I would also like to note that my dad, pictured below, just turned 50 this year. Correct me if I'm wrong, but there are not a whole lot of 50 year olds still doing this kind of thing.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Family Trip in The Land of 10,000 Lakes
Last week my family and I packed up our Dodge Grand Caravan with cloths, food, tennis rackets, and biking gear and headed for my grandparents house south of Minneapolis. Our stay was mostly to visit family, but my dad, my brothers and I slipped away almost every day to ride a wonderful trail system at Lebanon Hills (just a short drive away). There are not many mountains in Minnesota, however the local trail designers still managed to create a delightful ten mile loop full of perfectly smooth swooping singletrack studded with occasional built obstacles. The loop takes you over several bridges, a couple rock gardens, and a teeter-totter. Obviously a good time was had by all participants.
I would also like to note that my dad, pictured below, just turned 50 this year. Correct me if I'm wrong, but there are not a whole lot of 50 year olds still doing this kind of thing.
I would also like to note that my dad, pictured below, just turned 50 this year. Correct me if I'm wrong, but there are not a whole lot of 50 year olds still doing this kind of thing.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Aaron's adventure in cross country racing.
Last week you got the good and the bad, here's the ugly: I tried a cross country race. First of all, I think this name is incredibly misleading. I crossed no countries, in fact I never left the state. Despite my obvious semantic problems, I surrendered a small portion of my already small salary to USA cycling for a hour long death march.
Sunday morning started kind of rough, I woke up late, so I didn't have time to take a shower and stretch. Oh well, it's not like I'd be the only dirty kid at the mountain bike race. I mean, Kylie Krauss was showing up, so I knew I'd at least be cleaner than someone. When we showed up, I had about 40 minutes, just enough time to register and get warmed up. I changed, hopped on my bike and got about 3 feet before I realized I had a front flat. When we looked closer at the other bike on the rear rack, we noticed that the exhaust had melted a hole in the tire of the bike in front of mine. When my tire wouldn't inflate, I realized I'd have to borrow a wheel. By the time this fiasco was resolved, it was race time. I tried to stretch on the start line, but I had to accept that I was going into this race cold.
The start went well, and soon I lead when the first two guys crashed on a wet, grassy turn. I felt good, despite everything. Then my chain broke. They actually gave me a half link in my swag bag, and I brought it with me, so I was back on the course in 4 minutes. I worked my way up through some of the pack filler, and then got a flat. I've never sworn more loudly in my life. I changed it, and used a C02 to fill it up and get back on the course. By then I felt pretty damn defeated. Trying to make up for that many mistakes is hard when you only have two laps. My body was shot and my mind was racing. Not warming up, and the southern heat wore me out quicker than anything else ever has, but I was determined to climb up another spot or two. I stepped on the gas and made up a little time on some of the more technical sections. But before I knew it, my race was over, and that was all.
I got 7/12 in my age group and 21/65 in overall Cat 2. I really shouldn't complain for my first cross country race, so I'm accepting it, and going for a better result at my next race.
On the upside, Tony got 4th in single speed on a fixed cross bike, and at one point his chain blew up. That translates from Bike-ish roughly as "Tony is wicked bad ass'. Alexis DFL'ed cat 1 women and Kylie got 4th pro woman. Tony was the only one with a good race day, but we all had a good time.
I have to thank Tony and Nathan from Ski Country Sports for the rides to and from the race. Without those two awesome dudes, I wouldn't have even gotten to try this stuff out.
The two highlights of my race were being the only dude hitting the double on the race course. Granted it wasn't much of a double, but still, it was the most fun part of the "abridged" beginner race course.
And if you've read the previous post, you remember the dude I ride past on the morning on my way to work. Well he was at Davidson, and we got to hang out for a while. Small world.
So far the only one of my posts that anyone has commented on consists solely of a picture of me shirtless. And that was from Lyndon. If that's what you guys want, just let me know. I got plenty of glamor shots.
