New TT bike

I got my new TT bike. I don't have the position quite right yet as you can tell from the picture. It is a really nice bike and much lighter than my Cervelo was. I think I can still get quite a bit lower on this thing.

New bike with the wheels it came with

New bike with race wheels

Old bike, now for sale if anyone is interested

I was on the trainer for an hour this morning. I was doing the Trainright time trial video. That thing is tough. It makes for a really gut busting effort but there is enough recovery allowed, and the efforts are short enough, to make it manageable. Now if I could just kick this chest cold. I am feeling better today so hopefully this will continue.

This morning I decided that since I had the day off I would brave the cold and head out for a ride. I got out the cyclocross bike and headed out for an easy 30 miles. Unfortunately I only made it about 1.5 miles when I go a flat tire.(I hate cinders) I decided that since I was still relatively close to home I would walk home instead of standing beside the road and freezing while I was changing my tube and I didn't want to continue the ride with no spare tube and debris all over the road. So I walked home and decided that instead of going back outside I would stay inside on the trainer and do the Trainright Criterium video. I have a love/hate relationship with these videos. I hate them while I'm doing them but love how I feel when the video is over. So although I didn't get the workout I wanted this morning the intervals from the video probably helped me more than the slog through the snow would have.

Just another note on the snow today. I have completely forgot about how nice of a winter it has been and I'm already ticked off at how much snow sucks and how much hate it. I can't wait for summer!

I just got back from a 47-mile ride on my new bike. It's official, Rich didn't change things around just to screw with me, thank you Rich. I do believe that blue is faster than silver. I just hope that red or black wouldn't have been faster than blue but I don't think it is possible that any color is faster than blue. I met up with Brian Wieczorek about 18 miles into the ride and rode with him for about we parted ways to go home and avoid the rain that is supposed to come but has yet to arrive. Now comes my favorite part of training�.rest, recovery, and post training meal.

Here is a better picture of my beautiful new Six13. This may just be the nicest bike ever :-)

I spent an hour and a half on the trainer this afternoon on my new, blue Six13. It is a beautiful bike. I'll clean the mud off of the front tire and put up another pic. I got there from wheeling the bike from my car into the house. Anyway, 1.5 hours is the longest I've spent on the trainer this year and I don't like it. I would have much rather been outside but really didn't want to get rained on.

Here I am returning from my first training ride of the new season on Christmas day. I got home just as it started raining. Today I was inside on the trainer after work. I did my baseline power test. I think I had forgotten how bad 20 minutes can hurt. Hopefully we'll have a few more races without rain this year.

Here is another one

Man of the year

just a random picture from the 5points criterium in 2005. I do look confused, don't I? I rode at Laurel Mt. today for a little over two hours. It was a good time but I'm not used to riding MTB by myself. I didn't see another person the whole time I was there not even in the parking lots. It was really nice out, 70 degrees and sunny, and a no place better to spend the day than in the great outdoors on a bike.

The Subaru 24hour Champion Challenge was this weekend. It was cold, rainy and muddy. It was also a blast. Now don't get me wrong this was a different kind of fun. It wasn't the laughing/smiling kind of fun. It was the kind of fun that you have when you are so miserable and sleep deprived that everything seems hilarious. My day started at 0730 when I woke up and looked outside to see a downpour that was the remnants of hurricane Ernesto. Then I got my car packed, ate breakfast and headed out to meet Rich and go to Seven Springs. When I was sitting at the gas station waiting I got a phone call from Rich saying that he would be late because his camper tires were low and he hadn't noticed until the last minute. He finally got there and met me at 9:10 and we were off. We arrived at the race venue at 10:30 and immediately started to set up camp. By this time the rain had slowed to a mist but the field where we were setting up had so much water laying on it that my feet were completely soaked by the time we were done setting up. From there I went to the pre-race meeting and to pick up our band that we had to pass between riders at the beginning and end of laps. Nick was volunteered to go first so now it was time for him to head to the start finish line. He headed out at noon and Rich, Mark, and I were still working on setting up camp. About an hour later we all went up to the transition area to see Nick finish his lap and see just how fast (or slow) the course would be. It was truly unbelievable when Tinker came through second. Here this guy is doing a 24-hour solo and he beats our guy by almost 15 minutes. I was second in the rotation, so now it was time for me to head out. I was expected to be the slow guy in our team so there wasn't too much pressure on me. Good thing because I got a flat less than 2 miles into my lap. I finished in 1 hr, 38 minutes. Not a great time by any stretch of the imagination but it was only about 15 minutes slower than Nick and with the flat added in, I was happy with the time. Rich was up next and he did his lap and came back and reported the trail conditions were getting worse and worse all the time. With this Mark was off to complete his first lap. When Mark came back he told us the same thing as Rich that the trail conditions were awful. Nick was off next for what would be the last day lap. I was up next and I got the privilege of passing Mike who had been riding for over 7 hours at that point and was feeling really sick. This was my first night ride ever and I was almost blind with the fog. My lap time went from 1 hr, 38 min for the first lap to a 1 hr 58 min for the night lap. That was the beginning and end of my night riding experience. I decided I was done for the night because my MTB skills and lack of light could end up getting me killed. Rich went out next and did his night lap and said by that time the fog had died a little after you dropped off of the top of the mountain. Mark said he would do the next two laps so that he could get some sleep before his last lap of the day. I took Mark another bottle and a few gels between laps. Nick went out next for his night lap and then Rich went out for his second night lap. I went out after Rich for what would be my last lap. My goal was to go under 2 hours but that was in doubt when I was less than 4 miles into the lap and felt like I was on the verge of bonking and I had no food and only a small bottle of energy drink. It was slow going but it was looking like I was going to make it. Then when I got close to the finish and realized what time it was my new goal was to finish before 10 o'clock so I could get pancakes at the lodge. I finished my lap at 10:03 a measly 3 minutes too late so no pancakes for me. Mark went out after me for our last lap. When I got back to camp Rich had already started to tear down camp. I had something to eat and then I started to pack up as well. There are many adjectives to describe this race so here they are in no particular order: fun, muddy, cold, wet, tiring, ect.

Here I am all packed up and ready to go to the 24 hour race at Seven Springs