Slow Thursday

Short indoor spin today working the base. I felt slow all week. Two days in commuting this year and maybe #3 tomorrow. Hope all is well in your world.
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A change of mindset...

Hoping to meet one cycling goal this year, 10 cross' races. I am at 9 for the season with two weeks remaining. No sweat you might think. Enter snowboarding and the fall of snow on the rockies. My wife already has two days in the snow. Today on the first of December I got my first day in the white stuff, Carey got her third. She is really getting good and is very excited for this year, super cool for our family. My son had a great lesson today at Loveland witch culminated in his venture to the "big"side of the ski area and made it down on his own in near white out conditions. Needless to say, I was very proud of both my wife and my son today. Not to mention I had a ton fun. So what about cross' season? Will I meet my goal of ten races or will sirens' call to white mountains capture my attention. Tough choices in Colorado. I am greatful for my blessings.

Highlands Ranch (Denver) Race Report

Rolled the Vanilla SS Saturday in the 35 4's. Going in I had two goals I wanted to accomplish in this race. First, commit to the start. Secondly, I wanted to attack all dismount areas. Mission accomplished. In the end, I felt good about my effort. I dug deep and kept closing. In this race, one gentlemen in particular had my attention. He happened to be the other singlespeed, rolling a classic Surly. He took it to me a couple of weeks ago, so when I passed him I felt good. He was not going to have that and stomped on by. I had him marked, but he had about 15 seconds on me. I hung in there til' the last lap and I made a move. He was pushing a larger gear than me and I sensed his legs were getting tired. I attacked hard on a small climb with a 180 turn at the top. As I passed he was kind enough to throw me a shoulder. I went down and lost several spots. That's racing, lesson learned. I try hard to be a nice guy out there, I will just have to make sure when I make a move I am more prepared. We chatted quick after the race and he apologized. Good race. Thanks to those who put on the race. ICCC held a great event.

Great Saturday Ride

Saturday was beautiful. After a stressful week of vet bills and dog concerns I needed to log some time on the bike. Not a race. Not a training ride. Just the kind of ride where I am able to connect to my bike, my friends and the environment. Mission accomplished with my good friend Lars (pictured) at Indian Creek just outside of Sedalia. Lars hooked me up as a newbie to this trail with a damn fine ride of 2+ hours, perfect fall weather and a total connection. Thank you.

Speaking of great friends, my dog Simon got hit by car this last Monday. He got pretty dinged, including a collapsed lung and the current use of only three legs. This may change, but it may not. We sure are happy to have the little Jack Russel Terrier because it was touch and go for a while. Needless to say, we are looking hard at dog insurance, cause this stuff does get expensive. Not to mention the latest member of the family Oliver (pictured), the Old English Sheep dog. Yes, we do like a certain amount of chaos in our lives. This upcoming weekend is the third annual Chili Cook-off. I will race Saturday, enjoy friends Saturday night and try and keep it simple.

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Great weekend...

Quinn's last soccer game was Saturday morning. Soccer has been alot fun and we have been so fortunate to have great coaches and a good group of parents. Next, Marky B rolled by and we got a fly-line wet. Wrapped up the evening with a Pork Chop and a Buckeye victory. Sunday rolled in, and I rolled out to Boulder res for the race. The race went real well with a field of 95 riders. As my old coach used to say...assholes and elbows. The results were not great, but it was my best race of the year. Definitely need to commit to my starts. Looking forward to a good weekend of riding, but there will be no racing for me this weekend. UCI races will be rolling in Boulder. Should be fun to watch and support friends. Finally caved and sold my vw camper van. Now I am sportin'the element. I do like.

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Getting Fired Up...

For the race this Sunday at Boulder Res. I will be rolloing at 10:35 with 35+ crew. Starting to have develop some fun rivals, the kind that make you dig a little deeper during the week. This week was real good with two commuting days, a day of yoga and a day for spinning out the legs.

I was cleaning up the desk top and found this great picture of Carey on her summit of Mt. Massive near Leadville. It was awesome for her. There is something special about making it to the top and reaching your goal. She is the best.

Cross'-Fully Exposed

Each race I get fully exposed...my fitness, mental toughness and my willingness to suffer.

Fully exposed...with each layer coming off like a rotten onion, each lap the battle continues inside my head, can I continue to suffer? Can I catch that guys wheel? Who is that on my ass, can I get a gap?

Fully exposed...only two battles really exist, the one with myself, and the one with the guy ahead of me. Through in some run-ups, barriers, and mud and I have plenty of distractions. Each and every race I check my pride and ego, mount my Vanilla single speed steel rig and get fully exposed. So why, what is left? Some small form of cycling purity. I can not explain it, but through that process,that purity, I learn a little more about myself and the type of person really I am.

