Swanson Fun

The past couple weeks have been so much fun! Everyday after work I can notice changes in Keenan, either he has grown or has more expressions or is looking around more. He is doing really good with sleeping at night. We usually try to keep him awake all evening and then right after his 11pm feeding get him to bed. It seems like every other night he will make it until 5-6am and the other nights he gets up around 2-3am for a little "mid-night snack".

Tonight we were playing on the bed and he was trying to copy what I was doing.

He definitely takes after Cathy on the camera!!

Cathy, Keenan, and Mercedes getting their morning beauty sleep.

Besides playing with Keenan mother nature has been keeping us plenty busy! I really don't remember having this much snow piled up this early for a long time! Oh well I like it. The snow gets me in the Christmas spirit and is fun to do winter activities.
Speaking of Christmas, this weekend we have the kids Christmas party for work and then next weekend is Christmas already!

Winter riding

All week the weather forecasters were predicting a major winter storm for this weekend. I wasn't getting my hopes up for much so when I woke up on Saturday morning and seen it snowing I figured it was just going to be a little snow and then be over. I called up Cory, met him at the Trek store before heading out to 25.5.

It wasn't until I was waiting for Cory that I realized we might be getting as much snow as they were predicing. We got to the trails and starting riding.

We only made it about 100 feet down the trail before realizing we had WAY too much air in our tires, down to 10-15psi to keep the tires under us. I love riding in the snow, it is a totally different type of riding - putting in full effort just to keep moving and at times just to stay up.

Most of the climbs were unrideable so we did a lot of hike-a-biking.

After about an 1-1.5 hours we finally got one lap done and decided to call it while we were still uninjured and only semi-frozen. Yes this picture is set up, we both tried to ride the bridge but couldn't make the corner and both ended up in the gully!

I got home, changed and then we all loaded up and headed down to the UW Stock Pavillion for the UW Forestry Club's tree fundraiser. They had a really sweet setup, we pulled right into the arena out of the snow, rain, and sleet and was able to pick out a tree and get it tied to the roof without freezing. After that we headed to the mall to kill some time, it was mostly freezing rain so our Christmas tree turned into a Christmas glacier! When we got home last night I brought in what I remember to be our tree and let it thaw in the basement. If the tree is thawed and if our basement isn't flooded I think we are going to set it up and decorate today.

Sleepless nights

Well it has been a week since we brought Keenan home. Sleeping has been really hit or miss (more misses than hits I think), some nights he sleeps good and others we are up all night. I think we have a system down and if we can get through this week we should be set. We are all getting adjusted and so far it has been more fun than work.
With all the extra work around the house and due to cold or wet weather the bikes haven't been seeing much outside the garage.
Now that Thanksgiving has passed Christmas lights are popping up all over the neighborhood. This weekend is forcast to be cold, and either rain or snow...perfect weather for me to freeze while putting up lights!

Baby Pictures

Yep that is right we have baby pictures!!
On Sunday morning at 1am Cathy got up to use the bathroom and came back to bed with some cramping, then all of the sudden they went away - hmmmmm. We stayed up and thought we would time them just in case it was a contraction. Sure enough it happened again, about 17 minutes later. After that we started timing them and they got really close FAST - 17 minutes, 15, 10, 7, and then 5. At this point we realized this was the real deal. We got up loaded the car and got ready to go. The contractions slowed to 6-7 minutes so we put in a movie to kill some time. When that got over Cathy was starting to hurt so we decided to just head in and see what they had to say. At 5am the main doors weren't open yet so we headed to the ER.

They checked us in, took us to Triage, and checked out Cathy to see how far dilated she was...only 3cm! She was really bumming because the contractions were constantly 4-5 minutes. We sat in there for about 1.5 hours to see how things progressed at about 7am her water broke so the nurse told us we weren't going home at this point and got a room ready. Cathy was doubling over in pain with each contraction at this point and was getting them ever 2-3 minutes. At 8:30am we got into the room and the doctor got an Epidural started. After that he pain subsided enough that Cathy was able to get a little rest.

A couple hours pass and family starts to arrive, they stopped in to say good luck and then congregated in the waiting room. At 2:30pm Cathy was set and ready to push. Things started happening fast at this point, doctors were coming and going and pulling in equipment as the baby was getting close. Finally a head, a couple pushes later the shoulder and arms, then with a good push from Cathy and a pull from the doctor and at 3:30pm Keenan C Swanson was born!!

He is bigger than we were expecting at 8lbs 4oz and coming it at 19.5" long. He has a full head of hair already and I am afraid he has my hairline...I was afraid that was going to happen.

We stayed in the hospital for a couple days and then today at around noon they let us take him home. He is super cute although that could be just the sleep deprived me talking. Cathy is off work for 12 weeks and I am taking this week off and will probably only work half days at best next week.

Well Keenan is sleeping right now so I am going to close my eyes for a bit as well while I can.
Thanks to everyone for all the support and encouragement you have given us, we can't wait to show him off to all of you.

Out of touch with blogging

Wow I have been worse than ever on keeping this updated. If anyone is still checking this site you really need to get a life!!
Cathy is ready to pop any day now her official due date is monday the 12th but she is hoping it won't take that long. I think we have everything ready, car seat - check, crib - check, lots of stuffed toys - check, and a changing table. That should be it I am guessing...YEAH RIGHT!! I think we are going to use cloth diapers so if anyone has any ideas about this or were to find good inexpensive ones on line let me know.
After our cross race I decided to build up my Devinci frame that I had hanging in the garage. My brother and sister in law are staying with us for a month and we were going to do the cross race but I got into some seriously bad hamburger, I guess hamburger doesn't age as well as cheese. Anyway that laid me up for the entire weekend. Depending on what the baby desides to do we might head out to Stoughton for the race this weekend.
That's all for now, keep checking and maybe I will keep this more updated once we have someone else to write about.

