It's June, Do You Know Where Your Cross Bike Is?

With cross season approx 2 months away, and my summer season a total wash, I have put all my effort and motivation towards being ready for fall. I was almost giddy yesterday while getting the cross bike dialed in and ready for it's first practice ride of the season. This morning I set out with my practice barriers to the park ready to thrash myself but good! My newly found training course has all the things I need to work on. It has a off camber climb and decent, loose gravel, and a short but steep run up. Add my barrier section, and the fact that it's only about a 3 minute loop, I get a ton of off and on the bike practice. An hour of this and I rode back to the house toast!

I can't say that my fall season will be any better than this summer. But at least recently my training has had better focus. With the looks of my re-mount technique, i'm lucky I started in June. I just might not look as pathetic come September!!!!! Ty

Training So Hard I'm Shredding Wheels

While on a "Greg pacing" ride this morning, my rear hub decided to give way. I didn't even know it blew. On one of my very few pulls of the day, Greg saw my back wheel wobbling (more than usual)! I love these Rolf wheels, they are one of the few things that I didn't go low buck on. Even on my steel-heavy sled, they looked sleek and fast. I know they deserved a much faster rider! I'm sure the stress of going so slow was one of the major factors in their breaking down.

So I went to a Bontrager wheel set, and am looking forward to my morning ride tomorrow. Just like a kid at Christmas with a new toy. Out with the old and in with the new. I'm sure the hills will still hurt, and my place in the pack will not change. Ty

This is why I ride bicycles!!!

Call it my yoga, meditation, stress relief, or just that hour to unwind. After a day like this a bike ride does do the trick. Like all jobs, most days just tick by with routine. Then Mother Nature shows up on what should be a "milk run" to Austin, TX and you have anything but routine. I have to admit though, you can't beat the view!!!!!!! Ty

Friday Night Update (no photos)

Forgot the camera for the Friday night BMX races (sorry grandparents)! But things went a "little better for team IZZY than last week. Tommy was still getting great gate starts, only to get passed in straights 2 and 3. Several of the track regulars came up to me and said he needed more gear. So that's what were experimenting with this week. I hate to bog him down too much out of the gate, but a good start doesn't mean much if your 6Th place at the finish line! Izzy on the other hand actually found out that it is o.k. to pass people that are ahead of you! Several times he moved the bars to the left or right and made the pass. Now if he can learn to not let them get in front of him in the first place, we'll be set.
I'm still doing my morning "Greg pacing" thrashings. The fitness is coming around, and i'm starting to remember that falling off the back hurts worse than burying yourself to hold the wheel in front of you. Everyone racing Memorial Day Weekend, good luck and ride safe! Ty

Greg Pacing

It usually has another name (motor pacing). But I don't have a moped or anyone to drive it for me. So I just get the fastest guy I know aka Greg Harper and let him pull me around several mornings per week. Doing this will either make me better, or i'll be a young candidate for knee replacement surgery!
After my last race performance something needed to be done, and done with urgency. With the increase in effort along with some small diet changes, my weight is down and I am feeling better about my fitness level. This will last till the next race, then it's back to more Greg pacing. I keep telling him that some day i'll take a pull, but that hasn't happened yet.
Ty

Can Mushrooms Make You Race Faster?

I don't know if they help your endurance on the bike, but they sure are tasty fried in butter and chased with cold beer.

BMX Season Begins

If you think racing a crit is a contact sport, head for the East Moline fairgrounds and the BMX track behind the grandstands. There is no such thing as holding your line in the corners. Cutting the other rider off, and making other racers take the lesser line is the norm. Crashes are frequent, but injuries on the dirt are minimal. In a road race, guys would be screaming and feelings hurt, but for these kids "rubbing is racing". I love watching Izzy(clay) and Re-run(tommy) race more than I actually like racing myself mainly because they are better than me. If someday they both do clip into a road or cross bike, there bike handling skills will be out of this world. But that's just a proud dad dreaming!!!!!!

If You Finish Last, Did You Really Race?

