My FRS Trial

"FRS's revolutionary blend of nutrients extends your body's natural energy, fueling you up when you need it while supporting your health over the long haul. There's no jittery felling or roller-coaster ride-just prolonged energy that helps keep you focused and fully charged."

"That energy comes form out secret weapon, quercetin, an antioxidant found in food like blueberries, apples and grapes. Its incredible ability to enhance your body's energy system is what keeps you felling energized longer. Add a host of essential vitamins and you're ready to tackle anything from minor workouts to a major marathon."

http://www.frs.com/science/frs-formula.html

That's the claim anyway.

You've probably seen their ads on cycling sites like Velonews.com. The ones with Mr. Armstrong pictured. "Tired of Being Tired?" Well, yeah. Isn't everyone? Well I pretty much ignore these ads and those like it. One night at work, however, I was really bored and thought that I'd check out their website. I read a little into it and I know a little about antioxidants so I was intrigued. Then I noticed that they have a 14 day free trial. Well not totally free, you have to pay for shipping ($3.95). Where they hope to get you is that you have to call to cancel the trial if you don't want to continue. Otherwise you end up getting auto-shipped (and auto-deducted from your CC) a month's supply for $50.84.

A month's supply is two 16 serving bottles of concentrate and two bags of chews. They recommend 2-3 servings per day. This can be the chews, the concentrate, the powder or any combination. They suggest that you start your morning with a glass of the concentrate, then in the afternoon you have two chews and then two more before exercise.

I have decided to give this supplement a shot. At the end of my trial I'll post up my conclusions and any findings I may have..found.

Stay Dirty.

God's Country

So, God's Country. Well I guess I am a little behind. My first actual race of the season was nearly a month ago, I'm not really counting Bonebender as a race.

So, the week leading up to the duathlon at the Lawrence River Trails I was without my normal training equipment and regimen. This, of course, being my commuter road bike and my 20 mile a day commute. On my way to work I noticed some excessive sway/give in the bottom bracket of my early 80's Steel Centurion road bike. Once I arrived at work I found that this was not due to a bent BB spindle, like I'd hoped, but rather from a half inch crack in the lug at the bottom bracket. I'll have more info on this later.

So with my normal riding routine screwed up I switched my training to running during the week. This would serve me well at the duathlon, however, it was really too little and much too late.

I chose to do what I said I wouldn't do again and that was go out and have a few and a few more drinks the night before the race. I didn't get to bed until around 1:30am. So waking up in the morning was really fun with the little sleep I got, not to mention the hangover. Why do I do this? You need a good nights sleep and adequate hydration to truly have a good race and I know this. Ah well.

After waking up and attempting to rapidly replenish my fluids lost to alcohol Karen and I headed to Lawrence. I got registered and got the bike and me ready for the race. I set up my gear in the transition area and got the 411 from the racers meeting. At this point, 15 mins before the start, I wasn't really feeling any better than when I first woke up. I've raced on my bike hungover many times before, but I've never ran a race hungover. This would be new.

I'd never done a duathlon, but I have run and biked many races so I figured this would be similar. After all was said and done I decided that it was similar enough to be totally doable. It did take a little time to get a rhythm going once I got on the bike after the run, however. Other than that it wasn't bad at all. I felt fine after about the first half mile of the run so I don't think my poor preparation hurt me too bad, but it certainly didn't help.

I just have to work on my running if I am to do more of these. I spent the entire first lap of the bike part trying to pass people that had passed me during the run. I also need to work on being more aggressive in my passing. There were numerous times that I stayed back behind someone, or a group of someones, way too long because I was too cautious to pass. Granted, I saw some people passing a really bad times and places, I just have to find a happy medium. After all, it is a race and passing is part of racing so you have to take a few chances here and there if you want to win. Hopefully, though, I can get ahead enough at the beginning so that my passing and being passed is kept to a minimum.

It was a good race even if I was a little disappointed in my 11th place finish. My 20-29 class is pretty competitive, but I had hoped for top 10. Marcus kicked some butt with a 2nd place finish in the 20-29 class and 3rd overall. Congratulations Marcus.

Stay dirty.

Money for ERTA!

Bonebender netted around $2,000 in donations to Earthriders Trails Association (ERTA). Awesome!

This is why I paid my $35 to "race" in the mud last weekend. Always a silver lining.

Stay Dirty.

-Nate

Smithville-3 ; Nate-0

I raced Bonebender on Saturday and while it was nice to get my first race of the season under my belt and out of the way...I've got to say that it was honestly not a good time. While I can't really call it a race (as I was only able to ride about 20% of the time) I did push myself to finish (ie. carrying the mud laden bike). So there is something to be said for that.

I would never bad-mouth a promoter, as I know what it takes to put on a race/event. Fingers don't need to be pointed, but the promoter and the racers hopefully learned a lot.

The race today should never have been allowed to be run, at least maybe not without waiting a few hours to start. It rained too much and there was too much traffic (racers) for that trail in those conditions. The promoter should have not allowed us to be on those trails in those conditions. As racers, though, we should have known that when you drive in a downpour during your entire trip to the race that maybe you shouldn't be out there. I knew that, but I raced anyway and that was my mistake.

I feel for those racers whom this was their first race. I feel for the kid that chose to to skip his prom to drive from St. Louis to participate. Mostly, I feel for the volunteers and the hours that they'll have to put in to repair the damage we did. The money (any profit) will go back to ERTA to help the trails so I suppose that's something.

If you're going to race in similar conditions (I seriously hope you do not) the way to win the day would have been to ride very narrow tires with large widely spaced knobs. This way you increase your mud clearance, which is what killed most of the racers chances (me included) and the narrow tire can actually dig through the mud into harder dirt below. The wider spaced knobs help shed mud to keep the knobs doing their job. Oh, and racing a singlespeed also would help greatly in preventing the mechanical breakdown. At least I got one thing right.

All in all it was a learning experience. Albeit a lesson I learned nearly 8 years ago, but chose to ignore. I just hope others took away similar learning experiences. Oh, and, yes I did have one flat. For those in the know that's pretty good for me at Smithville.

Looking forward to less rain and mud and more dirt and good times in the future. Stay dirty.

-Nate Schotanus

Bone Bender postponed

Bone Bender Postponed!
Well folks, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but this latest round of rain just put us over the top on soaking the trails and making them un-rideable for this coming weekend. Sorry but we will have to postpone the Bonebender MTB race until the scheduled make up date of April 18th comes around.
I am just as bummed as you are about this but the volunteers who build and maintain all these sweet trails will appreciate your respect of the trails by not wanting to damage them with a race in muddy conditions.
Thanks for your understanding and I look forward to seeing all of you at the Bonebender MTB race on April 18th!
John Harter,
Trail Manager Smithville Lake Trails