Two Mile Stones

Mile Stone 1. Last week I reached my goal of riding 6000 miles commuting to and from work.

It took me just over 11 months, but I did it. For years I kept coming up a couple hundred miles shy of 6000, but this year I finally did it. Year to date, 7,035 total miles ridden.

5,994 miles down; 6 more to go.

I am very lucky to work at a place that not only supports bicycle commuting but also promotes it. I am also fortunate enough to have a great group of friends and co-workers who were willing to wait out in the cold to cheer me on as I left work and surpassed my goal.

Mile Stone 2. The Man Gave is 99% complete. Or at least complete enough to share pictures.

The garage before. Cracked concrete, crappy garage door, okay shelving, and so-so bike storage.

The garage after. New concrete, 36" french doors, plenty of shelves for storage, and adequate space for 14 bikes.

The only thing left to do in the garage is hang my bike tools, do a little electrical work and and caulk some of the gaps around the door. Special thanks to Tim and Joe for all of their help.

Phase one of garage rebuild complete.
Pictures to come.

Setting up my phone to blog from.

Laying It Down

Tonight on the ride home I unexpectedly laid my bike down going around a corner. I wasn't going too fast, I was actually in the saddle about to crest a hill when my front wheel washed out from under me. Before I knew it I was sliding on my side as my bike slid out from under me. The streets were wet, but I wasn't expecting it to be so slick. I guess the time has come to start riding with a little more caution; be warned winter in near.

Garage Mahal?

Not quite, but I am still excited to remodel our one car garage.
The concrete work started about an hour ago. The old concrete is out and they are laying the re-bar now. The new concrete should be finished tomorrow.

I ordered the new doors this weekend, they should arrive in two weeks. In this time I need to design the new work bench and layout for the bikes and storage shelves.

I am excited to design my "man cave"

Let's think about this a little more

The new bike lanes in downtown Minneapolis don't look that safe to me?

Gravel Ride

Today I decided the leaves could wait another weekend to be raked and went for a ride instead. Jason Boucher and I drove down to Northfield and did an awesome 50 mile gravel road ride with the locals. The ride was put on by Northfield locals Ben and Sean, two great guys who know how to keep cycling real and host a good event; thanks guys, you threw down an impressive ride.

This was the longest ride I have done in awhile and I felt really good. The pace generally pretty tame, with some hard efforts on the climbs. I rode my La Cruz with the new Salsa Woodchipper

Now playing: Tom Waits - Don't Go Into The Barn
via FoxyTunes

Does anyone check this site anymore?

Well I hope so, I apologize it has been a really long time since I last posted any updates. I will attempt to post more frequently so I can stay in touch with all of you who I don't talk with that often. If you do check in on me every so often, please continue doing so and I will try to keep this site updated at least once a month.
So what is new with me, here is a short list to keep it simple...
- Celebrated my grandpas 89 birthday in Aug. "Keep on doing what ever it is you do Grandpa that keeps you so sharp."
- Spent 10 days in Seattle for my brothers wedding. "Congratulations Josh and Hollie."
- Spent 4 days at home working and doing laundry before leaving to LV
- Spent 9 days in Las Vegas working the Interbike trade show
- Sold a bike, but didn't replace it with a new one. "Oh wait, I did get a new bike, my bad."
Went to the doctor for an annual physical. "I like to do this annual trip every 5 years. Maybe I will change that habit. Don't worry, Doctor says I am healthy."
-Rode to work in the rain, A lot. "I rode to work everyday this October, 21 day equaling 650 miles"
-Celebrated my 5 year anniversary with Katie.
-Gretta turned 2 today.

Have safe and happy Halloween everyone.


Now playing: The Shins - One By One All Day

Punk is where my heart is

"Kiss Me I'm Shitfaced" was the closing song Dropkick Murphys played at their free concert in St. Paul Friday night . Joe, James and I rolled into Harriet Island to brave the potential thunder storms, mobs of adolescent punk rockers and drunken Irish fair attendees.

We were a ways back from the stage which was cool with me, but at times I wanted to go into the crowd and mix it up in "the pit". It's probably a good idea I didn't though, it's been a long time since I have held my own in the crowd and I don't know how my body would have handled it the next morning. This was the first time I have seen Dropkick and the first punk show I have been to in over a couple years. I have to say I really enjoyed myself. Don't get me wrong, I have enjoyed the last folk-rock shows I went to, but punk is where my heart is.


