Yearly Archives: 2008

New Year’s etc.

This entry was posted in Racing on by .

I’ve been pretty bad on updating this since Cyclo-X Nationals. Sorry. I’ve been trying to catch up on regular life things, plus the holidays. I did the normal holiday things and went up to Cable Wisconsin to cross country ski for a couple weeks and build a shower for the “garage” we build up there a couple year’s ago at Dennis Kruse’s compound.

It’s a good time to be up in Northern Wisconsin. Lots of snow this year. Plus, lots of events and people travelling in from all over the country. The first weekend was a double birkie ski which is an unofficial event organized by Tom Schuler that skis the birkie both directions. It’s somewhere between 90 and 100 km depending on if you get lost skiing into Telemark Resort for the lunch stop. The Senior Nationals were held the same time pretty close, so alot of the best skiers in the country were in and out of the area. Last weekend, the 24 Hours of Telemark was held. It’s a 24 hour race with a ton of different catagories for teams and individua skiers. Finally, the Seeley Classic, a 42 km classic event promoted by Dennis and the Seeley Ski Team. So, there is lots of stuff to do, other than skiing, snowshoeing, chopping wood, bear cave viewing (bear included), etc.

Plus, I’ve been meaning to finish a bathroom in the “Kansas garage” that I started a few months back. Now, the building is pretty complete. Super nice place to stay. Dennis has more people coming through his compound that can be imagined. If he had a guest book, it would include names of superstar athletes from multitudes of sport. Cycling-Greg Lemond, Ned Overend, Travis Brown, Kent Eriksen, Bob Roll, Joe Parkin, Jeff Bradley, Tom Schuler, Davis Phinney, etc. etc. Skiing, the same quality and quantity of names. Plus journalists, photographers and a million other interesting people.

Anyway, I thought I was gaining a bunch of weight, but was pretty happy to get back to Kansas yesterday having gained only a couple extra pounds. And, I’d been in a car 12 hours and hadn’t exercised all day. Went riding for the first time in a while yesterday. Low 30’s and humid. Windchill is incredible, huh? I under dressed, which I rarely do. My fingers never got warm. I was skiing 25 degrees colder with super thing gloves. Riding with the thickest things I can fit on my hands and still get my fingers to bend. And still cold.

I was observing yesterday how quickly form leaves. It seemed like it tooknearly the whole ride to get pedaling in a somewhat normal rotation. Plus, every small rise seemed like a big hill. Streets I thought are dead flat seemed mountainous. Pretty weird.

Ok. Gotta get dressed for day two of 2008 bikin’.

I’m back…

This entry was posted in Totally Irrelevant on by .

Guess my last post wasn’t completely accurate. Missed another month here. Man, do the winter months go by so fast. The racing season is nearly a 12 month a year deal nowadays. So, the “off season” is nearly nonexistent. It gives us all the impression we need to get on the bike. Especially when the Tour of California is going on. But, we all should remember it is only February.

It has been a pretty harsh winter in Kansas this year. The whole midwest in general I guess. It has snowed 32 inches in Topeka so far this year. That is 3 X the total of all last winter. And it’s been cold. For Kansas.

So, when I got a chance to head to warmer weather, sans bicycle, I took it. Just got back from a 10 day treat in the Caribbean. It was interesting for me because the majority of it was on a cruise. Admittedly, being on a cruise ship wouldn’t normally be something that would fit my personality very well. But it did to a certain extent. I’m interested in just about anything and there are tons of things going on that are interesting. I did feel more in touch with the workers on the ship than the other passengers, but that is how I usually feel when I’m in a nice resturant or fancy hotel. Anyway, there were plenty of chances to exercise and explore some new territory, snorkel, swim, tan, etc. Plus, Spinning on a moving ship. Just shoot me if that happens again. The main downside was the quantity of food available at all times. Fresh fruit (raspberries, pineapple, blackberries, mango, etc.), plus the same fresh fruit in tart form. I love pies and tarts! But, that isn’t such a downside when you really think about it.

Anyway, hopefully I can post a sampling of photos below. I’m having a little problem posting photos with a change in web hosting.

I did go on a group ride in Fort Lauderdale, Sunday morning before getting on the ship. Tam, Catherine’s Kenda ex-teammate had arranged 4 extra bikes for our group from Kansas. We met at a bike shop. There were maybe 20 or so riders there. Most on super high-end bikes. Not like the local rides in Kansas. After riding down the road a few miles, there was a moving mob of over a 100 guys. It was crazy. Maybe the most crazy ride I’ve been on in my life. And I’ve been on some pretty crazy rides all over the world, so that isn’t a small thing. The group was was moving pretty well, hovering around 30 mph. And it was mayhem. Running red lights through state highways, swarming cars at intersections, crashes. The language of choice was Spanish. Which was fine by me. I was glad I couldn’t understand what everyone was yelling continuously. Anyway, no one I knew fell and I got 70 miles in before vacationing. And now I realized that I have no racing form. OK riding form, but no top end. Where does it go?

Trudi is out at the Tour of California working for BMC. I’ve been trying to ride the last few days as much as possible, but the weather hasn’t been conducive. Windy, cold, wet. I’ve got some shoulder issues from past and present. Trudi was picking (Dr.) Eric Heiden up at the airport a couple days ago and I had a chance to talk to him a little while. He said it sounded like rotator cuff issues, not separated AC’s. I’m now doing some exercises and stretching. We’ll see. It was good talking to Eric after all these years. It’s pretty weird how you can take up a conversation with someone you haven’t seen in years without missing a beat. That is cycling!

So, this weekend is historically the first weekend to race around here. Either Frozen Toes in Missouri or a couple great road races I’ve done in Austin, TX the past couple years. But, I’m thinking I might just need to train some. Might go down to Poteau, OK and do some long miles. It’s on the Oklahoma/Arkansas border about half way down the state. Some really old mountains, with huge, steep climbs. And the temperatures are at least 20 degrees warmer 4 hours South. I’m not sure that I need to be riding up mountains right now, but early season is painful. Might as well add a little. Or, I could head up to Wisconsin and ski the Birkie on Saturday. That would be painful for sure.