Off Day Deal

No rides/workouts planned today. Just some R&R with a twist of grocery shopping.

I'm no fan of Wal-Mart, not sure who really is, but the local grocery store's outrageous high prices pretty much force me to shop there. Anyway, Wally World threw me an f'ing bone today with this buy...

8 power bars for $2.50. I mean that's just crazy talk! I love it! Just over .30¢ a bar.

Even B-Man and Green Goblin were intrigued by the deal...

Later. Gotz to wash some chamois.

Sherman

Wow, recovery combined with a 2 hour ride in the cold/wet yesterday left my legs a tad dead today. Still got in a 2:10/38 mile ride, but damn, parts were tough. Weather was so great though one can't complain too much about being outside on your bike in the sun.

In all my rushing around to get my gear together and get B-Man ready to head out to Pappy-M's I forgot to throw some lube on my chain. Sheeeeeeeit. My seemingly slow speeds, combined with the wind, and squeaky chain made me feel like a vintage WWII Sherman tank rolling down the road....

Look out! Here I come!

SIDE NOTE: Liège-Bastogne-Liège highlights just ended on OLN/Versus, and a BBQ "battle" is coming on and THIS was just heard... "Lords of fire, smoke and meat. Meat mavericks with nothing to loose." Oh yeah baby! I'm ready, BRING IT ON!

Anyway, I've had better rides, but I've had worse. Nice to be out in just jersey/shorts instead of all the rain gear of yesterday's ride.

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How/why is it that I'm tracking my Reba's seals from on UPS.com and they're in New Stanton, PA (about 10 miles away from me) and they just got rescheduled for a Tuesday delivery? What the f*ck?? I got shit to do "brown". Oh well, looks like they'll be here the same day as my Panaracer Fire Pro 29ers.

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Watched 24 Solo last night. Good stuff. I will say, even knowing how it played out I found myself pulling for Gordon. Nothing against Eatough, I totally admire and respect him, but when you see that he has a staff of like 9, a trailer full of top of the line bikes, wheels, tires, lights and the support of argubly the largest bike company in the U.S. is a tad overwhelming.

Don't get me wrong, I'd give my left nut for all that shit, and I know he rides his ass off and DESERVES that, But seeing folks like Craig Gordon and Ernesto Marenchin out there competing is more inspiring to a guy like me.

Folks with 9 to 5 jobs, on top of competing on the pro level. I mean THAT is inspiring. I wish they could have delved deeper into the training, and demands of the mechanics and crew, but it's still a damn good flick and will certainly be in my DVD player for many months to come.

If you watch the DVD do yourself a favor and watch the extras. The interviews about 24 Hour "culture" are great and Sue Haywood's words are very wise. I love her. She just always has a great perspective on things.

Also the interviews with Craig Gordon and his mechanic are very good.

It was weird to watch sometimes. Knowing that I've been through similar mental/physical issues during solos (on a MUCH lower level of course). It was also amazing and mildly depressing to know that at my age, talent, resources, etc. I will most likely never be racing to win a 24. Just to finish and prove to myself that I can do it. Won't stop me from doing it though ;)

Chris Eatough, Ernesto, Tinker, Nat Ross. These folks are just freaks. Highly talented freaks, that I feel honored to compete against and as always will watch their exploits in awe.

Later. I'm gonna go watch the movie again.

Please Forgive Me Jose Jones...

Got my ride in. It was nice to back in the saddle even if it was just a 2 hour road ride. Legs felt good, but the left hand was still a tad sore in the scabula area. Real close to full on healed but the scab still hurt under pressure. So I had to keep adjusting my hand's placement on the bars. Not a big deal. Just hope it's 100% ready to be ripped open again next week.

About 5 miles in it started raining, even though Weather.com radar had showed that the showers were pretty much out of the area when I left. They must have did a u-turn and came back. Wasn't too much of hindrance, just a tad chilly with the wind/wet, but I figure I need to start banking away some tough guy points for use at a later date and rides like this will help.

My knee warmer/sock combo left me with these interesting "grit lines". This shit sucks to get off. Must be some kind of WPA oil/road grit double team. Oh well Wifey's luffa gotta work out.

Came home to find 24 Solo in the mail box as well as some gear from T6 for my tootzies. Always nice.

After I got done lusting my new socks and DVD, I gave the road bike a nice wash down, so it's ready to roll again tomorrow, and then scrubbed up and headed out to score some stuff for tonight's dinner.

Whipped up some homemade guacamole courtesy of a recipe from my White Grass Cafe cook book. Yum-f'ing-Oh! Combined with some tasty Guiltless Gourmet Chips it's gonna be some good eatin'.

Well time for a Troegs or two and movie watching.

Later.

29er News From Velonews.com

From the Santa Ynez Classic, So Cal:

"Looking to score his first major cross-country victory on a bike with 29-inch wheels, 2006 NMBS cross-country champion Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Subaru-Gary Fisher) will ride his Gary Fisher 29er hardtail." - VeloNews.com

Like to see him do it.

Later. I gotta go ride. It's raining and I'm a bit dicked off about it. Oh well.

Got A Tattooed Tit, Say Number 13

Oh yeah, still rocking the Pixies. Black Francis has been screaming in my ear for 24 plus hours now.

Bunch random acts of coolness today.

1. Grande Alberto, dropped some IRD (Panaracer) Fire Pro 29er XC knowledge on me today and the result is a set hurling themselves towards me as I type to mount up for next week's 12 Hours of Lodi Farms. These tires are in stock at Bikeman.com and ready to roll.

I used the Fire Pro 26s forever on my old bikes, so I'm looking forward to these. Went with the all black version of course, "because black is how I feel on the inside"

2. Got registered for the 18 Hours on The Farm today. Was supposed to do it last year and got some sort of flu the week of the race and had to bail Cycles Ed hooked me up for 07 so I will continue my Yankee Enduro Assault on Va-gin-ya!! The South will fall yet again! Or I'll at least hack up some Jelly Belly vomit a couple more times on Dixie soil for sure.

Viva
Don’t want no blue eyes
La loma
I want brown eyes
Rica
I’m in a state

3. New Bikeman.com kit hit 1147 today. Good thing, since the chamois from last year's shorts is literaly hanging on by a thread. Like one thread. The Ricker's Mom fixed his up. No offer's were made by Mrs. Nelson to work on MY soiled chamois. Probably best.

