The Grind

School is starting soon, looks like summer is almost over. I don’t think I’m ready to look back and reflect just yet, I still need to admit to myself that school is starting. I’ll let you know when that happens. As of now, I am getting by on the fact that collegiate MTBs are staring up soon, along with cross, which I haven’t really thought much about either.

But enough about my denial, let’s move on to this past extended weekend. Now for most of you Labor Day will be the extended weekend, but I took one in advance this past weekend. After heading home on Friday night with both my road and MTB, I basically sat around and chilled with my family until I went to bed early so I could get up early. This was because Saturday was the Make-a-Wish run walk fund raiser. My team was helping out by volunteering to be the pace bikes for the runner. There was a 1 mile and a 5k. Before the event Dennis and Tom, two of my teammates, met up early and went on a nice ride along the Milwaukee Lakefront. It has been a while since I had the chance to ride down there. It is always nice, and we really tore it up. I was surprised that Dennis was keeping up so well after 3 weeks off the bike, and that Tom was putting the hurt on me. Those guys are supposed to be old and slow! Haha, guess not.

I took the 5k with friend and fellow teammate Dennis and Tom, took the 1 mile. When the runners started I was surprised how fast they were. This isn’t to say I had to pedal hard, but I was surprised how much focus it took to stay ahead and watch where I was going. Our job was primarily to clear the path and show the runners where to go. After we reach about the half-way point, the leader was so far ahead that I decided to stay back and pick up the pack, as they could barely see where to go. After the runner came in the guys and I sat around talking. This was really interesting getting to know more about them. It’s interesting hearing about someone’s life and how they ended up where they are today. Not only is it interesting, but it’s a good way to learn about life too. After getting home, another buddy and teammate, Nick Frye called me to go MTBing a Crystal Ridge, basically my old stomping ground and the location of my biggest result this year so far. We did two easy-ish laps and headed home. I got to bed early so I could get up early for Sunday.

I had to wake up at 6:30 to leave by 7:30, to get up to Green Bay for WORS #9 the Reforestation Ramble. This particular race is a marathon style race, much like the upcoming Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival. I was a little worried after having ridden almost 50 miles the day before, 15 of those miles being off road. But I was feeling good, maybe a little tired. I was a little annoyed that we seriously parked a half mile away from the venue as there was no parking. I had the chance to check out the venue on my ride to sign up and pee, and saw Cole House was there, this was gonna hurt.

NICK FRYE, Looking sad back there.

And that it did. The start was blistering; I knew we were going really fast. I was really pleased to look back and realize that despite the speed and intensity, I wasn’t hurting so bad. I was able to hold the top 10 for the better part of the first lap. I seriously could see the leader until I crashed going down a sandy hills and corner combination.  I had some over steer and almost high sided into a mound of dirt. I was able to keep the bike below me and not get hurt but I dropped my chain in the process. It had gotten caught between the crank and the chain ring, and was stuck. It took me a few seconds to rip it out, but I got going again. In the process of ripping it out I had kinked it so it was skipping all over the place for the remainder of the race. It did get better, but I had to stay in the big ring. Luckily the course was fast enough that I could stay in the big ring. There were only a few hills where I really missed that little guy.

After crashing I raged and caught back on to the group I was in earlier, containing Tim my teammate and Bryan Fosler, a Friend. I sat on for like, 2 minutes, and attacked getting a gap and started catching Matt Gehling. I caught him and blew by him, I wanted to leave him in the dust .I finished up lap 2 of 3 and started to fade, oh say around mile 25? On the final straight, I noticed a group of all the people I blew by on the last lap were catching me. I really didn’t want that to happen, but I realized that the course was not the type where one could solo unless they were much stronger than the pack. I sat up a little and allowed the group to catch me. To my surprise I was caught by only two, Matt and Bryan. We rode lap three together, and by we, I mean I led them as I didn’t want those two teammates to start playing tactics with me. I kept the pace high and stayed in front. Once we started to catch the group in front of us, Mat came to the front and pulled us up to them. That was a lot of fun ridding with those two and matt and I had some good friendly banter back and forth. He even quoted my blog!

We rode with that group for the rest of the lap, as Ronsta pushed the pace. I eventually got dropped from it '"because Matt attacked", but not before a few others had been dropped. That was good enough for a 19^th spot. This gave me another good finish and some confidence in my endurance ability before Chequamegon in a few weeks.

Finally I took Monday off to help my sister move in to her dorm. It was kinda cool to see the campus on UWM because I hadn’t realized quite how big it was. The campus was nice and there was a lot of new building. Overall things were pretty cool, but Madison is still better. After she was moved in we hung out for a bit before I headed off back to Madison.  It’s always good to spend time with my sister, she is crazy but I love her.