Back Breaker

Tonight was a wonderful night with temps in the 80s, very little wind and after a little bit of rain, some clear skies. I got out for 2.5 hours by starting from home and heading to Whitnall Park where I started my 4x9 minute Steady State intervals. Basically it's 9 minutes at 92% and then I give myself 6 minutes of recovery and repeat. I used the Whitnall race course so that I could get some hillwork as well, even if it is a little hill. Nobody else was there and traffic was very minimal, it was almost like I owned my own little race course. After the intervals were done I rode more of the Oak Leaf Trail and then stopped temporarily to get some water and my back started to hurt terribly. I tried getting back on the bike and could barely pedal and had to ride home at like 15mph. I was riding home in my 39x23 and getting passed by rec riders left and right, I felt ashamed. I'm not sure what happened but right now I can't bend over and the left side of my back hurts pretty bad. I've had this before and it usually goes away in a day or less, it's just annoying. This time I'm hoping it's something different.....my intervals went so well and I felt really strong so I think my body is compensating. I think that my back and ribs broke themselves in order to make room for my lungs to grow, you know, like werewolf style. I've got my fingers crossed on this one, I really hope that's it. If not, I'll be really pissed. Tomorrow is another day of about 2.5 hours with 75 minutes of Tempo and I think I'll be heading out to the Vernon, Big Bend, Tichigan area and then back via Muskego, should be a good ride if it doesn't rain. Well, that's it for now, time to go to bed, I have to be up at 5:00 to be to work early. Until next time..............

Quite A Weekend

Well, after being sick from Wednesday until Friday evening I'm feeling quite a bit better now and although I still have a bit of congestion I think I'm close to 100%. I'm in far better shape than when I was laying in bed for 3 days with a fever and intense sinus headaches. Now I just have a good case of sunburn after being outside for the last couple of days (and probably overdoing it). Yesterday I rode for 4 hours with my dad to Delafield and back and although it was windy, it was still nice and warm and we had a good feast when we got back. Today a bunch of my team-mates got together in Burlington and did a bunch of laps of the State RR course and a short loop of Alpine Valley, we had a great time and had some spirited hill sprints, attacks, and stop-sign sprints. We did just over 50 miles and about 2hrs 40 minutes on the bike. We had a great feast today as well, with lots of fruit, salads, beer, brats, and burgers. Yeah, not the best food, but darn good anyways. Tonight I'm just relaxing and will probably go to bed early as it's back to work tomorrow, can't wait. At least it's a short week as it's obviously Tuesday already tomorrow and I only have to work a half day on Friday. I'll be doing lots of riding this week and will have to work around my sister-in-law's wedding this weekend to get in a couple of long rides on Saturday and Sunday as well. Well, I'll update more as the week goes on, time to eat dinner. Until next time.........

Back On The Bike

I took a few day hiatus to deal with this head infection, and I'm calling it a head infection because I still don't know if it was sinus or ear related, it seems that everything was plugged and hurt. I'm on a course of antibiotics and I've been taking Theraflu to help sleep at night and my fever has finally gone away after being 101 the last two days. I actually got in a 1.5 hour ride and felt o.k. although I almost threw up a couple of times, but my legs felt great anyways. Other than that I'm going to be doing 65 miles with my dad tomorrow out to Delafield and back, hopefully I don't get sick then. Monday will be about 3 hours with the team out at the State RR course, hopefully I'm at least 75% by then, I'd like to do the whole ride without getting dropped or getting sick, that would be a bonus. If I'm feeling 100% by Tuesday then I'll start some heavy duty training with two-a-days through the weekend and then the following week I'll start the week strong and taper down by Saturday. My most difficult rides will be next week Wednesday and Thursday and then Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday of the following week. I'll start to taper down the week of the 3rd on Wednesday and Thursday and then Friday will be an easy ride ahead of the race on Saturday. I'm really looking forward to the State RR, I'm confident I can hang with the front guys, I definitely need to lose about 5lbs. and be about 175 for the race but I think my power can carry me over the smaller hills, there aren't really any climber type hills so my weight won't be much of an issue. I've trained on those roads a million times in my previous life as a racer so the confidence is there that I can handle them with no problems. We'll see, I'm sure everyone is training like this is their last race as well, so it will be tough, and if it isn't I'll be sure to make it tough. Well, I know it's 5:30 but I'm worn out from being sick so I'm going to take a little nap before I watch some movies with the family and rest up for the ride with my dad tomorrow. Until next time.........

