Kansas City Rasta Rider

way too busy...

2012-01-30T19:02:00.002-06:00

grad school is time consuming. 12 hours feels like 30 undergrad hours. having to work 4 hours every morning at 8 am sucks ass too.

i haven't ripped singletrack since before the break and it's been 60* in january. that makes me sad. i literally just don't have time. still doing the commuting thing thankfully so at least riding a little.

go enjoy the weather for me.

peace and riding!!!

slowly but surely...

2012-01-11T21:56:00.004-06:00

have been getting more time on the bike. nice weather has helped for sure.

strength is coming back nice. lungs are worthless, so not much change there. endurance is who knows. I feel like I could do 5 hours no prob, but not at any pace but my own.

need to find a road bike to borrow for this spring. road riding with the team and doing a few longer road races will get me back up to snuff pretty quick.

anyway, super busy working 20 hours/week and taking 12 hours of grad school. so expect updates to be sparse, especially since no raing is going on until STREET CRED!

peace and riding!!!

first ride since surgery...

2011-12-28T19:08:00.002-06:00

and it wasn't even on a trainer or stationary. it was my girl that broke my leg, my carbon MTB. to/from roanoke park at granny light speed (took 20 minutes both ways..usually takes me a tad over ten).

leg felt great though. pedaling actually didn't hurt at all as long as I had low enough resistance (pu$$y gear). stuff that hurt the most was hoping curbs/potholes and track stands...anything putting pressure down through my leg, not horrible pain, just no strength.

felt so good to be back on a bike. so happy.

peace and riding!

KCCX dudes flying on the lawrence river trail...

2011-12-26T13:26:00.000-06:00

damn i wanna go ride.

good news finally

2011-12-20T12:33:00.001-06:00

no more crutches...no more boot...can start riding and other activity as I can handle it. Doc said it was "unbelievable" how good the range of motion was after 7 weeks.

trainer party anyone?

food and cycling...

2011-12-08T17:46:00.002-06:00

britton's got some good thoughs...click me

i wrote an epic response to it. read it if you want. follow his blog. he's probably the most "real" semi-pro cyclist around the area. dude races at an open level in all disciplines (road, cx, mtb) and is a threat to podium any day. he's married, has two kids, both under three years old, owns two bike shops and is 26. nuts.

11 more days on crutches...

peace and riding!!!

revised 2012 tentative MTB schedule

2011-12-04T08:19:00.000-06:00

Tentative UFD West Race Schedule

March 24 & 25 - God's Country Weekend @ Lawrence River Trail (Chris Locke)
April 8 - Team Colavita Mountain Bike Races @ TBA (Date Tentative, possibly move to summer) (Brett Shoffner)
May 5 and 6 - Kansas Fat Tire Festival @ Wilson Lake (Doug Chambers)
May 20 - Dirty Little Secret @ Fancy Creek State Park (Aaron Apel)
May 26 - Robidoux Roundup @ Krug Park (Randy Tracy)
September 9 - Tour de Lizard @ Camp Horizon (Bobby Smith)
September 30 - Rhett's Run @ Cosmo Park (Andy Schuette)

Tentative UFD East Race Schedule

March 25: (Sun) Mesa Lost Valley Luau (Mesa/Matt James) XC (Maybe even
push back into April? )
May 12: (Sat) Greensfelder (DRJ Racing/Bob Arnold) XC
May 20: (Sun) Broemmelsiek Challenge (Mitch Johnson) XC
June 17 (Sun) Leadbelt XC. St. Joe Park (Mark Grumke) XC
July Dirt Crits Castlewood (Every Thursday) Dirt Crits
July 14: (Sun) Castlewood (Big Shark/Pfoodman) XC
Aug 18: (Sun) Cyclewerx Crankfest. Cape Girardeau, MO (Cyclewerx/John
Dodd) XC
September 16 (Sun) Matson Hill - St. Charles (Walter Davis/Mike Barro -
Momentum) XC
September 30: (Sun) Rhetts Run (Andy Shuette/CBC) XC
October 5 (Sat): Cliff Cave Race - St. Louis (Rich Pierce/ICCC) XC

Tentative UFD Endurance Race Schedule
April 15 - BoneBender 3/6 hour @ Clinton Lake (Chris Locke)
June 2 - Dirty Kanza (Jim Cummings)
June 23 - Indian Camp Creek 3/6/12 hour (Todd Holtman)
September 8 - Sac River 6/12 hour (Jason Feagans)
October 13 - Burning at the Bluff @ Council Bluffs Lake (John Farinella)

*Looking to potentially add: OMBA Caramba/Springfield, Tour de Tick/Neosho, MO Single Speed Championships, Tall Oak Challenge, Knob Knoster, Warsaw, RIM, BT Epic, Melvern/Emporia*

boss cross #4

2011-12-03T19:56:00.003-06:00

went and watched today...piss poor attendance. 85 total racers. pathetic KC!

it was a bad ass course in totally epic conditions. simultaneously wished i was racing and glad i wasn't. I think a lot of guys racing were wishing they weren't. Basically rained the entire day making the course slower and soupier. My crutches were actually getting stuck in the mud after awhile just spectating, it was pretty nasty.

get your ass out tomorrow. it's state. rain should be done it's looking like.

peace and riding!

2012 Tentative stuff...

2011-12-01T09:12:00.003-06:00

Hosted a promoters meeting last night at my house. This is what we came up with:

Tentative UFD West & Endurance Race Schedule (from tonight's meeting)

March 24 & 25 - God's Country Weekend @ Lawrence River Trail (Chris Locke)
April 7 or 8 - Team Colavita Mountain Bike Races @ TBA (Date Tentative, possibly move to summer) (Brett Shoffner)
April 15 - BoneBender 3/6 hour @ Clinton Lake (Chris Locke)
May 5 and 6 - Kansas Fat Tire Festival @ Wilson Lake (Doug Chambers)
May 20 - Dirty Little Secret @ Fancy Creek State Park (Aaron Apel)
May 26 - Robidoux Roundup @ Krug Park (Randy Tracy)
June 2 - Dirty Kanza (Jim Cummings)
June 23 - Indian Camp Creek 3/6/12 hour (Todd Holtman)
September 8 - Sac River 6/12 hour (Jason Feagans)
September 9 - Tour de Lizard @ Camp Horizon (Bobby Smith)
September 30 - Rhett's Run @ Cosmo Park (Andy Schuette)
October 13 - Burning at the Bluff @ Council Bluffs Lake (John Farinella)

Looking to potentially add: OMBA Caramba/Springfield, Tour de Tick/Neosho, MO Single Speed Championships, Tall Oak Challenge, Knob Knoster, Warsaw, RIM, BT Epic, Melvern/Emporia.

Tentative UFD East (new 12-1)
March 25: (Sun) Mesa Lost Valley Luau (Mesa/Matt James) XC (Maybe even
push back into April? )
May 12: (Sat) Greensfelder (DRJ Racing/Bob Arnold) XC
May 20: (Sun) Broemmelsiek Challenge (Mitch Johnson) XC
June 17 (Sun) Leadbelt XC. St. Joe Park (Mark Grumke) XC
July Dirt Crits Castlewood (Every Thursday) Dirt Crits
July 14: (Sun) Castlewood (Big Shark/Pfoodman) XC
Aug 18: (Sun) Cyclewerx Crankfest. Cape Girardeau, MO (Cyclewerx/John
Dodd) XC
September 16 (Sun) Matson Hill - St. Charles (Walter Davis/Mike Barro -
Momentum) XC
September 30: (Sun) Rhetts Run (Andy Shuette/CBC) XC
October 5 (Sat): Cliff Cave Race - St. Louis (Rich Pierce/ICCC) XC

The big thing we all decided tonight is that promotion needs to be huge next year so we're going to start early and often.

Also looking to secure series sponsorships to start infusing some capital into the series to help promoters out with the initial costs as well as to help with end of year series awards. If you know of anyone or any company that might be interested in any way (cash, food, beer/beverages, swag, gift cards, whatever).

Definitely looking to cut down classes as well. G has full notes and will be sending them out soon.

peace and riding!!!

#occupytogether

2011-11-24T10:31:00.003-06:00

#occupyCX

-from ChrisGO

gobble gobble. good luck at jingle cross! I'd be there racing if it weren't for this broken leg thing (have fun Lyles!)

peace and riding!

4 more weeks...

2011-11-17T15:08:00.002-06:00

on crutches. not happy. but gotta do it so i can walk the rest of my life.

come see me. about to be at my house for 8 days by myself and I've already been bored out of my mind the past 3 weeks.

peace and gimping.

quickie

2011-11-17T07:17:00.002-06:00

obviously, not much going on with a broken leg. It's healing well and quick I feel like. Can't believe it's already been 3 weeks since Boss Cross Halloween.

Of course, the first two weeks of November were fucking gorgeous. Many a time I wish I was on my bike, but whatever. Makes me realize that I need to ride as much as I used to when I was 21-22 and when it was nice out, I was out on a bike of some sort. I've also been wanting to run so badly. Amazing how that is when you can't walk...

hopefully stitches are coming out this morning and starting PT soon. I'm aiming to be back strong again by BoneBender in mid-April. Probably not 100% power wise, but I know my aerobic condition's going to get better from all the swimming, stationary bike, and eventually running I'm about to get on the next few months. This broken leg might have actually been a god-send for getting some sort of workout schedule set-up. Selfishly, the past few weeks have been all about me, which I am kind of sad to say I probably don't do enough of. Made me realize some priorities I have are screwed up and that really (even though I knew this all along) being with family/amigos and riding my bike are the best things in the world. I'm lucky to have 2 great bikes and lucky to have the amigos/family I have and I appreciate everything they do for me, truly. You can try to save the world all you want in front of a computer screen in a planning studio, but it leads to a dismal life. Having this discussion with a very beautiful girl made me realize once again that individualism and self-reliance breed isolation and loneliness.

Life is full of hypocrisies...

gotta get to the doc. out.

peace and riding!!!

surgery...

2011-11-07T21:16:00.004-06:00

had surgery friday to repair my right ankle. it went well. ended up with a plate and 8 screws. Not too horrible. Am in some sort of high tech boot/cast thing for the next 2 weeks then hopefully i'll get to move onto an air cast.

Pain level is pretty shitty; I can really feel that plate burning in the leg. Normal unfortunately. Yesterday and today have been the worst, last night especially, after I took out my nerve block. That thing was a god send. I couldn't imagine how much i'd hurt without that on me the first 48 hours after surgery, It was a lifesaver. (basically I had a local anesthetic bag hooked into my knee through a soft catheter that numbed the nerve that transmits pain from the outside lower leg to your brain...aka awesome when you get metal put in to hold you back together). Medical technology is crazy. Doc said before I got cut that I should be riding normal again within 6-8 months. Full strength of before, assuming PT goes well, which I plan on hitting hard. I have a meeting with him in 2 weeks and after than am going to try and convince him to let me swim at least. I can already feel my right leg muscles wasting away and the couple extra pounds that are trying to take over. i have decided this is not an option. period.

halcyon holiday details are here: http://mtbkc.blogspot.com/2011/11/halcyon-holiday-gravel-grinder.html hope to see you there!

peace and riding!!!

boss cross broken leg...

2011-11-03T06:54:00.003-05:00

well I broke my leg, as I'm sure you know by now. Having surgery to put my ankle back together tomorrow morning...joy! Now both my legs will be held together by screws!

Huge thanks to the following peeps:
*first dude who helped me sit up after I ate shit (can't remember your name, sorry),
*Mark Horn who helped carry my broken ass off the course,
*TJ (I think) the Trainer (Trek jacket),
*Jeremy Haynes and Joe Fox for the bitchin course! and support (good to know event promoters got your back),
*Sherri Hahn, USA Cycling official,
*Micah Gordon, Adam Keck and the rest of Team Colavita/Parisi Coffee powered by Volker Bikes (good racing boys!), and finally
*Racer X-Aubree Dock for being my personal ambulance/sitting for hours with me at KU Med waiting on slow ass doctors.

Thank you all for the initial help of getting me off the race course (since juniors and women were starting in about 90 seconds) and to the hospital. It was by far the most physical pain I've ever been in, and I've had a compound fracture, major joint dislocations, complete knee reconstruction, etc, etc.

now for the gory details!

Hadn't even put my kit on yet and was warming up in shorts and a hoodie. Bunny hopped the "barrier" then did the 180 on gravel, hucked the next "barrier" and was flying going in behind the large BMX berm. Well I soon found out that behind that berm was super super dry, loose and off camber. What comes next is a freak accident. Mistake #1, I was going way too fast for a "pre-lap" (I hadn;t seen or ridden the whole course yet), then I feel my front wheel start to wash and feathered my brakes, mistake #2 (should have just let her rip). My entire bike starts to slide out from under me towards the non-drive side/downhill side of the off-camber turn. Now here's where the freak shit comes in and stuff starts happening in slow motion. I feel me going down, ok no biggie, we've all had wheels slide out on us right? (especially cross), well I happened to be on an up-stroke pedal on my drive side leg (right and also uphill side). Somehow the angle that my bike fell was perfect to catch the tip of my foot right in the front triangle of my 29er. The bike continued to slide out downhill while my leg was caught...then basically I felt my leg snap in half. I'd never been so consciously aware of an major injury I was sustaining like at that moment, but as I said, it's like everything was in slow motion. First I felt my fibia snap. Straight up like a twig. Nastiest feeling I've ever experienced. Then I felt all the ligaments tear in half, almost like I was holding a piece of paper tearing it in my hands, but this was happening inside of my leg. By then I was skidding along the ground and remember telling myself as I felt the adrenaline shot hit me "fuck, this is going to hurt really bad in 5 seconds". Laid there, unclipped from the left side of my bike and got rolled off that then the pain hit and I started screaming. Screaming like a little bitch, but ya know, my foot had tried to tear off from my leg, no biggie.

Dudes came and said something about how it might just be a sprain cause sometimes they are worse, I said "ya I know, I've sprained ankles and you usually don't feel your bones or muscles tearing in half." That I think was enough they knew it was serious and they got the idea real quick that I was serious about getting off the course as to not delay any racing. Mark Horn's tall ass basically dragged me off the course over to the trailer where for some reason the best thing to put under my hanging broken leg was cones. Needless to say, I did not enjoy those cones. One of those things you probably had to be there for, but yes, I did not like them one bit.

Laid on the ground for awhile in stupid pain and decided fuck this, I need morphine, stat. Got a ride worked out and Aubree stepped up HUGE! btw-she had also just got 3rd place in the women's open race. total bad-a.

so, surgery manana for screws and a plate, then crutches for the next 6-8 weeks, fully healed in 12-14 (February). Thank god it's winter...I really wasn't looking forward to another season of bike commuting in KC winter. Now I don't have a choice...which sucks.

I also got a real boy job this week! Working for the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) on water quality issues and green infrastructure implementation. 20 hours a week when I have class, 40 when I don't. Good way to get around paying me benefits, but at least I'll have a steady income for this grad school thing I'm getting ready to start...

So, still looking forward to watching cross and drinking beer. I was always best at those anyway :D

peace and riding!!!

fu@k...

2011-10-30T20:24:00.002-05:00

surgery later this week. not good when you don't own a car or have insurance.

peace and riding!!!

roanoke park

2011-10-29T20:19:00.004-05:00

did the first ever group trail work day at roanoke today with myself as trail steward. awesome stuff. very inspiring. join this group to keep up with the latest news:

http://groups.google.com/group/roanoke-park-trails

trail blog here: http://www.roanokeparkkc.org/plans/trails

lots of pics coming. terrain we're working with is awesome, especially once the honeysuckle is gone.

peace and riding!

berryman epic weekend

2011-10-24T13:57:00.012-05:00

not much to report from my race. I continue to suck because of lower back pain. This week that changes. I'm sick of not finishing races.

Went out super hot and came into Brazil Creek at about 59 minutes, 6 minutes up on my time last year. Then basically spent the next 10 miles with lower back spasms every time I tried to put some power out on climbs. Having worked there all summer I knew exactly what section 3 had coming up so I pulled the plug and got a beer from Jim D (Team Trail Monster) and played pit crew the rest of the day for Micah, Clay, and Burnsy.

KC brought the heat with all the usual suspects there: Jesse G Funk, GWiz, TDonn, Sarah W, Justin B, Drew, JonDot, Andrew W. Gabriel, Dr. Dover, Lyle and Cathy, Roger Dodger, Dan Doss, Dave Smith, etc. including Pappy Doug Long:

Plenty of STL Jerks were there too: including Nico and Stevie F. nico won the epic mustache contest and an SE bike on the weekend. steve won best wheelie while racing.

This dude won it finally...5x world champ...also pulled the most baller driving move ever at a stoplight in Cuba...total badass:

Afterwards much beer, BBQ, booze, and candies were consumed for recovery and relaxation by all. It was good.

Thanks to these two boys for going with and congrats on your finishes!

boss cross, 4x, then not racing again until jingle cross probably. gotta get that back better and stronger.

peace and riding!

Berryman Training Ride #2

2011-10-16T09:30:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was stupid long. Longest time I'd been on a MTB in a long time...since last week :) But really, this was easily 15+ more miles than last week, although a lot more pavement.

Rode out to Wyandotte County Lake to hit some trail there...sweetness! Even the bridle trail wasn't horrible and had some STUPID descents and climbs. Super super rocky shit in a couple areas has my asshole puckered on the hardtail with the seat jacked up. Can't believe I didn't OTB.

