Peterisoba

My schedule finally aligned itself with the annual race known as the Peterisoba...which follows suit with the Colinoba as an underground adventure race which costs nothing and gets you racing in un-permittable areas in our backyard (follow tie in with Trioba). Peteris out did himself with a 12 hour Creekteering, challenging Mountain Bike, rapel, ridge running and boulder hopping course followed by a 12 hour rogaine.

23 hours later my trusty team mate Aaron and I found ourselves in a baja rally car with Peteris behind the wheel. He exclaimed in his Latvian English that he could drive this road blindfolded and that if he had a real rally car we would have a better excuse for holding onto the Oh Shit handle. We also got the details of the traffic patterns on the North Fork road and that we could be assured that cornering on the inside of a blind turn at 45 mph was ok because in the last year only 3 cars had been seen between 4 and 5 am...did you know Peteris knows how to drift on washboarded logging roads?

In the end we climbed, ran, walked, slept and boulder hopped our way through the course and got to see a bunch of friends out there doing the same thing. I wrote another report here for our teams PQ training, check it out if you want more...big THANKS to Peteris and other volunteers for including us and having a well planned course. I am now considering PQ training for next years Peterisoba.

Pics and other reports:

Peteris' Pictures

Colin and Connies Pictures

Verve's Race Report

Whats next? Big Blue Lake Tahoe as team Trioba.com then taper for PQ. Getting excited about racing in SD and checking out the Badlands and the Black Hills.

-Photo credit to Colin Ness, love that picture!

Cascade Cream Puff 2009

Wow, another whirlwind year at the Puff...this year the temperatures held off but the skies opened up with a light drizzle all day and we traded overheating with sloppy trails and nice comfortable mist. 11 hours and 49 minutes of from start to finish and I was happy to scrub almost all the poison oak off with Tecnu and get the race fee included massage at the end.


I raced this year with Aaron, JVG, Hayes and Brent from seattle and we had a blast. When it was all said and done I had 3 less spokes, a severely bent deraillure hanger, a snapped granny limit screw and a sliced front deraillure cable and housing...it was war out there. I was happy to cross the finish line with my 3 working gears and a smile on my face. No nap this year and an improvement on my time, I think the cooler temps helped out. Next year I hope to improve once again.


Here is a link to the CCP pictures...there are some good ones out there. As well as a link to the results.

Tahoe in July

We made a trip to Tahoe to hang with Grams and Gramps and do some high altitude training with the benefit of some endurance babysitting. We were able to rent some high end bikes and tour all of the North Shore...Saturday was a long exciting day that had us on trails between Truckee, Tahoe City and Brockway Summitt. We finally found 2 Beavers and a Bear and 2 bridges, I've been hearing about hem for a couple of summers but have missed the turn off of Sawtooth for too long.

We are excited to be heading back down to Tahoe in early August to compete in the Big Blue 24 hour race...In the meantime a couple of us competed in the Cascade Cream Puff the following weekend, hope to get some pictures published soon.

Mt Stuart...4th of July 2009

This past 4th of July weekend had superb weather and was filled with all sorts of good times. We intended on running the PCT from Stevens pass to Snoqualmie pass...Glenn sent me this note on Thursday...

***********************
Talked to the snoqualmie ranger station. still snow in some avalanche shoots. They went up to kendal catwalk and didn't go beyond because they didn't have their ice axes. the skykomish ranger said snow above 4k and there will be intermiten snow the whole way. If we do this we would need to bring ice axes and maybe katoolals and maybe my 6mm line that RVg has. Last weekend I met a guy up on stevens who had hiked down from canada and was continuing on south so there will have been at least one who has tried it.
***********************

We opted out and chose to head East to Mt. Stuart on Friday and see if we could get up the mountain. Tell of the trail was 10 hours round trip from the car with 1.5 hours on the top. We traveled with crampons, Ice Axe, 30 meters of 6mm rope, helmets and the 10 essentials (lightweight version).

