Racin'

Had a fun weekend in Minneapolis this past weekend. With Heather in Chicago with the Johnson family for their annual triathlon fun, we boarded the dogs up at a local kennel, and I took off Friday after work. Got to Brandon and Gillian's house late and looked at their newly finished remodeled kitchen. Looks good!

Saturday morning I made the hour drive to Avon, MN for the MN State Road Championships. The race was supposed to be 68 miles and start at 1:30pm, but there was an hour delay as the other races were still going on, and it turns out the race was actually 74 miles (the longest road race I've ever done). Double ouch. So I hung around for an hour in my lycra and waited. The course was pretty fun...an 18 mile loop on smooth roads with a couple decent climbs and descents. The race ended on a curvy 1km long climb. There were around 40-50 riders in the field, so I just wanted to stay out of the wind and conserve energy. On the first lap, 3 riders got away and the field let them escape. The pace for the first couple laps was consistent and not too fast. The last two laps people would try to attack, but the field would ramp up the speed a bit to bring them back each time. By the time the last lap started, we were told that the 3 leaders had over a 3min lead on us, so we knew that we were racing for 4th place. My legs still felt very good, which surprised me because of the distance. As we approached the final climb, the pace picked up, and I moved closer to the front to avoid the mayhem. When the climb started, one rider started to pull away, so I got on his wheel. We rode for about half the climb, when I looked back and saw that only one rider was with us...the rest of the pack was way off the back. The rider behind me attacked as we got close to the finish line, but me and the other guy both caught up to him and started our sprints. He nipped me at the line, so I got 2nd in the field sprint and 5th overall in the Cat 3 race, by far my best finish since I upgraded. Sweet. I was encouraged with how strong my legs felt. I wish we wouldn't have let the 3 riders get away...I could have been sprinting for the win instead. ;)

That night B&G broke in their new kitchen by preparing a glorious meal of a hunk of meat, grilled potatoes/carrots, and some corn. We then watched some Olympic action.

Sunday morning I took off for the WORS mtb race just across the MN/WI border in River Falls, WI. It was a 5 mile course...not much climbing and a few sections of really rutted doubletrack, but some fun singletrack and wooden bridges. We had to do 4 laps. I wasn't sure how I would feel after the long race the day before, but the first two laps went pretty well. I felt ok, despite not having a very good start after getting caught behind a bunch of riders on the opening climb. At the beginning of the 3rd lap, I could feel my legs start to fade. They didn't cramp or anything, just lost power. So I just went normal pace for the final two laps and didn't try to kill myself. I ended up in 6th place age group, about 4min behind the winner. Not bad, considering.

It's a bird, it's a plane...no, it's a flying Brown Bear!

I took off for home after the race, and enjoyed some Taco John's along the way. I got home and zonked out. Weekend of racing over. Thanks to B&G for letting me crash at their place and for feeding me.

This weekend we are getting a visit from the Abraham parents. They are dropping off a crib, and I believe we have plans for putting some new doors (front entry with screen door and garage entry) in. Should be a good time!

Travel plans

Well, we made it through Trek World ok. Lots of hours, but thankfully they let preggers Heather out a bit early each night so she wasn't completely worn out. My typical day looked like this: head to Monona Terrace at 9am, work until midnight. Go home. Sleep for a few hours. Repeat. I did that Tuesday-Saturday, then on Sunday I worked 8am-4pm. Didn't help that I went out after work with co-workers a couple nights too. Makes for a really long week, but it's still a good time seeing all the new products and meeting the dealers.

Another fun thing from the show was that we booked our next Trek Travel trip! We have wanted to do that again ever since our France honeymoon trip, and when we heard that they were offering the big discount trips again, we jumped at the chance. So next September Heather and I will be traveling along with Tonia and Trent to lovely Vermont!
Here are the trip page details. Fall colors, riding over Appalachian Gap and the Green Mountains, Ben & Jerry's ice cream, bed and breakfast inns, and maple syrup. I can't wait!

If you didn't notice, Heather posted on her blog about the ultrasound results. Seems that we have a little girl on the way. :)
If anyone has any advice as to gun/weaponry choices for keeping teenage boys away from daughters, please let me know.

This weekend I am heading to the Cities to do a couple races. The MN State road race is on Sat, and then there is a WORS mtb race on Sun on the drive home. Should be fun.

Speaking of bikes...I got another painted frame done by P1, this one a "custom job" though. It turned out awesome. I'll post pics soon. :)

Happenings

Just catching up on some past weekends here.

Two weekends ago, Tonia and Trent came to visit. We had a good time...just hung out for the most part. They both brought their bikes, so we went on some rides around town. Trent has a dream of owning a motorcycle with a sidecar one day, so he wanted to get the feel of it on my new motorbicycle (sans sidecar).

Me giving him a tutorial.

He's a quick learner...look at him go!
Taking meine schwester for a little spin around the court.

Last weekend was 24/9 in Wausau, WI. I met fellow TBB members Dave, Greg, and Rick there and we setup camp on Friday evening. Dave and Rick were doing the Solo race, while Greg and I teamed up to try our hand in the Duo category.

The campsite.

Right before the LeMans start.

Here come the runners!

That's all the pictures I have. The rest of the time I was too busy racing, talking, or sleeping. :)

It was a good time, the course was really fast and dry. And VERY dusty. Greg and I pretty much took it easy. Nice breaks in between laps so as not to kill ourselves, but we had some fast laps and only two mechanicals (flat tire for Greg on his first lap and a blown primary light bulb for me on one of my night laps). Fun race. We ended up 8th in the Duo category, with Dave and Rick finishing 28th and 32nd in the Solo category.

Today was Heather's bday. Once she got off work we went out to eat and then celebrated with a DQ Blizzard cake at home. Good times. On Friday we go in for the big ultrasound to determine the sex of the baby! Exciting! She'll probably update her blog with more details on that...

Next week is the craziness that is the Trek World dealer show. On Sunday I hope to do a WORS race about 1.5 hr from here depending on what we have to do for TW. But next week is both fun and crappy at the same time. It's like working two work weeks in one (and then being right back at work the following Monday), but it's cool seeing all the new product, eating free food, and meeting some of the dealers. Tired times await...