Message Delivered

Found this on the velonews photo contest page. What a great shot.

Kenosh Crit seals dissappointing Superweek

Kenosha is always one of my favorite crits and this year i was hoping to do well. A goal I had for this years superweek was to show myself that i can be competitive at the Cat 3 level during superweek. After withdrawing from the Proving Grounds race with back spasms and then feeling good but wasting too much energy at Evanston I really wanted to shoot for a top 10 at Kenosha.

Seeing that I have been the only abd cat 3 at all of superweek i figured I would have to conserve as much energy thru out the race to put myslef in a good position for the final. The pace didn't seem near as high as evanston was and for the most part i did a pretty good job of not doing much. A few times i found myself at the front when i didn't want to and ended up pulling back a break or two but overall i was feeling pretty good.

The race had seemed pretty smooth with no mishaps. Turn 1 was nice and smooth since it had been repaired since last year. For the most part i was taking the inside of turn 1. Every time i would check the inside behind me to see if anybody was trying to bomb the corner and then go thru it.

What happened next is just my best recollection of it. Everything happened so fast that I don't exactly know but I was pretty sure i had the line into the inside of turn 1 when all of a sudden i got bumped and was going down. I never saw it coming. I don't remember crossing a wheel. Nothing. All i know is i was going down. I remember being down on the pavement and judging by the marks on my back and having my head bounce off the pavement a few times i got hit by a rider or 2.

After the the storm was over i was actually surprised it wasn't worse. I guess i expected to really get plowed into while down on the pavement but that didn't seem to happen. I picked myself and my bike up and moved over to the side of the road. Looking down at my leg i had road rash all over and also on my elbow. I actually contemplated trying to jump back in until someone handed my the rear strap of my helmet. That is when i became aware of the sensation on the back of my head.

I made my way over to the first aid station. The good news was that i was able to move everything and knew nothing was torn, separated, or broken. On the way to the station i was asked if i was ok and i said i thought so but thought i had a cut on the back of my head. That was followed by a "duuuude!" comment so i figured it was a doosey.

The tally was 2 staples in the back of my head, road rash on my right leg, thigh, and elbow. I'll spare you pictures.

All in all i came out very fortunate. Not so lucky was Ed Amstutz of team xxx. It was pretty obvious that he broke his collar bone. I have not heard officially what his injuries were but it didn't seem good. It's really unfortunate since he was 2nd overall for superweek.

I don't want to be bitter about this but from talking to people who saw this go down it seems i was more or less just taken out with the person causing the accident talking smack about it later. All i can say is that your actions took out a very good rider in Ed. All for 1 lame position in a turn in the middle of the field. Stupid.

I've never claimed to be the worlds best bike handler but I don't think i did anything wrong. If it's shown to me that i did then fine but i really don't think that is the case. Still i feel really bad that someone like Ed sustained an injury like he did.

Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Grand Prix of Cycling

First off, kudos to everyone involved in putting on this race. I knew that the location of downtown Evanston would be fun but the organizers did a great job of running this race. There were tons of people and the atmosphere was great. This will definitely be on my calandar in the coming years.

Well after barely being able to get around on Thursday the back started to relax on friday and saturday. Sunday morning i woke up with some stiffness but mowing the lawn seemed to help loosen it up so i made the decision to race. We packed the van and loaded up the kids and grandparents and made our way to evanston.

They had us all park in a parking garage which was kind of fun but weird. There was plenty of room so you could take up a couple of spaces. One for your car and one for your bike. I ran down and registered and then went back to the van to change and warm up. The weird part was because you were in a parking garage you didn't see too many other cyclist except those right around you.

After warming up my back felt really good. There was no tightness or pain so i was really encouraged. I put on my jersey and went to grab my cycling gloves and then realized i had 2 left hand gloves and no right so i went sans gloves. I then made my way to the start finish which meant i got to do something that i always wanted to do as a kid but would get in trouble for. Ride the bike in a parking garage.

