Go time?

Yup, that is AM and we are at the race site! Started eating at 3:15 our time. So do we get a nap break somewhere on course??

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Let the games begin

Pre ride done, bikes clean, food bags dropped off, and the number plates are on the bikes!! Let the season start with a good 100 mile race in Cohutta!

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Options are good!

Never know what you might want to eat while out there for 100 miles. So now the question is where to put the beer and cheeseburger!!!

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Dirt, here we come!!

Another day of 5x3, 5hrs driving and 3 hrs riding.

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Good Friday?

I thought every Friday was a good Friday cause it means the next 2 days are filled with riding bikes, racing bikes, hanging with friends, talking about bikes, and not working! 
Anyway, we can tell everyone has the day off!  212 is really busy this morning!  Always a good thing cause it gives me more people to talk to!!

So on the bike front, just got the last of the parts to finish off Darrin's bike.  Should be nice.  I am calling it the basement bike cause I am just taking things off the shelves in my basement and putting it together! I think once assembled we might meet up this weekend and try to find some dirt to ride it around on, maybe the Kettles will be open.  I think Michelle and Sarah are looking ot find some dirt as well. They just reallized that the guys will be south at the Cohutta and their mechanical support will be missing!  So the need is high to shake the bikes down before next weekend! 

As for Cohutta, the workouts have been further between and my legs are starting to really feel good.  I am excited to give it a go.  The field looks to be a little deeper this year and hopefully the weather will be better as well.  I am gunning for this one, but would be more than happy with a top 5.  In a 100 miles you have several times where you doubt yourself and the pain cave is really deep!  You will always have a bad stretch in their as well, or two.  It all comes down to how bad it is and how prepared you are.  The last two I did my nutrition was different for each of them due to just my appetite at the time.  The first year I lived on cookies and clif blocks, last year I lived on gels, water, and Dr Pepper!  Yup, made Ryan proud!!  Either way you finish up with beer and food, bonus! 

For the bike, 26" Epic is my choice and always will be.  Thursday I spent time with Scott to dial the bike in!  If you are looking for a good fit, get a hold of him.  I have been fitted before and Scott is very maticulous and remeasures! Good for an engineer like myself that sometime over analyzes things. 

So now it is just finishing plans and making sure we are prepared for anything that could go wrong! 

My hell freezing over..........

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Enough already of the........

Nose dripping!
Eye watering!
Brain freezing!
Toe numbing!
350 watt!
12 mph!
Snow bringing!
Cold, windy Wisconsic weather!

5 x 3

So yesterday I went in search of dirt, ended up with 5 hrs of driving to get in 3 hrs of riding on the trails down at the Southern Kettles.  Another wasted afternoon in search of a mental escape riding bikes!  Sweet! 

Hopefully Mike P will forgive me since my ride time was shorter than the drive time?  Maybe the fact that it was mountain biking I get some sort of multiplier! 

On another note, good luck to those at Sea Otter!  Did you bring your road bike or MTB?  I will never return till we do the original 19 mile lap!  Here is the map of course, 5 miles long.  Oh yeah, the race track is 2.25 miles long and you use almost the whole thing! 

In search of dirt...

Today Scott and I met up at Adventure 212 on the Mountain Bikes and decided to do some urban assault on Stevens Point in search of some rideable dirt!! 

When we first met up the Lil Colonel was at the Hostel Shoppe so we started in with the typical triathlon banter and I finished with the usual "If you can't bike........"

Scott and I decided to start with the typical Green Circle trail but were soon turned around several times due to the Wisconsin River being above flood stage.

We then decided to make our own trails, lots of hike a bike but really did not care cause there were no other plans for the day.

It worked for a while, then we got thirsty, lots of bikes here! They must have coffee!! Actually we knew they did! Killed an hour here drinking coffee and planning our Cohutta trip.

We then finished home with another afternooon wasted away riding bikes! Sweet!

Dang that wheel looks too big!

Yup it is! 

Ready to rip!!

The bike is set for Cohutta!  Not very many 4 " suspended bikes can claim the sub 20 lb mark and still be ready to race! 

Specs:

Specialized "kick ass" Epic 26" - Large

Wheels: Roval Carbons or Stan's Podium MMX

Discs: Scrub "my breaks are lighter then yours" Racedays

Drivetrain: SRAM "I always work" XX

Brakes: SRAM World Cups

Bar: Truvativ Noir World Cup

Stem: Ritchey 4 axis 100mm

Seatpost: Crankbrothers "sweet" Cobalt 11

Saddle: Selle Italia SLR

Pedal: Eggbeater 11

Crankset: Specialized FACT 26 x 39 (28 x 42 @ Cohutta) Quarq ready!

