101 Ways To Get Your Ass Spanked (and love it)

Friday:

Waffled on whether to take my Salsa El Santo full suspension with it’s worn nearly to the metal rear brake pads or my Titus HCR hard tail all Friday morning. Finally I decided go with the hardtail, ‘cause with like 10,000 feet of total clmbing… what goes up, must come down, so you better have good brakes. Plus not like I’m “slumming it” on a sweet ass Titus Ti. Of course this problem could have been avoided if I wasn't borderline retarded and would have ordered the correct Hope brake pads. But you gotta go with the IQ that brung ya.

Loaded up the Element on Friday and headed out to Coburn, PA for my first attempt at the Wilderness 101 Mountain Bike Race. 101 miles of steep forrest road and double track climbs and rocky single track decents. My pre race goal was under 9 hours based on the 2004 times of some of the competitors I have raced with and felt that I was on par with.

The "Pie Wagon" if full on camp mode.

Except for missing a turn and backtracking through downtown State College the trip was uneventful. I pulled in around 5 p.m. and picked up my registration packet. When I got back to the Element my camp neighbor was just setting up and it was Billy Hughes, the solo racer that I rode several laps at Big Bear with, and who I thought maybe had got abducted by aliens ‘cause after are fourth lap or so I passed him and never saw him again. He’s a friendly guy and it was nice to have someone to hang out with.

I got the Element set up to sleep in by putting the passenger side front and rear seats flat and and spread the sleeping bag on top. Nice little arrangement. Imagine yourself camping inside a mail truck and that’s what it was like.

Now it was time to get my bike prepped, number plate on, and gear laid out for Saturday. With a 7 a.m. start and getting up a 5:30 to eat and "pinch a loaf" there would’nt be much time. Then I ate a nice dinner of whole wheat pasta salad with spinach and garlic as well as a turkey bagel sandwich. Mmmmmm.

Crawled in the E. around 9 for bed and slept pretty good in the “pie wagon”. Way better than I've ever slept in a tent. Seats are bit lumpy but good.

Saturday:

Awoke at a 5:30 a.m. to the sounds of small gong being hit and the race organizer giving a short but effective wake up yell.

Ate a tasty PB&J Bagel and a downed a Starbuck's Double Espresso drink and then paid a visit to Mr. P. Potty. I strapped on the Bikeman.com kit, readied my hammer gels and bottles, and tried to relax for a few moments before a long day in the saddle.

Seems like every time I race the big gun endurance freaks turn out. This event was no different and had the likes of Chris Eatough, Cameron Chambers (racing single speed), Ernesto Merechin, Mark Hendershot and what seemed like the whole fast-as-hell Independent Fabrications team. So at 7:00 a huge pack of around 200 freaks rolled out of Coburn Park and headed towards the mountains. After a brief roll on pavement the pack took a left on a forest road and the first of countless long climbs of the day. The pack immediately started breaking apart. I just went my own pace and would hook up a group here or there until I needed a pass or got dropped. The first 20 miles or so was all gravel forest roads. The decents were sketchy due to a lot of fresh gravel and you had to be extra cautious not to get caught in the deep gravel.

Aid stations were spread out about every 25 miles. They were just awesome. Soon as you pulled up they would offer bottles, Hammer Gels, PBJ, Fig Newtons and more. If you need your pack filled up they would do it for you. Mucho thanks those volunteers.

I bypassed the 1st station and not long after we got a taste of some single track which was welcomed after all that forest road climbing. There were some seriously fast snowmobile trail decents that had me going 25 – 30 mph down hill, over rocks on a hardtail. Ouch! Thank God I didn’t chance the brake pads on the El Santo though, there was some seriously fast downhills that needed all the brake power I could get.

The first 60 miles or so went pretty well. Pain was at a minimum except for some knee pain that I’ve had the misfortune of dealing with for a month or so. Nothing a little Advil couldn’t help. I also experience some cramping in my thigh, which is unusual for me, but I kept it going just fine.

The climbs were like NOTHING I’ve ever done before! Several miles up, then up some more… oh wait just a little more UP!! A lot of time was spent climbing on my own too, with nothing but lines from the movie Anchorman going through my head. “It’s HOT, milk was a bad choice”

I was feeling good, I just couldn’t seem to make time. I started to see my goal of finishing in under 9 hours go away and now hoped for under 10. That was a mental blow.

Around mile 80 or so I missed right turn sign and did 1 extra mile (not happy) then around mile 90 is when mentally it got even harder. Every rock seemed to draw me to it and want to take blood, every climb started to have just one more switch back and then to top it all … I was riding with Bob Anderson, who I raced with at Lodi Farms this year, when he moved up a about 20 bike length, and hooked up with a single speeder. They both stoped, looked a me, pointed down and motioned me left. Why? I thought… SNAKE!!!!!!! Not just SNAKE!!!! RATTLE –F-ING SNAKE!!!!! In full on pissed off mode, rattle going, hissing etc. I nearly fainted. We all made it around the F-er and continued on.

