Should Lance ride?

After my flop with a non-bike post I decide to try something else. Today I am asking a GC Connection poll question: Should Lance Armstrong ride next year? Most people have an opinion on this, ranging from, yes, it will be good for the sport to no, he will be the next Michael Jordan trying to play for the Wizards. I will reserve my opinion for later, but would like to hear what you all think.

One-ers and Runners

I want to preface this by saying it is my first non-riding post on this blog. Hopefully, you don't find my humor to morbid or insensitive. But not being able to ride much or hard has sent me over the edge. I go to the doctor on Thursday, my self diagnosis is that it is tendinitis in my knee. It is still hurting pretty bad.

As I have been commuting to work over the past few years I have come across two types of runners - One-ers and runners. Runners are like my buddy Jeremy, who always says, "I don't jog. I run." Intense face, skinny, and flying (I ran with him once and it just about killed me, won't make that mistake again). But the one I want to rant on is the one-ers. You have all probably seen them: new pair of white shoes, big basketball shorts, little belly, and breathing pretty hard. I call them one-ers because they are one and out. One run and it about does them in We have one at work who always talks to me. He'll say he is going to start running, but had this and this, so he couldn't this week. Or he ran once two weeks ago and is going to start back up. I think it's pretty funny. I don't know why you would want to run anyway (sorry doug). This is probably how I will be in a few years of knee trouble with my riding. "Well, I need to start back up, but I can't." Hopefully, you catch the pun in my rant. Maybe I should stick to just writing about the bike, but as Lance says, "it's not about the bike."

Ogden CX

Welcome to the Ogden Weber County Fair grounds CX race. It was a great course, fast and great weather, at least for watching. Big fields, well organized with alot of energy. This is what Cross racing is about and why it is growing like crazy. Ryan and his kids came and really enjoyed the racing. Cam, Ryan's older son was excited to race and he is a good rider.

Chrispy and Bart of the future. The little dude worked his tail off to get the bike over the barrier.

Bart bunny hopping the double! It was pretty impressive. Crispy and Bart were the class off the field. Crispy is a great rider, so intense and go for it.

Daren thinking what have I got myself into!

Daren leading some serious racers!

Daren's flying over the double.

Tanner on the short side of the double log barrier. That was later ropped off so you had to go over the double.

Tanner bunny hopping the second log

It was a crappy day for CX racing as it was down right beautiful weather. The course was like a road course with a lot of speed and it was a blast to watch. I could see a lot of hurting faces and there was a lot of threshold efforts going on. I was disappointed to watch my group race and not be in there, but the hurt for there efforts made me feel not as bad. Tanner raced a great race. He was off the lead on the first lap, but drilled it to the front by the end of the second lap and put some serious hurt on the group. In the end only one guy could hang with him and he was a pro mountain biker and beat Tanner in a fine sprint. This young dude can roll and it is a blast to see Tanner progress and work the serious adult racers. Ryan came and watched with his kids and hardly recognized Tanner. He said what happened to that pudgy little kid! Daren's race was especially exciting to watch. He has really worked hard and it shows. He was so deep in the effort cave, I don't know how he did it, but it was cool to watch. I have never seen him race that well! Big props, I was a proud brother! He was in a group of all pro's and just worked hard. I kept expecting to see him drop back but no way. He drove the group a lot and he was differently the best technical rider. He would gain gaps on the technical corners and jumps. It was a great day of racing and a lot of fun to watch. I got so excited that I came home and ran 6 miles, since I still can't ride.

Hiking is not Bad!

With the bad wing, I have turned back to my old hiking ways. We have so many great trails here in Ogden. I have been going over and back on Indian trail and yesterday I did Malan Peak. It had abit of ice on the trail but not bad. Picture is at the shed on Indian trail looking back at Ogden. Big Ogden Cross race tomorrow at the fair grounds, good luck to T and DC. Ride safe to all you able to ride. Next week I will be on a bike. Doug

Heber CX

Tanner and I made it up to the Heber Fair Grounds today to race cyclocross. The much anticipated snow storm didn't materialize and conditions were actually pretty dry. However, it was cold and a stiff wind made it a hard day.

Tanner made his Dad proud again with his second consecutive win. He had to work a little harder for this one. T got the hole shot but proceeded to take a header into the first barrier section. He fell back about 10 or more spots but kept his cool and fought back to the leaders in a couple of laps. With 4 to go, he got a gap on his two companions and held on for the win. Flat courses have never been Tanner's strength, so today's win was very satisfying for him.

The course was really good and improved from last year. Jon figured out how to turn a big pile of dirt into a good run-up that made things interesting. He also added some more grass but kept the unique passage through the animal stables.

