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This will be a jumbled pile of somewhat related riding stories.

Been riding more lately and it's been awesome. Raleigh and I have gotten out to Nashville's Greenway at least once a week since we got her trailer. We've worked our way to riding all the way to the dam and back which equals about 23 miles. She does great in the trailer. Stays awake for 2/3-3/4 of the ride then passes out until we get back to the car. That's about an hour and 45 minutes of straight riding which is pretty impressive for a 15 month old to handle. She's got her snack cup, drink and maybe 1 toy and she's happy. Pulling that 50 pound trailer can be cumbersome on some of the climbs but I have to think it's making me a stronger rider.

I've been able to make it out to 2 gravel grinder rides in the past month or so. I bailed out of the first one at the 22 mile halfway point. (in the 40 mile route). I felt pretty good that day but we got a late start and I didn't want to be out for the full day. I also didn't trust myself to be able to safely make it to the 40 mile mark. I felt good at mile 22 and felt I could easily ride another 5-10 miles, but I wasn't sure about 20 miles. We had a good crew though, some regulars like Jeffy, Jim S, Parker and Monster McConnell and a few new guys (at least to my riding) like Jim's 12 year old son, Jims co-worker Stick, Jeffy's wife, and a few peeps from NMB. It was a fun route out near White Bluff TN.  You can view the details of my ride here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/106271502

The 2nd gravel ride was this past weekend. A similar crew but on the dirt roads of Hickman County this time. I finished this ride feeling great and we managed about 45 miles. I was treating this as a test of my fitness for the upcoming Crush n Rush 50 mile gravel race/ride/party. I felt good for most of the day. I did a great job of keeping food in me and we stopped at 2 different stores so I was able to keep my bottles filled as well. We lucked into a great respite from the heat and had temps in the mid 80s most of the day. We did Jim's normal Hickman route backwards which I thought was a lot of fun. We ended up with 3600 feet of climbing in 45 miles but it didn't feel like a lot of climbing. There were long stretches of rolling or even flat gravel road that were a lot of fun to ride. We hit a few of the old favorites from a couple years ago like Tyler Ridge and the hog farm. All in all if was one of THE best days on the bike I've had in over a year I'd say. Loads of fun.  Ride details can be seen here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/110151838

I was also able to participate in another Ride for Reading book delivery recently. I've missed quite a few but this was to be their biggest delivery yet with over 60 riders signed up. We ended up riding 6 miles to the school with the first lady of Tennessee and delivering books to an entire elementary school. The ride was fun and very low key but the real reward was at the school. Seeing how excited those kids were to receive free books and to see so many people having fun on bikes. It's indescribable really. What an awesome non-profit! Photos HERE. Video posted in previous blog entry.


Today I decided to ride my bike into the studio in Franklin. I've been working on jingle sessions there Tuesday-Friday and have been taking our dog with me each day. While driving home in traffic yesterday I got a huge itch to ride my bike in today. The ride down to Franklin was great in the morning. It wasn't too hot yet at 8am when I started. It's a hilly ride to get down there and I was feeling it in my legs by the time I arrived. Google maps told me it would take 1hr 30 mins to ride there. I know they are quite conservative but I didn't want to cut it close so I gave myself 2 hours before the clients came. I made the ride in 1:05 which worked well to give me ample time to cool down and change clothes.

By the time I was ready to ride back home it was 100 degrees outside. I figured I'd take it easy and just ride as slow as needed since I was not in a hurry to get back. I am terrible at riding a slow pace so I ended up just riding what felt comfortable. The heat wasn't that bad as long as I was moving. Stopping at a light was all the reminder I needed that it was 100º. I ended up making it home in 57 minutes. There is less climbing on the way home so I figured I'd be quicker but with the heat and the traffic the ride didn't feel that much faster. When I drive it takes me a good 45 minutes to get home with all the traffic so it was only an extra 15 minutes to do the route on bike.

