IN MORNING

Two weeks ago I lost something. My Land Rover Discovery II. 

While it was a gas guzzling monster, and could have increased global temperatures all by itself: I loved driving it. I purchased it from the trusty auto auction... only to find out it had a blown headgasket. This required that I purchase and swap out the motors in my garage. This in itself is ironic, and should demonstrate the level of commitment I have to this vehicle. With considerable help from my father, son, and a couple friends: the motor was replaced and truck was running like new. I then sent it off with my teenage son, Adam. He drove it for two years without significant incident (he drove through a parking lot cross arm (minimal scratches), and had someone drop a rock on him from an overpass onto the roof (slight dent), but nothing substantial. I had always been on him to take care of it. I knew he'd go off to college, and I'd get a chance to drive it. 

Three months after I got it back... it is gone. A phone call, red light, and T-bone. Gone. At least nobody got hurt. That is a positive. Adam was upset when he found out.. not nearly as upset as I am.

So I am going to try my hand at commuting by bike as much as I can. My brother-in-law does it, and my commute is much shorter. I have no excuse. Shower at the office. Plenty of bikes to ride. I have the gear. It would be healthy for me. 

Duke, the Blue Tick Hound Dog

Kristi and I have been searching for a dog. We had never considered getting a dog until Megen's puppy Dodger stayed a couple days with us last year. Since then, we've been searching for the right time, and right dog to bring into our home. We wanted to adopt a dog from the Humane Society. After multiple months of searching Petfinder and trips to several of the local shelters, we had resigned ourselves to finding a dog via a rescue organization. We'd be able to limit the search to particular breeds, etc...

After a very nice, but interesting home visit by a representative of the German Short Hair Pointer Rescue Society, we made a trip to the Indianapolis Animal Control on Indy's South side. The reason: Duke. I had seen an image (blurry) of a dog called "Duke" on Petfinder the night before. The information provided indicated he was a blue tick hound dog, young male (1 1/2 years old). I thought it was hard to believe, the dog must have some sort of intestinal issue, or was blind... maybe the picture concealed the fact that he only had three legs (apparently dogs with three legs are "saved" at a higher rate than others at the pound, at least that is what we've been told). We had to check it out, and here he is:

 Needless to say, Duke has a new home. We've purchased all the dog gear (crate, leashes, collars, food), talked about the electric fence, made a vet appointment, and called about obedience classes. Duke is Awesome.

It has been 2 weeks since returning from Colorado, where several Team Nebo Ridge members volunteered at the Leadville 100MTB. We spent the week riding the trails around Breckenridge, the Monarch Crest Trail, and Powerline in Leadville. We also hiked Mt. Quandary at 14,256 ft.

Fun times trying to adjust to less O2, the legs felt fine, the heart and lungs working OT. By the end of the week the legs were toast. During the first week back, I couldn't tell if my legs were just tired, or the difference between my heart rate and power was due to my week of altitude training...

Next up is the DINO24. The team is putting together several teams for the event. Last year we had 1 team of 6 riders. I assume we will have more this year. I may end up riding it solo... We. Will. See.

BAMF events, Get em in!

All year I've had a cycling focus on riding longer, endurance type rides, a mix of road and off-road events. A select group of riders from the local cycling team has established the BAMF crew, with qualifying events, and "points" for completion. I nominated myself, unofficial official BAMF event coordinator. Essentially, any ride that puts you in the pain cave for an extended period of time (6 hrs) qualifies. In order to be a member... you must complete 10 events, with a minimum of 3 events being road rides, and 3 being off-road events.

The requirement of doing off-road events has forced several "want-to-be" BAMFs to try out gravel rides and mt. biking, which has been humorous and sometimes worrisome. 

Some examples of events covered by BAMF members so far:

Sub9 Death March (Gravel, Adventure race style, Indiana)

Barry Roubaix (Dirt/Gravel, race, Michigan)

Billy Goat McGruff Ride (Self created, hilly road ride)

Calvin's Challenge (12hr road race, Ohio)

Assault on Mt. Mitchell (100M, road race, North Carolina)

Dirty Kanza (200M gravel race, Kansas)

JAWS (100M, road ride, Indiana)

Lumberjack 100 (100M Mt. Bike race, Michigan)

RAIN (160M, road ride, Indiana)

Metamora 200 (200M road race)

Events coming up on the calendar:

DINO 24hr. 

OJO Birthday Ride

Brown County Breakdown

Iceman Cometh (special inclusion as BAMF event...)

Sub9 Gravel Grovel

Did you know?

On July 24th (that's today!), 1938, a German-Austrian mountaineer party became the first to scale the North Face of The Eiger. The 13,020-foot summit is one of the most iconic peaks in the Swiss Alps. The North Face rises more than 6,000 feet from the Grindelwald valley below, and poses extreme risk to climbers because of the near constant avalanches and rockfall. The mountaineers were caught in a minor avalanche as they ascended a large glacier known as The Spider, but they were able to resist being swept from the face. They reached the summit in the afternoon of the third day of their climb, and barely had enough strength to descend the regular route as a blizzard set in.

Death March 2012

The Death March is a  Sub 9 event that is very similar to an adventure race but the check points are cemeteries located in the Hoosier National Forrest (HNF), just south of Bloomington. You ride with a teammate to various locations, take a picture in front of the cemetery sign, then move on. We planned to make it to every checkpoint so were able to plan a route several weeks in advance. Spending time riding the path we would eventually take helped with both navigation and conditioning/endurance. We made 3 pre-ride trips down to HNF in the weeks before the race. Ultimately, it was two teams (Larry and myself, and Glenn and Matt) that planned to stay together throughout the race, which in my opinion was a great plan.
Overcomming two stops to fix a flat, hitting all checkpoints in the planned order, and staying together as planned resulted in a great race that did not force one to dig super deep, but rather enjoy the day. One thing that helped our eventual placing besides knowing the route, was our intentional effort to spend as little time at a check point as possible (less than 1 minute). The bummer about the hastiness, was that I apparently did not save three of Matt and Glenn's  pictures, resulting in a DNF for them as one of the cemeteries was a required checkpoint. Sorry guys....
The event was fun. Good food and mulitple discussions about route choices and what to do differently next year was the topic of the post ride discussion. The event is also a great way to start off the 2012 season (road and MtB).

My next official event is the Mt. Mitchell Challenge in May, then the Mohican 100, the first weekend in June. I'm sure I will enter several local events in the meantime, just for fun.

Fall Schedule

The RAIN report is a work in progress, so in the meantime...


The Fall Schedule (Goal):


HMBA Century Saturday July 30th (Check, 6:30)
Brown County Breakdown October 8-9, 2011
Hilly Hundred  October 14, 15, and 16, 2011
Monumental Marathon  November 5, 2011
Gravel Grovel (Black Friday)
Tecumseh Trail Marathon Saturday, December 3, 2011


"If you bite off more than you can chew, keep chewing."