XC skiing

Yesterday Bill, Cory, and I headed out to Kettle Moraine State park for some XC skiing. Lets just get a few things straight, Bill has never skied, I have only been once and Cory was leading the pack with a whopping 2 outings, you got to give it to him he is racing after all!
Anyway we rented some skis from the Back Yard Bike Shop and were off. We planned on hitting an easy trail just to get the feel of things and naturally didn't look at a map to find where the easy trail was. We started and the XC trail looked more like a down hill trail with out the lifts to get back up! We all did our part making craters in the trail, the groomer is going to have his work cut out for him to smooth the trail again! After we survived that loop we looked at the map and found the easy loop we had initially intended to go on...it happened to be exactly opposite direction that we went to the first trail. By the end of the day we logged a total of around 5.5 miles in 2:03 hours. Anyway one with a math background will tell you that is 2.7 mph average...ouch I could walk faster!
Oh well it was fun and was a good workout. I think I am going to try to get over there once a week.
I would like to say riding has been slim, but not the case. It has been too cold to ride outside so all of it has been on the trainer. It has been pretty boring but after a couple weeks you learn ways to pass the time. My favorite is trying to get the sweat running off my head to hit the headset bolt, if it hits just right it makes a cool splash!
Christmas is this weekend and it will be nice to have a couple days off work and off riding.

Biking or Skiing....I can't decide

This weekend didn't turn out as nice as originally planned. I changed my schedule around so that I could get my 3 hour ride in on Saturday because it was supposed to be 30 degrees. Well after getting some house work done and my car sold. I was off to my ride/ski. I loaded the NRS and a pair of skinny skis out to Rockport. As I was driving over it started to snow...hard. I started with the skis. I have never done this before so it took some time to get the hang of things, but before too long I was moving right along. About 30 minutes in I was pretty proud of myself and figured it was time for some down hill. Problem is these skis don't turns as good as alpine skis. I went shooting down one hill that curved to the right, needless to say I didn't "curve" I was headed right toward a couple large trees guarded by a row of thorn bushes! I ate snow in a last ditch effort to stop. After some more time I did figure out how to turn and after a little over an hour it was feeling good.
I got back to the truck and unloaded the bike. I headed across town to Cory's place to pick up my booties. It was a fun ride, sliding on the snow. I got a lot of weird looks, but really I get the same thing riding on a 70 degree day in the spring. I guess people just don't understand how good it feels to get out and exercise. Anyway I got in 1.5 hours on the bike and then jumped back on the skis for a 30 minute warm up then cool down.
In all it was a good workout. When I got home I managed to get sick off of an overdose of cookies....I LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR!!!!

More snow = Warmer temps.

Today we are supposed to get another couple inches of snow. It seems like we are getting more snow early this year than we have in the past few years. I like the snow, it puts a new twist on riding. I would like to give XC skiing a try but usually we don't have enough snow to ever do it. I might try to get my hands on a pair of skis this year and give it a try.

I re-learned an important lesson in warming up before lifting. Usually I ride to the YMCA from home, about 15 minutes. That gives me a good warmup to my lifting routine. Tuesday it was getting late and COLD so I broke down and drove across town. I figured I better warm up a little so I jumped on the treadmill for a 15 minute run. I felt alright and figured I was warm. I went down to the weights and jumped right into the squat. After my third set I realized that I was not warm at all, I got tight and was already stiff! Every time I get up or walk since then has been a reminder of needing proper warm up and stretching.

We went out and picked a tree yesterday. I suggested we take a saw and go out in the woods and just cut a tree down, or if you are not into completely killing a tree, just cut the top off one. Well needless to say Cathy didn't go for that, so we went and bought a tree. It makes the house smell nice so that's good, now just to keep the dog from drinking out of the water dish.

New Car

and in new I mean: the-farthest-thing-from-new-that-still-runs. As I mentioned before the VW took a hit a little over a week ago. Since then I have been driving rental vehicles, a 15 passenger van, a Grand Am, and a Santa Fe. Out of all those the 15 passenger van was by far the best ride! Over the past week I have been talking to insurance, and looking for a car. Last night we went over and picked up a little 1998 Mercury Tracer. This thing isn't anything special but it is wheels and should get me to and from work. Now that all that mess is taken care things should get back to normal a little.
Christmas is coming WAY too fast, I haven't started shopping at all! I think we are going to go pick up a tree tonight, because it is a rest day for me.

Anyone still there?

I would be more than surprised if anyone still reads this. Sorry for being so sporadic on posts. This past week has been hectic looking for a new car, and in new I mean a car as far from new but still runs as possible! Then Cathy's parents came down this weekend to help paint the kitchen. It looks really nice and I am glad they were able to help out, it made things go a lot faster.
On the riding side of things; I have been putting way too much time on the trainer already, actually it isn't that bad. I like the rides that have intervals, it helps break up the 1.5-2 hours of going nowhere. Saturday Cory and I took the mt.bikes out for an off road tour of Janesville. Just as we left it started snowing, I jokingly mentioned that we should have brought a ruler, so that if 2+ inches fell we would have to get off the trail for the XC skiers. Well on our second lap around Rock Port we were pushing about 3 inches of snow! It was coming down so fast that our tracks were completely covered by the end of each 20 minute lap!
This week it sounds like it is going to be COLD so I can decide to put every piece of cycling cloths I have on trying to stay warm, or sit on the trainer and sweat.
I will try to keep this more up to date, but they might be trainer blogs...EXCITING!!

I hate Mondays!!

It never fails, I don't know why but it always seems like something happens on Monday. Yesterday was going good, I got out of work on time and was on my way home. I was following a semi on the frontage road when he stopped. Nothing big, they always stop to wait for traffic. I stopped and was fidgeting with some papers in the passenger seat. When I looked up I seen he was BACKING UP!! I grabbed reverse but not soon enough WHAM! I could tell he didn't know I was even back there. I steered to get the car off to the side of the truck. Finally the driver noticed I was there and stopped. By that point the hood was bent, the lights and grill was smashed, and my radiator was kinked. We got out and the driver apologized. We pulled into the parking lot that he was trying to get into and exchanged insurance. Actually he gave me his info because he was at fault. I checked out the car and figured I would try to drive home. I got about half way before things got hot FAST! The water hit 260 degrees and the oil was up to 320 degrees! I shut off the engine and glided to stop. After about 45 minutes of phone calls and waiting for a wrecker I got home. This morning I rode to the YMCA for some early morning lifting. Then I headed across town to Enterprise. Naturally they didn't have a small car so instead they rented me a 15 passenger van. Did I mention that today we are supposed to get rain, ice, and snow all mixed with 30-40 mph winds. This could possibly be the WORSE day ever to be driving one of these babes. I am going back tonight to try and get a smaller car.
Haven't heard from the body shop yet, but from talking to the guy last night it is going to be around $3000...I wonder how much the car is even worth?

Wisconsin State Championship Cyclo Cross

This weekend I tried something new, cyclo cross. The bike turned out to be lighter than I was expecting, SWEET! I set it up with a 42 front chain ring, a 25-12 road cassette, and Chris King/Mavic 517 wheels. I practiced all weekend dismounting and remounting. After a couple miss-attempts I don't know if I will ever get a fathers day card - OUCH! Anyway I figured I would just do the race and see how it turns out.

Cathy is wearing way too many warm cloths to be at a bike race!

Our dog could be a model.

I had a good start and we were riding off the front for about 1.5 laps.

When I was watching the "C" race this barrier didn't look too big, I thought I should be able to bunny hop that...YEAH RIGHT! When I got up to it I could hardly jump over it!

I felt really good through the barriers, I thought there was going to be more than sections of running. Note to self, check speed before dismounting, I was trying to close a gap mid race and jumped off my bike at about 20 mph, I almost ate grass in a big way!

In all the race was a lot of fun. I got dropped by the lead group of 3 about 15 minutes into the race. Another group of two caught me but didn't want to work, they just sat on my wheel. I attacked hard to get them out of my draft and then rode in no-mans-land most the race. I figured if I was going to be pushing wind I might as well not do if for the group. I was running 4th pretty comfortable until the last two laps. I was corning hard in an off camber section and burped some air out of the tire. It started leaking pretty good after that, the 5th and 6th place guys caught me and were able to out corner me. When I finished I was almost on the rim. I was still happy to get 6th considering I was riding a MT.BIKE!

