The Season Ahead

This post would have typically been a few weeks ago, but the various race schedules I’m looking at were not finalized until recently. Or mostly finalized as there are still some 'maybe' dates. Anyway, with this schedule I’m drawing from a total of 5 different race series. 5! I find it encouraging that there are 5 series within reach for me even try.

Those five are the DINO series, Kentucky Point Series (KPS), Tri-State 6 Hour Series, NIMBA Race Series (schedule actually posted on their Facebook pages), and the Southern 5 MTB Series. Without further ado, here we go!

March 22 Barry Roubaix 36 Mile: I had a decent race  last year and found a pair of Moose Mitts in the middle of the road on the way out of town. Made up my entry fee plus some right there. This year, I’m looking for nothing less than a fat bike that wasn’t locked into a hitch mount securely. Also, I’d like to get a sub 2 hour time and top 20 in my age group.

April 26 DINO Tune Up at Town Run Trail Park: Practice race at a local trail. Very good chance the race will be cancelled by flooding conditions or a meteor crashing into the parking lot. Or both.

May 18 Kentucky Point Series Waverly: My token KY race this year and my only race in May. Rumor has it this is a fun course with some climbs. Youtube videos seem to confirm this. Yay.

June 1 DINO Brown County: Very possibly the largest mountain bike race on the schedule. Hopefully we have decent weather this year. I’m sure it will be very fun until I remember that Cat 2 races two laps. The whole Cat 3 “leave everything out there because you only go around once” plan may need to be modified.

June 15 DINO Logansport: Some hate this course and curse it with all their might. Debates online about this course are rivaled in their anger only by those discussing politics. I’m not one of the haters. I like the variety of the course and the spectator friendly course. A good time will be had by most.  

June 28 Southern 5 MTB Ferdinand State Forest Race: DINO used to race here, but I never have raced, nor have I ever rode there. Heard reports of much climbing so figure it is worth a try. Where did I put my bar ends…?

July 5-6 DINO North Vernon: XC course will be fun like always, assuming we are not racing in a driving rainstorm like last year. Short track will also be fun. As the reigning Cat 3 state champion (um, yay?) I plan on getting demolished by my new friends in Cat 2.

July 20 DINO Versailles: Great course. Has rocks. See concerns expressed in Brown County, supra, regarding number of laps.

July 27 Tri-State 6 Hour Series Hueston Woods: This is a maybe race. 6 Hour races aren’t really my thing, but with a series of four races so close, I figured I should try them again. Might switch this one with the Versailles race on June 22, although I was thinking of doing the DINO 6 hour races in September. Decisions, decisions…

August 2 DINO Kickapoo: The wild card of the DINO series and replacement for the race at French Lick. DINO is going out of state, although not far. I’ve heard positive things about Kickapoo and the Youtube videos looks pretty exciting. There is one piece of trail called “Heaven and Hell” which starts with a downhill (Heaven!) and then goes into a climb which looks kind of steep (process of elimination suggests this is “hell.”) Well, have a look for yourself.



I’m looking forward to the new course and being soundly beaten by the locals who no doubt have every inch of the trail memorized.

August 9 Mass Ave Criterium: Yes, a road race. I've attended this race the past few years but last year I took a careful look at the Cat 5 race. They were racing at a decent pace, but not that fast and the race is only 30 minutes. That is less than a cross race. So, I might give it a go. Only sticking point? No road bike. That got sold a few years ago so I could buy my single speed mountain bike. So, anyone have a road bike I can borrow?

August 24 DINO Southwestway: This post is getting a little long so I will be brief. Fun course, big climb, I’ll try not to crash this year.

August 31 NIMBA Bluhm County Park Time Trial: I was hoping to do some actual XC races in the NIMBA series this year, while combining them with trips to see family in South Bend. Alas their schedule did not work out with everything else going on. This time trial is the only date which really works, and even that is marginal. No info on the course, so we’ll see whether this is still on the calendar when mid August rolls around.

Lots going on in that list. A vacation is in there somewhere too, so a race may be dashed (leaning towards the Tri-State Race) but we’ll have to see how that pans out. As with last year, the DINO series takes priority. However, in order to expand my horizons, I wanted to add some races in other states. Additionally, the new Southern 5 series in south-southern Indiana (anything south of Lake Monroe is Southern Indiana to me, while anything north of Peru is northern Indiana…all a matter of point of view) is starting up this year. Looking forward to the Ferdinand race, and possibly others, depending on how things work out.  There may be additional races added, and some removed, as the year goes on. One notable absence are the night races I did last year. The company which ran those races decided to stop the series this year. An unfortunate turn of events, although not surprising due to the lack of participation.

One last note, it is too bad that it appears that French Lick won’t be having any races this year. In 2013 my wife and I stayed at the West Baden Hotel and had a great weekend for the DINO race. Unfortunately it seems that the resort is not terribly interested in working with race organizers, as online comments from both the DINO and Southern 5 camps alluded to some difficulties with management. 

Snowshoe Crosstraining

 

Indianapolis got slammed by the largest snow storm of the season thus far this weekend. Sunday morning heavy snow moved it and as of print time, is still going strong. Adding this on top of the 3-4 inches left from a snow fall last week, by noon there was a decent layer of at least 8 inches or more in many places. Biking outside was a no go, and I wasn’t terribly interested in doing the spinning bike. But, I did commandeer my dad’s snowshoes a few weeks ago (he took a two year work contract in Abu Dhabi, so I didn’t think he would need them) and had been waiting for a chance to try them out.

So far this year the snow fall hasn’t been significant enough to allow comfortable use of the shoes. Today  definitely changed that. Indy has a few parks that I would like to snowshoe at (Holiday Park, Ft. Ben, Eagle Creek) but with the terrible road conditions, I instead hiked from my home over to Butler University’s campus. The campus has quite a few wooded sections with perfect trails for snowshoes, as well as open areas for cross country jaunts.

My neighborhood and the campus was beautiful.  I took a downhill trail through the woods and crossed the Central Canal to the Butler athletic field area. A few other folks were out for hikes, as were some cross country skiers.

 

After making a large loop over flat ground, I re-crossed the canal and made for home. After getting a once over by Butler Police (apparently looking for rouge sledders), I blazed my own trail up a steep hillside and made for home. I had hoped to go longer, but I was actually overdressed (I was starting to overheat) and my water resistant hiking pants had surrendered to the elements about 45 minutes before. In the end, I did 3.3 miles in an hour and twenty minutes. A track of the hike is here.

I had a blast on my first snowshoe attempt, although I would like my next outing to be in a more wooded and hilly area. I’ve read that shoeing is a popular method of mountain bike cross training up north, although my heart rate didn’t ever get very high. However, after I got home I realized that I did have that burning feeling in my legs and they were aching from the effort of the hike. I’m looking forward to more excursions, only with better pants, and less layers. Unfortunately, the high temperature for tomorrow is supposed to be -15, so although my office is closed, I am sticking to the spin bike.