Wonderful Morning

Love to support the local Coffee Shop when we get the chance. I took Natalie out for breakfast this morning of New Year's eve 2009. A great chance for us to sit and relax and read the paper, and chat about life. Yeti's Grind in Eagle, CO is an awesome place! Kind of set after the scene from Friends, the interior is loaded with comfortable couches and chairs and the rich smell of coffee and fresh baked scones and other baked goods. It's located on Broadway in downtown Eagle, and is one of our favorite places to hang out when we get the chance. Just a wonderful atmosphere.

What can I say?

The dogs enjoy the sun and the freedom of not spending their day in the cage....

Oh!, So sorry to disturb you Wrigley.... :)She's always on the lookout, although appears to not be paying attention. Nothing gets by Sophie.

Man Cave ----> Pain Cave

Changing the name of the Man Cave to the Pain Cave... Had my first ride on the trainer tonight. My first training ride in a while... since the middle of October. I had a nice break from the bike, it's good for the mind and the soul. Plus I think Natalie likes it when I am not training all the time :) Not sure what the season has in store for me with the baby coming and all (change of priorities for sure). But I plan on staying in shape, and will post goals for the new season soon. Have been swimming for about a month now, and will add cycling now and running soon to get ready for a triathlon in May.

Today we went down to Denver to use our Gift Cards. The plan was REI, Barnes and Noble, and Woody's Pizza in Golden... (no gift card, just lunch.) At REI I purchased a new Camelbak for longer mountain biking trips....

An REI down jacket w/removable hood in black.....

and a set of Ergon GC-2 mountain bike bar grips with mini bar ends. Hopefully these will help alleviate some of the hand numbness that occurs on longer rides, plus the bar ends will allow me to get more efficient power out of the saddle......
And from Barnes and Noble we purchased a Baby book that will allow us to keep vital information from the first 3 years of baby's life. It is really cute, and should be fun to fill out and add pictures.After all the shopping festivities, we stuffed our faces and tummies at Woody's! Natalie got her Beer Cheese Soup, and we both had plenty of delicious wood fired pizza!

AMAZING!!!

Today Nat and I went snowshoeing for about an hour. Fresh powder, blue skies, and beautiful sunshine! Temp was about 14 degrees, but with the sun, I would have felt comfy in just a long sleeve shirt. It felt pretty warm. On our way back to the car, a huge bird soared overhead. I looked up and saw a bright white head. Bald eagles are very prevalent out here, (eagle county) so not a huge surprise, and this is the 2nd time I have seen one out here, but this eagle soaring through the crystal blue skies was an amazing sight. It's head was so clear and white, making it unmistakeably a bald eagle. After getting back in the car we decided to drive up the road a bit and saw the eagle sitting in the top of the tree. Amazing sight! Beautiful day, beautiful bird, beautiful wife, what more can I ask for? Christmas Break has been wonderful so far!

Scrabble

Ok, so to give Natalie props, I was on a terrible skid before Christmas break. I was like 0-4 or 0-5 or something like that. Natalie got me a new board for my birthday, and since that point (last 5 days) we are 1-1. I blew her out last night, and she beat me pretty bad tonight. She was pretty upset about last night and out to get revenge. Game 3 tomorrow I'm sure...

Catching up...

We've only been on break for a few days, yet it seems like so many things have happened! Gotta' get everyone caught up :-)

A Birthday!
Nick turned 29 on Saturday. We spent the morning making and delivering food baskets for the Salvation Army. After that, we met up with Torrey and Alana for bowling and dinner.


Fun in the Snow
Nick and Torrey got out on the mountain on Sunday. They got there bright and early and had entire runs to themselves. They were two very happy guys!

Family Christmas
We used the online program Skype (it's free, I highly suggest downloading this program if you have people to want to see on web cam and chat with) to watch my family Christmas celebration on Sunday. I knew it would be hard not being home for Christmas, but this helped out a lot. We were able to open gifts for everyone to see, and also watch them open their gifts. The mics worked really well, so we could hear almost every side, snide comment made by all :-)
PS. Thanks to my niece Finley for the awesome earmuffs!

