Bury the Cat

Tough to Top this!

2012-02-05T21:22:00.001-06:00

What a weekend! Started it out right Friday night when I stopped by the shop. I was discussing suspension stuff with Jim and next thing I know we're doing full throttle beat laps down the road behind the shop in This Car!!!! 3 days later and I still grin remembering the repeatedsessions of full throttle wheel spin in third gear in a car that cost more to build than I make in about 5 years! I think that's my one time of getting to ride in a car like that,thanks Jim and Mike! It won best of show at the biggest car show in North America as well as in Pomona just recently. The car needs to be seen to be truly appreciated. Followed that up later with a spectacular fish fry at St. Lukes in Plain. Mmmm.
Saturday had me dropping The Girls off at The Fraziers and then riding home from Cottage Grove. Bryan got me to Lodi and then I meandered home from there. Then it was off to the annual Wild Game Feed one of the Doctor's at St. Clare Hospital puts on every year. That's always a good night and it kicks off the silly season of food events in our area every year. The chili suppers and smelt feeds are starting this coming weekend and we can hit one every weekend in Feb until early March. I'm pretty sure if I stop riding I will rapidly become RK+.
Sunday had us in Waukesha at The Braun's crib for Darrin's last big ride before the Life Changer shows up. We had almost the whole 212 carnival act in attendance and it was a good performance today fo sho. Mrs. Braun was in full life creation mode yet and had quite the arm rest going. I know she's going to miss that feature. Thanks to The Braun's for hosting and feeding us up! We'll be back after the neighborhood recovers from the shock and awe that was in effect today. Maybe Chris will let Michelle ride her new road bike next time...

Payback?

2012-01-29T17:11:00.001-06:00

Last week Nariz (Bryan) was not having a good day when we rode together and I was having an exceptional sort of day. My feeling of how great a day it was was offset by Nariz's tunnel vision and focus on the road surface 3 ft in front of his wheel. I'm pretty sure that if you look at his calendar there is a red circle around today's date. He spent countless hours honing his fitness, plotting how he was going to come and destroy me today. Well, nice job. It worked. Thanks for that.
It's February this next week. Almost time for silly season. The Smelt Feed in North Freedom on the 25th, Chili in Leland on the next week, chili in Blackhawk somewhere in there and I heard a rumor of a Smelt Feed in Sauk soon too. I should be racing at D+'s weight this year.

Watch that step!

2012-01-24T20:54:00.000-06:00

The most treacherous part of the weekend turned out to be the basement steps. First time I've fallen in a while and I don't like it much. The cold air was as good as any ice pack on Sunday, and by the end of the ride my jacket was pretty much a sheet of ice anyway. It helped me keep from thinking about how much my arm hurt from falling down the steps, I suppose.
Been spending most nights working on the car lately. I ripped all the wiring out and started over again. It looks much nicer, at least to me. It's almost February already! Hopefully be driving it soon.

OK then

2012-01-15T07:57:00.002-06:00

They, who in this case are Google, decided to make changes to blogger so I wasn't able to post using internet explorer 7 anymore. I finally tried it on Lisa's machine and it apparently works. Thankfully this will bring me off the bottom of the blog roll for little while.
Went to the bike swap yesterday to sell and not buy anything. Accomplished both objectives. The first thing that I sold was a used 9 spd cassette. The most interesting item I sold was my number 69 bib number from Chequamegon 2 years ago!!!! Enjoy that, funny guy that bought it.

Well Hello again!

2011-12-10T20:35:00.000-06:00

Where you been? The "Off" time was wild around here. Finished, I say Finished up quite a few jobs that have been needin' doin' for quite a while. We cut down a huge tree in front of our house (with minimal damage done!), cut a lot of firewood, tore the pantry apart and put it almost all back together. I put a new master cylinder in the plow truck today and now I'm ready for the impending snow. Somewhere in there we started riding bicycles again, too. Today was so nice on the bike. No reason to not be riding, sun was shining and it was just me and the fast girl I live with. We both were really happy with our newest bicycle related purchases, the Louis Garneau 0 degree winter cycling shoes. Scott recommended them and they do not dissapoint!! Thanks a bunch, Scott! Those shoes are going to make winter riding much, much more gooder.
There's talk of riding The Kettles tomorrow if they're open. Not having house projects is a wonderful thing.

Dark O'Clock comes early

2011-10-05T20:27:00.000-05:00

It's getting harder to get everything in before dark these days. If you can't read the PowerTap display the workout isn't really happening, right? Seems like it still hurts though.

Got the car started last weekend. Put the touch starter in this week and it is sweet!!! I'll get a video up of it soon. Hopefully the exhaust goes on next week and I can get it home. We'll see. If I learned anything in this process it's that everything takes way longer than I thought it should!

Reforestation Recap

2011-08-29T08:40:00.000-05:00

What a fun race! I had so much fun ripping the super fast singletrack yesterday. It was good to be back towards the front again. Crazy finish with the lappers and spectators but still one of the best races around. The Dark Helmet from Title Town Brewery the night before must have put some Ludicrous Speed into my system.

Green Bay

2011-08-25T13:45:00.000-05:00

Here we come. Looking forward to some high speed racing fun this weekend. This race was the first place I ever got a Top 3 in WORS Elite. We had recently returned from 2 weeks in Italy and I had a lot of miles in me at that point. I chased down people I had no business running down and surprised myself with that finish. What a day. Notice I wasn't at top form on the podium pose. Sweet hair, though.

Jeezaloo

2011-08-02T16:18:00.000-05:00

It's almost time for Ore to Shore!! Summer seems to have just started and WHAM!! the Fall Classics season is almost on us.Hopefully I can come close to the result I had there last year, it made all that suffering worthwhile. I wonder if we're riding through that canal again this year?

Why stop at 2 Mustangs

2011-06-29T21:56:00.000-05:00

When you can own 3?

So last weekend was pretty awesome. The race course was perfect as was the weather. Results for me weren't exactly what I was hoping for but it was another great 212 gathering which is just as good! Lisa did her first PRO race and that was fun to watch. The short track was a spectators dream as we could see half the track from 1 spot. The attacks were vicious and plentiful and watching them I could tell I would've gotten pulled in about 8 minutes or less of the 30 minute ordeal.

So not only did we get another car last night, Kylie fell off the monkey bars and broke her arm just below her elbow. Both bones broke so she did a really good job. Lisa was gagging when she saw it! She said Kylie's arm looked like a lightning bolt. Nasty. So she'll have a cast on for the next 4-6 weeks if all goes well. Longer if they have to do surgery next week if the 2 bones fuse together.

I guess Summer is over.

2011-06-09T20:33:00.000-05:00

Seemed short this year. I didn't even get to drive our car.

George of the Jungle and me

2011-05-31T21:13:00.000-05:00

had a little bit in common on Saturday. I was at the WEMS race and totally had a "watch out for that tree!!" moment, just like in the song. Much like George, I smoked it pretty hard. Just shy of seeing stars, I shook it off and carried on. Chris and Michelle took the wins for the 6 hr race while Lisa and I gathered up the 1st losers spots. A good day for riding and a big thanks to the Pedal Moraine Team for putting on the event and dishing out plenty of unwanted encouragement to go faster and ride more.
Monday was the annual Meat's Memorable Memorial Day Ride event which was followed up by lots of beer, brats, burgers, cake, more dessert and then a service call from work. Crap. Oh well, at least it was double time.

The wheels and tires are on but the car needs some weight in it to get it to settle where it will sit decent. The rear wheels fill up the wheel wells pretty nice and it'll only get better when it's lower!

Missouri 5 uh-oh

2011-05-17T09:37:00.000-05:00

    I almost got to find out what it was like to be in a Southern jail! Luckily, the Officer ended up being from Minnesota and after some football banter and a lot of in car help I was free to go with a citation for "being a Packer Fan!" I'll take that! Lots of memories made during the drive back. Not all of them good, some are burned into our noses and others would be better to be forgotten!
   So I ended up 8th in the race. I'm pretty happy with that as I went in with no expectations. Finishing that dang race was a win in itself.
   Annual pilgramage to Rhinelander this weekend. Hopefully my legs made the trip back from Arkansas...

You never want

2011-05-14T21:31:00.000-05:00

To answer the phone and hear your Wife say "We're ok but I'm in the emergency room." Especially when I you live in Wisco and your currently just south of St. Louis. Kelsey came up to Lisa and said she had a headache and her stomach hurt, then dropped to the floor quit breathing and turned blue. She came to after what I'm sure felt like hours to Lisa, the ambulance was on it's way and they were off to the Hospital. They didn't find anything wrong, really. So on Monday she get's to have a CT Scan and more tests. Scary stuff for us. Thanks to Grampa for picking them up and bringing them home.
So, while Lisa was dealing with all that, I was down doing the NUE race in Arkansas. The events at home were weighing on me a bit but I let it rip as best I could. It was pretty wicked. We had 3 people with flats on our 7 mile pre-race! The race outlook changed a bit after that. Today, Chris flatted 5 times (yep, 5), Scott twice and Michelle, Sara, Lee and I somehow managed to avoid the seemingly inevitable and finished without any. I had to use a pump at a checkpoint but that was it. The course was wicked, lots of rocks, 3 deep creek crossings ( Lee took a swim at one of them), lots of mudholes and did I mention rocks? There were some really fun sections, very little doubletrack and a lot of rocks. I went through 10 bottles of heed plus most of my camel back, 5 flasks of Hammer Gel, 3 bars, 2 pbj's and a bunch of Sport Legs and Endurolytes. The gastric distress is at an all time high tonight. They were really slow on the results so we left before they were posted. I guess I was somewhere around 10th, give or take.
Thank you Chris and Michelle for putting up with me and for bringing me along on the trip!

