Suffering, Bikes and Safety

I haven’t updated in a while. No particular reason, other than things have been busy and I haven’t had much exciting to say. (Do I ever have anything exciting to say?) I have been getting some grief for the lack of updates so here is an update:

I have been training and getting ready to race. The team is looking good and in a few weeks we will all be racing. Raced Turtle Pond last weekend, suffered and then got sick for a few days. I seem to be better and have been able to train hard this week. Sturbridge and Palmer are this weekend. We won’t have a full squad at either race, but should have 4 or 5 guys each day. I am looking forward to racing with the boys and no doubt the racing will be a suffer fest for me. I am pretty sure the suffer factor is why I race.

Kits and the remaining bikes (including mine!) should (hopefully) be finalized by the Jiminy Peak weekend. New kits are badly needed. My NAV kits are on their last legs. It is a good thing that those kits were high quality. As far as the bike, what can I say, I can’t freaking wait. I ride a nice bike now, but waiting for the new IF is worse than being 10 years old and waiting for Xmas morning. Good things come to those that wait, right? Whatever.

Martha rode with KL yesterday. You want to be a better climber, climb with people who go up hill fast. I am sure it was a suffer fest when it went vertical.

Trained with my helmet yesterday for the first time in months. I read YBS yesterday (I don’t know Dan, but like his blog. Call me lame. Whatever, I read it.) and somehow it scared the crap out of me. Not sure why this scared me more than other stories, but it did. Maybe it was the part about your loved ones. Regardless, I wore the helmet.

Nothing

I don’t have anything exciting to say.
Read this blog from Dan and Rachael if you want to be inspired. They bailed for a year and did all the things most of us dream about:
http://underagedrvers.blogspot.com/

Carbon Wheels

Who wants em?
I have a sweet pair of Reynolds Carbons wheels for sale. Use one season for racing. Tubular. You want em, email me.
wilson_nav@yahoo.com

Hot Lube

I admit it. I wore hot lube yesterday so I could train in shorts. What can I say? I just couldn’t deal with having pastey white legs anymore. It was pretty warm when I started, probably 60 degrees, but by the time I finished it was 50. It was pretty freaking sweet out though and I got in a good ride.

I rode up and over Mann’s Hill last night. I hadn’t done that climb since the day before Eben’s wedding a few years ago. It is a pretty crazy road. Eben grew up somewhere up there in a hippy shack. I couldn’t remember exactly where, but there were plenty of old “hippy shacks” up there. I also didn’t remember how long the climb was or how freaking steep it pitched up at times. It was a sweet ride though. Saw the Appalachia-side of NH on the backside of Mann’s Hill in Dalton. Not sure I was comfortable riding out there, alone, in my lycra kit.

Wasn’t able to get a photo of the Nova yesterday. Hopefully tonight.
Warm and sunny today. No leg-warmers. Maybe no hot-lube.

Flat Black Chevy Nova

yesterday was a success: rode. didn’t have any beers or tequila. went to bed at a reasonable hour. sweet.

saw a sweet car for sale that will rival logan’s new ride. we know you haven’t been blogging because you have been cruising in yer new ride. well, i’m gonna get you sucka. pictures to follow tomorrow. seriously. i think i might make them an offer for the car, the two other junk cars on their “land” and their mobile home. package deal. if i beat you in a drag race, you will be required to start blogging again. bet?

megAdeau has added me to her blogroll. if you haven’t read her blog, check it out. one of the best around.

comment option is gone for now. too much drama. others are taking this thing way more serious than i do. to the non-haters, thanks for reading. i assure you, i read yours too.

that’s it. sunny and warm today. loving it.

Spring Snow

This weekend was filled with devilish behavior (if you want to be fast) and much less training than originally scheduled. It all started on Friday evening when we made a trek to the Gypsy Café with a few friends. Gypsy has amazing food and specializes in fresh fruit margaritas. Needless to say after several prickly pear margaritas, training was the last thing I was thinking about. While in Lincoln we ran into a few ski buddies and I was harassed about quitting bike racing, skiing more, etc. Under the influence of the mighty Patron , I made plans to ski with the boys on Sunday “after I trained in the morning”. I distinctly remember telling them I needed to train before skiing.

Saturday found us driving to Gearworks so Martha could get some new shoes, tubulars, etc. The weather sucked up here so we figured we would kill two birds with one stone: Drive south for gear and then train in warmer weather. Well it was 40 degrees and cloudy. Not exactly warm, but better than here. We road a few laps of the Fitchburg RR course. I probably would have gone home after an hour on the bike, but Martha made me man-up and do a few laps. We got in 2 hours, but it was miserable. Then we stopped for a “quick beer” on the way home.

Sunday I woke up with a bit of a heavy head. More bar antics on Saturday night made training motivation low. Damnit, I think I am noticing a trend!! I went to the coffee shop while Martha did a TV shoot on RSN. The coffee shop seemed to straighten me out and I decided to train and not ski at all. I got home, called the boys and informed them about my bailing on skiing.

10 minutes later I was in the car driving to the resort with skis in hand. Yup, I crumbled under the peer pressure. What can I say, it was sunny and 45-50 degrees: Primo skiing weather and only mediocre training weather. So I skied. I had a few beers and most importantly I enjoyed the sun. In the group were some pretty sick skiers, but Stacy was by far the best. He is one of the sickest skiers I have ever seen. I knew he has been in Powder Magazine and done some low budget ski films, but I never thought he would be that good. It was pretty sick. He can ski trees, steeps, gates and then jib in the terrain park with all the baggy pant wearing young punks. There was no stopping him. I just tried to follow. I am pretty sure I don’t have the skills for the pipe and park action.

What a weekend! Makes me want to get in a few more days on the soft snow!

Deluxe Shots

Here are some shots of the new frame:

F-ing Snow

Snowed yesterday. Really snowed. 3-4” at the house and it sounds like 12” above 2000’. More expected over the next few days. Ridiculous. Totally ridiculous. I thought I was done with the rollers.

Marblehead

So the haters are back (see comments below from previous post). Thanks for stopping by boys. Really, it’s great to hear from you.

The first race weekend went pretty well. Went to IF on Friday. We drank a few beers while Jon built bikes. The bikes are so sweeeeet. I can’t wait until the next batch is done. Charge Pond was Saturday. I like that circuit. Jon and Stan went in the break, and Jonny Bold rode away. Sunday was Marblehead. It seemed fast. Maybe it wasn’t, but it seemed fast. The crosswinds were killing my skinny ass. I didn’t spend much time at the business end of the bunch, but I survived. I wasn’t much use to Luke at the end but that will come in time. Somebody stacked it with ½ a lap to go about 20 deep in the bunch. I hear Luke was rock solid when the poo hit the fan. Jon got chopped down and wasn’t looking to good for a minute. He is probably pretty sore this morning. I was fine, but wanted to make sure Jon wasn’t hurt. Finishing Marblehead in 50th place or making sure a teammate wasn’t messeed up in a crash . . . .easy decision. Manville, sorry I wasn’t on the results sheet. Next time I will abandon my teammate to get a result just so you think I am fast.