Twenty eight years

Today I turn 28 years old, thanks Mom and Dad. A big free coffee from Starbucks and a "special" day make a good time for some thinking before I shovel the driveway. I haven't been posting much on the blog because to be honest, I've been struggling some with injury and recovery and it's subsequent effects on my lifestyle. Perceived effects some might say but there is a difference right now between what I want to do and what my body will let me do that I haven't had to deal with in a very long time. I don't like complaining so instead I say nothing, dealing internally and venting to wifey when I swing too low. She is my Saint Marni and I can't believe we're coming up on 9 years together.

But things are not bad here and I'm not writing to complain, in fact things are not even just different, things are good! When I think back to the 28 years I've been lucky enough to have and especially the past four, I have no regrets. I have dedicated my life for four years to being a better mountain biker and the journey has taken me places beyond my wildest dreams. I no longer have any idea where my limits are so I've gone looking in new places. I mean hell, the Arrowhead 135 is often rightfully billed as a hardcore winter ultra (I mean zero disrespect when I say the following) and I treated it like a 27 hour fun run complete with a below zero nap by the fire and an excuse to eat chocolate and bacon. I will be back sometime by the way but next time on foot or skis to really suffer enjoy it.

Even better than all the rides however are the people and my trip to Minnesota drove that point home hard. Everywhere I went I had a free place to stay, food to eat, wonderful conversation and I'd have to force myself upstairs to bed. To Doug and Paul specifically, a huge thanks. To Dave, Charlie F, Rick and the rest of the hotel crew, another thank you. I can't even begin to thank all the people I should and that's just from the Arrowhead! Beyond that Scotty who instigated all of this (and who is my ankle injury partner) and the rest of the CO bike crew you are all amazing friends. Plus the enduro riders and bikepacking.net junkies who are all now addicted Facebook'ers (even JP!), I treasure the memory of every ride done together. So how could I rightfully complain, I've had a fantastic 28 years and could only hope to have the rest of my life filled similarly.

So what have I been doing? I've been biking but subject to the whims of other body parts that are not so happy I hurt my ankle. I've been running a little, as much as my ankle will tolerate. And I've been climbing, mostly with my new partner and friend Aaron. We've been pulling plastic at the BRC where I finally made my way up a 5.12 and am onsighting some 5.11's. It's nice to see definable progress even if it is fake rock. We've been climbing ice where you can't help but laugh and smile climbing frozen waterfalls by arming yourself with metal spikes. And we've been trying to get into the alpine whenever we can to climb ice, snow, dirt, rock and whatever else stands between us and the summit. Alpinism combines the self support and long efforts aspect of enduro biking with the technical challenge of climbing (which I still suck at). That and it's just darn pretty up in the mountains so I like it a lot. Oh and I guess there isn't really a clock to race, just the sun to the horizon.
The older I get, the less I seem to care about a lot of material stuff I used to think was important. I'd take a king size bed one of these days over a fancy HD TV or new computer so wifey, doggie and I can all fit comfortably. And I haven't bought new clothes in years if they aren't outdoor related and even many of those are starting to show a little age. Socks especially, man I love Smartwool but I wear out the entire sole of the sock! I used to frown when I ripped my jacket or pants or sleeping bag, now I realize that patches are signs of use and signs of love. I suppose it's just trading one type of materialism for another but the "things" that let me experience the outdoors seem to hold more value to me.

So with a healthy dose of respect and a touring perspective, my birthday present (and Christmas and Valentines day and...) is my big trip to Alaska for the Ultrasport. Even if I can't race my fastest, I'm looking forward to some beautiful sunrises and sunsets from the seat of a bike, the soles of my boots or the comfort of my sleeping bag. And how could anyone complain about that?

