Saturday, April 01, 2006

Good day out

Today’s training with Jen Segger and Glenn Rogers: (long and slow.. well at lease we got the slow part down)

3:30am wake up, on the road for Chuckanut at 4:20am
4 hour 20 min Chuckanut Mountain Run – 22 miles 4,200+ climbing
1 hour 30min Lake Padden mountain bike (we planned 4 hours but Lake Padden didn't have the terrain we thought it did.. we learned it's a better place to run than mtn bike)

Friday, March 31, 2006

160 Road Miles Around Hood Canal


Sunday my teammates Glenn Rogers, Ryan VanGorder, Jen VanGorder and I decided to ride around the entire Hood Canal. The ride was 160 fantastic road miles. We took the ferry from West Seattle to Southworth, around the Hood Canal and back to the ferry. Total ride time was 9:33. There was a 30 mile section on highway 16 that I hated. Bad things happen on highways. Have you ever seen those Police videos where the Cop gets hit by a car after pulling someone over? Yeah, that is what was going through my head the entire time. However everything except for the highway bit was just epic. I felt pretty good the entire ride however Glenn was pretty much hammering on us with his fancy aero bars. I was not ready to ride at that pace this early in my training. We managed to slow him down by make him pull the paceline. Glenn, Aaron Rinn, Jen VanGorder and Ryan Fleming are racing as DART-nuun in the Mighty Mo Expedition adventure race. Their goal is to win the 1st place prize of a free entry into Primal Quest(go watch the video on the PQ site - it gives me goose bumps). If everyone is as fit as Glenn is right now I like their chances. Here is a link to an article about the Mighty Mo. They call us a “West Coast Powerhouse” in the article… ha.

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

The Turner frames have arrived!

This year, my team, DART-nuun is sponsored by Turner Bikes. I couldn’t be more excited about this. Turner is known for their attention to detail and their precision performance suspensions. As a team we’ll ride either the Nitrous or the Flux. Since I also race in solo endurance mountain bike events where having two bikes is essential, I got one of each!

The Nitrous is their super aggressive, top notch cross country racing frame. It’s got 3.1” of rear travel…. and it’s just 4.5 lbs!!! Geoff Kabush, who if you don’t know is many time NORBA National Champion in XC and short track mountain biking (not to mention cyclocross champ) races this rig. If it’s good enough for Kabush.. I’ll ride it.

The Flux is Turner’s endurance racing bike. It’s weighs in at 5.6 lbs and has 4” of travel (Fox RP3 Shock) with a more relaxed geometry for longer distance riding. Of the two I bet I ride this bike more often because it will be more comfy, less aggressive geometry. Oh and it’s this insane shiny chrome! Check it out.

Waiting on parts from our bike component sponsor Full Speed Ahead before I can put them together.. boohoo.

Monday, March 27, 2006

Primal Quest Horse Certification - Check

Our team’s biggest race of this season will be the Primal Quest. It’s a 7-10 day, 500mile/800km expedition adventure race. It’s has the biggest prize purse ($250,000) and usually airs on CBS during the NFL playoff season. It has become adventure racings premier race and typically it’s most difficult. To race you have to jump through many hoops, including getting six skill certifications:
1. First Aid
2. Horse Back Riding
3. Navigation
4. Climbing
5. Kayaking
6. Swimming

This weekend RVG and I traveled to Enumclaw to take care of the horse certification. Here is what we had to learn:

-Properly Saddling, mounting and dismounting
-Ability to trot-Ability to stop and turn a horse
-Ability to successfully cross a knee high, moderately moving stream riding or leading a horse
-Ability to recognize when a horse is stressed
-Show proper use of Horse Helmet, Hoof Pick, Rigging Lines and strapsfor securing gear to saddle.

I’m allergic to horse hair so I envisioned this really sucking. However horses and donkeys are amazing animals, and we had a blast learning to ride them. After that we went for a two hour run in Black Diamond.