Keepin It Real

So last night Christina wanted to watch I (heart) Huckabees so I went asking around for the movie from the guys on the floor and low and behold someone had it. I only tell this story because these guys know how to keep it real...
Yes that's right a Playboy sitting right on top of the Classic Nintendo and if you look hard enough...the oringinal Mario Bros and Duck Hunt!!! That pretty much made my night...oh yeah outside of Christina chillin with me which was killa'!! Anyways I've been enjoying the rest week I'd say, but I think I'll be ready and rearing to go with some workouts this weekend, but right now I gotta go to a forum speaker on marine carbonate reef systems!! Peace.

Wastin' Time

So instead of reading about carbonates and the controls governing their formation I decided that my time was better spent pursuing more left brain oriented. Two hours later I emerge with a picture-a symbol for all those letting it hang out.
In the end it really doesn't look all that impressive, but it took a bit of work being my first photoshop creation. Well since it's 50+ degrees and sunny I think a couple hours will be in order. Peace!!

Finito

Well that's is she wrote for our Spring Break Escapade. We finished er out with a nice and easy 64 mile cruise through some hills south of town. As the sun set as we made our way back to Murray this years chapter of base came to a close. Now it's time to crank up the intensity to prepare for some racing. Even though I'm not sure if they read this, to the residents of 137 thanks a big one for lettting us stay and crash at your place--much love. Now i guess it's time to start up with the homework and the recovery that I've been putting off. Peace out for now.

Band Camp 'the ocho'

This morning I woke up feeling like a million bucks after yesterdays rest day. We had our usual stack o' cakes and eggs, which we all marveled at that we haven't as of yet got sick of pancakes and eggs, and had some coffee...

We were waiting around for Craig to come by at 1 for the ride and Chase (I have a metabolism of two pregnate women) Sova got hungry which could only be satiated by a big ass plate of the good stuff...

Keep in mind that was after our first breakfast. Anyways so we all rolled out four strong, south of town in the hills, felt great, while doing the Euro tuck down a crazy decent my reserve Powerade hit the deck and broke...basically making the last hour of riding pretty shitty. Here's the crazy horsepower at the front...

It's funny Craig (middle) being like 5'5" next to Chad (right) measuring in at 6'3" and seeing them next to each other was just crazy.

Anyways, so I was pretty cooked after the ride I even got a flat like a half a mile out of town, which just really made me feel great about the ride. This evening we've been eating, chillin, and actually hung out with Christina who's back in town. Ah great times. Well one more ride and Band Camp is done for so I guess we'll have to make it worth it, which starts with a good night of sleep. Too late for a quote peace out.

P.S. Congrats Nick on you Podi'

B.C. 7

Active recovery ride, dos horas, nice spin not bad you know...the usu' as I say. Most notable on the ride is a visit to the zoo...

Also Chad couldn't believe that I went back for a piece of a Nature Valley Banana Nut granola bar that I dropped on the pave--I mean honesty it's a Nature Valley Banana Nut GRANOLA BAR!!! Only the greatest granola bar ever made--a little dirt never hurt anyone and you can't let that shit go to waste.

Well anyways I think I'm out, hope you feel inspired by the Quote of the Day, "By mid-March you should be living in the big chainring" -John Cobb

Sixth Edition of Band Camp

Well sorry that I'm but it's photo blog action cause lots of stuff happened today, or at least a lot of photo taking happened...


















So we started off today right with about 4 cups of liquid motivation to get the gears turning.

























Here's a pretty sweet ass part of EC that really most people don't really know about. This is the backside of some factory that I don't even know what they make there, but it's a cool factory building nontheless.




















About 35 minutes East of EC Chase got a flat....fixing it took a while so we needed some entertainment...

























Hopefully my Mom doesn't see this pic with the car in the background in all.

























A broken valve stem later and we have another flat fix, which ended up having Chase turning around for a bigger pump. Chad and I got underway on a route East of town and were seemingly pounding nails, but I think it was just a slight tailwind.




















This is a shout out to Nick Martin. We're out in the middle of nowhere and we ran into this road and I needed to take a pic of it.

The ride as a whole was pretty sweet until the last 30 minutes, when the sweet tailwind turned into a sapping headwind and put me in the hurt locker. So 4 offical days down and 16 hours done and we had to go the grocery store for the third time this week racking up bills like this...



















