Changes

If anyone has ever seen the movie "Little Big Man" with Dustin Hoffman you'll know where I'm coming from. In one of my former lives I was a Hunter, Ducks, Geese, Turkey, anything and everything. I enjoyed it then as much as I enjoy Biking today. But things change, what I once thought I couldn't live without, I now have only fond memories of; great times afield with family and friends. I still search the sky when I hear Geese off in the distance, I can still identify ducks on the wing just by their flight patterns. The adventure of navigating the river during pitch black frosty mornings when the constellations in the sky provide you your only directions STILL haunt my dreams. Today I said goodbye to one of the last remaining partners I had on those long ago hunts. My Chesapeake Bay Retriever Moses, going on 13 years he was graying like a distinguished gentleman, a little less bounce in his step and few more pounds on his rump, but always ready to go with tail swooshing. Although his spirit never left him, his health did, and I had to take him on his last boat ride this morning. G'bye Old man. Odessa's Mighty Moses 1995 - 2007

EYE SEVENTY FOUR...BINGO!!!!

Super cool series hosted by the Midwest's best!

Racing Returns in March

Coming up March 18th, DICE presents the first of two (road) races, named for the famous Buffalo Bill Cody. (although I'm not sure of the connection to skinning Bison in the old west and racing bikes now-a-days) but whatever! This is normally THE first race of the season for me and gets that initial ass-kickin out of the way early! Kinda looking forward to it, just hope the weather cooperates. You may have noticed my distinctly negative tone above. FEAR NOT, I got a line on some new coaching techniques by the Zen Master of human powered vehicles. Forget intervals, hill repeats, spinervals, all that is OLD SCHOOL. I highly recommend grabbing that hot little mastercard and spend that money where it counts! This is the BEST DAMN coaching program I've ever seen. You could be as good as me someday :) Mattonne

TIT's (trans iowa trainin-sucka)

Sunday was another fight to get some gravel miles in, the weather here has been a pain in the ass as of late. I don't know if I'll be ready for T.I.3 or not but its coming up quickly. Sundays ride was 60+ miles, I'm still trying to determine just exactly what I should be wearing on the "race", cause once again I got REALLY cold during a pit stop along the way, maybe my pace was too high (time/speed being relative to the observer) I know that I'm nobody's endurance racer, still, after Trans Iowa is done I'm going to try the 24hr event at seven oaks this year, just for the fun of it. All that aside I'm gonna continue to focus on "regular" XC events, 30 miles and OUT. Sounds like a new MTV program. Mattonne Some picturesque Iowa farmland,(sigh) accessible only by MILES OF FRIGGIN GRAVEL! Now I gotta clean it up AGAIN...

Spoke too soon...

Dehn's trails are not as bad as I thought they would be...They are a thousand times worse. I tried a night ride last night, and after I had logged 3.2 miles in an hour and a half, and somewhere along the way ripped my cycle computer wire in two, destroyed my neoprene shoe covers, hopped on and off the bike more times than a cyclocrosser in a season, I gave up. I'm thinking saturday I'll hike the entire trail toting a chain saw...yaaaah!

Ice Storm...Film at 11:00

Its nice to be back in the age of electricity again, funny that no matter how long the power is out you STILL hit the light switch out of reflex. THANK GOD I bought a camping coffee perculator this summer. I gotta have my JAVA!! Its depressing that almost every tree in our neighborhood is jacked up. I went for a walk during the storm, between the ice and the wind the sound of the trees snapping under the stress was spooky, when MOTHER NATURE is in control you get a sense of how powerless people really are. Theres also still thousands without power so I'm considering myself lucky. Stay warm everybody!!! Heres what we grabbed at Hy-Vee before they closed the doors! OOOH we're survivalists! (we already had the cat, Missus Brakeville rescued this animal during a training ride, he is aptly named; "Roadie") Having lots of camping gear is a plus, mac-n-cheese, tuna, peas, by lamplight. by the way, its now 50 degrees inside...and falling. Almost every tree in Burlington is FUBAR, Dehns is no exception, after my home was warmed up I did a little trail maintenance. A whole lot more in the next few days..

Approaching "Normal" again

Rode the road last night, first time back on any bike in a week, did 20 miles of Dominic's route. My kiddo was able to go home last night to his own bed, and is doing great considering his injuries, never is the sun so bright or the sky so blue than after being stuck in a hospital bed for awhile. During my ride I ran into one of Burlingtons (newest) finest, Police Officer Blake Cameron, I wonder if he'll get the bike patrol this summer. He better not bust me for going the wrong way up Snake Alley! If your planning on a trip to Burlington, ya better not mess around cause theres a new Sheriff in town ya hear? "Yer tail lights busted"

Seat Belts, Air Bags, and Miracles

I didn't ride a bike over the weekend. my Son and his Girlfriend were headed home from school Friday night right into a small blizzard, ice and schulers corner on HWY 99, two cars, twisted metal, cold, fire, "jaws of life", shattered bones, orthopedic surgeons, hospital food, titanium rods, staples, morphine, pain, two young kids, way too young for this...lets just say I'm more gray than I was. Both Kids are doing as well as can be expected. They are both ALIVE. Thank GOD...

