Too lazy to type(edit post ass eating)

Garrett Peltonen now works for the SPR's Chamber of Commerce. Actually he has a very funny blog & I highly recommend it.

I woke up this afternoon to a screaming Mia & a perturbed Amber. I guess the previous version of this entry wasn't up to eithers high standards. She seems to think she has edit rights, when will she learn? Anyway it was a half ass effort on my behalf. To make amends to my 3 readers I've gone back & spruced this post up a bit.

Bike practice has been going very good this week. I even met up with OG, Joey B(who is on something), Jason W(who is also on something), & a Very Fat ICC for an extended Wed night loop. Its amazing what not riding for 6 months will do for your ass. I bet he's all of 300lbs. Those poor Kysriums. If you haven't seen him lately its quite a sight! The something Joey & Jason is on is a run of form. They both are riding the wheels of their bikes right now. Put the hurt on me in a big way. I was so wiped I slept for 8+ hrs today. I know what your thinking what a waste to get 2 days sleep in one day. I needed the recovery though. Speaking of recovery, I got the best massage on Saturday. It pumped new life back into my legs. On Monday for the first time in awhile my legs felt good & have continued too.

Mia sporting her Adidas Hat

Mia sporting my State TT jersey, not long before she has her own.

Mia has decided sitting up is for her.
I still can't figure out why this pic would upset Amber. The pic after was her giving me the I love you middle finger.

Some people are just sore loosers

Garret Peltonen would seem to be upset by having to spend a brief amount of time in our humble little town. Guess he's pissed since he got beat @ USPROS by a kid from Springfield. Charles is really in charge isn't he.

The secret life of....

Mike Mertz? I was laying in bed this AM drinking my coffee with Amber & Mia, watching While You Were Out. When Low & behold I made a discovery of what Mertz really does with his time.

Bike rider by day, designer by night?

Give my wife your money

Speed weaponry

Yesterday Mr. Espenkotter came to town to get a new rack to haul his Cervelo steeds around. He inquired about riding so I said sure. After a few failed GPS attempts @ mi casa, he was pulling his bike out with the damn 404's on. I've mentioned before when he shows with them on be prepared to hurt. I should have bailed right then or took my heavy training wheels off & gone full race ready. I paid the price for being ignorant. Forty miles later my legs weren't thanking me for being a dumbass. Between the wind & Greg I managed to move up to the 11th level of tired. I thought I'd made some progress by breaking the 5 hour sleep barrier. At least now I have a good tired in my legs & not that weird funky blah feeling. I think I'm actually making some in roads into my current state of fatness. Hopefully after a few more good rides I'll be able to keep up with people once again.

10th level of tired

This week for some reason I've been sleeping like crap. It caught up to me last night bigtime. M legs felt like total poo. Had severe trouble hanging onto Joey B & Peter Gontchars wheels. Haven't hurt like that in awhile. Probably a good thing though lets me know I've been getting some TITS in. Actually 5 straight days so far. Not huge miles but miles non the less. Wanted to bail early last night & come home & sleep a few hours before work but I manned up & finished the practice. I'll let you know if it was a good thing or a bad thing later in the week. Hopefully today I can get some sleep.

Happy BDay & the one spd

Happy BDAY Mia! She is 3 months old today.

Several years back I ripped the derailleur hanger threads out of this MTB. I've held on to it for no apparent reason. Yesterday I had an idea of what to do with it. Turn it into a single speed. I dugout an old 8 spd cassette & took it to work last night to work on the major hurdle of having only one cog on a freehub body.
With a 2 mm allen wrench I pulled the 3 bolts holding the cassette together. This let me take it apart & get to the individual spacers & cogs.Then I chucked up some 3 inch aluminum round stock into the lathe. I first bored it to fit over a freehub body. I then roughed it out to the general outside diameter I wanted. Had to remove quite a bit of stock. Then I tapered it so I had more surface area @ the cog less on the outside. I cut that piece off & slide it on to the freehub body with the cog & measured to see how big to make my other spacer.
Then some quick assembly and presto chango I have a one speed freehub body. Cool what you can do with a couple hours & a little know how. I'm going to try & get it built up this week so I can take it out for a spin this weekend.

Not too shabby

Saturday I decided it was time to start getting some tits in. After a week off out the door I went. For the first time in a long time my legs didn't feel like total poo. I did a reverse loop of the SPR for a solid 3.5 hrs solo. Ran in to EPO waiting for his 6am crew which included the Hammer. No KC for them I guess. Talked to Gunga Sat evening he got 20th @ KC, the last $$$ spot. Nice job. Not to be out done Huff took 8th & won the sprint comp @ Tour of Elk Grove. He backed that up today taking 2nd. Haven't heard how Farasy & Cale did today.