Paint!
We spent the past two days painting the baby's room. Nick and I had checked some books out from the library a few weeks back. We new we wanted something different than your typical nursery, but weren't sure exactly what. We saw one example with some kid art on the wall, and decided to head that direction. From there, we made the rest up on our own. Nick did the solid-colored painting on all of the walls, and I did the lettering and artwork. Here's what we came up with:

Dr. Appointment
We head up-valley today for our 20-week (actually 19-week) ultrasound. Apparently we can find out the baby's sex today. But we don't plan to find out this info until he/she is born. So, we're expecting a surprise!

Update: ultrasound pics :-)

More Snow
Nick is heading up to The Beave today to snowboard before our dr. appointment. According to their website, they have 3 inches of new snow, with more on the way. We are in the middle of a pretty good-sized storm that isn't supposed to stop until tomorrow morning. So, even though our white Christmas was never in question, we'll have an even whiter Christmas with even fresher snow.

Upcoming Break Plans
For Christmas Eve, we are planning on getting dinner out somewhere (we'll wait until the specials are posted until we decide!), go drive around and look at Christmas lights, then attend Midnight Mass (yes, it's at midnight) at the Beaver Creek Chapel. Should be beautiful!

Christmas Day, we're going to open our gifts and once again use Skype to share the experience with family. And probably take a nap at some point :-)

Our next dr. appoint with Dr. Kohn is on the 31st. She's been a good find and we really enjoy her. For once it seems going to the dr. is actually fun!

Book Review

I finished this book last night about 11:45. It was riveting. Throughout the entire book I had a hard time putting it down. I love reading books that are easy to get into, and once you get into them so riveting, that you don't want to put it down. The book starts off with Shaun Ellis telling a little about his background, and his experiences with animals, specifically dogs, growing up. It's a hook that immediately catches almost anyone's attention because almost everyone can relate to having dogs as a child. Throughout the book, he describes his time spent living with wolves. Anyone who grew up with the woods, or in the country would have an easy time relating with this book. Having spend time in the woods at night, you hear sounds that you never hear during the day, and sense that other animals are watching you all the time. However, the woods that I spent all my time in definitely didn't have wolves in them..... I don't know that I would have spent any time in them in the dark if they had! The fact that Shaun Ellis continually puts his life at risk to save these magnificent creatures is just absolutely amazing. Halfway through the book I thought I had already read the most exciting part, but they just keep coming at ya and you continue to wonder what he will do next to learn more about the wolf pack. I highly recommend this book!!! An amazing and decently light read. Will also give you much better insight into dog behavior, and our relationship with them as humans. Two Thumbs Up!

Detention

Man!!!, Natalie and I's parents must have done something right.... I got into trouble a few times in school, but never to the best of my knowledge received detention. Not sure about Nat, but I'm pretty sure she never got it either. This pic kind of demonstrates what I thought detention must be like when I was in middle school, and even in high school. Some form of capital punishment, where the teacher can make you do whatever they wanted, and I was pretty sure I didn't want to be there. No matter how bad detention would have been, life would have been even worse after getting back home......

Sure doesn't seem that way anymore. I have done more detentions as a teacher (paid supervisor!) than I did in school.... It's kinda funny actually. Here at our school the kids have to sit with their hands on their desks, facing the front of the room for a solid 45 minutes. It's actually kinda comical being in my position. It's not really how I envisioned detention in middle school, however, I'm sure I still would not have liked it very much. The funny thing is most of the kids are repeat offenders, and I'm pretty sure detention is the extent of the trouble they get in. (no more punishment after getting home) Cheers to watching 7 middle school students squirm and fidget in absolute silence for 45 very long minutes...... :) One more day of school till break!

