Recap

Been a while, but been doing alot. Here's a bit of what's been keeping me busy in the last few months:

Got shipped to Germany for work in November. The trip was fun but too quick and busy to do much of any sight seeing.

Got to ride over on a big ole jet. Both times I've flown into Europe they've parked us outside and made us walk to the terminal, not sure if that's normal or if I'm just special.

Here's the two other guys I traveled over with and our BMW rental car outside of McDonald's. Of course after we come all this way that's the place they want to eat. Just after this picture I got to get behind the wheel on the autobahn and hit 200kph!

Our booth at the Agritechica. For our first full day in Hannover we figured it would take less than an hour to set this up and then have the rest of the day to sightsee but we wound up spending about 10 hours sitting around waiting for our TV to show up.

Panorama shot of our building. This show was HUGE! There were about 25 buildings and 17-18 of them were as big as this one!

Me and my plane just before taking off alone from Frankfurt.

Back home to play Mr. Potato head with Susie.

Been honing my skills on repairing busted carbon frames, getting better at it all the time.

Finished product.

Got to help out with some Christmas decorating.

While in Boise for Thanksgiving I made it out to enjoy the warm weather on that side of the state on a couple of MTB rides.

But then made it back to our beautiful home before getting too used to the non-cold.

Santa Came!

The Parker men made a manly (and crowded) drive down to see the Fiesta Bowl.

Thanks to me and my super spectator skills the Broncos were able to head home triumphant!

Anyone planning to ride rollers this winter NEEDS to do this.

Check these out. I saw some like it on youtube and decided to make a set of my own. The retail ones that they copy are very pricey and very well made too, so they're worth it if you have the $$$. But since I have many other priorites draining my cash flow I figued I could cook something up for cheap.

The idea is real simple: just mount the existing rollers on wheels so they can roll freely forwards and backwards, then attach some kind of bungee strap or other spring to return the rollers to center after they move. Here's what mine consisted of:

2- 2x4's

6- roller skate wheels (really only needed 4) (from skate-buys.com for $0.75 each)

2- bungee cords

plus hardware and a bit of scrap wood

You can check out http://www.insideride.com/ for more info on benifits to using this setup. If you watch the video I have you can see these things moving around under me. I was standing and trying to ride crazy for most of the video and never once came close to jumping off the rollers (every time the rollers move is a time that the bike would have tried to jump off of normal fixed rollers).

Ready to Rock!......(maybe,......I hope)

For a while now Kayla and I have had Sept. 19th marked on our calander for the marathon we're running, and that day sure does have a tendancy to keep getting closer and closer.

We've been running ridiculous amounts and things seem to be going well for it. I'm at least ready enough that I know I can finish the whole distance, now the question is if I'll be able to pull off my original goal of not only finishing but running it fast.

We started with a goal of going to Boston next year and picked a one-way downhill course to give us a better chance at hitting the qualifying times. The more long runs I've done the more I've given up on myself being able to qualify but I still think Kayla will be able to pull it off (I think I'm ok with going to Boston just to watch, much less painfull). After reviewing the course profile I'm thinking of changing my footwear choice from my Nikes to something else...

I bet they're cheaper than EPO and only slightly more detecable!

Whatever happens I'm thinking that come 7:00am on Saturday the hardest parts of the whole expience will already be over (training runs, guilt trips from Kayla for eating too much junk and most difficult of all waking up at some crazy hour Saturday morning to catch the bus to take us up the canyon to the start line!).

Now to end the post, a real marathon training souvenir...

Yep, thats whats left of a blister that at one time covered a good portion of the inside of my right foot! Nice and leathery now.

Hit the ground running

Just got back a few days ago from a pretty awsome trip to the Oregon coast with Kayla's family. It was part of a big reunion they do every year where we all pitch-in to rent a big house or two someplace cool and just kind of hang out for a few days. We were a bit worried about taking Susie on such a long drive but with a little help from Elmo and Barrney she did prety well.

Once at the coast good times were had by all for sure. Susie loved playing on the beach and had a blast playing with our kite. It's a little one and she was just barely strong enough to hang on to the handle as it towed her down the beach and she said "Weeeeeeeeeee" over and over. Pure awsomeness.

Another day we headed down to the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport.

