Summit Man

My soul brother made it to the top of the highest peak in North America on Sunday. Congratulations my friend. You are an inspiration.

Epic

Saturday I did the longest training ride of my life. A group of eight of us rode from South Anchorage out to Hiland Road, up that son of a bitch, back down (where we were hitting speeds in the neighborhood of 50 mph) and then back the same route. By the time I got home nearly six hours later, I had ridden 108 miles and done 6,000 ft. of climbing.

The day was beautiful and charged with spontaneous attacks that had us sprinting to chase each other down. The group was great and it was quite a day.
Thanks to Tony B. for planting the seed with a post on www.bikeak.org

** On another "EPIC" note, today my great friend Kevin M. went for the summit bid on his attempt to bag the peak of Denali. Send him safe thoughts. Check it out here: www.mountaintrip.com - the blog that has updates is under "Expedition Dispatches" and his trip is the May 6 West Buttress Expedition. GO KEVIN!!!

Mother's Day

It's been a little while... recently we had a Cinco de Mayo party (Michelle made loads of great food and there was a pinata for the kids), I went and hit the first dirt of the season May 6 with Rick up by King River (long, steep climbs - ripping, technical descents), I got spit out the back of the pack at the Kincaid Loop road race (just like last year) and Alex just got back from visiting the Great Grandparents in Scobey, MT. where she learned to drive a four-wheeler, truck, and tractor - at age 10.

Yesterday was the 14th anniversary of my Mom passing away. I chose to reflect on that with a 55 mile bike ride (more like a solo breakaway) from about 7:30-10 p.m. last night from my house out the Coastal Trail to downtown and back - and then just for a little extra and knowing the wind would be at my back when I finally got there, I rode out Old Seward to Potter Marsh and came back on the highway with a strong tailwind. I was jamming along at about 27 mph when over my headphones I began to hear a low, grumbling. It was a passenger train returning from the Peninsula. I dropped it to the small cog and went as fast as I could. I was ripping along at 35 mph trying my hardest to keep up with the train but it was going just a bit faster and by the time I got to the rifle range, I was out of gas.

I thought about happy stuff on that ride and sometimes things I was thinking about made me feel guilty and sad... but in the end it was a good process and I'm thinking more happy thoughts today. Happy Mother's Day Mom... and all my other surrogate Mother's.