Down For The Count

I felt pretty good today at work and then shortly after work I started to feel really sick, I went out on my ride and got sick and came home just absolutely shivering and my wife took my temp and it's 100 right now. I feel completely miserable, not sure what is wrong, this is the worst I've felt in years. That's it for now....going to bed. 24-hour flu? I hope so. My head cold might have become an infection.

Finally

Today's race, Wheels on Willy Criterium, was one of my "A" races this year and a race I'd been looking forward to for quite a while, well....mainly since last year when I got 3rd and was so disappointed that anything less than 1st this year wouldn't make me happy. So guess what? I'm very happy! I won today's race with a bit of crafty maneuvering and a wicked sprint, who knew?? We arrived at the course at 7:45 a.m. and it was quite cold with a nice cold breeze as well and to top it off, a little bit of drizzle. Luckily by the time our race started at 9:00 the drizzle had stopped and although it was cold the pace of the race warmed us up pretty quickly. I have to say that I felt pretty bad the first 5 laps or so, just dead legs from yesterday and full of snot (sorry) from my head cold. After about 20 minutes I started to feel better and moved my way to the front and tried to stay in the top 15 the rest of the way but it was pretty tough. Finally with 2 laps to go I went to the front and stayed in about the top 10 and as we came around for the final lap I knew that I wanted to be the first one or two guys through the turns in the last lap. I moved up and after the 2nd turn I jumped on the left side and went to the first position through the 3rd turn and was really pushing it with my head down. My initial thought was "great, now I'm leading everybody out for the sprint, that was stupid"....but I still kept flying as fast as I could and made the 4th turn at full speed and stood up to sprint and had no problem holding off the pack for the win. It felt great to win today because it was a race that I picked out at the beginning of the year and really tried to focus on and it turned out exactly as I had hoped. The rest of the guys did great as well today and Glen continued his streak of top 10s with another one today (2 is a streak right?). Andy, Chris, and Bob also had good days and were very active throughout the race, it was a good job by all. Our group is a great bunch of guys and I'm so glad that we still have quite a few races to do yet this year, this is a lot of fun.
As far as the next races go, the next one is a big one, the State Road Race Championship in my hometown of Burlington. I'm a little disappointed that they don't have a separate Masters 4/5 race so I have to race with the young guys and hope for the best. In the old days I used to be able to do big ring sprints up the big hill, unfortunately I can't anymore but my climbing is o.k. so I might be able to hang with them for just long enough to sprint it out up the hill that I know quite well. Anyways, the next few weeks are going to bring some solid training and I'll be concentrating mainly on getting in some miles and hill work. I'll ramp up the duration of my intervals as well and try to get in some more power work so that I can fly up those hills. Well, time to go relax on the recliner and chill out until dinner, no housework for me today after a long weekend. Until next time.........

Not Too Bad I Guess

Well, it was a tough course today, and considering that I'd had a head cold and sore throat all week I didn't expect to do much today and would've been happy just finishing in the top 40 (there was only 50 in the race). Surprisingly I felt pretty good and actually ended up 10th today on a pretty brutal course and I'm quite happy to take that result. We lined up under beautiful skies and I can't say that I was feeling good or bad as we rolled about 2 miles to the big hill but as soon as we started going up I decided to pace myself and not try to stay with the few guys that were taking off and it was definitely the smart thing to do. I managed to get in a group of about five for the first lap as there was a group of 10 that formed at the front and we were the second chasing group. On the 2nd time up the hill I could see the front pack and it appeared that we would catch them before the start of the 3rd lap and we almost did but ultimately we caught them right after the start/finish and of course it was right before the big hill. I realized everyone wasn't there when we made the catch and I was right in that there was 6 guys off the front and we had caught the remaining 4 guys. I think we were with them for about 2 minutes before I got dropped on the hill again but this time I managed to come to the top with only the front 6 and 3 out of the 4 from the second group in front of me. I tried to catch the group of 3 but it was just too hard by myself and I dangled about 200 yards behind them for the entire 3rd lap. Eventually when we hit the headwind in the finishing straight they pulled away a little bit but I managed to hold off any chasers and finished 10th all by myself. We had Dave Sapiro in the front group and he managed a 4th place, we had Glen Stroik in the 2nd group and he managed 7th so Team Wheaton got 3 guys in the top 10 today, not too shabby at all.
I've done all I can tonight to recover I think and I'm ready for tomorrow to race at Wheels on Willy, it's supposed to be quite a bit cooler and maybe a chance of rain for our 9:00a.m. start. I just read the flyer and noticed that they changed the course this year, I didn't know that before now, that course has been unchanged for a very long time now, I'm a little disappointed that they changed it. This is the first time in like 15 years that it has been changed I think, so we'll see how this one compares to the old one. Either way I'm ready to rock and roll tomorrow, can't wait. Until next time.........

