Re-organized my races, got rid of that awful table. Hope to have some race reports/more meaningful posts soon!

Well… I’m 2 for 2 on waking up race day with a splitting headache. After I got the kids dressed and ate some breakfast, I took some Tylenol and laid down with a cool cloth on my forehead… neither seemed to help.

After a hot shower, the Tylenol might have knocked the pain down a little and I set off a little before 10 am. I knew it was going to be a hot one, so I stopped to pick up a big PowerAde and a couple of energy bars. I’m glad I left as early as I did, Island Lake Rec Area was having a no-entry fee day and the place was packed.

After getting a parking spot a couple miles from the race start, I unpacked my gear, aired my tires up and set off to get my number plate. Riding to the starting line was a little rough, it was hot and my headache was not letting up.

I picked up my number and figured I had enough time to head back to the truck to drop off my extra bottle and swag. I made it back to the truck, found a nice tree to sit under and watch the folks enjoying the hot weather on the beach. Once I finished my water bottle (and a couple more Tylenol), I took a spin around the trails by the parking lot and headed to the start line.

I was able to pee twice before the gun went off, so I figured I was pretty well hydrated to begin with. As they were calling up the waves, I made sure not to get stuck behind the wave after mine and had a pretty decent start.

Not feeling 100% and the weather being a factor, I decided to take it easy this race. I don’t have my official time, but I’m pretty sure I was slower than last year. I was a little bummed about this, but thinking about it, I’m happy I was able to finish. The race went as well as it could, I stayed on my hydration (one bottle of Tailwind nutrition per hour) and I didn’t crash, even after a sketchy corner sent me into the rough (as I was getting back on the trail, I saw a bunch of other folks nearly lose it on the same corner).

As I was finishing up my third and final lap, I got stuck behind the strider/kids race. It was neat to see the little tikes on the course and I wish our kids were more interested in riding their bikes. After I crossed the finish line, I found a nice cool spot in the shade and tried to ready myself for the ride back to the truck. It was only a couple miles, but it was a very humbling ride.

I made my way past the traffic waiting for a parking spot to open up, blasted the A/C and headed back home, looking forward to the next race in a couple weeks (hopefully without a headache).

Well, the weather predictions for this past Memorial weekend were not even close for our area. It was the annual Balloons Over Bavarian Inn and I didn’t think we would actually get to see the balloons due to the weather. The boys and I got to see the balloons Friday night and we all saw them on Saturday night. The kids had a lot of fun and Susan and I got to try out the first food truck in Frankenmuth.

I even found time to weed whack the ditch (really need a new weed-whacker…), clean up the grass growing through the cracks in the driveway and around the pond area, and mow the front lawn with the “fancy” pattern (hoping to get the backyard sometime this week).

We ended the weekend by going to the zoo yesterday and the kids had a blast. They were being so good; we decided to have a picnic and a second carousel ride. After we left, Ollie fell asleep in the truck and decided that was a good enough nap… it wasn’t. The kids were definitely tired and getting them going this morning was a bit of a chore.

All and all it was a pretty good weekend, we are thinking about camping out somewhere next year. Henry said he wanted to try staying the night in the tent in the backyard this summer, we’ll see how well that goes!

Signing up for a gravel road race in April in Michigan, you never know what you’re gonna get. The weather turned out to be pretty decent, me on the other hand… not so much. I had been battling a cold for a couple weeks before the race (4/6), it was still lingering the day of and to top it off I woke up with a headache and nauseous.

I stayed in a hotel in Grand Rapids and signed up for the race early enough to get a discount on the race fees, there was no way I wasn’t at least attempting to do the race. A quick stop for a banana and some gas for the truck and I was off to find the start line.

Without a steady data signal on my phone and not getting directions before I left, I drove around for awhile before I finally found registration and a place to park. Not knowing what the weather was going to be like, I packed all my cycling gear. After a quick trip to get my race number, I decided on bibs, tech shirt, shoe covers, tights, wind shell jacket, winter cycling gloves, and my buff. It was a little chilly before the race started, but I wasn’t too cold once we got rolling.

The race start had three waves and I was in the second. The first wave was called up and the second wavers filled in behind, I looked around and saw quite a few “Wave 2”s around me and thought I was good. Well, the folks in wave three were anxious to get going and lined up directly behind the first wave. When the gun went off for my wave, I had a hard time navigating through the crowd… I wasn’t the only one :(.

