DH on the lowdown

Circling the drain...

daveh — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 00:19:00 GMT

I just got done reading Marek's post and related commentary. Fun stuff. So since we're circling the drain in blogville.uca.com/blogs-suck, I'll give my 2 listeners a forwarding address: www.daveharward.wordpress.com

It would be fun to see more of our cycling community doing some blogging. It's fun to hear about all of the misadventures. Everyone knows about blogspot thanks to Team Rico, Prime Rib Time yaaaaaa, BartmanG, Sandros, even T-bird changed addresses, et. al. Check out wordpress as well. They offer free services there too.

The SLC is not 87F

daveh — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 20:45:00 GMT

After making it to San Jorge late Sunday night, we got a few hours of sleep and then got rolling Monday morning to finish off the drive home from VotS. Before I get into that, I went out for a ride today around noon. I went past a sign that said 37F. In Phoenix on Saturday it was 87F. Big difference. I have to say it was nice to just be in jersey and bibs. I did not, however, walk around post-TT in my skin suit with the legs rolled up and the top tucked in at my waist. This same guy has done that the past 2 years…strolls up and down the parking area.

I don’t think I gave the rundown on the criterium yet. It is a fun race that is typically fast and usually has at least one crash. Unfortunately I was standing at the middle of the course when the Pro women decided to stack things up. I left the course after seeing that…guess I should have done it sooner. I hate to see crashes. Mr Fasse of the VMG squad lit up the finish of the Cat3 race and apparently sprinted at the front for probably 500+ meters. Guys were trying to pass him coming down the straightaway and he was having none of it. Sweet!

The legs didn’t feel too great as I was warming up and I wasn’t too surprised. Saturday was a tough day. We got lined up and the pace stayed fast most of the time. The new Rock & Republic Racing team were laying in wait all race. As an aside on the Rock & Republic Racing team…on Friday a convoy of 3 pimped Escalades roll in to the parking area of the TT. Their kits are all black with skulls with wings which is really sweet, although Clinger was sporting all red. They are intimidating without the tough guy kits, Clinger’s facial ink and Leograndes full body ink – Sleever, you got some catching up to do on this cat. These guys are crit/tough-guy racers extraordinaire. If you ever want to move up in a race at the right time, try to stay on Clinger’s or Friedick’s wheel. You’ll get going at the right time, it’s just a matter of staying with them as they go.

So back to the crit…it was great to have the first crit of the year as an 80+ field going super fast for 70 minutes. That shakes all the cobwebs loose from the winter training. I had to get my legs going for the first 20 minutes and then I tried to get myself positioned a bit better. I was able to get pretty close to where I wanted to be, but as usual at this race, I am a few guys too far back. When we got 5 laps to go the Rock Racing guys lined it up at the front. Successful Living tried to take it over at one point and didn’t last. We rounded the last corner with about 300 meters to go and I was already 53x11. I moved up a few spots as we came to the line for a 27^th. It was good to have it end incident free for the criterium.

I haven’t heard from The Body but he got knocked down during the road race and his hand was gigantic on Sunday. I think the remaining UT riders survived carnage so that is good. As usual, Sandros rode a great race, and Santa stayed out of trouble to both finish top-10. VO2max Perry made the move in the road race…his effort in the crosswind probably blew me up as we tried to make it across to the break and he finished up 13^th overall on the weekend. Good job also to the young cats from Contender who put Nate on the podium in the Cat2’s.

Day 1-second half, Day 2 and Day 3 prep of VotS

daveh — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 14:39:00 GMT

The TT ended up being a rough day out. After a good warmup, I rolled up to the start house. Curtis Gunn from So-Cal rolled up and started talking to an official he knew. He was talking smack about his equipment. Gunn went with a fixed gear with a 60 tooth. I'm not sure what cog he had on the rear, but it was small. In the end, he finished close to Sandros who happened to light things up and only miss 1st by 1 second I think. That's fast. I ended up having a decent ride. I was nearly the same time gap back from the leader, who was slower than last year. I was 27 seconds slower than last year, but I think it was a tougher day. The crazy thing is that time gap from the winner of the stage last year had me in 9th and this year 27th. That's a lot of fast TT guys. For a 30+ minute effort, I was pretty worked. After dinner it was back to Motel 666.

