kinnigits!

I don't buy to many DVDs anymore after I realized that i normally only watch them once or twice. But Monty Python and the Holy Grail is one of my favorites that I have watched countless times. So imagine my distraught when I found the disc cracked in half. Not sure what happened to it but I shall now have to seek out a new one. Lucky for me youtube has all the highlights.

Just over a week till knee surgery. The weather here has been fairly nice (excluding monday's high of 32) I got in a couple hours of riding. The wind was a reasonable 15-20MPH. With highs in the 50s this week I'll get a few lunch time rides in. Got to keep up the leg strength for the post-op rehab.
The vet recently gave all my animals their shots and health checkups. She said my dogs are some of the fittest she has seen. 2-8 miles running per day will do that to them. My eldest Cat Peja may need some teeth cleaning unless I can get him to brush his teeth.
Work is slow. Working in a bike shop in the winter time is not something that is fun. A whole day could go by and you might see 3 customers (in addition to the regular daily visitors that just want to hang out).
Thanksgiving is next week, maybe I can take off Friday and head out for a round of flyfishing if the weather cooperates.
That's all for now.

Pain in the Knee

Well, you know it's time to put something here when your sister gets on you about how you haven't posted in a while.
So here it goes.
After my last cyclocross race I took a day of rest and played with the dogs instead of riding my bike. This "play" time stressed my nagging knee pain to the breaking point sending me into pain level 10 with a following trip to the e-room as I could barely walk. 3 weeks later, an MRI and subsequent trip to an Orthopedic doctor I finally have my results.

Drum roll please......

A torn meniscus! and as a secondary result of the MRI, the doc also found some arthritis in the knee.
Arthroscopic surgery to be scheduled.
On another note, Dogs are enjoying their last days going for walks and runs under warm conditions. Winter is coming fast. We dodged a bullet last week when the storm hit to the north. Lows lately have been in the low 30s and we have already had our first 50+ mph winds of the Fall season. Stay tuned for more exciting stuff.

Found this picture of me from the race last Saturday. That mud was thick and rutted. I had just passed the guy behind me and was in the process of pouring it on. The look on my face says it all.

And this is the mud track

CX XILINX

I cyclocrossed today in Longmont at the Xilinx campus. It's one of my favorite venues and the cold was not going to deter me. I think it topped out around 45 degrees. It was a cold 45 because of a slight drizzel and overcast skies. The course which my teammate described to me 2 days ago was bumpy and hardpack no mud. The off and on rain and 4 or 5 races before me softened up the dirt enough and turned one section into a veritable mud bog. I didn't get too much of a warmup as I had a flat tire after 1/2 a practice lap and was forced to do a tire/tube change 15 minutes before the start. I didn't have a great start, starting near the back, and was unprepared for the 0-60 start that is the norm for these races. I just kept it real and did my best not to be last. 1/3 a lap in, my teammate who was in the singlespeed division starting 1 minute behind me comes flying past me. Soon after that, it seemed like the entire singlespeed category had passed me. Whoa, this is going to be a long race I thought. About halfway through the 45 minute ordeal I started to feel better and actually caught and passed some riders. I was relieved when I crossed the line with 1 lap to go. It's almost over. Of course there has to be someone making a last minute dig to pass the next rider up. So I had a battle on my hands and I wasn't going to let him catch or pass me. Everything was clicking on the last lap. No bobbles, slips, or errors. Not sure were I finished but it makes no difference when you are having fun.
Of course all the mud took a toll on the bike and clothes. No pictures unfortunately, but it took me an hour to clean the bike and hose off my shoes. I'll probably have to disassemble the freehub and bottom bracket as they sound horrible.
Snow is forecasted to fall tonight so I should wake up to a white Sunday.
The Pellet stove is kicking out some great heat drying my shoes, clothes, and bike. Even on low it maintains a nice temperature of over 70 degrees in the living areas. here is a video of cross, not the race I did.

