A little update post Lotoja

Check out my sweet new liscense plate! Ya, I was a little tired the other day. My job was to keep Liam awake, but who was supposed to keep me awake?


No, I am not writing to tell you that I am writing my own blog (barely have enough time to write to this one these days). It will be fun to read what you have to say on your own posts. Don't forget us here at the GC.

Post Lotoja isn't going as well as hoped. I am a little frustrated at this point. After Lotoja I felt great, probably the best I had felt after any of them. I was thinking I would jump right back into my normal riding life, but things happen differently than planned. I started riding easy and it felt fine, but one day I road a little harder and started to notice a pain in my knee. It kept getting worse. I now believe I have torn my I.T. band (don't ask me to spell out what I.T. stands for). Which means it is always swollen and hurts when I ride hard. I tried to take a few days off of it and ride easy, but it still isn't getting any better. There are a few cross races I want to do, but if my knee doesn't get any better I won't be able to race them. Oh the joy of getting old. It was still worth the pain to ride Lotoja. It is always good to accomplish the ride and see the family. Take care and hope your riding is less painful than mine.

Tanner is leaving the fold also

Sorry team, I am following my fathers lead and starting a blog of my own......stop crying you will get over the loss and I will still occasionally post an amazing piece of literature here, or you can check out http://thenextlocalhero.blogspot.com for regular posts

New Blog

I've started a new blog for my ramblings. Here's the link:

http://www.dccrossings.blogspot.com/

Check it out.

Daren

Cool new ride

On Saturday afternoon I took Glen's tandem back and then went to ride with Mindy's uncle Dave (He's been riding my old E5). We rode up over Suncrest (hard on the tandem), down into Alpine and then around point of the mountain back to Dave's house (just off 110 south). Dave rides up Suncrest ever other day and even road a leg of Lotoja (strong rider). He wants to ride Lotoja with us next year and I think he would be a great addition if he can get in. By the time we finished the ride we were soaked, but it was a good 35 mile loop with about 6 miles of climbing. We need to ride it as a team next year only(good change).

I'm not sure if I'm going to race on Saturday, because I haven't been riding that hard since Lotoja and I'm not sure my legs would be any good towards the finish of a 45 min crit.

Relaxed

4 and 1/2 days of this view.

Lotoja 2009?

The tandem is in and I'm already working on a training schedule to improve the tandem's performance from this year (Sorry we weren't much help towards the last half Bub). Before I continue I must give a big thanks to Bub who pull for a long time, thanks again. I must also thank the team for not bonking and being patient with the weakest climbing link (tandem) and Mindy's need to use the bathroom every hour (On the side of the road or wherever). After a few days of food and sleep I'm looking forward to next year.

Mindy posted most of our Lotoja photo's on our family blog, so go check it out.
Big thanks again to all those who make this event happen (Doug, Peterson's), but next year we need to all start at the same time (fun ride at 6 am). It just wasn't the same not riding to Preston together.

Lotoja 2008

The day of reckoning is over - I am in the 1,000 mile club! All the time and enery to train makes you feel like you earned every mile of it. It was fun to get to see everyone again. When it comes to the Lotoja - you love it and you hate it at the same time. It is always better when you are finished. The first 100 was probably the easiest we have done so far. The last 100 wasn't as easy, but we made it. I don't know how Sutt managed the tandem on all those hills. It was pretty draining. It was good to see Doug and Russ make it without throwing up or bonking. Mindy, welcome to Lotoja crew. She was great. She always had a smile on her face. Rob is quoted as saying, "this was the easiest one so far" (some might think otherwise - me included). I have to say that this is the best I have felt after the race. I can walk without pain. I even road my bike today to work at a moderate intensity. I am still feeling really tired and wanted to take a nap today during my break. Thanks again for all the support vehicles, we couldn't do it without you.

Sittin' in the airport

Needless to say, getting here has been quite the adventure. Where to start? On Monday we found out that Brooke's grandpa passed away in this sleep the previous night. He is a great guy and will be missed. We made arrangements for Brooke to go out to the funeral on Friday. With the high gas prices and $$$$ for parking it didn't make sense for us to drive two cars up to Portland, so I made arrangements to leave early on Thursday (my second day of school) to go up with Brooke earlier on Thursday.

I had a project due on Sept. 6, obviously the same day as the race, so I knew I had to get it in early. I stayed to work on it at school on Wednesday night. I am creating a webpage about the acheivement of the school, including a podcast and photo's of the school. I had it all updated and on the net. Came in Thursday morning to find that the server had crashed that night and some of my work was gone and it was no longer on the net. The IT people said the server should be up by noon. I waited thinking I could publish quick before I left, but it never happened. The server never came back up. I emailed my professor the situation, but haven't heard back yet. This part is yet to be resolved...

Continuing with the story... Brooke cames to pick me up at the school. When she gets out of the car she has a look of disgust on her face and she is shacking her head. As I get closer to the van I catch a wiff of something really bad. Upon closer examination I see orange stuff all over Liam. Liam looks at me and says, "I threw up carrots!" We are supposed to be dropping off Liam and Avery at Alissa's in Portland and Liam is sick! I thought that maybe it was car sickness, but on the way up he continued to throw up. Each time missing his cup and getting all over him. We went through three outfits. The thought kept coming to mind, "what am I going to do?" We called lis and she said to bring him anyway. Spread the wealth! She deserves a gold star for this one. I took him over later when the kids were asleep. I got our kids situated and spent some time cleaning up the throw up. During the night he threw up once in the night around 12. I gave hime a blessing because I was getting pretty nervous. He got up at 3:30 and was a new kid. He was bouncing all over the place, so I could tell he was feeling better. Well, this made me feel a little better about leaving my boy. Thanks again lis and Rob P.

But the story doesn't end yet. As I was driving up the "maint check" light came on in our car! This is why we got a newer car - to avoid this kind of stuff. Reliability. I got the oil checked, but it was still on. I am at a loss with this one. Have to figure this out when I get back.

I am now in the airport about to load. I made it. Crazy as it is - I made it. I will tell you if it is worth it after 11 hours of riding. See you all real soon.

3 day

With three days to go and I'm still thinking of how we can improve our ride and ride time for the past years.

1. I know GC Connection likes to make a statement at the front of the pack, but we can draft towards the front.

2. If we find ourselves at the front of a big pack let's pull off and DRAFT.

3. Lets try to keep our stops at the feeds stations to 5-10 min max.

4. Drafting behind the tandem is great, but we need a draft once in a while too.

5. Make sure we eat and drink early. Doug was awesome at the Tour de Park City, because of just that.

6. If you aren't praying for good weather, start tonight!!!!

7. Charge up your MP3 players

8. Keeping a good pace between 21-23 for the duration is better than going 25-28 for five hours and then finishing at 17-20

9. If you need a laugh or your just thinking of why we do this, remember the funny experiences from years past. (Kim going to the bathroom last year)

10. We'll be waiting for you with fresh legs in Preston (Tandem starts almost a hour before the rest of you)

See ya in a couple of days. Mindy is so excited it funny. If you need any motivation just give her a call.