I forgot my camera

If I would have remembered, you would have seen STUNNING shots of this weeks computranier race, where I about lost my Hardee's breakfast bisquit. Then I went to the log rollers, these things really ARE the devil. You would have seen how these logs can shake loose your fillings, not to mention your knees, ribs, shoulders etc. I would have snapped a few photo's of the sunday group ride, where Dennis WOW'ed em in Denmark with his HPV streamliner (AKA the flying Banana) FARMERS are too cool! I tried to explain that underneath all the body work Denny actually has a motor, and although its not good, farting inside the Banana is rarely fatal. It was way warmer (at least 40 degrees warmer) and we put in a good 40+ miles. Blogs are much more entertaining with pics so next time I won't forget the gravy. Its supposed to snow 4-8 more inches tonight...anything to keep me off the gravel...crap.

Running with the DEVIL

According to the keepers of the faith this is the face of the DEVIL I've already put in a living room century on this torture device for February, so the devil made me do this last night. 11 degrees, solid ice base covered in 3 inches of new powder, 7 miles in 1 1/2 hours. Don't forget Saturday at Donnies The second DICE roller race, computrainer race, LOG rollers all at a comfy 72 degrees!

All Apologies...

The three or four people who actually visit this site may remember my off the cuff rant about Greg Lemond, circumstances what they were at the time, (Landis in trouble) I just couldn't help it. I'm not even gettin into a doping debate here but just to show how Greg and I have reached common ground. I purchased one of his bikes. Its the "poprad Disc" cyclocross-er. Yeah I know, the seasons already over and its about 9 months till it starts again, HOWEVER, if one were to ride say, across (around) 320 miles of gravel in the coming months this could be your weapon of choice. Since I'm in the repenting mood, Missus Brakeville would like me to retract another statement I made recently concerning her four legged companions. According to the information I received yesterday evening, these three beautiful canine specimens are of the HIGHEST pedigree, and have some sort of registration papers to prove their bloodline back 10 generations. I will not refer to these fine animals as "mutts" in the future, nor will I refer to these three Aussies as the bitch and two bastards, dumbasses, hairballs, morons, STOOPIDS (my favorite), or ANY other derogitory name. My sincere and freely given apology.

Butt wrenchin COLD!!

What do you do when its REALLY cold?? Go Hiking of course! So at +1 degree and -25 wind chills the Missus and I along with the PACK, "hiked" (more like slid) up Flint Creek from Starrs cave to Highway 61. Apparently the Beavers thought that tree was yummy, Mutt #3 TRANGO there for scale, I'm not sure how the Beavers intend to move this onto the dam they've built here but hey, whats better than a refreshing swim in your own private lake?? We didn't run into ANYBODY on our hike, not even the Tiawanese...

MIDWEST MOUNTAIN BIKE FESTIVAL

This year, The PREMIER event in Mountain Biking will be held at Farmdale (Peoria) Reservoir.

Check out the link for dates and event times. The trails at Farmdale are awesome to ride and race anyway. The Peoria Area Mountain Bikers have created and MAINTAIN at least three sweet trail systems in this region and play host to a number of the "I-74" series events including gettin your DOWNHILL and FOURCROSS on, as well as some of the most technical XC racing around, in fact, I ended my "bar-end" phase at Farmdale after one too many hook-ems on schrolls trail!! Follow the links kiddo's for some early spring action in the Land Of Lincoln

Snow...in JANUARY?

Rico Suave' on wheels...blah

Jill in Alaska rides like this EVERY day...

Attacked by the wolf pack...

WOW, check out the speed. Riding in 5" of snow, one handed, while

shootin pics

Roller Racing

Tater Enjoys this.

Or if your REALLY frisky , try the log rollers!!!

Donnies Indoor Cycling Experience

Owwwwieeeee...

Wrong Kinda Miles...

Some Folks get to go to VEGAS for work...not me. Can you guess where I am, hint "its a TWISTER"!!!

"kerkove" shot

The TRANS IOWA crew was talking about virgin goats, well them's goats but I'm not sure of their sexual status. They looked relatively untouched...also for your viewing pleasure the climb up Stoney Hollow road.

Mattonne

I'm not a Carpenter

Its been three years since we moved into our house and aside from some painting and minor repairs I've had to do very little in the way of any serious changes. One of the main reasons we picked this house in the first place was the previous owners had done everything before they moved, the one place that wasn't finished was the attic. A full third story, completely open, one BIG room with high ceilings that slope down to the floor. The Missus and I envisioned a climbing wall built into the larger ceiling panels, a cool place to literally "hang out" with the family. Well if the weather ever gets crappy enough I'm going to start this project, and add a "spinervals" section as well. ALL our outdoor stuff will eventually make it up there, a place for everything and everything in its place. I hope it rains alot or this project will never get done...

Sometimes...you gotta!

The Mrs. has always been understanding of my cycling addiction, if this were a 12 step program she might even be referred to as, an "en-abler". Going to watch a mountain bike race is like watchin paint dry, but she's been to more than a few, even gets her RACE ON once in awhile. So when your best friend and lady asks you to participate in one of HER activities its hard to say no. So i found myself in front of the TV doing a workout from the "FIRM", yeah... Needless to say my rhythm and dance skills are pathetic at best, and if any trained emergency responders had been around they would have assumed I was having some sort of seizure. I will say the "abs" workout was actually killer and I was sweatin like hell. My kids could only stare in that wide-eyed teenager sort of way that says "GOD, I hope my friends don't see this". Now do I really want that new 'Cross bike or a two stage fanny lifter step and a set of velvet covered weights???

New Year

Since I'm a technophobe we didn't have a DVD player until 2006, I figured for 2007 I'd finally break down and get a digital camera. Some shots of a new years eve hike around Geode and Bike Burlingtons New Years day ride. My Father in law testing out his brand new TREK pilot, full carbon with SPA. Good on ya Bubba!!!