Perfect Day

Today may have been the perfect day.  It started at 9am with a home-made banana/strawberry/peanut butter/chocolate/yogurt smoothie, followed by an awesome ride at Sac River. 

The trails where great and the weather was perfect.  I met a few other riders and just had a great time.  My new bike is so much fun to ride.

That was followed by a trip to JQH Arena to watch the Bears beat Nevada in a nationally televised bracket buster game.  It came down to the wire, with them winning on a pair of free throws with 3 seconds on the clock.  We had great seats in the second row right behind the bears basket.  It was such a good game.

Then I went back out to Sac River for another ride.  While riding some of the lesser used trails I discovered that Jason Faegans and his crew have been busy building new trails.  They aren't finished yet but I was able to ride 3 of the new trails and part of a 4th one by following the ribbons.  I also found a new bypass they've put in and lots of trail grooming where erosion has degraded the trail.  There are several miles of new trail and it will be really cool when they are finished.  

After the ride I had a really good steak gorgonzola salad and a peanut butter cookie from the Grotto with some wonderful company .  A perfect day.

Spa City 6 hour mountain bike race

My first mountain bike race of the year is in just a couple weeks.  I'm going to do the Spa City 6 hour race in Hot Springs AR on Feb 27th.  My plan for the weekend is to car-pool with 4 guys from Springfield and arrive early enough on Friday the 26th to be able to pre-ride the course a little, then camp at the race site Friday night, race Saturday and either come home after the race or camp Saturday and drive home Sunday.

I think I'm ready for the race.  Hopefully the temps will be in the 50's and the trails won't be too sloppy.  I've been getting in some fairly long training rides and I plan to ride for 4 hours this Saturday.  I don't have any expectation of doing well at the race, but if I can get in the top 10 I'll be very happy.  I'm just really excited to get this racing season under way.

If anyone reading this is interested in doing the race and wants to car-pool from Springfield, let me know in the comments.  Hot Springs is a great town and Saturday night could be a good time.  We are planning on taking only 1 vehicle, but I wouldn't mind driving if a couple more people want to go.  We'll have a pop-up camper and a pop-up cover.  Just bring your bike and a tent.  This would be a good tune-up race for Ouachita, and it's a USA Cycling event.

Here's a picture I took in Hot Springs last year:

It's going to be a great place to ride.

No looking back

I've had my usacycling norba license upgraded to cat 1 so I'm done with Sport.  I race because I want to push myself and I love competition.  I want to race against the best and cat 1 is where they are at, so that's where I'll be.  It's going to be humbling but winning isn't everything.  There's just as much racing going on in the middle of the pack as there is at the front.   I might even be able to catch a few people off guard.

I've been working really hard and it looks like my first race of 2010 is going to be the Leadbelt XC on March 14.  It will be the inaugural event in the newly formed United Federation of Dirt series.  I'm hoping all the spin classes, road miles and hours on the trainer are going to pay off.

Thieves

Last night someone broke into my Jeep and my girlfriends car.  They broke out the passenger side windows on both vehicles and rummaged through all the contents.  They also looked through my shed to see if there was anything they wanted in there.

All that was taken was an old iPhone that I had hooked up to my stereo.  If somebody wanted it that badly they could have asked for it and I would given it to them.  The biggest pain is cleaning up the mess and getting our windows replaced.

The cars were parked in our carport, and this just gives me more incentive to build a garage.  We reported the break-in and theft to the police and they took the report over the phone.  I guess it wasn't serious enough to warrant a visit.

I hope whoever did it either gets caught or turns their life around.  It's a crummy feeling to go out to your car in the morning and see broken glass everywhere.  I'd hate for anyone else to have it happen to them.

Here's the scene of the crime:

Notice the Atlas security sign on the fence.  Unfortunately the security system is for the house only.  Maybe I need to install some lights out there with motion sensors on them.  I really just want a garage....

UPDATE:  I was called by the officer investigating the break-in and it turns out there have been several in the area lately.  He's trying to catch them.  I also found out our neighbors car was broken into the same night but nothing was taken; just rummaged through.  Same MO, broken rear window and the thief went in through the window.  If they had unlocked and opened the door the alarm would have gone off.  Hopefully they report it; I'm going to give them the officers number. 

New Years Day ride at The Ranch

Friday I was able to ride in the annual New Years Day ride at the ranch.  It was an amazing day. (Thanks to Adam for the pictures)

I arrived at 9am and was on the trail not long after.  It's basically a 14 mile loop and it's some of the nicest singletrack I've ever ridden.   There are lots of challenging sections and tons of variety, but what stands out the most is the way the trails flow.  It's just a lot of fun.

