Tough days.

Oli is having a rough morning. He's learning to pull himself up on things which means he is getting more mobile. This morning, Oli found his way to the trash can in which he pulled over on himself creating a big mess and loud crash. It scared the crap out of the poor little guy. He screamed and cried for quite a while. Then, maybe ten minutes later he was all happy sitting on the floor clapping when he fell backwards and nailed his head on our wood floor. Again, he screamed for quite some time. Boy, with the luck he is having, and that Biking Brady fellow is having, I should make sure and keep them apart. I don't think two bad lucks make a right... whatever

Pre-Ride Ride

Last night a couple friends and I went for a little ride on M-hill and Skyline. I think we logged a little over 11 miles. I felt good for all but the first couple. It takes a while to get warmed up. I'm sure I am in need of new chainrings and a new cassette but I don't have time or money to put towards that right now. It makes me sad because I just put a new chain on and the chain is going to go to crap faster because of the crappy other stuff. You know.

The rest of the ride felt awesome. I really felt like the Energizer bunny. My legs just wanted to churn. Hopefully I'll be able to hold on like that for the 5-0. We will see.

I really do love Subway and Kona bikes!

Fix Up

I got the Kona all fixed up and ready for the 5-0. I put a new tire in the rear, a new chain and cleaned it all up. It looks pretty.

Oli didn't want to go to bed last night. It took until 10:45 before he finally went down. That's not so bad, unless he were to wake up at 4:45am. I feel pretty sluggish this morning. Ok, real sluggish.

I have a new item to play with at work. It is a Tandberg video conference system. You can record presentations, training, etc. I'm suppose to get it ready and give our Provost a demo later this week. It's pretty cool.

Week

Whoa, it's Friday already. This week went uber fast. I got a mtb ride in yesterday morning. My boss is gracious enough to let me come in late so I can ride. We rode part of the Victoria Lake loop. It was really pretty, fun, perfect weather and an all around awesome ride on my Coilair. I did have a few problems though. My chain was hopping all around so i did a few minor derailliur (sp) adjustments. I thought things were going alright until we came upon a huge hill that was about 1.5 miles long at a rather steep grade. I started climbing and about 1/2 way up the hill, snap, my chain broke right in half. I had my chain tool with and I fixed it there on the spot. However, I still had a small skip in the chain which eventually worked itself out. The rest of the ride went perfectly. We didn't get the entire 15 mile loop in as we really didn't know where the loop started or ended, so we jumped in the middle somewhere along a trail.

I'm not sure what the weekend has in store. I have a football draft on Sunday and hopefully some nice bike riding with the family. We might run up to the Mick trail and ride some of it. It'll be fun I'm sure!!!

I'm happy the weekend is finally here.

Gut Check 212

Here is a slightly short description of our accomplishment of completing the Gut Check 212.

Team Crank Brothers went at it again this year with pretty high expectations. I wanted to beat our time by at least 10 hours. I know it's a lofty goal, but I needed one to bring me back. Last year sucked. So I figured if we could ride it 10 hours faster than last year, we would only have to average about 16 mph over the course of the ride. Since we are a leap frog team, it should be more than doable.

I completely got side-tracked. We finished the race in 23 hours and 22 minutes. 13 hours faster than last year. We averaged over 18 mph. The weather was beautiful and couldn't have asked for anything more. I kept track of the mileage each of us rode and I went just over 110 miles. It was so much fun.

Now I am preparing for the Dakota 5-0 which is on the 31st of August.

Any of you heard of the Pickens Plan?

One More Day

Tomorrow we head out to the border for the Gut Check.

Today, I'm nervous.

Monday, I'll be tired.

Thanks to Biking Brady to help me with my table issue in the post below. I started to fix it, then realized how much I dislike ugly html so I stopped. What's better, ugly html or a pretty view on the outside? I pick pretty html and a nice presentation. I'll finish it, just not right now.

I Wish

I wish the post below didn't show up all funky. It would look so nice and pretty if it were aligned and spaced better. But, apparently blogger doesn't like tables. Maybe I should have used css. Who knows. That might make me even more nerdy though (Mr. Biking Brady)... I do wish it looked better.