Gibbs Lake 75% Payout!!!

We were out at the course this weekend and I think it is going to be really good. Hopefully we won't get any rain or snow this year, although that made for a fun race it was pretty bad setting up or tearing down.
We changed up a couple things this year and I think we are going to have a good course, there is a little of everything, fast, rough, tight, and sweeping. We are doing a 75% entry fee payout, which means the more people that show up the larger the purse will be!!
We haven't had the flyer posted for long so pass this on to as many people as you can.
See ya this weekend!!

Sunburst Show down and Luna Chix

With the Anthem sitting in a box somewhere between San Jose and Madison, I pulled the flat pedals off the 9.8, swapped the super sexy gold fork for Cathy's SID and threw on some decent not completely worn out tires. We got to the course and everyone was saying it was really fast and really short laps. I guess they were right, at 17 minute laps 5 laps ticked off pretty quick and before I knew it we were done. This year has been really hit or miss so it was good to have a hit before the season is over. We are going to be out of town for the last two races so this is it for WORS this year.

At the Reforestation Ramble I asked Choloe if I could get the Luna Chix's autographs for Cathy because she is a HUGE Luna Chix fan. She was kinda enough to hook Cathy up with a signed water bottle. HUGE thanks to Georgia Gould, Shonny Vanlandingham, Chloe Forsman, and, Katerina Nash for a really cool gift!!

Thrusday night road trip

Last night we headed out to Kettle for the first Thursday of the month road trip. Yes WE - Cathy all 7 months pregnant headed out to get a little night riding in. We took off on the Blue loop at first she wasn't too comfortable as the baby was trying to figure out what was going on, pretty soon he settled into the riding position and things were a lot more comfortable for her. Cathy short cutted part of the blue loop up the red loop hill so she could catch the group, I took off and tried to make up ground from behind. The short cut was more than she thought and ended up never regrouping, she rode back to the parking lot just as it was getting dark and called it a night. I caught up with the group and eventually moved to the front to push the pace and try to catch Cathy not knowing that she was almost done already. In my over zealous attempt I hit a rock and flatted. The fix was quick but I still managed to loose about a pint of blood the the mosquito's. We got back to the parking lot checked in with Cathy and then headed out for a second loop backwards. As long as we could keep moving the weather was just beautiful, but if you even dabbed the mosquito's were out in full force.
Today my bike was supposed to get in via FedEx, I double checked the tracking number just to make sure and turns out it isn't going to be delivered until Monday!! Looks like I will be rocking the 9.8 turned commuter this weekend!!

