Down with Dixie

First road trip in the new Element, I love it. 2 bikes without removing wheels, baby jogger, gear-you should see Rosie pack, baby seat, and room to spare. Tunes for the ride down included Ozzy mix, Ben Lee, Dixie Chicks, Bikes for the Kids, and a little southern Utah radio. Snacks included choclate mini eggs and water.
Rode the course and got in a windy lap just before the rains started. The dirt is in great shape and if the rain and wind cooperate the course will be vary fast, although I should have brought the Raleigh Inferno due to the flat rough terrain, I guess if it's muddy the hardtail will go well.
Nearly ran into a family of cows crossing the trail, spring in the desert is just full of new life.

















The rain has been coming down all evening and could make a mess of things, Eva dosen't seem to mind she's just pleased as punch with whatever.
















Whats with the traffic in St. George? Is it just me or is it constantly in gridlock. One disadvantage to being a bike commuter is you lose all ability to tolerate traffic, at home I go weeks without waiting in a line of cars and then I come to Dixie and wait all afternoon to go 2 blocks to sample the dollar menu at Fazoli's. On a lighter note, tomorrow I get to race!

I cried today

Bills funeral was a beautiful celebraion of life and realy pulled at my heart strings. It seems my emotions are much closer to the surface now I am a father, and having Eva on my lap during the service did not help matters, I was a wreck! They say only real men cry and wear pink in public, I better start searching ebay for a cotton candy polo. Did a ride in the UC this afternoon with Rog. We spun the mounain bikes up around rock canyon, along Y mountain, and back up through sherwood hills. Also burned a riverbottoms loop and finished up on the bike path. It's good to get back to my old stompin grounds. I was thinking of a few Utah county rides I have not done in a while, here is a brief list:

rock canyon-slide canyon loop
rock canyon-lightning ridge-south fork
wallsburg-south fork
grove creek -timpanooke
great western-dry creek via baldy
climb to the Y
gillespie trail
upper clay pits/look out/2nd look out/3rd look out
don't even get me started on the ridge trails or payson lake area

The trails you cut your teeth on will always be special.
Going south tomorrow for some desert riding, trying out a new camera so hope to post some pics later. As Rosie would say "shred the nar!"

At it again

In the last 2 days I have commuted to and from work, of those 4 rides 3 have been in a cold windy rain or snow and the 4th was in a light drizzle. I am excited to go ride in the desert. It's to bad the Hell of the North Road race conflicts with the chola race because I like sliding sideways on pea gravel through that last turn, that's my idea of fun. It's like old skool moto short track racing. I am sure the schedules a conspiracy, no one wants a mountain biker winning the 1st Utah road race 3 years in a row.

Check out this picture taken from my front porch, its at it again and I expect another 6 inches on the deck by morning. New bikes and clothes are in the mail but will not be ready for this weekend, bummer. In the am I gotta present a 9 min presentation on lifestyle modification and adherence to healthy lifestyle to 42 physical therapy students at the university, I better go prepare or maybe just go to sleep.

Celebration of life

It seems like just yesterday I was at Allen Butlers funeral celebrating the life of a friend, husband, father, and fellow cyclist. After going through that experience I have changed and feel more for the family and friends than for the actual loss of life. A few years back I raced with Bill Corliss on the x-men and distinctly remeber enjoying his wity, dry sense of humor at a little mexican resturant following the cache classic stage race. How is his family and closest friends going to manage without that presence around? Somehow they will and our love can only help. If their is a bright side to tragedies like this, then it must be that it helps us appreciate life just a little bit more. I am in love with life right now and know Bill would want it no other way.

Here is a letter sent out to spread the word on a celebration.

Most of you already know that we lost our good friend and brother, Bill Corliss on Saturday. While this is a gut punch for anyone that knew Bill, I remind you that he was riding his bike when it happened. As promised, I've tried to put together all the details of the upcoming services, plus contact information for the bulk of you who cannot be present. Please forward this email to anyone I have missed. Things are still formulating, but here is what we know to be true: Services celebrating Bill's life will take place at the Park City Community Church at 11:00 AM on Thursday, March 30th. The Park City Community Church is located at 4501 Hwy 224, in Park City, Utah (www.parkcitycommunitychurch.org) - it is behind the Park City nursery. I am told that the procession afterwards will be led out by a group of bicycles (weather permitting?), so if you are coming to celebrate Bill's life, it is probably appropriate that you bring your bicycle. I have attached a list of local hotels below for those making the trip.

