New CX Bike

I have wanted a CX bike for quite some time so that I could get some good long miles in. I found a good deal on a Scott Team CX Comp bike that I jumped on. Went out on Saturday and got in 30 miles, felt good to get back on the bike I haven't been out since Thanksgiving morning. Here are a couple pics... just for you Mike.

Happy Thanksgiving

Bike Bash 2010

Going into the 2010 racing season my goal was to take the championship and get some good racing experience. I was able to attain my goal with some stiff competition in all races. Went to Bike Bash 2010 put on by the Psycowpath Racing Series, great turnout approximately 75-80 people attended. I took home the 1st place medal for the Mens Cat 3 Open division. I am really looking forward to the 2011 racing season in the Mens Cat 2 division with EVCC. Fellow EVCC riders Jeff Hoff and Jon Downey also took home 1st and 2nd in the Cat 3 45+, 3rd place was taken by Brian Hromas. Alex Sanchez also took home 2nd place medal for the Mens Cat 3 35+. Congrats to all who raced this season. A big thank you to all the volunteers and to Ryan and Roxy Feagan for putting in the time without them none of the races could go off smoothly.

Here's a link provided by Psycowpath to a video they put together: http://www.vimeo.com/16747701

Brian Hromas, Jerry Hoff (EVCC) & Jon Downey (EVCC)

Alex Sanchez

Elkhorn Cylcing Club and Week of Riding

This was an exciting week for me, I joined Elkhorn Valley Cycling Club on Tuesday. Going into the 2011 season I was looking to join a race team and Jon Downey and Dan Spray approached me on joining Elkhorn Valley. I talked it over with the family and decided it would be the best fit for me. Everyone from the team have been welcoming. Here is a link to the announcement http://nencycling.org/wixon_evcc I cannot wait for the 2011 season to start. I have a lot of events planned including Xterra Triathlons, Psycowpath races, Dakota 5-0 and possibly a 1/2 Ironman..... hopefully.

Thursday was a great day, per KMTV a top 10 day of the year, this was great news since Cory and I had decided to make it a MTB day. We started out going to Calvin Crest in Fremont, NE for a couple laps. The highlight was riding Cory's Stumpjumper 29er. I had not spent much time on a 29er bike so it was nice to be able to ride one. After riding CC we needed to load back up on some carbs so.... CiCi's pizza was calling. After downing too much pizza we moved onward to Swanson in Bellevue, NE. We did 2 laps there also. Swanson is such a fun course, it has a little bit of everything. It was now time for Cory to pick up the kids from school and me to pick up Alicia, but I was not done yet. I went over to Tranquility for a quick lap. Total for the day was approx. 25 miles of singletrack sweetness between 3 different courses.

                                                            $3.99 Buffet can you beat it??

                                                        Picture taken at Calvin Crest

                                    
                                                      Swanson back course closed off

Officers training

Swanson Trailhead

On Friday Patty tells me she has a meeting after work and can take Alicia with her if I want to call the boys and go for a night ride. I didn't hesitate and text Mike asked if he wanted to do a night ride at Tranquility. We rounded up the troops and Mike, Dave N, Brian H, Dale, and myself headed out to TQ for a lap backwards with the lights blazin'. Unfortunately I was only able to do little over 1/2 lap since my Magicshine light was not fully charged - oops - since it was a last minute decision to ride.

Saturday was family day, we went to lunch at the Old Mattress Factory, then to the Creighton Women's soccer game with Alicia and her Toro Soccer team. Creighton vs Evansville, I am not a soccer fan but it was fun to see a live game, Creighton won 3-0. I still would not turn on TV and watch a game but live was OK.   After the game we had planned to go to Manawa for the THOR event, take your kid mountain biking day.  When we got there things were wrapping up, but it sounded like they had a good turnout and plan to make it a tradition. Saturday night I watched my Florida State Seminoles take care of Miami FL. They needed the win to stay in the top 25.

Sunday slept in...well needed. I was able to squeeze a lap in at Tranquility, while there I ran into Chris Price working on the inner loop hill climb. He has done a ton of work on TQ over the last week or so, if you have not been out there check it out and I promise you will not cuss out the inner loop anymore. Make sure you let Chris know how much you appreciate his hard work. Thanks Chris!

             Picture of the Day! Paul with his rolled up Dockers, Button down shirt and work shoes.

