Weekend Cancellation

So what do you do when your weekend plans are blown to pieces by a little bad weather? I guess we made the most of the bad weather and got started on a little household project and then went out an played in the snow.












Pulled up the old ugly carpet Friday night because the city of OP was having a free large item pick-up Saturday morning. I'm sure the money I saved having it hauled away will come in handy when I pick up the supplies to install the new wood floor.












Naturally the dust, ect..... from the carpet put me in a allergy induced tailspin for Saturday morning followed by a lovely migraine. Took meds hoping to get out before the snow hit, not happening. Quite a bit of heavy snow, I even bent the handle of my snow shovel while shoveling the driveway












Got up bright and surly Sunday(yea, still had the migraine), had some breakfast and headed out for some sledding. Jonas finally got it down and was ripping on the snowboard.

Made a sweet jump for the kids. Eli's buddy gettin some air!

How not to take the jump! I said lean back but I'm not sure what he did to end up like this.

So I didn't touch the bike one time this weekend but what the heck, when life serves you lemons............

Tues KC Crit and the Cake

First off we have the results from week 3 of the KC Crit. So far every week has been different, cold, warm, and now gale force winds.Temps in the 50's with a brisk NW wind made it feel more like the 30's but a big group still turned out for some crit action.

I should of known we were in for trouble when on the neutral lap I told B. Jensen I was cold and he said, "don't worry, it's going to get real warm soon". And so it was.....the attacks came right after the end of the neutral lap and a few laps later the field was blown to pieces. I totally missed the split as group of about 8 went up the road and that was the race. For a while we kept them close and I tried to bridge across to the break twice only to come up about 4 bike lengths short each time. From then on it was just a workout with a few of us taking pulls and slugging it out until the end of the race.

The finishing order that I have is from the racers in the break, not Chris, so if it's wrong let me know. There was much complaining, bitching, whining about how the sprint played out with the riders in the break. Here's the bottom line: Now that we have a yellow line, stay in our lane in the sprint. I'm sure that's what Chris would want as he's all ways preaching the center line to us pre-race.

Nuff said, here's the results: Edited 3/26/09

1. Brian Jensen
2. Shadd Smith
3. David Hejduk
4. Nick Coil
5. Bill Marshall

Overall Points Edited 3/26/09

Shadd Smith 14
Brian Jensen 7
Tom Price 4
Matt Ankeney 4
Mark Cole 3
Joe Schmalz 3
David Hejduk 3
Nick Coil 2
Lyle Reynolds 2
Patrick Angell 1
Bill Marshall 1
Jeff Winkler 1

And now on to the cake............

What you have before you is the boys Cub Scout project. A Cub Scout in space themed cake. Here's my time line for this little project.

Monday 8:00pm: Wife is sick with flu and is reminded that this project is due Wed at the 7:00pm Pack meeting. Time for Dad to make the run to the grocery store for supplies to bake and decorate said cake. Kids design cake at this time on a napkin, true engineers. 9:00pm: mom musters the energy to bake cake.

Tuesday 9:00pm: Arrive home after crit to ask still sick wife how cake decorating is going. Response is,"we're not making a F**king cake, it fell apart coming out of the pan". Hmmmmm not good. Shower up and send everybody to bed. 11:30pm, sit down and figure out how to turn a torn up sheet cake into a spacecraft. 12:00pm, shape is cut out and I'm about to puke from eating all of the left over cake. Now to pop the frosting into the microwave to get that runny consistency to spread on cake. 12:30 and the cake is done, frosting on cake is good......now I'm really sick, room is spinning, drink lot's of water. Go to bed........

Wed 5:30pm: Arrive home to find cake as pictured above. The boys did a nice job drawing the design details on the cake and we are done! 8:00pm Meeting over, eat more cake. Thought we would get rid of Spaceship but still ended up with over half of it. No more cake, please, someone stop me........ Wouldn't you know, we ended up winning another cake in the raffle. I've got to figure out how to haul it to the shop in my backpack!

Spring Break is over

Spring break for the kids is officially over so now it's time to get back to a somewhat normal life. By last Friday I was so tired I didn't even care that I wasn't going to be able to ride on Saturday. But, the wifely one got home early in the afternoon and suggested that I go for a quick ride. It was nice out so I figured a quick trip to Minor Park on the MTB was in order.













Headed out sporting the new Lincoln Industries kit. I know it's been a while since I've been off road but I couldn't ride over the slightest bump without falling. With all the rocks out there it took forever to ride a lap so to say that my skills were a little rusty is quite an understatement. After flailing about for a while I decided that I needed to go home before I hurt myself.













