To the Future

The last day of 2008 was a good day.

Nate and I spent all morning cleaning. He did all the vacuuming and I made sure he didn't miss a spot. I am going to start putting senior level management on my Resume.

I was able to get out for a ride this afternoon. Felt great. I don't think I have ever felt this strong and had such a desire to ride at the end of December. That is a good sign. I am also trying to keep things low key. I want to keep my mind in the game come time to build for this spring.

This evening we had some family fun. A good dinner and some laughs. The kids are growing up so quickly!

And for this evening.... I am starting my base training for 2009 CX season.

Happy New Year everyone.

See you next year.

To the Track

For those of you that didn't know, there is an indoor velodrome in Boulder that just opened last week. It is a full wooden track within a large warehouse. I went out there today and got signed up for an intermediate class. They told me the beginner class would not be appropriate if I had already done some road races. Anyway, they hooked me up with a nice new track bike (included in the cost of the class) and away I went. (just bring your pedals, shoes and helmet)

It was a blast!!!! The track bike was pretty awesome! For those that have not ridden a fixed gear bike before, it really is not very difficult to get used to. Climbing up on the banking of the Velodrome was a little intimidating the first couple of times but it soon became very easy. The high banks are a great way to control your speed and move off the head of a paceline. To the left is a photo of the class I was in.

On the right is a photo of turn one with a rider to provide some scale. The guy in the upper right of the photo is on a second level balcony.

Unfortunately the class was over filled and I didn't get enough time on the track to be completely comfortable. The instructor suggested I return for another class before being certified on the track. By the end of the class I felt a lot better and was actually ripping it up.

I was a little surprised by the g-forces in the turns. You kind of have to tilt your head to the side to see in the turn. Otherwise your head gets heavy and it is difficult to look up into the turn..... G-forces on a bike.... Nice!

The Great Outdoors

After a short weight lifting work out I went over to Boulder to try out the Velodrome. Unfortunately they had changed the schedule and decided that someone with racing (road racing) experience should be in the intermediate class. The funny part was their deciding criteria, "Do you have a matching top and bottom (ed. Kit) under there?". So come back tomorrow. I got signed up for a class tomorrow morning. My friend Rick and I watched for a little while, looks like fun! I wonder if I will get dizzy?

The weather was really head turning after the cold we have had. I headed out for some nice base miles. The sun was out and the the winds were no were near what they were predicted to be, at least at my house. After a few miles of fun relaxing miles it was home for some family fun time. It was great to get those miles in just after Christmas. At least it makes me feel like I am burning a lot of calories.

We took the kids for a nice hike around Dinosaur Ridge. They have closed the road over the ridge making it a much more family friendly place to be. We all had a good time and the dinosaur foot prints and bones were a hit. Nate had a bit of an melt down on the return trip to the car. After assuring him his Ki Ki (blanket) was in the car, he became a little more focused for the return trip.

Two Years Coming Down

We moved into this house just over two years ago. In that time we have slowly been renovating and repairing the house. Our priority has always been the main living areas and the kids bedrooms. Well, today... after the wife got to sleep in... it was time to finally get the nasty wallpaper out of our bedroom!

My wonderful sister-in-law (who lives just a few miles away) go the call this morning. My wife called "Are you up?..... oh sorry..... Wanna come over and help pull down wallpaper?" Amazingly she came over. If she had been awake, she might have come up with an excuse (I was looking for one). Anyway she was a trooper and all the wallpaper is down! Thanks Shel.

This gives you a small impression of what the wallpaper looked like... NASTY!

Ladies at Work, just before my daughter and I brought in lunch from the "burrito store".

What was my task during all of this.. well I was the furniture mover, preliminary room cleaner, child watcher, lunch fetcher, post clean upper, laundry doing super dad. It was nice to spend time with the kids but that's no walk in the park.

A Christmas Miracle

Christmas must have been exciting for the kids.... we got back from Grandma and Papa's house yesterday and the kids slept until 7:30 am!!! Wow! We took advantage..

Now everyone (the wife) is energized and talking crazy about getting things DONE around the house. So... I am off to work.

Death March #2

Went for a winter hike with Karen, Tyler and Chris. This normal
peaceful lake had seen a number of tragic events. There were a number
of dead large animals and this dog or wolf. Not something you see
everyday.

Death March #1

Melissa ran 20 miles on the treadmill! She is getting ready for a
marathon next month. She ran for 3 hours while watching the guitar
hero family challenge.

The saga continues

Day 2! My parents house. All the grandkids hit the jackpot. Then it
was guitar hero all afternoon.

