This year my teammate Ryan Eisele and I decided to make Bear Springs Trap XC our first race off the year. This would also be my first race in the single speed category and Ryan also chose to race the SS. Bear Springs is one of my favorite races especially when the course is 99% free of snow. It is a true cross country race with sweet single track sections but enough double track and gravel roads for convenient passing. The course has a couple of very technical trails. I rode 32-16 gearing, but it was a bit tall for this course especially with 29″ wheels. I struggled to make the climbs, but felt fast in the flat sections. By half-way through the race, I had only been able to pass a few single speed riders so I thought I was pretty much last in the class. I had hit a wall with about 3 miles to go, but I managed to latch onto a geared riders wheel and cruise to the finish. I was pleasantly surprised to check the results and discover I had crossed the line in sixth place and Ryan had finished in fourth!

Jeremy Warnicke

Now that I am “training” again I have been thinking about my personal objectives more than ever. For me it has always been about improvement. However the last few seasons this was arguably not the case for me. Many years ago, I began to understand that true physiological adaptations require repetition–lots of it, but the reward has been lasting results. It seems like recently the pundits of fitness are pushing less time more intensity and maybe they are right or maybe they are not. Someone once said it took 10,000 hours to become proficient. I think this may be oversimplification but the idea is valid. The bottom line is that we stress our bodies with stimuli and the allow them to recover hoping for net improvement. How to do that is the rhetorical question we all face and the answers are likely different for each of us.  We all know where we stand, hopefully where we would like to be and eventually some of us reach our objectives. As I took time to gaze forward into the great beyond, I’ve had to look for a new destination because I know that I just can’t stop moving on this journey!

My bloodwork is slowly showing steady signs of improvement after the Epstein-Barr episodes (starting 2009) and the progressive Sleep Apnea and ensuing CFS that finally broke me in the middle of last season. Since I really only “hung on” and was lucky enough for some decent results last year, I dedicated my focus to diet, sleep and subsequent recovery this year. The only problem was that after the surgery I had to sleep on an incline which completely screwed up my SI joint again. This seems to be my “Achilles” heel and this time I couldn’t get it resolved for several months. It is better now with lots of stretching, massage and chiropractic tune-ups. Read more »

I’m baaa-acck! For all you virtual followers out on the trails of cyber world my apologies for taking six months off. Actually I didn’t take “off” just needed to re-focus the virtual energy inward for awhile… First I had nasal surgery to correct some minor injuries accumulated over the years face taking face-plants. That amounted to about a month off the bike and then I kept it pretty mellow doing some great mountain biking throughout the fall and having the perfect excuse to stay almost entirely out of the realm of cyclocross stupidity strikes most local cyclists. In December I began to slowwwwly ramp up my volume and spent more time sitting on cool new stuff like this…

Welcome to the mudslinger, Oregon’s wettest, muddiest and probaly most miserable race. Why do we torture ourselves every year? For the great raffle at the end of the race? This year was like most other years–cold and very wet. After the wettest March on record there was water running everywhere. Dave goodier and I were the only REALL Racing riders to brave the conditions. After we pedaled 20 plus miles Dave finished third place and I managed fourth in our respective categories. We got some dry and clean clothes on and there was a never ending supply of stories of mishaps. However, we both survived unscathed, but I still would be cleaning dirt of my body for the next two days! Ridiculous conditions made for a real test of your bike skills and mental fortitude. Either riding down a trail of peanut butter or climbing up a trail against the waterfalls coming and getting to the top of the mountain only to have it start snowing! Then going back down the trail of slop in pouring rain, but we made it!

David Hill