Rain + Mud + Bike = Problems

It has been almost 2 weeks since Mud fest '11 and I am still working to get everything sorted out.  When the skies over Bear Paw opened up at noon (just in time for the Comp/Elite waves to go off) the rain did not let up and the course turned into a slippery slurry of mud that was nearly impossible to ride in.  When I spoke to riders in the waves before they said the mud was shedding of the tires instead of sticking to them and there was still some traction out there. They were right about the tires staying clean, but my tires just did not have the tread to ride many of the technical areas of the course.  I decided to just take it easy on the course and have fun with it.  Riding was a blast, but the aftermath was pretty ugly:

 

I was covered head to toe with mud, but worse was my bike (especially the drive train).

Thankfully they had a hose on site so I was able to get most of the mud off right away.  In fact, my bike got its bath before me!  When I got back home, I made sure that I got everything dry and put some more lube on the chain.  Unfortunately, I did not pay enough attention to the BB, because when I got around to pulling it apart the bearings had seized and the chain had a new bright orange sheen to it.  Better yet was the fact that I made this discovery yesterday and Sheboygan is now only 2 days away. 

This morning I was pleased to call Jeff at JB to find out that he has exactly the BB I need in stock, so I will be taking a detour up to Green Bay tonight to get it replaced and hopefully have the bike ready to roll for SheVegas.  If not, I am picking up the trusty Epic from my parents as a backup.  Although Green Bay is a long distance from Milwaukee, I am happy to make the drive up on such short notice. 

Why?  I have yet to find a shop like JB (and many of the other Green Bay area shops) that takes care of it customers and provides Service with a Smile!  Out of all the shops I have tried in Milwaukee including W@#$%&S*()& and C$@%k D@**%s, I have yet to find a shop that is friendly to its customers and does not judge them based on what they look like or what they buy.  So Kudos to Jeff at JB and any other shops who take care of their customers, your service keeps customers like me loyal to your shop(s).

-Andy

Too Much Power!

Been a while since the last post, but I figured this was worth a post on its own.  I got out for what was supposed to be a 30 mile ride around Holy Hill.  About 15 minutes in I was climbing a short hill and started to hear a clanking from the rear of my bike.  I thought it was just some slack in the chain making noise, so I kept on climbing.  The noise got worse and I was feeling some tension in the rear wheel so I decided to investigate.  It was pretty obvious that I blew a spoke, but less obvious was what happened since the spoke remained in tact.  A little more investigation showed that one of the flanges on the hub cracked and pulled away allowing the spoke to escape!

 So unfortunately the wheel was not ride-able and I had to walk/wait for a ride to get back home.  Now I am just hoping that this is covered under warranty!  Next up will be some TLC and cleaning of my mountain bike after last weekend's race (also known as pushing the bike through mud all day) and getting ready for the last race of WORS in Sheboygan!

-Andy

Work In Progress

Been a while since my last post so I figured I should get one out here.  I'm finally getting settled into the new place in Franklin and am really liking the area.  Work has been incredibly busy which has made working out and riding difficult on good days.  The transition to a desk job has been tough for many reasons, especially dealing with the temptation to eat and drink the free snacks at work.  It is clear that I am burning fewer calories now compared to 10 months ago, when I was walking around on campus and always on the go. 
More recently, I have been working to get into a rhythm of working out and eating a better diet to try and shed some of the excess weight gained over winter.  Part of this motivated me to write an article for the company newsletter about the dreaded "off-season" and working out in winter (I may try to post an abridged version here).  I have been getting a good 1-2 hours of working out after work 3-4 nights a week and am really trying to get those numbers more consistent as spring is coming fast.  My workouts have included a lot of weight lifting and I have been doing much more cross-training than in years past.  I really want to strengthen my knees to the point where I can go for a run and not have pain for the next 2 weeks.  Hopefully, the weights will help me with some of the power and positioning problems I had last year as well. 
Looking ahead to this year's season, I am very excited, though not sure what to expect.  I will have a lot of weekends free, but I will need to make a lot of conscious decisions about when and where to ride and which races are going to take priority on my calendar.  This year it looks like I will focus primarily on the WORS series and will not be doing the Iceman although it is a lot of fun.  The jury is still out on the other races around the area, so we will see where the year leads.  I know that I want to race Comp again this year and am hoping that I will be more prepared for the races than before.  The one thing I know for certain is that I am happy to be riding with the Titletown Flyers again this year and am looking forward to seeing everyone back on the road.