Quote Corner->
"Bike riding as little as three miles a day will improve your sex life!" - Dr. Franco Antonini

Bandito Campino Cinco

Today's route really wasn't really worth writing about so I'll just give you'all the highlights. We had pretty much a constant crosswind as we made our way north to Bloomer. Not too exciting of a town so we bounced quick. Bitch of a head wind for a couple miles, soon turning into a cross wind. Back in to EC. 4 hours again and felt amazing. One of the coolest part of the ride was a bit of the cross action we got in:

And there was this sweet ass corn silo that I had to stop and get a pic of...

And after the ride Chad felt the need to replenish the stores-->

Coffee Corner Time-> So I was doing a bit of the slurping action of the Ethiopia Harar Horse and honestly I think I'm starting to like it. I'll put it out how Chase said it, "spicey," I think since he's a bit inexperienced he was refering to the mild but present acidity. Adding on top of that description is distinct floral tones. Basically what that means is that it kind of tastes like how a flower or greenhouse smells. I think when it comes down to it, it's all a matter of personal preference, but this is a light alternative to the more heavy roasts.

Quote of the day:
"More than any other emotion, melancholy is incompatible with bicycling." -James E. Starrs

Ba Ca Pa Fo

Well if you peps want to know about how the ride went check out the kickin' post the Sova's put out at SovaBros. Long and short of it we went to Stout (if you want to know how to get there check out our Route) had some coffee and a scone, headed back with some crazy cross/tailwind. My legs felt awesome today, compaired to yesterday so we'll see if we can hit up another 4 hours tommorow.

It was pretty funny though sitting at Acoustic Cafe of Stout because reading about all the 'pro' bikers riding 2-3 hours, stopping at a the local coffee house to sip on some brew and eat a muffin, and then finish out the rest of the ride...and you know what, I found it mildly appealling. I love coffee, riding, and taking pics doesn't that compute to throwing caution to the wind, throwing away the three quaters completed geology degree, and financial stability to pursue the sport? Unless I start kickin' some major ass and/or progress at an insane rate, I'll hold off on the leaps of faith. Ah fuck all that reflection shit. Here's a little coffee sippin' action:

I like my coffee like I like my women: Hot, Strong and Black. Ahh funny story about that saying. I heard it in early high school at a Boy Scout fundraiser where we were giving out free coffee and this old man came up to me and my friend, took some coffee, and laid that jem on us--I've carried it ever since.

This picture is of my brother at the Acoustic Cafe of EC when he visited last weekend.

A cappu' from Racys with some Photoshop mods.

Quote of the Day:
"A mountain bike is like your buddy. A road bike is your lover." -Sean Coffey

P.S. Sorry this update sucks some major wheel. Hopefully I'll be creative tommorow.

Band Camp Part III

So today went through a couple of stages starting here...

A monstorous stack of pancakes and eggs to start the day off right. Stage two to the bike shop for a hub tightening and water bottle:

Stage three. Time to ride beotch:

After about 2 hours of riding and 2 more hours in the hurt locker stage four ensued:

Really that's a day in the life of 3 aspiring bikers in the midwest who dare to dream of podiums, nationals, Olympics...

Quote of the Day
"There are three ways to pedal a bike. With the legs, with the lungs, or with the heart."
-Mandible Jones

Side note: Thank God for the UPS man he brought me some Ethiopia Harar Horse today!! Taste update tommorow.

B.C. Dos

As you'all've read Chase and I went on a couple hour ride today to blow out the pipes and test the legs before some crazyness ensues the next week. We explored a little more North of town up in the farm region of Elk Mound. Chase got too close to a hay bailer and this happened...
Yeah it was kind of tragic, I had to pull him out by the boots. Fortunately his bike survived, cause his pride didn't!!

So I've came to a realization today while making pancakes for Chase and I that it takes a lot of food to feed bikers. Of course I knew this, but I've never had to make food for anyone but myself over the years at college, if at all. A little insight, I live in the dorms if you haven't already realized with a kick ass 14 meal plan so basically I get full on lunch and dinner all you can eat meals all week and most of the time pay 1.75 for breakfast too. Over summer I made my own food (which made me appriciate my meal plan greatly), but now that I have to make food for Chase and, soon Chad, I've come to realize that we're going to need a 5 pound bag of pancake mix, 20+ pounds of pasta, 5 gallons of sauce, 5 gallons of milk, 20 tortillas, 14 cans of beans, 3 pounds of cheese, 48 eggs.... and all those numbers are subject to double.

