Living Up To Its Name

Powder Mountain 1/29/098.


Tanner

Doug

Daren

Doug and Tanner

Daren

Needless to say, a good time was had by all.

Snow in Eugene?

Snow in Eugene? Actually there is. It has been snowing on and off since Saturday night out here. When it snows here everything shuts down. We had half the ward show up on Sunday, no school on Monday, 2 hour delays on Tuesday and Wednesday. It is pretty entertaining. People don't know how to drive in snow out here. They go way to fast and slide all over the place. Granted, there is a lot of black ice from the moisture.

With all the snow it has made commuting nearly impossible. I have been trying to spend as much time as possible in the "pain cave." But we all know how that goes, it gets pretty boring after a while.

I know this isn't the same as Doug's picture, but it's the best we can do.

Snowshoes

I spent most of this week working at the Outdoor Retail show. Easton launched our new showsnow called Easton Artica. The shoe was really well received and Chrispy's year of hard work paid off. I had a good time and enjoy going to the show. It's good they let the finance guy out of the office every once in a while.

This is our booth as we set up at the on snow demo at Snowbasin. It was a spectacular day in the mountains

I made the front page of the Trib Money section showing our new shoe.

The weather was nice yesterday and Doug, Tanner and I made it out after the OR show (Doug and Tanner got to wander the show and see all the new toys they want. Tanner has about 3 new pairs of skis he wants). Tanner was manning the camera.

Doug and me.

We had a great time riding together and saw a few fellow cross riders out and about. Overall, a really nice day.

Not Much

Not much interesting happening the last week. Work has been busy and the new year of training is going well. I have a long list of bike repair and building projects (between me and Tanner, I have one new frame to build and 5 other bikes with various repairs or upgrades to install). My normal life is busy, so most days its a choice of working out of working on bikes. Not much happened with the bikes this week. The bike I want to get going most is my 1989 Bridgestone RB-1. I realized I have enough parts to make it into a single speed. Should be a pretty sweet bike with a mid-80's Campy crank and American Classic wheels.

I'm happy to be back training. I actually like structured workouts and enjoy the effort. I don't like getting up early or going to the gym to lift weights. However, both are necessities for me, so I do it. Tanner and I got in 3.5 hours on the road with the team yesterday and it was fun. The weather wasn't too cold and the company was really good. I haven't gone on a true group road ride for months and I realized I missed it. I certainly go harder with a group than if I go alone and I'm worked today. It was great to have Tanner on the ride and he was taking his turns on the front and rolling through when we pacelined. He's slowly getting more comfortable in groups and even considering racing some crits this year.

Wednesday night I took 10 14 - 18 year old scouts and leaders on a snowshoe hike on Guardsman. We had a good time and with a 2/3's moon and snow, no headlights were required. It was beautiful in the pines and deep snow. The only downside was it was COLD!! When we got out of the vehicles, it was -8. It took about 2 days for me to warm up.

Redneck Show

I spent last week in Indianapolis at the Archery Trade Association annual trade show. It's the archery version of Interbike, just with lots of bows, arrows, hunting equipment and rednecks instead of bikes. Similar to Interbike, it is a dealer show where manufactures are trying to write orders. It is actual remarkable how similar the archery and cycling industries are. Both are driven by the independent dealer with box stores growing rapidly. The dealers are generally enthusiasts who love the sport. One bid difference is cycling dealers are usually fit riders while archery dealers are bubba bowhunters. Here's a look at the show:


This is our booths. We had seven brands at the show. Easton (in the forefront), Hoyt (in the background), Reflex and Fuse (not seen).

This is Delta and McKenzie targets with Easton in the background. Our other arrow brand Beman is not pictured. We're probably the largest combine archery company and have a large footprint at the show.

One of our competitors had a Swat Team stand around their booth to promote how tuff their arrows are. Yea, we thought it was pretty lame too.

We had all of our sponsored TV hunting personalities signing pictures in our booth throughout the day (If you don't think hunting shows are big on TV, just scan ESPN2, Versus, the Outdoor Channel or The Men's Channel next weekend. The TV hunting show personalities make far more money than any Olympic level archer.). Lee (in the blue vest) and Tiffiny (in the Camo shirt) Lakoski seemed to be the most popular for some reason. The bubba's stood in line for 30 minutes to get a signature and a picture.

Somehow, I don't think the Bubba's were in line to see Lee. Check out all the fit guys in line and how far it goes back.