In the last 4 miles we encountered one more section of single track, a hike-a-bike, two dark-as-night-can’t-see-anything tunnels and of course ONE MORE CLIMB! The short section of road back in to Coburn was the best though. I could smell the burgers and almost taste the beer. I crossed the finish line, made like T. Rex and banged the gong (you finish. you bang a gong), grabbed my free commerative pint glass and sat my ass down. I finished in just under 10 hours and in around 50th or 55th place (wasn’t paying attention when they told me, just glad to be done, and now I have to wait for the results). Overall not real happy with my finish, but considering it was my first 101, and there were still roughly 150 people behind me, that’s not too shabby. Hope to improve my time next year.

Oveall I can’t say enough about about how well the race was run. A $135 entry fee got you free camping a Coolmax T-Shirt, water, Gatorade and Hammer Gels from a friendly group of volunteers, commerative “finishers” pint glass, free post race beer from Otto’s Pub in State College and burgers, dogs, and more. Top 5 in Mens, Womens, and Single Speed all walked away with cash and they gave swag prizes like 60 deep. I even walked away with a Dirt Rag T-Shirt. Plus I got to chance to compete against some of the best racers in the country/world on some great trails. I’ll be back in 2006 for sure. Check out the web site for Wilderness 101 and Shenandoah 100 info.

When I went to bed Sat. night around 11, there were 6 racers STILL out on the course! And just for the record. Chris Eatough won with a time of just under 7 hours. Freak.

Disc Brake F-Bomb

Did a short 1:10 spin around Boyce on the Salsa tonight. Got home and prepped the Honda Element for the trip to Coburn, PA and the Wilderness 101. Then I put fresh tubes in the Maxxis Advantages. Looked at my rear Hope Mono Mini and the pads are WAY down. So I figured I'd swap out the pads. Got the pads out, went to install the new pads and they're the WRONG ones... SHIT!!! So I put the old ones back in and NOW the calipers are ephed up. SHIT! So I work off and on all freaking night. Think I have it. Gonna take for a short spin tomorrow and double check. If not. Looks like 101 miles, 9 hours on a freaking hard tail. SHIT! Oh well what I lose on the decents I'll make up for on the acents. But maybe not Hope to take the Salsa. Gotta get some sleep. No post til Sunday most likely. Need to work on my mechanical skills....Where's Tom when I need him?? MONTANA!!!

Later.

Cellar Dweller

What an F-ed up day. Work sucked. Production Dept. ran an ad before I finished thus it was WRONG. Idiots. Then I find out that the cat that came to our house and gave an estimate for the roof repair, made the repair last week without telling us, now he wants $540. Nice! If I only had $540 to give him. Guess he shoulda called first huh?

Did 1:05 on the trainer whilst watching the 2004 Olympic Chix MTB race. Followed by the 2004 Motezuma's Revenge. Ah, the magic of VHS. Kept my HR in "recovery" zone but damn it was hhhumid. Kinda like a Turkish Bath. Without the bath or the Turkish.

Going to bed.

Later.

Random Thoughts & Tues. Night Book Club

No ride tonight. I really wanted to, but don't want to do too much this week with the Wild 101 on Sat. Gonna do an easy road ride tomorrow or easy spin on trainer if it rains.

A few posts ago I mentioned how I think 99% of all Mountain Bike Mags SUCK. Hucking, dirt jumping, down hill crap-ola, bikes that look like motorcycles, yuppie bikes or beginner tips. That's all there really is. I like Velo News but it's 95% roadie, too expensive to subscribe too and none of my shops EVER have the current issues.

I would love an XC Mountain Bike Mag that focuses on racing skills, performance riding, fitness and nutrition and race recaps. But "there ain't none" as the saying goes. But there ARE great blogs out there full of tips, info and interesting reading from folks like Jeff Kerkove, Solo Goat, Nick Martin, and Jason Sager. Not to mention informative sites like www.mountainbikeracer.com, the MTBR forums, and ride424.com. This is the new media for me. No need to get a mag that's 90% ads, 8% Bull Shit, and 2% anything worth while. There are some other great sites by more "regular guy racers" (no offense to them) like FatMarc, Ashwin Earl, and some wannabe endurance racer doofus who named his site the Soiled Chamois.

Some mags to check out that are NOT cycling mags but are pretty darn informative:

Muscle & Fitness Hers. Hot chicks working out... and more!!:



Yeah, I know it's for chicks, but It's much more informative and realistic than the men's version. The weight trainning is more like something we XC peeps would do, and the nutrition articles are pretty good too. Can be a little heavy on the "protein & tanning" but still good. Plus most of the models are pretty hot and built great. EYE CANDY BONUS!

Triathlete. 3 Sports, I only do one of them and it's still better than Bicycling magazine!



Again, not a true cycling mag, but much of the fitness info, training and nutrition tips are spot on for heavy endurance events like solo 12 & 24s.

