Change of seasons
Today we have a guest blogger, see if you can guess who it is:
"Boo hoo, I am lonely and I havent had any exercise in too long. My "legs" feel flat and I think i am collecting dust. There are too many leaves on the ground and the wind is too strong these days to want to get moving." Oh well. Pretty soon I will just hibernate for the winter."
Who could that be?
Scroll down for the answer.

Everyone meet GOGO, she is pretty cool and her legs courtesy of ZIPP and her bars courtesy of HED make her a pretty good package. Thanks for stopping by, GOGO.

In the meantime there is a jealous sister who wants to be ridden as her time has been neglected by the owner's ( who remains nameless) desire to go fast. But she cant complain, she has gotten out a bit and gotten dirty. In defense of her owner the next blogger has to know that her owner really enjoys riding but that to her, getting dirty used to mean playing on clay tennis courts and having har-tru on her ankles. Or on a bad day, getting pegged in the leg with her opponents overhead. (And btw, that does leave a nice bruise, that would compete with those you get in cross)
"Why dont you go to a race with me? I will hold up well if you smack into a barrier, and if you would take me to the shop we could, as a team, figure out why i dont want to get into the big ring. Come on, it would be fun, you have to do one cross race this fall. You can run pretty good, so at least i could roll along side you if you choose not to ride me."
Ok Ok..

Meet Veloce, She is a sturdy gal that will stand by me through thick(mud) and thin (brush, grass, rain.) She could lighten up a bit but overall she is a pretty nice gal to have for the winter months. Soon she gains some winter weight but we all need fenders when life throws some splashing rooster tails up our backsides.

Last but never least is honey.

"I am happy because today we rode to Wayzata and had coffee at Caribou before the wind picked up. I still dont know how you drink espresso, because if that is what coffee really tastes like I will keep adding more honey and milk to mine!"

This ends my way too long experiment with my new camera. I am going to Atlanta for a wedding this weekend. a DARTMOUTH wedding so hope to see some Big Green on this site soon. Go BIG GREEN. I almost wrote Go INDIANS. I digress, an issue for another blog entry.
WAhoowah.

SAMs CLUB

Honey likes to go to Sam's. Usually I scoff at the fact that i dont see how you can support local farmers and local businesses if you buy things bulk. Plus I dont need 8 boxes of cereal and i usually just buy stuff i dont need. BUT...this particular trip to Sam's (that i didnt go on) was very beneficial to me, and to my blog. Honey got me a sweet little camera. It is pink and nearly smaller than my cell phone so i can easily lose it in one of my many bike jersey pockets.

So, stay tuned i hope to have some more pics to share as we head into winter. Maybe me on my trainer? or GOGO looking sad that her TT'ing for the winter is on hold.

Halloween is coming...

Funny thing is that i have no idea who these kids are. Does anyone want to claim them?

They must be somebodies kids or to rephrase that, "somebody I know sent me this picture and I should try to figure out who they belong to." And no, i don't mean they are siblings. kinda doubt that. But it makes me think back to what was my favorite costume as a kid.

One year Leslie and Carrie and I dressed up as Huey, Duey and Louie. Flippers and all. We didn't plan too well... webbed footing in a neighborhood where houses have long driveways and aren't on city blocks (their 'hood) not mine, may hamper our efforts to fill the pillowcase with massive quantity of candies. I think the next year we returned to urban trick or treating ( my 'hood) and wore running shoes and covered miles and miles on foot. Good cross training at an early age.

So what was your favorite costume? And most importantly, what was your favorite candy that you would TRADE all others for? Let me help you with this one, for example: "One butterfinger can be traded for 2 twizzlers and 3 sweet-tarts...or...one Reeses Peanut Butter Cup (single or half of the full sized) can be traded for 1 milky way and 1 snickers." and I dont mean those puney one bite ones, I mean the original mini's. Raisins of course were nasty and usually got thrown into the trash.

And best of all, I know that even today most of us would still trade candy like this if we could.

So if kids dont really even trick or treat anymore like we did, they get to eat all that candy and not walk or run miles to earn it. Hmm...that is kinda sad.

Images of Summer...Lupin.


I love Lupin. It always makes me feel happy and it reminds me of the cabin. We used to have a huge lot of it in our driveway and i remember feeling just awful when we would run over it as we backed up. Now it seems it is everywhere along the highway so I dont feel so bad about my poor driving. Better to hit the Lupin than the light post. I have done that, too.

And a big old tree. Honey labeled it "Obese tree." Sad that we are so used to obesity in our daily lives that you walk down the street and see so many overweight kids. And now we dont even mean to be flippant, but without even searching for it we start to see it in nature. huh?

Ok that was a stretch. But this tree is kind of odd looking isnt it?

Cloquet Crit..


Do you notice it is raining? As I said earlier this was my first crit. I was scared i was gonna crash so i stayed safely at the back.
Sunday i may try my first cross race, and the forecast is for rain...stay tuned....

Memorial Day 2007

Does anyone remember Memorial Day 2007? I do. Honey and i got to spend an extra day at the cabin after the fantastic racing (Thanks Tone) in Duluth, Wrenshall and Cloquet. We loved the Munger Inn and hangin' with Sara and Brian, Jess and Dan and Malte (we miss you) and meeting Cheryl and Amy was awesome. Remember those dudes that were hogging the grill? And Malte got adopted by some family bc he looked so tired and hungry? Jules shacked up at the nicer bunks at the Radisson but she still hung with us that night.