Cory also had a great race, he borrowed the 9.8 because it was about 25 lbs. lighter than his Gary Fisher. He was in the C race and was running 2nd the entire time. On the last lap a group of 3 were working hard and caught him. He was still able to hang on to 5th at the line.

Every bike needs Bling

So I decided to build the 9.8 up for the 'cross race this weekend. I had most of the parts needed to build it as a 1x9, except for a fork.
I called the shop and they had acouple to choose from. It was an easy decision as soon as Bob pulled out this baby!!! When I got home I proptly put it on the scale to find out, much to my surprise, it came in a touch UNDER 2lbs. (900 grams to be exact) Hopefully I will get everything put together tonight and be able to work the bugs out on friday before Sunday's race.
I rode to the YMCA last night, even though it was only about 1 mile away I just about froze to death! I caught a side wind on one of the bridges and thought I was going to loose it. Sounds like it is supposed to warm up a little this weekend otherwise I think I will be breaking out the snow-pants.

Where to start

Wow, so much has been going on since my last post I haven't even had time to update this! So last saturday (I'm sorry it's been a while) we got a call from the shop and they told us that our bikes were in and ready!! We promptly went and picked them up, put some pedals on and went for a ride. We just hit the bike trail and worked on getting everything adjusted right and feeling good. Cathy really likes her pink bike and the TCR is a HUGE upgrade from the OCR.
The rest of the weekend we pretty much just worked on the house. I wonder if breathing saw dust is bad? I have probably inhaled the equivalent of an 8' 2x4.
Training has been indoors this week. Put 2 hours on the trainer last night while watching the CMA awards. I think basically if you have ever sang or even listened too a country song they give you an award. Maybe cycling should follow the same thinking.
Best Crash
Best Crash on a normally easy trail
Fastest Tire change
Most accurately adjusted seat
Most dog poo found in your shoes
Best swan dive into a creek
The WORS awards ceremony could possibly never end!!
This morning before work I started piecing together the 9.8 for the 'cross race this weekend. I spent most of the time I had digging around and trying to find what I had to work with. It isn't going to be pretty but it will be CHEAP. So far I have 1 XT shifter/brake combo (rear), for the front a Shimano Deore with an Avid Ultimate brake lever. I have a 9 speed road cassette laying around so I think I am going to use that, sounds like the course more fast than steep so close gearing should help out. The only thing I am missing is a rigid fork, I have an old manitou that I will have to use if I can't find anything. I'll get some shots of it up here when it is finished.

So Many Leaves!!!

When I got home yestarday Cathy had already started racking the front yard. I think the gusty winds finished off the trees all at once. She said when she got home, there was pile so big she had to push it away to get in the door!! When we finally got all the leaves raked up we had a pile big enough you could have crash landed a plane into it! I don't really know what we were supposed to do with them, so we piled them up in the street. Personally I think I am just going to light a match one night and let them burn.
Tonight we are heading up to Madison to do some rock climbing. That is alway fun, but I am going to be soooo sore tomorrow, OUCH!!

Training has begun

Ice Man was the offical end of the season for us. On monday I started my training for next year. Cory had tons of success with the Carmichael Training System last year so I decided to give it a shot. So far things are pretty easy going, getting into the gym, getting longer rides on the bike, ect.
We bought a cyclops trainer from a friend for Cathy so we are going to pick that up this weekend. We also put our order in for the road bikes. Cathy is getting a pink 2200 and I am getting an Aluminum TCR 1.


Both bikes were in stock so hopefully the shop will have them before the snow flys.

In other news Maxxis has their new tires up. The CrossMarks look pretty sweet I think I am going to try a pair this year. I have heard a lot about this new LUST technology they are using on the Tubeless, sounds like they are onto a lightweight tubeless tire. I don't know, with as much luck as I have had with Stans-no-tubes, I have a hard time putting on a heavy tubeless tire when a regular tubed tire set up with Stans works just as good. That is going to be something I am going to research this winter. I will keep everyone posted.

Ice Man

So friday we Cathy, Larry, and Christina stopped by work to pick me up. The truck was loaded to the max and we were off for a 7 hour drive around the big lake. We got into Traverse City and got checked into registration. On the way up we talked about going for a ride to stretch out the legs but it was cold and raining so we decided to sleep instead.
Saturday morning we got up and went for a 50 minute warm-up before breakfast. We got back to the hotel ate the complementary breakfast of waffles, orange juice, and muffins. I went out and rode for another 20 minutes to let that all settle into place. Then it was off to the races. We got to the starting area about just after 9am. This race is different from other point to point races, like Chequamegon, in that they start in waves. I was in the first wave at 9:30am. We took off and I moved to the front. The course was super sandy. Because of the rain and early morning dew the sand was really sticky and would fly off everyone's tires and into my eyes. A couple miles in Cole and two other guys went off the front. I was sitting in the chase group trying to keep them in check. Then I found a sweet line down and hill and attacked. I chased for over a mile and was closing the gap. The two guys seen me coming and attacked, I could tell I was going to blow up if I kept chasing so I sat up and let the chase group pick me up. I was really feeling good then out of no where at mile 11 my stomach starts turning. I sat up again and dropped to the back of the pack. I got my heart rate down and tried to work through this with out having to stop. About a half mile later my body had enough. I was getting sick before I could even stop. I pulled over and unloaded my guts for just over 5 minutes! When that was over I got on the bike and tried to bring it back to speed. I was able to get on with a group and just had to ride it in. I tried going hard but I must have left my legs in that pile of breakfast on the side of the trail. I knew that I would be in trouble if I didn't have some food in me. Clif to the rescue! They came out with this new Clif Bloks these things are incredible!!! You just open the packet and stick the bag in your jersey. I was able to nibble on them throughout the race. These definitely saved me and allowed me to finish!
So yeah, I made it in 7th in my age, 139 overall. I was hopping and felt like I could have done a lot better, but it was fun anyway. Cathy ripped through the course and got to stand 2nd spot at the awards ceremony. She got a sweet Rock Shox Jersey. Larry also rode to a 2nd place finish and Christina turned an impressive 8th in the Pro/Expert women!
It was a lot of fun, first time Michaels Cycles was at the Ice Man and I think we represented pretty well, all four of us on the stage! All the final results are posted here.

All loaded

I don't think we could have squeezed any more out of yesterday. It started early and ended late at work. We are doing inventory so we are on 10.5 hours. I got home just in time to switch vehicles and head off to volleyball with Cathy. She played really good, it was fun to watch. When they finished their 3 games I jumped in and played in street clothes. I felt a little out of place but it was a lot of fun. That lasted longer than we planned and we didn't get home and started packing until after 10pm. After some rearranging I was able to get all 4 bikes to fit on the roof of the truck. I through some tools together that I am hoping I won't need and then off to bed by 12:30am! 20.5 hours of going non-stop, this would be perfect training for some 24 hour events. Either way, I had to go into work for a few hours this morning. Cathy and the crew is going to pick me up around noon and we will officially be off.
I am really excited and it looks like it is going to be decent weather. I will have a full race review and lots of pics when we get back.

Need to move some hardware

I haven't had a chance to post all this stuff for sale yet. I thought I would give the readers first dibs on it. Otherwise all this is going on MTBR next week. I don't want to do the e-bay thing but I need to clean out the basement so if it comes down to that....

You have heard me go on and on about the NRS it is a great bike and is super clean. If I can move this I am going to try out the new Anthem. Oh yeah, it is a size Large (20.5")


This is my last year's bike. I built it up and raced it for one season. Note I bought it used and has some damage on the right seat stay. It has been repaired and is solid. If you're interested I can send more detailed pictures. This is a 19.5" frame.


Lastly I won this frame last weekend at the WORS award banquet. I would keep it and build it up but don't have a fork, and could use the money more. It is a 4 inch travel with a SWEET fox shock. The frame is a size Large.


If anyone is interested drop me an e-mail or post a comment and I will get ahold of you. I have a ton of extra parts laying around also, so if you are interested in a frame, maybe we can work something out to get it partly built up.

Motorcycle vs. Bicycle

Last night Cathy and I met up with Christina and put in some time at the NorthEast park. It really burns me how much crap cyclists have to put up with, only to see our trails, that we had to get permission to build and maintian get all chewed up and nearly destroyed by motorcycles, in a non-motorized park! Anyway, dispite having to deal will torn up trails, and deep ruts in the corners it was a good ride. We hit the new sledding hill for some hill repeats. I was amazed how well Cathy was climbing, I was pushing hard and she was right on my wheel. AWESOME!!!
When we finished up we headed back to Christina's she took off one of her roof trays for this weekend, somehow I have to get 4 bikes to fit on our roof, when 3 bike are already a tight fit. That is a project for tomorrow.

