On Cloud 9 from Dino 24

The 2009 24 Hours of Dino was disappointing for me. I took a hard crash and wound up quitting at about the 9-hour mark. So, the 2010 edition was one of revenge and a mission to prove to myself that I could do it. My goal was to focus on proper nutrition during the race and not sleep. Karen and I used to do many 24-36 hour adventure races without sleeping so I know what it takes to stay awake. But with Adventure Racing you’re mixing it up between biking,
running/trekking, and paddling so it’s not as monotonous as just biking the whole time.

I spent a lot of time before the race talking with Coach Mileski about my race nutrition. We developed a loose plan on how much I’d need to eat for an hour of racing and what specific foods would help me meet those nutrition goals as well as, be tasty and easy to eat.

Karen, Greg Ott, Mitch Johnson, Todd Hecht and I all took off work on Friday to make the 6-hour drive over to Versailles , IN. Our goal was to get there early enough to get our tents/TA setup in a prime spot on the course and do some pre-riding of the course. Mission accomplished! We had fantastic weather on Friday. Our TA was setup right next to the start/finish line and we had time for a pre-ride.

Against my better judgment the boys talked me into riding the entire 12-mile course. I was worried it would zap me too much. But that course is so fun it only made me more excited to start the race.

They were predicting rain Friday night and Saturday and it looked eminent that it was coming. Amazingly, we got some rain Sat AM a couple hours before the start, but the weather was absolutely awesome for the next 2 days of racing!

The race started at noon on Saturday. All racers had to run about 100 yards to their bikes with a wheel or seatpost from their bike. They did this to spread out the racers and try to keep the bottleneck down heading into the trail. The race offered a 6, 12, and 24 hour solo category as well as team categories. As usual, most of us 24-solo racers walked that 100 yards since there’s no need to jack the heart rate up and waste the energy with so many hours ahead.

Unfortunately, I probably walked a little too slow at the start as there were many novice riders in front of me for the first – and only – significant climb at about ½ mile into the course. This created a huge traffic jam at the base of the climb. It was a rocky section and I chose to take the opportunity to get around 6/7 riders by passing on the right in loose rock. Sure enough, I got a flat. Yep, not even 1 mile in and I had a flat already. Very quickly every single racer was past me and I was in dead-last changing my flat! But knowing I still had 23 hours and 55 minutes to race I wasn't too concerned except I was wondering how many flats I was going to get in this race.

With the exception of the time lost on the first lap due to the flat, I was turning 1 hour 10 min laps on laps 1 - 5. I'd then take a 15 minute break inbetween each lap to refill my bottle and grab some food. I rode lap 6 with Mitch. That was a blast but I think we both pushed ourselves a bit like guys do. So when he wanted to go out on 6 together again, I told him to go on and I had to do my own race.

That 1:10 pace w/15-20 min breaks continued through the day and into the night. I was remaining consistent. About midnight Mitch stopped to eat some pasta being served by the race director. Greg and Todd were done with their 12 hour races and they both did awesome! Greg got 3rd and Todd got 10th. Karen was still turning her steady laps and I'd only seen her once since the race started. With Mitch stopping to eat I put quite a bit of time into him. But I knew he'd be charging back on me very soon.

I was really testing my lights and pushing them to their limits as far as burn time. It bit me at about 6:30am EST when both my lights were about to die and it was still pretty dark out. I had to run the lights on low just to have light. Towards the end of this lap (#14) I saw a set of lights behind me. I knew it had to be Mitch closing in. That dude is way too strong to let me hang in front of him. So I busted my butt to finish the lap and get back out on lap #15. By this time it was light enough that I didn't need lights.

