eat the rich

The past few days have been nasty out which has served to validate my spending a bunch of time inside watching stuff like this on Youtube.

While I realize their are lots of awesome educational opportunities on the internet, a person can only read so much about how the world we live in has officially gone to total shit at the hands of a bunch of wealthy insane mascara models before resorting to internet animal videos and gluttony as a means of coping.

Zuchini nut raisin bread and breaded eggplant, marinara on homemade baguettes.

All that whining aside a new survey reports that Wisconsin bicycle commuting has gone up a whopping 188% since 2000.  What does that mean? A whole .75% of people in WI commute by bike.  While it's hard to get excited over less than 1% of people bike commuting I was happy to see the rate is all the way up to 1.3% in our fair city.  My next question is where are the 480 other bike commuters in this city that I have never seen? Wherever they are, keep up the good work!

Thursday night ride tomorrow, 6:30ish, meet at racys, go nuts.

Deerfly

I didn't think I was going to be able to make it to this race due to prior obligations, but now it looks like my schedule has cleared up that day and I'm pumped to go.  You should check it out too.  More info here.

cc

I was out of town most of the week for a work conference about hotel room cooking.

It's good to be home.

hellcat

Start getting excited.  

WFI

Their is a new Bike Cooperative effort going on in Eau Claire.  The program is called Wheel Fix It, and it works to take in abandoned bikes, repair them, and donate them to those in need. While it's easy to be cynical about programs like this after witnessing and being part of similar ones which fell apart, I think it is a great idea worthy of support.  Their will be a workshop coming up on the 24th, check it out. 

fixiez

I cant wait 2 ride my new fixie to this.  it looks totes sick brah!@! no brakez urban fixie 4 ever\

horse

Sometimes it's the small things about riding a bike that make it fun.  Friday was one of those day's where I treated myself to a trip to Revival for a few new albums and spent a few dollars on new bar tape and cleats for the commuter.  After puttsing around the house I headed to Northwest Park for a bit. I feel like I haven't sung enough praise for northwest park.  While there is not a lot of trails out there yet, it is still a ton of fun with a ton of sustained climbing, descending, log drops, fun bridges, switchbacks, and stream crossings all within spitting distance of down town.

After a good couple hours of tooling around at northwest I headed back home and got cooking. Chana masala, saag, basamati rice, cucumber sauce, and homemade pita. Worked all day Saturday and hid out inside and watched John Carepenter movies on Sunday. Big fat successful lazy weekend. 

ego

I have this ego maniacal strain coupled with complete awe regarding technology.  Together those things motivate me to do things like continue this blog, have a facebook account, and constantly look for photos from races and events I've attended to try and find some friendly faces in fun situations. During my downtime today I found the photos that fancy camera wielding Ryan Holt Photography put up of Copper Harbor.  Among them are this rather tasteless cleavage shot of myself and a few rather tasteful photos of the after party.  I love that the after party photos are just the tip of the craziness iceberg.  In celebrity news Jon Erik got his work on the new cover of V1 proving once and for all the tall bike will not die in Eau Claire, at least not yet.

Finally with the cold weather rolling in cyclocross is on the tips of everyone's tongue.  If you are looking to get your cross fix in most Thursdays through the fall their will be cross practice 6pm at Northwest park , or elsewhere in the area. As is, my Thursday nights are dedicated to the rigorous training and unfettered athleticism that is Thursday night rides...

However, if you are really interested in cross practice stuff let me know and I will give you more info.  TNR tonight, 6:30ish meet at racys.  Ride you bike, have fun.   

jawline

This month has been a whirlwind.  Between work and other events it has been pretty much non-stop, and it looks like it will likely remain that way until October at the soonest. That said it has been a very good busy so my complaints aren't really warranted.  Saturday was Jen's birthday so we got up early headed to the farmers market and made a huge breakfast before heading down to "Fed Fest."  "Fed Fest" was an event hosted by dear friend Matt Andrews the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin Share and be Aware Ambassador for Eau Claire that was organized to share the Bike Feds work in the state, and to disseminate literature, information, swag, and free beer. Thanks Matt. Afterwards a big group of us headed out for the Clearwater Beer Fest in Altoona.

