Season 1st's with a Mongoose

This week held a lot of 1st's on my new Mongoose Meteore Team 29'er. This is the bike I have been riding this summer for the guys over at Mongoose. In short it is a SWEET bike! Mongoose did something different with their 29'er, not following the traditional geometry but instead compensated for the larger slower responding wheels by making much more aggressive geometry - can you say 74.5 degree head tube angle!
The bike handles amazing, it is quick, stable, light, and responsive. My size large aluminum frame is coming in spot on at 3lbs! I built it up with pretty standard parts, Stroker brakes, Sram drive parts, Manitou fork, Sunringle wheels, and Maxxis CrossMark tires. The one place I did take the liberty to try something different was the Shimano Ultegra triple road crank. I took the big ring off so I have a 39/30 double gearing. In order to compensate for a larger tire you need a small front gear. On paper this gearing is identical to my 42/26 double gearing I ran last year, and on the trail it feels spot on. If anyone from Shimano, SRAM, or FSA is reading this and wants to totally corner the 29'er market MAKE A 29'ER SPECIFIC CRANK and everyone will buy them. (at that point if you feel bad for totally using my idea I will have no problem accepting some of the royalties of your sales)
Anyway this is the bike.



So back to this past week: Wednesday I ponied up my $50 and went out to Black Hawk for the Chainsmokers TT's for my 1st race of the year. Because of the rain the course was shortened a bit but it was still good for 20-25 minutes. I caught my 15 second man about 1/2 way through the first lap and was then leading so had no one to chase. The course was clear so I was able to really lay down the power and carve my way through the single track. Did I mention that the Mongoose LOVES tight fast single track? The tires were hooking up perfect and I was able to roll in with the fastest time of the night - 1st place .
Today was the Horribly Hilly 100 this was the 1st time I have done this ride so I didn't really know what to expect. I through some CX tires on the Mongoose hit the trail at 5am to ride out to Blue Mounds for a 7am start. Our group took off late because all our number were locked in the van. Fortunately my vandal skills kicked in and I was able to take the radio antenna off the car and use it to pick the lock. We finally got going and started rolling through the hills, and then more, and then more - someone should have warned me that this was going to be hilly! I was hurting pretty bad by the end of it and had to walk the last hill a bit to work out a cramp. Once that was under control I got back on and finished on my bike. Fortunately I used one of our demo PowerTap wheels and could watch my power up the final few climbs, anything over 250 watts was cramps ville so I just kept the power stuck at 230watts used my gearing to get up the hills. After the ride I ate a bunch of food, by a bunch I mean everything I could get my hands on, changed my socks and then got back on the bike for the ride home. Fortunately I had a tail wind so that made the trip much more achievable. 115 miles for the day = 1st century of the year and 1st century EVER on a mt.bike.

Riding with a Champion

This weekend Cathy had the opportunity to ride and hang out with Alison Dunlap at the MadFORCS dirt retreat. She wasn't planning on going until last week Renee e-mailed and ask for help as an instructor. Cathy was a little nervous about instructing because she hasn't had much time on the bike this year...or last year for that matter!
Saturday we headed out to Black Hawk ski hill and dropped her and the bike off. It was nice but the forecast was very unstable. After some introductions everyone got on the bike and Cathy got pared up with Abby Strigel as the other instructor. As a group they would work on skills and then rotated around for time with Alison. They made it most of the day before things started to get ugly. First it started to rain and then the tornado sirens were blaring. A few of the women made a couple calls and decided they were out of harms way so continued to ride the now water soaked trails.
Sunday was scheduled to be a ride and questions day but with a driving rain the women that did show up (Cathy wasn't one of them) just stayed in doors and hung out. Later that night Michelle and Dave invited all the trail workers and instructors over to their house for a dinner with Alison. It was really fun getting catch up with everyone that we haven't seen all summer with our lack of racing and everyone had a good time talking and getting signatures from Alison.
The rain has temporally subsided for now but more in the forecast. Hopefully things will clear up soon so we can get back on the trails.

