Diary of a Biker

Playing catch-up

2010-07-23T11:59:00.003-06:00

I've been playing catch-up the past couple of weeks trying to get miles in on the legs before LOTOJA. I had enough of my Garmin Edge 305 shutting off because of a known defect that Garmin won't fix because it's out of warranty so I got a 500 and it seems to be a much better device then the 305.

Since July 1st I've managed to get in 475 miles on the legs and after Wednesday's ride up Butterfield I feel like I'm finally turning the corner on my fitness. I'm hoping to put a few more miles on the legs next week with the Tour de Park City next weekend.

Big rides included Strawberry-Wolfcreek and Coalville-Kamas-East Canyon.

Still hoping to get out on some dirt and hit Bench Creek before fall.

2009 Giant TCR Advanced 2

2010-05-07T10:27:00.001-06:00

Most of the product reviews I’ve seen are after using a product for a short period of time. Motor Trend does follow-up reviews on some cars after a year in use why not do the same for bike gear? I decided to share my thoughts on my Giant TCR Advanced 2 after riding it for one.

This is a bike I purchased a year ago. I was not given this bike and receive no sponsorship from Giant. I’ve put close to 1000 miles on this bike including the 210 mile LOTOJA race. I have done two upgrades on this bike a Richey Carbon bar and Shimano RS-80 wheels.

This bike has seen rain, hail, sand and plenty of sun in the year I’ve had it. I didn’t like the seat that came with the bike but most people find a saddle they like and stick with it anyway and changed it. I also had an opportunity to swap the Race Face aluminum bar with a Richey Carbon so I did that as well. Using the geometry of my old aluminum touring style bike I ordered a medium frame and should have gone down to a small. I’m 5’9” with a 30” inseam and the reach across the top tube is almost too far for me. But that’s my fault not Giants.

The ride on this bike is like a dream. One of my first rides on this bike was up Wolf Creek Pass and it definitely is a climber. The bottom bracket feels stiff when out of the saddle and when seated the geometry of the frame makes leaning forward comfortable. On the flats this bike feels smooth and takes small bumps easily. On the descents this bike really shines. It feels very smooth when descending down mountain passes through the curves it holds it lines. At one point I was surprised to look at the computer and see 50 mph as it didn’t feel like I was going that fast. The Mavic wheels however seems to be the biggest disappointment. As happy as I was with the carbon frame some of the benefit seems to be negated by the Aksium’s inability to absorb road vibration.

Overall I’m extremely happy with this bike. If I could buy another road bike right now I would probably give serious thought to the Giant TCR line as it seems to be the best value for the dollar.

Pros: Great entry level race bike, stiff enough on the climbs but not so stiff that you feel every pebble on the road. Bike is light on the climbs and holds the lines on downhill.

Cons: After riding a non-racing frame didn’t like the extra stretch on top-tube. Seat included with the bike wasn’t my style. The Mavic wheels are a little heavy and almost too stiff.

Summary: I really have enjoyed this bike. The seat and wheels aren’t my favorite but for the price, $4200 msrp, I feel like you get your money’s worth out of this bike.

First Race of the Year

2010-05-01T13:46:00.003-06:00

Today was the new Hell of North, or Antelope Island road race. For the second year in a row the weather was a factor. I did better then last year though staying with the pack for the ride out to the end of the causeway and back and 3.5 laps. I finally got dropped on one of the climbs on the backside. I though I could make up ground on the downhill but misjudged the speed of the group as an attack was taking place.

I then spend the next 25 miles doing a TT out to the ranch and back. I was actually happy with my performance with this part of the race as I was able to keep a consistent pace and was able to actually pass one person in my group at the base of the final climb. My time from the turnaround was actually faster coming back then going out by 90 seconds. Not sure where I finished, I think top 15 as there were only a dozen or so in the main pack after lap 2.

Here is my Garmin data.

I already paid to race so why not race.

2009-09-14T08:22:00.000-06:00

I wasn’t planning on racing LOTOJA, I had already canceled rooms, my longest ride in the past month was two hours, but I decided to do something I’ve never really done at a race. Just ride for the fun of riding.

I think my laid back attitude was a little too laid back. It started off by missing the start of the race. I got to the start only watch what I didn’t know at the time was my group round the corner. I wasn’t too worried knowing the propensity of the cat 5’s to race hard from the go and catch a lot of the other groups ahead of them, and the official told me to go ahead and head out solo anyway. I took a pretty easy pace down the road and could see a group just ahead of me. I had no idea what group it was but decided I needed to catch them before they made the turn north and the neutral roll-out ended. I caught them right after the turn and to my surprise I found my start group. I quickly found the Trop brothers and we started the long race together.

Right after Preston Don and I found ourselves separated from Dennis and slowed down as we waited for Dennis to catch up to us. We soon found ourselves pretty much alone as we started toward the climb up Strawberry, once we reached Strawberry I decided to push myself and see how I felt. I told Don I would wait for them at the feed zone and pushed up toward the feedzone.

Don came through not long after me and we waited a few minutes for Dennis. As we started toward the final climb of the canyon we noticed a group of relay riders coming through. Don and I both knew this was our chance to catch a ride and have a strong group of riders help push through the wind. We jumped on and enjoyed the ride into Montpellier, it was all I could do to hang on. I did come through for a pull but that lasted about 10 seconds before one of the relay riders decided I was going to slow and came around. I was pretty spent coming into Montpellier and wanted to quit. Kim and Sara convinced me to keep riding with Don and we started toward Geneva Summit. My legs were pretty gone by this point and before hitting the real climb I had already dropped off the back of Don’s wheel. He looked back at me and I just waived him on. I figured I’d just take an easy pace into Afton where my day would end.

About 100 feet from the summit my legs started to feel good. I got my second wind and pushed things a little harder. I found Kim and Sara parked off the side of the road just before the feedzone and told them I was done. They again convinced me to push on as the feedzone was just ahead. I did, and stopped at the feedzone for a while and Dennis caught me. We worked together leaving the feedzone and I told Dennis I would wait for him at the top. My legs felt good climbing Salt River and I waited a few minutes for Dennis at the top. Unfortunately, Dennis was pretty spent and didn’t stay with me on the decent. Just before Afton a group of riders came through with Dennis at the back and I latched on.

Again at Afton I tried to quit but everyone convinced me to just ride to Alpine with Dennis. But on the first climb out of Afton the group we had caught dropped Dennis and that was the last time I saw him. I got into Alpine and at this point who wants to quit? The hard part is over and I continued on and caught Jared just before the feed zone at Hoback.

Jared and I decided to ride together and at this point my left calf was cramping and I knew I had pulled something in my right leg. I did what I could to trade pulls with Jared and he was kind enough to do most of the work.

After the bike path a group of about 15 riders caught us I went with them. I did feel bad about leaving Jared but wasn’t sure how the wind would affect the ride toward the village turn off. Soon after the village turn off the pace of the group picked up, attacks went off and were countered and since there was no one in my group I decided just to float off the back and enjoy the ride in. Not long after that Jared caught me and we continued riding to the finish. At the 500 meter mark I spotted two guys taking it easy into the finish. With all apologies to Jared, it seemed that this was too much for the competitor in me. I geared up and took off for the finish making sure I had enough speed that neither of the two riders could catch on as I rode past and finished hard just under 12 hours. I couldn’t believe I just rode 206 miles with pretty much no training.

The season that wasn't...

2009-09-10T08:39:00.002-06:00

Hard to believe I only did one race so far this year. The chaos that has become my life this summer has presented some new challenges and turned my focus to other things. What is really sad is my mountain bike only saw dirt twice this year so far.

I did decide that despite everything I'm going to attempt LOTOJA anyway with the goal of just getting to Afton and seeing how I feel. I've got a great support crew from my former neighbor and good friend Big D and his wife, who told me if I pull him all the way to Jackson his wife and sister-in-law would hand me feeds, to the Bull Elk and his family who offered a place to stay Friday night. After this weekend I can turn my focus to just riding for fun again and hopefully doing a few cross races this year and building a good base for next season. I am sad though that once again I'll be riding a mountain bike for cross instead of a real cross bike but there is always next year....

No racing for you!

2009-07-13T08:19:00.002-06:00

I haven't blogged in almost two months! Sorry I just haven't been doing a whole lot of riding. No racing as well. Did get out Saturday with the Bull Elk. We decided to do the Kamas - Big Mountain loop counter-clockwise with the climbing at the end. I thought it was easier actually. We did run into the Echo Triathalon on our way out.

Did manage to get a good 92 mile ride in.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/8615113

Maybe Strawberry - Wolf Creek this weekend?

Sun Valley

2009-05-29T11:12:00.008-06:00

Since it rained all weekend in Fruita the Bull Elk and I decided to go to Sun Valley. We found a great campsite right on the single track.

Saturday we got out for a 2.5 hour ride

Got some rain Saturday night but then Sunday we found the demo tent, Chad decided to demo a 30 lbs free-ride monster.

Sunday night we camped along the Salmon river

Mirror Lake

2009-05-12T15:36:00.003-06:00

Mirror lake is still pretty snowed in.

This is as far as we got.

View Larger Map

No rest for the wicked?

2009-05-05T07:40:00.002-06:00

Monday was supposed to be an easy day but I decided that I wanted to see how well I'm recovering by doing a hard ride. So I planned on meeting Big D and Little D for a spin when Fist-o-Fury invited me out for a ride. We decided to head out see what Butterfield had in store for us. It was a tough climb up and even after Big and Little D turned around we continued up through the middle section and I was baked. I thought I was in for an easy ride home but someone decided that race pace is in order and I did everything I could just to hang on all the way down to West Jordan where we split off and I slowly made my way home.

Here is the elevation profile from the ride.

Forgive me Bob for I have sinned...

2009-05-04T09:34:00.002-06:00

Yes I committed a sin according to Stupidbike. I chose a road race over a mountain bike race. I can "rationalize" this sin by the following.

1) I'm not in shape yet for a mountain bike race.
2) I thought the road race would be easier to use a training ride than the mountain bike race.

So how did it go? As far as excuse #1 it's apparent I'm not in shape for sitting a pack in a road race either..

Anyone that raced either mountain or road on Saturday was hardcore as far as I'm concerned. The weather made conditions miserable for the race. I carpooled with Big D which I feel bad about it since he didn't really want to race I could tell. I did manage to get a 10 minute warm-up on the causeway before the start and the wheel spray told me I didn't want to sit in a pack. At the start I managed to move up the left side near the front of the pack. The benefit of this was the wind was pushing the spray from the other bikes away from me, the bad news is I wasn't getting any benefit from riding in the group. As we turned off the causeway and started the laps I found myself at the back of the group which isn't' a good thing. Finally at the end of lap one I got caught in some traffic and was unable to bridge back to the pack. This started what would pretty much be a 1.5 hour time trial. As I continued on laps I would catch riders here and there or riders would catch me. I was never able to find anyone in my category to really work with.

