Sunday, January 31, 2010

Lone Star Gravel Grinder

Today's Lone Star Gravel Grinder, hosted by Bill Anderson, traveled from the University of Kansas campus along rolling twisting gravel road to the sleepy little town of Lone Star. After a short loop around Lone Star Lake we headed back to town on a slightly altered route due to us trusting a darn GPS devise instead of our map reading skills. Next time we trust the map not some darn mechanical device...

After the ride most of us headed over to 23rd Street Brewer. Sunday they had this Fish Bowl special. Get 60 oz of any house brew for $6.00. That sounded like a deal to me. I can tell you this. 60 oz of beer is a heck of a lot after an afternoon of riding. Well, at least it is for me. Doug, Dan and most everyone else finished theirs. I got about 1/2 done and called it.

Thank you Bill for a great ride. And thanks to everyone else who joined in the fun.

Here are some pictures

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Swope Thursday Night Ride #1

Great turnout tonight at the weekly Thursday Night Swope ride. It was like a Who's Who of mountain biking in the Kansas City are. Riders like Doug Long, Tige Lamb, Dan Oldehoeft and Lyle Riedy just to name a few. Trails were in great shape and the drinks after the ride even better :-)



Besides a fun ride, I finally found out what was squeaking on my Giant Anthem. Darn squeaking was driving me crazy over the past month. I replaced all the bearings and bushing, replaced the shock (I stole Christopher's new shock off his new Anthem so do not tell him...), cleaned and tighted everything and put a new set of Crank Brother pedals on. I get on to start tonight ride and the creak is still there. Only now is was louder than ever. During the first lap my crank felt like it was going to come off. Turns out the insert and outer shell of my left crank arm was causing all this noise. That was the good news. Now I just need to find a crank set for Saturday's Bone Bender Training ride #1.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Gravel World Championships

This is sweet. Our good friends up in Lincoln are going to host the Worlds....

The Inaugural Gravel World Championship
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Lincoln, Nebraska

The categories for the event are:
  • Open men
  • Open women
  • Masters men (50 years of age+)
  • Masters women (50 years of age+)
  • Single speed men (includes fixed geared bicycles)
  • Single speed women (includes fixed geared bicycles)
  • Tandem
  • Tallbike
  • Unicycle
I wonder if I can talk Carolynn in doing this event on the tandem???


Registration is open now and go the postcard route. Complete details at http://piratecyclingleague.blogspot.com/

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Triathlon Season Begins

Yes it is only January here in the Midwest, but Triathlon season has official begun with today's Mission Indoor Triathlon. I do believe this is the earliest triathlon I have have done and that counts when I lived down in Florida. This is the 3rd year for this event which grew to 81 racers. Not bad for an indoor triathlon in the dead of winter. The event is organized by Amy Richards and the Sylvester Powell, Jr. Community Center. Everyone did a great job and I highly recommend it. We need more of these events to do during the winter. They are great motivators and help to keep us all sane.

Today's event was based on the distance you completed each discipline which was a first for me. I entered the regular triathlon which was a 10 minute swim, 30 minute bike and 20 minute run. All three event took place in the steamy hot indoors. About 10 min into the bike I was wishing it was outdoors. I will take 45 degrees and raining over indoors any day.



The swim was held in a 23 yard pool which made flip turns very important. However, I can not do flip turns :-(. After today I think I am going to finally learn them. The water was a little warm, but at least it was very clear. I focused on a strong push off and my technique today. One thing I have learned is swimming is all about gliding, body roll and staying streamlined. All I did very well today and got in nearly 600 yards, which looking at last years results would have put me right near the top.


The cycling leg was on spin bikes which I have no experience on (I prefer to ride outdoors no matter the weather). Not a real fan of these but contrary to what Kevin Collins told me the seat was actually comfortable. I think I made a mistake and did not use enough resistance. They guy in charge of the bike leg said your RPM's was all that counted, but I think I should have cranked down the resistance some. All I know is I was spinning like a fool at over 120+ rpm and going no where. I do not know if that would have helped my total mileage or not. Ended up with 15.4 miles in 30 min and about 10 oz. of sweet. Does anyone know if these spin bikes take into effect the watts you are putting out to get distance?

