Stage One

Howdy from the Kootenay Rockies and the second annual Furious3 mtb stage race. For those of you who haven’t checked this one out, it is a 3 day tour of some of the raddest trails imaginable! Read more »

This was the first ever self-proclaimed 6hr World Championships (isn’t this how SSWC and SSCXWC started and continue today???) in Capitol Forest near Olympia Washington. Also known otherwise as “6Hrs of Capitol Punishment”. After a day or two of summer, Junuary started again the night before this event with steady rain continuing through most of the race. I chose to ride single speed again–why bother with silly gears if they aren’t going to work after a couple laps anyway?! Read more »

Some of you may remember posts in previous years about the Test of Endurance race. Several years ago this event started as a two lap 50 mile race that is held outside the tiny village of Blodgett, Oregon on the way from Corvallis to Newport. Corvallis (home of the Beavers) is also home to Barry “WicknastyB” Wicks and has a storied history of mountain bike events and sweet trails dating back to the 80′s. Mike Ripley, owner extraordinaire of Mudslinger Events, has threatened to add a 100 mile version for several years but there has never been much interest in a four lap 100 mile race.
This year he planned to make the hundy a reality by starting in Corvallis and riding to Blogett then completing the customary laps there before returning to town for the finish. I was pretty stoked about that and since I am two time TOE50 winner, I decided to come back for MORE after not attending the TOE for a couple years. Unfortunately we had a late winter with numerous snow events down to the valley floor in March followed by very wet and warm storms. This provided near record flooding in some areas and ended up washing out a bridge crucial to the Corvallis-Blodgett loop.

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This race took place at Washougal motorcross park. This is a world famous MX track that has been used for AMA national events for as long as I can remember. They have also opened it up for cycling events periodically but usually these events take place outside the moto season (spring/fall). Unfortunately loamy moto track doesn’t mix well will rainy northwest spring so against my better judgement Ryan and I headed north two hours after a week of showery weather. Read more »

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!

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…