Xterra Lory

Every race is a Learning Experience. This is my new motto.

I need to remember its about more than just race day. Xterra is awesome. I had a decent race, but I didn't feel good about it - ya know? 8th place AG out of a field of 25. Can't complain.

I took off in the second wave of M30-34 & M40-44. I felt like I had a good draft all the way out to just before the turn. I did this about as straight as any swim ever. I sighted mostly off the bodies around me and the feet in front of me. Stayed about 5 meters off every bouy down the line. Probably pissed off the guy I was drafting from with the number of times I hit his legs. Around the bouy and heading back in when suddenly there is no one, I mean no one, within 100 meters in front of me. I keep up a steady hard pace since its only an 800 meter swim. Nobody passes me and I overtake a few more people before hitting the beach. (Swim time recorded as 13:42) I forgot how steep the run from the beach to transition is and was breathing way to hard while stripping off the wetsuit.I slowed down and got everything under control. This made of a long transition at 1:44. Out of T1 you really don't have much time to ease into things, its directly onto single track. Suddenly my tire starts rubbing on the frame for a few seconds and then stops again.
****FLASHBACK to my bike woes this week.****
Friday I went for a ride with several people from work. This was to be an easy road ride. A couple roadies, a couple mtn bikes, and even a cruiser in the group. Myself and the other mtn biker were planning to hit a side trail of single track part way through. As we are nearing the top of a long climb, I decided to do a 30-60 second interval and attack the roadie in front of me. I smoked him to the top and then as soon as I let off power from my cranks, they started to free spin like my chain was gone - except it was still there. I'm pedalling, the chain is moving around and the cassette is not pushing the tire. **My freehub just went out!!** After some deliberation, I coast back down the hill with one other guy to help get me back tot he office. The bouncing down the hill shakes the cogs into place to give me forward propulsion as long as I keep pressure on it.There is no way I am going to get parts and everything to fix my wheel for Sunday. Luckily I had just bought Jean a new mtn bike for christmas. I stole her wheels and tuned the brakes to work on my bike and thought we were good to go.
****Back to the race report****
Can't figure out why my tire is rubbing intermitently and I don't see any wobble. The shifters are working okay but skip in 2-3 of the nine gears. Its mostly okay so I keep riding. I've ridden this course 5-6 times in the last two weeks so I know what to expect. But I've never ridden it right after hammering out a half mile swim and I'm huffing and puffing a lot more than I like. I know the parts I can ride and where I need to jump off and run over obstacles. Any time I'm spinning up the hill, the bike works great. On the rolling part near the top, I get the wheel rub a couple times! WTF! As I start the downhill, my front end feels REALLY wobbly. After a particularily scary part I have to stop and check my wheel - the quick release is OPEN! I crank it down HARD and keep going - Way better!!
So I make it all the way back down with one planned dismount and no unplanned dismounts (crashes). At the bottom, there is a sharp 180 degree turn in the grass as the trail heads back to the right. A run aid station is there with volunteers directing traffic. Wide open grasslands, plenty of people to see me, and here is where I choose to endo. After I stand up and bow to my admirers, I head out on the fast part of the course.
Rolling cross country single track racing! You can big ring a lot of this, just be ready for the 90 degree corners at the ravines. I get the wheel rub again as a guy is coming up to pass me and he yells "your back tire is coming off!" WTF! So I pull over and sure enough, the rear skewer is loose as hell. I crank it down so hard that I almost have to kick the lever over and once again life is good.
Now, I'm not a total retard about locking down the quick releases on my wheels - regardless of what you are thinking after reading this. The Bontrager skewers on my own set of wheels have a certain feel to them when they are tight. The Specialized skewers from Jean's wheels felt the same when I put them on my bike but in hind-sight were obviously way too loose. You can never have them too tight in off road bike racing.
If you've never rode at Lory State Park, I highly recommend it. The east and west vally trail is fast rolling single track. Our group up here call it the perfect girlfriend ride. (No offense to some of the AWESOME women rider's who blew past me like I was standing still even though they started 10 minutes after me!) Its easy enough for near beginners with small pieces of technical riding to keep you interested.
***Back to the race.
The remaining 6-7 miles of riding is pretty uneventful. You need to stay focused on the riding and so you don't have a lot of opportunities to drink. I was a little shocked and disappointed in myself to see that I had drank only about 2/3 of the race drink in my bottle after being out there for around an hour. (Officially 1:09 - I've done this ALOT faster).
A quick switch in T2 and we head out again. The course is nearly the same as the bike except you don't get the half mile of downhill road to catch your breath. Its all uphill for the first 2+ miles and I'm not feeling it. I've run this several times also. Its hard but I've always felt great when I get to the top. This time I can't get there without walking. I'm dehydrated. No denying it. There is an aid station at the beginning of the hill (Thanks Brian!!) and then 3 miles of torture before you see water again. This is a race where its well worth it to carry your own - which I didn't. Just suffer through. At the bottom of the switchbacks, you get aid station #2. My faithfull admirers were still there cheering everyone on (Thanks Mike!!). Its just over a mile to the finish and I can't push anything yet. I even had to walk a little.
I slowly recover a little energy and run it in (Officially 49:45)to the best part of any tri I've ever done. Lance put in a 40 foot inflatable Slip N Slide to a pool right after the finish line. Too fun.