Books that I find to be SUPER helpful:

Eat Right. Work out. Or get fat. Seriously. This one is great



Great for learning how to fuel your day and workouts through the year so as to not get tubby in the winter or under fuel during your race season. Recipes are pretty good. This book is WAY better than his latest. The new one is ok but most of recipes contain items tha are too expensive and too hard to find. Or are too time consuming to make.

Playing Hard doesn't work so well in lycra but Eating Smart rocks!...



This book is also full of real food ideas and tips. I've read this one about 10 times. Very good. Some good recipes too.

I also HIGHLY recomend the E-Caps/Hammer Fueling Handbook. Available for download in PDF form here. Or through www.e-caps.com. This one change my whole race nutrition for the better. Can't say enough about them. And NO I'm NOT sponsored by them.... yet! HA!

People seem divided on this book. I dig it and find it pretty easy to figure out.



I think it's great for on the bike training and season/off season planning. Still learning and adapting as best I can given the training hours I have and the style of racing I do. But I dig it.

Man, I must be bored. Pre Hump-day-tastic.

No Rain. No More Groundhog

Previously I had posted that I was aborting tonight's ride due to massive downpours at 4:45. I decided to go ahead and at least ride the pavement in the park rather than the trainer in my basement. So that post has been deleted.

To my surprise when I got to the trails... IT NEVER RAINED THERE! Alright!! So there was going to be some sweet post work singletrack after all. I did a fast 12.5 loop at XC race pace on the Titus HCR. Felt super. Nice hard effort and my legs felt real good. Coming down a fast downhill I hit a groundhog. Not happy. This is the first time I've ever hit an animal whilst riding. I mean I've run over snakes, but I HHHHHHHHATE snakes so I don't care. But a fuzzy ground hog. Poop. I like to think he's fine, just happens to have the imprint of a Maxxis Ignitor on his back. Better than a Goodyear I suppose.

Probably my last REAL ballz out effort of the week. The rest of the week will be keeping loose on the road and trainer with minimum hard efforts. I leave Friday afternoon for the Wilderness 101 that starts 7 a.m. Saturday.

Later.

Gettin' my Greek On

Taking it easy today. Watching Lance for the last time and eating a PB&J bagle. How 'bout that spill Discovery took. That would suck to get hurt on the last day.

Wifey, B-Man and I are going to a Greek Food Festival with Y-Nizzle and his Wifey. I expect to "Zorba it up" and see this guy....



Might take a spin tonight, but if not no big deal.

Went to John Harvard's Brew House last night. Names are officialy put in for the Mug Club... SWEET! Came home and watched Anchorman for the 3rd time and fought some crime.

Later.

Sat. Ride in The Bag

Went to the Washington (PA) Wildthings game last night. Kinda sucked. Kinda rocked. Sucked 'cause it took over an hour to get there with traffic in Pittsburgh and that put me in foul mood. Meaning I was kind of dickhead to all until I went to bed. Been working on a two day depression that I couldn't shake and this mess and dealing with family (meeting me sister and her family there) doesn't help either.

The good on the other hand was that they served Penn Pilsner there and it seems that if you work for the Wildthings you're a hot, college age girl. Sorry Wifey but shit even the chick that was sweeping up trash was nice.

I actually slept 'till 8 a.m. today. First time I've done that in almost two years I think. Got up watched the Tour and downed some Java. Seeing Rasmussmoosemuson have all those mechanicals was heart wrenching. I could've cried. Still has his K.O.M. jersey though.

Lance put on a f*cking clinic. Gonna miss seeing him rule like that. Basso better step up a notch.

Got 2 hours & 20 miles of tight-ass singletrack in today. Been having some shifting probs. on the El Santo think I got it workable now. Ride really helped my mood. Trails were dry, there wasn't a cloud in the sky and low humidity. Plus there was like NO ONE around. Must be a big sale at the mall or a new all you can eat buffet open somewhere close.

Put some new cleats on my old Specialized shoes. 'Cause even though the Sidi's rock and are super stiff. They're a bitch to hike-a-bike with, and I got me a feeling I might be doing some of that during the 101 next week.

Sat. evening dilema: I have no beer in the house except some free shit that one of my sales reps gave me like 4 months ago. I like beer but I'm not a goddamn lush. Do I go buy some or do we go to John Harvard's tonight (our usual place) and get some fresh brewed. Hmmm.

Might go investigate South Park tomorrow. It's one of the closest places I can legaly night ride, but I've never ridden there. Want to get a nice loop down before fall/winter. Might help in preventing me from taking a rope to the attic. HA!

Wonder how J.B.'s century is gong today?

Later.

