Race Day – WORS Reforestation Ramble 2008

Today was the WORS Reforestation Ramble MTB race that was held just North of Green Bay. We made our way over from the Cottage, which was about a 30 minute ride. We got there a bit early to cheer on our Cottage neighbors that were participating in the Citizens 12 mile MTB ride.

This time around, I decided I would enter the Sports Class instead of the Citizens Class in order to get in a longer bike ride. The Citizens Class was going 12 miles and the Sports Class was going 24 miles. I’m not sure what the correlation between road bike miles and MTB miles, but certainly not one for one. I’m guessing almost a 2 road bike miles for every 1 mtb mile – maybe even more.

I make my way over to the start and wait with the other Sports Class participants. Right away I notice that there are many more participants in this class then what I’m used to. Not only that, they all look pretty serious. I, of course, do not have mtb shoes so I just wear my trusty old running shoes and hope that my foot does not slip off the pedals at the wrong time. I did a quick glance around to see how many other participants had the same idea of wearing their trusty old running shoes – well, that number turned out to be ZERO.

I tried hard to figure out who JWM was, but all endurance athletes look the same so no luck. Next time, JWM, we’ll need to “share” our bike colors or something to help figure that out.

So, I tried to start in the middle of the pack, but somehow I got shuffled to the back when we moved up to the starting line. I guess I need to work on my – move up to the starting line strategy. The race took off and probably 20-30 seconds later I actually crossed the starting line. I knew that the first 4 miles were double track, so my plan was to race “kindof” hard to see if I could get in front of a few racers. At the starting line, I did my normal glance around to see if there was anyone that I might be able to beat – it was hard to tell seeing that this was a better Class, but I had a pretty good feeling that I could take at least a few of those guys.

When we reached the single track section of the race, I was in pretty good position – probably just about middle of the pack (173 racers). I felt good about that and my goal was to not get passed too much if possible. Any time someone would pass me, I’d stick on their tire for at least a few miles and have them pace me. This worked great as the few times that I did that I ended up passing them back after a few miles and they never made it back pass me.

The course was very fun with 2/3 being fast double track and 1/3 being fast curvy narrow single track. There were a few minor hills but not too bad. Most of the race I just kept my head down and pushed as hard as I could. The further along I got in the race, the more determined I got not to give up my position. I kept with my plan on using another racer to pace me and that worked great.

One of the fun parts of the course were the mud bogs. The entire section of the double track was fairly deep mud with just a narrow band that may or may not be rideable. You needed to pick your place along the trail and then hope that your rear tire did not pull you down into the deep mud. The last mud bog that I went through, my rear tire did pull down and I needed to jump off quickly so that I didn’t fall right in the mud.

I ended up 22 out of 28 in my age group and 114 out of 173 overall for the Sports Class. I seriously thought that I might DFL overall for the Sports Class, so I was very happy with my results. My legs are a bit sore and I’m a bit tired, but it was a blast. No question, the MTB races are my favorite.

So, JWM, I’m sure I didn’t meet up with you because you were too far ahead for me to catch up – next time…

Training Day...

Today we started the day with a nice 5 mile run. We have a loop that we take starting at the cottage, climbing a fairly steep bluff, running along the bluff overlooking the Bay of Green Bay, then running along the shores of Green Bay back to the Cottage.

In the afternoon, we made our way to the Reforestation Camp located just North of Green Bay. They have 10.5 miles of single track that is very fun. Not that technical (at least the areas that we went on), but very quick and fun. We spent part of the afternoon on the trails.

Sunday, I plan on participating in the WORS Reforestation Ramble which is a 24 mile MTB race located at the Reforestation Camp. I'm going to move up a Class to the Sports Class instead of the Citizens Class. Not that I'm getting better (which I am), but because I want to get in a longer bike ride for my IronMan training and the Sports Class goes 24 miles instead of the 12 miles for the Citizens Class. Should be a great time.

Still need to get myself into the water for swimming -- hope to do some tomorrow.

Have a nice weekend...

WORS Big Ring Classic race report

Well, on Saturday morning we loaded up the Prius with a couple tents, 4 sleeping bags, race clothing, a bit of food, helmets, and 4 MTB’s on top. We headed out of Madison in the morning and made it to Nine Mile Forest in Wausau, WI mid-day.

