Frankenbike

I had a late night last night working (or watching people work) on my cross bike. It's a true Frankenbike with donated parts from Sam, Joe, Jamie, and Tony.

Halloween eve, working in Jamies shop/garage with the rain and lightening outside, I couldn't help but think this bike is going to be something special.

I stopped by Sam's to pick up a bar, then straight to Joey's house/shop to add a wheel set, bottom bracket, derailer, cranks. And then over to Jamie's to add a casette and rear wheel, front derailer, brake parts, tires, a chain, seat clamp, spacers, etc.. Then Tony showed up with a headset and chocolate cake.

These good friends have helped me put together an almost complete cross bike. I have offifically offered this bike to anyone who wants to try a cyclo-cross race. It shall be the community bike.

I'm still searching for a front brake, shifters, and a seat post. I expect to have this machine up and running by next weekend.

Take a look at Jamie working his magic:

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Shorter Days and up 5 lbs

I haven't been getting out as much during the day so I've turned to night rides. Last night, Tony and I rode for 1.5 hours in Draper. I felt slow. Maybe because Tony was on his 20 lb SS and is in fine form. Or maybe because I'm up 5 lbs and have been eating like a pig the past couple of weeks. Either way, it was a reality check for me. Tony was interested in carrying on a conversation. I was happy to let him talk while I looked around for air. I was like a fish out of water. It's funny how quickly you can lose your fitness. It seems like it takes months to get into form but it can all go away in a week.

I'm itching to get my cross bike built up and get at least one cross race in before the season is over. I'm sure this will be a painful experience. One hour of all out racing. Call me crazy but sometimes I miss the pain of racing (you've seen "Swingers", right?..."You mean you miss the pain?").

Also, Rachelle and I have added a new member to our family of bikes. She is the proud new owner of a Giant Anthem 1. We took this out for a demo ride on Saturday. She looked so good on the bike, we had to get it. Here is a stock photo:

Fall Moab 2007

Hot off the press....

Fall Moab 2007 (In St. George)

Every year in early November, a bunch of us get together for "Fall Moab". Fall Moab is like a National Holiday. It's a big deal and it's always on the calendar. There is a core group that has been doing this for years but every year the group varies a bit. The riders range from pro racers to twinkie eaters (and I mean actual twinkies. Just ask Tom). The group is usually: Dug, Brad K., Elden, Rick M, Kenny, Bob, Tom, Rich, Chucky, Racer, Dan, Gary, Cory, Paul, and me.

It's a big deal. In fact, every year, there is a theme which includes a poster (compliments of Kenny Jones at Kenny's One Hour Photo).


These posters make their way on to the windows of every car in the caravan and can usually be seen in Racer's shop and eventually on some restaurant windows in Moab. Here is a sample of Fall Moab 05:

(click on it to enlarge)

This year, Fall Moab is being held in St. George (but will still be called Fall Moab). The original plan was to stay in Brad K.'s yurt right on Gooseberry Mesa. Brad purchased the last piece of land for sale on Gooseberry and is in the process of putting in several yurts which he plans to rent out. Seriously, check out his site: http://www.gooseberrymesa.net/

Due to some permit delay's the yurts are not ready but we still plan to camp on Brad's property and ride Gooseberry as part of the trip.

You can bet that there will stories of spectacular crashes, riders cleaning insane moves, big drops (especially for guys on rigid single speeds), good food, and plenty of "homo" jokes.

Good times.

Transition

This time of the year is always hard for me. The weather is changing and is unpredictable. It's usually too wet, dark and cold to bike but too early to ski. I tend to get very grumpy and despressed. October usually means early mornings spent in a spin class listening to crappy music.

In years past, I've looked forward to backcountry skiing and have used that as good cross training.

but something is different this year. I'm still in bike mode and am not yet ready to hang up the bikes for the season.

