Grand Rouleur

Moving

2009-10-08T13:24:00.000-07:00

This blog has moved. I can't get into Blogger on a regular basis at work so I moved the whole shebang to wordpress.

http://grandrouleur.wordpress.com/

Park City Point 2 Point

2009-09-06T13:50:00.001-07:00

I can't help but use the overexposed cliche'..... It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

We showed up Friday night at the Canyons for the racers meeting. Pretty un-eventful other than I have never been in a room with a skinnier bunch of mofo's in my entire life. Costavich thought he was the heaviest dude in the room of 150 people and he was probably right.

Saturday we arrived in Round Valley around 6:30 to perfect temps and partly cloudy skies. I waited in line for 20 mins to use the one crapper on site (my only complaint about the logistics of the entire race) threw on my gear and lined up at the back. The start was faster than I thought it would be but I had no intention of going out too hot early like I did at Laramie so I took it easy through Round Valley. About halfway through Round Valley I started feeling a familiar bubbling down low and knew I needed to make an early pit stop as we exited Round Valley. I dropped some extra weight at the Round Valley toilet. I've never had to do that at a race but didn't think that much of it. Leaving Round Valley I pointed my bike toward one of the coolest rainbows I have ever seen framing the climb to Prospector. Where there's a rainbow there is of course rain and it started pouring as I summited Skid Row and started around Prospector. Even with the rain making thinks sloppy this was the highlight of my race. The course wasn't closed but between the rain and the 100+ racers ahead of me I was pretty sure it would be safe to blaze through Prospector as fast as I wanted. I passed about 5 people on Prospector, another 5 or so on the Snowtop climb and a few more on the Deer Crest climb up to Silver Lake. This section of the race was all firmly in "the best of time". I was on a high. My pace was sustainable, the trails were great and I was having the most fun in a race I've ever had. The only thing that would portend to the misery ahead was a slight but noticeable queasiness in my stomach. I was still feeding well so I chose to ignore it. I rolled into Silver Lake and passed right by the aid station since I didn't need anything. I started up the steep service road to Bald Mountain. There were a couple guys walking their bikes and it was very steep but I was barely able to stay riding so I did. The course turned off the service road and started uphill on one of the downhill only MTB trails which was turned into an uphill trail for this race. It was ridiculously steep. I rode some and walked some but when I was riding I was redlined and my stomach which is perfectly content filled with Gu and energy drink at a HR of 150-155 was not happy at all with HR's near my max at 172. By the time I hit the top my stomach was doing somersaults and I knew I was in trouble. I've never had this problem in a long event and I wasn't even halfway done. I limped down to the aid station and grabbed a coke hoping it would do the trick. I sat in the shade sipping my coke and a little bit later I felt solid enough to continue on. The coke had kinda settled my stomach but I still didn't feel great. By the time I left the aid station it was a little after noon and I had my doubts about making the Park City aid station by the time cut off of 3:30. The climb up Tour de Suds went well. I was able to sip a little energy drink and as I started down TG2 I started feeling a bit better about my race. TG2 is kind of an annoying trail and not my favorite. It's OK as a recreation trail but it's annoying when you're tired from racing all morning. It's steep in spots and there's too much to think about with lots of roots, rocks and off camber stuff plus it's handbuilt and narrow so there's only one line and if you get off it you end up in the woods (luckily I only blew one corner and didn't hit the tree I ran into too hard). Exiting TG2 onto Mid Mountain I was feeling kinda OK. I wasn't able to feed well but I knew most of the annoying trails were history. All I had to do was take Johns 99 to the service road and then start up the smooth climb to Shadow Lake. As I exited Johns 99 by the Town Lift I saw Jen Hanks directing traffic on to Johns trail (a very different trail from Johns 99). I asked her "we need to do Johns trail?". She responded with an affirmative and I wanted to die. Johns trail is the most annoying trail in Park City. A lot of people love it and I like it OK when I'm feeling good but by this time my coke had worn off, I couldn't get a gel down and I could barely sip my energy drink. I was blown and now I had to ride the most technical XC trail in Park City with no energy and slow reflexes. I started down. Slow doesn't work on Johns because even on a 29er you need momentum to clear all the roots. I was doing OK but about halfway down I washed out the front end on a corner and rammed into a tree hip first. It wasn't too bad so I continued on. I popped out of Johns on the service road and started heading back up the mountain. My hip hurt and so I didn't have a lot of power in my left leg and my energy level was on empty. At this point it was 2:00 and I knew there was no way in hell I was going to make the time cut off. I started forming exit strategies. At first I was just going to suffer up Steps trail, cut the course by taking Thayne's road over to Crescent Mine Grade and from there ride down and pull the plug. Once I got to the top of Steps I decided I might as well finish this leg and have Shannon pull the plug for me when I got to the aid station too late. I got to the top of Shadow lake at 3:00 knowing the was no way I was going to be able to descend halfway down the mountain, climb Thayne's road and then descend the rest of the way in 30 minutes. For some reason I can't explain I shot a gel at this time. I was going to roll off the mountain and be done plus I came inches from vomiting as soon as I did it so why I bothered I still don't know. I blazed down the service road and Powerline trail at speeds that make me cringe as I type this. I just wanted to be done. I got to Thayne's road in 7 minutes and started up. I made it halfway before I had to stop and rest and walked the rest of the way up. I started down Crescent Mine Grade at 3:25. Another unholy descent involving three scary passes and I was at the aid station right at 3:30. I was done....right? Shannon asked me and the three others that came in right behind me if we wanted to finish the race. I grabbed a Coke, sat down and desperately wanted to pull the plug. If I was alone I probably would have but Rhonda, TC, Lucy, Shannon and Ryan were all there looking expectantly at me and I couldn't do it. I had to finiah. I finished my Coke and headed out as the Lantern Rouge.....last man to make the time cut off. The Coke got me to the top of Spiro and I tried to drink some energy drink but my stomach knotted up and I had to sit at the junction to mid-mountain to calm my guts. Limped up the climb to the overlook, sat down on the bench in the sun and took 15 minutes to choke down a GU. Somehow I survived the journey across mid mountain and stopped at the final aid station at the Colony for another coke. I knew there was no way I could get anything else down so I hoped the coke would get me home. It didn't. The energy from the Coke carried me for about an hour and I blew up on the final climb up Ambush near the end of the race in the Canyons. My HR was 126 yet I was panting and I had nothing left. I rode some, walked some and prayed for the end. Somehow I finshed the climb and started down. As I crested the small ridge above the Canyons I could see the end and and almost broke down into tears. I rolled to the finish with the crowd cheering me on and was done. 11:10 of riding time and over 12 hours on the trail. Finishing that race in my condition is one of the greatest accomplishments of my life. Ideally on a 12 hour ride I would consume at least 3000 calories and drink at least 250 oz's of fluid. I consumed less than 700 and had maybe 70oz of fluid. It was the ride I'll never forget and hope never to repeat.

It was an excellently run race and I'll definatly do it again but absolutly not solo. Well.... probably not solo:)

A Little More Kauai

2009-09-03T08:04:00.000-07:00

Ho'opi'i Falls

Hanakap'ai Falls

Maha'ulupe Beach

Crazy local dropping over 100 ft out of the tree into Kipu pool

Kauai Singletrack

Pool of Mokolea

Napali Coast (if you look close you can see crazy nekkid people running down the sand hill)

Napali sea cave

Momma and baby along Napali

I'm plenty rested for the PCP2P on Saturday. I'm doing it solo, does that make me craaaazy..........possibly.

Kauai

2009-09-01T17:38:00.001-07:00

Ke'e Beach view from the Kalalau Trail

A highly endangered Monk Seal

Kilauea Lighthouse

Ke'e Beach

Wailua Falls (173 ft)

Kalalau Valley

Waimea Canyon

Waipo'o Falls

Outlying Kapa'a Town seen from Nounou Mountain

An insurance salesmen

Nounou Mountain

Two weeks in Kauai was wonderful. We did some hikes, some sightseeing, a lot of snorkling and a ton of just chilling on the beach. Soundly slept 9-10 hours every night with the sounds of the ocean in the background and the Trades blowing through our condo.

Laramie Enduro Garmin Track

2009-08-06T18:30:00.001-07:00

I'm an information guy. The more info I have the happier I am and having a Garmin makes me very happy. By analyzing the data from my Garmin I found I went out a little too hard. It felt OK at the time but the numbers dont lie. I was over threshold too often in the first 90 minutes and I definatly paid for it over the last 90 minutes.

Leaving Saturday AM for two weeks in Hawaii. With no saddle time in sight the PCPP could be interesting.

Laramie Enduro

2009-08-03T12:11:00.000-07:00

67 miles in a little over 7 hours, 57th overall and 19th out of 57 starters in my age group.

The course was pretty cool with a lot of nice variation. Distance wise it was about 1/3 fireroad, 1/3 double track and 1/3 singletrack. Drew, Wedge and I lined up in the back end of the group of 400 racers figuring getting the hole shot in a 7 hour race wasn't a big deal. Wedge hit the early singletrack first and put about ten people between us. I was cold and a bit blind riding into the rising sun so I took it easy on the early one track and Drew got around me as well. When we popped out onto the first 2-track section I could see Drew a bit ahead and Wedge a bit ahead of him. They linked up at the top of the doubletrack and I got caught behind some slow riders on the first descent and I lost sight of them until we hit the long fireroad climb into the wind. They were a couple hundred yards ahead working a 15 rider paceline. I latched on to a clyde and a girl from the open category and we started working together to bridge up. We closed about half the gap by the first aid station where I had to stop and top off my bottle which Drew and Wedge rode through. Luckily for me their paceline was broken up at the aid station and I was able to bridge up by hopping from wheel to wheel of the riders between us. We hit the fun flowy singletrack section together with Drew leading the way when I felt some pee brewing. As we were climbing to the 2nd aid station the pace felt a little high and my bladder needed relief so I pulled off thinking to myself I'll never see them again today. After answering natures call I hopped back on and 1/4 mile latter the trees opened up and there was Drew and Wedge at the aid station. I had just stopped and only needed to fill a bottle while they were shedding layers and answering natures call so I left them thinking I'd just chill on the next climb till they caught back on. Well, it was almost all downhill till the next aid station and I had some quality wheels to suck on the climbs so I started thinking I could hold the gap I opened up. Re-loaded at station 3 and couldn't see them behind me when I left but from there I proceeded to my downfall. I haven't mentioned it yet but it had poured the night before and there was a lot of water on the course. there were countless mud bogs and stream crossings that were anywhere from ankle to near hip deep on me. Every time you approached one of these sections you had to make the call whether to ride them or walk them. I usually erred on the side of caution and walked most of the the ugly looking ones but I was feeling pretty damn cocky after station three and when a stream crossing came up at the bottom of a hill that transitioned to a real steep hill I decided to try to gain some momentum for the climb by riding across the stream. Bad move. I plunged into the stagnant muddy bog at full speed and pedaled like crazy to get through it. I got through but the muddy slop was up to my bottom bracket and my whole drive train was a gloopy mess. I got a few pedal strokes up the hill when my chain sucked into my frame. I pulled it out, remounted and it instantly did it again. I fought with it for a few minutes trying to get it working again while about ten people including Drew passed me. Finally I realized the only way I was going to get it to work again was to hose off the chain with my one and only bottle (I realize now how stupid it was to ride with only one bottle but it seemed like a good weight weenie idea at the time). I prayed the next aid station would be close. It wasn't. I started the climb into a brisk headwind. I had been feeding the whole race but by the top of this climb with no energy drink I was already started feeling a little low on energy. I had some gels with me but was worried about eating one without liquid and kept telling myself the next aid had to be close. About an hour later I pulled into aid station 4 just as Drew was leaving. I hadn't lost much time fighting with my drivetrain but I was pretty tired and in a pretty bad caloric deficit. They had chain lube at the station so I lubed my chain, ate and drank hoping to miraculously get back on track. I didn't, the last 17 miles of the race was by far the most difficult and I was in full on survival mode. I completed the first 50 miles in 4:15, the last 17 in 3:00.

Rhonda has never done any endurance racing before and her longest MTB ride until Laramie had been 50 miles. Her goal going in to the day was just to finish and while I was crossing thigh deep water crossings and suffering up over the last big climb I was worried she wasn't going to make the time cut-offs. Stupid me.... I should have known she was tougher than that. She made the time cut offs with ease, was a little more careful than me on the water crossings and finished with a smile in 8:42. Now that she knows what to expect she's already planning on how to break 8 hours next year.

