Time for an update

I made a deal with Dana Schoppe that if she sent me some pictures from the last race, I would update my blog (for the first time in 11 months). Dana does a fantastic job of preserving memories at these events. Anyone competing in MTB races in Minnesota should check out her website.

This past weekend I competed in the final Jolly Roger downhill race of a 4 race series. This is actually the Minnesota State Championship Series of downhill racing. I competed in 3 of the 4 events, placed third at the first one (to Jed Olson and Thor Shellum -both far more skilled than me), then won the last 2 races. These results put me in 2nd overall for the series. I am pleased with that. Here are a few shots of the race (all taken by Dana):

I am considering changing my focus in racing for next year to specialize in gravity type events. I still plan to get back into shape and put in an honest fight in the MNSCS, but I would like to see if DH racing (possibly a few nationals) is a better fit for my skillset. The law of diminishing marginal returns reared its ugly head last year in the XC races. I was focused, trained and ate well, but only saw small incremental improvements from prior years. Let's face it, I'm never going to be able to be a top level national XC racer. I just don't have the "gene." I still enjoy the local/regional competition, but that's as far as I ever see myself going with it. I might try to get a pro license at some point, but it would really only be to say I have one.

I'm going to try to get my semi-pro USA cycling license for DH before next year. Last year I tried, but was told that I need to compete in more USA cycling DH events. The good thing is that the Jolly Roger series is a USA Cycling sanctioned series. Time to start hitting the weights again and ramp up the intensity type training.

Besides losing focus, here are a few of the other reasons why my XC bike is going slow this year:

& taking care of Riley

Goal Achieved!! This year I set out with a goal of finishing the state series in the top 5 overall. I probably didn't deserve to get it, but I did. Ben Moore and I were really close with points (I think within 4 or so). The competition made this race season fun. It seemed like a lot of people really stepped up their game this year. I knew I needed to finish 7th or better overall at St. Cloud in order to have a shot at the overall series recognition (top 5 overall expert). My race went well and I was able to pull off a 5th place finish, enough to secure a top-5 overall series standing. It sounds like Brendan won again, for the second year in a row, Sam O, Paul Hanson and Jay Richards will be 2nd, 3rd and 4th.

I will do a race recap for the sngltrk xcape shortly.

Chequama - "Gone"

(photos courtesy of skinnyski.com -thank you)

I've got a couple of posts to catch up with, so they're going to be brief. The Chequamy was a dissapointment for the second year in a row. It started out well. As you can see above, I was in about 13th place at Rosie's field. I was sitting in the top 20 or so through about mile 15. Then everything began coming unglued. My legs and lungs began revolting. I fell off the group I was riding with. Another group caught me containing the oftedahl bros, Ben Moore, etc. I hung on for a while, but eventually lost my mental focus and once again fell off that group as well.

I got going again and started feeling better. I was riding in a group of about 8 to 10. I found myself in front taking long pulls most of the time. The guy below with the goofy knee high socks would trade off with me. We started catching a bunch of dropped riders and dropped the group we were with.

Just after the Seeley Water Tower climb, I noticed my chain was skipping on the middle ring. I tried shifting up to the big cookie to find myself with "chain-suck." I got off and looked at the cranks to see if one of the rings was bent only to find that I had 1 out of 4 chainring bolts remaining. That's right 3 of my chainring bolts, holding the middle and large chainring onto the crank arms, had fallen off. I basically had the granny gear for the last 8 or so miles of the race. I was spinning out trying to hang onto my mediocre position. I finished the race feeling like crap and pretty dissapointed about my performace. I believe I finished 51st overall. I was hoping for top 20. Next year. Creepyfriendly and Marko are animals. Paul H had a respectable performance.

*5 races in 5 days* (Warning -T.M.I.)