Mid-season of cross' and I have completed 6 races. My performance has been all over the board, so goes cross. I continue to try and keep it simple, with my season, my bike and myself.

2 Phrases I did not utter...

in the Winter Park Race on Saturday, July 21. 1. Race Leader and 2. On your left. Anyways my first race this year and I had a blast. Why the hell did I wait so long to get in the mix? Life, kids, work all equal excuses. At any rate, I feel highly motivated and excited about racing with plenty of room for improvement. I am planning on doing the last two races at WP and hopefully the Dakota 5-O. These should be a nice springboard into beer drinking season, sorry I mean cyclocross. Hope all is well in your world.

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Great Wednesday night ride

I am going to try again with this blog thing. Been trying to make some adjusrments in the computer equipment to make this an easier process. I have installed a wifi network and switched to the Apple computer. The Airport extreme has been addictive and little frustrating. Be back soon.

Please pass the "catch-up"

I have been practicing for my favorite holiday. Got Guinness?






One item I have been totally impressed with has been my Bailey Works mesenger bag. A true messenger bag makes a big difference for commuting. I have not been able to locate a feature that goes unappreciated. The more I use it, the more I like it. The bag and I have about forty hours together riding, so I have had a little time to evaluate. www.baileyworks.com

After all these years, I own my first Surly, a Pacer. The Noto one helped me with the build and put the finishing touches on it. Thanks Noto. I only have a couple hours on the new frame, but I can already tell that I will climb better, and be much faster. OK, not really, but she is rock steady and that is something I really value.





Quick note: Rumblings of a possible Pork Chop reunion for the Dakota 50. Are you in? Grab your wheels and a thirty pack and head for the Hills...the Black Hills.
www.dakota5o.com

Finally made it to church...

The Notorious and myself rolled it to Loveland Sunday morning and the runs off of chair 8 were a religious experience. I do not intend to be disrespectful to the church, but rather demonstrate the power of being in the mountains with some fine snow. Thanks to all those that contribute, and thanks to to the Notorious for a great day. Some fresh flakes always make for an interesting drive up 70, and although you cannot see his hands, I suspect he may be suffering from some white knuckles. The other two pics show the Nototious on a drop-in, and me and my Arbor mixing it up in the trees. Sorry the pics are in reverse order.

Have a goodie,

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Got my board on...

Had a great and cold day at Keystone. Arrived and the tempature read minus 14 degrees. Brrrr. Anyways, we sucked it up and got some great runs in on the backside. Thanks for the tour T. Bluebird skies with the 10 mile range as the back drop added to a great day.

This is how depression hurts...

Those of you who know me, know that the Buckeyes loss to Florida has been very tough. It is amazing how fast one can deteriorate in a state of depression.

Having a little fun.

Augsut really has nothing of importance on my bike schedule. I have been trying to have fun riding. This includes trying increase my commuting efforts on the fixte. Other than that I have been able to get several fine evenings of fly-fishing in on Clear Creek. Serveral trout and cold water on my feet is great way to enjoy an evening. Another fun activity of late has been the long board skateboard. I can take the kids to park on their bikes and I am able to get a couple of hot laps around the park. This has been one of those things that I have really enjoyed, but all my friends look at me like I am insane. Oh well. A friend of mine who owns board shop let me borrow his board and said it would help keep my snow boarding skills sharp. A couple of weeks later he gave me the old shop board and I have been having a blast ever since. Thanks Vince at the BoardRoom. I can not help but look forward to another great season of hitting the slopes. Hope all is well in your world.

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Got er' done

The Larmie Enduro was a true epic adveture, and I appreciated every moment. Especially, now that I have a couple of days to recover. From a race pespective I had a very good day. No mechanicals, the bike preformed flawlessly, the nutrition plan worked extrememly well. I was able to finsih in a respectable fashion. I did suffer and suffer a lot, but it was awesome.

From an organization point of view, this may have been the best race I have participated in. It really was cool from start to finsish. Race organizers, volunteers, and the racers were very nice, low key and down right comfortable. Nobody lost their cool and everybody respected each others efforts. I would like to say a huge thank you to the race organizer Rich, and all the tremendous volunteers. Everyone provided over the top support with a smile. Each time I pulled into an aid station someone would fill my camelback, bottles and nutrional needs and get me and all the racers back out on the trail. This was truly incredible.

I would also like to say special thank to MarkyBru for driving my ass up and back. Carey you are awesome.

