Goals

Posted on December 6, 2011 by rafal

Mod talked about goals. 2012 goal is to get into Vapor 125 everything else is set up to build to that point.  I have finally asked several ultra-endurance fellows about T.I V 8. Time to bite the bullet and see it for myself. I was going to send a card last year but after finding out it was on Easter I was out. Gear checklist has begun in my head. It will be a lot of miles before last weekend of April.  color version

bw

Like a 15-year-old teenager i will say everything looks more artsy in B&W. The winter hit hard from 40-50 degree to low of 3 this morning. Keeping the bike rubber side down thus far which is not small feat on the side streets at least this week.

 

Posted in Biking, Planning | 2 Comments

Jingle Cross Rocks

Posted on November 29, 2011 by rafal

Originally I was going to  do this whole racing thing all the way to Nationals, but man that’s another month or racing, training now being  home.   My reasons for calling it a season are 3 folds. One I needed a break, since October I spend many weekends on the road,  and I’m sorry this stuff get takes toll on your body,mind and your wallet. Second reason is  MK, she became a head coach for swimming I would like to go to some of her meets and see her toughing some kids up. Third reason was I like holidays and as much fun as CX is I like to enjoy my holidays and not trying to stay in shape for Nationals.

Friday

Friday I lined up  in back of the field, about row 6-7 and proceeded to donate my 32$ to ride for 45 minutes.  Big field make starting position very important. If you not in first 3 rows it’s pretty much just riding around with bunch of dudes. It was forgettable day. Everything that could of went wrong did I moved up 15 spots  at the end… Awesome… I know. Mark continued his redemption  tour or 2011, if you ever wronged him in the past he will challenge you to some sort of competition make you look like an idiot and think about what have you done to him…. So there, I guess what I’m saying is be nice to Mark. He will let you draft for a bit longer…

Saturday

I knew I was going to rain  rest of the weekend.  The ground was all ready soft on Friday.  Knowing that I opted out for 40-18 and set of Limus  tires.   Sure enough it rained, sure enough it was muddy.  For one reason or another my sweet second row starting position got moved to 4th row? (Dudes who registered day of were in front of us, planning is over rated) That wasn’t cool oh well. that was even less cool was only 45 second gap to the 2/3 ladies. That resulted in less then desired riding. Having the back position with small  gap and mud equals craziness. I muddled my way through the field and was sitting 3rd when dude came out of nowhere and attacked with 2 laps to go. I was staying with those guys pretty well until the run up section. I slipped running up the mud and that was pretty much the race. I couldn’t maintain my footing lost about 20 seconds and was the race.   I realized that the gearing those guys were running was at lot smaller as they were spinning crazy mad cadence. Make a mental note and hammer down every straight away the next day.

after

looking fresh as Butchie said.

BTW if you ever in Iowa city and you like Indian food check  out this place good food for sure.

Sunday

Sunday was  crappy, muddy and a lot colder.  I finally got second row start. This made all the difference in the world. After getting an okay start I high banked all the goobers who didn’t pre-ride the course and got stuck in the mud and I was in fourth place. Plan was stay smooth on the muddy bits, run up the muddy hill descent  like MTBer not a Roadie and hammer on each straight away to take advantage of my larger gear.  With one lap to go I had 2nd and 3rd in my sight. I caught the guy in 3rd on the decent and was just matching his moves. I pulled even in the spiral and go past him and was ready to lay my polish hammer down when I slipped on the last possible corner.  Foot down and everything. He got by me and I knew I would have to ogre the last 500 meters to get the 3rd. That’s what I did. Pass him with about 30 meters to go.  Got 3rd on the day.  As it turns out it was all Twin Six metal podium. I’ve got a picture somewhere to prove it.

I had awesome time. Ne crew did really well. Mark went 3 for 3.  Liz went 2 for 3 o. Matt had 2 podiums, and Noah rode himself into 7th place in the masters… Great job all..

So that is 2011. Thanks for all the sponsors cool people I met. Trek stores of Midwest, TWIN SIX, War-axe.  I will probably ride my separate man crush post thanking all the people for the past year.

What on docket for 2012? Sorry can’t spill it all but I need to get get my post card ready for this Friday.