All in all it was an excellent race. Check in was a breeze, the course was well marked, the aid stations were well stocked and staffed with friendly helpful volunteers and the price was right. I'm spoiled by the world class singletrack in Park City and I'm kind of a snob so I didn't really like a lot of the singletrack sections but that's just me nit picking. My goal was a sub 7 hour time which I missed but I heard the course was slower this year due to the wind and the mud bogs so I'll take it. I will defiantly pencil this race in my calender for future years.

Full Throttle Finale

2009-07-30T06:35:00.000-07:00

Since the Laramie Enduro is Saturday my plan for the final Full Throttle race was to go hard for 30 minutes or so and pull the plug as soon as I started feeling tired. After the start sorted out I hopped on Drews wheel up the service road till it flattened out before the singletrack where I got around him. I tried to drop him and the other guys around me on the service road at the top but Drew was having none of that and he was glued to my wheel when we hit the singletrack descent. Coming into the 2nd lap climb Drew and another guy got around me and it would have taken too much to keep up so I eased off on the climb and took it real easy on the final DH to avoid a crash. There was a huge turnout for the series this year and I was only able to finish in 6th overall and out of the money. Rhonda finished 3rd overall though and collected $200 which pretty much covered both of our entry fee's for the series. Gotta love racing for free. I didn't win the grand prize of a Solitude Season Pass in the number plate drawing at the end but I did snag the consolation prize donated by Cannondale and Revolution. It was a sweet Cannondale duffel bag full of goods worth over $400 total! Year after year this series does not disappoint. It's well run, has the best midweek race series courses in the state and they give almost all of the entry fees (almost 7 grand) back to the racers in prize money.

Rocking the Tweety Chair (by default)

2009-07-20T07:33:00.000-07:00

Holy crap! It's two days later and my legs are still sore from the state championship smackdown at Solitude. Rhonda's race was scheduled to start at 8:30 so we arrived at the butt crack of dawn to get her registered and warmed up while I sat in the car and drank two mugs of coffee trying to stay warm. Rhonda rode well and grabbed another 6th place finish. She would be an absolute force out there if she actually trained. It was pretty warm by the time my race started but I'm OK riding in the heat so I wasn't too worried. I think everybody realized it was going to be a long day so the pace was pretty mellow up the road on the start. Matt and Jared picked it up as soon as the singletrack started with Brian and Jake hanging on behind them. I picked up my pace once I hit the Honeycomb climb but by this time the other classes started mixing in and I lost sight of the leaders. I knew I had no shot at catching Matt and Jared but I've beaten Brian and Jake every time we've raced so I pushed it pretty hard on the first climb trying to catch back on to them. I caught up to Jake as we hit the service road and saw Brian up ahead so I pushed it a bit more to catch Brian and towed Jake up to him. Hit the DH on Brain's wheel with Jake right behind and got around Brian on the short climb in the middle of the DH. Tried to open a gap on him but he was having none of that and he got around me near the bottom. We hit the 2nd lap climb all together. Jake tried to make a move in a real bad spot on the first steep pitch in Honeycomb and blew up never to be seen again. I tailed Brian all the way up the climb dreading the super steep section of road near the top. By this time my energy level was getting low and I hadn't been drinking enough. When the last steep pitch came I caved and came off my bike. Brian rode away. I thought I could catch back on but I was blown and the DH was ugly. I was all over the trail, bouncing off rocks, riding in the bushes and all over the brakes. Headed out for my third lap in survival mode. I drank a bunch of water at the base of the climb and was recovered enough to actually ride near race pace by the Bess climb. Drank a bunch more water on the service road and had a strong DH into the finish. I ended up 4th which was my best ICUP finish ever but it comes with an asteric since most of the really fast people moved up.

Solitude was also the world debut of my new (to me) full suspension 29er. I'm happy with my Salsa hard tail 29er 90% of the time but the aggressive XC geometry and scandium/carbon frame is not meant for abusive rides down south. My Blur works OK down there but it's always been way to small for me. Enter the Asylum OCD. Asylum cycles licenced the Racer X design from Titus, perfected it for the 29" wheel and had Titus manufacture it for them as the OCD. When sales started taking off for the bike Titus bought the design back and began selling it as the Racer X 29er. The only problem for me was when Titus bought out Asylum they quit building the XXL 25" frame which is the one that fits me perfectly so I've been scouring the net for awhile looking for this bike. I finally found one listed improperly on Ebay and won the auction at a rock bottom price. Sold the Blur frame for the same amount of money I paid for it a few years ago and built up the Asylum. I've been riding it for a couple weeks and really like it. The more I thought about how rough and long the Solitude race was going to be the more I though full suspension was going to be the right choice. I swapped out a few parts the night before and brought the Asylum on race day. I think it was the right call especially when I was getting tired and sloppy on the DH the combo of the rear suspension and 29" wheels kept me from flying into the woods.

Park City's Best

2009-07-13T18:27:00.000-07:00

Friday: 7 hour recovery ride with Rhonda.

Sunday: Rich is finally done with Iron Man stuff for the year and was aching for some quality singletrack so I took him on tour of all my favorite trails in PC. CMG, Shadow Lake, Keystone, Apex, Steps, Empire Bypass, Sunset, Spin Cycle and MM from DV to PC to name a few. It was the first time I've ever linked all those trails and it's my new favorite 40 mile loop.

The pace was "peppy" for me and I felt really good at the end but this ride was approximately half of the PCPP. That race is gonna hurt........bad.

Full Throttle #6 The New Course

2009-07-09T10:51:00.000-07:00

Fun course. Lots of climbing. I got dropped hard on the start and actually entered the singletrack near the back thinking it might be a long night. It took some time to work off the previous nights thrashing at DV but by the Bess climb I was warmed up and feeling good. It was there that the fireworks began as one by one the dudes who went out way to hard popped on the climb. I passed countless people on that climb and got a few more who were trying to recover on the road. I even made a pass on the DH which is nice and becoming more of a habit for me. On the 2nd lap climb I caught the back of the expert field for the first time ever. If I would have known it at the time it probably would have given me a nice little burst but I didn't realize it until I caught Mark P on the DH. Didn't feel great on the 2nd lap climb though and I think I noticeably slowed down but I was able to hold my position. Since I started so far back I'm unsure how I finished but I felt like it was a good race regardless. Only three more of these left and it's kinda sad hitting the beginning of the end of another MTB season.

Full Throttle #5 Deer Valley

2009-07-08T10:26:00.000-07:00

The quote of the night was from Jon Rose after we pre-rode the course...."maybe we should have listened to Bob and done trail work". I'm glad we didn't. The climb was short but painful. It started out pretty mellow but got steeper and steeper as we got closer to the top. The downhill was at times fast and flowy, other times twisty, but always technical. The last 150 yards of the downhill was a tree run including some of DV's manmade features; ramps, log bridges, and small drops.

The start was fast as usual. A descent sized group opened a gap on me early but I kept them in sight. About five of the lead group popped as the climb got steeper and we formed up a little chase group. Dropped a couple of them on the DH and as the 2nd lap climb began I could still see the lead group of three in the distance but I wasn't making up any ground on them. At the very top of the final climb I tried to make a little attack but everybody answered and we hit the final DH together. Jay gave us the option to skip the really techy parts at the end and take the cheater route but everybody I was with chose the difficult line and I followed suit. By this time my legs were worked. The climb was tough and there was no rest on the DH since I needed to stand the whole time to keep it together. I got a little wide on the log plank bridge and into the aspens I went. Did a quick check to make sure everything was in one piece and tentatively finished the race out. I think I finished around 7th of over 20 starters.

I was worried that the June Monsoon was going to totally screw up my prep for Laramie and PCPP but I feel like I'm finally rounding into the pathetic level of fitness I call my form. Looking forward to a fun 2nd half.

Full Throttle #4

2009-07-05T23:10:00.000-07:00

I am finally over my cold and had been looking forward to the weekly throwdown at Solitude. I was a little disappointed because between vacays, work trips, newborns, racing fatigue and the lure of air rifles none of my friendly competition could make the race. Apparently I'm one of the few people crazy enough to not want to ever miss a silly midweek race. At the opening sprint I settled comfortably in mid back (one of these days I'm going to contest that sprint....really). Once the climb started I efficiently began working my way through traffic until I ran into a train of about eight dudes snaking up the ski run near the top. I knew there was no way around this cluster so I settled in and rested till the road. Got around everybody on the road and nailed it in order to try to make up some time. I saw Janelle in the distance but couldn't quite get around her before the DH. Luckily she was nice enough to overcook the first hard left and I snuck around her. Finished the race out incident free for a PB time of just over 50 mins. Next race we're shifting to the new course but hopefully we'll race the old on one more time this year so I can try to break 50 mins.

SLC->DV and back

2009-07-02T07:06:00.000-07:00

Last Friday I had the day to myself. I knew I was going to killed being on call for two hospitals that weekend so I wanted to get in a long ride. It was raining when I woke up but quickly cleared and by 11am I was out the door. Up Millcreek, backwards up Crest, drop down into PC and took some high trails over to DV. As I was approaching DV the skies turned black and just as I pulled into the lodge for a pit stop the rain came down. I sat there for about 10 minutes hoping it would pass and when the rain slackened about 10 minutes laer I hit Mid Mountain over towards PC. I dropped down Empire bypass and by the time I hit Johns 99 the clouds were clearing again and I thought I dodged a bullet. Grabbed MM over to the Canyons and took another pit stop at Red Pine where they were having a wedding under the tent. I sat down in the sun on the patio for a bit sucking on a Gu and texting Rhonda with a status update when the photographer for the wedding party came over. I guess the bride thought it would be cool to have a picture with me and the wedding party, them being all clean and beautified while I was covered in a thin layer of mud from being dusty and getting rained on. They took the picture and since it was getting late I mounted up for home. The clouds came back while I was climbing back out of the Canyons and as I popped over the ridge into Millcreek the skies opened up in a torrential downpour. By this time it was nearly 8pm and I just wanted to get home. I took the direct trail down and by the time I got about halfway down there was at least 4" of running water in the trail and I was soaked to the bone. I popped out in the upper parking lot and hid in the outhouse for awhile trying to get warm. After a few minutes I peeked out and saw nothing but clouds so rather than waiting who knows how long for the storm to pass I headed down the canyon. Descending Millcreek was a blur of shivering, numb hands and feet and trying to keep the road spray out of my mouth so I wouldn't get sick again. Just as I pulled into my house at 9pm the rain finally let up. Still a great ride.

87% Throttle: Race 3

2009-06-27T08:59:00.000-07:00

I finally have some excuses for poor race performance other than I'm slow. I showed up Wednesday night at Solitude hoping for the best but expecting the worst. Instead I fell somewhere in between. I'd been fighting a nasty headcold all week but when when race time rolled around I went with the old adage that if a cold is from the neck up you're OK to exercise. Rhonda and I did a pre-ride lap and I felt OK but I was having some major drivetrain issues. When I got back to the car I gave the bike a close examination and realized I had a severely bent link in my chain that made my rear D ghost shift under strain. If you're counting from home that's excuse #2. Going up the road on the opening sprint I died and settled into mid-pack a few riders behind Wedge. I started getting warmed up on the climb but as I got out of the saddle to power up the first steep pitch my rear D locked up and I had to pull over to free up my chain. 5-6 guys got around me and I mounted back up and tried to remember to stay seated and nurse my drivetrain by spinning. I made a few passes on the climb and re-connected with Wedge at the road. Stood up to try to put some distance into him on the paved hill and the drivetrain popped again reminding me that that wasn't going to happen today. Rode behind Wedge across the top and he hit the decent about 30 seconds ahead of me. After getting completely bitched by Wedge and his 5" at Desert Rampage my goal on the DH was to hold his wheel as long as possible. I lost a little time to him on the real rough stuff but I finished the DH and entered the climb right on his wheel giving me my lone bright spot of the race. Felt OK on the second climb but 3/4 of the way up I cracked. No power left, HR in a downward spiral and an upset stomach full of post nasal drip forced me to back off the the throttle. My time ended up being about 4 minutes slower than my average time from last year. Not horrible considering.

Rhonda led most of her race but the girl who has won all three womens races was playing a bit of cat and mouse. She played with Rhonda by staying in contact behind her the first lap and then stepped on the gas at the end of the final climb giving it just enough to make sure she won. Rhonda held off the girls behind her for 2nd place.

I'm in.

2009-06-21T06:59:00.000-07:00

Are you?

