Moving

I'm moving over here

http://alexanderthegrant.blogspot.com/

I realized that I am the only one that has been posting on the 2811 blog in the past 4 months and I don't live there any more. So I am giving Ty his blog back (Schirf was too cool from the beginning... ha ha) and starting my own. Really now my posting will just go down hill I am sure but I'll try to hold it down. Any way, its a sad day on the 2811 blog but an inevitable one I guess. Hopefully Ty and Mike will keep it going!

Dawn Patrol

Somehow I was up before my 5:10 am alarm this morning. Maybe I knew how sweet the sunrise would be up in Big Cottonwood.




Met up with Bart and then eventually Jared and a few other people. The snow was killer and we kept it to some mellow aspen trees to avoid lurking instabilities in the snow pack. You know its dangerous out when you see Andrew McLean (author of the Chuting Gallery and one of the most accomplished big line skiers in the Wasatch) at the top of a mellow aspen glade at 9000'!

Jared aka the Samurai- I think he goes uphill just as fast as he goes down.




Bart snaps a photo.

Christmas Contrast

We happened to set the tree up next to a picture of Buddha...

Sammi and I threw down for an $11 tree (more of a shrub). Looks great and we've got it on a table to give the illusion of a real tree. This is the first year I've had a tree in the ten years since I moved out of VT so its a step up for me!

A whole lot of nothing...

I just drove back from Ketchum, Idaho this afternoon after a week working there and in Boise. Every time I do that drive I am struck by how little there is between here and there, just a whole lot of nothing. No offense to any potato farmers or anyone who lives there...

When I was in college I was really cynical about a lot of issues, population growth in particular. With the global population growing at such a fast rate do we have the space and resources to support this growth? I used to think no, and that nobody cared and we were all just going to keep consuming and growing until we were swimming in our own trash and out of food, water, and fresh air. I've lost a little of this cynicism over the years and especially this year see some hope in human kind. Yeah the economy is bad but we are all talking about conserving resources, finding cleaner alternatives to fossil fuels, and taking steps towards improving our society in general. This is good news to me as sooner or later we had to come to our senses. Maybe this economic crisis will re-direct us down a more responsible path.

Back to the photo: some parts of the world are so overcrowded and then there are places like the western US. Just a whole lot of nothing. I'd hate to see farmland and open spaces go but if they someday have to I hope the land is used responsibly. Apparently a week driving around by myself has made me a little reflective. I'll shut up now, time to unpack.

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...

redneck weekend

sammi and i went up to idaho and stayed in a forest service cabin (clear creek guard station north east of montpelier, id.) last night. it was nice to get out of town and spend a little time in the woods. we kept it real shooting guns, chopping wood, and drinking beer (then shooting the cans).







it was hunting season so i had to sport my old neon ammo pack on the hike



nice shot...



you can tell i am from vermont by my taste in women...



every hicks dream



made it back just in time for a sweet ride on shoreline with bart, ohran, and jared. bobsled is in killer shape.

why i love costco

likely none of these will end up in a cookie...

buy this book

my cousin just published this book- classic!

HOW TO GET A 6-PACK... AND STILL DRINK A 30-RACK EVERY WEEKEND: A DRINKERS GUIDE TO GETTING A RIPPED STOMACH

snow

Headed up Big Cottonwood this morning to check out the snow. There wasn't as much as I thought there would be but it was super pretty.



tons of mist- it had just stopped snowing huge flakes, i missed it






sammi setting up a shot





can't break out the board yet... it will all this week and we'll be riding crest again before the end of the season


raced a little cross yesterday it cold rain and mud. it was fun getting dirty. i felt more comfortable on my cx bike and only crashed once. though it was a sweet crash- slid on my back in mud off the course and had to run back to get my bike. otherwise everything worked except for my front derailleur and i got stuck it my 48t chainring. that gear is a little big without frozen legs. fun stuff though, i am definately going to do a some more of those.

viva las vegas

two nights in vegas is one too many... i just spent 7 nights and 8 days down there. highlights include:

-making a last minute decision to race the cactus cup two days before the start enven though I knew I wasn't really on point. I'm at the point in the season where you can ride all day at one speed but just don't have that top end. I am sure it was good for me to get out and race even though I felt like poo all weekend. the only time my legs felt good was in the fat tire crit and I got a side ache with five laps to go. I managed to hang on to the main group and luckily steered around a crash in the last corner and finished safely. that was my first crit of any sort and it was pretty fun. Brandon domintated the semi pros all weekend.

-working two days at the dirt demo changing pedals and setting sag for people. i was putting air in a fork on a hard tail 29er for this one guy and he goes "Hey man its a hartail how hard can it be to set up?" At that point I just gave him the bike and said have fun (jackass). He then preceded to adjust the fore and aft of his seat for a few minutes while I stood there biting my tongue. Then he took off and came back a few minutes later "Ooh party foul man- there's no bottle cage on this thing!" Hey dipshit- its a 5 minute loop.