And so it begins......

Christmas #1, the in-laws.

Crack Pipe

There's a new way to get your fix, if you live along the front range. (stolen from 303cycling.com)

An indoor, wooden tracked velodrome is just finishing up in Boulder. It opened yesterday. Since I have a few days off starting tomorrow, I am getting a few cycling friends together to go check it out.

What does it all mean?

The good:

I have always wanted to ride on a velodrome. This one looks good, with 50 degree banks there isn't anything else out there I wont be able to ride.

The bad:

I may need another bike... This is actually good but the wife may not think so.

The ugly:

My wife has ridden in the Portland, Alpenrose, Velodrome. She liked it and has expressed interest in riding the Boulder Velodrome. Could be interesting.... I wonder if they have child care during the adult racing leagues?

Preparation

It's time to start thinking about the 2009 cycling season. Coach tells me it is time to start getting ready.

This morning I hit the gym. Until recently, I have not lifted any weights in about 9 months. If you have ever lifted weights then stopped and started again, you know.... start easy!! You can ruin the day after if you lift too much. With that in mind, I started lifting a few weeks ago. You know, very small weights. An amount were everyone in the free weight room looks at the chicken armed cyclist bench pressing the old lady pink weights that are kept on the floor at the end of the weight rack. Those first weeks look bad... but hey.... it's going to pay off.

Now that the plan has started, I am ready. I might still be benchpressing the old lady pink weights but I leg pressed 2 sets of 20 with 200 lbs + the weight of the sled. Not bad for December.

Santa

The guy in the "cage" at the mall was a little too creepy.

But this fella had a lot of holiday sprit and the kids warmed right up
to him.

Porridge

We picked up some "Scottish Oats" from a discount store on Saturday. This morning I made up a bowl. Pretty good. Takes a little longer to cook compared with Quaker oatmeal but it is better... and a lot more filling. Ever since I visited Scotland this past summer, I've been looking for some good oatmeal. The Scottish really know their porridge!

Need to pick up some more.

Brrrr Lights

Needed better shoes, I think I froze my feet. That made the entire trip a little less enjoyable. Sorry everyone. The kids loved it! The zoo did a good job, just dress warm.

Nate was ready

Pretty Lights

Mission Accomplished

My top cycling goals for 2008 were:
1. Top 20 in a road race
2. Top 20 in a cross race
3. <24 min up Lookout mountain

My best results in 2008 were:
6th at Deer Trail Road Race
2nd at Winter Park Race #2 (while helping a teammate take 1st)
5th at Red Rock CX #1
3rd at Bear Creek Lake Park TT #2
26th in Best Cyclocross Rider (BCR) competition (called up for the last race of the year... NICE!)
23:20 up Lookout Mtn

Now I find myself struggling to identify goals for 2009. I want to continue and improve however I also want to accomplish those goals. Perhaps I need some goals I can't reach, pushing myself as far as I can. But.. if I know which goals are a stretch, I might not push as hard for them.

The struggle continues.

Infestation

Well it must be cold outside. The mice are coming in. Yesterday the family caught a mouse in our living room, in the middle of the afternoon. Then last night, in the same location, we saw another one while watching Monday night football. So my wife and I got out some Tupperware and tried to catch it. It was actually quite comical, our three year old was standing on the couch yelling “It’s over there….It’s over there….. AAAH… He’s by the tree mommy, He’s by the tree mommy…. AAAAH…… He went under the couch….. He’s under the couch……. AAAAH….. Get him, Get him.” I was lifting couches, chairs and everything else with a flickering POS flashlight trying to corner the mouse. We spent about 10 minutes chasing the little guy before my wife’s catlike reflexes caught him.

Two mice caught by hand in one day. Time to up the ante, we got some traps. Now we’ll see who is quick. Got the good ones, you know, wooden base with the giant spring loaded killing bar. Loaded them up with peanut butter and left them out. In the morning…. All the peanut butter was gone and the traps didn’t work. The peanut butter was not just a little eaten, the traps had been licked clean. Sweet!

Now we are going to the extreme! Lets see if the more advance traps work.

First Post

My cycling season ended about a week and a half ago. It has been a good season. I had better results than I thought I would. Top ten in a road race, TT, mountain bike and cyclocross races. Granted, they were all in a Cat 4 field, but a lot of people never see the front. With the change in weather and lack of races I find myself a little depressed. After debating for a while, I decided to start this blog to tell the stories of my cycling adventures. Hopefully this will also help push me to achieve my future goals and show others what is possible.