WIND AHHH.The wind is blowing hard and it gonna be rough out there. Oh well , here we go.

AHHHH!! What a boring day. I think everyone in tucson came to the shop today with the sole purpose to waste my time about whatever and not buy anything.O.K. I feel better now.

Tommorow is a Thursday do you know what that means? Thats right its my day off, and I will spend spend time than on my bike(300 calories 3 hours)). Then I will pull some weeds and do some general around the house crap, boooo! I hate weeds especially out here since if you let them grow to far they get thorns on them.

Hopefully there will be some good pics out there tommorow. Maybe even a rattler or some pink lizards( stay away from either).

Well I am off to the gym to get my rear kicked by the squat machine( no pun intended) I also started doing some lower back, shoulder and ab work as well. I think this is the reason I have having trouble dropping that last 10 lbs.I would rather have ten lbs of muscle than fat though.It will come off soon or a later.

Yea spring is here it was 80 out yesterday and we were busy at the shop. the reptiles are out in full force. I have not seen any snakes yet, maybe on thursdays ride I can get a picture of one on the trail. This is the most dangerous time to get close though as they are hungry from the winter.

I am thinking of taking a few nutrition courses at Pima College. That has been interesting me for some time now.I look into that.

I am getting impatient with the Jets. They lost a couple of players and have not signed anyone to replace them. I know they are more in tune with what's going that I am but I am getting nervous. Hopefully we don't have another season like the 03' one were we lost a bunch of good players and replaced them with poor players. We will see.

We started to see the first of the lizards coming out. George is one of them (man is he ugly).That means the rattlers will be here soon. Get out the shovel

Michelle starts her new job wednesday. She is excited.

I will try to do a ride tonight after dinner , about 1.5 hours

HAPPY EASTER

Well I was actually wrong in my equation. Swap meet does not equal slow day. We rocked today. Bunch of bikes and parts and even a couple layaway pickups. I love layaway pick ups.

This morning is the biannual bicycle swap meet that takes place on 4th ave. It is basicly were people go to sell all there old bicycle related stuff. Most shops go to unload any old inventory also. we sent two of our guys down to set up and sell some stuff.we will see how they do.

With that noted here is a solution: morning bicycle swap meet = slow morning at the shop.boooooo!!!

Last night spin drills went well, not that they are all that hard but my legs felt fresh and I was not tired at all. That is a good sighn which means what I am doing for recovery is working. today is the gym. I am gonna beat up on some wieghts (or vice versa)

Allrighty it is time to get ready for work,

SEE YA

Well today is going to be one of those boring days I can just tell. The weather is just nice enough to make us slow at work. I wonder what Michelle has up her sleeve for tonight? We will see. I will hit the gym tommorow and see how I feel for sundays ride.

some more trail footage 

Watch out for the cows 

OK I am refueled and hydrated and will do a recovery ride later tonight on the trainer to spin the lactic acid out of my legs. Tommorow will be spin drills which is a low intensity workout also to help recover.

Last night I drove up to Pheonix to see some family that came down from Wisconson.Michelle went up a few days earlier and spent the week up there(hence mondays post).I drove back the same night with michelle in tow.

I found a food website that gives all the particulars about what food has what in it.That will be a good site for future problems with my diet.

Thats enough blabbering from me today, i'm out.

Well my 3 hour ride turned into a 3.5 hour ride. the wind was way stronger that I thought. It was at my back for the first 1.5 hours and then I turned around and felt the wrath of mother nature.The ride was a little over my projected time so I will back down the sunday ride to 1.5 hours. Over all the ride was good I was able to stay at my desired heart rate about 90 % of the time.I took some pics and will post them later.

Well it is thursday and that means long ride day. 3 hours should do the trick. 3 hours 900 calories.

Here is a pic of Michelle's new pimp ride.Note the turtle horn and phat gel saddle. 

Well it was a good weekend now it is time to go back to work. Michelle and I watched the movie Mr. 3000 on pay per view and it was pretty entertaining although I would not of been happy to pay for it in the theaters. It is one of those movies that you rent.

At the home depot we bought all kinds of stuff mostly killers of some sort (weed pack rat ect...) then we went to target and Bashes.I wonder how many dollars Target takes in a day?hmmm it has to be huge.

Michelle is going out of town for a few days and I am on my own(Thats bad news)!We will see if I can fend for myself.I already wrecked the kitchen so I will be cleaning that up tonight.For some reason I left the stove on and my oatmeal started to explode. I caught it just after the eruption(looked like old faithfull).

