Pongo-Rantz

Stoking the Fire

2012-01-02T09:19:00.000-08:00

Although there always seems to be something to complain about I should not complain how my 2011 riding/racing season went. After all I think I rode more miles in 2011 than I did in 2009 and 2010 combined. I fell 500 miles short of my goal but I did tell myself early in the year I wasn't going to over stress about forcing rides. I did miss a couple races I wanted to do but the races I made it to went very well. Can't complain about 3 races and 3 trips to the podium.

I had planned to use my 10 day winter break off of work to do an endurance block but I got pretty sick so I spent 10 days off the bike. Oh well. The main reasons I am not upset is becuase I am still way ahead of where I was last year at this time and more importantly still on track with where I was in the beginning of 2008. Plus, I didn't have to be at work so I got tons of down time with Sue and the kids even though I wasn't feeling all that great.

2012 is shaping up to be the most promising riding/racing season I have had in 4 years. Although I have loftly goals for myself this year I would still be very happy if at this time next year I am writing and stating that I didn't accomplish anything more than I did in 2011. But Brian and I have had a few talks already and are both very excited to be back in the mix of a race series. Along with chasing points we also have a few races we'd like to attend to put some old demons to rest....unfinished business.

What's most exciting is the idea of being back in the mix with my old foes who are also geat friends. Over the past few years they have helped me keep focus on some day returning back to the starting line and 2011 scratched the surface of what the old days were like. Now it's possible that all four of us maybe back at the line togther and man what a site that will be.

Breaking Into New Territory...But Not On Two Wheels

2011-11-22T09:41:00.000-08:00

I normally wouldn't rant about rave about my bowling but......

My first game of league night last Saturday night I wasn't happy with a 170 something I threw but I was content that I was closer to where I wanted to be. I should be able to throw 180-190 every game. I had 2 bad weeks before this and I was working on digging myself out of a rut. Only issue today was that I was hitting the pocket well but the pins weren't falling for the strike. I felt like my first game I should have had 2-3 more strikes than I ended up with. No issue tho, that's how the game goes some days. At least I was throwing a consistent ball to the pocket. I did miss two spares that cost me a 190 game though. I get more upset with myself for missing spares than I do with not getting a strike on the first ball. But as a team we did enough that game to pull off a win against one of the better teams in the league.....by 16 pins.

Before game two I went to talk with Sean, my officially unofficial bowling coach. He is on the league and loves to help people bowl better and does it well because he only gives out advise if and when you ask for it. He said, "Slow the ball down. Lower back swing and you'll control the release. Plus you know your ball gets better pin action at a slower speed. So game two I made the adjustment and slowed the ball down a bit with a lower back swing. I also toweled the ball more often. Some times I forget how important that is. So I was able to rack up a few more strikes and managed a solid 218. Picked up all my spares and we won that game by 11 pins. Sue, Danielle and Todd were throwing their averages both games but we barely escaped a loss both games. I knew in order to take the series I needed to throw another good game. It was then I realized that another 600 series was possible if I just threw a 210.

So going into the third game I was focused on my 600 series. I wanted to start off with 2-3 strikes to get the team rolling. The first three strikes felt perfect coming off the hand. 4 was a little different but barely. 5 was spot on like 1-3. So I had tied my record for most consecutive strikes and was on my way to the 210 I wanted. 6th frame the ball slipped out off my thumb and I threw it flat, end over end, no side rotation but since I felt it slip I adjusted the release and sent it straight to the pocket from the right side with no hook. I figured I'd leave a pin or two and was very surprised when they all fell. I turned around and said out loud, that was pure luck right there. Number 7 was a picture perfect strike. Could possibly be the best ball I have thrown in decades, seriously. But it didn't really sink in until the 8th frame.

While going up for the 8th frame the sweeper, Jon, for the other team stopped me. He could tell I was starting to get nervous. He said, "Listen, this is bowling. It gets scored one frame at a time. Don't think about any thing else but this frame. Relax and take it one frame at a time." I knew Jon and we had talked quite a few times in the past. He's an avid bowling with a more than a few 300 games under his belt. So I relaxed a bit and remembered what he'd said.

After I threw the strike in the 8th it started to become a reality that I might be able to pull off a 300. After the 9th I wasn't sure what to do with myself while waiting for the 10th frame to come. No one was talking to me but I wished some on would of but at the same time I was to wrecked up to start a conversation with anyone. 10th frame comes and I am the lead off bowler for our team. In a regular league I'd be third or fourth man but this is for fun so it didn't really matter. Well the girl on the other team didn't even get out of her seat. I walked by her and she gave that look like, "the lanes are all yours." Very classy move. Jon gave me 'the nod' like he knew I could do it. So I grabbed my towel, and cleaned my ball. By now I had developed a pre approach routine, even where I was putting my towel down after wiping the ball off. Took my stance, then a deep breath and then my approach. I knew if I was going to mess up any of them it would be this one. It left my hand and I knew it was good. Went back to the ball rack without making eye contact with anyone. My nerves were really starting to get to me. Grabbed my towel before my ball came so no one would see my hands shaking.

Ball came and now I am set up for number 11. 'Two more' I told myself. As I stood there for my approach I noticed the music was louder. That's when I realized more people had stopped bowling and had come to watch me bowl. That didn't make number 11 any easier. However, I kept the little cool I had left and managed another smooth release. It was tracking good but I made sure to watch it all the way through. They all fell and I closed my eyes in amazement. I really couldn't believe the situation I was in. Just 6 months ago I threw my first ever 600 series and this season I had only thrown a handful of games over 200. I had no business being this close to a 300. For crying out loud my previous high game was a 248 I did that over 10 years ago at open bowl with some friends.

But none the less I was here and had a chance at perfection. Now the whole damn place was quiet. Music was still on but he had turned it down. When I went back for my ball I didn't look up as I really didn't want to see how many people were watching although I had a good idea of how many. While cleaning my ball I thought about volleyball. I had played for so many years and been in so many good matches but it was nothing like this. I thought about cycling. So many races I had did well at but I trained my ass off for them so I expected good results. This tho, this was all new to me. As I held my ball for my approach I could now see it moving from my hand shaking. 'Uno Mas' I thought to myself. Took my approach and it all felt good until the release. The pressure had gotten to me and I threw it a little to much to the left but it did not have as much lift on it so it wasn't going to hook past the pocket. I knew it was going to hit a little high and heavy on the head pin but the crowd behind me already started blowing up because it looked like it was very possible I'd get the strike. Problem was me and maybe one other person there knew I had thrown it a little to fast and I would not get that side to side pin action that had been working so well. As it hit the pins, they scattered and I could see some of them went up to high and when they all went still the 4 and 7 were standing.

298. . . . so close.

As I walked back I got a lot of hand shakes, high fives and congratulations on an awesome game. I knew it was incredible but to be so close I couldn't help but be a little disappointed. I'm human. So we had won the third game, the series and retained first place in the league for yet another week. Todd immediately said, "Let's go get a drink and celebrate." It took a few minutes for the disappointment to go away and once I had the drink down my nerves also went down and my hands finally stopped shaking.

In the end I learned a few things and also saved some money. I told Sue if I would have hit a 300 I would have had to retire my ball and put it up on a stand above the fire place in the Living room. I got that look and she said, "Well, I would have let you keep it up there for a couple weeks." and then gave me a big hug and kiss.

Burchfield Time Trial

2011-10-18T09:30:00.000-07:00

Well I had this big, long, me gloating about me, boring to everyone but me write up done about this race I did back on October 1st. Seriously it was REALLY long. It described a lot of the trail sections in detail but after thinking about it Brian and I drove all the way out there to race that trail with out ever even riding it before so why should I give anyone more of an edge than I had if they are even remotely thinking about going out there next year. Sure Dubs sent us a VERY descriptive email laying out the trail meter by meter, short of sending up a virtual topo map. But really even if I had a month to study that email there was no way I'd remmber all that come race day. Plus there were others out there racing that had never been there before. So not only am I being selfish for Brian and me, I am being selfish for the others I know who went there blind....thus my pictures only showing the easy sections of the trail.

So my personal recap is as follows:

1 - It was frikin' cold when we got to the race. 36 degrees on October 1st.
2 - Met many cool people before the race and signed up for Men's A (highest division they had listed)
3 - Scoped out some of the course while warming up.
4 - Still frickin' cold at start time, 10:00am.
5 - Course was killer with a little bit of everything.
6 - Rode a clean race to the finish with litle to no mistakes.
7 - Still cold after the race and quickly layered back up.
8 - Won some cool stuff int he silent auction and warmed up by the fire
9 - Found out I had won 1st place in the Men's A division and was feeling pretty good about myself.
10 - 5 minutes later found out I didn't set the fastest time of the day. Ends up some high school kid from Brighton smoked my time by a full 3 minutes. Props to the young ripper. Solid time!
11 - Packed up camp and loaded the car.
12 - Still frickin' cold outside.

Still went home happy with my fancy trophy medal wooden ninja star thing.

Back to the basics

2011-09-08T09:14:00.000-07:00

Welp, the road bike found it's way to the basement and is now one with the fluid trainer. This will allow me to ride around the weather a little better. I'll still get out for the occasional trail ride this fall but the morning road rides outside before work are done for the season. Just plan to spin thru September and use it as a transition time. In Oct I will be back to the weights and will plan to start building my base back up on the bike. No races planned for the rest of 2011. Have some penciled in but none I feel I have to be at.

Next 5 weeks will be interesting. My son's soccer schedule will own me thru this time and also we decided to start my daughter in a volleyball program. After seeing me play last Monday she got all excited about the game. Plus the wife's volleyball season starts in 2 weeks so she has been working out hard to get ready for her up coming season. As much as I like the sport of cycling, most people know I'd give it all up to be able to play volleyball regularly again. Although I was just a shadow of my former self on the court earlier this week, I had a blast playing with and against the old crew. Marlowe, Bob, Tony, Len and this fancy guy named Cougar. After 3 games I was done and should have probably called it quits after the second game. It was just to hard to say no. Been doing a lot of extra stretching this week to keep the femur and tibia as far apart as possible to keep the pain down and it seems to be working. Still having issues walking down the stairs though. This was my reminder as to why I had to walk away from the game years ago. The muscle soreness is easy to deal with. It's the bone to bone contact that hurts like a mutha.

I am really happy with how the summer went as far as riding and hope to start earlier next year. I am going to focus on returning to Yankee and Fort Custer, two races I have not done since 2007. Yeah I missed a few races this summer due to scheduling, father-in-law having heart attack and not renewing my license but I was pleased to see the level at which I was able to compete at the races I did do. 2 races, 2 podium finishes. Gives me motivation to train this off season thinking that I can still keep the big guns on my radar screen. Sure I may not win any races but I could become a regular podium threat again.

Going Solo . . . Maybury Time Trial

2011-08-23T08:18:00.000-07:00

It seemed my alarm went off way earlier than I wanted it to. Had a hard time falling asleep the night before due to all the excitement of my first solo race in almost 3 years. It would be a Time Trial format but a good way to measure up. Soout of bed I rolled to start the day. Had packed most of the car the night before so it didn't take long before I was in my car with my waffles and tea. Couldn't of asked for better weather. As I drove to Maybury along 696 through Royal Oak all the classic cars were everywhere as the Woodward Dream Cruise was the same day. A little later down the road I was passing Farmington and thinking about Becky, Brian and Jim who were running the local 5K at 9:00am. My morning mission was to get to Maybury early so I could drive my car up to the staging area and unload before the crowd got thick. Plus I wanted to avoid the long registration lines. I was preregistered but Brian wasn't and because he was running the 5K and would be cutting it close to race I would be signing him up to make life a little easier for him.

As I set up the tent and such I started to think about the race. The field was 12 large but you know there'd be a few day of's to fill more slots. I was trying to be realistic with my goal for the race. Top 3 get medals but I'd be happy with a top 5. Heck I'd be happy to finish in the to 50% of my class. Being out of the race scene for a while I wasn't familiar with many of the names in my class but the two I did know posed a serious threat to my Top 5 finish. Jeremy "Dozer" Daum would be there as well as my long time racing threat Brad "Loco" Lako. Yes, even tho Jeremy and I teamed up just a month earlier for the Tree Farm Relay, we'd be racing against each other now as he really races for Trail's Edge. He'd matched my lap times at The Farm but the advantage I had was I am starting 30 seconds behind him so I get to be the pursuer, not the pursuee. The bigger threat tho was Brad. I'd be stupid to think I could match his power this early on in my return to racing. I had him favored to win so I planned to use him as a measuring stick to see where I stood against a guy who regularly sees the podium.

After setting up I went to the registration table and the first person I run into is no one other than Brad Lako. He looked the business. Probably 10 pounds lighter than the last time I raced against him. It was hard not to think about the fact that he was going to kick my @ss. Nevertheless it was good to see an old friend who has been behind me, pushing, to keep me riding during the time I have been away from this whole scene. After all the paperwork I went back to the team tent and relaxed and had my second breakfast which would be my last solid food until after the race. Not to much later Jon "Dubs" Wlodarczak and his entourage showed up. Like Jeremy, Jon rode the relay with us but he actually rides for a different team. However, after winning a medal together he is considered part of the pack. Personally I wanted him to race in the same class as Dozer and I but he's new to the whole geared bike thing so he planned to race Sport geared and then Elite/Expert Single Speed. He pitched his tent right next to ours and then told me to stop talking and go warm up.

Surprisingly I was more calm than I thought I'd be. Really the only thing I had riding on this race was to see where I stacked up. But it was Maybury, a very favorable course for my style of riding, so I knew I would have a slight advantage. During warm ups I ran into Jeremy, Elaine and her son John. Wasn't sure if Jeremy had obligations to Trail's Edge tenting but I told them to feel free to park under our tents anyway and pointed out where they were. Was glad to hear they wanted to hang with us as we all had such a good time at the relay. I ran into Brad and Jeremy again near the start line and chatted with them both. My serious conversation was with Jeremy as he would be 4th off in our class and I would be 5th. The objective for us was for me to try and catch him and for him to do his best to stay away from me. Yes, this is the normal plan of two racers but it was different with us as we knew each other and this would only push us to be faster.

At 9:05:00 Jeremy went of like a flash. Within seconds he disappeared into the woods. As I rolled up to the starting line the nerves were gone and the adrenaline started flowing. Plan was to attack hard right from the go and use the pavement/grass sections for regroups and prepare for further attacks. 9:05:30, I am off. The first climb of the course threw me off a little as it was a double dip off camber climb. I expected the first part but not the second. Oh well, I tend to do better when I don't pre ride a course. I mean it was Maybury and I could ride it blindfolded, the extended race loop sections were what would be a surprise to me. The second surprise was the right turn at the first pavement crossing. I expected to cross and go back in the woods but they had us turn right on the grass and ride down a hill just to make us turn at the bottom, scrub our speed and have us climb back up. No problem tho, that section gave me a visual of Jeremy and the other 3 guys in front of me and also let me know where the guy was who started behind me.

I could see I was gaining ground on Jeremy but I knew Jeremy would kick it up a notch when he saw me. This is exactly what we needed tho. He had already put a rider between us, Bici Libre, and now I had to take care of that business soon. It was a clean pass in the gravel road climb and as always when you pass some one in a TT format you need to make sure they don't hang onto your wheel so I pushed the pace hard for the next mile in order to drop him. Not to long after that pass I heard another chain clanking a stay in front of me and quite honestly I knew it wasn't Jeremy. No way would I catch him this soon. My 6 was clear so I stayed focused on the bike in front of me. It took a while but I closed the gap to the ACF Wolverine and made the pass before the trail spilled out to the pavement section. So all I had in front of me now was the entire Elite class, Dozer and one other from our class, Razo who is a solid rider as well. Of course this was the long pavement section where I was supposed to recover but I had just passed a Wolverine and needed to push the pace to make sure he stayed behind me. So I went low into TT position but grabbed a gel and liquid. I saw a glimpse of Dozer but he still had about 30 seconds on me. He was riding strong and even from the distance his pedal strokes looked smooth.

The entire second lap was a game of hide and seek between Jeremy and I. Felt like we were the only to people on the trail as I did not hear anyone else's bike except mine and his. Maybe I had tunnel hearing tho as I was focused solely on reeling him in. On the grass hill climb I was starting to feel the attacks in my legs. I could see Jeremy in front of me, closer than before but his hardtail was pulling away from my full suspension. Just then. Jon appeared out of no where and pulled up alongside of me. After a brief conversation he concluded that I wasn't working hard enough and to shut up and pedal. Brought me back to 2008 when I was doing the Short Track at Brighton and Todd Powers told me from the sideline I wasn't going fast enough and I needed to open it up and ride like I am capable of. Jon said exactly what I needed to hear and I was back in attack mode. I was now in full hunting mode....blood hound style.. Brian calls it smelling the blood trail. I saw Jeremy on some switchbacks and would take notes of a point of interest so I could count the gap between us when I got there. First it was 20 seconds, next was 35, then down to 15, back up to 20.....the first lap I came in just under 41 minutes and this lap was turning into a war. Attack, counter attack, attack, counter attack. I know he saw me every time I saw him and it was driving him as well.

I was running out of time to close the gap and was surprised but also proud of Jeremy for keeping ahead of me for this long. He was riding a hell of a race to stay out of my grasp. Then on the last pavement section I saw him. I told myself if I don't do something now I won't catch him. Less than 5 minutes and this race will be over. So instead of reaching for the bottle I shifted into the biggest gear I had, got low, hands close to the stem and pushed hard. The pain increased dramatically but I was closing in on him. Steady breathing, controlled pedal strokes and eyes focused ahead. As I entered the last single track section I rolled up onto his back wheel, so in the red I was unable to let him know I was there. After about 10 seconds he heard my bike and was surprised to see me. He was deep in the red as well but I manage to belt out a coupe things to him. "Almost done brother! One more short climb! Keep pedaling in circles!" He was losing his smooth pedal stroke and I didn't want him to blow before the end. He picked up our pace even more and we rounded the corner at the top of the climb onto the grassy two track standing on our pedals. I was still on his rear wheel when he shifted into his bigger ring on his 2x10 set up. We onlyhad 200-250 yards to go and I had lost sprints before with my 1x9 setup so I immediately shifted and took off. I was taking a gamble passing that early but he hadn't generated much more speed yet and we were only 150 yards from the finish. After the pass I never looked back and pushed for the finish. We came across the line less than 2 seconds apart and were so out of breath we couldn't even talk to each other for a few minutes.

It had been so long I had forgotten what it was like to be in that zone. Sure I had done some endurance relays but those take hours to unfold. You can train all you want but nothing compares to a solo race where the outcome of your day depends solely on the decisions you make. After we were able to talk, Jeremy and I couldn't shut up about the race. Course was about 19 miles long and we did it in around 1:21:00. We watched others come in, notably Mr. Lako and John Heft who we were both ghost racing against. We checked and checked the timing tent for the live results and waited for the day of guys to come in to see where we placed. As I was taking off my shoes Brad came over. "Did you see how you did?" I said no. He replied, "You got 3rd man!" I was floored as there was 18 total riders in our class for the day. I didn't have to ask him how he did, as I knew he would finish ahead of me, but I did anyway and he said he finish 2nd about 45 seconds ahead of me. The gap was much smaller than I expected which made me happier, however I was upset that he didn't win. I really thought he'd be setting the curve. Jeremy ended up taking 5th, missing 4th by 0.7 seconds! I know that 0.7 is was eating away at his insides but he beat the time of his friend John Heft and that marks the first time he has done that in a race.

After the award ceremony and on the drive home I reflected a lot and even got a text from Brad congratulating me again on my finish. He had to jet after our race and I let him know I picked up his medal for him. The Tree Farm Relay finish gave me a sense of accomplishment but this finish was much more rewarding. This made 3 for 3 on bringing home hardware at Maybury but this time it was in Expert. I had been waiting for this since missing this race in 2008, when I last raced Expert solo on a regular basis.