Double Trouble

This weekend will be double the fun with two races, one each on Saturday and Sunday. First up is a road race in Denzler that features a one and a quarter mile climb that gains 700ft. of elevation. It's definitely a good size climb for Wisco and I'm not sure I'm really suited for that, but what the heck, anything can happen and maybe I'll have my climbing legs on tomorrow. I've got some major head congestion right now in the sinuses and ears but the lungs are clear and the legs have been feeling good this week. I did a half-mile climb by my house last night and went up it with a new PR so I know I'm feeling good right now. Of course I should go up it faster this year than last year since it was my first year back, but I could have kept going for quite a bit longer at the pace I was going so mentally that makes me pretty confident. Anyways, Sunday is one of my favorite races and a race that I've circled on my calendar this year as an "A" race. Wheels on Willy is a nice crit course that is fairly fast and is well suited to break away attempts and I tried one last year and ended up getting 3rd after I couldn't hold off the pack in the sprint. This year I'm feeling a lot better about my chances and I'm really looking forward to that one, it's also a good money race, so winning would definitely help pay for some of the trip expenses, at least a half a tank of gas. All in all the training has been going fairly well but not great this week but I'm feeling strong going in to the weekend. The weather looks great for tomorrow, not so good for Sunday but if it rains for the crit then all the better as I think my experience and handling skills will help me out in that one. After this weekend we don't have any races for a couple of weeks so it will be two solid weeks of long and hard riding and then a bit of a taper for the State RR, I'm really looking forward to that one as well. Well, back to work, until next time.....

Life Is A Full Time Job

Well, it's been a few days since my last post so I'll update on what's been going on around the Carlson household. Sunday was a busy day as the family headed down to Burlington for Mother's Day, but my plan of riding from Burlington to Alpine Valley and Johnson Rd. didn't quite turn out as planned. My wife had to go to her grandmother's in the afternoon so we had to high-tail it out of Burlington earlier than I was hoping to be back in New Berlin for an early dinner. Unfortunately it just obviously didn't work to stay out there for a nice 4 hour ride so I ended up coming home and then riding for 2.5 hours in the evening. Not quite what I intended as I really wanted to get in the hillwork for the upcoming Leland race and the State RR. It was Mother's Day though and obviously that's pretty important so I had to make a sacrifice. I'm learning that's it's quite different being a 30-something husband and father than when I was a young 20-something racer and could just do what I wanted, there's definitely a lot more to life now. Working full-time, having a family, owning a house is a lot of work, the things we get to do for our own sanity, like cycling, sometimes get pushed to the side. So far we are making it work, although I would always love to be able to ride more than I do now, but what can I do, priorities first. So anyways, I did ride Sunday, and normally Monday is a rest day for me but it was nice and hot out and I didn't ride as long as I wanted Sunday so I rode yesterday as well and I'm glad I did because my muscles felt really tight, especially my back and hamstrings and it felt good to stretch them out ahead of the harder workouts today and tomorrow. Today will be iffy for an outside ride as it's raining and I'm not sure if it's going to let up or not by the time I get home, the forecast says definitely not, but the weathermen have been wrong before. If it's only drizzling or it's done raining, then I'll obviously ride outside, otherwise it will be about 2 hours on the trainer, about 75 minutes of Tempo work. Tomorrow I'll be doing hill repeats on the longest hills I can find by my house and I do have a few picked out so I'll be doing that until the sun sets to get ready for the agony of Saturday's race. Thursday will be a moderate paced ride and Friday will be a short pre-race ride with a couple of power intervals to open up the legs. Saturday I'll be going up to Denzler for the road race, which is 3 loops of an 11 mile course and it has a one mile long 700ft. climb so I'll see if I can get my 180lb butt up that hill 3 times in the lead group, let's hope so. Sunday is one of my favorite races of the year, Wheels on Willy St., and that is one of my "A" races this year, anything less than top 3 would be a disappointment. The unfortunate part of this weekend is that I have to drive both days as my plans of staying overnight in Madison were nixed because I forgot my wife will be gone Saturday morning until Sunday morning for her sister's bachelorette party celebration. That leaves me with the kid and the dog and the kid has a Boy Scout trip on Saturday evening so I have to be home for that and to take care of the dog overnight. I tried to figure out a way to make it all work but finding someone to watch the dog is hard to do and our son is 13 which isn't quite old enough to leave home alone overnight. Basically it's just a few extra hours of driving and a couple tanks of gas, but hopefully I will win some cash to off set some of that expense. Anyways, I'm looking forward to a good week of training and we'll see how it all pays off this weekend. Hopefully all this work I've been doing all Spring will actually get me some results. Until next time.....


