So it's been a few weeks but I took a trip up to Sandy Ridge here near Portland in April. I did not know at all what to expect but had heard the trails were some of the "must do" trails in the area.
Since it's been a couple weeks I'll save a lot of the detail. In short it's a 3.5mi road climb, paved. This gets you up to the top of the trail system and a kiosk that is laid out nicely to give access to any of the trails up there. There are a good variety from pretty hard stuff to easier flowier stuff. The difficulty of any of it I rode was generally driven by how fast I was looking to go.
Since the trails were mostly downhill from the top, I dropped the seat on the Scalpel and gave it a rip. The trails were super fun and being from Wisconsin pretty much like nothing I've had a chance to ride out there. It's a bit like trails in Marquette, MI or Duluth but the sustained downhill is much longer making it a ton more fun. I'm also in such awe of the trees and views out here, it's just so different from what we've been able to see locally.
Since it's been a couple weeks I'll hold off from uploading pics, gotta catch up on other things!
Showing posts with label cannondale. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cannondale. Show all posts
Friday, May 20, 2016
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
Iceman Cometh 2015
Next up was a trip to Michigan for the Iceman Cometh mtb race in/around Traverse City. I'd not done this one before but with it's size and how it looked like a good way to wrap up the mtb season I thought I should give it a shot. I signed up way back in February I think, it's been a long while.
The race is point to point which is probably how I prefer to ride when possible, I like it more than loops of the same trail over and over. The Mt. Borah Epic is similar in length to this one and I really enjoy that as well. This one is about 30mi and a lot of double track with a bit of singletrack mixed in. None of it is really difficult or technical compared to other stuff, the challenge is pushing hard and going as fast as you can. For me, with rides only about 1x a week this year it was going to just be how fast I can go without cramping up and slowing down.
I decided to head over early enough to pre ride the final parts of the course, that is where there is some singletrack, and also the finish loops all over the place and back on itself so it was nice to know where the actual line was. I ran into Ken, Mike, and Chuck when heading for my preride so I had some company.
After the preride I ended up figuring out where I was going to sleep for the night. I'd come with a tent, a sleeping bag, and that's about it. I figured at worst I'd just go to the national forest and get out somewhere and set up camp or even camp in the truck. I ended up slightly better being in a State Forest campground only about 2.5mi from the Rasho Rd parking lot. It was pretty much shut down for the season, I was one of only 3 people in camp. I set up the tent then went to pick up my packet and check out the expo. I grabbed firewood from a local place on the way back to camp.
Sleeping outside was great - I usually sleep pretty well when I camp. The fresh air helps, and the fact that it was pitch black by about 7-8pm meant I went to bed earlier than normal. It was cool, about 25-30 overnight but with my gear I was fine.
In the morning, I got up, went to the parking lot, geared up (in the warm truck), and then got on the shuttle to Kaskala. It was a short wait for the shuttle then a 45min or so ride. It worked out well to go this way as the truck now was at the finish so whenever I was done I could leave reasonably quickly (plan was to get home to GB that evening).
I was in wave 31, as you can imaine, starting with 30 waves of 150? riders ahead of you, many of which have done the race before means there were a lot of people to pass. I am not crazy fast but I definitely don't anticipate being in wave 31 for my start next year as the people who were year 2 and beyond that were in my wave were not people I ever saw after the start. I don't know how these people ride with all this gear on - jackets, hoodies, etc. I was pretty hot in just an under armor and jersey over it.
The course was very fun actually, double track for most with rolling hills. Not incredibly wide in most parts so while there were two tracks there was typically a "good" line and a "bad" one that was less traveled and usually covered in leaves. I'd get into those when it was time for a pass but there were times where there were stuff in the "bad" line that I'd choose to wait a bit before passing. I found that I was must faster down the hills than most people and that more often than not people were walking up all of the hills where I was able to ride them all minus one. The hill I didn't ride was due to a wall of 4-5 people wide walking up the hill so there was no way to keep riding it. I instantly cramped up when I got off the bike so it was excruciating to not be pedaling. This is typical and I just know that if I want to get rid of the cramps I need to be back on the bike and running a higher cadence than typical to get ride of them. That worked and I was back in business.