Day 2 looked to start out good. The forecast was for mid-80s and sunny. I thought that would be great! We rolled down to the course and got things rolling for race day. I'll have to try to take a picture and post it of the sweet wheel setup I was riding. Those wheels are fast! The wind started to kick up hard from the south before the start and I think it kept blowing harder as the day went. On the second lap on the south end of the course it went in the gutter. Ouch. I think the field dropped by 20 - 25. Sandros and Santa were up close to the front protecting their GC positions and doing a good job at that. On the climb we had a tailwind. In 80+ degrees, a tailwind isn't very comfortable, especially when you're hauling up a climb. I heard someone say we were doing 24-25 mph every time up the hill. There were numerous breaks that got away and one was really big, putting the Hagens-Berman GC leader in trouble since he missed the move. There was a hard chase and they were brought back. As we went through the start heading to the south end, Rock Racing legend and tattoo billboard Clinger got off the front with a few guys. We had two times up the hill before the finish. They dangled about 60-90 seconds off the front for a long time, but the pack wasn't too concerned.

When we hit the tailwind I was feeling good so I decided to try to get across because it looked like this would be the move. A Rock Racing guy went with me and fortunately when we got halfway he started to help out. We made it before the top of the climb, and for a while things were rolling. Rubelt came across with someone else and all of a sudden the 2 teams with 2 guys each in the move decided it was time to attack the guys they didn't know. Before long I was taken off the back and gapped. Dejected, I went back to the pack and a short time later saw another opportunity to get across. Bryson ended up with me and 2 other guys. I thought that might be safer since we were all from different teams. Little did I know that I was going to blow in the crosswind section. I tried super hard and was just out of gas. When the pack caught me I got spit out the back. I had used up too much trying to make it to the break the first time and cover attacks. It was a tough call trying to get to the move. If I would have stayed with the pack there was a chance that I could have sprinted it out at the finish. But if I made it to the break I had a chance to gain a lot of time and a high finishing position. I thought I was alright, but I blew. It is February though. Fun and games anyway. I had a great time in the road race. It's good to get the first one out of the way!

A-train and T-bird...Rubelt says hey!

Day before & half of Day 1 VotS

daveh — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 14:58:00 GMT

Team Rico was at my house Thursday morning by 6:00 am. After loading up the race van with all of our gear we got rolling. The drive was mostly uneventful, besides missing I-17 and driving around Flagstaff for a bit. We thought maybe we'd do our ride there, but it was cold. So we decided to bust it so we could pre-ride the TT course. Made it there just in time to get a great pre-ride in before the sunset. I was feeling very good and Rico was going fast and looking fast. After catching some tasty Italian food, we headed for the Motel 666 and messed with some wheels and turned it out for the night.

Right now we're sitting in Paradise Cafe...a far cry from Motel 666...drinking coffee and water, eating EFS bars and thinking about going fast. Miatchaslav registered late and is racing the geezers so he has to go early. Curly was driving down late last night. Hopefully he made it! Rico is waiting to jump online. He's been working on troubleshooting his wireless card to no avail. Miatchaslav should be warming up about now. I think we'll try to get out there before he rolls. Update to follow later today...maybe. Possibly with photos...maybe.

As an aside, it looks like Marek needs some new music...and RB needs to eat something.

S-Works TT bike and sticky tires

daveh — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 21:13:00 GMT

I made it outside on the TT bike even though the air is marginal today. I’ve put the TT on the CompuTrainer here and there in the past few weeks. The position is drastically different than previous years so I have been anxious to get it on the pavement and see how it feels. I am surprised at how fast it feels. The true test will be in 9 days at the VotS TT. I’m pumped to get it rolling.