Playlist today: Pearl Jam, Oasis, OAR, some chic-acoustic-alt/rock stuff being played here at Racys

Inspirational Quote: "Sometimes in cycling it's not the strongest man who wins" -Pozzato (Underdog Milan-San Remo winner)

Coming soon--> Coffee time photo gallery compiled over Band Camp

Band Camp

It is offically spring break and the Sova's and I went far...from the dorms to 137 Niagara St. Big Sova went up north to visit Kevin, so last night Mini Sova, my bro, and I were left to our own devices. Since I was St. Pat's day we decided that a bit of the Black stuff would be in order. My bro, geology major Andy, and I went out for some drinks...yada yada yada...this happened.

So I'm not sure if this is the best way to start out "trainning camp" but what the hell it's nights like these and days after like today that make me get antsy to ride like a maw-fucka.

Also today I half impulse bought half consciously expectedly bought a camera. I've been debating this for the past couple of weeks, so when Chase, my bro and I went to B. Buy to look for an adapter for Chase's powertap, my bro and I went to the cameras to just "check them out." My brother being in the profession of shooting people (with cameras) guided me the megapixel this and CCD DIGIC II that and we picked out the Cannon SD 600. I almost feel bad about spending that kind of money on a camera...so as soon as I got home I had to look at my W2s to assure myself that I just didn't just finance something that I don't even have the money for. Thank god for taxes huh!! So needless to say the site will be having more kick ass pics on it.

Well that's all for today. Be sure to stop in daily after dinner cause I'll be giving everyone the play-by-play of band camp here in EC.

Goals of Band Camp:

1. Ride 20-25
2. Write 2 Essays one on carbonates one application essay for study abroad
3. Sleep 10 hours a night
4. Drink a lot of Ethiopia Harar Horse coffee from Alterra
5. Chill out

Quote of the Day:

I am the reference point, if they beat me they win
-Indurain

Expect the Unexpected

So this week I thought that I wasn't going to be able to ride at all--homework in all. I had just a bitch-ton of work to do for school and it was pretty wiped out from last week, but I started out small and built it up at the end finishing out with just over 17 hours. Not bad really considering it is my largest week to date, and good timing too. Sunday night-Monday morning it decided to rain/sleet/snow/shit about 6 inches of the white stuff. Looks like this week, though expectedly, is a recovery week.

You know I have to say though this past weekend was pretty awesome. For one Saturdays ride was bordering epic- a lot of new roads, huge climbs, racing the sun back home. I had just an awesome time as the Sova's and I pushed each other's buttons up the climbs, Chad almost had an accident involving straightening his handlebars, and some townline, stop ahead, and bike sign sprints by the end. I think the quote of the day though was of Chase singing to himself something like along the lines of, "I've been in the bonk for an hour and all I want is a shower"...sounds like a country song!! After Saturday, Sunday's ride was quite slow and trying, but we made it in good order.

On the coffee front I'm out (weep)! On the brighter side my best bud Hannah is putting together an order from Peace Coffee so we can share shipping. AHh I love her!! Anyways. Sorry for the gap between post between school, cycling, and rock and roll I'm not brimming with spare time.

Speaking of R'n'R Playlist: Social D, Modest Mouse, Less Than Jake, Dark Soldier

You don't even wanna know

So i've decided that maybe being a professional biker might be the way to go. For those of you that know me you know this is just lip service, but honestly the shit you have to go through to get a f*&a^in degree sometimes busts my shit up. I tell ya tests, research, papers all of that, I tell ya somedays worrying about where I'm going to ride for spring traning and how I'm going to not stay unbored seems like a viable alternative.

Needless to say i have a lot of shit going on on the school front and also my social life hasn't lent itself relief. All's I gotta say is that girls tend to suck...REAL BAD!! But what can you do, you gotta play the game I guess.

Playlist: Dispatch "Gut the Van" (live), Beck "Guero", The Decemberists, Ben Harper song: Walk away, Elliot 'Motha fuckin' Smith