I heart The Kettles

2011-05-07T19:01:00.000-05:00

It's hard to beat that place. Thank you to all the folks that build that marvelous trail system! One of the best places I've ever ridden. Darrin, thanks for the ride. Hit rim on a rock for the first time on carbon wheels. OK so far! Smell that? Mother's Day brunch coming up!!!!

Dang you Chris.

2011-05-04T13:26:00.000-05:00

I'd never even heard of someones earholes getting cold before. You bring it up and then bam! Last night on my ride, my earholes got cold. Almost 39 years and never had CES until now. Thanks.

WORS family reunion

2011-05-01T21:36:00.000-05:00

It's like going back home. The first race is always a great day regardless of results as we get to see a lot of friends we haven't seen for a few months. Iola is a great course and it was perfect even after all the rain we got. Pretty good day for The Team, the ladies showed us how it's supposed to be done and Mike and Darrin held up their own. The same can't be said for me yet but I'll come around. It's good to have one race in the legs and know I can at least still finish! The new S-Works Epics are amazing and worked perfectly all day. It's nice to finish up a race and not have wicked back pain.
On another note, who would have thought the wind would ever be a factor at Iola? Jeezaloo it was wicked in some spots. As if the climbing wasn't enough to deal with. The temperature was another wonderment. I knew it was a little on the cool side when I saw some kid with his back tag pinned to his winter jacket!!!

WTH?

2011-04-26T20:45:00.000-05:00

There's a race this weekend? crap. I better start riding.

I ordered the other 3 wheels and tires on Saturday. Can't wait, they look amazing on the car. Lisa took the rest of the stuff to get powder coated today. I started putting the front end body work on. Can't wait.

Lust Level is Rising

2011-04-12T21:20:00.000-05:00

Lisa got her Carbon Fiber!!

Not much Junk in the Trunk.

Having a wife who trains, kids, endless house projects AND a car project isn't really very smart. Luckily, Lisa is amazing and puts up with all of it and she does it all with a smile and a great attitude. I often wonder how I would have handled our life if the roles were reversed. At least when the car is done she can boil the tires on it. If the house ever gets done, all we can do is live in it!!!!!

By the way, yes I know the wheels aren't straight. It hasn't been aligned yet.

Marriage is still on

2011-04-10T20:13:00.000-05:00

It may have been touch and go for a while. I told Lisa we could ride to Richland Center and back and it would be about 4 hrs. Well, we arrived at the Kwik Trip in 2:45, not exactly the 2 hrs I had planned. I guess the GPS I was born with didn't calculate properly. So after a bottle fill up of Dr. Pepper and a bag of BBQ potato chips we were off for home. So I says to Lisa, "We're going to be close to 100 miles today." Silence. Suffering. Mild bonking. We rolled into Denzer at 96 miles and had a decision to make. I knew what I was going to do but Lisa surprised me when she said she was good to go for finishing up with the 100. It was ugly, not real smart but in the end it was done. Not a real huge feat as far as riding goes. Some people do 100 miles all the time. I don't. Lisa don't, it was her 2nd one ever. It's really just a meaningless goal that means something to people who care about that sort of thing. Bottom line is race results, I guess. I sure don't know how I'm going to pull off that NUE race!

Trainer?

2011-04-07T21:23:00.000-05:00

I think I've finally weaned myself from it. It's kinda' lonely riding outside as Liza isn't spinning stationary miles next to me. That's about the best thing of riding the trainer, I don't get dropped by her.

Our car got painted while we were in Texas. The picture isn't that good. Our hood is almost done and it's so bad ass you won't believe it. I never thought I would have custom anything! This has been an amazing process so far. I can't say enough about how awesome it's been to work with The Ring Brothers.

Northshore (Texas)

2011-04-01T08:34:00.000-05:00

Our final MTB destination was pretty cool. A big loop around the park along with a few wrong turns took us about 2 hrs to do. Lots of cool trail including Lisa's first big drop. We were ripping downhill and I saw the drop coming but it didn't look different until I was over the edge. It was a little different as it was sheer cliff for about 2 feet then the slope. Lisa was right behind me and ended up rolling it as well. She didn't think it was as cool as I did, even 10 minutes later. Maybe it's a guy thing but anytime I'm with guys, after stuff like that happens we tend to get pretty pumped up after the almost dead shock wears off.
So today we'll do a little ride and then start packing for the ride back. I promised everyone that we will never do another 7 hrs straight (Emporia, IA to Dallas, TX) like we did on the way down. How amazing was that feat? Add onto that we consisted of 1 male, 1 Female and 2 kids under the age of 8!!! We would've made it all the way to my Dad's if there hadn't been an accident and the ensuing traffic jam.

Lisa vs. Tree

2011-03-30T08:52:00.000-05:00

This ain't nothin'. Jerry knows how to smash fingers.

My apologies

2011-03-27T17:18:00.000-05:00

to the State of Texas. It was sunny and in the 80's for the past week and now that we're here it's only going to be in the 50's and rain. That's very typical for us when anyone from our family comes down to visit my Dad. Yesterday was decent (85 deg) but today it's cloudy, spitting rain and 51 deg. Oh well. It started raining right when we left for our ride but thankfully it stopped after 15 minutes or so. There are 2 separate trail systems within easy riding distance from my Dad's house, so we started out at Squabble Creek. It was our first ride on our new bikes and they were amazing!!! I've been fortunate in that every new bike I get seems to be better than the last. However, this years Epic absolutely blew me away! I don't know what they did different but it worked. Acceleration is so quick coming out of the corners, I was grinning ear to ear the whole time. Lisa was riding so dang fast I was working to stay with her right up to the point where she drilled a tree. We were still rippin' along pretty good after that as well but the taste of the tree (not literally) ratcheted the intensity down just a bit. We had to ride on a pretty major road to get to the other trailhead and, of course, I got us lost but we made it. Good times for sure. Hopefully it won't be our last MTB ride here this year as a few more days like this would be all kinds of awesome.

Coming together

2011-03-23T20:15:00.001-05:00

The fenders are on for good now.

Last day I'll be at the shop for over a week, hopefully I don't suffer from some sort of withdrawl. Motor is supposed to show up next week. That should fill up the big empty space beneath the hood quite well. I'm anxious to hear how the Flowmaster's sound with the 331 c.i. stroker motor at full tilt! BAWAAAAAAHHHHHH! It'll probably cost $5 every time my foot hits the floor.

A big day

2011-03-21T21:07:00.000-05:00

No pic's but it was a big day for us. They actually sprayed color on the car today! I was giddy. Lisa even made the trip over to check it out since we still haven't packed for vacation yet,we leave on Friday night and she may not have a chance to get there again this week. The color is flippin' sweet. Maybe y'all won't agree and that's fine. Get your own car.

Land of the Lost

2011-03-19T20:01:00.000-05:00

I like finding new roads. Today I got to ride a lot of them. I started out from the shop in Spring Green and rode towards Richland Center in a round about way. Met up with some random guy with huge bushy muttonchops and he gave me some advice on routes. That got me into 'Center and the Kwik Trip for some Dr. Pepper. It wasn't as good as the stuff in Loganville but it was still pretty good.
After that the ride became interesting. I had no idea where I was for about an hour and a half. It was awesome!
When I saw this road I was really drawn to it.
Once I got here I knew right where I was. Nowhere I had been before.

I saw a lot of Amish folks around but couldn't find a buggy to draft. Oh well, it probably would've dropped me anyway. I eventually came to find Loganville and if you've ridden with me at all you know that's where you find the Top Shelf Dr. Pepper. I had my daily limit already so I kept going but my bike kept trying to veer that way. Met up with Lisa and the Girls at the American Legion in North Freedom for the best fish fry around. Plus ice cream. Booyah.

nice

2011-03-18T09:15:00.000-05:00

Because I checked the radar before my ride I knew that the rain that was falling was really some sort of manufactured reality I happened to ride into. Luckily I was dressed for -50 deg instead of the +50 it really was. I have issues with remembering how to dress as the seasons change. One time a few years back I "overheated" due to overdressing, stopped a little too late to jacket off and passed out in the ditch! I remember waking up and seeing blue sky, wondering why I was laying down. Neat, huh?

Another Christmas

2011-03-14T09:32:00.000-05:00

We made the trip to S-Works Central and picked up our bikes this weekend. AMAZING! We can't wait to ride 'em. Thank you to Mark and Chris for building them for us. Mine even has the reflectors on it so I didn't have to put them on myself when I got home. Safety first, danger second I always say sometimes. So sweet to have the carbon wheels this year. Balinggg! Another special thank you goes out to Bottle Ninja Tim for passing his knowledge of handups and Africa on to our children. We all (well, everyone but Lisa) had a nice ride yesterday. Thankfully it's Lisa's rest week this week. It's getting ugly.

