P Nome's AK Misadventures

Nome in the News

2012-01-15T11:08:00.000-09:00

Photo taken by Carol Gales

A little activity in Nome that seems to be making the rounds in the media . The two pictures here show the difference in camera's and that maybe I need a new one. The above was taken by our friend Carol and below with an iphone. My normal point and shoot cheapo camera finally gave out after 4 yours of brutal use.

Watching the Coast Guard move around in that ice is pretty cool and their journey sounds epic. They arrived just in time for the weather to warm up to -2. I heard and read about the updates on the news. A pace, at times, as slow as snow biking on the ITI... over Rainy Pass.... in 2009. How low we really were with fuel (Crowley also provides fuel) I don't personally know but with the past month of -30 temps I wouldn't be surprised if it ate up a bunch.

In either case, I can't post much in the way of photos till I get a new camera. I'll never be as prolific as MC's beautiful shots but during yesterday's run would've posed some good opportunities. The family went for a short ride in the car and dropped me off at Osborne/Triple creek area. (I watched the Olympic Trials for the marathon yesterday and got the urge to run). I ran back to town over dexter bypass just as the wind picked up. It was about 11 miles with a diversion up Anvil hill. Much of the run over the dexter road was buried in snow. Between the poor visibility, poor crust running and the poor resurgence of wind I was glad to make it back home in a very non-Olympic time.

Lucky Lakes

2012-01-07T23:43:00.001-09:00

Christmas fun!

Today was a balmy -9. Many know that most of Alaska has been in a cold spell for the past 3 weeks or so. We have had record days never getting higher than -30 and mostly closer to -40 (lower in river beds or interior). I was so happy and felt lucky when the cold spell occurred, I mean what better way to check gear and bike functions?? Normally, we have a lot of wind and wind chill but rarely ambient temps like Fairbanks, at -40 on the coast.

The Lake shoes also arrived. I was able to test them out in the cold and had some pleasant runs. The shoe is definitely made narrow, even a size 13.5 is a little tight but they are probably one of the most comfortable shoes I've ever worn out of the box.

If there is any question about circulation versus insulation you should know I added three large layers of socks plus a VB today (since it was warm) simply to stretch the boot. It took an hour to get cold. I removed all layers but one and in no time the foot circulated warmth. It really is a good winter boot and the next two hours were great. I've tested them easily down to -45 without an overboot and only one sock layer. Similar to my Lobbens. Good stuff.

I (also) say luck because while riding in the cold temps last week my freewheel froze open and obviously needs a little service. Something that may have happened during the ITI since the hubs and rims are so new I wouldn't have thought to have them serviced. I had to switch back to my large marge rims with the older WTB hub and freewheel which works great, still, even at the lowest temps... probably because of Pete B's magic mechanics as he was the last to repack them.

The higher temps today (while I was out) according to my kestrel was -18.2 and the local trail was hopping with skijoring and dog sledding. It was amazing that the lower river beds still dropped 10 degrees to -27. During the really low temps last week I used my kestrel weather station and wanted to take a pic of the temp but it was so cold in the snake river valley the LCD screen was blank (even out of a warm pocket) and the camera froze.

The VB have been amazing. Wore them a lot and are absolutely perfect for these colder days. During a 2 hr snow trail run last week I wanted to see how little clothes I could tolerate and was able to take off all layers except a light Ibex sweater over the RBH VB jacket at -38. It was incredible. I'm sold on them.

Clipless a bust (for non-winter shoes)

2011-12-26T20:43:00.000-09:00

As mentioned more than a few times, I've been trying to ride clipless this winter...in a non-specific (i.e. cheapo) winter shoe. I had a "theory" that a generic shoe would work given a arge enough size. Here's why it doesn't (below -10):

A) Metal hardware without enough insulation and insuffucient sole. Theoretically, a large enough shoe could layer enough insulation without compromising foot circulation. While this may be generally true, the metal conducts cold much too well in these shoes.

B) The plastic(y) sole also conducts cold much too well.

The plastic that makes up the sole becomes too stiff at around > -10 and feels practically like metal.

C) The thin leather outer provides no wind protection. Even with goretex covers the wind and cold find a way in after an hour or two.

Overall, I still believe a clipless shoe can be a good winter product if the sole were better insulated with a softer rubber, like vibram. I wonder about carbon for clipping, metal just sucks in cold. Of course, to have the room needed in these I would need to go up about ohhhh 100 more sizes. Lakes are basically the only winter shoes I've heard stand up to the cold but it looks more like a hiking boot which means xtra weight. Hiking or pushing a bike many miles in my ultralight lobbens versus a hiking boot is much easier on the old body (I've done both).

I am in platforms now since the temps are getting lower than -10 and using the lobbens. While they are comfortable I definitely miss the clipless. Clipless certainly feels more balanced in the legs (pulling up and pushing down) and seems to add more horsepower as a result.

Oxymoron

2011-12-22T23:05:00.000-09:00

How about speed work on a snow bike?

Tonight I went out on the snow bike on a firm-ish snow machine trail and did intervals for an hour. Why? I don't know, I was a little bored and had only an hour. On my HR agenda I'm apparently also "supposed" to do intervals now a few times a week. My top speed was a wild and crazy 12 mph... downhill. My slowest speed and highest HR was an uphill 3 mph. The temp are back down to a reasonable -5. It was painful and a few times I was kind of nauseous. It felt weird and oxymoron-ish on a snow bike but having a short intense ride helped me feel better in the end.

This picture has nothing to do with what I wrote but I didn't take a camera this evening. I love the endearing banana pet.

Clean Sweep

2011-12-19T21:42:00.000-09:00

For some reason Joe just wouldn't let go of the broom tonight, I thought the picture was hilarious- better without my head at least.

HR, VB, NA+ Follow up

2011-12-18T15:17:00.001-09:00

Some follow up reviews from previous posts:

HR obsession:

I have been "training" (obsessing) so to speak, using heart rate since September. Now that winter is here and lots of snow, wind and cold the ability to measure improvement is hard. My mileage of running and riding have gone down but the time out there has increased. Amazing how snow biking and winter running is, comparatively, incredibly slow... or I'm turning into a slug with HR. I use the Movescount program to monitor all my activity and it is depressing to see mileages go down. However, one nice thing using HR as an objective, as opposed to distance, I can maintain the measure regardless of the variables. Even while sick my HR increased about 10-15 beats from my usual average and as long as I stay around the 145 mark I can still train without much adverse effect.

Things I've noticed using the HR monitor daily:

1. Sickness increases my HR by about 10-15 beats.
2. I start sweating at 120-130 beats per minute.
3. At extreme cold (-15 and lower) to get blood warm to my extremities I have to get above 145 at least. Once I fall below I seem to get numb fingers and toes (unless I put on puffy gear).
4. According to the Suunto watch and HR at 145 BPM I burn almost exactly 1000 kcal an hour.

Vapor barriers.

This has turned into an interesting experiment and may have much value if used correctly. What's revealing, though, is that there really is no ideal solution. When dealing with serious cold and ultra's it's just plain hard to get it right. Experiment with what works is the only way. I tried the VB "shirt" recently and while I was warm all the sweat leaked down into my pants. My pants and legs have most recently just been dialed in with an awesome soft shell by Mountain Hardwear so this is a step back. I've also noticed at below -15 F one can't skimp on layers just because there is a VB. Once your foot or body is wet you *need* the insulation to protect it. Although I am doing less laundry with VB's, which is a plus.
One additional observation about VB's-- I can't get over how much I sweat thus reiterating hydration and electrolyte replenishment.

Salt

The Fatcyclist had a fantastic entry on nutrition with Dr. Lim, an exercise physiologist who works with pro cyclists. I couldn't help but read the comment on how important salt was in the article. The way it was stated as general knowledge verifies my "duh" moment in that I was not providing enough sodium in my ultra's leading to hypoanatremia. That article will be bookmarked and definitely worth the read and possibly buying the cook book.

Clipless versus platform for snow bike

The verdict is still out. It's getting more intuitive but I still crash a lot. During the week riding to work I stick with platforms and when I make the switch to clipless for longer rides the "feel" of them (before I crash) is markedly improved when grinding through snow. The problem? My standard shimano shoes are insufficient at below zero temps even with a VB and Goretex cover. Back to the drawing board, Lakes are hard to come by cheap but I if I want clipless I think it's the only way.

Storm Series, part 3

2011-12-10T22:57:00.000-09:00

It's no secret. Nome has lots of storms and I maaaay be a little redundant posting windy video but they are just so much fun. I can't help it. This is storm number 3 in the past week with lots of snow- apparently close to record amounts. I went for a run this evening and took a little video. I even put my favorite songwriter, *Sarah C Hanson* music on it for a nice contrast.

Hardshell Day

2011-12-03T16:21:00.000-09:00

Always hard to capture interesting photos doing the same ole thing.

Blizzards are some of my favorite outings. They are great to check gear in real conditions rather than ideal ones. Not the best for a real workout but it was really fun. Wonder how many times I can say real?

In an hour and a half I covered a whopping 4 miles of pushing on tundra and a few miles of road crosswind. Those frame bags do make good sails at 40 mph crosswinds.

Vapor Barriers

2011-11-25T22:12:00.000-09:00

I've experimented with vapor barriers (VB) in the past but haven't really been a big fan. Back in the 90's when I didn't have two nickels to rub together, plastic garbage bags in my sleeping bag worked well in the winter temps but I simply hated the feel of VB's-- well maybe just plastic. I like it better when moisture evaporates from the body as it's designed and layered clothing (softshells, etc...) do the breathing. Except I'm inevitably soaked, especially during the ITI. No way around it.

Recently, though I thought I would give VB's another chance. A week ago the weather had been in the single digits but windy (20-30 mph) especially in channeled areas. Last Friday I went for a 10 mile run with just Hoka's and a plastic bag over my foot with sock on top. My feet were !!hot!! I'm used to sort of a numbed cool foot and the hot sweaty foot was a bit uncomfortable. The moisture in the bag, whew, what would 12 hours of riding do in an enclosed bag??

The next day, which would be Saturday, I went out for a 2 hr ride in similar conditions and a similar experience. Lately, my feet (clipped in) have been on the verge of too numb and whole clipless thing came into question again.... not only for the cold but for the continued crashes in snow which I now have a bent derailleur... but I digress. The plastic bag on the foot is really quite incredible as far as heat. My foot, again, was super duper hot.

Today I ditched the bike and went for a 20 mile 3 1/2 hr run. I've been experiencing pain on the Tuberosity of Fifth Metatarsal of my left foot.... according to my new Nova Skeletal Pro App (which my daughter loves). Therefore I was a little slower than I would have liked.

It was a good loop that I included about 5 miles of tundra running with some hills before I hit the road back to town. It was -5 "over the hill" and I just plugged along with my VB's and HR monitor. The VB on the feet were almost too hot, again. I was pleasantly surprised that moisture build up was not really an issue in the VB. While I was fairly laden with layers, pack and hydration I couldn't get over how folks routinely whip out running 100 milers. After 20 I was plumb tuckered, as a friend used to say.

tundra running

What's with all the skulls I find on these outings?

Veterans Day Ride

2011-11-11T18:52:00.002-09:00

A good ride today, 44 miles and 4 1/2 hrs. I decided to get off the icy roads and take the beach. It's flat but I wanted to check out any changes the storm brought. I also checked on a couple of friends cabins. Surprisingly little cabin damage fortunately. The beach, however, looked super clean, wide and hard packed frozen from the high water surge. The only problem was the ever increasing headwind going down the coast.

Beach riding

Darn headwind.

Storm left a really clean wide beach to ride

Muskox head revealed after storm. Some people bury the head and let sand fleas do the cleaning work. Wonder if someone forgot about this one.

At my turnaround it was blowing 30 according to my little kestrel wx station. Cold and hard going but maintained my HR. Didn't even have to take a drink till 3hrs in, completely forgot. The turn around was awesome- fueled up and a tailwind. I was cruising at 18-21 mph at times to keep the HR up. That was fun! Some good pictures too, if only I had a better camera.

Washed up crab, already frozen, was tempted to bring home for dinner.

Looks like these guys didn't fair so well in the storm.

The last 5 miles I got my feet wet fell crossing a stream, the wind was a brutal crosswind and the ice on the road coming off the beach was super slick. I was glad to make it home.

Ice chunks broken up and deposited during storm

November Storm

2011-11-09T18:11:00.003-09:00

This storm was sort of bad, I suppose, and it certainly got a lot of media hype. My wife's shop is across the street from the ocean so we boarded it up and got most of the inventory out of there. The wind was fierce on the ocean, topping out over 60+mph last night. Luckily it was more of an east wind. Today the winds died down to the 20's but the south wind and high water surged up a fair amount. I'll let the images and videos speak for themselves.

Thank you Tyler and Bob for your help!

Video before and during storm:

Video of today high water surge:

High waves over Front St., edge of town

Waves crashing between houses

Wave crashing while looking down Front St.

Debris over the road

Fat Tempo Ride

2011-10-30T14:18:00.000-08:00

A great ride this Saturday, finally. It's been too long since I have gone out for a long-ish ride. I had 4 hours to use and decided to see what I could do on the fatbike in that time. Instead of exploring side trails and risk pushing the bike I thought a tempo ride would be in order. Something where I can see if my heart rate training and riding have made a dent of improvement. I also wanted to assess the sodium thing.

I geared up as I were going out to race the ITI, with the exception of a sleeping bivy and chose the Teller road. It was covered with enough snow to simulate a really solid trail ride, not enough for grinding and has great rolling hills for climbing. The temps were a perfect 5 - 15 degrees with very little wind.

I managed 21 miles in 2 hrs 6 min and turned around. At the turn around I drank half a liter with nuun tabs and ate a gu. Ten miles later I drank the rest of the liter and took an S-cap. I rode and it felt easy. A fantastic ride completely the opposite of the other day. I finished up at the house in 3 hrs 56 min for a total of 42 miles. I could've gone all day at that pace.

What I found interesting is that for longer rides I inherently go at the slower HR & wouldn't even need a monitor but it was extremely helpful in limiting a blow up on the climbs. Average was 129 with a high of 158 but mostly stayed around 140 while riding. Initially I thought the nuun, s-cap and gu were to much sodium but felt really great with no adverse affects. Energy levels were solid and I was able to play with the family afterwards. The next day nothing abnormal or sore.

