thanks scott

for the well deserved kick in the ass. three and a half hours in a sub-zero wind chill and felt good in the legs despite falling off the sleep wagon pretty drastically friday night. looking forward to getting back into competitive mode this weekend in des moines.

requisite bridge pic with evidence of the recent massive ice migration

spring cleaning

tried to make the most out of an ice-ruined day by swinging down to travis's place and giving the jabber a little bit of love after a long winter of neglect broken only by the occasional day of abuse. got everything shined up and virtually race ready for the trip to arkansas. i realize that's a month away but i really don't expect this bike to see much ride time before then unfortunately. everytime i really take the time to go through this bike and clean it up/adjust brakes/new chain/scrub drivetrain/etc. it just reminds me how much i love it and why i was so particular about the build in the first place. a couple pieces have been changed but not many. its light enough and with the nano rear/weirwolf front i just set up for ouachita it will be fast enough that the only thing holding it back will be me and the months that have passed with no technical riding to speak of.

mmm...shiny

this is an explanation of the impetus behind the previous post. travis had this parked out back for just a few hours before all this ice built up.

if it wasn't for the weather...

then what would i bitch about? so it is.

5 years

somedays it seems like you've been around forever and somedays it seems like its passed in the blink of an eye. a lot has happened and a lot has changed in 5 years but i'm still amazed by the power your laughter possesses. happy birthday little man.

back at it...finally

first ride today after taking a surprising amount of time off the bike (about a week). didn't really intend that much but life/weather/training/work sort of dictated a break. still got a fair amount of core work in but it was nice to get back out on the gravels. got out with ogara for a couple hours and just cruised at a good pace. legs had been feeling a bit beat down...it was good to feel fresh. yesterday brought larsson's birthday party and tomorrow he turns 5. had a great time rollerskating with some of his buddies from school and had some extended family in town. should have some good pics from yesterday up sometime.

before/after

a little bloody and still far from done but here's yesterday's improvements...

chronology of the sleeve

since i'm headed in today to get some more work done, i thought i'd get caught up on the timeline of how the leg got to where we're at.

step 1...tribal piece on the calf

this was done by a guy just finishing his apprenticeship at valhalla. did a pretty good job and he's somewhere further down in iowa now (mt. pleasant?) and i hear he just keeps getting better. best guess is this piece was done about 4 1/2 years ago.

step 2. larsson's initials (w/crooked crown)

this one was done by a guy named al at a place in rochester. he was good, and pretty fast. pretty sure he's moved on as well, i believe back up to the cities. this was a father's day gift in '06. 3 months later i was dropping like 3 feet off an elliptical box out back of the shop, slipped a pedal and tore a scar right through the crown. the doctor did a good job of putting the puzzle back together but there's still some ink missing.

step 3. the ship's outline (sorry, no pics)

this was the first piece done by brock at valhalla and i can't imagine going anywhere else right now. i'd been wanting to find someone i trusted enough to just walk in with an idea and say "have at it" and he's finally the guy. no good pics of just the outline but that part took a few hours in itself.

step 4. filling the ship and water

sorry about the crappy pics, i'm far from a professional. two things really grabbed me after this sitting...the detail in the wood grain on the boat and the colors in the face of the dragon head. brock is awesome with colors and we spent a lot of time getting exactly what we wanted out of this.

step 5. filling the sail

the goal from the start was to orient the ship/sail so that the original tribal piece on my calf sat as a symbol inside the sail. unfortunately this wasn't the plan when the tribal piece was done so the perspective isn't quite right but brock's done a good job working around that. the colors in the sail are awesome once again. lots of purples and magentas with almost a tie-dye look to them. there's a ton of detail in what seemed like it could have been just a quick fill job.

step 6. the sun and clouds

the goal for either side of larsson's initials is to fill the space with a day and a night sky. ultimately the way you see the two will depend on your perspective. it will look both like a ship sailing out of a sunset into night as well as a ship sailing through the night toward a sunrise. so far brock was able to get the sun and the outline for the clouds done. he tried a new-to-him technique filling the sun so he has some touch-up to do on that which will be part of what he does today. the main focus of today will be to fill the clouds thereby completing this side of my leg. all that should remain is probably two more sittings to do the night scene on the other side then a whole lot of touch-up over the whole leg. at the rate i get my work done i'm guessing this should be completed in only like two more years. :)