Fort Custer Stampede... Expert?

Well I took the plunge already, I moved up to Expert for the Fort Custer Stampede.  I called my coach Mike Schultz and we had a talk about what category I should be racing.  After talking about what would be best and we came to the conclusion that I should be racing the longest races I can to prepare for the 100 mile races.

I may not be as competitive in Expert as I would be in Sport, but the extra mileage will be good for me.  I also got a lot of grief from my training partner  Mark Boese for not racing Expert too, oh the peer pressure.  So the night before the race I stopped by Custer Cyclery to ask Dan Stewart if he know how to get a hold of Cathy Needham.  He called Cathy for me and got me moved me from Sport to Expert.

I pre-rode the coarse on Saturday the best I could, it wasn't marked yet when I rode it, but since it's my home track I wasn't too concerned.

I got up Sunday morning and my wife made me some eggs and rice for breakfast.  This was all I ate besides the few cups of coffee that I drank too.

I got to the race sit and set up my easy-up in team row.  I arranged for a spot for my team - Cannondale Midwest Racing with the promoter a few days earlier.  I was there about 2 hours before the race and really had too much time on my hands before I had to get to the starting line.

10:00 am was the start time for the Elite/Expert Categories.  I waited my time until our group was called to the starting line.  As the starter said go, I had a hard time clipping into my pedals and got off to a slow start.  I was next to last going into the single track.  I guess I was in no hurry to get the party started.  I got into a good pace and kept the majority of my field in sight.

Expert Men 40-49 at the Fort Custer Stampede

 It was just one long pace-line for the first 3 miles, that was until we got to Granny's Garden.  This is where 2 assholes from the group behind decided they needed to pass in the tightest most technical part of the coarse.  They cut me off on the inside of a turn which went down into a gully and then made a quick right hand turn with a quick uphill.  The 2 a-holes didn't even make it up the climb and caused everyone behind them to get off their bikes.  While I was off my bike my left pedal got stuck in another guys spokes... Thanks A-Holes (The A-Holes wore black and grey kits, not sure what team they are).

The rest of the race went pretty good, I worked my heart rate up just under my threshold and kept it there the whole race.  I worked hard and kept my lap times within 3 minutes of each other.  I ended up with a total time of 2:07:38 for about 27 miles, 17 minutes behind the leaders.  I ended up 22nd in my age group.  I passed about 10 guys and got clipped at the finish line by 1/10 of a second for 21st. 

I am glad I moved up and found out that I can at least keep up with these guys and not totally embarrass myself.  I guess I'll be racing Expert from here on out.

A Fallen Friend...

Yesterday I went out to Fort Custer for a little pre-ride on the race coarse for Sundays race - the Fort Custer Stampede.  While getting things ready in the parking lot a friend of mine, Mark Boese,  pulled up on his bike, he had already gotten 2 laps in and was ready to start his third. 

So we left the trail head parking lot and proceeded out on the red loop.  The red loop starts with some twisty single track through some trenches and then goes through a little rock garden.  After about a mile or so it dumps out into an open field,  About 200 yards into the open field there a couple of humps that we call the camel backs.  There are two of them and they are lined with lannon stone to stop erosion and to preserve the humps.

This is where it get's interesting, it was riding behind Mark when he went down after the 2nd hump.  It was surprising because Mark and I have been doing a lot of riding together getting ready for the Lumberjack and he rides Expert when he races, so he has skills.  We were not going at a fast past, just a comfortable pre-ride pace.

When I crested the 2nd hump Mark was lying on the ground at the bottom of the hump.  He had gone over the handlebars,  I quickly got off my bike to see if he was alright and that is when I noticed it.  It's the type of thing you hear about, but never actually think you are going to see it.  You learned about it in boy scouts and what to do when it happens.  It's in every first aid book you ever had with those cartoonish characters drawing of what it looks like... yes the compound fracture.

Yes, that is bone sticking out from below his elbow.

There he was sitting on the ground with bones sticking out just below his elbow with blood flowing out of it like a faucet.  I was thinking oh my god, we've got to get that bleeding to stop.  Mark pulled on the exposed bone first thinking it was a rock that had embedded into his elbow from the crash.  He soon realized that it was not a rock at all.

Neither of us had a phone with us (let that be a lesson learned) and we were fortunate enough that a couple of other riders came up on us and had a phone.  They called 911 for us and arranged for an ambulance.

At this point Mark decided that he was not going to wait for help to come to him, I believe his exact words were "I am not going to bleed to death here".  He had an experience before with his wife getting injured at Fort Custer and then taking forever to get help to her out on the trails.  So Mark stood up while grabbing his arm just above his elbow and applying pressure to help stop the bleeding.  I grabbed his bike and we proceeded to walk out to the trail head.

I couldn't believe he was doing this but he was very persistent that he didn't want to wait and just wanted to get back to the parking lot.  He was amazing that he could do this.  We talked as we walked to the trail head.  Mark was totally pissed about what had just happened and the fact that he was probably going to miss the Lumberjack.  I tried to come up with small talk to help keep his mind off what had just happened but I wasn't very good at it.  We just kept walking, me with 2 bikes and him holding his arm just above his elbow.  It's almost like I can remember every step of that walk.

In the end, we got Mark to the hospital with the help of EMT's, Park Rangers, and First Responders.  He talked with his surgeon today and found out that his elbow was shattered into 10 pieces,  he has surgery on it tomorrow and I only wish him the best and a speedy recovery. 

Mark, 2 weeks earlier at Yankee Springs TT

I hope I'm not sick!

