I went on a two hour bike ride today followed by a mile jog. I felt pretty good. Still a long way to go though. It felt good to get outside in the sun and get the blood pumping. So good that when I got back I decided to play bike mechanic and cut up my handlebars. On the Poprad whenever I stand to go faster I end up hitting my knees on the ends of the drops. I hardly ever use that hand position. So I cut off the bar tape, gel pads and 1.75 inches of aluminum. I made a valiant attempt to rewrap the bars afterwards, but I'll need to get one of the nice guys at the ski and bike shop to do a proper wrap job. As well as add a second layer of bar tape. Here are a few pictures of my hack job. No pun intended : )

Pre-hacked bars. I think that is blood from my knee on the bar end plug.

Bars minus tape and gel pads.

I went to the hardware store and got this sweet pipe cutter for the low price of $6.95

The cutter worked great. I cleaned up the rough edges with some emery cloth.

One of these drops is not like the other.

All done. I think they turned out pretty good. I'll have to test ride them tomorrow.

Jogging "Oop... I almost forgot. I won't be able to make it, fellas. Veronica and I trying this new fad called, uh, jogging. I believe it's 'jogging' or 'yogging.' it might be a soft j. I'm not sure but apparently you just run for an extended period of time. It's supposed to be wild." - Ron Burgundy (Anchorman) I tried jogging today as well. It went pretty good. I'm back on the road to becoming physically fit : ) Later. I also see that my check for the Chequamegon 40 got cashed today. You know what that means. We're in!

300

I went and saw the movie "300" this weekend. What a great show. One of the opening scenes is how I imagine an encounter with a wolf would be on the Arrowhead Trail. At least that's what I was thinking when I saw it. Watch out you blood thirsty canines at next year's Arrowhead 135 : ) I knew I could fit in something cycling related into this post. I highly recommend it to any movie fan. Great special effects. Great characters. And it even has a love story. Bonus : )

I've only been on a bike once since the Arrowhead race. Starting to feel out of shape. But I'm okay with that. Almost all of the snow has melted here. So I'm sure I'll get the urge to ride soon enough. I think I'll have to start training for a trip up to Winnipeg in June : ) That's all for now.

I figure it's time for a new post. I have nothing new to talk about, but I don't want to end up in Brooks' blogs of shame. I've been obsessed with trying to figure out ways to improve the Pugsley for next year's Arrowhead 135. I've got some good ideas so far. While searching MTBR for inspiration I found this picture that I thought was very post worthy. Dave Gray from Surly posted it on one of the Pugsley threads. Very cool.