The Official Guide to the World between the Wheels

october at a glance

Seems like Halloween is one of the biggest holidays with most of my friends. Not really sure why but hey it's fun and it doesn't require driving to six different relatives homes and buying gifts or cards so I suppose i like it myself.

This weekend I have a housewarming partys at a friends and there is another AllyCat race that i'll attend for fun beforehand.

So what have i been doing....well the trek Demo rolled into town last week and we tested out some of the new stuff. If you missed it thats to bad. Been riding but still trying to remove the demons camping out in my sinuses.

A couple of week until Iceman and my season will officially be over. I'm still trying to maintain fitness and speed for it but with each day its getting harder and harder to want to train instead of going out and goofing off with friends on the trail. Thanks to Eatough Coaching otherwise i think i would be doing just that. 

Getting Around

So i've been fighting some sort of sickness for almost 2 weeks weeks now. Riding has been limited but i've been enjoying myself.

Carving pumpkins, city riding and some goofing off on the trails. LAst weekend i went to the bike swap in Trexlertown at the velodrome. It was cool and then i drove into philly to meet up with jesse Kelly (long time friend) where he took Anna-Lena and i into the city by bikepaths. Anaa-Lena and i then rode around town and across the Ben Franklin bridge to New Jersey so we could visit the aquarium. What a fun time! Bikes are awesome and i would have never seen the details or places from a car!

stork

Sept..

I've been doing a few things outside of racing over the past couple of weeks. Labor day weekend found me hitting the 24 hour race at Seven Springs on the Trek of PGH corporate team. I had to pedal out two laps and my second lap was a really fun joy ride with an old friend. What a relaxing time with little pressure. I really enjoyed it. Afterwards I headed to Rockwell and then pedaled 30 miles on the Rails trails to Ohiopyle for an overnighter. It was a new experiance for me camping and hauling all my gear in a trailer. Anna-Lena and i had a really fun time riding there goofing off, cooking and setting up camp. We even tried cooking bacon over a fire on a stick!

Last weekend i made the trek to WI for the Chequamegon Fat Tire 40. Holy CRAP! was it F-A-S-T! 40 miles in just over 2 hours on a mountain bike!!! I finished 25th and around 10mins off of 1st place which is awesome and i'm very pleased with it. I owe two great coaches (Eatough Coaching) for preparing me and getting me into the top 1.5 percent of the finishers! you can find me in the right hand side lower corner (#117- just behind the quad)

I've been playing with some new wheels...the Bontrager XXXlite 29er Carbons to be exact. These things have a lot to offer and so far i'm so pleased that i've been switching up tires on them to use tham as much as possible. They are straight shooters and very noticable in the rock as they're less apt to be pushed around from rim flex like a normal wheelset.

stork

Something Differant

Saturday morning found me in Clarion with my Brother, Sister-in-law, nephew and Dad at a very informal "underground" Triathlon. It was at someones camp along the river...no registration, no fee. Sign up for the results and do the race. If you get hurt...your problem. I like this because it keeps things simple and most of the others there had done this the past 3 or 4 years. Afterward there is a huge picnic at the camp with no medals or money for the winners just some bragging rights until next year. Since my Sister-in-law is a couple months pregnant and my brother is a horrible swimmer we had decided to do this for simple fun. He would swim the first leg, i would then bike and Lara would finish with the run.
Little Padon (my nephew) and my Dad would hang out while we completed the event. I must say the trail was wonderful and a saw a few people from the Fat Tire Challenge which was just a few weeks ago (i'll have a better posting on that race soon). Most people were amazed at Lara running while pregnant and she finished in a very respectable time. We all had a good time and I headed home to lounge in front of the TV to rest up for my real event the following day in Ohio.
*stork

