Ultimat XC Winter Challenge Day 1

This year's Winter Challenge consisted of two stages, a Friday night crit and the Saturday 30 miler.

The toaster all loaded up and ready to leave Bikeman.com's parking lot.

Friday, Steve and I loaded up the toaster and made the trek up to northern Vermont from coastal Maine. After only getting lost once (you can't get there from here apparently) we rolled into Newport at 4:30 pm. The first thing we did was check out the race course for Friday night. The ice crit was held on Memphrenmagog (seriously) Lake in Newport Vermont. Initially conceived as a 1/2 mile x 20 lap race it was changed day of race (because of unsafe ice conditions) to a loop of just under 1/2 mile and 25 laps. Oh, and it would be a figure 8. Upon seeing the course I quickly realized that my 32x17 gearing was going to be waaaaaaayyyyyy too slow. Thankfully, I had a 12t cog that I was using as a spacer on one of my wheelsets so I was able to cobble together a 32x12 which I figured would be just about perfect.

With 2 hours to kill before race time Steve and I decided to stomp over to the bar next door and get some food and drink. A couple of beers later we emerged, kitted up (ever get dressed for a race, outside in 15 degree temps? I hadn't either until Friday night) and headed down to the lake for a warm-up.

The gearing proved to be good and I hammered out my warm-up. Near the end though, while doing a final sprint my chain popped off and I hit the deck and slid across the start/finish line with a nice audience. Good way to start the night! (I would later find that I had a nice bit of road rash on my left hip from the textured ice)

Waiting for the start.

Steve Mitchell photo

Go time!

Steve Mitchell photo

The race started and I quickly found a nice place in the middle of the lead group. My goal for the evening was to sit in (take no wind) for most of the race and then in the last few laps try to make a move and that was exactly how it played out. During the first 18-ish laps we basically cruised around in lazy figure 8's, picked our way around the tricky corners (ever taken corners on ice at speed?) tried not to hit anyone at the 8's crossing and waited for any attacks to happen. I marked a couple of attacks myself to keep anyone from getting clear and kept the group at about 8 or 9 riders. With 5 laps to go, I found myself in good position to make a move on the leader coming out of corner 2. I immediately launched an attack for about 1 1/2 laps but quickly realized that it was nearly impossible to break away so I sat back up and slid back to 3rd wheel. We would now have to rely on the final 200 ft sprint out of the final corner.

Lapping through, notice the ice on the balaclava.

Steve Mitchell photos

Still third wheel going into the final set of corners, I took a wide line to allow for an earlier sprint start. Unfortunately, I started my sprint a tick too early and ended up doing a 90 degree turn right in front of the rest of the lead group. I quickly righted myself and sprinted my ass off narrowly holding onto third place for the evening.

Steve finished up a couple of mintues later a bit demoralized with how his legs felt only to find out later that his front brake had been dragging significantly the whole time!

30 miler report tomorrow (hopefully!)

Winter XC short recap

Today is the short version. MAYBE tomorrow I'll have the real recap.

Fri night ice crit:
Course: figure 8
Result: Set up well in third place coming out of final corner but did a near 180 coming out of corner because I got on the gas too soon and had to lay down a mean sprint to salvage 3rd.

Saturday race:
Course: 30 loop on "groomed" snowmobile trails.
Result: Trails were groomed Friday night but by Saturday morning they were chewed up severly by snomobiles making riding downright brutal. From the start it was clear that the snowbikes had a major upper hand with the added floatation of 4" wide tires (or a ski in front in one case). I fought, stumbled, walked and finessed my way to 4th place on the day (after two pugsley's and a ski bike) and 3rd place overall for the weekend (first ss but they didn't have an ss class so that is more a matter of pride than anything else).

today is the day

Of my first race of 08. Tonight, the Winter XC kicks off with a 20 lap ice crit on a lake in upstate Vermont. According to the promoter, the ice has too much traction right now so he's decided to flood the race surface with water to try to get a smooth, super slick surface for us to race on tonight. F'ing sick bastard. Hopefully my Nokian studdies are up to the challenge if not, maybe I should pack some knee and elbow pads for the inevitable smackdown. Maybe yesterday's fall was good training. (on that note, things seem to be ok for the most part. my ass is seriously bruised, my forearm hurts and my back is sore but all things considered it seems to be ok).

After the crit, I'll be hunkering down in the toaster for the night. Steve (bikeman dude and gas sharer) will either opt for the toaster or a tent. Sick son of a bitch. I thought sleeping in the car in Vermont in early February the night before a big race was a little crazy but to do that in a tent is certifiable.

Anyway, Saturday brings the 30 miler on snowmobile trails. Earlier in the week it looked like we were going to be blessed with nice, hard riding conditions because a rain band was supposed to roll through last night. Now, at least based on Maine's current weather, it looks like we'll be dealing with some fresh snow. If that is the case, that 4 hour race time could easily turn into 6+ hours of total suffering. This is going to be epic!

snow day

It snowed last night and there was about 1" of snow on the ground this morning so the wussy school administrators called school for the day so B and I are enjoying a snow day. More accurately, I should say that B is enjoying the day because I'm allowing about 1000% more tv today so that I can get work done while she rots her brain. I'm sure I'll be voted 2008 parent of the year...