-awesome sushi dinner on continental

-three days in Interbike. Luckily I was busy enough to pass the time pretty well during the day

-cross vegas. awesome race with a ton of people. lance was fighting it out for top 20.

-vegas trafiic

-In-N-Out burger twice. Yum.

-Riding Gooseberry Mesa on the way home saturday morning.

-Getting home!

alpine coaster

yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

brian head race(s) report

after two weekends of gasping for oxygen racing my bike above 9,400 feet my lungs are feeling a little singed. no pictures unfortunately. shannon posted a good one of me on mtbracenews.blogspot.com after i talked him in to putting me on there! thanks shannon. actually i may have earned it last weekend with my first top 10 finish at a national.

lets see- some thoughts... the stage race was awesome and i am hooked on the stage race concept. it was kind of a shock to the body/mind on day two to get up and go punish myself again after a 4 hour race the day before. i wound up losing some time that day but came back on day three and managed 4th place, also solidyfing 6th overall. i was close to 5th and without the meltdown on day two think i could have been in the money. anyway, someone should put on a stage race in park city before its all private land and developed! super fun.

this past weekend it was back down to parowan/brian head to race the nmbs finals. my expectations were low because i was worn out from the stage race but i like the course there so wanted to give it a shot. i registered for the short track and xc saturday afternoon. i'm not sure why i did the short track- it was a 1 minute loop around the base lodge on pavement and dirt and they had informed me that i would not make the roll out list. oh boy. i made contact with the main group from the back row but shortly thereafter it felt like someone had put a blowtorch down my throat my lungs were burning so bad. i got pulled after 15 minutes- not soon enough!

it took a few hours for my lungs to feel normal again and i was a little worried for sunday's xc. thought i might have some sort of problem since they didn't feel like that once the entire weekend before. i think what it comes down to is that you never ride as hard as you do in a short track outside of a short track race... ever.

the xc actually went pretty well for me. i got over a mid race side ache and worked my way in to the top 10. i had a slow leak in my rear tire during the last 20 minutes but don't think it slowed me down too much. at least not as much as jeremiah bishop riding a flat tire in the single track not letting me by unless i gave him a tube. i sat behind him for too long because, well who am i to tell him to get the &%$ off of the trail. after a while ryan trebon came up behind us and did just that. he has a little more clout i guess. trebon dropped me like a bad habit in to a stiff headwind on the last road and i rolled in 9th. can't complain though- i was psyched on my first top 1o.

enough race reporting... spent sunday night in st. george to celebrate sammi's dad's 60th. got in some good recovery lounging around in the pool yesterday. i'm not going to touch a bike until saturday- hannah is coming over to visit for the weekend and we are going to take some dh runs at dv. hopefully firth can make it out.

man- that is the worlds longest most boring post. i wonder if anyone is still reading. better shut up now...

manly bike for sale

Bike Tank

pc ride w/ lesh

monthly post

Man I have been failing as a blogger lately. Luckily Ty has kept up the posting. Good work dude.

Been a crazy month- made it back east to do some races and get a small vacation in. Vacations are never as relaxing as you hope and I didn't really get a whole lot of rest/down time in but did have a great time. Had two OK races back there- not my best days but not my worst. I suffered like a dog in the hot humid weather for some reason. Maybe I am getting used to the nice dry climate here.

After the Mt. Snow short track I packed up my bike and flew to St. Louis MO. for a sales meeting. I finally made it back to Salt Lake Wednesday night after a few days of too much drinking and lots of shitty food. I worked Thursday in the office and then left bright and early to Jackson on Friday to work up there and do the ICUP race. It took my legs a lap to wake up from a week without riding but they started to come around on the 2nd and I managed to get away for the win. Sunday I did this dual hill climb thing. Nothing but a whole lot of suffering there- and the "mtb" portion climbs a road for 35 minutes. Then 5 minutes of dirt road and 6 of 1 track. A cross bike would be the ride of choice there. Sammi came up for the weekend and we went up to Teton National Park after and swam in a lake. Cold but nice.

I worked Mon/Tues up there and drove straight to Solitude to see what I could salvage in the overall standings up there. If nothing else I have solidified 3rd- not too bad for missing 2 races.

All that's left me pretty worked- just in time for Outdoor Retailer this week. Yahoo! Here are some random pics-








this guy wandered in to our camp at sunrise



han and i after a weekly vt. race




looking stoked after windham




and this is what i miss most about VT besides the fam...

crest from the house

headed out early from the house, up big, down crest, down millcreek and back to the house. Sweet ride up big before it got too hot, good times on crest. Unfortunately Alex stacked it super hard on a loose corner (no stitches this time!)

pretty crowded day on the trail

snack time

alex showing off the squirting feature on his new hydration pack

check out the crash aftermath

dust and blood

back home and ready to hose off

square ice cream

Heading home from Jackson and saw that a gas station was advertising "World Famous Square Ice Cream!" I mean to take a picture of it, got a little carried away eating though.