Kelly said I have to do a post

For serious. And I have to do it before she’s out of the shower. Crap! The water just turned off. Should not have spent all that time on FB. That was probably her quickest shower ever. Did you even get wet? 

Umm, anyway…I am headed to St. George tomorrow. I’m guessing it’s going to be hot. I am working an expo type thing in a parking lot. Should be awesome. And hot. And yes, round trip in a day. That is the only way. 

I had thought of bringing all the family and doing the Utah State Games crit in Cedar City today and then spending the night down south somewheres, but the webpage did  not have any info. The contact on the webpage referred me to the webpage again and then finally said he was emailing the schedule to all those pre-reg’d. Hmmm, that makes it easy. I applaud your efforts, but I don’t typically sign up for stuff that I don’t have any information on. Plus it would have sucked for the family anyway, as I’ll be at this event all day and it will be a 105 or whatever.

I should probably take a shower since I rode this morning and then decided not to since I was taking the girls swimming this afternoon. Gotta love summer. Cleanliness is supposed to be important or something though, so I’ll look into it. Seriously, I am tired. So much effort in staying clean.

Woah, Kelly’s back, peace out.

State Crit Chumps 2: With a Vengeance

So, yeah, state crit chumps…It was hot. 101 when I pulled up and it probably got warmer during the race. It was super windy and there is a massive fire close by, so it was going to be a tough guy race with a new course around the Salt Palace, which was pretty cool. The last corner was pretty dodgy, but it was a long way from there to the line and the race was hard enough that there wasn’t going to be some crazy sprint anyway. So, yeah, better course than around the meth park for sure.

Anyway, big Dave Hardwood took the V. I felt pretty confident he would, which should have made the strategy pretty straightforward, right?

Unfortunately, I just wasn’t good enough. I didn’t completely suck. I would say my fitness is not so bad, just lacking a bit in the top end and recovery areas. That will come back quickly if I can race a little more consistently, so I feel like I could theoretically be good soon. Always an optimist!

I ended up 12th. So, yes, more than 11 guys showed (see previous post). Seriously, I think only 25-ish finished though. A lot of people quit.

Thanks to the Ski Utah crew for putting it on, all the officials, and all the racers too. I had a great time and am thankful for the opportunity.

Now chilling at home with 75% of the kids having fevers. Summer sickness sucks!

State Crit Chumps

So, I signed up for the state crit titles on Saturday. Yeah!!

Right now, there’s 11 guys signed up and half of them (yes, 5.5) are from the same team.  I realize it’s a conflict with nationals, so that accounts for like 5 guys (tops). As my kids would say, what the heck-o?

I realize I am probably not the one to point fingers at anyone for not racing, but I am surprised given it’s a state chumpionship, and it’s in SL,UT. There is one big team missing, so I assume that will add like 10 guys day of and hopefully a bunch more show up.

The entry fee seems really high for the pay-out to me, but I can’t think that’s keeping many people from showing up really.

Anyway, I’m super duper pumped. Obviously, right?!? How could you not be?!?

Working it.

So things have been trucking along as of late. I am kind of in a lull in my “work” season, so I am trying to be super-involved with the family and build up a little bit of fitness before things get crazy again.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not sitting on my duff (or my bike) all day. There’s always something to be done work-wise.

I think I will be hiring a sub-rep to cover ID, WY, MT soon. I could probably swing all that (and UT, CO), but I don’t think I’d ever be home!

Anyway, it was a pretty great weekend with a Alpine Loop/Squaw Peak sess, Pizza Pie Cafe, big Father’s Day breaky, church, and some family over for Father’s Day dinner.

The Sundance side of the loop and Squaw has become my go-to ride. I’m sure there is somewhere you could get more climbing in a 3 hour ride, but I don’t know where.

I’ll get up on a longer post pretty quick here.

LA Gear

Sorry, readers… Really meant to update from LA.

