the shape of things to come....

mr lynch

mr lynch stopped by the store today with nathan o'neil from healthnet. it seems the incredible mr lynch has somehow become a host to the stars, and benifited from the arrangement by riding one of the stages of the tour of missouri with the healthnet rider. mr o'neil stopped by to check out the bmc's in the store. it seems he will be riding for the company in 2008 and wanted to see what the thing was all about.

by the way, rough life, john!

labor day weekend

it has started to become a family tradition with us to be incredibly busy on labor day weekend. i suppose it started with us getting married 2 years ago on sept 3. then, we complicated things by getting the kids started with racing on the weekend. now, i am racing the gateway cup for the first time in 3 years.

we're looking forward to it, but it's going to be tough. what happens when the beautiful mrs k starts racing???

steep learning curve

i've been teaching mom how to swim for a while now. she's really getting the hang of it.

boys will be boys

see gus? see? i TOLD you that you couldn't spit that far!

cape girardeau

i got third today. normally, that wouldn't be cause for celebration, but today was somewhat special.

cape was a local norba race, so there are no age groups. we all start together, youngun's and old coots like me. tom albert, an old coot from the old days, was the only guy 40+ like me. we busted out on the super fun twisty single track, and a group of 5 of us were off. plochmeister and john rines were there, along with bob and a young pup named travis. cool. the pace was fast, and soon we shed bob. then, surprisingly, we shed rines. i started thinking big then. i was in the lead three. yee haw. i stayed there until i had to stop to grab a bottle. my superteam of fans and water hander uppers decided that swimming and generally having fun all day was more fun than standing in the hot sun and handing me bottles. i lost about 10 seconds, and i fought a whole lap to make it up, but it just grew. those guys just weren't playing around. i had to settle for third. but i was quite glad, very glad, to see that my training was working and i could ride with the young guys.

i can't beat them. yet.

summer's last gasp!

the boys spent this last day of summer at the pool. the weather was just perfect. tyson proves that you can spend all summer outside and still be white!

friday night

was for the birds. we were happy to be dog sitting for rudy, rosco's brother and lifelong pal. he is quite happy living with hanna, but they were out of town and i was thinking that rosco would be very glad to see rudy again. oh, geez.

first, our power went off friday with the storm. we got home and found no lights and tons of huge branches down in the yard. great, another day i have to spend sawing those up.

second, eli just wouldn't sleep. then he wouldn't stay asleep. as soon as he did, rudy displayed his nervousness at staying with us by having explosive diarhea. several times. and then eli woke up again.

saturday morning brought with it no power. at least it was cool, we thought. after taking the kids to the playground and killing a couple of hours, amren thoughtfully called my cell and told me that our power was on....hooray!

even though i thought it fruitless at this point, i had to go on my pre-race saturday warm up ride. it was a great ride, without too much heat and a tailwind on my routes fast points. maybe sunday's race won't be so bad?

when it rains, it pours.

detente

when there is enough room, there just isn't any good reason NOT to share. there is enough old comforter to go around.

i'd sleep there too, if i fit

wednesday smashing

training on wednesday was brutal. the prescription was to go on a training ride with someone and try to smash them. yes, that was it. although much of my program is hard, none of it is really 'to the limit' stuff. i get to flirt with going 'as hard as i can', but i don't really do it much.

my partner in crime was anthony again. we busted out of work after a busy day and headed to franklin county. lots of hills, oh there were hills. my climbing was great, my flat land power was mediocre. that was fine because anthony just pulled me along the flats. we finished up with 3 hours in the saddle in the dark.

even though sleep time has been quite rare, my performance on the bike seems to keep going up. i guess that's what a sound program can do for a guy. each time i look at a weeks worth of workouts, i shake my head. 'can't to that'...'can't do that'...'how am i supposed to do that??" ...i say that stuff a lot. each time i get to a days training, i just say 'i'm doing it.' i mean, what do i know? i've been racing all my life and all i know how to do is bury myself. the time has come to listen to someone who knows what they are doing. so far, i have followed my program almost to the letter since starting it in june, and i am so much better off for it. i keep posting personal bests on my power meter, even though i'm just pushing as hard as the workout calls.

sometimes it pays to listen.

last weeks morning ride

this is a photo of the mrs and i last week on our way to work. aren't we just so cute?

she paints, too

yesterday, after a month of trying to find the time, mrs k finished painting the living room. it's nearly impossible to do such a task with the kids around. well, not the kids. one kid. eli. he is the equivalent to the tasmanian devil, krakatoa, mount vesuvius...our own bull in a china shop. but, he was contained long enough for the beautiful (and handy) mrs k to break out the 'iced tea' paint and whip the living room into a lather of st.louis bread company like colors. nice.

training going well

i have been pretty slow to post lately because, well, i'm tired. i'm tired and i'm busy.

besides all of the normal household stuff that goes on everyday here at kakouris manor, there has been the training. since june, i've only had one week off of training. it's not incredibly high volume, but it's heavy for me and our lifestyle.

