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.

knew a girl named Nikki I guess you could say she was a ...

So, while waiting for my 'rents to arrive via I-80, my buddy the Newby sends me these 2 pics from Vegas, just plain mean I tell ya.




























Last night was an hour of Tannr Park CX action, Tomorrow night the Oly Park CX race, bring it on.

Ligthen Up Francis

So, Saturday was a 3 pm meet up at Mueller, Lyna and I headed up expecting masses of orage clad Revolution Riders for the pre BBQ ride. Well BZ and I had Orange, Climb-Um and Sue had Raleigh Red/Yellow and Blew and Lyna had her incognito black. SO it was The Pro's and Lyna and I.

BZ, Climb-Um and I headed up to the ROck, hung out, Sue wasright behind, then Lyn. BZ bailed as the trail was a bit damp, The rest of us headed up to the top, the trail got snowier and the air colder, by the time we got to Rudy's flat I was chilly. We decided to go down North Canyon, hoping for less liquid, wrong. It was wet and freezing. Climb-um went down hard on a root, maybe cracked a rib, Lyna and I got to the car, drove up to BZ's showered and then had the team BBQ. Good time, small turn out, but still fun.

Sunday, Kracht picked me up at 7:30 and we headed to Pocatello for the Poki Cross. Hoping for a nice hard effort. We both decided to race A's, the B's had some Utah riders as well as a bounch of local first timers. Well the comp was fierce. Bartman showed, Richard Feldman showed, Ali G and others. Well I for sure was gonna suffer.

I had a good start, top 10, good 30 minutes for that matter, then it just stopped, i went backwards very quickly, barely hung onto to finish, like 18th out of 20 maybe. My HR graph shows the implosion quite well,









it hurt, the course was slow, all grass, lots of hills, the first 30 minutes were fun though.

The CX season may be shorter for me than I thought.

Billy Ray Valentine, Capricorn.

Lyna and I had plans to wake up early Saturday and head to Park City for the 26th annual Tour Des Suds, end of summer race/party. A fun 7 mile hill climb starting at the City Park. The wetaher was supposed to clear up for it, so i was excited, having missed it the last couple of years. Woke up Saturday a.m. to clouds and cold in Salt Lake. Lyna bowed out, choosing to hit the shoreline for 3 hours in the afternoon, so I headed up solo. I-80 up Parleys was nasty, like a pond covered in ice, once I got to the summit i got better, but the snow on the Mountains looked a bit troubling. I decided to go on and see if the race was on. I got to the city park and saw that people had number plates, so i went and registered. I wanted an hour warm up at least, but chose to sit in the heated car instead, just like everyone else. The turn out was low, due to the snowy weather, the costumes were not as exciting as years past, but at 10am about 70 of us headed up the mountain.

Wanting to warm up quick, I took a flyer up the road, turned left towards Main Street and about halfway up looked back to see a sizable gap, i was not maxed but let off a little. Some unknown came by e first, then Sager, then Kenny Jones. Shannon made it up to me by Daly's then dropped his chain. Sager, kenny and Unknown took a bit of a wrong turn so I caught back on right before we crossed the Gyuardsmans road heading towards the Mid Mtn trail. The unknown guy dropped off the pace at this point.

At this point the Cyclocross workout began. Most of the trail was ridable, even though it had upwards of 6 inches of snow on it, however some of the switchbacks were too tight and you would just slide out, so dismount, jog, remount. After a few of these my cleats just had blocks of ice on them, expended energy trying to get back in the pedals, then gave up. We popped out onto the Guardmans road, which was covered in slush and ice, I was in 4th at this point, while stopped trying to de-ice my cleats, Shannon cme by me, i gave up again and remounted, on the last straight away I went hard and passed shannon for 4th place. Ouch.

The worse part of the day was the cold, wet ride back to the car.

Sunday am had a nice early CX workout at Wheeler Farm.

It is what it is

That has been the statement for the month. Work has been full of ups and lots of downs, but climbing out of it again, we will see how it all works out. For the good of all, I hope.

Tuesday night easy spin out to the Racers Make Rasberries, ran into to Rich, hung out for a while took a few pics on the way home. Nice to spin the legs out. Have been hitting dirt a lot lately so the ease of a road ride was welcomed.