Posted in Biking, racing, Rambling | 1 Comment

Ne cx championship

Posted on November 21, 2011 by rafal

First of all I must say John Lefler and Sean Craig, put on hell of show for everyone. The course was nice and technical, spectator friendly  and hooligan hill was of the hook… as always.  Last year I spend both day watching various people ride away from you me in SS race. I was determined to make amends  for that this year.   I signed up for SS party cause of the reasons mentioned above partly because I will be riding  SS  for Midwest CX championships also known as  Jingle Cross cx…

Saturday

We were lined up behind the 3/4 guys we had 30 second gap.    The whistle blew and we were off, it wasn’t the best of starts and I found myself  following Ryan and Skip into hole shot. However after the prime, they sat up and I was left loose.  I started to see 3/4 riders pretty much instantly  I decided to ride through as much of the field as possible.  Eventually i worked myself into 3rd spot overall.  I stayed  there for most of the race, until 3 laps to go when my front wheel out from underneath me on one of the turns and I went down. Jeremy and Aaron caught up to me and I kind of lost my motivation to catch the other two guys.  I eased into a pace and actually stopped for beverage  at top of the hooligan hill. That was the race  I rolled in first.  After the race  I rolled home… MK sister is 40th so high five on that. I had some scotch and some swedish meatballs  rolled home and went to bed

Sunday

I was a bit nervous on Sunday, the course was the same but we had addition of Clarke Dolton and  Johnathan Neve. It was going to be a battle of Nature Boys  as it seems. After less than spectacular start I had to work myself  chasing Clarke. Worst of all I was so mesmerized by him jumping barriers that I forgot to get off my bike on lap one…. Duh!!!! I did manage to close the gap on him and his spill before the run-up pulled me in right to his wheel.  I soon found that I’m stupid  enough to ogre the giant climb after the run up. I was forcing the pace and trying to use the MTB section in the woods to get my heart rate down. It  worked I got good 30 second gap and I was working on keeping it steady  for rest of the race.   2 for 2…  Congrats to Jeremy on his championship and Mod for back to back wins as well as second straight year for NE State champ…. I will be the rogue lantern on that train next year :D

Jingle is next and after that long deserved break…. And some race registrations. Looks like I might dip my toes in more regional races at cost of the local series … alas part of  human experience is about new moments in life. But for now it’s all about jingle and winter base miles on gravel…

Happy Thanksgiving  to you allday2

My Sweet metal skin suit kept me nice and cozy in cold windy weekend

Posted in Rambling | 2 Comments

360 & boulvard cup

Posted on November 7, 2011 by rafal

Saturday Morning Mod, Mk and I loaded up the van and headed south to Kasas City, kansas. I decided to race my single speed as racing that division is just really fun for me. Plus it simplifies things  no shifting  just pedal.

Day 1

You never know what i doing to happen when you go out of town for racing. You do not know whom to watch and who might be the sleeper. I was bit nervous as I saw one or two guys in SS riding a steep run up. I figured they were running super low gear, which they were.  This formulated my plan for the  race.  With bigger gear i should be faster on the flats and downhills  and if I could so ogre on big climb on the day I would contest the  race.

The start was pretty mellow and 1/3 in to the first lap I was in the lead pack on  of 3 building a gap.  I was running the steep run up and two guys were riding it. I would say  it was about even. After 2 laps it was just me and other guy up front.  And on the long ridge climb I powered past him.  I was using all the flats and downhills to my advantage just pedaled away from him for about 20 second gap.   Last lap the  gap grew and I won.  First race win since i was cat 3 mtb dude. I was stocked.

podium

Afterwords we watched Mark, Slug through some mechanicals  but still ending up in 5th place. Nice. Shim and Randy got podiums good day all around.

Day 2

Second day would be  a bit flatter and longer  course.  The big difference was the fact we we were starting behind 3/4 people. with only 30 second gap.  It didn’t take us that long to catch all these fellows. I saw someone in 3/4 dab as we were coming into the technical turn. I was off the bike and running as people were just being crazy…  That was faster  alot faster i passed several people doing that.  Then we went to the technical off camber stuff.  My gear might of been a bit to steep for the climbs I knew I was loosing time to people  in that section. Lap one was also time when I discovered  my seat was all jacked up. I stopped and try to adjusted but it was no use. I had jacked up seat whole race… The amount of standing was increased.   I build a good space rest of the field  of the field but somehow the dude in 3rd caught me right before the straight away section. It was going to be sprint finish.