After the show we cruised to the Happy Gnome for a drink. While finishing our first round the skies opened up and the rain came down hard. The three of us are are all experience and weathered bikers, but the rain looked too heavy to go out in, so we decided to order up another round and wait out the storm.

When our second round was empty we decided to ignore the rain and head home. It only took 2 blocks for me to get completely soaked by the rain; luckily it was warm out and our ride was short.

Time Off

Lately I have taken a lot of time off from writing, but recently I also took some time off to travel. This past weekend Katie and I went to Puerto Rico for our friends Hann-Yu and Edwardo's

wedding.

Our trip was kinda short, only 5 days, but we had an excellent time. This was my first time in the tropics and we got to do some really cool stuff. Of course the beach was nice, but we also did some hiking in the El Yunque National Forest. We went kayaking in a bioluminescent bay, where the algae lit up and glowed when it was disrupted by our paddles or hands, and finally the wedding. The wedding was out side of Fort San Felipe del Morro, an old fortress built in the 1500's to defend the city from enemies. It is needless to say the wedding was beautiful but I have attached some pictures for everyone to see for yourself.

Finally, a few more things to mention...
Congrats to Al and Luby on their wedding. I love you guys and am sorry I couldn't make it to your reception.

Congrats to Schroden, on a 2nd place finish at 9-mile. I have to say something about the race, because he probably wont write about it in his own blog.

okay that's it, I will try to do this more often.

The long way home...

Well we made it. The unofficial distance was 180 miles from Minneapolis to Windom. The official time was 14 hours door to door. The ride was great. Mailen and I met Jesse Rients in Eden Prairie and headed South to the St.Peter. Jesse had to turn around before St.Peter, so for the remainder of the ride it was Mailen and me. In St.Peter we stopped for lunch and continued to Mankato before we headed West.

About 30 minuets out of Lake Crystal it started to sprinkle, another 30 minutes passed and the sprinkles turned into rain and the temps dropped . For the next hour or so we rode in the rain until we got to Madelia where we stopped for an hour or more to drink some coffee, warm up and try to dry off.

Leaving Madelia our clothes were still wet and the rain was still falling, but it didn't take long until the rain stopped and the sun was out again. As we headed West we enjoyed a nice tail wind and the great scenery of the rolling green country side contrasting the bright blue sky.

Clear skies ahead

As we headed into Windom, I was ready to get off the bike, put on some clean clothes and enjoy a nice cold one with my family and friends who were waiting for us at my mom's house.

The ride was great and I am looking forward to doing it again


Now playing: Ryan Adams - Gimme A Sign
via FoxyTunes

To Grandmothers House We Go

Tomorrow morning I am riding my bike home to Windom for Grandma's 80 birthday party.
In all, the ride should be about 170 miles.
Not too bad considering I am also turning 30 this weekend.
Luckily I will have the Mailman with my to help fight the wind.

12 Hours of Northern Kettles

Well I made it; 12 hours of northern Kettles is over. After loading Mailen's Xterra to the roof with gear. Sean, Katie, Gretta and I headed East to Greenbush, WI. For those of you who are not familiar with your Wisconsin geography, Greenbush is between Oshkosh and Sheboygan.

Gretta packed to the roof of the car wondering, "Why do these guys need so much crap"

Friday night we camped out in a group camp site with a handfull of other racers. We were unable to set up our tents on the race course so we had to wait until Saturday morning to set up the Twin Six tent and all of our gear for the race. This was a pain because we had to unpack the vehicle friday night to get our tents out only to pack the truck back up and unload again to set up our site for the race. Friday night I didn't get the best sleep b/c we had Gretta in the tent with us. This was Gretta's first camping trip; she did really good, but got excited a couple times during the night and woke us up. Saturday mornign we were up at 6am and headed to the race course to start setting up our shelter, make breakfast, and get ready for the 8am start.

The course was 8 miles of all rocky single track. I was happy to be riding the Dos Niner. The large wheels and extra inch of rear travel helped take up some of the bumps. I rode pretty strong for the first hours, only stopping for water bottles, GU and a few pieces of PB&J. At about 2pm it started raining. Around 3 pm the course was like ridding on a slip and slide. I took my time finishing my 10th lap and went to our tent for a break. At this point it was still raining and I didn't know if I would go back out on the course again.

