Wednesday, April 30

CCTT#4

A little windy but nice and warm. We had a good group tonight and I think we are all looking forward to next week's BBQ by Scott and umm, no one missing their start. Marni and I got off clean tonight but Erik, Dan and Shawn had no such luck. Whoops!
Still it was a great night to race and well worth it.
Awe aren't we cute :)
The new blue Element was great. I drove it for the first time tonight and it was so wonderful to have a bike mobile again.
Numbers for those who follow: 24:44.4 for me netting 9th place. Not bad considering the wind, still hoping for 23:XX somehow this season.

Edit: So tonight ends a rather dismal April in terms of plans vs reality but I'm moving forward with May and I think things will be looking up.

Tuesday, April 29

Git er done

Frontier Honda won (or lost?) the local dealer battle royal and we have a new Element tonight. Squeaked in under the wire to lock in 1.9% and the dealer incentives by using our own cash while State Farm dawdles with the check. I think wifey is very happy to have her car back. I'm happy I don't have to haggle any more and try to figure out how to haul bikes around. It's not all behind us yet but at least the biggest details seem to be taken care of so the stress level can drop a couple notches.

Thanks Erik for joining us for dinner!

Monday, April 28

Finally!

More harassment of the State Farm phone lines this afternoon (all initiated by me...grrr) led to SUCCESS! The Element is officially totaled and a satisfactory price was reached. They're clearing the loan in the AM and the rest will come to us after we sign some paperwork. Score another one for lots of cash savings so we don't have to wait for the check to arrive.

I'm currently haggling away, hoping to be in our new E tonight or tomorrow. Manual transmissions make options more limited unfortunately. Hmmm I wonder what color we'll end up with this time?

Ouch

$16,000 damage to the E plus an unspecified $2500 more(?) That should total it but I still don't have official word. I had to call them just to find out the number even though they obviously knew Friday. Thanks for calling me guys, thanks a lot.

$*($$%)*)#*(#%(*&;*&*!!!!!!!!!!!!

Supposed to hear more today from the Total Loss unit. I have 3 days to close a deal on a new E before I lose the current financing special and incentives. Tick tock tick tock.

Our poor E :(

Sunday, April 27

Nice

Spent almost 9 hours in the saddle today, didn't take out the camera once. Whoops. Ripped around some front range technical singletrack on the SS with Shawn for a few hours. Dropped him off and rode for a long while as Marni was sick and not up to the family dinner. Hopped off well over the century mark wanting to go further and feeling perfect. It was nice to feel so strong today especially since April has been a bit too full of disappointments and spoiled plans. This week should be a good one I hope.

Friday, April 25

Lookout

Bill, Marni and I got to ride Lookout Mountain last night in preparation for this next weekend. It's darn nice to be riding in shorts and a jersey, even if warmer clothes were required for the descent.

P.S. I want my Element back. Frustration level with State Farm increasing exponentially with every day they can't even tell me if it's totaled or not yet...

Tuesday, April 22

Clear my head

53 dirty miles to clear my head after work. Thanks Bill.
P.S. Gearing was 36x22 since I haven't had any time to swap since I got home. I averaged 14.5mph for a good part of the ride and 12.5mph for the full thing. Anyone got a cadence calculator handy?

Sunday, April 20

You are now free...

to move about the world.

Friday, April 18

Home

I'm home and totally fine. I have tons of words but I don't really know what to say nor do I feel like spending much time typing yet. I'm sure a lot will unfold from all this in the next couple weeks.

Right now I'm just hoping Jefe is okay and they release him soon. His friend should be down there with him at the hospital now since last time I talked to her she was already in Gallup, NM. Overall his condition is very stable and not serious at this point but I'll be relieved when he gets to go home and I know he will too. And despite generally being okay, I know he's quite uncomfortable from the injury plus all the IV tubes and stuff. I'm sure he'd appreciate any kind words and well wishes when he finally makes it home so please email him some. Those of you who called, I passed all your thoughts onto him while I was there.

