posted on Jul 29, 2006 / tags:
mtb,
rants,
mac / 0 comments
It’s been a while since I’ve last posted here, so I thought I’d step up and write. The last few months have been busy ones…
switchers
I’ve decided that I’m going to dawn a new moniker…. the switcher. That’s right, I’m buying a Mac! I’ve been a windows user since 3.1, been working with PC’s since high school, was an IT person for 3 companies working with windows… and now I’m going to what was once the dark side. I clearly remember telling my wife (girlfriend at the time) that her mac was like a boat anchor. Unfortunately she remembers it too, and likes to remind me of that comment. I’ve eaten my words. I can’t wait to get a new macbook pro! I’ll be sure to post how my experience is.
switchbacks
The 24 Hours of Big Bear was a great success! Team Mudbuckets had a pretty good showing, finishing 16 laps (about 192 Miles and 19,200ft of climbing). We managed to finish 53rd out of 161 teams overall, and 17th out of 49 teams in our division. I’m really pleased with how we did, and super happy with how I did personally. As I mentioned in a previous post, when I tried out the course a month before the race I completed it in 1 hour 52 minutes. In my first lap during the race I managed a blistering (ok, blistering for me…) 1 hour and 37 minutes. My biggest fear during the race was getting in the way of faster riders, and there were plenty of them there! I didn’t have a single bad experience, people were really polite and friendly and everyone was there looking for a good time. And I would say we were successful!
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posted on Jun 07, 2006 / tags:
mtb / 0 comments
This Friday, myself and the rest of the Mudbuckets team will journey to wilderness of scenic West Virginia (no Deliverance jokes… at least not yet). Saturday at noon the 24 Hours of Big Bear will begin with our team being represented by Scott Trimble. The LeMans style start will consist of almost 150 team sprinting 1/4 of a mile to their bikes and tearing onto the 12 mile course. There will be bumping and rubbing, but like they say, rubbin’s racin’. Scott will be followed by Rick Spangler, then Jim Cassidy and myself batting clean-up. I expect that I should be on the course by 4pm for my first lap. When I’m done, we’ll start all over again.
After reading the race update that was sent out by Granny Gear this week, we’re all really excited about this weekend. There are tons of people expected to be there, with nearly 150 racers on the course at all times (this nearly guarantees that I won’t be riding alone in the event that I start to hear dualing banjos in the distance… ok, maybe one reference!). There will
I have to give a big thank you to all of the people that have supported our team during the preparation and fundraising for this race. We certainly couldn't have done it without all of you. We fully intend to make you all proud! If anyone is interested, you can watch the realtime results as the race is running at
GrannyGear.com. All riders will be wearing RFID bracelets that will track our times for each lap and the overall time for each team. You’ve gotta love technology! I also hope to have some great photos of the event next week… after I can walk again! So wish us luck and thanks again for all of your support!
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posted on Apr 26, 2006 / tags:
mtb / 0 comments
Ouch.
That about sums up my first look at the Big Bear race course for the upcoming 24 Hours of Big Bear. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m riding in this race with my team, the Mudbuckets. As the title of this post shows, my time was not so stellar! I don’t think I was prepared for how technical the course was (Please note that I am by no means a pro rider, so what I thought was technical, other rider think is easy!). Anyway, I found it to be a fun but challenging course. I was able to ride it with Co-worker, teammate and MudBuckets team moral captain Rick Spangler who is no slouch when it comes to the bike (the show-off finished in 1:20 and thinks he can do better). We were out on business in Virginia and decided to make a slight(!) detour to check out the course. And a good time was had by all!
We started out looking for the course around 3pm, but we found out that it wasn’t marked too well because there was another race this Sunday. But we stumbled on the owner of the campground (well, I stumbled, Rick gracefully found him) who pointed us in the right direction. We found our way to the starting line where a big steel structure was suspended over the road. This is the ending of the course where riders will all go up and over. Looked like fun, but I figured I’d wait until I conquered the course to try it out.
The Course
So we started out, and it didn’t take long to figure out that there is a predominant feature to this course… rocks. Lots, and lots of rocks. Big rocks, small rocks, loose rocks and rocks that couldn’t be moved with a truck. They seemed to come out of nowhere sometimes, but for the most part they were easily navigable. I constantly had to stay alert because the last thing I wanted was to end up on my face… on a rock. That would suck.
The course winded all over the beautiful creation that it is set on, with some quick climbs and some not so quick ones, some quick drops and two big decents that are fast, a little steep and rocky (of course). I have a feeling that during the race people will be screaming down that section, but as for me, I’ll be working the brakes carefully! After the big decent, you’re about half way, and then the course gets a little tougher. More climbing, a few logs and bigger rocks. There were two rock gardens that took one look at and dismounted. I figured my feet could get me over that quicker, no shame in that, right?!?
