What'd I get up to this weekend...

Hey...I'm not always riding bikes.

Happy New Year!

TK

Disclaimer: only aluminum cans & my ear drums were harmed during this adventure, if you're wondering? it's a 9mm Glock.

Happy Holidays

Nothing to do this weekend...

XM 57



Dark Star Marathon this weekend. 24 hours of the same song in its various versions with a brief break to do what else?...talk about Dark Star.

the 411 - dark star

So stay warm & mellow.

Later,

TK

22-22-22

I'm starting to see a pattern here. My last three Nationals I've finished 22nd in '06 40-44's, 22nd in '07 40-44's, & 22nd in '08 45-49's. In '06 Providence I started way towards the back so that 22nd was through the field. Last year I was behind/in a crash at the start & managed a 22nd in the frozen snowy wasteland at Wyandotte. This year was stupid fast from the whistle. I held on for my 22nd on the spongy surface at Tiffany Springs. The course had completely dried out by race time. Traction was teetering on perfect but the surface was spongy making the pedaling challenging. I'm going to call it a power-robbing surface. My 33 psi w/ Mud 2's was perfecto on Day 1, not so good on Day 2. Looking back I should have yelled to my pit folks to bump me up about 5 lbs on my pit bike, hindsight you know, never crossed my mind. I did pit though when I heard something rubbing somewhere with 2 to go. Broken spoke on my rear wheel. Clean exchange didn't lose any ground. Thanks Matt & Craigio.

Way to much happened from last Wednesday when we headed down to KC until I got home at 6:00 last night to even attempt to write up.

Marshall, you & your crew pulled off a superb event. No stone unturned.

Have to say one of my main highlights of the weekend was on Saturday. Our weekend of racing ended on Friday but Tom & I got the bikes back out & did 4 or 5 laps during the noon open course session. Conditions were perfect, we had the opportunity to rail everything. I still had the Mud's on but had them up to 39-40, nice.

40+ B's...I want that sandbagger's national championship jersey. '05 19th, '06 9th, '07 2nd, '08 2nd.

I may toss up some pictures or add stuff as it comes to me but that's all for now.

My season's over.

Later,

TK

4-3-2-1

Workouts remaining to Nationals are winding down. Its funny how a 36 degree day with a NW breeze blowing but the sun shining becomes a great training day. Scheduled participants...Craigio, Matt T, & Coach KB. On tap...3 intervals. 4 lapper, 3 lapper, then 2. For me, this means a 19 minute something, 14 something, then 9 something. Should hurt sufficiently with short recoveries in between. Coach missed round 1 but suggested we add a longer road drag strip start to mimic the flat, long start at Natz. OK, this should be even harder. Cool. It was, redlining it as we enter the top secret training grounds for our circuits. During the final lap of the 2 lapper I could start to feel the fatigue set in. I took out one of the barriers, not hard to to do with it being a jumble of piled up branches, over shot a couple corners, and wandered out of the line a few times. Still managed a respectable time. In true Coach fashion, he starts rolling over to the start area for a 1 lap set we hadn't been planning on. We all managed to grind it out & called it a day.

Matt, Craigio, & myself are heading down Wednesday in the Trek Store Sprinter loaded up with all our bikes & gear. Matt & my wife are coming down Thursday morning loaded up with essential home made snacks for 4 days in a hotel. Snacks list preview...Ranch Oyster crackers, Ranch Spicy Pretzels, Cookies, Cocoa Puff/Rice Krispie Bars. All critical to our success. My parents are making the trip this year from CO & are also arriving Wednesday for a couple day stay to see me race.

Weather outlook...depends on where you look, but I'm seeing Monday/Tuesday as the set-up for a potentially wet weekend. Some form of precip scheduled for those days. Whatever, bring it on.

Have a great day! Supposed to be 41 here today, breezy, partly cloudy. Awesome!

Later,

TK

TDT

the secret weapon.

The Dragon's Tooth

Good weekend. Jingle Cross will probably always be on my calendar. Its got sort of a circus or carnival-like atmosphere. The setting...picture a beat down county fair grounds, complete with all the out-dated buildings & livestock barns. The course actually runs you through a few of these buildings with Christmas lights & holiday music playing. The signature element to this venue is a 200' tall hillside called "Mt. Krumpet". This "mountain" has a particularly steep bit that you run-up one day & the next day you blaze down it, either way its an effort to get to the top just to fly back down it again. A new edition this year was a pin-wheel feature, spiral in to the middle & then spiral right back out again. Oddly enough this was the 2nd race I've done this year that had this element. All in all, there is quite a bit going on. Possibly too much.

Myself, Craig, Ryan, & Tom from our team all converged on Iowa City from Lincoln, Atlantic, IA & KC respectively for the weekend.

Saturday Cat 2/3 race - perfect weather, 40's no wind. Tom & myself were front row due to early registration prowess. Being up front here is key because there is always a section early on that bottle-necks. Last year it was a short narrow run-up, this year it was a greasy off camber section. Get to these sections up front & you can almost control your own destiny. Speedster, and all around good guy Chris Wallace is lined up right behind me. He's the guy to watch. As I stated, its a race to the greasy off camber section. A long straight, a few curves, a double barrier & we hit the decisive section. Its Tom, someone I can't remember, me, & whatever is going on behind us. I slide out but catch myself, guy I can't remember slips, Tom is off, & Chris Wallace squeeks by me chasing Tom. About 5 or 6 of us make the break while behind us...who knows what's going on when the other 70+ dudes hit that section. Tom is flying & Chris & myself are chasing as hard as we can. After the first lap its just down to Tom up the road, Chris hunting him down & myself chasing, but not gaining, on either of them. 4th place hovers 30-40 seconds behind for the rest of the event. Chris did catch Tom, but Tom put in a great effort & was a solid 2nd with myself in 3rd 30 seconds back (I'm guessing on that split). Ryan rolled in 20th through the carnage in the rear & Craigio finished 33rd in a big 35+ field. Highlight of my race...while climbing & suffering up Mt. Krumpet, Kurt Wallace (Chris's Dad) yells something about the Grateful Dead at me, brought a big smile to my face.

Sunday Cat 2/3 - Tom & I in the front row again, Wallace behind me. Oh yeah...it snowed 2 inches & the course is a disaster. I've got one toe spike in, I've named it the Dragon's Tooth. Why? The other 3 sockets are stripped out, I'm just trying to get to the end of the year with these shoes. Today's race is to a short, steep, muddy run-up followed by a super-greasy side hill section that can't be ridden only awkwardly traversed on foot. Tom & I hit the base of today's decisive section section first & second, we come out of it top five. For the next 45 minutes we are slipping & sliding around the course grinding our brake pads down, chains full of grit, can't clip in a bunch of the time just trying to hold our positions at the front of the race. I took 3 bikes because my pedals were so packed with mud, grass, & snow. The beautiful thing was that Thad Neil was pitting for me & every time I dumped off a trashed bike, I would come around for another change he would have my bike perfectly washed & ready to go thanks to a hose in the pit. Now that's service, thanks Thad & Craig! BTW-my Grifo's weren't loving the mud, but my Mud 2's on the pit bike were eating it up. Tire pressure...33 all around, tubulars & clinchers. Wallace ended up 2nd, Tom 4th, myself 6th. Local Lincoln pal Nate Woodman grabbed 5th, he was having a good day in the mud, he's a mudder. All my brake pads need replacing & a chain, but otherwise it was all good.

A million other things happened but I can't go on forever.

Hey Wallace...good luck in Portland!

See everyone at Nationals.

TK