More from Mt. Kato

Some race pics from superstar photographer Dana Schoppe. Bottom two show Mad Squirrel, which is a really tight, 180-degree switchback that drops away fast. I came within about a tire-width of ending up like the dude in the last photo. Ouch. Full crash sequence here. I'm not picking on you dude, those are just some wicked photos. Think cycling isn't a tough sport? Think again.

MNSCS#4, Mt. Kato

I'll try to keep this one short since I wrote a recap for the MNSCS site, which should be up sometime this week.
It breaks down like this: 2 weeks ago I went into Mont du Lac sick. Came out worse, with a 8-9 day cold/stomach bug. So between Mont du Lac and Mankato I got in 3 rides on the bike. I had no idea what kind of legs or lungs I'd have going into Mankato. So, I made a point to focus on three things I've let slip so far this season: hyrdation, nutrition and warm up. No beer the night before, no coffee the morning of. Good meal Saturday night, good breakfast and snacks Sunday, with lots of water. I warmed up for about 45 minutes and drank an entire bottle of sports drink. At the start line I took in a little gel and off we went.

I was 3rd up the first climb and held on all day to take second in my age group, 11th overall. That was the best I have felt all year, and the best I've felt during a race in a long time. I think the mild weather helped. I think locking out my rear suspension for the entire race helped (very smooth course and the few sections with some roots weren't bad). I absolutely believe being properly hydrated, fueled and warmed-up made the biggest difference. I got tired on a few of the punchy climbs, but I never blew up. Most of all, I had fun. It was tough, to be sure, but it wasn't a death march like Mont du Lac or Afton. I hope I can build on this for Red Wing and beyond.

Photos from skinnyski.com

PJ Harvey

To say the camera on my phone sucks would be an understatement, but at least from the blurriness above you can get an idea of our kick-ass seats for PJ Harvey and John Parish on Saturday night at of all places, the Minnesota Zoo ampitheater (cool venue). Holy F can that woman sing. She could sing my grocery list and it would sound awesome. How does someone that tiny have such an enormous voice? Band was great as well. The whole set was comprised of songs from her two albums with John Parish, none of her other work. Second time we've seen her and we will definitely go again next time she's in town. Pop Parker opened up. He was kind of like a one-man Flight of the Conchords, only more subtle and not quite as funny. Entertaining though.

Dirt Spanker

Well, after doing everything I could all week in an attempt to not catch the cold making it's way through my family, it hit me Saturday night. Got about 4 hours of sleep and felt like crap Sunday morning, but it was race day so what else was I going to do? Sleep? Nah.

Picked up Clayton and headed up to Mont du Lac for the Dirt Spanker. This is a fun course. Well, fun if you like a race that starts you at the bottom of a 230' climb with no warm-up. Normally I love it, but just didn't have the energy yesterday. Had no illusions of greatness going into it, just wanted to ride and see what happened. For the first two laps the answer was, "not much". I was suffering like a dog on the climb to start lap two, to the point where I briefly considered calling it a day. But, I figured 4+ hours in the car and a $35 race fee, I may as well keep riding. Towards the end of lap two I started feeling a little better and was still mid-pack in a pretty long train of riders. I passed a few here and there, but mostly I just sat on, knowing this was a throw-away race.

Ended up 7th and my time was only about 2-minutes slower than last year. Not bad for being sick, but probably not worth the toll it's taking on me today in the grand scheme of things. At least it's a rest week. Congrats to Clayton for killing it and just missing out on the hardware. Props to Kevin for another win and to Matt for finding the podium in the Expert field. Cool to see father and son McBurney medal. Jamison continues his statewide podium tour. Peace Coffee rocks.

MNSCS #2, Afton Avalanche

When I first got here it was actually a bit chilly. I knew it wouldn't last. The terrain at Afton makes for a scorcher of a race. The climbs (and that would be most of the course) come up out of the river valley, so there is almost never a breeze. The oxymoronic Shady Lane and quite aptly-named Manhandler are the longest, steepest ascents, and you are left totally exposed to the sun the entire way up.

