Taming of the Slough - Wet Oily Gravel

Miles for the month: 223
Miles since last post: 111

Well...last weekend I spent the weekend camping with my wife.  We had a blast camping and doing some geocaching, I highly recommend looking into this, great exercise and fun for all.

Only 111 miles in the last 10 days, I need to work on getting that up.  Anyway, this past weekend I was part of a 3 man team doing the Taming of the Slough.  We had a female kayak-er, I rode the mnt bike phase and an Army buddy Todd did the run.  We did VERY well, we had the fastest co-ed team, clocked in around  1:46:32 if I recall.  It was a lot of fun and look forward to next yrs.

                                                      Team name : "2 GI Joes and a Jane"

                                                                Bike to Run transition

Today I had marked my calender to do 70-100 miles on gravel....until the rain hit.  We haven't had rain in 42 days so it was very much needed but it sorta hijacked by ride.  I know some TransIowa time I'm gonna have to deal with bad weather but today the sky fell.  I left the house around 1300 and by 1330 it was pouring, Forest Gump pouring.  It looked like the rain was coming up rather than down.  I ended up only doing 30 miles today.  Once the rain started I checked the weather radar and there was no end in sight so I called it.

                                                          Just before the sky opened

Learned a few things today from my wet gravel ride.

1. Take warm clothing.  It was only 60 degrees when I left but I went ahead and took with me a lite long sleeve under armor shirt.  Glad I did, it got cold pretty quick after I got a lil wet.

2.  Rain jacket.  Take it, it did help significantly after the wind picked up.  I did sweat more with it on but it kept the wind from chilling me to bad.

3.  Wet gravel is SLOW gravel.  The hard packed lanes where cars usually drive became mini-rivers.  So it was either constantly ride in water or ride in the loose stuff.  

4.  Oil slicks.  On Iowa gravel roads residents will drop used oil on the road in front of their homes to keep the dust down.  Well, when it rains all the oil comes to the surface which makes for an oily mess.  There is no avoiding it.  It stinks and as you would guess, doesn't taste very good being slinged up on your face from the bike tires.

Well...that will do it for now.  Next week I'm doing my first overnight cyclo tour.  Were riding 65 miles down the Mississippi River Trail, camp over night and then ride back.  I plan to pack down my Fatbike and enjoy the ride.  We'll be moving slow but it should give me a good idea of taking my fatbike on a long ride.

                                                                        My Fatbike.

Well....not much to talk about for this week, just trying to log in as many miles as possible.After loggin 320 miles last month I’m shooting for 370 this month.  I'm going to start commuting more to work.  It’s a 26mile round trip and I can’t rely on getting all my miles in after work, esp with the days getting shorter.  Also looking into possible YMCA membership here, @$35.00 a month it may be a good idea, they have many spin classes to offer, esp in the early hours that I could attend during the winter months.  My plan is to still train as much as I can on the roads this winter on my soon to have Fatbike.  The cold temps really don’t bother me much but I know there will be days where a spin class and trip to the sauna afterwards will be much more tempting than a ride out in snowy 25 degree weather.  I think the most brutal thing about an Iowa winter is the wind; it can sustain itself at like 25-30 mph for days on end.

 

I’ve been trading email with Guitar Ted the last few days (Trans Iowa Organizer) and he says no one has ever even attempted a Trans Iowa on a fatbike, that alone is almost enough to make me say “Well I will dammit!!!”.  I can’t explain this bug/sickness I have right now for cycling; it’s almost completely consuming my life.  My poor wife is such a wonderful woman for putting up with it.  I’m sure once I get where I want to be physically it will subside some.  I can though without a doubt say that it has saved my Army career.  My left knee is not in good shape; well, not in good “running” shape so before I started cycling again I was turning into a lazy paperweight.  I guess if you’re not a cyclist you can’t understand how amazing it is, it frees you both mentally and physically when you’re on the bike.

