A few races

Its been a while, again...

So, a bit has been going on. Lets roll back a little.

Bike racing:

Hermann Cross Under the Lights. Was a wash, literally. Everyone knows what happened, so I won't recap here since it has been talked about before. Super cool race, though, so hopefully it will happen next year and we will get to race a full race, not 2 laps.

Boss Cross 1 and 2. I went and raced both of these. Did not have a good ride, either day even though the course should have been good for me. Day 1 saw me line up at the very back since I was warming up and didn't realize that we were staging. The mens open was set to stary, then 30 seconds later the mens 2/3 race. Everyone was massed together, and I could not get out from behind the 2/3 field. So, I had to fight my way through when they started the open and was in last place. Large pileup in the first corner and I am trackstanding waiting for people to get up off the ground. bummer. I made up some places, but pretty much all motivation was shot at this point. My back started blowing up about half way through the race. Prolly should have pulled the plug. Day 2, race course was the same, but backwards. Tons of sand. Crappy start again, and immediate back pain. Another bad day, but I finished.

Looking at the above 2 races, I am not sure what went wrong. My fitness is good, blah blah blah. I guess the motivation was not there.

I raced the Show Me State/Midwest Fat Tire MTB race at Rock Bridge a couple of weeks ago, just for grins. I did about 3 hours of gravel the day before, so my expectations were pretty low going into the race. It was pretty cold, and I was concerned that I was too naked. Ah well. Lined up for the marathon race. 3+ hours of riding on a mix of dry dusty dirt, large rock, loose rock, with some climbing and a cold deep creek crossing thrown in. I decided to ride my full suspension since my back doesn't seem to like to be beaten for that long. I knew that I needed to get in the trail in the top 5 because the first sections are pretty technical and I figured that a split would happen right away and I didn't want to sit in traffic. So, no warmup, line up on the front, hit the gas. I got the hole shot and just kept the gas on. Finally looked back after a mile or so and I had Nate Means on my wheel. We rolled together until the creek crossing which I almost went over the bars on, and started the big climb. I pushed the pace a little and got a decent gap on Nate. Pretty much kept on the gas for the next few laps to build up my lead. Last lap I sat up a bit since I was feeling a little crampy, but it was all good. Ended up in first place in the marathon class and also had the fastest lap time of the day overall. Pretty happy with that for sure.

I've been switching between road, cx, and trails for riding...and its been pretty nice for sure. I can;t decide whether or not I am going to hop into any more CX races this season. I think I prolly will, though...even though I am starting to already look forward to next season.

Not a lot else, really.

Velocite Magnus

I've recently been given the opportunity to ride the Velocite Magnus, so I thought I would do a review and provide a little more information to anyone out there since Velocite is not a super well-known company.

I ended up with the Magnus frame with the Velocite Bora fork. The Magnus uses a BB30 bottom bracket shell and an asymmetric 1.5" headtube for added stiffness. I am coming off of riding a Cannondale SuperSix with a full Dura Ace build and Cannondale Hollowgram SI BB30 cranks for comparison. The Cannondale was a great bike, the Magnus is an outstanding bike. Evervthing I liked about the supersix is there on the Magnus, plus a few added things: extra stiffness under

hard acceleration, slightly different geometry that aids handling, and a nice crash

replacement/upgrade policy if needed.

I've seen a lot of broken supersix frames recently, either from crashing or just riding along. Weird.

I built the Magnus with Sram Red components, an FSA SL-K BB30 crankset, Reynolds Carbon Strike 66mm clinchers, Thomson post and stem, Kuota carbon bars, and a WTB Silverado saddle. Total weight with pedals and cages: 15.3 lbs:

Not bad for a bike that rolls on clinchers.

The ride quality of this bike is awesome. I kept my supersix built up just in case I could not get the Magnus dialed in quick, but after one ride I was sure it was the bike for me. My second ride was the Missouri State Criterium and the bike was awesome. The large diameter seat and chain stays coupled with the BB30 absolutely ensure that every pedal stroke goes into propelling the bike forward. There is no flex anywhere when killing it or leaning the bike over in corners. Tracking through corners is spot on too...I originally had a 110mm Ritchey WCS stem installed, I swapped it out for my old trusty 100mm Thomson. I like the shorter, more compact cockpit, it is a little more predictable and stable to me. I have put some decent miles on the Magnus, including a 70 mile fast group ride through a bunch of hills and everything worked very well. I still felt rather fresh at the end of the ride, and the responsiveness of the frame really helped on the rolling hills during the ride.

