go, speed racer, goooooo!

it appears as though speed, trixy, pops, sprydle, chim-chim, and yes, the mach 5 will be coming to a theater near us soon. call me nostalgic, but i still get all giddy when i think of a real life mach 5. i hope the movie isn't incredibly stupid, so as not to ruin my pure memories of the mach 5 jumping and flying and zooming and speeding along like there is no gravity whatsoever.

we'll see the movie, i'm sure. i'll just say the kids want to see it.

training withdrawals

i had a blistering ride on the trainer this morning. tdf video, powertap, sweat towel, fan, two water bottles, the whole nine yards.

i was still bored. it just wasn't much fun. sure, i got to push the heart rate up with a trio of threshold intervals, but it just isn't the same. maybe i'm kinda bummed about my numbers. they weren't bad, really. just ho-hum. i guess i'm always expecting something special when i push it. i don't know why i would expect special when i haven't been outdoors in a week.

i'm seriously deep in 'training withdrawal' mode. you know, that place where arrive when you're solidly involved in a training program, and each day in each week is a building block for the next day and the next week. all is going well, very few setbacks, racing results show the work you're doing, the performance curve is on a nice, nice upward swing with no downturns whatsoever....snap. the season ends. training is over. 2007 was my 29th year racing, and i can count on one hand the years that i wasn't ready to be done when the racing ended...and 2007 was NOT one of them. i started so late that it seemed to finish just as my groove was rockin'. i didn't want to quit yet. now i'm having withdrawals. no groove. no purpose. no fun. cold weather. trainer. hairy legs.

i don't believe in jinxes. that stuff is for the superstitious. i can say now that if 2008 starts off the way that 2007 finally got underway, it will be my best year ever.

...if i can survive the winter and these training withdrawals.

Gratuitous Rosco photo

he was sound asleep until i snuck up on him with the camera. he needs a grooming, don't you agree?

Dan B is a funny, funny guy

my friend DAN B sent this to me today. i'm not sure if he thinks i'm ninja material, or if he thinks i'm the shifty type that may end up on the nightly news someday with a fantastic story of a dual ninja/mr. mom lifestyle.

anyway, thanks dan....i guess.....

more stars come to visit

since i started working at ghisallo, many different local sports hero's have come to shop with us. hockey stars, baseball stars, football stars, you name it. i guess a lot of them live out in that direction, so they shop in the area.

today, devlin and ab helped out none other than albert pujols. seems the guy has started spinning and needed shoes and stuff. after he had picked out some things, the guys had a little fun with him. ab told him he needed to buy a real bike. the under armour rep just happened to be there at the same time, and she got out of him how much he loved the stuff.

see? biking can be fun for anyone, even if you are a millionaire major league baseball player.

epic battles and dominance

after finishing snatch the other night while riding the trainer, i was left without anything truly interesting to watch. we still had a vhs tape at the shop of the 2001 tour, so i nabbed it and popped it in monday night.

wow!

i never watched the 99-00-01 tours. i just wasn't into it then. i was treated to some of the best racing that i have seen.

the most obvious draw to that race was armstrong's utter dominance. when his opportunities arose, he smashed his foes with his unrelenting high cadence and poker faced glare. his mountain climbing escapades were amazing. i found myself unconciously picking up my cadence on the trainer every time the camera would show an extended view of lance's pedaling. my heartrate always shot up when he was on camera.

but besides armstrong, there were other killer aspects to the race. laurent jalabert. holy cow, i didn't realize he had continued on so strong, so long. king of the mountains! stage wins! and the battle between o'grady and zabel was epic, indeed! back and forth, the two owned the sprints. and zabel's comeback in the last few stages was just awesome.

needless to say, my trainer rides monday and tuesday night were epic, too.

hanna an b ty

?

weekend pictorial

this is my sister. she made this face a long time ago, and just like your parents used to say, her face got stuck. and she even has more reason to make this face now because she's....

