Saturday, May 24, 2008

12 Hours of GEARS

Didn't weigh myself this morning at o'dark thirty....

Overall, it was very stressful today at the races. I suffered a major mechanical that took the wind out of my sails.

I will write up an update in the next few days with some photos.

The following utterz are from through out today. Have fun listening to them.

Something Uttered by Buzz



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Something Uttered by Buzz



Mobile post sent by SquidBuzz using Utterzreply-count Replies.  mp3

Something Uttered by Buzz



Mobile post sent by SquidBuzz using Utterzreply-count Replies.  mp3

Something Uttered by Buzz



Mobile post sent by SquidBuzz using Utterzreply-count Replies.  mp3

Something Uttered by Buzz



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Something Uttered by Buzz



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Thursday, May 22, 2008

More Pink Eye in the Family

199 pounds....

Kinda nice to be under 200 pounds for a couple of days.

Mary is the next victim in our house.

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Her eye started acting up yesterday and she had to stay home today. The Doc gave her eye drops and she is somewhat better today. Barb stayed home with her this morning and I got to hang out with her this afternoon. This was great for me, because that meant I could work in the garage on getting the bike ready for this weekend's race while Mary was outside riding her bike, doing the sidewalk chalk thing and running around my car.

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The bike is pretty much nice and clean and ready to roll. What's the old saying, a happy bike is a clean bike, a clean bike is a fast bike, a fast bike is a happy bike. The Hammer kit is in the wash so that I start out smelling nice and clean. Hopefully I'll be as fast as the bike. Tomorrow night I will finish up the packing and off to the races on Saturday.

Overall my eye is getting better.

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Hopefully it will be 100% in the next few days.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Buzz Achieves the Unbelievable

198 pounds....

Not sure where that came from, but I'll take it.

I ordered one of these a while back. 10' by 10' is not to bad of a size. The first one I ordered, the canopy was crappy. Had holes in it and a corner tore right away while setting it up the first time. I took it back and REI replaced it with no problems. I have had it sitting in the garage for a couple of weeks now so I figured it was about time to set it up, since I want to use it this weekend at the race, and see if it was better than the first one. No problems this time. Everything stayed together like it should. Cool. It was a bitch setting it up by myself though. So I will have to ask a fellow racer to assist me on Saturday morning. Hopefully that won't be a problem.

Then the next issue was, damn, I drive a Neon.

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This thing folded all up is 5 feet tall and about 8 inches or more square. hhmmm... How the hell am I gonna fit that in there. I measured across the backseat, a little over 4 feet. Nope, that won't work. Ok, I'll lay the back seats down and bring it in through the trunk. Great idea, but a no go. The seats are up far enough where the angle is off and not to mention there is this small seat support in the way. So I tried bringing it in through the back door with the other end between the front seats. Cha, ching. We are in. Barb comes out at this time and was wondering what I was up to. So I showed her and she laughed when I told her how it got in there. She asked if I was just going to leave it in there the rest of the week. I said, nope. I need to make sure that I can get it out by myself before going to the races. I don't want to look like to much of a heel in the parking lot wrestling this thing out.

An I'm proud to say, no problem on getting it back out. Hopefully this will all work on Saturday morning. I'll need to stake it down also so that it doesn't take flight if the wind picks up.

Otherwise, only a few more days to go before the 12 Hours of GEAR. Woohoo. Should be fun.

I also heard back from Kevin Wilson about finishing up my Wobble Naught fit on my road bike and the tandem. He should be able to come up on June 1st. It will be nice to get all the bikes fitting nice.

Monday, May 19, 2008

New Fane Trail Photos

200 pounds....

Still there, nothing different.

This past weekend I got to get out and ride some. I was lucky enough to preride this week's race venue. I took a ton of photos on the last lap around the course for your viewing pleasure.

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Some of the photos don't really show all the rocks and hills, but I think you get the idea. The single track is pretty open, but it is still a fun quick course. Laps should be around 25 minutes for the average guy.

I even took the time to take a quick video with the camera.



My wife said that my voice sounded higher than normal on this. Must have been the wind and riding. After doing this, I'm thinking I need a helmet cam or something. I think one of those would be cool.

My eye is better. Today will be the last day for the ointment. Hopefully things will be better here on out. It has only been slightly itchy today.

I'm hoping to get on a bike some this week to keep things loose. Also, I'm hoping to get some Globus time.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Da Eye Update

199 pounds....

hhhmm... Not sure what I did to deserve being under 200 pounds. Maybe dieting and riding the bike help after all.

Here is what my eye looks like now. Please disregard the way the rest of me looks. =)

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I have been putting in my eye ointment for over 3 days now and it seems to be helping some. The redness varies, but seems to be better than it was. It doesn't seem to be so itchy as it was. This photo was taken this afternoon after coming back from riding up at New Fane, the site of next week's 12 hour race. The race course has single track on it that is not shown on the map.

