Race Trainin'

Got this idea from Jason's comments (see below). I was thinking that it would be helpful to anyone on here who is thinking about racing for the first time. There are several of you who will be racing at some point this year or who have raced sometime in the past. Please share your training tips, racing stories, or anything else that may be inspirational and beneficial for anyone preparing for the upcoming season.

I remember my first race well, and here is TIP #1: always wear some type of eye protection. My first race was on a very rainy/sloppy day in the Springfield area. You'd think that it would be common sense to wear glasses, especially on a muddy course, but it didn't occur to me. By the time the race was done, my eyes were full of grit. But I can honestly say that I had a blast; met a lot of new people; and just enjoyed the atmosphere. So come on everyone, share your experiences...

Ski'n w/ Randy

Been off line for a little while. Pretty much been somewhere between busy and lazy.

Have skied a couple times since the snow fell. Once at Snow Creek (my knees and head still hurt), once on the parkway, and a couple times at Honey Creek. Honey creek is awesome for cross country skiing, and it is just awesome period. We saw a flock of turkeys today, which was pretty cool.

Snow was really good for skiing a couple days ago. It's cold now, so it is a little slow compared to when the temp is in the high 20's. We had a great time and ended up doing somewhere around 6-8 miles today. I did about 12-14 miles a couple days ago. Anyway, it was a great way to start of the new year.

By the way, happy new year!

Oh the SNOW

Not counting on there having been much of a workday today on the trails. I got a lot done at work though... The Man will be happy.

Really itchin to do some xc skiing. Got some other stuff that I need to attend to this afternoon, but you can bet I'll be up at the ass crack tomorrow looking for some snow to glide through.

Here's Wednesday's rendition of the little devil on my shoulder - "come on, no one will care if you disappear for a few hours - come on lets go jump in the snow!". Lily looks on in the background.

Saturday Corby Workday

For anyone interested in working to restore the Corby trails this weekend; Randy will be hosting a trail workday at Corby.

He is planning on starting on the Corby South trails at 8:30AM on Saturday.

Aaron has been working on the south side and made good progress. A new guy named Mike and I went out there tonight and made it through about half of the South loop. My recomendation is to start going backwards on the south side. If you start on the North side it doesn't matter where you start, it is a mess everywhere.

Unfortunately, I will not be able to help on Saturday as I will be working.

If I don't see you all before: Merry Christmas and Happy Trails!!!!!

Thanks for everyone's hard work!

Lansen

Scouting

Scouted some of the trails yesterday. Parked at corby south with the dogs, then skied up to the north side. Found the trails completely impassible by ski or bike. Then skied up the parkway to the Girlscout camp and checked out those trails. They are in pretty bad shape too, but don't seem to be as bad as corby. Didn't check on Krug. Skied back to corby south and started hiking them with a saw. Seemed like pretty easy going until I ran into Aaron and found out he had been cutting ahead of me. We worked together for a little while. Progress on clearing the trails is moderate, but there is a huge amount of down branches, limbs and trees. We didn't see any huge trees across the trail, but then again we only made it to the fire pit.

I'll be at corby south this afternoon some time with a hand saw. It's going take a lot of hours to get the trails rideable again.

Kind of a bummer this year for the trails. Between the floods this last spring and the ice storm this winter they have certainly taken their lumps. The good thing about this storm is that just about every branch and tree that could have come down in the next 5 years... did. So I guess that means once it's all clear again we don't have to maintain again for another 5 years. Heee Hee He, just joking - I'm just being delusional.

Hope all you folks have your power back by now. What a turd of a week for some folks here in St. Joe. I feel guilty to say I was one of the lucky ones this week.

Here's a picture of the bridge entrance to Corby North. Behind that tree leaning over the trail is just more of the same....

Ugggh.... Not Good

Hope everyone is okay, whether they have power or not. For the time being, I still do. Trees down everywhere in my neighborhood. Spent the morning cutting limbs off of a fence in my back yard. Neighbors took the brunt of the damage though. Also have some water in the basement.... Weird.

