good days and photos

gravels in fall, riding with the little man and new ink. been a good stretch of days.

wet gravels lead to filthy bikes
not all fall gravel rides are sloppy

plenty of sun and fall colors

larsson tearing up the pines

how long til i'm chasing him cause i can't keep up?

working back through the prairie

end of what turned out to be an awesome monday

new ink...before pic

drawing and a little bit of outline done

sun rays filled

brock doing his thing

getting the clouds filled

sleeve's getting close to finished...gotta get the moon and clouds filled/finished, color the night sky, add a little more water then go around and touch up the entire leg. it'll be done someday.

dirt burger and other updates

my version of the dirt burger is shorter than some as it was broken into chunks by that nasty thing called work. regardless, bikes were ridden, drinks were drunk, drunks drank, sleep was optional and limited, fun was had. my participation involved a spirited ride through the back alleys of decorah (led by a guy who has never even been here before) punctuated with the occasional derby. i held my own in the derbies but never came away with a coveted victory, however i did manage to severely taco the wheel of the guy i took second to in one of the matches. as bad as i felt it seemed inevitable. saturday brought some trail time then a long night getting a wedding reception drunk so i missed that night's festivities. sunday i showed up for the scheduled gravel ride to realize (not surprisingly) the weekend had taken its toll on many and there would only be six of us headed to bluffton. trevor, marty, deke, jon-o, spinner and i headed out of town into some menacing clouds. soon it was dumping on us. the rain broke as we entered the bar, then restarted a couple hours later as we remounted our bikes ensuring that most of the ride out and back would be soggy. still a ton of fun. the dirt burger in general was successful in encouraging a fair amount of general jackassery. don't be surprised if this happens again. small is fun, bigger might be more, either way the results will most likely be similar.

on another note, i did get to attend larsson's second ever soccer game (i was unable to make the first). he's also now doing the luther soccer camp that julie helps run. seems he's well on his way to reaching his lifelong goals of someday being the goalie on her high school girls soccer team and then returning as her assistant coach.

and finally, it seems i am caving and will be moving to the darkside and finally joining the facebook community. here's my justification (really this is to make myself feel better but feel free to read)...i've had an account for like a year and a half because i had to register to view some pictures after a race i did. i never did anything with the account but occasionally people must have searched my name and found that i existed and asked me to be a friend. i've never accepted any since i'm not actually on there but i get these emails from time to time telling me of another request. after last weekend's reunion with my high school friends and a rash of friend requests from some people i've met through my racing, i figure the time has come. so...if you're one of those select few who have asked me to be a friend in the last year or so (i think there might be 2 or 3 that actually read this) you'll probably be getting an acceptance...finally. there's my justification...on to dirt burger pics.

marty

spinner and trevor

deke and jon-o

this riding thing is hard work, good thing we got road beers before we left bluffton

fisty enjoying the high life as well

weekend of racing

congrats to brothers chris and adam for throwing doing their thing at the dam to dam. my knees cry a little just thinking about running that far.

dirty kanza went down this weekend as cornbread, steve, g-t and about 80 others attempted to battle heat and high winds leaving only 15 at the end. congrats to those who made it through as well as anyone willing to line up.

larsson did his thing racing around the base of afton alps.

i made my way up to the cities full well knowing i was about to get my ass kicked. afton as a race course has always beat me down and the pro/expert field did its number on me this year as well. i'm certainly learning to swallow my ego racing with these guys. afton has a murderous amount of climbing and i'm having to deal with the fact that my body is unfortunately fragile in the heat. first lap started out fast and i was riding somewhere in the top half of the field as i was able to climb the entire course. lap 2 of 4 brought that familiar feeling in my stomach and the mild dizzyness. a conscious decision was made to back off for fear of not finishing. started trying to get in fluids despite a stomach that wasn't terribly receptive. had to walk shady lane (1st of 2 big climbs each lap) and got some gu down. was able to continue muscling it around hairpins despite stubbornly not gearing down for this race. made it to manhandler and was quickly walking there as well. a whole line of geared guys passed me here...so it was. i was starting to feel a little better until the super stuttery downhill at the end ejected my full water bottle rather than my empty one. no more carborocket for me. stopped at the water station to refill my empty bottle and did lap 3 on cruise control. still only had to walk shady lane and manhandler and slowly the bottle started to recover. pretty happy i was able to read my body enough to know when to go into damage control mode and come out of it enough to feel like i was pushing a little harder again on lap 4. passed a few riders beat down by the heat and the course but still ended up in the slower half of the field. still learning. still somewhat accepting of where i fit into this field as of right now. far from complacent. don't know what my potential is but i'm far too competitive to accept mid-pack until i'm damn sure that's all the better i'll ever be. if so...its better than i ever thought i'd be. for now, its just another reason to keep busting my ass. oh, and the debilitating forearm cramps that left me unable to use my hands for almost 10 minutes following the race has left me certain that a suspension fork is well past due. physically i'm pretty trashed from this race but the next month should help with both my recovery and my fitness.

