The BIG Tease

The snow melts and 3 days ago I felt like I was here....






















Now I am back in the basement on the rollers watching, with 6" of snow and the local news is telling me to prepare for a storm that might have the same effects and World War IV...."stock up on groceries" "at least 2 weeks worth" "buy propane" "don't leave the house" "....." on and on...

Last wednesday I put in an awesome 2:15 on the cross bike with Andrea and Tristan in near 50 degree temps. I was a little overdressed, but enjoyed every bit of fresh air. It was my first ride with the Garmin Edge 305...the thing rules. I can't wait to start more workouts and use it to full capacity.

Official training is just around the corner and I'm happy to be doing something a little differet this year. I have only had a coach once in my life and it was very beneficial.































In 1999 when Skyler Reeves & I first moved to Tucson we lived with 2 Czech racers and 1 Slovak along with Klement Capliar, a Czechoslovakian cycling coach and Hayes Brakes team manager, who took me from a mid pack Sr. Expert racer to winning Semi Pro,


































to a top 20 Norba Pro. Unfortunately I only worked with Klement for 9 months. He was hugely instrumental in my cycling life, but he was a little, let's say, hard to work with...he was also an awesome chef...life with the Euros is a whole stroy in itself...



























This particular picture Skyler and I wrote up the 1999 - 2000 Cyclocross World's results on an Excel spreadsheet with Americans sweeping the Podium in all events...they bought it for about 3 days...it was hilarious...anyway



In 2007 it will be a new coach and hopefully better results... Check out www.momentumendurance.com ...TJ is a good friend and teammate, but I know his knowledge and an outsiders perspective will bring some positive changes to my training regime directly affecting my speed, performance, skills, results, confidence, training, routine, and mental state.

Forget the Mental Prep

This past week I realized it has nothing to do with mental prep. So I did a few push ups did a few sit ups and headed out for a few miles on the bike. I figured my body is rested, my mind is ready, so why not start getting ready for the season. I have my basement set up with some rollers a trainer and a tv with dvd player. It is a pretty sweet set up...I'm also thinking of picking up a Garmin Edge 305 for training purposes. I love the new technology and it makes those long base rides a little more do-able when you have some cool graphs to look at when you get home. I also plan on downloading all the WORS courses to a computrainer at Bike N Ski so next year we can all train on the WORS courses indoors! I'm pumped about Tour of California...why can't a stage go here...

Big Bear rules and there is some sweet climbs...

My fastest days were definately in 2002 in CALI -

ALS Spin-A-Thon

Motivation is starting to grow for the season....I rode Saturday at Synergy for the ALS Spin-A-Thon. It was pretty impressive. Lots of people riding, lots of free food, and lots of money raised for Lou Gehrigs Disease. The money raised went to the Blazeman foundation, a guy who completed the Hawaii Ironman with ALS. I only rode for an hour, I would have done more but I was at work the majority of the day. A few guys rode the full 16.5 hours....not really necessary for me. My next door neighbor from Pinckney who was partially to blame for getting me into mountain biking died from ALS recently so I was happy to go bust out an hour in honor of Art Schramm. It was my first ride on my new road bike, it felt fast, I was on rollers! Sunday finally warmed up a little so I went out for another 1 hour ride, this time hit the trails on the beach on the cross bike. It was good to get some fresh air. This morning I did another 30 min on the rollers then came in to work. New Crank Brothers pedals arrived today...I'm pumped. All three new bikes will be dialed by March 1st...the official start of the season.

I decided not to party saturday night at the Synergy Dance....but I do have some Old School Disco pictures...does anyone know where they still have a Disco Night?

Back in the day I could realy pick up the babes with those shoes! It was harder too choose my outfit than to get the ladies to dance with me!

Can anyone name the 2 Disco superstars? Unfortunately many Disco nights ended with torn crothes of the 70's Polyester pants...it was only cool if torn while money was being stuffed down them or if you just broke loose in a major dance circle...

Super Bowl

Super Bowl Party = Super Bad Driving Conditions

I decided to go for it and last weekend made the trek back to my hometown. Pinckney, MI home of the Potawatomi Trail. It was a brutal drive as you can see in the picture...I was able to snap a pic when the snow let up for a while. If we had this much snow in Sheboygan and it wasn't freezing balls I would be doing a lot more skiing.

It was awesome to go back to MI. I got to hang out with my best friend Andy and his wife Jill and their dog Ceci.

I got to see some other high school buddies, went out to eat at Zukey Lake Tavern ( a Pinckney classic) got to see the old neighborhood, and I got to go hiking on the Poto....not quite the same as riding, but it definitely brought back some memories. Getting T-Boned by a sheriff in a truck w/ Mesko, setting blistering fast laps, chilling by Silver Lake checking out the babes and eating French Fries, and crashing on a beer can after trying to nail it with my front tire.

The big game was good, the commercials were good, but it wasn't the Steelers. Driving through Chicago had to be embarassing for Bears fans, the day before the big game and I drove through town to see two cars with bears stickers and one business with some bears flags on top of the building. That would never happen in Pittsburgh or Green Bay. The Bears deserved to lose. The bears still suck! On the way home after the Bears lost I saw equally as little Bears Fans support. I also stopped at TJ's on the way home and bought some $2 chuck, french roast, and lots of dried fruits and nuts. Celebrity sightings at TJ's included Roberto Gaggioli in the Monex Team car and Frank Pipp.

Time is running out and its almost time to start some base building for the season. This weekend I will be at Synergy doing a spin a thon to raise money for ALS (Lou Gehrigs Disease) If you want to donate money stop by Bike N Ski, Synergy or you can pay brimatter@hotmail.com through www.paypal.com. After the spin a thon Synergy is having a dance party. Who knows maybe I will have to bust something out! My two new mountain bikes and a new road bike are almost dialed and ready to start another season. Now I have to start the mental prep.

The Commute

I might be heading to MI this weekend for an old school reunion w/ some high school friends and a super bowl party...no I'm not riding my bike there...

Answer

Some good guesses...I'm impressed with the Catera guess....not quite right though....#35 was an Aussie - Luke Stockwell....also pictures....Me, Steve Larsen, Dave Wiens, Tinker Juarez, Travis Brown or Mike Lee off to the left behind #35, Jeremiah Bishop, XX ( Daryl Saul ) & ex Michigander Dan Gillespie...one guy way back there I'm not sure who he is....anyway back in the day I thought it was a really cool photo and I taped it to the front of my training diary. One of these days when my scanner comes back I will copy some pages of the training diary when I used to train a lot....they are pretty amusing to go back and look at...a lot of the days were like this 110 miles, really tired, cold stone creamery and the name of a movie I watched at night. The commutes have been cold...Monday was 10 degrees and snowing...I have some good pictures I'll throw up of the commuter soon....back to work