Shit happens. Sometimes it's bad and though it's as cliché as any statement ever was, I'm just glad everyone is okay. It could have been much worse.

Thursday, April 17

Everything's Ok

Chris is totally fine. Jefe is in the hospital with spleen problems but is overall ok.

For the latest on Chris and Jefe's accident getting to the AZT, go to my blog at:

mrspivvay.blogspot.com

It's just easier to update it there.

-- Wifey

Wednesday, April 16

Headlights

I said I'd make another post before I left town. Little did I know that was cursing my chances of actually doing so. Between the normal prerace packing and checklist double checking, this morning I got a nice surprise while dropping wifey off at work. The headlights in the Element no longer worked (although the brights did). I was not pleased to say the least.

I hurried to work while Marni called the dealer and let them know I was going to try to make it in. My boss was quite helpful and I was able to escape work for a few hours even though I'm about to leave for several days and by 11am I made it back to work with working headlights. Now I just quicly finished my lunch which leaves me the rest of the afternoon to prepare work things for my coworker while I'm gone. My "other" boss is on a 2 week trip to Europe hence the added craziness. I think I just might make it.

I can't wait to ride my bike!

P.S. Marni will have SPOT GPS updates of my progress posted in a new blog here or on her blog starting Friday morning.

Monday, April 14

Almost ready

This weekend I got to race my first TTT ever which was a lot of fun. The Ride Against the Machine Cat 4 team did great for all of our first time. Number one lesson learned? On a TTT, a strong lead guy can go as hard as he wants on a downhill but it's much harder to keep everyone together on the uphill sections. I'm still kicking myself a little bit for not also racing the ITT but I felt really good during the TTT and will be pumped up for CCTT#3 when I return from Arizona.

Other than racing and a ride on Sunday I was preping for the big ride. Most of my gear, food and bike stuff is ready. A little more tinkering tonight and I should be ready to go. I'm definitely starting out lighter than I was at the Grand Loop last year including carrying my SPOT beacon. More importantly, I've got a very significant amount of weight off my back. It's going to be quite a bit warmer at times than it's been in Colorado so far this year but I've got plenty of electrolytes packed and plenty of water storage capacity so hopefully I will adapt okay. At least I have some solid experience to draw from after last season. It also appears I am the only singlespeeder (and rigid) in the race. That's probably a bad thing for me but I'm sticking with it this year and we'll see how it goes. I leave Wedneday night to pick up Jefe in Gunnison but I'm sure I'll post again before then.

Friday, April 11

Bike riding killed the tv star



No more pictures after the sun set. Maybe the collective bike club is moving in a positive direction?

Friday morning date

Wifey and I go to Starbucks every Friday morning for a date. She always gets the same thing (hot chocolate) and I like to mix it up with some variation on an over sugared, whipped cream topped, coffeeshake. We both order a cream cheese danish. It's my usual splurge for the week as I try not to drink coffee or oversugared drinks on a regular basis. I think it's pretty much become the highlight of our week, whether it's just a chance to sit and talk for a few minutes about the weekend or a small goal to look forward to on busy and stressful weeks. Today was no exception, our coffee date was most excellent.

After we said goodbye, her off to school and me pedalling to work, my mind was running and I felt quite at peace as I often do afterwords. The coming weekend seemed exciting with paycheck Friday helping to buoy my enthusiasm. The promise of our mail woman bringing both Marni and I some presents in the next couple days didn't hurt either. Tonight Marni is going out with her girlfriends leaving me free to tinker with my AZT gear and tomorrow I get to hang out with my friends and teammates at a local team time trial which promises to be fun and interesting. Even Longs Peak looked happy, gleaming white in the sun with remnants of another quickly melting spring snow storm.

I try to enjoy every day as none of us really know when it will be our last, but Friday's do seem a little more special sitting across from my sweetie with the promise of a Spring weekend before us.

Thursday, April 10

Preaching to the choir

I want to be part of a solution, not just endlessly bemoan my/our plight. I don't think I'm alone so go read Adam's blog and maybe we can come up a plan.