The good news is that since I head out tomorrow for Vermont and the Winter XC this snow day gives me some time with the spud (even if we do our own thing most of the day) before I head out for a couple of days. Plus, when I get sick of working, I can get the rest of my crap together for the trip. Me, being the procrastinator that I am, put off getting most of my stuff together until last night. Overall it was to big of a deal except I ran into some problems with the bike last night. I did eventually get everything working but it looks like my rear hub on my chi-chi wheelset is going to need a new part (right at the end of the axle) but it does seem to be working for now. Fingers crossed.

Overall, I'm feeling pretty good for this weekend's races. I'm not in great shape right now but I should at least be able to FINISH Saturday's 30 miler. The promotor is expecting the leaders to finish in about 4 hours so if I beat the 5 hour mark I should be doing pretty well. I probably won't win but it should be fun regardless. On a bad note, this morning, while joging with the pooch, I slipped on a piece of snow covered ice and hit the ground HARD taking a serious blow to my ass cheek, right forearm and big ass Mag-Lite smacked me in the forehead. My head and arm should be fine but my ass hurts bad and it through my hip and back out. Not the movie "I can't stand up straight" out but an uncomfortable out. Hopefully all will be ok for the race. The 5 hour drive over and back will be the true test.

Well, time to get back to work. I probably won't be checking in again until Sunday or Monday so have a good weekend everyone.

pop quiz

What is this device below:

 

A. the world's most uncomfortable bra.
B. midevil torture device
C. a marital aid
D. neck stretcher/strengthener





Answer:

A. no
B. no, but it looks like one when strapped in
C. no, but it looks like one when strapped in
D. yes, but nobody would believe us

how to gain 7 pounds in a weekend

First, I should say that before the weekend I was within 2-3 pounds of my goal weight for the start of the season. Fast forward to Monday morning of too little activity and too much partaking in festivities and I suddenly find myself 9 pounds from my goal weight! Frick, frick, frickity, frick frick! Time to overindulge in fibrous materials and hope to poop out the equivalent of a baby seal. Too much info, I know but it's too late. You already read it suckers. The photo is cute at least.

four commutes...

..and no frozen appendages in the last couple of weeks! It hasn't exactly been warm around here recently but at least it's been well above zero. As a result, not only have I been able to ride outside a fair amount but my trainer time has been minimal so far this season as well. Waaaahooooooo! In years past I've been able to churn out 1.5-2 hr trainer sessions but so far this year 45 minutes is about all I can muster and many nights I'll just crank out a quick 30 minutes to keep the legs and guilt moving. Thank god I've been able to get outside.

There are two main reasons I've been able to get out so much this year. 1. On my alloted days I'll ride no matter how cold it gets (-30 with windchill on a couple of days so far) and will only cancel for weather if it's too nasty (snow etc) for it to be safe with cars around. 2. With the El Mariachi set up single, with fenders and three sets of wheel & tire combos to chose from (slicks for good days, studs for potential ice and fat knobbies for in between days) there really isn't any good reason to not getting out. Except the puss excuse but thankfully I've only used that once or twice so far this year.

lookey who it is

Fellow Bikeman.com rider Andrew Freye on the cover of the Bangor Dailey News making it look like he's trying to find a job so the rents don't kick him out... I almost didn't recognize him without a helmet on.

The "pass" and what not to wear...

...while riding on Sunday

Marcy lining my brother Darren up for the pass

Here she goes.

Maybe not. Can you guess the 'what not to wear' segment of today's post? Didn't think so. In his defense, Darren doesn't give a rat's ass what he looks like when he rides because he hates it the whole time anyway.

Off to a good start

I'm gonna lay it out there. Last week sucked. Plain and simple. Between work being out of control, Brynna beign sick most of the week and Marcy's grandfather passing away (It was great knowing you Frank) I can honestly say that the week sucked a big one. Thankfully it's over and we can hope for a better week coming up.

With as crappy as last week was, there was one good point. Marcy and I finalized a deal on a fairly good sized (17 1/2 acres) chunk of land on Friday and I am actively working on a design for our new home. We're pretty geeked about the whole thing for a number of reasons. One, we've wanted more land for both Brynna and Chance to be able to do their thing without needing to play frogger on the road outside of our current house. Two, the property is on a VERY quiet road in a nice quiet town; peace and quiet baby. Three, the new location will cut my commute in half and knock 6 miles off of Marcy's. Fourth, but definitely not last, is that the new property is less than a half mile from the Schmid Preserve where, as I've mentioned many times before, I ride on my way to and from work when the conditions allow. From what I've heard, there are hiking trails from the edge of our property that dump into the preserve too and when the River Link project is finished I'll be able to commute by trail door to door. Pretty freaking sweet!

