Thoughts on the week that was, plus a new to me brew from the desolate state of nebraska

Since my nearly triumphant self induced mauling at the 12 hour race, I've been less than excited to ride a lot. I've been doing the usual back and forth to work, and I attempted 'cross practice on Wednesday, but otherwise I've been sitting around. Work has predictably gotta slower, which I must admit is an okay change in my book. Summer was a bit too hectic, a bit too often for my tastes, but we made it through and had a great season. The only way we know this fall is slower than last fall, is that our computer system compares daily and monthly total sales with last years figures, and this year we're up, but for September we're down. After the summer we had I think we've earned a bit of a relaxing/regrouping fall. Cyclocross practices are Wednesdays this year, which totally messed up my schedule, but whatever, they're fun as all hell and I'm not gonna miss them if I can help it.

On Wednesday I was at the shop changing tires on the Jamis touring bike, as my new Specialized Crux frame set had not arrived yet(I'm getting the pink one), and Scott Sumpter walks in to hang out for a bit/talk about something or other, and mentions that he's planning on riding down in a bit, which was exactly my plan, so we rode down from Ankeny into the heart of Des Moines, chatting about new regulations for the 2010 cross season, and about the best way to get to the park. Once there, Rob put us to work flagging out a course, which was surprisingly fun. Practice itself was pretty fun too. The different position, especially hand position, as compared to my mountain bike, gave me no issues. The super intense effort didn't either, for about 30 minutes. I pushed on and rode for about 45 minutes, but on man, those last few laps weren't super fast, and my knees/thighs/shoulders were starting to act up. I thought I was pretty well recovered from the 12 hour race, turns out I didn't know what I was talking about. Hell, here it is Sunday night, and I know I'm not back to 100% yet.

Post practice we rode(most drove, but some of us rode) down to El Bait Shop for beers and food. I was fully prepared to ride all the way back to Ankeny, but someone offered a ride and I gladly accepted.

Randomly, this morning I got on the scale and found that despite eating worse than I normally do, and drinking as much or a little more than normal, I'm down a little over 3 pounds since the race. Weird. Not too concerned. I worry if I crest the 200 lbs mark, otherwise I hardly pay attention.

Now on to the beer. Saw this particular brew in Ames the other night, so I grabbed a sixer. Empyerean Brewing's Burning Skye Scottish Style:

It is a good quality, smooth, malty Scottish Style ale with a lingering sweetness that is quite enjoyable. A friend of mine from Omaha gasses on about this brewery and it seems that now we can get some of their offerings in Iowa. Go us. Given the strength of this offering, I'm definitely going to try more of their stuff. Even though most of Nebraska is a boring drive through/fly over state, it seems they've got at least a few folks in Lincoln that can brew a good beer.

24 hour race report(okay, just 12 hour)

This past Saturday/Sunday was the 8th annual 24 Hours at 7 Oaks. I once again did the 12 hour solo race. This year I managed a scant seven laps, compared to last year's nine, but I finished second instead of fourth. Good for me. Here's my lap by lap race write up, much like last year.

Lap 1: Started slowly on purpose. I knew the course wasn't in great shape and I knew I had a long way to go and planned to ride slowly and steadily. Being damn near in last place was an okay place to be as I didn't have to deal with any traffic to speak of, especially given the low participation. The course (as promised) was in highly mixed condition, lots of muddy spots, several reroutes, plenty of dry /hardpack places, and a surprising amount of tacky, perfect dirt. With no one around me, and the extra bit added to the start to break the field up, this lap seemed to take forever. I planned on this and grabbed extra Gu and carried two bottles.

Lap 2: I cruised past my camp without a stop due to the extra food and beverage I just mentioned. Second lap went about like the first, slow, lonely, peaceful, pretty low effort. I really started noticing all reroutes and some of them were very nice, and should be worked in as permanent changes, some were of course quick work arounds that will be changed next spring. I focused a being smooth and trying to stay off my brakes to maximize my efforts, not so much my speed. This would be the most time I'd spent on my bike actually off road all season. I've a sweet new Jamis D29 team since this spring, and with the weather and working too much, I've barely ridden it off road. It was working great, and the position was pretty god after my minor changes earlier in the week.