I must say I'm stoked abou the 07 threads. Matty-D did a sweet job laying them out and the quality from Champion Systems seems top notch. The pad in the bibs ROCKS! I can't wait to soil it up tomorrow. Glad I went with the 2XL jersey. The XL would have fit me like a lycra condom.

The weather looks good (enough) for the weekend, so i plan to double team it with asphalt time on Sat and Sun.

Later.

Suasage Thursday

First some good news- Wifey's foot is NOT broken. Sweet! Still hurts like a mother fffffff...... but I'm sure not having to deal with more docs and the feecus that comes with them will help dull the pain.

My buddy Tom reports that other than some dry seals and a little less than normal oil levels the Reba is good. Soon as the seals come in from Bikeman.com World HQ it'll be good to go. Sweet!

A foot on the mend, a shock working, things are looking a bit better for heading down to the poison ivy capital of the world- The 12 Hours of Lodi Farms.

In other poison plant stuff, it seems that a lot of the pros came away from Sea Otter with Poison Oak. If your read Adam Craig's Houffalize World Cup report you no doubt read about his battle with it. I found this photo on CyclingNews.com that really shows it...

That could NOT have felt good with the sweat and dust. I super sized it for your poison oak viewing pleasure.

The weather f'ed my ride plans like a cheap hooker today. 5 o'clock brought some light rain, but radar showed big swath of storms coming so I bailed on the road ride. Turns out that the storms never really materialized around here 'till about the time I WOULD have been finishing up. Drat!

So I ended up with more time on the trainer. May have been best. The crusty scab on my palm still hurts an finding a comfy position on the bars is a bit of an issue. Plus I got to rock iPodious with a new live Pixies that I got off of eMusic.com. Oh well, recovery week right? Weekend looks good for mileage.

Also, it took 4 days, but it finally came. Sausage Legs. Happens every time I do an enduro. My legs swell a bit and I feel like they could split open. They should be down in a day or so.

Just makes them feel like this...

Guess I'll have to visit my favorite girl on the side...
The Sausage Queen. Chew on that!

Later.

Congrats, Thank Yous and Random...

First- congrats to KoKo and Double-K on the birth of their son Harrison today. I've been promised video of water breaking to post, but I can't imagine that Double-K is aware of that. Welcome to the world Harrison (hence forth known as H-Dawg).

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A BIG Thank you goes out today to team Bikeman.com sponsors Panaracer, Jagwire, Slick Willy, Greyhound Juice, and Cyrious Java (coffee roasted by team member Chris Cyr) for hooking the team up with some complimentary products for 2007. Today was the day we got to pick out some of the great products that these sponsors offer us.

For sponsors to hook a team of our size up, is truly amazing and very much appreciated for sure. Thanks!
As I receive the products I'll talk more about them and why I chose that particular product. And of course through the year I'll give some feed back. I know my opinions aren't exactly words to live by, but hey it's another opinion you can use.

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Funny. As the week goes on and the strength comes back to my arms, my Reba started feeling a lot better. It felt just fine this a.m., but just to be safe Tom is checking it out, changing the oil, changing seals, and I'm changing my travel to 100mm. So big thanks to T. for his help on that one too. Hope once he opens the fork up it still looks ok. Fingers crossed.

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Ordered up my copy of 24 Solo today. Anxious to see this one. I also download some home video from www.fonsmtb.be of the men's World Cup #1 in Houfffalize. You can also read Adam Craig's race recap HERE.

In other news- Big congrats to Gerry Pflug (Freddie Fu/Kona/Speedgoat) on his 6th place finish at the Cohutta 100. Gerry is an fast as hell local racer, who pretty much kicks ass wherever he races. Use to work with my brother, but I'm not sure they're working out of the same place now or not. Anyway, congrats Gerry!

Hope to squeeze some riding in tomorrow. My hand is almost better. Basically just a sore crusty scab now. I just need to be able to put pressure on it during out of the saddle climbs.

Oh well, that's it. Later.

The Comeback That Wasn't

Got back in the saddle tonight. What sucked was that it was only for 45 minutes on the trainer. My legs felt great and I wanted to be out enjoying the great spring night, but my hand hurts to put pressure on it and I even had to do some alternate hand positions just to be comfy on the trainer. Doing any out of the saddle climbing would have been out of the question.

No ride tomorrow either. Tom is gonna give my Reba an oil change and I ordered up a seal kit from Bikeman.com World HQ today that will be installed later in the week or early next week.

Still waiting word on Wifey's foot. The doc's don't seem to be in too big of a hurry to help her out.

If my fork, Wifey-Foot, and gaping flesh wound issues can be cleared up by next week I'll once again gonna heading below the Mason-Dixon line to Fredericksburg, VA for some endurance racing at the 12 Hours of Lodi Farms.

Not 100% certain, but I'd like to used it as opportunity to work on some things, namely my night riding inabilities. Going in with lower than usual expectations. Just an opportunity to ride a long time and see friends again. Wifey and B-Man might come too.

Speaking of racing and Virginia I also signed up for the 12 Hours of Cranky Monkey yesterday. I find it hard to believe that I look to be racing in Virginia 4 to 5 times this season. Folks gotta good scene going on down there.

Still no word on my/the team's Salsa Mamasitas. Fingers crossed for sometime in May. There are some builds starting to show up on MTBR.com.

Had to share this pict....

You know they make stuff to wrap the chain stays with. Hell, I use a layer or two of electrical tape that has lasted over a year. This frame is probably about 3 weeks old. This makes me want to cry. I'm not kidding either. Just ball like a baby.

Speaking of babies... my thoughts are with KoKo and Double-K as they go in to the hospital to do some birthin' tomorrow. Good luck! H-Dawg will be here before you know it.

Why does racing mess up my poop schedule? Gotta hit the fiber hard tomorrow.

Later

Leesburg Bakers Dozen 4.21.07

Leesburg Bakers Dozen
13 Hour Solo
Leesburg, VA
April 21, 2007

Friday I packed up the Soob and headed off for the 3.5 hour trip to Leesburg for my first race of the year. The Leesburg Bakers Dozen. A 13 hour race from 11 a.m. to Midnight.

Made it down to the the venue and hooked up with my old friend Fernando. Back before I started doing the Solo thing, Fernando and I had been teammates on a couple teams for Snowshoe as well as a Duo at Lodi Farms once.