The evanston course is a .9 mile loop with 6 turns. After the start it features 4 quick turns in succession and in talking with some friends before the race it seemed a great course for a breakaway to stick. The thought being you get a great jump before the first turn and just hammer thru the rest of the turns and you are out of sight. Watching the 40+ race before ours it seemed true since a break of 6 or 7 riders stayed off the front and won.

Our race was 45 laps or 40 miles. Our plan was to try to put something together with somewhere in the low 30's to go. The only problem was that the speed of the field was too fast. From the start there was breakaway attempt after attempt but nothing stuck. Even when the big teams in the race were well represented in the break the pace of the field never dropped too much.

For most of the race i tried to stay in the front half of the field and was pretty successful. Probably about half way thru i started feeling my back. It was getting tired. With maybe 12 laps to go i found myself on the front when a move went. I went with it but again it didn't stick. Now it seem pretty clear that it was going to be a field sprint. I remember working my way back towards the front with about 6 to go but then i slipped back and after that i couldn't move up more than a couple of spots. My back was hurting more and more and when that happens you loose a lot of your power when you have to accelerate out of the corners.

So it was i found myself towards the back of the field on the last lap. Coming out of the last turn I tried to sprint and gained a few spots by the finish line. Considering my day on wed. i'm happy with how the race went. I'm taking today off the bike to nurse the back a little and then will try to resume training this week for friday's race in Kenosha.

When it was over we had covered 40 miles in just 1 hour and 27 minutes. That's an average speed of 27mph. I think that is the fasted crit i've raced so far.

Here are a couple of vids from our race.

See you next time.

07.18.07 - Proving Grounds Cat 3

The above video is one I shot of the final sprint of my race. Long story short is back on tuesday morning i woke up with a little twinge in my back. Wednesday morning it was almost gone but as it got closer to race time it started getting tighter and tighter. The race started with me hoping that riding would loosen the back up. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. I survived 3 laps of six, but on the fourth lap i couldn't stand up anymore on the climbs. I had no way to get any power onto the pedals. By the time i came around to the start finish area i barely could get up the hill so I dropped out 2/3 of the way thru. This was pretty disappointing since i was really planning on doing well for this race. Now i'm just hoping that the drugs do their job and my back is good enough for sundays crit in evanston.

Ready for Proving Grounds

Well my first targeted race is just a couple days away. We now get to see where i'm really at with my fitness.

A couple of weeks ago my family went camping up by the Proving Grounds course and I got out and rode a couple of laps. I brought my camera and ended up taking 94 pictures. You can see them here if you'd like.

Busted

There's a section of road along the Fox River, apporiately called River Rd., where i've wondered if i could actually get somebody busted for speeding. The speed limit used to be 25 and then 35 but this year they've made the whole stretch of road 25mph. Depending on the wind, you can get up to 25 without a whole lot of effort. Now if I'm riding at 25-30 mph if someone is going to pass me they can easily get up to 40mph which means if the timing is right a member of algonquin's finest is going to pull them over.

Last thursday my friend Tim and I were riding down River Rd. We weren't hammering really hard or anything but we were going at a pretty good pace when a mini van passed us. We thought nothing of it until around the corner coming the other way was the aformentioned Algonquin's finest. He abrubtly slowed down and proceeded to make a uturn right in the middle of this 2 lane rd. In the process we had to come to a complete stop since he was blocking the whole rd.

After we passed the pulled over minivan i turned to tim and said, "I think we had something to do with that." I'm not gloating or anything but it was just a little bit funny.

FRG 06.24.07

The course for the Fox River Grove Cycling Classic is a great course...that is for the 14 other skinny riders in the cat 3 race who had a good 20 lbs on me. I realisticly have no chance in this race but after doing it this year i can't wait till next.

There is not more than 200m of straight road at any point during the 1.13 mile loop which makes this race very fun and interesting. The pain starts immediately. Just 100m from the start/finish line you enter turn 1 and beging the climb up Violet Ave. The first 200m of the 300m climb is a twisting banked road that must have an average grade of 15-17%. You don't even think of sitting down during this part. The remaining 100m or so is more or less a stairstep with a false flat leading into a 12%? climb the rest of the way.