-Andy

The Joys of Moving

I found it ironic that after my last post, the race in Franklin was rained out.  I can not imagine how much water the trails were covered in.  The good thing is that I was able to use that weekend to get a much needed head start on moving from my old place in Milwaukee to my new apartment not far away from Crystal Ridge in Franklin.  I am getting closer to having all of my stuff moved and unpacked with a little work to do in the kitchen and then moving my new couches from Green Bay down here to the new place.
The hardest thing has been finding time to get out for rides while moving and still working full-time.  The last three weekends have been spent unpacking, cleaning, and arranging everything in the apartment with almost no time spent riding.  Complicating matters is trying to find places to ride on the road especially due to the trail conditions at Crystal Ridge (wet).  Thankfully, I am getting into a rhythm now and have found a good route in the Menominee Falls area where there are lots of big hills (think Scray's Hill or bigger for those of you in the Green Bay area).  Maybe this change of pace will be just what my training needed for some much needed mid-season conditioning. 
This weekend will be the Reforestation Ramble back in the Green Bay area.  It sounds like Shawn is doing a great job again this year and will have a great course to ride on.  Not sure what my plans are for the race yet this weekend. Unfortunately, my rear wheel on the mountain bike is getting a lot of flats.  I sent it in to the shop to have it looked at - it looks like some sharp metal burrs, fused on the inside of the rim, were puncturing the tube even through two layers of a thick plastic rim strip!  If things are not all fixed, I will probably volunteer for the entire day and skip the race.
Should be an interesting week to see how everything will unfold.  More to come soon!


-Andy

Don't trust the weather man.

It has been a pretty busy month so far which always makes riding tough.  But I think I can say a second major reason has been working in rides when the weather is nice outside.  The forecast says sunny all day and into the night - what happens?  Rain.  The radar looks like rain and we get sunny and 75.  This month seems to have been especially bad in regards to forecast accuracy where the weather has literally been the exact opposite of the forecast.  So what does one do when cross-checking the weather between 3 sources is not working?  Plan rides opposite to what the weather says. 
This weekend offered a great opportunity to ride at Franklin, what better than to follow it up with a long road ride on Monday after work.  Check the forecast and everything looks great, especially given the rain and thunderstorms forecast for Tuesday.  While at work the weather was pretty nice all up until about 4:00 when clouds started moving in.  The forecast still says no rain for the night and the radar is inconclusive.  When I got home just after 5 I look at the sky and it says something very different from the forecast.  I look one last time at the computer and the radar shows green all around Milwaukee.  Decision time - ride with a chance of getting wet or take it safe and ride later.  Looking at the forecast for Tuesday, I saw rain predicted all day.  For some reason I decided to hold off on the ride and wait for Today. 
While the forecast said rain all day, and the radar seemed to agree, there was hardly a cloud in the sky.  Strangely, the forecast was finally changed to reflect the current conditions - Sunny and Gorgeous!  By 4:30 a few clouds rolled in making me worry about postponing the ride to today, but I stuck with my original plan to ride tonight.  I hit the road at about 5:30 and was greeted with some clouds in the sky, but by 6:00, the sky cleared up and the sun came out for some great riding weather!  After being graced with beautiful weather and a good 40 miles tonight, I am feeling refreshed to finally get a good ride.  I have also come to one conclusion - don't trust the weather man (in fact, sometimes you should do the opposite of what they say!)

Now to get some rest tonight and prepare for a fun race weekend in Franklin!

-Andy

Mid season check up (Whoops)

I figured I should at least get a quick post up to let everyone know that I am still alive...
I was going to put up an epic length recap, but after some thought on how long that will take to write (and to read) I will save the gory detail and give you all the abridged version. 
All the way back in May, I Graduated from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee with a major in Management of Information Systems.  Literally right after graduation (about 5 hours later) I was on a plane to Florida to attend the annual convention for SAP (a huge software company).  The conference was a cool opportunity that I was nominated to attend by the University.  I found out that I was only 1 of 8 other students from the US to attend this conference, which was pretty cool!  After that I have been working full time in Milwaukee at a consulting firm that deals with SAP so that conference was a big help. 
More recently, I found a new place to live in Franklin (just southwest of Milwaukee) and will start moving in there next week.  I have been trying to fit riding into my new schedule and now I just need to get into a good rythym.  Racing comp this year has been a blast so far.  I am finding the races to be very demanding, but very fun at the same time.  Not that getting lapped by other riders is a good thing, but seeing the pros fly by on the trail is pretty cool.  It really is motivating me to step up my game and get faster.  The races I have done so far have shown me a big gap in my training this year was strength.  I don't have the power I had last year and that is starting to hurt me a little in the races.  My plan is to try and incorporate some strength and power specific training into my routine and use my newly free weekends to get in some quality long rides.  I think today I am going to head out to Crystal Ridge in Franklin to ride the race course and get some good hill repeats in. 
In the meantime I will try to start updating with race pictures and more of the exciting things to come.


-Andy

Ready to Roll

I have now spent the last few months in what I will refer to as 'Top-secret Super-fast Training.' Some of this time has been devoted to preparing and riding my new weapon of choice- a 2010 Specialized Stumpjumper Expert 29'er.
Each week I have been trying to ramp up ride frequency and time as much as my schedule would allow (about 3 rides per week). The rest of the time has been spent in school, at work, and finding employment for after school. The good news is that I am nearing the end of my education and Graduation is nearing quickly. I have also taken a full-time offer at a local consulting firm which is going to begin shortly.
Given the huge time commitments to work, school, and other activities, my training is not where I would hope, but I am excited to start the season. This weekend marks race #1 in WORS 2010 and I will be doing my first race in comp, which should make for a painful, but interesting weekend. Tomorrow I will probably finish cleaning my bike and make sure it is in shape for the weekend when Don says "Gooooooo!" I am very excited for this year and I am happy to be racing with the Titletown Flyers on a new 2010 Specialized!
-Andy