Decided to ditch the Camelback and go with bottles. Also decided to mix gels directly into sports drink instead of throwing a few in my jersey. Turned out to be a mistake. First lap I felt okay. Got a decent start even though I was stuck back about 3 rows on the line. Passed my way into top ten by the time we got to Bridge Loop. Picked off a few more on Shady, held my own on the Southern Switchbacks and made a few moves on Manhandler. Not too bad. But, I noticed when I rolled through the start/finish that my bottle was only about half-empty, meaning I was not drinking enough or getting enough gel.

Felt ok up Bridge Loop but my next foray up Shady left me low on power. Manhandler treated me like the new guy on the cell block, and I was starting to wonder if I could actually do another lap. Had to small ring Shady and the Switchbacks on last lap, spinning out the leg cramps. Same with Manhandler, although I started to recover a bit towards the top, and passed a few on the final part of the climb past the lift tower. Gunned it the rest of the lap, but too late to make up much ground. 4th in my age group. Just glad to finish that one. I was really digging deep for a while there. Think I'm sitting top five, which is fine at this point. Long way to go, and honestly, I don't care as much about the overall this year. Just wanna have some fun and try to have a life off the bike too.

Photo from skinnyski.com

Spring Cup 2009

First race of the year for me (that wasn't on snow). Bone dry conditions meant fast, fast, fast. This is pretty much a roadie course (which explains all the Cat 1-2 guys showing up on CX bikes). No hills, nothing really technical at all, just an all-out dirt crit. Despite my call up and front row start, I let too many people in front of me before the singletrack. There really aren't too many places to pass out here: lots of twisty, tree-lined sections and most of the open spots are really cupped and lined with prairie weeds and hidden wheel snaggers. I managed to pass a few people, but the effort required almost wasn't worth it. Faded on lap 3, felt better lap 4 but not in time to reel anyone in. 9th in my group. Looking forward to Afton and some hills.
Top photo from Skinnyski.com, bottom photo by Greg Hawes

Spring training

Build 1 phase is over, thank God. 3 weeks of hill intervals was brutal. Right now I feel like my road fitness is about a 7 out of 10. My mountain bike fitness is maybe a 5 or 6. Overall, I think I'm right about where I should be for this time of the year. First race is in 3 weeks. Giddyup.

One More

From Top:
That's why they call jail, "The Clink".
Temple Church Detail
Windsor Castle Cannon
The Orangery, Kensington Palace

London

From Top:
Cell, Tower of London
Queen Victoria Statue, Windsor Castle
High Street Kensington Underground Platform
WWII Memorial
Oliver Cromwell Statue, Parliament

Yeah, more London photos

From Top:

St. John's Chapel, Tower of London
Kensington Palace
Hillgate Arms
British Airways Eye, Big Ben, Parliament, double-decker bus
Admiralty Arch, Trafalgar Square
St. Paul's Cathedral, Millenium Bridge (taken from boat on River Thames)

Scary Neighborhood

Top: Winston Churchill's house
Bottom Two: Crappy cars in front of Winston Churchill's house. (Between the Aston Martin, Maserati, 3 Porsches and several Mercedes, Range Rovers and BMWs, there was well over 2 million dollars worth of cars on this tiny cul-de-sac).

More London Photos

From Top:
Red Lion Pub, Westminster
Hyde Park Gate, Kensington
Pub Sign, Campden Hill
Yeoman Warder, Tower of London
School kids, Windsor Castle

But wait, there's more...

From Top:
Westminster Abbey
Trafalgar Square
Shakespear's Globe Theatre
Statue on Parliament Building
London City Limit dragon statue

Still more London...

