my public statement

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deer park con juan solo

today's ride at deer park is brought to you by the number 1 and the letters O, T and B. caught a log roller a wrong, came down a little wrong, went over the bars. thankfully i landed on my head. love those helments. data:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.do?episodePk.pkValue=4116805

other than that, pretty good ride. i may actually start using the HR monitor just so i can see what's doing. maybe it's just my mentality (shocking, i know) but i feel like i peg the red knobs in the corner constantly. unfortunately i don't get the saddle time i'd like to afford me a "light" day. speaking of saddles, i think i trashed my prized baby blue and camo WTB beauty on my OTB experience. one of the rails popped clean outta the seat. i have no idea if this is common or not, but i'm less than pleased. hopefully i can fix it.

anyway, the next four days suck in terms of riding. tomorrow/fri just flat out suck as i'm in NYC all day with my "i see you're pregnant are you planning on having a natural birth" boss on sales calls. can't wait to see what else he comes up with. sat/sun i'm in boston so monday will be the next day on the bike.
 
Jake,

That's happened to me 3 times, all WTB saddles. It can be fixed, even on the trail (Nelson even did it at Allamuchy to his WTB with one of those McGuyver tools.). You need a second person to help hold it, that's pretty much the key. I've tried myself & never could get it but with the help of another it's doable. I threw some shoe glue on it after & it holds just fine.
 
Kirt said:
Jake,

That's happened to me 3 times, all WTB saddles. It can be fixed, even on the trail (Nelson even did it at Allamuchy to his WTB with one of those McGuyver tools.). You need a second person to help hold it, that's pretty much the key. I've tried myself & never could get it but with the help of another it's doable. I threw some shoe glue on it after & it holds just fine.
Click to expand...

well, that's good to hear. i thought my pricey, pretty ti saddle was toast. thanks kirt!!

pinkshirtphotos said:
one thing you learn riding dh is how to not sit down
Click to expand...

unfortunately i don't think that line of thought applies to falling.
 
hey, i have a blog? WTF? no one told me about this?!?!

i really need to update this. i've been riding some, been running some, gained a couple pounds with all the travelling i've been doing and probably lost them the last few days due to being sick and not eating.

welp, there it is. maybe i'll actually feel good enough to get on a bike this week. wouldn't that be special.
 
I had the rails disconnect from the nose of my seat a couple of months ago after going OTB. The saddle was the stock Bontrager Saddle on my Trek Fuel EX. I keep those strong, long, heavy Park Tools steel tire levers in my CamelBak at all times. I was able to use them for leverage and "pry" the nose of my saddle back over the rails in the front. Did it on the trail in about 10 seconds, once I identified the proper tool for the job. Don't know if this would work with WTB saddles, too.
 
i had the shop do it and when i got home i glued it up with some liquid nails.

btw, i just recently learned (at the picnic) that i was responsible for providing kirt with the leatherman that nelson used to fix his WTB seat. it's a small world after all...
 
the morning report

walt knows a guy that poos in an oven.
norm's daughter pokes him in the eye. she can also identify beer on sight.
fred and sean must be seeing other people b/c they been ghosts lately.
brett...well...may be going completely insane.

just a few thoughts here on the not updated so recently blog. i had a bunch of rides to post but i can't find my damn garmin so that will have to wait. what i can do is describe said rides:

been going to kvsp and riding pretty much everything. the only thing i've been doing differently is riding the needle in reverse. i've been meaning to do that for...oh...i don't know...four or five months but i seem to get it in my stupid head that i should go the other way.