East Side Epic 2010

Yesterday we had a rocking time at the first Leadville snow race of the winter. Marni came up and took pictures and Brett, Bill, Ben and I raced with 42 other racers! It was a killer field for the first race (2nd biggest ever?) and there were quite a few Pugs/fat bikes out there. I had to test out the wheelie capabilities of the Fatback on 100's and I report back with success! Haha.
The new bike did really really well in the soft stuff (as it should) and I could ride uphill where no one else could even without airing the tires way down yet. The SS gear of 30x22 was a little easy for a "race" but I think it will be just about right for the long rides with a load.
Very very pretty too. Wow I feel lucky to have one.
The race went pretty well. I went into it super chill and let the leaders go right off the bat up the hill. The snow covered road was easy riding and the Fatback was way overkill. I spun my way up, was pretty spun out on the way down and hit the Mineral Belt trail (thank god) in ~12th place. From there I put those big wheels to good use and turned on the gas. I reeled in everyone but one guy from Vail who kicked some serious butt finishing on foot with a flat(!) and held me off by 2 minutes. Final result was just over 40 minutes of riding, first place SS and 2nd overall.

The crew all followed shortly and it was just nice to be out. Bill coming in.
Ben all finished up and Chad as well.
Brett hanging in there on his SS in some soft finishing snow.
There are some more pictures of the race here. Hopefully the embed features works.

Last night and today I've been working on getting this packed up for the Arrowhead 135. Bill I got a gear list almost done for you so I'll try to post that next! The Epic Designs bags are almost beyond words, adding to the pogies I got last year. I don't plug gear that often but I paid Eric for the bags and would recommend others do in a heartbeat. He's really continuing the innovation, you've got to see them up close to notice all the amazing little touches.I'm looking forward to the Arrowhead a lot. I'll be driving out starting on Friday and the race will be a big learning experience for me. Everything isn't quite as polished and dialed in as I would like due to the broken ankle and bike build delays. Luckily the adventure side of me has grown greatly over the past few years and I feel like I know enough to be safe. The rest I'll treat as a dry run for the Iditarod and hope to learn some valuable lessons. The winter riding puts a HUGE smile on my face every time I do it so frankly I feel darn lucky to be headed out on fat wheels for real this year, especially just 3 months after a broken ankle. I fully expect to get smacked around like the rookie that I am so we'll just see what happens. More tomorrow perhaps.

Headset and BB Winterizing

A bit overdue on the blog front and for those waiting for this info but hopefully it's worth it. I tried to take plenty of pictures to make it very straight forward for the less mechanically inclined.

Today I'm going to show you how to take apart and winterize (regrease) the bearings in a Surly Mr.Whirly bottom bracket and the ubiquitous Chris King headset. If you have a different headset or bottom bracket, the parts may look slightly different but in general this should get you through most similar options. Alright let's dive in!