I ran my 1x10 setup with a 11-36 rear and 32t in the front. I felt like that gearing was good for where I was at but a few of the tough climbs I wanted a shorter gear. That's typically where I feel I am with the 11-36 in the back. Short rides I just muscle up the tough stuff but as rides get longer pushing that taller 32-36 granny gear wears my legs down more than I'd like. I will probably want/need to do something different before any longer stuff with big climbs.
I finished the race in a time under my goal of 3hrs, I was at 2:37. Lots of room to get faster but I was very happy with where I was at in the end given my training.
At the finish I felt great - bike worked amazingly well and while I was pretty spent I felt OK. I needed some cookies and I then headed back to the truck to get moving along towards home.
On my way home I stopped in Petoskey at Beards Brewery. An old rally buddy and his friend started a brewery a few years ago and I'd never checked it out. It was great, awesome brews, really good to catch up with Ben. I really recommend that anybody in the area heads over there.
The race is point to point which is probably how I prefer to ride when possible, I like it more than loops of the same trail over and over. The Mt. Borah Epic is similar in length to this one and I really enjoy that as well. This one is about 30mi and a lot of double track with a bit of singletrack mixed in. None of it is really difficult or technical compared to other stuff, the challenge is pushing hard and going as fast as you can. For me, with rides only about 1x a week this year it was going to just be how fast I can go without cramping up and slowing down.
I decided to head over early enough to pre ride the final parts of the course, that is where there is some singletrack, and also the finish loops all over the place and back on itself so it was nice to know where the actual line was. I ran into Ken, Mike, and Chuck when heading for my preride so I had some company.
After the preride I ended up figuring out where I was going to sleep for the night. I'd come with a tent, a sleeping bag, and that's about it. I figured at worst I'd just go to the national forest and get out somewhere and set up camp or even camp in the truck. I ended up slightly better being in a State Forest campground only about 2.5mi from the Rasho Rd parking lot. It was pretty much shut down for the season, I was one of only 3 people in camp. I set up the tent then went to pick up my packet and check out the expo. I grabbed firewood from a local place on the way back to camp.
Sleeping outside was great - I usually sleep pretty well when I camp. The fresh air helps, and the fact that it was pitch black by about 7-8pm meant I went to bed earlier than normal. It was cool, about 25-30 overnight but with my gear I was fine.
In the morning, I got up, went to the parking lot, geared up (in the warm truck), and then got on the shuttle to Kaskala. It was a short wait for the shuttle then a 45min or so ride. It worked out well to go this way as the truck now was at the finish so whenever I was done I could leave reasonably quickly (plan was to get home to GB that evening).
I was in wave 31, as you can imaine, starting with 30 waves of 150? riders ahead of you, many of which have done the race before means there were a lot of people to pass. I am not crazy fast but I definitely don't anticipate being in wave 31 for my start next year as the people who were year 2 and beyond that were in my wave were not people I ever saw after the start. I don't know how these people ride with all this gear on - jackets, hoodies, etc. I was pretty hot in just an under armor and jersey over it.
The course was very fun actually, double track for most with rolling hills. Not incredibly wide in most parts so while there were two tracks there was typically a "good" line and a "bad" one that was less traveled and usually covered in leaves. I'd get into those when it was time for a pass but there were times where there were stuff in the "bad" line that I'd choose to wait a bit before passing. I found that I was must faster down the hills than most people and that more often than not people were walking up all of the hills where I was able to ride them all minus one. The hill I didn't ride was due to a wall of 4-5 people wide walking up the hill so there was no way to keep riding it. I instantly cramped up when I got off the bike so it was excruciating to not be pedaling. This is typical and I just know that if I want to get rid of the cramps I need to be back on the bike and running a higher cadence than typical to get ride of them. That worked and I was back in business.
I ran my 1x10 setup with a 11-36 rear and 32t in the front. I felt like that gearing was good for where I was at but a few of the tough climbs I wanted a shorter gear. That's typically where I feel I am with the 11-36 in the back. Short rides I just muscle up the tough stuff but as rides get longer pushing that taller 32-36 granny gear wears my legs down more than I'd like. I will probably want/need to do something different before any longer stuff with big climbs.
