Matt's Daily Blog

Put it in th Book

2008-09-08T14:31:00.001-04:00

If Lance is coming back so am I.
http://velonews.com/article/82892/sources-lance-armstrong-coming-back

Next stop Catamount. I better start pre-stretching the skinsuits ASAP.

I Hate Crashing

2008-08-08T11:30:00.000-04:00

I stacked it last night on the group ride. Trying to get faster without racing requires logging time at the local group ride. Last night someone laid their bike down in front of me and I ended up in the ditch. Crashing sucks; looks like it might be time to shave the legs.

Anyone still reading this?

Cross Season Approaches

2008-07-23T15:59:00.002-04:00

I am back Training:

New Blog

2008-01-28T10:32:00.000-05:00

Martha and I have been toying with new blog possibilities; we should be unleashing it soon. In the meantime, this is what has been consuming our days (and nights) for the last 7 months:

2007-05-02T09:22:00.001-04:00

I scouted Turkeys last night. Turkey (hunting) season starts tomorrow and I hope to slay one. In order to slay one, it requires a 3:30 am alarm, a 4:00 am hike, some quality hen calls, lots of luck and a 12 gauge. Horrified yet? And you thought I would miss bike racing?

So last night I tromped around the woods hooting like an owl trying to get Turkey’s to gobble before the roosted for the evening. It was a pretty wild experience. I am pretty sure Martha was horrified when I came home all decked out in camo.

For those of you keeping track, Martha is still pregnant. 30 weeks to be exact. 10 more to go. Trust me when I tell you, she will be happy when the kiddo arrives or more specifically vacates her belly.

The name game has begun. We are VERY far apart. Anyone have any suggestions?

2007-04-25T08:01:00.000-04:00

My ass is killing me.
Yesterday was day 2 on the bike this week. I now have 3.5 hours since last Thanksgiving. Beat that.

Last night I rode Bear Claw (Franconia) with a bunch of locals. Tons of blow downs and crap on the trail but we got it cleared and had a good ride. I was pretty sloppy, but it was nice to get out, see some folks and remember what it was like to turn the pedals.

Skied at Wildcat last weekend. It was epic. Heading there again this weekend.

That’s all.

2007-03-30T13:32:00.000-04:00

My blog is due for an overhaul. I have said it before. I will say it again.

I have stumbled across several cool blogs this week and thought I should share them (beats listening to me tell you I have nothing to write about). That is if anyone still stops by here. I am sure most have filed this address under the “doesn’t blog anymore” category. Anyway. The first one is The Cleanest Line. Patagonia has done it again. I dig just about everything to do with this company. Blog now included. The second is from Conor Hurley’s crazy adventures this winter. The writing is great and the adventure is even better.

How I Spent My Winter

2007-03-02T09:28:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted since January, but the month of February treated me well. Martha is progressing well in the belly department and our future WorldCupper appears to be on schedule.
Photos should sum up our Month:

Me skiing the POW. yah, we actually had some serious POW in NH this month:

Martha Skiing the same POW 4.5 months pregnant. The kiddo loved it.

We went to Quebec for Winter Carnival. They have a canoe race in the icy St. Lawrence. Burly beyond belief:

Two T-shirts we saw in Canada. Now that is respect:

We spent 4 days in the Keys fishing and hanging out with Martha's sister and brother-in-law.

Martha and her sister:

Me with a monster Lizard fish on a fly rod:

Spotted Sea Trout on a fly rod:

Did I mention we got some POW:

Errr. . . .POW!

Old Quebec with our buds:

2007-01-31T09:52:00.000-05:00

"Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You did not place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible.”

The political climtate is heating up in NH; presidential candidates (formal and "possibles") are abound. Heard Guilliani speak last week; Hillary's appearance isn't far behind. Not sure either one has a real chance of being our next leader.

If I am going to keep on top of this blog, the site is going to need an overhaul. It looks so lame when you seen megA's, Isoglossia or Milliman's site. Note sure I have the energy or motivation to look rad, but it definitely looks lame.

2007-01-30T08:43:00.000-05:00

Anyone want to offer a guess as to why I am liqiudating?

Here You Go Suckas

2007-01-29T15:53:00.000-05:00

I sold my powertap to Gewilli. As part of the deal, I agreed to blog. I haven’t blogged in quite some time and frankly I haven’t missed it. I still read blogs on a regular basis and am definitely bummed when someone stops, example here. I have no idea if there are very many that are disappointed that I stopped blogging. I have to admit, it is tough to get back in the rhythm of writing once you stop for a period.

Page got 2nd yesterday. Pretty amazing really. Unfortunately, I am pretty tainted on the whole thing (cycling that is). My first thoughts these days when a rider has an amazing output of strength is “looks like he cycled the doping just right”. I am not saying JP doped. Don’t get all excited, I have been watching his results and yes he has been steadily moving up. But 2nd?!?! Seems suspect.

I have been skiing like a mad man. The last two weekends have been amazing. The snow we have a Bretton Woods has been D-E-L-U-X-E considering the lame start we got to winter. I have about 25 days on snow to date and the hill is getting better by the day.

We are exploring building a new Zero Carbon Footprint building for our new company office. We need a new building as we are outgrowing our current cobbed together office space and are inspired to explore a Zero Carbon philosophy. It would serve as a showcase for our green engineering design capabilities as well as fall inline with our personal beliefs regarding the future. Should be cool.

I have been liquidating a ton of cycling “extras”. Next on the chopping block is a 54 cm Cannondale CAAD 8 frame with Dura-Ace 10 Speed, FSA Carbon Crank, bars and seatpost. Your choice of wheels, kyseriums or Reynolds carbons. Raced one season, never stacked. You want in, email me

Deal

2007-01-05T12:07:00.000-05:00

I have made a deal with GeWilli:
If he buys my powertap, I will blog again.

Blame him for the lack of blogs.

Wonder what I have been doing lately?

2006-11-27T10:43:00.000-05:00

making some turns . . . .

Thanks for checking on me

2006-11-08T14:05:00.000-05:00

I am not dead yet.
· I haven’t ridden my bike since the Downeast weekend. I haven’t missed it either.
· I skied last weekend. It was freaking sweet.
· I pitted for my ever lovely wife last weekend. She did a Supaman, but didn’t need a bike.
· I have been working like a mad man. It seems to be paying off.
· I will be skiing the POW POW during cross nationals here. Should be sick.
· I have been trail running at night with some adventure athletes. It is rough on body.
· I am sick of racing my bike. I still read a ton of cycling related websites daily.
· If there is no snow to be skied this coming weekend. I might have to ride my bike.

Sager was sanctioned for missing a test. Ivan Basso gets to ride for Discovery. Seems like someone shuffled some paperwork.

2006-10-20T14:16:00.000-04:00

You might be a Redneck (or at least live amongst them) if:

1) You drove by a car on the side of the road, still running, with it’s owner walking back to the car from a field with a gun and a dead turkey.
2) You went to a local supermarket and they had a LIVE BAIT vending machine.

Both of those things happened to me today. I wish I had my camera.

2006-10-19T09:37:00.000-04:00

Read MegA’s blog this morning. She crashed during a wet cross practice last night too. I stacked it last night when I overcooked it on a wet corner. It didn’t seem too bad: ripped leg warmers, ripped shorts and limited blood. When I got home and looked at my hip and could see where I had slid across some concrete. Ouchie.

Martha was kind enough to remind me (when I was bitching about how my ass was killing me) that I stacked it during WARMUP. Lame.

One thing that pisses me off is that I can’t post comments on MegA’s blog. Is she afraid of what the public has to say?

Well if I could post comments I night say this-
The motherland?!?!? The Mid-Atlantic = J.V. (junior varsity).
Does anyone else notice that when there are UCI points to be had in the MAC, the NE boys head down and clean-up. When there are UCI points to be had in NE the MAC boys drive to Ohio?!?!?!? Just an observation. Let the trash talking begin . . . . .

I am weak

2006-10-10T14:47:00.000-04:00

Okay, so these biatches won’t give me points if I don’t do a 100 word race recap. What can I say, I am a blog whore. Here is your freaking report biatches . . . .give me my points!

Saturday. I was in the 3rd row and I had a good start. I made it off the pavement in one piece and gave it some mustard thru the first two corners. Somewhere between the start and the 3rd or 4th guy I chopped, I flatted. In case you weren’t aware, flatting halfway thru the first lap in the fastest master’s race in new england as far away from the pit as possible is less than ideal when trying to win a bike race. From the back stretch I rode the straight-a-ways on the flat and ran the corners. The highlight of Lap 1 was pushing my way thru guys riding the chicane by the registration building. I pushed Kyle Wolf inadvertently but had some great fun listening to him yell at me about pushing him. I got a wheel change and tried to make up ground. I went forward every lap, but the front was LONG GONE.

Highlight of Day 1? I am pretty sure it was when someone (I think it was Todd Rowell!?!?) at the start grid started talking trash about JD’s wife beating my wife in the race. Don’t worry honey, since MegA beat you I challenged JD to a fight after your race.

Sunday, I was awesome, errr, better, err, not THAT sucky, errr mediocre. I camped out old skool style in the start grid for 45 minutes. No really, 45 minutes. They called the top 20 from Saturday and then the scrum was on for start position. I had a 3rd row start, got off the start line pretty well and maintained a Top 25 spot for about 2 laps. Then I came unglued and basically watched as old dude after old dude past me like I was riding a tricycle. I tried to get it together, but when an unnamed teammate took a beer from a spectator, pounded it and then dropped me, all I could do was smile. Damn Gloucester is awesome.

