X-Mas

Well another x-mas is here and gone. This was our first x-mas in Eugene and it was pretty good. Zach is starting to understand what a present is and that makes it a lot more enjoyable for us. He opened almost all his presents this year which was fun. I can't wait till next x-mas when he is really talking and will truly understand what Christmas is. Zach is really starting to talk, he said 2 words together last night which is a first so we are working hard on getting that going. Well the buzzer just went off so back to making dinner.

Oh, I almost forgot. We were going to go whale watching today but the seas were to rough, 15-20' waves, to see the whales so hopefully next weekend.

The end of the year

I was just going back through my results of the past year and thought I would post them. I had an awesome year. One big reason is my teammates on the MOB. I had so much fun the past couple of years racing with these guys. We raced so well together as a team and I am going to miss that. So thanks to everybody that raced the Masters races and good luck to you guys this coming season. Here are my results:
April:
Hillsboro RR- DNF
Mississinawa RR Masters 3/4- 2nd, Teammate won
Ceraland Crit Masters 3/4- 4th, Cat 3 race- DNF
Moorseville Circuit race Masters 3/4- 2nd, Teammate won
May:
Eagle Creek Master 3/4- WON Thanks guys
June:
Salem Circuit Race Cat 3- 5th
July:
Eugene Crit Cat 3- 4th
August:
Eugene Celebration Stage Race Cat 3-
Stg one RR-11th
Stg two TT- 22nd
Stg three Crit- 3rd
Stg Four RR- 22nd
22 Overall

Whats been going on

Well its a few days before x-mas and the Hill family has been a little busy. We have been in Indianapolis and Philly visiting family. That took up the fist 8 days in December, since then we have been getting back into the swing of things and get over colds. I have been sick for a month and am getting tired of it. Now back the story. Indianapolis was great, I got to see my families and they got to see Zach and Heather. We ate Thanksgiving dinner at my Moms house and it was great. I got to drink some beer with my past neighbors and see my friend Mike and Brian, so that was cool. Then it was off to Philly to see Heathers brother Matt and his wife Deb and their new baby Collin, also the rest of the Brice clan was going to be there so it was a little family reunion which was great. The coolest part of that trip was the ride on the real Thomas the Tank Engine(thanks Matt). Zach is big time in to trains right now so he was in heaven. We rode in the caboose which was pretty freaking cool. Here is the video of the train coming into the station.

Running Sucks

So after a brutal cyclocross race yesterday, in which I totally sucked, Heather wanted to run today. Oh, I forgot to mention, poor out of shape, Heather won her women's Cat A Race yesterday. That chick is a genetic freak and I hope Zach got some of it. We decided to check out the local MTB trail first to see if it was ok to ride, it was not. I am totally against people riding when it is muddy, it destroys what precious trail systems we have left. So after a little recon on that trail we decided to turn around and head to the top of Spencer Butte. It is 2.5miles up and 2.5mile back on mostly good trail until you get to within about a quarter mile of the top, then the trail ends at a boulder field. From there it is find your own way to the top. But the view was awesome. On the way up we went through a foggy section of tail, it was pretty cool, but as we got to the top we realized it was a cloud. When we came out of the fog it was totally sunny and we were looking down on the clouds. We could see the Sisters which are part of the Cascade Mountain Range. I wished I would have brought the camera, but I didn't. But I can assure you I will next time.
Scott

A Eugene Sunrise

I thought this was pretty cool the other morning. The last couple mornings we have awoke in a cloud. It is really kind of spooky. This picture was taken when the town was in the cloud. As we descended down the hill we went into it. But it was sunny at our house when we left.

Awsome Shoes

These are the new Shimano R-300 Custom Fit shoe. I got these a few weeks ago when we were in St. Louis for Heathers medical school reunion. I got them Custom fitted there but had not had a chance to ride them until yesterday.

