2 weeks to go...

Well I am up to 26 nests and 14 days remaining! I am super busy and tired from all this running around, but still enjoying my fav birds in my fav city in my fav state (plus all the new arrivals like painted buntings)! I wish RC was here so we could run around having some fun - there is always stuff going on, but I can't stop myself from working. Snowball is bored cause his mom works all the time and he's ready to see his old friends (the finches) and from what I hear, some new friends (our first cardinal pair nesting in a bush by the deck - RC is trying to get a pic but keeps scaring her off! - I'll have to use my mega-lens when I return home). I finished my review for JWM - it was neat to do that, but also a big responsibility - I tried to do a really thorough job. Anyways, I am tired and ready for the long commute in 5:00 traffic - I have a Boo at home to entertain.

PS To RC - I like the top photo - you looked pooped!!!!!!!!

PEACE OUT

Brew Fest

This weekend some of my home town friends and I went to the Parkville Brew fest to sample some of the midwest finest microbrews. The event went from 1 to 5PM, $20 bucks to enter and all the beer you could drink from your 4oz tasting glass. It was a great time with probably 2000 people attending, I wound up running into alot of old friends I haven't seen in some time. We finally finished up about 2hours after the event was supposed to close since some of the brewers kept giving out beer, we hung around until it all ran out. My intention was to race the Joseph Sheehan road race on Sunday in Leavenworth but due to Saturdays festivities I didn't get out of bed until after the start of the race. I did end up getting a good long ride in later in the day because I couldn't find anything better to do, I found some cool new roads I had never ridden. The ride was uneventful except for a 3 legged dog that chased me for about a mile, this dog was huge and mean as hell, I would let him just about catch me and then take off again, this went on until he finally gave up. I didn't feel sorry for him at all because I figure he would probably have all four legs if it wasn't for his chasing habits. Not much going on for the next few weekends, Jenn will be back on May 16th and I have signed up for the State road race in Rolla on the 17th, the course is hilly and should suit me well.

Tennessee Weekend

This past weekend team mates Eric Tiffany, Tige Lamb, Chris Locke, Carolynn Locke & Christopher Locke traveled down to Ducktown TN for the Cohutta 100 mountain bike race. We were joined there by Chris' brother Joey and his friend Selby. The day we drove down the temp was in the 80s and sunny. We did a little pre-riding over the first 10 miles or so and found out what this race was going to be about, alot of climbing. The race starts at the Ocoee whitewater center, where the kayaking and canoeing events were held at the 1996 Olympics. The start of the race is at the bottom of the mountain and starts with a 3 mile climb up the mountain to the singletrack. We had an awesome cabin in the mountains that was fully furnished including a hot tub. The day before the race we finished pre-riding and picking up our packets and went back to the cabin to hang out and get our bikes and gear ready.

I had signed up for the 65 mile event while Tige, Chris & Eric were doing the 100. The night before the race a thunderstorm blew in and dumped a ton of rain, it also drove the temp into the 40s. We got up very early in the morning and headed to the start, it was still sprinkling off and on and pretty cold. The 100 started at 7am and my race at 7:15. I watched the start of the race which was neat because all the top endurance pros were there including Floyd Landis. For my race I decided my goals were top 50 (about 170-180 people in my race) and to finish before the top pros doing the 100, so I lined up about 1/3 of the way back planning to pace myself because there are some serious mountain climbs on the course. The race started off and we headed up the 3 mile 2000' climb, I felt good and moved up a bit but still throttled back not knowing what to expect. We hit the single track and I was in a group that stretched as far as I could see, we basically yo-yo'd in the group for about 15 miles of single track, I felt strong and wanted to move up but there was no way due to the traffic and we had started catching the back of the 100s pretty quick. We got off the muddy single track and hit the fire roads. This is where the climbing started and continued for about 4 hours, it was unbelieveable trying to ride on the deep gravel and mud up these climbs, they just kept going and going and the decents were super fast and sketchy so there was no real recovery. The single speed guys had to walk alot of the climbs and my high gear wasn't really moving me much fastser but I continued to put time on them. This course made the Oauchita Challenge course look like a cakewalk, the easiest sustained climb was at least as hard as Blow-Out moutain as far as grade and length. My legs felt super strong, I was fueling well and climbing awesome for me, I pushed the descents but took the turns a little cautious becasue if you went off the side, they probably wouldn't find you plus I had a hard time seeing because all of the mud being thrown in my eyes. I don't believe I was ever passed by anyone I didn't catch after we hit the 15 mile mark. I finally hit a point about mile 30 where I road alone for an hour or so with nobody in sight at all. I figured I was up near the front or I would be seeing more people. Ocassionally I would see a rider up front, grab another gear and catch them. Anyway I finally hit the single track with only one big climb to go and the course marshall told me I was in 17th place and a couple minutes later a local rider told me I had like 9 miles left, feeling great and surprised by my place I decided to let it rip and give everything I had. I passed several more riders and after a while figured out that the rider was wrong and I actually had more like 15 miles left. I finally headed down the final descent and passed one final rider, I was in no way going to let him catch me, so as I was pushing it, I came to the end of the trail and one last wet wooden bridge, I ended up losing it on the bridge and had the hardest wreck I have had in a long time. Along with the normal scratches I smacked my face hard on the rocks and busted my helmet up. I got up quickly but very dizzy and finshed the final mile strong. I finally finished in 5:57 and 23rd overall (the course marshall was wrong about my placing earlier but it gave me that extra push anyway). The results were just posted and it looks like I was 50 minutes off the winning time, I felt like I went too easy, if I had gotten into the single track ahead of the mid pack I could have finished top 15 or maybe better. My crashed left me pretty bruised and scratched but hopefully nothing worse, I have a rib on my LH side that hurts when I breath deeply, my guess is at worst that I cracked it mabye just a bad bruise but I was able to continue the rest of the weekends activities anyway.

