Trip to the Wood

Soon the MO State MTB Championships will be here, actually just two weeks away. This year the race will wind it's way around Castlewood State Park, a place I've only been to a very few times and when there focused on the July Dirt Crits.

So today I took advantage of dry trails and sunny skies to pre-ride the course.



I really liked the North side of the park used for the race. Boy that was a good time. I can see those that ride this trail alot are going to be flying. The South side was OK with a good climb but the River Scene decent is just nasty. No big deal, just need to take it slow at the end.

New tool added to the MTB. Now every pedal stoke is measured.




True enough there is only 111 days left till cross starts, but there is another "cross like" event coming just 32 days from now on July 1. This is some serious fun and awesome training for cross. The new tool above will help me keep track of progress and what it takes to keep up with this dude.

Mid Fork XC

Sunday was a low key highly anticipated XC race, non race, event; what ever you want to call it. Bottom line it was a group of folks who love to get out on their mountain bikes and see who can go faster. Big thanks to Team Seagal for putting this thing together.

No one walked away Sunday without feeling the effort did not hurt in one way or another. When I left the last person I saw cross the line was at 4 hours, 45 min. In the near 90 degree heat of the day it was by no means a walk in the park for anyone.

So we all started with a run to the bikes, hopped on and off we went into the woods, I was 5th going in. The starting pace was higher than I wanted but it was good to set things high at first to get some separation from the rest. Soon I had to back off as the heart rate was over what I could manage for 3+ hours. After I backed off Matt, Drew, Mitch and one other passed me. At the DD parking lot 4 miles into the race I was told I was in 9th. Having this piece of info was the motivation for the day.

I finally got the vital signs to a manageable level and began a steady pace. Strategy was smooth riding, eat and drink all the time and push things on the up hills.

Soon I came up on Rock who was nursing a flat and another further down the trail doing the same. This put me in 7th.

Just before the 17 mile mark before first water stop I caught up to a SS rider then caught another after the creek crossing climbing to the top of what seemed like 100 hills. Catching and passing riders was super motivational as you never knew who would be right around the corner. On the other hand, I kept checking my 6 often, I did not want anyone to pass and this helped me keep a good steady pace.

So now in 5th I figured that left Dan, Matt, Drew and Mitch up the trail. Knowing who the riders were I figured I might be out of luck catching any of them as they are all strong riders. But still feeling good with lots of power I soldiered on as this hot humid day can make a rider hit the wall at any time. Drew was one such rider who seemed to have slowed from his starting pace as I caught him on one a climb, passed and rode away. Now in 4th, sweet!

At 24 miles the gravel began. It was a catch 22 really, the speed was higher but the shade was gone and I knew there was one big climb ahead. Line of sight was good too, I was really hoping to see a rider ahead to give me that last bit of motivation to get my self in 3rd overall. This section was hot and the sun beat down. Only relief were the couple of creek crossing.

At the top of the climb, 4 miles later, there that rider was. It was Mitch. I caught him just before we finished the paved section of 49. Long decent back down to creek bed level and I got back into a comfortable pace for the last 7.5 miles. 5 more miles of gravel then 2.5 miles of single track. After the gravel I shut off the music so I could hear the sounds around me just in case there was a rider I did not see closing in.

Finally I crossed hwy 49 which meant the finish line was just a few hundred yards away. I crossed the finish line in 3:30:51, 6 min behind winner Matt. Dan came in 2nd just 42 seconds behind Matt. And Bob I belive got his spoke card back.

I finished feeling good about the effort but beat from the heat. Legs were good, no cramping but I was hot and needed to get cooled down. I sat down for a bit then rode the paved road back to the boat ramp where I cranked up the AC in the truck, cooled off and quickly began feeling normal again.

So that ends the training load phase of the year. Peaked out at 77.6. Blue line shows the growth.



A new chart I came across is this one. Comes from the Training Peaks blog. I find it interesting in that it can validate improvement.



Next up is a week of rest, get caught up on some yard and house work. June will focus on variable power and tempo work along with three XC races.

Till next time......

I have Bob Jenkins CXMAS Spoke Card

The guilt is killing me, sort of.

The one and only Bob Jenkins, who swears alot so don't go there if you don't like a few F-Bombs, must still have sleepless nights wondering what ever happened to his extremely coveted CXMAS Spoke Card. They just don't give these away to anyone you know. I was there and did not get one, they ran out, and I'm still a bit upset about it . But there is always next year. And we all know he earned this card.

Back to the card. I have it, I've had it for some time now. Yes I could live forever never telling anyone that I have it; then I would feel like I have one, but it would never really be mine. It would always have the Team Red Wheel sticker on it and from the looks of it, it has not been taken very good care of. I mean its dirty, scrapped up and one of the edges is coming apart. Who does that?

