Knowing in part...

Words cannot express how much I Loved this MAN. But here is a bit of inspired Word from a man who understood it better than I.

"Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

-From 1 Corinthians chapter 13

Love remains and will throughout ETERNITY!

We all face the three that will remain at some point. These days Kyle is causing me to stay closer to that which will remain more than ever before in my life, while allowing that which will fade away to become dim in the character of who I am being.

When a seed dies, if planted well, watered and nourished with light, it brings forth new life. Allowing Kyle's life as it passes to bring redemption and new life, will happen if it is planted well, watered with Word and nourished with light in our hearts. All of those who are with the Ultimate Lover now would want nothing less to be done with their lives.

Thank You All for sharing life with us, and honoring my brother.

To the fading of the imperfect and the clothing of Kyle in perfection...

I have, do, and will always Love you My Brother, My Blood.
See you sooner than I think we realize,
Nathan

Bike Time?

More time on the bike this week than anticipated, just could not get out to the ski trails. So lots of base time on trainer and loving every minute of it actually, 3hrs mon., 2hrs tues., 2 yesterday., and some hockey tonight! We'll see how well this goes once the 5+hrs have to kick in...

I just refuse to ride in the cold...its torture, too much frostbite on this body, pin no matter how i dress..maybe i am just a wuss.

No Interest or No Race Directors?

I was like YIPPEE! Until I read EXCEPT....

I think Midwest was forgotten?

Stealing a little from Tim Drankus, but he is right! Check it out. As if mountain biking does not exist in the Midwest? Last I heard we have the best turn out for races as compared to anywhere else in the nation. Not to mention a few of the largest MTB point to points. Its almost offensive to me that they are called East Coast/West Coast Cups. True, the geography give credence to the names, but thats the point, maybe lack of attendance is due in part to lack of diversity in geography. Any thoughts?

After midnight :O

1:20 AM
Just Pounded out a 12 page paper due tomorrow. Still have to make a power point about the paper to present tomorrow.
Blogging cause I want to stay updated after the little break i took from blogs and riding stuff.
This week in short...

Rest Monday

Good skiing Tuesday! Did a full Lapham Peak Black Loop, squeezed it in on the way home from school.

2 hrs+ trainer time in basement Wednesday.

Was gonna do something Thurs. (hockey, ski, basement trainer time) but after late night study and writing the night before...I just passed out on couch after putting the kids to bed :)

Won a hockey game tonight, the Guerra's rocked it again with 4 goals between Dad, kyle, and myself!

Oh yea, like 4 papers written, a zillion pages of reading, this presentation, started working as a tutor, and 4-5 more papers in the next week and a half!

And now back to the grinder...
Thanks for reading,
Nathan

Latest

Been a while...
On the riding front, officially started training for next year. Base miles on the bike in basement slowly getting logged, about 5 hrs over the weekend, its actually fun this time around. Playing Hockey, skiing, and using Wii Fit for all other cross training till an actual base period kicks in later this month. Then it will be mostly bike with some skiing and hockey and weights to replace the Wii. Yoga on the Wii is pretty basic, but noticing a difference in posture and bike related aches, pains, and tightness. Hoping to put in an even better foundation for the intense stuff later next year than I did last year.

On the College front...
I have 5 papers , a presentation, and 3 final exams all due in the next week and a half. Its insanity of time management at its best. Refinement for the reality of the job I suppose. I hear teaching can have this kind of craziness when your getting started.

Family front...
Thanksgiving was amazing
3 celebrations over the extended weekend, with a hockey game we won in between. Dad, Kyle, and I all scored goals and worked well together on the ice. There was also some pretty high tensions and a little push and shove with plenty of penalties, which always makes things more interesting.
Thanksgiving on my side had the traditional little teaching from Gpa, which was great. A bit about Squanto and his captivity in Europe that led to being a blessing to him and his people and for the pilgrims as they struggled to survive and how their lives were building upon this intersection of thanksgiving. My question with that one is, what if Squato had lived with someone other then Christian monks in Europe, would his response been very different to the arrival of the pilgrims and if so would that have had any effect on how the USA exists today? Seeing as he was taken captive by people like the pilgrims, forgiveness and mercy might not have been his highest priority, interesting thing to ponder.

Charis is starting to talk and my official name is now BA-DA. BA-BA is blanky and botltle, both comforts, so maybe I am a mix of comfort and security/authority? :)

Asa is learning how to be such a great help around the house (4yrs old and can do dishes almost solo) and is starting some schooling with Lindsay to get ready for the real deal.