Team Rico has been on the TT bike kick lately as well. Watch out for him. Rico pulled off a super-sweet sprint leadout on the TT bike for me yesterday. It wasn’t too tough to get in the draft with the 40 ounce can of Blue Demon in his jersey pocket. He has to lug around so much of that stuff to stay awake anymore. It takes more than a few water bottles.

I’ve had a major conflict brewing these past few days. It is time to glue tires and the low level conflict is whether or not to use the tape. The heavier conflict is tire selection. InAHurry at Canyon Bicycles of SLC got me hooked on the Continental Competition 22 tires a few years ago. That’s like giving a junkie the best stuff on the street. When the budget had to tighten a bit, Vittoria Open Corsa EVO CX rolled almost as nice. To my surprise, Tufo tires last a long time and ride nice.

None of them are Comp 22’s. One time InAHurry tried to glue up a set of Clement’s but the valve stem broke. I bet that would have been a hard habit to get over. Not only does a rear tire need to be replaced in under 450 miles if you avoid a puncture, the tread cuts fairly easy. However, while they are fresh, they have to be the best tires out there.

Post out your favorite tire to glue/tape. Let’s see who likes what and how much their habit costs.

Better put some miles in...

daveh — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 03:07:00 GMT

I figure it's time to actually ride my bike and stop making up stories about riding/training. After all of January and a good part of December off the bike, you can only imagine what it felt like to sit on the brand new Toupe saddle that came with my new Tarmac SL. I could hardly push my cleats into the pedals. Team Rico talked me in to doing Valley of the Sun with him...I know he and AJ are attempting to help me keep my spot on the team. Team Rico said he overheard AJ say that there's a lot of guys who wear the same size jersey I do and would ride a 56cm.

Now you know why every time I write about going to the UC and not seeing Turbo that I've just been full of crap. Turbo's probably been out riding whenever I've made that incorrect reference. This all started out with the idea that it takes 3 - 4 weeks of no training before you really lose fitness. I saw it as an experiment. In fact, when I told J-dorade about it, she asked if it could be her science fair project. She was learning about independent and dependent variables. We tried to fit in quantity of beer drank, but when reviewed by her science teacher he requested that variable be removed. D-oza reminded me that I can only drink beer upon race victory. Two strikes, you're out!

After 3 weeks of no cycling training, J-dorade's experiment protocol called for a power test. When she calculated my output at 2.2 watts/kilogram, I had to admit that I was proud considering the amount of beer I drank after the family went to bed each night. The only thing that kept me at the level I'm at is 3 bottles of Optygen since January 1st. BadMF will tell you that I seriously exceeded the recommended dosage of 3 tablets with breakfast each day. It was hard to put away 9 of those each morning, but I found that chocolate milk made it easier. I tried to get J-dorade to add that as a variable, but she just rolled her eyes at me.

Tomorrow should be another day off the bike, but AJ said he was coming to my house to pick me up at 8:30 for the club ride. The main motivation is the possibility of drinking a beer sometime later this season and seeing Turbo somewhere in the UC tomorrow since the club ride is heading south. I know he was threatening to ride the Frozen Hog tomorrow, but with Prime Time showing up with the skills, he'll probably be on the road bike somewhere far from the Hog. Although, Prime Time may be dreaming of warm weather a bit too much. I know it's late, but does anyone have an MTB I can use tomorrow morning?

