Author: Bill

I am sitting at the Green Hanger waiting on my laundry to finish drying. Marcy an I just got back from the Big Dipper where I redeemed my free coupon and cashed in on free "doggy cone". Walking pt Tipus I wished I had the cash for dinner. I am exhausted as I sit here on the customer couch and sweating from the hot and humid laundry mat air.

Today at work was the usual stress induced panic / screw you all session at the rock. I think more and more each day how I need to get into a different situation. If only my 1st employer could of paid just a little more.

I just sent off a request deferment from Sallie Mae and my student loans. I doubt it will do any good since I already defaulted.

Hello from the Break espresso, it is sunny and nice outside. I am enjoying a cup of joe and a snickerdoodle. Unfortunately the day old cinnamon rolls are gone so I had to do a snickerdoodle. I just got back home last night from the Bohart Bash Mountain Bike Race . It was the best race I have been at so far but actually one of the worst results of the series for me. I got home last night at 5:30 and crashed. Waking up at 5a.m. it was all I could do to lock the car up before going back to sleep. Now I am awake and ready to go.

It all started Saturday morning when I woke up 1 hour after the alarm went off. I was already an hour late. I had to be at the race by 8 am to register and it was 5 am. I was supposed to pack Friday night but had a beer and chips instead finally falling asleep at around midnight. The stress at work played a part in this.

I was on the road and hammering down I90 at 6. It seems that I got behind every driver from hell and all I could grab for breakfast was a bag of pretzels. I reacted the Rock Creek turnoff just as the sun came up right into my vision. I almost hit a hitchhiker as the road was impossible to see. I hammered on in hopes that I wouldn”t miss the registration.

Just off of Pipestone Pass I hit construction and it was bad. 35 miles an hour for 10 to 15 miles. This added to my tardiness. Once back up to top speed I decided that if I did not drive 90 miles an hour I would miss the race. So I hammered on.

At 8:30 I reached Bozeman and immediately got lost. All seemed hopeless as I headed back into town after being on the wrong access road. I had never been to Bridger Bowl. Oh well, this is the first season. I was sure I had missed the race. Finally I found myself leaving Bozeman heading north to the ski area. It was quite a ways out of town but the scenery was astonishing. Definitely the most majestic venue so for a race.

I made registration 20 minutes before the start of the expert race. I had forgot my number plate and lost my NORBA racing license, still I had hopes of being in the race. After talking to officials they confirmed that I was indeed William Martin age 40 ready to race expert. I was in.

The race start was different that previous races and why not, this is the Montana Series. It was a la mains start (I may have misspelled that). We ran across a biathlon shooting range to our bikes before mounting and starting up the first climb. That started the ol heart rate into the hellish threshold area. There was no pre riding the course so the first lap was an introduction to the coarse for me.

There was some climbing in this race but what made it hard was the short but steep sections. There were about 5 of them and slowly they took their toll as on my last lap I had to fight from passing out. The sun was out and it was getting hot. The day was beautiful, dusty, and a great day for a race.

I gave it my all and had thought that I had done well. After finished came the familiar heat stroke session and with it came the thought that I must have done well. After all I kept my heart rate perfectly under the anaerobic threshold until the end of the race. I gave it everything and waited to see the results.

As the results were posted I was not too surprised by the 11th place finish so I looked at the ages to see f I beat my peers. I had not in fact came in 5th in my age category. That sucks and to make it worse I was 30 minutes from the main pack. I am currently trying to figure out what went wrong. Again, stress from work has to be taking its toll.

The race itself was awesome. Free micro brew, live music, and pizza. Also the swag was awesome. Free socks and cool water bottles were plenty. The course was fantastic and full of twisty single track. A great venue under the Bridger range with great weather. It was the greatest race I have been to in a long time and if my results would of been better it very well could of been the best time ever.

Man, if the walls of Break Espresso could talk, they’d probably be muttering about my caffeine addiction by now. Thirty hours, 15 cups of joe, and 4 questionable pastry decisions later, I emerged with a new website and a serious case of the jitters. Turns out, battling rogue hackers on my blog takes a toll. Speaking of casualties, comments are officially kaput. But hey, at least I found time for an epic 30-mile ride to Blue Point.

Now, picture this: me, perched atop my trusty steed, conquering a 7,000-foot climb in the Rattlesnake like nobody’s business. Sure, I might have envisioned a leisurely three-hour cruise, but hey, when a sunset that rivals a Van Gogh painting beckons, you gotta answer the call, right? Three hours and forty-five minutes later, my legs were pudding, but my soul was soaring. (Although, my GPS might have been a little too enthusiastic with the “epic” label.)

Fast forward to the present, and the new website is, well, half-baked (don’t worry, I have a mountain of content to upload). But hey, gotta crawl before you can code, right? Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a bed and a four-day weekend calling my name (even if it’s technically creeping in from the opposite coast). Time to recharge and dream up even more website-building adventures. Stay tuned, folks!

Maybe that isn't a word, aproacheth! I just sat down with a pan of cream of wheat just after a cup of coffee trying to wake up after a restless night. Last nights Thursday Night Ride was fantastic but brutally hard as I included 4 power sprints. I brought my heart rate up to 170s for 12 minutes. Today I am trying to decide what to do this weekend and the following holiday.