Honestly, I have no complaints about the Magnus. It has to be the best bike I've ridden so far. The finish of the frame is excellent: the red graphics really look nice, and the matte carbon finish looks nice too. Here are a couple of pics:

For more information, contact DNA Distributing

Long overdue

An update...

So, where to start? Its been since February that I have updated this thing, and a lot has gone on. Lets start with the kids...Dillon and Brodie are doing great. Dillon started Kindergarten today, kind of a sad day for mom and dad. Brodie is growing like crazy and is quite the little tough guy. They have both been swimming a lot over the summer, and Dillon played T-Ball for the Ashland Optimist club too.

I am in paramedic school, and hope to be done with that in August of 2011. Nothing else too new with me, riding bikes, racing a bit here and there, and still editing movies.

Alicia is doing good too, she has been running a lot and riding bikes here and there. We went to Cancun again this summer and had an excellent time down there with friends.

Really, so much has actually happened that it is hard to update this. Nothing of a whole lot of consequence, though...I will try to update more.

Winter training

Tadow...how you like me now?

I am just going to do an undate from this past weekend...Friday, Alicia and I took the boys to Pirates Cove for some swimming. Pirates Cove is down in the Twin Lakes area in Columbia, and is a great place for kids. It is basically a giand wading pool about 18 inches deep with some slides, and sprinklers. Highly recomended if you have kids. Tooled around on bikes with Jonathan before that. Saturday morning I headed out to cosmo to see how dry the trails were. They were dry, but there were a TON of spiders and webs, so I cut the ride short and went home. We had Dillons 4th birthday party at the park in Ashland in the afternoon. Good times, all of his buddies were there. Thanks to everyone for coming, especially Jasen and Meg for helping out and setting up the dope obstacle course. We had Mexican for dinner with Jasen and Meg and Stella, a little pre-race loading of spices. Sunday was the Rock Bridge MTB race. I decided to do the marathon race for 3+ hours. The trails were in good condition, rough in some spots, but dry. I am glad I rode the suspension bike. I missed a pedal at the start, and got caught up in traffic going into the singletrack around 7th place. There were 2 guys immediately in front of me going thru the first set of hills and they were just going hard enough that if I would try to pass them it would cause me to red-line. So, the leaders got away...finally I made the pass at the top of a climb and led for a while. They would get dropped and then catch back on to me. Finally I gassed it a little at the top of the climb after the creek and rolled away. I concentrated on keeping a good pace without totally going into the red too much. I never had to get off the bike, and I managed to stay crash free. Needless to say, I caught a few guys, and ended up 4th on the day. I was pretty happy with that, my 4th lap was a total suck fest. I was having some issues with cramps, and had drained my hydration pack. And, I was starting to get hungry. I rolled ghetto on this race and had my water bottles filled with Dillon's apple juice.

Really not a lot else going on. Dillon has soccer camp all this week. State TT and Crit are this weekend. So, busy for sure...

Streps Run and other races

The past few weeks have been interesting...I've been riding a little, both on and off road, and having a good time doing it.  Nothing huge, just rolling.  Occasionally hitting up the Tuesday night ride to get some intensity, and did the Wildwood TT in St. Louis.  Had a less then stellar result there, not really sure why.  Not that I expected big things, but I felt like I was going pretty decent.  I made a few mistakes, I miss-judged how far out I was from the finish and hit the gas too early and blew up a little and had to recover so I could hit the gas again.  Miss judged where the turn around was.  Dumb little mistakes like that.  Even though, in the grand scheme of things, for the most part I felt good and was pushing what I needed to, and I felt like I handled the course and the gear selection I was using pretty well.  So, on paper results wise, I sucked.  But, I felt mostly good, so I can be happy with that.  Few weeks before that was the Tour of St Louis.  I did the Delmar crit, which I felt pretty good there, too.  It was a nice, wide open, safe course, which is something I need just so I can get a feel for riding in a race situation again.  Pretty much tried to just sit in and not panic, and stay comfortable there.  Which I did.  Did the TT later that day, too, and man did that suck.  It was windier then anything, and I had a really poopy ride.  But, ah well, I really didn't mind...This past week I rolled out with Trevor on Tuesday night to preview the Rhetts Run course for this weekend.  We got caught in a torrential downpour that made riding very tricky.  Not a lot of fun, for sure.  I felt pretty decent, though, so I had a few hopes for the race this weekend.  However, that was all put down when I woke up early Wednesday morning with the worst sore throat I have ever had.  I suffered thru work on Wednesday and Thursday.  I pretty much ate nothing, whenever I would swallow, it was like eating glass and my throat was so swollen closed that I could hardly swallow Advil.  I went to the doctor after work Thursday, and I have strep throat.  Yay.  So, antibiotics, twice a day, forever.  Felt pretty crummy during class on Friday.  Saturday, I started to feel a little better, and started trying to eat solid food again, even though I had to chew it about 30 times to make sure it didn't scrape my throat on the way down.  We had a 1 year birthday party for Brodie on Saturday, which went well.  We had a house full of people and kids, and it was chaotic.  I woke up early on Sunday, thinking I might change my tires on the King since the trails were dry.  I decided not to, and it is a good thing I did.  There were torrential downpours right before the start of the 3 hour marathon race (which I was participating in), and it turned the trails to crap.  My first lap was good, I am usually a slower starter and like to pick up the pace later in the race.  So, the leaders had about 30 seconds on me after the first lap, which was good.  Then things started getting ugly.  The trails seemed like they were slicker, most likely from the rain getting spread out to everything.  And the mud was getting gummy, and my bike was getting packed with slop.  And, I was a little woozy from the lack of food in the previous days.  So, I started running into trees and what not, and taking some really bad lines.  The race kept going down hill for me from there on out, but I still managed to keep it together and did 7 laps, and finished 5th.  And, made some money.  I wanted to quit a bunch of times, but somehow managed to keep going.  






