Solvang 09'

Finally got to ride Solvang again. I forgot two things, how nice it is to ride w/ your friend and how many hills there are in Solvang. I recall the last time I rode this I was in much better form and really did not suffer. Different time this go around. I had only done minimal riding and I was sick for the past 2 weeks. I was actually feeling better and convinced myself that all the down time from the bike would only make me stronger. It really doe not work that way and after the first climb...I knew I was in trouble.
Thankfully Chris was in the zone and he saved my arse a few times when I started to drop. I felt ok on the "flats" but the minute we turned uphill, I was toast. I used to do well in the hills and now I turn to mush. Not sure if I will ever get that back living out here in AZ. The last 15 miles I just locked into the final three climbs. I knew when they were and where they were. I knew if I stopped, It would be too difficult to stop. We actually did a pretty fast 75 miles despite the hills....now all we had were the final three. The first climb was just DIRTY. Long and steep. I passed Beecher as he was taking a "nature" break and yappin on the phone for who knows how long...waiting for me to catch up. I told myself do not get off the bike and walk up the hill like some others were doing...just keep grinding. Who cares if flies are landing on you. Beecher passed me up only a few minutes up the hill and he was gone. I finally made it to the top where it was COOOLLLD and I needed a few more layers on my body. The next hill was not as bad as I remembered. It is much steeper but shorter and you can see the end. I actually felt better on this hill then I thought I would...but it still hurt. Final hill was the one they ride on the TT for Tour de Cali. All I kept thinking was these guys did this at an avg of 28mph on their time trial bikes...you can do it......I even passed a few folks. Riding into the end of any race is always a high. I always picture the end and it is even more special when family and friends are their to cheer you on. Kristin and Christine were with us all the way. Thanks K for coming out and sharing this with me....She knew what I needed right after the race...massage...but not by her...she sent me to the tent and I got hooked up. I get a pinched nerve on the left side of my neck when I ride for more then 4 hours.

After the ride we found a Schnitel Haus and ate some good German grub. It was great to eat w/ our German Beecher friends and just soak it all in. I am typing fast right now cause Will is screaming and I am watching him....

I will post some pics later...

Play time is over

It has been a good break. I took two 5 day weekends between Christmas and New Years. With little time in the bike due to rain and a ton of food in my belly...I have had some good QT with the family. I have however dusted off the shoes and went out a few days last week and will try to get out at least 3 days a week and mingle in some weights here and there. My goal this year is to do a tri - of a decent length. Not sure yet which one but it will keep me motivated to swim bike and run. I will also mingle in a couple of centuries this year as well. The first will be in March...back in Solvang.

We have been doing some house cleaning this week and Eryn and I went down to the dump the other day. Eryn likes to hang with me and she is at a fun age where she asks really honest questions and begins to care about things more and more. Well, we have a plan to purchase a puppy when William turns 3. The kids always talk about it and I have asked that they do there homework to see what kind of dog they want to get. I guess Eryn has made up her mind that she wants a Husky. Here is the conversation we had on the way to the dump:

Eryn: Dad....Do bee's sting dogs?
Jens: Not sure. I guess so.
Eryn: But what if the bee stings our HUSKY?
Jens: We have a husky?
Eryn: No...when Will turns 3.
Jens:Ohh...well you don't need to worry about that until a few more years
Eryn: (Crying softly)
Jens: What is wrong?
Eryn: Now we will need to get a new HUSKY when our other one dies!!!!

I could not help but laugh that she was worried about replacing a husky we don't even have with another husky due to a bee sting. The way she was saying "Husky" was also funny. Like a friend told her about this type of dog and she is not really sure what it is.

Eryn also got up today to share her testimony. I went up with her but she has been asking to do it on her own for the past few months. All my kids are such great examples and love to share their testimonies. They are great missionaries and invite all their friends to church activities.

We had a good night yesterday with Oma. She came back from Germany and we watched a slide show on the Wii. it was really cool. K made some Chili and cornbread and the kids showed Oma what life is like when you have the "Eye of the Tiger" or what Eryn calls "I am the Tiger". Santa dropped off Guitar Hero World Tour for the kids...as well as Briggs,Eryn and Reagan. I went a purchased another guitar so we could all jam. Good times for all...