Ptarmigan flying off.

Can see the Teller road snaking off in the distance. What a great day for a ride.

Gear. What piece....

2011-10-28T23:10:00.000-08:00

.....can I buy for the throat / face climbing hold?

...I was glad to find this piece of gear though.

Put on some shades, these puppies are bright. If I ever need to be found in the snow I think the fluorescent yellow will pop out at 10,000 ft up. This is my latest gear addition for the clipless pedal setup. When the weather changed to cold, wind and snow I had to do something. Basic bike shoes weren't cutting it and I just don't know if I should stay clipless so didn't want to jump into Lake boots. I found these at Team Estrogen . com, which is a little bit funny b/c there is no Team Testosterone .com. So far they work surprisingly well. They are cycling overboots but with windstopper and goretex material. It's light, fit well, and act as gaiters with no issues pushing the bike through deep snow. They breath ok and good enough for any shoe, even if I wore some crocs under them they would work now. The real test will be a full day outing at -20 so we'll see.

A fools bike

2011-10-26T17:57:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I loath snow biking.

I suppose that’s why cross training keeps me sane but the recent snows, freeze, etc.. enticed me to believe I would be jazzed about snow biking. Yesterday I was not.

The roads are icy, the traffic scary, the larry tires are running on low PSI and by the time I was able to get to my fun climbing hill where I can bike on a steep ‘technical’ snowy road, it was only a few minutes behind my running time. The boring part of the ride is going from my house to the base of Anvil, about 4 miles. Normally, a nice warmup (riding or running) as it’s a gradual uphill all the way on the road. Only now the snow on the shoulder adds resistance, the low tire pressure adds resistance and to top it off the afternoon north wind kicks up an annoying headwind. That adds resistance. All said and done my speed is a frustrating 6-13 mph depending when the next gust of wind decides to bear down. If I add a bigger ring and stand up to ride it’s more comfortable but the headwind plus riding speed negates any benefit from the added power. I wish I had a power meter, maybe looking at watts instead of speed and heart rate will make me feel better but it certainly won’t get me there faster.

Once on the dexter bypass road the Anvil mnt turn off is a steep dirt (now snow) road about a mile to the top. The road at the top of Anvil continues where you can ride a circle around the mountain and pop out back on the dexter bypass road a couple of miles further up. I’ve been itching to ride the loop on snow but by the time I grind & grunt to the top of Anvil an hour has past, same as my running time.

A few hundred yards before the WWII era radar towers I see fresh muskox tracks in the snow and cautiously search for the herd or the culprit. Sure enough he (or she) is hanging 20 yards ahead camouflaged in the thick willows next to the road. I’ve come to dislike these critters, they have thwarted many workouts over the years in their roaming packs. These animals have a tendency to appear docile but they will charge at the drop of a hat (or at least for me) and where there’s one there’s a herd somewhere hiding around. They’ve decided to mill closer to town lately and have even gored a number of dogs this year. In any case, they don’t seem to move for barking dogs, trucks or humans on bikes. I went off trail pushing the bike through the willows to hike a bike around the beast. While I eventually made it, I then had to bail and head home. Time is a factor.

From the top of Anvil without a snowy road I can zoom down and join the main road, cruising, pedaling hard (it’s generally all downhill back to town) maintain my heart rate and I’m at the house in 15 minutes. Only the icy snow road is so treacherous I have to run down the mountain with the bike. Once on the road I have to brake constantly downhill, (no shoulder) it’s slick and not pedaling, my heart rate drops to 75. At my house it a dissillusioned 1 hour 30 minutes total for 11 miles; my running time is faster for the same route.

None of this is new nor unexpected but yesterday, for whatever reason, it was just plain ole frustrating.

Beach Day

2011-10-23T22:45:00.000-08:00

I may have too many pics of the beach but I just love the coast. Any beach actually though Nome's are some of the finest around, doesn't matter the time of year. The temps dropped and it's now fun riding on the runway of frozen sand, gathering & cutting wood.

Change of Heart

2011-10-20T21:17:00.001-08:00

Aside from the electrolytes and nutrition obsession, I’ve been reevaluating my training. A family with two little kids eats up a good chunk of time (in a good way) with little left for training and/or going out in the country. Those fine multi-day misadventure excursions have generally eroded, for now, which is not necessarily a negative. I am able to get out each day for 1-2 hours and a longer outings once a month. To make the most of that time I need to focus intensely on my goals.

After placing only ~130^th overall and 30^th in my age group on both triathlons (at least I'm consistent) this summer, I was totally blown away at the competition. Older men and women were blasting by me at times. What were these folks doing in training? It certainly wasn’t just a $10,000 bike or fancy running shoes or they all had genetically high V02 max. I started looking a little closer at what ironman coaches were advertising on the web, what kind of research was out there to support training methods. It certainly is a huge sport with extreme competition, $ponsor$hip and tremendous variability in coaching styles. It’s also one of the few endurance sports with ESPN type pros that basically anyone can sign up to race. Therefore there seems to be quite a bit of endurance physiological data out there on elite and non-elite racers. A little online extraction from interviews, articles and blogs of the pros led to some interesting reading too. There definitely seems to be a trend of efficiency of time, core training, (very) strong emphasis on recovery and heart rate and a number of pro’s commented on the importance of a professional bike fit with a known fitter. Certainly nothing earth shattering but still insightful that interval training while important wasn't the most important.

Heart Rate
I basically made a decision to try something a little different, more structured in my limited time so I could train for both the 350 ITI this winter and a full ironman in the spring. My background is swimming and typically I’m a big fan of high intensity cross training; swimming, core workouts, biking and running- it was the hard intensity level I thought made the best use of time. Going back to the basics of heart rate seemed like a risk. I never trained with heart rate and kind of scoffed at it as I always thought it was the easy way out (training at a lower HR). However, it's what a lot of the endurance world does, apparently, and this past b-day I got a Suunto Heart rate monitor from my 3 yr old daughter. The Swiss in me absolutely loves looking at my heart rate watch. The first thing I did was wear it to sleep and got my low HR which was somewhere around 38. Interesting stuff, especially uploading my sleep HR. Almost like a sleep study, can see spikes from dreaming... or when the baby cries. Then the following day I slammed some intervals to get my high HR. It was easy to get above 180 in running uphill but could barely get to 180 on the bike up the steepest riding hill I could find.

Results?
I’ve been doing the heart rate training for about a month now. Essentially 3rd zone or 70-80% max HR in both running and biking, focusing on hills. It’s hard to go slow but what a difference how I feel. My recovery is instant, I am going longer distances and I can get up and do it again the next day or if I had time just keep going. If I keep my HR at a low HR zone right at 146 I can climb anything. It is also interesting to see how biking HR and running are totally different. Biking (grinding) in snow uphill at 2mph at a 146 HR is waaay easier to control HR than pushing a bike at the same speed (HR 158). Now that's interesting b/c sometimes one perceives grinding a bike harder than pushing but maybe not? It certainly would explain how depleted I am pushing over Rainy.

We have two hills close to town called Anvil and Newton. They are both about 1,000 ft of gain and both trails are right about a mile in length so it’s fairly steep. I ride with the fatbike up Newton and run up Anvil usually from town. Although the recent snow considerably slowed my pace; 4 miles in an hour while I was wandering aimlessly pushing my bike up Newton in zero visibility-

I won’t know the effects until I race but I would cautiously say I am optimistic (unless of course I am running down tundra in a snow storm and twist my ankle as I did last Sunday or fall (again) from the clipless pedals as I did yesterday). Theoretically, the slower pace may be good for the ITI and afterwards I can throw in interval training for the ironman to get some speed. We'll see... as in my last post, to be continued…

Sweat & Salty

2011-10-05T19:14:00.003-08:00

Swollen
I frequently obsess about the edema my body experience(s/d) in all my ITI races. I've had it in severe form and mild. While the 2008 race was the most severe, (injuries + 17 lbs of edema), the most severe form of straight-up edema (without injury) was coming into Rohn (2010) about 200 miles into the race. That was bad.

Edema in Ruby, 2008 ITI

I have asked other racers if they experience swelling. Most admit to a much milder version at one time and others, I get a shrug of the shoulders as it's par for the course. I now pay particular attention to the way people look at the end of the race in McGrath. Swelling is easily explained right? Punishing our bodies to extreme limits, days at a time on lack of sleep can certainly account for a build-up of toxins and cause some localized swelling- especially if there is an overuse injury. But edema is the buildup of fluid in the body not localized except by gravity (my face was puffy when lying flat and my legs swollen when upright).

Before the Susitna race this year I asked a friend of mine, who is a sports medicine doc and knows my history, to consider me a patient . He mulled it over and finally said "it's got to be hypoanatremia, there's no other explanation". Hypoanatremia is a situation where there is too little sodium in your body fluids. It is a well known condition in any endurance race and can be dangerous. You may start retaining fluid (though there are other serious conditions that cause edema in ultra's) and many ultra running races have weigh in stations to check weight for this condition.

Sodium

Nutrition is easy to blame in endurance races. Hitting the wall, bonking, dying like a pig whatever the term it's all related to reaching a point of depletion, nutritional or training related. I've spent a lot of time thinking about replenishing calories during a race and less on "electrolytes". Lately I've been more focused on electrolytes. Electrolytes are generally sodium, chloride and potassium lost by sweating. Sodium replenishment is easily overlooked, after all, every trail food on the planet has salt (sodium chloride) in peanuts, jerky, pretzels, Cheetos, potato chips, etc and every checkpoint we gorge on some super high calorie yummy sodium filled delights. If anything I assumed I was low on potassium and that was the major reason for adding electrolyte tablets.

Occasionally, I follow some of the ultra running races and read race reports with interest in their nutrition description. I noticed that many of the top racers are "eating" not only gu packetsss an hour but also adding an S cap each hour. It seemed standard practice and I began to pay more attention to sodium. Sodium and potassium loss is entirely dependant on how much we sweat and other complicated individual physiological factors, but most directly related to sweat. According to this article in sports medicine the recommendation for endurance racing (longer than 4 hours) is to replenish 300 - 1000 ml of water an hour and about .5 up to 1 gram of sodium (~2.5 grams of salt) per hour! First of all that's quite a range and shows how varying conditions (temperature, humidity) can be in a race. Second of all that seems like a lot per hour for a lower intensity 350 or 1000 mile (cold temp) snow bike race.

Then I read this article on horse racing and electrolyte replenishment, made me glad I wasn't a horse. A horse can sweat 10 liters / hour when racing in some cases. That's 50 grams of sodium, 83 chloride and 52 grams potassium. 50 grams of sodium would be 10 cans of spam an hour! Ouch, can you imagine carrying hydration and calories for a race with that amount to consume? Thorough bred horse racing is intriguing because there is a ton of money on a good horse. It pays to know these things and the owner/rider is going to push that horse to its' limits. Me, on the other hand, I ain't no thorough bred but I do put myself on the edge physically at times. It's nice to know electrolyte replacement is not unique to human athletes.

Na+ Calculations
In the 2008 ITI by day 10 I had been doing consecutive 18 hr days of bike pushing. When asked about my nutrition I would say “yes, I felt like I was completely replenishing my electrolytes…” Hmmm, 18 hrs a day of exhausting bike pushing through deep snow—according to the article above I should be taking in 9-18 grams of sodium/ day!!!... that’s something like 18 cans of beef broth or 18 bags mountain house meals or 30 (2 oz) bags of Cheetos or 4 complete bags of pretzel rods or 54 gu packets a DAY just to get my sodium. Not quite a horse's intake but um no, I wasn't even close not even half.

In the 2010 ITI I came into Rohn unrecognizable with swelling. It was (hot) close to 40 degrees and I had been pushing for over 24 hrs straight. It took me 16 hours to recover and keep going. And I did keep going all the way to Nome and didn't swell again after that. Why? Don't really know. The temp dropped -20 to -50 the rest of the race, maybe I didn't sweat as much?

2011 Tri's:
Lake Stevens Triathlon (Temp 60-70) Timberman Tri (Temp 80-90)
Time: 5 hrs 00 mi 5 hrs 01 min
Hydration: 2 liters with 2 nuun tabs 3 liters with 2 nuun tabs
Caloric intake: 1,000 (5 gu packets) 1,000 (5 gu packets)
Sodium intake: 1.6 grams 1.6 grams
Possible Na+ Used 5 grams 5+ grams
Na+ depletion: 3.4 grams 3.4+ grams

It's science but not really rocket science, it's more of a "duh" moment than an "aha" one. But we'll see if improvement is on the way. I rec'd my S Caps in the mail, now I just have to get out for a long ride....and I have another dr. f who may be willing to complete basic blood panels to check my personal electrolyte levels throughout.... so...to be continued..

Fall Activities

2011-09-19T21:41:00.000-08:00

Technically not yet fall, but it sure is starting to feel like it... even with nice weekends like this...

Cutting wood for the winter, (an ongoing never ending) family activity.

Wish it were my moose but it's not, just helping cut up some meat.

Hahnah's hand next to a small grizz print.

Sarah reading to the kids on the beach.

Hoka Review

2011-09-11T22:25:00.002-08:00

It has been about 3 months since I received my Hoka Bondi-B running shoes. I thought I would review the overall experience. I am not a runner, meaning I have no real formal coaching in this sport have never run XC or track or long distance. While I have used running routinely for many years to cross train, my speed is not especially fast. Particularly, since the culmination of a knee injury on my rowing venture (2005) followed by massive injury on the ITI (2008), running started to become painful anywhere from 3 -12 miles on a given day. This made it difficult to build up a running base. I could not get over 12 miles without leg or knee complaints that told me (in the little voice that I used to ignore when younger), 'you better stop.'

