Carl Buchanan - Mountain Bike Racer

June 2006 - Posts

• Hurt train

  Last night's group ride had quite a few riders show up and was moving along at a pretty good clip. Had one little incident where a couple of riders got a bit too close and it sounds like a couple of spokes may have broken. Thankfully no one crashed or hurt. Unfortunately a small group decided to attack when this happened and quite a few of us chose not to chase and just cruised home from Shell Rock. I rode home with Kerkove and Fox while engaging in some good conversation. Went out for about 75 minutes of spinning this morning and had some photos taken in hopes of getting some good header photos. We'll see what I can do with the photos that Kerkove sent me. The ride was followed by mowing the lawn and now I am watching World Cup, Germany vs. Argentina. Good game so far. Technorati Tags: Cycling [link] Posted Jun 30 2006, 04:29 PM by cbuchanan with no comments

• Welcome to Hollywood

  Today's agenda included the filming of a commercial for Europa Cycle & Ski that will air locally during the month of July. It entailed G-Ted, Kerkove, and myself doing what we enjoy doing, riding bicycles, while the camera guy got it all on film to be edited later. It should start airing on Monday July 3rd (that's my b-day) on channels such as OLN, Discovery, and a some other popular channels. I feel that we were able to get some really cool stuff that should make for a highly entertaining commercial. I was the mountain bike guy for the commercial so I volunteered to do some "climbing repeats" on a local trail and lost count of how many times I had to do it to get the "perfect shot". Those of you in the know may recognize it. Multiple takes made for a good warmup for the road filming later on although I will not give the details on that part just yet, but it is good. G-Ted cruising to the shoot via recumbent G-Ted and Kerkove cruising back to the shop G-Ted dropping Kerkove like a bad habit. Who knew? Group road ride is tonight and should be good intensity for me since this week seems to be lacking a bit although I am unsure as to why. I will attempt to get some pictures before the hurt train leaves the station. Tomorrow is yard work day. Mow the lawn, bring in some dirt to fill a hole...big hole, and other such homeowner stuff. Will need to get a ride in sometime too. :) Technorati Tags: Cycling [link] Posted Jun 29 2006, 07:55 PM by cbuchanan with no comments

• More clothing

  So I am at the shop today looking up the costs of Ultegra and Dura-Ace components for a customer's Tri-bike (great story BTW) when the door buzzer rings and one of the coolest guys ever walks in the door completely unexpected. What was he there for you ask? Well, I really hope he was in the area for other things than just bringing my clothing down from The Cities, but that is the impression that he gave me. Cannondale team clothing to be worn at Nationals. Thanks Buddy!!!! Possible photo shoot later this week for new header pics? We will see. No group road ride for me tonight since I am attending a surprise party. Sure hope that it is still a surprise. Should make it out for the Thursday night ride though, no excuses for that one. Technorati Tags: Cycling [link] Posted Jun 27 2006, 10:11 PM by cbuchanan with no comments

• Ride424

  Many interesting things cn be found at a bike shop so G-Ted, Kerkove, and myself usually have the camera nearby to share these instances with you. Acouple of the really cool ones last week: Broken light bracket fixed by using duct tape. G-Ted taking a picture of me taking a picture of him taking a picture of me... Went for a 90 minute road ride this morning before heading to work. Good time to spin the legs out and it gave me the opportunity to sprt my newest jersey. A small group of riders in the area ordered up some jerseys from Karl at Ride424.com and I was able to pick them up from the Post Office this morning. Corn is getting up there. Almost time for the detasslers to make their summer money. Lucky sock #1...right foot. Lucky sock #2...left foot. Rear view of the newest jersey in my very small collection. Front view. Top view. My Bell Sweep XC even matches teh Ride424.com jersey. BRILLIANT!! The "Kerkove" shot. Totally sweet jersey with a full zipper, a euro fit, and nice color combo/layout. Thanks Karl!! I think that I will be sporting this one at Nationals at the end of July. Technorati Tags: Cycling [link] Posted Jun 26 2006, 04:28 PM by cbuchanan with no comments

