Another Old flowers ride and this one should be fun.  The plan is to do the White Pine Loop which is always fun on the Yeti.   The plan is to do the ride with Paul and I figured I would post this to the Breakfast club site just for old time sake.   As luck would have it Brian checked in so, there would be at least 3 of us. I pick up Brian from his place and then we go and get Paul.  We make our way over to the Stove Prairie intersection, but  there isn’t any one else there, so it will just be the three of us.   That’s OK  by me as I do have time constraints and somehow more folks seem to pretty much mean more time.

So Brian is on his SS surly 29r and Paul is on his Carbon Specialized 29r and I am on the old trusty Yeti 575.  Hmm,  my bike is the heaviest in the bunch and I am the weakest rider and this can’t be good.  I must admit I was a bit tired from the previous weeks rides and was not totally recovered, but recovered enough to do the ride at a modest pace.

We take off and my thoughts/fears are realized.    Brian is really fast and Paul  has no problem keeping up with him.   I try and hold their pace, but it’s clear to me that’s not gonna happen today.   They pretty much walked away from we at will which means it’s going to be a long day of me following from afar.  In any case, that’s OK and I don’t really want to hold anyone back on my account.

Finally we make it to where the climb really begins.  The horse flies here are enormous and annoying.   Luckily only one bit me but it did smart.    I had to stop on this one to wait for some traffic but otherwise I was able to clean it. This was a good test of my legs and it only confirmed that they were a bit weary and that I should not push any more than I needed to.

The next climb is the one that I really always want to clean.  Brian and Paul are way up the trail.  I know that I must meter my energy, but on this one, it’s all I can do to make it up clean, which made me pretty happy.   The perceived effort was pretty high on this on and looking at the grade, I was very surprised that I didn’t have to dab, considering how I was feeling.   I know that some folks like to play with words and they say they are tired and then rip your legs off.  I however am not like that, and when I say I am tired, I am tired!

I catch up to Paul and Brian and we make the next climb.  This one is relatively easy, but I am still the laggard, despite Brian being on the SS and hadn’t been riding in earnest, but rather spending time in the climbing Gym with his family.

Time for the descent to Pingry park and while I am usually up to rip this one, I am really too tired to enjoy the entire thing.  I start out having fun, but my arms are tired and I just back it down and take it easy so as not to injure myself.  Brian is flying down this one, and I would have liked to have hung with him, I just wasn’t up for it.  Paul  who was back a tiny bit on this one, catches me and passes me  too.

I must say we haven’t taken too many breaks here and are actually moving pretty good.  I don’t’ have a speedo or HR monitor or any of that cause I just wanted to enjoy the day without the encumbrance of all that tech.  

The climb out of Pingry park really grated on me and I was thinking that I am going to be walking most of White Pine Later.  Brian and Paul were once again way up the trail.  I am really amazed at how strong Brian is on the SS.  Climbing stuff that would have snapped my legs in two.   He is a lot stronger than he knows,  and he is humble too, but I digress.

At last we are onto the big climb and I am not looking forward to it.  I am tired, my bike is heavy and I really want to be done now.   As we start it starts to sprinkle lightly!  thPaul and Brian are a bit ahead of me when Brian pulls over for some reason.   Paul keeps pedaling and I stop to chat with Brian.   Seconds later the rain gets harder and then within minutes it’s coming down pretty good.   Brian and I are trying to take shelter under some trees but they are pine trees, and they provide almost nothing and before long we are drenched.

We are thinking that Paul will be coming back down soon, but after about 15 minutes it’s pretty clear that he has checked out.  Hmmm,  there is no way I am going to climb this hill in the rain and risk the slippery rocks on the back side, so it’s decided that we will take the dirt road back tot the car when the rain settles down.   Brian was getting really cold and decides that we should go and seek some shelter from the locals.

We head down the road and approach a small cabin.  “Hello”,  “Hello”, calls Brian.  After a few seconds a scruffy old guy comes out and Brian asks if we can take shelter under one of the structures on the property.  The guy is agreeable and invites us to enter his place.   There are 3 other guys there and they were taking shelter as their Frisbee golf game was interrupted.   They seem friendly enough and life is good.

We make some small talk about the wind powered generator the guy has built.  The one he has is from otherpower.com 750 watts of clean energy from the wind.   He even has some solar stuff and it’s all working really well.  He’s got many modern devices, such as microwave,  Laptop, Fridge etc. all being powered by the wind  Turns out that he as been playing with wind power for over 20 years and spoke of building some of the early generators our of  old  Automobile Brake Drums and Hand winding the armatures.  