However, in order to do sort of decent in a longer triathlon I simply had to increase my speed this summer. Aerobically, I had no issues but running competitively fast never came easy compounded by intermittent migrating knee/hip/leg pain. Then I heard about the Hoka shoe from various ultrarunner blogs. But it was this guys consistent performance and accolades to the shoe that got me to actually purchase the pricey item. I was intensely curious if a shoe could really make a difference. I started keeping detailed track of my training runs, if you could even call it that- sometimes my weekly swims and runs almost equalled each other in distance. Pre-Hoka I was running a sad 8-16 miles per week or 40-60 miles a month at the most, that’s usually 1-2 times (hours) a week. With the Hoka I was able to "ramp" up my mileages in July to 87 miles (10 hrs 36 min) and August was 112 miles (15 hrs 29 min)--. That said it is both discouraging and encouraging to track folks who run 100 trail mile races at faster speeds than my cumulative monthly times.

In any case, I have absolutely no pain in legs, hips or knees. I now routinely run 11-13 miles and occasionally throw a 20 miler in the mix. Maybe it’s the Hoka, partly the Hoka’s or in my head but I certainly will keep running in them. The only issue I had was my foot was sliding around a little bit from constantly dumping water on myself to cool off during the two tri races. The water got in my shoe, my foot slid around and voila instant blisters and lifted toenails. But that's my abnormal foot's fault, and no I won't post pics of that.

Clipless

2011-09-03T13:06:00.001-08:00

Clipless pedals are sometimes a hotly debated topic in biking. I used to be ambivalent, opting for platform pedals. It made a lot of sense in snow biking, hopping on and off the bike frequently and plus I never tried clipless before. The past few years of doing more triathlons led to an actual entry level road bike this year.

GT Carbon bike

I started off training in platforms and quickly realized I was barely getting above an 18 mph average on training runs. I never really paid attention to speed as my usual snow bike training consisted of going out in storms in horrid conditions, pushing a bike or doing some weird tundra trip. I was in new territory. So when REI had a couple of great sales I couldn’t pass up the deal and ordered some of these

and some of these.

My first time out on clipless my speed [on my (ridiculous) paved loop] increased closer to 20mph and by the time I did my tri’s I managed 20 mph for the first race at 56 miles and 21mph a week later on the second one. I feel like I could squeeze out 22 or 23 mph with a better bike and/or more training. I was surprised how much I liked road/tri biking and tinkering with aero and geometry of riding. The clipless seemed to exponentially help reduce my leg fatigue and climb hills while feeling connected to the bike. That said I had some whopping falls, forgetting I was clipped at stops or stalling on hills.

Yesterday, I put these on the fat bike and went for a ride.

After riding tri style most of the summer the snow bike geometry took a little getting used but I really liked the feel of clipless on the snow bike. Biking across tundra is technical and the pedal significantly improved my ability to navigate and go uphill… that is until I stalled and fell over. It will certainly take some time to get used to and I will likely order some MTB style pedals. The verdict is out on whether to use them on the next ITI but I have a feeling I will…

Timberman Tri, 70.3

2011-08-23T09:55:00.000-08:00

Brother, sis-in-law, me

family & friends

Another triathlon down, this one was in New Hampshire, a little different from last weeks in Seattle area. The scenery was great, my brother and friends were there to participate as well. It was great fun but I completely blew up on the run. Maybe a week is not long enough recovery or maybe the heat but the run was horrendous for me, 10 minutes slower than last week. I think at one point I was drooling.

The swim was a little faster at 31 minutes for 1.2 miles and the bike an average 21 mph at 2 hrs 38 minutes for 56 miles also a little faster but the run.... 1 hr 48 minutes for an average 8 min 11 sec mile talk about bonking. I missed breaking 5 hrs, again, by 2 minutes this time. Of course now I am going to be a little obsessed to break 5 in the future. The tri's are really well organized for over 2,000 people and we even got to see the world champion herself, Chrissie Wellington, race smoking most of the pro guys. She handed out finisher medals for over an hour too including when my brother finished. About 2hrs after I finished the race had to be shutdown for a wicked thunderstorm that barrelled in with horizontal race and lighting all over. Kind of cool ending.

Otherwise, having a blast in the lower 48 visiting family and will be sad to leave. Hahnah and family having a great time these past couple of weeks.

Lake Stevens 70.3 Triathlon

2011-08-18T19:01:00.000-08:00

I can't quite say Ironman since it really is a half even though it is part of the ironman series. Last weekend while visiting family in Washington I had signed up for the Lake Stevens half. It was great fun. I certainly wish I could write up a report with a great deal of self deprecating detail; there was a lot of Lycra, fancy ass bikes and some funny moments but I just can't pull that off like others can. I like tri's because they are strictly designed for speed and you simply have to have a ton of logistics together for each event. People actually hand you stuff to eat and drink during the race, now that is wild. It was great to see pros smoking the course too. In any event here's the summary:

A 4am drive (thank you Seth & family for letting me stay at your place!) for the 6:30 am start. The bike lot was awesome, I was amazed at the expense of these bikes all in one place. My heat was almost dead last which meant I started in 1029th place, practically and there were never ending people to pass. It really sucked on the swim, which actually was not my best for 1.2 miles at 32 minutes. That's what happens when the pool closes 2 months ago in Nome for maintenance. Oh well, I held back a bit and it set me up for a good bike course. A fair amount of hills and a top speed of 52 mph, that was fun! I did an average of 20 mph for a time of 2:43 for 56 miles. The 13.1 mile run was completed in 1hr 38 minutes also pretty good, for me. I felt fine but was kind of bummed to miss breaking 5 hr mark for a time of 5 hrs 35 seconds. I blame it on the 3 minute port a potty break I had to take because I was dumb enough to hold it at the beginning.

Swim course taken day before event.

Finishline, taken day before.

Bike lot at 6 am.

I get to do it again this weekend in the Timberman 70.3 while visiting my east coast family. We'll see if I am recovered or blow up. I didn't have any soreness but who knows if the ole body can handle the heat!

Sunny Photo Sunday

2011-08-02T17:15:00.000-08:00

After the 7th rainiest July on record the sun peaked out this weekend in time for a few more photos of fun.

My turn playing music with Joe and my mosquito bitten forehead.

Welcome home party for some great friends who moved back to Nome.

Grand Central Valley

2011-07-31T22:35:00.000-08:00

Drive drive drive

On Saturday I had about 4 hours to do something out in the country. I rushed to put together my fatbike and bare essentials and drove out to Grand Central. One of my favorite valley's, my goal was to see how a fat bike would do on the "trail". It's a very tundra, bushwacky trail to the base of mnt osbourne, the highest peak on the Seward Peninsula at ~ 4,800 ft. I did this one a number of times but last time was with a crappy bike and had a taco tire within a few miles. I only made it half way up the valley before I ran out of time but it was great to scope out a new route... straight up the grand central river. Better than tundra whacking, high willows and thrashing the bike. Next time will be to the top of Osbourne with the fatbike.

Nice views up the valley

Bare essentials, which one is the mosquito repellent??

Straight up grand cental river

Yes the fat bike does float.....

Three little bears... and momma.

2011-07-27T17:19:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine, Chris, took his friends on the Kuzitrin River last weekend and around one of the bends was this rowdy bunch. Great images and glad he gave me a few copies to post. All Photo credit goes to: Thomas Covington.

Photo by Thomas Covington

Just makes you want to get a really good zoom lens camera.... don't it?

Future songwriters

2011-07-26T12:12:00.001-08:00

This is a classic photo. Sarah put on a songwriter showcase again this past weekend, I believe it's her 6th one in Nome. Here she is singing with Joe on her back. His first stage appearance conked out. Awesome. It didn't seem too long ago we were doing the same thing with Hahnah and now Hahnah made her debut singing "Twinkle Twinkle". Not her own song but not bad for age 3. Wish I had a picture of that.

Birds of prey... on me.

2011-07-24T22:15:00.001-08:00

The past week of running and biking found the occasional swoop from a seagull but I never got the nano out in time for a video, especially while biking. There does not seem to be a pattern or a place just sort of random areas where the gulls come down and scare the heck outta me. Once I almost wiped out on the bike because one did a dive bomb. Not to drag it out or make it dramatic because in some ways it's fun. I firmly believe these birds are enjoying doing it. I added a song since my mic must be off, I thought "Nuttin but stringz" was appropriate.

Untitled from Philip Hofstetter on Vimeo.

2011-07-23T23:24:00.000-08:00

Doesn't it look like Hawaii? Helicopter rides, swimming and an awesome bbq... What a rockin' department picnic... in Nome!! Thanks Jamie and Ben!

Beach Day

2011-07-17T21:52:00.001-08:00

Look at those clouds, a short break in rain, rain, rain.

Hahnah not afraid of the Bering Sea.

Wind tunnels and seagulls

2011-07-16T11:45:00.003-08:00

Who needs a wind tunnel when you live in Nome. I've been training for this triathlon and this one for August and have been "trying" to ride my new road bike. "Trying" is the key word.  Oh yeah, while Nome has hundreds of miles of gravel road we only have 10 miles of paved road, that is a loop.   Oh yeah, it hasn't stopped raining in 2 weeks and oh yeah it is constantly blowing 20-30 mph. All I could think of when riding is that I am in a wind tunnel with a sadist at the control board. "Ok turn on the rain", "crank up the wind", "no I want a cross wind", "lower that temperature to 39", "lets see how those entry level 105 cranks handle some dirt".

Aero (and geometry) are the key in tri's and finding a comfortable tuck is a little hard to do in a cross wind. The last two rides were 25 miles in 1 hr 10 minutes and I was so cold I couldn't feel my legs or feet. A 25 mph headwind in the rain going 17 mph at 40 degrees is a lot of windchill and a lot of discomfort. I'd rather ride the fatbike going 3 mph in a snowstorm at -20.  I admit having a light carbon road bike is fun, it's fast and wildly dangerous but it doesn't seem like a workout to me.  It's more just plain chaos. I can't tell if my heart rate is up because I'm so focused on technique, comfort, small adjustments, paying intense attention to the road and trying to survive a ride in crappy weather.

Since the pool closed on July 1st I have had to alternate running and biking with weight training.  Because of upcoming triathlons I am focusing on speed training rather than distance and realize (although not surprising) I don't have any speed. The hoka's are definitely allowing me to run more. In addition to my usual 8 mile loop I was able to complete a 20 mile training run and more recently a 12 mile Anvil mnt race but I just can't get faster than 7-8 min miles.

To top it off, during my run yesterday I got attacked. Nope it wasn't the sled dog that was loose when I passed by a doglot but a ridiculously aggressive seagull a few miles later. There I was running along in my own world when I casually glanced to my left and saw a seagull, at eye level, silently diving what must be 30 mph straight at me. I ducked at the last minute and the gull extended his feet screeching at the same time, pissed as hell. It was a devil reincarnate as it gained some height circled around and made for another dive bomb. What the heck!? I've had my share of animal encounters but a seagull? Geez. On its second dive I was too busy watching the gull and not where I was going and tripped and fell flat on my face. Gravel embedded in my hand, I scrapped my knee and drew blood. I ran down the road as fast as I could. I might have to go back and get video of this lunatic bird, likely protecting a nest but glad no one got video of me.

Newton

2011-07-09T22:18:00.000-08:00

Short but fun ride.

Tundra is never as smooth as it looks.

Yeah this is good.

2011-07-05T12:55:00.000-08:00

I don't normally hijack from someone else's post but gee this is good... really really great.

Click here or here.

Just makes you want to do something a little more than what you normally do.

Stewart River Valley

2011-06-26T21:08:00.000-08:00

Another great ride today, thanks to Tyler who tried out his newly acquired Pugsly. We went up glacier creek road till the end and rode the 4-wheeler trail to Stewart River valley and the Sinuk river. It was 31 miles and a lot more mud than I wanted on my drivetrain. Nevertheless a good forage.

We stopped at our friends camp who happened to be enjoying the weekend too. Thanks for the orange!

Tyler on a small snow section.

Looking at Tigaraha Mnt. and the kigs

Creeks were part of the trail not just crossings.

A little creek running through the 4-wheeler track. Tyler's Pugsly getting a good intro to riding.

Summer Fat

2011-06-23T12:34:00.000-08:00

A short fat bike ride after work but before dinner; just love how easy it is to access these rides. Getting fancy with the video on my nano, even added a favorite song and everythin'.

Untitled from Philip Hofstetter on Vimeo.

Road Trip

2011-06-10T22:50:00.002-08:00

Nome's road system is pretty cool, we drew straws and chose Teller. A 70 mile trip from Nome with the family. Lots of fun, good pics and pleasant weather. I was able to daydream about some future excursions and recognized scenery from past ones (with a bit of nostalgia).

hmmm which way to take the truck across?

Picnic on the way.

Thanks for the truck switch Chris, much more comfy!

Teller

At Teller Beach spit, but what am I doing?

Picking quiviat off the willow.

The Kigs... sigh.

Gold dredge history.

Hoka what?

2011-06-08T22:12:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I thought it would be "fun" to increase my routine 8 mile run "lap" and run it twice. 8+8= 16 miles and yet I felt: (pain)=10log(pain). It was amazing how poorly my hips and knees felt, recovery was fine but hmmm something new or an old ITB acting up... Ever since even my 8 mile run is painful at the end and begins exactly at mile 3.7. I don't want to give up running, it's not really great fun but it allows me to mix up the excercise week-- cross training, a key tool for the older exercising fanatics. I've been reading about the Hoka One shoes for the past year and see a lot of 'older' yet top ultra runners reporting less injury or less soreness. Well that's for me! I don't have a coach telling me how to run properly (nor do I want one) and I simply want to perceive if there is a difference. If a few millimeters on a bike seat can have exponential effects on knees and performance why not shoes too. I received the Bondi B, for the second time (the first time the size was a little small), a few weeks ago and with them ran a few of the 8 mile laps as well as a triathlon last weekend. Here are my graded impressions for the average joe shmoe runner:

1. I immediately noticed I was 2 inches taller. A+
2. It was so springy I kept bouncing up and down so much my daughter thought it was a fun game. A+
3. The sizing is ok, a little on the small side but one can't count on my clods. Aside from my wide flat feet something happened to the size of my feet after the "swelling incident" a few years ago. B+
4. Expensive but not when you compare it to a PT or physicians exam or radiology. A-
5. I've been doing the same "lap" for years and for the first time I ran an average 7:10 per mile without too much trouble and .... oh yeah no pain, anymore. A++++

As for the triathlon: The Stroke and Croak is a very fun event that I try to complete each year. My swim was slower than last year but otherwise...
1.6 km swim: 22min 30 sec.
4 mile run: ~30 min.
8 mile bike: ~26 min
T1:2 min.