As I approached the turnaround at the ranch. I could feel my legs getting really heavy. I knew my legs didn't have anything left but I was determined to keep moving. Then JE caught me and we did the turn around together. I thought I would sit on his wheel for a bit and try and recover. The wind that was previously a head wind on the way out now changed to a crosswind giving little benefit to drafting. I did try to come around to give JE a pull but it was all I could do just to hang on. Finally, after a couple of miles I gave up and let him go. I did manage to keep him in sight until the last climb at which point my tired legs were gone and I did everything I could just to get to the finish.

Not a good race for me, but it served it's purpose.

Summary Data
Total Time (h:m:s)	1:55:02	3:05 pace
Moving Time (h:m:s)	1:54:57	3:05 pace
Distance (mi )	37.15
Moving Speed (mph)	19.4 avg.	37.6 max.
Elevation Gain (ft)	+651 / -549

Avg. Heart Rate	178 bpm	Zone 5.3

Temperature (°F)	48.4°F avg.	50°F high
Wind Speed ( mph)	SSW 10.4 avg.	SSW 13.8 max.

Intervals

2009-04-28T11:03:00.004-06:00

I'm finally getting on the bike I hope consistently. After burning out last year I wanted to delay my training start to make sure I could peak in September and be ready for cross season this year. Yesterday I rode with Big D again and did some intervals.

I didn't know I had triplets

2009-04-17T08:29:00.003-06:00

How dumb can you be? You get busted once do your time and make a comeback and dope again?

http://beta.velonews.com/article/90740/tyler-hamilton-expected-to-announce-retirement-this-morning

American national road champion Tyler Hamilton is the subject of a new doping investigation, one which could possibly result in his life-time banishment from the sport.

Because 25 is one more than 24

2009-03-19T16:47:00.003-06:00

Looks like another endurance race is coming to Utah. This time it's a 25 hour race near Sand Hollow. Sounds a lot like Spinal Tap goes to 11 because 25 is one more than 24.

Lunch is good

2009-03-19T14:27:00.003-06:00

Not food, but riding. Met Mark for a lunch ride up Dry Creek and down City Creek. On the way up Dry Creek Mr. G rode up behind us on his lunch ride in his scrubs and rode with us to the top of Dry Creek.

Bart peeled off to go back to work and we finished our ride down City Creek and back to work. What a great way to spend lunch.

15 minute rule

2009-03-18T09:14:00.004-06:00

I'm not sure where I read it, I think it was Turbo that said if you are supposed to train but really don't feel like it ride for 15 minutes if you feel better keep going, if not it's your body saying you need to recover. I started riding last night and didn't feel the love in my legs. I decided to give the rule a try. Sure enough after about 13 minutes I started to feel better. My legs were a little heavy but I felt much better and decided to continue on. As I rounded U-111 I found myself at the mouth of Butterfield. I started up and got to the gate. No snow! There was something in the back of my mind that said you don't want to ride up Butterfield this early. I couldn't remember why so I started up. I made it just past the meadow and snapped this picture.

Then I started down the decent and it hit my why I didn't ride up Butterfield this early. My back tire was flat! Every time I rode up Butterfield before the cars had cleaned off the road I got a flat. I quickly change the tube and continued down. Then about a mile from the bottom I knew I was in trouble as the back tire was flat again. I was out of tubes but luckily my phone worked and I used my phone-a-spouse lifeline to meet me at the gate.

By the way, Colton and Josh are still in love according to the graffiti on the road..

Ski and Ride

2009-03-17T06:50:00.002-06:00

Not much as gone on as far as riding. I really haven't been motivated to ride. I finally got out over the weekend. Friday night went out and rode from Kamas up the mirror lake highway for 10 miles and then turned around as we were loosing light.

Saturday morning was skiing at DV with Capt. Casey and The Bull Elk. After a morning of skiing we decided to ride up Wolf Creek to the gate and back for a 30 mile ride.

No Pain no Gain...

2009-02-21T16:07:00.002-07:00

75 miles today. Add that to the 36 from yesterday and I'm sure I'll be feeling it tomorrow. Rode down to the Lindon boat ramp then out to American Fork and back. The tailwind home was nice.

Commute Day one...

2009-02-20T10:12:00.003-07:00

Rode into work today. Only bad part was between 41st south and 31st south. No shoulder on 27th so I rode past the West Valley offices to 3200 west and the shoulder didn't come back until 31st.

Summary Data
Total Time (h:m:s)	1:10:17	3:51 pace
Moving Time (h:m:s)	0:58:47	3:13 pace
Distance (mi )	18.18
Moving Speed (mph)	18.6 avg.	30.9 max.
Elevation Gain (ft)	+431 / -749

Spent over 11 minutes waiting for lights.

Time Data	Total	% of Total
Total Time	1:10:17	100.0
Moving Time	0:58:47	83.6
Ascent	0:04:48	6.8
Descent	0:07:46	11.1
Flat	0:46:13	65.8
Stopped Time	0:11:30	16.4
# of MB Stops	9	-

Commute

2009-02-19T09:25:00.002-07:00

I'm thinking of commuting to work. I'm trying to figure out the best route north on the west side of the valley. 27th west? Jordan River Parkway? Any suggestions? My office is on 3rd west downtown so east-side routes are out..

Get out the Vote

2009-02-12T07:47:00.001-07:00

Vote for Utah's own Jenn Hanks for entry in the Breck Epic in July. This is a 6 day stage race in Breckenridge Colorado.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=_2fSyN8trcRItHWo9YXQBfjg_3d_3d

Mike, Pay your Bill

2009-02-11T08:42:00.003-07:00

Mike E is a good guy and a friend so when I find out things like this,

it's fun to harass him. Not sure what the story is behind it but I'm sure there is a logical explanation.

Put your Team Together...

2009-02-10T14:46:00.000-07:00

From Velonews...

24 Hour Nats for Moab

USA Cycling will hold the 2009 24-Hour Mountain Bike National Championship at the 24-Hours of Moab in Moab, Utah on Oct. 10-11, 2009.

The 2010 24-Hour nationals will then be held in conjunction with the 24-Hours of Big Bear in Hazelton, W.Va., June 12-13, 2010.

Originally slated to be held in Arizona, the USA Cycling 24-Hour Mountain Bike National Championships were re-scheduled due to schedule and location conflicts. The event will now be run through Granny Gear Productions for the next two years.

The national championship competition in Moab will be open to American riders only. The 24-Hours of Moab event however will offer more than 20 divisions open to various age groups, skill, levels and team sizes.

The 24-Hours of Moab, run for 14 years, draws more than 4,000 racers, support members and spectators.

Southbound

2009-02-09T08:55:00.003-07:00

Got out this weekend for one ride. A 30 mile tour of the southwest part of the valley. The weather was good until the storm front started to move through. Decided to check out the mouth of Butterfield canyon and this is as far as I went.

Freestyle World Cup

2009-02-03T08:31:00.003-07:00

It was World Cup weekend. Since Saturday's events were in the evening I was able to get out and ride for 45 minutes before I had to drive up to Park City. I also managed to get out for 90 minutes on Sunday.
Arial Hill -

Mogul Course -

Inverted off jump 6 -

VIP entrance and Mogul course-

Concrete

2009-01-26T09:57:00.002-07:00

Saturday I got out for a 3 mile run. Wanted to ride but the wind and rain told me it would be miserable so I chickened out and ran.

Sunday. Fresh Sierra Powder, nice and heavy. Met up with Denny for a few runs until my quads gave out.

Riding just feels good

2009-01-17T16:18:00.003-07:00

After spending so much time not riding the bike outside it felt really good to get out and ride. I did a couple of laps through Daybreak before heading out to Copperton then back. It must be flat day because It sounds like a few people got flats including me. I managed to get in 25 miles while keeping things at a very easy pace which explains why it took 80 minutes.

Carpet

2009-01-14T08:44:00.002-07:00

I finally broke down and went to a spin class. As I was getting ready I realized I don't have a heart rate monitor anymore. All I have is my Garmin Edge which really doesn't work well in a spin class. I guess I'll have to look for a cheap monitor to use in classes but I'm really not sure I need one. I was pretty much able to tell what zone I was in during the whole class (I tried to stay in zone 1 and 2 since I'm building a base). Even when I race I rarely look at my heart rate and really the only information I care about in a race from the Edge is was I faster or slower then last year? And in the case of endurance races how much time did I stop?

Powder to Pavement

2009-01-11T18:56:00.002-07:00

Wow I was looking at the calendar and the St. George ICUP is only 8 weeks away. I'm still working on my base so rather then spend more time in the basement on the rollers I got out and ran. Got two good runs in about 30 minutes each.

Powder

2009-01-07T12:44:00.003-07:00

I finally got out the new skis and hit the slopes. I had World Cup orientation at DV yesterday so I took the day off and hit the slopes. I have a lot of work to get my fitness level back to where it should be based on yesterday.

WWE

2008-12-19T08:35:00.003-07:00

I guess there was some heckling, damaged bikes, and some shoving after the National Cyclocross Championships. I think this could be the shot in the arm that cycling needs. Do you think Vince McMahon could run USA cycling? Cycling already has plenty of conflict and drama.

The World Fighting Cycling Federation presents the rumble in spandex.
Competitors complete one lap around the track then 5 minutes in the ring.

The Fight Card

1 - "The Zion Shouting Match" who could forget the shouting match at the Tour of Utah between Marty Jemison and Prentice Steffen.

2- "Doping Free for all in the Octogon" - Forget getting his life back on track. Floyd Landis takes on all of WADA. Since he's probably also using steroids, and everything else imaginable according to the Onion? Floyd should have no problem taking on 4 or 5 people at the same time in this no-holds bared last man standing wins free-for-all.

3 - "The Main Event" - What else? Lance versus Greg . After the heated discussion at Lance's press conference. Greg Lemond makes another attempt and extending his 15 minutes of fame. Unfortunately Lance is too busy trying to cure cancer to show up and just sends Johan Bruyneel to break some kneecaps.

Really though, do we need to see cycling turn into every other American sport where heckling athletes is the norm? It's not like Jonathan Page is making bank pursuing a career in cycling. So why hassle the guy?

Can we get this in Utah?

2008-12-12T11:44:00.001-07:00

It would be cool to see this event in Utah. Soldier Hollow would be a good venue for this.

While many of the nation's top racers are at the cyclocross national championships in Kansas City this week, USA Cycling announced the dates and locations of 17 national championships events for next year.

The organization, however, did not announce a location for the next cyclocross nationals, which are tentatively scheduled for Dec. 11-14 next year.

New Road

2008-12-12T09:31:00.004-07:00

Over the weekend got out for what may be the good ride of the year outdoors. Looks like there is a new road from Daybreak to 118th south that meets the old road just before the new high school.

Not WHO but WOW

2008-12-10T09:57:00.002-07:00

Since it's the offseason I'm looking at other ways to keep my blog going. I guess I shouldn't be shocked cancer to be world's top killer by 2010, WHO says. It really is true that pretty much everyone knows someone that has had cancer. Obviously Lance Armstrong is the poster boy in the cycling community in the fight against cancer and locally The Fat Cyclist is doing what he can as his wife is in her own fight.

This doesn't make sense

2008-12-08T15:24:00.002-07:00

So the geniuses that brought us a new mountain bike categorization system, that you would think match the current Cat 1-5 road system but doesn't, and can't get enough sponsors and racers to run a national series, now tells us that mountain bike licenses are up? I wonder if they will be saying the same thing after all national races have been canceled unless you live on the East or West coasts.