 

I know this is the last thing my wife will want to hear but I’ve even started looking at cyclo-cross bikes.  They are more geared toward gravel races but with me being here only another year at most I’m not sure I’d get much use out of it. There isn’t a lot of gravel races in the deep south, most are conducted in the Midwest states, maybe I need to start rethinking my retirement locations? :P  

 

Today I’m just going to log some miles, on the 14^th of Sept I’m in a mini-triathlon of sorts, it’s a three leg event, running-kayaking-mount bike course, I’m doing the mnt bike part.  That will be my last short course race for this year.  From then on out I’ll be concentrating on getting more longer rides in to prepare for the Trans Iowa.  Well….until next time, keep peddling to top of the next hill, it’s eventually going to go back down!!

The Night Bison Gravel Nocturne

I decided to get in as much gravel riding as possible so this was a wonderful opportunity for me to get in some decent miles at night with other riders present.

I've give ya two stories, the short and the long.

The short story is this ride was AMAZING.  I rode faster at this distance then ever before, no bike mechanical errors, no crashes, no significant body pains, I made some great friends and God provided us with an amazing light show (lightning) in front of us the whole night but never once dropping any rain on us.

The long story.

Pre-race: I had some jitters, specifically about my water.  I knew based on previous rides of 40 and 70 miles that I'd need at least 1 bottle (24oz) of water per hour.  My new camel back carries 100oz and I have 3 bottle carriers on my bike so I'm capable of hauling almost 7 bottles of liquid.  As I looked around I didn't see many folks carrying a camel-back my size AND 3 bottles of water.  I kept going back and forth on carrying 1 or 3 bottles, I knew the temps would be lower than what I had previously ridden in and could really useless weight on such a long ride.  I finally decided to go with all 3 bottles, this would turn out to be the right decision, I finished the ride with 1 bottle left.  Not having enough water on the ride was never an issue, matter of fact I had to stop to relieve myself which has never happened before.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=1385748294987930&l=567063612120909612

First 20 Miles:

The start of the race was slow...13mph slow for the 1st mile.  I guess that's to be expected when 100 plus riders take off on a 2 lane road and only being able to ride in one of those lanes.  Once we got going though it spread out and I took off.  I was using mapmyride to track my speed and route.  I had pre-programmed it in my phone so I'd know where I was and where I had to turn throughout the whole route.  I knew I was moving pretty fast for me but I never expected I'd be able to maintain it for so long.  The first 20 miles I was averaging almost 18mph, easily 2mph faster that anything I had ever done before on the road, much less gravel.  I kept telling myself I needed to let up a bit, that I had 55miles ahead of me, but....that never really happened.  After about 5 miles I found myself riding alone.  It seemed that the group in front of me was moving to fast and the group behind me was moving to slow so solo it would be for the first 20miles.  Luckily the wind wasn't to bad.  It was coming out of the North at about 10mph so I didn't think I'd suffer to badly  not being in a group.  So far everything was almost flawless, I say almost because for what ever reason my phone crapped out around 7 miles and I lost my pre-route, my phone was no longer telling me where to turn and the cue-sheet (paper directions) were stuffed in my camel-back and would be unreadable unless I came to a stop.  Luckily, I was able to see the red blinking lights of the lead pack so I had a good idea of where I needed to go, as long as they went the right way.  Funny thing is, on 2 separate occasions I saw the lead pack and WHITE lights coming back at me meaning they themselves made 2 wrong turns.  I was far enough back that I was still able to follow them once they realized they had made a wrong turn.  How do you make a wrong turn?  Easy, its pitch dark out there, no street lights and unless you stop and point a light directly at the street sign at intersections you can ride right by a turn and never even know there was a road there, this would happen later in the race to a group I had gained on.  I closed my phone down, restarted it and eventually around mile 15 it picked up the route again so I was good to go.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=1385793794983380&l=2182749058498999562