Found some water out there and lo and behold DanO comes pulling up. We bs with him for a few then Clay gets a wild hair up his ass and wants to ride to the OGG Fest at Shawnee Mission Park. Uhhhhhhhh. Jump back on bridle trail going south around the lake to 91st street then somehow manage to get to SMP and ride a little sneaky and a little red trail then have a much needed re-fuel of a cheesburger, potato chips, and coca-cola. Decide to just head home since we're sitting at 47 miles already, and Clay again gets some wild hair up his ass and wants to take 67th back to antioch where it dead ends and we can pick up 71st. If you've never ridden 67th its part of the weekly KC hill ride...for a reason. Not exactly what I wanted to hit 50 miles into a ride, but damn good training. Gears are fucking awesome too I've decided. It's so nice to be in the perfect gear at all times and the biggest thing for me is recovering. It's vital that I can spin up a hill, then sit and spin for a minute before popping the gears back up and hammering some more. I had only a semi-close call to cramping and that was the last hill from 67th-71st on antioch. Last year, even if I were in a little better aerobic shape, I would have been cramping beyond belief cause I would have been on one gear the entire time. Single speed is hella fun don't get me wrong, I miss my SS MTB everyday...but I don't know what the hell I was doing trying to do 6-12 hour endurance mtb stuff on one and be competitive and/or able to walk after 7 hours.

So that being said, I'm gonna go blow my self up on 40 miles of fixie gravel this afternoon with Micah. Then rest alllllll week (other than TNU) for Berryman to get those legs in tip top shape. I'm feeling pretty damn good about a top-50 range again...still wanna podium in the age group but some fast boys finally did step up and it looks like Schott's gonna have to work for it even harder this year.

peace and riding!!!

berryman training

2011-10-09T03:09:00.004-05:00

Today was the berryman training ride. Micah and Clay rode the whole time with me (plus some while I had to get the back stretched out very badly at swope). Britton also showed up and fucking hammered our asses hard on the road going there and on hills/the not too technical stuff before he disappeared as quick as he had appeared earlier.

I met Micah at the Plaza at 8:55 and Britton showed up right on the dot at 9:00 as we were getting ready to leave actually. He was on a mission on the Trolly Track Trail and Blue River Road getting to Minor Park. We still left at 9:00 and hammered hard to 59th street to meet Clay. Waited for a few minute and he came rolling down the hill finally. Britton then proceeded to put the hammer down. We made it to north Minor Park by 9:35. Micah said we were doing 20+ the whole time. Flying, especially when we hit the pretty much desolate Blue River Road.

Dropped in the very northern part of the river trail and rode that to the Martha Truman culvert and climb where I ran into Cotter. Britton went flying past and continued his hammer fest for a while by himself I guess. Somewhere along the way Micah had taken a wrong turn and Clay had gotten dropped on the Trolly Trail from the stupid pace. I went back to the culvert after talking with both of them and met them there. BK also rolled up at the same time so the group was back together for the first time in awhile. We climbed up to the east side did the first part of BoHaCa then Highline, BoHaCa back, then Basement to Ox Box to the Southern end Wagon-->Serengeti loop. Decided to hit some old school west side, and ended up dropping in behind the Sand Trap (super sneaky) and riding the old railroad bed until the west side sign board, then went down, crossed the river, then rode the river trail back north and out of the park where we took a dirty detour before hitting Blue River Road for the ride north to Swope.

Got to Swope and we had to climb the west side road hill to get some water at the top. That pretty much blew me up hard. Ended up riding about 3 miles of Swope before pulling out of that cause my back was done for. Stretched while Clay and Micah finished their lap then we took off headed back to the Trolly Trail Rode that back to 59th where we parted ways. Clay west, Micah north, and me east up the last hill.

Got home, showered, ate some great food, took a nap and and feeling ok. Back is more sore than my legs for sure. Lots of stretching. Great ride overall. Fun to hit Minor and Swope in the same day, hadn't done that in awhile.

peace and riding!

thanks sc

2011-10-06T17:35:00.002-05:00

peace and riding!!!

more cx photos

2011-10-04T08:09:00.002-05:00

can't get enough of my ugly mug? here ya go...

peace and riding!!!

boss cross #2

2011-10-02T22:07:00.005-05:00

Not much to say about today's race, sick of excuses. I basically suck at cross right now, my hoods are all bent to shit and my front wheel needs trued something bad from eating shit on an off camber corner. Dialed it home for another 1/2 lap after that and pulled out. I probably shouldn't have raced the past two weekends since the shoulder/back weren't 100% from the Labor Day spill still. Whatever. I know what needs to be done now to be ready for October 30 and Boss CX #3.

Here's some pictures from this weekend...

peace and riding!

boss cx 1

2011-10-01T18:29:00.002-05:00

leaked air in my tire for the last 75% of the race. Pretty much killed any chance I had at getting top 50% (which I was comfortably in before I had to sit up and get to the pit before I rolled my tire off the rim). Gonna try the hutch's tomorrow. I'm getting tubeless stuff set-up this week, I'm sick of having flats damn near every cross race. With the varied terrain of every different venue it is impossible to dial in a good PSI with tubes Today was especially hard with dirt, gravel, grass, sand, roots, rocks, you name it we had it today.

great course boss cx boys, keep it up. Raytown BMX course should be kickass on October 30!!! Yep, you read right. Don't wanna miss that one.

I still started hot as hell settling in behind Britton and Kent early then let DanO and Lyles around me after a bit (all 4 of these dudes are on my team). After that I blocked/slowed a few guys down for a couple laps I felt the rear getting super squishy in the corners, got off and sure enough it was definitely a lot lower than I had started with. Got Jon Peck to run a pump to the pit for me, I aired up , got lapped and finished out. At least I can say that. That's about it.

On a good note, I did rip Swope something fierce on Thursday. MTB is still where I'm most comfortable. CX will be better. Just gotta keep working on that short intensity thing. DanO had a good comparison today about CX pace to 6/12 hour MTB pace: "CX pace requires the energy of a 5th grader getting ready to run a race on the playground." Hopefully this shit will pay off at Berryman. Then it's full on CX through MO states.

Tomorrow is another 40 min SS Boss CX race then I'm back on the MTB for a bit on the next two weekends for LONG stuff. Berryman is soon and I want to get in the top-5 under-30. Probably more like top-10 because of the talent that's coming this year to try and take out Schott. Tuesday Universes at Hyde Park this week, then every day between that and the next Tuesday I will be riding MTB as much as possible. I miss trails because I've been CX-ing it up a lot, not smart this time of year when the weather's perfect.

peace and riding!!!

manion's photos

2011-10-01T08:26:00.003-05:00

boss cross 1/2 later this afternoon and tomorrow. 40 min SS races. I'll be bottom 25%. Sad but true.

so enjoy these photos from manion's instead! more to come once people on our team quit copyrighting me :)

peace and riding!

manion's day 2

2011-09-25T19:21:00.004-05:00

today was better. a lot better than yesterday for sure.

SS race started really really well actually. Got into 4th right off the bat and held that for about 2 laps until 2 peeps rolled past while I was gassing out. Laps 3 and 4 were settling in and just riding smart keeping 6th secured. I actually was right on Kent, Britton and Mark's wheel and we opened a teeny gap for the first 1/2 lap, then they ditched me in the Mr. Stitches zig-zags. Dudes climb way better than I do. I hadn't warmed up at all for this race and I regretted it a little cause I was actually doing ok for the first part. Of course, this course suits me probably the most out of anyone who races CX. Very technical and MTB-like. Damn near a short track race (pretty much was without fat tires, which probably would have been better a lot of times). Anyway finished 6th, ok but should probably really be in 4th behind Britton, Kent, and Mark. They're just flat out faster than I am.

CAT 3/4 race started eh cause I was 3rd row back and had just raced the SS. Still managed to squeeze into the top-10 and ride the train for the first 1/2 lap until we hit Mr. Stitches and everyone started breaking up. Still was in the top-10 for 3 laps until my derailer started chunking everywhere, not pretty sounds or shifts so I walked a while, got lapped by the leaders eventually, grabbed the SS out of the pit and finished my last lap for dead last other than those that pulled out. But I finished and probably would have been top-15ish at the end. I know a couple dudes behind me would have caught my ass blowing up the last 2 laps had I ridden them. Oh well, still a great workout. Definitely think I can start hanging towards the front-ish of the packs if I can keep the intensity up for 30-40 minutes instead of 10-15.

Running starts tomorrow. Gonna wake up and do it at 7:30 every morning before classes, maybe. At least for a few days. Tuesday Night Universes. Wednesday night/Thursday night will probably be MTB this week. Saturday/Sunday is Boss Cross 1 & 2 baby. Probably SS only these races too, unless I can figure out how to get two bikes up there.

peace and riding!!!

first cross races...

2011-09-24T19:40:00.002-05:00

out of shape, lungs were on fire after about 2 minutes of both races I did (SS and 3/4). shoulder/chest/back is definitely not 100% healed up yet. SS I started ok, not great by any means. I slowly faded through the first 1.5 laps until I could recover a bit coming out of the spiral of death and hitting pavement/flat grass for a few seconds. Then full throttled the corners leading over to the zig-zags, and of course ended up eating shit hard on an off camber turn on a front tire wash. Twisted the shit out of my bars then rode the last 1/2ish lap with my bars at about a 45* angle to the left. Pulled out after 2 laps (of the 4 lap race) to take aleve and do the 3/4 race in 30 minutes.

3/4 race started really really well. I hit in 4th going through the twisty shit and up through the barriers. Few guys passed me on the back grass straight away cause my mtb 34-11 gearing wasn't big enough to go as fast as fully geared CX boys. Then settled in around 7-8ish through the next few laps until I pulled myself again cause my back/shoulder were toast. Probably a dumb move even trying to race again, but it made me realize I can halfway hang with the top-10ish 3 dudes when I have gears.

Right now I'm good for about 10-15 minutes of CX-type intensity. Not good when races are 30-45 minutes. I think I really am going to try and start running every morning for 30-45 minutes to try and simulate the cardio that cross needs, then hit CX practices hard on Tuesday/Wednesday nights. Have fun long MTB rides in between to keep the endurance and tech skills up. I think running will do a lot though to help.

I've already kind of put myself all in for jingle cross preparation, at least for the next 7ish weeks. I am really not worried about Berryman honestly. Kind of weird...I can go out an pop off 60-75 miles no problem riding at my own pace during endurance events, but get popped in 10 minutes during CX races. Probably something to that...and that's why Todd Wells is ultra badass haha.

peace and riding!!!

fall racing...

2011-09-19T21:45:00.002-05:00

These are races I am fully committed too this fall. I trimmed the schedule a lot to try and hit well for all of these races; i'll especially be trying to build up for Jingle Cross and MO State. Depending on how those go, I may hit chicago on new years and madison for nationals a week later. know enough people in that area that I could probably find a few places to crash.

*September 24 Manion’s Cross
*September 25 Manion’s Cross
*October 1 Boss Cross #1
*October 2 Boss Cross #2
*October 22 Berryman Epic
*October 30 Boss Cross #3
*November 5 360 Cup
*November 6 Boulevard Cup
*November 19 DeStad Cup
*November 20 DeStad Cup
*November 25 Jingle Cross Rock (spectating Friday)
*November 26 Jingle Cross Rock
*November 27 Jingle Cross Rock
*December 3 Boss Cross #4
*December 4 Missouri State Cyclocross Championships
*December 17 Halcyon Holiday Gravel Grinder

may hit a few more, may hit one or two less of these...hope to see you there!

peace and riding!

looking ahead

2011-09-19T09:38:00.004-05:00

well, i might actually start to really trai for once in my life for a couple of upcoming events I have already committed myself too, haha. Berryman Epic is a month away and I'm feeling about 75/25 confidence for that one. 60ish miles with 48 or so on single track with LOTS of climbing (about 125+foot/mile on the single track, about 100 foot/mile overall). Did well last year, 7th in the age group. Looking to crack that top-10 again, hopefully top-5 if everything goes smoothly.

I also registered for Jingle Cross Rock. Maybe you've heard of it. 3 races in 2 days for me (SS Saturday, SS x2 Sunday). Damn good deal too..pre reg on for those 3 races were a cool $72. Berryman alone was $69 after fees. Of course, I'll ride twice as far at berryman in a day than I will race at jingle. I'm more going for the party and to block for teammates :) Really though, with the cx scene we have here coming up, it'll be easy to hit race situation training 4x a week (Tuesday night Universes, Swayze, Sat/Sun races). Throw in recovery Monday, and MTB on most Wednesday (Pirate) and all Thursday (Swope) nights, Friday total rest. I think I'm gonna try to start running 2-4 miles every morning too before school to get the metabolism burning hard. I've been shedding more weight slowly since the big summer drop, mainly due to diet changes. Less alcohol needs to be the next step and I think I can get 10 more lbs off my gut pretty easily by jingle cross. That would be badass and I'm probably just wishful thinking, especially since cold weather/short days is about to hit and depression will set in. Ahhhh, nature.

anyone want to race ft. collins and/or louisville?

Peace and riding!!!

season of change...

2011-09-12T13:04:00.005-05:00

check this out: http://mtbkc.blogspot.com/2011/09/tuesday-night-universes.html

been riding a lot at swope and the on the "river route" road ride on the fixie. kind of alternating between super intense short (hour or so) training for CX and long 4-7 hour sustained efforts still for RIM, Burning at the Bluff and Berryman Epic. I've decided to do RIM as a training race for 12 hours. This years focus is Berryman and getting top 5 in the under-29 category. As long as I have my rear wheel issues solved by then I should be golden hopefully.

Speaking of my rear wheel issues...BK and I tried to use some lighter gauge (and lighter weight) spokes for my rear wheel build. Well, unfortunately I ride like a maniac and destroy shit at a higher rate than the normal user. Those that saw my rear wheel at Swope know what I'm talking about. After a re-build and a few truings/tension fixes it still keeps going out every time I try to shred trail. The light gauge spokes are just too flimsy for my fat ass monster trucking through gnar. Hopefully the new heavier gauge spokes we're putting on this week will solve the problems. I think it will.

swope has been primo. Had a nice little spill on jaw breaker on labor day monday and separated my shoulder. that sucked and still kind of hurts but isn't killing my riding too badly. hit the trails a couple times and definitely notice the pain in the shoulder, collarbone, and neck area. Lots of aleve has been helping a little. hit minor park a couple weeks ago too...shit is in great shape right now, do it.

love the cooler weather but not looking forward to the freezing cold to come soon. looking forward to CX but gonna miss mtb.

pretty sure i'm in for grad school for this january at umkc. should be ok as long as i figure out how to pay for it.

peace and riding!!!

school.

2011-08-24T20:00:00.001-05:00

i'm never gonna finish.

working on the roanoke master plan...hopefully done by the first..we'll see.

29er is ready to rip swope tomorrow. see you there.

peace and riding!

all in for berryman...

2011-08-18T08:43:00.002-05:00

so spoke pony sucked. I was in 2nd (thought I was in first) in my age group after the first lap, then my rear wheel blew up. All 32 spokes. not pretty. I had a 3 mile hike out then pulled the plug and drank beer. still got 4th though.

so monday a few of mi amigos and I decided to ride to lawrence, starting in the downpour at about 10 am. first 2 hours were in pouring rain. Quite epic. Once we got out to olathe though and out of town, the sunny skies opened up and the gravel road sections on 143rd street were perfect. Got to lawrence and went straight to free state. good stuff. I rode the cross bike, fixie at 34-13. and we rode with our backpacks full of gear for 3 days. my back and kneew were toasted.

yesterday (wed) we came back. It was slow going, especially for the other 3 guys. They were still hurting bad from monday. I finally had to take off the last 5-6 miles cause I was only grinding that thing over at 35-40 rpm tops and my knees were screaming to actually spin it out. That felt good.

CX fixie bike on gravel is so fun. for me it's probably 1) mtb, 2) CX, 3) gravel grinder fixie style. Although I do enjoy them all immensly, i would rail single track every day though if I could. CX is fun when trails go to shit. and gravel is great when cx is done. my 3 seasons.

getting signed up for berryman right now...fuck ya.

peace and riding!!!

new build

2011-08-09T02:48:00.000-05:00

thanks to volker bikes!!!

peace and riding!!!

ozark wrap/life thoughts

2011-08-07T07:35:00.004-05:00

back home. awesomeness. Got back Thursday afternoon. Rode Swope Thursday night, then had minsky's and PBR. home is the best.

The week prior to getting back I had spent camping in far southeastern Missouri, nearing Arkansas, doing work on the southern sections of the OT. Work was ok, really really hot (100+ everyday) and really really overgrown trail. One day was an epic 8 mile hike/trim with a couple other guys. Not the most fun of things but making skrilla is the name of the game.

Anyway, the area we were staying in was first in Eminance, Missouri on the Jack's Fork River, then at Big Springs National Park on the Current River. Absolutely beautiful area, crystal clear free flowing streams, huge old(er) growth forest, turquoise springs, caves, cliffs, etc, etc etc. The entire week I didn't take ONE pedal stroke. It was pretty sad, but most of the time we were working 5-1 or 2 and it was time to sit in the river when were done cause by then it was usually 105-110*. Making camp fires to cook really sucks when its already a billion degrees. Should have just brought salads for all week. hamburgers and failed mac and cheese were getting pretty old by the end of the week.