...3 minutes faster overall than last year. probably b/c of this:

and this.... (never had one of these before, just couldn't pass up that REI special on a carbon frame....)

Saturday

2011-05-28T22:03:00.000-08:00

As I was having my coffee this morning I casually checked the weather online and couldn’t believe my eyes, 68 degrees! And an offshore north wind which brings warm interior temps. The weekend house projects were placed on hold and we gathered our “stuff” for a beach day as fast as turtles. Anytime you pack for a day in Nome things could change so quickly so you have to account for everything. Lots of stuff in the truck and off we went to the beach. The warm wind felt fantastic, like Hawaii. It was incredible. My daughter and I brought wetsuits planning on swimming till we rushed in the water. …

oh yeah there was still ice on the ocean so the temps were pretty painful. We tried to stay in but it was too cold for any length of time. Then we switched to the kayak and that was fun.

Joseph's first real long fresh air outing.

After a looong day at the beach there was still plenty of daylight for a bike ride. Hahnah wanted to go so I put her in the child seat and off we went. It's great having an extra 30 lbs to grunt through a bike ride. The fatbike is fabulous for stability and off road riding with Hahnah. She endured 12 miles on the bike with a pretty stiff headwind going to Anvil Mnt.

I was anticipating an easy tailwind return only to be thwarted by a super fast wind switch. Now it was another headwind coming from the ocean and it was mucho chilly. I was really getting used to 75 degrees and sunny.... oh well. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

First kayak of the year

2011-05-19T21:19:00.001-08:00

Shore ice moved out today

Best time to kayak before it all blows out to sea.

Found these endo/larry's on the beach and they weren't mine, awesome!!

Fat for two

2011-04-30T21:36:00.000-08:00

Got a seat for Hahnah on my bike. It works great, nothing like an extra 30 lbs to roll around. I highly recommend the stem placement seat, much more control and better c

enter of gravity.

Here's a reflected picture from a puddle of our good friends house; the oldest house in Nome and also a place I lived a few years back.

Summer Time

2011-04-17T21:11:00.000-08:00

... kind of. At least it felt like summer today with the reflected sunshine and I'm sure it was warmer than some summer days.

Back to the grind

2011-04-16T13:58:00.001-08:00

The past few weeks were a blur of adjusting to a family of 4, travel to Chicago and getting into a groove of working and workouts. The weather has been an interesting combination of intense sun and cold. At night the ambient temps were below zero at times (even during the day) but the sun still melted the snow. The melt - freeze cycle has created great trails to ride my bike so I was excited to go for a longer 2 hr ride this morning.

I ass-u-me-(d) the snow would have this pristine melted crust. My plan was to go cross country off trail to my friends house about 10 miles out of Nome say hello and loop back home.

Spin and spin in place

Snowboarding with my bike.

As soon as I got off trail the snow was, unusually, full of friction. I wasn't breaking through deeply but I simply would spin in place, the snow had this weird loose slippery feel to it. Even on an old snow machine track I just couldn't grab any purchase. It was incredibly frustrating, probably one of my more frustrating rides ever... maybe because I was expecting fast trails. I had to air down almost risking breaking the bead in granny gear mashing and mashing only going 2.6 -3.4 mph.

Finally back on a firm 14 mph trail.

I never made it to my friends house but I did manage to get on a well used trail that was super fast, finally. The snow never ceases to amaze me in the variations of conditions. On the low traveled trails or off trail, the sun seemed to eat under the crust causing pockets while the cold caused sort of a frost that was super slippery. Kind of like riding on a bike trainer with high resistance.

Spring day

2011-03-26T22:51:00.000-08:00

A brilliant bike ride on a spring day grinding through the crust.

A little sledding action to top off the day.

Jerym Bruton finished the ITI today at 3 pm in 27 days as a walker.

Tim's Finish

2011-03-20T15:16:00.001-08:00

Another epic moment to watch Tim Hewitt, yet again, to finish in Nome. His 6th finish of 20 days 7 hrs 17 min completely killing the old record (that was also his) for the southern route and beating the northern route record as well. A few images and video clip of Tim.

At the finish line

Tim pretending to mush over the finish.

Eating his lasagna at our house

Untitled from Philip Hofstetter on Vimeo.

The video has an additional piece from Topkok a few days ago. I'm trying to get a little fancier with inserting titles but otherwise not extremely interesting. The day I took video of Topkok when it was blowing I was able to grab a shot before going in to the windy section but it completely froze up when trying to take video in the blowhole while the bikers rode in it.

ITI images

2011-03-17T13:25:00.000-08:00

Jay entering the blowhole. Notice the blue sky and white blur in the distance which is the ground storm.

Aiden coming down topkok hills toward the coast.

Aiden at the finish around 12:15 am.

Jay at the finish, 9pm.

Iditarod events, cont'd...

2011-03-15T20:41:00.000-08:00

This morning John Baker from Kotzebue arrived first in the Iditarod in record time. It was very very very cool. Not to long after was Ramy Smith running his dogs in.

March images

2011-03-14T12:19:00.000-08:00

justchillin

woodcuttin...

...olefashionedway

hahnah

Iditarod Events

2011-03-12T21:03:00.000-09:00

It's been a long time since I experienced a long stretch of sunny warm weather in Nome. It's been almost 20 degrees every day, bright sunshine and no wind. I haven't seen anything like it in quite a while. Usually if it's sunny with no wind it's cold cold cold -20 or colder. The last storm or any significant wind was weeks ago. Iditarod and the ITI appear to be encompassed in pretty perfect conditions. The lack of wind no storm and high sun have glazed the trail.

The next week is loaded with Iditarod events around town. One of my favorites is the Nome-Golovin snow machine race which occurred today. It's hard not to get the fever of wanting to race this 200 mile cross country run to Golovin and back. The record is something like a little over 2 hrs, that is almost averaging 100 mph. We went to watch which was neat to see all the hubbub.

Here's a little excerpt close to the finish.

Untitled from Philip Hofstetter on Vimeo.

New addition, great story...

2011-03-11T12:13:00.000-09:00

Midwife Jenn, assisting Sarah W

...except a few pictures and my words cannot possibly express the wonderful event that happened in our house at 9:40 am March 8th in Nome. My incredible wife delivered a beautiful baby boy on our bed with the help of an awesome midwife, our friend & neighbor Sarah to assist and possibly even my foot massages & backrubs. There is a lot to this great story but I am not sure if I can write it all out on a blog; however I love Nome for the simple reason of friends, family and support so close by.

Hahnah, baby Joseph and Sarah

I think I look a little like "um what just happened?"

Thanks to you all!!!!

ITI Envy

2011-03-06T18:06:00.002-09:00

I admit it, I have ITI envy after (and before) watching some incredible racing this past week. If you haven't done so you are missing out. It was really cool to see Pete and Jeff battle it out online, something I could hardly witness on the trail. Then Mr. Fatback Greg take in 3rd, followed by Louise kill the woman's record. All 4 on Fatbacks.... might have to consider one of them new fangled bikes. I just saw a posting that Tim Hewitt and Eric Johnson competed for a tie in the foot division going 13.5 hrs the last 50 miles from Nickolai to McGrath. Simply incredible, what's more Tim left for Nome 8 hrs later.

As for me... well waiting for a new baby but also enjoying the good weather in Nome this week.

Storm Central

2011-02-24T20:23:00.000-09:00

We've been having another series of storms rolling through Nome. Took a little video again while shoveling out the snow during a break in the weather. I think all my videos now have wind, hmmm maybe Nome is windy?

Untitled from Philip Hofstetter on Vimeo.

Susitna 100

2011-02-22T21:18:00.003-09:00

Good, bad.... good.

The good is that I tried something new, the Susitna 100.

The bad is that I wish I could say I was using it to warm up for the ITI…but I cannot line up at the ITI this year.

The good is that I can’t line up because our 2nd baby is due really really soon.

I foolishly thought I could sneak out of the house, finish the ITI and come home none the wiser. Silly me, I will just have to wait till next year....

It'll sure be strange to sit back and watch the ITI unfold this year, maybe even provide unabridged inappropriate commentary or something to compensate for armchairing it. I'll certainly try to round up a welcoming party for those fools going on to Nome this year, though my house is going to be off limits, new baby and all. If I can get away by bike or snow machine I'll even try to capture on trail photos between Unalakleet and Nome. We'll see.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Susitna 100

I suppose I should write up a race report of sorts for the su100. I went into this race with very little motivation and expectation. I signed up late and couldn't even make the prerace meeting as it was hard enough to get away from Nome. To top it off I came down with significant head cold the day before I went to Anchorage. However, I was able to get some professional wheel tweaking at Speedway before the race, which I was super glad to watch the pros working my bike. The new wheel set made a huge difference on flotation especially after running large marges for so long.

On race day I arrived early, got my "late gear check ticket" (there were three of us that had to do a late gear check since we were not at the prerace) and pulled out my gear. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to socialize because I was trying to figure out how I was going to get my bike organized after the check. Jeff O was the only person I was able to talk with. It was good to see a familiar face in a sea of about 120 racers in all kinds of gear. I knew a few ITI racers were signed up but couldn't find anyone else at the time. After the rather casual 9am start the RD came over and assessed our gear and weighed it. I don't really know how long it took, it sure seemed forever. Kevin from Fairbanks (I think) was in the same boat as me. He was biking and another guy was walking. After I was checked out, I put it all back together ...again felt like forever... and took off almost dead last.

Starting from the back is definitely a strategy I would not recommend. The first few miles are on a side trail with what seemed like a herd of moose ran through. I had to significantly deflate my tires to ride and worry about getting to close to people. At least it kept me busy. The first 22 miles to flathorn went by fast and the checkpoint folks were really awesome. In fact the race seemed really well organized and all checkpoints were awesome. The trail was in great shape, the weather even better; clear with temps from below zero to single digits. On dismal swamp I had to firm up my tires and Kevin passed me on his 29-er snowcats cruising. There was some headwind on the river that became stronger as the day went on to some strong gusts up at Alexander Lake. Wind is my forte so I felt pretty charged going in to Alexander Lake. The turnaround was now a tail wind, obviously a fun change. According to the website it took me 7hrs 35 min to Alexander Lake (50 mile) and 6 hrs 52 min to return. I took no pictures which is too bad since there were some nice shots for the taking, hope someone grabbed a few.

Overall, it was an enjoyable race that was very competitive, it's good to see the super fast leaders coming back on the trail too. This felt like an ideal pre-ITI race too and sorely wish I were out there next week. It's completely different but a great way to see how speedy/strong the legs are, check your gear and if things are running well. I was also able to check my edema issues on this shorter race and was happy to see I had none. I spent a lot of time "not" giving in to my thirst and balance the sodium/water levels better. No weight gained and felt great with fast recovery.

Mornings

2011-02-07T17:21:00.000-09:00

There's nothing quite like sitting on the Bering Sea after the sun rises. I love the weekends and when the weather is decent I can take Hahnah outside. It's like a mad rush to pack in as much as possible; playing on the Bering Sea ice, ice skating in the local rink, snow maching to her favorite playground and of course eating at Subway for lunch.

As quickly as the calm sunny day arrived it left. I woke up this morning to a (surprise) windy morning for my ride to the pool. Unfortunately, had to resort to 7mph on the road as opposed to 3 mph or less grunt on the trail to make it on time. Couldn't help to take a small snippet of video with my nano ipod. Another video with wind noise, yippee. Lately, it's been much more fun (and easier to carry) taking these poor quality videos than photos. Although, I wish I would have taken the video when the wind was at my back for a new fatbike PR road speed of 28mph.

Untitled from Philip Hofstetter on Vimeo.

Just...

2011-01-27T23:30:00.000-09:00

...anudder day in paradise. Getting ready for my evening run, this wind has been a fairly typical scenario lately.

Untitled from Philip Hofstetter on Vimeo.

Mechanically challenged

2011-01-23T15:45:00.002-09:00

The temperature dropped to -24, which by itself isn't horrible, but for some reason my truck decided it wasn't going to start along with my chainsaw and electric failure on my snow machine. All are relatively easy fixes but then my fat bike decided to have a pinch flat. My snow machine, chainsaw and bike are in various disassembly in the garage. So I decided to go for an unmechanized 10 mile run and here's what it looks like afterwards at -20 or -30 windchill.

My face was actually fine but I didn't really dress as warmly as I should have and had a cold run.

Nice!

2011-01-16T19:09:00.000-09:00

A nice ride, nice day and nice trail.

Couldn't have been a more perfect day and conditions for riding.

Am very pleased with my ITI kit this year, basically the same as last year but with some lighter modifications.

A great divide, the beginning

2011-01-13T22:26:00.000-09:00

I flew to Wales this week and couldn't help but capture a beautiful noon sunrise while flying over the Bering Sea looking at the York Mountains. These video images are probably benign to most but when I look down I see places where I have camped on the beach or passed in the kayak. Memories of those struggles flood in and it's always amazing how effortless it seems to fly over a spot where you had incredible epics.

Cape prince of wales, the most western tip of the North American continent, is usually a pretty windy, wild spot but this day was unique, clear and windless. On a side note this place is the actual start of the great continental divide. So I really think the Tour Divide bike race needs to pony up and change their start to here, the real beginning of the divide. That was a joke but... uh-oh too late I feel an obsession coming on...

Untitled from Philip Hofstetter on Vimeo.

Swooping over the ocean for the landing we could see Diomede and mainland Russia-- Wales is one of three places that can (truly) see Russia from the US; Wales, Gambell and Diomede (that I know of). Tin City, also if one climbs the cape but not sure if a military outpost counts.

Post Christmas Day Ride...

2010-12-26T20:59:00.000-09:00

I read this weather report today and just had to go out for a ride..."Mostly cloudy. Areas of blowing snow in the evening. Lows 15 to 20 below. North winds 20 to 30 mph. Wind chill to 50 below." I bundled up, brought my Kestrel weather instrument along to see what actual wind, temp and windchills were and rode the fatbike for a few hours. The strongest wind was 37 mph in one of the channelled areas and windchill of -33. Not too terrible. There were really nice pics to be had and I had every intention of taking pictures but my camera completely froze up. Makes this post a little boring unfortunately, since it was one of my more intense rides lately. But I will post a Christmas Day pic instead.

