Let's change subjects, get off the Tiger Woods tire fire and talk about The Big Ring. I just brewed up a cup prior to my trainer ride this morning. It is a balmy 6 degrees outside. Probably seems like a beautiful morning to our Montana contingent, but to those of us with soft underbellies, it is hellaciously cold. So the trainer it is. As with any ride worth doing, first, I ground up some freshly delivered Big Ring beans and threw them into the coffee maker. My house began to smell great, replacing the aroma of my 18 year old blind and deaf Italian Greyhound, Sophie, who has a smell, no let me say stench, all her own, but I digress. Needless to say the change in essence was appreciated. Well, back to The Big Ring coffee. It is smooth, might I say too smooth. I may be tempted to drink several pots. That is some fine bean. Any of you who haven't tried it or have just run across this blog, you gotta get some of this.
My Christmas shopping is done. Everyone is getting the Big Ring.
December 11, 2009
December 6, 2009
Snow today, and off Topic
Well it is the off season, and 'parently was the season to be off. Put on a few really unneeded pounds. I can't drop any of it by riding inside so I usually spend some time with heavier slower moving things, (man there's a punchline there, and if a certain someone reads this, its going to be me a 'gettin a punchin.) Most of us don't race this time of year so other than the love of cycling and shared fitness obsessions, we are probably very different. But I'm hoping we also have much of the same christian values. I have a few friends that don't believe in God, that does bug me a bit but they are really decent, having good morals and lifestyles. This is about pro sports, 53x11coffee is in that category and as money changes hands I think about this Tiger Woods thing, I don't know what it is like at that level of play, but I do know I'm where all that money comes from. I liked Tiger, I joined his website. Now I feel like He's a bum. He hangs in clubs with the intention of picking someone up, even picked up a waitress with whom he was attended too while with His wife, that in my book is very wrong. If 53x11coffee had an association with Nike I would be very sad, as I won't wear any Nike until they part company with this sleazeball. And Mr Woods if you read this and you still have your father in your prayers, ask Him for forgiveness not us, because I don't have to. I'm not Hip or Cool, don't make millions in pro sports and I don't like to hang with sleazeballs. Thanks everyone for reading. PS, there is such a thing as a sleazeball, spell check fixed my spelling.
November 29, 2009
Noobee but not new
Whaz happening Team 53x11 people?! I'm also new member of the group, joining yesterday (Tucson, AZ.). Being a diehard addicted morning drinker, coffee I mean, I'm not new to 53x11. I pushed the buttons to join on with the Team, hoping to kick start my biking attitude back into gear. I am looking forward to being associated with the group, and to hearing back from all of you.
November 28, 2009
Introduction
I'm a new member of the team having joined just this morning. I mentioned to Evan that I had seen the 53x11 kit at races and thought it looked pretty sharp, putting it in the back of my mind as a future purchase. I was surfing the web aimlessly when I ran across a link to 53x11 coffee. Checked it out, contacted Evan and was signed up in short order. Great to be associated with such a good group of like-minded people who value corporate and individual responsibility, qualities seemingly in short supply these days. Even better to be associated with fit men and women who like to tear ass around the countryside on bikes. That's a concept I can get behind.
A little bit about me, I am starting my 21st year as a triathlete having switched my emphasis to longer stuff over the last couple of years. I just finished my 5th and 6th Ironman distance races this year. I have already registered for 3 for 2010; Idaho, Wisconsin and a non-sanctioned fantastic race, the Great Floridian (hilly if you can imagine). My training partner Katie and I, she being 46, me entering my 55th year this January, emphasize swimming and biking over running since both sports are considerably less stressful on the body. This year to date, we have over 4k miles biking, 800 running and somewhere over 300k yards swimming.
I love cycling above all else. I am a bit of a Ludite when it comes to new technology – I will embrace the newest and coolest bike gear – give me carbon fiber any day, but trend away from GPS and power monitors. I know I would be a much better athlete if I went that route, but part of my love of human powered sport is getting away from the plugged-in world. This is especially important to me because I am an IT geek and have my fill of technology every day at work and evenings and weekends.....give me fresh air and an open road to make me happy. I live in Northern Illinois, 25 miles south of the Wisconsin border and was able to see hundreds of sandhill cranes flying south for the winter yesterday. I might have missed them had my nose been buried in power meter readouts as I rode along. Normative power or sandhill cranes – the answer is simple for me. But hey, this is a big tent and lots of room to fly your freak flag whatever it may be.