• Catch up time

  Haven't spent much time near the internet this week so updates have been way sub-par. I will attempt to give an as accurate as possible recap of the last couple of days. Thursday night group road ride: Attendees included: Kisch, J. Fry, R. Fry, Saul, Engstrom, as well as a couple of others. The ride was actually really slow compared to the norm, speeds were in the low 20's all the way to Shell Rock and I actually became bored during the ride even though I was in the front group with Engstrom, J. Fry, and Kisch. I turned around about four miles south of Shell Rock and headed back towards Cedar Falls. As I met the second group Ron Saul peeled off to catch up with me and we rode back to C.F. around the 18-20 mph mark just hanging out and talking. I dropped Ron off at his house and then continued home to chill for the evening. 40 total miles, most of them pretty easy. Friday: Hung out with my 3 year old niece during the morning playing games and watching tv. Went out to my previous employer at around 1 o'clock. Talked with some friends to catch up on what has been going on since I left last May. Talked with a couple of the supervisors about all of the changes that have been going on lately. Pretty interesting stuff going on out there. Hmmmmmm. Saturday: Worked at the shop all day. I will never cease to be amazed at how so many RAGBRAI riders think that they are above it all. I don't care if you're a racer, RAGBRAIer, roadie, MTBer, or BMXican. When there are three employees and twelve customers you need to wait your turn. Oh and let's not forget about the guy that is scared of becoming impotent. Trust me, a very small percentage of men will "suffer" from impotence from cycling. I'm not one of them. Oh and one other thing...our store hours are in the phone book, hint-hint. Watched the NHL draft for a while in the afternoon too. Sunday: Working at the shop with BB and then cruising home to watch MotoGP from Assen, Holland. They raced yesterday but do not air it until today because we have to televise every single aspect of the NASCRAP weekend that we can possibly think of so there is no time for anything else on Saturdays on Speed. Germany moved on to the quarter-finals yesterday with a 2-0 win over Sweden in the World Cup. Next team on hand is Argentina. Should be a VERY tough match, Argentina has a great team with lots of talent. I also saw that England defeated Ecuador today 1-0. That should make the DOL happy since she worships David Beckham like a little kid. ;) Technorati Tags: Cycling [link] Posted Jun 25 2006, 06:42 PM by cbuchanan with no comments

• On with the summer

  Today marks the second day in a row that the weather has not cooperated in order for my to ride in the morning. I guess that means that I will be well rested for the group road ride tomorrow night. Congratulations to the Carolina Hurricanes and all of their fans in their Stanley Cup victory. Very well played series that was exciting to watch. I can now focus more on the World Cup and continue to cheer for the German National Team. What do you do when there are two World Cup matches on at the same time? Watch them both of course. Split screen on the wide screen...great idea. I have some tires for sale here. Drop me a line if you are interested. I am in need of a vacation to anywhere, preferably to somewhere remote. Middle of nowhere type of place, ya know? Technorati Tags: Cycling [link] Posted Jun 21 2006, 05:17 PM by cbuchanan with no comments

• Game on!!!

  Went for a short one hour spin to get the gunk out of my legs this morning. They were a touch on the heavy side when I woke up but feel a lot better now. Might have tomorrow off of the bike because I am going to visit the doctor about my knee. No pain, just an annoying "click"...details later. The cause of the two flats from yesterday's ride were #1 - small hole between the valve stem and the tube, #2 - glass. I love broken glass on the road. I also have a strong liking to shards of metal and trash in the road or on the bike path in general. It shows how much my fellow man LOVES this country/state/county/city that we live in. Stanley Cup finals, game 7, 14th time in NHL history, at Carolina. Oh it will be good. It must be good. I can't wait. 7pm CST. Does it get any better? Not a chance. Well, maybe the '89 Tour de France. That was pretty good. Technorati Tags: Cycling [link] Posted Jun 20 2006, 12:17 AM by cbuchanan with no comments

• Aw yeah!!