There has been plenty of banter about the call-ups, lack there of and the previously posted “order of registration” protocol. Personally, I say let the scrum begin. We are not pros. We are weekend warriors having a (not so) good time on the weekend. If you are a pro or are fast enough to race like one, you have UCI points. If you don’t have UCI points but race in the elite race, you still have to use your scrum know-how to get a good line-up spot. They don’t dantily ask you to step forward for line-up number 66. Suck it up and play the game kids.

Spent the day yesterday riding the buff single track of Kingdom Trails. We had good company, amazing weather, and killer riding. What more could one ask for?

Hiatus

2006-10-10T10:12:00.000-04:00

Hi, my name is Matt and I have been blog free for 7 days now. . . . . . .

Taking a break from the blog. I might be back. I might not. I am out for now.

Adios.

2006-10-02T07:48:00.000-04:00

I never made it to Long Island. After much debate, I bailed on the trip. There were many factors. The two most prominent were the ETA at home of midnight on Sunday and getting lapped 3-4 times by Pro Crossers. I was pretty disappointed until last night when Martha and I were cooking (read: burning) some pizza at 7:30 or so and Martha said- just think, we could be getting off the ferry in New London (read: 4.5 hours south of the homestead) right now. Good Point.

We raced in Milford on Saturday. I liked the course. They did a good job with what they had available. If the track was 1 minute longer and had one more obstacle (elevation change, off-camber, run-up, etc) it would have been perfect. I had good legs and a reasonable race. By the 20 minute mark I was in the lead group of 5 or 6 guys and feeling pretty good. We were playing the usual games and I decided to go to the back of the group to avoid the “you pull, no you pull, come on pull thru” jawing that typically (and did) happens in that type of group. That was a mistake.

I must have lost my concentration on turn 3. I WAY overcooked it and went straight thru the tape. Not sure what I was thinking, but I blew it. The lead group rode away and I never saw them again. Oh well. I think I ended up 7th or something.

I bailed on Sunday’s race. I was tired, it was raining and basically I wussed out. Getting soft I guess.

Liquidation Sale

2006-09-29T13:34:00.000-04:00

I am selling a bunch of stuff: powertap laced to a mavic open pro, Ksyrium tubulars (raced only one season, never crashed), brand new Vittoria Tubular Cross Tyres, 17" Jamis Dragon mountain bike with full XTR, etc.

If interested email me wilson_nav@yahoo.com for details.

Live Free or Die

2006-09-27T14:10:00.000-04:00

Why are my tax dollars paying for Litka (a New Hampshire PUBLIC school teacher!) to spend the week in Vegas?

Oh yah, we don’t pay taxes in New Hampshire! Oh yah, the state doesn’t properly fund education anyway. Forget it. Live Free or Die.

2006-09-21T08:36:00.000-04:00

Do you race Cross?
Do you like prize money?
You should go here next weekend.

Myles is the man. He puts on a sick event.

You think the race is in the ass of no-where? We live 60 miles of Canada and will travel 7 hours to get there. Trust me, it is worth it.

Are you a woman crosser? Look at the freaking prize list! This is a UCI C1 race and Myles is not only paying out equal prize money to the women, you have $100 MORE than the men. Get there.

I am sure you have seen the results, but Page got 5th yesterday, only 16 seconds back from Vervecken. Yah, he’s the World Champ. Yah 16 seconds is close.

2006-09-20T09:35:00.000-04:00

Tonight is our first cyclocross group workout of the season at Remick Park: 5:15. Be there. All the Kool Kids are doing it.

The weather is finally getting Cross like. It looks like we will have a cold and wet weekend for the first New England UCI race of the season. In years past, Catamount has held a non-sanctioned race weekend that I have always enjoyed. This year they have stepped it up complete with big prize money, beer tent, ice cream etc. Should be sweet.

I have added a bunch of links. Here is a summary of who’s who:

Hurley: Michelle is a NE Stalwart and one of Martha’s original teammates when they were wee pups.

GeWilli: Famous NE blogger/biker who reads more blogs on a daily basis than I do!

Frank: No idea who he is! MAC dude that has the greatest blogger photo around. Freaking funny. I found him thru Fat Marc’s page. And no Frank, I didn’t ask permission. I am from NE, we don’t have any manners

Race CX: new page dedicated to cross. It has potential.

Quick-N-Dirty: Josh and Barb, crossers from the left coast who like NE mud.

Euro: JP. Need I say more?

Molly: You have to love a guy from the Northwest that has a photo from the NE Worlds as his banner.

2006-09-18T09:31:00.000-04:00

Martha and I were talking about heading to Utah in early December before she gets too crazy at the resort. We wondered how good the snow would be.

They got their first snow on Saturday. Here is East Greeley Bowl. I have never skied it, but is looks nice eh?

2006-09-18T07:48:00.000-04:00

What a great summer (!?!?!?) weekend.
Friday afternoon saw the start of my first “man-chore” in quite some time. Our front stairs were in desperate need of replacement. It seemed stupid to pay someone to do it. It seemed even more ridiculous on Friday evening that I had ripped the stairs out and I actually had to re-build them on Saturday. Fuck. Maybe I made a mistake. We could always enter the house from the back right?

I woke early on Saturday (6:00 am), Martha made me some coffee (Martha doesn’t drink coffee and she doesn’t make coffee. I think she realized the potential catastrophic possibilities of the project), and I headed to Home Depot. The Depot opens at 6:00 am. I was there by 6:45. Any idea who is at The Depot before 7:00 am on a Saturday? Old guys. Old guys with there little home improvement projects, buying wood, carbide blades, hot dipped 8D nails, pressure treated lattice . . . .oh fuck, that is me.

Okay, so I got all my stuff, headed home, blasted some British Proletariat Folk and got to work. 8 hours later, we had new stairs. I believe I only threw my hammer once. Good stuff. And no Martha, this won’t be a trend. That was my man-chore for the year.

Raced at Sucker Brook yesterday in summer heat. I sucked. No legs, no snap, no fight. It happens. Martha raced well but struggled in the last two laps with the heat. JB had the race of his life and ended up 8th in the Elite race. MC Kraus looked good but was a bit out gunned on the fast course battling Al, Whitey and Jazzy. Form looks good though. I am sure he is doing his rain dance for the fall to get some more of his conditions.

And Yes, MegA, much better.

2006-09-14T08:11:00.000-04:00

okay, I guess we have had enough of the ass disucussions eh?

Did my first cross workout last night . . .and broke my front derailleur. I guess that “sweet campy record front derailleur” I scored out of the shop “junk” drawer wasn’t so sweet. I run shimano, but needed a derailleur and found a campy one that seemed perfect. I was stoked: free derailleur and it was campy . . .so Euro. Oh well. I will be ordering a new shimano one today from QBP.

I had a pretty amusing exchange with Martha last night. We have been together for some 15 years now so she knows me pretty (!) well. Quite often I get restless with life (some call it ADHD) and I get harebrain schemes. So last night as we got dressed to workout I said: “I think next summer I might need to move to Alaska”. Without missing a beat she said “Are you taking me with you or are you going on your own?” Um, Er, yes dear, probably, as long as you can still ski bigger lines than me.

2006-09-13T09:47:00.000-04:00

okay, here is your ass shot . . . .as requested:

2006-09-12T08:53:00.000-04:00

Martha put The Stick to me last night. (Get you minds out of the gutter folks!) You know you are sore when you need someone else to massage you because it hurts too much to do it by yourself! Every damn ligament, tendon, muscle etc hurts. The stick does help though and I will be back at it tonight. I forgot how much cross can hurt!

Here are some shot from the weekend:

2006-09-11T07:59:00.000-04:00

I have fallen and I can’t get up.
Raced Cross yesterday. It hurt. It hurt warming up. It hurt while racing. It hurt after. It really hurt this morning when I tried to function as Joe “go to work on Monday” guy. It was great to see everyone this weekend. I haven’t raced since July 29th so I haven’t seen too many people from the scene. Plus cyclocross seems to weed out the weenies and adds some cool other folks that either mtb race or just race cross.

I truly hope no one was able to document my barrier technique on film (still or otherwise). It was truly ridiculous. There were guys and gals in the ‘C’ race that had better technique. I even had a rear exit off my saddle at a barrier set. It was shameful. I have an excuse . . . . . but it is a lame one. I didn’t get my bike built until Wednesday night. I thought (in my infinite wisdom) that if I did any barrier/technique work on Thursday or Friday that I might still be stiff and sore for Sunday’s race. My rationale in skipping it was “hey, I have raced cross for years and I typically rely on good technique to get me thru”. Wrong. I almost went thru the tape at the first down hill barrier set I had practiced at least10 times during inspection!

Racing Masters was VERY fun. It was a bit weird not knowing who was who, what people’s strengths were etc. When you race against the same 50 guys week in and week out you can typically predict when people will attack, who likes to go solo, who likes to follow, who can’t corner, etc. It was like racing with a blindfold yesterday, because I didn’t know anyone. I am sure many of them were wondering who I was too! I won’t bore you with the details of the race. Racing Masters has re-invigorated me. Can’t wait for the work week to be over!

