Lenses and Intervals

My hip felt a ton better today than last night. I think I’m going into the barriers faster this year and it’s jacking my hip in a wierd way. I thought it would have happened already in my cross carreer but I am at an advanced age now. Great roadride to loosen up some more and then do a bit of work, intervals are getting to be a little easier to stomach, good set today. Great day then we had to zip to Denver to get Beckham’s contact lens from the doctor. Good visit with doctor then a Q-Doba burrito, some bitch in line in front of me had the most pronounced lack of manners I think I have ever heard. Not a polite word from her the whole time she ordered three meals. It blows my mind how evil some people are! Not that it takes a great effort to be just a bit nice. I might try to get out on an mtb ride tomorrow, or just a block of cross work would be better then mtb thursday. Races saturday and sunday this weekend, ACA #3 and Boulder #1, very excited for both, maybe we’ll get some weather! I hope Joel wins a cross race this year...

Any Given Sunday

Cross race number two, the ACA series has two of five events in the can. I guess I have the lead, I guess. The race panned out rather oddly. T-Brown went away about half way through the first lap. He was on the pink singlespeed, a perfect course for a single and a good day to not worry about shifting, too much other stuff going on. Dubba and I rode solidly in second and third until he dropped his chain, I went away until a guy started catching up with me and wouldn’t pull through on the dirt road sections, I guess he was riding the mud bog and on the next time through I kind of stepped into his way and his front wheel hit my calf, that sent him flying into the bog, well that’s racing. After that I didn’t have to deal with him, he lingered a minute or so back. Then the mountain bike guy from last week surged up to me and tried to attack through. I let him lead the techy sections so I could see what he had and then made sure not to give him too much room. I was trying to figure out where to attack and drop him when out of nowhere Dubba came up and went through us, I quickly got on his wheel and we both dropped mtb guy. going into the last lap I had a 5 second or so gap to make up on Dubba and I tried to ride the smoothest line and not blow it too soon. After the last tech section I saw him fixing his chain again, sprinting past him I said “sorry buddy!” he came in a few seconds later for third. Overall a good day, second behind a full-pro is ok with me, I would have preferred to give him a race but I wasn’t on a great day anyway. My skills are getting better but I need to be sharper, with fewer mistakes handling wise. The drive home was amazing, we had great views of the peaks and valleys, the trees were perfectly colored and we had a good drive listening to radiohead with Shaubie and Little B in the car. It was just one of those days that sticks in your mind, almost perfect!

Stars, Lenses and Fixes

The stars today were amazing, Jackson and I went for our little walk and I couldn't stop looking at Orion's Belt and the other two or three constellations I know, Sometimes I prefer to not know constellations rather than just appreciating the stars and sky as a unit. The stars seem so close and vivid as you look at them and the sky was a such an indigo blue that it constrasted pefectly with the stars shine. I know this is a little hippy for me but it was a really cool sight, especially because as I went to bed I saw a shooting star out my bedroom window. We lost one of Beckham's contact lenses the other day, I didn't think it was the end of the world but Shaubie felt she was responsible for losing it. I was psyched we got this far with out losing one! Shaubie is so good with him that to have one little snag after all the eye surgeries/hospital visits, doctor's visits and countless trips to Denver that losing a lens was the same as getting one flat all season. The bottom line is we won't get the lens until mid-week and then it'll be about a grand to replace. What can you do? I rode the fixy to work today, I may be falling love with another kind of bike. It's a lot of fun and in the pre-dawn light it was pretty cool to roll through town pre-thinking every turn so as to not lay it down with sew-ups that aren't glued very well. Going down the Col du Wellington I was a bit nervous but then I let it go and had no trouble getting around the turn. Check out www.oldskooltrack.com for some cool info on the fixed gear. I may choose to stick with the fixy for the time being and put the FSSP on hold until spring. I'd love to get couplings for it and some nice proper wheels and set it up the way it should be. But for now it'll be the bike it is, cobbled together and beautiful in it's own way.

