Holy Shit

I forgot about this ol' thing and figured it fell into the abyss... well, apparently it's still here.

Jury Dootie

Glad I didn't get selected... after 5 ruthless days of jury selection.

Lost Lake

Lost Lake Trail Ride: 9/27/2008

Special thanks to B.K. for sending me these great pictures!! See you all next year, K*

Still Alive

Although this was primarily view by family and folks I sent links to, I think I may begin being a bit more active in my "posting". Happy Day to you.

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.

Fort Rich Crit 4/07

When Tony and I arrived at the race, we thought that they'd do it like they always had in the past and have the expert class go out last. We both got there at 9:45 a.m. and were told that we would be going out first at 10:00 a.m.

The weather was nice in that it wasn't raining but it was definitely chilly with temps. in the high 30's. The format was "Last Man Standing" where after 45 minutes of racing around a .8 mile lap, the last guy through on each lap gets pulled. I think we started with 12 or so guys in our group and soon it was down to 4 - Two Kaladi guys and Tony and me... Tony got 2nd and I took 4th.

It was a fun day and I'm looking forward to more.

http://in2funphoto.smugmug.com/gallery/2746923#146013445-L-LB

April Moose Run

Here's a link to a site with a photo at the start of Moose Run... http://in2funphoto.smugmug.com/gallery/2741254#145788732

As Promised

Here's the shot of my "new" bike that I said I'd post when I found the camera... actually, my wife found it.

Today was the first Moose Run TT (10 miles) and I beat my time from last April by 48 seconds. The weather was perfect with clear skies and very little wind and it's a good place to start looking toward the summer season and working toward more PR's.

Have a nice Sunday. I'll be doing a crit out on Fort Richardson and then riding around Eagle River with my buddy Tony.