Sunday morning started kind of rough, I woke up late, so I didn't have time to take a shower and stretch. Oh well, it's not like I'd be the only dirty kid at the mountain bike race. I mean, Kylie Krauss was showing up, so I knew I'd at least be cleaner than someone. When we showed up, I had about 40 minutes, just enough time to register and get warmed up. I changed, hopped on my bike and got about 3 feet before I realized I had a front flat. When we looked closer at the other bike on the rear rack, we noticed that the exhaust had melted a hole in the tire of the bike in front of mine. When my tire wouldn't inflate, I realized I'd have to borrow a wheel. By the time this fiasco was resolved, it was race time. I tried to stretch on the start line, but I had to accept that I was going into this race cold.
The start went well, and soon I lead when the first two guys crashed on a wet, grassy turn. I felt good, despite everything. Then my chain broke. They actually gave me a half link in my swag bag, and I brought it with me, so I was back on the course in 4 minutes. I worked my way up through some of the pack filler, and then got a flat. I've never sworn more loudly in my life. I changed it, and used a C02 to fill it up and get back on the course. By then I felt pretty damn defeated. Trying to make up for that many mistakes is hard when you only have two laps. My body was shot and my mind was racing. Not warming up, and the southern heat wore me out quicker than anything else ever has, but I was determined to climb up another spot or two. I stepped on the gas and made up a little time on some of the more technical sections. But before I knew it, my race was over, and that was all.
I got 7/12 in my age group and 21/65 in overall Cat 2. I really shouldn't complain for my first cross country race, so I'm accepting it, and going for a better result at my next race.
On the upside, Tony got 4th in single speed on a fixed cross bike, and at one point his chain blew up. That translates from Bike-ish roughly as "Tony is wicked bad ass'. Alexis DFL'ed cat 1 women and Kylie got 4th pro woman. Tony was the only one with a good race day, but we all had a good time.
I have to thank Tony and Nathan from Ski Country Sports for the rides to and from the race. Without those two awesome dudes, I wouldn't have even gotten to try this stuff out.
The two highlights of my race were being the only dude hitting the double on the race course. Granted it wasn't much of a double, but still, it was the most fun part of the "abridged" beginner race course.
And if you've read the previous post, you remember the dude I ride past on the morning on my way to work. Well he was at Davidson, and we got to hang out for a while. Small world.
So far the only one of my posts that anyone has commented on consists solely of a picture of me shirtless. And that was from Lyndon. If that's what you guys want, just let me know. I got plenty of glamor shots.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo.
When you ride the same route, at the same time, every day, you tend to see the same people group of people. So on my ride into work for the past week, I've been passing the same spandex clad roadie, awkwardly carrying one of those cheap Timbuk 2 messenger bags. This is obviously his idea of a sensible commuting outfit. He's heading towards Black Mountain, and myself towards Asheville, so we have never been able to stop and chat. The only thing we know about each other is that we both ride bikes.
The first day, there was maybe a curt nod or a hand half raised off the hood, gestures in cycling that appear to be the equivalent of meeting your ex's new boyfriend. You really don't want to acknowledge them, but you kind of have to. Over the week nothing seemed to really have changed until today. Today I was in a full kit, with my big ol' bag stuffed to the brim and an extra read wheel strapped to the damned thing. I don't know why, but I was honestly excited to see him when he got into sight. I gave him a thumbs up, and he took one hand off the bars to shoot the metal horns.
I believe this is the start of a beautiful new bromance.
