winter break

haven't been doing much riding at all, other than a 50 miler that ben mccall and I did a couple weekends ago through the northland. we even hit cornfield!

i'm gonna go for an exploration ride after writing this, stay tuned :)

here's the race schedule that kansas citians should look to do next year. no conflicting dates and all within 3 hours of the city. enjoy.

UFD-United Federation of Dirt
MWFTS-Midwest Fat Tire Series

3-28 Lawrence river Trails, UFD
4-11 God's Country Duathlon @ Lawrence River Trails
4-18 BoneBender 3/6 Hour Endurance, UFD
4-25 Neosho, MWFTS
5-1 Clinton Lake 3/6 hour endurance, MWFTS
5-8 St Joe, UFD
5-16 Columbia, MWTFS
6-6 Warsaw, UFD
6-12 Missouri States, UFD
6-20 Emporia, UFD
6-27 Perry, UFD
7-11 Springfield, MWFTS
7-25 Sunflower/Show-Me Games
8-8 Spanish Lake, UFD
8-14 Rapture in Misery 6/12 hour endurance, UFD
8-22 Crankfest, UFD
8-28 Cruise the Blues 5 hour endurance
9-4 Jeff City 3/6 hour endurance, MWFTS
9-12 Ark City, UFD
9-19 KC Cup, UFD
9-26 Knob Noster, MWFTS
10-19 Burning at the Bluff 3/6 hour endurance, UFD
10-23 Berryman Epic, MWFTS

lots of racing fairly close next year.

also, made a log of my work days/hours put in over the past couple years for ERTA...here is where I stand through today:

11-16-08 Kill Creek 3 hours
12-6-08 Stocksdale 4 hours
1-3-09 Landahl 4 hours
1-31-09 Blue River 4 hours
6-20-09 Blue-Swope Connector 5 hours
6-26-09 SMP-horse trail 4 hours
10-3-09 Blue-Swope Connector 4 hours
11-7-09 Swope 4 hours
11-8-09 Blue-Swope Connector 4 hours
11-21-09 WyCo 4 hours
12-6-09 Swope 3 hours
12-17-09 Swope 2 hours
12-18-09 Swope 3 hours

48 hours total at 8 different locations. And I don't own a car. get out and build trails that you like to ride, so you have more to ride!

peace and dirt!

United Federation of Dirt!

Official press release:

2010 United Federation of Dirt [UFD] Race Calendar
by scapstack on Fri Dec 18, 2009 10:41 am

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 18, 2009

2010 United Federation of Dirt [UFD] Race Calendar

KANSAS CITY, MO: We are thrilled to announce the 2010 United Federation of Dirt [UFD] race calendar. The UFD consists of a collective group of promoters, trail builders and racers unified in the goal of bringing dirt lovin’ good times to the Missouri and Kansas region.

For 2010, we are promoting 17 traditional cross country mountain bike races divided into two leagues. The Eastern League is comprised of 8 races and the Western League will be hosting 9 races. The Endurance League brings together 4 races focused on long distance and the ability for the human spirit to suffer. The events will take place on some the best singletrack that the region has to offer, including the ever popular Castlewood State Park, Spanish Lake, Wilson Lake, KS and newly minted Swope Park.

In addition to the 17 cross country races and 4 endurance races, we are pleased to announce the return of the Short Track Dirt Crit Series to the St. Louis area and the Kansas City region. These weekly training races will be the perfect way to keep the legs a moving and the body acclimated to racing on dirt.

And lastly, the UFD is proud to announce that these events will be under the sanctioning of USA Cycling. This is just the beginning of many exciting things to come for the 2010 season. We are still in the early planning stages and working to get all the pieces in place to bring you the best racing experience around. Look for more announcements soon…fun in the dirt is what it is all about.

United Federation of Dirt [UFD]

Contact: If you are interested in more dirt or would like to be a part of the federation, email us at: unitedindirt@gmail.com

Web: http://www.unitedindirt.com
Facebook: United Federation of Dirt
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/unitedindirt

2010 United Federation of Dirt [UFD] Race Calendar

Eastern League XC races:

March 14: Leadbelt XC. St. Joe Park (Mark Grumke)
March 28: Mesa Lost Valley Luau (Matt James)
May 8: *Greensfelder ( (DRJ Racing)
June 12: *Missouri State Championship. Castlewood (Big Shark/Pfoodman)
June 27: St.Charles County Parks (Ghisallo Sports)
Aug 8: Trailblazer Blitz. Spanish Lake. (Trailblazer Bikes)
Aug 22: Cyclewerx Crankfest. Cape Girardeau, MO (Cyclewerx)
Sept 25: *Council Bluffs (ICCC)

Alpine Shop Short Track Dirt Crit Series– 7/1, 7/8, 7/15, 7/22, 7/29. Dirt Crit Final Blowout XC race - 8/1

Western League XC races:

March 28: Lawrence River Trails. Lawrence, KS (Curtis Martell/Free State Racing)
May 1/2: Wilson Lake Fat Tire Festival. Wilson Lake, KS. (Doug Chambers/Golden Belt)
May 8: *Robidoux Roundup. Krug Park. St. Joseph, MO. (Randy Tracy/Craig Hoppe)
June 6: The Down and Dirty. Warsaw, MO (Mac Vorce)
June 20: Cramp Alexander. Emporia. KS. (Matt Brown/High Gear)
June 27: Crocodile Rock. Perry Lake State Park. Perry, KS. (Lyle Reidy/HSP/Bad Goat Racing)
July 25: Sunflower State Games (Curtis Martell/Free State Racing)
Sept 12: Tour De Lizard. Arkansas City, KS (Bobby Smith)
Sept 19: Kansas City Cup (Federation Championship). Swope Park. Kansas City, MO. (Ron Acklin/HSP)

Short Track Dirt Crit Training Series –Thursday Nite Throwdown: June-August Timeframe

Endurance League ( Dirt Lovin Good Times style format ):

April 18: Bone Bender 3/6 MTB Odyssey. Smithville Lake. Smithville, MO (Chris Locke/Cow Town Cycling)
June 5: *Dirty Kanza 200 [DK200]. Emporia, KS (Jim Cummins/HSP)
Aug 14: *Rapture In Misery [RIM] 6/12. Crowder State Park. Trenton, MO (Doug Long/HSP)
Oct 9: *Burning at the Bluff (Mesa Cycles)
* Saturday race date
**The above dates and venues are subject to change due to events beyond our control.
** In addition to the dates listed above, we are also working on scheduling apx 2-3 rain dates into the calendar.

2010 race season coming together real nicely...

here's some events already on tap for next year:

Chuckies Challenge Gravel Grinder
Saturday-February 6th-Jamesport. Missouri

HIlls of Hell--Lawton, OK
March 6 & 7

Oauchita Challenge
March 28 & 29

24 Hours of Syllamo-Ozark National Forest
April 10 & 11

8th Annual God's Country Off-Road Duathlon
April 11, 2010
Lawrence River Trails, Lawrence, Kansas
2 Mile Trail Run
12-14 Mile Mountain Bike (depends on course conditions if we get to use the full loop).
2 Mile Trail Run

Bone Bender 3/6 Hour MTB Odyssey
April 18, 2010
Smithville, Missouri
Rain date (May 15, 2010)

2010 MidWest Fat Tire Series Schedule
April 25th - Tour de Tick, Neosho MO
May 1st - Ride with the Devil 3/6 hour race, Clinton Lake KS
May 16th - Rhett's Run, Columbia MO
July 11th - OMBA Caramba, Springfield MO
July 25th - Show Me State Games, Columbia MO
September 4th - Tall Oak 3/6 hour race, Jefferson City MO
September 26th - Possum Hollow Trail, Knob Noster State Park MO
October 23rd - Berryman Epic, Steelville MO

:) more to come...

more riding on tap

last week was pretty much a wash for riding, considering it was the last week of the semester, and it decided to snow and be like 5*. Mason still came up this weekend again though.