At the top you enter turn 2 and begin the free fall back down a twisting, wide, newer residential street with a left turn at the bottom. While very fast this turn is really smooth and leads you onto another winding street into turn 3. More winding road with a little bit of an uphill into turn 4 which leads you back down to the start finish area.

Seeing that this course is only 6 miles from my house i've trained on this course several times. My goal was to try and ride the climb as smart as i could and stay in the main group as long as possible. I knew once things really got going i wouldn't be able to match the skinny climbers in the bunch so i tried to conserve whenever possible.

Laps 1 and 2 were just fine. I put myself as up front as much as i could at the bottom of the climb and rode my own pace up the first half of the climb. If a gap occured i was able to bridge it back on the not so steep, top part of the climb.

On lap 3 near disaster struck. I got stuck on the inside of turn 1 and as we headed up the climb i got bumped off the road onto the shoulder which consisted of 2 1/2" rocks. I had to stop and almost get off the bike. Then I had to remount and restart on the steepest part of the climb. By this time everybody was well up the road. I was pretty mad cause I did not want to get dropped like this. Fortunately I was able to not lose too much time and found my way back into the main group at the bottome of the descent.

Get a Grip(GAG), a team from chicago, had 5 or 6 riders in the field so on the second lap they sent a rider off the front. I think 1 other rider went with him and then the field settled down with the rest of the GAG riders controlling the field. I was totally fine with this cause that meant the pace would slow down.

This went on for several laps. Each time up the climb the gap i lost became a little bit longer and the longer it would take me to catch back on during the flat section. I knew the end was near.

About half way thru the race people finally got tired of just racing for 2nd place and the attacks came. This is where i got off the bus and said goodbye to the main field. A rider attacked on the climb and by the time i got to the top the field was gone. Now i was just riding by myself.

I contemplated dropping out but soon talked myself out of that. I thought, "how often do i get to fly down a descent with a good turn at the bottom. If nothing else just practice your descending skills."

After a couple laps on my own i started to see 1 rider and then a second rider up ahead. Each time up the climb I was gaining ground on them. Eventually I caught both and there was a group of 3 of us fighting it out for what would be 10th place.

Every time up the hill I would drop one rider and then the other but not enough that they couldn't get back on during the descent. So finally on the last lap I attacked the 2 and almost immedaiately heard one declare he was done. That left 2 of us.

I got a decent gap over the remaining rider but it wasn't enough to stay away. Between turns 3 & 4 he caught me and after leading him thru turn 4 he sprinted around me for 10th place, leaving me 11th.

All in all i had a lot of fun. It was one of the hardest races i've done but i really enjoyed it. Catching the 2 riders and making a little mini race out of it helped me along. I never thought I would be the one attacking on a climb like that even if it was for 10th place.

Can't wait till next year.

Fox River Grove Cycling Challenge

For anybody interested here's the details for the race on sunday.

I will be racing the Cat 3 race at 2pm.

Here's a map.









There is parking just south of the course at the the jewel or dominicks, i can't remember exactly what store but they run a shuttle bus from the parking lot to the course.

Also if you would like some more info click the link to the left under upcoming races. At the bottom of that page is some printed directions on how to get there.

Would love to see you there.

Ron

Rant

In the tradition of Dave Zabriski's peloton interviews I will begin the post with one. While this isn't word for word this is the best as i remember it.

Rider 1: Who's the damn moron who keeps leading the field into traffic!
Rider 2: That would be me.
Rider 1: You can't lead a group of 60 riders into traffic!
Rider 2: Hmphh...It's only 40.

What led to this nice little interview was possible the dumbest group ride i have ever been a part of. For nearly 3 years now i have taken part in a ride, named after a local community college, that occurs on a saturday morning in the northwest suburbs of a big midwestern city that is located on a big lake.