24 Hour World Championships

This was the first year that the 24 hour world championships offered a team category. It was a little last minute that we decided to go and frantically tried to gather up some plane tickets to get us out there.
The story starts last Saturday when we went to ship our bikes. I went to FedEx and was going to ship them ground to the FedEx in Salinas problem was you can only ship express to a hold at location. I called the FedEx in Salinas and the manager was really cool, she said not to ship it as a hold at location, but to ship it to her and put a note, "hold for Neil Swanson" on them. We did that and they were off. I checked the tracking number a couple times during the week and everything was on track so I thought it might just work out.
Friday - My plane left Milwaukee at 6:30am we get up at 3 get a couple last things packed and on the road. For some reason I only thought it would take us a hour to get to the airport, then we ran into traffic about 4 miles from the turn off. By the time we got through that and Cathy dropped me off I was getting nervous. A sign at the check in counter said no checked bags within 30 minutes of departure, after waiting for what seemed like forever I got the desk, 27 minutes before the plane left. The lady said I was too late and she wasn't going to take my bags. I told her we ran into traffic, ect. but she wouldn't budge. Finally I just said, "look you are going to take my bags, so instead of telling me no you should call someone before it is too late". That seemed to work because she picked up the phone made some calls and then grabbed my bags. I got my ticket and thought I was doing good on time, after all I had 15 minutes left so I stopped by the men's room. While in there I heard a page last call for flight 1756 - AHHHHH I busted out of there so fast I about knocked the door off the stall. I was running down the corridor and was about 20 gates way when a second page for Neil Swanson was announced. I got to the gate scanned my ticket and they literally closed the doors behind me. Once in San Jose, Cory picked me up and we headed off to buy food while waiting for Phil to get in.
Back at the airport we didn't have room for Phil and his box in the car, they drew straws and the bike lost so we tied it to the roof.This was supposed to be only temporary and at low speeds...good thing we tied it on with heavy rope because we ended up at speeds we were not hoping to need!!
With all the gear, people, bike, and food loaded we headed down to Salinas to pick up Cory and My bikes. We got into the FedEx / Kinko's and told the guy that we had a couple boxes to be picked up. He looked around a while and couldn't find anything. After a couple calls and more looking he determined that the boxes were supposed to be delivered that day but didn't make it. Turns out the driver didn't understand the note "Hold for Neil Swanson" and just took them out at the loading station! By the time we figured this out Cory and Phil had gone in search of food. The guy called the loading station and sure enough they had the bikes but were going to close in 30 minutes...and we were over 30 miles away! I got directions and found Cory and Phil, we all piled in the car and busted the biggest move up to Watsonville that has ever happened. Without going into details, we made it about 4 minutes before they were going to close. We got our bikes and put them together right there in the parking lot. We brought a bike rack because the original plan was to leave the boxes at the FedEx / Kinko's and then when we came back disassemble the rack with the bikes and ship it all home. With the boxes in a different city we now had to take them everywhere with us so the rack and bikes went on the back and the boxes on the roof.
NOW we could start heading to the race track. We drove down to Laguna Seca, got signed in (again just before they were going to close for the night) and set up camp. Our camp site was sub-par to what everyone else had..actually a few of the 3 man teams didn't even set up a pop up tent because they came rolling in with huge RV's and campers with A/C, running water, beds, and the whole works - not the case here.
Finally the day was over and we could sleep before a big race the next day...or so we though. It was really hot so we all piled into my tent and left the front door open to let some air through. About part way though the night Phil woke up and said "Neil a fox was just chewing on my hair and is now eating your sandals". I woke up and sure enough a small fox that we had seen digging through garbage earlier that night was chewing on my sandal. I yelled at the fox and he let go of my sandal and ran away. I put the sandals closer to the tent and went back to sleep, not long later Phil jabbed me and whispered, "it's back quick look at it chewing on my hair" I looked up and sure enough the fox was licking and chewing on Phil's hair as I grabbed my cycling shoe it backed up a couple feet, I through and just missed it. I then seen my other sandal was chewed up so I grabbed another shoe and busted out down pit row chasing the fox I took aim and got a square hit on my second throw, he let go of my sandal and ran off. I put the shoes and what was left of the sandal in the tent, we zipped it all the way up and tried to go back to sleep.
Saturday - We got up and got set for racing, it was already getting really hot and we knew that we were going to be in for a long HOT day so the water and Gatorade started to flow early. Cory and I got on our bikes to wake the legs up and make sure that our hastily assembly didn't leave anything loose or out of adjustment. Cory was complaining about his fork leaking some oil so we stopped and it was almost a steady stream of oil coming out the bottom. GREAT!! We headed back to camp and fortunately had set up right next to the Kenda / X-Fusion camp. The guy there was really cool and totally hooked Cory up with a new Velvet fork last minute. We got it set and assembled just in time to line the bikes up and get ready for call ups. Cory had a good run but quickly learned that running before biking HURTS! Even so he pounded out a really good lap and set a good tempo for the race. From there it was race, eat, drink, rest, drink, eat, check bike, warm up, race. The course was super hard, something like 1700 ft. of climbing ever 14 mile lap. Insanely fast downhills followed by huge wheel eating washouts, and braking bumps that would have hurt on nothing less than 6" of travel. By the end of the day we had a 1 lap gap over 4th place so didn't have to worry about losing the podium, so we turned all focus on attacking the 2nd place team over night. We had been keeping them within 3-5 minutes all day. It didn't seem to fail, if we had a mechanical and loss 20 minutes they would have the same thing one or two riders later, bringing the gap back down. When night came we had to be very careful on the downhills as 48mph was way over running the headlights!! We were able to keep the lap times right on par and every rotation through we were getting closer to them. By day break they were getting nervous and I overhead them talking strategy about pulling there girl out of rotation, she was about 7-8 minutes slower and each time she went we would make up any time lost from one of there fast runs. At the same time Cory had a really tough lap and we lost another 20 minutes on them, which made for a 30 minute gap. I took one more run but then when they pulled their girl out their lead grew to 40 minutes. We were all totally smoked from throwing everything we had at them all night, the temps were into the triple digits again so we sat up. We started packing camp, and waited until 10:15am before Phil took the last lap to get us in during the correct finishing time slot. The guys from Don's Cycles went into there two man rotation to try and gain the lap back from the Kenda / X-Fusion team but with no luck. The awards were really cool, giant card board checks, flowers, and Champagne!!
As we were packing up camp I noticed a small plume of smoke coming from just over the hill,
I didn't think much of it but everyone else was getting pretty nervous. Not being from the area I didn't realize how quickly a grass fire spread, with in minutes the entire valley next to us was up in flames, planes and helicopters were on site instantly dropping water all over trying to keep it contained. It was out in about 30 minutes, I was amazed with how much burnt that quickly!
We were all really hurting while trying to tear down camp, everyone was experiencing sleep deprivation as well as all forms of dehydration. We had to get out right after awards to make it back to the FedEx / Kinko's and mail out the bikes again. We didn't pack anything just shoved it all into the car and tied the bikes back on the roof.
The rest of the trip home was fortunately uneventful. The trip itself was a lot of fun, we all through down great laps and left everything we had out on the course. It would have been cool to come home with a new jersey but getting on the podium was a treat in itself.
Thanks to everyone that helped make this possible: Micheal's Cycles, Broadcast Interactive Media, Saris Cycling Group, and Vesrah Brakes.

Up North

Last week we headed up to Cathy's parent's cabin on Bowstring lake for a much needed vacation away from our busy summer. We left right after work on Friday in the sweltering humid heat of 88 degrees. By the time we had got to the cabin (at 3am) the temp had dropped as low as 41 degrees!!
The next morning we got up and did a little fishing, the weather had been kinda weird so the fish weren't too excited about getting pulled out of the water. Later that night we sat out on the dock and watched the sun set...something I haven't spent nearly enough time doing!

Sunday proved to be a better fishing day. Cathy went out and within an hour pulled in a really nice crappie. I didn't get anything in the morning but we found a nice bay and caught a couple keepers to make for a nice dinner that evening.
On Monday it was raining off and on so we decided to take a road trip to Itasca State Park home of the Mississippi head waters. I have not seen the river at it's end in New Orleans but it was pretty cool to see such a HUGE river start from just a little overflow from a small lake.
Tuesday I did some more fishing, and Cathy just lounged around. I didn't catch anything to speak of but it was just nice sitting out on the boat listening to the ducks and loons play in the water.
On the way home Wednesday we stopped at Canal Park in Duluth. We had perfect timing as ship was just coming in so we got to see the bridge lift up and the ship pull into the harbor. I can't imagine driving one of those things, I was having tough time getting my little boat at the cabin in next to the dock much less a 680' ship into a harbor!
It was a great vacation, we successfully did a little as possible, took as many naps as we could fit in each day, and all in all just lounged and relaxed.

Getting away

This summer has been so crazy!! Things are just piling up at work like I have never seen and has made for some long hours and short weekends. Tonight we are heading up north to Cathy's parent's cabin for a long 5 day weekend. The only thing we are taking is a couple changes of cloths and our fishing poles. I am really excited to do nothing for 5 whole days!!
We will get some good pictures and have them up here when we get back.