Saturday we opted for stocksdale, to avoid the thawing southside and miss the slippery rocks/roots of other trails. Great time riding everything they had, first one way, then the other. 2 laps in about an hour, not the greatest, but considering the conditions (sloppy/melty snow) we were tearing pretty good.

sunday we were gonna freeride, then we decided that road riding with the colavita team at 1 pm might be fun. so we chilled until then and showed up about 20 min early. 4 other fellas showed up, all sporting the carbon fully-geared roadsters, while mason and i were on the single speed mtb's. needless to say, we folled them literally 4 blocks then veered to mccoys for about a 3 hour beer detour. whiskey shots and pitchers were had and a good swervy ride home. very nice.

i just took my middle american geography final. have a women's studies final in about an hour to take. already done with spanish and environmental conservation. statistics final thursday morning. I'm gonna go to l-town tonight with mason and stay there until wednesday evening to do some river trail riding/chill at home.

Mason and I have decided that we want to be highly competitive in the racing next season, so more rides at higher intensity are on tap. shit.

and new BB7's are on their way for my rasta 29r. thank god! i need new brakes horribly bad. the duct tape just isn't cutting it anymore.

peace and dirt!!!

blowing off school

as I sit here and type this I have the following to do: 5 page research paper for Middle American Geography, which I haven't started research on, a hw assignment due at 2 pm for stats, a 13 minute spanish skit tonight, a 4 page analysis for women's studies due tomorrow morning, a 4 page spanish composition due wednesday, spanish grammer homework and my spanish final is wednesday evening.

so....what did I do this weekend instead of being smart? I rode of course :)

saturday, Mason and I hit up Landahl again. Tasty all the way down, then the lollipop, then doubletrack all the way through the scoutcamp/west side back to Argo, where we met up with Phil, Ben, Matt and Matt. Dropped back in, did Will's out, Dave's up to family, family/offshoots back to Rim job, rim job back to the argo trail head. doesn't seem like a lot, but we stopped a few times to play on obstacles/watch people fall down. good ride with good people.

sunday Mason and I were both feeling the day before so we opted for trail work then a ride. got out to swope phase 3 and did some fine bench cutting and crib walling, then rode everything at swope for around an hour before the rain came when we were back on 8 pins. needless to day, 30* rain will get you moving pretty quick, so we hightailed it back to the car. we ended up riding all the phase 3 stuff that's been worked on, some hiking trail, wudchuck run/8 pins/rancho deluxe, then doubletrack through the top of the camp back to the car. basically the KC Cup race loop in reverse with a couple secret spots I can't mention.

now I'm writing this instead of doing the prior list of schoolwork. procrastination at its finest :)

peace and dirt!!!

double secret probation!

LET'S MAKE THIS HAPPEN!!!

RESPONSE REQUESTED.

Gentlemen-

Hope you all had a fabulous holiday and got fat and happy. I wanted to touch base with you all regarding something that has been tossed around for the past several months….. a MTB Short Track Training Series. This conversation really started brewing during the KCCUP prep and the more we looked at the future of Swope, we felt we could have the perfect course and venue to try and get this off the ground. Couple that with the RESURGENCE of MTB XC racing and you have the perfect mix.

Before we jump into Short Track…I wanted to bring you all up to speed on XC racing. HSP along with a core group of promoters from STL have been working tirelessly behind the scenes the past 5 weeks to pull together a brand new ground up XC race series that will encompass both MO and KS venues. The new race organization is called: United Federation of Dirt. The UFD will consist of apx. 20 XC races between an Eastern and Western League and 4+ endurance races, with more races potentially added to the mix in the coming weeks. In addition, the XC series will be USAC sanctioned.

That said….Roadies have the Tuesday Night Crit and the Wed Nite Hill ride….Dirt lovin freaks like us NEED the Thursday Nite Throwdown. As leaders of your respective teams we asking you/your team to considering joining up and leading this community effort. This should be a team lead training series with the main focus of growing the sport.

We have a fantastic partner in KCMO Parks and Rec and they are open and receptive to making this happening. Swope is already confirmed as a venue with Tiffany Springs as another venue…to offer a variety of locales. HSP and ERTA are offering to partner to make this happen with trail building and course layout expertise. HSP and ERTA will not operate the training series.

PLEASE think this over and talk with your respective teams. We are asking that you respond by next Monday, Dec 7th on whether you/your team will commit to making this a reality. Once we have enough support, we’ll plan a meeting in January to iron the details. With over 30 MTB races in the MO/KS/NE region planned for 2010, now is the time to get your dirt ON.


Thursday Nite Throwdown [TNT]

What: Weekly Short Track Training Series

When: Memorial day to Labor Day.

Location(s): Swope, Tiffany Springs, other?

Organized by: Cycle City, Boulevard/KCOI, Ethos Racing, SKC Racing, Colavita, Slimen und Grossen, 360 Racing…and others?

Alliances: HSP, ERTA and United Federation of Dirt [UFD]



USAC sanctioned.



similar event: http://www.morcmtb.org/forums/showthread.php?t=32974


Thanks for the support.

Scott

good last week.

well, ended up doing clinton again with mason on friday instead of the river trails, then didn't ride all weekend. got in some quality family time with the brother/girlfriend and my nephew.

last 2 weeks of the semester are on tap. that means about 30 pages of writing and exams out the waz for the next 2 weeks. oh joy.

get out and enjoy the weather, cold at night, beautiful during the day.

last week looked like this: monday-burp w/ steele, tuesday-swope & mccoys w/ mason, wednesday-landahl & river trails w/ mason, thursday-thanksgiving day ride at clinton lake w/ great turnout then good dinner with the "fam" in ltown, friday-more clinton w/ mason.

now that's a damn good week :)

peace and dirt!!!

fall break

busy fun week of riding so far, let's see....

last saturday, ben mccall, elizabeth and I went out to WYCO to work on the new trail system out there....all I got to say is man! another awesome trail system (to be 30+ miles one day) right here in our region. KC could really become the mountain bike capital, without the mountains!

monday, steele came up and we put on my new reba race 29r fork and headed out to BuRP for some goodness. serengeti-wagon-oxbow-highline-river trail/little moab-north river trail-phase 1 of the connector-river trail-bohaca-basement-oxbow back in the darkness. damn good ride, and really different riding with squish up front :)

tuesday, mason came up that evening and we went out and did a night lap at swope...he made the mistake of absolutely dropping the hammer when we got there and we had to stop about midway through phase 2 because he was spinning pretty good. the first mile of swope has just a little more climbing than the first mile anywhere, lol, and will get that heartrate spiked real quick like. one lap was good and we headed to mccoys...mmmmmm

wednesday, mason and i woke up and headed out to the mecca of landahl. did the tasty drop in to wills-wills/swedish-family/offshoots, scotty's gun barrel, 11 then 10, scotty's back up, and continued on family back up to the doubletrack where we headed for the car and some quiznos. stopped back in midtown so I could grab my crap then headed home to lawrence where he and I did a lap of the river trail before going on home.

thursday, woke up still drunk on kansas made vodka (honor and most wanted) for the thanksgiving day ride at clinton lake. caught a ride out with steele and met the group of around 20ish people. we eventaully broke off with 3 other fellas and kept a pretty good pace going through mostly white trail-then red trail (where I got a deadly thorn!)...here I told them to go ahead and I'd catch up. got the tube changed out (really need to get the rear set up tubeless again) and hopped back up to the blue trail. here I started ripping hard trying to catch back up. finally, at the swimming beach, I saw the train of 4 riders across the lake, so I put it down again and caught them right as they were exiting the blue to go play at the skills park. we messed around there for a few minutes then took white back to the swim beach, then road back to the last (first) mile of white trail, where we hopped back on and made it back to the car. another damn good, long ride with my boy steele.

right now I'm up way too early, but I'm planning on some river trail laps sometime today. tomorrow, elizabeth and I are going to maple hill to see my brother and nephew. I am quite sure that him and I are going to meet mason sometime to ride the governors mansion trails saturday afternoon. sunday, I'll be back in school hell.