I've been trying to plan out my winter training schedule. Something that can keep me in good form during the winter. Jamie and Brad have both used a software package from trainingpeaks.com that can outline a winter training schedule based on the amount of time you have to train and your race goals. Maybe I'll try that.

Fuita, CO

Road Trip:
Thursday afternoon Tony, Jamie and I left town to go down to Fruita, CO for a long weekend of mountain biking. We would meet up with the rest of the group, Steve, Adam, Sam, Trent, Brad P., Ryan, Keith, Jon, and Jeff later that night.
We were so excited about the trip that we forgot to watch the gas gage in Jamie's 4 Runner and realized about 40 miles out of Fruita that the gas light was on and had probably been on for a while. Not knowing if there were any towns with a gas station before Fruita, we tried to keep our minds off the situation by playing "name that tune" on Tony's ipod. It turns out, Jamie pretty much knows every song ever produced. (For future reference, Loma, CO has one gas station which is like 50 miles off the highway and doesn't stay open past 9pm. )


After 4.5 hours on the road and one tank of gas, we rolled into town (literally). We stayed in Grand Junction and were fortunate enough to have a hotel w/ a gas station right in the parking lot. This would be important for the pre-ride diet coke runs since the Holiday Inn is a Pepsi joint. I like the fact that several of the guys are addicted to diet coke as much as I am. Brad, a pro-mtb racer, drinks the sweet nectar too. It doesn't seem to slow Brad down. So it's official for me....I have no plans to stop drinking it.



One morning I stopped into the gas station to buy a few Salted Nut Rolls and a Pay Day bar (these are great for riding cuz they don't melt and taste good even when 5 years old. Just ask Brad). The heavy set lady behind the counter who must have been like 60 years old, began to tell me about the advantages of the protein bar version of Pay Day and all the specs about how many grams of protein, total calories etc...I knew were in for a good weekend. Even the gas station lady seemed like she got out on the bike every now and then.

The Group:





Day 1:

We kicked it off with a ride on Mary's Loop and several of the surrounding loops. With the Alpha male established and the rest of the pecking order in line, we were off. Some of the terrain was technical and the trails were full of big rocks and drops. I'm pretty sure I shaved at least a few grams off my rims and pedals from hitting so many rocks. I was amazed that we only had 1 flat the entire ride. Steve managed to blow his rear tire (tubeless) off the rim which sounded like a shot gun. My ears are still ringing. Maybe it's time to tell Steve he can run 35 PSI instead of 50. Ironic that the one guy in the group who refuses to ride w/ a spare tube or CO2 cartridge, would be the only guy who flated the entire trip. It's a good thing Steve is such a nice guy.



The best pizza in the world (or at least in Fruita) is at the Hot Tomato. They sell pizza by the slice and it's damn good. So good, in fact, we ate there both days for lunch.


After lunch, we visited the local shop - Over the Edge Sports, and fixed Steve's tire. Fruita seems slow to accept the tubeless-Stans movement and gave us a little push back about getting the shop floor dirty. The guys at the shop gave us directions to the next trail head and we set out for a short ride before dark. Fruita is big on fractions. The street signs often read "17 1/2 road" or "18 3/4 road". It gave me a headache doing the math to try and find 18th street.



About 30 min into the ride, we met up with 2 locals, Andy and Noah. They were total opposites. Andy was on a rigid SS, with a Mary bar, and BMX pedals. He had tattoos everywhere, wore cut off church pants, a full button down shirt, and vans high-top skate shoes. Noah, was on a 36 lb downhill bike with a backpack. An odd couple but they showed us the goods. We followed them down Zippity which was fast single track with some exposed sections and a roller coaster type ending which consited of a tight left hand turn which dropped down a steep, loose, rutted section. It only lasted a few seconds but it was a cool sensation full of adrenaline. The ride was so good that we forgot to stop for pictures.


After the ride, the two locals offered to take us out to Rabbit Valley the next morning. It would end up costing us $50 in beer as payment but well worth it.





