What a weekend…

Memorial Day means Bolder Boulder weekend in town. I hate BB weekend since it makes it impossible to get anywhere all morning Monday and the town is absolutely inundated with people – which this weekend means that my trip to Whole Foods will take 3-times as long as normal to do the grocery shopping (I’m borderline-paranoid about chemicals and all the other nonsense that shows up in ‘conventional’ food these days). But if BB is the trade-off that I have to make for a 3-day weekend, I think I can suck it up…

Also this weekend, Hüdz-sponsored Team Vera Bradley Foundation did some woopin’ up here in Colorado taking both the Iron Horse and Morgoul-Bismark classics. Congratulations to Lisa and her team, they are a fantastic group of racers, and the ones that I know personally are also some swell lasses so it’s great to see them having such success this season.

Taking some time this morning to sit, enjoy the cool weather, and drink some (probably more than I should) coffee. Riding this afternoon since I think the idea is to climb up to Jamestown and then head over on either South St. Vrain or Hygiene road and then back to town for another 3-hour ride. Tomorrow I’m in Leadville all afternoon, so we’ll see how it goes getting in a ride before I leave… I’d hate to have to hit the trainer late at night when I get home…

105-5700 in hand…

On Wednesday last week we finally got in a set of the new 5700-series Shimano 105 STI levers. (Also a set of new 6700 levers that seem to have a shorter lever throw than earlier versions, but not certain about that). The big test was to see if it looked like we would be able to make a single mold with interchange-able cavities to accommodate both 5700 and 6700 Hüdz. For those who have been waiting, it seems that the wait was worth it because according to our best estimates we can make a single mold – though the individual part designs and the overall mold design will be quite intricate and interesting to work through, so we’re not out of the woods yet.

We’ll post more once we have the part design finished and we know how this all shakes out…

Day 45 = 45 miles

It’s odd to have days where you are out working hard on a ride that at one point in time would have been a recovery day – or even effectively a day off where you just wanted to get out and ride but were going so slow or such a short distance that it wouldn’t even count as training. I’ve had plenty of those. Actually most of the last 45 days have been like that.

There have been exceptions, days that ended up being about 30 miles ridden hard. Today was my first foray into the area over 40 miles. So far I’ve been very cautious. The idea has been to ride in a manner that would always leave me able to ride the next day to keep stacking days up back to back.

Today I started out pretty easy with a friend and a plan to go for 3 or 3.5 hours. We rolled out nice and easy and made our way toward Lyons with hardly a labored breath. Heading out to loop around on the popular Fruit Loops route seemed like a good idea, and after a quick cleat and back adjustment after the first of the two ‘loops’ I was feeling decent. Decent turned to reasonably good as we made the turn back from Lyons across to Hygiene.

Into the shifting cross winds – out of no where – I found myself sitting on the front, picking up other riders, and feeling pretty good rolling of my gear on the gradual climb. With a couple little kicks on the way home I put some lead in my legs and felt like it was just the perfect distance for the day.

We’ll see what tomorrow brings. I had hoped to get in 8 hours for the total of the Fri.-Mon. holiday weekend, but since Friday was a very busy work day, and yesterday I did a fairly pathetic job of motivating myself and turned in only a cursory ride that would mean I need at least 2.5 hours tomorrow to hit that goal. Since I have no idea how my body is going to respond to my effort today, I’ll just have to take it as it comes.

Rocky Mountain Bicycle Festival…

So Hüdz is a big sponsor of the Rocky Mountain Bicycle Festival. This year it is, no, officially moving to Leadville to run concurrent with the Leadville Trail 100 MTB Race. Sweet. There are about 25,000 people milling around town, some great racing, and now there will be something for everyone to do in the hours between when riders are actually visible to spectators. I love Leadville, so to me this is absolutely fantastic.

Of course this puts pressure on us. There are things we were thinking about introducing at Interbike that maybe now we’ll try to unveil in Leadville since there will be less competition for attention than in Vegas. We’ll have to hold back some goodies for IB, but since I largely dislike the organization behind that show, and pretty much despise Vegas, it’ll be nice to trickle out some things before that on a decent-sized stage.

