Oliver's getting bigger

I'm not too sure about you


And YOU! Who do you think you're fooling? (in his best Alfred Hitchcock imitation)


What?


I can stick my finger in other places now, too!

Sandy and I drove down to Indiana this weekend to spend a little time with our grandson and daughter in-law and her mom. Emily had flown in to spend some time with her mother after her mom had knee surgery. Since this was only 4.5 hours away by car we wanted to take the opportunity to see the family. It is certainly a lot closer than trying to get out to Montana for a day.

We saw Oliver back at the end of November when he was about a month old. Three months later he has changed quite a bit. Of course he's bigger but he can now support himself and seems to be pretty strong. He's also developing a personality, with giggling and facial expressions to show his moods.

We had a nice visit but way too short. Hopefully we can get to see the whole family later this year if they make a trip back this way.

I see red people

Most of the 2008 Cannondale Midwest Team members gathered at the Scurr's last Saturday to get to know each other and listen to what was in store for the coming season. While I am not officially on the team this year due to my Cannondale contract, I still try to help the team where I can.

The 2008 team has really expanded geographically as it is now a truly Midwest team, with team members from Indiana and Ohio. We represent the shops and marketing area of our Cannondale sales rep. Several of the new members from both of those states made the long drive up to the meeting. Two of them raced at Lake Orion High School earlier in the day. I'm sure seeing all that red made the Hoosier and Buckeye fans feel right at home. I would have preferred something in blue.

Race results

Here are the results from the Lake Orion Dragon Gap Winter Race

Dragon GAP Winter Race Results 2008

Great day for a race

We were fortunate to have great weather for Saturday's running and mountain bike race. Blue skies made the chilly temperatures seem a lot warmer that it really was. Overnight lows in the single digits gave way to the high teens by race time.

A lot of time was spent trying to get the course ready to ride on as the foot of snow in the week preceeding the race would have made it mostly a hike-a-bike for much of the 3.2 miles. I was fortunate enough to get the use of a 4-wheeler with a plow and I spent quite a few hours Friday night and Saturday morning plowing the course. By race time I estimated 90% could be ridden on the first lap.

After the runners got through and awards given out it was time to send off the bikes. They course wound it's way up the drive and across the parking lot where you began the first section of snow covered trail. I was not able to clear this section very well so most were forced to dismount and run. Then came the signature feature of this course, down the sledding hill. Many riders chose to get off and run down but some did ride, with varying degrees of success. Check out the youtube video to see what they faced. The runners came UP this hill near the end of their race.

As the race went on the bikes broke down some some of the snow so the course became slower. I had calculated this into the number of laps required and as a result, the races were just about the ideal length for this time of year. Everyone, from runners to riders seemed to have a good time. T-shirts that the school had made up said this was the first annual event so soon it will be time to start planning next year's race. And maybe even one in the summer, this year or next.

37 Yesterday, -1 and dropping today

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday afternoon Sandy and I were out skiing in the relatively balmy 37 degree weather but we could feel the weather front starting to move in. While we were out the wind was picking up and the temperature dropping as the trails started to get crusty.

This morning it was 7 degrees as I headed out to the MMBA annual meeting to set up the Hammer booth and spend the day there selling product, seeing everyone again, and picking up my Champinship Point Series award; the first time I've gotten one for the Expert class.

By the time we left in the afternoon it was down to one degree and the wind was still blowing. Right now it's -1 and it's supposed to drop even more. Time to button up those longjohns.

While the weather was warm yesterday I managed to get hold of a couple of snowmobilers and have them meet me at the high school where I got to drive one around most of next Saturday's race course while the other snowmobile followed. I don't know how much good it did but it may have helped some. I am meeting the school organizer tomorrow to walk the trail so I'll have a chance to check it out.

Hopefully we will have a decent turnout for the race. The school organizer was a little worried because there weren't many preregistrations yet but that is normal for a winter race. I dropped off some flyers at a few of the bike and running shops yesterday.

I wrote once before about having a bigger bullseye on my back now that I will be riding for the SoBe Cannondale team and it may be getting bigger. I was sent an email from the NUE series organizers with some questions to fill out and send back along with a couple of pictures. It seems that they are working on a race program to be distributed at all of the races which will include among other things a brief description of the contenders in each of the series' categories: Male, Female, SS and Masters. I can't be anonymous anymore.

What's wrong with a little snow?

Unfortunately we did not get the amount of snow predicted this past Friday. It's too bad as there are plenty of things to do in the snow besides trying to ride a bike.

Yesterday Sandy and I headed back up to Roscommon to the XC Ski Headquarters to see if they could get Sandy on some skis that would work for her. The previous two tries at REI were unsuccessful. Since the Ski Headquarters only does xc skiing for the most part, they have a very knowlegable staff and a great selection. They were able to find several models for Sandy and had demos of each available for her to try.

After trying the various models several times Sandy was able to select one that she felt comfortable with and the whole package was cheaper than the ones we had at REI (not factoring in the cost of driving to Roscommon). I tried a demo set myself while we went out on the trails with Sandy's new skis.

This morning I tried to do an easy hour or so on the bike outside but the back roads had not been plowed so the packed snow made it a little difficult in spots to keep the intensity low. It was a session for practicing my balance though. Later in the day Sandy and I went out to a local county park where they groom the trails for xc skiing so we could gt a little more time in before the warm temperatures ad rain may mean an ealy end to the fun on the snow.

The warmer temperatures are expected to stick around for a while so it may mean that the MTB race scheduled for Feb 16 may end up getting cancelled due to soft conditions. The run poriton will still take place.