I really need a new headlamp, this morning on the way in the road bike wanted to hit every pothole and divot on the street. There are a bunch of headlamps that I like but I'm not real sure which one to get. I also would like a pair of knickers from hypnotic designs, but they are way too much cash. Meanwhile I have a bit rot-gut going on right now and would prefer to go home and sleep, so I think I'll go there, walk #1 and then go couch until bedtime. I hope I'm not getting sick, that would suck, I still have two more days of opening before sunday's race. The garage project is still up in the air, I need to get all of the numbers together and see if it's do-able. The town is a big help, the building department guys talk in a way even I can understand...sort of. Sometimes it seems like they want you to re-invent the wheel and then you get more info and realize it's already been done, like the wheel, how's that for circular logic?! The more I think about it the more I want one but the budget is set in stone, anymore money and it's prohibitive. I keep thinking I'll hit the bear on my way to work, he was huge and would probably maul me on principle for hitting him. I know that I'd feel really guilty for hitting him, he is just minding his own business, not that we can fault him for that, drastic reduction in his habitat (read house) can't be his problem so much as ours. I'm not complaining as much as illustrating a point, afterall it was my house he was walking behind, I'm as much to blame as the next guy, but I know I'm to blame. Where my house sits was just a pile of river rock for the last hundred or so years but it's near diminished habitat, so I lump myself in with the trophy homes up on the ridge that took acres from his house. I believe it's the same guy I saw on the Barney Ford (Scott Reid) trail. He was huge. I know in my sleep-deprived state if I hit a bear at 5.30 in the morning that I'd be an instant ragdoll and maybe he'd think of me as deadmeat and not hurt me anymore than the impact with the ground at 20 miles an hour. One of the good things would be to just be that close to a wild bear, to smell what he had for dinner, as long as it wasn't me. To understand how the lack of natural predators allows him to walk with such confidence. I hope Joel reads this it reminds me of the time we saw a porcupine walking on 4 O'clock Road at 3 in the morning.

It had to be one of the nicest days I can remember, no work (intervals) or anything like that just a great ride on the path with Evan and then Jacqui for a bit. Absolutely perfect weather! The legs are totally recovered from the weekend and the body is ready to get into cross work 100%. Sunday's work with Little B in the Burley was harder than saturday's race I think!? The bike is really good to me! Shaubie rode early this morning, I think it's the coolest thing to see my wife go out on the path with Beckham in the Burley, especially how hard she has to ride just to get around. We kind of fell off the wagon with dinner, we had pizza, not the good-for-you stuff we have been eating, we dodged a bullet like three or four nights in a row and went with good stuff instead. We had a string of really good salads for dinners, you know full meal salads that just were the best! Oh well, maybe we can get out for sushi sometime soon. Shun or Hiro? Both are amazing sushi chefs but which one? Then there's the Bernard, another great chef in Merlin. I love to eat, my inner fat man is always trying to get out, thank god for Brian, my tapeworm who keeps the inner fat man at bay. I guess they have a daily battle, Brian fighting the Fat Man for the upper hand, all in the Arena of Tim. I imagine Brian going about his business eating whatever calories I don't need and the Inner Fat Man trying to slow Brian at every bite. I wonder what kind of food Brian likes best? Is it fatty stuff like pizza? Or is it good veggies and low fat chicken and beans? Organic or GMOs and other crap-laden mass-produced foods? The cross race on Sunday is in Tabernash, that means I get to go to the great natural food store in Fraser for a sandwich, I know I've mentioned it before but it's a treat to get over there for a meal. In the old mtb racing days I'd get there a few times a summer but now it's more like once every couple of years. Evan and I may collaborate on the Fat Single-Speed Project (FSSP), with a little bit of work and a singulator I think we can get it done. We have most of the most of the parts and the bike just needs to be put together. One of the snags is a Fat City rigid fork, anybody have one laying around? I'm listening to Portishead right now, on DMX, odd. Anyway back to the FSSP, some of the trails would be perfect on a single, the other people I know that ride them really like some stuff and other stuff is just not as fun. I'm not one to join in on the latest craze but I think the simplicity of the single would be great on some of the flumes too, rigid would be best but Evan has a SID sitting around that is 1" so maybe we'll use that until we find a proper fat fork. I think I'll have fun and get to see if I really want to build one of my own.

