Boot Camp

Cyclocross season and the birth of our son are both fast approaching. Jenn and I decided to head up to Tahoe for a week for some R&R (both of us) and some high altitude training (just me).

I brought both my new mountain bike and the cyclocross bike. Even though I was excited to ride my new Santa Cruz, I was focused on the cross bike. Over the course of eight days I rode seven times, and four of those were on the cross bike.

The first three days I did cyclocross rides of 22, 27 and 31 miles with lots of climbing and intervals. I was feeling pretty good.

In the afternoons we would go for walks, sit at the beach and have nice dinners.

On day four I finally took the Blur out for a ride. I was a little tired and had some difficulty adjusting to the new bike. Full suspension feels weird and slow.

I rested on day five and spent the whole day relaxing with Jennifer. It was good.

On day six I took the Blur out again and I suppose it was better. I don't know. It's fun to go downhill but climbing sort of sucks.

Day seven was another cross ride.

On our final day I again rode the Blur. The ride wasn't much to get excited about, but on the way back to the condo I almost hit 55 miles per hour on Country Club Drive.

That evening we took a dinner cruise in South Lake Tahoe. It was great.

Jennifer had that expectant mother glow.

Fannette Island:

Vikingsholm:

We headed back earlier today to avoid tomorrow's Labor Day traffic. It was a great trip.

Later.

Blurry

I have been mountain biking now for almost 20 years, and technology has come a long way. I thought perhaps it was time to try full suspension again.

My first dive into full suspension was in 1994 when I was racing for Dean. It was an AMP Research rear end mated to a Dean front triangle. Many companies utilized the AMP rear end for their FS bikes at the time.

That design left a lot to be desired. The main problem was there were only two attachment points for the rear end: At the shock mount and at the crude pivot behind the bottom bracket.

This led to a wildly flexible frame. My friend Doug also had this frame, and I remember riding behind him on a downhill in Auburn and marveling at how the front and rear wheels were rarely even close to being in the same plane.

Thankfully I broke the seat tube before the bike broke me.

Now, almost a decade later, I am going to try it again. This is my new Santa Cruz Blur.

I finished it just in time for our trip to Tahoe tomorrow. We will see how it goes.

Later.

Settler

After knocking out 600 miles in June, I fell off quite a bit in July with only 348 miles. Selling my house, moving up to Shingle Springs and riding in a completely new (and somewhat dangerous) environment caused the mileage to drop significantly.

Now it's August. Jenn is cool with me racing cyclocross again even though we know our baby will arrive sometime during the season. If I am going to do it, I need to get busy.

I rode from work up to my new home for the first time yesterday. I took the direct route up Green Valley Road and I will probably not do that again. During rush hour there are simply way too many vehicles going way too fast. It was very uncomfortable.

Today I took a different route through El Dorado Hills, which added more mileage (36.5 miles versus 32 yesterday) and climbing.

I don't know what the total climbing is, but our house is at 1670 feet and work is at about 70 feet of elevation. You climb over a number of hills with descents, so I am going to say around 2500 feet.

Working a full day and then riding home for 2.5 hours is pretty tough, but that's the only way I can get some real training in right now.

Later.

S-Works

I am selling my Stumpjumper S-Works. It was a good bike but I need the funds for a new project and my Litespeed is a better bike anyway.

That said, it is really hard for me to give up anything orange. I do love an orange bike.

Later.

Trucking

 Last week we bought this:

Our current two-truck situation wasn't really a long-term strategy for family success.

We needed more room and a safe place for a baby seat.

Here Bill urinates on my front tire. In his culture, this is a gesture of respect and good luck. I feel blessed.

Unfortunately that means we have to say goodbye to a truck. We are opting to keep my two-wheel drive truck because it gets better gas mileage.

It was a good truck and we will definitely miss it.

Later.