New Twin Six team kit, "It's Metal"

After another PB&J, some Builder Bar, a Coke and an hour and a half break, the rain stopped and the course was starting to get tacky again. I decided to put on a fresh change of clothes get back in the saddle. I was fortunate to have company for my first lap after the rain. Thanks Anne for being my winglady! I turned out 3 more laps and ended the race at 7:40ish pm. My records showed that I rode a total of 13 laps, totaling 104 miles. Fortunately for me, the score keepers had me down for 14 laps( I don't know if it was me or the score keepers who lost count through out the race?), but 14 laps was good enough for 3rd place out of 22 solo riders. One lap and one hour behind the winner.

The race was tough, I was happy that my legs felt good the whole time. It was my hands and butt that really took a beating. I am planning on two more 12 hour races this year and am still contemplating doing a 24 solo in Aug. Time will tell.


Now playing: Green Day - 2000 Light Years Away
via FoxyTunes

Cable Classic

This weekend Katie and I went north to Cable, WI for Cable Classic mountain bike race; A 23 mile race from Lakewoods Resort to Cable. This was the first time I have done this race and didn't know what to expect. What I did know was the weather at the start of the race was going to be cold. The forcasted highs for Satruday was 55, but I didn't expect to see snow flakes in the morning. Luckily I was prepared for the cool weather and was comfortable for the race.

The course was a lot of fun with a good mix of single track and fire roads. The worst part of the race was splashing through the freezing mud puddles and then riding in wet shoes for an hour and a half. I felt like I rode a good race yesterday. I was able to move into the first group of riders right from the start and hung with the group for about half the race, eventually I started fading and couldn't hang on to the group. With about 10 miles to go I lost sight of the group and ended up riding the rest of the race with 2 other riders. With 2 miles to go 1 rider attached and I knew I wasn't going to be able to hang with him. In the end I held the other rider off and finished 11. I am really happy with how I rode. I didn't know what to expect fitnesswise since this was the first race of the season, but I thought I fared pretty well.

Special thanks to Tim Krueger and his family for letting us crash in the Fonzie loft.
Kaite and Odia for their support.
Thanks to Twin Six for the gear.
Rivers Eatery for the great pizza and beer. If you are in the cable area and are looking for some good pizza check this place out. You wont be disapointed.

Next weeked I am doing my first solo 12-hour race of the year in Greenbush, WI. Looking forward to a long day in the saddle.

A glimpse of things to come

This season I have the honor of riding for the Twin Six team. If you are not familiar with Twin Six, it is a local Minneapolis company that designs some of the coolest gear in the industry.
Not only are the graphics on the jerseys and shorts well designed, but the fit is also custom; making the apparel super comfortable and well thought out from start to finish. Below is a little tease of what the kit will look like.


That's right, nothing says "METAL" like silver and black lycra. This ensemble screams "Speed". So if you see the silver and black on the trail, don't be afraid to throw the horns in the air and with your best Bruce Dickinson voice yell "Run to the Hills"!

First race of the year is this weekend in Cable, Wisconsin...Bring the Noise.

Congratulations Joe

Joe Meiser wins Trans Iowa 5.

Nice work, you put a lot of effort into this race.

One bike left

Saturday morning Mailen, Joe and I rode the Minnesota River Bottom trails from Minnehaha Falls to 9 mile creek where we met up with a group of guys to help put in the raft that helps trials users cross the creek. It was nice leisure ride down to the creek, once the raft was in the water, we stood around, indulged on coffee and pastries we carried in and enjoyed the cool morning air.

(This is an older picture of the creek in the summer when the water is down. Now in the spring the water is up to the top steps.)

Yesterday was also the first time I rode my Dos Niner this year. The big tires and 1" of travel make for a perfect ride on the river bottoms trail. So far this month I have ridden all of my bikes except one; the SS mountain bike. Maybe I will squeeze it in for a ride before the end of April, or maybe it will have to wait a little longer. Regardless, most of the metro trails are now open and there will be plenty of opportunities to get some quality mountain biking in.

Now playing: Biz Markie - Just A Friend
via FoxyTunes

New Colors and New Bikes Photos

Not a whole lot of news to share since the last time I posted. The biggest news is a couple weekends ago Katie and I painted some of the rooms in the house. This is the first time I have really done any painting like this. I am pretty confident I can say "I don't like painting".
We really like the colors we picked and the rooms look as good as they can, considering the poor job the previous owners did painting.


Yesterday I finally got out on my road bike for the first time this year. We got about an 80 mile ride in, including some pretty serious pace lines, sprints, and hill climbs. I felt really good throughout the whole ride, even after a full week of riding including a hard ride on Friday.