Lets start with the custom part before I tell you about the ride. First they take the insoles out and bake them in this special Shimano oven. After a few minutes they pull them out and put them back in the shoe. Then you put the shoes on and stand for 5 minutes. After that is done they take the insoles back out and put the shoes in the oven for a few minutes. This is the fun part. After the shoes have cooked you put your feet in them. They are really hot at this point. Next comes the the vacuum bag. They put this bag around your foot a suck all the air out forcing the shoe to mold to your foot. I will not lye, the pressure is almost uncomfortable. But man the shoes fit like a glove. You can see the bumps your toes made on the outside of the shoe.

Back to the ride. As most of you know with new shoes comes new cleats. I am always worried about getting the cleats just right, because a cleat that is off just a little bit can cause big problems with your knees. After a lot of measuring and guessing whether or not the cleats were right I was out the door. After a few peddle strokes I now know why pros get custom fitted shoes. I can't believe the difference, it feels like you are wearing slippers on your feet. You don't really feel the shoes at all. And as far as the cleats go, this is the first shoes I have ever owned that I did not have to go back and readjust the cleats. I can't wait to ride again. If you have an opportunity to get these shoes they are well worth the price.

scott

New Cross BIke

Well everybody else was showing their new rig, so I thought I would put mine on. I got this Redline Conquest Pro frame back in September and took parts off my old cross bike to finish it. The frame is super light, it is all aluminum, with a carbon fork. Very light and nimble. I have had to experiment with tire pressures to get the bike to handle the way I wanted it to. I had a big problem with the front end washing out the first time I raced it. But I have the bike dialed in now.

Why I Race Cyclocross

For those of you that have never done cyclocross you don't know what you are missing. Not only is it a total blast, but it really helps with bike handling skills and most of all keeps you fit. My last race which was 2 weeks ago, was 60min. During the race I was in zone 4 for 45 minuets and zone 5 for 15. Not all at once but at various points in the race. That kind of effort every couple of weeks keeps your Anaerobic Threshold up, so come December you don't have to work so hard in the building phase.

I raced today in Salem,OR, that is about an hour north of Eugene. Today's race was on an old golf course. It was a really cool course but totally brutal since it has been raining for the last week. The ground was totally water logged which made for insane rolling resistance. As the race started I was in pretty good position, but could not hold the pace of the leaders and fell back through the pack. I was completely out of gas, but decided to finish no matter what. At the end I was completely wasted, but I had finished and that is what is important.

THE NEXT DAY

Look at the pretty colors. Kinda looks like Africa..

OUCH!!!!

What a hockey puck does to your leg.

The Final Stage

I don't know about anybody else but this is the longest stage race I have ever done. Most stage races are 3 stages, but you throw that extra stage in there and it makes a difference, lets face it, I am not getting any younger. So the 4th stage in 3 days is a 85 mile road race with around 5200ft of climbing. I have ridden the loop before and was really worried about this stage. It has three, 3mile climbs and you do the loop twice, so do the math. Did I mention that I am really tired, but I decided at the beginning of this stage I am finishing no matter what happens. So the race begins and I am sitting about 1:50 seconds down which is not bad. Everybody is just cruising along talking and 3 guys take off. Everybody just looks at each other because these guys are not in contention, but they are smart and I wish I would have gone with them. Why you ask, well they were getting a head start on the steepest climb of the day, smart move. Well long story short, I survived the first climb which is about 15miles into the race. The decent of this climb is super sketchy and some guys totally bombed it. At the bottom is a 90* left hand turn, that usually has a fair amount of gravel and dirt on it and I got gaped. The 2nd climb starts right after the turn and is super steep probably in the 10% range and doesn't let up for about a mile. I got popped bad, blew ski high and had to sit up. I chased for a while and about went of the side of the mountain on the decent trying to get back with the group, but it wasn't going to happen they were gone so I settled in and realized I had 60 miles to go. I caught some guys that had been dropped and one guy stayed with me and we suffered together to the finish. I still managed to average 18mph for the day and was happy that I finished. I ended up 23 out of 30 guys, but it was a great experience and I am still carrying good form into cyclocross because of it.

