I feel like I half assed a couple posts here, so I would like to present a blog entry with total ramblings and lots of photo shoutouts, cus people like pictures and people also like shoutouts, and so I will combine them.
Getting to the good stuff, Sunday rolled around and I was pumped for the race at Rhett’s Run. I was actually was at the lake, got a good nights sleep, woke, drove home and had a great breakfast, and was at the park early feeling really good. Cosmopolitan Park in Columbia, was the site, and it just so happened to be within a mile by bike from my apartment. I did plenty of preriding, and even enjoyed seeing some of the fam a couple weekends in a row thanks in part to the race.
Met Chris and Jess there, caught up with some friends preriding expert class off single speeders off(me) sport class(Chris) There had been overcast morning’s amount of rain on the pitch, but things dried out quite nicely after the sun/beginner class came out. Chris passed me toward the end of the first lap, right on the tail of the sport field leader, hammering up a switchback that had a lot of us walking. I played chase just so I could watch the picture unfold a bit, and then slowed a bit so I didn’t push too hard, cus they were going at a strong pace. Came through my first lap feeling nice. The nice thing about Cosmo is that you know theres 3, no more, no less, extended portions of trail where one has to travel upward, and my familiarity with the trail played much to my benefit because of that. Lap 2 ended feelin good, but coming out of the woods I saw Chris working on his bike by the start, fixing stuffs. The third lap was fine, although it was a bummer to see Chris when I came around, his lifeless bike next to him. I wasn’t anticipation 4 laps coming in to this race, and had literally never done more that two at Cosmo, so it was indeed a victory for myself, and I was really happy about that. It's been sweet meeting all of the great people involved in riding. Afterwards per usual, Shakespeares and Sparkys,
This past weekend was the Rhett's Run race at Cosmo Park in Columbia, MO. Jess and I headed down and met David. Dave did awesome, hanging with all of the best singlespeeders around. I DNF'd due to a little bad luck and a lot of stupidity. There's always next time. Had a great day either way, topped off with some PBR from you know who, some pizza from Shakespeare's, and some ice cream from Sparky's. Huge thanks to Jessica for the pics, the bottles, and just keeping us smiling. Here are some pics.
I've been hitting up some local MTB group rides lately. It's taken me a little while to find them, but there are a total of 4 rides throughout the week, all on different days and in different locations. I've gone on 2 so far, with another one scheduled this week. Hopefully, I can do the fourth soon.
The first group ride ended up being, ridiculously, 3 miles from my house (I could bike there). I couldn't believe it when the group ride leader emailed me directions. I've since gone back a few times to the trails (first picture above and below). Total trail network is about 12-15 miles of mazes, but pure singletrack. Fun to ride, however I couldn't help but notice the "Do Not Trespass" signs. Found out from the group ride that it is on private land, but MTB riders have permission to be there. Not sure how much I'll frequent the trails, even though they are so close. I've had bad luck when it comes to trespassing.
Same trail network, slightly different location.
Second group ride was last week at the same trail network where I raced about a month ago, in Schenectady. Check me out, second from right. This was a killer group ride, very fast, with a lot of really good riders. It really pushed me and I've been feeling like I've been riding pretty strong. I definitely plan to hit this one up more often.
Driving home.
And this isn't riding material, but it is bike related: http://aportfoliorecycled.blogspot.com/
Found this from another bike blog about a guy who makes sculpture out of old bike parts. It is really interesting stuff to see. Scroll down to view the impressive clocks and tables. Jeremy, be sure to scroll down a little farther to view the coffee maker, you'll appreciate it, for sure.
This past weekend kicked off my summer of mountain bike races.The Down and Dirty Race Series, held at the new Truman Lake Mountain Bike Park in Warsaw, MO, is a 3 race series that takes place on some fresh new trails about 2 hours from Columbia, where I am residing for the summer.Word did not spread too far, but lucky for me there was plenty of literature advertising the race at the shop that I work at, and once I saw the brochure I asked off for all 3 of the race days.
