The end of the creak...

Well on my road bike anyway..had this creak for like the past 10 months I thought I checked everything,....I was about to write this really boring post about all the things i tried, but ill spare you the details, I needed to put some grease on the peddles. The end.

Roadie joe, has agreed to Pit for me


for my First Race of the Season. Im pretty pumped to get some support from someone whos into racing, I love E and all but shes not really into the bike scene so its quite a chore for her to sit and watch me do laps for eight hours, but when i Told her about joe pitting for me she got jealous, so who knows what well do...maybe I can get joe to bring his new girlfriend.

Had a good ride today at lunch 65 degrees, and a good threshold climb up Old La Honda.

Quick plug for Levi

Let Levi Ride grabbed this off of Dan's blog, check it out!

Dead Presidents Ride

All me today. E had to work. I was a little slow moving this morning from partying at the Tour of California Prologue so I jumped on the single speed after sitting around and drinking coffee, eating and stuff.

I climbed Kings Mountain Road, which is a little over 3 miles and 2000 feet of elevation gain. I did the single track version of this climb with Joe last week with 32/17 gearing, which really sucked on the 29er, so today I lightened up to 32/18 which is still a bit stiff for the big wheels considering the climbing around here. I dropped a few roadies on the climb which is always fun and when i got to the top I decided to Head to Purusima Creek Open space preserve. I had never been there before. The trails are nice but most of the MTN bikers enjoy Skeggs-El Corte de Madera Preserve down the road, which has some sweet single track.

Well I Jumped into Purusima and decended imediatelly for a long time planning to link up to Skeggs.....This descending was disappointing as I knew i would have to climb. So I hit the bottom took a turn and started climbing....and climbing a good 30 minutes of climbing, (no need to hit the weight room)I got back up to Tunitas creek road, and hits some really beautifull pavement for a few miles, some back roads the led over to skeggs. At this point I was at about 2K in elevations with lots of trees, a very pretty part of the bay.

I was hoping to link over to skeggs but the first few trail heads had signs posted "no bikes due to wet conditions" so i kept decending on pavement, getting a bit concerned as i have no idea where this road goes.

I finally hit a trail head that i could ride....and well now I was in for another hour of climbing on some double track and i really had no idea where it was headed. It was good to be alone for a few hours, I finally hits some signs that directed me to some roads near Trail heads i was familiar with. After about 3 hours of riding, i hit the trails I knew, then stopped for some lunch.

I actually packed lunch today, Its somthing im going to start doing on the big days, you might as well enjoy the woods. Ill save the days of sucking down hitech shitty tasting stuff for race day.

I took some crappy cell phone pics of my lucn spot.




Any way got a good 5 hours of riding and 6K of climbing in for the day...good times.

Tour of CA Prologue

So E and I peddled on down to a party today on the strip that the Tour Prologue was ripin through....heres some views from the party.









Some views from the street









We ran out of poles to lock our bikes to outside of the bar, so we had to go up!



It was a good time

So there I was minding my own buisness.......

Doin a little mellow road ride....when A group rolls up behind me spinning not much faster. Half were from standford and half were from sportin Rock Racing kits so I mingle for a little bit with the group before I blow out. I guess they were spining so slow for the Prolouge of the Tour of California tommorow. I didn't realize the Rock dudes were riding in it since im not that keen on road racing (I had to look it up when i got home).

Any way it was a chill solo ride, everyone was out today, I saw the BMC TeamTeam spining in Palo Alto with the Team Car Following, as well as the Astana Team and a few others.

Tomorrow should be pretty cool, Im going to a party on the street that the Time trial is ripping through, should be good times.

I scored a travel case for my bike, The performance bike buy my crib is going out of business, so i got puppy for 150 bucks.

Farewell Ride

We had a little fairwell morning ride today for a good friend who's leaving our company, followed by an awesome breakfast!

The Great Space Coaster

This is incredible The Great Space Coaster I totatlly forgot about this show, it aired in the 80's and was a fav of mine when I was a kid, but I have not met anyone else who remebmers this show.
The coaster
we rode hard off road yesterday.