Celebration continued

Its been a few weeks, but cyclocross season started and we have been super busy. So here is the rest of the stage race. Early Sunday morning the Time Trial took place. I was in 11th overall so not to bad for me, my main goal for the TT, or any TT, is not to finish last. The cours was a 7 mile out and back fairly flat so decide to ride my fixed gear track bike. I really think it helped me because i did not finish last. Later that day was the crit, I was really looking foward to this because that is kinda my turf. As the race started I decided to just hang out because the guy in 1st had a good team and they were controlling everything. so with a lap to go I moved up the inside on the backstrech and went into the final corner in 3rd. It is 300m to the line from the corner so i was thinking second win of the season. As we came around the corner the guys in front of me just died and I had to make a split second decision. Lead it out or get swarmed from behind and have no chance of winning. I went by the saying, "when in doubt lead it out." So that is what I did, and took the winner all the way to the line. I was able to hold 38mph for about 200m but he came around me right at the line and there was a guy on my left that got me but a tire, so got 3rd which is good enough for me.

Eugene Celebration

This past weekend I participated in the hardest stage race I have ever done, the Eugene Celebration stage race. This race was done on time so you had to be careful not to get dropped or give people time by letting gaps open up. I have been training so I thought I was halfway ready for it. Heather also raced which was awesome. So here we go. Saturday morning was a 55 mile road race to start the event. We had about 30 guys which around here is pretty good, so off we went. The first real climb was 4.5 miles into the race, it is called "welders hill" because there used to be welding shop at the top of it. Welders is about 2 miles in length and around 7-8% grade. We went up it the first time pretty easy at about 15mph. Ya that is right 15mph, welcome to Eugene. From there it is rolling with nothing to bad till you get to "sprinters hill". Sprinter is about a mile long with around 6-8% grade and about 4 miles from the finish. We had a tail wind at this point so we cruised up it at about 17mph. The first lap was pretty tame so I was getting worried that the second lap would get crazy and it did. As we approached welders the second time the pace was much higher because a couple of guys had got off the front and teams were chasing. We went up welders the second time in our big chain rings at about 20mph and man it hurt, I hit a higher heart rate climbing that, than I did in the sprint. After cresting that climb nobody let up, it was full gas for the rest of the lap. As we approached sprinters we were in the 30+mph range and had brought the gap back to about 45 seconds, I was getting worried about sprinters and how fast these guys would go up it so I got to the front so I could drift back if I need to. I had put myself in a good position because attacks went and I was able to respond. In the sprint it got a little stupid,but don't they all, and I came across the line in 11th shutting it down about 100meters from the line because since it is time, not points, there is no need wasting energy. The guys stayed off the front and had about 40 seconds on the field.

Racing is hard!!

Well it has been a while since i have updated anything and i was told to stop writing about Zach and start writing more about racing so here you go.



I have done 2 "real" races since we move to Eugene but there are "training" races every Tuesday night in which I also participate. I am still trying to find out why they call them "training" races because these guys go like hell from the gun. It is a 1,2,3 race and there are mostly 1,2 that do the races which makes them extremely hard for guys like me that are lucky to get out once a week. The course is about 1K and is shaped like a D. I have only finished one race and got 11th. the rest I have been completely shelled. lets take last week for example. we started at a nice comfortable pace of 27+mph for the first 3 laps then the attacks went. That forced the pace up to the 30mph range with accelerations up in the mid 30's. i did mention that we are less than 5 minutes into the hour long race, right. It did not surprise me since the cascade classic, a pro race, was staring in Bend on Thursday so the pros were in Eugene to kill us, and they did. I would like to say that last Tuesday was a rare exception but it is not, the Tuesday night races are harder than anything I have done in a long time, but they make 3's only races seem pretty easy.