Oh yea were moving next door, and Hannah (my sister) and her new Husband Caleb are moving in here, tentivley. Gonna be a great little community with Kyle (my bro) upstairs, Hannah Caleb here, and my family next door!

Here are some pics of all the latest. Mainly Hannah's wedding and Some stuff around the house.












Thanks for reading!

School, Training, Focus

Sorry its been a while, but school has taken up most of my writing energy. Lots of thinking about international politics, Old School Empires like Rome and Greece, Filling in a dropped spanish class cause the prof. thought it was SPA 101 for people who have had spanish throughout all of Highschool..., and Learning how to be an educator for the umpteenth time during my college career, I transfered to another school this year and had to take their entry level EDU course to get into their School of Ed., which is exactly like 2 or 3 other edu classes I have already taken, but gotta run the ropes :) .

On the riding side of things, after the disaster at the Wolf River Race, I decided I was probably over trained and not peaking quite right, trying to ride 2 1/2 hours almost everyday with a 50 lb. bag on to school does not help for peaking i learned. Also with the new routine, figuring out where and when I was gonna eat gave way to some bad habits of just putting eating off a lot and so I think I had been under nourished. So I backed off the riding a lot and just made sure I was doing some really hard efforts on some secret training trails and hill AKA lapham peak every 72 hours of so. Hopefully the peak works out for the big show at Sheboygan this weekend. Even after all my bad races toward the end of the season, looks like by just dumb luck of non-participation I will hold onto at least 5th overall in the series. I guess a goal met is a goal met, just not quite the way I hoped to get there, but I will take the blessing.

Thanks for reading,
Nathan

NMBS Dissolves...

Not really a surprise, can read some news on it here. I really like what Sho-Air wants to do with the National Series Scene but how about some mid-west races...I think there might be some good reasons why we have the Largest State mountain bike series in the nation, the national series should take advantage of wisco's and other midwests states committment to racing to help support and boost commercial and spectator involvlement.
Grats to Woodruff on 3rd place at Cheq. 40.

Gettin OLD?

Actually I think its just lack of any real core work for the last month or so. My back has been bothering me a bunch to the point that i feel it efecting my power on the bike. also I missed quite a few interval workouts lately sooo, just been on cruise control and its has showed the last 2 races, Border Battle I believe was from taking an anti-histamine that made my body drowsy.

But the lack of just well scheduled solo interval time showed hard at Smokin spoke as the familiar ability to hang with the top 5 or so after a little off the front sprint from the line quickly turned into me wondering if I was gonna be off the back of the pack in a matter of seconds. In hindsight the time of the back due to rain and 18 credits hitting hard at the first week of school, should have had me playing it conservative and drafting all the way to the sandy hill on the leadout. Live and learn, no cheq. 40 for me due to all of the aforementioned, but lots of lactace threshold ride and anaerobic endurance to finish strong for the last two of the WORS

Old School crits.

Back in the day I used to practice my criterium/track skills in my grandparents driveway. After winning the national driveway championships, hence the red, white, and blue on my bike I gave up anything road, bmx or skinny tires and took a break for about 14 years.


Made a come back to the cycling scene after I got married to Lindsay in 2001 and made our WORS debut in the citizen class. I know its a step down from national champion, but it was a long break from the bike :)



I did really race BMX though and that is my race bike all snazzed out around the 4th of July, I think its my GT but it might be my super rare cooks brothers that my Dad got me as a race bike/collectors item . Stupid me, I got them both stolen...Obviously my Dad was way into BMX, rode at a national level, mix those genes with my grandpa's/coach's(on mom's side, in picture with me), who was a world class tri-athlete and Olympic trialist in the modern pentathlon and ya end up with that little guy doing laps around the driveway, or laps around Crystal Ridge yesterday. I think its all the same to that little guy who still lives in me and the rest of us who have been loving bikes, doing laps around whatever it was then and is now.

