Not sure if I posted this up here or not but don't forget tomorrow Wednesday May 30^th (5/30/2012) at 6:30pm at the Battle Creek Rec Center info meeting open to all who have interest! potential riders, parents of potential riders or people interested in helping get it started!

If not here is the original post:

There is a group forming a high school cross country mountain bike racing team to compete in the new MN High School Cycling League. http://www.minnesotamtb.org/
Which is governed by NICA the National Interscholastic Cycling Association. http://www.nationalmtb.org/
It will be a composite team with athletes from multiple schools, open to girls and boys, grades 9(as of next school year)-12, in the East Metro Area. For example we have interest from schools such as St. Paul Highland, St. Paul Central, St. Paul Como, Still Water, Woodbury, St. Paul North, Tartan and Eastridge but anyone from that general area is more than welcome to come over stop in and check us out.
We're having an informational meeting next week at the Battle Creek Rec Center on Wednesday May 30^th (5/30/2012) at 6:30pm. We will have information about the league and the team as well as signup sheets. Bring your bike if you like we will have an informal group ride after the meeting.

How To get there:
Address: 2076 Upper Afton Rd E, Saint Paul, MN 55119
And the rec centers phone if you want better directions: (651) 501-6347

Please help to spread the word.

Please feel free to contact the team at eastmetromtb@gmail.com
Or check us out on the internet at:
http://eastmetromtb.wordpress.com/
or we are one facebook at :
https://www.facebook.com/EastMetroHsMountainBikeTeam
Thanks

East Metro HS MTB Team

Memorial Day Weekend

A moment of silence for all of our fallen.

Ok I hope you all had a great weekend. It was kind of a bust for me. This rain is getting extremely old. I really wanted to be in great shape and have my mtb ninja sward super sharp and polished but its more like blunt and slightly dangerous. I hope it goes well. I'm sure I will be fine. I will just have to remember that I need to ride with in my limits, this years early season limits! I know I will have a blast, even if I only shred the easiest trails! I'm so jacked just to not have to work for 10 days and get to be in the mountains hiking, rafting, kayaking, zip lining and mountain biking! I can't think of a better honey moon and the best part is that I didn't suggest it! Kelly did! What an amazing woman! It actually took me back a bit and I thought she was messing with me when she suggested it. Since originally we had decided to go on a cruise. Glad she changed her mind!

Well what have I done this weekend, if I haven't rode my bike? Well not too much. Saturday I just hung out inside with Kelly and Jerry and tried to get out to get Jerry some excessive as much as I could. Sunday I did a bunch of work at Kelly's parents. Painted the deck, did some weeding of the gardens. Smoked some awesome pork tenderloin! That was the highlight! Today, today is up in the air. Looks like all the metro trails are closed but I think the pump track will be ridable later and sounds like Red Wing is open. I guess I will let you know!

All I know this week should be awesome, fast and hectic! Only 2 days of work. Tuesday and Wednesday! and then off Thursday and Friday, Wedding Saturday-I still can't believe its this week, it might not have hit me yet- and then getting ready for the trip Sunday and off to Whistler early Monday morning!

After that, in Whistler till the next Monday, come home and off Tuesday just to relax and back to work the following Wednesday! for a 3 day week! Ha, I love it! Hopefully shortly after that a new job!

Hope you all enjoyed the weekend!

Keep it real!

Hey ya’ll how is life treating you! Well 8 days till I’m a married man and 10 till I’m in Whistler BC. Life has not slowed down one bit. I have been busy trying to help Kelly, I’m not very good at that but I do what I can. Work has been going alright. I’m still looking for a job in the cycling industry. No luck at this time.

I am officially now a registered NICA High School Mountain Bike coach and I will be the Assistant Coach for the East Metro High School Mountain Bike Team. We are just in the early stages.  We have had two informational meetings at St. Paul Highland and St. Paul Central High Schools, both went well to my understanding.  I wasn’t able to attend. We also have an upcoming general informational meeting on 5/30 at the Battle Creek Recreation Center in St Paul and probably have a group ride after if weather permits. So if you want to come, bring your bike!

Kelly’s family’s friend is in town from Germany for our wedding. She is really nice and it is kind of fun to get to practice or use, but I use that word loosely as my German is very rough these days, my German skills. Not sure if I had mentioned it yet but I have lived there twice. Once for 3 months and the second time for about 8 months, I’m a little rough but it’s coming back.

No major plans for the weekend. I will probably help Kelly’s parents with some more yard work and house maintenance. They are paying me, which is great as I’m using that money for the honey moon. What of it I don’t have to spend on bills! Other than that, I would love to get out and ride my bike but I’m not sure if the weather is going to cooperate!

If it does I’m sure there is work to be done on the bike park so I will be heading to Lexington to do some maintenance and hopefully ride a bit. I would really like to get a ride in at Lebanon, Redwing and maybe Battle Creek before I head off to Whistler I know they don’t compare but a little natural single track to get things flowing again would be nice. I have mostly only ridden dirt jumps and pump tracks this last month or so!

Speaking of Lexington the last build day went great. We now have 3 completed pump tracks and 2 of the first 4 jumps built as well as the starting ramp! Not sure when the next build day will take place but it won’t be till I get back from Whistler/honey moon!

