It's only as cold as you dress

Yesterdays high temp. 56 F, with thunder storms and light wind. Todays high temp 26 F with strong wind, so with the windchill it was 12 I believe ???? What wierd weather...
Yesterday I did homework from 1 until 10. pretty much non-stop. It sucked, needless to say I did not go biking. Today I decided to go biking (even though the ski season has started, I'm thinking the no snow no go approach is going to be the plan).
I walked out of my door this morning and thought I was going to die it was so cold, but as the day wore on I got more and more antsy. I did not want a repeat of yesterday. So I suited up in lots of clothes as to not freeze my ass off. I was a bit cold during the ride, but definatley not unbearable like I have been on cold rides in the past. I took off into to the first, so that was what was cold. Once going with it I was great. I stayed out for a total of two hours, at the end of which my toes were getting pretty cold, also my fingers since my gloves are holy...

Suited up for the cold, and the duct tape patch is key...

started getting frosty.

Jans clothes (updated)

have finally arrived. He happens to be the same size as me. Sweet...

Back from winter

It feels as if I have been gone all winter. We left for Yellowstone when there was just a tiny bit of snow on the ground (early winter) then in Yellowstone it was mostly winter weather, then yesterday getting back it felt like spring. It was raining and the grass seemed greener than when we left. But anyways the last few days of skiing were ok. With the last ski of the week being the best of the week. At the end of which I tried out the trick xc skis, did some 360s and double backflips and that kinda thing. it was sweet. The ride home however was long and tiring.
here are some photos.

the interesting road

montana at night

speed limit going by

North Dakota at night

semi

a whole lot of nothin
these signs scare the crap out of me, especially at night.

tired

i am tired. skiing is lots of work, especially at 4 hours a day for the whole week. and eating only bagles, and a bit of cereal. except yesterday when i had one awful thanksgiving dinner and one really good one. ha. more on that later...

eating on the olaf budget (homemade spoon and coffee pot for cereal)

old faithful

Today I decided to start my 2007 bike season. And to start it I decided to ride to Old Faithful from here in West Yellowstone. A good 30 miles. The road started as really hard packed snow, then eventually changed into just plain road. The snow/ice was actually quite nice, not a whole lot slower then the blacktop. Anyways eventually I had to pee, so I stopped and peed of a bridge while watching some elk. Then once I started riding again the elk got spooked and ran into the road in front of me and stood there. Needless to say I had to stop and let them do whatever they want. After a minute they took off and I continued. Saw some buffalo off in the distance and blocking the road too. They make surprisingly good road blocks. Eventually I came to a climb and for the next 16 miles I went in the general direction of up. Not steep, once in a while flat or a little down, but none the less generally up. Along the way I started to see geysers and hot springs and all that kinda fun thing. Eventually I got to Old Faithful, and the had to wait 90 minutes for it to go off. The usual interval between eruptions is 94 minutes. I am so lucky. After that I cruised back the 30 miles. Taking a few detours to check out some other interesting things. Since I was the only one around I could do anything I wanted, like ride my bike on the board walks I wasnt supposed to and pee on hot springs. Good times...My total ride time was 4 hrs 18 min. It was only about 1000 feet verticle change, but I think the altitude was really hitting me. Once back I veged out for a bit, it was great.

west yellowstone

After a fast 16 hour drive, oh how I love Montana highways . We, the ski team, made it to West Yellowstone, MT. On the way out we listened to a bit of A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson. He told us how Yellowstone is actually a giant volcanoe and if it blows up (which it is 30,000 years over due) everything within 1000 km will be annihilated. Comforting...
Anyways after getting settled in it was out on the first ski since last Feburary. I'm so dedicated.
It was actually pretty good. A nice 90 min. or so. It took a while to get the heart going again after my week off, but once it did I was set. Then an early bed, early morning, and then a total of 4 hours of skiing today. I'm feeling pretty good for not having skied for so long. And the mountains area always fun to ski in.
I was able to smuggle my bike along, so tomorrow if the roads are not to icy or to deep of snow, I will bike the 28 miles into the park and visit Old Faithful. Hopefully that will work out. If so I'll get some pictures going.