Since I had a good ride yesterday I thought it would be great to do some more work today, I rode to Copper with the boys and Beckham was in the Burley on the cross bike with knobbies at race pressure (40psi) I made it as hard as I could and it wasn't easy coming back to Breck either! The burley loaded must add 40 pounds. A few little intervals and then a big slog up to Copper. Back to Breck was tough too, pretty slow but the legs weren't too fresh at this point. The afternoon at Octoberfest (I know it's still september) was fun, we walked around, Beckham and I had fun ate lots of food and even had a beer. Todd did some damage last night, too much real estate and a thong is about I know, oh yeah and something about an ass like a bear. Shaubie worked a booth at Octoberfest and enjoyed some good food and beer. Tonight she showed how well she can handle a Beckham meltdown when he freaked out and we had to leave the neighbors due to a crying spell. He was just too tired from the long ride and a day spent in town with loud drunk people talking to us. Shaubie looked beautiful standing there selling the delicious Lobster Rolls and great Limonata. Thank god it's cross season! Enjoy the wheel Tim

I don't really write too much about coffee, but it's not so much a habit as an enjoyment, maybe 4 or 5 days of the week. The crappy coffee even for a neophyte like me is not an option. I never really claim to be able to feel the difference between bikes or different stuff, I think it's called perspacacity, but good coffee and good wheels and tires are two things I can feel. Oh yeah, and bad fish! We made some salmon that was in the fridge for a week the oter night and I sort of overcooked it a bit on the grill and still when I tried a little piece, it had a metallic and sort of chemical taste to it. The fish was bad, needless to say I spit out the remainder and drank a beer and ate a good bit of non-rotten dinner and then a thing of cinnamon rolls for goo measure. I didn't get sick but I thought for sure I would be waking up at midnight with the pukey-shits. I got lucky! Lately we are back on the salad with chicken dinner, which I love. It's so good and good for you, salad is one of those things that makes you feel more fit after just eating it. I wonder if Joel gets to race clydesdale in cross? He'd really do some damage then!

The last few days have been a lot better, I really feel like I may be starting to train like an athlete again. It doesn't take a ton of time just a bit of time spent the right way. A few hot laps on the course last night and I was as ready as I can be for a cross race in late september. Well, today went well, the body responded well to the stress of a race with a modest field but a fast pace and racing at 9800 ft. Cross probably isn't meant to be contested up here. Well the race started badly for me I missed my pedal and then went off the side of the course on the way over the first techy section, I recovered well and moved up to second on the road bit. Then it was just three of us for a lap or two and all of the sudden I had a 5 second gap going into lap 3 and then at the start of lap 4 I had 30 seconds, and that was it, I hovered between 20 and 35 seconds the rest of the race over a group of chasers adn then just one guy. A slight bobble with about 20 minutes left and then a bit of anaerobic pain to get the gap back and I was free to get my first win in a while. Two seasons in a row with a win in cross, I may actually be ok at this thing! Thanks for reading Tim

I know I haven't been writing but life just sometimes takes things aside that were not always that way. I have been getting ready for cross full force, well with as much force as I can put together for two hours at a time. The bike feels great, the skills are coming along solidly, I almost feel that I can dis and re mount like a guy who knows how to cross. Beckham is doing better and better he just brightens my day when he smiles and looks at me. He looks for me whenever I talk while he is eating, like he is looking for his Dad to play with and eat later. The way he gives you the full body giggle is super cool, I guess he is just my son and everything he does is cool and funny and beautiful to me. Still I want to see him do new things, he rolls over now and is almost able to roll back at will. I'm psyched to ride my fix gear a little bit soon, I want a garage to put the bikes and car in, so I can get up in the morning and choose; mtb, cross, road or fixy. I love bikes.