Dakota 5-0 Official Results

http://dakotafiveo.com/10racetimes.html
Official results just posted

Branched Oak Psycowpath Race

This is a course that I'm pretty familiar with since I competed in a couple of the Flatwater Training races here earlier in the year. I was somewhat  concerned since I just completed the Dakota 5-0 a week prior, so wasn't sure

how the legs were gonna feel. At race time they informed us it was gonna be a 2 lap race equal to about 10 miles. We lined up down the hill on the gravel road, I stuck my wheel on Clint Robinson off the start and was 2nd into the singletrack. I stayed in 2nd for about 1/2 lap then made my move. After making pass I put some open dirt between myself and rest of pack, I looked back periodically and saw that Aaron Schnee had made his way up to 2nd, he is a  fast rider so I knew I had to keep my "A" game up and keep pushing it. I was able to hold Aaron off and get the victory. Great job to both Aaron and Clint as they both ride single speeds. Only 1 more race to go in the series at Swanson since Lake Manawa is still under water. Swanson is one of my favorite courses so really looking forward to it on the 25th. Thanks again to Psycowpath and all the volunteers that make these races go as planned. Full results can be found at http://www.psycowpath.com/images/stories/Branched_Oak_Results.pdf

Dakota 5-0

                                      

I just want to start by saying if you have not done the 5-0 then shame on you! This is my first year doing the race and I'm already looking forward  to next year. The race is a must for anyone that enjoys mtn biking. We drove up on Thursday morning so that I could pre-ride a part of the course and to just enjoy the beautiful town of Spearfish. I decided on Friday to ride the new section of the course so see what was in store for the  race. The section starts on an uphill doubletrack section and then goes into some nice singletrack. I ended up riding approx 12 miles, a nice warmup for the upcoming race. Going into this race my keyword was "PACE" not the picante sauce kind but pace myself so I don't burn up too early. I am a rookie at the endurance events, prior to this my only other long race was an event put on by Jim Craig (angrycowadventures.com) Panama which was 35 miles at which I cramped at mile 20 and limped my way to the finish line suffering the whole way. At this point I vowed to never let this happen again, so this was in essence a redemption race for me.

Race morning arrived, woke up at 4:30am ate some food, gathered up a few items for the race and then layed back down for a bit. The pre-race jitters were flowing now, going over everything in my head making sure I have all that I need along the way. I rolled up to the starting line, positioned my start behind the expert and pro classes. Smokey the Bear led us out of town and race is on. The first 3.5-4 miles out of town is a gravel road, on the way up I passed a few people and a few passed me, my competitive instincts were trying to kick in and say kick it up! Wisely I did not. PACE PACE, you will catch them later in the ride. I hit the singletrack and it was wheel to wheel for the first 8-10 miles then people started to make moves and seperate out. I had planned ahead of time to skip aid station 1 since my wife Patty and daughter Alicia would be at aid station 2 with full water bottles for me. This worked out perfectly as I rolled into aid station 2 I quickly scanned the crowd found them changed bottles out and I was off, no time wasted. Continuing on I just kept a nice pace trying to stay hydrated with water and also using Hammer Perpetuem. After aid station

2 it was some nice flowy downhill singletrack. I made my way to aid station 3 and made a decision that I would continue on as water bottles were still good. I tried to conserve some energy at this point because after aid station 4 it was a long uphill climb on some new cut in singletrack. I was able to stay on the bike for most of the uphill, couple times I felt my legs cramping so I jumped off bike. Bacon station/PBR was up next and this is where Patty and Alicia were with some full cold water bottles. As I rode up Patty yelled out "do you need the bottles" I said "no I'm good", this would come back to haunt me later....ugggghhhh. On the last uphill dirt road I started to cramp pretty bad, I jumped off bike and started walking. Another rider #92 was having same problem and offered up some Hammer Electrolyte tabs, only thing is I only had a swallow of water left, just enough to get them down. Thank you for the tabs #92!! Finally I was on the homestretch some really fun downhill leading out to the gravel road to finish. I pushed it pretty hard, made my way out to the gravel road and went on to the finish line. My time was 5 hours 22 minutes 59 seconds which put me 64th in my age group 30-39 and 143rd overall. For my first time riding the race, it exceeded my expectations, I was looking for around 6 hours pre-race. I am really pumped for next year already.

Few things of note:

I could not have done this without the support of my family.
Spearfish campground was beautiful and so is the town
11 year old boy was killing it out there, finished somewhere under 6 hours
Met some great people from Minnesota, one of which who lead Patty & Alicia to aid station 2 and the bacon station, thanks Renee
20+ riders from Nebraska, great showing

Pictures from the Five-0 can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/fattypatty17