Charity Bike Ride to Benefit Wayside Waifs Pet Shelter

Just got a flier in the mail from Heather @ The Wheel Cyclery (a team sponsor). They are hosting a charity ride to raise money for a local no kill animal shelter, Wayside Waifs. The ride is on March 20 and there is a 15 and a 30 mile route, I will probably either try to ride from home or start a little ways away and get some extra miles but I plan on attending. Wayside Waifs is where we picked up Jack, they were very helpful when we found out that he had distemper and the advice, IVs and special care items that they gave us free of charge were just as big of a factor in Jack's survival as Jenn's dedication in caring for him. So if you got the time, come out and support the shelter, all you have to do is bring an item to donate. More info here.

yeehaw cowgirl

RC got me a Cowtown (his cycling team) outfit. So we suited up today in our matching outfits! and went biking on the paved trails at Smithville Lake. RC also put skinny wheels on my bike - I felt like I was flying today. We rode 2 hrs and ~30 miles - my longest ride ever!!!!!!! I felt great. RC has made a big return to cycling this week, after taking 2 months off he biked several times this week. So I'm patting us both on the back:)

Along the way we had the usual assortment of birds: chickadees, cardinals, indigo buntings, dickcissels, field sparrows, summer tanagers, brown thrashers, eastern kingbirds, meadowlarks, blackbirds and grackles...

Weekend in Review

It seems like the seasons are struggling against each other, last week we had below zero temps only to have 70+ degrees on Fri and Sat. I can remember riding at Smithville trails Wednesday after the sun went down and having to stop early because the 20 degree temp was just too cold for my dress. Then on my day off from riding Friday, we had the 100+ year record tying 70 degree day, winter just wouldn't give in totally and hit us with some 30+ mph winds just to remind us that it ain't over yet. I got up early on Sat and rode 4.5 hours with Dan and the Wheel Cyclery guys, got in about 80 miles, mixed group so the pace varied a bit, in the end it was a nice ride and I was pleasantly tired for the remainder of the day. Jenn and I went for lunch at McCormick and Schmicks, I had the blackened Mako shark, it is just unbelievable if you haven't had it. We enjoyed the sun on the plaza as we sipped a few beers and wine on the deck and we watched all the people stroll by on the Plaza. Sunday morning I awoke early and realized that it was in 20s again, too cold for an early morning ride so I started doing chores, I finally decided to go on an easy recon ride, my name for a ride where I just set off and go exploring. I ended up taking it really easy, exploring some new roads, finding some nice WT shantys and even a new town, Glendale. After the ride, Jenn made her great homemade pizza for lunch and I headed to meet my friend Jason for some skeet shooting. All and all a nice relaxing weekend, lots of rest and ready for the week ahead, looking forward to next weekend!

bikes and birds

We experienced a 3 day warm-up - FINALLY! It was 65 Thurs and up to 70 degrees Fri and Sat. I met RC out at the trails Thurs to ride with him - but I forgot that the last time I had biked he had put on my reg. pedals to do some birding by biking and hadn't changed me back to my clipless pedals - uhoh. So he continued on and I went home. But RC got my bike spruced up that night and I went out to Stocksdale Park Fri. It was deliciously warm, but also woefully windy. It took me 40-45 mins to do a full lap and another main loop only lap - usually I can do 3 laps in 45-50 mins. The wind was a real drag - literally. The were a few slick spots along the way which weighed me down. I barely made it back across the grassy field biking straight into a 30+ mph headwind. Fun but exhausting.

Yesterday RC went on a 4 hr bike ride so I went over to Martha Lafite Thompson Sanctuary. It was not very windy but there was a lack of activity. I got also the commonest of the common despite walking all the trails. Still a beautiful day to be out hiking!