there are as many different types of intervals in my weekly workouts as there are intervals themselves. one minute? check. five minute? check. 10? 20? check and check. what about 20 second intervals?? checkeroo. and there is the occasional slugfest thrown in there with anthony. and it's all intricately sewn together to make this old man a racing machine....ahem....

and i think it's going well. i feel that way. my power tap says it's going ok, too. i guess the proof is in the pudding, and i'll find out over the next month or so of racing.

position #636

rosco, chillin' with his bud clifford.

riding with the mrs

now that the beautiful mrs k is becoming a cyclist, we may get to ride a bit more together. she has been using her wednesday morning rides to get into shape, so we really do ride TOGETHER when we ride, you know, together. none of this riding ahead, wait, riding ahead, wait. it's not that i didn't enjoy it before, but it has become quite fun lately, especially since she likes to try to catch me off guard now and then by attacking. yes, she tries to attack me once in a while. it's quite funny. she also likes going down hill fast, and if i'm ahead of her, she'll go around me like i'm sitting still.

this morning we rode to work together. it was a first. we have ridden home a couple of times now, but never really figured out how to ride to work without also having to ride home. her brother kevin said he'd drive our car to work for us later in the day, so problem solved. after threading our way through south city (after dropping eli off) we finally found some open road. the ride to work has much milder climbs than the ride home, but mrs k was on some kind of secret hill interval day. she pushed hard up geyer. she pounded up clayton after we passed 270. she cranked up schoettler and finally cracked a little on the rollers going along chesterfield parkway. and surprisingly enough, we did a little pacelining along edison.

very interesting, this bike riding woman.

get your own clothes pile!

it was funny to watch rocky fidget around, trying to figure out how to get rosco's premium nap spot. he wanted it so bad. he'd close in, and rosco would growl a mean, husky little growl that would send rocky pacing around the room again. it went on for a while, so i just picked rosco up and put him on the bed, which he likes better anyway. then the big baby, rocky, got to lay down.

put them to work early

it's nice when you have help around the house. sometimes it can really get tough doing all that housework. that's why we have employed a young, strapping boy to help out. he has lost a shoe, though, which may make it hard to hitch a ride home.

in spite of his shoe loss, he is very proficient, and even gets in those hard-to-reach areas.

church boys

arrrrr, matey! i got's a little boy here to swab the deck and batton down the hatches if we need to. avast, ye land lubbers!

i don't know what all the pirate talk is about. i just know that these new shoes look great with my outfit....

Forty Years???

it seems that ma and pa zimmer have been married for 40 years now. 40 years. that's a long time. most marriages last about a year or two these days, so 40 years is even more impressive. they've had such a good run in part because ma zimmer is so tough. she gets more things done before anyone gets up and after everyone goes to bed than most people do in an entire work day. she reminds me of my mom, except ma zimmer loves kids and dogs. i'm the only one in this photo that was alive when they got hitched. all of these wipper snappers were sprung from the glorious union, oh so long ago. ok, not the other in-laws, like katie and jim, but you get the picture. this was the big shindig at the boathouse at forest park. they have a great brunch menu, and they were nice enough to accommodate our unruly group.

gratuitous elijah photo with mommy. he was keeping us entertained while we waited for our food. he was reading a usa today story on the new automatic transmission bikes that paw paw was so kind to bring along. eli knew all about the bikes, having already seen and ridden them at our store. he likes freeride bikes better. kids....what do they know?

gratuitous elijah-feeding-daddy photo. he had fries left, i didn't. being older and wiser, i was able to trick him into a game of 'feed daddy your yummy fries since i'm fat and already ate all of mine'. he liked the game, so i got more fries. everyone is a winner!

no vacancy

it looks like mrs k and i will have to find somewhere else to sleep tonight. this inn's all filled up.

off week, lotsa work

as sort of a synchronicity type thing, as the workload at work gets greater, my first off week of training has arrived. august is typically a rough month in the bicycle business. it's non-stop pretty much from open to close. on the plus side, elijah is sleeping a bit better, so it's not all hard.

the beautiful mrs k rode home from work on monday, i guess to make up for my off day. she even did it in good time, not really longer than i take when i'm going easy. since she did the women's ride this morning, i figured i'd better uphold the family honor and ride home myself. it was a leisurely ride, but the heat ensured it wasn't too easy. it was a bad day for drivers, obviously, and they let their displeasure be known by honking at me. jealous of my devastating good looks, perhaps? my tan? my cool bike? ah, let's say all of the above.

the mrs is having quite the turnouts on wednesdays. they all seem to be having so much fun. it's great to see. i think i'll take a picture next wednesday so you can all see what shiney happy people they are.

show me state games

the kaiser and i decided that we would do the show-me state games mountain bike race in columbia sunday. the family outing was out of the question, being so hot and miserable, so we trekked out to mizzou country in a fine chrysler town and country. after an initial crack about how heavy my bike was, he settled down and was a model chauffeur.

it was hot. frying pan hot. africa during a humidity storm hot. hot. not many people showed up. it was a typical fat tire race, with a lot of the same friendly faces present. i hadn't ever ridden the rock bridge course, so i decided i'd better take in a full lap before racing. we had the time, because we got there early. i took it easy because, i think i mentioned this...it was hot.