As we are chatting, they fellows were smoking something oddly familiar and they offered to partake with us.   We of course declined and our excuse was that we were riding, so as not to seem too un-cool!    After a few rounds of passing the pipe and light banter, the rain cleared up and the 3 other guys took off since it was too wet to finish their game.    Brian was still pretty cold so we ended up putting his jersey in the microwave to heat it up a bit.   Brian also fashioned a jersey out of an old trash bag which actually fit quite well.

Now we are good to go more or less and we want to get back to the car before Paul so we bid our host (Tom Hammond) adieu and off we go down the dirt road.    Ordinarily that road would have been fun, but it was cold and cloudy and I would get roosted by Brian’s bike every so often,.  It seemed like that road lasted for ever and I was so glad to get to the pavement and begin the climb  back to the car.

I had forgotten how long that road was up from the  Buckhorn, but I was glad to be warming up with some effort.  My legs were pretty tired, and I had to stand on the climbs to try and hold Brian’s pace.  Mile after mile pass and finally we are back to the car, but Paul is not there yet, so we get changed etc. and figure we will 4x4 it up old flowers to get him.

We didn’t get to far and he went screaming by us but didn’t notice it was us.  We followed him down  and we could see the look of surprise not to see a car at the bottom.   We roll up next to him and he seems plenty glad to see us.   We get him all packed in and head for home.

Long hard day, but an epic adventure.   I definitely need to get a faster bike to hang with some of these folks.  Maybe the 2.4’s are a bit much for the Yeti, but I like them and don’t plan on racing it.  In any case a good time was had by all.

Well, I had entered the Laramie Enduro early in the season but unfortunately didn't get in due to lots of interest and because of such it's a lottery.  I was put on the wait list and when I check I was like #175 or so.  Ok, Not going to happen this year but that's OK.   Fast forward to 4 days before the race I check my email and I see that I can get in if I want.  OK, so I didn’t' train and didn't taper etc., but I am feeling pretty fit so I decide to go-for-it anyway.

So I figure that no training is going to help so, the best I can do is just not ride hard for the next 3 days and see how that goes. The only riding I did do was the commute to work and to ride to my daughters daycare program (Yes She rode with me).

I arrive in Laramie, get my registration and all looks good.   I see Janet and we exchange greetings and good luck and all of that stuff. Now it's time for me to get some supplies so I stop at the local store and get some subs and chips, water, pop tarts and some ice tea. That should do it and now I am off to the Camp site. 

This year I figured that I would just sleep in the Xterra as there is plenty of room in it.  I must say that I am not sure taht I got that much sleep, as I parked on a slight grade so i was moving around a lot.  Not to mention that I should have packed a mattress pad or something as that truck bed is kinda hard....   In any case I find myself in the A.M rested somewhat and ready for the day.  I drink some tea and eat some Pop Tarts. 

I see a bunch of people that I know,  Tim, Chad, Barb, Tom, Dave etc. before the start and I just find a reasonable place to line up.  This year I don’t plan to go out hard, but just take it easy and not waste too much on short lived hard efforts. 

Finally the Start is sounded and we are off.  I hold my place in line and don’t go too hard on the hill.  I can hear others panting hard while they pass me.    I know there is going to be a bottle neck at the little gate and if I were going for some easy time while I was fresh I would have gone harder.

On to the single track and Life is Good.  Barb is a few riders behind me and is chatting up a storm.   The pace is pretty easy on a perceived scale and the trails are a bit crowded so I can’t go any harder anyway.   I feel pretty good on the slight grades and the Trek YSL is doing OK despite it’s age.   The course so far is pretty smooth and the rocks are roots are not too bad.

We make it to some of the fast flowing double track and life is good until my bike hits some of the loose stuff, Whoa!.   I think I put too much tire pressure (40’s)  and with the tire profile on the Pythons the bike is knifing all over the place when I hit the loose stuff. Argh!    I am loosing tons of time descending and I am rethinking the choice of bikes at this moment.    At some point Barb comes blowing by me on that niner through the loose stuff, never to be seen again by me until the finish.  I was tempted to try and stay with Barb, but I thought better as I would be  pushing it on the descents on a sketchy bike.