Next up, the Addison XC.

New Label . . . . Same Great Taste

2011-06-20T10:37:00.000-07:00

All new Pongo-Rantings can be found at:

http://motor-club-6.blogspot.com/

Great Balls of Fire

2011-05-03T08:40:00.000-07:00

Man was that hot. Two weeks in Florida with the family and it was in the 90's all but one day we were there. Day we went to Magic Kingdon it was 95..... I sweat more that day than at the last 60 mile Stony Marathon I did. Thank god for Under Armor. Wore a sleeveless one under my t-shirt and it helped keep me cool-uh-cooler than I would have been without it.

Well the 5th month of 2011 has started and I am close to all the goals I set for myself to hit by the time we went on vacation. Best part is I came back from vacation under 170 pounds......not sure how I managed that considering how I ate while I was down there.

While I was gone I missed some good races. The Pontiac TT, Yankee TT and Custer Stampede are all in the books for 2011. My boys Lako-Moto and Dubs had some great results while Chunk and "Tigerblood" Evans seemed satisfied with thier results. And the word on the street is that Ox is practicing for the annual Oreo Cookie stacking contest.

Hopefully the steady Spring Showers will let up soon because the skinny tire bike wants off the fluid trainer and I am ready to get the Schwalbes dirty again especially since they seem to finally be holding air now.

You're gonna do what?

2011-04-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

April 10th, lazy Sunday morning. Sydney and Tyler (my niece and nephew) were over the night before and we were wore out. Sue had a doc appointment at 9:00 AM and I was hanging out with the kids. Chocolate milk and Pancakes for breakfast. Was supposed to get up to 80 and I had plans to clean the garage and the cars while the kids played outside. Ash was doing some homework before it got nice out, Abi was dancing to Pretty In Pink by the P Furs and Ciara was being Ciara and coloring. 11:40 AM, phone rings. The In-laws want to take the girls to the zoo at 12:30. 11:50 the girls are fed, dressed and ready to go with snacks packed. 11:51 I get an idea. 11:52 I tell Ash the idea. 11:53 Ashton and I start rushing around to gather up all our gear to go ride at ILRA. Neither one of us have been out to ride yet this year and our stuff was scatter from the front closet to the basement to the garage. He remembered everything he needed and even grabbed some of my stuff without being asked to while I was packing us foods and liquids for afternoon. 12:25 the girls are off to the zoo. 12:30 Ash and I are giving Sue a kiss good bye and are heading out the door to the trail. We head west on 696 and I say to him, "Dude, good work on helping us get out the door." He replies, "dad, I grabbed ROAM. Can I watch it on the way there?" I said, "Only if we can play the music loud." So we jam as I drive and he watches his favorite mountain bike movie. 1:15 we arrive at the parking lot trail head. We get the bikes out, do a once over which included raising his seat, some quick brake adjustments, lubing chains and airing up tires. We also rapped with the guy parked next to us that was about to take out his Surly Pugsley. I wanted to take it for a spin but Ash was all geared up with his helmet, gloves and pack and was ready to roll so I passed on the offer, hit the keyless remote to lock the doors and off we went at 1:30. 3:30 PM we are back at the car and gearing down after an awesome ride together. Yup, my 8 year old rode for 2 hours which include a couple stops here and there for munching on some energy bars for him. We just cruised along at his pace and talked about riding the entire time. He rode great and even tackled some hills, ups and downs, that he couldn't or wouldn't do last year. Very proud of him. So needless to say the cars never got cleaned and neither did the garage. But I really don't think that was the best way to spend an 80 degree day in early April in Michigan anyway. Some quick cell pix of the ride:

Raining but at least it's getting warmer

2011-04-04T09:39:00.000-07:00

Well the first quarter of the year is over already. Training was going great until I got food poisoning last week which forced me to take 6 days off the bike. Seems I am the only person on the planet that can get sick fromeating hashbrowns. Can't ride if I can't eat. That really cut into my build period seeing as I am going on a 2 week vacation in less than 2 weeks and every session counts right now. But hey, no one is paying me to do this so I don't sweat it. Plus I just got an email last week that will force me to miss the 12 Hours of Stony which was going to open the race season for me. That leaves me with all of May to train now since there is nothing else on the schdule that catches my eye.

Actually, after looking at the race schedule a little closer I may not be at a starting line until late June or early July now. I hope to take Ashton to a couple races before then so he can do the Beginner 11 and Under. The plan is to get him to the starting line once a month. He is really excited about it and has already asked me when his training starts. We are targeting the Brighton Stage Race XC to be his first race. We'll see if we can get a ride or two in before then. It will be hard with the Florida trip being so close and most of the trails still being closed right now. If not then the fort Custer TT will open his season.

In less than two weeks and it will be 2 full weeks of no work for me and no school for the kids. Can't wait. Sunshine and swimming pools!

"Where'd who go?!"

2011-03-09T11:01:00.000-08:00

What's up with all the changes you ask? Well, the tires on Team Signoutfitters.com are completely flat. So we are moving into 2011 with a clean plate. No official team or club name. No official team kits, or stickers, socks, towels, beer holder things....or all the snazzy swag that came with being part of the team back in it's hey day...or is it hay day...or hay dey?

Anyway, the names you see on the right are the ones you'll see at the endurance races this year. So who knows what colors we will be wearing, if we will even match or if we'll even bother to brush our teeth or comb our hair before we show up.

What matters is that we are still planning to compete as an unofficial team to keep the roots alive. So we'll see you all out there this season.....even tho it will be harder pick us out of the crowd. Just give us a better chance to sneak up on our opponents from behind....MU HA HA HA HA!!!

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

2011-02-25T11:47:00.000-08:00

So ends February of 2011. I know, we have 3 more days left but Monday starts the next stage of training. I was planning on doing my last ride of the period tonight but I don't think my body is not going to let me. I may just lay on the couch tonight and going into a Coma for 8 hours. I think my body needs it. Let's review the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

Good:
- Miles and ride times are up for the month. A little shy of where I wanted to be but still over the minimum so I am pleased with my progress.

- Managed to test the waters on a couple morning rides. By April I'd like to be doing all my rides in the morning to make the transition for the warmer weather. I like riding in the morning much better because then i can go about the rest of my day without worrying whether or not I will have time to ride. I have done this in years past with positive results.

- Lost another 3 pounds this month. Down to 171 lbs. Plan was to lose 10 pounds by April and I am down 9 for the year so far. I am at a very respectable weight that I could stay at for the season and not complain about carrying extra baggage on the trail. Again, I have been lighter but I don't have little noodle arms anymore and a roadie chest. Only issue is that the European Race Cut Team Kit is a little tight around the arms and shoulders.

Bad:
- Still need new brakes for the bike for this season. I really have to decide soon so I can get the bike ready for the season. I could be riding outside as early as April so i need to get my sh!t together.

- Tires aren't holding air very well. The Schwalbes Racing Ralphs are awesome tires but I can't seem to get them to seal up. Have put so much sealant in them I might as well be running tubes to save weight. I am open to suggestions on this. If I can't get them to seal up soon I may make the switch to Kenda Karamas. I am not crazy about the tread pattern but I have heard nothing but good reviews from fellow riders on the Karamas.

Ugly:
- I am sick. Been popping Halls all morning and am on my second round of Dayquil. There goes my 120 min ride tonight. Plan to rest today and tomorrow and maybe by Sunday I will be ale to saddle up.

- My car is still covered in salt. After this morning's snow fall we have had the second snowiest February in Detroit history since they started charting it. Five more years until I buy a snow blower. Promised myself I wouldn't get one until after I turn 40.

So bring on March and the intervals that come with it. Monday starts my 6 Weeks of Pain program (Disclaimer: It's actually 7 weeks long. 3 weeks of pain, rest week and then 3 more weeks of pain) then after that it's TWO WEEKS in Florida with the family for some much needed R&R and when we get back the riding/race season will be in full swing.....which reminds me, it may be time to shave the beard.

The Beginning of the Beginning.

2011-01-26T09:06:00.000-08:00

2011 is already 26 days old and I am doing well in my progress to get ready for the season. Lets looks at some of the highs and lows for the month:

Highs:

I - Stepped on the scale this morning and saw 174. I have lost 5 pounds already this year. A good work out program and strict diet have helped. I am tracking everything I eat on the Livestrong website, and I mean everything. I encourage everyone to check it out - http://www.livestrong.com/profile/pongomoto/

II - I seemed to have gotten my digestive system issues under control. After a year of ups and downs, it feels good to finally know what I can and can't eat for the most part. The new diet I am on has treated me well so far and I am not in a constant state of misery over the penalties of eating. I have had a couple small issues this month from testing certain foods but it's small in scale compared to what I used to have to deal with.

III - The 6 weeks I took off at the end of last year has helped my feet. My left foot seems completely healed and my right foot is about 85% and holding up well to the program I am doing this month.

IV - I am enjoying the cross training I am doing. I am back to doing weights again but what is really different is that I am not spending all my training time on the bike. I have been using the wife's fitness club grade elliptical machine. For those who don't know Sue a personal trainer. Anyway, the wife has tried in the past to tell me about the importance of cross training during the off season but I was always so bent on riding during my free time. So this year, mostly due to my foot issues, I am listening to my highly educated wife and giving it a try. She has a bachelor's in Exercise Science and has many certifications so really I should be listening to her. So what could have been a 350-400 mile month is turning out to be 200 miles . That's alright though because come the warm weather I will be able to ramp up my miles and ditch the elliptical and ride further into the season without the fear of the body wearing down.

V - The Kona Hei Hei 2-9 Deluxe is a solid ride and I cannot wait to rip the season apart with it. So glad I made the switch to the big wheels. Last October the bike was really good to me and I got enough of a feel from it to see how my 2011 season will be improved by having this bike.

Lows:

I - My tool around bike, Redline D640, that I use to scoot around with the kids and occasional jump at the parks has a frame recall. Bonus for a new frame but I really liked it so it's hard to see it go. 2011 was suppose to be the year I didn't make any roster changes in the stable but I have no choice. Redline says the frames are failing. So my new frame is in and I have to go give them my D640. Sigh. Haven't got the specs on the new frame but hope it's as good as the one I am giving back.

II - Due to budget constraints I think I will be squeezing one more year out of my road bike. Talk about old faithful, man's best friends, whatever cliche you want to use, this bike had been my workhorse for many years. It has taken the bulk of my training miles and keeps going. I had to get another set of wheels for it last year, it's third set, and will need new cables again this year. Hoping the drivetrain will hold up but I may have to cave and get a new chain, rings and cassette at least.

III - Lance......what's going on with this? Guy is back in deep water, past the bouies and it sounds like he'll need more than arm floaties to get back to the beach on this one. Sounds like he is going to spend more hours in the court room this year than on his bike. My take, well I have never been a huge fan of his. I think what he has done for cycling in America is great but as a person I think he's an ass. I would like to think he never doped and achieved all he did on his own but soooo many men have risen tot he top only to be found doping that it's hard to believe anyone. The biggest thought in my head is that for years he won the TDF and beat all those other guys, half whom were dopers, all on his own natural legs. Are his heart, lungs and legs really that genetically gifted? I really hope so for the sake of cycling in America.

THE NEW YOU.....okay maybe just me.

2011-01-07T06:09:00.001-08:00

2010 was not a good year for me. My trail bike sat in the basement collecting dust from May 15th all the way until October 7th when I finally made it out for another trail ride. I still managed to rack up close to 2,000 miles on the road bike for the calander year but that's about half of what I had planned to do. After life started to get back together in the fall and I was riding more consistently again I came down with a case of plantar fasciitis in both my feet. The right much worse than the left. I fought it for a good month before I threw in the towel and realized I had no choice but to take time off the bikes, again, to rest my feet. During that time I went to see my Podiatrist and got new orthodics made for my everyday shoes and he is in the process of making a set for my cycling shoes as well. Bonus!

So after taking much of November off and all of December I am back on the bike and rolling again.....at a very slow pace. 8 miles last Sunday. 10 Miles on Tuesday and 15 last night. Gotta start slow to make sure I don't sack my feet again. With the constant stretching and foam rolling I am doing okay and by February I should be able to start ramping up a bit.

Before all this feet stuff this past summer and fall I went back to doing upper body workouts because I was getting tired of having spaghetti arms and a weak upper back, shoulders, chest, elbows, fingers, eyelids....you get the point. So I am happy to say I have gained some unaccidental weight in areas that I planned to gain weight. However, I also gained some accidentail weight in some areas that I didn't plan to. I figure I have about 5-10 pounds of excess cargo to drop before open season starts in May.....probably closer to 10. In 2008 when I was stupid fast, lean and actually fit into my European Race Cut Team Uniform I floated around 165 pounds. I was toothpick thin but a strong wind (along with my then 5 year old son) could easily knock me over. Well now I am closing in on 180, the weight I was when I retired from volleyball, I figure more solid 170 would be a good number to get back down to.

So you are probably asking yourself, what does all this talk of Aryn's bodily parts and dimensions have to do with me? Well it seemed like a good topic and I haven't blogged in a while. And since I am the one that controls this blog page you are forced to read whatever I feel like typing about.

Last, my goals or should I say goal for 2011. Only have one. Ride my bikes more. After work trail rides. Early weekend morning road rides. Rides with the kids and rides with all the people I haven't ridden with in a couple years.

That's all I got people. No bells. No whistles. No baseball cards in the spokes. No signature closing sentences to my blogs. Just RIDE.

Looking back.....

2010-10-22T09:35:00.000-07:00

Network has been down this morning. Spent some time looking back at my old training logs (can only clean my desk for so long). Was funny to look back and think about how I came to meet some of the guys who have stuck together even tho we all raced against each other for different teams.

I remember seeing Brad Lako's name in the race results back in 2006. We were always within 2 places of each other and I would gauge my day based on how he did even tho I couldn't pick him out of a crowd. Then early 2007 I met him face to face on the trail, second race of the year, The Fort Custer Stampede. I was in 1st and didn't know it because of how the group started. I was nearing the end of my second loop and went down in a corner. As I picked my bike up a guy zoomed past me wearing mostly purple. I didn't think anything of it and took my time getting back on my bike. I eventually caught up with the guy in purple. He was close in sight but the race was almost over and I didn't bother to sprint to the finish. Probably wouldn't have caught him anyway, he beat me by 20 seconds. Plus I hadn't developed that killer instinct yet. We later reffered to it as smelling blood. Only after seeing the results did I realize that the guy who passed me when I went down was the guy who won my class which happened to be none other than Brad Lako. I learned a big lesson in racing that day.....and I knew that Brad had trained in the off season as well and like me had become a podium threat.

That same year, 2007, I was determined to medal at every race. The next race for me was one of my main focuses, The Stony Marathon. I knew I would have a hard time beating Nate Fletcher but I wanted second place and I wanted to beat Brad so bad even tho I didn't even know him. I had trained hard and the lesson I learned earlier at Fort Custer would help keep my focused. I took inventory at the starting line and like always I started a bit slower that the lead group. As I raced I picked off one rider after the other and by the last lap I was confident of my second place. Low and behold tho, the results showed differently. Yes Nate took first, but I took third. What?! Who did I not remember from the starting line? So I look again at the results.....who the hell is this Jason Melecosky guy and where did he come from? I don't remember seeing his name anywhere else on results sheets. And he just kicked my ass by over 3 minutes..

After posting a second and third I was determined to keep my top 3 status at my next race, Ruby. Again it would be difficult to beat Nate but if I had any chance it would be Ruby because that course fit my riding style very well. On the first lap I was in a 3 man pack trailing the back tire of a Sandbag rider who was following another Sandbag rider. Knowing this was ther home course I figured I should stay on their 6 for a lap and learn something. Plus they were pacing really well and I knew I was sitting in 4th. No Brad or Jason to worry about today so Nate was on my mind the entire race. I eventually passed them and went on to take 2nd, 2 minutes behind Nate, but I took note of the two Sandbag guys because one of them was collecting a lot of points in the overall. Seems this John Osgood charater did two races I skipped and he finished well.

Later that season I raced Maybury and was nervous at the start because two guys who beat me earlier in the year were there...Lako and Melecosky. We had gotten to know each other so jokes were flying at the start but I was a huge ball of nerves. I needed to win the hole shot. But that points chaser Osgood was no where to be found. So in the minutes leading up to the race I thought to myself, I came here to win today but I have to beat two VERY fast guys and make sure I save enough legs and lungs to go up against Osgood tomorrow at Pontiac because I have to beat him in order to place 2nd in the overall.,,,and I know he'll be there. Well the race started and I was able to edge out David Moore to win the hole shot and have a clear path up the climb and into the woods. My whole plan was to go balls out the first lap because if I got out of sight from Jason and Brad that maybe, just maybe they'd lose interest in mounting an attack. When it started to rain I was happier than hell because I knew the pace of the race would slow down due to trail conditions. Took the win, went home to clean my bike and get ready for day 2.

At Pontiac I wasn't surprised to see John Osgood at the line. David Moore was the only guy there from the race the previous day but it was a small crowd so my chance for a back to back win was good. Looking around, I just had to beat Osgood and I was set. Well at the gun this dude in all black motors ahead of the pack and took off like a gazzelle. No worries, I'll catch him when he blows up. One lap down, never saw the guy but I was still ahead of John. Then poof...just like that I drop my chain. WTF, my jump stop was loose and I was not carrying a tool. Put it back on and off I went. A few miles later, poof again. DAMN IT! I was more than half way thru my second loop. I look up and there is Osgood on my 6 attacking. I scramble to untangle my chain that got wedged. I get it back on and now I am in full attack mode. Pressing a hard pace because we have 3 miles left and John was pushing hard to stay in front of me. We were flying thru sections at unsafe speeds with neither one letting down. I was just trying to keep John in sight figuring I would be able to out climb him at the last big set of hills. I would have to, there was no other way to beat him. Running a 1x9 I couldn't out sprint him down the stretch because he has a big ring. Then it happened. Right before the climb my chain jumped again.......GAME OVER. I still managed 3rd but lost my 2nd overall in the series to that John Osgood guy.....by 12 seconds.

Shortly after that John and I got to know each other well and the emails between John, Jason, Brad and I flew all winter long. We all shared training secrets that would help us in the years following...still racing against each other.

Did I really just ride my bike...OUTSIDE?

2010-10-08T06:55:00.000-07:00

So I finally took the Kona Hei Hei 2-9 Deluxe out yesterday. Went to the Tree Farm to avoid the hunting grounds of ILRA like originally planned. I wanted to do some open trail testing before trying to squeeze that bike thru The Farm but what better way to learn than to throw yourself into the fire. I used to be able to do 3 continuous laps at that place at 48 minutes a piece....when I was in tip top shape. Those numbers are what gaged my fitness level for my laps.

First lap I spent learning how to steer the tall tires and wider handlebars. Plus I hadn't been on that trail in over a year so I took it easy since there are a handful of blind turns at that place. I did lose my chain once over the large log pile. I had to stop and put it back on. A little later it came off again but I was able to pedal that one back on with the crankarm. Trail was in great shape and I managed a cautious 53 minute lap. Not bad all things considered.

Second lap I pushed it a little harder and really started to work the bike thru the turns to see what it could really do. I started to really enjoy the big wheels because a lot of those little roots and bumps seemed to disappear. Even the log piles were easily soaked up and I didn't loose momentum going over them. On two corners I went into a power slide on the front wheel but I don't blame the tires for that. It was more my error and misjudgement with the new bike. I was able to ride it out so kudos to the Racing Ralphs for hanging on for me. I could feel the chain bouncing around a lot, off my ankle half the time, so when the trail got bouncy I just shifted into a larger gear to open the derailuer up and tighten the chain. It was a little more work to ride those sections in a larger gear but it kept the chain on. Got back to the trail head and the clock said 51:20.....hmmmm felt like I was going faster than that.

