Ironman events are global in scope, but much more a local event… Great personal coverage from Adirondack Daily Enterprise . A hearty ‘well done’ to the paper’s staff.

Money quote

At 9:30 p.m., the temperature had fallen back to the high 40s, and it dawned on me how extreme this race really is. Our hills are steep, our water cold and our air unpredictable. This is a serious Ironman.

Amen brother, amen…

got back from IMLP earlier this afternoon. Spent the rest of the day unpacking, cleaning, going through mail (e- and other wise) and getting ready for the rest of the work week.

Quickie post:

Awesome weekend. So very inspiring, and so very motivating. We had tons-o-fun, worked our asses off, ate like pigs, walked a marathon over the same 1/4 mile hill on sprained ankles and twisted backs, and smiled and laughed until our cheeks cramped.

And in the end, I stood in line for 2 hours to sign up for IMLP 2008. Training starts on Monday. New website to follow.

This time, the demons are going down faster than a drunken prom date…

So very cool…

On opening night of Trilogy’s production of “The Taming of the Shrew” show (the only night Weazer & I could attend) the New York Times shows up for a regional piece on local theater.

West of Broadway, the Stage Is Their World – New York Times

For those who are just visiting:
Hugh Wallace – cyclist, and one of my best friends
Hank Barre – friend and former landlord (ask him about the “Anderson Road” clan)
Chris Winans – friend and serious poker player.

I’ve been a fan and friend of Trilogy for most of the 25 years they have been in existence. Local theatre is alive and well and living in your town. Pay them a visit and prepare to be amazed!

Allamuchy is always a challenging place to ride. When we meet up at “Tranquility Base” we are faced with a solid mile of climbing, at a minimum, just to get to the main set of trails. After that, we have everything from fast, flat single track, slick rock, fast climbs, loose climbs, bombing descents and insane rock gardens. In short, it’s a perfect place to take a new MTB for a proper introduction.

As we wandered around the mountain, I became more and more comfortable with letting the suspension do it’s job, and just keep putting the power into the pedals. We came upon one roll-in drop ab0ut 3 feet high. Tsvi rolled in on his KHS, and I followed him. The rock face was well over 70% grade, and very smooth. I felt the front shock compress and the front wheel rolled forward easily. Piece of cake! I would have NEVER tried this on the Giant.

Later, we were coming up another climb and I sprinted past Tsvi. As I rode past, he said “you know where we are, right?” I push past, turn a corner and am face to face with my nemesis: Moon Rock. I’ve only made it up this monster chunk of granite once. I pop the front wheel up onto the slope, and easily scramble up onto the 1st, then 2nd sections and pop over the top. I was totally stoked!!

Toward the end of the ride, we were on a section of the 24hr course from a few years back. It’s a twisty, technical rock garden, mostly flat, but a couple of up-and-down sections. Most of the time I would walk this section, because the Giant’s limited suspension made it too hard to control the bike. I was third in line (of the 5 riders). Bob (on his Salsa hard tail) and Tsvi (on his KHS softtail) got bounced out of their saddles. I swung around them, and just railed the whole section like it was smooth pavement. Again, totally stoked about how well the bike worked.

The last section of our ride found us climbing a big honkin’ hill from the last 24hr race I attended. It’s a full mile of steep-to-silly-steep climbs. Log falls, loose rock, narrow trail, and big rocks litter the climb. I’ve only done this whole climb when I was relatively fresh. Today, I had 11.5 miles in my legs at the bottom of the hill. I dropped into the granny gear, fell in behind Tsvi, and slowly made my way up the hill. 10 minutes of 160+ HR later, we were at the top. I was pretty tired, but not as bad as I’ve felt in the past on the Giant. Again, an amazing Mojo revelation.

Finally, we were on Sue’s trail, the big 2 mile downhill back to the cars. I go off the front, make a small prayer and point the Mojo down the trail. As we begin to pick up speed, the bike’s handling really begins to shine. The DW Link suspension keeps the wheels stuck to the trail, the shocks absorb the punishment of the rocks, roots and drop-offs and the Blue-Groove shod 819’s grip or slide at my command. After a short bit I ease off on the brakes and just let the bike go. It reacts like a racehorse on the home stretch. Any course correction I need the bike seemingly anticipated like a living thing. I begin to just tilt the bike one way or the other, letting weight and speed carve the descent.

I finally blow out the bottom of the trail, back at the cars and have to wait a bit until Tsvi catches me. This has NEVER happened. Normally I’m the one at the back of the pack, carefully picking my way down the trail. Tsvi said he was barely able to keep me in sight. I looked down and saw that I had hit 21.5 mph on that descent! WOW… that was an E-ticket ride for sure!

I was totally pumped the whole drive home, until I got to Bedminster. At that point, the ride caught up with me and I began to have serious leg cramps. I pulled over to get gas and stretch, but when I tried to get out of the car I had massive cramps in both hamstrings, and my right hip flexor. I was sitting in the car with both legs sticking straight out the door, grimacing in pain. Fortunately, the gas station attendant is a soccer player, and was very familiar with these kinds of cramps. He helped me out of the car and let me walk off my cramps, even after the car was filled and ready to move on.

All in all it was a banner day for my MTB skills. I learned a TON about how the Mojo handles a lot of different terrain, and slayed several of my trail demons in the process. Only a small lack-of-concentration fall marred a perfect ride, and I’ve now got some nifty chain-ring bite marks on my ankle as a reward!

