The new season is here!

Time to start posting! Team Seek Adventure.. well basically Sara and I and friends, are getting ready for another great season! We recently signed with a new tire sponsor, http://www.schwalbetires.com/ the best tires out there! Sara and I are also going to be racing for http://www.bachbuilders.net/ mountain bike racing team this summer! These guys do very high quality remodels and construction. We are excited to be racing with a great group of friends! We have the 24hr national champion on the team by the name of Josh Tostado! Should be a great season! Our first race with them will be, hopefully, the 24hr in the Old Pueblo race in Arizona in Feb.. Great early season race that Sara and I will be racing as a coed duo. After that, it is the 12hr Moab adventure race.. we always look forward to that one! Having a DRY winter so far here in Co so lots of commuting time on th bike and looking forward to being in decent early season shape!

Gunnison Growler

Sara and I headed over to Gunnison Co for the annual Growler 64 mtb race this past weekend. This was the third year for this event and it just keeps getting better! With 350 people lining up at the start it seemed like a huge race! After lasts year cold and rain the dry cool, ok, cold start made the first miles a little chilly.. the temps warmed up and the day was beautiful! My whole goal for this race was to finish under 7hrs, my fastest time on this course. With the direction of the route changed, it made for some tough climbs and a little harder course than last year. I went out a little slower than normal just to make sure I wouldn't blow up too early..and when passing under the start/finish after the first lap my time was 3:18.. I knew I could beat 7hrs if I just rode steady. After slight cramping and another 32 mile lap I came in at 6:32.. well under my goal time. I had a great time and racing with Sara is always fun! She had a steady race and finished strong.. Not having a lot of training time this spring made the day less than enjoyable for her, but, she always finishes! All in all, a great weekend and a TOUGH 64 mile mtb race!! 24hrs of The Enchanted Forest mtb race in New Mexico is next up for us. Racing it solo will be interesting!! Seems to me the longer distant races are becoming more popular and more and more people are signing up for these events. Makes for great racing and you also meet new friends at every event! Good times!!

FR50 and weekend adventure racing

Well this weekend had Sara and I doing separate events.. I raced in the Front Range 50, a 50 mile mtnbike race, and Sara was racing in the the Buena Vista 24hr adventure race with a team that she knew were looking for one more teammate.
My race went pretty well.. Showing up for an event you haven't done takes a little of the pressure off.. But, watching 80 plus guys in your category line up was a little unnerving. Not only were there 80 guys in the 40-49 group, but the other groups in front of us had at least 50 each. That made for a LOT of traffic on the 10 mile course. Passing was hard in spots and I wish I had started a little closer to the front of the pack..next time. The 10 mile loop was pretty fast and I finished the 50 miles in 3:43.. fast for a mtn bike race!! All in all had a good race and was pleased with my results.. I will add photos from the race as they become available.
Sara's race started at midnight on Fri and the first leg was a long trek with a orienteering section thrown in. They made decent time on the trek and the orienteering was a little difficult.. After a navigational error and a couple of wrong turns her team did not make the cutoff for the rafting section. So, after hiking for 11 hrs straight they decided to pull out of the event.. Not a good race for Sara or the team.. Bad races happen, you just have to learn from the mistakes and move on. We will be doing more adventure racing this summer and will be focusing a little more on hiking a running as well as biking.

Rabbit Valley Ralley

This past weekend has the first Mountain States Cup race in Fruita, Co. The course's were run out at the Rabbit Valley area and consisted of great single track and dirt roads. Sara had just finished defending her masters thesis on Fri and seeing that this was not her, or mine really, style of racing, took the weekend to ride other trails and take photos.
Also racing was DeathRow Velo teammate Eric Rubottom. Eric raced in the men's Cat.1 19-29 and had a great weekend of racing finishing 5th and 12th in the two races. Great to meet a fellow DRV racer!
On Sat. was the 4.5 mile time trial race. Not having ever ridden the course it made for interesting riding when you are going as hard as you can for about 18 minutes. Using my heart rate monitor I blasted out of the gate and watched my heart rate hit 190 and stay there for the next 18:18.. Brutal! Picked a few wrong lines and got stuck in the wrong gear a couple of times, but ended up 7th in the cat.1 40-49 men's race. All good!
Sunday was the 31 mile XC race. Again, not used to racing this short of race, I was not expecting much. I knew everybody would go out hard and fast. Watching my heart rate climb into the high 180's again, I knew I had to back it off a little and just pace myself for a while. It would have been nice to have someone to work with and draft a little, but, I got stuck in no mans land for the first bit of the race. When the race hit the first steep ie; 20-25% grade I caught up with a lot of the guys.. From then until the end of the race I just got stronger and felt great! Ended up finishing in 2:28.. good enough for 9th place in the Cat.1 40-49. Out of 30 riders in the group I was more than happy with my race!

Sara finished a great 5 hr ride just in time to see me finish and got a couple of photos.

 The drive back to Denver took forever in sleet/rain/snow couldn't see, slick roads.. it just sucked! But, looking forward to driving back over the mountains next weekend for a 1 day ride of the 100 mile White Rim in Moab! Will be nice to hang with Sara for the day and enjoy our time together!

Prosource.net article

This is an article Sara and I did for prosource.net.. our Team Supreme Protein sponsor..
http://www.prosource.net/content/articles/Articles-by-ProSource/roughing-it-adventure-racers-triumph-over-the-wilderness.aspx

More fun in the sun!

Well, Sara, deep in the thick stuff of thesis defense, decided not to race this weekend so it was a solo trip to Gallup New Mexico for the 12hr Dawn til Dusk mtb race. Having been battling allergies for a few days I was not very confident of how I would do and just decided to ride my ride and see how I felt. The mass start on a 5 mile section of dirt road was the only non-singletrack part of the race. With the dust and sun in your face, it made for an interesting start! A couple of wrecks and frozen fingers for the first part of the race. I decided to check my time at about noon to see if my timing chip was working and saw that I was actually leading my catagory.. Well, that made the pain a suffering a little more tolerable and I started out on lap 6 in good shape. The next 3 laps were painful and by the time I finished with 9 laps and 117 miles, I was pretty toasted! But, I had also won my catagory! I guess I need to feel stuffed up, or break a paddle, as in the race in Moab 2 weeks ago, to do well in a race. All in all, a good day!

These are photos from our seasons first race. The Adventure Xstream Moab 12hr adventure race. We had a grea tevent with both Sara and I placing 2nd our solo divisions. Having my dad and brother race as well made for a really fun event. Next up will be th Dawn til Dusk 12hr mtnbike race in NM. I am going to try and keep up to date on our races and training throughout the year on this blog. I may not do it every day, but as often as I can get to it.