Random Places

Seeking adventure in random places

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  • Wind

    Wind

    Growing up in Northern Kansas I was used to riding in the wind. I rode in the wind all the time (around here it is that or don’t ride much of the year). However, I never litterally had the bike get blown out from underneath me…. until today.

    I woke up to a cold but thankfully partly sunny morning in my RV at the Louisville State Park campground. This is a nice campground however it is unfortunately right next to some busy railroad tracks. The trains woke me up a couple times but honestly I haven’t been sleeping all that well lately anyway so not sure it was really the trains fault.

    I do expect I will sleep well tonight.

    I had a lot of nervous energy being excited for my first bike race in several decades so I headed out to the start a little early. I can just as easily sit inside there. The race start/finish was hosted by the Lilac Hill Event Center which was a nice place to hang out for a while before the rider’s meeting at 8:45.

    During the rider’s meeting they confirmed we would be riding the “wet” route. They had sent out 2 versions of the gpx file, one is the normal route, then another if conditions were wet. While today was partly sunny it has been raining nearly all week so no surprise as to which route we would ride. This was a bit of a shame since the normal route had a bunch of scenic “minimum maintenance roads” that we would miss out on. I did see a few of those roads at intersections and it most certainly looks like they made the right call, there would be 150 bikes still stuck out there in the mud!

    Before I forget, big shout out to the organizers of the Louisville Gravel Grinder race. Nicely organized and a nice route. If I happen to be in the area at the right time next year I wouldn’t mind doing it again.

    So, even without the MMR roads it was a nice route. I know my east coast friends would think it is all flat out here but far from it. Being near the confluence of the Missouri and Platte rivers. there are a lot of nice rolling hills with some steep but short climbs. I did hear a few other guys complain about all the hills but coming from New Hampshire I didn’t mind, these hills are a lot shorter than what I am used to so there are opportunities to recover on the downhills.

    So, everything was great…. except for the wind.

    The low pressure zone that was causing all the rain over the last several days has moved to the east and north of here. This resulted in some massive 20+mph with gusts around 35 from the north and west. The first half of the race was mostly downwind, of course this was early before the winds really picked up. Once I got to around half way was when the winds really picked up and it was either a headwind or a nasty cross wind.

    Somewhere around mile 50 while fighting the crosswind I suddenly found myself lying on the ground in a bit of pain (but mostly shocked that I was on the ground). I don’t think I have ever crashed while going in a straight line on a straight road before. The wind literally blew the bike out from under me. The road I was on had a lot of loose marble sized, and marble shaped rounded gravel.

    I could see for at least a 1/4 mile in either direction so I double checked there was no traffic and took a moment to ensure I wasn’t injured before getting up. I did have my video camera with me and shot video at a few random spots, was a shame I didn’t have it rolling for this, would have made for quality video! I took a walk break up the rest of the way up that hill.

    The rest of the way I just rode in survival mode, I really didn’t want to fall yet again and the winds were only getting worse. I got passed by just one rider after that. Actually from the half way point I only got passed by the one rider and I passed one other guy mysefl so my net position for the second half didn’t change, Pretty sure I was already just about at the back of the pack (but still waiting on the final results).

    My goal was to finish in under 5 hours, it ended up being just under 6. 64 miles, 6 hours, not impressive but given this wind I will take it. They gave out some nice coffee mugs as finisher’s prizes.

    Back at the RV I did a more detailed check of myself. Pretty big scrape on my left hip, and lesser on my knee and elbow but nothing horrible. I put on some Bactine bandaged myself up. I will probably need to sleep on my right side tonight.

    Next week, double the distance in Americus Kansas. Weather will certainly be warmer, hopefully less wind.

  • The real training begins

    The real training begins

    Tomorrow I line up on the starting line of a bike race for the first time in about 35 years. I had to double check my own math on that several times because it doesn’t seem possible but yeah, I was 20 years old the last time I entered a bike race.

    Tomorrow’s race is the first stop in a month long training roadtrip across the country. I decided to escape the cold muddy New Hampshire spring to head to the midwest. Tomorrows race is in Louisville Nebraska where the temperature is going to be 35 degrees…. and it has been raining all week so the roads will likely be muddy. So, that part of the plan didn’t quite work out but it will still be a good race. The good news is tomorrow is supposed to be dry with some sunshine, so beyond the cold it should be a good day.