Now I'll have to smoke 2 packs before the weekend is over...

daveh — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 03:13:00 GMT

The crew decided to ride in the Park City area this weekend, without AJ who has been training in Hawaii and Team Rico down in San Jorge. D$ joined him with others from the Porcalized crew and I heard they even had an MTB day in shorts and jerseys. I didn't feel like I missed out since we were in the cool sunshine and out of SLudgeC. BadMF and Step-O-Han were out both days, Miatchislav joined us Saturday, and Curly and his boys joined us on Sunday. Have I mentioned that Step-O-Han has recovered strongly from his cyclocross 2006 exploits. He is lighting things up on the climbs and rolling it on the flats! As usual BadMF is throwing down the power and putting the hurt on all of us. Miatchislav has become as good as Anheuser in spotting a county/city sign and even pulls off the sneak attack. Curly is still figuring out riding with Porcalized, but soon he'll be falling to the back around a K from the sign. Good crew both days. It's amazing how nice it is riding with some sunshine and being able to see some detail on the far-off hills. It was cold, but hey, we got to ride 4 to 5 hours both days. I ended up hearing some bad news about Sam K from the Tello. Hope you recover quickly Sam!

It's a sure thing that you've been on the trainer too much when you are thinking about knee and ankle position through the pedal stroke. Fun stuff for sure. I'm wondering how much my position will actually change. Earlier this week I was lucky enough to spend 2 full days listening to some of the top bicycle fit experts and researchers from around the country. Talk about an overwhelming amount of information. It's going to take weeks to sort through the notes and make sense of them. I frantically wrote as fast as I could trying to soak up all the data.

On a super-fun note, J-dorade has embarked on a research project for her school's science fair. She is hooking up to the CompuTrainer with the hypothesis that her working heart rate will drop over a month's time as she rides 4 times a week for 10 minutes each effort at the same wattage. She's pretty excited about doing it, especially since she and J-vanator plan to compete in more triathlons this year. Her science teacher was pleased she was so into it. Speaking of school and J-dorade...we got her 2nd quarter grades and surprise, straight A's and all Honors citizenship. Nice work!

We're almost to VotS. It's only a few weeks away and I'm excited to head down with Team Rico. I see there is going to be a strong Utah contingent in many of the fields. Hopefully it will be like last year and we'll be warm and my TT bike will find a way to go just as fast.

Roccomatic doing great

daveh — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 03:42:00 GMT

Tall Cans in the Air!!!!!!

So Rocco the dogger is doing super good. Great recovery. We think we have an idea of who did the terrible deed, but don't have a way to prove it. I'm still pretty pissed about it all, but I'm all about the excitement that Rocctastic is happy and recovered. Bella felt left out so she somehow ripped off most of a claw and had to have minor surgery to repair it. Nice one Bellatch. Doggies good makes humans happy.

J-dorade and J-vanator continue to haul butt in the pool. J-dorade will be moving up an age group but it looks like she's already going to be competitive with her times. J-vanator hasn't quite adjusted fully to the change of teams...they are now swimming with the Cottonwood Heights club. He is getting faster and faster though. Once he gets his dive down, he is going to rip.

Team J-squared ended up with Guitar Hereos II from the big man up north. You would roll on the floor hearing J-vanator rocking out and singing along to Shout at the Devil and hearing J-dorade try to convince everyone to listen to her play Cherry Pie by Warrant. Anheuser and Moto-Girl spent Xmas Day at the Hardwood residence. They showed up at beer:30 and I don't think the clock changed all day. We spent the day playing guitar hero, boggle, some other games I think, and a fair amount of malt beverage consumption. Thanks Team Moto! You guys rock.

Speaking of Team Moto, Anheuser and Moto-Girl bought tickets to the Freestyle Moto-X at the Dental Center. Talk about incredible. These guys were tough! Not only were there 9 guys lighting up a bunch of freestyle action on 70 foot jump spans, there were 6 or 7 BMXers lighting things up. One guy...who I swear is as tall as the A-Train was doing backflips and even did a front flip!!!! Also a crazy guy on a trials Moto who could probably ride a wheelie while eating breakfast. Incredible night you two! Thanks for having us come along with you.