It's getting towards busy season

2011-03-05T20:49:00.000-06:00

Bikes are itchin' to be built. Hopefully that happens next weekend as we leave for Texas in a mere 3 weeks. Watch for temps near Dallas to be in the 80's the week of March 21'st and then rapidly drop off into the low 40's the following week with a quick rebound the first week of April. Pretty typical when anyone from Wisco go visit my Dad. Maybe we'll have better weather while we visit if he moves The Carolina's.

Seems like such a shame they did such a nice job on the panel replacement and how perfect the floors are and now none of it's visible under the Dynamat. This picture represents about 3 hours of work to get about 3/4 of the trunk area done. Should really cut down on road noise, though. The hole is where the gas tank goes, in case you were wondering.

Yeah, I'm still pulling Trainer Duty

2011-03-01T21:43:00.000-06:00

But isn't everyone? Nothing too exciting about that. So, I tend to focus on our Mustang as that's far more interesting to me. Here are a few more pic's of it. The Cobra front apron is pretty cool.

The inside is all painted black. Soon to be covered in Dynamat to help keep the noise down inside. That should help keep some of the noise out of the passenger compartment.

How sweet are these Ring Brothers billet hood hinges? Lisa saw this picture and she was super excited to see them on there. I didn't even know she knew what hood hinges were! She has really good (eg. EXPENSIVE) taste. The wheels she liked were only $1300 a piece.

So after a bunch of re-engineering I got the rear end in the car last weekend. Still waiting for the center section of the 9" to be rebuilt and the new gears installed. Hopefully this week I'll get the offset of my wheels figured out so I can order them or try to find another style that we like and will fit better. I tell you what, picking out wheels and a paint color has become as difficult as picking out names for our kids!

The 2010 Optima Street Car Shootout is next Friday night. Looks like it's going to be pretty badass. There is rumor of a viewing party at the Eye Diehl Tap in Plain....

If the aftermarket auto industry

2011-02-22T22:02:00.000-06:00

were as good as the bike aftermarket stuff, life would be much easier. It sucks that the stuff costs so much and it fits like junk. Well, I guess most of it is junk. Case in point my new fenders. Passenger side is ok, drivers side fits not so good. The original fender with a rot hole in the bottom of it may end up being less work to fix and get it to fit right than massaging the new one. One would think stuff would be right and it generally isn't. I didn't fully believe Mike at first but it's become painfully obvious. Even parts that aren't that complex or oddly shaped don't fit without some sort of "customization."

I was surprised to walk into the shop today and see the car looking like a car for the most part. Click here to see a better version of what my car will look like when it's done. That car is for sale if anyone is interested! It's also part of the 2010 Optima Ultimate Street Car Shootout that should be on The Speed Channel pretty soon. They're on to the next one when this one's gone. If that's not your style, they'll build something for you. I'm waiting for Chris to pull the trigger on something....

Yee Haw!

2011-02-17T19:15:00.000-06:00

We got the Internets at home now! I voted for Pedro and all my wildest dreams have now come true. My mind is dizzy with anticipation of the world of opportunity that has now become available to me. Wait a second, maybe that's the African Russian...

Primed up

2011-02-16T08:32:00.000-06:00

Getting close to paint.

Rode outside with Lisa on Sunday. I could barely hang on. Good for her, not so much for me.

Scuff-o-rama

2011-01-30T16:58:00.000-06:00

So my car came back and they got it primed. That left me to scuff the whole thing to ready it for the next phase. I may have an overuse injury after 5 hrs of that! All the guys at the shop say I have a really nice piece. I'm pretty sure they're referring to the new floor section in my car. Lisa rode to the shop on Saturday and then helped me out for a while. That was nice. With temps close to 30 deg I suppose I should've been riding, too but the prospect of being behind the wheel of my car this summer had more pull today!

I put the last coat of stain on the woodwork in the kitchen today. With only the clear to go it's the closest I've been to finishing a project in quite some time!

Christmas in January

2011-01-23T17:20:00.000-06:00

My first order of parts came in last week. Won't be long and I'll be able to start bolting stuff on. I got the undercoating scraped of the bottom of the car on Saturday and Lisa got the trim ready for powder coating. It was a long day and I was filthy dirty but it was very nice to get that job all done in one day. The plan is to get it sandblasted, primed and truck bedlinered this week. Then I should be able to start bolting the suspension in next weekend. It's starting to set in that I'm actually going to be driving this car soon! Can't wait. The only downside is with the motor I have planned to go in this car it's probably going to melt the tires as the widest tire that will go under the car is only 9.5". I could have had them mini tub it for me but the undercarriage was so nice I couldn't bear to see it cut up! Maybe a set of drag radials will help....

Moving along

2011-01-20T11:55:00.000-06:00

Yep, still riding the IHTD (In Home Torture Device or Trainer. Whichever terminology you prefer). The really exciting stuff for me is going on at the shop. Both quarter panels are on, the decklid is ready to go and it's about ready to go on the rotiserrie so I can remove the undercoating from the floors. My suspension stuff shuould be here this week and the brakes here the following week. I ended up getting a kit that will let me run the 94-04 Cobra Mustang brakes. Should be sweet. I'll have to do a braking test and compare the stopping distances between the 13" front and 11.5" rear disks to the 4 wheel drum brakes the car came with in 1965.

Here's a picture of the car with the drivers side quarter panel cut off. I thought I had a pic of the new one on but I don't. Stay tuned.

New Year

2011-01-03T14:21:00.000-06:00

Same start. Another New Years Day Ride down. It was a little on the cool side but nothing like 2 years ago. At least the roads were clear. Spending a lot of time with the Wii Fit +. Better watch out this year, I'm gonna' be so ripped you could get cut!

Not slowing down

2010-12-17T12:14:00.000-06:00

I thought maybe since we aren't racing every weekend life would slow down a bit. Nope, it keeps going faster! I'm still trying to figure out what all I'm going to do with my car. Lots of nights at the shop and then home to get on the trainer. Add in the normal Christmas activities and the weeks really fly by. Kylie was the star in her school Christmas program, appearing as The Littlest Christmas tree. She enjoyed the spotlight. I would have done all I could to be in the back row hiding when I was in those programs. Anyway, I'm anxious to get up to the Peariso's and get my brand spankin' new Epic!
Is it March yet?

So much goin' on

2010-12-05T10:32:00.001-06:00

So I delivered my car to The Ring Brothers shop in Spring Green.

Those guys are so awesome. I told Mike I had never ridden in a '65 or '66 Mustang before. So he had his brother Jim give me a ride in their shop car. It's a '66, full frame, fully caged, 650 hp Fastback built for autocrossing. I was in it for all of about 5 minutes but I'm pretty sure we topped 100 mph in their industrial park road twice in that time. Jim drives 'em like he stole 'em for sure! Thanks, Jim!

So they're going to start on my car maybe next week already. Things are moving so fast now! I've had the car for 24 years, this new pace is going to take some getting used to. This is what they did to the car whose chassis I'm getting for mine.

So that leads us to last night. It was a full on Redneck event for sure!! We had guns, sweet potato pie, green bean casserole AND a full on roasted pig!!! It was a magical evening. Never one to not go all in our Co-Host went that extra mile for the Team. He got in a drunken brawl (well, kinda')

and ended up with 5 cracked ribs and a partially collapsed lung! Now that is what I'm talkin' about! It's almost enough to bring a tear to this Ol' Boys eye that he thinks enough of us to put forth the extra effort and make it a true Redneck event. My only fear is that we have reached a level we may not be able to achieve again! Only one way to find out I guess, more on that in December of 2011!
Thanks for a great party, Peariso's. Heal up fast Little Buddy!

Ouch!

2010-11-26T09:42:00.000-06:00

That's what my stomach said yesterday. I definitely had enough to eat. I rode from home to my Grandparents house in Reedsburg, taking the loooong way. I was in Lime Ridge and decided to see where Hwy G ended up as I had never been that way. Well, it ends up at HWY 58 apparently. I hadn't ever been on Hwy 58 before. My feet were cold and the turkey was going to be on the table soon. Where the heck am I, I remember thinking. Well, soon enough I roll into Ironton. Huh. Where the heck am I ran through my head again. So I eventually hit LaValle and then I knew where I was and in a great turn of events I had the wind on my back. I was really moving down Hwy 33 to The Burg. I arrived and got changed about 5 minutes before it was time to eat! Perfect. 2 huge plates of food and 3 pieces of pie later (pumpkin, pecan and apple) my food baby was screaming and kicking for me to nap. I was wiped out and rode the couch watching football and chatting the rest of the afternoon away. Great day for sure!
On another note, big things are happening with my '65 Mustang Fastback. More on that later. It's gonna' be sweet! These guys do amazing work.

The End is the beginning

2010-11-15T13:34:00.001-06:00

I'm sure if you've followed my other 212/Specialized Teammates thoughts on life whilst perusing the Internets you aren't going to read anything not already laid out for you about our year. So, I'll keep it short (relatively?).

