Hiya Everybody!

Yesterday was a jam packed good day. My new mechanic informed me that my rear mountain bike hub was shot. Bummer. So some quick thinking by Jess and I and the fact we had a friends and family bike sale going on helped. I bought a Mongoose Meteore Elite frameset. But the deal was, this came with everything but the drivetrain parts (shifters, crank and derailleurs and disc brakes.) But no worries, I got new wheels with tires, rotors and a nice cassette, a nice Rock Shox Tora Air fork, a sweet frame (in medium though) seat, seat post, stem and bars. I think I can turn a profit on the fork alone (coming soon to ebay) and we'll see about what Jess and I can do with the rest. So I get home just in time to get back in the car to see the movie The Break Up. It started kind of slow and had lots of cliches to it but such is life. The middle part was most excellent and entertaining. Not too much more detail however as the end not only sucked, but made me overall not like the movie that much. Before the end though it was highly recommended and I think everyone should check it out someday, it is still worthwhile. After that we hauled ass to Borders on University for the Mike Greenberg book signing. He was being interviewed on air for local ESPN radio when we got there. Then he spoke to us for a half hour and then signed books. Careful research by Jess got us to the front of the line when book signing time came...that's why I love her! :) For the record Mike likes Colin Cowherd as a person but doesn't know much about his show as (I find this funny) Colin's show isn't broadcast by the local station near ESPN. Afterwards we went to Noodles for some carboloading and came home. I wanted to work on bikes and Jess wanted to play Pandora's Box so it all worked out. I had to run into work to grab some stuff too. By 9:30pm I had a working mountain bike, a signed book, a full belly and a great night (unfortunately I turned on the Brewers game in time to catch two consecutive Rickie Weeks errors, 19 for the season, 6 ahead of the person with the second most errors.)

Today I am up early...going to pack for Wausau and get all ready so I can chill a bit before leaving. We are going to camp...should be interesting as always! Here's to hoping I can finish a mountain bike race intact!

There is no shelter here…

OK, the title of the post has little to do with the content (probably, I haven’t wrote the content yet.) Hooray! I didn’t break any bike parts yesterday. I got my American Classic Hurricane wheels to work with my Scott frame…I just can’t run Michelin tires. Those wheels are so rigid, it is almost amazing. Which is good because I needed every inch of propulsion yesterday on the Gun Show ride at work. I got to wear the last week’s winner vest (blaze orange vest that has a gun on it and says “Green Piece”) and the bullet token (overall leader) as I somehow obtained the most points last week. I held on to both luckily. I wasn’t feeling great yesterday but all three places to obtain points came down to sprints (my forte) and I used tactics and power to keep me near the front and finish everyone off.

Last night was volleyball. After dominating game one, we ran into some hot serving (scoring 5-8 points at a time) and couldn’t win another. We played pretty well and once we figure out how to return difficult serves I think we will be rocking. Fortunately we have some good servers on our team too so we can go on similar streaks. Afterwards we went to Monte’s in Verona. 1 word, “overrated.” The sandwich I had lacked, size, substance and flavor. The fries weren’t great either. The menu was less than intriguing and the prices weren’t good either. No offense Riz, your burger looked good but pricey. I think next time we’ll have to hit the Culvers or the Michaels, I know Jess, Tad and Hez like it and I assume Riz and Kari do as well. On the plus side it was a lot of fun to hang out with these guys…it kind of feels like we’ve been growing apart with everyone being stressed at their jobs and having separate or new hobbies this summer.

Unfortunately the reemergence of my Hurricane wheels results in a reemergence of the Carolina Hurricanes as they beat my beloved Buffalo Sabres. Actually I only care minimally, the Sabres are my favorite hockey team but maybe my 15th favorite pro sports franchise.

Todays menu? Still nursing a bit of a cold, hanging with Jess, The Break Up movie, Mike Greenberg book signing (perhaps), Pizza Hut or something, 5 star sudoku, Getting my mountain bike fixed by the best mechanic on the block and 9 Hours of work.

Double DNF. Two rides, two misses. It all started with my lunch ride to Paoli. Pretty uneventful until I hit Sayles Trail. As I was climbing the last little rise I broke a spoke on my rear A-Class wheel. It was unridable thanks mostly to the tight tolerances of the Scott frame. I ruined a wheel in less than 2 weeks. Jess was nice enough to come and get me so I got 9-1/2 miles in. No worries, it was mountain bike night. After troubleshooting my Garmin bike computer (it wouldn’t turn on) Jerry worked on my mountain bike, installing the chain. It made a mysterious noise but my bike usually does so no worries. We head out to Blackhawk to do the time trial. I get all ready and we are about to do the pre-ride. Oh crap, my bike feels like it is skipping, kind of like a worn-out chain with new cassette. I get off and look and it appears my cassette is loose. After rifling through some cars of people we knew we found a cassette tool. It wasn’t my cassette; it was my free hub. So I was done for the night. I was hoping for 20-25 miles on the road bike and 10-15 on the mountain bike but such is life. I hung out, had a beer and watched everyone else have fun! Needless to say my day sucked as I spent 25 minutes hanging out on the side of the road and 2-1/2 hours hanging out at Blackhawk. On the plus side there were some other people to hang out with and I helped good ol’ Garett do the timing. Jerry is looking at my freehub and I’ve rigged my road bike for the gun show. My riding has been so limited this week (56 miles) so hopefully I’ll be fresh. Volleyball tonight so that’ll be a good time! Hope everyone else had a better day! I wonder what Riz is doing right now?

Can you say Mark & Riz transcontinental trip? I can! I think we could do even better!