Cathy's new ride

Feast your eyes on this beauty:

Cathy has been wanting to get a road bike for some time now. We have been sharing my Giant OCR1 but it didn't really fit either of us. We were able to sell it and put the money to a new bike. Last night We stopped by the shop and had Cathy get fitted for the right size. We ended up with a 51 WSD with a little longer stem. We were riding some Trek 1000 WSD which are decent bikes, but need had to order the 2200 WSD Hopefully we can get out for a couple rides before the snow flys. Cathy is really excited so that is cool.
I need to get into the shop some time and get fitted for one of these babies. OH YEAH!

WORS Banquet

What a perfect weekend!! Saturday we met for a pre-banquet group ride. It was soooo nice out I didn't need my tights, and probably could have done without my long sleeve jersey. We rode around Rockport park for a while then headed out to the LAB. It was great riding in the daylight out there, I haven't done that for about a month now. After the ride we got cleaned up and hit the road. We were meeting the parents up in Mauston to drop off the dog. Then back to Devils Head for the WORS banquet. We had a lot of people that picked up hardware. Cathy got her 1st place award, Cory picked up a 2nd place in points and 1st place in the NORBA Sport awards, and Christina walked away with 5th overall in the women and more gifts than she could carry! Larry, Bill, Brian, and Amy were all on the podium as well. (I am sure there were more people, sorry if I missed you)
I was a little disappointed with the Expert turnout. The overall winner of Elite women and two of the top 5 Elite Men, including the winner, DIDN'T EVEN SHOW!!! I don't know of any huge race going on that they could have been at, but it looks kinda bad, when they are getting $2400 and don't have enough time to pick it up. Oh well that is my two sense, take it for what it is worth.
Once the awards ended the drawing started. Let me just start by saying I have never won anything in my life!! So drawings get me worked up usually for nothing. Well the night went on, lots of kids were winning stuff, just about every table around us was winning, but Michael's Cycles were getting skunked. Then they pulled this out:

I had drifted into a day dream, not sure what it was about, but I think it involved playing with my glass of water. Then I heard my name being called, I looked up and they were holding the bike frame!! SWEET! Not sure what I am going to do with it yet. I would like to sell it and put the money toward our road bikes, or maybe an Anthem. If anyone is interested, or if you know somebody who could use a sweet 4" travel frame post a reply with a way to get a hold of you. You can check out all the specs here.
Well that's all for now. Hopefully we can get a couple rides in this week before we load up and head off to the Ice Man.

Group ride this weekend!

Yeah, I know it has been a while since I have updated this. We have been really busy with fall projects. We are tearing into the living room, getting all the wood work pulled off and sanded. It is going a lot faster now that we know what we are doing and now that we/I have a power tool to work with!!!!!
I have been still taking it easy on the bike. That has pretty much been the plan all October. It is good to take some time just to ride for fun, or not ride at all. I am getting things set up for winter training and preparing for next season. I am not looking forward to spinning, but I guess that is a part of what it takes to go fast during the summer, so it is worth it.
If you are going to the WORS banquet and live in southern Wisconsin, then you should join us for the Michael’s Cycles group ride. We are meeting at the shop at 10am. Sounds like the weather is going to be nice so it will be cool to see a lot of people show up.
On Sunday, we are thinking about heading over to Milwaukee for a cyclocross race. I have never done one before but think it could be a lot of fun.
Next weekend is Ice Man. I can’t believe November is already here, it is still soooo nice out. I better not say that too loud. I will try to get some pictures of the group ride and race on here some time this weekend.
Hope to see you all on Saturday!

First snow!?!

Just when I thought all the racing was done, we have one more to hit. Cathy qualified for the first Regional Championships held within the Ice Man race. So she got a free entry and I was able to buy an entry from Christina, who qualified as well. We have never done that race so I am going to have to keep a close eye on the forcast to know what to bring. I am really excited, I have heard alot of good stories and can't wait to get some more first hand! I kinda hope we have a little snow on the ground, that would just make the race that much more epic!
Speaking of snow. We are in Minnesota again this weekend for yet another wedding! It seems like that is all we have done this summer. But tonight and tomorrow morning they are calling for snow! I guess it was going to happen sometime, as long as it stays up here that would be fine by me.
Not much more to say, there was a cyclocross race this weekend, Cory was talking about racing the NRS or the OCR. Either of the bikes would be sweet, because they are both about equally as far from a 'cross bike as you can get!
Well I got to get cleaned up for the wedding.
Thanks for stopping by, have a good weekend.

Why cyclists use velcro

Last night Cathy had a meeting at work so I took the dog out to Rockport for ride, well the dog ran and I rode...enough! Anyway, Cory met us out there and we cruised around, and talked about the new bikes, this one in particular. I found out that the shop will be hosting a group ride before the WORS awards banquet. If you are interested click here, here, or here. Hopefully we get a good turn out, Janesville has some totally sweet trails and all the leaves turning makes it a perfect time of year to check them out.
When we got done Cory stopped in for some wonderful apple pie that Cathy had made earlier. It was sooooooooooo good!!!!!!! Still warm and everything, I know that I could have eaten the entire pie if Cathy would have let me, I had to quit after 2 rather LARGE slices. Ok what happens next totally proves that we do not have a life at all!! As Cory was tieing up his shoes I commented that he does it backwards. This led to a 20 minute shoe tieing discussion/demonstration. Have you ever watched yourself or someone else tie there shoes, it is really weird. I am just glad that my cycling shoes are velcro and ratchets!
Tomorrow we are heading up to Camrock, I think I have only rode up there once this year, it is so weird, last year I used to live at that park. But those are some really fun trails and it should be another nice night for the lights.

Night Rider Repair

Tis' the season for night riding. I look forward to this time of year. The racing is done, I don't have to analyze ever second I am on my bike. I can ride when I want, how I want. The cool air brings out the light jacket, and makes the back of your throat tingle as you gasp for air, giving that impossible hill one last shot!
By now the nights are getting longer so it is time to brake out the lights. Night riding in the fall is great. The shadows, and reflection off all the leaves, it is just fun to be in the woods.
If you are anything like me, as soon as we turned our clocks forward last spring I tossed the light into a corner, only to dig it out for the occasional endurance event, which actually capitalizes the reasons for having spare parts.
This fall Cathy has been having problems with her Nite Rider light. It has been giving her problems when she tries to turn in on, sometimes it works other times, nothing. Then on Tuesday, when darkness set in, she tried and it had finally had enough. When we got home, fortunately Jim, who we bought the light from, had a spare bulb. I have installed lights in a car, and you have to be really careful not to touch the glass. But the guys at Nite Rider did there homework. This was the easiest switch ever:

1st - Take the wrench that come with the new light and remove the 4 screws.
2nd - Remove the bulb, there should be an o-ring around the lens, throw that also.
3rd - Plug in new bulb, you can touch this baby anywhere, so don't worry if you hands are a little dirty.
4th - Put the new o-ring into the plastic housing. I noticed that the replacement was a bigger diameter, it went together easy, so it will just seal better.
5th - Put the cover back on and tighten the screws.
6th - Go riding!!!

If you have had the light for a couple years, and/or do a lot of endurance racing you will definitely want to test your lights before the event. It should turn right on, if it gives you problems it is probably time to swap out the bulb. They are a little expensive, $110 retail, but it will look like a new system. Remember the first time you seen the bright blue light...aaaahhhhhh

If you have lost your manual, down load one for free! There is some good info and charging tips. Hope that helped someone, have a wonderful fall (I mean autumn season).