director sportif

Today I played director sportif. I drove seans car so he could do some motor pacing intervals, It was really quite hard to keep a constant speed when going around 25. Well, actually on flats its not a problem, but then uphills and downhills I had to adjust speed to keep the same effort level, that was hard. Also when your just driving its easy to think your speed is constant since the speedmeter is not precise, you touch the pedal and speed up 3 or so mph. That makes it hard on the rider. I got better the more I did it. Just need some practice and Ill take over Johans job. haha.

sean looking like a tool. ha

ride faster

sitting in my draft

Then I rode my bike all around town. Which I think I am going to smuggle to Yellowstone.

week off

This week has been busy even without riding the bike. I have kept myself plenty busy, done quite a bit of homework, some work on cycling team stuff. Talking to professors about all things under the sun and so on. Yesterday I just about went crazy from not getting my daily dose of going off campus, so I decided to go to Cub and get calcium and magnesium since I felt like I was going to start cramping. Cub is basically the furthest you can get from Olaf within the urban sprawl in the area. A good 15 minutes by bike, I went and came back and felt much better. The elecrolytes might be helping too since I dont feel like cramping any longer.
Yesterday was registration, my name group was the last to go. Almost all the classes I wanted were full, so I had to go back and rework everything. I ended up being the last the very last person in my class to register...somehow I ended up sneaking my way into some classes today, so its all good.
Today Rober Baer a retired CIA field angent came and spoke, it was pretty good. Sean came up and after I went up with him to talk more personally with him. Sean asked him some question about N. Korea and the answer led to government. Then Bob said something to the effect of, a government change would be good, but hard to implement, Ive tried before. Well actually I helped overthrow one government, but I cant talk about that. It was sweet. haha. During the talk he also had lots of subtle things he threw in that I dont think many people caught. They were entertaining, things like, people blow up a lot of stuff there, ive blown up lots of things too. Quite entertaining to listen to.
Tomorrow I pack for Yellowstone. Time to go climb some mountains, Ill bring a compass this time.
Here is a picture from the race at olaf. I like it a lot so Ill post it.

season closer

Well folks that it, the 2006 bike season has come to a close. A little depressing...
Yesterday was the state champ race in the cities. The course is pretty hard, hills to bike, stairs to run, turns to make. All extremes. At the start I was switching into start gear and I found out my back brake was rubbing, not good. Apparently I did not adjust it right, I thought about disconnecting it. I decided against it, and tried pulling the brake hard, luckily I had not tightened it very well and the wire slipped making it wide enough not to rub. And luckily it was my back brake instead of of front.
Oh, and it was really cold...33 or something like that.
My start was terrible, I was in the middle back of the pack for the first bit. The start is a gravel road and it was really really dusty, it made things hard to see. I was in the backish until we got to the stairs. I knew people were slow at this so I took off all out. I think I passed a good 10 people there. Then I just kept the pace high until the race thinned out, that took 2 or 3 laps. Eventually I found the guy who was winning the A2 standings, I just stuck on his wheel for a while. Sean eventually caught up, I dont know when I passed him though. He worked for me for 2 laps of so trying to get rid of the guy. Unfourntuatley it did not work. I stayed with a group of 3 or 4 for the rest of the race, or just behind them. They would gap me on the road and I would catch them on the hill and run ups. However, I never managed to hold on. The last lap I put it all out there and got really close to catching them right at the end. So I missed A2 state champ by 20 meters. Nuts. After the race I realized that my front brake had been rubbing just a tiny bit, I wonder if I could have beat the guy without the rub.
Oh well, this cross season ended really well despite that. Since this was my first year of A things started a bit slow. My first race I finished 30 out 37, the next few races went like that, just a little better. I was getting frusterated as to why I could not ride bike. Then at Anoka something clicked, and I got faster, a lot faster. that race was 6 out of 24. The next day went even better as I defeated Sean in our race. ha. And yesterday ended the season well with 11 out of 55. I am really happy how much improved. Hopefully next year I can do the same!

faster!

into the mud

Now that the season is over, and skiing for me starts in a week, I will be taking this whole next week off. I am going to go crazy...

?