Sweet Machine & A Series of F-Bombs

Morning: Started well enough. Drop the B-Man off a daycare, shoot back to the crib for java, PBJ and load the Trek on the Soob. Got the bike loaded and as I'm sucking down the java I noticed a 50-ish couple gazing at the Trek. From all directions for some time. So you know I gotta be a neb-shit and see what's up, so I take my gear out and say hi. Dude starts asking me all kinds of questions about it and I'm happy to oblige, 'cause we're talking bikes and I kinda dig 'em (bikes that is, I have no opinion on the guy). He say's it's a "sweet machine" and they're off to finish their walk and I'm off to finish breakfast all "smug like" since I just preached some serious 2 Wheeled Gospel (I stole that phrase)

Post Work Ride: Was my road ride up Saxonburg Blvd. to Deer Lakes Park. 30 miles. More if I'm feeling frisky. Got to the parking lot where I start from and decided to pump up the tires. So I'm pumping up and BLAM!! I thought I blew a tube with too much P.S.I. But why didn't the tire deflate? Must be the tight bead keeping it in. So I let the air out, grab a tube, switch 'em out, go to pump and wwwwwwwoooooooosh. Nothin'! A hole blew in the pump line NOT the inner tube! Another F-Bomb is dropped. Good thing I have a hand pump and some Co2. So I give the tube a couple pumps and then top off with the Co2. Finally I'm on the road....

THEN: I get about 7 miles in and the road is closed. CLOSED. Shut down, barricaded!!! WHAT?? HOW? WHY? The bridge over the small stream or "Crick" as they call it here in W.PA is torn down, construction vehicles are there but no one is around. I spy a cat-walk for the workers over the stream so I shoulder my bike CX style and quickly make my way across and continue.

NOW: With all this shit going on I'm mentally frayed and physically I'm feeling like shit. It's 87 degrees and humid as a womb. I think I had too much caffeine (no more Red Bull with lunch). I'm climbing ok, but 3 work outs days in a row, in this heat has taken its toll. I finish the full ride but man it sucked.

If you could see me now you would see me with two middle fingers blazing in the direction of the Ride Gods. And Saying F*CK YOU! I still did the ride. Even if it cost me 1 tube change, 1 Blackburn pump and 2 work zone tress passes. I took everything you could throw at me and spit it back atcha. Now I "fart in your general direction".

THEN: I get home and Wifey had taken B-Man out to some Apple Farm for fruit and to see the animals. She's carrying Brennan and slips in the mud and they both fall hard. She bruises her knee, and ankle and poor B-Man used his face to sweep up some stones. They're both fine. JoErin feels worse than Brennan. His little nose is a scrapped up though. Makes him look tough. As tough as a 17th month old can look I suppose.

Back to bike stuff. Craig over in the UK turned me on to a Blog that George Hincapie kept during the 2003 Tour. Check it out. Inside the Bus photos and some neat insight from one of my faves. Craig also recently rode some of the Tour route and has some video, photos and a big write up over a www.rideeverymountain.com

Was checking out Dirt Rag today. Not to much in there. If you're in to the whole 29er thing there's some cool reviews of some frames and forks. There was also a cool write up on a dude name Lucas Brunelle. He makes messenger races videos.



If you're in to urban riding (I'm not. Been there. Done it. Hate it.) then you'll dig these videos. If you ask me, it just gives motorists another reason to give us no respect. Still some cool videos to watch though.

Gotta go buy a new pump tomorrow. F! No Friday Ride. Going to a Washington (PA) Wildthings Baseball game. Should be a pretty ok time. Gotta take it easy. Got the 101 next Sat.

F.L.A.-DK, did you pick up your ride yet? Get on that!!... Slacker. HA!

Later.

Rich, Full Bodied....

Oooooohhhhhh yeah, the Starbucks Fat Free Vanilla Latte Grande is rocking my freaking tongue. Damn!

Check out this doofus:

What a wiener.

Got some sweet trail time in tonight over at Boyce Park. 15 miles of single track on the El Santo. Dry trails (surprisingly) so the Maxxis ADvantages were rollin' smooth. If any Chamois readers are familiar with Lodi Farms, these trails are REAL similar (except not as much Poison Ivy at Boyce). Not as humid today so Chamois Funk was kept to a minimum.

Got a huge project done and sent to the printers today. AND it qualifies for a nice bit a artist bonus jing, so that'll help pay for my 24 Hour entry for 7 Springs. Nice. Or repair our roof. Ahhhh, gotta race. HA!

Had a killer mix going on the iPod for last nights trainer ride took a screen shot of it on iTunes for you all to check out. If your not listening to these bands... you should be.
Some old, some new, all good. Seriously if you're looking for some good tunes I recomend
these:


Hope you can make it out.

Got some good info from JohnB about the Wilderness 101. 2003 course descriptions and maps. Thanks. I know it's changed a tad but not that much. Lots of forest road climbing and rocky-ass taint busting single track. Thanks John!

Hope to road ride tomorrow.

Later.