Today I went for the new 29'er Crew kit hoping for a change of luck. I tried something totally different and took the family to River Trails in Lawrence. Eli is just not quite ready to ride solo so I decided to hook up the tag-a- long to the Superfly. Probably not something the engineers planned for but what the heck.













Jonas was on his first off road adventure and loving it. Eli and mom had a great time to so I can see this family adventure happening again soon. I really had to watch the tree roots so Eli didn't get shot off the seat! We saw E Kirby out there with his little guy, never too early so start them off road!












I'll have to send this up to the Fisher brand Manager and see what he has to say.

So after the family ride and a quick lunch I attemted to ride home on my road bike. It was going to be the third time in 3 weeks that I rode home from Lawrence. But, in rather strange stroke of luck I managed to flat and cut a tire before I even left town. There was no way to boot the slice so I scrambled for my phone to call the wife. Lucky for me she was getting gas and in no time I was back in the van for the trip home. Bummer, no bike ride but it's better than walking!

I want a yellow bike!

This one would do just fine. This is a customers Project One Madone, 5.5 frame, SRAM Red group, very nice. I've wanted a yellow bike for many years but it's never worked out. Maybe next year!

Makes me want to ride. Not today, my week off the bike continues until tomorrow. Other than a commute to the shop I've been off the bike since last Tuesdays crit. That's a bummer but it's been nice hanging with the kids for a week during their Spring Break. Next week it's back to the grind when kids go back to school and I go back to full time work at the shop. After a week of working nights I'm ready to get back to a day time schedule.

Power Training: Meet Coach Adam at the TREK Store

Come on in and hang out at the TREK Store and see why everybody is talking about training with a power meter. There might even be some beer involved.
From Adam,
I remember when I was just starting into "riding fast." I wanted to know how to go "fast." The amount of books, magazine articles, papers, and stories I absorbed knowledge from amazes me. Even now, I still want to know that I'm at the best of my ability. Funny thing... I'm not the only one. EVERYONE who is competitive wants to be this way.
Well, one thing led to another and here I am, working as a consultant for Source Endurance and helping others of all ages and abilities to be faster and stronger than they have ever been....
I've noticed that many people talk after races about not having that "little bit extra" at the end. For starters, that "little bit" is very difficult to realize. However, it is attainable. The only problem is that you can't get it with light wheels, a stiff frame, or carbon handlebars (they help the bike, not the motor). Heart rate is really not applicable for reaching that, "little bit," either, which leaves Power. I'm going to be giving a couple of free talks about Training with Power. If you have any questions about how to make any sense of all this witchcraft, come join us. Thursday March 19th 7:30-8:30 PM at the Trek Bicycle Store of Kansas City.

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly, and Points

I'm going to start this post off with the ugly so we can get to the positive vibe. In my last post I ended harping about the scoring at the Dam race last Sunday. Little did I know that the scoring wasn't screwed up, I had actually been relegated from 3rd to 17th for a center line violation. First off my apologies to the officials for calling them out on the scoring of the race. I should of checked the results after the race and I could of gotten an explanation of where the violation occurred. In any case we were warned about the center line before the race by the officials. My feeling is that the penalties are a little heavy handed for a small local race but it's up to the officials how they enforce the rules.

Over and done, after all the comments at the Crit last night it seems like I've cultivated something of a bad boy image, all I need is a black kit......oh wait, I just got one.

The Bad....... I am toast! Spring break is this week for the kids. That means that I'm home during the days and working at night. Wouldn't you know that it would get nice and everybody wants their bike fixed. I can tell you this, there are no cars on the road at 1am in Overland Park. On 8 mile commute home I was passed by 2 cars. Kinda nice, but I don't think I want to do it all the time.













The Good!

St. Pat's KC Crit. Smoking fast last night, Dean had a 25.5 mph average speed. Even faster if you were in the break and lapped the field! I tried to go with the attacks but after a while the big guns went and it was over. Looking at the riders in the break it seems like training camps and racing in Texas helps.

KC Crit Results:

1. Shadd Smith
2. Matt Ankeny
3. Joe Schmalz
4. Brian Jensen
5. Jeff Winkler

Overall Points:

1. Shadd Smith 10
2. Matt Ankeny 4
3. Tom Price 4
4. Joe Schmalz 3
5. Mark Cole 3
6. Brian Jensen 2
7. Lyle Reynolds 2
8. Jeff Winkler 1
9. Pat Angell 1

I'm hoping that last night's results are correct. I depend on Chris and the riders to give me the finishing order so let me know if it's not correct

Joe is smoking fast this year!

Got the boys out on the bike path while it's so nice.

St. Pat's Day Parade. Idon't own a single item of green clothing so I had to pull out the old Guinness vest to fit in.

Now this brings back some memories. The old Rocket boy from the first years of the Trek VW Team.