Yesterday, I was also able to get out for some snowmobile trail riding up at the parents place. The first hour I was accompanied by Marcy, Chance, my brother Darren and my dad. All had fun except for my brother. He's not much into riding to begin with and when you add in cold temps and skinny tires on soft snow and you have a recipe for lots of bitching. Once back to the rents place I decided to ride part of the way home via trail and have Marcy pick me up on her way. I'm glad I did because I was able to rip off another 12 miles of sweet trail with most of it being easily rideable and it gave me a chance to test out some of my gear for next weekends adventure. More on that later.

common refrain

I've been super busy at work again (hmmm, don't think I've said that before!) and put in another 12+ hour day yesterday, worked until after 8pm on Wednesday etc. The sad thing is that it looks like things will be this way for the next 18 months (when my current project will be done). I certainly won't be working 12 hrs a day, every day, but there will be many, many days like that. I'm not happy. Those hours really cut into family time, relaxation time, bike time and, of course, blog time. When push comes to shove, the blog is the first to suffer but the blog's loss is your gain since you won't feel compelled to read it if I haven't written any worthless drivel.

Continue to enjoy!

Will I ever learn?

My guess is no.

Ok, I started to post today (see brown print below) but realized I was way off on a blabbering tangent. Verbal diarrhea if you will. I've left it if you want to read it but I would advise it. Here is the short version:

Yesterday morning's commute sucked donkey d* because of all sorts of bike issues, didn't freeze though so thats a plus.

Ride home started well but I falsely assumed (again) that the snomobiles would have been out to pack some of my trail commute home meaning I had to hoof it for a couple of miles. Good training for the Winter XC challenge I guess.

See how simple that was?



Marcy had the day off yesterday for MLK day so I seized the opportunity to commute to work. I had to really since it was going to be one of the coldest days of the week (how does this ALWAYS happen???). Things started off bad and just got worse as my morning prep got going. I had left some of my evening prep for the morning so I could spend some time with Marcy Sunday night which meant that I had to mount up wheel set number 3 (stans rims with panaracer rampages for extra float on the trails) on the El before riding. Seemed simple enough. I went out, pumped the front tire up a bit since it had leaked down somewhat, mounted both wheels and went back inside to finish getting ready. Come back out 15 minutes later to find that my front tire is now totally flat. F! It's a tubeless setup so I didn't want to pull it apart to put a tube in so I opted to just throw the wheel with the Nokian tire on the front. It's skinnier than the Rampage but at least it would get me rolling. Then it took me forever to get the brakes adjusted properly for the differently spaced discs between wheels. Cold hands and small knobs aren't a good combo! Finally, I was ready to roll so I put on my gloves (three layers: thin fleece, brown jersey gloves, large mittens with felt liners) which takes a minute or so because of the layers and mount the bike to ride out. Opps, not yet. Seems sometime during my fumbling around I had knocked my chain off so I had to strip my gloves again (can't get grease on the mitts!), fix the chain and finally mount up to ride out wondering if this was cycling gods way of getting me to stay home but I didn't listen. Couldn't listen really since I had so much time and mental energy already invested in the morning's ride.



Once on the road I felt a bit better. It was super cold but I felt like I was dressed pretty well. I knew everything would probably be good except my hands. I was right and all it took to keep the hands toasty was to do some windmills every 5-10 minutes to force blood back into the fingers. Unfortunately, I soon noticed that I also seemed to have a slow leak in the rear tire as well. Another Stan'd wheel. I just mounted these tires recently and haven't had a chance to test them out plus I almost out of sealant so each tire got a minimum amount of sealant so that is probably why they were leaking a bit. I just got a new bottle of sealant from Bikeman so I guess it's time to fill them up again! Anyway, thankfully the leak was slow enough that I was able to slog through to the office

11 vs 1... yeti

Eleven women to one dude (me) in Saturday's spin class. To top it off, I got there late because I underestimated how long it would take me to ride there so I go stuck on a bike right in the middle of the room. The area that every other bike faces. I felt like I was on display. Kind of made me wish I had shaved my yeti legs. Being a guy, I always assume that every chick digs me so hopefully they enjoyed the hairy show.

photos

It only took me about fifty tries (seriously, it's a hard angle to get on your own) to get a decent shot of the Ergon BD1 on my back. Notice the light cord coming out of the top? It is actually fed through the bladder hose port on the top of the pack. works pretty slick.

Here a couple of pics fo the El clad in the dead sexy new fenders. I need to cobble something for the front fender to get it closer to the wheel but otherwise they went on slick.

Mud flaps and reflectors.