From Top:
Tower of London
Windsor Castle
Big Ben and Parliament
Kensington Palace Garden
Queen Victoria statue, Kensington Palace

More London

Top: Queen's Guard, Windsor Castle
2nd Top: Big Ben from Westminster Bridge
2nd Bottom: St. George's Cathedral, Windsor Castle
Bottom: Round Tower, Windsor Castle

London

Top: Tower Bridge, taken from Tower of London.
Middle: Temple Church (built by Knight's Templar in 12th century).
Bottom: Somerset House. Cool palace off Strand with giant central courtyard. Had it all to ourselves.

London, Day 2

Slept in, which felt great. Headed up the street to a little corner cafe for breakfast, then hopped the Tube to the Tower of London. We followed one of the Yeoman Warders for bit, then went on our own. The place is massive and I can only imagine how miserable the conditions must have been for prisoners. They still torture people there today, making them go up and down the never-ending spiral stairways. I'm still dizzy.

From the Tower, we walked across Tower Bridge and along the Thames. Had lunch at a cool French cafe, then made our way down to the Tate Modern. I could spend a week here alone, but really came for the Rodchenko exhibit (constructivsm and Soviet posters and graphic design). It was pretty awesome to see his cut and paste collages from an inch away. You can see the glue, the white-out and the imperfections of artwork done by hand, not on a Mac. Up on the 5th floor, there were some cool Picassos, Mondrians, and an entire room of gigantic Soviet propaganda posters. That made the visit for me right there.

We hopped on the river shuttle and floated up the Thames toward Parliament. By the time we made it to Westminster Abbey it was closed, which sucked. Got a few photos, then walked around Parliament and Big Ben for the madatory photo ops. We walked up to Trafalgar Square for a few more photos, then back on the Tube to the hotel.

We're meeting Mark and Verena tonight and heading to the Blue Elephant in Fulham for some Thai. Should be great. Tomorrow, strolling along Kensington Palace/Notting Hill Gate in the morning, then getting the local non-tourist insider tour of the "real" London from Mark.

London, Day 1

We booked an earlier connecting flight out of MSP to avoid the bizzard. Got out on time with plenty to spare at Detroit. Board the plane for London then sit on the tarmac for 2.5 hours while they fixed a door. Of course. Got into Heathrow and went to baggage claim, where my suitcase was the first one on the carousel. That never happens. After wandering around trying to find the pickup point for the cab we called, we gave up and took a different service out to Windsor, home of Windsor Castle. Place is ginormous and pretty cool. (I forgot to pack my USB cable for the camera, so until I find a computer store near the hotel, no photos.) They don't allow photos inside, which kind of sucks because the chapel and some other rooms were really cool. In the chapel I was able to find the Knights of the Order of the Garter coat of arms for the Duke of Buckingham, who is like my 15th great grandfather or something like that (if my research is correct). Walked a bit in town and headed back to Heathrow, then to our hotel in Kensington.

Met Mark for some fish & chips, a few proper pints and some Champions League football at the Greyhound Pub. The room with the Man U game on was packed, so we were at a table with the Arsenal match. When Man U scored the place erupted, which was cool, as I was afraid London would be full of haters. I was a bit confused as to how many Arsenal fans were there, considering we were just up the road from Stamford Bridge. Oh well. Good night out, especially with the Red Devils advancing.

So...here's where it got really interesting...

I thought it would be fun before we went to London if I did a little family history research. I knew my mom's maternal grandfather was either English or Irish. So I started looking into the Pickett family. I found a website where someone had already done the homework for a lot of the family. I followed my mother's direct line as far back as I could; to some dude named Zerubbabel Pickett from Kent, England in 1591. That was cool. Then, for some reason I started looking at the wives of my great grandfathers and was amazed to find how far back I could follow the various branches. Suddenly, I'm seeing kings and queens from England, Scotland, Germany, France, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Holy Roman Empire, Denmark. I followed one branch all the way back to 6 freaking AD. Go to familysearch.org and have some fun exploring your history. Apparently, my great grandfathers knew how to marry up.