This member of the Spanish press got a little too aggressive with his questions about EPO use on Team Goathead.

watch here

EXPECTATIONS

So in about one month, we go back to Spearfish. Because of a re-route it will be impossible to measure myself against my old time (6hr. 20 min.). So I am hoping to avoid any/all of the following (experienced by at least one goathead last time): leg cramps, mental breakdowns, vomiting, thoughts of retirement, or attempts to eat beef jerky mid race.
How has training gone? I have run less this year than last time. Tradittionally the more I have run the better I climb. Good thing the 5-0 is pretty flat. I have more miles in, but probably the same amount of dirt time. HOWEVER, some of my rode miles have included pulling Ella in the Burley - I am thinking that will make the widow maker a walk in the park. This time around I have longer one day rides in as well.
How are my partners in crime doing? Although he is my good friend, I can't tell if P90X is good training or Lumpy's code for this. J.A.'s miles may or may not be down. However, I think he will draw upon his years of experience a pull out a good ride (and believe me, he has YEARS and YEARS of experience).
Don't tell J.C. we tricked him into going. We told him to go with us as our photographer, HOWEVER yesterday I registered him in the race.

Oh, and before I sign off . . . the A-train made his dirt debut last Sunday. Austin, it was great seeing you at Tranq. last Sunday.

50 Tyson...... Remix!

Can anyone tell me where 50 Tyson is from? ......... or possibly how old he is? I'm a huge fan. You're about to become one.

T-rev's getting married

(T-rev 1994)

Despite everyone's prediction that T-rev would never get married, he's actually doing it........ To a real girl....... She's actually really cool. Seriously, I never saw this coming.
To celebrate this momentous event, I'm heading to Denver where I'll rendezvous with other Goatheads for some Rocky Mountain trail action. I suppose I'll go to the wedding too, but there's no reason to talk about that here. After all this isn't a blog for sappy stories about best friends, it's a blog devoted to mediocre mountain bike adventures and next weekend, we'll be in the upper echelon of mediocrity.
We're planing on riding all the usual trails around Denver, but we are also considering Devils Backbone by Loveland. Has any of our 7 readers ever been there?
Hopefully we'll have pictures and stories to post soon.

Trouble at the Roundabound

In a few weeks, I will be driving to Spearfish, SD along with three other GoatHeads who will be doing something called the FIVE-OH. I guess it's a 500 yard short track in a tight circle. They must go around a few times. Should be pretty sweet! I was told my job is to hand them Propel every 250 yards to keep them refreshed. Looking forward to kicking back in a lawn chair and watching them go round and round.

 

My other job is to drive to and from SD, but I'm a little nervous about that. My GPS has been acting up…

 

 

Mathiessen State Park

If you ever find yourself in Chicago with nothing to do, You can always make the 1 hour drive to Mathiessen State Park. I was there with my family and my mountain bike this weekend. It took me a couple of days to figure out the trails, but once I did I found a 5 mile loop with great views and a ton of climbing. It reminded me of Platte, but with more elevation changes and more sunflower fields.



On a totally unrelated note, I want to thank this guy for giving me a ride home from work last week.......

Cycling Tips

Cardboard Warfare

When I was a kid, me and my friends would use a jigsaw to make rubber band guns out of plywood. This takes it to a new level.

Starting to come together

With the year end goal of the Dakota 50 less than 2 months away, training is more important then ever. The last 10 days have been GREAT!!! The last weekend in June I got back to back hard MTB rides. Saturday @ Swanson and Sunday @ Tranquility. Last Wednesday JA and I hit Jewell and put in four solid laps. Then, last Sautrday, Lumpy/JA/ and myself went to Platte and put some good miles in. The 50 course has changed, so I can't really improve my time. HOWEVER, I do want to finish stonger than 2 years ago.
To top off the last 10 days, Lumpy and I went 68 on the rode yesterday. Rode on one of the flatest and straightest roads as we left DeSoto Bend. I felt like I was on a treadmill.

I have a confession

I said I was doing P90X just so you wouldn't laugh at me, but the truth is, the key to my fitness plan is actually Country Hip-Hop Dancing........ Don't judge me.

Last weekend's scorecard

For those of you keeping track at home, here are the results of last weekend:
Sat: heat 1 JA 0
Went to Louis and Clark Saturday, after working outside all day. What the heck, 3:30pm, it's only 97 degrees give or take and a heat advisory in effect, but I should do OK. Sounds like a good time to crank out 3 or 4 laps at L& C. It didn't go too well- 1 lap and I was cooked- legs felt good, the rest of me not so much. No problem, should be able to crank it up Sunday.

Sunday: JA 1, Tranq 0/ Lumpy 1 JA 0
As the Prof already posted lap 1-3 went good but Casey decided to separate the men from the boys on lap 4, and it hurt. Lumpy is starting to scare me with how good he is doing this year. Finished the lap with decent energy left. Still a long way from being ready for the 5-0 though. 4 laps at Tranquility is a decent start but nowhere near being a good prep for the 5-0.

So what is a better 5-0 prep- a lot of laps at Swanson or Tranquility or mega miles on the road bike?

