Riding with Micah & Corrie

I just finished up a good ride with my Bicycle Centers/Collision 1 teammates Micah and Corrie(pictured to the right). Two great people who love 'cross and love life.

We decided to ride out at River Meadows Park, East of Arlington and do some technical intensity work on what could be a great 'cross course. We started out with about 30 minutes of pre-ride warm up, and then did 1 hour of hard efforts in the run-up and and in the sand trails along the river bank. In between we would just maintain tempo along the grass and paths throughout the park. After every lap, we would regroup, encourage eachother, and have another go at it(insert Aussie accent here). We finished up with a cool down lap and enjoyed the area, and solitude it provided. After all, this park is probably one of the largest and least known parks in Snohomish County.........Ssshhhhhhhhhhhh!

What can I say about the Bicycle Centers/Collision 1 Team. A great group of not only racers, but of people. Individuals that have a similar passion for the sport and a similar one for life. I abosolutely love this team and missed it! It's good to be back.

Afterward, we drove back into downtown Arlington to the Stilly Coffee House for a cup of hot Jo. Thanks for the latte Micah, and Corrie, and thanks for a good ride and great company.

As my friend "Sherpa" promotes; "Life is good".

I would add to that; "If it's not, you are doing it wrong!"

Talk to you soon.

Holden's thoughts on the True North O.S.V.

I think the true north trailer is cool because it works for us. My favorite part is the radio. My other favorite is sleeping in it. It works for us outdoors. I'm only 8 but that's what I think.

From,

Holden

High Intensity Training Day = STAIRS!

Today Kristi and I rode to a great location to work on run up/stair work outs. Right outside of downtown Arlington there is a set of stairs that weaves through the maple trees up the bank to a housing development. To say the least, the staircase is crazy steep and has several different rhythm and pitch changes. Kristi had found these stairs a few weeks ago and even found a full loop leading back down to the base that took around 5-6 minutes. Just enough to recover and hurt some more.

We did a total of 5 sets and running pace and would finish each one with a quick remount back on the bike and put in a hard effort going up a fairly steep road for roughly 2 blocks. Can you say Max Heart rate? We split up and focused on our workout and got it done, and then went back for pics. A good 30 minute warm up ride from home and 30 minutes worth of stairs and then a nice 30 minute rainy, windy (sideways) through the farmlands back to our house.

Tuesday done - Check!

S.C.X.#5/Steilacoom

On Sunday, we once again headed down to Steilacoom Park for the 4th round of the Seattle Cyclo-Cross Series. After a good race the day before, I was anxious to see how I would feel the following day in a the "Big" Series.

The course was laid out similar to usual with lots of fast grass with some wet greasy tight turns, a paved climb, and a loose gravel road climb, high speed descent, and more fast dirt trail. We only had to dismount once at a double set of barriers down in the start/finish area. For this race, the course designers decided to take out the legendary "Knapp Time" Run-Up (Thank you 'cross Gods). It had rained significantly over the days leading up to the race, but this course is famous for its ability to drain well, and only leaving behind a few greasy turns. The Bicycle Centers/Collision 1 team discussed race plans and tactics before the race and the idea would be to start out hard with our guys setting the pace high to string things out for our team Captain, Todd Morse Tucker who could go for the win. After that, the goal would be to go for our own and work together to move up. We have a good team, and seem to really trust each other, and nobody thinks twice to sacrifice themselves to better a teammate. I love it.

I chose to run a new set of tires/wheels we just glued up; Challenge Grifo 32mm tubulars with 32psi in the front and 35psi in the rear. This was a good choice on both tread and pressure and made a big difference during the race. We lined up by series points which put me on the 2nd row with a 15th overall ranking. The whistle blew, and we were off. I got the hole shot headed around the barns through the pits all the way out to the paved road climb. Just as planned, the pack was strung out in single file, and people were already hurting. Just as I was peeling off, teammate Phil Oppenheimer took the pace/lead and kept it high. All the while, Todd began to move up on the narrowing course. The plan was working. After a couple of laps, I caught back up to Phil, and he was not having his best day, and I had to go for it. I got in a group that worked together that included the legendary Dan "Snortin' " Norton (7 time National Masters Champion) and we began to pull clear and catch racers getting shelled off the lead group. On lap four heading up the paved climb, Norton put in an attack and got a gap. The other rider, couldn't hang on and dropped back just as Norton passed another. This enabled me to bridge back up to his attack, and once again we had a group of 3. We took turns the entire 2nd half of the race pulling and sharing the load, to stay away from a hard charging chase group from behind.