I'm ready for winter break and those 4 weeks of riding/trail building good times.

peace and dirt!!!

hello winter.

hmmmm, this past weekend was pretty packed in with stuff, for the most part. friday worked 8-1 at the prechool, had class then worked again from 5-midnight doing surveys at the movies with Elizabeth..not the most fun thing in the world but I'm gonna love that paycheck.

saturday woke up early and hit swope and did some exploring with kcappraiser around some hiking trails and the new phase 3. also did two laps there. in the afternoon mason came down and we went out to burp and hit serengeti and wagon then were joined by sean and andre once again, where we took oxbow up to bohaca, then ran the connecter down to the road crossing where we hit the river trail/little moab and ended up crossing the culvert and doing the whole northern end of the river section. turned around and crossed the river to the west side and the ridge trail, then rode mostly all the double track until we found the pimpest tree house ever. then the sneaky road back the the Trap. ahd to work 5-midnight again.

sunday the cold and rain came, which was ok because I was dead tired and had to work again from 2-7.

now monday is colder and wetter. Time to get the winter gloves, my hands have been freezing all day on the jaunts around town.

cross on thursday in hyde park should be interesting :)

peace and dirt!!!

weekend's over :(

friday night mason came in for the weekend again, to set up another riding filled good time. we went out on a little urban jaunt, highlighted by mason bouncing his head on some grass from a pretty good drop in hyde park, and then spinning around westport to the crossroads where he got a flat tire.

interlude: I made my full suspension mtb a single speed! goddamn it's so much better :) don't get very far, very fast though on a 26" dually geared 32-20 :) spin like crazy pretty much.

so anyway, he grabs the max bus from downtown back to armour where I meet him exactly as he's getting dropped off (take that max bus!) climbing the hill on main from crown center to linwood on the aforementioned 32-20 double boinger sucks ass too. like riding a pogo stick up the hill.

saturday morning we wake up early and hit swope fro some phase 3 trail work. one phrase pretty much sums up phase three: fucking sick nasty fastness. complete contrast to phase 1/2 across the road. very long and wide straights, minimal turns, rocks, roots and gnar, pretty much the fucking sick nasty fastness.

saturday afternoon we loaded up for BuRP and met Sean and Andre out there for some good times. down wagon, back up serengeti, oxbow to east side, basement, across the road to river trails/little moab, back up to bohaca from the culvert, all of highline down to the south, bohaca back north to basement, basement back south to the road...where I had to go get mason's car cause he was out of tubes/patches, as was I. damn good time on absolutely perfect trails.

sunday morning we woke up and elizabeth went out with us to landahl. this time we took off straight down tasty goodness, down all of it :) elizabeth was getting a little frusterated by all the technical stuff, but suprisingly rode damn near everything! i'm so proud of her. she's starting to use/trust the suspension and tires really, really well. she was digging the single speed set-up as well, since that meant not having to worry about those crappy shifters. so anyway, we hit tasty down, through camp, up to the boulevard and back out again, up to family trail, at the double track, elizabeth headed back to the car and mason and i finished up on daves and rimjob. god its awesome.

very awesome trails all around KC, get out and ride them!

peace and dirt!!!

swope

got out to swope last night with ben mccall for two laps. very good, but had a dicksicle by the time we were done. Glad to have a nice heater in ben's car for the ride home. Very dark and creepy out there. saw a couple deer and a racoon, very nice.

get your ass out there this saturday morning and let's get 2.75 more miles built to rip. do it.

cross tonight in hyde park, be there if you want to improve your health and overall wellness of life.

peace and dirt.

damn, landahl is fun :)

Weekend recap--Friday went out to Lawrence with my lady to stay with the "family" for a little bit. Got some good food in me and some laundry done, which was very nice. Also chilled with my boys Steele and Andrew from sunflower and drank a 6 pack of goose island oatmeal stout. Good times to say the least. God it was nice to be home for a little bit....until the ex-gf showed up saturday afternoon and the awkwardness hit the house, yea pretty much enough said on that one, hahaha.

Saturday, Elizabeth and I came home from Lawrence and took a nap before going out to her friends' party up in Liberty. I had been jostling for us to do the halloween ride scheduled up in smithville, but alas, compromise is what relationships are about. Unfortunately, we rolled into the party at 11 and there were two cops pulling up as well. After a short jaunt to the gas station and drive around liberty, we went back to the party, only to leave ten minutes later....21 year old high school party at its finest and neither one of were feeling it.

Sunday I went out to the blue river corrider and met a few fellas to do some benching and crib wall action. We built up this huge crib wall and got quite a bit of the enterance benched back finally. damn that stuff is gonna be nasty when its done. the afternoon was spent at Landahl with Elizabeth, Steele, and another Andrew ripping around the awesomeness that is landahl. she did suprisingly well on all the techy stuff and is a lot more responsive to the bike (she noticed the shifting issues/bent derailluer and that her shock still had my air pressure in it = way too bouncy for her) We lost andrew on family to scotty's for about 2 hours, but all was good (he took a wrong turn). we had a great time ripping and finished off absolutely tearing up will's. I think all in all I rode: the first doubletrack down to will's then back to the lot with Elizabeth to meet the guys, then DT out to dave's to family and off shoots and back around to dave's (this is where we lost anndrew) I eventually flew back on family all the way back to the DT and dave's again to try and find andrew, but no sign. So all three of us rode DT back to the car to see if he was there and to grab steele's phone. still nothing, so DT back to dave's, finally he called back and said he was on scotty's so we waited for him and had a little session in the woods. Elizabeth by this time was pretty tired so she dt'd back to the car, while us fellas ripped dave's, swedish and will's back to the car. I left steele and andrew around 4:45 cause we had to go eat dinner with her family. all in all a damn fun time with some good people. and TONS of cars in the parking lot throughout the afternoon.

don't forget! Thursday night show-and-go cross races in Hyde park! be there or be square.

peace and dirt!!!!!

7 pm thursday night show and go cross racing!!

Thursday nights now through the new year (and beyond?)

7 pm, Hyde park, 37th and Gillham

show and go cross races

bring lights if you got them.

invite people. the more the merrier.

and bring your bike and yourself.

and pedal like crazy for an hour.

join the facebook group and invite others

Squeezing in dirt

Window of dirt riding opportunity between rain soakings: saturday morning to sunday morning.

saturaday morning Elizabeth and I hiked phase 1 of swope to check the rideability of the tread. good to go! So Mason came up for some riding again this weekend. Rode out at Swope saturday afternoon, riding up orange to 8 pins, then turning around/back to do 8 pins a few more times before keeping on back down the blue. I had nicely adjusted disc brakes on the 29er and was ripping out there like I hadn't in a while. Good gripping brakes definitely help the confidence. We also poached quite a bit of some hiking trails around the camp lake of the woods area up top, finishing with a very nice downhill run back to where phase three is getting ready to be cut in.

Sunday morning we got up and all 3 of us, Mason, Elizabeth and I, headed up to Liberty to check out stocksdale park. Good time riding considering that Elizabeth and I were hungover from a halloween party the night before (thanks to Mason for DD-ing). We did the field loop to warm up then started on the north end (13?) working our way clockwise through the woods. Elizabeth bailed back to the car through the field at marker 3, while Mason and I ripped through the woods and climbed back to the top. We met her at the same exact time she was passing marker 1 :) (tired girl) I was really proud of her though, she only fell down a few times, and rode through EVERY creek crossing and rocky/root section (wich there aren't a lot of at Stocksdale) Learning to trust the tires, brakes and suspension ahs helped her out a ton.

i'm starving so i gotta ride home real quick before my next class,

peace and dirt!

ridings...

did 46 miles with Ben McCall and Mason yesterday out to the BLVD cup and almost back, until my second pinch flat stopped us.

last Thursday had a nice group of 6 guys tearing out circuit laps at an average of 17 MPH...very nice.

I haven't hit dirt in a long bit and I'm jonesing, but alas, school calls once more :(

enjoy the indian summer.

peace and dirt!

Riding weather :)

quick update since I haven't since KC Cup....let's see, Mason came up and spent the weekend a couple ago...it unfortunately rained about .1 inch early Saturday morning...we scrapped the blue river idea and hit swope for one lap...Mason made the call that one lap on the slick course was enough for him and I wasn't bitching. We instead had a nice little urban free ride session around gillham park, art institute, and westport areas, followed by some delicious pitchers of beer at McCoy's...introduced him to the raspberry wheat and ginger shandy...needless to say, Elizabeth led the straight line home, cause neither him nor I could ride straight.

