Tulsa Tough Update

Two races down one REALLY hard one left to go. Friday night got in the money(18th). Felt good the whole race & was able to pack surf at will. With 5 laps to go a huge pile up took down /stopped the back half of the field. It was surreal to have a bike bouncing 10 feet high across the start line. It actually hit me in the left forearm. Was able to push it away & luckily only unclipped for a few seconds. Didn't even have to sprint to stay in the main group. Positioned myself pretty well for myself & hadn't a descent turn of speed @ the end, just don't have that extra gear sprinters have.

Saturday was H!O!T!! First hot day of the year for me. Started the race with ice in all my pockets. Felt good all race & never really taxed(according to the Power File). Flatted my front tire with 15 laps to go(B Town Reject delivered me my new tires so not overly impressed with PRO Race 3 so far) It was a weird flat; dumped about 40PSI really fast then slowed down. Actually did a full lap on it before going to the back & pulling in for my free lap. Finished the race with pretty sweet 404. Thanks SRAM neutral support. Don't like the Brady district course, its too wide open for me. Was potioned pretty good @ the bell lap but the road is so wide got swarmed in the first turn & had to do a little fighting to get back where I wanted to be. The finish straight was all tail wind so I was screwed.

23rd & out of the money. 3rd time I've done Brady & 3rd time I've been out of the money. I'm 2 for 3 @ Blue Dome. 1 for 1 @ Riverside so hopefully the trend continues there today.

After Saturdays race, a shower, & dinner we watched the end of the PRO race. Huff took his 2nd win(Blue Dome Friday, Brady Saturday). They said he's the first PRO male to go back to back, doubt he'll go 3 for 3. Its a pretty nasty climb Sunday. Chatted it up a little after. Walking back to the car saw Floyd Landis. Shook his hand(nice guy). Mia didn't want anything to do with him. Don't feel bad Floyd she was impressed with Lars Boom either.

West Bound & Down

Taking off work early tomorrow since I have myself a series pass for all 3 days of Tulsa Tough. Hopefully this year will be less eventful/stressful than last & won't end in an ER visit. New tires hopefully will show on the door step before I leave (supposed to have been her two days ago!)

Little leery of 3 straight days of racing. Not been recovering as fast this year & so not sure how my legs will respond from 3 days of racing. Will be cool to look at the Power Files since this is the first race I'll have multiple years to look at. Also big fields & the first crits, for me, of the season(always scary). Plus Only have 2 days of Slimen Hot weather gear to race in might have to rent myself out for the third day.

Saw Floyd's name in the start list. As the B town Reject says "He is just another fodder in the pack these days". I don't care he still won the Tour & I'd rather see him race than the Lance(real pack fodder).

I'll try & update some more. Busy as hell these days. If nothing else I'll be sure to give my review of the Giro. Pate Rulz by the way! The Great White Hype is still a douche. Claims hill records but gets dropped like a freaking hot potatoe on a Cat 2 climb...douche.

"14:06 CEST
Not to be worn out chasing all day, Rabobank placed two men in the move - Mauricio Ardila and Maarten Tjallingii. Serramenti also had two - Scarponi, our stage 6 winner, and Francesco De Bonis.

A total of 20 riders made up the breakaway.

14:09 CEST
However, Danielson and Wiggins were dropped on the first classified climb of the day, the category 2 Monte delle Cesane, making it 18 men out front."

I don't care if Wiggins is a Brit he's now a douche too. He could loose that staus with the coolest shoes on the planet though.

Happy bday MIA

The Blue Trail can Kiss My Ass!

Syllamo's Revenge, I'll explain later. The short is 4 crashes(Ents), two flats(@ the same time), lost count of the number of Sticks I had to pull out of my wheels, & about 3-4 miles walked...Damn Blue Trail! 6 hours 42 minutes, longest saddle time ever.

Wet Sunday

Blew off riding Sunday for some core workout time @ Bear Creek in Omaha , AR. It was @ that weird in between level. Not blown out, but not primo. Did manage to find a few surf spots & even one hole to throw a loop. First loop I've been able to throw since my two year lay off from boating. It wasn't pretty but air time is air time when your upside down over the water. Saw the above big boy watching some of the surf action.

Me surfing

Curtis Claybaker

JayDog fresh off his bachlerette party. He was a little hung over even if he wouldn't admit it.

Roper Nick

Terry Price.

Brother Don Price.

Bike Tech Sunday

My bikes were in desperate need of some TLC. Sunday I spent the vast majority of the day overhauling & modifying.

Look closely. See the tricks?

Shrink tubing to hide the cables.
That's a die spring to give me a better feeling brake action on the TT bike. TT bikes are notorious for shitty brakes. Not with this little trick. Snaps right back & very linear.

New to me Dura Ace 7800 crank & external BB. No more Octa Link on this rig.

Back to my old sponsor Oury Grips. Not the lightest option but hard to find a cushier grip. No more bruised palm for me.

That's right. I built my road bike back up. I figured if TK the dirt road king did maybe I should as well & give my CX bike a well deserved rest.

I know white before Memorial Day, but need a little pizzaz. Thinking white saddle as well.

