Chamois Side Out

I did it.

2008-09-21T16:25:00.005-06:00

I survived my first cross race of the season. It's always fun breaking in the season at almost 10,000 feet above sea level in Breckenridge. I managed top 20, which is my best result in a few years and left a lot in the reserves. My back was killing me by the end, so I have my work cut out this year.

I went to Winter Park this weekend for Stephanie's Birthday. Todd let us stay at his place and it was beautiful. I rode my cross bike on trails that were not made for cross bikes. It was fun none the less.

Easton finally came through and I got my hands on some great wheels. I had no interest in carbon wheels, and there isn't a ton of other choices. The EA70x is a new alloy tubular with cross/crit racing in mind. Durable before light, I am stoked to race on them. The glue is drying as I type and I am going to play around with the glue/tufo tape combo. I have some Tufo Elite LPS that have been hanging around in my basement waiting to be glued. Next weekend, they'll be ready.

Almost Time...

2008-09-08T20:17:00.003-06:00

Wow, the cross season is among us! Less than a week from the first race, I am still sitting on a basement full of tubular tires with no wheels to glue them to. If Easton shows me mercy, maybe some of the their new EA70X Cross Specific wheels will shop up on my door step. Otherwise, I am waiting for the perfect pair...

The bike is dialed. I rode all of last year on a touring carbon fork that look horrible on my bike and weighed 800 grams (I sent the Easton back cause you could wobble the crown race around by hand and it creaked like a mother). The replacement is on it and working. My rear King wheel has been built twice and still has some weird mojo about it. Third times a charm? I guess that's what the Hugi/Open Pros are for!

In mountain bike news, I bombed the last Winter Park race ("bombed" is 10th place, 10 minutes faster than last year and 5 minutes faster than my best time) and it dropped me to third overall for the series. I am pleased. We'll see what happens when I try to keep it redlined for 45 minutes... I am trying to do it right and ease into the high intensity. I hate crits, so I usually start cross season with very little high end and hope that I can race into shape. This year, I am actually training for it and will use the first month to "get it". We'll see...

Anyone have any tubie wheels laying around?

DNC

2008-09-01T20:16:00.003-06:00

We spent the night out on the town...

2008-08-20T19:38:00.001-06:00

Where has the time gone?

2008-08-03T19:38:00.004-06:00

Lots of mountain biking. Lots of work.

Stphanie did a her first triantlon today. WOW. Great job. It was HOT.

Swing Thai rocked at Winter Park Yesterday. Kevin won, and I took 3rd, so we ruled the podium. Maybe some pictures of that to come??

I have so many great rides to post about. Mountain. Mountain Single Speed. And some HOT hiking.

Beautiful Mountain Bike Ride

Great 100+ miler with Steven

The Road is up THERE!?!

This ones for Steve.

Firecracker 50

2008-07-06T18:41:00.006-06:00

Ouch

View Larger Map

For all the nitty-gritty, click here: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6168183#

Almost home....

Post ride haze...

This race certainly doesn't get much easier for me. I have been driving towards breaking the 5 hour mark, and came in this year at 5:11. Last year was really bad, at 5:38, so it's an improvement. Maybe it was the Wild Turkey challenge on the second lap... The pros can break 4 hours, so maybe I should quit my job.....

Camping!

2008-06-24T19:29:00.002-06:00

We went camping at Grand Lake last weekend. I had a race in Winter Park and we packed up the kids and camping gear and left the hot front range. It was beautiful. We camped just below the Continental Divide.

Does this tent look familiar? This is our family tent that is approaching 20 years old. The bags for the tent and in shambles, but the tent is still perfect. Thanks Mom & Dad for buying a nice tent when you did! Check out the scenery!

We had a not-so-close encounter with a moose. He was about 15 yards away from us (we were by the pine trees in the picture). He growled (loudly exhaled) and we left him alone. I waiting until we were away to snap a bigfoot-like quality photo. I guess they hate dogs, since wolves are their natural predators. We weren't going to stick around to settle the feud.