I finished the race in a time under my goal of 3hrs, I was at 2:37. Lots of room to get faster but I was very happy with where I was at in the end given my training.
At the finish I felt great - bike worked amazingly well and while I was pretty spent I felt OK. I needed some cookies and I then headed back to the truck to get moving along towards home.
On my way home I stopped in Petoskey at Beards Brewery. An old rally buddy and his friend started a brewery a few years ago and I'd never checked it out. It was great, awesome brews, really good to catch up with Ben. I really recommend that anybody in the area heads over there.
Monday, November 23, 2015
Day trip to Marquette
I'm way overdue on writing this report up, but I wanted to get the pictures shared and also while I was at it just spew what I did. What I'm talking about actually happened on Oct 30th. It's been a heck of a year at work and I've not had much time to de-stress myself, so I decided that I'd take a vacation day and head somewhere to ride. I'd done this one other time this year when I did a trip to the kettles, but I figured on doing somewhere different. I considered Levis Mound but then did math and for only 15min more I could make it to Marquette. Sorry Levis, you'll have to wait for another trip.
I decided on a Friday, waited for weather forecast to come in, then made the trip. I loaded up for an early departure (5am I think) and headed up. Until it was light out it was a heck of a trip - tired, questioning what the heck I was doing, etc. Then, the sun came up as I was driving through the UP and I started to get happy. Leaves were still changing, it was a beatiful day (but cold), and it was going to be great.
For bike, I brought the scalpel. Loaded it up with a dropper post borrowed from DR, a Thomson. I am eyeing them up and happened to mention it to him, he was nice enough to let me borrow it. I loved it but more on that another time.
I chose to ride Marquette south for a few reasons - one is I haven't ridden there in summer, and two was it was the best spot I felt to ride all day, tire myself out, and then head home with a great variety of terrain to mess around with. I had ridden some of the trails in the winter during the 906 Polar Roll - actually quite a bit of it once I figured that out.
Trails I took were Carp Eh Diem, then Pioneer Loop, then did some Benson climbing to Eh Line and back up to Down Dogger. After that I took a quick break at the truck then did some of the blue loop. That was pretty challenging with the rocky terrain and being covered by leaves for most of the trail, but it was absolutely beautiful. I got a bit goofed up on the loop there but it was fun. I did the Grom loop too.
All in all, it was about 20mi, 2,300' of climbing. Great day and a good warmup for Iceman for my legs which have really not ridden more than 1x per week all summer long. I'm obviously not as fit as I have been in the past but I'm trying when I do ride to get longer rides in to keep endurance there.
I decided on a Friday, waited for weather forecast to come in, then made the trip. I loaded up for an early departure (5am I think) and headed up. Until it was light out it was a heck of a trip - tired, questioning what the heck I was doing, etc. Then, the sun came up as I was driving through the UP and I started to get happy. Leaves were still changing, it was a beatiful day (but cold), and it was going to be great.
For bike, I brought the scalpel. Loaded it up with a dropper post borrowed from DR, a Thomson. I am eyeing them up and happened to mention it to him, he was nice enough to let me borrow it. I loved it but more on that another time.
I chose to ride Marquette south for a few reasons - one is I haven't ridden there in summer, and two was it was the best spot I felt to ride all day, tire myself out, and then head home with a great variety of terrain to mess around with. I had ridden some of the trails in the winter during the 906 Polar Roll - actually quite a bit of it once I figured that out.
Trails I took were Carp Eh Diem, then Pioneer Loop, then did some Benson climbing to Eh Line and back up to Down Dogger. After that I took a quick break at the truck then did some of the blue loop. That was pretty challenging with the rocky terrain and being covered by leaves for most of the trail, but it was absolutely beautiful. I got a bit goofed up on the loop there but it was fun. I did the Grom loop too.
All in all, it was about 20mi, 2,300' of climbing. Great day and a good warmup for Iceman for my legs which have really not ridden more than 1x per week all summer long. I'm obviously not as fit as I have been in the past but I'm trying when I do ride to get longer rides in to keep endurance there.