I put on a new chain on B bike finally! Now it skips, I hate it when I’m lazy. Well it needs a cassette switch anyway. The bike feels really good, now I just need some minor stuff done and one bike will be race ready. The ride was a bit of a easy spin, no real work but then again friday is a rest day. I’ll get around to a program next week, nothing spectacular but a load a working father can handle. I’ll maybe do the Denver ride this coming week, Nick is really into it, we just need to get a ride home. Travis is in Scotland right now, how cool is that! His first international, I hope he sees Nessy or eats haggis. He might be into it as well. I have a chance to run today, maybe I’ll take it and start, I think my skills in cross are more dumb luck and base than real specific preparation. I am a crosser, I will run because that is what cross has in it. I need to do my homework in the areas that others perhaps are not doing theirs. As my road season hit the skids in june I’ll either be flying or off the back by october. I am sipping a latte that is delicious it’s from a national chain not the local shop but i didn’t buy it, it was a gift. I wonder what it would be like to be a benevolent philanthropist, not working just supporting causes you believe in. My bikes are in ok shape right now, well except for the chain problem on the B bike and the work that needs to be done on well, all of them, I guess they aren't in great shape. Hopefully the fix gear will be up and running properly by late fall and I can have a cool commuter out of it as well as a beast for the rollers. I want a singlespeed mtb really bad, I may have to settle for the fixy being a bit of both, perhaps a fix gear cross bike, Steve Elmes would be proud of that. I think there is enough clearance to get a 28 on the back but the front maybe a bit harder. Maybe I get a carbon fork for the A bike and put the IF fork on the fix without brakes, oh I’m rampling in bikespeak (geek.) Once again if I was a wealthy philanthropist that all would be possible, instead I’ll make do with what I have. Having friends with secondhand stuff in good shape is a great way to acquire needed parts.

On NPR this morning I heard a very sad thing, Johnny Cash had died. Being only a fan the past few years his farther reaching influence was loost on me. I just thought this guy to be an old country singer that a lot of newer artist were fans of. When bands I liked when I was younger mentioned the man in black as an icon, I thought you know I should listen to more Johnny Cash to hear the influence in their music. when I finally got around to getting his music on my high-speed napster account at school a few years ago I was hooked. I had to hide the napster account files in a secretly named folder in the harddrive where nobody would look, it was great I got to learn about good music and how to hide stuff on a computer that wasn’t really mine to load 500 or so songs onto! I learned all about how to hide stuff, maybe someday that knowledge will be helpful in the real world! The ability to learn about these artists without spending a ton of money on cds I didn’t know to be the right ones to learn about music new to me. The high speed didn’t hurt either. I can’t wait to have high speed at home. Well enjoy life because you never know when you can’t ride or hear "I walk the line" listen to new music...

Today I had soup for lunch, a really good tamale soup that was just the right side of spicey, sometimes it's nice to have the simple treat of good lunch, not that it's a super big deal but it's pretty cool to have such a good hearty lunch. I rode alone this afternoon, thinking I was riding with a few people I didn't put the mp3 in my bag. My mistake. I rode some singletrack and dirt road and path to get in some good work but overall it wasn't too great. My front tire was a bit low, so on every rock I thought it was going to flat. As my mom and grandfather are here we had a wonderful dinner at home, good pasta with chicken and asparagus. Last night the four of us went to the Hearthstone and Shaubie and I had what amounted to a sushi salad. It was raw seared tuna on a bed of really good greens, the tuna was crusted with sesame and the greens were dressed with a really good soy-wasabe compound. Once or twice I got such a wasabe rush my eyes watered and I almost choked! I wish sushi was as cheap as PB&J, I'd eat it all the time. Imagine surf clam for lunch and spicy tuna as an after-ride snack! mmmmm sushi. Does anyone besides me read this? Oh well it's just my ideas.