I ended up with 200 miles logged in the past 30 days which I know isn't a lot for most cyclists but it's more than double my usual August miles. With the new family addition it's a ton of riding for me! Hopefully I can keep it up into fall.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Tennessee Country Roads

Country Road
Originally uploaded by s3ll0ut

I've been sitting here at the computer waiting for my daughter to awaken from her much-longer-than-usual nap and thinking, I should really update this here blog. And luck would have it, that I have some thing to update it with... even with some photos poached from others.

(If you're not the text reading type, click the image to the left and flip through Parker's photos of the ride)

Thad, Parker, Eric and I all met up in the usual Natchez Trace parking lot for a morning full of hot, muggy gravel mixed with some hotter and muggy pavement. I've missed quite a few of these gravel rides recently so I was excited to get back out.

We quickly were on our way down the Trace to highway 7. Thad's gotten much better at routing us to gravel much quicker than some of the 60+ miles rides we rode last year near Fly, TN. 6 miles in and we were on some sweet gravel like in the pictures. The entire course was new to me this trip which made it fun. I always enjoy a fair bit of mystery in these longer rides. It's generally best I don't know what I'm in for. I tried my best to hold back my "how many more miles til...." questions. Though I'm sure at some point I let out a whine or two. But hey, coming off the couch, having not ridden more than 20 miles in a single month in over 3-4 months makes a 45 mile ride a bit tough. :)

Of course... it's time to tend to the baby.....

...to be continued...
_________________________________

Ok, back to it 7 hours later and Raleigh is back asleep again for the night. Where was I?

oh yea gravel

So the ride was great in all the right ways. Good company, great roads (or lack of), great creeks, great pain and the constant thought of "How will I make it back to the car?" Overall I was impressed with how my body held up. We seemed to miss some of the huge grueling climbs but we still had some painfully slow & long ones. Then there was the deep, loose gravel....though that was actually fun mainly because the sections weren't so long we were cursing.

We are so fortunate that we can drive 40 minutes south of town and be transported into such another world. It was the ultimate head clearing ride. We all also were fortunate to avoid any major mechanical issues. A couple flat tires were all the trouble we had and surprisingly non of them were Thad's tire.

I'll poach a few more photos and call it a night... til the next ride....


Photo cred: Parker

One of many creeks on the ride, probably the shallowest


Photo cred: Parker

This was the 1st store we found, which was closed, not just on Sunday, but closed everyday. We all had our hopes high for some liquid but we were saved a few miles later when we happened upon someone's spring and poached some crisp water. (as we tried our best to convince ourselves it was clean enough to drink....no issues yet!)



Photo cred: Parker

Thad showing us the newest in mid-ride recover drink technology

Photo cred: Eric

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Another creek crossing with some equestrian friends.

Dirty Kanza gravel road race Video

Garrett Seacat posted up a video from the Dirty Kanza 2009 race in Emporia Kansas.

Dirty Kanza 200 - 2009 from Garret Seacat on Vimeo.

http://garretseacat.blogspot.com/

This was the 200 mile gravel road race/ride that I competed (attempted) in this year. The video does a great job showing the awesome scenery and bovine interaction. Unfortunately it doesn't convey the headwind or 100 degree temperatures. Watching it makes me wanna go back again next year! (oh gosh, did I just type that?)


My other Dirty Kanza postings:

http://chewieez.blogspot.com/2009/06/more-dirty-kanza.html
http://chewieez.blogspot.com/2009/06/mini-dirty-kanza-2009-report.html
http://chewieez.blogspot.com/2009/05/dirty-kanza-preparations-are-in-full.html

More 2009 Dirty Kanza 200

Riding with my teammate Jeff
Originally uploaded by Chewieez

It happened again, no big surprise. I waited to write a full race/ride report and have lost much inspiration. I knew it would happen but truthfully I never really felt a lot of push to write down a long, nitty gritty account of the 102 mile ride. (edit: after writing this long account, I lied I guess. It looks long, but this isn't even 10% of what happened that weekend)

It was an amazing weekend and something I was equally looking forward to and also dreading the unknown. I have a habit of getting myself into rides that are over my head. I try not to sweat the details, like mileage, and go with my gut. I knew Dirty Kanza would sell out quick, knew that I would love to attempt it, that it was be a blast with my Yazoo/Moots teammates and that it was cheap at $40. I signed up and looked back repeatedly for the months leading up to the ride.