For those who cannot attend, you may send your support, thoughts, stories and condolences to Bill's wife Deb and son Jordan: Deb Kirby P.O. Box 332 51 Daly Ave Park City, UT 84060

Deb has been truly blown away at all the contact from people Bill knew - it really helps. He touched allot of people and I'm thankful that it's been helpful for Deb to hear from everyone. Thanks again to everyone for the kind words.
DC.

Bill's Obituary

Maybe all see you at the celebration

training for idiots

Woke up to another 7 inches of snow on the deck, guess I'll get some more upper body work.

Just because I don't keep a training log, don't use a HR monitor or powermeter, don't over pay a coach that has no idea how I feel, don't do structured intervals, and hours upon hours of base miles ,doesn't mean I don't have a general plan behind my cycling madness. I do and it works well for me, I continue to improve and am able to manage a full life. In today's world of technology and information, all the cycling publications would have you believe that it is impossible to improve or become "fast" without a coach and NASA like high-tech gadgetry. Now I do agree that coaching has it's place and actually like the idea of monitoring power, but it is not for everyone and you can attain your goals without it. So if you can't afford a coach and don't like the structured approach, stay tuned and I will try to share some of my ideas on unstructured low-tech training.

Here's my plan for the week: By no means is this set in stone and will most likely not go off as planned.

Goal for the week: prepare for 2nd race effort of the season.
Monday: am 15-20 min easy commute, pm 30-40 min easy commute with a couple short test efforts. Road bike high cadence.
Tuesday: am 15-20 min easy commute, pm 30-40 min moderate pace commute with a little more effort on the climbs. Maybe another 30 min on MTB on the pavement if feeling spry.
Wednesday: am 15-20 min easy commute, pm 30-40 min moderate pace commute.
Thursday: am 15-20 min easy commute, pm 30-40 min easy high cadence on MTB. If feeling at all tired may not ride today.
Friday: Preride race course at steady pace with a couple short race efforts. 1-1.5 hrs.
Saturday: Intermountain cup #2 Cholla Challenge, Race 2+ hours with a 30-40 min warmup and 30-40 min cool down. Would like to do some more riding after the race but most likely will not have time.
Sunday: Fun MTB ride with family if possible.

Commuting/training does have its challenges but is a great time saver. One thing I constantly have to be carefull of is always riding the same pace and distance. Each week should have a specefic goal in mind, whether it happens our not is another story!

Sprung

Pics of the 2006 Raleigh factory Team bike sent to me from Raleigh's headquaters in Kent, Wa. Note the Rockstar white seat and fork, I better start looking for some white leather pants.



Despite being in class most of today, I was able to get a little riding in. Commuted to and from class on the road bike with a total ride time of 45 minutes. Did about 10 minutes threshold high cadence climbing and about 2 minutes above threshold big gear climbing on the way home. Also rode the MTB for 30 min with a few efforts of high cadence climbing thrown in for fun. Still felt fresh after riding. The snow is starting to melt and I finally got the deck completly cleared. Ate at Sun and Moon Cafe in the canyon and enjoyed the live band, good Saturday night. Yesterday was the 1st Norba Marathon in AZ, I love that course and wish I would have been racing. My fitness is pretty good right now it would have just been a matter of holding on at the end, but with a sub 4 hr race it may have been doable with my limited training. I guess not making all the races is just part of the story when your a hacker mountain bike pro with a million other irons in the fire. May see some changes to the site and possibly run into some construction, I am working on it.

BREAKING NEWS: Just got word that Bill Corliss from Park City, UT was hit and killed by a dump truck while on a group ride this morning out by Saratoga Springs on State Road 68. No details yet but another cycling tragedy hits home in Utah. As I read the e-mail I became sick to my stomach, all my trivial complaints were instantly purged from my mind. My heart and prayers go out to Bill's family and close friends.

