Teton's Bike Racing Blog

Test

2008-06-30T09:52:00.000-07:00

Transition Time

2007-10-11T16:47:00.000-07:00

I can't believe people are asking for my opinion on the forum versus actually contacting me individually!?!?!? Thanks go to those who have written regarding the ACA, including the recently resigned president. Fran, just like Beth, Margaret and Mark have all done an immense amount of work for the Colorado bicycle racing community. While it is hard to imagine local racing without them there looks to be an exciting time ahead for the ACA and the racing community in general.

I have managed to keep in touch with many of the board members. They are ALL hard at work to ensure a smooth transition when the new ED starts around the 22nd. For those of you who didn't notice, there was a meeting on Monday for input on the 2008 budget. If you have any comments on the posted material at the ACA website please let the new treasurer know, he is very open to any ideas that members have for him. The ED position has been posted and I hope that the board receives many candidates for the position. The forum has brought up the crux of the issue in hiring someone. Those who are professionally qualified for the position will most likely not find the salary adequate for the hours required. Those applicants who have the passion for local racing and are willing to sacrifice pay in order to do the job will most likely lack previous experience in similar positions. Selecting the right person for the job will be difficult and I encourage everyone to talk to board members about what qualities they would like to see in the new ED.

Finally, the packets for the 2007 annual meeting will be mailed soon. I have submitted several pieces of legislation based on topics discussed at the promoters meeting. Please make sure your club takes the time to read over ALL of the information and vote. The voice of the clubs is essential to the continued success of the ACA.

Anniversary

2007-09-24T19:38:00.000-07:00

Today was the two year marker for Beth and I. We went out for dinner at a restaurant that I will mercifully let remain anonymous. I got the Ono and a "Spicy Asian Salad". It should have been labeled massive fire gut salad. The Ono was pretty clearly the left overs from the weekend. It sounded good on the menu but was a horrible mix of unrelated flavor in reality. Curry, fish and bread??? We also guessed it could have been the "B" squad in the kitchen, in reality it was probably the "C". No matter what, this is what I felt like doing when I got home:

sick on air
Uploaded by krs601

Which way to go?

2007-09-21T10:54:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot of talk since the ACA Executive Director tendered her resignation about whether or not the ACA should return to the USAC as a sanctioning body and have the ACA be the local association. I believe there is a time and a place for everything, including returning to the federation but that time is NOT right now.

It is inevitable that someday the ACA will be forced to return to USAC. This is not solely to keep the members happy but is a true necessity in the current insurance market. With rising costs of primary insurance, more racers are hitting the start line without it and relying on the secondary policy that the ACA and USAC offer. The ACA pays in a small fraction of what USAC pays into their policy yet we're getting almost the same benefits. In 2008 the ACA will pass on the per rider, per day insurance surchaerge increase that was received in 2007. The ACA managed to pay that increase for the promoters in 2007. Unless there is a dramatic change in the insurance industry standards, the ACA should expect to see their rates continue to rise into the foreseeable future. At some point the benefits that the ACA provides will no longer outweigh the additional cost of insurance surcharges and promoters will be forced to permit through USAC. It is my best guess that this will happen within the next 3-5 years.

Despite the need to eventually become a USAC Local Association it would be a mistake to do so at this stage in the associations development. The transition to USAC should be at least a year long process to ensure that promoter and racer benefits from ACA are not compromised during the move. Additionally, the ACA should use its current financial strengths to improve it's members benefits prior to reintegration. These could include, but are not be limited to, a new website for even faster results and points tabulations, online license sales, online race registration, race kit improvements, improved executive transparency and more detailed documents on the operation of the association. By striving to offer more benefits to members while maintaining its focus on grassroots racing and junior development the ACA would increase the value of the association in the eyes of the USAC. If lines of communication between the organizations were open during the solidification of ACA improvements it would ensure a smooth and positive transition to the USAC when the time is right at some point in the next 1-3 years. If developed and executed correctly the ACA could become the standard by which all other Local Associations are evaluated.

I encourage everyone to support the Executive Committee in an effort to appoint an interim Executive Director to ensure a smooth transition on October 22nd. Obviously this is not a position that can be transitioned overnight. Also encourage them to conduct a thorough search for applicants to review in order to find the best candidate for Executive Director. That candidate should be committed to work for the ACA and it's Executive Committee with goals to improve benefits, maintain a focus of grassroots junior development, and establish open communication with USAC in an effort to become the Local Association within 1-3 years.

Fall Is Almost Here

2007-08-27T14:32:00.000-07:00

I'm a big fan of riding my mountain bike in the fall. Every year I seem to get the feeling that I'm not so bad at it. Then I watch something like this and my ego returns to the proper level..

Short Track Suffer Fest

2007-08-02T15:38:00.000-07:00

Sign the Petition

2007-07-24T16:47:00.000-07:00

If you care about Colorado racing, please read and think about signing the following petition:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/acawatchdog

Men in Black

2007-07-24T16:39:00.000-07:00

Yeah that's right, I'm one of the "men in black".

Unhappy with the ACA???

2007-07-17T13:14:00.000-07:00

If you are questioning why so many dedicated individuals are leaving ACA, take some action!

Since resigning from the EC last week I've received around 20 supportive e-mails asking what can be done to rectify the developing situation with the ACA Staff and Executive Committee. While I slowly get back to these individuals and clubs below is a list of items for you to consider.

1. Go to an Executive Committee meeting and see what it's like. Ask some hard questions of the committee and staff. Ask a Committee member for more information:

http://www.americancycling.org/info/who/07-ACA-Executive-Committee-and-Staff.pdf

2. Get involved. Join the Executive Committee and try to change things from the inside. If you try this I wish you the best of luck as I was completely unsuccessful after 3 years of unwavering dedication to the cause.

3. Communicate. If your mind is made up that the current Executive Director is no longer the right person for that position, tell your teamates and club leaders. Have them all thank the Executive Director for years of stellar service and encourage her to consider that the organization has outgrown her capabilities and a resignation is in order.

4. Race, it's why we all care about this and it's a great way to show support for the local racing community.

See you on the road.

Reinforcement

2007-07-17T12:43:00.000-07:00

From the ACA Website:

"...we need to be very, very careful that by "stirring the pot" with questions of and challenges to our staff that we don't rock the boat so much that we lose the very people who's love of and passion for the sport has brought the ACA to the point it is at today."

I find it strange that the Executive Committee is reinforcing one of the reasons I resigned. For 3 years I learned never to question the Executive Director. It's pretty twisted how the Director manages the Committee versus the Committee managing the Director. If you don't believe me go to an EC meeting and see for yourself. They are open to ACA members.