I wonder if this is the same marketing arm that tells us everyone loves Vista as long it's not called Vista.

Can we get Chauner to run USA cycling?

Stats

2008-12-03T08:35:00.002-07:00

I decided even though the year isn't over I'd check out my stats for the year.

I spent 184 hours 54 minutes and 26 seconds on the bike this year.

I traveled 2,821.99 miles and gained 231,558 feet of elevation.

I think I may try and get a couple of more rides in this year and see if I can hit 3,000 miles.

What Snow?

2008-11-19T11:54:00.004-07:00

Sunday went to K-town to see how far up Wolf Creek the road is ridable. It's ridable all the way up. Met Pepe, DV boy, and Fist-o-Fury and wore short sleeves and shorts all the way up. There were a couple of slush patches we had to cross and the ride down required arm warmers and a vest.

Rolling across Bench Creek Road -

Snow in the trees at Mill Hollow -

Veteran's Day

2008-11-11T14:38:00.002-07:00

I went to the Jr. High this morning to catch the Veteran's Day assembly that my daughter was participating in. I'm glad to see the school putting some time and effort into recognizing the true heroes of our country. To all the vets out there I just want to say thank you.

After the assembly I got out for a 40 minute run. I'm lagging on my running. It's been difficult to find daylight to run, I'm thinking of using the headlamp... Maybe I just need a goal to focus on. Maybe a 10K or half-marathon in January or February?

Ironman

2008-11-05T09:22:00.002-07:00

I started lifting last night. I think this offseason I'm going to work on strength training to see if that can help me increase my watts and give me that little push to move from mid-pack to lead pack.

And then to make sure the legs were really screaming I did a 12 minute run on the treadmill after lifting.

2 Fer

2008-11-04T16:00:00.004-07:00

Saturday got up to meet Mark
at Yellowfork for a mountain bike ride. Did a pretty hard climb and enjoyed the tacky downhill. Then cleaned the mountain bike, and went for a 2 hour road ride to Lehi with Big D and his brother.

Random stuff

2008-10-23T08:43:00.003-06:00

Deal of the day. Need a new road tire? Hey it's 15% off... but more then I'd spend for a pair of tires.

Funniest attempt to make a mid-major conference school sound like a big program. - Don't get me wrong, I'm a Ute fan.

Black Out TCU VS. UTAH

Be Early, Stay late, Cheer loud, Wear black!

Get ready for the pounding of TCU. As you know it is the BLACKOUT game. Wear black (clothes or paint) but don't be afraid to throw a little red in there too. This is one of the most pivotal games Utah has ever played and its in Rice Eccles Stadium. Its time for the country to see the true MUSS. You don't have to be a member, if your a student you are a part of the MUSS whether you get the free t-shirt or not. Be the loudest you have ever been. Some ideas for being loud:
1. bring a bag of beans or beads to drop in an empty coke can and shake it really hard.
2. Go out and buy a little horn that you can hide in your pocket and sneak in.
3. Kazzoo (those annoying toys kids play with).
4. Shake your keys.
5. Air horns.

Do anything to get into the TCU football players heads. Make signs. MOST IMPORTANTLY... STAY STANDING!!!!!!!!!!!! (unless physically unable to).

As some you may know if you curse and scream too loud a lady named LYNDA may come tell you you're being offensive. She can only threaten you but if everyone else is cursing she has no grounds. If you're mormon its ok to go crazy and be loud, GOD forgives everyone and everything at Utah football games! The only way to earn a ticket strait to hell is by sitting down at a Utah game. ; )

PS: if you have any more ideas for being loud and scary POST THEM!

Snow

2008-10-20T07:21:00.004-06:00

I got some time on the bike finally. After a solid week of installing baseboards I was ready for some time away.

Did the climb up Spiro etc. to Guardsman then Pioneer down to John's with Ty and Chad.

Hit a couple of patches of snow

but the trail was really good and snow was pretty much frozen and really only on the roads so it wasn't that bad. I am though pretty much out of shape. After 1 hour I was ready to quit but I hung on and finished the ride.

Sun!

2008-10-05T17:26:00.004-06:00

The storm moved out and I took advantage of the break in the weather to get out and ride. I decided to try Butterfield canyon. After having a dozen or so cars pass me in the first mile on the narrow road, I decided to turn around and just head home.

Just for fun

2008-10-03T09:43:00.002-06:00

I try to avoid posting without something interesting to say or some pictures to share, but it's been a while since I posted so I'm breaking that rule.

Last night I finally got a ride in. Just did a quick fun little spin for 50 minutes. It's nice to just sit back and enjoy the scenery without having to worry about training for a race. My fitness has pretty much disappeared over the past month so I think racing is out until next year. I may try and hit a couple of cross races but only if I feel like I can race at high level for me.

Looks like the weather is going to be iffy for weekend riding. It would be nice to hit the mountain trails this weekend but with the rain it may not be possible.

Lion's and Tigers Oh My

2008-09-24T13:17:00.005-06:00

The circus is in town. No I'm not talking about the pro tour. And the parade wound it's way past the office.

Busy as a Bee

2008-09-24T09:48:00.005-06:00

I made it back from Vegas okay. Spent all of Saturday catching up on home stuff that didn't get done during the week like mowing the lawn, and caught my daughter's double-header softball.

Sunday I managed to get up to PC for a mountain bike ride. The Bull Elk, Bobby Boucher,

and I were supposed to meet Kentucky Bob and a few other people at the top of Guardsman to ride the Crest-Midmountain loop. We got a late start including a stop to fix The Water Boy's breaks at the shop so we decided to ride the new Gaurdsman connector and then wing it on the way back down. Found some interesting stuff.

This week has had something going on each night this week so no riding again this week. I'm hoping I can sneak in a ride tomorrow night before parent teacher conferences.

I haven't lost it all

2008-09-17T18:42:00.002-06:00

I put a dollar in the nickel slots. Why don't they take nickel's anymore? I got down to the last spin and got 1 credit. Problem is you have to have 5 credits to spin again, so I cashed out.

Sin City

2008-09-17T08:47:00.004-06:00

Yep I'm in Vegas this week attending a SharePoint boot camp. For you non-geeks SharePoint is Microsoft's web-based collaboration system. Since my company is rolling out internally and externally I thought it would be a good idea to formally learn how to design, plan and administor the system.

I'm not a big fan of Vegas, my 401k seems like a big enough gamble right now so I'm not a big player. I'm staying at the Hilton I have a great view of the golf course and the convention center.

I guess it's better then construction across the street. Last night I decided to go for a walk and went to the Mirage. It was about 4 miles round trip. I got lucky and just as I reached the Venetian it started to rain so I hung out there for a few minutes before walking over to the Mirage and then back to the Hilton.

Question: Why do quarter slots only take bills not quarters?

View Larger Map

NMBS - RIP

2008-09-16T08:51:00.001-06:00

Everyone seems to be talking about the call to action about bringing back the old NMBS. This won't happen for a couple of reasons.

The economy. Are these guys serious about trying to attract new sponsors during a recession? (If you don't think we are in a recession check the rate of return on your 401K) Ask anyone that works in advertising, revenues are down. I guess since China's economy seems to still be growing they could try and get some Chinese sponsors.
It's insane. Einstein defined crazy as "Doing the same thing over and over again, and hope to get different results". Why would anyone take a failed business model repeat it and expect to succeed?
Too much too soon. I call this the Tour of Utah syndrome. You come up with a great idea get some good backing and realize after trying it once that it's too much too soon. Fortunately, the Tour of Utah got wise and decided to scale back and created a better event for it. UCI status would be great for the pro-riders but it's trying to create too much too soon. If you can't get sponsors to keep the series going why try and include prize money.

What should happen….

Use existing big events to get UCI points. Sea Otter comes to mind. This is the biggest cycling event in the U.S. This event pulls in hundreds of riders each year. This event could easily be a UCI level event each year. Find two or three other big regional events like this and promote them as the PRO-Tour events. The Sea Otter should be able to attract enough sponsorship to get some good prize money.
Push regional events - Colorado has a great series, Utah has a great series although it's not UCA Cycling sanctioned, Idaho is building a good series I've heard other people suggest taking some of the better regional events and make them part of a national calendar offer double points at certain events to increase participation.
Help don't hinder the local promoter. Why would someone like Ed want to move his events to UCA status? Now riders have to either pay $5 for a one day license (I think dropping the T-shirt and dropping the price of the race by $5 would cover that) or buy a $60 annual license. The cost of an official is another problem, and what benefit does the promoter get besides being covered by insurance that they probably already have?
Regional Championships. This year and last the National Championships were on the east coast. So the majority of west coast riders didn't participate. Why not have a regional championship for the coast that isn't hosting the championship. If I was an expert level rider going for points in a national championship series it would be nice to be able to use those points towards a regional championship in years where I couldn't travel to the east coast.
Look at what works and what doesn't. I understand the reason for short track, it's a great spectator sport but does it work? Have you seen the turnout at an expert –level short track event? It's not that popular. Bring back the marathon series. Have you seen the turnout to endurance events? 50 -100 -12 hour – 24 hour events are growing like crazy because racers feel like that is where they get their money's worth. The future of XC style racing is endurance not short events. Worry about getting more riders out to races, then worry about getting spectators. Send out a survey to current license holders and find out what kind of races they participate in, would they go to a regional championship race. Do some market research find out what your membership wants.

I may be wrong, but as someone who enjoys mountain biking and wants to see the sport become successful, I feel like my voice is one who has seen the good and the bad of the national series.

LOTOJA Part 3

2008-09-11T07:25:00.003-06:00

Part 3 of LOTOJA: Wings...

I left the Alpine feed zone in a hurry trying to catch the tandem group that just left. I caught them after a few minutes and did my best to hang on. My legs were gone though. I could power through the flats and the descents but on the short hills I was dropping down to 13-14 mph. I finally let go and thoughts of quitting entered my mind. I kept thinking if my wife drove by I would just flag her down and quit since I wasn't even close to my time goal and I didn't know how long I could ride with no legs. Group after group rode by and I talked to a few riders and received a lot of encouragement.

Finally I made it to the Hoback feed zone and stopped. I fueled up on some Swedish fish and then while talking to Atomicmiles who recognized me from my blog, I did what I thought was the unthinkable. I had a Red Bull. Soon after this I took off and started the final leg of the sufferfest. I did find a group to ride with as I came up to the intersection at Hoback. A few miles out of Hoback I decided that this group of relay riders weren't very experienced at group riding and after nearly hitting a couple of pot-holes I decided to float off the back for my own safety. About this time a group of about 15 riders came by including one in my group. I decided I was going to hang on to this group or die trying.

