With rain/slush falling I kept it inside today for a good two hour sufferfest. The only way I can stand to ride inside is if it is max pain, which today manifested itself in two-40 minute intervals. After jacking around for the last month it is high time to start turning it up. We got a crew planning on storming into Oklahoma and Arkansas in March for a 6 hour race in OK and a 24 hour race in Ark. The bike shop is sporting 3 Works-two of which are SJ’s. I counted 11 bikes in total, 3 frames, 4 extra wheel sets, and a bunch of random stuff. Like our one eyed cat Tom, he can be seen here doing one of ...

It has been awhile since I got a post up. But it is getting to be the time of year when I  start thinking about the year ahead and getting excited to start riding harder. One major thing that has been occupying spare time is building our new residence. Two days ago my wife and I moved into our new loft up above the Ethos Racing bike shop and training headquarters…AKA my Buddies garage. Here are a couple of pictures of what went up in three months.           Last night six of our Ethos Racing members had our regular Tuesday night circuit training session. It is comprised of 6 different exercises stations, which vary slightly week to week, that you perform ...

Ok, I realize that this post is a few weeks late. Sorry. Anyway, about a month ago Bob (@solobobw) at Triple Ring Productions sent out a tweet asking if anyone was interested in starting a New Year’s Day tradition- getting people from all over southwest Montana to converge at Pipestone to ride their hangovers away. For this year we had about a dozen folks show up from Bozeman, Butte, Anaconda, and one straggler from Boston. Around noon we hit the trail and for the next three or so hours we pretty much had the place to ourselves. The conditions were great… and interesting. Most of the soil at Pipestone is pretty sandy. This day about an inch of light powdery snow had fallen ...

Here we are, about two months into our winter here in Montana. We’re still looking down the barrel of four more months of winter (regardless of your equinoxes and all that fluff) so when the snow is firm enough to ride, I ride. Especially when the FedEx guy drops off a new Specialized Command Post: warm, sunny, nice new quick-adjust post, and my day off? Oh yeah- I’m out. I’ll spare you all the normal ride details (of course it was rad, and of course it was fun) and just focus on the elements of the ride that were markedly different from most rides. When the snow is well packed but not icy regular knobby tires provide ample traction as long as it’s ...

It seems that I have had a personal epiphany in the last few weeks. The following might seem perfectly logical to most of you but it has taken me one month shy of 35 years and mountain biking to figure it out for myself. Most of my adult life I have been driven to acquire the “best” life, materialistically speaking. I always wanted the next better job, the bigger house, the faster car and bigger television. A consequence of this type of motivation is that you are always looking down the road, looking for a destination or a goal to achieve, “my life will be complete if….” (watch Fight Club). What this in fact does is focus your life and energy ...

I have had a nagging knee injury (pes anserine tendonitis) that has lasted nearly two years now. Here’s what my knee looked like before my injury: As you can see, they were pristine; I’ve always taken good care of them… I’ve had three 3-D fit sessions at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine to get my bike fit right; it’s perfect now. I’ve gone through weeks of physical therapy, massage, and have also had two cortisone injections. Through all of these efforts, my knee has improved tremendously. I can now ride my bike, mountain or road, pretty hard for more than two hours before feeling anything. And while these improvements are certainly encouraging, I still can’t go out on a Saturday and ...

Well it’s been over a month since I registered for the 100Km Otway Odyssey and I promised a training update. As always the training could be a lot better but on the other side of the coin it could also be a lot worse. I completed a 55km ride last weekend and am planning the same or longer this Sunday (depending on the heat). I would like to get up to 80km 2 weeks before the race and we have a 25km training climb the weekend before which sounds tough but interesting. Each longer training ride I do each weekend I am experimenting with hydration, food & supplements to figure out what exactly I will need and the quantity for a race ...

Tunnels!!!! The classic Cutty Round 2 coming at you Jan 23rd! Look for rain and pain and as usual a great ride. Pass the flier around as these rides are growing each year. But don’t forget that we really are MTB’ers so Sunday is reserved for an epic Meet Up Ride!! Route TBD but expect at least 6 hours with plenty of hills, flumes, mud and fun!! See you there. Helmet cam?

Thought I would look through my photos and show all of you around the world what Chico looks like. As you may be able to tell I like the outdoors and there is a lot of land to explore around here, especially if you have a sturdy bike and are in shape enough to ride all day or two. All these pics are within a bike ride from Chico! I am really lucky to be able to see places like this almost every day. Come and pay a visit and I will be glad to share! Make sure to check out the new flume Video too!!

It’s been a super interesting winter this year. The start of the season was a record setting snow fall. Then we had a huge cold snap for a few weeks.  Now we’ve had a bit of a smattering of snow here and there but nothing too crazy. Myself and a few of the guys from Whistler were able to sneak down to Squamish for a cold but perfect ride. The trails were in a amazing condition as the snow and the  frost had slowly started to defrost so the dirt setup in a way that we had perfect traction, with no mud. Just pure dirt bliss. That’s the super cool thing about mountain biking, it’s either dry, wet or perfect. It’s like ...