(photos courtesy of Skinnyski.com)

During the past week I raced my bike on 5 separate occasions. I think that might be my record for # of races within one week. It started with the Murphy Hanrehan time trial, sponsored by Freewheel, on Wednesday night. Up until that point, I hadn't ridden since the previous weekend as I was battling the last bit of a cold from the week before. I wasn't sure how the legs or lungs would feel. I did a pretty fast warmup and it seemed like all systems were "go." Typically I take off way too hard in time trials and blow myself up early on, then spend the remainder of the race trying to recover. Not this time. I started SLOW, easing my way into a sustainable effort. Everything was clicking. They started us in 1 minute intervals and I caught my 1 minute man within the first 5 minutes of the race. I attacked on all of the wide open sections then focused on riding the singletrack a smoothly as possible in order to recover from the attacks. Towards the end of the lap I caught Lonny Mahoney, who had started 2 minutes in front of me. I ended up winning the race with a time of 39:42, which is supposedly the first official course record. Lonny took second, about 2:25 back and Sandberg and Scotty Ralson were both just a few seconds behind Lonny. After the race I went out for beers with the owner of Freewheel, Kevin, his buddy Chris, Eric Guse and Biener.

Next up was the "Hillside Throwdown" on Thursday night. Sam O and I took off hard, but not that hard. We didn't have the heavy competition that can usually be expected at a Buck Race (no Fisher, Brendan, Paul, Luke, etc.). Before the race, Sam told me that we would just be going out for a nice hard training ride. After the first 15 minutes of racing we had handily dropped all chasers to the point where they were no longer visible at any point in the trail. I knew Sam was full of $h!+ when he said we were on a training ride. He started to turn the screws on me and I felt it. I was actually feeling awesome that night; very powerfull on the short steep climbs and riding the singletrack smoothly. I just couldn't quite match Sam's intensity on the short steep climbs. He slowly pulled away from me and took the W with a gap of 2 minutes and 1 second. Sam is undoubtedly one of the strongest riders in the state right now so I was happy to hang on, even just for a little while.

I took Friday off (the bike and work) so Laura and I could head up to the cabin for a little R&R before Maplelag. On Saturday morning we headed over to DL to check in at Maplelag and get signed up for the stage race. The weekend started with a TT at 10 in the AM. Once again, I tried to ease into the effort so I could sustain a quick pace for the duration of the race. For one reason or another I decided not to listen to the voice of reason. I put my bike in a large gear and ramped up my cadence. I was carrying so much speed that I was actually worried about washing out on the wide open ski trail turns. I carried this effort to the top of the suicide hill climb, at which point I completely exploded. The lactic acid had invaded my legs and lungs. I had to shift my bike down to a really small gear and limp in to the finish line. I still ended up finishing 10th out of 20, due completely to my effort during the first half of the race. I lost a full minute to Brendan. I wouln't have expected to win, but had I not exploded and paced myself better, I bet I could have come within 15 seconds or so. I'm an idiot sometimes!

Saturday night we lined up again for the STXC. I had no expectations, as I completely suck at short track for some reason. I don't like that kind of intensity. I've never been good at it. Maybe I'll try to get better at it next year, but I doubt it. I ended up finishing in the middle towards the back after I basically gave up chasing the lead pack. I wanted to vomit while I was hanging on to the back of that group so I let go. I just wanted to minimize my loss for the overall stage race.


I woke up on Sunday feeling a little fatigued from the previous 4 races that week. After warming up a bit, my legs felt pretty good. My plan going into the XC was to just ease into the race and ramp up the intensity going into the second half of the race...so that is what I did. I did not go ballistic off the start. I just rode my own comfortable pace until I found a rythm that worked. As such, I let the lead pack go, figuring I would catch a few of them later in the race if I felt good. This turned out to be a mistake. I felt good throughout the entire race. I had several mishaps, such as crashing on the large rock/wooden grip tape bridge, going over the bars and burping almost all of the air out of my front tire. I was able to get a pump on the tire and get the pressure back up to 28 or so and continued on...no big deal. I think I had 3 other OTB crashes over the course of the race, one of which almost sent me into a tree. Going into the last lap I ramped up my pace big time in an effort to catch Eric Oftedahl and any others that fell off the main group. The effort was too little too late. I never caught anyone. I wish I would have gone out harder. I bet I could have hung on. It's hard to know how you will feel. The "start slow" strategy has worked for me many times in the past. With the current state of the MNSCS competition, you can no longer do that. The top 10-12 racers in this state are almost all pros and semi-pros. This is definately the most competitive the state series has been since I have been racing as an expert (1998). I ended up finishing the race in 7th overall. Eric O and the rest of the lead group rode very strong. I wish I could have been up with them, I think I felt good enough, I was just too big of a pussy to go hard in the beginning of the race. I finsihed 6th overall in the stage race, one place out of the money.

