The Jetta is gone - sold....and I found this sweet ride in its place. My insurance went up a bit...

5 Days 'till....

SLOW Friday

It's Lyza's birthday today - 6 years old. The party is tomorrow at the athletic club pool. 7-10 kids plus parents should be close to controlled mayhem. I can't believe she's 6 already. More on the pool bash tomorrow.

I put in an easy 1-hour effort this morning on the singlespeed. 2 hours tomorrow, and 4 hours Sunday and that's it for training for the Durango race. Next week will consist of a 1-hour ride each day (M-Th) on the road bike at a very moderate pace. I will need the rest.

D's last day at Gore is today. Wow. Leaving the corporate life for a small shop downtown. Fortunately - she works for the Patagonia - which means PRO DEAL. No bennies, not a lot of pay, but a great work environment. She's excited about it and so am I.

Have a great weekend

Professional sports have officially "jumped the shark" for me. Gone are the days of 'incredible achievements', and players being role models. The only glimmer of these attributes remains every 4 years at the amateur events of the Olympics. Steroids, blood doping, testosterone injections, and off the field/court legal issues have pretty much stolen the headlines. The thought of Michael Vick being involved in dog fighting makes me want to hang his ass Middle-East style. Kids and Dogs are off limits as far as I'm concerned. You don't mess with them because they can't or don't know when to defend themselves.

Sure, there are some incredible achievements, and some athletes probably could be role models - but how do you know? When Vino tested positive for blood doping yesterday at Le Tour de France, I just wanted to barf in my mouth and swallow it back down to recreate the sting. The guy had attained a status as a never-say die rider who always put his best effort out there. He didn't always win, but he went as hard as he could. Maybe the pressure to win got to him, and he caved by doping.

So, just remember its only entertainment. Putting athletes on pedestals is unfair to us and them.

Li Lo (aka Lindsey Lohan) taken - ta da! This morning at 1:34am. That's what a BAC of .13 plus a few grams of Coke and not a lot of sleep will do to ya...

Top 5 trainwrecks of 2007

1.) Mr. President

2.) Lisa Marie Nowak

3.) BALCO Boy

For which I have to say, he may be the HR King, but Hank Aaron will always be the standard bearer of the record until A-Rod the 32+ million dollar man breaks it.

4.) Li Lo (see above)

5.) Paris (you know the one I mean)

On a better note, did you watch the debate last night? It was nice alternative to a white guy in a suit lobbing questions for candidates to duck, but it was a little too hokie for later this year and into January when the running gets serious. Good fun. I can't wait to see the Republicans (guess what - 8 white guys in suits!) when they get You-Tubed in September.

On to Wednesday....

http://ibelievevino.com/

Check it out....

There was a break in the weather this morning...

As in, it actually stopped raining for more than 6 hours. So, rather than get up early and go to work, I got up early and hopped on my bike. Yeah - imagine that. So I go explore a new set of trails I had heard about, but had never ridden, It was one of those days where I wasn't amped up to ride as hard as I could - so taking it a little slower on some new terrain was just the ticket. Riding some new singletrack that paralleled Snowbowl road, I came across a group of maybe 8-10 deer. They were following the same trail I was on, and always stayed about 50-100 feet in front of me looking back every 15 to 20 seconds to make sure I wasn't getting too close. Their movement was as effortless as an American with a shopping cart and less than 10 minutes in a Wal-Mart, cutting and dashing at will. Eventually, they let me pass by heading up the hillside and I was kinda sad to see them go. It was kind of foggy like that opening scene in Gladiator - with a bunch of deforested sections where they were thinning the forest for new growth. The deer only added to the surreal feeling of being on a movie set.

I was then dumped back onto my regular trail network, and hit the Sunset climb with eveything I had - and then continued up up up up to the sky. Coming down featured two non-catastrophic wrecks due to being over confident on some rough stuff. Cocky? Yeah. I learned from that with the rash on my legs, and the dent on the back of my helmet.

The Cannondale is riding tight - just an all around great bike. I'm way more careful on it than when I ride the singlespeed because its just a lot more fragile. Pivot points, proprietary suspension, carbon/aluminum/plastic frame mix, and....well....after the upgrade it wasn't cheap. 10 days until pain to the 9th degree at the MTB 100 in Durango. I can't say I'm not a LOT nervous about it.

So here I am at work, paying the price for that 3+ hour stomp this morning. I'll have to hang around until 8pm to get my sh*t done. 6:30 if I decide to bail and make up the difference tomorrow. 5:30 if I say F*ck it and just go home. I think I might opt for door #3.

