Only a few more days now until Sonya, Yuki, and I head to Arkansas for the Ouachita Challenge. Today, after my training session I spent a good amount of time getting my race bike dialed in for the 60 mile race. This will be the 3rd time I have raced down in Arkansas at the OC. The course is fast and demanding. I am opting for the hardtail this year with the addition of the 100mm Magura Durin Race fork. Normally, I run the 80mm fork on the hardtail, so I swap the travel out for a bit of forgiveness on the front end. The course is a mix of super fast fireroads and singletrack.....that is why the hardtail...in hope of making time on the road.
With all the dirt riding that past weekends, I was left with a hardtail that needed a lot of tender loving care. Simple process really, just remove all those greasy parts and throw them into a container of degreaser and shake, shake, shake until clean.
As mentioned above, the course in Arkansas is demanding. The biggest challenge is razor sharp rocks. Most people that DNF at this event do for one reason only.....cut open side walls. I took off my Race King Supersonics in favor of the Race King Protection. It's the same tire...but with reinforced sidewalls. The high volume of the 2.2's were also another deciding factor in running the hardtail. These tires are tops on my list for almost all of my racing.
Beefy!
Speaking of tires...today I was sitting at home and I got a call from a freight company asking if my address was correct as they were attempting to delivering a tire shipment from Germany. Hmmmmmmm, freight? Must be a big shipment. Sure enough, it was one huge box on a pallet.
Roughly 170 Continental tires for the 6 Topeak-Ergon USA based riders for the 2009 season. Looks like when I get back from Arkansas I will be boxing up tires to send to the team.
For today, just me....my bike....and my Suunto HR monitor for today's tempo up to Gold Hill and the surrounding area. Basically just pegged it at a nice endurance tempo heart rate of 140-150 for around 2.5 hours. Today's 60F was by far the nicest temp we have seen since last Sunday when it was in the mid-70's. Good to melt off all the snow.
Pavement soon turned to dirt. Dry dirt I might add. Only sloppy in a few spots...much to my surprise.
Quick check of the HR monitor....yep, still where I need to be. HR stayed where it was supposed to.....and I mixed up the cadence from time to time.
Refreshing views all day thanks to the 1+ foot of snow that fell above 6,000 ft.
Final drop down into Gold Hill...where I then turned around and started pedaling back to Boulder.
I met up with Sonya for the very quick descent back into town.
Counting the days now until the first individual race of the year. Next weekend in the Ouachita Challenge in Arkansas....and all the riding leading up to this event is prep. Today I was supposed to be on singletrack...but as you can see, the snow from the other day will be sticking around for a few more days. So, I still headed out on the mtb to get in a 2.5 hour ride. With in that 2.5 hour ride was a 1 hour effort at what will be my OC race pace. Wasn't able to work on the tech skills, but I was able to simulate the climbing that the OC will throw at those racing.
Up, down. Up, down. Stick the HR just below the redline and go. Tomorrow is a similar ride. Heading back out on the mtb on the road for a 2.5 hour endurance tempo. Just need to keep the system stimulated.
The result of an all day snow storm/blizzard leaves around 9 inches of wind blown snow in my neighborhood. I rode the rollers yesterday...and most likely will today as well. Need to give it a day or 2 to let the roads clear off.....lots of ice and hard packed snow. Then I am installing the new fenders on the road bike and getting back to it. Couldn't have asked for a better week to have a scheduled recovery week by Coach. April will be a busy month with races in Arkansas, California, and Arizona. If all goes as planned, the new gear....or most of it.....should arrive from Germany for these big events.
I got this off our UK riders blog. This Continental Tire ad photo shoot took place last week. Look for the polished ad to start running in you favorite mtb publications in the coming months! Why is Dave smiling? Ha!
This is just the beginning.....so they say. During the next 24 hours we are in a Winter Storm Warning & Blizzard Warning......and are forecast to get up to 16 in. of snow. Delightful I must say. About the only good thing is that temps are to get back to the 50F's by Saturday. Does this mean roller time again? Ugh. Seems like a god day to do some stretching and slam some coffee.
Just got a heads up on this little blurb running in the current issue of BIKE Magazine highlighting the New Belgium STXC Series here in Fort Collins. Yeah, that is me sitting like 8 riders back. This series is on again starting in April......CHECK IT!
I am into my second day of a week long recovery session. Rides this week are short and to the point. It will not be until the weekend that I'll be able to ramp it up a bit on some trail to stimulate the system for the Ouachita Challenge. Not everyone on the team is in rest mode. My teammate Alban Lakata and a rider from the Fiat-Rotwild team are in South Africa racing in the Cape-Epic stage race. Here are some sweet photos I received over email from the first 3 stages...
After a 15 minute spin from town, we started by climbing some of the Towers Trail. Surprisingly, my legs felt super today after the week long training load. Makes me excited for the OC.
Climbing was then interrupted with some single track descending.
Followed by more climbing.
Then more singletrack. Are you starting to see the pattern here?
Aaron gave us a reason to finally let up a bit and rest with a broken chain.
Wasn't long and we were back at it again. We hit up a lot of trails in HTMP and in Lory State Park. Pretty much saw it all: climbs, rock drops, roots, open climbs, fast & flat. My bike choice was fine with the HT....but I had to take some air out of the tire a couple times. Also, after today's ride, I might throw on the 100mm Magura Durin Race for the OC in a few weeks. Aaron left us after about 3 hours of riding due to a bike that was acting up. With in a few minutes of leaving Aaron, we were joined by Ben O....who rode for about 20 minutes with us before he and Joe headed out for more while Carney, Jason, and myself spun home. Mission complete.