Mother Nature's a Bitch

So I didn't take my bike with me to work today 'cause at 8:00 a.m. this morning it was dark as night and looked like shit and was raining. Of course by noon it was sunny and 85. I was very, VERY unhappy. So rather than fight traffic to get to the trails or risk an incident with the White Oak local yokals, I did my hour trainer ride with some endurance type lifting (light weight/30 reps per group + crunches) burned a grand and called it a night. Hope to get riding in tomorrow not sure if I'll do road or dirt.

The Tour is winding down. Withdrawal is gonna be a bitch. I hate to say it, but we're probably looking at the last time the Tour or ANY cycling will be broadcast live in the U.S. without the aid of some big ass satellite dish strapped to your house. It's been a good run. But sadly America wants to watch a winner, not just a winner, but a sure thing. There are so many great, up and coming American cyclists who will be fun to watch not to mention the likes of Basso, Vino, etc., but sadly we probably won't have the chance. Joe Six Pack needs a familiar name. A "story" a "face" and an "amazing comeback". If Lance would not have won six (and most likely 7) Tours in a row, OLN or any other network would have dropped it a LONG time ago. Don't get me wrong. I love Lance. He's amazing and an inspiration on so many levels. My problem is knowing that America just won't get behind guys like Levi Leipheimer or Floyd Landis. Why?

I hope I'm wrong. I hope that some cycling miracle will happen that will allow me to watch Flanders, Roubaix, the Giro, The Tour and maybe, just MAYBE some mountain bike races. Not sure if ESPN, OLN and the other big sports stations will have time with hockey coming back (didn't really know it was gone), lumberjacking, Grilling, and POKER. Yes, guys playing cards in disguises with fake names. THE DRAMA!

Sorry for the rant. See what happens when I don't ride. Mother Nature.... WATERY TART!

Later.

Monday: Rest Day

No ride today. Got my bottom bracket on El Santo taken care of. Super smooth now. Thanks Tom.

Tour DAY France rest day coverage coming on in couple on momentos. Gonna tape so I can watch on the trainer come a cold winter's day. (UG!)

For more Tour fix check out this Velogal's blog and don't forget to check out her photos too.
Some cool behinds the scenes insight into the greatest road cycling event in the world.

Later. Got me some 'taters cooking.

Big Georgie

Sweet day at the Tour!



Glad to see George win a stage. Hincapie has always been a fave based solely on his Roubaix performances and in the other Spring classics. Plus it's cool to see a normal sized guy win rather than the 140 lb. freaks. The only thing I didn't like was the fact that he did not do one once of work on the break. I know it's his right being on the team with the Yellow Jersey but no wonder he had the legs for the sprint at the end. But F it, I'm still glad he won.

Got a couple hours/hard 40 miles on the road today. Felt good. Humid as hell. Jeeezus!! Saw a pair of men's underwear lying on the road. What's up with that? Under what circumstances does one throw a pair of underwear out a car window? On second thought, I don't wanna know. My legs are toast from the mountain on Sat. and Sunday's heat.

No ride Mon. Going to Tom's tonight to replace the Race Face BB tonight. Not happy about that at all. Should have went with the new Truvative or good ol XT. I normaly LOVE Race Face stuff but there's some work to be done on their new crank/bb system. Booo!!

Feecus. It's not just a word it's a good memory. Take it easy DK.

Later.

No computer. No HR Monitor. Does it count?

Headed up to Laurel Mountain. About 50 minutes from my house. Parked down the mountain and rode the road 4 miles up. Then hit some forest roads and then a climb up to Beams Run snow mobile trail (the site of my first ever MTB experience 10+ years ago) then on to the rocky single track on top the mountain. Had a couple of showers that made the rocks and roots a bit slick. Also made the Hope Discs howl like mad. Was gonna take super rocky Fish Run Trail down to the road and car, but with the rain picking up I decided to cruise pavement down the mountain to the V-hicle.

My computer quit do to rain at mile 21 or so. And apparently I never hit the start button on the HR monitor. Shit! Estimate that I did about 25+ miles and rode for 2+ hours. El Santo was great on the rocks and the Fox 100 RLT was great as always. Definitely going with the ADvantages for the Wilderness 101. Roll nice on pavement (NO NOISE!), forest roads. Plus they're fat as shit for the rocks.

Hope to road ride tomorrow a.m.

What a stage today at le Tour. Damn. Ulich and Kloden were dicks to Vino. As they said, rumor has Vino coming to Discovery next year. Speeking of Disocovery where the hell where all of them today??? Shame. Lance still put big time put on Rasumussmussoosen though. Nice to se Basso up there now too. Class rider. Tomorrow is gonna be HUGE!

Hope all are having a good weekend and getting some miles in.

later.

Dookie the Tub, Dookie the Floor

Man le Tour has been a tad boring past couple days. Should heat up this weekend.