Notice the 2 mtb photos.  The first one is early on in the race, I was still feeling pretty good there.  The second one I was pretty much coming unglued...

Oden's Beard, the Sequel.

So Steve and I headed down to the Ouachita Challenge in Arkansas on Saturday. We got a bit of a late start, but hings come up in life that need to be done prior to leaving. Not a big deal. Our ETA at the Aqua Motel in MT. Ida was set for around 9:30. We stopped before Fayetteville to get some food at this little "traditional" Mexican restaurant. We figured the food would be good, it was mediocre at best. Back in the car, we finally made it to our destination well after dark. We stayed at the Aqua last year, it is pretty bare bones, but do-able. And, it is in the middle of the forrest, which is quaint. Steve and I watched a little bit of Jackass 2.5 on the computer, then hit the sack. The morning wake up call came at a little after 5. We got up, loaded up, and headed to the race. Side note here: it was 71 degrees when we got up! So, I didn't take my hoodie with me, I would sorely regret this later. We got to the race, and parked illegally after I questioned whether we should be doing so. Steve told me it was OK since we parked there last year. I also wondered out loud if we would need our id's to pick up our numbers. Steve thought not. We went in, and of course we did need our id's. Doh! We got our stuff, and that was when I received "the text". It was from Jasen, he and his wife had been in Arkansas all week prior to the Ouachita on holliday, and he was texting me to let me know that he was going to bail on the race since he was sick. Bummer. Steve and I went and got our breakfast, and sat down to eat with some other team mates. When we got done, we went outside and discovered that the 71 degree temps had dropped to about 55 in 30 minutes, and it was raining. Great! If you know about me and racing, you know Idont like mud. At all. It is the roadie slime in me that is still prevalent coming out. I don't like to clean my stuff, and to me it is just not fun. Well, the rain stopped, it was just enough to make it cold really. We got ready, and headed to the riders meeting. There are 2 races, the 60 mile and the 80 mile. The 60 mile filled up to capacity, I think the cap was set at 200 riders, and I think they let 100 riders race the 80 mile. Anyway, there were a ton of people. And it was a mass start. I lined up towards the middle, I made the mistake of going out too hard last year, and kind of imploding as soon as we hit the trail. There is a long section before you actually get into the single track, and that would serve to split things up a lot. Well, the gun went off, and it was about 10 seconds before I actually got going since there were so many people in front of me. It is pretty funny to experience: that many mountain bikers on pavement, it sounds like a monster truck rally. And, a lot of these people have no clue what to do in a pack riding situation riding close to others. Kind of sketchy. So, I started punching holes through the field, and mad my way into the top 40 or so. We hit some hills, and I worke my way up a little more, just trying to stay comfortable and not go too hard. We finally hit the single track, and it was a sloppy mess. There was a pretty substantial amount of standing water in places, enough to get you muddy right away. I tried to avoid the mud in the beginning, but it becoes pretty impossible fast. Anyway, I maintained position, and passed som people too. We came to the first water crossing, there were people trying to ride it. I could tell that it was deep, and I was the only one in my group to notice the bridge about 15 feet away over the water. As I was going across the bridge, I watched one guy dump his bike and himself into the water, total submersion. It would be a cold, wet day for him. I had one fall in this strecth, and of course it was on my knee on a rock, so I had some blood and pain. I made it to the first checkpoint at mile 22, and I still had plenty of fluid, so I picked up some food and kept going. Some road and gravel later, we came to the major water crossing of the day. The water was about mid thigh deep, and it was a pretty wide little stream. And, it was rushing. The guy there said that it was not safe to ride, and I could see why. They