Yurbuds Review

I have been a runner for over 30 years, a triathlete for 12 years and an adventure racer for 5 years. To be good at any of these events you need determination, perseverance, a work ethic like no other, time, lots of time, and most of all, focus. Long workouts are taxing on my physical being, they beat down my body and eat away at my mental capacity. I many times need help focusing on the finish line. Training groups and other like minded friends help, but because of time limitations I am frequently alone, on my own, to struggle though the mental turmoil of training solo.

 

Music is my drug of choice for those long lonely workouts, but I always struggled with the technology available to allow me to pipe that music through my head. I tried earbuds of every type, but was never able to find a pair that would stay in my ears. If I found a pair that would partially stay in, I would have to turn the volume up so loud to drown out the wind that I felt like my head was pounding by the end of the workout. I once found a pair that would stay in my ears, but my sweat shorted them out. I even sometimes ended up with chaffed ears from constantly pushing the earbuds back in or the cord rubbing against my ear. I had all but given up, when at last I found something that worked and worked well, Yurbuds I had heard a lot about them at the Cyclery, my local bike shop, and also on the adventure race circuit. Apparently the inventor of Yurbuds is an adventure racer and has graciously donated product to adventure race groups for prizes. Unfortunately for me, when my teammate Chuck and I would place in the money at a race, by the time we had a chance to choose our prize the Yurbuds had all been taken. I had done research on the product and was just waiting for the right time to buy, when a friend gifted me with a pair of Inspire Yurbuds, (Thanks to the Darbon Clan)

 

So after testing these Yurbuds extensively, meaning I’m in the middle of Ironman training and spending many hours running, and cycling alone, so I have had them in my ears more often than not, I have come to my own conclusions about this product.

The GOOD

They haven’t shorted out even with the very large amounts of sweat the rolls off my head and right into my ears. The twist lock system works well once you figure it out. I am somewhat challenged when it comes to following instructions, so for people like me, it might take a couple attempts to get it right. Because of the design the cords are held away from your ear and don’t rub your earlobe raw. The sound quality is good and I don’t need to turn them up to a level that would burst my eardrums to hear the music. Most of all, when I’m at the point that my body is screaming “NO” , the music flowing through my head helps me to focus and push on just a little bit further.

The BAD

Like I said I’m a little challenged when it comes to reading and following instructions. I had to actually go to the Yurbuds website and watch the video, to figure out how to lock them in place.

 

The UGLY

They don’t come in my signature green color, I mean come on, I need ROCK Racing green or Godzilla Green in all my workout gear.

My FINAL ANSWER

Buy these if you need to focus and don’t have the patience to continually fight to keep your earbuds in your ears, I know you will love them. I think they are a bit pricey, but I think it’s worth it, especially when my training plan continues getting longer as the Ironman nears. I will continue to use these for workouts even after the Ironman because I have come to count on them. Oh, and of course they come in handy when mowing the lawn too.




 

Broemmelsiek Mountain Bike Race

So what do you do for fun when you’re training for an Ironman, well you compete in a mountain bike race. I mean, why not, you have been spending all your time on a road bike and running and swimming, training for the IM and of course you haven’t been on your mountain bike in two months, so it’s the smart thing to do… right?

Ok, it might not be the smart thing to do, but it is the fun thing to do, plus it’s what my mind needed to break up the monotony of all the long IM training.

I mean, that is what Chuck told me when he talked me into doing it. If you haven’t noticed, in all my post when I get talked into something, it’s almost always Chuck talking me into it. He is really a bad influence on me.

When I arrived at the park, Chuck and Lori had already pitched the canopy on the best corner of the course, so we had an awesome pit area, so awesome that many of our Team Cyclery teammates used it for their pit also.

I was not in a good mood, I had a headache, stupid pollen, and I think I was still tired from staying up all night at the Relay for Life on Friday/Saturday. At one point while driving to the park, I thought about turning around, but I didn’t, I committed so I would be there.

Chuck and I registered for the race and Lori got her camera ready to take some awesome race photos. I knew a few of Team Cyclery would be there, but oh my gosh, I think we had so many teammates on hand that we dominated the field. We put our numbers on our bikes strategically placed our coolers and were ready to ride.

We were standing at the starting line in a sea of red Cyclery jerseys, most of which were in the Marathon division. Once again, I felt like this was a mistake, I mean, I hadn’t been on my mountain bike in months, I kept chanting in my head, just ride, it will be a good workout.