I rolled thru the parking lot to go back to my car to call it a day but I still had a full bottle so I said f##k it, turned around and reset the clock for another lap. I haven't ridden over 2 hours since May so I was not sure how this third lap would go, especially after the mid point of the trail. But I was immediately in go mode and was determined to break this lap under 50. All of a sudden the bike and I were working together really well. Just like my last full suspension Kona it seemed the faster you went the better the bike responded to your movements. I started pinning turns and my shift timing was more precise. Unlike the last two laps, I seemed to be in the right gear at the right time and I was flowing with the trail again. At mile marker 6 my legs started to feel the effort I was asking out of them. I was good on calorie and liquid intake but like I said, my legs have not been worked this long for some time now and they weren't happy anymore. Instinctively my mind switched from go mode to attack mode, as if I was in a race. The trail was not busy at all so I had open trail to burn thru. The longer I went on the more the pain in the legs increased. "No Pain" I kept repeating to myself every time I had to make a short climb. Those hurt the most. "No Pain" I said again as I hit the stretch that we call the 5 minute mark because that's where we know it's almost exactly 5 minutes to the end of the trail. I was cutting it close. I neglected to take my last swig of fluid because I was that tight on time. Only 5 minutes to go....I should be okay. Kept my focus and tore thru the rest of the trail. Many times my handlebars coming millimeters from clipping a tree (still geting used to wider handlebars for the 29er). One wrong move, one bad shift, one overshot corner and I wouldn't make it. Rolled to the end of the trail where the gravel meets the pavement of the parking lot. Looked down and my computer read 49:54. That's more like it!

I was pleased that I was able to get that much out of my legs on such short notice. As far as my overall conditioning, I am good right now at places like The Farm that don't require much climbing. But for not riding a single mile in June or July and missing half of August I was very happy with that outing. Hopefully I will be able to build on this and continue to make progress in my gains.

Short Term Memory

2010-06-15T04:29:00.000-07:00

I feel like I have finally settled into a routine for getting my weekly miles in. It's the middle of June and I feel I have finally made some progress in my power gains. Still a ways out of where I wanted to be right now but I am done beating the dead horse about that topic.

The road miles have been racking up on the training log. It seems to be the only way I can squeeze in my rides. My race bike has sat in the basement hanging from the ceiling since I brought it home from the 12 Hours of Stony. I keep saying I am going to do some trail rides duing the week before work but it is so much easier to just get the Felt down and hit the pavement.

I promised myself that I would not force the miles this year and I have done a good job of sticking to that. The 'balance' in 2010 is much different than it was in 2008. I like the direction the team is going with the endurace racing and at this point I have no time table of when or if I will return to the XC scene. It seems that everytime I put a date down on paper of when I want to get back to hardcore racing, something comes up and I have to take a month off the bikes.

This past weekend tho, Ashton and I got out for a few hours to go to the Tree Farm and help out with the annual Freeride clinic. It's a fun event where we introduce obstacles to a group of newbies. We try and teach proper riding technique and encourage them to try some new stuff to increase their confidence on the trail. To some people it could look simple and easy but to others it can be down right scary. Here's a link to some pix that were taken at the event:

http://picasaweb.google.com/MMBA.MetroSouth/BARFAtTheFARMBecomeARadFreerider2010#

June is a busy month so no races planned. Come July tho there will be more action so check back for updates.

Keep the grips and tires stciky......it's climbing time!

Aryn

Another 12 Hours at Stony

2010-05-19T09:39:00.000-07:00

August of '09...that's 8.....May is 5, day 15......carry the 1 and........yep, been exactly nine and a half months since I have been on a trail. Seems like just yesterday Mike, Heather, Gerry, Brian, Jeff and I were standing around having a beer after 12 Hours of Stony in 2009. Now here we are in May of 2010 and Mike, Brian and I just raced the 12 Hours of Stony last weekend. Where did the time go? I tell you what, I didn't spend much of that time on a bike and it showed.

The day called for picture perfect weather. You know, like the post cards you see from states other than Michigan. With all the rain we have been having it was a miracle the trail was in such good shape. A couple spots of standing water on the back side two track but all of the single track was in great shape. The race course had a new layout from the previous year. The biggest changes were that they found every hill in the park and made us go up every single one of them. The course was around 11.3 miles long with an estimated 1080 feet of total climbing. I thought the course was great even tho it was a little to much climbing for my out of shape legs for this early in the season. But that's my fault.

So onto the race. Due to complications, baseball tournaments and just lack of team members nowadays, we ended up with only 3 riders. Couldn't do 2 man teams, none of us were in good enough shape for a 6 hour solo let alone 12 hour so we asked if we could enter the 4 Man category with only 3 people. Brent, the promoter, had no issue with it as long as well paid the full fee of course. We put Gerry on the roster just in case he was able to show up for a couple laps. Mike and I got there early to set everything up. Brian got there later because he lives further away and is older now so he moves slower in the morning. Actually Brian made it right at the start to see Mike go off with the crowd. When Mike came in it was my turn and then Brian took lap #3. We followed that routine for 9 laps. While Brian was out on lap 9 Mike told me that Brian said he would be done after his lap. That meant Mike and I had to decide who would do the 12th lap since there was a good chance we'd make the time cut. After a few minutes of discussion I was happy to hear that Mike had the legs for the extra lap. So Mike covered lap 10 and we made the tag for me to start lap 11 at 10 hours and 20 mins into the race. That gave me 70 minutes to cover the course and I was averaging every lap just under an hour. I put the hammer down and managed to make it back in just under an hour again. Mike was there waiting and went off into the woods for lap #12. His last lap was much slower than his previous 4 but Brian and I didn't complain because we didn't have the gas to even go out there.

All day we weren't really racing other teams. We just wanted to see if we could make 12 laps in 12 hours. Turns out we were the only 4 person team to make the time cut to start lap 12 so we won our class but also beat all the other 12 hour 4 Man categories as well. Not bad considering we raced a man short. So that's about it. There really was no drama during the whole 12 hours we were out there. Mostly joking around with each other and other teams. Endurance racing in this format is a fun way to spend a day riding and hanging out with other riders and friends. Of course they are more fun when you are in better shape and you win but we managed one of the two so that's a good start to the season.

Rider evaluation:

Brian "The Wrench" McCabe - Not sure the last time he was on a bike. He was out a couple times early this season but his trainer didn't see much use this off season. But he managed himself well and knew his limits. This enabled him to give us 3 solid consistent laps. I think having his girlfriend, Becky, there helped him go a little faster than normal tho. In the end he was happy with his performance and so were we but his retro Signoutfitters.com jersey threw us for a loop but. Luckily no one got any pictures....oh wait some one did:

Aryn "Pivotless" Pongratz - The first lap was learning how to ride a bike all over again but as the laps went on I became more efficient. A new bike and new tires added some drama to my laps but I only had to stop once for about 10 seconds to adjust my seat post. All other adjustments I made between laps. My biggest weakness was climbing the hills and bringing the wrong gear ratio with me. My severe lack of training this off season really showed toward the end of the day. 4 laps total for me, no more, no less. Not sure I was ready for the 36t up front (still sporting the 1x9 setup) with all that climbing but instead of switching rings down to a 34t in-between laps I stuck it out and never walked a hill. However, that doesn't mean I was enjoying the hills:.

Mike "5 Laps" Keysaer - What's a race for Mike without going down or over the bars at least once. He actually faired really well and only went down once, washing out in a high speed corner on the two track gravel. All crashing aside Mike rode with more efficiency and speed than Brain and I on Saturday and carried the team on his shoulders. He was consistently turning faster laps than me and in the end he was the one who went out for the extra lap to make sure the team brought home the win. All his training has shown through as this being the first time Mike stood atop the team hierarchy and I am sure it won't be the last.

Great job Mike! Way to step up to the plate for the team and do a 5th lap. Wish some one had taken a picture of you.

(I wanted to post our team picture here but I have to get it from Becky first. I will post it soon. So we'll use this for now)

Next stop is the Tree Farm Relay on July 24th and then 8 Hour of Bloomer on July 31st. Hopefully I will be able to use this gap between races to do some more riding so I am better prepared come July. Gotta spend some time in the basement looking for my legs.

If anyone does any road, tri, foot racing send me a summary of the events of your day so I can copy and paste in onto here. Would really like to make this site more active like it used to be.

May the sky be blue and the ground be dry.....it's time to ride!

Is it hot or is it just me?

2010-03-30T08:58:00.000-07:00

Boy, you would think with all this nice weather we've been having that I would have gotten outside for a few fresh air miles. Nope. Still in the basement riding when I get the chance. I am really hoping that once the family and I get back from Florida that I will be able to get some rhythm going. Really, I need it. Only have about a month and a half until the first 12 Hour race of the Endurance Series. Mike, my relay partner, will kick my but if I show up with square wheels.

Good news is that I have a bike together for the most part. I just have to order a new jump stop because my current one does not fit the seat tube of this frame. I don't have any picks yet but here's the specs:

Frame - 2008 Salsa Moto Rapido (full scandium and carbon mixed hardtail ((Thanks Brad!!!))
Fork - Fox F100 RLC (in black!)
Headset - Chris King
Stem - Ritchey WCS (stupid light)
Handlebar - Raceface Next Carbon flat (stupider light)
Brakes - Hayes 9 Carbon (might upgrade these tho)
Frt Derailuer - n/a (I run a 1x9)
Rr Derailuer - Shimano XTR M952 short cage
Shifter - Shimano XTR 970
Cranks - Truvativ Stylo 1.1 with a 36t Blackspire Pro
Cassette - Sram PG 990
Chain - Sram PC 991
Post - Truvativ Stylo w/ new Thompson like adjustment clamp
Saddle - WTB (this may change as well)
Wheelset - 2010 Stans Crest with 2010 ZTR hubs
Tires - Schwalbe Racing Ralphs (2.25 in frt, 2.1 in rear)
Grips - Oury
Pedals - Crankbrother Eggbeaters

Have not weighed it yet but it's possibly the lightest bike I have built yet for racing. Like I stated above the only thing I may change is upgrading the brakes. I just really like the lever shape of my Hayes 9 Carbons so I am having a hard time deciding. I plan to do the first race of the series with the Hayes 9 Carbons and WTB saddle and then decide to keep them or replace them.

So, it's almost time to get to the starting line. Actually there was a race this past weekend but it was more of a gravel/dirt road thing but many people do it to see how their winter training is going before the season really starts. It's a good race to se where you stand against your rivals.

Keep your chin up and your tires rolling . . . it's almost here!

Aryn

(Brad - thanks for the great deal on such a solid frame)

Rolling into the next decade

2010-01-16T09:58:00.000-08:00

Gosh, not even sure if anyone even reads this anymore but me. Well this morning I actually completed my first 2 hour ride on the trainer since my last race back in August of 2009. My numbers weren't anything to brag about by at least I still had something in the legs to be able to go the distance.

This race season will be the most crazy one yet. For starters Jeff has discovered trail running and is doing a lot more of that than riding. He says he plans to only enter a couple 100 mile mtb races this year. XC racing is over for him. He's basically burnt out with it and beleive me I can relate.

I think Heather is planning to do more endurance racing as well and skip the XC stuff. I have said this same thing myself since the end of 2008. Always said that when I come back it'll be in the Endurance Series. I am sure Brian and Mike will follow suit. The Captain has also expressed intrest in relaying thru the endurance series so it looks like the team is heading in a new direction and looking to take on some new things. Also, I am sure once Dawn gets wind of this she'll want in on the chaos as well.

So here's to looking at 2010. There is training to be done and bikes that need to be built.

Onward.

Aryn

Chicken and the tenders

2009-08-03T08:42:00.000-07:00

Man did it feel good to be in the race zone again, that frame of mind, that focus, that determination and that feeling of pain that lets you know you are pushing your body to it's limits. Hair on the back of my neck is standing up from typing this.

It was a beautiful day for racing. Mostly sunny, not to humid at all and supposidly no rain. The course was in tip top shape and was set up like no other course we had raced at Stony before. Course was flagged on Thursday but why pre-ride , we have 12 hours to figure it out. We had all ridden/raced Stony a bunch of times so nothing would be new, just the sequence of two track and single track would be a little different. It great to see the team and howdy do's and hugs went around all morning during pre race staging. Jeff, Heather, Brian, Mike, Jerry, myself and guest rider Lillian Ruz from Team Treefort made up the squad for the day. Our star studded pit crew consisted of Kathy and Bloomer the Cat. Well Kathy did all the leg work but Bloomer kept busy taking inventory by sticking his head and sometimes entire body into everyone's bags.

7:55 came quick tho and Jerry, Heather and I all had to get to the line for the relay start at 8:00. Jeff was to start the solo a couple minutes after 8. I was at the line thinking to myself how long it had been since I was at the starting line....darn near a year since my last race. Lee from Team Sandbag looks over at me and says with a smile, "You sure you know what your doing? This isn't the freeride park." All I could do was laugh. This is why I like endurance racing, the starting lines are so stress free because we all know the race won't be decided in the first lap or the second, third, fourth....fifth......sixth.....well until later in the race when everyone starts to realize how much endurance they do or don't have.

Going into actual race detail would make this a very, very long blog so I'll just post results. What will say is that they cut the race short by 2 hours because of some huge storm that was coming to the park...however, it never rained so that kind of sucked.

Jeff - 1st place 12 Hour solo men's. He was 4 minutes ahead of his closest competitor. 13 laps in 10:59:45 for an estimated 136.5 miles ---> all by himself!!! And I'd like to point out he raced in the geared class on his single speed and beat them all. He even schooled the single speed class and the sub 30 year old 12 Hour geared racers.

Heather and Lillian took 3rd racing against the boys in the 2 person Advanced 12 hour class. They ticked the counter 11 times in 10:36:35 for close to 115.5 miles. Not bad for a couple of Chica's. : )

Brian and Jerry took 3rd in Men's 2 person 12 Hour Sport knocking down 11 laps in 11:15:54.

Mike and I took the win in Men's 2 person 12 Hour Sport throwing down 12 laps in 10:31:59

Now for some accolades:

KATHY!!! - We couldn't have done this without you. From the coffee run for Jeff, the sacrificing of chicken for the team and the general info you gave on everyone thru the laps, you were a huge help. I know your info on Mike made a huge difference in the outcome of the day for him and I. Without your input Mike and I may have not made it thru the day. After talking to you we were able to adjust our strategy and move forward. Having a level headed person not racing in the staging area is very valuable. And the chicken...sorry Scott, your burgers are great and all but Kathy just got promoted to the team's head chef. You now work for her.

Jeff - You are not human....and I am not the only one who thinks this. I've heard this from others outside our team. Being the team's PR rep I hear a lot and you are always a popular name when people start talking about endurance racing. When yo go big remember who gave you that Snickers bar.

Heather - I expect nothing less out of you than what you gave Saturday. Sounds like tough love and it is. I could sit here and write all kinds of good things about you but you'd just knock me over, kick me and tell me I should be on my bike training instead of writing these silly team updates.

Lillian - Was great to have you out with us for the day. Of course we are all going to razz you and try and get you to race for us but it was all in fun. I loved the idea of collaborating with another team to get us more press. I hope Bloomer enjoyed himself and props to you for holding off Brain's chase on that one loop. He's not an easy guy to shake. Now you can go back and tell your team and friends how much fun you had and that not only can we ride our bikes but we also look good doing it. : )

Sensei Brian - I've said it many times before and I hate repeating myself but, well, you are Brian McCabe. You show up, throw down some solid laps and drink a beer at the end of the day like it was another day in the office. You come in, do your job and hammer out results. You joke around when it's time to have fun but out on the course you are all business. Great job out there.

Mike - I can honestly say that I am proud of how you kept it together out there. You did a great job going the distance and to me this is the best race you have ever ridden. I know your salt intake changes helped a lot but I man you were solid out there. You were actually getting stronger later in the day when I thought you would start to wear out a bit. I fed off your energy big time and it helped motivate me to match your laps and keep our team going. Looking forward to us doing more of these in the future.

J e r r y - I spaced that out on purpose. Bro, I think all the above mentioned would agree that you were the team MVP for the day. As captain you led by example. You never gave up and you pushed yourself past your limits for the team. I was very impressed when I came in after my last lap and found out you went out for another. Over all these years you have done a lot for the team, more than any of us. But that last lap you did, to me, was probably one of the biggest things yet.

I know I am sounding a little sappier than normal and maybe some of you were expecting my normal sarcastic twisted humor. But when Saturday was all done and over I think everyone on the team became a different person. All of us had reached a level of ourselves we had never been to before. When we were all sippin' a brew after I could see it in every one's faces.....we were all one step closer to becoming as bad ass as Dawn "U-Dog" Nicholas.

It finally stopped raining

2009-07-30T09:29:00.000-07:00

July is almost over and we have less than 48 hours until the 12 Hours of Stony Creek. This will be the first time everyone on the team will attempt a 12 Hour race so this will be fun for sure. Jeff is still going solo and he is really the only one on the team capable of doing so. Brian and Jerry are in for a 2 man team, Mike and I plan to give it a whirl as a 2 man team and Heather decided to team up with Lillian from Treefort Bikes for a 12 hour 2 person team instead of doing a 6 hour solo. Heather and I could finish a 6 hour solo no problem but the 12 hour 2 person realy sounds like a better way to have fun with the team. I know I am excited about it.

It's been a wet month which is very unusual for Michigan ths time of year. A lot of rolling storms that seem to only come during race times and after work when everyone wants to ride. I just got caught in a storm Tuesday that hit 2 hours earlier than they had forecasted. Nothing gets the legs spinning down the trails like being caught in the middle of a bad thunderstorm when lightening is all around you and there is no shelter areas for miles. I just picked up the pace and kept going figuring I'd be harder to hit as a moving target.

It has been a quite month for the team overall. Heather and Jeff are the only ones who seem to be racing this year and even their adventures have been pretty well around the norm.....it's funny calling top 3 podium finishes the norm. Hopefully Stony will light a fire under the team camp. We'll have 6 of our riders out there but that's still only half the actual mountain bike squad suiting up for the weekend.

I have been piling the miles on more. I have over 1,000 road/trainer miles and over 100 trail miles since I started back on the bikes in April. That's about half my quarterly average but I'll take it. Heck I just had my first trail ride of the year two weeks ago and I just took 5 days off for a short vacation to the cottage so 100 miles on the trail is pretty good considering.

So check back next week to read up on all of this weekend's racing antics. It's been a while since the team has showed in such numbers so there's bound to be some forms of pandemonium and chaos....hell we'll be out there for 12+ hours....anything goes when we are in pit row by Team Sandbag.

Aryn 'Pivotless' Pongratz

Can you believe it is July already???

2009-07-02T21:16:00.000-07:00

Man, where have I been? We are months into the 2009 race season and I have done a horrible job updating everyone on the team happenings. So let me give a recap of the last two months here:

Jeff Socia has basically gone mad. Last year he finally found his niche for racing and it happens to be ultra endurance events. So far this year he has completed in two 100 mile mountain bike races as well as the 60 Mile Stony Marathon. His first race was a learning experience, the Mohican 100, and in my eyes he still finished pretty well, 40th out of over 125 racers. He took his knowledge from that race and went into the Lumberjack 100 with more confidence and a fresh set of Stans Olympic ZTR's with Crow tires......big upgrade from his Mavic 819's. He started off very well, in the top 15, before an unfortunate mechanical that caused him to pull out of the race after the first 25 miles. Not much you can do when the crown on your fork snaps. He rebounded back for the Stony Marathon but came to the starting line with a sinus infection....we all know how something like this is bad for hydration. He still managed a podium finish with a 2nd place but he was well off his expected pace and would have challenged for the win if he was healthy. He has a few more of these ultras planned so I will do my best to keep you updated on him.

