Who's faster? A roadie or a mountain biker?

A while ago, they did a test of who is a faster rider, a road biker or a mountain biker. They chose Andy Schleck(last year's second place Tour de France winner), and Burry Stander(mountain bike under 23 world champion). The course was in a ski resort in Spain. A 7.4 mile pavement climb and a 5.5 mile singletrack climb(steeper). The riders would race each course individually and their elasped times up both of the climbs would be added together. The rider with the lowest elasped time would be the winner. They each had their own Specialized mountain and road bikes. Weather conditions were less than ideal, with high winds, cold temps and sporadic rainstorms.
The winner was the mountain biker. Burry Stander's 36:29.8 road stage time was less than a minute shy of Andy Schleck's winning time of 35:47.8. Burry powered up the off-road climb in 36:39, distancing Andy by almost ten minutes. Andy said he had more fun on the mountain bike than on the road and is planning to get a mountain bike of his own.
So, on paper, mountain bikers are in better shape than roadies, in my own opinion, when I am training on the hilly trails, it is higher in intensity and I can get in better shape than I could on the road. On the mountain trails, the pulse is high and you have to use technique to get up.

Surviving through the winter!

Winter is the hardest time of the year for my cycling training, especially during the holidays because #1 you can't ride, #2 too much food, and #3 you can't ride! So, it's the cruelest season for a cyclist. To survive it, it's time to spend time to do some cross-training and preparation. Cross-training provides a break from riding a bike while building cardiovascular fitness. Such as hiking, running, xc skiing, snowshoeing, swim, and weights. I always definitely do weight lifting but I should include an aerobic exercise. Strength training means greater endurance by strengthening slow-twitch muscles which may raise the lactate threshold. Also injury prevention is another reason. For a mountain biker, function, not form, is the goal so I do high repetitions with low weight. I especially do the legs by doing squats, step ups, and hamstring curls then do upper body workouts like lateral pulldown, standing row, seated row, and bench presses. Core workouts is a must for a cyclist because that's where you get most of your strength on pedaling a bike. Every year I start lifting weights in November by using really light weight for a month then December and January is reserved for heavier loads. I like to lift for the whole body workout twice a week then ride the indoor trainer once a week and xc ski on the weekend. On the indoor stationary trainer, I really ride because you can't really get as a good workout as you get outside on a real ride. So, I go hard that I constantly sweat hard like sweat pooring like Lance Armstrong climbing on the L'alpe De Huez climb in the Tour de France. To go that hard, I can get my heart rate up to 75-85% of max. During the weekend xc skiing is a lot of fun to get me some aerobic exercise(about 80-85% of max). I try to save all the anerobic exercise(90-95% of max) for the racing season. I spent the last two weeks xc skiing like 4 times a week and took a break from weight lifting. Then in January, I get back on weights for another month, then I will be ready to ride outside on the bike to train for the races in spring.
My winter training: Monday: weights

Tuesday: off

Wednesday: indoor cycling

Thursday: weights

Friday: off

Saturday: xc skiing

Sunday: off

Timberhawk's first modular home!

We have built this house all in the shop. They wanted us to build it in 3 weeks but with all the figuring out and the first time doing it, it took 5 weeks. 5 weeks to do all the framing, electrical, plumbing, sheetrock, painting, cabinet assembly, siding, etc. It's not too bad I thought. We built this home in 3 sections and panelized the garage and shipped all of it to Nephi in one day, also assemblying it on the same day. Then we did the roof and touch up stuff in 2 weeks. Like all the plumbing and electrical connections, siding and sheetrock finishing, carpet, etc. It's not too bad of a house, since it's so small, it is a good starter home at a total of $160 grand. See the timber truss and posts for the porch? I did all that in the shop myself. Of course I am the timber truss guy for the business, it's not my first one, this is like my 12th one since I worked there. Not bad, eh?

