Prerace check-in:

This was my 4th Lumberjack so I was not expecting many surprises but the mention of new “run up” section during the race meeting had me a little apprehensive. I quickly forgot about it though and went about warming up. The start was standard for the Lumberjack which means long, flat and fast. I positioned myself well in about 12th place and held that all the way to the singletrack. Feeling comfortable just behind Jeff Shalk and Christian Tanguy, I made no effort to move up from there.

The first 6 or 8 miles is a series of short steep rollers which I felt really good on. Typically little gaps would open in front of me when I’m trying to hang in the lead group, but not today. I was right in the mix. As we exited the rollers and into a long flat doubletrack section I was a little surprised I was still in the lead group. I usually last about 10 miles and then fall back some into my own pace. Jeff and Christian are the favorites in any NUE race, so I stayed behind them as others came up from behind trying to move forward in the group.

As we hit the trail again it was a little chaotic. The lead group had swelled to about 20 riders and there was some rubbing as everyone wanted a good position into the singletrack. Someone nearly took out Shalk who nearly took out me. We both managed to keep it upright and get into the top 10.

Cruising along at the Lumberjack 100:

The laps were 33 miles with a SAG in the middle. The SAG came and went with me still glued to Christian’s wheel. He was relaxed and biding his time until he would attack later when the group thinned some more. I on the other hand was starting to question whether I should be trying to hang on to this group or not. One glance back at the empty trail behind me made me decide to stay with the draft as long as I could without burning the proverbial matches.

Then the run up came. The first couple of guys tried to ride it, but didn’t even try. It was steep and loose sand. I knew I’d spend energy I couldn’t spare. I trotted up with back half of this group and hoped to make the split that was sure to come as we hit the double track that followed. I remounted and looked down the road where the lead 8 riders were disappearing around a corner. I put my head down in a TT aero-tuck and drilled it. I came closer and wasn’t pulling anyone with me so I stayed after it, but after another few minutes I knew I wasn’t going to keep this up for long and I was acutely aware of the steep rollers that coming very soon. I eased up and let a few chasers catch me, then drafted them. At the same time we were reentering the singletrack and that lull allowed us the three of us to catch back up. The lead 20 was now back down to the lead 12 or so.

I wanted to move up some so I had a little room to drift back if needed on the coming steep pitches, but the aggressive pace and tight trail made that not worth the effort. I managed to hold on over the first pitch, but the gap really opened on the second one. Then a stick jumped up into my rear der and I had to ease up for just a second to clear it and that was it. I could have closed it, but I knew better than to dig that deep only 30 miles into a 100 miler.

Somewhere on the second lap of the Lumberjack 100: http://www.jhkunnenphoto.com/p76506709/e309912f4

The lap transition and the following lap were pretty smooth. I eased back my pace a little more than I wanted too, but I know my limits and I was right there on the edge. A group of racers including singlespeeders Pflug and Ferrari caught me on the flat double track section. That was a little discouraging, but kept my pace steady, ate, drank and waited for the last lap.

I caught and passed a few riders at the end of the second lap that had also stayed in the lead group a little too long, but didn’t recover well. As fast as that group was I expected to catch a few more this way. I took a little too long in the transition for my liking, but that happens sometimes when I’m tired and self-supported. A few riders passed me while I lubed my chain, which gave me some rabbits to chase.

Christopher Michaels was one of those that passed me, but reeled him quickly, passed and gave a small attack. He didn’t chase much so I kept pushing so I wasn’t pulling him in the doubletrack section. I looked back about half way through that section and didn’t see him, so I felt like I could settle back into my endurance pace. As soon as I hit the singletrack he reappeared. Since there was not room to pass I eased a little and waited for the next opportunity to attack.

We caught up to a couple of singlespeeders and one other guy. This was my chance to try again. I didn’t have the juice for full on attack, so just set the best tempo I could up a longish climb and attacked the descent. I looked back to an empty trail. Not five minutes later the cramps started. The heat of the day had been building those efforts were taking there tool. I focused on my pedaling, drained a bottle and ate some Honey Stinger chews. The cramps stopped as quickly as they came, but I wasn’t going to be doing much attacking for while.