Sunday afternoon we hit up Landahl....goddamn it was fun! nothing like ripping some perfect trails on single speed glory with an old buddy. Here's the path we took (I think): Straight down tasty the whole way :) (Oh YES!), throught the camp, up the middle trail to Rim and the 5-way. family and tech offshoots, scottys gunbarrell!!!!!! (interjection, we found out the hard way that scotty's is TRULY an out/back now...cutting through the range/prairie/woods was a terrible idea), until we found the family trail again along the new fence, back around to dave's maze, down daves to will's then I crashed and tore my belly th shreds, literally...front wheel caught between two rocks, twisted my handlebars straight into my tummy, and I immediately fell on them...LAYERS of skin gone from my belly button to my pubes...still healing right now, it's gross...needless to say, I cried like a bitch, so we turned around on Will's cause we weren't very far, and took family out to the western double track, where we tailed it back to the car. Got back and it looked like I had a bloody vag on my tummy, hahaha.

then the week came and I had about 4 exams/papers to do that week, good time, not.

hmmmmm....I went to swope sometime later in the week, hmmmm, oh!, friday afternoon, and did a few laps by myself. always fun...the more I ride there the more I want to ride my full suspension as an XC bike again, some of the swithcbacks/off camber turns are killer on the big wheels.

Saturday was the "inagural" Blue River-Swope connector workday. Elizabeth went out with me and we worked for a good long while 8-12. I did a lot of stuff--destaubing, raking, bench cutting, being a beast on this tree that was growing straight down in the middle of the trail. Elizabeth did some lopping, some honeysuckle removal and was eye candy for all the guys. Got a good little bit built up, the connector will be sick!!!!!

Went home, got some McCoy's, went northland shopping and took the bikes over to Stocksdale Park in Liberty for Elizabeth's first real mountain bike ride. We started in the field loop so she could get her wings under her, and she was getting bucked like a bullrider...I realized that the air shock on my full sus was still set to my fat ass and not her tiny-ness, so I popped some air out for her and she loved it! we did another field loop before going into the woods at trail 3, working our ways clockways back up to the car....that little loop and she was pooped and I was feeling great. went home and crashed out hard, the both of us.

upcoming: it's supposedly cross season, or something like that I've heard, but I am joke broke and will not be racing anytime soon. Good news (badnews?): this may mean the end of smoking so much herb, so I may be getting some lungs under me...that and I got a physical yesterday and I was not happy with myself (184 lbs, 64 resting pulse, 139/78 blood pressure) I remember the days of 165 lbs, 43 resting pulse, insanely perfect blood pressure numbers, 7% body fat and being able to run 8 miles+ at a time....I kind of miss wrestling for that. You'll likely see me still at some cross races, with canned beer and trombone in tow. I really think that if I quit being a pussy and work myself back into shape that I could be up with the top area guys: Cam, Garrett, Shad, and even probably do some ass kicking on the road.

We'll see...

peace and dirt!

PS--halloween ride at BuRP.

not technically last...

KC Cup results here: http://www.heartlandrace.com/images/stories/kccup_09_results.htm

So looking at these official results, I did a tad better thank originally thought. Got 8th, out of 8 that finished, haha! One DNF, one DNS. and I onl;y lost by 10 min, not 14.

It kind of pisses me off looking at these. If I don't stop to blow chunks 3x I'm in the top 5 easily. Oh well, live and learn I guess.

Pictures so far are here: http://www.randybraley.com/KC_Cup/index.html (I'm picture 27/37, crossing the finish line)

and here: http://www.alexgrigsbyphotography.printroom.com/studio_homepage.asp?domain_name=alexgrigsbyphotography

and I'm sure more will pop up soon....pretty sure Ben McCall got a good one of me dropping a rock....and I know a few more people took my picture sometime out there too. Yay for them!

peace and dirt!

KC Cup

Basically I got my ass kicked on my "home" trails. Great time, kind of.

So Saturday was my good buddies' wedding, Mr. Chris and Mrs. Ellie Heath. I've known them since junior high. Nice short wedding ceremony followed by free Free State beer and killer food at Alvamar Country Club with a lot of peeps I hadn't seen since I moved out of the L a couple years ago, and even an appearance by Mr. Alex Newman, who is also now a former wrestler turned bike rider. We had a nice compontents and bike porn discussion after dinner, hahaha. Needless to say, I took advantage of the free Wheat State Golden and a few of us had a nice "memory session" and that basically started my demise for the next days race.

Sunday I got up way too early, 7 am and made the mistake of having a little chill session by myself, like I usually do on weekend mornings before riding/homework/whatever I am doing. Ended up buying 3 creme filled doughnuts and 2 powerades from sunfresh for my mornings' nutrition, another would-be terrible call.

Mr Sean Burns was kind enough to pay the entry fee for my broke ass, so I am now his endentured servant until my debts are cleared, thanks bro!!!

And of course my dumbass decides to mix it up with the 19-29 sport class instead of the ole crazy spinners in the single speed class (I think the shaggy dude won the SS class in like 48-49 min, crazy). I thought I was going to be alright, until I got the the preview for the REAL course. I had left out an entire LONG section of double track and pavement on my pre-race preview laps the past couple weeks. Needless to say, I got dropped hard right off the start cause everyone was big-ringing it through the DT and asphalt. And I made the mistake I always do of spinning wayyyy to much on the open areas to try and stay within sight distance-->heart rate went out of control and culminated in me exiting the 8-pins area and blowing chunks on the side of the trail while 15+ people passed me. To back track a little...so we got to the single track and I slowly am starting to gain on the people in my class, pass a couple of them, then a few more and get to 8-pins. Right before the enterance of 8-pins, I let an older guy in the class behind us pass me on his Yeti (he had caught me, we went off in 1-minute increments). Huge mistake on my part. #1) people were ALL OVER the goddamn place through there. Middle of the trail, side of the trail, wrecking on/off the trail, side of the trail making repairs, going way too fucking slow for a race in the good line, etc I saw Sean Burns through there and he was yelling at people to get the fuck out of the way if you weren't riding it, or riding it slow. I found out later he bent another chain ring, goddamn hammerman, hahaha. So anyway #2) The older dude on the full suspension Yeti decides to granny gear the whole f-ing section so I end up right up his ass the whole time and eventually actually made him endo because I cut him off when he went wide on a drop-off (Big-time sorry Bro! really it was a dick move on my part) #3) the older dudes were getting up my ass pretty hard so I was blazing through there like I hadn't in awhile, rode everything through there at probably 100 RPM, and then I stopped and lost my stomach contents.

By then I knew I was no way near gonna get a podium, but I figured hell, they're giving out 5 places, maybe. Spiked the heart rate again, blew some more and then Sean caught back up and passed me on the pavement climb back up the hill, I made it my goal to keep him in sight, hahaha, didn't work so well. Got through about 4/5 of my final lap, the last climb up Wudchuck run and Shadd Schreiner and Cam Chambers were yelling at everyone to move it or lose it, so I stood for a sec to blow chunks again and awtch them FLY by, I mean absolutely hauling ass through there (They were passing me on their 3rd lap, I was finishing my 2nd, :'( They finished their 3 laps in 1:01 and I was at 1:03)

Ended up DFL in my class, losing to the first place kid, who hadn't ridden a MTB race since March and is primarily a roadie, by 14 minutes, OUCH, big ego kick in the nuts. This was made even worse when I looked at the SS results and I would have been mid-pack there, weird how shit works sometimes.

I did get a free bike tube, however--26er presta valve, that I have no use for. My 29er is Presta, the full sus 26er is schreader = nice.

Yesterday was my final culmination of XC racing, that crap just isn't for me, really (I'll probably still do it tho :/. I will throw down on some 6 through 24 hour races, but anything under a couple hours really isn't worth my money anymore, I always get "smoked" haha get it?

check the blogroll to the right to read others reviews/write-ups.

and BIG UPS to the heartland staff, scott and craig, all the trail builders and event volunteers--another great event by that crew.

peace and dirt!

Cruise the Blues Photos

Found these today, Thanks to Paula Stout!!!


The suffer fest that is cruise the blues.

We got 2nd!

Ripping it :D

Read up!

Little week in review and a look ahead to what's on tap...

