April is Almost Done Already?

April is almost over and Friday was the first time I was able to attend one of Eli's high school baseball games. I feel ashamed of myself! It's such a struggle to make the afternoon and Saturday games since we own a retail store.  I'm so glad I was finally able to go. The last time I saw him play baseball, he was a wee lad.

You know what isn't a first? Breaking a window.  Sometimes I look at myself in the mirror and think...what the hell are you thinking?  I wanted to clean the outside of one of the dining room windows.  I released the window to swing inward, and I turned around to grab my towel and window cleaner. As you know, it's been very windy lately, and as I let go of the window I thought: The wind could blow that window down.  And it did.  Crash. It broke the outer glass, not the inner.  

Another bit of unhappiness was the untimely issue I had with my carbon Trance frame.  I needed a replacement piece for it, and because of supply issues it won't be available for quite some time. It's a nice piece of wall art for the moment. Good fortune shined on me and I was able to get the orange creamsicle Trance frame as a surrogate.

We took Creamsicle and the rest of the Giant mountain bike arsenal to Poplar Bluff on Sunday to pre-ride the Wolf Creek race course.  There is an endurance race there next month so a bunch of fine people converged there to do some laps. The Beautiful Mrs K, Eli and I were supposed to make a 3-person relay team for the event, but Eli has since decided to gather a team of his own.  Now Deanna and I are searching for a 3rd to complete our team.  Oh yeah, there were creek crossings. And oh yeah, Mrs K and I scrubbed the bikes clean.
 

Spring is (probably) HERE!

Spring! We've been waiting, getting a taste of it, and then getting the backhanded slap from winter. But maybe, probably, spring is here. Bout damn time! Hanna dropped by the shop to take advantage of the warm weather by grabbing her "Hellcat" bicycle. Put in those miles, girl!

Also a good sign that spring is here: photo shoots for new shop clothing.  Hanna and our newest employee Adam didn't mind posing for the camera.  Yes, they really did want you to feel like they meant business!

Oh, Focus, Focus. I like this car. Fits me perfectly.  But for Eli's 16th birthday, I sold it to him. No, I didn't fleece him. I wanted him to have a great first car, and now I need to buy a new one. I even had it detailed for him.

And he passed his drivers test on his birthday.  Aced his parallel parking test! Better than me!

Naturally, his birthday cake had to really say a lot about his personality and I think this one did the trick.

It was fitting that today was the Chubb Enduro. So many cool jumps, drops, berms, and generally heart-stopping sections! He's good at these and has a ton of fun.

I did sweep for a few of the stages at the Enduro. I don't jump off big drops, but I get a charge out of riding really tricky stuff. There was a lot of climbing to get to the start of the stages, and that was good for a sunny-day workout. Now I'm ready for some good old fashioned cross country riding. 
 

Greensfelder Enduro - Fun with a capital FUN

Enduro racing is a fun thing.  Yes, to some it's very competitive.  But it's mostly fun.  Blasting down trails with drops, rocks, roots, turns and surprises is just fun.  I've never done one, but I've been to two now and watched Eli have a blast.  Today was the Greensfelder Enduro and let me tell you, it was hard and fun.  Hard because there was lots of climbing to get to the start of each stage, but the fun was the reward for getting there.  Eli did all 8 stages today, although the Junior category was supposed to skip a couple of the hard ones.  He didn't skip them and therefore had ALL the fun.

It took a few hours to do all of the stages.  I followed along in 5 out of 8 of those stages, which is why I'm now convinced that it's just about the most fun a person can have on a mountain bike and still call it racing.  17 miles total, with 2500 feet of climbing.  We earned our bowl of goodness from Camilla's.  Eli more than I, but hey, I like to eat, too.

While everyone was finishing up their stages, we had a while to wait.  The day started out really cold, and only warmed up a bit from the sun.  Eli and I had the luxury of hanging out under the new South Side Cyclery tent that the beautiful Mrs. K procured for us. She also stocked the tent with drinks and snacks.  We are a spoiled bunch! Yes, Eli is sleeping.

My young mountain biker woke up pretty quick once the jumps started.  What you can't see here is a cool modular ramp, set up just behind the killer airbag landing.  Great way for newbies to learn to jump..or for the more experienced to get a little crazy.  I caught him mid-flight on his first jump.

He made a few more runs at it, and me and my iPhone missed some good shots.  But I caught this last one that I'm pretty proud of.  Thanks to Matt Johnson and his fine crew, along with all of the sponsors of this wonderful event! And thanks to the crazy group of women racers who represented South Side. You girls are awesome!

So much F.U.N!

Last Miner Mountain Bike Event

The racing season has started for mountain bikers in St. Louis! Actually, it started in Park Hills, at St. Joe State Park.  The Noah Foundation, dedicated to helping families with children affected by Congenital Heart Defects, put on an amazing fund raiser to kick off the season.  My family, along with a lot of the members from the South Side Cycling Club, descended on the park early Saturday morning.  Great weather, great turnout, great course, and great people.  The idea was simple: Every racer lined up at the same time at 8:00am.  When the starter said GO, every rider had 1 hour to complete the 7.75 mile course.  At 9:00am, every remaining rider had to line up again, riding the course again within the next hour.  That happened at the top of every hour all day long.  As long as the rider was there at the start, they got to do another lap.  58 riders started (and another 9 NICA kids, who started 5 minutes later each hour and did a slightly modified course).

