Where Do I Start?

We have ridden in Fruita and Moab over the last 3 days. I will post more when I get back from the Kokopelli ride. I will leave you with some photos until then.

T Minus - One Week

6 months and 800 miles of training (mostly winter miles) later and there is only one week to go before my epic ride. Part of me feels ready and another part thinks I need another year of miles under my belt. I have been diligent in my training, so live or die, I will be comforted that I came prepared.

First, I travel to Colorado/Utah for a little mountain biking with friends for a couple of days. We have talked about doing Amasa Back, Joe's Ridge, Zippity Doo Da and maybe Baby Steps. It's a vacation, so I will just go with the flow and throw the whole schedule thing out the window.

After putzing around for a few days, Cole and I will head out for a 3 day ride on the Kokopelli Trail that will cover 150 miles and 18,000 feet of elevation gain from Fruita, Colorado to Moab, Utah.

I spent part of my weekend getting things organized and cleaning "the bike" in preparation.

A new cassette and a bash guard finishes off the bike bling just in time for the epic ride...

Race Day...continued

One of my peers told me, if nothing else, I had to visit a place called Meers while I was in Lawton. So after our practice ride, we decided to go find this place. A couple of guys that worked at the hotel knew where the place was.

"Just go this way for 13 miles. You can't miss it!" one of the guys told us.

Another guy piped in with a thick Okie from Muskogee drawl, "They have boogers as big as my head...and I have a BIG head!"

Ok we were sold. Did you know a GPS does not do you any good if you can not spell the name of the place you want to go...Mirrors, nothing...Miers, nothing....Meirs, nothing. Good thing we had a 3G signal and an IPhone...Google----> Lawton, OK best burgers in the world http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=lawton%2C+ok+best+burgers+in+the+world&aq=f&oq=

This place is in the middle of nowhere, with dilapidated buildings all around you, but you know what? These are the best F'ing burgers in the world, no kidding.

This place was amazing, they made their own unfiltered wheat beer, homemade ice cream and a burger...you guessed it, the size of my head...and I have a big head!!!

The race was a blast. It was only half the distance as advertised, but I got to see some pretty wild things along the way. First off all 200+ riders were gathered for a mass start. As people fought to get to the group that was riding their speed, the first climb began. In true Heavy D fashion, I stuck to the back tire of the girl that was in front of me and started climbing. At one point, my back wheel kicked out on some loose rock and I took a rider out behind me (Sorry Cole) but I stayed up and kept pedaling. We went down a short hill and then started the mother of all climbs. My goal was to get half way up it, maybe even three quarters if I felt sassy. I fell way short when the girl I was behind wiped out and I had to stop. The hill was so steep, I could not get back on and pedal, so I walked and walked and walked.

Once at the top, there was a a fast downhill with several little drops. I let her all out and was flying, when I saw a downed rider, dammit another girl was ahead of me!!! She was lying in the middle of the trail on her back and looking dazed. Her bike was another 10 feet down the hill, so I knew she had fell hard. That was the least of her worries as about 150 people were cresting the hill and plowing towards her. I managed to veer left and get around her and a did not dare to look back as I had a feeling it would get ugly.

I saw several riders frantically fixing flats as I trudged on, concentrating on breathing as I tried to find a rhythm. Riders ahead of me kept jumping off their bikers to get through tough technical parts, creating a log jam. I just passed who I could and kept aiming for the next rear tire and hanging on until I could pass again.

I was following a rider that was pulling me along just outside my own comfort level. This was good as I knew it was a short race and I was going to have to suffer if I wanted to make a good showing. After about 10 minutes we began another short climb and all of a sudden the guy in front of me pedaled his crank right off the bottom bracket. It was still clipped into his shoe, just dangling there. I heard him say WTF as I passed him.

Most of the racers were really courteous and encouraged you to push harder as you passed them. I wound up falling behind 2 numb nuts who could not climb, but would not let me pass, forcing me off my bike. It took a bit of time to get around them as we were on a very technical part of the trial. I had to bomb down a hill just outside my ability to really control what was happening just to get around them. I looked down and my knuckles were white from the death grip I had on the handle bars. I told myself to relax and find a good pace just short of death the rest of the way in.

At one point I heard a couple kids sitting on a rock yell, your number 67 keeping going!. That is just what I did. As I came down the last hill back to the 1/4 mile stretch of pavement to the finish line, I set my sites on a rider about 300 yards ahead of me and hammered on the pedals. I did not catch him, but ended up only 2 seconds behind him.

I did not realize it until after they overall was posted, but there was a rider on my six trying to take me at the same time. He finished 1 second behind me.