The pain cave

I have always wanted use that phrase, and finally thought that would be an ample way to describe the Firecracker 50. As for most, the first lap was great and I felt good. Then my eyes begain to look up at these long tunnels of darkness (climbs). This is the area where I need to improve the most. When there is a big climb, I can get it done but I am slow and it takes a lot of energy. More than half way through the second lap I got a flat. I think I ran over piece of barb wire, as my tire was sliced. It took some time, but got back up and running. Overall, I was disappointed in my time, but felt good that I finished.

I do have a chance for atonement at the Laramie Enduro. To be honest, I am quite nervous about this race. I have no idea what to expect. One side of my warped thought process says , it can't be as tough as FC50 because there is not as much climbing. However, when reality shows its face in my logic, it says, this race is simply 20 mile longer... better get your chubby butt ready. I think it is going to be hot and humid with no place to hide. Reading some race accounts there good reason to be nervous, and that in the long run is healthy.

Family matters...last week the crew headed out to Crested Butte to enjoy the some time outdoors together. Well, we got the together time, just not to much of the outdoors. It pretty much rained the whole time. CB was still awesome. Great vibe and real strong appreciation for the two-wheeled wonders. Definately a lottery town. If we won the lottery...

After couple days in "close quarters" we boogied over to Glenwood Springs to soak in the hot springs. It was real nice. After which we came across the restaurant called Juicy Lucy's Steakhouse, pictured above. The other two photos are from CB. Have a great week.

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What is your favorite flavor?

I am such a whore. I have a love affair with three different bikes, not to mention my wife. Here is my beloved Vanilla in MTB single speed mode. This utilitarian frame serves many roles including MTB, fixed gear commuter/drinker, and my single speed crosser. The color I would describe as Espresso with kick.

For the last couple of months is has been in FG/commuter mode. That is until a group ride at Lair of the Bear required her services. Nothing like being 16 again, because I fell right in love with her agility on the trail...again. 16 never felt so right. The trail lent itself nicely to climbing and rolling singletrack with mountain vistas. Needless to say, I had a great ride. All this followed by 34oz. Fat Tire beers in Morrision. A serious question for the three of you who may read this...what beats a great ride and and great beer? I do not know the answer, but in my book, the list is short, real short.

Four days till FC 50. Yes, that race is Risky Business, "but some times you just have to say, what the F$ck". The Moots will be called into suffering service for the event.

Have a great and safe holiday weekend.

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The best part of Father's Day

I had a most wonderful day. Thank you to the best wife and kids that I ever had.

I did end up racing at Winter Park for $35. It was a very good race and great work for the upcoming FC50.

This picture was taken in Winter Park after the race and after lunch. Congrats to Taugimba for fine single speed effort.

Have a great week.

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Morning commute brought to me by...

The Beastie Boys. That’s right, the Beastie Boys road with me this morning on the commute in, via the ipod. All week I have wanted to get this post into the blog, but it has been very busy of late. Big thanks to Taugimba for a great weekend in Breckenridge. We got out on two stellar rides and took a couple of pictures. The riding was awesome as I got worked into the ground. It always amazes me how big a difference a couple thousand of feet can make with regard to available oxygen. Our first ride took us to the top of Boreas Pass. It took me thirty minutes to pull my lungs out from my throat - no air up there. On the way down we dropped into some singletrack from the FC 50. Day two took me on some new trails that were extremely fun and beautiful. I felt like a very luck person to be enjoying three of the things I value most in life- family, friends, and mountain biking. Awesome to say the least! Thank you everyone.

After a good couple of weekend rides I was tired and rested for a couple of days. Lately, I have been trying to get into the weight room once a week and work on maintaining some core strength which I did Wednesday. Thursday took me out to GM for some hill work on the jeep road. Friday = commute = 2+ hrs of riding. I was hoping to race at Winter Park Sunday, but there on-line system would not let me register and there is no way I am paying $45 the day of. I thought $35 was steep. I am cheap. The way I figure the Leadville 50 is only $65, maybe I can work that into my schedule. That would make for a fine July the FC 50, the Leadville SR 50, and the Laramie Enduro. I better get to work.

Hope you have a great weekend. I will try and keep it simple.

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A friend I have never met.

I have been bike commuting for a couple of years. Last fall the bike commute usually took place on Fridays. Over the course of several weeks, each Friday morning I would wave to this retired gentleman who appeared to be out for a morning walk. It got to the point where I would look for him, and it was a great part of the bike ride to work. Soon, colder weather moved in and my commuting stopped. All spring I have been looking for him on his morning walk. I finally saw him today. Both of us waved. It was the best part of the ride to work. It felt like I saw an old friend that I have never met.

Speaking of old friends I have a photo of one in todays post. I just really like this bike. It probably is over 12 years old. A steel Ibis road bike. A real steady-eddy.