So come to Leadville August 13 & 14, have a beer and check out some super cool bike toys. Oh, and some other guy also named Lance is supposed to be racing and I think that’s some kind of big deal…

The Road Biker Blues – A Country and Western Song…

It’s a rare treat – a double-post day. The gnarly winds here are probably to thank.

We were out riding and some how this little ditty came to mind. Feel free to incorporate it into you next ride involving sustained 30mph headwinds with gust up to 50. (Note: It must be sung with your best redneck twang. Think Cracker’s Dr. Bernice)

Well my legs feel like rubbish
And this chamois is crap.
My old dog chases mountain bikers
So they’re puttin’ him down.
Now my brain’s got no oxygen
And my lungs got no air.
But as long as I’m ridin’
This Eye-talian bicycle
I can tell you son
That I truly don’t care.

Do with it what you will. To be honest it scares me a bit how easily it came together in my head…

Day 40 is in the books. Go have a good ride…

Things that get me through…

Going from zero to 40 has been tough for sure. In the weeks before I undertook completing my ’35 days in a row’ mission I had not ridden once. Today is the 40th day in a row and that has been achieved with some outside help for sure.

You can’t make it through a spring in Colorado without going back to the trainer from time to time. At least not if you have to ride every single day and don’t feel like trudging a mtb through a foot of fresh powder. Since I don’t presently own a mtb, that means I had to ride the trainer. Fortunately Frightened Rabbit got me though those otherwise mind-numbing sessions. I think they are Scottish, and since my brain doesn’t even really pay attention to lyrics Keep Yourself Warm was a great tune to flog myself to. “I’m drunk and you’re probably on pills. If we both have the same diseases it’s irrelevant girl.” Honestly never thought I’d hear that in song form – or any other for that matter – but FR went there and did it so compellingly that I’m digging it.

It looks and smells like a Thanksgiving sweet potato dish, but Badger Balm’s Ginger-Cayenne Sore Muscle balm is straight-up dope. I’ll admit to being borderline paranoid about the myriad number of chemicals that are in most products these days. I eat organic, use organic shampoo/soap/toothpaste, etc. so Badger’s highly effective anti-inflammatory balm makes me feel good on so many levels. Just picked up some of their sunscreen so that hopefully I don’t burn the crap out of my arms again like I did last week…

The Fizik Antares is my saddle. I recently changed from the San Marco Zoncolon which I rather liked, but considering how awful the chamois and bib in general are that the Hüdz-Subaru team got last year (we’re going with a different company for 2010 for certain) the saddle becomes exponentially more important. I hate the Arione and just couldn’t get comfortable on the Aliante, but the Antares is perfect and then some. The thing is that saddles are something that is so intensely personal that I figure a saddle company is doing something right when I hate some of their stuff. Fortunately Fizik makes a nice range of saddles that fit a nice range of hind-parts, so when I found the one that worked for me it really worked. My wife has loved her Vitesse for years and I have a good feeling that I’m gonna be the same way with the Antares. Well, I still haven’t tried the new Pave, so…

Anyway, I feel like rubbish from a hard weekend, but it’s day 40, and as the surfers would say: “Eddie would go…”

The King is Dead. Long Live the King…

Maybe not the best title, but it pretty well sums up the culmination of my 35 days of riding in a row. This has been a pretty significant tool to get me back on the bike and doing what I need to do. But, being me, I can’t leave it at that, and though I am celebrating meeting my goal at the same time I have long since worked out that I can get in 72 days in a row before my birthday thus significantly eclipsing the stated goal. So tomorrow begins day 36 of 70 in a row (double the original goal seems like a good amended goal).

So maybe I’m a bit obsessive-compulsive, or maybe I get fixated on numbers and achievement, or maybe I’m just becoming a legit cyclist again who can’t imagine a day off his bike…

In other news, I got the new single-speed cyclocross bike in late last week and today got it most of the way finished. If Chuck hadn’t flatted my rear wheel at CX nationals, it would be done and I’d be chomping at the bit for a test ride. As it is I need to glue up a new Grifo before I can actually take it out to play. I also need to get some new MTB shoe since so how the only bag that didn’t make it back from Nats in Bend was the guy who runs the team… Bad break… Fortunately Diadora look to be sponsoring the Hüdz-Subaru team this year and so I should be able to find something that works…

– There’s a rumor that we will be able to get ahold of a set of Shimano 105-5700 levers here shortly to do our reverse-engineering and get a 6700/5700 Hüdz molding in process. Unfortunately it will likely take about 10 weeks from the time we have the part in hand (best case scenario) to actually have a mold ready. If these rumors prove to be false, then it will be late June (the supposed release time) before we can get them and that will probably put us back to Interbike for a launch. That would be very unfortunate.

