Little Su 50k

If you haven't started looking at the weather on the Iditarod Trail, now might be a good time. Haha

Iditarod Trail Invitational

A couple teammates of mine are racing the Iditasport, Tim Kirk is going to McGrath and Andrew Cunningham is riding his bike to Shell Lake and back. See their trackers here.

Iditasport Live Tracking

This past weekend, one of the best 100 mile races was put on by a great group of folks. The Susitna 100 is such a fun event (sadly I haven't raced the 100 mile distance the past two years with it being a week before the Iditarod Trail Invitational.)

Susitna 100 start. Front row starting with Megan Chelf on the left, Laura (1st place lady,) Dusty, Josh (1st Place) David (3rd Place) and Tim (2nd Place.) Photo Credit Andy Romang

I participated in the Little Su 50k which races on the 100 mile course with exception of a couple miles to close the loop. I enjoyed riding with my good friend and awesome teammate Danielle and another teammate Brant for the first 6-8 miles then decided I felt a little racy and started to put in a bit of an effort. I was happy with my pace on the second half of the race and caught my teammate Oliver who followed our team motto (Blow up early, struggle to finish.) Just kidding buddy, nice job out there hanging with the fast folks for so long.

Little Su 50k Start. Danielle is in the Grey/Blue coat with grey helmet, Brant is in the Revolution Racing jacket. Photo Credit Andy Romang

Photo Credit Andy Romang

 Then the fun part of the event weekend starts, I boogied up to Deshka Landing and EagleQuest Lodge to see the racers come through mile 62 on the 100 mile event.

Laura, Dusty and Nick at Eagle Quest. Photo by me

Josh Chelf edged out Tim Berntson at the finish. They both had a great race and are awesome dudes! Way to go guys.

In a weird twist of fate, my emotional support human Laura Fox finished fourth overall in a sprint finish after the second group missed their turn after Cow Lake and rode 14 miles off course. Part of me is really bummed for my friends who went off course, but part of me is really happy that Laura, Nick and Dusty did a great race and benefited from their prep work and knew the course well.

Just finished a sprint with David Berg. Damn near a podium! Photo Credit Andy Romang

Dusty with a cool beardcicle. Photo Credit Me

Laura and Nick at the finish line. They look pumped? Photo Credit Me

I'm going to ride my bike a little bit with some gear and see how it feels. Till next time. :-)

Life and Training updates - 2018

Holy cow it's already 2018, and January is done!

I have some cool frozen beard pics and ride shots from this past week to share:

Denali in the background.

Critter tracks

Exploring new trails.

Windsock trail never disappoints.

Corral Hill Kiosk. I think it was -22 at that point on the river.

Sleeping Lady from Big Swamp trail.

Swamp thing?

You know you want to look at a close up of my beard. Haha

I have to admit, that I've never really done structured training before this year. In the past I just rode my bike till I was tired on the weekdays and rode for a long time on the weekends. It was apparent last year to me that I could not just lean on that training method. I also noticed that the minimal strength training I did last year seemed to help my back a lot. So this year I dove in. My friend Nico started a personal training studio last year and he has been riding really strong and looks absolutely ripped! Laura and I decided to give the strength and conditioning classes a try.

LongevityLab

So far, I feel pretty damn good. I've never had any confidence in my shoulders since popping them out in high school. I have since developed more strength and confidence to do heavy lifts with my upper body and shoulders with their teaching. There is a great community growing over at LongevityLab and I'm glad I get to be a part of it. :-) And, they have adorable shop puppies!

I picked up a smart trainer late last winter and have been riding the heck out of it (as much as a fat biker can anyways.)

Cycleops Magnus

I've been using it in conjunction with their smart phone app Rouvy Mobile. I can upload trainer workouts from Training Peaks so I don't have to adjust much while training. It's pretty nice.

Training Peaks
Rouvy

This past weekend I put in a lot of miles. I literally killed my Garmin battery, attempted to sweat out my gear, tried some new food, played with pace over a long day and overall had a damn good time even if I did freeze my water tube a hundred times. Haha Thanks to Adam and Angie for opening up their home to stinky, long distance bikers. Without you guys I wouldn't be able to try a lot of this stuff out.

That's all I got for now, I'll update you guys in a week or so. Happy riding!