Wednesday hit up Glenwild and Drop Out. Nice ride.

Cross starts on a Friday night and it looks like they have changed up the categories, no more A and A+ but they will likely have a 35+ cat every race. Single speed as well for the sick bastards. The first race is at the olympic park. The cross bike is in disrepair, i have had trouble finding good tires and the first course has a rough DH and a nice grinder climb, so looks like the hardtail will be working it.

Oh joy, at least i didn't sit on a bike for 11 hours last saturday. May as well beat your self in the narns with a ball peen hammer.

Weekend Fun

Friday, Lyna and I headed to the Greek festival with Peter Pan and the lost boys.

Saturday, bought a new range, installed a new facuet, fixed the toilet. Ate Este pizza, well that was it.

Sunday, slept in, then rode Up Spiro to almost the Crest, down around Jupiter Bowl, Down Apex, then shortcutted down Eagle and Spiro. Fun ride, fo sho.

Recovering

So 9 days since injury, 4 bike rides, 1 race and one overnight backpacking trip. I am ready to start riding regular again. Today I did a nice Spiro to Mid mountain and down Rob's Trail loop. Just under 25 miles, nice easy cruiser day. Ran into Cyndi Schwandt somewhere around Red Pine lodge, Other than that saw like 2 or 3 other bikes the whole time. Yesterday I did the Emmigration up and down. Saturday and Sunday Lyna, Meg, Ty, Chad and I did an over night in Grandaddy Basin in the Uintahs, Anna went with us, she did great for a short legged dog, she was a bit freaked out by the campfire and in the tent.

3 weeks till the 1st cross race, mmmm goody, also, mom and dad will be here that weekend, it should be fun.

Back to work tomorrow, 4 day weekends are great.

It could always be worse

Been hitting the dirt a lot lately, no races till cross and cooler temps make it so easy. Missed the last Sundance race and double points, so Kenny overtook me easily for 3^rd in the series, I now have 4^th place in 3 series. Icup, NMBS and Wednesday nighter. Consistency is the key.

Thursday night Lyna and I rode up big water to great western to the Crest over look of the Canyon’s, I big ringed the whole thing, why not? Friday I did an easy spin up to the shoreline and back.

Saturday was the E100, my job was to support Lyna for the 50 milerand be at Aid stations 1 and 2. I got all her food and things ready Friday night, she woke up at like 3:45 to get coffee, granola and head up, I made it up to the first aid station a bit before 8 am, I tried to help out whoever I knew needed it while waiting for Lyna to come through. She made it through at about 2:41, she had emptied her camelback and her gel flask, as I suggested she do, the first couple of hours are key. This bode well for the rest of the race. I put a new bladder in her c-back, put a new flask in her pocket, kissed her and she was off. I hung around a bit more to see if anyone I knew came through, a few did, I then headed to Silver Lake and Deer Valley for the second aid station. BP, Fox and a few other 50 milers and 100kers came through, got BP carbed up and help Adam and Fred and KC and Chris with things, Lyna came through at right under 6.5 hours (the second stage was the toughest climbing wise) She looked pretty good, gave her a bottle with coke in it and a new flak and sent her on her way. More support for those coming through the same feed zone again (it was #2 and 3) and Lyna came through the finish line at 7 hours 50 minutes, good enough for 5^th overall and 3^rd in women 30-39, awesome job.

Sunday the Bull Elk was hosting a BBQ and ride on the bench creek horse trails. BZ and I headed up met up with the Bull Elk, Jen, Shannon and Sherwin (male version). The trail was sweet, lots of rocks, stream crossings, some brutal climbs and hike a bikes, we then hit the DH, sweet, fast, fun and long, somewhere around the 11 mile mark of the 18 mile ride it all went wrong.