2007-07-12T15:25:00.000-07:00

Jon Tarkington

July12th, 2007

Attn: All Members of the American Cycling Association

RE: Resignation from ACA Executive Committee

Members of the ACA,

As many of you know the driving force behind the ACA’s development programs is the Executive Director, Beth Wrenn-Estes. Through the years she has done a tremendous job building the ACA into what it is today. There are over 3000 individual members and many development programs aimed at continuing this growth. Unfortunately, the Association has now outgrown the capabilities of the current Executive Director. Seeing as Mrs. Wrenn-Estes is no longer the correct person to serve as the Association’s day-to-day leader, perhaps she could fill a new position fit to her specialties, such as grassroots development program coordinator.

Over the past month the ACA lost a longtime supporter and official, Andy Rosen. Because of this incident a large number officials decided to no longer work races with or for Beth Wrenn-Estes. Two members of the Executive Committee have also resigned in the past weeks.

As a member of the Executive Committee for the past 3 years I have developed a deeply rooted passion for the continued success of the ACA. This year nearly the entire Executive Committee clearly shared that passion. The only obstacle prohibiting that passion for success from being put into action was the Executive Director. Meetings have had a feeling of hostility and fear of heavy-handed anger from our primary staff person. Many, if not most, ideas are swiftly and firmly put down if they are not in line with her personal views of the association. This type of aggressive behavior clearly contributed to Mr. Rosen’s resignation as well as many official’s unwillingness to work with Mrs. Wrenn-Estes.

The behavior of the Executive Director has made it difficult for the Executive Committee to achieve their goal of ensuring the ACA continues to prosper well into the future. The Committee has a fiduciary duty to the members to ensure financial prosperity. This is complicated, if not impossible, to do with Executive Director also acting as Treasurer. Many non-profit organizations would consider this dual role to be completely un-ethical. Again, any questioning of this conflict of interest results in great anger and accusations of mistrust by the Executive Committee. Accusations of mistrust by Mrs. Wrenn-Estes have usually been accompanied by threats of resignation (refer to e-mail attached below). This is clearly not the leadership needed for a burgeoning organization.

It is with great regret that I must resign from the Executive Committee, effective immediately. I cannot proceed on the committee without being able to function to the best of my abilities, something that is clearly not possible with the current Executive Director. I feel that such a drastic measure is in order to alert you, the membership, to the current situation. It is only a matter of time before more committee members depart and the ACA suffers irreconcilable damages. It is my sincere hope that you will care enough about the racing you enjoy to encourage the remaining Committee members and your club representatives to intervene in order to rectify this downward spiral.

Respectfully Yours,

Jon Tarkington

Lincoln Plating 07

2007-04-25T11:53:00.000-07:00

I first did this race two years ago and found it a really well run and fun race. I was eager to not attend the AST crit so I decided to head out to Lincoln, Nebraska for a quick weekend race. The drive wasn't all that bad either way minus some EPIC winds on the way home. I thought for sure we were going off the road a few times.

The TT was what it should be, hard. Scott Tietzel had a really good ride in 4th with Ross and I a bit off the pace. After a fast trip back to the hotel for a shower and a bite to eat we were back out at the race site for the road race. It followed the trend of RR's this year and was shortened due to high winds and slow times. The first attack detonated and came back without anyone chasing. The next break had HART strongman Wes Hartman in it so we had to chase with a few other guys. After a lap and a half of chasing it was back together again with everyone looking a bit ragged already. The 30-50mph gusts were pretty draining. Dan Porter was dangling off the front of the group so I bridged up him and it looked like the field was letting us go. Unfortunately, on the next cross wind stretch the other big HART strongman Randy Reichardt bridged across to us. I was pretty bummed not to see Tietzel on his wheel. Because of Randy place behind Scott in the TT and the fact I was pretty cooked after the long chase I decided to sit on and let the HART teammates ride Randy into the leaders jersey if they could.

They did just that AND had me on the ropes a couple of times along the way. I managed to attack and shed Porter a few Km from the finish. The downside of that was that I had tow Randy to the line or risk getting 3rd if Porter caught back on. The move gave Randy the stage win and moved the 3 of us into the top 3 on GC. That's the way it stayed through the next days rather moist circuit race. Scott and Ross respectively ended up 7th and 19th

A big thanks goes out to race promoter John Lefler and sponsor Lincoln Plating. John's dedication to the sport is impressive and he puts on a GREAT event. It would be nice if all the people who complain about the office park crit problem in Colorado (specifically AST) would skip those in favor of races like Lincoln plating. We left at noon on Friday and got back @10 on Sunday. The trip was well worth the time and money for a such an action packed event.

March/April

2007-04-25T11:23:00.000-07:00

After the epic Cateye road race a week of good training brought the Koppenberg Circuit. This race has always been fairly straight forward, follow the strong guys as long as you can. I did just that and not much more, ending up at the back of the lead group. Not-so-Mini-Phinney made one heck of an impression on me there, that kid appears to have ALL the goods to make it big in bike racing if he wants to. It will be entertaining to watch his career unfold.

After a weather weekend off of racing Beth and I headed to Texas for some family functions, including my nephew's birthday. I managed to race EARLY the next morning but was feeling the 3+ hrs I had spent in the jumpy castle the day before. It was an experience I haven't had in a while, I was there solo and there were several large teams present. Just like CO those teams just kept attacking until an acceptable group got off. I missed that group so decided to sit, chill and see what I could do at the end. The break had 2:30 at the start of the last climbing stretch. I tried to bridge across and got within 30 seconds before hitting a long headwind stretch that ended my attempt. A few guys came up to me and we road together until the finish. The racing scene seemed very similar to Colorado, although it was nice not to have a sizable portion of the pro peleton on hand to dose out pain.

Next up was quick weekend trip to Nebraska to avoid the dreaded AST crit.

Cateye RR- Good Idea??

2007-03-25T08:35:00.000-07:00

Was doing the road race yesterday a good idea? Let's see...

Was it good for my bike? Probably not the best. I even used heavy duty motorcycle chain lube before I left.

The Garden Gnome Seems to think it was good, he got a rare ride on my dirty steed. I'm pretty sure he was the voice who kept telling me to ride out and race everytime I looked out the window that Saturday morning.

My sweet wife prewashed my clothes in her bath water as soon as I got home. I had already done a quick rinse of everything in the drainage ditch next to the car before tossing into a dirty wet pile in my bag at the race.

Peek a Boo, I don't really see you! This was taken 3 hrs after we finished when I finally was able to get in the shower after cleaning everything else up. It's the next monring and things are still a bit blurry. My glasses served an ornamental, not functional purpose today.