Where we proceeded to drink the finest craft beers out there for four hours straight and get thoroughly inebriated before finding ourselves out at Cancun to chow down on burritos.

By the time we were done we took an easy roll downtown and split up. Jen and I headed homeward and the few brave souls and strong livers left headed to the bar. Even after plenty of sleep Sunday morning was still rough trying to get my body to cooperate with me, metabolize pounds of chips and burritos and gallons of beer in time for the Cleghorn race.  Derek got a hold of me and we decided to cop out and drive to the race. I forgot my helmet and had to scramble to get a spare before the race, fortunately the fine organizers namely Jim Blodgett had the foresight to bring a spare.  Got lined up and rolled out. We rounded the second corner and the pack picked up and I fell off the back.  I made a couple shots at bridging the gap from the second pack to the lead, but was stuck out in the middle with two others who wouldn't pull. That stuck me in the middle pulling by myself for the next 15 miles or so.  Pretty lousy showing, but still came in at the top of my age group, and the guy I pulled in gave me $10 for beer afterwards, thanks guy! Somehow Dereks fat ass came in 7th overall and he also got first in his age group. EC Velo podium power.

Came home and took a nap, went to Borders going out of business sale and picked up the newest Superchunk and Felt albums, and three new book including this jem for $8. Came home and made pizza.

Now it's time for me to go back to work. It's warm outside again. Ride your bike.

swag

Make your race entry count, get your monies worth.

Speaking of race entry, don't forget Cleghorn Harvest Fest Race is this weekend.  Looks like a blast, see you there.

antics

 

 When I was asked if I wanted to go up to Copper Harbor over Labor Day weekend to go mountain biking I said sure without really knowing what to expect.  I knew it would be fun and probably get a little wild, but I don't think I fully understood the extent of the debauchery.  Regardless I took off early from work, got to Magyars, and loaded up with Nick and Nick who were heading up as well.  We hit the road with spirits high for about 80 miles then this happened.

 

Got towed back into town and got our paws on an Enterprise cargo van to continue the trip.

We got into Copper Harbor around 1am, set up camp, and rolled out to a beach on Lake Superior to meet up with Madison folks and get a little loose.  This marked the trend for the rest of the weekend. A lot of goofs, a lot of beers, a lot of shirtless dudes, cold lake swimming, and some bike riding mixed in.

From the get go the riding put me through the ringer with a monster climb to the trail tops, insane bermed ladder bridges, bumpy fast descents, and more climbs than you can shake a stick at. Luckily I avoided any catastrophic bike fails or crashes, which could not be said of everyone in our party.

Sunday was race day and despite my best efforts I stayed out much too late on Saturday night to even think about pushing myself hard.  The 3 1/2 mile climb at the get go narrowed the field and put me in the position I pretty much stayed in the entire race coming in mid time for my age and 5/6 for single speeders in the short race. Could I have been responsible and gone to bed earlier and pushed harder and done better? Possibly. Will I ever learn this lesson and push myself to a glorious podium finish?  Absolutely not. I wish I had documented 1/10th of the craziness of the after party. Somewhere between the mustard bottle wars, fire jumps, dirt dancing, land sharking, musky slapping, and beer grabbing the night turned into total chaos.  

It is a little inappropriate to have tranquil lake shots in this mix, because nothing about the weekend could really be filed away as being calm.  Monday morning we hit the lake for a swim and ate a big breakfast before packing up and heading out.  The van ride back was a total sleepy aching haze, and I'm still subject to flashbacks of equally hilarious and absurd moments that will haunt my dreams forever. It seems like for some reason around certain people their is some sort of PTSD that follows most bike racing events.

Anyway.  All I can really say is this weekend was a blast and big props to everyone involved in making this event happen, and all of the people who hung out this weekend. Back to reality. At least until Cleghorn this weekend.

weekender

Thursday night ride tonight, 6:30ish meet at Racys.  Then leaving tomorrow for the U.P. for a long Labor Day weekend of mountain biking, camping, racing, and drinking at Copper Harbor Fat Tire Fest.  

If you will be in Eau Claire this weekend check out the Cleghorn Harvest Fest race happening on Sunday

T.G.I.T.