love the one-footed corner here...we were flying

larsson with a front row seat...my forearm cramps are excruciating

cheezin post-race

race pics

ready...

set...

GO!

GO!GO!GO!

finish

respect

chatting with zach after an unfortunate blowout ended his race

putting a little fear into cam :)

congrats on the 3rd place finish

back to xc racing...these guys in the pro/expert field are FAST!

erik's spring cup

headed up to minnesota for the first race in the mnscs points series this weekend. erik's spring cup used to be held at buck hill, a ski area that was a pretty fun course. it has since moved to inver grove heights and is now made up of a 5 mile loop that has virtually no climbing, is super dry and sketchy and crazy fast. this was my first ever try at riding with the pro/expert class in minnesota. i finished around mid-pack and i'm fairly content with that. a couple of years ago the experts were the people racing sometime after i had my medal (hopefully) and was already headed home. i never thought i'd be in the same league with these guys so just racing in this class feels pretty good. i learned a lot at this race, made some mistakes, lost a couple minutes trying to get help for a rider than tried to chop down a tree with his neck at 20 mph right in front of me, and had a pretty good time. ran into zach and steve who also ride for vassago. both have jumped up a class this year after dominating their class last year. switched out to a flat bar/ergon setup and i'm really liking it. more on that when i've got more time on them. rode most of the race without a front brake after puking all the hydraulic fluid out at the caliper. seriously considering bb7 mechanicals. 2 highlights of the trip...getting to hang out with colin and larsson's first race. colin lives up in the cities and made his way over for the race. got to hang out a bit before and after the race and grab some mexican food and a beer after. it was awesome to hang out and discuss the possibility of some really stupid future plans. we brought larsson's bike with just in case he decided he wanted to do the kids race. as soon as we got there he knew for sure he did. so he got a number plate and lined up at the start...and his face was all business. it was about a quarter mile loop in the grass around a baseball field and he had a blast. he wanted no help from julie or i and he was determined to do it alone. dude rocked it. that was worth the price of my entry fee. i could have packed up and left without doing my race and been completely thrilled that we made the trip. some pics below from one camera, more later when i get some off the other one.

getting ready

race face

not sure who's more proud...racer or mom

hanging out with colin post race

new training partner

mid 60's and sunny...perfect day for a ride and a picnic
diggin' the new bike trail

i'm sure it won't be long til i'm chasing him

feeding the broods at the trout hatchery...these things were huge.

lunch by the trout stream...absolutely amazing day

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.

awesome weekend

scotty got to town friday night so i ducked out of the bar early and we spent some time getting caught up at t-bock's. the rest of the weekend looked something like this...

larsson getting ready to start his second year of the barnelopet kids ski race/walk

check out the form...the concentration...

there was a bit of this but his stubborness kicked in and after a few falls he wouldn't let me help him up as he was determined to figure out how to stand up on his own

obligatory medal ceremony...followed by a second lap and a trip around the "big kids" loop

scotty and i took off from larsson's ski think and met up with kent, bill and jesse for a bluffton ride. the warm temps had melted everything and it turned into one of the sloppiest rides i've been on in a long time.

the bluffton bar, jesse, bill, kent, scotty

headed home

mmmm...sloppy...but we try not too think about how much manure is mixed into the slop on the gravels

wild bill

after a late night at work and meeting up with some yahoos at t'bocks saturday night, scott and i headed out for a metric on sunday. awesomely warm temps and a lack of wind made for a beautiful ride. 64ish miles through bluffton, locust, sattre and a jaunt over into allamakee before heading home.

elk farm just east of bluffton

scotty

countless number of donkeys, burrows and asses seen this weekend. surprisingly only one of them let loose a hee-haw directed at scott. we thought we were going to lose him to the donkey for a bit but an epic amount of will power kept his eyes on the road and we got him home safely.

in other news...apparently the birth certificate says today makes 31. so it goes.