Forget the Baby Steps

Go Big or Go Home....

We bought the new house on Friday and are leaving for a week vaction later today....bad timing I know, but its Gravel Rouser and warmer weather.

So with one weekend to work on the new house we had to go pretty big. The muscles are feeling it today.

Now it's off to OH for Gravel Rouser 08...can't wait to see the number plates!

It's On

Day One: One Key To Rule Them All

Before: 1950's White Shag!

During: Thanks for the help Rosco!

2 More Days

2 Days and counting until we close on the house! If anyone wants to work for free don't hesitate to call me! We have carpet to rip up, furniture to move, and plenty more elbow work, so really call me. We took the final walk through the house yesterday. I am pumped. Now that the personal property of the seller is gone the house looks a lot nicer. We also discovered all hardwood floors under the carpet.

Eagle River was a pretty well timed relaxing weekend. We stopped by the warming hut on day number 1 to feed the birds. I skied all three days including a 40k day on Saturday. That's all for today....need to start making more phone calls...todays agenda is switching over the electric and gas, calling a floor restoration guy, and going for a bike ride!

All Of The Above

8 Days and counting until we close on the new house. My brain has been scrambled lately. Yesterday Andrea and I went and looked at paint and flooring samples. Mind boggling to say the least. Then they tell you how much it is going to cost! Lets just say winning the triple crown doesn't cover stuff like that...

Anyway I am pretty excited about moving into the new house, but at the same time I just want to bust it out, get in there, and start to focus on riding my bike. We are taking a little breather this weekend to forget about things and heading up to Eagle River. We haven't made it up there at all this winter.

This photo was taken back in 2003!

I remember when I headed up for the first time with new skate skis. I had no idea what I was doing and Andrea put the hammer down on me with her classical skis. The next year I went up there with Schaning and we skiied 35 or 40 k and I was blown out. After 5 years I think I finally nailed it down. Now if I could just muster up some motivation to wax those things I would be Rockin' like Dokken.

Rosco is pumped to go to E.R. It has been a long winter for the little guy.

The Dog

Big Ring or Chicago Style?

The fitting seminar ended up on a great note....but we better start at the beginning.

Back to the Pie!

Mmmmm

Day 1 like I said was Anatomy and Tooling...

Day 2 was more hands on and we learned how to test some flexibility. Hamstrings and hips were the main determing flexibility factors with position on the bike. We did some angles from the torso to the humorous and the angle of the sacrum. All very interesting....it really boils down to how each body works on the persons bike.

Then it got good when all the students left and the big guns AOM and T-DA flexed their muscles and started some custom fitting.....

T-DA probably imporoved his position more than anyone during the entire 2 days...check it out

Watch out WORS 08!

I pulled out of the parking garage just in time for some food.....a true Chicago Style Hot Dog!

With motivation high after a newly found saddle postition I did the breakfast ride this morning and felt awesome. We finished up the ride through Black River to check this out....

I wonder if Tristan thinks he's moving into our new basement?

PIE

Pie - 3.14 or Chicago Deep Dish?

Day One of the bike fit seminar was pretty cool. Lots of anatomy education and tooling education. Today will be more hands on bike fitting. I'm pumped.

More to follow after the weekend. Breakfast ride or ski race?

Quest 4 Knowledge

I am getting pretty pumped to head down to Chicago this Thursday & Fri for a Michael Sylvester Bike Fit Seminar. I will be heading down Wednesday night and staying with a friend from MI. It looks like plenty of the Trek yahoos will be in attendance and I'm sure fun will be had by all. Yoga and bike fitting! Nothing like getting paid to stretch and learn to fit people so they can ride faster! I have never put faith in bike fitting in the past and many of you know I am the kind of guy who will raise my seat 2 cm before the start of a race and let 'er rip...but I'm getting old and anything to help me go faster will do. I am also pumped to be able to start offering fit services here.

This past weekend I did some serious training. I ended up skipping on the breakfast ride for my own version of the Birkie. Tristan, Drankus, and I loaded up the new Sonata and cruised out to Greenbush for 2:30 hours of pain. We met up with the Schwallers and had a blast. The skiing was perfect and was almost as exhilerating as ripping that perfect piece of singletrack. Check out my form in the photo below!

Sunday was my first ride outside in quite some time. Andrea, Elicia, Dano, Street, Josh, and I went for a not so bad ride. It was still below freezing, but the sun was shining and the roads were pretty dry. The legs didn't really respond after Saturdays ski.

This is becoming more of a scary reality!

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

This did become of reality...for my dad!

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

It's even Steelers colors!

The Title?

It's bad when you can't think of a title for your blog post. I guess the only title I am really thinking about is this one. Yes that's right my first race of the season is approximately one month away. I guess that's bad considering I have not been on a bike since my California vacation. Even worse considering I don't even have a mtb bike yet this year! I hope the skiing is enough to stay in shape. I have also been getting crazy with some self hypnotism. We'll see how that pays off down the road....I'm always afraid I'm gong to fall asleep and never wake up?