Eventful Weekend

What a fun, crazy weekend we had! Here's a recap:
Friday
We hurried home after school to finish preparing the house for the Gypsum Creek Middle School staff party. Wrigley and Rusty spent the party at Torrey and Alana's house (gee, I wonder why). Sophie stayed here and was well-liked by all :-) There were about 40 people here for the party, so the house was filled to the brim! We had a white elephant gift exchange, karaoke in the garage and LOTS of good food. We finally got to bed about 130 Saturday morning.

Saturday
"Slept in" til after 7. It was mailing deadline day, so we had to get all the Christmas gifts boxed up to send back to Illinois. Thanks to FedEx and USPS, it seems everyone will have their gifts on time! Nat worked at The Boot all day while Nick did some laundry, put the snowboard racks on the car and a few other odds and ends. By dark (5 pm or so, seriously!), we were both pooped. So we plopped on the couch in pj's and settled in for some Christmas movies - "Christmas with the Kranks", Burl Ives' "Rudolph" and some new weird Christmas movie. About 545 the doorbell rang - someone was here with her husband for the staff party. See above....ummmm, you're a day late. Prolly a dollar short, too. That was a good laugh.

Sunday
It's easy to get up for church when you've had over 10 hours of sleep! After church, we got some groceries and headed home to go out snowshoeing...until Nick noticed that both the Colts and Illini basketball was on. During the games, we were able to get the Christmas cards all stuffed, letters written and ready to go. Finally, about 345, we headed out for snowshoeing. Things were good until we got about 7 miles up the road and figured out we were driving into whiteout conditions, and it noticed it was getting dark quickly. So we turned around, came back home, and took the dogs for a walk through the neighborhood. We had some awesome homemade potato cheese soup waiting in the crockpot for us when we returned. The night was topped off with Nat winning Scrabble (yet again, it's really getting kind of embarrassing for poor Nick) and more football.

Fantastical weekend...lots accomplished and so much fun. Only one more week of school until we have a nice break. Can't wait!

First Funiture

Baby got it's first piece of furniture yesterday. After looking at changing tables and cribs for a while now we had settled on a crib changing table combo for a decent price that would make the best use of the space in the baby's room. However a week ago a white changing table (which is the color we wanted) came up on the teachers classfieds. It was being sold for 45.00 by another teacher in our building! This was exciting! A super bargain compared to the prices of the changing tables we had been researching! So it turns out we obtained our first piece of
furniture for the baby.

Excitement!

We have been looking on the classifieds system at work, waiting patiently to see if anyone had nursery furniture they were selling. It seems the good stuff never comes up...it's either old and rickety looking or pretty used. Today was total excitement because a white changing table was offered for sale by the PE teacher in our building. So we claimed a nice changing table. I also happened to find a cool crib on super-sale at Wal-Mart. We had just taped the baby's room for painting yesterday, so soon we'll have paint and furniture. What fun!

16 weeks on Wednesday! Also happen to have a dr. appointment that day :-)

Random

Driving down Glenwood Canyon today we spotted out the car window several big horn sheep! WOW!, what majestic creatures! It never gets old seeing them. This was the first sighting for me this year. Natalie saw them one other time. There was one HUGE ram, and some other females with him. It is so cool seeing the sheep when you get the opportunity.

My baby brother Michael had another phenomenal soccer season to finish his senior year in style. He didn't score as many goals this season, but had a more balanced attack leading the team in assists and goals, finishing with 30 goals, 20 assists. Once again the team lost to the ever powerful Waterloo-Gibault in the sectionals. Michael made the all-sectional team as one of the most outstanding players. Great Work Michael! Enjoy the rest of your senior year!