Got damn close to hitting a century...finished with 96 miles of trail trimmed that I was a part of. Also build some trail reroutes, creek crossings, did a turnpike, debermed with a mini skid steer, lopped/sawed many many branches/trees across the trail (all by hand :/), and did an insane amount of planning and logistical work to make everyday happen. HUGE Thanks to Aaron B for giving me something to do this summer. and to Mason to coming down to work with me after a few weeks...I would have gone insane had I been there the ENTIRE time by myself.

So 2 months of my life is gone and really in the long run I have nothing to show for it other than a couple things I may remember the rest of my life (5 hour long float trip with cliff jumping after our last day of work will be one of those). I had a lot of time to think while out in the woods the past 2 months; some times good, some not so great. It's lonely and extremely isolating being virtually in the middle of the backcountry for that long. Half the time we were at least staying in the Potosi house, but the other half where we worked/camped were mentally and physically exhausting.

I guess I'm just getting old and really actually starting to come to terms with it. My high school sweetheart (does anyone really still use that shit? I guess I do) is getting married. My YOUNGER brother is about to have his SECOND kid. My sister is 4 years younger than I am and we're both graduating college this year then starting grad school hopefully, me in December, her in May. I'm 25 years old but feel like I should be 19 still chilling with my boys everyday smoking a ton of herb not caring about a damn thing in the world. But that's over, I don't hang with those guys anymore, they've all got real jobs mostly away from here now, I'm not high 24-7 anymore. I've finally come to terms with how my father was murdered on my 19th birthday, how I had to drop out of college 3x before being able to start back up at 21, how I had to take care of my brothers and sisters when I was 19 years old, play up the stone face/no emotion to be the rock for the family all the while dying inside, how my girlfriend of 3 years during all of this just turned her back on me, how I lost 2 college wrestling opportunities (and the opportunity to get my education paid for). Life sucks ass sometimes, but honestly I can really say I have it good. I love life and wouldn't change a damn thing about it. The times I have with the people I love and who love me are really all that matter in the end anyway (unless you do something crazy enough to be put in a history book and be taught to second graders). Riding my MTB ripping a trail is the best time in the world to me, especially being able to do it with some buddies.

/rant over.

peace and riding!

trail work

2011-07-31T17:11:00.003-05:00

As most all know I have been spending the summer in the Missouri Ozarks working on and maintaining the Ozark Trail.

I am wrapping up my last week here with a trip down south near the Arkansas border. The past two evenings were spent in Eminance, MO on the Jack's Fork River. Absolutely beautiful. The whole area reminded me a lot of the Smokey Mountains, especially when we went up to a ridge and watched a rainstorm come in to the valley last night. Very very cool.

This is an area we worked on last week while Aaron Browning, Landahl Trail Manager, was here. Too bad there's no pic of me on the mini skid-steer I got to play on :) We built a little turnpike to get through a boggy, horsed up area.

For those interested, basically we lined both sides of the trail with large boulders then laid down some strips of geofabrication in the boggy soil to help firm it up and hold everything in place. We used a smalle culvert pipe to direct water drainage, then a layer of gravel/sand (local creek bed dredge), then a layer of geofabric with 2 ends out on either side as to fold it over. More gravel, "sausage" the geofabric, then more gravel/sand on top and soil if you can find any around to sprinkle/mix in on the very top. Doing it this way builds the trail surface up 1-2 feet, so excavation isn't needed. It is fairly easy to do if materials are readily available and looks pretty cool when done.

As of my count today, I have 325+ hours working and 82 miles of trail trimmed since I've been here. Throw in a few days of creek crossing building and bench cutting and it's been a great summer for learning tons about trail building and maintenance. Hopefully it will pay off with Roanoke this fall. I am looking forward to it.

My last week here will be spend at working down south some more and staying at Big Springs National Rec Area in the Ozark National Scenic Riverways. We already dropped camp there before having to come back to Potosi for another worker (hence why you get a rando blog post) and will be making the long drive back tonight as soon as he gets here. I plan on not a lot of sleep this week between work, and hopefully a few rides and at least one float on the Current River.

peace and riding!

bike riding time

2011-07-27T19:46:00.004-05:00

Potosi super loop

Find more Cycling Routes / Bike Rides in Potosi, MO

has every terrain type imaginable for Missouri. good stuff to dig around the house for a quick loop. even though today i stopped twice to down complete bottles of water.

upcoming stuff includes:

spoke pony showdown at swope, 6 hour, <29 male solo.

Cruise the Blues 5 hour team with my brother. May cause Dizziness needs to defend its title. And I have fastest loop time 2 years running for the shorter loop. Gonna be real fast this year with gears.

Slaughter Pen Jam, maybe. If anyone else is interested let me know.

SAC River 12 hour Goodtime MTB race, solo male. This may be a maybe too so I can save funds for later CX racing.

September 17/18: Dogfish Cross in Hermann

Rapture in Misery 12 hour solo male <29. September, with gears. Yes.

October 1/2 Boss Cross!!

Burning at the Bluff 12 hour solo male. This is a must do race. Council Bluffs trails are awesomely dope.

October 15: Big Roanoke Park Workday

Berryman Epic!!!!!!

Then full on cx baby. Maybe even do SS nationals @ Madison if stuff works out right.

Back in KC next weekend. Hope to make First Fridays at the Volker 18th and Wyandotte Shop. Best shop in town.

Ride at Swope Sunday anyone???

peace and riding!

more stl...

2011-07-22T22:18:00.001-05:00

brommelsiek video

2011-07-20T20:50:00.004-05:00

This is from the start...thanks to BULLDOG.

Still pic pulled from vid:

I flash by at around 0:35 in 4th position of the sport class start. Notice the amount of guys behind me. I would stay ahead of all of them, plus pass the Mizzou dude in front of me to finish 3rd overall sport, 2nd in 20s class. 1 & 2 in the hole shot were also 1/2 overall in sport and 1 & 1 respectively in 20s and 30s classes. Not bad for not having gears.

Notice the RPM I'm spinning at compared to everyone else. Good stuff.

Peace and riding!!!

st. louis circles

2011-07-18T08:32:00.003-05:00

Awesomely epic weekend in st. louis. And I got 2nd place on my single speed against the dudes with gears.

Friday evening had Mason and I rolling out of Potosi to get up to the lou. Got there and met up with a friend, Mr. Andrew Graff. He and I decided we needed to drink a 1/5 of vodka and we decided that Castlewood State Park would be a great place to do that. So we hiked in a little on the trail, found a sweet ass bluff overlooking the extremely swollen Missouri river, then proceeded to get schwasty faced. Good times. Pretty sure we ended up at a Quik Trip at some point for $0.69 fountain drinks and 2 for $2 hot dogs. Ahhhh, not too different from home :)

Andrew left us around 10:00 to go see Harry Potter with some ladies so we headed towards the Arch. I had never seen it that up close, only from highways passing by. It's pretty insane; hell of an engineering marvel that's for sure. The whole area reminded me of downtown Kansas City actually. Glitzy, upscale, surely overpriced bars/restaurants slowly creep to extreme ghettoness, then slowly creeps back to the ultra nice. Ah, old cities are pretty cool. Plus is was cool to be on the Mississippi riverfront for awhile. Think the Missouri is swollen? Ya, all that water plus a lot more dumps into the Mississippi. Crazy to see a river that large.

Any who, we were planning on trying to bum a camp down by the Mississippi riverfront and found out real quick that wasn't happening. So we decided to try to find a place along the Missouri out towards St. Charles. After a few hikes/scouting looks, we found the craziest place ever to set up camp. 40 feet from the swollen river, in the floodplain still, standing water everywhere from flooding that was in the area within the last 2 weeks. But it gets better...under a railroad bridge along HWY 370 as it crosses the river. Total hobo camp. It was badass, other than waking up 3x during the 4 hours of sleep I got because of locomotives roaring over the top of us. However, how many people can say they've seen the bottom of a moving train because they were sleeping under it? I can.

We broke down camp around 7 am to get out of there before we were spotted by the locals. Ended up driving through downtown St. Charles and I saw a sign for a bike shop cafe. We took a quick u-turn and stopped to check it out and hopefully get some real food in us. The Second Street Bike Stop Cafe was by far one of the coolest places I'd ever been too. Where else can you order an egg/cheese/peppers/onions wrap, an iced vanilla latte and buy new Ergon integrated bar end grips, all at 7:30 am from the same nice lady? No place in Kansas City, that's for damn sure. Pretty sweet to see the right side of the shop with bike gear/mechanics stand, and the left side full of food and coffee making equipment. Damn good food too. I recommend the Juarez wrap.

Didn't have too much to do, so we headed for Klondike Park, since I was told that it is the must ride trail of the area. I rode a quick, very short lap and got the first flat I'd had in 4-5 months, damn! Tried changing it and the tube I had had a hole in it from stuffing it in on top of my multi-tool, arghhhh. Last tube from the racing stash and I got it back up and going. Mason took a quick spin on the plastic big wheel (my 29r) and ended up crashing coming down from the top of the hill. BIke was all good, Mason's wrist not so much. Very swollen...more on this.

Andy Mac ended up meeting us out there around noon and he and I spun a lap on the east side of the park, using the Katy Trail to connect us back to the park's west side. Klondike trails are pretty sweet, nothing too redic. A couple skinnies, a couple extremely well built teeter-totters, and a nice platform jump that you can get anywhere from 4-10 feet of air off of depending on how east you hit it. I did the smaller 2 foot rock drop off to the left side. Wish I had some rear travel sometimes, or not such a nice bike so I wouldn't feel bad on the inevitable crash. Ok, both of those are lies. Except I would kill for a carbon enduro from specialized. sickkkkkk.

After ripping some trail for awhile we headed back into the burbs and grabbed some chinese buffet around 3:00 pm. I murdered some food in preparation for Sunday, since I still had not decided what class to enter in. We then went to Ft. Zumuwalt park where Andy Mac and I jammed some guitars and I blew on a little harp action as well. It was good, damn good. Around 6:00 we started heading back towards Klondike where we were sitting up camp for the night. After a stop at a bike shop for tubes/GU, Wal-Mart for dinner, and a quick check of Brommelseik, we were back at Klondike. I got the tent up and was out by 9:00 pm I bet. Slept like a baby. Best I'd slept all summer while out camping. It was good stuff for sure.

Woke up about 6:45 hearing Mason get into the car. I still hadn't decided what class to race, so we got camp torn down and headed to Brommelseik. Got there around 8 am and I got registered...for the CAT 2, 20-29 class. Racing the single speed against the boys with gears. I didn't have the highest hopes, but was gonna give it my best. It was absolutely insane seeing how many people came out for this race, and especially all the lady racers!!! Hot chicks on sick bikes? Yes please.

Watched a little marathon class and beginner class. Did a pre-lap. This course was gonna be super super fast. 100% throttle the whole time. 4.5 miles, not really much technical with a few short steepish climbs. the 34-20 gearing on the jamis was perfect. Marathon guys were cranking out 20-23 minute laps for the fastest guys, so I was hoping to throw down in there somewhere about. I had some amazing pre-race nutrition of a nutella sammich, nut-tritous bar from Planters, gummy life savers, some jet blackberry gu, some margerita clif shot blocks, and a ton of water/gatorade. oh, and half a red bull. I was ready.

Got a nice little 10 minute warm-up in actually before they called us to staging. Did a little 3 minute spin to get the legs loose, then did some short sprint intervals just to peg my cadence and heart rate for a bit, then 3 minutes of spin around again to keep fresh. CAT 1 guys/gals/singlespeeders started before us and I got a great position on the line, middleish towards the inside. I knew the hole shot would be vital for the sketchy creek crossing we had to hit very soon. Gun went and I had a little trouble getting my left leg clipped in but finally found the clip and pedaled my ass off to hit the hole shot in 4th behind 2 other guys in my age group and a 30-something year old guy. I was soon up to 3rd, 2nd in my age, since the Mizzou dude directly in front of me bobbled in the creek and wiped out making the turn up the gravel climb. I punched the climb and all of a sudden the 3 of us up front were opening up a huge gap. Mizzou latched back on about 1/4 of the way through and sucked my wheel for about 1/2 a lap. I let him around me in a grassy section so I could return the favor and get pulled through 1 of the 2 LONG sections of prairie trail. Anyone who has ridded Palen's farm (cruise the blues), Brommelseik is the st. louis version. Mizzou dude and I were neck and neck going through start finish where Mason gave me a hand-up of a gu and a fresh bottle of ice cold water. I think this kind of took some wind out of Mizzou dude's sails since I heard him mumble something to me about the handups (he was wearing a black camelback...it was hot, not the best choice.) He ended up bobbling through the creek again, so I punched the climb again and really got the heart rate pegged up and started flowing like crazy. Somewhere in the mix, not really sure where, Mizzou dude started bonking and a CBC guy from another class got on my wheel, as well as another dude who was in my class. I asked them if I could suck their wheel through the 1st grassy section and they obliged. Awesome! problem was the dude in my class stated pulling away from CBC and I...no good, oh well, still sitting 3rd in class, 5th overall. Second lap had a lot of passing singlespeed class guys, cat 1 women, and marathon peeps. Awesome course for passing though, even in the wooded sections.

So I come through start/finish again, Mason hands me another gu and fresh bottle and I'm off again in front of CBC who had stopped to self-handup. Settle in behind a couple single speeders who are ripping at about the perfect pace I want to be. I suck their wheels the rest of the lap and finish the 13.5 miles in 1:08.47. Damn!

First impressions were, I finished and got 3rd, 4th overall in cat 2. Didn't blow up, ever have to stop, and only bobbled my bike once trying to put a bottle back in the cage during a grassy section. Found out the other dude from my class who had passed me earlier flatted out! So I finished 2nd on the day, 3rd overall CAT 2. Every other person in CAT 2 had gears. What up st. louis! hahahahahaha. I finished 4 minutes off our age group/overall cat 2 winner. not bad. I think with gears I win that race easily. After peeping times, my laps would have put me on the podium for the SS class as well. Extreme confidence booster, especially since this was my first real race of the year. I was just surprised that my heart didn't explode. working/training down here in the forest is starting to pay off :)

So no pics yet, but there will be hopefully. Tons of people out snapping stuff and got the coolest plaque for an award! You gotta see it to believe it. It involves cedar wood, co2 cartridges, and mtb tires. It looks sweet!

After the race, we ended up in the hospital. Mason's hand was swollen like crazy. Looks like it's not broken, but lots of tendon/ligament damage. Epic trips aren't so until you make a trip to the hospital...check.

By then it was 6:30 and I had eaten nothing all day but the aforementioned pre-race nutrition. Found a bar/grill, got an ice cold 22 oz beer and a chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and gravy. Yep heaven. Gassed up and headed back to Potosi and the OTA house.

great trip. great times with great people. special shout out to Mason for the handups during the race. They were perfect and absolutely vital for me finishing the way I did.

so st. louis doesn't suck so badly. I'd like to take another trip/two up there sometime soon to do a few other things we didn't get to do...six flags, the zoo, cardinals game, riding other places, dirt jumping, etc. One day.

peace and riding!!!

this weekend...

2011-07-14T20:06:00.002-05:00

racing brommelsiek this weekend...hopefully. mason just came in and said his car is overheating...great. I really can't take another weekend stuck in potosi.

i realized today how mundane my summer life has become, because I have basically put myself into indentured servitude in order to pay hospital bills and loans. Not having health care for 7+ years caught up with me finally. Although...which is worse? about 4 grand in hospital/dr bills, or the monthly payments I would have made for the past 7 years at who knows $$$ a month. That shit isn't cheap when you're trying to buy it privately. but anyway, enough of the health care rant.

i realized this all because I was thinking about it and I haven't been on my bike 1 second for over a week. After spending 8-10 hours a day in the heat with a weedeater, camelback, 2 water bottles, 3 bottles of gas, 3 necessary tools, and a spool of trimmer line strapped to your back it kind of kills your motivation to do anything but sit in the air conditioning after work, eat a ton of calories and drink a ton of water to revive yourself, and zone out watching internet TV/videos. I really can see how people can be so lazy at their homes. I am glad I caught myself in this though. It seems it's only when we're not out in the forest camping that I get extremely lazy. Technological temptations and climate control take over the time I should be riding or writing/learning new music or other stuff. Next week is another camp week. Hopefully it will mean more fun activity and less vegging out after work. Camping at Council Bluffs last week was great. We paddled/spillway jumped one night, I rode another, and played guitar the third night. Lot more productive than burning through hulu...or writing a blog post about nothing.

I guess I just needed to vent about racing. i am ready to race some mtb stuff, but have no real desire to train, especially push myself to high intensity stuff like I need to be. I've only done one race this year, the Dirty Kanza, and that didn't turn out well. Now I need to decide if I want to race marathon, single speed or sport class this weekend. I'm leaning towards sport to see how I do on the SS in the 19-29 sport class, and so I can hopefully get some upgrade points to get up to cat 1 soon and really get my ass whooped.

peace and riding!!!

go do this.