Fernando, his wife Loretta (also a race junkie) and their daughter Jenny had generously offered to let me be a true racer dirt bag and surf their couch at their home near the venue and in their RV on race weekend. Thanks guys!

Anyway, I made it to the venue and hooked up with Fernando and Matt (Loretta's Duo teammate) for a pre ride.

The 7.5 mile course was set on a private farm and I'm not sure why, but I expected a boring course, but oh no! The course was a nice mix of open fields, that included a LOT of cow patties, tight wooded single track, and some neat rock formations to ride over and or drop off. No real climbing at all. but an interesting course that kept you on your toes.

After the pre ride, we set up some gear and head back to the house for some bike talk, carbo loading and hydration.

Slept great and we all headed out to the venue early to get set up and checked in.

I wanted to make sure all was good with the Dos Niner. My mechanic buddy Tom gave it the "all clear" during it's race week check-up last week, but since I would have no back up bike in case of "bike catastrophe" I was more than a tad nervous. All seemed good though, so I just crossed fingers and mounted up for the start.

The 11 a.m. start was thankfully void of the usual Le Mans style run to the bike. (Thank you!) and the mass start headed down a .25 mile or so of double track to the wooded single track.

I was in the front of the pack and in a comfy position. Not the super fast group, but a group of folks that knew what they were doing, thus no back ups.

There was a big urge to really put the hammer down, the course begged for it. But I just went my own pace and hoped for the best.

After my 3rd lap I stopped in the pit, loaded up with some fresh Heed, Perpetuem and a couple Endurlytes. Just to be safe a munched some Advil too. This would pretty much be the routine till about the end of lap nine when I realized my rear tire was loosing air. So I stripped of the Rampage 29er and changed out the tube as fast as I could after close to 70 miles of racing, which needless to say is NOT very fast.

Through the next couple laps I started to develop a horrible blister on my left hand (my "other woman" hand). It was hurting and I struggled to find a comfy position on the grips/bar ends. I just kept plugging along, hoping some recently popped Advil would dull the pain.

Soon it was time to get my light on. I wasn't looking forward to this. Not a big fan of night riding or I should say MY night riding abilities, but at least I had a spare helmet all set up with my NiteRider HID so a simple switch and I was good to go.

Now here is were I made some mistakes. After I was done with the light, I ate some Jelly Belly Sports Beans. I've never ate them during a race before (Mistake! Mistake!!!)) but I do love the taste of them. That didn't sit well and I felt like I needed to let a out a burp to get going. So I took a couple sips of Coke (Mistake! Mistake!!!)

I clearly violated The Gospel According to Hammer Nutrition and mixed simple sugars (jelly beans and pop) with Perpetuem. I was burping up (ok, it was vomit) a Jelly Bean/Perpetuem mix all through my 12th lap. Through this I got to experience a new pain. During one heave, my stomach muscle cramped. Yep, just like one's legs might, my stomach did! I must say it hurt just a tad.

Temps had dropped now too. Going from about 75 to 45. I put a jacket on, but it was a bit too warm. I wanted to take it off but knew I'd be too cold. I figured I'd rather error on the side of too warm at this point.

I was getting mentally drained from the vomit/night lap/cold combo. Got to the pit, jumped in my car and blasted the the heat for a while. Too long. I just sat there warming up, listening to Modest Mouse. I made my game plan- Get as warm as I can, get my stomach under control, then jump out, grab my bike and get one more lap in.

I knew I was wasting time in the car, but I was trying to salvage this race, and warming up and stopping the Jelly Belly Vomit Belly was part of the plan.

So after about a half an hour of this I shut the Soob off, jumped on the Dos Niner and headed out for my last lap.

I pulled in just short of the check in at about 11:45. I asked the director if race rules would require me to wait or go out again. He just said "heck no, were not doing it like that. Cross the line, give me your timing chip and go grab yourself a beer if you want."

Thank you very much Mr. Race Director. I finished with 13 laps and felt good about my 10th place out of 31 solos. Had I not had to taken the time for trails side stomach issues (vomit) and the time warming in the car I'm sure I could have got 15 in. But you race, you learn, you throw Jelly Belly Sports Beans in the garbage.

I got back to the pit got out of the race gear and tried warming up some more. Ended up falling asleep in the car and didn't wake up 'till the awards were about over. I staggered up to the bonfire, grabbed some pizza from one of about 70 boxes and tried getting it down my dehydrated throat. As I walked back to the car I found it impossible to swallow and ejected a hunk of pizza out of my throat like hair ball. Shame. It was damn good pizza.

Bike notes: Aside from the flat, the bike held up for the most part. I think I had too much air in the tires and felt like I was getting bounced around a bit. I think my oil is gone in my Reba too. I was getting minimal quality travel for the second half of the race. I hope this isn't too major. Another race draws near.

Hope to have Tom take a look to see what the damage might be. I hope it's just a low oil issue. PSI is fine in both the positive and negative chambers but only some inspection from someone who knows what they're talking about will tell.

Also noted was that the Panaracer Rampage 29 x 2.35 mounted on the Bontrager Mustang rim will cause some slight chain stay rubbing. My guess is that the tire is mounted on a rim narrower than my Salsa Delgado rims making the tire "taller" and forcing the tire further into the narrower part of the Dos Niner's chain stays under certain pressures.

The race itself was outstanding. Great trails, free camping, accurate electronic timing, post race pizza feast from Z Pizza, bon fires, blue grass band, nice size field of racers and sweet pay outs for the winners, great swag for the racers. Truly a top notch event that I hope is going to go annual. The folks at Plum Grove Cyclery gave racers a great event at a low cost. Thanks!

Congrats to Steve Schwarz who not only won the Solo field, but also scored the fastest lap prize. Also congrats to my friend Fernando who's NCVC 3 person team took 1st place.

Now. It's photo blog time:


Yep, that would be cow poop in my tire.


The Start. (photo by J. Folliard)


In the single track. (photo by J. Folliard)


Later in the race. (photo by Greg/Bikecentric.com)


My fave pict from the race. (photo by J. Folliard)


My attempt to one up FatMarc's wound. I think I won.
Maybe I DO need those fancy grips all the kids are using.


So long vomit beans. Into the garbage with you.

Thanks for reading.

Later.

Woman Down!