IMHO the backside of that climb is the more difficult for a few reasons: going "straight up" the front there is really only one difficult section on an SS and that is right at the beginning. clear that and provided you have some fitness you're home free. it's also a much "shorter" climb.

going up in reverse you come across at least three moderately technical, steep climbs. i think that way challenges the fitness of a SS rider much more. i also find it much more fun. that's the main thing.

still averaging about two/three days a week in the woods which is great but i'm fairly sure at this point i'm not going to hit my goal of 2,000 actual miles this year due to the complete drop off i had in the mid june to mid august time frame. if i count all the "base" miles i did on the spin bike early in the year, i've probably eclipsed that number but since i really have no hard data to support that, i can't count it.

one thing i'm really happy about is the fact that i'm down to around 200 lbs. that puts the weight loss for this year, so far, at about 35 lbs. pretty good considering i was having fun doing it. i will admit, as soon as i saw that scale hit 200 i backed off A LOT on my dieting. i've been weak. beer. pizza. beer. beer. beer. beer. you get the point. either way, i've been slacking and this is not the time to do so. after this weekend (i'm going on vacation with the wifey for a few days) i'm getting back on the wagon. i'd like to be in the 195 range which based on how my body works, i should be able to do within about two weeks. again, focus. cross training season in going to be in full effect with hitting the gym and doing lots of squats and power cleans with light weights to build strenght in my legs and throw my lactate threshold through the roof. if all goes well, you can anticipate seeing a mostly legs bonefish jake pulling along a number of race course next year on the trust rigid mary. probably passing the likes of you. 😀

so that's that. the update.
 
"off" season plan

so we all know there is no real off season. at least not to me anymore. now that i have the required winter riding gear, i'll be just peachy riding all winter long...as long as the snow doesn't get too deep. then, of course, i'll look for alternative methods of hurting myself. anyway, back to the whole off season thing. i occurred to me today at the gym that i was a "stronger" rider earlier in the season last year than i am now. is my cardio endurance better now? yes. for sure. i'm lighter. faster. stronger. the bionic man. sorta. but am i really stronger? the answer is no. i'm not. i'm actually weaker. much more so than in march and the reason is fairly simple: no cross training. it's hard for me to rationalize stealing an hour to get to the gym when it's much more fun to go ride. not to mention that whole limited time and family thing that keeps me from really pushing myself to the epic ride levels that i eventually want to get to. all in good time i suppose. besides, last i checked no one was going to pay me what i make in my day job to race a rigid single speed.

where am i going with all this? i'm not sure. i'm trying to develop a plan that will increase my core strength but keep my cardio fitness at a higher than average level so that come march/april i'm blowing outta the gate. one thing that's for sure, i'm way ahead of where i was last year, but i have to build upon what i learned and improve it. time in the saddle is the only thing that will help my cycling skills...but...it's also unrealistic to think that i'll get five days a week on a bike at 2hrs a pop. so, these are my current thoughts for the NOV - MAR timeframe:

two days: one hr mtb ride
one day: two - two.five hr mtb ride
two days: gym 15 minutes running, 20 minutes on the spin bike, 20 minutes of core lifting (for those of you interested in what true "core" exercises are, just do a search here).
two days: one hour hike the dog, aka active rest

the order in which all these all fall into place is still pretty much up in the air but i think it's a good start. we'll see. ideally i'd like to race next year. really race, not fawking DNF racing, not beginner racing. i'm stupid, i'm aware of this, but if i'm going to ride a bike, i may as well try to do it to the best of my ability.

so, there you have it. i know there's a lot of debate on whether or not 'cross training' is helpful for a cyclist, but it can't hurt. thoughts?
 
yeah, i know that. i'm just curious what other folks are doing. but thanks fred, i was starting to feel like i was talking to myself.
 
today is tomorrow?

or is it the end of time? who knows. not me, not switters, but they're sorta the same thing, no? and what damn JD Salinger book has the bananna fish in it (that would be the same bananna fish referenced by the offspring)?

these, and other random things ping around in my noggin as i'm doing things. today, that thing was a five.two-five mile run. i haven't run that far in a few months but considering i'm still floating in the 200ish lb realm i didn't think to much of it. of course i did neglect to remember that i ran AND did a hill climb simulation on the indoor spin-o-rama bike yesterday along with doing five sets of power cleans which are more powercleans than i've done in, um, well 10 months. at least.

there wasn't much bouce in my step after mile one but having decided on my course of action, i followed. what i wanted to do was ride today but considering the weather at 11:00, the fact that the chimney guys are supposed to be here any minute and my conference call (moved to 4:30) i didn't think it was going to happen. but i did something so that's good. i don't know how much i'll be able to do tomorrow but thankfully all i need to be able to do is sit on a bus and go to NYC. easy enough.

my trek towards world domination move another step forward. today, my room. tomorrow the world.
 