I have to get everything ready for the Gut Check tonight. Our team is then shopping tomorrow night for fruit, water, food, etc. Then we'll head out on Friday at about noon for the border. I'm dreading it a little bit but then another part of me is pretty excited. I dread the pain and missery (even though it won't be that bad because I'll only have to ride an hour at a time.

This year I am keeping track of my total time in the saddle and my total mileage. I want to know how far I rode since I am on a leap frog team. I'll post all that stuff when I get back.

Gut Check 212

The time is winding down to the gut check. My team is about as prepared as we are going to be. We are going to get food and supplies Thursday after work then Friday it's off to Belle Fouche to do this. I figured out some things today. I have been very curious about what time we would finish if we averaged such and such speed. This is what I came up with.

Hours Arival Time Average Speed 23 1 pm Saturday 18.00 24 2 pm 17.25 25 3 pm 16.56 26 4 pm 15.92 27 5 pm 15.33 28 6 pm 14.79 29 7 pm 14.28 30 8 pm 13.80 31 9 pm 13.35 32 10 pm 12.94 33 11 pm 12.55 34 12 am Sunday 12.18 35 1 am 11.83 36 2 am 11.50 And some other stuff to Faith 113 miles ave speed hours 18 6.28 7 6.65 16 7.06 15 7.53 14 8.07 Faith to Gettysburg 112 miles ave speed hours 18 6.22 6.59 16 7.00 15 7.47 14 8.00 Gettysburg to Redfield 83 miles ave speed hours 18 4.61 17 4.88 16 5.19 15 5.53 14 5.93 Redfield to Border 106 miles ave speed hours 18 5.89 17 6.24 16 6.63 15 7.06 14 7.57

Thursday

I can't believe it has already been 4 days since my last post. So much has happened. I've taken Oli for his first and second bike ride, I still have not mowed the lawn, Angie cut her hair and the bike rally is in full swing. I haven't ridden much this week. Angie has had to work late Monday and last night and the rally makes things not quite so fun getting around. I think I did do my favorite ride last night and Monday night. I got Oli on a kid carrier on the bike and he loves it! A lot!!! He's such a good kid.

That's all. I want to go for a ride with him now. shoot.

Healthy

A Harvard study found that after a 12-week program of strength training, almost 90% of seriously depressed seniors no longer met the criteria for clinical depression. So lift your spirits by lifting weights! Bike riding for at least 20 minutes can also boost your body's natural levels of anandamide which can contribute to feelings of euphoria like those described by long-distance runners and cyclists. Penn State and Harvard researchers found that fitness predicts happiness better than finances. So get moving and get happy!!! Forget the bad day you had.

http://www.healthysd.gov/Workplace.html

No Ride

I didn't get a chance to ride at all this weekend. I went back to Miller to help my parents harvest wheat. I brought the bike along but after a 12-14 hour day of combining, sitting in the saddle for a couple hours didn't feel very appealing. So, I practiced hauling my bike around. I told Angie to drop me off about 40 miles before my parent's and I would ride... she didn't.

I guess I did go down to the dirt jump park for an hour or so last night. I'm just learning how to jump. The new geometry of my Coilair makes it much easier although I'm still pretty bad. I wasn't scared at all which is a huge improvement even though I was still on the beginner jumps. At least I've moved up from the rollers.

I also finished my singlespeed. I put new break levers, break cables and grips. Angie and I bought a kid carrier for Oli and I also installed that last night. Depending upon the weather, I might see if Oli likes it tonight. I'll get to ride the singlespeed for its first voyage in at least 2 years. I'm pretty excited!

Pinch Me.

I have an interesting problem lingering over me this year. I have had more problems with flat tires on my mountain bikes than I ever had before. It is driving me insane. I'm not sure if I am not running enough pressure, if my tires or shot, or if I just suck bad enough at riding that the tires decide to fail. Each time gets me a little more frustrated. I do realize that the more I ride, the better of a chance I have for a flat, and I have ridden alot. Come on though, I'm tired of flat tires. I got a flat right when I got to work today. And now, I'm fixing it... again.

What I'm in need for is a killer deal on some tubes. Then I can buy 100 tubes and will never have to patch another tire for a month or so.