Every year I wonder why I signed up for this race. It's, in my opinion, the most over-hyped MTB race in the state of Michigan. It's changed significantly over the 5 years I've raced it. It was not usac sanctioned at first and the age groups had more ages in them. The age group factor is probably what's enabled me to finish in the top 3 over the last few years. Since the age group change for men occurred, Jimmie won his age group X2. This is why he's moved on to trying the Pro class. Parking use to be much less of a hassle and you could bring your own beer in the past as well...obviously there are ways around this but it still changes the kind of laid back do what you want MTB atmosphere, in my opinion.
One of my favorite race pictures from previous iceman races was the picture of Sue Stephens battling it out with Heather Irminger for 2nd just before the finish line...Sue won. It's nice to have local racers to look up to and see them excel and podium in races with Pros. Of Jimmie like to remind me that the Pros are in their off season when iceman arrives. Regardless congrats to Mackenzie Woodring for her 3rd place at iceman. I can only hope to be as fast a Mackenzie one day.
http://suestephensmtb.blogspot.com/2013/10/my-iceman-cometh-challenge-races-over.html
Anyhow...the weather looked grim for this years iceman, but we still headed north to beautiful Traverse City, MI for the 30 mile suffer fest. I was in wave 6 so we got there pretty early so I could suit up and slightly warm up before the start. Every year, it never fails, I am shivering so much that someone offers me their coat. A nice woman offered me her coat while I waited for my wave to line up. I thanked her and told her that I need to be cold before the start or I'll overheat during the race. It's the truth about iceman - I wore too much clothing last year and I felt terrible for most of the race. Since I overdressed at the Lowell race I knew what to wear for Iceman. Our cold weather jerseys are perfect for 40 degree temps and that's all I needed along with some knickers.
I placed myself in the middle/front of wave 6. We took off and went through the streets in too slow of a pace - 18mphs or so. Oh well...we hit the dirt and I worked my way around people to try to position myself well for the 1st turn that's always sandy. Once we rounded that turn I started moving my way through the group up until we hit some single track. Every year the single track slows everyone down so I just hung back and went with the flow of traffic. It seemed to me like many of the people in my wave were not really racing they were just riding. It can be frustrating to say the least to be around these types of people. You have to make your way around them the entire race. In fact that's pretty much my race for the most part - me and my bike weaving in and out of race traffic trying to find someone around my speed. No one worked together, per usual. I did have a little crash in some single track, sad to say, I slipped down the side of a cut piece of land and a few guys kind of crashed around me. I apologized to them and got back to moving. After the race Jimmie noticed my rear wheel was really out of true - I figured one of those guys accidentally stepped on my rear wheel. The puddles were huge this year and most of the good lines were to the right except for the last puddle. I noted what I could to help Jimmie out when he goes out to race. I sometimes wish I could race around the crowd the whole race because when I get near the crowd I get a second wind and really push myself. I knew we'd be teased by seeing the finish through the fly over and then back into some climbing. It wasn't as bad as people made it sound. I was just a bit tired more than anything. I got some air over the fly over and pushed it though the finish line. Jimmie and some team mates were there waiting. Not much time to hang out though because we needed to get Jimmie to the start of the Pro race.
After showering and eating at the hotel, we headed to the start again. Jimmie mottled over what to wear and then got started on his warm up. I walked around and talked with Jamie Galambos-Mishka and Erin Vicary before the start. I told them a little bit about the course. Erin said this was her last race and that her back/neck issues are just too much for her. I was sad to hear this, but as Jeff Carek our team captain likes to say "It is what it is."
Jimmie lined up next to Daniel Sterling, Racing Greyhounds, and per usual Jimmie was in serious racer mode. After some wait time they all took off and I drove back to the house where Jeff and Christine stay and rode my bike back to the finish line. I waited around and talked with Jim Senska and others while we awaited the Pros arrival. Jimmie finished and I went over and talked to him, He was talking to a friend from way back in the day, Brian Matter, about the race. Matter's wife Andrea was there as well as the Black Ace. Now I officially know who this guy is. Rob Selle stopped by the finish line to heckle Jimmie about Rob driving next to Jimmie in a car yelling at him to go faster. What a character.
