurance drinks, it didn't come back around. It wasn't til 1/2 way into the second lap, I could really feel the power drain happening -- ah, that seemingly undeniable season ending burnout feeling. Oh, great, that's not good for more than a few reasons, most imminently it's going to make the remainder of this current race really, really painful & long, and not to mention it doesn't bode well for next weeks Chequamegon 40.

I tired my best to hold a reasonable pace and not give up too many places. I recall Jan Rybar, Ron Knutowski, & maybe Bill Danielson getting by. There was still a more than few good racers behind, so I was happy with holding where I was at. I couldn't help but think in the back of my mind where Adam Swank must be -- and low & behold, before I know it -- there's his voice "Hey, Aaron! How's it going?" Oh, well, it was good to hear a friendly voice. We chatted how he used to CX ski in High School on alot of the trails we were racing (To put it mildly, most people would acknowledge Adam's a pretty accomplished CX skier) apparently, he was CX skiing state champion in H.S. his freshman & senior years.

Adam had one other guy with him and it was my good fortune to tag on & help with the ride into finish Lap 2. Now, here comes the unexpected part.....

The weather forecast had scatter thundershowers, etc, etc for the afternoon. Apparently, the Smokin' Spoke race course had the fortune or misfortune of being in the path of a biggie. So with 1/2 mile or so to go -- a course marshall is yelling, "Last lap! Last Lap!" Adam & I are bewildered, like what is that guy talking about, it's a 3 lap race. Being in the forest canopy we had no clue what weather might be coming our way. Finally other spectators along the course say something about "high winds, hail, rain, blah, blah... they are getting racers off the course". Personally, I can't believe my good fortune!!! It was only an 1 1/2 hrs into the race, but for how I was feeling I couldn't bare the thought of another lap.

The other guy with us understood right away what was going on and took off, when Adam & I finally figured it out, I just yelled at him to go and try & catch that guy. Myself, I was content on coasting in and not toasting my legs any further than they already felt. I'm not sure if Adam got him before the line but he was closing down the gap fast, I'm anxious for the results to show up.

It was kind of surreal at the finish line because it wasn't windy or raining yet, just very omnious clouds. Even so, I wasn't about to stick around to find out. As I got back on the bike & headed to the car -- their was a rise of this erie sound of high winds blowing through the trees and within moments, you knew exactly why cutting that race short was exactly what needed to be done. About a 1/4 mile from the car I got hit with a blast of wind from the side that nearly, nearly knocked me right over. I think I did the remaining 1/4 mile to my car faster than any point in the race. I quick undid the front wheel and tossed the bike in the hatchback of my Celica. Seconds later I'm jumping in my car as the rain is coming down in sheets.

Ah, what perfect timing!!! To home I sped and got back in time for a fun super & evening with Kate & the kids. Wish all the WORS races were so close.

The remainder of the racing season remains more up in the air. Kate didn't make it to the race today because of not feeling well and dealing with some notable contractions. So with her looming due date & her physical symptoms getting more unpredictable, it'll be a day by day (or hour by hour) decision making. Even with some pretty desireable racing coming up that may be missed, it's been a really good year. May not of hit all my goals and had more than my normal share of mechanical issues, but it was good jump forward performance wise and a great confidence builder going into next season.

The remainder of the Fall should make for some great unstructured riding and dipping into a cross race or two as time permits.