My New Ride::Scott Addict

At 13.9 lbs as pictured it is still not nearly as sexy as my 6 month pregnant wife, but in a distant second place. It has my heavy speedplay x5 pedals and no bottle cages yet. A big thanks goes to Joe for helping me put together yet another ebay bike that came in a box. This makes #4 if my memory is correct. With the seat post being integrated, once you cut it, it is not very easy to get it tall again and since when it came, it was taller than i ride but fit joe, he rode it first. I took it to Contender and had them cut it to my size. All it takes is a saw but that is a very expensive mistake if done wrong. I wish i had my heart rate monitor on as the guy was cutting it because i am sure i was up around Lactate threshold. This is my first set of tubular wheels and installation wasn't too tough, but i will see how i like them over the next year and when i need to replace the tire. Tape makes it much easier than the 3 day glue up process of the past i have heard about. The East Canyon race is this weekend so we will see if this bike helps me climb any better. The flip side of this new bike was that my wife wanted a new cooking pot, which she got and i think weighs twice as much as my bike.

Chuck Norris does not love Raymond!

Monterey vacation (non bike)

Although it was freezing cold most of the time it was fun. We stayed in a handicapped room at an inn so the peak hole in the door was low enough for someone in a wheel chair. that meant that when i looked through it, i saw the crotch of whoever was standing at the door. the mirrors were hung low and there was no bath tub. the whole bathroom was tiled so you could roll a wheel chair in and shower. We went to the tourist areas and were disappointed by many. Fishermans wharf only had a few people fishing and mostly shops selling lame t-shirts and dumpy restaurants with all you can eat shrimp. There were a lot of really loud sea lions laying around and one was trying to eat a ladies bait as she fished.

We went to the oldest continuously working light house on the western coast. It was much shorter than the light houses you see on the post cards. Apparently it can still be seen from 17 miles out and they figured that was tall enough.



We went and checked out cannery road because historically it is important enough that there are books and songs written about it. More t-shirt shops and restaurants and shops selling pirate toys. There was an aquarium there but it would have been more fun with the kids so didn't go. There was also a wax museum but we didn't think we needed to see a wax likeness of john steinbeck or sardines.



We went over to Lovers Point but all we saw was a kid chasing his dog and a family having a picnic. I am in love with my wife so i guess that counts, but other than us, there were no other lovers that i could see. maybe they were in the bushes.




Since we actually stayed in Pacific Grove, right next to Monterey and it is called "butterfly town", we thought we should go and see the butterfly sanctuary. There were no butterflies at all but here is a picture of the trees that they are supposed to be in.




We did the 17 mile drive around pebble beach and it was beautiful. I took a picture of the tree in the pebble beach logo. I can't sell you the picture or paint you a picture of it and sell it to you because they have copywritten it and any likeness to it. I am actually scared to post it because it might be in some sort of copyright infringement. We stopped in Carmel for a few hours and walked around to a lot of the art galleries and shops. Some were cool , some were not but it was fun to see an area with so many in such a close proximity. We had brunch and I had the best pancakes i have ever eaten, except of course the pancakes megan makes. Every meal we had was good although if you are a waitperson, why don'y you write down my order? It is not impressive if you take my order by memory and get it wrong or have to come back out and ask me about it, or forget a part of it. Megan did lots of reading and soduko puzzles. It was fun to get away and i would love to go back sometime in september or october.

SEA OTTER CIRCUIT RACE (lengthy bike crap)

Saturday and day 2 of california racing. I came down to california for a few reasons. The wife is due in June and wanted to go on vacation without the kids before she had the baby. I checked around a bit and asked her if she wanted to go to monterey, california. she agreed and then i told her that there was a race on friday morning and another on saturday afternoon. I don't think this is exactly what she had in mind when she said she wanted to go on vacation but she was a good sport and figured, if nothing else there wouldn't be any laundry and someone else would clean our room and make our bed for us for the next few days. I also wanted to come down to california to race to see how i stacked up against racers down here. As it turns out, i stack up about the same. slightly better than the middle of the pack. I also wanted to get down to some warmer weather and enjoy the sun for a few days since it has been snowing every other day in utah for the last 6 monthes. I have seen the commercials for california and how it is always sunny and 72. We came to the festival on saturday a few hours early to check out all of the vendors and the other events and races going on. it was so windy and cold that we ended up sitting, hiding behind a cement barrier for a long time watching the pro NRC circuit race and getting sand in every crack we had. Megan was a trooper and stuck it out for my race to start at 5 and then sit there for another hour while i rode in circles for an hour. It was a fun course and suited me a little better than the road course mostly because after a bunch of short really steep climbs, there wasn't a long canyon i needed to climb at the end to the finish. After the first lap, i was feeling it in my legs and was wondering if i was actually going to finish. I was certainly feeling the effects of fridays race. After the first lap, my legs warmed up a bit and i got into a groove. with that steep but short hill at 12-15% grade every lap i was wondering if it was going to come down to the best sprinter that could climb or the best climber that could sprint since the finish was fast and flat. it was very windy which helped keep most of the group together other than the guys that got spit out the back. It came down to the last lap and me not in very good position for the sprint. i finished 13 or 14 out of around 50 and felt good except not having much kick for the finish. the other thing i thought was interesting was i ride a 12-27 because i don't have much power and it is nice to have that for the long canyons we have in utah, but i big ringed the climb every time and found myself getting spun out in the sprint. i think it might be time to look into SRAM's 11-26 cassette. It came down to the best sprinters that could climb. it was so windy that with the cat 4 group, if anybody could get away on the climb, they wouldn't have been able to stay away on the flats.

