Role Model

I officially brought in the off season this past weekend by doing everything non related to cycling.  I did still manage 5 hrs in the car on Saturday though to make it feel like I was going to a race.  

So the weekend:  Started out on Friday night with Timster, Eric and I playing Role Models to Eric's 9 yr old son!  I probably started things bad by going to the game store and buying every game marked "M" for mature. My thinking was Sam at 9 is just as mature as us after a couple beers so he will be fine.  Now the beer.  We went with a typical RK theme and did it in the can!  Yup!  A little Oskar Blues G'Night, some Young's Double Chocolate Stout, and some Barney Flats IPA.  Then to top that off dinner consisted of 2 Hot N Ready Little Caesar pizzas!  Wow!  What a fun night.  The highlight was when the UFC fighting game came out, which is way out side our norm for gaming, but was very comical as none of us could sit still why we beat the crap out of each other!  Pretty funny!  

On Saturday I had to make a trip to Appleton to get the last touch panel for finishing Elan version 2.0 up.  I got home put that in and worked on some programming before loading the truck up and heading south to Madison to hang with the Frazier's for the evening.  We ended up not doing much on Saturday except for drinking Bryan's beer in his fridge!  

On Sunday Bryan and I did ride the cross bikes for a bit.  It was a pretty short ride as we rode from his house in Cottage Grove over to Cambridge to grab coffee and carrot cake at Camrock Cafe and Sport.  With all the beverages already enjoyed during the weekend we passed on their extensive beer selection and went for the coffee.  After the ride we headed into town and finished off the weekend with a burger, fries and an Ale Asylum Madtown Nutbrown at the Harmony Bar and Grill!  As if that was not enough we finished off the weekend of gluttony with a piece of pie from Monty's Blue Plate Diner.  MMmmmmm!  Fat season is starting out well!  

Feeling Safer

I guess I will hold off on that underground shelter for a bit, this guy has our back?

That is it.....

What a perfect way to say good bye to the 2012 season!  Thanks to my Adventure 212 teammates for another awesome year!!

Openers

Last night I worked on my openers for tonights evening hanging with the team.  I DO not want to get dropped!!  Cheers!

Happy as a pig in mud...

I wish that was the case.  I had serious doubts of racing this past weekend cause I could not get over how much work was going to be required to get the bike back in sellable shape.  Either way I chose to race and opted to skip the warm up due to the sideways rain.  I actually just set in the truck till about 10 min to go and literally rolled up to the start shoot just as Don started the call ups.  I really wish I could of had a dummy stand at the line for me, cause between call up and the all to familar Don "goooooooo"  I about froze to d - death. 

When we did take off, it was interesting cause I think just about everyone around me slipped a pedal and I felt as if I had the whole left side of the course to myself.  After the start I found myself settled in the lead group and felt really comfortable.  Maybe there is something to this no warm up thing, I know there is a lot of research out there that can support that theory!

So after the sprint point and we entered the mud, I reallized that I nailed the bike set up and found myself yo-yoing with Nathan for most of the first lap.  He would hammer the flats and I would just stick in my 100 miler pace and use the extra traction of the Specialzed 29 x 1.9 ground controls to bring him back in the more tech areas.  Unfotunately, I knew it could not last since I drank more beers in the past 2 weeks than I put hours on the bike.  Yeah the hours on the bike were not even close thanks to my birthday thrown in there. I am not complaining, but everyone concreted my addictions cause all I got was beer, chocolate, and coffee for my birthday!  Mmmmmm!  Oh yeah and a hangover!

So back to racing bikes.  I just rode my pace all day, walked the hills, yup walked!  In the end it was good enough for another 8th place. 

 



 

At least we are smiling.  After this pic we learned that they shut the hoses off on us so no one could wash of.  Tools!  So off to creek we went to freeze some more while trying to get the mud off. 

 

So with with the end of the WORS scene I have officially entered into fulll on fat season.  Which means I get to eat and drink and put on a few pounds so I do not get sick over the winter.  I have an issue of getting too light when base miles hit so I need to enter that phase with a few extra pounds or I will end up around 135 pounds and sick. 

