my last post was a lie

we did end up hitting 24-9. we decided it was better than sitting at home.
it was strange not racing or having anybody to look out for. well, we had our kids and they kept us plenty busy but you know what i mean.
we were not prepared really... but we survived. we got rid of the rv last minute... so that left us really with nowhere to sleep or cook. we figured we'd figure it out when we got there. worse case we'd sleep in the suburban which wouldn't have been bad at all. thanks to jeremey for letting us borrow his kid tent and brent for giving us his 2-person. we didn't sleep saturday night so it didn't matter then, but it was nice to stick the kids and dog somewhere.


i did a ride with barb on saturday morning... she knew where all the easy to get to singletrack was and we rode that for most of the morning before the race started.
i hit up the course around dinner time to get a lap in. the course was pretty cool. i never felt like i was on the doubletrack for super long and the singletrack sections weren't far and few between. the highlight of my ride was on the only kinda long climb 3 riders passed me- nat ross, chris eatough and carlos smack dab between them. that was pretty cool. my only complaint was the flower trail! that poor trail. i looked forward to that course because of that trail... i remembered how it felt like you entered a different world when you popped in there. no more. very sad. i hope it recovers some day.
congrats to everybody who finished that race and especially those who came home with the stars and bars. how freakin' rad is that!

to end i leave you with a picture of what it looks like after you win the 24 hour duo:
























i think everybody snapped this pic.

roller coaster

okay, now it looks like no 24-9 for us.
ugghhh...

the plan

24-9 plans keep changing. hopefully they settle by like friday. so far it's for the better as far as plans, but not without any sucky things happening.

15point98

palos meltdown 9/9

do it. the course is actually pretty sweet. lots of singletrack and some decent climbing.
way better than a mowed ski hill.

potter

saturday i had the wedding shower. got home around 3:00 still no potter book. it better come. finally.
read read and read. done. i'm excited to have that spell off my back. i've been waiting for over 2 years to read that book.
i enjoyed them and am glad to not have to obsess about it anymore.
after finished the book i hit the mesa. it's been awhile since i'd been offroad... blue mounds i think? or did i have one palos ride in there? don't remember. anyway... stan sticks everywhere! still a blast though.
work tomorrow... tues and wed.... 24-9 is a maybe for me, maybe only because i'm still holding onto hope. bummer. my family is out of town and john's family has a wedding.
i'm bummed.
anyone wanna babysit a 5 year old and 11 month old?

into the weekend

thursday i went on a night-ish ride. busted out the light for the last 5 or so miles. i really need to stay out later to put the light to the test. get the battery drained etc. recharge.
work had a bunch of restructuring done people wise which in turn gave me a new manager and new desk. i spent the better part of my afternoon making the move.
tonight has been pretty uneventful. playing with kids, dinner, playing, put zoe to sleep, store, cookies and type this.
wedding shower tomorrow. boo. ride after hopefully. sunday zoe and i will be hanging out while john and casey go to a concert.

yikes

wed night... i usually hit palos for the 6pm group ride. john was sick so i came home to help with the rugrats. i know what it's like to be sick with two kids. i planned on going on a night ride but then this happened:













boo.

quick fourteen

i left at like 8:15pm. it felt good to even just get in a short ride. but now i fear i may not fall asleep.
my lupine light is most excellent.

chill

gone

it was a sad day for john yesterday. he sold his motorcycle to my uncle. if you know john you know how huge it is for him to part with something; especially something like that.

weekend review

i don't even remember friday. since i can't remember it, i'm going to assume nothing worth mentioning happened.
saturday john had tickets for chicagoland speedway. the oil guy at work gave him tix. he thought casey would get a kick out of it. he was right.


they were gone pretty much all day. i was left at home with this one:



what a terror she was. i had a long rough day. if she wasn't supposed to have it, she had it. which meant she usually ate it. i can't tell you how many times i took dog food out of her mouth, or paper, or shoes, or well you get the picture. she can open the toilet now (great). i tried to get some bike maintenance done but no way was she going to let me. she wanted my undivided attention and she got it. we had fun though.
last minute plans to do the l.a.t.e. ride i scrapped together some last minute babysitters (my cousins lauren and erin) so i could join the group. the lack of being able to do any bike maintenance had me sulking because i had to ride the eriksen. oh well. the surly with the basket would have been my first choice.




