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Category: outdoors

Iceman 2013: Wet Sand and Fun

I was going to write a somewhat lengthy post about this year’s Iceman Cometh Challenge race and put together some bullet points about the race for things that I wanted to cover, but I can’t bring myself to flesh it out into a complete post. Instead I’ll just post the bullet points themselves, expanded a bit to be solid on their own. It was a very fun race, a nice day, but not eventful in any way that makes me want to write a lot. I simply enjoyed myself, saw lots of friends, and had a great weekend with Danielle:

Here’s those bullet points:

  • Wet sand.
  • Large, infrequent mud puddles.
  • Raining as we left Traverse City, but stopped on the way to Kalkaska.
  • Really friendly people: no problems with passes either way.
  • I thought my HR monitor was reading high, but it was either consistently off by a few tens of percent (never seen this before) or I was able to ride harder than expected for extended periods of time.
  • My official result: 14 1374 Steve Vigneau Shelby Townshi MI 9:59:35 10:48:13 2:19:11
  • Four minutes faster (would have been doable) and I’d have been in the top 10. Oh well.
  • Started in Wave 9, almost missed my start as I was using the toilet when everyone was lining up. Took longer than expected when I got done 9 was moving up to the start area.
  • Chain drop behind cassette on a steep climb when downshifting somewhere after Anita’s Hill. Unsure why: sand? Can’t reproduce.
  • Not spent at end, could have pushed more.
  • YouTube video of my finish: link.
  • Strava data: link.
  • Congrats to people who won things: Joe Seidl, Brad Lako, Alex Gonzalez, John Osgood
  • Person who died: http://kolotc.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/bigger-than-a-race-for-ken/
  • Someone got hit by a car riding away from the finish area on the road. No word on their condition.
  • Foods consumed: ~2 hours of Infinit (from a 3 hour bottle), ~40oz bottles of water in pack, caffeinated gel before hand.
  • Clothing: Pearl Izumi boots, tall wool socks, plain black thermal knickers, Under Armor thermal base layer, summer jersey, Pearl Izumi AmFib gloves, cycling cap, helmet, glasses.
  • Photos of me: MarathonFOTO.com.

The photo above? That’s just of some random sand still on my bike a week after the race. There’s so much wet sand and grit on my bike that it really needs a drivetrain cleaning before I ride it again. It was okay during the race, but as I’d switch to a less-used gear combo there’d be a few minutes of scraping sounds as the sand worked its way off the cogs.

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Stony Creek Lake is Low

 

Much of the water has been let out of Stony Creek Lake at Stony Creek Metropark so repairs can be made to the dams, and this means that the shore is far wider than normal. Stony Creek Lake is a man-made lake, so once the dams are opened the level goes down dramatically, exposing the typical clay soil of the area. As much of this has dried out it’s possible to ride much of it on a fatbike with the tires aired down.

This isn’t quite the same (or as exciting) as proper beach riding but it’s still something different and fun.

Yesterday I was in a poor mood and headed out to Stony Creek for a nice, slow, exploratory ride before Danielle and I met friends for dinner out in Ann Arbor. This ride helped clear my head and let me enjoy the nice autumn evening. The weather has been perfect this time of the year, and I really didn’t want to miss out on it.

Data from the ride can be seen here in Strava.

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Google Maps Bicycle Routing Issues

Google Map Maker allows most anyone to edit Google Maps. Someone has been using it to add all of the trails at Stony Creek, including the very small paths and foot-only trails. In general I’d think this is a good thing, but for some reason they are ending up being listed as bicycle routes. Some of these (such as the MTB single track) are inappropriate for general bicycle route designation due to their rugged character, while others (such as the Nature Center Trails) are simply closed to bikes.

While putting together some route ideas for a ride tomorrow I ran into my first actual issue with this; Bicycle routing directing me to the Nature Center hiking-only trails while making my way through the park. (See the image above or here.) While I know to avoid them, I suspect this is going to be a growing problem for some with finding bicycle routes in the area, particularly for those who aren’t willing (or prepared) to ride off road. I could also see it leading to conflicts with some users insisting it’s open to bikes “…because Google said so”.

Time to file some bug reports and get the bicycling designation removed…

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Full Day at Poto

As Nick said, driving out to Potawatomi (the mountain bike trails at Pinckney State Recreation Area) for the 8-hour ride I was supposed to do on Memorial Day Weekend was probably the best drive time to ride time ratio ride I could have for that trail. Leaving the house at just after 7am put me on the trail at around 9am, and this weekend was some amazing riding. The trail conditions were perfect, I was able to make every climb cleanly on the first try, and I didn’t have any “oh crap!” almost-falls. It was all I could ask for.

