Looked good.. Saw nothing

Went to platte falls for the afternoon. I'm still tring to figure
that place out. There were tracks all through the mud but there
weren't any deer today?? Maybe they are smarter up north...

Hahaha

In north Philly..

Just went to the philly school of dentistry....quite different than
UMKC! Had a patient simulator that was pretty crazy cool.....

"race across the sky" was epic!

Saw race across the sky last night....awesome documentary on the
Leadville 100 Mtb race.....made my memories of the btepic a little
less painful. Lance rode about 7 miles on a flat for the win. 29 min
lead. Freak

Sunday ride..

Went for a Sunday morning ride with a few friends from school...great
day.good post ride coffee.

TOM 09

Sent from iPhone Video Recorder

Voight anyone??

Tour had a great ending. I live about two blocks away from the route
so I was able to ride over and catch a bit of the action. Voight
wanted to hang a bit longer but I told him I had to go study. Haha

Working on my model today so I can get on with the weekend!

Saturday nights are starting to look a little different since D-school kicked in...oh yea!

Parkville heaven and some starbucks on the plaza...:)

Sprinting at the "Sprint Center"...had to haha

Downtown parkville with my friend Brian.
New bike, always brings a smile

Did 40 today from midtown to parkville and back. Perfect weather. Some
guy in a yellow porche lead us out on highway 9, there were some
amazing views of the lake, kc airport is having an airshow, and the

weather is supreme....! Great day for riding.....EPIC!

Checking out our lab equipment right now...wooh!

Dental Mentor Group at Hemmingways in Indep. Bass Pro...

Our mentor group met up Friday night for our first meeting at the Hemmingways in Independence. There were a lot of cool people. It consisted of three second years and the rest of us are first years. Great food and a good time.....the kids were crackin' me up.

"Good Recovery Ghost Rider...."

So, just went on a great recovery ride. My friend Brian just got the Dura-Ace Tarmac Pro SL with Cosmic Carbone's so he was itchin' to get out and hammer. We didn't end up drafting off a crotch rocket like yesterday, but all in all we managed to keep up the average with a nice and smooth cadence..

Here comes hunting season!

My buddie Nick talked me into getting a bow so we can wack some of
these big northern deer together. Got it all set up so I'm ready to
roll...

Old man driving with foot hahahaha!

Oh my!!

Headed back to spfd for the day. Beverly hillbillies anyone?

Picked up the Dental Kit this Evening....getting exciting...

Got our Dental Kits. A lot of stuff in there...uh oh:)

Pool in celebration of cat upgrade...

Pretty hot out so we hit the pool. I upgraded road categories to 4's
so I'm thinking op crit tomorrow morning. Relax time till then!

Most punctual trash man ever...

7am seems to be a popular time to slam the dumpster into the ground
constantly until I wake up....don't need an alarm at least!

This is where we park it.

We have a park about three five blocks from our place at the World War 1 memorial. It has a great view of the city, and a Huge field to play frisbee in!! We usually take the bikes there.

So much for sleeping in...

So I was going to sleep in today. Fire alarm went off at 7am and we
had to evacuate. It is my birthday haha..why

Current River Fishing Trip

Me and my buddies Nick and Dan went on a float to do some trout fishing. Good time!

Our porch and view of the downtown skyline.

Not everyday that you see a 6.9 madone..... With miles on it

Bussiest wendy's on earth!

Went to Viking lake today and came accross the bussiest wendy's on the
planet...the pictures don't do it justice!

First KC Road Ride

Here is a map of the ride I did today. They are doing some construction in the park so as you can see we just went out and back about three times. This is part of the Tour of KC coming up on August 7th.

KC apartment...

Here's our place at Union Hill in Midtown KC:

The first pic is of my bathroom which has a door leading into my walk in closet which then leads to my room. Got a spot for the bikes (my commuter is locked on the rack in the garage). I have my trainer set up next to the windows. I can open them up for a draft. I've got a desk and chest at the end of the bed.

The next pics are our family room, dining room table, and bar with the kitchen at the other end. My roommate's room leads in from the dining room table entrance. It's all coming together pretty good! HD/Wifi man comes Thursday....xbox live, just sayin....

Dock Bass!

Large mouth Lake Bass.......oh yeah, (ok, I held it out a bit)

Congrats Cale and Erin!!!

Cowen is Here!! This guys going to have a blast keeping them up! Pics of Cale changing a diaper to come...........:)

Ozark Greenways Adv. Race...running? what?!

http://www.greenwayrace.org/

So....the once a year call to the sport of 'running' has finally arrived. I am now signed up and committed to the Ozark Greenways Adventure Race! Even though it's not my favorite activity, running isn't really all that bad. I went out today and did four miles or so on the trail. Even though this was the first time I've ran since last October at the Berryman Adv. race, it felt pretty good.