Getting Settled

I think we are finally getting everything set and put away from our move. The bedroom is painted and recarpeted, the living room is painted, we just picked out a new couch and love seat set for upstairs, and Mercedes has enjoyed exploring her new back yard.
We were back in Janesville a week or so ago for the Thursday night mtb ride and stopped by our old neighbors house to say hi. After talking for a while they gave us a toy that Mercedes loved when ever she would go over there - Fred the duck.
Everyone is getting pretty pumped about 24-9 this weekend. We aren't going up this year but are trying to get out to California for 24 hour World Championships. A lot of things have to come together before that can happen and with not too much time left it is going to be tight. Good luck everyone this weekend, hopefully you will have better luck than last year!!

I hate Blue Mounds!!

Saturday I was planning on getting a nice long hard day in. Originally I planned on going out to the Kettles around noon but our trip to the farmer's market took longer than planned. As we pulled off the bike trail to down town we were stopped by droves of people and these crazy guys running with a canoe down the street!! I had no idea what was going on and was wondering if some got busted for fishing without a permit and was on the run do I tackle them and be a hero or stand and cheer like everyone else? We chose the latter...fortunately...because after asking around turns out they were the leaders of the Paddle and Portage race - not some canoe wielding fugitives!
We made our way up the square to watch the other 300 contestants making there way from Mendota lake to Monona lake via the Isthmus and downtown. From there we walked around in the crowds for a while before heading home.
It was getting late to drive out to Kettle and ride so I just headed out on the Military Ridge trail to Blue Mounds for a lap and then back. I have only rode out there twice in the past 3 years. 3 years ago I did a 12 hour race and got 6 flat tires before taking the win. I vowed never to ride there again. Last year Cathy and I rode there and miraculously didn't have any problems. As I got into the park on Saturday I was having seconds thoughts but told my self to just go slow and get through one lap. The rocks were sharper than I remember and I missed most of them but some were just unavoidable. I finished up and had a bad feeling about one of the hits. I knew my air was limited and not having a tube I gassed it home. Mt.Horrib was as far as I made it before I was on the rim and on the phone calling Cathy for a ride home. Once I got home I was surprised to have made it as far as I did, the rock had cut the side of the tire from the rim to the tread. Stan's did everything he could but it just wasn't enough.
I have renewed my vow NEVER TO RIDE AT BLUE MOUNDS AGAIN!!!

Reforestration Ramble

I have heard that every racer has good and bad years. I have experienced a few good years and some learning years but have never really had a bad year...until now. Having not finished the past two races my goal had changed from finishing in the top 10 or top 20 but just to get through the race. With the marathon being 46 miles I knew that was going to be a tough enough goal. We started out at a really comfortable pace with the entire pack together. The leaders drilled it a couple times but that only strung things out but we all stayed together. The first single track was about 5 miles in and that was what ended up breaking it up. Jumping back onto the ski trail the leaders had a gap and I was with 2 other guys in a chase group with a larger pack behind us. I was pushing hard to get back on with the lead group but didn't want to over do it and blow up. Coming through the lap area I was looking for Cloe for my water bottle but there was a ton of people around and missed her. I panicked for a second thinking how am I going to get through another lap without any water!? The lead group was just up the road and I knew if I could get up to them life would be alot easier. I kept the pace at Steady State, something I knew wouldn't blow me up and finally we closed the gap. I was able to bum some water off Nate Guerra which was a life saver. I was dangling off the back trying to conserve as much energy and water as possible. Finally the lead group got away and I settled in with the second group. Cory was riding really good so I let him by and he was gone. Finishing that lap was really tough, I was totally dried out. I found my water bottles through the lap and grabbed two hoping to pull things together. I soft pedaled for a while and polished off one of my bottles almost instantly. Things weren't coming around like I was hoping so I took the 3rd lap really slow and hoped I could gain some ground on the last lap. Coming through the lap I stopped for a second and grabbed 2 bottles, a banana, a granola bar, and some fig newtons. I was starting to get frustrated because things were just not coming together. I tried to jump on with Comp riders as they were coming around me but there was no response in my legs. Finally about half way through the last lap some riders came up to me and said they were in my class I got really mad and just punched it this time the legs gave me a little feed back and I was able to get away from them through the finish.
Cathy didn't come up because of the no dog ruling. Sunday she headed down to Janesville and did a ride with Christina. Things were going really good until her valve stem broke off, resulting in a flat tire. Christina rode back to her place got an extra tube and then drove back to the park. Between the two of them they got the tire fixed and finished up riding the trails. Cathy has been back on the mt.bike a couple times and really has a lot more energy. We have some really easy trails around so that is good for her to get out without having to worry about crashing.
No races for a couple weeks so it will be nice to get refocused...again...and get the rest of the season planned out.

IT'S going to be A BOY!!!!

Cathy had her Ultra sound today and we got to see our little baby. It was super cool how they could do cross section views to see the heart pumping, all the blood veins, the spine, ribs, hands, toes and everything super clear. Cathy is right on track for a November 13 due date so that is really exciting.

This is a really cool 3D thing that they do. They take a few pictures at different angles and then put them together to get a 3D image. Some of the areas didn't register in all the pictures so that is why he kinda has a funny head. (I am sure it's not just my genetics)

A really nice side picture

Last but not least the feet that are going to keep Cathy up kicking all night. This is going to be the only time he can kick his mother and get away with it.