2009 July - Mt Stuart

Good times, Saturday I did a recover ride as my legs were hammered and Sunday JVG, Aaron and I rode Tiger and added on some bonus climbs as well as a new trail that punished me. My front brake went out while dropping into a very steep descent. I slid of the trail into the forest where I hit a downed tree and taco'ed my front wheel. After 20 minutes of Aaron and I jumping on my wheel to make it rideable we hiked back to the road and descended to the parking lot, with a mere flesh wound :-) We also paddled around Lake Samamish to round out the weekend and enjoy the sun. AWESOME weekend.

Cream Puff 2008

Well the cream puff has come and gone, and I completed my first goal of surviving the race and not falling victim to heat exhaustion and also rode hard. The results were emailed out and I finished in 12:13 and placed 36th.



Now for the details... I came out of the gates blazing and was in a chase pack of 6 riders that followed the top 10 riders up the first 4000 foot climb over 12 miles. I swapped bottles at the aid station and blazed on through. I passed 4 riders on the next 20 miles of single track and got passed by 1 single speed rider. We are talking fast and furious single track...I hugged behind the single speeder, Chris, for the remainder of the single track and moved faster than I would have if he was not there. I enjoyed his company for most of the climb and we talked about FSA and whether or not we were going to drop the Uber tech stump on the second lap (we both walked it the first time and subsequntly the second time as well).

The second big climb went well until my tubeless front tire failed when I got a slash from a sharp rock or glass. 3 minutes later I was covered in Slime and riding with a tube in the front. I blasted through the second, third and fourth aid stations. After mile 65 some one turned up the heat while I was on the third climb. I kicked it down a notch and began to think about conserving a little and not blowing up. At the 6th aid station there was a tub of cold water directly from the near by creek, I dunked the head and enjoyed some shade.

After mile 80 there was one more monster climb left. This bad boy was in the heat of the day and had lots of sun exposure. I told myself that if I saw a good looking piece of shade I would take advantage and lay down for a small rest. There it was, staring me in the face as if I was in day 4 of an adventure race. I set the alarm on my watch and laid down for a nappy nap. 25 minutes laterI was far from fresh, but ready to knock the climb out. The Alpine trail took me down into the finish line where Scott Taylor gave me my finisher hat and officially classified me as a bad ass.

This race is a class act. The best run aid stations and support personell that I have ever been a part of. The entire race I carried very minimal supplies and ate like a king. If you have not done this race then put it on your list...I will be back.

The Turners are in...

Have you ever seen anything so pretty! OK maybe, but these bikes are works of art...

The Turner Flux's are in and built and have seen some action. I have been like a kid in a candy store up in the mountains lately. With Cascade Cream Puff approaching I can't seem to get in enough training rides on the new ride. We spent all weekend in the saddles of our bikes, assaulting Tiger Mt. and all the trails in the immediate vicinity.

Word of the day from JVG was buttery ! These bikes are silky smooth and the FSA components and wheels only make the experience better. Not to mention the Manitou R7 front fork. Hope to see you on the trails some time soon.

Breaking inthe new bike at tiger means getting down and dirty...

Tubeless tire conversion

If anyone remembers our race in Australia (XPD), you would know we got over 40 flat tires from the dirty little goat heads...hate those things. We decided then and there that the more light weight set up of tires and tubes were out and tubeless set ups were in. So after some time off and getting everything we needed ready we set out on Wednesday night to convert. Glenn, Rinn and AV were in the house, everyone converting a slightly different set up.

I weigh in at nearly 200 pounds and tend to think about weight on my bike a bit too much. A gram here or there really doesn't matter when I add my 200 pounds and then throw in another 20 pounds of an expedition pack. That's not to say I don't want the lightest set up I can get, it's just sometimes I need to yield to functionality and bomber set ups...ie the tubless tires and full stans conversion on my FSA XC 300's on Michelin AT's (Tubeless). Rinn used this same set up.