Joe's New/old Bike

It was a pretty exciting day in the office today. Joe's Cannondale Taurine arrived!. Ive been trying to get joe to buy a MTN bike now for a while. I knew he was eyeballlin the Cannondale Taurine and the Caffeine for a while..taurine being way out of his price range but he Got a really good hook up from Vegan Rob of the Valley Mountain Bikers Valley Mountain Bikers. It was really nice of him to ship all the way out to cali for Joe who he never met for a really nice price. Thanks Rob.
'


The Entire day consisted of everyone in the office stopping buy to take a look so that was fun...tommorow is the maiden voyage....thats joe below holdin his new steed

I am on my way.....

I put in a solid 8 hours this weekend, 6 of which involved some serious climbing on Saturday and 2 of which were supposed to be an easy spin 30 minute recovery ride but ended up being a furious sprint around the valley fending of the locals who insisted on attacking and chasing me down if I rolled pass.

Today was going to be an easy roll to work and roll home day, but well joe brought his bike to work and the heat wave is still raging full on so we did the lunch loop, it wasn't hard or anything but I should have been spinin slow.

Fast forward to the ride home and well, easy spinin turned into sprinting from every trafic light trying to beat every car that didnt give me enough room or cut me off to the freeway. What can i say. I like riding my bike. I finally got some easy spining the last 2 miles. The sun was going down, my ipod was cranking some new tunes, warm air was blowing around me. I had my light set in my pack and contemplated throwing it on to keep riding.

I guess my December burnout is cured.

Summer time and the livin's easy

Mid 60's today, no new Snow at Kirkwood so it was time for my favorite enduro Training loop. I met up with Joe and we did the "Big Coast loop" today



It has 2 really big climbs and 2 Medium sized climbs. The two climbs seperate the coast from the valley and you generally gain about 2000 feet on each climb.

Roadie Joe who has a Cat 2 status, can drop me at will on any one of these climbs on any given Sunday...if you take them one of time. after about 50 miles we made our typical rest stop where joe has been using his secret weapon, Filling his water bottles up with coke, prior to the last big climb, Tunitas Creek Road. Now joe took me on this puppy the last time we did this loop in October so anything goes. It generally takes 30 to 40 minutes to climb TC. So we leave the general store, and Im not really in the mood for causin trouble or attacking so we put down a pretty comfortable pace when I notice Joe Start to fall of Pace. I said "drink some more coke joe" and he replied "Its only February".

I smelled the weakness and began my attack.

It wasnt long before joe was out of sight, but i had to keep up the attack, I was committed and this climb was killing me. I finally got to the top and, took note of the time. (its key when you are going to bust balls to keep track of how far ahead you were)..one minute, two, three, four, Five...two chicks rolled on up, six...damn i got worried, i had to ride on down with the rescue wagon.



I put down a nine minute gap....yeah, joes going to hear about this all week at work. So ofcourse i rode back down the valley, let joe in to my crib to get some stuff and rolled out on my own for some more pain...It was indeed a good day.

Cream Puff Baby!

Yeah I got my email from Scott, I got into the race. Im pretty stoked. I hope I will be able to make it.

I had this dream Last week that Spiderman was chasing me, and i think it might be related to the local Webcore Club. They are everywhere and have a number of pro level dudes racing. I got mowed down on a monday morning climbing Kings. They were haulin.



Anyway today on the lunch ride we put the hammer down, and ripped by this webcore dude. You know just because you rip by someone doesn't mean your a better rider. Maybe they were just chillin, recovering or smelling the flowers. I always say hello, but it seems that no one says hello back. I think its because of the burrito rack on the back of my bike. I think people are disgusted when they get dropped by the dude with big clunky bike. After we passed the dude we really put the pedal to the metal and he followed. I dropped my budy and he claims the dude kept coming after me. Its pretty common around these parts, and i must admit its fun. Your doing your own thing, someone passes you and its on.

Crank

Been looking for a crank for the mamasita. Planing on running it as a one buy nine. I have a an old truvatve single speed crank lying around but i figured i already have some sickter components going on this puppy so i may as well continue the trend. I like the Turvative Noir crank, 800 Grams with the bottom bracket.