Jimmie had a great race, kept it upright, and hung in for 60th in the Pro race and 62nd overall.
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Monday, October 28, 2013
10/27/13 Racing Greyhounds Zimmerman's ride
Sometimes we hawk the Racing Greyhounds public ride announcements forum to see if there are rides we can make that suit our training needs. There was a post for a ride to ride out to Zimmerman's in AA for coffee and back. See below:
Join me for one of the final Sunday morning coffee rides of the 2013 season. The weather looks cold but dry for a beautiful ride to Ann Arbor for a hot cup of "joe" with friends. The fall colors should add to the serenity and Zingerman's is always happy to see a bunch of lunatics in spandex on a Sunday morning!!
No Drop - Moderate pace - this will be my second ride of the month
Leave from the shop @ 9am and we should be back around noon
Hope to see you out there,
Chlorinated
We showed up at C to F and were off for a pretty even paced ride out to AA. Every now and then there was surge from Jackhammer that pushed the pace. We arrived at Zimmerman's just shy of and hour and a half of riding. Although a little pricey but the atmosphere is worth the ride; there's even places to put bikes and tools and stuff if you need to fix something. It was also nice to see bike lanes in AA. I ate a delicious bagel and had a glass of tea. Jimmie had hot chocolate and a bagel as well.
After eating, we got suited back up and headed out. There's a pretty long climb not even a mile after you leave that left me way off the back. I'm no good at taking breaks. They all waited for me and I was hoping our pace would stay around 22 or so mph. Not what happened though. We were around 24 mph and when Jimmie would go on the front I was barely hanging on. I took a 21/22 mph pull and was pretty cooked after that. There was a surge up a hill just before Beck and if the light hadn't turned red I would have been dropped fo sho. I did everything I could to hang on from there on and was grateful when we kind of chilled out when we hit Hines. Of course that was short lived. There was nice little surges here and there and eventually it was just too much for me. I didn't even make it to Stark. It was fun and spirited and I do look forward to joining that ride again in the future. That group of Greyhounds are very cool.
Here was the post last night after the ride:
Great ride this morning. A little more spirited than I thought it would be...but I can't blame anyone if I don't blame myself too
Thanks to everyone for coming out...
Jackhammer
Shoes
Miami
Bellringer
and to non GH's
Jim
Melissa
Coffee and scone at the turn were awesome...new favorite Cafe au Alla
Hope to get out to AA again real soon. Keep resting Old man Winter. Your turn will come soon enough.
Chlorinated
Join me for one of the final Sunday morning coffee rides of the 2013 season. The weather looks cold but dry for a beautiful ride to Ann Arbor for a hot cup of "joe" with friends. The fall colors should add to the serenity and Zingerman's is always happy to see a bunch of lunatics in spandex on a Sunday morning!!
No Drop - Moderate pace - this will be my second ride of the month
Leave from the shop @ 9am and we should be back around noon
Hope to see you out there,
Chlorinated
We showed up at C to F and were off for a pretty even paced ride out to AA. Every now and then there was surge from Jackhammer that pushed the pace. We arrived at Zimmerman's just shy of and hour and a half of riding. Although a little pricey but the atmosphere is worth the ride; there's even places to put bikes and tools and stuff if you need to fix something. It was also nice to see bike lanes in AA. I ate a delicious bagel and had a glass of tea. Jimmie had hot chocolate and a bagel as well.
After eating, we got suited back up and headed out. There's a pretty long climb not even a mile after you leave that left me way off the back. I'm no good at taking breaks. They all waited for me and I was hoping our pace would stay around 22 or so mph. Not what happened though. We were around 24 mph and when Jimmie would go on the front I was barely hanging on. I took a 21/22 mph pull and was pretty cooked after that. There was a surge up a hill just before Beck and if the light hadn't turned red I would have been dropped fo sho. I did everything I could to hang on from there on and was grateful when we kind of chilled out when we hit Hines. Of course that was short lived. There was nice little surges here and there and eventually it was just too much for me. I didn't even make it to Stark. It was fun and spirited and I do look forward to joining that ride again in the future. That group of Greyhounds are very cool.