    The next several weeks I will be roaming about and living out of my little home on wheels. After this race in Nebraska I will be heading south to Kansas and will be doing some training rides on parts of the route they used for previous Unbound XL races to really get a better sense of what I will be experiencing at the end of May.

  • Winter training

    Training for an endurance cycling event in the middle of winter in New Hampshire has of course been a challenge. Between the cold and the higher than average amount of snow the majority of my training has been indoors with the bike mounted on a trainer. Following a virtual route with computer generated graphics does help a bit but I have been eager to get back out on real roads.

    There are a couple of advantages however. One of my biggest issues is simply being comfortable on the bike for hours on end. With the bike mounted on a rigid indoor trainer it is even harder, less movement of the bike and less time out of the saddle means the body really gets uncomfortable on long training sessions. Over the winter I was able to increase the length of time before it became unbearable by significant amounts. Hopefully this translates to even longer times on long outdoor rides.

    The other advantage is it gives an opportunity to do heat training. While my basement gym is pretty cold what I have been able to do is wear several layers of clothing, including a full painters suit to prevent sweat evaporation, and a heavy winter coat on top of it all and get my body temperature up on training rides. Through the use of a Core temperature sensor (which is just a sensor you can attach to a heart rate strap, no it doesn’t need to be stuck “up there” like you might imagine?) I am able to do long sessions at an elevated body temperature in a safe and controlled manner. Kansas can often get very hot at the end of May and I want to be ready!

    Riding the indoor bike with multiple layers of clothing for heat training.

    I will soon be able to put all that training to an early test over the next couple of weeks….

  • Winning the lottery

    Winning the lottery

    Back in November I got some news. I won the lottery! No, I didn’t win any money, in fact winning this lottery costs me money.

    Let me back up first a bit for some context…

    In the last couple of years I had gotten into running however a few months before a foot injury had curtailed my running and marathon training. In order to stay fit and active I started spending a lot more time on the bike. As I child I was constantly on my bike riding around town and this continued into college where I did a few small bike races. Nothing special and I certainly wasn’t at a competitive level but I really enjoyed it. Once I moved to New Hampshire, between hating riding in traffic (most of the roads are narrow with traffic moving too fast) and just being busy with work I stopped riding. I would do some trail riding on a mountain bike but I missed the joy of covering longer distances under my own power.

    Then I discovered this thing called a “gravel bike”. Basically like a road bike but a bit more rugged and with bigger tires. Something better able to handle the unpaved (and often unmaintained) back roads than a road bike but more efficient and better for covering longer distances than a mountain bike. I have been discovering miles and miles of remote back roads (with nearly no traffic) near my home.

    Some might call it a character flaw but I say it is just a sense of adventure, either way when I get into something new I want to push it to a limit. This typically means getting into some form of competition. When I got into dirt bike riding I didn’t just stop there, I had to go race in Baja. When I got into running I had to run a marathon (and hope to eventually run an ultra-marathon but that is a story for another day). Of course pretty quickly I had similar thoughts about my gravel bike riding.

    As it turns out there is a lot of gravel racing in my home state of Kansas. The biggest of all of them is a race called Unbound Gravel in Emporia KS. This one isn’t just popular with the locals, it is gets riders including top pros from around the world. The event has gotten so big they cannot handle the number of people who want to do it so they use a lottery.

    There are multiple race distances. The shorter races are 35 or 50 miles which really would not be worth traveling half way across the country for. The popular races are the 100 mile and 200 mile distances. These would be interesting but honestly they are TOO popular and honestly I don’t want to be in that big of a crowd (there are 1500 to 2000 riders in these races).

    But then I heard about this thing called “Unbound XL” which typically is only around 200 riders. This race is 350 miles long and completely self supported (i.e. if you need it you either get it from convenience stores along the route or bring it with you). You have a time limit of 36 hours so you need to average about 10MPH in order to make the cuttoff and be considered an official finisher.

    I must have something wrong with me because of course the 350 is the one I entered the lottery for. My first thought when I got the email saying I got in was “oh crap, I need to get busy training”.

    When I won the entry to the race I had 6 months to train. I have been training (mostly indoors due to winter in New Hampshire) and am now down to just 2 months left and the real serious training begins. Do I know for sure I can handle this? No, but that’s what makes it an adventure.