It's kinda cold out...

Check out snoonan.blogspot.com

The New Noo-Noo Blog

Snoonan.blogspot.com

Check It out. I'll be gradually making the transition to it over the next month. Jeff has been superfast on designing it...he's a machine. Post commentson what you think of the design, cause there's still a lot to change in the next few weeks. (I need to get links updated...I don't even have the links on this site totally updated, especially missing Patrick Hummeny, but he's linked on JKs blog, he has a great report from MN state cross)

So if you'er a blogger change your links, and if I'm cool enough to be a favorite on your browser, change your favorties. Though there will still be some posts on here for the next month, just not as many.

Jake, Finn and I did an offroad recovery ride through my 'cross course. Yeah, I'm going to run a 'cross race next fall if the school approves it. From recent talks with the Arb Director it will probably be a go. Just gotta put a proposal together for the committee that controls the Arb and convince the grounds guy to let me run one section of it on campus. It will be a hard course. I'm not sure about mud though, I want it, but it will make the school pissed off I think. I'm also planning on making it part of both the Minnesota series and the Midwest cross Cup (Godfather Marco, you'll get an e-mail about it in the next week).

Corrie filled me in on DMJuice's blog competition. look up their website and check it out, unfortunately it's only for des moines locals. I filled out the form, funny it didn't ask me for the name of my blog or much actual blog information except for some sample posts.

Minnesota State CX champs

Jumpin Barriers
Originally uploaded by noonans.

I felt really good today, and had a pretty good ride. There were somewhere between 40 and 60 racers in the A Field (almost 70 in B) so it was a pretty big race.

My start, again, wasn't so good, but much better than most races. I was probably 25th or so up the gravel hill and through the sand. Then it was a twisty section around trees which I rode well, then the first run up, with the barriers in this picture. This run-up hurt but I was doing it well, passed 2 or 3 guys the first lap here. Then you hit a nice turn and short climb to gravel descent. At the end of that was a sand pit with a kinda hard right turn. That was fun, rode it well all but 2 laps. Then was some straight singletrack to the gnarly run up. This had stairs formed out of logs holding up dirt, and were completely uneven. I passed 3 or 4 people here on the frist lap. After the first part, which had steps up to 2 feet tall it just became water barrier-like and I sprinted up that like a mountain goat. Then some sharp turns and a sweet descent with a hole to bunny hop at the bottom for the best line. Another straight section to the mud pit in the creek. Two words: it sucked. After that was back to the gravel hill.

I was able to move up to 18th after two laps, which some guy yelled at me. I just kept pinning it to catch guys in front of me. I attacked a guy from flanders up the gravel hill on the 3rd or 4th lap and dropped him hard, he was keeping good pace and I figured it would take some work to beat him. He and a hollywood guy chased me the rest of the race, and then I caught another flanders guy who worked with them. With 20 minutes to go, they caught me. I followed wheels to the gnarly run up. I sprinted past all of them with Hwood on my wheel. We dropped one of the flanders guys. Next lap same thing, I had a huge gap. I pegged it for the next ten minutes. At the end of the last lap they eased up to battle it out between themselves so I was able to finish without dying. Having these guys chase me for 40 minutes just hurt. I don't think I've hurt that bad in awhile. It was an awesome course and official Matt Anderson did some great announcing. I talked to him after the race about some license issues. Sounds like I'll be working for T-Pod and Grandmaster and any other Rassy Roadies next year if I do much of that.....

I at worst finished 18th and at best 13th. Probably 15 or 16. We'll see when I get results, I left before they were posted at the race.

Jake finished 9th which was a good showing.

It's 9:30 in the PM and I'm friggin tired, this race really hurt me today. Tomorrow will be an easy offroad recovery ride with Jakob to check out my planned course for a 'cross race I hope to put on next fall...but there's a lot of red tape to go through at Carleton (though most of it is understandable for ecological issues).

Hurting on the Run Up

Hurting run Up
Originally uploaded by noonans.

This is a picture from the last couple laps, I think. I pushed myself so hard up that run up that I thought I was gonna fall over. Jumping back on was hard. I found out after the race that Doug Swanson and others were riding it after the barriers. I should have tried that in the practice laps, I think I would've been a lot better doing that.

Ranger School

Ranger School
Originally uploaded by noonans.

I sent these pictures to my dad and he said this looked just like U.S. Army Ranger school. Yeah, I'd think about it if the U.S. wasn't blowing stuff up in other countries without a legitimate reason.

This was the mud pit in the race, my slowest part. I much prefer riding mud than running it.