what a fun course! swoops and dips and downhills and quick uphills. some rocks. cool turns. almost all under cover, all in the woods. 90% single track.

i started off fairly fast, as i wanted to get through the first single track section first. it was rocky and i didn't want to chance ruining a tire there. it wasn't really fast, like eric pirtle fast, but it was a fast start for my old body. 3 minutes into the race, i was alone. it seems i was going pretty fast for the competition that day, so i went with it. i kept a lid on it to ensure i wouldn't blow up in the heat. i built up a 7 minute gap back to second place, but i never closed on the four 34 and under riders. john rines was putting the screws to them until he flatted. i passed him while he was fixing it and he didn't look happy. i got to the finish line and only passed john and another guy that flatted, so it appears as though i would've only finished 3rd in the young'uns group. i didn't really have that carrot to chase, but i think that's an excuse. i didn't go as well as i could, maybe because of the heat. maybe that's an excuse too. on a positive note, the kaiser diced it out with a guy in our class and made the poor sap just drop out. it's always more fun when you race head to head.

the kids were sure happy to hear i won again. they made me a delectable surprise...chocolate flavored lucky charms. those darn kids.

huh?

you went where without me? you mean the place with all the rides? was scooby doo and shaggy there, too?

circular discussions

beautiful mrs k: how come you never put me in the blog?

me: i like having pictures with stories.

bmk: i don't like having my picture taken.

me: kinda makes it hard, doesn't it?

pause.

beautiful mrs k: how come you never put me in the blog?

a little puppy love

rocky on 'his' couch....

and rosco on 'his' couch.

annual six flags excursion

it was time for our annual six flags visit. no way could we bring eli along, so grandma graciously kept the little guy and off we went. it was hot, but the sun was mercifully behind the haze most of the day. here, i give a pep talk to the kids before the mine train. it was not a very crowded day, so we got to go around twice very quickly. hanna always says "i'm scared! i'm scared!" followed quickly after the ride by "let's do it again!!"

the kids version of the superman ride. not very exciting for a couple of ruckus kids, but they smiled for the camera anyway.

another kids ride, but it was fun. tyson is playing it cool with the sunglasses. they were still wet from the tidal wave ride.

a picture of mom and dad on the big ferris wheel. yes, i wear the moots t-shirt a lot.

a picture of the crazy kids on the ferris wheel. they loved the view from the top. after this, we took them on the screamin' eagle. the screamin' eagle was also my first adult roller coaster, around 1975 or so. they liked it so much, we did it twice.

this is a very bad shaggy. what else are you gonna do while standing in line, eh?

car repair

well i guess it was bound to happen. i haven't had an actual mechanical repair on one of my own cars in many years. i'm talking about something actually failing and needing to be replaced, rather than me just tearing into them for the sport of it. the rear brakes on the freestyle started squealing right about the time i got a service bulletin in the mail from ford about the rear brakes possibly squealing. what timing. so, i dropped the car off a 1/4 mile from the store. they didn't finish the car in time, so they gave me a rental. the ford taurus, in washing machine white.

this particular taurus was a 2007 courtesy car. this car could single handedly be responsible for the mess ford got themselves into. with only 9000 miles on the odometer, it felt like a 10 year old car. actually, it is, since the taurus only received minor updates over it's long life, so a '99 and a '07 are identically old. ford stopped making these turds for public consumption in 2004 or 2005 and produced them solely as rental cars thereafter. if i were producing cars, i wouldn't want anyone to think that this is the type of car i present to the world by flooding rental agencies with it. the engine, the horrible, head gasket-blowing 3.0 'vulcan' pushrod design, is abysmal. rough, loud, anemic...ug. it's hard to believe any automaker could make something so bad in 2007. i realize it was kept around years after it's shelf life had expired with minimal effort in it's development on purpose, but it didn't make me want to spend any more time in that '80's throwback.

but they are gone now. deanna's last car, the escape, and now her new car, the fusion, are light years ahead. getting back into the freestyle yesterday was like a night and day comparison. as much as i joke about my station wagon, it's a very good car. i'm glad things have improved so dramatically over the years at ford (taurus notwithstanding), otherwise i would be driving another brand, for sure.

good training days

tuesday and wednesday were important training days this week because they are the only true training days. thursday and friday are very easy and saturday is a warmup for my off-road race at the show me state games in columbia sunday.

tuesday i rode to work the long way, doing short and long intervals during the ride. it was a slightly off day, with my heart rate being a bit high and my output being a bit low. i didn't feel bad at all, but i'm sure the lowness can be attributed to eli the destroyer and his insistence on being awake most of the night for many nights in a row.

wednesday i rode with ab for a couple of hours. we had the same workout prescribed to us, so it made sense to do it together. after a warm up of about an hour, we did min on/min off intervals, and topped them off with a mini pace line back to the store. i felt stronger than tuesday, and my numbers showed a big improvement, despite not sleeping again.