The weekend was an absolute blast! Jay Richards and his family put together top notch events. The accomodations, food, comeraderie and racing are as good as it gets. Thanks again Jay, for hosting such a fun race weekend! I looked at the results after the race and it looks like Jake Richards was absolutely flying. If he would have sustained his effort for one more lap, he would have handily won the comp class; if he could have kept it up for 2 more, he would have been in the top 10 OA in the experts. I expect Jake will be giving us all a run for our money in a few years (including his dad).

-Spirit Mt: From My Perspective-

Finally, after spending a week in Hayward, Wi, with little to worry about other than bike riding and relaxing, I finally had a race that I was happy with. The new Fuel frame worked flawlessly, flowing through the singletrack like a fish through water. I felt in control the entire race.



Going into the last lap, I was comfortable riding with a group that included Fisher, Paul Hanson, Scotty KJ and JR. I really wanted to poke my nose into the singletrack first before the long downhill section. The 4 others were riding the singletrack pretty smooth, but I think I could have opened things up a bit if I had a chance at the front. Jay, Paul and Fisher punched it pretty hard going up the climb below and I was able to hang on, but not get up front. In the process, we dropped Scotty a little bit. After about 5 minutes in the singletrack, he was back on again.



The train continued on to the bottom of the mountain, which is where the real racing began. Jay was starting to twist the throttle a bit up front and everyone seemed to be hanging with the quicker pace. Coming out of the ravine, down by the waterfall, I dropped my chain and had to let Scotty by. I pulled over, got it back on and stepped on it. I did not want to let everyone go without a fight. It took me about a minute, but I was able to get by Scotty and latch back on to the train of Fisher, Paul and Jay. Chris turned around and gave me the thumbs up for catching back on, but I couldn't respond as I was starting to enter the "red zone." I finally settled into the pace that Jay was laying down. Somewhere on one of the rocky sections of the long singletrack climb, Fisher crashed and I think actually went OTB. I was able to get around. I followed right behind Jay and Paul until the climb opened up onto the grassy meadow near the top of the climb that was basically a false flat. Fisher had been hammering to catch back and caught all of us on that section. I let him go by me, as I had a large mushroom cloud starting to form right above my head. I had officially EXPLODED right at the top of the climb. Bummer!! I would have loved to sprint for 4th with those guys. Close but no cigar.



Apparently the sprint finish ended with 2 of the 3 guys crashing into the tape at the finish line. The time recorder at the finish line was distracted with all of the comotion, and didn't even see me come in!! According to my watch, I finished in 2:11:12, 24 seconds behind the sprint finish. I never bothered to check the result after the race, and it never was fixed. Scotty had to inform the race director that I had beat him and handed over his prize money. Thanks for that Scott! The MNSCS guys just assumed that my time was 2 seconds in front of Scott, so they gave me a 2:13. Oh well. I wonder why we didn't use the magnetic ankle chips at this race????

Yup, I'm still alive. Not sure who, if anyone is even looking at this thing any more. Since the "birdman" JR linked me up to his blog, I figured I had better update mine, in case anyone stumbles upon it. First off, I want to give props to Heath Weisbrod for breaking the elusive 9 hour mark in the Leadville 100!! Nice job Heath: 8 hours 58 minutes. You should wear your big gold belt buckle to the next race.

I have had quite a summer of bike riding and racing since my last post. First things first: I basically went without an XC bike for almost 2 MONTHS!!!! Thanks again Trek, for ensuring that I have the tools and resources to be a successful bike racer. My Trek Fuel Frame cracked and FAILED at the point where the main pivot is bonded to the surrounding carbon fiber. I submitted a warranty claim the day after I returned home from the Mont Du Lac race. After 2 weeks of patiently waiting, I was notified that my bike was being painted that week. Another 2 weeks went by with no bike. Finally, I received a call the 5th week after initially submitting my claim that my bike was finally in. It's too bad that after all that waiting, they decided to send me a size LARGE frame. I had to wait another few weeks for the frame to be picked up, a new one ordered and finally, last week, my frame came in. In total I missed 5 buck hill races and went without my bike for 3 MNSCS races. I borrowed bikes for 1 buck race, Bluff riders charge and Welch. Actually, at the Welch race, I used another broken Fuel frame (Eric Guse's) that had not yet failed. Not sure if I'll ride Treks anymore after this year. Rant over, but I'm still pissed.