Glenn on the other hand did a more light weight set up that I have run before where he used his FSA XC-300's and Michelin AT's, but not the tubeless tires. The tubeless tires are materially heavier. As well instead of the Stans Conversion kit glen cut up a smaller 20" bmx tube and streched it around his wheel to cover the spoke holes. We each used one ounce of Slime and one ounce of Stans Sauce, which is liquid latex. The only potential downside to this set up is that the non tubeless tires are not as bomber so rips to the bottom and sides of the tire can be larger and the sidewalls can have air leaks. I ran this set up two years ago and had 3 months of great riding before it failed.

AV has a tubeless rim set up so he got off a bit easier by adding stans to his set up and pumping it up.

Glenn and Aaron are prepping for Baja travesia, which is in march and they are looking to ride their set ups as much as possible prior to the race. I am looking forward to watching them give it their all and defending the title! They are looking for help with support if you know anyone that is interested you can respond here. AV is racing a 24 hour bike race this weekend at the 24 hours in Old Pueblo...good luck AV!

Wednesday night Mt. bike rides

We aren't bringing back bell bottoms or the casserole...simply put we are bringing back the wednesday night ride, in style.

DART-nuun and Light and Motion are bringing back the wednesday night ride! The last three or four weeks we have had stellar turn outs. It has been great to see so many people from the local adventure racing community out to tune up the handling skills and get their butts back in the saddle.

Hart, Dan and Rinn with supporting crew in the background...

The crew post ride...getting pumped for a brew at the Ale House!

Winter is here...Mt. Biking, Back Country Skiing, Base Training

Rest and recovery is officially over. I was able to take 2 full months off of competitive adventure racing, specific training and any competition for that matter. Recharging the batteries and most importantly the body. Thanksgiving has come and gone, got my turkey and now am laying out my 2008 fitness plan, adventure racing calendar and recreation.

My plan is to emphasize running and incorporate that into my early season plan of Long Slow Distance...the legal LSD. What does this mean? Lots of variety and not just running, not too much intensity to build in the muscle memory and get my body ready for long races by being out for a good amount of time.

I usually focus on keeping my training fun in the winter and include a variety of activities while taking advantage of the snow in the Cascades and Olympics. It is starting to snow here...look for me in the mountians this weekend!

In an effort to keep my Mt. bike handling skills up I usually ride more technical biking trails that are shorter in duration during the weekdays. We started our night rides last night and had a big group of 10 peeps out on the trails and had them outfitted with Light and Motion lights. I got a chance to ride with the new Stella LED and loved it...check it out. Matt wrote it up and has some good pics here on his blog.

Memorial Adventures

What a weekend! Why can't they all be that long? We also lucked out with the weather in our all star list of events. Saturday morning Aaron, JVG and I headed north to tackle Mt. Galbraith, near Bellingham, and on the approach we thought we would try something new. We had heard about some new trails in Anacortes, near Whistle Lake, and thought we would give them a try...thanks for the idea Kathy! We stopped in Mt. Vernon and picked up some trail maps for $4.99 and headed out for 3.5 hours of good riding. The trails are very well kept and fast. We probably speant over 30 minutes in total looking at our maps to route find our way through the maze of butery trails.

After that Rinn and I hit Galbraith for over an hour of fast paced riding. He broke his seat post on the first feature we rode (horizontal ladder) and stayed out of the saddle for the rest of the ride, good thing most of it was at race pace!

Saturday night we camped near Grouse Mountain...in someone's front yard. We got kicked out of our camping spot at midnight by the grouse mountain parking patrol and headed down the street for some real car camping. We were going to run the Iron Knee trail race from Grouse Mountain to Deep Cove on the Baden Powell trail. It turned out there was no race day registration so JVG and I ran half of it backwards and snapped photos of the runners and Rinn (who was smart enough to pre register) as he passed through. It was a great way to see the race and the trail, which was unbelievably beautiful. We also saw lots of familiar faces from the canadian AR scene and some new faces as well. Lots of cool peeps.