The ride had all the good components to make it interesting; wind, low temps, wind, pushing through deep snow and some more wind. The bike computer held up ok and it was nice to log stats. My slowest speed (riding) going uphill against the raging north wind was 2.4 mph and my fastest was 26 mph heading back to town... fastest on my fatbike ever. I am happy with my new rims, new drivetrain and my old gear. I realized today that I don't have to replace much gear this year, most of it still works really well. I'm actually kind of impressed, there are a series of gear pieces that will be going into my 4th ITI.

Subway

2010-12-12T12:10:00.000-09:00

Nome has the best Subway shop in the world. I eat here with Hahnah regularly, she chicken noodle soup and me a sandwich. It may sound funny but the produce is the freshest of any subway I've ever eaten and the view... well it's like we're on a boat in the Bering Sea. The windows face the sea and it's about 20 yards away. Just thought I'd share.

Stuck

2010-12-05T12:10:00.000-09:00

This is where I've been the past week, Gambell, an island in the Bering Sea. It also happens to be one of my regular & favorite places too. There aren't too many times when I haven't been weathered in. Stormy, stuck but also a gem to test a few pieces of new gear. There aren't too many places I've experienced so rugged and harsh of a climate. When the weather cleared it was still blowing well over 30 mph, I wish I took video of unloading loading the plane while the pieces of cargo blowing across the runway. To fly in here is not for the faint of heart or the novice, only the pros tackle this place regularly & safely. Glad to be home though!

Busted Creek

2010-11-14T22:31:00.000-09:00

Buster Creek trail was a bust. I rode from town to where the trail begins and rapidly realized the single digit temps have done little to freeze up overflow, marsh and the river.

Overflow on the trail

I also forgot that these creeks are fed by springs not easily frozen. It was a delicate bushwack the first 3 miles without overboots to get to higher ground where I thought the trail would be hard packed.

...more overflow on the trail

Open lead

Willow bushwacking

Not exactly riding but eventually I was able to ride the ridgeline and peak over into the Flambeaux valley- my initial destination. A little too early in the season and a little ambitious but still a solid 5 hour ride/drudge & 30 miles according to my bike computer by the time I got home.

Pushing

Ahhh finally hardpack trail

Fat Again

2010-11-09T20:44:00.000-09:00

After the ITI this year my fatbike was torn down and had a good rest in my garage... till now. Some new parts arrived for my wildfire that are pretty exciting. I had a new wheelset made by Speedway that is lighter and wider and replaced my drivetrain. It was nice to bond with my fatbike again and spend some quality time going through the bike. I am getting tired of using my old beater bike anyway and I would like to go on a grand venture in the Bering Preserve soon.

It'd be great to pass my bike on to a pro mechanic and say here fix it up (as I’ve done when the bike is stored in Anchorage) but since I live here in Nome there is no access to that kind of love. It’s always good to learn the bike though.. but each time I work on it I find that there are these specialized tools that I never seem to have. So I go on amazon and order one up, wait 2 weeks and then move forward until I have to remove something else that I can’t do without a “special” tool. This happened again while replacing the front chainrings. Apparently, chainrings just can’t be screwed in place with a standard allen screw it has to have a ridiculous (b/c I don’t have the tool) notched backing. One could almost use a screwdriver but would risk ruining it. I was frustrated enough to attempt to make my own tool…. This has never worked before but every now and then something I fabricate actually functions. Crude but effective.

So happy to have the fatbike working again ready to roll. Now I just gotta scratch the itch for the next madventure TBA.

Plans

2010-11-02T13:02:00.000-08:00

One last wood gathering expedition, at least with trucks. The snow and sand were just enough not to get stuck. We had a south wind storm last week that I thought would bring in fresh wood but instead it cleaned the beach.

Last weekend Halloween party, I dressed up as my wife- pregnant and all.

A busy month without a great deal to post on extra curricular outdoor activities. Weekly rides and runs, locally, that are invigorating with the drop in temps and stiff wind but nothing spectacular.

I have been mulling over a good sized bike ride into the Bering Land Preserve now that the snow is here. The preserve is a highly inaccessible (difficult) place to get to located in the northern part of the peninsula. No mining, no motorized vehicles and location make this an ideal remote area to explore. My friend Tyler and I did a hike a few years ago into it and that only whet my appetite. I've always wanted to get back in there again. The geology is incredibly interesting (and untouched); aside from the hot springs, and lava fields it also holds the largest maar lake in the world. More on this forming plan later...

Not Nome

2010-10-15T07:49:00.004-08:00

I was out of town for a little bit attending some training and found Chicago to be a great city. I've been here before but the 80 degree weather and downtown stay allowed me to explore the city. I discovered right next to my hotel was a major running path that went for miles. It was trippy to be in a major downtown city and only a block away there was a great lake with beach and all. Usually, in Nome I am out alone on my rides or runs so it was kind of exciting to be among swarms of people out running, biking, roller blading and walking. Surprisingly, there were some strict unwritten rules that made the blend of people exercising low stress. No run ins with bikes and such. It made the experience nice to be among a lot of people but no one interfering with the workout (i.e. loose dogs, blocking path). The Chicago Marathon was the day before I left and I really tried to gain an entry a few weeks prior, but apparently these events are quite popular and long closed out... something like 40,000 people. The guy who won it, from Kenya, averaged a 4:55 mile.... all I can say is holy shiiiii$.

One day I was returning from my class and noticed swarms of police lining the streets and an exciting buzz around the people. I asked what was happening and President Obama was planning on speaking directly across from my hotel at the Drake. I stuck around even after getting herded inside to sneak a peak. It was cool but wow, talk about security and secret service. Got a glimpse of the car and that was about it. Not something one would see in Nome.

Back in Nome a week later, feeling the temps plummet back to inevitable winter. A little snow, a little cold rain and a little halloween preparation and pumpkin carving was in order this week.

2010-09-20T16:44:00.002-08:00

Glacial Lake

My coworker, Jamie, surprised us with a b-day gift for me and the family. A helicopter ride! I have done a lot of things around here but never in a helicopter. It was surreal. I just couldn't believe how accessible, how easy it was to fly somewhere. Glacial Lake is someplace I've always wanted to camp at but it's a challenging hike... we were there in a few minutes! It was so warm and pretty. If you live in Nome you NEED to take a Bering Air chopper ride it is an AWESOME experience. Thank you Ben and Jamie!!!

Add caption

Bering Air Helicopter Ride!

Ben walking us out to the helicopter

Nome Harbor

Helicopters are awesome

Hahnah loving the ride

Hahnah napping, our pilot was that good!

September Blast

2010-09-20T11:44:00.000-08:00

A fall feeling weekend with some nice weather. Yesterday, was an awesome triathlon, September Blast Tri, put on by the Nome High School swim team as a fund raiser. It was a really fun tri with a 6 mile run part of it a trail run on the tundra. The gusting 30 mph wind played a interesting part in the bike. My new bike computer said I went 7 mph against the wind up a hill as my slowest to 41 mph my fastest with the wind on a downhill, which is probably the fastest ever on that bike.... and felt really sketchy on my mnt bike. I completed it with a 14 min 1000 meter swim, 42 min 6 mile run and 25 min 6.7 mile bike. Highly recommend this tri next year, more people should really join this event next year not only for the fun course but to support the swim team.

Coastal flying

2010-09-16T18:01:00.000-08:00

Not a very exciting clip, really,(and horrible editing job) but as I was flying back from Koyuk this week we flew next to one of my favorite sections of coastline in the world. This always beautiful, yet potentially treacherous, 20 miles of cliffs in the Bering Sea is one of my frequently (obsessed) sought kayaking excursions.

Topkok cliffs, Bluff Flying from Philip Hofstetter on Vimeo.

Mellow days

2010-09-12T18:22:00.037-08:00

I finally broke down and got a bike computer. It's a pretty standard issue item especially for training or racing but I was on the fence about owning one. Now I am glad to have it. The problem with it, of course, is that you get addicted to looking at exactly how you are performing every minute of every second. MY problem with it stems back from when I was doing more long distance kayaking. I would stare at the GPS screen and become obsessed with distance and MPH and if I wasn't making my cutoff I would be peeved and amp up my wattage. This usually had a counter productive effect. Obviously, on multi day distances the environment typically dictates your goals no matter how bad you want to make your own goal. So far I haven't become too obsessed and just enjoy a decent ride. It's fun to see the actual distances and MPH of some of my favorite rides and trails around here.

I read an article about this boat the other day. It's a 370+ ft luxury yacht, Octopus, owned my Paul Allen (Microsoft dude) that made (making) a trip through the Northwest Passage. As I was on a foray of firewood cutting this morning I happened to glance toward the ocean and saw the boat. (It certainly seemed bigger than the picture)

The article stated that the ship just parked in front of Nunavut but no one noticed any passengers or crew in town. Nome is a stopping point for most boats traversing through the NW passage so it's not a surprise that it would stop. But it is a little of a surprise no one got off or came into town, that I know of. Similar to Nunavut the ship was parked in front of town (about 3 - 5 miles out) and appeared to silently hang out. Maybe people ported and shuttled to town as I didn't watch it all day but I don't think so. I was sorely tempted to kayak out there but the ship was gone by the afternoon. It's all very mysterious.... hopefully not pretentious.

Otherwise my weekends have been home bound with the exception of a short Unalakleet trip. I was able to catch some nice silvers fishing till late at night. Thanks B$! That helped fill the freezer. I was a little dissappointed about not completing a labor day excursion but house duty and firewood duty called. Plus the weather has been a steady downpouring rain. I was able to redo Hahnah's room and in the process found a plumbing leak. A little out of my comfort zone and hard to find a plumber I luckily had a friend that fixed it up. Thanks Cam! .

wood chopping siesta

Back to kayak

2010-08-26T00:21:00.001-08:00

Earlier this spring my friend Roy and I promised to take some nice folks down the Niyukluk / Fish river from Council to White Mountain this summer. This past weekend was a time when it could happen. It was nice to get back to kayaking and a little nostalgic as I haven't had time to do any overnights lately.

Roy's family camp, half way

Roy is from White Mountain and provided an incredible history and cultural lesson the whole way down. It
was a blast.

The mode of travel was a nice change of pace from my typical go go go attitude. The river was glorious and the weather cooperated. When I have done this segment in the past I usually continue on to Golovin Bay then kayak out on the ocean back to the Lost Train outside Nome. It's a 100 mile strenuous 2 day paddle so it was really nice not to have such lofty goals and enjoy a more casual pace on the river. Though the pull of the ocean was pretty strong when we reached White Mountain. It was a little hard not to continue but really happy that I didn't. The wind changed dramatically to a 30 + mph blow a few hours after our trip back up river.... which would have been a typical Phil madventure but will save it for the next one.

Boat haul back upriver

Doesn't get nicer than this sunset

calm and picture perfect

Another Wedding, Another Triathlon

2010-08-09T17:05:00.002-08:00

Wow, what a weekend this has been.

On Saturday Sarah was invited to sing and play music at our friends, Erika and Tyler, wedding. It was such an honor to accompany her on mandolin. The wedding was at their place out on the tundra outside of Nome and I wish I had pictures to post. It was an incredibly beautiful wedding. I'm sure I'll find some pics to post later. A few hours after that I rushed home and hopped on the late flight to Anchorage to race in the Alaska triathlon championships the next morning at Knik Lake. The flight was delayed and eventually arrived by midnight. My friend Mike picked me up and then I had to sort all my gear together for the race. Mike was able to find a road bike for me a really cool looking old Lotus (thanks Dave!). I switched out the seat, added some aero bars, put my bag together and finally crashed at 2 am. 6 am came way too early and a friend who was doing the race too, picked me up and off we went.

(top) coming in for the finish, maybe a little too much lycra
(above) awesome retro Lotus bike

It was super cool to see Knik Lake in the summer, I just couldn't believe we would be swimming in it. Someone had cleaned a bunch of salmon right at the ramp into the water, it was a little nasty. Overall, the race went fine. I was super impressed how well it was organized; how competitive (and fast!) but nice everyone was during and after the event. I didn't exactly perform as well as I thought but technically it was my first olympic distance triathlon so have nothing to compare.

The swim 1.5 km: Having never worn a wetsuit to race before, I didn't know what to expect. I was told if fit properly it can make your time faster but all I felt was constricted. I just couldn't find a rhythm and was already drained when I stumbled out of the swim in 19.36 minutes. Maybe it was the cold but I was a little disoriented and took a couple of minutes at the transition. Lesson #1: don't swim in a wetsuit for the first time in a race.

Knik Lake parking lot

The Bike, 25 miles: My bike started off OK till my seat loosened, it barely hung on for the 25 miles- in a way it was kind of comical. Lesson #2: don't touch the bike the day before the race and just maybe... get my own bike. I finished that in 1 hr 7 minutes.

The run, 6.2 miles: I'd rather call this the plod. I feel like I plod along, my feet are so flat and wide it sounds like someone is smacking their sneaker on the pavement or something. Anyway, that took a little under 48 minutes. I came in 12th overall and 2nd in my age group. It was a really great course and brought back some memories once I past the Point Mac area from the ITI. Lesson#3: I will most definitely return to race it again next year.

Heat wave

2010-08-01T23:07:00.000-08:00

Blueberries

A little blueberry pickin' followed by a glorious beach day. These consecutive 70 degree days feel like a heat wave. The kind of days where swimming in the ocean is a relief from the heat. I was laying in the beach sand soaking in the heat today and thought (as I do rarely) a few months ago this same spot was -20 or -30 and at some point blowing viciously. Such contrast.

Sarah picking berries, a gallon in 2 hrs.

It was great to have a sand bar go out and out

Couldn't believe I found a sand dollar so far north

2010-08-01T08:49:00.000-08:00

How much family fun can we squeeze in a weekend? Well the weekend isn't over yet, another great day awaits!

