X-mas party 2009

PAMBA had their X-mas party last night and as always a good time was had by all,I drank my red bull and vodka and didn't get out of control...feel pretty good this morning.I need to cut some more wood this morning then jump on the spinner while watching football.







See ya !

A long time ago !

Cindy and I have hit that 25 year mark on our marrige today ! We met in June of "84 and November 17th of "84 we were married...Yeah in 5 -1/2 months we knew we were ment for each other so why wait !

I'm off this morning and she is working so I'll take her to lunch today so we can spend some time together.

Happy Anniversary Honey !


This what I'm getting into !

My winter has changed because I'm on the roster for TIV#6 I hope the weather is good so I can get in as many miles outside that I can,if not it's going to be a lot of time sitting on the spinner down in the dungeon ! I need some more movies !

Mohica 100 is going to be June 5th next year so it works good with the I-74 series

TIV#6

I sent off my entry into the Trans Iowa race yesterday,I should hear back Monday or Tuesday that I'm im.My winter will be spent riding as much as I can outside and a lot of spin time in the dungeon.Race is set for late April so lets hope fpr a good March so I can get the long miles in outside to see how my training has gone.

I'll post back up when I hear when I'm in !


see ya !

Bike Patrol

Friday night a local running club invited PAMBA's bike patrol to come out to the oldest cemetery in Peoria to watch over the runner's at a Spooky Marathon race.The race started at 6:00pm to midnight and had close to 200 people run a 5 K and 25 run the whole marathon.



It had been raining for two days but it finally had stopped for the race.We set up a fire pit and paired up the patrol riders to keep a eye on the 6 mile course.

It was a lttle smoky from the pit but kept us warm.

Morgan made some chili that helped keep us warm and fueled for the riding.

The run had some steep climbs and long I think a rode around 24 mile by time we were done.We only had one sprained ankle out of the whole night so it was a good night of patroling for us.

Carrie got a magic wand for her efforts !




Hope to get some more riding out side before winter sets in,I don't want to get in the gym to soon but look foeward to some dungen workouts with Midz.

See ya !

End of the season

Tough end to my race season with a DNF at the Matthieson race last weekend,I went way to hard for the first 2 miles that was out in the open prairie and suffered for it once I got in the woods.I was hoping the legs would come back but they said "you blew it" and once I got in my first lap I knew I wouldn't make it for another 2 laps.

getting ready to race with Midz,Kelsi,Steph and Zack looking on.

getting warmed up riding with Tony amd Stauby

racing down a hill right before the creek

Tony with a flat tire carrying his bike thru the rock section

Mike Staub making it up the monster climb for the last time.


Kelsi posing on the Vermillion river at Matthieson State Park.

The place will be part of the I-74 series next year, I can't wait to get back up here and redeme myself for the DNF.

I'm looking at next years season and I need to decide if I want to shoot for Trans Iowa #6. I need to make up my mind before Thanksgiving to make the roster.If I do that means I need to start training at the start of December and really get going in January on the trainer.

Mohican 100 is a must do race and the Wems series.I should be able to do the I-74 XC series and a 24 hr,I'll be hitting the road endurance races also.

I have taken about 4 weeks off from any real training or hard riding I guess thats why I had such a bad race last weekend so after this weekend I'm hitting the gym and get back to eating good.

By the way if you see a wallet on the highway up around Matthieson State Park it's mine ! THAT SUCKS !

See Ya !

Still here ! 7 oaks race

Pic from the top of the ski hill at Seven Oaks September 5&6 24 hr race I did with Tony,Brad and Andy,we took 2nd place with a hard fight with Team Rasmussen from Iowa.


Me coming in from my second lap,going hard trying to make up some time.


Tony cooling down from another fast lap


Andy grabing his bike for another lap with Brad in the back ground coming in from his lap



Brad all done with his last lap of the 24 hr race and pulling a nose wheelly !