2006-08-31T08:07:00.000-04:00

It feels like Fall: getting cross bikes ready, gluing tubies (with no tape you bitches!), closing windows at night so we don’t freeze in the morning, chopping and stacking wood and reading ski mags dreaming of new gear and pow. This is perhaps my favorite time of year. It was cold enough last night that we had cold feet when we climbed into bed. I love that. I have a big pile of wood going in the back yard, some cut, some split. Cutting and splitting wood by hand is very satisfying. Sometimes I wish "sustaining" was my only job. Not sure I would make it, but it would be cool to try.

2006-08-24T14:29:00.000-04:00

I had a typical run-in with a tourist driver last night. I was doing some intervals (read training harder than I have in weeks) on a road that is known for moose. In a very moosey spot there was a car parked on the shoulder (most likely gawking at moose) so as I approached I glanced over my shoulder to see if there were any cars coming or if I could swing out so I didn’t get doored by some camera/moose happy touron. There was an SUV about 300 meters (so euro to list distances in metric) back so I had plenty of room and I swung out. The dude literally lays on the horn as he blazes by me giving be about 5 cm between life and death. I of course flip his NY-ass the bird.

At that point, I was blowing snot out every orifice after 10 minutes at 300+watts (whoa posting data, I am sure someone will make a crack. Yah okay 300 watts ain’t that much, but I have been drinking beer a lot, only weight 148.4932lbs and I did 4 of those mother effers. How you like them stats? If you are taking any of this serious, go read somewhere else. It is a joke. Relax.)

So, I finish my effort and I see that the guy has pulled into the local tourist watering hole and he yells “hey, I don’t care if you are Lance fucking Armstrong, get out of the road asshole”.

What can you say to that? Lance is so 2000. Why can’t he call my Erwin Fucking Vervecken? Enrico Fucking Franzio? Lance sucks.

Speaking of going all Euro . . megA posted photos of her new boiler . . . .a Buderus . . . .so freaking Euro I can’t believe it. Buderus sponsors all sorts Nordic skiing and cross racing in Europe. Plus you got a Reillo burner . . .you don’t need no stinking Amerikan made Webster burner. What you guys need now are Grundfos (pink) pumps and some Buderus panel radiators. . . .so freaking Euro megA.

2006-08-23T16:01:00.000-04:00

I drive all over New England and beyond for work and racing. Martha and I always joke about making a collage of photos of things we see that make us shake our heads. Typical to my modus operandi, I have never started the collection. Until today.
This was my view driving thru Franconia Notch:

This is a blow up as I drove by. I was too embarrassed to take a photo of the driver, but you can imagine.

2006-08-22T11:01:00.000-04:00

Coming back from vacation is never easy. You find the milk you left buried in the refrigerator, you have a pissed off cat that has been neglected for 10 days, you have a billion emails that require responses and you have to get back into the swing of daily life (that means less wine and more sleep). It is never fun, but the 10 days off were well worth it. Harpswell treated us well.

Now that we are back, I can’t stop thinking about cross. I took a break from the bike with the hopes of recharging the body and mind. It seemed to work, although I am still not too excited to train. That could prove to be a problem! My new cross setup will be ready this week so I am sure that will provided added motivation. The big question for me is what race do. Last year I moved up to Elites after a good season in the Killer B’s the year before. Let’s just say that my first year of racing with the big boys was EYE OPENING. I got shelled every week and never finished on the lead lap of a UCI race. Ouch. I am not sure if I am any faster this season, so it might be a long season racing Elites. I am old enough to Master’s race this year. That might be fun?!?!?

Call Yo Bluff

2006-08-11T10:57:00.000-04:00

Okay, I didn't post my women's picks for tonight, mostly because I don't know too many of them.

That said, I just read megA's blog and I beleive I see a yellow powertap computer on her cross bike! True?!?!

If it is, my money is on her tonight. I suspect some "Secret Training" has been going down in the (happy) valley.

It Ain't Right

2006-08-11T10:31:00.000-04:00

Cross season is in disarray already. How can people be racing tonight? It is freaking August. Even the Frites and Mayo crazed Euros haven’t raced yet. What is the Cross world coming to? What ever happened to tradition, damnit.

Looking at the start list here are my Picks:
1) Powers
2) Cody
3) White
4) (Von) Leach (Yah, I know I misspelled it. Get it?)
5) Aspholm

Also an interesting name on the start list: JD Bilodeau. Is this his return to fame and fortune? I haven’t seen him race since he was riding those banana skin looking Treks. Could be a dark horse?!?

Plenty of smack talking going on over at Dieter’s page. Glad to see it. I must say the MAC boys and girls sure are fired up. I have been getting 10-20 emails every day on the MAC Cross Yahoo Group. Good on you boys and girls.

2006-08-08T15:28:00.000-04:00

This is getting to be a trend . . .yet another killer weekend has passed.
The trip was mostly for pleasure but Martha did have to squeeze in some solid PR schmoozing at the Eastern Ski Writers Association summer meeting. For the most part her trade show/cocktail hour and dinner went well. . . .if you overlook the food poisoning she got from the meal! She is still suffering the effects of the night. Not exactly the best way to loose 5 lbs!

We scored some great mountain biking at the new trail center at Saddleback, I got in a trail run to the summit ridge and yes we had a few beers. Sunday we made plans with Martha’s sister and brother-in-law to go fly fishing “in the back country”. I didn’t expect too much, but figures it was a good time to log some family time since they summer in Rangely.

All I can say is WOW! WE drove 30-40 miles on dirt roads up into country that you would have mistaken for Montana. I mean totally amazing. We dry-fly fished for native brook trout the entire day on virgin streams and lakes hooking plenty of fish. Take my word for it: Buy a gazetteer and drive north.

Back to training this week, starting the build up for cross.

Fast Approaching

2006-08-03T15:53:00.000-04:00

Heading to Maine for a 3-day weekend tomorrow. Sahweeeet! We are packing both bikes (mtb and road) and even the running shoes! It is hard to believe, but Cross season is fast approaching. I need to start my running program. My running was poor last year so I need to work on that earlier this season. I even gave a fleeting thought to heading to NJ this weekend, but I resisted. I agree with Myerson (did I just say that?!?), Cross is not a summer sport. It was tempting though. Plus, my bikes are in disarray! Time to get the gear sorted. The cross season starts gangbusters in 4 weeks! Myles’ race is Labor Day!

Summertime

2006-07-31T08:51:00.000-04:00

Didn’t DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince have a song about summertime? I believe I was in that video this weekend, North Country style.

I will bore you with the details:

No racing this weekend. This was the first of several weekends in August that we are not racing. It was VERY nice. It all started with an outdoor dinner at BIN 42, the new wine bar in Littleton. Yes, we have a wine bar. No, Boone’s Farm is not on the wine list. After several delicious glasses of wine, flat bread, ice cream and chocolate chip cookies, we headed home for a nice nights slumber.

Saturday, we awoke, drank some coffee, ate (well Martha made them first and then I ate them) Belgian (trying to get my Vervecken on) Waffles and saddled up for a long climb intensive ride. We hit Kinsman Notch, Moosilauke and Swiftwater: totally sweet climbing and even better descending. Mousilauke is by far one of the best climbs in New England. Most people that come to the Whites to climb do the standard routes: Kanc, Bear Notch, Crawford, etc. Mousilauke is narrow, very lightly traveled, twisty, 30 minute (depending on the Wine Consumption Factor or the WCF) climb with an equally exciting 55+ MPH twisty decent off of the other side, Stefano Garzelli style. Killer.

As a side note for you crossers: We saw Jesse Anthony out climbing the backside of Kinsman as we descended at 50+ mph. Building base back up for Cross perhaps?

Saturday ended with Sauza-Ritas on the deck at Rosa Flamingos. Yes, it was a good day.

Sunday we awoke early thanks to a hungry cat and decided to head over to Gorham for breakfast. I had scrambled eggs made with cream, fresh parmesan cheese, fresh garlic and fresh basil. Did I mention Fresh? Oh yeah, it was rich. Martha of course had fresh fruit (which included a yellow kiwi, ever heard of such a thing?), yogurt and granola.

After breakfast, we drove up into Pinkham and took ole Daisy for a hike up to a swimming hole. The weather was still pretty chilly (in the low 60s) when we got to the hole, so only Daisy swam. Then we hiked out. By the time we got back to the trail head, most of the tourists were just heading out on the trail. Suckas missed the best part of the day.

We had plans to meet a few friends in East Burke to rip some mtbing at Kingdom Trails and by the time we got out on the trail the group had grown to 15 people! We ripped the kind single track for a few hours and headed to the pub.

Now up until this point, I was still thinking: yah, this little break is good for me and “my form” will be good come cross season. Then it happened and it totally blind sided me. I was finishing my first Hoppin’ Mad Trout IPA at the pub chatting with Gabe and Joanna and Gabe said it . . . .tele-skiing. Fucking Tele-skiing! Are you kidding me dude? It isn’t even August 1st! It spiraled out of control from there . . . discussions about a friend of ours who was cutting glades this summer for some trust funder who owned a local hill, amazing back-country at Big Jay, some local peak that they cut a ski trail on, etc. I pounded another beer. Bike racing?!?!?! What’s that?

In case you are keeping track . . . .after wine, ice cream, beer, sauza ritas, etc I still didn’t gain any weight. 147 lbs this morning.

