Record of oddness; Halloween weekend

So, Saturday night was the throw down at BZ's, Chris Sherwin (he who takes care of pro MTBer kathy) and I decided to go in matching costumes. Good times. Kid Rock was there, EJ was some hussy, Sue the Ninja was stylin, the tin man fell apart early as his wife the IPOD was freakin out about porous face paint. Jones and Sue were outa control, ARock was slidin the stairs on the boogie board, Fox arrived, saw the madness and promptly left.

Good times all around, some photo evidence below.

EJ is shown his weapon



















Jones and Sherwin in Battle














DOwn goes Jones! Down Goes Jones!














Kid Rock and the 'Ninja'














Miss UK post Teeth surgery














The 'Girls' Kelli and Kathi



















Sunday Jen, Shannon, Kathy Chris and I hit the Shoreline for 3 hours of fun, good ride, the DH from the antennas was mostly empty of hikers and bikers so we got to go fast.

Sunday Night I headed up to wathc Ali G's Cross Cifix in Farmington, when i got there i wished i brought my bike, but it was fun to watch. I think I'll head up Wednesday night.

Kids Race














A and 35+ men Start















Really Bad Videos of
1: Thomas and Jon dicing it up
2: Brandon Chasing

UTCX #4

So back out to the RMR for more psycho-cross. They started us a bit after the A men, which threw a wrench into my evil plans of getting lost in the other group. Oh well. I did not have a great start, was a bit timid dropping into the Grass, immediatley my rear D was skipping, great.

I think I went through the barriers on the first lap in 8th place. Got into a small group for a while and then lost them about 4 laps in. I really need to learn how to hold a wheel on straight aways. Later in the race i was trying to hold Clawson off, I was gapping him a bit in the dirt and gravel and he was gaining in the pavement. Eventully I rode away from him. I caught up with Jrad and we battled back and forth in the closing laps of the race. I screwed up the last corner and could not hold his wheel in the end, I am not sure my placing but I raced smarter this time. Last week, good start, bad strategy, this week, bad start, lost wheels and then decent strategy, hopefully i can build it all together at wheeler the next 2 races, similar to how i raced at Ogden.

Lap times were more consistent this time. First lap was slowest, last lap was fastest. Average HR of close to 175 maxed at 188.
4:55
4:31
4:28
4:30
4:30
4:38
4:38
4:42
4:35
4:34
4:32
4:40
4:37
4:22

14 laps today, only lapped once by the top 5 or so in the A's.

8th place 35+ today, still in top 3 over all as Warsocki DNF'd, so i am in 2nd now.

good times.

Kentucky won today in a defensive battle, against Miss State 34-31, they were scoring at will in the second half, man UK football blows.

Playin Hookie

So, took the day off work, slept in, got the baldness shaved, went and found a rippin deal on some ne Snowboard boots at REI, I better use em this year. Did a quick mtb ride on part of the shoeline and then napped a bit, boy I think i could live this way every day.

Last night I made up a big old batch of chicken soup, I add noodles or rice after the fact, man I could eat that for every meal, until it is gone. Lyna is feeling under the weather, there in lies the reason i made it.

The poliitcal season is in full swing, watched my man Ashdown debate Hatch the other night and all i can say is why is it so easy to say someting that sounds great and meaningful until you look at it further and see it is a bunch of crap. Hatch kept going on with the "Top 1% income earners pay the top 5% of taxes, the lower 50% pay little or nothing." What is stuck behind that is the fact that the discrepancy between the incomes of those levels is severe. Billionaires vs. those close to or below th epoverty level. I mean it is an equal playing field isn't it??

Then this guy, LaVar a few weeks ago he said in his commercial ' If I am elected. I will not vote to allow the Democrats to take over Washington' What the hell does that mean? I think he or his writers missed some Social Studies classes.

I know it goes on on both sides, but I am a pinko, so there.

CX Hurts - The Journey

So, out to the RMR this A.M. for UtahCX #3. Got there at like 9 so Lyna could warm up for her 10A.M. race. As I didn't race till 12:30 I was getting kind of bored. Ran the battery down in the element, that was nice.

Lyna was leading her race for about half of it, she was gapping the field through the technical sections, I told her to go hard after them, well she did, and blew up, oh well, live and learn.athy Sherwin told her afterwards that it is good to do that.

So I get a good start spot for the A and 35+ start, come out of the grassy start section in the top 10, 2nd place 35+. Styed there for a few laps. the run up and subsequent off camber section killed me, Cowley, Jrad and Clawson bridged at different points, one lap on teh oval they were in front of me and i hit it hard to get in front before the 180, i skid the turn and little did i know that they were on my wheel the whole time, I was blown. After that I was tryin gto hold on, I rode the run up pretty much every lap after the 20 minute mark. Got caugh up in course tape by the stairs and was feeing OK. On the last run-up, i was half way up and my chain broke, as far away from the pit as possible. I ended up going from 6th in 35+ to 8th or 9th, maybe worse as a result.

I did 12 laps, which meant BartMang did 14. Below are my lap times, a nice steady decline.

4:16 - I'm in the lead group, Yeah
4:24
4:30
4:31
4:34
4:40
4:34
4:34
4:45 - COurse Tape
4:34
4:38
7:40 - Yeah Broken Chain

2 races out of 3 I have been able to hang up there the whole time. Stressful week at work and life in general, the evil run Tuesday night may of worked against me.