Bang!  The first lap was off and running.  You can see Eli and I on the left side.  It was the first time we were able to do an event with each other.  We knew we could beat the hour time cut pretty easily, so we paced ourselves and were pleasantly surprised at the condition of the course after a rough February of weather.

We played it just like our normal mountain bike rides...I ride behind him, letting him pace, and giving him tips and encouragement along the way.  We finished our first lap in 44 minutes.  Plenty of time to eat a little PBJ, drink some water, take a quick bathroom break, and line up for the next run at the course.  We were well taken care of by our South Side crew, and it was nice to sit down for a minute between laps.

Most people made the time cut and lined up for the second lap.  Eli kicked it up a notch and chopped a minute off of our first lap time. About 20-25 people were time-cut or just dipped out by the third lap. These kind of events begin to wear a person down after a few hours, though. On the third lap, Eli was going well and then began to fade a bit.  I urged him on, and we still turned in a sub-47 minute lap.  He's a tough kid! Each time out, we had a group of people following us, happy with the pace that Eli was setting.

On the 4th lap, Eli and I parted ways.  He wanted to chill and just make the time cut.  Hindsight says we should have gone a bit easier in our early laps, but that made 30 miles for him and a total of three hours.  More than good enough for a 15 year old stud.  I took the opportunity to take a hot lap on lap 4, and was able to come in at around 36 minutes. Kinda stupid, and it was only good for the second fastest time of the day!

Eli finished his 4th lap well under the time cut, in 52 minutes.  But, he had enough and called it a day. 

I kept going for another few laps.  I was feeling tired, but I turned in a couple more 40 minute laps after my hot lap.  This photo is at the start of lap 7. I knew this would be my last lap.  The promoter gave us all a surprise and decided that we would run this lap BACKWARD...by starting at the finish line and finishing at the starting line.  Sounded crazy enough to be fun.  The course was a strange bird in the opposite direction, and I missed a turn or two but got on track for a 42 minute lap to end my day.  

I smiled a lot this day, even though I was hurting.  My legs started cramping just a few minutes into the last lap and I suffered with them until I finally finished. The park was nearly empty by this time, as all but the race promoter and timing guys had gone home.  They still had to hang out for the 5 guys left standing!

The results.  Lots of hardcore riders out there.  I ended up 6th overall with a little over 53 total miles, which didn't have much to do with speed.  It was tenacity, and 5 guys had way more than I did.  Eli ended up 17th, which was super cool given that he's technically a junior.  Super proud of him.  Very proud also of the people that showed up and made this race possible.  I think this should end up on people's race calendar for the coming years.  What could be better than an early season opener benefiting such a good cause?
 

February - It's time for us to say GOODBYE

Last week, Hanna came into STL from CoMo and got in a sunny ride with some of the GNO girls. Riding the 30 year old Paramount, she's killing it!  Graduation is right around the corner.

Eli took advantage of the weather, too.  His longest ride to date, 62.59 miles. I'm very proud of him.  And he did it on my 21 year old Fastback.

And then...snow.  We've really had a great winter up until February.  Not too cold.  Not to wet.  No snow to speak of.  It's putting a damper on our outdoor riding.  And we had to close the store for a couple days due to weather.  February can suck it!

Even the Hound Dog has been relegated to the treadmill!

Speaking of relegated.  Hanna dug up this photo of me from October of 1986.  So many questions.  I don't have all the answers, so I'll just leave this gem riiiiiiiiigggghhht here.
 

Halftime Show Over, onto other Important Things

I'm going to leave this one riiiiiiiight here.

This dude was so damn dirty.  Muddy back yard, playing so hard with Remi, just yuck.  Threw him in the tub.  Now he's kind of like a baby after getting a night-night bath.

Hanna just joked that Remi looked deceased.  He got a bath, too.  And if you think that a short haired dog doesn't shed, you should have been present for the hair left in the tub.

Speaking of Hanna.....

 

Waiting for Winter to be OVER

Once upon a time, there were two wonderfully energetic dogs.  One was a big ol' Hound Dog named Remi, and the other was a feisty little guy named River.  Now these dogs could not stay still, and played outside in the snow for most of the day.  Being so active, the humans who lurked about the house supposed that the Hound Dog and River would be soooo tired by the end of the day that everyone could get a good nights sleep.

But the humans were wrong.  Just to get them to sit together for a moment the couch without chewing each others ears off, they had to be bribed with delicious treats.  So much for humans and their big ideas.  Puppy power rules!