Baker was on another level today. He smoked what was left of the field by 5 minutes, solo from the second of 6 laps.

All in all it was an epic race and good training when I would normally have just sat inside and taken a rest day.

Off and Running

2007-03-21T15:33:00.000-07:00

The local scene is underway for the year. As usual, the first Stazio races were probably some of the hardest of the year with a stacked field duking it out to get ready for their spring NRC campaign. Those race have revealed some new faces to watch this season. The first is obviously Taylor Phinney. That guy had me on the ropes several times during the first Stazio race, and he's 16! His family seems to be pretty supportive in all the right ways as well. I see him going a long way this season. Next, I'd be willing to bet that Corey Carlson will begin to be someone to watch this season. The raced cross HARD and is right back out there again for the road season. It shows some love for the sport and that goes a long way to suffering through the school of hard knocks. Finally, you won't see much of him but Peter Horn could finally have the breakthrough year he's been working towards. Peter attends Vassar and spends his summer at the Cycling Center in Belgium. He'll be coming home from Europe for nationals this year and I think a lot of us will have our fingers crossed for him.

Also coming into form right now are the squirrels in our back yard. We've watched these guys do some long slow work all winter long. Over the past few weeks they have really stepped it up. You should see some of the tree to tree moves these guys are pulling off, it's EXTREME!! Besides the big air they have picked up some incredible speed. I'm seriously thinking something is up, their spaz level has gone from 3 to 10+ in the past few days alone. Right now the squirrels are really smashing the combined efforts of the neighborhood cats and deer for back yard dominance. I would love to see the panicked looks on their rabid faces if I brought in USADA to ensure that our back yard is a clean playing field.

VOS

2007-02-26T12:52:00.000-07:00

Despite what others might say, I like Valley of the Sun. It's true, the traffic sucks, the courses aren't very interesting and it's a pretty long drive. But the race is usually very predictable and it's pretty easy to make it into a great training weekend. I got around 11hrs in between the afternoon we got there and the end of the crit. Not bad when it's just about the only stage race in the region during February. It is always a good measure of where you're at and where you need to go with your training. I was pleasantly surprised with my form. It looks like all those mornings on my skate skis payed off a little.

I've got some work to do to get down to race weight but I think I've got time for that. No real travel race this year so I've got until Lookout to shed some lbs.

One person who's on decent form is my wife. Dang, she's rolling and is just starting to get her training on track. She actually got a result at VOS (8th overall, 5th TT). That's pretty rare for a local CO person.

The local fun starts this weekend with a TT out by the old Buckeye RR course. I predict searing lung pain from the cold air. I'm hoping one of the guys who did the Tour of California shows up and shows how out of shape the local crew is now.

Yep

2007-01-11T17:28:00.000-07:00

It's official, the combination of unusually bad weather and a new office is making me feel more and more like this guy every day.

His name is Goliath and he got stuck in a doggy door trying to steal some other cat's food. Read more about this larger than average kitty. I'm actually going to start riding inside to avoid continuing on my current ballooning trend.

Am I cut out for Colorado?

2007-01-08T11:10:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty much done with winter. Our Christmas trip to Texas came and went way too fast. At this point I would give anything to head back to South Texas for a weekend. I would go somewhere to ride but my road bike has had a flat for about a month and I'm not too motivated to change it.

The one saving grace is skate skiing. I tried my first race over the weekend and it can be described in two words, REALY HARD. By far it was the hardest 20 minutes I've ever done. The good news is that I'm still pretty out of shape and am motivated to do quite a bit more racing this year. Here I am trying not fall down:

crazy

2006-12-20T15:34:00.000-07:00

This is the view from my office. Joe T just got home from commuting on his cross bike. I guess the skiing in north boulder park will be good for a while.

MEATCAKE!

2006-12-14T18:32:00.000-07:00

it's a new family tradition.

Training Days

2006-12-03T14:50:00.000-07:00

eSoles training with Bill Peterson (center) and Shiel Costello (right).

2006-12-03T13:57:00.000-07:00

we were lucky enough to examine and scan some very special feet.

eSoles training started with a BANG!

2006-12-03T13:23:00.000-07:00

Mainly it was my finger in the car door.

That was Tuesday, I drained it with a red hot paperclip last night. It looked like an erupting volcano. Now I count down the days until my nail falls off. Apparently, the big question is whether or not the nail grows back seeing as I may have destroyed the nail's growth plate.

Room Before

2006-11-16T14:55:00.000-07:00

Time for more office remodeling.

False Alarm!

2006-11-15T14:13:00.000-07:00

Yeah I know, out of blue comes some off the wall post about my long time "mobile unit" departing. Well not so fast, Katherine will indeed be around for a while serving as a PDA but no longer a PDA phone. She'll continue to keep backups of my client's file available for quick and easy reference. She will no long be used for phone calls or e-mails as she has been replaced by this bad boy:

In other news, I finally put a link up for the Vecchio's Performance Center (VPC). I have worked pretty hard to get all of my new clients up to speed while trying to bring all the pieces together for the VPC. We finally got our contact negotiated with eSoles. We'll be doing training the week after Thanksgiving and be ready for business December 4th. Check out the eSoles website, they offer a great product and we're really proud to be a dealer.

My form has been coming along since getting back on the bike. My thumb and wrist are doing really well. I've had some problems with my hand going numb so there is probably some nerve damage that will be slow to heal. I'm hoping to put all the pieces together for the state cross race on December 9th.

Goodbye old pal

2006-11-14T22:35:00.000-07:00

Interbike 2006

2006-09-28T16:07:00.000-07:00

2006-09-28T16:04:00.000-07:00

2006-09-28T15:29:00.000-07:00

Interbike .... half way through day 2.

Back In Action

2006-09-20T18:50:00.000-07:00

Got the OK to ride outside on the 1st of September. I wasn't really supposed to race but I'm now convinced it's safer to race than it is to ride on open roads so I didn't hesitate jumping into the crit in Fruita a couple of days later. I've had a good week and a bad week since that point but am now into the swing of things. Despite telling myself there was no way I would race Parker I found myself on the start line of the Road Race and Crit. I've been feeling pretty good and did the group cyclocross ride today and felt like I'm on track for a good cross season. Sunday's first race should be a good indicator.

You can see what I've been up to and keep track of my progress at the training log link on the right-->

My latest business venture is finally up and running. More to follow after a trip to Interbike next week.

Most importantly, my lovely wife and I will be celebrating our first anniversary this Sunday, the 24th. It's been an up and down year with racing, the accident and a big push on the business front. All-in-all it's been great and I've found that married life is AMAZING!! THANKS BETHIE!!