I've been following this story for a while now. It's horrendous. There's no way around it. I almost threw up when I read it at my office. I've been riding bikes for a long time, and almost all of that has been in major cities, so I've heard more than my share of 'hit cyclist' stories. Sometimes i even think that I'll get used to hearing stuff like this, but I never do. The silver lining here is this. Usually all you have to do is say "I didn't see them!" and you can get off a murder wrap and have it downgraded to distracted driving. Not for this woman. This was her second DUI and it resulted in the death of two cyclists and near fatal injuries on the third. And then what did she do? She kept driving until forced off the road by another motorist. If you're reading this, you're probably a cyclist, so take a good look at this pictures in the first article. Do you see the bottom bracket shell on the bottom left of the first picture? She hit these guys so hard that their bikes literally exploded. Now she's charged with two counts of manslaughter. I really hope this sets a prescedent. I really do. A few years back a girl killed a graduate student in Champagne Indiana while he was riding on the shoulder of the road. This girl was downloading a new ringtone and drifted so far into the other lane, she hit him with the drivers side of her car. The drivers side. This girl got slapped with distracted driving and had her license taken away for 6 months. I'm glad we're finally stepping it up a notch, but jeez, it's taken long enough.
Sorry for the rant, here's some bike porn to make up for it.
That last one belongs to my friend Sashae. He built the entire thing up with period correct components. He spent a long time working on his... Dick Power.
The first day, there was maybe a curt nod or a hand half raised off the hood, gestures in cycling that appear to be the equivalent of meeting your ex's new boyfriend. You really don't want to acknowledge them, but you kind of have to. Over the week nothing seemed to really have changed until today. Today I was in a full kit, with my big ol' bag stuffed to the brim and an extra read wheel strapped to the damned thing. I don't know why, but I was honestly excited to see him when he got into sight. I gave him a thumbs up, and he took one hand off the bars to shoot the metal horns.
I believe this is the start of a beautiful new bromance.
I've been following this story for a while now. It's horrendous. There's no way around it. I almost threw up when I read it at my office. I've been riding bikes for a long time, and almost all of that has been in major cities, so I've heard more than my share of 'hit cyclist' stories. Sometimes i even think that I'll get used to hearing stuff like this, but I never do. The silver lining here is this. Usually all you have to do is say "I didn't see them!" and you can get off a murder wrap and have it downgraded to distracted driving. Not for this woman. This was her second DUI and it resulted in the death of two cyclists and near fatal injuries on the third. And then what did she do? She kept driving until forced off the road by another motorist. If you're reading this, you're probably a cyclist, so take a good look at this pictures in the first article. Do you see the bottom bracket shell on the bottom left of the first picture? She hit these guys so hard that their bikes literally exploded. Now she's charged with two counts of manslaughter. I really hope this sets a prescedent. I really do. A few years back a girl killed a graduate student in Champagne Indiana while he was riding on the shoulder of the road. This girl was downloading a new ringtone and drifted so far into the other lane, she hit him with the drivers side of her car. The drivers side. This girl got slapped with distracted driving and had her license taken away for 6 months. I'm glad we're finally stepping it up a notch, but jeez, it's taken long enough.
Sorry for the rant, here's some bike porn to make up for it.
That last one belongs to my friend Sashae. He built the entire thing up with period correct components. He spent a long time working on his... Dick Power.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
I knew it would be somewhere.
I found this picture on Flickr under 'Warren Wilson College Work Day'. For this years work day, myself and a few others ditched the organized projects, borrowed some shovels and put in a solid 6 hours working on our schools skills course. We were all hoping to make it into one of the schools publications, but at least it's somewhere on the internet.
I found this picture on Flickr under 'Warren Wilson College Work Day'. For this years work day, myself and a few others ditched the organized projects, borrowed some shovels and put in a solid 6 hours working on our schools skills course. We were all hoping to make it into one of the schools publications, but at least it's somewhere on the internet.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Summer Time and the Livin's Easy
Well, as far as my training goes I basically shot myself in the foot for the first part of the summer. a couple days after getting home I tripped on a bicycle while running to catch a frisbee and did a number on my shoulder tumbling to the ground. My sore shoulder has kept me off my mountain bike and newly acquired dirt jumper, so I have been forced to do LSD on my road bike (long steady distance, in case Cass is reading this). The good news is that my brother Arlo, who will be joining the team next year, just bought a road bike and plans to train with me regularly.
Go Team,
Linden
Go Team,
Linden
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