Since last year i have been commenting on how this ride is getting choppier and choppier as it grows. Now before i rant i will make the disclaimer that at times i have done stupid stuff too but this was nuts. Let me give you some examples.

Incident 1: Just before a busy intersection is a right turn followed by a short downhill into the intersection. The road we cross is a busy road and most of the time we have to stop. While most of us are slowing down one joker decides to prove his agility and sprint to the intersection. In the process he nearly hits a pothole and almost takes a rider out trying to avoid the hole. My response: "Can we stop racing for stop signs?&#!"

Incident 2: The next major road crossing people at the front of the field start crossing the road with an oncoming truck coming from the left. We had to yell stop to some riders who were just assuming that beacuse the first rider went, the other 50+ riders could cross too. Finally cars from both directions stopped so we all could cross safely.

Incident 3: Just before the next major road crossing (notice a pattern here) we have a sprint to the stop ahead sign. That was all fine and fairly clean but then we have to turn onto a busy street with no shoulder for 500m to get to the next road. It is a blind corner to the left because of trees. So the first rider to arrive(rider 2 in interview above) just turns onto the road without stopping. I'm maybe 15 feet behind him. He doesn't say anything, doesn't call out car left so I'm assuming (my mistake) that nothing is coming from the left. When i reach the intersection there is a pickup truck pulling a trailer coming down the hill. Immediately i yell truck left! Now i'm getting pissed. "Rider 2" put a whole bunch of people in danger.

(Insert rider inteview above at this point)

Incident 4: Same rider from incident 1 while going up a hill almost takes a teammate out. This is when i notice the guy is listening to his ipod!

So in 1 hour there were 4 incidents where people could have gotten seriously hurt all because of stupidity.

I usually peel off from the ride after the hills and that's what i did this morning. I haven't heard yet but i'm waiting to hear of a crash or two.

I don't know what needs to be done but i'm getting tired of it. I'm honestly am really starting to see why so many people drive by and yell at cyclist to get off the road. When we ride like this it does no good.

And for the love of God, DON'T BRING YOUR IPOD TO A GROUP RIDE!!!!!!!!!!!

So instead of being able to write a nice post about how great it was to see a friend recovering from an injury at the ride, how i enjoyed the sprint, or how i felt good on the hills, i'm writing about this crap.

I think i'm done but i'm still steaming.

Hoping next week is better...

First Ride of Freedom

To continue with blogging about things that happend a week ago, last monday my middle son, Nathan, rode his bike for the first time without training wheels. It was an awesome experience. For whatever reason i don't remember too much about Ryon's first time mostly because he did it on his own. Ryon did it during the winter and rode down the cleared sidewalk and used the snow banks to crash into.

Nathan kept putting off his first attempt. I think it was all in his head. It's weird cause he's the risk taker, the climber, the crazy one. But for some reason he was pretty apprehensive about the bike thing.

We did a few tries in the morning that involved me getting him on the bike and running behind him with my hand under the saddle keeping him upright. It was clear he truly didn't understand the physics of it. He would lean way to one side and stop pedaling. After a few tries we decided to take a break. I could tell he was starting to get it though.

Later in the afternoon we went out to try again. This time on the second try I let go and he was on his own. About 7 or 8 more runs insued. The joy on his face was incredible. It was amazing. It reminded me how much fun riding a bike is and what freedom it brings. Nathan has now caught the feeling of Delirium.

One of the best moments is when half way down the hill he would ask me to let go and i would say that I let go way at the top and he would just giggle with delight.

What a day!

Winfield ABR 30+ Criterium Championship - 06.03.07

It was with threatening skys that this years Winfield Masters 30/40+ ABR National Criterium Championship got underway. It had been a day of isolated thunderstorms and although it looked like we might get dumped on we didn’t and we raced on dry roads.

I went into this race feeling good about my form and wanting to see if I would have the problems keeping the wheel in front of me like I did at monsters. My guess is that I wouldn’t seeing that this is not a completely flat crit like monsters and I wasn’t coming off on of the longest training weeks I had ever done like I was at Monsters.