Heather Patterson has been tearing into the season like we all expected her to. What's crazy tho is that after 5 races she is sitting atop of the Women's Elite standing with a second, third, first and fourth place finishes. I do not have much info from her on how she has been feeling this year. I know she decided to concentrate more on bike racing this year and stray away from Triatholans because it was too hard for her to find time for the pool. What I will say is that she is one Tuff Chic and I'm glad she is on my team because it makes me look bad when girls from another team are faster than me. Yeah I said it, Heather is faster than me. So now I have someone to chase.....or draft, whatever way you want to look at it.

What else is new you might ask, Carolyn Galloway, that's what. Gerry saw an unsponsored rider at the starting line in Expert/Elite Women's and scouted her that day. Heck of a good chance that she is faster than me too.....this is not good for my image, however, it's good for the team. Carolyn sits second in the overall standings right behind Heather and let me tell you how cool it is to see that.....it's cool. I hope to make it out to meet her soon and get her on the site so we can show her off a bit and make other teams jealous. Boy, imagine the rankings if Dawn hadn't decided to take a year off......good chance she'd kick my butt in a race as well right now. Man do I have some work to do for next year.

Speaking of kicking my butt, Mike and I have decided to enter a two man team in the 12 Hours of Stony. Gerry and Brian will be manning a two person team as well. Rumor has it Heather will be showing up for the 6 Hour solo and Jeff will be there for the 12 Hour Solo if his plans to race out of town fall through. He's trying to get into the Wilderness 101 that same weekend.

So that wraps up our late night edition of this Team Signoutfitters.com broadcast. Still plenty of warm weather and races to come so stay tuned and I will do my best to keep you updated. Keep your bike rubber side down and keep your head off the ground because Aryn is back in the saddle and 650 miles into Base One training for the 2010 season. That's right, I'm coming for you!

And they're off!!!

2009-04-20T09:36:00.000-07:00

Okay, it was really only one. From the sounds of it the team will be small this year but strong. A few racers like myself are taking a leave of absence from the team this year to deal with other things outside the race circuit. Sometimes you need to step back and make adult decisions even if it means not racing for a year.

So Jeff was the lone Signoutfitter to race this weekend on the trails. He made the trip across state with some of the Team Frasier gang to save on gas. His field was pretty packed. New this year was Expert and Elite did two laps at the Yankee TT instead of one.

Like always Jeff never gloats about himself or dives into every detail of his race. He seemed happy with his results finishing 9th out of 36 with a time of 1:43:55. This race is more difficult because a lot of west siders ride there a lot and we only travel to that trail to race it. We interviewed him this morning and this is what he had to say:

"The trail was fun and fast. Rain was just a light mist, not much of factor at all. Considering the fore casted weather it turned out to be a great day."

Nice work Jeff. Next weekend he will be clipping in for two laps at the Pontiac Lake TT which is the first race in the Tailwinds XC series. Jeff knows this trail well and it plays to his strengths being there is a lot of elevation and he is a great climber.

Tim Storm, long time friend of the team who now races for Team Fraiser, made the trip out to the west side as well over the weekend. He did his very first Expert race and decided to go geared instead of SS. He finished 25th in a field of 39 with one trip over the bars but still finished in at 1:51:33. He is glad he moved up to Expert because a 52 minute lap won the Sport category he would have raced in and he believes he would have been able to match that given his first lap split was a 54. Personally I am glad to see him challenge himself and ride against a stronger field. Good luck this season Tim, you are going to do great.

Tune in next week as we follow Jeff Socia thru another weekend of pain and gain. Look for Hollywood Patterson, Brian "The Wrench" McCabe and Mike "Treeman" Keysear to show up and possibly flex a little muscle in their ranks as well.

Counting down the days

2009-03-13T03:52:00.000-07:00

The 2009 Race season is right around the corner. Hard to believe the long Michigan winter is almost over. Just as I knew it would happen, the closer the first race gets the more I miss the training sessions. It's going to be hard to sit on the sidelines this year and not race but I know it's still for the better that I don't. Plus, my training for the 2010 season will be starting up soon. I will say the rest I have taken this winter has done wonders for my body and I feel like I am back at full strength.

One thing I don't miss is the big grocery bills and having to eat something every 45 minutes. I was pushing 4,000 calories a day just to not lose any more weight. And of course it wasn't 4,000 calories of junk food that leave you stuffed for hours. It was calories upon calories of veggies, fruits, chicken, pasta and all that stuff that burns away fast. Then the bill for all the hydration powders and gels to eat while I rode.

To keep busy I have been tooling around at the ramp parks on my bmx bike with my son Ashton. Also I am in the process of building a dirt jumper to use at the Stony Skills Park this year. Can't wait until I finish it. I have most of the parts but need a couple more things from the Captain to finish it.

Speaking of building bikes, I have started to brainstorm about my next race bike and what I plan to build. I am actually tossing around the idea of going with a 29'er. Kona makes a really nice full suspension 29'er frame that I'd love to try out. I am going to have to go take some test rides soon and see what this 29'er hype is all about. This next bike tho will surpass my last build in terms of what I want. The last thought is what to do with my road bike. It's so ready for some love and needs some attention. I keep saying every year I am going to get a new one but somethig always comes up and I end up buying a different bike r a lot of replacement parts for the race bike.

As far as the team goes for this year....not sure what's going to happen with everyone. Jeff is planning to do what's natural for him and compete in more endurance events. He will be going out and doing some 100 miles races this year. I think he's up for it. After racing with him in the 6 Hours of Addison and the Stony Creek Marathon I know he's ready for the jump to the 100 mile races. He'll do well too. The guy is a machine and can hold himself in a zone for hours. When he satrted peaking last season in our Expert/CAT-1 category he started winning the geared races and still making it to the podium in the SS classes. 50-60 mile race days became normal for him and you could see he still had more left in the tank.

I believe Heather and Dawn will be back racing in the Elite/Pro level. I'm anxious to see how much faster Heather will be this year. I haven't talked to her much this of season but the Captain says she's ready to roll. Mike and Brian will continue their quests in the Sport or now CAT-2 category. Brian is actually training this off season and I see him returning back to 2007 form when he spent a lot of time going fast and finishing on the podium.

As for Scotty, Alex the Kid, Goatboy, Amber Alert, The Godfather and Aunt Darlene, I am not sure what their plans are for this year. I hope some year that we'll get back to the 2007 team turnouts. At every race we always had a big turnout and it made race day loads of fun.

So hopefully we'll get more riders back to the starting lines, me included. But until then I'll be quietly training on the sidelines to come back in 2010 right where I left off.

Reflections

2009-02-21T05:25:00.000-08:00

Watching Levi in the individual TT stage of the Tour of California yesterday got the blood pumping in me again. Been a while since I felt that. It got me thinking more about this year. I had no plans to race at all with the exception of The Tree Farm Relay. It's hard to not want to go back and defend our team title.

But I question whether I will be able to be ready to race by then. I have enough time to get ready but not sure if I will have the drive to get where I need to be. Obviously I will not be as fast as I was last year. I'm sure with some work I could get myself back somewhere between a CAT-2 and CAT-1 racer. But to get back to the Podium in CAT-1.....I've missed 3 months of training and at this level you need to stay on the pedals all year round to keep up with the pack.

The other issue is a bike to race. I have barrowed bikes in the past. At Bloomer last year my bike had some serious mechanicals on the first lap so I came around ready to pull out of the race. But the Captain said we needed the points so he hooked me up with his team bike and sent me back out to finish. Then at the Brighton Stage race I used Wrench's team bike for the Short Track event because his was better suited for that race. In fact I still owe him for that one because taking 4th in that race helped me to finish on the podium for the sum of the entire 3 races that weekend. My bike tho, oh I miss it. I know people say it's not the bike it's the condition of the rider on it but that bike was built to go fast and man did it do just that.

At the Tree Farm I believe a full suspension bike tracks better. Since I don't have mine anymore I would have to build another one by then but it's just isn't in my budget. Even with the team discounts it'll cost me about $2,000 to build another sub 25 pound full suspension bike, and that's without the wheels.

So I guess I have some things to figure out for this season. I need to make up my mind in the next couple weeks tho because if I am going to commit to the Relay I need to get back on the trainer.

In the mean time, I hope all my team mates and race foes are still training hard. It's great to see others reach their goals and I know they all have their sights set this year. Hang in the everyone. Only two more months until the season starts!!!

It's a girl!

2009-02-04T08:13:00.000-08:00

Some know and some don't that my wife and I were expecting on Feb 2nd. Well the baby decided to come a day early. Ciara Brynn was born on Feb 1st at 8:39 am weighing in at 8 lbs 12 oz and stretching a total 21 inches long. I don't do my kids pictures on public forums so if you want to see the pix check me out on facebook or email me and I will send you some photos.

Sue and Ciara are home and doing great! We all came home from the hospital on Monday morning. Ciara got to meet her sister Abigail and her brother Ashton then. So now Sue and I will be switching from man to man coverage to a zone defense when it comes to parenting.

The Biggest Little Guy

2009-01-22T08:58:00.000-08:00

This week Ashton has done two very brave things in my eyes. I can't stop thinking about how proud I am of him. Let's start off with what happened first this week:

It was the day Presidential Elect Obama was to be sworn in. Ashton goes to a Catholic school, 1st grade, and every 4 years when this happens the whole school goes across the parking lot to the church for a mass. The teacher collected all of Ash's classmate in his classroom to have them put their coats and stuff on so they could walk across the parking lot to the church. Well Ash was having problems with his coat zipper and when he finally fixed it he looked up and the entire class including his teacher were gone. He ran out to the hallway and no one was there. He knew where they were going but wondered why they left without him. His first instinct was to take the tunnel to the church. (The school has an underground tunnel that connects the school to the church. Not like a coal mining tunnel but a nicely lit and paved one. Still to a 6 year old that tunnel can be scary). So instead of going outside across the parking lot all alone to get to the church he ran thru the tunnel, later telling us he almost cried because he was so scared.

Meanwhile the teacher had all the kids at the entrance door to the church and asked the kids in back why they were holding the door open. One of the kids said, "Because Ashton has not come out of the school yet." The teacher said her heart dropped to her feet. Ashton is like her teacher's aide...how did she not notice she thought to herself! She looked out the door for him and he was no where in sight. She was taking a second to think of what to do with the kids when all of a sudden Ashton appeared behind her. She grabbed him and gave him a hug because he looked a little shook up...and she admitted she was pretty shook up as well and the hug was just as much for her as it was for him. He told her the whole story and she sat beside him at the mass and kept Ashton at her side the rest of the day to help the both of them feel better.

Now I don't blame his teacher or Ashton. His teacher is a great person and Sue's family has a long history with that school. She went there along with her two sisters and brother and her father went there along with his brothers and sisters. I am just very proud of Ashton and how he was able to think so well on his feet and take the safe route to where he needed to go. I am so glad he did not go outside where he could have been all alone without supervision. Of course going to the office may have been a better solution, he knew everyone would be at the church and that maybe no one would be in the office.

Not 24 hours later Ashton had to do another brave thing. About a month ago the teacher asked us if they could have Ashton stand up and do a reading at Wednesday's mass the day after the Presidential one. Ashton was okay with doing it so we were okay with it. Every day he practiced his reading to get ready for it. He worked on voice projection and he even started working on eye contact all by himself. Remember he is only 6. So yesterday Sue along with Abi, her parents and mine went to church to watch Ashton do his reading. Sue said he was awesome. Can you imagine when you were 6 standing up in front of your whole school and reading something like doing a speech?! Sue said he was so poised and calm. We were worried about what had happened the day before but Ash shook it off and did his stuff. So many people came up to Sue after the mass to say what a great job he did. Ashton has always been good at reading and has been reading chapter books for about a year now and that is why the teacher asked him to do it.

Quote from the 8th grade teacher who sent Sue and email:

"Sue -Wanted to talk with you after Mass but needed to get my class back asap.
Ashton did a fabulous job with that reading today. Such composure and such understanding. You must be so proud!!!!! He took my breath away. I want him on my Forensics team now."

My kids often amaze me with the things they do. I just thought these events were good ones to share.

Aryn - (A very proud father )

What this year may bring

2009-01-09T09:41:00.001-08:00

The first full week of 2009 is ending and it's been full of bad news. The economy is the big player as we all know. I feel lucky to be in the Automotive Industry and still be employed. Two of my teammates, Brain "The Wrench" and Gerry 'Captain Terror", work in my office with me and it's funny because usually this time of year we are already talking about the upcoming race season.

We as many know I have no plans to race at all in 2009. In fact I don't even own a complete mountain bike. I have a frame, fork, a set of wheels and some other scattered parts but not enough to throw a whole bike together. I sold all my race stuff to cover xmas this year so we didn't have to dip into our savings to pay for it like we do every year. My company is still going but none of us are sure for how long. My family is more important than my race season. Sue and I have made a few changes and started preparing for the possible "worse case scenario" in that my company goes under and I lose my job. We had put our cottage up for sale in Sept with the plan to build a new one across the lake on her dad's property. It actually sold last month but now we plan to just keep the money in the bank until we see how this economy thing plays out.

It's weird not having a mtb to ride. I still have my road bike and recently acquired cheap used bmx bike. I have already developed a complete parts list for the new DJ/Urban bike I want to build but honestly I can't justify spending the money right now. Even with the big cushion we have from selling the cottage going out and building another bike just seems like a bad idea.

It's funny because a good jump bike for me would be the deal Captain Terror could get me on a Redline D640...but I know if I ended up getting it I would not be completely satisfied and I would end up upgrading most of the bike. So I want to piece together the exact parts I want to make sure I will be satisfied when it is done. Have I become a bike snob as to where I just can't ride a normal bike anymore??? I am not even happy with my bmx bike, I keep looking at upgrades for that and I hardly ride it. But really, even after you build the exact bike you want is it ever completely done?

So to keep me busy and away from spending lots of money I have decided to tamper with building wheels. I have a couple extra bmx wheels laying around and I figure they will be good practice wheels for my first couple tries at this. Might cost me $20 for some new spokes and nipples but that'll be it. Once I gt a couple good wheels I hope to start building my own mtb wheels. This should keep me busy along with having the new baby.

And last, as for milage.....I am so out of the game. Rode about 100 miles in November on the trainer, 0 in December and none yet in January. There are a lot of people who are faster than me now.

I'm still going to d my best to cover the team events this season. I have always felt like the team's Public Relations rep. Sue and I have already talked about the Tour De Cure as well. I want to ride it with Ashton this year so I will be planning to do the short ride instead of the metric century like I normally do. I may even pull Abi in the trailer as well so she can be involved.

So keep tracking this blog. We'll be more diverse in the cycling world this year. Road, XC, CX, bmx, Urba, DJ, Park riding....never know where the team will show up.

Keep the tires aired down and the layers built up, it's cold outside.

Aryn

Starting the year

2009-01-01T05:57:00.000-08:00

Well the New Year is finally here. Been a while since I have posted anything. Life got really busy and my riding and training had to take a back seat. In fact it was farther back than the back seat, more like in the trunk. I parted out my race bike, sold most everything off my single speed so I really don't even have a mountain bike right now. I still have my road bike along with the fluid trainer but it has only seen about 100 miles in the past 2 months. Those who know me know I usually bust off well over 100 miles a week normally.

Most people know that Sue and I are having another baby in about 4-5 weeks. Because of that I have decided to not race the 2009 season. Plus, over the past few months I have really started to enjoy more of a trick/stunt riding style on mountain bikes and bmx. I recently picked up a used bmx and have been tooling around on it. In fact just last week I took my son Ashton to the new indoor ramp park that just opened up in Royal Oak. We had a blast. However, I am not sure I belong on 20" wheels. So now I am looking to build a 26" wheeled jump bike to use next summer at places like the Stony Creek Skills Park. Ashton and I went there last fall before it got to cold and I had more fun there than I have had in a long time on a bike. I plan to keep rolling on my bmx until I get that new jump bike built. I already started looking for frames.

As for trail riding in 2009 I hope to get out now and then but not sure how much it will happen. I really enjoy riding with Ashton and with the new baby it'll be hard to jump in the car and ride across town to the trails. When I get me time I'll probably just do my road routes on the Felt which I enjoy. This may finally be the year I get a new road bike. I am way overdue seeing as mine has over 10,000 miles on it.

The big thing this Spring will be if Ashton decides to race bmx. They have a track at Waterford Oaks and they run races every other weekend. If he does I can see myself trying a race or two to see what it is all about. If Ashton does decide to race bmx he'll need more ride time himself so I can see myself doing urban rides with him and Abigail a few times a week to strengthen his legs.

2009 is going to open a lot different that the past few years have. Usually at this time I am already 1000 miles into my off season training and focused on the first few races of the new year. It feels funny not being on the bikes as much but my body feels well rested since I haven't really worked it hard in two months. I plan to get back in a routine so I don't lose my legs completely but I'm sure it will be only half the weekly hours I normally ride. Last year I hit 6,000 miles and that's my biggest total ever. Since I started logging miles 4 years ago I have ridden over 16,000 miles.......that's crazy to me.

So I am ready to go into the New Year and roll with what comes. Looking forward to having a fun laid back year without stressing the big races. But don't think I am done racing forever. I still have a few races I want to compete in after this year. It'll just take some time to build myself up to the condition I will need to be in. So to all my friends and racing foes, keep doing what you are doing and know that when you least expect it I'll be back at the starting line looking to get back to that podium. I'm not retiring......I'm refueling.

Keep your head up and your tires down.

Aryn

From outside the fence

2008-10-06T08:57:00.000-07:00

Sunday the kids were up early so we jumped up, got dressed and headed out to our old neighborhood to hit Yates Cider Mill. 2 dozen donuts, some fudge and a gallon of cider later the Pongratz Media Crew was off to Stony Creek to cover the Cycle Cross race held by Paint Creek and Tailwinds.

Okay, down to the good stuff. Upon entering the race paddock we imediately spotted the yellow colors of Team Signoutfitters.com. Sub Team Kissel was there in full force to take on the sand filled course. We stopped in to see when they would be racing and moved on so they could go warm up. Next we rolled up on the Red Colors of Team Sandbag. And low and behold there was Masher Media Mike laying his trip wires and camera onto a bike to shoot the race. We ran down John "Like my Shoes?" Osgood to wish him luck and let him know we'd be yelling for him as well. Tried to find Jason "The Ox" Melocosky of RBS but didn't see him until he lined up and didn't want to bother him.

The gun went off and the leaves started to rustle. The pack of C-Class 39 and under riders blew by us like a cool fall breeze. John was in the top 10 and Jason was about mid pack playing Mr Conservative. The next wave of riders were the C-Class 40 and over and Russ was all mixed up in that. He shot by us and rolled himself into a comfortable 5th going off the pavement and onto the course. Next wave was Leila, Dylan and Zoe and their competiton.......the breeze finally calmed and the leaves settled down after all the waves whipped by. Man was it exciting to watch. You could see 85% of the course from where we were standing so the kids were really into it. Plus we got to see all the people we know a few times as they hit all the switchbacks.

I could go on and on......being a XC racer I know what it is like to suffer but this was a different pain I was seeing. Racers were in the red the entire time. No place or time to rest and catch your breath. You slow down to rest and the person behind you will fly right by. You spend the entire race attacking the people in front. And if you are the race leader you spend all your time keeping the hunters at bay.

The 39 and under class came down to a sprint finsih. The experinced racer, Jason Melocosky from RBS, showed the new kid from Team Sandbag how to win a sprint and look good for the camera at the same time. I swear his crank arms were bending as he plowed thru the finishing stretch. During the after race interview he praised racing legend John Osgood from Team Sandbag for helping him acheive his first win. He said even tho he practiced nothing John told him to do it was still the idea of practicing it that helped him thru his race. John Osgood, who finished a solid 4th, was caught later stating, "You know, I taught him everything he knows.....and I beat at Iceman last year by 8 minutes" while in his race trailer making what appearded to be a voodoo doll with a mini RBS jersey on it.