Race report will be on hold 'till tonight or tomorrow. Just before dinner last night Wifey was carrying B-Man down from his bath. Slips on the last step and goes down. She saved the B-Man from injury like a good mama bear, but twisted her foot and can't walk on it.

We spent 2 hours in the E.R. waiting room only to see a nurse and have her tell us that it could be at least another 2 hours. We bailed and are going to our PCP today.

Have you ever spent time in the E.R. waiting room? Dear God. All I could think about was the bar scene from the movie Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas, sans LSD. I can only think that LSD could have SOMEhow made the experience more enjoyable.

As we left I asked Wifey to promise me that even if I'm injured and bleeding out of every orifice, that she just let me die rather than go to the E.R.

She wouldn't promise. (I smell divorce. Oops, No. Just gas)

Quote of the night: Man comes in to waiting room clutching chest. Wonders up to nurse.

Man: "Could I see a doctor, I'm having chest pains."
Nurse: "Could you please take a seat sir".

Nice.

Time to go. No work today. Had to take the day off to do the hospital/doc/x-ray thing with Gimpy. I mean Wifey :)

Later.

Back In The Hood

Back from The Baker's Dozen.

The short of it- 10th out of 31 solos. Felt great 'till about 81/2 hours in. Vomit showed up and a blister the size of a golf ball formed on my left hand. Took a break, went out for more, finished with 13/7.5 mile laps.

Thanks to all the folks that wished me luck and of course to Loretta, Fernando, & Jenny for letting me surf their couch Friday and crash in the RV Saturday. Also thanks to Matt, FatMarc and a ton of other folks who once again made totally destroying my body fun.

Full report in the next day or so.

Gotta go get all the cow shit off my legs. (more on that later)

Organ (ization)

Oh yes, a work week is in the bag and now I'm ready for the first race of the year.

Looking forward to finally racing. Spent about 160 hours of training, spinning, riding this past fall/winter/spring getting ready to race and countless hours thinking about racing, so now is the time to go out and do the best I can to not look like a total f'ing putz.

I've set my personal race goals which never really involve where I place, since I can't control what other people do, just myself.

All packed up an good to go. In the morning all I'll need to boy is drop the B-Man at day care, pick up some ice, mount the Dos Niner on the Soob and head off for Virgina.

Got your bike stuff, lights, nutrition, water, and even a post race Porter or two.

I'm also looking forward to finally racing in conditions like this...

Race weather like this NEVER happens for me! I actually had to buy sun screen. I really never need it living in one of America's dampest, grayest, depressing cities. Viva la sun screen!

Hope you all have a great weekend and if you're if your racing somewhere, good luck to you and enjoy it.

Later.

p.s. Good luck vibes to KoKo and Double-K this weekend. Double-K could be birthin' at any time, so just in case it happens in my absence I wanted to say good luck.

Like Prom Night

Had some slight issue with my new wheels today. Not really the wheels, but the tubes vs. pump. The valve stem in the presta tubes I use are just slightly too short (or at least some in the batch are) for the new, deeper Bontrager Mustang 29er rims I got.

In addition the Specialized pump I use has a big honking head making it hard to get down over the valve. SSSSSSSSSoo, instead of coming home to grab my bike on my lunch brake so as to go for a post work ride, I had to high tail over to Pittsburgh Pro Bikes in M'ville to get a Problem Solvers valve extender so I could be certain that I can get air in my tires when duty calls.

I still got a nice spin of the meat sticks tonight while I listened to iPodious and did some laundry. I must say this past week and a half has NOT been my ideal pre race schedule. Sick, rain, cold, snow, etc., BUT I am excited to see some friends, talk bikes, and race. Or should I say ride for a really long time as best I can and see what happens?

With this Saturday being the first race of the year, I got a nice shave on the legs tonight, made sure my best chamois is good to go, and organized some gear. With all this prep I feel like a giddy prom night virgin in the back of a '78 Pinto.


Except I'm a 35 year old, hack racer dude, who never went to a prom and never owned or will own a Pinto. But you know what I mean. I hope. If you don't, you need to race more.

Sucked down some 'tater chunks and Boca Chik'n Patties tonight. With PLENTY of Frank's Xtra Hot Sauce on top of course. I gotta get my spicy fix in now, since I do NOT want to ride 13+ hours with Cayenne Ass.

Last day of work tomorrow, then home for final packing for Friday afternoon's trip to Leesburg.

Later.

Wheels & An Iron Chef

Shot over to Tom's tonight to let him take the torque wrench to the Dos Niner to make sure everything is nice and tight for the weekend's coming trashsing. I also got my wheels all set up.

Went to take the bike for a spin around Tom's house and I had a flat. F! Apparently I had a small thorn from my ride a Boyce last week hiding out in my tire and inflating the tire worked it loose resulting in said flat.

When I got home and got it aired up, I took it for a spin around the block tonight and wow they accelerate much faster. OR it's all in my mind. Either way the new hoops feel good.

I whipped up some White Trash Mexican Bake and plopped my ass on the couch to watch some Good Eats and I saw a commercial for Iron Chef America, and the "challenger" looked super familiar.

It took a couple seconds and then I realized I'd seen the dude in an article about Montezuma's Revenge in an old issue of Mountain Biking Magazine. His name is Chris Consentino. Chef and an avid enduro freak.

So this weekend April 22nd tune in to the Food Network's Iron Chef America and cheer on Chris to put a whoopin' on Mario Batali's rotund rumpus.

Later.

*Photo from FoodNetwork.com

Power, Energy Burn & Rats In A Cage

Power was something that Bikeman.com did NOT have today. Apparently the April storm that moved up the coast entered the Maine/New England area and ripped folks a new one. Including Bikeman.com World HQ. They were without power or phones, in other words- CLOSED. So if you tried to order today or ordered over the weekend, your order may be delayed a day. Things should be good to go on Tuesday.

Energy was something I had TOO much of today. Dealt with my race week energy by spinning for an hour tonight as the winds blew and . Not too much just enough to work out some bugs and burn off some of the 5 to 10 pieces of Luci's pizza I ate yesterday at Papa-O's B-Day par-tay.

Off to Tom's house tomorrow to get the the Dos in perfect fighting shape for the coming weekend.

Paris-Roubaix Highlights HERE courtesy of Trek/CyclingNews.com

Saw the report of the Australian 24 Hour Nationals on CyclingNews.com.