Kristi was in the pits for me, and was giving us information that was helpful and we knew that we were in the top 10. With this in mind, I knew that I could outsprint the other two riders for 8th when it came down to the finish. On the final chicane through the grass, I positioned myself 3rd wheel with Norton leading the group. I knew that the other guys were gonna start their sprint once they hit the pavement to the finish. I also knew that we were gonna run out of real estate with the paved section to the finish only being about 50 meters long. With that in mind, as we were weaving through the turns, I punched it and started the sprint earlier than the other guys expected. The move was perfect as I was already in full sprint 3 gears higher than them as I came around. I got them by 15 meters at the line, and earned a solid 8th place.

I was super happy with my ride and raced a very strong tactical race. With many of the guys ahead of me in the overall, having not such good days, the overall series points took a major twist, with me moving from 15th overall all the way up to 8th Overall! Wow, seven places in a single race? I finally had some good fortune, and now I'm back in the game for my season goals. Not only that, but our team plan worked perfectly and our team Captain sprinted for the win with 2 other racers, and came up with 2nd! He was happy, greatful, and the team came away with 4 guys in the top 16.

Congrats to Kristi, for an early crash and resulting mechanical that put her dead last and nearly out of site of the next girl. She remained calm, cool headed and savvy in her pursuit, and within 2 laps was back in the top 6. Over the next half of the race she worked back into the lead and walked away with yet another win! Very impressive, and she now leads the Series for Pro/Elite Women convincingly.

Next weekend we head to Maris Farms in Buckley for the 5th round of the S.C.X. Series. I'm looking forward to a good week of training, starting with a good easy spin today, and tomorrow Kristi and I are doing stairs in Arlington for some high intensity workouts.

Talk to you soon.

"Silly Cross" in Bellingham

Today, we headed up to Bellingham for "Silly Cross". Silly Cross is part of the Cascade Cyclo-Cross Series that takes place in Skagit, and Whatcom Counties. Though a much smaller series than the Seattle CX series or the MFG CX series, they do put on fun events and always seem to design great courses. Today they didn't disappoint.
The Civic Center Atheletic Fields Park was located right off I-5 and in the center of Bellingham. The course had everything. Fast rolling gravel paths, wooden bridges, muddy grass, off-camber twisty turns, paved climb, curb transitions, and some very technical riding all together. In this series, the Masters age is 40, so being a "young" 35, I had to race as a Pro/Elite rider (1/2 Elite). The field was small but had some good riders on hand including BRI's Logan Wenzel, the recent winner of the SCX #2@ Beverly Park. We also had Worlds Team Member, Steve Fischer of Rad Racing NW. I got a 3rd row start position, and we were off. The top 8 stayed together for the first lap, with a fairly mellow pace, then on lap two, $#!+ hit the fan, and things got serious. It took me a couple of laps to catch the flow of the course, but once I did, I was feeling really good and having fun. They even gave us a "approved short-cut" on the course, only you had to drink a beer and do push ups to pass. Our front group did this on the 2nd lap. I nearly puked up my Rainier as I did my push ups, and decided I would stick to the normal route on the next laps. Another added feature unique to this race was an added "snow" section. Yes, snow! These guys had snow brought in for a short 10' section that was about 12" deep, and didn't really slow any of us down.
I finished in 7th place, and was very happy with my ride on my kind of course. Kristi chose not to race today, to keep fresh legs for tomorrows SCX #4 race in Steilacoom. So instead, she worked the pits for me, which I never even needed. My bike did have a fair amount of mud on it, but everything worked great and shifting continued to stay crisp and precise. I rode really low pressure today to keep good traction on the off camber slippery grass. I ran with only 30 in the front and about 35 in the rear. Perfect amount of traction with the Hutchinson Bull Dog tires. Holden was on various portions of the course yelling "Go Dad", "Good job". Thanks buddy. It was also nice to be able to take a shower at the race venue in the atheletic locker rooms. A nice hot shower after a muddy race was top notch and made for a very "professional like" venue. Thank you Bellingham Parks Department.
Good day on a great course, and now we are headed back down the freeway towards home to get the bikes, gear, and body ready for tomorrows big race in Steilacoom. I think we will chill out and carve some pumpkins tonight.