Of course you can get your Harley in Camo if you want.

Cycling did make an appearance at the show. Pacific Sports (Schwinn, GT and Mongoose) had a camo bike they were pitching with a custom rack for your bow. It is a Schwinn frame dipped in camo just like a bow. Pretty sweet. I'm thinking I might need one of those racks. I have to check with Hoyt to see if a frame will fit in their dip tank. If it does, a camo MTB might be in my future.

This beauty is nice. Green paint, camo stickers and a nice rack system. I tried to pick it up but I wasn't strong enough. It's like a road motorcycle. If it falls over, it takes three guys to get it back up.

Now that I'm back, I'm officially on the training again. I wish I had the time flexibility to skate ski or snowshoe everyday to get my endurance time in. However, I'm stuck in the dark valley so I get out at lunch sometimes on the bike and the rest of the time I'm at the gym or on the trainer. Good times. There is some good news. Tanner is full-on this year, so he shares the pain with me in our basement pain cave most of the time. Also, I just got three new Cross DVD's yesterday so the entertainment factor just went up dramatically. Almost makes me WANT to ride the trainer just to watch. Less than 10 months to Cross season and only 11 to Nationals! I wish I were in Belgim for Masters World's this weekend. Good luck to the Utah boys that made the trip. Maybe one year..........

Snow anyone?/New baby

We got dumped on here is Ogden! 18 inches. I have snow blown for two days straight. Good thing I have retired. I had a great time at Brady's, if he hadn't dumped me over a cliff in the dark. The Cottle GI track. Be safe.

Congratulations Alissa and Robby. This is Madeline, 6lbs 13 oz and 19 inches. Mom and baby are doing great. Emily is doing good with her new sister.

Last Chance Cross

It's been a couple of days, but the "Last Chance Cross" or "First Chance of the Year" race was a good time Saturday. We were only racing for fun, but it was still hard. I haven't figured out how to race and not go to my limit. I think it is a genetic flaw. In any case, I guess I beat all the old guys and didn't get lapped by Bart, so I'd call that a success. I hadn't really done anything on the bike since Nationals, so it was a shock to my system the first 15 minutes. The conditions were wet, muddy, snowy, slick and cold. In other words, a pretty good day for a cross race.

Tanner moved up and raced with the fast B men. He was a stud. He was in the top ten the entire race up to the last lap. While in 8th or so, he went down on a slick corner and lost his chain on the outside. He was pasted by 4 or 5 guys while getting it back on. He pasted a few back before the finish and was pleased with his effort. T is going to race with the B's next year and should be very competitive. (Mike W also moved up to the B's and was in the top 3 all day on his single speed. I think he and Tanner will be battling in the B's next year. They'll both be beating up on the A's in no time.)



Tanner with the race promoter, Matt O'hran.

Up the muddy hill then..

remount at the top.

The awards party that night was fun. It was an 80's theme party with a live band. The band was 12 year olds from a Performance High School featuring O'hran's daughter on vocals. They rocked! We were all blown away how good they were.

Here's Tanner getting his Junior overall series winner award.

I actually was a finalist with Bart and Art for the best costume. The 80's preppie look was spot on. Art won the prize on a sympathy vote. Bart always wins, so Art got the prize. My lack of dance moves held me back from the win.

However, if Blaze would have made the party, he would have won easily. Blaze, aka MK, rocked the race on a single speed sporting long hair, a mechanic's jump suit, unfiltered smokes and Miller High Life hand-ups each lap. Impressive! He's off to Belgium this week to be with his people. There's a group of UT old-guy crossers in the Old Country to race Master's World's and watch a couple of Pro races. Good luck guys!

"PRE"

The immortal Steve Prefontaine. When Doug comes into town there are a few things we always have to do, go to Nike (the first one ever), go to Hayward Field (track town U.S.A.), and go to Pre's rock. Pre was one of the greatest middle distance runners during the early 70's. At one time he held all three U.S. records in the middle distances. Pre was killed while driving home drunk one night at the age of 24. He was the first paid athlete that Nike sponsored and help put them on the map. These are the pictures we took of his memorial rock. Many people like to leave personal items, such as, medals, numbers, shoes, or hats. One of the hats is from 1975. All to show their respect to the "rebel with a cause."

Doug's foot

Doug has been hobbling around for the last few days. It is pretty swollen, purple, and painful. We have had to wait on him hand and foot, like a little baby. Doug was telling me a funny story about his trip with Daren and Tanner to the cyclocross nationals. He said that he and Daren were laying there watching TV and noticed that both of their toes were crossed. Quite unique. Notice the toes being crossed in this picture.

