Evening road rides with Shannon and Dina
The moon up over the tobacco fields near our house
My favorite pond to ride by on an evening ride. Had a helicopter appear right as I was about the take the shot.
We get a lot of helicopter activity where we live since we are close to Ft. Campbell.
Moon over my parents' house
Cattails along the road on one of my rides. You don't see these very often around here. Nature's corn dog!
My new home health job has turned me loose now. I am starting to like it more now that I have some freedom out on my own. I like making my own schedule and being outside driving so much between patients. I can see huge potential for this job in helping me ride. I can make more money in less time, so that could mean more ride time and more race cash! I have over 30 hours of online training I have to do now, which seems like a bit of overkill to me. At least I had some time to start them on my free weekend. Shannon and I have also taken a class to maintain our therapy licenses and certificates. All this training stuff is about to run me ragged!
It was also nice to be able to go to church at home. I have a new calling that has taken me from the nursery into the Sunday School Presidency. We are short several teachers so I teach some of the youth classes every weekend I’m in town and occasionally have to attend some extra church meetings now. I also gave my first talk in Sacrament meeting. In the LDS church we don’t have preachers, but rather members speak on a topic each week and we help teach one another. I have been asked a few times before, but it was always on a Sunday when I was going to be out of town. I have dreaded my first talk for a few years. I have always felt like I’m out of my league when it comes to discussing church doctrine and principals with people who have been in the church their whole life. I attempted to make a deal with the Lord and said that I would be ready to give a talk after I had read all the standard works of scriptures, which are four books. I wasn’t sure if the Lord agreed with my bargain since I really have no authority to be striking up a deal with Him, but I did not get asked to speak again once I started reading. It took me nearly two years to read them all. Two days before I finished the fourth book is when I was given my speaking assignment. It was time for me to uphold my end of the bargain. My topic was “Obedience” which was fitting since my decision to accept the assignment was a test of my obedience to what the Lord was asking me to do. I did it and it went well. Public speaking isn’t so bad when you are prepared and trust in the Lord to guide you in what to say.
After the off weekend, it was back to racing on Wednesday night for Race #6 of Music City Crits. I like the Wednesday night races because they are great workouts during the week when you don’t have much time to do anything else. It can be a really hard effort if you are active in the race, or just a good solid hour of riding tempo if you sit in the group. Being under an hour in length keeps you from being too tired for your weekend races. I tried hard to get in the break again at this round. I was tired from mountain bike workouts earlier in the week, but I was still able to go really hard. The legs burned, but they were strong and I could push through it. I followed every move for the first 15 minutes before I had to skip an attack. Of course, that was the break that stuck with four riders going away for good. I tried to get a chase group going and ended up off the front solo for a while in the middle of the race, but the group was not letting anyone else go. One rider got off the front at two laps to go. I got onto John Carr’s wheel and he gave me a huge leadout. He turned me loose on the backstretch on the final lap and I shot off the front trying to catch the lone rider dangling ahead. It was a bit too far to the finish though and I started to fade at the end. Two riders passed me going into the final corner and then four more slid by just before the line. I got to that rider that was off the front, but didn’t pass him. I ended up 12th. My legs may have been tired, but I hit my max heart rate on the final lap so I know I still had something left at the end. I just wasn’t able to hold it quite long enough to take the sprint.
The DINO Series resumed with round 3 the final weekend of June. This race took place at the new Griffin Bike Park that just opened last fall in Terre Haute, IN. I had not been to the park yet so I wanted to catch a pre-ride on Saturday. The forecast looked like rain on Saturday morning so we opted to stay home and do a road ride instead, then head up to camp at Fowler Park in the afternoon once the rain had passed. Dina and I got in our ride then we packed up her truck and headed for Terre Haute, which is a fairly short drive for us compared to our normal trips. We made one stop along the way for lunch at Steve's Famous Bar-B-Q in Clarksville. I met Steve when he was an OT patient at my clinic several years ago. He cooked barbecue and operated a small food truck at a few local festivals each year. His barbecue was really good so we would order some for the clinic even after he wasn't a patient anymore. Shannon and I even had him cater our family dinner the night before our wedding and Steve gave us one of the best pre-wedding support talks I have ever heard. He eventually expanded his food truck to being open several days a week. His business grew so much that now he has been able to move into a permanent building. I am so happy to see a friend getting rewarded for his hard work so we could not wait to stop by and support his new business. If you're ever driving through Clarksville and like barbecue, chicken, brisket or burgers, think about trying Steve's. His place is located just off Exit 1 from I-24.
Steve's Famous Bar-B-Q
Pulled Pork sandwich with Spanish rice and some of the best baked beans to ever go in this mouth!