Andrew Bell won the Male Solo doing 49 8.2KM Laps. FORTY-NINE LAPS?? 8.2KM That's like a 5 mile lap. For 24 hours?? The country has like 20 trillion acres of land and this is what they come up with?? 5 mile laps? Dear god I would go INSANE! It's hard enough to doing a 7 or 8 mile lap for 6 to 12 hours let alone 5 mile laps for 24!

I just mentally bought someone beer after reading his blog entry. Hope he enjoyed it.

Oh well, off to bed now.

Later.

Roubaix and What Not

Listened to Paris-Roubaix on Eurosport today. Would have like to have seen it, but oh well. Sounds like it was a warm, sunny and DUSTY one.

I'm heading out my in-laws for dinner so I'm going to miss the Versus coverage. I was going to tape it but it's not worth my freaking time. The "Queen of the Classics" gets a 1 hour highlight show that will be about 15 minutes of race coverage after commercials, and human interest stories. F-it. I'll track it down on the Net.

I also saw that dirt worshiper Filip Meirhaeghe raced Paris-Roubaix with the Landbouwkrediet-Tönissteiner team. I'm sure his mountain bike skillz payed off for him in the cobbles. It looks like he finished 33rd.

I always liked Filip from the interviews I've seen, read and heard with him. Disappointing that like so many great riders his reputation and career will be tarnished by doping. Not to mention he was kinda of a dick about it after he got caught.

Take a look at the results. Look at the amount of DNFs!! HOLY CRAP! And correct me if I'm wrong, but it seemed that Antonio Cruz, from Discovery was the ONLY U.S. rider in the whole race. Apparently Cruz DNFed.

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Got a 1 hours spin in today to keep the legs loose. I also did a bunch of organizing for this coming Saturday's race. Charged lights, got my bottles together, race nutrition, hydration packs, etc., I still have to get the Dos Niner checked over on Tuesday, and then it's just counting the hours till race day with a couple rides thrown in to keep things loose.


Later

Heart Rate = 0 BPM

I'm done! DONE with heart rate monitors. In my opinion they should be billed as "disposable". I've yet to own one that wasn't a p.o.s. The CatEye 10 worked for less than a year and is cooked.

First I put up with it's erratic readings. 285 BPM?? Oh no wait 15 BPM. Then I needed to change the battery. I went out of my way to make sure that this time I got a monitor that you could replace the battery without "contacting a professional repair technician".

I replaced the strap battery no problem. Went and got the tiny ass little screwdriver set to replace the watch battery, opened it up, put it in, seal it up, the battery reads but the buttons will not reset the monitor. F! So open it back up can't see anything wrong. So I seal it back up, nothing. F! Open it back up, move some shit around, metal piece brakes off, monitor won't read at all now, watch goes in garbage and off to the land fill. F'em.

Sad thing is I KNOW I'll end up ordering another one. The money I spend in HR monitors I should just save and put towards a power meter. Then I could measure more accurately the power I put out to just barely survive a race. HA!

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Got out for a quick two hour loop this a.m. Nothing too major. Nice 33+ mile loop with a couple nice climbs. I edited out one or 2 climbs for the sake of not pushing my legs too much since I just came off being sick and I'm heading in to a race week.

Not sure what I'm expecting out of myself for the race next week. Shit, fist race of the year, unsupported, 1 bike, and who knows what the f'ing weather will be like, just making it to Midnight will be an accomplishment.

_______________________________________________________

I want to not look at the Sea Otter coverage SO bad. I really don't want to see folks riding in the Cali sun. I want to see what I'm seeing. Cool temps, rain, possible snow, clouds, gray/white sky, wind. But I still find myself cruising the blogs and forums looking for product reports and race stuff. UPDATE: Seems that the weather at the Otter has taken a turn for the worse with some down pours. I feel better now. Actually it sucks for them. Good luck folks.

Even Paris-Roubaix looks to be in nice weather tomorrow. Shit. I wanted to see suffering. As long is it's not me I love suffering.

_______________________________________________________

An exciting night in for Wifey and me tonight. Mexican food, a couple beers, and if B-Man would PLEASE go to be on time, some crime fighting. I won't be getting my hopes (or anything else) up though ;)

Hope someone out there is getting some good weather, time to go continue to re-load my iPod. Grrrrrrr!

Later.

Unlucky 13

I don't go in much for the Friday the 13th bull shit, but I will say it was a might unusual that I go to work today, plug in the iPod and get nothing showing on my desk top. OK, I'll just unplug it and try again. Plug back in. "You're iPod may be corrupt". Yada, yada, yada, I lost about 25G worth of music by 9 a.m. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFantastic!

I do have a good chunk back up on discs, but lost a bunch of bootleg stuff that I now have to track down all over again. Shit.

_____________________

Actually saw some sun this afternoon which lit up the back yard just perfect enough to get out the mower for the first time. Also play some soccer with B-Man. Cross training?

_____________________

TwentyNineInches.com has some photos up of the new super hush-hush Specialized 29er. Specialized makes some great bikes, I dig'em and this 29er looks good from the photos, but all the fan fare and marketing hype b.s. is a tad much. It's a hard tail 29er. Welcome to the party. Sit it over by the drunk dude asking everyone if they're "buzzing" yet (I guess that would be Gary Fisher?).

Salsa, Niner, Fisher, and a ton of custom builders have been making great hard tail 29ers for years now. Why should a we care about a big company like Specialized or Cannondale is making a 29er? Well, it comes down to when Specialized, Cannondale, Trek do something, the more chance you'll have of seeing newer, better 29er components from folks like Fox, Rock Shox, Mavic, etc, etc., etc.,

_____________________

Oh well, I hope the weather allows for some road time tomorrow. Even if it's shitty I'll go out and get my Paris-Roubaix eve ride on. Maybe even track down some cobbles. Nah, the roads around here are shitty enough! Who needs cobbles??

Later.

You Gotta Love February

You know for February, the weather's not too bad. DOH!!!!!!!! Wow the weather sucks. It looks like most of the U.S. is in the same boat. But damn, mid 30s/40s in April sucks. Just remind of this when it's July and copious amounts of scrotal sweat is rocking my chamois.

