The Other Site is Done!!!

Check it out!!!

http://biking-for-baby-food.blogspot.com/

So Long, Old Friend

When I was 16 years old I told my dad I wanted a truck.

He told me to get a job.

So, I did and I spent the next year cleaning tables and saving every damn dime I made until I had $2000 saved. That's when I met this gal...

When I got that truck it was beautiful, not a scratch or a spot of rust. Over the years I had a lot of "first experiences" in that truck, not the least of which was getting into some chick's pants. I later went on to marry/divorce that woman...but that's another story.

Over the years I put that truck on the back burner, dreaming of someday "fixing it up" and blah blah blah.....it's been sitting in the driveway for about 3 years now. Well, today I did the unthinkable..

I sold that fucker.

With that money + my tax return I was able to pay off my daily driver and get my boat knocked down to $500. After that my only non-utility bill will be my mortgage.

I'm gon' be rich, beeyitch!!!

Looks like I might be getting that full-suspension Epic sooner than I thought.

Riding for a Reason

During the past few weeks I've been trying to figure out how to use the 24 Hours of Syllamo race as a means to raise money for a worthy cause. I'm not exactly what you'd call a "podium finisher" so I need alternate motivation.

Here's what I came up with: The Samaritan Center has a program that raises money for baby food. The baby-food goes to people who are raising other people's babies since those people are unable to breastfeed. I like the program because it's not giving away actual money, just food.

So I think what I'll do is have people pledge to donate X amount of money per lap I complete. For example, Dew Schpagg pledges $5 per lap, and then if I make it 10 laps he owes $50.

I got an email back from the Samaritan Center today saying that they'd love to do this. Now all I have to do is figure out how to get people to sign up.

I'm pretty pumped about this.

Luke Smashes 57.5 Miles of Gravel

On Saturday Luke, Phil and I rode a customized version of Nick's gravel road ride. I know Luke is in the process of putting a proper write-up w/ photos on http://www.blogger.com/www.team-virtus.com so I'll keep this short.

We met at Dos Primos at 6am and started the ride on frozen trails. The weather was fantastic, (very little wind), and there was a lot of pretty scenery along the way. About 13 (?) miles into the ride we found an abandoned puppy. He seemed to be a pretty healthy guy, but was very much freezing his ass off. So we dumped out Luke's pack and wriggled him into it. Phil was planning on turning around anyway, so he transported the pooch home while Luke and I rode on.

At around the 35-40 mile mark things got pretty wet and sloppy. The gravel roads were pretty much mud roads laden with slush-filled potholes. It was pretty brutal. When we got to the Katy Trail is was completely fucked so we followed Hwy 94 a little bit until we found a suitable detour.

I guess I should probably admit that I got mildly lost and rode an extra 5 miles.

I think Luke and I were both surprised at how good we felt when we were done. Maybe it was the awesomeness of the route or the scenery, I don't know, but I wasn't feeling much pain at all until about the 40 mile mark.

We had a great ride on a great day, and the Dos Primos JUMBO margarita I had afterwards gave me the lazy eye in record time.

I think Luke was pretty happy with his meal as well.

Cyclometer reading at the end of the ride showed 59.14 miles and 4hrs 44mins of riding time. I think that comes out to an average speed a little bit better than 12mph. Not good, but it's a starting point. This was only my 2nd ride using a computer, so I really don't even know what a good "goal" average speed would be. 15 maybe?

Here's the overview of our ride that I've tried to send to Luke 5 times but the link doesn't work. I've got a few more pics but for some reason I can't get them to load. I got pics of Luke's food, our muddy bikes, etc..but they won't upload. FML. I really need to get my own pc.

It's Official

....The shit has hit the fan.

Today when I got to work I found this in my inbox:

"CONGRATULATIONS! Your entry into the Leadville Trail 100 Mountain Bike Race has been accepted. Get ready to "Dig Deep" and challenge yourself to the highest and biggest mountain bike race around. Gear up to race with the world's BEST cyclists at the nation's highest quality athletic experience with the utmost degree of safety, medical care and racer support......."

Fuck me, I'm going to be in the Leadville 100.

Oh, I get it

http://www.syllamo.org/24hours/24%20HRS%20SYLLAMO%20Profile.pdf

Maybe this is why there is no one else signed up for 24 Hours of Syllamo yet.

Holy shitballs.

Failure is imminent.

I'm really looking forward to this race. I don't want to call it a "training race" by any means, but I'm going to use it as a tool to find my true breaking point. The way I see it, it's a whole lot better to find out how much grit you've got on a 10.5 mile loop course than to be 7 hours into the Flint Hills of Kansas with a dead cell phone.

I signed up for the Clydesdale division mostly because I figured there won't be a lot of other chubby dudes who want to do a 24 hour race. I couldn't care less about winning, I just want to make sure I'm racing myself and not the people around me. I've got to figure out how to keep up with my nutrition; If I can outlast these punks I don't have to be faster than them.

I've got to get into that "Barry Vollmer" category.

Of course the other factor is the whole epilepsy thing. If I don't get at least 6 hours of sleep per night, the next day my mind is totally fucked. This isn't something I toy with; I've had enough run-ins with the boogey-man to know not to fuck around with my sleep schedule. Raceday will be no different; My plan is to ride for 8 hours, sleep 6-8 hours, and then try to ride the last 8.

Then again, it's pretty easy to make bold statements like that while I'm sitting at work drinking coffee....for all I know I could stroke out at the top of the first climb. I guess there's only one way to find out.

And let's not forget: 46 miler this Sunday at Klunk Cycles. I'll be rollin on my Tricross SS. I can't wait.

It's already happening

It only took my nephews 2 years to figure out something that most people go their entire lives without knowing.....Singlespeeds are the sheeeyit:

I bet I spent the better part of 2 hours pushing them around the house.

We've gotten most of their stuff moved into the house now so I should be able to resume some P90X tonight. 24 Hours of Syllamo is right around the corner...why the hell isn't anyone else signed up for that race?