Looking in to the future

This post has been hanging around for a bit. Figured that I might as well post it as the first thing is happening this weekend.

I think most people know that I don't usually spend a whole lot of time or effort looking in to the future or the past. Mostly, I tend to live day-by-day. Granted, this might be great if you're a practicing Buddhist monk or alcoholic but I need to live in the 'real' world once in awhile.

Therefore, I need to make a schedule of sorts for the upcoming weeks and maybe even months. On our plate currently are these events...

4th Külsheim 12 hour race
Schlaflos im Sattel night race
Singlespeed World's in Scotland with a little vacation

The 12 hour profile -


The SiS info. -



I would like to have done the 24 hour race in München again this year but the people that run it won't answer email and definitely have one of the worst websites ever produced for a promotional group this large. Hence, the reason that we're doing the Kühlsheim race. Well, that and the fact that a lot of the people from SSEC in France will be there too.

Funny...after I wrote the above comment, I was actually asked to participate as part of our gym's 24 hour 4 man team. If I hadn't already signed up for Külsheim, I'd have probably done it. However, it's more cool that Kera gets to be a part of it too.

We've also booked our trip to Vietnam in late Dec. through early Jan. '08. More on that later.

The possible move thing seems to be coming along as well. I'll let you know about that as it gets finalized.

Lastly, my Deutsche course is coming along. It's a lot of work, but definitely worth it.

I made in a National Mountain Bike Magazine...in France!

Kera just got a few pics of pages out of a French mountain bike magazine sent to her by our buddy JB. Velo VERT is a French mountain bike magazine that not only helped sponsor SSEC but also did a fair amount of coverage and the guy might have even raced. Can't tell you for sure. However, it's cool that a Euro mag. was there to cover such a cool event.

Not only that, I got my photo in the article. It's in the series of pics on the 3rd page. Kera and I are in one of the two pages of the group. It's hard to find us unless you know where we are though.





A zillion other photos from SSEC07 here - on Flickr

Kera and I raced in the Tegernsee marathon yesterday. We both did the "B" loop after much contemplation. I did it on the Black Sheep as a singlespeed and she on her Retrotec.

I finished 132nd out of 258 of male riders and Kera did much better at 24th out of 44. That's the total number of riders that did that loop. It's not broken down by class. I'll have to see about that too. Now, looking at the final results, I finished 35th in my class (under 50) of 87 racers (considering I was the only singlespeed I saw all day, I'm not complaining) and Kera placed 18th out of 34 in women under 40. Not too bad of a day for either of us.

The Tegernsee race is our favorite race course around here. It's just about right. You're not totally spent at the end, but you definitely know that you've done something hard the previous day when you wake up the next morning. The scenery is cool, you get a lot for the 40 Euros (i.e. an Adidas Clima Fabric shirt, a bunch of energy bars/gels, a water bottle, vouchers for a beer and a meal and more). Not a bad deal at all. Considering that the shirt is at least that much in itself.

Once again, I did my best to pass on the SS whilst climbing. Unfortunately, the other riders don't care and/or understand that I need to move along at a slightly faster pace to get up the mountain without walking any more than normal. So, due to this problem and my lack of overall aggressiveness, I end up walking more than I'd like. The funny part though, I end up passing people even walking. Guess that's not all bad eh?

Two...Two posts in one. Kinda like Certs!

Got my old Curtlo back a few days ago. Since then, I've spent a large amount of time screwing around with it getting it ready to ride. You know what? Rigid fork singlespeeds are so much easier to deal with!

My Curtlo is running a large portion of SRAM corporate goodies. Noir 3.3 crankset, SRAM 9.0 shifters & ders., a Rock Shox Reba fork and more. Those items alone are a royal pain-in-the-ass to install and set up. The Avid disk brakes would be easy too if I didn't have to shorten the fluid lines too. I probably should have just stuck with the old BB-7's and made it easy on myself.

Anyway, the bike is pretty much done. I've now talked to WTB on the phone and ordered a new freewheel kit (just hope it's the right one) so I'll have a set of wheels for both bikes...eventually. Here's a pic of the Curtlo.



Also a pic of the jersey that I'm wearing in the SSEC pics as well. I love this jersey. I've coveted one since I saw them last year at SS World's. I now have one. Well, I've had it since SSEC. I've also got a French one too that I need to take pics of for you as well.



..

I finished one class today and I start a new one at a different school tonight. It also appears that I'm going to teach a real estate oriented class for a friend too. Cool! A bit more money and it'll keep me out of trouble.

(This is previous to the other post)....CONFUSED YET?

A race in Tegernsee this weekend. Haven't decided which one I'm doing, yet. There are 4 different races. I can't remember the first one, but it's fairly short, B is 57 km with something like 1100 vertical meters, C is 58 km's with 1900 vertical meters and I think D is 85 km with something like 2500 vertical meters. It'll be B or C for me. Probably B so that I don't leave the parents hanging for the whole day. I'll let you know what I decide.

As usual... more pics here. Flickr

By the way... the book I'm reading is really good! JPod - Douglas Coupland. He also wrote Generation X and other good ones as well.