Stay tuned for tomorrows report.

Training at River Meadows Park

Today was another good fun day of training. Instead of just hard intervals or a mid-week time trial, I went out to a "secret-squirrel" location in Snohomish County. River Meadows park is a large County Park East of Arlington. It has wide open grass fields, deep sandy trails, great fall leaves all over the ground, run ups, all along side of the Stilliquamish River. I would truly love to someday host a race here. Maybe I will have to work on that for next year.
I started out with a 30 minute warm up on my loop and then went at a good high tempo speed for 20 minutes, then mellow for 20, then again followed up with another high tempo of 20 minutes. Once the work was done, I continued to cool down for another 15 minutes or so before packing it in.
I do have to say, that the smell of dead salmon permeated the park, as I'm sure those that didn't make it up to the smaller streams "bought the river bank". I guess that it's part of the "cycle"!

Talk to ya later.

S.C.X. #3/Silver Lake

Another great day of racing at yet another new venue for the Washington State Cyclo-Cross scene. Round #3 of the S.C.X. Series brought us to Silver Lake Park in South Everett. The venue was right on the water front with gorgeous oak and maple trees in true fall colors, and two sand sections of the course that rivals the Lake Samammish course in the MFG series.

With my lack of points from past races I had to line up in the back of the pack for the start. From the start we had a 150 yard paved descent and then straight into the sand on the beach to the joy of the crowds awaiting the chaos and mayhem as racers fight for position and crash in specatular displays. By the time we hit the sand, I had moved up to about 10th position, and by the time we got through the sand, I was in the top 5 heading back up into the woods. I felt very good to get a good start and I was feeling alright. I continued to work battling back and forth having a great time racing on probably one of the toughest 'cross courses I have ever raced. The course was very technical, twisty, and busy. The course also demanded alot of power from the rider and never a chance to recover and rest. AWESOME!

It was great having so many friends and family come out for the race since it was in Snohomish County. It was cool to see my brothers from the firehouse; Colby, Tickle (Sherpa), and Ekse come out with their friends and family. We also had my Mom, sister, nieces, sister in-laws, in-laws all out to scream on Kristi, Holden, and I. We definitely had a good fan base.

I ended up in 15th place on the day, and was very content with my ride, and I had a blast racing this "hard ass" course.

Congrats to Holden for getting 2nd place today working his butt off on a tough course, and to Kristi for downright, "smoking" her competition. It was over from the gun, and that kind of course was made for her. She now has a firm lead on the SCX Series overall.

Hats off to my friend/teammate Phil Oppenheimer for securing a new venue and designing a great course.

Talk to you soon.

Good Training Day

Yesterday, I was up in Bellingham for a fire gig, and made sure to bring my bike to get some training in afterward. I wanted to get in some "race simulation" speed/technique so I headed to one of my favorite courses - Cornwall Park, in the North end of the city. A gorgeous park with fast wide trails, grass fields, and paved walkways.

Lots of squirrels, dogs, frisbie golfers, and XC runners were the order of the day, but I still had a great ride and felt pretty good. Cornwall Park, is pretty much a cyclo-cross paradise. They just need a starbucks right outside the park gate.

S.C.X. #2/Beverly Park

Round two of the Seattle CX series took place at Beverly Park in White Center (South of Seattle) in a residential neighborhood school/park. The course was very technical, and bumpy with some great descents and a cool run up.

Has anyone seen my luck, cause I seem to be missing some? In the opening of the first lap, I felt my front tire suddenly losing air as we headed for the descent. As we bombed down the drop, I applied my brakes only to have my front brake cable slip and my lever went straight to the bar. The result was me "T-boning" Mike Rolcik in the bottom turn, and trying not to roll my deflated tire on the dry grass. Unfortunately, I had just passed the pit, so I would not see it again for an entire lap. By the time I got my pit bike I was towards the back once again. I finished in 21st place. What can I say, my days MUST be coming. I will just continue to train well, and keep positive, and know that my days are approaching. It's been such a bummer not being able to catch a break so far.