Most of the enjoyment for me was all the prep work. All the time thinking about and talking to my buddies about how were were going to set our bikes up. This ride was going to push me into completely uncharted territory. I was fortunate to have the guidance of all the boys who raced Kanza last year, Thad, Mike, Scott, Grant and Troy. 100s of emails were sent from what shorts to wear to how 35x17 on a small wheeled bike compares to 32x16 on a 29er with monster truck tires.

The weekend finally arrived and all the pieces fit together. We had rides lined up, a van to protect our bikes and "Ride the Lightning" to blast on the highway. We had roadtrip setbacks and didn't get much sleep Thurs night but we rolled into Emporia Friday with a lot of time to suss out bike setups and consume yummy Boulevard beers. The racer meeting went off without a hitch....even had Swiftwicks on hand to raffle. (I hope those lucky riders who won a pair of socks had their minds blown! Merino wool One's were the perfect sock for the ride, and most summer rides).

Race morning came quick (4am) and we all got suited up and made it to the starting line, 50 yards from our hotel room door. The morning was awesome; blue grey skies with a breeze and cool temps. We got quick instructions and heard things like... at mile 175 there is a steep creek crossing, be careful. We had an escort through downtown Emporia and then we hit the gravel and the group split up quick. Everyone found their group of 15 or so and rode the next few miles without incident, or hills. Scott flatted and we all stopped but Thad and Scott had it under control. Most of our group slowly motored back up and went on. I hung with Thad and Scott and we rode the next few miles of rolling hills together. This was my introduction to the amazing scenery on the Flint Hills.... and course markings. I almost lead us astray at mile 15... that would of made for a super long day. The wind was slowly picking up speed and even the three of us were having trouble sticking together. Thad received some 'inspiration' and pulled off to ride a slightly faster pace and I settled in as we lost sight of Scott off the back. This was how the next 60 miles would work out.

I rode alone, into the wind gusts of 40 mph for the next hour before I saw anyone I knew. There weren't any groups bigger than 3-4 or riders as the wind just killed everyone's momentum. Drafting helped a little, but the wind was so strong that everyone settled into their own pace and it was tough to find someone near you riding at the same pace. We all suffered in silence through the wind and the many rolling hills. I finally caught sight of one of my teammates, Jeffy, off in the distance ahead. It took me about 15-20 minutes to bridge the gap between us. It was great to see a familiar face and chat some but it was apparent that Jeff was hurting already, mentally more than physically. We rode together for a few miles and he was struggling with his gear choice. In reality it wasn't his gear but the wind that was the issue. No matter what gear we all ran, the wind sucked and it wasn't going to stop anytime soon. I eventually fell off the back and watched Jeff ride off ahead. A bit later I saw Jeff on the side of the road with Grant. This was the first time since the first 5 miles that we were together again. Grant and Jeff had trouble with flats and I was feeling a good groove so I motored on alone and met back up with them at the first checkpoint. (Jeffy would go on to be one of only 15 riders to finish the entire 205 mile course. He found his happy place and battled the demons and I'm proud of him.)