Here was the post last night after the ride:
Great ride this morning. A little more spirited than I thought it would be...but I can't blame anyone if I don't blame myself too
Thanks to everyone for coming out...
Jackhammer
Shoes
Miami
Bellringer
and to non GH's
Jim
Melissa
Coffee and scone at the turn were awesome...new favorite Cafe au Alla
Hope to get out to AA again real soon. Keep resting Old man Winter. Your turn will come soon enough.
Chlorinated
Addison XC, Peak to Peak and Lowell 50
It's been a while since I've posted anything about our racing and training.
Per usual Jimmie is doing great. He raced the Pro class at Addison and then the Expert SS class. I raced Pro Women and wished I had raced Expert. There was an Expert Men's 40 to 49 guy yelling at me and Melanie B. Not sure what the jerks name. Anyway he's a used douche.
In between then and now we've replaced the roof on our house and the garage and we've been joining in on some Racing Greyhound training rides. Between the Gravity ride out in Milford, Maybury miles and the Cyclo Cross training I'm hoping to be ready for this last weekend of racing. They have a great group of people to train with and most of their rides are right by the house.
Peak to Peak
We pre-rode the course. We had a hard time finding the course due to lack of signage, but we hooked up with Lako and Jared M who pointed us in the right direction. We had a nice little hail storm during the very end of our pre-ride. Made things interesting.
The day of the race had better weather than expected. The first lap was fast. The single-track was in great shape and the climb at the end wasn't as hard as it was the time I did it in 2009. The single track after the climb is what I remember loving in 2009 - super fun! It makes up for the super flat stuff for miles in the beginning. Lap 2 and 3 semeed to go slower. The tackiness reminded me of iceman's course last year - sucked your speed away. Jimmie had a great race. He finished 11th of 24 which is awesome!
We spent sometime talking to friends after the race. Lise Selle unfortunately broke her chain during the first lap. She's still going to have a great iceman!
We went to the Mackinaw Brewery in TC after the race with Wendy and Todd. I ran into the Devost's from the Greyhounds while there. Both some very fast Greyhounds.
We tried to pre-ride some of the iceman course the next day but somehow got turned around. Not much to really learn though. All I know is I hope they have that shipping container thingy all figured out before the race on Saturday.
The Lowell 50
I raced, if you want to call it that, the 50 mile race in the Spring. That was terrible. The weather was cold with 20 plus mph winds and 22 and up wind gusts. I raced it on my cross bike and absolutely hated it. This time I signed up for the 34 miler, brought the MTB race bike and when I saw the weather forecast I knew that was the right plan. Again we had cold windy weather but this time add some rain just before the race.
During this time of year it's difficult to dress for racing, in my opinion. I had put on our long sleeved jersey and long pants, but still felt quite chilly prior to the race. My hands were by far the coldest. I decided to use a short sleeve jersey as a base layer and I put toe warmers, forgot the hand warmers, inside my winter gloves. My hope was to hang with the faster to fastest group of guys in an effort to pretty much get pulled along that 34 mile windy course. Unfortunately my plan fell through pretty quickly when I quickly started to over heat. I hung on for the first 5 miles or so and then I stared feeling slow. It took me some time to realize what was going on; I think my super sweaty hands were the big indicator. I tried unzipping some of my jerseys to see if that would help. About 45 minutes into the race I reached the top of a hill and stopped. I took my gloves off and both my jerseys off. I tucked my gloves and short sleeve jersey into the pockets of the long sleeved jersey and put it back on. Whew I felt much better already! I worked hard at that point to pass as many people as I could, especially the ones that passed me while I was on that hill. What was funny about this race was the amount of guys I pulled at some points. I wish I had a camera on me so I could take a picture. At first it was just one guy for miles and then over time as people passed and what not it turned into a train of guys. After pulling for miles I finally sat up and told the guy that had been on my wheel from the start that he can take a pull. Unfortunately our average speed went down at that point and people we had passed were passing us back. I couldn't have that so I went back to the front. It amazes me how many times I've been at races like this where no one really wants to work together in a group to try and catch and pass the people. On a course like Lowell you can see your competition most of the time. You can tractor beam them in, but people do not work together. Instead they will let you bust butt for miles until you pop or force them to take a pull. I didn't win, but I think it was good training. It was also fun talking to Jamie G-M and Bonnie V after the race. They both kicked butt.