Starting with the Mr.Whirly bottom bracket, you'll need to remove both cups (aka the actual bottom bracket parts) from the bike and bring them somewhere to work. This may be a shed or garage or your kitchen table if your wife is nice and you clean up after yourself real well.
From the side your BB cup will look like this. The first thing we need to remove is a small plastic spacer sealing the bearings from the outside. I had a handy 1" wooden dowel in the garage that just barely didn't fit through so I used it as a small press. The plastic spacer isn't in there super tight so if you don't have a dowel and don't want to go buy one, improvise something else. Just for grins I was able to get one started coming out with a butter knife and my fingers. Mostly just be careful to remove the spacer somewhat evenly so it comes out without cracking. I'm sure Surly could get you another one but that will involve phone calls and shipping and nobody wants that. As you can see in the picture below the spacer is just starting to push out with the dowel...
Push a little more and pop! the spacer is out. Now remove it completely and set it aside for re-installation later. We can now see the next piece to remove.
Ah yes, the pesky plastic/rubber seal on the bearings themselves. How do we get it out of there?
I'd recommend that you steal the little tweezer/plucker things from your nice wife to use as a good tool. Alternatively you could grab a little dental pick from the hobby store if your wife will kill you for using her girly supplies for bike work. Use whichever tool you decide on to carefully grab the edges of the seal and pry it up a bit. Now you can pop it the rest of the way out and...
Off it comes! We now have access to the bearings! Once again you'll want to clean this off with a paper towel or rag and set it aside for later re-installation.
Repeat the procedure on your other cup, grab some brake cleaner or similar solvent and you'll probably now want to head outside or to the garage at least. No one but punks that huff like the smell of brake cleaner. Take each of the bearings and using the little red nozzle, spray all the stock or old grease out of the bearing. You'll want to rotate the bearings as you do this or in between sprays to make sure you really get all the old stuff out, especially if the bearings have already been used on a bike. There will probably be dirt and grit in there, wash it all out with the solvent.
When you get all the nasty stuff out and the bearings spin easily and without grittiness start to dry them off. If you have a air gun this will help to get all the solvent and any extra grease hiding in cracks and crevices out. With no air gun just dry and rotate them thoroughly so you get the solvent all evaporated.
Now we have two clean, dry and greaseless bearings. Time for reassembly.
You can see the difference between a re-greased bearing on the left and a dry one on the right.
To do this, grab your handy big syringe of Morningstar Soup or your other favorite winter grade grease. If you order from Paul at Morningstar Tools, I'd recommend getting the big grease tube and a couple extra seals with his freehub body kit all at once. By the time you pay for shipping twice it's just about as easy to get plenty the first time around plus he now can take Paypal to make it easy as pie and he's really nice to talk to. The Soup has lots of winter applications.
Okay back to the bottom bracket. Squeeze the grease in a decent sized bead all the way around the top of the bearings.
You can see there is plenty on the top. That's important because you're really going to want to work it in there inside in a moment.
Using your fingers or the dowel from earlier, spin the bearing to work that grease inside all the surfaces. You might also lightly tap the bearing square on the table to settle the grease down inside. Take a few moments here to really work it in, you want all the surfaces covered and the grease to stay inside the BB, not push out when you seal it up. You can't really put too much inside, any significant extra will just push out. Luckily the soup is a fairly light grease (for winter, duh I guess) so this all isn't too difficult.
Now you're going to reinstall the plastic/rubber seal first and then the plastic outer guard. The seal will snap down pretty easily, maybe pushing with your tweezers. Make sure it's properly seated. If you are really worried, do one bearing first so you have the other one to compare to. Then snap in the outer guard trying to install it straight down into the bearing. A flat object of any kind to push with is handy for this step.
Ta da! You now have winterized BB bearings and just reinstall them into your bike and ride. You can use the same procedure on your summer bike to clean up a crunchy bottom bracket before it complete seizes up.
Okay now that we have the bottom bracket out of the way, the headset will be a piece of cake. It's probably easiest to do this off the bike though I'm sure if you really wanted to you could figure out how to do it with the cups still in the frame. Personally not recommended as removing and reinstalling a headset is a pretty easy task with less than $10 in tools from Home Depot.

Alright let's get this one done too!
Start with just the two plain cups, set aside the other headset pieces for later re-installation. Now is a good time to clean and regrease anything else in the stem/headset area so when you put it all back together it will be fresh, clean and torqued to spec. You do use your torque wrench right?

Looking at the cups below you can see I started to remove the snap ring on the one on the left. Weasel your tool from earlier down right at the snap ring (metal) seam and carefully pry it up. You'll need to use a little force but it should start to come out pretty easily once you get it started. It's sitting under a small ledge on the outside of the bearing.
Work the snap ring out from under the ledge, clean it and set it aside for later.
Next up is a small rubber seal. This seal also will just pull right up if you grab it carefully. It may be slightly stuck in a few spots and it is fragile so be gentle, we will be reusing it.
With both pieces removed, we now have access to the bearings. Once again you'll want to take your brake cleaner or other degreaser of choice and clean all the nasty old stuff out. My headset had been on a bike for a while and it was fairly crunchy and lots of black nasty stuff came out. Get it all out of there, working the bearing around. You want it to spin free and easily when you're done. Blow it out with the air gun again or just make sure it dries if you don't have one (brake clean flashes off easily, sorry environment...).
Grab your new grease or Soup and squeeze it into the bearings, again getting plenty of coverage.
Work the grease into the bearing as we did with the bottom bracket and then grab your rubber seal. Carefully push it down under the lip of the headset making sure to keep it even all the way around and not push the inside part too deep. If you push it too deep, just grab it with the tweezers and start over.
Once it's seated all the way around wipe down any excess grease that pops up to keep things clean.
Next reinstall the snap ring by carefully working it back under the ledge. Snap it in at one point and work around in a circle until you get back to the start. Once it's mostly seated, push down firmly at the junction to make sure the ring is level where the two edges meet. You want it to look like the bearing on the right, not the left. Do this to both bearings, reinstall into the frame and you're finished. Make sure to clean up the kitchen table and the tweezers before you put them back in the bathroom!
If anyone has questions, just leave a comment and I'll try to make things more clear. Hope this helps someone out there.