At the same time I also Bonk'd the top tube to protect it from brake lever dings (there were several already) and then I livened it up a bit with some Ergon stickers. I would never typically put stickers on my bikes but with them being on the Bonk film they'll be easy to get off if I ever sell the bike.

muddin

Here is the vid from this weekend's gravel grind to the inlaws. This section was actually pretty firm, shortly before it turned to soup. Although it was still pretty slippery for slick tires... This was the ride that cemented the fact that I needed fenders.

great googly moogly

According to the thermometer at the house this morning and at the bank, today wasn't the coldest morning that I have commuted (between 7-10 degrees f), it's not even the coldest day in the last two weeks but good gawd was it cold! On a comfort level it was easily the coldest day this year. I'm not sure why it seemed colder than the -4 day but it did. Go figure... I made it in though and only had to endure a few minutes of the "my hands hurt so much I think they're going to fall off" routine. A long, hot shower really did the trick to thaw the body.

Yesterday I finally got around to registering for the Winter XC race in Vermont in three weeks. I guess there is no pussing out now. Here are a couple of quotes from the website:

"Winter mountain biking is not for the faint of heart. If you get a flat tire or mechanical problem, your life can turn into a nightmare. The wind might bring the temperature down to a point where most people on snowmobile would rather stay home. Your Camel Back tube will freeze. A snow storm might result in the need to walk most of the course. Rain could make your life miserable. "

"If you are not considered normal by your peer, this is probably a race for you."

There is no question that I'm not considered normal around here so I guess this IS a race for me.

On Tuesday, when I was at the shop, I also found out that a shop employee (Steve) will be going over on the Carver winter bike that I posted a while ago so now I have someone to share gas money, misery and the back on the element with. Did I mention that I plan to sleep in the back of the car for the weekend of the race. My rationalle for doing so are two-fold. First, I'm cheap. Second, it adds to the adventure aspect of the weekend. Who doesn't want to do an ice crit on Friday night, curl up in the back of an ice cold car for the night and then get up bright and early to race again the next morning? At least if things get too cold Steve and I can spoon.

Good stuff

Yesterday I was unable to do my typical Tuesday commute for two reasons. 1. I forgot my winter riding shoes at the in-laws on Saturday (stupido!) and 2. I needed to get to bikeman to pick up my chick magnet fenders and blinky light after work. With that in mind, I skipped out of work a tad early and headed to the shop and picked up my goodies and all I've got to say is DAMN are those some huge fenders! I had fenders on my Van Dessel before giving it to my bro for Christmas but those were normal size fenders. Kind of what you would expect on a bike. These new fenders, because they are for 29'er with large tires, are gi-normous. Regardless, I was able to mount up the front last night and will do the rear tonight so that I'll be slush and grit free for my commute on Thursday. Just in time for the roads to be perfectly dry I might add. I also got my new blinkie set up (as if that takes any time) and got to do the in-house test. After Marcy, B and I woke up from our epileptic fits, cleaned up the drool and vomit and regained our composure I can honestly say that it is the brightest blinkie I've ever used. If a car runs over me now its because they were trying to...

Because of the missed ride and the fact that we picked up 10" of fresh powder on Monday I also got out for 1:15 or snowshoeing with with pooch. There is nothing like a hike in fresh snow under a bright moon to make a day complete.

Dinotte

With Jason's recent ramblings about bike lights and all the options available in LED lights has got me thinking again. Always dangerous. As I've probably mentioned before, I'm not all that crazy about the Marwi Titan light that I have now. It works reasonably well, mounts easily and puts out decent amount of light BUUUUTTTT, the battery is really heavy and the sheer number of wires and connections make it a real pain in the ass to use. I have finally figured out that if I attach the switch directly to my helmet (right next to the light head) than I can do away with one piece of wire and make it somewhat reasonable to use. Pair that with a pack or camelback to carry the heavy ass battery and it's a workable solution. BUUUUUTTTT, things could be better.

I've been watching the whole LED lighting thing develop (both for cycling and for home lighting)over the last few years and have been waiting for the right time to move. From my recent research, architectural LED's aren't quite there yet as far as efficiency goes but it sure does seem like LED bike lights are coming of age. There are literally dozens of companies throwing their hats into the ring including all of the heavy hitters in the HID market but one company has really caught my eye, Dinotte Lighting in New Hampster. They work exclusively with LED's, have a fairly wide variety of lighting options (including some super bright taillights) and are closer to me than any other lighting company (I love to use local whenever possible).

One of the coolest things that Dinotte does is offer most of their lights in both litium-ion versions as well as AA rechargeable versions so if you're looking for a convenient light with minimal fuss you can pick up a AA set that still gives you 2 hour run times. In a pinch, you can even throw regular AA batteries in to get you home if you wander further than expected.

Personally, I'd be in the market for the Endurance Series of lights with lithium-ion batteries. With their impressive run times, kick ass lumen output, ease of use/mounting and the fact that all lights come with two (thats right two!) batteries and it's a no-brainer. If I had money to spend that is...

The 200L Dual, mounts with o-rings. Super easy.

The 600L. Same mounting system as my Marwi's. Very quick and easy.

The crazy bright taillight. Insane!

more boring stuff

More boring commuter news if you're interested (I'm guessing no). Not only did I order up some super manly fenders last week but I also got myself a new, super bright blinky light as well. I might as well tuck my jersey into my tightie whities (under my riding shorts of course) and mount a mirror to my helmet because I'm getting dorkier by the day. Oh, and did I mention I also ordered some reflective stickers for the bike too???

