... And to All a Good Night

Early to Rise

Early to a Rockstar energy drink.

Killed some time on the bike with Mr. Avey this morning. As usual, the conversation excelled and spawned the Swiss Army Knife comment, "Just read a Kafka novel and shut the fuck up." That one's got multiple uses, (at least in the mock arguments I invent in my mind.)

In less surly news, it's fun reading how many Friends of Snobbery seem to have some product behind them this year, even if the news has only been hinted at so far. Congrats everyone.

Finalized my shopping for Mrs. Snob yesterday and the last store I entered was playing the Pixies instead a Christmas music. I had to thank them warmly before I left, but they said people had actually been complaining about it five minutes earlier.

How can you not love shopping to the music of the band who gave you SurferRosa?

Ikea Home Nesting Instinct

I am a victim, but not of the Ikea type.

Spent most of the evening trying to get the new house organized. Funny how that started with organizing cycling clothing, gear, and trying to decide if the shop is in the basement or the garage. (Basement won after little thought.)

Gary Salutes the BKB.

Dan Jansen Reviews beer (per Joe.)

2007 Year of the Beer

Two down. TransIowa and Ouachita are booked and confirmed for 2007. Friends, Bloggers, countrymen also seem to be confirming left and right. I've said it before and I will say it again. 2007 is the year of post-race smiles and tilting a few back with friends. Gnawing of teeth and grinding of flesh to be followed by laughs and tales of divergent paths.

I'm not excited yet, but I am smiling.

I Heart Headwinds

Just under five hours of ride time.

Welcome to Elmwood, NE.

We're All In

Per G-Ted on the TI blog:

"... we wanted to err to the side of having the lottery than not, but........it looks as though we do not have to have the lottery! Yes, that means you all got in. We are still processesing the roster info at this time and we will have it posted up as soon as we possibly can. Stay tuned and congratulations."

Game On.

Trick Question

Perhaps by winning the lottery?

I sent only one postcard. Mistake? We shall see.

Paddy says if his name is pulled, he's coming. Can you win your own preem? If so, I suspect he'll share.

CreepyFriendly sent a card. MW sent something early. (I never know what blog to link to with MW.)

Who else has applied? Anyone else just through out one card?

Knowing my luck, there are 101 cards and I am the runt dalmation who'll get left at the side of the road.

Tagged.

I was wondering if this would work its way to me and Syd has apparently taken care of it. Six interesting things about the Snob that most people don't know (but yet I am willing to blog about.)

1. One of my degrees is in Creative Writing, but while I often think of things to write about, I rarely write. For a short period of time, I sent submissions to McSweeney's. After getting a few efforts to their "Open Letters" section glowingly reviewed but rejected, I sent a submission to the "Letters" section and they took it and only made one major edit. (If you do a find on page for 'Cronin,' you can see it.) I haven't submitted anything else anywhere since.

2. I suffer from a ridiculous duality of both not caring what people think and occassionally taking things far to personally, even if it's pointless. For example, if someone were to say behind my back, "Don't talk to him. He's the enemy." You will have likely just earned yourself an enemy who's happy to assume that role for you, even if I don't really know you in the first place and you may have been joking anyway.

3. I am adopted and my biological mother is currently in an aslyum.

4. The two fictional movie characters I identify with most are both played by Matt Damon, which creeps me out a little.

5. I am a hypocrite when it comes to forgiveness. I believe that most people lack the strength to truly forgive and I have a hard time forgiving them for that.

6. When I lived in Chicago, I would occassionally hustle people on DePaul's campus by playing them in basketball for money. One of the standout lines from those days was some guy on the sidelines yelling out, "He Dan Marjele'd (sp?) that MotherFucker!! He Dan Marjele'd that MotherFucker!!" after a little 5'9" white kid went up over a much taller guy for the score and game ender.

There are lots of people I would love to know more about, but I am not going to tag them. The way this is going, it will happen anyway.

Large Ass Tree

This is the large tree in the family Snob's new front yard.
The weekend's stats look something like this:
Hours on Bike: 7
Boxes Moved: Not Enough.
Projects Found: Too Many

"Hell No, I'm Not Stopping" - Endurance Cyclist of the Year

Craig Gordon - Wrecked himself at "Worlds" to bring down the reigning king, Mr. Chris Eatough.

Mark Hendershot - To quote Joe P yet again, "old, bold, lewd and tattooed."