I spent a long time at the first checkpoint. I refueled and ate some and chatted with Dan, who was having a lot of stomach issues. Dan and Jeffy continued on but I decided to wait and ride with Grant and Scott who I thought would better fit my pace. We got back on the road and navigated through town with a few pitstops to fix Grants seat angle. You gotta have your contact points 100% correct for a long ride like this. No sense in suffering through a strange seat angle and hurting. The 3 of us would continue to ride together for the entire second leg of the ride. This was awesome. We were all hurting at different sections...sometimes just a bad mood funk, and other times some cramping issues. The wind had stopped which was amazing, but there were no clouds at all and no trees to shade the road. We all baked out on the pavement. I had 4 bottles on the bike, which should of been more than enough for a 40 mile stretch but with the heat, all bets were off. We were all on water conservation with the worry of getting caught out in the middle of no where in the 100 degree heat. I think what really compounding all of it was that our liquids, whether water or gatorade, were also 90 degrees. You had a thirst for cooler water that was totally unquenchable. Drinking 90 degree water does nothing to refresh you.

(Scotty, all smiles, all the time. Riding his new Moooots)

We drudged on and on and on, stopping in the tiny bit of shade of the very occasional tree that hung over the road. We met up with another rider on a Van Dessel crossbike who was napping on the side of the road. The 4 of us rode for a while....this stretch felt way longer than 40 miles. The scenery of the ride was so awesome that I was mad at myself for not paying more attention. I would force myself to stop looking straight down and soak in the views of the farm land. Tennessee has nothing like this terrain. Our local gravel grinders have hills but no open land where you can see for miles.

We had our sights on the halfway point as our personal finish line. Scotty really wanted to continue on and we were trying to get to the halfway mark inside the cut off time so he could. The closer we got though the more we all realized that our day should really end at the halfway. It wasn't safe for any of us to try to continue on to the city of Alma. This next stretch was to be the shortest mileage but the toughest terrain and Alma was another 30 miles farther from Emporia which would make getting picked up way harder on your teammates/support crew.

(gRant posing with his Moots cap that he wore the entire ride. Nice salt lick!)

When we rolled into the halfway point we saw Dan and Thad...both had also called it. Dan pushed hard to make it halfway but continued to have nutrition issues and Thad had sliced his tire and couldn't safely continue, even with 3 tire boots installed. Thad was looking fresh which I know was frustrating to him but he would of been stopping every 5 miles to change tubes so he had to quit. We laid in the small park and cooled down and exchanged stories with the other racers who finished their ride there also. Thad and Scott decided to ride their bikes back to Emporia to pick up the van and come back for us. Grant, Dan and I hung out in the park with David Pals and our new friend Michelle, Joel's (one of the organizers) wife. Thad's ride was 15 miles longer than expected so we all were in the park for a long time waiting. It was fun though, we ate pizza from the nearby store and just hung out and exchanged stories to pass the time. We ended up waiting until 11:30pm to get picked up. Grant joked that the ride was epic but so was the wait. Ride time=6am-4pm, wait time=4pm-11:30pm. Wouldn't of traded it for anything though and we were very grateful that Thad and Scott offered to go get the cars. We didn't have anything left in the legs to ride the 40 miles back to Emporia.

So, am I glad I went? You bet ya. Will I go back next year? You bet ya. Will I race it again next year? That will depend on my fitness now that I have a better understanding what it takes to finish a 200 mile gravel ride. We've decided we need to bring an extra support person next year so even if I'm not ready for the big ride, I will return to Emporia and help out if I can.


(My Quiring in full epic gravel grinder setup. Looks for another post soon on how the bike did....1 quick word, AWESOME)

(the park where we recovered)

Mini Dirty Kanza 2009 report

I don't think I can do a good write up yet but I'll pass on the short version and a few pics.