As we made the turn off the highway I could feel my legs coming back and even managed to take a pull. The pace was pretty mellow through the subdivision and I made sure I could always keep the guy in my category in sight. We hit the bike path and one guy didn't make the climb to the tunnel causing a brief pile-up. When we hit the road I started to make my way up the pack to look for the guy in my group. We made the turn to Teton Village and I noticed he and another guy had gone out on a break. I moved the front of the pack and pushed up the pace. I took a quick 30 second pull hoping someone would help me bridge the gap but no one wanted to so the pace started to slow down. At the 5k mark a group of 4 riders went off the front and this time I was able to bridge back up taking a few guys with me . Again another attack that was quickly caught. At this point I decided to stay in the middle of the pack and watch for the sprint to happen. Sure enough, at the turn-off for the parking lot I heard the guy in front of me shifting up. I did my best to jump on his wheel as we sprinting out but was unable to close the gap on him. I looked back about 50 feet from the finish to see no one on my wheel. I was done! 10:57 after starting I had finally made it!

Good things:
* Can't say enough good things about carborocket I didn't have any stomach issues at all. Also Elete water kept me well hydrated, too well hydrated. Also this meant no cramping!
* Food choices were good this year. Lots of bananas helped this year.
* I was able to hang with the main field all the way to the canyon.
* Knocked 15 minutes off my time to Montpelier.
* Didn't bonk at all, maintained energy the entire race.

Bad things:
* Spent way too much energy in Strawberry canyon.
* Tapered off too early before the race.
* Needed to get at least one more long ride in of at least 150 miles
* Started to fade at the 7 hour mark

LOTOJA Part 2

2008-09-10T07:30:00.002-06:00

Part Two: Taken it easy...

After missing my feed in Montpelier and having to stop for 3 minutes to grab neutral I left with Denny toward Geneva Summit. As we rolled out Denny told me he was done that he was cramping and it was all over. I took the hint and dropped him to catch some riders. As I rolled toward the climb I was surprised how much easier it was this year without having to navigate the construction. The summit didn't seem like much of a challenge and I managed to grab on the back of three relay riders. I sat on the back of the group just trying to make sure I saved enough energy for the climb up Salt Creek. I did take two short pulls to try and not be a complete wheel sucker. I did forget how long the road is from the turn onto 89 until the Salt Creek feed which shouldn't have been an issue other then my bladder now being full. We finally rounded the corner and I could see the feedzone. Just to show I wasn't a complete jerk I rode up past the three riders that just pulled me 25 miles and thanked them for letting me sit on their wheels. I then stopped at the feedzone to fuel up. I don't know why, but at this point I found myself talking to one of the volunteers. After a few minutes I realized what I was doing and left. 6 minutes had gone by at this stop! What was I thinking! Finally after a cat 5 group came racing by and dropped a few guys I started up the climb.

Just after the feedzone my wife passed by and then stopped at a pull-out asked if I was okay. I said I was fine (really I was ticked about missing the feed but what can you do?) and just kept riding.

At this point I'm starting to worry, I found myself just spinning up the climb with no ability to push the watts. My quads were just on fire and didn't have any climb in them. I stood up a couple of times to recover but it didn't seem to help. At this point I really started to worry since I was barely at the half way mark and had lost my legs. It took my 24 minutes to make the climb at a snail's pace of 9.9 mph average. Not good. Finally I started the DH, but as soon as I turned north I was greeted by a swirling wind. I managed to find a guy to work with for a while but was unable to take good pulls and he dropped me. Finally a tandem came by and along with 5 other people I jumped on the back and rode it into Afton.

I came into Afton with a full bladder again. How was this possible? Last year dehydration was sapping my legs and now I'm taking too much fluid? I stopped instead of grabbing and going and asked the crew why they missed me. I guess they got caught in construction and missed me by 15 minutes. I swapped bottles, ate a banana, grabbed more clif chews and half a peanut butter sandwich and left Afton since I didn't want to miss the tandem.

Right after leaving I realized I forgot to hit the port-a-potty. I figured I'd just wait another hour until Alpine and would be fine. For the next hour it was all I could think about. I should have just gone into a convenience store and gone but I didn't want to stop. After about 45 minutes of riding alone I was seriously just going to pull off and run behind a barn when two tandems pulling about 30 riders came by. Wow, I wasn't going to miss this! I jumped on the back and between picking more riders up and everyone taking a pull I only had to take one pull in the 15 miles I rode in the group. It was heaven until about 5 miles out of Alpine when my legs just couldn't take the speed we were climbing.

I finally decided I'd had enough and dropped off the back. I rode the last 5 miles into Alpine alone and broken. At Alpine I went straight to the port-a-potty. I took the last couple of sport legs I had, more chews, swapped out the bottles and left in a hurry as one of the tandems was pulling out that had dropped me.

I was finally starting the last leg of the race.

LOTOJA Part 1

2008-09-09T07:02:00.002-06:00

I decided to split up my LOTOJA tale this year.

Part one: Running with the Devil. (Should we get into the whole Roth vs Hagar debate?)

Pre-Race:

This year I decided to take the whole family so the girls could at least hopefully get a sense of why I ride my bike so much during the summer. Being teens there was a lot of complaining and whining about going but I made them go anyway. Because of this I was one of those poor people standing in line at 7:30 with 100+ of my fellow riders. I finally made it back to the hotel around 8:45 just in time to get the bike ready and go to bed.

One thing I did different in my pre-race prep was I made sure that every other bottle of water I drank contained Elete to keep my sodium levels up.

Wake-up rolled around at 5:00 a.m. I had made a couple of pancakes on Friday to reheat in the microwave in the hotel room Saturday morning saving the trip to Mcd's for some overpriced non-wheat pancakes. Unfortunately, no microwave in the room so I ate them cold along with some gut bombing Accelerade and a banana.

Chad and Denny rolled by the room at 6:15 and we headed out for the start of the race. It was much colder this year then last. I had brought some warmer gloves thinking they might be useful at the start but left in the room since I didn't think I would need them.

We started at 6:30 and silence of 56 riders half-asleep while riding in semi-darkness was creepy. The pace as we turned off the main road didn't quicken at all and seemed to be a little slower then years pass. That didn't bother me as much as the cold. Arm warmers and a vest were no match for the bitter cold of a fall Cache Valley morning. I did all I could to think of warm thoughts as we waited for the sun to rise in the east. Then just before we hit Preston the 45's caught us and the mayhem began.

I rolled through the Preston feed zone knowing that very few people were going to stop. I made an effort to stay close to the front and as another wave of riders caught us, including Fist-o-Fury who was doing a relay leg, and as the group swelled I made sure I kept Denny in sight. I was feeling pretty good about the ride so far and as we hit the climb into Strawberry it was comforting to know that I was with the main group even though I knew I was about to be dropped. First Denny went off the front and left Chad and I to fend for ourselves. It wasn't long after that I could feel my heart rate starting to climb and I knew I shouldn't sustain the pace I was maintaining. I tried to talk Chad into stopping for a pee break but he didn't want to stop so I wished him good luck and went down a gear to pull the heart rate down.

The climb up Strawberry almost seemed easier to me then years past and I passed rider after rider. Finally on the last climb after the feedzone I spotted a Cole Sport jersey. I was excited I thought I must have caught the bull elk after a pit stop. I pushed the pace to catch Denny at the summit. I must admit I was a little disappointed but not surprised it wasn't Chad. After a quick pit stop myself I started the dh and worked with a few guys to catch Denny and some other riders including Brian Jeppson and we started a pace line hoping to make some ground up on the main field. After a few miles of this Denny said he was starting to cramp and suffer and dropped off. I finally dropped off the pack just before Montpelier to save energy for Geneva Summit.

As I hit the feedzone I watched for Sheryl. I saw Denny's wife Julie and asked her where Sheryl was, she didn't know. Great I thought, no sandwich for me. I decided just to grab a banana, clif bar and refill my bottles at the neutral feed and about that time Denny came by and we started off toward Geneva summit.

At this point I was pretty excited, I was right on schedule for a 10 hour finish hitting the 80 mile mark 4 hours after the start. Little did I know how much I would pay for this hard effort.

LOTOJA Summary

2008-09-08T08:19:00.002-06:00

Finished. Not happy about my time. 10:57:45. 40/56 in category. Went out a little too hard on the first climb. Net riding time was 10:36:21. More to follow...

Hiking

2008-09-02T12:32:00.003-06:00

Got out Saturday morning for a quick ride before heading down to the eastern Utah to visit the in-laws. Did some hiking with the family at Joe's Valley.

Colton who?

2008-08-28T20:18:00.008-06:00

Tonight was the Butterfield road race, or that's what it seemed like. Met up with Tanline, The Red Rider, The Hampster, and First Timer for a ride to the top of Butterfield. We started up the road

and laughed at the graffiti on the road. Colton loves Josh, Colton has a woman's body part, by the time we got to the real climb it was just fun trying to guess how Colton was going to be slandered next.

I was determined to do something I've never done and that was ride the middle section in the saddle. It hurt and there were times I was doing 34 rpms but I made it in my 39X26.

Todd had since left Mark and I as we started up the top section, Kris and Jared were somewhere behind. I finally got to the top 49 minutes after turning off the highway. 6.81 miles and 2300 feet of climbing.

At the top "no those aren't arm warmers"
Todd and I waiting for Kris who rolled up a few minutes later.

After a quick break we decided to roll back down and pick Jared up on the way down. We never saw him as he had turned back in the ride of shame. Actually, we told him this was going to be his first attempt. It seems most people over estimate the canyon and end up failing their first attempt at "summiting" the canyon. Todd was worried about getting home before dark so it was a mad sprint down to Riverton where I pealed off and went home.

The Streak ends

2008-08-28T11:27:00.003-06:00

Two days in a row. I managed to take the bus Tuesday and Wednesday this week. Monday I was supposed to ride in PC so I drove in and I would have taken the bus today but I've been invited to ride Butterfield tonight with Kris and Mark and lack the needed time to ride the bus home and get out to ride We are meeting at 5:00 at the corner of 12600 South and 3600 west if anyone else wants to suffer. I'm hoping I can spin up the 18% grade instead of having to stand and suffer. Forget the Saltair TT JE and join us.

10 day forecast looks interesting, yesterday the forecast was sunny and 70's while today -

Afton, WY

Sat, September 6

Showers

High /low 66° /37°

Precip 60%

Final Countdown

2008-08-26T08:04:00.002-06:00

Skipped the Cole Sport ride last night. I got reports that the "Not in the Corner Canyon" fire pushed smoked into PC creating poor visibility and probably air quality. The last thing I need is to be sick two weeks before the biggest race of the year.

The plan for tonight is an easy 1 - 1.5 hour spin to stretch the legs and keep the fitness up with tomorrow a longer more intense ride perhaps up Butterfield to keep the legs strong.

LOTOJA is the primary focus, I got the final email yesterday with my number and pack start list, some interesting names. Looks like Brian Jeppson - the Bull Elk's old mountain biking nemesis is doing LOTOJA. Red Burro from Vegas as always is sending a large group including the 2nd place finisher from TofPC. It also looks like the guys from AZ we met at TofPC are also riding with us.

I've been asked about my goals for LOTOJA so I thought I'd share them.

1. Keep hydrated and don't bonk between Geneva and Salt Creek. I plan on grabbing and drinking an extra bottle before leaving Montpilier.

