48 Hours of Purgatory

Those of you that have good relationships with your parents, I applaud you. I hope that when I am older, my children will have some respect for me and a nice, healthy relationship. Unfortunately, I do not have that relationship with my parents. Short of laying on a couch for many days to analyze the issues, let's just say that there is a serious lack of respect on my part toward my parents, and consequently, I try to limit my time with them to the extent that I can while making sure that my children get to know them and have some sort of relationship with them.

My 48 hours started with a trip to Somerset Mall on Wednesday with my teenage daughters to meet my parents for some shopping and bonding. As explained above, the bonding thing was not going to be any fun and I hate malls. The upside was going to be some time with my girls and that can be fun most of the time. My parents are 80 years old and do not move quite as quickly as they used to, so it was going to be a sloooow trip around the mall. We made it to lunch and then split up to go our separate ways. They were going to spend the next two nights at my house, so no problem having some time away.

Everybody made it back to the house by late afternoon for some real close time. The preparations for Thanksgiving Day provided a fair amount of diversion to keep everyone from going off the deep end. There were no real battles. The only problem was a trend that continued through the next day and a half of my mother following my wife around like a puppy dog. Unfortunately, a very judgemental and harsh puppy dog. Somehow my wife did not snap mentally or verbally.

Thanksgiving Day was actually pretty fun once the afternoon came around. My brother's family showed up mid afternoon with his boys (4 year old twins and a 6 year old) and they provided plenty of entertainment. By 6:30 all 22 of us sat down to a great feast and all got along. This includes my parents getting along with my in-laws whom they have told me they do not like at all in the past. After cleaning up and sitting down at the end of the night, my father said what a great time he had and what wonderful people my wifes' family were. Thank God I had my hip waders on, it was getting deep.

To my relief, they left this morning at 9am and there was no blood drawn. I don't think there were even any harsh words spoken. The mental stress on me was incredible!! I rode early yesterday morning and tried to do some attack intervals, I struggled mightily due to a lack of sleep the night before. The stress of my parents visiting was palpable. Looking forward to riding this afternoon. Hopefully I recover in time for Bloomer on Sunday.

Happy Holidays!

 

Freezing at the Line

The start of the Munson Park race. My jacket was removed a good 5 minutes too early, need to talk to Dave about telling us how much time until the actual whistle blows so I don't shiver me timbers quite so much. By the way, what is the right way to put on the number? I was advised that mine was on upside down. Seems to me that it is all a matter of perspective.

By far the best part of this race was having my youngest daughter there. In the fog of a race, I usually don't remember hearing people cheering very much. I have very distinct memories of hearing Allison's voice every time I came near the hill. It was awesome!! The other voice that I remember from this race is Dave mentioning at least a couple of times how old I was when he called out my name. Don't know if that is a good or a bad thing. I also remember hearing members of next year's team and that is always cool - just no recollection of specifics, probably telling me to get my a$$ moving.

At the end of the day, I felt like I had a pretty good race. No stupid mistakes or technical problems. Power was good. Hats off to Eric and Taylor for riding good races - Eric in particular. He rode away from us. Taylor is going to be a very good rider if he sticks with it. I had no idea he was as young as he is, turning 14 next month (younger than my youngest daughter). Should I feel good about beating a 13 year old? Would I feel better if he had beaten me? For those keeping score at home, the combined age of 1st and 3rd was still 11 years younger than me. Good, bad, or indifferent, just the facts.

 

Peanut butter 1 vs. Pre-baited 0

 

Game on

Here's the deal, I was pretty well taken aback when my tp had a small rodent viciously attack the chamois in a favorite pair of knickers. Some of you were probably wishing you were the rodent - those in that category please resume your porn surfing. Now it seems I am a victim as well. The good news is, no clothing has been damaged. The bad news, mouse droppings in a desk drawer - blekkkk!!!

I have had mice in my shop before, we are next to a vacant lot and every fall as the temperature begins to drop, they think we are some sort of homeless shelter and they move in. Give us a month and we catch a couple and never have to deal with them again until the next fall. This year upon discovery, I trotted to my local hardware store to get some new traps (once I get a mouse in one, I throw mouse and trap out together). Lo and behold, technology has apparently reached the rodent catching industry. The only traps (I don't like the sticky/poisonous ones) were 'pre-baited', no need to put cheese or anything on them. The yellow thing on the trap is supposed to attract the varmints to the trap. Are mice really that stupid? Being the cynic that I am and wanting to make sure I catch the suckers, I am going to try one without any additional bait and one with some crunchy peanut butter.

