That’s likely the longest drought in the history of my website. I apologize to those of you who stop by regularly. It hasn’t been a lack of interesting things that’s kept me from writing lately, rather too many of them all happening at once. So far this year I’ve moved into new apartment, bought some furniture, acquired some roommate, began training with earnest, and met Tom Danielson. Of course I’ve been logging the coaching hours as well as a couple over at Arizona Cyclist.

The rides have been going off without a hitch and I’m excited for what’s to come in 2007. Starting a new season with another year of experience and fitness can only lead to good things and progress is already being made. Jason Tullous, a friend and CTS co-worker, is taking my mind off of my own workouts and planning things out for me. I’m already realizing the benefits of his objective opinion. Even a coach can use a coach…

Most of my rides have been 4-5 hours and include about an hour of interval work. This coupled with ample amounts of rest and off in the right direction.

Sunday I was fortunate to join Chloe at a cycling related dinner party hosted by some local sponsors here in Tucson. There were some familiar faces, but most were new to me, so I met a lot of folks. Meeting Tom and Kristen Danielson was pretty cool. Tom’s preparing for big things at the Tour of California and Kristen is building a base for NORBA series to come. It’s not everyday you meet such people, especially due to such a random occasion. They are enjoying the Tucson weather as Durango has seen some harsh winter conditions recently. Cool people enjoying life via the bike – Awesome.

This weekend will mark my return to the infamous Shootout ride. It’s been a couple months, so chances are I’ll have something blog worthy. Check back in for to come. Enjoy! -TJ

My time here in Wisconsin has gone by quickly. With several family occasions for Christmas I’ve been busy visiting. It was great to see everyone and enjoy the season here. With some congestion remaining in my airways, I’ve been taking it light with the training, though I did get out to ride some City Park singletrack the other day. It was so strange to be out there riding on dry trails, when normally I’m venturing the same paths with skinny skis underneath me at this time of the year.

Once back to Tucson I’ll be moving into a new apartment. This one will be bigger allowing the company of some racer-type roommates. Of course Tucson will be THE place to train this winter and I’m happy to soon host some friends with the same ambitions. The only challenge will be finding some furniture! My current place was furnished, so I’m on the look to fill up the new place… I’ll be sleeping on the floor to start things out.

With the new year just around the corner and your busy schedule returning to some level of normality, perhaps you are thinking about your own training. I’ll take this opportunity to make a shameless plug for my own coaching business: www.MomentumEndurance.com. I’m looking for new recruits in the coming year. All those that I’ve coached have shown measurable improvements and nearly all decide to continue using my services as they develop new goals each year. Many think of upgrading bike parts, but this year why not make a commitment to building your engine? Give me a call or drop me an email if you might be interested or want to learn more about what I can offer.

Keeping it Real, -TJ

Mexico was awesome and Chloe and I had an amazing time. We could not get enough of the shrimp tacos, the sand or the sunshine. The beaches were nearly exclusively ours and every aspect of the trip was relaxing.

Tomorrow at this time I’ll be back home to Spooner to spend the Christmas season with my family. Two very different vacations spots, but equally attractive. All for now; expect an update from ‘home’.

-TJ

So my lack of blogging has left things in a pathetic state lately, sorry. I don’t really have any excuses so I’ll spare you while letting you know what’s been the latest here in Tucson. Riding and working, mostly.

Today I did “an epic of small proportionsâ€? with Dejay, Mark and Monique: 42 miles – lots of it singletrack, 5+ hours of pedaling time, 4600 ft of climbing. It was a ride that encompassed the most sweetness for the given length. Dejay has been riding these trails for the past six or seven years, so he knows his playground quite well and I was fortunate enough to tag along for the adventure. Some of the terrain was over my head, and it was awesome to find some stuff to challenge myself with out there. I’ll surely be back to ride these again!

This past week I also got my first couple of days in at Arizona Cyclist. Of course I felt somewhat out of place as there is much to learn whenever starting something new. My first bike sale was a $4000 Orbea Orca, so I must be doing something right though… It’s a really cool place and everyone is excited to be working there so it’s a good shop atmosphere. Not a bad gig for a couple days a week.

Last weekend Chloe and I did the final Dust Devil race at Estralla on Saturday before racing the Tucson cyclocross event on Sunday. We barely got out of Phoenix Saturday as the Taurus had some serious issues going on. The belt broke which left us without power steering, overheated, and with a drained battery on some rural road just out of the county park. A whole long series of events occurred and in the end we received help from no less than eight strangers who went out of their ways. We also visited three car part stores and I rode 10+ miles on bike in search of parts to get back on the road. In the end we were able to find a shorter belt to bypass the AC pulley which had seized up. We made it back to Tucson late and exhausted from a long day spend in the desert. All of this after a two-hour mtb race… I placed 2^nd while Chloe was 1^st. On Sunday, I was able to ride away from all the rest once again in the cyclocross race. Chloe also raced the Men’s A and placed an impressive 4^th. She was happy not to be lapped my no one else besides me… At least Sunday’s winnings covered some of Saturday’s car expenses. All cheap adventures in the end, and I wouldn’t trade any of them.