New bike!!! The Tarmac SL alert was sounded this morning when Team Rico gave me a call to say it was ready to pick up. Thanks to BadMF I got my SRAM kit sooner than expected. I twisted on the pedals and grabbed the heaviest wheelset in the garage and put it on the scale. 15.5! Put some tubie Rovals on this bad boy and it's going to be sub 14.5. I guess I should keep quiet about that, but hey, it's super light. I kept wondering what the SL stood for. Got the measurements all dialed and it is going to be great! Bummer that there's 4 inches of snow at my house. I happened to be in a vehicle in the U.C. tonight and I don't think they got any snow...and I didn't see RB either. I was there both Saturday and Sunday and no RB. He keeps saying he's there...

Some new tunes have found the way onto my laptop. The Transplants, The Causey Way, TV on the Radio, more Eagles of Death Metal. Get ready to put Tall Cans in the Air.

Aight, I'm out! Have fun wishing you had a brand new Tarmac SL that is heavy at 15.5.

Tranquilo...

I'm Mad! no, not crazy...mad as almighty *&#@%$#&!!!!!!!!!

daveh — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 17:57:00 GMT

The past few weeks have been good weeks overall. However, on Tuesday I was pushed to my limits and I have no outlet. I came home from work late Tuesday afternoon to find Rocco the dog bloody and unable to put pressure on his front right paw. I had no idea how it could have happened. Bella the dog is a bad-mother German Shepherd Dog, but Rocco’s pack-mate. I have seen them wrestle hard, but never hurt each other. I wondered if the two had escaped the yard and gotten into it with some other dogs. However, considering the situation, I locked Bella the dog in the house and rushed Rocco to the veterinarian.

It’s horrible when your children are hurt. You have that panic feeling, but you can communicate with them unless they are injured badly. They can tell you what is wrong and typically how it happened. Pets are another story. You have no idea how it happened, let alone what is hurt. Rocco was crying whenever I had to turn or the car hit a bump. I was wishing he could let me know what was hurt. Very upsetting to say the least. So the vet checked him out and said it looked like a superficial wound but he wouldn’t put pressure on his front right paw. She said an x-ray would be needed. After waiting forever, the vet came to show me the x-rays. She said he had been shot by a pellet gun and that we were very lucky because it was lodged against his ribcage. Had it broken a rib or entered the thoracic cavity it would have been much worse. She was able to skin-staple the wound and sent us home with painkillers and anti-biotics.

The poor little guy limped around the house in a morphine-induced haze before crashing for 12 hours straight, besides a nature break. After some outdoor around-the-yard investigation I could see that Rocco had been shot in our back yard. Some jackass had gone to serious trouble to injure our typically happy pal. In my investigation, I could see that Bella had forced her way under the fence and ran directly to the front porch where I could see some shoe-prints that don't belong to anyone at our house. My only hope is that she sank her teeth into the shite-basket of a jerk who shot Rocco...or at least sent the idiot running in fear.

All of our neighbors are dog owners and were equally horrified by what happened, and unfortunately noone saw anything suspicious. I called the police to report the incident and was referred to Animal Control. Animal Control informed me that unless we knew who did it they could not do anything. They weren’t even going to come by. D-oza came up with a good idea to post REWARD signs around the neighborhood. I feel uncomfortable leaving the doggies in the backyard anymore and am very pissed off about it. They love being outside and playing. I’m wondering why there are people out there that would be entertained by being cruel to animals. I just keep thinking that I would have loved to catch them, grabbed their pellet gun and given them a 2-second head start. Bastards.

Needless to say the Fam has been upset and mad about the entire incident. Rocco is improving quickly as doggie-types do. He’s probably more over it than the rest of us. J-dorade and J-vanator were in tears with D-oza and I, and now they get stressed out if they think the dogs are outside for too long. Big bummer. Good thing is that I think Rocco’s main concern is that he’s laying around and Bella can’t figure out it’s recovery time so he has to get mad and let her know to back off. So, send some healing vibes Rocco’s direction.

I’ve got to end this on a few positive notes:

The Modern Lovers are a great listen—remember the Pablo Picasso song.
Crispy lit things up back at Cross Nationals along with strong showings from the Utah rider contingent.
The new winter clothing rocks…and we got it just in time—Go AJ!!!