City Limit Sprint
L to R- Fast Frankie, Sean Mailman Mailen, Joe Diesel Meiser, Derrick "D. Lewis"

Salsa Primero-with new Red Group and Dura Ace Carbon Clinchers

Since I switched the RED onto the Primero, I had a Chorus group sitting around collecting dust. I decided to convert the Casseroll fixed fear into a gear bike. This bike is awesome!

Salsa Casseroll-with Campy Chorus 10 group and wheels

Finally, since I lost my fixie I wanted to convert my Cross Check back to a fixed gear. The Cross Check is a very versatile bike that allows one to set it up in a a number of different configurations. Here is the 4th mutation of my Cross Check.

Surly X-Check ,Mutation 4.0 - 42x17 fixed gear

Now playing: Yonder Mountain String - Night Out

staying on average

This year I am really trying to meet a goal of commuting 200 times to work equaling about 6000 commuting miles. To reach the 200 commute mark I need to ride to work an average of 4 days a week. I have had this same goal for the past 3 years and have never been able to reach it b/c of travel, some intentional rest days before races, or a week of for jury duty.

As of today, I have rode in 50 times, which puts me at 1,500 miles. I rode to work 20 times in March and only missed 2 days due to a work trip to Las Vegas. I am right on track to reach my goal. I know I am only 3 months in to the year, but the weather should be getting nicer soon making riding easier.

Now I need to keep putting in some consistent weeks while I can. Before I know it the summer travel schedule will pick up and it will be easy to fall behind.

Oh yeah, it is going to snow tomorrow. I did say it is going to get nice soon, didn't I?

First race of the year is April 18. The Durand road race in WI. It's time to start getting out of the saddle and building up some sprinting legs.

Welcome back spring

Friday night I went over to Timmy's house for dinner and a bike building sorie. I am getting antsy for spring and I wanted to do some part swaping on my current bikes to get them ready for cleaner drier streets. Since my shop is in the unheated garage, I sought warmth (and beer) in Tim's basement shop. Project builds included putting a Red group on my Primero and swapping my Chorus group to my Casseroll. I will post pictures later.

Saturday morning Joe and I planned to put in a long ride on the road. Our goal was 100 miles, but since neither of us have computers on our bike we can only estimate how far we rode. I can tell you this, When I got back to the house I logged about 5.5 hours of ride time. I dont think we did 100 miles but I am sure we did more than 80. When I left the house at 8am, it was about 24 degrees. I dressed light knowing it was going to reach high 40's. The air was cool to start but I was able to stay comfortable the whole ride.

Joe rollin into St. Paul

Our route took us through St.Paul and up to Stillwater where we stopped for coffee at the Bikery. We kinda stumbled across the coffee/bike shop, but we were very happy to find a bikecentric coffee shop in Stillwater. I wish this shop the best of luck and recommend you check it out if you in the area. From Stillwater we headed south to Afton and then home.

Overall my body felt good for the whole ride, The wind was blowing hard from the south east so the cross wind on the way home became a bit exhausting and my neck and abs got tired from holding the bike upright while leaning into the wind. All in all I am really happy with how the ride went and how I felt. Cant wait for summer and the single track to open

Enjoy the ride

So far the weekend has been off to a great start, and I still have Sunday left.

Switching to Clippless

After over 4 month of riding platform pedals with either a big winter snow boots or hiking boots, the weather has final warmed up to the point where I can comfortably ride in cycling shoes again.

What a difference it makes to be able to clip into my pedals again. At first the float in the pedals felt really awkward, but it didn't take long for me to get used to it again. And let me tell you it is a welcome change.

So you may ask, if it is so nice riding in clipless pedals why don't you ride them all winter; afterall they do make winter cycling shoes. For years I tried riding in the Lake winter boots but this fall I decided I had enough. For me, these boots never fit my feet and never really kept my feet warm. I was able to ride in them in temps down to about 20 degrees before my feet got cold.

I think decades years of playing hockey in freezing temps has damaged the circualtion feet, so my feet really get cold easily. In the past when I rode in temps about 10 below and I could never keep my feet warm. Since switching to real winter snow boots, I have rode down to 20 below and actually stayed pretty warm. It is been amazing how much easier it has been to ride with warm feet. Mentally, I have a lot more confidence going out in the cold and it is a lot of fun to stick my foot out moto style around the corners. I recommend everyone try riding in platforms for a little while.


Now playing: Screeching Weasel - My Brain Hurts
via FoxyTunes

Update

Since I really haven't posted in a while I will give you a brief update on what I have been up to the past couple of weeks.