When I said the weather was weird the other day, I did not really mean it. This week its been weird. Wednesday was over 70 degrees (summer), yesterday was 50s (fall), this morning there is snow on the gound (winter). 3 seansons in 3 days. tomorrow is supposed to be 45-50 (spring). a whole year in 4 days. What the Heck....

it snowed a whole ton, all this last night biking will be hard.

ha, just kidding, only 7 or so inches...

but it snowed on the deck too.

a few more photos

sean looked at some of moms photos today. I did too. There are lots. Here are some that show the awsomeness of the pinwheel.



ha! i still cant believe i made it work.

today was warm

really warm, uncomfortably so. It was really weird riding through downtown northfield when it was 70 degrees and dark (at 5:15). weird.
I just looked at the forecast. 55 tomorrow and snow and friday, again, what the heck?

Also someone really liked our race. He made a movie. Low quality but sweet. Sean and I are even in it.

road fun, and sponsors

This afternoon I decided to take the MADone out for a spin. I had to be back by 4 so I did 40 minutes by myself then met up with Sean, Brandon, and Andrew (a Carl). We took off towards Cannon City with the intent of going easy. It was working well until we hit the KOM before Cannon City. Brandon attacked and Andrew took his wheel. I was still going easy with Sean at this point so they got a good 40 or so yard gap. I said to Sean "Think I can catch them?" I don't know what he said, but I took off. The MADone was fast today and I closed that gap quite fast, I was really surprised I was able to get up there that quickly and get around them by the top. They did not appear to be going to easy either. I love climbing...After that Brandon kept going, I sat up and waited for Sean who soon flew by saying lets catch him. He had a good 20 seconds on us and the townline was all of a mile away. Sean pulled a bit and closed quite a bit, then I went off, but Brandon held me off by a few bike lenghts. Thats ok I felt fast today. So did the Madone.

A few weeks ago I sent the treasurer of the bike club to a funding meeting, hoping he could figure out what needed to be done. I talked to him right after the meeting, he said everything had gone well, the people were just undecided about how much they were gong to give us. I figured that was good and did'nt think about it until a few days ago. I got an e-mail saying that club funds were low and we should not expect much money. Since I thought our budget was already in I did not really mind the e-mail, but I asked anyways. It turns out we were supposed to resubmit a new smaller budget proposal to be considered for funding, I was never told this, thus never did so. So basically we are not going to get any money from the school now. That made me really really angry. The one task I give this kid he screws up. Starting to look like last year...
But, today at dinner the caf was having Thousand Hills Cattle beef, its free range stuff. The farmer who runs the company was standing next to the food, and I realized I could ask him about a sponsorship. Nothing to lose. I did so and he was really interested, so after dinner I got the jerysey designs that we drew up yesterday (just in time it seems), and talked to the farmer. The St. Olaf cycling team is now sponsored by
Thousand Hills Cattle Company-100% grass feed beef.

sweet.
And it just so happen to be that there was also a guest chef here tonight, and that he was sitting by the farmer when I brought up the jersey design. Apparently he was going to sponsor a team up in the cities last year that disolved, soooo, he is going to sponsor us as well. Talk about a good 10 minutes...
hopefully now the funds will work out.

If you want an olaf jersey, let me know.

Randomness:
I voted, people here are flipping out about election results. Its kinda funny.
Also there was an awful smell in the german house the last few days. No one knew what it was. Today someone found a dead mouse under a couch....
time to study. blah.

A great weekend

Saturday
Started it off with a cx race up in St. Cloud, it went pretty well. would have been great except that my contact fell out and i had no depth perception, that made barriers hard. i was right with sean or within 30 meters of him or so at this point (45-50 minutes) but after losing the contact he got further away. oh well id get payback.

as soon as we got back from anoka (5:30) the crazyness for our race really began. Olaf gave us a bunch of poles so we (sean and i) went and got those, then raked the woods part of the course. Then we (sean, ben, brandon, finn, peter) started to set up the course. the poles olaf gave us were no where near sufficent. so ben and i went to menards and got a bunch of cheap wood poles. While we were gone the others started taping the course, then dissapeared (except sean). so sean ben and i went and pounded steaks into the ground by moonlight for 2 hours before we got to the hard part of the course. the spiral. in concept easy, actually making it hard. in the moonlight, harder. after about 90 minutes of trying to figure out how to make it work i, yes i, made the breakthrough and we finished that up. that was about 11. after that bikes were prepared for the race. then i went to bed.

the remanents of the spiral...