Chris and Michelle: AWESOME! Thank you guys so much for letting all of us be part of The Family.

Specialized: Thanks for the sweet hookups! Bikes and gear are flippin' sweet.

The Team: What is there to say? Good times and racing bikes with great friends, it just don't get no better.

The Hostel Shoppe: Thank you for your help in enabling our bike fetish.

Our Families: For girl sitting, dog watching, cheering and helping out during the biking season and even now with the impending (and lingering) house projects.

Melcher: For getting me in the game. Nice work.

Sucks now when we don't get to see our WORS friends for a few months but it's always fun to see everyone again at Iola. I like how we seem to pick up right where we left off at Sheboygan the fall before as if someone hit the fast forward button and skipped over the winter like a bad reocurring commercial.

Yea yea

2010-11-11T13:50:00.000-06:00

I know Lisa gets as tired of hearing this as she does when I whine about the fact that they put stop lights in on Hwy. 12 instead of on and off ramps but I've been trying to get stuff finished up outside before it gets really cold. I got all the windows in and the whole summer kitchen ready for siding. I gave Darrin a good laugh when I told him we're pouring the floor in our garage this weekend. He told me to take video but I've watched AFHV enought to know that bad things always happen when the camera's rollin'!
Redneck Christmas is coming fast! That is going to be tongue in the ear hot!

Beautiful Milwaukee

2010-10-23T19:53:00.001-05:00

Last Thursday marked 10 years of Hell for Lisa. Yep, 10 years and she hasn't left, killed or intentionally driven us into a bridge embankment. So we borrowed the chitlins to The Beav and Kiki after racing 'cross today and headed to the Third Ward for some supper. It was dilishus! We dined at the Third Ward Caffe (yes I know how to spell delicious and cafe but they put two f's in theirs) and gazed into each others eyes. Magical. Then we went to the Milwaukee Public Market (they don't have those in Denzer) and I saw a 10 lb chocolate bar! I would show it to you but my phone is dead. It's kinda' fun to visit the Big City every once in a while. It's strange to see people out and about and even stranger not to know who they are. I would have a cruiser bike for sure if I lived in town. I wouldn't be able to shoot stuff, though. Not a good trade.
So back to the race. I tried the MFCP theory today. I should listen to him more often. Well, for bike racing anyway. I had a good time today and actually had fun on the bike. The only way it could have been better is if it would've rained more. Not quite enough rain to make it sloppy and fromunda the trees it actually got dry and dusty. Good race though. Anyway, we'll do it again tomorrow and hope for another good result. Today I was first guy out of the prizes. Nice.

Sheboygan

2010-10-11T09:07:00.000-05:00

I guess Superman has the Phone Booth copyrighted. Is this the next best thing?

Holy cow! That was a race. Conditions were perfect and Adventure 212/Specialized topped the podium! Multiple congrats to Mike for his win coming off the couch (I heard he got tired of watching Sanford and Sons and Carol Burnett re-runs so he decided to race) as well as starting his journey towards becoming a rental property giant in the Milwaukee area. Nice work by the rest of us as well. We almost had 4 in the Top 5 but Ronsta was too strong. Good job. My stated goal for this race was to get a big check and I figured I needed to be Top 5 to make it happen. Well, they didn't give out big checks this year so the pain was somewhat lessened.

A big thank you to Chris and Michelle and Adventure 212f or putting up with us and making this such a fun year! More thanks to Specialized for the amazing bikes! Thank you's go out to the rest of The Team, Fraziers and Jordy for hand ups, good times and being cool. The wheels are already turning for next year.

Fricken' Cyclocross

2010-10-02T18:06:00.000-05:00

Dang that was hard. I had the race I expected for sure. The first cx race is always an eye opener. Good times for sure, nice change of pace. Mikee's Off The Couch Season continues to be better than my most training ever season. Nice job, Mike. I'm glad you're not afraid of 'cross.

Now I have to figure out how to run so I don't look like this.

Then I have to learn how to corner so I don't look like this.

Bear Paw was fun last weekend. (Congrats to Darrin!! Stud.) If I can find a way to ride the first lap at a Sport riders ability or better I might be able to get some decent results. Looking forward to next weekend for sure! Sheboygan is always a great course.

Fat Tire Recap

2010-09-21T10:54:00.000-05:00

That race is hard. I went from just drooling after Rosie's Field to a full on frothing at the mouth after about 20 minutes. It was really exciting for me just to be in the lead group all the way past Hwy OO. I put in a big effort to try and latch back on at Janet Road and that was it for me. The pace was too high and I cracked, like an egg. When I was able to think, I was super happy I made it that far but disappointed I couldn't stay on. Oh well. The race was just part of another great weekend of 212ing. Lisa was super excited with her finish, as we all were. Not only does she ride well, she makes a mean apple pie! Carrot cake too. I ate way too much but not even half of what Mike did. That guy's a chip eating machine. We celebrated with some beers and a bonfire Saturday night. Next year I'm bringing a chainsaw so we can trim back some of the trees overhanging the fire pit. Smoky would've been laying down fresh racing stripes in his shorts had he seen what we had going.
Now some random facts: There are at least 11 Subway Restaurants on the way from Cable to Lyndon Station. I went through 2 bottles and a 60oz Camelback during the race and ate 7 GU's. (Disgusting) I still cramped. The puddles were really really cold. I'm forever RKL now unless I podium at a Triple Crown event.

I got my new Crux Pro cyclocross bike together and rode it. That bike is pretty awesome too! Looking forward to racing some 'cross soon.

In case you hadn't heard.

2010-09-18T20:04:00.001-05:00

Hell yes! Now it's RKL and I don't mind.

Lake Geneva

2010-09-13T10:29:00.000-05:00

A real MTB course for sure. Lots of singletrack. Start was fast and I was gassed. I messed up the turn up the hill to get to the tippy top of the course and that was it. Not enough gas to close the gap to get back up front, enough to maintain. Almost got up to Seth at the end, I could hear him calling out his passes. Bike worked great, it just took me a while to figure out how to ride it at a moderately fast pace. Fun day, great weather and my Mom even came to watch. Nice.
See y'all in Hayward.

Long weekend home

2010-09-07T12:41:00.001-05:00

Threw down a little over 400 pavers yesterday. Quite the operation. All part of the "getting ready for Chequamegon" training phase, I suppose. I rode my bike, too but who doesn't? A chipmunk that I can only assume was suicidal tried to sneak it's way under my tire yesterday. I couldn't quite close the deal for him though.
Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cake is so good.

The Breaking Point

2010-08-30T09:55:00.000-05:00

I pretty much found it last night on the way home. If you've traveled with me you know it can be mentally taxing. Well, maybe even if you haven't traveled with me you know that. Anyway, we had been in the car for about 2 hrs and Jordan and Lisa were, well, sick of me. Jordan had her head in her hands trying to keep it together from listening to me and the DVD the girls were watching for the 4th time, Lisa was all done with me as well. I suggest going to Culvers for a post race celebration scoop of custard. Minimal effect on getting back out of the abyss I've put myself in. Ordering what everyone wanted turned into a major production and I'm falling deeper into said abyss. We pull up to the window to get our goodies and I'm all like "haaaaaaayyyy" to the girl and everyone busts out laughing, tears and all. It was great. I came rocketing out of the abyss into rock stardom in no time flat. Damn I'm smooth. Custard was good, too.
So sometimes when the girls are too loud we play this game where we see who can be quiet the longest. Great game. If you know Jordan you know how little she tends to talk. Sometimes we go 2 hrs in the car and don't hear a word out of her. Put her in the Who Can Be Quiet game and she cracks like an egg! She was the first one out and she wasn't very happy about it either. LOSER!
Oh, we raced this weekend too. Went better than expected for me. 5th place overall. Another great showing by Lisa with yet another 2nd place. Kylie won the kids race. Thanks to the Team for another great weekend!

New to me

2010-08-27T12:45:00.001-05:00

I finally made it to Cam-Rock to ride. It was pretty ok. Bryan and I rode some moderately paced laps out there and honed our skills to a fine sharp edge for this weekends race in the tightest singletrack we race on all year.
New CX bikes are on the way. Hopefully it is possible to buy speed.

The Ramble

2010-08-23T11:10:00.000-05:00

I really like this place. It's so fast and the singletrack is pretty forgiving as well. Perfect for me! Race started out ok, got bad for a bit and then was ok again. Ben Koenig killed it on the 2nd lap, I barely was holding on. We caught up to Chris and chased for almost 2 laps. Finished in my normal spot, 7th place. Lisa got her first win! I was finished with my race and then I found out she was in the lead in hers. Then I got nervous. She held it together and cruised in. A good day.

Best pre ride meal

2010-08-20T07:55:00.000-05:00

Half a bag of super fresh, squeaky cheese curds and half a box of cocoa pebbles. Mmm.

Go fast, eh?

