Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Huck-A-Buck 2011

The Huck-A-Buck 2011 had another great turn out this year. There was about 20 of us in the Single Speed Category. Today was going to be a brutal 3 laps of 6.75 miles of singletrack and not because of the trails, but 94 degrees and feeling like 101 at the noon time start. We have not had much rain and this trail is mostly sand the closer you get to the lake. I started prepping for this race on Friday by drinking lots of fluids the next two days. I weighed myself Friday morning and was at 178 lbs. The morning of the race I weighed myself again and was 181 lbs. I hit the woods in 6th or 7th place and let 2 guys go by halfway through the 1st lap hoping that they would blow up because of the heat. With a mile to go in the first lap I was cruising through a turn about 15 mph when my tires came out from under me and I ended up 2-3 feet off the trail and ripped open a scab from the previous wreck at the race a month earlier. Had three more guys pass at this point since my arm was hurting and trying to make sure everything else between me and the bike was in working order. Lap 2, coming through the start/finish I hear from the organizers over the loud speakers how sweet the Metal Kit looks and had to be the best looking one on the course. I caught one of the other single speeders and the rest of the lap was uneventful except passing a couple guys with gears. Lap 3, I turned up the pace to see if I could hopefully catch at least one or two more guys who may have gone out to fast. Well, I ended up catching and passing three more guys, but they had gears so that did not help me. I ended up rolling across the finish line in 11th. After the race a few people asked about the Metal Kit and proudly told them about Twin Six. When I got home I weighed myself and had dropped to 174 lbs, yeah that was a lot of sweating in less than two hours. I may not have finished as high up as I would of liked, but I looked damn good in the Metal Kit doing it.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

El Largo Burrito

We went to Los Tres Magueyes tonight for dinner.  Of course after racing 20 miles in 95 degree weather today and not having any real food since mid-morning.  I took on El Largo Burrito at Los Tres Mageuyes here in the Quay.  El Largo is a 18" burrito filled with chicken, beans and rice.  To top it off with red sauce, green sauce and sour cream.  Here is the proof and only took me 14 minutes to conquer it.  You can see the fork is there for perspective.
Before
After

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Minnesota Trippin'

We started our journey to Minnesota on July 1st about mid-morning.  We packed the truck as if we were taking the house with us.  Our first stop over the next two days would be with my some of my in-laws in West Virginia, and to pick up our nephew.  It was just like all of our previous trips up to West Virginia, nothing exciting just six hours of highway driving.  We got to the in-laws some time after 4pm and got out what we needed for the night.  We hit up a Mexican restaurant that night for dinner and I called it a night around 10pm since we would be up the next day at 5am and I was the designated driver. 
The next morning came and we loaded the bicycles on the back of the truck.  Loaded up the kids in the backseat with enough electronic devices from DVD players to Nintendo DS's to keep them entertained for the next nine hours to Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  Our secret weapon that my wife packed was lollipops for when the natives started getting restless.  Of course that would happen when you have a three year-old strapped into a car seat for that amount of time.  After the nine hour drive we pull into Hawthorne Suites, and unpack the necessities for the night.  I get the boys and we unload the bikes and take them for a two mile ride down the Cedar River Trail to work the legs out after sitting for that long. 

Rockin' the Twin Six
 After waking up we grabbed some breakfast at the hotel before heading out for the last four hours to Minnesota.  We pulled into the farm right after noon.  The farm is where my wife's grandma lives in farmhouse that is around one hundred years old and nearly four tenths of a mile off the road.  It is surrounded by a few ponds and corn fields as far as you can see.  After unpacking the truck and grabbing some lunch I headed out for my first gravel ride.  Never done a gravel ride and on the drive in we passed kept passing gravel road after gravel road and I had to put some miles in to see what it was like.  I did a thirty mile ride and was eating up every mile of it.  I was on the Niner One9 and was running a 32x18 gearing which I needed my Fisticuff with the 2x10 to really crank some miles, that will be with me on the next trip out there.

For the Fourth of July we took the kids to the town of Okabena for a parade.  They collected more candy than what they have gotten combined for the last two Halloweens.  The following day we took a two hour trip north up to Minneapolis.  First stop, Twin Six.  Great visiting the company that I am racing for this year and hopefully down the road also.  I was a kid in a candy store with all the T6 gear around me.  The crew there was awesome in giving us the tour and seeing a few things that are coming down the pipe.  We checked into our hotel right across from the next stop at Mall of America.  We ended up spending 6+ hours in there from lunch until dinner.  We covered all three floors and went to the aquarium before grabbing dinner at Tony Roma's.  One of the only places the kids and I wanted to go was the Lego store.  Which we waited until almost last to visit, so that I would not be carrying around the bag of legos the entire time.  They had above the store these gigantic lego scenes that were larger than life.  One was a thirty-four foot robot, another was a helipcopter with lego SWAT members repelling down, a knight fighting this creature with a bull-head.  To believe that all of this was made completely of legos.  Along with this were pictures outisde the store made completely out of legos.  The next day we took the kids to the Minnesota Zoo.  It was fairly warm out that day, but since Minnesota gets so cold right much of the exhibits were inside which gave some relieve from the heat. Afterwards we drove back to the farm to make it in time for dinner. 

I was needing to hit some singletrack and had found this place up in Mankato called Mt. Kato Ski Resort that has mountain bike trails from May to October.  It cost $8/day to ride there.  Being my first experience at singletrack in Minnesota it was good riding.  Any day on the bike is better than none.  I found one of the people in the office there and he gave me the lay of the land on how the trails were laid out and a map.  First trail that you go up is Kato Climb and that is what you do to get to the top where all the ski lifts drop you off in the winter.  My first loop out went like this Kato Climb>Frog Pond Loop>Outlook Traverse>Back Loop>Get Tight>Cedar Climb>Killer Toad Climb>Dead Horse>The Maze>Staircase>Compressor>Cabin Run.  The only trails that really had me on my toes and using a lot of braking on the down hills were Dead Horse and Compressor.  The switchbacks on Compressor had you almost doing track stands to make the turns.  Cedar Climb and Staircase had the tougher of the climbs.  My second loop went like this Kato Climb>Frog Pond Loop>Outlook Traverse>Back Loop>Get Tight>Cedar Climb>Killer Toad Climb>Low Line>The Maze>Staircase>Ridge Run>Back Home>Cabin Run.  After getting out of the new Twin Six Masher jersey and socks I picked up the other day at Twin Six.  I went and got two chicken tacos and chicken burrito from Taco John's. 
Friday we got up at 4am to start our nice 14 hour drive back to West Virginia and that was one hell of a caffeine induced drive.  Had some Little Caesar's Pizza when we got to my brother-in-law's house hit the sack at 10pm and didn't wake until 9am.  That was some good hard sleeping and much needed with another 6 hours of driving to get to the casa.  It was nice vacation with lots of driving, but that is the best way to see this great country that we live in and to see how other parts of the U.S of A is living. 

K-38 in Wilmington

The picture speaks for itself.  I have an earlier post that talks about Tower 7 on Wrightsville Beach that is the sister restuarant of K-38.  Best Tex-Mex in Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach.  Check it out when down there.