I am still here, sticking with the bike, doing the things that need to be done for another year of racing.  Let’s get caught up since we last left each other.
For the end of December, I went back home to Pennsylvania, to visit the fam and got to take the bike with me.  Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t all that cooperative, so I only got to ride once.  Ohh well.  Nutting you can do about that.

Since then, I am back here in North Conway, doing my best to keep my sanity during these few months of cold weather.  I got out the cross county skis a couple of times (1, 2, 3) hit the trainer a bunch and also have been outside on the bike as much as possible.

For some reason, getting up and going this year has been more difficult for me.  I am not sure if it is because of how much time I have spent on the trainer last year and I know the amount of suck that is involved, if it is because I have a new coach (more on that), or if because I haven’t inked a partnership with a team yet.  It’s gotta be one of those three, a combination of the three, or something completely different, but the motivation isn’t there.  I need to do something to change that and unfortunately, it mostly involves the trainer.

Last year, the XC skiing was pretty good due to the amount of snow we got.  This year, it has been pretty chilly out there, but the white stuff just hasn’t been falling.  At all the local cross country ski areas, they keep grooming, but the bare spots are popping up all over the place and it isn’t something I want to run my skis through.  So trainer riding it is….I guess.

So, it seems like it is up to my new coach to get me motivated.  And that certainly adds up to problems.  You see, this off season, I did some studying up and passed my test and became a USA Cycling certified Level 3 coach.  Do I plan on doing much with the certification??  Probably not, but I did it to help myself out.  I figured that if I knew the basics of coaching, I could relay more valuable info a a coach in order to help out my current plan.  Since I am going at the training on my own this year, the feedback isn’t helping.  I think last year, when I was working with Grasky Endurance, I felt an obligation to them, not to make them “look bad”.  I felt that if I didn’t do what was prescribed, and didn’t achieve my goals, it would make him look like a bad coach, something that he certainly wasn’t.  He was a great coach and I learned TONS from him.  Either way, I am now out there by myself, and I need to get my keister in gear.  Nothing more needs to be said.

As for a team, I have some things in the works, but it just seems as if any of the final paperwork has not been passed back out for the 2010 season.  I know when I got my contract signed with GT last year, I worked extremely hard to show my team mates what I really could do.  Hopefully the paperwork will come through soon and the same effect will happen.  Which also might mean a new bike……YEAH!!!!

As for races this year, I will not be the 1 trick endurance racer I was this past year.  I have decided to branch out a little bit and do some other races, to make me a more rounded rider.  I have decided on a road race, or two, as well as some of the shorter cross country races in the area as well as as many endurance races as I can  and still have a positive season without killing myself.  With all of the different style of races thrown in, it should help when it comes to cyclo-cross season (scheduling the races with some recovery time is a VALUABLE lesson learned from last year).  Last year, when I made the transition from endurance to cross, I feel it was too late.  This year, along with the long rides, I will be throwing in some shorter rides to prime the system.  Now, I just need to look at all the schedules and races I am thinking about and put together a solid season.

That’s it for now…..off to ride the trainer….ugh..

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When I picked up this sponsorship, which I am still totally stoked on, with GT, my biggest concern was how I was going to race single speed. There is no way I wanted to run gears, but I needed an option that would work in all conditions and be 100% reliable.  With some research, I found the perfect thing, the Yess Labs ETR-B bottom bracket tensioner. The big advantage of this little guy is to keep the chain nice and tight, but not have anything dangling out from the rear dropout.  I would have rather gone with a bike with horizontal dropouts, but as GT only makes the vertical ones, this is the next best thing.

When I got this thing, I was like a little kid in a candy store.  I got it home and checked it out.  Man, it is so stupid simple.  1 spacer sized bracket that fits under your external bearing bottom bracket, 1 spring, some arms, and a jockey pulley.  Nothing much to break there. So, down to the workshop to slap this sucker on.  In about 10 minutes, the time it takes to pull out the crank and 1 bottom bracket cup, then reinstall, I had this thing set up, ready to go.  I followed the directions and it couldn’t have been any easier to install.  I got the chain line dialed right in and the proper tension.