had a rope tied from one bank to the other side to hold onto. About halfway across, I had my bike shouldered, the current was so strong it almost knocked me over. It really sucked. Su, now I had freezing cold legs, and cold, wet feet. We entered more singletrack and started climbing. Not too bad, but you could tell that the trail was getting more technical. I made it to the next aid station without incident, and actually made up quite a few spots on the climb. I figured that by this time I was in the top 20'ish. Stopped, and filled up my fluids and got more food. One of the helpers at the station took my hydro [ack for my and filled it up. Not a good idea. When I got going again, I noticed that I had cold water all over my back. I just figured tht he had over filled it. I stopped and fumbled some enduro tabs into my mouth and got going again. Well, my back kept getting colder and wetter, so I stopped again. Opened the pack, and discovered that the lid was not screwed on correctly on the bladder in the pack. Nice! Got that fixed, and got going again. About 5 people passed me during this time. Well, I went to take a drink, and I couldn't get anything thru the tube. Stopped again, and took everything back apart. More people passed. Started up blowout mountain, the hardest part of this race. The climb is tough, but I rode the whole thing and passed a ton of walkers. The worst part for me is you think it is over, but you descend a little, and then climb forever again. Its pretty demoralizing. And, the amount of rock is disturbing: there is shit up there that you can't ride, to dangerous, so you have to walk. A fall on some of the rock up there would break bones for sure, maybe worse. I did ride more of the technical sections then I did last year, but I still did my fair share of carring the bike over stuff. I went over the bars into a rock pile, and somehow managed to land on my feet. Freaking lucky. Finally got done with blowout mtn and went thru the next aid station without stopping. At this time, I was no longer having fun and just wanted to get done. It was getting colder, and it was so windy on the mountains and in the valleys that I was wishing for someone to draft off of. Hit the next and final mountain, and rode it. More rock, and mud. By this time, I was cramping up pretty bad, but I knew I could push thru and get in in a decent time still. Last years race was short by a little over 10 miles due to flooding. I wanted to better my time from last year, even with the added miles, and I wanted to get in the top 30. Keep in mind last year that it took me 6 hours and 41 minutes for 50 ish miles. Not horrible, but not great. So, I was on [pace to come in this year in under 6 hours. I hit the final stretch of road, and stayed on the gas in the 11, and came in 5 hours and 55 minutes and some change. I was pretty happy. Burned a little under 8000 calories. And, I got 30th overall, which I was happy with. I think I could have knocked another 15 minutes off of my time if I didn't have to stop so much to get the stupid hydro pack fixed. Ah well. Steve had a good ride, but was pretty blown when he rolled in, and it was freaking cold. I was wishing for my hoodie, and I hid in the car the whole time I was waiting for him. We headed back to the motel, cleaned up, packed, and got on the road around 6. Long drive home, thru the mountains with 50 mh winds. I got home a little before 2 in the morning. And I called in to work today. So there you go. A blog post. I prolly won't ever do this race again, it was fun, but just too much...I have some video from our trip, I'll upload it soon...

Out of his mind!!

The gingerbread man on my desk lets me pour lotion out of the top of his head onto my hands.

I figured that would be a great opener to a long overdue post.  Not a lot has been going on, at least nothing most people would be interested in.  Raising a couple of boys, riding the occasional bicycle, drinking more coffee per day than is recommended.  Work.  Brodie is crawling if you haven't heard, and that means trouble.  Dillon knows to leave most of the electronics that are hooked to the TV alone, Brodie doesn't.  He has also had a few face offs with Oscar, I would have to call the matches a draw.  The weather has been sucking, obviously.  Man, this is an exciting post.

