Long time, no post… I say post vs write as I’ve started writing something multiple times over the past few years and then just never finished them up. There are a few race reports in there that I should circle back to. I may circle back to them still, along with a few other thoughts…
Note: I did something a little different than I have in the past… After a short intro, I provide some recap notes on topics that are likely of most interest based on questions I get about races; such as the course conditions, gear, nutritions, etc… that can be more useful in planning for future races.…
It’s been almost 6 months since I’ve entered any type of race… The last being the Marji Gesick 100 mountain bike race in Marquette, MI. I missed the American Birkiebeiner ski race less than 2 weeks ago due to a rib injury, but am looking forward to the Fatbike Birkie coming up this weekend. The…
It’s mid February and I’m nearing the end of a recovery week, at least from the bike. I knocked out a pretty awesome 3 weeks of tempo and sweet spot base work and I’m starting to feel good again about training and cycling. I am happy overall with what my numbers look like right now…
This past year was not good for me from a fitness and nutrition standpoint… Throughout the summer, I was down to 1 to 3 rides a week and doing almost nothing from a strength standpoint. I completely ignored a rational diet and gained a lot of weight. In fact, I’m currently the heaviest I’ve been…
Putting together a weekly training schedule can be a tough one for people, but it’s important to get an actual schedule and stick to it from week to week. I’ve experimented with training schedules that were independent from a standard 7 day week, but it can get cumbersome and hard to manage. I’ve done it…
The Wilderman Offroad Triathlon was my first swim, bike, run triathlon and it is a full IronMan distance. I’ve actually only done 2 other triathlon races, both being the Grantsburg Adventure Tri which is much shorter and in the form of bike, paddle, run. The Wilderman was something I had known was out there and…
The Woolly Bike Race has traditionally been the kick off event of the Minnesota Mountain Bike Series and draws a nice crowd of racers into the St. Croix River Valley. This was my first time racing the elite class for any type of XC series race. My kids had a ball with the kid’s comp…
The Grantsburg Tri is a fun, low key adventure triathlon in the small town of Grantsburg, Wisconsin. The main event is a 19 mile bike, 1.5 mile kayak and 8 mile run – in that order. Last year I took 4th place overall after leading the bike, dropping a place on the kayak and then…
The Loppet Duathlon was an unplanned event for me, but a fun one at that. My involvement was spurred on by Ben Mullin as a little end of snow season fun showdown where I stand no chance against Ben on skis, but have a little leg up on him with the bike. Mike Halverson was…
This was my second Fatbike Birkie and I had a little better overall finish than my previous. That being said, I felt fairly miserable for most of the race. I just couldn’t get my legs moving… They felt heavy and I just couldn’t get warmed up and moving. I felt like I was in trouble…
This will be a new one for folks that have been following along here… The American Birkebeiner was my first ski race, so this will be my first ever ski race report… I got some classic skis when I moved to Minnesota 5 years ago and used them a handful of times. I borrowed some…
Once again, this update is a little late, but not as late as last month… There are a few new things to mention and some is more of the same, but here are the highlights… Finally got a new podcast out – Polar Roll w/ Todd Poquette Raced the Fat Bike Birkie I made a…
This one is short, but I like documenting all these events… I wasn’t sure what the Fatbike Enduro Runs were going to entail, but I had the opportunity to stay in Marquette for another day and figured why not… I’m glad I did, because it was a ton of fun and the 3rd run pushed…
This is about 2 weeks late. I started it over a week ago and just never got back around to it, but figured I’d finish it up and get it out there. I have been able to race a couple times in February, but I have been sinking as far as time goes and I’m…
This was the best Polar Roll yet. This was my 3rd one and I think maybe there has been 4 total, so I can’t speak to the earliest of them. The trails were dialed and I really liked the course layout. I know the snowmobile trail is not very popular, but I think it provides…
It has been an interesting and busy month… I’ve been neck deep at the shop. A lot of stuff to figure out with running a brick and mortar business and planning for the future. I think I mentioned to someone the other day that I feel a bit like I am drinking from a fire…