I know that fenders, blinkies and reflective tape aren't going to have you running with the cool crowd anytime soon but anything that helps me get out riding, getting exercise and saving gas is pretty damn cool in my book.

road grind

Yesterday I found myself with the opportunity to ride my bike up to Marcy's parent's new house. The question was, do I ride the bike I've been riding almost exclusively for the last month or so, the El Mariachi, or drag the road bike out of the basement and it's trainer servitude and let it breath fresh air for the first time in weeks. For the road bike's sake, I'm sorry to say that I chose the single speed Salsa. The reasons for the choice were many. First, the Mariachi was already in the garage, ready to go. Two, I have the fat, slick Schwalbe Big Apples mounted up for road duty such as this. Three, there is a two mile section of dirt road that I have to hit if I want to take the most direct route. Four, with the race in Vermont next month, it makes sense to spend as much time on the race bike as possible.

I was a little concerned about riding a single speed mountain bike on the road for 30-ish miles. Before this year two miles on the road with a fat tire rig was WAAAAAAYYYYY too much. Somehow, though, the El Mariachi seems pretty good on the road. Maybe its the geometry, maybe its the rigid fork, maybe its the sexy blue. Who the frick knows, all I know is that I like it on the road. I knew from my commute that I had roughly the right gearing on the bike for a road ride, kinda low gear for the flats and kinda high for climbs so a pretty good middle ground.

Two hours and thirty miles later I'm happy to say that I made the right choice. I probably could have gotten away with a slightly higher gear (I can already feel myself getting stronger since the beginning of the year) but overall things went well and I'm definitely glad I had the fat tires for the dirt road section. With the temps hovering at 38-40 degrees the gravel was very soft so the fatties helped me stay at least somewhat on top. The road bike's 23's would have dug in like a pizza cutter. Even with the fat tires, though, I was really wishing I had fenders for the El because of all the mud and water being sprayed in my face and on my back (and spiffy pack by the way). Thankfully, I ordered a set just this past week so by next weekend, I'll be sporting a set of Planet Bike Cascadia 29'er fenders and smiling on my dorky way.

I have a super exciting video from the gravel section to upload but my wanker dial-up connection from home isn't haveing it.

Also, I have a review on Ergon grips up on Bikeman.com's home page right now. In it, I offer up a set of grips to try out and wouldn't you know it, I already have a bite...

What does it hold?

For yesterday's commute, I decided to up the ante with the Ergon BD1 pack and carry a bit more stuff:

I chose to go with some heavy and awkward items, the type of stuff I wouldn't want in my other bags. For example, that tupperware is full of Marcy's famous turkey chili. A hard container like that would have been death in my messenger bag but the BD1 gobbled it up and I didn't even notice it was there. If push came to shove I could probably jam twice this much in there...

A great dog has passed.

We'll miss you Petey.

You didn't always listen,

We couldn't get you to "Come!"

But if we were going for a bike ride,

You were up for the run.

You were such a happy dog,

Master of Drake Hill.

Cruising up and down the street,

Stopping cars at will.

Ambassador of the neighborhood,

Ruler of the bunch.

Meeting neighbors at their driveways,

To eat their leftover lunch.

You were always gentle,

Great with all kids.

and tolerated Chance,

More than anyone did.

This is Brynna's first lesson,

Of a loved one passing away.

She doesn't understand yet,

But will one of these days.

We'll miss you Petey,

The cuddles on the floor.

The warm companionship,

Always meeting us at the door.

And though you're gone,

we won't forget.

What a great dog you were,

the best we ever met.

look what the brown santa brought

Last night, after work, I hit up the evening spin class at the local Y for an hour of suffering and copious sweating. I easily went through two water bottles (despite having two glasses of water an hour before class) while everyone else in the class had less than one. I don't know how people get through a class like that with only one bottle, I guess their bodies are used to being dehydrated. Anyway, after the class I hopped on the El Mariachi with its freshly mounted fat slicks and set out for home and quickly realized that the class had taxed me more than I thought because every hill HURT! I savored the pain though since its been a few months since I've tried to ride hard and with the start of the new year comes the start of my training so I sucked it up and soldiered on.

When I rolled into the garage a little over an hour later I was greeted by this:

No, I don't have a fridge and dining table in the garage. I took the pic once inside.

Inside of the box. Sorry for the bad pic.

Another angle of the pack.

It took me about 10 minutes last night to get the pack adjusted to my back and I was immediately in love. The pack sits low on (off actually) the back putting the weight over the hips with little weight on the shoulders and once on, it basically disappears. My biggest problem with packs and messenger bags while riding has always been that they've always felt awkward on my back. In the past I've tried several day-hiking type packs that worked OK but I always felt like I was carrying much more weight than I actually was. I've also got a sweet messenger bag that I use on a daily basis but once on the bike all but the smallest loads start to weight you down. Its comfortable but you feel the weight. At first glance, it seemed like the BD1 was going to take care of that.