Signoutfitters.com's own Russ Kissel managed to endure the suffering and climbed two more spots to finish 3rd. Later in the day he tried his hand again in the Master's division. He took 11th there in a much more seasoned field against some serious riders.

Zoe crashed during her warm up loops but still raced after some butterfly bandaging by the team medic (mom). She was taken to the hospital later to have it sealed up by a doctor and I we hear she is gdoing good. Bloodied and battered she still finished 2nd in Junior Cat 4 and 1st in female. Brother Dylan took 3rd in Junior Cat 4 and second in male. Way to go guys. It's riders like them who are the future of our team!

Word in the paddock is that Leila was happy she kept the bike upright the entire race. She was all smiles tho and had a great time. In fact one of our hired spy cameras shot this photo of her, she makes it look easy doesn't she?

In the end it was a great event and my family and I were happy to be able to take part from the side lines. In fact that's Ashton in the red hooded sweat shirt in Leila's picture. Hopefully we'll be able to send the Signoutfitters.com Media crew out to cover another CX event this season.

Side bar - for those who on't know we had a rider go down in Brighton over the weekend. Heather "Hollywood" Patterson took a fall hard enough to fracture her shoulder. We are still waiting to see xrays and get the full story. I hear she is supose to have a press onference soon to update the media of her condition.

So as always, check back to see what we'll over next. You never know where the Yellow will go.

(And keep your eyes on that new kid over there at Team Sandbag. Jason is no slouch and that young guy gave him a run for his money. They may be at the start of someone fast.)

Aryn

The Beginning of the End

2008-09-23T09:28:00.000-07:00

As the light of the day grows shorter the weather gets cooler and the best time of the year to ride is here. The race season is almost over and a lot of people switch to rec riding so they can hit the trails they didn't have time to go to during the season. Others start to dab in their off season cross training sports, watching football. Some try brand new sports and others are just focused on the Iceman...more later on the Iceman. But, it is only the middle of September and there are races thru the beginning of November so the team is still active.

Where to begin. The events covered by Team Signoutfitters.com were as follows: The Kenetic systems/Tailwind UCI two day Cycle Cross event at Springfield Oaks, the CPS XC Race at Addison Oaks and the Triple Trail Challenge held at Poto. I guess we'll start off with the CX racing....Sorry that I will have to be brief on all so I can cover everything that happened this weekend.

For those who don't know what Cycle Cross is I'll post some links in the next day or two to some pictures. In the mean time: Captain Terror, Hollywood and Team Signoutfitters.com sub team, Team Kissel, all made the trip to Springfield Oaks for the teams first run at Cycle Cross racing. The good news is everyone survived and seemed to enjoy it. Russ, Lila, Zoe, Dylan, Hollywood and Terror all put out their best efforts in thier respective classes. It was a new sport to the team so we are proud of them for going and giving it a shot. It's quite a demanding race. It is sort of like a TT because your heart rate is redlined the entire time. There is zero time to spin and rest your legs. You are constantly suffering, jumping off your bike to run up a hill or over barriers....heck, here's some links to look at:

http://www.tenmilemedia.smugmug.com/gallery/6043429_H6DyD#378510279_kWb46

http://www.tenmilemedia.smugmug.com/gallery/6031792_W2yTK#377572139_iMnL2

It sounds like Team Signoutfitters.com will become a fixture on the CX circut in the future....may even see me out there next year. Sunday Team Kissel went back for more as Heather had plans Sunday and Gerry was to report to Addison for the CPS XC.

Sunday Jeff, Brian and Terror made it up to Addison for some points chasing in the CPS standings. Jeff, our Endurance Enthusiast, opted to race both geared and single speed. But he did both races on his SS! Why, because he is Jeff and he does these things. Anyhow, Jeff pulled a solid 3rd out of 16 or 17 in his geared class and 7th in his SS class. He raced over 52 miles on that SS Sunday. Your are crazy man! Gerry and Brain pulled some solid laps in their classes as well. Gerry said Saturday's CX race didn't hurt him much in Sunday's race but fresh legs would have definitely helped. He had no regrets tho because he enjoyed his first CX event and plans to go back for more. Brian, well, he was a little dehydrated come Sunday morning. He had prior commitments Saturday night but wanted to go to Addison because he had never raced there. He finished and that's all we ask.

As for me, I went to the Triple Trail Challnge Saturday morning at Poto. Got there early and starte off close to 8am. It was an organized fun ride not a race but I had always wanted to do it. In the end I did 45 miles in just over 3 hours and had a great time. Met a few nice people along the route as well. this ride was a series of 3 trails connected together by some fire roads and dirt roads. Thanks to Brian again for the deal on the spare wheelset. Felt great to be back on the trail.

With only a handful of organized events left I'll cover what I can. Not sure of the team's fall race schedule since this weekend's race at Pando is the last XC series of 2008. Come back and check for more CX coverage and Jeff's trip up noth in November to race the annual Iceman.

Keep your head up and get ready to start layering up......the nights are getting colder already.

New Tracks for the Tank

2008-09-18T18:06:00.000-07:00

After a few days of cooling off about wrecking my rear wheel on the pavement of all places I am better now. I did some discount shopping on the clearance rack at Etheric North (Brian's basement) and walked away with a used set of 717's laced to XT hubs. Attached was an used XT cassette and an XT rotor on the rear wheel and Avid on the front. And, not done yet, a set of Kenda Nevegals set up with Stans rim strips and already running tubeless. Yep, a complete wheelset and I didn't have to spin a single wrench. Brian has 3 bikes and 4 sets of wheels. He said he really didn't need them anymore. I was just going to borrow them but then thought it'd be nice to have another set laying around for times like this week.

So while I sit and figure out what to do with my other wheelset I have these to roll around on for the rest of the season. I am at peace once again.

I did make a change a couple weeks ago I never mentioned. I sold my XTR crankset/bb and bought a Truvativ Stylo 1.1 to put on the Kona. It looks nice, all black with a touch of chrome, and now I have Truvativ SS cranks on both my mtbs so I can swap rings when needed.

The Triple Trail Challenge is going on this weekend, rescheduled due to weather. I hope to make it out there even if I am the only one.

As far as the racing scene goes Russ along with his family and Heather and Gerry plan to do their first CX event this Saturday. Jeff and Brian will be at Addsion Sunday for another XC race. Good luck to all and I hope to hear good news Monday morning.

Signs

2008-09-15T18:24:00.001-07:00

Every where we go we see signs. STOP. ONE WAY. NO LEFT TURN. NO TURN ON RED. These are the more common ones. Well today I saw a sign of something different. If you read my last post and did some simple math you'd know it has been almost 6 weeks since I have been on a trail. Part due to time and part due to lack of a complete wheelset.

Well I got my wheelset back from Gerry a week and a half ago. All was good. I was all ready for the Triple Trail Challenge on Sept 13th. Well as the week went on the forecast got worse ad they eventually had to reschedule the event. Good thing to. 6" of rain in two days. No problem tho, the reschedule date was going to be Sept 20th. I can do this. Well then I had this idea that this week I would drive into work today and then ride my bike home. Then tomorrow morning I would get up and ride into work adn then drive home.

I got it all together....clothes at work for tomorrow in my car. A bag with a towel and all that jazz for showering. I even brought extra food to leave at work so I could pack light. I was all set. So at about 3:15 this afternoon I set out for my ride home. Things were great. I was back on my race bike even tho it was on pavement. I was roaring East bound on 9 Mile making my way home, a 30 mile ride I figure I could make in 1:45:00. I had made it to work on my road bike in an hour and a half before in the morning.

So there I was crossing city after city. Novi, gone. Farmington, behind me. Southfield, man am I making good time. Heck I am almost to Ferndale already and only been riding for 37 minutes. Then I hit the construction zone. Better play it safe and stay on the sidewalks. Well the sidewalks were missing at each intersection so I had to do some fancy riding here and there. No problem, I have seen a lot worse on the trails. Well about a mile from Ferndale I was outof sidewalk and I made the small drop to the sand. Thud! PSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSTTTTTTTT! Oh sh!t! I hopped off the bike and rolled the wheel around to get my Stans to seal it up. No good, tire went dead fast. It's then that I saw this:

and this:

Crap....Still 17 miles from home. So I unclip the pack and get my spare tube. Even tho I have Stans ZTR Olympic wheels I carry a tube in case. Well I got the tube in and guess what? Yep, it has a pinhole. Muther f@#$%^&*! So now my houseis 17 miles one way and my car is 13 miles the other way. I opt to walk East toward home and got my cell phone out. First person to call is Mr Wizzard knowing he is the #1 guy to find me a local bike shop fast. Problem was he was in his car. He said he'd call me back asap with an answer. In the mean time I called Jeff hoping he hadn't left work yet. Good news, still at his desk and said he could come get me. Jeff works in Southfield and lives close to me so I am kind of on his way home.

Gerry calls back minutes later and I tell him Jeff is coming to get me. In the mean time I told Jeff I would meet him at Pinecrest and 9 Mile which was still a mile away. As I am walking a kid comes by on his sister's bike that was too small for him but he way carrying a 5 dollar pizza while riding so I was impressed. He asked what was wrong and then I explained to him what had happened. However I spent more time trying to explain to this 12 year old why exactly it was that I didn't have tubes in my tires in the first place. It was quite comical. In the end he kept me company for the walk and offered me a slice of pizza. We got to Taco Bell where I was suppose to meet Jeff and said he had to get home.

Jeff showed up at the Taco Bell parking lot minutes later and drove me home. Thanks man, I owe you one. So what's this sign I saw? The f-ed up rim. After weeks of not riding on that bike and to get it back and on my first ride biff the wheel. I'm done. No more trail bike riding this season for me. It'll take a couple weeks to get my wheel back from Stans......if I can come up with the cash to pay for another hoop. I'm strictly on the road bike now like I have been the past 6 weeks. No Triple Trail Challenge. No Massive Fallout. Done.

In fact the ending of this part of the story leaves me telling you that my car is still in Novi. That means I still need to get up tomorrow at 4am to be out the door at 4:30 so I can ride back to work on my road bike.

What will tomorrow bring. Tune in and hopefully it will be a better story. I have 3 road tubes left and I plan to pack them all.

..................Space Available..................

2008-09-04T09:24:00.000-07:00

Vacancy is a better way to put it. Man have I been out of the loop the past 4 weeks. So far out in fact that I had to consult my training log to find out when I was last on a trail bike.....September 9th to be exact. That morning I was on my SS at Maybury with Tim Storm and Brian McCabe. I flatted the first lap and had to walk back to the car for a tube. Once back to the car I had lost intrest in riding that morning, pulled my beach chair out, turned the car radio on and waited for Tim and Brian to come back. My Kona was in process of getting new tires from a sidewall blow out the previous week. Brian had loaned me his rear wheel of the Giant to race the Relay and I gave it back a few days later figuring I'd have my wheels back by then. I was kind of done with flats that morning and decided to chill for while in the morning sun.

Well, here we are 4 weeks later and my Kona is still upside down in the basement without a rear wheel. Gerry had laced a new set of tires on for me weeks ago only to have the rear one go flat and lose it's seat that afternoon in the car. I gave it back to him because I couldn't get it to sit again. He has yet to solve the issue and in the mean time I have been spending a lot of alone time with my road bike. As it turns out tho I really haven't had time to ride on the trail anyway and Gerry has been busy as well. I don't blame him at all for my lack of trail miles....I told him I was in no rush to get it back. But hopefully I will have it back by Monday because I'dlike to get out and ride the trail once before the Triple Trail Challenge on September 13th.

Yes Brian and I plan to go out and attempt a 50 mile ride on the 13th. It's the only day of the year that certain sections of trail are open to bikes in that area. We don't plan to try and ace it. Just plan to have fun, enjoy the cooler weather and take it all in.

More importantly I want to say I missed the big write up of the Maybury/Pontiac weekend. I had a lot going on so I was not able to make either race but even finding time to write about it was hard. So I apologize to all who raced, especially Jeff because he pulled off a win in the Men's Expert 30-39 at Pontiac that Sunday. That's not an easy thing to do. I guess he was in 3rd or 4th going into his third and final lap of a 30 mile race and just all of a sudden woke up and tore up the trail on that last loop. Wish I could have been there with him. His inspirational third lap may have pulled me up the podium. Oh well, we will never know, but a big Congrats to Jeff for his second Tailwind XC Series race win of the year. For those keeping track he won the XC Stage on the second day of the Brighton Stage Race beating out some stellar competition. This does bring up a question tho: Will Jeff Socia go Elite next season?

This weekend is the last Tailwinds XC race for 2008. Hard to believe it's already here. Haven't got the complete list of racers confirmed for this weekend but check back next week. Hopefully I won't slack anymore and get back in the game.

Keep air up in your tires and your fingers off the brakes, this weekend's venue is a fast course.

Aryn

Storming the Fort

2008-08-20T09:49:00.000-07:00

Sadly only two of our crew made the trip for the Time Trial at Fort Custer last weekend. But Gerry and Heather managed to con someone into joining our team. They even had a jersey for her to wear. Who is this girl? All I know is her name is Kathryn Junes and she kicked butt in the Sport Women 25-39 Class. She placed 3rd out of 7 with a time of 1:23:17. Yep, she knows how to collect the hardware. Welcome to the team Kathryn!!! I keep telling everyone we have some fast chics and Kathryn can back up my smack talk so she's okay by me.

Next up, our featherweight favorite, Hollywood Patterson. It was business as usual for Heather in the Women's Expert/Elite Category. Go to the race, kick some ass, beat half the men out there and then have a chicken sausage. Heather took second, losing first by 0.908 seconds (yes that decimal is in the right place). Her finish time was 1:12:06.393 and Chenoah's time was 1:12:05.485. The two of them smoked the rest of the class by 4 minutes. With that second place tho Heather finished the TT series 4th overall which is great in my opinion for her first year in Expert/Elite. Great job Hollywood!!!

For our Captain it was business as unusual in Sport 40-49. He decided to race his Giant with the new Stans Crow tires that he had only tested once earlier in the week. I am not going to argue with him..I built a bike the night prior to the Tree Farm Relay and raced it untested. Sometimes you just need to go with your gut right? Well Captain Terror went with his gut feeling before the race and mounted the wheels with the Crow tires.....while downing a ham sandwich and a beer (his new pre-race ritual) Well the combination of birds, pigs and brew seem to work for our highly undecorated leader. He handed out a good old fashion butt whoopin' to his class - 1st out of 10 -with a time of 1:09:08.866!!! Lets all give him a pat on the back net time we see him. Great work Captain!!! I'd also like to point out he beat a Team Active racer by over 10 seconds. For those who don't know the Fort is Team Active's home course. (But don't tell them the Fort is the Capatin's home away from home)

So that's 3 riders and 3 medals. We may have not have sent the entire calvary out to the Fort for battle but the ones who showed up were riders who could get the job done and step up to the podium. Again, welcome Kathryn and great job the 3 Musketeers who braved the Fort.

Also like to give a shout out to Joey "The Kid" Patterson. I heard he ripped it up out there on the kids course for the Specialized Kid's Race. Hopefully I will be able to get Ashton out to Pontiac and Stony so Joey can have some team company at the starting line.

This week the team moves back east for the Matybury TT on Saturday and the Pontiac XC on Sunday. Unfortuntaely I will not be able to attend either of these but I'll be ready to recap come next week. So as always, check back to see how we faired.

The Thin Yellow Line

2008-08-04T03:35:00.000-07:00

The title makes sense actually. The Tree Farm Relay was this week's race. Originally I had a vision of having 3 teams built to compete in the Tree Farm Relay, all Signoutfitters.com racers. Well the week leading up to the race we only had 3 racers total. Not even enough for a whole team. I got a tip from a friend on a rider looking to race who could turn some quick laps. Ends up Brian and I had met Jeremy before at Maybury and I was confident he would get the job done.

The day of the race was here. The forecast called for perfect weather. It hadn't rained in Novi all week, there was hardly a cloud in the sky and the high for the day was suppose to be 81. It's about damn time we didn't have to race in the rain and mud. Altho the weather was good and trail was prime I was still a little uneasy. Four riders and 80 Miles to cover. I had been pondering a line up all night...would it work? I wasn't sure. I'm a competitive person and even tho I was looking to come and have a good time I wanted to fly the team colors to victory. What helped settle me down was that I knew I had brought three things that no other team had......Dawn, Brian and Jeremy. I had three solid riders on my team who were loaded with determination. Sure we all joked around all morning and inflated each other's ego but inside we all knew we had a job to do that day.

Brian and I had competed in this race two years ago and Jeremy raced there last year. In fact Jeremy was the lead off man on his team last year and had no arguments about leading the team off for us. Being the lead off for your team in this race is a big responsibility. Not only is your team relying on you for a good start you have to do a Lemans start. That means Jeremy had to run down a sled hill to his bike, hop on and try and beat everyone to the single track. Check this series of pictures out:

http://www.tenmilemedia.smugmug.com/gallery/5603491_ekqnY#343895168_rxPKV-A-LB

http://www.tenmilemedia.smugmug.com/gallery/5603491_ekqnY#343896554_q8TDp-A-LB

http://www.tenmilemedia.smugmug.com/gallery/5603491_ekqnY#343897799_gVb9r

http://www.tenmilemedia.smugmug.com/gallery/5603491_ekqnY#343898713_nfe3x

Jeremy got the job done. He mounted that horse like a UCI Cyclecross Pro and lead the pack of riders into the single track. Unfortunately he forgot to release the lock out on his shock and took a tumble down the trail later on in the loop. Even with the fall he came around with a solid loop time of 46:21 and we were in third place by 10 seconds. We opted to run Jeremy as a sprinter he only did one loop and Brian was warmed up and ready to go as he came around.

The hand off was made and the master of the Novi Tree Farm, Brian, was off and riding. Team Business Class was 4 minutes ahead of us and BiciLibre was about 2.5 minutes ahead of us when Brain stared his lap. Brain was unsure about doing two consecutive laps so we made sure to have Dawn ready to go after Brian's first lap. But you all know Brain, when it's time to get the job done he doesn't rest until all his work is complete. Brian "The Wrench" McCabe pulled a 45:37 for our second loop and held pace with BiciLibre while gaining 40 seconds on Business Class. As he came around Brian waved off a water bottle and told us he wasn't done hunting yet.

I knew this is when we would start to hit Sport class traffic so I was glad Brian went around again. dawn had never ridden this course and my main objective was to get her open track so she could concentrate on doing what Dawn does best....go fast. Brian came around after another flawless loop and turned a 47:23. That was a solid time for dealing with traffic and being a second consecutive loop. Brain had put us a minute behind Business Class but BiciLibre had sent out a sprinter and they opened up their gap on us to 6 minutes. However Brain had put the 4th place team, Flatlanders, 4 minutes behind us.

So enters Dawn. She took off into the unknown without hesitation. We informed her about the few obstacles she'd need to watch out for but of course she wasn't worried about any of them. We told her we'd have Jeremy ready to go after her first lap if she wanted to exchange. We watched the clock and placed bets on what her time would be. Dawn did a flying lap at 49:53 and surprised us all. Jeremy, Brian and I knew we had a ringer on our team and that ringer was Dawn. Even after doing a trail marathon in Vermont the previous week she showed up to race...and to win. Now we were all pumped. We had the fastest girl at the Farm.

Dawn came in for the exchange and Jeremy was off into the wild again for his second lap. The guy has so much power it seemed to only take a couple pedal strokes to get up to race pace. He was out to show us again that he was willing to suffer for the team. Dawn had held us steady and Jeremy knew he needed to give his all. He gave everything he had to close the gaps on the teams in front of us. Again traffic was getting thick but Jeremy still pulled a 46:58 . He held the 1 minute gap to the second place team and decreased the gap to the first place team by 2 minutes. We were now only 4 minutes out of first.

