THC

Woke up for work yesterday and started to get ready drinking coffee etc... and something just was not right. Climbed back into bed and slept from 530 to1100.. Crushed I was not sure what hit me... Found my self on the couch of the rest of the day watching bad TV,, even Watched the Premium  Rush movie. It had bikes in it so I liked that but the plot and the acting was not the greatest. 

The spandex messenger on the road bike was using King R45 hubs so that was cool but again the cheese effect was in full force.

After watching this I found my self flipping around from food show to food show,,, which is not the best when you are hungry from not eating all day.. Then the door bell rang and I pulled my self up off my spot and found a goodie box at the door. 

Sweet made in the USA parts for a new Race bike that is coming together. 

Thomson has been taking care of me for years so much so that even the other family members get help when needed.. 

I was able to pull my self together this morning and get my self to work. 

I have been eating like a horse trying to make up for the loss of food intake yesterday. 

And even had the spunk after work to go around the bluff....

Rode well and climbed good but did decide that I have a lot of work to do when it comes to Red lining. Bring on some warm or warmish temps .....all I need is 25-35 degrees and some dryish road and I am ready to get after it.. January was dry and miles and work got done.

I am ready for more and new things are happening with the Hollywood Cycles Team... It will be a new year with new goal and the THC crew will be getting after it.. That is Team Hair Cut... 

Fast Loud and Parting On!!

Just don't get stuck behind the Train..

Moistness

Still dealing with this sore shoulder it is getting better and I have been able to back off the amount of ibuprofen which is gooder. Sleep is hit or miss because I want my arm under my pillow and I normally wake up with  all kinked up.  I find that when riding on two wheels and it being  a

day like today with a glaze across the pave that I am steering with my whole hinder making sure that I don't crash and add to my pain. 

This morning the temps were in the mid 30's and on the way home the temps dropped and wind picked up to 35+mph and I found my self tripoding more than I wanted but did not crash. 

Weather weather weather seems to be the only thing that I have been able to rant about 

as of late. And for last week the skiing was as close to perfect that we have seen in this neck of the woods.

Been making the short drive up north to a local golf course that does a great job of grooming and due to the location it does not get all beat up with people walking on in or dogs crapping on it.. And because it is laid out on the fairways not much of anything to worry about poking up and beating up your skis. 

I was able to get a good hard slide and glide on saturday

before getting the 

tax crap all done.. And this statement has been made once or twice now already that next year we will not overpay to have some wrinkly purple haired smoke stack prepare our return. 

Sundays weather,,,promised to suck with a big storm rolling out of the southwest and bring lots of moisture our way.. Looking at the radar the colors coming to this slice of paradise was all green ,,,,all rain and not just light rain spring style bring the flowers rain. After one too many cups of coffee I geared up and hit the trails,,

Light sprinkles to start and I said that I would not stop until I got soaked through.. 17k's of skiing later and some fat rain drops I could not tell if I was sweating or drenched from liquid precip. 

Regardless my OCD got the best of me and I headed out for a quick road ride on the the SSCX 

in what I thought was going to be a dry spell,, 

Not so much soaked once again.. but spinning circles was good..  Just trashing the shit out of my rig.. I am going to wish on my luck starts that a new one shows up someday.. 

Speaking of someday if you are wanting to ski and have the time to drive to the great White North

head up to Maplelag and see what the Richards are up to.. Lots and lots of snow and the skiing up there is top notch and the food is unreal,,, Makes me want to get up there and Play!!

Crunch

It has been four days now since I crashed and hurt my wing. Need to keep reminding

my self to watch out for stuff and not to get crazy or the sharp pain 

will work its way up to my brain and make me swear. 

Self inflicted pain due to getting rad is something that I have had to deal with for 

years. And one of the main reasons that I don't find my self going to the 

skate parks and Trashing. Once I start having fun and landing a few tricks I think 

yea,,,I should try that and then I end up with the old man ouch syndrome.

I have found for what ever reason that skate skiing is not causing me too much if any pain and I like to think that it may help with the PT process,, that is all self prescribed,, don't want to go and get an MRI as long is it feels like it kind of works.

I have been beating my shoulders up for the better part of 18 years and mostly all due to 

Skinny Skis=fast,,, not Radder

the kind of skiing that you ride a chair lift.

Back when Pip was just six or seven months old I broke my right had and the doc would not cast around my pole grip. Needless to say it starting snowing one day and did not stop. 

So with one pole and a twenty-one year old brain I skied and skied and as the snow got deeper I just used my cast and arm as a Rutter.. Probably no the best idea ,,so that was the right side. 

The left for the most part was pretty unscathed until living in Flagtown and skiing up at the Snowbowl. I had got my hands on my first set up of Tele gear and was taking to it fast. 

Here again this was another one of those years that it snowed and snowed and even snowed some more,,,,I had no idea that it could get so deep in Arizona. Well one day towards the end of my skiing

close to the time I needed to Hitch Hike to work,, cutting back into the woods to get the last stash of Powder over the tips I go and pile drive my left shoulder.  I knew right away that this was going to hurt and wouldn't you know it did. Made it tough to stick my thumb out as I headed down the hill and made it even tougher to get the food processor off the top shelf at work.   

So I am hoping that for now this is just a bit of a sprain,, will be as nice to it as I can

and will continue to work to the goal of the spring which is riding a bike A Lot.. 

Just need to shake out the old man getting radites.

Mudder

I did not get to watch the stream live we were off skiing at the mound,, I was watching twitter and living in my mentals,, but one of the trends I was seeing on the FB and on Twitter was that the Boss was in full effect with Hollywood Sign Photo bombing as much as he could. 