Killin it at Kettles

4-5 hours at kettles today with Kevin Klug had me descending stairs in pain. Been a while since I have done a double connector trail down there. All week leading up to today was a rest week and I did no riding, which my rest weeks actually call for about 1 hour easy rides everyday. Instead I subbed in for my winter hockey team for their last game of the summer season. That was Awesome, had plenty of cardio to keep pushing all game and score some goals, but I knew with each skate stroke I felt muscles being worked I have not used in like 6 months. Took till today for my back, legs and groin muscles to feel somewhat normal again.
Another long ride planned for tomorrow with the family this time though, burleys in tow to frame park in waukehsa on the Glacial Drumlin for a picnic and back. It seems that the race next weekend is gonna be a little flat form the write up so "Tues. Night Worlds" as Ronsta likes to call it AKA Transition Cycle ride is on the schedule this week.
Working on getting a new camera for pics. Check it out.
Pretty tired so that's all for now.
Thanks for reading,
Nathan

New kits debut at Sunburst

Introducing 5 of the 7 racers on the Mr. Tree Racing Team. Took a while to get the kits like we wanted them, but they are by far the best kits I have ever ridden in, big thanks to Louis Garneau!

Jerry Leair


Mark Ullenberg (Lindsay's Dad)

Kyle Guerra "The Bro"


Lindsay Guerra


And a few of me Nathan Guerra




All photo credit can be found here or here

Sunburst 5th...

5th's not bad for having food poisoning, had way higher expectations but the body could not respond after trying to carbo load on a ton of bad chicken curry and brown rice last night. Could not fuel or drink during the race really as it made the stomach cramps worse so dehydration and lack of sugars had me moving way slower then I was used to this past couple weeks, especially during my intervals this past week when I felt AMAZING, so expectations were high and I am slightly frustrated with the bad luck, but thankful for being able to hold a good finish anyways. The really bad pain kicked in horribly mid race and really really bad after the race. If you saw me riding around screaming to myself after the race now you know why. I didn't know what all this was until I saw Lindsay and she said she was puking most the race with the same stomach cramps, etc... Thats when I figured out it was the chicken, since it was the only thing we ate that was the same. I winced through awards and got home asap, to try and get comfortable, took about 4 more hours for it to settle and be able to eat something.
Race went like this for me.
On the line I felt the stomach coming on a little but thought it was just gel and pre-race causing bubbles. Followed Macjie's sprint for lead, took over lead as we were coming back toward the climb, climbed to top of the hill pretty hard but not all out sprint...I think to much...instead of going for it. Coming around the top TJ and Brian came by pretty hard, I stuck with for a bit but dropped before the flat fields, was chasing with Jeff crashed...chasing with bender crashed again, learned from then on that the bald back tire is bad on the slippery fresh cut grass...stomach cramps come on hard and I settled for riding with bender hoping we would slowly reel Melcher in, got slower and slower as the race went on with no water and no fuel to hold off the pain in my stomach as much as possible. Last lap I let Bender take over, my muscles were screaming for fuel and I just had no energy left, he started to pull away coming outta the field as a comp guy pretty much seemed like he was blocking for him and tried drafting Bender...which ended immediately, sorry to this guy I was telling a million times to get out the way, and calling the comp all-star, I just get a little worked up with the whole letting one guy through and not another, but I was not polite with my frustration and I openly apologize if your reading and will make a point of doing so in person when I get a chance. Right after this I came by Bender with a dropped chain, I do the sportsman like thing and waited, which I kinda regretted, since there were plenty of adversities for me throughout the race and its racing, but I just found my self going "man that sucks for him" and slowing down till I saw him there instead of attacking. When it came time to fight it out at the line I had nothing to run on and was in pain so I just rode in easy and let Bender ride away. I am thankful for and appreciate riding/racing with Bender and everyone today and am sorry for any badly communicated frustration, it was just a painful time and not the best experience, I let it get to me a little...
Rest week this week after about 4 weeks of hard training, and then onto another 3-4 week period of hard training to head for late season peak. Gonna try and get pictures and video up from our trip in the U.P., but need most of them sent to me.