I was too worried about someone catching me from behind to stop at the SAG and they didn’t have anything ready when I came through. Keeping the pace steady I pushed on. I started each lap with three bottles, two 24 oz, one 20 oz. I was down to the one 20 oz’er. I would have to nurse it until the end. The run up, the doubletrack, and then the steep rollers, then that last bit with two climbs. I was ticking them off in my head.

Some where in there Christopher caught me again. I upped my pace slightly and wanted to keep him behind me, but we hit some traffic (other riders being lapped). I went left and Christopher went right. The guy we were passing went left and I stalled. Christopher put in a little attack, but I was right to his wheel. We played this game for a few miles. Going up the last longish climb I saw two guys we could catch up ahead exiting a switchback. Christopher slowed into the switchback more then necessary. I spoke up, letting him know that we could reel them in, but we had to go now. After a couple seconds of hesitation he said “go ahead,” so I did.

Smiling or gritting my teeth as Christopher Michaels latches to my wheel yet again: http://www.jhkunnenphoto.com/p76506709/e2d1b746e

I still didn’t have big attack left in me, but I also knew it was only a couple of minutes to the top of this one and then one more short climb before that last mile of flatness. For a minute I thought Christopher would follow me hoping to attack at the finish, but if that was his plan he didn’t have the legs to execute. I caught Greg Kuhn near the top, passed and focused on Ernesto who was still ahead. I pretty sure he saw me coming, but I wasn’t going to give up. I attacked the next little climb with Greg on wheel.

Near the top of that last climb I knew Ernie was gone and I’d have to deal with Greg, if not Christopher too. I eased up and accessed the damage. My legs felt OK, but there was only few efforts left in there. Greg was right on my wheel, but Christopher was out of sight. I attacked the descent and gained a few seconds. We made a hard right turn and passed a lapped rider. I attacked hard hoping to open a gap, but Greg jumped too and was back on my wheel.

I set a pace that would discourage passing, yet conserved a little energy. Greg was drafting which meant he was spending less energy. I also caught him, so that was slight advantage to me. Still we were about a half of a mile from the finish, so anything could happen. I attacked in a random spot just to see what he had left and responded quickly. Not good. That meant a sprint finish. I was 0-1 in sprints so far this season. I got psyched up and lead it out with a hard kick of an effort. I could feel Greg about a half of a bike length to my left. We kicked again into the finishing straight and then both threw our front wheels forward in a last ditch effort to take the lead. I took it by less than a wheel length. Christopher was 20 seconds back and Ernesto was just 10 seconds ahead.

Greg and I missed the turn to go under the finish arch, but our sprint was for the timing maps, so it didn’t matter….thankfully: http://www.jhkunnenphoto.com/p76506709/e34a68b37

I was pleased with my effort despite finishing in 11th again. The field was very strong this year and the course a little harder with that run up and the climb up to it. The best part was that I took 13 minutes off last year’s time. I’m still getting faster.

As soon as the race is over we’ll be back in the car and heading back east. We have a flight early Sunday morning for Costa Rica. No bikes, just beaches, volcanos, rain forests and Imperials. Looking forward to a short break before taking on some more hundies in prep for the TNGA.

Getting the team together is always good times, but Sedona is a special place then add in the magicians behind the lenses and this will be an experience I will not soon forget. Many thanks to all that made it happen.

Namrita, the dogs and I arrived in Arkansas late Wednesday afternoon. We stopped by the cabin we would be sharing with Amanda & Nate Carey to unload a few things and the headed for trails. After miles of winding roads and few tiny towns (how do you have a population of 163 and bother with township?)) we arrived at Branchard Springs Caverns, which is part of the Ozarks National Forest.

We had a hard time deciphering the course directions and took few wrong turns, one of which paralleled a beautiful spring fed creek which I assume originates in the caverns. Anyway, we finally found the actual route and checked out the opening climb. 3/4th of a mile at 11%, then straight in to the singletrack with little to no passing room for next 15 miles. The start was going to be very important.