Major Highlights from 2017… Started personal training out of 3 different gyms Completed Fitness Nutrition Specialist Training Got a little bit more into trail running Ran my first 10k trail run race – finished 2nd overall Raced my first adventure tri in 15 years – finished 4th overall Raced in 2 more states – Pennsylvania…
Podcasts Get subscribed to the podcast here and don’t forget to give me a rating or send me some feedback! Episode 17: Jerom Dionne “Back On The Bike” New Race Reports December 16, 2017: Solstice Chase Fatbike Race Report December Training Summary Cycling December Mileage – 267 miles 2017 Mileage – 3,880 miles December Duration…
Podcast Audio version available on the Podcast: Ep 18 – 2018 Solstice Chase Race Report Solstice Chase Fatbike Race Venue The venue was really awesome for a fat bike race or really any race in general. One of the biggest issues with most fat bike races is having a warm place to hang out before…
A few highlights from the month… Released 2 more guest episodes on the podcast. Hitting some really technical trail runs. My personal training business has been picking up at the gyms. Working on a series of workshops for January – see events below. I re-upped my Red Cross First Aid, CPR/AED certification. Podcasts Get subscribed…
I’ve had a ton going on in the month of October. Here are some highlights from the month… I had my first guest (John Petrylak) on the podcast, with some more guests in the works. I released my Marji Gesick 100 race report and podcast. I got invited to be a guest speaker at Luminaries Retreat…
This was my second attempt at the Marji Gesick 100 and definitely not my last. The course was tougher this year and unseasonably high temps made for a brutal day out on the trail. The report is a little long, so you might have to bookmark the page and come back to finish reading. Enjoy!…
September was pretty much the wrap up of my mountain bike racing for the year and now I’ll be going into a bit of a recreational mode for awhile before doing some base training again. I’m still getting stronger and faster year over year, so my goal will be to not loose too much of…
Even though the race didn’t go quite as expected (I was planning a little faster race time)… Shenandoah 100 Mountain Bike Race is probably now one of my favorites races. I only wish it were closer to home. It just had a great mix of riding, awesome venue, good sized race field and definitely hard.…
Ok, so this is a few days late, but I had a busy weekend and week… Shenandoah 100 is now in the books and it was a good one! Here are a few of the highlights from last month before diving into the details… I changed up my race plans again for the month of…
This Wilderness 101 mountain bike race was on my to-do list, but I wasn’t planning on it for this year. I was thinking I could fit it in next year with a family trip out east or something. Anyways, after doing a bunch of shorter races this spring and then getting through the Lutsen 99er,…
I did end up changing my race plans for July and made it out to the Wilderness 101 in Pennsylvania at the end of the month. I also, significantly cranked up my training hours in July. Not anything to do with the Wildnerness as it would have been too late to do any specific training…
My race reports have typically been the reason for people visiting my website in the first place. With that in mind, I’m kicking off the new podcast by going back in time with some audio and additional commentary on my race reports from previous years. These are the 3 reports that you will find in…
Endurance Path is finally going audio! I’ve had thoughts of doing my own podcast for quite some time, even before previously co-hosting on the Last Aid Station. The timing never seemed right and I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to do with it before it eventually fell off the back of my plate. Well,…
Another Lutsen 99er race weekend and another muddy mountain bike… There is always some water or mud somewhere on the course, but this year was the wetest and muddiest Lutsen 99er that I have personally done with rain coming down almost all day. This race has been growing every year and I believe this year…
I started off the month of June with a good race at the Borah Epic, ran a solid 10k trail race and finished off the month with the Lutsen 99er. I’m looking to change up my race plans for July, so read on for the latest and what’s coming up. June Training Summary Cycling June…
The City of Trails 10k Trail Run in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin was my first true trail running event. I ran a little cross country in High School in the 1990s and have done a few other offroad events, but none of them consisted of true singletrack hiking trail like The City of Trails 10k…
