Arleigh Jenkins

All photos from Wonderful Billy Fehr. [gallery link="file" order="DESC"]

[gallery link="file" order="DESC"] Officially by the dates we are half way through the Wednesday Night MTB Series.  There was two rain outs, so by the numbers we aren't half way done yet. Last race I DNF'd.  Moving up to Sport was a crappy move on my part, twice as long of a track at the hardest course in the series - US National Whitewater Center. Okay, it's really not a hard trail.. but on a singlespeed, out of shape, dehydrated and on a pretty damn hot day.. the course sucks. Especially when you have to go around the whole thing twice.  So I quit, I rode slowly through the last half of the course after bonking with a co-worker.  Thankfully he was there to get me through the woods. That was two weeks ago, since I have actually ridden my bike, rode a mountain bike off road a couple times and done a little bit of unorganized/thought out training.  This week I had a mission to complete.  That is goal #1 this season, complete the Sport races.  Thankfully Stephanie stuck with me and got me through the course. Last, but not a quitter.  9 more races to figure out what Goal #2 is.

[gallery order="DESC" columns="2"] Had some really great rides in the past few days.  Really making up for the lack of riding for the past few months.   Friday morning Joey and I went around Davidson, stopped for some coffee and then headed back to Cool Breeze to build up his new Surly Cross Check.  Saturday I attempted to swim laps at the neighborhood pool then Sunday Kim and I woke up early to ride the Lake Norman group ride from the state park.  I can say I'm finally getting my cycling tan back! From emails and phone calls I have a few questions to answer : Cool Breeze and Trek Store Charlotte are the same company.  Two different locations but the same owners, employees and ways of doing things.  Back in November I moved from our Cool Breeze location at Exit 33 on I-77 to our store that was opening, Trek Bikes Charlotte, at Exit 18 on I-77.  The stores are only 15 miles apart. The Trek Store is a concept store. Meaning we teamed up with Trek, agreed to carry a large % of their product in that location and inreturn we can put their well known name on the side of the building.  Plus we got a lot of help from Trek corporate with things like archeticture, laying out the store, training and such. Cool Breeze is the same physical size in the terms of store size but run completely different from any bike shop I've seen.  There is a fitness studio, aka gym, on the west wing of the store.  We have a personal trainer and USA Cycling coaches on staff.  Upstairs you will find a very well laid out fit studio that people are traveling hours away to get their fitting done in.  This store carries a lot of Trek, but also a lot of Cervelo and Serotta.  The store is niche and calls itself a "Triathlon Training Center."  I hope to bring more mountain and recreation into that equation. We'll see how that goes. My role at Cool Breeze will be much like it was at the Trek Store.  Sales Manager/Leader or whatever you want to call it.  Continuing the education to the staff, training, and hopefully learning things myself along the way.

When a day starts with a cup of coffee at 8:30am that isn't finished until about 2pm, you know your day is going to be long.[gallery order="DESC" orderby="post_name"] Lack of hydration, lack of riding and a boat load of excuses made my Wednesday night race very painful.  So painful that I am feeling it 24 hours later in my calf muscles that must of been sucked dry of any water or sodium. The postives for the day were my "key throwing" face captured on camera & new kits for the shop finally arriving and looking super swizzle.   There were other things thrown in there but for now my brain is cramping and I really need to hit the hay.

[gallery order="DESC" columns="2" orderby="post_name"] I've mentioned how crazy things have been as of late.  The shops been slammed, a record month and a key note month as it means we are doing a bang up job. Above is a customers bike, a Trek Project One Madone 6.9. What's so significant about this bike?  Choices and that no matter how much at the end of the week I feel I'm stretched thin.. I get to see any new customer, that has become a friend, on the bike of their dreams.  As much as I may of griped to one of you about how much is on my plate, I really love what I do and can say I believe in what I do.  Every day I am getting people on a vehicle I believe can change the world or provide a healthier life to those that are buying it. This past weekend I got to ride my bike, ride on a boat, mow the lawn and hang out with my family.  All things that I haven't really had time for.  I thank my job for giving me time off, and I thank my family for being patient for this past weekend to happen.   It seems all the planets lined up and we found pure bliss for a few days. Tomorrow I race my bike, or a demo bike I should say.

The CRAZY week is finally behind me.  Holidays, bike rides, lots of rain and ladies night!  Monday was a small photo shoot after the boys went to the barber for a haircut.  They haven't had pictures taken in awhile, and with them gone some this summer it will be good for us to have photos of them around.  (Also extended family members needed new ones!)  The rest of the week is a blur, lots of things at home, lots fo things at work and finally Ladies Night. Ladies Night was a huge success with 35-40 women showing up and joining in on the fun.  Speakers from a couple local women's clubs, nutrition from Sarah at Cool Breeze, yoga and stretching from Christy McCormick and finally Ross from Trek talking about WSD, fit and all those things. (photos to come.)