Hahnah and Dave jamming at work picnic

Family beach fun (no worries I'm holding the key)

Hahnah and I kayaking

Kayaking some more

Dexter Challenge

2010-07-31T15:29:00.000-08:00

You just can't beat 60 degree heat in Nome. For some reason it feels like 80 degrees. I think I actually hear a lawn mower, now that's crazy!

I sort of spontaneously decided to do the Dexter Challenge this morning. A really fun 8 mile race that starts in town and ends in dexter. It's a one way race and hops over a 600-700 ft hill before descending into Dexter. I was very happy to finish it in 56 minutes and it sure beats a boring run alone that I was going to do anyway.

With such warm sunny weather can't wait to get out and enjoy the rest of the weekend!!!

Photo by Jamie Burford.

2010-07-26T14:22:00.000-08:00

Summer is slipping by way too fast. We took advantage of good weather and enjoyed a day on the beach. While the NY beaches were great, hot with warm surf, it was pleasant to be back to our remote corner of the world. I couldn't help but notice that we had miles of beach to ourselves. Instead of keeping a nervous eye on Hahnah amongst swarming NY'ers I kept a wary eye up and down the beach for bears.

Barring some odd unknown, I'm officially planning on competing in the Alaska State Triathlon. It should be fun and at least a goal of sorts without a large time commitment. It's an olympic distance which means a 1.5 km swim, 40 km bike and 10 km run. I kind of like these tri races, not a great deal of prep needed other than borrowing a bike and the race is over in a couple of hours. The different events keep my body from over doing one particular repetitive motion and the higher intensity level is challenging. I have no idea how I will do but last years results show some pretty fast times. I am just completely stoked that the swim is in Knik Lake (start of the ITI).

Travel, oh so fun

2010-07-19T23:02:00.000-08:00

Dear Atlasta Air,

I just wanted express my deepest thanks for being such a wonderful airline. I am grateful we are able to utilize your service, the only service, in our area, we should simply just bow down. I'm so glad you spend your profit margin on the upkeep, maintenance and compensation for your pilots. Just yesterday our pilot said he managed to get a week off to see the delivery of his baby. I understand sometimes the planes need upkeep during a scheduled flight so was so happy you were able to transfer us to Delta during that time. No worries I really didn't want to sit next to my wife or baby for that flight to Newark. The Delta flight attendants and passengers were ecstatic to play with our 2 year old. They thought it was such a game to try to stop her from crying.

I know we struck gold in Seattle yesterday with some of the best agents around. You must have been running some sort of community emergency drill because even though the agent told us it wasn't her job to rebook my wife when our printout confirmation didn't match her computer system she tried anyway. So what it didn't work out, I know she tried her hardest. I'm surprised she was able to multi task so well, keeping those sighs and shoulder shrugs in perfect timing with her computer key strokes was an incredible performance. Its OK, she probably really didn't want to fly with us, I know deep down Sarah wanted that alone time with a later flight. I'm so glad your customer service agents were so stoic and stern about telling us there was nothing they could do. Better say it straight than lead us on with those false ideas of fictitious upgrades or tickets. After all we wouldn't want the other passengers to absorb the increased cost. I mean our tickets were so cheap at $1800, it was so generous to have that companion fare for my daughter to save another $1800 and it was only 40,000 miles for Sarah's ticket- sooo cheap we deserved a computer glitch. And our luggage, pshaw, really no worries again. I totally didn't want to unpack and do the laundry of our travel gear, therefore am so glad it's still not here. Whew. Thank you again just gratefully alive.

Sincerely,

Iam Fletch

Bon Jovi & Triathlons

2010-07-12T07:01:00.000-08:00

We are in NY enjoying day after day of heat upon heat, what a difference from Nome. My sister in law had an extra ticket from a friend for Sarah to go to a Bon Jovi and Kid Rock concert at the Meadowlands. It was a sky view box seat so she was able to see the concert from comfort. Not exactly something we would have on our itinerary but the opportunity came up and she never saw so many people in place.

I managed to get on the Mighty North Fork sprint triathlon and raced it yesterday morning. While coming out of the water in 5th place my bike leg was kind of funny... and hard. Since I placed decent out of the water I heard all the culturally dressed triathletes rip past me. That's right, heard. It was kind of like a silent "whooosh" and while I tried saying hello the slew of crazy futuristic looking tri bikes flew by me like I was standing still. I on the other hand stayed true to MTB with a borrowed a mountain bike and slicks. As much fun as I had watching stone faced racers pass me while I tried to say "hey", "hows it going" I had more fun saying "hey, how's it going" while I surprisingly passed some of them back on the run. I was happy to finish 13th overall and 1st in my agegroup but sprinting is most definitely not my thing. My brother finished 3rd in his age group. While it sure ain't no utlra it sure was good to do some kind racing in a large field.

Breakdown:
500 Swim, 7:24
8 mile bike, 20.12
3.5 mile run, 23.42

Next month I'll have fun racing in the Alaska Triathlon at Knik Lake. The swim will be in the same lake I started the ITI, now that will be cool. I can see why tri's are addicting as any race but it is quite the contrast to self supported racing.

Summer vacaay

2010-07-07T17:51:00.000-08:00

Traveling around with the family. A long journey that began with a friends beautiful wedding in Wasillian nation. This was followed by Alaska air flight cancellation. Hmmm another mechanical? We were rerouted on Delta to Saltlake; at first frustrating but kind of cool to see Saltlake City in the summer. Beautiful country! Followed by an awesome flight to Newark. Now we are in incredile 100+ degree heat in Pennsylvania. Haven't felt heat like this in a while and feels great! Hopefully a triathlon looms next weekend...

For Sale...maybe

2010-07-01T18:56:00.001-08:00

I'm posting this on the blog as opposed to a legitimate classified online ad because I am not sure I really want to sell them. I am in the process of upgrading my Wildfire with replacement parts and lighter wider rims. These are sturdy large marges with WTB hubs. They are in excellent shape and bomb proof. The bike and rims have essentially only been raced in the ITI and always kept inside. If you're really interested shoot me an email and make an offer kayak_ishigee@yahoo.com otherwise I just may be sentimental enough to keep them!

Addictions

2010-06-26T11:10:00.000-08:00

I've been "arm-chairing" a couple of events, the first is the tour divide; a race I kind of maybe would like to do some day maybe- and the second is WS100; a race I will never do.

The tour divide is a 2,700+ mile mnt bike race down the great divide. A cool multi day event that has been great arm chairing the last couple of years; but recently had a tragedy. A few days ago a racer passed away after hitting a truck on the route and man that kind of hit home more than I care to admit. The racer, Dave Blumenthal (who I do not know) is the same age as me and left behind a wife and a daughter, also the same age. I read his blog and saw pictures and I couldn't get through it... there were too many similarities with my family. Crazy things happen all the time but I just simply feel horrible for the family. I always feel tremendous guilt for leaving my family to do things that some think stupid, some think adventurous. In either case it's a sad feeling and my heart goes out to the family.....

On a lighter note, I have been addicted to watching this ultra running 100 miler. Running is not my thing but knowing & watching crazy runners like Tim Hewitt and Tom Jarding in the ITI then Geoff Roes in other races the past few years, well I certainly have incredible respect. Today Geoff is competing with some of the best 100 mile runners in the world at the WS100. Good luck to him.

Ode to Jarol

2010-06-25T23:36:00.000-08:00

Last weekend was a complete blast listening to music, volunteering a little bit, playing a little music and enjoying the turn of summer in Nome. Nome Folk Fest celebrated it’s 10th year and the founding mother and father of this event is Carol Gales and Jim Dory of Nome. Over the years they somehow “conned” big bands such as, The Wilders, Salsa Borealis, Stairwell Sisters, Barefoot and now Crooked Still to Nome that not only play incredible music but they put them to work. They partake in Nome events, parades, conduct workshops, children concerts, etc. I believe Crooked Still played 2 radio shows, a jam session, 2 mainstage shows, 1 childrens concert and 1 bar show all within 48 hours. There are simply not many places where you can hang out with a band for a weekend, take their workshops, ask questions about music, listen to them jam and get to know them personally. It’s really an incredible “very Nome” experience. Carol and Jim also brought gifted songwriter, Sarah C Hanson (now my wife) up for a concert a number of years ago, but that’s a different story. So my hats off to you Carol and Jim, keep on rocking!!

Nome Folk Fest 2010

2010-06-21T20:01:00.000-08:00

An incredible weekend of music and fun. The guest band Crooked Still is my now favorite group, well except for my wife. Here is a video of another great performance of One Voice, though I am biased since Sarah is in it.

Crooked Still in Nome!

2010-06-19T14:14:00.001-08:00

The group from Boston, Crooked Still, arrived in Nome to kick off Folk Fest 2010. They are really great folks! aaand awesome, no !outstanding! musicians!! We are having and continue to look forward to a fun weekend. On thursday night there was a little jam gathering and Hahnah had really taken to the singer, Aoife. What a fun video, have to show it!

Crooked Still and Hahnah from Philip Hofstetter on Vimeo.

Sunday Ride

2010-06-14T14:52:00.001-08:00

Nome has some fabulous mountain biking opportunities. In addition to four wheeler trails that are a little more challenging, the standard roads out of Nome mostly look as pictured below. There are about 300 miles that go out into the country. It's perfect gravel riding with a good chance of seeing wildlife and getting into remote spots.

Yesterday's ride was a standard loop I go on of about 20 miles and maybe 2,000 ft of climbing. It is a great loop with little traffic, good scenery without having to commit more than 2 hours. I usually add in a short hike up to Anvil (~900 ft) since it is on the way home. No dogs and no big animal charges. A good ride.

Stroke & Croak

2010-06-09T19:52:00.003-08:00

Last weekend I participated in the local annual FUN Nome triathlon, Stroke & Croak. (Huge thanks to Sharon for always putting this event on each year!) It’s a very heavily weighted swim course with 1600 meter (1 mile) swim, 4 mile run and 8 mile bike. About every other year I like to do this event to stretch out a different set of muscles... like running. Running is not exactly exciting for me and, well, I’d rather step on some nails than run. I just don't know how those ultrarunners do it.

Occasionally, I throw around the idea of competing in a few triathlons to offer up a little fun racing variety. At first, I was disheartened when I came down with an incredibly virulent sore throat and chest cold two days before the event. It was so harsh I thought I had strep followed by bronchitis. I lay in bed hacking on Saturday completely wiped out and thought there was no way I would compete. However, I was also the swimming leg of a relay for the event so I took one for the team and mustered up.

Fortunately, by Sunday the fast moving illness decided I wasn’t a good host and left. Overall I was happy with the result of 1 hr 24 min:

Swim: 21 min & change

Run: 32 min

Bike: 27 min

T1,2: 3 min

There's room for improvement and I'll see what I can do till the next event. My brother is doing a triathlon in July in NY and I hope to join him if I can get off the wait list.

Phishing

2010-06-07T22:52:00.000-08:00

Good day fishing even though no fish. The pink pole is awesome, well I suppose that's for Hahnah.

Memorial Weekend

2010-05-31T20:35:00.002-08:00

Traffic... what traffic?

A friend of ours offered the use of their cabin up the snake river valley for a few years now. We finally took them up on it this weekend. 20 miles from our house. 80 degree heat. Breezy with no mosquitoes.

Never ending daylight

Family fun.

Relaxing on tundra.

Hardly saw a soul.

Ahh, what a weekend family vacation.
Thank you Scofields!

Dog Blog

2010-05-29T13:22:00.001-08:00

Winter left in a rush. Summer is here in Nome, even though it is not June 21st. With the nice weather, I feel inclined to get out with the constant daylight. A few days ago I went on my 3rd bike ride since the ITI. It felt good. It was the first on dirt and sure enough I had my first dog encounter. I have had so many, dating as far back as childhood when I used to deliver papers, that this season I thought I might categorize & tally my dog encounters with point system.

Without further ado or judgment to dog owners here are my tentative categories (CAT 1 - 6). Kind of appropriate for bike dog categories, right? For CAT racing and also for dog/cat.. ha.

Cat 1: dog chases you but sort of a friendly dog, non-threatening from bikers perspective.
Cat 2: dog chases you a little menacing but owner immediately calls for dog, no contact.
Cat 3: dog chases you, menacing, owner doesn't call back but no contact.
Cat 4: dog chases you, menacing, owner calls back but there is contact.
Cat 5: dog chases you, menacing, no owner and there is contact.
Cat 6: blood drawn or gear ripped from dog.

I have had all categories at one point or another. Owners usual response, "my dog has never done that before!" I'll have to think about the wild animal encounter, that has it's own nuances depending on the animal.

My first seasonal encounter started out as a CAT 1 but rapidly moved to a CAT 4. Lets see.. I'll keep that as a tally of 4. At the end of the season, I 'll tally up the number and maybe give myself a prize unless someone else wants to join in?

ITI 2010 (7): Home

2010-05-15T20:36:00.004-08:00

This will be my last post on 2010 ITI and put another year of it out of my mind. The writing was slow and the processing even slower. Things are already fading readily in the background and am glad I was able to put something down in the form of a race report that turned out quite a bit longer than I anticipated. I look forward to next years ITI. Will I do the Nome race next year? It is just too much time away from the family. My co-workers and family conspired to have me sign a "contract" not to do the long race only the short version next year. However, maybe the following year... _______________________________________________________________

Day 15 - 17

Elim - Nome ~ 130 miles

Home Stretch
I shot out onto Golovin bay where there seemed to be a temperature inversion from the hills. My thermometer showed -20. I had to wear my goggles even with a little wind. By 9am I was in Golovin, went to the store warmed up and then continued on to White Mountain. The trail became better and better. I was in White Mountain at 11:00 am, went to the Iditarod Checkpoint and they offered me all sorts of food. An iditarod volunteer and cyclist, Granis Stewart, took these White Mountain pics and sent them to me.

I left White Mountain at 1pm and was in awe. The sun was out, the trail was hard as a rock and I was almost home. Holy ##**&. I was so anxious to get to Topkok, the notorious premiere blow hole of all blow holes. The topkok hills were a lot longer than I remember. I crested that last big climb before the coast and boogied into Topkok cabin. It was calm, sunny and actually a balmy 0 degrees. Very rare. Due to the (usual) extensive wind the next five miles were wind blown hard packed sand and the snow was concrete (as seen in the photo below). I was hauling the next 15 miles to the Council road. (A road in summer and trail in winter).