Day 2:
We met Andy and Noah at 10am in town and followed them out to Rabbit Valley. This ride had it all, some rock moves, sand, fast single track, and a section of whoop dee doos that had endo potential. Sam managed to do an uphill endo and sheed first blood of the trip. I'm amazed at how well Sam has picked up mountain biking. Coming from a road bike and a soccer background, he obviously has the legs and lungs for mountain biking but the technical skills usually take years of riding to develop. Sam is a natural. We rode for a couple of hours and showed the locals how to clean a few technical moves. Jamie pulled off the move of the trip when he cleared a steep rock section that the locals didn't even bother to try (The same move that caused Keith to brake this thumb). And he did it on a single speed. (Does that mean Jamie gets to name that move?).




Me, Steve, Jamie, Tony (Noah and Jon in the background)



After lunch again at the Hot Tomato, we broke up into groups. Some called it a day and caught a flick in town, Me, Tony, Trent, Jon and Jeff, went back out to Zippity to ride it in the day light. While Jamie, Brad and Ryan took off to ride "The Edge". With a storm threatening, we weren't sure we would see Jamie, Brad and Ryan again and immediatley decided who would get Jamie's bike when he died. The Edge is a 3-7 hour ride (3 is the fastest time according to the guide book) w/ some exposed areas, a downclimb down a waterfall, and several washes that, according to the locals, have caused people to ditch their bikes and hike out during storms. I knew the pace was going to be ridiculous trying to keep up with those 3 on the Edge ride. It was after 3pm, a storm was rolling in and Brad and Jamie seemed motivated to sneak this ride in before they lost their window of opportunity. I was sure we were going to need to send Search & Rescue out to find them.


I was happy to end the day on Zippity. It is like nothing we have here in Utah and I wanted to ride it one more time (at a slower pace). I grabbed my ipod and settled into a nice pace and just enjoyed the ride.




Jon, Trent, Me

Later that night, as the group went to eat, we got the call from Jamie that they had made it back to the car. At first I was glad I wasn't with them, but something about the epic journey made me a little bummed I missed it. Stories of hurricane head winds, hail, big exposure, amazing views, something about an extra climb, two broken chains, and a race up a long jeep road climb. It sounded like a suffer fest but with some great rewards.



I have a feeling the core group will make it back to Fruita soon.

My Better Half

Top 5 Reasons Why I Like This Pic:

1) She's hot and she's my wife.

2) Check out the bike, it's a retro hardtail with minimal travel in the front fork. That's just cool.

3) You probably can't tell but it's raining. I like that Rachelle will ride in the rain.

4) I like the fact that Rachelle can pull off the "Fat Cyclist" socks. Not many girls would wear something that says "Fat Cyclist". I like it.

5) She has that post ride look. The look that makes all the stress and problems go away. Even if it's just for a few minutes.

The Morning After

For the past several weeks, we've settled into a habit of a Thursday night ride followed by breakfast at the Village Inn. It's become a part of my routine. Something I look forward to as much as the weekend.



Last night the group was small (Jamie, Tony, Brad K., and me). We rode up Clarks, down Ghost Falls, caught a new section of trail over to the jeep road, back up and down Ghost again and then finished it off with pancakes, eggs, and hashbrowns.



It's been years since Brad has done a night ride so it was fun to have him along. He will be racing the 24 hours of Moab http://www.grannygear.com/Races/Moab/index.shtml this weekend as part of a 4 person single speed / rigid team and probably wanted to get a quick night ride in to fine tune his skills before the big race. I'm just glad he kept the pace slow and didn't encourage Jamie to go all out. The pace was fast but good.



The morning after is always a bit rough. My recovery plan usually includes a couple of Diet Cokes. However yesterday, the Red Bull girls visited the Omniture offices and handed out samples of Red Bull. I should be flying high by 10am after I polish these off....

Pre-Ride Meal

Yesterday I didn't think I was going to get out for a ride. I forgot my shorts and I had meetings scheduled at work until 5pm. In order to ride, I would have to drive home (35 min commute)to get shorts and negotiate the hall pass for a ride. By that time, It would probably be too dark to ride.