On another note, I wanted to thank my teammates for a great bike change in the pits. Very smooth fellas, and appreciated. Also, great job to Holden for completing a very tough course for an 8 year old as he continues to race with the 10-12 year olds. I was very happy to see him finish and run the run ups and be able to ride the steeper climbs. Way to go buddy. (Holden's photo at top of article)

Kristi killed it today with big win in very commanding fashion. She left everyone in her wake and won by over a 1.5 minutes. That's big in 'cross.

Next race is S.C.X. #3/Silver Lake (South Everett). It will be nice racing in Snohomish County. I'm hoping for some crappy weather, and a technical course.

Thanks for reading.

M.F.G. #4/Cross Clash @ Steilacoom

Today we headed down to Steilacoom for the 4th round of the M.F.G. series and a race that touted Portland, Oregons 'crossers against Seattle's.
The course consisted of lots of fast paved roads, fast bumpy grass, and an actual dirt trail climb followed by a loose gravel road climb. Very fast course and tactics played a huge role. Things got off to a rough start with me getting edged to the outside into the first turn and ended up having to roll through the pits. There are some big rules about rolling through the pits without taking a bike and the ending result can be disqualification. With this in mind, I sat up and had to let the pack pass by, and then jump in on the tail end. Not good, going to dead last in the first 20 seconds of a race. Not long after a rider went down hard in front of me in a turn, and I was barely able to avoid going down myself. I now had my work cut out for me. After the first couple of laps, I realized that I had some decent legs and I had the chance to make up lost ground. Half way through the race I caught one of my teammates Tim and asked him to help pull me up to the chase group that was currently holding a fourth place position with 6 guys in the group. Tim, shredded himself for me in an effort to help, knowing that he wasn't going to have anything left. When I went by on the climb, he was even kind enough to give me a big sling shot push. That's a loyal teammate. Thanks Tim.
I finally caught the chase group at the top of the gravel road climb and needed to sit in for a bit after such a hard effort to get back on. Unfortunately, this was about the time, that they started to attack eachother and the pace picked up fast, and I started to see a distance forming. I continued to chase and picked off a couple of more guys by the end to get a 10th place for the day. I was content considering the start lap for sure. Congrats to one of my team leaders Todd Morse Tucker for snagging 3rd today in our race just losing out on a 3 man sprint for the win.
With the True North O.S.V. in tow, Kristi cooked us some spaghetti in the galley, and we took our time leaving the race course. I even got the chance to mount all of the sweet new bike mount trays that Northwood Mfg, and Thule just sent us. Thanks Lance, they showed up on Friday. You are a magic man. The bikes were loaded onto the roof, and we headed to Federal Way.
We stopped in at South King Fire & Rescue 62's firehouse. I got some brothers who work at this house, and to say, Kristi, Holden, and I were treated with top hospitality. We got a shower and tour and a good safe spot to park the truck/trailer and sleep for the night. In the morning we will be headed to Beverly Park in Seattle for Seattle Cyclo-cross Series #2 (SCX). I look forward to letting you know how the race goes. For now, I'm gonna get some sleep in here with the family. Thanks for reading

Mid week Training

Yesterday was a good high intensity day of training. I drove out to Sedro Woolley to ride the "Woolley Cross" race course at the park just outside of town. A great race was put on out there last year around the delapitated dairy farm (it has to be haunted with ghost cows) and now the entire area has been turned into a beautiful park.
What was also cool, is that the parks department (or someone) actually has the 'cross course mowed and marked! Holy cow, that's cool! I started off with a couple of laps just warming up to get the muscles going. After that I began to hit it harder and harder every lap for one hour, with the last 30 minutes at full race pace. With "Woolley Cross" being so bumpy and dragging because of all of the boggy turf, you are forced to push a big gear just to not get beat up. Though this hurts, it's great for lactic acid threshold building. A couple of great run ups, and a long false flat made for one heck of a workout. I felt good and was finding good rythm, and it started getting me fired up as a David Lee Roth was yelling into my ears to "Jump"! Last year I really enjoyed this course and venue, and now I'm really looking forward to racing here again this year on November 22nd. I want to do well here and I think I can on this course. I will be putting some focus on this race.