For some reason the snow went from hard packed to absolute mushy granular powder. I was still awestruck that it was 35 miles from Nome!! Typically there is so much snow machine traffic this trail is concrete. This is where I train and have always been able to ride a skinny tire MTB, what the heck? I saw two snow machiners pull up and they waved their hands. It was a friend, Erika and her sister. Holy mind trip. We talked a while and I told them an approximate time to expect me in Nome. The next 15 miles to Safety were rideable but slow. Right before Safety a helicopter landed close by, it was Russ with Bering Air flying a sight seeing group and he waved, gave me the thumbs up before he took off again. Another wow!! I motored on. By the time I was close to Cape Nome I had to push the bike because of snow but Nathan and Nora pulled up in a snow machine too. We hugged. It was super exciting. I kept pushing around the cape, there was little trail all snowed in but shorter than the Iditarod trail that goes over the cape. Chris pulled up on snowmachine then another guy Jeff. All wanting an ETA. It was hard to push a bike so close to home. I was only 10 miles out!! Yet the trail and road both usually hardpacked was mushy. One can decide to take the road in or continue with the Iditarod trail. I opted for the trail since the road is usually an infrequent snow machine track and lots of massive 20+ ft drifts. Then my headlamp started blinking. I was out of batteries and my spare was busted. I turned it off and then put it on the low setting. Hopefully it would make it.

I pushed, ground my pedals furiously and grunted my way on to the trail. Finally it re-intersected the road 5 miles out (plowed road). Unbelievable!! I hopped on the road and rode freely. I easily could kick it up to 13 mph. Cars and trucks rode out and back cheering and honking horns. Nora met me 1 mile from Nome with her bike and we rode the last mile into town, down front street to a huge gathering of friends and my wife with Hahnah were there. I rode under the arch and hugged my family for the first time in 3 weeks. It was glorious. It was incredible. The last 73 miles from White Mountain took 11 hours. 19 hrs from Elim. The adrenaline factor must have been huge and I just couldn’t get over the fact that I rode home.

Video Link of finish.

ITI Follow up

The afternnon after my finish I found out JP and Tracey were out of White Mountain and asked my friend Chris to snow machine out to give them a moral boost and let them know that he would be hosting them. We cheered them into the arch for their finish. They left town the next day so didn’t get a chance to chat much, however, the next few days I cheered in Tom Jarding, Tim Hewitt and the legend himself, Mike Curiak (for his self supported crazy endevour).

Here we are at my house after a great meal and some tales from the trail. Outstanding! Thank you Chris Miller for hosting all the plethora of racers on my behalf this year, it was a lot harder to have guests in our small house with a light sleeping baby. This year the recovery process was an interesting experience of fluctuating moods and energy levels that lasted over a month. Surprisingly, I had no knee pain or injuries. I simply can’t believe I was able to finish this animal of a race after such intense injury, nerve damage and edema 2 years ago.

I'm going to say it again... Thank you everyone who made this possible especially my family, Sarah, Hahnah and co-workers, Jamie and Dana. And Chris for letting the racers crash in his bachelor pad.

!!For the LLS We raised: $1630 for grand total of $21,600!!

ITI 2010 (6): Unalakleet - Elim

2010-05-12T18:45:00.002-08:00

Unalakleet - Elim, ~150 or so miles

Shak-attack
I was on the way to Shaktoolik by 10 am, later than I wanted but able to cruise with the solid hard packed trail beneath my tires. I aired up those endomorphs as hard as my little pump would allow. The 40+ miles to Shaktoolik I know well. When I lived in Unalakleet I traveled regularly by snow machine to Shaktoolik and Koyuk. This section is hilly but fast with good ups and good downs. The last 10 miles as you pop out onto the flats is usually the hardest, from boredom… and wind. Typically, the hills are well protected with tress but once you drop down onto the flats it’s exposed all the way to Koyuk. It’s rare to have no wind. That day was rare. As I got closer to Shaktoolik the snow turned a little punchy but managed to roll into town by 6 pm. I went to the store in Shaktoolik to load up. Directly across from the store is the clinic and next door, the school. I stopped in the clinic to warm up a little and say hello to fellow NSHC employees. My platform was to raise money for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for a friend of mine who beat Leukemia. She is a physician, originally from Unalakleet, who also works at NSHC. NSHC has always been a supporter of my events and this cause. It was a good idea to show my face and in the process eat my food. I planned to either sleep in the shelter cabin at mile 12 before the ice crossing or continue on to Koyuk across the ice throughout the night. The wind is notorious and out on the sea ice a guarantee. Since arriving into Shaktoolik the northwind picked up to 15-20 mph (headwind) and when the sun went down the temps dropped below zero. Yet another -20 with ridiculous windchills; however, it could've been much worse. I decided to get a move on, home was beckoning.

Koyuk daze
I left Shaktoolik around 9 pm. The next twelve miles were a solid headwind with increasing winds the closer I came to Reindeer cove. I arrived at the shelter cabin by midnight. I left my GPS on for this leg to get a better sense of distance. On the backtrack it showed 15 miles, a little longer than I thought. It was good to get out of the wind, it seemed to pick up pretty hard and didn’t realize how chilled I was when I stopped moving. Stopping was a conundrum; I either had to keep moving or warm up the place. Unfortunately, I chopped some wood and made a fire.Warm food and the woodstove got the better of me but I was undecided to sleep or not. I put some food on the woodstove and warmed up my water. Hot drink and food encouraged droopy eyelids. The plywood bed was looking good... screw it, I thought and kept going. While it was a good rest and food intake I kind of felt like I wasted the 2 hrs it took to warm up the cabin. It’s a great shelter cabin but I almost wished it wasn’t an option.

This section is monotonous by snow machine. By bike it was h-o-r-r-e-n-d-o-u-s, especially with no sleep. The Koyuk lights were visible since Shaktoolik and never seemed to get closer. The pressure ridges were massive this year therefore the trail wound mercilessly an additional painful meandering 10 miles. It is usually 30 miles from the cabin but it was closer to 40. I left the cabin at 2 am and rode and rode. The wind died down, thankfully, and the stars were brighter than any planetarium. With my sleep deprivation and the cold night clarity I found myself stopping and staring at the sky with a sort of drug induced type of stare. The northern lights started dancing around 4 am, lots of reds, greens and whites. A couple of times I found myself sleeping that way for a few minutes or hanging on the bars. The Patagonia Parka strapped on my front Epic Design "rack" made for a really comfy pillow.

At some point I glanced behind me and could see Shaktoolik lights and then closer behind me a headlamp. Oh no! Did I mistakenly fall asleep long enough for JP to catch up? I couldn’t quite clear my head so I hopped on the bike and kept riding. My tracks probably looked drunken, I was weaving so bad until I began to see the sun rise an hour later. The headlamp caught up to me and passed. Oh yeah, the Iditarod was going on and the musher waved hello. Koyuk was elusive with those additional miles, typically the trail is beeline direct. I couldn’t believe how winding it was almost completely across the sound to Isaacs Point and back until I made Koyuk by 9 am. I was tired, about 100 miles since leaving Unalakleet 23 hrs previously. I stopped at the store and loaded up on goodies. I popped in at the clinic to say greetings and was delighted to be able to crash a few hours in the bunk room. I gathered my gear and food then was on the trail to Elim around 4pm.

Almost home
It was hard packed with fabulous conditions. The 3 hr sleep was perfect and I could feel the closeness of home and it was stand up riding all the way to Elim. I had this shiteating grin on when Jason Barron (a musher), passed me outside Moses Point, he probably thought I was a lunatic. The trail was so fast that when he passed me I was able to keep up with him all the way to the Moses Point road. Well at least until I jumped a little ice ridge and landed my front tire in a rim-crevasse ( a crevasse the perfect width of your rim). If I didn’t have the sturdy large marge rims I think it would have easily been a taco. I went head first over the handlebars and landed 5 feet away flipped over on my back. Scary. Shook it off and rode into Elim Iditarod checkpoint at midnight. I ate and slept till 3am and was ontrail for the final day by 3:30 am. The Little Denali hill climb at walla walla 15 miles outside of Elim was not so little. Another sweat laden quad burning climbing fest.

I was so close to Nome, I felt on fire. During such ultra events my mind and body go through countless emotional / physical highs and crashing lows but since Unalakleet I have been riding what was probably a full on adrenaline high. I kept waiting for the huge crash. Luckily it didn't happen. I was almost home, almost home.

ITI 2010 (5): Kaltag - Unalakleet portage

2010-05-07T23:44:00.003-08:00

Kaltag - Unalakleet Portage 90 miles.

Again No pics. This one was taken leaving Unalakleet by B$.

I left Kaltag around 1pm or so not long after Lance Mackey blew straight through to Unalakleet. He was the first musher to pass me and the start of a whole field of dogs and mushers that would sneak up on me. I say “sneak” because you can’t hear them. You only hope the musher yells something. Most, thankfully, did. I also knew that there would be some serious mushers behind me racing for the lead in an event that actually had prize money. One time Charlie Boulding (a top musher) was close to Nome and I was next to the trail cheering him in to Nome about 10 miles out and the dogs stopped. They thought I was a checkpoint. It was a horrifying experience that I, gratefully, didn’t cause him to lose a place and a few thousand dollars. Ever since I have given the dogs a wide berth on my snow machine and stay off-trail.

It worked out really well because most mushers would yell when they came up behind me and I would immediately jump off the bike and pull everything off trail. In the process usually sink to my knees or waist in snow but still it was efficient. No one had to slow down or stop on my account.

The trail out of Kaltag is full of dense trees with a path sliced through them. I was so anxious to see mountains and scenery I was familiar with that this section felt really long. In addition, the trail deteriorated to a push. There was about 6 inches of new snow on top of the base that made riding difficult and lots of pushing. About 10 miles out of Kaltag the second musher Hans Gatt passed me. Really nice guy. Followed an hour or so later by Jeff King who was a little gruff. I just kept at it with pushing and grinding. Hopping on the bike. Hopping off the bike. I found myself constantly looking over my shoulder for mushers and for the Petervary’s. This is definitely where my 65 mm large marges were a pain in the arse.

The windy trail kept going on and on. I ran into some snow machiners coming back from Shaktoolik. Wow I still couldn’t believe I was that close to Shaktoolik, a village I am very familiar with. Earlier this season the iron dog racers were able to travel super fast on the sea ice between Unalakleet and Shaktoolik so I asked them if they were able to do so. The time could be cut in half if there was a decent trail. They said they did but there were a lot of leads (open water) they had to water skip. In addition the trail was about 2-3 miles out if not more. At least I knew I wasn’t going that route and would stick with the traditional overland trail. We chatted briefly then moved on. I plugged along and night sunk in. The temps dropped yet again to well below -20. Another night where a cabin is preferable to a cold bivy.

Tripod Cabin
The Tripod flats cabin was a deceivingly long ways but I seemed to be nearing and I looked forward to sleeping. I made it by 10 or 11 pm. Hans Gatt was just leaving and had the cabin warmed up already. It was (IS) a fantastic cabin with 3 beds; a bunk bed and a side bed. I added some wood and brought in some more, hung my gear and ate a good meal. When I laid down JP and Tracey had just arrived. I slept pretty good and wanted about 4 hours rest. The next few hours, however, was an onslaught of mushers coming in and out. At one point someone added so much wood the cabin was incredibly hot. I had to strip down to my bike shorts. Kind of crazy when it was -30 to -40 out. I read a race report recently on Sebastian Schnuelle who stated about Tripod cabin, “I was very disappointed to find the cabin full of Iditabikers without any place to sleep for us mushers.” Now, every musher I ran into was awesome, super nice and we seemed to have a mutual respect. I was sleeping when Sebastian came in but in all fairness it is a BLM public use cabin, JP and Tracy were huddled on one cot together and Aly Zirkle, another top musher, was sleeping above me. Additionally, I heard Zack Steer come in around 4am and I gave him my spot. I’m sure from Sebastian’s perspective it was probably frustrating not to have a cot; however in 2005 when he arrived in Nome for his first Iditarod my friend, Mike, hosted him and I was staying there so gave up my bed to him. I hope that evens things out. Alaska- the biggest small town.

Old Woman
I was out the door by 4:30 am and started feeling my engine getting a strange vibration. Almost like someone shoveled an extra load of coal into a locomotive. When dawn broke I could see Old Woman mountain. Oh my God! What a rush. I could hardly contain myself, Old Woman Cabin was only a few miles away. I’ve been to Old Woman cabin a few times and it not only reminded me of past trips but I was able to know each part of the trail, each mile, each landmark, each section. It was a weird and euphoric feeling. I was also worried about overdoing it. All I wanted to do was keep going but reason prevailed. I stopped at Old Woman Cabin, chopped a bunch of wood since most of the kindling and smaller logs were gone. I started the fire in the woodstove and tried to warm up and dry out yet again. It was only 17 miles from Tripod but it is hard to pass up a cabin when it’s -30. I also needed to make a little more water, hot water preferably. I then found a vacuum sealed bag of lasagna a musher left behind. Oh that was good, oh so good when I threw it in the boiling water. Hmmm I was toasty warm, full of food and full of water. I was ready to get onto the hard packed flats of 30 miles to Unalakleet. Another WOW moment. Unalakleet, I just couldn’t believe I would be there by evening. Would any of my friends be there to greet me? Is anyone even following the race? Or know about it? As I got ready to leave the cabin, JP and Tracey arrived. I was so excited about Unalakleet I just wished them luck and kept rolling. The trail finally firmed up to super hard pack. The sun was out, it was cold and clear and the trail was fabulous. Just fabulous.