The end is mostly up hill except for the last mile, but by that time I was pretty beat up. The last climbs had me riding the granny gear pretty hard. I kept thinking that I was done because I was paying too much attention to my watch and my memory of the course map and profile. But alas, the hill kept coming at me and my spirits where running away. When I finally came out of the woods and that steel bridge was in my sights, I was so excited that I turned on the juice and flew up the ramp. It was then that I realized that I had juice left to give, I just needed to stay positive. There was a lesson to learn here…
The Lesson
Forget the map and ride. That’s what I’ll need to do. Just enjoy the terrain and ride my own race. I’m not looking to win, I’m hoping to survive and ride a few laps. I think I can knock a few minutes off my time before the race day, I’d like to be around 1:35 or so. It was muddy and cool, so if conditions are better I think I can do it. We’ll just have to wait and see…
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posted on Apr 07, 2006 / tags:
mtb / 0 comments
Well I’ve gone and done it. A few months ago, I suggested to a few guys in my office that we do something a little crazy. Allow me to go back in time a bit… You see, a couple of years ago a bunch of us got into mountain biking. We ride a few times a week at various locations around State College, PA, where if you are a mountain biker, you can find just about anything you are looking for. As it turns out I’m now hooked on it. I love getting out in the woods and getting some much needed exercise. So anyway, fast forward to this past winter. I was looking around at some mountain bike web sites and I stumbled on a link to Granny Gear. GG is a company that hosts 24 hour mountain bike races all over the country… I think you can see where I’m going with this… We’ll I’m not a really competitive person when it comes to athletic events, but I thought this would be a really great idea. It’s motivating, great exercise and would really challenge me a lot. So I brought it up with a few people and the next thing you know, we’re signed up.
So this June 10th, I’ll be riding my bike… a lot. The format is really exciting. A 12 mile loop which our team of four will race as a relay for 24 hours. I’m not looking to win anything, I’m more interested in finishing… call it ‘my everest’. I never really knew why people would climb that mountain, and I’m not terribly sure why I’m riding this race, but I know that I am grateful that the Lord has blessed me with the ability just to get out and ride, and I’m going to take advantage of it!
One more thing…
To make things a little more interesting and motivating, our team has chosen to ride for the American Lung Association. When we saw that this was an option, I was all for it. If we’re going to go out there and bust our butts on the mountain, why not raise a little money for a great cause in the process? So that brings me to my next item of business… I’m raising money. You can help! I’m looking to raise money for the ALA which will allow me to race in this crazy event. If you’re interested in helping me out, you can go to this link. From there you can contribute to my quest… my everest. I might be crazy, but I’m super excited about it!
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posted on Jan 03, 2006 / tags:
family,
life / 0 comments
Maggie had her first Christmas (not very exciting for her, we opened her presents while she was asleep… hey, she’s 2 months old!) and her first New Years Eve celebration. She’s not much of a party animal though, she was in bed by 8:30, unlike her mom and dad who made it to about 10:30! We are some crazy folks!
So it’s resolution time, and since I’m not much in to “I’m going to loose 20lbs” kind of resolutions (though that’s not a bad idea…), I thought I’d list the things I’d like to accomplish this year. So here goes:
Learn more about Ruby on Rails
I’ve had a chance to learn a bit about RoR in the last few months during the Typo theme contest. I’m really loving it. It’s a great framework based on a very polished language. It beats any php frameworks I’ve used in the past simply because a lot of people are using it and there’s great documentation. This is my biggest goal of the year.
Team|Worship
I’m currently working on an application that can be used by churches to help organize their worship services. As a worship leader, I know that there are times that I knew more about what’s going on, who’s playing, what songs are overused, etc. So I set out to create a tool that churches can use to help out their worship leaders. Note: I’m writing it in Ruby on Rails… see above 
Song Writing
Over the last year, I have put together a small project studio in my basement, I’ve got a control surface, a very nice Studio Projects C1 mic, and a Shure Beta 87a along with a tube preamp by ART and brand new AMD Athlon64 box running XP and Sonar. If I can find time between being a dad, work and the above two items, I’d love to work on a few projects in there
Daddy time…
I’m in unchartered waters here… at least for me! I’ve always wanted to be a dad, and I knew it would be a challenge, but I want to be the best dad I can be. So this one is simple. Be a good dad.
So I guess that’s it for now. We’ll see how it goes…
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