6 of us from TN drove down the Emporia, Kansas to compete in the Dirty Kanza 200 mile gravel race. The race started out at 6am with the sun rising and cool temps. After about 15 miles of gravel, the wind picked up and didn't stop until mile 62. This was no ordinary wind...it was either a dead-on headwind or a wicked crosswind gusting up to 40 mph and averaging probably 25 mph. It was effort to pedal the flat sections and keep my speed over 10 mph. The sun was out in full force and by 1pm the temperature was in the 90s with peaks up to 98 degrees. The 40 mile stretch from checkpoint 1 to checkpoint 2 had very very little shade. The only sweat I had was in my helmet. My jersey never felt wet. I downed 4 bottles (94 ounces) in the first 62 miles and 4 bottles in the second 40 miles and had to ration fluids both stretches. The fluid was not refreshing at all due to it being 90 degrees....mmm warm gatorade...yum!

I made my goal the halfway point and called it a day. We barely made it in. New accomplishment in finishing my first true century. I had an incredibly fun weekend with the race just being the icing on the cake. I learned a ton about myself and riding and racing and friendships on this trip. Everyone who towed the line put in an immense effort. Moots/Swiftwick/Yazoo racer Jeff Scott was the sole rider in our group to completely the entire 205 miles. He rocked the race and pushed through some really tough conditions. I am inspiried by him and hope I can put what I've learned to use in future challenging rides.

I will add more of a detailed write up later today or tomorrow. For now here are some photo highlights:

Dan (L), Thad (C) and Grant (R) during the neutral roll out as the sun was coming up. (6:03AM)

The view from about mile 20-30.


Grant taking a photo of the cattle running along side of us. I have a short "oh shit" moment when I thought they were going to cross/run into us. But they stayed in their pasture and just ran with us for a 1/4 mile. It was something I'd never experiences before and was surreal.


Jeff Scott telling us the night before the race that he was gonna get 2nd place SS. Confidence is key!

Dirty Kanza preparations are in full effect

Quiring - epic setup side view
Originally uploaded by Chewieez

I've been working on my setup for Dirty Kanza for a while but now it's time to collect everything and put it all together. I got my frame back and built back up Monday right, after driving back from Dallas all day. Started gathering all the bits I'm borrowing and last minute items I needed to buy. I did a short shakedown ride last night to test out the handlebar setup with bags and bartape. The bike is riding great with the extra load. I thin because so much of it is on the front, the bike really doesn't ride like it's heavy at all.


I'm still waiting on one more bottle mount to put on the downtube. This will give me 4 total bottle placements and with my new sexy red bottle and full 93 ounces of fluid on the bike, and not on me. Only being able to have two mounts in the frame (and no frame bag) is one drawback of the design I went with on my Quiring, but it also means I have a lot of seatpost to utilize. I borrowed some clamps and a bottle cage from Dan and got it tucked in under the saddle bag. There wasn't quite as much room as I thought there would be so I tried mounting it on the front of the seatpost. I rode around the yard with it and quickly realized it wasn't going to work. My thighs were rubbing the bottle... nope, can't have that! So back it went to the backside of the seatpost. With 1" of tire clearance the bottle is tucked in right up under the saddlebag. The bag is actually touching the bottle but it should help hold the bottle in on the choppy gravel roads.

I also borrowed a Jandd handlebar/seat bag from Dan and got it mounted up. It's relatively small but holds more than you think. I have a tube, chammy cream, drink mix, tools and a vest in it for now. I taped up the exposed areas of my handlebars to give me full use of all the grip options. I scored some great red and black left over tape from Eastside Cycles and did my first wrap job. It's not overly professional looking but it should do the job. One full wrap of red tape and then I added a little bit of black to cover the brake lever mounts.

My food is going in the Epic Designs Gas tank (on the top tube) and my Epic Ride Research Feed bag. This will give me total access to all the food and places to put my extra light battery and some odds and ends like sport leg pills and chapstick. (I'm borrowing the gas tank from Thad, who is using a custom Epic Designs frame bag on his new RigorMoooootis)

I'm running my normal slim saddle bag. I like that it doesn't rub my legs anywhere and (generally) stays put nicely. In it is one tube, multi-tool, 3 Co2 cartridges, Co2 blaster and a patch kit.