No Carter

2006-08-13T20:37:00.000-07:00

By now most local racers have heard, the Carter Lake Road Race is cancelled for 2006. To my best knowledge, Grand Valley will now be Senior State Roads. As a board member this was probably the hardest decision I've had to make yet. I could not vote to cancel until I went to the Lake on Saturday the 12th to see for myself what the traffic would be like on a sunny weekend morning in mid-summer. In my 16 years of riding I have never been up there on a summer weekend. I have no exact reason why that is but my best guess is just plain old common sense. Big trucks towing boats on narrow roads is just a bad thing to combine with cycling.

The Carter race course was a challenge for officials when it was held in April. On any given weekend day in April you could find a handful of boats on the lake. On Saturday I counted 80 on the northern half of the lake alone. I sat at the proposed finish like and counted 39 vehicles pass by in 20 minutes. About 40% of that were vehicles with boats. The bottom line is that having a race on summer Saturday would cause great traffic delays for people going to and from the lake. For the most part, delays lead to anger and frustration. Combine that with a VERY large number of racers who have tuned out traffic because they are tuned into racing and you get a recipe for disaster. It's a recipe that I cannot support, hence my vote to cancel the race.

Hope to see you on the bike in another few weeks.

Learning

2006-07-13T19:29:00.000-07:00

My road rash is healed except for the occasional attack of itching. I've discovered some interesting things having both hands casted.

1. I can type but it's slow and full of typos. The worst part is it's not that much slower than before.

2. If you thought my handwriting was bad before, you should see it now!

3. My left hand has the most movement but since I can't make my thumb and index finger meet I've developed a mean CLAW between my index finger and middle finger.

4. You learn 3 real fast when it's the only way get food in your mouth.

5. It was a little harder for my casted left hand to to learn that other daily activity involving digestion.

6. Riding the bus is actually pretty cool.

I got my office all moved into my new space, look for more details in a later post.

Jon's 06 road season = over

2006-07-03T15:21:00.000-07:00

the trip to the orthopedist today did not produce the results I wanted. I went in thinking I would get the standard 4-6 week healing time. Luckily this will hold true for my left hand, but not my right. Now they think my right hand might need surgery and will definitely need 10-12 weeks (surgery or not). Dang man, that's 3 months!?!? Oh well looks like I'll be doing some hiking to try get fit for cross. For now I just want my road rash to stop oozing. Oh yeah, the fun never ends, since I'm the type of guy who likes a challenge, the Dr and Nurse decided that a short cast was just to sissy for my right hand. Instead I got a manly man cast. If you thought I was scrawny before, wait until you see what my right arm looks like after 3 months in this bad boy:

It's not fun.

2006-06-30T16:04:00.000-07:00

It's just not good when you start out from a stoplight next to a nice big protective truck, only to have the truck accelerate out ahead of a mini-van blowing through a REALLY red light. I was wondering why he had just hit the gas so hard and as I looked to my left past the trucks rear bumper I saw why. The mini van was a whopping 2-3 feet away from me going about 30 mph. I remember thinking "this is going to hurt". BANG- my bike and leg hit the bumper, I roll over onto the hood and then proceed to bounce off in a diagonal direction. I fly a few feet through the air (distinctly like hitting a big jump on skis but WAY off balance). I landed on my left hip bone and slid a few feet to a stop. My bike flew a few feet further. I looked over and was looking at the mini-vans rear wheel.

As I came to a stop I remember thinking, "Wow, that wasn't that bad!" I had a bunch of road rash, my hip looked pretty nasty and my left thumb hurt like hell. It was only later that night when I was sitting in the ER did my wrist start to hurt even though I was on pain killers already. They took a TON of x-rays (I was in the room for over an hour). Everything looked pretty intact except for my right wrist and my left thumb. Both of those are in splints until I go see the orthopedic surgeon on Monday. They thumb might need some repair work.

The good new came the next morning when I discovered I could wipe my own rear end still. Beth was literally jumping for joy over that one. I'm rolling along pretty good for a guy without the use of his thumbs. I can ride the trainer but the sweat breaks down the splints, not the best thing for me to do.

My parents are coming up to help me move and put the finishing touches on the new office. Look for updates on my recovery and the new place soon!

June

2006-06-30T15:55:00.000-07:00

June was OK. Beth and I went to visit family in Houston after Hood and I was busy getting my new office remodeled.

Racing was marginal at best. We missed the move at Hugo and despite a long and hard chase we didn't even crack the top ten. Prom park didn't go much better, Chuck and Alan got out manuvered by GS Ciao.

Dead Dog was cool with Christian on FIRE. I ended up 6th, through technicalities and then moved up to 4th through even more technicalities. Wierd race in terms of guy breaking rules.

That racing stuff was all fun and games until tuesday when BANG I got smacked by a car heading out of town.

Mt Hood Wrap Up

2006-06-30T15:05:00.000-07:00

Considering it was almost a month ago I've decided to do wrap up on Mt. Hood. Due to many recent developments it's probably the last NRC race I will ever travel to. At Hood:

I ruined a pair of shorts, jersey and socks due to lack of a good washing machine.

The accompanying dryer literally ATE my shoe covers and another jersey.

We made a whopping $000,000.00 in prize money.

I blew around $800 on getting there, rental car, housing, entry fee and various crap.

It was ALMOST all worth it for this attack on the final climb of the last day (after flatting on the first climb):

Lookin purty out now

2006-06-02T18:34:00.000-07:00

But it sure wasn't this morning when we were racing. Yesterday was cool except the downhill finish that strangely reminded me of last year's Tour of Utah stage that ended up almost killing a fellow racer in a 40mph finish line crash. It rained the last half lap which added to the fear factor.

Today was wet, kinda cold and a bit lame. I'm always amazed how many guys are afraid to race when a team like Health Net is riding tempo. They only have 2 guys working and if several guy hit it hard later in the race it would really spic up the race. Unfortunately, everyone seems content to see how well they can follow the top 5 guys at the finish.

I tired to spice it up a bit with one lap to go but there was a serious lack of participation from other teams so I ended up burning the matches I needed for the finish. Baker was up there so that worked out well. CC Rider was in the break until 1 lap to go and was again living up to his reputation as an early break specialist in road races. I'm really hoping it will pay off soon with a win at a mtn race like this.

Baker's whipping up a mean smelling dinner, the boy can ride AND cook. He's the real deal.

Greetings from Oregon

2006-05-31T21:20:00.000-07:00

It's been a while but I'm back for a while.