Woke up this morning, and Natalie's back was hurting pretty bad, and she was telling me how hungry she was. Trying my best to take care of her, I headed downstairs to make her an English muffin with some butta and jelly. When I got downstairs, I bent down to pick up the dogs water bowl to fill it with water, and upon standing up, I smashed the top of my head into the bottom of the shelve above the kitchen cabinets. I instantly fell to the ground and clutched the top of my head only to find out that I had a hole in my head that was gushing blood!!!! Got some paper towels to stop the bleeding and headed upstairs (slowly and dizzily) to let Natalie know what had happened. Long story short.... decided against stitches, and Natalie got me cleaned up and took awesome care of me this morning! Funny how things work out sometimes, I was taking care of her (I thought) and then she ends up caring for me. Thanks babe!

2 more days till Thanksgiving Break! I think we will make it.....

BRRRRR.....

I rode my bike to school this morning for the 10th day this month. Temps were in the single digits, and holy buckets! it was freaking cold!!!!! First day this fall that it has really been cold... going to take a bit to get used to it again.

Staying Warm

We got some snow last night and it got pretty chilly out, down to around 25 degrees. However, the dogs are managing to stay warm it seems......

Holy Lots of Stuff!

So we decided to register for baby stuff so that people can get us baby stuff for Christmas if they want. The other day I spent hours (literally, 4 hours??) trying to register on Babies R Us. Apparently there is only one of these stores in all of Colorado. And it's over three hours and 2 passes away. So I'm not driving there to register. In those 4 hours I managed to find like 14 items to register for. There is so much stuff to have to choose from!

After that episode, I had a talk with Nick and said I really think it would be better if we just went to the stores and used that fun little gun they have. So, we get all pumped up and plan to go to Wal-Mart after I get off work on Saturday. Guess what? Wal-Mart doesn't have that little gun anymore! No, you have to register online :-( Sooooo, we spent just over an hour today making a beautiful (sarcasm) registry on walmart.com. Again, how are you supposed to really figure out what's happening when there's so much stuff and it just runs on from one page to another???

Our last attempt at registering will be Target. I've already called and verified that yes, they do indeed still allow you to walk around the store with the gun. So, we're going to race down there before they change their minds :-) Hopefully, it will be a little easier to wrap our heads around exactly what we're picking out.

ONSIE'S

Below is the new onsie baby received from Auntie Lindsey in the mail today. Pretty sweet hey!!! Thanks Auntie Lindsey!

Had to double check and make sure we got Wrigley's approval.... since he is KING dog around the house.... at least until Sophie gets angry with him! After careful deliberation, I think he likes it!!
Seriously though!!!!, with all this paraphernalia around, I hope baby can say mama and dada and puppa before baby mutters BIKE........

1 World 2 Wheels

Take your bike for trips w/in two miles of your home.

One World Two Wheels

Stumbled upon this great movement designed to encourage bike commuting on all trips within 2 miles of your home. Pretty cool if you commit to doing it, you can see how much gas we end up not buying, and the pollution you are helping to prevent. I have ridden my bike approx. 20 times this year to school to help do my part (4 miles round trip). One World Two Wheels '

In other news, since the 24 hours of Moab, I have begun a new activity. Swimming.... Now my wife and her sister are both accomplished swimmers, and somehow make this activity look easy.... Let me be the first to confirm!!!!, It is by no means an easy sport! I have now been swimming for about 3 weeks, 2 days a week, and am finally beginning to get my breathing down. It's still all I can do to swim 50m without stopping for an extended breathing session.... Baby steps....My wife is an excellent resource, as well as several guys at the pool that I swim with at 5:30 in the morning on Monday and Wednesdays. I've drank more chlorinated pool water in the past 3 weeks.......