The good news (for me, I'm sure you could care less) is that my head cold is 99.9% in the crapper. Sweet! I was able to get some nice steady tempo spinning on the trainer for 1:20 tonight with not one snot rocket! Well maybe one or two, just for shits 'n giggles.

What was that I said a couple weeks ago about being done with the trainer and not making any more mixes. Guess I better fire up Jam PDQ.

Today I was reading Bikeman.com racer John "Eddie" Burns' race report from the Nova Desert Classic and he mentions how his iPod was integral part of his time on the trainer this winter and even mentions little 'ol me's mixes. Right on! But then he goes on to say his iPod was rocking some SERIOUS amounts of Iron Maiden. IRON MAIDEN? Gasp!!
BUT THEN I was forced to recall that long before I became an indie rock/sad bastard music snob I am today, I was a huge Iron Maiden fan (I blame my brother). There I said it! I even saw them live once. OK TWICE!!! Get off my back people!!! At least John wasn't listening to Rush. THAT'S a skeleton I hope to leave WAY in the back of the closet! Although I guess I just let that one out too. Damn!

RRRRRRRUUUNNN TO THE HILLLLLLLLLS! RUN FOR YOUR LIIIIIIIIFE!!!!!

Time to go watch a recently "obtained" video of the '06 Paris-Roubaix via Italian TV. I love the internet.

Later.

Sick Day

I woke up feeling better than I've felt in days, but since I'm pretty caught up at work and in need of some rest to try to put the naile in this cold's coffin I figured "what the f*ck", take a sick day.

I had no plans to do anything except sleep, look at (bike) porn, watch the replay of Flanders on Versus and eat. Damn Frank's Red Hot in Chicken soup ROCKS!

I also made some bike rags out of these:



What the hell would I wear if I didn't get race t shirts?

Not all of these are headed to the rag pile, but most. A couple I've never even worn, since refuse to wear a t shirt of a race that sucked for me. Why do I want to relive the bad memories every time I look down?

On the other hand, some of them I CAN'T throw away some because the memories are too good. Then of course you have the bad ass wicking t shirts from Mohican and the Wilderness 101. These Ts are too well made and contain too many good memories to throw a way.

I hate to throw away my T shirts from Granny Gear races due to the shear amount of money that I forked over for them. I mean their value would be close to $1,000, ha! But alas, it's time.

Some of the bike porn I saw today in addition to the Fisher Carbon 29er was the 2007 Bell's Brewing / Quiring Cycles team frames. This frame is HOT. Hand made by Scott Quiring, light weight 29er with a sweet paint job that matches the team kit and the Bell's Oberon beer lable.

Check out these images pulled from the Quiring site:

For more info check the following sites:
Team: http://bellsmtbteam.blogspot.com/
Beer: http://www.bellsbeer.com/
Bike: http://www.quiringcycles.net/

Later, time to keep on keepin' on with the rest.

More of That Magic Elixir!

Still feeling a bit under the weather, but I had enough various cold meds pumping through me to pull off a nice 1:55 single track ride tonight.

Despite still feeling a bit sudsy in the head, the legs felt pretty spanky. I guess that comes from the past week's minimal "real" ride time.

Couple quick observations from the ride: The new Lake 230s are the shit so far. Super comfy. A long race (which is coming fast) will be the real test.

Tonight was the first time I EVER rode with glasses that I didn't want to chuck them into the weeds! In other words- the Tifosi Q3's rock! Vision was great, and it felt so good diving into to some of the sphincter tight corners at Boyce and NOT have to worry about a thorn bush ripping my eyeball out of it's socket. I couldn't be happier with this purchase.

Oh well time to guzzle some cold medicine and sleep. Might take a sick day tomorrow to finally rest and try to kick this cold in it's snot filled balls.

Found this sweet 08 product via Trek/Fisher product launch,
via Guitar Ted, via Twenty-Nine Inches:

Fisher carbon 29er, FOX fork (dear God).
I wonder what the retail on this bad boy will be?

Later.

Laughter or Leather?

They say laughter is the best medicine. I say leather between your legs is the best medicine. And not in a San Fransisco S&M shop sort of way either (not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just not what I'm talking about here). I'm talking time in the bike saddle, EVEN if it's 1:20 on the stationary trainer.

Got the legs moving, with some steady hammering that got a good sweat going, the brain waves firing properly and the snot moving from my nasal passage to my gloves, shorts, towel, basement floor, top tube, stem, heart rate monitor, etc., etc., etc., (sorry). It felt good to get some steady spinning in. Really hoping to get the Dos Niner out tomorrow, but the weather is "if-y" tomorrow and all week.

Spent some time putting some new pads in my Lazer lid tonight. Now it feels good as new again. I did have to buy some new Velcro adhesive for the inside though. My 200 proof sweat ate right through the glue on some of the old ones and the pad wouldn't stay in proper.

That's it. Later.

The Wait Continues...

First I'm going to wait another day to ride outside. Still rocking the head cold thing and in 39 degrees, I thought it best to wait it out one more day, so I'll just spin on the trainer again. It's supposed to be a little warmer tomorrow, so maybe I'll see if I can get some time in the woods on the Dos Niner.

Found out today that it's probably going to be a good while until I get the Mamasita. Frames are filtering in, but not enough for the team, so it looks like the first 2 races will most likely be strictly on the Dos Niner. I just need be patient and hope the Dos Niner rolls well solo through the 13 hours down in Leesburg. Hopeully I'll be on the Mamasita by the Mohican 100 on June 2nd.

Racing on the Dos Niner rocks. I'm more worried about training on it AND racing on it. Not worried about the frame, but I've gotten used to having two bikes in the stable during the season to spread around the wear and tare that racing and training puts on the parts.

At least I have a whole box full of parts and wheels sitting in my basement that I can get on the Dos Niner if needed. I guess this will give me a chance to actually pay for the parts and some races before I fork out any more dough.

Maybe I should have went with the 07 Dos for the race bike and used the 06 for the training miles. Grrrrr, my lust for the lighter, hard tail Mamasita is too strong ;)

The weather, this head cold, the trainer, the waiting. It'll all work it's self out, but damn, I'm getting anxious.

Later.

Half Way Between Heaven & Hell

Complaining about the weather will not do any good (but I will). Ma Nature is choking us with a hairy one via Not-So-Foxy Grandpa Winter and it can't be stopped. 30 degrees, and blowing snow showers in April!!