A good night on the racquetball court, as I beat a lefty and a guy with a cannon forehand - but not a lot of fitness. That's 4 matches, 4 victories, and a tourney coming up in 4 weeks. I love this game.

I'm ready for the weekend and its only 9am. My sister gets to go back home to Minnesota for 2 weeks starting today. Lucky duck. Although, its pretty nice here now that we have the rainy season in full swing.

PHAT Singlespeed ride planned for tomorrow - 5 hour funfest starting at 5am. Solo. Its kinda my religion, ya know?...

Enjoy the weekend...

From Big Jonny - - - - THIS. Play the video but pee first and have nothing in your mouth, unless you’re a young Republican, then we know what you have in your mouth.

2 hours on the C-dale last night straight up and then straight down. For some reason, I like my bike again. Happy Freakin' Thursday

It's amazing what a couple of hours in the saddle - after work - will do for my head. The sun does shine, I'm not going to take someone's head off tomorrow on the r-ball court, and I have a new revised schedule for Lyza that should make all of our lives better.

That ride last night worked me, and I'm wondering how I'll survive 10 hours in Durango - as 6 hours has been my longest hard effort this spring/summer but, who cares?! I've got a good bike, gels and bars, and E-caps to get me through. All I need is a shot of EPO and I'm there. OK - not really, but it wouldn't hurt.

Went out to Thai last night with D. Good food, a 22oz Kirin.....nice.

Mr. Brightside:
-D's last day here is on 7/27
-We're scaling back and getting ride of this - I'm all about carbon emission reduction, and I might even get one of these
-Squirty goes back to school on 8/16 (month out)
-It has actually rained here 4 of the last 5 days
-I am ready to rage on the racquetball court tomorrow
-My singlespeed continues to be the rockstar bike - ZERO, zippo, nada, zilch repairs/flats/ other than two new sets of brake pads since October and more than 1000 miles on the original tires.

Mr. Bitter:
-Squirty is having some anxiety about going back and forth from parent to parent....I KNEW this was coming soon.
-I'm feeling the effects of pushing a big gear, and I need to drop to a 32x19. It's just a pride thing - nothing more.
-For the first time this year, riding a bike feels like a chore - an effort - it truly is time for a couple months off after Durango on 8/4.

Oh there's more, but at least you know what's in my cabeza today.

I pretty much suck right now....

Racquetball tore up my calves and core muscles so bad that I haven't been on a bike in 4 going on 5 days. Flat out - I can't push the pedals. Then I do recover some today, so I go for a night ride and I get maybe 3/4 of a mile from my house and have a mechanical. Back home, fix it in the garage, and do you think I'm motivated to get back out? Fu&k no.

R-ball again this Thursday, and no - I'm not quitting. I'm also not quitting the Durango race in a few weeks. F'n quitters suck, and I've quit enough stuff to know that it just makes me feel like a sack o' shit for doing it. I can get my shwerve back tomorrow....I think so anyway. Into work at 6am and home on my bike by 3pm. Yeah - now that sounds like some healing tonic.

I'm Back..

Back on the racquetball court that is. It's been nearly one year to the day that I last played - and now I realize how much I missed that sport. I joined a league, and showed up last night with a lot of energy, but that was about it. My body has morphed into a cycling-specific shell of its former self, and I was hurtin'. We play two matches per week, and my first one was with probably the 4th best player in a 10 person league. I fared pretty well in the first game, and took the win - at the expense of shaky legs, and cramping hips. I kind of tanked the second game once I got behind, and saved myself for the tie-breaker game which I won 11-2. I walked off the court with crampy, tight, and twitchy leg/hip/back muscles. Fortunately, my second match was against a very intermediate player so I was able to just keep the ball in play and let him make mistakes for an easy 15-5, 15-3 match win.

I can't believe how out of balance I am. Yeah, I can ride a bike, but Jesus - ask me to do anything else and I'll be as sore as you can imagine the next day. The good news is that this is a 1x per week league, so by the third week I should start to feel good again. I'm kind of trying to get a jump start on the fall/winter leagues and tournaments since I am ready to give bike riding a rest after the August 4th event in Durango.

So, I'm undefeated so far - I think I'll just bask in that glory for now. Next week I'll be playing one of the top 2 guys, and unless I pull one out of my a**, I'll probably lose a couple of games.