Run leg was on a treadmill. I wish they let us run on the indoor track like the JCC Indoor triathlon does. The track is much better, well that is until you start to get dizzy from running in tiny little 1/16th mile circles. Run leg was o.k. with 2.9 miles covered in 20 minutes. I was hoping for at least 3.1 and a 19 min 5K, but the heat was killing me. Maybe next year.

After today triathlon I am looking forward to a nice cool gravel road ride down in Spring Hill.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Paola Gravel (Muddy) Grinder

Great turnout for today's Paola Gravel Grinder. The day started with very thick fog, which never really went away during the ride. Despite the conditions including very muddy roads and limited visibility due to the fog we had a record turnout and a great time. Thanks to Randy Rasa for hosting this awesome ride. Now I just need to clean my bike again. I just got it all cleaned after yesterday's Epic Cross. Where is Roger when you need him????

Some pictures from our ride.




Saturday, January 16, 2010

Cross Season is Finally Over.

Today was the Epic Cross race and final round of Series 60. I'm kind of bummed that it has officially ended. I have enjoyed the last couple of weeks being able to race cross and really want to thank Mark Thomas for making that a reality. Everyone involved did a great job and put in a lot of work to make these events happen, especially with all the snow we have had.

I was hoping for a good showing today as I really felt good yesterday. Today was a different story. I had some serous nausea for the better part of the morning. I do not know if I ate something bad or what. Hopefully I do not have some crazy parasite living in me. Christopher was watching a show today and it freaked me out seeing the things that some people have living in them. Anyway, back to the race.

About noon time I wasn't even going to go, but after Carolynn gave me a Ginger Ale. Afterwards, I felt well enough to give her a try. Sometimes the body does strange things and even when you feel down you can have a good event.

Today's course was muddy as expected. Throw in a lot of snow, frozen ruts and some crazy sections with what appeared to be small icebergs. You needed speed and momentum to navigate today's course. I had neither of these for most of the event which made for a long race trying to work my way up from a horrible start.

After several laps my stomach settled down and I was able to pickup the pace, but it was too late to try and bridge up to Matt, Rob and Chris. Both Matt and Chris were having a solid ride and Rob was having a excellent ride. I saw him up there riding very strong.

The last two laps I pushed hard and was able to real in JP and Joel (JET Performance Chiropractic) for 4th place on the day. Joel did take a header on the dangerous hay bail which helped with me getting past him, but I was already setting him up to pass going into the sand section :-). I wish I could have ridden the entire race like I did the last two laps. At least I finished off the year having some serious fun in the mud. Now if I can just get some feeling back in my feet....

A special thanks to Roger for washing my bike after the event and for making fun of me. I really appreciate it.

Here are some pictures that Carolynn took of the Men's Cat 3. She is becoming quite the photographer.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Buffalo / Grote Prijs Duathlon

Carolynn thought I was crazy when I told her I was going to race both the Buffalo Trail run and the Grote Prijs Cyclocross race on the same day. But hey, it is basically base building time and I need the extra miles. Plus, it is hard to find an off-road duathlon that I get to race without promoting it :-)

First up was the 5th Annual Buffalo Trail Run. If I am in town I always participate in this Rusty Collins produced event held at the Parkville Nature Sanctuary. Always a good time and this year was no different. Conditions for this years event matched the 08' version when we had snow and bitter cold temps. Only this year there was a heck of a lot more snow.

I lined up towards the front of the field in hopes of staying out of trouble and getting to the packed down trail in the front. The course was about half packed trail and the other half was deep snow. Very hard going for this guy. I handed the packed section much better than the deep snow. At times it was a foot or so deep and some sections were nearly knee deep when there was a snow drift.

First two miles I kept the leaders in site, but after that I just ran my own race and tried not to run too hard and save something for this afternoons cycling leg. I was glad to see the finish because my legs were toast. Running in that deep snow really took its toll on my quads due to high steeping through the stuff. I ended up doing well still and earned a cool award and frozen chops.

After a quick cool down I headed home to eat lunch, pick up Carolynn and head to Shawnee for the second leg of today's Duathlon. Another snow packed course awaited me which was fine with me. I usually do better in muddy conditions, but I am not that bad on ice. Before the race I was "feeling it" in my legs and very lethargic. I needed some coffee or something. After a little warm-up things started to come together, but it was going to be a hard race especially the road section. No power in the ole legs for anything needing power today.

