Cafe Society

As many have already heard, one of the most popular pastimes of the MOD Squad (me and Scott) is motorcycle mechanics. This past spring I sold my old 1984 Honda Ascot and purchased Koos' 1973 Honda CB750K3. The bike was largely in pieces after Torin left for school and the opportunity was ripe for me to jump feet-first into the fire and learn how to (re)build motorcycles. Last summer Scott had bought a later-vintage model of the same bike and converted it to a cafe racer, a style of motorcycle popularized in mid-'60s England as retro-fitted race bikes for riders with small wallets. You can Google "cafe racer" and there are countless websites and photo albums of some amazing work; people make boatloads of money as professional builders, taking old Japanese and British bikes and doing these conversions into stream-lined jockey rockets.

Anyway, with a HUGE amount of tutoring and oversight from Scott, I managed to get a handle on electrical work and wiring; aluminum cutting and parts fabrication; TIG welding; engine maintenance and diagnosis; bodywork and painting; and learning from many, many mistakes. Alongside my efforts Scott managed to reconstruct and make road worthy two additional bikes to go along with his own CB750: a '70s model Triumph Tiger 750 and a Norton Commando 750. Needless to say we've both huffed some gas fumes this summer...

Anyway, as promised; the finished bike photos.

Nature's Bounty

Training and preparing for a big ski season demands a tremendous amount of time and energy. I've found over the years that in order to be at my best during workouts, I need to be focused equally on recovery and leisure time. This past Sunday was a perfect example. Read on...

Back in 1994 my folks bought a small piece of land in the hills outside of Winthrop, on the Rendezvous road. The property has an aspen grove situated immediately behind the house they built in 1997, and a century-old orchard adjacent to the house. When we moved there, the orchard had not been tended to for decades; the last resident on the land had run a fox farm, and there were still remnants of chicken wire in a field where the cages were located. The orchard itself was a testament to the resilience of nature - a few dozen apples trees (the varieties of which we haven't ever identified) are aligned in even rows, interspersed here and there with a large apricot and a few small plum trees.


The orchard has served many purposes in my life. Growing up there I would spend hours climbing all the trees and building makeshift forts fifteen feet off the ground as my dog looked on from below. Many years later, I buried that same dog in the middle of the orchard after her life had run its course. I've shot a few deer that come through for apples, making for some tasty meat to fill the freezer. And finally, for the last decade or so we've harvested apples every year to press for cider, both fresh and hard (fermented). A cider-pressing is another great occasion to celebrate fall, and every year my mom has faithfully made a fresh batch of buttermilk donuts to go along with the newly-pressed cider we extract. This past Sunday was no exception, and Mom's donuts were arguably the best ever. We pressed over 25 gallons of cider, with 15 of those gallons going into fermenting carboys to create Dad's delectable (and stout) hard cider. Cheers!

Mom's donuts, fresh out of the hot grease and dredged in cinnamon-sugar.

Alison cutting bruises out of the harvested apples before we send them through the press. The press was custom built as a birthday gift for my Dad last year. Fifty gallons and counting...

Rainy Day Run and an Early Christmas

I so often associate fall with beautiful colors, hearty stews and shooting deer. But when it arrives I remember that fall also means cold, rainy days. Not that I mind too much; if you bundle up and never stray more than a few hours from a hot shower and a trusty espresso machine, it's all good. This morning Scott had planned for a high-intensity anaerobic workout on the Chewuch with some motor-pacing involved. However, when I woke up a little before 7am and saw the sheets of water running off the roof, I knew we'd be changing plans. Sure enough, about fifteen minutes later Scott called and we re-scheduled the day to include a 2-hour distance run and some hill power sprints in the evening. Believe it or not, skiing at top speed next to a car in the middle of the road and swerving back and forth across those REALLY slippery painted stripes in the road is...a bit sketch.

Besides, getting out for a run this morning meant I got to train with my favorite (sorry, Mr. IPod) training partner:

We took a moderate route from our house in Mazama and jumped on to the Methow Community Trail, which in the winter runs as an unbroken 16ft-wide skating platform with two classic tracks from Mazama to Winthrop (30km). In the dry months, it offers a 10km out-and-back plus an alternate 10km loop from Mazama. We opted for the out-and-back to Brown's Farm and set off with Nikki prancing happily beside us. Upon turning around I got a good look at the mountains and was PSYCHED to see snowline barely 2000ft above us:

A bit hard to see in the photo, but that's snow on the hills amidst the fog on the left-hand side. Sure, it's going to melt tomorrow, but we're getting closer! However at this time of year I always have mixed feelings about the onset of winter. I'm excited for it to arrive and to get on snow, but I also balance that with thinking that I'm not ready yet, training-wise. I still want another full month of solid pre-comp training before I'm ready to sail in to West Yellowstone with an anaerobic Hemi under my hood.

Today was also great to go running because it was an impromptu Christmas for us here at 33 Graceland Road - big packages arrived in the hands of that ever-jovial FedEx guy, from Scott Shoes and Hammer Nutrition. Boom!

The new Scott men's eRide Grip trail shoe - SUPER lightweight and grippy, perfect for fall trail running.

Hammer Nutrition care package- those boys in Whitefish, MT can sure concoct a madly effective cocktail of high-performance goodness!

The plan I've been working off for training right now is following a 16-day microcycle; Scott thought this would be the best way to lump in all the key workouts while still maintaining enough rest between each. So far it's been successful; I'm halfway through this block and am really noticing the gains which are coming from an increase in anaerobic workouts, especially when I go out to do the aerobic workouts we've been hitting all season. And there's still more work to be done! Seven weeks until West...