PARADISE

2006-07-17T13:27:00.000-04:00

Stats from the weekend:

Friday
No. of hours “worked”: 2
No. of hours spent in the coffee shop in Hanover: 2
No. of hours mowing the lawn: 1
No of hours spent swimming in the river with the dog: 1
No. of sprints done in my workout: 3
No. of glasses of wine: 5 (it worked for Cipo)

Saturday
No. of Races: 1
No. of left hand turns: 195 (approximately)
No of spokes broken: 1
No. of dudes pissed at me for opening a huge gap when the race was lined out while I figured out I had a broken spoke: too many to count
No. of free laps I took to get to the pit and change a wheel: 2 (give me a break, they were 55 second laps)
No. of times Skip Foley took the wheel I was on: 5
No. of times I did battle with Skip Foley to hold said wheel: 0 (You seen the size of him? You seen the size of me?)
No of times I hit my pedal in Turn 2: 1
No. of Pizza Primes Martha won: 1

Sunday
Cups of Coffee: 3
Bottles of water before ride: 3
No. of times I had to pee before said ride: 4
No. of Benedryl I took before ride: 2
No. of hours riding sweet single track:4
No. of chainring puncture wounds to my beautiful wife’s dainty legs: 1
No. of whoopie pies consumed mid-ride: 1
No of margaritas consumed after the ride: 2

2006-07-13T10:38:00.000-04:00

I ran into two people that I normally only see during ski season last week. Both asked if I have been sick. Sick? I ask. Yah, you look so skinny. Ha! Pretty amusing. I am down about 4.5 kilos (kilos . . .so Euro) since ski season. Scrawny is the new black.

2006-07-12T14:25:00.000-04:00

I rode my bike to work this morning because I knew it was going to storm this afternoon and my workout might get cut short. By the looks of the radar right now, that may not have been the smartest idea. Better get the swim fins out to get home. I should have packed the rain cape.

2006-07-11T12:00:00.000-04:00

Not so Daily blogging these days. Summer has finally arrived and I have been truly enjoying it. The last time I blogged was after Noho. I took 3 days completely off the bike and tried to re-energize. I fished Forrest Lake with my man GB , grilled some and enjoyed a few beers on the deck. It was nice.

Saturday we went to Attleboro Crit. I won’t bore you with the details. We raced well as a squad, I felt good. We could have been better. I could have felt better. McCormack won. We bombed back for a Doll summer party. Drank too many beers but still was the first to leave. Imagine that.

Sunday, I finally took the maiden voyage on my new IF Deluxe . It was a long awaited ride and the bike didn’t disappoint. Amazing. I would promise to post some pics, but if my recent track record holds true, it will never happen. Jamie and Nicole came up this weekend to skool me on the single track. As always, JB is in amazing shape. I have to race all spring to get the form he gets after 3 weeks of riding. Insane.

NoHo

2006-07-05T08:16:00.000-04:00

I went to NoHo yesterday for the 4th annual Downtown Crit. There is something about this race that I love. On paper it looks pretty boring, 4-corner, 1K, 60 minute crit, but I always have a great time at this race. After my early exit from the Fitch I wasn’t sure how my legs would feel, but I was hoping for the best.

The race went pretty well and as a team we seemed to be racing well as a unit. I am one of the least experienced guys on the squad, so I am always a bit gun-shy, but yesterday the race seemed to flow. Stan and Jon delivered the goods and were in the money. Personally, I felt much better. The race didn’t seem that fast, but there were only 30 finishers out of 54 starters.

I owe a HUGE apology to MegA. She walked past the boys and me yesterday and I looked right at her with the look that says “ah, hi. . . .you look familiar, but I can’t quite but a name to the face”. My bad.

F-Burg

2006-07-05T08:15:00.000-04:00

Well Fitchburg is over and yes, I still hate that race. The short report goes like this-

TT: Stayed dry, rode mellow to conserve energy for the next three days. (I would have won the 3/4 Women’s TT!)

Circuit: Got popped and had to ride 2 humiliating laps solo to finish so I could start the road race. Watched the pro race and was pretty happy they had their own race.

Road Race: Rode well for 3 laps, gave up my wheel for a teammate, chased, but never saw the bunch again. I had no motivation (translation: I was a lame wuss ass) to ride 40 more miles to finish. Rode to the car. DNF, lame.

So I was obviously not ready mentally or physically to take on Fitch. Not sure if it has cracked me or motivated me, time will tell.

Animal Farm

2006-06-28T09:43:00.000-04:00

Went out for a ride last night and I have to admit I saw something odd. Most days I see wildlife: moose, deer, upland birds etc. On some days I might even have to avoid some free-range chickens that are too close to the road, but last night was by-far the oddest encounter. I was riding along on a quiet rode, hay fields on both sides of the road and not a house or building in sight for a mile and I see what appears to be two large yellow labs up the road. As I get closer, they look pretty fat and finally about 50 meters away, I realize they are pot-belly pigs! Just out grazing or more likely escapees on the run! It was the funniest shit. I rode by and the squeeled running the opposite way. Bet no one else saw free-roaming pigs last night.

I skipped Exeter last night in hopes of being rested for Fitch. Looking at the results it is a GOOD thing I did. Holy stacked field. I would have had to burn some matches to even stay in the race!

Fitch starts tomorrow. Should be awesome to race with a full squad with one goal.

2006-06-22T13:24:00.000-04:00

Some of the goods:

2006-06-22T08:56:00.000-04:00

You ever notice how much I talk about the weather? Sun, good. Rain, bad. Snow, good. Ice, bad. You get the idea. Yesterday was an absolute 10 on the summer weather scale. Totally insane. It also didn’t hurt that I played hookie and spent the entire day on the ocean.

A few stats:
Best Fish of the day: thirty-one inch, 11 pound Striped Bass
Number of Haddock Keepers (21” or bigger): 2
Number of Cod Keepers (24” or bigger): 2
Number of Bluefish caught on a Fly-Rod: 4
Number of Stiper “Schoolies” caught on a Fly-Rod: 4
Number of fish, any species, I caught on a Fly-Rod: 0
Number of times I almost killed someone while fly casting in the wind: 2
Number of times I lathered up with 30 spf so I wouldn’t get busted today for playing hookie:3
Number of Times I thought about racing my bike: 0

Okay, enough non-biking stuff. Group ride tonight. Hopefully the legs will start feeling good. The form has to come around right? The next 10 days (Cox, Exeter, Fitchburg, Noho) have the possibility to either crack me or help me find some form. I am hoping for the latter. Imagine that.

Finally, I am adding a link to Isoglossia. I have no idea why haven’t put up a link to JDs blog before. WARNING, it is not a bike related blog. However, it is very cool. I met JD many years ago when we both were living downeast on the coast of Maine. We enjoyed many pithers of gin and tonic, cold beers, swimming holes, blueberry pies, sailing, etc. during that time. Martha and I have the best memories from our time spent on the Blue Hill peninsula and much of that time involved JD. Anyway he went from Maine to Montana to Argentina to Slovenia (and I am sure I missed a stop or two), where he currently resides with his lovely wife Magda and their son Adam. Cool reading. Enjoy.

non biking blog

2006-06-20T15:14:00.000-04:00

I hate to start another blog with “I haven’t updated in a while”, but . . . .I haven’t updated in a while. Summer weather has set in and I have admit it feels nice. I usually get sick of summer after July, (and start doing my snow dance come October) but right now I am loving it. I dig the crazy thunderstorms that roll in during the afternoon and cool things off. I love feeling the steamy weather seep back in. We just had a good one roll thru. It is stormy out to the east and sunny out to the west. Should be dry by the time I get out my cell, I mean work.

Heading out Striper fishing tomorrow with a few of the north country boys. I can’t freaking wait! Should be a spectacular day and hopefully we will get into some fish. These boys take there fishing serious and we should have pretty good timing for solid striper fishing. I am playing hookie from work, so mums the word!

2006-06-06T10:12:00.000-04:00

Rode to work this morning for the first time in a long time. It was a pretty sweet morning, but still pretty cold (47 degrees!) for June. I saw a moose, three coyotes and a dead cat. Freaking wild kingdom.

No photos as promised of the new IF. Maybe tonight. I am getting my position dialed, but the bike is truly amazing. Super smooth and VERY stiff in the bottom bracket and rear triangle. In all honesty the bike is significantly stiffer and lighter than expected. With race wheels the bike should hit 17.2 pounds.

I enjoyed some “delicious wine, good for easy drinking” last night. You have to love a label that has a slogan about swilling. Martha thought it was cool that the vineyard was on Ventoux. I don’t think either of us would be mistaken for a sommelier so we might as well pick wines from cool climbs.

Random ReCap

2006-06-05T16:16:00.000-04:00

Here is a recap from Saturday.
It rained.
I missed a break with all the major teams represented.
We chased.
I cracked and went to the back.
Proceeded to crash myself out.
The boys chased some more.
IF/Channel brought the break back.
Tom had a good finish.

Summary from Sunday:
Hilly Crit.
Only one teammate
Goal was to follow wheels and finish in the bunch.
Accomplished.

I guess bitching about the heat in NJ last weekend was not the best idea. We had a windy, rainy 50 degree day on Saturday and only slightly better on Sunday.

Martha flatted again! Damn those Tufo tyres. Going back to the Vittoria’s.

Got my new bike! Totally sick. Building it tonight, so I will post some photos tomorrow. I am telling you, the bike is hot.

My favorite part of yesterday was walking into the bar on the course after my race to see Eric Pearson belly-up, still in his kit, pounding a pint for craft ale. Eric was in the winning break, and rode straight to the bar for a refresher. Good on you Eric.

North Jersey

2006-05-31T10:28:00.000-04:00

Oh where to begin?
I guess I will skip the details from last week. I worked, trained, and prepped for the Memorial Day race weekend in NJ. Relative boring shit.