If you would of asked me 3 years ago if I thought I could hang in one of the front groups of A riders in a local cross race for half a lap,i would just laughed. It is amazing what focus can do. 6 years of racing. 4 years of focussed training and a bit of fearlessness adds up.

I just wish, sometimes, that I didn't spend my formative years jacked up on illicit subtances. Followed by 8 years of living a Peter Pan lifestyle in Kentucky. Would of Should of Could of, Didn't. Everything I did, got me to where I am today. And most of the time I am good with that. The gratitude I have for today is without parallel. I have a wonderful life, A wonderful Wife, friends, a hobby that while it consumes me at times, it truly makes me happy.

It is not the destination, it 's the journey.

I feel as if I am in some freaky repetitive nightmare

So up late building a PPT presentation for work, for next week, for new 'consultants' to look at what we do and how maybe they can help us do it better. Nevermind that in less than 3 years we have increased efficiency 800%. Nevermind that we have gone from a 75% failure rate to sub 5%. Nevermind that we have gone from 70% currency to 97% currency. Nevermind that we have multiple times doen Cost Benefit Analysis on the current system and came to the same conclusion, IT NEEDS TO BE REPLACED. I am all for revisiting plans and ideas on a regular basis. But this is getting out of hand.

That felt good.

So tonight i went for a trail 'run' 30 minutes on the shoreline with some steep hill 15 second CX run up workouts. Wow, I hurt really, really bad from that. I ran Cross COuntry and track in highschool, 10 miles a day for like 4 or 5 years. Um, I HATE running. I do believe it will be a good CX workout, but damn, that hurts.

Ok back to Power Point fun.

MMMMMM Mud Samich

Photo Courtesy of MK.

Sunday, Lovely weather

Ty, Jen, Shannon and I headed up to the shoreline, Lyna left erlier than us, we met her at the top of Bobsled and then ripped it down.














Lyna, loving the Carbon Rush Team Demo Bike














Ty, Lamenting not riding for like 2 months














Shannon, showing off the 2007 team Scalpel














Ty, Lyna and I heading home.

Rain and rain and Rain

So lots and lots of rain over the week, Wednesday i geot a 1 hour dry ride in, Friday I got another rain ride in. I am ready to hit some trails.

Saturday a.m. I headed up to O-Town for the 2nd UtahCX race. It was a great race. It rained a lot before hand, stopped mostly rigth before we went off at 12:30, Had a huge group of over 35 A and 35+ men, I got a good start and kept steady for the whole hour, 3rd place in 35+ 13th overall, i think. It was a mud fest and a flat course, had consistent power throughout the whole race. Kept chasers off my wheel and stayed in contact with a small group in front of me.

Thanks the Chris Eldevick for letting me use his sweet Reynolds CX disc wheelset. The tread pattern on the tires helped in the mud, and the carbon rims railed the corners.

I had a few nice power slide passes on a slimy 180 turn, sweet.

Probably head down to the 24 hours of Moab to heckle peole next weekend.

Sheesh

So early to work and early home, the weather looked as if it had cleared enough to hit out for 1.5 hour ride. I headed up emigration and the skies were looking nice ahead of me. AHEAD OF ME.

So I stop at this house, which has been for sale for a while, price has dropped like 30k. I was trying to see why it was still for sale, other than being right on the road, no luck. So i put on my arm warmers and vest. ABout a mile down the canyon the wind starts kiciking up bad, I get to the construction light and sit and wait for it to turn green, a few minutes before it did, the rain came. It was pretty heavy from the start, by the tim eI got down to the post office on Sunny Side the rain was heavy as it gets, so i pull into the P.O. and wait it out, after about 15 minutes of waiting, i am getting chilly, go inside, reach for my cell phone, well it was not there, damn.

So finally 30 minte after I stopped, it cleared up a bit and I took off for the final 4-5 miles home, all downhill btw, there was some serious water running down every street, when I got close to home some 'neck in a pick up gunned it through a puddle next to me, little did he know that i was already soaked to the bone and numbed, I was so cold, jack ass.

Lyna headed out to find me, drove all the way to the top of the canyon till she saw my message saying i was home safe.

Cell phone do no good unless you got em with ya.

Parental Visit

So the 'Rents showed up Thursday afternoon, spent the weekend eating and relaxing, it has been a great visit, they head east again in the A.M. It was a good excuse to clean the house, something we are not so good at.

Friday night Lyna and I headed up to Oly Park for the 1st Utah Cyclocross series race. Lyna Took second in the women's B's. She had a last lap battle with 3rd place. I lined up with the 35+ and A men, had a good start and after a bit of dicing on the first lap, setled into the pace. Ended up 2nd 35+ and around top 10 or 11 overall. The race was cut short due to the failing light, as a result the pace was pretty high and I hit the blood tasting level of effort. It was like a STXC that was 15 minutes longer. Good times.














I should explain the Nikki thing, a few years ago, while I was registering for Wolverin Ridge XC, BZ put this picture on my top tube. I had a good race, later that year at the Durango NMBS, Kathy Sherwin kept tellin Niki about the picture and kept trying to get me to show it to her, never happened, but it was fun. Now every time some one sees or hears about her, they gotta give me crap.