Lunch hour

Pimpin' the pit bike. Aw yeah.

All I wanna do ...

... is skip out on work, re-cable the pit bike, read back issues of Cyclocross Magazine (thanks Lou!), watch Transitions, and make the clock fast-forward 29 hours.

CROSS IS HERE!

ADHD

48 hours to go time.

Truer words have never been spoken.

30+ or 1/2? Comb the results, try to figure out if I can hang.

Doubtful.

New goodies, but just one set. No others to be found. Anywhere.

Have I done enough optimization? Is there more I can do?

Counting down until I can roll up to the Shop, tire is glued and sealed, ready to go. Thanks Lou!

Legs feeling beat from two days of unanticipated workouts.

Cross practice is fun.

Can I hang?

A chance to help!

So many of you have offered to help World Bicycle Relief in so many ways -- I'm posting today with an immediate action you can take to lend a hand!

Please send this link to five of your friends:

http://www.worldbicyclerelief.kintera.org/aafaf08

Once there, your friends can view our appearance on The TODAY Show (complete with Matt Lauer introduction!), and they can sign up for regular e-mail updates on our programs via our e-newsletter. In fact, if you don't receive the newsletter already, click through and sign up yourself!

We're trying to build our contact database to help spread The Power of Bicycles, and we appreciate your help in doing so! Thank you!

Lou should be arrested

Lou is awesome all around, and when it comes to 'cross, he's both a dealer and a user. Just got this email:

2 coats on the rim, one on the tire, will be done tomorrow.
Lou

Feeding the addiction, coming through in the clutch yet again ...

Moab! (in pictures, finally!)

So many great things to blog about now, but I promised Moab photos! Sorry for the delay -- tons of great stuff going on, can't wait to talk about it! Thanks to Kevin, Sean, Todd and Rebecca for the photos!

Friday morning -- looks nice and quiet, but check out the flag!

We headed out to the venue with clouds building, thankfully stayed dry all weekend!

This is what greeted us -- they describe it as a city in the middle of nowhere, that only springs up once a year ...

We kitted up and hit the course for some pre-ride -- a long and very disturbing game of "what's my line?"

Packet pickup was back in town, but I was in a bad place -- came close to calling it Friday night. Big thanks to Sean for an unwitting pep talk, and then it was time to pin some numbers ... (unusual in the endurance scene, GG requires a number visible on the outermost garment at all times)

A great night of sleep, and if I had any doubts at all, they were erased by the dawn.

Back out at the course, we hid out in the van until the last possible second.

Here's why.

I was a bit disturbed when I realized what that flag was for -- marked "LZ." As in "Landing Zone." Yikes!

Then it was time to line up for the start. We were a bit late placing our bikes, but no worries -- the run and the first lap were INSANE! Good thing Kim's not the only one who likes to take photos of Mr. E

Thanks to Rebecca for some of these snaps and the encouragement at the end of the first lap. It was a total cluster, and I rolled through just seconds ahead of Dan and Brad. We met up in the pits, and then headed out for a few laps together ...

No more photos until the end, as the pit was working flawlessly and Kevin, Todd and Sean were more than a bit busy with three of us on equal laps! Things settled in at nightfall, then the wind died, then it got REALLY cold, but they kept me rolling and fed, and were absolutely brilliant! I surprised everyone -- especially myself -- with a last-lap surge that brought me in 15 minutes before they expected me, so here's my "finishing shot" -- it's crazy how puffy I look!

Once again, huge thanks to the crew, Dan and Brad for putting up with me. It was a fantastic race, and I can't wait to do it all again next year!

Jet!

If you've got to go clincher for your pit bike, there's really only one setup: Mud2-Jet. Rock out.

What was I thinking?

First off, let me say this one more time: Kim is awesome. So awesome, I can't even tell you how awesome she is.

Now, let me say this: what was I thinking? Not racing 'cross? Seriously?

First practice last week.

First races this week.

We'll see how long Sprout can hold out. I'm hoping for at least 72 hours past the due date so we can do Montrose.

If it doesn't happen, I'll be OK with it. Really.

And if she's in labor on December 7? Well ...

CROSS IS HERE!!!!!

The cat's out of the bag

All the leaves are brown/and the sky is grey

I went for a walk/on a winter's day ...

Time in a bottle

Time has seem to simultaneously slow and speed up, all at once.

Sprout hit 34 weeks today, which means officially just 6 to go. Say what?! Holy cow. I'm betting the kid has a mind of its own, though, so we'll see what happens.

My parents will be at our place in 52 hours. It's not an inspection tour, but you know it really is. Thankfully, Sprout's room is done (except for the crib) -- it's the rest of our place that needs some TLC. Who knew we were "hiding" so much stuff back there?!

And in the meantime, work has exploded. I spent 7 hours solid yesterday working on HTML code -- it's been a while for me, and I forgot how into it you can get ... I forgot to eat lunch until almost 3 p.m. Crazy. So I know I still have some Moab stuff to post, including my race recollections -- it's coming, I swear!

In the meantime, drop by Namrita's blog and wish her a happy birthday!

More photos

Not mine this time -- check out the portfolio of Paul Bradner, a friend of ours now in Colorado. Why are we still in Chicago?

Thursday afternoon

Stop for a quick spin at the rest area on top of Vail Pass ... 9 minutes, 45 seconds to drop 6 miles down to Copper! The 30+ minute grind back up from 9,700ft. to 10,666ft. into a headwind wasn't quite as much fun ...


Then it was back in the car (check out the moon!), more bugs than you can count, darkness falling, and then waking up to Moab!