Vacation- In the beginning of the month a group of us rented a cabin in Lutsen and spent the weekend snowboarding, downhill skiing, xc skiing, snowshoeing, cooking, eating, drinking, hot tubbing, laughing, and enjoying eachothers fabulous company. The weather was great and we had a fantastic time. It was good to take a couple days off of work and just relax.

Work- has been pretty busy getting ready for Frostbike. The expo starts on Friday, so this week will be pretty crazy for me making sure everything gets done in preparation for the the show.

Riding- I have been riding to work pretty much everyday this month. I have really enjoyed my time on the bike this winter. I don't know what is different this year from last, but I am having more fun on the bike in the cold. Recently the streets have dried up so I have been able to ride different bikes in and the commute is much faster since I don't need to worry about icy streets.

Racing?- This past week I have started thinking about racing again and what races I would like to enter. Due to some really import weddings this fall I will not be able to do two of my favorite races; the Dakota 50 and Chequamegon. It is kinda a bummer, but there are a lot of other races I can do to make up for them. Also, I will not be attending Sea Otter this year so am considering more road racing in the spring. In the summer I want to enter more long distance mtb rides like the Mohican 100, 12 hours of 9-mile, and maybe Salsa 2-4 solo. I also have some spare parts kicking around the house that I plan on building a new bike up with.

Music- Johnny gave me some new music (Tim Barry, Hot Water Music, and Avail) to listen to. All of which is good, but may not fit everyone's fancy.

Home life- Kate, the dingo, and I are all doing really well. Katie and I had a relaxing Valentines around the house. We had a nice egg bake for breakfast and spend the rest of the day around the house reading, watching the Tour of California and couple episodes of Deadwood.

No Title Neccesary

Look who joined the bandwagon.

I was wrong

Ten years ago, I would have never attended a Mason Jennings and Trampled by Turtles concert on my own free will. During my college years I thought musicians like this just played crappy hippie music. Back then I would've rather listened to the classics like Rancid, Bad Religion, or Fugazi. Well times have changed and so has my musical taste. I have expanded my collection of music to include more country, blue grass, folk and other sub genres of the latter.

Because of this new musical taste, on my own free will, I attended a Mason Jennings show with Katie and a group of friends. This was my second Mason show. I am a enjoy Mason, but the first show I attended just didn't capture my attention like I had hoped. I found it rather slow and I was bored. I was hoping my second show would be better; I had faith it would be. Last nights show was a fund raiser for one of Mason's and number of other band's sound guy. It was a loaded venue with The Pines, Haley Bonar, Trampled by Turtles, Cloud Cult, and Mason Jennings.

The show was great, Trampled by Turtles are an amazing band and Mason redeemed himself in my opinion. So I was wrong after all, Mason Jennings and TBT is not just crappy hippie music. It is still definitely hippie music, but I will not say it is crappy anymore. I look forward to seeing another TBT show in the future, but I can garantee I wont be in the front row.

I still listen to the punk rock like I did 10 years ago, but it is not the only music that rocks.
Chad, TJ, the Dans', and the other elder ONAG'rs, this is just one more thing I have learned from you. I am only sorry it took 10 years to sink in. I may have enjoyed the bbq's more if I could've sang along with the music.

Nothing has changed...

The weather has only got colder.
Yeah I know, I been exactly a month since I last posted anything. What can I say, the Holidays were good to me. I got to spend some very quality time with my family, I ate a lot, drank some boots, and I took 2 weeks off the bike. Instead of my daily commute to work, I exercised by running with Gretta, playing hockey at the local rink (walking distance from the house) and cross country skied.

Now that the Holidays have past and things are back to normal, I will put more effort into blogging a bit more frequently. But don't get your hopes up. This morning the air temp was 20 below. I had made plans the day before to ride in with another coworkers but after checking the forecast last night I decided not to ride. It took a little contemplation but I decided taking two days in a row off of riding would probably be good for me. After all it is really f'n cold out there! Considering on monday it was 16 below and my derailleurs and cables froze up less than 15 minutes into my ride and the way my fingers would freeze and thaw the last 15 minutes of the ride, I decided I didn't want to go through it all again. It has been nice to have the extra 3-4 hours in the day to spend with Katie, sit on the couch and read at night. But tommorrow I will be pulling on the layers again and meeting the crew at Colossal. That's right, Friday breakfast ride.

Have a good weekend everyone; I hear it is going to be hot one in MN!


Now playing: G. Love & Special Sauce - Shooting Hoops
via FoxyTunes