life little jokes

I am growing facial hair for the first time in 32 years. Right now i have some fuzz on my upper lip. I am hoping that it turns in to a great 'stash so I can finally give out some free rides of the moustache variety. haha. I however can not grow side burns oh how I wish I could. On the upside of things I dont have to deal with things like back and chest hair, yes I am a hairless wonder. thanks to my great gene pool. Well enough about me. I hope at least one person gets my sarcasm in the above sentence. who ever you are thanks.

I rode a bunch last week, skipped a race, it would have taken to much energy for the reward of getting there, plus I had no ride, and it was a ferry ride away. all together a good call as it hailed and sleeted and I heard it was cold as all get out. If i was to miss a race it seems that that one was the one to miss, plus it is an xc race not and endurance race, hence not worth as much to me as just a great ride. I however will be racing a few of the shorter length races to gauge fitness and just to have fun. Gotta get back in shape somehow.

I am doing some more exploring on the mtn bike, just trying to find all the good places to ride, and this weekend it is off to Bellingham for sampling of some great trials. hope to have some new people to ride with the old as well,as the circle of friends grows.

It is amazing how long it takes to get a community of riders around you, time in is time out, just like time on the bike makes you better, speaking of that I gotta go put in some miles before work today, after I run a bunch of errands.

New tires are on the way, soon, I am in the process of deciding just which tires I want to run, thinking of the Rampage, or the new WTB tire. I'll let you know when I know.

thanks all and as always keep pealing. I will leave you with this, I pulled in off of the Fearless Gearless site, it has been submitted to the Bicycle Film Fest. I like it. Great song to go with it. Tell me what you think.

inspiration

Watch this and tell me you are not inspired. It is good to see someone who is willing to put it all on the line. He already cycled around the country, his next project is to go around the world. Bikes are great way to express ourselves aren't they. Check out his website here.

Right now I am doing a lot of reading about he real costs of oil, in a book called Lives Per Gallon, as well as reading Big Box Swindle which is all about the effect that box stores are having on society. Both are very interesting while at the same time a bit disheartening, we as a society need to start seriously reconsidering some of our past choices and making much more informed choices in the future. Stay strong and as always keep pedaling.

Harmonic Convergenss

Harmcom was a blast. Like I said before I wanted to get down to this last year but didn't make it. This year it all worked out and I am so glad that I went. The day started soon after the night ended. As in 3 hours to be exact. I will back track a bit. Friday while on the way to work I crashed my bike yet again. I felt like a bit of a moron. It was raining a bit, the roads were slick and I was exploring a bit, so I was on unfamiliar roads. Intuition was telling me that it was dangerous, and that i had made a wrong turn. As I was turning at slowspeed going downhill i noticed oil on the road, before I could correct i was laying on the ground, and in pain. Everything would have been fine, minus the cellphone in my pocket. I had a really bad charlie horse, the kind that made it really hard to pedal a fixed gear, and walking was an effort. Well as you can guess I soldiered on. Road to work, worked and entire shift behind the bar. Medicated a bit with Vitamin I and you guess it a bit of product sampling, or should I say quality control. Left work, road home, telling my self that using it would force blood though it, thus helping it heal. The bruise had started to show a bit. 3 am went to bed. Keith, my friend and ride to harmcom called promptly at 6:20 and it was confirmed we were headed out. A. the weather looked too nice, B. I wasn't going to miss this ride again. The drive down was uneventful, and we arrived at the said location. There were familiar faces and lots of unfamiliar faces, but the vibe was all good. We caravaned out to the parking location and met up with some more folks. This is when the fun really began. We divided in to different groups and set off. I picked the group lead by Joel, most of us were on single speeds. To say we rode some trail is an understatement he showed us the way. To say we traveled great distances, not so. These trails are slow speed , twisty knotted routes. We had a blast. Log rides, mud, to say I had the wrong tires is an understatement, WTB NanoRaptors were not the best, but not the worst either. We rode around for a long time, then had a mid ride meeting for some barley pop and then some more riding. I met some great people. Oh are you wondering how the leg felt, stiff, and a bit underpowered, but I pushed through and no one else knew the difference, save for when I got off the bike and hobbled around. The black and blue was better than ever. I always mean to take pictures, but never seem to get around to it. I plan to work on this. Photos make all the difference. Heard about some great events coming up, more on that later. This is a worthy event. We had originally planned to stay the night, but the leg needed to be treated with a bit of respect, so we headed home.