Dave Harris - Killed it at the KTR. Got folks riled up regarding 26 vs. 29. Check out his 2006 Visualized.

Nat Ross - If he's in it, he's in the top five. His CyclingNews journal tells the story.

Harlan Price - Won the National Ultra Endurace Series. 20th at the Ruta. Rocks the IF and hangs with Elk.

Matt Wills - Never met a long ride he didn't like. Kanza finisher. G-Ted Death Ride aristocrat. Local Ruler.

Lynda Wallenfels - My recommendation is to visit Lynda's blog and look down the left side. You'll notice a lot of this: 1st, 1st, 1st....

Rich Dillen - Viking on parade. TR SS. "Worlds" Victory. Nominations in every category.

Engima Code One-Eight-Seven

I've been mildly obsessed lately with finding artwork for the new crib. What you see on the right in the one item I have already picked up. I am considering trying to get in touch with AOMIII or Steve Smith. I've got the perfect wall to try to fill in.

Rode for just short of four hours today. I believe when I left the windchill was sitting around 20, but aside from my feet, I felt good. Saw PC early in the ride and KW near the end. Perfect timing. One made me happy to be out and the other motivated to finish thiings up as planned. Now, if I can actually get to sleep at night things will be golden.

One pixellated Paddy post-card has hit the mail. I haven't felt very clever lately.

"You Can Feel Anything You Wanna Feel...

... And call it real."

Everything falls under the category of "in-process." New house, restructured gig, and trying to prepare for 07 in 06.

So, of course, the best way to mull things over is to stay up very late, listening to Sebadoh, Firehose, and Iggy & the Stooges.

There's also sitting on a trainer and discovering your left leg has arguably the worst pedal stroke on the planet.

"I can't complain though I racked up in chains. I can't complain."

Brillant, eh?

The Genius of Jeff and Mark is apparent yet again. MW, can I get a leadout? Send your Postcards to the Edge by the 15th.

How about Founder's Ale at the halfway point for Joe?

"Take the Damn Thing Already" - Photo of the Year

Blogger made me work for it, but here are the photos chosen for 'Photo of the Year.'

A.

B.

C.

"Take the Damn Thing Already" - Photo of the Year (Cont.)

D.

E.

F.

G.

H.

I.

J.

Mrs Snob Said...

"I saw a black Christmas tree and thought of you."

Still Not Warm

How's this for a rookie mistake?

I went out intending to log a bit over 3hrs at a nice snail-like pace. It would help if I would have checked the weather. A brisk 50 degree temp dropped to 40 in an hour and I was completely unprepared. Add a northwind with a little pace to it and I was hurting. My hands and feet were going numb and I had that wonderful feeling in my chest you get when the cold cuts right through your clothes and attacks your core.

Complete and utter genius. It's only five days until December. Why should it be cold?

"One Fucking Gear" - Single Speeder of the Year

Dave Nice. Proved you cannot keep a good man down. Stolen gear during the the GDR and just keep riding and smiling.

Dan Jansen. Rocked the SS category in the Ultra 100 Series and famously hit 30+ no handed on the SS. (into a headwind, uphill both ways).

Jesse LaLonde. Graves Disease? Fuck it. He came strong anyway. Stars and Bars of the team variety at 9Mile. Super Fan for his bros. (and I didn't even mention the BKB.)

Your Mom. Face it. She rocked that Schwinn in her day.

Rich Dillen. "Worlds" Victory. TransRockies on just One. Great Ultra100 results. Manly yes, but I like him too. Will he unleash his Karl Rove (I am sure that's too harsh) tactics to win the Blogger election away from Danielle? It worked for Race Face TR vote.

Paddy Humenny. The only Canadian on the list (I think) and he wants to move. I guess Dallas is a shoe-in for the Canadian prize next year. Keeps killing his blog, but have you ever noticed the number of positive comments he throws out to people? Solid.

Mark LaLonde. The Darkness. A is for Action. Marko is just a mother fuckin' badass. You'd latch on to his wheel, but you can't. Stars and Bars. Results for 06 you wish you had.

Matt Wills. Long rides, short rides, you name it he brings it and makes it fun. Committed to Rigid? Check. Rocking the pink SS? Check. One of Lincoln's Finest.