Fowler Park is a perfect place to stay if you are riding at Griffin. The park is right across street from the bike park. We got there just in time to get a campsite. They only had two sites left when we pulled in. The one we chose was on a point sticking out into W. Keith Ruble Lake, which the park surrounds. The sites were a bit closer together than we are used to, but it was no big deal when you are just there for one night. Only a row of tall grasses separated us from the water. We had a nice view, some shade and a breeze coming off the water. It was much cooler sitting by the lake than it has been at home in several weeks so it was a relief from the summer heat as well.
Tents up and ready for the night
Looking through a hole in the grass to see the lake.
We aren't the only ones sleeping here
It turned out that all the rain missed the park and we could have pre-ridden the trails had we come up earlier. I had my ride time in for the day and knew I needed some rest after being tired most of this week. We chose to walk around the lake and check out the park rather than go see the trails. The walk was good to loosen up the legs from the drive, but didn’t make us more tired. Fowler Park contains an old homestead area they call the Pioneer Village. Inside the village are many old cabins from the 1800s, a covered bridge and a gristmill. We had a nice fire in the evening to top off the day, complete with a few s'mores.
A few of the Pioneer Village cabins of Fowler Park
Mossy shingles on every rooftop
The blacksmith shop
Nice door handle on the blacksmith shop
Not sure what kind of animal this was...
Irishman's Bridge, the last remaining covered bridge in Vigo County, IN. It was built in 1845 for a total of $135.21.
Gristmill
A lake in the woods along the short hiking trail through the park
Getting the fire going before dark
My new job has provided me with my first smart phone, so you may notice some phone pictures here, which look great on a phone, but not so great if viewing them on anything else. Yes, you read that correctly. It is my FIRST smart phone. I see them more as a distraction and have never felt the need to pay the amount a smart phone costs. We don’t have the biggest budget so we have to prioritize and a smart phone would be the last thing on the list every time. A "dumb" flip phone does everything I need, which is call and text. I could see me using the mapping function, but other than that I don't see anything on there that I "must have" that justifies leaving a phone that costs $30 and a monthly bill of just $15.
We got out on the course at Griffin Bike Park for a partial lap to at least some of the trails before the start of our four-lap race. I tend to read trails well so not getting a pre-ride in at a new trail doesn’t stress me much, especially when we are doing four laps. Plenty of time to learn things before the race gets real. The park had signs all around the entrance to remember fallen soldiers. I thought it was very cool that they used the park to remember those guys who gave it all and make it possible for us to ride bikes whenever we want.
The loop was 6.2-miles and a mix of singletrack and doubletrack. The start was a longer one down a gravel road that took us to a 180-degree turn and into the final piece of singletrack on the loop. They called this initial loop the “prologue.” I would just call it a start loop. It was about a mile long and then we came through the finish and went out to start our first full lap on the course. The trail was then fast, rolling singletrack up and down some steep ridges that were about 20 feet tall. It looked like an old mining area and rode like a roller coaster. It wasn’t easy though, and required some output to get up the ridges. That was about 1/3 of the loop, then came the double track for about 1/3. It was a mix of grassy road, doubletrack trail and dirt road. This section was very fast and all about power. The last 1/3 of the course was more singletrack. It was a little less like a roller coaster than the first sections, but still very twisty and fast. There was one tougher climb with about 1.5 miles to go, but it was short. There really wasn’t much to slow you down on this course. The singletrack ended about 150 meters from the finish line. You popped out of the trail with a hard 90-degree right onto a gravel road for a slightly uphill sprint to the line. It would definitely be hard to pass at the finish as there wasn’t enough room to make a run through the corner onto the gravel road and then not much time to come by someone before the line.
We had seven riders in the Elite class. It was a fast start down the gravel road. I got a good push off the line, but still got smoked. These guys in the DINO Series are a bit faster off the line than the riders in other races I have done in recently. I ended up making it to the singletrack in 6th, which was way farther back than where I wanted to be. Pre-race favorite Jason Blodgett of the new KTM Factory Racing Team hit the woods in front and then got a nice gap when the rider in second went down and blocked up the trail momentarily. As the rider got up he moved into my line and I hit his bike and had to dismount. We lost a lot of time on the start loop. I couldn’t even see Blodgett on the gravel loop through the finish line, but I did see that Chris Bowman was in second now and a good 30 seconds ahead of me. I know how even Chris and I have been so far this season so I didn’t want to give him any kind of gap. We are currently tied for the series lead so whoever finishes ahead at this round will become the outright leader.
A rider coming off the start loop
I picked up one spot on the gravel loop. I entered the woods again in fifth and went to work on getting across to the riders ahead. It took me a while, but I was able to close up to Craig Baker and another rider that were ahead. There was nowhere to pass in the first 1/3 of the loop, so I had to wait until we hit the first grass road. The three of us began to work together. Bowman was still a good 30 seconds up and barely in sight on the longer straightaways. On my second pull I tried to go faster and stay on the front. This was the part of the section I didn’t pre-ride. I thought we would be going back into tight singletrack soon, but we actually had two miles of open stuff first. I hurt myself with that effort, but I continued it all the way through those two miles. I was committed to going into the woods in third. I knew I had to do that if I wanted to catch Bowman. I did manage to hold the two behind me off to the singletrack and was now just 10 seconds off Bowman. I kept my effort going until I got onto his wheel with about a mile to go in lap 1. That took a lot out of me. I wasn't feeling really great today anyway. I didn’t quite have the power that I have been having and felt a little fatigued from the workouts of the week.