Thanks for reading and great seeing everyone today!
Nathan

Yooper

A week in the U.P. started on Friday. Spent the night in Houghton/Hancock Friday, got up with the sunrise and Lindsay and I rode some of the Mich. Tech Trails and some of the Masta Hitto, which is where they have that point to point chain drive race I believe. A good 2+ hours of Crazy Climbing and sinlge track. Last night was spent in Copper Harbor right on the tip of the peninsula. I ran into an IMBA presentation/class as soon as I got into town! Guess their doing some big trail building class/outing today with like 50 volunteers. Largest turnout they have ever had. Got up early today to check out all the additions that have been made to pretty much the best trails I have ever ridden. And of course they are just getting better and better every year. I found out at a little party the trails builders were throwing last night at the little bandhsell in the middle of town that Copper Harbor now employs a guy to just build trails and maintain the trails all year. So I got up with the Sun again today and did about 3 1/2 hours on the trails and they were just superb, amazing bridges built all over the place, as much climbing and descending as would be expected out of a "real" mountain trail. 3 1/2 hours and I think I only did like half the system at most, and thats just single track. Their is so much biking to do here I have to hold myself back as to not burn out before the race on Sunday. YEA, YEA, I know Ore to Shore is just south of me on Saturday, well about 3 hours, but I need the points to keep up, and this is family time up here until Saturady, hence getting up with the Sun while everyone is sleeping to get the riding in. I am gonna get a ton of pics up for all to see the killer scenery an trails.

Thanks for the posts and encouragement on the alterra race too!
Hope everyone had a good time at 24-9 and looking forward to reading some stories, Ronsta with the chase group I heard, behind Eatough and Tostado :)

Thanks for reading,
Nathan

Alterra Coffee Bean Classic 4TH!

4Th Overall, best result to date!
Quick post, full report later...

Its been a little while. Last week we were getting ready for "Cousins Camp", a yearly family reunion my grandparents put together, it started when I was like 5 or something and there were already like 7-8 cousins aka grandchildren, plus some friends of the family's kids so since then my grandparents have called it cousins camp. Now with 28 grandchildren and all us older kids getting married and having kids and involving people its really turning into a huge yearly event. The last few years we have rented out spencer lake bible camp and its just amazing. My grandpa being world class tri-athlete, an Olympic trialist in the modern pentathlon, and a coach for 30 years+ is all about sports and competition. Since we started using the camp my grandpa started doing a duathalon with a TT run and a TT bike. Everyone that wants to participate finds a bike to use, mountain, hybrid, P.o.J., road, even a tandem participated this year. This year grandpa added in a swim which made the triathlon official. I found "cousins camp" feeling a little more like "training camp this year", as lindsay and I did 2 TT's, one on teh tandem and one on our own. Our tandem time smoked my personal time bike like 30 seconds, that things just flys!
With only 2 meals a day and snacks in between breakfast and dinner I was able to shed a few pound over the weekend in preparation for the climbing races coming up at Crystal Ridge and Sunburst. Lindsay, Hannah, Kyle, Caleb (Hannah's fiance), our buddy Ben, and myself all made it over to Nordic mountain for a few laps since it was only 20 minutes down the road from the camp. That course is just amazing and it was nice to enjoy it with family and friends.
Did the Crystal Ridge race the last two weeks and feeling really confident for the race. I guess there is a big change in the course though. On Wednesday nights we climb craters on the backside of the hill and descend the switchbacks. It seems that since the alpha trail is water logged we will be climbing the switchbacks and then all the way to the top of the hill to add the some time to the course. I did the climb to the top once and its the equalizer just not washed out and without the flat before hand instead it is after climbing the entire ski hill.
Beside the hard TT this weekend and the Crystal Ridge races I just been throwing down some good base miles to build back up for a peak later this season. Just got done with 3 1/2 hours at about 19 mph avg. Nice little route O-Town -> Hartland->Pewaukee->Brookfield->Tosa->New Berlin->Waukesha->Wales->Dousman->O-town. Like 65-70 miles, not sure cause my computer was on the fritz and would just stop recording at times so i think my average was closer to 20 but idk, all that matters on those rides is Heart rate anyways, but I always want to have the HR in the right place and still have a good avg speed, that pride thing sneekin in there.
I even took my camera with me today and I just always to forget to use that thing....
Well thanks for reading and probably see ya ll this weekend,
Nathan

ps kits soon...better late then never!

Represent

Represent

Nice job guys!

After the Doc ride Saturday we went to our friends 80's theme party, best I could do was an old school descent jersey, some short shorts of Lindsay's and a pink headband with orange work glasses. Lindsay went for the Poofy bangs too much lipstick look..and Asa sported the fraggle rock shirt, which was and is the coolest kids television show ever made!

