more edge

Marcy thought my post from yesterday didn't convey my amount of excitement about receiving the Garmin Edge for Christmas. I tried to explain that it was a super busy day at work and I simply didn't have time to do a real post but I wanted to get something, ANYTHING!, up so that was what I did. Just to be sure you understand my lust for this item, I've included a couple of extra pics. The first is me as I opened the box at my parents place on xmas eve. The second was a pic Marcy snuck of me on the pot playing with my (electronic) toy. I apologize for the almost ass shot.

















thanks for checking in.

welcome to the 20 somethingith century

I received a Garmin Edge 305HR for merry ole xmas. I wasted no time by promptly mounting it up and going for a 2 hr mountain bike spin last night. I uploaded the map to Motionbased.com for your viewing pleasure.

Schedule

Not much to blog and even less time so here is an e-mail from a fellow teammate who also runs the MMBA Series.  Exciting stuff huh?

Hi team,

I am excited to report that the Maine race series schedule for
2007 is
confirmed and is as follows:

May 20 – Maine Mayhem – Camden, Maine
June 23 (Saturday event) - Rotary Park Short Track - Biddeford,
Maine
June 24 - Clifford Park Assault – Biddeford, Maine (also an EFTA
NECS event)
July 15 – Maine Sport Run Off – Camden, Maine
July 29 - Bradbury Mountain Enduro – Pownall, Maine (also an
EFTA NECS
event)
August 19 – Carrabassett XC Challenge – Sugarloaf, Maine
September 2 – Rangeley Lakes Saddleback Challenge – Rangeley,
Maine
September 16 - GrillZ Memorial – Georgetown, Maine (also an EFTA
NECS event)

For more EFTA events, go to www.efta.com.

Thanks and ride on!
Mary

Level with me.

I ran over this bad boy on my commute home the other night. A nice, heavy duty, metal level used in a combination square. It didn't do any apparent damage at the time but I broke a spoke on my way home last night while essentially coasting down a slight downhill. Coincidence? I think not.

Yesterday I got an e-mail from a fellow teammate that our Rider in Chief, Davis Carver is in this months issue of Mountain Bike Action talking about his Carver 96'er line of bikes. Its nice that he's getting exposure for some pretty cool bikes and is being recognized as one of the forerunners in the 96'er movement. Unfortunately, MBA is the worst bike magazine ever and I refuse to read it let alone buy it so hopefully someone will be kind enough to post the article up on the web eventually.

Edit that, I just found it. You can check it out here. Oohhhh, and they offer it in a titanium now too. Schweet!

Butt floss

I’m sure you’ve heard the term “butt floss”.  It refers to a woman’s g-string essentially flossing her crackasoreass.  The other night though, we witnessed the beginnings of a new meaning.  The whole Dam fam was at home Sunday night and I was flossing the ole pearly whites while Marcy was attempting to show B how to solve a quadratic equation.  Unfortunately, Marcy just isn’t that bright so she asked for my help.  Sensing the urgency of the situation, I carefully set the floss down on a magazine on the coffee table to be disposed of afterwards.  As I was explaining that a quadratic equation is a second-order polynomial equation, Chance snuck in and ate the mint flavored floss.  I guess I can’t blame him, ever since being put on his new diet he has willingly (eagerly even) eaten anything that even remotely resembles food.  Unfortunately though, he’s going to have to suffer the consequences as he “passes” the floss in a day or two.  My only hope is that it is contained in a single, umm, dook or else he may end up with a second, slightly stinkier tail.

In other, less disgusting news, this morning’s commute was a balmy 12 degrees.  Thankfully, this time I was prepared and had dressed properly so it was a surprisingly nice ride with the exception of my eyeballs freezing solid on the downhills.  Note to self, wear glasses next time.

Word of the day

Now if someone could just photoshop a pic of me sucking wind in a race this year, it would be perfect! 

Does it get any better?

