April Showers

Lots of cold rain/snow this weekend in UT. Sammi opted to stay inside and paint...





The fairer of the sexes also proved smarter as I went out to put in some time on the Super Six each day. I timed it about as bad as you could each day and got caught in pissing cold rain and sleet Saturday, and cold rain and snow today. Polar opposite of Sea Otter's 96 degree sun. Today I was riding through puddles while it was sleeting/snowing then full on snowing on me. I put all my riding gear through the ringer, I guess that is why I have it. I was really psyched that my new PI jacket had a helmet cover today.



Now its clearing up and getting nice. Figures...

Economic Stimulus Plan

It's what's for dinner



Sammi and I did the patriotic thing and went out to spend some $ tonight - dinner and a movie. Fighting the war on terror one 2/3 pound burger at a time. I even bought some jeans at Quicksilver in between! Its been years since I bought an article of clothing at a store. Granted these were on the 50% off rack...

Hottrn'a Bastard

Summers working construction and timber framing jobs in rural Vermont left me with a unique vocabulary. I would venture to say I had a totally different dialect when at work. Hanging around with farmers has contributed a lot too. Some has left, lots I still have, especially when I go home, and most will remain unprintable. One that has always stuck is "hotter than a bastard" which is correctly pronounced "hottrn'a bastard." Correct use:

Sunday's cross country race at the Sea Otter was hottrn'a bastard.

All time record highs just happened to coincide with our two hour block of way-too-hard-for-our-own-good-anyway physical exertion. Bart has the full report up on Monavie-Cannondale.com

I've experienced heat stroke many times before. I must be cold blooded or something and for some reason my body totally shuts down when not acclimated to the heat. I have never had it hit me so fast though- 15 minutes in to the race I was feeling pretty good and riding about 30-40th (?) or so moving up a couple spots here and there. 5 minutes later I was dizzy with the chills and felt super weird. I twisted the grip shift like I was twisting a throttle and started riding slowly in my granny cog.

I let most of the race go by and tried to get my body temp under control- drinking, dumping bottles on me, riding at a recovery pace, etc. I was just determined to finish since I flew all the way down there. I figured it would be good heat training and a good suffer-fest to strengthen the mind. It ended up taking a lot of determination to get to the line, plenty of physical pain plus the embarrassment of riding so slow at such a big race. Pretty disappointing but hey that's the way it goes.

All in all it was a sweet weekend. Killer seafood dinner after the race @ Salinas Fish House and Bart and I rode over to the ocean on Monday and went for a swim. That was so nice, haven't been in the ocean in at least a year.

Riding through strawberry fields on the way to the beach. Smelled like fresh berries. mmmmmm


There were some odd pale mammals at the beach...




and some seals. cool.

sea otter

yesterday while pre riding the cross country course i was dissapointed not to see any otters. come to think of it i didn't see the sea either, but i know its close. i did see a snake and some serious sand. its been dry here and its feeling like the desert. one lap at pre ride pace was over 1.5 hrs. we do two laps, oh boy, todays race is going to be long and tough, i'm just hoping to have energy the whole time and stave off the bonk/cramps!

Wicked Cool Sunset

I am up in Boise blown after a crazy busy day seeing accounts. I charged 9-7:30 and was scrambling to stay on schedule. Lots of people need to fill in which is good but I am already buried in follow up after one day. Instead of being smart and starting on that I am posting a pic of the sweet sunset I saw on my way in last night. My phone camera didn't do it justice. Two more days up here then I am going to Sea Otter. Won't be much of a vacation though- there are 150 pros signed up! I have a feeling its going to be a really hard race.

Angel's Landing

Yesterday I combined some Springdale shop visits with a hike up Angel's landing in Zion with Sammi. It was super cool even though there were throngs of people. Must have been Easter weekend/spring break crowds... Now we are in St. G. looking out the window at pouring rain. Not bad, a little rain in the desert on my birthday!

Tacoma vs. BMW

Which do you think has a stronger bumper?

If you guessed BMW you're wrong. Though I wish you were right...

I was backing up in the Fisher's parking lot this morning and bumped in to a nice shiny black BMW. Lovely way to start the week, I dented/scratched the bumper. Despite the fact that the Bm'er was parked at a diagonal and 2 feet over the parking space line I did the right thing and left a note. I figure I don't really have a case since their car was stationary and I was driving mine.

Looks like my insurance will cover it though I am trying to decide if I should just pony up the cash so my rates don't go up.

Man I am glad it was the bumper though... would have sucked to hit a door or something.

Other than that I'm just getting in to the swing again after a week of pretending to be a pro mountain biker. I sure could get used to that. Wake up, eat, ride, eat, rest, eat, sleep. It seemed to treat me well- I felt pretty good in the Cholla race on Sat. At least better than I did the previous weekend in Fontana. I felt strong the whole time and just didn't have the kick that Bart did on the final steep pitch- props to him.

We rode way up red rock canyon on a dirt road and even saw some patches of snow up top!


Jeremiah rides a mile long wheelie


All in all it was an awesome time and great to ride with the team all week. Its fun to have people pushing you all the time. Check monavie-cannondale.com for detailed reports on the weeks riding.