Glad to be here.
-Pete M
November 26, 2009
It's about the bike.
The older I get, the more I can appreciate what cycling has done for me. The friendships, great times, good times and a fair balance of adversaries. Cycling teaches us sometimes life isn't always fair or easy. But at the end of the day I feel there isn't better time spent than being in the saddle. Alot of us are still riding as much as we did when we were twice as young, and now enjoy riding twice as much. I'm stronger now than I was at twenty. Isn't it awesome we can have this kind of health for so long. Cycling has brought me to this place, I have clear thoughts, clear objectives, the love and admiration of my wife and the greatest fitness. It is about the bike, if you are reading this you know the secret but sometimes I just want to tell more people. The chubby neighbor, the secretary that's always a little crabby.....get a bike, breathe the air, feel your heart asking to go faster.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving.
November 23, 2009
Michael Morris Illustration
I just love the new illustration on the team's home page. I hope it will be available for purchase.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Ty (aka Saddledancer)
Happy Thanksgiving!
Ty (aka Saddledancer)
November 14, 2009
Celebrating 30 Years
This Christmas celebrates my 30th year of riding. I was a senior in High School in California, and my sister bought me a used Nishiki from the lost and found from the beach club in Malibu where she worked.
I was a band geek and rather non-athletic, though I had played little league baseball for 6 years.
The bike was blue, had two sets of brake levers, shifters on the handlebar stem (or gooseneck) and platform pedals.
I lived in a canyon that had lots of hills. The general region was yet undeveloped and rural, with lots of cow and horse ranches. We even had coyotes and mountain lions.
I did short rides and talked two buddies into a day long ride which went bad when one of them crashed hard after touching wheels. Good thing it happened in front of a fire station. My two friends were turned off from riding but I kept at it, going on excursion rides as often as I could.
By the time I headed off to college in Illinois in the fall of 1980 I felt like a rider. I now had only one set of brake levers, toe clips with straps, and had moved the shifters to the down tube.
I soon became friends with 3 other riders, one of which was my age and was from Escondido, just a few hours south of my home. I remember my first pace line and long ride, a 60 miler through the Illinois countryside. I died in my pulls and finally collapsed on the side of the road, having to be talked in on the ride back to school. There was a dance later that night but I was dead to the world in my dorm room. I had also turned my head only one way to look for traffic and my neck was so STIFF.
I spent two years in Illinois, and my rides included that epic, plus a ride through a controlled burn, a flat that resulted in me walking miles back to school to be finally picked up by a teacher out looking for his wife who was running, being hit by some kids in a car, and my first crash the day before spring break, on a sharp right hand turn on a wet road, that left me with a rasberry on my right hip that bothered me all during a week of skiing in Tahoe. My first and only attempt at skiing. I also did my first race in St. Louis in February, 1981, a crit that was for the public. It was soooooo cold but I finished. Not last but definitely not first as it took me a long time to strap in. My friend won the race. We had lots of inspiration from watching Breaking Away the night before.
I transferred to UCLA in 1982 and kept up my riding, even entering a few crits as a cat 4. I did not like the elbow to elbow action so left my riding to day long adventures. The Nishiki was stolen from my parents garage (my mom thought she had closed the garage door) in the summer of 1982 and I ended up getting a 1972 Condor with Campy Record 5 speed. My first "real" bike and the start of my love affair with Campagnolo.
I took up running in 1983 and soon began triathlons. I competed in triathlons from 1983 thru 1986, but did do a 1/2 Ironman in Maryland in 2002. I lost my desire to bike race (due to the bad experience with crits), thought I kept putting in lots of saddle time, and began focusing on running marathons. I completed 52 marathons (PR of 3:01:22 in Sacrament in 1991) and two ultras (50k and 37.5 miler) between 1986 and 2004.
I moved to Washington state in 2003 and rediscovered bike racing in 2004. My running form disappeared about that time and I have been nothing but a roadie since.
However, I have started running some again and have hopes of doing the Marine Corps Marathon in 2010 which falls on my 48th b-day.