That's all I got for tonight.

Wednesday, April 9

CCTT #1 Report: No explanation

On the way home I had a laundry list of "excuses" even though I was in a good mood: cold, rainy, windy, bad warm up, legs were flat, no rhythm, etc, etc. My time was 26:03.8 netting me only 24.2 mph and my 2nd slowest time ever. Heck the week after TransIowa last year I was faster! I mean conditions were tough tonight but come on...

Then I got home and read the results. 4th place and less than a minute off the class winner. Plus if I was riding like I should be (compared to a couple known riders), I would be less than 10 seconds off the winner. Weird. I don't believe it. Maybe this year will go okay at the time trials? I've got a couple weeks until my next data point since I'll be traveling to Arizona next week.

Big congrats to Marni for gutting out a tough race tonight with a mechanical plus Bill, Erik, Mike and Shawn also putting up great efforts for Ride Against the Machine! Time for recovery drink and then bed. Nope, still don't believe it.

CCTT Starts tonight

The Cherry Creek Time Trial series starts tonight. Our team's block starts at 6:52pm, I go off at 6:56pm and Marni goes off at 6:57pm. Erik, Bill, Shawn, Mike and Dan from Ride Against the Machine should all be there. Truesdale is riding for a different squad for ACA and goes off at 6:07pm The weather is threatening but we're all looking forward to the start of spring racing with tonight's event. Wonder if I'll break my PR of 24:31.9 (25.7 mph)?
Picture from two years ago when we had a similar late start time.

Tuesday, April 8

Tease

Got to see some proto's today, including something for me. Eric's work and creativity is impressive and oh man, just wait to see what's coming up. Want to see more? check out Epic Designs.

Rewind

My sweetie is having a hard day, maybe we should go back to the desert. Picture credit to Max.

Monday, April 7

Disbelief

I don't believe it. Dewey bridge destroyed?
Edit: OMG it's really true. More here .

Saturday, April 5

Vacations rule! (loooooong)

I've been a baaaad blogger but I'm about to make up for it in a big way. Spring break 2008, coming at ya now.

Friday evening after work, Marni and I packed up the E and got ready for 10 days on the road. To California and back, with many stops along the way, was the goal. Amazingly we were packed light as we would sleep in the Hotelement for half of the nights on the trip.
Smiles
All
Around.

Turbs was dropped off with a coworker and good friend from college. He would spend the next 10 days playing with Mollie, his new yellow lab girlfriend. With our neighbors keeping an eye on the house, it was time to get out of dodge.
We weren't sad to be leaving this. I love the snow and winter but the beach was calling our names.
By the time the sun rose, this would be our first temporary home. However getting there was not without incident.
This is a previously unposted picture from our failed attempt (due to freak snowstorm) at the White Rim over Thanksgiving 2007. For some reason, once Marni and I turned off hwy 191 onto 313, we had somewhat of an eerie feeling. Whenever we've been together, trips into Canyonlands haven't exactly gone off without a hitch. There was no logical reason to worry but perhaps the tension in the air kept us sharp for a reason.
Reason's name? One huge ass tan side of beef. Almost to the turn off for Mineral Bottom road, Marni had made sure I was awake for help with finding our camp spot.

"Do you see the cow?" "Skirrrrrrrrrrrrrt!" "Swerve!!!!" "Holy s*&t, are you okay?"
We saw him just in time and Marni's autocross skillz came through in fine form. Who says you can't successfully drift a toaster on wheels? We missed hitting dinner for the next 2 years and successfully survived yet another near miss heading to the White Rim. The next day Marni would find the herd and capture Mr. Huge Ass Cow for posterity.

While Marni slept in, shot farm life pictures and went on a nice ride herself, I woke up before dawn and headed out alone.


