Ruby Campground

So I've been reading a lot of posts about the race this past Sunday and it reminded me that I haven't posted in a while.

First of all, yes, the river was high, but not as high as everyone wants to tell you. I was 5 for 10 on the crossings. I just couldn't make the first one, though I was close by the end of the race.Second of all, I am slow right now. Really slow. I didn't do this race last year, but my lap times this year were anywhere from 1 to 4 minutes slower from 2 years ago!

Third, my bike frame's design really sucks when it the conditions are nasty- literally. I had fatal chain suck throughout the race, which forced me to walk up a lot of hills, which was frustrating. [This is not an excuse, just something else that happened in the race- I admit I am slow]

I got 11th out of 12. I previously thought I got DFL, but it turns out one guy didn't finish, so that's a plus (though he was definitely on his way to beating me).

Team BCB had a pretty good showing, despite my last place finish. Kelly won her class, giving her her third win of the year in three races, and Steve posted a 5th place in Expert/Elite SS.
It was actually the most fun I have ever had at Ruby Campground, especially when I got lots of cheers for riding across the river since everyone else was running. We went to a graduation party afterwards and Kelly said "We should all wear our medals...[pause]...oh, sorry Nick."

24 Hours of Boyne!

Once again, we all chose to inflict pain on ourselves for 24 hours straight. It was awesome.

Team Sofa King Fast once again prevailed, winning by one lap in a hard fought and very close battle. Nice job to Cory, Sean, Neal, and John for coming in second. Don't feel bad, Sofa King Fast is just the reigning champions at 24 HOB.
This year included the key addition of Kelly. She got some good training in the couple weeks before the race and rose to the challenge. Her fastest lap was 1 hour and 2 minutes, which is 28 minutes faster than she rode it just a week before. Her speed also proved helpful in that it has pushed Mr. B to speed his laps up in a little competition between the two of them. His fastest was 1 hour 3 minutes, much improved from his lap times last year.

Having a fourth team member was very luxurious and it gave Mike and me the ability to produce more consistent and faster laps. Mike's fastest was a 41 (officially 42) and my fastest was a 43. We were both able to beat our times from last year by about 2-3 minutes. Looks like next year Mr. B and Kelly will be pulling out 50 or sub- 50 laps and Mike and I might dip under the 40 mark.

Mike toughed out 11 laps, I managed 9 and Mr. B and Kelly both killed 4 to give us a total of 28 laps, which ties our total from last year.

Even though all of us had our usual doubts and gastrointestinal problems in the pre-dawn hours, it was a very enjoyable experience and (I can't believe I'm saying this already) I can't wait for next year.

Congratulations also to Steve for winning the solo single speed class with 17 laps. He did the most laps of any individual (but not really, according to the race promoter). Steve was back on form and able to have a great race because he had the tatoo sleeve again.

And of course, a big thank you goes to our always awesome pit crew Caroline, Mrs. B, and Melissa for staying up all night and feeding us and waking us up, and listening to us complain.

First Race of the Year

Sunday, Steve and I were up in Plainwell, MI for a nice MTB TT at Yankee Springs. Luckily, I wasn't expecting much from myself because of my new training plan. I have not done really intensity work yet this year so I can build a proper base in order to not die in the fall.

So, I felt good, but not fast. First of all, they started us every ten seconds, which is absurd for an Elite TT, but whatever. I got passed in the first couple miles by my ten second guy. Then my 20 second guy came, then 30 second guy, and so on. I got passed by a lot of people.

I ended up getting 22nd out 27. Pretty bad but oh well. I was ten minutes down on the leader. It just means I have plenty of work to do before Boyne next month.

But the real reason I did the race can be seen below...
Got the free pint glass!

March

Eh.

That's kind of what March was to me. There was some good riding, but there was also some boring riding. I was able to get out on the trails once in March, so that was nice, but all the road riding is starting to get to me.

Overall, I logged 38 hours and 564 miles over March. Fairly respectable. Not awesome.