Taco Tuesday at the ole BuRP...man it was fun! I got to the Sand Tap around 5:45 and hooked up with Micah who had already ripped the wagon trail, and was warmed up :/ He took off ripping OxBow up to basement when about halfway through I asked him to please stop for a minute...my heart rate was out of control, as one would expect when going from sitting in a car to spinning like mad on the bike. Got the heart worked back down and then we ripped through BoHoCa through the culvert then up the northern section of River trail. At the Ridge/River crossing we took it!! Oh yea Wast Side trails!!!!! Neither Micah or I had been back there in a long while. The Ridge trail was in suprisingly really good shape as was about 75% of the double track. However 25% of the double track was trashed!! Talk about horse and rut damage!! wowzers. We tooled around the west side for a bit and got back to the trap around 7:10. Had a burger and a beer, bullshitted a little, and threw my lights on for a night spin on Serengeti and OxBow. Went south first then doubled back and up OxBow to the road and the doubled back to the Trap, ended around 8:40. riding out there at night by yourself is kind of creepy. got EXTREMELY close to some deer on OxBow, they were coming back up from drinking from the river. almost hit the damn thing on the out AND back :/

Thursday nights at Swope have become the place to be if you own a Mountain Bike!!! I counted ~24 cars in the lot when I was getting ready to ride home after my few laps out there last night. However I know for sure that some people had already left and a few more were parked at the top of the Camp. probably 50+ riders out last night! amazing!!!!

Swope is in absolute killer condition. I cleared everything on 8 pins last night without having to put a foot down for the first time ever (thank you clean lines and 34-20 gearing :) The race course is killer fun too, too bad I'm broke and way too out of shape, other wise I'd do it this weekend for the KC CUP. Instead I'll be a "spectator", AKA riding the race course when warm-up laps are allowed/before/afterwards/drinking beer and generally just having a good ole time. See you there, I'll still be on the Rasta both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday for the cross race I'll have plenty of trombone and PBR as well if you wanna stop and say hi :)

My first exams and papers are starting to be due next week, lata even more riding :( Looks like I need to get the trainer set up so I can read and spin :/ oh joy.

peace and dirt!!!

grinding...

made it to swope last thursday to check out the KC cup course, it'll be ripping...killa climb up to the camp then through some jeep trail back into the woods, really really good passing areas and should ged everyone lined out at the start, hopefully (getting through the trash is the hardest part of being on a SS, of course this race should be a little different since its an XC and won't be mass start). Oh yea, the crappy part: I tore a sidewall on my rear captain armadillo. for reals. swope eats peoples' gear.

school is starting to get really busy, got the first 6 page paper due first week of October. First exams start piling up next week :/

satruday morning I made it out to Shawnee to rip it with my good amigo Mr. Sean Burns over at Shawnee Mission Park for a quick lap. I had to ride the Specialized and it was an up/down ride to say the least. I would bomb down the little runs they have getting way ahead of Sean, only to see him pass me chugging along on our climbs back up and get way ahead of me. We ripped out 1 lap of everything, purple, orange, red, and did the ride in/back from his house for probably around 8-9ish miles. Short sweet ride, but he and I both had shizzle to accomplish. BTW--Seamus is gonna be an older sibling.. singlespeedpirate.blogspot.com

welllllpppp...it's about that time to find calories and coffee before draining them out my brain, it feels like i'm forgetting something and as I'm typing I remember.

Liz was sick all weekend, boo, it sucked, really bad. for her and I, lol.

I did convince her though that we should go watch the finale of the TOUR OF MISSOURI!!! I knew I was forgetting something.

goddamn, it was cool to see something here in KC at least trying to imitate the Tour de France. hella roadies everywhere, haha, but saw quite a few MTBers down there as well, lots of bonebender and RIM shirts. some canadian took the stage win, and i have no idea who won overall, and don't really care to look it up. It really was kind of like watching the Tour though because they had a huge jumbotron at the start finish that provided on-course live coverage (kind of like VS does with the Tour de France) really really cool to watch. The KC streets look a lot different without traffic everywhere and an enormous peleton speeding around :)

peace and dirt!

school #2

as you can tell (if anyone reads this), my posting frequency has dropped dramatically since August 24. so i'll make this short and sweet, cause I got crap to do.

#1--I am no longer an urban planning & design major. drawing and 60 hours a week doing it are not for me. I am now "just" a triple major in sociology, spanish, and environmental studies with a minor in sustainability. I should graduate sometime in 2011 now though :)

#2--riding time/miles have dropped off the face of the earth. I've hit a couple taco tuesdays, rained out/was robbed the past couple swope rides and thats really about it. I have been riding to/from UMKC every day for class though, so I'm at least getting 5-10 miles a day that way.

#3--my class schedule sucks. 15 hours. 5 classes. MW 9:30-10:45 Geography of Middle America, MWF 2:00-2:50 Stats in Sociology, MW 5:30-6:45 Spanish 315, TR 9:30-10:45 Intro to Women's Studies and TR 1:00-2:15 Issues in Environmental Science. good classes but crappiest schedule ever.

#4--I need a job, near midtown/westport/plaza/brookside/etc. if anyone has a hookup let me know, please and thank you.

well, I'm gonna peruse someothers on my bloglist, get some needed coffee and got to class.

peace and dirt!

school...

I had my first day at UMKC yesterday and already don't have a life outside of environmental design studio :/

I'm gonna hit taco tuesday tonight, swope thursday and cruise the blues this weekend with the bro and our ladies in tow. To grandmothers' house we go.

I gotta go to class now, hopefully i'll get a job later: interview at 2:30.

peace and dirt!!!

More RIM pics

Thanks to Rob Stitt!!

RIM (w/ Pictures!!!)

Man!!! The Rapture In Misery (RIM) race this past weekend was stellar!!! Great single/double track in the forests of Crowder State Park, northern Missouri. First time I ever rode the trails up there and man they are sweet. Absolute KILLER climbs, and epic downhill rip sessions made for a couple gnarly crashes. My best one was the first lap coming down the "humpty-dumpty" section. After almost going OTB off of every drop at extreme speed, there is a 180* switch back at the bottom, that I didn't know about. First lap I kept going straight OTB into the woods hitting a few trees and picking up some gnar for later. Goddang though, I love that new wheelset I picked up last week. I guarentee that crash alone would have tacoed my previous wheels, not to mention the other 4-5 spills I took that day (I need to learn to trust my tires more, those Captains grip like a champ and I need to shred instead of beinga pussy). but anyway...great time.

Here's this blog's first pictures ever, thanks to the peeps that took them, one up top from Rich and one below from Kevin.

Peace and dirt!!!

landahl :D

went out to landahl yesterday with Steele. We had an epic day to say the least.

#1) new build on the rasta 29r is fucking awesome!!!! new wheelset, king headset and xt cranks got that bitch lighter than my SS roadie, no lie. I felt like I was flying yesterday.

#2) I cleared sections out there I had NEVER cleared before, geared at 34-18. Bike handling skills are amazing on that light ass bike now :)

#3) our ride: drop in on tasty, all the way to the lollipop, watched steel hit a couple drops, finished the lollipop loop, dropped down to the scout camp, went back north on the unnamed trail (before you go all the way through camp) that takes you up to rim job then right to the 5 way meet up area...lower family trail, up the double track climb to the real family trail, both tech off shoots, back on family across to daves, down daves to wills, swedish erotica then wills back to tasty and up the hill to grab some food/more water. chilled for about 30 min to refuel, dropped back in on tasty down to rim job, rim all the way out 5-way, upper family all the way around to the double track before dave's drop-in and then back to car cause we both decided we were getting a little sloppy for the techy stuff out there.