Cheers

1st Annual Trailer Time Trial

Last night we put on what is going to be an annual event. We met at 6:30 and got to see our newest anchor, the B.O.B. trailer with 27.5 pounds of sand weights bungied in for a ride of their life. We got to the lab and between the people that rode out and the ones that met us there we had a pretty good group. Bob took the first pull and showed the rest of us the course. It started with some fast downhills and plenty of roots, to make the trailer bounce uncontrollably. Then after crossing a small bridge you dropped to your easy gears and hit a pretty steep climb. The steep part was short, only 100-150 ft. but then it leveled out a little but was constant up for a long time. We turned over a log, which made for some interesting shows through the night. We then headed through some pines and into the wood chips. This made for a hard finish, trying to find anything left as the bike and trailer just sink and drag though the soft surface. It sounds like a long course but was actually only 0.85 miles.
I took the second run, still leery about how much abuse the trailer would take I took it easy through the roots, powered up the climb, almost came to a stop over the log hop, and buried the needle through the wood chips turning a 4:51 minute lap. It was fun following everyone else watching the trailer bounce all over, there were a couple near misses as the trailer slid and tried pulling a couple off the trail! Bill L. had the slide of the night, he went across the bridge way to fast, trying to keep his speed to push him up the hill, but when he turned the trailer slid off the path and just about took him over, somehow he held onto it, and still was able to get into the right gear for the climb!! Rob H. took two passes at the course, on his second run, he some how got the trailer to clear the log hop! It must have hit a bump just as he was lifting his rear tire over the log, because the trailer was already airborne, and just touched the top of the log as it flew over, INCREDIBLE!! I had posted the fastest run on my first try but wanted to try again after seeing how much faster people were pushing in the rough sections. I took off and rode significantly more aggressive. On an off-camber sweeping corner in the wood chips I got loose and put the bike and trailer into a power slide, I hung onto it somehow, but cleared the wood chips down to dirt through the entire corner, SWEET!! I was able to cut another 9 seconds off my time, posting 4:42 minutes as a fast lap of the night!
All in all it was a great time, the weather was perfect and doing this at night just made it all that much more fun! I tried to snap some pictures, but the camera died instantly. We will definitely be doing this again next year so I will make sure to have good batteries ready.

Go Gorilla Go!!

I really wish I could have made it to The Wigwam/Ultimax Challenge this weekend. It is by far the best race of the series. Tons of money, big name riders, HUGE hills, and so much energy! There is a new member on the Michael's Cycles team and I think he is here to stay! Harry Gerilla did pretty good in his first citizen race, finishing 113 out of 170 racers!! Although pine trees aren't his natural environment he must have felt right at home darting through the single track.

Gorillas are born to climb!

The "Equalizer" doesn't favor man or ape!
Keep your eyes open Harry is going to be at other events around the area. Make sure you have bananas ready, a hungry gorilla could get ugly!!

The new tire to beat

I have seen a couple adds flying around after Interbike about some new rubber that Maxxis is going to be sporting for 2006. This is the new MaxxLite 310, what does 310 stand for...I thought you would never ask. Are you ready? You might want to sit down for this, yeah that is the weight!! 310 grams SWEET!! Looks like it still has decent tread considering, this could be a dangerously fast tire on hard pack.








Another tire that looks really sweet is the new CrossMark. As you can see it's got a pretty smooth center tread, to roll easy but still has the knobs needed to grip when the tire leans. At 2.1 inches wide it should be a good high volume tire. I haven't seen what the weight is yet but I am sure it is going to be right in there.
Other exciting news is L.U.S.T. (Lightweight Ultimate Sidewall Technology), this should solve some of the problems people were experiencing with the thin side-walls on last years tires. It is also supposed to make the tubeless tires 15% lighter, a lightweight tubeless?!? I think they are on to something! Can't wait to rap some of this rubber around the CrossMax and see how they handle.

How much is too much?

Check this out, the new Specialized Carbon Epic. I will give it to them that is a sweet ride, but is it really worth $7100!?! I could build the NRS up pretty sweet, and still have enough money to make a couple house payments for that price!

Brrrrrrrr

That basically sums up the ride last night. We slapped on the lights and headed out to the North East park. The city is building a HUGE pile out there for a sledding hill. I don't know why, I can't imagine they would put that much work into something for kids to sled on...our tax dollars hard at work! Either way it is going to be perfect for doing hill repeats on next summer. Then we hit the trails, once we got into the woods and pick up the speed a little everyone started warming up. It ended up being a perfect night. The trails were a little hard to see with all the leaves and there were acorns EVERYWHERE, which made the first couple laps a little on edge.
We talked about the Trail Trash Time Trial, I guess it is on Tuesday out at the lab, I still don't think that is going to be a good place, the trailer will get broken, and most likely it will be attached to my bike when that happens!!! I am going to have to mark out a course at Rockport and get some times out there.
We are heading to MN this weekend for a wedding. I can't believe how many people got married this summer! Hopefully next year will be a little calmer. But it will be good to see the fam. again and have some time to chill.

House work

I figured it was about time for an update. We have been super busy this past weekend and throughout this week working on the house. Cathy wanted to paint but the people that owned the house before us did the worst job ever when they painted, they must not have taped off any of the wood work cause there is white paint splattered all over the edges. It doesn't look bad now, but when we put on our color you will see the stained wood, white, then tan, NOT COOL! So I have been removing all the wood work, stipping, sanding, sanding, sanding, staining, and sealing everything!! Yeah way more work than I was hoping. But it is finally starting to look like something so that is good.
Because of all this I haven't been able to get much riding in. It has been killing me, letting all these nice fall days slip away. On the other hand it has been good to let the bike sit. We went out for a short ride last night and it was so much FUN!! That's what this time of year is all about.
Next Thursday it sounds like we are having an off-road time trial...using the BOB trailer! Not sure on all the details yet but it sounds like that's going to be a good time.
I will try to keep this a little better up to date.
Thanks for stopping by.

Nothing much

Yeah that is what my week has consisted of. Did the Tuesday ride on the Jamis again. For the most part it was pretty calm. Nobody really feels like going hard this time of year. Wednesday it rained all day and night. Thursday, we took the dog to the park to run around. We seen Janet S. out going really easy. She said that she seen a turkey up the trail and it wouldn't get off the trail, it just ran in front of her. When we got to that section I heard all this commotion then this turkey slowly flying off. The dog apparently found the turkey and most have been posing a bigger threat to it than Janet was. Funny thing is that the turkey still out ran her, that dog has yet to catch something!
Tonight I need to finish putting the NRS back together. I ended up stripping it completely down and replaced more things than I was hoping for. Brakes, rotors, crank bearings, and wires all needed to get tossed. I ended up tearing the X.0 derailuer apart to get every part of it clean, after lubing it and getting it together, it feels oh-so-good.
Fall color is this weekend, looks like I am going to have to throw down in the 30 miler, Cory is feeling pretty good wanting a shot at me. I think he just wants to know how he stacks up, so he can up his training over the winter. **shhhh** Maybe I will just suck it up, and give him a false sense of training, then just woop on him next year!!

Maxxis Tire Review

It is really hard to find good tires. There are so many choices out there it would take forever to try all of them. Plus the higher end race tires aren't cheap, I think the tires I put on my car were cheaper than some tires I have for my bike! So what most people do is just run the tires that the bike comes with and gets used to them. I have been lucky enough to get the help from MAXXIS this year and have fallen in love with their tires. The winter months for me and most of the biking community consist of hours on the trainer, pouring over product reviews, and looking at what the pro's were winning on last year. I have been seeing a lot about Maxxis, and after researching their tires I understood why.

Because of the muddy conditions last year I was looking for a tire that would roll fast but still be able to hook up if the trails were wet. The Larson MiMo eXCeption tire does all that and so much more. If you have been reading this blog for any time I am sure you have heard me talk about all the trail conditions this tire works for. This is by far the best all around mountain tire I have ever rode. It is a great high volume tire, I typically run it at about 30 psi on my Mavic CrossMax rims. Something that is typically overlooked when looking for a lightweight racing tire are the sidewalls. I feel Maxxis did their homework in this area. The tire soft enough to take the edge off the bumps, but is hard enough to keep from folding over when the trails get tight . The eXCeption compound is softer and was developed for XC racing. If you plan on riding to and from the trails on pavement you might see faster wear, in that case I would recommend using the standard, harder tire.

Again because of all the mud last year I figured I better have a mud tire. Turns out this has been one of the driest summers on record so I have not been able to try it out until this past weekend. The Medusa is one mud eating monster! You don't have to scroll down too far to see how muddy the course got this weekend. It was a mix of wet grass, slime over hardpack, and thick deep mud. The narrow (1.8) Medusa's cut through the mess and found traction when everyone else was slipping all over. The wide spacing of the knobs cleaned out so well. There were a couple hike-a-bike sections that my tires would pack up, as soon as I got back on the bike and rolling it would through the mud off, mostly onto me, and was ready for more. This is a mud specific tire, it is narrow and has really hard knobs to cut through the mud. Because of this it would not do well trying stick to dry trails and could easily pinch flat through rock garden, but in the mud they are incredible!