Corner Canyon

2009-06-17T15:56:00.000-07:00

I met up with Drew and Joel for a little spin around corner canyon today. We were planning on doing the Round Valley race later in the day so we kept things pretty chill and I got to explore some newer trails I hadn't ridden before. Brock's Point will be sweet once it's broken in, the new part of lower Jacobs Ladder is well done. The freeride DH trail that everybody raves about was nice I suppose but it just wasn't my cup of tea. I'm guessing the low bar, high saddle race geometry on my hardtail didn't help matters but I would have had more fun descending ghost or Clark's. The trails were all in perfect condition and the rain held off giving us an excellent 2.5 hrs in the saddle.

Millcreek rain ride

2009-06-14T16:56:00.000-07:00

After 6 days of riding the couch I braved the elements and did a Saturday morning MTB ride in the rain. Rode from my house up the road and explored the upper millcreek trails. Dog Lake is fully rideable and GWT is good do go for a couple miles past the Dog Lake turnoff before you start hiting too many snowdrifts to make it worth your time. No mud. Crest should be ready within a few weeks!

Why I'll never be fast part nine hundred ninety four.

2009-06-11T13:36:00.001-07:00

When it's June in you'll never catch me doing this:

Or this:

So when last nights race was canceled Ken called to see if we wanted to eat some of this instead:

Well minus the nekkid lady of course. Ken has impeccable taste in food so when he recommended hitting Matsu Sushi for half price rolls (mon-wed) we agreed. The rolls were excellent and for the four rolls we ate plus an appetiser our total bill was under $25. Highly recommended.

Mid Mountain Super Loop

2009-06-07T10:14:00.001-07:00

Mark P, Ken, Bob, Jen and Shannon joined me Saturday me for this bad boy.

Over 62 miles of the greatest singletrack you'll ever ride. If you ride Mountain Bikes and you don't live in Utah you're missing out.

editors note: Bob, Shannon and Jen wanted 6 hrs tops so they bailed at Johns trail and didn't finish the ride. Mark P bailed with them. Wedge started the ride with us but locked his camelbak and keys in his car and just rode Flying Dog. The GPS track file shows us poaching the private trails through Pinebrook at the end of the ride. We of course would never do such a thing so please ignore that part of the track.

Move over Mexi-Coke

2009-06-05T07:04:00.001-07:00

Now there's something...........American-er?

Pepsi throwback. Made with real sugar just like back in the day. Kind of the same deal as Mexi-coke in that the sugar doesn't overpower the cola flavor like HFCS does. It's also a easier to deal with the empties since the cans can just be thrown in the recycling bin. Just for Fox they also make Mt Dew throwback.

Full Throttle Round Valley #2

2009-06-04T07:01:00.000-07:00

Sometimes all the stars align, everything works out perfectly and a MTB racer has a break out race. It happened to me a couple years ago at the final race of the Solitude series. Somehow I needed to beat a much faster racer in order to finish in the money. After getting dropped on the hole shot I clawed back onto the guys wheel on the opening climb and was able to put a small gap on him across the top. I was able to hold him off for the rest of the race and man it felt good. I haven't done much since but that's beside the point. Last night I think Mark had his breakout ride when he decided to race his rigid SS for the first time. The race was a training race on a pretty mellow course, in other words a perfect venue to try out the single. To set this up properly Mark has never beaten me in a race before and I'm pretty sure he's never really even come close. We lined up together near the front and this week my plan was to go hard at the start and enter the singletrack in a good position. I was in about 4th with Mark right there until my legs reminded me that they weren't quite ready for that kind of effort after yesterdays ride. I fell back into around 20th by the time we hit the singletrack with Mark maybe 8-10 places ahead of me. My legs warmed up well and I started making some passes climbing the singletrack with Buzzard hot on my heels but Mark was nowhere to be found. Near the top I saw J-dub right ahead of me and knowing she doesn't like people riding her wheel on the DH I struck a couple matches and got around her. I turned back to let Buzzard pass me before the DH started so I could try to match his mad DH skills but I had gapped him with my big acceleration at the top. Oh and BTW, still no Mark. Since I hadn't caught him yet I started figuring he must have dropped out or something. I caught a few more people on the 2nd lap and finished with a pretty nice time of about a minute faster then last week. Mark was at the finish line waiting and he looked worked over like he had just finished, not dropped out. He killed it riding the SS finishing over a minute ahead of me and he beat his time from last week by over 6 minutes! I don't know what it was but something about the rigid SS brought out the best in him. I have a feeling we'll see him racing DV next Saturday banging with the rest of the crazies on SS's. Well done Mark!

Morgan Valley Roadie Tour

2009-06-02T17:46:00.000-07:00

After a crappy weekend of call and house projects, not to mention 5 days off the bike I was blessed with today off. I new a big ride was in order and since most people work on Tuesdays it was going to be solo. I decided the road bike was getting a little lonely and it had been awhile since I did a solo century so that was the plan. So where to go? Well I refuse to drive to ride the road and I'm about sick of dodging cars in the valley so I decided to go over the top of Big Mountain, down into east canyon and tour the Morgan Valley.

107 miles and 8300 ft climbing. The highlight was defiantly climbing back up over Big Mountain with 80 miles on my legs in a rain squall. Oh, and there was a "shart" alert in the middle of the squall but luckily it was a false alarm. It will be very interesting seeing how my legs feel at tomorrow nights race. I guess that's what training races are for.

Sticking it to Bin Laden.....Prius Style

2009-06-01T07:41:00.000-07:00

52 MPG, mixed city and highway, all normal driving (i.e. 70-75 mph on the freeway). No wonder GM and Chrysler are bankrupt, they have nothing that compares. There are no compromises for your 52MPG in the Prius. It's comfortable, roomy and has plenty of get up and go when you need it.

Christmas in May

2009-05-29T07:37:00.000-07:00

Rhonda and I don't really buy each other presents for Christmas. I'm a thrifty dude and I can't stand spending anywhere near full price for anything so when x-mas rolls around and everything is expensive I don't buy. What I do instead is have an idea in my head of things I want to buy for Rhonda and when I find a deal I jump on it. I've been in the market for a new roadie for her for awhile and when I found a barely used Cannondale Carbon Synapse on ebay for less then half price I jumped on it. She's back from Florida and tearing up the tarmac on it right now.

Merry Christmas sweetie!

She's a little spoiled I know but she works hard and deserves it.

Full Throttle #1

2009-05-28T15:10:00.000-07:00

I was geeked when I found out in the beginning of May that the Full Throttle Weekly Race series was on this year and had added 3 more races and a new venue. It's by far my favorite race series every season. Cheap entry fee's, sweet swag, cool courses, great people, cash purses and it's well run. It's also nice that the races are quick and painful and you don't waste an entire day racing.

Headed up with Ken last night and arrived early enough for a course recon. Sweet course, middle ring singletrack climbs and a tight twisty downhill which was challenging to maintain speed on for someone of my stature. I new the pace would be frenzied from the start up the dirt road and I wasn't feeling particularly fast so I lined up near the back with Kris. The plan was to suck a couple wheels up the dirt road into the headwind to warm up and do my passing on the singletrack. Not the wisest of race strategies I know but anything goes in a mid-week series and it sounded like fun at the time. Jay sounded the start and off we went... well most of us. The Clyde in front of me gave a mighty heave of a pedal stroke and a loud POP sounded! His drivetrain detonated, he fell over and the guys ahead of me rode off into the sunset (literally). I snuck around Hoss and unsuccessfully tried to solo across no-mans land to catch on to the main group. I got around a couple of dudes who fell off the back on the road and passed Mark N (he who races not so often) after he blew-up on the singletrack. I caught up to Bob on the first downhill and thought he might have popped since he's an older gent and just raced on Monday. I was about to commence some serious heckling till I saw the blood pouring down his leg. Yikes! The climb wasn't long enough and the downhill was too twisty for me to catch anybody else except for some of the expert girls and I finished somewhere mid-pack. Not a great result but not bad considering Mark A only grabbed 4th and he's pretty dang fast. Fun race and I can't wait till next week.

Tour de Lower Park City

2009-05-23T16:11:00.000-07:00

The season of big rides is upon us. Yesterday Lucy joined Rhonda and I for this jem:

5:45 saddle time and just over 52 miles, 99% singletrack. Glenwild, Flying Dog, various Round Valley trails, Prospector loop and back. It's unfair to the rest of the world that this stuff is a 20 minute drive away. I was planning to take today off but Ken wanted to ride so who was I to turn him down:

Lower DV is ready to go. Deer Crest, Spin Cycle, Snow top, Solamare etc all in mint condition.

SC Blur? 29er

2009-05-21T06:36:00.000-07:00

Santa Cruz is coming out with a full suspention carbon fiber VPP 29er that will be ready by Interbike. While it's not (yet?) being called a Blur 29 I'm guessing that's what it will basically be. I'd like to say I'm going to start pinching pennies so I can replace my current Blur as soon as this bike comes out but I can almost guarantee the frame alone is going to cost $2500+.

New Ride

2009-05-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

2009 Toyota Prius. It's our first new car in 11 years. We've been wanting to replace our Honda Prelude for awhile now and my tree hugging disposition would not allow me to buy anything other than a hybrid. My cheap side however would not allow me to pay full price+ for a new car. Finally Toyota decided to offer deep discounts on the Prius for the first time ever. With gas prices down and the 2010's being released at the end of the month we were able to get the car for a few hundred over invoice with 0% financing. Now we're loving life at 50MPG!

The Sherpa-bak

2009-05-19T06:37:00.000-07:00

J-dub is fast. Blazingly fast actually. There is a video floating around the interweb of her working over a cat 1 roadie girl in the final sprint of a cross race last year. Impressive stuff. Last year J-dub didn't have a very successfull MTB season. She was on a loaner hardtail with a blown fork which was a huge handicap at the races. This year she has a new Anthem X and is getting very familiar with the MTB podium. As fast as J-dub is she can't quite break into the top three and I think I know why.

Exhibit A

The Sherpa-bak

Here she is waving bye-bye to the top three unencumbered girls

Holy crap that camel-bak is huge! It looks to be about the size of my week long trek backpack and it's gotta have it's own gravitational field. Now Jennie is way too tuff and would never admit that she is being handicapped by the large orangutan clinging to her back on bike races so I'm starting the free Jennie fund drive. You can donate to me via paypal and 100% of your donation will go to buying J-dub a nice small race worthy camel-bak.

P.S. Don't tell her about the fund drive. I think she just finally forgave me for the impromptu adventure I took her on last year and I don't want her mad at me again.

The Battered Bastard of Soldier Hollow

2009-05-18T07:31:00.000-07:00

My muscles were cold, and I was tired and hungry at the start of the Hammerfest. Right from the start the sandbag Nazi's in the front started lobbing Howitzer rounds back at me and I was huddling in my foxhole begging for mercy. I was officially shelled. My ride quickly turned from a race into a hard training ride so it was still a productive day. The guy who won had lap times that would have put him in the top 10 out of 25 experts. If it's really that much fun beating up on slow dudes than go for it but it seems like such a waste of time to me. That's it for me in the Icup for awhile. I'll get plenty of racing over the next couple months in the Full Throttle series and I'll spend my Saturdays doing long training rides in prep for Laramie.

Rhonda had a great race. We've both been busy and haven't been riding a lot but Rhonda has been especially pressed for time lately so she went in with really low expectations. She felt great at the start and found herself riding not too far behind Alison on the big climb. Alison is fast and Rhonda knew that if she could keep her in sight she would have a good race. Heading out on the second lap she starting gaining on Alison and before Rhonda knew it she was right on Alison's wheel. She made the pass expecting Alison to get back around her before the finish but she held her off all the way through for her best finish ever in sport finishing sixth out of fourteen women. Well done!

Moab re-gains it's Mojo

2009-05-11T12:47:00.000-07:00

Moab, the so called "mecca" of mountain biking lost that title a long time ago in my opinion. Fruita came on the scene in the 90's with way more trails most of which were singletrack and more interesting. Even St. George had passed Moab in my book again due to more singletrack and just as importantly better winter weather. After this weekend I'm happy to report Moab is back!

Drucy invited us, Triple H and Vremington (minus "ington" who was busy riding in circles) to hang with them for the weekend. Drucy are famous for being well informed tour guides of the Moab area so we were excited to go. Friday we met up at the Sovereign trailhead to explore some of the newly laid trail and newly improved old trail. Sovereign has always been one of our absolute favorite trails and it is now even better. The addition of the Salt Wash singletrack plus all the connectors allows you to form a nearly endless series of loops and really adds a lot to the old out and back trail. After nearly 20 miles and a full afternoon of shredding 1-track our low beer light was on so we packed it in and headed to the Moab Brewery where Drucy have the magic key fob that allows you to walk out the door with $6 growlers.