Holy diver

Ok, not so holy, but the diver part is true. So, I am finishing a cold PBR as I type this...Yesterday morning I decided to hit up the 10'oclock "group" ride. Well, I guess it was a bit too cold and windy for everyone, myself and one other guy met up at Cyclex for a couple of hours of fun slogging it into the cold headwind. I was definitely glad to be home from the ride. Should have ridden the mtb. Speaking of the mtb...there was a grand re-opening of sorts out at the Pine Ridge campground this morning for the Cedar Creek trail. Steve, Jasen, and a bunch of other people went out there in the 33 degree weather. It was actually pretty cool, I don't think that I have seen that many mtbs in one place, except for a race, in a long time. Anyway, cedar creek is interesting. It is definitely "roughing it" when it comes to mountain biking. I took the suspension bike, the rigid Alma stayed in my cozy garage. We rolled out a little after nine this morning and hit up the new sections of trail, which were very sweet. We decided to roll out the old trail, which is mostly horse trail with a ton of rocks. It was rough, and a bit muddy to say the least. I ended up with Jaysin, Green Beans, Mike B, Fish, and a few others out in the middle of nowhere. We were pretty much riding where there really wasn;t a trail. Well, we crossed a creek and started up this rocky, leafy climb when we all came to a unanimous decision to turn back around. Now, up till then I had stayed pretty dry, except for a bit of sweat. As you know, I don't like to ride thru creeks and get wet, I am usually careful to take the driest route. Not only do I not want to get my clothes dirty and wet, I hate working on my bike. So, I am rolling down this embankment, slow, looking for the cleanest line into this creek to stay the driest, when all of a sudden my front tire decided to sink into some sand and pitch me over the bars. Head first. Into the creek. It was deep, both arms totally submerged, and my chest down to my belly button. Landed on my knees, soaked my knee warmers. So, Pretty much everything from the waist up, and my knee warmers, and my gloves were soaked. And, we were at the furthest point from the camp ground. Luckilly, Mike had some extra gloves, and Nate had an extra jacket, which he offered me coultless times, and Ethan was practically foaming at the mouth thinking I might just get cold enough to stop and spoon with him for a bit (thanks guys!!). Finally made it back to the campground, cold and wet. Also, for some reason today, I had ZERO bike handling skills. Not sure what was up with that. Anyway, ate some cookies, waited for Steve, and packed it in and headed home. So yah, that was interesting. Had a lot of laundry to do, and now I have a bike that is totally assed up that I need to work over this week.

Diddy...the patriot

Wow, I am so glad I had the opportunity to watch Diddy vote on abcnews.com today. That guy is an asshole. Like anyone gives a tin-shit who he votes for or what he does. Crawl back under your rock, thug.
Oh yeah, he looks good in a wetsuit too! Eat some more food lard ass!!

A Day Out With Thomas

For your viewing pleasure:








We took the boys to East St. Louis, straight thru the hood to get a ride on Thomas the Train! Dillon was on cloud 9 and I think Brodie thought it was pretty cool too! We had a good time, thats for sure. We took the boys trick or treating with the Weters on Friday night, Dillon came up on loot, and I have been helping him eat it.



Not a lot else, I have some more pics I uploaded to my other blog

I might puke

I had a sausage sandwich (no, not two dudes between bread silly) for lunch today and it is riding a bit heavy in my fat "fish belly". Since I am such a fat ass, I thought, "what the hell? I might as well over do it for lunch!"

This past weekend was interesting. I stayed home with the boys on Friday, and let Brodie kick me in the testes all day long. Also, I was still sick. I swear, that kid can go from being super sweet to super grumpy in a matter of seconds. He wants to be held, he doesn't want to be held. Repeat. He was fussy most of the day, and pretty much refused to nap. Dillon, on the other hand, was pretty good. Alicia got home, and we decided to press our luck and go out for dinner to get some Mexican. Ordered our food, got it, and Dillon started acting weird. Said he was tired, wanted to lay down in the booth, and wanted me to hold him. Unusual. Well, by the time we got home, I noticed he was warm. I took his temperature, and it was 102. Awesome. So, juice, and to bed for him. Brodie decided he wanted to wake up and fuss at 1230 and I couldn't fall back asleep after that. Dillon woke up around 2, and wanted to sleep downstairs. Eventually, he ended up in our bed, and I went up to his bed because I was coughing my head off and didn't want to bother him and Alicia. So, no sleep for me. Saturday, we got up, and by 9 in the morning, Dillon was pretty much fine and back to his old stuff. So, I'm not sure what the deal was, but I am glad it didn't last very long. We ran a few errands, and I hopped on the Cannondale Rush to ride down to Klunk to pick up a part. I didn't even bother to kit up, I just wore my jeans and a helmet and my mtb shoes. I was still feeling like shit, and wanted to see how bad my knee was for the race on Sunday. Well, the knee was bad, and the lungs were burning because of the crap in them. And my throat too. Not looking to good for the Berryman Epic. I actually thought of bagging it and staying home. Jasen camped out at our house that night on the air mattress since we were leaving at 430 in the morning for the trip down south. I ended up getting a good nights sleep.