  The Oilers won an amazing game last night 4-0 over the Carolina Hurricanes, WOOHOO!!!! After the 1st period the score was 0-0, both teams were playing very aggressive, and the game was moving very fast. All that I could think was 'this game is going to be good'. During the next two periods Edmonton capitalized on three powerplays to get on the board and the game quickly turned one-sided with the Oilers coming out on top. Overall the series is fantastic. Four games decided by one goal with one of them being in overtime and a shutout a piece for each team. Could it get any better. Monday's game will be only the 14th time since the NHL went to the 7-game format the the finals actually goes to game 7. No questions will be left in anyone's mind as to if one team or the other belongs in the finals. No sweeps, no totally one-sided series; just fantastic, hard-hitting, top-notch hockey. I love this game. Technorati Tags: Cycling [link] Posted Jun 18 2006, 12:02 PM by cbuchanan with no comments

• GOAL!!!!!!!

  The Edmonton Oilers pulled out an awesome win last night in sudden death overtime against the Carolina Hurricanes to stay alive in the series. It was a sloppy play by the Hurricanes and the Oilers took advantage of the opportunity to score a beautiful, topshelf, glove-side, short-handed goal. Every kids dream goal right there folks. The series now returns to Edmonton on Friday night for game six. In other news, Germany beat Poland in their World Cup match yesterday with a score of 1-0. Poland has never been able to beat Germany in the 85 years that they have played, Germany leads their meetings 11-0-4. If you missed the game, which I figure most Americans did, the goal was scored in the 91st minute which is past regulation time and into added time. A beautiful goal none-the-less and Germany should move onto the next round. They have to play Ecuador next Tuesday and Ecuador looks to have some pretty good talent. I don't have to work at the shop again until noon on Saturday so it will give me time to get caught up on other things such as mowing the lawn, logging some miles, and taking care of the four new bicycles that the Boy Scouts are getting for the summer. Group ride tonight to get the heart rate up and make the legs happy. Group ride...suffer fest...whatever. [link] Posted Jun 15 2006, 01:39 PM by cbuchanan with no comments

• Picked it up a bit

  The plan was to hit the Shell Rock loop up at 2:30pm today when I finished my shift at the shop but Amy called and wanted to go for dinner during her break since she had to work the night shift today so we went and got some food and then I was able to get on the road bike at about 4:45pm. I contemplated what to do all the way out of Cedar Falls and didn't really decide what my plan was until I made the turn towards New Hartford. I stuck with the first plan and rode the Shell Rock loop plus added about five extra miles to it. Winds were calm for most of the ride and the temps started out in the high 70's and was around 72 when I finished. My fastest turn of this loop ever was 2 hours and 53 minutes with a 17.75 mph avg speed over the 51 miles, definately not a pro roadie pace. Tonights stats were a bit better which means that I set new personal records which is a huge confidence boost for one's fitness. Tonight was a 56 mile ride in 2 hours and 44 minutes which equates to a 20.5 mph avg speed. I would say that is just a wee bit better, wouldn't you? Heck that's the same avg speed that I had last Thursday during the group road ride. Maintained the same pace, without the draft and over an extra 19 miles. Training is coming along just as I need it to. I intend to spend the remainder of the evening sitting on the couch with my feet up, watching game 4 of the Stanley Cup finals. Carolina leads the series 2-1 right now so I need Edmonton to win it tonight to keep this thing going. Carolina put on an awesome show in games 1 and 2 with 5-4 and 5-0 wins. Edmonton won Saturday night 2-1 and looked to be playing a lot better. 2nd period just started and the score is currently 1-1 so I must get to sitting on the couch. I am planning on a 90-120 minute spin tomorrow morning and Wednesday morning to keep the legs happy and then off to work for the night shift on both nights. [link] Posted Jun 13 2006, 01:25 AM by cbuchanan with no comments