Jimmie was with the lead group until a couple of cross riders crashed right in front of him at the bottom of a washed out climb. He chased the lead group for 45 miles until deciding it was just too much and eventually riding by himself and/or other guys along the way. Jimmie finished 13th overall and 3rd in his age group.
Per usual Jimmie is doing great. He raced the Pro class at Addison and then the Expert SS class. I raced Pro Women and wished I had raced Expert. There was an Expert Men's 40 to 49 guy yelling at me and Melanie B. Not sure what the jerks name. Anyway he's a used douche.
In between then and now we've replaced the roof on our house and the garage and we've been joining in on some Racing Greyhound training rides. Between the Gravity ride out in Milford, Maybury miles and the Cyclo Cross training I'm hoping to be ready for this last weekend of racing. They have a great group of people to train with and most of their rides are right by the house.
Peak to Peak
We pre-rode the course. We had a hard time finding the course due to lack of signage, but we hooked up with Lako and Jared M who pointed us in the right direction. We had a nice little hail storm during the very end of our pre-ride. Made things interesting.
The day of the race had better weather than expected. The first lap was fast. The single-track was in great shape and the climb at the end wasn't as hard as it was the time I did it in 2009. The single track after the climb is what I remember loving in 2009 - super fun! It makes up for the super flat stuff for miles in the beginning. Lap 2 and 3 semeed to go slower. The tackiness reminded me of iceman's course last year - sucked your speed away. Jimmie had a great race. He finished 11th of 24 which is awesome!
We spent sometime talking to friends after the race. Lise Selle unfortunately broke her chain during the first lap. She's still going to have a great iceman!
We went to the Mackinaw Brewery in TC after the race with Wendy and Todd. I ran into the Devost's from the Greyhounds while there. Both some very fast Greyhounds.
We tried to pre-ride some of the iceman course the next day but somehow got turned around. Not much to really learn though. All I know is I hope they have that shipping container thingy all figured out before the race on Saturday.
The Lowell 50
I raced, if you want to call it that, the 50 mile race in the Spring. That was terrible. The weather was cold with 20 plus mph winds and 22 and up wind gusts. I raced it on my cross bike and absolutely hated it. This time I signed up for the 34 miler, brought the MTB race bike and when I saw the weather forecast I knew that was the right plan. Again we had cold windy weather but this time add some rain just before the race.
During this time of year it's difficult to dress for racing, in my opinion. I had put on our long sleeved jersey and long pants, but still felt quite chilly prior to the race. My hands were by far the coldest. I decided to use a short sleeve jersey as a base layer and I put toe warmers, forgot the hand warmers, inside my winter gloves. My hope was to hang with the faster to fastest group of guys in an effort to pretty much get pulled along that 34 mile windy course. Unfortunately my plan fell through pretty quickly when I quickly started to over heat. I hung on for the first 5 miles or so and then I stared feeling slow. It took me some time to realize what was going on; I think my super sweaty hands were the big indicator. I tried unzipping some of my jerseys to see if that would help. About 45 minutes into the race I reached the top of a hill and stopped. I took my gloves off and both my jerseys off. I tucked my gloves and short sleeve jersey into the pockets of the long sleeved jersey and put it back on. Whew I felt much better already! I worked hard at that point to pass as many people as I could, especially the ones that passed me while I was on that hill. What was funny about this race was the amount of guys I pulled at some points. I wish I had a camera on me so I could take a picture. At first it was just one guy for miles and then over time as people passed and what not it turned into a train of guys. After pulling for miles I finally sat up and told the guy that had been on my wheel from the start that he can take a pull. Unfortunately our average speed went down at that point and people we had passed were passing us back. I couldn't have that so I went back to the front. It amazes me how many times I've been at races like this where no one really wants to work together in a group to try and catch and pass the people. On a course like Lowell you can see your competition most of the time. You can tractor beam them in, but people do not work together. Instead they will let you bust butt for miles until you pop or force them to take a pull. I didn't win, but I think it was good training. It was also fun talking to Jamie G-M and Bonnie V after the race. They both kicked butt.
