Bar tales.......

What better way to cap a day on the river than a few hours at The Happy Hour Bar on Hebgen Lake. We decided to try our luck with the food and atmosphere and were not dissapointed with either!

After putting back a couple of brews we dove into a rousing couple of rounds of Wheel Of Fortune on the dvd player. The locals showed us a great time and told us that we were OK people despite being from Bozeman. The Happy Hour Bar is an absolute must for anyone travelling through the Hebgen Lake / Yellowstone area.

Fishing and the Happy Hour Bar made for a 12 hour day and I am hitting the hay..

Until next time....

Fish tales........

Woke up at 6:30 today, packed the car with our fishing gear and buzzed over to Rons house to coordinate our efforts. We took Rons truck over to the Ennis hole and had the doors blown back in our face just trying to get out. There would be no fishing in the Ennis...

We hopped back in the truck and continued south and only stopped to snap a few pictures of a small Mule deer that was cowering from the wind.

Next stop was somewhere below Hebgen Lake where we decided to try our luck for the day. Ron made out like a Pro Tour Bass Wrangler and landed himself some nice trout including a monster that was his last catch of the day (19 inches). The weather was sunny early and then clouded over and the fish began to strike.

In true form I only managed a nibble on the line. I have to say that I don't care about striking out because just being on the river for the first time this year was worth it. Mulv caught one Whitefish and also enjoyed the time in the sun.

Props to Ron for landing 8 and showing us a great time on the river.

Wa Wa Wee Woo

Another day, another 106 miles. Saturdays are turning into century day.

I hit the road at 7am for the "Around the Block" ride. Headed up and over Bridger Canyon then blasted down into the Shields River Valley north of Livingston. I had a nice tail wind through Clyde Park and Wilsall. Then, of course, I battled a murderous headwind starting 6 miles outside of Livingston until I was up over the pass between Livingston and Bozeman. Once I arrived at Jackson Creek it was another 15 mins uphill and then a fast cruise back down Bridger Canyon and back into town.

7 hours on the bike, 50F, 15 mph average (seems pathetic but between my heart rate and the climbing, I had to go slow), lots o' calories burned. No McDonalds today, just recovery drinks, yogurt, asparagus and bison burgers. 5200 ft climbed. 1 picture taken before my camera officially bit the dust. 17 hours on the bike this week.

Mulv also got out on the road bike and rode Gooch Hill Road then out past Gallatin Gateway. A beautiful 35 mile jaunt that takes you high up over Bozeman for killer 360 mountain and valley views. Another upside is that there is hardly and traffic or houses so you can feel really alone and still be in the middle of the valley.

The weight is coming off and I am looking forward to some racing. April 14th is the start of the Tuesday night races in Bozeman. First race is the road race up and down Bridger Canyon. WIth all of the nice weather I expect that a lot of people will be fast from the start this year. Could be scary fast..... St. Cloud is still looking like a major goal and September 9th is the Granny Grinder race in Red Lodge.

Wind in my face.....

No matter where I ride or who I ride with the wind always seems to be coming at me. People always complained about the same thing back in MN and now I have brought the issue to Montana.

The difference yesterday was that I was doing my first 100 mile ride of the season. Yellowstone National Park allows only cyclists and hikers to use the park for a whole month before opening it to cars. I had the entire park to myself for the whole ride. I think 10 park service trucks passed me and only a few other cyclsits. 7 hours on the bike whithout any worries was awesome.

Stats:

100.9 miles

3,800 ft climbing

15.5 mph average

5 hrs of headwind

127 average heart rate

Two close encounters with Bison and Elk

100's of piles of poo dodged

1 large coke, 1 Big Mac, 10pc McNugget (right after ride)

1 huge Chicken and Pear salad, 1 double Baileys on the rocks

1 grilled cheese sandwich

The ride was great and I will be back there for another go next weekend. Let's hope the wind dies down.

Ryan and Duncan were kind enough to let me stay at their place on Hebgen Lake so I only had a short drive to Yellowstone in the morning. Duncan is learning to play the guitar and made huge strides by mastering two chords on Friday night.

Training is going well. 19 hours on the bike this past week. While I told you all about the LOW land speed records of last week, this week was a different story. Wednesday night was interval training and Ryan and I had a tail wind going UP Bridger Canyon. We were hitting 35 and 36 mph uphill on the lower roads. I don't think I will ever see that sort of sustained uphill speed ever again. In fact, Ryan was pulling so hard at one point that blood came pouring out of my nose and we had to pull over. That guy can haul a**. Total of two hours over Level 1. Recovery times are starting to shorten and base riding is getting faster. Racing starts April 15; one month from now.

Until next time........

Pugtastic!

Pugn' in Minntuckey

Land speed records...........

Records dropped this week as Ryan fielded several comments and inquiries about his unusually slow pace during the rides this past week. I found out that no one has actually ever seen him ride below 18mph. So here's to Ryan for setting a new personal LOW land speed record on his bike.

The reason for this momentous occassion is that I have actually convinced him (for the time being) that training slow now can be beneficial in the long run. He's finally given in to my BS and at least humored me by riding with me for three days in a row at extremely slow speeds. I know that it works and I hope that it helps him out as well. I know he's already thinking about when the hotshot MSU boys come out to play at the Tuesday night races in the spring.....

Put in some really good miles this week and my body is responding very well. I was out for 5 hours today (which makes 15 hours for the week) and felt great until the end. Put in some one minute sprints that had my lungs looking for an exit from my body. As the announcer at the NVGP said during my time trial finish "MOUTH OPEN LIKE A HOOVER VACUUM!!!!!!!" The rides are exactly what I need as I am putting in day after day of 4 to 5 hour rides and feeling great every day. Avg. heart rate: 120 to 125.

I met with Seifert a couple of weeks ago and had performance testing done. The bad news is that I have a lot of work to do. The good news is that my seasons goals don't start until the middle of July. I hope to be in the Cloud for the omnium in July and then the State Champs in August. Then it's all about the Granny Grinder race up the Beartooth Pass in early September. Then it's time for cyclocross. I will be racing all year long on Tuesday nights which will make up my speed work and maybe toss in a couple of montana state races just so I can remember what it's like to be dropped by Andy Shultz in the middle of thousands of acres of blowing wheat fields in 90F weather.....awesome.

Now that daylight savings time has arrived and 50F weather is here the miles are going to start stacking up on the old bicicleta. If anyone is looking for a Colnago C50 they should call me...I may have something on the way from a local Bozeman bike builder.....

Don't know if anyone has had the opportunity to ride a Surly Pugsley, but that thing should be on the top of any bike list. Ben and I hit the streets of downtown Minneapolis in 12+ inches of snow and they handled beautifully. Next day was some downhill work at Hidden Falls park and the bikes handled drifts with no problems. The bikes even gave Mulv the confidence to try out a snowy downhill run.

Hope all is well with friends and fam..... Granny Fran is recovering well after receiving a pacemaker last friday. 93 (i think) and still ticking.... not too shabby. Love you Grandma...

Until next time..........