My bike has new shoes

My Crossmarks came in today. They're some sharp looking tires. I hope they perform as good as they look.

I guess it's because they're UST, but the sealing process with the Stan's went uber smooth...like 30 minutes for both tires!

Tomorrow night is the weekly night ride. That'll be my first time to try 'em out.

A bunch of us have signed up for an event in January, called the Ididaride. It's a 50 mile ride thru the woods surrounding the Suwannee River. Should be fun. I'm planning on using it as a pre season test...see how I handle long miles on the mtn bike.

We're also looking at THIS ride up in Arkansas, in March. This one is 60 miles, and a bit more technical.

You don't see this everyday

I think I might need a new tire...

Whatcha think?

I've just ordered some new Maxxis Crossmark UST tires. They're so new that the Maxxis website is the only place to get them.

The mighty Jason Sager says, and I quote, "The Crossmark is by far Maxxis' best tire yet - UST, around 600g, and really durable...oh, and yeah, it handles well, rolls fast, and is versatile such that I could travel with only the Crossmarks and be ready for anything reasonable." That's some high praise, hopefully they're gonna live up to the praise.

When I get them I'm gonna Stan's the shit out of them, and then they should be practically bomb proof. The reason I say that is I feel confident that my blowout was due to running the Stan's in a Kenda tire (which have been known to have problems with Stan's sealant- or so I'm told).

Another turkey day come and gone

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Mine was good, except for the fact that I didn't get any damned riding in.

I felt like all I did was eat...

More Foundation miles

Another day, another road session.

I know that these foundation miles are going to do me good, but I'm not sure how long I can last... it's just so friggin' boring. I'd like to think I could make it thru the end of December before I totally glaze over. We'll see.

As of today, I've logged 126 miles for the week. On this ride I decided to do some Power Intervals to increase my VO2 max. Intervals really take a lot out of you. I'm totally spent right now. The weather is supposed to turn crappy tomorrow, but I'm hoping it holds off until I can get my last ride of the week (and my last road ride before Thanksgiving) in. If so, I'll end the week with over 150 miles on the bike.

Ride stats-
Ride time: 2hrs 18 minutes
Distance: 37.3 miles
Avg speed: 16.2mph
Max speed: 27mph

Brrrrrr!

After yesterday's brisk ride, I decided that some warm clothing was necessary. I picked up some Pearl Izumi Thermal Fleece Arm & leg warmers. Those warmers came in handy for todays road ride. Now, before you accuse me of being some warm weather p*ssy, we're under a freeze warning for tonight...so there!

Despite the arm & leg warmers I still got cold... well, my hands and feet got cold. By the time I got back to the car they were numb. I was feeling frisky, so after my road ride I hopped on the mtn bike for some night riding. The night ride was short lived though... I just got too cold while out on the road, and I was paying the price out on the trails. After one trail I called it quits for the night.


Ride stats-
Road
Ride time: 2hrs
Distance: 32 miles
Avg speed: 16.6mph

Trail
Ride time: 32minutes
Distance: 5 miles
Avg speed: 9.5mph

Who turned on the damned A/C?

Logged more foundation miles today. Had another friggin' headwind too...fortunately the headwind was on the way out and I got a nice tailwind for the homebound leg. We are getting some cooler weather, and as a result I froze my nubs off out there.What could the temperature possibly have been? 35? 20? 0? It was 55. Now I'm sure that you northern folks would scoff at that, but this Florida boy truly did get cold (I'm not one of those "it's 65 degrees out, time to pull out the jacket" types...I enjoy cold weather. Honest.).

Arm and leg warmers are on the "to buy" list tomorrow.

Ride stats-
Time: 1hr
Distance: 16.6 miles
Avg speed: 16.9mph (another damned headwind)

A tough workout partner

It's been a while since my last update. I'm such a slacker.

I've been getting in some good base miles lately. I've logged around 120 or so miles since my last entry.

I even woke up early to get a ride in today. Anyone that knows me, knows that is quite the feat in and of itself. I was 30 before I knew that the sun actually ROSE, I always thought it was just...there.
I had an insane headwind during the last half of the ride. A gust would hit me and I could look down and actually watch my speed drop. The wind added an easy 20 minutes to my normal time. Grrrrrr.

Other than that, it was pretty good. Kept my HR under my limit, and got a good 2+hrs of riding in. Also, I had a training partner along. Boy was this guy tough! I never could get ahead of him...

He stayed right there for half the ride.

I attacked a couple of times to see if I could lose him, but I never could. He was on me like a cheap suit.

This is as close as I got to passing him...damn he was tough!

Stats for today-
Ride time: 2hrs 10 minutes
Distance:35 miles
Avg speed: 16.2mph (damned headwind!)
5x10sec Power starts


Tomorrow will be a nice leisurely 1hr ride, then back to the long distance stuff on Thursday.

Ain't this just lovely

My new derailleur hangers arrived today, so with much eagerness I went about replacing the bent hanger. Upon putting the derailleur back on, I discovered some damage to the B screw adjuster...a little metal stopper was bent. It decided it was time to break off as I put the derailleur on. So what is the problem with that? With that metal stop gone, the B screw cannot be adjusted properly, and the deralleur gets pushed up into my cassette. Grrrrrrr.

So what does that mean? It means a new derailleur. I'm having to replace a 4 month old XTR derailleur. Dammit to hell!

On the up side, I'm getting a killer deal on a new one. Performance bike, God love 'em, had the derailleur on sale for $100...then I'm using $35 worth of team points. So I'm only paying $75 for a $150 Shimano XTR derailleur. Yay me.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go pout some more.

I'm on a roll

You're gettin' a 2 for 1 deal today...two posts for the price of one.

Got a good road ride in today. I was hoping for a 2hr ride, but I ran out of light (damn the end of daylight savings!), but that said, it was still a good ride. I did 30 miles in about 1hr 40 min or so. I also squeezed in some Fast pedal sessions. The hardest part of these rides is keeping my HR under the 89% ceiling.

Here are the stats:
Ride time- 1hr 43 minutes
Distance- 30.1miles
Avg spd- 17.5mph
Mx spd- 26.8mph
3x3min Fast Pedal @ approx 120rpm

By the end of the Foundation period I'd like to think that my avg speed on these rides will be 20+mph...which wouldn't be bad for being on a mtn bike.

Tomorrow will be a rest day from the bike, but I'll be doing my weight training. I'm in the Volume phase of my training. I lift a moderate weight, 8-12reps, 4-6 sets. I'll do this till the end of November, at which time I'll start the strength phase.

Here is my current exercise list:
Lower body-
Leg curl
Leg press
Calf raise

Upper body-
Bench press
Overhead (shoulder) press
Biceps curl
upright row

Lower back exercises-
Back extension

Abdominal-
Ab crunches
Sit ups(I hate these)

That's it for now. I'm currently planning my '06 racing season. I'll post it once I have it finalized, or close to it.

Could I be any slower updating this?

It took forever, but here are the pics from the 12 hrs of Pine Log.

Camp Pine Dogs (that is Team Possum's mascot hanging from the tree...we swiped it from them [insert evil laugh here])

Handing off for my turn- photo, courtesy of Jef March

Off I go, for my second lap- photo, courtesy of Jef March

Dave, chilling after a lap

MTBers and Halloween, what more can I say?- photo, courtesy of Jef March

Pat, punishing himself in the solo category

Walt and Sophie changing up