Dr. Visits

We had two Dr. visits this week, both planned, so everyone stay calm. The first appointment was for our little Sophie. She went to see Dr. Niles at Castle Peak Veterinary Clinic on Monday for her spaying. Nick dropped her off before work and Niles called by lunchtime to say Sophie had done well. We went to pick her up after work and we were warned that she was a little "out of it" because of the morphine. Apparently she had spent her day after surgery resting, being peaceful and calm. However, once they brought Sophie out to us, she instantly started whining and continued the entire way home, that night, really any time she thought she could milk it and get some extra attention. Silly little girl, she was right. She knew exactly how to play us, and 5 days later, she continues to milk it. Yesterday was Sophie's 3rd birthday, so we had a little party for her. Somehow, she found the strength (sarcasm) to participate in her party. The birthday dinner was a plate of mexican pizza from Mi Pueblo and some nasty-looking Beneful Beef Stew (supposedly) stuff. Below are pictures of Sophie and her daddy, and Sophie sharing her birthday fun with Wrigley and Rusty.
The other appointment this week was a check-up for the baby. We went to see Dr. Kohn yesterday morning. They did blood work and also checked the baby's heartbeat using a Doppler-machine. It was weird hearing the baby's heartbeat, which was so much faster than mine, which we could also hear. No other big news from that appointment. Next appointment is Dec. 2, still sticking with a due date of May 20.

More Moab pics

Coming back to camp after one of my early morning laps. This is when I was feeling really good!
This picture I was obviously not feeling so good..... enjoying a little time off the bike seat :)
Base Camp
Checking in at the SOLO check-in. Swipe your card once to check in, once to check out and begin another lap, then go to the tent. This is why it seems like the laps take longer when you look at the time.
My race mechanic straightening up my bike lights. Service with a smile!
The madness that ensued following the run!!!
My beautiful wife enjoying the desert and the madness and suffering that is about to take place....... :)
The bikes in the stands waiting to be ridden. 400+ bikes in the staging area at the start.

Crank the Volume....This is Hilarious!

Race Recap MOAB

24 Hours of MOAB 2009 p/b Granny Gear!

After leaving Burger King in Moab after a bite to eat, we pulled into tent city after dark. It was crazy!!!! Almost like a city with running water and electricity had sprung up in the middle of the desert. It was truly a sight to behold. Got a campsite (wherever you decide you want to stay), got things set up and headed to bed around 11 to wait for the day ahead. Next day camp starts to buzz with people getting bikes set up and making sure everything is prepped and ready. Breakfast was potatoes with veggies, and lots of water. Pre-race meeting at 10:30 and the excitement was starting to build. Race starts at noon and goes to noon the next day.

1st lap - Lined up for the Le Mans style start with 400 or so other people... It was a crazy feeling, everybody just waiting to explode with energy, the musak was blaring, my heartbeat actually increased while I was waiting. It was really cool. They shot the cannon to start us and it was really freaking loud!!!! I was just pacing myself, I thought I may be toward the back, but once I got down to the turn-around at the bush, I could see that there were a lot of people still behind me.
My plan was to pace myself on the run and the entire first lap.... Like you can really pace yourself when you are riding in a pack 400 large on a dirt road...... Especially as a roadie.... Once I got my bike and got clipped in and took off, I was passing people left and right. I love riding on dirt roads, it plays into my strengths. I probably passed close to 50 people in the first couple miles of dirt road, and then as a mass of people we hit the first singletrack. I was still trying to pace myself, not pushing myself too hard, (lots of time left..... like 23 hours..... :) the first section of singletrack was dusty, sandy, and technical. Feeling fresh yet, I was able to ride up many of the sections that I would later walk, yet when we did have to hike it, was like you were hiking a bike with 30-40 other people. All the while the guys on teams (majority of people) were super competitive and trying to keep on passing. The middle of the course featured a couple mile dirt road section where I was able to open it up to around 25-30 mph and pass a ton of people.
Soon we came up to the NOSE-DIVE, I had seen somebody ride this section on You-Tube, and it didn't look so bad, but coming up to it, there was no way in hell I would ever even attempt to ride it. Plus at the bottom was super deep sand, so you would still have to get off your bike and hike up the other side. Once over that, a few more technical uphills and gullys with some nice drops. A couple sandy downhills, and the course spit you out onto some more dirt road. On this Jeep road I was able to open it up again to about 25 or so, and was able to catch some nice drafts off of other people. Coming off the dirt road section was a section of slickrock that had a few nice drops, and spit you out into a gully where it was super fast through deep sand down, and back up, no effort required if you got enough speed. Back onto the Jeep road after this for a couple more miles, then a couple more decently steep downhills that were really sandy and tricky if you were afraid of too much speed.
The one thing I quickly figured out is that in the deep sand speed is truly your friend. What goes down must come back up, after the last couple downhills you take a left and get ready to ride back into camp. But first you must climb about a 2.5 mile dirt/sandy climb. My first lap I was able to do this in the middle ring and pretty much hold my position all the way up it. There was a super deep sandy section close to the top that I never made it through, and never saw anyone else make it either. Once over the top of the climb, I was flying back down toward camp. It was an awesome descent complete with several deep sandy sections that as long as you hit them at about 25 mph you could cruise through them with little effort, any slower and you would probably get buried, and have to get off your bike. Right at the bottom of the hill, a little less than a mile from the finish tent was a huge deep section of sand. I didn't make it through and had to once again get off and walk. 5 minutes later I was back at the tent excited to have lap 1 under my belt with a time of 1:19. One hour down, 23 to go, and I was feeling invincible!!!!

