Taking Stock

It has been a little while I've taken a few minutes to take stock of where things are and where we are going in the near term.

The big news in our house is that Sullivan is 6 years old and let me tell you, that kid knows the significance of his birthday! His birthday desires change almost with each breath. What he will likely end up with as his bigger present is going to be an upgraded bike. He has borrowed his brother's bigger (geared and cable brakes) mountain bike and is clearly ready to upgrade. Both of the boys have outgrown their bikes and Grady is now riding his Specialized Hot Rock exclusively. Sully's new bike is a Giant MTX 125 and should suit him for a couple of years, I hope.

It hasn't all been joyous. Grady crashed pretty hard the other day while my wife was out with the boys riding. Yeah, I also got her bike back into running condition and she's been getting out and rolling with them. I'm going to start again soon, as soon as my legs are back into feeling decent.

I competed in my second Avia Wildflower Mountain Bike Triathlon this last weekend. The first time was in 2010 and involved both my wife and I racing and the whole family going on our first camping trip together at the same time. It was quite a bit to bite off on the first effort and, overall, went pretty damned well. This year's race ended up being a solo affair. It involved a butt-ass early wake up and roll, up at 4:30 and out the door by 5:05. Drove to Lake San Antonio to get in the park before the closed the road down for the day's races (no entry or exit between 8 and 3). The nice thing is that I got there in plenty of time. Got parked, had time to relax and unwind from the drive. Slowly got my gear together, coasted down Lynch Hill (a massive high speed bomber run) and got all checked in and marked up. The race itself was pretty good although I made an error on the swim which cost me some time and I ended up swallowing quite a bit of lake water in the choppy spot I got caught in. Oh well.

The rest of the race was pretty decent. I felt slower on my bike than expected and the hills were a little tougher. I could also feel my calves trying to cramp up on me on the second lap. I was able to hold off the cramps, finish the ride, stretch a little bit and then get out on the run and complete the race before the cramps really took hold and locked down my legs. I should have made the extra effort to get in for a sports massage last week during my final preparations for the race. A painful lesson that I'm still feeling the after-effects of today. My quads are still barking at me whenever I get up to walk around. Will get out of for a light bike ride today to start spinning them back into shape.

Overall, I shaved time on all three disciplines, most in the run and swim and a little bit on the bike. One transition was faster but the other was slower by the same amount so they were a wash. And the hardest part of the day was actually driving home with some torched legs. I really wished I'd had cruise control (or, more accurately, working cruise control) in my car. I actually had to stop and stretch out my legs so I could press down on the gas pedal.

It was a good race and I'm looking forward to going back again next year with my family to enjoy camping and racing together.

There are a number of other developments in the works these days but I'm not quite ready to pull the cover back just yet.

Things are not bad right now, that could change as soon as tomorrow but, for now, things are decent and looking up!

Looking Forward and Up

The SCMTB Fest is coming!

What do the next ten months of 2012 hold? For myself and my little family, we are stuffing as much good stuff in among the work. I count myself pretty lucky that I work in education and have some summer break time to do more family stuff. I usually end up working over the summer and this one will be no different. But I have a boss who wants me to write up my schedule and give him an idea of what I will do.

What does the rest of the year hold for us? Several group camping trips with friends to Big Sur, Mt. Madonna, Arroyo Seco, the Sea Otter Classic, Spicer up north and New Brighton Beach locally. I've got my first and likely only triathlon of the year scheduled and on the books at the Avia Wildflower, we may camp for it but not in with the other triathletes as it is just too darned pricey to do it right now. Maybe next year when my pay returns to its normal levels (long story but the short of it is my checks are about $350 light right now).

Scorecard Weekend Wrap

Decent form but my center of gravity is too high.

Like much of my life, my expectations and reality are like ships passing in the night, they can see each other but are clearly not on the same trajectory. But all is well that ends well which is a more elegant way of saying that as long as you wrap up the weekend on a high note, the rest of it will seem that much better through that lens.

And the weekend did wrap up nicely. I finally got out for a very badly needed mountain bike ride, book ended by some laps on the pump track, the later laps with my two boys rolling too. Lots of fun and really a great place for them to get some exercise and learn how to handle their bikes better. So much fun that today actually marks the fourth straight day of pump track fun for them.

Obligatory Gangster Pose

Obligatory Gangster Pose.

No reason to post this aside from the fact that it makes me smile to look at my son goofing around. If the weather cooperates, we might get a little light trail riding in tomorrow, just me and Grady.

The search is on for a bike for Grady to upgrade to. He has clearly out grown the 12 incher here and will be much more capable on a 16 inch or even possibly a 20.

Contrails - Building Community by Chalkline

Found this over on Bicycle Design. The Contrail - Biking Community Tool encourages bicycling by making a chalk line on the road where a Contrail equipped bike has passed. As more Contrail bikes pass over the area, the chalk lines becomes thicker and brighter. The lines create interest and shows where to ride bikes safely.

Its an interesting idea but it'd be a long stretch for this to work outside of areas where there are lots of bicyclists to create and maintain these chalk pathways.

But it sure is an interesting idea. Until it rains.

Woops, meant to post this over on NorCal Bikers. Will re-post it over there now.

A Short Tour of California Video

Buy a Raffle Ticket, Fight Cancer and Maybe Win an Awesome Bike

Fat Cyclist: Fight Cancer, Win a Dream Bike where a $5 donation to help the Fat Cyclist's wife fight her cancer also buys you a raffle ticket entry to win a super sweet and fully tricked out Ibis SilkSL.

I'm not a roadie but I am an Ibis guy and I have every confidence that the Silk is a fantastic bike. I did get a good close up look at the amazingly awesome MojoSL over the weekend and I can't think of a better way to spend $6400.

Plus, you'd be doing a good deed and that's never a bad thing. Also, Fat Cyclist is a pretty good website.

Cross posted to NorCal Bikers.