All you myspace people out there. I know I caved in a set an account up. my address is
http://www.myspace.com/onegearonemind

as always keep pedaling.

what more to say

I have been occupied with a bunch of things, and am currently working lots while still managing not to have any free monies to devote to such things as bicycles. Why you ask. Well we currently own two houses and are paying said mortgages. The former one in Reno is about to be sold, which will do wonders for us financially. Meaning we can pay back all the debt incurred by having to pay two mortgages. There is money owed to friends for work done that I have not been able to pay back, and they don't deserve this kind of treatment, I thank them for being friends and being understanding. Well back to bikes, this blog in theory is devoted to all things bike related.
Last week consisted of working all seven days, but still managing to get 145 miles in, all but a few on the fixie and on the road. I however need to get some dirt on, which I will be doing this weekend. The Harmonic Convergenss, that is part of the Indie Series, looks to be rolling terrain, maybe I will race the ride is this weekend down the road in Longview, WA. Looks to be back to back days of new trails, and new friends. I am planning on bringing the Skull bike, and coasting a bit. The following weekend there is a short race over on the Peninsula, might take the fixie and see how it rolls out. Why not right. All in the name of getting more fitness back in these legs. Elk had a great post the other day.
Happy to say, I am part of the Bare Knuckle Brigade, cant wait to get the kit, so I can start representin. Hope to make it to some races on the east coast and Midwest to meet some of the other members.
I going to ride at least 10 hrs a week, thats the plan at least. Gonna make my commute to work an hour long and see how the body responds. It is terrible to say, but I am scared to push it too hard after what happened to me, but little by little I am getting stronger and stronger and more willing to push it harder and harder. The goal is to get to 200 miles a week or a bit more. I need to start getting more dirt miles in, as the road gets boring. I am trying to be realistic and just slowly move towards more miles and better fitness. Nothing like look ahead to races and having a goal again. This time the goal won't consume me though.
Looks like Tahoe finally got some snow. Shredder got a new bike, I would like to get one from the same builder some time, but more than that I would like to get some traveling in as well as some good old fashioned racing. Well enough is enough, its time to go track down the last of my W2's so I can get the money I so badly need right now. as always keep pedaling.

Beer and BBQ for Breakfast...

Here is how Wednesday started, 10am beer for breakfast, you do only live once. It was Pete's, in the blue vest, 32nd birthday. B was the theme of the day. First we started with a beer, pictured here, then it was off, on an empty stomach for the next B of the day, BBQ. I will attempt to fill this space with the back story on this event. A year ago to the date of Pete's birthday is when I happened to meet Pete and Keith, I had just started back at the Big Time Brewery, my first night back to be specific. Around 9 pm these two characters walked in and proceed to say they were out celebrating a birthday by riding around to numerous breweries in the Seattle area and sampling the beers, as I a sure you can guess we were the last stop, and they were mildly intoxicated. Keith proceeded to tell the same story multiple times, as he is prone to doing, but manages to make it funny each time. There is intricate math that goes in to finding the real truth in his stories, but none the less he is great, and I am happy to have met them. They truly have made living in Seattle much better than in would have been had I not met them, so thank you gentlemen. Enough, now on to the next stop of the adventure, Dixie's BBQ over on the East Side.
Here again is the birthday boy pondering his choice of breakfast meats. Did I just say Breakfast and meat, other than bacon in the same sentence. ouch. This one left a mark. Sitting like a bomb in each or our stomachs for the remainder of the day. After the experience that is Dixie's was complete, we were off to the Tapeworm trail in Renton for our next B, bikes. We had a great ride, complete with stunts, log rides, drops and even some jumps. Back to the picture, doesn't Pete look confused? he was. After the Tapeworm, which I had heard mixed reviews of, we were off for a bit of lunch, and then I was off to work. The Tapeworm is a marvel of packing trail in to a small area, twisting turning, logs, roots, lots of low speed stuff, talk about a skill improver. Not long enough,or enough elevation change to make for an epic, but fun none the less. Yes I coasted, I had so much fun coasting again, I still love scorchin too. It made for a long day to say the least, but memorable and totally worth it.


So I will follow all that up with a plug to go and sign this, we need to save PBS and NPR, feels like we just did this a few months back. I will ask a rhetorical question, is our president really that much of an idiot? as always keep pedaling.

scraped elbows and strained backs

Yes the title pretty much says it all. I have a bad back strain, allowing me to ride in the saddle, standing is not so much fun, and painful as well. Then on Friday I had the pleasure of crashing my bike on the pavement and getting scraped elbows, yes both. It happened at 3 in the morning and made for a great night of sleep. Pavement is not all that forgiving, but bound to happen at some point. I have been here a year and only crashed a couple of times, considering the amount of rain and time spent riding I am ok with it, however I don't wish to crash anytime soon. Crashing on a bad back did wonders for the pain, Saturday it started raining again and I spent lots of time watching movies. Saw This film is not yet rated. Lots of information about the film industry and the control exerted by a secret group of raters. I suggest you all go out, rent it and watch it.

So I am riding not as much as I would like, working more than I would like and spending more time not in motion than I would like.