The Race took off fast, it seemed way faster than the previous year, the course was super dry, which makes it fast, but also treacherous. Since it was so dry the gravel and dirt was very loose, which threw me into a fish tail many times.

I made it through lap 1 without incident, and when I looked at my time, it was over a minute faster than my 1st lap the previous year. I was surprised and even more surprised that my headache was starting to subside. I headed out for the second lap without a pit stop, I still had enough fluids to make another lap. I had a girl tailing me for the entire lap, so we chatted a little and of course it made me stay fast, as I didn’t want to get passed. She was riding cat 3, so after that lap she dropped off. I blew through the pit area without stopping, thinking I could make a 3rd lap before I needed to stop. I started to slow down, my third lap came in 1:50 slower than my first two laps. I dropped off at our pit area in the feed zone after the 3rd lap and Lori refilled my water bottle while I ate a HS waffle. I really didn’t have the stomach to eat, but forced myself too, I’m glad I did though, I know it helped.

I was really glad to get back into the woods quickly, it was really warming up and the sun was just beating down out in the open. I picked up the pace on my 4th lab, riding faster than my third, so I knew the Honey Stinger waffle had kicked in. Riding out of the feed zone to start the 5th lap, I was thinking to my self and I said out loud “ I paid for this too”, the spectators sitting along the feed zone started laughing. I started to slow down a bit on the 5th lap, but I was at the point where I was just thinking, have fun, it’s almost over. I really do love the course with all the winding turns.

I finished the 5th lap, but had added two minutes to my lap time, I thought it best to stop in the pit again and grab another HS waffle, it was even harder to get it down this time, I ate about half a waffle and took off. Now I was in new territory, the previous year, I only finished 5 laps and here I was on my 6th lap and I couldn’t figure it out, I was sure I was in worse shape than the previous year and I had also put on weight while nursing an injury over the winter, so I was carrying a lot more girth through the course, but was still way ahead of my course PR. I tried to ride fast, knowing it was my last lap, but it ended up being my slowest lap, but still faster than the previous year. I rolled through the finish line, thinking only of that lawn chair under the tent.

I rolled into our pit area and fell into the lawn chair.

I pulled off my shoes and socks to find that I either had a really good suntan or I drug about 2 pounds of dirt off the course with me. I have enough weight to carry right now, I didn’t need all that extra dirt dragging me down.

I sat in the chair and waited for chuck to roll through the feed zone on his way to the finish. He did 7 laps and only finished about 10 minutes behind me, so he really had a great day.

Chuck flew through the finish then came rolling into the pit, like me, he just wanted to get his shoes off too.

After resting a few minutes, we got cleaned up and headed to the awards, I was called for second place.

Mary Piper, a very cool competitor was called for 1st, she is so fast, I would love to ride as fast as she does.

Andy Gibbs was called for an award, I think he was 3rd.

It was really fun seeing all our friends out having a great time, even some of our Adventure race friends were on hand. It was a perfect day and one I can’t believe I almost didn’t make because of some stupid little headache. I should have known the best medicine is always to go outside and play.

Broemmelsiek Mtn Bike Race - 3hr

Broemmelsiek Slideshow


Broemmelsiek video

SS Review Update and NEW tires

I’m giving up on my previous favorite mtn bike tires. They were Kenda Slant Six’s mounted tubeless front and rear which I reviewed here: SS review..  It’s not that they were all that bad, I’m just convinced there is something better.   

If you read my race report from Carnage at the Creek here: CAC .  You already know I cut the sidewall of my front tire on some rocky singletrack.  I was able to boot the tire with a Gu pack, stuff it with a tube, and finish the race.

 I have a full year of riding on this tire set, and they are showing some significant wear maybe I expect too much?).  The rear tire is the worst and definitely needs to be replaced.  I have been sliding around and loosing traction in all terrains recently, but after a recent wet gravel ride had me squirming all over I decided it was time to change the rear.

They were my first set of tubeless tires, so I’ve been wondering how much of the improvement I noted while first riding them was because of the change to tubeless and how much was the tire design.  Another thing that bugged me, but never turned into an issue was the fact that Kenda would not warranty tires that had been used with sealants.  wtf?  Everyone rides tubeless with sealant.  What a cop-out.