Even though Eli has been getting stronger and stronger on the bike, he's not too keen on riding the trainer.  When Sunday's temps rose into the 40's, he was dressing for a ride outside.  Perfect time to break out one of the shit bikes.  He found out that riding snowy bike paths was a HARD workout.  The beautiful Mrs. K and I opted to ride the trainers.  He had more fun, we got less icy water on our butts.

Helping us keep our sanity through getting COVID and THEN being stuck with the snow storm was the beautiful Mrs. K's cookies.  I cannot emphasize how delicious these were.  This is not a subtle attempt to get her to bake more.

This time last week, Deanna's brother Kevin was cutting down the small, dreaded tree in our back yard. We didn't know when it began to grow a few years ago that it was a sweetgum tree.  Oh yeah.  I'm not sure that there is a worse tree to have.  Too bad, so sad, goodbye to the awful tree and it's stupid sweetgum balls.  One less thing for me to mow around this spring...which, please-please-please is just around the corner.

Happy Birthday to my Special Girl

Another year goes by and my kids get another year older.  Pretty simple concept, for sure.  Hanna's birthday is always a special one, simply because she's my first child and it's difficult to reconcile her first moments of life with the current, glamorous woman that she's evolved into.  A lot of memories get stirred up around this time of the year, as she was born just after half-time the night the Rams won the Superbowl. Lord knows I'm not a football fan but these memories get burned into one's brain anyway.  I also had to cancel a trainer workout with my buddies Neumann and Blain and picked up Jack-in-the-Box for breakfast on the way to the hospital that day.  Fun facts!

Standing in the middle of her BIGGER but YOUNGER brothers, you might not know how BIG her impact is on everyone she meets.  But trust me.  She's special.

So Much Winning

Imagine how proud we are of our fabulous daughter for making the Dean's List at Mizzou! She's always been great in school, yet it still surprised me.  Pleasantly, of course.  That is a solid WIN right there.

Eli keeps getting better and better on the bike.  We rode at Lost Valley together last week and he crushed 23 out of 24 with his personal best.  By quite a bit, too.  We're very proud of him!  Totally WINNING.

Deanna's brother and their family have a new bundle of joy.  He's a handsome and feisty little guy named River.  Oh, he and the Hound Dog get along swimmingly! WIN!

They play non-stop when they're together.  I'm not kidding. They never stop. The benefit is that they're both tired when it's time to part ways.  That means less trouble that Remi will get into for the rest of the day.  Yes, you guessed it: WIN.

Normally, he's the king of mischief, as you will probably note by the as-yet unrepaired wall behind him that he's been chewing on. A quiet, calm Hound Dog is a great Hound Dog.  And his blankets are all washed. WIN for him!
 

2022 - Time to Change it Up

I spent 2021 on a very racy Giant Anthem.  I like racing bikes. This one was fun.  I went reasonably fast. But you know... I also like pounding the trail with a bit of reckless abandon.  Plus, it never hurts to have an extra layer of suspension to save my arse when the speed on the trail has exceeded my talents. This pretty Giant Trance was sitting in the showroom for a while this year.  It's not a radical departure from the Anthem, but it does have more travel and it's angles are more forgiving. I'm not afraid to race a trail bike and I doubt the Trance will slow me down at all.

But what of the racy Anthem? That was set before I even decided to nab the Trance.  Eli has been getting more and more into mountain bike racing and he used the Anthem at the last few races.  Nearly every time we ride, he gets faster. He's the new pilot of the rocket ship.  No doubt if he keeps working, he will make it go faster than I could.

And what of the Hound Dog?  What is Remi changing up for 2022? Nothing. He stays the same. Stubborn. Big. Loud. Hungry. Always in need of a bath.  Some things don't need to change.
 

Ok, I lied. Last Post of 2021

"How many miles do you ride a year?" is a common question that bike riders get from curious outsiders. Truth be told, I don't get in many miles.  Partly because I don't actually ride many miles, and partly because a lot of my miles are logged off-road.  This year was a bit lower mileage than previous years because, well, work.  Gotta make the donuts.  The mileage winner this year, like a lot of years for me, was my mountain bike.  Between the mountain bikes in my garage, I logged 1089 miles.  Total and complete props to Flannery Allison for the amazing photo from Cape Girardeau!!

Second on the list is road riding.  I like road riding, but I like it more for a good, hard workout than just logging miles.  Ain't nobody got time for that.  Most of my road miles came from my carbon gravel bike, which I rode while waiting for a real race bike, like the TCR that finally arrived late in the year.  Total road miles: 994.

A surprising number of road miles were logged on the Carbon Shitbike.  Not a very flattering name for a bike that took me so many places and logged so many training miles.  And it doubles as a cyclocross bike, too.  Got to get that white seat back.

The surprise players this year?  My BMX bikes.  Riding a BMX bike takes a helmet, some shorts, and some sticky tennis shoes.  So easy to get out of the garage and riding, a total of 5 minutes preparation...which is all I had to get ready many days with the shop doing gangbusters.  Between the Redline, the Schwinn, and the GT, I logged 572 miles. So fun, so childish!!

All said and done, just about 2700 miles total.  That includes race days, too.  Not a ton of miles, but a ton of adventures.