Priorities...

$2,859

The cost of the Klein Attitude mountain bike that will last up to four years of fresh air and no people.

VS

$2,400

The average total cost of membership for Gold's Gym, 24 Hour Fitness, or Snow College Fitness Center for four years with no adventure whatsoever.

Mesa Verde

The Mesa Verde was a good site seeing place and the weather was really perfect. Thanks for the perfect schedule Mike and Laura. Glad you there Tony and family. I really enjoyed the visit.

Durango, Colorado Trip

The top of Animas City Mountain Trail

Animas City Mountain Trail
View of Durango after just a mile of brutal steep climbing.
The trail is very rocky.
View looking north towards Silverton and Durango Mountain Resort from the trail.
Ponderosa Pine trees covered most of the trail.

Mountain bike legend Ned Overend's autographed bike jersey in Olde Tymer's Cafe where we ate in downtown Durango.
Olde Tymer's Cafe
The only and last telegraph pole in world. It is at the train station museum, the tour guy said if any of the workers at the train station bumps into it, should not come back to work the next day.

Durango was very fun, especially the bike ride. When we got there we ate at Steamworks Restaurant, I had a good steak there. The next day we took a tour at the Train Station Musuem with a lot of working steam engines, it was really neat. Josh and Andrew really liked it. While I was on my bike ride, everybody else saw the train coming back from Silverton and watched them put it away and everything. Go to barlowbuzz.blogspot.com to check out more about it.

After we went to museum, we went to Olde Tymer's Cafe and I had a really good burger, that was my favorite place to eat. Then I went on my mountain bike ride on the Animas City Mountain Trail right outside of town. The first three miles was a very steep and rocky climb then there is a fun downhill with a lot of jumps back to the trailhead. This is the third time I have ridden the trail in my life, the first time when I was thirteen or fourteen. I did the climb to the top in 50 minutes from the trailhead which is a whole lot slower than Ned Overend, mountain bike racer legend that lives in Durango. He does it in 25 minutes(from the "Mountain Bike Like A Champion" book by Ned Overend). Now he is fast and that trail is really rocky and especially steep, no wonder why he's good. If I was 30 pounds lighter, I would probably shave off maybe 10 minutes of my time and that would really help. There is another popular trail just right outside of town but at the other side of the town from the Animas Mountain Trail is called Horse Gulch. I will have to try that next time I go to Durango. It is a lot easier and not as rocky or steep. There's also the Colorado Trail and some more trails in Durango Mountain Resort. After my ride, we ate at Mama's Boy with good Italian food but it's not my kind of Italian food, I like mom's better. Then went to bed and went to Mesa Verde the next morning.

Storage room upgrade...

I just finished the shelves on the west wall of the storage/laundry room in mom's basement so it looks pretty dandy to me. I made a space for grandma's old fridge and then there is a 32 inch space for the future new upright freezer on the left of the fridge then 16 inches left for the plastic shelf thing we have down there. Now I have to finish the east wall sometime pretty soon, when mom has more money. I will be putting three 4 foot sections for that wall. I'll be turning this basement into a very nice food storage area. I'll take more pictures of the room when I get the whole thing done and what I did to the bikes, that part is pretty interesting. Guess where the bikes are? Wait and see.

Next bike?

The Klein Attitude I have now I think it will last one more year so I kind of went shopping. I called Mad Dog Cycles and asked they were still Klein dealers and they said they don't make them anymore. That is a real bummer. Klein cycles are real nice bikes. They are strong and I love the internal cables on them. I also love the gradient aluminum on them. I called the Alberquerque Bicycle Center in New Mexico and the guy said that he didn't know but thinks there will be some Klein bikes next year. I hope so, cross your fingers. So, if I can't get a Klein bike then I will get a Trek 8500(picture above). Trek and Klein was in the same company while Klein was there with Trek then they moved to Japan. Now it's just Trek, and Klein, I don't know where the heck they went. I will need to call Trek next Monday and ask if Klein is still in business in Japan. Anyways, the reason I chose Trek as a back up is because it uses the exact same parts the Klein bikes uses, Bontrager parts. I love the Bontrager wheels, you never have to true them at all. My last two Kleins had Bontrager wheels and I never had to true them once and they are still true. I love the Bontrager carbon seatpost and handlebars. I love the Fox RL 100 fork, the same one I have right now on my Klein but it's a newer model. This Trek bike has all XT components. This is a hardtail and I want a hardtail because I love the feel of it on the climbs and is very popular for XC racers. Because it is a hardtail, it is at a reasonable price at $2,859. The only thing I don't like on this bike is that there are no internal cables like what Klein has but I sure do love the white color on it. I don't know, but I could buy this bike at the end of the season next year at a lower cost or go ahead and get the 2010 model at the retail price.

Book review...

I just read "The Mountain Biker's Training Bible" by Joe Friel. Joe Friel is a coach for endurance athletes like mountain bikers, triathletes, runners, and cyclists. This 307 page book explains a lot of aspects about training, recovery, nutrition, and racing. He specifically talks about steps on how to self-coach which helps a lot athletes like how to motivate themselves, how to ride different intensities of training, and understanding your test results. What I like the best from the book is learning how to plan your annual training plan and your weekly schedules. Weeks like race week, your peaking fitness, and recovery weeks. He also talks about your winter training like lifting weights, ride the indoor trainer, and doing winter activities. He talks about how women, veterans, juniors, novices, and new professionals should train. This book's got everything you need to know about mountain bike training. There were stuff I didn't know about and stuff I already knew about. But it sure helped me for my future training and racing. There's also the same kind of books by Joe Friel like "Triathlete's Training Bible", "Cyclists Training Bible", "Runner's Training Bible", etc. This book is a great step-by-step book on how to self coach on whatever endurance sport your on and to understand how your body works when you train.

"A good fence makes a good neighbor"