We pulled into the parking lot and were directed to take a “parking spot/camping site” on the line of trees. We have not been tent camping for many years and the last time we only lasted one night before we made our way to a local hotel. We do have a boat that we spend many nights during the summer on at anchor, which really is just like camping except for the fact that the boat has a full kitchen, beds, bathroom with shower, heater, A/C, etc – so it is kind of like camping in a motor home – not like tent camping.

After getting the tents put together and then driving into Rib Mountain for lunch, we hit the MTB trails. Nine Mile Forest is really a cross-country ski park with some single-track trails running in-between the cross-country ski trails. We had hoped to just get in a few single tracks and then head back to the camp site for a bit, but that didn’t happen. The maps don’t really show you the MTB trails, just the ski trails – so, we ended up going for probably a 10 mile bike ride and for youngest Mini (with his smaller MTB) this was quite hard. The single track was fun with many rocks all over the course and the more difficult areas having large rocks with very tight paths (trees on both sides).

My parents made their way up from Madison and stopped by for dinner and then the next day for the race. That evening it was a bit hard to sleep with around 500 people camping in a small parking lot, but it was also very fun and everyone was having a good time. After moving from the tent to the car and then using the kid’s Ipod to knock down the sounds from the camp fires, I was able to get some sleep.

In the morning, they had some vendors come in with a coffee stand and another that was serving breakfast. We ate some bagels that we had a got the bikes ready to roll. Mrs. Team BRAZO, Oldest Mini, and myself raced at 10AM and Youngest Mini raced at 1PM.

I was in the 35 to 49 year old wave. Normally for any race that I participate in – I just go out and have fun – don’t really try to race anyone, just my time (i.e. 5k, 10k, etc), but today I decided I was going to race just a bit and see how it would go. So I put my bike kind of in the middle of the wave and off we went. I figured that I’d have more endurance than a few of the riders and my goal today was to get in front of them right away instead of my normal approach of catching them at the end.

Out of the shoot, I pushed as hard as I could to get in towards the front pack. Once I got past the riders in the back, I pretty much did not get passed from that point forward (outside of a few here and there). The course was a bit different in the fact that it had probably 50% double track and 50% single track. Most of the double track was going up hill – and up hill – and up hill, it was non-stop hills. The first lap I pushed the hills as much as I could and was able to pass a few riders. Once we hit the single track, I was very tired and needed to concentrate hard on keeping myself on the bike.

Because I was actually racing, I was on someone’s rear tire and I had someone right on my rear tire. I could not see the rocks in front of me, so I just sat back on my seat and held tight on the handlebars hoping I wouldn’t hit something that would cause me to go flying. It was unreal how fast I was going thru this single track – much faster than I have ever done before. I would just watch the bike tire in front of me and if I saw the bike lurch, I knew to hold on tight.

It certainly was an endurance type of race with all the hills and this played into my hand. I ended up 6th out of 12 in my age group and 62nd out of 161 overall. Oldest Mini ended 12th out of 24 in his age group and 89th out of 161 overall. Mrs. Team BRAZO took 1st place in her age group.

Youngest Mini raced his first MTB race and ended up catching the leader right before the finish line and ended up winning his age group. We were very proud to just have him out on the course trying his hardest and it was very fun watching him trying to get pass the leader – took two laps to get pass him. His Grandma and Grandpa bought him a WORS bike jersey just before the start of his race and he wore the bike shirt in the race and also wore it to school today. I could have just gone and watched him race without even racing and I would have had a GREAT time – he did great!!

MTB Race - WORS Big Ring Classic

Quick update:

Youngest Mini took 1st place in his division -- passing the 2nd place finisher with a few yards to go.

Mrs. Team BRAZO took 1st place in her division.

Camping, great fun, excellent weather...

Race report later...

MTB -- Blue Mounds State Park

Today, Mrs. Team BRAZO and myself made our way to Blue Mounds State Park to try out their MTB trails. The trails that we rode were mainly flat with many many rocks lining the trails. These are not little rocks, but instead larger rocks that either forced you to go around or to go fast enough to bounce the tires over.

We did not go to the advance section of the trail (maybe next time), but we did complete the intermediate sections. Overall the trail was pretty technical as far as the need to stay on the handle bars and concentrate. Not a whole lot of drops, but a whole lot of rocks.

Fun trail that we'll be back to soon...

Next Up -- WORS Big Ring Classic - Wausau, WI

Next Up for Team BRAZO will be the WORS Big Ring Classic MTB race in Wausau, Wi on June 1st. Mrs. Team BRAZO, Oldest Mini, and myself will ride the 12 mile citizens race and Youngest Mini will ride the kids race.