Lap 15 felt great. I really couldn't believe how good I was still feeling. I'd taken a short 30 minute nap at about 3:00am but that was it. Lap 15 was another 1:10 minute lap. When I came into the finish from lap 15 it was about 8:00am. I saw Mitch standing there at the finish on his bike looking fresh. I wondered if he somehow passed me? Did he get a long nap in and was now going to turn the screws to catch me? Was he going to make us race all the way to noon? Fortunately, he told me he was done. All the guys behind him weren't going to catch him and he thought I was riding too well for him to catch me. As I looked at the times/laps of the guy ahead of me he was too far ahead. He had 2 laps on me, so there was no way I was going to catch him with only 4 hours left. So, I called it quits too and was absolutely blown away by what I'd just done. Not only did I just finish 2nd place in this 24-hour race but I'd done it by beating Mitch - Consider this my retirement from racing because I'll never do that again!!! ;-) Mitch has taught me a lot about racing endurance moutnain bike events and without his advice I could not finished a lot of the long races I've done in the last year.

This 24-hour race I really owe to Coach Mileski. He helped me prepare for this race all season and spent a lot of time with me making sure I was ready!

Karen also did great. She won 1st place in the womens solo category.

There were also a bunch of other St. Lous folks there loving this trail. Here's a cool pic of us all after the race. Missing from the photo is Zach Brace (1st) and Brian Roggeven (6th) who both did the 12-hour.

We all survived the race. We made it through the night without rain and everyone had a blast.
The course in Versailles is absolutely fantastic!! It's one of the most fun trails I've ever been on! All racers must put this race on their race calendar for 2011!

Tall Oak Challenge 6-hour

I look forward to this race every year. It's a really fun course, great environment, and very nice park. Team Red Wheel knows how to put on a great race!

For those of you that were there, you know how great the weather was. It was fantastic! There were even times where it was a little 'chilly'. Yeah, I said 'chilly'!

My goal for this race was to just get a good 6-hours of riding in. With the DINO 24-hour just 7 days away, coach said to keep it under 90% effort. Last year I got in 9 laps and finished 11th so I was pretty happy with that and would have loved to improve on that, but not this year.

The race started with a neutral roll-out, gun-shot, and sprint into the singletrack - for most folks. I chose to sit back in the back and not push myself too much right out of the gate. I spent the first lap riding and chatting it up with Rob Ballou and Stephanie McCreary. But I think I was annoying them by talking so much so I went and did my own thing.

Like most races, with each lap I got to know the course better and better knowing where to push and where to let it coast to be as efficient as possible. I averaged about 41 minute laps with a 10-15 minute rest between laps. Jason Pryor and I kept leap-frogging each other. At one point, we both commented that we're often in this no-mans land during a race. Not fast enough to run with the leaders but not back-of-the-pack either. Just sitting in the middle of the race by ourselves.

As Jason and I started lap 8, we made a pack to ride a 2-lap pace to get us to 8 laps for the day and not stop before we had 8 laps. We hung together for those last two laps, had a good time, and ended the day with a good effort. I'm not going to lie, the race hurt and I'm still a little sore today. So, even at 90% there's quite a bit of pain involved!

(sorry, no cool pics for this post either!)

Cape Crankfest

I hadn't done the Cape race on the new course yet, so I was determined to make it down there for this years event. Karen chose to go to the Single Speed Championships in Jeff City, so Casey and I headed down to Cape to get our race on.

It was hot, hot, hot out there!

After a short pre-ride I now understood why people called this course "tight" and "twisty" - wow! I've never been on such a course, much less raced on it. To me, it's one of those that when you're just riding at a casual pace it doesn't seem too hard. But when riding at a race pace, it's a killer! You're always either turning or climbing - very demanding.

I made sure I got Casey ready to go before my race started. Her race started 90 minutes after mine so I was nervous she'd miss the announcement and her start. But, the girl pulled it off and raced very well bringing home 1st place and some hardware. I can't wait for her to race JR next year.

My race went pretty well. I was sitting in 4th/5th place for the majority of the race. On lap 7 I was in 4th and couldn't resist the beach party w/pool in the middle of the course so I pulled over to take the plunge. This was a little refreshing, but the brown warm water wasn't as nice as I'd hoped. It also caused me to start cramping up. The guy behind me passed me and apparently dropped the hammer. Good for him, he saw the opportunity and took it. I saw glimpses of him the next few laps. I even passed him while he was in transition on the 2nd last lap, but then my chain dropped between my cassette and wheel and it took me a few minutes to get it back out. So he went back by me. But once I got back on the bike I finished strong and was glad to be done after 10 laps.

