Powder Monkey

I raced at Spirit Mountain in Duluth last Sunday.
The course was phenomenal; 12 miles of rough, rooted, and rocky single track the whole time.
It was a very challenging course that kept me on my on the edge to whole time.
The 24 mile course took me 2 hours and 49 minutes to complete on the Mariachi SS.
I finished 21st overall in the expert class, 9th in the Men's 19-29 and 18minutes and 39 seconds behind the leader. I am very pleased with my results.

I decided to start riding my SS more to get ready for the Dakota Five-o at the end of Aug. This race was a good test of my fitness and overall strength on the Single Speed.
Right now, I am feeling pretty good about the Five-0.

I also found out today I got a preferred start at Chequamegon again this year. I didn't plan on "racing" the event but I'll see how I feel closer to the race. I signed up for the SS class so that will take the stress off of the start.

Memorial Classic

The Red Wing Memorial Classic mountain bike race was yesterday. Katie stayed back to spend some time with her sister so I headed to the race solo. After pulling into Memorial Park, I went to register and ran into Jesse Rients and his girlfriend Annie who has recently learned the art of the bottle hand up and she was quick to offer her assistance handing me water bottles between laps.

My race started at 1pm and the air was very humid with temps in the mid 80's at start time. The race actually seemed to start much slower than past races which was nice. There was a short sprint in the beginning to the single track and all the riders seemed to file into the single track pretty smoothly. Halfway through the first lap I settled into my pace and really started to enjoy the course. The course had a good mixture of single track a technical rocky down hill and uphill sections, some really fast double track, and some good climbs. Most of the course was in the trees which was nice to be out of the sun, but there was no air and it was really muggy. When we did get into the open fields the sun was beating down but there was also a nice breeze at times.

Because of the way the course laid out I had plenty of time to drink and I was finishing a full bottle every lap, so it was really nice to have Annie handing me cold water bottles every lap. The race consisted of 4, 6 miles laps. I finished in just over 2 hours and 5 minutes. Almost 1o minutes behind the leaders, but good enough for 12 place. Pretty typical for me.

The race was a lot of fun, the terrain was pretty challenging, working in the heat was a real mental challenge, and the Dos Niner was the perfect bike for the course.

Tomorrow I am heading to Lincoln, NE for a Salsa work trip. We plan to get some riding in so hopefully I will have some pictures to share when I get back.


Now playing: Rancid - As Wicked
via FoxyTunes

Weekly Summary

What a great week; this week I started interview for an Event Assistant at work. I would have never thought when I got the Event Coordinator job that in a couple years I would be hiring a lackey, I mean assistant. I am really excited about the position, there was good group of candidates, and I learned a lot about the interviewing process at Q.

Wednesday, I officially logged my 3000 mile of commuting by bike to work. I am a little behind schedule to reach my goal of 6000 miles by the end of the year. i have been trying to hit 6000 miles for 3 years now, but haven't been able to reach it. Basically, I need to ride 4 day a week all year round to hit 6000. This is difficult with travel, much needed rest days after racing, and the unexpected need to drive in. I am hoping July and Oct are big months for me.

Saturday, Katie and I had a great time with Schroden and his wife to be Angela at their Bachelor/Bechelorette party. In the morning a group of us went for a short road ride, followed by a boat cruise on lake Minnetonka, and ended the evening with dinner at a Cristo's, a Greek restaurant in St. Paul. It was a beautiful day filled with great friends, good food, lots of drinking and lots of laughs.

This week will be my final round of interview's to determine who will be the best minion for the job and I am also going to try and focus some of my riding a little to prepare to the Red Wing race this weekend.

Now playing: Mike Ness - Send Her Back
via FoxyTunes

Playing catch up

Here is the answer to the question I know you all are asking; Fryn Porky, why don't you update your blog. Well my beloved fans, don't take it personal, but it is because I am lazy. I have been pretty busy at work try to hire for an assistant event coordinator, AKA Fryn's lackey. Actually I am really excited about getting an assistant, I have learned a lot about our interviewing and hiring process and I will get some supervisor experience. Not to mention, I can finally get some help doing my job.

Besides work I have been getting some good rides in on the weekends. Two Sundays ago, I raced in mankato and finished 15 out of 36 in the expert class which I was very pleased with and this past weekend I did a really nice mtb ride on Saturday and a nice road ride on Sunday with Katie.

Hope all of you are doing well and had a good forth of july.

Until next time, I leave you with a line from one of my favorite movies and the recently deceased George Carlin's, "be excellent to each other".