Lap 3: Stopped at camp to reload bottles and Gu. I was starting to think of laps as doubles and trying to get my brain around only stopped at camp every other lap to minimize down time and keep me rolling forward longer. This is when people started catching and passing me more than just occasionally. I was still plodding along and faster people (especially teams) were going very very hard. No problems with any traffic, but it didn't help me mentally knowing I was that much slower than basically everyone else. Towards the furthest away point of the course, I noticed my rear tire was getting a tad low. This was a bad sign, as I was only running about 30 psi in it to start and though tubeless, it wouldn't ride well if it got too much softer. Shortly after I noticed it feeling soft, BLOFF! Blew it off the rim mid-corner, and somehow kept it upright. Both beads stayed on the rim, I just burped it really hard, and lost all my pressure. Going to my seat pack to pull my CO2 and a tube to fix it, I discovered it had come open and everything inside and fallen out. Awesome. With no other options, I started pushing/jogging/walking my way along the trail, hoping someone would come by soon with the stuff I needed, and a willingness to share. It took a surprisingly long time for anyone to approach. Fortunately for me, the first person who saw me, asked if I needed anything and happened to be riding a 29er. This guy (whose name I've forgotten) saved my race. This is a microcosm of why I love mountain biking, everyone is friendly and there's a camaraderie that isn't found in other types of cycling. After this lap I stopped inhaled a bagel and used a bread bag twisty tie to make sure my pack was closed.

Lap 4: Still slow, but still moving. Mid way through this lap I started getting a wicked headache and noticed I was really really hungry despite the bagel. Other than that I really have no distinct memories about lap four. I took a pretty long break after this lap, refueled as best I could with more food and gu brew. In a big to perk up mentally, I drank an entire can of Monster. I did feel a bit better, though my stomach was not 100% okay with this idea, and I was burping monster flavored burps for the next couple hours.

Lap 5: Again, nothing terribly new here. I walked a bit more of the climbs, and probably rode slower overall, but kept moving forward. With a quick stop to reload Gu packs and grab a fresh bottle, I was off for lap 6.

Lap 6: Starting to feel worn down. Arms, wrists, mid and lower back, plus my left knee all started to bother me a little. And of course after this much riding, "a little" is a relative term, so I was dreading every single medium sized bump, and had a couple interesting bails, including one where I jumped off the bike about 4 feet backwards to the far side of the bank of a deep washout, and the bike went in the crevice. It took a good 30 seconds to figure out how to lift the bike out. Towards the end of this lap it starting getting just a little dark in certain spot in the woods. I stopped and put my lights on and had a snack. I figured I could probably do another couple laps, as I wasn't feeling *that* bad, and it wasn't quite 8 pm.

Lap 7: Started out with the light on low, which was plenty for a few minutes, but soon I had to step it up to full power, which on a Nite Rider 600, is really really bright. During this lap I kept fighting a battle internally of doing another lap or quitting. By the middle of the lap I'd grazed a few trees, walked a ton of the climbs, and rode my brakes down damn near every decent. I was fairly certain I didn't have another one in me. Then, as it happens almost every lap, the last 30-40% is somewhat easier, and I started thinking, "hey, maybe I can squeeze in one more." That is, until I had a big, and probably entertaining to watch, endo on the last decent convinced me otherwise. No idea what caused my crash, but I was enjoying the downhill and all of a sudden my bike stopped, and I was airborne. After I stopped rolling and realized I was fine, I walked the 10 feet (seriously, it was that far) back uphill to my bike, gave it a quick once over, and finished the lap. I sat down and had a big snack and another bottle, just like I promised myself I would to double check if I could do another. It was barely after 9pm, and I had tons of time if I wanted to go again. I couldn't. I cracked a beer then had one of the top 10 best showers of my life.