Over the next two days Namrita, Amanda, Nate and I were given an abbreviated tour of the Syllamo Trail System by nearly local, Andrea Wilson. My first impression was “are you kidding?” Rocks of every variety greeted you with an endless barrage of energy sapping challenges. Round marbly ones, sharp jagged ones, polished smooth ones, shale, gravel, and even river silt with no river in sight. My biggest concern was were I was going to eat and drink while racing. There didn’t seem to be a moment that I wasn’t just trying to stay upright. Luckily, what we rode was a condensed version of the more technical trails and my concerns were for not.

Each afternoon and evening was spent back at the cabin working on bikes. Cleaning, dialing in drive trains and brakes, swapping wheels/tires. We arrived with the Continental Race Kings on the Canyon Gran Canyon hardtails, but knew right away that X King was going to work much better. The big volume deflected some of the roughness of the trail and aggressive knobs worked impressively on the loose stones over hard packed soil.

Race day….

My warm up consisted of some intervals while cruising up the opening climb, which also gave me a chance to pick out some land marks so I knew when the single track turn off was coming. The climb was fairly dry, but the single track was messy. I definitely wanted to get to in the woods early. I lined up in the front row and thankfully there was very little ceremony before we were started. It was in the 50s and though I had knee warmers on, I didn’t want to let my legs cool too much since there was no 2/10th of mile before that opening climb. “Racers ready, racers set…….”

I made the turn in to that climb in the top 10, but very quickly a group of 6 or so formed and opened a gap. I had no intention of closing it. I set a strong tempo and waited for my land mark. Ernesto and the Pflug pulled up alongside and then passed. I picked up the pass slightly to keep that gap from opening too much. Ernie seemed to settle on the same pace while the Pfulg on his singlespeed marched up the hill. I looked left and Amanda was next to me.

My landmark came within sight and I launched an attack. Knowing that passing was just not going to happen once we hit the single track I did not want to get suck behind traffic. I prefer to either get ahead of it or in case of a bad day, be the traffic. I stayed seated while I wound up my pedal stroke and pulled ahead of Ernesto, then the Pflug, then a few more before clear shot into the woods appeared just in time.

As I predicted there was little passing unless someone bobbled one of the many technical parts. I blew through a switchback that of course was just yards passed the section I prerode. I recovered while only losing one place that I made back up a half mile later. Then I lost it again while nearly taking a line over a cliff. I wasn’t as scary as it sounds, just frustrating.

Check point one came and went while I had passed 4 racers on the side of the trail with flats. I was in 6th just by attrition, but it was still a long race. Ernesto and the Pflug caught up to me in more open sections. Ernesto was moving very quickly, but the Pflug wasn’t able to torque up the loose climbs and I passed him. Then I heard my tire drag across a rock followed the sound of air escaping. I immediately stopped to put more air in. The RaceRocket pump made quick work of the low pressure. Then I added a little to the front since I was stopped and it felt slightly mushy from the start.

The course turned on to the Orange trail and descended. One of the racers who had previously flatted came roaring passed. “Too hard” I though and made a mental note to not blow myself up chasing back to the front…been there, done that. As the trail flatten out I set a steady tempo. Then my rear tire felt low. I stopped, added some more and rolled about 50 yards and it felt low again. Most likely I tore the tire, but it was so muddy I couldn’t find it. I popped a tube in and pumped like mad.

I’d guess I was only stopped a total of 5 minutes, but at least 8 people passed me. I caught up to Shane Scheirhart who was following Amanda. I passed as soon as there was an opening while making an effort to stay calm. There was still one big climb and 50 miles left to reach my goal. I passed another single speed guy and set my sights on two guys a little further up. They set a great pace while I used the steeper sections to slowly close the gap.

Passed check point two I was at the base of the one big climb. Everything else is side hill cut with short, punchy little climbs, but I was warned this one was a “real kick in butt.” It was tough, but short compared to the climbs in north GA. There was a bunch of steep, rocky, stair stepped parts peppered along a steady 10% climb. I punched up as many as the legs would handle and put some cyclocross dismount and remount skills to work on the rest. Just before cresting the climb and turning on to a 15% forest road I passed the two guys I had been reeling in. I attacked the gravel and stayed on the gas until they were out of sight.