I got back on the road bike and I feel like I’m on the trolley again, The bike has never felt better, some more cross stuff and a bit of running and I might pull off a good ride next saturday in Breck. The odds are good that my legs will show up, I can’t have that many shitty races in Summit County in a row...or can I? Tomorrow is the second cross ride, a break is just what i needed. I'm really doing intervals for the first time in a while, structure is good! Perhaps a day of motor pace work with a day of cross course stuff and not much else other than a long day of hard stuff on dirt roads, around 11-13 hours a week. Erwin would be proud. Beckham has been good aside from periodic meltdowns, the eyes are in good shape, and we think the boy is teething! He is eating his hand a lot more than normal and isn’t too thrilled if he is left alone. I hope the cross race happens next week...

The Colorado Trail up from West Ridge to Tiger road was a blast, good 90 minute climb and ripping 30 minute descent. We rode at a really slow pace on climb because he was on the verge of puking the whole time. Puke that's funny! Tim rode his singlespeed like a champ the whole way up after being sick for two days. Between he and Nick I don't know who did the most entertaining on the climb. I was just kind of suffering to climb the hill without laughing too hard, we stopped twice just to rest and eat more Mojos. MMMM mojos.... Oh yeah, the descent rocked, I actually feel like I may be a racing cyclist again soon! Then later on I rode the Barney Ford trail with Scott, we saw a black bear that was the size of my fridge! He was just walking around the woods, not caring about the stupid cyclists riding by him too fast. Scott makes a great trail, what a cool job he has! Perfectly laid out and flowing really well up & down. I hope Joel rode his bike today. Enjoy

The course this morning was unreal, the trail was a bit wet but an amazing loop! We started out in a little rain after about thirty minutes my friend went down going across a rooty section leading up to a bridge, he split open his knee pretty well and had to go back and clean it out. After not riding this stuff for a few years it's a blast to ride again a lot of them have been improved and rerouted on to better and more sustainable terrain. The track was a bit sloppy on the older stuff the mining roads and old unmaintained singletrack but it was just fun to rip through the woods on good flowing trails for three hours. I really missed the fun of a mtb while trying to go pro on the road, now I have no problem riding the fat tires and maintain a balance between the two, with a fair bit of cross stuff now that church is about to begin! I drank too much coffee today and kind of made myself sick, I was just dumb! I guess two is about all I can handle. I hope Tim A. gets over his stomach thing...

