THIS RACE SUCKED FOR ME!! I only got to race about 150 yards total. After Don said go it was go time and all of a sudden there was a crash along side of me and I get a flat. I look at the bike and then I noticed a couple holes I could stick my fingers through so it was time to take a DNF. I look at the results and I was the only clyde under 34 so it is nice that I won’t drop down in points but I could have got a medal if I could have continued. OH WELL THAT IS THE WAY IT GOES. This week on Wednesday or Thursday I will be riding after dark. If anyone wants to join call or email me at mark@markschindel.com
Archive for May, 2009
Rhinelander dissapointment
Sunday, May 31st, 2009
Another win
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009After looking at the Wors website I found out that my photo of the racer by the banner won a category. I am extremely happy about that, now all I have to do is to take Bubba off of the top spot for photos. This weekend I will be out shooting some more at Rhinelander for the hopefully dry race.
http://www.markschindel.com/Photos/Sports/Bike/index.html
That link above is the link to the future part of the website. I have posted the photos that I have taken this spring that deal with mountain biking. I feel that the photos that are just the straight photo (i.e. no blur, lens flare, etc.) are boring so I have been experimenting with dragging the shutter and flash to get the awesome look of the photos towards the end.
Later
Memorial Day Weekend
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009This weekend was interesting. On Friday night I decided to go out and photograph the carnival that was in town. After a few comments from people saying take my picture, I finally got irritated and I started giving smart assed comments back. The last dude I told I can take the picture but he can’t be in it. I thought that I got some good shots from the carnival.
On Saturday I slacked until the afternoon and then went for a ride. I managed 19.5 ave solo for the 40 miles that I did. It is finally nice to get the speed back. The thing I have to work on now is hills, so I don’t have a massive heart attack as I TRY to climb them.
Sunday I decided it was time to go and ride the mountain bike somewhere where I haven’t been before. I went up to Langlade and decided to attack some of the trails around there. After riding those trails I forgot how much I would love to have a full suspension bike again. They are some AWESOME trails. I had a guide to help me navigate the tornado damaged sections. I managed to fall off of one of the big obstacles that are up there, all I have to show from it is some scratches on my right leg. The trails remind me somewhat of bluemounds because of all of the rocks in the trails and really tight sections. If you haven’t been there I would recommend it.
On Monday I decided to go and photograph the parade and the car show. I forgot how much these small town parades suck. I don’t mean to take away anything for the people that they are trying to show case, veterans. The people that line up at the back of the parade are the low lives of the town. They have their “race car” and are revving the piss out of it. Their V8 sounds like crap as it backfires while revving up. Then you have the trucking companies trucks lined up, the guy has a stretched out truck with a train horn on it, so when he pulls the string you can hear the thing from about a mile away. Then they decided to jake brake their truck as the rev it up and slow down, I never knew that was so cool to do.
The car show was interesting, some of the cars there were cool and it is interesting to see how much time and dedication it takes to build one of those. Then you get some redneck who decides to put his jacked up piece of shit in there and decides to call it a show truck. My old Ford Ranger was of the same caliber as some of those trucks. It seems like the truck was telling all the guys with mullets to come over by me and drool.
Later
First night ride
Friday, May 22nd, 2009Last night I decided to go out and do a night ride. After I stopped at school to get the things out of my locker I headed over to do a lap. I pull my bike off of the top and go to pull out the front wheel and I noticed that it was flat. I thought, “perfect start to a ride.” After about 5 minutes I am almost done changing the tube and then a Sheriff decides to show up and ask me some questions. I told him that I had a flat tire and I was about to pack it up for the night. I then packed up my stuff and proceeded to go to the Wauter’s Front.
After I get there it is time to go and complete a lap. The rest of the night proved to be uneventful, on my way out I didn’t know if the Sheriff was going to be waiting on the road. I finally pull back to the parking lot at 12:30 am after about 1:30 ride time.
Later
Wednesday night ride
Thursday, May 21st, 2009Last night I felt like crap as the ride went on. At first it wasn’t bad but nothing like dying as it went on. I am resting while trying to find a job before I got and hopefully do the Bike Hub ride tonight. Tomorrow I need to get myself out and do some training again. This weekend I plan on going out to shoot a lot for one of my creative ideas about development. There are some old buildings not to far away, they look like main street of an old town. I just seen them the other day and I want to go and photograph them.
Hopefully everyone has a good weekend this weekend.
Later
Windy?