#4) was ripping on the way home right behind 2 cops. thank god they ended up being prisoner transport! that got the heart rate going a little bit again with it sitting in my lap :/

#5) thursday night swope ride, be there!

peace and dirt!!!!!

hmmmm...

welp, I finally made the call that's gonna keep me broke until at least spring :) My 29r wheels can't stand the beating I lay on them, so I finally am getting the bomb proof wheelset from Mr. Sean Burns: Captain Control 2bliss tires mounted to Stan's arches rims laced to chub hubs with DT Swiss spokes and nipples, built by Dale at bike source :D They should be absolutely bombproof, and if not, I will seriously consider going back to 26 inch wheels with really wide freeride/downhill rims (like the rhyno lites on my full sus). I am too damn poor to keep breaking/replacing stuff all the damn time. Everything I have read/heard about these wheels though make it seem like they should be able to hold up a 300 lb man without ever needing truing...hope thats true!

it also seems like I haven't been riding that much the past week/two, even though I do have over 125 miles this month already. however, after the hell of the last two weeks in July, it still seems like not as much. I've been really tired, likely from all the binge drinking I've been doing :/ there's a time and a place for everything, it's called college and I guess I'm living that up :) I have a feeling I'll easily hit 400 miles this month without really trying; between RIM, Cruise the Blues and all the training that needs to be done, it should be a cake walk.

the only thing keeping me awake right now is the stupid freshmen questions coming at me every few minutes here at JCCC...I do love the scenery here though :D

steele's gonna come up tomorrow and help me go break in the new wheelset, probably landahl :)

peace and dirt!

racing update

here's my planned fall race schedule:

August 15: RIM 6-hour duo with Mark Kern
August 29: Cruise the Blues 5-hour duo with my Brother
September 5/6: 24 hours of Iowa 4-man team with Ben Bolin, Micah Luffman, and Keith Brown
September 13: Bearcat Cross
September 19: Swope Zoo Cross
September 20: KC Cup MTB XC race (20-29 sport class)
September 27: Diamond Blackfan Cross
October 11: Chris Cross
October 17: Capitol Cup Cross
October 18: Boulevard Cup Cross
October 25: Smithville Cross Festival
November 7: Grand Prix HPT Cross
November 8: Veterans Cross
November 15: KS States/DeStaad Cup Cross
December 31: Cross off the Old Year
January 3: Epic Holiday Cross
January 10: Grote Prjis Cross

dependant on money of course, so I'll do about 1/3 of what's listed. For sure RIM, CtB, 24 of Iowa, KC Cup MTB, Boulevard Cup and KS States, as well as the last 3 cross races probably (since I'll be on winter break from school)...the other cross races depend on cash flow and homework load.

i get around #2

got out to clinton lake last night on the full suspension......omg, awesomeness. white trail, blue trail, red trail, skills park, road back in the dark as a storm was rolling in. damn good times with my boy steele.

found out too he's finally gonna make the move out to denver for sure in a few months. we've kicked it since high school, not to mention, ummm yea, good times for sure. i know he'll dig it for sure though, being able to use his bottlerocket everyday and the new fuel he just got, plus they have a real freeride/downhill scene there. and I got a place to go ride in CO now :)

but anyway, we started out on white, switched over to blue at the first road crossing, hit the red/shoreline trail, back on blue for a couple miles, switched back over to white until the beach, then blue to the skills park. made 20ish runs through the features then headed on the road back because it was dark and lightning was all around. it was fun riding with steele even though he drops my ass big time on that fuel of his. just had to work a little harder/go a little faster than normal, but maybe that was just the full sus. Quite sure that both shocks are in need of a rebuild/tuning/whatever you do to make them better again. I forgot how much climbing sucked ass on a double boinger. man going down is fun though, as was the skills park :)

peace and dirt!

I get around...

got to hit swope, shawnee mission park and landahl this week :D

damn we have some fine single-track in Kansas City.

RIM next week with Mark Kern, 6 hour duo.  Depending on funds then I may do the Jackson County DU the next week, but probably wait unti Cruise the Blues with the bro.

summer finally decided to show up.  :/

It's getting dusty out, make sure you got the drifting skills up to snuff.

peace and bone dry dirt!

no motivation

since last thursday's ride to lawrence I have had absolutely no motivation do ride/work out/do much of anything other than sleep. I did end up getting 15 miles in on Friday, still 13 short of the 500 goal, but I just couldn't muster any legs or desire. ended up sleeping all Friday afternoon, went out Friday night and stayed up until 7 am. so saturday was a complete wash for riding as well, because I slept until 2 pm and was hungover like I hadn't been in a long while. I guess 180 shots and other free booze between you, a girl and another couple will do that do a man. It ended up being well worth it though, if you know what I mean ;)

so I slept more saturday, woke up for like 2 hours saturday night, checked my bank account, cried myself back to sleep, then woke up at 2 am. Roomie was just ending her shift at angels around 3 when i was looking for a midnight snack, so we went down to YJ's and she bought me some breakfast :)

got home, drank some svedka and slept some more. woke up around 10 sunday and went for a little spin to clear my head/body before a shower. Tried to go to the library only to find out it was only open from 1-6 on sundays so I went back home for a little bit, grabbed some food, then hit the library at 1. used some interwebs and got a landscape architecture graphics book and another history of city design book, good times. went home, changes out, hopped the full suspension to go give it its first run at swope. man, I will say, it was nice having gears again for the road ride to swope, and having a big ring to bomb down the hill, not to mention the suspension for the backside gnar. oh how I've missed my double boinger baby :D got in 2.5 laps at swope, and hitched a ride home with ben mccall back to midtown. he lives 2 blocks from me, literally, so we'll probably be riding together quite a bit.

woke up this morning and couldn't believe I had to spin 20 miles to JCCC. no motivation still. but I hopped on, put the iPod in and up loud and hammered. made it to JCCC in less than an hour :)

now I'm feeling like a nap, but my legs and body finally feel like the liquor is almost gone

peace and dirt!

28 miles tomorrow and I hit 500 in July

kind of took a little rest today, soft pedaling my full suspension bike around lawrence, 1) because i am able to ride it for the first time since november and 2) body needs the rest.

ate a ton of food last night and toda finally, should be feeling prime tomorrow to go finish it off. i'm thinking a nice 30 on the SS tomorrow riding the paved trail system around lawrence in the morning before i go back to KC. check back for more. there will be a special prize if I hit 500 so watch for the post.

...

totally just realized I didn't post here what the ride today was...the typical 20 miles from my house to jccc, worked from 8-2 then rode from jccc to lawrence for another 40...thats right, knocked 60 today, 100 the past 2 days. my boy dylan medlock from lawrence rode out and met me around the halfway point to choad me back to lawrence. he rides a very nice, full carbon specialized tarmac, and I was on my fuji SS (42-16) commuter, with the rack and saddlebags loaded with 2 days worth of clothes/tools/loafers/bike lock/extra water/etc for myn stay here in ltown.

i am planning on doing a 110 mile ride with dylan in the next couple weeks or so. route is from lawrence up through leavenworth, parkville, riverside, kck, linwood and back to lawrence. I'm trying to figure out the gearing I want to use, although I'm thinking maybe the 42-16 will probably be the prime gearing for 110 miles. The pace won't be that brutal, like it was today. There were times today that Dylan and I both agreed I had to be spinning at least 2x the rpm that he was in his big ring. Literally, I hadn't spun like that for around 10-15 miles, ever. We hammered the section from Spoon Creek road, down 143rd past the couty line to 22oo rd north into Eudora. I told him I needed my aero bars on if I was gonna do that shit again :)

i really need to figure out how i'm gonna get out these last 42...

458 down, 42 to go

Today I kicked a huge chunk out of the way, making my goal of 500 miles this month seem very, very doable over the next 2 days. 42 miles Thursday and Friday...still not for sure how I'm gonna finish these last few off...

full suspension is done and getting picked up and urban ridden in ltown tomorrow, hella

peace!

new plan

Rode to work this morning, 2o miles there, but am gonna make a slight detour plan, because I'm out of money and food :/ After I get off work at 2:00 today I'm gonna ride out to Lawrence from JCCC to get full suspension and some food loving. Tomorrow I'm gonna have to make up what ever the difference is going to be...(part of blog where I stop writing to figure mileage)...looks like it'll be around 37 more miles from JCCC to Lawrence which will be 57 for today. Leaves me with 45 more to spin on thursday and Friday and I'll hit 500. ooooo, yea!!

398 down, 102 to go.

After I get off work and spin home, I'll need to complete another 102 miles. Here's my plan since the rain jacked the trails...

July 29, Wednesday--40 miles, Home to JCCC/Back (62 miles still needed)
July 30, Thursday--45 miles, Home to Lawrence to pick up my full-suspension bike (17 miles still needed)
July 31, Friday--Go out and finish off the 17 miles with probably a nice 20 mile or so spin.

Hopefully my legs and the weather will cooperate.

peace!

356 down, 144 to go.

