Elite National Time Trial

What I've been up to lately can be summed up pretty quickly; training hard for Nationals. Approximately five days a week are spent going hard on the time trial bike in preparation for one event. To break down muscle, I do dump loops. To develop the lactate threshold, I do 20 minute efforts on Bogus and Thursday night time trials. To get the endurance and efficiency on the bike, I do Emmett Horseshoe Bend loops. Go and go and go day after day until the heart rate starts to drop at full throttle, then give it an easy day and repeat. In my free time, I cook and work on the bike. Oats cooked with almond butter, honey, cinnamon, and nutmeg for breakfast. Last nights dinner consisted of a big dutch ovens mix of elk burger, a steak, asparagus, radishes, golden yukon potatoes, broccoli, green bell pepper, mushrooms, garlic, turmeric powder and some mole verde with a couple slices of swiss cheese to bulk it up. I go to bed on time and sleep in to whenever I need since I don't have to be to work until two.
I've had the best wheels offered up to me to borrow for the big event as well. A Zipp 808 on the front with the new Zipp Sub-9 disc on the back, both with Tangente tires should do the job.
As for the position on the bike, the seat is pegged right at 5cm behind the bottom bracket and the middle of the shifters are at 78.3cm (requiring the morphological test, which I will pass easily).
None of this will mean that I make the podium, but I sure as hell hope it does!
Current registered athletes

A Thursday night time trial

Juntura Hot Springs... a trip to the desert provided new terrain to train on and an amazing new hot springs to soak!

Next Time It Will Be Me

A couple weeks ago, we drove the Mud Flat Road and then went back into Three Forks of the Owyhee River. When we were at Three Forks, we walked a ways up the North Fork of the Owyhee. Before that, we had crossed it along the drive. A recent marijuana bust was found approximately three miles away from the Oregon border by hikers. Upon a closer look, it turns out that we were extremely close by. That red line right next to the bust is Mud Flat Road. Take a look:

LP 200

The Lyle Pearson 200 put the hurt on my legs last Saturday. I ended up doing 110 miles, 98 of those on the time trial bike. That beat my previous record of 63 miles on the TT bike by one million miles.

It's time to keep kicking on the TT bike! Bogus has been my playground on the TT bike some lately too. Nationals is only six weeks away.
For those of you who didn't know, I've been posting 33hrs a week in a new way lately... at Bob's. So if you need a bike or some parts, come on over and b.s. with me for a while, but not so long that Vern gives me the above look.

May I Get Out

Stack Rock divide at sunset

The road to Stack Rock

Along Mud Flat Road

Hardesty-Cherry Creek Lake along Mud Flat Road

Near Three Forks of the Owyhee River

Looking out of the Owyhee Canyon as a system passes over

Tight squeeze in Squaw Creek Canyon

Another tight spot in Squaw Creek Canyon

First Night In A Tent This Year

A one day weekend is tough to utilize very well, but we did our best this last go around. Kirkham Hot Springs and Jackson Peak was enough to feel like we had slipped society for a little bit.

Kirkham Hot Springs

Near Jackson Peak, snow kept us from making it the last half a mile to the peak.


This shot had intentions of being a run of the mill hiking down the trail shot, but as luck would have it, I got this.

Thank You Victor Lebow!

Thank you Victor Lebow for pointing out how to make me happy! I would have no clue how to make myself happy if you hadn't came along 34 years before I was born. Without your "Price Competition in 1955," I would be a depressed drunkard meth addict. Here is my all mighty commandment:

I reiterate your statement over and over and over and... without your wise control over society, I would be nothing. How could I ever survive? To you I owe a tithing. Oh, wait, I can't tithe you, I need all the money I can get for my ego satisfaction.
Alright, so maybe I can't thank just Victor Lebow, but the entire American society. Thank you for buying into the greed system. I find that my quality of life goes up substantially every time I get some new product that proves that I'm a better person than my fellow American! Who needs true friends who you share time with and do all sorts of fun activities with? Not me! All I need to be happy is material goods! That way I'll be better than anyone else without having to do anything! When I push down on the gas pedal of my Hummer, it proves that I, myself, am more powerful than you. I have control over a bigger engine than you do and that makes me more powerful than you, which makes me a better person than you. Since all I need in life is material wealth that proves my superiority, I'm extremely happy! I'm so happy that all I need to do is keep proving that I'm better than you and you should keep bowing down to me and giving me more money because of it. Who needs valuable time with friends and family when time is money and money is all that is needed for happiness. Why can't scientists come up with a way to keep us from needing sleep? I'll be the first to buy into it so that I can work 168 hour weeks and feel pure bliss. It will be heavenly to forget about other people and relish all of my material wealth once I own all of the goods that the earth can produce! Gimme, gimme, gimme!!!!

Misadventures

Next time I ride and/or race a bike, I would really prefer to not flat. Five flats in four rides gets ob-f-ing-noxious! Especially twice in a race! After one flat, I chased back onto the field and caught on at the base of the hill, only to have to chase again after a minor breaking up of the field that I wasn't quite prepared to handle just yet. When I was getting close to reeling in the splinters, the rear wheel went flat and took out all odds of my finishing as I hadn't put in my spare rear wheel. Nuff said.

The next day, Charlene and I took off to Leslie Gulch to hike into Echo Rock Hot Springs. By the time we got about half way, the temps were too warm to consider a hot springs soak. As we approached the springs, we decided a soak in a near by creek much more appropriate. I dammed up a little pool and we soaked away an hour or so in a sweet lil' creek (Willow Creek). If we try this one again, it will be with lower temps and kayaks. Kayaks would really be the way to go! That might even motivate me to put the racks on my car and buy a kayak or two when I get a job.

A 4.5 mile hike or a ~3 kayak trip

The hot springs are just past that big rock (Echo Rock)

The sights are worth the trip into the area, even if just to see Leslie Gulch (none of the shots did it justice)

A perfect place for a kayak/hot springs adventure