Secret Weapon Training Method

It is no secret that road riding is quite beneficial to competitive mountain bikers. It promotes endurance at a steady pace and allows the rider to work on techniques such as more efficient pedaling.

I chose to trade in my Nissan Pathfinder for a Kona Jake the Snake. Jake and I spend a lot of time together. We roll to school and work and we're even starting to shop and attend meetings together. Currently, our shopping is limited to a new stem and a rear view mirror for Jake. Jake will be sporting the new goods, but I'll be able to ride with more comfort and with a visual on traffic approaching from behind. Jake and I will be safe together.

In just a couple weeks of riding, I've noticed something else. I'm losing weight, I'm getting stronger, and my commute time is getting shorter and shorter by the ride. My commute involves a lot of climbing with a few sprints sprinkled here and there.

My commuting experience has proven to be quite an effective tool for increasing speed and power. I can't wait to find out how this translates to the trail.

Spring Cyclocross?

What do you do if it's not road season or mountain biking season, but ski season? What do you do if you want to ride? Well, ride!

Today, my friend, Pat, and I took our cyclocross bikes out for a road ride. We stopped off at McLain State Park and road some snow and enjoyed the view.


Di riding with her Kona Jake the Snake and Pat's Redline cross bikes. Lake Superior is covered with snow in the background with deep blue waters in the greater depths.

After a brief stint at McLain, we headed up Calumet Water Works Road for a much needed spring climb. It is a two mile gradual climb with some varying grades and no descents. Pat and I made it to the top in good form. This is a great road to ride down on a hot day. There is usually a breeze coming off of Lake Superior, and the view is absolutely spectacular!


The road to the right is Calumet Water Works and M-203 is to the left. You can see Lake Superior on the horizon of both roads. Pat is riding up M-203.

We returned to McLain State Park via M-203, a nice, rolling ride. I drafted Pat and had a nice ride all the way down as Pat broke the wind for me. Once we got to McClain, he veered off the road onto the trail that is packed with ski tracks. "What are you doing? You're crazy!" I said as I pondered turning my bike around to follow him.

"What? It's rideable. Come on." I directed my bike off the pavement and onto the snow trail. Ever hear of crust skiing? It's when skate skiers enjoy the crusty, springtime snow and can skate in fields rather than rolled trails without sinking. Well, this was crust cycling.


Pat riding the McLain State Park trail. We were riding on a trail packed with about one to two feet of snow. Still, it's easier than riding through the sandy cyclocross courses in the UP.

We hit the pavement again and headed for Waasa Road. The special thing about Waasa is the super steep hill where it meets M-203. It's one hell of a climb. I tackled it in my uncle gear - that's what I call the easiest gear on my cross bike that isn't nearly as easy as the granny gear on my mountain bike. It was an incredible challenge for me. I've made it up once before. I huffed and puffed and pulled back on the handlebars with each pedal stroke using my whole body to muscle up the hill. As I was huffing and puffing and at my max and using all the brainpower I could to get to the top of that hill, I was watching Pat bunny hopping, trackstanding, and doing wheelies as he slowly climbed with me.

"That wasn't so bad," Pat said as we reached the top of the hill.

"Ya, sure," I said. "I'm huffing and puffing and giving it all I've got and you're bunny hopping up the hill!" Pat let out a jovial laugh. He loves laughing at my pain. I wish you could've seen it.

After that climb, we geared down and took an easy ride back to my house. Twenty-six and a half miles in just under three hours. The weather was wonderful in the heat-strokish 30s Fahrenheit and we were in our glory as the sun beat down on us. It was just another day in the Keweenaw.

Wild Times

I love going Negaunee. I visit a friend who is more like a sister to me. People are usually quite curious about what we’re up to. A girl’s weekend? They must be partying!

For several years, people would ask us in that “you’ve been doing something crazy, I know it” tone, “What did YOU two do today?

“Oh, it’s funny. We went to Munising to get Dairy Queen, buy lottery tickets, and then we went to Chatham and loaded hay on the truck. It’s hay day!” That’s usually when we get a weird look. That’s usually not the response someone expects from two women hanging out.