Jimmie was with the lead group until a couple of cross riders crashed right in front of him at the bottom of a washed out climb. He chased the lead group for 45 miles until deciding it was just too much and eventually riding by himself and/or other guys along the way. Jimmie finished 13th overall and 3rd in his age group.
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Ore to Shore vs. Maybury TT mmba.org posts
I just want to say I think it's funny that there's a 13 page post regarding the Maybury TT and probably about 1/2 of those pages were after the race filled with complaints and people just being mean.
mmba racing post for Maybury TT
There was an f'n train on the tracks during Ore to Shore that screwed a lot of people's race up (more than 75% of the field) and only one post regarding the train debacle. There was also a woman who injured herself pretty badly on the sand pit and not one post regarding that even.
It's just interesting...
mmba racing post for Maybury TT
There was an f'n train on the tracks during Ore to Shore that screwed a lot of people's race up (more than 75% of the field) and only one post regarding the train debacle. There was also a woman who injured herself pretty badly on the sand pit and not one post regarding that even.
It's just interesting...
Monday, August 26, 2013
Something you don't see everyday
A guy I work with showed me this picture. It's from a recent trip up north to Rogers City to his in-laws house. He said the mother was killed by a car so the dog started performing some motherly duties. Nature is funny sometimes.
Monday, August 19, 2013
Ore to Shore 8.10.13 and our UP vacation
Another Ore to Shore completed followed with a week of vacationing in the UP.
Jimmie's race went very well. He and the super fast group made it past the train situation and on to a smoking fast finish time of 2:39. He was 3rd in his age group and 33rd overall.
Seth was probably one of the first people to get caught by the train. He said the guy just ahead of him almost got hit by the train.
Beating the train...what is that all about anyhow?
http://www.beatthetrain.org/
We were fortunate to have great weather during the race. Last year we had some crazy wind and the year before the temps sored near 88 degrees with tons of humidity. This year I think we may have had temps in the low 70's with clear sunny skies. The rain had come through days before and left us with some muddy sections and some pretty big puddles to deal with, but other wise the course was in good shape.
I was pretty happy with my finish time all things being considered. I had originally planned to make Ore to Shore my A race for the season but "the incident" as we call it derailed that plan and I just tried to not crash.
Anyhow...about our vacation: We headed up toward the Porcupine Mountains Saturday evening. We were tired from driving and stopped off at Baraga State Park and slept in the van. The next day we headed to the Porcupine Mountains. Our campsite was a little too close to other people for comfort but it had to do since we didn't make a reservation. We headed up to the Lake in the Clouds via the road and got some serious hill work in. We ran into a couple up there who were backwoods hiking/camping. That same night we ended up seeing them again as they had decided to camp at the state campground in lieu of backwoods camping. The next day we woke up and decided to check out the supposed MTB trails. We ended up riding some XC skill trails and wondered why in the heck, when there is so much land out there, isn't there any single track. It was a big disappointment. The Porcupine Mountains are beautiful and on a clear night the skies are unbelievable. If we ever go back, we are going to go back for hiking since there are hiking trails everywhere around there.
We decided we'd had enough of the Porcupine Mountains so we headed up to Copper Harbor for the bad a$$ trails up there. We landed a sweet campsite at the West lot in the Fort Wilkins State Park. Our neighbors were from Wisconsin and were also there for the MTB riding.
We spent a good portion of Wednesday riding the Copper Harbor trails and we both rode Thursday before we left for Marquette. I found that I like the Mai Kai, Der we went, Der we go, the Bullwinkle, Woopidy woo and the Flow. On the Edge scares me and yes you are literally on the edge. I guess the locals ride down it. I've only ridden up it. Jimmie rode the Red trail and Simah down the mountain and said they are much more fun as downhills. He did something like 4000 ft of climbing at Copper Harbor.