Woke up a little before 4 in the morning, made coffee, brushed the teeth, and got in the car and on the road at 430 with Steve and Jasen. The drive down was uneventful, we stopped at McDonalds in Jeff City for some mcMuffins. I was excessively gassy, sorry to my car mates. We made it to the campground, got out numbers, and went about getting motivated for the race. I was feeling pretty shitty, and had pretty much resigned myself to just riding till I didn't feel like it anymore, and then pulling the plug. Everyone was looking for Tilford, he was registered and supposed to be there, but he was a no show. However, Eric Pirtle and Chris Ploch were there, along with an off-road appearance by Brad Huff, incognito in his Springfield bike shop kit. Nice. I initially lined up in the middle/front of the field, but then decided I shouldn't since I was feeling so bunk. So, lined it up in the back. The race started, and as we rolled out of the parking area, I thought it might be fun to see if I could move up a bit. I ended up pretty close to the front and wondered what I was doing? So, I decided that it would be a good time to take a leak. Took it out on a downhill and let fly with the stream. Lost a few places, who cares? Got into the first stretch of singletrack feeling ok, better then I thought I would. Started picking people off, still not going too hard. Got to Brazil creek, the first aid station, pretty quick, around 55 minutes. For some reason, I figured I should fill my hydration pack. Bad move, I spilled water all over the place, didn't get it closed good, had to take it back off to fix it, then decided to get some of the nasty goldfish crackers they had. Then decided to get some food out of my pack, and take some tums. Super inefficient, I was there for 10 minutes. Still not really caring though. Finally got back on the bike and almost missed the trail thanks to the lemming mentality. I was following some dude who turned on the wrong trail, awesome. Rode the next stretch of the race pretty quick, made it to the first berryman aid station feeling pretty good. Got more water and pretzels, and took off. Almost missed another turn, actually rode in a circle for a bit till I found it. It was across a highway, and the marking was on a tree over there. Nice. Then a creek crossing and some very deep, slow sand that I walked, which caused me to start cramping. Some pretty steep, longs hills followed, I struggled with the cramps on all of them. I actually crashed climbing a hill, I got in some lose sand on the climb, spun the rear tire, completely stopped, and fell over before I could get unclipped. Pro!! Not only that, I slammed my bad knee into the toptube on the bike which almost made me pee my pants. Finished up the single track and limped to the next checkpoint, at the berryman campground again. Was told how fat I was by a certain someone at the checkpoint. Thanks!! Hopped back on the trail with a new dose of self confidence. I actually felt better, and rode the rest of the singletrack pretty strong even though I was fighting the cramps. Finally made it to the last road section, and kept seeing people up ahead. I figured I might as well hit the gas and I ended up passing 5 more people. So, I actually had a decent ride given the circumstances, I just wish I would not have been sick and had a gimpy knee. Not a lot else to report, there was a guard at the beer cooler by the name of Furby. Chatted it up with Huff a bit, that kid ended up 2nd!! How hot is that? Ploch won the race, and local man Mike Best ended up third. Jasen, Steve, and I finally got loaded up and headed home with a stop at Burger King. The fat man ate 2 whoppers and onion rings, which I am paying for today.

Tell me how fat I am the next time you see me.

I killed a fly

Actually two of them. The last one landed on my wrist, I picked up the fly swatter and killed his ass dead! Right on my wrist. I am a bad man. Sweep the leg Johnny!!

I am nice and sick, I have some modeling clay coming out of my lungs today, and my throat is sore still. Should make for a fun race at the Berryman.

I have obviously angered the bike gods...

We went up to Clarinda, Iowa last weekend. Left on Friday. I decided to take the 29er with me, there is a park up there with "trails" that I figured I would try out, I also took a set of cross tires in case those trails sucked so I could ride gravel. We left Friday morning, had a delicious motherfucking breakfast from McDonalds in transit. We arrived in Clarinda after lunch. It rained on the way up, and it rained in Iowa earlier in the morning, so I figured the trails would be wet. So, I threw the CX tires (OLD Ritchey Speedmax semi-slicks) on the bike and took off. I decided to ride to the park, a little over 5 miles out of town, to check out the trail conditions. Now, keep in mind that I have never, ever rode these trails before, so I didn't know what to expect. Started in through some mowed fields, found a little single track. I knew it was going to be a problem, I was having a hard time finding traction in the wet grass. I found some single track, and hopped on it. Even tho they were covered in horse shit and acorns and walnuts, they have potential, there is just not much true single track. Anyway, needless to say, after a little over an hour, I noticed the front tire getting squishy. Nice. So, I aired it up, and decided to call it a day and come back the next day with MTB tires. Got home, changed the tires. Rode back out there the next day, flatted again about 40 minutes in. Didn't have enough CO2 to get my tire full, so I had to call Alicia to come and get me. I was very close to performing a bike toss. I also didn't mention that on Thursday, I was riding from work in Ashland to meet Alicia in Jeff City on the trail. I flatted there to. And the day before, my bike was just sitting in the fucking break room at work, and the tire went flat. Those 2 were defective tubes, me thinks, since they split on the seam of the tube. But, jeez, how many flats am I going to have? Rode the road bike yesterday in the wind, now my knee is sore, along with my throat. Not much else going on, Berryman this Sunday. Hopefully I can be full on sick for the race.