Above is a picture of a rider walking the Nose Dive. What you can't really tell from the pic is that there is about a 4 foot drop at the bottom of it all. This section was crazy!

Lap 2 - Started off fast, after stopping by camp to fill the Camelbak and stuff my face. While there Torrey and Natalie recommended I wipe all the salt off my face (should have paid this more attention).... Lap 2 was different from Lap 1 for the first several miles in that it was all rolling singletrack through the desert. Hit the first technical climb and was powering away, just riding up and over everything in my way. The 29" wheels were destroying the trail in front of me, and just steadily eating up the miles. About 5 miles into the second lap and BAM!!!! my left leg just locks up. (OH Sh**) I say to myself not the cramps already.... just 20 miles in.... Got off my bike and walked a bit until I felt I could get back on and ride. Every climb after that, anytime I put too much pressure on my legs, the one leg would completely lock up. I started chugging water and sucking down the energy gels. TOO LATE!!!! I probably cramped 3 times on that 2nd lap and after each would get off and walk my bike for a bit, super upset that I was cramping already. I thought it would go away if I could just make it back to camp and get some food with some sodium. Little did I know that I was already in a HUGE sodium deficit, and how long it takes to get out of that. Finished lap 2 in about 1:35.
The picture above is basically what all but the last climb consisted of rocky, technical climbing.


Lap 3 - Before I left camp I ate a couple of bananas, and drank a bottle of gatorade, and filled the Camelbak again. On the first climb about 3-4 miles into the 3rd lap, WHAM! both legs are locked up and I almost fell off my bike. Again, every time I put too much force on my legs, or tried to go to fast, my legs would lock up, only now it was both legs, and if I would stretch to get rid of the cramp, my hamstring would lock up. GREAT..... so now I have cramping in both legs, front and back! I have thoughts of Natalie's brother Patrick flashing through my mind thinking that I may have to forfeit due to cramping.... Somehow I made it back to camp for the end of Lap 3. Lap 3 was about 1:40.
Above is the last climb up a sandy dirt road leading back to the base camp.

