New Wheels...

Here are some pics of the new Company Truck. 6.4L diesel, 4wd, 20" wheels. Who needs those Testosterone patches anyway

Here is a pic with the offices of BRMW in view.

Warm up for SM100....RAMPAGE!!!

To warm up for the SM100 I decided to do the Black Bear Rampage in TN this past weekend. It was a 42 mile race on lots of fun single track near the Ocoee river...where they did the olympic kayaking (or so they tell me). I don't know about you, but when i think of rivers and the south only one word comes to mind....Deliverance. Fortunately, when you get enough cyclist together, the spandex scares away the bad elements. The race rolled off about 8:30ish.(actually 9) The first wave was pro/expert/pathetic 36 year old thinking he is faster than he really is class. I hit the woods about 8 back and kept a really nice pace for the first 7 miles of single track. This was the only part of the course i had done before. I hit the first descent and i was trying to go as fast as i could, unfortunately i tried to change lines and kept moving till the right until i moved off the trail. I guess i scrubbed enough speed prior to hitting the tree since neither my bike or me were hurt. (my butt hurt the next few days, apparently that is the part that hit the trail) I was still moving along pretty good until the rain started. I'm not very good in the rain, and i had not prepared my bike for rain so this was when my race slowed down. With all of the dirt/sand in the drive train, i felt like i was on the verge of chain suck anytime i was in the middle ring. Fortunately it didn't happen, but i was reluctant to really push the rpms on the cranks. I took it easy over the roots and ended up rolling in at 3:28 i think. 6th out of 9 in my age group. I know if it had been dry i would have been much faster. I had to save my self for the SM100.

I'm not sure what i was thinking by wearing a white jersey...I'll check the weather this week so i don't make the same mistake again.

dry start

muddy finish

Check out the cheesy smile underneath all that mud....Russell eat your heart out.

HAPPY B-DAY MR. RUSSELL

Boy these youngsters seem to grow up soooooo fast. Just a few pics off of the old hard drive:

I need to work on my cheesy smile

It's a 185 miles to DC, we've got full bottles of water, half a can of Dip, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses....hit it!!!
Apparently it takes about 190 miles or so to keep Mark from cheesing it up for the Camera.
Hope you have a great day.

Dogless Dog Days

Here we are halfway through August, the mercury just seems to stay at the top of the thermometer. This has been the hottest summer in a few years, next week it should cool off....I hope. It's been tough talking myself into heading out for a ride at 5 in the blistering heat, I guess we are lucky Katie is still at Camp Michigan, otherwise she would have to suffer in this as well. She is coming home this weekend hopefully this will be an end to the Dogless days and the Dog days.

I'm heading out for a ride tonight, I'm debating between a road ride with lots of hills, or a mountain bike ride with lots of ...uh...mountains. With the Black Bear Rampage and SM100 coming up, the mountain biking seems like the way to go. I'm hoping i make a good showing at both races, I know lots of folks doing the SM100 so the pressure will be on. But as both of my blog readers know....I always look good. It should be a good time.

Here is a little pic to help think of cooler climates. This is the summit of the Col de la Croix de Fer (in the French Alps) in May of 2005. 80 degrees at the bottom, brr cold at 2067 meters. I froze my butt off that day going back down. That would be a welcome feeling today.

I was watching NASCAR...SOBER!?!

Pretty scary stuff. I'm really not sure what caused this strange behavior. Back in college, i did watch a little nascar. I've always been a car nut and i love racing. I love all kinds of racing, off-road, WRC, F1, ALMS, IRL, CART, Touring cars, and even the big trucks in europe. But as many people realize, there is a certain quality to your average die-hard NASCAR fan that is not so desireable to the Bathing masses. I like to go to the races as long as the tickets are free. The crowds are such a hassle....
But back to the reason i was watching Nascar this past Sunday. Sunday's race was at a road course, and it's much more exciting to watch cars turn left and right than just left. But the road course alone wasn't enough to get my trigger happy remote control finger to stop on the race. I wanted to see if Juan Pablo Montoya could upstage all of the Nascar regulars and win another race. The weird part about this is that I didn't like JPM when he raced F1. I am a schumacher fan, mainly because he drove a ford early in his F1 career, but later just because he was so dominant. I always felt that JPM was out of control and would crash people out of the race or run into other cars. Those "qualities" came to mind when they announced he was leaving to race cars with fenders. I thought to myself....this is the perfect type of racing for him. I really hope he keeps improving, it would be great to see a foreign born Nascar champ. Maybe they should play the national anthem of the winner at the end of each race like they do in F1.
JPM was knocked out of the race this past weekend trying to block a car for position, I'm surprised that Nascar turns a blind eye to all of that contact, but they seem to be more like NBA officials more concerned about TV and scoring than really a fair contest. Just look at all the mystery cautions that go up.

Anyhow, I have no idea what the Nascar schedule is, but if there is another road course, i'll be pulling for JPM. I can't believe i'm rooting for him...but it's not the end of the world.

36!!!

Another year has passed... In the grand scheme of things i realize i am not that old, but i am now twice as old as i was when i graduated high school...OUCH! In two years i will have been out of high school for TWENTY years. It's all good tho, i have a wonderful wife, a family that cares about me, and some really great friends. What more could you want (except maybe a 953 SS road frame). I hope everyone (both people that read my blog) has a great day. Got out and eat some Mexican food tonight in honor of my b-day. You know i am.

I'm on top of the world!