I guess we'll be doing some trekking, paddling, running, and of course the biking. It's always a good time to get out in the woods, so I can't wait to get out and blaze some new trails!!! The water is said to be pretty high too so that should make for an interesting time also.

Pics to come after the race!!..........

Great Riding....Weak Blogging!

Ok...so I'm still alive....despite what you may have thought due to the lack of posting over the last few months!!

Riding Updates:
Back in March I did my first "Hell's Kitchen" race, and first road race period, in good 'ol Hogeye, Arkansas. Cat 5 had around 62 people registered (much more than the usual 8-25 people in a MTB race class). Pretty much all I knew was we would have a 1.5mile climb, and another somewhat significant climb just before. Being in Cat5 our distance was only around 20 miles, but I thought the pace would be insane so I didn't want to burn out too soon. I also spoke with a couple other local racers who said the best thing to do was to go up the climb at my own pace....because about half the people who pass at the get go will be seen half way up the hill trickeling back down. I felt like my fitness was good, but having never ridden the course I didn't know what that hill was going to do to me.


The race:
The first 5 or 6 miles was painfully slow with the entire peleton just cruizing at about 16-18 mph. I was extremely anxious and wanted to just jump out and hammer....but not knowing the group, and the fact that I knew there had do have been some fast riders in there who would have had no problem catching me, I decided not to. There were quite a few times where I just fanned out a bit to avoid some dangerous riders who.....didn't point out a road kill rabbit.... stuck their brake lever into my left cheek...had bottles flying everywhere binging off tires....were panic braking...etc.
I guess the hill was going to be the deciding factor. I was in the top 5 or so people at the hill. A group of people about 30 deep got out of there saddle and started pounding past me. I wound it up a but, but knew it was a huge hill so I took the advice and kept somewhat of my own pace. After about a minute I assume about 10 riders already waterfalled back down behind me. As we began to roll the hill I was in 39x28 standing and constantly pulling just to keep momentum. I was feeling good and passing people left and right. As I rolled the hill the group of what now was about 14 people had fatigued and slowed a bit, but they were about 50 yards ahead of me. I was gaining on them but just when I though I may catch them (at this point I was riding solo) they started to pick up the pace. I had my head down, I was in my drops, and I was pushing the biggest gear I could averaging somewhere around 21-23 mph. They began to widen the gap though and I just couldn't close it. I turned around several times and saw no one behind me for about 8 miles, so I decided not to slow up and find someone. About 2 or 3 miles from the finish a two man chase group came up behind me and one of them said, "hop on...we need some help". I was all for it. We rotated out about three times at 30 second pulls. One of the guys was about to blow up, and the other looked pretty good. We got to a sign that said "1 mile to go" and it was about my turn to pull. Thanks to the race organizers the finish line was at the top of a climb...ouch:) As I pulled up to sprint territory I was thinking, "great, I pulled for the last 45 hopefully this guy isn't feeling too good". As I wound it up and eventually got out of the saddle I just gave it all I had. I could see his wheel creeping up to the right of my back wheel so I dug pretty deep and ended up taking it. It was for 15th place.....but pretending you're in first is just as fun...kinda!

http://s394.photobucket.com/albums/pp21/gtcl/T%20de%20T%202009/?albumview=slideshow

Tour de Tick MTB Race Neosho, MO:
So, last year I got second place in sport. This year I was hoping for first. My fitness is better than it has ever been, plus I had been training on the road bike which was never a factor last year.
It had rained a bit the night before which caused some concern about trail conditions...but they assured us that it had drained well and would be in pretty good shape. All true....but with some more rain during the race, and all of the riding occuring simutaneously, the conditions became somewhat mushy and sloppy. Oh well....I figured it would be fun anyhow!

We get off to the start and I get the whole shot. I tried to take off (which was hard running Hutchison Python tires with pretty much no tread) but was still able to split the group on the first significant hill. I was in first by about30 sec to 1 minute I assume and was feeling good. I came up to this downhill shoot that was pretty steep, but fairly safe. There was the easy singletrack going straight down, but there was also a kicker off to the right that looked to be safe and somewhat fun...not to mention people were standing there with cameras watching...you know? So I hit it. I landed it.....but with 24 lbs of pressure in my front tire, and a little too much weight on the front during the landing (rider error), it soon became apparent that I would be making a pit stop. At impact my tire sounded like a .22 pistol going off, and it blew off of the rim as I decended to the bottom and came to a stop. The people there were like "woah!, well at least you will get some cool points...hah". It was pretty much the right idea, and the wrong bike. I stood there trying to get the tubeless to seal for about 2-3 minutes or so with my CO2's, but I had two holes in my tire from the impact of the rim. I remember a couple of people passing me which must have been the 2nd and 3rd guys. I got going pretty slowly and made it to the start finish. After spending some excessive time tracking down a floor pump to borrow, and questioning the judges on whether or not using a borrowed pump was legal, I just ended up throwing in a tube and got going. Overall probably set me back about 10+ minutes, and I figured everyone had passed me by that point. I did my best to catch up and passed multiple people. I finished the race happy though. It was a lot of fun, and a really cool and fast course...Luke from Kuat Racks was cool enough to even take my muddy pic!



