Lonely Days ahead

Little by little the season has crept up on me. I seemed to have overlooked/ignored its coming and simply have kept riding as i wanted. This is not good for racing...but it has been great for for my overall well being. I love riding and the freedom that comes from being able to attend any ride any day that i choose has been great. Sadly I must now stop that. Recently I've decided to actually take training seriously. This is a major change for me especially since i've always said "I don't train, I simply ride!"
With this change comes the challenge to see what differences it will make and whether i can stick with the scheduled rides and training.
For the most part i have always been against the coaching/trainer thing because every individual i've known that had one always missed out on rides and events based on their "schedule" This seemed to go against the fact that i was doing this for FUN, which meant if you wanted to ride then go ride. Well I must go back on what i said and figured the best way to see what you get from a coach is to hire one and try it.
That leads me to this guy. He's been a friend for years and our paths cross yearly at events. Sitting around at the Mohican 100 a few weeks back we got to discussing how i ride and what little training i actually do & he along with another mutual friend Chris Beck thought they could get my wasted junk miles to become viable training miles. All in all making me a more efficient rider/racer and still keeping the enjoyment in it. This venture has so far been very exciting and i must admit that I'm stoked to see where this takes me. Having people like Chris & Chris guiding me can only make things better. Most likely you would have never read about me and a coaching service but given Chris's record and a showcase full of championships how could this possibly be bad??  The great thing about Eatough Coaching is that the man himself is guiding you not someone behind a computer who read a book and passed a test. This guy has has passed  a few tests...24 hour & 100 mile tests many many times!

Well stick with me this season to see just how this works out but remember that the coaching can do nothing if I don't follow their input and guidance. It's only as good as I make it, and i will only get out of it what i put in! I'm off to train!

*stork

Holiday Wknd

It still seems like I'm always behind on posting & once i get to it the stories seem like old news. Well this past holiday weekend found me doing lots of riding and even downtown pittsburgh a few times. Friday - I meet up with Gray after her shift at the Shadyside Trek store and we rode to the south side for a little food before meeting up with Thomas for ice cream. I then left them at the ice cream shop and had a few other stops to make before returning home. I "heart" riding in the city at night!
Saturday - I slept in (much needed) and in the afternoon headed over to Vultures Knob for a small cross country race. I saw lots of friends there and it was well worth the drive over. I've been needing to get my "race legs" and this was a start. I felt horrible for the beginning but eventually started to feel better (not great but better). I did get crashed out in a turn but managed to get back up and continue. Hopefully this is not a sign of the summer racing season for me! Taking the top spot (Vet Open) was a bonus and wasn't expected at all. Since the venue is under new direction and building lots of great trails I returned my winnings for funding of future projects. (get a little..give a little)
Sunday - i awoke early and drove with my Mom up to Corsica (near Cooks Forest) where my Dad has a camp. Drank some coffee with the family and then headed out for a 3 hour ride around Clarion, Cooks Forest, Segal & Corsica. What a beautiful day...and it was so nice after finishing up the road ride I changed into some fresh clothes and hit the mtb trail at Bear Town Rocks for another 15 miles of pedaling. It was slow but enjoyable!
Monday - I ended up at the ShadySide Store working on MJ (Michelles) bike which she thought needed a cassette. Once started on it I saw the need for a new tire and a new derailleur. All because of her poor maintenance program. Chris (shop mech) and I fixed it up then ganged up on her about cleaning stuff instead of replacing parts! I think it may have actually sunk in this time (after 5 years!!!!). Her & I then took an urban ride to the South Side for dinner and a trip to REI. Returning to ShadySide we stopped for ice cream before calling it a day. I had a good time spending the afternoon with her and only hope we got thru to her on the cleaning thing! ;-)
*stork

Pittsburgh Demo Day

Where to start...where to start.... ok this past weekend was the Trek Demo Tour in North Park and sooo much happened that i'll just recap a little this morning and give better details to the stories later.

First up lets say thanks to Bob Myers (trek rep), Don Mosites (shop owner)  Dave & Chris the Demo Professionals.
Alright for starters I got a moutain bike in with Gray early before the Demo (which was her first mtb ride & she did really good!) then I also got a great ride in with Timmy Lyons ( my riding bud) & Brian DelVecchio (North Park trail stewart). Later in the afternoon following the Demo I rode again but this time with Don, Dave, Chris & Michelle (yes Michelle- who would have thought??). Ok I'm making that something we have been just fine and it was nice riding with her again. That was a good time and we managed to sneek in a little over an hour on the trails. During the day i saw lots of other great folks like Lindsay & her Dad Al who made the trip over from Ohio to hang out and assist. TJ Platt and all the other Trek of Pittsburgh employees who wern't at the shops for the day were on hand offering assistance and all star mechanic "scooter" scott wickham was turning wrenches & setting up rides for all the folks (seriously this dude is a great mechanic!). Brian Phillips was leading some rides for the demo participants so a big thanks to him also.
Well I gotta get to work so more to follow later.
*stork