Crashed and Burnt

After a really slow start to the season I was hoping Eau Claire would be the turning point. This is a really good course and always draws some really strong riders. Cory and I pre-rode on Saturday and the course was awesome, I kept joking that I should just ride 6 laps Saturday and scrap the race...hindsight that would have been a good idea! Sunday we got to the race, it was really nice and everyone was saying the course was in great shape. I had a better start than I was expecting and was quickly sitting in the top 10 on the lead out. It was really dusty, but not THAT bad and then all of the sudden some guy come blasting up next to me and drills my handle bars. Everything happened in slow motion which was really sweet! As my bars spun around my tire blew off the rim and the rim dug into the gravel. I went over the bars and landed on my head HARD! I tumbled a couple times while thinking 'nobody is going to see me in all this dust and there are about 50 guys coming really fast'. About midway through that thought I took the first hit to the ribs. By the time the dust settled and everyone was gone Sam Oftedahl and myself were down and out pretty hard. I pulled myself and bike off the trail knowing the women weren't far behind us. On the way back to the car I assest the damage; seriously broken helmet (2 large dents and cracked in 6 places), gash on four head, bloody nose, gravel rash on both elbows, both shoulders, and entire right calf, and a pretty sizable gash on my left knee. The bike didn't fair to well either with 2 broken spokes, bent wheel, bent brake rotor, grips are ripped off, and the seat took a pretty hard beating.
After checking in with Cathy I headed to first aid and they got me all fixed up. I spent the rest of the day cleaning dirt and gravel out of my wounds while Cathy handed bottles and proceeded to get burnt. Needless to say neither of us slept at all last night!
I will get some pictures of the carnage up here soon.

12 hours of John Muir

Last week I got an e-mail from Mark over at Vesrah asking if I could fill in for him this weekend at the 12 hours of Kettle. I had a pretty hard day scheduled anyway for Saturday so I figured why not.
Saturday morning I got to the parking lot at 7am. I didn't know the guys I was going to be riding with and one guy flagged me down to go park with them. Turns out they weren't my team but the guys we were going to be racing against. I walked around for a while looking for my team but with no luck. I checked with registration and they hadn't even signed in yet. Finally at 7:45, 15 minutes before the start I decided that I would just register for the 12 hour solo and ride as long as I could. As I was going up to registration I seen their tent. That was a close one...I really didn't want to ride for 12 hours!! Mark was the first guy to go off and got us a really good start. With only 2 duo teams in front of us he gave me clear sailing for my lap. I got around the 2 guys in about 2-3 miles and then put it in TT mode racing the clock. There was a ton of new single track and it was a little wet, I didn't want to start the day off crashing my brains out, so I pushed hard on the flats and took it pretty easy in the tight stuff.
The rest of the day was like any other team endurance race, warm up - ride - cool down - eat - repeat. At 3pm Mark had to leave so he jumped one position in the order and threw down a smoke'n lap joining me in the 40 minute club. With him gone our rides got a little closer, I think that worked good because I wouldn't get as relaxed and wound down between rides. As the day progressed the trails got faster and faster I was throwing the bike into corners just taunting the tires to break loose but they refused, I should have been running this all season they are definitely staying on for the rest!
By the end of the day we had knocked off 14 laps and the win!! We finished about 15 minutes up on second place, who had been consitantly on our heals the entire day. I had achieved my goal to set the fastest lap of the day at 46:34 minutes, although I wish they would have let the 6 hour guys do the same course as us. There were some really fast guys that showed up and it would have been fun to see what they could have turned. My legs finally felt like they had come around, when I wanted power they were there. Hopefully we can carry that over into this weekend.
I will try to get some pictures up here as soon as I can.

SOLD!!!

Finally, after a year of being on the market and about 1040 gallons of gas burned in commuting we are finally moving to Madison!

We had an offer on our house a few weeks ago but it was contigent that they sold theirs first. They had just put it on the market so I wasn't too optumistic about it selling fast. In the mean time we heard that Jerry and Jessica Long were moving to Idaho. Cathy stopped by there place last friday and just fell in love. When she picked me up she was telling me all about it, right then as luck would have it we got a call from our buyers saying they had just sold their house and set a closing date for ours. We turned around and headed back to the Long's so I could look at the place. It was really nice, just how Cathy described it. We thought about it over the weekend and on Tuesday sat down with their realtor and wrote up the offer. They are moving monday and I think we are going to start moving some small things up as soon as Wednesday. This is a huge answer of prayer, going from not looking to moving in only 10 days!!

Gun Show

That is what our Saris vs. Pacific Cycle group ride has been dubbed. The past two times I have shown up on the MTB bike. Today was pretty rough, with 20-35mph winds heading south was pretty painful - for everyone else, I had plenty of gears left going slow! Once we got out to Paoli and started to make our way home is when I started to suffer. A now HUGE tail wind pushed the pace over the 30mph mark so I single speeded it home in my 42-11. I felt a lot better, probably because it was a smaller group and wasn't quite as crazy fast.
We were planning on heading out to the kettles tonight but sounds like the weather is going to keep us in Janesville. I will get enough of the kettles this weekend during the race.

Big Ring Classic = MORE MUD!!

I really hope we are getting our muddy races done early this year. We left Madison right after work and headed up to Wausau. My parents were coming over so we wanted to get our riding done early and then hang out with them Saturday afternoon. We drove through rain most of the trip up and just hardly got ahead of the storm when we rolled into the Nine Mile Park. We set up the tent and no sooner had we finished then the rain caught back up with us. Rain all night, off and on all the next morning. I help set up the start and finish area and then about 2pm the sun came out. We quickly got changed and headed out for a ride. I happy that even after a full day of rain how well the course felt. That night we filled a hotel room with my parents, us, the dog, and Cory.
The next morning I got up early and went for a short ride to wake the legs up before breakfast and then off to the course for an early 10:15am start. I got called up and squeezed into the last front row position. The start was pretty melo we picked up the pace at the gravel road, I shuffled back to about 10th position and sat in the draft. All of the sudden I see Marko get loose and go down. He took someone with him and with nowhere to go I preload and give him the best bunny hop I had. I think I cleared him for the most part but landed on his bike, I looked back and he was getting back on so no harm done. Instantly I was another 20 spots back. I moved up a little but mostly just wanted to get my legs warmed up. The rest of the first lap was passing people getting into position. I hooked up with a group of 3 other guys, I was hanging on for everything I had. At some point Tim dropped off and then I got stuck in some traffic and they put a gap on me. I was keeping them in sight for most of the lap and then about 1 mile from the end of the 3rd lap I BONKED. I new I was sitting in a decent spot so I sat up and spun it in easy to Cathy. She got me a breakfast bar, banana, I finished my clif blocks, and downed a half of bottle of gatorade. Cory rolled through and I tried to jump on his wheel but the legs just wouldn't move. I rode through the lap area and out for my last lap. About 5 minutes in I was only getting worse so I pulled the plug. First DNF in something like 2 years.
I was hoping for a better finish after my parents and Cathy had to stand out in the rain for 2 hours. I don't know how she did it but Cathy rocked the bottle handups as we came through at full on speed.
The season has had a rough start but it is still early, so hopefully we can start getting up to speed here over the next couple weeks.