Lap 4 - Couple more bananas, ham and mayo sandwich, bottle of gatorade, headlights put on by my race support (Torrey), and a pocket full of energy gels and sport beans as well as electrolytes in my Camelbak and I am fully prepared for my 4th lap. The sun is starting to set and I can tell that soon I will have to turn on the lights and be riding in complete darkness (save for the lights from my NITERIDER lights). By this time I am hoping that I have enough food,sodium and potassium in my system to keep the cramps away. My stomach is so full, and somehow I am supposed to keep pedaling my bike through the night. Once again, on the first hill.... both legs CRAMP!!!! At this point I was so frustrated I just got off and started walking. In fact anytime I got to a hill, I would just get off and start walking, it was so pointless to even try to pedal, because both legs would just instantly lock up the second I put any kind of pressure on them. Then they started cramping just from walking, so I would have to stop and just wait until they were done spasming!!! About halfway through this lap the sun set and everyone turned on their lights. WOW!!! How cool, during the day I hadn't even realized that you could see most of the course from different points on the course. It doubled back on itself many different times. At night when people had headlights on it was so AWESOME!! At any given time you could see anywhere from 2 lights to around 30 lights. It was one of the coolest sights I have ever seen, and would have even been cooler if I had been able to ride my bike instead of pushing it everywhere. Even though I could see all these lights and knew there were people all over the place, there were times when you would see no one else for up to 5 minutes or so. My issue was that I would completely cramp up, someone would ride past and ask if I was ok?, (everyone was super friendly and helpful), I would reply with ya, just cramping, and then.... silence for up to 5 minutes or so. Kinda freaky when you can't move because the cramps are so debilitating. Somehow after all the cramping and walking, I made it to the top of the final climb and could see the camp down below. WOW what a wonderful feeling, all downhill to the camp and safety and warmth and food, and a chance to just sit around the fire that Torrey had made. I finished Lap 4 around 2 hours, got an extreme rush riding through camp in the middle of the night. Found our campsight, plopped down in a chair and just breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Break Time - I had made it. That was one hellish lap, and I was sure I could do no more if I couldn't figure out how to get rid of the cramps. I sat for a while, eating constantly and drinking lots of gatorade and soda, and talking with Natalie about what to do next. I didn't want to go back out because even just sitting in the chair I would just randomly cramp up severely. I knew if I went back out it would be the same thing as the previous lap, and I dreaded that. It was finally decided with some good guidance from the wife that the best and safest thing to do was get some rest and try to recover. (Several people had already been taken into town in ambulances because of crashes due to the technical nature of the course, and this was the last thing any of us wanted to happen, because I was too tired or cramped at the wrong time.) At this point Natalie headed off too bed, it was after 10:00pm. Torrey built up the fire a bit and I headed to the showers. It was an amazing feeling to take a shower!! Got back to camp and ate some cookies and had some soda. I also found some salt tablets that I decided to take, and then was feeling pretty good, almost like I could head back out. I cleaned my bike a bit and got it ready, then was unsure if I was done with the cramping or not and decided to sleep for a bit. Went to bed about 11:30 with the plan of waking up at 4:30 to be on the bike by 5:00.

Woke up at 4:30, Torrey went out to get the fire going, and I got up around 4:45, got dressed, made sure the bike was good to go, and stood by the fire with a lot of clothes on!!!! Reheated some potatoes from the previous day and ate those, along with some more gatorade. Everything was prepared by Torrey, who was awesome! I could not have done it without his and Natalie's support.

Lap 5 - I was back on my bike and feeling amazing (save for about the first mile) at 5:10am. I had the headlights on and helmet light, and had plenty of light. This lap I did a much better job of pacing myself with just a steady effort throughout. No cramping at all. Completely recovered. I rode everything! I still had to walk some of the deep sand and steep rock parts that everyone else also walked, but otherwise, I was picking amazing lines and riding all the rock drops with extreme confidence. Every time around, I would get passed by people (mostly team riders) on the climbs cause I would just be spinning up in my granny gear, and then on the technical downhills and flats I would just fly past people mainly because I could ride everything that many others would get off and walk, and the flats I was just that much faster than everyone else. This lap was probably my 2nd fastest lap of all, I think it was about 1:25. About 3/4 of the way through this lap I turned my lights off, as it was full daybreak. I crested the final hill overlooking the camp and could see the tent city coming to life. As I cruised back in to the check-in, it was one of the coolest feelings. Having people still cheering for you "Thinking you had ridden through the night".... and made it back to camp for the first lap of the new day. I pulled into camp bursting with confidence.Toward the end of the race you just came to accept the deep, never ending, power sucking sand, that at the beginning of the race you were cursing because you couldn't ride through it....