Ouch

We had so much fun two weeks ago, we decided to move Sunday Smackdown to the dirt yesterday. Lap one J.A. set a good pace. However I could tell that I would be fighting all ride just to limit my losses. On lap 2 Lumpy took over the lead and upped the tempo. He put time into me and J.A. on 2 climbs in a row. However, halfway up the 2nd climb J.A. exploded past me and caught Lumpy. They probably would have lost me for good had Lumpy not crashed going into a corner too hot. Unlucky for him, but lucky for me. Every turn of the pedal kept telling me that today was not my day. I managed to lead lap three, but was struggling to keep Lumpy and J.A. behind. As we started lap 4 Lumpy surged into the lead. Then . . . he was out of sight. He didn't attack me and Jeff, he simply threw the hammer down. Realizing a chase was futile, J.A. and myself simply finished in the main pack.
A lot of Goathead nation is asking "where are the others??" JC missed the start time but threw down a blazing lap in the middle of S.S. The A-train is still recovering from a pre-season crash that set back his training. The big question is whether J-mac will come out of retirement. He has said he will make a come back, but so far he is doing more talking than riding.
In September, Sunday Smackdown will merge with the Dakota 50. The Goathead national championship jersey will be on the line. I'm not sure what the guys in Vegas are saying but the smart money is on Mr. P90X.

Goat Bridge

H2O

Amazingly several Goatheads were able to get some dirt time in last week. However, the return of Monsoon season has closed the trails for awhile. That meant I needed to ride on pavement. My question is where do I ride when the pavemnent is covered in water?

Obligatory pics

As a follow up to the Prof's post here are the pics from the ride:

Lumpy setting up for an attack:


Prof pulling him back:


Crossing small ponds:


It was so deep in some areas the Prof picked up a leech:


Fin:

Game on

A few Goatheads plan on traveling back to Spearfsh this Labor Day weekend. Apparently we forgot how much pain we felt last time and wanted to be reminded. HOWEVER, the recent weather patterns have done a number on the local trails. I predict that Manawa won't be rideable until about the middle of August.
So JA, Lumpy, and myself went looking for a hard road ride on Sunday. In hoped of being in shape come Labor Day weekend. We have often read the post write ups about Wedesday worlds, so we thought we would have our own Wednesday worlds (but on Sunday).
As we headed to the North Omaha Airport, Lumpy set a pretty good pace. No doubt he was trying to lose JA and myself. However, his attempts were to no avail. The bunch(all three of us) re-grouped as we headed towards Boyer Chutes. After passing by the chutes the road eventually went up. Nearing the Seaside resturaunt I thought it was time to leave my companions behind. JA and Lumpy were having none of that and stayed glued to my wheel. We stayed together for the next few miles including some nice rolling hills as we got near to Lumpy's house. Then with only a couple of miles remaining JA thought it was time to see if Lumpy and I were napping. The elastc might have snapped,if it was not for a red light that slowed JA progress. In the end we finished together with Lumpy keeping his lead in the G.C.

Bacon Flapjacks

This old Aunt Jemima ad just gave me a whole new reason to wake up in the morning.

It really works!

Check out this new laundry drying rack I got......



The guy at the shop I bought it from says it also works as a mountain bike if I can find dry trails.

Bland Chili with Ocho Cinco

Have you ever been to Cincinnati? I hadn't until last week. I just spent nine days there for work. It seemed like an okay town. I was working most of the time so I didn't get to experience everything. The people were friendly and it seemed like when asked if they liked Cincinnati, the general consensus was that they were all happy they didn't live in Cleveland.
The other consensus opinion I encountered was that everyone thought I should try the Skyline Chili. When I think of Cincinnati, or Ohio for that matter, I don't think of chili, but this was not your usual chili. First of all, they eat it on top of spaghetti. My first thought was, that's odd, but after the idea sank in it started to appeal to me. The only problem was the chili itself wasn't what I would call chili. It was sweet instead of spicy. I guess they season it with cinnamon and chocolate. The one thing that really saved the experience for me was the ridiculous amount of cheese put on top, plus they had hot sauce at the table in case you wanted a little extra kick. Final conclusion, I don't think it is something I would eat again and again, but it was worth trying.




There was one thing I did that saved the trip from being as bland as the chili, that was sneaking into Paul Brown Stadium, home of the Cincinnati Bengals.



I walked down to the stadium with a co-worker because we heard the Bengals were practicing. As we were walking to get around to the practice facility, we saw a truck driving out and the electric gate shutting slowly behind it. We had just enough time to slip in. Once on the inside we saw a security hut with two guards sitting inside. I expected them to throw us out on our ear, but they seriously just looked at us and then went back to their conversation. So we walked under the stadium and found a tunnel that went onto the field. To our surprise we walked right into the middle of a celebrity meet and greet for all of the corporate sponsors. We acted like we were supposed to be there and ended up getting a free lunch while rubbing elbows with Carson Palmer and Cedric Benson. I didn't get any pictures of that, but I did get some pictures inside the their locker room. You'ld think they would keep that door locked.

Family Outing

When the adoption became official, several people told me my riding miles would go down now that I have a child. Here is what has changed - I trade a few mountain bike rides in for rides with my wife and daughter. That combination has actually increased the amount of miles I have in this year.
The only drawback of riding with my daughter is she loves to coach. "Daddy sit down". "Daddy faster".
Friday's ride took us to one of our favorite hamburger joints.