I had actually heard very little about the Borah Epic mountain bike race in the past, but it looked like a great race once I started looking into it. I’m suprised I don’t see more about it floating around the social media and internet. I had a good race overall aside from a minor crash…
May was overall a great month of training, racing and just getting out and being active. I’ve stayed healthy! My training has been fairly mild in the grand scheme of things, but I’ve also been fairly consistant and purposeful with a couple workouts per week outside of the weekend racing. I know some people don’t…
I knew the weather forcast was looking rough for the Detroit Mountain Shakedown race, but I still failed to plan accordingly for the cold temps and rain. I don’t really have the proper cold rain gear set up to begin with, but it has now moved up my priority list. Regardless, I hadn’t packed anything…
I have been wanting to mix things up from just mountain biking and had the opportunity this past weekend to do so with a bike, paddle, run at the Grantsburg Adventure Triathlon in Grantsburg, Wisconsin. I had a strong bike ride and then dropped some time in the kayak and more in the run to…
I was back on the dirt this past weekend at the Woolly MTB Race in St. Croix Falls, WI where I raced the Marathon 4 hour lap race. This was the season opener race for the Minnesota Mountain Bike Series. I did 2 of these 4 hr races 3 years ago when I was getting…
April was a good month and I feel like I’m getting back in the groove of things after kind of a messed up winter. I’ve been feeling pretty healthy and excited about doing some racing again. Enjoy the recap. As I mentioned last month, these monthly recaps have been moved back to the blog feed for…
Here is my race report from the Ken Woods Memorial Road Race last weekend. I had better results this time around, but still have a lot of room for improvement. That being said, I think I am getting more comfortable with the pack and getting a read on what is going on to race smarter…
Well… I decided I would like to try road racing again. Not that I was ever into road racing seriously in the past, but I did try a few road races 2 years ago, along with a few crits and time trials. The THK road race in Avon, MN was the first road race I did…
I went to the NETA Group Cycling Instructor Certification Class a couple weekends ago and have a few thoughts on my experience with the class. I’m planning on putting together some indoor group cycling classes later this year and thought this would be a good place to start picking up some of the basics or best…
I’m moving these monthly recaps back to the blog feed for now and have changed the content a bit from the e-mail only version. They will still get e-mailed out to subscribers as well. Enjoy and let me know if there is anything else you would like to see in them. Monthly Training Summary Cycling…
This winter base training report is going to start with the first week of January and run through March 19th. December was a pretty terrible month as far as being sick, where I went 2 and a half weeks without doing anything. I missed the Solstice Chase Fat Bike Race and then started doing some…
All signs were pointing to a hike a bike event with the warm temps coming in, but the trails held up amazingly well and the 2017 906 Polar Roll was a great event. I know there was a ton of effort put into prepping the trails and creating a solid base that would hold up…
Michigan Tech has an extensive system of Cross Country Trails that have been expanded a great deal since I graduated from Michigan Tech in 2001. Although I mountain biked the Tech singletrack quite a bit during my college years, I had only skied on the Tech Trails once or maybe twice with some loaner classic skis.…
The Freezer Burn Fat Bike Race was a small low key race that turned out to be a fun little event. The race fields were small and included a mix of folks from all race and ride experience levels. The Freezer Burn is also part of a 2 race series that includes the Fat Bike Vasaloppet…
I was spending the week between Christmas and the New Year in Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula. The main objective of the week was to spend time on the Keweenaw’s spectacular XC ski trails, most notably the Swedetown Trails in Calumet and the Michigan Tech Trails in Houghton. They are awesome ski trails and I’ll write up…
I put together a quick run down of my race highlights from 2016 and some lessons learned. I had some new experiences as I dove into fat bike racing. I raced multiple 100 mile mountain bike races and backed out of a couple others after a rib injury. I had some good races and some…