Weekend review and quoteable moments

Saturdays PV Starbucks Ride: Nice group of 10 headed out North for a 60+ miler. Nice mix of flats and hills made for a ride that made the legs hurt. They legs hurt before the ride but they were 10 times worse after. Hard to figure that one out sometimes. Anyway, we decided to do the race in Perry Sunday and ride home again. Hmmmm......the legs hurt, longer race, not as favorable wind.......what am I thinking!

Scott took the plunge this week and replaced Alex on the ride back. Thanx to Bill for the for the magic carpet ride in the Mercy Cycling van and to Papa Wallace (aka: ooie, ueie, whatever Bill's kids call him) for driving. First time out the the new Lincoln Industries kits!

Scott and I did the 3's race and for whatever reason most of the 3's did not want to combine with the 1, 2's race. A combined race would of been more interesting but it is what you make it. Our race was pretty animated with people attacking and going off the front. Scott helped set the tempo for the first few laps in an attempt to get his racing legs back in his first race of the year. I attacked on the hill and then later bridged up to a solo rider that was off the front. After a long bridge I get to the guy and he just sits up and wants me to drag him around, not going to work and I just wait for the field. On the next lap Rob goes off the front with another rider in the cross wind section. I bridged up to him and we were off. Another rider got across shortly after that and we quickly got a gap. Everybody took their pulls and we ended up staying away for the uphill sprint. I ended up leading up the hill and just didn't have the jump left in my legs to counter their jump and ended up 3rd. Not too bad as I didn't feel that great and was riding at my limit in the break.

Rob's in the red and white, good to see him get the win.

So while we were racing for points Troy and the rest of my team were doing a MTB enduro in Lincoln. He's holding the 1st place team prize. Pretty sweet and they only had to pay a $15.00 entry fee!

So after the race we saddled up for the ride home into a SE wind. Not good, 68 miles to go into a cross/headwind. Now here's my dilemma, it's spring break for my kids so I'm staying home during the day with them and working nights. Last night was the first night. Let's see, race/ride=90 miles, then work at the shop and stand for 4-5 more hours. I was a bit worried how this was going to work out. Then we started riding back with Adam and a few guys from Lawrence. Yea....a semi free ride to Eudora, and then it was down to 4........ Hats off to Bill and Chris, they pulled the rest of the way to KC and to Casa Wallace. 21-22mph all the way back and I was wasted after hardly pulling. All I know is that it saved my butt getting towed back as I had the energy to go directly to the shop and get my work done.

I do need to thank the wife/kids as they brought me dinner at the shop and then hung out and kept me amused.

I think this is the longest post I've ever done but it would not be complete with out this weekends quotes;

Someone to Dean(FOG or F###ing old guy) "You need a panic button that says, I've fallen off the pack.................and I can't get back on"

At the top of every hill we heard Walt say "I'm still here Bitches"

Sunday after the ride home we had;

Bill as he crawled off his bike after pulling at 22mph for 2 hours, "I think I hurt myself"

Scott at Casa Wallace; to Papa Wallace: "Do you have any coke"? answer Nope, 2 seconds later to MS Wallace: "Do you have any Coke"? uh....no.

Yea........ we were a little wasted.

Just checked the results and they have me in 17th, after being in a 4 man break for 3 laps you would think they could figure that one out. I should of checked results but I figured since we came across the line at a crawl they could pick the number out. My bad, I guess I'll keep my $30.00 next week and ride at home.

Bike....some new, some.....

Now that's a pretty sight, brand new Madone frames just waiting to be built up.

Not so pretty sight! This bike had way to much cable before someone lowered the stem but now it just wants to turn right. Oh, the things you see at the shop.

Is it Cross or Crit season?

Tonight was the first night for the Tuesday KC Crit and it was COLD! I think it was right at 32 degrees when we started. I'm sure that and the 25 mph winds out of the north contributed to the small turnout. The crew that turned out did a nice job working a pace line and everybody got a good workout. I think it took over half of the race before my hands warmed up enough that I could shift gears. I never did get warmed up enough to get my legs going before Chris called out 3 to go. Shadd punched it up the hill to separate the group and bring it down to 4 with 2 laps to go. On the last lap I tried to jump into the wind before the corner to get a little gap. I knew I wasn't going to beat Shadd or David but I hoped to get away from Mark. It worked and I ended up 3rd in the sprint.

I'll post the points next but I wanted to note that you will not see David's name listed. That's because he did not complete the whole race. This year anybody that does not complete every lap of the race will not be counted for the points. I caught a bit of grief about this last year so this is the way it's going to be.