Here is a profile of Saturday's road race

Kinda, Sorta, Somewhat Happy

6th place today, obviously could've been better, but considering that I don't really have a sprint yet I was happy with 6th in a bunch sprint.....well, what was left of the bunch after a crash before the finishing straight. I'm heading out tonight to a cook out and will be eating some filet and drinking lots of cold ones....that would be beer. Tomorrow I'm off to Burlington in the morning for Mother's Day and then since I'm out there I'll be taking advantage of my mom's proximity to the State RR course and will do about 2 hours worth of riding on that and then about 2 hours of riding around Alpine Valley. I need a good week of training ahead of the double race weekend coming up. Well, off to eat, more details on the race and tomorrow's training sometime tomorrow evening. Until next time......

What A Wanker!

......That's what another rider must've thought last night as I was riding around the Muskego race course doing my intervals. Why would he think that you ask? Well, I was doing my normal course of intervals around the loop and was near the end of a rest period when another racer showed up and started doing loops around the course. At the time I was obviously riding at a normal pace for my recovery when he came cruising around me and he probably thought I was just a casual rider because I was going no more than 17mph. I'm sure I didn't look like a casual rider as would have been evident from the slobber all over my mouth and the completely dazed look on my face from killing myself for the last 10 minutes, but nonetheless he probably thought so as he passed me. I'm sure he probably said to himself, "get out of my way fred" as he passed me. Well, of course as luck would have it he passed me with only about 15 seconds left in my recovery so I even thought to myself, "great, now when I start my interval and pass him it's going to look like I chased him down and tried to go fast only because he passed me". I even thought to yell something like "I'm not a putz chasing you down, I'm just doing intervals! Really!", but of course I didn't say a word as I wound it up and passed him within a quarter of a lap. So as I passed him, I could see out of the corner of my eye that he gave me that look that said, "what a dick!". I kept going but I could tell that he sped up to keep pace with me as I was able to see his shadow dangling about 5 foot off my rear wheel. He was staying close behind me and after 9 minutes I was coming around the course and I calculated I would finish my interval right before the finishing hill. I thought it would be a good idea to see how fast I could sprint up that hill after a hard interval so when we came around to the hill I sprinted and promptly blew him away but just as quickly shifted down to my small ring and started my recovery as my interval was now finished. He caught up and quickly flew by me and I thought I saw a smile that said, "ha, what a wanker, he blew up". Again I wanted to say " I didn't blow, that was the end of my interval! Really!"....but of course I said nothing. I soft pedaled around for one more lap and saw him stopped at one of the bubblers getting water, so I knew he was probably relieved as well that I had stopped my interval. I guess what's funniest out of all of this is that neither one of us said a thing to each other the whole time...not when he passed me initially, or when I passed him back, or when I stopped my interval and he went by again. There was definitely that tension of being on the race course, doing race-specific training, and focusing on the workout that neither of us seemed to be in the mood to be friendly. He probably didn't say anything because he thought I was just an ass for being passed and then blowing by him, and I didn't say anything because I was feeling like an ass and then was in interval mode. We didn't say any words but I'm sure the mental exchange went something like this:

Me: (recovering 15 more seconds) " " (um, yeah, brain was off)
Him: (passing the fred) "Move it or lose it chump"
Me (now fred): "great, now I'll look like I'm trying to go fast because he passed me"
Him: (getting passed by fred) "What a dick, why is he passing me now?"
Me: (92% HR and flying) "This sucks"
Him: "I'll just stay on fred's wheel and he'll be blown in 30 seconds"
Him: (after 3 minutes) "shit, why isn't he slowing down"
Me: (92% HR and flying) "This sucks"
Him: (after 7 minutes) "momma, is that you?" "hi mr. penguin"
Me: "Only 2 more minutes, gonna sprint up the hill, yeahhhh"
Him: (watching me sprint up hill) "sweet jesus, can't....hold..on...any longer"
Me: "sweet, interval complete" (drop to little ring and soft pedal)
Him: "huh, wha...he's slowing, cool....I was just about to pass him anyways...."

At least that's how it went in my head.....anyways, 2 hours on the bike, with 60 minutes at the race course, felt great and I'm ready to rock on Saturday. Until next time......

Fueling The Fire

Sunday was a great day on the bike..... no HR monitor, no bike computer, just 4 hours of riding from Burlington to Lake Geneva, once around the lake, back to Burlington, over to the State RR course and a few times up Johnson Rd., and then back to Burlington. Not sure what my average speed was, no record of my average HR, and I have to say it felt good to just ride. Yesterday I did a little hour easy ride and then grilled out with my family and sat on the deck and enjoyed the wonderful evening. It wasn't exactly the best dinner for today's ride as it was all protein and/or fat and I know protein is good for time-release energy so those 3 brats I ate are providing me energy right now I think. Either that or they are just turning to fat as I sit in my cubicle for 9 hours, oh well. Maybe the 2 beers I had will help offset that and provide me the carbs I need, somehow I doubt it, but again, oh well. I did eat good today so I'm hoping I'm properly fueled up for my ride tonight. I'm going to hit the bike right after work and will ride until the sun sets, hopefully about 2 to 2.25 hours or until I get bored riding around the block eeking out the last bit of daylight before I can't see any more. Tomorrow will be intervals again around Muskego Park barring any rain, which would relegate me to the trainer in the basement. Hopefully I don't feel quite as bad as I felt last Wednesday when I really struggled up that little, steep double-step hill. It doesn't look like much but after about 10 times around it at 92% max it starts to hurt big time. I'm feeling better this week than I did last week and I think I'm almost 100% recovered from my cold or whatever I had. Physically and mentally I feel way better than when I was at my worst on Saturday. Hopefully that continues through the weekend and I have a good showing at the race. Well, that's all for now, until next time.....

Not Racing Today

So this is just not my week as I'm not racing today in Neenah. I rode Wednesday at the Muskego Park course for next weekend's race and it was a cold day and my legs didn't have it. I felt o.k. but not great Thursday and was going to ride but my son ended up having some school stuff come up that I didn't know about and my wife was gone at clinicals so I had to drive him around and couldn't leave because I wasn't sure what time he had to be picked up. Friday was my wife's birthday and we had friends over for a surprise party and that lasted well in to the evening so I didn't ride then. Yesterday I woke up feeling horrible and just did some stuff around the house and couldn't bring myself to ride in the cloudy, 50 degree weather. With plugged ears, sore throat, and continued body aches I just was not up to being cold and suffering some more. I'm not sure if I'm just fatigued or what is the issue, but I've been really tired lately, just basically sleeping all the time. I'm normally a night person and stay up until 11:30ish on weeknights but this past week I've been going to bed any where from 9:00 to 9:30. It's been a stressful week at work and this next week will be as well so I think that is part of what is wearing me out. So anyways, it's been 3 days off the bike and with just not feeling well I decided it's best to skip today's race, I just didn't think my body was ready. I was sick last week before Whitnall and I knew my body wasn't ready and sure enough I had my worst race of the year. Well, knowing that, I wasn't going to go up to Neenah and waste half a day to finish in the middle of the pack knowing that I'm not feeling good again. I'm feeling a little better today so I think it's best just to get back to basics and use today as a training day to get my legs under me again. I'll get more benefit out of going for a long ride than to race for 45 minutes, so I'll be doing that today. It's windy as hell though, 30-35 mph winds but I wasn't looking at going fast anyways, so if I'm only cruising along at 15mph, oh well. I'd like to get about 4 to 5 hours in today, just to get that endurance back and with the winds 5 hours may only end up being 85 miles, but I'll take it. My longest ride in the last 2 weeks has been only 55 miles I think, maybe 3 hours. Once I get in that long ride today I'll feel better about training this week although the weather looks like crap with rain Tuesday and Wednesday so I'm sure I'll be on the trainer at least a couple of times. I really want to do well the next 3 races so today is where it begins I think, maybe the 3 days off was good mentally and physically and I'll start new today. Who knows.....it's been a struggle the last 2 weeks to really get the training going with the family stuff, work, and not feeling the best. I guess that's it for now, until next time.......