I was following Chad and we were getting ready to go into another rocky section. I decided that I wanted more speed to clear the rocks easily, so I started pedaling on the smoother trail section, well this trail has limited bike travel, lots of horses, as a result the trail is thin and slightly SUNKEN, naturally at some point my pedal made contact with something, I am not sure the speed I was carrying, probably over 20 mph, but I went over quicker than Robert Downey Jr. in a pharmacy. It was so quick that next thing I knew I was on the ground. Jen was a bit behind and saw my rear tire jump up and heard the impact, Chad heard the impact and stopped. Well first thing I did was check for broken, Dislocated bones, None, thank god, I was then about to jump up and get back on the bike when I saw my right leg. I was Covered, I mean COVERED with blood, I then looked for the source and then I really freaked out. I saw a gash about an inch and a hlf long, with fat and muscle visible and blood continuing to flow out. –that all occurred within seconds of the crash--- I yelled, screamed, whimpered ‘OH MY GOD’ in such a manner that Chad started running towards me and Jen wondered if she wanted to see why I yelled (she was worried she was going to see my femur sticking out of my leg). I told Chad that I had a really bad cut, I was at that point pinching it together, I truly though I had cut an artery. None of us had any first aid stuff so I pinched it and elevated it, Chad started to go get Shannon (who is a nurse, used to be a trauma nurse). Shannon came back just then. He looked at it and said it was gonna need stitches, but it was going to be ok. Thank god, we were as remote on the trail as we could be. So we fashioned wound dressing out of Jens knee warmer and my arm warmer. We then rode the rest of the way out, to say the least I was a bit tentative on the technical DH after that, and there was a lot of it. We got back to Chad’s condo, Lyna just got there with Ty and Meg, Sherwin took Lyna and I to the Heber ER and 30 minutes later I was all better.

Bz, Bull Elk, Jen and me (going to a bush) a few minutes before the OTB.

I am sore today, wrist, chest and of course knee, but grateful it wasn’t worse, it could have been really bad. Good to have friends there when you need them, and thye didn’t give me too much crap for it.

Below is a picture from Shannon, BZ's will be higher resolution,
BZ's account of the day is far more poetic, read it. take the time for it to load.

Training????

So ripped the Shoreline loop today, door to door is about 19 miles and maybe 3500 feet or so of climbing. To carry on Sly style I big ringed it up dry creek and then had to go one better and stay big ringed all the way to city creek. Feeing good, but wait, racing is over, exceot a few wednesday nighters, wait one is tomorrow, now i am hosed, oh well, it was fun.

Part way up the climb I call big Berth (in the big ring) Lyna and my song came on the Ipod, Bright Eye's First Day of My Life. I love the line;

But I'd rather be working for a paycheck
Than waiting to win the lottery

I like it. I do.

Onto doping news, looks like the Euro MTB'ers are gonna start worrying. Hermida Goes Home

Focus shifts off cycling???

For a moment, maybe.

20 years ago, sheesh

So, this week i have been pondering the 20 year high school reunion, we llponder done, i am not going. Same weekend as a double psycho-cross race and 24 hours of Moab, so i will gladly miss it. However, reading Kerry Litkas recent entry reminded me of something. SOmething rather scary.

In 1986 tates creek high school in Lexington Kentucky decided to have a MR. and Ms. Commodore pageant. The kicker was that it was to be a parody. I of course, being a 'non-conformist' at least 50% of the time couldn't pass it up. So somehow I talked my buddy Jeff Schreiffer into doing it with me, he was a riot, and a 75% 'non conformist' so it was set, except we had to come up with some skit to do, i had no idea what we should do, more on this later.

We had to practice, as there were group performances, let in be known that Jeff and I were surrounded by jocks and class officers and those who were the top of the food chain, we were slightly out of place, because we were none of those things. Well we practiced, stumbled and the day of the 'pageant' arrived.

Jeff and I obtained some liquid courage for the evening (it was the 80's, it was easy) We took off after school with a few others, i forget the girls name, but the Soccer start Stuart was with us as well, we got a bit sloppy. Came back in time for the pageant.

One of the silliest moments in my high school career was the one group 'skit' the below picture says enough. But i was silly drunk, so it didn't matter.















Later Jeff and I did our skit, we worked long and hard coming up with something that would wow them, while not be stupid, in our infinite wisdom, late one night as we drank beers in the G.D. Ritzy's parking lot, we decided.












Jeff played a sort of morph of Frank-N-Furter and Magenta, while i played Riff Raff

The strangest thing was that all the Jocks, Food Chain toppers and all the feaks in the audience who knew what we were up to, came on stage and did the dance with us, it was almost a John Hughes moment. Not quite, but almost.

Jeff won the male competition, he also did a small stand up comedy bit, it was a weird, weird night.