Week #26 Slowly recovering

 

Week #26 - 472 miles

I feel like I am taking forever to recover from Unbound XL. I know that it still has been a big year for mileage (about 9,200 miles). My hip flexor has still been a little sore, but getting much better and I feel like I am getting better sleep. This weekend I did back to back 100+ miles, but it was really planned. Saturday I was pretty sure I would get 100 in, today wasn't really planned. I needed only 56 miles to get 400 miles for the week, which is sort of a goal. It was a really nice morning so I decided as I got into the ride to go a little farther. After 15 miles in, I decided to go down to the border. Ended up being 128 miles and everything felt great. Helps to have no wind and cooler temperatures. Hope to keep things rolling into July and get quite a few miles in before The Long Voyage.

Week #25 Solstice w/ Josh

 

Week #25 - 448 miles

This Saturday I rode down to Beatrice with Roger Williams to do the Solstice race with Josh Shear. Roger decided that it would be better to do the 50 miler and miss the heat, which was probably a good idea. Josh and I started the 100 miler 15 minutes after (with the 50 milers) 100 milers took off. We wanted to see how many folks we could catch before Josh was going to bonk. He has been riding much the past year so we knew the second half of the course was going to be a struggle. After rolling into the first checkpoint, we had probably caught around 50 people. The second half of the course was into some wind and many people were having a hard time. I don't think it was blowing near as hard as it was at Unbound XL. Josh and I came in 20th and 21st overall on time. It was really fun to try to catch folks as we went along. Next year we may try to do some charity aspect of seeing how many people we can roll past.

Week #24 Slow road to recovery

 

Week #24 - 270 miles

It has seemed to take quite a while to recover from Unbound XL. The first couple days, I had a hard time sleeping very much. I was tired, but just couldn't get any solid sleep at night. By Wednesday, everything came crashing down. I got home and was in bed a little after 2:30pm. Slept until 7ish, had some food, then back to bed until 6am the next morning. Thursday things were a little bit better. On Friday I took the afternoon off and just layed around. Finally this weekend, I was starting to feel somewhat rested but plan on just riding easy for a few more days. Next Saturday will hopefully be between 140-150 miles. They will be easy miles with Josh, but it will be good to get some longer saddle time. I have been thinking on what I need to change as far as bike setup goes and I think I have that done. Going to be able to lighted up the bike a bit by dropping the big saddle bag. I should be able to carry what food I want in the frame bag and top tube bag along with extra clothes in my hydration pack. It has been nice this year not to really try to pile on the miles even though it looks like I am on just shy of a 1,000 less miles than last year. Today was #535 as far as the ride streak goes. Not sure how far it will go, but it has been fun for this long.

Week #23 Unbound XL

 

Week #23 - 511 miles

This past weekend was something special! It was my fourth time racing in Emporia and my third finish. There have been some low points and some very high points. The 2018 Dirty Kanza 200 was a roller coaster of emotions for me. Luckily I was able to come away with a very good experience and a podium place. 2019 things went horribly wrong all day and then ended at mile 173.

This year at Unbound Gravel XL there was a different objective and that was to make sure I completed the course. Since it was only 6 weeks after Iowa Wind and Rock, there was just enough time to recover and prepare for the 356+ miles of Flint Hills. I have been in athletics all of my life and I have to say that I am as proud of this race as any of my other achievements. This course was hand down the hardest thing I have ever done. We were lucky that lots of roads had dried some or we would had been walking forever.

We started out at 3pm on Friday and headed north with a tailwind. I knew the pace would be fast but didn't really think that I would get dropped by the front pack if I was going 20mph, but I did. Mat Stephens and I rode together through the first 80 miles together before I hit a mud hole wrong and went down. By the time I got to Alma (around 119 miles), I had worked my way into the top ten overall. Mat rolled out of the C-Store first and I was with three other strong riders. We were working well together, but around 160ish miles I going through a little rough patch and lost their wheel.

Luckily when I got to Council Grove (mile 218ish) Lael Wilcox and Dave Hasse rolled up to the C-Store as I was about ready to leave. This was great now to have folks to ride with and two very strong ultra cyclists. Lael had won the women's XL in 2019 and I have raced against Dave many times. He was 2nd overall at Iowa Wind and Rock this year.

Dave and I kept taking turns helping Lael for the next 140 miles. To me this was the best part of the whole experience. It didn't really matter to me what place I came in, the goal was to finish. By helping out Lael get her second title, was icing on the cake. As we got close to Americus (mile 345ish) I thought we could probably break 27 hours but we would have to push hard. The rest of the course was fairly flat but straight into the headwind. I asked Lael if she wanted to see if we could make it, she thought for a second and then said "let's go for it". The last 10+ miles turned into the hardest effort of the whole race, but we all three came in under 27 hours.

Beside a couple small wrecks, I didn't have any mechanical the entire time. The new Lauf handled great, but needs a bath. I was really pleased with my LightandMotion Lights. There were so many tricky descents on this course, but I had no problem seeing all night. Also a big shout out to Cantu Cycling Wheels, Panaracer and Move Up Off Road for being such great sponsors.

I have one more "ultra" race this year - Gravel Worlds 2021 - The Long Voyage (300+ miles) in August. This will be the first year for this distance, so I will be one of the first people to attempt to complete all three races in one year.

Last and not least, it was really good to see everyone again. This is what makes gravel racing so special!

#moveupoffroad #laufforks #lightandmotion #ucantu #panaracer_world #justanotherdayonthebike #GravelFamily #joypower