Final time 2:15:08. Good for 8th place Age Group.
It was a good race but I just didn't FEEL good about it. Live and Learn.

Ironman CDA Race Report

Ironman Coeur d'Alene was my second IM finish and this time I did it right. Not perfect, but I knew what I wanted and went after it. My way. And all out.

My bike was shipped off using Tri-bike Transport from Colorado Multi Sport on Monday. One last ride to get in and I couldn't resist taking my mountain bike out for an easy spin. Its the thing I miss most about all this IM training and I've been avoiding it because with my luck I'd endo and dislocate a shoulder or something. Somehow I didn't and it felt soooo good.

Thursday morning was our flight to Spokane. My buddy Jesse drove out from Mpls to race and we were able to get a home stay with his uncle who lives in Rathburn - 20 minute drive into CDA. Unfortunately Thursday, Friday, and Saturday was off and on rain. Ugh. Just like Napa. We drove the bike course and did a warmup ride a long the lake where the run course mirrored the bike course. Got soaked on the ride. Ugh. Just like Napa.

Now here's the good stuff. Somehow, miraculously, Sunday morning dawned clear and 48 degrees. I lined up about 2/3 of the way to the right and about halfway back from the water. We were all standing around and trying to listen to the muffled 'wah wah wah' of the loudspeaker. Someone thought they heard 30 seconds but no countdown. Then BOOM! The cannon goes off. We all look around at each other, shrug our shoulders, and run for the water.

It took about 10 steps into the water and I knew this was like nothing I had ever experienced before. I've done wave starts of 100+ and I did a time trial start (2x2x2...) at IM Louisville. But this!?! Getting bumped around a few times is part of the game. Getting elbowed in the jaw, punched in the side, climbing over other swimmers and being half drown for 1000 meters straight was a whole different animal. Things never strung out like most tri's but I settled in and just had to fight the waves. For some reason the waves came in at one foot, one foot, rogue three footer, back to the one footers. Only about 1 in 3 attempts at sighting let you see a bouy - and only if you timed it right. At the far end it was constant 2-3 foot waves. As I rolled to take a breath, a big wave dropped out from under me and slammed the side of my head down on hte water. Ever been slapped over the ear where it popped and screwed up your equilibrium? Now imagine yourself 1000 meters from shore in rough water with hundreds of people trying to swim over you. The only positive was that every time I found clear water and could get into a rhythm, I saw myself quickly pull away from the group I was in and move forward until I ran into the next group. Made it through and was told my swim time - 1:15. crap. Goal #1 of 1:10 -lost. Was this going to be my day? Shake it off jonnyboy.