Middle 20 miles:  Right at 20 miles I knew I was hydrating as best I could, I knew this cause my bladder was full and it needed emptying.  I picked a somewhat lite side of the road (just past a farmhouse) to pull over and do my business.  Just as I was finishing up a group of 10 or so when blazing past me, as they rode by multiple riders yelled out "You ok?"  "yep!!", I'd yell back.  That's one of the things I really love about bike-riding, everyone is always looking out for each other.  I jumped back on my bike and pushed to catch this pack.  Once I caught them I discovered how kick ass it is to ride in a group, esp in the back.  Everyone in front of you is cutting and disrupting the wind and it really makes a difference in the effort you have to put in, it feels like a vacuum of sorts, likes your being sucked into the pack.  I rode with these folks for another 6 or so miles until this group split in half and I stayed with the faster group.  That's when I met Mike from Wisconsin, he was an older rider, late 40's I'd say.  He had just finished racing in the "Worlds Gravel" race in Nebraska so I used this time as we rode to tap him for tips and information.  He was using a "garmin" gps but was having problems with it so my phone and I became the navigator for the next 12 or so miles.  At one point I was in the back of the line and not paying attention to the route when we all drove right past a left turn.  A few 100 feet into it I said "Umm...guys..we were supposed to turn left back there." Mike, in the front said "You sure?, I didn't even see a road!!!" "Yea...we missed it".  Luckily I was right and back on course we were.  At around 30miles we came up on a water point.  Some guy who lived out in the middle of nowhere had set up 2 flood lights, a few tables, he had Gatorade, cookies and water there for passing riders. He had taken a piece of plywood and spray painted on it something along of the lines of "Crazy Gravel Riders Stop Here".  So we all deiced to pull in and get a quick snack.   While we were stopped the second pack of 5 caught us but they also stopped for a quick break.  I grabbed a cup of Gatoraid, ate a few cookies and was ready to go.  2 riders took off and I was getting impatient.  I told Mike I was taking off so he and one other rider joined me and we got back to it.  We stayed together for another 10miles until we got to the most difficult section of the ride, "Hurder" rd.  Hurder road was a single track grass trail.  Not a very roadbike friendly trail at all and that's when I dropped Mike and the other guy.

Last 13 miles.  Once on the grass trail I got a 2nd wind, I passed up at least 5 other riders on this trail, all roadbikes who were having to take it much slower that my 29in mnt bike.  Hurder road went on for about 5 miles and I was making good time until....hills.  The most hilly section of the ride would be the next 8 or so miles.  So far there hadn't been many but at 40miles they were starting to take a toll on my legs.  It was the first time I really thought "oh no, I could cramp up here".  The 5 roadbikes I had blown by in the grass had all caught me and I struggled to keep them in my grasp.  This was my slowest section, I was averaging about 12-13mph now and had a few miles as low at 11.  Then 2 of the 5 that had passed me started walking, as I crawled by them I asked f they were ok, "Cramps" one of them called out so I kept peddling.  So Now I was about 45 or so miles in and legs were telling me they were getting tired.  I grabbed a pack of "gu", some "chomps", drank from my electrolyte bottle and drove on with no issues.  Once out of the hills and back on pavement I was averaging about 15-16 mph and feeling great.  Matter of fact too great, I guess that gel hit the spot cause I was energized to only have about 8miles to go.  I saw 2 red tail lights in front of me and was determined to catch them.  Catch them I did, I rode with them for about 3 miles and then I took off, it was kind of like I went into Tour De France mode, I was determined to leave these 2 in my dust.  Well, it sorta worked, only one of them followed me and we took turns leading each other all the way to the end.  I crossed the finish line feeling amazing, I had done it, no issues what so ever and in the process had averaged over 15mph and finished in under 4 hours.  I checked in at 45th place.  WOW, I never thought I'd be that high up.  When it was all done 112 riders would finish and I was in the top half, much better than I had expected. For the next 2 hours everyone sat around drinking water/beer, eating pizza and exchanging stories from the ride.

Amazing, this was by far the most enjoyable ride I have done.  The good lord provided us with an amazing lighting show for much of the ride but didn't drop a single drop of rain on us.  I can't wait for the next one, 3 weeks if I recall.

..........

I'll try to upload 2 videos I took, one before the race and then another I took around 20miles in, for some reason I'm getting an error with them right now.
   

Trans Iowa Training.

I've started training for the TransIowa....a 300+ mile gravel race across the hills of Iowa. Typically only about 10-20% of the riders that start it actually finish.  I've never road anything this far so I'm not out to win the thing, just to try and finish it. 

 This is a "rolling hill" in Iowa, on it's own it's not so bad but these go on FOREVER.

 Saw these guys on a training ride last night (40miles), I guess Texas isn't the only home to these bad boys HOOK UM HORNS!!!

Stopped to oil my chain in the first shade I could find on a 97degree day.