Flat Tire

We checked out the NORBA course today – rocky, twisty, and sandy.  It should be fun.  The course doesn’t really have any climbs, but it doesn’t have any flat sections either.  It’s always going up or down.  We will have to make sure to not lose focus, as any slip off course will result in an unfriendly meeting with a cactus – the course is lined with them.

After spending all that time in the bike shop this morning getting his tires ready to go with Stan’s sealant, Evan flatted out on course on one of the little decents on the rocky 3 km section.  Dented his wheel…

So we are all still deciding if we are going to race the short track tomorrow…it will be a game time decision I guess.

Evan got his blog up and running.  Check it out here:

http://web.mac.com/evansherman/iWeb/Site%202/Blog/Blog.html 

Catch you all later. 

Stay positive,

Mike

4.5 hr Coffee Ride

Today was a very nice ride with perfect weather – 20 degrees and sunny.  We headed out to Fountain Hills then towards McDowell Park, which is the site of the NORBA race on Sunday.  We checked out the tech area then headed out to Rio Varde and then eventually Cave Creek.  There is this really nice coffee place there, frequented many times last year and I’m sure we will go a few more times here this year.  It has this really cool “back yard” where they must have concerts.  Something you can do when you are in the desert I guess.

Unfortunately Evan was feeling sick for 4 out of 4.5 hrs of our ride today.  His high HR relegated him to sitting in the draft for most of the day…until we hit the 4 hr mark.

Liesje, you’re not going to believe it, but I cooked pasta and made the sauce from scratch!  My trusty sous chef Tim prepared his staple spinach salad and some nice bread rounded out a pretty sweet meal.

Here is some data from today:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2346607 

So we are going to preride the course tomorrow so I’ll let you know how it looks.

Do you know how fast you must spin a 44×11 to go 50k’s an hour?

Mike

 

Waiting to Ride

Goodmorning,

I’m just hanging out waiting to ride.  Since I’m used to being at work at 7:30 am and Scottsdale is 1 hr behind – I was up early.  I got all of my bike tech work done early and now I sit and wait for the boys to get there stuff together.  Time to blog I guess….

Our Condo is spacious and is a really nice home base for the week.  I think it is exclusively furnished by Ikea too.  You know what, it has heat – but we forgot to turn it on so it was pretty chilly when we got up this morning.  Mysteriously we have no spoons……well, until we figured out that Roddi was hoarding them and had them hid away.  But the guilt was to much, so he gave it up and revealed the bounty of spoons!

Apparently we rode past the big aution that was a scene in the movie Borat.  The scene where he is supposed to be singing the USA National Anthem.  Cool.

 Check out my flickr for more photos (link is down on the right of the page)

Okay time to get changed, enjoy the sun,

Mike

Sunny Arizona

We (Roddi, Evan, & myself) arrived…in one piece.

Flying direct from Edmonton to Phoenix was definitely the way to go.  Westjet is great as none of us had to pay for our bikes.  Each one of us had our own way of packing our bikes – from using a bike bag, to hockey bag and wheel bag, to just wheeling right on the plane….pretty much anyways.  No damage to any bikes so that is good.

 Our condo is nice and comfortable near most amenities.  We have rented a minivan for the week so it’s pretty easy to get around.

Tomorrow is going to be a 5 hr ride so I’d better get some sleep.  Not too many fotos today – I will try to snap more tomorrow.

Latr Gatr’s,

Mike

Sunshine and bare roads (mostly)

Awh, the first weekend of spring.  That can only mean its time to bust out some nice long road rides, which is what the TTP boys and I did.  We got our suffer on pretty well with some thresholds and sprints.  Hans Solo (aka Roddi Lega) is looking to be in fine form as he was tearing it up w/ his thunderous trunks.  I suffered, period.  So much so that I must got and make like a corpse.  Maybe I’ll update this post tomorrow when my legs don’t feel like they will fall off…..nah, it’s not that bad, way better than Saturday.

 Sleep Well,

Mike

Funny Vid

Roddi sent me the link to this awesome clip, check it out:

 

I am Still Alive

Don’t worry…I am still alive.  I have just been too busy taking care of so many things that I haven’t had the energy to write a clever post.

So don’t fret, clever post coming soon!

Mike

1st Ride of the Year

Today, Liesje took advantage of the mild weather (+7 C) and dusted off the MTB, heading out for a nice ride.  Although the trails were getting a bit slushy and soft, it was still a really nice ride. 

I take for granted that I am on my bike more days out of the year then not on the bike, so I forget how sore one can get after getting back on the bike after a 6 month layoff.

I got the results from my performance test last weekend and they were suprisingly good.  I’m ahead of schedule, which is good, but there is still a long way to go until the season.

I was so happy today when we went to our regular Safeways as it has now been renovated to include a Starbucks!  Horray!  Da Capo (althought not open yet but that hasn’t stopped me from drinking Da Capo coffees) is still by far the best but Starbucks is good too in my books.  Now I can buy groceries and get my caffeine fix in one spot.  By the way, Da Capo is coming along really nicely and it should be open within the week.  It’s going to be great and I’m sure I’ll be there on a very regular basis.

Here comes spring,

Mike