Did the ride and it went well,boring route though the wife and I are of to home depot and the grocery store. Later

Well tomorrow is Sunday and I will try the whole more calories per hour thing . I will try to consume about 300 calories per bottle per hour.Tomorrows ride will be a short ride only about 2 hours and pretty easy pace(no more than zone 2).That will be a good experimental ride.I should properly get the whole nutrition thing down well
b-4 the 12 hour race. I have plenty of time since the event is not until July.

Michelle got he promotion which I already stated but the reason I brought it up is because her new office has a window with a view of the Catalina mountains. That will be a good sight when she looks up for a break.

I was thinking after my last ride (which is scary).I wonder If I am consuming enough calories and what not on my rides .I was feeling pretty good for about 3 1/2 hours, then WHAM it hit me. My legs were saying " I'm givin it all she's got capin". So then I pounded a bottle of my go go juice and I was good till I got home. Maybe next long ride I will bump up the intake of calories and whatnot. I should not be having this problem right now since I have been in base training now since b-4 the 24 hour race in febuary. That is what makes me think nutrition is the problem. Who knows it could have been a fluke ride.I wonder how many calories I can consume per hour/water intake? I might need to ask around.I am consuming about 250 calories per 28 oz bottle per hour now.Maybe take it upto 300-350?I will have to do my homework on this one.

Ya know every year I do the same thing. Spring time comes around and I get all excited that I do not have to use arm and leg warmers(and more importantly no layers) and I go for a long ride and get sunburnt all to hell.The funny thing is it was hotter last week and I hardly felt the sun. Maybe it was the cooler temps (70'F)and the helatous winds.Oh well I know now(again).I will be posting the same blog next year about this time. maybe I should save it since I suck at typing.

these flowers will be gone in 6 weeks and only dirt will be left. 

thats a full one 

this is the tallest saguaro I have ever seen  

Tight fit, dont touch the sides!!!! 

This is a sighn that lets you know your on the right path 

Michelle got the promotion she was going after.Which is great news!She is now the assistant marketing director of the Tucson Mall.

The wind sucked on the ride today but that is to be expected this time of year. I took some pics and will post them soon. I rode out to the tortilina trail and did the loop and back home.

Well I had a good night ride tonight even in the 20+ mile an hour winds.It always seems like there is less wind when your mp-3 player is blasting away your favorite songs directly into your skull.I rode from work to the river path and headed east and then turned around.

We actually had real hamburgers and tater tots for dinner. What a treat that was. It was definitely different than the usual weight watchers diet we usual have.

Wow were we cranking today at work. You can tell spring is here since everyone is breaking there bikes out. I would go for a ride tonight, but it is really windy and it might rain so I will go tommorow in the am.

Here is a picture of michelle and our dogs.Belle(L) and Zoe (R) 

Tommorow is the sunday group ride and it is supposed to be real nice out. I am looking forward to it.Hopefully it will be a controlled pace and not a hammer fest although there are always some people who show up and try to turn it into a race. Hopefully there are enough people who dont "chase" so that the group stayes together. I will try to take some pics if there is anything good to see.I will post after the ride.

The sighn is sayingit all. 

Friday, friday, friday.Yes it is friday.Lets get ready for the weekend.

This is the view from about 2900ft. Ya know pictures just dont show elevation all that well. 

These are just some of the flowers out there. 

Gate 


This is the gate I pass through when you are leaving Catalina State Park and entering state trust land

Tucson 


This is a view from the trail. I had just passed a couple of horses although the picture in not that clear since I was moving.

Well the ride was good. It was almost hot, 83'f.I addeed about forty five minutes off off road time to the route. I saw alot of equestrians and hikers out on the the trail and all were very nice and said hello back to me. I took about 5 pictures and will try to post them soon.

The bike road great and had no real problems. The new wheels Velocity built for me are great.The new sramm shiters and derailers also worked flawless.

Thank you to Mark Flint and his gang for the new section of the 50 year trail.

Ahhh Thursday another glorious day off!!Yesterday was Michelle and my anniversary. three years, WOW that went fast.I guess time doesn't drag when everything is good.

Well I am off on another long ride I will do the same ride as last week except I will add a little more distance. I also have my new camera phone so I will have to finally figure out how to post the pictures here.

The wife and I watched the movie Ray. I thought It was good. There was alot of stuff we did not Know about him.The ending could have been better but overall it was a good movie.

Michelle has an Interview tommorow for a promotion so she is trying on outfits and asking my opinion(doesnt she know I have no taste in clothing). I am doing my best to help her.

I still haven't figured out the phone/picture thing.Although I havn't treid since day one.

I rode about 15 miles today just kinda a light spin, but I felt good.

Todays blog will be short form

We were pretty busy for a Monday at work.