2. No pit stops before Strawberry Canyon.
This is how I got dropped last year although if I see 10 or more guys in the pack stopped I think I may reconsider. I'm not talented enough to ride and go like the pros

3. Close in on the 10 hour mark.
This is weather dependant. I think if I can meet goal #1 I can keep a 20 mph average and finish close or with a sub 10 time ( Last year I average 19.5 MPH and had riding time of 10:27 so every little bit helps). If the wind is out of the north or bad weather the goal will then change to just finishing! Also, part of this is going to be getting the total stop time below 10 minutes.

Not quite what I planned

2008-08-25T08:07:00.003-06:00

Saturday I decided to head up to K-town to get one last big ride in before LOTOJA with the Bull Elk. We decided to do a couple of loops around the Kamas area in case the Bull Elk's knee started bothering him again. Our first loop was to the top of Wolf Creek and back.

Yea right bad knee, he dropped me before we even reached the snowmobile parking. He said he was really digging the new Addict he just got which isn't the lightest bike at 17 lbs wheels and all but he was climbing on it like he stole it. On our way out we noticed a bunch of bike race signs and stopped and talk to a UHP officer to find out what was going on. I guess there was a triathlon and the turn around for the bike portion was just before camp hollow. As we started back to K-town we ran into a bunch of triathletes and had a good time weaving in and out of them on our way back to Kamas.

Leg two was supposed to be up Brown's and around Jordanelle. As we started out on Democrat Alley we ran into a group of DV employees on a ride. We talked them into riding with us up Brown's since it would be easier for them to get back to PC that way instead of the climb around Jordanelle. That turned into a race to see how long before the Bull Elk could toss everyone off the back. I'll admin I didn't make it too long on the first climb before I got tossed but I managed to keep a small gap of about 100 feet before we hit the first flat and waited for the next group.

We started up the last climb and when it was my turn to pull I made an effort to keep the same speed that we were riding, well I should of know that we were climbing and should have slowed the pace but it was too late and I managed to drop everyone but the Bull Elk and Accounting Dan. After being told I tossed everyone else, I was spent and moved over to let those two go by. I was determined not to let Dan get the best of me. As we started up the final climb I could see he was spent and pushed hard to catch and get around him just before we reached the top. My legs were pretty tired at this point and I was out of time so we headed back to K-town.

4:10:05 ride time
70.86 miles
17 mph average
52 mph max - Wolf Creek decent, had to dodge some sheep though...
5,265 feet of elevation gain

I was hoping to get double the miles in, but the climbing seem to make up for it.

Ying and Yang

2008-08-20T09:40:00.002-06:00

Today marked my first commute with public transportation. It was nice to just chill on the express bus watching the iPod. It only took 15 minutes more then driving and with my company subsidizing the cost it will save me a lot of money in gas. Too bad that gas money is already spent.

We went car shopping last night and my wife got her dream car.

I wonder if this will help me get my "dream" vehicle maybe this..

More Leadville pics

2008-08-12T09:13:00.007-06:00

I got some Leadville pics from Fist-O-Fury and Brenda.
First feed zone -

I get hungry too! -

What are the odds that Ron would have a derailleur hanger in his toolbox for some guy that broke his. -

Twin Lakes feedzone -

The finish -

And of course the man everyone wanted to see.

Leadville Support

2008-08-11T11:06:00.004-06:00

5:45 a.m. is early when the people next door are up until 11:00 p.m. but I managed to drag myself out of bed and get the Bull Elk out the door to the start.

After the start I knew I had some time to get to the first feed zone so I promptly checked out of the hotel room and went to breakfast. I finally made it to the 1st support feedzone and got my last picture of the day.

I knew the distance to the next feed zone was short but I didn't realize that I would get beat to the feed zone by the Bull Elk. I had to park at the bottom of the parking lot and walk up a hill about half a mile carrying a cooler so I missed the feed going up to Columbine. Coming back I was able to hit the feed and then made it back to feed zone 1/4 for the final feed with only 5 minutes to spare.

Looking at the terrain and the elevation I'm glad I didn't get in the lottery for Leadville this year. I wouldn't have been ready.

Leadville Day 1

2008-08-08T15:41:00.005-06:00

Made it to Leadville today. Saw some great scenery.

Some people from Utah including Ellen G, Linde, Brad, and spotted Racer at the grocery store. Too bad we have to stay in this small room.

The Bull Elk models his bibs, and is that a bro he's sporting?

SoCal

2008-08-07T07:00:00.005-06:00

Back in the office for a few hours today. It's been a crazy week. Spent Sunday recovering from ToPC and getting some housework done. Monday was the Cole Sport ride. Flew out Tuesday morning to San Diego to then drive to Temecula where we just opened a new office and needed to set up internet and phone. Spent Tuesday and Wednesday looking at stuff like this all day.

Glamorous isn't it. Got 90% of what I needed to get done before I had to drive back to the airport Wednesday night and catch my flight. Here is downtown San Diego.

Since this is kind of a geek post, I couldn't resist posting this picture of an error every Windows user has probably seen. Micro$oft runs everything.

Taking off for Leadville this afternoon. Doing support for the Bull Elk. I'll watch and cheer for the Holley's, Brad, Elden, Racer and everyone else I know to come through the feedzones.

Tour De Not Organized

2008-08-04T07:56:00.003-06:00

First off, I think the idea of the Tour De Park City is great. It's a ride that throws everything at you, narrow roads, dirt roads that make you appreciate your bike handling skills, relentless climbs and of course the lovely headwind.

I arrived a little before 6:00 a.m. and was able to park next to the start / finish. I got dressed and hit the restroom a couple of times. Then about 10 minutes before the start noticed someone wearing a timing chip. Timing chip? No mention of that anywhere in the race packet. Fortunately I found the timing chip line and got mine about 15 minutes before the start.

Start time were all messed up. They combined the 1-3's sent them off then sent off the 4/5's which some of the masters went off with since the guy running the PA didn't have a clue what was going on. Finally we went off. There were only 15 or so 35's and the pace stayed pretty mellow as we left Park City. A couple of guys tried to go off the front just before Browns but they were soon caught on the climb. As we went down Brown's the 45's caught up with us so we had a good pack as we road into the first feed zone.

I made the mistake of actually stopping at the feed since they were only handing up bottled water, not water bottles. I grabbed a banana as well and started to race in an attempt to jump back on the pack. As we turned onto the actual Chalk Creek road I was able to get back on the pack and rested for a few minutes as things started to get organized better. The paceline began and soon found I was expending much more energy then I wanted. Finally at one of the last climbs before the dirt I had enough and dropped off the back. I rode with a 45+ guy until we hit the dirt. His skill on the bike wasn't up to par and I soon dropped him. I then began a TT all the way into the Evanston.

To my surprised Denny was still at the feedzone and he waited for me to fill a couple of bottles, grab some food and we started the long ride to the Bear River Lodge. Denny did most of the pulling and we managed to build up a group of 7 or 8 people. After about 30 minutes I decided that Denny was rolling a little too fast for me and I needed to save something for the big climb and fell off the back.

I rolled into the feed zone with a few people complaining about the extra 5 miles. Once again Denny was there waiting for me, unfortunately they were out of water so I had stand around for 10 minutes waiting for water. No one knew if they had any hammergel but I managed to find a box of it stashed. Finally after what seemed like an eternity I started the long climb up toward the highline trail pass. It was interesting as I was motoring along I could tell most people didn't know just how long the climb was. I was just motoring along about 8 mph and people kept passing me then stopping. Finally just before the top of the climb Kent Carlson who was doing the fun ride caught me and I decided to jump on his wheel. He pulled me and a friend of his down toward the mirror lake climb and as we started up bald mountain the climb wasn't as bad as I expected. I still had plenty in the tank and climbed to the bald mountain feed zone with my legs feeling pretty good. Unfortunately this was the worse stocked station. No energy drink mix or gue. Makes me wish I had dropped a feed there. Just as Kent was leaving I noticed a tandem was leaving as well. Having ridden with some tandems at LOTOJA I knew I was in for a ride. I just sat on the back of the tandem with a few other people and we just let them pull us all the way down the hill to Kamas picking up people as we went.

As I climbed out of the Kamas a few people in our group decided to push up the first climb out of Kamas hard. I knew this was a mistake as the harder climb was from Jordanelle to Brown's. I let them go and managed to catch all of them on the second climb. Fortunately all the wind riding was about to pay off with a nice tailwind all the way into PC. But, I didn't stop at the last feedzone and was now out of water. The last mile heading to the finish was the worst. I had absolutely nothing in the tank. My body was so dehydrated and I was shaking so bad it took some real concentration to shift from my little ring to big ring. Finally 10:14:47 after I started I rolled in. My riding time was 9:48:27 so I was pretty happy with that.

Hopefully the organizer will keep to his cap of riders for next year and avoid the feedzone problems of this year.

Takin it Easy..

2008-07-31T08:46:00.004-06:00

Decided I need more saddle time before Saturday's sufferfest. It was hot last night which made it much easier to keep it mellow.

I'm also digging the SRAM 12-26. It jumps from 23 - 26 but I've never felt like I could use anything in between. I'm actually thinking about getting an 11-26 for my spare wheel to see what improvement that will make on the top end. I'm hoping Saturday to stay out of the 26 until the climb from Mirror lake to the top.

I haven't decided what my time goal is. I'm more focused on 1- not cramping usually from dehydration, and 2- keeping the feed stops short.

My Tour

2008-07-29T11:55:00.002-06:00

I decided to enter the Tour De Park City. Although Bob would rather have this happen

then do such a long race, I'm actually finding the challenges and rewards of endurance racing becoming more and more enjoyable.

Looks like the mountain bike racing season is over for me. Can't hit any of the Solitude races, which I enjoyed this year. I decided to do support for the Bull Elk as he attempts to finish Leadville this year so no Wolverine Ridge.

I am looking forward to just getting out and hitting some trails this fall. I'd like to do some night riding but need to get a light set. Any suggestions? I've been looking at the Light and Motion Arc, as it seems to be the best light I've tested and seen.

Oh Snap!

2008-07-21T13:03:00.001-06:00

Saturday I was able to justify to myself not racing at Snowbird by doing the Strawberry-Wolf Creek loop with the Duke and Bull Elk. We were supposed to roll out at 7:00 a.m. to beat the heat but Denny didn't show up until 7:30. We stopped at the Heber crib for a bathroom break and then start up Daniels toward the lodge. I was feeling pretty good up the climb but noticed my chain was jumping in my middle gears. While stopped at the lodge I fixed the shifting issue or so I though. We rolled across Strawberry and as we are climbing up to Fruitland I hear a snap and suddenly find myself pushing pedals with no resistance.

Great! I'm at the half way point of the 125 mile ride and just snapped a chain. First, we start making phone calls, who is home who isn't? Luckily Crash McGee is home and she said could pick me up. At this point, I start thinking about quitting and just going home and hanging up the bike. I manage to get the chain pinned back together and I decided that it would take an hour for anyone to get to me so I might as well just ride to Hanna. At this point depression starts setting it. I start thinking about how miserable I am riding in the heat wondering what else is going to break. As we roll into Hanna I start to feel better. Thanks to a headwind the Bull Elk is rolling a really easy pace and this allows me to just relax and enjoy the ride on his wheel. After Hanna I figure I've gone this far why not finish and if I snap my chain someone will drive by and haul me up to the top of Wolf Creek. As we start up Wolf Creek I found myself staying on the Bull Elk's wheel. It took him 30 minutes to finally get me off this wheel and then I managed to spin up the climb within 15 minutes the Bull Elk. After a quick water refill we finish the 125 mile ride with 8,200 feet of climbing.