Sunset. The winding river in front of our site led to the lake. Pretty.

Job Well Done.

As we were leaving, we said "goodbye" to Beauregard, but he wasn't too keen on staying alone... Of course we took him with us. Although...

Bike of the Day

2008-06-22T19:13:00.004-06:00

My cyclocross bike. I like it. Seven Mudhoney Ti. Easton EC90SLX Fork. Sram Force. Hugi/Open Pro Wheels. Bontrager bits and pieces. She's a beauty. If I actually take racing seriously, I'll do her up with some real wheels. Something blingy.

Good ridin'

2008-06-22T18:15:00.002-06:00

I hate posts with no pictures, but whatever. I had some good mountain bike rides this week. Wednesday, we hit up Apex after work. To avoid the clusterpoop, we rode to the base of Chimney Gulch and up Apex. There were no less than 6 teammate for the ride. You would almost think that we were a mountain bike team. I like it that way. Yesterday, we did the White Ranch-Golden Gate Superloop. Man, I love that ride. The decent from Golden Gate is unreal. 4 miles or so of crazy descending with rocks, roots, mud, tons of hike-a-bikes. It's unlike anything out here. Plus, you get to climb up the back road to White Ranch from Golden Gate, which is 12-15% for a few miles. And dirt. I was pretty please to throw my chain in the spokes at almost the very top. As it turns out, it's helpful to check the suspension bolts on a new bike. Duh. It'll only cost me a derailleur hanger. And a chain, just to be safe. I was wrenching on it pretty hard, since shimano put those LOVELY tabs on the back of their new cassettes to prevent this from happening in the first place. They REALLY get jammed in there now. I had to pop a pin out of the chain to get it out. Ouch. But, what a great ride. This was a pseudo-off week. I don't have anything in the ole leg and it seems like every week is an off week. Oh well. I enjoy riding. Hopefully, I'll get some commuting miles in this week.

Until next time, check out this crazy cloud from a few weeks back...

Seriously...

2008-06-17T20:03:00.001-06:00

Bike of the day.

2008-06-17T20:01:00.002-06:00

Joe at primusmootry.com does such a fantastic job. I absolutely love this bike. Very little carbon on it. Sram Force. Chris King/Open Pro wheels. Yummy.

I have worms.

2008-06-17T19:59:00.001-06:00

Seriously. Who doesn't love moldy apples?

Yes. We have worm compost bin.

The Cheese

2008-06-17T19:56:00.003-06:00

Fruita in April

2008-06-17T19:44:00.005-06:00

So, instead of racing in Fruita, I decided a 5+ hour ride on the Kokopelli would be much better. I took out the trusty new steed, and by new, I had really never ridden it before. Seriously.

This trail was unreal. It runs between Loma (Mary's Loop et al.) and Rabbit Valley. Check out this trail...

And if you ever take the Amtrak west out of Denver, this is part of the view... The trail passed under the tracks. You can see it winding around the other side, on the ridge.

Lots of amazing hike as much as you ride singletrack. Even on the new 5" travel bike...

And back home (or 10 miles of fire road back to the car)

Don't be fooled...

2008-06-17T19:41:00.002-06:00

Look at the dates of the others. They are recent. I am going to post lots of random, short things for my entertainment and yours!
For example, my eldest child:

a new beginning...

2007-12-17T21:55:00.001-07:00

stay tuned.