Late last fall I built up a Niner Air 9 for Jacob (ROCK Racing’s youngest member) and used Rocket Ron 29er tires on it.  He has been training and racing on them ever since and they have given flawless performance.    He even has an AG win at Tracks-n-Treads offroad biathlon on them.

So seeing the success he has had, I was predisposed to using the same tires on my Superfly.  I like the big square lugs with tight spacing on the Racing Ralph’s.  It is available for 29er wheels and in several different widths.   It has smaller tighter lugs down the center to roll smoother and faster, with larger further spaced lugs on the edges for grip during turns.

The Schwalbe tires are also available with Snakeskin sidewalls.  I definitely wanted more protection after cutting that sidewall in the race.  (Now that I think about it, I also cut a sidewall on a Maxxis Ignitor at the Castlewood 8hr).  From Schwalbe’s website:  “The Snakeskin protection is a layer of abrasion resistant fabric mesh that's embedded into the outer layer of the casing on the sidewall. It adds yet another facet of durability, making these tires prime for tough terrain.”   Sounds like just what I need.

Another feature I like that most tire mfg’s do on their high-end tires is multiple rubber compounds in different tire locations.  Schwalbe calls theirs the Pacestar Triple Compound.  And their description of it is “rubber to optimize the tire's performance wherever possible with regards to grip, durability, and rolling resistance…. cornering is outstanding thanks in part to the soft rubber compound”

So that’s it.  I decided on the Racing Ralph’s with SnakeSkin, TL-Ready, Folding, 29 x 2.25in. 

I mounted them on my Stan’s ZTR Crest wheels.  They have been the easiest tires I’ve set up tubeless to date.  I used my compressor to seat the beads, but I bet it could be done with a hand pump.  I used two cups of Stan’s sealant in each one.  They sealed instantly and I haven’t had to do any of the old PITA shake-to-seal method or leaving them on a bucket each night for a week refilling with air each morning.  Seriously, I just put them on and they were ready to go.  Simple.  Awesome.

Now I have to get some ride time on these new tires and let you know what I think.

Carnage at the Creek

Carnage at the Creek (CAC) was the 3^rd edition of the Team Virtus non-race.  The non-race affectionately known as the CAC was promised to be long and hard.  I watched the race updates from the sidelines for a few weeks, but finally all the trash talk and side bets on Facebook got the best of me.  I wanted to be there.  Robin had previously committed to a race with her daughter , so I could go solo or find another teammate.  I checked the Virtus blog and seen that Kate (aka SuperKate, maw-maw, Kage) was entered and racing solo.  We had talked about racing together before so I sent her a message and we were quickly a team.  We have trained and raced (individually or separate teams) before so I knew we would work great together as a team.  

This was also the inaugural race for the Adventure Jeep.  I finally retired the old van and got the ultimate adventure vehicle.  I’m planning a separate post about the Adventure Jeep, so for now I’ll just say It was jammed full of race gear for me and camping gear for a family of four.  We got it all in but it was kind of tight.  I think a roof rack is a necessity.

So gear was all loaded and I took a final look at Facebook for last minute updates.  The Pine Ridge campsite planned for pre-race camping had been overrun by some survivalist/woodsmanship convention and was completely filled.  I imagine this was all a little stressful for Virtus, but they came through shining in true Adventure Racer fashion.  Assessed the problem, came up with an alternate plan, and made it work.  They found an alternate campground called Dry Fork a few miles away and posted directions.  They staked out the last campsite available for us all to share.  This campground was almost filled by horse people (equestrian just sounds too formal).

Kate was still setting up her tent when we arrived, so the Vohsen tent went up right next to hers.  I didn’t count the tents on our little site, but I bet there were 8 or 10, and about 15 people.  Some people ate on the way down, some were still cooking, but eventually everyone was settled and comfortable around the campfire.

The campfire stories were rolling out one after the other, bets were made, then new bigger bets were made, then new and even bigger stories were told.  I laughed my ass off with all the jokes going around the fire.   Or did I?  Some of the subjects explored were donuts, male hairdressers, spoiled meat, eggnog, farting, plastic gun twirling, hot grease sandwiches, broom hockey, and flaming meatloaf.  But I’m just gonna say:  “You had to be there.  Stories told by the fire, stay by the fire”.  But… Damn… Did Bob really……?