Thur-Birthday Evening Ride: Or lack there of. I did my 60 min trainer spin with two quick 5 min. sets of lifting and crunches at the 20 and 40 min. marks. Nice workout. Hope to get a big mountain ride in on Saturday up in the mountains. Hope I don't see bears (like the last TWO times) or snakes (a.k.a. "chamois soilers")

I took in more calories last night than I probably had all week. 2 gi-gee-an-tic pieces of Wifey's homemade carrot cake, 5 pieces of Lucciano's Pizza (the BEST!) and double Gin & Tonic (hey it was my birthday).

Disovered a pretty good magazine called Triathlete. Has way more fitness and nutrition info than the average mountain bike magazine (which are ALL pretty lame). Wifey and I had a friendly debate What's harder Tri or 24 Solo? I'm going with Solos ('cause that's what I do damn it!) She agrees. But then agian neither of us have ever and will ever do a Triathlon. This month's issue has a small interview with Ned Overend.

No ride tonight. Gotta figure out where I'm riding tomorrow.

Have a good weekend all.

Blog title? That's what the B-man did last night. See what you got coming UKraig!

Happy Birthday To Me!

Another year older. 34 today. Shhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeit. Hey at least next year I can race Expert-Vet and put the hammer down with to old-heads.

Wifey baked me a carrot cake (my fave) from scratch. This is huge 'cause cooking isn't really her thing. I'm the cook. But apparently baking IS her thing. She and B-Man also got me the new Chris Carmichael Book "Cooking For Fitness". Thanks!!

This is the first birthday in 4 years that I haven't celebrated by riding Trail 401 in Crested Butte, CO. Nothing says "Happy Birthday" like riding at 11,000' and nothing says "F!" like celebrating a birthday in White Oak. Oh well, next year. If you go to one mountain bike mecca, make it CB. When I die I want my ashes spread at the base of Gothic or in that perfect high mountain meadow at the highest elevation of 401.

Good road ride in last night. little over 30 miles with an Avg. speed of 18.7 mph. Sweet!

Got my new Sidi Bullet 2s from www.bikeman.com yesterday. Fit perfect. Put cleats on last night. Hope this helps with some of my knee issues.

Got the new Sleater Kinney CD yesterday... Whooo Mama! Freaking rocks.

Elvis Says: Take It Easy Baby

MTB ride last night. Did a quick 12.6 mile loop of twisty, tight single track on the Titus (great bike) at XC race pace. Felt good. Got in done in about 1:15. Would have liked to have ridden longer but I picked up an A/C yesterday and wanted to install. Now I can watch le Tour in air conditioned comfort.

Today is me and Wifey's 8 year anniversary. WOW! Happy anniversary baby. You're the one with endurance, putting up with me for 8 years. Thanks.

No ride tonight. Chill and watch the first big-ass mountain stage of the Tour.

later

Always In Moderation

Congratulations to Jeff Kerkove for his podium finish at the 12 Hours of Winter. Check out out his bad ass race recap here.

Registered this a.m. for the Wilderness 101. Seems like a super cool race. Free camping, coolmax T, and IF you finish a comemrative pint glass, which for a beer lover like me is all the incentive I need.

Lance in out of yellow today. No biggie. I think it'll be back on Tues. You gotta love former mountain bike world champ Michael Rasmussen winning today. I love it when the dirt worshipers win. Ride on my gaunt (former) dirt loving man!



Sat. ride visual I forgot to mention and want to forget:
3 (apparent) brothers all pushing 300 lb., all shirtless, 1 with mullet, all sweating, all hairy as shit, working in their yard and looking at me like I was a goddamn freak for being thin and riding my bike. Plus I was afraid they were gonna eat me or WORSE.

Back to the pit of shit/hell that is the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review tomorrow.

This weekend was sponsored by Tony Sinclair. Just because, and ALWAYS in moderation.

Hope you all had a good weekend. Back to training and thinking about the 101 this week.
Hard tail or Softy for this one, not sure. Softy with 1.95s? So much to think about.... I love it!!

Later.

No Race Saturday Sufferfest

So I didn't race this weekend. But there would be pain. Went out around my dad's to road ride and put in 70 miles/4 hours of riding. Went through 1 bottle of Heed, 1 bottle of Perpetuem, 2 Flasks of Hammer Gel and a PolarPak full of water. I was gonna aim for 100 miles but at 70 I was out of everything but some stank water. So I packed it in and consider it a good day in the saddle. Averaged just over 17 mph for the ride. Taking Sunday off to watch le Tour and go out my dad's with the B-Man. Might go buy an air conditioner too. Joy. Wonder how Jeff did in his 12 Hour race.

I've decided to enter the Wilderness 101 out near State College on July 30th. Sologoat will be there plus a ton of other big names. Looks like a tough course, but I'm up for it. Goal will be top half of racers.

Later.

Friday Mega Bummed

Feeling kinda sh*tty since I'm not racing this weekend. Just couldn't get my logistics nailed down. Shoulda had a better plan. So now I feel like dog excrement. Now I need a plan. I'd like to start doing some WVMA races soon. Not really my bag but I think I need to start racing more to increase my power. Plus I need to spruce up the 'ol race resume if I want to gain some more sponsorship in '06.

