TI V3: The Essence of TransIowa

"I am here to live out loud." - Emile Zola

After starting to write a recap of TI V3, I found a novel flying out of my head. I have always said that ultra distance events like TI compress years worth of life experiences into a shortened, intense time period. This was no different. So, instead of spewing a post which James Joyce would edit down to size, I am just going to post about TI over the course of the next few days and get it out of my system in a way that's tolerable for the people who stumble over to this blog. I don't think trying to tell the tale chronologically works in such cases anyway (at least for me). I'm better off with the memories and impressions as they come.

Diversity is Essence: I rode the last 50-ish miles of the race with four other guys. We were all on single-speeds, one was fixed.

Ken Yokanovich rode a Rivendale commuter fixed. We chatted a lot over the end of the race and he is a mirror of much of my life. Two kids of the same ages, works in technology, loves bikes. His setup was directly opposite mine, complete with a Chapstick holder. He said he just went with the bike that was most comfortable. In chatting, he said he had 21 bikes to pick from (but in his words, "not all of them are good.")

Matt Braun was rocking a Surly with panniers and started the race with five pounds of summer sausage and five pounds of cheese. Rolled up wool pants was his kit of choice. He looked like he could be on his way to class. He was riding up shit I had to walk.

B.J. aka "Travis Braun" rode with me nearly the entire race. B.J. rocked a frame which was formerly his fathers, equipped with a prototype SS PowerTap hub. It was a tech geeks wetdream. Corey, B.J. and I rode the first half of the course pumping out an average of 220 watts when riding. I am not an expert on race science, but B.J. framed the things he would share with us as we rode. We knew we were doing pretty well.

The finish to TI was a steep two-tiered climb which lead to a graveyard. (I am suprised G-Ted didn't have an open grave waiting on me.) Ken went ahead on the climb but had to walk most of it. I couldn't climb the lower half of the climb and walked my way up the the false flat and paused. B.J. and Matt joined me after riding up the climb. They both worked their way up the climb in a switchback style that I would do well to learn. It was impressive.

As Ken remounted to ride across the line for an incredibly well-earned 6th place, Matt looked at me and said, "You've got one more climb in you, man." I laughed, mainly because I didn't believe I could ride it. I didn't either. I dabbed a couple of strokes from the top. I paused, gathered and rolled it over again, getting over the crux and headed up the last 50 yards to the line. Suddenly, the Lincoln crew was yelling something about a sprint finish and I turned back to see B.J and Matt coming hard. My smile went as wide as the Pacific and I gave it what I had. Corey captured it from below. Bonsall managed to capture an incredible photo of my smile just as my head was coming back around. B.J.'s wearing a huge grin too. It was a sprint for fun and not for places. I think he was enjoying sitting back and watching it as much as anyone else.

Thanks for riding TI with me, B.J.

FatMarc once wrote about how, if I am not mistaken, that his wife said that "Passion" was the one word she would use to describe him. Mrs. Snob read that post and said that was how she would describe me as well. To me, this is also the essence of TransIowa and it is seen in the diversity of its riders and the way they race. You see it in the way people blog about the event and the way people take care of it other on the course. Maybe we are freaks in a freak kingdom, but I am glad I have a key.

The Sprint Finish. Corey Godfrey on Camera.

Go Time. Dave, Big Skinny, and Martha.

The Bonsall Machine at Butch's Place. Katie looks a little worried.

Dangling behind B.J. and Corey.


Look!!! I See a TI Finisher. One for One for Butch.

MW. Was there ever a doubt? Fuck No.

Prelude to a Post. TI V3

Third time charmed. T-7th SS. Unsure of overall.

Lincoln Represent: Wills and Butchy rocked around 11th and 12th SS respectively.

Plesko killed it for 2nd SS. Beck threw a VeloSoiree to come in around 10th.

Big Thanks to Mark and Jeff for another great race!!

More later. We're a little tired...

Dave and Martha. Greatest Support on the Planet.

TI Prep and DIY Musette

I took the prep for TI a little differently in the last two years, and why not, since I haven't come close to finishing. Cross Bike. 38x17or16. 4 Bottles. One filled with dry Perpetuem to refill the others as I go. A Sparks may end up in the empty at mile 300. Who can say?