Just one more reminder to LIVE, LOVE, and LAUGH!

Chocolate chips for dinner

My brain got a good work out today. After work I was in lecture and lab on vestibular rehab until 8pm. The ride home was pleasant minus the Gale force canyon wind and the brights of oncoming traffic. I pretty much have the emigration canyon trade winds dialed. In the am the wind blows down the canyon until about 10:30-11:00 am at which time it switches and blows up the canyon, anyone that has ridden EC in the afternoon knows about the 2-gear down tailwind. What most people don't know is that after dark as the air cools the wind switches again and blows down the canyon. I am not a weatherman by trade, but from what I understand these winds all have to do with the air moving from valley to valley with changes in temperature, which is fairly consistent from day to day. All the canyons along the wasatch front behave about the same with some being more pronounced than others, Spanish Fork Canyon is about the strongest that I know of and a great place for electricity generating windmills. It seems the canyons with larger/wider valleys at the top of the canyon have stronger down winds. This would explain the strong winds of SF, Provo, Emigration, and Parleys canyon and the relatively lesser winds of say the cottonwoods. Generally you can set your clock by these wind changes unless barometric pressure is changing dramatically and the weather is unsettled. Who knows, I may have no idea what I am talking about. Anyway, I felt pretty good climbing up the hill to my house despite the wind, when its dark you always feel faster and you can't check your gearing, I just pretend my 80- 90 rpm cadence is in the 39-17 or 21 up the 10-15% grade, what would that take, about 12 watts/kg. Had chocolate chips for dinner tonight, my favorite.
Tomorrow will be the warmest day of the year so far and I will again be exercising my brain in vestibular rehab, I can't wait to be done with this doctoral work. If your headed out on a long Saturday ride, enjoy! At least I have the trusty commute to keep me sane and fit.

Oh I almost forgot, I got a sweet 91' Acura Integra for sale if anyone is interested. Hate to see it go as it has been a great car and has a million miles left in it, but I just don't have room for cars I hardly drive.
Also just got some pics of the 06 Raleigh race bikes from Norm, he built one up for a photo shoot and press release, we should have ours in about a week, not quite in time for Cholla. Maybe I'll post some pics this weekend.

Current wheather conditions in EC at 6000 ft:
Temp: 41.8 F
RH: 43%
Barometric pressure: 24.00 inHg
High clouds, light breeze

Eggplant

Did a non-commuting ride today, unusual for me during the week but the sun was out and I saddled up with Climbum Jones. Steady pace with one pretty good climbing effort up storm mountain, if you know Jones you know its not a ride without throttling it uphill, fortunately he is not in top shape yet due to his 50-mph ski crash and associated thumb ligament repair. Ran into A-train at the bottom of BC, he had just peeled of off Ohran and word is "Indohran" is back! Now that I live at the top of a hill, I always have to leave a little in the tank or I could end up walking, today a few cliffbar BlOCKS helped me home.
Had time for a hair cut today, full blown race season and warmer weather must be just around the corner.





















My sciatica felt better on my ride today but continues to linger a little, hopefully it will continue to improve over the next few days. Sold a cross bike today to skate skier extrodinare Tav Streit, also traded some Salomon carbon pro skate boots for bike parts, maybe I'll start wishing for more snow. Also did some work on my winter house project, just finished Caulking around the tub/shower faucet and sealing the travertine, looks good. When we finished our house last fall we decided to leave a few bedrooms/bathroom unfinished to save a little coin and give me some projects. The bathroom just needs a toilet, vanity and few details and I can move to the next room.


Note the eggplant walls, Rosie's got a good eye for color.



















Can't wait to go back to work tomorrow, and to top it off I have a Friday night/Saturday course/ lab on diagnosis and treatment of benign positional vertigo and meneir's disease. Great way to spend the first sunny weekend in months! I sure wish I could be as excited about nothing as little Eva, or at least as excited about The OC as her mother. Both inspirations to me!

Ever look inside a spine?