I rode with Zednek Palecek; me on my epic and him on his single speed salsa.

After the first couple miles I took the lead tried to set a nice fast pace.  It was pretty cold and I needed the effort to build up some warmth.  Not long into the ride I noticed my rear tire was going flat so we stopped to check it out.  I had a small slit in my sidewall and it wasn't sealing.  We shot some CO2 into the tire and got it to hold air and took off again.  A couple miles later it was going flat again.  I took the tire off, put on a tube and after airing it up a little, ran out of CO2.  Neither one of us was carrying a pump.

We were near a bailout road so Z went back to the cars to get a pump and after a few minutes a couple guys came by and they let me use their pump to air up my tire.  The standing around was taking it's toll on my feet and my toes were getting pretty cold.  I rode out to meet Z, used hit pump to put a little more air in my tire and we got back on the trail and picked up where we left off.

Before we finished the lap Z got a flat on his front tire; it looked like a piece of shale rock went through his tread and the stans didn't seal it.  When he took the tire off there was a snowflake of rubber inside.  He put in a tube, aired it up and we were back in action.

Here's one of the obstacles near the end of the lap:

After we finished the lap we ate a little and waited while I warmed my toes.  I couldn't believe how many people were there; at least 60 on a very cold day.

We decided to head out for a second lap going the opposite direction, with Z in the lead.  He worked me really hard that lap.  He knows the trails there pretty well and would pull away on the downhills and I'd have to work really hard to catch him going up the next hill.  Z is a very strong rider and I was happy to keep pace with him.  Near the end we caught up with Chris Ploch and David Frei and finished the lap with them.  It was funny because on the hills David kept telling me I could pass and I kept telling him I didn't want to.  My legs were feeling pretty burnt and I didn't want to go any harder.

So after about 30 miles of hard riding we were done for the day and ate pretty much everything that was left of the food people had brought.   It was a really nice way to spend a day.

UPDATE:  The pictures Adam Rybar took that day are on SnapFish. You'll have to register to see them (for some reason). Here's the link: http://www5.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=3097397007/a=56026446_56026446/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Winter

Winter is not my favorite time of the year.  With the shorter days (they seem short when you wake up at 9am) and the colder temps I tend to spend much more time indoors than I'd like; much of it in my basement workshop tinkering with my bikes.  Currently I've got my StumpJumper taken completely apart and I'm cleaning/lubing all the pieces. 

I like getting out and messing around in the snow but in southwest Missouri we don't get that many opportunities.

I'm really looking forward to spring and the start of racing.  I participated in CXMAS a couple weeks ago and had a great time but man, was it cold.  Hopefully I'll be able to get off the waiting list for the Ouachita Challenge and can use that to kick off the summer.

The race schedules for the MWFTS and UFD have been released and I'm looking forward to seeing what AMBCS has in store.  It's going to be hard to choose between the races and a lot of it will depend on what my competition is doing.  I'll be racing expert this year so if will be much tougher, but I'm looking forward to the challenge and I hope I can continue to improve.

I've decided to join a team for next season.  I'll be racing for Revolution Cycles.  That will be a new experience for me and hopefully a positive one.  It's a new team and I'm glad Jeff invited me to be a member.  I think we will be able to work together and have some good races.

Just a few short months....

Epic in hand

Yesterday I called A&B Cycle intending to bitch about why I didn't have my new bike yet.  When I got Pete on the line I asked "Do you know where my bike is" and he replied "Yeah, I'm looking at it".   NICE!  They were in the process of putting it together and said I could come pick it up in the afternoon.

I got the bike around 3 and after taking several photos headed out to little sac to get it dirty.  Here are some pics:

My ride was short but sweet.  I didn't have much daylight to play with and I spent most of the time tinkering with the suspension settings but the ride is amazing and I can't wait until this weekend when I'll be able to really test it out.  I'll take it out on the new I-64 on Saturday, followed by a day on the trails around St. Louis.

The shop set it up with tubes and since I rode at sac I got a thorn flat.  After I got home I converted it to tubeless and it was the easiest conversion I've ever done.  The front tire (an s-works captain 2bliss) sealed with a floor pump and the rear tire (an s-works fast trak 2bliss) sealed with a short shot from the air compressor.  The bike came with the rim strips and stems so the only thing I needed was the stans.

I still have a little adjusting to do on the suspension but it's close to perfect.  Man, I love this bike!