Hey Jake, fyi I've started High Speed trail walking at Deer Park. I've gone twice for like an hour and half. Darkness stopped me both times but now I have a light. Both times I felt like I had a lot left in me but on the other hand when I got home and the next day my legs were really sore. That never happens with mtb. I'm going to Waywayanda on Sunday if ya wanna come. There should be a few of us. It's a very sweaty workout pace that freakin rocks. There's no coasting. Meanwhile my upper body old-man iinjuries are slooooowly healing up. Can't risk another "hands" crash if I wanna race in Spring. Gonna hit all the race couses with hiking the whole winter long. I'll post them all.
 
the weekend report

so i got in TWO days this weekend: saturday am was the goat herders ride led by your friend and mine, brett. got a chace to meet mike and jim which was cool. always good to meet new folks. i felt pretty good considering it was the most time i've spent on a bike in at least a month or so. either way, it was great to get out and ride around. mike took brett for $20 on a couple quick, steep climbs. that's always good fun.

yesterday i had an hour so i jammed up to deer park for a quick loop. or it was supposed to be quick. with the snow and all, i thought it'd be cool to go for a quick roll, maybe snap a picuture or two. it sure was nice but all i could think of was a play on one of the lines from the cat in the hat: i had a lot of good mud that was muddy!

man o man, i haven't ridden in that much mud in a long time...which isn't to say that the trails weren't in good shape b/c they were. it was just a few places that are generally wet were more wetter. man does mud slow you down though. bad enough that my legs were still tired from the goat herding ride, but slogging through some of that mud. bah. i had to wash my clothes twice just to get the mud out. there were a lot of folks riding though which was nice to see. anyway, here's a picture for your viewing pleasure:

based on the weather, it looks like my next ride will be turkey day unless something dramatic happens. either way, all good. i was just happy to be out this weekend.
 
turkey day fun

well, today was the 20th annual thanksgiving morning ride. it's probably somewhere around my 14th endeavor up through the woods of splitrock. my have things changed since i rode there as a kid. where there used to be trails, there are now houses. not only that, one of my buddies from Kimball Landscaping loads everyone into the back of one of his 83 landscaping trucks and ferries us up splitrock road!

all in all, good day. quite a few 29ers. two big surprises for me:
1. i rode a gary fisher that i actually liked. i tested the rig and HATED it, but this light blue bike was great. dunno what it is, but it's an '08 so i'll track it down and add it to the list.
2. my list (currently van dessel, haro and gary fisher) may go COMPLETELY out the window. i got to ride a moots 29er for a bit and wow. just wow. all XTR'd out, just gorgeous. i have been one to mock the moots toting crowd but the hype is real. buttery smooth that bike is. someday maybe i'll take out a second mortgage so i can get one.

other than that, lots of old faces, some new ones and good fun. then again, it's pretty hard NOT to have a good time with this group of guys.

big thanks to my buddies at Bicycle Tech in Lincoln Park (richie, i promise, the shop will be listed asap) for diagnosing the wicked front fork shimmy on my mary. great to see you fellas!

that's that. time for some thanksgluttony fun. paging mr. daniels. mr. daniels. mr. jack daniels you have a call on line one...
 
probably the paragon.It's funny cause i feel uncomfortable on same year Rigs as my bike,but my paragon is the greatest bike in the WORLD!!!
 
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