turkey weekend.....

well, got a little down time here at work so thought i'd update this after a week. had another weekend of getting some miles in. the weather has been pretty cold here lately, but still miserably rideable. i was able to get in rides every day of my weekend, 55 with denny on turkey day, about 20 on friday, and another 55 today with jess and greg. friday i rode castlewood with casey and greg. we did a couple hours. that was a fun ride and just what i needed. i don't know if we stopped and bs'd more then we rode, but it i wasn't complaining. i got my new xtr rear wheel that morning too. it was pretty sweet, i've been needing a new rear wheel for a while now. i've got to thank tim at ghisallo for getting that thing built so quick. i wasn't even expecting it to be done when i went in to buy a full face mask. it made that ride that much better...........sweeeeeeet!!!! also saw my buddies brian and todd this weekend, both on different rides, go figure, usually they're attached at the hip......just kidding guys!!!!

another weekend in the books.....

well, it's 6am sunday morning and i've got to go to work tonight and i'm hoping i can get another 40 miles in and be back in bed by noon. this weekend was another full weekend of riding. i got another 78 miles yesterday with jess. she's an animal on the climbs and definetly a great companion to have on the road. i can always count on her to get my miles and time in on the bike. she says she'll have me on the climbs by next year, but if she keeps it up it may be by next month.

i think i've definetly got my base miles covered for next season already. i've been getting pretty excited about the upcoming race season and especially about the mt. bike season. i got my upgrade back to expert after downgrading for the past two years because of getting fat and out of shape. i'm hoping it'll be a successful off road season. as for my bike, i'm thinking of either totally revamping my trusty ti tst frame or go with a whole new rig for next season. i know i want to keep it a hardtail, but not sure what kind of bike i want to get. i love the geometry of my ti frame, but also want to go to disc brakes, and my ti frame doesn't have disc brake tabs. anyways, we'll see what the future holds. i saw a carbon fiber bianchi that was pretty sweet. i may have to check that out again. i can't wait to start concentrating on mt. biking again. at least maybe this season i'll do more then two mt. bike races. i'd like to do as many dinoseries races as i can. if you've never done a dinoseries race i would suggest going to one. they put on a very professional event and are always a good time. the fields are always full and it's what mt. biking used to be like here in st. louis in the mid 90's.

another weekend here.....

it's been a few days since i've been on here, but i haven't done a whole lot. four days at the gulag...i mean work.....ok, it's not that bad...wait, yes it is.....ok, no i can't say that. anyways, so far my weekend has been decent, rode 40 on thursday. i wanted to ride for at least three hours at lost valley yesterday, that would have been at least five or six laps, but like usual, i dragged ass all day only to finally make it out there and be on the trail just after 3pm. nowadays it's been getting pretty dark around 5pm. well, i took bailey on the first two and then took her back to the car and did a last lap in the dusk. it got pretty dark and in the last mile or two i could barely see five feet in front of me. i guess if i want to work on my handling skills thats the way to do it. well, one of the reasons i was late was because i had to get sized for my new dogfish frame that we're getting. i just didn't feel comfortable on any of them. my fuji team is a 52, but i've never felt comfortable on it, even in the hoods, and when i get in the drops i just hate it. i'm running an 80mm stem, so i decided to go down a size on the new frame, but to be honest, i didn't feel all that comfortable on the 50, or even a 48. oh well, i'll see how it goes. another ride with jess today and more tomorrow before work.

25 miles for bailey!!!!

well, today after work i wasn't really physically up for a ride, but i wanted to ride a little off-road and get on the singletrack again. i came home, had a few cups of coffee and headed out for lost valley. that place is a great place to take bailey, not many people and i just love that place for some strange reason. i guess it's because i can get the miles in while still getting in some singletrack action. anyways i was only going to ride two laps with bailey, but went for three and she made it the whole way. she definetly slowed down, but she never did completely bonk. that dog made it 25 miles with me. she's pretty pooped right now, but i guarantee she'll be tossing that ball at my feet tonight. oh, one more thing, i'm used to following behind someone and following their line, but baileys line absolutely sucks to follow. as she jumps over it, at the last minute i'm riding over it......not fun. my lesson? don't follow baileys line!!! more riding tomorrow........hmmmmm..........maybe 50 or 60.

a few miles over the weekend....

so i thought i'd update this. last weekend was a great weekend of riding and finished up getting to spend some time with jess. i think i rode close to 275 miles in my five days off. i do have to say however, sundays "recovery" ride was more of a "survival" ride. jess and i were very tired and neither one of us had much sleep and saturday was a full day of activity. an 85 mile ride plus swimming to top it off. jess, the energizer bunny, swam two miles while i could only make it about 800m before my foot started to cramping up and i found my way to the hot tub. sunday rolled around and we were set on a recovery ride, i was a little more reluctant though knowing i had to still get my ride in, come home and then get some sleep before heading into work that evening. let's just say i barely survived a 40 mile ride ridden at propably the slowest possible speed ever and still staying upright. it wasn't a pretty site for either of us. well, now my weekend is coming around again and i think more riding is in order. i'm thinking thursday road, friday mt. bike, and then saturday road again before i have to get back in to work that night. we'll see how it turns out.

bailey's a champ....

well, went out to lost valley and put in about 45 miles, five laps plus some little detours and trips back to the car. i met greg out there with his singlespeed. that guy cracks me up, he gets there and he's got some vintage platform pedals, from like a 1982 huffy bicycle, you know, the kind that's on your moms bike. well, he couldn't get them off to put his other pedals on and had to ride with them. if he didn't have bad luck he'd have no luck at all!!! that diamondback frame was acutally my first mt. bike from 1992. it's got some miles and history in that frame. anyways, he took his dog layla and i took bailey out there too and i was just expecting her to make it one lap with me. well, not only did she do that, but she made it two laps and ran the whole way. i guess the cooler temps and the running i've been doing with her have helped out her stamina. the last time i took her with me she made it a half a lap and then bonked. Layla on the other hand wasn't so lucky. she ripped up the pads on her paws from all the rocks and we had to put her back in the car. hopefully she's ok. it was a good day to be out on the trails again. i seem to have forgotten my original love for the singletrack. it was so much fun. i wasn't riding too hard because i've got a 75 miler to do with jess and a few friends today, plus, none of my rides nowadays are too hard. i've still been putting in the miles, but absolutely nothing in the aneroebic levels.

A few photos....

here are a few photos i was meaning to post. thought you might enjoy. that's my friend jess, we were talking on the way down marine heading towards creve coeur lake, she tried to avoid a caterpillar, and her front wheel touched my rear wheel at 30mph, well, here's the result. it's been two weeks now and she's still in pain, that'll teach you to donate skin to modot. that was only five miles into the ride and like a real trooper we rode another 70!!! she's awesome. the other photo's are from the day that damn stick ripped my rear derailleur off.