Life On A Bike

I have moved my blog to http://nickwbb.blogspot.com/

Google is a lot easier to work with that WordPress and the pictures look better.

It turns out that Mike, Mr. Bartlett, and I have super sweet team chemistry. We not only won 24 Hours of Boyne, but we broke the record for most laps ever done at this race.

But…back to the beginning. It all started Friday night at Shap’s restaurant in Flint. Probably the worst mistake I ever made, but when I hear the words all you can eat and it involves food that is horrible, I can’t resist. So I went with the all you can eat fish and chips. The first look at the plate told me that it was a bad idea, but I went with it anyway. So I had trouble sleeping that night at my first two laps I felt like I was going to throw up the whole time.

Beyond the early race stomach trouble due to Shap’s and poor judgment, the race went very well for me as well as my teammates. Mike set the tone early by being the first into the woods, letting everyone know that Team Sofa King Fast was sure to dominate.

Our lead over Mattison, Sean, Fritz, and Corey had steadily been growing, but was clinched when the third member of Team Diaganum Dave (sp?) had light trouble on his second night lap and was out on the course for 1.5 hours. From that point on, it was just up to us not to make any mistakes.

I ended up getting an hour and a half of sleep from 5:20 to 6:50 (am), but woke up feeling immensely worse than before. I didn’t feel like I could go on, but put my chamois on anyway and trudged out into the brisk morning to wait for Mike to come in from his sunrise lap. I started feeling better once I started warming up, but the first of these laps I couldn’t sit down the whole time because my bum was so sore. I decided to put my brand new bib shorts on for the next lap so I could have a somewhat comfortable bum (Adidas bib shorts are super sweet by the way).

So, Team Sofa King Fast ended up doing 28 laps…best ever. Mike and I both did 12 laps (120 miles a piece) and Mr. B did 4. Congrats to Mr. B for going a lot faster this year. My fastest lap was 44 minutes and my slowest was 54 (I bonked pretty hard and had to stop on the side of the trail for about 5 minutes to eat my emergency Clif Bar that had been in my pocket for the last year and a half (and expired 8 months ago). I only bonked twice this year, didn’t pass out at all and did two more laps this year than last year.

It was one of the hardest things I have ever done. But I did have a lot of time to think of the answer to my ever-present question about racing (see entry: Pontiac Lake TT). I realized it is because I truly do enjoy it…even though it may seem very masochistic.

Big thanks to our pit crew. The race would have sucked without help. Especially Caroline. She slept a little more this year, but still did a great job. There was always food to be eaten, drinks handed off, and Nickelodeon wake-up calls. Awesome job by the behind the scene half of Team Sofa King Fast!

And of course, it wouldn’t be me doing a MTB race without a super-cool tattoo, so check it out. (It is best if you right-click the picture and select “View Image.” You can do this for the pit crew picture above, too and check out the super awesome Team T-shirts.)

I was just looking at other people’s racing blogs and realized I am no good…

This weekend will mark my return to racing though after 1 1/2 month hiatus.  This past month and a half has been filled with some really good training.  I ended up skipping the Bloomer Park race so I could ride fast with Mike before he left.  We rode Highland so crazy fast that I bonked and had to get some candy bars at the CVS nearby.  We also had a really windy road ride followed by another MTB ride with his dad later that day.  Then we had an “easy” ride at Pontiac Lake where we did a faster lap time than either at my race back in April.  So then I ended up skipping the Fort Custer XC because I was so tired from riding with Mike.

I have also had some decent rides since.  Mostly by myself, I have done a lot of local loop rides.  Contrary to how some feel about it, I think the local loop gets more fun each time I do it.  I also did a century last Sunday solo.  It actually rained the whole day, but it turned out to be an awesome ride nonetheless.  So May has been a good month for riding.

Of course, the training is leading into 24 Hours Of Boyne this weekend!  This race is turning out to be bit bigger than last year, with some steep competition coming from within MCycling itself.  Mattison, Sean, Fritz, and Corey are taking Mike, Mr. B, and me on in the four man competition.  John and Neal are doing the two-man event, and Steve is once again flying solo.

It is going to be an awesome weekend but everyone should be ready for Team Sofa King Fast because Mike is his usual crazy fast self, I actually rode this past month (as opposed to last May, which I took off completely), and Mr. B is getting serious as well.

Probably the only disappointment for the weekend is that I will not get to watch the UM Softball team host Super Regionals, but I will have some lucky sock support for the weekend as will the softball team.