So you want proof I have it? Here is proof.




Don't believe it belongs to Bob? Who else would put a Team Red Wheel sticker on the back?




Still have doubts? This was the day and place it was lost.


One of the volunteers that day picked it up off the ground after it came loose on the downhill of the crit. Knowing the power of the card, much like the "ring", it's hard to believe the volunteer was able to part with it. A week later I received it in the mail.



I now am the keeping of the card. And have been for 25 glorious days. It's sits on my desk at home where I can look at any time I like, and occasionally I attach it to my wheel and take it for a spin. But no more, it must return to it's owner. But no so fast, you have to earn it.

So here is the deal.
Mr. Jenkins and a number of others who are on the "list" for Sundays endurance event, you know who you are, have a chance to own this one of a kind CXMAS Spoke Card for yourself, or you can earn it for Bob. Be the first person to the finish on Sunday and you have the power. You can keep it, or you can give it to Bob. Or Bob may just win this thing on his own.

For now I have the card and you don't. I will be working my ass off Sunday to keep it. See you Sunday!

Racing in the Rain (Hellbender Road Race)

Sunday I opted for the Hellbender 70 mile road race over the mud fest at Rhetts Run.

I signed up for the 40+ group for the first time, about 12 in this group and another 10 in the 50+ grouped together.

I was again on the cross bike but that did not make that much of a difference despite the single 42 chain ring on the front/ 12x27 rear. Only risk is if I get gaped for some reason, it's hard to catch back on. Skinny tires this time too.

First lap was mellow as we moved along at a steady pace under what was still a dry sky. We hit the one big hill, most made it to the top with the group and it stayed that was as we started lap 2.

LAP 1

Duration: 1:37:08
Work: 981 kJ
TSS: 120.3 (intensity factor 0.862)
Norm Power: 228
VI: 1.36
Distance: 35.2 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 813 168 watts
Cadence: 58 177 89 rpm
Speed: 8.7 48 21.7 mph

2nd lap things started to move faster . About 1/3 into the 2nd lap the sky opened up and began raining. Soon after it started to rain hard, so much it was hard to see on the downhills. Then the thunder and lightning started. The sky was still light so no real threat of a huge massive thunder storm with hail or high winds, just steady rain to keep things interesting. This was actually a blast to race in these conditions.

It was hard to keep track of how many of us were left until we hit the hill again. After 3 min of climbing the damage was done with 9 of us cresting the top for the final time and away went toward the finish with about 10 miles to go.

With 2 miles to go three Gateway guys, Alan, Andy and Doug were up front, I was right there with them as Alan takes off. For some reason I did not mark him and no one else did either. He got a gap and it stuck. Mark and I started to give chase but it was to late and we could not bring him back, so finally we gave up and settled in for a field sprint.

Legs were a bit toasty at this point, my sprint was not much of sprint but more of a hard dig. I crossed the line 4th in my age group and 7th overall.



LAP 2
Duration: 1:32:13
Work: 1149 kJ
TSS: 132.3 (intensity factor 0.928)
Norm Power: 246
Distance: 35.026 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 730 208 watts
Cadence: 47 186 90 rpm
Speed: 8.3 43.8 22.7 mph

Entire workout (176 watts):
Duration: 3:35:11
Work: 2276 kJ
TSS: 273.6 (intensity factor 0.874)
Norm Power: 232
Distance: 75.622 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 813 176 watts
Cadence: 30 186 89 rpm
Speed: 0 48 21.0 mph



That effort ended what was a sizable training load for the week bringing the season training load to 76.8 and posted a season high 3 min peak average (372) yesterday during the hill climb.

One more week of training load building and that will most likely be the peak for the season.



Up next, a dry warm day on the MTB Sunday for 4 hours.

Serious amounts of rain

I love a muddy cross race but I don't care for muddy XC race, I just suck at it. Unfortunately my skirt will get in the way for Sunday's Rhetts run. I know, HTFU.

So I'll join Jose in Rolla for the Hellbender road race instead. I can do road race and rain. Plus this will be good prep for next weekends 4 hour plus MTB event.

125 days till cross

Greensfelder Race Report

Perfect day, perfect trails, lots of energy and a ton of fun today at Greensfelder. Big thanks to Bob, GORC and all that helped make this race happen.

I took home the 1st place medal in the expert 40-49 race, but it was kinda like kissing your sister for this one. Only two of us showed in this age group, John Matthews and I. They grouped us up with the Men Expert 50-59 and the solo expert woman to make a group of 5.

John and Tom Albert lead the way down the nasty down hill. I followed behind but they were much faster reaching the bottom before I did and I never saw them again for the rest of lap 1.