When the sun came up, I found myself at home among the big canyon walls, the river and the desert.
Time was of the essence as I wanted to both get on the road to Zion as well as put up my first serious time trial around the rim. However I still had to get a few pictures along the way.
"Are you doing this in one day?" "Yes." "Where do you resupply?" "Umm, I don't. Thanks for the picture!"
Beyond Murphy's I wouldn't pull out the camera again. I spent my time pedaling into the wind and reflecting on how my life has changed since my first journey around the rim some 2 years earlier. I hadn't ridden this direction since then and memories flooded back en mass. I didn't need music or company. In fact I rarely saw anyone for the last few hours of the ride until I reached the base of Shafer.
Pushing up through some sneaky sand and turning onto the pavement I popped a gel and headed off to find Marni. I knew sub 8 hours was possible and just kept looking for signs that I was near the end as I had forgotten exactly how long the road was.
Just under the wire I showed up with a smile on my face, dropped my bike in the sand and sat down to devour the lunch that my wonderful wife had waiting. Not long after that the Hotelement rolled on to Zion.

Ahh our new home sweet home...for a day.
Camping at the Coal Pits Wash, dinner at the Pizza and Noodle and then breakfast at Oscars. DaveC sure doesn't disappoint with his recommendations. Can't stop vacation smiles...

But it was way too pretty to just sit around all day, we had to get out IN it.We hopped a couple shuttles from Springdale.
And up we went. Angel's Landing was our destination for the day. What's a 5 mile, 1500 vertical foot hike anyway? We figured it wouldn't be so bad compared to our 14er hikes :)
Some fun switchbacks.
A million and one places to play with Marni's D70.
Sandstone is perty.
Onto the scrambling part of the hike.
Let's play a game called, pretend the chains don't exist :)
Ahhh the summit.
One look at all the cool places that radiate from here and I knew we would have to come back.
Heh. Don't worry Dad, I'm not really near the edge.
Some more cool switchbacks called Walter's Wiggles.
On the way down we stopped at the Virgin river for more pictures and to give our feet a soak in the cold water. Angel's Landing is behind Marni here.
Grok go there. Big rock. Grok like.
Sadly the trip called for only a short stay in Zion and we headed next for the city of sin, just in time for dinner. We said good bye to our bikes in the Mirage parking structure, hoping they would be there when we returned!
I had never been to Vegas before but Marni assured me it was every bit as ridiculous as TV makes it out to be. First we found meat at the Carnegie Deli in the Mirage.
Very ridiculous but I ate it all. And cheesecake. Huge cheesecake. Yum. Then we gambled for like an hour on $2. For real. Ridiculous.
Finally we drove down the strip and out of town. Why spend $200+/night for a hotel when the Hotelement does just fine? Besides, the beach was calling.
I pulled driving duty for a while until we were sleepy. We woke up in the parking lot of a Ramada in Barstow. It was so warm I didn't even sleep in my sleeping bag.
Pancakes at the IHOP and we were on our way through some more mountains and the outskirts of LA.
To the beach! $25 for the night sounded like a deal to me. We didn't bother unpacking yet, just hit the sea shore.
I loved watching the waves, probably because it was only my second time seeing the big blue, the first being our honeymoon.
Marni looking like the sun suits her well.
We went on a short bike ride to another nearby state beach and then ate some lunch on a big rock.
Yummy. Lunch by the waves sure beats working.
Monocog does the beach.
We rode back and got ready for some serious relaxation. Hello bird.
Reading and napping in the sand. Can't beat that with a stick.
After a most excellent read and nap, I cooked dinner. Well first I dropped dinner #1 in the dirt. Then I cooked dinner #2.
After dinner we went for a stroll.
Hello strange birdies.
Surfers getting their evening fix before the light disappears.
Marni shot this one.
Out here we got super lucky and saw 3 dolphins swimming just off the beach. It was very cool.
Aww pretty.
We fell asleep listening to the crash of the waves.
The next morning we headed off to go horseback riding. They actually marched us up (well the horses) a few thousand vertical feet of pretty interesting trails and 4x4 roads.
This was my horse. He liked to try to bite Marni's horse's butt.
Sure was nice up there though.
Another couple shot.
Marni with her favorite cowboy in the whole world :p
After horseback riding we headed on to Solvag to our inn and spa. A shower and catching up on a few emails was very nice.
Dinner.
The next day we spent doing some shopping.
We also got in a little road ride up Figuera Mountain road. Where are we going again?
Climb climb.
Smile smile.
On the way back we saw mini horses. Strange :)
That afternoon we got an hour long couples massage. Hell yea. I could do that everyday if I could afford it.
Eat, drink, sleep, shop. That pretty much summed up Solvang. I think we went to the Solvang bakery 4 times in 2 days. Driving away from the beach was bittersweet but the rest of the vacation called.
We cruised out of town and headed back to Vegas. Since we happened to roll though at dinner time again we stopped in. A little more gambling, a little fun at M&M world, watching the fountains at the Bellagio. The strip is a crazy place to walk around and we resolved to come back for a long weekend one of these days. I pulled driving duty out of town and then Marni took over before we crashed out in St.George.