I ended up taking 57th overall, getting beat by a girl by several minutes and loving every second of it. We met some guys from Tulsa that rode the whole thing on single speeds and finished 23rd to 29th ahead of us. Pretty amazing!!!

The Tulsa Boys

Cole Jason and I

Oh, I finished 14th in my class. I have room to improve:)

Race Day

Well the Hills of Hell cometh and goeth, but the memories will remain. Cole, Jason and I met early Saturday morning and drove to Lawton, OK.



Seeing the mountains in the distance always makes me feel like I am entering a different world. You have to remember I am born and raised in Kansas, so seeing anything but a flat piece of farmland is exciting.

We went for a pre-ride to scope out the track. On the first climb, Cole and I realized we needed more meat on our tires. The Larson TT's we were running could not bite the loose rocky soil on the steep climb. We dealt with it, but knew we had to make some changes once we got back to the hotel.

The ride was pretty awesome. we were surrounded by granite rock and in typical Heavy D fashioin I excuted yet another flawless turtle back maneuver. Jason had not had an opportunity see it up close and personal. I think he was impressed.

If you do not know what that is, I do not blame you. It is my signature move to protect my bike when I crash... Here is an example.

Well we followed the orange arrows for the most part which mapped out the race course. We took a power bar break at the top to enjoy the scenery or was it really to catch our breath?

Here is Cole and Jason with their bikes. Is Jason making a statement with his larger wheels?

We continued on the course, climbing and decending, working through some pretty technical terrain. There is always that perfect balance between hard and too hard. Most of the course was challenging, but some of it we found just not rideable. I am sure that speaks of our lack of skill, but hey we are just weekend warriors anyways.

more to come tomorrow....

Good from Bad

There is not much to look forward to when your job asks you to go review 30,000 plus letters. But I am telling you, it could have been worse.

Every now and again you get lucky to run across a person who is exceptional in more than one way and you are lucky to call them a friend.

It is almost unheard of running across a group of people that have that kind of an impact on your life, but I was lucky enough experience it.

Here is to my new found friends...I wish you well and stay in touch!!! Letters suck, but you don't!!!!

Nothing but Mud!

This took a while to get clean

Mud Fest

I had high hopes of a wonderful weekend of mountain biking which started on Friday. I went to Rock Bridge with John to get in a little workout. I did not know what I was in store for, but i soon realized when a rider came off the trail and was bunny hooping his bike to knock the mud off.

We asked how the trails were and he said, a little muddy on the flats, but the inclines are good. What a lie. We rode up the bench cut incline and sailed down the single track into the bog that was once a trail. The "Freeze-Thaw" effect is pretty amazing. It was like pedaling through wet concrete. We only lasted an hour before we were so fed up that we left. I did discover my new favorite climb that will help me with not only my stamina, but my technical ability too.

So after being out of town for 2 weeks, I spent all day Saturday with the kids. I could not help but wonder if the trails had dried out a bit. After talking to the "Beast" later in the day, he informed me they were still crap. Who the heck made the call to open up Rockbride?

So Sunday arrives and I drive to Landahl Park to meet Cole and Jason for a little riding. I am pleasantly surprised to find 6 other cars in the lot when i got there at 9 am. A jogger was just getting back to the parking lot and said the trails were OK. Being once bitten and twice shy, I decided to look for myself while I waited for my buds to arrive. The trail looked nice. I went maybe 50 to 75 yards into the trial system was very excited for today's ride.


Once suited up, the 3 of us headed in. Swoosh, into a turn, swish over a rock and plop into mud. The trail suddenly changed from tacky to wacky as we entered into the bottoms. The mud acted like a leaf vacuum and picked up every leaf on the trail. Soon my derailleur was jumped up with mud and both my tires looked like a rolling pile of leaves. Cole and I had to stop many times to clean the mud, sticks and leaves out of the rear tire and the frame. I felt like I was riding with the emergency brake on. At one point my chain sucked and had to remove the chain to fix it.

We ran across another biker heading in the opposite direction. he said the trails were fine once you leave the bottoms. So we headed on. From previous experience, and one wrong turn, we ended up riding everything we had ridden before backwards and it all felt uphill. But we kept riding and soon left the mud. We cleared Root Canal, Rim Job, Mike's Tantrum, Swedish Erotica, Gun Barrel, Turkey Poop, Little Moab and Death Drop (Which I am pretty certain that is where I did my endo).

By the time we made it back to camp, thank god for the Garmin, we were all ready for a beer and some cooked beef.

The day did not live up to the expectations, but I think I got a better workout then if it had been pristine conditions. I never regret hooking up with friends and having a fun time.