Messin' with Sasquatch

2008-07-15T09:25:00.002-06:00

Yea I love the commercials, it reminded me of a couple of experiences over the past couple of days of messin' with people.

Like a lot of people I find it idiotic that people will sit in their car for minutes waiting for a parking spot because they are too lazy to walk an additional 20 feet.

Saturday was a long overdue trip to Costco. As I was heading to the car I was being stalked by a car obviously looking for a parking spot. As I arrived at my car the car stopped and used what must be the sign for I'm too lazy to walk,the turn signal in a parking lot. Looking down the row about 15 feet away was an empty spot, but that must be too far to walk for this person. I proceeded to as slowly as I could unload my cart, slowly walk over to the cart corral, returned my cart making sure it was secure, slowly walked back to my car, acted like I was looking for my keys in my pocket before I opened the door to get in, got in the car, fiddled around like I was looking for something, started the car, adjusted my rear view mirror, looked at the time to figure out how much time I had wasted, about 2 minutes, and finally put the car in reverse and left. So this idiot wasted 2 minutes idling a car so they didn't have to walk 15 feet.

My next favorite pastime is, "I'm not really leaving". This one I do at work everyone once in a while. Last night was the Cole Sport Monday night ride in Park City. About 15 minutes before I leave I walk down to the car to get my clothes so I can changed at work rather then in a bathroom at the shop. As I approach my car I noticed a car stalking me. I open the door, don't get in, but look like I'm looking for something for about 60 seconds, finally get in the car so I can look on the floor of the passenger side for something, grab my bag and leave. Then this person gives me a nasty look as I lock the doors and walk back up to the office.

Bees

2008-07-14T09:07:00.002-06:00

No, I didn't get stung at race which seems to happen when I do the Kamas to Evanston race. My daughter's softball team was invited to have their team pictures taken on the field before Saturday's Bee's game.

Sunday was the first real test of the repaired road bike. I did a 90 minute spin Saturday to make sure everything was okay before I did a long ride. Chad and I decided to ride from Park City over to Hanna and back. We made it to the top of Wolf Creek and decided we were too tired to continue on. The road bike did okay other then a flat coming back over Jordanelle, the rear skewer was a little loose and discovering my 12 cog was bent (probably from the crash). I think I may run a 12-26 on the back instead of the 12-25 I usually run and see how I like having that little extra in the low gear.

A week without caring.

2008-07-11T08:17:00.003-06:00

I've done it. I don't know who is leading the Tour De Farce (France) and don't care. Like so many other people I got tired of the 3 ring circus that is European cycling. I even made a point to avoid visiting VeloNews' website until I heard about this article.

I'll focus my limited cycling watching time on events like the Tour of Utah that feature working man teams like the Utah All Stars. I'm even getting people on the office excited about watching the crit which it's only a couple of blocks from the office.

Better yet, I'll just spend the time riding.

Benchcreek

2008-07-07T16:58:00.002-06:00

Hit benchcreek yesterday with The Bull Elk, the Sherwins, Fist-o-Furry, and the WaterBoy.

Getting ready to head out -

Trail was good, tried some tradition hiking boots with cleats and they were too soft to clip out easily so I fell over a couple of times because I couldn't clip out. No snow all the way to the top.

Not sure what's up with the group stretch..

8-Ball Says Go Faster

2008-07-06T08:13:00.002-06:00

Yesterday was the Solitude state championship race. Not having a road bike has really put a damper on my training. I'm still waiting for a wheel and derailleur to arrive. I missed by pre-race day spin which I thought would be okay since I felt good Tuesday without the spin but I was wrong. At the start I did my best to stay with the group but soon found myself behind as we started up the road climb. I pushed harder and harder and just before the final climb I was able to bridge up to Greg as we hit the single track. I stayed close to him down Kruzer but I was so blown that as we started the short climb just before the little-big lap merge that I lost him. I tried to get around some people on the down hill and ended up coming into the feed zone pretty blown. A couple of guys got around me as I dabbed and had to clip out just before the feedzone including two guys in my category. I didn't want to have any of that and pushed hard to stay with them. We got stuck in some traffic (they let the 50+ riders out before us) . I was able to use the second climb as a recovery effort. On the road section on of the guys in my category went around so 3 of us drafted off him until the hill when he started to blow and I was able to get around him. The other guy managed to get around me going into the single track but he wasn't very good in the dh and I managed to get around him going down one of the straight sections. Heading into the final lap I was determined not to let these two catch me and pushed hard up Serenity. I could see the UMB guy trying to stay on my wheel so I pushed even harder. Fortunately at about this time Alex Grant caught us and the guy pulled off to let Alex pass. I saw a section just ahead to let Alex pass without me having to slow down so I told Alex that I was going to let him pass just ahead on the wide grass.

Now I knew had a 20 foot gap but I could see Contender Lew ahead. Fortunately Lew was very nice and let me pass at the top of a switchback. The UMB guy wasn't able to get around as we hit the final climb toward the road I gave it everything I had to push the gap. Finally as I crested the road there was no on behind or in front of me so I was able to push hard down the dh and finish 30 seconds ahead of the UMB Darrin who had beat me by almost the same time at Pedalfest.

Even though I lost the main group and still can't close that gap on the fast sport riders I was the lucky number 8 which was predetermined to hit the swag table and managed to get a nice Kuhl shirt.

Today, benchcreek..

Downtown

2008-07-03T16:51:00.001-06:00

There are always interesting things to see downtown...

DV NMBS

2008-06-29T19:45:00.003-06:00

The bad news.. I was DFL(happy now Mark?). The good news, there were only 2 in my category.. Sunday morning the start came early at 8:00 a.m. Since it was such a small turnout they start 19-44 all at once so figuring out who was in your category wasn't easy. The start was fast and I wasn't able to hold on to the leaders for long. I did manage to get around a few guys before the turn across the lawn. As we started up little stick I made an effort to get back on the group but a couple of guys were able to hold me off just before the top of little stick. Heading down the short twisty single track at the top of little stick the guys in front of me weren't very good in the DH and the gap started to grow with the leaders in front of me. Finally on the climb up pipeline I managed to get around one of them and had to suffer behind the other until the 12 and under split when I took the inside corner. I pushed hard through the rest of Deer Crest and approaching the village climb I could see a couple of guys just starting into the trees. I pushed hard up the village climb and then as I started up snowtop. I wasn't sure if we were doing a climb to the top of the gap trail or not so I decided to throttle back a bit but managed to pick a few guys off. The DH to Mitt's house was sweet and hadn't turned to moon dust yet. I managed to close the gap on a few riders heading back toward snowtop. As I came across the guardshack I was relieved that we weren't doing snowtop and and started pushing hard as I could see the first-place guy about 100 feet ahead of me. As I started my second lap the gap had closed to about 50 feet and then 20 feet as we started up little stick. I pushed as hard as I could trying to close the gap as I crested the top of little stick he managed to get a rider between us and then he just started railing on the downhill. This time I wasn't able to get around the rider until the climb up village and the 1st place rider was out of site. Coming into Mitt's on the second lap I managed to catch another rider on the dh but was unable to get around him on the short climb by Mitt's. As we started the DH a 16-19 sport caught us and tried to pass on in the bushes which didn't work. He was pissed, but I wasn't going to stop just to let him by, if he wanted to pass so badly he was going to have to bush wack-it. Finally the trail opened up and I decided to go. A couple of minutes later the 16-19 must have finally got around and then went around me just before the guard shack. I decided to stay on his wheel and push him. As we came around snowtop he started to slow down so I went to pass but he wasn't going to have any of that. I told him to pick up the pace or let me pass. As we hit the last u-turn there were a couple of guys about 10 feet in front of us and told the 16-19 to catch them. Well he sucked in the loose rocky dh to the pavement so they got a bigger gap on us as we hit the pavement and then he managed to hold me off at the finish. I finished with at 1:29:36 and 2 consistent laps so I'm pretty happy with that.

The first place guy didn't even show up for his medal. I think he was an expert downhiller looking for a little extra time on the bike.

Not quite as bad.

2008-06-27T08:06:00.003-06:00

My initial assessment of my bike seems a little off. I'm not sure of the functionality of the shifters, but the good news is the frame seems to be okay. The part that is bent is the rear derailleur hanger.

The rear derailleur is trashed and I'm not sure the status of the rear wheel.

Also my brand new bar tape is trashed on one side which is okay since after installing it I decided I didn't like the color.

Step one will be to take off the rear derailleur and hanger tonight and see if I can at least get a new hanger and order a new rear derailleur.

As for me, I'm not sure I'll be able to race on Sunday. I haven't been on a bike since and my road rash on the thigh/hip seems to be a problem. It isn't fun wearing pants even with a bandage because there is still some friction that irritates it. I'll try a couple of different thickness of bandage and tape to see how it does with lycra tonight or tomorrow.

Slip and Slide

2008-06-26T07:52:00.000-06:00

I wish this was about this -

Rather then about this -

I was cruising through Daybreak and was feeling good decided since there wasn't any traffic to take a corner at 22 mph and everything was fine as I start into the turn and then as I started to straighten out I must have hit layer of dirt on the road and just started sliding.

I ended up with some road rash.

The worse part is, my bike is pretty much done. Both shifters, the rear derailleur, the frame where the derailleur pulled it are all jacked along with my rear wheel which has some bent spokes.

Not quite sure what the future holds since I'm not ready to buy a new bike. The upside is I'll be doing a lot more riding on dirt this summer. The 10 hours of Park City might be fun...

Suffering but not paying to suffer

2008-06-23T10:38:00.001-06:00

Instead of doing the K to E race I decided to ride the Big Mountain loop with the Bull Elk and the Water Boy. We rode Kamas to PC to Big Mountain to Hennefer, Coalville and back. 95 miles in just under 6 hours and I was the only one that didn't cramp from the heat.

View Larger Map

More Vacation...

2008-06-20T07:35:00.000-06:00

The final four days of vacation involved going to what every community swimming pool should be. NRH2O is a city owned water park that we ended up spending two days at. Sandwiched inbetween was a day at Fist-o-Fury's old stomping grounds The Fort Worth Stock Yards,

which kind of sucked because they were getting ready for a moto cross race at the stock yards. And the Fort Worth Zoo, which was pretty nice.

Vacation Day 2

2008-06-18T20:12:00.000-06:00

Today rode up Butterfield just past the pain section until the road got to gravely to keep going.

Last Tuesday was day 2 of visiting my brother in the Dallas area. We hit the Dallas World Aquarium.

Not quite sure why there were birds at an aquarium.
The penguins were out.

After the aquarium we went to a good old southern chicken place out in the middle of nowhere

called Babes. All they serve is either fried chicken or chicken fried steak. The side dishes were really especially the homemade biscuits. It has a good atmosphere.

At least it isn't snowing...