 

I also get to start when of the better parts of the season, the bike riding just for the fun of it time.  I usually grab my cross bike for this but it was in much need of an overhaul after putting it away last winter and doing nothing with it.  It was so bad that the cable caps were frozen into the frame stops.  After some TLC I was able to get it up and going and it did not even require any electronic shifting!  Adnan thinks that a cross bike cannot shift without electronics.  I call BS on that and most shifting issues are caused by improperly setting up your equipment.  Case in point this weekend, SRAM XX and full length cable runs on the Specialized Epic, the right chainlube, and Michelle and I were able to use every gear on the bike the entire race, Michelle even had the small ring when she needed it.   

 

With the cross bike built up I decided to play Green Circle Warrior yesterday and enjoy the warmer part of the day before the rains hit again.

 

 

 

 

I think there is another GC ride in the near future with the team coming into town for the WORS banquet.  We usually go to the banquet then ride from our house on Sunday, stop for coffee, and Big D and I will usually have a dozen close calls and maybe one take down do to our ADHD taking over.  Either way it is a blast and involves a coffee stop and around 4hrs on the bike. 

 

Other than that, just working to get the MTB bikes all cleaned up and readdy to sell.  I will have a medium Sworks Epic and a large Sworks Epic forsale to make room for the new bikes so let me know if you are interested. 

 

Now get back to work!



Slippery when wet....

So the team arrived in Shevagas to tons of rain on the ground with more in the forecast.  So instead of preriding today we decided to polish off like 4 bags of Sunchips, a bag of candy and whatever else we could find. Then the guilt set in and we ended up having to terrorize the bike routes of Sheboygan since the course was closed to preride.  Sorry B. Matter,  pretty sure we took all of the Strava segments in town!  On top of that we had a couple angry motorists yell at us,  figured they must of gotten the email that their KOM was just defeated!  Now we are back in the condo at the Blue Harbor awaiting the feast of the evening.  Can't wait!  Go Team Baked Goods!

D Ride

Lack of sun, lack of warmth, and the urge to hibernate!!  Oh yeah, and drink! Only could mean one thing, summer is over!  That really sucks cause I do not like the cold at all and actually seem to hate it more each year.  Wondering if half my problem is the amount of time I spend on my bike fighting snow that blows sideways while ticking off the miles on my Sworks Tricross outfitted with Barmitts and studded tires!  I think I am more spoiled than most, but I will be turning 38 this week and will be entering my 16th season of racing.  Was 15 enough?  I don't think so, but many before me have pulled the plug even earlier in their lives.  Well, not me.  So as the 2012 season has basically come to a close for me, minus some WORS race in Sheboygan, you will see me on the trails again in 2013. 

Now to Sheboygan, this forecast is Phillips fault!!! While at Bearpaw he brought up how nice it has been at Sheboygan the last few years!!  Lets hope it is like normal and the forecast changes 5 times before we get to the weekend cause I honestly cannot remember ever racing this race in the mud?  Either way see everyone there and I am looking forward to hanging with the entire Adventure 212 team again!  Always a fun time! 

So now back to D Ride, or destination ride!  This opportunist does not come up very often, and I do not count commuting to work!  I am talking, someone takes all your stuff and you get to ride in one direction for a few hours.  And if you are lucky, you will have a tail wind the whole way!!  This weekend I was not that lucky!  Either way it was enjoyable and I got in just under 70 miles while cruising my way from Amherst down to Castle Rock Lake.  Here's the route:

The day was made better with Michelle's mom making a chocolate birthday cake for me that I washed down with a Bells Two Hearted. 

So that was Sudnay.  For the rest of the weekend??  We were all over the place.  We started out Firday with dinner in Appleton, I worked on my Elan Upgrade, and Michelle and I did a cold Green Circle ride from our house on Saturday.  A good weekend, minus that cold part, and a little bit of sleet. 

Here is Elan Version 2.0:

Here is our Green Circle ride on Saturday:

 



Now its back to the norm of a Monday and that drinking urge is starting to come back!