What Crazy Weather

2005-03-09T11:39:00.000-07:00

man, yesterday was nuts. A huge morning dust storm followed by a crazy snow storm, followed by mid-50 degree temperatures. I just wish we would get like 4 feet of snow... Seriously. Just get it over with so it doesn't start cancelling races later in the season. So, right now, it's approaching 60 degrees, and we might see more snow after the almost 70s this weekend.
NORBA season opener was this weekend in Texas. It looked more like West Virginia with all the mud. That stuff sucks. Or state cross championships. I quiver thinking about that. Gosh, mud racing sucks. My fork on my mountain bike is jacked up. It probably has need to be rebuilt 3 times since it was last, but I keep neglecting it. That's always a good ideal, right? I am jonesing for some new bikes. Our team road bikes are starting to arrive. Man, do they look good. I decided to hold out for the cross bike this fall, so I'll still have to ride the good ole Cannondale this season. Not that it isn't a sub-16 lb sweet bike, but new stuff is always nice. Infact, I decided to 86 the Cinelli Ram, cause I know it will shatter if it ever hits the ground. I went with an Easton setup that eneded up being lighter and significantly cheaper. EA70 bar and stem. I was ready to go the Deda route, but the 215 shallows don't suite me and Newton bars are outrageous. So, I ended up paying the same as I would have for a Newton stem for the bar and stem, plus it weights the same. Plus, the big deciding factor is that Easton is a sponsor for us this year...

I have been getting a lot of emails from Jo-Jo from Belgium. She is currently studying in Peru and man does that place look cool. She is tall and complains that the shower head hits her about shoulder height. I also emailed Kate today. She is in Spain and actually is planning a trip to Belgium for her spring break. Man, I am glad I have moountain here, cause I would go nuts in the midwest with everyone else in cool places...

Ok, enough rambling. I'll save some for later.

Warm and Windy...

2005-03-07T10:28:00.000-07:00

Man, what a great weekend. 85 miles on Saturday. Rode to the Fed Center race yesterday. It hit 64 degrees, with a mighty wind and some hot beating sun. I put in a mountain bike ride this week that was nuts. It was supposed to be in the 50's. So I calculated in the mountain effect and dropped it 10 degrees. Then, when I added in that none of my clothes were clean with the exception of a long sleeve skinsuit, I figured I was golden. Grabbed an undershirt and I was off. I knew I was flirting with daylight from the start. I had about an hour and a half to ride. The weather was still moderately warm. The trail conditions were minimally icy from the spots the sun don't shine. The first 30 minutes were uneventful. Hard -rip you cold legs off- short jeep road climb, some fantastic techincal decending, rocks, the whole nine yards. I get on the back side and it starts to look like snow. It's still in the 40's, I am confortable, and I climb. And climb. And the snow begins. It was spotty, so I wouldn'd call it white out conditions, but it was snowing hard. The climb started to get a bit remote and the wildlife around me increased. At one point, I was approaching a herd (I swear it was atleast 30) of mule dear. As I climbed the rocky, switchback-ridden trail to them, they showed no fear. Perhaps it was my cunning tailless-sloth swiftness as I climbed up the technical terrain which by this time had a nice layer of mud building up in the dust from the snow...

In other news, every cyclist in the world needs an iPod Shuffle. It's small. It's perfect. And I officially think that Apple has most of the population convinced that they in fact NEED an iPod simple for their own survival. What a brilliant company. Back to the Shuffle. It's cool. I highly recommend it. Just don't lose it. It's that small.

In even better news, next weekend is calling for almost-70 degree temperatures. Time for some big miles, as I'll be refreshed coming off my recovery week!

Cheers!

i love colorado

2005-03-01T12:14:00.000-07:00

Forecast for Denver, CO (80227)

10-Day Forecast
High /Low (°F) Precip. %
Today
Mar 01 Mostly Cloudy 54°/30° 20 %
Wed Mar 02 Mostly Sunny 52°/29° 0 %
Thu Mar 03 Partly Cloudy 54°/32° 20 %
Fri Mar 04 Partly Cloudy 56°/36° 20 %
Sat Mar 05 Mostly Sunny 58°/37° 20 %
Sun Mar 06 Mostly Sunny 59°/40° 10 %
Mon Mar 07 Partly Cloudy 59°/36° 0 %
Tue Mar 08 Partly Cloudy 59°/35° 20 %
Wed Mar 09 Partly Cloudy 58°/34° 10 %
Thu Mar 10 Partly Cloudy 56°/37° 10 %

Man, can't complain about that!

nothing exciting to post...