2011-07-08T21:44:00.002-05:00

do this: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=212965835412663

it'll be awesome. kind of thinking about going back to town for it and borrowing a road bike...probably not though. I can ride 115 miles of single track one way down here. Plus there's a hell of a lot more climbing here anyway :) and the now 26 mile berryman loop, the council bluffs lake loop (which by the way...more in a sec), middlefork loop, endless gravel and fire roads to make loops out of, st joe state park with tons of trails 20 miles away by gravel/pavement, blah blah blah. too bad most days i'm so worn out from working that when i do go ride i feel pooptastic.

so council bluffs lake. rode the loop this week one night while we were camping there for work. god damn, that is a 12 mile loop. ripping contour trail, stupid steep and long climbs and decents, buttery smooth trail, walk-through technical stuff (and I pride myself of riding any technical line, I probably can out there on fresh legs and/or with gears or an easier SS gearing), gravel road, double track, a short stretch of paved trail by the beach. It was a bit bushy, especially to KC standards, so that definitely made it that more interesting trying to see lines and up the trail. you definitely have to keep your shit up though or you will fall in the lake, the trail is literally that close in a few areas. Burnin' at the Bluff 12 hour just popped up on my radar big time. Perfect place for a 12 hour race. it has everything you ask for in a great mtb loop. Recovery sections seem to magically appear just when you need them. Can't wait for that with a 1x9 in october...heaven.

don't forget about the courtois challenge.

peace and riding!

brazil creek

2011-07-04T12:25:00.003-05:00

Ben McCall came down saturday and rode around with me for awhile. He realized pretty quick it's a lot (a lot) different than kc riding.

mccall ride

Find more Cycling Routes / Bike Rides in Steelville, MO

there's what we did. Started at berryman campground and went east on the berryman loop towards brazil creek. Made it about a mile before stopping the first time, then another mile, then another, hahaha. climbing's a little different out here :) Got to 5ish miles and a gravel road and I asked Ben if he was ready for our first detour of the day. Took a couple miles of ridgeline gravel/fire road around a couple big single track climbs up from the creek bottoms then jumped back in for the last couple miles of flatish singletrack to the brazil creek campground. Ben was pretty concerned after I told him we were at least 9 miles from the car by roads, and about 15 by singletrack hahaha. So we did a horrible paved climb up W, then jumped back on gravel going back towards the berryman campground. Rode until Fire Road 2607 and jumped back in to do the last few miles of single track back to Berryman. ben was pretty spent, and actually (very very suprisingly) I was feeling amazing. got back to the campground and he headed back to kc. that's a hell of an epic day. KC-->Berryman-->KC all in one day. f that.

I actually feel great right now too and will probably go for a little spin this afternoon for 3-4 hours to keep the legs fresh for castlewood next weekend. I'm gonna race the 3 hour marathon on my singlespeed. hopefully i can show some stl peeps what up. In all reality if I placed in the top 50% I'd be happy.

peace and riding!!!

st. joe state park

2011-06-30T19:49:00.003-05:00

Went over to St. Joe State Park yesterday for some riding action while Mason fished. No good map and no help from the rangers left me exploring. Ended up riding singletrack, double track, gravel road, fire road, atv trail, hare scramble trail, tailings dunes, and paved trail. Stupid steep climbs, and pucker factor downhills with some ripping stuff along the ridges. All in all it was fun. I rode for 3+ hours and never even got close to riding probably 25% of what is packed in that 8500 acres. The old mine areas are pretty cool too.

Here are some more "abstract water color paintings" for you to enjoy. Maybe someday I'll have a real camera, or at least a cell phone that takes ok pics.

peace and riding!!!

new stuff...

2011-06-29T10:29:00.003-05:00

ordering up gears and a new fork for the plastic bike. hopefully it'll make me faster in long races/allow me to survive longer. xo twister shift, x9 derailluer, pg-970 11-34 cassette, new rear stan's wheel, and it's looking like a fox rlc 29r fork...mmmmmmmm.

thanks to bk for the hook-up through countless e-mails. he's the best shop sponsor a team can have. stupid good team deals and great communication. he's a nice dude too.

time to get to work so i can pay for all this shit...

peace and riding!!

meeting celebrities

2011-06-27T18:37:00.002-05:00

...of cycling blogs. That's right folks, I Brett Shoffner, met Casey F. Ryback of Team Segal fame this evening and enjoyed a wonderful authentic Mexican meal in his presence. I was so awe struck by his wit that I barely said anything, plus we showed up a few minutes late, I had weed-eated all day, and was filling my face full of chips and wonderful steak chile verde cause I was starving.

and dude knows his movie quotes. This I am 100% serious about. Knew a Top Gun reference on the spot. Amazing.

be jealous.

The Manimal, Jesse G, and Nick V of Epic Cycling fame were also here. They all rode middlefork today and crashed at the OTA house last night. It was good to see some KC locals. The forest gets pretty lonely.

peace and riding!!!

one of the few times in my life...

2011-06-25T14:26:00.008-05:00

...I wish I had a road bike. Although I did hit some nasty gravel in a few spots. 95% was pavement though, not the smoothest, but 2.2 mtb tires at 45 psi don't roll very fast.

potosi north loop

Find more Cycling Routes / Bike Rides in Potosi, MO

Did this in about 2-2.5 hours with a gas station stop a little over halfway through for a $0.69 bottle of grape vess and a king sized peanut butter twix (aka saturday bunch). not bad for a SS mtb geared 34-20 with aforementioned tires and PSI. Road bike would kick ass around here though, I'm not gonna lie. Here's some more craptastic cell phone pics for you to enjoy...saw some pretty cool shit today, including 4-5 mine tailings lakes...one was damn near glowing green...weird!

potosi correctional center...this is where the state of missouri used to kill people...literally.

mineral point, mo...population 384.

this road was paved...but about as smooth as gravel.

downtown potosi.

potosi prison entrance, probably can't see the 4 foot of razor wire on top of the fences.

yep, sickness.

peace and riding!!!

off road season...

2011-06-25T00:22:00.004-05:00

Looks like I might actually start racing before too long...only real thing I've done this year is Dirty Kanza and local gravel grinders. Hopefully the $$$ works out and I can do most of these. Most def hitting Spoke Pony, Cruise the Blues, RIM, Burning at the Bluff, Berryman, Boss CX series, 360/Boulevard Cups, DeStad Cups, and the Halcyon Holiday. I would really like to hit either jingle cross to chicago cross too, we'll see how broke I am by then.

July 9 Castlewood 3 hour
July 17 Brommelseik Challenge 3 hour
July 23 Courtois Challenge
August 13 Spoke Pony Showdown 6 hour
August 20 Earthriders Spiderfest @ Smithville Lake
August 27 Cruise the Blues 5 hour
September 3 Slaughter Pen Jam
September 10 Sac River 12 hour
September 17 Hermann CX
September 18 Hermann CX
September 21 Gateway Cross Cup
September 24 Rapture in Misery 12 hour
October 1 Boss CX 1
October 2 Boss CX 2
October 8 Burning at the Bluff 12 hour
October 15 ROANOKE PARK BIG WORK DAY
October 16 Lawrence CX
October 22 Berryman Epic
October 30 Boss CX 3
November 5 360 Cup
November 6 Boulevard Cup
November 12 Louisville USGP CX
November 13 Louisville USGP CX
November 19 DeStad Cup
November 20 DeStad Cup
November 25 Jingle Cross
November 26 Jingle Cross
November 27 Jingle Cross
December 3 Boss CX 4
December 10 Capitol Cup
December 11 Capitol Cup
December 17 Halcyon Holiday Gravel Grinder
December 31 Chicago CX
January 1 Chicago CX
January 6-8 USAC Nationals-Wisconsin

peace and riding!!!

around potosi...

2011-06-24T06:50:00.004-05:00

check this out: http://mtbkc.blogspot.com/2011/06/courtois-challenge.html

only crappy cell phone pics today from some fire road/gravel grinding around potosi. Glad I have a 34-20 on for those brutal ass climbs! I bet one yesterday I accessed to do work was at least 2 miles up at 15-25% the whole time.

peace and riding!!!

trail berries...

2011-06-21T17:22:00.003-05:00

found these blackberries in full glory today...

tons of them down here...blueberries too!!! Nothing like extremely natural berries for a quick pick me up while trimming the bush.

since there's no right click on this mouse I had to print screen and crop this pic, probably horrendous quality. I might end up doing it with the few other potosi shots I have just to get them up and out of my inbox.

and it's looking like I'll be here all summer. Don't know what is up with the grant I got this summer, still hasn't paid out and it's 3 weeks late...Hopefully I can come home for the fourth at least and watch some Tour of Lawrence, aka birth place of colavita lovin!

peace and riding!!!

middlefork!

2011-06-19T09:25:00.002-05:00

Everything you've ever heard about middlefork, it's true. Definitely one of the most badass places I've ever ridden.

Most of our camp/ride weekend ended up being a wash-out :/

Thursday night we had a little shower move through, nothing too bad, just a few sprinkles. We arose at 6:30 am Friday morning, ughhh, and chilled around and made some breakfast for a couple hours. By 9:00 am we were off to ride from the Council Bluffs campground to Barton's Fen along the Middlefork section of the Ozark Trail.

The small section of the Council Bluffs trail we did get to ride was sweet! Single speeds only on this badboy, its ripping contour trail the whole time. unfortunately, the entire lake loop was never completed due to stormage, and the lake loop was also pretty overgrown...tons of ticks and chiggers this weekend :/

So we took the part of the Lake trail to the Ozark connection, then hopped on trace creek going south, until the middlefork split. Went straight for the gold and middleforked it for another 1/2 mile or so, then the climbing began. Ridge, then descent. Then climb, ridge, then descent. Climb, ridge, descent, repeat about 10-12 times, literally. We got to the HWY 49 before Andy Mac started feeling it pretty good, so we took some gravel/pavement back a bit to DD thinking it would be less climbing, wrong. Same climbing, now just no switchbacks. Thankfully from DD back to the Lake there is only 1 climb, then it is basically flat/downhill the whole way along the creek bottoms. We ended up riding about 26-27 miles total, over 5 hours, with two long snack breaks, and lunch thrown in as well. Definitely not the fastest/hardest ride I've ever done, but it was for Andy Mac, he was toast when we got back to camp. I think he passed out around 8:30 and stayed asleep the whole night until 7 am the next day, when the huge storm rolled in. Oh, got a couple pics too but am waiting on an e-mail so I can get them up...good stuff!

Saturday morning had me waking up to rain drops coming through the tent, I scrambled blind and half dressed to get the rain fly back on and thankfully did just was it opened up hard. About 2 inches of rain over 2-3 hours...lame. We decided to say f it cause everything we had was soaked and we knew the overgrowth on the lake loop would not be fun all wet. plus no dry wood = no campfire = no breakfast. Kind of hard to ride without fuel. Came back to Potosi and made some eggs and B&g's...absolutely amazing shit when you've been out for a couple days, went through a couple rains and stink beyond civilized acceptability. Hot showers are really awesome too.

After that we "ruraled" around Potosi. There are actually some pretty sweet ass drops, skinnies, walls, etc to hit in this broken down lead town. plus every other road is gravel, so that's not bad :) Andy Mac headed out and I was again alone here in the OTA house. Boring to say the least when there is only a computer and you have $0 left. Of course it rained another inch last night, really don't feel like weedeating through moist shit all day...

Nature Valley is on live though in about 2 hours...thankfully something halfway fun to watch...too bad it's not mtb racing.

peace and riding!!!

council bluffs lake

2011-06-16T01:34:00.003-05:00

going to cbl tomorrow (later today I guess, shit I need to go sleep) after trimming some coutois section of the ozark trail. Gonna do the lake shore loop, trace creek, and john roth/middle fork.

hopefully andy mac brings a camera. I'm fucking psyched to ride and take a good couple days off after 48.5 hours the past 5 days and probably another 6-8 trimming tomorrow. good news is the bench cutting muscles are back up to par :)

peace and riding!!!

ozark trail

2011-06-13T22:35:00.003-05:00

So, everything came together extremely last minute last Friday and I have been and will be in/around Potosi, Missouri for the rest of this month. Anyone who knows the area knows that Potosi is home to the Ozark Trail Association and the Berryman National Recreation Trail. I am down here doing work--sustainable re-routing and yearly trimming. 17 more days left :/

I have my bike so that's not terrible, although I've only been out on "urban" rides (as urban as Potosi gets) and one pavement/gravel ride that was interesting, to say the least. Got some crappy cell phone pics, but they'll have to wait b/c this computer's mouse has no right click function (extremely annoying). Andy Mac is coming in from the Lou this weekend too so we can rip it...haven't totally decided on Council Bluffs Lake or the Berryman Loop..I wanna do CBL, I've heard it's badass, plus it connects into the Ozark Trail-John Roth/Middlefork and Trace Creek sections. We'll see.

So like SC, I am on a bit of a "hiatus"...not really, but I probably won't post much for the rest of the month...especially since I can't get pics uploaded. No TV here, but thankfully there is a computer so I can halfway kill my brain after working 10 hours/day. Watching the Tulsa Tough live feeds was pretty sweet Friday and Saturday nights. Too bad MTB racing isn't broadcast as often as I'd like.

If you wanna tour some Ozark Trail or come mine some lead, hit me up, I'll be around.

Peace and riding!!!

dirty kanza recap

2011-06-05T13:22:00.002-05:00

well not much to say, we only made it about 90 miles before I pulled out like a bitch. The heat stroke from a few weeks ago obviously was lingering around a bit...

So Clay and I head down to Emporia at about 5:45 Friday night, roll into the Granada Theatre, Emporia around 7:30, get our packets, grab some jimmy johns, attend rider meeting, go to the hotel. Get our shit unpacked and ready for the morning and I head to Braums for a bacon cheeseburger and milkshake. Anyone who has followed this blog for awhile or knows me well, or traveled with me to Arkansas, Oklahoma, or Texas, knows that I am a braums freak. That shit is amazing, and of course, it didn't disappoint.

Clay and I set 3 alarms and finally get to bed around 12:30ish. not good when the race starts at 6:00 am and our alarms go off at 5:00. Of course you can imagine what happens next...

I wake up and clay is yelling fuck dude wake up, we have 15 minutes to be to the race. Look at the clock, 5:43, really not good. Clay is supposed to do the first leg, and he's had no breakfast and no morning shit. I am expecting a call anytime during the next 3-4 hours, but it never happens, awesome! Anyway, Clay is the very last person to roll out, literally, sprinting to catch up with the huge pack leaving town. I get back to the hotel, get out shit and head for cassody. I feel like shit cause I had horrible sleep, and am not feeling any food, but manage to stuff 2 mini powdered doughnuts down from the continental breakfast. Get to cassody and the gas station can be best describes as a circus. unfortunately this circus had one bathroom for EVERYONE. men and women. I felt bad for the ladies there, it was not pretty. So I find Tim Greene and Cliff Straub, set up camp with them and we wait for people to start coming in. We take guesses as to when the first will be there and I say 9:15. Happens to be Gunnar Shogrens on a single speed. I find out later this dude is 49 years old, running a 45x19!!!!!!!!!!! gearing (that is stupid), and is a former masters mtb and cx national champ. Well it showed. Mark Cole rolls in second 4 minutes behind and says that Gunnar is absolutely throwing it down, as in like dropping the dudes with gears. Cornbread, Joe Fox, and a few others roll in and say the same thing about shogren and that the pace is way too hot to start. His wife Betsy rolls in at 6th overall at the first checkpoint (and she finised 9th overall on the day!, 1st woman obviously), before eventual winner Dan Hughes who had a nasty sidewall tear on a brand new $100 tire. Absolutely amazing display of cycling by these west virginia folk.

so on with the story, Clay gets in right before 10 am and I take off on leg 2, which is 44 miles heading damn near straight west and into the wind. For some reason, my dumbass starts hammering it hard passing probably 60+ riders and eventually catching Tim and Cliff about 20 miles in (they had left about 30 min before me at the last checkpoint). When I caught Tim and Cliff they had made a wrong turn with a huge group and we were about 5 miles off course. Ugggghhhh! turn around and head back to the right road: minimum maintenance! a true dk road, finally! and it lived up to the hype. The creek bottoms came, and came, and came some more, then the south facing climbs started. Power from my legs started getting drained real quick, and the clif electrolite drinks I had were disappearing just as quick. 4 full bottles and 38-40 miles later I was completely out of liquid, and still 10+ miles from the next checkpoint. found a shade tree and called clay. Secured a ride and officially pulled out of the dk. I then proceeded to vomit up probably 2.5 bottles of liquid that was just sitting in my stomach while waiting for clay to get there. He did and we supplied water/gatorade to probably 10 other guys who were in my same situation. It was crazy how many people were completely out of liquids and/or laying down on the side of the roads. It was stupidly, stupidly hot and the 20+ mph wind didn't help. I'd venture to say that second leg from 10 am-1 pm when I was out was 94-99* with 15-25 mph south winds and 40+ gusts. not good when I'd had a heat stroke less than a month ago. oh well.

if this race was held in cooler weather or even later in the summer (so we could acclimate to the heat for a couple few weeks) I think i and a lot of other people would have been a lot better off. Early june is a crap shoot with Kansas weather, it can either be mid 80s and gorgeous or pushing 100* after having been literally cool spring weather the week before. The heat did a lot of people in and rightly so, it was nasty out there.

so dk is over. I may try tackling it again someday, but probably not. I'm thinking more like metric century/6-8 hour stuff is my calling. 3 hours is too intense, 12 is too long. Stuff like the Berryman Epic, Ouachita Challenge, Syllamo's Revenge, Farmhouse Classic, RIM, Spoke Pony, etc. And I miss me some CX racing. I really do love that shit! Mainly just because of the scene, but the racing is badass too.

