recovering from the "recovery ride"

I was planning on riding yesterday, and wanted to head out for a couple mellow hours to clear my head and enjoy the good weather. Alex raced on Saturday was meeting up with a couple other guys who had raced too...ended up being bart, bob, ohran, and jared. Alex talked me into it, and told me what a tough day everyone else had the day before. I've been riding a bunch for the past couple weeks, but nothing really before that on the bike, but i've been feeling pretty good. SO I figured what the hell, it'll be cool to ride with Alex and some new guys. woops. bad idea. long story short: hung on pretty good for the first part of the ride, did ok on a steep as shit climb, had a fun dh, bombed shoreline to dry creek, blew up climbing dry creek, made my way to the top of bobsled, had a sweet dh, found out I missed dinner at Lesha's dads house, managed to make it home on the road in one piece, took a nap, and finally had some amazing mac and cheese from wild oats.

So now, as the title suggests, I'm recovering from the recovery ride. probably the hardest I've gone since racing last summer before I hurt my knee. I guess if there's good new it probably helped me get into decent race shape if I can stay on it with a couple more rides. bad news is that I might have to miss my two favorite icups because of work trips -- DV and solitude. bummer.

While I was still thinking coherently up the first climb, and still had my sense of humor, I came up with a short list of comparisons from the ride, and signs at the beginning that I might not have the legs to keep up on the ride:
1. only guy in a jersey advertising beer
2. only guy without shaved legs
3. only guy on a bike worth less than 5 g's retail whose name doesn't have the word "team" in it's name
5. (i thought this one might actually help me out) only guy who didn't race for 3 hours the day before

maybe the list isn't so funny any more now that I'm off the bike, kept me entertained for the first part of bart's climb though. Definitely motivates me to hit it again and keep up next time. I don't think I could ditch the beer jersey or drop a wad of cash on a new bike, but maybe i should try the shaved legs routine. it better make me damn fast if i do to make up for the hard time i'll get from lesha.
/ty

5 Mile

You know its not going to be your best day when you show up to a race and realize that you forgot your socks... and only brought one arm warmer.

Gave the 5 mile pass race a try for the first time yesterday- ouch, thats a tough one. 1st lap I was feeling ok riding in 2nd for a while chasing down Dave Welsh. Bart came up to me and took over the chase. We caught up to Dave and then all hell broke loose for me. I misjudged the steepness of a little hill and had it in the wrong gear and those guys got a gap. Then I took a wrong turn and lost about 10 more seconds. Shortly after I got a side-ache and skipped a few gears on a climb. That blew me psychologically and I started getting discouraged. I managed to get back in to sort of a groove but couldn't kick my side cramp and could barely drink anything for the 1st 2 laps. I kept thinking- shoot, I am going to pay for this at the end! I did too on the 4th lap. I was probably just under a minute behind Dave (Bart was long gone) and gave it some gas to try to close the gap. I cramped up pretty good and with 10 miles to go I had to back it off and limp home. I managed to hold on to 3rd though. Bart came off his death bed and worked us over!

Off to Boise tomorrow morning until Thursday. Can't wait for Motel 6!

shred alert!

all 3 of us headed out on shoreline tonight - red butt to bobsled and back through campus to hit the two sets of grass rollers. ripped it! first time I had been out on my big(er) bike and it was pretty sweet. kind of a beast to pedal, but bobsled was awesome. Schirf was having a blast on a new Rocky Mountain prototype until he stacked it pretty good after bobsled. having fun riding the lower trails for now, would definitely be bummed if we're still in the same situation a month from now. Not sure when I'll start racing, but DV and Solitude are probably the two best and it would suck if those were cancelled.

starting a new job in a week -- crazy crazy -- should be a good time though, I'm stoked. /ty

early races?

I am starting to wonder about some of the early races this year. I had to go up to Logan on Saturday to work an event at a shop up there and thought I would check out the trails up at Sherwood Hills in the evening on the way back. Driving up Sardine Canyon on the way up I started to see a lot of snow- by the time I got to Sherwood there was a pretty solid snowpack. We're going to need some hot weather if thats all going to melt before the Wimmer's ICUP in two weeks!

What about Deer Valley and Solitude in 6 weeks? I guess a lot can happen in that amount of time. Maybe we can earn points by shoveling the tracks out before the races... Anyway, here's to some warm (but not too hot) weather.

windy rim

My parents were in town for a few days last weekend seeking refuge from the long Vermont winter and looking for a little sun. With crappy weather in the forecast up here we packed up my truck Saturday morning and headed for the desert. I had convinced them to rent a jeep and drive the White Rim while Tim and I rode it. I was having second thoughts on Thursday and Friday though, as both Tim and I had apparently picked up the same cold at the RJD2 show a few days before and there were some pretty high winds forecast. All the pieces were in place though so we went for it and Tim met us in Moab from Coors Town, USA (Golden CO.)

It was pretty windy when we arrived Saturday afternoon and we were a little worried. "Can't be any worse than Brian Head in the mud a few years ago." we said. "Can't be worse than the E100 with tendonitis." Tim said. Well, it wasn't but it was pretty bad! We rode the whole thing from the top of mineral bottom road counter clockwise and had 20-30 mph sustained headwinds all the way south (with way higher gusts) and then on the way back the wind swirled around the canyons and messed with us. It felt like we had about 15 miles of tailwind out of 105. We made it though, 7 am to 7pm. Climbing Shafer with sand blowing in our faces just added insult to injury!

My parents had a great time though and loved it. My dad rallied the rental jeep. I've just been laying low and working since. Here are lots of pics in no particular order

The love...


the hate...



no comment



the parental units


lunch!