Nice Winter training Weekend

This weekend it was an unseasonably warm 60 degree day on Saturday. I set out to meet up with a group at the usual Northland Tuesday route. I left from my house about 1 hour early to make the 18 mile trek to the ride start, I intended of making it a 3 hour 55 mile road ride. Off the bat the 18 very hilly miles were straight into a super strong headwind and I got smoked prior to the start after barely making it on time, most were late and then the group threw a wrench into my plans and we did the route backwards which meant that I was in store for about 75 miles instead. A good group showed up, the Wheel Cyclery boys, Team Chamois Butt'r and a few Cowtowners. The group had some different levels of fitness so it started out and remained fairly calm for this group for most of the ride until we hit a monster hill, I purposely lagged back (not that I could've hung with the 5 that broke away) because I knew I had at least 25 miles left. I ended up about 15 seconds behind the main group at the top of the hill with nobody behind me for some distance, I tried to bridge up for about 6 miles but the neverending stiff headwind meant that since I was stuck in no mans land by myself I wouldn't catch the group (Ryan Halloran, Curt Shelman, Dan Jordan, Fred Herron and some guy I don't know) until they stopped for a minute to let me back on. I ended up riding back to Liberty the shorter way with the Wheel guys so I ended up with 72 miles in about 4 hours. Not bad workout for early season. Sunday I got up and tried to drag Jenn to the Smithville trails, she declined and decided to just go birding instead. Chris called and gave me a heads up that only the west side was dry so I made up my own route riding the same trails about 5 times over. I was surprised but my legs felt good after the prior days ride. I ended up with about 1.5 hours. Jenn and I spent the remainder of the day at home with the new kitten, I bottled my new Boulevard Beer Clone and vegged out the rest of the day. BTW I think I finally got a BLVD Wheat recipe that tastes just like the real thing, I will post the results and recipe after I get a good taste. I'll stop rambling now, I told Jenn I would make a cat scratching post/perch so I better get back to work. Adios.

Getting Back Into the Groove

I am about finished with my first month of riding after taking around 8 months off completely. My legs are coming around slowly and I still need to shed about 10 lbs of flab off my body. Most group rides I have had a hard time keeping up the entire ride, most everyone is in pretty good shape after cross season and my top end just isn't there. I have decided on a few races this year and I think my focus will be on longer races. I am planning on doing the 6 hour solo at the Bonebender this will mainly be a training race for me, I plan on just surviving it at this point. My first real challenge will be at the Ouachita Challenge 60 mile race through the Arkansas Ozarks. I sumbitted my entry for the Leadville 100 I think I am crazy for entering this event but this will be a huge challenge that will pretty much cap off my season, my team mate Chris Locke signed up with me, hopefully (or maybe not!) we get drawn in. For the next month I hope to up the volume gradually and try to keep from back to back hard rides, which has been a challenge unless I ride by myself.

Last Ride of 2008

2008 was a bad year for me and bikes, I was in awesome shape early in the year but by mid-April I was off the bike for basically the remainder of '08, my old job @ GM, took up 10+ hours a day, I was very unhappy with my job and I couldn't get motivated to do much of anything. I am hoping next year will be alot better, I should be able to work less hours at my new job with ATK. I do have a plan to have more fun riding and not take it too seriously, I really enjoy riding when I don't have to worry about training. For now until spring I have basically committed to riding only 2 to 3 times a week and enjoying the scenery.

Today I went to Smithville lake to ride the paved trails on my cross bike, I wanted to get a ride in because I abuse my body most evenings on New Year's Eve and I don't feel like riding too much on Jan 1st. I ended up taking it easy and rode for about 1hr 45mins, I probably only covered about 30 miles. The temp was about 28 degrees when I started and was still under 30 when I stopped, it was cold but sunny and it is always nice to have the park basically to yourself. I wish I had some nice weather like Chris http://chrislocke.blogspot.com/2008/12/beaches-and-bikes.html, but I guess I have to take what I can get.

Happy New Year!!!

T-day

RC and I did an 1.5 hr bike ride at Smithville Lake to rev up our appetities for T-day dinner. The trails were pretty sloppy in some areas, but enough of it was good that we got in a good workout. However we were gone from ~9:15-12:00, leaving me little time to prepare 2 big sides! RC went to retrieve his deer stand at Cooley Lake CA. So I was left to fend for myself - homemade green-bean casserole and pecan-crust sweet potatoes - took 2 hr start to finish. We enjoyed dinner over at RC's family. Then we came home to watch UT-TAMU football - unfortunately we were brutally slayed - even McGee playing again didn't help. Better luck next year!