In August I'd like to do the NORBA Marathon @ Snowshoe and then stay on and watch the pros. Then of course The 24 Hour Champion Challenge at Seven Springs. Then I'll probably end the year with the Iron Cross 60+ mile CX race. Also thinking about the possibility of a seeking a coach for next year. Someone to help me map a plan and gauge fitness. Anyone have any recommendations?

Home from work today with the B-Man. His day care is closed this week for the holiday. Man, I'm stressing! He's a perfect kid, but I use less energy in a Twenty-Four! He's napping now, so I'm getting my blog on. So far today: Up at 6:45, 4 diaper changes, 1 walk in the Red Wagon, watched Tour, watched Elmo, ate lunch, blog. Wifey to be home at 3:30 hurry up babe, I need to get outta this race car!

later.

A Road Ride Piss Down!

Got to ride tonight. Plan was road ride with easy warm up leading up to a ballz out effort. I was on the road and feeling pretty good. I must have been inspired by the Liquigas team having a man in the breakaway today. But then the clouds opened up and pissed down some hard ass rain. Smacking me in the face like sand and pebbles. So I had to back off the pace and just hoped to not be taken out from behind by a car. Got my 30 miles/1:40 in and headed home. Not the ride I hoped for but a ride none-the-less.

Passed by the crit oval tonight on the way home. Things where hopping pretty good there and I saw that local bike shop trizilla.com has a Hummer. A HUMMER! I'm sorry I just don't think bikes and Hummers go together. (let's be clear that I'm talking about Hummer vehicles) Just seems wrong. Gas hog eye-sore for the rich.

Been wanting to do one of those races, but I'm sure I'd be part of some serious CAT 5 carnage.

Sold some CDs for cash today, but couldn't pass up a find. Got Primal Scream's "Vanishing Point" been looking for it for a while new or used. Found it used for $7.

Time to go watch Tour highlights and drink a beer.

*Also I've aborted this weekend's race. The Sat. M.A.S.S. race only has 5 guys signed up and the 6 Hours of Power race sounds great but is too much travel and logistics with no crew available and wifey not into getting back late Sun. with work the next day.

These were very low priority, in fact I had nothing scheduled in July since that's when we normally make our trip out West. But since there's no "jing"....
Maybe I'll do 7 Springs Recon or go to Laurel Mnt.

Looks like my next one might not be till possibly the NORBA Marathon at Snowshoe. I need to find something. close and cheap.

Later.

Bad Case of Liquigas

No ride tonight. Massive down-pours, wind etc. Real wrath of God type stuff. My legs felt like sh*t anyway. Heat yesterday really took it out of me and I hardly got any sleep last night due to the neighborhood w.t. setting off small explosives ALL night. So I cross trained by going grocery shopping.

Every year I like to have a second team to watch at the Tour (besides USPS now Discovery) This year it's Liquigas. Here's why...

That f-ing name!! You know if I was in the Tour that's what team I'd be on. And my family & friends wouldn't even care that I was a world class cyclist. I'd STILL get made fun of because of that hay-noose team name.

Magnus Backstedt. Dude's a giant! He looks like he could crush someone like Roberto Herras with his bare hands. And he's good.

Bringing back the neon...



And the fact that they had this pict (although small) of a team wiz stop on their web-site.



And last when Liquigas is pronounced it sounds like Leeky Gas as in "chamois soiled by pre-race nerves" Ride on Liquigas!!

More storms in Wed. forcast so I'll need a plan "B". Probably my spin/wheight sweat-a-thon.

Y-Nizzle had to bail on pitting for me at Saturday's 6 hour race. Looks like I'll be taking Solo riding to another level. Thankfuly it's only 6 hours. I can pre-mix and have all ready to go. Camping will be a tad boring though.

Later.

BACK OFF Samuel Dumoulin!

Wow the HHHHHEAT ddddddddddddamn! Had the bike on the car today at 10 but couldn't leave the OLN coverage. Shit, they show it 6 times a day but I had to see Boonen make it 2 in a row. So I didn't hit the trail till about 11 and it was cookin out.

Went to Boyce and rode about 2.5 hours of bone dry, tight ass singletrack. Felt good and the El Santo was great. Got about 23.5 miles in. 99% singletrack.

Almost took out a husband/wife in a blind corner. Coulda been bad. All three of us were moving quick.

You know I'm not a fan of Western PA even though I lived my whole life here (that's the problem), but I'm prett lucky to have the amount of riding I do so close to urban-hell. Boyce Park, Deer Lakes, Hartwoood, Frick (DOGS!!!), Bavington, 45 min. from 7 Springs, 45 min. from Laurel Mnt. and Speedgoat. And some decent white-trash roads and farm roads to road ride (but I have to drive to road ride and that's a drag, commuting is out of the question and there's no real riding from my front door 'cause you can't to too far before you risk harrassment, being robbed, or shot.