Anyway, to recap. In the last 30 years I lave ridden thousands of miles, have had a few incidents of road rage, have been very fortunate with my accidents (nothing broken despite being knocked unconscious in one race in 2007), have had over 35 bikes (now down to 5), have ridden broken hearted and light hearted, have composed sonnets, songs, poems and love letters, have ridden with friends and by myself, have had truly epic rides, have ridden in California, Oregon, Washington, Canada, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., have ridden in sub zero temps, near hurricane conditions, snow hail, pouring rain and 113 degree heat. I have ridden in the lowest point in the U.S. (Badwater in Death Valley) and up the highest paved road in the Continental U.S. (Mt Evans in Colorado). I wouldn't have missed a single moment for the world. I hope to have at least another 30 years in me.
The bicycle is the greatest invention on this planet.
Long live the bike!!!!!
Ty (aka Saddledancer)
I was a band geek and rather non-athletic, though I had played little league baseball for 6 years.
The bike was blue, had two sets of brake levers, shifters on the handlebar stem (or gooseneck) and platform pedals.
I lived in a canyon that had lots of hills. The general region was yet undeveloped and rural, with lots of cow and horse ranches. We even had coyotes and mountain lions.
I did short rides and talked two buddies into a day long ride which went bad when one of them crashed hard after touching wheels. Good thing it happened in front of a fire station. My two friends were turned off from riding but I kept at it, going on excursion rides as often as I could.
By the time I headed off to college in Illinois in the fall of 1980 I felt like a rider. I now had only one set of brake levers, toe clips with straps, and had moved the shifters to the down tube.
I soon became friends with 3 other riders, one of which was my age and was from Escondido, just a few hours south of my home. I remember my first pace line and long ride, a 60 miler through the Illinois countryside. I died in my pulls and finally collapsed on the side of the road, having to be talked in on the ride back to school. There was a dance later that night but I was dead to the world in my dorm room. I had also turned my head only one way to look for traffic and my neck was so STIFF.
I spent two years in Illinois, and my rides included that epic, plus a ride through a controlled burn, a flat that resulted in me walking miles back to school to be finally picked up by a teacher out looking for his wife who was running, being hit by some kids in a car, and my first crash the day before spring break, on a sharp right hand turn on a wet road, that left me with a rasberry on my right hip that bothered me all during a week of skiing in Tahoe. My first and only attempt at skiing. I also did my first race in St. Louis in February, 1981, a crit that was for the public. It was soooooo cold but I finished. Not last but definitely not first as it took me a long time to strap in. My friend won the race. We had lots of inspiration from watching Breaking Away the night before.
I transferred to UCLA in 1982 and kept up my riding, even entering a few crits as a cat 4. I did not like the elbow to elbow action so left my riding to day long adventures. The Nishiki was stolen from my parents garage (my mom thought she had closed the garage door) in the summer of 1982 and I ended up getting a 1972 Condor with Campy Record 5 speed. My first "real" bike and the start of my love affair with Campagnolo.
I took up running in 1983 and soon began triathlons. I competed in triathlons from 1983 thru 1986, but did do a 1/2 Ironman in Maryland in 2002. I lost my desire to bike race (due to the bad experience with crits), thought I kept putting in lots of saddle time, and began focusing on running marathons. I completed 52 marathons (PR of 3:01:22 in Sacrament in 1991) and two ultras (50k and 37.5 miler) between 1986 and 2004.
I moved to Washington state in 2003 and rediscovered bike racing in 2004. My running form disappeared about that time and I have been nothing but a roadie since.
However, I have started running some again and have hopes of doing the Marine Corps Marathon in 2010 which falls on my 48th b-day.
Anyway, to recap. In the last 30 years I lave ridden thousands of miles, have had a few incidents of road rage, have been very fortunate with my accidents (nothing broken despite being knocked unconscious in one race in 2007), have had over 35 bikes (now down to 5), have ridden broken hearted and light hearted, have composed sonnets, songs, poems and love letters, have ridden with friends and by myself, have had truly epic rides, have ridden in California, Oregon, Washington, Canada, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., have ridden in sub zero temps, near hurricane conditions, snow hail, pouring rain and 113 degree heat. I have ridden in the lowest point in the U.S. (Badwater in Death Valley) and up the highest paved road in the Continental U.S. (Mt Evans in Colorado). I wouldn't have missed a single moment for the world. I hope to have at least another 30 years in me.
The bicycle is the greatest invention on this planet.
Long live the bike!!!!!
Ty (aka Saddledancer)
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