MTB day 2

Since it was suppposed to rain a bunch on Monday I decided to get out on the MTB to do a little more testing. Since my fork and shock were a bit too soft yesterday I decided to bump up the pressure a bit. Problem was I went just a bit too far and it was too stiff. Time to start writing down settings as just a pound of air pressure makes a huge difference in how the shock and fork works.

Rode out to SMP and did a few laps before running into local fast guy Doug Plummer. We got in a few more hot laps before both had to quit and head for home. Rode home for a total of 3.5 hours on the bike. Not too shabby! Two days on the MTB and I'm feeling a bit beat up. Time to hit the road this week with the Tue Crit, Wed hill ride, and the Monthly Thursday TT. Busy week indeed.

First Singletrack!

I can't believe I've had this bike for a few weeks now and today was the first ride. It's not that I didn't want to ride it but the trails have just been too wet to ride. Today I ventured out to Minor Park for a ride to test it out. This is really the first time on a full suspension MTB as I've allways thought the hardtail was a faster bike. After today I'm sure glad I have a bike with suspension because the horses were out when the trails were muddy and they made it super rough. I should of spent more time tuning my suspension as it was way too soft but over all I'm impressed.
This is the Highline trail at Minor. The trail looks fast here but there are more than enough technical rock sections to keep you on your toes.
Top of the ridge! Wish I had more time to ride but Eli's soccer game was about to start.

Tuesday Crit, Week #2

Yep, you saw it here first. Cam Chambers on a road bike, and doing a training crit as well. Nothing like a little speed work to round out the endurance training.
Cam hung tough on what he said was his third crit ever.

Some of the A group getting ready to start. The race was pretty fast, I heard that there was a 24.8 mph average. Seems like there were quite a few attacks and there was allways someone off the front with the group chasing. Only near the end did Shadd and Adam get off the front and stay off to the end. I ended up in good position for the field sprint and ended up 2nd in the sprint and 4th in the race. Wow, points two weeks in a row! Speaking of points, I'm looking at creating a spreadsheet but I'm just too tired right now. Below you'll find this weeks results and the overall poit so far.

Tuesday KC Crit Points

Week # 2
Adam Mills 5
Shadd Smith 4
Graham Aldredge 3
Tom Price 2
David Hedjuk 1

Overall Points
Shadd Smith 9
Adam Mills 5
Bill Marshall 4
Graham Aldrege 3
Tom Price 3
David Hedjuk 3

It's been a long week/1st race of the year

It's been a long week with the kids on spring break, home construction, and a quick Easter trip to Lincoln. In between all of that I managed to squeeze in the Tuesday KC Crit, Wednesday Worlds in Lincoln, and 2 Training races in Lincoln. At this moment two weeks ago I was at the shop attempting to get ahead on the service so I could feel good about leaving the shop for a few days. Monday was more of the same, kids all day and the off to the shop by 6pm and getting to bed by 2am. Tuesday I did the Tuesday crit in KC and rode well. Wednesday AM we packed up the van and headed to Lincoln where I did the Wed worlds ride. This ride has been around for at least twenty years and is all ways fast. This was a true Nebraska ride, slugged it out in a paceline into a killer wind and then turned around and rode in at nearly 40mph the whole way in. It's been a long time since I've been spun out for that long. Thursday we went to the Omaha Zoo and walked for 5 hours, then went to CoCo Keys(a water resort) for the rest of the day. Woke up Friday and went to the waterpark for a few hours before returning to Lincoln. Caught up with Kevin and Jay for a 2.5 hour ride around town. Suddenly the legs didn't feel so good, not a good sign. Saturday I was up t 5am to get out and help set up for the race that the team was putting on. I did the masters race and felt really bad. Try got a way with another rider so I just tailgunned the rest of the race and helped Don win the fieldsprint for third. The 123 race went even worse than the masters, the legs were really tired, I could hang with group but that was about it. Then I flatted and sat out for two laps while I found a wheel to borrow. I was kind of bummed that they found me a wheel...I really would of rather quit! I got back in and with 7 to go Troy got dropped and I went back to get him. Big mistake! I was tired and Troy was cramping but we tried untill two to go and then just decided to finish out the race.
Now it's time for a little rest!
No pictures.....my camera's battery died and I didn't have a charger!