2008-06-11T07:21:00.000-06:00

Day 1 of R&R involved going to Six Flags with my brother's family in the Dallas area. The weather has been good, a little rain in the afternoon kept the crowds away and we were able to walk on to most of the rides.

Opportunity... Wasted

2008-06-08T07:28:00.000-06:00

Pedalfest should have been my best race of the year. Everything was lining up to make it "my" race. Cold wet condition meant I wouldn't be suffering in the heat and the downhill would be fast. Saturday I arrived extra early at 7:45 to make sure I could get a long warm up in. My warm up told me I was in trouble. My legs had no zip to them but I was determined not to let the excellent conditions go to waste. As we lined up it became apparent that while the top 3 places were pretty much decided, a batlle for the 4-7 spots was brewing and I was hoping to be in the mix. As the race started I did my best to stay with the group. I pushed harder then I wanted and managed to stay close to the lead group. This early push would be my undoing as I had nothing left for little stick or the village climb. Racer after racer pushed past me and at one point I even saw Mark creeping up behind. I managed to recover on the Gap downhill and get around some riders and made a strong effort to get around some riders on the second little stick climb but if it wasn't for a flat by Utahmountainbiking Steve I would/should have ended up in 7th instead of 6th. As much as I don't want to give USA Cycling money I've considering doing the Deer Valley National to prove that I can do better on that course.

Time for some R&R and a week off the bike to let the legs rest.

Climbing

2008-06-02T13:28:00.000-06:00

After my dismal performance Saturday I was looking forward to a good ride and yesterday was it. Went to K-town to ride up the Mirror Lake Highway with The Duke, The Bull Elk, and Fists-o-Furry.

I was able to keep The Bull Elk in sight pretty much the whole way up and after the stop at Provo Falls was able to keep with him all the way to the "feed zone" where we turned around.

I can just about see Bald Mountain -

Still a lot of snow at the feed zone -

I Left Something at Home

2008-05-31T20:24:00.000-06:00

I left something at home today, my brain.

Today was the Sundance Spin. I was pretty stoked about the race after my ride last night. It took a while to warm up but after I warmed up I felt really good and was excited about riding today.

I should have paid more attention to what happened last night. (hint one that I left my brain home) My warm up consisted of ride for 2 minutes, stop and talk. Ride for 5 minutes, stop and talk. Total warm up 20 minutes, of which I think half was spent talking to friends which is great unless you are trying to focus on a race.

Since the start had been moved up the road from previous years it was a fast and furious race to the single track at which point I was just about last. I soon found myself stuck in traffic but then after getting around some guys I found myself not focused on the climbs and taking the pace way too easy. Yea my heart rate was up but I felt my excursion level was 80-85% of what it should be. The decent on the first lap was good I was able to focus and ride pretty consistent and then felt really good going into lap two.

At lap two I found myself alone into the single track climb and not focusing on anything but hey what a great view of the mountains, I wonder how long before Timp can be ascended? (hint two I left my brain at home) Oh yea I'm supposed to be racing. Luckily I spotted Utahmountainbiking Dan in front of me and was able to focus and chase him down. I got around him just before the top of the climb but then couldn't seem to ride the DH well. I heard some 40+ guys breathing down my neck at one point and decided to let them pass. Dan was with them and I made the mistake of letting him get around me (hint three). I did my best to try and keep the gap small with Dan to the bottom of the single track hoping I could catch him on the climb back to the finish. I hit the finish and he was about 50 yards in front of me. I pushed as hard as I could into the climb and managed to get about 20 feet from him when he started to pull away to finish 22 seconds ahead of me. Then as I crossed the finish I noticed I had my warm-up bottle still in the cage. (hint four I left my brain home) Not only did I ride with 30 oz of water in a Camelbak but I also hauled a 12 oz bottle around for fun as well. The only time I really felt I rode hard was the final road climb. Hopefully this is my bad race for the year.

Next week I'm arriving extra early to make sure I get a good warm up in.

Karma says don't pass me!!!

2008-05-29T07:48:00.000-06:00

I think Revolution owes me for taking two of the UtahMountainbiking guys out last night! Actually it wasn't any I did, they just cramped after trying to pass me.

Last night was the Draper race. I got to the race earlier then expect and had plenty of time to warm up which was a good thing because Thumb McGee and Gringo Pepe parked next to me so I spent some time talking to them while getting ready. After that Kanyon Kris stopped by to chat and we discussed how some people always have an excuse for not showing up when it comes time to race.

After what seemed like an eternity we finally lined up to race. I noticed a few new faces that I suspected were a few roadies looking to get a good workout. I knew the pace would be furious from the go and was just hoping to be able to stay with the main pack. As we started I found myself in the middle of the group and thought I had a good position. As we crossed the creek and headed up the single track was disappointed to find the guy two positions in front of me already laboring up the climbs. I did want I could to get around him and then a few of the really slow 30-34 guys that we had already caught and was stuck in a train all the way to the fire road with the main field out of sight.

On the fire road I settled into a good pace and soon found myself working Utahmountainbiking Greg M as we worked up the climb. We continued to work together most of the way up the climb until just before the gate when I saw Utahmountainbiking Steve B up ahead and decided to to try and get on his wheel.

I managed to drop Greg and just about get on Steve's wheel just before the single track decent when some really fast 40+ and Jr's caught me and got between us. The downhill was great the course was firm but not tacky and was in really great shape. I managed to keep Steve in sight most of the time and then I came around a corner only to find him off the side of the trail looking pretty sick. I pushed on and not too much later got stuck in a really slow train of riders. Passing was tough as I made my way to the BST part of the course and was able to get around a few people. As I came across Highland through the field that looks like you are going downhill but is actually a pretty good grade Steve managed to catch me. He stayed on my wheel as we came through the tunnel and I took the exit a little too wide and had to dab and Steve got around me. It wasn't long after that as we were taking a corner up to the rodeo grounds that Steve took a wrong entrance and had to get off his bike to get back on course. He started to cramp I guess and as I turned off for the half lap managed to put a good gap on him.

At this point I just started to ease up a little on the climbs and as I hit the merge I found myself in the middle of the pro and expert field. I did what I could to move out the way when possible and didn't have much for the short climbs. At one point as I was coming around the golf course I heard a bunch of riders coming fast behind me and moved over a little to let them go. To my surprise Greg was in the group and lucky for me he took a spill as he tried to pass me and cramped up. I didn't know this as I went by him sprawled on the ground and just went as fast as I could all the way to the finish not knowing if he was going to catch me at any minute.

Finally a race I felt pretty good about other then loosing my legs on the second lap. I think I finished 9th which normally would be a big disappointment but the field was a little top heavy this race. Next up Sundance...

I didn't Corner Very Well Canyon

2008-05-20T15:31:00.000-06:00

Got up at the crack of dawn to meet he-who-says-he's-racing at the start/finish of the Draper race at 7:00 a.m. this morning. I'm not a big fan of getting up early to ride and sure enough it took about 30 minutes of riding before my body was ready to push it.

I'd never ridden the corner canyon trails before and I was pleasantly surprised how much covered single track there was. I did take a berm a little too wide on the Clarks DH and ended up in a tree no harm done other then a little road rash on the knee. It looks like a great course and I'm excited about the race on Monday.

Sufferfest at the Hollow

2008-05-19T09:24:00.001-06:00

I've never been a big fan of the Soldier Hollow race, mostly because it's hot and dusty. Friday night He-who-doesn't-race and I met up for an easy 1 hour ride with some hard 30 second intervals thrown in. Saturday I lined up feeling pretty good about my training that week. My goal this week was to try and not get tossed off the back at the start. I managed to hold on during the first couple of climbs but has we approached the short steep climb at the north-end of the course I knew I was expending way too much energy and needed to slow down. I suffered through the long switchbacks with everyone else and managed to pass a couple of people. As I started on my second lap I noticed two guys in front of me in my category. I manged to pick the first guy off pretty easily and then the second guy and I started to yo-yo as he was a little stronger in the steeper climbs (the heat really bothered me when I pushed things hard) and I was able to catch him on the flatter sections. He did manage to get a bit of a gap on me into one of the DH sections and I was getting nervous about the long switchback single track climb up the backside. I made and effort to get up to him as we approached the single track and managed to time things perfect to get a rider between us. I pushed hard and was able to get a couple more riders between us. At this point I was suffering pretty hard on the last couple of climbs before starting the long decent. I kept the intensity up to make sure neither rider caught me and managed to hang on for a 7th place finish. I was pretty happy about having some consistent lap times as well. I think my first lap was just over 50 minutes and my second lap 51.

Sunday consisted of a ride from K-town to Mill Hollow. Still a lot of snow in the mountains so it is going to be quite a while before Bench Creek is ridable. This week is supposed to be the week I found out about LOTOJA. I'm confident I'll get in. I'm also thinking about doing the Tour de Park City as a test for LOTOJA, reasonable price and looks like good support with a feed zone every 25 miles.

Mud, Sweat, but no Tears

2008-05-12T07:37:00.000-06:00

For all you wimps that cried about the course being too muddy, you missed out. What a great course. There were a couple of sections where snow melt had created a couple of mud puddles but everything else was nice and tacky.

The hardest part was getting into the venue. It was mud bog getting in but the sun was out and the course was drying pretty well by the time the sport race started.

I took my usually starting place (off the back). The first part of the course was as Bart described it, like riding on a rubber mat or a mattress. It looked dry but was the resistance it provided made it difficult to ride fast. Even the meadow downhill required a lot of pedaling because of this.

After starting in 12th place I decided to just be patient and see how the first lap went. I figured the people that did well in this race were the ones that took things easy since the mud can cause problems with the drivetrain. Sure enough on the my second lap I started passing people and seeing a few people walking back to the start. On my third lap I almost ran over a broken chain. I passed two guys in my category at the start of the second lap and was relieved that wasn't going to finish last. Finally after 3 laps I was done and managed to end up 7th. (note - very little mud in the picture below)

Hannah Montana?

2008-05-09T10:01:00.000-06:00

Went for a morning walk around the Gateway and spotted a long line of kids from the Discovery Center to the theater.

Nope wasn't Hannah they were waiting for, it was David Archuleta. Don't these kids have school?

Looking Back....

2008-05-08T10:25:00.000-06:00

While updating the website I use to track my results. I decided to move it to php/MySql from ColdFusion. Yea, I just got out of the 90's! While updating it dawned on me that not one person in my category from my first race is still racing today as far as I know...

WOLVERINE RIDGE, August 18, 2001

BEGINNER MEN 19-29
Place Name Time Bib #
1 Shane Kershaw 1:51:23 199
2 Jason Sanford 1:59:01 121
3 Mark Lehmkuhle 2:02:09 124
4 Jason Crompton 2:02:50 141
5 Justin Cagle 2:03:08 8
6 Justin Roth 2:07:06 78
7 Troy Davis 2:33:00 120
8 Hugh Brown 2:33:25 153
9 Warren Worsley 2:34:27 146
10 Shawn Frye DNF 186
11 Aaron Larsen DNF 23

I even found a picture of the Bull Elk and I after the race.

5 mile toss

2008-05-05T16:36:00.001-06:00

Like a lot of people I stayed up too late watching the Jazz game. This resulted in a really bad race the following day.