Tactically I didn’t want to miss the big break like I did last year. The pack more or less split last year and if it happened again I wanted to be ready for it. So the plan was to just take it easy, ride smart, and try to be ready when it happened.

That’s basically how it happened except for the fact that I chickened out.

Lately I’ve been reading the blog reports of Mark Swartzendruber. He likes to rag on Team Mack and their race tactics. I find it funny since I’m not on mack but after reading his description about the 40+ race at Monsters you will get a good idea of what it was like in this race.

Basically from the start there were attacks. One or 2 riders would go with HeadsMACK barking out a command to somebody to grab a wheel. This went on for the first few laps. At one point a pretty good sized group jumped so I jumped too but it was all brought back. The 2 riders broke free. One Mack and one Met Life. Something told me right away that I was watching the race leave us. You had a representative from the 2 largest teams in the race off the front and immediately our pace lowered. At the bottom of the hill I heard someone yell that the gap was 10 seconds. At the top of the hill it was 20 seconds. I knew this was the race, I wanted to join them…but I was too chicken.

It was earlier in the race than I wanted to make a move and the move was smaller then I wanted to be a part of. I decided to stay put and watch the break ride away from us hoping that at some point a group of riders would want to chase this thing down but it soon became evident that we were all just riding for 3rd place overall.

Now the thing about this race is that there are actually 2 fields racing together and there are 2 championship jerseys at stake. One for the 30+ and one for the 40+. What I didn’t realize is that both riders in the breakaway were 40+. If I could have joined them* and stayed with them I would have won the 30+ race even if I had finish 3rd.

I spent the rest of the race trying to stay in the front half of the filed and saving myself for the sprint. There was one point where it looked like a few of us had a gap but that quickly ended as nobody, including me, wanted to do any real work. Once that failed I sat back and waited.

Things really start to heat up for the last couple of laps. Guys start really fighting for position and you really have to work hard to maintain your position. This is where I really have a lot to learn. I have to form to be there at the end but I lose a bunch of places in the last couple turns before the final sprint. To me this is the greatest difference between racing cat ¾ and Masters racing.

Long story short, I had a good sprint but I was already back 20 places or more out of the last turn so I made up a few. I was hoping I made top 20 but wasn’t sure. Then I heard the pa announce state that 5 of the top 6 were 40+. Since the podium was 5 deep that made me stick around for a while. I ended up finishing 16th overall but was in 6th place for the 30+ field. Last year I was 11th so I was very happy. I missed the podium by one place. Next year this race is mine!!

Thanks for reading.

*This is assuming i could have broken free from the field, bridged up the the 2, and then stayed with them for the remainder of the race. It's nice to think that's possible but not sure what reality is yet.

Movie time

My ride home last night was unusual for a couple of reasons. I left work and headed over to barrington to hook up with a ride there. Because of the weather, very windy and looking like the skys were going to open up any second, only a couple of people showed up. They decided to go catch the northbranch ride which means going the opposite direction that i want to go to go home. I went with them for a while but eventually turned around when we hadn't met the northbranch guys yet.

The first weird thing was while on cuba road, i heard what basically sounded like a dog being mauled to death. It was pretty nasty. I couldn't see anything because they were on the other side of a fence but I definately heard the rustling and the yelps coming from the dog.

The second, more interesting thing was on Spring Creek road in barrington hills. As i came up to meadow hill road there was a police officer holding up traffic. Once i passed him and crested the hill there, it looked like a huge party was happening at this newly built house. The first thing that clued me to what was going on was i saw that there was distro feeder cables laying by the road and a huge production truck. The driveway had a sign on it that said "The Return." After crossing Braeburn rd i had to zig zag between 2 huge lifts with lights on them. In the field on the right there were a bunch of production trucks and about 100 cars parked there.

Once home i looked up "The Return" and found that it is a Tim Robbins movie about 3 iraq veterans returning home. Due out in 08. Should be interesting.