I ended up getting in four laps of the full trail, which gave me 73.12 miles completed in a moving time of 07:42:04. My total time for the ride was 08:37:27, with the gap time eaten up by stopping to urinate, a visit to the toilet between laps two and three, filling water at the pumps, and eating a tasty Danielle-made protein bar while stopping to talk with some folks. This was a bit short of the 8-hour prescription, but I imagine it’s close enough. (Strava data for the ride can be found here.)

I had brought supplies for and somewhat considered a fifth lap, but I was feeling a bit tired and wanting to get home. This would have put me out on unfamiliar (and rapidly emptying) trails until ~8pm without emergency lighting, which would not have been a good idea. Especially not when creeping up 10 hours of challenging trail…

The photo above was taken on one of the boardwalks along the route. I believe this one to be near the end of the Gosling Lake Loop in the north end of the system, but I may be mistaken. This one stood out to me more than many of the others because of how the grass is grown up along side and through it, giving a feeling of riding on a plank sidewalk through an unmowed field.

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Barry-Roubaix: The Clothing

Rob’s post on Barry-Roubaix which included a description of the clothing worn made me want to note the same thing. Not for any reason of style, but because I find dressing for longer cold weather rides to be a bit confusing for some (they sure were for me!), so I hope these notes can help others in a similar situation. (It’s also an excuse to post this photo of Roger, Nick, and I just after starting the race.)

Saturday’s weather in Hastings was right around freezing. My bike computer recorded an average temperature of 32.5°F during the race, and the temperature when I last checked the weather before leaving for the start was 28°F. There wasn’t much wind, but being a road race I had to be ready for 10-20 MPH headwinds throughout the day, plus more while riding down some hills.

Here’s what I wore, which is fairly typical for me in these conditions:

  • Pearl Izumi Barrier GTX Shoes
  • Generic Kirkland (Costco) Tall Wool Socks
  • Voler Thermal Bib Knickers (Trail’s Edge logo from team order)
  • Under Armor Thermal Base Layer (usually a generic Costco one, but this was a gift and is more form fitting)
  • Voler Short Sleeve Jersey (Club-Cut, Full Zip, Big Ring Coffee from team order)
  • Voler Wind Jacket (Trail’s Edge, also from team order)
  • Descente Coldout Beanie
  • Giro Xar Helmet
  • Pearl Izumi Gavia Gloves

For other rides around this temperature or colder I’ll often use Trail’s Edge Moose Mitts with springtime-weight gloves. I really like these for keeping my hands warm and bike controls accessible, but on warmer days like this when I’ll be trying to push myself (such as a race) they can get too warm. Thus, just as during Iceman, I opted for simple gloves. Regardless of what I chose for keeping my hands warm they always seem to get painfully cold within the first 5 or 10 miles, then suddenly warm up and be fine for the rest of the ride. I guess that must when I warm up and my internal thermostat decides that there’s sufficient heat that some can be spent on warming extremities.

I’ll also tend to refrain from shaving my head or face for 4 or 5 days before an event like this. The bit of scruffy facial hair does a great job of keeping the cold away.

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Cute Faces in Holland Ponds

While it is graffiti, I found the faces spray painted on trees in Holland Ponds to be rather cute. I was at the park today collecting GPS data to finish mapping the trails in OpenStreetMap. With the submission of changeset 14903288 the main paths should all be mapped, scenic overlooks pointed out, and the Clinton River shoreline cleaned up to match something recent.

I’m not quite sure how things are working out with my new camera, as it seems that all images I’ve taken thus far are a bit blurry on the left side (when in landscape mode, normal orientation). It can be seen in the photo above and this one of some ice along the river. It’s a good thing that I purchased it from Costco; I can easily return it if there really is a problem.

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2012 Outdoor Riding Statistics

Shown above (full size image here) are my outdoor cycling statistics for 2012, as compiled using a Garmin Edge 500 and Ascent. Due to aliasing issues on rides that were done without a wheel sensor and a small handful of rides where I didn’t have my GPS there’s likely a small bit of under recording here, but it’s probably pretty close. By wearing a heart rate monitor while riding the tools are also able to estimate the number of calories burned.

The big, most notable stats are as follows:

Total Distance: 4217.31 miles
Total Ride Duration (Clock Running): 462:09:23
Moving Time: 363:55:11
Distance Climbed (Elevation Gain): 133,326′
Calories Burned: 289,802

More interestingly my ride duration can be seen ramping up to May, which is right was the end of getting ready to attempt Lumberjack 100 (LJ). Things settled down in June likely as I ramped down for then was disappointed by LJ, but then the next three months had far more distance likely due to the great weather and my having half of each August and September off of work. November and December dropped off dramatically, likely due to the poor / wet weather we’ve had and drastically shortening days.