• T time

  Nothing too much going on today but Kerkove said that I need to update. Had about an hour to ride this morning so I opted for a TT like effort along the bike trails which netted me 20ish miles. It was a bit chilly out, ~50 degrees, so arm warmers and base layer were in order, I was plenty warm with the effort though. Saw a group of 10-15 blue hairs riding together...one of them honked at me, must have been the RAGBRAI type. Might shoot for the Shell Rock loop tomorrow on the road. That route gives me about 50ish miles of peace and quiet save for the farmers and their canines. Semi-intense on Tuesday and Wednesday and then back for the group road ride on Thursday. This week will also be used to test out a few different nutritional products. I need to find a few different things to use for Nationals in July. I will keep you posted as to what works out. [link] Posted Jun 11 2006, 09:21 PM by cbuchanan with no comments

• Slightly wet ride

  The sky was spitting just a little bit this morning when I went out for an easy 60 minute spin for the legs. Wet pavement just adds a little bit of excitement to a road ride anyway. Pretty breezy ride and I saw zero other people out riding. The trails were mine, all mine...Mwahahahahah!!! It was relaxing and soothing all in one ride. I am at the shop all day tomorrow so it will be my day off of the bike(s) although I am planning on riding Sunday morning so if anyone is interested let me know. I must be home by 11am so I am thinking about starting at around 7-8. Road, knobbies, pavement, gravel, anything works for me...singletrack will probably be wet though. I know this guy who's name is Evan and he rides a Cannondale...this town's like named after him and stuff...or something like that. :) Weird. [link] Posted Jun 10 2006, 01:44 AM by cbuchanan with no comments

• Ridin' with the roadies

  Yesterday was a solo road ride to Finchford and Janesville then back to Waterloo to keep the legs happy and prepare for a hopeful good showing at the group road ride on Thursday. Pretty windy ride to Janesville at 16.5 mph and then a sweet tailwind back home at 25 mph. High temps and humidity still made it a good workout and the icecold shower afterwards was great. Legs were feeling pretty good today so I sat around until 9:30am doing just about nothing and then headed to the shop for a 10-2 shift with G-Ted. Fairly uneventful day outside of Ted singing. He gets in these kicks where his normal comments are lyrics to songs so ....he has to sing those to you. Very entertaining. Left about 2:15 to take the Husky to the vet, she's sick but will be fine. Then I sat around until 5pm, slammed a RedBull and headed to Bike Tech to meet up with tonights hurt train. Nine riders total showed up and I didn'e recognize all of them. Familiar faces included Krueger, J. Fry, Bill, Doug, Kevin, Boller, and two others. I have not been on the group ride for about six weeks so this was definately going to be a test of my fitness. We headed north on Union Road towards Finchford and the pace was quickly in the mid-high 20's and the group began to seperate. By the time we made the left turn towards the southern part of Finchford it was my self and Kevin with a huge gap on about four other riders. We kept the pace going a bit but slowed enough that Fry and Kruger caught us in Finchford. The four of then rode up three-tier hill together and Fry attacked at the top and maintained a 10 meter lead over Krueger and I. Normally I would try to bridge the gap but I knew that if I did that, Krueger would attack and I would be left in the dust. The three of us stayed away all the way to Janesville and then made the turn to head over towards Denver. We were down to 11 mph waiting fo rthe rest of the group and then we saw them all continue straight and head back to Cedar Falls. Interesting. So there I was...myself with two of the fastest guys in the area...how long would I last? I made it about two more miles nad then made a huge mistake of attacking to go for the sprint and redlined for too long. I ended up getting nipped by Krueger who then attacked and Fry was on his wheel but I was not. I busted ass at 28-33 mph all the way back to Waterloo gaining a little here and a little there but could not catch them. Fry ended up breaking his rear shifter cable as he came to the "finish line" so he was stuck in his 11 tooth cog for the ride home. I rode with Krueger over to K&S where he was getting his car worked on and then rode home. We had a pretty good talk which included him giving me a few pointers on where I should change my tactics to hang a bit longer. He also told me what I was doing right so as not to change anything there. I love getting this type of feedback from the fast guys, it helps me to set future goals. I am totally stoked about where my fitness is right now and hope to build on before Nationals at the end of July. Here are a few pictures from tonight's ride for you. Kevin and Krueger heading out of Cedar Falls J. Fry practing his celebration before we leave town. My lucky socks and my back up shoes just for something a little different. I haven't been completely dropped from the group since I started wearing these socks. I should get a couple more pairs. wink-wink. Fry and Krueger...I just couldn't quite get there. Fry with his broken shifter cable [link] Posted Jun 09 2006, 01:23 AM by cbuchanan with no comments