Post trail run we headed up to Whistler for an all out assault on the cross county trail Saturday afternoon and the down hill park on Monday. We hit up Danimal, Bob's re-bob, whip it snip it, and a bunch of other trails that were below the snow level of 3200ft. Monday was an absolute blast in the Whistler Park and we tore it up. We enjoyed all of the trails, I think we had the most fun on the captain insano super tech trails that were made much easier with our rental bikes which had 8 inches of travel up front and in the rear. They were Rocky Mountain RMX's...quality bikes. I was a bit worried about getting injured but made it through with a sore foot and a couple fo scrapes that will go away soon. Only a couple of falls and lots of good times. For any bike rider that has ever thought about hitting Whistler....get up there and check it out. They make such sweet trails and focus so much of their energy on the bike scene it is a must do on your adventure travel checklist.


here is Aaron ripping it up on joyride...big rock drop.

Capitol Forest Ambitions

We were ambitious with our plan to Mt. Bike 50 miles through Capital Forest just south of Oly...what we did not plan on is the aftermath of the biggest windstorm of the century, 4-12 inches of snow and a mid afternoon work party. Our possee consisted of JVG, Aaron, Glenn, Chad and Roger...riders on the storm

With all of that we still managed to squeak in 26 miles of trail riding and we bumped into a group of back country horsemen doing their annual trail work party! Nothing like some mid ride shoveling to get the blood pumping. Overall the ride was good and the training was even better.



The prize of the ride was when I let Chad take the lead (He's Aaron's buddy from LA) and he bombed down into a muddy gully...I came around a corner behind him to see him crawling out of a 2 foot deep puddle that he had gone over his bars into. He smiles and said, sure let the new guy go first into the death pit ;-) We all laughed and it really only meant he was cleaner than we were since he washed off in the pool. Check out these videos of Glenn and Aaron climbing towards Capitol Peak.

Mountain Bike Tune up

Early in the season we like to have open trainings and invite anyone that is interested in joining us for some mid-week night time mountain bike riding. This year we started our sessions a bit later than normal, probably due to our fright of the cold weather that has been lingering.

Last night we had our first night mountain biking session of 2007. We hit Tapeworm or Towers of Power in Renton and rode for a couple of hours at a mellow pace. The focus of the night was on cornering, handling and riding wheelies. JVG recorded her first ridden wheelie (on purpose) to get over some logs and a stray curb, Purcell got a bit too agro and had to hike a bike her broken steed out of the trails and D and B just straight up tore the trails a new one.

Devil's Gulch

This weekend we rode an unbelievable ride on Devil's Gulch / Mission Ridge. We met up with an extra large possee and started the ride as 16 strong. The group faded and we finished up with 7 people at the top after 4500 feet and 13 miles of riding. I am holding on to summer as long as I can, but think that the rain is right around the corner...

Top of the upper Mission Ridge Trail...

Bend Big Fat

This weekend was filled with single track from start to finish. The Bend Big Fat. Some friends, D, Thrill, TD and I made it down to Bend to visit our buddies Kevin and Julie and tear up the trails to the best of our ability. Friday was 100 miles from Paulina Peak to the town of Sisters and Saturday started up near Bachelor and finished down in Bend, 50+ miles later. I'll let the pics do the talking:


This last picture is of the aid station, which actually was in tact on both Friday and Saturday...and what an aid station it was. There where sandwhiches, brownies, cookies, water, fruit, you name it and it was there. This is not an amenity that I am used to and found myself blowing through them on the big ride Friday, but after reminding myself it was not a race I slowed down enough to enjoy a sandwhich and some hummus, followed up by some brownies and snickers! The ride benefited the Central Oregon Trails Alliance and I am sure it will go directly to making more trails. I can't believe how many miles of beautiful single track we rode....it was endless.