A Halloween Horror Story

In the spirit of All Hallows Eve I have a gruesome tale to tell. For everyones sake, I will keep this wretched story short and sweet. The image below may be considered funny to some of you, maybe a bit offensive to others. But I can assure you, it will be frightening to anyone who has moved to a new desk or office space at work. So Happy Halloween, Enjoy.

Over the past year or so our company has gone through a lot of changes. We have recently expanded our distribution center and customer service areas and are now in the process of renovating old office spaces so everyone in the company may have nice new office digs to work at.

For the past nine months I have been working at a different desk that was previously occupied by a fellow coworker. Until this past week I was completely oblivious to what was lurking under my desk. A couple of weeks ago I moved out of my existing cube, which I had became quite comfortable in, so workers could remodel our office area.

To my surprise when the my desk was flipped over there was some glossy material lathered all over the bottom of my desk, mere inches from where my bare legs used to sit. The material looked all most like a lacquer of sorts, but with some sort of texture that was unrecognizable. After a closer inspection the unknown substance was identified. What was this mysterious substance you ask? Boogers, F-ing Boogers!

Thats right. The person who had inhabited my work space before me turned the bottom of the desk into his own personal booger refuge. A safe home to store years and years worth of crusty mucus.



This is no joke. So beware, if you work at a desk, you may want to take a peek underneath and see what may be hanging out above your precious new dress, you fancy denim jeans or your bare knees. On other the other hand, Maybe you don't!



Now playing: Willie Nelson - Mendocino County Line
via FoxyTunes

Hey look, The Sun!?

After over a straight week of over cast and rainy weather the clouds finally broke on Saturday and sun came out, just in time for the Homie Fall Festival. The Homie is an annual MPLS event where a bunch local bikers invite the masses to come and celebrate Fall, cycling, drinking, and bacon. This years weather was beautiful and the crowd of close to 200 made the most of every moment. There was a critical mass, some drinking, some derbys, some laughs, and a lot of shenanigans.

And I did say it was also a celebration of bacon? Big Nate pulled out all of the stops in his Homage to Bacon. Nate served up peanut butter and bacon Ritz sandwiches dipped in chocolate and my personal favorite, Peanut Butter Bacon Donuts. Thats right, Nate got in good with the local bakery and had them make a good 6 dozen or more peanut butter fried donuts, and when the peanut butter frosting was still warm the baker sprinkled fried bacon pieces (Nate provided the bakery with 4 pounds of bacon) over the donuts.
It was like a little piece of heaven!

Sunday was also a decent day to be out and on the bike. I took advantage of the dry weather and did some more CX racing at Powderhorn park in the Mark Rahn Invitational.

Powderhorn is a local park just a couple blocks from my house. The course was a lot of fun and the crowd was really rowdy. Mark Rahn had nothing to do with putting on the race but had a lot to do with the rowdy crowd. Mark has started a nice tradition of hosting a mean kegger at his place on the edge of the park. Cheers Mark.

Now playing: Flathead - Mutant Daddy
via FoxyTunes

More Racing Action

This week was the first week back on the bike since my trip West. It was really nice to be commuting again. The temps were cool, in the 40's, and on Friday I did a fun breakfast/Riverbottoms group ride. I rode the Salsa La Cruz in, since I am doing my first cyclocross race of the season on Sunday and this is the bike I will be racing this season, I wanted to make sure I was comfortable on it.

When Sunday rolled ar0und the weather was looking perfect for CX racing, temps were in the 40's again with some drizzle. Although the rain stopped before our race stared the course was wet and it was perfect race weather!

For those who are not familiar with Cross racing it is multiple lap course where the riders ride for a set amount of time. In my case, we rode for 45 mins. The experts will ride for an hour.
Typically the course is a mixture of on and off road terrain with a few hurdles and steep hills mixed in. The hills and hurdles are there to make the riders hop on and off their bikes and run up the hills. Riders use a road style bike with skinny knobby tires and drop handle bars.
The races are very high intensity which keeps your heart rate maxed out for the whole race.

Here is an idea of what it takes to get on and off the bike to go over a hurdle. Watching the experts do this at about 20 mph without losing a beat is very impressive. Thanks to Katie for cheering and taking some good pics!

Next week I will be racing again in the Mark Rahn Invitational at Powder Horn Park. If you are in the area dress warm and come check out some CX action, have a beer, and cheer on the riders.

Now playing: The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Think Again
via FoxyTunes

As promised

Here are the pictures from Chequamegon.

After the race I went to the First Aid tent to have my knees cleaned up and checked out. I didn't know how but the cuts were because of all the dust that was on my legs from the course.
Now having my hind end checked out was a whole different story. I am glad the people at the First Aid tent were professionals.

Post Race carnage on the left. Day after on the right. Yep, those lines are permanent.