Being on a singlespeed, I had hoped to find a peleton to ride with, but that idea quickly faded after the botched start. Nobody likes a wheel-sucker, but that was the only way I was getting through the race. I spent most of my time behind a lady with a sweet LeMond road bike (with surprisingly narrow tires). Without her, I’m not sure I would have finished the race… definitely want to do this race again, maybe the fall race next time!

Yes, we made it back from Isle Royale and yes I have let this blog go to the wayside once again. Well, expect some updates in the next couple weeks!

We had quite the Memorial weekend! The weather was excellent for being outside, although not for flying hot air balloons. We headed down Friday night to see if the balloons would take off. After some discussions and wind analysis it was confirmed there would be some flyers! Henry was pretty pumped and Ollie managed to stay awake this year! Henry wanted to stay for the balloon glow, but it was late and two little boys needed to get to bed.

On Saturday I took both boys to see the dog show. It looked like rain, so I was hesitant of going and didn’t want to get the Burley out. We walked down and managed to make it under a tent for the brief rain shower.

Once the rain stopped, we headed over to some bleachers to watch the dogs catch Frisbees… yes our butts got wet! Ollie was getting bored, so we decided to find something else to watch. We made our way over to a lure chase. Basically two bags on a string that goes really fast around some obstacles. It was pretty neat, but they were having some difficulties and Henry was bored with it. We walked around some more, saw a lot of “puppies” before we headed home for lunch.

We wanted to try to catch the balloons on Saturday night, but the deal was for Henry to go, he needed to take a nap (which he didn’t do -.-). Sunday was a different story, both kids napped really well, so we made our way back to Frankenmuth for the evening launch. Unfortunately, the winds were too harsh for flying and the balloons would not be going up. I think everyone was a little disappointed. We headed over to one of the shops and picked up a souvenir, a hot air balloon that hangs outside and spins in the wind.

After trying to get Henry to nap on Monday without success, we headed to the grocery store to get food for the week. I picked up some teenage mutant ninja turtles plates and napkins for Henry’s birthday. He was super excited about this and had to carry them through the store, out to the car, and on the way home. When we got home, he showed Susan and exclaimed “ninja turtle birthday”.

At this point Ollie was still sleeping, but that didn’t stop Henry from trying to show him. After a few “ninja turtle birthday”s, Ollie sat up with a disgruntled look on his face. One more shout of “ninja turtle birthday”, Ollie had a WTF look and went right down to try and finish his nap. I wish I could have caught that on video, it was hilarious!

Well this year’s Barry Roubaix was a lot different than the last time I did it. The sun was out, temps reached to the upper 70s, and the course was dry… really dry and dusty! It was a beautiful day for the race and great day to ride a bike. I road my SSCX with a smaller gear than last time and still got a good workout in.

I started off out of town latching onto any wheel I could. We hit the gravel and were going downhill at a good speed. Instead of tapping the brakes, I decided to try to pass someone on the right only to get sucked down into a track on the right side of the road. It took a couple of attempts, but I was able to get back on the road and someone even commented on my maneuver, “Nice save!”.

Then we hit the first of the three sisters. I was able to make it up the first two, but could only ride half-way up the third one. From there it was down and up, up and down and finally hit the lengthy pavement section. Going up with one gear took some work, but I was able to recover on the downhill section, even managed to get aero enough to pass people without pedaling!

The two-track section was open this year and man that was interesting. There was sand, rocks, and some serious ruts you couldn’t ride through! A little while after this section came “The Wall”, there was a group performing and kept me entertained as I pushed my bike to the top.

After a few more hills, I saw a pace group from the 62-mile race flying by. I jumped on after the last rider of about ten and held on for as long as I could. That was fun, we were easily doing mid-20’s on the gravel and I wanted to stick with them until we hit pavement, but I wasn’t able to keep up when we hit a hill a few minutes later.

Even though I improved my time by 30 minutes, the race still took me quite a long time to finish. If I do this race next year, I’m going to enter the single speed division for the 22-mile race. If I work my butt off, I might be able to get a podium spot! 🙂

The weather has been all over the place, but it looks like spring might actual be on its way. If the forecast holds, my first race of the year, Barry Roubaix, will be an excellent weekend. I’ve been trying to log as many hours as I can on the trainer and hope that time pays off. I’ll once again be riding my single speed cross bike, with a 40×18 gearing this time around.