Chuck, baker and I are in Hood River Oregon for the Mt Hood classic. This place is pretty cool and we're all looking forward to some good racing. We did the Prologue today and are currently waiting for results.

For now let's Recap:

Last day of gila= Horrible
Wheels of Thunder= Still pretty bad
Storage Wreck= Much better.
RMO= hoping I'm rested enough to race for 8 out of 9 days.

I've done a block like this before but have never done really big races in the time frame. We should know on Friday. It's a pretty long, hard day and it's supposed to rain. Tomorrow will be tense as there's a lot of guys and it seems like there's a wide variety of skill levels. Would be nice to see a race this big be pro-1 with a seperate cat 2 field.

I'm still waiting to find out how Whitey ended up with off the bike activities last weekend in Utah. Anyone?

I'd Like a Gila Wrap

2006-05-10T08:22:00.000-07:00

Gila was definitely a roller coaster for me. I managed to make the main break in the crit the day after the inner-loop. Some more not so well planned Cref tactics had our break caught at 6 laps to go. They did luck out with their sprinter nipping the win from an already celebrating Gord Fraser. Ouch, that got to hurt.

I felt pretty bad at the start the next day and it only got worse. I found myself getting dropped by the guy who won the crit on the gila monster. It was pretty much an embarassment. Baker crashed hard on the next decent after climbing like a bad-ass and almost taking the big prize at the top of the gila monster. I stopped to get the story and then start figuring out how we were going to get home on the 20 mile death crawl to the finish. To make matter worse the group I was with took off when I got flicked from a hand hold spot on the "aussie express" tow-ya-to-the-finish-mate car. one second they were there, I don't a spot and then they were gone.

Baker ended up being ok, but not after having four emergency vomit stops on the way home. Perckocet and MacDonalds don't mix very well alone, we also decided to drive one of the most twisty roads in Nem Mexico to add to the fun. He's had a very rough few days.

Bagel Boy Donald won the last day at the race with a superb lead out from wing man Garcia. Now that Oak Glen is gone I think the Gila Monster is probably the hardest non-UCI day of stage racing in the country. There's no easy way to the finish. A big hats off to that team for a very impressive win.

Lucky Day... Almost

2006-05-06T09:48:00.000-07:00

Made the first break yesterday which Toyota/United thought was too strong. They brought it back at the base of the climb where a Sierra Nevada guy attacked. The Toyota guys were spread across the whole road and when a hole opened up I shot through it to see if anyone would react. No one did and Dietrich waited for me. I caught him, completely redlined and we rode up the climb. I was finally able to get my legs and lungs back on the decent and we slowly built time. We knew were in luck when our gap was still over 4 minutes at the last feed zone. Toyota/United seemed content to let us take the stage and time bonuses. Things looked real good until TIAA-Cref decided they wanted to bring us back so their sprinter could try for the win. They succeeded in bringing us back, about 25 meters from the line, but it played into Moninger's benefit as he got another small time bonus on Baldwin. No Cref guys made the top ten. Oh well, it was worth a try.

Crit today, I like the course and have ridden well there before. Might be a bit cooked from yesterday though. CC is looking good and should be the man today.

In Reverse

2006-05-04T19:41:00.000-07:00

Had a good TT yesterday, I knew I was off pace from my ride last year. I was to conservative on the way out and as a result was 20 seconds slower than last year.

Today was a different story. I was feeling REALLY good from the gun. Made it through the loops around Cliff with ease and then proceeded to get a flat on the way to the climb. Baker and I switched wheels and chased back on, I felt even better after that effort. I was set up perfectly going into the climb. We hit the climb and my legs were all of a sudden not good. I couldn't really go hard at all. Made it over the mesa in the 3rd group and then my body decided to shift into reverse. Guys were flying by me like I was standing still. The worst part was I had NOTHING, couldn't get my HR or Watts up. BAD day for me.

CC Rider made the break for like the 5 th year in a row and produced a 5000Kcal day. Hats off to Coyle for another great ride.

The Cat 2 guys are RIPPING and making up for our GC shortfalls.

More fun tomorrow.

Onto Gila

2006-05-03T14:38:00.000-07:00

Had some good races last weekend and was happy with my form by the end of the day on Sunday. Baker and I drove to Las Vegas, NM on Monday night and continued down to Silver City yesterday. Nothing to eventful, except I got real Kick out of watching Baker chase this cat around our front yard with his phone, apparently to take it's photo to send his wife... Here kitty kitty kitty!

My TT start is in about 90 minutes so I'd better get rolling!

More later.

Birthday Boy

2006-04-27T17:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my birthday and it was anything but relaxing. Did some work in the AM, wrote up my speech notes and headed to VC "corporate" in Denver for a team presentation. I need to give a big thanks to Dirk, Chuck, Joey, Sharon, Renee, and Beth for taking a lot of time for the short and to the point presentation. It was the annual managers meeting and it was clear by the number of people there that VC is getting pretty big and not showing any signs of slowing down.

Booked it back to Boulder so I could head out and do a test on Flagstaff. It went as well as it could have and after two days off I didn't feel blocked at all. Don't know if that was good or bad.

Headed to La Mariposa for a great B-day dinner with friends and hit glacier afterwards.

I had every intention of getting out on my bike today and it just didn't work, looks like I'll have 3 days off this week. Looks like some of the work I've bee doing to take my business to the next level might pay off. More to come on that in the weeks ahead. Stay tuned!

Grumpy old man...

2006-04-25T08:33:00.000-07:00

So this was pretty much me with 3 laps to go in Sunday's bike race:

Whatever happened to make me loose my cool isn't really the point. I lost my temper and that is just not cool, especially in a damn bike race. Racing is filled with karma and I was positive that something bad was going fall upon some of my fellow racers after that race. Given a couple of days of down time it's actually probably the other way around. I probably did something years ago when I was figuring out how to race that partially led to my breakdown on Sunday. We were all rookies at some point. Heck, I still get taken to school in races on a regular basis. Sunday would probably be one of those days.

I do hope the Einstein's guys end up at every local race I end up at. Those guys are still learning the ropes but have contributed greatly to raising the bar of the local scene this year. My guess is that they will do the same thing at the national level, especially later in the year. We could be seeing a lot more of this:

You still can't overlook the "Barney Boys" of VC, we'll be there to make sure they earn every result they get. It's gonna be a good year with some great competition.

Here is my Ergomo .wko file from Sunday's Boulder Beer Road Race

Whooops

2006-04-22T08:24:00.000-07:00

One last thing about last Saturday's race...