I hope you all have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Keep it real

National Bike Month

Hey hey hey look who is posting like twice in the same decade! ok like almost in the same week. Wow I have been slacking but anyways. I have gotten out on my bike like twice in the last week as well! Holla! Both times I was rippin' at BC. The first ride, minus to the two almost major injury crashes, I was killing it! I don't know what was up but I felt dialed. I cleaned a bunch of obstacles I've never or hardly ever cleaned and I did it the first go! But there where those two crashes. One wasn't really my fault. I landed off this step up on the goat trail and my front tire sunk into a bunch of organic material and over the bars I went and my arm went between two logs. I felt it flex but thankfully just a scrap and no broken bones from that occurrence. The second crash I was slightly fatigued. So I will chalk it up that and lack of concentration. Take note young Jedi rippers, crashes happen when you are not paying attention! So focus when you are on the trail! Refer back to my post on training. Keep the rides short and sweet! So do as I say and not as I do.
Anyways, I was watching this guy in front of me or his bike actually and I was just coasting along and had my lead pedal slightly dropped and it caught a stump, that I didn't see, in the grass and sent my into and then over my handle bars. I am still paying for that. I thought I broke my rib but now I'm just sure it's really bruised! Rib vs. Stem. The stem won on this battle and it is still a little tender.
I also got a ride in yesterday as well. This one was short and sweet and I did something that I haven't done in a long, long while. I rode with clips! Yeah, I was reading leelikesbikes and he has put up like 3 or 4 post now about how much power he gained from going from clips to flats and then back to clips and I posted that up on MORC and started quite the battle on there. When the intent was to be informative to all those people trying to get better. I was not trying to start a clips vs. flats debate as IMO flats for fun and training and clips for racing. So anyways I tossed them on the bike and headed out. I will say I rode a lot more timid to begin with that is for sure. I don't know it was probably all in my head since I don't put my feet down very often anyways.
I was also riding crank bros egg beaters and I'm not sure where all this more control over the bike came from with clips. Maybe more control lifting it up and down because  you are attached but moving it side to side I have way more control with my flats and 5.10's! Just turning my hips and applying force through my feet allow me to move the back end all over the place. With clips that same movement you just pivot until you unclip! Not so keen on that. As I got more use to the clips I did notice a slight edge in climbing, but it wasn't like I was blasting a climb that I had never done before but maybe doing it a bit easier. I am going to give it another ride or two before I really pass judgement but to be honest right now I wont be riding them that much. If I decided to race XC or maybe here and there to coach some techniques to my racers. I have the SPD's on the commuter now so I can rock those and I'll leave the egg beaters in the car for when I'm feeling like something different!
Hope you all are enjoying National Bike Month, this week is national ride your bike to work week and Friday is national ride your bike to work day!

I have the commuter tuned up, I was going to ride today but I couldn't pull the trigger. Hopefully tomorrow!

Keep it real!

MTB? Blog? MTB Blog? WTF?

Yeah that is how I feel right now. I haven't had much time to do much of anything that I can remember really. I know that sounds strange, like what the heck have you been doing then? well I have been working and working and working. Then trying to help Kelly plan our wedding that is going down in 3 weeks. I am still super amp'd to shred whistler. I was really hoping to be in a heck of a lot better riding shape then I am right now but 4 rides in 2.5 months is sure in the heck not going to do that! I will hopefully get out tonight and get a shred session in and I will also try and steal some time to ride tomorrow morning and maybe Sunday morning as well. The day time is completely booked through dinner time on both of those days.

That is the story of every weekend these days. I will be ready for the wedding to be over and hopefully life will get back to normal and be a bit less stressful.

Currently just about every free minute I have is being consumed by the Lexington Street Bike park build. Being the project manager, I have tons of emails and phone calls to make and try to coordinate the city and my crew to get things done like dirt hauled in, grading done. Then trying to get over there to lead maintenance days and try and correct issues like drainage and erosion! Wow, way more involved then I thought it would be but it is very rewarding. It is getting a great response from the City of Eagan all the riders that have come out and checked it out.

The next build day is May 19th, baring anything crazy happening, like bad weather or the city not getting the 350 yards of dirt delivered in time that we need, we should be able to take a big step towards completion. The city will be providing an operator and equipment for 8hrs that day and we are hoping to have a decent crew out there running shovels.

We are hoping to have the start hill in place, the first run of jumps, the first large berm, the next jump and the next berm for sure and we will see where the dirt and time takes us. We will also complete the 3rd and final pump track that is about 80% done right now.

As for any other free time I have. I spend it with Kelly and Jerry or trying to organize a high school mountain bike team for the east metro!

I am currently working on getting my certification to be a coach. I have attended the coaching summit and training weekend and  passed the written test. The only thing really left to do is pass the Wilderness First Aid and CPR classes but those are not offered until later this summer.

We have a facebook page already. East Metro HS Mountain Bike Team. We have meetings with some possible sponsors next week as well as a couple informational meetings at a couple of the high schools in our scope. I will keep you posted on our progress. The season doesn't officially start till August but there will be weekly camps in July and races will start in September.

I hope your spring is going great! I hope this rain is done for now! I need some sanity time on my bike!

Keep it real!