I had a feeling this was going to be a really small race, considering it wasn’t part of the Midwest Fat Tire MTB Series, so after driving a couple hours early Sunday morning I was surprised to see 30-40 racers turn up for it.There were Beginner, Sport, and Expert classes, but nothing separate for the singlespeeders, therefore I would be racing the geared fellas.The Kids, Women, and Beginner classes all together had about 30 riders, and the Sport and Expert classes had only 6 racers each.Once the women and children were cleared from the course, Expert took off on the 7 mile loop, 3 laps, and the Sport guys started a few minutes after, same course, 2 laps.I headed into the single track in 3rd, and within the first couple minutes the race jitters got the best of the leader as he overshot a turn and headed into the brush, and me and a rider from Warrensburg on a carbon Specialized were pulling with the other 4 in tow.After making him uncomfortable on a few climbs(he relaxed on them, but my 1 gear means I have to go fast up hills), he told me to pass, and me and my Monocog racer were off.After a while I no longer heard cracking twigs or rubber on rocks behind me, and just tried to maintain a good pace, crank hard on the flats, and reserve as much energy as possible for the second lap.
The course was off camber and really rocky, and not loose ones, but the kinds that are halfway dug in the ground that are pretty jarring on a rigid bike, baby heads as I heard them called by many.Is this because they resemble a partially birthed baby, or because they are about the size of a newborn’s head, or both perhaps?.The laps were longer than I expected and the anticipation of hitting the end of that first lap started to get to me a bit.Coming around to the start again I heard the time keeper shout “Leader” as I rode by, before calling out my time, and got a bit of a mental boost heading into lap 2.A couple miles into lap 2 I thought I heard my rear rim getting dinged a bit while running over all those babies, and noticed on quite a few turns that my rear end would sort of roll out a bit through the turn.I was hesitant to stop, fearing that second place wasn’t far behind me, but I stopped and shot some co2 into my tubeless wheel, and got passed by a couple guys, one of whom I was convinced was the second place rider.Got back on, and tried to bridge the gap between us, but he was fast and too far out so I just focused keeping the oncoming cramps that I felt at bay.Coming into the final turn I saw the 3rd place rider about 10 seconds behind me, so I used the last bit I had in my tank to get up the steep grassy hill before the finish.Timekeeper yelled “Sport Winner” and I rode straight to my car and got a bottle of water, thinking that he must have messed the results up somehow.I sat in my car with the AC on for a few minutes, changed, and then made my way back to the scoring table to check my final position.He said I did actually win it, and the man in the blue jersey that passed me when I was airing my tire was the 2nd place expert rider.Cool.I won by almost a minute, got a medal, podium picture and everything.Rewarded myself with a hearty 8 dollar meal at McDonalds(it was the happenin place in Warsaw), and enjoyed the drive back to Columbia.Race #2 is on Father’s Day, so unless I can find a plane to take me directly from the race to wherever the delicious Father’s Day meal is in St. Louis, I probably will not be attending.Race #3 coincides with the OMBA Caramba, as well as the last day of Stitz family vacation.It is likely that MTB United will be represented by The Brothers Stitz that day at the SAC River trails that most of you have such fond memories of.This weekend is Rhett’s Run in my hometown, just down the street in fact.It’ll be the first big race since the shitshow that was Smithville Lake, should be interesting.Stay tuned for the dual race report from Christian Bernard and I.
What's up fellas? So recently I've started to have a little more time for myself, since Bryson is sleeping like a champ and Katie is now on summer break. I've used my new free time to get back into shape. Since my days now start at around 5:30 am, I was getting very warn out and tired before I even leave work. So I found a free trial of this energy product called FRS.
This product has given me new life. Since I started using it over a month ago, I have found that my energy level has tripled, I can sustain longer workouts, recovery time is great and I feel more focus and energized. I know a lot of you guys have a routine but I figured if you wanted to try something new this has worked wonders for me and no I don't work for this company.
I hope everyone is doing well, and below are a couple photos of the little man.
Jon
Will
Nico
Gino
Who's who?
Which wich
Look for
The 'stache