The plan as it stands now is to do some rough camping in Nine Mile Forest. You can pay $10 and camp on Friday and Saturday nights. I'm guessing the camping is just in a big field with many of the other participants. I grew up camping and still love the "idea" of camping, but I'm not sure if we'll be able to handle the tent for two nights. I'm going to reserve a hotel room in town just in case the camping idea sounded better than it really was.

This will give us our last race before we head out on our month long boat trip -- more on that later.

So, JWM-- if your racing that weekend, just don't think you have DFL all locked up -- I'm certainly a viable competitor for that spot -- no stopping me now.

Baird Creek – right turn this time…

On Sunday, Mrs. Team BRAZO and myself headed to Baird Creek on our way home from the Cottage. We had stopped there two (2) weeks ago and had a great time riding around on the single track mountain bike trails.



When you go “into” the course, you have two choices – to the left or to the right. Last time we chose to go down the hill to the left. That path looped around the creek giving us many creek crossings and a lot of mud to take the bikes through. We had a blast on this trail.

This time, we took the trail to the right and up the hill. It was like going to a completely different mountain bike site. Instead of crossing the creek and riding through the mud, we where going up and down the side of the hill on a single track path. Some of the spots we would need to get off of the bikes and walk the bikes down these amazing downhill’s that undoubtedly some riders actually ride. The trails would go pretty much straight down into small “valleys” with sharp turns, making it almost impossible to take the downhill on the bike. Some of the hills we had troubles just walking the bikes down.

We rode for probably an hour and a half and never did cross the trails that we had done two (2) weeks ago. Comparing Cam Rock 3 (outside of Cambridge, WI), Kettle Moraine South, and Baird Creek (Green Bay, WI) -- I would go with Baird Creek…

Cottage Mountain Biking...

This weekend we made our way to the Team BRAZO Cottage with the four (4) mountain bikes on top of the Prius. Instead of our normal 50 miles per gallon in the Prius, we instead get around 32 mile per gallon with the bikes on top – I guess that is the cost for some fun mountain biking.



We spent Saturday morning winterizing the Cottage for the cold winter to come. The Cottage was built in 1923 and made of cobblestone walls and a copper roof – better known as the Snow White Cottage. Anyway, the previous owner had done a great job insulating the inside – so just a switch out of the screens with windows and we are set for our winter use of the Cottage.

On Saturday, we made our way to Potawatomi State Park located just south of Sturgeon Bay, WI. They do have mountain bike trails but mainly just “riding” trails with little technical aspects to the trails. Fun riding but more of a workout than real “mountain bike” riding.

On the way back to Madison on Sunday, we stopped off at Baird Creek in Green Bay. This was very fun. Baird Creek has a few miles of single track trails through some wooded area on the Northeast side of Green Bay. The trails have many hills to climb, roots to handle, mud to ride through, and many spots where you need to cross through the Creek.

Each creek crossing was a bit different and that made it fun and a challenge to complete. Oldest Mini Team BRAZO successfully jumped the creek at a spot where the rest of Team BRAZO picked up their bikes and walked. Mrs. Team BRAZO handled a very steep downhill with rocks lining the course – during her descent – I kindly reminded her what had happened with XT4 a few weeks back – I’m sure this made it easier for her.

Oldest Mini Team BRAZO has very little fear with the mountain bike and is actually quite good. But he met his match on a creek crossing when he decided to take the “path less traveled” instead of the “path you are suppose to travel”. Down the embankment and bummer – the darn rock stopped his tire dead in its track and over the bars he goes. A few belly laughs from the rest of Team BRAZO – which I’m sure helped his pain – he was back on the trail.

Baird Creek was definitely very fun and I can’t wait for the next time…

If I had to pick one...

On Sunday and again today, we took the mountain bikes out to Cam Rock 3 for some fun riding on the single track trails. It is so much fun going around on these trails jumping logs, dropping off rocks, trying to pedal up hills with rocks / roots, etc. The weather was perfect both days with the highs being in the low 60's.

If I had to choose between my road bike or my mountain bike -- no doubt, I'd be on the mountain bike.

Very much looking forward to trying a few Xterra's...

This is what I'm thinking...