2010-08-16T08:12:00.000-05:00

Anothere great weekend to race bikes! We dropped the girls off in Pulaski and kept on heading North to Marquette, Michigan. I felt like Jesse Bell for a while except I only do this drive once, maybe twice a year not almost every weekend. He probably doesn't stop in Pulaski, either. Anyway, we finally got hooked up with the 212 crew and feasted at Tom and Jackie's place, (thanks again!). After a few trips to the breakfast buffet at the Big Boy (ugh.) on Saturday morning it was go time. Start was fast, water was deep, came close but didn't quite make it all happen for the team. Good job by all, though. The 212 girls rocked it as well. I made some memories for us in the final miles as once again! If you want to know, you'll have to ask. Then it was back to Tom and Jackie's for drinks. I found out Tim can make a mean African-Russian!
So at the awards, the anouncer lady says "Our second oldest competitor up there(there being the top 20), in 8th place, blah blah blah". Now, I know that's probably supposed to be a compliment but I kinda felt like I was just called "Big Boned" instead of fat.
Chris made us late for the group ride Sunday morning but the trails had us all smiling ear to ear! A guided tour of some sweet singletrack including riding on top of a huge pipe. What the heck was/is the pipe for, anyway? Then it was time to head back to the Twin Cities (Leland and Denzer) and get ready for another race weekend coming up. Back to Green Bay for Reforestation. It's gonna' be sweet!

If all goes well

2010-08-07T20:39:00.001-05:00

This is the start of a long block of races. 8 weekends on the road. Should be interesting. It's gonna be a hot one tomorrow, 90+ degrees they say. Hopefully I don't get another stick in the derailleur like I did in practice today. We took the overly scenic way up to River Falls today. Went up Hwy. 14 to LaCrosse then took 35 the rest of the way here. It was something I have always wanted to do and I probably won't do again. It was an extra 1:40 minutes to get here! Oh, well. At least we got to eat at Rocky's!

Nice Weekend, eh?

2010-08-02T11:03:00.000-05:00

Saturday I actually got to ride with Lisa and I liked it. I'm not sure if I'm weak, Lisa's strong or we're both ok but I did a 90 minute sweet spot effort with her glued to my wheeel. I was more happier (yes, I said more happier) about that than she was, I think. Then it was off to a birthday party where I ate too much. Sunday was another nice ride. Then Lisa took off to go up to the USA Cycling Junior Development camp deal in Lacrosse. NO, she's not a camper, she's helping coach it. After some more house chores it was off to another party where I again, ate too much. Seems to be a trend for me lately. So it's me and the girls this week while Lisa is off living the fun and carefree life of being a coach. Too bad it's going to be so warm this week as I heard the dorms don't have a/c. I'm looking forward to next weekends race, it seems so long ago since the last one. Then it's 8 weeks straight at least of MTB races, maybe 10. Then 'cross is going strong 'til November. Wow.

So sometimes

2010-07-26T07:57:00.001-05:00

my ideas sound good in my head but aren't so good in practice. Take yesterday, for instance. I thought it would be a good idea to go ride for a few hours, eat a little breakfast and then ride home. Well, maybe if it had been a little breakfast it would have been a sound plan. However, the 2 by 6 at the Railroad Inn located in Downtown North Freedom is a substantially greater quantity of food than "a little."

2 eggs, 2 pancakes, 2 pieces of toast, 2 sausage links, 2 bacon and American Fries (yes, I know that's not 2 of something but whatever.) Add syrup to taste and voila!

So the ride home went like this, "Please keep this 3 lb rock in my stomach from forcefully ejecting itself." Meat, Bryan and I were all in the same tenuous condition. I can honestly say that it's possible to have too much of a good thing. I can also say that I look forward to doing it again.

Time to breathe

2010-07-12T15:15:00.000-05:00

So we got home on Friday night in time to unpack and reload to drive up to Eau Claire for the Firecracker. We got to race a race named The Firecracker 2 weekends in a row, isn't that special? I'm especially thankful that I was able to finish the 2nd race not feeling like I did in the photo from the 1st one! Holy cow, that was a whole different kind of pain. I must have gained some red blood cells or something at altitude as I was feeling pretty good yesterday. My second best ever finish at a WORS race as I pulled of a 4th here. Craaazy. Fun race with lots of fun singletrack and enough open area to allow passing and playing catch up. The last stupid rock pile we had to ride through allowed me to pilot my sweet ass bike over the stupid sharp loose rocks faster than the guy who attacked the last 1/2 lap and I got a pretty good gap to going into the finish chute. Still not with the Big Dogs but I may be inching closer. Now it's time to recover from vacation and back to work. I have to start playing the lottery more often.

It's all downhill from here

2010-07-05T20:38:00.000-05:00

At least when we were at the top of the lift. Today we went to Keystone Mountain and met up with Terry (former Baraboo area resident) and we rode bikes the easy way. Sat on the lift up and launched ourselves down the hill on some sweeeet singletrack. It was like 2 1/2 hours of Super D practice without the annoying running at the start. We put on almost 30 miles of descending! The Epic was amazing and we all had big grins on our faces and we were laughing and yelling on the way down. Having fun on bikes is a great brand of fun to have. We tried one of the runs with the added "features" or "attractions" and had a couple close calls. Bryan tried to eat a log that was innocently laying by the side of the trail after one of the said "features" and earned the new nickname of "The Beav". He was ok for the most part but lost some skin on his nose. The crash looked pretty ugly, we were glad he got up. Sponsor showed us how to do the table top jumps and Chris showed us how to ride with no rear brake since his decided to blow a seal.
When we first got there some dude on a full on DH rig recommended we "lower our seats because it gets pretty steep." Yeah, I'll do that right after I put on my baggy shorts.

Firecracker 50 Explosion!

2010-07-05T09:18:00.000-05:00

Well, I did anyway. The course was amazing although on the first lap as I was riding said amazing trails I couldn't help but think that I had to ride all this stuff again! Holy crap! I managed to finish the race but it was far from pretty. 13th place wasn't exactly what I had hoped for but it is what it is. Everyone had a good time especially Michelle and Lisa who took 2nd in the Women's Duo. Lisa was in a two up sprint for 2nd at the finish. I missed it as I was in line getting us beers when it happened. Yes, the us was Lisa and I. I saw her coming down the switchbacks to finish following what I thought was a guy and then turned out to be the girl in 2nd place. So it was another good day of riding bikes. Now we get to ride for fun!

Sandusky

2010-06-30T11:05:00.001-05:00

Until last night Sandusky had often been thrown out as a potential route for a Tuesday Night Ride, mostly in jest. Generally, the statement was followed by chuckles and laughs and then we would ride somewhere else. Not last night, my friends. Last night my response was met with nervous chatter and maybe a little bit of dread. My response was, "we better get movin', it's gonna' be a long ride." Off we went, breaking TNR protocol and riding OUT of Baraboo on Highway 136(GASP!). We really had no time to screw around so I set what I thought was a good get to Sandusky and back pace and hoped it would work. Now, backing up a step, I wasn't exactly sure where Sandusky really was but I wasn't going to let that stop us. Everyone seemed ok with the Sandusky pace and we rolled right along, across Hwy 23 into the unknown lands West of that great divide that is our normal TNR boundary. At the 1:30 mark I was getting a little nervous. We had just made Lime Ridge and I knew we were close to the Promise Land but I had no time to screw around. I sucked it up and asked a guy in the park at Lime Ridge where Sandusky was. He replied "I think you just keep going straight at the T but I'm not sure." Then he gave me a quizzical look and stated, "There's really nothing there. Why do you want to go there?" I laughed but really had no answer for him other than it was just someplace to go. Yet it was so much more. Off we went and at about 1:50 we arrived. Sponsor snapped a picture with his phone (it has the internets too!) and we were off. Lots of concern for the amount of remaining daylight but I had faith. We eventually rolled into Loganville for some water (no Dr. Pepper this late in the day) and then back at it. We picked up the people who didn't waitin Loganville along the way, lost a few at about Rock Springs but we all got back well before dark. A great ride and one I'm sure that we'll be talking about for years to come. I can't wait 'til the next time someone spits out another far away and exotic location for us to try and conquer.

Mt. Morris

2010-06-28T14:17:00.000-05:00

A great weekend all in all. No one died, lots of tongue in the ear hot racing action, hanging out with friends and some podium time. We took up residence at the Peariso's again starting Friday night. It all started out ok and then Sarah showed up and brought this guy from Austrailier along with his funny way of saying PByahr. Not as funny as Ty calling the Outback the Backlands, though. So really, Owen the Austrailieran was super cool and added another layer of icing on the weekend cake. Another bonus was seeing (and hearing) Kelson again. That is always a treat! It was nice to catch up with him in person. Same old story on the racing front. I did OK and Lisa Killed it. I wish I had the Cat 1 Womens short track recorded somehow. That was fun to watch and cool when The Don anounced "Lisa Krayer is going to lap almost the whole field" during the short track race on the PA system! I got a little of that when I was desprately trying to "drag my carcass" back to the front of the race. Which race you say? Well, both. After starting with and passing other WORS racers I usually don't mix it up with and the day of's for the first 2 laps on the 3rd lap of the CC race I was starting to get the guys who started front row. I salvaged a 5th overall out of 100 guys and called it pretty ok. Super D was just fun and BIG D won the son of a gun! Wow. Great job by the Team again all around. Next up is The Firecracker 50 in Breckenridge and then riding some bad ass mountain singletrack in Summit County. I can almost taste the Beau Jo's Pizza!!!! Pass the honey, please.