I'm Back!!!

To cycling that is...today I did a good two hour ride with a good group of guys from the wheel and Chamois Butter, I was afraid of getting dropped and the first 45 minutes I thought I was a goner but as time went by I realized that I wasn't the weakest one and the rides this time of the year, people tend to wait for those who get dropped. So I am back in business on the bike. I quite my job at GM and am working at Lake City Army Ammunition plant, so I hope to have more time through the year to train and get competitive again...... lets hope anyway.

update and research link

Randy and I have not been up to much lately. Randy got a new job and is in his 3rd week now. He also started spin class a couple weeks ago. We did some riding at the new trails near our house last week. We finished at dark (which is now pretty early!), which was pretty cool! I doubt there will be many more opportunities for me to ride this winter. I did some birding and hiking at Martha Lafite last weekend, looking to spruce up my winter bird list. I got after 1/2 the species I sought, so I have more work to do! Next I need to make it out to Smithville Lake to get some ducks and winter rarities (loons, grebes, gulls, etc.).

For those looking for a little light reading, my first manuscript from my thesis is now published, so to hoot my own hoot a little, I have added a link to my webpage at work (under Jenn's research). It includes links to my papers (which will be updated as the others get published!).

So long for now...

PS Snowball has been switching to his winter mode

ta da

finally I got RC back on the bike!

He has been on hiatus for about 3 months now!

However, this is only my 2nd ride in 2008!!!

We went to the 'new' trails near our house. They were built last winter, but this is the 1st time we've ridden them. RC (begrudgingly) admitted to having a good time.

Tennessee Weekend

This past weekend team mates Eric Tiffany, Tige Lamb, Chris Locke, Carolynn Locke & Christopher Locke traveled down to Ducktown TN for the Cohutta 100 mountain bike race. We were joined there by Chris' brother Joey and his friend Selby. The day we drove down the temp was in the 80s and sunny. We did a little pre-riding over the first 10 miles or so and found out what this race was going to be about, alot of climbing. The race starts at the Ocoee whitewater center, where the kayaking and canoeing events were held at the 1996 Olympics. The start of the race is at the bottom of the mountain and starts with a 3 mile climb up the mountain to the singletrack. We had an awesome cabin in the mountains that was fully furnished including a hot tub. The day before the race we finished pre-riding and picking up our packets and went back to the cabin to hang out and get our bikes and gear ready.