Monday, August 10, 2015
Riding as therapy
For any of you that I know closely, you know work has been tough lately. It's been rough and time has been scarce to ride at all. I have been lucky to get out one day a week lately and when I do get out it's a squeeze. I was able to do one Friday night urban ride with a couple buds a couple weeks ago, then on Saturday I was fortunate enough to have Kris watch the kids so I could go on a ride down at the John Muir trails.
I haven't ridden down there for years, I was trying to figure out how long it's been and I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say it's probably been 10 years.
The trails were great. I got up super early to get on the road in time to ride and then drive back before dinner. I rode blue loop first, then came back and grabbed the fatbike for a loop on Orange then on Red(Brown?). After that, I exchanged the fatbike for the scalpel again, headed down the road to the Emma Carlin connector trail and rode that up and back. There was a race going on at Carlin so I didn't go around those loops, I'll save that for another trip.
It was one of those days where it's humid enough it feels like it could storm at any minute, but never does. It was wet - sticky, and hot enough for me. I left the trails pretty tired but mentally refreshed after a couple real ass kicker weeks at work.
What I need to do is keep finding ways to carve out that time to ride as it definitely lets me clear my head up quite a bit. Short rides help, trail rides help, commuting helps, anything. What I find is that riding a bike just does that for me. I just need to find more time to make that work out for me.
I haven't ridden down there for years, I was trying to figure out how long it's been and I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say it's probably been 10 years.
The trails were great. I got up super early to get on the road in time to ride and then drive back before dinner. I rode blue loop first, then came back and grabbed the fatbike for a loop on Orange then on Red(Brown?). After that, I exchanged the fatbike for the scalpel again, headed down the road to the Emma Carlin connector trail and rode that up and back. There was a race going on at Carlin so I didn't go around those loops, I'll save that for another trip.
It was one of those days where it's humid enough it feels like it could storm at any minute, but never does. It was wet - sticky, and hot enough for me. I left the trails pretty tired but mentally refreshed after a couple real ass kicker weeks at work.
What I need to do is keep finding ways to carve out that time to ride as it definitely lets me clear my head up quite a bit. Short rides help, trail rides help, commuting helps, anything. What I find is that riding a bike just does that for me. I just need to find more time to make that work out for me.
Saturday, August 1, 2015
Red Earth Classic 2015
So, the last race I did was the Red Earth Classic, up in Negaunee, MI on July 18th. I had signed up for the "Beast" 32mi race but ended up swapping mid-week the week prior to the 20mi "Loader" race. Two reasons - one is I haven't trained a ton, and two is my family vacation the week prior meant the family was going to be waiting for me to race. Instead of doing a race starting at noon that would take 3-4 hours I did one starting at 10 that took <2ish (can't remember my time already).
The race was great, the start was in the same park that I remember being around/near for the Ore2Shore start a couple years ago, and started immediately up a big hill of two-track dirt atv trail. Not enough roll-out to get the pack separated enough unfortunately but I guess that's how it goes. Basically, about 50% of the climing in the race came in the first 5 miles on two track that honestly was not too fun. Then we started alternating between singletrack and doubletrack for the remainder of the race.
My race went well, I was mid-pack as I'd expected but felt pretty good. I was happy to have gotten out there. I think the singletrack was fun, a bit tighter and not a ton of flowy sections like I'd hope for but it was mostly OK.
The race was great, the start was in the same park that I remember being around/near for the Ore2Shore start a couple years ago, and started immediately up a big hill of two-track dirt atv trail. Not enough roll-out to get the pack separated enough unfortunately but I guess that's how it goes. Basically, about 50% of the climing in the race came in the first 5 miles on two track that honestly was not too fun. Then we started alternating between singletrack and doubletrack for the remainder of the race.
My race went well, I was mid-pack as I'd expected but felt pretty good. I was happy to have gotten out there. I think the singletrack was fun, a bit tighter and not a ton of flowy sections like I'd hope for but it was mostly OK.
Friday, April 24, 2015
Hot lap, sick, then another lap
Last week Wednesday I finally got the bike out on dirt singletrack. It felt like it's been just too long!