I am ready to finally concentrate on mtb stuff for awhile. Singletrack has been yelling my name for 2 months now and trail can't build itself. gravel will be off the radar until farmohuse classic and/or unless it downpours for a week straight. I love it, but it's still a road and not a trail :)

peace and riding!

dirty kanza...

2011-06-04T17:52:00.001-05:00

...epic fail. I'm in the loft in KC and the leaders are probably 2-3 hours from finishing still. you do the math.

more to come later.

peace and riding!

leaving for dk...

2011-06-03T16:59:00.001-05:00

...in about 15 minutes. no camera, so look for a write-up soon, maybe some crappy cell phone pics if anything really pops out at me.

swope phase 4 opening tomorrow. details on the swope blog.

landahl race next week.

peace and riding!

new swopeage...

2011-06-02T11:08:00.001-05:00

Official map is on the blog now...here's a few extras for your pleasure.

peace and riding!!!

swope phase 4 opening!!!

2011-06-01T16:42:00.001-05:00

The Swope Dirt crew will be having a phase 4 ribbon cutting ceremony at 9 am Saturday June 4 with City leaders. This will be the official opening of Swope Phase 4, it will complete the Rancho D-Lux loop, and add an additional 2.6 miles of sweet ripping singletrack at camp Lake of the Woods for ~10 miles of trail now!!! Come on out and join the trail hermits (Scott/Craig/Travis) for some good times and ripping new Kansas City trail!

I don't know much more than that, but look for an announcement on the trail blog and/or from the trail hermits.

peace and riding!!!

dirty kanza this week

2011-05-31T19:07:00.002-05:00

been doing a lot of this the past few weeks to taper down and keep the legs fresh...I have it down to damn near 40 miles or urban gravel...its badass. john w. documented a day that he joined me.

http://theseatedclimb.blogspot.com/2011/05/poachin.html

Dirty Kanza is in 4 days. Clay and I have decided to alternate at every checkpoint, thank god. I think we should do pretty well.

re-cap of that next week. maybe I can find a camera someplace this week...

peace and riding!!!

roanoke update...

2011-05-26T10:04:00.001-05:00

meeting with city very soon...more to come...construction should start within a couple few-ish weeks.

dirty kanza next week...i haven't "real" ridden in a week. Real long ridden in 2. oh well.

peace and riding!!!

working it...

2011-05-19T14:42:00.002-05:00

Tuesday was a garden reconstruction on the Westside after doing some work out in Lawrence all last weekend. It was awesome.

Also swung by the UMKC garden to check on the 800ish plants we have there. yum. lettuce is ready...$0.25 a head, organic and local. let me know if you want some, seriously, we have a ton.

Yesterday I went to swope to do some work. Got out the Phase 4 and about shit myself cause a fricking ton had been done...apparently the Trail Hermits are in the middle of another "30 days of pain"...Phase 4 will be open by June 4th, National Trails Day, unless it rains every day. So I started to clear some corridor for the last part of that section, and got into something nasty that had my allergies going fucking crazy. 2 hours of that was enough and I went out to the hydrant, stripped to my skivvies and half bathed myself in the ice cold water to try and get whatever was on me off of me. My eyes were hella bloodshot and itchy, stuffy nose, little rash popping on my legs, not good. I had been having allergy symptoms before, but being out in the middle of the woods cutting trees and removing crap plants got to me a little too hard. Decided I still needed to ride (of course, haha) rode phase 4 out and back once, then looped the short track, did phase 3 west-->east then looped phase 1/2 counterclockwise with another phase 4 out and back...finished with the dining hall/pool connection and decided to call it cause I was tired, itchy and still couldn't breathe.

Phase 4 is going to make swope a whole new world. Less than 3 weeks and you'll be able to loop the whole hill. Phase 4 also has a few hella grinder climbs. not like the short steep ones or crazy switchbacks like the rest of swope, long grinding false flat single track climbs, where you don't even realize you're climbing until you ride it the other direction and you are FLYING. Like scary fast going down a couple spots. One you're gonna have to either air it big (either way :) or mash brakes hard and roll easy over the hump...not gonna have a choice. Rancho is going to be the flow master once this is open...I can't wait!

Trying to work some more on the Roanoke Trails Master Plan...it's gonna be good! Ground breaking is moving back a bit, but I need to make sure everything is covered and covered well before we start moving dirt.

Peace and riding!!!

amigos...

2011-05-16T13:23:00.005-05:00

So awhile ago I said I was going to showcase some friends once a week...this is the second time, ok whatever...

This is Levon

This is Adam

They're great guys. Unfortunately they're growing up (shed a little tear) and won't be living in midtown any longer. Where am I going to go to bum pabst and watch cycling replays or always sunny? Or call at the last minute for urban mtb rides? These cats are about as cool as they come, miles davis/john coltrane cool.

I'm sure you've seen them around town. Levon ran Street Cred this past winter with some help from Adam, and rides around midtown all the time. Adam is racing about every weekend, mostly getting smoked by his lady Racer X, and writes the fantastic something classic in kc blog. I'm sure you've read it, it's kind of a big deal.

If you see these jerks, say hi, they'll probably give you a beer if they have one, and that's never bad.

peace and riding!!!

sunday sunday sunday...(trail/gravel in lawrence anyone?)

2011-05-12T10:18:00.000-05:00

My boy John Williams is having a gravel party down in middle Kansas this weekend...check it out: http://gravelgrinders.blogspot.com/

and by little I mean 131 miles of the flint hills. After my little episode last Saturday I am going to miss his. Instead I plan on doing some gravel and river trail around Lawrence this Sunday if anyone would like to join me. Shooting for around 75 miles probably with some good climbing. I'd usually pimp this a little harder but I don't want to take anything away from JW's ride cause I know his will be amazing, and I wish I was capable of joining, but I'd better hold off going too hard for another week or two. So call me, e-mail me, or respond here with a good time for you and we'll get it going. 10-11 am ish? noon-ish? these are good times for me hahhah, I'm such a lazy ass.

peace and riding!!!

remember this?

2011-05-10T23:12:00.002-05:00

Support your local trails. Get out and build.

Peace and riding!!!

Midtown-->Parkville-->Weston-->Parkville-->hospital

2011-05-09T16:33:00.002-05:00

So this last Saturday I hosted a DK training ride leaving from the Crossroads KC traveling to Weston, MO and back using some ultra sneakiness and back road goodness. This ended up being a hell of a test, that's for sure.

First off, my bike set-up, cause it's sexy...My Jamis Team 29er carbon frame, white bros rock solid carbon fork, bontrager race lite front wheel and 2.25 team tire tubeless, stans arch on chub SS hub rear wheel with 2.0 geax barro race tire tubeless. Stylo cranks and flat bars. Sram 8 spd. chain shortened to length, avid elixir R brakes, ergon grips. Ritchey stem, WCS saddle and WCS bar ends. FSA 42 tooth front ring. White industries 20 tooth rear cog. VElocity bottle cages and Seat rail bottle add-ons (for 3 bottles on my bike total), crappy seat bag, crappy feed box. This set up is right over 17 lbs...absolutely unreal and super plush with about 45 PSI.

I left my house to ride down to Volker 18 to kick this thing off. 4 other brave souls decided to come join the fun and we were off a quarter after nine am. We rode down SW blvd, jump by some railroad tracks, then rode around by Kemper, hiked a little through a homeless camp under a bridge, rode sneaky levee, rode through a couple businesses, Riverfront trail in Berkley Park, more sneaky levee after Isle of Capri, cross Choteau, go behind Harrahs, more sneaky levee, hella hard grass riding for 1/2+ mile, sneaky gravel road hidden by downtown airport, loop around, then more sneaky train track gravel, hwy 9 to argosy. This was the first stop...we were already over 30 miles at this point. Water, little rest and we were off again to hit more levee to Parkville. Took a B-road through a field, anhydrous ammonia, yummy. little counrty road to Waldron, more levee, then up to Farley, where we started to get hills finally. LIterally the second hill we hit I cramped bad, this was probably around mile 55-60. Ended up riding up to Weston still and chilled for a bit there while the other guys got subway and john from parisi chilled with me since I was not doing so hot. I ended up opting for paved highway back to waldron from weston, even though it didn't cut off any mileage, it did cut out some hills since by then I was walking anything with any type of incline. John stayed with me until Farley then I told him he could go ahead since he had to get back for dinner with his wife. The other 3 guys rolled into Farley about the same time from the backroads and we set off again splitting up after crossing the platte river again (i stayed on hwy, they went to climb more gravel)..Got back to waldron and I was really really hurting. By now I'm sitting at about 95 miles, whole body cramping, water wasn't working, hammer espresso gel no good, clif bars and block shots nada, electrolite pills no dice. It was now about 5 pm and that day I had consumed 220 oz of water, 3 cliff bars, 1 boomi bar, 3 bananas, 4 electrolite pills, 18 cliff shot blocks (3 packages), a flask of hammer espresso gel, and a package of hostess mini brownies. It took me 1 hour and 48 minutes to get the 6 miles from Waldron back to Parkville, where I went immediately to English LAnding park and a huge Oak tree. By then I knew stuff wasn't going well. I tried texting and calling a few people, but didn't really let anyone know how bad off I was, cause honsetly I had no idea...I was in fucking lala land bad, seeing double, hallucinating, cold flashes, hot flashes, throwing up. After throwing up for I think the 2 or 3 time, I passed out and woke up with a bike cop standing over me asking if I was alright. I remember that I coherently and very calmly told him that I was "not ok, think I'm having a heat stroke, please call an ambulance" I think I passed out again cause I next thing I know there are 3 firefighters on my putting O2 in me and taking my vitals. I heard one of the dudes say my heart rate was 99 and that snapped my shit up real quick. I told them my resting heart rate is usually 38-40. They asked how long I had been there, I told them since about 6:45-7:00...about 1.5 hours ago they said. Heart rate was extremely high, blood pressure was disgustingly bad, initial o2 level was at 92% and body temp at 100*+, not great for an endurance athlete. Throughout this time my legs and core are completely locked up...it was like I was flexing every muscle below my nipples but of course I wasn't. Paramedics IV me right there on the ground to start fluids in me then they have to lift my ass up on to the stretcher cause I can't move from the cramping. Go to north KC hospital...get 4.5 litres of IV fluids total. Blood work showed that I was super dehydrated (duh), that my electrolite levels were suprisingly good (???), but that my kidney's were about halfway to shutdown from my body overheating so badly. Basically the doctor told me that my body was way too hot and that my kidney's weren't processing the liquids that I was feeding my self (the 220 oz of water) and that's another reason I threw a lot of it up once I stopped, I had H2O just chilling in the stomach not going anywhere cause my insides were too hot. Wacky to say the least.

I want to thank a few people first before going on any more in this post...the 4 guys that rode with me, thank you for keeping me sane until Waldron, and sorry for holding you back most of the day. The ladies that gave me some papaya, pineapple and a hamburger when I got to parkville and they saw I was cramping real badly...I ended up throwing all of it up I'm sure, but it had to help is some way (I'm pretty sure these are the same people who found that bike cop as well), the Parkville FD and PD, and KCMO paramedic unit, the hot nurses at North KC Hospital and my good friend's boyfriend for picking me up at the hospital at 1 am, taking me back to parkville to get all my shit, then taking me home. Dude you rock. and "momma" madam for keeping me halfway sane while I was in the park on the phone trying to figure out where and who I was.

so, it was a great dk test, that's for damn sure. Prehydration game is gonna change big time...I'm upping water/gatorade intake to at least 1.5 gallons a day, everyday. More protein on the bike too after 2 hours...doc said another reason I was cramping was because my body was starting to feed of my muscles...not good. Perpetum and hamburgers are in my future nutrition plans for 4+ hour rides (dead serious about the hamburgers). This has been a huge wake up call for my overall "training and nutrition" regimine...mainly that I'd never had any sort of plan or guideline before, and that shit has to change if I'm gonna keep doing these long rides I love so much. This week is chilling, letting the kidneys and body recharge, and probably try to hit a metric century this weekend before hitting hard hill training next week. I have never been a good climber, and that shit needs to change too. Maybe it's time to grow up a little...fuck.

peace and riding!!!

swope loop

2011-05-04T12:42:00.004-05:00

for those that don't know how to ride a good long loop at swope without doubling back on yourself constantly.

Start from the trail head...go up the short ways to the first intersection and go right (counter-clockwise, wudchuk run, orange flag markers), do the awesome switchbacks for a killer warm-up then rip some gnar until getting to 8-pins where you'll enter into Rancho D-lux (blue flag markers)...ride rancho around until the next intersection (you'll be getting close to the road again, its the "connector" across the road to the other loops). Cross the road, hit the wall drop :) then climb up and do the "behind the pool connection" (orange and pink flag markers)..once completing this part you'll come to a 4 way intersection, take a right onto the short track loop (this is not on the official trail map, but is marked in red above). This is an old double track hiking trail, you'll cross the road onto the newest part of rancho d-lux (also part of the short track loop, blue flags)..ride taht around until you cross the road again, then at the intersection, go downhill and rip it down and around on the old quarry road (phase 3 of swope)...you'll have one last intersection where you can choose to stay high and techy (orange line) or stay low and fast (yellow line)...rip thgough that, go back across the road and continue going down (right) until you end back up at the trail head...that's about a 7 mile loop.

Then turn around and do it the opposite way, it's good for ya. I then recommend, wash, rinse, and repeat as necessary until you've have your mileage and pain fix :)

peace and riding!!!

dk training ride this saturday

2011-05-01T15:03:00.001-05:00

i'm hosting a dirty kanza training ride this weekend. details here:
http://mtbkc.blogspot.com/2011/05/dk-training-ride.html

peace and riding!!!

http://theseatedclimb.blogspot.com/

2011-04-27T11:57:00.001-05:00

Never knew Mr. Pot Pie John Williams had a blog until today...its obviously awesome! check it out: http://theseatedclimb.blogspot.com/

and here's his trans-iowa re-cap...it's too good to not repost...

rode hard and put away wet
Trans Iowa V7 recap

Last October in a moment of confidence, or ignorance, I decided I would sign up for Trans Iowa V7. I wasn't sure if I was capable of riding the 320+ mile course in one continuous, unsupported effort, but no better way to test your mettle than trial by fire. So I signed up, trained like hell and showed up in Grinnell, Iowa to race what could be the most physical challenge of my life. What follows is my story.

Friday night was the mandatory racer meeting and sign in at the Grinnell steak house, one of those kitchy cook your own meat restaurants, of which I'm a fan. After signing in, greeting familiar faces, and consuming the largest steak I could find in the cooler we filed into a meeting room. Guitar Ted gave us a once over of the rules, course conditions, as well as hand had out our race numbers, that came in the form of Buddhist prayer flags and inform us of the documentary film crew that was to be on course filming. The shin dig was fun but soon it was back to the room to make final decisions on what to wear and how much food to carry ect. Sarah surprised me with a little good luck charm, a Madonna del Ghisallo medal, the patron saint of cycling. I pinned it on my camelback along with my prayer flag thinking I'm not a religious man, but it can't hurt. When the alarm rang at 3:00 AM I felt my first streaks of fear, not the mix of anxiety and excitement that had been rolling threw my guts for the last 5 days, but real what the hell am I about to do fear. Luckily I was able to fend off those feelings and replace them with hurrying to get ready to make it downtown for the 4 A.M. start time.

The start was good, a thick blanket of fog quickly cleared up revealing a beautiful starry spring night. The roads were fast but wet and mud was flying everywhere, giving everyone healthy splattering grit. Through this I was able maintain a decent spot in the lead group, I even offered a few brief pulls. By the time we reached the first checkpoint at the 53 mile mark my drive train sounded as if it could explode at any minute from all the mud and gunk thrown up form the road. I felt good as I feverishly checked in, tried to clean out my drive train, and refill my water bottles. The vibe at the checkpoint was hectic at best. I tried to spit out a few clever thoughts to the film crew about savoring the moment, all 30 hours of them, but I'm sure it came out as a jumbled mess.

The leaders were quick to head out, so I latched on to a small group and headed out a few minutes after the lead group of three took off. The pace was fast and I was consequently spit out out the back about 5 miles out, and was strung out between two small groups. This is were I resolved to ride my own ride and settle into a pace I could maintain for 24 more hours. It was sunny, warming up and I had a long stretch of tailwind, I was content and confident.
After missing a few turns I ended up with a group of about 10. We were a random assortment of riders that seemed to have a good dynamic, and we would stay together for the what would be the majority of the race. The rest of the afternoon past by with mile after mile of ideal gravel roads and muddy unrideable B roads through the hills and farm lands of rural Iowa. I was in hog heaven, getting the Trans Iowa experience that I came for. While on this stretch the film crew got lots of footage of us, I even managed a few shameless close ups. We rolled into checkpoint two at mile 177 shortly after the sun went down and about 2 hours before the cut off time, this is where the real challenge began.

As the night wore on the affects of sleep deprivation mixed with exhaustion created a difficult mind frame, something I think everyone in our group was experiencing. The pace began to slow and the stops became more frequent, talking was almost none existent as everybody stared blankly down the spotlit road. Soon the hardest challenge just to keep my eyes open. I would sprint a hill to get my heart rate up and a blast of energy only to nod off on the downhill, waking as I started to swerve. I tried to talk to any of my companions about anything I could, just to try to stay awake, I even told the old Mcdunna nails joke (it was Easter by this point). After a few hallucinations and a couple more nods the sun finally started to rise for second time this race. With the sun came the realization that we had slowed down so much that if we stayed at our current pace we would finish with only a few minutes before the 2:00 cut off time.After a long set a big rollers I had opened a pretty good gap, I stopped to let 2 other riders from our group catch up and there I suggested we take off to ensure we make it in before the cut off time, the other riders agreed and off we went.