 

So it was late to bed, I bet close to midnight.  The generator at the horse-people campsite droned on past sun-up, it was only occasionally beat out by the coyotes and snoring.  Everyone was up about the same time prepping and eating different breakfasts.  I went for the quick one, toasting a few pop tarts on the grate over the fire.  It was still pretty cold when I brushed my teeth.  It’s nice that only in a group of adventure racers can I wear a hat like this and not catch a bunch of crap for it.

But once the sun was up it started warming up quick and it was time to get to the race start.  We drove back to the original campground with about 15 minutes to spare and picked up the map, passport, and listened to a quick pre-race meeting.  We lined up and took off on a short (50m) run to the bikes. 

The bike course was a 3? mile marked loop leading us back to start/transition.  We spread out pretty quickly going through a grassy field marked by lengths of PVC pipe driven into the ground.  Somehow the group got derailed and rode down into a creek valley.  Bob did an amazing run to catch the group and re-route us back onto the original bike course.   We were making our way through a rocky section of single-track when my front tire sidewall was cut open. 

I pulled over and could tell right away that cut wasn’t going to seal with the Stan’s sealant I have in them.  I got a tube put in and used a Gu pack from Kate to boot the tire with.  Then started pumping away at it with my mini-pump.  Adventure racers are great people.  I think every team that went by asked if we needed anything.  When Team Wahoo went by they asked if I needed a C02, I was already tired of pumping and gladly accepted it.  

Tire fixed we rode back into transition. 

We changed shoes and swapped the map around, and ran out of the TA on hwy Y, turning off the hwy to pick up the trail I wanted to use as a handrail to CP1.  We ended up meeting up with Travis Hammond from Offroad Medics during this section.    

We ran most of the trail until we turned off onto an easy to follow ridgeline and found Kelly Sumner from Offroad Fixation as he was leaving it.  

When we were crossing a big field on the way to CP2 we met up with Kelly again, he was heading back towards CP1 looking for a lost compass.   Somewhere near this big field Steve Willi came up and introduced himself to us as a new adventure racer in need of some navigation help.  We gladly accepted him into our group and tried to show him some map details and nav tips as we went along.  He was totally cool, thanking us multiple times.  He is going to make an excellent adventure racer.

We found CP2 shortly after scattering a herd of cows, and getting a big ole stink eye from this guy:

Travis spotted a good way out of the reentrant and saved us some time on the way to CP3.  This one was plotted just north of a small pond.  We clambered around in the thick brush for a few minutes and finally found the CP hidden up against a cool looking cliff/waterfall.   

We climbed the next ridge and found CP4 on a great boulder overlook.  We were pretty high up here and needed to get down to the valley below.  I spotted a risky descent that would save us a ton of time vs winding around and down safely.  Kate was all up for the risky descent.  So I went first then got video of her and Steve coming down.

We wound our way through some thick thorns and came out onto a jeep/gravel trail just perfect to follow back to the TA.  We met up with two different guys and got a little talk about private property.  One was totally cool, one a little less so.  But we stayed respectful and explained there were no property markers while making our apologies. 

Kate and I picked up the pace here and ran most of the way back in, only slowing up to walk the big hills.  Travis stopped to fix a shoelace, and Steve dropped off somewhere, but they both caught up at transition.  We were really surprised when Bob told us “You guys are doing great, only the second team to come through!”

We made a pretty quick transition, eating and re-filling camelbaks while we had the opportunity.  I downed an 8oz bottle of Ensure.  Man it works great for my energy levels, but totally gives me gas a few hours later (about the same time we happened to be in the rowboat).

We rode out on the singletrack heading north toward the homestead.   

The trail started out pretty smooth and stayed easy until sometime after CP4.5, it started getting a lot less maintained and more torn up by horse hooves.

The trail dropped into a creek valley, when we were just about to climb away from the creek and out of the valley, I spotted a natural stone waterfall with a nice slope and covering of slippery green slime.  I told Kate and Travis, “That looks like a great place to waterslide.”  And I got an instant answer from Kate:  “I’ll do it!”  haha, awesome.  Then of course I had to do it too.

We put a lot of time in this bike leg, seemed like we were getting off bikes to climb over something, or to cross some horse shredded section of trail.  I kept an occasional eye on the ground watching the single trail of bikes tires of someone riding ahead of us (Todd).