How dry and dusty is Colorado? This says it all. You should have seen my face!
Next week is focused on recovery and prep for the OC and the races in April.
Another Oval Ride in the books. It has been awhile since I hit up one of these group rides with all the travel over the past 3-4 weeks. As always, it hurt. Doesn't matter it 5 people show up.....or 50.....there is always someone in attendance that has better legs than you do. Today was not different. The weekday training load left some fatigue in the legs and I could feel it when the course pointed up.
Single file! If you are a cyclist you know this means one thing: SPEED! Everyone is maxed out....everyone is digging....some more than others. Today, I was one of those working a bit harder it seemed. It wasn't until the Carter Lake switchbacks did I loose the group. This left me in TT mode alone for the last 25 miles. The numbers were not in my favor....as the group had roughly 7 guys in it. All I could do is chase and hope to catch any other who might loose contact. It pretty much never happened. Just me, my bike, tunes in one ear, and a HR near red line.
Power. Speed. Heartrate. These are the numbers from the effort today. Roughly 90 miles....249 avg wattage....and an average speed of 22 mph. These numbers are better than I thought. Maybe I wasn't feeling as bad as I thought. Makes me wonder what would have happened with fresh legs. Muwhahahaha!
I headed out to the wide open spaces for today's training session. Today, Coach had me putting out some threshold intervals. There is no better place to do these than on the frontage road along I-25. The road is flat and rolling, and there is really nothing to disrupt your flow. It's nothing but you....the road....and a few other random cyclists.
Fueling was of huge importance today to keep the fatigue-monkeys away. The effort was high enough today to have me burning through breakfast in no time flat. Nothing a little gel and Cytomax couldn't fix.
Here is the play-by-play. I felt really good today. I kind'a surprised myself. If needed, I could have kept going....and going.....and going. Once the intervals and 3 hours were over it was time to fuel up to aide in the recovery process for the weekend...which, I might add....will be painful with the Oval Ride and then an all out 4 hour mtb effort on Sunday.
The recovery meal consisted of 3 eggs, wild rice, a little bit of cheese, and some spinach. Super easy to make....and tasty.
I finished it off with some yogurt and blackberries. Hells yes!
Short tempo over some varied terrain north of Boulder was the plan of the day. Nothing crazy by any means. Just a nice addition to the intervals that happened yesterday. At the start of the ride, my legs were a bit sluggish, but as the ride went on, things turned around. I finished out the tempo going up the gradual climb that is Lefthand Canyon. It seems like this was the climb of the day for the cyclists of Boulder. Lots of people out and about.
Going up at the tempo effort of 240-250 watts. Geez, I must be out of shape....I'm breathing heavily. That, or the thin air. Ha!
Going down. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Training resumes tomorrow further north up in Fort Collins.
Back at it again...and the legs finally came around today. Yesterday's 3 hour opener ride ended up being only like 2 hours, cause I could barely keep my eyes open. Getting back to Boulder at 1 AM after flying from Seattle was a serious blow to the fitness mojo. Coach is having me hit it pretty hard this week in prep for the OC in a few weeks. My workouts this week are a carbon copy of last week....and the results are much much better.
My route had me doing a nice endurance tempo for 60 minutes up to Carter Lake....then flipping it to head back south to Boulder. After the tempo came the hard part which involved a series of intervals...8 to be exact. Here is a quick mountain view before going cross eyed pinning it at the numbers Coach laid out for me.
It went a little something like this...
With the intervals complete it was nothing but a chill spin back to Sonya's place. The proof is in the photo.
2005 Results
12 Hr Sugar Creek :: 2nd
12 Hr of Metro :: 1st
12 Hr of Thunder :: 2nd
12 Hr of Winter :: 3rd
24 Hr of 9 Mile :: DNF
24 Hr of 7 Oaks :: 1st
24 Hr in Japan :: 1st
2004 Results
Stump Farm 12 Hr :: 2nd
24 Hr of Rapelje :: 1st
12 Hr Nationals :: 3rd
24 Hr of 9 Mile :: 10th
24 Hr Solo World :: 12th
24 Hr of Moab :: DNF
Bio
NAME: Jeff Kerkove
NICKNAME: Mr. 24
COUNTRY: USA (Colorado)
TEAM:Topeak-Ergon DOB: 2.7.1978
HEIGHT: 6 ft.
WEIGHT: 165 lbs.
RACE CATEGORIES:
Pro (XC & Endurance) Click for full Bio
Only a few more days now until Sonya, Yuki, and I head to Arkansas for the Ouachita Challenge. Today, after my training session I spent a good amount of time getting my race bike dialed in for the 60 mile race. This will be the 3rd time I have raced down in Arkansas at the OC. The course is fast and demanding. I am opting for the hardtail this year with the addition of the 100mm Magura Durin Race fork. Normally, I run the 80mm fork on the hardtail, so I swap the travel out for a bit of forgiveness on the front end. The course is a mix of super fast fireroads and singletrack.....that is why the hardtail...in hope of making time on the road.
With all the dirt riding that past weekends, I was left with a hardtail that needed a lot of tender loving care. Simple process really, just remove all those greasy parts and throw them into a container of degreaser and shake, shake, shake until clean.
Beefy!
Speaking of tires...today I was sitting at home and I got a call from a freight company asking if my address was correct as they were attempting to delivering a tire shipment from Germany. Hmmmmmmm, freight? Must be a big shipment. Sure enough, it was one huge box on a pallet.
Roughly 170 Continental tires for the 6 Topeak-Ergon USA based riders for the 2009 season. Looks like when I get back from Arkansas I will be boxing up tires to send to the team.