Sunday morning, Mike and I woke up at 7:30 and it was snowing after having about 2 straight days of rain- in the springtime. It brings up the ever-present question of Why? Why do we wake up so early to go torture our bodies, and in this case, in the cold snow and mud?

Of course, the question is always answered immediately after I start racing- because it is so much fun, even if it is cold and muddy. It turns out that I won the Expert 19-29 class and Mike got 5th in Elite, winning him $60.

So, it turned out being a pretty sweet race. The trails were surprisingly in not horrible conditions, and the sun even came out- right when I finished. But starting the MTB season out on top of the podium is pretty sweet and Mike paid for gas with his winnings, so thats cool too.

So, I have gotten a little behind.

Our race: Frickin’ awesome. The B race dominated as we had 5 guys in a 9 man breakaway and ended up getting 1st (Mattison), 2nd (Mike), 4th (Me), 5th (Chris), 8th (Mike Kent), and 10th (Sean).

The TT went pretty well, except Andrew decided to cut it in half last minute because he didn’t think the return trip was very safe. We ended up getting 1st (Mattison), 2nd (Me), 3rd (Chris), and 4th (Mike- the first time I have ever beaten Mike in a bike race, I think).

Last weekend was Purdue/Marian. Chris broke off the front about 10 minutes in, so the rest was just a lot of me responding to every attack (about three per 1 mile lap). The last lap, when everyone accelerated, I died and got last. But Chris won, so it was worth it- and he feels it necessary to owe me a beer, so not all was lost. Purdon’t, I was the only B racer. Long story short, I made a really stupid move and ended up riding by myself as the lone chase for 3 laps. I still had an average of 22 mph, though even though I was by myself for half the race.

MTB season is upon us!! The moment I had been waiting for, I got to ride Mountain Bikes on Wednesday. Of course, since I am so good at breaking things on my bike, I didn’t want to leave this momentous occasion without incident.

In the Girl Scout section over the stream crossing and log jump (of which I have about a 50% success rate), I stalled and tried to recover but ended up bashing my knee into my handlebars. I ended up knocking my handlebars off center (a significant amount of force, I think). And I also noticed my chain fell into the small ring…

When I went to shift back up, I noticed something missing…I broke my shifter. I think my exact quote was (and Mike can correct me if I’m wrong) “Fuck, Fuck, Fucking Fuck.” Needless to say it turned out to be a $150 mistake. I’ll try to get a picture of it up soon.

I did overnight my new shifters, though, so I can use my front derailleur at Pontiac Lake TT tomorrow. Hopefully my knee will feel better by then.

I checked out the TT course at Barton Hills Village yesterday.  One thing I can say about it is the course is very technical.  The uphills are pretty tough, but the downhills are even tougher.

I would recommend to everyone to get some good practice on the course, especially if you plan on racing with TT bars.

The course can be found at  http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1618009

It is going to be a tough race on an already tough day.

We just got back from spring break in Georgia on Sunday.

It was a great time despite the unusually cold weather. We rode bikes a lot and played a lot of foosball and wasted a lot of time. We even rode MTB a couple times down there (though I found the riding slightly boring compared to Midwest tight stuff).

It was a great start to the season and I am feeling pretty fit right now. Road race season is starting soon (not this weekend for me as it is for some because of work obligations). And the first MTB race is April 12 at Pontiac Lake…I am very excited to get back on the MTB.

Anyway…tons of fun, it sucked to come back to real life where you don’t get to only eat, sleep, and ride bikes.

So I bought a new road bike last Friday. It is an ‘07 Madone 5.5 with full Dura-Ace.

All I have to say is carbon fiber is awesome. It is such an incredible difference from steel, much more efficient, so all my energy goes to forward motion, instead of the flexing of the frame.

Here is a picture…

Yesterday I decided since it was so sunny outside, I would ride outside, and since I looked out the window and the intersection out there didn’t have any snow, I assumed all the roads were that way.

Snow is hard to ride on, especially on my clumsy TT bike. Not to mention I got snow in my cleats and my shoes started freezing to my pedals. There were multiple occasions that I almost fell over because I almost did not clip out in time- that would have been embarrassing.

Long story short, it was a lot of fun and a great ride because of the sun shining through the snow covered trees, but it was not a good decision. Maybe I’ll go out again today…

I finally figured out how to put pictures up…I am not very good at it so some might look a little weird, but I thought I would put some pictures up of some highs and lows of the season.  Really the only lows were the mechanicals (mainly a broken frame) and Mike’s unfortunate development of Lactose Intolerance, and the  super charred burgers at MTB camp.