Here's Tanner on the run-up after he re-joined the leaders.
Tanner getting ready for the victory salute (sorry Bob).

The team had a mixed day. Chris won the A's and Dave was a solid 4th. However, Eric got taken out by a crash in front of him and rolled a tire. He had to put the tire back on the rim and nurse it around to the pits and lost a ton of time.


Here's Chris getting what little draft you can from Ali.

My day went pretty good. I got off to a good start but could only stay with McKone and Sam for a while. MK was putting the hurt on for the first few laps. I was solo 3rd for a few laps but eventually got caught and dropped to finish 4th. In our group, I'm pretty happy with any top 5 finish.

Tanner took a ton of pictures and he captured some interesting ones. Here's a sequence of the run up. I was carrying and MK was pushing. We seemed to go about the same speed.

A little more than half way through the race I was once again reminded that cross is hard. I was drooling, crosseyed and thinking I was going to blow up any minute. However, the next time through the start / finish I saw 4 laps to go and my brain slowly made the connection that the pain would end relatively soon. That gave me new life and I had a couple of good laps to hold off Scott Allen.

Tonight, I'm tired, sore and can't wait to do it again next week. We're racing at the Weber County Fair Grounds in Ogden next Saturday, so all you family members up North can watch Tanner go fast.

Thanks for reading.

I'm Staying

It has been awhile since I last posted and alot has happened. This summer has flown by. We are all going to have to lift our posting games to fill DC and T's departure. I'm showing you a few things that have happend to us this summer, even though most of this is old news. Better late than never. It has been a great year of riding and working on the house fixing up all those things that I put off for 20 years. Special thanks to our support crew at Lotoja! We couldn't have done it without them. It did seem strange to see Kim on that side of the ride. We will look forward to having him back on our side next year.

Another one completed. We are all 1000 milers now. Mindy was a great addition this year. Very proud of her effort. Big props to Sutt for powering the tandem up all the climbs. Russ I don't know how you do it with all your big miles of prep. Bub killed it on the front and we all appreciate it. I felt the best I ever had, so all those sole miles helped. Robby had strong ride again this year.

Joy on these faces, thank goodness it is done, even though we had a great ride this year!

We pulled alot of people up the hills all day long, free loaders.

Bub is pointing the angle of the climb ahead.

Rob is enjoying this climb to much!

Russ having fun on the big hill.

I'm loving the king of the mountain.

Sutt and Mind enjoying the Lotoja climbs!

Daren racing hard against the big boys, a flat with half a lap to go doesn't help.

T has no respect for the elderly, as he flies by me.

T-man on the remount

The Ogden cross race was good. To bad no power after the barriers.

I took a bad line over the rocks and as I bunny hopped the rocks my front wheel made a left turn down the space and if you look close you can see my right shoulder depression in the ground. One more week then MIR to see if I need surgery.

Its time for my fall crash, this year a class 3 shoulder separation, not very fun

Look who we found working the Ute game. Bruce does live!

Great fun at the Utah game with Daren, Joann, Betty and I.

The new pantry I built where the old frig was has really been nice.

The back yard is looking great. Thank goodness for retirement!

I was attacked my this nest of hornets at my little house. Five stings on one ear, not fun, but they payed for it, hornet spray killer works great!

I hope you are all well and at least thinking about riding(for some of us that is all we can do now). The trainers and spinners await. Ride Safe. Doug

Back to work

I took last month off after finishing Lotoja(rode a total of 7 times) and gained 7 pounds. I'm starting a new workout plan that is going to get me back into great shape for next year. It's called no high school sports. I'm going to focus on Jr high Basketball, homework(Masters that should be done by next fall), weightlifting, and riding my bike.

I'm trying to think of a way to post my workout sheet as a motivation to get me going, but I don't think I can attach things to the GC blog. Bub if you can let me know. I modified Daren's old workout tracking chart (No planning, just actual workouts).
Other news--
Just so you know Russ sold his house and is planing on living his dream as a cowboy. His new barn is bigger than my house.

Nutria -1 Me - 0

T-man congrat's on the race. While you were riding I was wishing I could race. There are only a few races in Eugene, and even fewer on Saturday. There was one last Sat., but with my knee I didn't want to risk it. My knee is feeling better, so I went out with some friends to ride a and do some easy spinning. Here is a link for a pretty funny version of what happened, Nutria story.

This isn't my first time hitting one. They are pretty dumb animals. If you don't know what a nutria is, in Utah we called them muskrats, anyway they are pretty nasty little rodents.

I won the B's (tanner)

I won the B's cross race, and it was a large field and a fast one, for pics and more please divert your attention to thenextlocalhero.blogspot.com