Gravel Grind

Dave, Jason, Randy and I did a little gravel grind this morning. Things started out pretty well frozen with some good snow pack to ride on but as things progressed it started to get a little sloppy. Got to try out the new mountain bike that I got for my birthday via Ebay and permission from my wonderfully understanding wife (believe it or not she wanted my to get it!) Bike was great and can't wait to get in on the trails! Anyway we ended up getting in about 34 miles... good ride! Here's the route on google earth.

Here's a pic of the new bike while assembling
And another just after her maiden voyage!

We are all insane!

"To be a cyclist is to be a student of pain....at cycling's core lies pain, hard and bitter as the pit inside a juicy peach. It doesn't matter if you're sprinting for an Olympic medal, a town sign, a trailhead, or the rest stop with the homemade brownies. If you never confront pain, you're missing the essence of the sport. Without pain, there's no adversity. Without adversity, no challenge. Without challenge, no improvement. No improvement, no sense of accomplishment and no deep-down joy. Might as well be playing Tiddly-Winks." ~Scott Martin

This weather sucks donky balls!!

Is there light at the end of the tunnel? I see 40's in the forecast for the end of next week... Don't know about you, but I am tired of freezing my nuts off!! Time to put the cross bike away for a while and get out the MTB...

Aaah, the memories of green grass, cold beer and 90 degrees!!!

Snow Patrol...

Had a good turn out this Saturday for a ride through Sunbride and Krug. Randy, Dave, Craig, Jim, Brad and I met down by the casino and ran up through Sunbrige, ground was frozen so everything was "ridable".. Snow was making it a bitch however, you really had to fight for every yard..
Halfway up the first hill, Jim tells us BradBob left because his fingers were cold? WTF??? Dude, were .16 of a mile into it and your hands are cold? Its effen winter out!! What did ya think it was going to be like? Your going to be hearing about this for a while.. Got some explaining to do Mr. Rylie....

You might have even got to see Crookster performing some sick downhill action! Mad skillz!!!

So...... We are taking turns descending a rather large hill (going backwards) in Sunbrige. I am just waiting for my turn (was last because I am a hard breathing fat kid) to go down, when I hear Randy and Craig hollering something at Crook who just passed them.... Pretty sure he went down but Jim and I thought nothing of it..
Then I notice them both racing off in that direction (rather panicked looking). Damn, I hope he hasn't hurt himself...

Once I made it down I couldn't see anyone.. what the hell is going on?... I come a little further to find Crook and his bike is at the bottom of a 45-50 foot cliff...

He is fine, so we can all laugh and give him shit now, but at the time we seriously were thinking he had to break something.. That Cliff he just rode his bike off of was insanely steep, large and frozen solid... Randy should have probably posted this since he saw it happen... I still don't know exactly how it happened...



View from the bottom!! Seriously this thing was huge.. That's Crook (alive) in the middle, probably standing yet 10' from the bottom... Jim is up top to kind of give you some prospective...

Crook was a trooper, continued on the ride for a while... HTFU indeed Sir.!

First group trail ride of 2010!!

This Saturday, 8:00am... Meet at the boat ramp by the casino.. We are going to run through sunbridge and Krug... Be there, or be a prom dress shopping sissy boy!!! AKA the Hippy!!!

Leadville 100

Found out today that we (JP, Randy and myself) did not get selected for the Leadville 100 this year. Not really suprised at not getting picked but I was suprised by their email explaining that we could still get in if we signed up for a 2 day training camp in June with Carmichael Training Systems (Lance Armstrong's longtime trainer). Basically the camp will cost you $1,250.00 for the two days and you will get your entry fee waved and a spot in the Leadville 100 will be reserved for you.
I know that Lance Armstrong has done wonders for the race with all the publicity he brings but I still find it a little disappointing that they would even consider reserving spots for these "campers" who can obviously afford the camp and the expense of the additional trip (for the majority of us folks anyway) that the camp requires. I can see reserving spots for high profile cyclists, sponsors and past race volunteers but to me this camp "deal" is just not right.

White Stuff

Felt a little guilty for not making it out to Jamesport yesterday with Randy and David for the gravel grind so I decided to at least get outside today and hit the snow covered trails.
This may have been the best day of the year to ride in the snow. Everything was covered with at least an inch of the white stuff. Ground was still semi-froze and with fresh snow on top
traction was really good.
Made some climbs I thought I could'nt and did'nt make some that I thought I could but all in all it was good.
Saw Jason out on the cross bike riding the parkway and Krug. Dude has bronchitis and he's still out there gettin it!
Anyway left my tracks on South, North, Girl Scout and the Brownie
Going was a little slow but still got in a great workout... Feels good to get back on the mountain bike
Few pics for ya below. A little trail maintenance is in our near future but things really don't look to bad.

Hello, my name is Jason and Im a bikeaholic....

I had a little insight into the severity of my bike addition today when I was driving my MO Western.
While driving by, I see some area that is marked off with posts and strings of some sort tied to them.

I honest to God thought to myself as I glanced over (In order)-

Holy F-ing awesome, someone set up a cross course at Missouri Western!! Is there a race? Is it today? What the hell is going on? Wait a sec... how could there be a cross race in town and I don't know about it? Maybe it was a student ran endeavour and we did not hear about it? I was just on localcyceling.com yesterday!Hummmm...........5-10 seconds later...
HOLY CRAP, that is just construction going on campus!!
Better not share that one with my wife (sitting next to me), she already thinks I am crazy..

So. There you have it, thought I would share it to the only people that would understand....

Spring training....

You go playin on the pavement out in the North End, behind Krug, you see this sign.. The fun is about to begin!!!

Trainers suck! Can't do um, don't like um, don't plan on using them any time soon...>

Apparetnly I have a very short attention span and I cuss at the trainer every time I even look at it. I will only use it when there are no other options, and being cold outside is sure as hell not going to get me on it..

So say it with me, F**K TRAINERS!!!

Here is THE hill that is going to single handedly get me (And whoever else wants) in fine form... Ugh, hopfeully.... Randy is the only other soul that has been getting out here consistantly... That I konw of anyway....

Now the pictures do not give the hill any justice but its going to hurt you.. Its not very long, pob just under 1/4 mile long...But this is the Queen B, the pain maker, whatever you decide to name it.. Got to ride it before you name it though..

Now when you approach it, it is not very intemidating looking, part of its charming chaircter.

Now you begin the climb... And you start to notice that while its starting to turn to the left, you think to yourself "Dude, this is a steep little f**k*r". border=0>Now you hit a sraight but the first short steep little climb has got your heart racing and legs burning and you have only STARTED the climb. You look up and say hooooly S**t this is going to suck so much ass!Once you make it to the next turn, your heart rate is through the roof, the lactic acid is substantially builging in your legs and the hill starts to get in your head.. This is about the point where you want to quit.. No, serously, you want to quit...Since you just made a deal with yourself that you just need to make it to the next mailbox in order to keep going. You hit the corner and the grade goes up again, your heartrate is maxed, evey ounce of you wants to quit climbing to make the pain stop...

You hit the top of the corner and boom, your still not done, your not close to being done..

The grade goes down slightly, but its still steep and you still have 60 yards to go...

The sight of this picture here, is actully a little demoralizing.. Every ounce of your being is hurting, but this is where the real stuff starts... Its time to dig deep, quit being a sissy boy and HTFU..

So you have made it, you did not quit (that is never a real option anyway) you can't catch your breath, your heart is maxed out!! That sucked!!! Time to do another loop....See you again soon.