Torker U-District commuter bike "Duke Bike"

I need an inexpensive bike to get around places around here. First of all, I need just a "regular bike" to get Duke around. To go on a short ride and let Duke run. I usually take him on Witches Knoll on the very south side of town where there are only about 4 houses on the road and it is a mile stretch paved road. Duke loves to run out there. He'll only run when I am riding a bike though. This is also a good bike to go down the store and get something while you are not worrying about your $3,000 bike outside of the store. This bike should be around $350. It is a singlespeed and by golly, it's maintenance free! And for me, just to bike bum around town in the sunsets sounds pretty nice on it though. This bike was only designed for student commuting but it can be used for many things especially for the town. I can use my expensive mountain bike only for the mountains and expensive road bike for the highway. Good deal.

Day of flying...

Justin's airplane

City of Ephraim

Ephraim Canyon

Above Manti looking at Gunnison Resevoir

City of Ephraim

Manti Canyon

Maple Canyon v

My boss took me flying above all over Sanpete County today. I never flew in a small plane before and I thought it wasn't as scary as a big jet airplane. We flew all over the place for 2 hours and I found it very enjoyable. We looked all over and had a lot of fun. Justin used to fly for Jet Blue for 2 years before working at Timberhawk so he bought a little plane for himself. It was an awesome day at work!

New sport!

Dusted off my XC skis, put on new shoe laces on my XC ski boots which I took off years ago, then went up to Fairview Skyline Drive to try it out again. I have to admit it, if doing it right, it's a little funner than snowshoeing. I only tried it once or twice when I bought my XC skis and boots with some my financial aid money during college. I decided not to do it anymore because of my injured knee so I put them in a closet. In the past week I kind of got interested in it again and did some research on how to do it by looking at it on the internet. Today I went up Fairview at the very top which had barely enough snow on a dirt road, about less than 6 inches. I went on the road because it didn't have steep slopes and it mostly had gradually rolling hills which I thought would be perfect for XC skiing. It was fun and good exercise! I could feel the burning in my legs and my heart pumping, it felt good. This would be a good sport to stay in shape in the winter time other than snowshoeing. I was looking for an aerobic sport to do out in the cold every Saturday to get some aerobic exercise during the winter. To get ready for the bike season next spring, I usually lift weights during the weekdays twice a week then do some aer0bic exercise outside every weekend when it's not dark because it's always dark right after work every day. So weight lifting is a good strength exercise to during during the weekdays while riding a stationary trainer bike also. Then get some fresh air in the mountains every Saturday on XC skis or snowshoes. This will be a good sport for me this winter. Downhill skiing at resorts are getting too expensive! Cross country skiing is like snowshoeing and downhill skiing together. If you want to see me on a weekend in the middle of the winter, I'll be XC skiing at Fairview Skyline. To my brothers and sisters, I won't be seeing you at your house during the holidays, I'd rather be skiing!

New bike!

I just went to Provo tonight and put a down payment on this 2010 Gary Fisher Superfly 29er. I won't get it until January or February but that's ok, there's snow now and it's ridiculously cold. I was going to go put a down payment on a Trek Elite 9.8(26 inch wheels), after I wrote the check, I asked them if I could ride one of their bikes to make sure it's the right size. At first I rode a Trek with 26 inch wheels with a 18.5 inch frame, it felt too small. Then the only 19.5 inch frame they had was the 2009 Gary Fisher Paragon which had 29 inch wheels. I rode it around the parking lot and the first thing I noticed about the bike that it had so much more control and stability. It did fit true to size to my body because of the bigger wheels? I don't know. But it did feel a lot nicer and I could understand why most people like the bigger wheels. I told the guy that I really liked the bike and he told me that about everyone in the race team has the Paragon or the Superfly. I thought about it for a while and I was having a hard time deciding. He was talking into me of getting one because of the advantages. Of course it was like $250 more than Trek Elite 9.8, so I went for it. I can't wait to try out the big wheels on the trails next spring and the races. Also the frame and crankset are both made out of carbon fiber, that is like a big bonus.