Back yard adventures

Since my brother and his wife stopped in a couple weeks ago our back yard has turned into a food producing machine...or should I say a bunny buffet. Our preanial herb garden has sprouted and we have discoverd all sorts of new herbs at our disposal and all our seeds are starting to sprout dispite the colder than normal temps.

Here are some fun pictures of the family in the back yard.

Keenan decided it was time to do some climbing


I wonder if hot dip galvanize is on the list of "things not to let your kid eat"?


The dog is in her own domain - we move to Madison and she turns all organic on us!!


Yeah I know they are small now but it's a start.

First time off road for 2008

This is Cathy blogging I am not the usual blogger on our site but thought I would give it go.
This summer I joined Madforcs in Madison as a way to meet other women mt. bikers. I have been out on a couple of their group rides. We headed down to Paoli on Tuesday and then Thursday we hit Quarry Ridge for the first ride off road in 2008 or since being a mom. I was surprised with how quickly everything came back, the climbs weren't too bad and the single track flowed really nice. I was on the fence about racing but after that ride I decided to give it a go. Neil tried to talk me into the 3 lap race but I settled on 2 laps (which if I did the 3 lap race I would probably still be out there...somewhere).
So that weekend we headed down to my first mt. bike race since having Keenan. It went ok, turns out having a baby reeks more havoc on my body than I anticipated. I wanted to quit after my first 10 mile lap, but I gutted out and finished. I wasn't the last person to cross the finish line but I was pretty close, oh well. I some how managed to get 2nd I think they felt sorry for me, but at least I got a pint glass.
Neil is still waiting for parts to get his bike put together so I am not sure if we are going to Iola or not. Hopefully the weather will dry up a bit so we can get back off road and start putting in some more miles.

Sneaky

Last night I was warming up from my ride and Keenan was hiding out behind the blanket - it takes better hinding than that to get away from the mom paparazi!!

When is snows it SNOWS!!

Wow, I haven't seen snow like this for a very long time! I was a little disappointed this morning when I got up and found only a couple inches after everyone was talking about this HUGE storm we were supposed to get. When I rode into work there was a signficant amount of snow but nothing more than all winter. Coming home was a different story. Work let out early so at 3:30 I decided to give it a go and make my way home. After crashing in the parking lot, on the rode, at the Whitney Way intersection, and in our driveway I finally got into the garage.

If I have learned anything about riding this winter it is that ski goggles are a must when it is snowing. Plus I think they look SWEET!! I got my miles and day in for the frozen fools...this really should count for double!

Mean while at home Cathy and Keenan weren't planning on going anywhere. Keenan is really close to sitting up on his own so they worked on that.

I think the next couple days are going to include a lot of snow removal. I noticed we have an extrodinarily large snow drift on our roof that could equal about about 3 sumo wrestlers once it starts to thaw - I need to get those guys off the roof!

Babies, Bikes, and Bowl games

Keenan is growing faster than a weed. We can't hardly take pictures fast enough to keep up with him. Last week was his 2 month check up. He was tipping the scales at 13lbs and 23" tall. He was also very excited about getting his first round of shots. He was a real champ...or I should say the doctor was quick enough she got all three shots in before he could muster up a good cry. He was pretty upset but got settled down once we were in the car.

Getting ready for a car ride with aunt Jenny's hat on.

He is just happy to be a baby!!

Today he just about rolled over. Just a little more and he will be on his own moving around.

Last night he slept the entire night! We put him down at 10pm and I was up before him at 6:45am. When we went to get him he was showing us how he could move around and was half turned around in his crib.

As for us, Cathy has joined a gym and has been able to get out a couple times a week to get back into shape. She is really looking forward to getting outside and back on her bike. I have been getting back into the swing of things and trying to get as much saddle time as time will allow. There are some interesting things shaping up for 2008, I should be able to give more details later in the month.