Thankfully, it wouldn't be long before I got to put it to use since I was riding in again this morning.

This morning I decided to put the bag to the test and carry more than I typically would. Nothing too heavy yet since it would be the first run with it but I stuffed in most of my food for the day, an extra jersey, pump, batteries for my light and other odds and ends and the bag took them all easily (I could probably have put in 2-3 times that much) and once on my back the load essentially disappeared! The weight was obviously still there but somehow it felt less than I expected it to. Same for the ride in, the pack was so comfy that I forgot on several occasions that I even had one on. This same load in my other bags would have been a pain.

This was just one 1-hour ride so time will really tell but for now I'm super psyched to have this bag.

craptacular weekend but a good day

Wow, am I glad that weekend is over. Friday night, because Marcy was going out with friends, I decided to have my brother over for some beer pong. Stupid move since it meant I'd be up late and with B not sleeping well recently it was a recipe for very little sleep. Sure enough, B was up waaaaayyyyy too early leaving my plan for an early Saturday ride in the gutter. To top it off, we also found out that my parents dog of 14-ish years was being put down Saturday morning after a full day of seizures of unknown cause. Damn good dog too so it was really sad to hear.

Marcy and I decided to head up to my 'rents place Saturday afternoon to distract them and planned to stay over and head to Marcy's parent's new place sunday with the two of us sneaking in a couple hours of either snowshoeing or riding in between. Well, B threw a monkey wrench into that plan when she decided to wake up several times during the night. Finally, at 12:30 we threw in the towel, packed our shit and headed home figuring a few hours of good sleep was better than the alternative.

Theeeeeennnnnn, to top it off, my mountain bike ride on Sunday was f'ed after less than 20 minutes with some chain/cog issues on a wheelset I did a hasty change on. Of course, I could have fixed it back at the house and headed back out but my mood had soured considerably so I hopped on the trainer and watched an episode of Lost to try to salvage the day.

I don't think I've ever been so happy to see a Monday arrive than I did today since today is chock full of riding goodness. Well, maybe not chock full but I do have a spin class this afternoon followed by the commute home in temps over freezing. Amazing considering the temps I've been riding in recently.

Whats next?

In answer to Jason's comment to yesterday's post as to what is next for my bike after adding XM radio and hot coffee; I give you this:

exhibit A: handlebar speakers.

As silly as they are, they don't look half bad. If I had a cruiser bike they just might work.

Exhibit B: Handlebar speakers with entertainment system.

The next step, of course, is a multi speaker system with built in lcd tv, dvd player, amplifier etc.

What do you think?

Man points +1

Is there no end to my manliness? More likely, there is no end to my idiocy.

This morning's commute hit a new low, temperature wise, at an eskimo freezing -4F. What is it with Marcy's and my schedules anyway. Everyday that she goes to the gym its about 20 degrees in the morning and then my alloted days it drops into the single digits and below. Looking on the bright side though, these cold temps have given me plenty of opportunity to test out my cold weather gear for next month's Winter Challenge in upstate Vermont. Today I found that by using my xc skiing pants with one thermal below was more than enough to hold off the cold temps and the simple addition of one more thin layer on top (undershirt, craft thermal top, no name thermal top, long sleeve jersy and light weight coat) was more than enough as well. In fact, despite the cold, both my legs and upper body were kind of hot so I'll have to cut back a bit depending on race day temps since there is nothing worse than getting really sweaty and than having a chill set in.

My hands also did well with a pair of gor-tex and felt mittens with a thin pair of fleece gloves inside. My head was good with a balaclava which always works well and keeps drafts from heading down my neck and I tried Marcy's Aquaphor (she uses it for winter dives to keep the skin on her face from falling off) on my cheeks and nose since those are hard areas to cover while on the bike. The aquaphor seemed to do the trick because my face and nose never got cold. That stuff will be going in my bag in a month!

Finally we're down to my feet. Unfortunately, they froze. I went with a liner sock, wool sock and winter riding shoes but that didn't cut it and my little piggies were frozen solid by the time I rolled in. I guess next time I'll also go with the neoprene booties and in Vermont I'll be carrying some chemical packs just in case.

I also had a chance to try out this bad boy my brother gave me for my birthday. Its a mini thermos with a flip top lid to allow for easy access on-bike. He also "customized" a bottle cage with some fancy black electrical tape to be sure it was a nice snug fit. My days of carrying an insulated mug and splashing cold coffee all over my bike are over. This sucker kept my coffee hot hot hot through the whole below zero commute. Saweet!

new links

I've added a few new blogs in the link section recently including the "amigos blog" from the Salsa website, check in there to get the inside scoop on up and coming things from Salsa and occasionally for a chance to give your opinion on a new product. Good stuff. I also added "Gnat", the head honcho at Salsa's private blog. Last, I also linked to a new blog from a guy I occasionally race against here in Maine, Michael Patrick. Michael's story is very cool. Michael has brain cancer and has had two brain surgeries as a result but still manages to go out and compete at an elite level (kicks my butt easily btw). In fact, Michael credits cycling as saving his life. I'm not sure how often he'll post but he is an inspiration.