On top of that my sinuses are stuffed, I feel like I got hit by a truck, I have a race in two weeks, my 2nd bike build is in limbo, and my paper white leg/saggy ass cheeks are forced to the trainer for a while longer until this cold spell snaps. Crap!

"Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue".
-Steve McCroskey, Airplane

OK, now that I got all that bitching off my chest I can regroup mentally and focus on the job at hand which is winding down for The Leesburg Bakers Dozen on the 21st.

TIme to finish watching the wopping 1 hour (20 minutes after commercials and useless info) coverage of Flanders on Versus now. I did listen to the race on Eurosport.com this a.m.. That was cool. Would have rather seen it, but for some reason the video is blocked in the U.S. WTF??

Later.

The Booger Ride

Booger 1

Last evening I started noticing a stuffiness in the shnozz, and it remained there this a.m. Not sure if it has to do with the weather going from 80 degrees to 30 in 2 days, if I have a cold, or an allergy kicking in.

I'm leaning towards allergy since I really don't feel sick. I mean despite the witch tit temps, shit is blooming all over the place including the flowering trees in my front yard that smell like the set of a porno. If you have the trees, you know what I'm talking about.

Booger 2

Anyway it looked nice enough outside and I wanted to hit some dirt on the Dos Niner, BUT it was only about 28 degrees at ride time and with a clogged shnozz and a race two weeks away I thought it best to lay low and spin on the trainer with my old Jamis that I call "Booger" because of it's lime green color.

So even though I truly thought I'd be done with the trainer for the season that's where I ended up. F*ck! It felt pretty good and got the juices flowing enough to launch a thousand snot rockets and open up the sinuses a bit.
In honer of tomorrow's Tour of Flanders I watched the 2006 version while spinning. I love that race and look forward to seeing some of it tomorrow. I'm half tempted to run out and see if I can get my hands on some Duvel, or Chimay to enjoy during the race tomorrow.

I did about 1:20 and at least felt like a wasn't a crusty turd. Figure I'll take tomorrow off and then hope to get back on the trail tomorrow.

It never really did get above 33 today. I need to mow my grass, but I pretty much refuse to use my lawn mower when it's 33 degrees with snow flurries outside. F-it, it will be there Monday or Tuesday.

Booger 3

BBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOGGGGGGER!!!!!!!!!!

Later

Late Update: Checkup out these YouTube Vids from Flanders. The first one is the pros coming up Koppenberg in 2006, the 2nd is group of regular folks trying to make their way up. Enjoy

Video # 1

Video # 2

JB & www.DailyPeloton.com

Heard from my buddy JB that he'll be representing www.DailyPeloton.com as a photo journalist in Richmond, VA for the US Open Cycling Championships this weekend. You can check out some of JB's past work at Love 2 Ride Photos.

The weather for Williamsburg looks less than perfect and as of now the race is being delayed according to Velonews.com. SNOW???

Later, time to go ride or do something.

Community, UK Riding, Random

One of the many great thing about the cycling community and the friends we meet through racing, riding, and blogging, is folks hooking up sharing info, hospitality, and resources to make everyone's ride more fun and more producive. Just wanted to put that out there.

I've met a lot of great folks in the past few years and love that through blogging and racing many of us feel like our world of racing is a tight collection of like minded folks, helping each other out and sharing the ride.

One of the folks I met through the web is my Brit friend Craig (UKraig) that I met through a post on Road Bike Review DOT com. Ended up e mailing some info about a frame I was looking at, yada, yada, yada. Now he's my British pen pal. Well Craig is a roadie (for that he is forgiven, ha!) and is going to be video blogging his journey to fitness as he and his friend Trevor ride through the hills of England getting themselves in shape for the their coming season full of major events.

You can check it out here and see. Good luck Craig and enjoy the ride. Take a look... HERE to see some remarkable British landscapes and some roads that look only slightly wider than some of the single track we ride. Crack on!!

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In other Blog news. I read a post over on Belgium Knee Warmers that ROCKED! Radio Freddy wrote a bit about Boonen and his Specialized issues this season that is one of the best articles I've seen on a blog lately. Great job Freddy! This Sunday should tell us a lot about his Boonen's "custom" frame.

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Made some BAD ASS white pizza tonight. Yum-OHHHHHHHHHHH! Washed down with Sierra Nevada or three.

Side note: Got an oil change/tire rotation on the Soob today. What kind of world do we live in that as I walke into the Goodyear Tire store there's a sign that says "WEAPONS ARE NOT PERMITTED IN STORE"?? What are we the old f*cking West???

Not sure what tomorrow holds, road, trail, trainer, more rest? Who knows??

Later.

April Snows Bring Race Entries

HOLY 33 DEGREES!!! Pardon my French, but- FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF*CK!!

Oh well it's cold. It can't be helped. I wasn't in to earning any hard man points tonight. You do a ride in 80 degree weather on Tuesday and 33 degrees today and the next thing you know you have something that resembles a spoiled cat fish growing in your chest. No thanks.

So with 4 hours under my belt this week, and plans to keep the week pretty low key, I opted for an hour on the trainer listening to the new LCD Sound System. Good stuff. At first I didn't dig it as much as the last one, but it really grew on my fast. One of those albums you pick up more shit you dig as you listen. You can check the video out for "North American Scum" out HERE! or listen to sample from the Sound of Silver HERE!

As I said earlier I registered for the Mohican 100 earlier today and I'm stoked to be going back. Really revamped my schedule to play to the fun factor and to the money factor. I'm real happy with this plan and look forward to seeing and racing with some of my old friends and fellow bloggers.

I could NOT bare to pay the price for the Granny Gear event at Big Bear. $330 is just re-god-damn-diculous. Granny Gear and similar promoters are catering to a select few that can afford to throw that money around. I stand by lower cost-more racers-more competition-more money, but what do I know, I just race them, and are glad there are folks out there putting races on.

I could have done the race, but that would have blown a SERIOUS chunk of my budget. If you only do one or 2 races a year than this is one of THEE events to do. Well run on a great course (that I hope to race on in the fall at the W.V.M.A. Ultra) but I like to "slut around" with my racing and $330 for one race (and a free t shirt) is not in my plans right now.

Then I made plans to head up to New York for the Hard Core 24. A great course, great folks, with an $85 early registration fee (currently $100). Plus the money goes to help the Boy Scouts and that's damn cool of them. I can't say enough about how well this race was run last year. Showers, timing, food, great trails, swag, prizes, etc.. A great 24.