To my surprise, at 5:10pm my wife calls and tells me that Seth was with a friend until 8pm ish, and Tatum was at a b-day party that got over around 6:45pm. She asked if I wanted to get a ride in before I came home and that she would home about 7:00pm ish (Rachelle rules!!)

I immediatley left work, got home at 5:45, changed, and was ready to roll by 5:46. I had no idea what time it would get dark but the sun seemed to have at least another hour of light. I was starving and hadn't eaten anything for dinnner yet. I opened the pantry door and grabbed a handful or Oreos

As I dropped down Clarks, I began to think about my eating habits. Asking myself the question. "If I ate better foods and cut out the junk and Diet Coke, would I be a faster rider?" I mean here I was having Oreo's for dinner. Not to mention that my favorite pre-ride meal is a 44oz Diet Coke and a sleeve of donuts from the gas station. This can't be good.

Maybe I should try to eat a little better and see if I could improve my riding. But on the other hand, it sure is nice to be able to eat whatever I want and not worry too much about gaining weight.

Almost Everything

During the week, I usually leave all my cycling gear in the back of my truck. Too many times, I've received that email at 3pm on a Tuesday from the core group proposing a time and route for a ride only to realize I didn't have my bike or gear with me.

It's just nice to know that if the opportunity for a ride comes up, I am prepared to leave work at the drop of a hat and meet up with the group.

Sometimes I'll get multiple emails during the day. Yesterday, for example, I had the option to ride on the road with Elden, singlespeed with Dug and Dan, or Night ride with Tony and the DNA group.

Since the singlespeed ride was my idea, I of course elected for that option. I met Dug and Dan at 4:45 in Draper and rode up from the Draper pool to the tunnel, up the tunnel to the flight park trail head, stayed left up the new section of trail that comes within a mile of Suncrest, back down, out to the flight park, and back to the car. It was only about an hour ride (I needed to be at Tatum's soccer game by 6:15), but sometimes an hour is all that is needed to take my mind off the stress and pressures of work.

This morning as I pulled into work, I realized that I had my bike, shoes, helmet, gloves, pump, gear bag, jersey, but NO SHORTS!!!

Have you ever been tempted to drop $60 on a pair of shorts from the local shop (Racer's Cycle Service) just so you could get a ride in?

Coming Soon

I bought this on ebay over the weekend. It's a 2003 (never before used) Redline Team Scandium frame w/ aluminum fork. I'm going to build it up as a 1X9 with some used parts and try and get a few cross races in this season.

Rachelle is being a good sport about it since I really didn't mean to purchase this and gave her absolutley no warning that I had placed a bid. I need to get on the ball and find her a sweet (or as my brother-in-law says "cherry") mountain bike.

If you have any used cyclocross parts, please send my way.

Another Diet Coke Please

I got home at 2am last night after a night ride at Mueller Park in Bountiful. with 4.5 hours of sleep last night, I'm feeling it. I've already polished off two diet cokes and it's only 10am.

I've never ridden Mueller before and am kicking myself for finding out about it this late in the season. I'm actually a little bit annoyed that my "friends" have never showed me this gem of a ride until now.


The group: Jamie, Tony, Joe, Sam, Justin, Jon L., Keith, and I.





We met at Mueller at about 9:45 and rode the 14 mile out and back of pure single track. The whole ride was in the woods with tight single track (did I mention that it was all single track yet?). It was one of the best rides of the year for me. At times, it was so tight, that I had to move my hands in an inch or so on my bar to avoid the branches.

Jamie started out at race pace and for the first 20 min, many of us were redlined. It turns out, Jamie was trying to duplicate the odd heart rate scenario he experienced earlier this week. The doctors have him hooked up to a HR monitor for the next 2 weeks (I guess he needs to leave this on 24 hours a day) and have told him to ride and see if his HR spikes unusually high again. Lucky for us, we were all trying to keep his wheel and ride at that pace while he was doing this test.