Philosophically, Standard or Daylight time makes little sense to me, I never really understood why in modern society we cling to ideas from another time. In 2003 why do we adhere to old ideas that we need more or less daylight at the end of the day, do the farmers right now really care? Hell if they do, I’m all for it, after all we are the worlds breadbasket! Once the weather starts to change and the clocks fall back an hour we usually lose a bit of our motivation to ride. The trails and roads are still there and there is still time after work to get out for a spin or a commute. I like to go out on the dirt roads and ride a cross bike with a good set of lights and some warmer clothes. Depending on where you ride, a headlamp can be a big help, for singletrack it’s a good idea. Enough about the crap you need, the important thing is getting out there and enjoying the dark on the stuff we ride we ride in the daylight! My personal favorite is dirt roads I’m not too familiar with. I like the sense of adventure I get when riding on stuff I may get a bit lost on. Darkness skews perception in such a way to put you where you thought you weren’t! My first adventure this year was on a road I had been on just once or twice on a bike before. I left work at about 6 pm and started up the road (county road #3) as I left the lighted area my lights illuminated a narrow path and put me on my way. Home was about 15 miles from where I began. I found a comfortable rhythm, the roads’ pleasant washboard on the switchbacks made for a good line to run through, and the ups and downs kept me working. Winding my way through what passes for a road between subdivisions that aren’t paved. This is a rare treat in suburban America. I was going up one of the many little hills and I saw two glowing orbs in the middle of the road, not sure what to make of it, I looked a bit harder. Only when I was within twenty or thirty feet the two little reflectors finally leapt out of their crouch to my surprise they were attached to a fox! The little guy was out looking for dinner. Perhaps a poodle or a scrumptious cat, not many poodles in Summit County though! He was a very pleasant sort, not sure what to make of the lights bearing down on him without the whir of an engine or the speed of one. Not long after I came across an intersection where my way was not 100% sure to me. I went right and started down what I thought was a shortcut. It would be have been shorter I hadn’t missed my turn to bring me back down to the main road and an easy six miles of bike path home. I went down the road and looked into the valley and saw where I wanted to be. I just couldn’t figure out a way to get down there. A few dead end cul-de-sac efforts to make my way into the valley and I struck out! After a mile of backtracking I found my road and plunged in to the valley, found the main road and went onto the bike path and upped the pace a bit to get home quicker. Being one of my first night rides of the year I really wanted to get home before the lights went south. Sure enough when I was about two miles from home on the darkest part of the bike path the lights started going! Fortunately my light has a low wattage survival setting. I wound my way home on the path and made it before the light died completely. Luckily no mechanicals slowed my ride. Just some poor route finding, I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way! I was lucky enough to ride my bike in the dark on a night when there was no moon, very little ambient light, and one cool route to get home! Standard time is bad for some but it can make the bike more fun and exciting. Daylight is cool to ride in but everybody does that, well almost everybody, but to ride at night takes a bit more imagination, a bit more commitment (lights aren’t cheap!) and an urge to see things in the dark. Whatever the powers in state capitals do with this issue is fine by me. I know that parts of Arizona and Indiana don’t subscribe to this, but those of us in the areas that have it let’s just use it to motivate us to ride our bikes under different circumstances. Enjoy the wheel!

Today was a good ride to work in the rain, I looked outside at the rain and got my rain gear to ride in the wet through town. I got a donut on the way, Daylight Donuts Rocks! Those guys are the best, they had me in and out in a minute. I wanted more of a ride but as this is a rest week I decided it was best just to rest and do my little commute without any real work or longer rides. Tomorrow will be cool, the ride is going to be a good one, around three hours. The loop will be really fun, all of the standard Breck stuff up to treeline and then all the way down into town. Beckham was good this morning, we got the lenses in without much trouble, and then he was happy before I left for work. Shaubie put him in this cool looking gangsta outfit sort of hip-hop-hood. Baggy khaki pants and a flannel shirt buttoned all the way up, very cute!