The first day in weeks it's not snowing in the morning and I am not able to ride to work. Today after work I had an appointment for a lumbar epidural injection. I know that sounds random but let me give you a little history. About 1.5 years ago near the end of cross season I started to feel some wierd stuff going on down my left leg. At the time it was no big deal and had no real effect on my cycling performance, in fact that year I was 10th at elite cyclocross nationals. Later that winter it got worse but only on long road rides, I started to see a colleague of mine and worked on some specific lumbar multifidi strengthening and stabilization. I also started working on some L hip tightness that had been building for years from a bad crash. I saw no benefit from the strengthening and continued to have problems on long road rides. Intense mountain bike rides and races were not to bad and I had some good results on the mountain bike last tear. Later in the summer I was to busy trying to finish up our new house to race but tried to defend the E100 title, after about 4 hours I had a bad flare upand was not able to continue. Once cross season came around I was able to manage my radicular symptoms because of the relativly short races. Following cross season I started nordic skiing and then some short rides. Once I tried to do some longer rides my radicular symptoms got worse. A PM&R doc I work with did an needle EMG on me and found some S1 sensory neuropathy, meaning most likely I had some nerve root irritation. So I went to a PM&R sports/back doc and had some imaging done. The MRI showed some minimal disc bulge at L4-5 and L5-1 with the possible contact of the L5 nerve root. Other wise my films looked great.


This is a T1 sagital view showing some mild bulging of the low lumbar discs. From this view no nerve root irritation can be seen, the axial views are better for that.

For further diagnosis and possible treatment of any chemical nerve root irritation I had a selective nerve root injection of L5 but had no appreciable improvement. By this time I was having buttock, posterior thigh, and lateral foot pain regularly and actually short bike rides seemed to help. Performance wise I was doing ok and only had a little trouble at the St. George mountain bike race., but felt fairly strong and rode well. It has been 3 weeks since that injection and today I had an interlaminar injection that should bath a larger area. Following the injection my buttock has been a little numb but I have yet to see any change in symptoms, this may take a few days to determine its effectiveness.

Here is my spinal injections under under floroscopy. The top one is the SNRI and the dark you see is the dye to locate the nerve root and the cathater and needle to insert the steroid. The bottom picture is today's injection which is more medial and between the lamina.

Hopefully I will see some improvement because as any athlete knows, injury is very frustrating. Prior to the 1st injection I took a break from the bike to see if that would help, it had no effect and I was depressed. In the event this does not help I will continue trying new things, the body is so complex, you just never know. Sorry to blab on but my story may resonate with other bike racers out there dealing with injuries. As a physical therapist this has been frustrating because I fix problems like this for a living but can't seem to touch this one. Hopefully I pull things together and have a good mountain bike season, maybe the lack of training will actually help me stay fresh. To quote Trebon "Training is for those who suck!"

Anyway, tomorrow should be good. It is my day off work and the weather seems to be looking up. I may go for a ride with climb-um Jones. I also so have some good house projects going and some serious playing with Eva on schedule.

Spring training

Todays commute/training: 18 minutes to work, snow pack roads, snowing lightly, easy spin, high cadence, on fendered commuter. 40 minutes return home, sunny but cool, high cadence, easy pace.

For a bike racer, I sure have been doing alot of "cross training" activities lately. Snowshoed(easy 1 hour) up behind the house with Rosie and Eva after work today. With the temperature rising the underground springs are starting to pop throgh the snow, a couple times we walked over a spring/stream and the snow broke through underneath us, like a mini crevass.

Rosie got a shot of Eva and I just above our house, in the background looking South you can see the top of Little Mountain and then Lambs Canyon beyond that.

Spoke with Norm at Raleigh today and he is just waiting for a couple sets of wheels and the REBA's before he ships em out. They just finished building up a team bike for a photo shoot and press release, he said it looks good! Getting excited for some dirt!

Velour

Current Conditions in Emigration Canyon @ 6000 ft
temp: 31.2 F.
humidity: 79%
24 hr snow: 11" (on my deck)
snowing lightly

This year old man winter is the 95 lb bag of bones with the toothy grin who hobbles around on a rickety old cane chain smoking 3 packs a day and telling old war stories, statistically he should not be alive but for some reason he is healthy as a horse. Some one should tell him tomorrow is the 1st day of spring.