Me enjoying a hot cup of coffee while the fog rolls in at 3 or 4 am waiting for Andy to come in from his lap


Race is over and were hanging out relaxing waiting for the awards


Team PAMBA Brad,ME,Tony and Andy


I know Tony and Brad had to drive the 4-1/2 ride back to Peoria and Andy stayed in Des Moines but I had Cindy driving me back and I just had to close my eyes !


Fun race with Bob and Peggy making the ride over to watch and help support,Cindy and Kelsi as always was there for support and cherring us on ringing the cowbell,Thanks guys!

Yep I'm Here !

Wow ! Starting to get some time to get on the bike and try and salvage some of this season,I rode Jubilee today after work with only 3 hours of sleep in the last 36 hours.Wouldn't know my legs felt great and I did the full race course for 3 laps at race pace and could have kept on going...Expert did 4 laps a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to stop feeling good.

Missing 24-9 was killing me this weekend but I kept on watching Paddy,Naomi and Ray Nees and a big YEE AHH for Ray ! he does his first 24 solo and gets the win ! When I think of the battle we could have had it would have been a blast !I'm really Happy for him...and of course Cindy and I missed seeing Paddy and Naomi maybr next time Paddy and Congrats on the wins !

Getting the Jubilee race out of the way has really let me get back on the bike we now need to get I-74 #4 at Black Partridge done on August 9th.

I did get to race a couple of weeks ago and did ok I raced Sport with the legs lacking saddle time and have hit the road for some good miles.I'm doing a Endurance road race on the 8th and shooting for a 12 or 24 hr. road race in September.


See ya !

Trailwork and riding

I have been trying to get Jubilee ready for the I-74 race that we moved back to the 28th of this month,it's almost there with a little more back work to be done.Tony,Bob and Betsy and a few others have helped out with knocking down the weeds so the whole course is ready,except for knocking some burms down that hace chaneled water.

Cindy and I rode the Rock Island Trail today I had my Bike Patrol garb on so I can put that in the books,It was nice getting Cindy on the bike,we also stopped in Dunlap and had a coffee at Joes.

More Trail work in the morning and a afternoon ride if the weather is good !

A small group of PAMBA members have over 200 hours of trail work at Jubilee since March !


See ya !

Mohican 100k in the books

Finally getting to the Mohican 100k race I did on Saturday and I finished and that's what I was wanting since this was my first point to point race.It was tough with more climbing than I have ever done around here and a lot of it was on the county roads connecting you to one trail to the other.


We stayed at the Mohican Inn before and after the race and enjoyed the quiet( no TV's)

Getting lined up for the mass start of 400 riders


Were off and I'm in the upper half of the racers

Riders coming in to the first aide station

Finally made it with 20 miles done and mostly all single track I did take a bad fall coming down a steep hill with wet roots only four miles in the race,shook it off and tried to get in a grove but I was all over the place and needed to let some air out of my tires.

Coming into aide station 3 with 46 miles in and feeling pretty good, I hooked up with a couple guys and we rode the rest of the race together.

No respect LOL!

15 min. later pro's come by aide station 3 and pass us on the rode like we standing still,they were on maybe mile #88 and we were on #52 but all were hurting !

No post race pic's due to logistic's and me being me (crotchety) The race was fun and I could have done the 100,I think I did have it me...The great part about this type of race is you don't need to worry about carrying all your food and water the aide stations have every thing you need unless you want a specific type of food but they had fruit,P&J,oatmeal pies,Hammer products and water.

This is the type of race you want to do with some friends so you can all help each other get through it and talk about the war stories after the race.There was no need for me to get in a hurry since you know your not in the top ten so I just enjoyed the ride and scenery...I'll be back for this one !

See ya !

6 hrs of Northern Kettles

The race up in cheese land turned out pretty good,a mudd race for a while and glad I stuck it out.The race was up in the northern part of the Kettles and Cindy and I with Bob not far behind us was in for a wet but fun race.Cindy and I stoped in Millwalkie for some pancakes and coffee a little to close for race time for me but I needed to eat a good meal before the race and It was almost 10:00am with a 1:00pm start time.

After we set up camp close to start finish line I seen Charley Tri coming in from a lap and went to see how he was doing and the course conditions.He had taken a bad fall and was trying to mend himself and get back into the race but I think the rain that came later would make him decide to call it a day.