Garden part Deux

Saturday Mia helped me put in part two of our raised bed garden. She liked putting seeds down randomly so we even planted her a mystery garden on the side of the deck. I'm curious to see what sprouts since she took hand fulls of seeds & threw them @ the dirt as I tried to cover them.

Squash

Mystery Garden

Rip it & dump em.

2009 THE YEAR OF BEING SICK

This year I have been sick a total of 23 days. Damn near a full month. I'm pretty anti antibiotics since I'm allergic to Keflex , which always gets me a pissed off look from the Dr. since its so widely prescribed. It also stops me from taking anything in the penicillin family(something about shouldn't try it since it might kill me). Well enough is enough I'm going to pony up to the big pill popping counter & get me some drugs! Hopefully I can kick this shit & get back to normal. Two weeks is enough of not sleeping completely through the night.

Hogan's blog is too hard to post Comments too

Figures only Hogan would have a blog that you have to track down the secret key to the intraweb to post a comment to. Screw that I'm busy & I now have two WordPress.com accounts(two more than I need) thanks to him, so I'll comment here.

MacAskill is right! Great vid even though you stole it off Tilford's blog.

Looks like the mother land.

Saw Band of Horses open for Modest Mouse in KC. Good Band.

I guess I'd better update to keep this thing active

It's either feast or famine with this damn blog. Truth is the new job has me going from 4:30 till after 5. Makes for a long day. The proclaimed 4 day work weeks are actually 5 day weeks kinda like I knew it would be. Training took a hit this week since Mia got another ear infection which I picked up a cold from. Amber got it so bad today she went & got a shot. Me I just have a persistent dry cough. Not a lot of fun for sleeping or even riding. Needless to say I skipped racing this weekend. Hopefully I can get some consistency back & get some kilometers in before the Sylmo revenge or that is going to hurt worse than any amount of free beer can help. I look at it like this I need the training so why not get some free beer after?

Mia is with the in laws watching Disney on Ice & JQH Arena. Explain this one too me? We have an ice rink in the SPR but they have an ice show @ JQH? WTF is that about? Great use of the assets we have. Though it doesn't really surprise me all that mutch.

Watched Amstel Gold this AM. Kinda of a snooze fest. Except for Fränk Schleck and Matthew Lloyd eating pavement. Schleck was one of my picks for the win so kinda lost interest in the race after that. Cleaned house instead to help out the ailing wife. She's feeling really bad. Actually I'd better go stick a mirror under her nose she's been comatose on the couch awhile now.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

We're down @ then lake for Easter so I watched Roubaix on multiple Euro feeds this AM. I started in French & ended up in Spanish. Never fails if you watch a race on the Euro feeds the closer it gets to the end of the race more people log on & crash the server. Then you have to scramble to find another server. But it beats paying. Boonen got lucky avoiding the crashes at the end. It takes luck & power to win on the cobbles, that's why he has 3 cobbles on his mantle. I really wanted Hincapie to win but he just doesn't have the luck. I'm wondering if that was the last time we'll see him on the Pave'?

Yesterday part one of the garden went in. 4'x8' of raised garden bed. That's a lot of dirt, peat, & manure to haul in the back of the Volvo. This week part two will get built(hopefully). Yard work had top priority so no saddle time. But the yard looks good all weeded & new plants in the back yard. Now if we can keep the hounds outs. A few new runs of electric fence should work.

Mia is wired on candy this am. I'm expecting a big sugar crash at any second.

Good Friday Update

Its been awhile since I've posted so I figure I'd better update. Last week took a rest week after two straight weekends of MTB racing. My body took a beating as well as my Kona. Getting old is not conducive to MTB racing.

I also started my new job last week. Well Kinda of. Part of my severance stipulation was I had to work three days @ the old place & two @ the new. This week it was the reverse; two @ the new & two @ the old. I got a free pass thanks to the holiday so all ties are now done with the old defunct company(I hope). I'll be making less money but the commute is a little shorter & the place is climate controlled & fairly clean. A real selling point bonus for a guy in maintenance. It's nice not to have to dress in all my Carhartt's to stay warm & it will be even nicer not to sweat my ass off all summer.

I got the first mow of the season in last Monday. It has begun my seasonal fight with the weed whacker. Technically I didn't weed whack last week but if history shows anything I'll have to fight the weed whacker all season. To make things even more interesting I'm going to put out a garden this year too. Hopefully the last freeze is done & I'll get it going this Saturday. Just what I need more yard work. Yeah! Actually I'm pretty excited about fresh home grown veggies.

Training: A recovery week means FTP test this week. Got that out of the way on Tuesday. One whole watt increase. I know massive but a watt is a watt. Wanted to get in a nice ride today but the weather isn't going to cooperate so it looks like more trainer time. No racing this week. Next week hopefully will be another MTB race in Neosho @ the Tour de Tick. Then another week or two off & off to the Syllamo Revenge. A 50 mile MTB race isn't too bright but I got given a free entry so its hard to turn down. Plus I already got my first stupid move of the year out by racing in the mud & snow two weeks ago so its open season on stupid Scott tricks.