A bad day. R.I.P Silber

2010-06-25T14:04:00.000-05:00

I didn't think it would be this bad.

We miss you, Buddy.

Some good days

2010-06-23T20:45:00.000-05:00

So for Fathers Day we took a family bike ride into Sauk City. Our newest bike purchase was a trail-a-bike for the girls. Well, Kylie for now anyway. What a trooper. We were out for 2 and a half hours and she had a pretty good time. The girls went swimming in the river while we dined on Cheetos and Triscuits. Then we got home and I caulked some more until my Fathers Day Dinner was ready. Ribs, sweet potatoes and strawberry pie! Hurts so good. It was a nice way to spend a day.
We eschewed the Tuesday Night Ride this week and headed for Devil's Head instead. Excellent choice for us. Farmer Brad spent a reported 5 hrs there doing trail work and it showed. It was in amazing shape and there was only 1 berry bush that got me the whole ride and we never had to dismount to get over a tree as he removed all of them as well. Thanks Brad!
Tonight I got to ride around Cottage Grove with Bryan. I saw some roads I hadn't seen since my younger days when I would roam that area looking for carp to shoot. Bowfishing used to be a big part of my summers before biking became the overwhelming focus of my "spare" time.
Mt. Morris is almost here. Then it's off to the Firecracker 50 in Breckenridge the next weekend. Time is flyin'!

Wrong again

2010-06-15T09:21:00.000-05:00

I don't mind being wrong if I predict that it's gonna' rain and then it doesn't. There were a couple life sucking mud spots the way it was. A course full of that would not have been the joyous occasion this turned out to be.

The weekend started out with a trip to the Milwaukee Zoo with the girls. If we were better parents and had a video camera I'm sure we would've won the 100,000 grand from AFV with Kelsey's hula hoop perormance. She had the whole area just rolling with laughter. Then we pre rode ( yes we really did) the race course and headed back to Chateu' de Braun for food and accomodation. Thank you to the Braun's for putting us up and puttin up with us. The neighbors downstairs can't wait for us to come back I'm sure. Between Darrin and the girls the apartment below probably thought there was a ho down upstairs. The dance kind of ho down, of course. After gorging on food (thanks again for that) Sunday morning it was off to the races. Barry Wicks decided to show up for this one, too. Start was crazy with a dude hitting the barrell right beside me and Chris. I thought MFCP went down but about halfway into the lap he came around me and off we went. Blah blah race stuff blah blah we rode together and stuff. Another solid race for me with a 7th place, MFCP was 6th, Darrin was a solid 3rd. Nice work by the boys for sure. On the women's side, Lisa was rockin' for sure. Swapping the lead with Abby back and forth but Abby managed to pull out the winby a few seconds. Lisa's getting soooo close. Michelle got 11th overall and was taken out somewhere by some dude. All in all a good showing for 212.

Lots of cheering from the girls. Gotta like that. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Russel said I was "the cutest guy that passed him" during the race. I bet he says that to all the guys.

Sunburst?

2010-06-11T10:35:00.000-05:00

Maybe we'll be calling it Cloudburst on Sunday. We rode at Devil's Head last night. Thanks a ton to the guys that have done so much work out there lately. I know for sure Farmer Brad and Kurt have been out there a lot. Thanks! I love riding there. Not too many places that have a 8 minute or so climb to start the ride around these parts.
We get to go to the Milwaukee Zoo tomorrow. Steamfitters Local 601 annual Day at the Zoo is finally going to happen for us. Beer, brats, burgers and a bonanza of animals. Should be sweet. Then we are shacking up with the Brauns for the evening so we can do the Sunburst Showdown Epic MTB Race.
Got an e-mail from the folks at the Firecracker 50 today. Little French Gulch Trail is still heavily snowed under. Sweet.

A Good 4 days

2010-06-02T10:05:00.000-05:00

Was it just me or was that the most amazing Memorial Day Weekend weather we've had in a long time? Yet another great weekend as we got to invade the Peariso's with the whole crew. (Thank's again!) Pre ride was an eye opener as the Renegades were a little less than optimal in the marbles on the corners. I threw an LK on the front and Sunday was much better. Another good result for me. Big thanks to the helpful person that tore through the tape blocking off the section of singletrack I wasn't supposed to follow Maciej on. Even more props to the fool when said helpful person didn't put the tape back up after tearing it down. I hope your race didn't get affected as much as the other people who had their races jacked up because you had to get back to your race.
Anyway, I digress. Team Adventure 212 had another great showing. The train is a rollin'.
Monday was Meat's Memorable Memorial Day Ride. It was the fastest we've ever done that route for sure. Had a good turnout and food and beer at the end this year! A very welcome addition to an already great day. Apparently I won the meat raffle. I'm not sure what the prize was but I am all about winning.
The Tuesday Night Ride was BRUTAL last night. Lots of climbing and everyone brought their A game. Good time's. Gotta' love summer.

I set a new record tonight

2010-05-27T21:18:00.000-05:00

I lost count but I smashed a lot of tentworms. It's so cool when they make that snapping noise.

Glass half empty

2010-05-26T21:36:00.000-05:00

Looking at the WORS schedule is somewhat disheartening. 2 races down already, the 3rd this weekend. That's a quarter of the way to October and snow and cold weather that comes along with it. (Insert sad face icon thing) It's not even June yet, the garden is just getting going but I am apparently seeing the Fall coming right at me.
In other news, I just crushed the jumble in the newspaper. Things are looking up.

That was hot

2010-05-24T17:44:00.000-05:00

Not Paris Hilton "hot" but temperature wise hot. Although it wasn't so much the heat as the humidity. Anyway, enough cliche's I'll ge to the blah, blah, blah. Great weekend for riding in these parts. I did a loop with the Baraboo crew and we went through Devil's Lake descending " The Snakes" to get to South Shore. I forgot how fun that descent is so I did it again the next day with MFCP, Michelle and Liza to reinforce the memory. There was a lot more oncoming traffic on Sunday but it was still awesome. I spent the weekend caulking siding joints and trying to keep Bryan busy working on my endless list of projects not done that keeps getting longer. Finished off the weekend at The Moosejaw with Black Betty. She kept me up all night but she was definitely worth it. AND we saw this dude riding down the road on a bike quite similiar to Pedro's Sledgehammer with his helmet on Buhwheat style AND backwards!! Unfortunately, I have no photographic proof, which if I had, would have won some sort of award in some kind of contest I'm sure.

Rhinelander

2010-05-18T10:50:00.000-05:00

I guess that went ok. After I figured out how to ride my bike about a lap into the race I felt ok. Not exactly where I wanted to end up on the first lap but I think the end result once again ended up the same, 7th overall in a pretty solid field. Seth Lens wouldn't go away and kept the pressure on but I was able to hold him off and then I passed Nate Guerra at the end. That was exciting. Not as exciting as Chris and Darrin's post race interview was though. Look for a link to that when it show's up. Nice work by the whole team, really. Lisa pulled off another 2nd place only 36 seconds behind the 3 time overall champ for WORS. Very nice. The post race burger and beers with the team at the Cross Country bar were delicioso. MFCP was a full weekend of entertainment including on the drive home when he pasted a deer on the I-Road at 70 mph. Apparently he's sliding the on bike issues to driving issues. Whatever works.
SO to celebrate a good weekend of racing last night I moved 4 cu. yards of dirt and leveled it off to get ready to put down some pavers. That's how we do "recovery" days in Denzer.

Already?

2010-05-11T19:21:00.000-05:00

Dammit.

Did I Mention

2010-05-07T08:57:00.000-05:00

How much I like my new S-Works Epic? Lisa said something I never thought I'd hear her say last night. No, not that. Not that either. Seriously, she said "I can't wait to race my bike again!" Wow. That's what I'm talkin' about.

IOLA!!

2010-05-03T19:01:00.000-05:00

I absolutely love WORS. We haven't seen most of the people at these events since October and then we all converge at the season opener and it's like we were never apart. It's great to see everyone again and now everything seems right in my world again. Of course it always helps when the first race goes well for our family and team. Lisa pulled off a great effort with teammate Diana McFadden for a 2-3 finish in the Women's Elite field. Darrin was 3rd in the Men's and I managed an 8th place finish after starting mid-pack in a 90 rider strong Elite field. The start was a major dissapointment and I had a lot of ground to make up but I don't think I could've finished much higher, if at all with a better start. I know that my new S-Works Epic was responsible for getting me 4-5 places higher than if I was on a hardtail. (Thank you Chris, Scott and Pete for making that happen!!!) Sitting down going through the rooty pine section at the end of the lap and just hammering through it was something I had never experienced before. Honestly I didn't think that was even possible. Anyway, the racing was just the icing on the cake for the weekend. Hanging out at the Peariso's Saturday and Sunday with everyone was as good as the racing. I even got to hang out with the girls and watch some of Avatar in the home theatre. Michelle's cooking was responsible for adding a little extra girth to my midsection so it's a good thing we only stayed 2 days. All in all a great weekend. Many more to come.