At the start of the race I went into the woods in about 11th place and I made some passes right before we went into the woods and glad I did because the next 7 miles was all singletrack.The course was rocky,bumby,rolling and fast and I thought I would make some good lap time until the rain hit half way into the 2nd lap.I could only drink when I came out to the pit area so it was drink half a bottle and take some Hammer gel in and keep rollimg.When the rain hit it I thought about doing a couple more laps then call it a day so I mudded up thr NRS composite pretty good then switched to the NRS 2.It was my 5 lap and when I took off on the NRS 2 the trails were getting pretty good shape and I just flew on the bike( I train on the NRS 2 and I just feel good when I'm on this bike)The trails were in that I could get in trouble condition,meaning they were getting fast but the slick spots would make you pay if you got to cocky.I payed a couple of times !

On the 6 lap John caught me as I stoped to get a drink while on the trail, I was trying to drink with the bottle in my mouth and still trying to ride so I just stoped.We rode together for more than half the lap and I told him I could make another lap if we hurry so we kicked it up and made one last pit on the run and I had around 55 min. to get one more lap.John had to put air in his tire but I couldn't wait so I kepted up my pace and ended up with my last lap coming in at 6:55.44 abd it was my 2nd fastest lap of the day.

It was a good race for me,6th place and with some strong laps for me a 6 hour XC race really ! John had a good race with 12 laps for his 12 hours of riding.

Heading to Ohio for the Mohican 100K my first point to point race !

Oh Yeah ! some new GX2 Ergon grips and a new BD2 back pack for the race !

6 hr race this weekend

Cindy and I are heading up to the secound Wems race of the year in the Northern Kettle Moraine area,I'm only doing the 6 hr to keep the legs fresh for next week at the Mohican 100k.

I'll meet Bob up there,he's doing the 3 hr race and Dr. John is doing the 12 hr so I'm wanting to get up there and see how he's doing.


Later enjoy the long weekend

see ya !

More Trail Work

Road ride this morning at 6:00am before heading out to BPP for trail work.Legs felt heavy for only 25 miles but a long day yesterday didn't help.PAMBA put in another bridge and added some more trail with 10 people showing up you can get alot more done.

Heading up to WI for a 6 hr. race Saturday morning then staying in Kanosha for the night with Cindy so we can hit up Franks Dinner for breakfest.

See ya !

Still here !

Bad month of April for me not much riding being done (sucks) the weather has alot to do with it and the work around the house even more.The trails around Peoria are terrible with all the rain,Jubilee isn't open yet and they are in bad shape anyway.The other parks are just as bad,but PAMBA is trying to get them in shape so we can get some dirt under our tires instead of asphalt.

I missed the start of the I-74 series race up in the quad cities the Syvan Island Stampede it rained the whole race witch would have been fun.The Trans Iowa V is starting in the morning and I'm just sick I didn't try and get in this year but I was afraid getting burned out so early in the year.Plus I hate the idea of training so hard thru the winter then having the weather decide if you even have a chance of finishing.

I'm running a 5k in the morning The Run To Remember for fallen Police and Firemen then a Dualthon on the 16th.(Cindys birthday)

My weight has been steady at 161 lbs with the better eating I have been doing with Cindy and by the way she has been doing great with her workouts and her steady weight loss too.

I need some serious bike time in the next three weeks if I'm doing the Mohican 100k at the end of the month.If I do three days of intervals with one or two days of longer rides I'll be ok.I also need to get a order in to Ergon for some new grips.

More trail work this weekend and mushroom hunting !

Have you been to Bushwhackers this week ? you should ! Check out the sweet rides they have for this summer,I'm going to checkout a Gary Fisher Rig 29r.

See Ya !

Riding outside

Tony and Midz came over Monday night for a quick road ride,the wind was crazy but really got the legs burning,we did a hour and 40 min. before we called it a day.
We hope to keep the Monday night rides on the road for a couple of months.