Tuesday Crit

The first Tuesday crit is in the books! It was a bit cold and cloudy but it didn't stop an estimated 40 riders from 45 minutes of pain in the A race. A strong pace was set by Andy Cocha off the front for most of the race but a chase led by Bill Marshall and Shadd Smith kept Andy close. With 10 minutes to go Bill and Shadd jumped on the hill to bridge across the gap and join Andy. They pulled away from the field to the finish. I jumped on the hill on the last lap to join David Hejduk to take the last points positions.

3/18/08 Results: Points:
1 Shadd Smith 5
2 Bill Marshall 4
3 Andy Chocha 3
4 David Hedjuk 2
5 Tom Price 1

It's been a while....I've been busy!

Ok .....I've been busy but not too busy to get some new toys! Had to post some pictures of my new TT and MTB bikes. I'm pretty excited to ride a full suspension MTB but as much as it's been raining it won't be any time soon.

Red and white, that's my colors!
Can't forget about the Lemond road bike.
I must be getting old, I'm really looking forward sitting down more now that I've got some suspension in the rear.

The new computer desk. It's good to get the computer out of the basement now that the kids are on it more and more.
The construction is done. Now it's Nancy's turn to put everything back in it's place.
Love the floor!
My new place to work. Now I don't have any reason to go in the basement. Look at how clean the desk is, that won't last long!

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I wish I was riding

Yep.....I sure do, but it's not to be. Now if I was just a bit smarter I would of started this home improvement project just a bit sooner before it started to get warm. Or I could of got started 5 weeks ago when we ordered the cabinets. But I didn't and now it's time to get it done. Last weekend the cabinets came in so it was time to paint the walls and tear out the carpet.
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Next we went out and bought new flooring to put in once the walls are dry. Next we will install the cabinets, countertop, and lights to make a fine place to put the computer. The kids are on the computer too much to leave it down in the basement any longerAs for riding, I have been out, just not as much as I would like to. I look at what everybody else is doing and it seems like I'm not doing enough! I guess it's like this every spring so not to worry. Soon it will warm up and I'll catch up......I all ways do!


















If I start bumming about the weather check out this picture of this Slipstream rider in Paris-Nice.

Nope.....Spring's not here yet

Just when you think Spring and warmer temps are here the North wind starts blowing and it's cold again. Really today wasn't too bad, 42 degrees without too much wind. Scott and I got out for an aftenoon ride to check out the Wed hill ride course. I'm planning to make it harder and longer than last year so we thought we better get out and see how long it take to do the whole route. I think it's pretty good route that takes around 1:30 and is 29 miles. The key to the whole ride is the hills......lots of hills. Hills of every size, length, and pitch. I just saw the extended forcast and it calls for a high of 72 next Wed for week one of the hill ride...........YEA.

Spring is here?

I thought Spring was here this weekend but as I look outside this morning with temps in the 30's I guess it's just not quite here yet. Oh well........just have to wait. On a positive note it was a my first week of good training this year. 80 miles on Wed, 75 miles solo on Sat, and 60 miles on Sunday with Scott made for a pretty tired boy today. The temps were awsome this weekend but the wind more than made for a tough couple of days. Took some pictures of this giant hill on the back side of lake Olathe. Stopped in the middle and took one looking down, and one to the top. Wow, 39x27.

Saturday I got home and did some chores, went to Jonas's last B-ball game and then pulled out the new Park Grillin' tools.

So today it's back to the shop to work and hopefully a short recovery ride tonight.

And then there's KB and his backpack........getting ready for a long trip?