Other things coming, just going to take little bit of time and some free capital to get it done…

The 30-Day Chip…

My name is Lance, and I am a workaholic.

“Hi Lance.”

This weekend I hit days 31 and 32 of my required 35 days in a row of riding before my birthday in 6 weeks. When I passed day 30 on Friday it made me think of how self-destructive and self-perpetuating slide that I was on had become. I worked too much. For a long time. (Average 100+ hours a week for about 7-ish years). At first I was just not getting to ride. Then things got ugly.

Now I am recovering, on my way back, and not letting anything get in my way.

My back went out this weekend. It was pretty sore on Saturday, but I pushed through it and did about 40 minutes on the trainer. Today when I got out of bed, I actually fell over trying to stand up straight. Still got in 55 minutes on the trainer and sorted things out with the Chiro later in the day. (Trainer is much safer when the back is out or other malady is bringing me down – I tell my son “Safety First” when he gets in daredevil mode, I feel like I have to follow the same guidelines more or less…)

Wednesday will be day 35. And I have to say that I feel a pretty good sense of accomplishment about this. Last year I rode maybe a dozen days or so. I had constant tendonitis problems that I would have to take a week off after just about every ride to deal with those. And I was sick as hell from a soy allergy and vegetarian diet high in soy. While I still have a very long raod ahead to get where I want to be and to maybe be able to hang with the girls on the Hüdz-Subaru cross team this fall (still probably not likely, they are some fast women) I’m at least going in the right direction.

On the business side of life, things have been going in a dozen good directions lately. I’m pretty excited about that and should have some things to post about that this week and in the weeks to come. Stay tuned, you won’t want to miss this…

Made it through…

I seem to have made it through the worst of the sickness and am on the road to getting back out on the road. Last night I hit day 26 and the 75% point (roughly). 40 minutes on the trainer and for the first time in a couple of days it wasn’t simply a ceremonial spinning of the legs – there was actual effort going into it…

Hit the inhaler this morning though, the lungs felt a bit off and I figured that preventive maintenance was a much better plan then getting pneumonia. Even though I have a prescription and no UCI license I hate to take the inhaler because they are so often linked with cheating in cycling. I find it stunning that such a ridiculously high percentage fo the cycling population has ‘medically diagnosed’ asthma – it’s something like 6-times the general population. But I digress…

Things are picking up at Hüdz world headquarters as we move into the season. The cycling industry has taken it’s collective yawn in April and decided that they’ll put their feet on the ground, rub the sleep from their eyes and get to it in May. I really like this time of year.

As always Ultegra 6700 and Di2 Enhancement Brake Hoods are big requests in the email. 6700 is in the works, but we’re still not quite sure if the demand is there for Di2, so if you really want them, let us know. Other than that our board is pretty full of products to get out over the coming months, but if you have a great idea for something that you would like to see us make, let us know that as well…

Went for it…

So last night at about 9.00 I jumped on the trainer and did my 30 minutes. That kept the streak alive through day 24. Tonight I’m definitely feeling worse than yesterday – chills and sweats, basically rubbish all day with a 3-hour nap thrown in for a little relief. Not sure if last nights effort – if you could call it that, it was pretty mellow, bordering on weak – contributed positively or negatively to how I feel today. Not sure whether I’ll be able to summon the stones to give it a go again. Worst case, I’ll probably give it a go and if I feel awful, then bail before I do any damage to myself and drag this thing out any longer.

Gotta get on the mend pronto – this week my Civilian should be making it’s way here. I’d really like to get it up and rolling right away so I can go out and act like a 6-year old on some gravel roads. Also on it’s way this week is my Lucky Number single speed CX bike. It’s funny that both bikes were started at about the same time in late January and they are both getting done now at the same time in May. Four months seems about right for a couple of sweet custom rides, I can live with that…

Gotta be a big summer. Lots of riding. Hopefully some new products. And the build up for cross season and interbike. Looks like I’ll be going for it a lot…