Mrs. Snob put together a packable musette which hooks nicely off my saddle bag when empty. Soft strap for no shoulder dig. EuroTrash all the way. No time to grow a mullet Boonen style so I went for the chops. The Aveyator and Vomitron came with the assist as usual and get a big thanks.

The DIY Musette

Rain Commute TI Style aka Helmets in the Mist.

Mickey Mouse is Dead

I had planned to carry a Sharpie with me on TI with the idea of finding a piece of cardboard along the way and writing "Where's Paddy?" on one side and "Where's Joe?" on the other. A shout out, if you will. I thought I would capture it on film and blog about it so that we could prove it really happened. That idea is now scrapped. There are too many names to put on list and I can't write that small.

So much for mediocre ideas not seeing action.

Finished the final setup at CW tonight, then promptly discovered dead batteries when I went to photograph the final product. How about tomorrow?

I had planned on playing "Name that Band" with the post title, but now I think it's too easy.

Foreshortened. Foreshadowed.

Today was three hours of gravel love and good times with Corey, DK and Dr. Avey. In what could prove to be a prelude to TI, we got caught out in a fairly heavy downpour, but fine boy scouts that we are, just kept riding. I love a good rain ride and this was perfect. The socks ended up a bit crusty, which caught the eye of Mrs. Snob. In particular the lace like dirt fringe added to the cuff. Dead sexy baby.

Paul's Countdown has tiny numbers. Smiles everyone. Smiles.

Btw, go tell Joe way to f$%king go. 4th SS at Chohutta.

Like my flip-flops?

"Your not going into the house like that."

Hauling Extra Carcass

Earlier in the week I was thinking through my prep for TI last year and it dawned on me that I am much heavier than last year at this time. I've been stealing recipes from Organic Athlete and various other sites ever since. I don't mind being a man "built for the classics," but not a guy built from Wendy's Classics.

Btw, if you're heading to TI, we now do have a prerace meeting on Friday night. Check it on the site. It also looks like weather will be joining us again, it's just a matter of when it hits based on Intellicast.

Wilderness was great today and somehow no one was out when I was there. I moved a fair number of branches off the trail and most of the bad spots are dry with only a couple of exceptions.

Obligitory "TI-alike" Photo

Assorted Snobbery: David Sedaris

Mrs. Snob and I attended a David Sedaris reading tonight. I am not one for readings. Whether from too many creative writing courses or an inverted elitism, I have rarely enjoyed listening over reading it myself. David Sedaris did more than read. He entertained and a portion of that entertainment was his written word. A larger portion was his personality, which of course comes through in his art as well.

He also recommended Max Brooks and his books on Zombies. Might be a good read, because, as David Sedaris pointed out, there's a lot of "zombie bullshit" out in the media right now.

Pea-Gravel Brain

There are times when I can be more than a little OCD and TransIowa seems to bring the best/worst of my penchant for leading Team Over-Analysis. One-off emails getting sent to friends, "What do you think about this? What crazy am I for considering that?" I also visited Ira Ryan's site and blog today, making my way to the photo below. That setup is pretty close to what I believe I will run (except of course for all of those gears). Btw, check out his frames. Gorgeous.

I watched a saved airing of Ronde Van Vlaanderen tonight to clear my head and it just made things worse. Maybe the answer is to focus on the goodness of Paddy's preem.

Tiny Tortures

Jeff and I rode another afternoon TI primer and conversation fest today. After braving our way East through the chaos that is the Lincoln trail system on one of the first nice days of spring, we linked the Mopac to gravel to John Deitrick (sp?) and back home. Aside from a tweak here or there, I believe the decisions are down in pen. Full details later in the week.

Hitting the JD. I had no idea it extended that far East.

The picture's not really doing the scene justice. At the time, I thought "French Countryside."



"How to Give Yourself a Stress-Fracture."

During Ouachita, I experienced the worst hotspot I have ever felt. At the time, I simply told myself to forget it and kept on riding. After the race, I had spent much of my time riding the cross bike and wearing an older set of shoes. Well, today I went back to the new shoes and, after about 2.5 hours, WHAM, here comes the pain again. I pulled off the shoe to find I was essentially trying to drive a dagger into my foot. I am not quite sure how I missed the fact that the screw was significantly longer than standard when I put my cleats in, but at least I found it now. I cannot image how that would have felt during a 330 mile ride.