I finished 5th overall on the day. That guy that passed me while fixing my chain got 3rd. So, makes you wonder? But he was looking strong, maybe too strong for me to hold off?!

Rapture In Misery 2010

The 2010 Rapture In Misery came and went very differently than it did in 2009 for Karen and I both. In 2009 we were training hard for the event, didn’t know what to expect not having done it before but wanted to do well. So when Mother Nature brought the downpour, both Karen and I stayed consistent and fought through it when others bailed. Thanks to that persistence we both wound up on the podium. For the 2010 event we both had it as an “A” race for ourselves but for many reasons our training wasn’t where we wanted it to be and we’d had our family vacation the week before race week.

But we both had so much fun in 2009 that there was no way we were going to miss it this year. We drove out late Fri night and stayed in Chillicothe about 25 minutes from race HQ. There were bad storms Fri night all around the area, but word from HQ was that they were spared. We got up Sat AM and got to HQ with plenty of time to setup our pit area. Thanks to Mitch and Greg for bringing our canopy down early on Friday and getting it setup for us. That really helped!

The race started at noon with a short run of about 100 yards to our bikes. As with most starts for long races like this I chose to sit back and let the team guys and rookies sprint it out. As usual, this strategy puts me entering the singletrack with a large pack of people and thus pretty slow. But it’s a long race and there’s no need to unnecessarily jack up the heart rate so early.

I knew I was probably going to hard in the first two laps especially in the 100 degree heat and I paid for it big time on lap 3. I started to feeling sick to my stomach and chills. Even though I’d drank my entire camelback and 2+ water bottles. Towards the end of lap 3 I knew my race was over already. I chose to sit out for 90 minutes, get some food and try to cool down. I put ice on the back of my neck and sat in the shade while I tried to eat. This really seemed to help.

I chose to suit up again and go back out. I did lap 4 and felt good. Then half-way through lap 5 it all came crashing down again with the same sick feelings. So I sat back down and called it a day. But it was all good as I was still having a good time. Jim Davis was done with his race. The Segal boys (Grothoff and Hoffmeier) were coming and going doing their tag-team. Plus, I was helping Karen, Mitch, and Greg whenever necessary.

To my surprise Karen wound up pulling out of her race a little later. That girl never quits! But the heat and our overall lack of preparation played a role for her demise too.

The cool thing was that STL folks were again dominating the 12-hour podium: Zadenek, Busken, Mitch, Greg, Adam, and Wendy all stood on the podium either in their age group or overall. In the 12-hour team category the Segal boys brought home 3rd place. Plus Christine Ford won the womens 6-hour. Great job to all of these folks!!

If you’ve never done RIM, make sure you put it on your calendar for 2011. Doug Long and the Heartland crew put on a great race and it’s an awesome venue with great amenities for a race like this.

Dirt Crits / Short Track

The Thursday night dirt crits have been a blast this year! The turnout has been outstanding and the racing supreme! For me personally, it's been an pain-fest racing in the 'A' race. Last week I blew myself up pretty badly on the first few laps and paid the penalty late in the race where I lost at least 7/8 positions.

To get pumped up for this weeks racing below is video of the Pro short track race from the USA Cycling National Championships last week in CO.


Visit beta.cyclingdirt.org for more Videos

See everyone out there on Thu. Let's hope these storms give us some good racing!

Dirt Crits kick-off!

It's July and most of you know what that means - Dirt Crit Thursdays!!

Dirt Crit #1 was last night and what an event it was! The turnout was spectacular and the weather was better than anything we usually see here in STL in July.


Lone Wolf Coffee, Alpine Shop, Polk Audio, and O'Fallon Brewery were sponsors of the event and they did not disappoint.

I chose to hop on the 'Pain Train' for the event and race in the 'A' class with the Experts. This meant 40+ minutes at maximum heart rate. I knew it'd be humbling and my only goals were to not get lapped and not get last. However, if either of those happened I was not going to be surprised!