This was me about 10 feet from the line diving to get my handlebars. I start to that victory thing and I got hit with a little gust of wind. As I was reaching to save myself I had some very vivid images run through my head of me crashing in a heap 5 feet from the line. At the same time I was thinking about this guys mistake from earlier this year.

I've put a link up on the side to my Training Peaks public view page of my training log. Occasionally I'll upload select files to my own server and link to them if for some reason you want look at them on your Cycling Peaks Software (best power meter software by far).

Here is the file from Boulder Larimer and also Here is Stazio

Have fun with it. Hope everyone has a good time in Nebraska, Grand Junction and at the Boulder Beer Road Race!

Ready to Rumble

2006-04-18T15:49:00.000-07:00

I took the day off my bike today in order to reorganize my office, catch up on accounting and work on the site. Tomorrow is back to the grindstone with long hard day in the saddle.

Last weekend was obviously pretty good for me. The team was CRAZY good on Saturday. When CC, Dirk, Baker and I rolled it on the second lap I was pretty impressed. There's something about wind races I don't like and that's probably the difficulty. There is also something I love, probably that same difficulty when things go your way.

Big thanks to Timmy Duggan for feeding us. Our team wishes him a speedy and complete recovery from his recently broken collarbone.

2006-02-18T08:16:00.000-07:00

we're really pumping the coffee before today's road race.?

Ready for Camps

2006-02-15T15:58:00.000-07:00

This is what I'm usually doing before and after each ride I do here. At this point I think I've got a really good grasp on almost all the riding in the area. This is key with the upcoming camps. We'll be able to take off and then do a lot of different stuff on each ride. It's a bit different than your pro job camp that involves tons of hours sitting in the saddle. These camps involve a lot of drills, intervals and work on controlling and evaluating efforts. Should be a good time

We're off to Valley of the Sun tomorrow. The timing is just right, it's supposed to rain while we're gone. With that it's time to clean bikes before the race.

First Race

2006-02-08T09:50:00.000-07:00

I raced over the weekend for the first time this year. For the 16th year in a row I filled out the form and pinned on my number. There is definitely something ritualistic about that process. After all these years I still get a bit nervous during registration, especially at the first race of the year. I don't know why but for some reason I always have this fear that something radically changed for the worse over a few months of not racing. Anyway, that was not the case and things went well. In typical teton form I got very frustrated sitting in the group so I attacked the last 3/4 of the race. I knew it was futile but it was fun to push myself for the first time this year. My last move got absorbed with 3 to go and I went straight to the back and waited for the final pile-up. I was actually a bit surprised that it didn't happen.

Yesterday I did one of the sweetest climbs I've ever done. It was 15 miles and 3000ft of really consistent and smooth climbing. The only problem was that it's 2 hrs away and that made for a pretty long day (3800kj's). Needless to say I'm a bit tired today and it's going to take an extra cup of coffee to get going today.

It was nice today

2006-02-02T21:02:00.000-07:00

Most people know I'm a big fan of over-dressing on my bike and keeping "rugged up" almost all of the time in the winter and spring. Today in Santa Barbara it was warm enough for shorts and short sleeves. Not only was it warm enough but I was sweating.

Getting excited to see how my form is at the first crit of the year on Sunday.

2006-01-31T21:00:00.000-07:00

rollin' down the strip in the lbc (long beach), with tyler.

Urban Assault

2006-01-29T14:20:00.000-07:00

Staying at the beach and visiting my parents is great. The weather is pretty nice, definitely better than back in CO. THe problem lies in that no matter which direction you go, it's city and it's city for a while. Seeing as how I've just been "easing into" this big block of training we've been doing a lot of that wonderful urban assault riding. You know the type, jumpin pot holes, trying to avoid getting hit while managing to aslways get just a little bit lost. Tomorrow should be good as it's out first long day, I'll ride and hour up the coast, an hour in to the mountains, and meet Beth for a solid 4 hr loop. SHould be fun if it works out. Should be interesting.

Sunset

2006-01-27T21:32:00.000-07:00

And the sun is going...

2006-01-27T21:22:00.000-07:00

...going....

2006-01-27T21:12:00.000-07:00

...gone is our first day of visiting my home away from home, San Diego.

Happy Thoughts

2006-01-19T14:26:00.000-07:00

Since everyone at home in CO is enjoying a nice afternoon of snow I get to spend an extra few hours in Seattle waiting or the plane to arrive. I am currently doing my daily afirmation (just like Stuart Smalley from SNL).?

2006-01-19T00:38:00.000-07:00

Ben made a bet with dea that if she didn't cry when she was having that line put in her neck that he would buy her a pair of shoes. well she obviously didn't cry because here she is with her shoes. I'm really glad I was able to get up here. I think ben, dea and her mom (wanda) are finally settling into more of goove. it's pretty clear that dea isn't going to get better overnnight. Everyone seems to be on the same page with being "cautiously optomstic" about the next 7-10 days. Since I've been here I've gotten to see dea pretty much at her lowest only to find her rebounded, mobile and smiling the next day. there will be more peaks and valleys to come but she has really proven to be trooper through everything. thanks for letting me come visit!!

2006-01-19T00:21:00.000-07:00

this is the walkway to his house, it really give you the urge to say "ahoy matee" as you are pretty much walking on a pier.

2006-01-19T00:06:00.000-07:00

and this is the view from his deck.

Problems

2006-01-13T20:21:00.000-07:00

My e-mail server has been down for most of the day and it seems that I've haven't been recieving messages since last night. If you're desperate to send me an e-mail try using my t_ton1@hotmail.com account. It sounds like they will get the server back online by Sat AM. If you sent me an e-mail anytime on Friday the 13th (coincidence?!?) please try resending it to ensure I get a copy of the message.

It's been a big week for me with trying to catch up on work from last weeks illness. I was also trying to cram in a decent block of training. Things have gone well on both fronts other than getting shut out on my ride today.

In other news it has been anything but a normal week for good friends Ben and Dea (see blog link on the right). I made a hasty decision today to get a last minute cheap flight to go visit them in Seattle next week. I'll be leaving Tuesday morning and returning Thursday night. I should be able to keep up on e-mail while I'm there. Ahhh, a pilgrimage to the birth place of Starbucks.

Want Some $$$

2006-01-06T15:41:00.000-07:00

I'm still filling spaces for my week long camps in Santa Barbara. If you refer someone to me who identifies you as their reference and they sign up for a camp I'll give you, my blog reader, $75. For more info on the camps either go to my website or visit the following link:

Dang

2006-01-05T09:14:00.000-07:00

Not the greatest start to the new year. Some gnarly bug had me down for the past two days and probably contributed to sending me on brief trip to the ER with an asthma attack. I'll be trying to get my self to sit in front of the computer for a while today and hopefully get on my bike again.