I shudder to think what the trails look like. Whatever you do, don't go out there until after the melt. It will be like a room full of mouse traps out there right now.

Good luck, stay safe, stay warm.

Snow and Progress

Crossed skis is no good.....

Well, you probably noticed there is snow on the ground... Just enough for skiing, barely. Went early Friday AM, enough melted Friday that skiing is no good till more falls. Maybe tomorrow, I hope. Corby North is pretty good skiing if there is at least 4". Less than that and it's no good.

Made some progress on the Girlscout camp today. Dave, Lance, Jim, Shawn, Adam, Tara, and I hit it for a couple hours. It was pretty cold up by the cemetary. We had a hard time figuring out a good line on the cemetary hill. We thought there was some danger of erosion with the line that was marked, so we had to figure out a new one. After that it started rolling pretty good until all three saws started having trouble. That was about noon or a little after, and I think most of us were toast anyway. I'm guessing that we knocked out between 1.5 and 2 miles today... but it's tough to tell.

Dave and Lance going to town on a helluva big fallen log - Dueling Chainsaws.....

Lance and I hiked what is left to do after we were done cutting. We were guessing that there is probably 2.5 or 3 miles to go still. Some of it will go very quickly, some will be a fight for every inch. Still don't know for sure, but it seems like the GS trail could pretty easily be 7 miles when finished.

Hey where did everyone go?

I mention trail work freezing temp and rain and there is no one on here blogging. I hope I didn't scare everyone off. Seriously we are going out to do trail work tomorrow morning. Lancen, Dave, Jason and myself plan to be there for chain saw work. Randy is deathly ill and won't be there ( like phumonia is an excuse). Remember More people building trail=more trail=more riding

Blown away

Thats what I've been doing for the last few mornings, blowing the trails. We have a good start on finishing the trails that were started Sat. It will take me about a week to finish trimming and blowing the leafs off the trail. Dave Crook spent four hours the other day going almost to the turn next to grave yard. Randy is going back and cutting nubs we missed over the next few days. Its raining on Sat. and there won't be any riding anyone up for more trail work????? I estimate it will take two more days like this last trail day to finish rough cutting the trail. So why sit at home and be warm and comfortable lets get out there and do it again.

U Animals

Sorry I didn't make it Saturday morning. My boy had bball games Saturday morning. Pretty impressed you guys made it a work day as crappy as the weather was. You guys are animals! I am now going to try to figure out how to posts pictures so I can share the trip this summer. Brian

Successful Trail Work Day

We converged on the Girlscout trails an tore it up for most of the day. Even though 35 degree rain poured down for most of the day, we made good progress considering the conditions. I don't think there was a person out there who wasn't soaked to the bone. and freezing. Personally, I discovered that "waterproof" is only waterproof to a point, after that "waterproof" is just like a baggie to hold the water nice and close to the skin. On the way home I picked up 5 McD's cheeseburgers and had them down the hatch by the time I hit my driveway (about 1 mile from my house), I was starving.

The rain did cause some problems with the chainsaws, and it definitely made weed whacking impossible. Not to mention the conditions slowed us down a little bit and wore everyone down quicker. Even still, we are thinking that we cleared around 3 miles of new trail on the upper section. Some of it was pretty easy going, other sections were a battle for every inch.

Would like to thank everyone who made it out all these awesome trails couldn't happen with out you guys. What an awesome group.

Randy, Dave, Rusty, Javier running the blades - I know it isn't easy, or cheap keeping up with thrown chains, oil, and gas.

Jason, Bob, Jim, Shawn clearing, grooming, and lugging tools around to keep the saws running.

Hope I didn't miss anyone - let me know if I did.

Also, a super thanks to everyone who has been working the trail outside of the trail work days. I know Shawn and Randy have put in a ton of hours. Jason and Adam have been out there too I'm pretty sure. Probably others too, sorry if I missed you.

Finally, I want to thank Shawn for marking all these trail routes. Yesterday I was telling Rusty that I thought you had a toy poodle or something that could get through the under brush to place some of those flags. It really is going to be a cool trail.

