Almost May, eh?

Sod Cutter

Say what? That's what I said...

So we're doing a little xeriscaping this summer, and when I say we I mean this is entirely Sammi's project and I will have no input. That's fine with me as she has this whole idea of how it should look. I'll be there to lend manual labor, "move that sod in to a pile over there..." "duh, ok."

She started digging one corner out one day last week, then I got home from Fruita last weekend to this! I guess out neighbors were renting a sod cutter and Sammi pitched in some $ and got to use it. Now if it were up to me we'd plant a few cactus and throw some rocks down but I get the feeling its going to be a little more involved than that. Something about looking nice...

Curse of the Otter

Sea Otter 2010 is a wrap and coincidentally I haven't had that poor of a race since Sea Otter 2009. 2009 I know was the heat- 2010- well yeah it was still warm but not hot- but I felt just as crummy- or worse. Maybe I'm allergic to the place! I am sick now so maybe that was part of it. Just an off day I guess. Gotta take the good days with the bad. It was a pretty pathetic effort though. I moved up for 3/4 of a lap then backwards for the rest of the race.

On to the course- five three mile laps for a total of 15 miles, 40% on pavement, 55% dirt road, maybe 5% singletrack. With 2000' of climbing for the whole race I'd call it darn close to flat with a few short steep climbs. No climbs over say 1 minute or so, all ridden in the 42 tooth ring even by me who was blown sky high at the end of the race. I imagine the leaders were pushing monster gears up those.

I know a shorted course is better for spectators and therefore ultimately better for racers but they at least need to run a race long enough to call it a cross country. 1 hour 23 minutes for the win is hardly an xc. That's like summer cyclocross. I guess one more lap would have been more proper, 2 more maybe... though then I would have been teetering dangerously close to being pulled.

Ben said it well when he said that when you are feeling good you can do any course well and like it. When you aren't you can't ride any course and it sucks. Well I was feeling like garbage and that sure did suck!

On to the next...

New restaurant

Frida Bistro on 700 South and 550ish West. Super good, fancy Mexican. Sammi and I went over the weekend to celebrate my birthday. Dinners came with grilled cactus and some killer rice, great sauces, and a small gordita appitizer on the house. I got this stuffed pepper with meat, nuts, dried fruit and a walnut sauce. We also tried a beet salad with some biznaga sugar cane that was pretty good. The blended margarita with fresh mango and cayenne pepper ruled. Didn't try the pineapple cilantro marg but I am sure its good.

Its a little on the pricey side compared to most Mexican but worth it once in a while. They even through in dessert for my birthday which was really weird because neither of us mentioned that it was in fact my bday. Unless Sammi was putting me on. I always thought I wanted to be a food writer, now its pretty clear to me that I suck at it, good thing I didn't try...

Moto for sale

I'm selling my 2006 KLR 650. Killer bike, I just don't have the time to ride it offroad. Low miles, almost all on road. Just replaced the battery yesterday. Kills me to sell it, it was a great bike. If you are interested or know anyone who is let me know.

Hot off the presses

Classic- a how often do you see a movie with the main character pictured in the front quoted on how great the movie is... in all seriousness though it is a really good movie and contrary to what the cover seems it's not entirely focused on Lance. Some other great story lines as well.

After it showed up I thought maybe I could have tried to get one sent out for free since I have a few small parts in it... But hey it was just 30 bucks and the more money they make the more they might consider making another movie about mountain biking.

Looks like another huge snowstorm... makes this seem like a distant memory rather than yesterday.



Raced the Cholla on Saturday and felt pretty good. My strategy going in was to just ride hard for the workout ahead of Sea Otter, moreso than the result, so I spent a lot of time setting the pace and sitting on the front in the wind. Burke put in some good surges which I was able to cover and after a few laps we were still together. It looked like it might come down to the wire until we hit some lapped traffic at an inopportune moment and he got around on a path I didn't see and a pretty good gap opened up. From there he just put his head down and it was a last lap tt in the wind. I kept it close and it was 15 seconds at the finish. I was happy with how I felt and the goal of blowing my legs up was accomplished! Hats off to Burke for the win.

5-8" of snow in the valley tonight... where was this weather in December??