I have some big rides planned this weekend which I'm excited about. Lyza B is around all weekend and next week, so that's cool. D might be leaving her post soon - so big transtions in the Bosselhousehold.

Hey - have a good weekend - and your PIC o the Day for Friday!

So this is what your face looks like if you have a 29% approval rating? If you were a football player and 29% of the coaches thought you should play - then you would ride the bench. If I had a 29% approval rating at work, I would be fired. If you received 29% of a vote, you would lose.

So tell me - why are 1 out of every 4 Americans still saying he's doing a good job? Another question, why has it taken so long to GET to a 29% approval rating. I love his most recent power play where he's placed a gag order on the proceedings to investigate the fired US attorneys. Good times in the Black House.

I can't wait for 2008 - actually, January 20th 2009 to be precise.

More importantly, I can't wait until Saturday, August 4th.....Durango, here I come!

Where do I start? What a great weekend. Photo #1 is D with 1/2 of a Clif bar in her trap...we were on the uphill side of a long, hard ride in the Dixie National Forest in southern Utah.

Photo #2 is of the bird sanctuary outside of our room in Boulder, UT. Sweet serenity for me.

Photo #3 is my wasted face after I don't know how many miles of climbing and descending - I was even more tired than I looked, but it was a good tired - you know - the kind that makes you want to eat a 2 pound burrito, and vomit at the same time. Yeah, that good kind of tired. I bet I could have placed 5th in that Coney Island hot dog eating contest after that ride, but I would have taken top honors in the vomit volume contest.

Photo #4 is the top of the pass heading down then towards Capitol Reef National Park. We started climbing at 6,400 feet - and 11 miles later - VOILA! 9,600 feet. The 8% grades hurt me, but D said "I just can't go that slow" and pedaled on past me to take the KOM points at the top...grrrr.

Photo #5 is the new dawgg - Bodhi. I named him after this guy because he's 3-toned and he's kinda small, but D liked the name and decided that it meant this. I agreed to meet in the middle since I'm about as spiritual as your next door Agnostic, and D is into the yoga stuff. It's all good. He's a great dog, and a hella fun to have around with our old dog Jamocha.

#6 is Lyza after a hard day of playing. You could say she falls asleep like this about every night.

#7 is D and Lyza re-enacting a rat that they chased out of our kitchen. A rat you say? Yeah - I said the same damn thing. We live in a city with about 7% humidity year round - and I can count the field mice I have seen in the forest after a rain. Turns out, it was a neighbor's pet. Lyza and D scared it so bad, we think it had a heart attack on the front lawn and died in a pool of sprinkler water less then 1/16" deep. Kinda tragic really....but the re-enactment cracked me up.

Shit! 4 weeks until Durango. I better keep on keepin' on. Actually, I'm feeling pretty good about my chances and I'm in pretty good shape right now. I may look like crap, but I can ride kinda fast for 3-4 hours. I hope you're having a great summer - this one has been memorable so far for us.

NIGHT MOUNTAIN BIKE RIDING

Probably one of my favorite things to do. I had a chance to get out tonight for a couple of hours in pitch black. No moon until the last 5 minutes of the ride, as it crept over the eastern side of Mount Elden. If you have ridden at night you know that all you can focus on is what is 2-10 feet in front of your front wheel. I find it is very relaxing, as it limits your senses, slows you down a click or two, and really lets you listen to your heartbeat, your breathing, and of course - wildlife.

A few years back I was on a solo night ride in Sedona. As I came around a corner, I practically ran over a couple sleeping on the trail. It scared me just as much as them. Lately, the only things I run across are branches breaking from critters running for cover from my high beam, an occasional reflection from an animal's eye - which always raises the ol' heart rate, and every now and then I get to see city lights from the passes in the mountains.

I wouldn't have won any races tonight at my steady pace up the 2000 climb - up and over Mount Elden, but damn if I didn't just absolutely LOVE being out there. I mean honestly, if I got clipped tomorrow, my 'last ride' would have been a good one to end on. 16 miles, all singletrack, and not a soul around.

Time for bed - up early, and off to Utah for the weekend. I can't f'n wait to hike in and around the rivers, and road ride up the passes for 3 days. We're going here - where we got married last summer. Woo hoo! Have a safe 4th weekend...

Rode the new Lefty....loved it. It's as plush as my couch, and tracks like a beast. The problem is that it's hooked up to a bike with 26" wheels.

I love my Rig again. More on the weekend soon....