Lunch Ride

I did a lunch ride today, and it was pretty sweet, 60 degrees. Im starting get back into fighting shape. It was pretty wild, I rolled out just below threshold and the legs were feeling good, hit the big 3 mile climb and get it pegged in zone 5 hitting 6 a few times. First time i did that this year. Felt good.

Matt Chaney
Check out Matt Chaney's blog http://justtryharder.blog.com/ If you east coasters haven't heard the name, he won the 2007 SS 24 Solo Worlds. Matt Reminds me a lot of Vegan Rob, probably the fastest guy you know, but also the nicest guy you know.

Upgrade

I manned up. I applied for my NORBA uprade to expert and it was approved, i kinda like that. I really only had one season racing sport, Last year was kind of a mix and match with the move and all. But I remember racing sport 2 years ago fininshing mid pack every race thinking I would never be capable of racing expert despite my craving for endurance racing.

I won't mention any names but my first year racing (2006) the guy that won all of the XC races in my sport category would put 12 to 15 minutes on me every race. This was one of the reasons i thought I would never be able to upgrade. After moving to california, I came back to PA for a week to take care of business and was fortunate to be able to race the Rattling Creek 50. I brought the rigid one speed. I remember somewhere around mile 30 seeing the dude on some fire road, i think he was chasing me down, we rolled into the single track and I dropped him. I never saw him again till after the race. That was like the best feeling, and i did it on my single speed.

Project 321

The little piece thats going to tie my Cannondale Lefty to the mamasita arrived today. What a simple idea. Its basically an aluminum steerer with a spacer on the bottom and a spacer on top that slides off the tube so you can fit it through a 1 1/8 tube. Not too heavy either, im looking forward to see how it compares to the tube on the lefty when it arrives.




I sent a check in to the Cascade Cream Puff 100 dudes on Saturday. I don't why I waited so long, but they made it seem like if you didnt overnight your entry form the day registration opened, you might not get in. So I assumed I wasn't in since I was lazy, but I see no signs that Registration is closed out. Also its an expensive race, not sure why but its about twice as expensive as any hundred miler i have ever done. Im sure its worth it, I have never ridden in the Cascades and I think it will surely be an epic event.


Oh, got an email from USA Cycling, i can save 10% on wind tunnel testing if I renew my license. What a deal! I think I paid 60 bucks for my license last year and race one USAC event.



I think im going to pass....but i might Race Sea Otter..which by the way if i do I really should write a letter to the local USAC dude to get an Upgrade to expert since I really never raced any USAC Events to earn the upgrade. Ive been told there will be a lot of sandbaggers ot Sea otter, lots of roadies racing sport, and believe me its a roadie course. Some dudes I ride and work with want me to race sport so we can place some money on whos going to win..... I don't know, it would be fun to race my friends but It makes me feel like a dirt bag.

Fifty Fifty

A little skiing, a little riding

Got up early on Saturday and beat the rain thats been plaguing the bay area. Did my first ride of the year at threshold, really attacking the 2000 foot climb. Theres always a few riders on this climb at any given time during the weekend, so its always some sort of race

Any way we got in the car, it started pouring rain as we headed to tahoe. Met some friends for dinner and woke up too some snow.....



I was up before the sun, but we didn't get out of the lot till close to nine since there were some dudes that got stuck in the drive way. We got to heavenly only to discover that they would not be open till noon,since tney had to do a lot of Avy control from the 3 feet of snow that fell over night. We decided to wait it out as everyone else stayed home and as luck would have it we were on the lift by 10 and had some sweet untracked Pow for the next few hours

The Burrito Rack

With all of the snow in the sierras and the wet weather in the bay, you have to get out while you can. 15 feet of snow this month at Kirkwood, so you cant pass that up.

The lunch ride has been key, riding at night in the rain really sucks so I have been lucky enough to get out during lunch. Today it was actually a hammer fest with the boys at work. Full of sprints and racing to the top of each hill. followed by a stop at the burrito joint.



Going to sneak out tommorow for another quicky then its time to head up to kirkwood for some more Pow!