Decorah Mud Fest

After several years of wanting to race the Decorah Time Trial and not doing it for various reasons/excuses, I finally did it. Well, it wasn't the ideal year, but the racing got done. The weekend prior and after the race were great weather. The actual weekend of the race was rainy and cool.

On the drive down with Dustin, we went through a couple of heavy showers, which had us thinking of DNF strategies. I was debating on which rear tire to run, the stock Bontrager Jones 2.2 that came with my X-Cal or a Specialized Captain 2.0 that I just bought. I left the Bontrager on the rim, which turned out to be the wrong decision.

The course was very muddy - I ended up walking a lot of the uphills because there was no traction, and even walking some of the downhills near the end because I couldn't even steer. Several times I had to clear mud out of the rear chainstays because they were so full of mud the bike stopped rolling.

Check out the photos. I bent a chain link and removed paint in several locations of the chain stays.






Anyway, good times were had by all, I think I am catching the racing bug, although I wish I would have started this 10 years ago before I had a mortgage and kids...

Weekend

It's here. The Decorah Time Trials are somewhere between 24-48 hours away. At this point, I am thinking what a dumb thing it is for me to enter this race, and for several reasons.

1. I'm not fast.
2. Even getting to Decorah is a bit of trouble, since my car is a certified piece of junk.
3. See #1. Hope I don't have to stop for a breather during the event.

Prelim information shows a 9 mile course with 3440 feet of climbing. Ouch!

I'm sure that during the race I'll be talking to myself, asking why did I enter this race? what was I thinking?

wish me luck.

T-Minus Something

T-Minus less than a month until the Decorah Time Trials. I've wanted to do this race for a few years but always had something going on, or failed to be ready.

Strangely enough, this year of all years, I am going to be ready. Sleep deprivation training is going better than bicycle training, but I think both will be enough for me to survive the race.

Looked very windy today, so I opted for a 2 mile run rather than a 20 mile ride. I'm hoping that was a wise choice. Need to hit up the trainer or road hard over the next 2 weeks to get ready.

Trying to figure out how I can upgrade my wheels...

First Ride of 2009

Got out for my first ride of the year. Took the mountain bike to do some recon to see how the ice was melting. Also got to try out my new lobster gloves. The gloves were very warm. The roads were mostly dry, but the drivers were bad today. In 75 minutes of riding I had two close calls.

Why do drivers that if they honk their horn, then they have free reign to pass in a no-passing zone? I am now going to ride in the middle of the lane rather than to the right, just for protection from people who pass too close.

Resume

Time to resume posting I guess. I will be posting about the things in this house that are driving me crazy. Not the people in the house, but attributes of the house itself. The photos will tell most of the story. You'll see...