Either

XTERRA Last Stand Off-Road Triathlon

May 2008

Fort Custer State Park, Augusta, MI
Field Limit - 250

Distances:
Tri: 0.5 mile swim, 12.5 mile mtb, 4 mile trail run

http://eliteendeavors.com/race_laststand.cfm

Or

XTERRA Torn Shirt Trail Off-Road Triathlon

June 2008

Bishop Lake, Brighton, MI
FIELD LIMIT - 225

Distances:
Tri: 0.5 mile swim, 15 mile mtb, 6 mile trail run

http://eliteendeavors.com/race_tornshirt.cfm

Or, of course, the obvious choice:

BOTH!!

We'll See...

Race Day!!!

Today Mrs. Team BRAZO (3rd in her age group!!) and myself competed (loosely stated for me at least) in the Wisconsin Off Road Series mountain bike race in Sheboygan Wisconsin – Wigwam/Ultimax MTB Challenge . It was a great October day – in fact record temps in the high 80’s. We made our way down from our Cottage to Sheboygan in the morning with a race time of 10:00.

.

We both signed up for the Citizen class races which are held for the beginner type of racers and include two loops of the Evergreen Park trails which turns out to be around 10 miles of racing. The trail is probably 90% single track and 10% double track with many, many roots in the track. Included in the trail are a creek crossing, log jump, extreme climbs, and many twists and turns to get around the loop.

We went over to the start area at the same time that the Citizen Youth field was about to take the green flag to start their race. The Youth go on the same trail but only complete one loop. The starter of the race begins to give the youth field some warnings regarding the trail – I’m listening closely seeing that I have never ridden the trail before (or raced before). He tells them that there is a steep downhill drop leading into a creek with rocks in the creek which then requires a steep climb out of the creek – he tells the youth group, that they should feel free to walk this area. NOTE TO MYSELF – feel free to walk this area. Next he tells the youth that there is a 2 foot log jump that is at the end of a steep downhill – but there is a trail to the right that will bypass the jump. NOTE TO MYSELF – go right, go right, go right.

So, now that I have the youth instructions, I’m ready to go. Standing at the start line with the other 35 to 45 year old wave, I notice everyone is a bit serious regarding this race – what’s up with that. So, I decide to stay out of the way and start as the last bike in the pack. We make it up a hill on blacktop and then begin a long, long ride through single track trails that force you to make quick turns and fast inclines to get around. The hardest part for me was all the traffic that ended up on my back tire. The 18 year old and under went 2 minutes after I started and they were on my tire in no time. So, my thought was not to stop and let them go by – but at the same time make it easy for them to pass when possible. After a while, I got very good at allowing people to pass – had plenty of practice.

I continued on the trail just having a blast – many riders right on my back tire caused me to go much faster than a normal person in their first race would want to go. Never did I feel like it was dangerous, but let me tell you this – it was dangerous, at least for a 42 year old. A little bit of a miss to the right or the left and the handle bar rams right into the tree and problems would occur.

So, reviewing my NOTES from the starter – I did not follow my own advice on the creek crossing and I just kept up my speed and down the steep downhill over the rocks in the river and up the steep incline – DID IT!! Next the 2 foot jump – cruising down the steep downhill – now is the choice “right and safe” or “left and whatever”? I went right – just didn’t have it in me at that point.

A couple of things that I learned today:

- Buy some gloves – my hands became very sweaty and that made it very hard to hold onto the handle bars.

- Buy some Mountain Bike shoes – my Kayano’s were a bit slippery. Too bad my FREAKIN $250 road shoes won’t work – be nice to not have to buy more.

- Learn how to be passed – I was passed pretty much the whole first loop.

- Thank goodness for DNF’s (did not finish) and DNR (did not race) – I ended up 14th out of 16 in my age group. Number 15 DNF’ed and number 16 didn’t even start the race – gotta like that! But that being said, I was one of fifteen 35 to 45 year old males to line up on a FREAKIN possible death bike ...errrr... Mountain Bike and take to the course. So, if you include all the possible 35 to 45 year old males that live in that region – I kicked ASS….

- Check into the shuffle board league – might be a bit safer – HECK NO, THIS WAS A BLAST!!

Can’t wait until the next race!!

I can’t believe I didn’t flip over the handle bars..that was GREAT – lets do it again!!

So, on Saturday we put the mountain bikes on top of the Prius and headed out to Cam Rock 3 which is about 10 miles from our house. When we got to the park, they had bright orange signs all over the park entrance warning that an archery hunt (deer hunting in Wisconsin) was in progress. Well, we had a decision to make – do we risk our lives with arrows flying around and ride our BRAND NEW mountain bikes on some killer trails or do we turn the car around and head back home to watch the Badgers on TV – dah, the arrows can’t hurt that much, can they?