I hope this helps out in your decision making process. I would say if you are looking for a good all around tire to give the Larson MiMo a try. The cool thing about Maxxis is that they offer all their tires in a standard more cost efficient version, as well as an eXCeption version built specific for racing. Any type of riding you are into they will keep you on track, after all it is more fun to watch the other guys slide off the trail trying to keep up!

The rain was my fault

Yeah, and I am proud of it!! So all week the forecast has been for rain, I was getting cocky and would leave ever window open in the car just because I knew they were wrong. On the way to the race we were talking about this and Cory was said that if the rain gods took out their revenge this weekend that was why. Guess I must have must have said the wrong thing to the right person, because it RAINED!!!
I really like this course they have a nice mix of climbing, single track, open fields, and downhill. This year they switched things up a little and during the preride I totally fell in love. Saturday night it rained on and off, hard for a while then nothing. We got up and the rain had only settled the dust and was going to make for FAST racing. At registration I found out they were having a hill climb for $5. Turns out they were giving out $200 for male and female!! I planned on doing that during Cathy's race.
So Cathy took off in the same form as the other races this year. Off the gun she got the jump and checked out. She was riding really smooth through the single track, I think the night riding has helped with that. While she was out on a near perfect condition course I tried my hand at the hillclimb. I posted the high mark on my first try, after getting stuck in a rut just off the course. I cheered for Cathy has she was coming through on her second lap, and wanted to beat her up the hill. On my second try up the hill, I found a better line and despite only having a 2x9 set up I was the first person to get over the top of the hill! There were several other racers that tried the hill but MacIej Nowak was the only other one to make it. I waited for Cathy at the top then headed down to watch her finish. She held off the competition and wrapped up the points race! That is going to make the awards ceremony a lot of fun!! After she had cooled off a little I talked her into trying the hill climb. She really wanted to, just didn't know it. When we got there and there it had started raining and there was only one other girl giving it a try. On Cathy's second try, in torrential rain and lightening she posted the high mark beating expert rider Holly Liske! When your hot your hot!
Cory and I decided that the rain wasn't going to stop and that we needed to switch to the mud tires. This was my first time on these tires and they worked so good, I am going to do a product review in the next couple days. I got a good position on the line, we started downhill into a left hand mud hole. My tires just hooked up and I shot to the inside passing about 15 people. I was running in the top 10 and feeling really comfortable. I got settled in with TJ and Carlos Haeckel, they were faster on the big climb but I was able to catch and pass them on the single track and down hills. Right from the start the bike was solid mud. It was handling everything pretty good, considering. But by the 4th lap the mud was starting to run it's course. I was getting bad chain suck, my shifters had locked from mud in the cables, my brakes were shot, the mud was weighting the bike down and the suspension was bottomed most of the time...but the tires worked incredible!!! Half way through the final lap I fell apart, my legs were shot I was getting sloppy and just wanted to be done. I can't thank Cathy enough for all her work. She seen me struggling and told me that I was almost done, I didn't realize how close I was and kept pushing. If it wasn't for her to have been in the right place I wouldn't have finished.
When the race finally ended the next task was to clean the bikes. There was a 10 mile line waiting for 1 hose, but why use a hose when you have a LAKE!! Everyone was having fun cleaning the bikes and playing in the water.

This might be our last WORS race of the year so it was really good that we finished on a good note. We walked away with money from the hillclimb and Cathy is already excited about moving up next year. What class is she going to run? I guess we will have to wait and see, lets just say sport might not be enough of a challenge!

Someone kick me I'm ranting

Sorry if I sound like a broken record but I just can't get over how much fun I am having this year night riding! Last night we met for the group ride, so did some intense looking clouds. We decided to head to Rockport so if the weather got bad we could get home quick. I didn't listen to the weather report but they must have been predicting rain because it ended up being a beautiful night.

Cory was getting anxious to go so we upped the pace and went off the front. We had a good clip going, I was feeling just awesome, hopefully I can carry that through this weekend! We darted through the single track and then back to the double track. Cory was showing his wheel at the bottom of Onion hill, I will have none of that, so I upped the pace on the roller coaster trail. As we crossed the bridge heading out of the park I thought I heard him right on me so I attacked the hill on the bike trail, assuming that what his plan as well. When I crested the top I looked back and no Cory. I rode around looking for him but couldn't find him, so I finished my lap and met up with the group again. Turns out he wasn't as close as I thought and turned back into the double track.

From what I hear it sounds like this weekend could be muddy. I think I am going to bring my mud tires just in case things get sloppy. Otherwise I will stick with Ol' faithful those should hook up real good in the grass descents and gavel climbs.

I've seen it all

On the way to work I passed a semi-truck sportn' a pair of these mad dogs. If you don't know what they are I will give you a couple hints.

1) I was driving through Beloit when I seen them.
2) On the back of the truck was a how's my driving sticker with the phone number painted over it then written in dirt, show your boobs!
3) The only thing lacking was a plywood spoiler, or in this case a plywood wind deflector.
If you didn't guess by now you have never been through Beloit, these are a pair of spinner hubcaps for your semi! WHAT!?! The ones that I actually seen were not nearly as nice as this picture, I thought I would try to give the driver some dignity. I have officially seen it all!

In other news, Cory got a blog site go check it out and tell him that his site isn't as cool as mine! Trek posted their 2006 bike line so go pick yours out. Even though I love my giant, I do like graphics on the bikes this year. Looks like they have a million bikes to pick from again.
We got some much needed rain last night, it was short lived though and hopefully things will dry out enough to be able to ride tonight. If we can ride we will be bringing the lights, it has been so nice out I haven't needed the jacket at all. Unfortunately I have this feeling that things are going to be changing fast.

Not recovered yet

I was feeling pretty good the past couple days since the fastest mt.bike race ever and was looking forward to a good and hard ride tonight. Cathy took the road bike again so I through a pair of pedals on the Jamis and we were off.
For some unknown reason all the ride times switched so Cathy went with the "C" group and I went with the "A" group. She went easier than she wanted and I went harder than my legs let me. I felt ok spinning but the hills were really painful, and closing the gap hurt more than normal.
I really think riding the Mt.bikes on the road helps though. The more I have been doing that the more comfortable I am during races, either tight in a group or pushing some big gears on a flat stretch. I wish I had a second set of disk wheels so I don't have to change tires on the NRS though. Maybe I will just stick with the Jamis or build up the 9.8 road style!
Plans are changing every day for next weekend there are so many races in one weekend it is rediculous:
I could do a 12 hour race
or I could do this race
I tried this race once and it hurt ALOT!!
I guess you will have to stay tuned to find out what happens.

Easy Spinning

Last night Cory, Cathy, and I headed out to Rockport for some late summer night riding. Because of the recent storms there are a few more trees down on the trails. I was doing alright making it over most of them, until I didn't get my rear wheel high enough on one and it sent my into the slowest endo I have ever done. It was really sweet, I actually seen Cory behind me as I was going over my handle bars!
Other than that the ride was mostly recovery from the race this weekend, I feel really good and ready to throw it down tonight at the "A" ride. I don't want to mess with changing the NRS tires again so I am going to take the Jamis tonight, that should be interesting to see how tucked I can get with my riser bars.

I found a few more pics of the race this weekend. Really I had more fun than it looks in the pictures.
This was the first year I have made it up the Fire Tower hill with out walking. There is no two way about it, that hill hurts!


Thanks to Skinny Ski for posting these, they're always in the best spots.