Adam's five

1. I've never sent a text message, but then again I don't even own a cell phone. Then again I didn't even have a working computer at home until last week.

2. This last year was the first time in 10 years that I didn't make it to a dodger game.

3. I meet my wife water skiing while she was on a date with one of my friend. I talked him in to giving me her number while on the boat. Thanks Andy

4. Only 1 of the 7 road bikes I've ridden/owned/used over the past ten years has actually been mine. Big thanks to my Uncles hand- ME- downs. They truly support my peddling habit. As far as mountain biking is concerned I've never ridden a mountain bike with out some type of help from Daren.

5. This might come as a shocker, but I own no power tools what so ever. I take that back I have drill, but it's not cordless.

Doug, have you ridden a bike at 100% in the past 4 years? I've got to give you props, because you keep peddling through the pain, but you should have know that nothing good has ever happened with a Number 2 bathroom break on the side of the road (Lotoja 2007).

The crash (not even on a bike)

This is Doug before the crash, when he is still happy!

This is the crash site. You can see the tree below and Doug landed where the light is.

We were discussing titles for this blog and here were some of the suggestions, "A poopy deal" and "Falling of and getting back up." It all started with Doug and I enjoying a little ride in the morning, then driving over for a nice day down at the Oregon coast. We went to a light house and enjoyed the beach, wind and all. We found a nice restaurant, Mo's, and ate some seafood (I had chicken fried steak - really fishy). We finished by having some ice cream at the local BJ's.

Doug must have had a little too much, because he got a diarrhea attack on the drive home. Going from Eugene to the coast is a very beautiful drive, with trees on both sides. It looks like the road was cut through the middle of the forest. So I pulled over and Doug ran out into the black and rainy forest. I jumped out to find a tree, it was all that Mountain Dew at the restaurant. The next thing I hear is, "Ah! (thud) I'm in trouble! (thud)"

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"I pooped my pants and I think I broke my leg."

As it turned out, Doug stepped over a log and couldn't see that it dropped down about 4-5 feet. When he fell the logs broke his fall, but his ankle got pinned between the cliff and the log. His momentum carried him over and he fell another 4-5 feet landing in moss and tree limbs. I was standing right above him and couldn't see what had taken my dad. It looked like he had been swallowed into the black abyss. I had to carefully climb down and help pull him up out of the hole. Luckily, he wasn't seriously hurt. His ankle is sprained and his wrist is hurting worse. Once we knew he was somewhat alright we got a pretty good laugh about it. It is definitely something I will never forget. Just imagine Doug trying to explain to people why he is limping. "Well, I had to stop to go to the bathroom and fell off a cliff!" Seems pretty far fetched but pretty entertaining.

Here is Avery's version (my 10 year old daughter)

But then came the catestrufy. It started out as simple every day thing. Going potty. So when Doug got out and whent over to a quite area and deceided that right over this log he would go. Little did he know that over that log was a 4 foot drop then a log then a 5 foot drop and then ainto a of junk.Such as leaves,moss,dirt and other stuff.It was to dark to see so down went Doug, cellphone and all on to log number 1 then rolled over and droped on log number2.'' Help ,thud, help''.

My Five Things

There is a challenge going around the Utah cycling bloggers to list 5 things people don't know about you. The lists have been interesting and entertaining so far (although I now know things about Turbo I really didn't need to know). Since I don't want any bad cycling karma coming my way, I'll follow along and make a list. (Big disclaimer: Most of the 10 or so readers of this blog are family members that already know just about everything about me, so they aren't going to learn anything new.)

1. I've had a golf handicap index as low as 3.4 and yet I've played exactly 3 rounds of golf in the last 3 years and all of them were in 4 man scramble tournaments (2 wins I might add). Yep, I gave up being a Cat 1/2 golfer to be a pack fill Cat 3 road racer. The real reason I gave it up is I was a distant 3rd best golfer in my family behind my brother and Dad. I just got tired of getting beat all the time.

2. I'm a big fan of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Really. There is no musical instrument as powerful and emotional as 300 voices working together in a live performance. Regardless of your religious affiliation or lack thereof, you need to go hear the live Sunday morning Tabernacle broadcast at least once. Trust me on this one. You'll likely react like Sting. He described singing with and listening to the Choir during the 2002 Olympics as one of the most moving experiences of his life.