I took a bunch of pictures that I will caption and upload tomorrow. The SWorks felt pretty nice out there. It is the first time that I rode it out on the trails. I'm not sure if I have better skills this year or the bike handles that much better, but I felt better in the tight switchbacks. That is usually where I suck big time. Especially to the right. I'm hoping to get back out somewhere tomorrow for some more seat time. I also need to clean the bike up a ton since it is filthy. The other thing is that the front break keeps squeaking. Just when I think I have it all lined up correctly, it seems to go out of whack. It is starting to try my patience.

I used the Globus tonight on resistance mode. This is going to be interesting. It might even put some muscle on me where I usually can never get it. I'll keep you guys posted.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Itchy Eye

200 pounds....

Nothing new there. Food is still food.

My eye looks like this. Sorry for the blurry photo.

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My right eye is pretty well messed up. It started acting up about 5 days ago. I have allergies, so I thought that was the issue. So I started doing my Optivar eye drops. Minor help, but still yucky. Since I work at a hospital, I took the liberty of seeing a Doctor about it today. Pink Eye has been quite busy at work, so all I had to do was walk in and the receptionist was noticing my condition. They stained my eye first to make sure that I didn't have anything floating around in there. Which I didn't. So I got a script for some eye ointment. Since my job is not a patient contact job, I was able to continue to work. If it doesn't clear up in the next 24 to 48 hours, I'm supposed to report back for more diagnosis.

Otherwise, I haven't touched a bike in 2 days. I need to work on the resistance training with the Globus and see how that works.

This weekend I'm going to go hit some single track and start getting ready for the 12 Hours of GEAR.

Monday, May 12, 2008

My first commute

202 pounds....

Nothing like a Mother's Day Brunch at Libby Montana's to make you put the weight back on.

Today was my first commuter bike ride. I threw the bike in the van this morning and then rode it home from work.

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I started out by seeing this guy. I waved and so did he. I'm not sure if he remembered who I am or not. He should since I'm so famous and all. Saw some wild animals along the way.

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Some traffic.

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And then my car at home.

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As usual, more photos here.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Catching up some on the photos

199 pounds....

Hey, my weight starts with a 1 today. Hopefully that is the start of many days again. It has been a bummer being over 200 since I was able to stay below it for so long.

I'm watching all the F1 action from this weekend and uploading a bunch of photos to Flickr to catch up for the ones that I have, but not uploaded from Trans Iowa. You can see the photos here. There are some funny ones in there of the family also.

Training has been pretty lax with starting a new job and such. I did get one of these this week on a month trial basis. After using it though, I don't think it will be going back. I have also ordered an EasyUp or a clone of them, from Hammer Nutrition. I will make sure to put a photo of that up as soon as I have one.

Happy Mother's Day to all those Mom's out there.

Monday, May 5, 2008

Hammer Riding in Verona

201 pounds....

I think that is how much I weigh, I'm not sure.

Went riding this past weekend on the road bike.

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It was the first time that the Roubaix had been outside since last fall. Brian Frank from Hammer Nutrition was spending the weekend in Verona doing seminars and rides out of Exclusive Cycles. I took photos and here are some of them. The rest are here. As you can see, it was raining on the way to the bike shop in Verona.

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I jammed to some cool tunes on the way.

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There were a few of us at the shop that were going to ride. As we got going, it started to pour, so we stopped for shelter and coffee.

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I even got to have my picture taken with Brian. Please note the glisten from being soaked. I still need to figure out why that helmet keeps turning and looking somewhat dorky.

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The ride was tough out there. Hilly as can be. We even rode some of the Ironman course. Which everyone that I know of that has ridden it, say it is tough. Brian was having problems with the hills. So I didn't feel so bad when I fell off the back, because Brian was usually with me. It was very cool to be riding with such a legend. And also to be riding with Jeff Mawhinney and Jim Bruskewitz was an honor.

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They did drop me a few times, but they were very encouraging all the way. After the ride, we got to check out the Globus Premium Sport. Those things are sweet. I will definitely be getting one of those for Barb and I. Here is a photo of Jim using one. He was in a strength training routine when this shot was taken. Check those quads flexing.

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Harvey was with us also. Sorry, I didn't catch his last name. Please note the Colnago cross bike in the background. I want that baby.

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There are a few other photos that were taken that I won't throw up here, but you can find them here if you so choose.

All in all, I had a great day riding and chatting with everyone. I learned a lot from Brian on Hammer things. The guy is such a wealth of knowledge. Same with Jim and Jeff. Jeff really knows how to put a shop together. If you get the chance, you need to check it out. Very impressive. He is a master bike fitter also. In chatting with him, I learned a ton.

Otherwise, I started my new job today. Orientation today and tomorrow. This is the job that I have been working at as a 1099 contractor for the past few months. So I now have a full time regular job like the rest of the world. Now it will be harder to find time to train. I guess I need to start riding my bike to work and that will help out a ton.

I will post more photos from Trans Iowa as the week progresses. Sorry for not having that all done by now.