Saturday night Amber's parent's watched Mia so we could go out on a date. We had a really good dinner @ the Rasta grill. Followed by a couple of delicious Bellhavens @ Patton Alley Pub. A pretty good end to a pretty good day.

Today I got out for another 3.5 hrs. Did my version of the Wednesday night with a double Jamesville. Legs were a little tired from yesterday but still not awful like they had been feeling. Hopefully this week I can get in some quality tits & get myself turned around. This afternoon took a great nap in prep of an awful night in hell. Hopefully not too bad so I can come home & get in some tits.

Another State Champ

Just got a call from my mom. My niece Ashton won best in show for her silkie chicken. That be best in show for the Missouri State Fair. That'd be another state champion for my family. Though she gets no cool jersey like her Uncle. Not to be left out my niece Nina got 2nd place. How about that 1-2 pretty damn good chicken raising. Ashton got offered $150 for her silkie. $10 for the eggs. Greg , you & Lauren should have bought some while they were still cheap.

HMMM

The secret link got found...finally. It took over 2 weeks but yesterday when I got up Amber announced she had found something weird with my blog. I of course played dumb to see if she knew of what she was talking about. Well she did. So now you have till this afternoon to find it & laugh or it will be gone forever.

For those not racing this weekend & want to get in some long SLOW miles. I'll be swinging past McBride about 7:30am SAT on a roundabout route that will have me traveling numerous miles before venturing back home. Perhaps even a big loop of the SPR. All welcome most not. Perhaps I'll then do it again on Sun. I might throw caution to the wind & ride 2 whole days in a row. Or an even crazier idea I might ride 5 separate disciplines on 5 consecutive days. Crazy I know but I have the bikes & by God I'll do it if the wild hair gets under my saddle. The 70 mile round trip on cross bike via the Frisco trail has been on my to do list for awhile. Plus what better excuse to finish building up my single spd mtb. Hell I might make a trip via bike to the lake soon, 6 hrs of climbing yummy! HMMM perhaps some motivation is creeping back into my legs.

Why does blogger's spell checker insist on telling you blog is spelled wrong?

My Weed Whacker

I had planned on blogging daily this week but several things have piled up this week & I'd lost enough sleep that yesterday I resorted to plan B & slept 12 hours so no mindless dribble yesterday. I hope everyone was able to entertain themselves with the comments in my absence. I've not ridden once this week & have no plans to do so in the immediate future its too hot & my legs are crap right now anyway. I hate my weed whacker. Not just the tool itself but also the act of using it. It never fails I spend more time fixing it that actually using it. I have stripped it completely down & rebuilt almost everything that can be rebuilt. I've spent enough on it that I could have bought a new weed whacker, but what fun would that be. The damn thing pisses me off so bad I'm not going to give it the satisfaction of beating me. I have some mechanical ability so I have been able to keep it out of the scrap heap for several years now. Eventually I will set it on fire & put it out with a hammer but not until I have shown it who is boss! Luckily Sears has an excellent part website with blowout diagrams to aid in my ongoing frustration. Come to think of it I hate my leaf blower for the same reason.

A new wish list

Besides wanting a new collarbone & younger legs some of you have probably figured out I want a set of 404's. I think the 404's have gone to the side since everyone has them now. I think I want the new PowerTap SL 2.4 when it comes out. $2000 cheaper than the SRM power cranks. I'm curious how accurate it will be though. Hopefully not subject to the interference that HR monitors are.

Not a great trip to the Dr.

In keeping with the theme for this week, kick Scott while he's down, I got some great news from the Ortho Dr. today. Almost ZERO healing has taken place in my shoulder. I thought for a second he was looking at last months xray. What I thought was my last appointment, now becomes the first in several to come. I have to go back for xrays again in a month. If similar lack of healing I get to start wearing a Bone Stimulator. Not what you're thinking perves. If that doesn't work, & I hope I don't even have to wear it, I get to start hearing about surgery. The hit list just keeps on rolling for me this week. If Lucky wasn't one of the coolest dogs on the planet I think I'd walk out in the back yard & kick him in the head for being a dog. But I'll channel my anger elsewhere I guess. Hey look there's the bottom of my bottle.

