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."

Marathon

My sister, Sunshine is planning on running a marathon. The Monumental Marathon in Indy. I am very impressed by her choosing to take on such a difficult event. She has not always been into fitness, but has recently taken up running and several adventure races. I am proud of her. It kinda makes me want to run in the marathon as well, but that involves running... maybe after RAIN.
Which brings me to the "week of training" I was to undertake. Only one ride in so far... the Tuesday Night Nebo CIBA trainer, about 35 miles. It was hot! I am hoping the Thursday night ride is better, and a tail-wind on Saturday.

RAIN Ready?

I have no idea if I am ready for this or not. This coming Saturday, I will attempt to ride my road bike across Indiana (Terre Haute to Richmond). The ride is called the Ride Across INdiana (RAIN). The trip is approximately 160 miles along national road 40. The 160 miles are not the only issue. I was able to limp into Earlham College in Richmond last year with my teammates (Team Nebo Ridge). It was a great feeling of accomplishment. This year, the team has planned to complete the ride at a faster pace. This combined with my level of fitness not being what it was last year at this time AND returning from a week vacation in San Diego (without getting on a bike) may result in a pretty ugly event. I was able to complete the Mohican 100k Mt. Bike race in early June. I felt pretty good afterwards, and admit I didn't ride as hard as I could have. I was also able to get a 130M ride in before the vacation, but our pace was significantly slower than what we plan to do on Saturday. I will try to ride as much as possible this last week before Saturday. Nothing like trying to fit all your training in the week before the event. We will see.