I'm goin' out to Cali.....

But unfortunately my bag didn't get the same journey.

Yet.....

Southwest knows where my bag is.  It just didn't make it to San Jose the same time I did.  It actually made it four hours after I did and could take another one to four hours for them to get it to me.  Which we are going on hour two now.

On the bright side, the weather is 65+ degrees and sunny with a slight north by northwest wind and the scenery couldn't be more beautiful.  For those of you who don't know, I work at a bike shop.  We sell Specialized bikes and my boss has sent me out to Morgan Hill California for the past two years to get training directly from Specialized on how to sell and market their products.

Our inside sales rep is an awesome dude and he let me barrow his Langster for the day.  Being a little miffed about my bag I cruised out and checked out the local bike shops and then hit the local trail.  All together I rode about 15 miles and it was amazing.  Everything was in my bag except for my pedaling shoes and pedals, and my computer.  So I put on my pedals, slid on my sunglasses, turned my hat backwards to keep it from blowing away and pushed off.  Yes Mom, I didn't wear a helmet.  IT WAS IN MY BAG THAT STILL HASN'T SHOWN UP!!!!!

Pedaling in street clothes with no destination and no deadlines I think is the best meditation and therapy in the world.  Just pedaling.

New things for 2010

Ok, so I'm not really one to open up and spew my deepest thoughts and feeling to just anyone by writing them on the wall, but....  this seems to be a significant enough event at this point in my life that it would warrant some acknowledgment.

I am now single.... I know that this might seem trivial, but my girlfriend of almost three years with whom I am living with, informed me last week that she wants to start seeing other people.  [blink...blink]

Now I know that every relationship has its ups and downs and ours was no exception but I thought that through it all we were actually doing pretty well and actually on an up swing.  But apparently I was the only one that had that thought and was the only one who had been thinking that for a while.  She has been feeling like we were going nowhere for about six months hence she decided to break it off instead of "wasting her time."

I think that the best thing that tops it all off, neither one of us can afford to break the lease so we can move on with our lives hence we have to try to live together until June or July.  I have spent the last week moving and reorganizing all of my stuff into our office along with my bikes.

Everything in consideration it isn't the worst thing that could of happened to me this past week... I haven't been hit by a car yet this year (knock on wood) and I am still healthy.  I guess I just have to keep everything in perspective.  Right?  Anyways, I guess that other than my dog, I can focus more attention on climbing and cycling.  Back to the basics in life: Eat, sleep, work, friends, climb, and pedal.

Here's to you.

First round of training

Ok, so in my attempts to get into shape for the Dirty Kanza I have designed a riding schedule that I will hopefully be able to maintain along with my normal everyday riding.

So this Saturday, January 16th lets say around 11 am roll out I am going to be heading up north to dutch hall road, out around Elkhorn on skyline drive and return via my neighborhood commute route with some papio and keystone trail mixed in to give it some length.

Here's a link to  a map:  http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/59-mile-dirty-Kanza-training.

Leave a response if you want to go, anyone is welcome.

Dirty Kanza.... here I come!

So I made it in to the Dirty Kanza 200 2010.  Now all I need to do is get myself to a point where I will be able to finish 200 miles.  Exciting.  Right?  I am very excited for this.  I'm a little disappointed, but not surprised with one of my co-workers that said he was going to sign up but didn't make the cut-off, but it is for the better.  Side note:  last year the promoters said that the registration filled up in four days.  This year it filled up in 14 hours!!

So for my training plans I am going to start doing rides every weekend building up to doing at least one 200 mile ride before the actual Dirty Kanza.  I figure what better way to know if you can finish than to do it.  Anyone is welcome to join me on these rides.  The more the merrier.

Congrats to EB and RD for making it in as well.

I'll keep you all updated on how the training is going and which bike I will be riding.

Until then, enjoy this video.

Happy New Year

Congrats to everyone on another year survived.  Here's to you and yours and hope everyone has safe and fun pedaling in 2010.

Dirty Kanza 200

So I have made the decision, thanks to RD,  to bite the bullet and sign up for the Dirty Kanza 200.  For those of you who don't know it is a 200+ mile, one day, gravel road race in Emporia Kansas.  This should be a good time.  A co-worker, Nate, has said that he will partake in the punishment so now we need Douglas to man up [;-)] and commit to it and we can have an Omahaians showing.

More to come.

Tranquility....not so much.

The girl friend and I decide no to sit around the house all day and go for a ride.  Yes we know it is snowing and contrary to the loud old lady in our parking lot, no, we are not crazy or stupid.

I decide to throw the studded tires on my Redline and I dug out my Schwalbe Marathon Winter tires to put on her Kona Dew Plus.  And I was really proud of her.  She gave it a good try and was a good sport about it.  The snow was DEEP.  We only got from the trail head to the first road crossing and decided to go back.  It was a blast but it took for EVER.  Anyways here are some pics.

There she goes....sort of.  [:-)]

 

 It was some deep snow.

We both took some good spills.

Snow? What Snow?

So along with everyone else that is dedicated to spinning some cranks instead of turning a key, I too have a post about my adventures in the first bought of "real" snow in the Omaha area.  And here we go.....

I was on a quest this summer to build my own ultimate snow rig.  I had ridden my cross bike last winter with some studded tires and wasn't completely happy with the results.  I tried riding my single speed 29er and enjoyed the ride more than with the cross bike but my knee joints didn't like me when it came to trudging through the deep stuff.  So I opted for the best of both worlds:

Redline Monocog Flight 29er 19inch frame
Red Chris King headset
RaceFace Evolve Cranks (22-32-44)
SRAM PG-990 11-34 cassette
SRAM X.O rear derailleur and grip shifters
Shimano XT front derailleur
Custom wheel set, SLX center lock hubs, DT Swiss Comp Spokes and X470 rims  (a little heavy but super bommer!)
Avid Juicy Ultimate Brakes
Maxxis Ingnitor 29 x 2.1 tires for the fresh powder
Nokian Extreme 294  29 x 2.1 studded tires for the deep and icy stuff

Upright riding position, super low gearing, grip shift for easy use with gloved hand, and a straight bar for more control.  So far the results are very, very positive.  Here is some pics from the ride in on Monday:

A little bit of frost on the beard.

 

 Even with fenders had some nice build up on the frame.

 

X.O rear derailleur took it all like a champ and never missed a shift.

And I will have more from my commute on Wednesday.  Tuesday I have off.

Ride safe!

Very moving

New Rig....Wrong Time.

So I finally got my new rig put together.

Steel Langster frameset from Specialized.  True track geometry, 56cm.

Specs. as follows:

-White Steel 56cm frame set
-Custom Velocity Deep V White Rim
--Red All-City Track Hubs
--3 Cross lacing front and rear white DT Swiss Competition spokes

--Red nipples

-All-City Red 170mm 46t Cranks
-White Industries 17t freewheel
-TRP R960 red bake calipers
-Surly 17t fixed cog and lock-ring
-Cane Creek SCR-5 Brake levers
-Crank Brothers Candy SL pedals
-Thompson Elite silver seatpost
-Specialized Mondo Tire 700x23c red
-Nitto handle bar and stem
-S-wrap Classic bar tape
-Old School Saddle found in our back storage area 

22.5 pounds of road skiddin' love.  Just too bad I finally got it together when the weather turned shitty.  I hope for a few good days to break 'er in before the snow flys.