• Refocus

  Today begins the refocus of my riding and training for Nationals. It will entail longer rides, later rides, rides that make a person really suffer, and rides that focus on specifics such as threshold tolerance and leg speed. I am pretty lucky to live in the middle of Iowa really. I have options to handle all of the different types of training that I need right outside my front door. Singletrack for the tech skills, gravel rides into the wind for the suffering, group rides for threshold training, and many miles of paved trail and roads to work on leg speed. I have to ask, is this Heaven? Today was a 30+ mile spin with a few short sprints out to Hudson along the Ho Chi Minh trail and then back through Cedar Falls. Went along with my father for company and today is his birthday so it was bound to be a good ride. The weather was pretty good with overcast skys and a slight breeze to keep the body cooled off. Heart rate stayed around 100-120 bpm for the vast majority of the ride with the two short 33+mph sprints taking me to 170 bpm. Today was also the first time on the road bike in around a month so the bike actually felt a bit weird for the first few miles but things eventually began feeling a little more normal. Tomorrow will be another easy ride to keep the legs happy and then I am planning on going to the group road ride on Thursday night. I have not made one of these since April 26th so it will definately be a good indicator of how the training and two 12 hour races have affected my fitness. I am hoping that it is getting better, I feel great but these rides really let you know how things truly are. They aren't called sufferfests for nothing. [link] Posted Jun 06 2006, 08:26 PM by cbuchanan with no comments

• Yet again...more gravel

  Today was a planned group MTB ride to Camp Ingawanis with Kerkove, Deerslayer, Landscaper Saul, Bidwell, and Mojoe. Meet up with the Deerslayer at his crib at 6:50am and then preoceeded to Bike Tech to meet the rest of today's companions at 7am. We then began the journey north to camp over about 10 miles of beautiful, scenic, Iowa gravel roads. We ride a lot of gravel in these parts not because we have to, but because we love it. We could drive to the trail head if we wanted to...but where's the fun in that? You get in more saddle time by pedaling through the gravel laced countryside. Bidwell on the way to camp aboard his Prophet These four kind of lagged behind on the way up Summer in Iowa. Fresh oil on the gravel to keep the dust down. Anyway, pretty calm ride to camp, signed in, and then took a few laps on some primo singletrack. Did one lap in the same direction that the race was ran and another in the opposite...for the sake of research. It was a good ride with a couple of entertaining moments that all mountain bikers experience at one time or another. You know the kind: handlebars clipping trees and rider goes down. Fixation on objects off of trail and rider goes down. Fixation on person off of trail with camera and rider almost runs over camera guy. Pretty standard stuff really. Well aside from the great singletrack riding I was also assessing the trails for maintenance and we need to get a crew up there to do a bit of cleaning so stay tuned for future details on that hopefully soon. Following the two laps of fun we then grinded back home on the gravel with a few sprints for 'stop ahead' signs. Really keeps the blood going ya know. Bidwell Deerslayer Landscaper Saul Kerkove with his post ride beer before the ride was even over. [link] Posted Jun 04 2006, 08:43 PM by cbuchanan with no comments