State Crit

It was hot. Lots of people started, lots of people quit because it was hot. Me I quit because I'm a puss & it was hot. This was only the 3x I've ever quit a bike race so I spent some time wallowing in self pity after. I did try & bridge up to the race winning break twice. But could only get within spitting distance both times while watching someone else get across. So I figured why suffer any more & just rolled off the course to the lovely AC of the car. I had to drink 128 oz of h2o & gatorade to take a piss, it was hot.

How people drop out of races all the time is beyond me. I felt kind of dirty after. That said I'm now officially down till cross season. This weekend proved I need lots of bike practice to get better. Here's some pics enjoy.

This is a cool ass pic.

Phil's better than me. He won the 40+ earlier. Managed to get to the break in the 3's, unlike me. Quit sweating then dropped out wisely.

Did I mention it was hot?

I spent most of my race drinking.

Even Curt is better than me, he lasted 10 more minutes longer in the crit than I did.

On the way home we stopped @ Taco Bell. My sauce packet said " I'm scared of bike tires". Who knew Taco Bell was like the Magic 8 Ball. I foresee several 6 hour, lots of 3-4 hour bike practices in my immediate future to make amends for being a quitter.

Picture Share

Since I've not posted a mass of Mia pics in awhile here goes. I did manage to throw in a couple of pics from the race. I carried my camera around all day & took like 4 pics.Mia now like to sit up most of the time.

Mia & her Mommy

Mia & her daddy

We like it when shes grinning instead of crying

Out like a light

Cool bath hat

Where'd you go?

Sweet hair

I think my mom should do something like this to her mini.
Espenkotter @ the crits

Its freaking hot

Small Time?

Queen City crits were yesterday. Small time & not worth the trip down seemed to be what the view of most of Missouri was saying. Funny how when we make the trip North we never utter such phrases. Oh well F it. We had a pretty good turn out regardless of the doubters. Thanks Inmon, JJ, Hopper, Norton, Stokes, Amber Greek, Cokehead, & all the others I'm forgetting that sat in the furnace all day to help.

The Cat 3 field was probably the smallest of the day with only 28 starting, 10 of who were racing for Tyson. We were graced by 3 of the biggest sandbaggers currently in cat 3's RH,JB, BD. Guess what happened? Tyson got J-Rod up the road then sat on any attempt to chase. With most of the St. Louis teams not present the race was over for all intensive purposes by 20 in. I was a little shocked to see TJ get dropped out of the break but like I said can't fight sandbagging @ its finest.

When Tyson is racing en mass you can always count on @ least one of them hitting the deck & them opening ginormous gaps for everyone but them to close. They are proof positive what happens to a club when it gets too big. They need to cat up 1/2 there 3's & split the other 1/2 in 1/2 again into separate teams. Everybody is getting sick of racing a team of 20 guys.

This was my first real race back from my little spill. Did ok, legs felt better than they had all week. I was pretty worried going into it. Glad the field was small & the tempo stayed pretty high since too much speeding up & slowing down probably would have popped me. I realized what had happened so I decided to give my legs a punishing & closed lots of gaps & did probably too much work on the front. Did try & go with 2 to go, a last ditch hail Mary that I knew was doomed but I knew I wasn't going to contest the sprint so had nothing to loose. Hopefully this week will be better training wise & I'll feel even better @ State. Though the forecast calls for Hot followed by continued hot with a chance for melting, so not good.

If I was thinking I would have done an onsite blog. I think most of the BOCOMO blogging community were present for the right turn festivities. It might have been amusing to get some comments from the field especially after Butthead missed his start.

Why I suck & other truths of life

State TT was a big fat flop o rama! I had a pretty good time going till 10k to go then took a big dump right there on the 30k mark. Went from 26mph+ to 23mph- literally as I crossed that mark. The mind was partially willing but the legs refused to cooperate getting on top of the gear. I guess my collarbone has been the nail in the coffin for this year. Granted 3 weeks on the bike isn't much. I did set a PR but not by much. I was hoping for a sub 55 minute time back in May. Was on 56 minute pace for a long time till I lost 2 minutes in 10k. Maybe I should go ahead & join the pro domino tour because I suck @ the bike game. Any one want to buy a low mileage TT bike? I can't make it go very fast maybe you can.

This is how impressed Amber was with my finishing time.

It is a cool venue with the Capital in the background.

The day on the whole was pretty fun Amber & Mia came along. My little sister showed up with my twin nieces Nina & Ashton. So I had a pretty good cheering section for the 10 seconds they got to see me @ the start & finish. Mia did get wore out after waiting for 3 hours for results to not be posted. So we load up the car & headed back to the SPR.

Espenkotter on the P3. So damn fast I couldn't time the shutter. I hope his wife did better than I did getting his pic.