T1 went smooth and I headed out on the bike. Within 5 miles I had to pee. Something I have never been able to do while riding. Just ignore it. The first loop went just fine. The hills didn't seem as bad riding as they seemed when we drove it. Still a challenge though. The people of CDA definitely embrace this race. We didn't go more than about a half mile without meeting cheering fans. Bagpipers, cheerleaders, pirates, drunk college kids, drunk rednecks, tickle me elmo, they were all there clapping and yelling. Finally at mile 60 I gave up and stopped to pee. Following this was my first big problem. I must have gotten dirt in my cleats because it took three miles to get my right foot clipped back in. Then I stopped at special needs and it took another ten miles to clip in a second time. This put strain on my left knee from doing one legged full circles and I felt it for the rest of the ride. Its amazing the jolt of energy seeing mile 101 - 11 miles to go can give you. I was spinning along at mile 109 in a narrow spot as we reentered town for the last time and trying to decide if I should ease back or push around a gal in front of me. Next thing I know there is a motorcycle next to me holding up a red card. I'll admit it - I was being lazy. Busted. 3 miles to go and I get a drafting penalty.

After stretching in the penalty tent and rolling into T2 for a 6:13 bike was when the people of CDA really showed their stuff. Again they showed off how to be the best volunteers ever. Strip off the bike shoes and slip on the runners. Out the door with nothing but a marathon left to do.

I knew I had to go easy. Everyone tells you that. Mile one - 8:35. crap. Ease up jonny. Mile 2 17:35. crap and a half. How can I go easier but speed up? HR at 132. My zone 2 doesn't even start til 135! Plus I have a shin splint in my right leg. It'll go away eventually. I hope. Ease up a little more and I'm rolling along at a 125 HR and doing just under 9 minute miles. Might as well go with it. Things didn't really start to hurt until about mile 15. I'm at 2:20. That means I can do 10 minute miles with a 10 minute cushion to still hit my 12:00 goal. No problem right? Mile 18 and wow this hurts. This is where the internal arguements start. "just walk. no. just a little bit. I haven't yet why start? cause it hurts. too bad. you volunteered for this. How bad do you want it?" The bargaining resulted in agreeing to walk only at the steep uphill before the final turn around. Bad bargain. I began to walk the aid stations at mile 21 and kick it back in at the last trash signs. I was losing my time cushion quickly. Mile 23 was about where you started snaking through the neighborhoods again. I tried to convince myself to run the rest of the way. Everything hurt. everything. Still had to walk one of the last aid stations anyway. Mile 25 marker was hidden or not there. Neither was mile 26. Didn't matter. By that time you were around the last corner and the finish arch was in sight. And what a beautiful sight it was. Jog it in to the cheers, give the high fives, and listen to him announce "you are an Ironman!"

11:56. "A" goal accomplished.

A special thanks to my team: Coach Mike Ricci of D3 Multisport, Nutritionist Craig David of Max Muscle Boulder, Kate Sandmeyer at Tri-Massage.com, and Dr. Ryan Goelz at Rock Creek Spine. And of course, my lovely wife Jean.

Long Time Gone

Like several of my friends who write fun blogs, I've been away for a while. Here I am giving them crap for not visiting blogland for a while and its been even longer for me.

I'm only 4 weeks away from Ironman Couer d'Alene. I'll post a few old thoughts and comments and try to bring things up to date on my training. We'll just see what happens from there.

Granite Pass

With the decent weather of the weekend, we decided to head up Longs Peak. The trail above the keyhole is rated technical above the Keyhole so we added crampons and ice axes just in case we got that high. We headed out at a good clip - probably too good. It wasn't long at all until we were good and sweated up. The trail had some snow but not bad at all.

Once we broke from treeline, the wind started howling down from the top. We had to lean into it just to keep going. A few people were already heading down but it was certainly not a crowd.

A couple hours and we were at the trail split overlooking Chasm Lake. After a quick lunch we needed to make a decision on whether to keep going up. Why not.

