If you’ve checked out my schedule for 2012 you will notice a re-visit to the NUE series. Back in 2008 I did quite well racing these ultra events and I wanted to check out some of the venues I hadn’t visited this year. While most of the NUE series consists of 100 mile events the Syllamo’s Revenge race in Arkansas is “only” 125k. This is likely because most of the course is singletrack trail and fairly technical in a rough, slow sort of way. With the shorter distance and  slower average speed I chose to rock the one-speed at this event as it seemed like the logical choice.

I arrived in Little Rock in time to check out Orbea USA and conveniently assemble my Ibis Tranny using proper shop tools. As has always been my experience visiting the “South”, these folks were super cool and generous and full of southern hospitality! Their sponsorship honch Frank had offered to give me a lift up to the venue Friday afternoon so we shoved off with his fiancee for the 2 hour trip north. We arrived Mountain View in time to pick-up our packets and preride the start which seemed to be the only selective part of the course. East-coast singlespeed guru, Gerry Pflug had kindly shared his suggestion for gearing which proved spot on. Read more »

It’s weird, but in four years of mountain bike riding and racing, I don’t think I’ve EVER flatted. A couple cyclocross flats and my share on the road, but never on a mountain bike. So warming up on the road, I rode through a parking area and picked up a chunk of glass in my rear tire. There was a half-inch slash in the tire, it wasn’t resealing and start was in less than 20 minutes and over half a mile away, so I didn’t have time to wait around, so I took it apart and put in the tube I was carrying. That’s a really messy job on a dirt road with new tubeless tires!! Fortunately a guy with his car nearby let me use his floor pump. I made it to the start with about 5 minutes to spare. I didn’t want to overfill since the tire was slashed, I put in about 25 psi, I can usually get by with that even on tubes and I figured if it wasn’t going to hold, I’d know during the 3.5 mile start loop and I wouldn’t have too far to get back. Read more »

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 »