Cat 3's were off at 2:30pm on time which I was very thankful for . Nothing worse than standing still in below freezing conditions.
I got off the line well, but had nothing much for anyone going up the climb. Today was going to be about riding my own race and staying within myself. For the first lap I regretted running today's Buffalo Run, but then I remembered one of my goals for 2010. Just have fun racing and do not worry about results. They will come in their own time with enough hard work.

Fun course today in the snow. I enjoyed it even with a few mishaps. Crashed twice and dropped a chain when I went into a snow drift. I kept driving on and had some good battles throughout the race. My main problem was that darn long uphill road section. I had no power in the legs today and got passed there every lap only to have to re pass everyone back. I kept driving on despite the fatigue from both events and ended up settling in 3rd place. Not bad especially with my teammate Mark Cole taking the win and Matt G. in 2nd. I will take it and get ready for the final cross race of the season on Saturday. This time no 8K trail runs before my cross race. I want to see what I can do with fresh legs. With the melting forecast, it looks like my type of course is coming so watch out :-)

Here are some pictures from today's duathlon. By Carolynn Locke and Dick Ross

Buffalo / Grote Prijs Duathlon Album

Friday, January 8, 2010

Bone Bender 3/6 Hour MTB Odyssey v2

Things are looking good for this years BB36. Added classes (10 year age-groups), more cash payout, cool awards, t-shirts, food, music, SWAG, sweet trails, 3 to 6 hours of fun. What more could you ask for? Free Entry you say. Bring a volunteer or volunteer yourself and you get to race for free. Check with me for complete details.

Save the date.....

Bone Bender 3/6 Hour MTB Odyssey
April 18, 2010
Paradise, Missouri

Official website: www.bonebendermtb.com

Registration opens on 1/15/10. 250 slots available so register early.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

2010 Objectives

I have been working on my objectives for 2010. I have always enjoyed the beginning of a year. A time to look back and see where you went and get motivated for a new journey. Goal setting is a big part of this. Make them too hard and you end up disappointed if they are not achieved. Too easy (or for that matter having no goals at all) and you end up just walking through life instead of living life to the fullest. Well at least that is how I look at it. Remember on thing about goals, keep them SMART.

Three events are on my promotion list. The 8th Annual God's Country Off-Road Duathlon will be held on April 11, 2010. The Bone Bender 3/6 Hour MTB Odyssey returns on April 18, 2010. The last event is really a series. Expect some big things for this years De Stad Cyclocross Van Kansas Series.

Athletically, I am going to focus on longer distance cycling events, off-road duathlons/triathlons, sprint distance triathlons and a few criteriums this year. I am signed up for the Ironman Coeur d'Alene but I think it is best to just accept that fact that my body does not like the running miles that is required for an Ironman distance event. I have no problems with swimming and cycling the distance, but long distance running is not in the Locke gene pool. We will see how my winter training goes. I have been known to change my mind...

2010 Race Calendar (not including some local events for training):

Gravel Grinders

1/10 - Buffalo Trail Run
1/10 - GP Cross
1/16 - Holiday Cross
1/23 - Mission Indoor Triathlon
2/01 - Psychodelic Trail Run
2/27 - Spa City 6 Hour MTB Race
2/28 - Du it In the Dirt Off-Road Duathlon
3/06 - The Great Milk Race
3/20 - Ozark High Road TT
3/21 - Dogwood Road Race
3/28 - Ouachita Challenge
4/11 - God's Country Off-Road Duathlon
4/18 - Bone Bender 3/6 Hour MTB Odyssey
4/25 - Tour de Tick
5/01 - Syllamos Revenge
5/16 - Xterra Red River
5/23 - Kansas City Triathlon
6/12 - Missouri State MTB Championships
6/19 - Topeka Tinman Triathlon
7/10 - Milford Lake Off-road Triathlon
7/15 - NORBA National MTB Championships
8/01 - Xterra Sugar Bottom
8/08 - Xterra Ironwill
8/14 - Xterra BOLT
9/04 - Tall Oak 3/6 Hour
9/18 - Hermann Cross Under the Lights
9/18 - KC Cup
9/26 to 11/14 - De Stad Cyclocross Van Kansas Series
10/2 - Nebraska Cross
10/17 - Sunflower Cross
10/18 - B Cup Cross
11/21 - Nebraska Cross
12/5 - Missouri State Cyclocross Championships