Here are some pics of the GRAND PRIX course we raced on.

After The start/finish line it makes a quick right where you do a couple hundred meter climb at 5-6%




After a couple hundred meters of gradual hill it comes around a corner and kicks up for a little while longer.









after climbing this steeper pitch it crests and immediately drops down what is called the corkscrew.































after coming down the steep winding section i flattens out for a minute then one more little rise before it comes down flat into the start finish again.
















It is a little over 2 miles per lap and we ended up doing 10 laps in an hour.

Sea Otter Classic Friday

Friday was the road race that started at 8 am. It was 45 degrees when we started but 45 with humidity out here is freezing. I wore a long sleeve base layer, a long sleeve DNA jersey and a vest with leg warmers and full fingered gloves and for the 2 minutes i stood at the starting line before we left, i was shivering. The race was 54 miles with a neutral roll out. we rode neutral for about 3-4 miles from the circuit race track up over a hill and down the hill that we have to turn around on and come up to for the finish. We did 6 laps on a course that started with a climb like up wasatch blvd except winding. then it cruised around with some rollers and another good little climb before dropping down and doing it all over again. I felt good during these climbs and and although it would have been nice to keep it a little lower, my HR climbed up to around 175 each time up the climb sections of the race. i managed to sit between 3rd and 8th wheel the whole race but stayed off the front. I did have a couple incidents on the climb. i dropped my chain at the bottom one time but was able to shift it back over and on without having to stop and get off, and another time i was riding second wheel about half way up the climb. the guy in front of me decided to stand up and in doing so, threw his bike back and to one side hitting my front wheel and causing me to unclip and put my foot down and throwing everybody behind me off. it sucks trying to clip back in an get some momentum on a 10% grade in the middle of 45 guys. after doing 6 laps we did a little over 2 miles up what would be comparable to millcreek canyon but with a few steeper pitches. i hung on to the lead group until 1 k to go and popped. I pre-rode this part of the course and by itself it is not bad, but after 52 miles and at race pace, it hurt. so after getting dropped by the lead group, i sat up and rode the last kilometer by myself and finished a minute and a half behind the leader. My legs felt good for the short steep hills but didn't have it for the final 2+ mile climb to the finish. Saturday is the circuit race and the course would suit me better excpet for the fact that my legs are still really tired from the road race.

5 going on 15

I came home today to see my five year old had stuffed toilet paper in her shirt. When questioned about it, she said she wanted to look like a 6th grader. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I tried to rationalize this event by telling her it was a good idea to always have kleenex readily at hand in case she has a runny nose. i was going to take a picture to put it on my blog but it was far too disturbing, Plus i don't want to encourage this type of behavior.

Holy Crap we need another boy at this house.

The Girl Who Would Not Clean Her Room; A Cautionary Tale

I once knew a girl
who would not clean her room
she would not make her bed,
she would not use a broom

her toys and clothes,
they lay on the floor
it had gotten so messy,
you couldn't open the door.






her parents asked nicely,
and they begged, and they pleaded
she promised she would,
and they thought they'd succeeded.







the very next day,
her room was a mess.
"I'm sorry, I forgot"
she had to confess

i promise to you,
i will do it today,
but i have to go now,
i am going out to play.


so she went and she played,
and again she forgot.
her room was not clean,
of course it was not.


that night an outlet
had become overloaded
it started to spark,
and then it exploded.

the flames started small
and soon there was smoke
they all heard the alarm
and they all awoke.





their house was on fire
they scrambled to get free.
they had worked on a plan
for emergencies









two sisters were there
and a mother and father.
but someone was missing
where was the first daughter?







when the fire started
she could smell the smoke
she knew the alarm
could not be a joke.

she jumped from her bed
but tripped on the floor
things were piled up
in front of the door.






she tried to open it,
without any luck
her room was too messy,
the door, it was stuck.






her mother, she screamed
her father, he tried
the flames were too big,
he could not get inside

the firemen showed up
"YOU CANNOT GO IN!,"
THE FIRE IS TOO DANGEROUS,
THE ROOF'S CAVING IN!"




they stood there and watched
the girls imminent doom
because she would not
pick up her room.