3. I'm an information junkie. Every day, I read the SL Trib, the Wall Street Journal, Velonews.com, Cyclingnews.com, blogs and other periodicals and listen to NPR. I also have 2 to 3 books going at any given time. The last few years, most of the books I've read have been non-fiction works about sports, politics, history and outdoor adventures. My wife and 3 children join in the reading passion. We are frequent visitors to the Sandy Library and have library fines rather than DVD late rental fees.

4. I've never owned a video game system and I've never sent a text message using a phone. Somehow, my children have managed to survive and function. I ditched the PDA 10 years ago and my cell phone is merely a phone. However, I have become pretty attached to my notebook computer, digital camera and MP3 player.

5. I have no recollection of the first time I met my wife. This is due to the fact that we were babies at the time. We grew up a few blocks from each other and we have always been friends. We didn't start dating until late in my senior year of high school and I dated no one else after our first date. Best decision I've ever made.

There you go. The challenge is now pasted on to you.

Look'n Good

Bub the GC connection site is as Noah (6 year old boy) yelled in my ear "Look'n good". Just wanted you to know that in the eye's of Noah your a computer Jedi Master.
New year, new plans. I've been on the spinner 3 times in 3 day and I'm starting the new year only up four pounds from Lotoja. I've been hitting the weights this off season (Usually from Nov to the end of Feb), but in an effort to ride faster I started back on the bike on Jan 1. I can now bench 225 (not bad if you're a buck 67) and squatting 3 set of 5 at 285. It helps when you teach a weight lifting class. I also revised Daren's workout spread sheet (no easy task) as to keep me focused and motivated. I also but up a picture of Robby and Bubba like "Rocky" did to keep me driven. I hope to keep up with them on at least one big climb. I'm not going to beat them I just don't want to get dropped. As I'm trying to princes Brooklyn is also trying to type on our new Christmas present (Notebook with e-net). So I now have no excuse not to blog. In an effort to stop Brooklyn (almost 4) from breaking the computer I'm going to let her type a line. adfjkdfienbvbcvbdfbjalfudfuefbubdfj. Brooklyn told me that it says that she to can ride a bike.
Spin hard or ride cold.

1st ride of the New Year

Doug and I were able to get our first ride in of the new year. We road a 40 mile loop around some pretty country outside of Eugene. We went at a moderate pace with some winds from all different types of directions. Doug did great, but his wrist is paying for it now. We will see how he does the rest of the week. Doug really liked my teams brown colors, he kept making rude comments to me the whole time. I even took pictures without breaking the camera, which I dropped last time.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

Tanner and I celebrated this morning by going on the 10th Annual Glen Adams' New Year's Day hike. I've made it to 5 or 6 of these hikes and they are always good. We had about a dozen of us this year and we hiked a ridge just on the North edge of Little Cottonwood. The rule of the annual hike is that it's somewhere new each year. This was one of the best hikes we've had on a beautiful day. Good times and Tanner even spent some time breaking trail. The boy is getting strong.


The view from our turn-around spot.

Chris Bingham was on the front when he saw moose up a head. He found this shed where the moose had been.

My neighbor Kyle and I have a holiday tradition of playing some kind of practical joke on each other. Kyle is a big time hunter, so this year we bought a very tacky 8-foot inflatable snowman in hunting gear from Cabelas and put it up in his yard Christmas Eve. Later that night, Kyle "borrowed" my archery deer target that we decorate in the front yard and returned it in a game bag hung with a winch from a tree. The stakes will be higher next year.

Kyle and I playing my favorite Christmas gift this year, Rock'm Sock'm Robots!

Tanner's Christmas Cross bike he was able to race a couple of times this year. My new Tri-cross carbon came in time for Christmas, but not racing. It will have to wait for next year.

Finally, Bob and BK, I'll get my list of 5 things posted this week. Also, the skiing yesterday made up for Saturday's dissaster. Some good face shots were had by T and me. I forgot the camera, so you'll have to take my word.

One more thing, we saw the documentary "Steep" last night. It is about big mountain skiing. Even if you don't ski or ride, you have to see this movie. It is outstanding. It's currently at Tolley Square.

1,000 and counting

As you can tell with the subtle changes to the blog, Brooke has been out of town visiting family in Utah. Not much else to do when kids are in bed. I have been trying to spruce up the GC header, so that is why is it ever changing. Doug is here visiting and I am having him help me decide which header to use. Let me know what you think. Doug and I think that one will work for right now. While doing that I was the 1000th visitor - I think I should win a prize for that! Hope there will be plenty more visitors.