Hope to road ride tomorrow, Saxonburg Rd to Deer Lakes Loop. 'Bout 30 miles/1.5 hours. Need to pick up a folding table and other goodies for this weekend's race, Plus I need to register and buy some Balance Bars. So I collected some CDs to pawn at the CD Warehouse tomorrow. Priorities.

Completely out of HEED so I hope my order comes ASAP.

All the neighborhood W.T. still setting of fireworks.

Later.

A No Ride Sunday

Kind of a lazy day. Got up. Had 4 cups of coffee plus a Quad Espresso while watching the Tour. Decent stage today. Soon as I saw all those Quick Step guys on the front in the final few K I just had a feeling the about Boonen. So I called it and then gloated to my 16 month old son how I called it. Dave Z. still in yellow. That guy cracks me up. Lance's post race comments were funny too. Raggin on some dude that "always crashes" anyone catch the name?

Started organizing for this coming weekends Mid Atlantic Super Series 6 Hour Race. Didn't I JUST do this? Got the El Santo and the Titus HCR all tuned up for the week and put the Ignitors back on the HCR. Not sure which bike I'll used Sat.'s 6 hour, supposedly the course is not overly technical but lots of logs. Probably still go with the El Santo but up the Rear/SPV a bit. Heat might be a factor. Looks like high 80s on race day. Might go with HEED in the bladder to get mucho electrolytes.

Fixed my Cateye computer on my road bike. The one contact point on the mount had some crusty gunk on it so I scraped it off and and cleaned it good. Works just fine now. Sweet!

New shoes en route via www.bikeman.com

Right now I have a pair of super comfy Specialized shoes. But the cleats are stuck on due to stripped bolts, the heels are falling off and they're about as stiff as a sponge. Had a pair of Side Dominator 5s with the buckle and HAAAATED them. Liked the shoe, but not buckles. Too much mud around here. The buckle gets gunked up and you can't get them off. Thought I was gonna a half to wear them forever after a lap at Snowshoe last year. Plust I broke two buckles in 1 year. So let's see how the Bullet 2 is. Got a sweet deal so I can't be too picky.

RANT: What's the ephing deal with blowing shit up on the 4th of July??? Feel like I'm in f*cking Iraq here. Jeeeezus!! EVERYONE RELAX! Wave a flag or something, I got a kid trying to sleep here. RANT OFF.

Wow I must be bored. I typed a lot of meaningless shit here. Oh well. Hitting the dirt for a couple hours tomorrow (the 4th of July) I will be dressing up like Uncle Sam, and using hot dogs instead of bars and ketchup istead of gels for the ride.
USA! USA! (JJJJJJJJJJJust kidding of course there will be no patriotic chants)

later.

Like Bob Roll, Like Sculpture*

Ride fin.

3:07 in the saddle. SWEET! Temps were only around 78* and sunny. Truly a perfect day for some mad saddle time. Think I went about 60 miles. Not sure 'cause my 4 year old Cateye computer quit (what's up with that Jeff?? HA!) Think it needs a new battery.
Anyways, I did my normal loop twice so that should just put it at 60 or little over.

Saw this old dude (like 70 old) with aero bars and the works. Pedal on my elder brother.

This was the longest I've gone since B. Bear. Felt good. There was a tad bit of suffering at the end due to me running out of fluids/food. But great ride non-the-less. I'm all over the Balance Bar. So much easier to get down than PowerBars or Cliff Bars. The best one is Cookie Dough with Peanut Butter in 2nd. Mmmmmmmm.

Post ride I stop for a Red Bull. And they're OUT! OUT?? How do run out? So I went with the Starbucks' Mocha Java What-Ever. BONUS: Extremely hot chick in Daisy Dukes and flip-flops slicing meat at the Deli counter. First reaction: "Nothing hotter than a hot chick slicing meat" Second Reaction: "Is that sanitary? Flip flops with her hot, but surely nasty toes around deli meat?" Regardless of her nappy toes I'm sure it will still go in the S. Bank, but I'm not eating the ham!!

Think I'm set on the MASS 6 Hour Race next Sat. I like the idea of racing Sat. with Sun. to recover. Competition would be better at the 6 Hours of Power, but either way I consider this a "C" priority training race. Hope Y-Nizzle can travel with me.

Hope all are having a great weekend. Time to kick back with a Troegs Brown Ale and watch the Tour. Later.

*Today's Blog title I credit to Wifey. She muttered it during a.m. Tour coverage. It's of course a play on some Pixies lyrics from the song Subbacultcha. Good one babe.

Tour de Saturday

Tour coming on right now on OLN WHHOOOO HOOOO. But then it's on ALL DAY! So I'm going for a ride. Gotta go before the Double Espresso and 3 cups of "bust ass" coffee wears off.

Jan Ulrich looks super freaking fit this year (although he did go through the rear window of his team car this week)

Kirsten Gum (sic) from OLN looked better blonde IMHO.

Later gotta dump, travel and ride.