As Jeremy came around I was twitching and ready to go. Brain and Dawn were there with me keeping me calm and getting me ready to attack. As Brain kept track of the clock I made mental files of who was lapping by and what class they were in. There was going to be a lot of traffic but I knew I needed to make a clearing for Dawn. I got the hand of from Jeremy and off I went. I was in full race mode and planned to be in the red for at least the first 5 miles. It was the start of lap 6 and we were the only team to exchange riders. I knew the two out in front of me were on their second loop so they would be a tad slower. As I rode I picked off Sport riders one by one. Knowing the trail really well I was able to make a lot of clean passes without sacraficing to much time.

Then I saw Business Class about 4 miles into the 10 mile loop. I called the pass and the rider let me go by without issue. We were in the single track so I kept my focus and followed all the lines Brian had taught me. I still needed to put time on this rider and catch BiciLibre. About a mile later I saw the jeresy in a switchback. I was gaining on the rider! I caught BiciLibre about 6-7 miles into the lap where the two track was. As we both made the turn onto the two track we were out of our saddles and fighting. Brian had told me the two track was lengthy so I tucked behind the BiciLibre and drafted the entire time. I saw the sign coming up "Tight turn ahead" and that means it was time to make my move. I called the pass and entered the single track in front. This is the tightest part of the trail and I spent the rest of the lap pretending Brian was chasing me....he doesn't make mistakes there and if I pretended like Brain was chasing me down I knew it would help me focus.

I came around and saw the team out there at the exchange. I was up out of the saddle flying across the field wondering what to do. Should I hand off to Dawn so she doesn't have the pressure of the last lap? Should I keep going because I was in a groove? Most of the Sport riders should be done by now...there's not much traffic and as I looked at my clock I was going to lap at 44:10. If I stop now then Brian would have been the only rider to do consecutive laps and he'd never let me hear the end of it. I put the hammer down and went back on the attack. I figured we were in first and it was now my job to create a gap for Dawn. I didn't bother to look back to see how close the other teams were. I kept my eyes focused in front of me. The track was clear so it was my race to lose. I figured if I gave Dawn a 5 minute gap she would have the cushion to take on anything the other teams would throw at us. I knew the other two teams were exchanging to fresh riders so I would have to get back into the red to make sure they don't catch site of me.

I nailed the single track and made it out to the two track. I looked down at my mph and realized I was going to slow. Brian would be disappointed with me right now. Out of the saddle I went. My legs were burning but my drive kept me moving. I repeated the words, "No pain" in my head until I was back on the single track. The team knows we are in first and they are counting on me. Out of the single track and onto the field to the exchange I see Dawn ready to go. Brain and Jeremy are down there with her. I lapped at 44:53 but had no idea how far ahead of the other teams I was. Brian was on the job tho watching the clock as I was regrouping and catching my breath. As Dawn entered the woods all we could do was watch the clock and see if I had did my job and created a big enough gap for Dawn.

As each minute passed without a rider coming out of the woods for their final lap we felt better and better. Finally Business Class came out to lap and Brain clocked them at 5 minutes and 23 seconds behind Dawn. BiciLibre wasn't far behind them, a little over a minute. It was then that we felt confident that we would win. If Dawn pulled another 50 minute loop we'd be set. We knew she'd be faster this time tho because she had been on the course once earlier in the day. A part of me felt guilty putting the outcome of the day on her shoulders but I knew she has nerves of steel and could handle the pressure. She is Dawn after all. She does her best work when the odds are stacked against her.

Dawn beat all the odds and came out of the single track onto the open field at a punishing pace. She came in with a lap time of 49:11 and blew Business Class out of the water by over 5 minutes. BiciLibre had run out of gas and Dawn had put another 3 minutes on them. Team Signoutfitters.com took home the win with an incredible run. Not only did we win the Advanced Co-ed by 5 minutes we beat all but one of the Men's Advanced teams. Our total time for the 80 miles was 6:14:28.

Job done! I want to say thank you to Brian, Dawn and Jeremy for all the hard efforts they put out there on the trail. I had a great time and the win made it that much better. The team did a great job of being ready at each lap and taking care of the riders going on and off the trail. Of course this means we'll have to return next year to defend our title.

In other news: Heather made the trip to Big M for the Tailwinds XC race. She came in at a solid 3rd place in Women's Expert/Elite. Once I talk to her I'll post up more info about her day.

This weekend Jeff heads to the U.P. to take on the annual Ore to Shore. Check back next week to see how he did.

Sorry this was a long one but when you win a race it deserves a good write up.

One for the kids

2008-07-29T09:33:00.000-07:00

What a beautiful day for racing.....so I saw. Even after Sue asked me again if I wanted to race the Time Trial at Stony Creek this past weekend I again declined. Sunday the 27th was the annual day I take my son Ashton to race for his special race day. Sure he comes to my races, watches me race and then gets to race himself. But this is the second year in a row we go just for him...the whole day is his day and he is the center of attention. This way my pre race, race and post race don't cut into his ride time. Even my 2 year old daughter Abigail was there to support Ashton.

Man did he do great. When the announcer asked which kids wanted to do 2 laps Asthon stepped his bike up to the front of the line. What a race! Ashton and many of the other kids had pre road the course like 15 times....no joke. So when it came time to race they had all the turns memorized and they were ready to roll. The first wave of racers we the 2 loop riders. My son Ashton and John Osgood's son Noland (Team Sandbag) were among that race. The two of them rode a fantastic race and got their medals and fruit snacks at the finish line.

Mike's son Zak and his nephew Brendon raced the second wave with the 1 loop kids. Man did they rip it up out there in true Time Trial fashion. All the kids were out of breath and ready for thier medals and snacks at the finish. This was one of the biggest turn outs I have ever seen for the Specialized Kid's Races that are held at all the Tailwind events. It was great to see so many kids and parents there to show what the future of our sport will be like. I don't have any pix from this race but I will post some of the kid's past races soon.

Oh yeah, and the adults raced to:

Scotty - 58:48 - 5th place
Mike - 59:53 - 15th place
Darlene - 2:01:03 - 13th place
Gerry - 58:14 - 11th place (fastest team time of the day)
Jeff - 1:25:22 - 16th (broke his peal in the first few miles)
Joey - 2:41:12 - Yes folks, Joey did the adult course. Way to go!!!

This weekend we'll be covering two events. Jeff and Heather will continue their hunt in the points race by going to Big M for more race action in the Expert and Elite Classes this Sunday. Dawn, Brian and Aryn plan to race locally at the Novi Tree Farm Relay this Saturday.

So check back next week to see how everyone did.

5 down, 3 to go.

2008-07-22T09:05:00.001-07:00

Wow what a team turn out! 10 racers total for the 5th USAC race of the year at Ruby Campground just west of Port Huron. The course lap is about 5 miles long but throws everything at you. Steep long climbs, long deep water crossings (30 feet long), a lot of bridge work along with some great tight sections. Sounds fun doesn't it? Well try doing it while it is raining. Yep, another USAC race and more rain. Most people ran the water crossings because the water was over the knees this year and the current was crazy. The climbs were even harder than normal due to traction conditions be low. Lots of clay on this course.

For Jeff, Heather, Dawn and myself conditions were the worse. We had heard of riders trying to pre ride certain section and crashing in the process. It was raining when we were at the starting line so the whole first lap everyone spent learning. It wasn't until the 4th lap that I noticed a traction difference. I have never had to run my bike so far in a 20 mile ride before. The steep parts of the climbs seemed to hook up great but it was the switchbacks that made you dismount, put the bike on the shoulder and start running. After the first lap you knew exactly where you had to dismount. On lap 3 and 4 I dipped my bike in the water as I ran across just to wash off the brakes and derailluer. This by far beat out the mudfest we raced last year at Maybury.

Luckily for the Sport and Beginner classes the rain had stopped earlier and the sun was out so the course was drying. Riders were still running up hills and sliding back down them but at least the flats were dry and they were able to carve the single track more then us.

My family and I stuck around to cheer everyone one and also to be available to help with anything needed. I am pleased to say that even with the amount of crashes we had....me included.... we had no major injuries and everyone finished at least one lap. It was a tough day to race and it was great to see that we had such a big turn out of team riders and the level of determination was huge. Even being sick Jeff showed up to race and braved the conditions. Darlene gave it a shot and completed a lap. Pretty ballzy for only being her second actual race. The brat pack of Amber, Scotty and Alex all rode strong and showed what the future of Team Signoutfitters.com is all about. Despite a few minor incidents Mike and Gerry rode some consistent laps. Heather and Dawn did their normal damage to themselves and their class standings. Me, I was in my normal attack mode and did what I could with the conditions I had.

Here are the official results:

4 lap Racers:
Heather "Hollywood" Patterson - 2:39:08 - 3rd place Women's Expert/Elite
Dawn "U-Dog" Nicholas - 2:24:39 - 2nd place Women's Expert/Elite
Jeff "Sick-Boy" Socia - 2:19:29 - 11th place Men's Expert 30-39
Aryn "Nicknameless" Pongratz - 2:06:22 - 7th palce Men's Expert 30-39

3 Lap Racers:
Scotty "How's my Hair" Smiddy - 1:40:56 - 4th place Men's Sport 15-18
Alex "The Kid" Lanstra - 1:46:41 - 6th place Men's Sport 15-18
Mike "Tree Hugger" Keysaer - 1:48:14 - 9th place Men's Sport 30-34
Gerry "Where my Beer" Heath - 1:46:40 - 6th place Men's Sort 40-49

2 Lap Racer (Turned 1):
Darlene "Where's the damn finish line" Herrick - 1:07:37 - 3rd place Women's Beginner 30+.

1 Lap Racer:
Amber "Amber Alert" Smiddy - 45:03 - 1st place Women's Beginner 14 and Under.

A few others I'd like to mention:

Todd Powers from Team Sandbag. 3rd place Men's Expert 30-39 with a time of 2:00:32. Todd rode a rock solid race to put himself on the podium of his home course. It was great to see him up there, he rode hard for it and has worked hard all season to make that happen. Only two other riders in the entire Expert Division posted faster times than him.....that's something to writ home about. Great work Todd!!!

Just like old times Brad Lako and I were out there on lap 2 and 3 battling for position. Brad did some great riding and his trail sense and bike handling abilities really shined Sunday. Even after I managed to pass him he keep the pressure on really hard thru the rest of the race. We have been at it for three years now and it's always good to see him at the starting line.

Last, big props to Team Sandbag for hosting a great race. Thanks for all the hard work getting the trail ready. These guys and girls are top shelf, a great team to hang out with and do a great job hosting an event.

Good job to everyone who raced and A HUGE THANK YOU to our supporting cast on the side lines. The cheering section and race support is always a big lift for the racers when we are out there suffering.

Next stop, this Sunday for the Stony Creek Time Trial. Get out those road legs people. It's going to be high speed fun on the dirt this weekend.

Keep your determination high and your head down (you'll be more aero that way)

Aryn

Being willing makes you able

2008-07-17T08:40:00.000-07:00

What an exciting couple of weeks it has been. 6/28 - 7/6 I basically went nuts with the family out of town and did 200+ trail miles. The cool part was that half of those miles were done with Brian and we were able to travel and change up venues, even made it out to Pontiac. The really cool part is that I got a front row seat to Brian taking flight over his handlebars. In all my years of riding this is the first doumented trip of Brian going over the bars. I joke about it because he is okay and it wasn't a huge crash. Just a case of not having enough speed to clear a log pile....and for record it was a large log pile and he bit in on the way dwn the opposit side.

Next up was my trip to my cottage in Canada. Was nice to get away and relax after all those miles on the trail. I gave myself a few days of rest and then took to the Canadian hills for a few rides on my road bike. Up there you are either climbing a hill close to single digit speeds or you are decending a hill at 35+ mph. Reaching over 40 mph is not uncommon even when you are not pedaling. I decended at over 50 mph once last year. Not sure how i feel about that. I have found that 45 mph is my comfort limit. Any faster and the wind in my ears gets to loud and I start to wonder what would happen if I punctured a tire while going that fast.

After returning to work and talking to Captain Terror I got the low down on the Boyne Marathon.Jeff, Scotty and Alex were the only ones who made it up there for the event. Jeff pulled down a 3rd place medal is Expert Men's 30-39 with a time of 3:58:11. Alex won the Beginner Men's 15-18 with the time of 2:33:59 and Scotty unfortunately did not finish. Word is an injury from earlier in the week flared up and caused him to stop. Hopefuly some rest time will help him heal and get him back out there soon. I am not sure of the lengths everyone did in terms of miles but I do know Boyne is known for it's abnormally large hills and this course is not for the weak. Great job to all three who made it out there to race. Three racers and two medals, that's awesome. That means again Team Signoutfitters.com was announced over the loud speaker after the race.

Other honorable mentions: Chris Maltby from Mysinglespeed.com. He races Expert Men's 30-39 but does it on a single speed. I narrowly escaped him at the Stony Marathon a couple weeks back and he was only 5 minutes behind Jeff at Boyne finishing 4th. You are crazy Chris! My boy Brad Lako from Flying Rhinos made the trip out to Boyne as well. Unfortunately he broke a pedal early on in the race and had to throw in the towel. I feel for you brother. I have been racing against Brad for 3 years now and he has always been a great opponent. He and his wife recently had thier first baby but he is getting back on the saddle so look out for a late season surge from him.

This concludes this weeks reviews. Next up is the Ruby Campground XC this Sunday. Approx 5 Mile loop with some good climbs, good flow and 2 water crossings. This is always a fun race and from the sounds of it we will have a great team turn out. Highlights for the coming weekend event:

1 - The Brian vs Gerry battle.....who will triumph at Ruby, the tortoise or the hare?

2 - The Aryn vs Jason (RBS) battle......Jason plans to unveil some new components this weekend but does he know Aryn made some drivetrain changes for the coming weekend?

3 - My son Ashton may decided to race his new 18" wheel bike....it's got hand brakes and pegs.

4 - The Amber Alert 2008 debut......will Amber race this weekend?!?!

Tune in next week to hear the exciting conclusions.......

Keep your head up and the tires floating...we have some deep water to cross this weekend.

Aryn

Yellow Reign

2008-07-01T09:17:00.000-07:00

It seems as if the rain will not let up. It feels like we have had a rain shower every day in the month of June. From drizzles to wicked thunder storms that knocked out power all over and had people going for a week without it. Yet the Stony Marathon was approaching and the forecast called for more rain come race day. When I woke up on race day and looked out the living room window all I saw was wet ground. It was 6:00 am, 4 hours until Robert would give the, "Have a good ride guys. About 10 seconds until you go."

I packed up the car and headed over to pick up Austin. He was going to play a huge support role for us along with my parents. This was going to be a long race and we needed bodies at the tent to pass bottles and help out racers if they had to pull in on the laps. We got there with about 1.5 hours until the start. We set up camp next to Team Fraser and Team Sandbag flanked us from the south side. We were in good company and they had experienced support crews so it was a good relief to know we would have all kind of help.

Enduro, Hollywood, Ice Man, Endoboy, Captain Terror and I were the team roster for the day. It was a NORBA race so we would be hunting for points. Best 5 finishes would go toward our team total for the season. We knew the course was not going to be kind due to all the recent rain. A 10 mile loop that had some good climbing, winding single track and some open two track to flex your road legs a little. Mike, Gerry and Brian were there to race the Sport category that would have them out there doing circles for 40 miles. Heather would be going up against her rivals for 50 miles in the Expert/Elite Women's Class. Jeff and I were looking down the barrel of a 60 mile race in less than favorable conditions. We all seemed pretty much at ease but we all knew that mud and rain can break a bike at any time.

Close to start time we all lined up in our respected classes. All levels of riders would be going off top to bottom at 10:00 in 2 minute intervals. Jeff took a spot in the front row with his normal pack. I lined up in the second row right behind him next to a racer I know from RBS. I knew him and I would be pacing together so it was a good place to be. I looked over my shoulder before the start to see if I could see any of the team in the river of racers behind me but had no luck. All of a sudden it was go time.

The pace was quicker than what I expected for the start of a 60 mile race. I hung to the back of the pack making sure not to get dropped. I could see Jeff and he looked like he was where he wanted to be. Jason, from RBS, and I rode most of the first loop together with two other guys in our class. Upon finishing our first loop I noticed Jeff was maybe 15-20 seconds ahead of me. At first I thought something was wrong but as I lapped and looked at my time I knew something was wrong. I was pacing out way over my head. I needed to slow down if I was going to survive. The course was bad . Standing water on the two track, muddy corners in the single track and the section they added to reroute a really bad area.....was 6 inches of tire spinning mud for about 100 meters. But things could be worse. It could have been snowing and in the 30's like it was just over 2 months ago for the first race of the season. Maybe I shouldn't complain.

The second lap I had put some space between Jason and I and came across a mix of racers here and there but it seemed a lot of riders were scattered. No groups forming pace lines on the flats like I expected. Near the end of lap 2 I really didn't have anyone around me.

Lap three was a little more eventful. I stated to pass a couple riders but I got passed from behind by some of the 40+ Experts. Man were they moving. Thought it was crazy how fast they were moving...kind of like they were time trialing. that train was moving to fast so I kept my own pace and finished lap three.

On the start of lap four I was feeling well still and mentally alert. The bottle hand off's went smooth and I was getting a second wind. The mud didn't seem to be getting any better but the scattered rain had finally stopped. The open two track was starting to take it's toll on me. From being so wet your tires just sank as you rolled along. There was no easy section to rest on the entire 10 mile loop. As I came across the end of lap 4 I notice Mike was at the back of the tent. he looked okay so I thought it was either a bike issue or he was just refueling. Ends up I was wrong. Mike had made it 30 miles but had to throw in the towel. He had bad cramps in his legs and didn't want to push it any more. After the race I found out this was happening a lot, even to the upper class riders.

Lap 5 I started to catch Beginners and had to do some fancy passing in the single track. I was also starting to notice that a lot of the guys who went out fast in the beginning were starting to blow up. I was finally passing more Expert riders altho I had no idea what class most of them were in. As I came around to finish lap 5 Brian was there cheering me on as well as Gerry and the support crew. The encouragement was nice to hear even if it made me throw a bottle at Brian for his smart @ss comments : )

Lap six....I had no idea what place I was in but was happy the Elite racers didn't lap me. The sun was out and it was starting to get humid. No worries, only 10 miles to go and the bike was still shifting well. I forgot to mention I was racing a new hartail but more on that later. 10 miles, that's all. Well it was a hard ten miles. The single track was starting to take a toll on me and I could feel my pace dropping. My arms were tired and I just wanted to be back on the two track to rest them. As I came closer to the last big climb about a mile from the finish I stared up that hill and told myself this was the last time I had to climb it today. I geared down and made it up no problem. I could not see any riders in front of me and I had no threats from the back. I picked the pace up but did not push it to hard. I hadn't had any signs of cramping and I didn't want to encourage any.

My time was 4:35:15 and to my surprise I took 5th out of 13 in my class. My second podium finish in a row in Expert. I was pumped. I guess more guys from our class blew up than I thought. My lap times weren't as consistent as normal for me but I didn't have any major spikes showing. Jeff pulled a solid time of 4:23:43 and finished 3rd in our class. A solid ride and he walked away happy with hos performance.

Heather finished 15 seconds behind a podium spot with a time of 4:28:18, 6th out of 11 in her class. I didn't get a chance to talk to her much after but she seemed pretty up beat altho I know that 15 seconds will haunt her all season. Gerry said he went out to fast. Word is he basically collapsed at the finish line, fell over without even unclipping. I think he did it all for show tho. He likes to play the crowd. He did his 4 loops in 3:33:47 and took a top 10 in his class. That brings us to Brian, the man who was worried he may not finish. Well he made it the entire 40 miles and I'll point out he got Gerry by 5 minutes with the time of 3:28:35. That got him 4th in his class but I know he walked away with sme confidence. I think this performance is what Brian needed to get going this season.