Happy new year!

Happy new year to all you bike geeks out there in cyber land. Maine is getting hit with a 1-2 punch right now. We got 8-10" of fresh, fluffy powder yesterday rendering the trails temporarilly unrideable so the Nelson clan headed out for some picturesque snowshoeing instead.

Today we're expecting another 8-14" so it'll be at least a week or so before the snowmobiles pack the trails enough to be rideable again. Maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to sneak in a road ride or two if they get the ice off the roads. If not it'll be more showshoeing and trainer time.

In the meantime, I'm waiting not so patiently for a couple of packages from the Brown Santa. Package one is a set of grips and a new pack from Ergon. I'm psyched about both since I'll finally have Ergons for the Dos and I hope to use the pack for the race next month in Vermont (must carry lots of safety equipment!). Many thanks to Jeff K. for getting them out so quickly.

The second package is an XM Inno handheld receiver/mp3 player. My parents and bro got it and a year subscription for me for x-mas after all of my bitching about there being no good radio stations in Maine anymore. If you're not into country or top 40 you're out of luck. With XM at my fingertips I'll be able to rock out all day long!

The risk

of riding this time of year, after a couple of warm days with some rain, is the potential for foot dunking in the 33 degree water. Too bad my winter riding shoes aren't waterproof; then again, I went in to mid shin so I guess that wouldn't have helped anyway. At least I didn't fall in head first which was a definite possibility in this case...

my favorite searh hit ever

I got a search engine hit today for "assault that ass 4" (I'm guessing a nasty ass porno). Happy days.

no time vid

I've been out for almost a week now and work is stacked up so you'll have to survive on a lame video I shot yesterday while out for a single speed mountain bike ride with the pooch. Can you feel the excitement?

This was my first ride on the new Nokian Extreme Gazza 294's and man did they do the trick. They are a bit narrower than my Ignitors and much narrower than my Rampages but with yesterday's conditions of crusty snowmobile trails with lots of icy areas they were a godsend. If I had been running the rampages I would have either had to go really slow and tentatively or ended up with a broken hip and some serious ice rash. I vote for the extremes.

While on the ride I noticed four bald eagles haning out in an area I have NEVER seen any before and for a while I couldn't figure out why they were there. That was until I turned around and saw this hiding behind a rock...

What a lovely sight this was to see, a deer pretty much stripped clean. You can imagine how fun it was to keep the dog out of this...

And now, what I like to call a Jeff Kerkove photo op...

hello

This week I have had plenty to blog about but absotively no time to do it. I now find myself with a few minutes to I'll start with the beginning of the week.

By far, the highlight of the week was my birthday present from Marcy. As she typically does, she fed my cycling obsession with a set of the new Nokian Gazza 294 studded tires. With these bad boys, commutes like the one this week will go from downright scary in spots to just plain fun. Not to mention they will allow worry free snowmobile trail riding (worry free from ice at least, they do little to deal with the throttle twisting pollution belching snowmobiles themselves). More on that later.

studded for her pleasure

In addition to the tires, Marcy also supplied me with a kick ass beer and a delish turtle cheese cake. I'm not sure if either should be on my diet but hell, it was my b'day so bottoms up!

Commute of Death

It snowed here like crazy during the day on Sunday and then rained for a few hours leaving us ice/slush covered roads on Monday. I had planned (as I always do) to ride in on today so I had to figure out a safe way to do so. I decided to put a more road friendly gear on the SS El Mariachi and give her a shot. I figured the El would handle the nasty conditions better than a road bike with 23c tires.

This morning I woke to find it a balmy 7 degrees outside but thankfully the gale wind that blew all day yesterday had died down so I bundled up (a bit more after last week's near frost bite on the fingers and toes) and headed out.

The pucker factor was high on the side roads where 75% of the road surface was still ice covered but thankfully there was a thin layer of gravel on top so it was rideable but you had to be on your toes. Route 1 was pretty much clear so no problems there.

Unfortunately, my luck ran out once I was back on the side roads where I tore the valve stem off the tube of my front tire. I am here to attest that changing a tire in the dark when it is below 10 degrees totally sucks. Add to that a mini "it takes a thousand pumps to inflate a 29'er tire" pump and noticing 3/4 of the way through pumping that one of the beads has popped off so you have to start all over again and you end up with a fifteen minute nightmare. Once I was back on the road again my feet were freezing so I decided against my better judgement to hit up the Schmidt Preserve trails to try to warm up again. I knew that portions of the trail would be unrideable because of Sunday's storm but I figured at least half would be packed by snowmobiles. Maybe not.