in past years the late ride has been a blast. this year, not so much. i didn't want to go but knew i'd regret it on sunday. they changed the course from the past years. we didn't go down lincoln where all the bars are. that was usually the most fun. we were also way out in front... no time to people watch, etc. but you almost have to make a choice, stay in the middle of the ride and get home at 6 am or go out front and be home at a decent hour. anyway, it wasn't my favorite ride but john and bryan at least made it somewhat entertaining on the extra cycle.
sunday we missed another wors race. family obligations. wors isn't working out this year it seems with our schedule. this time it was uncle chuck's 80th birthday party. it was a surprise at an italian restaurant just down the street from us, so that was cool. it turned out to be a real nice time.




i didn't get the riding in i had hoped for. i'm crossing my fingers the rain holds off until well after i get home so i can hit the path at least. next weekend is a baby shower on saturday (missing the wems race) and maybe pamba on sunday.

guilty pleasures

forever is finally here. the last harry potter book will be at my door next saturday. i hope to be finished with it on sunday so nobody can spoil anything, i prefer being the spoiler... i'm pretty excited. i also told john he needs to take me on a date to see order of the phoenix.

overdue

erikson ti mtb frame (26)- 2.9 lbs. rockshox sid world cup with retro sid lower. industry 9 wheels orange (laced to stans 355). bontrager jones xr tubeless ready tires. stans goo. mango king headset. syntace duraflite carbon bar- 9 degree sweep. syntace f99 90mm stem. juicy ultimate brakes. x.o twist shifters. bontrager grips. noir carbon cranks. x.9 front derailleur. use sumo carbon post. wtb deva saddle. x.o rear derailleur. sram pg990 cassette. sram pc991 hollow pin chain. crank brothers twin ti pedals with shortened axles. king ti bottle cages.

zero gravity

yesterday and the day before

we took the kids to brookfield zoo on tuesday. first stop was the stingrays. i can't even tell you how cool that was! i felt like the biggest dork because i was so excited about it. i look forward to going back and checking them out again. the rest of the visit was typical- dolphin show, the swamp, bears, the petting zoo (where a goat ate my zoo map), etc.















on the drive home casey was out and zoe sang to us.









wednesday i hit palos. shout out to tp for bringing my bike to the preserves. it was a strange yo yo ride. a few unfamiliar trails and some i could ride with my eyes closed.

and

looking at my lap times it looks like i was doing a bit over 1 hour and 20 minutes. my second lap is accurate, my first and third are not. but my third lap is the same exact as brent's. that's cool as i thought i was averaging 1 hr and 30.
stolen from the goat.

