Dr. TK Lawless Time Trial

There is a park and trail located just 15 miles from my house in Edwardsburg called Dr TK Lawless park. For some strange reason whenever I refer to this park it conjurs up images of Dan Ackroyd in his Dr. Detroit role.

It turns out Dr Lawless was an amazing man and donated many tracts of land for use as parks in Southwest Michigan. While home for the weekend I chose to do this Time Trial although it's not part of any series I'm involved with it but still 100 times better than mowing the lawn. Since the Experts start early I decided to ride the 50+ Expert on my singlespeed rather than wait until the Singlespeed class at 1230. The trail was in great shape and it was sunny and humid at the start. I went with a 32x16x29'er and the gearing was perfect for this course. The trail resembles Lakeshore and Maybury with lots of tight turns and a few steep climbs. The course length was 14 miles. For some reason the "day-of" riders started before the pre-registered riders and I knew there was a swarm of fast riders behind me as we started in 30 sec. intervals. I was reeled in by fellow 50+ rider, Calvin Stewart at the 10 mile mark and pushed pretty hard to stay with him after he made his pass. I stuck with him but he had started a good minute behind me and he ended up finishing first and I ended up in third with a time of 1:05:xx. That's a stand-in on the top spot.

As soon as we finished a storm blew through and dumped on the Sport riders.

I was glad I rode early, got 'er done, and made it home in time for lunch. TK Lawless is a great out-of-the-way trail located in Southwest Michigan.

Lumberjack 100

It's a wrap. I came, I rode, I finished. The weekend started with the drive to Big M ski area for packet pick-up and to set up the team tent and get some dinner.





We got the hook-up at a nearby fly fishing lodge and the place was ideal considering there is very little lodging in the area. 0500 Saturday morning, ate some cereal, fruit and we were off to the start.


Conditions were perfect although there had been a great deal of rain in the area, the course was 97% dry. The temperature was in the 70's with clear skies. It was a little hectic getting ready and such and I found my normal routine was out the window. Start time was 0700 and the start line was 2 miles from our team pit, so I was scrambling to get ready and out to the start line where everyone was staging. I found my way to the back of the line, turned around and we were off. Fun and games.

I chose to hang back and avoid getting caught up in the pack frenzy. I though this would allow things to thin out before we hit the singletrack. Wrong. 100 yards into the trail is a large climb where everyone was forced to push their bike up. After 200 riders trudge up the soft sand the hill was unrideable (for me at least). This caused riders to bunch together and it took a full lap to spread the field. The majority of lap 1 it was difficult to establish a good rythm due to the stop and go. The trail is 100% singletrack and has a variety of long climbs and fast sweeping descents through wooded forest. The sandy soil was packed down well from the recent rains and was very smooth. There are no fire roads to rest, zone out and/or recover on so you have to be on it the entire 25 mile loop. The other 3% of the trail was under water. The depth was knee deep and consisted of a mix of wood pulp, silt, water, mud and resembled a bayou. It was unrideable and there was no way to avoid it. My feet were toast with the combination of fine silt swirling around inside. Lap 2 was much better with the field strung out. My nutrition/hydration plan was working and I felt good. Hammer Nutrition is amazing stuff. On lap 3 at about the 65 mile mark I felt like I hit a wall and things were becoming difficult. Even small hills that I had no problem with earlier felt like they were getting steeper and I had to spin easy to clear them. My AVG speed was plummeting. I had completed lap 3, took a brief rest, and assembled with my teammates for lap 4 prior to the 4:30pm cut-off. We (Daniel, K-Diddy and I) were in survival mode for the final lap. K-Diddy mentioned we should ride together to the aid station prior to the bayou. He said it was not the usual aid station at events with cups of questionable water and warm HEED. This place had everything you could ever dream of. I had passed up this aid station 3 times since I was carrying everything I needed and I was curious to see what he was talking about. I was not disappointed. Their inventory resembled a 7-11. The friendly girl working there poured me a cold Coke, I ate watermelon, strawberries, a banana, a PBJ finger sandwich, an Oreo and I was golden. We started off towards the swamp and the finish. I wanted to get it over with and was feeling a second wind (I think it was the Coke)and pushed it hard to the finish. My un-official time (excluding breaks) was 9:53:04 over 102.25 miles. What a great event. I am ready to come back next year and now have a personal time to beat. More photos here.
Results:
95th Overall (out of 250 entrants)
8th Place in 50+ division
11h:18m:47s

Next up... Lumberjack 100!

Lumberjack trophy's.

This Saturday, June 14 will undoubtedly be my hardest race ever, the Lumberjack 100. The Lumberjack is stop #3 on the National Ultra Endurence Series with 100 miles (4-25 mile laps) of sweet singletrack (no 2 track roads to recover on) in the Manistee National Forest. My strategy is simple, to be the turtle and finish the race. We (3 other teammates) have a cabin reserved nearby and I can only hope the weather cooperates. The challenge of an epic event such as this looming ahead is very exciting. PARTY!

Hanson Hills XC

Start: Got my game face on putting the psych to the competition.

Sunday, June 1 was an exceptional day for cross country racing. This was stop #3 of the MMBA Championship Points Series (CPS). The venue was the Hanson Hills Ski area in Grayling, MI. Hanson Hills is one of many mom & pop ski areas around the state that offer relief from the modern day resorts. Most of these areas feature great singletrack and Hanson Hills always delivers a great ride. The trail has been expanded to a 10 mile loop through fern covered forest with lots of up's and downs and maintaining momentum is essential. The start was fast and I was spinning out on the 2 track while the lead group left me in the dust heading into the singletrack. There was only one rider left behind me and I was stuck behind an Expert dude(Jeff Socia) who had just finished his geared race and needed some additional abuse riding singlespeed. His gearing resembled a Track bike and I could not get around him while he struggled to get up the first series of climbs. I finally got around him when he overshot a turn and I started to pick up my pace. The group in front of me was long gone. Eventually, I passed a few more riders and came up on fellow Greyhound, Jeff Wittbrodt halfway on lap 1. I found it was great to have a teammate out there with me and we continued to exchange leads and push the pace for the remainder of lap 1. I kept hydrating, took in 1 gel and my legs felt very good. On lap 2 Jeff dropped back and I rode alone waiting for either himself or a pack of Sport riders to overtake me. This helped motivate me as I kept the pace high and pushed right to the end. The 29 wheels and rigid setup worked well for me. The wheels flattened out a lot of the small bumps. My gearing (32X18) sucked on the 2 track but allowed me to ride the hills and maintain a good speed in the singletrack. I finished with a time of 1:37:ish and placed 4th in my class.
Finish: Glen, Di-Bear and myself hamming it up with our swag bandanas.

May mileage/training re-cap

Well, May has come and gone and the riding conditions were exceptional off-road as well as on the road. The bulk of my miles came on the road, usually prior to work. Weekends were for off-road races and training. I would like to increase the road distances per ride throughout June and I just need to wake up earlier to get this done. I feel good.

May Rides - 17
Distance - 581.99 miles
Avg. Speed - 15.74 mph
Ride time - 39:06:42

YTD Rides - 53
Distance - 1786.46 miles
Avg. Speed - 16.72
Ride time - 110:15:46