Well since the laser sugery two days ago Beckham has been ah, mercurial to put it best. He wakes up so happy and then he has to have the contacts put in and he just gets pissed off beyond belief. He just hates it when we put in his contacts. When it comes to everything else he is fine, happy fun the whole bit but the eyes must really hurt and be pretty sore too! I am volunteering for the Fall Classic on sunday and I think I got the best position, my job is to pre-ride the course early sunday morning an make sure the arrows are in the right place. That and helping out with the set-up saturday night. I hope to be around sunday to see the racers finish. We got some really cool swag for helping, a cool shirt, a pair of woolie boolies and I got my sweatshirt prize for the local series overall. So far with two days before I'm supposed to ride it I have two maybes and a sort of sure to go with me. I though it was the best possible option for volunteering, I don't have to stay in one spot the whole time and I get to ride my bike, far! Other people at the meeting didn't think as highly of this job, oh well it's going to be really fun! Today the lenses went in ok on the right and then a bit of fighting on the left eye. yesterday was by far the worst in a while, we got the right one in and then the left wouldn't go, after all of the hassle just for one I bailed to get to work and popped out the right one and left him without any to come home later and get them done when he wasn't fussy. It really sucks to do this everyday. The sky was great about 6.30 this morning, the colors went from bright pink to almost green in spots, really amazing stuff, the ride to work was bland and pretty dark, I need a headlamp now to get the first mile of the ride done without crashing, after seeing the porcupine a few weeks back I worry about hitting him and going down hard only to have him pissed off at me for hitting him and possibly hurting the prickly guy. I really wish I still had my old commute, this one is way too short, 2.5 miles isn't a tenth as fun as a 9 mile ride through the woods with the animals and the weather with the sun just starting to come up in the summer at 5.20 am. The sky on some of those mornings was unreal, if I was on the road I surly would have been hit by a car, I'd be looking around at the clouds and sunrise that I'd hog the whole path. One of the mornings last fall I was riding up to work and it was a pretty rainy night/early morning and coming out of the woods onto the path there was a bit of water laying on the ground and since it was pretty cold I was looking for ice with my lights when all of the sudden I heard heavy breathing and footfalls all around me, pretty freaked out, as I am afraid of the dark, I really had no idea what was going to jump out and grab me, the boogieman, the blair witch, Jason, who knows what I thought. Well, it was a big herd of elk that were spending the night in the hollow that sits at the bottom of the hill near the road, I guess it's pretty warm and nice there and the elk just chill there with their friends for the night. One of the elks who after I shined my light up there had to have had 12 or 14 points was just glaring at me, as though I had ruined his morning, he was the one who I had heard in the first place and he was running up the hill thinking i was a threat! Hah! The other 10 or so were just laying on the other side of the path looking around as though nothing happened, what is that about big things being sissies?! He didn't want anything to do with me, and we saw each other about 20 more times in the ensuing weeks as I still rode to work over the rapidly freezing ground. Another time I was going through the same section a little ways down and the elk was standing on the side of the path about 20 meters away, instead of charging and forcing me to do a sprint workout he just started running next to me at the same distance for a good 300-400 meters, it was the coolest thing almost like he was playing with me. Looking over as he looked at me and kept the same pace the whole time, aobut 18 miles an hour. Really amazing to see big game playing with a harmless human, shitloads better than watching them kill them on the OLN shows between the Giro/Tour and Vuelta stages (which starts tomorrow.) The strength that they show when they run just makes we jealous at how regal and graceful they are. More next time on a cool night ride on the cross bike on dirt roads.

Well, it's been a hell of a few days, surgery yesterday and then a night in Denver with more doctor stuff today. Beckham needed laser surgery in both eyes to re-open the rims so that light will go through the pupil, the doctor was optimistic that the eyes are keeping up with each other though we may need to patch the left one to let the right keep up. Shaubie is the most amazing mother I have ever seen, she is up before a cry can finish its first two seconds to feed, clean or hold the boy. I hope my skills are half as good! The break is coming along well, I'm still a bit tired but feel that I may have turned the corner a bit, some more rest and a bit of couch time and I'm back in it. I still only want to ride my mtb, the thought of going on new and old trails is a big draw right now. The Breck cross race is two weeks from saturday, so I need t oget recovered and get out there on the cross bike soon. Travis is bringing a scooter back from Madison so we can do some good motor pacing on the roads, how cool will that be!!! I may want to get a singlespeed, I want to have that bike, some of the trails would be a blast on one speed. I hope Joel rode today.

I wish I could ride to work everyday the way I did today. There was frost on the windshields as I left the hood to climb up and over Gold Run. The flumes were great just wet enough from all of the rain we've had lately and tacky in the corners. The downside of going to work at 5.30 am is that I can't do a fun ride to work on trails. Afterwork I went to Carter Park and climbed about 40 minutes out of there to Sally Barber Road on the Moonstone Trails, really good new singletrack that was just built. Beckham was thrilled when I got home, he was laughing and cooing while I said hi. After last night when he woke at midnight and cried himself back to sleep, while I developed a splitting headache. I ended up going down to the couch to sleep and slept with a pseudo-chill until about 6.15 this morning. I need to rest more, but I'm enjoying the bike so much, all I want to do is ride new stuff and stuff I haven't ridden in a few years. And the calendar is ticking. I think I'll try to get a softail, not quite sure how it will happen but there is always a way. I wonder where Joel rode today...