CX Sunday

Strange day today. The long road start put the three one gears at or near the back from the start so it was ketchup. Had a blast though and that's the beauty of cross. Mix it up. Both days were of the "lose ground on the road and gain it back off" variety. It's not like I am contending for anything so I just tried to peg it as hard as I could, ride smoothly and see what happened.

Flew the BKB kit today. Went Balls Deep. It's all good.

Nebraska Cross Saturday

And so it begins...



Where is everyone? (Jackie Robinson's Number!!)

If there were audio for this moment, you would hear me yelling gibberish.


Horns? YES!


MOD, what's up with that foot?

The Money Tree

See, it does grow on trees.


MOD is getting paid.



Coaching Lesson Number One
"I say Gents. Good Show!!"

"Shut up and Type" - Blogger of the Year

Read this in your best starlet voice: "The Nominations for 'Blogger of the Year ' are:

Eddie O'dea. He probably deserves my vote since he put his hand in the middle of my back to get me going at 9 Mile when I blew all of my speed coming into that gravel climb.

FatMarc. Funny. Self-Deprecating. Fast.

Danielle Musto. To quote Joe: "Funny, lots of good stories and pictures, and she wins the overall from time to time at endurance events."

Paddy Humenny. Killed his blog just in time for the awards. How appropriate.

Endurosnob. That guy's an asshole.

Jason Sager. If getting completely screwed over by USA Cycling wins you this. He should win in a landslide. He's also hysterical.

CVO - Lincoln's Founding Blog Father. As Cornbread said, the most influential man in Nebraska Cycling. (He's also cool as hell.)

Guitar Ted. Sheldon Brown of the Midwest. If Jeff Kerkove is Mr.24, Mark may be Mr.29.

Jesse LaLonde. Creepy Friendly. Single Speed Nazi. Founder of the BKB. Rockstar.

Rich Dillen. Could this be the beginning of a Bad Idea Racing awards sweep?

Let the voting begin.

The Future of Fun

I just stole that title off of 'Today on MSN," so how weak am I?

Planning to remove the Cheddar and be betta in 2007? Marc's starting a little service to assist. Where are the F-bombs? Maybe that comes during the rides with your coach.

Speaking of Wild MOFO's, Sam's was scheduled to get the wrist checked today. Ah, the itch of deadskin.

Paddy's blog is dead again. What's new?

Got an out-of-the-blue email from an old friend today. We worked together at the Bicycle Garage of Indianapolis and had some good times together, including qualifying for the USARA 24hr National Championships in his first race. Now the man works for Giant, based on his email address, and somehow "caught rumor of this blog the other day called endurosnob and I knew it could only be one person." Is that bad or good?

It is nice to know that this thing has at least one practical use. Good to hear from you, Scott.

Voting starts tomorrow. No Diabold. No Ernst & Young.

I do have a Sharpie and I am not afraid to use it.

Crash

Word on the street is that the blog is crashing people's browsers. Sorry folks. MonkeyGirl is on the case though, so hopefully it gets sorted out quickly.

Thanks to the folks who nominated for the Awards. We'll kick off the voting next week along with some ridiculous crap I made up on my own.

The Endurosnob Awards 2007

Some of you may remember that last year I asked the question, "How About Endurance Cyclist of the Year." It turned out to be a battle of communities between the Kerkove Army and friends of Dejay Birtch. In the end, Dejay walked away with the popular vote.

Let's roll the dice again (after all, today is election day) and add a couple of categories.

Category One: Endurance Cyclist of the Year.

Category Two: Single Speeder of the Year.

Category Three: Photo of the Year (Relating to the above two categories. I have my own porn.)

Category Four: Blogger of the Year.

Here's how we'll work it. Put your nominations into the comments to this post or send your photos my way. (Email is in my profile.) After a week, I will take your nominations and put the categories up to a vote in separate posts.

This was pretty fun last year and people had the right spirit, giving people props, so let's keep it rolling this year.
------
Let me get the ball rolling. (I'm saving the photo for when I send them all out.):

Endurance Cyclist of the Year: Rich Dillen. (Yes, he's a great choice elsewhere too.)

Single Speeder of the Year: Dan Jansen. (I struggled with this one.)

Blogger of the Year: Creepy Friendly. (I could probably be arrested for stalking his site.)

I also wanted to put all of the guys as Single Speeder of the Year, so much respect to all.

Clarification: A few people have emailed asking if you can nominate in only one category. The answer is absolutely. Various levels of geekdom are welcome.