...although you'd never know it. she is very active and runs her own retail store for teachers. she raised three kids that turned out very well. she should be very proud...regardless of the faces she makes.

eli got some practice on the blow-up potty. this was after tyson was wearing it on his head. yes, his head. that boy ain't right, i tell you what.

hanna has a stuffed animal in her pants. whenever she wiggles her butt, it looks like a tail shaking. after seeing this, eli kept trying to put it down his diaper. these kids ain't right, i tell you what.

and look at these crazy kids. can you tell we haven't slept in days? we clean up pretty well, i think.

danna, the mastermind behind the surprise party, has tamed the wild beast. she is so good with kids. hanna and tyson just looooooove her. when hanna was born, danna gave her a little pink fuzzy blanket...the infamous danna blankey. hanna still has it, and frequently takes it with her wherever she goes.

the beautiful mrs k with tizzie, danna's dog. furniture, couches, other dogs, people...they are mere inconveniences to tizzie, who leaps anything and everything in single bounds. she never met a thing she couldn't climb on.

elijah discovered that binoculars are fun...even if he has no idea what they are. sorry tammy, you'll have to wipe those things off before you go checkin' out any eagles in the trees.

and here i am, not having a clue as to what has happened the whole weekend.

surprise party, not mine

my niece contacted us about a month ago to make sure we could come to my sisters surprise 50th birthday party. we said yes, even though it meant schlepping the k family 5+ hours to arkansas. not that we thought about not going, but i'm not saying i was happy about the drive.

the freestyle is large enough to carry all of us, and a fair amount of luggage. but we tend to over pack because eli is a demanding traveler. there's diaper bags, sippy cups, trains, stuffed animals, books, coats, blankets, travel bed...and that's just HIS stuff! you throw in hanna and her womanly needs (books, clothes, shoes, boots, clothes, pillows, suitcases, clothes...clothes....) and you have quite a car full.

we made it to the natural state by early afternoon and immediately started eating. we ate, and ate, and ate, then ate more because we felt so bad about eating. my sister and her husband have a house on the white river, just below a beautiful, towering bluff. there happens to be a picturesque railroad along the bluff also, endless entertainment for eli. we puttered around for a while, and called it quits and went to bed. eli kept us up until 1:30, though, so that was nice.

saturday woke us up with sunny and warm skies. it was in the 60's, so hanna and tyson were able to ride the four wheeler with my nephew kevin. he's really good with the kids, and caught some air with hanna on board. she was so excited. i even took my turn at it, but i felt like a fish out of water. deanna likes fast, motorized things, so she took the kids around on it, too, and of course she has to prove she's better at that sort of thing than me and was jumping the mounds of dirt around the property. after the humiliation that i suffered on the four wheeler (hanna announced to everyone that i was really, really slow on the four wheeler), kevin took hanna, tyson and i up to the top of the painters bluff. it was a winding, treacherous jeep trail up to the top, and a nice little hike to the edge. it was an incredible view. we were several hundred feet above the river, looking out over thousands of acres of rugged ozark mountains. very cool. hanna and tyson thought they could see the hollywood sign, but i think they were mistaken.

the surprise for my sister went well. somehow, the kids managed not to spill the beans and she was surprised. we were also lucky to see some of my mom's siblings, as well as a few other relatives that i only get to see on trips to arkansas. all in all, except for the extreme sleep deprivation, it was a great time, and the kids will always remember the trip. and not in a griswold/vacation sort of way, either.

perrywinkle blue

i finally got my vcr setup back from baby einstein. i had my little man cave/workout area next to the workshop in the basement when eli came along. that meant the ancient vcr had to come upstairs so he could be momentarily entertained by videos. recently, he has graduated to thomas the train and even the cars movie on dvd, so the 1980's vcr is mine! it's back, baby!

i set it up this afternoon in anticipation of a long trainer ride tonight. i chose snatch, a guy ritchey movie for the record books. (i recently saw lock, stock, and two smoking barrells and that may have booted snatch from my all-time favorite spot) it made the time go by pretty quickly, i must say. throughout the movie, i'm always thinking about alternative actions the ill-fated characters could have taken to avoid the inevitable. what if gorgeous george hadn't been knocked the f out by micky? what if the dogs had caught the rabbit? what if frankie four fingers had just skipped the boxing match altogether? what if tyrone had lost a few pounds? or if vinny hadn't gone back for the piker's dog? my favorite character is bullet tooth tony, who incidentally plays an equally interesting character in lock stock. a very tough character with a surprising mild side.

makes you wonder about perrywinkle blue, doesn't it?