We had a great weekend of racing in NJ. We had one good result (Stanimal was 12th at Tour of Somerville) and a bunch of hard racing. Saturday was the Tour of Somerset Hills and it is by far the sickest race I have done to date. It is an 80+ mile single loop race that winds thru 13 counties in NJ with 3 (?) major climbs. It was insane. We had a true rolling closure (a first for me) with literally 20 police cars, a dozen motos, sag wagons, etc. I can’t emphasize how well organized the race was and how crazy it was tearing thru towns making lefts and rights that you didn’t know were coming, etc. Frattini and Walters rode away from the group on the last climb. Only Jon and Tom made it to the finish, but it is a race that will be in bold letters on next year’s race calendar.

Sunday was Bound Brook. Not too much to say. I sucked. Not sure why, but I had nothing. It was hot, the pace seemed ridiculously fast, and I got dropped half way thru the race. Jon, Stan and Tommy made it but no results worth writing about.

Monday was the Tour of Somerville. It went much better from a team standpoint as we were all in the race and racing hard. Our crit “tactics” are still lacking, but at least we were in there racing and mixing it up. I felt much better, but still not good enough to make a difference in the race. With about 5 laps to go Tom and I found each other and tried to get to the front to help Stan. I dragged Tom down the home stretch trying to move up, but we never made it to stan. Stanimal surfed the front solo and was able to to just miss a Top 10. A totally solid result in a race that had 150 dudes.

Other than the racing, we had some quality team bonding. We watched WAY too much MTV, drank a few beers and busted on each other constantly.

A few awards from the weekend:

The Koolest Women’s Team Award goes to the TravelGirl Squad for pounding beers after their race even before they took off their shoes or got out of their chamois’

The Hottest Groupie Award goes to the Rite-Aid squad for having a super model bottle biatch.

The We Got Game Award goes to the Puerto Rican Masters/Cat 3 squad for swilling and singing at night, kitting up before breakfast and then showing the goods by being in the money every day in their races.

The Tom Boonen Faux Hawk/Mullet Award goes out to all the Juniors rocking the Boonen-esk hair-style. Seriously, every Junior I saw was rocking the Belgian’s Doo. Maybe it does make you fast.

The You Have to be Kidding Me Award goes to an unnamed teammate that “has never used” chamois lube. Maybe we need to up the budget next season to get that boy a tub Of Assos.

And finally a little crack at myself . . .
The TV Time Award goes to myself for spending more time on my socks, booties and wrist band than I did at the business end of the race on Sunday! Doh!

Random Thoughts

2006-05-19T09:06:00.000-04:00

Did the Thursday Night Worlds last night and it cracked me. We just kept attacking each other until we could barely turn the pedals and then someone would go again.

There was a crash. Not exactly sure what happened, but there was a slowdown, someone rubbed my wheel from behind and then one dude went down. No broken bones, but he had plenty of road rash and bruising.

Pat McCarty is currently in the break at the Giro. I hope he makes it.

No racing for me this weekend, but the Sunapee start list looks impressive.

Finally, I definitely didn’t need to see this photo of AM . . . http://www.goodstorysteveo.blogspot.com/

Cold Rain

2006-05-15T13:28:00.000-04:00

It is raining, it has been for awhile now and it doesn’t look like it is going to be sunny anytime soon. That said, I won't tell you how much rain sucks. You already know that 411.

This weekend was Sterling. I won’t bore you with the details. In summary, it was raining, 46 degrees andI thought about not racing until Stan showed up. I lubed up the legs and chamois, pulled on the rain cape and decided to “get a workout” in. I did that, racing at times stupid hard, but I got some “work” in. I finally decided to pull the plug. I checked with Stan to see if he needed my left over water/food, rolled out the back of the bunch at the bottom of the finishing climb with more than 40 miles left in the race and “hit the showers”. It was miserable and a waste of $35 entry. I am pretty sure there isn’t a Belgian bone in my body.

We got in a good ride at home yesterday although my legs were absolutely killing me. They were sore like after a bike racer tries go for a run type sore. 46 degree rain will do that I guess.

Bike to Work this week . . .all the Kool Kids are doing it.

Moose Watch

2006-05-11T07:07:00.000-04:00

The weather yesterday was a nice surprise! We had cold rain in the forecast, but ended up with mostly sunny and temps in the 60s. Sweet. Did some flat intervals last night. Man do I suck on the flats. I have no trouble hitting my zones when the road pitches up, but on the flats it is a struggle the whole time. Martha and I had similar workouts so we were able to workout together. That doesn’t happen very often, so that was nice. We saw a moose last night, my first sighting of the season. Martha drives down moose alley to get to work so she sees them daily, but I hadn't seen one since Fall. Regardless, I never get tired of seeing those beasts, they are crazy looking. We saw an amazing rainbow too, as the front rolled in over the ridge with black clouds on one side and sun on the other.

Thanks for all the input on the tubulars. I did use the tape and the tire looks pretty good. I will ride it tonight for a bit to make sure. Looking like rain this weekend . . .yippie.

Country Song

2006-05-10T08:20:00.000-04:00

So I figured it out . . . . I climb like a sprinter and sprint like a climber!
I used the Tufo Tape last night . . . and feel like a sellout.
I am itching for cyclocross season . . .odd since I swore off the sport just 6 months ago.
I missed Sushi Night last night . . . and am bitter.
Did sprints last night . . . with Martha . . . guess who put out more watts.
Intervals tonight . . . in the cold rain . . . all Belgian and shit.

Glue

2006-05-09T08:01:00.000-04:00

I am an engineer: the kind that shouldn’t pick up wrenches or work on anything. I am a “design” engineer (that is the worst kind!). I can tell you how to do it, but I can’t physically do it myself. I don’t carry wrenches, I don’t try to true wheels, and I definitely don’t attempt to adjust my front derailleur! So that leads me to my big dilemma of the week. On Saturday both Martha and I got flats in the race. Actually, Martha got TWO flats (I think she did it just to torture me this week). We both run tubulars. Why? I don’t know, probably just to make life more difficult. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Right now I am not too sure. So this week, I am a gluing fool. Hopefully I can get it done without too much swearing, throwing of wrenches, yelling at my wife or kicking my dog.

All the Weekend's News

2006-05-08T09:53:00.000-04:00

What a weekend. Saturday was Jiminy Peak. It rained for the first 40 minutes. I wasted a bunch of energy in the first 30 minutes chasing crap. About 60K into the race things started to heat up. The boys and I were mixing it up in the front. I came thru the right hander onto Route 7 slotted in about 10th. It was single file and going pretty hard. I hit some debris in the road and punctured. Game over. I drifted to the back, pulled over, popped my rear wheel off and waited for neutral support. Merlyn was up the road in the SRAM car with the break so we had a volunteer follow car. I was happy to have him, as it would have been a long ride home on a flat, but it wasn’t exactly a Paris-Roubaix Wheel change. I chased for a little while, but it was no use. I was gone. At the moment, I barely have enough fitness to stay in the race when it is single file, never mind chase back on after a 2-3 minute wheel change. I climbed off in the feed zone and watched the boys finish. The team rode well and Tommy G had a great result in 15th. Good showing for the squad.

Sunday I went to Kingdom Trails and had one of those epic days. We had a huge posse, blue-bird skies and bone dry fast conditions. It was one of those days that I wasn’t expecting, but had a killer time. We finished off several hours of ripping riding at the pub. As usual, I abused myself: 3 pints of Trout River, Burger with bbq sauce/onion rings/fries and finally Moose Tracks Ice Cream. That’s living.

Thursday Night Worlds

2006-05-05T09:37:00.000-04:00

I went to the Thursday Night Worlds last night. Man the nice weather brought people out of the wood work and most people were looking very fit. The ride was literally in my back yard, so I road to the start, sat in for a while, gave the town line a go (which I think BigRing pipped me at the line) and then rolled off the back and headed home. I got in a solid two hours but it was tough to bail early on the ride.

Jiminy Peak RR is tomorrow and I want to make sure the legs are fresh. Even with fresh legs, tomorrow is going to be real tough for me. Hopefully it won’t be windy. That could make it a death march.

It looks like we are skipping the Williams Crit, which is cool with me. Kingdom Trails is opening this weekend and I could use a day on the dirt, in the sun, at the motherland.

2006-05-02T14:57:00.000-04:00

It is raining, my legs are still VERY heavy from this past weekend and my iPod is dead. Three reasons going to the bar sounds better than my workout today. Some time ago I left my iPod in my jersey pocket and it got washed. Needless to say it didn’t survive the spin cycle. I didn’t think I would miss it, but days like today, make me realize I need to replace it. A few hours in the cold rain would be much easier with some tunes.

I added a link to Steve-O’s blog. He is a cycle-smart dude, all around nice guy and fast finisher. Also checkout Alberto Contador’s blog to understand the comments below. Not much else to report. Jiminy Peak RR is in 4 days . . . .150 km of hilly punishment.

It's all about the Tanning

2006-05-01T10:14:00.000-04:00

I had a pretty good weekend on the bike. There were times I struggled, mostly on the flats in the wind when the race was single file and in the gutter, but in general it was a pretty successful weekend. While I am pretty sure McCormack won’t be calling me for a stagiaire position this season and the Canadians babbling French into their race radios weren’t asking who I was, I survived a long weekend of hard racing.