Great weekend for Team 212

2010-04-25T15:22:00.000-05:00

Yep, I've got some big shoes to fill. The bar got set pretty high this weekend at the NUE race. MFCP rocketed his way to a 2nd overall in the Big boys race. Darrin won the 65 miler and Lisa pulled a 4th out in the women's 65. Michelle was right there in 7th and Mark and Scott did really well, too. (Sorry guy's, I'm surprised I remembered that much.) I'm sure that the drive home was filled with great stories as the racing conditions were far from ideal. Me, I sat on the in home torture device and ground out some intervals. In case you didn't know or forgot, Iola is next weekend. Many questions will be answered and I'm sure many more will be posed. Pretty sure that there will be some 212 jerseys on the podium, though.
On a side note, hopefully the S-Works shoe shine machine shows up soon. Gotta' keep these babies shined up and lookin' sweet.

And it's over

2010-04-19T07:56:00.000-05:00

So we left Denver Saturday morning and drove to Council Bluffs to ride at the Lewis and Clark Monument trails. Yep, Iowa. It was pretty cool riding but very confusing. Lots of trails going to nowhere or shortcuts and we got pretty lost which was unfortunate as we were time crunched. We rode for about 45 minutes and high tailed it to Iowa City to meet Kyle and Robin Williams for a couple beers and to set up a plan for the morning. We got there about 9:45 pm and left the establishment about 11:30 or so. Little did we know there was a soccer tournament and other happenings in Iowa City that weekend so we drove around for an hour or so looking for hotels. We ended up at a, how do I put this, dumpy maybe, (?) Motel 6. After not so much sleep the Williams picked us up and we rode the Sugar Bottom trails. That was fun. It really helped having a guided tour of the place as we didn't have to stop at all to figure out where to go next. I would recommend riding here if you're ever close to Iowa City. The trails were fast and flowy even uphill and it was a great ending to our trip. We thanked to Robin and Kyle for showing us around and then headed for Madison to pick up the girls. Got home, picked up the dogs, unpacked, fired the boiler back up, mowed the lawn and called it a day.
Thanks to the Gramma's for watching the girls and dogs. Thanks to everyone on the trip for putting up with me and my gas problem. Looking forward to Breckenridge in July!

Kokepelli wrap up

2010-04-16T21:13:00.000-05:00

Today was sweet! Spencer and I rode every trail at the place in the 2 times we were here this trip and today I think we hit up the best of them all. Warmed up on Rustlers Loop, then took Mary's loop to Steve's loop. Steve's had some spectacular views in the canyons we were in. Then we hit Lion's Loop to Troy Built and that was amazing. Awesome fast descents and some good climbs. Then it was a long, steep double track climb back up to Lions Loop to finish that loop up. That last section of Lion's was super cool. So many different types of rocks and dirt layers all the way down and the trail was a blast to ride. That wrapped it up for us. Got back to the car and loaded up to high tail it down the road to Beau Jo's for some delicious Mountain Pie. Hoping to ride some Front Range singletrack tomorrow.

Spencer Lost his @ss cherry!

2010-04-15T16:48:00.001-05:00

Yep, it's true. His seat got to him before I could. Other than that it was another great day of riding bikes. The trails here are really technical and tight but mostly rideable which is nice. Some really fast flowy trail with countless drops and rock gardens yet again

This one was super cool as it was full of big boulders and tight lines but we made it through.

These kind of rocks are always fun.

Hmmm, another steep drop after yet another rock garden. I'm starting to sense some kind of trend and I like it.

We all crashed a little today. I fell of the edge of the trail and landed on my back. That was a little scary, I won't lie. Spencer almost did the same move but managed to stay upright and jump/run down the slope avoiding injury. Bryan took a trip over the bars in a pretty good spot to not crash in that was pretty close to launching of the edge of the world. I'm pretty sure if I could have seen his eyes they would've been bigger than the cowpies at Potter's Pasture. But we all made it back to the hotel ok. We rode most of the trails at this cluster today. Not sure yet what tomorrow brings but I'm confident that after a couple fine malt beverages we'll figure it out.

Porcupine Rim

2010-04-14T19:59:00.000-05:00

Was flippin' sweet! I remembered liking this trail last time but my skills must have gotten marginally better because this time we rode most everything and had a blast. After the initial climb it actually is mostly downhill the rest of the way with countless drops and fast rock garden sections like the one Bryan is coming down in the picture. Lisa was grinning ear to ear riding her S-Works Era race couch. It's official now as 2 days in a row she's mentioned how much she loves her new bike. Thank you, Michelle.

I finally got a flat today about 10 minutes after Lisa got her 2nd of the trip. I had to ride the last section of the trail from a few minutes before the place you cross the creek bed that's unrideable back into town on a low tire as we went through all the tubes we had. It was still awesome. We headed back to Grand Junction and we're going to try out some more riding here the next couple of days. Plenty of riding to do in these parts.

Slickrock

2010-04-13T21:55:00.000-05:00

Not to be confused with Slick Shoes from the movie The Goonies. At Slickrock there is plenty of friction. There were mulitple close calls today from all of us but we all came away with most of our skin. Although a pitch like this looks pretty easy to climb in a picture, the cost of not making the ascent is mucho skino.

It took us a while to get the hang of riding here. The grip is phenomenal and once I started trusting the tires would not slip 99% of the time it got even more enjoyable.

Pictures don't really do the rock formations justice but I thought this was pretty neat. It looks like something from the Lord of the Rings. Off to Porcupine Rim tomorrow.

18 Road Trails

2010-04-12T21:13:00.001-05:00

So we rode the 18 Road Trails in Fruita today. It was super windy later in the morning and it made some of the trails pretty interesting. They (whoever "they" are) were forecasting 40+ mph wind gusts and it sure felt like it. Up on trails like Joe's Ridge the wind actually blew Niki off the trail! She was noticeably less enthusastic about riding after that. As you can see below we were quite vulnerable to wind and where she got tipped over it was a pretty steep slope. She needs a little more junk in her trunk I guess. Bryan is in the middle of this picture tearing it up. We rode all the trails here today at least once. One time we were attacked by tumbleweeds going 20 mph. There were 100's of them rolling along by us for a while. They looked like animals running in the distance.

This canyon was much like a lot of the other canyons we rode in and it was pretty sweet.

Here, Lisa show us proper technique for pushing a bike up the trail.

And this is her smiling because her new bike is so flippin' sweet. She did get the first flat of the trip today but that's how it goes.

So now we're in Moab ready to try some of the hot riding action here. Looking forward to tomorrow.

Faroota

2010-04-11T19:18:00.000-05:00

So we rode the Kokopelli trails today. Warmed up on the Rustlers Loop trail, then rode Mary's loop to the Horsethief trail

back onto Mary's to Moore Fun. Same loops we did 5 years ago when we were here last. Surprisingly I have gained some fitness since then and it was fun to be back. Moore Fun stilled totally kicked my @ss though. The guys on their 6"+ travel bikes were riding it like it was flat. I was not...

Lisa got her first crash out of the way, Bryan crushed the boys and Spencer got his upper thighs tanned. That was a little disturbing. I bet he uses moisturizer. Freak

Here are some pictures from the Potters Pasture trails in Nebraska. We climbed a little. The erosion is spectacular as the cows have the run of the place and they do so much damage. It's amazing what the big money industries can get away with. Mountain Bike trails get shut down at the slightest hint of erosion and the bovines destroy acres of land and it's all ok.

That's me dominating the 6 guy climb. Well, I guess now it's the 8 Guy Climb, really. I was hoping it would be "and a gal" but it wasn't meant to be.

First full day in Colorado is in the books. We fooded up and had some beers to ready us for tomorrow. A little more Fruita and then to Moab is the plan.

Riding Nebraska

2010-04-11T08:33:00.000-05:00

Yep, that Nebraska. And I liked it. We stopped in at this place to check it out and by chance met up with Chad and Kyle, 2 of the 3 guys that run the place. The riding was pretty fun and it was a nice break from driving. We had done our research before getting there and new the story behind the Six Guy Climb trail so when we found them we had them show us where the trail was. We descended it first then turned around and went for glory. So I gave it a go and then it became 7 guy climb followed up by Spencer and it became 8 guy climb. I went back down and did it again to make sure the first time wasn't a fluke and made it again. Damn I'm smooth. We rode with those guys a little longer and then packed back up said our goodbye's and bee-lined it to Idaho Springs to get some delicious beer and pizza at Beau Jo's. After gorging myself we finished up the drive to Grand Junction and finally got some sleep. Pictures soon. Looking forward to riding somewhere in the Fruita area today.

Finally!

2010-03-28T19:11:00.000-05:00

Kylie got her bike! It's been hard to not tell her about it. Gramma came up on Saturday and surprised her with it. Kylie was pretty excited, almost as much as I was. So we did a quick overview of how to use hand brakes and how to shift and she was off. Very cool.

Today I got out with Spencer for a few hours and it was good. For some reason I suggested we should climb hills today and he unfortunately agreed. So we climbed. We did go down Deadman's hill in Rock Springs instead of up it this time for a change. Spent the rest of the day stripping and staining trim and cabinets. I'm pretty sure that's not as good as Matter's floor sanding training but hopefully it's close.