This was in my work spam

I translated the German in the subject line.

News Flash

I had some stuff to write about, but I have forgot most of it by now. Last Friday was an off day at work, so I spent the morning with the boys and Alicia, then headed out to Cosmo in the afternoon for a quick ride on the 29er. Every time I ride this bike, something happens. This week I decided to pinch flat. I remember hitting the rock and thinking to myself that that was going to hurt. Well, it did. 3 minutes later, I was stopped replacing the tube. CO2 is not optimum in this situation. I had about half of a 12 gram cartridge left from a previous flat fix, and another full 12 gram cartridge. So, not enough co2. I ended up with a little over 15 lbs of pressure in my tire, enough to limp home. I need tubeless!!! Saturday morning I rolled out to Rock Bridge and met up with Jasen and Ryan. Took the Rush, which is what I am riding at the Berryman Epic. It had been a while since I had been on that bike, I forgot how fun it is to ride. The only thing that sux is that there is only one functional bottle cage mount. So, I packed around another bottle in my jersey pocket. I have a hydration pack, but I don't like wearing it. We got in a couple of hours, then I headed home and went to Wendy's with the boys and A. Then we went to Toys R' Us for a Thomas the Tank Engine event, which totally sucked. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy watching Thomas and messing around with the trains and tracks with Dillon, but this was hardly worth our time. They had a train mat set up, not even real track. All they had for the kids to do was color pics of the trains, and it was headed up by some trailer trash employee that was too busy talking to some hoosier about drinking and partying. Thats right, they were talking about this stuff in front of the kids! Nice! So, Alicia tattled on her to one of the managers. That evening, Steve and Shelia came over to sit with the boys while A and I went to the MU game. I'm not a football fan. I basically went for the free food, and to people watch. I almost got to see a fight, which would have been nice. But other then that, it was pretty uneventful. MU sucked big time too.

Sunday, we went to the pumpkin fest in Hartsburg with Dusty, Kelci, and Kamryn. It was super lame, packed with people, and didn't satisfy. And, it was hot too.

So, not a lot going on, I have some good pics I need to upload, especially from the pumpkin fest.

Like a fire hose...

Friday night, Alicia and I went to the Roots n' Blues festival with Dusty and Kelci. We had a sitter for the boys for the first time in forever. It was pretty interesting watching the trash come out of the woodwork for the free entertainment. I don't know how many rat tails I saw, I tried to snap some pics of them in stealth mode but didn't have and luck. We had dinner at Addisons and I had a very tasty pizza and a couple of 1554 black ales.