2005-02-01T13:54:00.000-07:00

Well, as usual, there isn't anything super exciting going on. I am too lazy to ride. My bodyfat has been hovering around the double digits, so I am sitting fat and sassy. I lift maybe twice a week. Ride maybe twice a week. I think it's about time to get the ball rolling. Gosheff from high school was here this weekend. We had some fun. Anyplace called Atomic Cowboy is bound to be fun. Then, off the the Gooseville Inn, which was incredibly skeezy, but had like borderline gourmet fantastic pizza. I somehow managed to convince Stephanie to go to Moab for Valentines Day. We are staying there Saturday and Sunday Night. Yay. And then a spring training trip is in the works for Moab in March. Rumor has it that there may be a 97 mile drought, I mean, mtb ride. That'll be fun. There's nothing quite like polishing up on your survival skills with first hand dehydration and exhaustion experience. Well, the snow on the ground doesn't really motivate me to hurry up and get my work done, but I need to.

too lazy to post...

2005-01-24T14:54:00.000-07:00

Man, the weather has been so nice. Almost 70's. I certainly can't complain about that... I put in 5 hours on Saturday, although it was cold to start. Yesterday, I only did about an hour and a half, but I did it on the best bike ever. It is such a mut. It's my first real bike. An old Gary Fisher steel frame with horizontal dropouts welded on it. I usually run a 34x17, but not right now. I turned it into a ghetto fixie. 34x13. Drop bars (like 44 cm Ritcheys), a front cantilever brake, 2.3 tires. So ugly. But functional. And it climbs like Petacchi. What a bike. Stephanie almost refused to ride with me because it is so ugly. Function, not fashion. And I'll be pedalling smooth circles in no time (or my knees will blow up on the climbs or descents). Warm weather and an ugly bike, does it get any better? I guess I'll just sit here in my office, look out the window ant the mountains, and wish I was riding on this 60 degree day.

Oh, the Snow...

2005-01-12T15:22:00.000-07:00

I have been excited to get snow lately. I am not sure why. I went Snowshoeing Monday. We hiked up a mile long glacier -St Marys-. It was fun, aside from the cold, 40 mph snowy headwind we hiked into the whole way up. There was tons of powder off the glacier in the woods. Atleast a couple feet. And to further my cross training, I went bowling that night with Stephanie. Considering I bowl like 8 times of year, I was rockin... I bowled a 15x, 18x, 17x (not sure of the exact scores, but this is the ball park). Today, we got 6 inches. I am going to take my single speed out and trash around in the park trails by my house. It's fun and a great work out. I can just see the ice forming from the melted snow today. Tonight should be interesting. We had our team meeting last night and there are a lot of cyclists motivated to do some riding. I can't imagine 60-80 miles this time of year. I am fat and out of shape, but I don't look to be racing for atleast 4 months. Everyone is motivated and kills themselves in the spring, then I am left racing alone in July & August in preparations for cyclocross... I guess thats the way the cookie crumbles...

Back Home Again, In Colorado

2005-01-05T16:36:00.000-07:00

Well, it's good to be home! Far from family and friends, close to the great outdoors. Not necessarily a good compromise, but somehow I make it work in my head. So, I let my plane ticket go and drove home with Stephanie. We left Monday morning around 8 am with the intention to stop in KCMO and stay with some of her old friends (She went to the Kansas City Art Institute before transferring to RMCAD). With an ETA of about 2 hours, we were both feeling energetic and more than wanting to be home, so we decided to go for the gusto. Sure, I had made the non-stop trip from Indiana to Colorado many times before, but I had also planned on it when I left. I had slept poorly the night before, but that didn't keep me down. We did it. Just over 18 hours. Almost 1300 miles. She got a new Passat Wagon and that thing drives like a dream. I got into my 8 year old SUV and it drives like a friggin tank, but one with tires instead of tracks, and the tires feel like they are almost flat. You get the point. A car review? Exterior: Cool, plenty of room for bikes on top. Interior: Spacious. Plenty of room for spare wheels, trainer, equipment bags, a couple dogs, Norwiegan Massuese, etc... Seats: Good. Cold weather and heated seats is a sensation I had yet to enjoy. ::Boy my hands are freezing cause it is 12 degrees outside and I just got done pumping gas. But, man, my butt is toastie:: Lumbar is also good for miles and miles in the captains throne. Tiptronic: I am a five speed fan, but the tiptronic with the manuals is pretty cool. It works better than I remember it working in stuff I had driven before. Anyways, its nice and it made the trip even better. I have babbled enough. Stay tuned for a review of the 2005 Three Rivers Velosport Clubs "Chilly Challenge". I wonder when all the snow is going to melt...