Crit Champion, new wheels, State Champs

Last night was the criterium hosted by Olaf. There were 15 people racing, not 50 as claimed. I dunno what happened there. It was a hard course. When I reconned I kept blowing my chain off climbing out of the saddle. I tightened up the rear wheel some more and sat while climbing. I took the first part of the climb conservative cause I didn't need to blow my chain. Brandon and Jake had a gap at that point, maybe 5 seconds. I drilled it hard up the next part of the climb, which isn't very steep, but still hurts. Grabbed their wheels by the top and then made an attack right before th descent. I got stuck behind a car and Brandon made a good pass and counter, but Jake was nowhere to be seen. I drilled it after Brandon, catching him right before the terrible run up. My running training had me prepared for this as I had 3 or 4 seconds on him by the end of the run up. Mack Daddy was there watching, and followed me through the rest of the lap. I drilled it hard up the little climb and bombed the descent, as I cut across the sidewalk to make the 145 degree turn MD was on my inside, and unfortunately hit the breaks hard and went over the bars. I didn't stop, cause I knew I was gonna get closed on this climb again, by the time I got to the first part Jake was about a second back. I drilled it and left him behind. Came across the line solo with about 15 seconds on Jake. It was a good race, I need to trade bikes with Jake to switch the race up a little, that bike couldn't descend for shit. So this is 2 for 2 in campus crits. Maybe if Brian and friends get their act together i can go to Iowa city and lay it down, my rear disc is back in action.

Quote of the Day: "But I'm Mack Daddy McCrea, I won't be down for long."
(After explaining his injuries from last night)

Today I went out with the northfield guys with Jake, Finn and Steph from Olaf. We teamed up to make sure we won all the hill sprints and town lines. The rest of the ride we went easy cause we're racing tomorrow. After that Jake and I went over to Ben's Shop.

Ben's letting me borrow some sweet new wheels:
U.S. Postal Issue Bontrager Raxe X lite Tubulars. We got some yellow Tufos on them, i wish Maxxis made tubular tires because I am going to miss the Locust CX tires, they are sweet. The wheels make my bike 1.5 pounds lighter! I played around with the air pressure tonight for a short ride. Started with 32-33 psi in each tire. That felt way too squishy in the rear over fast stuff so I upped that to 43-44 psi. I'm much happier with that, so I will probably run that tomorrow. Maybe a little more pressure in the front if it's not muddy. I also put on a single salsa 42 tooth ring and n-gear chain stop. Much nicer than having to shift in the front.

Tomorrow's the Minisoda State 'Cross champs. I've experimented with peaking for this race, we'll see how it goes. No bunnyhopping on these wheels unfortunately. All the crazies will be out seeing that it's in Miniapplepuss and Cars-R-Coffins and one on one are sponsors.

Crit'Rum Tonight!

Crit'Rum Tonight!
Originally uploaded by noonans.

So Finn from Olaf is hosting this week's criterium. (that would be insane if we could make this a weekly thing). This route is gonna be crazy. It runs clockwise, starting on the right of the map. That first section up to building 32 is a steep climb ong a really crappy road. Then you fly down towards their athletic building, loop around the parking lot. soon after that is the run-up (denoted by a dotted line) that thing is twice as long as the hill at union park, and about as long as the one at buck hill. Whoever gets up this hill the fastest will win. Also, instead of going down that road where it overlaps, you'll be making that tight turn at the bottom of a 35 mph hill (on a racing bike).

Then it's back to my house for the after-party.

Then I've prescribed myself lots of rest in preparation for the state champs on sunday.

There's a ton going on around Duh Moines this weekend: Donny's 'race' at SC saturday morning, the IORCA banquet saturday night, squirrel and friend's sycamore ride 8am sunday (friggin early), the 'cross race in Newton. Sorry I can't make it to any of this.

Leaves taste good!

If you don't get the joke check the comments on Alfred's blog.

So I went over to Olaf tonight for dinner cause Jake said they were gonna have sushi. He got me a free meal ticket as a "prospective student" haha. I'd never transfer to that dirty school. All the girls are either too religious or married (wtf, mate?). Anyway. there was NO SUSHI!!! What is that? So I ate a lot of spinach cause leaves taste good. Not only were they missing sushi, there was karaoke. I couldn't even hear Jakob, Finn, Brandon, and drunk Bria talk the stupid karaoke was so loud. Then Jake and got his game on with some girl....yeahhh!
Sound off if you're an Ole and read this blog.

The ride today was pretty crazy. Jeff's right, It's like trans-iowa weather, but much warmer. Jake and I went straight into the wind. I did a couple of 15 minutes intervals, but Jake was hurting so he sat on. I hope he's in form for sunday. Eric Thompson's sister is coming with us to the race apparently. Anyway, we were lucky to be going 18, there were a lot of times we were going 14 and it was flat. not even a false-flat. Then we sailed back, they repaved country road 86 or whatever it is, so we were flying! It was nice to be going 25-27 on flat with an HR of 125-130. It started to get cold, so we got back pretty quick. Good 1.5 hours of riding.

time to go to work and start a paper.