Then for our last full day there on Saturday Kayla and I went out for a 13 mile run (she went 15) on some nice trails in Newport and ended on the beach. Why in the world was I running so far?... Well it turns out Kayla has finaly gotten her way and I've decided to run a marathon with her. I came up with the idea because we were each floundering in our individual sports since we had no one to train with. Of course us both racing bikes would be cool, but we've tried her on a bike and (sorry love, as great as you are I have to say it) she's not real good with bikes.

Training with my wife has been great and very rewarding. We're both getting into pretty good shape and feeling good. About a month ago we ran a fun-run together and for the first time ever I beat her in a 10k. Some people may not think it's a big deal to beat a girl, but you have to understand, in a distance running race she's a really fast girl. This weekend we're gonna be doing the Melba 10k and I think she might want some revenge. She smashed me in this race last year, so we'll see how it pans out.

Bring'n a butter knife to a gun fight!

I think this title is the best way I can sum up how my first weeked of racing went this year. Pretty sad when even if the competition puts down their guns to press their bare jugular against my cold blade and it's not even sharp enough to make a red mark...

See this nice little picture of a train? I'd love to be able to post this as a representation of the power I poured out in the road race but unfortunatly it's more a symbol of how even the greatest turn of dumb luck couldn't save me out there.

So I toe the line feeling fine and ready to rock for a bit and being a little excited to get to go fast with the nice tail wind we were starting with. But that little bit of going fast quickly turned into everybody giving it everything in their 53x11 and the draft helping very little. Before I even had a chance to get into the grove of being in a pack (only my second group ride of the year) I was spit out the back and seemed done for the day. I continued to crank along a bit since I knew if anything this meant I needed to get me some more miles on the bike and watched the pack get smaller and smaller in the distance.

Then towards the end of the first of 3 laps...holly CRAP!! The whole field was stopped just waiting for me, or more accurately waiting for a long, slow-moving train to get out of the way. Whew I'm safe, right? Well for a bit anyway. I tucked into the back for the headwind streaches to get towed along very nicely. Unfortunately the nature of a looped course meant that we had more fast tail-winds coming up just around the corner, and sure enough, POp goes the Steve-O. By nearly even dumber luck a second train almost stopped the pack again to let me get back but not quite. Game over. Time to head back to the car early and take my crown as the only DNF of the field that day.

Now I'm wondering if I actualy deserve to go to bed now or if I need to go hop on the rollers for a couple of hours to earn it....

Time to get older and buy a new bike.

I havn't been doing much in writting on this thing lately but, oh well. It's not even that I've been crazy busy or that nothing is going on, just havn't felt like comming on to play.

So I had a birthday a week or so ago and got another step closer to the big "3 oh" (that's when I'll have to start feeling old). Kayla was great and still made me a cake and got me a small present even though I had just recently blown a ton of our $$ on buying myself a new bike.

I'm too lazy to go into the other room and snap a photo of the actual thing right now, so here's the shot from Trek's web site instead. True it's not mirror polished from head to toe like my last bike but hey, we all have to make sacrifices these days right? I've had the bike for nearly a month I think and it has been awsome. Way lighter, way smoother and handles just as nice as the shinny brick I've ridden for the last few years.

Next week I'll get to take the new rig out and see how it likes racing when I venture back to Boise to race the Birds of Prey RR. With th weather so nasty here and no one to get out and ride with, my training has suffered for sure, so my race goals are pretty basic (like hang with the pack long enough to say hi to a few bike pals and then pound myself into submission chasing the tail end of the group).

Hammer it out Baby!!

A while ago I remember mentioning on here that I miss the awsome music montages of the 80's. Well boy have I dug up a doosy! This is the opening credits from an educational cycling video my brother got when he bought a bunch of Greg Lemond Tour de France tapes on ebay and this one got thrown in with the mix. The full video features the 7Eleven team, some good advice, a little bit of really bad advice and of course an amazing soundtrack! Sit back and enjoy.



Here's a short sample of the lyrics (as much as I could type before realizing I'm too slow of a typer to keep up):

Round and round forever it seems
one among the field with a glorious dream, (ohooouuohohoh)
the heat is on gotta greak away,
Gonna jump!
Push it to the limit
finish line dead ahead
stretchin, stretchin out the gap, gap, gap!
Hammer it out
be a champion
Hammer it out!