Monsters of the Midway 30+

Yesterday was the Monsters of the Midway Criterium held on the campus of The University of Chicago. It's actually on the Midway Plaisance a few blocks west of the Museum of Science & Industry. It's a flat 1.1 mile, long rectangle loop. For the most part nice smooth pavement and wide turns.

I entered the Masters 30+ race since it was early and I could get back home and still have some sort of mothers day celebration at home. After having 80 degree days this week yesterday at race time the temps seemed to still be in the 50's and overcast.

The race itself was good. Lot's of attacks which kept it interesting. It was also very smooth like a 30+ should be. Nobody paniking, just good clean racing. I went in with the goal of riding smart, staying in the field and waiting for a move at the end or the final sprint. For the most part I accomplised all these goals. As much as I could I stayed nicely tucked in the field and tried not to jump on attacks like i tend to do.

About 3/4 of the way thru the race there was an attack that drew at least 8 or 9 guys out. Since I was towards the front and saw everybody jumping I went as well. I made the group and we had a little gap but it died out and we were all back together. Now I was just sitting in for the sprint.

3 riders got away with 2 or 3 laps to go and it looked like they might hold us off but they were caught on the last half of the last lap. I tried to get into good position for the sprint but ended up back further than I wanted to. I ended up finishing 25th.

The one thing that i noticed thruout the whole race is i don't have the initial power burst yet. After every turn when you're toward the back of the field you have to jump to get back on. Almost every time I would lose the wheel infront of me and have to work to get it back. I can't say that i'm not that surprised by this because I haven't done any work on that yet with my training. The good thing about the race was fitness wise i felt really good. I had no problems finishing the race and felt pretty good afterwards.

Bottom line I'm really happy with how it went. I feel like my form is right on track for where I am in my training this year. Hopefully I can get some of that kick back in the next couple of weeks for Winfield.

Fun Harper Ride/Another trail reason

Saturday i had what was for me one of the more fun harper rides that i've had in a long time. My buddy Tim Henry from Project 5 and I left my house at 6am to ride out to harper. Once we joined the harper ride we eventually ended up in a break together with Robert Krone of Team Mack. The three of us worked together pretty well and by the time we got to River Rd in algonquin, we had a lead of 2:15. Tim and i peeled off at that point to go home and left Robert to battle on his own. Now i read that at the end of the ride there was a crash that took out a couple of guys. The harper ride has seemed to be getting a little chippier since it has started to get so big. Maybe more on that later. In any case the ride has me feeling pretty good about racing next week.

Last week i had another reminder why I don't like riding on bike paths. Near the end of a ride I was on the trail and coming up on a section that has an s curve in it. As I approched the curve I could see thru the trees that someone was coming from the other direction. I slowed down to make sure i could negotiate the turn while staying on my side of the trail. Once thru the turn my worst fears were confirmed. About 30 feet in front of me was a guy on a department store mountain bike, wearing 80's era walkman headphones and thick glasses, staring up and to his left at the tress, and IN MY LANE! I yelled a warning to him which scared him so much I don't know how he kept his bike up. Insane.

I go to sleep now.

Reason #3 not to use the bike path

I ride bike paths as little as possible. Usually only to get me somewhere fast or if there isn't a safe road to get me where I want to go.

Every day that I ride from home there is a hill that I have to climb up to the subdivision where I live. I would say that 2 or 3 times a year somebody passes me that just can't fathom why I would be on the road with there is a nice, wide, paved path right next to the road. The usually yell some form of expletive out the window surrounded by the words, "get on the" and "bike path."

I have several reasons for not being on the bike path but last week I got a new one. Mudslides.

It seems that all the rain, coupled with the 6 inches of snow we had last week was too much for the retaining wall on Huntington. Bricks and mud were all over the the bike path. It's been almost a week since it happened and crews came out to clean it up but no repairs have been made yet. I'm curious how long that will take.

Mudslides aside, there are two other, more often occurring, reasons for not using the bike path.