brutal fun

i've been planning on hitting the wems blue mounds race since the beginning of the year. brent from twin six kept telling me to come. not that i needed much convincing... i've been dying to ride there since john raced the ss state champs race there last year. the technical aspect of it drew me in.
we originally wanted to head out friday night and camp... ya know hang out. but then thought about not being with the kids for that long and the fact we'd be ditching them 24-9 weekend we thought best to head up saturday morning.
we had the kids dropped off and were in the car headed to blue mounds around 8:30am. plenty of time to get to the course and even hang out and chat for a bit. just as we got on 39 right before the clocktower (bus 20) in rockford traffic came to a halt. dammit. we turned off the tunes and put on a news station in hopes of finding out what the problem was. by the 3rd time the traffic report came on they finally let us in on what was going on. a tanker exploded just south of 43 in beloit on 90. great. we are backed up this far already! long story short we were rerouted onto 51 which consists of traffic lights, shopping malls... add the semis being rerouted and the other traffic, it took us 4 hours to get there! usually 2.5.
we made it to blue mounds according to the element clock at 12:36. the start time was 1pm and we had already missed the rider's meeting. luckily this isn't as strict as wors with being registered by a certain time. 6 hour solo here we come.
back to the car to get ready. damn it was hot. i was sweating putting on my spandex. i still had to check the air in my fork, pee, get bottles ready, etc. john was pretty much ready in plenty of time... i'm sure he was a little stressed.
as i went to check the negative pressure in my fork some of the oil squirted out right onto my rotor. damn. okay get some alcohol. luckily the camp next to us had some. wipe the rotor. bottles. food. now go pee. dammit. i have bibs on. how annoying. finally got going. i missed the run (damn) and headed on my way. i don't know how much later i was to the start, 10 minutes maybe? i dunno. i didn't really care. i was just here to enjoy the trails.
first section. wild. super fast down hill with big ass rocks. sweet. i had no idea what to expect, it was awesome. i came up on that first big rock with the drop and was sort of psyched out. i wussed out. did the next one and continued on my way.
the singletrack was awesome. i'm still stoked thinking about riding there. i get excited thinking about all those fast sections of picking your way through. i had a blast. yes it's brutal, but oh so fun.
on my first lap i was going pretty good until right before the second climb... for whatever reason i got sloppy. i got really hot really fast and just felt off. my heartrate was off the charts. wtf. i had to slow down (stop) and hang out for a minute before i got hurt. i think i was overheated and a bit hungry. i cooled down on the side of the trail with a couple other guys and chatted. i didn't realize at that time that i was at the top of the climb! if i had known that i wouldn't have hung out as long. not that it mattered. anyway, got moving again and felt a lot better.
made it back to camp where jeremey was hanging out with chris' wife kim. i sat down for a bit to have some fig newtons and some water. i hung out chatting, i don't know how long. i was ready to go back out but thought john was due in and decided to wait... it was taking a lot longer than i expected so i ended up just going out.
i felt way better this lap. rode the climbs (well okay not that second one where it gets crazy) and nailed the singletrack. there were more than a few things out there i couldn't ride... this trip anyway. i'd love to go back there sometime knowing the trails a bit more and find the lines on a couple of the rocks.
as i was finishing my second lap i saw brent's ass. he was hunched over his bike (flat fixing). i ended up rolling around to his tent. we chatted for a few and decided to ride a 3rd lap together. i was a little intimidated. i know i'm slow and i don't know if he thought i was fast or what. it ended up being a great fun lap. the singletrack was even more fun knowing someone was there pushing you a bit. we were chatting... blah blah blah. riding with people is so much fun. i started to get real tired towards the end and ended up walking the gravel climb home. but i was done. if i ever do a race like that again i'll be sure to eat more. i only had a few fig newtons and 2 clif bloks. two bottles of electrolyte drink and 4 bottles of water. some of which was drank by my neck and back.
surprisingly i never went down. i had more than a few pedal strikes and a lot of dabs. my carbon crank is worked from pedal strikes. looks like the dog was gnawing on it. interesting that on my 3rd lap i never struck a pedal. it's amazing how you adapt to things. on my first lap talking to some chick i hit my pedal so hard it through me sideways!
i can't tell you how much fun i had riding there. i love that shit. maneuvering your way through the rocks, roots, etc. finding the lines. do i go around the rock or over? i love to have to think about it. i love getting tossed around a bit. i love getting it next time. taking the wrong line or getting pinballed and having to get yourself out of something by hopping a rock or tossing the bike over something.
i only wish gaining fitness was that much fun. had i had more fitness a 4th lap could've happened.
i finished 2nd place for the 6 hour solo and john finished 3rd. awesome for his first time at a race like this. congrats to chris for his 4th place finish and aaron for hanging in there after 3, or was it 4, mechanicals.
my back is a little sore this morning still and my legs a bit tired heading up the stairs. but other than that i feel great. i'd like to do a road ride later. i don't see myself offroad today.
thanks to the goat for helping out, kim as well- she's got the pit thing down. she has things ready before you even know you need it. i learned one thing, i can't race non-stop for 6 hours knowing there are people to chat with just hanging out!
i'm waiting for other people to post pics so i can steal them.