I did a 50 mile training at Yankee Springs on Sunday, all single track.  I did this in preparation for the Syllamo 125K in Arkansas in 2 weeks.  During my ride I found it hard to take deep breaths of air the longer I was out there.  By the time I was done it felt like an elephant was standing on my chest.

I talked with my coach and he said that it was probably just the fatigue staring to catch up with me.  I have pushed my limits which is good, but I also need to watch it to avoid getting seriously sick.  When you get to fatigued it can lead to respiratory infections which is what I thought I maybe coming down with.

Just to make sure I went to the doctor today to get checked out.  He listened to my lungs and checked my ears.  Nothing really showed up.  Just to make sure he had chest x-rays taken and those came back negative too.  How ever he did find fluid in one of my ears and prescribed antibiotics as well as rest and drinking lots of fluids.

So what caused my breathing to feel the way it did?  Not sure, other than I hope is is just a little fatigue and I need about 4 or  5 days of rest. 

Today in the Life...

OK, it's Friday and today I sat on a panel in front of an audience of people as the expert on Bed Bugs.  The other 3 panels members where 2 attorneys and 1 judge.  The group of people interested in this where part of the 9th Annual Fair Housing Conference for Southwest Michigan.  I was asked to be on the panel by a customer and I am totally flattered about the opportunity to do this.  This is the second time in about 5 months that I have been asked to talk about the bed bug epidemic.  The first time was for the  8th Annual FOCUS-Residential (Management, Clinical & Human Resources) Symposium.

So what does this have to do with racing mountain bikes? Really nothing, but then again everything.  Because I own my own business I get to do things like sit on panels and do presentations for groups of people that value the information and knowledge that I have acquired over the years.  It also allows me to set my own schedule, I can manage my days so that I can get some training in and still be at my kids school and athletics events. 

I have always been of the opinion that I run my business, my business doesn't run me.  I am fortunate for what I have and truly appreciate the staff I have in place at my business.  They make it easy for me to escape once in awhile and get a training ride in.

According to my coach, Mike Schultz, it's all a balance, and you need a balance to keep your life in order and keep things in perspective.  It's not all racing mountain bikes, it's family, friends, and relationships that in the end mean the most.

Right now I am lucky to be who I am... but it has not always been this way. In 2008 I was in the verge of bankruptcy, my business was heavily tied to the construction market, My wife and I went $100,000 in debt and depleted my 401k to save my business and keep it afloat.  I learned a lot about myself during the 2008 to 2010 year time frame, a lot of sleepless nights and worrying about not just me but the people who worked for me and their families too.  Today, Keller Pest Control is a completely different company, a stronger company, a more diverse company.  It took a lot of work and some hard decisions but I have a better company now and I can take some time to smell the roses, so to speak.

Enough of my soapbox, lets go race!!!!!

Sport or Expert, that is the question?

I am really struggling with which category I should be racing in this year. Last year I raced Sport Clydesdale and did very well.  Even though I still qualify to race Clydesdale (current weight is about 205 pounds), I really wanted to see how I measured against riders in my own age group.  Well I got my answer this weekend at the Yankee. Springs Time Trial.  I placed 7th out of about 35 riders and was 2 minutes behind first.

This was not the determining factor for me though, when I looked at the times for the expert category I would have raced I would have been totally out of my league. Those boys where turning in lap times 7 to 9 minutes faster than me and did 2 laps instead of 1.  I really like the feeling of being competitive in a group and coming in 50th in Expert is not where I want to be right now.  All that would do for me is leave me with a lack luster feeling about racing which may bleed over to my training.

I think it's good I stay in Sport, work on losing some more weight, and still get beat by those 165 pound guys in my age group...  it will motivate me to become faster in shorter events while I still train for the longer 100's.  This will also give me one more year to get ready to move to Expert.

As the year proceeds I will probably re-visit this same discussion and re-evaluate what to do, after all I will be entering the open division for my 100 mile races and get my ass kicked by guys like Christian Tanguy, Mike Simonson, and Tinker Juarez!

2012 Yankee Springs TT

A 95 Mile Training Ride

2012 Miles to Date: 1492.62
2012 Time in the Saddle: 113:55:01
2012 Hot Yoga Time: 18:05:00

I did a 95 mile training ride yesterday on the mountain bike.  I can't believe how hard it is to get the nutrition dialed in.  Yesterday I tried to eat a PB&J sandwich, 50 minutes later I was wishing I hadn't.  The PB&J was made with orange marmalade jelly which I think was my downfall.  So for about the last 30 miles of my ride I was fighting the overwhelming urge to vomit.

I really believe that it is the sugars that are my downfall.  For some reason I can't handle sugars under the stress of long rides.  I have tried homemade rice bars with rice, pecans, fig & honey and had no problem.  The difference in the sugar is that honey is a pretty natural sugar as opposed to the processed sugar in jelly's and jam's.

The great part of the ride is that is was 6240 feet of climbing and an average moving speed of 12 mph.  Not bad considering my stomach was really messing with me... just fought through it.

Barry-Roubaix Race

2012 Miles to Date: 1159.22
2012 Time in the Saddle: 89:56:37
2012 Hot Yoga Time: 15:25:00
 
 I did the Barry-Roubaix race on Saturday, I entered the 62 mile Pro-Elite category, not because I though I could be competitive, but because I really wanted the training miles.  What was good about this was that I took 40 minutes off my normal training ride time for the same route.  I also was on my mountain bike with full MTB tires which added to the resistance compared to the guys on their cyclo-cross bikes.

All in all it was a good ride and a really good effort on my part.  What is really nuts is that the next day I followed it up with another 76 mile ride on the mountain bike.

Start of the 2012 Barry-Roubaix Gravel Road Race