Since that night, I have put a few hundred miles on it and I am still glad with the decision.  This thing is super bomb proof.  I have crawled my way over things and nothing hurts it.  I have peeled so much mud and much off of it and it keeps everything in perfect tension.  My chain line has always been spot on and the tension is perfect.  Chaining the tire is just like a normal bike, but you have to take the chain off the pulley first, no sweat there.  To change out cogs, I will have to change the amount of links in the chain, but that is no big deal.  Generally, once I get my gear combo, I am set.  No need to change it…

So there it is…my TWO BIG THUMBS UP for Yess Labs ETR-B chain tensioners.  If you are finding yourself in the same position as me, wanting a single speed bike, but horizontal dropouts are no where to be found, have no fear, the ETR-B is 100% the right tool for the job.

I have m first 24 hour race this weekend, so I am sure I will have a bunch of pictures of it in use.

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Last night, however, things have changed. Last night was the first time this year, actually in about 6 months, that I as able to ride dirt. And it was on the new team bike. And it was at night. Talk about a killer ride.

Trails are drying out quite nicely. The biggest issue we are having here is blow downs that have not yet been cleaned up. I hike the dog every night to clean trails, but there is only so much I can do. Luckily, there are a bunch of dedicated people here in the area who do a great job of maintaining trails.

Now, onto the bike. Gotta say I enjoyed it quite thoroughly. Ok, the frame. It certainly was stiff, where it needed to be. But it also soaked up all the bumps quite nicely. Sure, it is a hard tail, but GT did some nice things the way they laid out the carbon and use their triple triangle. Plus, the geometry was certainly racing, so the bike was quick and snappy. Mikey Likey.

The components. I liked the entire bike set up but the Shimano Shadow rear dérailleur. Because of the design of it, no B-limiter screw, it does not have a lot of slack in it. This means a lot of chain slap on the chain stays. This could also be because it is a long cage dérailleur and I have never liked those. Either way, there is a lot of noise back there and I don’t like it. God bless being a single speeder. Once I get the tensioner that I ordered, and build up my wheels, I will be saying bye bye to those gears.

Those are my thoughts so far from the 1.5 hour ride I did. I am sure in the next week of riding, I will have a few more opinions on it. As of now, I am super stoked to have been picked for the GT Dirt Coalition.

Here is the latest Garmin 705 Edge data from the ride:

The first Dirt Ride

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Ok, I know that isn’t going to happen, but felt like it needed to be said.

Speaking of training, yesterday I hit the final “open” notch here in the valley.  There are 2 notches that the state of NH allows to be snown shut for snow mobile users, and there is still a tad bit of snow on them yet.  I have a feeling it will be a while until I get to those.  Either way, 4.5 hours in the saddle with more than 30 minutes at one time of concentrated climbing left the legs feeling alright for todays ride.  Today’s plan was t head out for 3 hours of easy, endurance type effort.  The major problem was the constant down pouring of rain.  Why is it every time I am in a groove the rain comes?  Ohh well, nothing I could have done about it.  I grabbed all my rain gear, my fixed gear so the cables and gears wouldn’t be completely trashed, and went out.  3 hours and a few layers of soaked clothing, ohh yea, it was 35 degrees too….forgot to mention that, I got back and was ready to call it a week for training.

Tomorrow is a nice recovery day, then its time to start laying down a bunch more power…

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On Sunday, I didn’t ride at all even though the temps were about the same.  Kelly and I had a bunch of things planned, but the doggy was so antsy to get out, we just went for a nice 2.5 hour hike.  It was nice to be out in a t-shirt and shorts, working on my killer tan for the year.

On sponsorship news, the first packages have begun to arrive.  A few boxes that had the 10X10 set up and the tent top.  Or course, the first thing I had to do was take it out and set it up…

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