I had signed up for the 65 mile event while Tige, Chris & Eric were doing the 100. The night before the race a thunderstorm blew in and dumped a ton of rain, it also drove the temp into the 40s. We got up very early in the morning and headed to the start, it was still sprinkling off and on and pretty cold. The 100 started at 7am and my race at 7:15. I watched the start of the race which was neat because all the top endurance pros were there including Floyd Landis. For my race I decided my goals were top 50 (about 170-180 people in my race) and to finish before the top pros doing the 100, so I lined up about 1/3 of the way back planning to pace myself because there are some serious mountain climbs on the course. The race started off and we headed up the 3 mile 2000' climb, I felt good and moved up a bit but still throttled back not knowing what to expect. We hit the single track and I was in a group that stretched as far as I could see, we basically yo-yo'd in the group for about 15 miles of single track, I felt strong and wanted to move up but there was no way due to the traffic and we had started catching the back of the 100s pretty quick. We got off the muddy single track and hit the fire roads. This is where the climbing started and continued for about 4 hours, it was unbelieveable trying to ride on the deep gravel and mud up these climbs, they just kept going and going and the decents were super fast and sketchy so there was no real recovery. The single speed guys had to walk alot of the climbs and my high gear wasn't really moving me much fastser but I continued to put time on them. This course made the Oauchita Challenge course look like a cakewalk, the easiest sustained climb was at least as hard as Blow-Out moutain as far as grade and length. My legs felt super strong, I was fueling well and climbing awesome for me, I pushed the descents but took the turns a little cautious becasue if you went off the side, they probably wouldn't find you plus I had a hard time seeing because all of the mud being thrown in my eyes. I don't believe I was ever passed by anyone I didn't catch after we hit the 15 mile mark. I finally hit a point about mile 30 where I road alone for an hour or so with nobody in sight at all. I figured I was up near the front or I would be seeing more people. Ocassionally I would see a rider up front, grab another gear and catch them. Anyway I finally hit the single track with only one big climb to go and the course marshall told me I was in 17th place and a couple minutes later a local rider told me I had like 9 miles left, feeling great and surprised by my place I decided to let it rip and give everything I had. I passed several more riders and after a while figured out that the rider was wrong and I actually had more like 15 miles left. I finally headed down the final descent and passed one final rider, I was in no way going to let him catch me, so as I was pushing it, I came to the end of the trail and one last wet wooden bridge, I ended up losing it on the bridge and had the hardest wreck I have had in a long time. Along with the normal scratches I smacked my face hard on the rocks and busted my helmet up. I got up quickly but very dizzy and finshed the final mile strong. I finally finished in 5:57 and 23rd overall (the course marshall was wrong about my placing earlier but it gave me that extra push anyway). The results were just posted and it looks like I was 50 minutes off the winning time, I felt like I went too easy, if I had gotten into the single track ahead of the mid pack I could have finished top 15 or maybe better. My crashed left me pretty bruised and scratched but hopefully nothing worse, I have a rib on my LH side that hurts when I breath deeply, my guess is at worst that I cracked it mabye just a bad bruise but I was able to continue the rest of the weekends activities anyway.

The next day we all went down the Ocoee River to do some whitewater rafting, it was a blast but very cold, temps around 50, party cloudy and partly windy. My rib hurt quite a bit during this but it was worth it, we got some good pics that I will post later. After rafting we rode probably the best flowing single track I have ever seen, we raced a portion of this but it was muddy and I was in a pack so I didn't really get to enjoy it. We finally finished up and headed to dinner that night. We got up early the next day and headed home. I can't wait to hit the bed. This was a great weekend and a race, hopefully more trips like this are in my future.

Ouachita Challenge

This weekend Rich Anderson, Jeff Winkler, Brent (Ashley’s friend) and I headed down to Arkansas for the Ouachita Challenge 60 mi race. We left early Saturday morning planning on pre-riding the hardest part of the course, Blowout Mountain. The trip down was uneventful until about 60 miles from Hot Springs, BOOM!, there was a very loud bang from my truck and the transmission would not go into gear. I eventually got the truck to run in 3rd gear if I shifted the transmission manually. This event immediately put me in a sour mood and as we parked to pre-ride the muddy course I didn’t have the heart for the ride and broke off early for the truck. I ended up with a manually shifting truck for most of the rest of the trip.

We stayed in Hot Springs on Saturday night and had dinner with some friends from the area. That night in the hotel I could not sleep at all and I think I may have gotten 2 hours total but I don’t think there was ever more than 1 hour at a time, I also had not slept the day before for some reason so I was very tired on race morning.

