Doing the Bull Dance, Feeling the Flow

The CUT treasures the Quest from Carlo Dieckmann on Vimeo.

That video really makes me excited for summer time riding. I have recently become enamored by the sport of urban tricksters and dirt jumping. The bicycle can suit so many purposes and fit so many peoples lives, I always enjoy how everyone interprets a bike differently. From the TT wizards geeking out over drag rates to the bums attaching a motley crue of junk to their bikes, they all have some purpose.

The dirt jumping scene has captivated my attention as of late with its incredible flow. There is some serious raw power behind those pedals, but once the bikes are in motion, its all about rolling through the terrain punctuated with aerobatic and aerial maneuvers that boggle the mind.

Just rode out a solid three day block of training. I'm pretty worked over so tomorrow's rest day couldn't come sooner. With the near perfect weather we've been having, 50+F everyday, it should be nice at the coffee shop tomorrow. Got a little luncheon planned as well, life couldn't be better.

Temps should be near 70 Saturday.

Pushing Hard

Photo Courtesy of Keith Jennings

Moving onward and upwards. The fitness has been returning after a post team camp bout of illness. I feel better that every pro in the US also got sick last week, so I'm not alone.

The miles and hours have been coming strong lately, heading up onto the Peak to Peak highway early last week and lapping Flagstaff and Lefthand as some highlights.

It was dinner night at my place Thursday and the whole MichiganPlus crew rolled on over for a big chow down on Sausage-Leek Penne, Stuffed Tomatos, wine, and topped off by a homemade Almond whipped cream! I was so engrossed in food that I didn't even take any pictures.

Today I did something I haven't done before; ride my bike in the morning, then go tele skiing in the afternoon. Not too often that happens. Eldora was nice and I'm extraordinarily lucky person to do what I do right now so I'm soaking it up.

I've got some creative projects in the pipeline and some books that are almost done, so off I go to keep the brain firing.

Flagstaff

Out here in Boulder we have a local hill called Flagstaff. Its similar to many other local hills in Anytown, USA. Everyone talks about it as the hard hill to ride. Its the one people use to do intervals, threshold repeats, or strength workouts. And it is also famous for one other thing, kicking your ass.

So in this light, I did a fitness test interval up Flagstaff right before team camp. My coach had warned me prior about not going out too hard on this climb or it will smoke my legs. So I'm like, ok, standard warning, no big deal. He told me where I needed to conserve to because it has some steep pitches and some switchbacks that sap the legs pretty easily. Well I followed the instructions to a T, and still faded hard.

I was a little shocked really, not about my numbers, whatever. Rather how deceptive the perceived exertion of the climb. Its not super steep all the way up, nor is it at a high altitude, or the end of a long road. Its literally 15 minutes from my house. It is about 17-25 minutes long depending on how far you go up, and its in beautiful sun all day.

I love it really. How often are we presented with something so simple we assume we can wrap our heads around it in an instant. Yet the more you dig, the more you learn, the more nuances form and poke their heads out of their shell.

So I started to familiarize myself with this climb today by doing it 4 times in a row. Trust me, I will be back to test myself again on this classic. We'll see what I find next.

Oh eBay, my dear sweet eBay

Why did you hire a money hoarding, misguided prick as a CEO?



Now how am I supposed to supplement my income? You make me mad. Seriously, who drops insertion fees (on the order of $.25 to $1) and increases final value fees from 3% to 8%? I mean honestly. Just run a search for "ebay strike."

On a positive note I made it through my birthday weekend in style by getting to spend almost two days with my parents in Minneapolis as I was attending QBP's trade show called FrostBike. Jelly Belly had me manning the booth and signing autographs. My wrist is tired from signing my name to all four of the children who came to the adult trade show.

New tunes are rolling in and my emusic account just rolled over so I'm looking forward to this weekend's training. I did a sweet ride with Chuck on Tuesday up on Peak to Peak, over 8,000 ft of climbing in 5.5 hrs. I like.

Great Game Shows of Japan

I watched Ratatouille last night with Brett. That movie is fantastic.

It was 65 Yesterday. Its been snowing all night however, pretty wild, I don't mind for once.

Some appropriate graffiti for today.

New Tunes Galore

The Top Ten New Tunes (in no particular order)
Stars
Peter, Bjorn, and John
Holy F*&$
LCD Soundsystem
The National
Aqueduct
Andrew Bird
Spoon
MGMT
Yeasayer

I'm ill at home and its 65 degrees and sunny outside. Sweet combo.

Go watch Bounre Ultimatum if you haven't seen it yet. Fantastic.

Being Different

The rush of the wind on my face and roar of the wind over my helmet ripping down a sweet groomer run today at Keystone was bliss today.

Skiing? Yeah I went skiing today. Is that a big deal, maybe. Most would say you should be on the bike all the time. I'm not totally down with that.

Tele skiing with Keith, Marley, and Mike today was sweet. Doesn't mean it wasn't hard though. It was such good training.

So if you want to stick your nose in the wind, no matter what animal you are, then you should.

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Go Nuts for Donuts

Well team camp has come and gone and it was fantastic. Its going to be a good season. Danny picked an awesome team.

The weather was so nice out the last few days, we did some big miles, kept it rolling, and had some laughs.

I did about 12 crossword puzzles during my post ride rest sessions to keep me busy. The paper ran a few old puzzles I've done before so I pretty much annihilated those guys.

There has been a lot of stuff running through my head lately, but I'm really enjoying the new challenges that I'm facing this year.


Like how to avoid eating too many delicious donuts from The Leucadia Donut Shop.

That was the best donut ever! Thanks to The National and MGMT, amongst others, for making my ride enjoyable.

After This Team Camp Racing is Going to be Cruising

What do you do with just a few nights left at team camp? Go bowling of course!

After a full mexican meal we took to the lanes to work our mediocre arms. Bernard smoked everyone and team doc Helen and sougnier Jenni-Rae managed to hold their own againest the boys.

I'll pull some more pictures up soon of the bikes and team kit.

The legs are coming around and the climbing is much better then last year.

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