Chequamegon Re-cap

After having a bum season I have been focusing on this race hoping to pull something together. I took all last week easy making the legs happy and ready for 40 miles of hills and sand. We broke tradition and stayed with the team at one of their cabins. On Saturday morning went to get registered, I put Cathy's bike on the front line, knowing I didn't belong there but thought I could get some cool team exposure. I guess I lost track of time warming up and got to the start as they were saying all non-race bikes would be removed. As I was handing Cathy her bike over the fence everyone moved up to the start line. WHAT!?! Now my front row start was in the back, bummer! I thought no problem I can pick my way to the front on Main St. for some good pics. I was getting my mind focused when I looked down and realized that I forgot my timing chip! I only had 3.5 minutes to start time, I threw my bike over the fence and busted down the street to the car. I ripped open the bag and threw on the chip. I was sprinted back to the start line during the national anthem, threw my bike over the fence and just as I was jumping over, BOOM the cannon goes off! I quickly moved to the far left in the front.
I didn't want to have a million people around me as I was trying to get my mind back into the race. We made it out of town and that is when things got ugly. I have never seen as much tire rubbing as this weekend! I was off to the right side of the road on the white line. A rider came around me, almost on the gravel and when he tried to cut in hit a 'cross bike in front of me. Both of them got loose, the mt.bike held on to it but the 'cross bike slid and high-sided. I had nowhere to go, I could here tires already sliding so I knew slowing or swerving would take me out. I leaned back and just rode through it, I tagged the 'crosses rear wheel as he was spinning into the ditch. Ok, that is all before the race started!!
Once we hit Rosies field everyone attacked. I tried but just fell on my face, AGAIN. I was really mad that this happened every race. I tried to just keep things in check. I was bummed because we could see the lead pack only about 15 seconds up on us but nobody, included me could get up enough to bridge to them. I was doing everything I could to hang on up the "OO" after that there were two big climbs. When we got to the first one something inside told me to attack. I did and never saw the pack again. I sprinted up the hill like it was the finish. When I crested I hit a gavel road, got two new bottles of water and gatorade, then the race was on. After that I felt great, I was pushing the big ring like nothing. Finally I could actually race instead of just riding. When I crossed "OO" I heard I was in the mid 50's. I knew that a top 20 was out of the question but I had to make some ground just to get in next year. I was just flying on the roads, I would come up on groups that were working together, and just blow past them. The hills felt great, I have to thank Cory for the torturous seated climbs he made me do, they paid off and I found my self seated in the big ring.
With about 2 miles to go someone yelled I was in 30th place. I could see 29th in front of me but he had at least 100 yrds. I through in a last attach on the hill into the ski area, but couldn't close the gap enough.

This is the stats from the race. Not my best finish but it was my fastest time. Overall I was really happy just to feel good and be able to race again. Hopefully the legs will stick around for a couple more races this year.
Thanks to everyone for helping out. My MiMo's were again the perfect choice tire. They rolled fast and hooked up like crazy on the fast rocky/sandy downhill sections. I have been running my I-fly seat. I found that I can wear little to no padding in my shorts to get the best feel of the seat, without getting any soars! WOW!! Of course the White Lightning lube gave me perfect shifting though out the entire race.
Thanks again to everyone.

All ready

Cathy and I headed out to Rockport last night, despite a constant rain all afternoon, the trails were surprisingly dry. Cathy is feeling a lot better after probably her hardest effort this season. I think my legs were coming around too. I felt good spinning and although I didn't open things up much felt like they were there on the hills. We got home and I washed up the bikes. It would be funny to hear what the neighbors say about us, everytime we have talked to them at least one of us had been in full lycra! Then they drove by last night really slow as I was out in the rain washing my bike. Funny stuff.
Just got a trail report this morning from Jim Peterson. He said it's been about 65 degrees and sunny the past couple days. Forecast for tomorrow is cloudy with 30% chance of rain = FAST!! Sounds like they might be closing double "O" this year, not sure what that is about but I think we are going to throw Cathy's bike on just in case she needs to park and ride into the trails. On the way in to work today I seen 4 cars loaded with MT.bikes headed north, I wonder where they're going?
Well that is all for now, hopefully my legs show up with me at the start line. I will let everyone know how things went when we get home.

Rest and Recovery

I have been taking things really easy the past few days. Lots of easy spinning, trying to get as much sleep as possible, and non-stop eating. Everyone is getting pretty excited around here for the big one this weekend. We are going to load the truck up tonight, then get out of work at noon tomarrow (I still need to talk to my boss) and hit the road. Should be about a 5-5.5 hour drive, sooooo long! The weather might be a little chilly but I think we are going to camp in the church yard, that is were I have slept every year and it is working for me.
Lots of people are listing off the predictions for this year, if he shows up then they will do however good. Funny thing is; I haven't made it on anyone's "A-list", hopefully I can put together a good race and turn a few heads.
We are meeting early for the group ride tonight, more easy spinning maybe through in a hill or two to see what the legs feel like. Then clean up the bike and get everything loaded.
Good luck to everyone this weekend, hope to see a bunch of you up there!!!

Kewaunee Re-cap

I don't know what the deal is this year, know matter what I am doing I just can't put together a good race. I didn't want to get too crazy this weekend and over do it for Chequamegon next weekend. The race started with an uphill road lead out. I was running mid-pack and getting pulled along nicely. About 1/2 way up the hill the pack started to separate so I wanted to make a move into the lead group before the single track, I tried to up the pace and just fell flat on my face! I knew it was going to be a long race at this point. We made it through the 28 minute lead out and started the main course. I didn't really feel good at any point of this, but just kept a steady pace and tried to keep everything in check. When we came around for our first lap I could see a group in front but just thought it was a chase group, turns out they were the leaders, WHAT!?! I slipped a little on the pace for the second lap, not knowing that I was running in the top 10, as I was about to finish someone yelled, your easly in the top 20! I thought oh great now I have to push, again I tried to find something but it just wasn't there. I figured I had two choices, dig deap and burn all the resources I have ever put in my body, or soft pedal the final lap and let my body just tell me how hard to ride, I chose the latter. I finished the final lap, and stopped for a second where Cathy was handing off bottles, I shot down a full bottle of water and took a bottle of Gatorade for the 25 minute lead in to the finish.
I finally made it to the long down hill tucked in and had a 39 mph speed check at the radar. So I turned my lowest finish yet. I am hopping to get all these bad finishes out of my system and next year I can turn on the heat.
Speaking of putting on the pressure, Cathy had a GREAT race!! She took off and sat mid pack just as planned. About 1/2 way up a girl was going off the front Cathy made her move up to her wheel when she realized the girl wasn't going to challenge, Cathy moved around and soloed for a $20 top of the hill preem. When we seen her she only had a couple second lead over the rest of the field. I guess she traded some spots on the first lap. When she lapped through again she was only about 10 seconds up on the second place lady. On her final lap she was able to pick it up a little and gain some ground. She got on the road and headed home clocking 38 mph on the down hill and crossed the line 2 minutes ahead of the next challenger.

Cool Website

Check out this website:
Bike Blogs
They have a bunch of lists of different areas of blogs; racing, wrenching, buying, and selling. I scrolled down on the MTB Racing Blogs and looks like they found me before I found them!
Anyway check it out, should be some good reading.

Night riding

Fortunately the weather forecasters were wrong again with their forecast of rain, thunderstorms, wind, and hail. I think we were actually under a severe thunderstorm warning! It turned out to be a great night. We were only on the trails for about 45 minutes before we had to turn on the lights. I have mixed feelings about this time of year. On one hand I love seeing a line of lights snaking its way through the trees, and on the other hand it is a sign of cooler nights leading to snow and indoor trainers.
I really like riding at night, the trails that we have been riding all summer seem to be totally different under the white beam of our Night Rider HID lights. Cathy picked up a used pair from Jim P. and she was riding awesome! The trails are really dry and in need of some TLC (Tree removaL serviCe). Sounds like that is going to happen the week after Chequamegon.
Well this weekend we are headed up to Kewaunee. I guess it is like a 3.5 hour drive so we are going to get going early on Sat. to get up and try to get some riding in. Sounds like it should be nice weather, but really nobody knows.
I finally opened the sample bottle of FRS Plus I received a while back. I wanted to save it for the next few big races so we will see how it works. Too soon to tell right now but I should know something by mid next week. Will keep you posted.
Out for now.

MTB at a road ride?!?

Ok so last night the women's groupride started for a short fall season. Cathy wanted to ok so I set up the road bike for her. Right now we only have one road bike, it doesn't fit either of us properly, but if we take it to both extremes we can fit on it. It ends up being a lot of adjusting every time one of us wants to ride, hence the reason we are looking at both getting road rides. ANYWAY - so I wanted to do the road ride with the "A" group so I though some slicks on the NRS. We took off at a nice warmup pace, I don't have a computer on that bike so I don't know speeds. But I only had 2 gears left, ON THE WARM-UP! I thought this could be a long night. We got out of town and upped the pace, I think Mark was mad that I showed up/could hang on with my mt.bike. It was fun but hard, I was able to pull through and take the pulls but I think I was working a little harder than the others. We got to Shopiere and Ken, Mike, and another guy went off the front. Joe was chasing but not getting much closer, just hanging out in no-mans land. They had about 75 yards on us when I went to the front. I put the hammer down and was able to close the gap to Joe. I got on his wheel for about 5-10 seconds just enough to shove my lungs back into my chest. Then I went around him and closed the gap on the leaders. It was a perfect workout for Chequamegon coming in a couple weeks. I think I might be out on the road more often, plus is it awesome to blast around town with slicks, they hook up like nothing else!