Michelle is up for a promotion

I will ride to work tommorow

I have set a goal of 195lbs by 7/9/05

see ya D

Well it is sunday and it rained on and off all day so I did not get a ride in. Michelle,Ann(her mom) and I went to the tucson mall and got two new cell phones. I dont really use a cell phone but she does for work and for a small amount more I could have one as well. The phone I got is capable of taking pictures. So I can post some on my blog!!The down part is I have to figure out how. Since there putting men into space I figured I could make that happen( we will see).

Tonight we went to blockbuster and used the gift card Gary and Lilly gave us and rented Ray. We heard it was great.Also we are trying something new for dinner. Couscos From what I understand it is really good for you. Kinda like a rice type food.

P.s.
to my family
I do not have any e-mail addresses exept for moms so send me yours.

Wow was today slower than I thought it would be.The rainy skies were proberly at fault. What were they thinking. We should sue someone.

On one of the bigger training rides today there was a bad accident and a couple people I know went down. One fellow went down hard and had to be taken to the hospital. It is a very scary moment in life when you are in that situation. There really is not much you can do exept nail the brakes and shoot for the best line.

Tommorow is another day off and I will be attending our group ride which is nowhere near the intensity of saturdays ride.Crashing will be in the back of my mind, its hard not to be when your 1 inch away from the guy in front of you. Thats a good thing fear makes you alert.I post after the ride.

mega store

Well I have never been a big fan of the big box stores but Michelle has a cosco card threw work so we went. They do have some great deals we bought a huge box of oatmeal, two big bags of rasins and they had a commercial size box of splenda!! That was a homerun since we do not use real sugar in the house and splenda is usually expensive. We also bought two new dog beds for the muts.

Since I am in the bike industry I went by the sporting goods section to see the bikes and I dont see why people would buy a p.o.s. bmx bike for there kid for $100.00 thats is in need of a full tune up(and yes I did look it over), when they can come into a bike shop and buy a quality bmx bike for $139.00 thats assembled correctly and has a warranty. That person will pay more than the $40 difference in adjustment fees. Maybee they dont even realize the bike is not assembled correctly? Oh well I guess ignorance is bliss I am sure I do the same things in some peoples eyes.

Great day at work today. I think I will ride in tommorow if the weather holds.Maybee I will take the long way and get in a couple of hours. We will see if I can get out of bed.

Friday

Well its friday, all the 9-5ers are excited since there weekend is starting, not so for me I work saturdays. which is good since all the 9-5ers come in to buy stuff on the weekends for there bikes or there kids bikes. That means this morning I will make sure we are ready for the weekend. That also means we will be busy (which I prefer ). My new chain, shifters and derailers should be in today WOHOO!! I really is the little things in life that make the day for me.

what a good ride!!

that was great. what a great way to releive some stress as well as get some good low impact exersize. the desert is absolutly blooming right now and its greener than I have ever seen. I almost forgot I was in the desert until I almost hit some cacti(that always hurts).the flowers are in full force and the trail is packed down(makes for some great riding).We can proberly credit all of this to the abnormal amount of rain we are getting lately.

March 3, 2005

Well today is one of my days off and I am going for a good ride. I am thinking of leaving from my house and riding the back way out to the 50 year trail doing the "training loop" and then coming back the same way. that should give me about a three hour ride with a couple good climbs. That should also give me some quality off road dirt time. I will post after the ride.

D

march 2, 2005

Today was a good day ,I was busy all day at work which is a good thing not only does it keep me entertained but it also makes the day go faster.

The photos for the 24 hours in the old pueblo are finally up. http://www.partypics.com/ver2/EventImages.aspx?eventid=89792&bib=616
I am the fellow in the bottom three pics. what an experience that was (rain wind hail ect...)

My first post

Well here we go my first post I had a few friends who do this and thought it would be fun to post a few things about me.

My name is Dennis and I am married to my wife Michelle of three years.No kids yet but we do have two dogs(not the same so I've heard). We live in Tucson Arizona and Michelle works for General Growth, a company that ownes and or manages alot of malls across the country.I manage a bike shop(Oro Valley Bicycle) which I absolutly love! unforunatly theres not alot of money or benifits , so I will proberly have to find a real job soon or a later(retirement dental ect..)

As you proberly already figured out most of my spare time is spent on a bike. I do events from time to time but mostly just for fun. I have always wanted to do a 24 hour solo mtb event but I always seem to chicken out. but this year is different I have commited to doing a 12 hour solo event in California.

Michelle is more into indoor stuff like the gym exersize tapes and so on. although we do go for rides together sometimes but thats just not her cup of tea.

well thats enough for tonight
Dennis