I got up bright and early Saturday to meet up with Steve and Jasen at Rockbridge. I decided to ride out there, and took the singlespeed, which I had just done some work on the day before (new cables, housing, chain). This is where things started to go sour. On the way out there, I noticed something wrong with my position on the bike. It wasn't just a difference in bikes, I can usually jump on this bike and it feels like home to me. Somehow, my saddle was waaaaayyyy back on the rails, and a little low. Not sure how that happened, it hadn't been adjusted forever. So, when I got there, I started to work on it and got it dialed back in, I thought. It was cold, and I neglected to wear knee warmers. Well, we took off, and my knees started to ache from pushing a big gear, the cold, and my position was still not right. I also took a bad line and had a stick go into my back wheel right off the bat. No worries, right? Well, I was really sucking wind, and pushing harder then I thought I should have to up the hills to stay on top of my gear. Well, we rode for a couple of hours, and I had all intentions of riding home until Jasen offered me a ride home. I took him up on it. When we got to my house, I took my bike off the rack, set it down, and noticed that the rear wheel was pretty much locked up. My brake was rubbing so bad, it would skid across the pavement if you pushed it. Come to find out, I had a broken spoke, and it knocked my wheel way out of true. Nice. Well, I went inside and cleaned up a bit, and went to Sams Club with A and the boys. While we were there, I started to notice that I was feeling not so good. I thought maybe I was a little calorie deprived, so I bought a big Coke. Drank it on the way home. Ate lunch which consisted of 2 sandwiches with turkey, smoked cheese, and avacado. Really started to not feel good. Decided to lay down with Dillon for his nap, only planned on laying there for 30 minutes so Alicia could go run, but ended up napping with him for a couple of hours. We got up, and I really felt like shit. Apologized to Alicia for her not getting to run, then went back in and laid down. That lasted for all of about 30 seconds, I ran to the bathroom and puked my guts out. I have never thrown up like that, my mouth was wide open and the stream of vomit that came jetting out was impressive. It was roughly the diameter of a softball, hi powered, and full of little chunks of food, and 32 ounces of Coke. I forgot what it is like to puke, how you should not fight it and just let it flow, so I mistakenly braced my legs on the wall behind me with my head hanging in the toilet, and tried to hold back. Oops, now it was coming out my nose too. I heard Dillon in the other room asking mommy if he could come in and see what was going on. Thankfully she said no. Well, I finally finished up, and blew out my nose which was full of little chunks of gouda and avacado. Took off my shirt, which had puke on it, cleaned up my mess and the spatter, and laid back down. I had worked up quite a sweat also, and I had to towel down my body too. Shivered for a bit, then got hot. I skipped dinner, stayed in bed for the rest of the day. I felt a little better Sunday morning, and was able to choke down a bagel, and some coffee. I felt better bit by bit throughout the day, but still not enough to accept the beer my neighbor offered me when we stopped at his house during our post dinner walk. Monday, I felt a lot better. And, I was hungry!

On another note, if you don't know already, Dillon is potty trained, for the most part. I am not a big fan of him pooping in his little potty, I try to get him to use the ring on the toilet so the poop will have some water to cover it and the smell. And, the clean up is obviously easier, you just have to flush it down as opposed to cleaning out the little tray that it lands in on his potty. Anyway, he calls his poops "roly pollies". How funny is that???

Raise up off of

Friday, October 03, 2008 2 things I saw the above character on my commute to Jeff City via the Katy Trail. That would be a copperhead, I think, and he was not too stoked to have his pic taken. I was actually pretty close to the guy, about 3 feet. There were some people coming on the trail while I was doing this, and I was pointing it out. Of course they were riding 4 abreast and had waist pack hydration packs on. And bar end mirrors. I didn't want them to run over this guy and kill him. I don't care if they get bit, though. Anyway, they looked at me like I was crazy or I had shit on my face or something. Its a good thing Butthead wasn't there... This is what happens to the awning on a bank drive up when your wife goes under it with your Litespeed cross bike on the roof. I am glad my bike is titanium. It did wreck my saddle pretty bad, but it could have been worse. So now I am riding a bike without a saddle. Thursday, September 25, 2008 nom nom nom Subscribe to: Posts (Atom) Feedjit Leave a message! Stuff to peek at... DNA Distro: Velocite bikes Recovery Socks, cuddly Rudy Project CBC Racing Powercranks: get stronger!! Chris Reynolds, builder extrordinaire the Beej King Furby Tattoos for you Krasha Great art!! Titus Kill time (this is Furby approved) Home Movie Depot Butt-head Curtie Alicia FEEDJIT Live Traffic Feed Sucking less as teh years go by Prozenberger View my complete profile Blog Archive ▼  2011 (2) ▼  April (2) No title No title ►  2010 (4) ►  November (1) ►  August (2) ►  February (1) ►  2009 (4) ►  July (1) ►  June (1) ►  April (1) ►  January (1) ►  2008 (32) ►  November (3) ►  October (8) ►  September (5) ►  August (1) ►  May (4) ►  April (4) ►  March (4) ►  January (3) ►  2007 (50) ►  December (2) ►  November (1) ►  October (4) ►  September (4) ►  August (3) ►  July (7) ►  June (8) ►  May (5) ►  April (5) ►  March (3) ►  February (6) ►  January (2) ►  2006 (85) ►  December (2) ►  November (3) ►  October (8) ►  September (6) ►  August (7) ►  July (9) ►  June (8) ►  May (11) ►  April (10) ►  March (8) ►  February (9) ►  January (4) ►  2005 (20) ►  December (5) ►  November (2) ►  October (3) ►  September (2) ►  August (8) Awesome Inc. theme. Powered by Blogger.