I took the fatbike as my scalpel needed some love. I went to the Reforestation Camp, it always dries out faster than Baird's and it's a good place to run some baseline laps and get out there. It helps that it's only 10min from my house vs. 20min for Baird's.
Anyhow, the fatbike has always been and is fun for singletrack and it was fun to get out with the tubeless setup on summer tires on the bike. I ended up setting my fastest lap time for the green loop that I've done ever. I was kind of surprised as I didn't think I was really going fast enough to do that. As I got further into the ride though I knew it was a quicker lap than most I run so I tried to keep the pace up. It was a 54:3x lap which is good but my goal I think for this year is to get <50min. I think that's achievable but I need to really focus to do that. It is good to have a goal.
To get the Scalpel ready, I had to remount tires with new Stan's. I also took the chance to change out my cassette setup. Late last year I went to 1x10 with a 32t front ring and a 11-36 in the rear. I upgraded now so I've got a 42t bailout gear and added a 16t inbetween the 13 and 19 (I think). The goal there is to extend the cassette range a bit. After riding the XX1 setup all winter on the fatbike I knew I wanted more range than what I had.
So, went out yesterday for the first ride I've done in a long time on the Scalpel. It's so different from the fully rigid fatbike and has major advantages in some areas, but at the same time does not have advantages in others. For these local trails the full suspension is a waste, I can say I think the fastest I'd be is on a hardtail 29er with something like a 80-100mm front fork. When riding the fatbike I feel the bumps more (they aren't brutal) but any time the trail is rough downhill with turns I feel I give up a lot of speed. Those are the faster ones on the scalpel but it's hard to beat efficiency of a full rigid setup and the grip of the fatbike is great.
My lap yesterday was only about 25 sec slower than my lap last week. I was not really trying to be fast at the start of the lap so it was surprising to be in that range. I for sure am feeling the benefits of riding the fatbike all winter and also the power class. My legs feel significantly stronger than they did last year.
I took the fatbike as my scalpel needed some love. I went to the Reforestation Camp, it always dries out faster than Baird's and it's a good place to run some baseline laps and get out there. It helps that it's only 10min from my house vs. 20min for Baird's.
Anyhow, the fatbike has always been and is fun for singletrack and it was fun to get out with the tubeless setup on summer tires on the bike. I ended up setting my fastest lap time for the green loop that I've done ever. I was kind of surprised as I didn't think I was really going fast enough to do that. As I got further into the ride though I knew it was a quicker lap than most I run so I tried to keep the pace up. It was a 54:3x lap which is good but my goal I think for this year is to get <50min. I think that's achievable but I need to really focus to do that. It is good to have a goal.
To get the Scalpel ready, I had to remount tires with new Stan's. I also took the chance to change out my cassette setup. Late last year I went to 1x10 with a 32t front ring and a 11-36 in the rear. I upgraded now so I've got a 42t bailout gear and added a 16t inbetween the 13 and 19 (I think). The goal there is to extend the cassette range a bit. After riding the XX1 setup all winter on the fatbike I knew I wanted more range than what I had.
So, went out yesterday for the first ride I've done in a long time on the Scalpel. It's so different from the fully rigid fatbike and has major advantages in some areas, but at the same time does not have advantages in others. For these local trails the full suspension is a waste, I can say I think the fastest I'd be is on a hardtail 29er with something like a 80-100mm front fork. When riding the fatbike I feel the bumps more (they aren't brutal) but any time the trail is rough downhill with turns I feel I give up a lot of speed. Those are the faster ones on the scalpel but it's hard to beat efficiency of a full rigid setup and the grip of the fatbike is great.
My lap yesterday was only about 25 sec slower than my lap last week. I was not really trying to be fast at the start of the lap so it was surprising to be in that range. I for sure am feeling the benefits of riding the fatbike all winter and also the power class. My legs feel significantly stronger than they did last year.
Thursday, April 16, 2015
First real good week of outside riding
Sunday I did a ride on the Mountain Bay Trail, out/back with about 1hr out and a bit over that back. Ended up at about 33ish miles on the caadx. I love the new bars.