More miles than I thought

Yeah that is what happened this weekend. I took off on Saturday for a nice long up to 5 hour ride. There was a north wind blowing so I headed up to Cambridge. Made my usual stop at the BP and got a refill of Gatorade and a snickers. I headed home thinking I would have a tail wind, and I did...kinda. Sometimes it was at my back sometimes I was pushing it, not really sure what that was all about. Anyway, it felt really good I was pushing 25-30 mph and keep my heartrate in check the entire time. Things are really coming along nice for the little race up north. When I got home I let the dog for a bit, ate some ham, jelly-beans, cheese, gatorade, pickles and some peanut butter, then back on the bike. I decided I should go pick up the truck Cathy left in Rockford when she caught her plane on Friday. Now I think who ever said Illinois was flat is full of #%$@, either that or I just hit ever hill in the state. I left that part to last thinking it would be a nice flat ride with hopefully some tail wind. Well the wind died and I was left crawling up some huge hills, I wanted to get off and walk a couple times. Finally I made it to Rockford and to the truck. I ended up with just over 110 miles with a 19.3mph Average, WOW!! I guess I was hurting for a reason.

The feel of a new bike

Last night we stopped in at the shop and sized up Cathy for a road bike. She has been riding mine from time to time is getting the feel for it. Looks like Giants are going to fit both of us best. I am going to get one size bigger and Cathy is going to get one size smaller than the Medium that we are currently sharing. Not sure yet what type or how soon. Bob is checking that for us. Also I got to get mine sold to afford the new wheels.
The group is heading to Rockcut tonight for a night mt.bike ride. I might do that or put some more pavement behing the ol' road rig.

Tuesday Night

I was planning on doing my own thing last night but once I got on the bike and started moving I quickly realized that I had no motivation at all. So I decided if I wanted to get a hard workout I better get in with the group and have them push me, or die off the back. We head out of town into a pretty strong wind. We were taking it easy for most of the way out. I took some hard pulls to see what my legs were saying. They told me to sit in because the way home was going to be fast. We turned around and with the wind still blowing now we had an awesome tail wind. Mark and Jason ramped up to 30mph in no time. We had a group of 4 that were able to hold that pace. It was really fun taking short hard pulls at that pace for miles on end! Every 5 miles was a major intersection we would slow for and then kick it up again. I was starting to feel better, not best but I could tell my base miles were keeping me on. I got gapped once or twice and had enough reserve to dig down and bridge to the group.
After the ride Cathy and I headed to the story to get some food. We walked past the paper and seen this article about Jim Peterson!! He is taking off today for Worlds. I guess they will be posting real time results so I will get a link up here for anyone interested in following their favorite athlete. (i.e. Jim)
Sounds like there is going to be some long rides going out this weekend, I think I am going to head down south of Rockford on Friday after work, then Sat. Jason and I are talking about doing 5 hours of road. Sunday Cory and I will be heading to Kettle for some 3 hours of day/night riding. Monday...not sure yet I could be doing some recovery at that point

Blue Mounds

Last night Cathy and I headed up to Blue Mounds to check out the trails. I haven't rode up there since winning the 12 Hours of Blue mounds, 2 years ago!! I guess quit while your ahead right. Anyway the trails were in really good shape. There are so many rocks there that if it is wet at all it is horrible. But it was good and dry. Cathy was riding incredably, on our second lap once we got to know the trails, she was pounding through the rocks like nothing! She is considering doing the Blue Mounds Race the first weekend of October. Not sure what we are going to do, us doing a duo team, he soloing, and Cathy riding with one of her teammates, or what.
Tonight I got a long ride planned. Chequamegon is quickly approaching so I got this week of long rides, next week I am uping the intensity and then taper. Hopefully it all works out.

Weekend Trip

Looks like we got back in town just in time. The day after we left Georgia Katrina came in leaving all sorts of destruction in her path. I haven't mentioned much about this trip because of obvious reasons. I talked with the guys at Thomson and they seem like a good group, they put in big hours but I guess it goes fast if you enjoy it. Now we just need to decide if this is something that we want to do or what. The area is pretty cool, we drove around some and went through the Air Force Base here in town

After looking around at some planes we decided that we had check out the sushi situation. Tom made us some increadable rolls. We got to talking and he said that this shrimp was his special.

As we were leaving the place we heard some people in the parking lot talking bikes. We went over and started talking to them about local rides and trails, ect. Sounds like they have some decent trails down there but nothing really special, within a 2 hour drive at least. Something to think about before moving. So that is that, and we will have to wait and see what happens.
On the way home we stopped in at the Atlanta Speed Way, totally sweet!! I guess in June they got nailed buy a tornado and did something like $4-6 million in damage. One of the securty guys took us for a ride and got to do a lap on the track. Cathy could hardly contain herself, it was really cool! We hadn't planned on it taking that long and that put us big time late for our plane. We busted out of the Speed Way and cruised to the airport. We got our car checked in 35 minutes before the plane was supposed to leave. The ticket lady told us that if we ran we MIGHT make the flight. We were chucking through the airport so fast!! Cathy was upfront clearing traffic and I had all the bags doing a full sprint. We got to our plane and with only 5 people left to get on, THAT WAS CLOSE!!
So that was the weekend, I don't know if we could have packed anything else in, Oh yeah I guess we did. When we got home we had a going away party for Jim Peterson, soon to be 24 Hour Solo World Championships participant.
!!!!!GOOD LUCK JIM!!!!!

Tuesday Hammer Fest

I haven't been to a tuesday night group ride in so long. I am have been doing a lot of solo training or have been too busy to make it so it was fun to get out and hammer with some FAST riders again. We headed out to Whitewater lake, well we made it to the lake before having to turn around. On the way out we were pushing a pretty good head wind, the group split up and the "A" guys put the hammer down. I was pushing pretty hard taking pulls at 24-26 mph. Ever stop ahead sign was a sprint finish. I just pulled through and was starting to drift to the back when everyone stood up and were gone! I grabbed a couple gears stood up and had to work to get back on the tail end of the group. I caught some wind off of Ken P. and used that to up the pace, I got around Joe and had Mark and Jason in my sights but time was running out. I stayed wide of Mark so I won't get hit by his head wind. At the sign I had edged out both Mark and Jason by inches. When we got to the lake we turned around and had a nice tail wind. A couple of us were told to go and that we were going to be the "rabbit" and the group would then caught us. I told them, lets drop them the entire ride! With that we were gone, pulling at 28-30 for miles on end hurts even with the wind. The pack was coming but we were holding them off until we had to stop and wait for some cars at an intersection. Bob and two other riders had dropped off so I went back and picked them up and pulled them back to the group, right as we got on I was totally BLASTED, and they all took off. We weren't recovered enough to up the pace and we were off the back again. I tried to talk Bob into going for it but he was done. I tried to get back on and was pushing 28-29 for a mile or so solo but the group was still gaping me so I sat up.
It was a great ride, I needed that intensity after doing a lot of base miles. The days are getting shorter and the evenings are cooler, I can't believe fall is already coming.

I want to rant but shouldn't

After some thinking and from the remarks from a teammate I realized that I shouldn't have posted this rant. Afterall Louis Garneau was kind enough to give the team killer deals on the jerseys and shorts. Personally they don't fit me the best, but it could be a combination of my saddle as well. If there are people out there that are thinking about getting a pair of shorts, try on many styles and types from different companies, to get one that fits you good. A good pair of shorts makes any ride a lot more enjoyable.
Again, I hope I haven't turned anyone away from Louis Garneau.

In other news, we got all moved into our house and that is totally SWEET! It is really nice and feels more like a home then our other place, maybe because our bathroom is bigger than a port-a-john and that now we have a ceiling over the shower, not floor braces.

