What a Weekend!

Wow! Great riding with friends and a surprise birthday party for my wife! FUN!

Saturday was one of the most enjoyable rides of my life. 100 miles with friends on a perfect day.

Steve D.

We had a great 50 miler west of town tonight. A bunch of friends out for a ride. Steve D. was inspirational! He started riding with us three years ago and he struggled to stay with the group, even when we were being extremely friendly, tonight he rode strong all night and finshed second on the big prime. That is what is sooo cool about this game, if you stick with it you will get there! Way to go Steve!

Time Trialing

RAAM is a time trial over and over again so I have gone back to working on TTing. It is great work. I like racing myself. Jay T. and I have created a blog devoted to it.

I created a new time trial today in Elm Creek. I call it the EC NR 14. Elm Creek, No Road 14 mile time trial. Rolling and curvey. 20 MPH south winds made me feel like superman on the east side and I felt like I was climbing a mountain on the west side. Fun and incredible work. Final time 37.51. The beauty of time trialing... now I simply work to beat it! COOL!

Check out our blog DIYTT!

Night Riding!

I am rode after everyone was in bed at my house last night to get in a few extra miles. Jay H. and I went out for a ride through the neighborhood and it was GREAT! I really like it. It is soooo much better than the basement!

Learning Curve

We did our first outdoor 24 hour training session with exchanges this weekend.

Man did we learn! This is going to be a very interesting adventure. There is no doubt that we got smoother as the weekend went on. Diet and sleep are going to be very tricky. I got 2 hours of sleep and something tells me that I will need more than that and I can't live on syrups all week.

We started out in Stillwater and made our way back over to Champlin. The weather was beatiful and it helped in the process of getting a feel for the flow in the day in the life of RAAM.

One other thing that I learned is that I really like night riding. I got a front and rear light from Trailhead on Saturday morning and did all of my riding outside. I think that I could get into some night time riding this summer. It was very cool!

One more thing... no flats! I don't know if that is a good sign or not? We will have to practice that next time! Oh, and no rain... we might have to practice that next time too! Beautiful ride, thanks everybody! And a big thanks to Bernie for opening up his home once again to the team!!

Nice Ride

Man is great to be riding with friends!!

No Snow... Yet

It is funny... I thought that I would be riding by myself tonight in the snow and what happens? 4 friends show up, with only a few flakes of snow, and it is one of the best rides of the season! Cool!

Speaking of cool, I put a front deraillier on my 3 speed... I can shift with out kicking my foot out or handing up the chain! It was sooo awesome. My $75 bike only gets better!

There was a news article about our student council raising money for Camp Odayin and I got the greatest thank you note from someone I have never met. I will post it soon. It was inspriraional to read her words of thanks and to be reminded of our purpose and mission here. What a cool thing! It is great when people care!

Tour of Flanders

It is my favorite race of the season... yes, it even tops the tour for me... what a race. Verus coverage is terrible but the finish was wonderful. Two years ago Ballan was in a breakaway and when the leaders caught the break, Ballan went with them... crazy! This guy is going to be a force for years to come, he will make the selection but he won't win it every year, no one will. Sorry everybody, there is not going to be another Eddy and I am glad.

Sick of Epic Rides

I was in Michigan all week and rode in sub freezing temps and 30 MPH winds. It was Wednesday when it hit me that a month ago I would have been loving a ride like this, ice all over my bike... crazy riding! I want the sun and I want it now. Enough of the epic rides! I haven't been on my bike since Wednesday, it only got colder and snowed more. I am going to get on my stationary in the basement right now and try to make up for lost time. Hopefully we will have some good riding this week. We are doing another 24 hour simulation next weekend. This one will actually be outside, it should be very interesting!!

Oh, one more thing... We had a GREAT time in Michigan. It was fun to just hang out with the family and play. It all worked out in the end!