Since I didn't have an XC Mtb for the middle of the summer, I spent alot of time on the Road, which I think was actually to my benefit. I can tell now that my fitness level is definately better. I am hoping all the road training will show at the Chequamegon. I am really hoping for another top 20. It'll be tough as the local competition is really hot right now in both MN and WI.

Alot of people have seen me stumbling around at races on the sidelines, not racing. No, I havn't turned into a full fledged alchoholic. I crashed hard at the Muddy River DH race, slamming into a tree after just barely clearing a 12-15 foot gap on my pre-run. I ended up snapping my brake lever clean off the bike, denting the downtube of the frame with my left knee, spraining my wrist and tearing some of my right quadriceps muscle. I made the (stupid) decission to race the DH anyway after the crash. I replaced the brake lever with one from an XC bike and lined up. I really couldn't complete a full pedal stroke without a great deal of pain, so I basically pumped and coasted the entire way down. Somehow I was able to pull off a 3rd place. I camped out with JJ, Deet, Richzilla and Timmer on the bluff. We had a pretty good time hangin' out and shoting the sh!t. When I woke up the next morning I was in so much pain, racing the XC was totally out of the question. I had a difficult time walking for the first week after the crash. I had my wrist checked out and it wasn't broken, so that was good.

Check out this crash series from A.O. Despite several hard falls, he finished 2nd OVERALL in the the Comp race. Andy and I have been doing quite a bit of training together this summer, so it's good to see him have a solid result like this at such a hard race.

Afton Avalanche

This weekends race was truley an exercise in attrition. I started the race very slow, sittting in about 12-15th place for the first 2 laps. I really couldn't make myself suffer on the climbs. Maybe it was the heat or maybe it was the huge week of training that I had prior to this race... who knows.

With an unpredictable workload at Wells Fargo, I never really know when I'm going to have a lot of time to train, so I need to be opportunistic. I took advantage of a lighter workload in the office by spending about 15 hours on my mountain bike last week (that's right, no road riding). On Thursday, I took a half day to ride down at Murphy with A.O. and set the course at Buck. I wasn't sure if I was going to race that night or not based on the fact that I had already ridden for 3 hours prior to the race. I decided to do it, since its all just for fun anyway. I crossed the line in 4th, which was my best Buck race yet this year, and had ~40miles on my MTB for the day, all in the dirt.

Back to Afton. I sat in mid pack for the first half of the race, never really breathing hard or suffering on the climbs. It was almost like I had a psychological block. I knew I should be going harder, but I wasn't. On the third lap, I began picking people off, one after another. It seemed like quite a few of the riders just a head of me were beginning to fade in the heat and with all of the climbing. During that lap I was able to get around Joel from the Hub, Dave Oachs, Wenk, and some other dude (and a fully blown Chris Fisher). I continue on, at perhaps a slightly faster pace, with my eyes on Jay Richards and Chris Peariso. Going into the 4th lap, I knew I was only about a minute down from Jay and maybe a couple of minutes behind Chris P. I still felt fairly decent, considering it was late in the race and we were right in the middle of the hotest part of the day. I finally passed Jay on one of the longer, more gradual climbs on the back side of the hill. I've found that when you are going to pass someone, you need to do so with conviction. It's important to really stomp on it and open up as much of a gap as possible, all at once. There is an advantage to be sitting behind someone since you can see their moves, predict when they are going to go hard and really pace yourself to their speed. So, it's important to blast by them and make it APPEAR that you are going to be going quite a bit faster for a while.

Anyway, I rolled into the finish line in 8th place, with Jay trailing only by about 20 or 30 seconds. Overall I am happy with this result and happy that my body told me to go slow during the first half of the race.