Starting lap 2 John was fixing what looked to be a flat at the bottom of the hill. Knowing he is much faster than I, turns out he had the 3rd best first lap time all experts combined, I pushed things as steady as I could to try and stay in front of him for as long as I could.

With half a lap to go he caught me and dropped me hard. After that the fire to push on at that pace was over and I cruised in. Turns out John took a DNF/ DQ for going back to the start to fix what must have been more than a flat, or something like that. So there you have it.

More interesting is the lap times and overall expert rankings.

You can find all of them here

Place First Name Last Name Category Race Time
1 Chris Ploch Cat 1 Men - 30-39 2:03:06
2 Eric Pirtle Cat 1 Men - 30-39 2:05:45
3 Mike Best Cat 1 Men - 30-39 2:07:30
4 John Rines Cat 1 Men - 30-39 2:08:22
5 Bob Arnold Cat 1 Men - 30-39 2:10:30
6 Mark Gullett Cat 1 Men - 30-39 2:10:51
7 Ryan Pirtle Cat 1 Men - 30-39 2:11:00
8 Dan Miller Cat 1 Men - 30-39 2:11:30
9 Cale McAninch Cat 1 Men - 30-39 2:12:47
10 Rock Wamsley Cat 1 Men - 30-39 2:16:03
11 Luke Musselman Cat 1 Men - 30-39 2:18:54
12 Tom Albert Cat 1 Men - 50+ 2:20:18
13 Scott Peipert Cat 1 Men - 19-29 2:22:36
14 Drew Black Cat 1 Men - 19-29 2:22:49
15 Paul Quindry Cat 1 Men - 30-39 2:23:37
16 Wes Biermann Cat 1 Men - 30-39 2:23:59
17 Jeff Yielding 1 Cat 1 Men - 40-49 2:29:03
18 Ira Brown Cat 1 Men - 30-39 2:31:27
19 Andrew Morman Cat 1 Men - 19-29 2:33:55
20 Jim Krewet Cat 1 Men - 30-39 2:38:08
21 Loreen Mattson Cat 1 Women 2:45:38
22 Martin Weaver Cat 1 Men - 50+ 2:51:57
23 Jon Schottler Cat 1 Men - 19-29
24 John Matthews Cat 1 Men - 40-49
25 Matt Schweiker Cat 1 Men - 19-29
26 Dan McCarthy Cat 1 Men - 19-29

So, as you can see 17th overall, 65% of the field. On paper not a great showing. But I know over last year my handling skills are much improved. This course is full of rocks, drops off, technical down hills and lots of climbing; last year conditions I would fear and crawl my way around.

At middle fork earlier this year I rode with many of these guys, learned a ton by watching them ride. Between then and now I've worked on those techniques, they worked; less fear, more control and much smoother riding. So, I will take that and build on it. Honestly these MTB races are more about improving my handling skills for cross, which is 131 days away, but who's counting.

May continues to be a training load build month. Now up to 72 with a training stress of -23 after yesterday. I'll take the day off and rest up for a big week ahead.

Next up is Rhetts Run on Sunday.

110 Mile Weekend

With over 7 hours on the bike this weekend and 110 miles traveled, there was alot to see.

May Pre-view

So the saying goes "April showers bring May flowers"... let's just hope the showers are over with already and some of these trails dry for the weekends so I can get some trail riding in.

May is another big month of training. Training load increase is the focus again this month but now I move away from what was almost all base last month to some tempo level stuff, some intensity and racing, three are on my schedule.

Early each week my higher intensity stuff is 5x5 min at 300w. I like these because I get to see progress as the month moves on, the first week sets the bar as to what I can do, then it's all about beating the week before. It will be hard to average 300w for all 5 intervals, but by the end of the month the goal is to nail all 5.

So I've been trying to get out to Greensfelder for a few weeks now but the formentioned rain seems to downpour on Friday killing any chance I have to get out there. Tons of great feedback about the trail all over the place so I can't wait to get out there. Local guy Shaun, who finally seems to be getting his bike mojo back, and I plan to make a trip there Wednesday to pre-ride just in time before Saturdays race.



Then on the 16th is one of my favorite races, Rhetts Run. That trail is awesome. If rain kills it my back up plan is the Helbender Road Race on my cross bike.

Then on the 23rd is a super top secret race at a super top secret location that I can't speak of with a roster of riders that is super top secret too, I may have already said to much...... I'm sure a most excellent race report will follow, unless of course I am sworn to secrecy.....

In just a few min I'm out the door for what I hope to be a 100 mile weekend. Mix of gravel and road in store for today and I may find my way over and around the Vino Fondo route to see if I see any crazies are out that way. I think about 100 riders have signed up for the big ride that comes through Hermann.

Till next time....