IronMike's Ironcross Death March II

This was m second attempt at IronMike's Ironcross Death March. On the first attempt 3 years ago I had my pedal cross threaded and fell off around 45 minutes into the ride. I was hoping that this time around would go better. Mike had been spending time over the prior 2 weeks planning a course that would closely mimic the actual Ironcross course and hopefully be just a little bit harder.
He did an exquisite job right down to the minor details. There was a little paved road, lots of gravel roads, washed out mud/gravel descents, an awesome excursion onto a new trail sponsored by the folks at TMR. Mike was even nice enough to throw in a nice muddy, wash out "run up", similar to the climbs "Insult" and "Injury" (the two killer power-line climbs in Ironcross) and not only did we get to ride it, when we got done trudging to the top we immediately rode back to the bottom made 3 left turns and did it again just to accurately match Ironcross.
Mike asked me at the beginning of the ride if I considered us to be friends. Of course I answered "yes." Then he said "I hope you still say that at the end of the day." It was an awesome day and great ride. It was one of those epic rides that you talk about for years and everyone wonders how you can remember such miniscule details about a seemingly meaningless training ride. I'm sorry more people couldn't make it out to ride with us. The ride ended up lasting 4.5 hours and included less than 10 feet of flat ground (I think). I just want to take one last second to thank Mike again for planning such a great ride. Great ride, great fun! Now I'm Fast Like Pancakes for Ironcross.

Peanut Butter Festival

Now I realized going in that I haven't been riding my MTB. I mean even less than normal so I was ready to go in with absolutely no technical skills but that is OK since there are none (or next to none) required for this wide open course. I was thinking my fitness could carry me through for a decent finish and that is right when m fitness failed. I do believe that this could be classified as my worst race ever. Even after my 10 hour cramping experience at the Wilderness 101. I had an asthma attack and got lost in this race. I don't understand why it is but when I get on a MT bike it just feels like all of the power is sucked right out of my legs. Oh well, I guess there is always next year. It was cool that Sam got the race win, Rich got third in his age group, and although I'm not completely sure I think I managed to win the "male nurse" category. It was painful and my worst race ever but I'll be back next year.

I was actually pretty happy about how I did on the MTB parts of the course like stream crossings and logs. I didn't have to put a foot down on any of them which is a major accomplishment for me. However not being able to breathe will quickly put an end to chances of doing well in any bike race


And now it's time to reveal............................................................................................................

Ironcross Weaponry

atleast until I save up the $$ for my dream bike

2nd place, State TT championships

During the winter I was sitting in Indiana Cycling and Fitness talking to Rich on a cold snowy day and I told him, "This year I'm actually going to train hard and not just ride a bunch of junk miles." Problem is that is the exact thing I told him last winter and it never happened. Fast forward 9 months and I'm in my top condition and totally prepared for this race. I actually did train this year but how would it all play out. I had a good warm up and I felt ready. I started out into a slight head wind and I could see it reflected in my time. I was 15 seconds slower to the turnaround than when Rich and I had done this course in July. I was really hurting but I guess that's good because it means I was going hard enough. I may even have gone out too hard. On the way back I managed to make up some time and I ended up finishing 30 seconds faster than the TT in July on the same course. I was happy with my time but now came the long wait to see how it compared to the others. Long story short it was good enough (only good enough) for second place. I guess training with a purpose really does pay off. I just like to say thank you to everyone who has helped get me started into racing and all of the knowledge you all have shared. I'd gladly split my metal with all of you but the thing is so small it looks more like a key chain.(Medal shown here larger than actual size)