Utrider and I carpooled to the race.

During the warm-up I knew things were going to be bad because my legs didn't want to turn the pedals and I couldn't get my heart-rate up. Sure enough as soon as Ed said go I proceeded to get thrown off the back of the pack like old shorts. I decided to just try and get into a grove and not worry about the race.

After about 5 or 10 minutes I finally managed to catch Mark and then started catching other people. My legs didn't have much for the climbs but I managed to spin up all of them.

Here are a couple of pics courtesy of Grizzly Adam

Finally, after the hike-a-bike on lap two I started to feel better but it was too late to make much of a move and I had to settle for 9th.

Next week it looks like the Cache Valley Mudfest is on. I'm also thinking about hitting the Wednesday night race at Soldier Hollow.

What the Pronk?

2008-05-01T17:02:00.000-06:00

Congress Debates Merits Of New Catchphrase

Less Moondust on the Moon

2008-04-28T07:33:00.000-06:00

Saturday I decided to get some dirt time and ride 5-mile pass. I thought by waiting until late afternoon I could avoid most of the ATV traffic but it was still pretty heavy at 3:00. I wasn't sure what kind of condition the trail was in besides dusty but after doing a quick warm up run to the start-finish area I decided that will the inches of sandy dust I should run low tire pressure for some extra traction. This proved to be a problem since the benefit of having more surface area was counteracted by not enough pressure to keep my sidewall from getting pierced by a rock on the really loose decent through the dry creek bed. I was able to keep sealing the tire with my Big-Air until about 1 mile from the finish at which point I decided to walk rather then take the time to throw my spare tube in.

Sunday I decide that I didn't want to start this week's race with the bad taste of course defeat and threw on a new rear tire to pre-ride the course again. This time I ran 35 psi on the rear tire and even though I could feel a little less control in some of the corners it felt good on the rocks and gravel for two laps of about 1 hour each at a fairly easy pace.

Ed's warning about the course is correct, it's really loose there has been a lot of traffic on the course which has left a lot of loose rocks and a lot of deep moondust on some of the corners. Unless we get some good rain the day before the race to pack it down I think times might be slightly slower than last year.

More food for thought..

2008-04-25T07:56:00.000-06:00

Velonews runs runs a great column by Bob Mionske a lawyer and former cyclist who lately has been pointing out the biased in law enforcement and the media over cyclists on the road. As I read his latest column I also received this email from the Utah Cycling email list.

You may want to consider making a post to the UCA website or sending and email to the UCA group with some info I learned from the Salt County Sheriff Office about riding two abreast in any of the canyons.

My buddy and I were time trialing Big Cottonwood Canyon one recent evening when we were pulled over for riding two abreast. Incidentally, we were not riding two abreast. We were just passing each other taking turns out front. Nevertheless, we were pulled over with lights and siren. Ironically, moments before we were pulled over, a large SUV had just passed by, coming within inches of us, and giving us the typical honk and obscene gesture. Turns out it was this SUV who called the sheriff to report us.

The sheriff explained to us that the District Attorneys Office has asked all Sheriffs patrolling any of the canyons to assertively ticket cyclists riding two or more abreast, especially while going up canyon when cycling speeds are much slower than the normal flow of traffic. The reason is for car and cyclist safety. The rationale is two fold:

1. In many areas of the canyons, the road is too narrow for cars to give cyclists riding two or more abreast the required three feet of space without having to cross the yellow line into the other lane of traffic.

2. Cyclists riding alongside each other out in the road cause cars to slow down below the speed limit to wait for a safe place to pass and this impedes the normal flow of traffic.

41-6a-1105 "Operation of bicycle or moped on and use of roadway -- Duties, prohibitions" says that a person operating a bicycle on a roadway at less than the normal speed of traffic shall ride as near as practicable to the right-hand edge of the roadway except when passing a cyclist, making a left turn, avoiding objects and hazards, and some other instances. Riding two abreast is not considered riding as close as possible to the right edge of the road.

41-6a-1105 also says that a person riding a bicycle may not ride more than two abreast except on paths or parts of roadways set aside for the exclusive use of bicycles. And, on parts of roads set aside for the exclusive use of bikes, cyclists riding two abreast may not impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic and shall ride within a single lane. Not all canyons roads have dedicated bike lanes and not all bike lanes are wide enough for cyclists to ride two abreast without causing the dangers listed above.

So, be aware and be safe. Avoid riding two abreast in the canyons. You may save yourself from getting a ticket, being in an accident, or causing an accident.

I have a couple of questions and observations. First, was the officer justified in giving the ticket? I guess that would depend on if the officer observed the two riders riding abreast as opposed to passing one another. If I had received the ticket I would probably fight it arguing that I was passing the slower riding just as the car was passing the slower vehicle or cyclist. Second, it appears that the officer may be interpreting the law wrong. I've highlighted the relevant portions.

41-6a-1105. Operation of bicycle or moped on and use of roadway -- Duties, prohibitions.
(1) A person operating a bicycle or a moped on a roadway at less than the normal speed of traffic at the time and place and under the conditions then existing shall ride as near as practicable to the right-hand edge of the roadway except when:
(a) overtaking and passing another bicycle or vehicle proceeding in the same direction;
(b) preparing to make a left turn at an intersection or into a private road or driveway;
(c) traveling straight through an intersection that has a right-turn only lane that is in conflict with the straight through movement; or
(d) reasonably necessary to avoid conditions that make it unsafe to continue along the right-hand edge of the roadway including:
(i) fixed or moving objects;
(ii) parked or moving vehicles;
(iii) bicycles;
(iv) pedestrians;
(v) animals;
(vi) surface hazards; or
(vii) a lane that is too narrow for a bicycle and a vehicle to travel safely side by side within the lane.
(2) A person operating a bicycle or moped on a highway shall operate in the designated direction of traffic.
(3) (a) A person riding a bicycle or moped on a roadway may not ride more than two abreast with another person except on paths or parts of roadways set aside for the exclusive use of bicycles.
(b) If allowed under Subsection (3)(a), a person riding two abreast with another person may not impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic and shall ride within a single lane.
(4) If a usable path for bicycles has been provided adjacent to a roadway, a bicycle rider may be directed by a traffic-control device to use the path and not the roadway.

The officer cites riding two abreast, but what defines riding two abreast versus passing especially on a steep road such as Big Cottonwood? Also argument 2 implies that driving below the speed limit not above the speed limit is legal.

I must admit that I've had only good experiences with law-enforcement while riding. I've had a number of officers wave at me while passing as well as slow down until it was safe enough to pass.

More snow

2008-04-24T08:09:00.000-06:00

Decided to head out and see how much snow has melted up Butterfield. Yea I know I ride up there too much, it's just so peaceful and nice to ride a road with no traffic. There is about 50 more feet of road then there was last week.

Weekend Review

2008-04-21T19:06:00.000-06:00

Didn't have time to post my weekend stuff earlier, my in-laws were in town and my computer is in the spare bedroom.

Friday did the epic loop with Curly, Moe and Jolene. I felt like the Three Stooges riding and messing around. Jolene was a really good sport and let us climb all over the BST system.

View Larger Map

I ended up with 3:19:01 of actual riding time. Mark had more because he decided to ride behind Joelene to give him an excuse to ride slow.

I had elevation gain of 4,479 from my Garmin Edge 305 which is a GPS+Barometric Altimeter

Caught a little air at the end of the Bobsled.

Saturday did support for my wife who did the half-marathon along with my mother-in-law who won her division. I tried to get out for a ride in the afternoon but after battling the wind for an hour I turned around at the base of Suncrest and came home.

Kudos to the Utah racers at Sea Otter over the weekend. Having done that race twice it's quite a feat to podium.

The only thing worth watching

2008-04-17T15:45:00.000-06:00

While waiting for some computer to reboot I took this test.
http://www.battlestargalactica-wiki.com/page/Cylon+Detector+%3A%3A%3A+Test+Sample+4749

Battlestar Galactica Wiki

Cholla, or my weekend in the car

2008-04-14T20:40:00.001-06:00

Saturday was the Cholla Challenge. They ran the course the opposite of years past. Not having done the race for a couple of years I had forgotten about the long decent which became the long climb. Friday night the wife and left late and stayed at the UnComfort Inn in Hurricane.

Saturday, had some breakfast and drove out to the race.
Spent the warm-up assuring Mark that he was going to be fine and just to relax and enjoy the race, lined up and went off.

I manged to stay with the lead group through the hike-a-bike. Just after that I was starting to get tossed off the back and decided to take it down a notch and just ride my race. I went with the camelbak on this race and was glad I did. I came through on a 55 minute first lap and Sheryl missed me.

The second lap I could tell the heat was starting to get to me. I kept sucking down water and gu hoping to keep any cramping at bay. Finally on the long climb on the second lap I had to let a couple of guys go and just hope I could catch them in the wash. I hit the top of my climb and found one of the utahmountainbikers just getting back on his bike. I decided to stay with him through the wash and made my move on the climb to the finish to get around him with a terrible 61 minute second lap.

I guess the base just isn't quite there yet. I think I finished 8th?

Loaded up the car after the race and went to Lost Wages where the wife is attending NAB the first part of this week. We got a nice room at the MGM signature and got some dinner there. Exhausted from the driving and riding I think I fell asleep at 9:00 so we didn't even bother to go out.

Sunday morning got up took the wife to the store to get a few things, dropped her off and then drove home all alone.

It's never casual...

2008-04-09T14:43:00.000-06:00

Arranged with Utrider to do an "easy" ride after work. If it's one thing I've learned, if you have more than one rider with similar riding abilities, it somehow either turns into a race or a faster pace then it's supposed to be. It it just me and my competitive drive that just tries to test other riders or is this the norm?

Things were going great until we started up 124th south to the mouth of Butterfield canyon, after a few minutes of climbing I looked down and noticed what was supposed to be a ride at 140 bpm was turning into a hard effort at 80% of max.

More Spring

2008-04-07T07:25:00.000-06:00

Looks like more spring weather in Utah. Friday I managed to get out and do a good 2 hour ride. Saturday, I had a bunch of work do around the house and got a quick 1.5 hour ride in. I did make it up Butterfield on Saturday and to my surprise there was no one up there. I did finally make it up to the meadow.

But not much further.

Spring?

2008-04-02T07:40:00.000-06:00

Got out yesterday in the cold and rode for two hours. Ended up getting a flat about a block from my house so I just rode it home. After last year and the warm spring we had I forgot how crazy spring can be in Utah. I was wearing short sleeves less then a week ago and yesterday I was bundled up.

LOTOJA or Leadville on pavement

2008-03-31T17:13:00.001-06:00

Looks like LOTOJA is taking a page from the Leadville book and doing race registration entry preference based on the number of times you've entered the race. They also changed the Masters to Cat 1-3 only which will means they should end up with only 1 start pack for each Master group. It also means that I'll probably bite the bullet, buy a license, and race Cat 4. I'm not sure about the wisdom of letting the "just for fun" group go out before or right after the Cat 1-2-3 group and before the rest of the Cat riders. More reason to consider Seattle to Portland next year.