My Mom called and wanted to hang out with the kids, so we took the opportunity to try this things out. Its a mountain tandem, but it has slick and no shock. Jerry Leair borrowed it to us and it can get going pretty good with a tailwind. we were out for like 3-4 hours. We rode out to the Muir trails and tried a 1 mile red loop with the slicks on, we managed it well, only out of the clips once,not bad for old school and slicks. I wanted to try some more trails but with the slicks we were going pretty slow and we were trying to do some sort of an endurance ride, so we needed to be working a little bit harder then soft pedaling. After the red loop we saw Holly and Christine in the parking lot, chatted a bit and then took off seeing what we could average on the way home.



On the way home we averaged about 23, with a head wind most the time. I wonder what we could do with a road tandem thats not so old school. Its a lot of fun though. It seems to be way more of a force workout then anything else,my heart rate was not sky rocketing but my muscle felt really worked. At the end of the ride i kinda hit a wallafter we tried hanging onto this IsCorp guys wheel who was moto pacing. That lasted about a min. Thats when I realized how toasted I was...I was low on water and sugar and had about 3 hour of semi hard work in the legs, but it was so much fun seeing what we could try and do together.
Thanks for reading,
Nathan

Dopers

I totally Love this commercial!
The other take back the tour one is cool too. Maybe I will get that up here.

a few Challenges...
Name riders being focused on in each scene.
Are they all dopers?
What were they caught for?
Year they were caught?
If your really bored and wanna show how much of a tour buff you are include the year and stage of the scenes of riders.

Also I would love to hear peoples opinions of the commercial. I am assuming the shorter one on TV is due to cost, but some people are saying its because not all the people featured here are dopers?
All for fun and my own interest.

In the riding world, I just came off a rest week or transition week as some call it, no riding and lots of rest. Time to build another peak. Started off with the sat. morning doc ride with kyle and Lindsay today. It was fast and pretty hard efforts, especially when I waited for a guy who flatted and me and 2 other riders pulled a group of 6, that were nice enough to wait back, up to the group. I did a lot of work at the front and it hurts to walk down stairs now. Guess I got a muscular endurance and anaerobic ride out the way for the week.
Found my camera so should have more pics for you guys now. Eventually gonna get to this tag thing holly marked me for, I think to much when it comes to stuff like that...
Thanks for reading,
Nathan

OOOPS

This weekend I learned the hard way why this


Is called PRE-race and not just called RACE.
Been using this product as an energy kick before my races and so I figured since a lot of gel companies are putting caffeine and such in their products, I would improvise on my hammer gel, put a serving of the PRE-race in.
Out of the many mistakes I have made in racing this one I am having a bit of regret about. I planned a peak around this race and with how I was feeling the first 2 laps I am slightly frustrated with why I would try something different then I have been doing.

So it went like this,
Start was good, in the break, Landon biffed on the rock garden, subsequently back four turned into chase. I think it was Dallas, Tristan, Landon and me. We caught up to Travis, and eventually Travis, Landon, and myself got away after chasing down an attack Landon put on. At this point I felt great and thought it was a fight for 5th place over the next two laps. I started in on the gel and BAM, I continually felt like I was hyper ventilating and my heart rate would not go down at any point, it was like being on Cocaine. I slowed and let Travis and Landon go, thinking maybe it would subside. MacIej and an MN rider came up who I think was Josh Shivley, I had a little kick left so I led them a bit but it was the same thing after a minute or two, hyper ventilating and HR not coming down. Slowed again, after about 3 different efforts of trying to hang wheels and shorter times to blowup, I just spun around. I knew better but I thought maybe it was a bonk...I asked for a gel from the team and of course I was handed a bottle of Hammer gel I had setup for my sister as a pre-race shot, after downing it I realized from the taste that I was in for more spaz effect... During my fourth lap I started to get a little worried as I was getting really light headed on any uphills, and this was climbing in my smallest gear...I slammed as much water as I could get my hands on remembering when something similar, but not as severe, had happened about a month or so ago. I recovered enough to hang onto the last guys wheel passing me before the finish and sprint for a place that really didn't matter in the overall picture. In that situation I wonder, should I sprint with him to let him have it but not feel like I gave it to him or take it cause thats racing and thats the fun of it for both of us. Kinda torn on that move. After I sprinted i could hardly hold myself up, and this was after pretty much relaxing/spinning easy for an entire lap with a very short sprint, couldn't catch my breath for ten minutes or so. Seriously the second half of this race was like a flashback to my using days, I better stick to the PRE part of the Pre-Race before I end up like this guy.
31st overall, guess thats not bad for just spinning around the course for 2 laps. THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE WHO CHEERED ME ON, I really needed the motivation to even keep pedaling. I just kept thinking "this ones for the team", since 31st in elite is solid team competition points.