Now for the first real race. The first was up in Salem, and was a circuit race. The course had a substantial climb every lap and a wicked descent into a 90* right hand corner followed by another 90* corner that led you on to the finishing straight and back to the climb. The climb was a little over half a mile and ascended 80' each lap. The total ascension for the whole race was 880' in 24 miles OUCH!!! The race started pretty smooth and the first time up the climb I was wishing I had put my 23 on, but the faster we went up the hill the better and my 21 was fine. The race stayed together for a while then a 5 man break went off. I watched it go thinking ,"if I go with that I am going to blow." Oh I forgot to mention it was about 95* outside. So after the break went I settled in and thought about the field sprint for 6th. The last time up the climb there were a bunch of attacks and I was on the rivet but managed to hold on and got into the place I wanted for the descent. As we came around for the finish the lead out started to slow so I jumped down the gutter side with about 400m to go hoping nobody decided to do the same because I would have been eating curb for lunch. One guy got the jump on me so I finished second in the field sprint and ended up getting 5th. apparently at some point 2 guys got dropped from the break, good thing I was paying attention. so fifth in my first race I Oregon not to bad , I got 2 cliff bars and a bottle of sparking apple juice for my troubles.

Scott

Zach eating strawberries

Zach has turned into a strawberry monster. He is having his "desert." At this point he is on strawberry number 7.

scott

Just under 10 hours

Well the hardest mural I have ever undertaken has been completed. It took way longer than I expected, but I think the finished product looks pretty darn good and the most important thing is Zach loves it.

scott

The bicycling is amazing and so is the town

I did not think you could ascend over 2000' in less than 15 miles but I managed to do it the other day, heck just getting out of our subdivision you climb 100 feet in less than a minute and then another 200 if you want to go out the back way to the non busy roads. I have found some climbs that are around two miles in length that avg 4 to 6% and then some that hit 18%+. Then if you want to ride into town, like to the Tuesday night crit, you descend 340' in less than a mile hitting 40+mph, the only problem with that is that you have to climb back up that thing on the way home, it really hurts after you have just done a 25mile crit averaging 24+.

They also have a Saturday and Sunday morning ride. I was able to do the Saturday ride and man those guys are strong on the climbs luckily they wait for everybody when they get to the top. We climbed over 3000' that day. So I guess I need to get myself back into climbing shape after living in the flat lands for the last 2 years.

On the house front we have just about got all the boxes unloaded and I have been working real hard on getting the murals in Zach's room done before Heather goes back to work. This town is really cool, there is so much to do. On Saturday and Tuesday they have the"city market" downtown. They sell everything from fresh produce to jewelry and pottery. Zach has turned into a strawberry monster, when we go to the market we have to try to keep him away from the areas where the strawberries are or he goes over and tries to take some off the table.

Well, that is all for now it almost 1am and i have a hunnydo list a mile long for tomorrow so I better get some sleep.

WOW

Well I have no idea wherer to start, so many cool things have happened in the last 2 weeks. I guess I will start with the road trip, after 2 days of driving through the flattest states on earth, we learned that you should never take the advise of a hot waitress. A young women in Laramie, WY told my Dad and I that if you took Hwy 238 instead of 80 you would save 4 hours and have stunning scenery. I will give here credit on the stunning scenery but, by the end of the day, we had drove an extra 200+ miles and went over several mountain passes, turning what was supposed to be a 9-10 hour day into an 15-16 hour day. The following day from Boise, ID to Eugene was an easy drive and very beautiful going over the Cascade mountains, it was great to see Heather and Zach after almost a week of being apart, that was the longest I had ever been away from Zach.

WE MADE IT

We have been super busy so I don't have much time to write right now, but I promise I will write in depth tomorrow about the road trip and what we have been doing. To give you and idea here are a couple pictures of Zach at the Pacific Ocean.

On the road

Well, after 2 days of driving on the flat plans we ascended into Laramie, WY today, and it just got really cold. Laramie is at about 7000' so thing happen really quick here as far as the weather goes. It went from 72 to 50 in about an hour with 40mph wind gust to help thing along.

The first day was to Lincoln,NE it was a nice, flat drive and we dodged really bad thunderstorms all day. This morning we got up and played golf at Pioneer Golf Course, man what a nice course, it was built in 1930. We were going to play tomorrow morning in Laramie but it is supposed to be 40 with 40mph wind gusts so we are going to leave and head to Boise and try to play there in the afternoon.

scott

Here we go

I only have a few minutes to write before my Dad and I depart on our 2400 mile journey to Eugene, OR. I would like to say thanks to the Sean, Mark, Mark, Lou, Ann and Georgean for all their help, guidance and friendship over the last 2 years we will truly miss you.

