Slow Motion with D

Want to watch a good movie?  Give The Magnificent Seven a try, or check out the original by watching Seven Samurai.  Great films.  It was also made into a pretty cool animation series.  Check out how much influence Seven Samurai has had in film.

Went out for a mtb ride after working today.  Rather than ride around loops by myself, stopping at every intersection, I hooked up with a good rider named Dustin, who just happened to be from Silverton.  Small world.  His bro and sis went to OSU too!  It was super fun rocky single track.  Much different than Bend, so a few times I had trouble.  I was pretty happy with how I rode most of it though.  I managed to hit both ankles and an elbow on my two falls.

My new traveling partner.

I spent the day in Grand Junction Colorado.  Pretty nice place.  There are three shops in the downtown area, so I took the time to walk around a bit with the dog before hitting the shops.  Check out the local art.



Tank top, short shorts, flip flops and a bike...my dream girl, you know, other than the whole made of metal thing.  If you know the real life equivalent, you should let me know.


This one has an actual spring for the rear suspension and real brake pads in the disc brakes.  Pretty sweet.

So….training isn’t exactly happening yet.  I just haven’t been able to sneak away from Westside Video too much.  Oh well, it’s good for me to spend some time with my baby.  We even got an article in the Source Weekly.  The story may not be there anymore, but it talked about how we’re the last indi store left in town.  Oh, found it.  It’s a big decision year for WSV.  The lease is just about up, and rent isn’t cheap.  Anywho, I have been doing some other thing to keep my spirits up.  Most people think of Bend and they think of the great mountain biking and the athletes that go along with it (AC, Decker, Jimmy), but there’s another breed and that’s the river floater (Decker is also pro at that).  I’ve decided to start training for that instead of bicycle racing, since it takes way less time.  Until the river gets a bit warmer, I’ll be doing the floater's equivalent to riding the trainer.

I’m totally going pro this year.

I’ve also decided to fine tune some of my favorite moves.

And I’m still hitting the pool when I’m around on Sundays.

But my true love is the bike, so I’ve got to sneak some rides in!

I got to stay home for a few weeks before heading off to Colorado for some more Pedro’s work. I was hoping to get as many hours in on the bike as possible, but sometimes life gets in the way. I had to do some major video store working while I was home, so the bike had to be secondary. I was able to get some riding in, and even managed some 4+hour days. The most enjoyable was with Don on the lower bridge loop.
(This isn't lower bridge, but it's Don from another ride we did)
The sun was out and I shed the knee warmers to work on the tan. I’ve already got the mid-calf tan going, so I’m feeling good.

We rode up to the top of some property for sale and checked out the view. The climb was 22%, but it isn’t called 10 peaks for nothing. We were treated to a full view of the cascades.

(only some of the 10 peaks)
A little rain on our parade was one other bike track at the top. “It’s probably Adam,” I said. It was confirmed later that week that it was Adam that beat us to the top. Boo. Oh, and I’ve been waking up to a lady lately…

It’s Timmy’s sugar glider Peetey and she’s been sneaking into my closet at around 2am. It’s pretty cute to see her all hyper and jumping around. The night time is the right time!

So, California ended without a bang.  The weather was LAME and the riding was sparse.  I thought that I’d be riding like crazy, but a 40min and 3 hour head wind extravaganza was all I got in.  Good times.  For the final day of the ToC, Jason and I went to the highest point of the race for a bit of fun with chalk.  I don’t know if Doug saw it as he rode past, but it was cool to see him leading (and waiting) for Cippo as he crested the peak.  Big Daddy’s car stopped right next to the Doug fan club writing, but I’m not sure he saw it either.  He did, however, look over and give me the devil horn, “rock,” sign when he saw me in my sweet Rock Racing hat.  Moments like that stay with you for a lifetime! 

Oh yeah, I got sick.  Seems like everyone is/was sick.  It’s crazy.  I don’t ever remember so many folks gett’n sick like this.  My plan was to stick around all week ‘cause it was gonna be sunny, but the illness hit and I didn’t want to have any of it.  I pointed the van towards home and started driving.  Every hair on my body ached, my temp was all over the place and I was super tired.  Not to mention a cough and stuffy head.  The good thing is, that when I crossed into Oregon, I started feeling way better.  2 days sick isn’t too bad.  There were some recovery days after, but considering other peeps have been sick for weeks, I felt lucky.  So much for starting to train!