Today is the Anniversary of Beth and I's engagement. It's been a roller coaster of a trip since then. I'm very happy that we're finally able to settle down a bit.

To Infinity and Beyond!

2006-01-03T15:09:00.000-07:00

This what Buzz Light Year says on regular basis and thus what I heard a lot of while in Texas. Good Old Griffin Fisk is a big Buzz fan.

We're back from Texas and we had a wonerful time. I wasn't feeling so hot travelling yesterday and have a full blown case of the flu today. Needless to say I will be abit slow getting back on my feet. I've already slept a good 14 hrs since 8 last night and am feeling another nap coming on.

In other bike riding news I rode at the ranch while we were in Texas. It was a new experience hitting dirt roads in the sometimes inhospitiable south texas brush. Why is it interesting? Well for one it was 91 on January 1st. That's toasty. Next, I got a book containing all the plants and shrubs of south texas. It was divided into two parts, thorned plants and thorned plats. Basically, if you leave the packed dirt or even cross over from one tire track to the next you'll flat on a 3" thorn.

Now it's back to the gym, bike riding in 50mph winds and a little skate skiing.

Look for updates on what I'm up to. Right now it's R&R until I can stop feeling aches and pains in spots I never knew I had.

2005-12-27T20:03:00.000-07:00

there's a first time for everything. this is the first time i have ever seen anyone riding on the narrow death roads by beth's parents house.

Guess Who's Coming To Town

2005-12-24T11:39:00.000-07:00

Off we go! Beth and I will soon find out who's been naughty and who's been nice this event filled year. Go Santa! Go Santa! Go Santa!

It's on

2005-12-22T10:18:00.000-07:00

Tis the season to start blogging again. Here's Beth getting into the holiday spirit by yelling at the "price is right". She was very happy for the little old lady who won $20,000 playing plachinko and was afraid to shout about it.
?
?we're off to Texas in a few days and I've got some hours to get in on bike before we go.

Office Hours Update for 12/10

2005-12-09T11:40:00.000-07:00

We're riding Saturday! Bring your warm clothes, we'll bundle up and head out for about 4 hrs. mostly easy, flat cruising. Turns out the most difficult part of the ride will be getting out of the cul-de-saq. Be prepared for slip sliding fun.

Good times!

2005-11-26T21:18:00.000-07:00

It's snowing for real now and the skiing is getting pretty good! Here's Beth's brother Todd and his daughter Gracen. She's starting to really rip on skis!!!

Coaching... It knows no bounds

2005-11-24T16:55:00.000-07:00

Brent came over for turkey so I put him to work on my parents exercise bike.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2005-11-24T16:35:00.000-07:00

The lift stopped

2005-11-23T11:43:00.000-07:00

and look...it's snowing!!

Excitement in the Mountains

2005-11-22T21:39:00.000-07:00

This is my nephew Griffin taking his first steps in snow. He was a bit apprenhensive at first and was irritated by the snow on his boots. In fact, he would stop occasionally to brush off the snow.

Gracen was along to help show her brother the ropes.

What was really classic today was how Griffin greeted me at the airport. As he saw me he let out a long "Jjjooooonnnn" which was immediately followed with a loud "my BOY!!" like we were buddies from college or something.

We headed out for a walk and hit the ice rink up at the base of Beaver Creek. On our way home it was dark and we were all glad to be gettng inside soon. I saw something down the path and remember thinking: wow, that's a pretty realistic bear statue by the playgroun. All of a sudden I got a very bad feeling. Midway through that feeling, my suggestion to everyone of, "I think we need to walk a little faster" apparently, what I thought was a statue turned and started walking towards us. The rest was pretty blurry to remember. We all calmly hurried up but the bear actually tried to cut us off as we headed home. It was sad to see that this bear had NO FEAR of humans. Beth's dad finally managed to scare it off with the help of Beth and her camera's flash. Check out the sweet picture of the incident on her blog. I was busy during the whole thing keeping "my boy" out of harms way.

Look Closely!

2005-11-19T22:44:00.000-07:00

We went to a team party tonight. It was for the VC master's team to celebrate their kick-ass year. It was at team captain Pinkerton's place. When we got the tour we saw this superb specim of a mullet with ***an extra long rat tail*** extending from the party side. The mullet was found on the head of Bob's son, and VC member Joey "the rooster" Pinkerton.

2005-11-18T20:57:00.000-07:00

Beth and I were riding a four wheeler through some south Texas backroads when I slammed on my brakes to let this big guy cross our path. He was rattling his tail at us and Beth got a photo as he slid back into some brush. It was a big sucker, 4-5 Ft long.

A good reason (along with the huge cactus thorns) not to ride the cross bike around there!

How old am I?

2005-11-17T23:48:00.000-07:00

Really???
?
?I'm on my way home from Texas and had two people make "interesting" comments on my age during the trip. An older gentleman who was processing our rental car said, "Mr. Jon, when you get to be my age people will stlll think you are a boy. That's a good thing". Now I thought that was a bit flattering and cute but nothing really prepared me for what I heard when checking in for our return flight. I had just finished putting our bags up to be checked as Beth was asking if we could get emergency exit row seats and the woman checking us in repled, "And how old is he?" as she ponted to me. Yep, that's right, she mistook me for a minor!!!
?
?Look for some more trip details and pctures later.

Visiting Mom

2005-11-10T14:31:00.000-07:00

even though she's "retired" my mom still works. She teaches new teachers or something like that at an elementary school. we stopped by to see her after having lunch with my dad on the way to DIA. she showed us her favorite poster that one of the kids made.?

2005-11-10T14:24:00.000-07:00

this is what it said. man, life was good in elementary school.

It's Official

2005-11-09T18:09:00.000-07:00

I suck at posting on a regular basis. Anyway here is a quick update...

I got my head on straight and got most of my ducks in a row for my clients. I'm still trying to figure out a convenient way for them to pay without going through to much trouble.

I've reserved a house for February so look out, it's a whole month of hard training camps in Montecito. I'm still waiting for another coach to finalize the week that she'll be contracting from me. If you're going to Valley of the Sun you should think about including some time with me in Montecito, it would be worth the 7hr drive from Phoenix.

Over the weekend I managed to have my best cross race since espoir nationals back in 1997. I guess the Louisville rec center is a good course for me. I also weenied out and put on race wheels with good tires. It still felt good to do one of those things and finish well while not puking in the process.

Now it's off to Texas. Look for some posts from "katherine" while we're on the road. I'm looking forward to the warmth, it's supposed to be in the 90's down there. Gitty-up!