1) Debris: This for me is the main reason. There is always tons of junk all over the path. From glass, to sticks, to gravel, to garbage. All the stuff that was on the road gets blown on to the bike path.

2) Kids use the path: There have been multiple times that i have actually used the path and while I'm going up the hill some kids come flying down on their bikes or skateboards and almost hit me. Bottom line it's too dangerous to use the path.

An issue related to this is the use of bike lanes. Algonquin has been cool enough to build some of the streets wide enough to include either painted bike lanes or non painted lanes. The problem with this is the same as reason 1 above. There is always crap in these lanes. What's worse is when the village comes around to clean the streets, they lanes are worse off then before they cleaned them.

The other week I finally saw it with my own eyes. The street cleaner goes by and it's tank is full so out of the top, pouring down the side of the vehicle is the overflow of the tank, depositing all the crap that it cleaned off the road right onto the bike lane.

Anyway I think I'm done typing now. This is the long way to say that hey, we had a mudslide by my house last week.

That's all for now. Maybe someday I'll actually have a race report.

Snow?#%*@&!?????

For the second week in a row a great week of training has been interrupted by bad weather. This time it's actually snow. Freak!

That's all

Wisconsin ride and First fitness test of the year

I was up in Eau Claire this weekend and I finally got a ride in on saturday morning during just about the only two hours that it didn't rain the whole time we were up there. I found a route on routeslip that was near our hotel. I detoured off the route to go up to Elk Mound. I almost didn't make it up to the top with my 21 cog cassette on. It was really tough.

After Elk Mound i returned to the route and all was fine until the road that was supposed to be the turnaround point was not just gravel but mud. I had to back track and find another way home. I made it back with about a half hour to spare before the downpour started again.

Back home today i did my first fitness test of the year. After warming up you do 5 miles on the trainer at what is for me 168-170 bpm. I did part of my warmup riding around the block with the kids, put the bike on the trainer in the garage and did the test while the kids washed their bikes. I have yet to compare the results but i'm interested to see where i'm at compared to this point in my training calander last year.

Best Recovery Ride Ever!

This week is supposed to be a rest and recovery week for me so I decided to do a nice easy ride on monday with my 7 year old son, Ryon. We did over 5 miles. We've set a goal this year of doing 10 miles. I'm thinking he'll have that done in no time.

The fun thing about the ride is coming back home we have a pretty good hill to climb. About a 1/4 of the way up we had to start walking. While walking up the hill some jr. high kids passed us on their bikes. Once over the hill we started riding again. After a couple of block we saw one of the kids up ahead and I said, "Ryon, I think we can catch him." Sure enough we caught and passed the kid. Ryon's first counter attack.

Anyway we had a total ball and the weather was awesome. Here are some pics.

My name on Velonews.com

So I actually got my name posted on the Velonews.com website.

They've been running these website of the day features and were asking for suggestions. I sent them an email suggesting they feature World Bicycle Relief. Well they actually did it. Very cool.

So you can see the feature at here to fullfill my vain desires to see my name printed on a big website and then more importantly click on over to World Bicycle Relief to check them out.

The day after

I woke up this morning pretty sore so I decided not to ride in to work this morning which meant no riding at all today. I guess that in the end is a good thing but I was really wishing i could ride home since it reached the 60's today and was very sunny.

The aching body parts are as follows:

The muscles on the left side of my neck are pretty sore. It must be some form of whiplash cause I didn't hit anything there.

Half way between my shoulder and my elbow i feel like somebody punched me.

My wrist is still sore but already seems to be feeling better.

I have a nice little contusion on my right thigh. It's more a bruise than anything else.

I have a very small nick on my right shin. Didn't even notice it until i was getting dressed this morning.

That's about it.

I actually rode around the block a few times with my son tonight and everything felt pretty good. The wrist is the source of the most pain. I will definately have to baby it on the bike for a couple of days.

I'll be riding tomorrow. Too bad it's only going to be 42 degrees.