The three of us pushed on the last 70 miles at a pace that would easily get us to the finish line before the cut off. During this time we deiced we would ride in together not attempting any attacks on each other, reaffirming the gentile roots of our sport. As the last few miles ticked by the realization that I was going to be Trans Iowa a finisher was filling me with euphoria. Although when I finally crossed the finish line for 7th place in 32 hours 13 minutes, after hugging my family and shaking the hands of race organizers, Guitar Ted and David Pals, all I could get out was "I'm really tired." So we returned to the hotel for quick shower and hot tub before Sarah drove us home.

In the end I felt elated, I felt proud, and mostly I felt like A dragon slayer who had just killed the baddest beast in the land.

school pressure

2011-04-24T22:48:00.003-05:00

why do i procrastinate and ride every opportunity I get, amazing weather or not, until the very last week of classes when I then have to kill myself? cause it's better than not riding as much as you possibly can :)

for those of you lucky enough to be out of school, I just finished up a 10 page beast, to be followed by a 20 page, a 3 page, a 20 page, a geostats final then a spanish lit final...all in the next ten days...I would be graduating but I need pell grant money next year too. it's about working that system baby!

I'll see you may 5th.

paece and riding!!!

bend these bones

2011-04-18T09:43:00.002-05:00

i'm poor so couldn't do bonebender this year :'(...instead I packed some peanut butter sandwiches, some cap'n crunch and two water bottles and had my own enduro ride :)

bend these bones

Find more Cycling Routes / Bike Rides in Kansas City, MO

it was hard, and I found lots of cool stuff! I was "on" the bike for about 5:45 yesterday during this ride. Included in that is tons of expolration, lots of hike a bike, and re-water breaks. Did I mention I "found" lots of cool stuff? (I should say I was keyed in a little by some wudchuk fellows, but they weren't very forthcoming about directions :)

when the trolly trail starts to turn east, there's single track all over the place! i knew about the dirt jumps back there, but not about the single track northwest and south of them...sweetness.

then jumped on holmes to bannister, found out that the indian creek trail is done past lydia now! and wouldn't you know it? as soon as the pavement ended there was single track off to the right :) sweet moto trails...I acutally talked to the guy who built them behind his house, when I popped up in his yard and he and his wife were on their deck :) good stuff, and he keyed me into some more stuff! oh yes.

basically from 103rd to red bridge there is single track/rail road riding :) then at red bridge you can get to the actual minor park trails. I rode the river trail and part of highline/bo ha ca before calling it quits there...trails were still super wet, and honestly i probably shouldn't have been riding them, but in reality I was probably helping them a bit getting some hoof prints and ruts flattened out a little bit. minor trails need some extreme sustainability work. if i were trail manager I would seriously contemplate just closing all existing trails and starting from scratch. there are some really really not good spots out there.

So i headed north towards the promised land of swope...found more moto trail near 87th street and blue river...rode that, then continued on my journey. got to swope, went to water up then did 1.5 laps on phase 3 and 1 lap of phase 1/2, watered back up and headed towards the climb up to swope memorial golf course to punish myself a bit. did that, then climbed gregory...at this point i'm feeling dumb haha, get through the park, head back across the river to hadesty top pick up coal mine road towards the stadiums. do that, find more moto trail/singletrack in some other park (near where coal mine turns into winchester)...ripped that then went north some more towards riverfront/cliff drive. Didn't quite make it where I'd planned cause I realized whe I got to winner and indy ave that it was already 4:45 pm and I'd been riding since 11:30 am pretty much without a substantial break on my carbon Jamis SSs 29r geared 34-20 with 30 psi in the 2.0 barro race tires. so i decided to climb st. john's ave, then do some rollers on 9th street before hitting paseo for the extreme grinder climb going home (into a good headwind of course). ended up with roughly 60 miles...I'd say the map is fairly close, might be missing a few spurts of singletrack swing there and again, but I'd say pretty accurate.

so that's it, my own: bonebender, version shoff.0

peace and riding!

good stuff from stevie T.

2011-04-15T16:35:00.002-05:00

http://stevetilford.com/?p=11204

<--that's why I love stevie T. good home grown kansas boy like myself who just likes to ride bikes and loves life.

peace and riding!!!

roanoke planning

2011-04-14T19:04:00.001-05:00

been doing a lot of trail planning between homework, well mainly after homework after my brain starts to shut down and only think mtb.

should break first dirt after memorial day sometime.

peace and riding!!!

busy

2011-04-04T09:55:00.003-05:00

I'm stupidly busy, but I do it to myself I guess.

Last Thursday I rode to/at/back home from swope for 4.5 hours, without eating anything all day. Bad idea...I ate about 1800 calories when I got home after I went down to the store. Still less than 2000 cals a day! Which the last 2 weeks I bet I've only had 2-3 days where I've eaten over 2000 cals that day. Its not that I'm necessarily trying to lose weight, although that is an added benefit, I'm just poor. Food prices are ridiculous, especially nutritionally-good food. I can get 2 brats and a bag of chips for $3.27 at quik trip. Unfortunately, I eat this meal WAY too often for my liking. This post isn't about food or my diet though I swear; it's about pimping other stuff!

like swope! http://swopetrails.com/

This weekend was the first gig I had played in probably 3 years or so. it was at prospero's in blue springs...it went well. Just me, a guitar, and harmonica. also, met a young lady with the most beautiful golden voice ever. ever. It made me melt like only Zooey Deschanel can...mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

After that it was to volker 18 & the spray booth gallery for a continuation of first friday. tallgrass ale was consumed quickly then a walk to enjoy the scenery was in order. It's getting nice out kansas city!!! /short skirts & long jackets

saturday I went to the shawnee local food expo...we showed up a tad late and all the good stuff was gone. I'm too much of a sleeper to wake up that early to get the phirest produce. and yes, that ph is an f...

saturday afternoon I got drunk all day with justin bieber and then took a nap before the bright eyes concert! it was awesome, even tho ms. jackson decided to take a little nap of her own...glad she's ok :) conner also had a little rant against kris kobach and fundamentalist christian crazies, it was sweet! here's a video to show the goodness of bright eyes:

sunday I slept in until like 11...it was awesome. The we finished flagging phase 1 of roanoke park! check it out!!!
roanoke park trails, click me.

rest of sunday, most the peeps got back from spring break...we kicked it and jammed on some electric guitars...mmmmmmmmmmmm, plugged in is a whoooole other world.

I have 2-20 page papers, 1-10 page paper, have to read a book in spanish and do all that class jazz and wahtever we get assigned as well in geostats. The next month I will not sleep or ride much, guarenteed :/

peace and riding!!!

Issaqueena Forest in pictures and captions.

2011-03-27T21:31:00.015-05:00

Rode for 5:45 today and did a lot of climbing. Amazing what even small mountain 10-15 minute climbs feel like compared to the 2 minute climbs of KC. Lots of granny gear today, but lots of big ring too :) I'm betting I rode close to 60 miles total, probably 70% single track, 15% forest/logging roads, 7.5% gravel, and 7.5% pavement. I had to have 2500+ foot of climbing too just looking at a topo map of the trails and what I rode. Today is one of those days I wish I would have had a garmin, and I hardly ever want one, but the mileage and elevation data would have been nice for this one. Absolutely amazing trail system. The last map I posted was from 2007 and they have added quite a bit out there, or didn't do a very good job getting everything marked :) I bet there's 50+ miles of single track out there, I was lost as hell. Well enough of this, I have 33 pictures to commentate on.

Stated out in Clemson, riding toward on Lawrence Bridge Road. This was on Lawrence Bridge right before you cross into the forest.

As you enter the forest. These share the road signs are everywhere. Bike lanes on some state highways.

entering into the forest...

I went straight to the downhill course today, and this was the last drop of the run. Gnarly!

Different shot of the same drop. There's some pretty good rock and root gnar right before you cook into it.

Start of a climb called THE GRINDER...330 foot elevation gain in a 2 mile climb. Wraps around to the downhill trail, dual slalom course, dirt jumps, etc.

Halfway up the grinder climb...rehabed Pine forest.

This picture is definitely worth 1000 words. It was badass hitting this at 75% speed (I'm on a rental hardtail 29r and the next pic explains more.)

Road gap kicker coming out of the huge wall ride.

Berms galore...the first half of the run is just huge berms pretty much :)

Table tops boarded out then dropping into berms...3 of them at the top of the run.

Table into S-curve burm into wall ride into road gap...I needed a full suspension :)

A look at the table top construction...pretty cool.

Only took one photo of the dirt jumps...the main line, cause it was sick. Didn;t take any of the dual slalom course, I just ripped it once and granny geared back up it for another downhill run.

Creek crossing getting ready for a fire road climb.

forest gravel...pine trees and red dirt :)

Ripping ridge line single track.

Pretty gnarly line by the lake.

Riding through some areas was like a tunnel...more on this...

Getting tighter...

going up...

needle cover...

opening up along a ridge...

single track by a creek...

Cool little constructed drainage crossing...

Trail side waterfall...quite a few of them throughout the system.

Crib wall reclaimed by nature :)

Logging road.

Logging destruction.

Triple waterfall trailside.

Sink hole right next to trail...

Getting thick, dark and chilly...

At 8 pm, 5 hours in...Time to light up and get out of the forest :)

peace and riding!!!

not a bad trail system...

2011-03-26T15:53:00.005-05:00

Issaqueena State Park trails in Clemson Experimental Forest.

48+ miles of singletrack, logging roads, downhill course w/300 ft total elevation drop, dual slalom course, 2 sets of dirt jumps, pump track, in progress free ride course, a big wall ride, lots o' berms, creek gap, waterfalls, etc.

I rode there yesterday, wasn't sure how far I had gone since I didn't know mileage out there...of course it's been raining here all day :/ I still put on some rain gear and rode into town to talk to the shop guys about how the trails hold up since they are mostly sand from what it seems to me. They said that you could go ride about half the trails out in Issaqueena RIGHT NOW. It's been raining since before I woke up around 8 am and just stopped here at 5 local time. They said by tomorrow everything would be good to go...sweeeeet. I also showed them everything I rode and we came up with about 28-29 miles, and I did that in 1 hour and 50 minutes. Gears are kind of fun :) My legs were on the verge of cramping the last 20 min or so though, I was in the big ring quite a bit. I think my 34-20 SS would be perfect here. I'm on a rental bike that's gotta be at least 10 lbs heaver than my Jamis Dakota D29 Team Carbon beauty. It's not too bad of a bike tho, Giant Talon 1 29r. I can really feel the weight difference, and its in a more typical mtb position instead of the more aggressive position on my bike. Kind of crappy components, but Sunshine Cycles of Greenville hooked me up with a $50 rental for Friday afternoon-Monday morning...can't beat that.

Thinking about a night ride...I do have both my lights and had to pop them out the last 20 min or so of yesterdays ride (same 20 min I was on the cramp verge). I'll probably just go on an epic day tomorrow after some drying occurs. There's a general store within range, I have my 100 oz camelback and a 3 pocket jersey...I'm thinking 8+ hours...get in a good Dirty Kanza training day....shit, that's getting close.

Taking the camera with me tomorrow...expect lots of pics. It's mixed hardwood and pine forest, with trail ranging from 2 ft to 8 ft wide, and dirt/gravel roads, lots of waterfalls too and lake views. I think I mentioned this already.........

peace and riding!!!

ps: rock chalk bitches.

pps: If you haven't seem Cam Chambers rip this video do it:

spring break...kind of

2011-03-25T08:02:00.008-05:00

WARNING...THIS IS BY FAR THE MOST PICTURE HEAVY POST I HAVE EVER DONE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

I decided to go on spring break a weekish early...why not?

Went home finally last weekend. It was good. Amazing how much food there was...loved it!!! Did this gravel ride out to Perry and back with Sam, Dylan and Chad last Sunday too. We watched someroadie action, gave some colavita lovin', then rode back home into a 30+ mph wind. Good times.

A ride mapped on 03/20/2011

Find more Cycling Routes / Bike Rides in Lawrence, KS

I did go to work and classes on Monday and Tuesday, but Wednesday I got on a jetplane and came to Clemson, South Carolina to see my sister. We chilled the rest of the day to go on a long hike the next day.

Full hiking album here! (click me!)

7 miles, 2000+ feet of climbing. 4 hours. good stuff! Words can't rally do it justice...look at the album, or these selected photos:

march madness

2011-03-17T16:48:00.002-05:00

I've ridden swope 3x in the past 5 days...awesomeness.

Obama picked the Jayhawks to win it all, as have a bunch of other fools...cursed? or hopeful sign? I think we're pretty balling and hope B-money gets another ring.

also...kc parks has given approval for mtb/hiking trails in roanoke park...downtown mtb, finally!!! Should be about 2 miles...I plan on building it all weather style, as in, who cares about rain, you can ride anyway.

that's all I got, I'm going to lawrence this weekend to see the "fam" and rip on perry trails for awhile.

peace and riding!!!

weekend dirty

2011-03-14T10:02:00.003-05:00

i love swope.

and it's not just because i build there, or that it's my home trail and I ride it more than anything else.

It's because that place is sick...those trails are sick...my new bike is BEYOND sick. I really think that when they're dry, the swope trails are top 10 in the entire world. and I am dead serious. The only problem is that we live in KC, where its 70* one day and snowing 18 hours later, all affecting clay-based soil. There is a plan though and here's a little scoop (I don't know TOO much, but enough to tease your ass :)

There are plans to make a 5ish mile loop at swope that would be rideable all year round, no matter the weather...rains 3" that morning? no problem, we're riding that afternoon. raining during short track race time? don't fret, we're going anyway...now how will this be accomplished you may ask? By the magic hermits of swope that roam around there.

so this weekend was dedicated to dirtiness. saturday morning was trail work with some fellas, hammering out more of phase 4...come on out weekend mornings and find me, and help me build more trail to ride. that afternoon was a trip across the stupid sprawl that is KC to bike source where I got my chub hub fixed up on the front wheel finally. Only shop in town that had the right sized bearing press. Thanks craig and nick for the hook-up.

Sunday I woke up stupidly early (at least it felt like it with the time-change) to head back to swope for some more dirty work...2 hours of that and I was ready to ride, and ride I did, a solid 4 hours before my ride home showed up, without his back wheel :/ The new carbon jamis killed some trail...28 psi up front, 30 in the rear on tubeless stans arches...mmmmmmmm buddy. I could really hammer it hard up hill and on smoother terrain. That carbon sure is stiff through some technical sections though! I was bouncing a few times pretty good, but suprisingly my back actually felt better after riding that long. I am believer in the dampening of carbon, I rode the gnarliest of swope a few times yesterday and took it all like a champ. Love the bike, love the trails.

peace and riding!!!

swope updates...

2011-03-10T18:31:00.000-06:00

http://swopetrails.blogspot.com/2011/03/its-that-time-of-year.html

trail work days
http://forums.earthriders.com/viewforum.php?f=21

peace and riding!!!

grad school

2011-03-09T14:43:00.002-06:00

i didn't get in. so i'm staying around here for awhile longer.

still and always rasta riding on kc.

peace.

watch this!

2011-03-08T14:57:00.000-06:00

so sick...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fohPU3pDpFU

thanks to single speed pirate for the new blog header!!

peace and riding!!!

Bollé Eyewear. FOR SPORT. FOR LIFE.

2011-03-04T11:08:00.004-06:00

Check out my newest sponsor!

Bollé Eyewear. FOR SPORT. FOR LIFE. (click me)

Molly from Bollé is sending a few pairs of lenses my way to try out soon. Look for a full write-up of these awesome glasses coming soon! Look forward to trying them out in some short track racing and gravel riding this spring :)

oh, and 4 posts in 1 week...that's definitely a record.

peace and riding!!!

it's nice out...

2011-03-03T15:08:00.001-06:00

go ride.

I'm trying to between homework and classes...not succeeding too well.

peace and riding!!!

Friends

2011-03-01T17:54:00.004-06:00

I have some really good friends. Like amazing. So I am going to start profiling them this month in hopes that you can meet them and enjoy their company as much as I do. For those that don't know, I don't have much real family around, so friends play a huge role in my life. They keep me sane basically. Probably the best part about all my buds (at least from my POV) is that we all try to hook each other up as much as possible, in whatever we need or are going to do. Today will be some fellows that pretty much made my austin trip happen:

Sean Burns aka Single Speed Pirate

So this dude has been hooking it up ever since we first met when i dropped off a 13" crap tv for his kitchen a few years back when i first moved into KC and started getting into the Earthriders. From chubby wheelsets to chris king headsets to backyard trail to smp rouge action to TACOS (only thing the Burns' family eats :) ) to shuttle rides for trails at BuRP and Lawrence, urban assult rides, borrowing tools, parts, etc. Good story to sum up Sean...last wednesday the day before I went to Austin, we got word that the lawrence river trail was rideable. He drove from shawnee (between k-7 and I-435 along SM Parkway) to midtown to pick me up, drove to Lawrence, bought beer for post-ride, ripped a lap at lrt (where I unfortuately burned out my front wheel bearings after 3/4 of a lap), then took me over to sunflower to see if they had bearings, they didn't so he called bike source...same deal, no dice. He drove us back to his house in shawnee to give me HIS front 29r wheel so I have something to take to Austin with me and ride, we rip his backyard trail, then he drives me home to midtown. This guy is also a father of 2 young boys, a husband, and an architect. It amazes me how he can juggle all that and still never once be a dick. Sean has never been anything but nice as hell to me ever since I've me him and it means a lot. Thanks brother!!!