Now to figure out what to do with this poorly planned peak..3 weeks till next WORS, and I don't exactly have the life style at the moment to head east with the top five from this weekend for some NMBS action. Maybe I should mix it up with some local road racing since superweek is upon us.
I will get some pics and race reports for the team up later.
Thanks for reading,
Nathan

Reforestation Ramble

Rest week--->Bad Form--->Bad Luck---->Bad Tactics---> 11th
Fun Race with my friends in the pic though.

Chase Group


Coming into finish after crash.

Goals in sight :)

What the....?

5th Short Track! 17th Super D

Quick post and more once we get pics.
10 am start for Super D, was sitting well within top ten and crashed half way through. At the back, made up time, but the split between the whole field is like 30 seconds in a 8 minute race, almost impossible to make up...17th.

12:30 start Short track, hung on to leaders, got a gap with them, a few went off the front, battled for 5th with 1-2 guys, climbed really strong on each lap to bury it home for a solid podium finish!

4th overall in the stage i think, but results weren't posted for the whole stage race when we left.

Full report when info and pics come.

Thanks for reading,
Nathan

Subaru Cup 7th! Cross Country

Had a great race. Took the lead out for a while, had a gap and thought should I go with it? Decided not to risk a blow up and just rode steady till the rest of the break caught up. Glad I did cause I was hurting a bit when TJ, Jesse, Marko, and Mikey came around. Tried to hold the wheels of that group once we hit the Climb from bottom to top of Nordic Mountain Ski Hill, didn't happen and I settled into 5th with Paul Hanson and Ron Stawicki as the chase group. Paul went hard on lap two up the start climb and then came back and was gone for a while, Chris Pearsio went by and another guy from Iowa I didn't know. Then Mikey came into view, rode with him for a bit but he was hurting, so I went on with Ron and Paul Hanson as he latched back on. Ron and I had a gap on lap 3 and we were trading places for a while and all the sudden he flatted in a wide open flat section, it was really weird, nothing around to flat on, later he said his valve tore??? , weird. Paul and I got a pretty good gap after this, but the time to the next guys up was aways off. So we knew it was just us as we went into the last lap. We both rode pretty casually, talked a bit, he said he still had a kick left in him and I told him to go for it if he had it and I would try to hang on. He attacked on the last climb to the top of the hill, I tried to respond, it hurt and I thought it would be smart to not go overboard. I need to teach my body and mind to be more committed, especially on those last laps, cause I think I could have dug deep to hold the wheel, but I settled for maybe catching him on the downhill. I almost did, but too little too late. He rode away pretty strong through the last few climbs anyways, which I could not respond too. Two in a row he gets me at the end, I gotta work on that last lap stuff, GREAT work Paul.

Lindsay Rocked a 9th overall (13th including Pros) and 7th in age group, even though she felt the WORST she EVER has in a race. Sinus infection/antibiotics probably has a bit to do with that. Plus she was on my old bike I built up this week because her bikes rear shock had to be sent into fox for repairs, so new bike, she rode for first time today, thats a hard tail is kinda rough, literally...

Kyle looked crazy strong and pulled off a 13th overall in comp and 2nd in his age group! His fitness is really coming around.

Hannah looked really strong about mid pack the first two laps of her debut sport race after not riding a bike for 2 years, but lap 3 was a sufferfest. She said going into the last lap 3 she did not know how she was going to ever be able to even finish the lap. She finished though, and I believe she was not last place which is amazing for not riding AT ALL this year till today.

Tomorrow is Super D at 9:30 am, which is like a mix of cross country course and downhill, and Short Track Race at 12:30, or as TJ Woodruff calls it "The Hurricane of Pain". 25 minutes of a short loop + two laps, sounds fast.


Asa had a race today too, only pics we got from the day so far.


She had a rough start and had a little crash, ( the kid next to her is obviously smiling because of his devious plan to take her out off the line).


She finished strong though, medaled, and got into the cliff bar payouts.



Then of course there is the Best Fan of the Day Award!



Thanks for reading,
Nathan

Skip the intervals, its party time!

Skipped the intervals this morning as we had a ton of prep to do for PARTY TIME! Well worth it!


1 Year Old!


4 Years Old!



Might borrow this one from Charis's new wardrobe :), which quadrupled in size thanks to all the family and friends.