My average moving speed was also highest in March, which I attribute to that being a month of mostly dirt road riding as trails weren’t in good shape for riding. September was also fairly high with some long distances, likely attributable to more riding to and from trails. My cadence was also a good 10 RPM lower than what I see on the trainer (70s to 80s outdoors vs. 80-90), which I suspect to be a combination of outdoor riding for me being much more interrupted pedaling versus the trainer’s constant spinning. Most outdoor rides lasting longer than trainer sessions and on the trainer I don’t have to worry about bike handling, so I’m probably more willing to spin quickly when indoors.

Beyond these numbers I also spent 41:53:31 on the trainer, burning an additional 31,114 calories. (I don’t do anything with distance or speed on the trainer as it’s not really like riding on outdoor surfaces.) This was all done from January through May, then in November and December.

It’ll be interesting to see how 2013 compares to these numbers. I’d really like to give LJ a go again, but I’m on the fence about it. I really enjoyed the training rides leading up to it, but it did take a bit of time and effort. Registration doesn’t open for a couple more months so I’ve got time to decide and see if I really want to give it another go.

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Fat vs. 29er Tires

When out for a ride this afternoon I grabbed this photo which fairly clearly shows fat bike tire prints vs. 29er tire prints. The top fat print is the Big Fat Larry that I mounted up a few days ago, and the lower one is the Larry pointed backward for increased traction while pedaling. Crossing this is some of my friend Jeremy’s tire tracks, a Specialized The Captain followed almost exactly by a WTB Nano Raptor.

This was taken in the parking lot of Shelby Township’s Whispering Woods Park while en route to meet Jeremy to ride at River Bends. Even though I was turning it still does a fair job of showing that a fatbike’s contact patch is twice as wide (or greater) than that of a typical 29er tire. From beach riding to snow, exploring soft floodplanes to checking out trail conditions in known-soft areas, it’s pretty nifty to see how many riding opportunities tires this wide open up. Sure, they is a big increase in rolling resistance, and most fatbikes are still very much rigid (read: pneumatic dampening with no suspension), but they sure are fun.

There’s a fair bit of snow in the forecast for the next couple of days. I’m really looking forward to some late afternoon (and hopefully evening, via the usual Wednesday Night Ride) excursions in the snow. Maybe this winter won’t be quite as sparse as the last, either. While I didn’t mind all the days of dirt road riding, Michigan is a great state for multiple outdoor activities. I’d rather enjoy having a nice winter for doing winter-y things.

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CamelBak Setup for Trail Sign Hanging

With the dusk coming so early, doing trail work hanging signs at River Bends practically requires a bike. I can’t reach the outer portions of the park on foot before the sun sets, so I have to ride out there. Since I normally carry a milk crate to use as a step stool I tried clipping it to my old (now only used for trail work) CamelBak and stuffed the bag with the other requisite tools.

This setup worked great and I had no problems riding my Mukluk out to all the places needing signage work and getting it all done before dark. It was even comfortable enough that I was able to take a slow ride through the single track back to the trailhead, watching the sun set through the leafless trees.

Now, if only I had an easy way to carry a Pulaski, Rogue Hoe, rake, and saw with me on the bike as well…

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Addison Oaks Lake George Entrance

This afternoon while hiking at Addison Oaks to collect some map data I saw that the new non-motorized park entrance from Lake George road is complete. This is a gap in the fence with both a triangular gate to allow equestrians but help keep motorized vehicles out, and a swinging gate allowing it to be locked shut. The swinging gate is latched shut with a chain that slips through a latch.

The latching mechanism is a bit awkward because of how the installers positioned the wooden posts in relation to the chain link fence. When I first got to the gate the chain was looped around the wood post, as seen above. This can be done by someone standing inside the park, but once outside it’s very difficult to get the chain wrapped around the wood post. Looping the chain around a metal post, as seen here works better from the outside of the park, but clearly isn’t the intended design. Regardless, it still holds the gate securely shut.

Having to close a gate behind one’s self is a bit abnormal for cycling in this area. From what I’ve read it seems common out west and in Europe, but I’m not aware of any legal trails in Michigan that have gates which one needs to open and close in order to traverse.

I’m really happy about this entrance, as it’ll allow one to enter Addison Oaks from the west. The other (and larger) part of the project that installed this entrance is a path connecting through Addison Oaks, along some boardwalks, to Addison Oaks East, leading to Oakland Township’s Cranberry Lake Park. This adds a nice, safe, easy option for dirt road riding in this area.

Here’s two more photos of the gate: gate open and the latching mechanism, with the chain looped around a metal post.

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