So when Joe mananged to break his chain about half way up the climb, I was happy to stop and wait for him while he fixed it. )Note: I always like to have Joe or Jamie along on a ride. They are both killer mechanics and usually can fix anything.)


Joe fixing his chain:






The entire climb, I kept thinking about how fun the downhill was going to be. I followed Jon L.'s wheel for the first half and had a huge smile. I didn't want to lose his wheel since he has ridden this trail a lot and knew what was coming. This was my first time down Mueller. It was in the dark and we were flying. I thought Jon was going to crash hard on one of the many bridges but he manged to ride it out.

The Post Ride Chill:







The "Heartland Scramble" (This is what I ordered...Mmmmm)

Two eggs scrambled with chopped bacon, country-fried potatoes, green peppers and onions, and topped with Cheddar cheese. Served with two strips of bacon, two sausage links, hash browns and three fluffy buttermilk pancakes.

This time we met at Denny's for some food. Did you know EVERY breakfast plate at Denny's either comes with sausage and bacon or bacon and ham? It's out of control how much food they give you for $6.

The storm is rolling in so probably no rides this weekend. This night ride should hold me over until Monday.

The Itch For Something New

I've been thinking a lot lately about adding to my bike collection (Rachelle, turn away now...)

The problem is this. It's too hard to know what to get.

1) I have friends who are pulling the trigger on single speed road bikes

2) My brother just built up a very cool fixie

3) It's cyclosross season and that looks really fun

4) I've always wanted to do it right and get a custom single speed mountain bike

It seems a little crazy to have so many bikes but it's not like I don't ride them. Adding a cross bike to the mix would allow me to do some races late in the year and maintain my fitness.

I like Elden's (Fatty's) advice on how to get approval from the wife to get a new bike. Check it out here: http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/humour-how-to-justify-your-next-bike-12570

While You Slept....

Soccer Dads:

Last night, I met my "smoking hot wife" and kids at Tatum's soccer game at 6pm. I expected it to be rained out but to my surprise we stayed dry the entire game. It was cold but dry. So dry, in fact, that I began to think a nite ride would be possible. The nice thing about Tatum's soccer team is there are at least 6 hard core riders with daughters on the team. Jamie, Tony, Joe, Sam, Seth, and Matt. Those of us who didn't get a ride in earlier that day began to toss around the idea of a nite ride. We decided on 9:15 at the equestrian center in Draper if it stayed dry.

Here I am waiting in my car for Jamie and Tony to show up.... I tried something new this time. I wore a cycling cap under my helmet to get things nice and tight. It worked great. The head lamp stayed put with no shifting during the downhill.

The Ride:

At 9:25 ish, we met and took off. Jamie, Tony, and I.

We rode up Clarks, down Ghost Falls and stayed left on the new section of trail that took us over to the BST/Jeep road. We climed the Jeep road to the top of Ghost Falls, down Ghost Falls back to the car. The trails were in great shape. No mud but still tacky from the rain earlier that day. We got rained on a little bit as we got to the top of Ghost Falls the 2nd time but not enough to get muddy. By the time we got to the car, it was cold and raining harder.

Jamie managed to get his heart rate up to 224 on the 2nd climb. I was ready to dial 911. Not sure what was going on with Jamie but he was clearly not having a normal night. As soon as Tony and I sensed Jamie was not feeling good (something he ate, didn't eat, or a side effect of a new sports drink he tried), we decided to try and drop him so we could each claim for once in our lives, we were able to beat Jamie on a climb (the guy is sick fast).

(Jamies HR Chart)

It was a great ride. I always feel like I'm getting away with something on a nite ride. Everyone is sleeping, the trails are emplty. No rush to get back.

Thursday night seems like a good day for the next nite ride.....Anyone?

Why I hate shopping....

Enough said.....

P.S. $5 to the first person who can guess which store this is.