I have been busy at the shop blowing out all of our winter inventory and preparing for the upcoming bike season. We have been pretty busy with ski rentals so the prep for spring is going slow. I have also been trying to get pedals, wheels, helmets, etc ready for the upcoming race season.

My big decision this year is going to be stick with the tried and true Bontrager Race X Lite wheelset or maybe try the Shimano tubeless road system. I have been doing a little research and the fact that Hutchinson is also making tubeless cross tires excites me. I guess in the end it comes down to $$$.

I think I am gong to be riding a Madone 5.2 Pro, a Top Fuel 9.9 (hopefully a 2009 prototype), and a Superfly! Riding a bike called Superfly means no more Blades and no more mullets.....because that stuff is not fly at all.

Maybe a breakfast ride tomorrow to start logging some miles on the bike?

what to do?

Yesterday was a long day being stuck in the house for 24 hours. I didn't venture outside a single time except to pull the car into the garage so it wasn't a Sonata Popsicle this morning. I did manage an hour on the rollers down in the basement. It wasn't quite as fun as the 1.5 hour ski I did Saturday night with perfect snow conditions and a good group of guys. I had some time yesterday to look up plane tickets to Tucson and they are reasonable! Andrea and I are waiting to here back on the house after we put in a second offer. Back to work today and hoping for more snow to keep up the skiing. It seems I'm finally getting it after 5 years, but I'd reather be in AZ!

Watched Tour of California yesterday. Pretty standard results....I was impressed with Garrett Peltonen and surpised Tommy D was so far down. Maybe he is focusing on the Giro with his new team. Another impressive ride was thrown down by Cippo...can't wait for him to beat Boonen in a sprint at 41 years old. I'm pumped to start riding myself, but being patient is key for myself this time of year.

The Motherland

This past weekend I made the trip back home to Pinckney MI for some quality time with old friends and a 30th B-Day Party. It's always great to drive through the old neighborhood were we terrorized all for 18 years growing up. It was back in the day where kids actually played outside and were not glued to cell phones texting and what not. It was quite sad to not see a single kid outside in the old hood. Not a single kid on the old sledding hill. Not a single kid building a snow fort. Not a single snowball flung from a tree at a passing car.

Dinner on the way home....Baby Ruth, MVP Meijer Brand Sports Drink, Motor City w/ Attitude coffee, and a couple Jack Links beef jerky! Bring on the 2008 season!

The best/worst part of the trip was the drive. Only a seasoned veteran could have made the epic trip. On the way to MI I picked up a friend in Chicago. I navigated the ghetto's and fridays rush hour traffic to arrive MI at 1:00am. Saturday we partied with some Detroit dance moves and with 5 hours sleep started the epic home. Lake effect weather was in full effect as we approached Jackson, MI and traveled at about 5mph for the next 4 hours. It was the absolute worst driving conditions I have ever season. I could have traveled faster on ice skates. White out conditions with gusty winds on a 1/2" sheet of ice had 29 cars in the ditch on a 60 mile stretch of I-94. Hockeytown had spread to I-94 as semi trucks were cross checking sedans and lots of off sides calls had multiple people in the penalty box. The new team car (Hyundai Sonata) was solid.

Maybe if they weren't driving on the wrong side of the road!

PBR ME

You know its bad when -

1. The local skis shop closes early.

2. Every other block has a car stuck on at least 2 corners.

3. There are absolutely no PBR signs illuminated along all of Michigan Ave and Business Dr in
Sheboygan at 5:30 pm.

4. Your back hurts more from shoveling snow than from the Smokin Spoke Marathon '07

5. The dog won't go outside to take a leak!

Hmmmmm?

Well the big question is on my mind. It's been 2 months since my last race and the end of the 2007 season. The process is starting up again. The sponsorship is lined up, the bikes are on the way, and now it's time to get the training and racing schedules going. I'm shooting for a month of occasional riding, yoga, and some weight lifting. Then its go time. March 1 looks to be the beginning of the training season for me and lots of base miles are in my future. Tucson plans are in the making, but I'm not sure if they will go through....I guess it depends on this.

This past weekend I did end up on my bike for my first breakfast ride of the year. I also took my first spill of the year as the snow was covering lots of ice on the frozen beach. Lots of guys went down and I'm happy to get the first crash of the year over with. After the 10th crash we headed for pavement. I ended up with about 2.5 hours. Not too shabby for 2 months of sitting on my butt.

Sunday was a day set aside for the Superbowl. A relaxing morning of checking e-mail and warming up for the big game with lots of Tecmo Bowl. I made a pretty good double batch of Southwest White Chicken Chili w/ some homegrown mushrooms added in for good measure. Batch number 2 was made with chicken satan for Andrea.