Intervals, Recovery and Rain

Thursday's Workout.


Thursday I tried a new workout. Long Hill reps mixed with some pyramid anaerobic work. 1 min or so climbing semi-steep hill (Lapham Peak road hill to tower), and then last 30 sec stand and sprint, if ya still can, up the steep grade change. I did about six of those with Jerry Leair until the last one when I realized I was really dehydrated I think, and it was HOT and HUMID. I had been drinking lots of coffee and I took a pre-race drink for the hard workout which is even more caffeine and I had not been drinking much water the days prior to Thursday. I have never had so much trouble catching my breathe. HR was down to like 130's and I was still breathing hard, thats when it started to freak me out a little. We rode away from Lapham taking it easy, talking about what it could be, after thinking about the last few days consumption of caffeine and lack of water I slammed 2 bottles and within 30 mins of riding back to O-Town real easy I was all better. I tried the first min of HR 180's+ and all systems were GO! We went 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1 mins. At the hill I thought it was going to be a horrible ride, but by the end of the pyramid it felt amazing to get some hard efforts in. Weekly Grandma meal on Thursday nights with family was a great way to end the day, good conversation about life, guidance, and riding with Grandpa.
Friday I was tired from the effort, but Lindsay was all about doing her long ride together, which ended up being awesome family time. We packed up the kids in two different Burleys and rode to Frame park in Waukesha for a picnic and play, forgot sunblock though, stopped and got some but the damage was already done. Being Hispanic I tend to just lightly burn and then tan quickly, but Lindsay gets Crazy Painful burns which we been tending to the last couple days :(

Rode home and saw a bunch of the Madison to Chicago 200 mile runners on the Glacial Drumlin trail, such a cool event! 4 hours total with burleys in tow....Recovery? Then today was suppose to be race pace with Kyle and Maybe Kevin Klug if I could get a hold of him, but the trails were closed till noon, and Lindsay still needed a ride, so we decided on a team ride, Kyle, Lindsay, and myself, after my brother Byron's graduation Brunch and ceremony. Tried to get down there in time to dodge the rain, but got a little ways into the connector and BAM, TORRENTIAL DOWN POAR. I mean I have never been in a storm like that before on my bike. Riding through rivers while feeling like your in a fire hydrant. Plus Lightning all around, thunder and crazy wind, it was kinda scary for a few minutes. Got off the trails pretty quickly to keep from trail damage and "poaching", but we were parked by Emma anyways so it was mostly rocky stuff that ya can't really do too much damage too, and I believe its all getting rebuilt over there anyways.

Tomorrow were having a B-Day party for the girls, Charis just turned 1 yr on May 22nd and Asa is turning 4 yr's on the 14th of June. Time to sleep.... Intervals early tomorrow and lots of prep for party.
Thanks for reading!
Nathan

Wausau Report

I got a nice call up, took dead center on the line. Usually I don't like to be here cause if ya don't hammer it for the lead out the pack comes around ya. I didn't really think about it and had no plan beside watch where Jesse, Marko, and this guy go and follow. At GOOOO!, I ended up doing this


and goats got a video of the first corner with a crash on the right if ya watch for it.

Usually I am scared of the lead out but I found myself there and just decided to ride within a comfortable pace till someone decides to come around me. Eppen was first on the first little climb, followed by the expected peeps, Phillips, Lalonde bro's, B-Matter, Tristan, Ben Moore, Pearsio (spelling?). Made sure I remained top ten going into the first climb and just hung onto that train. We had a gap by the top of the second climb and I just recovered as much as I could in the single track, Pearsio called out the 1st of many flats and pulled over. The group rode steady till we hit the back end of the 1st lap. Tristan and Moore had some trouble in the single track I think, but I was on the back so I couldn't really tell. But I think Jesse knew there was a gap from some crashing cause I saw him spinning like 1 million RPM's on the front on the flats between single track. Eppen and Marko made the break, rest of us chased. We kept them in sight till Phillips flatted and the train was broken up. I think Moore was doing most the pulling to close the gap cause he went from the front to popped off the back in a matter of seconds. So Matter, Tristan and I rode the next lap and a half together.

I tried taking pulls when I could, mostly in the climbs, they were definitely pulling me around on the flats. We each would come out front around the same places each lap, I would just ride my pace and try not to go over board, they never came around me till I would move over, so I guess it was enough.
Then in the first downhill rocky section of lap three I saw and heard all types of stans and air flying out in front of me and, both of them flatted, and there goes my power train. Here's a pic of solo riding lap 3.