I had a nice ride into the sand/dirt in the finale yesterday when I tried to move into a gap that wasn’t big enough. Oh well, it looked big enough, but with 600 meters to go I was pretty bleary eyed and needed 5 more seconds of patience so the gap opened up a bit more. I have no idea what position I was in at the time, but I was trying to get in front of Tom to give him a little shelter and sling-shot him in the last 0.5k. Instead, I went cyclocross style for a little while in the sand and jumped back on the road without killing anyone behind me. Sand is slower than pavement. Lesson learned.

Suffering, Bikes and Safety

2006-04-27T10:07:00.000-04:00

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

2006-04-25T12:54:00.000-04:00

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

2006-04-14T11:12:00.000-04:00

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

2006-04-12T07:47:00.000-04:00

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

2006-04-11T08:29:00.000-04:00

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

2006-04-10T13:16:00.000-04:00

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

2006-04-05T09:05:00.000-04:00

Here are some shots of the new frame:

F-ing Snow

2006-04-05T07:30:00.000-04:00

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

2006-04-03T09:18:00.000-04:00

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.

Not a minute too soon

2006-03-31T08:03:00.000-05:00

Okay, my lack of blogging has been lame. Point taken. Martha has been in British Columbia for 6 days now and things have been somewhat out of sorts since day 1. My training has been pretty lame this week (granted it is a rest week) despite the beautiful weather. My beer/gin/wine consumption has gone way up. My diet has been poor; even worse than normal. You get the picture. Martha returns on Monday. Not a minute too soon.

Heading south for the first “real” weekend of racing. Tonight we are meeting at Indy Fab to see the joint, meet some folks, build some bikes, drink some beer and then off to the Channel Café after. It will be cool to meet the people that are making this team happen.

The “racing” part of the weekend will happen at Charge Pond and Marblehead. Marblehead should be interesting. Usually we roll around in circles, chat and then see who can win the bunch kick. This year it seems like the start list looks stronger than normal with the ever famous brothers McCormack and Fiordifruitta, Nerac, 1k2go, Mechanical Services, etc all brining full teams . . . and of course If/Channel Café. It might actually be a race. Time will tell.

No Photos

2006-03-29T07:02:00.000-05:00

Got a new bike this weekend from IF. For the last few nights I have been trying to take some pictures to post, but it hasn’t happened. Needless to say, it is rad. I gave Jill the green light for “painter’s choice” when finishing the bike. She hooked me with a crazy paint scheme that is definitely one of a kind. I dig it.

The crazy part is that the bike is a Deluxe. Yah, I know, I don’t ride mountain bikes unless someone makes me. Well, this season I am going to learn how to handle my mountain bike! I will get some photos up soon.

Raced at Wells Ave this past weekend. It went well. I tried to do a bunch of work and get used to riding with new teammates. My timing is not there yet, but I can see glimpses of getting it together. Wells was definitely a bit sketchy as always, but we all survived.

Marblehead is this weekend. Looking forward to it, but it tends to be a pretty boring race. It will be good to get together with the squad and roll around in circles.

The first batch of bikes will be delivered this weekend to Stan, Luke and Tommy. I can’t wait to see them. I will post some photos. Later.

Seriously, the Sun?

2006-03-23T09:45:00.000-05:00

Damn, almost a week since my last blog! It has been a pretty hectic week at work. Man do I hate actually having to work for a living! Anyway, good to be busy, but it is never fun. The weather has hit an all time low here in the great north. We have received a dusting of snow every night this week and we haven’t seen temps above the 30s, never mind the sun. Brutal. I have been riding outside and I am not sure my appendages will ever forgive me. I am irish and can only handle so much shrinkage!

Last week’s Charge Pond race seems like a long time ago. It went fine. Sometimes I hurt, other times I felt like a bike racer, etc. etc. Heading to Wells Ave. this Sunday for a workout. Hopefully I will connect with some of the boys and get in some quality miles. The season is fast approaching.

Saturday I am hoping to rally some of the local boys to ride in the arctic temperatures. Joe, Edwin, Jamie you guys want to ride on Saturday?

Charge Pond

2006-03-17T07:42:00.000-05:00

I swore back in December and January that I would take a slow and methodical approach to the beginning of the season. I was going to train thru March and most of April building miles with the help of Cycle-Smart and not worry about racingin the early season. The theory was two fold: first, it is too damn cold and snowy where I live to train properly in February. Second, I like to take cross seriously (although you wouldn’t know it since I only had one Top 25 UCI result this season!) and so racing 9 months a year is tough for me.

So all that said, my first race of the season is tomorrow! Ha ha ha. As usual . . . no self-discipline. Granted it is a “training” race, but whatever. I am sure all the local fast guys will be there and I am sure I will be killing myself. Whatever. You knew this was going to happen. It does every season. Charge Pond here I come.

Fucking Snow

2006-03-15T13:22:00.000-05:00

Yah that is right, it is dumping out. Yesterday I got in 2 hours outside in the sun. Today it is dumping out. Ridiculous. I bailed on a trip to Fernie, BC with Martha so I could train and race. Now I am wondering what I was thinking:
This is a photo from Fernie last week. It l ooks like they will be enjoying classic BC POW. Fucking Snow.

2006-03-13T15:37:00.000-05:00

Sometimes Martha’s job can suck. Much of the time it includes long hours, tons of meetings, resort politics, etc. But, there are perks . . . . especially for me. This weekend was one of those times when I was pretty stoked she is a PR babe. We spent the weekend at the Balsams nordic skiing, eating and drinking and it was outrageously indulgent.

Charlie, Tom and Meg chilling at Mud Pond:

We skate skied 3 hours every day, ate enough calories to last us 2 weeks and drank enough David Bruce that Alberto Tomba would be proud.

Martha and I thinking of the dessert table:

We definitely skied hard and got in some quality training. I rocked a coat and tie both nights and “had” to attend cocktail hour and dinner two nights in a row. It was rough. Back to the bike this week; It is 42 and raining right now. Perfect training weather.

I am weak

2006-03-06T10:27:00.000-05:00

Weekend Stats:
Minutes on the rollers: 80
Minutes of Tempo at 200-220 watts: 40
Number of Powder Days I skied: 2
Number of beers consumed: 12
Number of bottles of wine consumed by our table Saturday night: 3
Number of total new snow this weekend: 22”+
Number of times Ward was disgusted with my training (or lack there of):3
Number of times I bashed in the POW: 5
Best POW crash: tie between Rebecca and Ward
Length of time I felt guilty about going to the bar for happy hour last night instead or training: 2.2 seconds.
Hours of sleep last night: 10

We got dumped this weekend. It started snowing on Friday evening and didn’t stop until Sunday afternoon. We got somewhere between 22-26” at the hill. The best part is that is was a localized dumping and not too many people got it. It was sunny and dry at Attitash (25 minutes away!) all weekend. It was an amazing weekend of snow. I was weak, succumb to the snow demons and forgot I wanted to be a bike racer. Whatever, it was good for the moral and to be honest I only missed one workout. I got the “work” part of my workout done in Saturday morning before heading to the hill. Sunday I could have gone Nordic skiing in the afternoon (like the real bike racers of the group did), but I am pretty sure I am a way better ski bum than I am a bike racer. So I skied, had a beer at lunch, etc. You get it. Sweet justice in what has been a weak snow year.

Cyclocross Frames FS

2006-02-28T10:17:00.000-05:00

If any one is interested: I have two Specialized S-Works cyclocross frames, BRAND NEW in the box, for sale. Both frames are size 54 and include carbon fork, headset and carbon seatpost. They are new 2006 frames in high gloss red and not available to the public yet. They are hot. I will sell them for $750 each. This is a crazy deal. The pave carbon seat post reatils for $100! Let me know if you are interested or want photos: wilson_nav@yahoo.com

If not I will put them up on Ebay in August.

Home and Cold

2006-02-28T09:08:00.000-05:00

Getting back to reality is tough. We had a relatively uneventful trip home from VA. We didn’t hit any traffic at all and made it home in 12 hours including a stop in Boston to get rid of Jon. There was one 30-minute gas stop at a rest area in NJ, but don’t get me started on that one. Temps have gone into a deep freeze here in the great north. The last two mornings temps have been well below zero. Brutal. I am on a rest week this week after my first 5 week block of training. I hate rest weeks, because I always feel like crap. When you stop training, your body seems to realize it is cracked and rebels a bit. I always feel on the verge of sickness at the beginning of a rest week. Standard. I just went thru the race schedule trying to get a “plan” together. It looks like I will probably start the season slow, building thru April and early May hoping to have a killer June and July with Tour of CT, NRC Crits in the Mid-Atlantic, VT Stage Race, Fitchburg and then Altoona. Time will tell. Right now I am doing my “if it is going to be cold, let it snow so I can ski, otherwise warm up” dance.

Finally, I have to send out a huge thanks to Marc and Nature’s Path for their hospitality (including the shot bourbon upon arrival before I even unloaded my bags! You gotta love the south). Nature’s Path sent us more tasty food than we could consume in several weeks. We were fortunate enough to be training with a Nature’s Path Pro/Am rider so we reaped the benefits of some of the best organic food out there. Damn they are a killer sponsor!

The Blue Ridge

2006-02-24T09:31:00.000-05:00

Note to self: next time I come to train in VA, BRING A 12-27 CASSETTE!