Saturday we decided to explore the newly legal Upper Porcupine Singletrack (UPS). If any of us had even the slightest clue as to the treat we were in for we wouldn't have been able to sleep Friday night. We parked our trucks at the Porcupine rim trailhead and spun out the mellow climb up Sand Flats road to the Kokopelli trail. Pedaled a mile up the Kokopelli to the junction with UPS and the real fun began. Just after the start of the trail Triple H fell victim to an endo on a particularly sketchy slickrock drop and had to head back to the car. She was OK but just a little too rattled to go on. We continued on for what might have been the best ride of our lives. The trail was indescribably amazing. Tight singletrack, amazing views and technical moves that pushed our limits just enough at every turn. The highlight was the long descent down the slickrock cliff face. I was on point and had just finished a bit of fast flowy singletrack through some pines when I was spit out at a high rate of speed on a steep slickrock cliff face. The trail markers are pointing me straight towards the edge and I'm moving way too fast to stop. Just before the edge the trail takes a hard left and I am dropped into a small sand trap and then back down another Slickrock face. Another drop into sand, a short up onto another slickrock ridge with a 6' gully on the left and some scrub trees to the right. Halfway down the steep ridge is a moderate left turn that drops you down to the dirt and back onto normal trail. After hero riding everything else the speed I carried into this section finally got the best of me and into the trees I went. Couple scrapes, no biggie. As I'm climbing out of the tree Drew and Alison ride by and I hear Rhonda behind me yelling "where am I going!" right before her and Lucy pop over the little up and ride by me. It was at this point that the best trail ever discussion began and it was a unanimous decision that we were on it. Much, much more of the same all the way down to the Porcupine rim and two days later I'm still sure it was the best trail I've ever ridden.....Period. Lucy, Alison and Rhonda were all amazing on this ride. They were fearless and were shredding trail like no girls I have ever seen. Drew and I kept trying to get ahead so we could stop and take pictures but every time we stopped there they were right behind us. They were blasting up and over steep slickrock boulders, rolling 3-4' drops and cleaning tech moves that would have made me cry just a few years ago. It was truly an honor to have ridden with them that day.

On the way out of town we hit Klondike Bluffs, Baby Steps and then Rays Tavern to cap off the best Moab trip ever.

Moab Photo Post

2009-05-11T07:45:00.000-07:00

Sovereign

Rhonda doing a big up (and I'm a bad photographer)

Sovereign

Look at that smile!

Drew on Sovereign

Believe it or not, this is still Moab

Drew's 29'er climbs anything

Lucy dropping a rock on UPS

Alison on Porcupine Rim

3-mile mud pass

2009-05-04T13:41:00.000-07:00

I took it in the shorts on my pre-reg and skipped it. Probably wise because I don't have the intensity of this guy.

Way to get after it Drew!

Lovely

2009-04-30T07:47:00.000-07:00

5-mile pass is always my favorite race of the year. Not my favorite course but my favorite race. It always has the biggest turnout, there's plenty of room to pass and the DH's aren't too hairball. It works out well for me because normal people can do OK. 130 lb climber on a $8000 carbon full suspension bike with carbon rims? No advantage. No big hills to climb and good luck with those flimsy wheels when you hit a rock big ringing down the wash on the backside. Interval king who rides hard and fast for an hour a day 4 days a week? We'll see how you feel 18 miles in. Normal 180 lb dude on a $2,000 29er HT who likes to ride a lot but hates intervals because they ruin the absolute pleasure of just getting out on your bike (on nice weather days only)? For one race out of the season this guy can feel kinda fast.

Unfortunately for the fair weather racer this is the forecast for the weekend:

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY. A MOIST PACIFIC STORM SYSTEM IS EXPECTED TO IMPACT MUCH OF THE OUTLOOK AREA LATE FRIDAY NIGHT THROUGH SATURDAY. WIDESPREAD VALLEY RAINFALL...WITH SNOW ABOVE 8500 FEET IS EXPECTED BEGINNING LATE FRIDAY NIGHT AND CONTINUING ON AND OFF THROUGHOUT SATURDAY. THOSE PLANNING OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES THIS WEEKEND (such as a bike race) SHOULD BE PREPARED FOR INCLEMENT WEATHER CONDITIONS.

Now I do a little cross on the side and had a good time at the crappy weather cross races this year but that was in the fall. After a long, hot, dry summer a little rain and mud is a good thing. After a long cold winter racing in the rain and mud sucks.

1000 mile spring

2009-04-24T09:47:00.000-07:00

I rolled past 1000 miles of riding this spring on the Bonneville Shoreline Freeway trail last night. 567 miles (37 hours) on the road and 444 miles (47 hours) on the MTB. Adding in the 26 hours I did on the trainer since December and that's the best winter/early spring I've ever had. I felt fantastic on the White Rim last Saturday and I think the early season miles had a lot to do with that. Hopefully the weather cooperates and I can have a great spring season and come on strong in the late summer endurance races. It's too bad there aren't any nearby endurance races before August though. I guess I'll just have to settle for getting shelled in a couple ICUP's.

White Rim in a day

2009-04-20T07:57:00.000-07:00

White Rim in a day has always been on the "bucket list" and this was the year I was confident enough in my fitness that I knew I could finish it without any support. Ken and Steve both had this on their lists as well so they joined me. Steve and I drove down Friday afternoon and set up camp at Mineral Bottom. The adventure part of the trip started early when I realized I forgot the regulator for my camp stove and we were forced to use the skills we've learned watching the Discovery Channel to cook our spaghetti and meatballs over an open fire. Ken rolled in around 11pm and we had a peaceful night under the stars. We woke up at around 7am and packed up all our stuff. We knew the road out of Canyonlands was going to be closed at 8pm for construction so we wanted to be able to get moving as soon as we finished the ride.

The ride was funny. The trail was harder than I thought but actually doing the ride was easier then I thought. For some reason I thought the White Rim road was just a fairly mellow rolling dirt road with spectacular scenery. The truth is that the road is really a jeep road. Not crazy rough like Porcupine or Amasa but rough enough I wouldn't want to drive it in anything that wasn't pretty off-road capable. We started out a pretty mellow pace and I kept falling a little behind as I gawked at the scenery. About 40 miles in I started getting in a bit of a funk. I wasn't tired but I was getting kinda tired of being on the bike and was thinking man this is going to take forever. After about mile 50 I knew I needed to mix things up a little bit so on a long, smooth, mellow climb I shifted into the 44-11 and put on some speed. Instantly I felt a million times better. I was getting some flow in the rough sections and felt like I was finally starting to make some progress. I stopped and waited a bit for Ken and Steve at the White Crack turn off. Ken was wondering if I had done some EPO and was threatening to report me to the Sandbag Potentate. I just told him the longer and the faster I rode the better I felt. From that point to Hardscrabble hill it was more of the same, I'd ride with them for a bit but then my butt would start to hurt and I would start sinking into a funk so I had to pick up the pace and blaze trail for awhile.

About 90 miles in when we reached the Green River I made my only bad decision of the entire ride. Up until that point I had been religious about consuming 20oz of water and 300 calories per hour. I knew Hardscabble hill was coming up so I slowed down on my nutrition and hydration so I could tackle it without a bunch of stuff slopping around in my stomach. At the top of the hill I had a bit of energy drink but by that time I was sick of it and it wasn't tasting that great. I made the decision to push through the last 10 miles without feeding and just wait and enjoy real food at the truck. Bad move. By this time all of my stored glycogen was gone and I was running on my fat burning and the carbs I was taking in. My fat burning engine couldn't keep up with demand and there were no carbs coming in so on that last section I finally started to run out of steam. The last five miles were not fun as all I could think about was the cold water at the car.

We finished the 103 miles in right around 8.5 hours of saddle time. I consumed around 170 oz of my personal endurance formula energy drink, two flasks (about 10-12 shots) of hammer gel, one small cookie and maybe 10 oz of pure water for around 3000 calories. Right on target other than the lapse of judgement over the last 10 miles.

We finished at a little after 7pm and knew we had to bust ass to get out before the road closed. We got out to the highway by 7:45 and started heading to town for dinner. At 7:50 we hit the road closed barrier. The wonderful people had shut down the road early. We moved on to our backup plan of taking Long Canyon down to Potash road and back to Moab. The park ranger had told Steve that Long Canyon was dirt road with a short sketchy section but not too bad. It's actually a hairy jeep road that required 4wd-low in a couple sections made even more fun by the fact that it was dark. We survived the canyon unscathed and headed to Moab to grub down on some Mexican. The original plan was to camp out near Sovereign trail that night but it was so late by the time we finished dinner we just grabbed a motel and crashed. Woke up on Sunday well recovered and did a quick loop on the Sovereign trail on the way out of town.

White Rim Picture Post

2009-04-20T07:46:00.001-07:00

Write up to follow

Enjoyed it while I could

2009-04-14T07:55:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what's going on in this picture and I was afraid to ask.

We had two days of nice weather before another onset of four days of crap and we made the best of it. Easter Sunday we linked up with Drucy, Wedge and his buddy Christopher for a Suncrest assault. We had a nice warmup from our house down to Draper. The boys got a head start up the hill while I waited at the Chevron for Rhonda to catch up. She was felling good so I left her and bridged up to Lucy. Caught a short draft from Lucy and then put on a bit of speed to catch back on to the menfolk before the start of the steep stuff. Wedge pulled away from us on the first part of the climb but Drew and I caught back on at the first false flat. Wedge pulled away again on the big right hand curve climb. Once past the Suncrest sign at the bottom of the last steep section I popped it into the big ring and poured on the speed to at least try to give Wedge a workout. I passed him but his mad watts quickly answered my pathetic attempt to test him and he smoked me up the last hill. I almost died on the decent. My bike got this weird shimmy in the crosswind and it got worse as I tried to slow down. I finally got the bike stopped and checked my wheel skewers. Everything was tight and the bike was fine the rest of the way but it was a scary moment. Saw soon to be expert racer Ken at the bottom. He had been off skiing with his dad in the am and popped out for a quick ride. He's pushing back the inevitable for another race but the shame will begin if he wins at 5-mile and becomes the teams first ever official sandbagger.

Last night Rhonda and I busted the MTB's out of the hibernation they had been in since early March and hit the BST. Our house to dry creek and back at a nice easy pace for two hours and 20 miles. It was sooooo nice to be back on dirt. I'm really tired of cold windy road rides.

Kitchen done.

2009-04-11T15:55:00.000-07:00

Early in the project (there used to be a door into the garage to the right of the fridge opening)
Finished result

I took advantage of tired legs and the threat of rain to put the finishing touches on our kitchen extension project today. We're very happy with the results. It made the kitchen feel quite a bit bigger and most importantly both of us can now be in the kitchen without getting in each others way.

Spring Smoke

2009-04-07T07:18:00.000-07:00

Thigh deep on the upside of the skin track

Riding your bike to go skiing is too hardcore for me

Saturday was insane. Bottomless light fluffy pow unlike I've ever seen in April. Rhonda had an AM shindig and most people I knew were racing bikes in one form or another so I flew solo. I started around 10am and toured Mill D for four hours until the temps started to rise and the snow got heavy. Everybody I ran into marveled at the crazy snow. The bad news is that the 12 feet of fresh in the last couple weeks will probably make for another shortened MTB season as we wait till July for the high elevation trails to melt out.

Sunday the sun came out and it warmed up nicely so Rhonda and I did a mellow 4 hr Suncrest road ride. Suprisingly enough there were not a lot of people out especially since it was the first nice day in almost two weeks.

Vo2 Max test

2009-04-03T19:03:00.000-07:00

Just for giggles Rhonda and I signed up for a VO2 max test up at the U. It went pretty much as expected. My absolute VO2 max is 3.9 l/min which is a rockin pro racer type of number. Of course the VO2 max number relative to my body weight (which is actually the number that means something) is a whopping 49.5 ml/kg/min adjusted for elevation. That number is in the 85th percentile for the average couch potato american but it's pathetic compared to competitive cyclists. Elite cyclists average 60+ ml/kg/min and trained amature cyclists are in the 50-60 range. My Ventilatory Threshold is at 74% of my VO2 max.

Rhonda's numbers were better. Her relative VO2 max was 43.4. She's above the 90th percentile for the average female. Elite female cyclists are usually 55+ and trained cyclists are 40-55. Rhonda is relatively untrained and could potentially raise that number by 10-15%. Her Ventilatory Threshold is at 65% of VO2 max and with training she could get that number up to 80%+.

Kick in the balls

2009-03-26T07:33:00.000-07:00

I'm on call this weekend so no sweet bluebird backcountry powder turns for me. Also because of all the snow the shoreline will be the mudline so there's no singletrack to be ripped. I can't wait to ride my roadbike in circles for three hours staying no farther than a half hour from my house in case I get called in. Maybe I should just end it all in a blaze of wrecked carbon, aluminum, flesh, bone and glory at RMR.