2hrs 25min and 14.7 miles later, I can say that I definitely have the right bike.

It started at Wyckoff. Just a little tickle, nothing to get concerned about. Had some fun, left with a smile. Then again, when I signed up for the tickle started to burn a bit. Just enough to let me know it is still there.

Last night we went to the pre-race meeting/Happy Hour for the Randolph Sprint Tri where Weazer & I are volunteers. The burning became more pronounced and started to engulf my brain.

Yeah, I need another IM experience. The itch to go “all in” set a big honkin goal and work my ass off has settled into my brain and won’t let go.

In 3 weeks, we’ll be in Lake Placid at the IGA section of the run course. Monday morning after the race, I’ll be in line for another try.

Maybe the itch will go away after the race. But I doubt it.

The Fedex guy pulled up right as Jeopardy ended (7:30 EST). I immediately took the box down to the basement and began to unwrap the baby. The bike was very nicely packed, and there was no visible damage on the box or on the bike. Setup was really easy. Put on the handlebars, put on the wheels, put on the seat and done!

In fact, I was so excited about getting it put together, I threw on a light, tossed the bike up on the car rack, and FLEW down to Six Mile Run. A bunch of the ‘regulars’ were there doing a day/night lap of the park, and were kind enough to hang out to wait for me for the dark loop.

The first ride on the bike was a bit sketchy. I didn’t have the handlebars or seat adjusted for me, and the light was mounted way left on the handlebars, making right hand turns an exercise in prayer. I’ve now got some nifty scratches on my right leg after a close encounter with a wild rose bush.

Six Mile Run is a flat, fast and twisty place. Perfect for a hard-tail or SS ride, so it didn’t really exercise the 5.5″ suspension much, so today I spent some time crashing around Washington Valley Park. After adjusting the bars and seat, the bike felt a whole lot more comfortable under me. Within a few minutes on the first loop I knew that I was going to be a lot more confident on the bike. Climbing was much easier, even in the middle ring. The suspension kept the tires planted, and the low-pressure Kenda’s grabbed the trail with a death grip.

About 1/2 way through the first loop, I realized that the rear tire was way TOO soft, so I eased back a bit on the descents, and headed back to the car. I pumped up the rear tire and headed out for a second loop. With each passing minute I was more confident, more stable, ascending faster, descending MUCH faster and railing the corners. Really amazing feel.

On the back side of the park, coming up to the ball fields, I engaged the rear ProPedal and front lockout for the uphill trip through the fields. I normally climb this particular stretch in the granny, because of the pedal bob on the Giant. With the suspension locked out on the Mojo, I was able to hammer away in the middle ring (and mid-cassette!) and fly through the field.

What an amazing bike! Well worth the $$$ and LONG wait to get it under my butt.

It’s now after 6:00pm, and still no Mojo…. I think the Fedex guy is riding the thing over to my house.

Today was the first ride in a week with Weazer. She has started twice-weekly strength training at the Y, so I figured that any rides would be pretty light. Then the weather turned hot, sticky and nasty, so we bagged our Tues & Thurs night rides.

Today we got out for her first “Swamp Loop”. This is one of my favorite fast, 20 mile loops. I can ride this route all day long, over and over again, so I was anxious to get her out on this ride. There is one sorta-longish climb at the 8 mile point, some long flat stretches through the middle third, and another sharpish climb at the end.

We headed out and got into a nice little groove. On the first climbing bit, Weazer geared down and popped up out of the saddle a couple of times to get through the steeper parts, then throttled back to crest the hill and collect her payback on the other side. Through the flats in the swamp, she kept an amazingly steady pace. Nice and smooth. Again, on the last bit of climbing, she just popped over the bumps like it were no big thing…

There were a ton of riders out today, and we got passed by many of them. Weazer doesn’t like to get passed by other bikers. She knows that she’s just getting started, but she’s surprising me with her competitiveness. So, on the last bit of the ride, we get passed by a dude on an MTB. I was riding behind her, and as soon as he passed, I saw her shoulders and back tighten up, heard her drop down two gears, and fall into the drops. She chased for a bit, until we got to the next small rise. She knew she couldn’t catch him on the ascent, but she only let him pull ahead by a bit. On the backside, she fell into the drops, picked up some gears and dropped the hammer, and she started reeling in her prey. As we got close, she swung left, tossed out an “on your left” grabbed another gear and pulled away with authority.

A few minutes later, I pull up on Weazer’s left and say “well that was fun”. Weazer’s breathing heavy, but has a huge smile on her face. I say, “You weren’t gonna let that guy pass you without an answer, were you?” And she looks over at me with the wicked smile I love so much and says “Damn straight. He was going down”… On the way back home, she described how she felt as the guy passed her, how she planned her attack, and how she knew how to hammer the specific stretch of road we were on at that point in the ride.

I’ve never felt more proud in my life.

At long last, the Mojo is shipping from It’s been about as grueling as the climb up from Tranquility Base at Alamuchy.

First was the long wait for the frame. Then the Maverick DUC32 fork was back ordered. Then when the DUC arrived, it didn’t fit the frame. Then we had to order the Fox Float RLC to replace the fork, as well as new hub, headset and stem since the DUC used specialized parts.

Finally, the parts arrived, the build was completed, loaded up on the truck, and is making the long trip from the west coast.

With a little luck, I may get it on Friday!!

Wow – check this out…!

fascination here..

No idea how this is pulled together….