I hate that fancy pants hotels try to charge you for internet and every dive in middle of timbuksix has free wireless .It’s not that I couldn’t afford $12.95/day for wireless (okay, I probably couldn’t) I just think it’s crap. And no, I wasn’t going to post on my phone. Too much effort.

Yes, I could tether the phone too, but again, so much effort. And even unlimited data is actually limited.

Take that Marina Del Rey Marriott.

There was a Book of Mormon in the nightstand though, so that was interesting.

All in all, a great trip, highlighted by dining with my old pal, Nate Loyal.

I could bring up “the news” on Lance, but you know how I feel about that!

Will try to be more diligent in posting, dear reader.

Next Round??

The astute observer will have observed (through observation) that my posts recently have come in waves. And like the lonely surfer, you’ve all been left to wait for the next set to come in. Just kidding. I’m sure you all have found better ways to kill time.

Plus, most of you can’t even surf. You might think about learning though. You’re never too old. Or so I’m told.

And speaking of surfing, I am going to LA tomorrow. I’m not really going surfing though, which would be a lot cooler and better blog fodder…it’s for work. I booked it myself, so it’s about as quick a trip as I could possibly make. Not that I’m not excited, because I am. 

If I haven’t said this lately, I really, really, like my job! And that’s a good situation to be in.

On the home front, things are good. Our little Piper took to potty training like a champ and is pretty much awesome at using the potty. I think having older siblings helps. Especially one like Morgan who always goes with the door wide open!! Piper was sure to grasp the concept with that around.

Now, I’m sure you are all saying to yourselves, “sure the turbo… tell us all about your whirlwind rock n’ roll  lifestyle and your kids enormous potty-ing ability, but what about bike racing? Are you still a racer or what?!”.

Yeah, I don’t know. I did Alpine Loop and such this morning?? I mean, yeah, I’m for sure a bike racer at heart, but the legs?? The legs are not so bad. I don’t know what my race schedule will look like the rest of the year though. Just really on the backburner at the moment. I for sure want to do the AB Memorial Race. That’s kind of a family tradition and it’s important to me. I need to do something fast between now and then to get the top end going so I can be good there. It doesn’t take much. Our state crit is weekend after next, but we’ll just have to see how it fits into our schedule. So yeah, priorities are what they are. Sometimes I get bummed out and other times I feel like I can do anything. And mostly, I think, I am just learning to enjoy the moments whether it’s racing bikes or racing kids around the cul-de-sac. 

Anyway, I didn’t really intend for this post to go in that direction, but you know, sometimes the wave comes along and you just have to drop in and ride it, right? No?

 

Oh, Canaduhhhh…

Some pics from my recent trip to the Great White North. It’s more green this time of year though. I suck at remembering to take pics, so not too much to show.

The hotel we stayed at.

View from the hotel

Another shot of the lake with a quaint church in the background.

The bus we took to dinners and what-not.

I meant to get a real picture with me and Louis G, but this shot from the Olympics will have to do for now. This guy breathes cycling even today. While we ate dinner one night, he was out motor pacing. Love it!!

Sorry, Kelly…

Usually I try to update when I’m on the road, but this trip has been pretty full up. I do have some pics (mostly scenery…I know, LAME!!) to post, but I have to do it off my phone and I won’t do that until I’m back in AMERICA as the roaming/data charges are completely out-of-hand. C’mon, Canada isn’t really out of the US! We just haven’t invaded yet.

I will say I’m having quite a time. The trip up was a bit of a disaster as my flight from Chicago to Quebec was cancelled. Then, the flight from Chicago to Montreal that we re-routed on was delayed about 3 hours due to weather, so I left home at 4:30am and got here close to midnight. Yeah, I could have gotten pretty much anywhere on earth in that time, but all-in-all, it wasn’t so bad. You gotta roll with the punches, yo and some others had to sleep in an airport and had their luggage lost, so ya know, it could always be worse.

Anyway, despite being on little sleep, I woke up fresh as a proverbial daisy, but I’m dead starved so I’m off to see what’s for breaky. Back home tonight. I don’t leave until 5:00, so hopefully it doesn’t take as long getting back!