Dirt and Pork

2009-03-23T13:06:00.000-07:00

Almost four hours of BST dirt on Saturday gave me around 15 for the week. A little more than planned but who can resist the lure of singletrack with bluebird skies and mild temps? The muscles were screaming for some repairs and a dose of protein was in order. We met soon to be expert MTBer Ken, his wife Anna and friend Andrew at Pats BBQ for some world class ribs. Ate almost half a rack of the meatiest, most tender ribs ever created and followed it up with a supersized Snickers shake from Iceberg. If you ever need to know where to go out to eat in the SLC talk to Ken. He knows all the good spots.

BST update

2009-03-20T06:49:00.000-07:00

Last night I rode from home-zoo-dry creek-bobsled-up city creek and back. Contrary to published reports Bobsled has a one section of pretty sloppy mud. It's short enough and there is so much traffic and maintenance done on the trail that I didn't worry about it but the section is sloppy enough that you probably will need to clean your bike/drivetrain post ride. I rode it at 7pm so I'm betting its a little less sloppy first thing in the AM. Other than the mud the trail is in sweet condition. The local free-ride bros have really spent some quality time working the trail.

BST SLC good to go

2009-03-19T07:07:00.000-07:00

Rode the BST last night. Home-zoo-dry creek-city creek and all trails were dry and good to go. The trail is hurting in quite a few spots with criss-crossing pizza cutter lines all over where the Fred's have been riding through the mud but when one has the ability to ride almost 1.5 hours of dirt in mid-March one should not complain.

DV and Suncrest

2009-03-16T08:46:00.000-07:00

We had some friends in town from Michigan the latter part of last week for a ski vacation. I had to work while they skied Thursday and Friday but we got to ski with them on Saturday. TC, who is a saint in training, miraculously got us some last minute tickets to DV so off we went to ski with the rich and famous. The fresh snow was long gone but we had an awesome day of playing high speed follow the leader down the groomers and Greg Miller's Mogul challenge everywhere else. Six hours of hammering moguls till your legs collapse led to some sore hip flexors the next day. We reloaded the muscles with buffalo burgers and plenty of beer at Squatters followed by way too much ice cream at Coldstone.

Sunday our friends flew home at 2pm and Rhonda and I headed out for a Suncrest adventure. We rode from our house down around the point of the mountain into the UC. Highway into Alpine, up the south side of Suncrest and down the north. We ran into Doug and Eric during a potty break at the equestrian center. They had just finished a corner canyon shred session and updated us on trail conditions. From there it was a mad dash home for some serious pre bed-time eating. 60 miles and around 4 hrs of saddle time. Between the moguls on Saturday and the long ride yesterday my hips are worked.

Miles of Misery

2009-03-12T12:42:00.000-07:00

After two weekends in a row of riding in shorts and shortsleeves I couldn't bring myself to ride outside in the sub-artic temps on Tuesday. I watched Zoolander and rode the trainer for a bit, not so bad. Wednesday I wanted to do something after work and the trainer didn't sound too appealing. I though about skating but my skis desperately needed a wax job and I was too lazy to do it. I decided to man up, throw on a jacket and ride outside. It was 45 and sunny when I left my house but the a cold north wind was blowing. I took my usual route south down Wasatch. Everything was kosher till I decided to take a swing through Dimple Dell. The descent down was fast and I started to get cold but figured I would quickly warm back up. My fingers went numb and as I turned back towards Wasatch my stomach started to cramp. I was hoping I would warm back up while climbing Wasatch but unfortunately I had hit the point of being so cold I was unable to put out enough watts to warm back up. The ride back home on Wasatch into the icy north wind was pure torture. A seemingly never ending sufferfest of bone numbing cold while I cursed myself out for being too lazy to wax my skis.

Desert Rampage

2009-03-09T07:54:00.000-07:00

I think doing cyclocross last fall might have paid off. Last year the opening sprints saw me spit out the back in no time flat. This year I was able to hold on to the back with very little effort and even did a bit of coasting while drafting in the back. I was in the back of a lead group of about 12 entering the first wash. Coming out into the first climb the top guys starting pulling away and I was able to work my way through a few guys ahead of me by the end of the climb. I got shelled on the first downhill losing a few spots. In the second wash climb a large group of us (10-15) got caught behind some slower riders. There was no room to pass and my timing got jacked up on the last up ledge and I went down. Didn't cost me much time and I got right back in the Tonga line going up but I was annoyed with myself. More of the same the rest of the race. OK on the climbs, shelled on the DH. In fact Wedge passed me on the 2nd to last DH, I almost caught back on to him on the climb and then proceeded to lose almost 2 minutes to him on the final DH. I'm normally not that bad but for some reason I have a much greater fear of falling into rocks and cactus than I do of falling into dirt and trees. I ended up 11th out of 18 or so starters so not too bad.

This was Rhonda's first sport race in the desert. On her first lap she knocked almost five minutes off her single lap time from last year. Absolutely amazing! She finished in 11th place in a stacked Sport Women's category. Her time this year would have put her in 3rd place last year.

Sunday a group of 20+ of us did a team group ride on the Hurricane Rim loop. 23 miles of singletrack bliss. Altogether an amazing weekend. MTB racing is a wonderful challenging sport and the people who participate in it are almost without exception awesome. I get to race at the same time as some of the fastest people in the world and every last one of them is humble about their mad skills and always willing to give advice when asked. As in any racing there's a few annoying people who enjoy winning a bit too much but even those guys try to be humble about it:)

Day 2

2009-03-03T09:01:00.000-08:00

I forgot to mention this but after riding Saturday we hit Red Rooster restaurant based on a Team Buzzard recommend. It was excellent. I had the fish taco's for $7 and Rhonda had Garlic Shrimp Fajitas for $10. Everything is homemade including their chips, salsa and tortilla's. It's a small place located in a shopping plaza next to the Albertsons on Sunset in Santa Clara. Highly recommended.

When we ran into Greg on Saturday he mentioned that even though Bearclaw was trashed, Stucki was still in excellent condition so we hit that on Sunday. We rode from Rhonda's mom's in Sun River to the Bearclaw trailhead. Rode up Bearclaw to the Stucki turn off and took Stucki over to the Stucki springs 4wd road. The BLM has done a bunch of new signing and fencing and for the first time the Stucki trail is marked all the way to the road. It would have been nice if they had done that a couple years ago when I always used to get lost back there but beggers can't be choosers. We took the road up to the 4 wheeler trail that drops in and out of the small canyon and connects to Barrel Roll. Did a lap on Barrel Roll and turned around to retrace our steps back only instead of taking Bearclaw we turned off early to try to find the Bloomington Microloop. We followed the signs and landed in a wash that had a lot of tracks but ended at a barbwire fence near a road. Over the fence we went. I guessed that if anybody saw us we wouldnt get in too much trouble since the fence was meant to keep rednecks from getting in to the Desert Preserve while we were white necks trying to get out. The dirt road we got on after hopping the fence was straight out of The Hills Have Eyes but we were able to avoid any mutant attacks and ended the ride safely. 4.5 hrs and 40 miles later we cleaned up grabbed a Hungry Howies pizza and were going to straight line it back to SLC until a Dairy Queen craving hit us in Scipio and we caved for both a Pumpkin Pie and a Chocolate Cherry Sweetheart Blizzard.

St. George day 1

2009-03-02T09:44:00.000-08:00

I snuck out of work a little early Friday and we headed for St. George. After arriving at Rhonda's moms house I mounted up a new Racing Ralph 2.25 up front to give it a bit of run in the desert. Saturday we relaxed in the AM enjoying coffee and bagels before heading over to the raceway for some course recon. We hooked on to a Mad Dog (plus UMB Kendra) group ride at the base of the course and started out on a lap. Rhonda and Dot took the point with me trailing behind. At the top of the first wash I had to stop and adjust the pitch of my saddle a bit. I've been experimenting with a slight bit of starboard roll on my saddle this winter to help compensate for a leg length discrepancy and I messed up the pitch a bit in doing so. After I finished adjusting my saddle I looked up the hill and the girls were long gone. I don't know what it is with girls and group rides but I figured I might as well try to catch back on. I opened it up on the hill and caught everybody else but no Dot and Rhonda. Ripped the downhill full military power thinking to myself jeeze, still no girls, damn I'm slow. Climbed the second wash, tore down the final DH and finished without running into the girls. OK, now I was truly embarrassed. I'm so slow they left on another lap without me. I headed to the car hanging my head in shame so I could deposit my long sleeves and grab some chow before heading out for another lap. As I was leaving the girls came rolling in and I'm thinking there's no way they're that fast. They weren't. Apparently the pace was so heated they took a wrong turn and I passed them as they doubled back to the course. The angry K9's had just driven down for the day to preride so they headed home and we headed out for another couple laps. We ran into Greg Larson on his way over to Zen and he burned a lap with us. After the third lap Rhonda drove back to her moms and I rode the Bearclaw Poppy war zone back. It's going to be a long time before Bearclaw recovers from the beating it received this winter. It's in such bad condition now that it's not even worth riding. Pretty much rattle your filling out bumpy. Great day, wonderful weather and a saddle time of just under 3.5 hrs

The Racing Ralph is an amazing tire. Mine was light for a high volume 29er at 540 grams. It has tons of grip set up tubeless and still rolls really fast. I've ridden SB 8's, Pythons and Nanoraptors in the 29er and this tire blows them all away.

Emi express

2009-02-25T07:07:00.000-08:00

I pulled a small train of between 1-3 riders at various times up Emigration last night. I know some people get upset by the un-announced wheel sucker also known as a barnacle but it doesn't bother me so much. I have to admit if I ever saw a 6'8" slipstream anywhere on the road I would hop onboard that train ASAP. It was a pleasant climb up. The lower half of the canyon was mostly dry and the upper half was only wet in spots. By the time I got to the top the evening clouds rolled in and I froze my nuts off on the way down but it's all good. Right now the endurance is there but the "snap" is not. Hopefully that will change by summer.

A Hint of Spring

2009-02-24T07:20:00.000-08:00

I think the cold hard grip of winter is finally starting to loosen. I was on call this weekend and couldn't range far but thanks to the relatively balmy temps I didn't need to. I got out for 7.5 hrs on the road in the last three days mostly riding various 45 minute loops around my house. Saturday seemed like a summer day there were so many riders out but the last two days surprisingly not so much even though it was just as warm. I did see Ski Utah putting in the hours on Sunday. Today is supposed to be 60+ deg so if the MRI gods cooperate and I get out of work on time I'll try to do an inaugural 2009 Emigration ride.

Laramie Enduro

2009-02-19T09:32:00.000-08:00

We signed up for the Laramie Enduro 111K MTB race on August 1st. It sounds like a pretty fun event and the price is right at only $60. It will be Rhonda's first solo endurance event so she's excited to have a goal to train for but also nervous about committing to a race that's so long. I'm excited because the race fee includes a post race dinner party with Wyoming beer.

Productive Holiday

2009-02-17T10:35:00.000-08:00

Tearing up the underlayment
Progress as of quitting time last night

Since I had played the previous two days I felt like I needed to accomplish something on Presidents day. I got a pretty good amount done for a days work (plus a couple hours after skiing the day before). Tore up the old particle board underlayment, nailed down most of the bamboo and I also shortened the length of the half-wall guarding the stairs by about 12" to increase the size of the entryway.

PC is for eating, BCC is for skiing

2009-02-15T15:38:00.000-08:00

Valen-times breakfast a day late

I think I was trying too hard to make photogenic turns cause those suck

Looking at the Honeycomb lift at Solitude. I've drooled over this ridge since the first time I skied Solitude. Now I can check it off the Bucket list.

Davenport hill on the right. Not sure what the big center peak is called?

This was the exit all the way down to the highway. It's much steeper than it looks and required jump turns most of the way down. Fun but maybe pushing it a bit solo.

Tiger shrimp fajitas and top shelf margaritas in PC last night for Valen-times, bluebird powder skiing in BCC today. Had a nice tour of Greens Basin. Since I was flying solo I was looking to explore something fun but mellow. Wasatch Tours Vol 2 made Greens Basin sound like it fit the bill. It didn't. Awesome snow and great skiing but a little hairier than I like to do solo.

Waist Deep

2009-02-14T14:55:00.000-08:00

We came in the back way
The skin track was filling as fast as we skinned it

Utah powder....

Rocks!

