WotN RR & New P1 Bike

I had a good time back in GF visiting everyone. As usual, the time went by quickly and before you know it, I was back in WI at work on Monday.

On Saturday morning, I decided to do the Warrior of the North road race just outside of GF. It's been three years since the last time I was in town to do it, so it was fun doing it again. Saw a bunch of the old gang...Pat, Sears, UND guys, etc. It is a 32mi, out and back course. It started out pretty mellow for the first 5 miles or so until John from Fargo started trying to attack to break it up a bit. Each time it was brought back and everyone regrouped. A couple UND/SBS guys, Andrew and Nathan, were at the front most of the time riding tempo. It wasn't until after the turnaround that more serious attacks were made...usually by Mario from the UND team. He attacked twice and got a gap. Both times I bridged up to him, thinking we might be able to make it stick, but the group would catch back on. The group made the turn for the last 5 miles and the pace slowed down...everyone was just waiting it out for the sprint I guess. With maybe 2 miles to go, Mark Harmon (blast from the past!) threw in an attack that was soon reeled in, but kicked the speed up nicely. The group was starting to break apart as we approached the finish, and I could see Mario and John just up the road trying to get away. I moved around a couple riders and caught on to them just as Mario started his sprint. I got on his wheel for a bit, looked back and saw that John was catching up, so I got around Mario and started to sprint. I ended up holding them both off and taking the win! Fun times. Evidently they are going to post pics of the race, so if I find some, I will post them.

A few weeks ago I mentioned getting another P1 frame painted up. Here are the results:

My very own UND Fighting Sioux bike! The arrow on the top tube is on both sides.

The all hand-painted headtube has both the standard UND logo and the Sioux logo. The headtube alone took 8 hours for the painter to complete.
The painter used a couple different metallic green colors...the bottom of each tube is really dark green, and as you turn the bike over, it gradually fades into a light green. He called it "bass boat metallic" because once the sun hits it, it just sparkles.

Profile shot.

It turned out really well! I'll post some pics after I get it built up as well.

Chequamegon is this weekend. We should have a good-sized TBB crew there with Rick, Greg, Trent, Vino, and myself making the journey to Hayward, WI for the race. Will be fun seeing everyone and riding that 40miles of rolling hills/gravel roads/sandy doubletrack/2500 racers once again.

2 Day Work Weeks

Labor Day weekend was a busy one here at the Abraham household. The parentals came to visit and help us put in some new doors. Dad and I got three doors installed in 1.5 days...a new pimpy fiberglass front door, storm door for the front, and a new door in our sunroom (from the garage). Should be much better than the old ones that were in there. Now we just have to do the finish work on them, the caulking, painting, moulding, etc. Heather should be posting pics on her blog once all that is accomplished.

What a difference a day makes. Tuesday was the hottest day all summer here in Madison...it hit 94 degrees or something. Then today it was 72 degrees. Tomorrow 64 and rainy. Snow will be here before you know it.

As my title states, I worked Tues & Wed this week, but now I have off Thurs & Fri as I am heading back to ND to visit. Have to get in some Tonia/Trent time before they move down south. Maybe head to Union Lake for some fun there. Saturday is the Warrior of the North road race in Grand Forks, so I'll plan on bringing the road bike and maybe doing that for old-times sake.

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...