After: I went and checked the score board, and found I was in second place, with a slight margin on those behind, but I was down a lap (and he was on course for number 9) to the guy who beat me for third last year, Jason Dal. I was somewhat surprised, and hoped that none of the guys chasing me had 8 laps in them. I knew I'd win the tie breaker as my 7th lap earlier than any one behind me. I hung out, snacked, drank some beers, had a brief awards ceremony, pocketed a little more than my entry fee for me efforts, then went to bed. Overall a fun day.

Feelings Monday: Still a little messed up. Hungry, but fill up pretty quickly, sore but really only my arms and lower back. Should be fine in a day or two, not as bad as last year, but felt worse immediately after. No idea what the difference was, but there it is. Course was rougher and slower, but my bike was nicer/faster/had a shock on it, but it may not have been any more comfortable. Almost can't wait for next year, almost.

Lap 7:

New rack on the trail

Same old ride today, up the High Trestle Trail and back, nice easy, familiar, boring, but not 8 blocks from my door. Something was a little different today though, there's an "oasis" about 6 miles from the start of the trail, and it has a porta john, water fountain, picnic table, and until this week, 3 inverted "U" or staple type bike racks. Those were removed and a day or two later, this thing was put in its place.
It's an old railroad track, that was reportedly found nearby and put in place by some kid of his eagle scout project. It's a more interesting bike rack to be sure, but i didn't find anything wrong with the old ones. Not that this is a place you'd ever lock a bike up, but I think it's a wash on bike capacity. Not really for or against the change, just bemused, not sure why it happened at all. Here's a pic with my bike against it for scale.

pre 12 hours race bike shake down

Went out for a little "tune up" ride with Kyle on our mountain bikes that we're both planning on riding during different events in the 24 Hours of 7 Oaks. Minor tweaks here and there, and a bit or breaking in of cables and brakes and such. We've been virtually unable to ride our mountain bikes this season thanks to the terrible weather that made most/all the trail in the area into swampy messes.
This 30-ish miles on pavement was the longest I've ridden this bike all year. I learned a few things. Firstly, the seat is not so hot for longer efforts. WTB Silverado does not play nice with my butt, can't exactly pin point it, but holy hell do I need a different one. Seems a slightly shorter stem would help with longer events. Out of the box my Jamis 29er is an aggressive xc race machine, with a lower than I'd prefer front end, which is great for pure xc racing, not so hot for endurance events. So a little shorter stem should fix my problems.
Definitely shouldn't have waited this long for a break in/fit test ride, but whatever. I'm not in any kind of shape, have no serious goals, and expect to do between 6 and 10 laps, depending on the length and condition of the course.

24 hours of 7 oaks in coming, plus i drink a new beer.

Next weekend to most folks is Labor Day Weekend, a time for final trips to the lake, big cook outs, lazy porch sittin'/drinkin', for central iowa (and beyond) endurance minded mountain bikers, it is the 8th annual 24 hours of 7 oaks near boone. Last year I didn't train, didn't really take the race seriously, planned to have fun and ride my bike all day, and nearly finished 3rd in the 12 hours solo race. In fact, I got passed on the last lap (my 9th) by a guy who also did 9, but he finished 10 mins ahead of me for the podium spot. So in 8 days, I get to try again. Same plan, just fun, but this time I might ask someone to let me know if I'm gonna podium or something.
Here's a write up I did after last year's race: http://kylesbikes.wordpress.com/2009/09/11/marks-race-report-from-the-24-hours-of-7-oaks/
Not too shabby if I must say so myself.

Now for the part most of you care more about: beer.

Peace Tree Brewing's Double IPA, from their Brewer's Special Release Series. It also claims to be a seasonal, but their website did not off any info on this beer. It is really really good. Hoppy, bitter (but not overly so), floral but not too citrus of a nose, overall top notch. It is also reportedly hard to find. I had never seen it in the wild, but my buddy Markk picked some up and saved me a bottle. If it really is a seasonal, watch for it next summer, or keep your eyes peeled now.