I met Sandee when I began the clinical work for my degree in Marquette. One day, I went out to see her horses and the rest is history. I’ve always had horses and it was a common interest. We started getting together somewhat frequently to snowshoe, open a bottle of wine, and have girl chat. For a reason unknown, Thursday ended up being the most convenient day to do this. It was never planned, but that’s the day girl chat fell on. When I moved away, girl chat changed to the occasional weekend. It was one of those girl’s weekends when I first brought the cross bike down from Houghton. So much snow had already melted, and I brought the cross bike to test it on the roads in Negaunee Township.

It was an interesting ride. It was the first time I’ve ridden my Jake. After almost a year of mountain biking, the Jake felt like there was barely any bike there. I was worried that it just couldn’t hold up. I was worried about crashing.

The beginning of the ride was incredibly interesting. Sandee’s driveway exits onto a hill, and you have to go uphill to get out of her road. I turned uphill, decided to shift gears, pressed the only lever I could find for my cogs, and it shifted into a harder gear. That wasn’t good. “How the heck do you shift this thing into an easier gear?” I was getting quite frustrated. I only saw one lever.

I called my bike shop and talked with Caleb. “Caleb, I can shift it into a harder gear, but I can’t figure out how to shift it into an easier gear. I’m going uphill, so this isn’t really a good thing.”

“Um, ok, let me think about how your bike shifts for a minute.”

“Ok.”

“Ok, with your bike, press the brake lever in. I think that’s how it shifts.” I pressed the brake lever in. It shifted! Wahoo, I could go for a ride! With that, I hung up my phone and proceeded to take my first road ride.

Shortly after that, I fell in with Arlyn and Sandy, two masterful tandem riders. They will ride anything! You should see them on a mountain bike. They take things with ease that scares the be-you-know-what out of other people. My spring and early summer consisted of several road rides with them and my friend, Pat. The three of them taught me road skills, skills that still need work to this day, nevertheless, skills that have benefited me as you’ll see in future posts.

The frustration I had with riding with them was that I was out of shape and much slower, especially on hills. Some hills would just kill me. By the time I would get to the top of a hill, they would already have more than adequate rest and be ready to proceed as I broke out a goo or took a swig of my beverage. The rides didn’t always consist of chasing them, though. We often rode together while chatting about whatever. Road riding was a social event, and it was one I was developing quite an appreciation for.

Helping the Homeless

I rode well through November, and was jealous to find that others did a December ride up in Copper Harbor. Not only did they have dry, frozen ground to ride on, but they were riding the very trails that squashed my confidence and brought my inexperience to the forefront. However, winter truly did come. It came in January after they made snow at Mt. Ripley and trucked it to the Tech Trails in time for the National Ski Championship races that were being held in Houghton. The citizens of Houghton County had to strongly encourage it, but winter did come. Winter lasted through January and February and waned in March. With the exception of the traditional spring snow storm bringing several feet of snow, March was pretty much the end.

Yes, spring had arrived quite early in the Upper Peninsula in 2007. I did my first road ride on the back roads of Negaunee Township on March 27th. The mountain biking season had resumed by April 21st!

Fortunately for me, I fell in love with a beautiful cyclocross bike on the MMBA web site. I think it’s safe to say that cyclists get turned on by bikes. Unless you’re that guy in the UK on an excursion with his bike who got caught in his hotel room literally with his pants down, most of us don’t think of our bikes sexually. However, there is a switch that gets flipped on as we ponder the possibilities of our latest discovery. This bike flipped that switch. I was turned on.

It was a cold February day when I was bike sick. I sauntered into the bike shop and explained that I needed a bike that offered a bit of versatility. I wanted something I could ride on the road, but would also serve as a backup to my mountain bike so I could ride the more gentle trails if my mountain bike was in need of repair.

It just so happened that there was a homeless Kona Jake the Snake sitting in the shop desperately seeking a home. It didn’t take much prodding. I agreed to take it. I took Jake home a few weeks later, just in time for my first road ride in March.