junk

tuesday night got home and dashed mad to my aunt's house. it was pretty disappointing. john decided not to go and everything just seemed rushed. the food was excellent though. wednesday was pretty uneventful. we wanted to do the metric century but we didn't have a sitter. we had planned a short mtb ride for later in the morning but rain dissed that plan. we spent the day hanging with the kids and doing misc things with the bikes. new wheels, tires, brakes, lowers... only a few "undone" things before we start thinking about what else can we do bikewise. there was a foster's marathon on all day, that was awesome. i love that show.
we hit the dirt around 6:30. my gram said she'd watch the kids for a bit. we rushed back to be sure we didn't miss the fireworks. oak forest has a pretty decent show. this year with zoe we couldn't get right on top of the action for fear of causing permanent deafness. so instead of riding bikes to the park, we rode bikes on the path to a clearing and had a perfect view. just us and the deer. i'm surprised more people don't hang out there for the fireworks!
now today i'm working from home with thoughts of doing anything but. i really need to get my work done for obvious reasons, but mainly so i don't feel guilty going into the weekend.
blue mounds will start on saturday for us. saturday will be a long enough day without them.

unmotivated

it's so hard to stay at work knowing the trails are minty. no ride tonight. responsibility called and said the fridge was empty. grocery shopping took the better part of my evening. i made up for it by stoking casey out with a ride to the park. zoe and i watched her become a monkey for about 45 minutes.
tuesday night is john's night to ride... 4th of july will be celebrated tomorrow evening at my aunt's. she lives a block away.
wednesday is up in the air... metric century, dirt ride, both?

long but short

SRAM cup was a blast. john and i were teamed up. we took 5th. SRAM cup is an annual event in the summer where SRAM employees, SRAM friends, significant others, kids, etc. have a relay race. one a and one b rider team up to do a super short mtb loop. 10 laps, each rider does 5. afterwards we head over to a SRAMmie's house for some pizza, pop, beer, snacks etc. good times.
saturday john rode with bos while i went out to breakfast with the kids and my mom. i'm still thinking about the strawberry waffle.
we couldn't really do anything with the graduation party time looming. john went back at the walt tension screw (yes it was still stuck). and i took care of the kids. the graduation party was okay. lots of people i didn't know, the appetizers sucked (i was starving) but the food was killer. sausage, chicken, pasta, jello molds, the list goes on. i ate way too much as usual. we ended up not staying for the cake which was a total bummer, but to make up for it i had my share of brownies. hit the sack early (thankfully).
zoe was up at the buttcrack of dawn. i brought her downstairs. i thought i dozed for a second but apparently it was longer. when i woke the family room looked to have been hit by a snowstorm- she found her formula stash in the diaper bag. which turned out to be a good thing as motivation was early to start cleaning. we finished straightening up and headed to dunkin donuts for some coffee and grub. home depot for some misc items and headed home.
it was a beautiful afternoon. i couldn't help but think about eau claire. but it wasn't in the cards. 7 hour drive and no sitter didn't bode well for us to make that trip.
by this time john finally got the tension screw out of the walt!














probably about 5 hours total. i was super stoked. i don't plan on using those things ever again.
we celebrated by washing bikes and playing in the yard. it was a great afternoon.





















my mom was mother of the day as she agreed to watch the kids while john and i played out at the mesa. john on his newly stemmed ardent and myself on the eriksen (i swapped out the devo for a deva- what a diff!!! i thought i needed to tweak the fit, with swapping the saddle, no tweaks). this would be my 3rd ride on this bike. the first time out was after the rain and i don't really feel like i was able to get a feel for it with the conditions. the 2nd ride with jeremey, jerry and dano i kind of consider the first test. i was a little timid on it. unsure of its handling. it was 26" wheels. i felt a little off. riding it sunday it felt like an extension of my body. it was wonderful. can't wait to get back out on it. the walt too... the poor road bike is still sitting in the basement unfinished. i also really need to tire up the industry nines. i know where my priorities are.
i was bummed out i wasn't at eau claire especially after race reports, photos and results are up. i love that course. congrats to jesse for taking the win again! awesome finishes for marko and ron as well. i think i would have done well. i hope anyway. next up is blue mounds. which bike?