Tech WTF?

Gotta love Euros.

MTB Race#2 quick update

Quick update more later:

Freezing cold(did warm up some after I became mildly hypothermic), 4" of snow # the start, mud, about 30 freezing creek crossings(most DEEP). After about 6 miles I had two gears, big ring & middle ring(you have to love that 90's era XT stuff). 4 Guys in my division. I finished the first lap fast enough to make a 2nd but said screw it & took 3rd instead of 2nd(cost me a series point & some cash). SOmehow bruised the hell out of my right palm. I am now 2nd overall in the series(not for long since most of the remaining races are in the STL) Now I have to get a new drive train & brakes but the air stayed in my tires & my bike mostly worked. Continental Speed King work great in the mud FYI.

Great Genetics

It pays to have great genetics. I'm thinking about suing my parents for giving me non world championship genes. I know there is a lawyer out there who'd take the case.

Lost Valley MTB

Can you revirginize? Well 13 years is a pretty good try at it. Sunday I popped my recherry & toed the MTB line. Let me go on record as saying I know for a fact MTB racing didn't use to be this damn fast. But I digress, let me back track a bit.

First & fore most I grabbed a ride with JJ & Ira(sandbaggers the pair; 2nd & first in their sandbagging cats) to the STL. Got to whip out by brand new Cat 1 license; not really it turns out you don't need a license to race the Midwest Fat Tire Series(Oh well I can at least say I'm a Cat 1 for all the load of crap that is).

If you can have zero expectation for a race I was at -5. I just wanted to get on some dirt @ speed & see how I did. I lined up with the old fart Experts. And we're off! Oh shit flat Katie trail start means drag race pace line to the ripping fast 58KPH descent to the finish area climb. I slotted in & started climbing. Felt pretty good but realized my HR was WAY too high for March(read Max HR). After some double track pace line action we hit the first single track(new section read rough). I had forgotten how fun it is to ride single track blind @ race speed. Four guys got away & I hooked into the 2nd group which had four of us taking pulls like a freaking road race. I felt pretty good for the first two laps even though my HR was way too high for March.

In the back of my mind I had a plan of going semi hard for an hour or so then limping in. Well I pinned it for two laps(screw the plan) & fell to shit. Going up the climb at the start of the third lap I had to let the other 3 go. I did manage to get back on on the double track up top. I went onto the single track after recovering only to watch the other 3 ride away for good. They were on fully suspended bikes which let them ride across the rough new section while I got beat to hell on my hard tail. Oh my aching old back. I put it in survival mode & rolled in about 2.5 minutes down for 7th(or 6th depending on which results you look at). I'll take that after only riding my MTB 4x this year & not having raced MTB in longer than some of the guys on the start line had been alive.

Good news was all the air stayed in my tires for the first time this year. Tribute to Continental tubes & tires. Damn good German rubber. My bike also stayed in one piece for a change. No small victories in themselves. Now my dilemma is Dogwood or Rim Wrecker? I'm leaning Rim Wrecker I think the MTB bug has bitten. Road racing is soooo boring, plus I'd have to build my road bike back up or be snubbed for racing road on a cx bike.

This will really piss you off

As most of you know Roger Hinson got hit by a truck while riding in North Carolina recently. I got this link sent to me today. Absurd is all I can say. Long live the Good ol Boy network it'll be the death of this country yet.

I love the end where the Sheriff says:

"In Hinson’s case, Dendy said there are “two ways to look at what caused him to hit the ground so hard” — be it the truck’s collision with the bike, or the rate of speed at which the bike was traveling.

“He was injured because he fell to the ground,” said Dendy. “The car didn’t run over him ... I feel like he was very lucky to walk away from that. But just because he was on a bike doesn’t mean I should treat him any differently. Isn’t that singling out a particular group, bikers? The guy feels terrible about what happened and has been very concerned about Mr. Hinson. What would it have done for his accident for this guy to get a ticket?”

The Low down on the Job Front

That's that folks another casualty of the recession mess. My place of employment is suspending operations permanently on March 27. The bankruptcy papers are filed, the plant dis-assembly has started. Fortunately I have another job @ a division of the parent company. I'll have to tighten the belt since I'm taken a pretty good step down in pay, but what the hell a job is a job in this market(rent a racer program). Hopefully on to better things. To make up for the pay cut they are going to send me to all kinds of schooling. Who knows maybe I'll get my official engineering pocket protector instead of the home made one I use now(yes I wear a pocket protector). I'm taking a week off then starting my new J.O.B. as a flunky. No decision making for this kid, that'll be a nice change of pace.

First MTB race in 13 years Sunday!

TT Tech

Photo ©: James Huang/Cyclingnews.com

Photo ©: James Huang/Cyclingnews.com

Why didn't I think of that? But it will be done on my TT bike.
I've seen a few other little tricks for TT bikes on some other PRO bikes I'm going to have to incorporate. Like this one. Shrink tubing for cable routing. Which I like better than the tie wrap on Basso's Bike.
Photo ©: Shane Stokes/Cyclingnews.com

My new Hero

Wally Wallington