Nate was waiting at check point 3 (which also served as CP4 & 5). I grabbed a couple of fresh bottles, a caffeine jolt, lubed the chain and tweaked the tire pressure with a floor pump. I tore off into the Red Trail. This would be that last part of the course before we started repeating parts that turned this 50 mile trail system into a 125K race course. This section was thankfully relatively smooth.

It was me versus the trail for the next two and half hours. I saw some guys out riding for fun, but other than that I saw no one. I kept my head in the game by focusing on my pedaling and trying to relax my hands and arms even though they were taking a beating with all the rocks.

Nate set me up at check point 5 with a Coke, a bottle and Honey Stinger Waffle. I didn’t run a computer, had no watch and no idea what place I was in. I simple tried to turn the miles over as quickly as possible and the rest would work itself out. This last section was the Red Trail again with few extra miles to get us back to the finish.

I put everything I had left into keeping I high pace and it finally paid off with about 3.5 miles to go. I rolled by on Andy Gorski whom I recognized from before I tore my tire the first time. I asked to pass as I came up on him and he responded by gunning it. I was game. I called his bluff by stayed right on his wheel, after a mile he pulled off and let me go. I laid down a pace that I was sure he wouldn’t follow….which lead me right up to the guy that went “roaring” by earlier.

He did the same thing as Andy, but couldn’t hold it as long. I came around and pegged it again to get out of sight. Now with just 2 miles left there was no time to sit up and catch my breath. I attacked every bit that was left as if it was the last 100 feet of the race hoping to see one more, but alas there was no one left to chase down. I rolled across the line and in my head the crowd cheered.

In reality no one cheered while I cooled down for a few minutes, checked the results and saw my 9th place finish. I gave a silent cheer for myself. This was my first NUE top ten. I’ve been close a few times before (twice 11th) and one top ten was my NUE goal for the year. Now that the bar has been set, I will of course push myself for better.

Cabinmate & fellow WN Precision athlete, Amanda Carey, took first in the women’s race. Topeak-Ergon teammate, Sonya Looney, rolled in for a third in the women’s. Namrita finished sixth. A huge thanks to Nate Carey for all the help before and during the race.

We raced all the way into 2011 with 2 CX races in January. My CX racing is over now (though I still have a directing gig with the Southern Cross coming up), but I hope to retain what I have learned from cross and use it to help me race mountain bikes this year. Here’s what I learned:

1. You can not day dream in cross. During the first race I did in the Georgia Cross Series I jumped in the Masters race with no expectations. I went straight to the front and got on the gas, but then faded. Sitting in 4th place I began to lose focus on and “settled in” to my race pace….but this was not the TNGA. I was passed by 2 or more guys. I need to be in the moment from start to finish. No breaks. Laser beam focus.

2. It takes at least 60 days to adapt to a new training stimuli and in the case of going from ultra-endurance to ultra short, maybe a little longer. September marked the longest race of my career at 2 days, 7 hours and 33 minutes.. October marked the shortest race of my career at 45 minutes. I was not “comfortable” with the pace of the races until January.

3. Cross is all about accelerations and top end speed. Learning how to bring my legs up to speed and hold it required more than just fitness. Knowing the best techniques helped me focus. Tom Coleman of WN Precision has been working with some of the US’s best CX racers for years and I’m fortunate enough to be able to tap into that knowledge.

4. Cross is not mountain or road, it’s some mash up in the middle. The set up of the bikes is somewhere in the middle as well and I learned a lot about how to set up CX bikes and techniques to teach clients. Being able to get on the pedal stroke early allows for a fast acceleration, but having the torque for the steep climbs and mud are just as important. Balancing those needs takes careful consideration of the rider’s needs, strengths & weaknesses.