The next two fellas are ER trail builder extraordinares. Todd Posson and Ron Acklin. They are literally the reason I got to go to austin. Both of these fellas let me ride down with them, bike and all, FOR FREE. Not much really to say about that other than THANK YOU GUYS!!! Unfortuately I missed them the entire time I was down there too, between torn contacts and me not getting to go to the North American Handmade Bike Show and bar hopping the same places but mising each other my probably minutes. We even ate at the same taco stand by the same bar we were all at but not at the same time...weird how life works sometimes. These two fellas also know a thing or three about building kickass trail, riding some sick mtb and throwing back a few beers :).

So ya, these are just 3 guys that affect my life in a hugely positive way. More people are on the way...it's like oprah! /pathetic

peace and riding!!!

austin, tx

2011-02-28T16:08:00.003-06:00

Here (click me)

and here (click me too)

and here (click me please)

not much to say, well actually a lot, but I don't want to type that long...catch up with me in person for more details...especially about trails.

But anyway...Austin, TX is a sweet ass city, with BEAUTIFUL women...like WOWOWOWOWooooo. trails are fucking badass too...parts of the greenbelt make swope and landahl look like river trail.

I really need a camera...this (click me) helps, but doesn't do it at all justice.

so ya...I've already decided that if I don't get into grad school in Albuquerque that I'm moving to ATX...too sweet not to live there for at least a few years.

Wolf heads and tacos, beautiful women and gnar trails...that sums up this trip pretty well.

peace and riding!!!

ps--the new carbon 29r single speed, FUCKING ROCKS!!!!!!!

commuterDude post

2011-02-21T14:18:00.001-06:00

Awesome post I didn't write that I am passing along...It can be found here: http://www.commuterdude.com/2011/02/i-quit.html

I quit.
This has been edited and re-edited over a fortnight, a few handfuls of minutes at a time here and there - finally touched up over a hurried lunch. If it seems disjointed, consider that par for the course for this website. I'm always disjointed. Those with grammatical grudges and punctuational preconceptions should simply close their browsers and go read a good book.

And now, my latest post:

Over the last 30 days or so I have been participating in an activity that has me relocated to an area - while not impossibly far away - about four times farther from home, bike-route mileage wise. After entertaining the idea of biking-it for a couple days prior, the KC-area "snow-my-gawd" events of 2011 hit, and that pretty well clinched it. Timing is everything: thank goodness I had a backup vehicle in the driveway. With that, I began a stint of driving that by quick estimation probably puts me deep in the red against whatever carbon footprint or gasoline savings my car-free/light run of last year provided. I was back in traffic; not just driving in the suburbs but as a part of the bigger problem on the local highways to and from the city - every morning, every evening, for four weeks now. My backup vehicle is not timid at the gas pump, either, to the point where I'm fairly confident I've purchased more gas in the last month than I have in the last four years. The prices sting, and it reminds me how difficult this economic dry-spell has to have been on those that don't have many choices in this car-centric town.

My own, private, socio-economic experiment was underway. I didn't want to use the car. If there was an option available, I did examine it: Car pooling, as a subject, only seemed to put people on the defensive. That was interesting. Those that had safely determined that they lived too far from me were comfortable in saying "they would've if it'd worked out". Those who did live close enough or were on the way had a littany of excuses, some legit - some shallow. Gas money sharing wasn't enough to crack into their personal space or routine.

Then I looked online for train schedules and remembered, "oh, yeah. We don't have a train here."

Returning from my mental Fairyland Park, the bus was next. Despite being very creative spending hours at the computer for a few nights between the KCATA and Jo schedules and maps, initially expecting to find a solution and prematurely re-upping my bus-pass online, I finally threw up my arms. Between four different routes and a lot of walking through the snow berms on the sidewalks, two transfers each way in one case, ultimately there was no denying that I simply can't expect a Jo bus full of people to wait for me, a single rider, to transfer from a KC Metro bus which is *scheduled* to arrive eight minutes after they are supposed to have left downtown. The last bus, an hour later, put me back at the park-n-ride 30 minutes before the kids bedtime. Wife? Peeesed, rightly.

Are Kansas City commuters set up to fail? Oddball schedule overlaps seem common. Seemingly, if you live in Johnson County and work downtown, you don't get off work at exactly 4:30pm AND you can't make it to a stop on time, on foot, you're screwed. I don't get how this works, or how this is passable as "transit". A few minor changes, and - while my attempts here were in fact strictly personal - getting back to Johnson County between 5 and 6pm would work. I'm not beefin' about the minor hassle of standing around for 10 minutes for the next bus, I'm talking about overlays of hours as a result of having missed the previous bus my only four minutes in some cases.

We need more routes. We need more people to be hacked-off about there not being more options. We need more people to realize that gasoline, right now, is the highest its been in many months... and that it is February, when gas historically should be cheaper: and it isn't. What are we looking at this summer? $4.00? Easily. A small handful of oddly-scheduled southbound routes out of downtown KCMO in the evening isn't going to cut it. People know this.... so they just keep driving.

I don't drive downtown every day normally, so while I had a general idea beforehand I didn't know it would be this kind of wake-up call. This town is, frankly, ridiculous and backwards. Is traffic here as bad as Boston, or L.A., or Manhattan, NY, or Chicago? No...it's not, but those are not fair comparisons in my opinion. Check any website you like: The Kansas City metro area has more lane-miles per capita than any other area in the USA. By nearly 30%. When China passes the US in highway miles, it will be because they finally passed Kansa-freaking-city. Some would argue that by driving down I-35 you can see evidence that we'll not be letting go of the title quietly. USA! USA! USA! We have the pavement space - so there shouldn't be traffic issues at all, right? Think about it. Why is everyone reeaally driving everywhere?

Now that I've had to drive a "real" commute for a month now I'm not only appauled, I'm broke, frustrated and I feel like I'm missing a chunk of my life. I don't want to be in traffic, listening to drivetime radio. I want to be home, and I want to have gotten some exercise, and I want to feel like I'm making more than minimum wage after transportation costs are subtracted.

I will blog, I will write my letters and emails and call my representative, keep my MOBIKEFED and other memberships renewed, and so should you - but I will also do what most people I shared a lane with last month either won't or can't, which is hang up the keys and start paying it back. I've missed commuting this last month - and I'm recharged and ready. I'm not starting a crusade, and I'm not wearing any arm-bands with trees imprinted on them, no flags, and perhaps I'll even keep my person-to-person soapboxing to myself - but I am quite a bit more motivated than I was in, say, January, to stay on the bike.

Because I can ride, I should. If you can ride, you should. If you can walk, you should. If you can bus, you should. YES we live in a nation built on freedoms and I understand people can and will choose to drive. That is fine, and I accept it. Sheltered joco life? Absolutely... Granted, I knew all along that I loved cycling, that I was saving money, that I was saving gas - despite how miniscule in the grand scheme - and that I was doing my small part. I'm vastly lucky to live where I live and work where I work, and to have a trail that helps me avoid some nasty intersections.

I also understand that it has gotten pretty hairy on the streets for bicyclists around town. Over a decade in traffic has dulled me to the real dangers and honest fear that keeps many people from even trying periodic bicycle commuting around here, even if they do live close to work. Consider, though, that everything benefits everything else in this scenario: more busses? More options? A fair amount of people WILL use it if it's available. That gets cars off the roads. Fewer cars on the road, less 'fear' for cyclists? Perhaps. I know it is far less stressful to ride at 5AM than at 8AM during the week, and that's attributable to number of cars. Imagine if there were fewer cars at 8AM, as if it was 5AM, finally! More cyclists equals fewer cars on the roads still. Fewer cars on the roads benefit those that don't have a choice in the short term and must drive; less stress, less time on the road (more moving, less crawling) and less road-rage... Which begets less car-vs-bike rage. Motorcyclists can feel safer again. Using less space, less gas. Overall, less wear and tear on the roads, so perhaps we CAN finally spend a billion on light rail and still more busses, instead of spending it on *another* lane in each direction on I-35, 70, 635. And so on.

BUT, it all has to start with the individual. Is that you? Is it the next co-worker or friend you tell about the bike or the bus? (or both?)

Now that my activities north of the river are coming to an end it will be very welcome indeed to get back into a healthier, more responsible routine. As the snow melts away, the rains wash the streets and the temps warm up, perhaps this is becoming as good a year as any to start real change. No, there shouldn't be a season for it - but this is the year for all of us to do something. Gas will never be this cheap again, and we will wax wistfully for $3.00/gallon in as quick as two years. If you must drive, is it time to think about how much you REALLY need that SUV or diesel pickup? Can there really be a mobile, work-from-home workforce? Have you asked your employer if you even need to be in an office downtown at all?

Start something.
Do it this week.

As for driving to work every day?
I quit.
Join me.

I haven't had a car in over 6 years now...and love it.

peace and riding!!!

streed-cred.

2011-02-18T11:46:00.001-06:00

more hot cx bottoms...

Levon's photos.

Phil's pix.

this weekend....click me

peace and riding!!!

Hot Cross Bottoms

2011-02-15T21:05:00.003-06:00

Urban CX race this past weekend. not too much to say. I got 2nd! Thank god that hipsters don't know what a 29er MTB is :)

The course we rode can be best described as "Epic European Winter CX" meaning lots of snow, mud, ice, water and general sloppiness. The new carbon 29er ripped it up good. unfortunately, that sandbagger SC beat me on his carbon blue cx bike...gears and fully rigid? cheating sunnuvabitcha.

CX-go has pics up here!

Going to Austin next week for some warmth and SINGLETRACK!!!!!!!! god, finally.

Peace and riding!!!

KC Rasta Rider brought to you by....

2011-02-08T12:50:00.006-06:00

These fine sponsors!!!

Volker Bike Shop 39th Street
Volker VeloWerx 18th Street...best deals and service around.

Colavita USA, great food.

Parisi Artisan Coffee, yum.

Cellar Rat Wine Merchants, yes please.

Jamis Bicycles...mmmmmmmmmmmm.

peace and riding!

I'm graduating this semester!

2011-02-03T13:58:00.002-06:00

2 research capstones, 1 independent research project, intro to lit studies (in spanish) and geostatistics, but I'll be done!!!

GEOG 417 - Special Topics
Status Units Grading Grade Deadlines
Enrolled 3.00 Graded
Class Nbr Section Component Days & Times Location Instructor Start/End Date
13289 0003 Ind Study Arranged Wei Ji 1/10/2011 - 5/6/2011

GEOG 444 - Spatial Data Analysis
Status Units Grading Grade Deadlines
Enrolled 3.00 Graded
Class Nbr Section Component Days & Times Location Instructor Start/End Date
13292 0001 Lecture TuTh 7:00PM - 8:15PM Katz Hall-Rm 00011 Jejung Lee 1/10/2011 - 5/6/2011

SOCIOL 404WI - Soc Capstone Sr Seminar
Status Units Grading Grade Deadlines
Enrolled 3.00 Graded
Class Nbr Section Component Days & Times Location Instructor Start/End Date
13911 0001 Lecture MoWeFr 12:00PM - 12:50PM Haag Hall-Rm 00109 Peter Singelmann 1/10/2011 - 5/6/2011

SPANISH 301 - Intro Literary Studies
Status Units Grading Grade Deadlines
Enrolled 3.00 Graded
Class Nbr Section Component Days & Times Location Instructor Start/End Date
17095 0001 Lecture TuTh 3:30PM - 4:45PM Royal Hall-Rm 00311 Alberto Villamandos 1/10/2011 - 5/6/2011

URBAN ST 499WI - Urban Studies Seminar
Status Units Grading Grade Deadlines
Enrolled 3.00 Graded
Class Nbr Section Component Days & Times Location Instructor Start/End Date
14251 0001 Lecture Fr 12:00PM - 2:30PM 4825 Troost Room 216 Steven Driever 1/10/2011 - 5/6/2011

I got nothing else right now...it's terrible outside.

peace and riding!!!

endurance training thoughts

2011-01-16T03:22:00.006-06:00

So I hosted the Gravel Between the Lakes ride yesterday, passed out early and am not up at 3:20 sunday am, yay. More ride details about that soon...

but anyway, I've been perusing the internets reading blogs, earthriders and mtbr, searching for new fun things. But anyway, I've noticed some things reading around, and this thread in particular: http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=678665 It got me thinking about writing this post.

I can't believe the regimented training that some people have for still mediocre results. I think this guy has the best training plan.

Go ride your bike, a lot. And if it doesn't feel tough, go harder. If you're about to explode back off a little. Listen to your body. People make long events out to be something crazy...well ya they are cause those unexperienced people start out like damn fools and cramp up 1.5 hours into a 6 hour race. I learned that the hard way thoughout the last couple years. I now think I have plenty of 3/6/12 hour and gravel metric century(+) racing/riding experience to offer these tips for anyone who thinks they want advice.

1) Seriously go ride your bike a lot. Road, MTB, Gravel, long, short, whatever you can do, go do it. Kind of leads in to the second point:

2) Commute. You don't realize (and I still don't consciously a lot of times) how good of a base that commuting will give you. Plus it gives you experience at having to ride at different times of the day, when fresh and when tired, with/without lights, etc. I don't even think of it as riding anymore, but I bet on an average week I commute at least 50 miles a week just going to/from classes, getting groceries, going to the bike shop, doing laundry, etc. Add this into my actual "riding" and there's lots of weeks I'm pushing 200+ miles a week. However, this leads into the third point:

3) Listen to your body. If your thirsty, drink (you should be drinking 3-5 oz of water every 15-20 minutes anyway) If you're hungry eat. If you're tired back off the gas a little (unless you're almost finished). If you do do 200+ mile weeks, give your body a rest day or two. There was one time this past summer I realized I had ridden about 900 miles (end of August) that past 4-5 weeks during a lot of good weather and a 12 hour and 5 hour mtb races thrown in. I consciously took a few days off the bike (other than to/from class of course) to let my legs recharge. This is huge and I think helped me big time at the last 3 hour race at swope where I got 2nd.

4) Ride with people faster than you. It really does make you a better rider, they're faster for a reason.

5) Vary your rides. I can't believe how many people go out and ride the exact same thing every time they go out to ride. I vary my intensity from 20 minute dirt track race pace to 1.5 hour cross country race pace to 12 hour race pace. They're all very different and make a good cyclist. Don't ride the same loops on the trails or roads. Explore a new gravel or "b" road if you're out in rural America.

6) If you are riding single speed/fixie on longer rides, gear easier than you normally would. Sure pushing a 34-18 on singletrack is ok for an hour or two...try it for 12.

7) and the biggest thing, HAVE FUN ON YOUR BIKE. If it's not fun, why are you doing it? Personally I have fun on my bike, period. I do plenty of things to try and make myself suffer, but I still always come out having a smile and a good time.

oh yea...and I'm doing dirty kanza this year in the duo class with my boy clay wells...100 miles of flint hills gravel in kansas summer, you bet.

clay and I doing some trail work at swope last spring...

peace and riding!!!!!

Grote Prijs Shawnee

2011-01-14T13:37:00.003-06:00

So I raced cyclocross last Sunday...final cross race of the year in the KC area...it went alright, I was on a fixie. I finished in 6th...5 people ahead of me, 5 people behind me. Seems that middle of the single speed pack is where I live in cx right now...better aerobic fitness would put me in the top 3 I'm pretty sure.

So it was stupid cold outside and gearing yourself was of utmost importance...I went with thermal tights, leg warmers, arm warmers, a thermal long sleeve shirt and my summer colavita kit. It turned out to be a good choice, not hot, not cold...good.

So we were on the line and BK and I were the only ones who went on the whistle...it was weird. We hit the holeshot probably 20 feet in front of anyone else and bk started to just put it down hard the first lap...halfway through the first lap and I ate shit on one of the slick off-camber corners (not being able to coast really sucks in cx) so I got passed by 3-4 guys there and was sitting back in 4-5th...After one lap BK was way ahead of everyone so I just decided to try and maintain my spot and get top 5.

Chris Hudson eating it on the same corner I did.

I had my mid-race blow up and dropped back to 8th with 9th and 10th right behind me. Suddenly there were only 2 laps to go and I was hurting...but fought through. I started to pull away from 9th and started bridging 6th and 7th...on the final lap I caught 6th and 7th about 3/4 of the way through the course and pulled some sneaky fixie trix on an inside corner before the last barriers to pass 7th and then used magical barrier skills and the maddest spinning sprint I've ever had to beat out the other guy for 6th at the line (I clipped him by about 3 inches DanO said).

I then immediately skid stopped and puked along the side of the finishing area. It was a good final cx race.

So, cross this year was hella fun...I always knocked it for the $:time ratio, but you definitely get your monies worth, plus some at most races. I'll be back next year with the pake ripping some more ss action, maybe here, maybe alburquerque...to be determined still...

and I know this race report is kind of late and pointless, but I had so many great photos from the gravel grinder the day before that I wanted you to baste in those for a few days.

peace and riding!!!

riverside-waldron gravel grinder

2011-01-11T18:33:00.004-06:00

Just pictures...15 of them, thats 15,000 words right?

peace and riding!!!

last week...