The next day we all went down the Ocoee River to do some whitewater rafting, it was a blast but very cold, temps around 50, party cloudy and partly windy. My rib hurt quite a bit during this but it was worth it, we got some good pics that I will post later. After rafting we rode probably the best flowing single track I have ever seen, we raced a portion of this but it was muddy and I was in a pack so I didn't really get to enjoy it. We finally finished up and headed to dinner that night. We got up early the next day and headed home. I can't wait to hit the bed. This was a great weekend and a race, hopefully more trips like this are in my future.

Ouachita Challenge

This weekend Rich Anderson, Jeff Winkler, Brent (Ashley’s friend) and I headed down to Arkansas for the Ouachita Challenge 60 mi race. We left early Saturday morning planning on pre-riding the hardest part of the course, Blowout Mountain. The trip down was uneventful until about 60 miles from Hot Springs, BOOM!, there was a very loud bang from my truck and the transmission would not go into gear. I eventually got the truck to run in 3rd gear if I shifted the transmission manually. This event immediately put me in a sour mood and as we parked to pre-ride the muddy course I didn’t have the heart for the ride and broke off early for the truck. I ended up with a manually shifting truck for most of the rest of the trip.

We stayed in Hot Springs on Saturday night and had dinner with some friends from the area. That night in the hotel I could not sleep at all and I think I may have gotten 2 hours total but I don’t think there was ever more than 1 hour at a time, I also had not slept the day before for some reason so I was very tired on race morning.