Another mile and about 600 feet elevation brought us up to Granite Pass. If we thought the wind was bad at treeline, it was 10 times worse at the Pass. Looking up, the clouds started only about 500 above us. We could keep going toward the Boulder Field but we wouldn't be able to see anything so we decided it wasn't worth it. Try for the summit another day.

The hike down was obviously a lot quicker. We were pretty wiped out. Needed a bite to eat so the obvious place was Oskar Blues. A beer and a pizza was the perfect ending.

Elk Season

Its been a while since I posted. Yes partly becasue its been boring for a while but also because I suck at regular blogging.

**Disclaimer** If you don't like hunting or are a little squeamish about blood, you might want to skip this one.

I had my hours in for the time period by early morning on Thursday. They were doing some wiring work in our building and the computers kept going out so I bailed on work and headed out to Steamboat Springs a little early. I made it into the Route National Forest okay but it was a little iffy with the mud. There was a lot of snow and the temps were around 35. This is when I realized that even with only about 35k on the tires, they were getting too close to bald for this area. Everywhere you drove packed down the snow and as the sun went down this all turned to ice. Out come the tire chains to the rescue!!! ( I have GOT to get a second set for the front)

Camp was my big Kelty Grand Canyon tent (12'x12'). Plenty big to fit my cot, lounge chair, all my gear, food and cooking gear. A lantern hanging from the top made it nice and cozy. Not exactly roughing it other than it being about5 degrees overnight. The biggest problem was that there was a full moon and all the snow lit everything up almost as bright as day. At one point I woke up and thought I over slept because it was so light. It was only 1 in the morning. Only thing to do was pull my hat down over my eyes and bury myself back in my sleeping bag.

At about 6:30 in the morning I headed east from the trailhead, straight into the woods. I climbed over a couple ridges to a high park and then started moving back down one more ridge. There was very little sign up high. One or two sets of tracks heading south to private land but not much else. It had snowed heavy about two days before so you could easily tell what was new vs old.

After I dropped a couple hundred feet, I started seeing groups of tracks all over. I kept going down and slowly checking the small parks and creek beds. I stopped to have a sandwich and drink a little. As a started to move on, I was stepping around a pine tree and suddenly there she was - a nice cow elk standing in the middle of a meadow. I stepped back and used my binoculars to verify that it was a cow. I only had a cow tag and didn't want to mistakenly shoot a small bull.

I dropped to one knee for a rest and put the crosshairs right behind the shoulder. Squeezed one off and knew it was a solid hit. The elk didn't even flinch. I racked another shell and put a second shot next to the first (a little fast forward to the post mortem exam - only 2 or 3 inches apart). The elk again didn't even flinch. I was getting ready to put number three into her when her front leg buckled and over she went. Never even took a step.

Now cleaning an elk is a whole different thing than cleaning a whitetail. I've done dozens of whitetails but never an elk. With a deer, you open up the guts, flip it over and dump it all out. Its a little harder to do this with 400 pounds of elk than it is with a 150 pound deer. And of course I was out in the middle of a field with no trees to tie a leg back while I worked on her.

Things did not start out well anyway. As I split the skin up the belly I went too deep and punctured the stomach or intestine - nasty! New plan. I skinned the top side of the elk and lay it back. Next come the front and rear quarters. I cut the legs off just above the knee/elbow joint. I did it to save weight when I carried out the quarters. (It was a bit of a mistake since that is what the butcher wanted to hang the quarters later). Next I took out the back meat and some of the other large pieces.

Next I pulled the elk over keeping the belly down so the split stomach wouldn't spoil anything. Skin the other side, remove the quarters and back meat. Then its done. Except for digging out the tenderloins. I had to pull the guts away from the back and reach into cut them out.