Tomorrow it’s back to the shop and the start of a short week. The beach is calling my name already!

-TJ

The UCI has recently released it’s rankings and I’m currently sitting 1124^th in the world. That might put me out of Olympic contention for 2008, but I’ll keep at it… As if the Olympics were ever on the current radar, but it’s still fun to look at all the names. In real news I’ll be starting at Arizona Cyclist on a part time basis starting on Monday. This is a very cool shop and they are 100% into the high-end mountain bike stuff. They’ve assembled a great team of employees and I am excited to be a part of it as the store continues to thrive in a big way. With a second Tucson location specializing in high-end road equipment they’ve got a grasp on a very niche market.  This job will sublement my coaching income, but really I’m most excited because it will allow me to further network myself within the Tucson cycling community.  Chances are that I’ll meet some awesome people through this place, and who knows, maybe I’ll find some potenital clients too.

In other news I’ve been doing some apartment searching too. My current place has worked wonderfully, but as of January I’ll have roommates and thus a bigger apartment becomes necessary. This is just a studio, so it would be impossible for any others to move in. A  RV 2006 reunion of sorts will be the norm for the winter months here as Jenna, Justin, and Paul will all be spending some time down here training. I’m looking forward to having some roommates, a bigger place, and of course cheaper living expenses. Craiglist.com, Apartments.us, and rentnet.com have all been searched daily, but I’m still trying to find the “bestâ€? place out there. Maybe such a place doesn’t exist, and everything really is quite mediocre, I’m not sure. I’ll just have to keep searching and come up with something by the end of the month.

Tomorrow will be the third and final race of the Dust Devil series up at Estrella park, which is the greater Phoenix area. I was beaten at the last one, so I’ll be looking for a small amount of personal redemption. With a couple weeks of training in my legs maybe pedaling hard won’t seem so foreign this time.  Tristan had some fun comments about how he’s still in season while everyone else is starting the next season already.  Of course there are many approaches to take and I think cyclocross racing is one of the best out there if you can figure out how to take a break and then regroup for the spring mountain season successfully. It’s been fun to follow his success this fall and I wish him the best of luck as he narrows in on another great ride at Nationals. Do it to it!

And if you haven’t found this blog already, you best check it out. Brian Matter will surely provide you with some quality reading. This guy has been there and done that with the mountain bike racing and he’s got the stories to prove it. Who else has met Weird Al through bike racing!? This stuff is great, and the old school pictures are second to none.

Keeping it Real, -TJ

You can now have a road bike that’s cooler than mine. The Dura Ace SRM is officially up for sale. After a season of racing expenses I could use the money much more than the SRM for now.  And I’ve got the backup PowerTap wheel that will continue to feed my number hungry mind. It’s posted on RoadBikeReview if you might be interested. The SRM is absolutely incredible and still in great condition since a bulk of my year has been spent on my mountain bike. Drop me a line if you might be interested.

On Saturday I got beat in the local race held at McDowell Mountain Park. After leading on the start I took a wrong turn at an unmarked intersection and had to turn around after coming to a complete stop. This let two guys by and I had a hard time pulling them back. It wasn’t until halfway through the race that I passed one of the guys, and at that point I assumed the other was still off the front so I kept charging hard. Going out for the final Sport loop the eventual winner finally pulled around me after following for nearly all of the Long loop. At this point of the game I had absolutely nothing left to up the pace so he soloed to win in the last ten minutes of the race.  Apparently I was leading when I thought I was chasing since there were no finishers ahead of us. Who knows where the other early leader went.  If just the mention of a Sport loop or a Long loop sounds confusing, try remembering this sequence: Sport/Tech loops, Sport/Tech/Long loops, Sport/Tech loops, Sport/Tech/Long loops, and then Sport/Tech loops to finish the race. I had to make myself a cheat sheet to stay on top of this one…

That’s the Tucson report. Of course it still feels just like summertime here with daily temps in the upper 70’s to lower 80’s. All for now,

TJ

So I’ve recently added the Powertap wheel to my SRM equipped Litespeed Siena. Why ride with dual powermeters you ask? Well, to learn of any possible discrepancies between the two of course… Perhaps, if nothing more, I’ll learn how efficient my drivetrain is with this project. Such a setup definitely classifies me as ‘Bike Dork’ or as ‘The Bike Geek’ as said in some formerly published article. No I don’t intend to use this setup for the long term, but I’m curious to see how they compare with each other for at least a week of training.

I know that the elections have come and past, but I figure it’s better to post this shot late rather than never. I rode by this lawn nearly every day as it’s on the Third St bikeway here in town. It’s the greenest lawn in the city and it has an ‘Educators for Conservation’ political banner curbside. I was lucky enough to have my camera along one of the days when the sprinklers were spraying all over the the lawn and the sign. You might not be able to see the water beads on the sign, but notice the wet sidewalk. I guess conservation can some how exclude water conservation. We are in a desert here, aren’t we? Perhaps these were the folks needing an education on conservation!

And the random picture of this post; my tostada snack. It was simply too beautiful to eat before taking a picture. So I’ll leave you that to chew on. The off-season is drawing near its end as the training will soon resume. Stay tuned,

-TJ