09 Base Miles

This one's for Fox

Turkey Day Training Camp November 08. Turning turkey in to watts.



Putting in the hours...

Plug for the Prius

Here's a plug for the Prius: 3 bikes plus my 3 overpacked bags, sammi's bags and work stuff, all inside the car and we could see out the rear view mirror no problem. I'd say it was about 3/4 full.



Now the good part: gas for the 300 mile trip to St. George: $12.00

Sammi said once she went on a trip with her mountain bike and kayak and slept in the back with both! If they were a little better in the snow it would be the ideal car.

Welcome To Jazztown

If I had a dollar for every time Brian yelled that during the game I'd be rich



Or at least I would have paid for me seat in the nose bleed section...



It was a great game and we lost at the buzzer. Tim and Brian are Jazz super-fans and were not too happy about our loss to the Bulls at home. I'll take a close exciting game over a blowout any day.

Murphy's Law

From Wikipedia:

Murphy's law is an adage in Western culture that broadly states, "if anything can go wrong, it will." It is also cited as: "If there's more than one possible outcome of a job or task, and one of those outcomes will result in disaster or an undesirable consequence, then somebody will do it that way"

I'm not sure if this applies more to my race today, or if maybe the good old "if it ain't broke don't fix it" sums it up better...

I've been having a great time racing cross this fall and have had some pretty good results despite being a newbie and a hack. My bike isn't ideal as it is a size or two to big and the wheels are beater- but here the other adage of "its not the bike its the rider" comes in to play and I don't think its really been holding me back that much. Anyway- Brandon was nice enough to offer up his bike for states and I figured, hey, yeah I'll ride some sweet deep dish carbon wheels and a bike that fits! Not that the wheels would make me go any faster- but I figured they'd make me feel faster which is just as important. With Bart out of town the door was open and anything could happen...

So first let me say that carbon wheels are noticeably stiffer, lighter, and faster- wow. Also it was nice not to be so stretched out. I had a pretty good start and was riding with the lead group for the first lap. Enter Murphy's law- my front tire started to go flat and I was folding it over a little in the corners and started to lose a few spots. Then I bunny hopped a little log in to a corner and blew the tubular right off the rim and stacked it. I got the tire back on the rim and rode gingerly to the tech zone where for the first time ever I had a spare bike. Problem is I had borrowed my seat post and replaced it with Brandon's... but hadn't remembered to dial in the height. That was pretty much it for my motivation...

What's the lesson here? If it ain't broke don't try to fix it, sometimes you have to be the one to realize Murphy's law, and its not the bike its the rider (as in these aren't excuses!)

Next weekdend: Thanksgiving in St. George. MTB here I come! Though Murphy's law will probably bring some rain...

A new calling?

I'm not going to sell my pedal bikes yet but motos sure are fun! I went over to visit Hannah in Steamboat and we got out on motos in the western CO. desert.



Braaaaap braaaaaap

This hill climb got super sandy and steep up near the top (up left out of the pic). Took me 4 tries to make it up

We got snowed out Saturday and went for a hike in the snow. Luckily the weather came around for us on Sunday.


Han trying to wrangle a 165 pound dog...


My camera battery died so that's all I have for photos. Otherwise I could have gotten some pictures of our Snood tournament.

I need a new wheel setup

I need to figure out a new wheel/tire setup for my cross bike... not only are my wheels tanks but I am still running tubes.



I've never done that before! After two fats yesterday I see why people shy away from tubes on their cross bikes. I was even running slime tubes, which don't help with pinch flats apparentlty. I rimmed out hard on the 2nd lap and my front tire started a slow death and was flat by 2 or 3 laps to go. I eventually borrowed a wheel and rode a while until my rear went flat. Then I got in a nice jog in the rain and even got to finish the race on Bob's bike. His bike felt good- nice setup Bob, disk brakes worked well in the mud. At least I had some better luck Saturday and ended up 2nd. Fun stuff though- that was a mud bath!

Halloween Pics

pulled out an old costume for halloween on friday. red hot rocker aka evil kenival, elvis suit. sammi was an elf. her ears were freaking me out all night!



jesus and sarah palin- what a couple


we went to club sound for sammi's water polo party/fundraiser. here's an interesting way to hold your camera...





i did a killer moto ride with jim on thursday out in the west desert. we ended up doing 190 miles- about half on pavement. i need to get some pics from that uploaded. trying to decide if i can ride to the cross race or if its about to pour...