Its been pretty boring ride wise in these parts recently.  Aside from the occasional commute and maybe one weekend ride, there isn’t much to report.  This weekend was devoted to child care and house renos so my ass didn’t touch leather (saddles at least) all weekend.  I did bust out the Cyclo-Core dvd on Saturday though and put the hurt on the lower body.  I’m still hurting today.  I felt ok on my commute in but just couldn’t really get a groove going.  After last Wednesday’s frigid commute I decided to dress a bit warmer this morning so I ended up being a touch over dressed.  If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times, dressing for warm temps is easy, dressing for cold temps is easy, it’s this damn 30-40 degrees that freaking kill me.  I’m always a little too warm or cold, never just right.  Thank god for zippers by the time I rolled into the office I had my temp pretty well regulated.  When I got off of the bike though, I realized why I couldn’t get the legs going though.  I noticed that I had some nice brake rub going.  It wasn’t bad enough to be really noticeable but enough to really sap the legs.  I guess I didn’t get it dialed in right last night when I adjusted the chain tension.  My mechanical skills continue to astound me.

On a good note, I’ve now been using my Jandd Huricane bag for every commute for the last couple of months and I have to say, now that I’ve figured out the proper adjustments its pretty damn comfy.  It has also kept my gear nice and dry on a couple of rainy commutes.  If you’re in the market for a messenger bag, this is one to check out.

Tick, tick, tick

Last night I found a tick on me. A freaking deer tick, embedded and engorged. I didn't realize what it was initially because it was in the spot just below and between the shoulder blades that you can just barely reach but can't see too well. I only noticed it because I happened to be scratching in the area, felt it and started to dig at it. Ick. Apparently it has been there for several days because it was already dead. So, I'm going to have to get on the horn with the doc today and get shot up with some antibiotics. Good times. I'm sure its only a coincidence but I've had headaches and achyness for the last several days, just like lyme disease. Yippee!



It was 36 and drizzly when I rode in this morning and I had stupidly underdressed. Idiot. By the time I got in, I could barely move my fingers. To top it off, the shower at work has roughly 1 minute of hot water before it turns tepid so I couldn't even soak to warm up for ten minutes. One thing that I never skimp on though is my visibility. My bike has three flashers on it. Two in the rear and one white flasher in the front. In addition to that, I have reflective accents on my shoes, messenger bag, gloves, jacket. You name it, its reflective. I probably look like the freakin mother ship coming in for a landing but at least I know that there is no way somebody can not see me. They may not be paying attention to what their doing and still plow me over but at least I know that when the jackass puts his cell phone down and stops watching the girls gone wild dvd on his drop down screen that I'll be the first thing he sees. I've actually had a car stop me and tell me how visible I am on the road and as a father that makes me feel good.

yummy

Yesterday, the pooch and I did our weekly Sunday morning ride. Things were a bit wet but otherwise it was a pretty damn sweet ride. Thankfully hunting season is now over so we'll be able to venture out mid-week a bit more. Nothing much of real interest happened during the ride other than I'm getting a really good loop down that takes roughly 1:45 right now and can pretty easily be lengthened to several hours with a bit of out and back or road action thrown in to connect pieces.

What happened after the ride was most interesting. About 15 minutes into the ride Chance wandered off. I had a sneaking suspicion he had found a gut pile from deer left over from hunting season. Not wanting to deal with it at the time, I rode on expecting him to meet me back at the car as he does when we get seperated. About an hour into the ride, I stopped to adjust my headset when I heard his jangling collar approaching. Since he had managed to catch me, I assumed that he had simply wandered off momentarily earlier in the ride and not actually found a steaming pile of disgusting. We finished our ride without incident but when we got to the car my earlier worries proved to be true. Instead of hopping into the car, Chance proceeded to do the ole back arch convulsion and hacked up about 1 1/2 pounds of deer intestines. Excellent. Thankfully he was nice enough to do it before hopping into the car. Unfortunately, he didn't get it all out and I had a nice little suprise waiting for me on the living room carpet this morning. Nice way to start the day.

Photo evidence.















Aren't you glad you checked this blog today? Where else can you find a photo of regurgitated deer intestines? 

Don't try this at home!

New this fall to the Food Network "Lactate Threshold Cooking". Burn some calories before stuffing more down your pie-hole.



















.

dreaming of a white christmas

With Christmas and my birthday quickly approaching all of my available grey matter has obsessing over what to ask for. With the early demise of my heart rate monitor and the fact that I get lost at the drop of a hat, I've been thinking a lot about the Garmin Edge GPS/Heart Rate monitor.