Ned in the jeep

if it looks like we are leaning thats because of the wind

soaking up some rays

check out the coat my dad found at the DI

vids

so speaking of Moab, Alex and Hannah came back with a sweet video of alex riding a little ledge drop at the end of porcuipine. After squealing his brakes into the drop, he hits the drop well, but then goes off course and jumps over his handle bars and runs it out down the rocks. it was hilarious. they showed it to me at 8 in the morning on hannah's camera, and after watching it three times i accidentally erased it in my drowsy haze. damn. so in tribute to that video here's one that almost as good of my friend Dave hitting a rail at Mt hood a couple years ago...


sorry again for erasing the vid man!
/ty

daydreaming

Trying to get some work started but i keep daydreaming looking at some more pics from Moab that Hannah sent over.


Won't be doing any of that this week... there's an inch or two of snow at out house and its only supposed to get up to 40 today.


I raced Cholla this weekend- went ok and I felt a lot better than last year when I dnf'd, then laid on the ground for an hour or two, made it back to my truck and barfed. I ended up 3rd- not the best ride but I'll take it. That race is a good character builder because it sucks so bad!




Doing this on Sunday... can't wait!

Moab

Hannah and I went to Moab this weekend to ride Porcupine Rim. We lucked out with awesome biking weather and got to ride it twice.

We pulled in late Friday night and pretty much camped on Highway 128- I think a diesel truck drove by our tent about every 20 minutes all night. Luckily we got a slightly better spot for Sat.


On the shuttle














Doing the chicken dance



































This is pretty crazy- they have
been burning the tamarisk trees down
and clearing them out. I think they found a
beetle that just kills those trees. I know they
weren't native but they did provide some good
secluded camp sights. Now its all open and you feel like you are at a KOA- or a junkyard or something.


Fun stuff - Han has some better pics so maybe I'll post some of those when she send them over.

bike accounting

Here's another addition to the bike quiver- though with two sold so far this spring that brings me right back to even. Next week I'll be selling my Yeti after I ride Porcupine rim on it this weekend!

Out with the old...

and in with the new














I am actually selling my Titus so if anyone knows somebody who is looking for a fast race/xc bike point them in my direction. I am asking 3k- its in great shape with full 07 XTR. Full handmade ti frame has interchangeable dropouts for a SS option. I am trying to avoid e-bay if possible.

Kind of wish I was in California racing this weekend- with the price of gas what it is and no plane tickets for under 300 bucks I think I'll stay put. Too bad it just snowed on shoreline because that was getting really good.

snowy march

headed out for a walk with Mocha tonight in a full on March blizzard. Came home and snagged to the camera to get some pretty cool looking shots. The porch and garage lights added perfect lighting to the darkness and heavy snow.

jury duty

Had to serve my jury duty for the first time ever this morning after finding out yesterday afternoon. Luckily I hadn't hopped on a plane the day before to visit my sister in Arizona, and i could serve my civic duty. I didn't get chosen for the actual jury, but I still had to spend the whole morning sitting around at the courthouse. The trial was for some guy that was charged with a DUI. We had to sit in one room for like an hour and a half, then out in the hallway to line up by juror number, back to the room for another half hour, back to the hallway to line up, and then finally to the courtroom for an hour or two. Each of us and had to stand up and say our name, and basic info about our life so they could get a good idea who would be fit to stand on the jury. They were interested if you were married, had kids, how much education you had, where you worked, your hobbies, where you get your news from, if you get any magazines in the mail. Would've been pretty funny to say that we get Playboy at the house, thanks to Hannah, but I didn't quite have the balls for that.

You always hear people joke about how if they get jury duty they'll just stand up and say they're racist, hate gay people, etc... and then be excused immediately. Sounds like a great idea, but once you finally get in there in front of the judge and lawyers it doesn't seem quite that easy. You're sworn in and have to stand up and state your name any time you're going to speak.

so in the end I spent 4 or so hours, and got a sweet check for $18.50.

photo booth

Schools of thought

Some people would say I wasted this run, perhaps the two guys that skied down to my left. I just don't have the discipline I guess. I don't care if I hiked all day- I'd rather make one good turn than 100 small ones. Check out Ty's Pics on the right and go to Twins Hike March 08. He got some awesome shots! No offense to those guys- I am sure they had fun too.

Oh yeah...

Every year it seems like I forget how hard bike racing is. Then the first race comes around and find myself saying oh yeah, this takes a little work. Its funny because it seems like every year I make the same mistakes for the first one of the season- 1 I don't train hard and 2 I blow it nutritionally. This year I have kept in pretty good shape- riding a little down south, renting xc skis from rei a few times, shredding pow at the bird and ski touring a little. Not much in the way of intensity though. I also seem to forget what works for me nutritionally and I end up eating too much too close to the start. Put those together and you have a nice recipe for suffering. At least it wasn't as bad as last year when I DNF'd then barfed my first race out.

Top 10 thoughts going through my head during the race:

10. Shit we are going way too fast for March 1

9. Oh man- my stomach...

8. Man what's going on- I worked Sammi over pretty good when we were down here last month. I thought I was going good...

7. Did I really need oj, a banana, cereal, a bagel, a swedish pancake with strawberries, and 2 cups of coffee this morning? Or thirds on apsaragus and salad last night for that matter?

6. Why doesn't my back hurt? (must be the new Rocky Mtn Element)

5. This bike is sweet.

4. This sucks.

3. I suck.

2. I paid money to feel like this?

1. I can't wait for next time.

I actually think I would have been up there a little more if my stomach didn't go south. Every time I tried to go hard I felt like I was going to barf. I couldn't drink or eat any Gu's which caught up to me at the end. Oh well, good to get that one out of the way. Usually I am thinking about my first ride of the season this time of year...

Props to Bart who killed it- nice work man!