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009I went out for a ride yesterday and I couldn’t tell if there was a wind at all. I decided to ride towards the north-east since that is where the headwind was first. I get about 16 miles in to the turnaround point and then take a break for a minute to eat a granola bar and drink some water. I turn around and start to ride again and the wind seemed to shift direction to come out of the south-west. Needless to say that the whole ride was basically riding into a headwind. I got about 35 miles in with a 17.5 ave. with an awesome headwind pretty much the whole way.
Tonight it is off with the mountain bike with the Performa team. I plan on riding into the night so I can actually use my light now. It will be interesting as the riding at night is completely different than during the day. I hope not to get killed by The Swede and JShoe tonight.
Later
Iola recap
Monday, May 18th, 2009The race day started off good. I went to pick up Lanser and head over to Iola. I made it a point to bring my camera and shoot some photos before I got to go and have fun with the pain.
When Don said, “GOOOOOO” it was off. I managed to get a third row start in the wave. Off of the start I got pinned behind somebody that couldn’t get going and Jeff got a head of me and I was forced to stop for a second. Once I got passed that obstacle it was time for the awesome gravel road climb that they have there. I managed to get some people on the climb to the top. Once we get to the top the sand trap got a lot of people including me because of people ahead of me. Once we got passed that the race started to settle down and then it was time to pace myself. I managed to get through traffic really well the first lap, then all of a sudden I was coming up on the clydes that got pass me when I was forced to stop those few times. I managed to put 4 behind me on the first lap and then I thought that I was in fourth and just kept hammering it. On the next lap I managed to get 1 more and put myself in what I thought was third. Then after an uneventful second lap it was hammer time. I picked up the pace a lot on the third lap to see if I could get some more clydes. About half way through I managed to see Welnak on some of the switchbacks and then I tried to pick up the pace and try to run him down. To no avail though, I get done and then I go and look on the results board and I got a second. I can say that that is the best result I have ever had at that venue. My time was 1:23 for the course witch is about 8 minutes faster than last year.
That is about it for the race, on the school hand I am glad to be graduated from school finally. It has been a long time in coming and now is the time to try and find a job.
Later
New wheels?!?
Thursday, May 14th, 2009After the Bike Hub ride tonight, I was changing my worn out Michelin tire and inspecting my wheels. I noticed that the wear indicators on my Neuvation Aero 3’s are no longer present, so I guess that I have to invest in a new set of wheels in the near future. I am COMPLETELY satisfied with Neuvation wheels and would recommend them to anyone. So I have a feeling that the next wheelset that I am going to get is going to be Neuvation. I am going to get this for the front wheel and this for the back wheel. I also am going to save money up over the next year and I am thinking about getting the new Shimano Ultegra 6700 group for the road bike, if they introduce it for next year. I tested the Dura Ace components and liked the ergonomics of the smaller hoods and the 6700 group mimics that at a greatly reduced price point.
Well it is off to go to bed for my LAST final tomorrow morning. I am glad it is almost done, then the real fun begins trying to find a job. Iola is going to be in the schedule for this weekend, hopefully I can ride for an hour after graduation in preparation for the race. I don’t feel it is necessary to preride Iola as the course hasn’t changed in my 3 years of racing.
Old wheels, hopefully something new in a little bit
2/3 done
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009ONE MORE FINAL!! I am happy to say that. The only thing that sucks about that is that it is the final for macro economics. I have been busy with trying to get all the paper work done for substitutions and other things done.
On the riding front, Monday I was going to go and ride at the camp and then I met up with some people and went for about 14.5 miles. I can’t wait for the pain to come on Sunday. I THINK that I am ready for the race in Iola.
Later
Stump Farm 12 hour
Sunday, May 10th, 2009I decided to do the 3 hour event yesterday. I get there and I was bull shitting with some people and then get ready for the race to begin at 3. After the “go” was announced it was off, running mind you, towards the bike. I get to my bike and I had a crappy start, I lost touch of Scott because I got behind some people and I couldn’t recover fast enough. I managed to hang with Kris for the whole race. After the second lap I managed to catch Scott and then the race was on for the third lap. I let Scott pace me through the majority of the third lap and then during one of the double track sections I attacked and then dropped him. Later in the lap all of a sudden my back got tight and then the pain was shooting down my leg. All the hard work trying to separate myself from Scott as dissolved because I had to stop and stretch it out just so I could finish. Oh well what am I going to do, after the race I talked to a chiropractor and got some stretches that I can do to alleviate the problem in my back in the future.
After the race I went and took some pictures of the rest of the “freaks” out there 
. I have two photos from the event that I would like to show. The photos I took were and experiment with flash and dragging the shutter. I think that the photos were a success.
