Holiday guest

My sister and brother in law made it down for Thanksgiving, he brought his road bike and we did ride it once. Steve expressed an interest in getting out on the dirt, I am always willing to try and make new converts so I wrangled up a single speed bike for him, he could be hooked.

Steve suffering up the Sidewinder climb in the early morning hours.

Back at the bottom.

Die Cold Miser

As you may know, you cannot measure cold. All you can do is measure a lack of heat.
Another thing you cannot measure is my disdain for the cold. I started my ride this morning at 6am, in the dark and 31 degrees. When I was done it had dropped to 28.

You would think I would be used to it by now but every year I have to reinstate an uneasy truce with mother nature. I will continue to badmouth her and she will continue to make me suffer.


Long live the Heat Miser. Why is he portrayed as the bad guy, I think he is getting a bad rap.

Pour some sugar on me

If I was a one armed drummer I would be all over this. I love that one of the requirements is a flame retardant kit, these Texas boys take their Def Leopard very seriously.

Spinning my way to happiness

I have found myself in the doldrums of blogdom, so I thought I would share my latest passion. During the winter months I have found a way to entertain myself and keep things in tip top form. Spinbike gymnastics.

Here is my routine from the International Spinning Championships, I worked really hard on this and I sewed my own costume. This routine was also dedicated to my Mom.

Man Crush

I ran across this clip about a local celeb, John Hanson.  He and I have enjoyed/suffered many an adventure together, they usually end with him being sick on the side of the trail.  I am beginning to think I am the cause.

I may be tipping my hand here but JRuss is probably the coolest cat I know. How many people do you know that can rock the gentlemen's hat? Not many.
In my wildest dreams of avarice I hire John to work part time for me, (the man is a licensed engineer with a degree from a school that rhymes with Striggum Dung) pay him an exorbitant salary so he can spend the rest of his time making bicycles. It's mostly a selfish endeavor, I just want a reason to hang out and partake in his mojo.

So if you are looking for a new custom ride, Sabrosa should be on the short list.  To paraphrase Ferris Bueller "I love riding it, it is so choice. If you have the means I highly suggest picking one up."

You will need to go here to see the vid, or go here to read what John has to say. 

Soapbox

I've had a few random thoughts kicking around my head that I have to get out.

First off, you may remember my feelings on the repair job done by the county road crews. That post was only a year ago and as per my prognostication the chip seal is not holding up. I rode up to Veyo this morning thru Gunlock, from now on I am going to refer to that ride as the Veyo-Roubaix. If you don't get the joke, go here to be enlightened.
This is part of the same track used by the St. George Iron Man, a world class event. I would think the county would be ashamed to show the world how good they are at ignoring road conditions. The Iron Man allegedly brings in millions of dollars to the local economy but they can't seem to spring for 30 miles of new tarmac.
Thumbs down to you Washington County Road Dept.
Feel free to send Wendell Gubler a piece of your mind, he already has had some from me. He is the man in charge of saying "we don't have any money."  Wendell.Gubler@washco.utah.gov  


Secondly, runners. This may offend a few of you but I don't care. Sometimes a little tough love is the only way. 
This time of year it seems as if 1/4 of the population in preparing for the St. George Marathon. They train by running down the course from Veyo to St.G via highway 18 or down Snow Canyon. 
Running to me looks like agony. Plodding, slow, jarring, joint destroying agony. Maybe that is why most of the folks I see are so zoned out of their minds that they can't seem to behave like we have rules in our society.  In Snow Canyon on Thursday I passed approx 35-40 people, It was dark and 50% of these fools were not using lights or reflectors of any kind. 
They was no rhyme or reason to where they were running either. Some were running against traffic (which is the recommended method) some were running with traffic but the majority were right in the middle of the road running 4 abreast. 30% of them were startled when I got to within 25ft of them, again so zoned out that they failed to see my bar lights baring down on them.


Now for my biggest complaint, litter. 





The runners are of course training for a long event and they don't want to carry all the necessities i.e. water, fuel, supplements etc. So they leave little stashes along the road way so they can pick it up as they need it. In theory I understand this and agree with the idea. However in the application of this plan they fail to do the necessary clean up after the fact. There are hundreds of used water bottles right now along the side of highway 18. Every runner that I confront about the problem says the same thing, "we always pick up our trash after the run." LIARS! If you all picked up your trash then there would be no trash.


Thanks for listening and please keep America beautiful.  




One more thing, congratulations for finishing a tough event ladies. 

Saints to Sinners

I few months ago I was able to reconnect with my Dad's brother John. I think we were both surprised to find out that the other was an avid cyclist and we made some tentative plans to get together for a ride.
About a month after that he emailed with a question, " Do you want to ride in the Saints to Sinners relay"?

The Saints to Sinners ride is in it's second year and put on to raise money for ALS. This is a road ride so I am deviating from the normal mountain bike drivel you usually see here. The route looks like this;

The team was put together with a rag-tag group from So-Cal, Utah, and Colorado.The group was very cool and for once I was not the oldest guy riding.  We also didn't have any of the Uber aggressive, "in it to win it" guys who just need a punch in the face.... so that was nice.

The race is split into 30 legs and each team member has 3 legs of their own to complete. The team is able to ride together for moral support or drafting purposes, the only regulation being that you cannot ride the leg directly before or after the leg you are responsible for.
We split up the effort as much as possible, helping out where we thought it was needed.

I didn't take any pictures the whole trip so I had to rip these from Emily's blog. If you visit her site be sure to take note of how men should wear scarves. It works Pete,    it    just    works.

Two vehicles are a must have for an event like this and a the motor home was invaluable. Not that you get a lot of sleep in there, but having room to move around and lay down if you want is really the way to go. The constant moving was an interesting twist and you need a guy or two to be on top of the logistics. Big props to Brian for keeping us all between the lines. In fact I would highly recommend at least one person on your team be an MIT graduate, they don't seem to mind the extra workload.

The most memorable leg for me was the midnight ascent of leg 13. It looks like this;

In the moment the ride was a grind, but as soon as I had recovered from the oxygen debt and had warmed up from the rain at the summit the recollections were more enjoyable than painful.  The smells of the damp forest, the dark solitude, the lack of oxygen and sleep all contributed to a terrific ride.  I am calling my shot right now and saying that I would do again if we do the race next year.

I need to make a comment on Emily's last leg through the Valley of Fire state park. It was hot, really hot and the profile provided by the race organizers did not seem to be accurate. There was a lot of tough climbing but she pounded out the 16+ miles like a trooper.

If you are looking to do this race next year I would highly recommend it. You take a route through the heart of Utah that you normally don't get to see. I could write an entire do's and don'ts scenario for you but that would take some of the fun out of your event.
Suffice it to say that as the miles pass under your wheels memories will be made, the sun will set and rise again, relationships will flourish, pain and suffering will be felt, sleep will elude you and you will test your physical limits.

Sounds like a recipe for a quality time, every vacation should have some of that.