No word on my actual placing. Word has it OG placed 5th breaking the hour in his first attempt @ the 40k. I guess the P3 helped. The Ken won another state title in the almost older than dirt but moves a little quicker category. On the watch comparison I just barely beat him. The Hammer took the bronze in the same cat. EPO got 2nd in the breaking the law 45+ division. You'd think a DR. would know better than to pass an ambulance on a bike. When results are posted I'll get them up. I am curious to see how bad I got my ass handed to me in the master's 35+.

Back to the drawing board.

Shot in the leg part one

Mia sporting her Tylenol mustache

Tuesday was a pretty rough day being new parents. Mia got the first of her vaccinations. Three shots in her legs, 2 in one side & one in the other. She was a trooper & didn't cry for long. Mia is in the 90+ percentile for her age group. She's like 98 percentile for her weight! She's not a fat kid just big. I have an Aunt who is 6'5" so Mia has something to shoot for. She measured in @ 23 & 3/4 inches. Just a 1/4 inch shorter than Jimmy. Speaking of, no word on how he did in Soulard this past Sunday.

Yesterday sealed the deal on me liking Jens Voight. I've always liked the way he raced, very aggressive, always attacking. In the Giro he gifted a stage after seating on all race. In the tour of Romandie he had the opposite done to him. He was sat on then got jumped on the line. So I couldn't blame him if he returned the favor, but no he's a class act. In the tour he had an impressive victory. Plus it seems he's always in a break taking hard pulls & generally working his ass off for his team. Yesterday he was in a long break were he did a ton of work to help out Frank Schlek. He crashed on a descent chased back on & immediately went to the front to help Dave Z pull. Then when he got dropped & caught by his team leader Carlos Sastre he handed over his bidon & started pulling. Hard enough to drop Denis Menchov. He then exploded & limped in his job done till the next stage. How can you not like this guy? Plus now with Salvodelli gone I need someone to cheer for.

What's been happening?

Let's see quite a bit since my last post. I celebrated Bastille Day as any good Scotsman would. Loads of beer. Amber & I went to Earnie Biggs that night to celebrate her cousins 21st bday. Earnie's is always fun. I started my "night" that AM after work though by having the 1's good, 2's better, 3's half way, 4's getting close, 5 & 6 because who wants to leave 2 in the fridge. That's right what a better way to finish off the week than by drinker a sixer, taking a few hour nap, then getting up & doing it again. Just like when I was in college.

Did get in some riding this weekend. Not the mileage of last weekend but its been too freaking hot to put in the big digits. I did manage to get in a quality ride on my TT bike on Sunday. Not sure what it means for next Sunday's pointy helmet day, will just have to wait & see. The rest of the week will be just that, rest & hydration with some practice on my TT bike for good measure. Word has it there will be a shiny new P3 somewhere behind me. Today was my last night of rehab for the shoulder. Still weak but a lot better than when I started. Tomorrow is a big day for Mia. She gets her first rounds of shots. Amber & are very worried for her. This will be our first traumatic experience as parents. Being my kid I should be prepared for lots more. My mom got to take me to the ER a lot when I was growing up.

Wednesday Night loop

I know when I've had my ass handed to me:

I am Doug Greek's Bitch.
I am Doug Greek's Bitch.
I am Doug Greek's Bitch.
I am Doug Greek's Bitch.
I am Doug Greek's Bitch.
I am Doug Greek's Bitch.
I am Doug Greek's Bitch.
I am Doug Greek's Bitch.
I am Doug Greek's Bitch.
I am Doug Greek's Bitch.

Just duckie

Being free to ride again I figured there was no better time to get in some race type efforts than the last duck race. OK turnout, though not as good as the last one. Everybody should give Coker a big hug for all his efforts. Pester him enough & he might have some more. Rxjimbo@hotmail.com

The race went about as I would have expected. I wasn't thrilled with my performance nor was I completely disappointed. I've got the base just need the speed back. It was too easy to go into the red instead of sitting @ my LT. Though I think this was helped by a huge week of training last week, not enough rest or sleep, & 20+ miles of pretty hard tempo riding over to the stadium. I've got another pretty hard week planned this week so no rest for the wicked. Hell I've spent the last month resting.

The highlight of my evening was being the eldest Hogan boy's( I get them confused so I'm not going to embarrass myself by naming the wrong one) water bottle cage. Bud told me to carry the bottle for him & what Bud says you do, ask Farasy. I made up for it by laying down my massive sprint on him though. Nothing makes you feel tough like beating a pre teen in a sprint. Man I'm a bad ass mofo.