Jay and Kwood loaded up the Scamp and headed off to the World CX and represented in style. 

Watching a rebroadcast Later on saturday I laughed every time I saw this...

Cross is done for now...all the hardcore cx racers are all ready preparing for next fall and soon will start the constant postings of is it cross season yet or we need to have cross all year round...

Not this guy,, I am gearing up for the spring classics .. Team training Camp ,,, our trip to AZ and 

lots and lots of single track.. 

I took both the kids to the Bruce Mound and skied,,

under blue bird skies.

For the Girl it was her first time on Downhill gear since moving to the mid west.. And with the new snow fall Powder was all around...

It was not super deep snow but I was able to find untracked snow for the better part of the day. 

It was a lot of fun,,. The boy spent most of his day in the park working on hitting the gap jumps.

I was doing my best to show off to the kids and was flying high and landing well ... That is unitll

the last jump of the day over shot the landing a bit and hit some ice,,, when my right arm came down I jacked my shoulder... I knew it as soon as it happened.  No doctor visit or sling,,,just lots of ibuprofen,, it is loosing up a bit but damn sore,, 

In my twenty plus years of skiing I have more than once hurt my self on the last run,, the old should have stopped while the getting was good. 

All in all a good day of playing,, the knee dropping is playing a good role in the off season 

training.. Anything is better than riding bikes indoors.. 

 

World Crossing

The world is coming to the USA and a mass Exodus of Skinny Nobie Freaks are heading to 

Kentucky..   I am not one and wish that I was,, I have not seen a race of this

caliber since I got to see the Mountain Bike World Championships in Vail back in 1994.. That was a long time ago..

As I have mentioned the weather has been wild here and through out the rest of the mid west. 

We had rain and thunder yesterday and today we got a few inches of 

Pavedmag.com

snow and tons of wind.  The venue for the CX Worlds was hit with nasty weather tornado watches and lot of rain. Took this from Tilford's site... Next up is going to be the temps dropping and maybe even some snow.. So all this water is going to get thick and slick ,, we call it ice here in Wisco.. All those that raced the Nationals race should have had some good practice from the slop of that week..

As for this here guy just sticking to the plan more and more work getting done preparing for the season and enjoying the ride to and from work.. 

 May have to get the boy back out and do some more knee drop skiing and wait for the roads
to dry out more. I don't mind riding on snow pack and or wet sandy roads..,..But when it comes to
the mash potato snow not a big fan.. The kind of snow that grabs your front wheel and says you are going this way.. I was amazed by all the bad drivers this morning and how easy and peaceful my ride in was. One of the best parts was getting to weave through traffic and pass a fender bender or in this case a fender in the middle of the road,,, I gave it a quick bunny hop and just carried on..

Life on two wheels is not a bad one.
The snow commuter pig here.....not a pretty one but gets the job done and fun can be found while moving..

To all those heading to worlds drive safe and enjoy the party.

Sticks

This winter is going down as one of the strangest for weather that I can remember since moving here to the midwest. After starting off with some good snow pack and the ability to xc ski,, then the 

heat wave came and roads cleared out and the pavement was in play. Last week cabin fever set in as we went sub zero for the whole week. 

I have tried twice this winter to ride on the rollers and have lasted about 10 minutes each time.

Just board,, I have more outside miles than in years past and feel spoiled due to that and 

riding indoors is tough. I am sticking with my indoor heavy item moving program and riding when I can. 

Took the boy out to the Mound for another day of down hill sliding. Sun was out and the corduroy was fresh and the boy was really having fun and turning well. 

We spent a good amount of time riding the poma lift up to the terrain park. It is not much a rail and then a 10 foot gap followed by a 20 foot gap. Both jumps are built well even though I was finding speed hard to judge. 

James started hitting them and you could see it in his face as he left the ground that this was something he could grow to like. 

His old man was having fun as I am pretty sure I saw a few 360's get landed.

Ready for the Spring and things are moving around in the Garage.... Time to start Planning all that is to come.
 

Dazed

This old dog is tired... but a good kind of tired from moving around in Space. 

I survived the commute to and from work today with some nasty windchill and cement legs. 

I suffer from not knowing when to just chill and not move, and mondays are a 

optional day off of bike practice, and as for now I think that I am going to 

exercise that option. 

The past fourteen days have netted threehundredandfifty miles of outside singlespeed fun. 

I know that is not as much as the folks in the southern climates but January is shaping up 

nicely and the recent block should reap dividends for Feb

Saturday saw temps well into the 40's and I was able to climb up and then ride 

dirt/gravel that by the third time around turned into a quagmire, only adding 

to the enjoyment of the day.

And only once did I have someone yell some dumb Lance Armstrong comment at me while driving by.

Not going to waste my time with them or him as all that has been said has been and more is needed to clean up the sport. 

But what I do want to know is why or maybe what is the effect people in cars get by revving their engines as they pass 

cyclist,, is it a hey check me out as I pass by thing??

Had one this afternoon as I came off the bike path and onto the bike lane.. Some kid down shifted and made his car gargle at me? What is that?

  Changed these pads last week front and back,, the last time was back in late October Racing the Green Archers CX event.. All the Sand salt and Gravely bits are doing a number on pads and 

rims. Needless to say I remembered real quick the next morning heading to work that I had done this and almost found the ejection button approaching the first stop sign.  

Going to be cold again tomorrow but then temps come

up to the tolerable level for more than just commuting.

upsideout.blogspot.com

I just keep my eyes on the prize of warmer daze!!