Sunday
Woke up at 6:45 and went down to the tavern to have breakfast. finished that at about 8 and went back to olaf and began taping. I was in charge so i was giving task to everyone, and soon the tape ran out really fast so we had to scrammble to find more. ben went to the store. unfourtunatley the course got taped off wrong in a few spots, so sean and i were running around fixing the wrongs. after a stressful 2 hours we finished up only 10 minutes late, and the C race was off. I watched it a little to
I got some time to warm up for the colligate race at this point, which sean and i did. Eventually that got around to being started.
Right from the start sean and i were out front. by the end of the first lap we had a good gap. for the first 25-30 minutes he lead for most of it, then i went to take my pull and he dropped back a little. i just kept going and slowly putting some time on him. unfourtunatley he crashed on the decent (in the sand i think) and the race became mine. apparently he broke his shifter, but hey mine was screwed up too. once i knew i had it, i ended up lapping finn right around here too, so i yelled at him to beat the guy he was right behind while i was spirling. Then hit it hard for the finish. finn won his sprint. I was hoping that the race between sean and i would come down to a sprint, make things fun, although if he would have pulled the whole race i would have given it to him. but ill take a solo anyday. conference champ! wahoo.

its a race

i win
after that the b race was off, i watched from the far side of the field as the group of 60 went into the spiral, it was a wall of people, so flippin cool. then sean and i went off and heckled. at one point some dick broke the spiral. luckily i was standing right there and fixed it really quick. it would have been real bad had i, ben or sean not been around. anyways, besides that everything went well in that race.
eventually it was time for the A race, sean and i were both dead so we did one lap to go through the spiral in a group. although he caught the tape and did not make it into the spiral with the group. i did, it was fun. so i waited for him after that and then we had a sprint to the line to drop out. he won, i can live with that.

a race on thors revenge

then clean up time, luckily lots of people helped out so it went pretty quick. that made me really happy. i might still be doing it had it only been sean, ben and i.

I'd like to thank all the volunteers. you were all great help. There are a million pictures, so eventually i will get a bunch up. but not tonight, so thanks to those who took pictures (most of the photos here from Jim Wellbrock, hope he (you) don't mind). and also to ben for helping out with funding.
was fun, lets do it again next year.

i think now that i have some time, i can take my first shower since friday...

crazy weather

So yesterday Finn, Brandon and I went out for a 2 hour road ride. It was about 68 degrees or so at departure time, with a medium south wind, a great day to ride. We had a headwind going out, and eventually we turned getting a cross wind. Then a tail wind. At one point about an hour 20 into the ride we were cruising with a tailwind, just coasting along. Out of nowhere, the wind did a 90 degree turn, picked up 15 mph, and the temp dropped a good 5 or 10 degrees, instantly. It was crazy, and unfourtunatley we had to turn into this sudden wind almost right after it hit. Upon returning to the house 2 hours after leaving the temp was 15 degrees colder, and the wind totally different.

Today was really cold and windy all day, the opposite of yesterday. Nevertheless, Sean called me at 1:30 (when he was supposed to show up at my house) saying he was in Fairbault at the shop. He wanted me to meet him halfway, so I took off with what I thought was a tailwind, it was definatley not. So I then rode into the wind for 40 minutes before we met, it was hard. We got back to Northfield in about 20 minutes...It made it worth it, since Sean was carrying my new leg warmers (no more wool). Once back to Olaf we did the course, or most of it, 2 times hard, I only felt crappy on the run up. I had no trouble holding his wheel for those 2 laps, except on the decent where I hit a rock and thought I had a flat. Hopefully that is what this weekend will be.

Speaking of this weekend, I am getting pretty excited. Hopefully a whole bunch of people will show up and it will be a grand old time. The course just keeps getting better everytime I ride it.