5. I can go at barriers fast enough to scare the heck out of myself. The Halloween race at Life University featured a descent, followed by a straight-away, followed by barriers. Scary fast. Namrita and I spent a lot of time with our pvc pipe barriers at various parks around town working on the timing and techniques of barriers….good thing.

6. I’m cornering more smoothly than ever. The mountain bike with 2.4″ tires feels so stable after being on the cross bike and those skinny tires in all sorts of conditions.

7. I had never needed to spent too much time working on my road bike and the drive train, but with cross I was forever cleaning, lubing and tinkering. That experience will come in handy and proved to me that Topeak has a place at the cross races.

8. I can get fast if that’s my focus. I sometimes think of myself as a diesel; built for going long, but not necessarily fast. Cross racing was a great reminder if I work on the techniques and focus, then I can get back to my cross country days of glory. 3rd in the state championships…not too shabby.

Now it’s time to get my endurance back up to snuff while holding on to some of this high end speed, at least by the end of April for the Cohutta 100. I’ve been putting in some 3-4 hour rides every week through January and will continue to lengthen those over the next two months. I expect the endurance to come back a little faster than it took to find my CX legs.

First it was snowshoeing:

This was fun, but essentially running with big shoes. I’m sure there are some better snowshoes out there that would have made for a better experience.

Next up was classic XC skiing. Now this was cool. It’s all technique and I like that. It took 3 days to really get the hang of it and even then I had to have constant focus to stay upright and moving forward.

Day 4, of course was the best day as I really felt good on the descents as well. In some ways xc skiing is like cycling in that subtle changes of the hip and the timing of your movements make a huge difference, but the balance was totally different. Moving from two wheels inline with each other to two skis side by side proved harder than expected. I ate a lot of snow those first couple of days. Hardest thing for me was using the glide of the ski. I’m a cyclist obviously, but as a cyclist my legs want to fire one after the other without hesitation. On skis you have propel one forward and then hesitate a second while gliding and then drive the next one forward. This allows you to use the momentum from the movement before begging then next. It also gives you a moment to change your balance from one ski to the other. That’s an oversimplification, but you get the idea. So many times I’d get some speed going and mess that up and end up on the ground.

I spent the days before learning a few Christmas songs on the guitar, though I think I forgot all about playing on Christmas day. Instead we went skiing in the AM, then home for presents followed by a huge early dinner. Then played board games & drank wine well into the evening.

The temps are rising for the weekend, so who knows if we’ll be up north doing some more skiing or heading to Grand Rapids to hang with some friends. Either way we’ll have some adventures ringing in the New Year.

Merry Christmas to all and happy New Year.

The first week was spent traveling home from the Iceman race. There was no race report because I’d mostly like to forget about the race itself. It was flat, fast and cold. The flat I’m OK with, the fast was a whole new kind of fast and the cold, well I’m just no good in the cold. I’ve never done a national level XC race and that’s what this was. Nothing technical at all, barely even a turn, just speed. That’s never been my forté, but I won’t shy away from a challenge either. The day before the race it snowed 2-3″, but then it warmed up the next to 38* for the start. Just enough to melt the snow and the 3800 racers that went before us helped some too. So it was wet and cold. I figured I’d just throttle it until I warmed up and then see what happened. I never warmed up and nothing happened. I struggled through to finish 68th. Now the rest of the scene before and after was awesome. I set up & operated an expo booth for Topeak while 4000 racers came through to register and the post race party was something else. It was the end of the season for most and a time to let their hair down. Oh and if was Gary Fishers birthday.

From Iceman it was straight off to Tampa Bay for the SWAMP Club FTF. I was a SWAMPer when I lived down there and was introduced to racing and advocacy through the club & team. My brother and nephew attended as well. My nephew is new to mountain biking, but has some skills. Over all the weekend was fun and I was able to show off some Topeak products as well.

I was back home for just one day and then off to California for the Topeak video shoot. 4 days in a studio in Carpinteria making videos to be used on the Topeak website. These will be great for explaining the many technologies that Topeak incorporates into their products. Dave and Yuki joined in as well.