DANG

2005-10-27T20:37:00.000-07:00

BUSY BUSY BUSY I sure end up doing a lot of "good will" work. I seem to have gotten myself in kinda deep in try to grow and develop the Vitamin Cottage women's and cat 3/4 teams. I just hope it all pays off next spring and they end up being very noticable imrpovements over years past.

The other big work item I've overdone this week is the Santa Barbara Training Camps 2006. Yes that's right plural...camp-S. Well actually we'll be staying in Montecito (bling bling). I'll be opening them up to my clients next week as I finally get many of them going with training for next year. I have break down and say it, I've been slacking at that. I guess part of it is I still haven't figured out a way for people to pay me without either paper checks or outrageous fees.

I've been killing it on the fitball with the "mature" women in Balance and Strength class. Doubling up with a ride afterwards usually prety much wipes me out for the day, luckily I only attempt it twice a week. I'm gonna try and race twice this weekend. Maybe if I'm a bit tired from actually working out during the week I won't puke like I did last Sunday.

Ketchup

2005-10-24T09:04:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posts. Last week was pretty busy. I didn't get on bike once between my first cross race and the second. That made yeaterdays race pretty hard. Boulder Racing's bad-ass race yesterday once again proved why they are the the current kings of cross promotion in the state. It was all grass and it was HARD. They made the most of what they had to work with in a small area.

In other news Beth and I did join a gym. Flatirons Athletic Club is our new spot. Last week we did some swimming and few exercise classes in the early morning when it was way to cold to ride. I found that my inability to keep a beat also let me off the back in these classes. Instructor and class would be making one movement and I was usually doing the opposite. Oh well, we're trying some more classes this week.

Veloswap was Saturday and I had a ball working the Vitamin Cottage booth. It was a prime opportunity to meet with some people from our club and help them to get the ball rolling for next year. Look for much improved squads of Women and Cat 3's and 4's from VC next year.

We also got to hand out a bunch of products that VC carries. Good stuff from a good company. The hot topic on everyone's mind was the new store going in @ 15th and Platte. This is right by the big REI in downtown and is sure to be a big hit with everyone in that area.

Maybe I'll update a bit more this week.

I went bike racing

2005-10-16T21:02:00.000-07:00

After one ride on the new rig I decided to race. Turns out my fitness wasn't as bad as I had previously thought. It went ok and I managed not to get lapped. The promoter went out of their way to ensure the course had a mud bog. I ran it every lap so my bike looked like this, but my legs....

2005-10-16T21:01:00.000-07:00

,,,my legs looked like this. It was kind of like having dry crusty boogers all over my legs.

lame

2005-10-13T21:02:00.000-07:00

bethie blogging our EXCITING thursday night activities. nothing like blogging a blogger blogging.

Tomorrow

2005-10-12T16:13:00.000-07:00

this arrives...

But right now I've got go to a lecture on bike fit at teh Boulder Center for Sports Medicine

I'm SLOW

2005-10-11T17:27:00.000-07:00

Tried riding my bike again today. Not so pretty, this is the worst I have felt since getting knocked out by mono several years ago. I look ok but I've got nothing when pushing on the pedals. It's kinda scary to be this out of shape. Rode with Roscoe and ended up running into the long lost Kurt Rees. Roscoe did a good job at going slow with me, Kurt didn't. Kurt didn't help anything bay saying he hadn't been on a bike in 3 months.

Slowly slipping in more wedding pics, here's my mom and my sister getting down on the dance floor. That gene was apparently not passed on to me, only Sara.

Here's my Dad doing the unthinkable, ENJOYING A SOCIAL FUNCTION!!!

Hey wait a minute, where's Chris????

Straight shooting again

2005-10-10T16:56:00.000-07:00

Finally able to focus clearly on work and life in general. It's good to be back.

Here's a picture of me having fun at the wedding with Beth's father and brother. If you look carefully her dad he is actually smiling, rare, very rare. Maybe they really do like me!

I would be skeptical of a guy if I were in his shoes, I mean just look at that beautiful young lady dancing with her father...

Yeah... I almost cried when I saw the two of them dancing. Memorable times.

Getting back on track

2005-10-09T16:53:00.000-07:00

Finally, life is slowly returning to normal. I road my bike yesterday for the second time in the past 3 weeks. The other day was the wedding day. I felt great that day. Yesterday was not so good. I was pretty beat after 90 minutes of EASY spinning. I got my cross bike ordered so I should have some extra motivation to get back into the swing of some sort of training after this current storm lets up.

We still don't know what's going on with VC for next year and it's driving me crazy. I hope to get a better idea of the situation tomorrow.

hope to be posting a bit more often now.

I thought I was ready...

2005-10-05T16:12:00.000-07:00

I wasn't. Once Beth's mom arrived everything went crazy. even the honeymoon was a blur. Make sure to check out Beth's Crazy Days. She kept up with her blgo through the chaos. Now that all is said and done it was an EPIC experience and we both agree we will not be doing it again.

Look for more pictures soon.

who's got style???

2005-09-19T11:29:00.000-07:00

here's beth getting her pre-wedding haircut. i'm up next in aida's chair. aida is pretty damn good with cuttin hair. beth's mom get's in tonight. the final countdown begins...

2005-09-15T20:24:00.000-07:00

marriage license, check

move out old bed, check

move another bed to basement, check

assemble new bed, check

DANCE lessons, check

new lights, check

read coaching manual, not really

take coaching test, check

catch up in office, check

sleep, hopefully

good times in lyons

2005-09-14T10:28:00.000-07:00

mmmm.... Double shot and a bagle with "racin bacon" I guess I don't really care that there's no racing going on, I still love bacon!

@ barking dog in lyons

poopy day

2005-09-13T20:43:00.000-07:00

today I got to supply bethie with lots of clear liquid. she had a bad digestive illness and was laid out all day. sprite was high on the request list. mmmm lemon-lime... refreshing!

2005-09-13T10:46:00.000-07:00

trying to go mobile?

slow poke

2005-09-13T10:38:00.000-07:00

it took me more time to design and post a link on my website than it did to create this blog. I must really suck at HTML.

Uh huh

2005-09-12T20:57:00.000-07:00

... will be working on this a bit more. should be good when it gets rolling. speaking of rolling, who the heck is this character?

maybe not

2005-09-12T20:11:00.000-07:00

ok maybe this is cooler than I had previously thought. I might play with this a bit more. The blog thing is way more fun that writing HTML for my website.

this is lame

2005-09-12T17:38:00.000-07:00

umm yeah I just want to make fun of schillings blog