Now playing: Fugazi - Steady Diet
via FoxyTunes

MN Nice

Well it sure is nice to be back in MN at least.
After 15 days away from home I finally got to sleep in my own bed again.
Starting on Sept. 22 I left for LV to get ready for Interbike. The country's largest bicycle industry trade show. I claimed residence at the Treasure Island Hotel for 8 nights while I set up, worked and tore down QBP's tradeshow booth.

I can't complain about the time away from home too much, most of my expenses in Vegas were paid, I got to spend some time in checking out the strip, see a Cirque De Sole, and my bed was the most comfortable bed I have slept in since last years show.

After Ib I spent two more nights in Vegas with Katie and her sister. We spent some time at Hoover Dam, relaxed and laid around the pool. It was a nice way to finish out my time in Nevada

After my stay in Nevada I flew down to Costa Mesa, CA to spend some time with my brother and my father who flew in as well. Ca was a great, lots of good food, good beer and some nice days at the beach.

I must say though, after 10 day in Nevada and 4 great days in CA, it is really nice to be home.

Cathcing up..." The tale of my Tail"

Yeah I know, I haven't posted in a long time. The past 2-3 weeks have been really busy, the 5-oh, Chequamegon, getting ready for Interbike, about 2 weeks in Vegas working the trade show, and finally some vacation in CA. In order to catch you up with some details of my past month, I will start blogging right where I left off with my last post, the Dakota 50.

After the 50 I was pretty disappointed with my flat tire and was hoping to redeem myself at Chequamegon. My goal was to improve 7 minutes on last years time and hopefully place in the top 50. At the start of the race Fast Frankie and I lined up next to eachother and discussed riding together as long as we could and hopefully at the Fire Tower Hill we would do our own race. The race started just as I thought, really fast and out of control. Frank and I rode together through the road section and into the Rosie's Field, but once we hit the grass we got split up a bit and I didn't see Frank the rest of the race. I was feeling good for the first 30 minutes of the race, I was riding strong and was in what I thought I was in the second chase group.

After the "00" check point, about 40 minutes into the race, things started to go down hill, literally. On the first rocky downhill section, I was following the group when a nice "baby head" rock came shooting up at me and got ate up in my front wheel. I don't know what happened after that. All I remember was hitting the gravel, rolling up in a ball and hearing a bunch of yelling. The next thing I know I am 10 feet from my bike and in a whole world of hurt. My legs were throbbing, I was bleeding from my knees, and I had a burning sensation in my hind end. I instantly got up, scrambled to my bike and tried to get it out of the way of the other riders. Once I untangled the bars and got my chain back on I hobbled down the hill to where the corner marshal was standing.

As I walked down the hill I knew my goal was out the window and out of reach. I couldn't help but think about how bad my legs hurt and whether or not I could get back on my bike. The realization that I was not going to reach my goal was very upsetting, but the thought of not being able to finish the race really was even worse. Once I got to the bottom of the hill I asked the guy directing traffic to look at my rear and tell me if it seemed alright. He checked it out and said "it looks pretty bad", but that was all, I didn't ask him to elaborate. At this point I had been off my bike for at least 5 minutes. I didn't want to call it quits, but didn't know how riding would feel, so I gingerly got on my bike and started pedaling. I decided to try riding and if it felt bad I would stop at the next Aid Station and get help, if I felt alright I would keep going and hoped eventually someone I knew would pass me and we could ride in together.

Well the more I pedaled the better I felt, eventually I started passing people again and before I knew it I was hammering up the hills. The cuts on my legs stung a little and I still had a tingle in the rear but I kept pushing on. Maybe it was the adrenaline kicking in that kept me riding or maybe it was the fact that I didn't want to give up the race, I don't know but I kept riding.

At some point in the race a rider behind me said something that helped me realize why my butt hurt the way it did. I believe his statement was something like, "Holy shit, are you OK man ?". I said Yes, and asked what was wrong. He told me "It looks like a chainring cut you in the ass". That is when I realized during my crash someone behind me must have ridden over me, but their chainrings didn't quite clear me completely.

Now that I realized I was bleeding out of my crack, I felt like I had some tough guy points on my side, and I really had something to prove, so I continued to ride as hard as I could. I continued to pass riders the rest of the race. At around the 8 mile mark the course began to get really hilly and challenged my already fatigued legs, just like I expected. From 8 miles on I kept looking for the next mile markings and hoped my legs wouldn't cramp and lock up. 6, 5, 4 miles to go. I knew with 3 miles to go the course would start getting easier a long down hill to the finish was soon to come.

Finally, I recognized the clearing at the top of the hill, I knew once I reached the top of the climb, the end of the race was near. Just one final up hill sprint to the Finish. At 2:29:09, I finished the race. I was about 10 minutes behind my target time but I was proud to have finished the race knowing I took a hard fall and rode roughly 25 mile bleeding from my rear end.

I wanted to add a picture of my wounds here but I am on the road and writing from a laptop so I can't attach any photos.
I will show you pics when I am home, they are worth checking out.

Up Next, Las Vegas and Interbike.