I look at my HR and it looks good which confirms that I am not going too hard.   The legs feel pretty good and I could go much faster, but  I know that this is a long event, so I force myself to stick to the plan.  I find a reasonable rhythm and hold to that.   I find myself leap-frogging riders, that pass me on the descents and then I get them again on the hills or flats.

25 or so miles into the ride I run into Matt who recognizes me from a ride I did with a mutual friend Bill out in Friso.   We are riding at about the same pace so we ride together for a bit and chat.  There was this steep short section that we decided to walk and  some woman didn’t think we got out of  the way quickly enough.   Matt had some words with her about that. ( I ran into her later on and she apologized for some of that,  She actually was pretty cool and I chatted with her more at the finish)  Matt and I rode a few miles more together, but at some point he stopped for a nature call and  I would then see him off and on through the event. 

This year I was prepared with lots of Endurolytes and remembering the cramps of last year tried to drink as much as possible.    Right after one of the aid stations I was eating  and Eric came up from behind and explained his woes of ripping a side wall in the 1^st mile costing him ~17 minutes.   He was riding pretty strong and I choose not to keep his pace, not that I could have finished the race if I had tried anyway.

Seemed like miles and miles passed when  we encountered some woodlands single track.   Once again the Y-bike was at it’s limits and much of the time that I had gained of folks had been tossed back without a fight.  That  bikes 80mm fork is awful and  I think this could be the last time I ride that bike on this race.   I really would like to get a niner, but it’s hard to justify it for just a few times that it would be needed.

At the 50 mile point my right leg felt it’s first cramp.  I did some more Endurlytes and liquids and got them to go away, and didn’t have any more issues for the rest of the event.

Even climbing didn’t seem to provoke it and I suspect that some of that Hammer liquid  product that I refueled with  are good for me in that respect.   If I were serious about  this racing thing then I would go out and push myself more on training rides in order to get to a level where my legs would cramp.   Keep in mind here that I haven’t cramped on any of the rides I have done all year long.

I am still feeling pretty good although I am getting tired of being on the bike for such a long period.    I am still sticking to the plan and since I feel pretty good I think it’s time to go a bit harder to the finish.   At the second to last aid station, it’s time to go a bit harder.  The plan is to up the perceived effort a bit and then after the last aid station go “Weapons Free” and see what I can do”

I see lots of folks at the aid stations that don’t look all that good.   Most look pretty good, but there are some that pushed too hard.    I must say that these are the best Aid Stations that I have ever seen at any event.  The folks working them are wonderful and have so much energy and are willing to help you get whatever you need.

The Last 15 miles of this event are some of the toughest and I am really glad I paced my self.  There are some grueling climbs, so short ones I had to walk, but some longer ones that had a lot of folks walking them or riding really slowly.   This last 15, some of which are the most technical I am sure gave many pause, and I walked many of them due to fatigue and a lame bike.    I am sure that Yann and Jim of the 450 club fame gained a bunch of time on their rivals on these sections.

I am able to push pretty good and ride a good bit of the technical ascending single trak, but not all by any means.  I am able to reel in a buch of riders on some of the longer grades which inspired me to keep pushing.   In the last 5 miles or so I caught up to Jim of the 450 club.  He seemed to get new life after I caught him.    I had noticed that my bike was not shifting that well for the last 20 miles,  and finally the rear derailleur cable snapped and  I was stuck in the 11 cog.   Oh well we are almost done and I can deal with it since I have been doing a fair bit of Single Speed Riding.  Anyway, I am able to stay with Jim until this last technical section where he rode it easily and I walked it easily. 

I must say that the last wooded rooty section is brutal on the Y bike and I think I really need a new bike or fork or something  cause I loose so much time when I don’t need to, due to bike characteristics.   In any case, I muscle the bike through all of this standing a lot to overcome the gearing and terrain.

Finally I am out of the woods and back onto the road we stared on.  There’s a ton of washboard which cost me more time but I am happy to be done.   I check my computer and it looks like I will do a Sub 8:00 which was my goal.    I cross the line with 7:58 on the computer which was the same official time I got which is sweet!  I am so glad to be done!  Official Results are Here. Looks like I was 117th out of about 400.  Oh my # was 400 in case any one wants to look for my picture here, for their Shrine.

After the event I see a bunch of folks.   Yann turned a 6:06 on his Single speed!  Damn that’s fast and this is his 1^st year racing.