I took Tucker over to Jubilee to check out the trails and I wasn't to happy about what I saw..The trails are the worse Iv'e ever seen ! the water damage just tore up the trails and there is going to be a lot of work to get the trails in shape to even ride.

Trail day at Indy and Dirkson this weekend I hope to make them if I get off work in time.

I hit the spinner today after work 1 hour race pace.

See ya !

No ride outside !

Woke up to about 6 inches of the white stuff ! It won't stay for long but it will be a while longer before we can get on the trails around here.More road rides will be the norm and I should be getting more guys to come out and ride with some warmer weather.

Cindy and I went back into P town yesterday to get my b-day present from her,some new trail running shoes were in my sights so we went to Bushwhackers to check some out.

Russ helped me pick out some Vasques Mercury's they fit great and I can't wait to get out and enjoy them. Russ was a big help on picking the right shoe by letting me know what type of fit I need to trail run.That is the great thing I like about Bushwhackers the sales people know what they are talking about because they do the sports you do.

I hit the spinner this morning and did some core work for around 1-1/2 hours I should get a good spin ride tomorrow or road ride.

Cindy fixed my B-day dinner for me today because last week I was racing and I it was great as always but I need to do a little extra calorie burning tomorrow. She fixed fried smelt,coleslaw,corn fritters,baked french fries and pina colada cake with coconut ! Damm Good !

See ya !

Race #1 done

I knew the race course was going to be wide open but wow! it was wide open ! I took off with 14 other 35 and over experts and stayed with them in a pelotone for the first mile and half of doubletrack before we hit a big hill and some white rock and I had to let them go.I wish I could have stayed with them because we didn't hit any singletrack for another 1/2 mile,so the first two miles was fast.The singletrack was nice and flowed real good but it did have some nasty rocks and it didn't take long before I seen the first victim fixing a flat tire.

Within 2-1/2 mile we were back on the doubletrack for another 2 miles then some new singltrack that sucked the life out of your legs for maybe a mile then right back on the doubletrack to the finish line.I would guess we had 3 to 3-1/2 miles of singletrack the rest was wide open.

I'm glad I went I never race this early in the season so my fitness is good to finish a expert race in March.

sporting my Bushwhackers green
the start of the races was like this for about a mile

I ended up in 12 place out of 14 in 2:11 min. saddle time,with Citomax,perpetuem and Hammer gel keeping me fueled...I used my Ergon grips GR2Mag. with so much open and the hill climbs it was a good choice.

Next Race Sylvan Island Race #1 in the I-74 series with a couple of running races thrown in.

Pic dump ! Pic dump !

Bob chasing me down from one of our Sunday rides,Where's Midz?

Steph turned 20 on the 15th not a teenager no more !

the dungeon got all wet from the rain !

getting some burn time in on the property

See ya !

race in the morning

I have my 1st races of the season tomorrow,a early start for me,I never race this early in the season but I wanted to get things rolling to keep me motivated.I'm heading down to St Charles right out side of St.louis to Lost Valley the first race for the Midwest Fat Tire series.

The NRS is ready and the CRV is packed,I'm all alone on this race nobody going down with me,I'll get some pics and a race report in late Sunday or Monday.

OH YEAH ! I turned 48 years old yesterday !

Trail ride today

I wanted to get a 2-1/2 to 3 hr ride in the woods today but I had a late start and the trail started to get sloppy,so a hour in the woods and 30 min. on the road.The road part was some hill intervals at the bottom of Marquette Heights road I jumped on the single speed( I brought two bikes)

I did 4 rides up and back just to finish off the legs today,the woods at Indy were in good shape until the sun hit the trails and it doesn't take much even in 30 degree temps to start getting sloppy.
I broke out the Race bike today NRS composite


I had some lurkers keeping a eye on me !

Training is on sked for now I started my 7th week on the Simple Plan Workout the legs felt pretty good today,I hope to get a Run Bike Run in tomorrow, first race is less than four weeks away http://www.midwestfattireseries.com/raceinfo/75-lost-valley2009
Middz and I hit the Dungeon last night, a good workout but we need to get outside !