I definitely consider this a lust item and not really a need item. I could easily run out and get another hr monitor for less than a third of the money and do perfectly fine but damn is this thing cool. Its hard to tell from the photo but the computer is only about twice the size of my current cat-eye bike computer and probably smaller than some of the monstrosities they call bike computers that I've seen advertised over the years. But in that small package there are tons of functions with the four most important being: 1. heart rate monitor 2. gps 3. bike computer 4. training software.

I would think that with those four items at my side, I'd be able to kick it up a notch next summer.

Realistically though, it taint gonna happen so if I'm going to set my sights on something so pricey it might as well be the new Salsa Mamasita.

Me likey.

Sunday ride

Its Sunday again and that means one thing, a ride with the pooch. Today we did a nice loop on the local trails ringing in at about 1:30 and 15 miles. Overall it was a pretty damn nice ride. It was a bit wet because of all of the f'ing rain recently but overall things are holding up nicely. If it wasn't for the hunters and their four wheelers and trucks, the ride would have been almost mud free. The pooch continues to impress as well, as the temps drop, his stamina rises as he easily kept up the whole ride. Hopefully we'll be doing lots of miles together this winter. There's lots more to yap about but I'm on my home dial-up and this slow crap is driving me batty.  

Sunday's ride

Here are a couple of pics from B's and my ridey ride on Sunday. What a frickin beautiful day.




































Hospital walking "path"















B's first kinda, sorta single track.















lattah

Sponsor plug

Here are a couple pics of B rockin a Bikeman.com Team sponsor t-shirt.






































I'm not sure if Rock Shox approves of tokin on a hooka though.

its a wrap

Its Sunday evening and I just wrapped a fine weekend.  Yesterday, Marcy was in New Hampster at a friend’s baby shower so B-Girl and I were left to our own devices.  We passed the time playing, napping, Christmas shopping for mommy and going for a road ride.  This was our first ride together in over a month and I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome.  It was a beautiful day with temps hovering in the mid 50’s, sunny skies, light breeze.  I also tried a different method of keeping B happy than previously.  Before, I would wait until B was ready for her nap and head out hoping that she would fall asleep during the ride.  Unfortunately, when she wakes from her nap, she freaks and screams bloody murder until we get home.  So with that in mind, yesterday we headed out just after B’s morning nap and sure enough she was happy and content during the whole ride.  I purposely kept the ride short just in case but I never heard a peep (no unhappy ones at least) until we pulled back into the driveway after the ride.  This may have been my last trailer ride with her this year but I’ll certainly remember this come next spring.

Today was spent hanging around the house, doing a bit of work to make some extra coinage for this winter’s copious house renovations.  I was also able to squeeze in a mountain bike ride with the pooch before the rains descended on us.  We got in a sweet 1.5 hour on a new loop that we stumbled upon while exploring.  The funniest thing happened during the ride, because of the previous night’s rains Chance was enjoying himself splashing through all of the puddles.  One puddle on the edge of a swamp proved to be more than a match for the pooch.  It was only about 5’ across but when he tried to run through, he took a header and disappeared from sight.  He emerged a second later, covered in mud and quickly scrambled out the other side with his tail tucked.  Funny shit.  I laughed out loud at the poor s.o.b.  Of course, I wasn’t laughing as much when I had to clean him up when we got home.

La Ruta de los Conquistadores

Same ole, same ole in these here parts. Work my ass off for 10 hrs, go home, have and/or make dinner, play with the spud, put spud to bed, work for another hour (most nights), go to bed, repeat. Thankfully, some of those days have a bit of bike cummuting thrown in for sanity's sake. Yesterday, for example, I had an excellent ride home. 45 deg., clear and cool. The legs were feeling good and nobody tried to force me off of the road. Sweetness. I actually did a cx workout with the pooch in the morning as well and capped the day off with some pilates to work on the core and get things limbered up again so yesterday was a pretty good day.

Just read Adam Craig's write-up on that silly little race down in Central America. Looks pretty brutal but I've got to wonder if the 25 k of rail bed (with the ties) would be better with a 29'er.

From the look of this pic and others on the cycling news website, a 29'er could roll this stuff with the greatest of ease saving both time and energy. Of course, if you screwed up and fell in the river below, you'd be eaten by alligators Indiana Jones style.

whose the man?

I rode two days in a row, Wednesday and Thursday.  I’m so excited I almost peed my pants.  Damn this blog is even more boring than usual.