Everyone talks about the South trails in Marquette. I have to say some of the North trails are awesome as well just in a different way. They're less technical, but accessible from Tourist Park and we literally race right next to some of them at the very end of Ore to Shore. If you pay attention to the right side of the hill when riding up Kirby's climb, you will see a trail marker for one of the North trails. Skip Kirby's climb, obviously not during the race, and ride the single track instead. The South trails are a mix of technical and super fun trails. I love the Red Trail. We rode as much as we could on Friday. We ended up riding for almost 4 hours starting at Tourist Park and riding a lot of the South trails (some of the Red Trail X2) and up to Presque Isle to visit Sunset Point where we got married a year ago.
Jimmie's race went very well. He and the super fast group made it past the train situation and on to a smoking fast finish time of 2:39. He was 3rd in his age group and 33rd overall.
Seth was probably one of the first people to get caught by the train. He said the guy just ahead of him almost got hit by the train.
Beating the train...what is that all about anyhow?
http://www.beatthetrain.org/
We were fortunate to have great weather during the race. Last year we had some crazy wind and the year before the temps sored near 88 degrees with tons of humidity. This year I think we may have had temps in the low 70's with clear sunny skies. The rain had come through days before and left us with some muddy sections and some pretty big puddles to deal with, but other wise the course was in good shape.
I was pretty happy with my finish time all things being considered. I had originally planned to make Ore to Shore my A race for the season but "the incident" as we call it derailed that plan and I just tried to not crash.
Anyhow...about our vacation: We headed up toward the Porcupine Mountains Saturday evening. We were tired from driving and stopped off at Baraga State Park and slept in the van. The next day we headed to the Porcupine Mountains. Our campsite was a little too close to other people for comfort but it had to do since we didn't make a reservation. We headed up to the Lake in the Clouds via the road and got some serious hill work in. We ran into a couple up there who were backwoods hiking/camping. That same night we ended up seeing them again as they had decided to camp at the state campground in lieu of backwoods camping. The next day we woke up and decided to check out the supposed MTB trails. We ended up riding some XC skill trails and wondered why in the heck, when there is so much land out there, isn't there any single track. It was a big disappointment. The Porcupine Mountains are beautiful and on a clear night the skies are unbelievable. If we ever go back, we are going to go back for hiking since there are hiking trails everywhere around there.
Lake Superior at Porcupine Mountains Union Bay campground
8.12.13
We decided we'd had enough of the Porcupine Mountains so we headed up to Copper Harbor for the bad a$$ trails up there. We landed a sweet campsite at the West lot in the Fort Wilkins State Park. Our neighbors were from Wisconsin and were also there for the MTB riding.
We spent a good portion of Wednesday riding the Copper Harbor trails and we both rode Thursday before we left for Marquette. I found that I like the Mai Kai, Der we went, Der we go, the Bullwinkle, Woopidy woo and the Flow. On the Edge scares me and yes you are literally on the edge. I guess the locals ride down it. I've only ridden up it. Jimmie rode the Red trail and Simah down the mountain and said they are much more fun as downhills. He did something like 4000 ft of climbing at Copper Harbor.
Everyone talks about the South trails in Marquette. I have to say some of the North trails are awesome as well just in a different way. They're less technical, but accessible from Tourist Park and we literally race right next to some of them at the very end of Ore to Shore. If you pay attention to the right side of the hill when riding up Kirby's climb, you will see a trail marker for one of the North trails. Skip Kirby's climb, obviously not during the race, and ride the single track instead. The South trails are a mix of technical and super fun trails. I love the Red Trail. We rode as much as we could on Friday. We ended up riding for almost 4 hours starting at Tourist Park and riding a lot of the South trails (some of the Red Trail X2) and up to Presque Isle to visit Sunset Point where we got married a year ago.
View from North trail
View of trail head from atop the mountain in Copper Harbor
Friday, July 26, 2013
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