2011-01-03T12:40:00.002-06:00

so after I left arkansas I went to Potosi, Missouri for a week of work on the Beryman Section of the Ozark Trail. With 4 other manly men, we rerouted crappy fall line trail into sweet hand bench cut singletrack. It was a good week in the woods doing lots of trail building, very fun.

NYE was mainly uneventful. I slept until 10:00 pm then woke up and went to an amigo's loft in city market. jaegerbombs and bombay sapphire...enough said.

Sunday I went out to beloved swope to do some scouting/work with craig and travis Phase 4 has a lot better layout now in a few sections that should help the long term sustainability and the flow. It's gonna be fast as shit ripping the north side of the hill.

other than that, i am in a hate-hate relationship with umkc right now. So glad I (might) graduate in May.

gravel grinders, street cred, track racing series...that's whats up for some futureness.

peace and riding!!!

Arkansas Epic

2010-12-22T22:06:00.008-06:00

So I rode 83 miles today on the monster cross down here in Arkansas. Fayetteville to Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area and the Hidden Discovery Trail System and back. At least 2500 feet of climbing, probably closing in on 3k...my legs and back are on fire right now, 4 hours after getting off the bike. Lots of hike a bike up some stupid steep gravel roads. But anyway, let me narrate this adventure:

So yesterday I decided to skip out on riding and make Wednesday my epic day. I had a route planned thanks to google and map my ride, notes taken and even a little sketched map. I got all my gear and food ready the night before so I could wake up and roll out. And that's basically what I did Wednesday morning.

Headed out of Fayetteville towards the northeast and Hobbs State Park. It was pretty pavement heavy going there (75% of 30 miles) but the gravel I hit was amazing! Super sketchy long downhills followed by unrideable LONG uphills...It was worth the view though...

I then caught War Eagle Road north through some historic river valley action...

And a couple miles later saw this weird house...its like someone had take a ranch style house and added 2 more stories, but on only half the house...

Then a few more miles in I stopped in and had a nice cup of coffee at the local grain mill (that still uses the water-driven mill in War Eagle/Clifty Creek) which also has an awesome restaurant on the 3rd floor overlooking an old wood plank/steel frame, one lane bridge and the creek...

After that goodness I rode up to the HIdden Diversity Trail and did the visitors center spur, little clifty creek loop out to piney road then across to the basehor ridge loop and dutton hollow loop, then came back across piney road to finish up the clifty creek loop and head out, when I ate it hard going down towards the south...I finished the loop and limped back to the restaurant/grain mill to get some more coffee, a bowl of soup and clean my wounds:

I headed back towards fayetteville and had to stop to take one last picture of beaver lake from the hwy 412 bridge:

somehow missed my turn getting back to fayetteville, probably cause I was concentrating on not dying, and added in a few extra miles and a most unwanted extra 500-800 foot of climbing. Finally got home a little after 6...I had left at 9:30 am. I did make quite a few stops though...breakfast, bike shop, coffee, trail snack, meeting people on trail, soup and coffee, getting lost and eating shit on the trail...I think my riding time was about 5.5-6 hours considering how many times I stopped...oh and I took a bunch of pictures on a crappy celll phone I had to pull out of my bag every time I wanted it.

today was one of those days you look back on during races...at least thats what I do...when ever I am suffering in a race, I always think about other times I've suffered worse...today was one of those days :)

peace and riding!!!

winter break

2010-12-21T13:57:00.003-06:00

so I'm on break from school...thank god. I'm down in Arkansas and its 63* outside at this very moment, nice! Only ridden once since I've been here (pic up top is from Lake Fayetteville trails sunday afternoon) but that's gonna change this afternoon with a good long ride out to some trails/gravel and a braums dinner in my future....mmmmmmmmmmmm.

So I remember back a little while ago about me saying something about wanting a bike with gears and suspension...I lied...rigid and SS for life!!!! I've been tearing up some trails recently with a fixed gear monster cross bike and absolutely loving it. Fuck suspension and fuck gears!!!!!!!!! muhahahahahaha!

ok wal-mart run then ride time then braums.

peace and riding!!!!!

I'm big in indonesia...

2010-12-20T21:43:00.004-06:00

so i just found this stats thing why I was gonna post something else....now I forget what it was, but anyway...check this shit out:

United States
4,575
Indonesia
319
Canada
138
Sweden
111
Germany
95
Ukraine
85
United Kingdom
83
Italy
71
Brazil
70
Poland
61

Those are my blog hits by country from May until today. Apparently I'm more popular than I thought. I could do some really fun stuff if I actually though people cared. I've always just used this kind of as a stash spot/journal for myself.

If you read this blog on a regular basis or just from time to time, let me know by commenting here...if you want to.

peace and riding!

halcyon holiday

2010-12-19T12:48:00.002-06:00

so i hosted the halcyon holiday gravel grinder yesterday in lawrence..sounds like everyone had a good time, I know I did after the caffeine started hitting the legs...my knees are feeling it today though, 75ish miles total on the fixie yesterday...awesome! recap/pics here: mtbkc.blogspot.com

I'm in arkansas now, my abs are more sore than anything...i'm gonna go ride some around the paved paths down here and around the lake fayetteville trails. got a week, so I'll be getting around down here I'm sure :)

peace and riding!!!

the past few weeks in pictures....

2010-12-14T14:55:00.002-06:00

not much to report...although I will be riding a bike again very soon :) only one more final to take tomorrow at 1 and this semester is in the books...only 4 more months of undergrad...holy crap.

Next few weeks are gonna be something like this:
*go home to lawrence for saturday's halcyon holiday gravel grinder
*leave sunday for fayetteville, arkansas
*ride, ride and ride some more.
*festivus
*ozark trail
*chicago???
*more riding in piss ass cold.

peace and riding!!!

the year that was.

2010-12-03T16:52:00.004-06:00

It's getting cold...it sucks.

But at least Gravel Grinder Season is here!!!

And street cred is coming too!!!

man it was cold that day...3* roanoke time trial.

Which has me thinking and reflecting on the past year. I looked through my race list the other day and did some results stuff. This year was pretty good bike racing wise, good base, good peak, now back to base.

January and February were filled with Streed Cred, GOTHRs and Gravel Grinders.

March brought some roadie action since I had a new bike, that i now no longer have, and because of the rain.

April brought MTB season and drier trails.

May, June and July were just good riding months, lots of long rides, some Arkansas business, etc.

August brought peak time: 3rd at RIM, 1st at Cruise the Blues and MTB-KC short track series was hot and hard.

September continued peakness with 5th at KC Cup CX, 2nd at KC Cup MTB 3 hour, and 5th at Manions.

October brought being hooked to cross because of the new pake.

November brought lots of school.

And december starts it all over again :)

peace and riding!!!

read up

2010-11-29T02:49:00.001-06:00

This is what I do for fun:

Brett Shoffner

Environmental Studies 334

Gender and Environment

11-29-2010

Agriculturally-Reinforced Gender Identities in Rural Communities

Introduction

Gender, like everything in our world, is a socially constructed concept reinforced by the dominant social narrative. Throughout her book Earthcare: Women and the Environment (1996), Carolyn Merchant provides a great historical background of capitalism, patriarchy, and technology and their reinforcement of dualistic thought and practices in modern society. She provides a challenge on page 54 that I believe should be considered when doing any gender-framed work, whether that is academic research, public health, community organizing, etc:

“…narrative is the story told to itself by the dominant society of which we are a part. We internalize narrative as ideology. Ideology is a story told by people in power. Once we identify ideology as a story—powerful and compelling, but still only a story—we realize that by rewriting the story, we can challenge the structures of power.”

Rural communities throughout the world are dependent on agricultural for their livelihoods, from the farmer to the seed/fertilizer suppliers to the produce processors. There is no doubt that the face of agricultural production and gender roles has changed dramatically since the Industrial Revolution (Merchant, Ch 5). Women’s sphere or control has moved from the actual land of the farm to inside the home or off the farm (Merchant 1996, Brandth 2006, Saugeres 2002, Peter et al. 2000, Wilson 1990). Agri-culture (purposely hyphenated) and technology reinforce male hegemony, patriarchy and help to embody the idea of woman as “other” (Brandth 2006, Saugeres 2002, Peter et al. 2000, Merchant 1996). Rurality and masculinity also serve to help define each other and reinforce ideology (Campbell and Bell 2000).

The objective of this paper is to examine how both women and men have become embodied through agro-technology, how gender identities are reinforced through agricultural practices and community though, and to show a link between agro-technology and gender identities in rural communities. Specifically the tractor, sustainable agriculture practices and dualistic though will be considered.

Embodiment through Biology

Throughout history man has been embattled against nature and the forces that “she” displays; nature being equated with woman is because they are regarded as the “other” in need to domination by male dominated society (Kheel 2009, Merchant 1996, Mellor 1997). In her 1997 article “Women, Biology and Nature in Feminist Thought”, Mary Mellor has explained how women have traditionally been defined by their biology, particularly their reproductive capabilities. This idea is echoed by Brandth, “it is through their reproductive abilities that women’s bodies become essential to the continuation of the family farm (2006). Women often work up to “four shifts” (Peter et al. 2000). Their role can be defined as mother, caretaker, wife, homemaker, etc. (Merchant 1996, Mellor 1997, Saugeres 2002, Peter et al. 2000, Wilson 1990). However, there is another variable that is further reinforcing the existing narrative of male dominance.

Embodiment through Technology

It has been stated how since the beginning of the industrial revolution gender roles have been greatly redefined. Lise Saugeres provides an amazing analysis on how specifically the tractor has come to define gender roles in rural societies (2002). On page 148 she explains how her respondents “talked about women’s agricultural work being ‘over’ because their work in the fields was no longer needed.” She also provides a great antecedent on page 152 between wife Michelle and husband Arnaud, showing how technical knowledge (how to operate a tractor) is equated with superiority. Berit Brandth’s 2006 essay builds on Saugeres’ idea by defining four processes that rural women can engage in when defining their roles:

1) Women can engage in technology and experience increased control as “honorary men”.

2) Women can engage in practice one and experience feelings of discomfort because of their projected masculine qualities.

3) Women engage in traditionally male roles and are devalued as to maintain the male dominance structure.

4) Women avoid engaging in technology and/or machinery, oftentimes as a safeguard on bringing more work upon themselves.

So, what about men? Peter, et al. (2000) provides the description of a good farmer from research participant Dave: “the good farmer is a ‘he’—and not just any ‘he’ but ‘a guy with big machinery; their study also describes how farmers regard the land as female in need of “impregnation and raping” (pg 223). Of course not all farm men think and behave the same way.

Rural Masculinities

Campbell and Bell (2000) argue that masculinity is defined by rurality and in turn rurality is defined by masculinity; they are constantly being redefined and/or reinforced by each other. Basically, the farming man is masculine because he is a man who farms. It has been previously stated how men regard size of farm and/or equipment as a reflection of social status and masculinity, but these beliefs may be changing with a new wave of sustainable agricultural practices.

Peter, et al. (2000) have identified two heuristic masculinities within the farming community, and they argue that sustainable agriculture practices help lead to redefine traditional views of masculinity. They define “monologic masculinity” as having rigid boundaries, specifically between men and women, discussion topics, manhood and definitions of success and work (216). They go on to define “dialogic masculinity” as “a broader understanding of what it is to be a man”, being characterized by men who are open to discussing mistakes, feelings, criticisms, emotions and attitudes (Peter, et al. 2000). They recognize that there is no distinct separation of these two masculinities between groups or even individuals but do make the argument that sustainable agricultural practices seem to predict which type of masculinity rural farm men are more likely to engage in. They argue that because sustainable agriculture does not place such an emphasis on technology, men are more likely to disengage from traditional gender roles because they are already disengaging in defining their own masculinity through technology. This idea directly correlates to Saugeres and Brandth’s arguments that technology defines gender roles.

Technology and Economics defining Gender Roles

Saugeres (2002), Brandth (2006) and Peter, et al. (2000) have all provided great agreements on how technology or technological processes have helped to define gender roles. I however would also like to introduce the Marxian philosophy of Carolyn Merchant’s Earthcare Chapter 5 as a way of defining gender roles in rural societies.

In her Earthcare Chapter 5, Carolyn Merchant describes how women in the pre-colonial through post-colonial periods moved from being defined as “corn mothers” who were active in production to “moral mothers” whose sphere was defined as reproduction. She makes the argument that industry, technology and capitalism are to blame for this shift and that they work together to reinforce hegemonic masculinity. Lisa Saugers argues however, that while technology can help reinforce current gender roles, it can also be used as an arena for challenging the dominant male power structure by providing an opportunity to express control (2002). So what do I think about all this?

Moving towards Change

Peter, et al. has detailed how sustainable agricultural practices are helping in redefining gender identities and Saugeres has suggested that technology be used as a catalyst in redefining roles. I agree with both of their positions, as well as Merchant’s that capitalism helps to reinforce patriarchy and hegemonic masculinity. Almost all of the articles I reviewed had a common story that males still dominate rural society but that times are changing and women are taking a more pronounced role. I think our culture’s push toward sustainability in every sense of living can also help remake gender identities. Our increased dependence on technology and technical knowledge will mean more people, both women and men, will use technological devices and have proficient technical knowledge. Government social programs and regulation are increasing throughout the world, redefining capitalism. Women are accepted as national leaders and legitimate rulers, although there are still old stereotypes that are still sometime unfortunately expressed, often by males (ie: God-forbid that Hillary Clinton become President and get the “red phone” call while on her period). With time though, everything will change.

Academic research in general is a great way to help redefine current social structure. Very good work has been done in gender studies and other areas, and with continued research and discussion, change can be accelerated. Discussion though is the key to any social change. We must have cultural debate and community discussion about gender identities, what they mean, how we feel about them and how they make us feel. Education and discussion are absolutely key in changing people’s thoughts and actions and in turn power structures and male and female roles within society on both the small and large scales.

Conclusion

Women in rural societies have been defined by both biology and through technology and agricultural practices. Men in rural societies are defined through technology, agricultural practice and reinforcement of existing narrative. We must recognize the problems and provide potential solutions using the resources we have. We must use an interdisciplinary approach to problem solving, using sociology/gender studies, environmental studies, economics, psychology, history, etc. to solve complex social problems and to retell the story, remake the narrative, change ideologies and produce new power structures.

Annotated Works Cited

Brandth, B. "Agricultural Body-building: Incorporations of Gender, Body and Work." Journal of Rural Studies 22.1 (2006): 17-27. Print.

*Study of how bodies define gender in rural societies. Outlines four processes that women can engage in when defining their roles.

Campbell, Hugh, and Michael M. Bell. "The Question of Rural Masculinities." Rural Sociology 64.4 (2000): 532-46. Print.

*Discussion of rural masculinities.

Kheel, Marti. "Ch 2 Masculine Identity: Born Again "Man"" Nature Ethics: an Ecofeminist Perspective. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009. 35-63. Print.

*Provides a historical analysis of masculine identity and relation to nature.

Mellor, Mary. "Ch 4 Women, Biology and Nature in Feminist Thought." Feminism & Ecology. Washington Square, NY: New York UP, 1997. 71-101. Print.

*Examination of how women have been defined though nature and biology.

Merchant, Carolyn. Earthcare: Women and the Environment. New York: Routledge, 1996. Print.

*Amazing collection of gender and environment related history, theory, antecedents, critiques and solutions.

Peter, Gregory, Michael M. Bell, Susan Jarnagin, and Donna Bauer. "Coming Back Across the Fence: Masculinity and the Transition to Sustainable Agriculture." Rural Sociology 65.2 (2000): 215-33. Print.

*Study of how masculinities are defined through agricultural practices.

Saugeres, Lise. "Of Tractors and Men: Masculinity, Technology and Power in a French Farming Community." Sociologia Ruralis 42.2 (2002): 143-59. Print.

*Case study of how the tractor reinforces gender identities in rural France.

Wilson, John. ""Public" Work and Social Participation: The Case of Farm Women." The Sociological Quarterly 31.1 (1990): 107-21. Print.

*Case study of North Carolina farm families and their gender roles.

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Manion's CX Wrap-up, Happy Holidays, and future...

2010-11-24T14:39:00.006-06:00

howdy folks! long time no blog, so let's get to it.

I have only raced once since the boss cx 3 in october and that was this past weekend at Manion's, which also was Team Colavita/Parisi Coffee's second hosting gig. I think we do damn well, but I may be biased.

I did terrible, 9 of 12, came in right behind a 39 yeur old lady...obviously I haven't been able to be on the bike as much as early in the semester...it's amazing how huge projects and cold weather will kill your riding and motivation, respectively.

Have some pics:

A good time was had by all.

My baby: "the stitches"

Roger got smart and I can't upload his photos anymore :/ So enjoy Maccu Piccu!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO YOU AND YOURS.

future plans:
near future, lots of research, paper writing and powerpoint making.
kind of near future, MTB-KC winter wander and halcyon holiday
little bit longer, grad school application to new mexico
little bit longer now, new mtb season
may, graduate.
mid-may, figure out life after undergrad.

Next race I will be at is Boss CX 4...not sure if I'll have cash enough to race but i'll be there nonetheless. Week after that is winter wander, then another week is halcyon holiday...get ready for gravel bitches!!!!!!

peace and riding!!!!