As Good As It Gets

Last night was just absolutely gorgeous, the weather was perfect for riding and I couldn't have had a better ride, too bad sunset seemed to come so quickly. I got out right after getting home from work and was on the road by 5:45 and heading towards Mukwonago in a big loop, hopeful to get in the whole ride by the time the sun went away. I warmed up for all of 5 minutes and then jumped right in to my Tempo workout which I ended up doing for 120 minutes instead of 90 because I felt so good. Basically it was smooth sailing and I had my HR at 164-167 for 2 hours and after including my warm up and cool down, my average HR for the 2hr15min ride was 162. I felt like I was in my own little world on this ride, barely breathing, light on the pedals and just really focused. All in all, with the weather and the way I felt, it's days like last night that really make this all seem worth while. It was just an enjoyable ride, it didn't even seem like training. Tonight is intervals at Muskego Park ahead of the race in two weeks, should be another nice night as far as weather and hopefully I feel as well as I did last night.
Other than that, I've got another new hobby that I picked up about 3 weeks ago and that is keeping me busy as well. I bought an electric guitar, a Fender Stratocaster, and have been practicing up on that at night to keep me busy. Between cycling and practicing, I barely have time to work on the house....oh well, priorities first! Until next time........

Still In First?? Weird.......

Yes, I'm still in first in the WI Cup point series, albeit tied now with another rider and we have 2 riders tied at 20 points behind us. I looked over the results of the Whitnall race and I actually did get WI Cup points because there were a few Illinois riders in front of me at the finish and so obviously the points go to the next eligible Wisco rider. Needless to say I was still surprised to see I was in the lead on Monday but it will be short lived as I'm only going to do one of the two races this weekend. I've decided for sure that I'm skipping the Sauk City race on Saturday and will only do the Neenah race on Sunday and then I will concentrate on the Muskego race next weekend and the double the following weekend with Sauk City #2 and Wheels on Willy. There is just too much going on around the house for me this week and I've got a lot to get done and my wife's birthday is Friday and I'd like to spend some time with her. Unfortunately I know I'll lose my points lead Saturday but I figured I would go 100% at Neenah on Sunday and will hopefully take advantage of the others that raced Saturday and have tired legs. Maybe I'll still come out of the weekend with the lead. I will then concentrate on making a good effort at Muskego and then I want to blow the competition wide open the double weekend of Sauk #2 and Wheels on Willy. I'm planning on that weekend being a bit of a peak weekend for me but we'll see as it's still early. I feel that my fitness will be pretty high for the next few weekends as I was almost under a forced rest this past week with my cold so I think that it might have actually helped give my body the rest it needed. I will really amp it up this week and it starts with a couple hour ride tonight where I'll do about 90 minutes of Tempo during my ride and then I'll finish off another hour on the trainer for 3 hours total. Tomorrow I'm going to the Muskego course and will be doing OverUnder Intervals on the race course for an hour and including the ride to and from the course I should get in 2.5 pretty hard hours tomorrow. Thursday will be an endurance pace ride of 2.5 hours and then Friday will be only a 1 hour recovery ride in the morning before work as I'll be busy Friday night. Saturday I'll be doing all my junk around the house that I need to get done but I'll make time for about a 2-3 hour ride and I really have to clean my bike as well so I'll do that Saturday.
If there is one thing that cycling does for me is that it definitely helps relieve stress as it's been a very hectic last couple of days at work and at home and I'm really looking forward to getting out on the road and just forgetting about all of it. If I wasn't cycling I might just go home and drink about 5 beers tonight...I may just do that anyways. Last night I got to go to the Brewers game, that was definitely a great time and I had a couple of beers there, so that is probably my allotment for the week. Well, back to work to finish up a few things and then it's off to ride.....until next time.....