The 6th

Once every 6 weeks the life schedule works out in such a way that my weekend is free (except for hockey) for me to do as I please. This happened to be one of those weekends.

On Saturday I headed out to Whitetail Ridge to ride with Don, Curt, and Jose with special guest Susannah. I got there about half an hour before our planned ride time and set out for a quick lap. There were to snowshoer's in front of me, but they took the first cutoff. After that it was all fresh tracks for me. It was almost easier to ride in the fresh snow because there was no packed groove to try and stay in. It was just free riding. I tried to take a few pictures, but the iPhone gets too cold and then doesn't want to work :(. I finished my lap and then met up for a full lap. The snowshoer's had may there way around on my fresh tracks and packed the trail in a little more. Everything was rideable with the exception of the last 100 yards of the trail before the long straight away. I think that the wind had blown a bunch of snow into the area.
The long skinny was much more ridable than the last time I was out there. I made it to the end of the first log, but the days champion, Jose, made it to the end of the first and second skinny. It was a good ride capped off by some Chipotle.
After that I had to get to our hockey game. We played Hudson and it was the worst ass beating we have taken this year. After beating Apple Valley 5-1 on Wednesday I thought the kids would be motivated, they were not. Final score 15-3. Embarrassing.

Sunday morning we had a 8:10 practice at the coldest arena in the Twin Cities, West Side. The kids got a beat down. We have lost games before where not everyone was trying their best, and we as coaches just moved on. This practice was different. No pucks, just skating hard the whole time. We ended with one of Herb Brooks famous drills: "Red line, back. Blue line, back. Far blue line, back. Far red line, back. And you have 45 seconds to do it."

After that the horn sounded and practice was over. We'll see how they respond at practice today and the game next weekend.

Then it was off to the bike swap in Blaine. Curt came by the house and we were off shortly after. I wasn't looking for anything in particular, but had an open mind going in. I started with a quick lap around just to see what everyone was selling. For the most part, it was just old stuff that I'm sure gets hauled to and from the swap every year. There was a lot of nice stuff, but I think some people wanted a little to much money. For example, there was a Campy carbon crankset that was well used and had no BB and they wanted $300 for it. you can buy this part online brand new for $354. If I'm spending that much on a crankset, I'll put up the extra $54 for brand new. The part that got me the most was a hex lock skewer from the same table. I had bought a DT Swiss skewer for the SJ for $1, but liked the simple look and security of the hex lock. They look like this

The pictured skewers, as a pair, go for $14. The ONE skewer, with no brand name on it, this table wanted $25. When I heard the guy say that I held my look at him for a second longer, then set the skewer back down and walk away.

I ended up getting two brand new saddles that sell online for $99 each, for $35 total. One white, one black.

 I am putting the black one on the Pugsley/Monocog and the white one will go on my new MTB, whenever that day comes. I also got the guy to throw in a Crank Bros. eggbeater repair kit, but it turned out to be for the old model pedals.

All in all it was nice to go out there and see what was available, and find a couple good deals.

After that it was back home to start getting all the food prepared for the Super Bowl and a couple beers.

Arrowhead: Can it be done?

The Arrowhead 135 is a bike/ski/run race that starts in International Falls and ends near Lake Vermillion 135 miles later. It takes place at the end of January and is usually bitterly cold. This years bike finishing times ranged from 14h20m (record) to 55 hours...

I've heard about this race for some time and usually just brush it off. There are several things that I don't like about it. 1. It's cold. 2. You can't really go very fast. 3. It requires a bunch of expensive equipment.

1. I am starting to get over this with better clothing and stronger will. I think that spending 2 years in Sicily and 3 in Japan (one with an "endless summer" where I was never in weather below 70 degrees) really took away my bodies ability to handle cold weather. I remember my first two years back in MN if it was below 15 degrees my body would shiver uncontrollably. It was not fun. This winter, I have been riding in -6 with a 20mph headwind, foolishly only wearing two base layers and a jersey top and while I was super cold, my body and mind handled it alright. So my reasons for not doing the race just went down by one.

2. Not being able to go fast is relative to your bodies conditioning I suppose, but there are times when the snow gets deep that I don't think it matters how good of shape you are in, the bike is incapable of going fast, or at all. In order just to finish, this is not a problem per se because you are allowed plenty of time, but it is the mental aspect of going so slow and suffering that makes me hesitate. I've punished myself before, but no where near what could happen out there. So this one needs some work.

3. Gear. Holy shit. This stuff is expensive and it is definitely something that you do not want to skimp on. I would guess that from having really nothing, I'd have to spend about $600 just to make myself eligible, not to mention that ideally I would have a new bike as well...

Factor in all these things, plus the very real possibility of getting severe frostbite, or much worse, and I haven't given it much thought until this year.

I have done enough 100+ mile events that I am sure that I can do 135 miles, and I keep getting that itching feeling that I need to do something new and harder, and this seems like the perfect event. It is going to take some time though. Years. The prevailing thought that runs through my mind when I think about this race is that it's ok to sit on the side of the road in a gravel race and catch your breath, but for this race, that could mean freezing to death via your own sweat. Not fun.

I'm going to keep this event in mind though. Picking up sleeping bags and bivy's here and there all while mentally preparing myself.