Well....back to work and a new year. I look forward to the challenge....BRING IT!!!

JD

Off-Season

It is officially off-season. My bike has not felt the road for two weeks and I do not plan to jump on until after after Christmas. It has been nice to spend a few more hours w/ the Family. That has been my only complaint with riding is that is zaps a ton of hours. K is very supportive of my hobby but I need to find some more windows to ride perhaps during lunch or something.
I have been eating a ton lately and I can feel my appetite growing. Very strange now at night to crave ice cream and sweets...I have never been like this before...but I find myself at nights yielding to the screams from within that black box. It haunts even now as I type, even after I downed some German Chocolate my mom brought over....the siren call for me to dish up some more sugar....Not sure what it is....I really think it is the holidays and Utah peaches. Those two forces combined cannot be stopped.

Anyway, can't believe Christmas is only about a week away. I have done more online shopping this year...ah-la eBay and only last week did I do some window shopping. We are trying to save up for Germany so this year we are on a budget....kinda. Santa Don in me always creeps out a few weeks before....

It's just me and the boy tonight as K and the kids went w/ Oma to a play. It has been good to spend some QT with him. He is not too hard to handle and is like most of our other kids where the like to go to bed. So now I have some down time watching the Suns vs. Knicks. I am glad the Suns picked up Jason Richardson. I once sat next to him for a Spurs - Suns play-off game in San Antonio. I was about 2-3 inches taller then him....and this guy can dunk like a mans man. He was actually really quiet and told me he got the tickets from his boy Marbury....so glad that liability is not on the team....or any team for that matter. This guy is getting paid 20M right now for doing nothing...

My fantasy team is doing pretty good. I am in 3rd place right now and I made a few changes. I picked up Kevin Love and the Rudy Fernandez from Portland.

Well..that is all I got right now...ASU football is done, Work is Work and I can't wait to go GOL next week and hang out with the family.

Tour De Tucson 08

Well,

The tour finished and I think I am finished for the year. It has been a great year of riding capped off with the 26th annual Tour De Tucson. I was without my wingman. Not sure how Maverrick did it without Goose, Bo without Luke, Arnold without Willis, Kevin without Wayne, Victor without Nicki. You all get the picture. I think I could have trained a bit more, but overall I felt good. In spirit of thanksgiving, here are the things I was thankful for during my ride:

* STP 2008 training....got me ready to take on anything
* inspiration to feel a part of my tire in the dark and find a staple before the race started
* Keele and Jonathan for allowing me to crash out their new house the night before
* Peanut butter and banana sandwich...a tradition before any ride
* at mile 20, this guy who was huge and you knew was going to burn out, pulled us for 10 miles into the wind....he dropped immediately after that...I thought of him often during the rest of the ride and how he must be suffering.
* Title Nine Team....A group of ladies from Boulder,CO who set a nice pace...thanks for the miles
* AZ Weather in November....you can't beat it...78 degrees....for most of the ride
* Pulled off a pack of riders right before they all went down.... scary!!
* Kristin and Briggs cheering me on at mile 65....So great they came down...I love em!!
* Tangerine Hill....10 free miles of all out flying
* Cold Orange slices at mile 85....
* Old man Gus who i swear this guy was 70 and pulling a group of us in the last 10 miles....I said I want to be Gus when I am his age
* That final turn before an endurance ride when you feel like a million bucks....love that adrenalin kick...
* Again, K and Briggs cheering me on
* Tranidtional In-n-Out Burger, Fries, Dr.P and strawberry shake.....throwing it down
* Drive home time to reflect
* Nap

As you can see, it was a good ride. I actually knocked off about an hour from last year...however last year we farted around more. My Buddy Dan did it an hour faster then me....Beastmaster

anyway...I think I am done until next March....Solvang is calling. Will be good to ride w/ Beecher clan again.

Humble Pie

When you have rode 204 miles in one day on your bike..you think you can do anything. Iron Man....no problem, posting up Shaq...no problem, allow Kristin to drive on a road trip...no problem, sing in a chorus....no problem, hang with the peleton in one stage of a TDF.....no problem.