Let's just do it

Racing the Selma tomorrow here in Dallas, Texas sort of on a whim. I brought some minimal race gear but didn't really intend to race. Weather is unseasonably cold for Texas, in fact they're all complaining about the record lows but it's really not too bad. Booties and tights are packed and the Plesko crew will be rocking out for 6+ hours and the first race of 2010. Time to see how the ankle holds up under anger! Nicholas my little brother will be taking some pictures so hopefully we'll have some tomorrow night.

P.S. The Fatback frame has landed in Westminster and is in my wife's hands thanks to some very interested FedEX workers. Assembly starts when I get back home!

Hurray for Ouray!

Been planning and hoping this trip would work out ankle wise for a while. Since the snow bike isn't here yet and the ice is in, I'm road tripping with Aaron and some other climbers down to Ouray, Colorado this weekend to play around in the ice park. Should be an awesome time! I'll be back Sunday and hopefully next week the hubs will arrive. They're on the way :) Frame should be following close behind.

Cleared

What a wild ten weeks it's been. From a crazy self rescue to not knowing how bad I hurt my ankle to wondering if I made the right call for healing to pushing just how far and fast I could do my PT. I always felt like I was healing and doing the right thing but never having been hurt like this before, there were a lot of question marks. I got a lot of warnings and advice from friends and even random people and I appreciate and did listen to every single thing. But in the end I had to make choices based on intuition and what my body told me and so far it seems like I've done an okay job.

Today the doc (who is meh) and PA (who is excellent) cleared me for normal activity, including biking off road and climbing, with a caveat to give high impact things like running a bit more time. The bones have healed well and I'm not having floating body pain or any pain at all beyond soreness from pushing ankle back to it's normal range of motion and strength. The PT (who is also excellent) worked on my joint mobility again today and we've got a couple more sessions scheduled already. The strength is coming back well and it is sure nice to have. The range of motion is really good except in one area where I'm still a little ways away from perfect. My limp should go away once I fix that last area. I'm certainly not at 100% and it may be months before I get all the way there, but I'm confident now that I'm going to make a full recovery and be good as new at some point in the not too distant future. That's a big, huge, gigantic, amazing relief.

And I guess I just felt like I should shave off the goatee. It was a fun experiment but it's never fully grown in (up close it's a little patchy) and it's probably more trouble than I'm willing to put up with. Back to the baby face, back to firing hard!

Thanks!

Yesterday Brett and I wrapped up his year long project of a century every month of the year. Nice job Brett! He's less than 200 miles away from his other goal of 7,000 miles on the year as well.

I got my 12 in 12 last year and was on track to repeat until the injury knocked out October and November. A couple weeks ago I made a half-hearted attempted at getting November but a pretty sore tendon and knowing I missed October had me bailing at mile 80. Yesterday I had a goal to help Brett finish off his project and despite an okay forecast, we got tossed around pretty good by a stiff wind and colder than expected temperatures. Impending snow over our intended route had us turn back early leaving some route improv at the end. Just past mile 50 we hit the gas station for a bathroom break and Brett handed me a king size Butterfinger when I walked out. Those 500 calories helped strengthen my resolve and we put the Hump and the Wall behind us without any drama, added some bonus climbing and did a couple laps around the lake to finish off the century. Beer and wings were our reward and we earned it.

I'm a lot stronger than 2 weeks ago but Brett is a machine. He pulled into the wind 99% of the day and I'd have never done the full 100 without his help and that Butterfinger. Guess that's what friends are for, thanks!