Tom Red Wing DH Full Run

I have been thinking alot about riding and racing DH this summer. I upgraded my Norba license to "expert" for the gravity events (DH and 4X). I might try to race a few nationals this summer to see if I can hang with the fast guys. There are some pretty fast guys aroung the midwest. The video above was taken by Rich Omdahl's helmet-cam at the Red Wing season closer DH race. I won the race and Rich came in 3rd. If you notice the total time on the you-tube video, it would have been good enough for 3rd place in the actual race (this was just a fun run afterwards). Sometimes you can ride faster when you are just "riding," not racing.

This year's Spring Cup event was different from any other season opener I've ever done. First off, the terrain at the Salem Hills trail is very mellow, meandering through praries and small groves of trees, with very little change in elevation. The majority of the MNSCS races are at venues with much more technical singletrack and steeper, longer climbs. The usual suspects were present, with the exception of Hall, who was actually present but not racing. Apparently Jeff was heading off to a world cup race the next day so he was just hanging out, watching his son and giving away Salsa schwagg...very cool. Anyway, the expert race started aggressively, as it usually does, and I forced myself towards the front with the lead group. After the prologue, I settled into a pace with the leaders, behind Rinehart and Eric O. The pace was fast but tolerable, especially since there was minimal climbing. After the first lap it was clear that a lead group had formed with the typical fast guys: the O's, Brendan, Chris, Ben, Paul and Justin. I was happy to be hanging with these guys and not totally suffering. After the first couple laps, I hopped up front to set the pace and "earn my keep" with the faster riders. While I was up there I felt good; I was able to find a nice smooth pedal stroke and see the trail much better. I felt like I was exerting myself at about 80-90% of my max and , consequently, had the overwhelming urge to turn the screws as hard as I could. I supressed those feeling because I knew that even if I got away for a short while, I would be hunted down and destroyed. So I pedaled just hard enough to keep everyone behind me happy and save a little battery power for later. After that lap I came out of the singletrack into the field with Paul H flying by me. Brendan, Chris, then... oops, everyone else went around me. I fought my way in front of the younger Moore brother going into the single track on the last lap, in the 7th spot out of 8. The last lap was pretty fast. I'm not sure, but I think Chris was up front, trying to turn the screws a bit. I hung on with out too much difficulty, until the singletrack opened up into the final 1/4 mile stretch at the start finish area. I put it in the big ring and stepped on it as hard as I could. I could no longer see the top couple guys (Chris, Paul and Brendan), but was able to get around the Oftedahl brothers somehow and start gunning for Rinehart. On the last straight away I was gaining ground rapidly on Justin, but he must have sensed me coming because he exploded into an all out sprint and kept his distance in front of me, at about 10 feet, through the finish line. Fun race! I was glad to be a part of that lead group. Since I started racing seriously again, I havn't been able to crack into, what I call the 1st tier; the guys who consistently are in the top 5-10 in the MNSCS expert class. Towards the end of last year, I was finishing at the front of "tier 2" -a few top 10's, but barely. I would like to be up front more this season. I am really going to need to start doing some higher intesity training to get there. The rest of the state races have a good deal of punchy climbing, which I still feel very slow on this year. I now like training and racing again. Hopefully the motivation will continue through the rest of the season.

I won this race:

results
press in Germany
more press

Training is still going quite well for now. What am I doing different this year, you might ask? In the last few months I have put a strong focus on areas where I have lacked in the past. First off, I've changed my diet significantly.

As I mentioned earlier, I was racing the entire 2006 season 10-20 lbs overweight. When I initially moved up to the expert category in 1998, my racing weight was around 145 (I was 16-17 at the time). Since that time I figure I have added approximately 10 lbs in muscle mass through weight lifting and maturity. I know this because in 2003 I was able to get down to 155, which at the time was about 5% body fat (I had this checked with that caliper test). That year was one of my best racing seasons, as I finished in the top 3 a few times in the MNSCSs (Expert), had a top 20 Chequamegon, a top 10 Norba National and upgraded to Semi-Pro.