Fast forward to the race…. Rich Anderson, Jeff Winkler, Brent and I lined up at 7:45 the day of the race for the riders meeting. As soon as we got up there a truck honked its horn and the whole group went off down the road. We made it maybe a mile or two until we all realized that we were in the start of the 80 mile guys. So after that warm-up we headed to the start of our race. The start went out pretty fast, there is around 10+ miles of pavement and gravel roads until we hit the single track. I stayed mid-pack trying to pace myself when I realized that a 50-100 yard gap had opened up between the top 35 riders and the rest. I worked my butt off to bridge up, Rich and Chris Locke seeing I was back drifted back to help bring me back up. The three of us then worked together on the road until the single track. When we hit the trails we were in a group of about 15-20 riders, I couldn’t believe it but immediately these guys started walking on the slightest uphill, rooty or rocky sections. Eventually Chris, Rich and I moved through the entire group and we began to set a pretty good tempo and started to shed riders. A couple of miles before Feed 1, Rich and I started pulling away from the rest, we eased up a few times to let Chris catch up thinking maybe we were pushing too hard. Rich and I both felt great. Then I realized that my rear was flat. I rode for about 10 minutes or so on the flat until feed 1. When I got to the feed station I pumped the tire up thinking that the Stans would seal up, WRONG. I then was working to bridge back up to Rich and Chris on a 5-6 mile asphalt section. I finally caught Chris but was having trouble keeping up, I then realized I was flat again. So I stopped and put tube #1 in. This took some time, I couldn’t get the damn Maxxis tire to go back on my new wheels and since I didn’t bring my CO2, I had to use my very small hand pump (I bought the smallest on I could find). After 10+ minutes I was back in business for a short while. By now I was probably 15 minutes off pace with my flat and long pit stop (they didn’t have a pump handy at feed 1 and had to find one). I hit the next single track and I was trying again to make up time when I pinch flatted my rear on the rocky stuff, there was tube #2 and another 10 minutes. Back in business again and very discouraged I pretty much just put in a good pace and started to enjoy the nice views. Just before Blow-Out mountain and after feed 3, there was a big creek crossing in the fire road. On the other side of the creek was a concrete shelf that I didn’t see and I jammed my rear wheel on this and there goes my next flat. This time I had no tube and just sat down at the beginning of Blow-out mountain, after 5+ minutes and asking 10 or so riders if they could spare a tube a guy finally gave me one. At this point I was ready just to ride back via the roads and quit, but I was so pissed off that I just took off up Blowout mountain like it was the only section of the race. I rode all rideable sections in my middle ring, I must have passed 40 riders on this hour long climb. I reached the top exhausted and flew down the backside into feed 4, I got word from our friends that Rich had left 31 minutes prior with Chris a couple back. I figured what the hell, one more climb and I was good because the last 8 miles were all roads. Remembering what Jeff Winkler told me “Think of the finish as 8 miles from the end of the race”, which was the top of the last big climb, I gave everything I had. I finally ended up on the roads completely wasted. I caught up to several riders and then finally ran into a Team Seagal rider that we raced against at Spoke Pony. We sat and BS’d for the last 6 miles and rode in together. In the meantime at least 5 riders past me, I figured I was so far back that these guys didn’t matter. My goals were top 50 and under six hours, I finished 51st and 5 hours 45 to 50 mins. If I would have pushed the fire roads I would have had top 50. In the end Jeff Winkler won the race in 4hrs 29 mins(some slight controversy, the solo leader took a wrong turn a few miles before the finish) , Rich was 31st I think and 3hrs25min. Chris was around 38th or so and 5 mins behind Rich, and finally me 20-25 mins behind Rich and Chris.

My new Anthem worked great, not one single problem outside the flats. I didn’t mention that the course was a mud pit so the bike was completely covered, the drive train sounded like crap the last 20 or so miles and I will have to replace my chain. Hopefully I can have a good strong ride without problems in two weeks at the Cohutta 100, 65 mile race.

Giant Anthem 0

I picked up my new mountain bike from The Wheel Cyclery yesterday after work. Heather spent some time with me setting the bike up for my weight and geometry. I left work early to pick the bike up and went straight to the Smithville Lake trails, I am racing the Ouachita Challenge 60 mile race this weekend and figured I better put it through the motions because the weather called for rain in KC the next few days and I might not get another chance to ride before my race. My first impressions were that the bike is fast, I never realized how much the shot suspension in my old bike was draining pedal power, when I turn the pedals around on the Anthem, I felt like almost all of the energy pushed the bike foward, especially in the climbs. My old GT would bob pretty bad as I pedaled, sapping up alot of energy. The first lap I had a hard time controlling the bike in the rocky sections, until I figured out the front Fork was locked out and the tires had 50+ psi in them from the shop. My usual hard training laps at Smithville are around the 56 minute mark, I rode my first lap in 53 mins and this is including an additional 1/2 mi of trail they just added. I was very surprised at my time, I didn't really feel like I was pushing that hard. I need to make a couple of changes tonight, the riser bars and the steep stem angle made me feel like I was sitting upright, my bars are actually higher than my seat, I am used to a much more aggressive position. The bike also didn't come with tubeless tires, go figure you buy a higher end bike with Crossmax SLs and you gotta immediately switch out the tires. The seat aslo beat my rear end to death, I will have to put my old seat on the new bike. I ended up riding just over 3 hours and by the end I had to pull off from Chris Locke and Dan Gierer due to my rear hurting, plus it was getting near 8PM and I was hungry. Anyone looking for a brand new Race Face Carbon riser bar or a new WTB saddle let me know.......