As for the upcoming season I am trying to put it all together, but it really depends on the sale of our Reno house going through and how we come out of that, it will be great to be out from under that load, it has been sucking us dry of all our funds. Makes traveling hard, as i need to work all that i can, at least for the time being. I am looking forward to doing some races in BC, and will do some endurance race on a fixie, if everything goes as planned. Tomorrow is my 1 year anniversary at the Big Time Brewery, this is the same day that I met Keith and Pete on there Brewery tour on bikes, to honor the day we are going to go for a ride, I still have to work at night, but we are going to hopefully go ride some trails in the area. This weekend there wont be much riding, but over the weekend of the 17th we are headed down to Longview, WA for Harmonic Convergenss. The weekend after that I am going to race an XC race as "training" over on the Peninsula as part of the Indie Series.

My first 100 miler

I will try to set the stage as best I can. I had been racing Norba races, and competing on 4 man expert teams in 24 hr racing, in fact I had raced duo at one already before this race, but never a 100miler all in one go. I sent off the registration, after talking a friend, Nate Simonson, in to doing it with me, I wanted some company for the 8 hr drive from Reno to Brianhead, UT. I had become bored with the Norba attitude scene, and wanted a challenge. What better way to challenge ones self and endurance than to ride 100 miles off road in a day. Since I had been racing 24 hr races I liked the people more, out for a challenge, more supportive and just plain more fun. More like being part of the event, not the side show as the age group races are at the Norba events. I have always had a lot to prove to myself, kind of a self loathing, hurt to feel good, no pain no gain, looking for the edge kind of feeling. I was quite nervous at this race. This was 2003 and I had only been riding for 3 years to say I was intimidated, wondered what kind of hell I had signed on for is and understatement. Upon arrival I noticed some familiar faces, Uber super hero Steve Fassbinder was there on a 29er singlespeed, Sean Mclaughlin, Mike Janelle, who look veiny as all hell, he didn't look human i remember thinking that. We got there to 8,900 feet checked in to the hotel, registered and then we just had to stretch the legs a bit so we rode the first climb, I was riding gears still, yes it was that long ago. Then it was eat, have a quick drink, I believe we drank Guinness, and then off to bed.
Race Day
Wake up shower, get all things in order, lube chain, recheck and out the door, to ride up to the start. Mill around. Man was I nervous. My stomach was churning and churning. In to the line, an I wearing too much, not enough, ahhhhhhhh. One minute to start and I have to drop the kids at the pool, take the browns to the superbowl, not gonna happen, it will go away I say to myself. The gun goes off and we are off, pacing I know nothing I am just going for it, I want to run out front with the big guns. It is all climbing out of the gate up the pavement and then up to 11,000 ft then a really fun descent all the way to aid 1. I just ride through, it is at this time that I go by Steve Fassbinder, we exchange a few words, mind you we are on fairly flat terrain and I have gears and he doesn't. Big advantage. Through the lava fields, down some more double track, and in to aid 2 where i stop and fill up with water. I think all the descending is going to be climbing on the way back. After aid 2 it is more rolling and flat and I remember a horrible head wind on a road before we hit some ripping single track along the Virgin River Rim trail. Aid 3 m and m's and Sloane Anderson and I are riding together for a bit, we pull each other up and down some of the hills. Aid 4 same as aid two, my legs are really starting to hurt now, and that stomach hurt is really coming on. At 75 miles there is an informal aid station, I am really hurting but keep plugging on. I forgot toilet paper, the woods are super dry, i must wait until aid 5 to rid myself of these hostages that I am holding at this point in time. I get there and not soon enough. I literally drop my bike and run for the port a potty that is in the blazing sun and it is 90 degrees at 9,000 feet, it is like a sauna, before I get there I am fighting with my jersey,It needs to be off, why you may ask, well I made the big mistake of wearing bibs on a 100 mile race, not only do my nipples hurt, but it is a fight to get to the port a potty. I throw my shirt on the ground , jump inside the little blue sauna sit down, and remember that I first need to lower my bibs. I somehow manage to do this and avoid disaster, but I have to hold on to both sides of the box to keep my self in place. I am in so happy, and lighter. I finally am able to get up and out and people are laughing and clapping. Glad I made someones day. Now I must finish this race. 14 miles to go, how bad can it be. It was the longest 14 miles of my life. All up hill save the last 3 miles which went down. Almost two hours. I was dehydrated but determined to finish. I wanted to make it in under 9 hours so I could get my chalice. Well I succeeded 8:40 and change, 2nd in my class, that is if you take Mr Fassbinder out because he was on a single and won that class. 14th overall. not too bad. I felt good, had a few beers, with Sean, Eric Rector, who had done it on a single speed, and a bunch of others. Nate finished a bit later and was in good spirits. After the awards we just crashed anticipating the long drive home the next day. There you have it, if you made it this far thanks. as always keep pedaling. I will revisit races from time to time, next time I will get to my first single speed 100 miler, the Cascade Cream Puff.