Mid-race break

Today here in Greenville, SC is the US Pro Cycling Championship to determine the US champion. It's pretty cool to be in a city that supports cycling in such a major way...hopefully funding comes through to keep the race here for the future.








I say all that while I'm still reeling in the fact that I just won a new vacuum...that's right! Momma gets a new toy! Bissel Vaccum had a booth set up with a bike hooked to a wattage trainer...hit 500 watts, get a free Bissel vacuum of your choosing. Whose your daddy....hit just over 550 and shut it down....really would have liked to see what I could max at sometime....regardless it was pretty cool and funny all at the same time. Feel free to laugh....I'll drown you out with the sound of my new Bissel!









As soon as that ended it was beer time...headed over to Barleys, the local taproom here in Gvegas. They've got several hundred beers to choose from with a rotating menu, which is good and bad...find a beer you like, and it's gone. Just found a new favorite, Ommegang Hennepin Farmhouse Ale, according to the menu: Bright and lively Belgium-style Saison that's golden in color with hints of gingersnap and citrusy hops. Not sure how that all combines to make a good brew, but for this week, while it's here, it's my new favorite.











-- Post From My iPhone

Test 1 2 3

Just got this app for the phone...seeing if it works. Hopefully it'll allow me to blog while away instead of having to wait and do it all when I get home....technology is Ridiculous!!!



Missed out on an amazing pizza concoction in Crested Butte...chicken, onion rings, jalapenoes, bbq sauce, onions....and god know what else. Tagg and I killed the remainder for breakfast...fortunetly the bear didn't eat it.




-- Post From My iPhone

Not much in the tank....

For whatever reason...tiredness...laziness...you pick, I've had NO energy/motivation to ride or for that matter even blog about our Pb-ville (thats Leadville to you non-science folk) road trip since our return. Not sure what it is, maybe I'm just zapped and don't realize it. The return back to familiar ground here in SC has yielded nothing but job hunting and thinking about riding....and neither have been very productive. It's all gonna have to change soon, otherwise I'll forget about all the cooked chipmunk and bear wrangling that occurred! More soon...promise.

For now, entertain yourself with this.....

And this....is it real? Fake?.....talk amongst yourselves and discuss.

Another day in the saddle.....

.....And today was but another day in the training for things yet to come. JeffP and I decided to give riding together another shot after our Monday debacle, OK, my Monday debacle. Ever since I did that long ride with all the climbing last week, I've been wanting to hit up the big climb on my SS mtn bike. Crazy, I know, and man I tell you when I'm in the middle of it, half way up.....and I'm breathing through my eyeballs with my legs feeling like lead....I hate it. But when I'm done and I'm sitting back in my car with the A/C cranked, drinking my chocolate milk and wearing my R&R socks....it feels gooooood!! Today was no exception, to either of the above feelings.

Since JeffP is also doing Leadville and an avid adventure racer, he's always up for some crazy riding ideas....mine was to hop back on hwy-215(long road from last Monday with all the climbing) this time on my mtn bike and ride all the way up to the top...down the Blue Ridge and then loop back home. However, JeffP had a better idea with more climbing and less pavement.....nice. He's also the type of guy who can never ride without breaking out his trusty Pisgah map, honestly don't know why he has one, he's got the whole forest memorized....seriously. That and somehow ALL his rides are so long/remote it requires that everyone pack a lunch, and somehow he always forgets to clue me in on this....but there is NO better tour guide and luckily i too am always up for an adventure. His idea was to start from the Fish Hatchery(shown above) head up some of the roads that THE MOST HORRIBLE THING EVER race is on, climb up to the top, over the ridge, drop down the other side to 215, ride up to the parkway, down a bit, then drop back down some hike-a-bike/ride descents, past the infamous, Farlow Gap, all the way back to the car. Great, no questions asked....I'm in.

Four hours later, we had nailed out 35 miles and 5000ft of elevation gain. Not a bad day of saddle time. My legs felt good on the one hour climb, was able to find a good rhythm and maintain it the whole time, hopefully I'll find a good one next Saturday! Bike did good, clothing was dialed in...all that's left is to do it. Another great day on the bike in the Carolina's. I know I've said it before, but the nice thing about the majority of rides in the area is that they all end with a dip in a river....today was no exception. Nothing better than washing off all the funk in a nice COLD river. Today was a good final push towards Leadville....time to start packing.

11 days till Leadville....mmmm good.

Thanks Middleburn.....for being crappy.

Yesterdays plans to ride weren't unlike any other days. JeffP headed over to the Palmetto trail in Spartanburg for a little "chill" ride, mainly cause there aren't any major climbs and it's a good place to get a nice, fun, chill ride in....that was the plan. Only major difference is i decided to ride my bone jarring rigid Cannondale today instead of the Niner. No biggy, besides I've been inspired by all the rigid SSer's around here...very talented riders.....so I thought I'd give it a shot.

We get geared up, and head out, cruise by the stream, through the wide open field...then start getting into some tighter singletrack with some rollers...no worries. SNAP. Oh my change came off, not a big deal, happens occasionally especially with no bash guard....but no...something else is wrong? Why is my chain ring bent, i didn't hit anything, no wreck, i mean this is the first "off-road" ride I've done on it? Oh, wait a minute...i see... the extremely overpriced spider i purchased from the "everything we build is built to last for years of hard core riding" British company, Middleburn, in order to convert this existing XTR crank over...has simply...failed. Nice. Thus begins my hour long walk out in extremely stiff carbon soled shoes. No fun.

Please note the extremely clean drive train, the perfectly straight teeth on the chain ring....and the spider that absolutely freaking failed. There will be a definite call today, warranty will be filed. I'd like to say it's because I'm so powerful that it broke, but that's probably not true. However this is the second time I've bent a chain ring....maybe i am THOR? Who knows. The day wasn't a total wash, hows that saying go? "All's well that ends well". And it definitely ended well.

I found this little viedeo floating around the intraweb and just had to share it...if your a cycling fan you'll definetly get a kick out of it. Some poeple have too much time on there hands when they should be....blogging? I dunno.

12 days till Leadville. Please no mechanicals.

Race Day

So this weekend was Jill's turn. She's been wanting to do a tri since last fall when we did Ironman Florida, and today she got her chance. Keep in mind that this girl has been working nights the past week, ie: go in at 5pm work till 8:30am the next day. Coupled with barely a dinner(ended up being too late everywhere we went, not much in the backwoods of NC), barely a breakfast and spending the night camping....she still managed a midpack finish with one of her best runs. She's amazing. Oh and did i mention she hasn't swam but once since November....she's crazy to go attempt a mile swim!!

The tri was just west of Asheville, NC about 30 miles in the beautiful Pisgah Forest area....and as you can see from the pics it was pretty awesome views all day. Weather was fantastic, though a little chilly at the start. 61f with a water temp of 67f....definitely a wet suit legal day. I was able to snap a few shots of her during the race, but I'll post more later when they post the actual race photos and i can rob them. Nice job babe. Proud of you.

Here's some ol'e Ironman pics i found from when Jill and I went down in '07 to register...what were we thinking. If you've never seen an IM event, plan too. Not only are they absolutely amazing with the shear amount of people competing(2,000) but they are completely inspiring. I would recommend them to anyone...seriously, anyone can do it. Just takes time. Enjoy.

Exactly 14 days till Leadville...Now I'm getting excited.