10 feet into the first trail I knew I was in for a nasty time and that I should really just turn around and finish the commute by road but I've never considered myself a quitter so I forced myself to continue on because I was certain I'd be able to ride at least part of the trail and plus, the walking was warming my feet. About 25 minutes of post-holing in 16" snow with a 1/2" crust on top later I came to the first intersection that I expected snowmobile traffic. Of course there was none. I was too far into the walking to turn back so I trudged on kicking myself for being so stupid but also kind of revelling in the adventure. After another 35 minutes of post-holing to the EXTREME! I was finally out of the woods and riding the final few miles to the office with my tail between my legs after my 50 minute commute turned into a 2:15 death march.

Loose 29'er tires...

...scare the bejezus out of me. This sucker popped off the rim about 20 minutes after installation the other night. I'm getting the El Mariachi set up for commuter work and seeing this happens scares the crap out of me. Anybody feel like cruising down the road at 20mph and having their tire blow off? No? Me either.

what I did on my day off

After spending the entire day indoors yesterday taking care of B while she fights of a raging ear infection AND the flu I was able to escape a bit when Marcy got home (not until 8pm because of some appointments, ugh) and snuck out for some snowshoe action with the pooch. It had been snowing for a few hours when we left so there was a nice fluffy 3" blanket of fresh waiting for us. I mounted up one of my older bike lights to a headband and we rocked it for a quick hour. There is something really cool about being in the middle of the woods at night with the snow falling. You MUST try it sometime.


B may only be two but she's got the 'spend the sick day in bed watching Mickey and ring the bell for service' thing down pat already. I hate marcy for giving her that freakin bell!

Hitting the trails. Is it me or does it look like the pooch just heaved a snowball towards my head and is running for cover?

For more (much better) Nelson family showshoe pics click Here & Here.

Man points and 2008 shaping up.

Today I sit at home with a sick baby B with an ear infection and chest cold. Kid is sick but toughing it out. She still manages to run around and act normally most of the day. If I had what she has I'm sure I'd be a whiny mess, wimpering on the couch. Men are such babies.

Tuesday morning I did manage to earn some serious man points though by commuting to work by bike. How do I get man points for that you ask? Easy, it was a balmy 4 degrees f and with an average speed of 14 mph (its hard to ride fast when its so damn cold) that is roughly -13 degrees f with wind chill. I've ridden at those temps many times in the woods without too much discomfort because you're body is more active on a mountain bike ride but on the road that is damn cold. By the end of the 55 minute commute, the fingers and toes were brutally cold but the rest of me was fine. Even the giblets stayed toasty thanks to a tip I received to tuck my undershirt down around the boys. Seemed to do the trick but of course, you need to have a really long undershirt to pull that one off.

In other news, I'll be flying the Team Green colors for 2008. Thanks Ergon for the support!

I taught her right.

Except for the tongue thing, I don't know where she got that from. Maybe watching the dog?

sweating with the oldies

Leading up to my instructor training for spin class early next month I figured it would be wise to actually take a class or two to familairize myself with the whole scene. On Friday, Marcy and I were to spend the day Christmas shopping so I headed down for the 6am class that Marcy usually takes. I'd say that I was the youngest by at least 15 years but it was a pretty friendly bunch. Unfortunately for me though was that Marcy had apparently talked me up a bit with the group so they were expecting something pretty special from me. I had much lower expectations since this was my first class in probably 5 years and I have done exactly zero high intensity training in the last couple of months and spin classes are all about intensity.

After about 5 minutes of easy spinning and trying to get the bike set up properly we launched into our first of about 5000 interval sessions for the 1 hr class. This particular class consisted of mostly climbing intervals with a few sprint types thrown in for good measure. Within about 10 minutes I knew I was in trouble. The high intensity efforts were a serious tax to the system but with my build up by Marcy I couldn't exactly back off and show the kind of wuss that I was so I soldiered on and made it through the class only coming close to blacking out once (for honest and for true) and having both of my calves cramp in the final two sprints.

I have to admit that those old coots really know how to dish out a hurting and while I know (hope) I could kick their wrinkled up old butts out on the road, they seriously put the wood to me during the class.

I look forward to more classes in the future and hopefully I'll eventually be able to keep up with the blue hairs.

Racin Rick

is going on hiatus for a bit. Too damn busy recently. You can expect MAYBE one post a week until the new year. After that we'll see if we can get the hampster back on the wheel.

bitch slap

Lobsterville is currently getting hammered with snow. They're calling for up to 18" along the coast here. This would be primo riding during the day today if I didn't have to work. F! I'm guessing that by the time I get home the snow will be so deep that riding won't be possible. I'll be keeping the fingers crossed. Also on today's slate is a training session for spin class. A few weeks ago I was asked to train so that I could fill in and eventually lead some classes. In truth, I haven't done a spin class in about 6 years but I do enjoy them and they are a good kick to the junk training wise so I look forward to adding them to my weekly training itinerary. Trainer rides are getting fewer and fewer. Now THAT'S good news. So anyway, the training class is supposed to be this evening but I'm guessing it will be cancelled since the snow isn't supposed to stop snowing until tonight.