Thursday night races

We tried something new last night to change up the Thursday night ride. Bracket Racing!! This is a very simple type of racing that puts everyone on equal playing ground. We all went out and scoped the course. Then everyone did a second lap while timing themselves. Once back we wrote down the times and then in two groups of 6 they went out staggered from slowest to fastest. The point is two fold, not go faster than the time you wrote down, but to be the first one over the line. The first group out all got a little excited and Shawn, who was the last one in, actually won because he was the only one that didn't go over his time. The next group was a little better with the last 2-3 people all safe on their time, Jeff was the first "safe" person over the line so he got the win. It was all a lot of fun and really teaches you to ride your own race.

Pain and Suffering - Part 3

OK maybe not so much pain and suffering any more. I went into the doctor yesterday to get my hand looked and have them put a cast on. The doctor was poking around at it, twisting, and pulling trying to determine the point of pain. I told him that it really didn't hurt and actually felt much better than earlier in the week. He looked at the X-rays and wanted to get some others at different angles. We took a look at the new ones and the area that he though was broke didn't look quite right. He said their is a line in the bone but it looked kinda old. I wasn't going to tell him that I broke it about 5 years ago while racing Sno-X for fear he would put me in a cast for the rest of my life. I was at the first race of the year and overshot a double jump, I landed and jammed my wrist good. It swelled up so fast I couldn't get my glove off. I finished the race, went back to the truck and nursed it a little. I knew it was broken but had already paid for the races that weekend so after downing about 1/2 bottle of aspirin went back racing. I continued to race on it for the next 4 weekends before I couldn't take the pain any more. At that point I went into the doctor, he put a cast on it and said it was going to be on the rest of the winter...I took it off two weeks later and never went back. So that was then and apparently the bone didn't heal quite right leaving a crack looking scare in the bone. The doctor said just take it easy for a couple days and if it gets worse come back in. That was a serious close call, which could have made for a short season!

Pain and Suffering - Part 2

Ok, so I admit I did crash yestarday...ok maybe a couple times, but nothing that I thought was too bad. When I got up this morning my right wrist was pretty sore, but then again the only thing that wasn't sore was my left ear, so I didn't think much about it. When I got to work and started to get busy I noticed that it was still hurting. It was one of those weird pains that if I twisted it just right it hurt. Over lunch I decided I should stop by the doctor and let him tell me I had just sprained it and to suck up the pain.
45 minutes later I walked out with a splint and an appointment for a cast!! Well this wasn't exactly how I was planning on starting the season out. I will know more when I get the cast on, but from the sounds of things best case is going to be wearing this thing till July.
I am working on some new trainers so I guess I will be doing most of the ride testing on those over the summer. Next time you complain about riding in the rain - JUST BE HAPPY YOU CAN!!

Pain and Suffering

WORS #2 at Treadfest was the race of races. I had put some pretty good time in at the course of the past month and was very confident going into the race. I knew where I was going to attack and where to recover...if it stayed dry. We were up in Minnesota on Saturday for Cathy's grandpa's 90th birthday. We got back on the road later than planned putting us back in Janesville around 11pm.

Sunday I got up early and went for a ride to spin the legs up for the day. It was pretty cold but looked like the impending rain might hold off. I debated about bringing some mud tires but left them at home. The 15th position call up got me a decent second row start and then we were off. With 3 climbs right off the start I didn't want to over do it out of the gate. I hung on to the top 20 until I could get good and warmed up, which happened about half way through the first lap. I started to attack every chance I had and was really feeling good. On the second lap the rain started. I started steering with my rear tire which was sometimes in front anyway and was still picking people off. I was really liking the slippery conditions because it allowed for more recovery in the single track. Nathan was pushing the pace and hooking up like a rock-star. I had to let him ride away and the bridge up on the flats. By the end of the second lap I was sitting 7th only 30 seconds down from Chris in 5th!

Laps 3-4-5 were not pretty. Some time in there the rain had stopped and the mud went from non-sticking-to-your-bike grease to peanut butter that stuck to everything. The Anthem's rear triangle isn't good for mud clearance to start with so it packed in harder than I have ever experienced. I did a lot of running the last 3 laps and was stopping any time I could find water or a big stick to dig out the mud. By lap 5 the rear tire was so locked up that I had to keep pedaling just to keep it turning - yeah that's right if I would glide it would lock up!
I ended up finishing but that is about it, I rolled through the finish and right to the car, we loaded up and just left - I had had enough. Hopefully we will have better luck or better weather up in Wausau.

Thursday Mt.bike ride

This is the first PowerTap file from a Thursday Mt.bike ride...yes my bike has disk brakes.


More to come as things develop. Before to long I might be able to hang up the road bike for good!!

