Out of Austin City Limits

So went to Austin on business, did a MTB race after customer meeting. Bottom line I put in 2.5 hrs pre-ride the day before, then raced 2x9 rigid near 2.5 hrs the next morning. With prior day Amex expense, customer outing, pre-fat and drink up w/89 degree goodness......it was the best worst effort all year!!!

It was Bryan Lake Pedal Power, 3rd TMBRA series race. Flat like river bottoms. Twisty like St Cloud and bumpy like Du Lac it was A'ok. It was a good time. Like this, forward to middle of vid..... The top ten Pro's got the call up, then the rest of us behind. Experts started in following wave minutes behind. Anyway I mustered myself into 5th before woods and proceeded to wheeze out the remainder of my chest and head cold looming from prior weekend Hillside night race (fire/smoke/allergies/then evolving into greenies in throat n head). Gurgling & wheezing trying to hold onto lead pack was interesting.... Seriously, crazy wheez n DRY DUST coughing!!! Nice way to start a race.

I settled in about 7th then proceeded to slowly fade into 13th of 16 Pro/Semi's by end of 2hr21min race. Single Speed would have been better for me. Overall 16th of 45 or so Cat1's. All good. I finished ~12 min off leaders, sorta consistant, too bad wheezy & tourist FAT. At least didn't do expert 40+, they only race an 1.5hrs. ....L A T E R

Hillside Night Pint

Levis Trow Cram Session

Got the "ok you can go" from the honey. With just Saturday and half of Sunday allowed, woke early, drove a few hours then hit trail solo 10:00am. 2 hour SS ride to start the trip and it was time. Once the LCR gang showed up we did an afternoon tour. Found the Goat Dance. The night ride included sidewinder at 1:00am! The trail looks like the pic above, yet even MORE exposed in spots. No biggie cause you don't see the drop offs in the dark. Imagine pictured trail with rocks to go over and cliff's to hit your bars on. Quite enjoy-able with lights. All 29'er Single Speed for me, 34x19 & 32x18 between bikes. I offerred but no one wanted to borrow second SS. How rude, all 16 of them. The rigid SS worked great at Levis with 2.1, 2.1, 2.3 & 2.3 tires. Broke in the Ergon pack with a clean body slam flat onto it. Sweet riding I must say. Let's just say pack is tough. Overall Ergon pack rules with many over-the-top features. So heavey the features I wheelie'd right over backwards, ha ha. Nice prize, not sure I'd fork out the cash unless many long rides we're an option. I also tried the Ergon grips, nice surprise. I really really like them. Comfy. I will definetley keep the Ergon grips on my so called long ride and epic race bikes. LCR quick hit wknd. 3 day rides, 1 night ride, a derby that bent my wheel, too much food, just enough beverages, fire, fire tipping, little sleep, trail sillyness...good times.

State SS Champ, SS Expert & Muffins

So what does the two time SS State Champ bake and eat the morning after? Everything! Including blueberry, strawberry and chocolate chip muffins. It can't be protien all the time, anything works. Warm muffins deserved, no? I'm beat after two races in a day. The expert course had plenty of new rock'n rock gardens. That ride back to Hayward in the rain justified. Biking to class Tues. & Thurs also good. Keeping legs opened up really helps. I went into races similair to Red Wing, heavey ride week. Finding time to keep "bikes" & "body" in shape is a trick!! SINGLE SPEED RACE: Off the gun Dave M. led us around the parking lot into the CC ski trail. Hwood, Charlie & I just followed. Later in prolouge I went to the front. At the end of the prolouge around parking lot Hwood stormed ahead ensuring he had lead for first lap. The two of us started gapping chasers. Somewhere way in the woods, wood had a yard sale. All good, now he followed. My goal was to hold on & lead second lap. Around parking lot put in a huge effort stayed in front. Hwood caught back up in woods, we gapped others big. Through 2nd lap upping pace and staying smooth was the goal. The two of us stayed together until last punchy climb. Before we got there I mentioned "I know what your planning". We chatted a bit. At the top of the hill I said, "I thought you we're going to cyclo-cross the hill". Hwood said he couldn't stop laughing. From there my lead increased. Win, second year in-a-row. Good race w/better competition. 34x17 on 29'er a little stiff for accelerating out of corners.. skinny ski! link 1 link 2 No-No.Na-O EXPERT w/SS: ....with previous race just an hour earlier my intent was start slower. Around the parking lot I was dead last of expert field. Then I started to pick off riders. Matt, Guse, Jack, Larry, Jeff, Another and later in second lap caught up to Jay, Jake and Barry. Barry was leading us through back sections, then Jay led. The pace was fast enough and at times wasn't sure if I'd hold on. Last year my legs didn't give as much output. I threw on the 34x18 combo for the expert race. It was much faster in the woods for me. Started to feel really strong again. Went with it, in short section before end of lap 2 hammered past the three. I yelled out "see ya soon" as my legs we're bound to give. I went hard to ensure my gap around parking lot to start lap 3. It worked. Amazingly my body and legs survived at constant Expert pace. 7th overall experts. 1st & only 40+'er out there. Unreal double race day!!!