Rollin' it in the UC, but didn't see RB

daveh — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 01:45:00 GMT

So I had to miss out on the PC expedition today because I needed to stay relatively close to the abode. Hearing about the trip to PC made me jealous when I walked outside and saw the nasty haze to the north. I thought that since Geneva is now just a heap of twisted metal that the UC may have some better quality air. I also thought I'd run into RB since I'd be rolling in the UC. I did my usual "look over the shoulder" the whole way on the frontage road around POM to ensure I did not get run down by some ba-zillion ton truck. Once past the gun show I wound my way through Lehi, American Fork, Vineyard, PrOrem, Pleasant Grove, blah blah blah. I think I've mentioned this before, but the UC has a $tarbuck$. I think there are actually two of them. Warmed up at some point along the way with some black gold goodness.

The ride today was particularly nice. Long and slow. Team Rico called to tell me I should switch the color of the bike I ordered. Since he is Team Rico, I think I'll listen. That got me thinking about handlebars and stems. Got to make a decision. In the process of all of this, I called up AJ. He is unbuilding/rebuilding bikes for probably 3 nights straight to get the exact perfect setup for the winter riding. I bet he could do all the bikes in one night since he has so much practice. AJ, you can practice on my gear anytime.

Have I mentioned my temp ride? Oh yeah, I have a few times. Super deluxe! The '07 ride will be super slick if this '06.5 is any indicator....mmmmm...SRAM!

Also, I got some great input on winter gloves. Thanks! Now I just need to read through Team Rico's energy drink comparison journal article that he submitted to the American Medical Association. Also, I am now CPR certified thanks to the Sandy Fire Department. Excelente!

Find some new gloves - please offer suggestions

daveh — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 19:15:00 GMT

For those of you about to rock...you missed out on Sunday. To begin the day, I rolled out from the house at 8:30 into a balmy 15F. By the time I made it to the $tarbuck$ it was up to 17F and after an americano it was at 20F. sweet! we were ready to rumble. Crispy lit us up with some nice 'cross form. The 2 cyclocrossers Crispy and Step-o-han showed up with some happy legs after the cross race saturday along with AJ. AJ and I are saying that we are trying to keep a lid on the intensity, but what we really meant is that we can't keep up with that kind of power. We were rolling out on this false flat towards the Bingham highway and he just kept going harder and harder. He would look over and say something like, "So how many days is VotS?" I would have to suck in a big breath so I could reply without gasping, "3!" I think that Crispy finally resigned himself to being cold no matter how hard he drove it, so we slowed down.

After 2.5, Crispy and AJ were calling it good. Smart. Step-o-han and I kept things rolling. It ended up being the Tour of Salt Lake Valley. F-burn told me Saturday that on cold days you burn something like 20% more calories. The whole time I was thinking I can drink 20% more beer tonight than originally planned. Do you also destroy 20% more brain cells by training that many hours in the cold? We made one more coffee stop in hopes of warming the insides. All the tables inside were full, so we went to the outside table to sit in the sun at the "smoking" table. Mistake...these wannabe hipsters show up to smoke and we got to listen to them try to sound cool but sound really lame. So it was back on the bikes to head north this time.

I kept thinking throughout the day that we'd see some fellow cyclistas, especially since we had crossed the valley east-to-west and back and were now on our south-to-north trip. Sure enough we saw some of the Draper Canyon crew on Holladay Blvd. The Claw and Hollywood were out with some of the boys and then heading south on 9th east just south of Sugarhouse we saw Skinny B and the Dutchman from Foothill. I hardly recognized Skinny B with the stylish beard. We flipped and rolled with them for a few blocks and then slogged southward. I think the long day finally sank into the legs around the Fort Union area.