Daren, that sucked! Your day went from bad to worse. You are pretty lucky that someone ran into it. You might have been going back up in the spring to find that ski. Ryan and I kicked our ski off one time (I was maybe 10 and Ryan 14) while on the lift to try and ski down on one ski. We were close to the top and wouldn't have to ski very far. We slid and fell to where our ski's should have been, but they were gone. Someone said the ski patrol took them. It made for a long ski run. We had to talk to the ski patrol and apologize before we could get our ski back, it was pretty funny. Happy New Year!

ps - Where is the pic of the new cross bike Daren? That sounds pretty cool!

Some Days

I had planned on a snowshoe hike yesterday, but there was a little new snow on the ground at our house and Doug couldn't go, so I decided to go skiing with Tanner. Usually, a really good choice, but so much on this day. We get up to Alta and all is good. There's more new snow than I thought and we ski Wildcat the 1st time up to avoid the crowd. There's about a foot of new and Tanner takes me out of my comfort zone (a regular occurrence now) on some steep in the trees. Next time up, we hike a bit and end up at East Greenly. It's steep with good powder and we're giddy. On my 3rd turn, my right ski pops off in apex my my turn and I go down 30 feet below the ski. I grumble and hike back up to it. I can't see the ski but I can see my tracks and know right where it came off. I start to dig with no luck. After about 15 minutes of searching, still no ski. Tanner was at the bottom and I yell to him to go down and come back up to help look.

At this point, I'm getting ticked off. The snow is good, people are whooping as they go down around me. A couple about my age stop and begin looking with me. Tanner makes it back and we systematically dig for an hour. Still no ski. I send Tanner down to check if the ski patrol has a metal detector. The couple continue to dig with me even after I repeatedly tell them to go. Tanner makes it back and says the ski patrol doesn't have a metal detector, but they have a number of a guy who has one and will come hunt for your ski for a fee. Finally, after more than an hour an a half of searching in a snow storm, I'm sore, tired and completely frustrated. We decide that a mental detector is the only way we're going to find the ski.

I thank the couple and they head off. Now I'm faced with getting off the top of the mountain on one ski and deep snow. My quads still hurt today. I had to switch legs every so often and spent some of the time on my rear end just sliding. I thought it wouldn't be that hard. However, next time you go skiing. Try to ski on one leg for a while. Not much fun. We finally make it to the bottom and I'm completely frustrated and ready to hit something. I check in the lodge and they give me the card of "The Ski Hunter". Of course, I left my phone at home, so I called the number on Tanner's phone. All I get is a message that says, "This is Matt, leave a message." So I begin to leave a message. I'm about to leave Tanner's cell phone number and realize I don't know it because it's a speed dial on my phone. I quickly ask Tanner his cell phone number and he goes "I don't know. I never call myself". Therefore, I can't even leave a number for Matt the Ski Hunter to call. I disgustingly toss the phone at Tanner and charge out of the upper lodge at Alta to one-ski it down to the parking lot. I finally make it to the parking lot and wonder around for some time unable to find the Element. Now I'm really pissed and swear to myself I'll never go skiing again. I can't even find the car! After some time, I realize we came in the Jeep and I locate it 30 yards in front of me.

As Tanner and I quietly rode down the canyon. Tanner looks afraid to speak to me but wanting to at least say something to break the tension, he offers up "I guess we should have gone snowshoeing today". Needless to say, that didn't help much.

On the way down, I got the idea of renting a metal detector to look for the ski. I stopped at Diamond Rental by our house and sure enough $29.95 gets you the use of a metal detector for a day. The only problem was the metal detector didn't have batteries. The guy says "no problem, just by 4 AA batteries and we'll take the cost off the total when you return it". I asked two times, "AA batteries, right?" and the guy says yes. We head home, pick up my old skis and head off to the grocery store.

After a relatively quick search, we locate some batteries (of course, I couldn't ask were they were) and I buy the AA's. Back to the car to get test them in the medal detector. I insert the batteries only to discover they don't fit. There's no instructions, but on close examination, it looks like it takes 9 volt instead. Back to the store we go to get the 9 volt. They do actually fit and the detector fires up. Now, it's back up the mountain to search for the ski.