Yesterday was right up there with one of the best days I have ever had on a bike. We did a 100 mile, 6.5 hour ride with 3 major climbs. It was totally sweet. I had terrible legs right from the start, but the terrain was killer, it was sunny and I think we saw 10 cars all day. We rolled for 25 miles and hit the first climb (no idea what it was called), then we rolled some more and hit Montebello. Montebello is a 5 mile climb that kept pitching up and up and up. I felt pretty good at the bottom so I went too hard. I straggled in well behind the boys. I rode a 12-25, wished I had a 27. Bionic boy rode a 12-23. Here is a photo from the Montebello store.

From there we continued to climbed and then dropped down Irish Creek Road. It was a dirt/mud/ice/snow road that decended for miles. It was epic. Once off the dirt we continued to descend for 12 miles. Sweet. The last climb was Vesuvius. It is 7 miles long with switchbacks. Here is a photo of me coming up the climb.

Ward was far enough ahead of me to stop, take a photo, and then drop me again. I would like to throw it down on this climb when I have fitness. It was so sweet.

Anyway, it was an amazing day, you get the point. We have two more days left. We have 21+ hours in the last 5 days and looking to get 8 or 9 more. Weather seems to be cooperating: today sunny and 53, tomorrow sunny and 61. I hear it snowed at home last night. Hopefully there will be Nordic skiing when I get home.

Cracked

2006-02-22T10:28:00.000-05:00

Rest Day. I need it. We have done 15 hours in the last 3 days. That is more than any 6 day week I have had to date this season. I am having trouble getting the energy to lift the coffee cup to my lips. Yesterday was killer, although at times I felt like I was on a death march. Here is a photo during a small truce.
Bruno showed up yesterday, so he was fresh, and Ward is the biking equivalent the bionic man. There were several times I was just staring at the wheel in front of my trying to convince myself not to get dropped. It was as if I had been in a break all day and was sitting on trying to convince myself not to get spit out the back. You’ve been there. It isn’t pretty. We weren’t killing it, I was just toast from the last two days.

We did back off the pace so Tommy G and I could make it home. The weather was amazing and we got in a total of about 5.5 hours. The only thing that got me home was a coconut pie and a coke at a country store about 1.5 hours from home. You have to love a pie that has so much fat in it that is soaks thru the packaging.

So coffee shop time today if we can motivate. It is raining and Tommy and I are cracked. So we will see if we saddle up for more than an hour today. Tomorrow is another big day. We are driving to the Blue Ridge Parkway to do some climbing. I hear the ride will be 6+ hours with several major climbs. I better rest up.

What the F!?@

2006-02-21T07:19:00.000-05:00

Day one was ridiculous. When we left it was 21 degrees. 5 hours later (when we finished) it was 31 degrees. I wore a thermal jacket and a thermal vest (see photo). It was retarded. Enough said. We got the work done and it was a character building day, but it was retarded.

So when I woke up yesterday and it was snowing (yah it snows in freaking VA). I was cracked. We had 4 hours scheduled and I immediately started discussing alternate plans. Even Ward was willing to discuss cutting the ride short?!?! We waited until 11:30, kitted up and were pleasantly surprised to find drying roads and sun. Word. Temps rose to the low 40s and we had a sweet ride. I even got some color on my face from the sun!

Weather is turning warm today and we are looking at 55 degrees and sunny. No thermal tights for the first time this trip!!! Bruno arrives this morning and we are kitting up for another 5 hours. Today is going to be a big day. Ward wants to “open up a bit”. That means I will have to put my head down and hang on. I hope I survive. I have been feeling good, but am getting tired. Tomorrow is a rest day. Looking forward to a coffee shop day.

Day 1

2006-02-19T06:48:00.000-05:00

It is 6:50 am and, not surprisingly, I am the only one up. I have a feeling this will be a trend for the week. I am not used to sleeping late, and in all seriousness, 7 am is late. We arrived last night about 6 pm. We made good time (13 hours), saw minimal traffice since we passed Boston, Hartford, NYC, Baltimore and DC. We successfuly made is across the susquahenna (i know I misspelled that, deal with it) river without lossing any bikes off of the top of the car which was a bonus.

Mark (our host) has a dope pad and fed us well last night. I was able to resist going to Bacchus last night, I guess it is a trendy bar here in richmond. He was kind enough to leave me a book of matches on the laptop when he returned home last night to remind me that i missed it. Word,

Training starts today. We have 5 hours scheduled. It is going to be a bit chilly, but I am stoked to get on the bike. More later.

J-Walking

2006-02-16T12:54:00.000-05:00

We moved to northern NH a few years ago from suburban Boston. It was a lifestyle decision. For the most part, it was a good decision. There is no traffic. There is clean air. The training is fantastic. The skiing is great. The people, as a general rule, are great. You get the point. Today, I have had to seriously reconsider my decision.

I walked down “Main Street” at lunch today and there were two cops writing people tickets for J-walking. Seriously . . . tickets. We actually live in a town where the biggest issue is J-Walking?

On Monday a woman was struck by a logging truck on Main Street. She lived, but was hurt. Apparently, the cops think that writing tickets for J-Walking will make crossing the street safer. Note: the woman that was hit by the logging truck was crossing the street IN THE CROSSWALK. We have way too many cops.

Mini-Camp

2006-02-15T15:40:00.000-05:00

Well I am leaving in a few days for a mini-training camp. Tommy G, Wardo, Bruno and I are heading to the not so warm south on Saturday. Ward promised me that Richmond would bring warm, sunny days in the 50s and we could pound out a 25+ hour week. It looks like a cold front is coming thru and temps the first two days are only supposed to hit 40! Damnit. You know they are still going to march me thru 4+ hour days. Tommy is going to give me some line of crap about him training in temps below 20 in Maine and Ward will tell me if I had calves like him, I would be warm, blah blah blah.

It is going to be a tough start, but I am looking forward to being a fulltime bike racer if only for 10 days. I hope to update the blog daily and with any luck upload some pictures of the WARM south.

FYI, when you are a New England yankee, Virgina is the south.

Roller Time

2006-02-11T09:22:00.000-05:00

The weather is up to it’s old tricks. This morning it was -6°F and sunny. Way too freaking cold to even think about riding. We expect to see highs of 20 today. I am all about the rollers.
We leave in a week for 10 days of training in Richmond, VA. The 10 day forecast is looking way warmer than here. Wardo is taking a page out of Bjarne’s training manual. Something like 6 hour days with minor rappelling and ropes work?!?!? What about getting kitted up and chillin’ at the coffee shop?

For the record, I didn't have a beer after ski racing last night. Who says I am not taking training serious?!?

More Mullets

2006-02-08T11:34:00.000-05:00

Seriously, what is going on?!? First Eki and now Zdenek. . .
This is becoming an epidemic. Seriously, those hair cuts were lame in the 80s. 25 year later, they are still lame. What are they doing?!?!

Another Weekend

2006-02-06T16:29:00.000-05:00

Another unseasonably warm weekend bites the dust. Saturday I got in a good ride with some local old guys. These are not yer average old guys. They are way fitter than you can imagine and were up for 3 hours on a 45 degree day in January. So, I did an hour or so solo (just me and the iPod) and then met the boys. You gotta love diehards. Sometimes I wonder what makes me tick when it comes to training. In general I train to get faster. I do like riding my bike, but I am not sure I would ride it nearly as much as I do if I didn’t race. The guys I rode with on Saturday don’t race. They ride. They ride tons of miles simply to the sake of riding. I hope when I stop racing I still ride as fast as these guys.

Here are some pics. Missing is Edwin, he is taking the photos.

Sunday brought rain and 40 degrees. “They” kept saying it was going to stop raining and clear. It didn’t. I finally kitted up and got on the rollers at 3:30. Martha and I did 2 hours with a bunch of “Tempo”. I felt awful all day, but the workout seemed to snap me out of whatever funk I was in. Some stats from this weekend:

Average Power for my all out 3 minute effort: 368 watts
Max Watts on Saturday: 874
Number of Beers I consumed on Friday: 6
Number of Beers I Consumed during he StupidBowl: 0
Number of minutes I didn’t watch the SuperBOwl to watch “Chasing Lance” on Discovery: 60
Number of pounds I lost this weekend training and not drinking my usual beer:2
Number of times I am going take townlines in VA with Ward and Tom: 6

GEEKING OUT

2006-02-03T07:31:00.000-05:00

A few people wanted me to post some PowerTap data, so here is a typical output from the PowerTap. This was a 90 minute workout, with 30 minutes of “Light” and an all out “Surge” every 5 minutes during that period of light. When doing the surge, you can only shift down one gear, so it is all about the cadence. My max. cadence was 163.

Do the data is as follows:

Red is Heart Rate
Green is Cadence
Blue is Speed (x10)
Yellow is Power

Scale on the right is for cadence and HR, left hand side is power and speed (x10)

Have fun geeks.

Geeking Out

2006-02-01T08:45:00.000-05:00

The PowerTap is up and running. I must say it was the easiest cyclocomputer I have ever setup. I don’t think any tools were thrown and I believe I only swore twice. That might be a record. So I am geeking out with all the data this thing gives me. I have already gone back and forth with Kurt several times looking at the data. Crazy bike geek fun for my engineering mind.

Much thanks to Mavic for the rim and to Big Ring Bob for building me a wheel I can trust. The wheel should be bomb proof as long as I can keep it upright. I did a 3 minutes “all out effort” last night to gauge my current power output. A 12 minute effort is coming tomorrow. I would like to post how impressive the output was . . .but it was ugly. It is a good thing it is still very early in the season.