Well, maybe thigh deep on me but defiantly waist deep on Rhonda. The superlight fluff from last night was the icing on the cake of the all the snow we've been getting recently. Ken joined us for some turns in hidden park which I believe is one drainage over from powder park.

Change of Plans

2009-02-13T09:45:00.000-08:00

Too much fresh up north and not enough sun down south have forced my hand. We're going to stay here this weekend and do some touring instead of heading to Dixie to rip some singletrack. Hopefully base miles skinning are almost as good as base miles pedaling. Based on the number of people I know who have been having to cancel trips to southern Utah this year due to crappy weather St George is going to need an extra boost from the new Stimulus package to stay afloat.

Pillaging the pow (with a little help from UTA)

2009-02-09T09:13:00.000-08:00

Looking back at Davenport
Steep, Deep and untouched into Days Fork

Rob almost needed a snorkle

After weights and the trainer on Friday and 3 hours on the road Saturday a big tour on Sunday sounded just right to finish off my legs for the week. The new snow had bonded nicely to the older layers so the plan was to hit some nice steeps preferably with a thick base of recrystallized under the new fresh. I met Ken, Rob and Jim (on his first real tour) at the 6200 S park and ride to catch the bus up to Alta. From Alta we skinned up Grizzly and popped over the top into the east bowl of Davenport. Jim's gear wasn't totally cooperating with the terrain so after the skin back up to Davenport he dropped back down to Alta and we continued on to the west bowl of Davenport. The snow in the east bowl was a little heavy but the snow between the trees in the west bowl was excellent and there was plenty more to come. We grabbed a bite to eat and tackled the skin up to Emma Ridge and ended up looking down into Days fork. Dropped one of the chutes into Days Fork where it was steep and deep. For some reason the storm gods decided to drop about twice as much fresh in upper Days than there was in Silver Fork and the turns were truely awesome. From there we stuck the skins back on and headed towards Flagstaff Peak. By this time I was feeling the prior two days workouts and the skin up hurt but it was all worth it. The Helo's had not been out yet and the turns down the Days cirque were epic. We skied all the way down to the Highway (3200 ft over 4 miles) popping out at Spruces and grabbed the 3:30 ski bus back down to the parking lot. Man what an awesome tour! You would be hard pressed to find anywhere in the world with that sweet of turns in the backyard.

5000 foot skin job

2009-01-31T15:06:00.000-08:00

Ken scoping our lines

Gobblers opening up through the trees

SLC from Raymond

Rob ripping the glade

Ken finishing off the chute

Rob

My creamy turns near the end

Ken put out the call last night for a shortly after dawn patrol and Rob and I answered. The protected snow of Porter Fork was our destination. The snow was absolutely excellent on the North through East faces. We did a glade run off of Raymond, skinned back up and hit a nice deep sheltered chute off of Gobblers and rode the drainage all the way back to Porter. About 5k vertical of earned powder turns. My kind of base miles.

Vegas is the new St George

2009-01-26T07:52:00.000-08:00

We fled the nasty air you could taste Thursday afternoon for sunny St George. Arrived late in the evening to balmy temps and high hopes that were quickly dashed when I woke in the morning to a pitter patter of rain on the roof. Weather.gov kept telling me 30% chance of scattered showers throughout the day so I settled myself in front of the TV and kept one eye on the window waiting for the rain to stop. Around 2pm it looked like it might be slowing down so I suited up for a ride around the neighborhood gravel roads. 15 mins into the ride the sky opened up. Since I don't have proper rain apparel I was quickly drenched and I bagged it.

Saturday the plan was for me to do the Camp Lynda ride and Rhonda was going to ride with the girls. It rained all night and didn't look great when we woke up. I scoured my brain for a solution for everything that is wrong with the world. A light turned on in my head. Vegas! I hopped on the internet, got directions to the Blue Diamond/Cottonwood trails and we headed out. We've never ridden there and didn't know what to expect but were pleasantly surprised. We did a big random loop of the area (appx 27 miles) and were told by some locals that there were around 150 miles of trails total. The trails were excellent. Everything we rode was narrow desert singletrack with a mix of buff cruisers and rocky technical. It was a lot like the Hurricane rim/GEM/Goulds loop which just happens to be one of my favorite rides ever. Loved the trails and we will be back.

On the way back to Rhonda's moms house we stopped at the worlds greatest grocery store and loaded our car to the roof with tasty organics and economical vino. Why in the name of all things holy will they not build a store in Salt Lake? I guess it's just another reason to hit Vegas.

Sunday the weather was much more cooperative. We drove out to Barrel Roll, did a lap of that and a lap of Black Brush. Rhonda drove back to her moms to pack up and I rode through the shooting gallery wash over to Green Valley for a lap of the race course. I wanted to take Bearclaw back to Rhonda's moms but knew it would be a muddy mess so my conscience got the best of me and I took pavement home.

Got in 6.5 hours of saddle time this weekend which was well short of my goal of 10 but it was much better than freezing in the smog for the weekend.

Stuff White People Like

2009-01-22T08:14:00.000-08:00

#120 Taking a Year Off
#119 Sea Salt
#118 Ugly Sweater Parties
#117 Political Prisoners
#116 Black Music that Black People Don’t Listen to Anymore
#115 Promising to Learn a New Language
#114 America
#113 Halloween
#112 Hummus
#111 Pea Coats
#110 Frisbee Sports
#109 The Onion
#108 Appearing to Enjoy Classical Music
#107 Self Aware Hip Hop References
#106 Facebook
#105 Unpaid Internships
#104 Girls with Bangs
#103 Sweaters
#102 Children’s Games as Adults
#101 Being Offended
#100 Bumper Stickers
#99 Grammar
#98 The Ivy League
#97 Scarves
#96 New Balance Shoes
#95 Rugby
#94 Free Healthcare
#93 Music Piracy
#92 Book Deals
#91 San Francisco
#90 Dinner Parties
#89 St. Patrick’s Day
#88 Having Gay Friends
#87 Outdoor Performance Clothes
#86 Shorts
#85 The Wire
#84 T-Shirts
#83 Bad Memories of High School
#82 Hating Corporations
#81 Graduate School
#80 The Idea of Soccer
#79 Modern Furniture
#78 Multilingual Children
#77 Musical Comedy
#76 Bottles of Water
#75 Threatening to Move to Canada
#74 Oscar Parties
#73 Gentrification
#72 Study Abroad
#71 Being the only white person around
#70 Difficult Breakups
#69 Mos Def
#68 Michel Gondry
#67 Standing Still at Concerts
#66 Divorce
#65 Co-Ed Sports
#64 Recycling
#63 Expensive Sandwiches
#62 Knowing What’s Best for Poor People
#61 Bicycles
#60 Toyota Prius
#59 Natural Medicine
#58 Japan
#57 Juno
#56 Lawyers
#55 Apologies
#54 Kitchen Gadgets
#53 Dogs
#52 Sarah Silverman
#51 Living by the Water
#50 Irony
#49 Vintage
#48 Whole Foods and Grocery Co-ops
#47 Arts Degrees
#46 The Sunday New York Times
#45 Asian Fusion Food
#44 Public Radio
#43 Plays
#42 Sushi
#41 Indie Music
#40 Apple Products
#39 Netflix
#38 Arrested Development
#37 Renovations
#36 Breakfast Places
#35 The Daily Show/Colbert Report
#34 Architecture
#33 Marijuana
#32 Vegan/Vegetarianism
#31 Snowboarding
#30 Wrigley Field
#29 80s Night
#28 Not having a TV
#27 Marathons
#26 Manhattan (now Brooklyn too!)
#25 David Sedaris
#24 Wine
#23 Microbreweries
#22 Having Two Last Names
#21 Writers Workshops
#20 Being an expert on YOUR culture
#19 Traveling
#18 Awareness
#17 Hating their Parents
#16 Gifted Children
#15 Yoga
#14 Having Black Friends
#13 Tea
#12 Non-Profit Organizations
#11 Asian Girls
#10 Wes Anderson Movies
#9 Making you feel bad about not going outside
#8 Barack Obama
#7 Diversity
#6 Organic Food
#5 Farmer’s Markets
#4 Assists
#3 Film Festivals
#2 Religions their parents don’t belong to
#1 Coffee

Finished Floor

2009-01-21T08:45:00.001-08:00

Before

After

We're very happy with the final result and especially with the low cost. I'm glad I did the work myself. It was fairly easy with basic carpentry skills and actually kinda fun to do. Now we just need to find a reasonably priced rug to add a splash of color under the table.

Noon Patrol

2009-01-19T10:00:00.000-08:00

Well maybe closer to 11am but you get the point. BC Skiing just isn't fun enough for me to crawl out of bed first thing in the am and rush up the canyon. I like to take things a little easy, sleep in and enjoy my coffee before heading out on a tour. In search of some decent snow Saturday we decided to poke around the back of Reynolds. Parked at Spruces, skinned up Mill D to Dog Lake and finally to the top of Reynolds. We skied off the back shoulder through the trees in some pretty nice creamy protected snow and then skinned back up to ski the main bowl.

Sunday I finished everything but the last course of hall/dining floor and got in a short 1.5 hr skate before dark.

Skinning up Mill D
On the way up Reynolds

Main Bowl

The Peak

Skinning back up

Final Run

Flooring Install

2009-01-13T10:45:00.000-08:00

Pre
Tearing up Carpet

Scraping up tack strips and other junk

Underlayment

Install

I'm not sure how I survived until now without a nail gun. What an amazing time saver!

I was on call this weekend and didn't expect to get much done. Saturday morning I finished moving the fridge and got everything in the kitchen ready to install the last top cabinet when it arrives later this week. After lunch I decided to head up to Mt Dell for some skate skiing. I arrived a little after 2pm and just decided to skate until I got called in. Almost 3 hours and countless loops around the course later I hadn't received any calls and it was getting dark so I packed it in. It was a long and exhausting skate but I made a few small breakthroughs in my technique and I'm finally feeling pretty competent on the skis. After dinner I decided to start my Bamboo Flooring project. We cleared out all the furniture in the dining room and ripped out the carpet and pad. The old hardwood flooring under the carped was a disaster which we decided to save for the next day. Sunday we tore up all the tack strips and began scraping away left over materials (thinset, chunks of vinyl and underlayment) from various previous floors to get a nice even surface for the new floor. There was plenty of scraping to do which took all morning. After that was laying the vapor barrier and finally installing the wood. I'm about a third of the way finished laying the wood and I must say it's a lot easier than I thought. We'll see if I'm saying the same thing once I'm finished.

I married Homer Simpson

2009-01-09T10:16:00.000-08:00

A quote from Rhonda last night. "I'm tired of working, all I want to do is eat and drink beer." I seriously have the coolest wife ever!

Another Busy Weekend

2009-01-05T07:03:00.000-08:00

Thurs- Ate a wonderful New Years Brunch cooked up by Karen, got home, tore down the right side of my kitchen, moved the fridge and installed the new base cabinet, watched Step Brothers (mediocre movie but funny at times), crashed.

Fri- Worked all day, picked up the 600lbs of bamboo flooring, got called back into work for a bit, watched Hancock (another mediocre movie) and slept for 10 hrs.

Sat- Slept in, shoveled the driveway, unloaded the 600lbs of Bamboo, hit Mt Dell for a couple hours of skating, drove home, cleaned up and hit the Last Call Cyclocross party, came home swag-less (rare for me) and crashed.

Sun (B-day)- Slept in again, Rhonda cooked me breakfast, cut a hole in the wall to recess the fridge but ran into a main support stack, decided it wasn't worth messing with just to recess the fridge, drywalled over the hole and ran the electrical for the fridge. By this time it was too late to skate so I threw in Death Race (sweet trainer movie!) and rode the trainer. When I got off the trainer Rhonda had Nick and Willy's pizza and a bottle of champagne waiting. Excellent B-day dinner!

I can't wait for summer so things can slow down a bit.

Winter home improvement projects

2009-01-03T10:57:00.000-08:00

Found 300 sq ft of 6" handscaped Cognac solid Bamboo floor remnants on KSL classifieds yesterday. It's $7.50/sq ft retail and the guy sold it to me for $2.50 / sq ft. It should cover most of our entryway and dining room and it's still available from Simplefloors in case I need another case or two. For now though I'm off to PC for a couple hours of skating.

Skate Ski Weekend

2008-12-30T12:26:00.001-08:00

I'm really glad we decided to take up skate skiing this year. I think it might be the perfect off-season sport. You get a nice low intensity total body workout that is perfect for building base and strengthening underutilized muscles. Also, unlike running, snowshoeing and classic xc skiing, skate skiing is challenging which keeps my interest level up so I keep at it.