At the podium I ended up in second suprisingly....that was pretty cool too as I was prepared to get 8th or so. To top it off I somehow confirmed my strange title as the "Ultimate Raffle Winner" by winning the raffle for a new Trek 820 Mtb!! (last year I won a bike rack...weird?!) Gave the bike to the Mom who desperately needed an upgrade from her Sequiota old-school A&B Bike!
All in all awesome weekend....and a good time kicking it with some great friends!
Until next time...

Gimme mo Syllamo.....can you say EPIC TRAIL?

Go time...

This is what happens when you take advantage of "Car Camping". You can never over-prepare...right?
Good thing I caught the "Translation" before entering...hah
Mind Blowing! Other than the forest fire in the background...the view was AMAZING to say the least.

Thanks for the peacock plate Cale....now this is how you start it off right!

So, the Mac attack E-mailed me early in the week to see if I would be interested in taking a two day trip to Syllamo. After checking my very loose schedule (after approx. 25 seconds), I e-mailed him back and said, "I'm in".
Having never been there before...yeah, I know what your thinking....I was super stoked about the idea. It has recently been on the list of one of the nations top IMBA "EPIC" Trails, and I have heard nothing but amazing stories about endless trails, rippin single-track, and nearly unlimited terrain selection between the different loops.
We planed on doing around 35 miles the first day, and about 12 the next...but between the logging leaving unmarked trails, and the almost inevitable wrong turn here and there we cut Saturday short by about 10 miles or so. It broke down to about 3.5 hours on Saturday and 2.5 on Sunday (still plenty of riding for my fitness at this point in the year!)
Speaking of that...After a couple of never ending up-hill gravel roads in a failed attempt to locate our initial route, my legs weren't having it. I asked Cale how he felt and he said not bad of course. I tried to ride it out and finally I said, "sorry to be a wuss, but I can't do it anymore. I need a little break". Pretty humbling to say the least. Once finding the correct trail though it was on. The red loop was pretty much flat, so not much down or up hill. It mostly was a constant pedal, but the section of orange that we finished off with was incredible. The super fast downhill single-track sections were a blast. It was a good mixture of "is a rock going to appear in this pile of leaves that covers the trail?" and "am I going to wash out around this corner trying to keep up with the Macster?" I think these questions were what led the ride to be so much fun! It was a thrill to think that for whatever reason at that period in time the stars must have aligned, and all of your misconceptions about what gravity should and could do were wrong. It was a matter of trusting the trail not to throw some B.S. stump/floater rock at you. After all...your just an innocent mountain biker trying to enjoy nature..Right? Now I can't exactly say the same fortune was on my side on Sunday. The Orange loop was amazing and had some good hills, and my legs were feeling good! The Green loop was also a blast...but.. all the technical stuff, which I love, did rough me up a bit. I'm blaming my handling failures on it being my first time on the mtb since a couple months, being unfamiliar with the trails, and the fact that there were leaves everywhere making much of the trail a guessing game. This all led me to taking some of the big stuff too slow, leading to you know what......ENDO'ssss. That's two to be exact. The first was AWESOME! I was about to stack it into a tree and as I was watching the tree to determine the best way to bail, I stuck it on a huge rock, pulled a track hurdle on the bars, and left the bike crashing behind me as I left in in a full sprint (all with a big smile on my face as I couldn't believe that I had pulled it off!) Round two occurred directly after the viewing of the White River (seen in the picture). This was on the Green Trail, and near the bluff it is extremely rocky with boulders and steps around every corner. Thanks to my "cautious riding" I was taking it a bit slow, stuck the front, and took a wrist breaker straight into the giant rock below. The guys who had been at the view also were right behind me with their 29ers in full glory. The one guys like, "man...are you ok?"...I was, but even if I hadn't been I would have said yeah just to save myself the embarrasment. I picked myself up, and continued to redeem myself for the next hour and a half.

So, to summarize the trip:
-Epic long trails with great bench cuts, super dry, and relatively predictable terrain.
-Perfect weather for this time of year (mid 50's).
-Only minor aches and pains (handlebar to the knee..ouch), but easily forgotten during a flow.
-INCREDIBLE VIEWS of the White River Valley and Arkansas "Mountains".
-and some good 'ol campfire Jib Jab with Mac, and my new fellow camp mates with their pop-up luxury suite...Bo (Steakmaster), Luke (Kuat Innovater), and P.J (Rugby Sasquatch).

It was an Awesome Weekend with Great riding!! Another trip was on the books before we even made it back to town!

Better news

So, Things have been much better since the last riding post... three rides (I was in Colorado for about 1 1/2 weeks) since, and no flats. Must have been the greenway trails because I made sure to avoid them this time! Here is a quick look at the bike setup...more to come.