So when I went on a Tour De Tucson training ride with a group of guys...I thought...I could hang with these guys...no problem...I rode 204 miles before. They did not care...nor did they know...they just said..."Hey new guy, welcome to the pain train". I was suffering after mile 10 and had another 50 to go. It was windy like I have never been in before so the need to stay in the pack was that much more critical. I pulled for a few miles thinking I would be ok......when I dropped to the back to let others take their turn....I realized how those guys feel at the back of the peleton when they know the inevitable is about to happen...and it did.....I got dropped. It was me and the wind and the road. I knew we would be climbing soon as the route took as to Tortilla Flats and I thought again..... I used to climb Mt. Hamilton weekly....I can catch them......once again....Humble Pie. I finally ate some of it and just did my own ride. Thankfully my buddy came back at the top of the hill and we road all the way down. On the way back...it was not bad since I got my second wind and the wind was at my back. All in All....it was a great training ride but I feel like I still have some work to do before the tour next week. Stay tuned to my TDT post....

JD

Fantasy Sports

Well....I have to admit I had a good time playing with a bunch of guys at work Fantasy baseball. Although my team did not even make it to the play-offs, I had fun and actually learned a ton about my players. Now we are doing an NBA league. Here is my current roster....(we had our draft last week and I ended up with the 9th spot out of 12....reason #1 why I did not pick up Kobe, LeBron or STAT)......Anyway...I still think I did ok: (Match-ups are based on FT%, FG%, 3PT's, Pts, Reb, Ast, Stl, Blks)

PG = Steve Nash - Why not!!
SG = Paul Pierce - Riding the Wave from last year
G = Brandon Roy - Could be his year
G = Baron Davis - Stats machine...(although he just got fat contract so I fear he will be hurt this year)
SF = Charles Lamar Odum (feed me the ball Kobe)
Pf = Ben Wallace (rebounds guy only)
F = Luol Deng - (Hot & Cold)
F = Ron Artest - (Gamble pick...but so far paying off...)
C = Nick Collison (I know....I know....but only a few centers left)
C = Emeka Okafor (Good Center pick)
Util = Matt Barnes (Steve Nash is going to make this guy look REALLY good)
Util = Mike Finley (Not mush left to pick from when he came up...always killed the suns)
Bench = Al harrington (Staying on the bench until the cry baby gets traded)
Bench = James Posey (good back-up if one of my big guys gets hurt)
Bench = Manu Ginobli (please don't "flop" on me this year when you return)

Feeling Inspired Today

I like to shuffle songs in my ipod and occastionally I come across a song that rocks my world, wakes me up and makes me want to be a better person. There are few songs that penetrate my soul more then this one does. It does not seem to get old and MOTAB really nailed this one...you can find it on the album " America's Choir". I looked up the story behind the song...

Robert Robinson, following the tradition of ministers of the time, wrote "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing" as a hymn-poem for the conclusion of his sermon for Whitsunday, 1758. He was 23 years old at the time. It was published the following year in A Collection of Hymns used by the Church of Christ in Angel Alley, Bishopsgate (1759). There has been some speculation that it was written by the Countess of Huntingdon, but it is generally agreed to be the work of Robinson.

Originally "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing" had four stanzas. The fourth stanza was omitted by Martin Madan in Psalms and Hymns, 1860 and has not been used since.

The statement in stanza two, "Here I raise my Ebenezer" refers to I Samuel 7:12, "Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far the LORD has helped us." Ebenezer is the Hebrew for "Stone of Help." Israel had suffered defeat because of its sin. But the people had repented of their sin, God had helped them and they were victorious. Samuel placed the stone to remind Israel that God had them, their victory was because of Him.

In stanza three, Robinson speaks of being "prone to wonder, prone to leave the God I love". This seems to be a forecast of his later life, when he lapsed into sin, unstableness and involvement with Unitarianism. There is a well-known story of Robinson, riding a stagecoach with a lady who was deeply engrossed in a hymnbook. Seeking to encourage him, she asked him what he thought of the hymn she was humming. Robinson burst into tears and said, "Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then."


1. Come, thou Fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it,
mount of thy redeeming love.

2. Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I'm come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.

3. O to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here's my heart, O take and seal it,
seal it for thy courts above.