New beers and quick rant against hy-vee's terrible bike parking.

There are more and more interesting beers making their way into Iowa, and I've been trying whatever I can. Check it:

Goose Island's Demolition, a pretty good golden ale, clean, smooth, easy drinking, with a fine Belgian style carbonation. Nothing amazing to say about it, but I've really been digging Goose Island's Belgian Style stuff recently, so I gave it a shot and was not disappointed.

Goose Island's Fleur, a Belgian ale made with hibiscus blossoms. This beer is super interesting, smooth, flowery(duh) but not overpoweringly so. There's a sweet but not cloying floral note especially in the finish that builds and lingers as you work through the bottle. Highly recommended if you have even the faintest thought that it sounds good. I'd have to do a side by side or back to back comparison to see if I like this better than Matilda, but it's close.

Shiner Smokehaus, beer made with smoked mesquite. ZOMG this beer tastes like bbq, but in the best possible way. Smokey, not as dark as you'd think, and pairs super great with just about any meat. Not terribly complex, but that's okay, it is still interesting and very very good. Pick some up for your Labor Day grilling needs.

McChouffe Brown ale, a Belgian take on a Scottish ale. Not a bad beer, a pretty straight up Scottish ale, but with the very fine Belgian carbonation which gives it a different mouthfeel that one would expect. I thought there should/could be more malt in it, and maybe some other flavors, but it was an okay beer. My biggest complaint is how much I paid for this thing, $18 at the Red Monk. I understand it's a bar, and this is a large quantity of hard to find imported beer, but it wasn't that great. I've paid that much, in that bar, and thought it was a bargain. I would not bother with this again, both myself and the friend who I shared it with were underwhelmed.

Now on to something that's just about as near and dear to me as fancy beers: bicycles. This is the start/brain vomit/opening tirade of a bigger write up I'm working on for WeBikeEugene, Seager's excellent bike commuting oriented site for Eugene, Oregon. Without further ado, here goes: Ankeny's bike parking sucks. It's not a surprise to anyone who rides a bike to just about any business. Some have a couple staple/inverted U type racks, most have nothing. Sure there's little bike theft to worry about, but having basically nowhere to lock up doesn't exactly encourage cycling. The closest grocery store to me is Hy-Vee, it's also my preferred store, so that's a bonus, and it isn't terribly hard to get to via bicycle, a little in town MUP and neighborhood streets.

Here is their terrible excuse for a bike rack :
Seriously Hy-Vee? I'm not even sure how to use that. Plus that catering van is there most of the time. The kitchen manager is one of our better customers and he agrees that it sucks, but the higher ups don't see a good place for a rack, nor a good reason to install one. He also enlightened me as to the van, seems it has to stay there so it's out of the way for car traffic and isn't taking up parking close to the store. Again, not his call, but his boss's. It's very weird to me that a company that puts on a giant triathlon, encourages employees to live healthier lifestyles, including incentives for bike commuting (at least during bike to work week), would have some of the shoddiest bike parking ever. In fact, I rarely even both using it, I generally lock my front wheel to my frame and lean the bike on the side of the building. My bike would vanish in many other towns, but in Ankeny it hasn't been a problem.

In a longer/more complete versionI'll talk about what Eugene does right, what Ankeny does right, what else can be done and why, plus more photos, and maybe some actual counts of racks/bike parking from other popular area businesses.

Back from the promised land

No updates for a long ass time, my bad. Post RAGBRAI I took a trip (with my wife) to visit some friends in Eugene, Oregon. For my people (bike geeks and beer nerds), it is an awesome place. It was not unlike visiting a freaky parallel world where bikes were treated almost the same as automobiles and drinking fancy beers was something to be celebrated instead of derided as unmanly or a waste of time. I will do a bigger better write up in the near future, and probably a write up on Seager's excellent site WeBikeEugene as an outsider on how awesome Eugene is compared to most places.