Cold, Pros and the End of an Era

2006-01-31T07:35:00.000-05:00

Another weekend bites the dust, and it was a pretty good one. Originally, I was headed south to ride with the boys, but after a few beers on Friday night, I bailed on 5 hours of driving for 3-4 hours of riding. The temps were supposed to be in the high 30s so I skied for a few hours on Saturday morning and then kitted up for a ride. Riding in the winter up here is killer. No really, it is. Granted it is freaking cold most of the time and usually windy as all hell, but it is cool. The best part is the car traffic you see. The locals drive by and honk, wave and hoot when they see you. Many of them are people that I ride with during the warmer weather and many of them just know me as the guy that rides all the time in his “spider man suit”. Either way, they are stoked to see me out there hammering (or not) during the winter. Then there are the tourists who think that they are vacationing on Siberia. They look at you like you are a freak of nature. You can see them pointing and saying “did you see that guy on the bike?!?!”. It is in the high 30s and sunny people, we are not in Siberia. I saw two SUVs practically drive into the ditch because they were looking back at me trying to figure out what the hell they just saw. Pretty amusing.

On the “I am too Pro to train at home” front, I heard from Wardo this weekend.. He is in Silver City (that’s New Mexico for those of you Amateurs and/or Geographic Morons) and he was dropping the names of all sorts of pros . . .Creed this, Lipton that, TIAA-CREF this, altitude training blah blah blah. I am not sure how that is better than riding your bike in Myers’ garage, watching the 1970somthing Paris-Roubaix on a 12” TV and listening to me talk smack about how chubby he is do you?

Finally, I believe that I will be way faster this coming season., way faster. You want to know why? Hard Training? New Coach? Killer Team? Nope, none of the above. My favorite redneck bar burned to the ground Sunday night. That’s right folks, the Mooseland Grille is no more. Imagine the second hand smoke and beers that I usually consume during an average season at that establishment?!? No more. R.I.P.

Indoor Riding

2006-01-27T08:44:00.000-05:00

Training has gone well this week. I have basically resigned myself to riding the trainer at least 5 days a week. It is a reality: I live in NH and have a job. SO I have been pounding away on the new training regime, watching races and listening to the iPod. It really hasn’t been that bad. We will see if I am still singing that tune in February when I am on Week 8 of indoor riding?!?
I hope to get outside this weekend. Temps will be borderline up here but reasonable in Boston or even Maine. I might give Tommy G a call.
So here is a photo of the Worlds course courtesy of (http://eurocrossers.blogspot.com/)

First off, I can’t believe that people are still racing Cross?!? Damn that is burly. Plus, look at these stairs! That will be epic in the first lap. I have to figure out how I can watch it. It must be on the internet somewhere right?!? Anyone know where? I read Matt Roy’s Report. Glad to hear he is able to head over to see Mo rip it up against the best in the world. Prediction: Mo, 27th.
Ciao

The Mullet is Back

2006-01-24T15:34:00.000-05:00

Hmmm . . . .Doesn't Team Disco have a publicist? What was Eki thinking?

Thaw

2006-01-23T11:00:00.000-05:00

Is there anyone that didn’t get out in there bike on Saturday? The January thaw was sweet on Saturday. I went to Boston to ride with a few of my homies and then some. The group ride was HUGE. I didn’t know what I was in for when AHM said meet at IBC. It was good to catch up with some folks and meet some others. The ride was relatively mellow and besides Hopper dumping his bike on the tracks within the first 5 minutes, the angry skinhead in Allston and the crazy Asian lady in the gold Mercedes with mad bling, the ride went off with out any issues. It was good to get outside and pedal.

It was back to reality in Sunday. Temps in the low 20s for most of the day so I skied under the snow guns for most of the day enjoying a artificial powder day and then went home for a trainer workout. I was scheduled for 3 hours, but cracked at 2. What can I say?!?. I am weak. Note to self, ride the trainer before I ski.

Training

2006-01-18T11:34:00.000-05:00

Man, I am tired. I have been back to training for about 2.5 weeks, but this is the first week where I am doing more volume. I am freaking cracked and it is only Wednesday. The weather has been nuts. 50 and raining one day then -5 and snowing the next. This weekend looks to be pretty reasonable, so I think I will head down to boston to ride with some of the boys. Should be good to get outside on the bike. I guess I better finish building my winter training bike. Yah, the one I said I was going to build last week!

More training news . . . I taking the plunge into the training deep end. No slacking now.

Tucson, AZ

2006-01-16T13:08:00.000-05:00

Ward and I are going to Tuscon the first week in March and need a place to stay. You know anyone out there or a good place for us to stay?

Eating

2006-01-16T11:31:00.000-05:00

Training and Eating

I wish I could say I spent more time training than eating this weekend, but no dice. It rained here on Saturday. It is not supposed to rain here in January, but it did. We had house guests and Martha but on a culinary display. Our friend Steve and Rosa were visiting. Rosa is 8 months pregnant and they wanted to come up to the woods and chill. And chill we did. We were either eating, preparing our next meal or planning the meal after that. Here is a sampling of Saturday:
Get up, make some espresso.
Make some coffee.
Make breakfast (gingerbread pancakes with homemade apple marmalade, sour cream and syrup).
Eat and drink more coffee.
Cleanup dishes and pans from breakfast.

Start Lunch prep: roast vegetables, soak lentils, chop stuff
Bake bread (ingredients included roasted shallots, a beer, fontina cheese!)
Cook lunch (balsamic roasted winter vegatable lentil soup)
Open “Lunch Wine”.
Eat and drink.
Take a nap.

Wake up.
Start dinner prep
Cook Dinner (pasta squash bake with crazy cranberry, stilton, walnuts, etc)
Open “dinner wine”
Eat and drink.
Watch football.
Fall asleep watching game.

So you get the point. I did ride the rollers before lunch and I did snowshoe and ride rollers on Sunday. But official training starts today.

Our new squad is sponsored by Cycle-Smart. I am very excited to be working with Adam and his crew. It should take me to the next step.

The Loaf

2006-01-12T10:12:00.000-05:00

Martha and I snuck up to Sugarloaf for a Tuesday and skied on Wednesday (Thanks Bill). Holy crap is that a sick mountain. We had a short sprinkle early in the morning and then it stopped and we had “hero” snow. They have some sick pitches there and I thought I was skiing pretty well until I saw the CVA kids training in a downhill course. You know they are hitting some serious speeds then they have double snow safety fencing setup to keep them from getting killed. And that is not to mention the race stock down hill boards they were skiing. Impressive.

My back is better, but still hurts at times. I rode the trainer successfully on Monday without much pain.

Training has resumed and things seem to be on track although I do get nervous when I hear people logging 20 hour weeks in the bike in January. It seems early, especially since I trained hard thru the end of November. It is cool. I need to stick to “the plan”.

Crash and Burn

2006-01-09T07:06:00.000-05:00

Well, I guess it was inevitable. I crashed hard this weekend skiing. I hit some variable terrain and went “over the handle bars”. On tele, that is a big problem. I landed on my back and side, but the worst part was that somehow my arm got behind me and I landed on my hand/pole and pole grip. I now have a large bruise on my lower back/hip area that mysteriously looks like a pole grip. Going up stairs, dropping a knee in a tele turn and most importantly pedaling a bike causes severe pain to shoot thru my back. Sweet.

The good new is that it is simply a bruise. It feels like a charley-horse in my back. I should be all set in a day or so. Other than that, the weekend was good. Martha got out on her new phat boards and was ripping them, I found my new “everyday” tele ski at the Tele-Daze demo day (K2 Supers with the O2) and I spent two evenings in the bar. I know I am supposed to be training but hey it is still January after all. Plus, I resisted going to the bar last night after repeated harassment. Baby Steps.

Random Junk

2006-01-04T15:36:00.000-05:00

Matt’s Not So Daily Blog. What can I say. Life is moving, but nothing too exciting. I started training yesterday. Rode the trainer and watched the 2005 Paris Roubaix. That race is absolutely inspiring. I want to be a hard enough to thrive in those conditions. Maybe this season. Nordic skiing tonight with Melon Calves. I should get flogged.

Winter is in full-effect here but the season feels like it is around the corner. We got a sneak preview of the new kits for next season. They look hot. I am interested to see what the team bike paint jobs look like. Should be nothing but spectactular. Ever see an IF paint job that wasn’t?

Page looks to have found his legs over the Christmas Cross Blitz in Europe. That guy is amazing. How can he ride all year long? Good form at Fitchburg then good form in January?!? Sick.

I saw a photo of Tyler training in CO with some boys. I wonder if he is fit enough to hang when he gets cleared?

That’s all for now.

Is It Time Yet?

2005-12-29T14:42:00.000-05:00

Man I am ready to ride. I have a few more days left on my break and then it is back to training. I will have taken 4 weeks completely off the bike. Motivation for next season is off the charts right now. I guess that is the point of a break. I have a new team (Independent Fabrication/The Channel Café/Adidas. . .official name TBD) with new teammates and a crazy new schedule. I wish it was warm and we could be training outside right now! (Weather update: high of 33 degrees today with freezing rain)

I am going to start building my winter training bike (my dented Cannondale CADD 7) this weekend just in case the weather cooperates. Realistically, I will be on the trainer riding my fixed gear and road bike for many hours over the next few months. Hopefully I can get to a warm climate for at least a 10 day block of training in late February or early March. Maybe Solar will still think I am cool and let me come to Silver City with him. After my pitiful showing at the Bermuda GP, I may be relegated to washing bikes and fetching water bottles. At least I can work on my tan.

FYI: 37 days without a shave