Hogan posed a good question during the neutral rollout. Kind of a chicken & egg thing. Who's more pathetic people who write Blogs or those who read them? He says the readers. Personally I think its those who read them & bitch about them anonymously.

Had a nice ride back in with Cox, Mertz, Emory fresh back from knee surgery, & Farasy. After splitting off with Emory tried to show us why he needs training wheels doing a nice quasi crash right off the Greenways. During a conversation about my weight Farasy told me Zabrieski is a freak & I'm an amateur freak. I think that was a compliment but not too sure. After splitting of with those 2 & realizing what time it was had to go from cooldown mode to haul ass mode to cover the last 8 miles home. Nothing like going hard, completely cooling down, then doing an 8 mile time trial.

On the Home front Amber has gone to work for a salon in Ozark. As soon as I have all the contact info I'll post so you can book appointments & get me closer to my goal of being a pro domino player.

Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mia wants to tell her mommie how proud she is that Saturday she passed her Board Certifications for Massage. She smoked her exams getting the top rating in every category. I'm biased but she is very good. If your tired, sore, & need(no pun) those muscles worked over you now know who to call. The more work she gets the sooner she can massage full time & I can finally go on the professional domino tour.

Saturday

Got up way too early & headed out to meet up with the big calf crew for a "big loop" Wednesday night loop. Norton & Joey showed but just did the "little loop". The big calf boys, Peter & Greg, can put the hurt on the flats right now. I guess in the future when Espenkotter shows up with the Speed Weapons I should know the battle is on. I think we ended up with just over 19 avg for 55 very hilly miles. I ended up with 4 good hours, something in the 73 mile range.

Last night Amber, Mia, & I made the trip to Cabool to watch TD Nelson recapture his yute by playing in an alumni game. I have to say I was pretty impressed. He moves pretty good for a big boy & has an arm too. He threw one TD pass & by my count went 5 for 6 passing. Turns out I know one of his class mates who was also playing, Mike Short. Which is funny because I went to Mikes graduation so without knowing it I watched Shane graduate. Went to one of his Senior season games as well. Think when they played Mtn. Grove. It is a small world after all.

Happy BDay America

Sort of. Got in 4 hours yesterday! Felt ok not great. Did my version of the Wednesday night loop(My version has way more climbing). Peter, EPO, The Hammer,& OG all came out to enjoy a guarantee of no rain by Peter. Later when it felt like we we're being hit by a fire hose I was sure to remind every one "Don't worry its not going to rain Peter said so". OG had a great ride pulling most of the way & really turning the screws to all. The Hammer has found new climbing legs just in time for Geezer Nats. Me ok but had to follow wheels on the climbs quite a bit, no zip in my do da. Oh well moral & Motivation are on an upturn since they had no where else to go.

Thinking of switching to the Kilometers.

Back in the saddle again

Haven't blogged in awhile since I've been busy with Rehab, work, & say it ain't so RIDING. Rehab sucks lots & lots of pain. I have to keep the eye on the prize though since this course could save me almost a month in healing time on my shoulder. Finally got permission to get off the windtrainer & back out on the streets. Good thing to I had enough of the trainer & was prepared to take an extended time off. Last week I hit an all time low in motivation. The realization hit me that for the rest of the season I'll just be chasing scraps now that all my season goals went up in smoke with the snap of a bone(no pun intended). Damn dogs! It could be worse & I could be done for good so that was one saving grace.

Enough self loathing onto riding. Got out & did an hour on Sat to test my legs & make sure I still knew how to ride a bike. Sun went out for a solid 2.5 hrs in the heat. I have to say the live coverage of the Tour wasn't worth a near heat stroke. Damn its hot out there. Today I did the big loop of Springfield for a very descent 3.5 hrs. Notice a progression here? Legs are ok for the most part except for forgetting food today which dug me a pretty good hole @ the end of the ride.

I got my tshirt @ skinnywhitebikerdude.com get yours today.

Yesterday Amber & I took Mia to her Aunt Penny's pool for her first experience with swimming. For the most part she didn't want any thing to do with it. She did loosen up a little & started to enjoy it.
That evening Mia went to her Nana's while Amber & I made a trip to the Cardinals game. I'm really starting to get into going to the stadium. 4 hours before game time we bought our tickets & we got to sit behind home 4 rows up. As we were leaving ran into Farasy who was sitting a few rows behind us.

Tomorrow with a little luck I can get in 4+ without suffering a heat stroke or having my legs give out on me again.