356 miles as of July 26, need 144 more to hit 500. Should get 40 Tuesday, 40 Wednesday commuting to work and back...that will leave me needing 64 more to do on Monday, Thursday and Friday. Looks like I'll do a few nightly spins to finish it up.

I will hit 500.

peace!

out west :)

i'm in l-town right now. got to ride swope the past 3 days, awesome :) gonna hit some river trail tonight to rip some nice, smooth, untechy single track. this is the trail where I learned to ride and I consider it "home", so it'll be nice to go out and rip on the rigid. the river trail is SS 29r heaven.

tomorrow, my seester is having a suprise party for my brothers 22nd bday. so i'm gonna head to topeka for the weekend, try to ride the trails there, and hopefully do the sunflower state games if I can find $25 somewhere...

get out and ride right now. weather for July in kansas is perfect, road or MTB. no excuses.

i'm gonna bust my ass next week and make damn sure I hit 500 miles for July. sitting at 335 as of July 23.

peace!

rain :(

so of course when I post something about hitting 500 miles for the month, the rain starts, and still has not stopped, since yesterday :(

had a killa 20 mile ride home in the pouring rain last night from JCCC to back home...f-ing sucked, but the bag stayed dry thanks to stealing a few trash bags from the break room here at JCCC. me on the other hand, i was completely and thoroughly soaked.

so i'm stuck at 308 miles right now, hopefully i can squeeze in a cross-style ride tonight with some earthriders since taco tuesday is a wash, for 20ish miles, then hit up the JCCC/back 40 miles tomorrow.

I got a B in my spanish class this summer, fuck ya! no more classes for 5 weeks!!! riding like crazy will now commence :) hit me up if you wanna ride. i'll be working 8-6 on Mondays and Wednesdays only starting next week, until the end of August when i start up at UMKC.

peace!!!

500 miles in july?

just added up my mileage for july and i'm at 308 miles right now...500 is looking very doable.

longest ride ever

saturday was the farmhouse classic gravel grinder century ride, hosted by Joe of cycle city for his birthday bash. free breakfast, fully-stocked SAG station at the halfway point and free barbeque/food/beer after finishing = AWESOME DAY!!! huge ups to Joe, his family and everyone who helped put the ride together, great time, great eats/drinks, great people. absolutely killer smoked chicken wings, pulled pork and corn on the cob; ice cold american canned goodness; wow, i really wish i could do it every day :)

now ride details...the morning started with a tad over 7 mile trek to teammate Marcus Skala's house in Prairie Village, where we met up with ChrisGo Thomas and headed north. Ate some dank egg/sausage casserole, drank some oj, pounded a couple homemade bluebery muffins and the ride took off at around 9:15 am. we were going basically from lathrop, MO to easton, MO by way of gravel back roads. I was the only crazy ass on a single speed, so ups to me. decided to gear at 40-16, and by the end, that was just about the right call. the 100-miler guys took off at a blazing pace from the start while us 63 milers hung back a little. It was generally a rolling, flat ride except for the middle 10 miles going there and back, which had a couple killer steep hills with fresh, loose gravel. I finished at the halfway point with the 2 lead guys on the 63 mile route. I saw them about 5 miles from Easton and made it my goal to catch them. well, i had to spin my ass off, but i caught marcus and another guy about halfway through town and rolled into the SAG with them.

at the SAG there were a couple 100 mile guys still hanging. i pounded water, some cytomax, 4 gels, a pack of powerade gel bits, some trail mix and a nutter butter before stocking up for the return ride, hahahaha. i got the nickname C-store on the way back, as my jersey was loaded with crap for the journey back to the farm. filled a bottle with cytomax, still had 1 gatorade i hadn't cracked, re-filled 2 water bottles, took 4 gels, another package of powerade gel bits and 3 packages of nutter butter cookies. i goddamn near went through everything on the way back too.

got back to the farm--63.4 miles, 4 hours 2 minutes, 15.3 MPH average.

gorged on beer and food, got a ride back to the crib with ChrisGo, who btw has some killa pics in Urban Velo right now, napped for little bit, woke up and rode to popeyes where i gorged on more food. absolutely awesome day.

sunday, elize (the roomie) and I went to this dannnnnnk thai/chinese place in westport...best asian food I'd ever had...she watched in amazement as I downed three large plates of the dankest chicken, steak, veggies, rice, noodles and whatever else was in front of me. probably in took 4000 calories in that meal, no lie :)

this morning I woke up for my ride into JCCC. I finally got the rear rack replaced by my boys at the RECYCLERY in lawrence but had some major mechanicals before taking off and during the ride. had a sidewall tear and tried to switch tires out, but for the life of me could not get the tire off the other rim from my the steel SS roadie. So i patched the tire the best I could, threw a new tube in and hoped for the best. ride was going good for the first 3 miles or so then i heard a nassssty grinding above my ipod. chain tensoner bolt had come loose and needed a fixing, plus the seat was at Elize chill-ride height, not Brett-commuting to JCCC height. took a few minutes to fix those issues and hammered to get here. got from the crib to jccc in under an hour, a new best by over 15 minutes.

i think i'm getting in a little better shape finally. my back muscles and legs feel great :)

peace!!!!!

rest

currently wrapping up a 4 day rest from pedaling, which has worked out, cause it's been wet out recently. man, my legs feel a lot better today after the few days off.

tomorrow is the Thursday Swope ride, I'll be shooting for around 35 miles and then Saturday is the Farmhouse Classic Gravel Grinder, 62 or 100 miles of good times in northwest MO, that I'll be attending with some of my COLAVITA/PARISI teammates. 62 miles on my Single speed, this will be my longest ride EVER. gotten to 56 one time, and was dead for 2 days, after riding a SS roadie. we'll see how 62 on the SS MTB will do me.

peace!

thursday's at swope

great turnout last night! lots of people on the trails and cars in the lot. really cool. big ups to nate who rode in with me from the plaza. looks like it'll be at least us two riding in every week, hopefully more will join soon.

henceforth we will be leaving the trolley track trail head at brookside/volker at 5:15 pm to arrive at the swope trail head by 6 pm. gives us more daylight at the trails to have a bigger group.

anyway, nate and i started up the blue, got onto the newly officially opened phase 2, and met Phil Scherer and Joe Folse, who were headed the opposite direction. We bs'd for a minute and I convinced them to jump[ on out tail and ride with us through phase two and back down the orange. did one lap and nate was ready for some food, btw, he was on flat pedals, crazzzzzy. I forget those exist sometimes.

we cruised down swope pwky down to brush creek for the ride home. after riding through grass and goose shit for what seemed like forever, nate made the good call of getting us back on the road. 21 miles all said and done by the time i got back home.

right now i'm at jccc using some internets cause mine's not hooked up in the new place yet. rode here too, yay for another 40 miles.

tomorrow is bikes and brews and landahl. mountain biking at landahl, barbeque and beer? not much better than that in kansas city.

peace!!!

tour of lawrence

watched some Tour of Lawrence yesterday. It was the downtown crit, pretty cool stuff, didn't get to see anyone bite it though. roadie racing is so wankish really, those fellas are afraid to make a move it seems. just sit in the pack and try to sprint at the end, dumb. hahaha, but anyway, enough of me bashing the roadies, I like doing it, just aggressively :)

i will give the dudes cred though on being in insane shape. Cat 4s averaged 25 MPH, 3s probably around 28 and Pros were around 32 I heard. Dudes were flying around the mile loop downtown. Really cool to watch at home.

big ups to my TEAM COLAVITA/PARISI teammates Eric Stull (3rd in Cat 4), Britton K (3rd in Cat 3) and Matt P (4th in Cat 3) for their performances downtown yesterday. I missed the end of the 4s race while having a beer at free state, mmmmmm, sorry Eric! I was really impressed with Britton and Matt though. They started at the dead end of the pack of around 50 riders and slowly but surely gained positions until with 2 laps to go, they were in the break pack, where they held on for 3rd and 4th. VERY smart racers, good job fellas.