The race started with a crash 40 yards from the start. After getting through the pile-up relatively safe, I found myself in the second pack for the first lap and a half. Then on the second lap there was another pile-up after the creek crossing. I manged to get around that but the group in front had put a gap on me. There was noone in front of me and noone right behind me to work with. I rode the next 4-5 laps doing a solo time-trial. Not fun!! I kept praying for someone to catch me so I could grab a wheel and draft for awhile. It's amazing how much easier drafting came make the dirt crits! I finally caught Matt Grothoff, but he was admittedly spent and fading. That dude is awesome... giving up his single-speed to ride a 30lb hardtail w/gears and was still up towards the front of half the race!


A couple laps later, a guy from the Bike Surgeon team came by me. He was flying and I was unable to hold his wheel. Then Paul Krewet came by and he was obviously not giving it 100% because I was able to grab his wheel. That dude is strong so I was just honored to be sitting on his wheel!



I sat on Paul's wheel for a couple laps including the last lap. As we neared the finish on the last lap I mustered up some energy that I recovered from drafting off Paul to pass him. It was everything I had to do it. I actually had to cut him off a little bit and did apologize after the race, but he was cool with it.


So I wound up 18th out of 33 in my first Expert race and was very pleased with that. I need to avoid the crashes and solo efforts next time and maybe I can improve.









Karen raced the 'B' race and did awesome considering she'd been up since 4am. Worked a 12-hour day and rushed to make the starting line! I love that woman!

Casey raced the 'C' race and gave it 100%. She even did an extra lap for training - although she didn't know it at the time! :)

Season in full-swing

I've been pretty lazy with the blog the last month or so, but that's only because we've been busy racing, training, and enjoying the Summer with Casey.

But here's a recap for you readers out there (mom!):

Lumberjack 100 -

Karen, Mitch, Dwayne, and myself signed up months ago for the Lumberjack 100. So we all piled in the monster SUV and made the trip together. This race is part of a national 100-mile race series (NUE). We were hoping to do more of the races within the series, but schedule and travel time doesn't allow it.

This race was 'awesome'. It was a pro event all the way and the trail was fantastic! The trail was supposed to be 'flat', and to some that may be the case - if you're from Colorado! But Mitch's garmin had 6000+ feet of climbing. There were no long steep climbs at all but there were many short 40-50 yard grunt climbs and long false flats that really wore on you.

There were about 8 folks from Missouri that made the 9-hour drive up to MI for this race. The great news is that all of us finished.

There are several things I'd do differently next year for this race.

1. We left Thu night so we could chill on Fri, pre-ride a little and relax. I liked this, but next time we won't drive until 2am Fri. This just caused us to sleep in on Fri and still put us there at 4:30pm. If we'd have left Fri @ 7am we'd have arrived at the same time!

2. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! I got so caught up in the race I didn't drink much the first few hours. This caused me to get dehydrated and really slowed me down for a few hours. Once I realized my issue and began slamming fluids I rallied to finish strong.

3. Don't try to drive straight home after the race. We finally got home about 5:30am Sunday, so Karen and I slept most of the day.

Dwayne and Mitch posted killer times - 8:15 and 8:20 respectively. I finished in 9:40 and Karen finished in 11:40. Awesome for our first 100-miler. Full results

This race was a real mental challenge as well as physical. The format was 3 31-mile loops. So after the first lap I told myself I was a one-third of the way done! Then after the second lap I told myself "1 more lap"! Sure, it was another 31 miles, but the fact that it was my "last" lap helped mentally.

Here's Mitch's race report

Brommelsiek Challenge -

The Ghisallo team did their part in giving back to the racing community by putting on this race. Mitch and Greg of course get all the credit, they were the organizers and put on an awesome event. Brommelsiek park is a truly amazing park. St. Charles Count Parks have done a great job on this park: pavillions with electric, many restrooms w/running water, nice parking, playgrounds, etc.

I helped by doing the marathon scoring and Karen helped with the Cat 2 scoring.

The weather was HOT and the racers were suffering so it felt good to rest the legs after the Lumberjack the previous weekend and sit under the pavillion while the rest of the racing community battled the elements!

Casey raced the kids 10-13 category and took home 2nd place. JD Peiffer took home 3rd nipping at Casey's heels

Thanks again to Mitch, Greg, St. Louis County Parks, and all the other sponsors for putting on a great race!