Hand-Ups in Hell

Interested? See CreepyFriendly for the goods.

Season in a Spreadsheet

2007 has been on my mind a lot this week. So, with a spreadsheet pulled up and time to surf around the web-r-net, I came up with the following loose schedule:

March: Ouachita Challenge. IMBA Epic trail. Good reports from Squirrel and Mr. 24. What else is there to do in March?
April: TransIowa. This may be the last go at this one for me. The Arizona Trail is the current Devil on my Shoulder.
May: Dirty Kanza. Still bummed I missed 06.
June: Lumberjack 100. Big M and a big mug of Founder's Ale?
July: 9 Mile. 19hrs really wasn't enough.
August: Endurance 100. Not sold on this one, but August was looking a little bleak.
September: Mohican 100. Which would mean I am one race away from qualifying for the Ultra Endurance Series. Not sure what to do about the 4th race though.

Feel free to yell "pull" and shoot holes in this. I'd love the feedback.
------
Props out to the rockers who killed dreams at the Iceman this weekend. Jesse grabbed Fifth rocking the Rig. Marko hit 12th. Joe grabbed 13th in SS with big wheels and his friend Dan Jansen grabbed 7th in the Pro Cat. without a der. The good Dr. Cale also came in strong in the 50-54 group. (Now we just need to get him on the SS.)

Inspired By...

The Bouncing Souls

Penta-Pumpkin

After flying a black flag in front of my house for two months, this won't phase any of my neighbors.






Honorable Mention: Mohawk's creation from two years ago. Still works.

"The Joke's Over" by Ralph Steadman

Even if you don't know the name, you probably recognize the artistic style. Ralph Steadman has just released a memoir which covers in large part his friendship with Hunter S. Thompson. Forward by Kurt Vonnegut. Not too shabby.
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TransRockies Registration opens November 1st. I'm not sure how quickly the race fills up but if anyone is interested, let me know.

Business Tripping

Just returned from a business trip to Mini-apple-less. Yippee. In the middle of presentations I found myself thinking about...

eating healthier... could I actually do the vegan thing...
training for cross... is it too late to really make a difference...
9 Mile... better than sixth...
TranRockies... who'd be a good partner...
Is the air dead in this room?...

What I didn't know going in was that Laura Bush was speaking at the hotel we were staying at. The morning she spoke there were cops all over, the place was tapped off and I was looking around for a dead body. It was just Laura Bush.

I am not a fan.

If Only He Rode A Single

I was doing a little nutrition research today and found my way to Organic Athlete. In the process, I go to their athletes page and read Molly Cameron's Bio. You can guess the story from there. Intrigued, I hit his webpage and start reading his blog. Archives. Mentions of Lincoln transplant Matt Slaven and then I see the pic on the right. Tattoos the BKB can be proud of.

I don't know that I could go Vegan, but I am sure I will keep checking back to see how his season goes. Do you think maybe he has a somewhat sweet ride?

CX Day Two: Gut Shot

We have a race!!!


I love my bike. The engine needs a lot of work.


Tony Givin' It with Power.


Day Two. New faces turn out and we had a full blown tacitcal race on our hands. Sir Wilhelm running it SS and a cat he races with on the Trek Midwest team charging it with gears (sorry his name escapes me even though MOD told me several times.) This cat rocked a crazy bridge early to pull Tony back, then recovered for a few laps as Tony pulled him around. Then things got fun. The course had a long slightly uphill section that appeared as if it would be Tony's undoing, as the gears allowed the fresh face on the scene to either sit and recover or pull away as needed. With a couple to go, Tony was actually on wheel and losing ground on the flats and the one long climb on the course. WE NEED MORE COWBELL. Somehow however, on the last lap, just after said climb, Tony popped out of the woods with the lead and held it for the win.

As for me, I got my ass handed to me yet again. My fitness blows and I've got pictures to prove it. (Speaking of Pics, MOD's got the goods.) We've got a month until the Lincoln weekend, so I'll focus on gaining back some self-respect there, but won't forget about the Midwest Cross Cup either.

I love a good beating.

CX Day One - Sir Wilhem I presume?

"I beat you with one leg."


No dab here. Also, the scene of Tony taking a beer handup.


GiveR Mod!!!


Matt P was a blur.


Cross is beauty.


I spent most the race in this position, trying to figure out how to get into my pedals.