I did the two home races (circuit and ITT), but it was more just for fun. I know everyone says that, but for those of you who know me, my legs were not shaven, so that will tell you how serious I was about the race.

Right now, with snow on the ground, the trails will be another week or so before they are rideable again, so I have a little more drudging to do on the road bike to be ready for Yankee Springs in a week and a half.

Road Racing?

Yesterday I hosted my 10th and 11th races as the Michigan Cycling president. I wasn't planning on participating in either because the weather outlook was actually pretty bad. I ended up doing both.

Many people were surprised to see me in a road bike race, especially after I had told everyone I wasn't racing, but I actually had fun. The weather turned out to be pretty nice for the circuit race and there were only 16 B racers, so I didn't feel like there was a great amount of danger in giving it a go. For this race I just stayed with the pack the whole time, until the end when all the accelerations came. MTBing doesn't have those accelerations except at the beginning, so I have never been able to hold on to those, so I ended up getting 12th.
For the TT, it started drizzling, but it wasn't so bad, so I decided to do this as well. I ended up being the last rider to go out, and about halfway through, it really started pouring. It was very fun though. Because of the rain and because my TT bike doesn't have real brakes, I took the really steep downhill way too slow, which cost me a bit of time. I ended up getting second, though, by 13 seconds. I am pretty happy with that, and I still think I am right about on schedule for my training plan.

Next race is on real bikes on April 19th at Yankee Springs. Should be nice and demoralizing, as I will be making my Elite debut (again).

Heading to Montana for the Weekend

Tomorrow I leave for Montana for the weekend for grad school interviews. My weekend is going to be packed with meetings with professors and tours and such. Saturday we are going to spend the day at yellowstone. Unfortunately, the packed schedule leaves no time for riding out there. Maybe later.

I probably won't have much access to a computer but if you actually care what I am doing, you can check it out at http://twitter.com/NickWBB.

Spring Break

So I guess this post is kind of mandatory. But I think it will be a bit of twist on the normal. Because yes, we rode more than 250 miles in the week, climbed mountains until it hurt to walk, and did six gap century and climbed Brasstown Bald, but we also actually had fun, so I am going to write about that.

First off, we did NOT get to go to Brother's Restaurant after our drive all through the night because they didn't open until 11 am this year, so we went to Waffle House instead. It was not good. Brother's really let us down...at least I thought so. Everyone else seemed to be smiling (at least fake smiling).On Sunday, we rode to Graham's cottage about 20 miles away where his parents had a BBQ for us. The cake they had for desert was absolutely amazing. On Monday, after the century, we ate at the local Mexican restaurant in Helen (La Cabana). I decided to have a nice [big] Margarita for my hard work of the day.

The rest of the week was filled with lots of riding, playing Rock Band, team meetings where every word I said was sarcastically analyzed by the whole team (especially by Mattison and Ken), and haircuts for some members of the team (Sean and his rat-tail, Cory and his way too short hair, and Mattison and his mullet). On Wednesday, we made our way down to Helen to check out the rock shops. We found a bar and all enjoyed a nice pint of local Hef-Weizen (some had other beers and of course Zachariah had his gluten free frou-frou drink).

Thursday some people went to Atlanta to check out the Aquarium, I decided to go hiking with a couple other guys, which was a very nice change from the norm (not riding)- though my legs didn't like it as much after climbing to the highest point in GA the day before.
Those of us that didn't go to Atlanta visited Cleveland that night for our yearly dinner at Ma Gooch's. I have a picture of the place just in case you don't believe it is it's actual name. That was some good country cookin'. I even tried some fried Okra with my Fried Chicken and they were absolutely amazing. I felt like a Country Boy.The drive back was pretty fun, too. We stopped at UNO for lunch and had a waiter that admitted to having too many Red Bulls and actually told Josh multiple times that he looks like a serial killer. I tried the UNO amber ale, which actually paired so well with the pizza I had that I am pretty sure it is the best food and beer pairing I have ever had...perhaps even better than at Grizzly Peak.