Step-o-han pulled off to roll home in Sandy and I kept wishing that D-oza and the kids would call to say they were headed home from somewhere and thought I would be close to finished. No such luck. As I climb the hill into the neighborhoood I looked back to see the car driving up the street behind me, arriving in the driveway the same time I pull in. My cold fingers were happy to be home, but it was great training for another freezing rain/sleet storm at Hell of the North(Salt Lake) again this year. Maybe I should stop wearing gloves all-together for that kind of training. By the way, SRAM kicks!

He looks like the Hulk, just not green!

daveh — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 16:10:00 GMT

It’s been a while since the blog has rolled. Riding with Team Rico on Sunday in the freezing cold, I was reminded that my blogging had dropped off the map. Rico and I talked a lot about the upcoming season and team plans. We should be having plenty of the fun next year riding the bikes. Crispy has motivated us all to return to the cyclocross with his kick-ass finishes at UCI races. In addition, we are fielding another strong team for the road season with a crew of guys who are not only some of the best riders in Utar, but some great friends. The motivation for the squad is high and we’re already getting some quality training in together. I am, however, truly disappointed that one of the amigos is moving on, but that’s how it goes.

New stuff: not much new other than the kids have moved to a new swim team and I think they will continue to improve and become more and more competitive in their age groups. TT-the-tri-guy fine tunes the kid’s swimming form on a regular basis. At the last “clinic”, J-vanator told D-oza that TT “looks like the Hulk, just not green!” In J-vanator’s book, TT is the man! It’s great to have impressive examples to admire. I can’t count how many times I’ve said to D-oza, “T-bird looks like the Hulk, just not green!” It’s not really about the mass, it’s more about the quality of skill, strength and ability brought to the table that brings up comments like those.

Other new stuff: I’ve been fortunate enough to be riding a shiny bicicleta with the new SRAM Force components on board. Fun stuff! Also, BadMF and co. have released their EFS bar and they are super tasty and fuel the long rides in the cold well. Also, Team Rico has done a number of test comparisons with energy drinks. You may want to follow up so you don’t cause yourself adrenal failure. I think Rico is immune to the influence of copious amounts of Bull:30.

In conclusion, if you’re looking for a group to ride with on the weekend, come and join us. Miatcheslav may tell you he isn’t sprinting, but don’t let him fool you. Maybe F-burn will buy you a double espresso too. By the way, we missed the “little princess” showing up on Sunday. AJ, I thought she was scheduled to roll…

One final thought…I’ve spectated a few ‘cross races this year and even got my can handed to me at the first one. A few moments stand out: Crispy lighting it up at the first race after nearly wearing the soles off his shoes and winning the District’s; Prime Time hopping barriers at full speed (that was just downright impressive); and listening to AJ talk about how much fun he had racing the cross bike. That’s enough to get me roped in.

Anheuser might be jumping a bus on MOTOday 2 and TT rips the water at Ironman World Championships!!!!

daveh — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 00:26:00 GMT

Breaking news...ok it's not breaking news. Our local Ironman hero TT lights things up in Hawaii at the Ironman World Championships! In the 2.4 mile swim, TT posted the fastest time of the day. He lit up the pros so bad that Herman Stadler was so mad he threw down on the bike leg and averaged some ridiculous miles an hour and had a 13 minute lead. Schooled by the age-grouper kinda bugs the big guns! TT has had two huge swims this year in Hawaii and Brazil. That's what you call bad-ass!

I knew it would happen and glad that it did. Anheuser and Motogirl made the invite again to head to the track. This week J-vanator would be rolling with us. Unfortunately Crazy-B would not. I knew I could catch a little more air than last week. I had thought about all the tips Anheuser had passed on and I knew he'd have plenty more. Besides, after 2 weekends of riding dirt bikes I won't have to do any weight lifting all winter. It took me until this past Thursday to not be sore from MOTOday 1. I also knew we'd be in for some more big air courtesy of Anheuser, so I charged the battery for the camera. Anheuser and Motogirl spent Saturday riding at the track. I'm amazed they can ride like they do back to back. On Sunday morning, Motogirl was feeling the pain from Saturday and was sick to boot. Anheuser was still up for it and gave the DH fam the royal treatment. Since Deseret Peaks track was closed due to mud, he drove us all the way out to Delle...that's a long drive. There's a track out there as well as a lot of open space. Did I say that Anheuser's moto hauls some serious butt? Well, within about 3 seconds your doing at least 70 out on the flats. I'm sure that's low numbers for Sandros. You gotta post some photos of the asphalt track! By the way, thanks for the compliments Sandros. I always enjoy the chance to duke it out with you.