Tires: Specialized Renegade 26 x 1.9" with Stan's Raceday Sealant

Thanks Bill, Pete, Specialized, Crank Brothers, Scrub, Hostel Shoppe, and Stan's No Tubes!  Bike is awesome!!

Bike Building 101...not

We made the girls build their own bikes...with a little bit of help.

It was a good learning process for all of us!

Webs of Waupaca

How come everytime I ride towards Waupaca I always end up circling through it 2 or 3 times!  I call it the webs of Waupaca!  I swear every road just keeps turning around on itself and you end up back into town!!  Today was no different, I ended up back in town on 3 different occcasions.  I finally got fed up trying to use the back roads and hopped on Hwy 22 and got out of there and no I did not use the Wau-King Trail!  For those not from around here they literally named a trail that just cause it goes between Waupaca and King.  I might of used it but it did not say the Wau- Bi-King trail!  How lame!
Anyway, the mountain bikes are getting ready for the season.  Tonight it is Sarah and Michelle's turn to build up their bikes.  Mark and maybe Scott are going to join, as well as our water wench Tim(Sarah's Husband)!  Sounds like some growlers from Centrals Waters for the guys while we sit back and watch the girls get their bikes put together!  Moral support?  Nah, just some ribbing and help when needed.  Maybe Tim and I will even get some shoot 'em up PS 3 action going!  Seems to be our new thing and what better way to spend some recovery time but killing zombies!

Resting up

So after completely destroying my body this past month in prep for the NUE series, I have found myself doing absolutely nothing for a couple of days and for the first time in my ADD life enjoying it??? Hmmm, what's up with that?  Maybe it is a sign of me getting old? Nah, I will never grow up if you ask Michelle! 

Anyway, stuff keeps rolling in for the team and it always amazes me how product continually improves!  You think that there is nothing they can do to make things better, then bam, the next best thing!  This has happened again with almost everything this year!  We received our new kits yesterday from Hidden Bay and they look awesome!  Most of the riders on the team love the new shorts so much that we order extras for training cause they are that good! 

Another huge improvement of the year are the Specialized Prevail helmets.  The most comfortable helmet I have ever owned and I have had helmets from almost every manufacturer! They have so much adjustability that you can make them fit any size/shape head, even Scott's big head! 

Now the bikes!  How do you take the best cross country race bike out there and make it better?  Rear thru axle, beef up the chainstays and seat stays, and make it lighter!! Yup, mine looks like it will be 20lbs race ready!  Crazy for a dual suspension bike!

One last thing that I have to give a shout out to is Raw Revolution.  I usually do not get excited about nutritition products, but these are actually really good and I find myself grabbing one for snacks sometimes cause they are that good! 

So now we have orders out for Scrub, which I am excited for their new brake pad compounds not to mention their trick, lightweight rotors.  Crankbrothers with their new seatposts to add to the awesome pedals, and Stan's No Tubes for their light race wheels and their not sitting on the side of the trail, flat protectant, sealant! 

So now all we nead is the snow to melt and some trails to open up so that my first ride on a MTB is not the Cohutta 100!!

Cali Totals and sights!

I feel at home there!  Took some time for me to get used to the traffic riding out of town, but I always love riding and spending time in Marin!  Can't wait for my next trip back!! 

Totals

Hours:42 hrs

Miles: 564 miles

Pastry Calories Required: 24000 KJs

Latte Count: Who knows, but I am on first name basis with most coffee shop baristas from Sausalito to Fairfax!! 

My Climbing Speed by the end of the week!

Sweet!, the Dam loop! Killer in both directions!

I'm on a boat!!

 Amazing how the camera can actually capture things exactly how I saw them while climbing with Mike!

Michelle dopping us on the last day!

 I don't have a descending muscle at 140 lbs, but these are still a lot of fun!

Great view of the bridge from the Marin Headlands

 What, good thing I found dessert! Could of ruined an evening!

Cruising the Paradise loop, did I say something wrong?

 Bridge view from prison, Alcatraz

Alcatraz, actually a fun tour!

 Bolinas Lagoon from Seven Sisters!

San Francisco from the top of Tam! 

TT practice!

Bike path style!! Way too funny!! The Marin DB kept speeding up whenever Michelle would come up next to him, the funny thing was his speeding still was slow enough to allow me to laugh out loud, ride no handed, and take pictures!! By the way he ended up getting chicked big time on the climb out of Sausalito! At least he was riding his bike though!

So vacation/training camp is over! Hope the weather is planning to be warm at home by the time I have to start training again. I haven't even looked yet cause I do not think I could handle the disappointment!!

Tomorrow I will work at gathering totals after I recover from the red eye home tonight! All I do know is I lost track of the latte count!! Sorry to disappoint!!

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Market Research

The group is out in Napa looking for a new beverage sponsor!!

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