On another note, I finally perused my goody bag from The Boss. Wow! That was better than Christmas. I love the smell of new tires.

Lounging

2010-03-23T10:14:00.000-05:00

I finally got the light and outlet working by the patio. Illumination is definitely not overrated as it gets pretty dark around these parts. Celebrated the successfull completion by enjoying a Bells Kalamazoo Stout. Then I compressed the couch cushions until I couldn't take the lack of doing something anymore and put a new rear tire on my road bike. Then I upgraded the firmware on the Powertap CPU. Now I can't change the date using Poweragent. That's handy as it's 3 days off. Hmm.
"I love technology but not as much as thee. But I still love technology. Always and forever"
Kip Dynamite

Normal?

2010-03-19T11:39:00.000-05:00

Schedule says 1.5 hrs. Mind says it doesn't really feel like riding. Ring-ring. It's Triple B. OK, I'll meet you. Riding seems a little more palatable. Ring, it's Chicken. Awesome. Start out the ride feeling a little overdressed as it's gorgeous outside again! Riding is good. Meet up and notice it's going to be more than 1.5 hrs. Oh, well. Sorry Jeff. Riding with people is good. Lose one friend. A little later lose another. Huh, riding is ok. This hill is long. I'm glad I wore all this stuff. Am I home yet? Wow, great sunset. I don't feel like getting home yet. I haven't been on this road yet this year. I feel like I could ride another 2 hrs. Riding is fun but I'm hungry. Where's Black Betty when you need her? It's good to be home.

Got to ride home from school with Kylie on Wednesday. It was a good day.

10Lbs in a 5# bag

2010-03-15T08:46:00.000-05:00

So, how often have you woke up in the morning and had a Bald Eagle on top of your silo? Never you say? Huh, imagine that. If anyone wants our silo they can have it. Come and get it. That would greatly improve your chances of having this same experience some morning for you, especially if you currently don't have a silo.

So Lisa and I finished up siding the house proper ( still have the summer kitchen to do at a later date) and garage. That was a minor miracle. Lisa really enjoyed being on top of the scaffolding when it was wiggling all over. I think she may start a siding business for some extra money this summer. Give her a call if you need your house done this summer.

With the siding weight off my shoulders it enabled me to "enjoy" the climbing much more on the best weather day so far. Here we are going up "Deadman's hill" in Rock Springs. Remind me not to stop to take pictures in the middle of a climb while trying to keep up with Spencer and Chris.

So after the ride we went to get more of my new favorite beer ever (yes, it is that good). I went back to bask in the beauty of Black Betty. This time I brought friends. They liked her too. After the feast we went on Kelsey's first ride to the thriving metropolis that is Denzer. I think she liked it.

Looks good to me

2010-03-10T14:24:00.001-06:00

So after giving the old ride a thorough inspection, my highly compensated (room and board ain't cheap.) mechanics gave the thumbs up. Time to try and send it down the road to another lucky owner. Craigs list here we come. Well, when the siding is done it will be.

First Ride

2010-03-09T20:22:00.000-06:00

of the year with the new hammer yesterday. I didn't even pump up the tires to keep her from dropping me. I'm not sure who was more excited to be riding, me or Kylie. She's fired up to start riding again and very happy to have her team jersey. She wanted to wear it to the chili supper in Leland on Sunday but then decided she might get chili on it so she just wore a dress. The chili supper is yet another sign that spring is almost here. I weighed myself pre and post ayce chili, cheese, bread, crackers, chocolate milk and dessert plate. I came home with 4.4 lbs of country cookin' style deliciousness in my belly. I'm looking forward to next year already.

The desserts weren't on par with the Blackhawk Church's 2 weeks ago. That was amazing to saya the least. The chili wasn't as good there but I'm a sucker for desserts. Blackhawk also had heaping bowls of cheese curds on the table for my enjoyment. Yeah, that was a good meal too. If I didn't ride I'm pretty sure I would be pushin' 250lbs by now.

Gettin' stuff done

2010-02-16T08:54:00.000-06:00

No, my fingers weren't broken. It's a case of neglect, nothing more. Trying to get the house sided so that's not hanging over my head all summer and so we can refinance before the rates go up. That should free me up for CX this fall, too. The heart shaped pizza at Rocky's on valentines day was spectacular. I think that was Lisa's 16th year of getting her heart shaped mylar balloon. She's getting old. I'm not.

Another day on the Trails

2010-01-11T13:29:00.000-06:00

Snowmobile trails, that is. The snow wasn't cooperating very well and it seems I was sideways every time a sled was coming at us. That got me to thinking about why I like mountain biking so much. On the road we "share" with the cars. On "bike" paths we "share" with fruit booters, joggers, dogwalkers, etc... On snowmobile trails, well, you get the idea. When I'm out on mountain bike trails it's just us. The Mountain Bikers. Selfish I guess but I'm sure the Smokers feel the same way when they're out freezing their @sses off smoking together. It's just them together in their misery. On MTB trails it's us bikers together in our version of bliss for a little while.
Is it Spring yet?

It was 10 degrees

2010-01-05T13:25:00.000-06:00

and I was way overdressed. Oh well. The snow was a little less hardpacked and more like sand on Sunday. The climbs weren't as easy to go up or down. I thought of it as practice for the 2010 O2S except it will hopefully be warmer next August. Spencer and Meat joined us for the ride, with Spence showing up on his CX bike. I wouldn't have been able to even ride on those skinny tires in the snow. Looking forward to doing it again this Sunday. If anyone's interested, we'll leave our house at 1:00. Lisa's going to have soup ready for us after the ride.

Snowmobiking

2009-12-28T08:48:00.000-06:00

With the echoes of TSP in my head Lisa and I ventured out on the snowmobile trails yesterday. It was actually super fun! We got to ride in places around our area I hadn't ever seen. We even had first tracks on the club trail just southwest of Leland. It took us up on top of a ridge I hadn't been on before and the views and riding were spectacular. It was one of those days when I could've just kept riding. I know better though, so we turned around and had a sweet fast descent back down to Leland and cruised back home. Only saw 4 snowmobiles all day. Gas to run a sled must be too expensive when laid off, I guess.
I should just shut this down so the picture of Lisa and Junior stays at the top of the page but they say that the show must go on.
We got almost half of the front of the house sided yesterday, too. If I'm not careful I might finish that project up. If that happens look for some sort of black hole or tear in the time space continuim to appear somewhere West of Sauk City.

Chicks and guns

2009-12-21T19:02:00.000-06:00

So Lisa finally got her birthday, anniversary and Christmas present for the next couple years. We went down to the local bar in Leland and had us a beer or 2 and picked it up. Pretty sweet. That's Junior standing next to my lovely bride. He's been tending bar and giving opinions on politics and life since he was 10 years old at this place. No matter where you live it's worth the drive to be here in this slice of old time rural Wisconsin at least once in your life. You don't have to buy a gun or even a beer, he's got Sprecher's root beer on tap and that's delicious, too.

On another note, my suggestion is that you ask nicely to pass on the right if you happen to catch Lisa at a race this year. That's a Savage 30-06 and it'll take down something 5 times the size of the average comp racer!

***calm down, she's not going to shoot anybody. Geez. That was meant to be funny.***

Bar-B-Q Pizza

2009-12-18T14:12:00.000-06:00

So good. Got to hang out with The Boss and The Boss' wife (the real boss!) . Eat food, drink beer. Ahhhh. That's what I'm talkin' about. It's going to be a great year!

Sh@t Sandwich anyone?

2009-12-15T20:54:00.000-06:00

I think they're serving them up to us at work tomorrow. Mmmm. Can't wait.

I Almost

2009-12-01T19:53:00.000-06:00

got to bury the cat on Saturday. We heard a commotion and I looked up to see Mason giving one of the cats the death shake. I can't believe he actually dropped it when I yelled at him. We didn't see that cat for a while. She was back around the next day although a noticeably sore. 8 lives left and counting for Stripe.

Crazy Day

2009-11-23T09:26:00.000-06:00

Yep, it was. I had a ton hollering directed at me at the State Championships yesterday keeping me going. The course was pretty fun and quite slippery in spots. I felt pretty good and came away with my first State Championship. The offseason started at PBR:30 courtesy of Joe Curtes! Ahhh, so refreshing.

Polska CX

2009-11-18T08:31:00.000-06:00

Another great race put on by the Polska team. The bell's were ringing loud on the Polska Puker and it was crazy!! Mr. Braun was wasted and offered beer handups to me on all the laps but the last one when I wanted one. I grabbed what he had in his non-bell ringing hand and ended up with his warm PBR backwash to help me finish the final run up in style. I'm still waiting for the 2nd round of swine flu to hit after that error in judgement. I also got a PBR shower on the run up earlier in the race from Maciej. Mmmm, refreshing. I ended up 2nd and it was ok. Finished off the day by putting a stick through my wheel and ripping the derailluer off my bike while cooling down. Awesome. Lucky for me Mark M. had another 9 speed Dura Ace unit laying around for me to use. Looking forward to Sunday and then some time off the bike. Winter is coming and I don't have much siding on yet....