Great way to end a season (and lose 10 pounds)

Just back from a wonderful weekend at the Rainbow Resort outside of Park Rapids. This is the most fun that any cyclist should ever have! Beautiful place with outstanding hospitality!

I'm not going to do a race recap because Neil did such a nice job but I will reiterate my sincere thanks to the entire crew and to Carol and team who did the cooking on Friday night, John for pulling so hard at the Headwaters 100, those who provided me with extra lemonade on Saturday night, Neil for waking me up when I went to bed at the too early time of midnight because everyone wanted to see my tattoo, for Amy's 1st annual Laurentian Divide MTB challenge and Dave for keeping the pace down!

I will also say that this year's Headwaters 100 was the most painful experience of my cycling career. We started off briskly and I felt good even when the attacks started hitting fast and furious on Hwy 39...then the leg cramps started. I struggled through wave after wave but managed to stay up towards the front of the peloton. I was thrilled to see that finish line and a time of 4:05 and my fastest century ever!

The Laurentian Divide Challenge is a beautiful and brutal course that is destined to be a fall classic!

Many of you know that I've put on 10 pounds after I got back from RAAM...too much eating and too little riding. Nevertheless, I am not regretful of any one of those glorious bowls of ice cream or cookies that I've eaten. However, it is time to let them go. Neil and I made a gentleman's agreement that we'd both lose our 10 pounds that we put on after RAAM. We are keeping each other honest and will both be posting our morning weight on our blogsites. December 1st is the goal date.

All I have to say is "Hands off the cookies Fat Boy!" love Porky

Today I weigh 203 pounds...

Mark Loesch Memorial Fund

I read about the homicide of Mark Loesch in this morning's paper and instantly empathized with this tragedy and his family. Our riding groups from Trailhead and Loon State are filled with dedicated parents and avid cyclists. I couldn't avoid the realization that even though I didn't know him, he's still "one of us." Father of four children aged 3 to 14, avid cyclist and runner, out for a "quick spin" to his friend's house one night.

Click here for the Star Tribune Story

I can only imagine the substantial loss and sadness his wife and kids are going through.
Send out your prayers for the Loesch family. A memorial fund has been set up at:

Mark Loesch Memorial Fund--Associated Bank
5353 Wayzata Blvd.
St. Louis Park, 55416

Saturday Drizzle

The drizzle and threat of heavier rain didn't keep 8 off their bikes this morning including a rider new to the group, former Loon State rider Jonathan Sanborn. Jonathan's been keeping himself busy with cross country skiing, competitive canoeing and triathlons. He knows Amy and Melinda quite well from XC skiing teams and if I remember my facts correctly took over the high school XC skiing coaching position after Melinda left. Well, the past 10 years of cross training didn't seem to dent his cycling performance one bit. I prepped him on super prime after we turned onto pineview. He attacked the first hill hard and the rest of us watched him go thinking that we'll catch him back up or would we...he did look pretty strong today. After we crested the first hill onto the false flat Jon had a good 100 meters on us. We looked at each other trying to work out if it looked like he could hold the gap and that answered the question for a couple of chasers. We lit it up across the open space and saw Jon looking around. Ahh...finally some weakness! I clicked it all the way up and started my sprint, caught up and passed Jon just before super prime (chalk another one up for TSH!).

The 9am ride kept all but two riders from the 7am. Six of us rode downtown to see the bridge collapse and pay our respects. I was feeling good so I pulled the train into a fairly stiff headwind all the way downtown (the same kind of thing that gave me the nickname "B Train" with Ride2Eat). The stone arch bridge is closed but we were able to see some of the wreckage along with the rest of the 100 or so people congregating there. The sight was surreal. You'd be hard pressed to find any twin cities resident who wasn't affected by the tragedy in one way or another. Jorge and Camy were jonesing for a Dunn Bros. coffee so we headed over and sat outside in the drizzle soaking up the beautiful weather.

Jon also got his first century in in the past 10 years by riding the 7am, 9am rides and riding in from his house! Well done!

The women of Trailhead

Keep getting stronger!

I had the opportunity to ride with the Trailhead group and new comer Melissa on Tuesday for the first time since "the crash". Melissa isn't some newbie rider but is apparently an accomplished track racer. And strong!!! She followed every break and lead Brian and I up to super prime like a run away freight train. Brian and I barely got around her to sprint for the sign (chalk another up for Team Strong Heart :-). Is it time for Trailhead to sponsor a women's racing team??? I think so!

Thanks to Trailhead and all the riders for making this the best group ride in the Twin Cities!

Got out for a Thursday ride in Elm Creek...couple of laps mulling over the details of the Elm Creek 150 that Neil and I have been chewing on for quite a while.

Look for a 10 lap, 150 mile ride coming up soon at Elm Creek and also the Elm Creek 500! A two month challenge to get in 34 laps on Elm Creek's 15 mile outer loop that'll start with the EC 150. It's an effort to promote trail use on Elm Creeks FANTASTIC trail system.

START THE BUZZ!

4th in Masters 4/5 at Tour of Granite Country Road Race

Huge thanks to Loon State and Grandstay for putting on this huge 2 day, 3 discipline race! Jake, Super D and Skibby, special thanks to you as well! Kudos to Rick Zabinski who competed in his very first road race! He put some HARD efforts in out front and when I asked him how he liked his first race he said that "he learned a lot!" (He enjoyed it but he worked hard!).

I raced the masters 4/5 road race on Saturday. The masters 4/5 and the men's 4 all mass started together creating a HUGE peloton! Very fun! The headwind was stiff and really neutralized most of the breaks.

I felt wonderful on the first lap and spent most of the time up front, lead out for a while and was first up the climb. The funny thing is I heard Neil's voice in my head the whole time saying "Don't do what you usually do! Sit in, save your energy!" It really came to bear when we turned downwind and the peloton surged to 30-35 mph, I lost about 40 places within about 30 seconds. Uh, yeah, right...thanks for the reminder Neil! Keep the vibes and prayers comin'! I hopped back in the pack and worked my way back up front because the yo-yoing in back was killing me! I stayed well protected up front for the second lap. Unfortunately I was poorly positioned for the sprint after the lead group shut down about 400 meters from the line on a small hill. That spread everyone across the road with no way to get around.

I wound up sprinting at the back of the lead sprint group and taking 4th in the masters 4/5! Not too shabby!

Back on the blog

Ok, I've been busy at work, having fun finally hanging out with Laurel and the kids again instead of riding my bike, gaining 5 pounds (but, I like the cookie!) and having fun with my residual RAAM fitness.

I've been riding long rides a couple times a week and am still in love with the bike! I just washed my mountain bike and realized that the last time I touched it was last December! Gotta get that beauty back out again.

It's been a while since I had to deal with some road rash and have only went down once before on my road bike. This was the first time that I experienced the sliding sensation on the asphalt. First off, I am very happy that the 3 who were involved in the crash only had road rash and were able to ride back home. So here's the story... I was unfortunately taken out by a rider who went down right in front of me. I'm nursing about 5 patches of road rash which are pretty well healed a week later. Neosporin rocks!

I'll take a slice of Kansas headwind and a side order of...uh, yeah...

One last spin around the park tonight to get the legs loosened up a bit. That monster 30 mph headwind with big gusts were a good flavor for what it's supposed to be like through Kansas. Don't get me wrong, I like Kansas...just not in that way!