KC Crit Results 3/10/09

1. Shadd Smith 5
2. Tom Price 4
3. Mark Cole 3
4. Lyle Reynolds 2
5. Pat Angell 1

Dam Race #1 and the Ride

On Saturday's ride I got to thinking how great it would be to do the race at Perry and then ride home. After finding out that there was going to be a HUGE tailwind on the way home I had to ask if anybody else was interested. Turned out that Bill, Chris, and Alex were willing and we soon found a driver in Papa Wallace.

As for the race.....we get there and it's cold and windy, nobody wants to be the one to make the move to get out of the van to get signed up. Soon we have no choice and get it done but we still hang out in the van until it's start time. With no warm up we roll off to start the race. About 3/4 of the way through the 2nd lap got off the front with Rob (a KU alum from out east) who I raced with last year at Gateway Cup. I know he's fast so we're off and get a good gap on the group. For 2 laps we were off the front but we just weren't going fast enough into the wind to hold the group off and got caught with 1 lap to go. I hung onto the front of the group for the last lap but didn't much left in the legs for the sprint up the hill to the finish.

On the 2nd lap of the breakaway Rob and I are climbing the hill and "someone" yells....."only 68 miles more to get home". I was amused, poor Rob said he was a bit demoralized. That leads me to the ride home............

So here we are on the highway leaving Perry. Right now we are going 24 mph and we are just rolling along pretty much effortless. Wish I could say the the whole ride was that easy but it's a whole bunch better than slugging it out into the wind. Got to say thanks to Bill for loading us up into the Mercy Van for the ride there and to Papa Wallace for doing the driving. Not too often you roll into your garage with a 21 mph average after 85 miles.

Embrace the wind

Yea, it's spring in Kansas and that means wind. Met at the PV Starbucks for a group ride and since the Spring Fling races are going on I figured on a small group. Sure enough we numbered 7 when we took off. Into the wind we go and after a while it was down to 4. Nice pace line made the wind bare able and we rolled it at a good pace. Got a couple hours in and we kept dry. It's all good.












We made a quick stop and waited ....... Dave decided to grab some food.....and then we waited.....












Wait.......I see someone, can't quite tell, their so far away and moving pretty slow.......













Hmmmm.....looks like a Mercy jersey........












It's Chris coming back to the group. All kidding aside Chris just started riding after a month off the bike. He's suffering now but I'm sure the tables will be turned shortly.















Never realized how often Bill's phone rings. The guys pretty talented at pulling it out of his pocket even in a huge crosswind.

Tomorrow.....possibly doing the Dam race and riding home if the winds right. If not probably get a ride in around KC.

This week was Eli's 7th birthday so we decided to let him invite all of his buddies to Pump-it-Up. If you've never been there it's a building full of inflatable slides, agility runs, jumping pits, ect...... Perfect place for 14 seven year olds to run around. In the pic you can see Eli's a happy boy on his kings chair and dad's busy stuffing his face with pizza.

We need this for the shop! We have Rock-Em'-Sock-Em' Robots but this could be the real deal.

Of course what's a party with out cake. This was just before the kid in the yellow started painting his face with the frosting.

I had to make cookies for Eli's class at school for his birthday. Now how does that work.....when it's your birthday you have to bring a treat in for the class. Seems kind of backwards. Anyway, he has 14 kids in his class and I guess I went a little overboard, just a bit. In the end we had enough for his class, all of the teachers in the school, and the kids in aftercare. At least I'm not eating them all.

It's shaping up to be an interesting weekend, there are races and a high probability of rain. I'll probably sit out the races as I'm on day three of a migraine but Sunday still might be in the cards at the Dam race. Maybe Bill can get someone to drive us over in the Mercy van and we can ride back after the race, Bill.....are you out there?

That's all I have to say........

March 5th 2009, Yea it's warm but man it's windy! Rippin it up going into the wind.

WOW, it hit 80, too bad I didn't.

That's a fast bike!

Look at that.........the bike is so fast it blew his feet off the pedals! Hope my bike's that fast!

Snow Days

After riding in shorts last week Saturday morning was a shocker. Sure, I knew it was going to snow, just not that much. Woke up and it was cold, the snow was blowing, and I just lost all motivation to ride. I really wanted to hit the woods on the mtb but I just didn't want to take the chance on the hidden rocks. I hate falling on rocks, hidden of not. So I'm hoping for something more like the pic below in the next week.











Instead of riding in the snow I went for a different type of workout......sledding!












I ran up and down this hill more times than I can remember. I tried a few times to ride the snowboard but the wifely one told me I should stop before I get hurt. I guess she knows me pretty well.......












Eli taking advantage of (hopefully) the last snow of the year!

Daylight savings next weekend, Tuesday crits start next week, TT next Thursday, races on the weekend, the season begins..........