We hit Mountain Dell for 12K on Saturday and then Sunday we decided to try some of the free trails up in Park City. We skated the loop around Willow Creek Park a couple times and also did an out and back to Redstone. The Park City trails get a lot of hiking and dog traffic so they're not quite as buff as the Mountain Dell trails but they're flatter which makes it easier to work on technique.

Haven't had a chance to do any Alpine skiing yet. The backcountry has been way too dangerous for my tastes this year and I haven't really felt the urge to drop $50+ to ride the lifts yet. Maybe the snow will settle in by this weekend so I can sneak out for a tour.

Where did the weekend go?

2008-12-22T10:26:00.000-08:00

I think that was the shortest weekend I've ever experienced. One minute I'm driving home in the blizzard Friday night and next thing I know I'm trying to drag my butt out of bed Monday morning.

Saturday we went to a free skate ski clinic put on by TUNA. I've never been on skate skis before and I was glad I did the clinic. It seemed like a real simple concept and I've skated a bit before on both alpine and classic xc skis but I still learned a lot about form and technique at the clinic that will help make my workouts more effective.

Saturday night we and almost everybody else in Northern Utah went to TC's holiday party. Damn that girl has a lot of friends and it was a packed house. At one point smoke started billowing in the kitchen while Once Bitten, Twice Shy played on the TV. I started throwing elbows looking for an exit but it was only Troy burning a pizza in the oven.

Sunday I did a bit of work on my mudroom project and also headed up Millcreek for some more skating. Millcreek isn't so good for skating. Too many snowshoers, hikers and off leash dogs chew up the trail and get in the way so between that and the steady climb it's hard to get a rhythm going.

Last night was Drew's 40th surprise birthday party at Fiddlers Elbow. Excellent company and beer make for a great party and 40 couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. Here's to 40 more Drew!

Ed give's these things to anybody

2008-12-18T06:58:00.000-08:00

This has got to be worth 10 watts easy, right? I'm holding out for Fox to officially retire the "00".

Busch Gardens Picys

2008-12-17T08:26:00.001-08:00

When

Animals

Attack!

Siesta Key

2008-12-16T08:18:00.000-08:00

The pause before the drop on Sheikra

A week in Florida was good for the soul. We had a nice condo on the white sand beach of Siesta Key just outside of Sarasota. Not much happened and that was the plan. We chilled on the beach, rode the roller coasters in Bush Gardens a couple days and ate a ton of killer seafood including the most marvelous fish and sweet potato chips at the brewpub in Sarasota. The coasters at Bush Gardens are the bomb. The Montu which they say is one of the country's top ten coasters is fun in that traditional roller coaster way but I think the real draw is the Sheikra. The Sheikra is by far the scariest (and therefore most fun) roller coaster I have ever been on. It's a completely open coaster, no top, sides or bottom so you basically sit on a small seat bolted to the chassis. You start by being pulled up a 200 foot hill, make a 180 degree turn and then stop, enjoying the view. The coaster eases forward to just before the "drop" and stops again, building anticipation. Then there is the false start where you are moved over the edge and stopped for what feels like forever hanging straight down 200+ feet in the air and kept from falling only by your harness. The drop, especially from the front car is terrifying. A 200 ft 70+ MPH free fall straight down with nothing in front of you. Awesome! You then do a couple loops, another 140 ft 90 degree drop into a tunnel and to the finish which in the offseason of early December means you immediately can turn around and hop back on a few minutes later. Rhonda says the Top Thrill Dragster in Cedar Point in scarier but since she was so scared on the Shiekra she couldnt open her eyes on the drop I'm not so sure.

Excellent trainer movie

2008-12-05T07:18:00.000-08:00

Watched The Fast and The Furious while riding nowhere last night. It was an excellent trainer movie. Lots of fast paced on the road action and not a lot of dialogue you need to follow. I also learned an important lesson from the movie. "It's not how you stand by your bike, it's how you race your bike". Thank you Ja Rule.

Leaving tomorrow for a week of sun and sand in Florida. It's not Hawaii but it's cheap.

Lonely Roads

2008-12-04T10:22:00.000-08:00

Hit the tarmac for a post work ride yesterday and noticed something very interesting. Before Thanksgiving on this same ride at the same time of day I would see at least 20 other riders no matter the weather. Yesterday the only other people I saw were Bart and his dad (pretty sure it was him) riding together. It got me thinking that either everybody takes December off or maybe everybody else is smarter than me and is riding indoors. I'm leaning towards the latter since it was cold and the first 20 minutes of my ride were wasted warming up. Finally accepting the fact that winter is here is hard but I'm adapting. When I got home I set up my road bike in the basement for trainer use and put slicks on my cross bike. Being ready for either option should eliminate the set-up time for both road and trainer rides and will hopefully keep me motivated.

St. George

2008-12-01T08:32:00.001-08:00

Sun

Singletrack

Shortsleeves

and Slickrock

Nothing beats a trip to Southwest Utah in the winter. Great trails and perfect weather are almost always guaranteed.

Probable Last PC MTB ride of the season

2008-11-24T10:28:00.000-08:00

Saturday we got out for what will probably be our last ride in the Park City area for the season. We parked at Jeremy ranch and hit the 24-7, Flying Dog, Glenwild, and the new DH trail loop. All the trails were in near perfect condition with the exception of the backside of Flying Dog which was a sloppy mess. The ground was pretty frozen and there was some rideable snow in sections but other sections had about 1" of freshly thawed soup on top of frozen ground that was not the least bit fun. We walked the deeper mud sections to save the trail but we still got plenty muddy. The frontside of Flying Dog was buff and fast. It would have been smarter to just do an out and back on the frontside but my loop loving self never even thought of going that route until we finished. The new DH trail is short but fun. No drops but lots of fast bermed corners and whoops. A ton of people were out on the trails but it was mostly addicts such as myself so the traffic flow was exceptionally good. A nasty storm is supposed to move in for the weekend and I'm sure winter will be right on it's heels but it sure was nice to hit alpine singletrack in late November.

Promo for Peter Jacksons new movie District 9

2008-11-18T10:43:00.000-08:00

Become a learning pioneer!
Maths From Outer Space wants to redefine what it means to be human! Our scientists have found a way to enhance the spatial and logic capabilities of the human body. By synthesizing earth-based proteins with DNA from our other-worldly friends, the MFOS program will enhance your natural physical and mental capabilities. In other words, we've found a way to make you smarter! Would you like to see if you are qualified to take part in this exciting endeavor?

TAKE QUIZ

(my 8-10 score didn't make the cut but it did hurt my brain)

I think Rico might be a sadist......

2008-11-17T07:29:00.000-08:00

In that good pain makes you stronger way. With 5 minutes to start time yesterday I decided to take a bathroom break and missed a key piece of information regarding the line up. I rode over to the area where the C's started and watched TC's dogs wrestle for a bit until I heard a loud whoosh behind me as the the B field rode by. Crap, missed the start. Put in an all out max sprint to catch on to the back of the women's field and got around them to get to the back of the men's field by the first run up the grassy knoll. Passed a few people in time for the 2nd run up the knoll. Down the field, around the power pole, through the chicane and back to the start. One very fun lap down. I was riding well and working my way slowly through the field by lap 4 but after the 8th run up I started getting tired. Checked the lap counter on my way through the start area and it said 4 laps to go. Uh Oh, I was pretty tired already and only half done. Late in the 6th lap my back started to get tight and it was all I could do to not hemorrhage too many positions. By the last lap the run up's were walk ups and all I could think of was my Mexi Coke waiting at the finish. Man that course was hard! I think it was the 16 runs up the grassy knoll that did me in or maybe it was the grassy backstretch where it felt like the harder you pushed the easier it was. It was a wicked fun course with a bit of everything including a sandtrap, tons of short burst ups and pedal downs and well timed 180 deg corners to keep you on your toes without losing too much speed. Well done Rico! As usual I cleaned up in the raffle winning a brand new Bell Sweep R helmet for Rhonda. Unless something changes it was a very way to end my race season and I'm excited to start thinking of next year.

I'm not very good at cross.....

2008-11-15T17:05:00.000-08:00

But who cares, it's so damn fun! Arrived at Wheeler nice and early which worked out well because after riding for 5 minutes I realized I didn't bring enough clothes. Ran home to grab tights and warmer gloves, got in a warm up lap and lined up with 65 other souls in my category. No, this wasn't a race in the northwest, Utah CX is just that big now. Started out around 20th or so, passed a few people, got passed by a few people, pulled about 8 people down the road sections each of the first two laps and finished mid-pack. Compared to others I seem to be faster on the straights and road sections and much slower in the twisty stuff. Strange since I'm a MTB guy but I waste a lot of time dodging trees with my large frame in the narrow singletrack. I bet I would be faster on my MTB, even with the paved and road sections but the point is to get faster and gain skills not to try to beat 10 more people in a C race. The Wheeler course set up was sweet, many props to Matt and Joe for building such awesome courses week after week.

I kept my front wheel tubeless but went with a Stans'd tube in the rear at about 60lbs. Just got sick of the rear tire burping. My back was hurting by the last lap but both tires held air and rear traction didn't seem to suffer too much.

Rhonda started out slow (she hasn't been on the bike much lately either) but built up to normal speed by the last couple laps. Sucked a few wheels (she's learning), held off Melissa and passed TC at the very end for 14th out of 30 starters (the women's fields are getting huge as well).

Tomorrow we're hitting Cutthroat cross which will be our final race of the season. Time to start thinking about next season..... Desert Rampage is less than four months away!

Double X weekend

2008-11-14T10:38:00.000-08:00

Wheeler tomorrow, Cutthroat Sunday and then we have to throw in the towel for the rest of the season. We'll be out of town for the last two races and I can't get to Ogden in time for the AM scrub races next weekend. Home improvement projects have temporarily taken over my free time so I've only ridden once in the last two weeks. That means I should be peaking tomorrow right?

Road Tubeless Review

2008-11-13T09:18:00.001-08:00

After a full summer of riding Stan's road tubeless system I'm pretty impressed. Rough and chipsealed roads feel almost as smooth as fresh blacktop and the tires are very grippy while cornering. I used to be a 6-7 flats a year type of guy and had to run 120lbs to avoid pinch flats but with this setup flats of any kind have been non-existent. Railroad tracks, huge potholes, no worries. I originally has these setup on a normal rim with spoke holes and I had some trouble sealing the spoke holes with the yellow tape but since I switched over to Ksyriums mid summer the setup had been bullet proof. They lose almost no air between rides. I would recommend this setup for anybody but if you have Ksyriums or a similar sealed rim it can't be beat.

Why Lance is still cool.

2008-11-10T14:10:00.001-08:00

29'er hard tail and hairy legs.

(also note the soon to be available Stan's ZTR Race 29er wheelset)

The Elixer of the Gods

2008-11-09T16:02:00.001-08:00

This ferocious lion guards my Mexi-Coke 24-7

Obama skis victory lap

2008-11-06T07:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday at "the bird".

Two starts, no finishes

2008-11-03T09:35:00.000-08:00

Saturday Rhonda felt like sleeping in so I headed to RMR by myself. I almost called her after doing a warmup lap to have her run my MTB over, I just had this feeling that I might need it but I decided not to bother her. One lap in I hit a bad part of the last downhill whoop-de-doo, launched off the lip and landed dead on my rear wheel. Burp, tubeless tire blown, wheel way out of true, no backup anything, race over.

Repaired my bike and headed to Wheeler Sunday AM. First lap tried to make a wide pass on a corner into a cement pad. Caught the edge of the pad square on my read wheel. Burp, lost about half my pressure (in all fairness had I been tubed it would have been a pinch flat). I rode three more laps on real low pressure but finally with 2 laps to go the bead buckled on a sharp corner and I lost most of the rest of my air. For some reason I never even considered stopping in the pit the 5-6 times I went past it to top off the tire until Ken mentioned it to me after I withdrew. I guess I just don't yet have the fix your bike in the middle of the race mindset. Next step will be to try a Stans'd tube in the rear and see how that goes. Cross is fun but this is getting frustrating.

Emigration Cougar Crossing

2008-10-29T10:09:00.000-07:00

No, I don't mean the 45 year old blonds with fake boobs that I hear are quite common up there. Last night I made a pathetic attempt at doing some intervals up Emigration when I heard a rustling in the bushes off to the left. I looked over and a saw cougar come flying out of the bushes sprinting in my direction. I froze and the cougar continued running across the road about 5-10 feet in front of me and dove into the woods. I'll never know if it was actually coming at me or just happened to be cruising by (I'm guessing the latter since on my bike I'd look pretty large to a cougar). It's the only one I've ever seen in the wild and it was quite the experience.