All in all I am glad we had no bike issues, crashes or serious injuries. It was a rough day. I think the 78 miles I did at the 6 hours of Addison was easier than this race and that was 90% single track. I am proud of the whole team and all the others who attempted this race. So we scored some solid points for the team race series and brought home two more Expert level medals so Team Signoutfitters.com was announced over the loud speaker twice. Great job to everyone and good luck to those going to Boyne for the Marathon on July 12th.

Keep you glasses clean and your derailluer shifting.

Aryn

The I in T.E.A.M.

2008-06-13T03:28:00.000-07:00

When I arrived Saturday morning at Brighton I realized there was an I in TEAM....that I was me. As far as I knew I was the only one there from the team for the first day of a two day Stage Race. Everyone knows I am not a sprinter but the 3 race, 2 day format for double series points sounded like fun. So after registration I wondered how I was going to pull off respectable times in a 6.5 mile Time Trial and an approx. 20 min Short Track race.

The events were suppose to start at noon. Close to 11:00 I called my wife to talk to my son and see how his baseball game went. It was the only one of the season I had missed. As I was talking to my wife again I saw one of our team jerseys on the other side of the parking lot. It was Dawn! Awesome!!! So Dawn and I set up camp around my van and went to work.

The TT was rough. Dawn had missed a trail marker and had issues with a broken pedal. She still pulled of a 4th place out of 9 racers but cold have had an easy 3rd if it weren't for the mishaps. What was funny is that tailwind had accidentally gave her a Men's Elite number so she went off in the middle of the Men's Elite Class. They even had her results listed under Men's Elite. I also had 9 racers in my class and somehow squeaked out of the TT in 4th place, much to my surprise. What I liked most about it was I got to go off by myself from the starting line instead of being paired up with another rider. It helped with my concentration right from the start. Torn Shirt wasn't as hard as I remembered it being but then again I was really focused and only tapped one tree. Not bad considering how tight that course was.

After the TT I had plans to go pre ride Murray Lake for Sunday's race but I got a little to comfortable in my chair. Dawn and I spent the afternoon hanging out with Team Sandbag and just shooting the breeze. It was hot so we stayed cool and conserved energy. Neither one of us had raced a Short Track Type race so we didn't know what to expect. Well the time came to warm up so we did some laps of the course. The start was crazy, they lined up the entire Expert and Elite Class, men and women, and let us all go off at once. Talk about a mass start! What a fun race tho. 8 laps around this grass course and it felt more like a road crit race. Drafting was important as well as riding with a pack if you could. Dawn pulled off another 4th in her class and so did I. I would go into more detail but this is going to be long enough as it is. So Saturday's races were over and Dawn and I were happy with how we finished despite the heat and a few mishaps.

Sunday morning as I was driving out to the race I was feeling really good about sitting in 4th place for the weekend so far. However, I knew Sunday was the XC and they allow racers to just do the XC so most likely there'd be people racing on fresh legs. Altho I don't agree much with this rule there was nothing I could do about it. For some reason I still felt like I had an edge. Heather, Kathy and Joey showed up just after I did and Jeff wasn't far behind them. Brian was on his way but Gerry wasn't going to make it because Amy had sprained her ankle the day before.

During the first 5 minutes of my warm up I felt that edge I had going away. Man were my legs tired from Saturday but I needed to wake them up. My parents were coming to the race and bringing my son Ashton so he could do the kids race later in the afternoon. Well they got there just before my start time and seeing Ashton put me in a great mood. He gets so excited about racing and he wore off on me. Jeff and I went out first for the team....man does this class start out fast. Sunday we had 14 guys in our class and 7 of them were on fresh legs. Jeff rode a solid race against his top rivals. For the first 3 laps he kept himself in the top 5. After the third lap going thru the exchange he dug in for a pass and overtook the class leader. He thought Nate would hold his rear tire so Jeff kept the rpms high for a couple miles and dropped him. I don't want to say he cruised to a victory but he was never challenged after that. Me, I started off into the single track 12th out of 14. But I kept my pace under control and picked off riders one by one. I passed a larger number of riders than I am used to in Expert but I know some of those guys were from classes in front of me. By the time I crossed the finish line I had clawed my way up to 5th place in my class. I was very pleased with that result and I rode fast enough to hold onto my 4th place in the overall standings.

Onto Hollywood. She busted out of the gates to pace herself with Karey and Erin. After the first lap she realized she couldn't hold that pace so she backed off the throttle a bit. She rode strong tho and fought thru the entire 30 mile course taking 3rd out of the 8 riders in her class. Unfortunately Dawn could not make Sunday's XC.

Next up, Manager McCabe. I say manager because the week prior to the race he was promoted from Senior Design Engineer to Engineering Manager within our company. Congrats Brian!!! Despite all the extra hours at work and lack of training time Brain still showed his team colors and came to race. His Sport 35-39 Class is always very competitive so I give him a lot of credit for coming out to race even tho his season started late. His laps times and finishing position weren't as impressive as last year but he still had a great time and I for one was happy just to see him out there. Racing without Brian around is like watching Top Gun without Iceman in it.

Well Jeff decided he needed to punish himself more so he signed up for Expert/Elite single speed. What's another 22.5 miles of racing after just completing 30 miles in Sarah Desert heat like conditions? At no surprise to me at all Jeff was able to finish top 5 in single speed and bring home another medal. When I was at the award ceremony for Expert/Elite to get my medal, they called for Jeff's 1st place in the geared XC. I told them he was out there racing in the Single Speed division. You should have seen the look on their faces. They asked if I wanted to get his medal for him. I said, "No, you'll be calling his name again during the Single Speed award ceremony."

Today was also going to be Joey's first big kid race. As soon as Heather got done with her nearly 3 hour race, she grabbed some grub and headed over to the starting line with Joey. His race was going to be one lap, 7.5 miles, in the searing heat. Well our Joey made us proud and never gave up. He rode to a fourth place in the Beginner Men's 11 and under category finishing his lap in 1:40:00. What a trooper! Great job on your first big kid race Joey!

Last, my son Ashton. He was excited to be wearing te new team jersey. Unfortunately due to my course laps being longer than expected I did not make it back in time to see him race. My parents said it was a heck of a kid's race tho. He had to do two laps of his course and they incorporated a downhill to the beach area and then he had to turn around and climb back up. He was so happy his race that we wouldn't get him to stop riding afterwards.

So in closing Team Signoutfitters.com had a breakthrough weekend bringing home a total of 4 Expert/Elite Class medals and 5 top 5 finishes in Expert/Elite. We only got 4 medals because they only award medals to the top 3 in the overall standing for the entire Stage Race weekend. I was still happy with my 4th place in the overall but found out I was only 45 seconds out of 3rd place.

Next up, June 28th......the Stony Marathon.

(sorry this write up is a little more lame than normal but there was a lot to cover and I didn't want to make it to long)

Keep you head up and tires down.

Aryn

She works hard for the money....dah dat dah dat...

2008-06-04T09:52:00.000-07:00

Enough of my song and dance. Lets get to the point.

Okay kids, I know gas prices are thru the roof, your house is depreciating in value and you bring your lunch to work every day to try and save some cash but your grocery bill is up as well. Yep, this sucks. But hey, it could be worse. Yeah, you could have a serious illness known as Diabetes. Maybe you already do and you know where I am coming from.

I myself do not have Diabetes but I see it around me all the time. I'll keep this uncharacteristcally short and not lay a guilt trip on you...oh wait, I already did.....and say that I am just spreading the word for my favorite sister-in-law, altho the other sister-in-law is in a tie for first place. Anyway, she is riding in the Tour De Cure this weekend. Yes, the event me and some of my fellow teammates normally participate in every year. Well this year due to scheduling conflicts Team Signoutfitters.com won't be pairing up with Coast to Coast but I am still doing my part to donate and help recruit others.

$5,$10, $20...hell, even the change in your car's ash tray will help. So if you are currently employed and can spare a few click on the web link and do a good deed for the day.

http://main.diabetes.org/site/TR/TourdeCure/TDC325108030?px=2757355&pg=personal&fr_id=5036

That's all I got.

Keep you head up and tires down.

Aryn

A few too many

2008-05-30T03:59:00.001-07:00

Gerry had brought his new Redline 26" fully rigid SS with him yesterday. He wanted to take it out to Maybury and see what it was all about. He asked me if I wanted to ride with him and switch bikes after 2 loops. He said he had brought his Giant and that I could ride that the first two loops while he rode the SS. After racing the Giant at Bloomer I was quick to reply 'yes' as I fell in love with that bike instantly. So here's the recap by loop:

Loop 1 - Something felt different on the Giant than when I was on it last. Plus I had to get used to the rear shifter being opposite from mine. Don't know how many times I missed a shift because I went the wrong way. Not a great warm up loop but we did a decent time. I pulled a high 31 and Gerry did a low 32 on the rigid SS. Great lap for him altho he was already praying for gears.

Loop 2 - Since Gerry wasn't having any issues on the SS and I was feeling comfortable now on the Roll X Pro D2 tires I decided to see how fast I could take the XTC around for a loop before I had to switch bikes with Gerry. I was impressed at how well that Giant was doing and I was moving pretty quick. At my first check point I was running a pace to make it into the 28 minute range. Well right before the first 'fluid spot' (place to get a drink) I came across a rider who had some minor bike issues. She looked a little puzzled so I decided to stop and try to help. She had lost a frame cable clamp and her rear brake hose was flapping in the wind. We tried various things to tie it back up but no luck. She said she'd just take it easy. By then Gerry had caught up and we proceeded down the trail. I had lost my rhythm so I backed off the pace and decided to just play around on the rest of the loop. Our times were comparable to the first loop.

Loop 3 - This is where it gets good. I was not on the SS and Gerry was on the Giant. He took point and I stayed on his rear tire most of the time. It was weird not having larger gears to go down hills with but climbing was no issue in the 32 x 16 set up he had on it. The rigid front fork and Maxxis tires made for some uneasy turning but I was getting used to it .. .. that is until I lost the front end in a routine left turn and laid the bike down. Gerry looked back and said "Don't scratch my bike!" Well about a mile and a half later after the 'fluid spot' Gerry was putting his bottle back in the cage when all of a sudden the rear tire flipped up and his head went straight for the ground. It was a hard endo.......very hard. The front tire never left the ground he never came unclipped. At one point he was in the negative fetal position. I am surprised he stood up so fast. After a few minutes of checking for broken bones Gerry said he was good to go, even after I offered to ride with him back to the cars via the paved road. We finished the loop but took our time. Gerry was done, understandable after that crash, and asked me what my plans were.

loop 4 - I said I was going to do more loops but not on the SS. I really didn't want to go back for my bike so Gerry gave me his Giant and said just to give it back to him tomorrow at work. Good enough, I had at least 2 more loops in me. So he rode off on the SS back to the cars and I took off down the trail. Felt great to be back on the Giant. Gerry had raised the seat a bit and the bike felt solid. I was zooming along pretty good but no record pace. Trail traffic was starting to get thick but all the passes were pretty clean. The front tire felt like it was a little low on air but I flowed pretty well. No major incidents. Ran another high 31.

Loop 5 - This was my third day in a row riding and I was starting to feel it after the first mile of climbs on this loop. Traffic was still heavy on the trail and it seemed like I was rolling up on people more frequently. About half way thru I came across a woman on a bike that was most likely bought at a place that also has automotive, grocery and clothing sections. Good for her for being out there tho. The trail was pretty wide at that point and plenty of room to pass. She moved over and I went off the trail to the left so she'd feel comfortable with the space. Well she must have hit something because all of a sudden she gave out an 'oh my god' and her bike was heading toward mine. We clipped handle bars pretty good but both managed to stay on our bikes. I completed the pass but slowed down to make sure she was alright. Things were cool, we both apologized like 10 times and then off I went again. Lap time, a low 32.

Loop 6 - Any other day I would have been smart enough to hang it up and head for the parking lot. What's one more loop tho? After the first 2 miles I had realized this was a bad idea. It had been a long time since I rode a hardtail this far and my body was starting to hurt all over. I wasn't bonking, I was just feeling the effects of the constant pounding and remembering why I loved my full suspension so much. I had a couple opportunities to turn off and head back but I was tough and was going to stick it out. Well my pace was dropping and I spent most of the time out of the saddle because my lower back was killing me. But then it happened, I heard some bikes behind me. I had went close to 36 miles and had not been passed by anyone. Wasn't about to let it happen then. So I grabbed a drink, gathered up all I had left and went on the offense. My legs were killing me and all I wanted was to be off the trail. My attack lasted two miles but I felt I had put enough gap on those bikes by then so I backed off the pace and cruised to the finish. Don't remember what my lap time was but I'm sure it wasn't pretty. Probably a 34.

So in the end my 6 loop time was around 2:25:00 and that included all the stops to switch bikes, work on bikes and evaluate crash victims. I had done that ride non stop a few weeks back and pulled a 2:10:00 and have done a 5 loop at 2:32:00 so this was way off pace for me. But it was a test day and I am glad I followed thru with the 6th loop no matter how bad it hurt. Good mental victory. Gerry is doing better and still plans to race this weekend.

So check back early next week for race results.

The Wheels go round and round....and around...will they ever stop?

2008-05-19T05:08:00.000-07:00

The list of events you are about to read were all done on purpose. No accidential pain. No getting lost and doing more miles than we should of. No stunt doubles. This was all self inflicted and meant to be done.

The 6-12 Hours of Addison has come and gone. Tank, U-Dog, myself and two of our Macomb Bike and Fitness friends all partook in the event. Jeff, Tim and I all did the 6 Hour solo event. Dawn and Mike (Macomb Mike) did the 12 Hour solo event.

There's not much to talk about in one of these races. No epic high speed crashes. No sweet passing moves. No fighting off the start for a good position. No sprints to the finish. Everyone racing Saturday was going to be out there for a while so it was all about pacing. The course was 6.8 miles in length and reminded me of Maybury. No huge climbs just a bunch of smaller ones that seem to get bigger as your laps pile on. Roots, rock piles and some good flowing downhills. They did have some good bridge work. One in particular that took you over a long stretch of water.

So let us start with the person who covered the least amount of miles: Me. Weapon of choice, my only bike of course. But she got a few upgrades right before the race. XT shadow rear, Hayes carbon brakes and an new XTR shifter to mate the 1X9.

Along with Jeff I signed up for the 6 hour male solo 30-39. No classifications like Sport, Expert or Elite. We were all grouped together for the day. As it turns out this race attracted the biggest men's 6 hour solo 30-39 year old category to date, 17 riders total. Doesn't sound like alot but we all signed up so we all were missing a marble or two. My strategy was to do 4 loops, pit, do 4 more, pit and then finish it out. Things went well and I was able to stick to my plan. In the end I had only spent a total of 5 minutes off my bike for the entire 6 hours and some odd minutes and was able to rack up 11 loops for a total of 74.8 miles. That was far enough to net me 5th overall out of the 17. For my first endurance race I am more than pleased with that result.

Next up Jeff, who I am debating on re-nicknaming Enduro. His weapon of choice, his classic GT set up as a single speed. He raced the geared class tho thinking he may switch to his fully geared Giant. The Giant never left the bike rack though.

Enduro here lapped. My whole goal was to make sure that didn't happen and you can imagine how upset I was when I had 3 miles to go and I heard, "Mr. Pongratz!" shouted out from behind me. And the sick part was he dropped me on the next hill. But it was good for him and for the team. Jeff had completed 12 laps for a total of 81.6 miles and that was far enough to net him 3rd place. It's possible that Jeff actually took second place but the scoring wasn't that accurate and it was hard to argue so he let it go. The guy in question disputed the results before the award ceremony so we were surprised to hear Jeff get called up at third. He was still happy with what he accomplished for his first shot at endurace racing. And if he would have signed up for thre Single Speed division he would have won.

Next up, Wonder Woman. Her tool of the trade: Her new RM Team Element.

Dawn showed up us boys by entering the 12 Hour Women Solo. Talk about grinding it out. She went around so many times I thought the Earth's rotation was going to change. Dawn sat on her bike for a total of 16 loops....do that math and you'll find the sum to be 108.8 miles! C-R-A-Z-Y! She took first in her class, almost doing double of the girl that finished behind her. So why do I call her Wonder Woman? Well for a couple reasons. One because of what she did Saturday and two because of this video. Watch it to the end and you'll see Dawn and her black cape tearing up the trail. http://highgearracing.com/matt_upload/Video/AddisonXC.wmv

Other honorable mentions is of our friends at Macomb Bike and Fitness, Tim Storm and Mike Belanger:

Tim raced the Men's 6 Hour Solo Single Speed. He racked up 10 loops for a 68.8 Mile tour on his Specialized and that got him 4th overall out of 9 in his class. Heck of a long way to go with only one gear. Mike took his Titus around for the 12 Hour Men's solo 40+. They had him listed as only doing 15 loops but he had recorded 17. The 15 loops were good enough for a 4th place finish but the 17 would have bumped him up to 3rd. I guess next year we need to find a better way to argue our results.

In the end I took no pictures of myself and we all had a good time with what we accomplished out there. Congrats to the riders I mentioned here and also to all the others who took to the trail in the event. I could go on and on about the teams I saw out there, young and old, and also the guy who did 14 loops for the men's solo 6 hours (95.2 miles!) but you'd be here all day reading this. All I can say is this race is worth putting on your calendar for next year.

Month #5

2008-05-12T18:24:00.000-07:00

Another Monday closer to constant warmer weather. This back and forth stuff is getting old. But I'm sure when it's 90+ and the humidity is thru the roof we'll be beggin' for cooler air.

Brian "The Professor" McCabe is back in action after a little pause in the action. Rode with him last Friday and let me tell you how good it was to see him back in the saddle. The season doesn't feel the same when he's not around. He's the one that got me into this stuff and I know a few felt the team was a bit empty without him around at the races. Welcome back bro!

This weekend.....big happenings. Hollywood, Terror and Scotty are heading west to Fort Custer for the Xterra Tri. It's like a triathlon but the running and cycling are done on the trails instead of the road. It'll be the team's first appearance in one of these events so I anxious to hear about how their day goes. Of course I'll recap it next week.

Tank and U-Dog are heading north on Saturday for the 6-12 Hours of Addison. Should be a good event. This will b Jeff's first run at an endurance event outside the normal marathon races but I believe Dawn has done some of these before.

So come on back early next week for the write up. I'll do my best to get some pictures this time for those of you who get bored with all my blabing.

Off to bed, OLPD's tomorrow morning. Last tough ride before I start to taper for the weekend.. .. .. yep, if the weather holds up I'll be at the Starting line Saturday morning for the 6 hour event.

Aryn

100% Whole Wheat

2008-05-07T18:41:00.001-07:00

That's right folks, this site will be good for you. I'm hear to keep you regular.

"Dude, your team roster looks kinda small. What gives?" Well, ya'all are right. It's been a slow start to the season. So slow that Jeff is nearing his fourth race weekend and has yet to be photographed in the new uniform. He's got one last chance to sport the new drabs or I am going to rename him ReRun. For the rest of you, in order to get on the 2008 Team Roster part of this page you actually need to race some time in 2008.

So check back, check often because I plan to get the fire lit under this season. We can't let Jeff and Heather get all the team press. Let's gear it up people and go!

In closing, I have a quick Mike update. He's doing better and may actually go to work tomorrow. Hopefully we'll see him back in the two wheeled world soon. Rest up Endoboy!