Interbike revisited

With all the information overload I was unable to post anything lately. I've since recovered enough to add to to the last post.
Fun, saw lots of people, saw a few friends that I hadn't seen in 20 years, made new friends, saw a ton of new products, drank Fat Tire and a bunch of esspressos, watched a Tim Johnson Cyclocross season documentary, raced a cross race, watched Lance Armstrong race a cross race, took home a bunch of food and product samples, unpacked 10 new waterbottles 7 bottle openers, 2 carbon clothes hangers, titanium cross frame, carbon cross fork, new shoes, 35 business cards, 1 t-shirt, countless decals, 5 posters, 3 beer glasses (one signed by Phil Liggett), enjoyed the warm evenings riding with the dogs, saw some retired european pros (Eddy Merckx, Maurizio Fondriest, Johann Museeuw) as well as many current pros. Made it back home in one piece.

US National Cyclocross champion Tim Johnson telling us he doesn't run for cross training


He's crazy. He's always been crazy. And what on EARTH is he doing?

made it through Interbike with nary a scratch

what a week. The industries biggest N American week ended today and I had the (mis)fortune of closing it down waiting for my turn to get my new Shimano high end shoes properly fitted. i got to meet a lot of great people and many of whom I've only seen on tv or read about in magazines.

The first day of the indoor I'm standing in the Sinclair Imports booth (Ridley Bikes importer) and the next booth over is the Merckx booth with Eddie Merckx himself unveiling his latest creation.

I shook his hand and thanked him for the first 2 race bikes I ever owned.

a lot of running around and then all too soon it was back to the truck to drive north to pick up the cross bike and dogs for Cross Vegas. Traffic was horrible and I forgot my map to the venue. I was working off of 5 day old memories of the street names. Traffic was so bad that I thought I'd be watching my race from the sidelines.

I ended up driving past the venue, did an illegal U turn, drove over a curb and grass field, and blasted across a dirt lot to make it to a part of the parking area where I (already dressed from changing while I drove) jumped out grabbed bike and helmet and sprinted over to the sign-in. less than 15 minutes later I was lining up for the race. 30 minutes was fun but I wished it was longer. I ended up getting sick again afterwards and instead of going to the best party of interbike I headed back to the home base for some sore throat medicine (Ice cream) and rest. Day 2 was crazy. I started late since I didn't feel like getting up and ended up straight in the Shimano line. $100 for their top end road or mountain shoes. An hour later I had my shoes and an appointment for 5:30 pm the next day. I checked out the LeMond booth where he and Phil Liggett were signing autograghs. 2 Icons of the sport.

I guess I know who Greg is voting for.

did more schmoozing and cruising the floor for many hours and then headed down to see the premier of the 9 ball diaries. It was a documentary that chronicled cyclocross star Tim Johnson's 2007 season. fun and commical. very entertaining. I attended a clinic on tuesday that Tim taught and learned a few CX tricks. I'm now a TJ fan.

I usually get back late and when I do the dogs need their excercising. So this night I suited up and did cyclocross drills across at the nearby hospital parking area under the parking lights.

day 3 commenced, and I was there early for all the last minute swag. The coolest item was given to me when I came across Allen Lim, team physiologist for the Garmin Chipotle proffessional cycling team, at the Saris cycling booth. I use their power meters for training and he is one of the gurus of power based training. I was talking to him about some of the things he has written and he tells me to hold that thought. He pops into the private area and comes out with a pint glass with Phil Liggett sayings on it. Cool, thanks Allen. He then got a phone call and we parted ways. It wasn't until later when I realized it was hand signed by Phil himself. real cool!

I did end up going over budget picking up a Lynskey titanium cyclocross frame and then getting the Alpha Q guy to sell me one of the show special forks at the show and not wait the 2 weeks.
for delivery. I'll have this ride ready for the next cross race.

It's packing time and then I'm off driving for the next couple of days. Work awaits.