Ride of Nods

My head was a paperweight today. Not quite myself and not quite here. Rode for just short of three. Had wanted more. The park is a coin-flip sectional made for riding and walking around short swims. Too much open wind and not enough back-alley protection outside on limestone and gravel. Ah, Iowa. Third timed charmed.

Youth Brigade

Tonight I guided a Cub Scout Tiger Cub den through Cycleworks and did may best to infect them with the bug. You know the one, because if you read this blog, you've been infected for sometime yourself. Evangelist? Yes. Zealot? Maybe.

I started with the obligatory helmet speech and "It fits like so" explanation, but did it with a pink and black helmet. "Ewww!! Yuck!! It's pink!!??!!" I knew there was work to do with these little cats. We hit the various types of bikes then marched our way into the shop area with Jerrod's fixie in the stand. (Thanks again for the help, Jerrod.) I had the kids calling out bike parts and moved into explaining what a fixed gear was and why people ride them. Occassionally having to dumb things down for the parents as much as the kids. I'd let the air out of J-Rod's front tire and asked the kids to figure out what was wrong with the bike. Scream and scream. "It's flat!! It's flat." So I lead them through a tube change and let them pump up the tire. Who knew this would be the highlight. "I wanna pump!! Can I pump!!??!!" I also spewed a little bike history regarding fixed gears and the Tour.

As we finished up, I passed out spoke cards which Mrs. Snob designed with Pack and Den numbers prominent for the kids to rock at the upcoming bike rodeo. They didn't surpass pumping up the flat, but they went over pretty well.

All in all, a success. Most of the kids seemed stoked. The parents were also asking questions (even the jackass know-it-all who clearly didn't) and a few purchases went through the register as well.

Now if one or two of the kids gets into riding, I'll chalk it up as a victory.

Randoms

Often now, though I may want to blog, I just have little to nothing worth typing out and so I sit and think bikes, friends but no post comes forward. Today was a day that would tend to have some hidden post; the Rapha catalog showed up in the mail, visited Rock D at MassageWorks for a little of the good touch and rode in the rain, which always refreshes unless it creeps down to the bones and the chill outweighs the pleasure.

Instead, I find myself posting about not having a post. Lovely. Drivel. Call it "blogger's block," call it what you will.

I had a dream last night that I was at the front of TI near the end of the race with three cats and two of them aren't even going to be there. What the Hell?

Dreams are for wishful thinking.

2007 Wins Already

Rolled my first XC race in 3-ish years today. 30 degree temps. 30mph winds. Mid-pack SS finish. I played "where's Scott?" the entire time as I kept seeing Showen in front of me at about thirty seconds. Had I not been so lazy at the start we could have probably had a great conversation during the race.

Races Finished in 06: 1

Races Finished in 07: 2

Things are looking up already.

"This is beer. Beer is good."

Bone Palace Bicycle Ballet

With TransIowa the next major race on the agenda, I have spent a bit of time ruminating on gear selection. Not just of the 38x16 type, but of the what should I carry and what's wasted weight variety. The plan will be along the lines of "go light and freeze at night."

I'm also going to try may hand at my first XC race in a couple of years this weekend. Tranquility doesn't sound like the greatest single track in the world, but why not race, I'd be riding anyway.

"small conversation in the afternoon with John Fante
he said, "I was working in Hollywood when Faulkner wasworking in Hollywood and he was
the worst: he was too drunk to stand up at the
end of the afternoon and so I had to help him
into a taxiday after day after day.

"but when he left Hollywood, I stayed on, and while Ididn't drink like that maybe I should have, I might havehad the guts then to follow him and get the hell out of there."

I told him, "you write as well asFaulkner.:

"you mean that?" he asked from the hospitalbed, smiling. "

Ouachita Challenge: Bittersweet Symphony

The short version is I finished 12th SS and botched a three up single speed uphill sprint for 10th. The long version makes me feel better.

If you have not done the Ouachita Challenge, it's one to consider for next season. As you can see from the previous photos, we arrived a couple of days early and checked out the course. We tried to visit what we had heard were the hardest sections. Hindsight proved we had the right trails, but not the correct segments. Still, it was enough to let us know what we would be in for through the sixty miles.