[gallery link="file" order="DESC" columns="2" orderby="post_name"] I have a mental list lining up somewhere in my brain of how I want my garage/shop lined up, which bikes I want built and how I want them built with what I have in stock in the shop.  Then there's a wish list of bikes and parts for myself but with the budget as tight as violin strings we will make use of what we got. This afternoon I took the time to take apart the XO-1 cross bike as it will become a v-brake 29x1.5 monster bike soon.  The purple Raleigh is getting rebuilt fixie style once I find proper brake stradle cable for the old school center pull brakes.  The Salsa Casseroll will become my road bike once I find the proper front derailleur and new cable/housing, the 6000 will get gears again and the Karate Monkey just needs a new front tire.  Also in that the Xtracycle needs to be put back together for grocery hauling and to get ready for riding down to the Davidson Concert on the Green this summer. In the garage I need to mount the 2x4 to the wall so all our bikes can go up nicely and then also purchase a 2nd lower one so the kids can put theirs up.  Take the work stuff to offsite storage (big seat from the work van and a large xmas tree.) And work on getting the furniture from Kim's old house sold or somewhere other than the garage! A lot of things to do, and right now I just want to ride my BIKE!

[gallery order="DESC" columns="4" orderby="post_name"] Race report to come but for now I leave you with an awesome video from Tom Matthews of the Tarheel Trailblazers.

This past Wednesday kicked off the Charlotte area mountain bike series.  This 16 race series runs on Wednesday nights from April through September with races in 5 different parks in the area with every 5th Wednesday off.

The first race of the series was a test of memory.  Here's my list of idiot moves :

1. Hadn't ridden a mountain bike in a month
2. Rebuilt my singlespeed 29er 2 days prior
3. Only rode this bike once before the race
4. Hadn't ridden this particular trail in a year
5. Was sandbagging thanks to riding a single speed.  I didn't renew my yearly USA Cycling license so I was able to race beginner. I don't feel so bad due to the lack of riding and gears.

The Trek Bicycle Store had a great showing of folks to the line.  1 guy in super sport, 3 guys in sport, and me in singlespeed beginner women.  Also, one girl manning the grill at the tent and another guy in an arm sling manning the camera.  We milled around the start line for a few minutes, talking to various classes and trying to get a grasp of what this season would be bringing.  Talked to the two girls I would be racing against, Crystal and Bobby.  Bobby is a local Dirt Diva so I know her and know she's a strong rider.  She also was refusing to move up to Sport based on her age and that girls don't have a masters category.  Crystal seemed to know her stuff, mentioned she is coming from a bmx background and started downhilling lately. We line up on the end of a gravel road, the idea of the road is to separate folks before the entrance of singletrack.  Well it worked, Crystal left Bobby and I in her dust.  I did my best to keep up but spinning 32x20 I must of looked like a wind up toy with my legs spinning so fast. I would keep seeing glimpses of Crystal for the next 15 minutes until we hit the "double black diamond." This is where I had fail#1 on the bike.  I told Bobby to go around me as she was on a geared bike and that I would sit on her wheel until we got out of the "black diamond section."  She agreed and said she was happy to sit on my wheel the rest of the race.  We get through most of the section and come upon a kid on his side in a rock garden.  Bobby stops to help the kid up, he is working on clipping in and she passes him.  He gets in and sits on her wheel.  Now there is a kid between Bobby and I, fail#2.  I'm asking to pass the kid and he runs right into a tree.  As he starts to scream I jump off my bike running to his aid.  Manually having to clip him out of the pedals and trying to calm him down.  Well... the kid jumps back on his bike and takes off.  Now I'm off my bike, Bobby is done with the section and gone and the kid is now again between me and 2nd place.  I get on and do my best for damage control.  The kid won't let me pass him when I catch up with him.  His father hands him a bottle on a small road section and helps block my pass as well. Finally we get to where there is some climbing.  I figure at the top switch back there's a clearing and I'll pass the kid.  He doesn't exactly have standing/climbing/clip in down and went down again.  Again, screaming.. I hop off once more to unclip him and see if he's okay.  He took a chainring into the calf and is pretty upset but again..he hops on his bike before I can get my bike and takes off.  Frustrated I call out my pass at the top of the climb and leave him.  Feeling guilty that I'm frustrated with an 8 year old and more frustrated with the 8 year olds parents who put him on clipless when he doesn't have the handling or mindset to deal with those things. I do my best for damage control but by now I've been off the bike twice trying to help which added up to at least 5-8 minutes.  I figured to ride it out and finish the race as strong as I could. Ending up in 3rd out of 3, 3 minutes back from 2nd and 6 minutes back from 1st I was very very disappointed but knew I did the right thing stopping to help.   I learned from this week that unless there's blood or someone knocked out, I'm not stopping. The best part of the race was hanging out, eating burgers and enjoying a lot of good people.  Check out our custom burger flippers (yes I forgot the flipper.) Thanks to Melissa for being a great trooper and cooking!

Our team ended well.  Mike Sciame winning Super Sport, Darcy Letourneau coming in 3rd in Sport 19-34, Bruce Stauffer at 5th in Sport 35-44 and Jamie Haessley flatted within 3 miles of his first lap. Tonight is the Renaissance race, it's been pouring here for two days straight so the chances are high that the race will be canceled.