The final week included my first alley cat race and then the first time Namrita and I hosted family for a holiday. Her family came in from MI and CA for Thanksgiving. It was a lot less stressful than I expected given that we rarely cook for more than 2, have never had 7 people stay at the house for even one night….plus 3 dogs. It all went pretty smoothly and I hope we have the chance to host more family in the future.

So now it’s time to get back to being an athlete. We have a strength training plan from Continuum Sports Solutions (some day Kyle will finish his website), we have our techniques to work on from WN Presicion, and we have that whole lifestyle to get back to. I’ll break out the trainer and watch a movie after I get back for gym. Let it begin.

Race Day from ergon on Vimeo.

This short film gives a unique behind the scenes peek at a professional mountain bikers routine as the race approaches. Not just any professional mountain biker, but the two times World Champion Irina Kalentieva, it is an emotionally charged documentary which catalogues the hours, minutes and seconds in the lead up to the start gun.

The dramatic editing, the choice of images and the effects used has resulted in a short film which is causing a fair amount of excitement, not least in the bike scene.

Filmed in 2010 at the Offenburg World Cup in Germany, the film crew (over from Los Angeles) needed 3 days to get the material they needed, and shot over 100 hours. The music was composed by Alex Puro.

Race Day will be showing at a number of short film festivals.

On Tuesday I left the ATL for not so sunny SoCal, Carpinteria to be exact. I spent the rest of the week there shooting product and technology videos for Topeak in the studio of Venture Visuals. You may remember their work on the Ergon videos released earlier this year. When Topeak’s international marketing guy, Peter Swap, and I were discussing producing some professionally produced videos at Interbike this year there were only two candidates in my mind: Venture Visuals & Andrew Kornylak. I’ve enjoyed working with both.

Topeak-Ergon teammate, Yuki Saito , and I arrived in the afternoon and were put to work immediately building bikes and preparing the product. Then is it was action time. We donned our team kits and went about showing off the various Topeak technologies: SmartHead, SmartHead ThreadLock, TwinHead, Morph, Dual Action, Pressure-Rite, Quick-Click, Quick-Track, & the new JobBlow Ace three-stage pump. We also covered some specific products such as the Mini 9 Pro and Air BackPack.

The process went something like this: Enter the frame, present the product, put it to use and then exit the frame. We’d do a wide shot, medium shot and then close-ups. Later this will all be edited into a seamless video. Prior to our arrival close-ups on a mechanical board where shot to give that 200* view of the products. These should be very informative and slick when finished.

Thursday night we began the talking head parts. These are meant to introduce the Topeak-Ergon team and explain how and why we are involved in the product development with Topeak. Peter went first with the background on the team and idea behind Topeak’s involvement. He struggled to get comfortable in front of the camera, but did a great job. Next up was Eddie, One-Take, O’Dea. I’ve done enough of photo shoots and clinics to relax and just go with it. I introduced myself, gave some back ground and then an example of when the Topeak products I carry in a race saved the day. I think I was in front of the camera for less then 15 minutes for that one. Yuki finished it off giving his back ground and relating some race experiences in Japanese. We joked about editing the subtitles to read: “I kicked Lance Armstrong’s butt last week.” over and over after beating Lance at the Mellow Johnny’s 6 Hour. Yuki didn’t seem too keen on the idea.

Late Thursday night we picked up Dave Wiens from the local ariport and had dinner over looking the Santa Barbara harbor. I of course I sampled the local brews Firestone-Walker DBAs and had a huge plate of swordfish with the fixin’s. Speaking of local brews, Carpinteria has a little brewery as well. Island Brewing Company makes a great black IPA called the Black Mamba.

Dave started the day off in front of the camera on Friday. He’s good. Very relaxed and conversational, but at pace that works well on camera. I suppose this is not his first rodeo. We wrapped up the day with some product intros which involved standing on the set, presenting the product, saying it’s name and then a tag line. Were coming up with tag lines on the spot which was fun. I got in such a rhythm with it I was spewing tag lines for the next hour. With about 30 minute to spare, Dave and I were off the airport while Yuki finished his parts. I’m not sure when these will be released, but you certainly hear about here on FB when they are.