Moving

Hey sorry for not keeping this up-todate. This week has been crazy, we are moving on Friday so ever last second we have we are throwing things into boxes. It is amazing how much stuff a person can acquire, I wonder if construction builders consider weight limits when building a house? I know our house is going to be about 3500lbs. lighter once we get all moved out!!
Anyway, yeah we did have a race this weekend, again I have been really slow in getting some pictures on here. I am going to try to post some riding pics. later this week. The race felt good, it was hot and FAST. Cathy did really good. She felt great and took the victory with a 2.5 minute gap! My race went well considering I have been putting in long base mile rides. This race was all about intensity. I had a 31st place finish, nothing to write home about but I felt consistent through the whole thing, and had enough to kick it for a hard sprint finish. The past two days has been recovery and now I will get back into the miles again.
Anyway I will keep this updated better and hopefully get some pics for your viewing pleasure.

Feeling good

I am getting excited to race this weekend, I haven't been to a race since July 3rd!! I took some time off the bike to get refocused. Then started training for a good showing at Chequamegon. I have been putting in some big day and long miles. Went out last night on the MTB and did some over/under's at Rockport Park. It felt really good running the legs up and spinning them down. I am getting excited about this weekend, even though I don't plan on having a stellar race, because I will be training up to and through the race more than wasting a bunch of days to rest up for it like I should to have a peak performance. It should be fun though not having the pressure to get a good finish but just to enjoy some time on the MTB.
We are finally getting some much needed rain, so it looks like my road ride tonight might be a wet one.

Weekend Worriers

I am starting to wonder what is harder, loading up for a race, camping, racing, and driving home tired and sore, OR going home for the weekend!! Don't get me wrong I have a lot of fun with our families it is just BUSY! This weekend was no exception. On Saturday it was Chris and Jenny's reception. It was fun seeing everyone again and some people we haven't seen forever. Then when it got dark we lit off fireworks that would rival New York City.
Sunday we took dad's boat to the lake for the better part of all day. This was the first time I have been back on the water for almost a year so it felt great. There is a good chance that Cathy's knee broke my nose upon her ejecting from the tube after hitting a tidal wave behind the boat. I think everyone that was there got hurt one way or another so it was a successful tubing experience.
Today we are back to the grind stone. My schedule is tapering a little for this weekend so I don't totally die at the race. I think I am officially out of the running for a top 5 in points this year so I am going to use it as a training ride, and hope to just have fun with things.
I will get some pics up here hopefully tonight, I am going to try to get more pictures with my posts, we'll see how that goes.
Thanks for reading, out

Photo blogs

I need to start taking pics of random things on my ride. I have been reading other blogs and seems like everyone is snapping shots of everything when they ride. I wonder how do you get a good ride in if you are always screwing around with the camera? I guess when I go for a ride I do just that, RIDE! That is the good thing about this blog, since I am convinced that nobody, other than Cory, actually reads this stuff I can say what I want with no consequences. SWEEEEET!! So on that subject.......well never mind.
So last night I went for a ride, without my camera. The group mt.bike ride was road tripping to Camrock so Bill and I headed up on the road bikes. Bill was going to meet Jasha up there and switch bikes to do the mt.bike ride but that kinda didn't happen, hehehe. On the way up I had a something fly into my helmet, I stuck my finger up to dig it out and it stung me, turns out it was a bee. I pulled my helmet off and dumped him out on the road. My finger didn't swell too bad, just kinda hurt. That would have sucked if it would have stung my head! I kept going to Cambridge and stopped at the BP for the usual, 1 quart of Orange & tropical punch Gatorade and a Snickers bar = $2.74 and the fuel to get home. I rolled into town with 3 hours and 55 miles, I was pretty tired but it is weird as soon as I get onto Milton Ave it is like I have a new burst of energy. It is really fun, bikes are so much faster off the line and then you hear people floor their cars because a lame biker is beating them. I did this on a couple lights and then the rest were green. I was turning 34-36 mph all the way home, I even went into the passing lane and passed two cars (the speed limit is 30mph). I was pretty shot when I got home so I mowed the yard, Cathy got home and we ate some spaghetti and called it a night.
This weekend we are heading up to Minnesota for my bros. wedding reception party. It will be a good time, sounds like we are going to spend some quality time on the lake. I will take pics and get them posted, I might even be riding a bike.

long rides = weird food

I don't know what it is but it seems like after a long ride my body craves all kinds of weird food. Yesterday I was out for just under 2 hours, with 30 minutes of tempo. On the way back home I had this uncontrollable craving for jello! I got home and quickly boiled some water dumped in the jello, as I was stirring it the smell was overwhelming, I had to have it NOW. So I did. I drank the entire 2 cups of warm liquid-sugar. Then last night I was finishing my 3.5 hour ride when Cathy called and said she was making some French toast. The last 5 miles of the ride all I could think about was pouring gallons of syrup on the French toast when I got home.
I don't know what this means and don't care, if it will make basic, normally boring, food something to get uncontrollably excited about I'll keep doing it.

Just riding

Well another weekend is regretfully behind us. I can't imagine what it would be like to be a professional athlete, every day would feel like a weekend! I wonder what they do on the weekend to relax then? Looks like 24-9 went really well, like any race there were a lot of almosts, it is weird how someone can train and do everything just right for months before a race and when race day comes if they are not feeling perfect it seems like all that training was useless. I sure hope that doesn't happen to me this fall. I got my Polar S-150 heart rate / cycling computer on friday. It is really cool, I don't have it connected to the bike yet but that will happen sometime this week. Cory put together a program for me to follow hoping to get in shape by Chequamegon. It has been super hot so I have been putting a majority of my hours in the evening. Most of my rides have been ending around 9:30pm. I have my niterider light on the road bike and just click it on when the going gets dark. I really like that time of day, the wind is calm, it is cooler, less traffic, and BUGS so many BUGS!!!
Well 3.5 hours tonight then some recovery and another long day before the group ride on thursday. Then we are heading home this weekend for my bro's reception party. That is going to be a lot of fun, I plan to spend at least an entire day up to my neck in water.
Hey what do you people want to read about, more product reviews, more random rants? Drop me a note in the comments, you don't have to be a member, and let me know what you think.
Out for now.

Easy does it.

That is something I have been really struggling with...going easy. I think that has probably burned me this year. I started out feeling really strong and instead of maintaining the same program I followed through the winter I just went out and pounded nails every day. Cory has been working with me to get a program set up for Chequamegon. I am really hoping to pull off a solid peak for that race and turn a solid finish.
Monday I rode with Cathy for about 30 minutes, went home ate a bunch of food and then Cory stopped by and we rode another 2 hours with 40 minutes of tempo. I really felt good and had to keep telling my self to hold back and stay in the program. Last night I did a recovery ride. I have been doing a lot of late night riding. In this heat it seems like it is the best time to ride. Plus you pretty much have the trails and roads to yourself.
Anyway, today we are doing a time trial to get some base numbers and then will go from there.
There has been a lot of chat going on about the 24-9 race this weekend. I was thinking about doing that as a team or solo but I think at this point I need to get into my program, my days are numbered so I have to make everyone count. Maybe Cathy and I will do a team next year, that might be kinda fun!

SDG review

I think the most important part of getting a bike to fit a rider is the seat. Some people spend a lot of time trying to find a seat that fits and then they stick with that. I have been experimenting with several styles this year and have been having some rather painful rides. As I mentioned I just got my SDG setup. They sent me an I-Fly seat as well as a Bel-Air. As you can see in the pics these seats use the new I-Beam seat post system. This is a much lighter and stronger set up than the conventional seat with metal rails. I have noticed that it hold the seat a lot better, with out it sliding around.
Ok, cut to the chase...I first tried the I-Fly seat at 120 grams and still maintaining full padding is an incredibly comfortable seat.

Like all the I-beam seats it is very easy to adjust. One bolt does everything, tilt and lateral movement. The tilt locking teeth are very fine allowing for small fine tuning adjustments. Moving the seat forward or backward is the only thing that is awkward. The seat has rough edges for the seat post clamp to lock against but when trying to adjust the seat seams to bind on these. I actually like it because I know the seat is being held solid. I suggest marking the tilt because when you move the seat you WILL loose the tilt position.
The second seat I tried was their most popular seat and for a good reason.

The Bel-Air ST could be the most comfortable seat I have ever sat on. I haven't had a chance to put too many miles on it but the time I have spent on it have been in non-padded shorts and the seat felt great!! It is a little bigger than the I-Fly and at 186 grams is a little heavier. I would highly recommend this or any of the Bel-Air seats for any type of endurance ride/race.