I love (and hate) two bee races! Let me explain. First off Conn and his great group of volunteers are wonderful. If you can get to any of their races, you won't be sorry. And after my showing today I realize I need to get to more!
For me, all Conn's races follow the same pattern. 1. The race starts out at a comfortable pace, and I start thinking that my training must be paying off. 2. There are several accelerations, but I hold it together. I see all the Hammers around me, and I start dreaming of a cat 3 upgrade. 3. The race actually begins, and I see the string of riders through glazed eyes leave me behind. 4. I find several other riders just like me, and pace line it to the finish. and finally 5. Start wondering what I can do better next off season to stay with the pack just one more hill longer before being dropped.
This pattern stayed true to form on Sat. But you have to have a first race of the year sometime. I did have two teammates in the race, and they both did quite well. Bill Ford got 4Th overall, and Chad Bishop was a much better teammate than me (off the back). Not sure how Chad finished, but they are both riding strong this year.
See everyone next race!

Izzy Takes Two 3rd Places.

This is camping "mmmmm pizza"

While the first camping trip was a short one, we cut no corners on quality camp food. While many people think of Dutch ovens, hot dogs over a open fire, we went pizza joynt pizza!

But yes this is still a "bike blog" and around camping and family time I did get almost 6 hours in the training log. My first full week of road miles since pneumonia, and all seems well. The pizza and beer was just carb loading!

Maiden voyage of family truckster.

Izzy racing team took its' shake down run of the new camper this weekend. While others were racing Finchford, we were making s'mores. The weather was a tad chilly on Sat, perfect campfire weather. Plus the new rig has a heater!!!

New Cross Bike in April?

Why a new cross bike in April? Call it motivation to train harder for Sept! So next season no more bar end shifters for me. It's still steel and a tad heavy (just like it's rider). But the components are more gooder and it oozes "old school". Besides, if I rode a bike with composite anything on it, i'd feel mork guilty about my weekly poor race finishes. This ride allows me to keep my status at the back of the pack, just a tad shinier!

More Camper photos

Too busy spending money to race.

After several weeks off the bike to recover from pneumonia, i'm back to training at a good clip. I haven't had any hard group rides or races yet, and i'm getting a tad anxous. I'm not sure when the first race will be, but I want it to be soon.

In my off the bike time I've made several purchases. The big one is the new IZZY RACING TEAM tour bus! It doesn't have the same shwag as say the Discovery team bus but it will work for our low budget team. We have several BMX races on the calendar for Izzy and Re-run. Stay tuned for some "RV" stories in the near future!

PNEUMONIA!!!

Just as the "outside" base miles were starting to add up, my spring season has come to a stop. A lingering cold that wasn't that bad took a turn for the worse. A trip to the doctors office, a chest x-ray, and bingo I have pneumonia. So several days ago I had plans to race the first DICE race and then Kent Park, and now I have no idea how to move forward. I certainly don't want to force a return back to the bike and ruin the whole season. I have no clue what the recovery cycle is for pneumonia. Right now I can barely make it up my stairs without weezing up a lung. Good luck to everyone racing this weekend, and I hope to be back in gear by Memorial day.
Ty

Sorry!

My lack of posts is in proportion to my lack of training in the month of January. February has been much better with the rollers and twice a week gym sessions. With the weather growing warmer, my motivation has started to kick in and the time in saddle are slowly adding up in the training log.
Tommy has grown a foot over the winter this means a new frame size will be needed for the comming BMX season. So if anyone has a line on an "expert" size frame drop me a line. I don't want to go new like last year and only get one season out of it.
The good news is that Izzy has barely grown an inch, so his "minni" frame may be good for the next several seasons. But don't judge the Izz man on size, he's been doin the martial arts thing all winter and is a new yellow belt at 5 yrs old. So by next year i'll still be a cat 4 and not able to send my first grader to his room because he can kick my ass!
March is almost here and Conn Day races only 2 weeks away. So much for an amazing off season. My fitness level once again equal to my liscence grade. See you at the back of the pack. Ty

Izzy Gets His Yellow Belt

Winter Cross Training

More Photos of New Years ride