Fast forward to the race…. Rich Anderson, Jeff Winkler, Brent and I lined up at 7:45 the day of the race for the riders meeting. As soon as we got up there a truck honked its horn and the whole group went off down the road. We made it maybe a mile or two until we all realized that we were in the start of the 80 mile guys. So after that warm-up we headed to the start of our race. The start went out pretty fast, there is around 10+ miles of pavement and gravel roads until we hit the single track. I stayed mid-pack trying to pace myself when I realized that a 50-100 yard gap had opened up between the top 35 riders and the rest. I worked my butt off to bridge up, Rich and Chris Locke seeing I was back drifted back to help bring me back up. The three of us then worked together on the road until the single track. When we hit the trails we were in a group of about 15-20 riders, I couldn’t believe it but immediately these guys started walking on the slightest uphill, rooty or rocky sections. Eventually Chris, Rich and I moved through the entire group and we began to set a pretty good tempo and started to shed riders. A couple of miles before Feed 1, Rich and I started pulling away from the rest, we eased up a few times to let Chris catch up thinking maybe we were pushing too hard. Rich and I both felt great. Then I realized that my rear was flat. I rode for about 10 minutes or so on the flat until feed 1. When I got to the feed station I pumped the tire up thinking that the Stans would seal up, WRONG. I then was working to bridge back up to Rich and Chris on a 5-6 mile asphalt section. I finally caught Chris but was having trouble keeping up, I then realized I was flat again. So I stopped and put tube #1 in. This took some time, I couldn’t get the damn Maxxis tire to go back on my new wheels and since I didn’t bring my CO2, I had to use my very small hand pump (I bought the smallest on I could find). After 10+ minutes I was back in business for a short while. By now I was probably 15 minutes off pace with my flat and long pit stop (they didn’t have a pump handy at feed 1 and had to find one). I hit the next single track and I was trying again to make up time when I pinch flatted my rear on the rocky stuff, there was tube #2 and another 10 minutes. Back in business again and very discouraged I pretty much just put in a good pace and started to enjoy the nice views. Just before Blow-Out mountain and after feed 3, there was a big creek crossing in the fire road. On the other side of the creek was a concrete shelf that I didn’t see and I jammed my rear wheel on this and there goes my next flat. This time I had no tube and just sat down at the beginning of Blow-out mountain, after 5+ minutes and asking 10 or so riders if they could spare a tube a guy finally gave me one. At this point I was ready just to ride back via the roads and quit, but I was so pissed off that I just took off up Blowout mountain like it was the only section of the race. I rode all rideable sections in my middle ring, I must have passed 40 riders on this hour long climb. I reached the top exhausted and flew down the backside into feed 4, I got word from our friends that Rich had left 31 minutes prior with Chris a couple back. I figured what the hell, one more climb and I was good because the last 8 miles were all roads. Remembering what Jeff Winkler told me “Think of the finish as 8 miles from the end of the race”, which was the top of the last big climb, I gave everything I had. I finally ended up on the roads completely wasted. I caught up to several riders and then finally ran into a Team Seagal rider that we raced against at Spoke Pony. We sat and BS’d for the last 6 miles and rode in together. In the meantime at least 5 riders past me, I figured I was so far back that these guys didn’t matter. My goals were top 50 and under six hours, I finished 51st and 5 hours 45 to 50 mins. If I would have pushed the fire roads I would have had top 50. In the end Jeff Winkler won the race in 4hrs 29 mins(some slight controversy, the solo leader took a wrong turn a few miles before the finish) , Rich was 31st I think and 3hrs25min. Chris was around 38th or so and 5 mins behind Rich, and finally me 20-25 mins behind Rich and Chris.

My new Anthem worked great, not one single problem outside the flats. I didn’t mention that the course was a mud pit so the bike was completely covered, the drive train sounded like crap the last 20 or so miles and I will have to replace my chain. Hopefully I can have a good strong ride without problems in two weeks at the Cohutta 100, 65 mile race.

greetings from the south

Just wanted to post a quick update. I've been in Austin for a month now. Today I found my 4th nest! I am still behind where I should be though, but that is not my only job here and therefore I got a late start with the search. My 1st nest is now in incubation - I saw my girl sitting so cutely on her nest today for the 1st time. I will be setting a camera on her nest soon! Basically I am eating, sleeping, dreaming warbler these days, so other than birds I have not done much. Randy and I had fun on our adventures while he was down. I was asked to review a manuscript today - my 1st time so I'm excited about that!!!

Hasta luego!

Giant Anthem 0

I picked up my new mountain bike from The Wheel Cyclery yesterday after work. Heather spent some time with me setting the bike up for my weight and geometry. I left work early to pick the bike up and went straight to the Smithville Lake trails, I am racing the Ouachita Challenge 60 mile race this weekend and figured I better put it through the motions because the weather called for rain in KC the next few days and I might not get another chance to ride before my race. My first impressions were that the bike is fast, I never realized how much the shot suspension in my old bike was draining pedal power, when I turn the pedals around on the Anthem, I felt like almost all of the energy pushed the bike foward, especially in the climbs. My old GT would bob pretty bad as I pedaled, sapping up alot of energy. The first lap I had a hard time controlling the bike in the rocky sections, until I figured out the front Fork was locked out and the tires had 50+ psi in them from the shop. My usual hard training laps at Smithville are around the 56 minute mark, I rode my first lap in 53 mins and this is including an additional 1/2 mi of trail they just added. I was very surprised at my time, I didn't really feel like I was pushing that hard. I need to make a couple of changes tonight, the riser bars and the steep stem angle made me feel like I was sitting upright, my bars are actually higher than my seat, I am used to a much more aggressive position. The bike also didn't come with tubeless tires, go figure you buy a higher end bike with Crossmax SLs and you gotta immediately switch out the tires. The seat aslo beat my rear end to death, I will have to put my old seat on the new bike. I ended up riding just over 3 hours and by the end I had to pull off from Chris Locke and Dan Gierer due to my rear hurting, plus it was getting near 8PM and I was hungry. Anyone looking for a brand new Race Face Carbon riser bar or a new WTB saddle let me know.......