I even said "dang it"! and I was thinking maybe I can hold off the chasers solo with all the wide open sections. I did keep them at bay for a lap and then at that same section they flatted I saw a group of four coming right before the long rocky climb. Looking back now, I should not have sat up, but I thought they would be much fresher then I was working together and I could rest a bit, latch on and attack at the end of the lap.
I was wrong, they came on slower then anticipated, I held the lead soft pedaling into the climb and even had a gap to where I could not see anyone when we left the rocky single track climb. You can see part of the chase at the end of this video. at about 4:00.

Once they latched back on about half way through the lap, I found myself with Paul, Bender, and somebody from Colorado i have never met before. They left me out front till I finally pulled over to let someone else pull and moved to the back on a slight uphill, and as soon as I did Paul put the hammer down. I was expecting Bender, who was in front of me to respond, but i think he had wasted all his power catching back up after getting caught up in that crash at the start. It was a moment of truth and I decided to settle for a battle with Bender instead of making it hurt to latch back on. After a sip of water and sitting on for a min I attacked going into some of the last sections of single track and was able to hold Bender off and found myself within sight of Paul and Colorado dude, but too little too late.

Coming into the finish

Ended sixth, best WORS finish ever!

I am pretty excited with this result, especially since I am jsut starting to get into my intensity workouts. I hope to see even more improvement as I get closer to peak. :)

Thanks to all our sponsors for making this possible, Dad/Mr Tree for all the support( LOVE YA, could not do this without ya!), Bicycle Doctor for an awesome L.B.S., 1st Endurance for the best Products EVER!, F.A.S.T. for helping me with my training program, and Grandpa (Brian Steinke) for the best coaching advice and mentoring a Grandson could have.

Lindsay had a Great race and said she felt really strong. She moved her brakes and shifters in a bit before the race and said she was able to ride the technical stuff faster then ever before with her hands closer together. I think her words were "Oh i can balance on a bike and not feel out of control". Or something like that LOL.
Here is a great pic of her start

And a nice smiler

Ninth overall and 5th in age group, pretty good considering like 3 out of state pros were ahead of her. I think she had a personal best amongst the usual contenders.

I couldn't find any pics of kyle, but you can see his crash in this VIDEO where he ummmmm, knocks the family jewels and in his words "loses all his adrenaline" along with his second place and drops back a few. He is around 2:40 and you can see Lindsay at around 6:45.

LONG POST......

Thanks for reading if ya made it this far :)

Wausau-6th!

Its late, pics and report tomorrow...

First Lactate tolerance Reps, OUCH! yet so good...

Training is shifting gears from base to harder building and peak work outs. Today was what i call Lactate tolerance reps. 1 min climbs pretty much all out with 30 sec rests in between, 3 sets of 4 reps. Last set was the easiest, had a kinda breakthrough moment, when what seemed impossible to push through suddenly opens up and your able to push beyond and feel like your floating on the pedals, wasn't quite there but i felt it coming on a little. Last year mid season I was doing 3-5 sets of 5 reps, but this kinda stuff is all I focused on, this year I really focused on building a base before going into this kinda stuff and even though I am starting with less reps, have felt much fresher afterwards and am now able to add some threshold work on the end, where last year I would just be completely burnt after my sets.
Did these into a threshold ride for 30 min, well 32:30 or so, that is when I hit a stop sign with a ton of traffic once I got close to town, miscalculation of how much road I needed for 40min, HR was slipping a bit anyways to lower threshold a lot. Nice little ride around O-Town for 20 min to clear out, jammed the whole ride to some Live Daft punk, Prodigy, and a little SoundGarden Spoon Man. That Daft Punk Alive 2007 Album, Live Recording from a concert in Japan, is the MOST amazing artistically superior Techno music I have ever heard. I will try and post some up here for people to check out if your into that kinda stuff.

Sorry no pics, i need to learn to bring my camera with me

Treadfest Pics

I Had a great race, 9th overall, Lindsay took 7th overall, and Kyle is moving up steadily in comp with 4 th in age and somewhere in the 30's overall i think. Couple mistakes might have cost me some places, like crashing and loosing a chain, but very satisfied with how my fitness is coming along. Its late so I am just gonna post some pics of the race as my report.