This will be a fairly short post, but I wanted to send out a note to expand on 2 points I made last week about setting fitness goals as we wrap up 2016 and move into 2017. Last week, I made a short video that brought up the following 2 points… Don’t wait until January…
It has been an interesting fall training transition during my offseason, if an offseason from biking actually exists anymore… I should have been indulging in a bit more solid recovery after the Marji Gesick 100, but I really wanted to start sorting out how I was going to train in the future for both running…
Simplicity and a change of pace are the first couple things that come to mind when I sit down to write about my introduction to running. I have some previous running experience, but there was something new and different about putting on a pair of shoes and working my way thru the woods by foot that…
I am going to specifically talk about how cadence impacts power output and stress loads on your knee joints. Pay attention, because this could save you from a knee injury and help you become more energy efficient at the same time. I’ll nerd out with some equations and calculations, but stay with me and I’ll…
I’ll keep this short, but I thought it was relevant to take a step back and discuss the good and bad of my taper weeks leading into the Marji Gesick 100. I finished my last training build week with 3 weeks left before the Marji. I took a Recovery week, 1 peak week and then…
There are so many thoughts that go thru my head as I go to write the report for my first Marji Gesick 100 mountain bike race. So many lessons, successes, failures and new experiences on the trail. Riding terrain, drops and jump lines I’ve never ridden before. Hiking down sections of trail that I was…
This is part 2 of my Marji Gesick training report. If you remember, I had put out a part 1 training overview after finishing my first training block, about a month ago. You can find a link at the bottom of this report to that first article in case you missed it. No worries, you…
The Ore to Shore Epic Mountain Bike Race has been on my race to-do list since getting back into biking a few years ago, but was kind of sitting on the back burner until now. I had rearranged my summer plans after injuring my ribs back in June and was no longer going to travel…
This write up is a breakdown of my training for the Marji Gesick 100 over the past month or so. I have included some good data related to training zones, high level analysis of some of my workouts and where I think I am sitting at now. I basically broke the report down by types…
I had never been to Door County and although I love trail riding… I was looking forward to biking Door County on my road bike, wandering around the shorelines and checking out the sites. Plus, I was headed to the Keweenaw Peninsula next and my ribs were just about healed up and I wanted to save…
Bare with me here as I share a few deep thoughts, but sometimes you have to know when to pull the plug on your current plans, adjust and move ahead in another direction. I am doing just that… I missed the Tatanka 100, and there is no way I could have raced it last weekend.…
I went into the doctor today because my rib pain was severe and worse than last week, after jumping on my trainer last night… I’ll circle back to the trainer, but in short I got a new KICKR trainer. Anyways, back to the rib issue. I have also noticed that area of my rib cage…
This was my first Mohican 100 mountain bike race and my second race in the NUE series. I was not targeting the NUE, but I am always looking for a good race and the opportunity came up for me to go out to the Mohican 100, so there I was… Pre Mohican 100 Race Getting…
Here I am, a few days out from the Mohican 100 Mountain Bike Race. It has been 2 and a half months since the True Grit Epic Mountain Bike Race and I am not 100% sure at where I stand. I backed off of riding quite a bit this spring. I had been riding and racing quite…
I have been in desperate need of some training and actual singletrack riding. I felt like I was sick for the entire month of April and had been on and off the bike this entire spring, going more than a week at times without doing any riding. I was happy to have finished True Grit,…
The Mammoth Gravel Classic was my first organized gravel ride. I have been looking at gravel bikes a bit, but I am yet to take the big dive and purchase one, so I rode my full suspension 29er. This wasn’t a race and I could use more time on my 29er anyways, as I will…
I arrived in St. George Utah on Friday afternoon with plenty of time to go for a ride and check out some of the course. I had never been to St. George before and heard that some of the True Grit Course was really technical and I wanted to see some of it before the…