Results to be posted as they become available.

 

Not the greatest photos..

These photos do not do justice to this frame. I am not a photographer, don't pretend to be one, and I did not sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night. I just like to ride bikes.



 

Newest Fix

I just received my latest fix yesterday. Sorry for the lack of photos, battery is dead in the camera and this is the only one that I got before I paid attention to that little detail.

Once again a frame by Kent Eriksen. Wanted a little bit snappier bike than my Moots so I worked with Kent on altering a few things toward that end. Slightly steeper seat tube and head tube angles. Shortened up the head tube for aesthetic reasons. As soon as I get the final dimensions, I will post them. As far as the bits and pieces that are coming: SRAM Rival group, Reynolds UL fork, Reynolds carbon bar, Selle Italia SLR saddle, Eriksen post, Ergomo BB and crankset, Reynolds Stratus wheelset, and most likely a moots stem (until Kent comes up with his own).

On another front, also feeding the addiction, but not ti. I have a Vanilla frame on order - unfortunately not due for two years (technically 25 months at this point, but who's counting). I spoke with Sacha yesterday about tubing since I know very little about steel tubing. The conversation was very cool, he is incredibly knowledgeable and very easy to talk to. I am looking forward to working with him on what I visualize as a work of art that I also get to ride and enjoy. You should check out his work http://www.vanillabicycles.com/. I first saw his work in person at Interbike this year. He made a child's tricycle in conjunction with Phil Wood that was amazing. He also had a bike in the Brooks saddle booth that was stunning in its' beauty.

Here's to hoping my training partner wants to go for coffee instead of riding in the rain this morning! 

Iceman Went

For those that have not done this race, it is one of the more well run races I have participated in. From packet pick up to getting the results posted, things seemed to flow remarkable well given the number of people. 17 years of experience probably helps.

Congratulations to Ron on a great ride in the singlespeed class!!! He laid it out like there was no tomorrow.

My results were mediocre. I was 23rd in my class, met my goal but it was nothing exciting. In retrospect, I do not feel like I pushed hard enough coming off the climbs and didn't bury people after I passed them on the climb. My biggest problem was not winning the race to the start line. Clearly there is a lot of strategy when you are dealing with about 200 riders in a wave. I ended up starting from about the 5th row. The most successful people at the start rolled up at the back of the wave in front of ours and then just sat there while they started, leaving them at the front of our start. Lesson learned.

Now for the reality check of this race. Shouldn't there be some sort of minimum percentage of singletrack required for a race to be called a mountain bike race? I don't think there was more than 2 miles of single track out of the 28.5 total. A time trial conducted on dirt roads ought to have its' own name instead of mountain bike race, perhaps a Dirt Time Trial? There needs to be more technical terrain to maintain my interest. I am impressed that there is such a cult following of this race. The people that run it have clearly done their marketing homework and have gotten people to buy into what is for the most part a very dull mountain bike race. It strikes me that there is enough terrain in northern Lower Michigan to put together some great long singletrack race possibilities. Would you be able to run 2000 people on it? Good question and not one for me to answer. If you could the race to the start line would be even more important, but the riding would be a whole lot more interesting.

My apologies to Andy Brown - I think I called him 'Dave' after the race - not thinking clearly at that moment.

Idle thoughts:

What is the name of a group of turkeys?

I hate burning the roof of my mouth - not only does it hurt at the time, it is annoying for days to come.

I took my camera to the race and never got it out, maybe next time.

Ode to a training partner

If you don't already have a training partner, I highly recommend that you find one. The benefits are tremendous. You will become a better rider and racer. On those days when you don't really feel like getting on the bike, you know that someone is counting on you to show up, and if you don't due to some lame excuse, you will be berated for it. Along the way of many miles and hours, you will develop a bond and friendship that should last a lifetime. A good training partner will hold your confidences as you hold theirs. The trust evolves over time to allow conversation on a broad range of political, religious, and personal topics. The opinions are respected at all times even though the exchanges can be excited.

Even though the 'ride plan' for the day may not be the same, the value of having someone to head out with is amazing. Knowing that you have someone to comiserate with as you get through one more interval, is some consolation where otherwise there would be only your own grey matter to overcome. Then on race day to hear the voice screaming at you as you feel like puking, priceless.

I am very fortunate to have found such a training partner.

The Way

If you have any thoughts about doing the Trans Rockies in 2007, this is the only way to go. It is the way Hotel Whiskey travels - DELUXE.
Register for the TR now, it will be sold out by January.