The last three days have been totally draining. The movers took up Monday along with Dad and Chris painting the south side of the house and it looks great. On Tuesday it stressful watching everything you own get put on a truck. The whole time hoping that they didn't take your toothbrush. Then on Wednesday trying to get the house cleaned with Dad and Chris, so if it gets shown it won't look like a bomb went off inside. I hope it sells quick because the thought of a double mortgage payments is freaking use out a little bit.

I am going to try to post every night along the way, but that idea hinges on the hotel having a computer i can use.

scott

Travel West Young Man

Well, after a week with the stress limit at defcon 5, we are about to embark on the journey of a lifetime. I would just like to say before I get writing that if you have to sell a house do NOT use Peter and Shelia Knight of Remax United. We are writing them a check for $975 tomorrow so we can get out of our contract, that is how bad they are. Ok back to the story, it has been a week of goodbye's. Heathers last day of work is tomorrow then I take her and Zach to hook up with her parents and they fly to Eugene on Saturday of next week. While they are in St.Louis I will be here with the movers trying to make sure everything gets packed and the house gets fixed up so hopefully it will sell soon. My dad and I are driving to Eugene on Thursday, with the dogs, for the roadtrip of a lifetime. I am really looking forward to spending some quality time with my dad. We are going to play golf in Lincoln, NE and Laramie, WY as we drive accross the country. Then a stop in Boise, ID and then Eugene. I am going to try to ride in Laramie if time permits because it is 7000' above sea leval. There is a pass that goes from Cheyeene to Laramie, that hits 10,000', that I would love to ride but I don't think there will be enough time, oh well.

I am probably not going to be able to write for a few weeks because of the move, but I hope to have some good stories from the road and how life is going in Eugene.

scott

FIRST WIN IN TEN YEARS

This weekend was the Eagle Creek Traditional Crit, there were about 30 guys in the Masters 3/4 race. I have to say that this is one of the most fun categories i have ever raced in. Before the race started we had a meeting and decided, since this was my last race, if it stayed together the team was going to lead me out. Throughout the race we covered everything with John, Trent, Mark, Dave and Matt working hard, making sure we had somebody in every move. About halfway through the race it was becoming clear that it was going to come down to a field sprint. with 2 laps to go john was on the front killing it when he pulled off matt took over. At this time i had daves wheel but something happened with about a half a lap and everybody hit their breaks causing me to loose daves wheel as well as a lot of places, not good with a half a lap to go, as we came around the final corner and started the rise to the finish i was in about 10th place when i saw a small gap to the inside and jumped for it. As i accelerated i was passing a lot pf people who were fading on the rise. When we got to the flat i was even with about four people for the win, i flicked my shifter for the 11 but realized i was already in it, oh crap, so at that moment i thought to myself there is no way i am losing this race and just drilled it taking the win.

scott

Been a little Busy

Well it has been a few weeks since i last posted anything. We have been super busy finding and buying a house in Eugene, Or as well as trying to sell this house.

I think the last race was Ceraland and Moorsville races. Both races were a lot of fun and we rode them well as a team. At Ceraland Dave A. ended up 3rd and i ended up 5th we just kind of underestamated the finish and could not make up the difference. On sunday at Moorsville we rode perfectly as a team with a couple of laps to go Chris took a flyer and because of our attacking throuout the race nobody could go with him, that left me to take the field sprint. We finished 1,2. that is the second 1,2 of the year.

Thursday Night Worlds

well tonight was thursday night worlds better known as the covered bridge ride. it is an assortment of various types of riders. from racers to the casual rider. as usual it broke up pretty fast and a group of five of us got away. nothing to spectacular my legs are coming around and i am looking forward to this weekend.

scott

Getting Started

Well i am going to see what this blogging is all about. this is my first attempt at this.

this weekend is the ceraland race followed by the moorseville classic. each race has its own style, ceraland is flat and fast wereas moorsville has a good sized hill each lap named the "pack splitter" we will see.

scott