The Fat Bike Birkie would be the end of my first season of fat bike racing before immediately jumping into my first 100 miler. The Fat Bike Birkie turned out to be a really great event and one that I hope I can make it to every year. Pre Fat Bike Birkie Race My buddy…
Oh, where do I begin? The 2016 906 Polar Roll fat bike race was a knock down, all out brawl and slugfest of Fat Bikes, die hard bikers, mother nature and trail conditions. I was watching the weather reports come in a couple weeks before the race, that were reporting a warm up. When I…
The Fat Bike Frozen Forty was the first time I really contemplated pulling the plug mid race and reporting a DNF. But, I decided to hang in there and finish things up. I went down a couple times and a few other moments of bouncing my bars or shoulder off a tree that kept things…
I’ll start by saying that Cuyuna Whiteout was one of the most fun races I have done. I have built up an interest for endurance races recently, because I like point to point or single lap races. I get bored easily and like to keep things new and I just do not get too excited about…
I have already kicked off my Great Lakes Fat Bike Series racing with the Solstice Chase race back in December. But that was 7 weeks ago and the Cuyuna Whiteout, 2 days from now, will kick off 3 weekends of back to back Fat Bike racing that will include the Frozen Forty and 906 Polar…
I was excited for the Solstice Chase as it would be my first fat bike race. I swung by Cyclova in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin on Friday afternoon to pick up my race number and t-shirt. I had forgotten that t-shirts were included in the race fee, which was pretty impressive for a $35 race…
I have not raced any bikes since crossing the finish line of the Chequamegon 40 about 3 months ago and I am looking forward to my first fat bike race, the Great Lakes Fat Bike Series opener, Solstice Chase on Saturday. Since the Chequamegon, I have been mostly “Just Riding Along” at low intensity with…
I believe finding heart threshold is important for a few reasons when it comes to your cycling training and racing. The first and foremost reason is so I understand where my safe zone is without blowing up. Secondly, and just as important as the first, is to set more precise heart rate training zones to follow…
The Chequamegon 40 Fat Tire festival officially wrapped up my racing for the year and I am currently thinking about my training and planning for next year. I have a huge interest in the Endurance Racing scene at this point, because I like the ultimate test on the body and mind. That being said, there are…
This will be my last monthly report via blog post. I am going to change it up a bit for the future and put together a short e-mailed Newsletter of highlights, links and any new lessons learned for subscribers, in place of the monthly reports that I have been posting. I intend to have the…
You couldn’t ask for better racing weather for the Chequamegon 40 in mid September. My Garmin showed that it was in the 50s for the entire race and then it warmed up real nice for the afternoon. It was about 20 degrees warmer at the start line than it was the year before and I was…
Welcome to my August 2015 Endurance Path Monthly Report! I started the month off with the Maah Daah Hey 100 and spent the rest of the month learning some lessons about recovery and fatigue. I need to learn how to just go out for recovery rides sometimes without having to push the limits every ride.…
I looked around at the rest of the starting field to realize my hairy legs were sticking out like a Sasquatch in a nudist colony and asked the guy next to me if this was in fact the Cat 4/5 group and not the Cat 1/2/3 group. I had done some Crit racing and 2…
I had heard that the Maah Daah Hey 100 was one tough race, but I was not prepared for what I had gotten myself into. A pre-ride of the opening parts of the trail a few days before the race was a big wake up call for what was ahead, but I still had no…
Welcome to my July 2015 Endurance Path Monthly Report! This is coming out a couple days earlier than normal, as I am out in North Dakota for the Maah Daah Hey 100 which is Saturday August 1st and I will want to focus on my race report immediately after the race. That being said, keep…
I am preparing for the Maah Daah Hey 100 that is less than one week away and I have started my taper down. I should be in a bit better shape for Maah Daah Hey than I was for the Lutsen 99er and slightly less fatigued. Even though the Lutsen 99er had some rugged ATV…
Welcome to my June 2015 Endurance Path Monthly Report! My report this month is a bit shorter than the last. I spent most of the month riding and was able to get out to a few new trails that I had never ridden before. It was a very mountain bike focused month as I finished…