Busy Weekend

I think we packed just about everything possible into this weekend. Saturday we got up early stopped by Mocha Moment and then were off to Madison for the Saris Spoke Out. We signed up for the 30 mile loop but really wanted to do the 15 around the lake and through town. As we got back into town instead of turning back to the park we jumped on the 15 mile route and toured the city. It was a perfect day to be riding and was a lot of fun seeing the city. After that we headed down to State Street and the farmers market. I couldn't believe how busy it was, it looked like a Badger vs. Ohio game weekend!
Once we finished up in Madison we headed home and just relaxed for a bit. A group ride was going out from the shop at 5:30 so I got back on the bike and met up with them. We headed out to Whitewater lake and I think we went over ever hill out there! With over 5 hours on the bike for the day I was pretty smoked and ate everything in site as soon as I got in the door back home.
Sunday; after church Cathy made a fabulous mother's day brunch. I headed out to Menards and got some more wood for planters. I think we are going to redo part of our driveway over Memorial day and plan on having some planters instead of grass along one side of it. I got about 1/2 done with those before having to load up and head out for some secret training...at Lake Geneva. Ray and his guys have put together a SWEET course!! Right off the start there is a ton of climbing, can you say 3 times up the ski hill in the first 10 minutes! There aren't too many recovery sections, if you are not climbing you are bombing down single track. This is going to be a race of trust - trust your tires. All the trails are laid out very well and if you are on your game and can keep your tires under you then speed shouldn't be an issue. As I was riding I couldn't help but think that 29" tires could have the advantage holding better traction and rolling through the sand. I ran two laps as hard as I could and turned a 22:03 & 21:38, I am not saying that is fast or slow it is just a number I guess we will find out this weekend what combination of time and set up it takes to win.

Champions!!!

I think I am absolutely last person to write about last weekend...so I won't. The race didn't go as planned, I brought everything but the legs so I just rode around and enjoyed the trails.
On a better note, Cathy had her last Volleyball game on Tuesday. They typically don't have a championship tournament but her team and another were so close they had to play each other one last time. The first game her team was doing really good, they were following the ball and getting in some good hits. Cathy was bumming because she didn't think she was getting up on the net as high as before. She had a couple good hits and was serving really good which help them take the first game easily. The second game wasn't so good. They dug themselves in a hole and even with a good rally at the end just couldn't make up the points. Finally the last game, the one for all the marbles! It was a pretty close game and then Cathy's team pulled ahead. They were playing rally scoring and at game point lost the serve. All they needed was for a side out and they would win. The other team served in 3-4 points before they could return one. They played a good couple volleys and then Cathy got set. It was a perfect set and she got every ounce of power on it, drilling it in the back corner for an ACE shot win!!!!!
This winter has been a lot of fun watching her play. Hopefully we can find another league in Madison once we get moved up there.

A new year...and new changes

It really just seems like last weekend we were out at Sheboygan finishing up the series. It is so weird how long the winter dragged on, countless hours on the trainer just itching to get back outside and now that we are back on the dirt it seems like that long winter was only a week long!
So this weekend we are heading up to Iola. It is going to be a lot of fun getting to see everyone again. I am sure everyone has been working on their A-game so it should be interesting who is going to be chasing who.
As many of you know Cathy is taking the role of water bottle girl this year. We just went in for her 3 month check up and got to hear the heartbeat!! That was one of the coolest things I think I have heard!! She has been staying really active and has been feeling pretty good. Word on the street is that the first 3 months are the worst(as far as the way you feel). We haven't found out the sex of the baby yet, that will happen in 2 more months. Although racing is out of the question this year she has still been getting out on the bike, and is hoping to be able to pre-ride all the courses.

Did the Rock

I can't remember the last time we actually had nice weather for this race. With rain earlier in the week the trails were in perfect condition! I thought this was supposed to be a pretty low key event until I lined up next to the likes of Brian Matter, both Lalonde's, Carlos, and Thomas Bender. The start was kinda crazy we were all just standing around our bikes talking then people started yelling GOOOOOOO! People started jumping on their bikes and others were just looking around. I had a good start and moved to the front, I wanted to be leading over the first logs to keep from getting tangled with anyone. After that Matter and the LaLondes came around and poured on the coals. Bender was on my wheel and I was pushing about as hard as I wanted to for a 38 mile race. About 8 miles into the 12 mile lap Bender started complaining about the hills. I turned up the heat on a few to see how he would respond and sure enough he started to fade. By the end of the first lap he was gone. Marko had flatted so I was stuck in 3rd place no-mans land. I put down my head and hammered knowing that there was a strong field chasing, and hoping my legs would hold out the distance.
Lap 3 I was starting to suffer but was still pushing a big gear and had the power I needed to get over the climbs. Mid lap Bender and Marko caught me, I jumped in the middle and tried to recover a bit. Bender put down the hammer on a long sticky climb, Marko responded but I couldn't hang. My legs were cramping and I knew I had to back off if I wanted to finish. I tried to keep them in site as long as I could to keep my pace from falling off too bad.
I managed to hold off a hard charging Jim Peterson to roll in 5th. The race really felt good and only went to prove that this is going to be a tough year, seems like everyone has been doing their homework this winter!

First race for 2007

This weekend was perfect weather for the Platteville TT. I rode these trails back when I was going to school there and was ready for the suffering they were going to dish out. We headed out for a pre-ride between the Sport and Expert race and the trails were better than I could have dreamed. They lined us up according to our registration numbers and I just happened to be following the Moore boys from Minnesota (they went 2 and 3 behind Jeff Hall last year). Then behind me Cory ready to throw down.
We took off and I was able to keep my 30 second man in site but was having a really tough time putting any time on Cory. I felt really good and the legs were responding when ever I asked. The only problem - which I quickly realized was that I was significantly short on water. By the end of the first lap I lost touch with my rabbit but had also lost track of Cory in my rear view. Just a little into the last lap I was cashed on the water, I was feeling ok so kept the pace as high as I could. Then with about 10 minutes left on the last long climb my legs had enough, they just shut down, sat next to the trail, and started talking about ice cream cones and pb&j sandwiches. I dropped it into my granny gear to try and spin some life back into them but they were done. I seen a group of riders coming, Cory, Carlos, and others. The last set of trees seemed to endless looking for the finish line. Finally I found it but only about 15 seconds before Cory. Because he came in a big pack they missed his number and logged him as DNF, which gave me a 5th place finish. Truth is I finished 6th and he came in either 4th or 5th - GOOD JOB!!
I ordered a CD with all the pictures and will get those up as soon as I get it.