But, at 5.5 hours away, I started thinking of logistics/family, etc., Tom was generous enough to volunteer to help out, but it just seemed like a LOT of work for folks just to race.

I also thought, do I REALLY want to travel that far for 24, since I'm not that sure how much I really ENJOY a 24 solo. I ENJOY when they're over and the sense of accomplishment, but I actually ENJOY the "Hundies", 4, 6 and 12 hour races. So I think I've got my schedule pretty much set with a couple ? marks here and there.

- 04/21/07 Leesburg Bakers Doz. 13 Hour Race, Leesburg, VA*
- 05/20/07 M.A.S.S. Marathon, Granogue, DE (if I find camp site near venue)
- 06/02/07 Mohican 100, Loudonville, OH*
- 06/24/07 12 Hours of Cranky Monkey, Quantico, VA
WHY IS JULY A GIANT VOID OF RACES????
- 08/04/07 Wilderness 101, State College, PA
- 08/18/07 18 Hours on The Farm, Goochland, VA (details to come)
- 09/22/07 W.V.M.B.A. Big Bear Ultra, Hazelton, WV
- 10/14/07 Iron Cross V, Michaux State Forest, Carlisle, PA
* Denotes already registered.

There should be some room for 1 or 2 other here or there, but this is most of it. The fall might have the Month of Mud XC races too, so who know, THAT's a long way off.

F.Y.I. the first four races combined are still less than ONE Granny Gear event. That's about 40 hours of racing for the price of one 24, HA! Maybe next year.

Oh well, the season is coming fast. If it stops snowing it's gonna be damn fun!

Now for your Moment of Zen....

Teach me tiger. Purrrrrrrrr. That feels gooood baby! Do it! DO IT!!!

Later.

I N.U.E. I Would...

Well as I mentioned yesterday I've revamped the ol' schedule yet again and have chucked the Solo 24 on the fire to burn until fall. Maybe. Money vs. Fun factor, FUN won, as it should!

I just started thinking about what races made me happy last year. One of them for sure was the Mohican 100. So as of about 2 minutes ago, I'm in!

Last year was fun even with a HUGE ass rain storm the night before, so if we get good weather it's gonna be even sweeter. Might look into some bunk or dorm rental for the weekend too. Sigh, I miss my Element.

Anxious to improve on last years time and see hopefully see Andy, Jeff W., and some other folks again.

I have a couple other changes too and new (to me) 12 hour in VA that I want to do at the end of June.

More tonight after I "soil it" on the the trainer.

Later.

Rest/Multi Media Night

Not much going on today. Weather's shit and I needed a rest. Time to start focusing on the races and starting sending out entry fees. Rethinking some things to try to get the best performances out of myself, have the most fun, and take it easy on the wallet.

________________________________

Found some good video of last years UCI XC race in Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium.

Mens's Race is HERE
Women's is HERE

Video's were found on a http://www.fonsmtb.be/ Lots of other vids too, mostly from local Euro events, but I thought I'd share the UCI ones.

Later. Time for bed.

Bastardized Karma Thoughts

"I'm Sorry I Called You a Gap-toothed Bitch.
It's Not Your Fault You're Gap-toothed"
-Mean Girls

Well I could not resist the lure of 75 degree weather and sunshine. I COULD resist the rail trail though, opted to do my normal road loop, and TRY to go up the hills without blowing an artery as per usual. I figured with shitty weather coming best get the good riding in.

I DID park at the rail trail lot and just as I was leaving to hit the road Wifey and B-Man pulled up in the xA. Wifey was gonna walk the trail and B-Man was gonna ride. Wifey later reported that B-Man pulled close to 2 miles of riding!! For a 3 year old on a bike with wheels the size of my hand, that's not too freaking bad. ROCK ON B-MAN!

I'm not sure which I'm more shocked by. The fact that he rode almost 2 miles or that Wifey could actually fit a 3 year old's bike in the back of the xA!

The ride was not too bad. Made it up the first climb seated and without completely stroking out, so that was cool and then for the rest of the ride I controlled my tempo pretty good and just tried to enjoy the ride.

Rolling steadily along one reasonably busy 2 lane road, a pick up truck passes me 55+ mph and some chick in the passenger seat screams "BIKE TRAIL!!!!" as she extends her middle finger to me. I just smiled and waved, thinking that guys in spandex, riding alone should just keep their mouth shut, be nice and not create and bad karma. Not to mention acting like a nut just feed them more bad energy.

I noticed that the truck had all sorts of sky diving stickers on it. I then started to smile at imagining her an her old man jumping out of a plane with her chute failing to open and nothing to break her fall but the Skynyrd t shirt. (I'm not sure, but I think I just killed the good karma). Editors Note: I just linked up Lynyrd Skynyrd!! I feel so DIRTY, I may need to got take a shower)

I soooo wanted to ask her- "What bike trail? You mean the one I just crossed over before this climb or the one that I parked at to start this road ride."

My face as I farted in "sky dive chick's" general direction.

Karma payment pla-an
K-k-k-karma payment pla-an.
Karma, payment pla-an.
Karma, payment pla-an.
-Karma Payment Plan, by Modest Mouse

Had to stop and take a "nature break" once I hit the roads less traveled like Slaughter Hollow Rd. and figured I'd snap a couple picts.

I love this climb. Not sure why. The road sucks, it's not that long or that tough, but I just dig it.

I think I'm just a sucker for road with cow views.
And roads that don't have people screaming at me of course!

As you can see in the above pict of my mug, I got to wear the new Q3's today. They were pretty sweet. I still need to get used to wearing glasses, but I will say it was GREAT to NOT get anything in my eye, not have my contacts dry to my eyes and be able to see with BOTH eyes the entire ride.

I switched out the lenses for the AC Red lenses and they seemed like the right choice. Tomorrow I pick up some new contact lenses, so I should be seeing pretty well for a while.

It will be interesting to try them out on the trail. Like I said I need to get used to wearing them. Old habits die hard, but habits like being able to see and not getting shit in my eye might be easy to start.

I also got all my SRAM parts today for the Mamasista build. So now as soon as our team frames become available I'll have everything I need. Except grips. Gotz to order those up.

Time for bed.

Later.