I’m getting my man-on again this off season and have started doing Pilates again.  They’re sorta gay and you can’t possibly look manly while doing them but they’re a great flexibility and core workout and as we all know, those are two areas that cyclists are notoriously weak in.  I’m secure enough in my manhood to announce that I do them.  For gods sake, I’m secure enough to wear a pink shirt to an office full of work boot wearing construction managers.  They rarely see my shaved legs or spandex though, I may be a man but I’m not stupid.

quickie

Quick weekly update:

Most of my riding has been the occasional commute (usually Wednesday’s). Last Wednesday, on my commute home, I ran into a road construction delay. Being a jackass on a bike, I rode around all of the cars to the front of the line, crossed the street and waited at a cross walk. The flagger waved me through (before the huge line of cars I had just passed) so I proceeded to cross the bridge. Of course the f’in flagger sent me through while there were still cars coming from the other direction so I changed my route to go over the crosswalk behind a cat excavator. Behind the excavator was a pile of railroad ties and some other various construction detritus. I started to snake my way through but halfway there I slipped out and ate serious shit, munging up my hand, glove, knee and ankle. I’m guessing it was karma for passing everybody like an ass.

The scene of the crime.















My poor glove.















wah, wah, my poor hand.















I’m also doing some cx workouts a couple days a week before work. These’ll be good if I actually do a cyclocross race but more importantly it’s a way to liven up my workout schedule.

Chris Carmichael’s Train Right series of dvd’s are sort of boring but are actually a good workout and even though they are boring, help to motivate me while on the nowhere bike.

Some IMBA dude sent me and a couple of other people an e-mail about coming to Camden to do a trail care day next summer and wanted us to put in an application. I’m not sure who they got our names from or why they came to us but Jeff Kuller (the Snow Bowl’s manager) got the ap in on time so hopefully we’ll have a sweet trail weekend next summer.

That’s all. 

You still there?

Hey there, I’m still alive.  Honest, I’ve just been so f’in busy with work recently that I’ve barely had time to breath.  I have no time today either so I’m going to steal some verbiage from Bikeman.com’s team manager -Big Gay Al- about an upcoming cx race to be held in Portland this December.  I may try to hit this one since I bagged the New Gloucester races this fall.  Since it will be its first year in existence I should try to get out and support it.  Anyway, here you go:

“Sorry everyone, another shameless plug for New England cyclocross.  I went over course design this morning with the promoter for the Casco Bay Cyclocross slated for December 2nd in Portland, ME.  There is great opportunity for course layout. 
 
What I laid out for a possible course provides for several off camber sections including a STEEP one, lots of chicanes, paved start, some paved recovery sections, some fast sweeping grass turns, some straight grass horsepower sections and one pretty sweet quick descent.  It also has up to three dismounts per lap.  Two are natural, the first being a greater than 50% chance that is has to be run in dry conditions, the other probably right at 50/50 if it is a run or a ride in dry conditions.  The third is a man made dismount in the form of a standard double barrier at fairly good speed.  There is opportunity to see much of the course from one location with spectacular views of Casco Bay.  The course doubles back upon itself in several sections allowing racers and spectators to see racers coming and going.  It also allows for one double pit at nearly the midpoint of the course.
 
This will be a USCF sanctioned event and promoter's intent is to have it at a level above a small, local race like Milford, NH or even Sucker Brook in MA.  His intent is to have it closer to a Verge NECCS event with the same categories and cash payout to the higher categories.  So spread the word.  Hopefully all the New England Bikeman.com crossers will be able to make it.”

Sounds like it has the potential to be a good race.  We’ll see if I actually do this one.

Things have been pretty darn slow riding wise recently. We have been trying to get outside as much as possible though. With hunting season descending on us in a week we've been trying to cram in some last minute outdoorsy stuff. The pics here are of a hike we took last weekend during peak foliage time. Purty huh?































Yesterday, I got out for a mountain bike ride with a good group of guys I only get to ride with a couple times a year because we live and ride in totally different areas within Maine. A few times a year, though, we try to get together for a good group ride. Sunday, we headed down to Mt. Ageminicutinishamalamadingdong or Mt. A for short in southern Maine and spent 2.5 leaf covered, ass puckering hours cruising around the labyrinth of trails, bouncing off of every hidden rock and root. Good fun.