New Blog

I am moving my time to a new site, http://hammerforlife.blogspot.com

Stop on over and check it out.

Working On Something New

I know I haven't been on here in a while but I'm working on a new site, it's a site I'm using to promote Hammer Nutrition as I will be a sponsored athlete for the 2012 season. I will give more details about this soon.

Early Fall Gravel Grinder

I went out to Indian Creek today to ride and as I was getting my stuff together I got a text from James, he was looking for a ride around Noon (it was about 9:30 at this point). I text him back that I was in for a ride and decided to go ahead and do my original ride. I started around the campground loop and then headed over to the dam and then north. My full suspension bike was giving me a bit of trouble on power sections, not exactly sure what is going on but I have to get it fixed because it is not functioning as it is intended. Anyway I didn't go all the way to the top, pretty close but not all the way, since I needed to get back to town for the other ride. I ended up with a little over 13 miles of singletrack and other than my bike acting up it was a good time.

I met James at Hy-Vee at 12:30 and he told me we were going to meet Doug at his house and then meet up with Brent. We weren't really sure where we were going and to tell you the truth I don't think I could really tell you where all we went. I can tell you that it was a great ride and we found one road in particular that was an absolute blast to ride, it looked like a private drive and then ended up with an amazing climb with loose rock and some small rock shelves to lift up onto and then it was about the same coming down the other side (it was a mountain bikers dream gravel road hill). We spent most the afternoon on our ride and had a lot of fun, we ended up around 63 miles for the ride. I'm pretty sure there will be more of those in the future.

It's Getting Cooler

I'm sure we will get a few more days of warmer temps along the way but the temps right now are sure feeling cooler and I am really liking that. Now the delivery I got today is a bit premature as far as temps go but it won't be long and it will be time to get these out.

I got Louis Garneau winter cycling shoes.



And a pair of Castelli cycling bibs, these are fleece lined with a windproof front on them. I'm pretty excited to try these on.

An Expanding Nation

Okay so I am a sucker for documentaries about all natural foods vs processed foods and all the problems that are created from the latter of the two. Looking at the rising cost of health care in our nation is staggering, especially when the world is being structured on convinence which is just making health matters worse. I am very curious what percentage of our diets comes from processed foods which have little or no nutritional value whatsoever. I read a book a few years ago called "Sugar Blues" that really opened my eyes to just how bad sugar is for us. I did really well after reading that book on cutting down on my sugar intake but I have let it creep back in here and there, running a bakery makes it tough to stay away from sugar (actually even if I didn't work there it might still be tough). Another eye opening occurrence is how select countries that still live on mostly plant based diets and some fish do not have an obesity problem, and the health of those countries is for better than ours. I have been thinking about putting myself through a challenge but I am not sure if I can handle it, but I'm thinking if I only consumed an all natural primarily plant based diet for 30 or maybe 60 days what difference would I noticed in my body, mood, and emotions. This would be a detoxification process that could be tough at the start but I hope would be easier as time goes on. Now I haven't decided to pull the trigger on this yet but I will let you know if I do.

Hammer On!!!

24 hr of DINO

Well the 24 hr of DINO is going as I type this, I really wish I was there again this year but my schedule just didn't work out. Missouri has a good showing with many St. Louis riders going again. I told Molly that maybe they will race so hard at DINO that they might still be tired for RIM and give some of us a chance!!!

2011 24 hr of Seven Oaks

Instead of writing up a summary of the race I thought I would take 5 times as long and do a little documentary. I know it's cheesy but my kids are cheese lovers!!!