At CP6 we got some great superman-bike photos:

After CP6 we came to a difficult nav point where several trails intersected.  We needed to make a decision.  1-24,000 scale maps rarely give enough trail detail for spots like this, so between me and Travis we decided to stay on the trail following the ridge line.  This turned out to be the right one.
At CP7 we found two teens obviously prepping for some private time.  Haha, they never expected an adventure race to be moving through.  The CP was hanging out on a really cool boulder overlooking a big valley.  Nice spot.  We later learned that Todd (from Hoosier Daddies) surprised them as well and asked them if they had seen any other racers, and what they looked like. (you know, trying to keeps tabs on last night’s campfire bets)  They replied “Yeah, some racers came by.  They looked like a family team, two parents and a kid.”  Funny, they must have thought I was much younger than Kate and Travis.

It wasn’t long after these guys that I was riding down a rocky descent (hindsight says I should have walked it) and bounced off some rocks right into a cedar tree.  A branch jabbed my ear and I got this cool race wound.  Awesome.

After CP7 we dropped down to cross Smith Creek.  I hadn’t been seeing any more of the bike tracks I was seeing earlier, but thought maybe the ground was hard, or I was missing them, but when we got a long muddy spot at the creek, it was definite, there were no bike tracks anymore.  I was questioning my nav up to that point and couldn’t think of anywhere we could have gone wrong, so we continued pressing on.

We left the singletrack shortly after and rode out onto some gravel roads.  Virtus had put an interesting handwritten note on our map of this section.  

Well they weren’t kidding.  This guy had a big billboard in front of his crappy trailer that said “Property owner will SHOOT TO KILL any man, woman, or child that enters this property…”  There was plenty more on the sign, but that was enough to keep us moving along.  I wanted a picture of that sign for the report, but seriously, I was afraid to take one.

We rode up to the final CP7.5 on our map expecting a water event at the winery, only to be handed another map by Emma Gossett, everyone's favorite volunteer and Orange Lederhosen team manager.  She told us we were the first team to get to her checkpoint.  Awesome!  We were in first place.  We figured Todd must have gotten on the wrong trail between 6 and 7, because I hadn’t seen any tracks at the creek.  We know he is a fast rider, so we had to make the most of our advantage.  The new map was further north, off the end of the MyTopo map.  It was the Little Dixie Lake ConservationArea.  We pushed pretty hard to the lake at CP8.  We got lots of cheers riding in and were told we were still in first place.  They pointed us down to the boat dock where there was only one creaky, leaky, dilapidated, old WWII barge rowboat tied up.

This lake would normally have ten or so boats, but since this turned out to be the best weather in weeks, they were all taken up by other visitors.  Travis had hung with us all through the race so we quickly decided to do the rowing together too.  This turned out to be a great decision.  BECAUSE ROWING SUCKS!  We took turns at it, I went first, then Travis, then Kate.  The boat was difficult to control but we slowly got the hang of it – NOT!

And like I mentioned before the Ensure I drank before the bike was working overtime on me, MAN, apologies to my teammates in the boat.

There were 3 CP’s on the water, one mandatory, two optional.  Since we were holding first place we wanted them all to protect our lead.  Kate was jumping out at each CP recording the symbols.  At the last CP she ran up, got the symbol, and climbed back in the barge at the same time Todd came gliding up in Bob’s kayak.

We rowed away from the bank hard, but we knew we had just lost our lead.  No way would we keep up with a kayak.  Luckily for us Todd is an outstanding sportsman, he hung back and we all paddled into the finish together and turned our passports in for a 3-way first place tie.

The finish line food and beer was great, baked potatoes with fixin’s, cheese dip and chips, burgers, and cookies.

Jello shots were shared

A post-race volleyball game broke out

Swag was plentiful

And all too soon, we had to leave.  I would have loved to camp another night, but new baby nephews must be baptized.

Team Virtus put on what is now one of my favorite races.  I can’t imagine how much blood and sweat went into setting it all up.  They did an outstanding job on race day and with all of the prep work they did!  And when the unexpected things popped up, they conquered them with Strength and Honor, just like their jerseys say.  (haha Bob really ran his ass off to get the first bike loop back together)

Ps.   I predict the non-race will double in size and become the event of the year for Midwest adventure racers.

CAC Pictures

Race report coming soon.  Until then, here are the non-race pictures from Lori's camera and mine.  Sorry, they are all out of order, wish I knew more about how to set it up:

Photobucket Link