This is my friend (8.5hp, 26" swath) resting after a job well done, he is ready for a summer vacation.

Here's Eva in her Sunday best, sporting her new velour dress. Note the Princess sleeves!


Spun the MTB around in the snow storm for about 1/2 hour this am, I love how the snow muffles all sound. Felt pretty good considering yesterday was the 1st long climb of the year, went as easy as possible in my neighborhood. Glad I did not go to the crit yesterday, I guess it was on the Oval due to water on the track. The Oval bores me, its like doing laps around my driveway. Did a snowshoe this evening behind my house in freeze creek and up around the tank, scoped out the area where we might groom for a nordic track next year, also checked out a the connector trail from my backyard onto the freeze creek single track, I will need to clear some dead fall in the spring but with this trail operational I should be able to eliminate all pavement from my house to the top of Big mountain except for a little stretch in burr fork (pinecrest). Assuming the 3 ft of snow melts.

So close to Solitude

Snowing at dawn, a few hours of gray, and then snowing at dusk. Set out for big cottonwood today on the road bike in hopes of 40-50 min steady tempo climbing with the sound of the river as my ipod. For some reason I noticed every large rock on the side of the road and imagined how nice it would fit into my landscaping plans at home, to bad I wasn't pulling trailer. About 1/4 mile from Solitude the light snow flakes got heavy and I was forced to retreat, as I descended the flakes turned to hail and I was left with a pubescent pizza face. I love it when rain turns to snow and the trees become dusted in white foliage. Mother nature can out do photo shop any day. Still playing with the page set up, someday I will get it.


spring foliage

Sushi

Just got back from sushi downtown compliments of LTS, good eats. After the 1st dirt race a couple weeks ago I am itching to race, well no race this weekend but it looks like more snow. I put in a short effort up the hill to my house riding home from work and I felt pretty good, maybe it was the tailwind but I'll take it. When your training consists of a 30 min bout home you have to make it count. More parts showed up today, a couple boxes from SRAM and Truvativ. Should have the 06 Raleighs up and running in a week or so. New kit coming soon, no more Purple Power! As soon as I learn this HTML jiberish I plan to spruce up the page a little, stay tuned. Did I mention its snowing again!

A sneak peak at the New Raleigh Team kit

Gray

Today looking out the window I was unable to determine where the mountains ended and sky began. The new snow matched the sky perfectly. Today at work I met with a 425 lb gentlemen who is trying to improve his mobility enough so he can exercise (walk) and drop some lbs.His goal is to get into our aquatic therapy program but he has to wait for his sacral skin breakdown to heal. Hopefully we can keep his drive alive, its got to be tough. After work I hit up Mtn Dell to burn some laps on the nordic track, after 2ft of new snow the track was in fairly good shape, the TUNA crew must have put in some work last night. I skied for 1 hr, the snow was soft but I felt pretty good other than my left leg issue.
Thursday is OC and Crown Burger night, does not get better than that according to Rosie!

Opening Day!

The funny thing about firing up a blog is that no one knows its alive! I guess I should spread the word or better yet just read it myself. Anyway, here are the reasons why I decided to jump on the blogging bandwagon:

-Communication tool of the future, by the time my daughter is 16 people we will no longer need to speak face to face, I don't want to be left out.
-Props to my sponsors and race support
-Provide and receive training/commuting tips to fellow "hacker" MTB racers
-Keep in touch with my brothers/family/friends
-Got a new computer
-Weather report for Emigration Canyon at 6000 feet
-Drum up support for the trails in Emigration Canyon
-Race reports
-Just for kicks!

March 5th St. George, Ut-Intermountain Cup #1

Contrast

March 15th Emigration Canyon, Utah-My driveway

Today was epic commuting conditions, I rode the full fendered flat bar Raleigh commuter in sideways snow. The old military snowplow/salt truck slid off the road and the only vehicle to pass me was the snow chained school bus. I got to work and everyone was still in gridlock traffic. Only half the patients showed for amputee clinic and by the time I was riding home the sun was in full force. Gotta love the Ides of March

Happy 30th Bryan