Denied!!

I have been racing the Chequamegon Fat Tire 40 4 times now. Every year I have managed to hang in the top 50 which I thought gave me a reserved spot the next year. Not the case!! After getting my check back in the mail last night I checked the rules and found that only the top 20 get a saved spot for the next year. BUMMER I guess now I will have to try my hand at writing (did I say begging) to get in. I have until July to come up with something creative.

In other news...WHAT'S UP WITH THIS WEATHER!! I thought for sure I could pack the tights, legwarms, hat, gloves, and winter jacket away for the summer. Looks like it is supposed to stick around for a while. I guess that will just make the people who race down south easier to mark at Iola.

Just in time!!

The forcast for today was rain in the morning and wind this afternoon. I got up and it looked really nice so thought I would beat the wind and get my ride done early. I headed out only to find a 20mph head wind. I did a 1.5 hour loop and got back in town just in time to meet up with Cathy. We headed out again for a similar loop and got in town after just over 3 hours. It was starting to get dark but I wasn't too worried, we got the bikes put away and then Crack-Boom! Not even 2 minutes after we got home it was down pouring!

Open house again tomorrow so hopefully we will have nice weather and will have a line all the way down the side walk...or just one person with a ton of money burning a hole in their pocket.

Bonked!

Yesterday my body had enough and just shut down. Work has been going at break neck speeds the past couple weeks. We have been pushing to get two new racks released (Thelma and Bones RS), my project is ramping up and with the rack projects finishing I am getting up to speed on a new project. Tuesday I struggled to get any power out of my legs and it was a battle of will power to finish the ride. I was supposed to ride last night but when we got home at 6:30 I hit the couch and was out like a light. Cathy woke me up at 9 and said it was time for bed I dragged my self up stairs and was out again as soon as I hit the pillow. I woke up at 6 this morning with 11.5 hours of sleep and felt like a new person! When the body shuts down like that the best thing to do is just listen and let it rest for a day.

Brick Wall

That pretty much sums up Cathy's game last night. It was probably one of the best volleyball games I have seen. Her team was really working together and following the ball perfectly. I got there about midway through the first game but just in time to see her totally stuff the other teams big hitter - Ouch that's got to hurt the ego!! It didn't stop there, she had her hands on almost every hit, was digging balls off the floor and had killer hits. After getting stuffed the other teams hitter went up for a revenge block but the best he could do was get a hand on the ball and deflect it out of bounds. Her other hits were down the line, cross court, or just too hot to handle!
This coupled with the rest of the team working flawlessly resulted in 3 commanding wins for the night.

This is a very sick thing to say

I should be enjoying the incredible heat wave we are experiencing, BUT I am blaming it for keeping people away from our open house this weekend! It seems like we just can't win at this game of trying to sell our house. All last year we put in 3 hours per day of driving to and from work and we REALLY don't want to spend another summer just sitting in the car. Ok enough ranting about the house - It is still for sale and if you can send someone our way I will send you some tubes (they might have holes in them though from the dog chewing on them)
In other news: we have been spending some good time outside. We have been putting on some miles on the mt.bikes to get them all ready for the summer. Cathy really likes hers and says it fit just right. Mine is getting dialed in but I am struggling to get the rear suspension from bobbing. I hate to up the pressure anymore because I am already pushing 200psi. Any thoughts? I am not too worried, there is still another month or so before I really need to get everything working just right so until then I will just keep playing with it and see what works.

Group ride?

Tried to get a group together last night but apparently it was a little too cold or too short of notice for everyone else. I headed to the park in hopes that the ground would be frozen enough to get off road. I didn't make it too far down the trail before realizing that although my feet were frozen the ground wasn't. I got on the bike trail and just cruised around town for a while.
I am getting more comfortable on the bike so that is good, but my fork and shock are having a tough time staying up on pressure. I think I just need to break in the seals, so we'll see how it works after some more miles.

Home Make Over

Well this weekend was even more crazy than I thought it was going to be. Friday night we pulled up the carpet in our third room and started taking off the "D" trim boards. I got to looking at everything and thought, well we are this far and are already making a mess.....lets just do the trim boards also and get everything done!

That took through midnight Friday and we finished up Saturday morning.
Once the boards were all off we were ready to start on the floors. Cathy took charge of the floor sander and went crazy. We sealed off the upstairs to keep the dust from infiltrating the entire house and I didn't see here again until it was all done!

After getting the floors done, cleaned and letting the dust settle for a few hours we jumped right into staining the floors. We had to let the stain dry for 8 hours so we were really pushing to get this done still Saturday so we could finish off the rooms on Sunday.

Fortunately we had nice weather because I spent the entire weekend from sun up to sun down in the driveway sanding. We literally had saw dust drifts by the back door, and piles of saw dust everywhere.

Sunday my parents came down to help us with all the finishing coats. We stained the boards early Sunday morning. It took until 6pm for that to dry so we put our clear coat sealer on in the basement.

Last night I started nailing the trim boards back up. That is going a little slower than I planned/hoped. I got about half of them up last night and should be able to get the rest finished tonight. We have to let the floors dry for 3 days before we can put down permanent furniture, so we are sleeping in the living room and have all our cloths in the bathroom. Everything looks really good though and I can't wait to see what it looks like all finished up.