Structured Training sucks! Last night we were too scared by rain to go to Baraboo. My genius (eq:stupid) ass said that instead we could do hill repeats on Observatory. So that’s what we did. Fortunately Jerry used a special trick to ward off rain…if I were cool I would’ve brought a camera to make fun of him even more but I didn’t so we’ll all have to wait until he does it again. Anyways, the first 4 ups (2 on each side) went pretty well as I was almost at a near puking level. Climb 5 was my best but at the top I got a side ache (another first for me.) But I was able to work it out (or so I thought.) Finally on ascent # 6 I couldn’t get my heart rate up above 190 where I wanted and the side ache came back strong. Guh! So that was enough for me. The side ache went away riding home and I didn’t puke so that was nice. Back to riding for fun and ride the unstructured but still structured group rides…

-Jess rode yesterday before work and her total weekly mileage was more than mine until last night.

-This link is awesome! I love Clay Aiken!

-Mountain bike time trials start tonight and if I can get my bike ready in time I’ll be there!

-Is anyone camping at 9-Mile? I’d like to ride on Saturday but if no one is going to camp I’ll have to reevaluate plans.

-Pacific Team is in jeopardy and then some guy cancelled our website! What a jerk! I have until the end of this week to consider my options.

-Got new saddle, post, headset and stem from Kore as they are a road team sponsor. I don’t know if I can use anything besides the stem though. It’s cool to get new stuff. Hoping my road wheels and tires will be here soon though.

-Mean people still suck!

-Jess got the kitchen half painted yesterday. The kitchen is now about 90% done considering everything Jess has done since we moved in…it looks awesome!

-For the first time in 2006 (probably) I got the final Jeopardy answer correct!

Holiday weekends. They seem so long at the beginning yet seem so short at the end. The weather is always way too hot or way too wet, in this weekend’s case, hot! I guess will do it recap style yet again although I am getting bored of my junk writing so hopefully one of these days I’ll get some creative spark back.

Friday- After a long hot day of work (ripping up the WORS message board and not kickin’ a 2 hour lunch like most of the office.) I went home. I discussed race strategy with Jerry (ride real fast) and then went down to meet some peeps at the Sausage Fest. One thing I noticed is that the brat quality isn’t there, sure they are Johnsonville but they taste kind of like a breakfast sausage, sort of dry. The hot dog I had was much better. After we went to MJ & Andy’s to hang out with our god-daughter and eat S’mores. It is always a good time with them!
Saturday- Get up early for L’Alp Bl’Huez. We rode out there. After climbing the second hill, I tried to downshift and couldn’t. Are you kidding me? I stopped. I broke my front derailleur. The top plate broke. Unbelievable, 4 months of riding on a new Dura Ace derailleur and snap. Who breaks a front derailleur anyways? We get to the race and sign in and warm-up and I left my scent all over Blue Mound. Then it was time to race. Brozek started before me and Jerry after me. I accelerated and was off, on a mission to catch J.Bro. Well I was caught by Jerry first and then he passed Brozek before I did. I kept Jerry in sight to the second part of the hill and that was it. See below for the agony of climbing. I felt kind of like Ullrich or Hamilton (minus 10 or so hemacrit) out there. One measure of the day is how you do compare to those riding at the same time. I passed 4 and got passed by 3 so that’s a good thing I suppose. Anyways, I finished right around 34 minutes. I see Jerry laying by the side of the road after, he said he puked twice…I didn’t reply as I couldn’t really talk. I cooled down a lap at the top of Blue Mound and then I was fine and Brozek also finished. We chilled out at the top and ate some lunch and talked to a bunch of people. I even won a nice Trek helmet. Riding home (- Brozek) with an extra helmet was interesting. I hit one puddle on the way home and my bike was caked in mud, it was insane! I basically sat on the couch the rest of the day watching some flipping show on TLC (they make it look so easy to gain a quick 100k) and then we went out with the Longs (and Kelson) for supper. Then Jerry invited himself over as he is a closet rapper and we rapped and sung. Thanks to Kelson for the free vet advice and for the non-stop amusement.

Sunday I didn’t do anything in the morning. I watched War of the Worlds (that movie is insane) and read the paper. Then we went down to the marathon and watched some people finish! It was hot! Everyone we knew finished though so that is awesome! I had a couple more brats (they were out of hot dogs, stupid ploy to break the record, although they failed) and got home for the second half of Indy. Afterwards it was over to Shelleys for her 30th b-day. I mostly just chilled and ate and watched the Nascar race. There weren’t many there that I knew so I kept it low-profile. We left shortly after the race. Happy 30th Shelley!

Monday I didn’t feel so good. Whether it be too much junk food or the cold I never really got but never really got rid of I couldn’t pin it. 90+ temps didn’t help thus my desire to do stuff was gone. Grocery shopping was about all I could manage. I did some stuff around the house, played some games, watched some movies and did very little. Jess however worked several hours on refacing cabinets. Sucks to be her! We went out for supper with her parents, than a little neighborly chatting and I was down for the count.

If only this were a road race and not a time trial it would be pretty sweet that I am leading all those guys.

L'Alp Bl'Huez = Fun!
10.1 miles/33:56, just over 1000 feet of vertical.

Special thanks to Melissa Brozek for driving sag and to Danny for this photo. Also thanks to Brozek and Jerry for riding out there with me.

Wow, Todd Wells is tough! What a crappy weekend.

I get 25 Coke points, if only I was drinking a coke

Here's a photo of me finishing on Thursday! Anyways, congrats to those who ran this weekend. Missy finished her first half and O'Donnell, Tank and Brooke looked great on Sunday despite mid-9os temps and crazy humidity. Indy 500 was crazy, Hornish is cool but an Andretti win would've been old school. Today was a chill day, got stuff done around the house and took it easy! Hope y'all had a great weekend!