For lights I'm running a Cateye Commuter 3 LED light that runs on 2 AAs and has a super long run time and a flashing feature. I'm also going to use my new Niterider MiNewt USB light with an extra battery for a 6 hr run time. I'm planning on using the Cateye when I can and only turning on the MiNewt when I need more light and more light throw.

The main goal of this setup it to keep all the stuff off of me. This is something both Dan and Thad stressed as essential for long rides. Let the bike carry the weight, you just pedal. I've really enjoyed working through all the different choices of gear and setups and being creative with the tools I have at my disposal, and donated from nice friends.

longest ride....ever

I jumped in on a long haul trucker gravel grinder this weekend. Thad is known to plan these and I always hear about how much fun was had but hadn't participated. I wasn't ready physically for this ride, having not had a decent ride since the Snake. My bike wasn't really ready considering I was using a test saddle that I'd never ridden on before. What better way to test out a saddle.... a 73 mile ride! A good group came out to play, we had Thad, gRant, Mike N, PTJim, (mean)Adam, and Scott M.

73 miles.... wow! Can't say I would of said that I could do a ride like this if you'd asked me last week. The plan was a 50-70 mile gravel grinder. I signed up and secretly hoped it would be closer to 50, which would only be about 10 miles out of my comfort zone. Well, I'd say about 50 miles of the 73 were out of my comfort zone. Thad had his trusty, crusty map hidden in the protective zip lock case. He lead us all over the country side starting from Leipers Fork. A friend from NMB asked me where we rode. I was about to give a quick answer and then thought, hmmm I don't really know where we were and where we rode. I just know we started in Leipers Fork and ended in Leipers Fork. We rode past some amazing country side. I was able to glance around a few times and really just soak it in. I'd think: wow, I've been riding my bike for hours, this scenery is amazing, I'm cruising.... it all would hit me at one time. This type of riding is just awesome. So rewarding, friendly competition, personal challenges, great camaraderie, the sense that you are away from it all yet still connecting with people.

Thankfully Grant manned up and brought his camera and volunteered to carry it on the journey. He got some great shots that really bring back the ride in my memory. All the pics included here are from Grant, minus the beer shot post ride. We headed back to downtown Franklin to hit up 2 for 1s at McCreary's but they were just too busy for us. By the time we would of gotten a table happy hour would of been over. The decision was made to head down to Mellow Mushroom instead. We enjoyed a couple pitchers of pale ale and some great pizza. Everyone was just feeding their faces. Grant and Mike suffered from the food sweats, maybe they need to up their eating training.

On the saddle front the Selle Italia Flite did ok. I didn't have the same degree of numbness as I had using the Rocket V ti, but there was still some there. I tried my best all day to stand up a lot and move around frequently so to not be sitting more than I needed. Not sure if this helped more than the saddle change. Overall, I'd say I'm not fond of the Flite saddle. I feel it is a bit to narrow for my anatomy. I realize you should put more miles in on a saddle before making the final judgment but I don't think I can with this one. I may exchange it for one other Selle Italia model, but I have a saddle in mind now that may just be the answer for me. I'm really close to buying a Selle An-Atomica saddle. I've been reading all about them and the research they've done and is sounding like it's worth the price of admission. Unfortunately it has a stout price tag of around $160 but the Flite Ti that I just demoed sells for $150. Can you really put a price on comfort? The An-Atomica is supposed to be very similar is style to a Brooks, with a slightly different shape, different leather (with less break-in time) and a cut-out down the middle. (I know, cut-outs are marketing hype and don't work..... blah blah blah) The marketing hype for this saddle has me interested and I'm gonna try it out.

You can read some other great write-ups on our gravel grinder on the following links:

J5's blog
Grant's NMB post #1
Grant's NMB post #2
Pumptrack Jim's NMB Post

We'll end with a beer shot....