I had more pictures from the day, but I don't know if the memory was full, the phone was shorting out from being soaked all day, or what - but only one of the pictures saved. It's Dave standing in a down pour getting ready to attack a thickett of brambles and bushes.

Trail Work - This Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Trail Work on Saturday. We're planning on several chainsaws - hopefully 4. We'll need at least one support person per chainsaw team. Any one else that shows can run the leaf blower or weed whacker.

Shawn, can you bring the shop weed whacker and leaf blower?

Chainsaws I know of right now are Randy, Rusty, Jav, Bob, and Dave.

We can park in the grass clearings just off the parkway near the new lower section that is cut and rideable.

Meet at 8:30AM, or show up whenever you can. I'll have some refreshments and dirt work tools to keep everyone rolling.

Plan and dress for rain and crappy weather - which is good, because then no one will be tempted to ride instead of hack underbrush (that goes more for me than anyone else).

Can't wait to see you all there!!!!!

cold morning

I closed the loop today on the side closest to Lovers Lane. The run on the ridge next to the grave yard is nice. I only need to mark the return run back to the other side of the park and the marking is done, I'll finish that part tomorrow morning. Is anyone riding tonight?

New bridge/Heartland

Spoke with Roger from the city he said that he was working on designing a bridge to span the creek at the end of Corby North. This will tie the trail into a new section that runs up to Ashland Ave. for another 2 miles. He said that he could get the building material but the trail group would need to build it. Does anyone have any experience in building bridges? The Heathland race is rolling along I'm finishing the final paper work now. I know we are working on the girl scout trail now but we need to plan to start getting Corby ready for the race by spring. This could include several miles of new trails the new bridge I mentioned and some detail work to make everything flow better. The race loop will include both North and South Corby starting in the field by Noise school. If anyone has any ideas let me know we need this first race to be killer to keep Heartland up here. You never know we could be a good 12/24 hour venue later on.

Tuesday - Night Ride

Anyone in for a night ride tonight? Start with Corby South - see what happens from there?

6:00-6:15 ish start time...

Chainsaw Kenny

Went for a steady little jaunt this morning through the Corby's and Girlscout trails. Things were a little slippery due to melting frost, but it was a decent ride.

On my way back through the other direction I ran into Chainsaw Kenny and his buddy in Corby South. They tell me they have permission to cut down trees for fire wood. I said cool, and asked if they would be willing to do trail work too. Kenny said if there's wood in it for him, he's all over it. Anyway, sounds like we'll have another chainsaw for Saturday.

You never know who you're going to meet in the woods.

Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend Rides

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday yesterday. We have so much to be thankful for... like these new trails and getting HSP to host a race in our back yard!

Just spoke with Jason and we're planning on starting from Corby tomorrow around 1PM... hope to see several out there.

I'm still contemplating going to Crowder SP on Sunday... call me if interested.

Lansen at Waubunsie

I'm finally getting around to posting the only photo I took of Lansen during our trip last weekend. Those steps were VERY slippery... so much that Lansen didn't want to wait at the middle for me to pull out the camera and snap the photo... that's why he's so happy in this photo.

I'm ready for another another epic adventure. How about Crowder SP this Sunday... anyone? Hopefully I won't loose another pair of mtb shoes this time!

more marked and built

Jason and Randy rough cut another large section on top yesterday. I was boarded this morning so I flagged because the snow prevented me trimming. I ended up running out of flags about noon so I packed it in. I now roughly know how everything will lay in even though it isn't marked. Wow!!! this is going to be the coolest trail yet it will be challenging but fast with some steady climbing. We will need to bench a fair portion of the back side but some of that is already there as deer trail and old single track. I found another tent that looks lived in to the east. I plan to mark trail from now till the work day and get the rest of the planning out of the way.

Heartland!!!!

Everybody thank Shawn when you see him! He got the Corby loop on the Heartland series. Checkout the Hearland link to your right to see the details.

On another note: Dr. Adam did a rough map of the Girlscout section. We'll get some more refined maps for the Maps and Routes link. Thanks Dr. A!