Now comes the hard part.
I loaded the back straps inside the hide and strapped it to the top of my pack. Then I put my orange vest over the top of everything - no sense getting shot at walking out after a successful hunt. The load had to be 60-80 pounds or more and it was a good mile plus to the road. I had to walk farther becasue I angled to make the walk mainly downhill. Once I found the road, I stashed to pack and walked up to get my truck and sled - my "meat wagon". The walk back in wasn't bad. I loaded the quarters and head onto the sled, tied it all down, and headed out. This load had to be way over a 100 pounds. One downhill stretch, the sled got away and took my legs out from under me, I rode the meat wagon about a hundred yards down the hill. The few times I had to pull it uphill out of a creek crossing, it really blew. The last quarter mile to the road was all uphill and I could only pull about 50 yards at a time.

As I go to the road, a guy stopped to talk to me. He ended up giving me a ride and pulled the sled with his truck up the road the last half mile to my truck. A few others also drove by. No one had seen anything all week. Probably because all they did was road hunt. None were to enthused about walking off into the woods to chase them down. As I explained where to look, the only comment was " you sure earned that elk!"

Victoria BC

I'll need to change my profile. We went on vacation so we wouldn't be home over my big 4 - 0 birthday. It started out with a visit to Jean's cousin at Fort Lewis Washington and then took the ferry across to the island.



Victoria British Columbia is absolutely beautiful!!

Lush and green. It reminds me of the north shore of Lake Superior with bigger mountains in the background. We visited Oak Bay bicycles and rented a couple of Specialized Rubaix and Ruby Elite road bikes. Very smooth.



If you think Boulder is bike friendly, you haven't seen nuthin'. The city of Victoria has bike lanes everywhere. People expect bikes and watch for them. We did 30+ miles on regional trails going north from Victoria up to the Sydney area. Then we got on the country roads. Light traffic, beautiful country, rolling hills, and decent roads. There are no shoulders and only a single yellow stripe down the middle. Cars were so constantly aware of bikes. They would slow down and patiently wait for an opening to pass. Simply amazing.



Its very English influenced. Pubs everywhere. We hit one that had benches at tables, high top tables, low top tables, boothes, etc. If there was room you buddied up with other people to fill up a table. It was really fun!



Old downtown Victoria and the wharf area are extremely tourist friendly. We spent a couple nights down there in an old hotel. Careful you don't get a room on the street though - lights, loud, and hard to sleep.



We took the ferry from Port Angeles. Its shorter and cheaper. But its around a 2 hour drive from Tacoma. On the way there, we didn't have reservations and pulled in to the port as about 75% of the boat was already loaded. We pulled in and they closed the doors behind us. Perfect Timing.



Overall a good trip.

You gotta RIDE to learn to ride.

A very frustrating day at work Thursday so I needed to blow off some steam. The Sourdough Trail on my Mountain Bike seemed like the perfect solution. Drove up to the trailhead off Rainbow Lakes Rd and hit the trail around 5pm. A little cooler but not too bad. The trail was rockier than I'm used too but I kept moving all right. It climbed for the first mile and then got rockier and steeper for another half mile or so. My bike computer wasn't aligned right so I'm guessing at mileage. My deraileur was skipping too and pissing me off. That doesn't help blow off steam so I stopped and messed with it a bit and got it working pretty well.

I do all right on the rocks but I'm not fast and I did have to walk up in several places. I finally topped out on the first major climb and was able to make a little better time. The trail was good in places so you could cruise and in others you were still bouncing over roots and rocks.

At one point I realized I was being a real puss over the rougher parts of the trail. I said to myself "self, you ain't gonna learn to ride this stuff unless you RIDE it". So I let it rip. About 20 yards farther, I hit a rock with my back tire that threw my weight high and forward and then my front tire hit a rock and stopped head. Endo. Ripped up my left leg and my left elbow. The picture is the next day after I cleaned things up. I haven't shaved my legs since the Boulder 5430 Long Course about 4 weeks ago. I guess if I'm going to keep riding I should keep that up too.

The rest of the ride was fun but pretty uneventful. I still tried to ride harder than a puss. No more crashes at least. Once back on pavement, the ride down from the Brainerd Lakes/Red Rocks trailhead is a fst fun downhill bomb. Most of the ride back along the Peak hwy is down so I made good time back to the truck. Nothing like a high heart rate to calm you down to sleep good.