The course switches from gravel to single-track, back and forth through the end of the race. Each section varied in length of course, but you get the idea. As we rolled out from Oden school at 8am, I stuck my fat ass and little gear right up front behind big skinny himself. I knew I wouldn't stay there as people took off on the first gravel section, but it seemed the best way to avoid issues and worked pretty well. Once into the first section of single track, I was all smiles. Quite a few people were spinning to recover from the steep kick on the climb to the one track but it didn't take much to get them to let you slide around them. "Single Speeder back" and people were instantly looking for a way to let you by.

I was loving the race. The technical sections were truly that. Long sections of boulders with no real line visible. Commit and hit it or walk. Not that I drilled it everytime, but I tried to push myself as it was obvious how slow walking through it would be. The race also contained long gravel grinders where I was just trying to tick the legs over metronome style and reel some people in. I had more fun on the early single track but felt stronger in the gravel. I'll chalk it up to not having been able to ride any single track until the race, but I still thought it was strange.

Things were well until entering the last section of single track, which was called the Womble Trail. This was a far less technical ten mile section, but I feel apart in the heat and wilted like a fragile flower. One longer portion of trail seemed to be south facing into the sun with little shade or wind. I had that stagnant air feeling you get when your sitting in a hot car with the windows rolled up and grew continually more frustrated that I felt the way I did. I would walk a bit to recover, remount and ride a bit, then dismount and do the same thing all over again.

This culminating in my getting passed by three single speeders in the final mile of single track, all within the span of about one minute. For some strange reason though, once I popped out onto the last 10 mile section of gravel, I felt rejuvinated. Pop-psychologists are welcome to evaluate. I don't get it.

Despite not knowing how much time I had lost, I decided to try to bridge up to them. I caught one guy easily enough as I believe he was bonking hard. It wasn't until the final couple of miles that I saw the last two guys. I have no idea what gear they were running or how hard they were riding but I could tell I was gaining so it was back to the metronome. I caught them as they turned onto the road which lead to the finish with only about 300 yards remaining.

Instead of just powering passed on the right hand side, I slowed, said hello and commented that I didn't feel right about the last minute pass. I have no idea why, but that's what happened. One of the two looked at me and with a deep southern twang said, "All's fair in love and war, man." So I just kept riding then he jumped into a full sprint. I tried to react, didn't have much left and not only did he get away but his buddy rolled around me as well.

I should probably have my BKB privledges revoked. ....I also need to keep an eye on the temp and lose more weight.

Really, it's a bitter sweet result. I was up in the top ten of the derailleur haters for the vast majority of the race and I believe was stronger than I have been on the bike. If I handle the heat, the sprint is never an issue.
*****
Other Highlights:
*****
Ping ponging with CVO for much of the race. When a guy's clearly having that much fun, it's contagious.
*****
I heard a voice on my left say, "that there's a pretty bike" as we climbed the first steep shot of the day. I gave a general "Thanks man" only to discover it was Joe. Unfortunately, Joe took the long cut or he would have been solidly in the top 10.
*****
Rob Pennell can ride some rocks. At one point, I had gotten slowed by some guys walking and Rob came blazing through one of the rockiest sections on the course yelling, "I feel like I am back in KC!!" It was sweet as hell.
*****
Squirrel's postive vibe. His achilles was giving him hell, but he was still up and killing dreams. Get that thing healed, my man.
*****
On the Ouachita trail, I could tell by the topography of the land and time time we had been riding the the final descent was near so I went cross style for a while and ran a few short steepish climbs, only to have a guy whose wheel I was on yell back, "are you fucking running behind me?! That's fucking awesome!!
*****
Len got me over the last steep climb on the course when I was still feeling semi-crappy. Watching him crank up it got my ass back on my bike.
*****
Chatting with Cam Chambers after the race. Tells me he took first SS like it's no big deal, wants to talk about my bike instead of himself and how it's nice I am not riding crap anymore. Class.
*****
Syd with another W. What can you say? Rockstar.
*****
Last but not least, road tripping with the CycleWorks crew. Thanks fellas.

Pass me a beer. This is gorgeous.

Big Brushy? How about Lots O' Rocky?

Papa IF. Baby IF. (Yes, I ran a Switchblade.)

Corey prerace. Btw, if Corey didn't stop to help people, he's top 50 with ease.