Wind
I turned the corner of Old Woman Mountain and literally vvrrooom!!! An intense wind storm hit. This meant two things; 1) I had to put on both of my windproof facemasks and 2) I was close to the coast. This is a spot-on typical coastal windstorm. This is what I train in all the time. I glorified in it. I reveled in it. It was blowing so hard, it had to be up in the higher 30+ mph range and the temp was easily -20. Something like a -50 windchill. But man was I pysched. Unfortunately, the hard packed trail started becoming drifted and then I had to plow through drifts. I refused to get off my bike. Simply refused, I just kept riding and riding even slow because the 30 +mph was not just wind but a head wind. But I knew where I was! I knew what was around the corner and where the lulls would be, the tree breaks. The trees fell away after Old Woman and started on more of the tundra openness that I am used to. I felt great. All of a sudden a snow machine group stopped. It was the head of BLM. (I think he said his name was Jim. He shook my hand and we talked a little. Rather yelled in the wind to each other. I told them JP and Tracey were behind me and to check on them too. I’m sure they were fine but without the windproof stuff this wind will simply eat you alive. I plowed ahead. About 2 hours later another group of snow machines came up the trail. I was overwhelmed, it was Jeff Erickson and crew. He stopped and stood in front of me and the wind. He is a big guy about a half foot taller and wide as a football player. He stopped the wind and we hugged each other. I was speechless to the fact that I was now in territory of people I knew. We spoke a few words and he was going to Old Woman to watch mushers. I moved on with new found energy. I rode another hour and another machine stopped. It was B$!!! Holy cow! I was wondering what he was doing snow machining in this wind and I almost thought he was checking on me but alas he was checking on Dee Dee Jonrow. Also going to Old Woman. It was still incredible though. He was going to catch up to me on the way back and we would have hamburgers at Igloo, the local hamburger / arcade hangout. It was still blowing like crazy and I had about 15 miles to go but only 5 to get onto the river.

Unalakleet!

About an hour and a half later I was on the river and the wind died. I started cruising. It was standup riding the rest of the way to Unalakleet. About 100 yards from the boat dock B$ passed me on snowmachine super fast. Scared the heck out of me. He said he couldn’t believe I almost beat him back to Unalakleet. We hugged and I told him I would meet him at Igloo. I rode up the boat ramp and into town. WowWow Wow. My old home town. I couldn’t get the smile off my face. It was 8 pm, I was totally soaked from the exertion and rolled into the Igloo. B$ was there and I got two cheesburgers, two fries, two cokes and we sat down to chat. It was glorious. I called in Bill and Kathi and told them I made it in. B$ said he passed the other two bikers at 15 miles out still. I made a little time and looked forward to a good rest before my last 250 mile push to Nome.

ITI 2010 (4): Yukon

2010-05-02T22:57:00.003-08:00

Yukon

Day 10 - 12, Ruby - Kaltag: ~160 miles.

If only I had a snow machine. When we left Ruby and dropped on to the Yukon I would have been able to pin the throttle and relax. But I didn’t. It seems like everytime you do this kind of thing you are always wishing for something else. Sometimes you wish for skis, bigger rims, lighter bike, better gear, snowshoes, snow machines maybe even a plane. It was still flat and pretty fast for a bike, a striking contrast from the hills and interior leading up to the Yukon. It was cold too, no contrast there. The Yukon was pretty exhilarating, in a sense it meant back in civilization and the beginning of a new section while ticking off one of the most difficult. Kind of like getting over Rainy Pass.

Galena came fast in about 10 hrs, the time was in fact 5:01pm. Exactly one minute too late to retrieve my mail drop. The post master would not give me my box. Another one of those contrasts; compared to rolling in to Ruby where the post master delivered our boxes after hours. Galena is a pretty large village and while I was not able to retrieve my drop I was able to go to the store and buy enough food to get to Kaltag. I didn’t think it was necessary to send drops at every village since the stores were more than sufficient and even if I missed a store I always had enough to last me to the next village. This was a lot easier when I hit the coast simply because I knew each store, snack bar, food spot and their hours in all the villages from Unalakleet to Nome.

An interesting sidebar was that I received my drop from Galena back in Nome about a week ago. It had a return to sender notification on it. Kind of like Christmas, lots of goodies and my expensive lithiums!

I stopped in at the local eatery in Galena and JP and Tracy were eating there as well. Understandably, I was sure they wanted to do their own thing so I decided to take a B&B instead of the Iditarod Checkpoint. It was a great thing. There is nothing quite like stepping into a world of normalcy. The B&B was quiet, relaxed, warm and right next to the trail so I didn’t have to back track anywhere. It was fantastically hospitable and one of my best rests. I organized my bike and laid my clothes out to dry next to a wood stove. My gear was soaked from the exertion to try to make the post office before closing. The host was used to Iron Dog racers so she had a great drying rack system. I ate and ate some more than slept fitfully for four hours and got up at 2 am. It was day 11 and I was on the trail by 4 am. I wanted to make Kaltag in one shot so I tried to get out as early as possible. It was also really super cold. This was the only stretch that I had to put my overboots on for the cold.

I heard reports of -50 that day but it was probably closer to -40. I was able to ride but noticed my tires were soft, really soft. It didn’t act like a flat tire, just lost air after a couple of hours. It was no fun airing up my tires on the Yukon periodically, though I was happy I didn't have to replace a tube. At those temperatures things snap and break much too easily. I had to make sure my pump was warm (next to my body) but without moisture ( difficult when sweating) in it before slapping it on the valve stem. JP and Tracy passed me around 1pm or so close to Koyukuk and then we played tag all the way to Nulato about 3-4 pm. It was early but I needed to check out my tires and switch out tubes so I stopped. The Petervary’s also decided to dry out and retrieve their drop. It was a great stop as the Iditarod checkpoint is the school gym and has lots of room. Everyone was super nice. I dried out my gear and changed a tube with some trouble. I had one of the larger tubes and it didn’t seem like it would set on the bead. JP said just to keep airing it up and eventually it set. I aired up the old tube and there was no hole or leak I could see. I suppose it was so cold the air density or something with the tube changed characteristics or maybe the valve stem. JP had the same issue the following day too so it must be something with the cold.

We left Nulato relatively at the same time somewhere around 6 or 7 pm. This was the first time Iditarod actually caught up with us, at least the trail breaking snow machines. They left Nulato a little before us and the trail went from hard packed to mush. We all aired our tires up super hard thinking it was going to be a fast trail and it was not, unfortunately. Sort of an air up and air down kind of trail. This sucked because I realized it was going to be a long night. The trail of about 40 miles from Nulato to Kaltag went from a grind into a push. The temperature dropped as twilight turned to night and kept on dropping. I ground furiously for about 4 hours and built up a huge sweat. JP and Tracy passed me again and the grind slowly turned to a push. The time was around 2 am and it was getting cold. 22 hours since I left Galena. The lights of Kaltag were visible but didn’t get closer, the last nine miles were an extremely tiring cold push with typical sleep deprivation hallucinations and dejavu. Here is what I hallucinated about...

Hawaii with family

I had to put on a my seal skin hat and puffy coat on as I wasn't really generating enough heat pushing. I needed to make Kaltag soon. In Galena the B&B host told me that if I get into Kaltag I could knock on the Burnhams door and they would probably welcome me in. I heard their name before as a friend of a friend or some odd thing. I relayed that info to JP while we were in Nulato if they couldn’t find a place. My intention, however, was to crash at the Iditarod checkpoint, if possible, or at the school. When I stumbled into Kaltag around 4 am, the checkpoint was surprisingly hopping. The first musher was due in sometime the next day and everyone was getting ready. I saw JP and Tracey being led to the school and another guy came up to me and asked if I wanted to go to the school too. I found myself asking where the Burnhams lived. I was adamantly focused on wanting some space, even if I had to bivvy in the trees. The guy told me that the Burnhams would welcome me in even at such a late hour. He knocked on the door and was correct. Richard and his wife were completely welcoming and I slept on their couch. Thank you millions!!

They let me dry out and I slept about 3-4 hours when my sleep caked eyes opened to two little kids staring at me. The Burnhams were taking care of their grandchildren, so I got up. My feet were swollen and it took me about an hour or two of moving around before I started feeling human. I got my drop at the checkpoint and made some of my coffee and food. I went to the store and stocked up on some more food but the selection was pretty slim. I had to get enough for two days because the portage to Unalakleet is a long 90 miles. If the snow conditions are the same as the last section it would likely be a push at least through the hills until I get to the flats after Old Woman. Old Woman, WOW, my old stomping grounds. I used to live in Unalakleet and couldn’t believe I would really start seeing memories once I get to Old Woman. Maybe even see old friends out snow machining, what an incredibly strange feeling.

Another Ahhhh....

2010-05-01T16:59:00.000-08:00

Another title fitting for this seat.

ISM Rocks! They sent me their new Adamo MTB Peak after I told them how awesome the below seat was..... A little worn after about 1,100 miles but sure saved my ass!!!

Thank you ISM!

Ahhh...

2010-04-25T21:49:00.003-08:00

I had every intention of hopping on my snow machine today to meet up with some friends who were out riding. After all I hardly used my machine this year and the snow was just perfect to go anywhere. The kind of day where you could close your eyes and pick a direction. The spring melt froze and it was just too pristine to pass up my bike. I couldn't help it.

My little Kestrel wx station is working great. It was 16 degrees and even able to calculate wind chill while I was riding, which was -2 degrees.

Diomede

2010-04-24T14:12:00.009-08:00

I was fortunate enough to get into Diomede this past week. Diomede is an island in the Bering Strait about 2 miles from Russia. And no I have no idea if Palin really went there ever. In any case you can only fly here on a regular basis when there is an ice runway between the two islands. Last year there was none but this year was good. I even took a video of the landing and approach. The juttering of the camera is turbulence jostling around from the wind currents coming off the island. Bering air is the only commercial airline that will land there. They are awesome and the safest and the only airline I will fly around here.

Facing Russia, Big Diomede

Diomede landing, Bering Air from Philip Hofstetter on Vimeo.

While I was there I asked if anyone biked across between the islands, it’s only 2 miles but as far as a few folks knew no one has. Might be a fun thing to do next year if I get permission, and someone tags along behind with a snow machine to scout for polar bears. I have thought about kayaking there in the summer also but it’s a volatile stretch of ocean. Because it is the shortest distance between mainland Russia and the US a lot of expeditions and such have attempted crossing of all kinds. "Attempted" being the key word. Most don’t realize how powerful the currents are and think it is chock full of solid ice but it’s not. While, between the islands the ice is solid, the current from Diomede to Wales can be faster than some rivers. The whole Bering sea gets squeezed between 50 miles of land. Some find out the hard way.

In any case, as usual, it was a cool trip and was only stuck a short time extra.

ITI 2010 (3): Photo Depletion

2010-04-22T21:09:00.005-08:00

One will have to endure my words, which is processing rather slowly, as I didn't take one picture from the Carson Crossing Cabin to Ruby. Sometimes it's better stored in the ole noggin' than taking pictures that can't represent, anyway. I suppose one could argue the same with words.... hmmm.
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It was day 7 when we left the cabin early in the morning. It would be a long day. The temps were at least -30 to -40 at 4am and the trail was similar to the previous day. The night turned to a gray windy dusk. The trees were mostly burned out skeletons from a by gone forest fire and there were a lot of sections exposed and drifted. Add in a few protected sections with trees that were ride-able and this is the way the whole day went. It was definitely on the gloomy, feel-like-your-in-the-middle-of-nowhere, kind of cold day. The only thing that kept my mood up is that we could ride enough to make some ground and I recognized landmarks from 2 years ago. About 15 miles before Wolk Kill there are a series of ~5 miles of rolling hills with frequent exposed tops with drifts. Right before the last exposed drifted, rolling hill the snow was knee to waist deep until we were able to duck into a more heavily dense forest. The trail was better and we could ride again. Darkness fell and the next 8 -10 miles felt long. It started snowing quite heavily and it was back to pushing. Finally around 2 am we found the drops on the slough. It took another hour or two to get into a decent protected area for a cold bivy. It made for a long but satisfying 24 hour day. This is the same area as Iditarod’s cripple checkpoint but we didn’t see anything, no tracks no tent for the checkpoint, nothing. It was still days from the first musher but the tent must have been flown in and setup somewhere way off trail. Another cold night but a solid 5 hour bivy. It the morning it took some time to sort and repack gear with new drops and get moving again.

It was day 8 and I remember we had some hardpacked riding the next 20 miles until we hit Poorman. After Poorman there was another gloomy forest-fire black spruce section. This brought back intense memories from 2 years ago. A horrible section for me in 2008. It actually was pretty miserable this year too. At least a few miles of knee to waist deep snow until we hit the sulatna crossing and a “bridge” that put us on the old road. Finally, the trail was great and consistent.... and uphill. We made good time and another wash of emotion overcame me as I realized it was only 45 miles to Ruby. The last time I was here, I was in such extreme pain. A virtual survival zombie with consecutive 4-5 20+ hr days of pushing. There was a main course of severe edema, nerve damage in my hands and arse followed by a dessert of ITB inflammation and knee pain. Doesn't it sound wonderful? I don’t know how I managed to keep going then or why in the world I was doing this race again. And yet here I was 2 years later, feeling good and riding.

If you examined the topo map of this section you would think it is pretty flat but the 1,000 – 2,000 ft rolling hills are deceptively steep. You will sweat profusely the next 45 miles with lots and lots of long uphill’s. We had another cold bivy at the top of a hill a few miles before the ghost town of Long. There must be some pull to the place because we bivied in the exact same spot I did the last time. Another 3-4 hours of sleep and it was day 9. Freaking cold and a scramble to get warm. It was at least -40 and it took about 3-4 hours of riding / pushing to get warm. It turned into a clear, cold blue bird day with good riding and 11-12 hours later we topped that last steep incline that overlooked the Yukon and Ruby. It was such a great feeling to roll into Ruby around 6-7pm, 10 days 5 hrs. The time was actually not a great deal faster than pushing the whole section 2 years ago but I certainly was a great deal more rested and felt incredible. At this point I knew I had not squandered any of my body reserves and actually felt like I was getting stronger each day. The only question seemed, not if we would finish but who would cross the finish line first. I think it’s safe to say it wasn’t a randonneuring event.

Ruby, as in 2008, was a fabulous stay. The post master happened to be out walking when we approached town and even though it was after hours she was willing to give us our drops at the school. Principal Titus was the host at the school and came in to make sure we were settled. It really was magic. The gym was used to dry out gear and the kitchen for food and a rejuvenating 6 hour sleep in the kindergarten classroom. Excellent after 5 cold days on the trail!