This was my first ever crit and i was really scared. Luckily I learned fast that to be safe i needed to either be in the front or in the back. When it started raining i decided to hang in the back with Sarah. I miss Sarah, she is pretty cool for a junior. But now she is in college so she really cant be called a junior anymore and she had better upgrade with me so i have a "teammate."
Look at that water. At least it wasnt frozen. I do remember it was really cold up there for all the racing that weekend. Look at what we are wearing!
There goes Sara, racing the 16 wheelers again. At least she is doing it on a closed course and not on federal freeways. Sara can TT but she just does it on the track. IF she ever came to blackdog i think she would give everyone an eye opener.
And you know, I dont know for sure but i think that is our friend S1. I dont know what the finish was for the cat 3 women. I was just amazed that they actually looked like they were working together and it made me realize as a cat 4 I had ALOT to learn about crits.

I found some pics of the Fed from a few years back at the Pacific Life tournament in Indian Wells, CA. I am glad he has refined his wardrobe and has gone back to a more conservative Nike look. The blue shoes are kinda cool, it looks like he has blue shoe covers like we ride in, doesnt it?
If you EVER get a chance to see him play in person, do it. His skills are a cross between fine ballet, chess, and an aerodynamically perfect time trialist. It looks so easy and it is so beautiful to watch him create angles that you never thought were there. The guy could teach geometry at Andre's school in Vegas when he retires. Then again he has a lifetime contract with Wilson so i think he may not need to work.
I just wonder what it feels like to play against him. Patrick McEnroe has this great gig he does in which he puts Roger's opponents in a "zoo" like fun house. It is called "The Federer Fun House." And Roger just toys with them. It must not be too fun to be a pro and have Patrick make fun of you.
Last, if you are lucky you can also see our friend Al Trautwig comment on tennis matches, especially the US open. I have yet to decide which sport he knows less about, tennis or cycling, but he tends to grate on viewers either way after 14 days.

Funny thing is that i dont really know what i am doing on this blog thing but i am having fun making it up as i go along. I intend to do a recap of summer highlights both on and off the bike so be patient. I may be posting about April 2007 in November~!

Jules isnt my sister but she almost has my name and she could be my sister. My other sister lives in Houston, TX and I wish she lived closer. 3 of us in a race could prove to be fun, motivational and successful. I guess my parents gave us some good genes, Thanks mom and dad.

Elizabeth did the IronGirl and got 2nd in her age group. She doesnt even train and she does that. How cool is that? She rides her heavy mtb to work everyday (and thank God she was about 10 minutes past the 35W bridge collapse that sad day August 1) So maybe she thinks everyone in her age group is slow... and all the "fast people" stayed home...but ya know, she showed up and on that day, she was the 2nd fastest. Best of all she had fun and she will hopefully do more races next season.

I will try to find a pic of my sister Heide. (notice the "e" not an "i"in her name) She rocks on the run and before she had the kid "chippy" she did Kona. Now that is totally cool. Well I think it is, some people think it is crazy. The kid, by the way, is pretty cool himself. He is 9 yo and just got a role in the "Christmas Carol" so they cant come home for the holidays. But i am really proud of him. He is hilarious, and this thing he does with his eyebrows, is too funny. He will be on Broadway one day, that is my bet. I will miss him this Christmas. Sitting in my parents sun-room engrossed in a book or playing some game with "Olive."

I have more nephews and they will show up in other posts. They live nearby so i get to giggle and hug them more and laugh at "Front of the Bus, Back of the Bus.." and hear all about "Back-Packs" and "Spiderman." That was for you, Lee. One nephew, the 5 yo, is already hitting balls from the baseline.

I better start playing again.

This was a hodge podge group of people in for two distances. I was leading a 70 miler (that turned into an 88 miler) and the other group was going on a 100 miler that turned into a 106 miler. I will spare you the details as it was a month ago, but lets just give some highlights:
Characters included:
Jules "when can we stop for coffee?"
Bill OD who never told us he was training for the 100 miler up at Headwaters, way to go Bill!
Teacher Mike who thus far has avoided having the microchip imbedded in his forearm, but is still under close surveillance even if he thinks he is free.
Bernie steady eddy
Amy Smiley
Crazy little Dentist guy who blew around in his blue jacket and insisted in riding about 10 feet ahead of us, dangling in the wind
Bob and Steve who took it easy on the group despite having the combined superpowers to torture everyone there.
And last but not least the entire First Light Crew. More on them later.
1st Light bill nearly missed the start, I think he was at the Holiday Station getting donuts for Steve.

This is a really cool photo that my honey took at Iron Girl. I hate the first leg of a duathlon. I never feel totally warmed up, and in this case we had to wait around about 20 minutes since the roads werent ready/closed yet for the bike leg. But better to be safe and to wait, and the Bloomington Police did a really great job stopping sunday church traffic. So it was worth waiting.
Thanks!!! It was worth having a harder 1st run so that I could rocket down Normandale Blvd on GOGO and not worry about some church lady driving into me.