Currently I am looking forward to just staying in Missoula, relaxing, and getting caught up in some stuff I must do. For one thing I have to finish getting this site fixed and the other is I have to get caught up with my photos. I haven't posted sine the Idaho race in April … thats a long time ago.

Another contributing factor in me staying in Missoula ifs the lack of funds. I will not get payed for Monday and Tuesday so that means two weeks with out food. Also the Bozeman race is next weekend so I need to save up what little I now have to try and get to that venue. Sooo …. looks like no food for this week as well. May have to use ol Citi Bank Card, ”Whats in your wallet?“.

I would like to thanks my friends who have helped me eat and stay healthy. Without you I would be locked up in my apartment too hungry to ride. Thanks!

The news says, “another hot one today.” Yea right! It’s called summer and it is finally here. The single track out at Coyote Coolie was hot and dusty just the way I like it as some friends and I tore it up on Sunday. All this and I am thinking of getting this site up and running the way it used to be. Currently only I can post items and many can not even see my site due to security issues with certain IP addresses. Stay tuned!

Last night was movie night as I watched “Berlin” and neat little movie about the massacre at the Berlin Olympics. Well not much to say and I am coffee induced as well.

Tonight is some single track at my “rainy Day Solution” trail in the Rattlesnake.

Other than that we have the on line meeting tonight so maybe Ill see you there.

In family news, mom goes in for emergency surgery today to repair last weekends fall. Another fall last night and I am starting to worry and feel bad. Why do they live so far away?

Yesterday was a very nice warm sunny day in Western Montana and on tap according to my training plan was to do a race pace ride. Enter the Mormon Peak Run. I called a ridding buddy, gathered him up, and headed to the Mormon Peak Road off route 12 (about 3 or 4 miles East of Lolo). We rode and I won the world championships passing the world champion 1/3 of the way up the climb. It was a glorious moment.

We started riding and at 5 minutes I turned around and went back to the truck … then … the race was on. The goal, was to catch my friends and his was to defend his position. It was a glorious battle but one important thing happened .. I was finally flying up a climb … like the old days.

My friend had helped me to capture my spirit and it came out in a big way. I was able to get my max heart rate 3 beats over a previous mark … and then keep going t the top. I topped out at 56 minutes and I had climbed in a gear ratio that previously was only used on the flat trails. I chased him down and went harder and harder and suddenly my confidence grew to a point where I wondered just how fast I could climb up the long climb. Something clicked, yesterday was a turning point, and I finally broke through.

My friend did a great climb as well beating my last year time I had done on the old K2. Todays plans … going for a ride; What else?

16.25 miles
4,201 vertical feet of climbing
6,374 max elevation
2:45 minutes
location: top secret!

I am at the Break Espresso this morning after a week of bad luck. I have a lemon scone, a cup of joe, and I see the person that I am here to meet is logged onto my site. This week started out as the usual stressed out ”have to work“ week but by the end of Thursday's TNR ride at Woody Mountain it was obvious that I would be glad for a weekend, and a break. And I am!

The Thursday night ride started out with a buddy needing to patch his sidewall in his tire. But then the bad luck shifted. Already my Camel Back was broke so I had to ride with only one watter bottle. But then when I tried to help I took off my glasses and they fell on the ground. Next thing I know … CRUNCH. I had stepped on them.

Friday at lunch I was glad the weekend was almost at hand. I had received a pay check and was happy that finally I could get groceries after a week off fasting. I arrived at work and went to roll up my window. CRUNCH SMASH!

Ok, it was bad enough the my sister was in the hospital and my mom was all stressed out but now I had shattered my window. So Friday night after bitching to everyone I could find I finally settled down enough to rip apart my car door to see the damage. The SMASH wasn't a shatter after all, it was more like a spoingggg. The cables had came apart and exploded in a mess of wire giving a sound of crunching glass. The window was not shattered after all.

Good news right! Lol! Mom called me later at around 11 pm … she had fallen and broken her wrist. Was is even worse it that it was 110 degrees in Yuma yesterday and she couldn't get off the ground. If dad wasn't there …. whats next higher power, bring it on. Its summer and I have a kick ass mountain bike and I am going riding today. Cant get me down!

Last night the dark rain clouds almost deterred me from going to Blue Mountain for the weekly Thursday Night Ride. In the end I did show up hoping that no one else would show so that I could just go home and grab the hiking shoes. It looked like rain and I did not want to ride in the rain and mud.

The evening turned out great even though the mud was pretty bad. I kept pretty much out of the muck but the ride was still very uncomfortable. It seem like there was no progress from the day before and I am wondering when things will be getting better.

Tomorrow I plan to do a ride over the Miller Divide in th afternoon unless it is raining and in that case Ill take ol Marcy for a hike in the Bitterroot somewhere. I am bucking to get a ride together for Sunday near Darby. For now it is off to work where it is payday. Work is stressful and I hope I don’t get too beat up today. Just once I would like to work in a relaxed atmosphere and feel good about doing it.

I hope everyone has a good weekend.