Chris set the pace the remainder of lap 1 and the first half of lap 2. I felt very comfortable on his wheel, but the other two riders did not and began to fall back. Baker was still in sight when we reached the grass road again on lap 2, so I went to the front and tried to help Chris. I knew I wasn’t feeling great so I wanted to make sure if I lost to Bowman today it would only be by one spot and not two. We hadn’t seen Blodgett now in a whole lap and neither of us really thought we could catch him today anyway. He had over a minute on us starting lap 2 and was still pulling away.
I led the rest of lap 2 with Bowman right on my wheel. We got far enough away from Baker that we couldn't see him anymore. Blodgett pulled away even more, closer to 2 minutes ahead now. We stopped getting time checks at that point as I think everyone was picking Blodgett to win today and figured it was over. I put in a few digs int he first singeltrack section, but couldn't gape Bowman. Then I backed off and began to just ride tempo again. Bowman came by me on the open part of lap 3 right where I had passed him the previous lap. He didn't want to give full effort either. Neither of us really wanted to drag the other one around now. We both seemed to be points racing at this point. With the way I was feeling and him not attacking me, I’m guessing he was having a bit of an off-day too.
Blodgett our front with a lap to go
Dina finishing up a lap with me and Chris Bowman doing the same right behind her.
Bowman finished off lap 3 on the front and took us into the final lap together. I tried a different tactic with feeding today, going with two bigger bottles for the four laps. I can get two laps in on one bottle so I only have to feed once which let me rest a bit more through the feed zone. It may only save a few seconds, but sometimes it’s nice to just be able to sit up for a second and reset your brain for the next lap. Bowman put in some digs in the singletrack the last time through. He gapped me a few times, but I was always able to claw my way back to him. I had to be smooth today as my legs didn’t have the snap I have been having, but he couldn’t hold the effort needed to get away so we reached the open section together again. He set a good tempo and kept me behind him for almost the whole section. The last dirt road had a tight turn in the middle of it. The most logical spot to pass was coming out of that turn before the singletrack. I didn’t want to chance it coming down to a sprint for the woods so I jumped about 30 seconds before the tight turn. I was able to slip by and then gave absolutely everything I had the rest of the way down the dirt road to make sure he couldn’t come back by. I knew he was on my wheel and getting a draft so I had to really bury myself to keep the speed high enough to keep him behind.
I was gasping as we entered the woods again, but I had the spot. Now I just had to be smooth and get this thing to a sprint where I would now have the advantage by leading into it. I did what I needed to do and took us to the final turn in the same order. I took us a bit slow into the final corner and then jumped as hard as I could coming out of the turn. I actually put a few bike lengths into him before the line and took second on the day and the series lead back by a single point. Blodgett won by two minutes, which makes me wonder if we could have caught him. We really messed around a lot from the end of lap 2 until I made the pass for second on lap 4. He really didn’t pull away any more from that point even though we were not giving our all. Points racing with each other may have cost us a shot at the win today. I am very pleased though. I didn’t have the best day, but I raced smart with what I had and it paid off. This series is crazy tough. We’ve now had three races and I’ve had to sprint Bowman at all three. Two of those sprints were for the win. It seems there are several of us that are very even in our fitness and ability levels. I am having so much fun here as well, tackling courses that are new to me and having great competition every round. Not to mention this series has the best payout of any series that is in our driving range and that is really helping us with our race budget and taking off a lot of stress that piles on off the bike. I was also pleased with the consistency of our lap times. Only 32 seconds separated my fastest and slowest laps today.
Dina heads in toward the finish
Jason Blodgett gets the win at griffin Bike Park
Dina also had a great day finishing second overall in Sport Women and winning her age group. She is now the series leader halfway through the series. I really like it that we get to see each other in the race. It always motivates me to catch someone I know and hear a little bit of encouragement. I’m guessing it helps her out as well.
Expert 19-29 podium
Elite Podium. Loved the giant bison on the stage.
Sport Women 19-29 podium
We played on the dual slalom course in the woods after the race. The park also has several dirt jump lines, a pump track and a lake jump.
On the slalom course
Video: DINO #3 in Terre Haute, IN
This was definitely one of the most fun weekends of the season. It may have been a bit shorter with us driving up so late on Saturday, but we really enjoyed Fowler Park and Griffin Bike Park. I can’t wait for the next round of the series in a couple of weeks at Versailles State Park in Versailles, IN. Thanks again for reading. I will, at some point, get this whole season posted. Lots of things to talk about as this year was an interesting one indeed. The next post will begin to shine a little more light on the ups and downs of bike racing.