Bed Number 6 & 7

2004-12-30T14:23:00.000-07:00

Well, to continue my new found love for sleeping in different beds, I was able to sleep in beds 6 & 7 of this trip. I wouldn't want to actually get a good nights sleep in a familar bed, now would I. Since Christmas, I had opportunity to hang out with some friends from high school. We're all around the country, so it's good to see them. Hopefully, we'll have a Colorado Ski Trip planned, though I hate skiing. OK, not really, hate, I just never do it. I also got to hang out with Sara and friends. We ate at Munchies- which was good as ever. Then, we played some of the midwestern only Euchre. I hadn't played since I was in the Midwest... Good times. Tuesday night found me in West Lafayette. Home of Purdue University, Harrys Chocolate (& Go Ugly Early shirts you see everywhere in the world) and my Aunt and Uncle. I got to see my Uncle and Cousin at my cross race in Indy (Gotta love a top 5 in an Elite race, especially in front of family). It was good t osee them, especially my Aunt, since it had been a year. West Lafayette is a fun town, and the family is certainly fun. I parted ways with a PS2 and Grand Theft Auto. I am not a fan of video games and Television, but GTA does something for me. Picking up prostitutes, parking in a secluding area, then beating them up and taking your money back. Does it get any better? I found myself in Indy last night to see Cory. He is buying a house in Broadripple, so the trip was somewhat business related. We went to eat at the Broadripple BrewPub. Not to many places serve vegan Sloopy Joes, but this is one of them. Then we went to a comedy club. Funny stuff... Then we went to the Vogue. I have never seen a club so packed on the Wednesday night. PACKED. Like sardines, except smoking and drinking and obnoxious. Today, Stephanie got her new car. She got a new Passat Wagon. I am jealous. I think I am going to forgo my plane ticket home and drive back with her. That way, she won't have to drive to CO alone... I am such a loving boyfriend... Indiana- Home of Fog, Mud, and Slush-.

5 Days and 5 Different Beds

2004-12-25T22:24:00.000-07:00

Ahhh... Christmas... Gotta love spending it with the family. Gotta love the travel involved. Steve and I ended up giving our seats up from Chicago to Fort Wayne. A $250 travel voucher later, I got in before 11 am instead of 11 pm the night before. And free airfare to nationals in NH. Can't go wrong. It has been cold as hell in Indiana. ? I think it actually hit double digits today. It didn't feel like it, but I am certain it did. Last night, it was -10. Thats not Windchill. That's real like off the temp guage. Brrrr... Atleast I get to sleep in the same bed tonight. Lets see, Home, Chicago, Rents House, Grandparents House, and finally back to Rents House. Ah, a familiar bed. Ah, rubber sheets for the young niece on the bed. Cozy like Sunday Morning.

Brr... December... Wait...

2004-12-19T17:36:00.000-07:00

How is was it 60 here today and 10 in Fort Wayne? I did just over an hour, easy easy easy. Battled a stiff headwind. Fast coming back though. I did a "lap" through Morrison and head back. Perfect December weather! Since cross season is over, I have been being really lazy. This is the third time I have ridden in the past couple weeks. I lifted once. Oh, how I love the offseason! I leave Wednesday for Fort Fun. Its supposed to snow here AND Fort. That'll make for fun travels, especially in O'Hare! I am looking forward to seeing the family and friends. Should be a great time! Ofcourse I'll overbook myself and be really busy the whole time, but it'll be worth it! I wonder if Steve's getting more tattoos...