Thanks for reading.

Northwood Manufacturing Tour

Though this tour took place back in early August, I just found the pics and would like to share our trip to LaGrande, Oregon where the True North line of Outdoor Support Vehicles our made. Our tour was greeted by Lance and Rich who are instramental in designing, engineering, and promoting this new unit. Everyone we met at the factory was great and we were made to feel like we were becoming part of a family. We were able to take part in a photo shoot with the first purchaser of one of the units, and check out the original "prototype" that Lance himself tested out with his family over the last year or so. This was a great trip for us, and we really appreciated the hospitality that Northwood MFG displayed to us. I can say, that its really nice to see a business, a group of people, and the individuals that we have worked with; Lance and Rich, really put their money where their mouth is!

Thanks guys.

M.F.G. #3/Starbucks Grand Prix

What a day!

Sunday was filled with so many good things and great weather that it will be tough to make a long story short. We woke up Sunday morning in a Fred Meyers parking lot sleeping in our new True North O.S.V. following a late night wedding in Seattle on Saturday night. We made our way to Lake Samammish State Park and set up for the 3rd round of the MFG Cyclo-cross series. We got a good spot to set up the new O.S.V. and right away had numerous people come check it out to feed their curiosity. We had lots of interest and gave out numerous brochures and business cards. Sumner RV has stepped up to be our regional True North support team, and it will be easy to send people their way for their great customer service that we have witnessed first hand.

It was a great surprise to see my in-laws show up unexpectedly. They decided to come over to watch the race from Wenatchee as a suprise. They are our biggest fans, and we love having them at the races. The course was absolutely beautiful in one of the best 'cross venues we have ever been to. Though the course was flat, it was filled with high speed tight turns, lots of roots in the trees, putting green quality grass, and the biggest sand pit section we have ever seen. I would guess that the sand section was nearly 100 yards long running the length of the beach. Ouch!

I lined up on the front row, and got a perfect start. I got the hole shot and led the field for the opening of the lap. Half way through the lap, the top contenders began to come through, including one of my team leaders, Todd Morse Tucker. The course was lined with great fans and spectators and the head to head racing was superb. During the race I was able to work with another teammate to work over a couple of riders to our advantage. The sand section was faster to shoulder and run than attempt to ride and we had to complete that section no less than 10 times during the race. Brutal, but soooo cool! At the end, I was able to outsprint the guy in front of me on the home stretch to end up in 12th. Not exactly a top result, but definitely getting better compared to last week at Evergreen and I felt pretty good and smooth the entire race. There was one intance though, when I hugged tight to a tree and hit my right forearm and shoulder pretty hard knocking me out of my flow for a bit. I can say, that I'm feeling that tree today in my shoulder for sure! What a fun fast course.

Congrats also to Kristi for working hard for a 2nd place in the Elite Women's race, my teammate Todd for getting a well deserved 3rd place, and our son Holden having a good fun race in the junior field. I have to say, that the highlight of our day, was being able to work out of our True North O.S.V.. The tunes were bumping, the coffee, rice, and pasta was cooking, and it was nice having a place to change, and just chill out inside for a moment after the race to collect our thoughts. What a great addition to our race season. Our next race will be next Saturday in Steilacoom, and then Beverly Park (Seattle) on Sunday. For now, I'm gonna finish this cup of Jo, and head out for a crisp October morning spin, to loosen things up and begin to prepare for the "Double Weekend".

Talk to you soon!

True North S.U.V.

We are excited to announce that we will be receiving our True North "Freelance" S.U.V. by Northwood Mfg. on Saturday (10/3). We will be picking up our unit from Sumner R.V. and our happy to be working with that dealership as a partnership for our race season.

Having this unit will be a big advantage on race days to support our family with some outdoor comfort needs to support our cyclo-cross campaign. We will be spending Saturday night in the trailer sleeping at the race site and waking up ready to race.

Stay tuned for an update of pics and thoughts on our first weekend using our True North trailer. Holden will even be posting his thoughts here from the perspective of an 8 year old.

Talk to you soon!