Spoke Pony Showdown

I finally got the first race of the season under my belt. Rich Anderson and I teamed up for the 6 hour duo in the Spoke Pony Showdown MTB race at Landahl Park in Blue Springs. We place well finishing 1st in our group. I had mixed feelings about my performance at the race. I went first at the start of the race, it starts with about 1/4mi run to the bikes to better spread out the field. I went hard from the run and the immediate 1st climb, about the longest climb you can do at Landahl. I was somewhere between 12-15th place going into the climb right on Doug Stone's wheel. I tripped up around one of the corners and had a slew of people pass me. By the time I hit the top of the climb my HR was maxxed out and I had to do a slight recovery through the 1/2 mile of double track. I ended up loosing contact with the top 15-20 guys in front of me and there was nobody behind me for some distance. I am by no means a great techincal rider but I have ridden these trails lots, so as the course got more techincal I caught up to a group of 5-10 guys in Rim Job and sat on their wheel for the rest of my 1st lap. I ended up with a respectable 46 min lap but I think I could have shaved a couple of minutes through the last half of the course if I hadn't been held up. Rich came out with a blistering 42 min lap on his first lap. My laps were 46min, 45 min, 48 min and 47 mins, good consistancy but I just needed to be about 2 mins faster per lap to be completely happy. What I found is that my anaerobic conditioning needs alot of work, I have just put in easy to moderate miles all year and haven't taken my HR up enough. At least now I know where to concentrate on, its a long season and this is only my 1st race. I also found out that my upper body, mainly my triceps are not in the off road shape they need to be in, my arms were fatiguing quickly and this cost me some time in the techincal sections, my palms also are very sore and starting to blister. The weather here has kept me off road and it just going to take some time. Shad Schreiner was absolutely flying and won the overall, one of my friends Doug Stone had a great race, finishing 3rd in the 3 hour 30-39 group.

Not Again!

Well this week sucked and was a repeat of 4 weeks ago. I ended up getting sick early in the week and just can't seem to shake whatever I have. I was supposed to work on Saturday but I stayed home and spent the entire day on the couch. Sunday was looking to be a repeat of Saturday but I forced myself to get out and do about 1.5 hours of easy spinning and then some chores around the house, I am not sure it was a good idea because now I have a terrible cough anyway I ended up missing another weekend of racing. This coming weekend is the Spoke Poney Showdown, Rich and I have teamed up for the 2 person duo. Hopefully I can shake this sh*t and get to feeling better.

Saturday = Sunday

This weekend again went by in a blurrrrr. Jenn left early Saturday morning to work in Austin for a few months on her beloved bird, the Golden Cheecked Warbler. I met teammates Chris Locke and Dan Gierer on Saturday and put in 4 hours of good tempo riding into a terrible 28+mph wind out of the SW, the ride ended up being a good ride for me, as I was able to get my heart rate up a little on a longer ride. After that ride I met my friend Jason for some target shooting, he concentrated on the skeet while I got a little practice on the pistols. I was right on with my Ruger Mark III 22/45 target pistol, easily popping cans at 25 to 35 yards 90% of the time. I also finally got to get out and shoot my new Glock 27,

the weapon operated flawlessly and I think it is going to make an excellent concealed carry firearm. My brother and I purchased matching, consecutive serial number Glocks for our carry weapons. Sunday was basically a re-run of Saturday. I got up early again and rode 40 or so miles with Doug Stone, Eric Hoebing, Ashley Blum and Ashley's friend Brent. The ride was basically easy going for the first half and a terrible SW wind ( 30+ avg) again

kept us working hard on the way back. After the ride I met my friends Wayne, Jason and Andy for

more target shooting. I worked on my target aquisition skills with the pistol and threw skeet for them. I really wish I had a competitive shooting club around me, I think I could really get into the sport.