Lap 6 - Shed some layers, and I was starting to heat up. Had 2 egg sandwiches on bread and a couple of pieces of bacon. YUMMY!!! :) Drank a pepsi, refilled the Camelbak and took off for Lap 6. Again a repeat of Lap 5. Felt phenomenal, rode everything, picking sweet lines, riding some sweet drops, some big berms, and powering up some steep sandy climbs. Open it up on the flat jeep road and felt like I was riding my road bike. A team rider latched onto me and let me pull him for about 3-4 miles, we were just talking, and he was amazed at how fast I was riding for being a solo rider. (I told him I took a long nap) He and I had just passed 2 chicks, and had a sweet little roller right in front of us. I am full of newfound confidence and decided to do a little jump of this little roller...... All I can say is that I must have been tired and had no balance, because once my wheels left the ground, they never again touched.... the next thing I knew was that I was sliding on the hard dirt at about 20 mph...... The guy was like you ok? and kept going and the 2 chicks did the same thing..... DANGGIT!!!! Got a little cocky and made a fool of myself and crashed in front of people trying to show off a bit. Scratched my knee and elbow a bit, with a bit of bleeding, ripped my tights in the knee. But got right back up and took off again. Within 5 minutes I had passes the 2 girls back, but never caught back up to the guy I was riding with. Finished lap 6 in about 1:30-1:40.

Lap 7 - Ate a bunch of spaghetti and drank another soda and took off again. Still feeling good. Almost a repeat of Lap 6 minus the crash. Caught up with another solo rider with about 4 miles to go and had a little dialogue with him about whether we were going to try for another lap or not. Course closes at noon, and I was on pace to make it back about 11:45. My goal was 10 laps, I could see that was not going to happen anymore, and 8 laps was a whole lot of pain more, without really putting me at 10 laps. I spent this entire lap trying to figure out whether or not to ride another. This guy said no he wasn't he had 8 laps and was going to call it quits cause he wife was waiting on him. With that I also decided to call it a day, deciding it wasn't worth the pain for lap 8. If it was lap 10 I would have gone for it, but not lap 8. Finished this lap in about 1:30-1:40.

Best Feeling from the Race: (3) 1.Riding over the crest of the final hill and seeing the tent city. 2.Riding through the check-in tent and swiping your card to end one lap and begin another. Having the announcer announce that you were a solo rider and heading out for another lap.(3)Pulling into camp and having Natalie and Torrey waiting on me and getting me what I needed, Natalie getting me food and drink and taking care of me, and Torrey cleaning my bike and taking care of the drivetrain.

Worst Feeling from the Race: Cramping so early on in the afternoon, and feeling like I had let my support team down for coming to the race with me and doing all this work, and then I couldn't even ride my bike!!!

Race Highlights: Riding all the obstacles and rock drops when others had to get off and walk. Being told almost every lap that I was picking awesome lines, and that it was fun to follow me because I knew what I was doing. Also being told "you must be a roadie" because I was able to go so strong on the flats.

Thoughts: This was an awesome experience. I would do it again, one downside is the costs, and the fact that it is so late in the season. I would def. have to start my season later, or have a longer break in the middle if I wanted to do it again sometime. Not next year for sure, but some other time. yes. I think w/out cramping I could have done 10-11 laps. Would be a blast to do solo with friends, and be able to ride and compete with each other.

Bike setup: NINER E.M.D. NINE. Hardtail.... Bike was perfect! No major issues!

Thanks to Natalie, my beautiful wife for supporting me and my dreams and for going along to care for me even despite the fact that she was pregnant, and would much rather stay in the comforts of home rather than the sandy desert and a sleeping pad.
Thanks to Torrey for working so hard to keep things going around camp, and for waking up at 430 in the morning to get a fire going so I could get motivated to get back out and ride, and for taking care of my bike, and setting up the lights.

Pics Here - I am in the red and blue MACK kit.

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