During the 2006 season, I didn't really have a focus other than to enjoy biking and possibly racing. I spent a few months in the gym over the winter to get some of the power back in my legs. I also was able to get about 500 miles of base in on the road bike before the first race at Elk River. That was the extent of my preparation. Once the season was in full swing, I just kind of raced into shape aimlessly. I felt relatively powerful on the bike, but my power:weight ratio was lower than it could be. The denominator of the equation was 10% higher than in years past. I really noticed this factor when I competed in races where there was a great deal of climbing.

So far, by managing my diet, maintaining my fitness with cross training (weights, trainer time, some outside riding, running and XC skiing) and getting adequete rest, I've been able to shed a few lbs. At 162, I'm 5-10 lbs lighter than where I was during the race season last year.

The other additon to my training regimine this year is yoga. I go twice a week to an hour long class. That stuff is great for balance, flexibility and lactic acid tolerance. I highly recommend yoga to anyone who has not yet tried it.

What else will help me ride faster this year? I think my new Top Fuel 9.9 will help out. It's 3 lbs lighter than my fuel 98 from last year. Maybe I can each that extra piece of cheesecake after all.........

peace

I have been really bad about updating this thing lately due primarily to my busy schedule. That's no excuse, however, as things are only going to get even busier once I start trying to juggle a heavier training load, an increasingly busy work schedule and a few home improvement projects including remodeling my bathroom. I do plan to set aside time to give an update of where my training, racing and other activities have taken me.

I recently returned home from a trip to Boulder, Co. where I skied for 8 days in a row. I spent the first few days at Winterpark and Back Country skiing on Berthoud Pass (the exact spot where that avalanche hit!) You can actually see the road that was wiped out by the enormous snowlide in the background of the following pictures. I left Boulder after the third night to head for Crested Butte with my buddy Greg Abrahamson. He and I finished off the week with several days at Mt. Crested Butte and Monarch Mt. Overall the skiing was only so-so due to inadequate snow cover. We did, however, get dumped on the last day with 18 inches of fresh powder. Fun Trip!!

It's now been about a month since my last bike race of the season. You could say that I have spent this time as my "off season," as there has been very little training taking place. In fact, I think you could say that I have been "anti-training" with all of my all of my alcohol and food consumption with insufficient physical activity to support it. This picture is from halloween weekend up in Duluth with a bunch of good college buddies. I did actually bring my DH bike up to Duluth for some freeriding. JJ and I found some pretty sick lines on the trails behind St. Scholastica and up at Enger Tower. I'll try to post some of the pictures from those rides when I get a chance.

I think this time off the bike has been good for the Central Nervous System, as I am actually starting to crave training again. The first part of my training this year will be focused on weight loss. I believe that I raced the entire 2006 season at about 15 to 20 lbs over my ideal weight. During this past race season, I didn't really concern myself with weight loss or regimined training. Instead, I just wanted to prove to myself that I still enjoy bike racing. It had been almost 3 years since the last time I raced MTBs competitively when I started my season this year. So.... I am going to be focusing on core strength, basic aerobic activity and diet during the last part of this month and December. Come January, I will be focusing on increasing my strength and power with a bit more time in the weight room.

I will try to be more diligent with my postings going forward.

For now, I can say that the 2006 MTB season was overall a success. I had really been out of the sport for about 2 years. Finally, this year I made the decision to get back into shape and get healthy. I was happy with a few top ten overall expert class finishes in the MNSCS races. I finished 10th overall in the state, which I am definately happy with. I was dissappointed with my performance at the Deer Valley National, where I finished in the back of the pack out of the Semi-Pros, and Chequamegon, where I finished 66th overall. I plan to take training semi-seriously this winter to get closer to my potential during next years race season.

In addition, I plan on doing a few more DH mountain bike races next year. I finally purchased a long-travel full suspension MTB this past summer that can handle just about anything you throw at it. The local freeride scene is a pretty tight knit group of talented bikers. It would be really cool to see this scene grow next year with more races and events. I'll do what I can to help.

For anyone who cares, I will be sharing my outdoor sporting experiences with the world. In the warmer months, you can expect to see posts regarding bike racing, training and possibly some backpacking. For the winter, I'll post up info on my ski trips, snowshoe excursions and anything else I get myself into (i.e. waterfall sledding, downhill kayaking, drunken urban spelunking,etc.).