We get on the Collins lift about 2 pm with me carrying a metal detector in one hand and a ski pole in the other. As I get on the lift, of course I drop the ski pole and it falls to the ground as we start up. The lifty gets it and I can't tell if he's handed it to the next chair or not. At the top, I wait for the pole and nothing. I hike over to the lifty on top and he calls down to the bottom and after 5 minutes of who knows what, I learn my pole will stay at the bottom.

Tanner and I make our way over to the crash site without too much difficulty and the grand search begins. We find the spot of my crash easily because of all the dig marks left over from our prior efforts. I test the detector with one of my skis and figure out it will only detect a binding and you have to be within 12 inches. This is not good news and I start the search with the sinking feeling I'll never get close enough to find the ski. At this point of the day, it's snowing hard and there's no one on this part of the mountain. One skier comes by and goes directly below us. She stops at the bottom and yells something up to us. I can't hear but Tanner has a conversation with her. I hear him say, "Is it a K2 Outlaw?" and she yells "Yes". By some miracle, the only skier around hit my ski as she went down. Turns out the ski was 150 yards below where it came off. We would never have looked that far down, even with the metal detector. How it got that far down in that much powder is a mystery.

With great relief, I get to the ski and make it to the bottom of the mountain with everything and everyone in tack. I unload all the extra equipment, get my dropped pole and Tanner and I enjoy some good powder (although visibility was about 10 feet sometimes) for the next hour and a half. Just as I think the day is finally going well, we head back down the canyon. Too bad, everyone else at Alta and Snowbird left at the same time. It took over 30 minutes to get from Alta to Snowbird with many long stretches of no movement. I figured it was a fitting end to the day.

I'm not sure there is a moral to the story, but I'm grateful to have my ski back. I was not excited to ski again, but it has been snowing all day today, so I'm sure I'll be back on the slopes tomorrow.

DC

2007 in review

So I came up with the a top 10 list to review 2007.

10 - The goal for the number of hours it should take us to finish Lotoja next year.

9 - The number of road/cyclocross bikes I have had.

8 - The number of people in the GC Connection. I was thinking about it on a ride and realized Doug is 57 and Daren is 45 and I am 30 and Tanner is 15 and Ethan is 2 months. That is almost 15 years between each. It is an evolving connection. Daren used to beat up on me, Sutt, and Russ when we first started. Now we get to take it to Tanner. Someday Tanner will get to take it to our kids.

7 - The number of times I took second in a race this year!

6 - (and a half) The number of years I have lived in Eugene.

5 - The number of crashes I have had while commuting to work (Not all this year - 3 this year). You have to watch out for those darn branches in the road, they get caught in your fenders.

4 - The number of times I have completed Lotoja.

3 - The number of kids I now have.

1 & 2 - I finally got my first win racing cyclocross. Shortly after I got my second win of the year.

Confirmed

For my 45th birthday this week, I did a VO2max and Lactic Threshold test at TOSH with Dr. Max Testa. It was a really interesting experience and TOSH is great. Max is a world class cycling coach who has worked with top pros for 20+ years yet he treats cat 3 old guys like a pro. He spent a good 30 to 45 minutes with me after the test explaining the results and giving me training suggestions. Well worth the expense and it was a very good hour and 20 minute workout.

The testing confirmed I should be a competitive masters MTB and Cross racer on the local level but I won't be a National Champion until I'm the only one racing in my age group. My only hope is that I out live Tilford because he'll race and train full time until he dies. It also confirmed that I'm best suited for cross, flat TT's and MTB racing without really long climbs. My focus on these events and not road racing has been a good choice.

If you have considered VO2max or LT testing, give TOSH a try. You'll be pleased with the experience.

Hooked up to the VO2max machine for some fun.

Upgraded

Sounds like the trip to KC was fun. The best part would be to watch the big boys race. There is a cool link to watch Trebon crash.

http://www.jasonsager.com/blog/

That had to hurt. I decided to self upgrade to race with the B group. The course was long, flat (but rough), and muddy. It was dry all week, but the night before it rained pretty hard, making great conditions for cross, right? One guy took off from the start, and I didn't even see him after that. I was battling for second/third with another guy. There was also a single speed rider mixing it up with us. The single speeder slipped on a small hill in front of me and the guy in front got a gap. I spent the rest of the time trying to catch him, but fell short by about 5 yards, so I finished 3rd. I was pretty happy with the results. I beat many cat 2 and 3 road riders, so that made my day. Brooke came to be supportive, but it was to cold to get the kids out, so no pic's. Have a great holiday and merry Christmas!