Hey, just wanted to give a quick update - the power meter is working again. I had some issues on a ride a few weeks ago where it all the sudden just stopped working. I tried new batteries, then tried another set of new batteries.
Got ahold of customer service (who were awesome by the way), and they sent a new battery cradle. Tried it out yesterday and it worked. Fantastic!
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.
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Hibernator 100
I should have done a better job capturing pictures from Saturday's ride, but I was too busy just enjoying the day on the bike.
I rode the 100k version of the Hibernator 100, based out of Laona, WI. Small gravel grinder ride put on by some locals. It was friggin fantastic.
The route was all gravel/dirt, forest road type roads. I chose to ride the scalpel - I hemmed and hawwed back and forth between the caadx with 35c Sammy Slicks and the Scalpel in normal MTB setup (2.25 Ardent Front and 2.1 Racing Ralph rear). I'm glad I chose what I did as the gravel was not super packed for most of the course. It would've been quite doable on the caadx but would have required a bit more concentration and line choice. I wanted to just go and ride.
The scalpel is a great bike. It's light, obviously I would've preferred at least a hardtail but with the lockout on for both shocks it was fine. Plenty comfortable for the 61mi I ended up with an no issues keeping up for speeds I was wanting to go.
I think for my next ride like this though I'm going to put some wider tires on the caadx. I'm thinking something in the 40-42c range would be great, probably I'd set them up tubeless also. I've gotta do some research on what tire size could fit in to my frame and then within that size what tires to choose. I found myself missing the extra hand positions the woodchipper bars would give me and the efficiency of the cross bike versus the FS 29er would be helpful.
Next up my plan is to just get as much time on the bike as I can the next few weeks. Iceman is in about a month and I want to be able to hammer as hard as I can for the whole 30mi. I don't know how well it'll go being in one of the later waves (my first Iceman) but I'm going to give it my best shot. That'll be another one to wonder about bike choice but I'm 95% sure I'll end up on the scalpel again.
I rode the 100k version of the Hibernator 100, based out of Laona, WI. Small gravel grinder ride put on by some locals. It was friggin fantastic.
The route was all gravel/dirt, forest road type roads. I chose to ride the scalpel - I hemmed and hawwed back and forth between the caadx with 35c Sammy Slicks and the Scalpel in normal MTB setup (2.25 Ardent Front and 2.1 Racing Ralph rear). I'm glad I chose what I did as the gravel was not super packed for most of the course. It would've been quite doable on the caadx but would have required a bit more concentration and line choice. I wanted to just go and ride.
The scalpel is a great bike. It's light, obviously I would've preferred at least a hardtail but with the lockout on for both shocks it was fine. Plenty comfortable for the 61mi I ended up with an no issues keeping up for speeds I was wanting to go.
I think for my next ride like this though I'm going to put some wider tires on the caadx. I'm thinking something in the 40-42c range would be great, probably I'd set them up tubeless also. I've gotta do some research on what tire size could fit in to my frame and then within that size what tires to choose. I found myself missing the extra hand positions the woodchipper bars would give me and the efficiency of the cross bike versus the FS 29er would be helpful.
Next up my plan is to just get as much time on the bike as I can the next few weeks. Iceman is in about a month and I want to be able to hammer as hard as I can for the whole 30mi. I don't know how well it'll go being in one of the later waves (my first Iceman) but I'm going to give it my best shot. That'll be another one to wonder about bike choice but I'm 95% sure I'll end up on the scalpel again.
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.
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Wow, I forgot to post a Mt. Borah Epic race report
I'll get back to that a bit later, I have been in a riding lull recently with a good ride about once per week happening. Some have been able to be a hair longer but mostly they are short one loop type rides. I've been happy to see my speed coming up but my endurance has obviously suffered from a lack of total time on the bike.
Next race is the Red Earth Classic on July 18th.
So many things to prep and get ready, I need to get to work on the bike, get some rides in, and on top of that the week of the race I'm up in the UP for vacation. I hope to ride some up there but I will have to see what I can pull off.
Next race is the Red Earth Classic on July 18th.
So many things to prep and get ready, I need to get to work on the bike, get some rides in, and on top of that the week of the race I'm up in the UP for vacation. I hope to ride some up there but I will have to see what I can pull off.
Thursday, May 28, 2015
Race week!
So while I haven't been riding much the rides I have had have been faster than my historical. I am geared up for a fun Mt. Borah Epic on Saturday and while I am not certain I'll feel great the whole race (I probably won't) I am really excited to get out and see if I can beat last year's time.
Last year I did the race after a week-long binge in Canada (annual guys fishing trip). This year for a few reasons I didn't go on that trip. Even though I havent' trained as much as last year I feel like I may be better off considering how out of sorts I was during that race.
Bike is prepped, tonight I pack to get the family going to Duluth tomorrow. I'll drive down to Cable and back on Saturday so we can spend the weekend with the family in Duluth. Should be fun!
Last year I did the race after a week-long binge in Canada (annual guys fishing trip). This year for a few reasons I didn't go on that trip. Even though I havent' trained as much as last year I feel like I may be better off considering how out of sorts I was during that race.
Bike is prepped, tonight I pack to get the family going to Duluth tomorrow. I'll drive down to Cable and back on Saturday so we can spend the weekend with the family in Duluth. Should be fun!
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