After he passed me I he took a corner really wide. I saw my  opening got ahead of him and used the guys in front of me to shield me  from the attact. On the last turn it was just matter of getting good jump and going for it.  Good sprint effort netted me a second place.

sand
Sandpit, accually this was not a good line for me. After taking left side whole day I took right and ended up loosing a spot for 1/2 lap.

Photo credit Keith walberg

Mark rode awesome to 3rd place finish. After dusty 2 days looks like it might be back to mud for Wed night race

Posted in Biking, racing | 1 Comment

Pork

Posted on November 4, 2011 by rafal

If you know me, you know I love pork. I have all kind of useful and useless pork trivia and I can talk about preserving meat by smoking and drying for hours. Weirdly only Joshua was willing to talk at length about the given subject. Alas… I can tell you more in person. Last evening i drove to Erstwhile Farm to pick up my organic “better” half of pork. I was really impressed about their operation. All organic fed, free roaming hogs. The owners were super nice and I stayed there for about an hour. Talked at length about land management, organic farming and their plans to actually slaughter the pigs on site and save them the stress of being locked up in trailer to be driven away and popped by some commercial hack and not a butcher.

pork

After saying good byes I loaded my cooler and headed home. Now I have whole pig head in my freeze, yes.. And I scored some extra lard for free. Winter will be good. It’s so sweet to know where your food comes from. If you like to know more about:

So from the farm to you table. It’s awesome to support local farmer and pigs who are not genetically modified and would probably died if you let them go outside… This is reality of hog raising in U.S.

 

Posted in coop, food | Comments Off

Spooky CX

Posted on October 31, 2011 by rafal

After attending Spooky Cx last year MK an I knew that we have to make our way back this year.  The only bummer was missing a pub crawl and unleashing MK awesome glue gun skills to use.  Maybe next year would be more gooder.

The venue is pretty sweet  and DM peps are super nice, free food after the race.  Quick result turnaround  and just over 90 minute drive from Omaha.  What’s not to like..

Day 1

Day one was marked with warm sun  and good amount of climbing.  The start of the race was pretty mellow.  Being in 3rd row wasn’t going to be be easy to catchup to the leaders. Luckily I was on the outside  of the start and I was able to work the boundary  and progressed to the front. By the time I got to the top of the long climb I was sitting 7th  wheel and by the time we hit the first down hill I was sitting pretty in 3rd.  By end of the lap  I was in 3 man break away with some roadie from DM and John Rokke.  The pace slowed down quite a bit and we just traded places up  front and building that gap.   Eventually the zoom guy and Rokke pulled away from me as I was running a  big hill and they opted to ride it. Looking back at it I probably should of rode it as well, but you don’t want to try something new if what you are doing is working okay…  With about  3 laps to go the zoom DM guy got a flat and I was left in second place. I kept the gap to John about the same until i dropped my chain on after one of the barriers.   That was the race… Dave Randleman finished 3rd.  All NE podium for cat 3 on day one. Before our race Shim, Randy and Ted got on a podium in the master race.

podium

All NE Podium Day 1

WE spend the night eating ice cream and drinking beer.  We also watched emotional roller coaster that was Noah, watching the Wisconsin game…. they lost and sobbing kept going to late at night… ( just kidding)

Day 2

Second day was a lot cooler and winder. The course was bit more rugged and we were joined by Vaugh  Pierce.   Weirdly enough we were almost offered front row start  with all Omaha/Lincoln start line.  At the start it was familiar affair 4 of us Rokke, Vaughn, Dave and I got a bit of a gap.  A guy from Rassy finally bridge to us and Dave fell off the pace. I was having hard time staying with the Kaos guys and was marking the Rassy guy really well, until he got a mechanical. At that time we had 5 second gap to the front and about 10 seconds back to  rest of the chaser.   After the Rassy guy dropped off I kept the gaps consistent, until l botched remount and  was in matter of speaking riding for 3rd.  That’s how the race finished.

powerclimb

This was a pretty nice power climb. It could of used a barrier at the bottom of it.

This weekend, I shall try to race my SS bike in KS good bye  friendly confines of IA. Hello elbows, off camber turns and long power sections of KS cx racing… Ohh there is also this wed business at Seymour Smith… Hopefully we get nice turnout. TMCX boys put together a nice course for everyone to enjoy….

 

Posted in Rambling | 2 Comments