napping

not that i really had to get any big project done, but the mrs and i both took vacation days today. we tried to go back to sleep after getting the boys off to their respective destinations, but we were foiled by the phone ringing.

my mom always called me when i was napping. i have so rarely in my life been able to lay down and take a nap. for one, it's hard for me to fall asleep during the day even if i am dog tired. two, i don't ever get the chance. three, someone always calls. it's weird. my mom had a sixth sense about her...she could sense it if i was successful at laying my head down. she would pounce on the phone, even though she knew it was going to wake me up. she couldn't help herself. ring. ring. ring. "oh, don't tell me i woke you up again??" she'd always say.

of course, she isn't the one calling me now, and not today. but someone always will. and if i'm lucky enough to remember to actually disable the phones while i nap, the ups driver or a mormon will knock. it's just the way things go.

where is the manhood?

i got my oil changed by a place today. i haven't had my oil changed by someone else in quite a while. normally, i like to do it. especially on cars i really like. like the mustangs. or the mazda 6. or even the fusion. but my enthusiasm for crawling on the cold ground while changing the oil in the freestyle is all but nonexistent.

so, this morning i dropped the beautiful mrs k off at the shop for the wednesday morning women's ride and went to the valvoline place. at first i had pain in my heart for letting someone else do such a menial task to my car. i felt shame. but, as i sat there and watched, i realized that it's only a pleasurable task if the car is, well, pleasurable. the freestyle is a tool. it gets me and the family and our goods to different places when we need it. it isn't cool under the hood. it doesn't go vroom. i completely plan to change my oil if the need arises when it is warm outside...but i don't intend on changing the oil in this car if it is at all an inconvenience.

trainer hell

i missed the opportunity to ride in yesterdays nice weather...something called work got in the way. so i rode the trainer. twice. wow, i must be nuts.

i wasn't going to let the good weather pass me by today. when the mrs and i got home from work, it was still 55 degrees or so. i saddled up the homegrown (with headlight!) and did tour de south city. it's wonderful what a good ride outside can do for your outlook on life!

wow

dad! dad! never mind that i need to get some clothes on! did you see the new dodge challenger?? didja?? that thing is the coolest! it's cooler than any of those old clunky mustang's that your friend dan calls roach cars. and it's waaaaaay cooler than the manhood sapping soccer mom station wagon that you've been driving! you gonna get a challenger dad? huh, dad?

great. another thing i won't be getting because my kids need to go to college.........

it's the stickers

i've found it very hard to get to the old blog lately. work has been a bit hectic, and of course the thanksgiving day festivities take a toll on time, as well.

the beautiful mrs k and i have both been logging all of our bike time on the trainer lately. yep, it's still boring after all these years!

i first started using an indoor training device back in 1980. i got a very cheap set of plastic rollers and used my bmx bike on them. i would just do some sprints and ride along for a few minutes and call it a day. they were bouncy and slow. about a year later, i bought a really nice set of cortina aluminum drum rollers (i still have them!!) and i did more. 1981 was right about the time i became serious about training, so the rollers were not just for cold and rainy days. i had a set of radio headphones that i would tune in to 103.3 khtr or 107.7, majic 108. or even kshe if the music was right. i set up a beat-up clock on the wall in the wash room in my parents basement. i had workouts that i would do. 30 on/30 off, to simulate back to back to back to back bmx races. i would spin up to 175+ rpms on the bmx bike and hold it there for the 30 seconds, which isn't an amazing feat if you remember that with 20" wheels and a 41/16 gearing, the wheels weren't going that godawful fast. my goal was always 12 sets. by the time i got to 8 or 9, my mom or dad would be yelling down the laundry shoot that i should be getting done pretty soon. i guess those rollers would really sing with the little knobby tires. later on in my bmx career, the rollers became a regular part of my weekly workouts. tuesdays and thursdays were roller days, monday, wednesday, and fridays were my outdoor sprint days. i never got on the rollers to do more than 30 minutes. a couple of minutes of warm up, a hard/fast sprint workout, and a little cool down...done.

along the way, i replaced one roller belt, regreased the bearings one time, and repainted the metal rails once. the sweat really ate away the original paint, but the bearings still sing along pretty well. there are still tons of stickers on the front roller, which look really cool when you're humming along.

that must be the problem with riding the trainer...not enough stickers.