Before the game Tristan and I went out for a ski. I think its time to wax my skis as my avg hr was above 160 for the 1 hour....it felt like someone had installed a brake system on my fischers. Not fun. The game was great for all football fans, the commercials were avg, and I finished the night asleep on the couch with a post game show lullabye.

The Red Kool Aid

The Red Kool Aid goes big.....goes Super green.

Trek Teams up with AMP to Help Power Super Bowl XLII
(Waterloo, WI) – Trek Bicycle today announced it has teamed up with Mountain Dew AMP Energy to power the AMP Human Energy Event at Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, AZ. Using 42 Trek 7200 hybrid bikes connected to rear wheel generators, AMP athletes will turn pedal power into electrical power, generating enough electricity to power the entire promotional booth. The Trek-powered generators will also return enough electricity to the Phoenix power grid to offset all of the energy used during the first half hour of Fox’s official Super Bowl XLII broadcast, making it the first energy-neutral broadcast in Super Bowl history.

What a blast...

This time its not a blast from the past but a blast of reality...after the temps warmed up last weekend I decided it was time to head out skiing...thinking positive Tristan and I headed out for an hour. It was great high heart rates, perfect snow, and most importantly increased motivation to start getting active again. After a solid 2 months since CX State Championships it was time to start doing something....anything. The warm weather came and melted all the snow and I even thought about riding outside.

Then it hit like a box of bricks. Tues after work before heading home I checked weather.com and it actually said "Blizzard" for Sheboygan. Reality set in real fast as I thought to myself we have another 3 months of this stuff! So yesterday I brought my XO2 into work cleaned it up from 2 months ago and did a one hour ride here. It wasn't so bad as the movie Mr. & Mrs. Smith was on and Bill Street Player joined me for the occasion. We rode the Ore To Shore course. It was just like I was there....

Other than that it has been yoga once a week and skiing once a week. Andrea and I put in an offer on a sweet house in Black River south of Sheboygan so we'll see what happens there...

California Dreamin' Y2K cont.

Back to the Garcia Cabin! 2,000 miles later it was back to California for Norba #1 in the year 2000 at Big Bear Lake. Parky and I loaded up in the Dodge Caravan and Karew and Big Daryl XX Saul cruised in style in Big D's Subaru. We had reserved the Garcia Cabin for 2 weeks to acclimate before the race. It was not without another "Big D moment" that we arrived safely. Big D purchased a cowboy hat for about $60 and was in love with the hat. D's hair was always done up with product, D's tan line was always perfect, his clothes always clean, his car was spotless. He was a ladies man, still is, and his cowboy hat was a big part of his swagger! On the long drive through the desert the Caravan went blowing by the Subaru. We laughed probably mooned them and kept going....

Nigel and I were surprised that the Caravan passed up the Subaru with a top speed of 62, but we wanted to get to Big Bear and start riding. We made it went for a ride and had an awesome dinner.

During dinner we were really stunned that Big D and Karew hadn't made it yet. We called to find out what was going on....I guess somewhere between Blythe and Palm Springs Big D realized his only cowboy hat was missing. In a mjor Big D moment he panicked. Stopped the car and searched to no avail. During this time the cars water pump bit the bullet and with a solid 1-2 punch Big D and Karew were done for. Nigel and I enjoyed some wine and a nice tiramasu and got a kick out of Big D's misfortunes.

Later in the week "it" happened. A night or two before the race we decided to have a campfire across the street from the Garcia house. A relaxing night before the big race to cook up some smores. Karew, Parky, myself, Big D, Skyler, Craig Manthe, Shonni Vanlandingham, and Big D's friend Andrea! Needless to say everything worked out!

Don't I look pumped to be hooking up with a hot babe! 6 days later after the race we went to Mozarts dance club for some post race partying. We had a blast and closed the bar down. The next day Andrea was on her way back to Wisco, Nigel and Daryl went up to do a road race in Northern Cali and Karew and I headed back to Tucson. Then this happened....a picture says 1,000 words....I'll just add the setting...2:00am I-10 Yard Sale Blown Out?

Only if I could have learned how to make money on all those yard sales I used to have?

Andrea and I traveled the rest of the cicruit together and found ourselves back in Cali for a month is September. We lived in a tent at the Mammoth Campgorund! We had so much time before the race that we took a backpacking trip to see her sister Elicia in Kings Canyon National Park.

After the 50 mile round trip my legs hurt a little, but I was not affected at all by the high elevation at Mammoth. Andrea and I did some awesome rides in Mammoth. A training race and spent some quality time at the Laundromat playing Spyhunter!Even after the lack of training and concentration I finished the season of with a solid short track result. Can anyone name the two fast pros in front of and behind me?