Federer is about to beat Roddick, it's 7-6 in the 5th set advantage Fed. I don't know why I'm putting anything about it, but it is badass. I hope he pulls it out, 15 majors in tennis is an insane accomplishment. i'm an equal opportunity sports enthusiast, so sue me.

peace!

busy

moving, schooling, riding, training, drinking, partying, city life-ing.

this week has been nuts. lots of miles, lots of liquor, lots of tests, lots of not enough sleep. i'm in lawrence right now getting ready to go watch to tour of lawrence. no bike with me so I'll be running/hiking everywhere this weekend. not too bad if the rain holds off until i can get back to shelter.

thursday night swope ride was a little disappointing. hopefully there weren't as many people as there normally will be because of the holiday weekend. i know a lot of people dipped out early this week from work. there were still probably 8 or so others I saw, Travis Donn and Travis Stephens blazing ridick fast laps, Phil Scherer and Ben McCall did a lap with Pete Barth and then me. Also saw a guy on a sick Moots set-up and a couple others parked in the lot, but didn't see on the trail.

night laps at swope are the shit by the way. peace!

i just want my bed

move in to midtown is totally complete. move out of the other shit hole is totally complete.

thank whatever deity pleases you, i just want my bed.

yesterday was probably the longest day i've had in a while. not so physically tough as hardcore mentally greuling. woke up at 8 after moving stuff all weekend and on about 6 hours of sleep for my first ride from my new place right west of hyde park in midtown to JCCC for work and school. got my bag all packed up and strapped onto my new rack that I had put on the fuji.

interjection: I've had a fuji newest 4.0 road bike that was fully geared and weighes a ton. Stripped that bitch down raw, put a single speed conversion kit on, geared it 42-16 (spin, baby, spin!) and put a rear rack on the back for the 40 mile commutes I would be enduring 3x a week during july.

back to the program: so anyway, I got my bag loaded, strapped the floor pump on with it (I decided my puny hand pump wasn't worth f-ing with when I could strap the big boy on) and took off. I live at 36th and Warwick, took that south to the Art museum, Oak to Volker, Volker to trolly trail, trolly to 80-somethingish road to troost, cut across on 89th to ward parkway, 92nd to state line to 96th to lee blvd, got to 103rd and went to roe, south 1 block to the park and indian creek trail access, took that until I saw 115th street, wound through the neighborhoods and got to jccc. I did pretty much the same route home, just crusing down the hill on college blvd from jccc to corporate woods, picked up the indian creek trail and did the same route home at 9 pm after I got out of Spanish class. riding at night with real night lights is kick ass by the way.

no flats, lost 2 screws in my rack and consequently almost lost my bag twice. I think I have this problem solved with longer screws to hold the rack onto the bike. the ones that came stock were pretty short.

right now i'm at work at jccc. my roomie let me borrow her car so i could go check out of my other apartment. i am glad too, she dragged my ass out to westport last night until 4 am and i had to get up at 8 this morning. reread the title.

peace!

midtown move

yoyo: My move to midtown is almost complete. My brothers came up from the boons to help me out moving all my shitttt. Big ups to them, it was hot as hell and we had to go up three flights of narrow ass stairs. Got a couple loads left to take over today, mostly clothes and miscellaneous small crap, then clean the old place up. Pretty sure my Outdoor Recreation class is going to be dropped tomorrow after I double check with financial aid to make sure they won't make me pay anything back. Never take a 3 hour PE class in the summer for an easy A if you are taking a 4th level foreign language as well. 3 hour PE classes are ridic hard, for real, and not the fun, intellectual, college hard. It's the busy-work, open-ended high-school level hard. Stupid.

Yesterday and today will be the first days all month I have not ridden my bike. I am sure my legs and core will appreciated the rest.

Since the move to midtown is done, my 40 mile, 3x a week commutes are about to commmence. Midtown to JCCC is a lonnnnngggg way. July should be fun.

peace!

Taco Tuesday

Taco Tuesday was killlllller tonight, check out the milage log to the right --->

Steele came down from l-town and hooked it up, shredded some gnar, and basically put Mason and I into the ground.  I was already at about 26-27 miles when they got there around 6:30.  

Here was my day:  ride to work 8 am (with spanish books/clothes for work/riding gear for trails/camelbak/light kit); work 9-3 (lunch break: rode to hen house to pick up granola bars/gatorade for later on, and stuff to make a quick sandwich for lunch, then rode to the park to eat and enjoy my break...lunch nutrition ended up being a terrible call); ride from JCCC to BuRP; get to the Sand Trap and immediately do a lap with Tim Greene consisting of ox box/basement/bo-ha-ca/river trail w/ little moab/roads.  

Get back to the Trap to meet Steele, get ready, and Tim decides to drink beer.  Steele and I run to the gas station so I can refuel on gatorade while we're waiting on Mason to get there.  Mason gets there, we get our lights set up and take off.  Lap this time with Steele and Mason was ox bow/basement/bo-ha-ca to very north section of highline, all sections of highline going back south/roads back to Sand Trap.  The last section of highline killed me.  That's where I decided to call it quits.  I hiked-a-bike the last 1/4 mile or so rocky section before the switch backs back down the hill on the south side where I then cruised out to blue ridge blvd.  Steele and Mason kept going and ended up going back north on bo-ha-ca to the basement trail, then basement/ox bow/back to the trap where I had 12 tacos waiting for us by the time they got back.  

goddamn they were good.

ps--all my riding today was done on a 34x20 single speed, fully rigid GT Peace 2-9r.

Swope Thursday Night Rides, with your host, me.

Check the EARTHRIDERS topic here: http://forums.earthriders.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9051

My announcement here: 

The ride will begin EVERY THURSDAY NIGHT at 6:00 PM (MTB time) with a warm-up from the Plaza (Volker/Brookside) down into the Swope trails (if trails are not ridable, there will have alternative routes I will be scoping out soon). If you do not want to do the warm-up ride, we should make it to the Swope trailhead around 6:45, where we will re-group before hitting the dirt. Also feel free to join us anywhere along the route to continue onto Swope. I am estimating we will be around 61st street/Trolley trail by 6:10, and Dunn Park/Research Medical Center by 6:15 if you would rather meet up with us at either of those locations. Also, I will be riding back from Swope to the Midtown area when finished doing laps for the evening, feel free to join me on the journey there and back! 

Please see the information below regarding more specifics about the route:

http://www.mapmytri.com/route/united-states/mo/kansas-city/859124284541965808

THURSDAY NIGHT MOUNTAIN BIKE RIDE

6:00 PM-->MEET AT TROLLEY TRACK TRAILHEAD (VOLKER AND BROOKSIDE) TO SWOPE PARK TRAILS

***Follows the Trolley Track trail to 61st street bike route. 61st street east will turn into Citadel then Woodland. Turn east on Meyer Blvd bike route and go to Swope Pwky bike routes. Turn south, Swope turns into Cleveland to Gregory. Gregory east into the park. This entire route follows bike paths, posted bike routes/share the road routes and bike lanes from the Plaza into the Swope Park trails.

HOPE TO SEE YOU ALL OUT STARTING NEXT THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 6:00 PM AT THE PLAZA OR 6:45 AT SWOPE!!!

btw--fun times to be had post-ride :)

Swope and Stocksdale goodness

Got out to Swope last night for some good hard laps around the sickness.  Phase Two is absolutely nastyyyyy.  I can't wait to get the full suspension built back up to go free ride out there and on highline at BuRP.

Also went out to Stocksdale Park in Liberty this morning with Mason for another ride.  We'd been up there to work, but never to ride, and man, they are some cool ass trails.  It really amazes me at how many truly awesome trails we have in the KC area.  A lot like the Lawrence River trails, but with tons of elevation change.  Make sure you bring your climbing attitude.  But anyway. I started bonking about two miles in, from being dehydrated.  Sat for a minute, sucked down some water, hit some gatorade and was a lot better off.  We were starting our second lap and Mason bit it hard on an endo and messed his hand/finger up pretty good.  Left some nice blood on the rock too from his shoulder. 

I've been hitting over 150 miles a week for the past three weeks and my legs and back feel it right now...

peace!

Hello blogosphere!

Yo yo peeps.

New blog here from the one and only KC Rasta Rider, Brett Shoffner.  Getting my own pad in a couple weeks, the single speed roadie painted a nice rasta color :), a fixed roadie built up and rasta-fied, summer schoolin' and ready for some upcoming MTB races.  Look for me on the rasta colored bike, whether it be on the road or trails!

peace!