Weekend in Fruita

2008-10-28T08:23:00.000-07:00

Mr and Mrs Kidney Stone were nice enough to join us for a weekend of fun and sun in Fruita. We left Friday morning and hit the Kokopelli Loops area that afternoon. Kris and Jolene had never been to Fruita so for an overview of what Kokopelli had to offer we did a big loop of Mary's, Lions, Mack Ridge and Moore Fun. I hadn't ridden Moore Fun in over 7 years and I remembered it being a difficult trail but not the pain in the ass that it is. It's pretty much set up on both the climb and the decent as a "MTB trials" type of trail and since I'm an XC weenie the trials, especially on the climb, ended up being a lot of hike-a-bike. The rest of the trails we rode that day were sweet and you can read all about them on my trip report from May.

On Saturday we had a blast riding the buff singletrack over in the bookcliffs. We started with the classic loop of Prime Cut, Joe's Ridge and Kessell Run which is quite possibly the most fun per mile MTB loop in the world. Next we looped Prime Cut, Chutes and Ladders, Edge Connector and Vegetarian. Then we finished with a repeat of Prime Cut, Joe's Ridge, back up to the very top of Kessell Run and finally back to the car. The first time I rode Kessell years ago I liked it but it was never near the top of my list trail wise. Now I'm starting to really love that trail. The more you ride it and get to know it the better it flows and once you get the no brakes flow of that trail it's like MTB nirvana. My only regret of the day was skipping Zippity. As I get older the pucker factor on that trail gets to be less fun and more fright but it's still a classic and I maybe shouldn't have talked us out of riding it. We finished the day with awesome food and beverage during happy hour at the Rockslide Brewery in Grand Junction.

Last time we were in Fruita we didn't have so much fun riding the Tabeguache area but I've heard so many good things about the trails there we had to try again. Armed with the Fruita guidebook on loan from Kendra we saddled up. We climbed the Tabeguache trail up to Little Park road where to save time we took pavement up to the top of The Ribbon. Rode the Ribbon down and climbed back up the connector trail to the top of The Gunny trail which we followed back to the car. This ride was much better than the ride we did in the spring but was still not great. The rideable parts of the trail were really fun but there are so many short (and not so short) portages that we got a bit frustrated. A lot of the portages could have been avoided with switchbacks or other trail alterations which also would make the trails more sustainable. The trails closer to the trailhead seem to be better than some of the trails further out so maybe we'll stick with those the next time we go. It's still a fun area but it's just not quite living up to expectations.

All in all it was a sweet trip with great riding and excellent company. It's always fun to get out of town and burn desert singletrack but I'm looking forward to some mud, sweat and tears this weekend at the CX doubleheader.

Fruita Picture Post

2008-10-27T08:53:00.000-07:00

Overlooking the Colorado from Lions Loop

Joe's Ridge

Kessel Run

Kessel Run (we almost made it in less than 12 parsecs)

Top of The Ribbon

Climbing out of the end of the Ribbon trail

I left my frozen toes in Millcreek

2008-10-23T13:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I finished getting my Blur back in rideable condition for the Fruita trip this weekend and decided to take a quick shakedown spin in Millcreek. It was pretty cold at my house but as soon as I entered the canyon it was bone chilling. I lasted about 45 mins on the pipeline before I lost all feeling in my toes and bailed. Rides like that actually make the trainer in the basement look enticing.

New Breckenridge MTB Stage Race

2008-10-23T07:38:00.000-07:00

Sounds interesting.

http://breckepic.blogspot.com/

It's kinda crazy that I already need to start making plans for next season.

Emigration TT

2008-10-21T07:33:00.000-07:00

Since I missed the CX fun on Saturday I felt like putting in a good long max effort last night. After work I rode over to Emigration for a little solo time trial. 32:25 with an average HR of 164. Not really all that fast I know but I thought it was decent enough for a hairy legged MTB'er. I big ringed past a shorn roadie with a hello and a wave on the steeper section near the end which he took affront to. He grabbed my wheel and sprinted past me near the end. These little cheeseball competitions that always happen on the road are funny. You just don't see that on the trail.

We went and saw Body Worlds with the parents on Sunday. It was pretty cool but I was a little disappointed. I thought the information level on the displays was little too basic. I know the exibit is geared towards the layperson but some more detailed info would have been nice as well. Also a lot of the displays were cool but you see so much more detail on an MRI scan that they were a bit of a letdown for me. I would highly recommend it for the public but it just didn't do to much for me personally.

Warm Weather Riding

2008-10-16T07:03:00.000-07:00

Finally got back to some shorts and a jersey weather for last nights road ride. Had a really nice ride up Emigration, one of those rides where the stars aligned perfectly. Temps were great, I felt kinda fast and the surrounding traffic was amazingly polite. As I approached the four way stop at the corner of Wasatch and 13th there was a Lexus who had already stopped and had the right of way by far. I prepared to stop but the driver of the Lexus was nice enough to just wave me through. Then as I was stopped waiting for traffic so I could turn left on Crestview a truck stopped behind me. Once traffic cleared I turned left and he turned left behind me. Instead of doing what most other drivers do in this situation, gunning it to get around me only to have to stop 100 yards down the road at Sunnyside he eased up and let me stay in front. This gave me a nice unimpeded right turn on to Sunnyside and up Emigration. Maybe people are finally learning to respect cyclists more. Nah, who am I kidding, I'm sure I was just lucky enough to come across two very nice people on the same ride.

Speaking of bad drivers Rhonda got rear-ended the other day by some redneck in a 78 GMC pickup. She was fine but our little Tacoma tore the hell out of his supersized piece of fine American engineering. The Tacoma had a slightly bent bumper and some mild damage to the tailgate and left rear quarter while his POS needed to be duck taped and bungee corded just to get home. Miraculously he did have insurance and since he was cited his insurance is going to pay to fix our truck.

My parental units are in town for the weekend and Rhonda nixed any idea of me running up to Ogden for the race this weekend. It's probably going to be the only time Rico allows us to have nice weather for a cross race and it's too bad I'll miss out. I'm sure dry courses aren't as fun as muddy ones but I'd like to race one just just for giggles.

Heber CX

2008-10-13T06:59:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we arrived at the Heber Fairgrounds at around 8am to cold temps but a dry course. After registering I headed out for a hot lap of the course and the sky opened up dumping a couple inches of snow on the ground in about 15 mins. It stopped snowing right before the start of our race but the melting snow left the course nice and muddy. I had my trainer set up with a nice view of the start line so my plan was to keep spinning till the last minute and then run over to the start with warm legs. They called for people to start lining up and everybody moved to the start area while I kept spinning. I headed over to the start area just as they were doing the call-ups. I lined up in the very back and being new to cross I figured it wouldn't be a big deal to get around the people in front of me pretty quick. BAD IDEA. Jon sounded the start and the front of the group rode away while I sat in the back waiting for everybody to get moving. By the time I was able to get moving the leader was already making the first left turn almost 100 yards ahead. Once we finally got moving I tried to get around some people on the dirt track but I was blocked in without any gaps. The pack came to a complete stop at the first barrier section and as I'm walking over the barriers I see the leaders descending the run-up. I finally found some room on the grass leading to the run up and passed a bunch of people pushing and walking the run up but as I re-mounted I looked over and saw the lead group entering the stables almost half a lap ahead already. Once past the run-up I had plenty of room to operate but the damage was done. As I entered the stables I heard the Gardie announcing the leaders finishing their first lap and from then on every time I hit the stables I would hear the leaders coming through finishing laps. So the good news is I was on the lead groups pace once I cleared the traffic jam on the first lap.

In the results they have me finishing 30th but they also have Jorge finishing 21st and I passed him early in the second lap so who knows where I really finished. I think they're having trouble keeping track of the record number of racers each week because they had the women's B results messed up for both races as well.

All things considered it was still really fun and I can't wait to race again. The course was sweet with a lot of fun variety. I do hope they can start getting the results straightened out

Heber Rodeo Cross Picture post.

2008-10-11T17:36:00.000-07:00

Shoulder time

Rhonda, TC and Shanna running up
Why are you smiling?
Ken showing good form
Bob's trying to catch up to his bike.

Rico's direct weather line

2008-10-09T07:16:00.000-07:00

I wonder if Rico will let us have a nice warm dry Cross race this year? Just once for a change of pace maybe? I want to be able to stick around to watch the "A's" once or twice but my skinny ass gets too cold waiting around for 4 hours in the rain.

Saturday: Rain likely before noon, then snow. Snow level 7800 feet lowering to 4300 feet in the afternoon . High near 38. East wind around 14 mph becoming southwest. Chance of precipitation is 80%.

Vote by mail

2008-10-08T10:32:00.000-07:00

I rode Big Mountain Sunday, recovery ride Mon and intervals up Emigration yesterday. The shoulder held up pretty well so it's all systems go for cross in the cold, snow and horsecrap on Saturday. I still don't have a lot of power while standing on the pedals and pulling but I can work around that.

We got our vote by mail forms delivered yesterday. I tell you vote by mail is the only way to go. Instead of waiting in the line at a polling station and then having to try to remember who you want to vote for in the obscure school district races or whether to vote yea or nae on those 5 constitutional amendments you get to mark the dots at your leisure. Until vote by mail I always felt a little guilty voting. I was a marginally informed voter but if I didn't know anything about a candidate I would just check the box of the guy who had the donkey next to his name. Now that I have plenty of time to look over the ballot I can use the magic of google to read all about the candidates and make an informed decision. Good for us, bad for the deep pocketed politicians.

Draper CX Race

2008-10-06T12:42:00.000-07:00

Friday night I rode the cross bike over to Tanner Park just to try things out to see how my shoulder might hold up. The results weren't good. I couldn't stand and pedal and steering in the rough stuff was pretty sloppy due to lingering weakness in my shoulder. I bagged the race but after much internal debate Rhonda decided to do it. We woke up in the morning to a cold downpour. Yup cross season is here. Loaded everything up and got to the Equestrian Center early enough to get a spot under the eaves of the concession stand to set up the trainer. Rhonda had a good warm up and lined up at the start with a huge field of 45 men's C racers, 16 women's B's and 4 masters men. I heard there were almost 300 racers total. I guess Utah Cross has arrived. Rhonda rode well, stayed upright the entire time, wore through half her brake pads in the wonderfully sloppy conditions and finished 10th. She was hoping for better but it was a tough field including expert MTB'ers and really fast roadies. It was only her 2nd cx race and her first in sloppy conditions so there is plenty of room for improvement. The course was sweet with a lot of flowy singletrack, a slick downhill off camber muddy section, a short pavement hillclimb and a sloppy run-up right in front of the crowd. Rhonda had a blast and is now hooked on cross. It's funny how it took a cold, wet, muddy day to get her excited about the sport.

After the rain quit Sunday afternoon I hit Big Mountain on the road bike. My shoulder was feeling much better and I would say it's about 80% healthy. I don't think I'll be 100% by next Saturday but I'm sure I'll be strong enough to race. The long term forecast is calling for a chance of rain so maybe we'll have another classic race.

UTCX #1 Draper Womens B Pics

2008-10-04T12:42:00.001-07:00

TC showing off the goods to the large mens "C" field

Allison was passing the men for an early lead

Rhonda and TC battling on the run-up
Melissa on the bridge

Perfect CX weather this weekend

2008-10-01T10:07:00.000-07:00

Per NWS

Friday Night: Showers likely, mainly after midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 58. Chance of precipitation is 70%.

Saturday: Showers likely. Cloudy, with a high near 63. Chance of precipitation is 70%.

Mounted up a Maxxis Mimo up front in preperation for wet sandy race. Now I just have to decide if I should risk my shoulder this week or give it another week to heal.

Weekend Update

2008-09-30T07:35:00.000-07:00

Thursday night I ate it pretty bad at Dr. X's Sugarhouse clinic. I was descending a fast grassy slope chatting with J Dub and next thing I know I'm landing full on my left shoulder. I was barely able to limp home riding one handed and immediately hit the ice and vitamin I. Friday California Bob was in town and we had plans to ride Super Crest. Not wanting to bag out on plans made months in advance I sacked up and did the ride. It hurt like hell at times and I walked a couple sections that I would have needed both arms to clean but this time of the year you can't let a minor thing like a sprained shoulder keep you away from that ride. Saturday we spent most of the day at a BBQ relaxing and Sunday I planted 150 bulbs in the front yard one handed. Over the weekend my shoulder seemed to be healing pretty fast but over the last couple of days the healing has plateaued. I cant lift much with that arm and carrying a bike is out of the question so on the official injury report for Draper's CX race I'm listing myself as questionable. We'll see how the rest of the week goes.