Slacking off

Work Weather and day to day life...... Yea i'm still alive. The past couple of weeks have terrorized my allergies with the warmer weather and people already cutting their grass (how long until winter?). With a little help from modern chemistry & science i fought off my first real sinus infection of the year. I've gotten back into the swing of routine riding and have recently gotten to ride with Timmy Lyons who was off for a few weeks since his back surgery. He's riding well and I'm glad to have him back. I've also been joining the Trek of Pittsburgh shop rides from Robinson so it's been nice seeing all the normal faces from last year there. In addition i get my tuesday evening rides with TJ at North Park and on occasion been making a sunday hill repeat ride with him at Kennerdell (very boring but good for the legs)
Anyway it seems like this early in the season its hard to get to a race. The only weekends i've had free the races were to far away and again this weekend i have other commitments for work that will keep me from the startint line once again. No hurry there is an entire summer of racing ahead but I am getting a little pumped to get some race legs under me.
*stork  

Whats going on.

I would have to say I've been pretty busy for the past week so let me back up and recap a few things
I headed back out to Blue Knob on April 9th for another night ride with Brandon. This time he showed up with a brand new 29er (Cannondale caffeine) I think it was largely due to the fact that he struggled to drop me the week before while pedaling a 26' Scalpel and wasn't about to have that happen 2 weeks in a row. Never the less he rolled out the new ride and we headed back into the mountain top. This week however he chose to climb it twice (almost). Which gave my totals something like 5200' of climbing in less than 25 miles. I was exhausted to say the least and Brandon looked extremely "fresh" even at the end of our ride. I have to say it was another great ride and i look forward to doing this a few more times this summer. Thanks Brandon.
Saturday I worked on wheelsets and tires until the afternoon when i went downtown pittsburgh to meet up with allieb for lunch and a little city ride on the singlespeed road bike. We ate & then pedaled up to one of the Trek of Pgh locations to visit Tonya & Ted before returning back downtown to drop off some film she need to get processed and then parted ways. Thanks allieb
Sunday I got up early and meet up with TJ and Kennerdell for some more hill repeats. This turned out to be a very cool morning but the sun was shining and the trails were really dry. A few climbs & trips back to the car before TJ departed for his return to Franklin and I stuck around to climb the hillside another 3 times before splitting. This was another good day with 35+ miles and over 5400' climbing. I then went to my families for Easter and crashed for the evening.

Monday it was back to work and a lite ride monday evening followed with watching some TV while my throat became sore and the sinus cold arrived. Great I made it all winter without catching something and then the week i plan to race & this comes!! Well its gotten worse as the week has progressed. Last night being the most difficult, waking several times until i finally gave up trying to sleep around 3:30 a.m. and turned the TV back on. Sneezing, runny nose and coughing!!! Aaauugh!

This has been the most I haven't ridden in almost 8 months. In fact the last time i missed more than 3 days was probably Interbike.

Enough about that. Hopefully I get back on the saddle Sunday or Monday. In the meantime I'll suffer through this.

stork

Recap

Friday night found me and "Angie" out for another ride, then home early. I had some bike maintenance to do before saturday morning so I got to work on that for the evening.
Saturday morning after coffee I headed out to Moraine to re-test the SuperFly Single speed after making some adjustments to the rear hub. A slow precise ride around the trail and I was back home. I like to test bikes out here at Moraine since its a lot like a trials course with boulders & rocks to ride over. You get a good feel for the bike and if it's got anything loose or noisy it'll be easy to find here.

Saturday evening i had plans to attend the Black & Gold Sprints in South Side. I had wanted to ride down from the north of the city and was planning on meeting up with allieb & chris but they couldn't nail down the time so i opted to ride with King Ted from the shadyside store who also just happened to be the MC for the Sprints. This had me going a bit earlier than I had planned but never the less i went.
A few other shop employees like Chris (blockhead) with his girlfriend Rachelle, along with Tanya & Ryan showed up to hang out and watch. Eventually allieb & chris rolled in late and Chris & Rachelle sponsored allieb for the womens sprints. I hung around until 11 before jumping back on "Angie" and riding back to my truck. Home late and got things ready for a sunday ride.
Sunday I hit North Park for 30+ mile ride then took some time to relax and heckle DonO at the Cranberry store with Ryan.
Good weekend and I'm really looking forward to the spring & summer ahead. Lots of riding.....

Thanks to ted for letting me ride along & Congrats to allieb for a 3rd place!!

stork