I’ll start off by saying that I kicked my last year’s ass and improved my Lutsen 99er race time by over 2 hours. That being said, I didn’t start the morning off great and didn’t really know how things were going to go until I was headed to the starting gate. So let’s get to…
Picture from the night before last year’s Lutsen 99er I may be writing this article a bit late, as the Lutsen 99er is only a couple days away. Whether you are ready or not, the race is here and you have a few days to get your head in it. As for me, I have…
I just got back from 4 days of mountain biking at Cuyuna Lakes Recreation Area and had a few lessons that I learned in the process of a lot of fun. This was my third time riding Cuyuna, but my first multi-day visit. I did some riding with my wife and kids along with some of…
Welcome to my May 2015 Endurance Path Monthly Report! I had a busy month of racing that included Time Trials, Criteriums and Mountain Bike Races. I had some big lessons learned in making sure my equipment is working well before a race and have maintained my weight. As always, any feedback is greatly appreciated. If…
Race Prep I’ll start out by saying that I am really glad that I pre-rode the course on Saturday. I’ve never ridden Mt. Kato before and there were a few technical sections on the Comp course that would have taken me by surprise. We hauled our camper down to Mankato Friday evening and camped at…
I’ll preface this article by saying that this race was a mechanical disaster for me with a couple other mishaps, but I still finished. I started out the morning by not even planning to head to the race, when I woke up to thunderstorms. As I kept watching the weather and after getting a text…
Welcome to the my April 2015 Endurance Path Update! I started doing monthly updates last year, but did not follow through. I am going to start them back up and see if I can refine them enough for it to make sense to keep them going. As always, any feedback is greatly appreciated. If there is…
Every year, is your year. You own every second of it and it is your choice how you spend those seconds. Last year, I posted the article “Do Something Epic This Year” that described what Epic really meant and what my Epic plans were for 2014. Many people start their year off with some New…
I was about 100 feet down the trail when I realized I had been missing out on an entirely different mountain biking experience. It was almost 9:00 at night, there were a couple inches of snow on the ground and it was 27 degrees outside. I was the only person on the trail and all…
I am a little late in getting this post out, but better late than never. As I posted previously, I decided last minute to enter another race before winter sets in here in Minnesota and I break out the cross country skis. I had competed in the St. Croix Falls Woolly Mountain Bike Marathon Race…
I decided to go ahead and enter one last race for the year tomorrow. My first race of the season was the St Croix Falls, Woolly Mountain Bike Marathon Race. I placed 28th out of 39. I feel like I am faster now than I was at the beginning of the year and hope to…
My other Chequamegon Race Reports and/or Results 2013 No Report – 1132nd place in 3hrs 12 min 2014 Keep Scrolling – 538th place in 2hrs 39min 2015 Chequamegon Race Report – 187th place in 2hrs 34min 2018 No Report – 160th place in 2hrs 48min 2021 No Report – 81st place in 2 hrs 39min…
The following report is from my first Lutsen 99er race in 2014, but if you would like to see the reports from later Lutsen races, here are the links for those… 2015 Lutsen 99er Race Report – 81st place in 6hrs 58min 2017 Lutsen 99er Race Report – 43rd place in 6hrs 49min As mentioned above, this…
Have you ever thought about why you ride a bike? I haven’t thought about it much until now. But I just go do it every chance I get, which is far less than I’d like to. My problem is, I have a lot of hobbies and things I like to do. So I have to…
I entered the Keweenaw Chain Drive Festival 30 mile mountain bike race this past weekend and got my tail kicked. I have 2 major things I need to work on. First, I need to learn how to train much better. Second, I need to learn to pace myself. The Lutsen is less than 2 weeks…
Cycling season is in full swing now and the racing has just begun. I’ve had a busy month between trying out some new gear and competing in a race. Now that the trails are dried out and open, I have switched most of my riding over to my mountain bike, which is what I enjoy…
I can’t believe it has been a month already since our trip to Moab. We have had some very mixed weather, but I have been able to get out on a few road rides. I’m running out of time to get ready for the Lutsen 99er and I would say that I am far from…