On the way back east the next day we celebrated Marni's 26th with a Happy BirthDanish from the Solvang bakery!
Most of the highway is quite scenic between St.George and Green River and we stopped at this overlook.
Of course we didn't stop too long. Moab was calling. After stashing the E at the hotel, Marni and I headed out on a short ride. Since I have the nicest wife in the whole world, she was going to let me ride the next day in the Rim Ride. As such I wanted to check out the two new trails, Rock'n A and Circle O. I love Moab.
Isn't she cute?
That night we had some deluxe dinner at the Center Cafe, continuing our main vacation theme, eating. We woke up the next morning to the crowd of surprised friends at the start of the Rim Ride. While that is a story for another blog, I had a great time and finished well over an hour faster than last year plus riding rigid. The finished photo courtesy of Sportsman belies the overall feeling of the day. Plenty more images and stories linked in here too.
Milling around after the ride and waiting for friends to finish is one of the highlights of any event. It was soooo great to see everyone after what felt like far too long.Never one to miss good riding, Sunday morning saw a small group gather at Mondo's for some breakfast. After a lazy breakfast, Dave Nice, Chad, Max, DaveC, Marni and I headed up to Sand Flats to ride Slickrock. Adam did you say something about no more slickrock for a while? :)
Dave rolling some slickrock fixie style.
Chad smiling in front of the looming storm clouds. I predicted between 2 and 3pm and was right on. We got back to the parking lot at around 2:55.
DaveC and the La Sal mountains.
Me and Max.
Did I mention I love Moab?
Rain looming large.
We crammed Dave in for a ride back to town.
From here we decided to head on to Fruita. Actually we went past Fruita and then turned around but that's another story. A $60 room and a gamble on the weather paid off. The rain during the night made the trails off of Loma exit perfect with all the dust gone. Monday meant an empty parking lot.
Rustlers loop first.
River and desert. Blue skies here while it looked like 18 road was getting hammered across the highway.
Climbing up Mary's Loop.
A little colder today but still nice.
Carrying my sweetie's bike back up Horsethief.
The Hot Tomato was closed much to our dismay so we headed up I-70. We had to be at work tomorrow, ugh. After lunch at Chomps in Glenwood, we hit the end of the road. Crap. A 70 car pileup on I-70 at Vail Pass had shut down the highway and we dead ended in Eagle, just over 100 miles from home.
We tried to pass the time poaching internet in a hotel parking lot. Then we ate. And drove around Eagle. And ate again. By this time it looked like we might not get home tonight so we made arrangements to crash out in the Hotelement one more time. Just as we were about to crawl in, we saw a car drive down the on ramp. The highway was open and despite it being late, I wanted to get home. We packed up as fast as we could and got on the road.
At Vail Pass the weather began to suck and getting over the passes was a difficult 20mph endeavor. We made it safe and sound though and crashed out in our own bed for the first time in a week and a half after midnight.
Spring break 2008, road tripping in style.