Apparently

Someone thinks I have a lesson to learn repeatedly out of this injury. Thursday and Friday were good days but not great. Some lingering soreness in the arch of my foot was bothering me and I was wondering if I finally would stop progressing. Nope, not the case. Saturday I felt better from some rest and after baby doc stuff in the morning and a delicious breakfast at Root Down, Marni and I came back to the house. She napped and I did my PT and finally managed the elusive one legged calf raise! It has felt so funny not to be able to do that. Then on my bike ride I made it up one of my test piece hills in a great, normal time and even finally was able to ride over small obstacles and pop my rear wheel behind me accordingly. Sweet! I might be able to ride some singletrack soon.

I know I haven't talked much about the fertility stuff on here but I've really got my fingers crossed this month more than ever. Last month my numbers were down a lot from normal and the only explanation we could come up with was the injury. I was really hoping everything would be normal again this month and instead it was almost 4x higher than my best ever and off the charts good. Everything on Marni's end looks perfect too and I just can't believe it won't work this month.

All we want for Christmas...

Chilly Backyard Campout

It may seem silly to sleep outside when you're paying (a lot) to heat a nice warm house...where your wife and dog are sleeping in bed. But here in the foothills we honestly don't get that many nights where temperatures dip below zero, much less into the negative double digits. Heck that's probably happened less than 5 times since I've lived here. So while "real" camping it is not, sleeping in the yard at least is helping my body continue to develop it's cold adaptations without wasting gas driving to the mountains. Plus hopefully I'll be a little smoother with the whole system by the time my Fatback is ready. Not to mention it was a good excuse to sleep in my new pyramid tarp!
Temps were just at zero when I went out after 9pm and they dropped to a low of -11.7F by dawn. I spent much of the night not quite zipped up all the way in my -25 bag and skimpy sleeping pad but by morning I zipped'er to the hilt and snuggled down in way too many dollars worth of awesome down warmth.
Time to get up and start the day! I didn't sleep in the DAS parka but it was nice pillow. Marni stole it to wear to work this morning :) Temps are going to start warming up slowly now and I'm not sure we'll see negatives again down here in Westminster for a while but if we do I'll be sleeping outside. Got to get ready for Minnesota and Alaska!

And in unrelated news, I'll be darned if my ankle isn't slowly, slightly getting less swollen!

Catchup

Quite the cold snap we've had this December in the Front Range! PT and cycling have been indoor activities with a very specific focus lately, especially since my fat bike frame has yet to arrive. That doesn't mean that I'm confined to the house though. The last campout got postponed to tonight when it was going to be colder and the hex tent has been staked for a while now, weathering the snowfall and wind like a champ. After Saturday's killer ride with Brett more snow moved in and we took to the trails on foot instead. RMNP was our original goal but terrible roads and a bad "fun to drive" ratio found us in Boulder instead. Might as well go scouting for ice lines right?Brett had only been here once before in the summer we we climbed the 3rd Flatiron but I think he still had a good time following footsteps in the snow for a few hours.
The sun even came out at times. There is ephemeral ice in the Flatirons and if there was ever a time that it's coming in, now is it. Hoping to find a way up at least one route before it all disappears but that will take some luck.
Yesterday Aaron and I went in search of some fat ice despite our lack of screws (errrggg) and made our way up to Mt.Lincoln and the falls. The ice was blue and fat. I hobbled my way up the hill, a bit less confidently than usual, but I made it. Aaron was a good sport for going out with the cripple. We eventually got a sweet top rope setup on the upper falls and lapped the heck out of it. My first lap I had cold fingers so bad from over gripping! Luckily a bunch of laps helped me remember my technique and the climbing was far easier than the approach. Aaron topping out a harder variation (WI4).
Me coming up the main vertical section (WI3). Hard to believe it was warmer up here at almost 12k feet than at my house. Other than swapping the belay jacket we never needed any other tricks to stay warm and I was wearing a cap1 base layer and a softshell.
When I got home Marni and I hung out and admired out sweet Christmas tree...
While playing with the next size larger boots I ordered. I think these guys will work this time. I guess they're a little large since they're basically a full double boot.
Yup I can pedal in them, now time to make the inserts.
Before you go to bed you've got to lay out everything to dry. It won't be long until you get to do it all over again.