To Race or not To Race

I had planned on racing last Sunday at the Froze Toes training race in Columbia, I missed it and I am pretty glad, I was able to get a good long ride in anyway. So this weekend I thought about the Spring Fling Crit race in Lawrence on Saturday and the Perry Lake Road Race on Sunday. After looking at the flyer for the Spring Fling Crit, I am not sure it is worth the entry fee and the 1.5hr drive to race for 7 miles. The weather will be nice so I could get a long ride in on Saturday and put some longer miles in my legs for the long mountain bike races I have planned. I have not been able to get the long base miles in yet. Then if I opt out of the spring fling crit and do the long road ride instead, I will probably be very tired during the race at Perry, where again I could skip and get another long ride in instead of racing for a short 20 miles. I am still a Cat 5 because I have always concentrated on the mountain bike, I need to get some road races in to Cat up but I am not sure it is worth it to skimp on my long rides..... decisions, decisons, decisions.....

Some Stuff

I have been following the Amgen Tour of California this week. I am a day behind since I am taping the show on Versus and watching it the next day. I was very happy to see that one of the American teams was able to capture the yellow jersey. Way to go Slipstream Chipotle! Tyler Farrar was able to get a 1 second lead due to the past 2 days sprint bonuses. My new teams to root for are Slipstream and Rock Racing, I got to root a little for High Road as well. I love the attitude the Rock Racing boys have (gotta love the Escalade support vehicles) and I think Slipstream has the potential to be the next great American cycling team. I just can't get hyped about Astana, sorry Levi, not such a fan this year, especially since they will not be appearing in Le Tour this year.

I finally hit a home run with a brew recipe of my own, my summer wheat (yeah made in mid Winter) turned out to be awesome. I planned it out to be a light bodied wheat with a pale ale hop finish, last night was my first taste. I think this will be one of my regular brews. Here is my recipe:

Boiled in 3 gallons of filtered water w/ 1 Teaspoon Gypsum (topped to 5 gal in fermenter)
6.6 lbs Muntons Wheat LME
8 oz Crushed Crystal 40L
8 oz Victory Crushed grain
(grains steeped at 160 degrees for 20 mins)
2 oz Cluster Hops 6.9% AA added at 60 min
1 teaspoon Irish Moss at 30 mins
1 oz Cascade Hops 5.1%AA added at 15 min
0.5 oz Cascade Hops 5.1%AA added at 1min
O.G. =1.051 F.G. = 1.013

We have had quite a few visitors to the blog and hopefully our posts will pick up as Jenn starts her field season in Austin and I start my racing season, we can track all our visitors under "our stats" at the bottom of the RH side of the page, check it out, we can see what city you are from, see map below:

Weekend In review

It seemed like I really got a lot accomplished this weekend but now that it is nearly over I can't figure out where it all went. I got up early on Saturday morning and rode for about 3.5hours from the house, when I started out the roads were slightly snow covered and by the end my bike was a real mess. I pretty much bonked on the last few miles and barely made it home up the rollers and into a good headwind. I then came home and recovered for about an hour then I made two batches of beer, a California Imperial Ale and a Summer Wheat. Sunday morning I got up and rode for three hours with Rich and Ashley east of Independence, I was worried that I wouldn't have much in my legs but we took it easy and I actually felt the same at the end as when I started. After that ride, I went to Smithville to take my deer stand down then Jenn and I walked a couple miles of the SMV trails. After grocery shopping, dinner and a shower I hope to crash on the couch and get ready for another long week at work.

Rich, me and Ashely just after Sunday's ride.