Last night I went mountain biking at Reforestation Camp, set a new PR for the green loop on the yampa which I was pretty excited about. That bike is fun but it beats me up a lot. I've gotta get the Scalpel all tuned up and ready to go for a bit more speed/comfort. It looks like my work over winter has paid off a lot.
Last night I went mountain biking at Reforestation Camp, set a new PR for the green loop on the yampa which I was pretty excited about. That bike is fun but it beats me up a lot. I've gotta get the Scalpel all tuned up and ready to go for a bit more speed/comfort. It looks like my work over winter has paid off a lot.
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
No more front derailleur!
So, I've now finally installed the narrow wide chainring up front on the scalpel, switching it to a 1x10. It's a 32t, I've got 11-36 in the back. Got a chance to ride it this weekend and it was good, just like I'd expected. I never really shifted out of my big ring on my local trails anyway so while I'm now at 32t vs 38t before it should be pretty workable most places.
I did some cross training stuff, a sparticus workout I got online Saturday morning. That pretty much shredded my legs, then rode on Monday morning. I underestimated how sore I was from the workout and am paying for it now. The good news is that I'll get stronger, the bad news is that it hurts.
I've been getting some pretty solid pedal strikes lately, found some wood in the pedal after the last ride and snapped a pic.
I did some cross training stuff, a sparticus workout I got online Saturday morning. That pretty much shredded my legs, then rode on Monday morning. I underestimated how sore I was from the workout and am paying for it now. The good news is that I'll get stronger, the bad news is that it hurts.
I've been getting some pretty solid pedal strikes lately, found some wood in the pedal after the last ride and snapped a pic.
Friday, August 29, 2014
Bike storage in the basement
It's been a slow riding week, not much to talk about. Evan is 4 weeks old now and doing fine, but he's sure switched our schedules on their heads.
I've been working a bit on my bike shop, thought I'd snap a picture of how far I got the bike storage over the weekend. It took a trip to Home Depot with Noah and some putzing, but I've got something usable. What I did was buy some cheap bullhorn bars from ebay, about $13/ea, and some really cheap stems, $3/ea. Put them together and I had something that can hold the bikes by the frames. Sure, I could've gone with a pre-made stand but not as fun and not as cool.
My only mistake so far is using pvc for the vertical - I need to replace that with some better pipe/tube that is more sturdy. That will be easy though and will make the whole stand pretty legit. Here's my man Noah with his measuring tape.
I've been working a bit on my bike shop, thought I'd snap a picture of how far I got the bike storage over the weekend. It took a trip to Home Depot with Noah and some putzing, but I've got something usable. What I did was buy some cheap bullhorn bars from ebay, about $13/ea, and some really cheap stems, $3/ea. Put them together and I had something that can hold the bikes by the frames. Sure, I could've gone with a pre-made stand but not as fun and not as cool.
My only mistake so far is using pvc for the vertical - I need to replace that with some better pipe/tube that is more sturdy. That will be easy though and will make the whole stand pretty legit. Here's my man Noah with his measuring tape.
Friday, August 15, 2014
Back on the Scalpel
Good ride this morning before work, did the same loop as Wednesday. Here's a shot from near the finish.Fun to get back on the "fast" bike and ride. I don't feel at my best, not sure if it's because it's like 5 am and I haven't eaten/warmed up when I ride that early, or maybe it's the time off the bike since the 100. Either way, I feel a bit rough. I've decided to work on speed this second half of the season where I can and I'm happy to say that I did a new PR on the loop, about 2min faster than my prior PR from earlier in the season. I haven't had a full good lap yet and I know I can do a lot of things better to get faster.
It's not just about speed, I have to remember that and just have fun. I want to be faster, no doubt about that, but I think I'd have a more fun ride if I just relax and maybe focus on a few things per ride rather than focusing on speed over a 10mi loop. That can be pretty deceiving, considering I could just hammer harder on the easy stuff, or maybe I'm really faster on the hard stuff. Anyhow, I have a couple parts of the trail that I want to drop a minute or two off of my times through them, I think that will be the focus now for a bit.
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