In other news, the Tour de Frankenmuth road race was canceled… 🙁 I was really looking forward to doing this race. I had wanted to ride with the “A” group out of Lennon to prepare myself for this race, but after hearing it was canceled I switched my focus to mountain bike race prep. Speaking of which, I managed to win a free entry to the Yankee TT mountain bike race on April 24! 😀

Our camping gear has slowly started to trickle in over past few weeks. My pack didn’t fit as well as it could and I returned it for a size smaller, the folks at backcountry.com took care of me and it was a pretty painless process. The tent was a little tricky to get setup (in the living room), but now that I’ve done it, shouldn’t be too bad.

Last week our stove, bowl set, and fuel canisters came. Supposedly the bowls and a 230 gm canister can fit inside the stove cup, but it’s not as easy as you would think. The canisters come in slightly different shapes/sizes and even watching a YouTube video didn’t help get everything together. After 30 or 40 minutes of different configurations I was finally able to figure out a way to get it all in the one container (might have to color code it for future reference 😉 ).

This past week has seen ups and downs in temperature (and snowfall!) On last Wednesday we were sent home early from work because of the incoming snowstorm. Most of the snow was supposed to come over night, so I didn’t go out to clear the driveway until Thursday morning. I would say we got around 10” of snow and had 18-24” snow drifts in different parts of the driveway. Daycare didn’t have power, so Susan and I worked from home with the boys (luckily power had been restored by Friday 😉 ).

On Saturday the snow was already beginning to melt. Being the first weekend this winter we had snow and it wasn’t bitterly cold, we decided to take the boys sledding. We packed the toddler sled in the explorer, suited up and headed to Menard’s to see if I could find a bigger sled. Susan wanted an inflatable, but I couldn’t find any. I ended up getting a 5’ black sled.

Susan had scoped out a decent hill by the library in Clio. When we got to the hill, Henry didn’t want to get in the sled, so Ollie and I went down without him. I got back up the hill grabbed Henry, who still didn’t want to go, and went down again. At this point I wasn’t sure if sledding was going to happen or not. Henry was pretty much against going down again, but I was able to wrangle him and get him in the sled.

When we got to the bottom of the hill, Henry said “let’s try again!”, he was hooked! I hauled both kids and the sled up the hill as many times as I could. When it was time to go, Henry started fussing and Susan went down the hill a couple times with him. We finally managed to get a very upset child into the car and headed home. It was a great day for sledding and I think everyone had a lot of fun!

On Sunday, the sun came out and the temps were in the high 50s. By evening most of the snow had melted and once the sun went down it started to rain. Monday morning there was not much snow to be seen anywhere in the yard. Yesterday we were hit with another snowstorm!

I left work a few minutes early to make the daycare pickup time (I still ended up being a few minutes late 🙁 ). The roads weren’t plowed and I barely made it home with the kids without getting stuck. I went out last night to clear the driveway and we probably got around 8” with 12-18” snow drifts. I’m not going to worry about it too much, it sounds like it’s all going to melt this weekend!

Well, we finally decided what we wanted to do for our tenth wedding anniversary! We will be going to Isle Royale during the GM shutdown. Last year we were talking about doing this and it was on again off again. We thought about a few other places, but I think we finally convinced ourselves that this something that we wanted to do and could actually do it.

The ferry tickets are bought and the park fees are paid (no going back now!) I’ve been doing a lot of research and will try to keep this blog updated with our plans, gear, etc.

Our itinerary is as follows:
* 07.04.2016 – Leave Copper Harbor and Arrive at Rock Harbor via Queen Royale IV
* 07.04.2016 – Hike 6.9 miles to Lane Cove
* 07.05.2016 – Hike 6.9 miles to Daisy Farm
* 07.06.2016 – Hike 4.4 miles to Three Mile
* 07.07.2016 – Hike 2.7 miles to Rock Harbor
* 07.07.2016 – Leave Rock Harbor
* 07.07.2016 – First Night Stay at Keweenaw Mountain Lodge
* 07.08.2016 – Second Night Stay at Keweenaw Mountain Lodge

We are getting super excited and have already started to buy some of the gear we will need. We should be getting our packs and hiking boots this week!