Quick rundown:

J-dorade hits the deck on Motogirl's and Crazy-B's bikes and has an 18x1 inch bruise lining her leg
J-vanator tips Crazy-B's bike over
DH wipes out trying to follow Anheuser's mad skills
D-oza keeps us all rolling and takes some great photos (one of these days she's going to show us some skills)
Anheuser catches big air all day and rips the track. Other riders in the vicinity tell their kids that they should watch "that guy" and learn
We all missed Motogirl and Crazy-B

So, here's a photo review of MOTOday 2:

Anheuser and MotoGirl light things up at the track...

daveh — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 00:43:00 GMT

This post is going to be mostly about the photos. Sunday morning MotoGirl gives us a call and invites us to join them on their weekend migration to the West. It's only on the other side of the Oquirrhs, but it sounded good. During the month of October my work is killing me so it was good to take an afternoon of break to relax and try something new. If you didn't know, Anheuser has this year returned to something he likes a lot, riding motorcycles. Both road and moto-x. He digs his road moto so much he offers to motorpace on occassion. Well, this weekend was all about the dirt. Enough talk, now we need photos. Run to the microwave and put in the popcorn, grab a comfy seat and enjoy...

Goat-head doesn’t flatten the spirit of Bella…

daveh — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 15:11:00 GMT

It’s official. The plug has been pulled. I had a great time racing cross last Friday, but I am tired. It was a good time to line up and not put pressure on myself to have a perfect race. The only problem with that is you have already allowed yourself to slack off just a touch. Racing is racing and that lack of putting a bit of pressure on myself makes the race not feel quite right. Thinking about it all Saturday and Sunday and talking to SkinnyB helped make the decision. It was already decided based on my race season plan, but it had to be decided again after remembering how fun it is to eat dust and get muddy on a cross bike.

SkinnyB’s recommendation is to sit on the couch for a month. While that sounds appealing, I just can’t help myself. The doggies have been waking up a bit too much at night so I decided I would work on wearing them out once I got home from work. Rocco and Bella go nuts whenever the collars and leashes are out. They know it’s time for some freedom from the backyard whether it’s a walk/run or a trip to City Pet Club. It’s tough to get the collar on Rocco because he’s jumping up in the air and running around in circles. We finally were ready to head out and the moment we made it to the front yard they turned on the watts.

Rocco has the Nordic dog build, square and powerful. Bella is just a big girl and could probably run all day. So for the first 15 minutes of the run we were going nearly twice as fast as I had planned. Any of you runners out there: if you need some speedwork, come get my dogs. It was just like motorpacing on the bike behind Anheuser. We were rolling along the Porter Rockwell trail towards 1300 and I could see that Rocco was finally settling down a bit. Bella did her typical scan of trail ahead of us and then looking over her shoulder to see what was behind.

When we turned around just shy of 1300 I noticed Bella was favoring in her stride. We stopped and I lifted up each paw. One of her rear paws had a goat-head stuck in it. Good thing she’s loaded up with Tufo sealant. I pulled it out carefully and she was ready to rock. Both of the doggies just kept on going, making me want to keep on going. We finished things off with a loop up onto a trail between the neighborhood and the new section of Bangerter up towards Traverse. It was nice to get out and do a nice run with the pups. Turns out, they put the hurt on me.

Back to doggies motorpacing runners, I remembered Skijoring, doggies motorpacing skiers. Check out http://www.skijornow.com/skijornowhome.html for some cool information. Make sure to look at the photo gallery. Looks like a lot of fun!