Chewamie Gone

Fun yet saying no more. Fun to see folk but grass ride not worth riggamaroll. My deal went down SS 2 9 @38x17. Over rev'ed engine 10 times before rosies then passed a zillion on rosies. Brutal rollout on SS. The trail went fast and my gearing was good. Scored a nice pull from FG and followed Ryan Horkey to water tower. We formed group of 4 ss'ers. At water tower gaped all 3 ss'ers, only walked once.... But chain kept cracking loud popping noises. I held off Ryan for most of the way home but within last 10 miles got off 3 times, twice to push chain back on & once to wrench chain line tight. I was feeling way strong but bike down time stinks. It happens, Ezra had flat issues too. Nice job Ryan et all. Chain issues cost me 20 spots & 3rd overall in SS? Oh well the results beat my 2005 effort finishing 2hrs 26m, top 100. I was the idiot of the day and biked back 20 miles to Hayward in the rain. Not sure what got into me. It was wet, sorta fun and fine on the legs. My team mates all wimped out. I was looking forward to a group ride back but no. Amy, Duncan and my Dad all improved their time over last year in the 16. I hear Dad was strong the whole race and passed a large group on finish hill. Next year I'll watch. Sheila scored 2nd and Teel 3rd in SS, sweet. Fun to hang with many friends. Too bad the rain drove most home Saturday. I'm looking forward to single track riding. Happy trails.

Nineteen or Eighteen?

Whoa, this video is out there, funny what triggers a song. Is it Alice Cooper... Y/N??? Biking: Removed shifters & multi- gears off geary 29'er. Result 19 pounder. At Hillside race last Thursday, hotlap w/ 38x18, 2nd place. 19t would-duh worked better. Hmmm, what to run at Chequamie. Thinking it's 38x17? 44x19? 44x18? On a completley separate note. Alta, appendice taken out today! We are in the hospital recovering fine.

Camp Maplelag MNSCS # 9

ARE YOU READY KIDS!!!!!! Hey kids did you miss it?? Maplelag XC course is one of the toughest and funnest around. Did you show up, survive or DNF? I'm guessing 7 experts dnf'ed. Speaking of kids.....check out picture here 25 kids in the kids comp class!!! .

Maplelag is like going to Camp. Thank You Richards family for Camp Maplelag!! The lake, swimming, fishing, friends, non-stop race action, home style food, cookie jars, movie room, skills clinic, main lodge, dinner bell? Everyone has kid like energy. It's hard to explain the great job the Richard's family does. Food is inclusive with overnight stay, so everyone sits together at mess hall on wooden benches and tables. The food rolls out on carts, you just want to start singing like at camp when it's served.

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Anyway, for the long weekend all five in my family plus my Dad all headed up. We all raced. I can't even begin to share the fun we all had. On the left is a picture of Leo after a full day at camp. By the way Duncan is fine, a bit sore, but fine.

The Time Trail Saturday AM hurt as my biking time has been lacking. Time has got the best of me, hence my late blog post! This week I started 2 more MBA classes(I'm halfway through St. Thomas MBA program), kids are back in school, and the actual egress windows are both finally in!!

In the short track my goal was to simply not get passed by the leaders. I lost three spots when my chain came off on final lap/hill, looks like weak derailuer to me. Important thing is met goal of not being passed by expert leaders, whew. Duncan also did ST and was leading for a few laps. It was so fun to see him hammer it out with the leaders. What a race. He took 1st in citizen males in ST and overall. Far out!! The short track is a blast to watch.

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In the Cross Country race on Sunday, we all raced. Alta and Leo did kids comp. Everyone finished. All but Leo got 1st or second in age. I should mention my Dad at 67 was the oldest, and got first. He stood on the podium alone, on the top. Anyone have a picture of that? I'm sure most of you spoke with him this weekend, he sure had a great time.

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Since some of you other old farts like my XC race re-caps, I'll recap. First off, let me say got my butt kicked by a 15 year old. Yeah, thanks for making feel young Jake!! From no training to way into expert mix, very nice. So you know, my race re-cap might be a little long, so stop reading and check out pictures below if you want. See ya....

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Ok, the expert race went like this from my view: the start went well as didn't go for broke but hung in around 15th. After first single track the glimpses of leaders diminished. On downhill before the steep open gravely climb my chain sucked into BB area again. I got off bike to fix, Barry and about 6 other guys wizzed by. I made up some ground on the gravely climb. From there it was to the lake side drops. It was follow Hollywood, Shane, and Lance toward suicide hill. Matt Kurke was near, Jan was somewhere behind and Barry was up ahead somewhere. Shane and Hollywood went back and forth a few times, then at suicide hill I hammered past a few folk. Eventually I passed Tom and caught up with Barry. I think that was all during lap 1.

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Lap two Barry and I pedaled together talking about how long a race it was going to be. Barry is really good at following and showing me his wheel. He knows I'm a sucker for a race and will speed up if challenged. He did this on short track and other races. We actually joke about it. As we cruised along we knew Jan was coming, Matt caught us. Paul was ahead and eventually came in site.

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Lap 2 and 3 was a bit blurred as Paul was always there and/or ahead, Jan did catch us. Matt, Paul and I all went after or chased Jan at one point or another. I passed Jan once and passed Paul about four times. It was near 90 degrees, hot, and a tough course. Yowza. I do remember Seeing Barry catching me again at beginning of lap 3.

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So at start of lap 3 it became myself, Barry then Matt. Jan was way gone and Paul was ahead somewhere. At suicide hill Barry the steady one made his move. My legs said no with a few electrical shocks, I had to let Barry and Paul go. Finally I steadied my pace and kept Matt off. It was hard but finally caught Paul and passed him. He was basically riding one handed, yep, what a finish for him. I never saw Barry but ended 45 seconds behind him.

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It was a hard race for me but happy to finish in the money and not DNF. Check out the expert money picture. Barry and I we're having fun in nose bleed row. (all pictures are from my Dad's or my Camera, one might be Dana'a which I'm sure to buy a few pics from her again).

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Looks like for my efforts this year I'll end up 6th or 7th overall experts for 2008 season. Not bad for a 42 year old. My goals have been mosly set on next year, we'll see..... Later!