We took the bikes off the top of the car and headed out on the trails. First we stayed on the “double track” trails and just enjoyed getting the legs warmed up. After riding around on some double track paths, we found our first “single track”.

At the start of the track the sign stated “more difficult” – so what does this mean – more difficult than the flat wide trails that we were just on or something else. Well, I can tell you now – it had nothing to do with the flat wide trails.

We started the trail by climbing this trail of rocks that winded up the side of this forest with trees lining both sides. The single tracks only allow for one bike at a time and you need to leave some room in front of you if you ride in a group. We made it about ¼ of the way up the hill and then had to walk the rest. If you allow your front tire to bounce or your rear tire to spin, your toast and you'll need to walk the rest of the way. At the top of the hill there was a sign for the trail on the right – it stated something like “dangerous/expert skill required” or you could go to the left on the same trail that we had been following. So, guess what trail we decided to take? Nope, you’re wrong – for once we made the smart decision and continued on the “more difficult” trail.

I’m not sure I’ve had this much fun in a while, pretty much the whole time I was laughing at what I just did (or at least what my bike just did). I’d be coming up on a log running across the trail and the log happened to be at least 10 inches or more around – with no chance to go around it. So, with some blind hope I just kept going and over the log I went. Next up was the loose rocks that lined the trail as you tried to climb back up the hill – one mess up with the front bouncing or the rear spinning and your walking (or picking yourself off the ground). Then you go a bit further and you’re going down a steep hill with trees on both sides and no room to mess up. A few feet more and you have a large rock in the middle of the trail that has a 2 foot drop on the other side – holy smokes.

It was like the best roller coaster you could ever go on. Here are some of my thoughts during the ride:

Oh no, not sure I can make it over that log – but I’m going to fast to not – holy smokes I did it. Oh no, can I actually go over that large rock and not fly over the handle bars – well, I almost flew over the bars, but that was awesome! Oh no, can I make this sharp turn and not hit the tree – might be questionable, but what the heck I don’t have much of a choice at this point – unbelievable, I made it!! What the heck, a large drop onto large flat rocks and then a climb up some loose rocks with roots all over -- nope, walked this one (of course the kids flew over it wondering what was up with Dad).

It got to a point that I wondered if the bikes had something like the Surgeon Generals warning on them -- hazardous to your health if you are 40 years old or greater -- DO NOT RIDE -- leave it to the kids -- it was crazy (and we went back on Sunday)! But that being said -- what a great way to have Mom and Dad spend an afternoon with the kids doing something that they think is awesome and nobody ended up in the Hospital!

It was an awesome day at a great park in Wisconsin. Can’t wait until the next time!!

Experience -- what's that!!

So, ever since the finish of the IronMan Wisconsin 2007 -- I have been looking forward to trying some off-road bike racing. I now have purchased the trail bike to give it a try.

This is what I have so far:

- no experience riding the bike
- no experience with off-road trails
- no experience riding next to other bikes on trails
- no experience with down hills
- no experience with up hills
- no experience with flat trails
- no experience in the mud
- no experience with rocky trails
- no experience with dirt trails
- no experience braking around tight corners...

so, I'm sure you would agree -- I think I'm ready to race

http://www.wors.org/schedule/event.php?event=11

See ya there....

Welcome the newest member of Team BRAZO

Well, today I added the latest member to the Team BRAZO family. This has been in the works ever since I signed up for IronMan Wisconsin 2007 and the purchase of my Trek road bike. At the time I was purchasing my road bike, my mind and eyes could not leave the Trail Bike rack. Even though I knew that I needed the road bike, my heart was with the Trail Bikes. I knew as soon as I completed my goal to become an IronMan, I would be purchasing a Trail Bike to compete in some Xterra's and some trail rides (i.e. Fat Tire) next summer.

So, today I add the Trek Fuel ex 7 to the bike stable. The problem with purchasing a "different" style of bike -- is that it is not just 1 bike to purchase but instead it is 4 bikes to purchase (myself, wife and 2 boys) -- the whole team needs to be involved or I'm not interested in doing it. I'll do a post on the cost of an IronMan sometime later and I'll explain the "power of four" concept -- it does not help the budget but more on that later.

My boys can't wait to get dad out on the dirt trails -- to spank my butt.

Hope this doesn't happen:



So, now I need to find some good trail rides -- can't wait....