Aryn

Storming the Fort

2008-05-05T09:26:00.001-07:00

The team took to the trail for the 4th weekend of racing this season. I didn't race but I thought I'd still do a recap. The venue was Fort Custer, widely known for it's Big 3 - Cardiac Climb, CPR and DOA. It's a 9 mile loop with some tech sections, some fast flats and the above mentioned category climbs. Elites do 4 loops, Expert 3, Sport 2 and Beginner 1.

We'll start with Aunt Darlene....I still don't have a nickname for her. (Free used chain lube to the best entry) This was her first actual XC race since doing the First Time Racer at Addison last year. Problem with Beginner women is the spread in age. She had no choice but to do the 30 year and over class. However, she still managed to beat up on a girl 15 years younger than her. Way to go Darlene! Doing a 1:11:14 your first race at Custer is great and I don't think there are any laws against putting the smack down on a girl that young in racing on the left coast.

While we are on the topic of fast women, let's talk about Hollywood. About an hour before her race she decided to take Terror's hardtail Giant for a spin. When she came back she said she was racing it. And race it she did! Hippy Chic here blasted thru 3 loops at a blistering time of 2:14:19 to claim 6th place in her field of Expert/Elite women. She was out there running with the big guns on a fast course and held her ground well. She actually finished 10 minutes sooner than I had predicted on Friday. She has this thing for liking to prove me wrong. Nice riding there Tex.

Let's keep on the subject of Terror's Giant. Much to my surprise he actually raced it, I think I owe Jeff money now. After me racing it at Bloomer last week and Hippie Chic racing it I think he wanted to feel for himself how fast his own bike actually was. Well he seemed to like it and he's walking around the office without his usual limp so I think he's hooked on the speed. Gerry fought his way to the top 50% of his class and finished with another solid 7th place this year in a time of 1:24:27. He was only 2 seconds out of 6th! He said the traffic was thick and if he would have went for the pass he would have caused another wreck. Yes, I said another wreck.

Keeping with my clever segways lets talk about Jeff and his Giant. It's like this course was designed specifically for him and his bike. Tank rode at break neck speeds for his Expert Class and came across the finish line 3rd out of 20 racers! Rumor has it that his chain never left the big chain ring the entire 3 loops, 1:52:32.....Damn that's fast........After he finished unleashing his wrath on the Expert field he went and got his other bike to try his hand again in the Expert/Elite Single Speed category. Yes folks, he decide to order desert and go out for 2 more laps of pain 30 minutes after finishing his first race with only one gear option. And guess what, he podiumed at 5th place out of 14 riders with a time of 1:17:45. Well done Jeff. Glad your on my team out there.

Well I am out of crafty ways to tie in my paragraphs and I still have one person left to brag about, Mike. He made his 2008 XC opener Fort Custer. Altho his end result didn't result in the resulted way he had planned it he still walked away with a good story to tell his grandkids and scare his own kids with. Front wheel issues plagued him his first loop. By the second loop he was off and moving to make up lost time. To make it short there was a secion of the trail where an Expert rider had broken his collar bone and Mike didn't want him to have all the Crash Press so he tried to one up him and Superman-ed over his bars. What goes up must come down and down hard he came. The word on the street is that Mike looks like he got into a bar fight and lost. Mike roughed it out tho and finished the race refusing to DNF. Shows how hard core he is!

That's the racing weekend in review. Mothers Day this coming weekend so there are no races scheduled. Tune in Monday the 19th for another edition of my bad grammer and spelling errors as I cover the 6-12 hours of Addison and the Xterra Tri happening on May 17th and 18th.

Until then this is Aryn saying, "Keep you head up, tires down and face off the ground."

Chain Reaction

2008-04-29T08:36:00.000-07:00

The second Tailwind USAC race of 2008 was last Sunday at Bloomer up in Rochester. The loop was just over 6 miles long and my Expert Class would be doing it four times. From what I heard the course was in great shape and ready to be taken advantage of. I had never raced there before but I got some information about the course from a few fellow riders. U-Dog, Hollywood, Tank and I all came out early due to our start times being close to 10 AM. Captain Terror and Bushwacker made it there to see us off.

Jeff and I started out a couple sets behind the Elites. I was sportin' the new race attire we got that morning but Jeff decided to do one more race in the old drabs since he already had it on.....superstition. At the start Jeff took off with the pack leaders as I expected him to. I tried to get myself into a good mid pack position with a couple other riders I knew I could hold pace with. Things went as planned for about the first 2 miles....after that it all blew up. I was near the top 10 of the class when my chain fell off. I had to step aside and let some riders though before I could start back up again. I spent the next half mile playing catch up only to have it happen again. I was starting to get frustrated. I got the chain back on and was trying to figure out my issue while I was trying to navigate a trail I had never been on before. Well about a mile later it happened again. Every time I had put myself back in the chase only to have my chain fall off again. Now I was in last and way back from the pack.

I still had about a mile and a half and could see a few riders a bit ahead of me on one of the long straights along the river. I talked myself into mounting another attack and took off only to have my chain slip fo the 4th time about 5 minutes later. By then my head was out of the game and I was ready to call it quits. I rode the last mile easy so the chain would stay on and I pulled into the pit after my first lap and called it quits. Gerry and Meghan were there and Gerry was trying to figure out how to get me back on the course. I told him my issue and said I can't race this bike today. So he got his Epic and said just go out on this to at least finish the race. But after we got it ready to race we found out I had the wrong cleats in my shoes to ride it and quit honstly the geometry felt wrong. Since he had me all fired up to go back out I told him to run back to his car and get his XTC. This bike had only been test ridden about 400 yards before down the street in front of his house. It wasn't complete and not ready to race. So we spent a few minutes getting it race ready including swapping parts from my bike onto it.

As I took off on it I realized I had a lot of work to do. The bike was a completely different set up than mine and I was in last.......my lap time was 9 minutes higher than I had planned it to be. So mentally I went into pursuit mode. I had done this before last year after a big crash in a race I wanted to win. I knew the frame of mind I had to be in. I refused to finish last. All I had to do was hunt down at least one person in my class. Plus Ashton's kid race started at 12:30 and I told him I'd be there for it. Can't let my son down.

I spent the next lap riding hard and pushing the limits on a bike that had never been on the trail before. Not the brightest idea but I had somewhere to be at 12:30. I felt I was making up ground. I started passing riders from other classes that started after mine. I knew I was getting closer. The third lap I ran into more traffic so I had to check up in a few spots and wait for room to pass. Finally by the last lap I had caught some people from my class and I wasn't in last anymore. I grinded out the 4th lap and ended up with a negative split from my third so I was happy with that. In the end I had made up a few spots and still managed to finish 14th out of 17. Sure it would have been nice to place in 8th or 9th like I wanted to but at least I finished with some points instead of a DNF.

Jeff ended up running a heck of a race. He finished 5th in our class but most impressive was his 8th overall in Expert. Seems we have all the speed in our class. Great riding Jeff!

Heather took home 4th and Dawn wasn't far behind finishing 6th in the Expert/Elite Women's class. Our chics are fast.

The Captain put in a solid performance and finished 7th out of 12 in his class. Not bad for an old guy.

And last the kids, Zak and Ash. They both did the 2 lap kid course and did the whole race without any help from the dad's. Zak has been off training wheels for almost a year but it was Ashton's first race without them. He did awesome! I am so proud of him.

In the end, I have some work to do on my bike. Luckily I don't race again until June so I have some time to test a few things to fix my bike.

Training Wheels

2008-04-22T09:13:00.000-07:00

I rememeber my 5th birthday well. My parents surprised me with my first 26" bike. It was white with blue pads and blue tires I think it was called a Trax 3000. man was I cool, even with my training wheels. I really don't remember when I stopped using them though. My son is now 5 and we bought him an 18" bike. Funny part is that it's white. It has training wheels and that makes him comfortable so I just let him go at his pace. But man can he tear it up on his Razor Scooter tho....you'd think he was born on that thing. I have seen him fly over the front of it and he gets up like it was nothing. I am seriously considering taking him to a skate park and introducing him to hips, halves, fulls, spines and fun boxes. He has a helmet and gloves but I need to get him some more pads or the wife will put the smack down on the idea.

My training is going well. To my surprise I have about 130 trail miles in for the month of April. That's about 70 more miles than this same day last year. The biggest factor in that is my ability to ride further faster. Moving up to Expert forced me into longer races so my training rides needed to be increased in time and distance. Two hours on the trainer on the weekend over the winter was a normal thing. It has paid off because I am already doing 30 mile trail rides with energy to spare. After this weekend's race I plan to increase my milage per ride more to get ready for the 60 Mile trail marathon race at Stony Creek in late June. I'm expecting that to take at least four and half hours to complete so I need to be ready to go the distance. U-Dog and I may do the 6 or 12 hours of Addison as a two person relay team. We need to check our schedules.

I rode the Tree Farm over the weekend for the first time this season. Was great to hit that trail again. There's a couple new log piles but over all it's still the same. A lot of people don't like to ride there because it's a hard place to carry speed due to the many, many , many turns. Chaquita and I like it because it's a great place to train bike handling skills. Speed doesn't set times there. Braking smart, accelerating out of turns, control and overall focus is what sets the curve.

As for the team there hasn't been a whole lot of team action yet this year. Hopefully this weekend at the Bloomer XC we'll see a bigger team turn out. The best races are the ones that we can get the whole team to. Check back Monday the 28th for race results.

Keep you head up and your tires down.

Aryn

Spin Cycle

2008-04-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

When was the last time you said thank you to your laundry machine? I did it last night. It's amazing how you can put such dirty, filthy, smellified stuff in there, press a couple buttons and poof it all comes out clean in just about an hour.

Some days, like yesterday, I wish I could have fit my bike into that front load washer. I started cleaning and lubing my bike when I threw my race clothes in and by the time the spin cycle was over my bike was clean. Thank you again Washing Machine.

Jeff and I pulled up to park right next to Heather at about 8:30 AM, an hour and a half before the start of the race. I was still not believing what I was seeing. It was April 13th and it was snowing and 32 degrees out. I hadn't regsitered yet and was having serious second thoughts. My decision was made when I got out of the van and realized I would be warmer racing than I would be standing around watching. After a few minutes of chatting with Hollywood and Tank we found out we were the only 3 out of a team of 12 who were going to be representing the team that day. I thought to myslef, "Whatever doesn't kill you only makes you Stranger." Straight from the Jokers mouth and he couldn't have been more right.

All three of us were cold up until we got about 10 minutes of spinning in for a warm up. What was nice is that the three of us started within 10 minutes of eachother. Jeff thought it was great to have other Expert racers on our team at the starting grid with him.

Tank (Jeff) went off first on the clock. This was a Time Trial so you lined up with only one other person at the start. In the end you race against the clock because you really have no idea how anyone else in your class is doing. Jeff said his first lap went well and he was feeling good. The second lap came down to how much chain suck you didn't have. He decided to race his GT instead of the new Giant knowing he'd be punishing whatever bike he decided to race. Like most other Experts and Elites his second lap was slower due to the trail conditions changing dramatically. On the first loop it was still snowing and accumulating on the side of the trail. By the second lap it was warm enough for the snow to melt and the trail turned to peanut butter soup. In the end he turned in some solid loops and was fast enough to finish 4th out of 13. In the Expert 30-39 Class that's a great day. That's a tough class to race in. My hats off to you Tank.

Hollywood (Heather) went off next. This was her first race in the Expert/Elite mix. There are fewer women in the upper ranks so they group them together. Age does not matter in her class. she was out there racing with the top women in the State. On the first lap she said she went right over her handlebars on what I call the cobble stone road. It's a tricky section at the bottom of a hill where you have to go over a bunch of small rocks while you are making a left turn to approach a climb. There's no way around it and it can claim the best of riders in dry conditions. The second loop she had some issues with the front skewer not staying locked. I think she said she had to get off her bike 3 times to lock in it. I think a fourth time she would have used a rock to pound it on. I had to use a screw driver to lever it off after the race.....sure you didn't use a rock Hollywood? Anyway, aside from the one way trip over the bars and her front wheel issue (talk to the guy you bought them from) she still managed to pull off 3rd place! Yes I said 3rd place. Solid performace against a tough group of women....(I got an ear full last year for calling them chics). Great job Hollywood!

Then there was me. I signed up day of thinking that I would start in the back of my class, same one Tank races in. Ends up they put my butt in the back of the entire Expert Class. Not that bad really.....if I managed to pass at least one of the girls in front of me at least I would know I beat some one in the Expert Class.

Off I went. The guy I lined up with dropped me on the first climb. These Expert guys are fast.. .. .. .. so were the girls! Kept my focus tho and started picking off the girls one by one. Took me 5 miles to catch and pass them all, including Hollywood. Was cool to see her in action. Gave a quick pep talk and off I went. I didn't catch anyone else until about 13-14 miles into the race. Was nice to finally pass some guys from my class. I was worried for a while that I was the slowest person out there and that some of the Beginner 14 and under's were going to catch me soon. In a Time Trail you could go the whole race alone and still do decent. I spent my two laps focusing on my ride and keeping the bike upright in the conditions. I figured finishing safe was job 1 but in the back of my head I wanted to finish decently in the group. I didn't hold back much and I when I got done I felt more of a sense of accomplishment than I'd ever had before racing there. Like normal I forgot to set my clock so it wasn't until the results were posted that I found out my times and the place I finished. I ended up taking 8th out of 13 riders....5 or 6 minutes behind Tank. I was more than pleased with that result because I met my true goals for the day. Later Jeff told me my first lap time was quick enough to beat the Sport 30-39 Class I would have raced in if I would have stayed in Sport. Made me feel better about my decision to move up this year.

Tank, Hollywood and I were all glad we raced and Team Signoutfitters.com was announced twice over the loud speaker during the Expert Award Ceremony, once for Heather and once for Jeff. Again, great job team! That was a first for Team Signoutfitters.com.

Last, my favoite part of the day was seeing a few faces that I hadn't seen over the long winter. Besides Jeff and Heather I got to see a few new faces I met this Spring on training rides along with a few old foes I battled it out with last year.

Coming and Going

2008-04-08T09:00:00.000-07:00

Five days until the first race of the NORBA/Tailwinds series. Brian and I hit the trail yesterday for the first time this year...actaully got up tp 70 degrees! We of course went over to Maybury, our home course. Conditions were great for opening day of the trail. It's been a long Spring thaw and a lot of the trails are just now dry enough to ride. I know mountain biking is associted with mud but I'll choose to skip this topic today.

Back to riding. Yesterday went really well for me. Given I did a hard 2+ hour road ride Sunday and only got 3 hours of broken sleep that night due to my daughter not wanting to sleep, I did really well. I am happy with my split times and that I completed 4 loops, no breaks, of the 6.5 mile trail and still had some juice left in the tank. My overall time was very comparable to what I was doing mid summer last season. My goal over the winter was to come out this Spring where I left off at the end of last season. I can say I am right there where I wanted to be, if not ahead.

What sucks is that the weather this week is looking shakey. Rain later today, tomorrow and maybe even Friday. For the race weekend they are talking a 30-40% rain/snow mix for both Saturday and Sunday with temps only getting up to the mid 40's.....it was 70 yesterday. But we live and ride in Michigan and this happens. So me racing depends on how much rain we get in the next few days. I'll race in 30 degrees but if it's raining I am not sure I want to out myself and my bike through that. One, don't want to destroy my bike and be replacing parts this early in the season and two, I don't need to be getting sick.

I've been getting off the trainer and getting outside on my road bike the past 5 weeks. The head winds have been rutal every time but I just keep telling myself it's good training. Nothing like battling 15-20mph head winds for 60-75 minutes before you get to turn around and reap the benefits of the tailwind. I miss my wind cutting bladed spoke wheels but again I keep telling myself it's good training.

In the end I am happy with yesterday's effort on the trail and am looking forward to another season of riding and racing. Now that I have gotten out to ride before the first race my nerves have calmed down and I feel more confident about my first race in the Expert Class. Also after talking to Mark from Team Misfit Psycles I feel more confident about running a 1X9 setup this year against the big boys. I had thoughts about bolting up a big ring and front derailuer for more options but I am definitely just going to swap to a 34T in the front for the faster courses.

I'll be back Monday the 14th to post up race results whether I race or not.

Keep your head up and your tires down.

Aryn

Finally got some pictures

2008-03-25T04:30:00.000-07:00

I sent my XTR hubs into Stans and had them lace up a set of 347's. I used a 3X patternwith 2.0/1.5 guage spokes on the front wheel and 2.0/1.7 on the rear. So the front wheel is a little lighter and the rear will be able to take some abuse.

Okay so it's not in full color but I think it looks cool this way. It's basically all XTR with an XT free hub, bottom bracket and cassette. She weighs exactly 25 pounds on the nose as pictured....including the pedals, 2 bottle cages and computer.

It's a 2003 Kona King Kikapu. Over the past two years I have replaced or modified everything on the bike wth the exception of the seat post and saddle.

. . . And did it's a 1 X9 . . .

OLPD's on a Monday morning . . . .

2008-03-24T09:52:00.000-07:00

What a way to start your week. Put yourself through self inflicted pain for 75 minutes at 3:30 in the morning. For these I normally do a 10 minute spin to wake the legs up. I'll follow that with a 10 minute tempo to stir the acid a little. Next a 5 minute spin to gather my head and get focused for the next 30 minutes. That 30 minutes will be 50 seconds on one leg, 10 seconds both legs...then alternate to the opposite leg. I do this 3 times on each leg and then do a 4 minute spin. I repeat this 2 more times. Cadence is around 55-60 when only using one leg, roughly 16-17mph and I am in the big ring. Following this I do 20 minutes of pushing the big ring. 2 mins on, 3 mins off at 70 rpms and 23mph on my Kenetic Road Machine. Then the 5 minute cool down. I do this workout once a week. Today was harder than in the past because I jumped up a gear on the OLPD's. By the last set of the last rep my legs were nearing failure.

Pictures......I will try and take some of the bikes tonight. Speaking of bike, my wife and I got my 2 year old daughter a Dora the Explorer bike for Easter. She road it all over the house last weekend. This Saturday I'll be taking my son to the shop to get him a new bike. He out grew his 16"....really he beat it up and needs a real bike because he rides so hard. Not bad for a 5 year old.

More later . . .

2008-03-18T09:34:00.001-07:00

Just hit me today that I haven't checked on the Monkey in a while.

Back from vacation and feeling refreshed. Of course the kids are sick again but that is expected when you travel during cold and flu season.

Less than 4 weeks until the opening race and the trails are still a mess. I am anxiously waiting to get out on the trails and spin my new ZTR Olympic wheels. Other new additions this off season were a new 960 XTR rear derailluer, exact replacement to what I was using, and a Felt flat bar. Of course I recabled the rear d and got a new chain as well. Only thing I have left is to make the move to a 34T front ring. I plan to race the Ponitac TT with a 32T but I need to pick up a 34T for the Stage Race in June.

My coach just picked up a 2007 Felt F75 real cheap last week, old stock but a solid ride. He's not a real coach but he's been with me since my training days before my first season of riding. He doesn't mtb much but he helps me get off my butt and put miles in. He's a hell of a motivational speaker. Anyway, I am jealous of his new bike. It's a sweet looking ride and my team colors. I am trying to squeeze one more year out of my road bike. I spent some unplanned money this winter on the new wheels for the race bike, a fluid trainer....and a trip to Floirda for the family. All were needed so no regrets. The family and I had a great time and it was fun taking my kids to Disney. They are at that perfect age where their eyes light up at the smallest things and the world seems endless.

I'll see if I can get some picks of the race bike on here before I dirty it all up. Seems posting pick of your ride is the thing to do.

Keep your head up and yout tires down.

Aryn

2008-02-29T09:22:00.000-08:00

I have no idea where this could lead to so I hired a Monkey to oversee my space . . . . I plan to use this site to post up about my race team and probably rant about a few other things.