Birkebeinerrittet 2010 lazy legs gone wild!

A small update.

The poll has now ended. We are pleased to announce that 2 out of 3 people manged to pull trough.

Gary will be providing a bigger update with more text and thoughts. Here are some pictures:

New family member!

We've been a bit lazy the last week. Both on updating the blog and getting out riding the bikes. But who cares about that right now? The night between sunday an monday, I got a call from my brother, and recieved the good news that I'm now the proud uncle of a little baby girl!

Tired and confused, I started of by yelling at my brother that I was not happy that he woke me up in the middle of the night, but as it turns out, he had good reasons for that call and  I feel proud and honored that he called me with the news that fast!

So I want to round this of by Congratulating the proud parents, and welcome the new family member to the clan! Hopefully I will meet this little creature very soon!

Proud uncle Gary out!

Back in action!

Finally back! It's been to long, but now it's time to get this blog rolling again. My first bike purchase went really wrong as I stated in earlier posts. Now, I've bought a new one, that's waaay better. You can see the a picture on the model here http://bab.no/VarevisningDetalj.aspx?varekode=0719676721385&hkat=&kat=45&grp=7 .

Also, Frank started to make some mini movies, which are turning out to become the story of Garys way to fitness! We'll try to keep it up.
Today, we've been up at Holmenkollen.  Telling you... at least 4 km uphill. Heavy stuff! Guessing Frank will make another update with a video of Garys adventures, but for now, this picture will have to do.

Another effort!

Me and Gary went for a Monday trip without a real plan. The result:

Climbing to Ekebergsletta:

Gary wasting his energy: (Guess he did not know that we still had 35km to go)

Mariholtet fjellstue:

We have reached Mariholtet

Our little Monday trip.

I got a bike!

First the good news!
I have a bike!

And to the bad news...
I can't use the damn thing!

I got my new bike last friday and I was really psyched and was looking forward
to put it together.

So I put on the steering, flipped the bike over, eager to assembly the front wheel,
just to discover that there's no way in hell I'll be able to fit the wheel in the front fork.

A closer look revealed that the front fork is all crooked! And since it's all welded,
there's no chance for me to correct the fault on my own.

Here you see the mess clearly... and frank in the mirror!

So what now?
I've contacted the company I bought it from, and I'm hoping for a fast solution. Until then,
it's running and walking for my part I guess! (I'll make another update when I have a bike I can actually use.)

A little update

Gay Gary!
Achievments

I actually don't have any greater achievments yet.
Stopped smoking totally four days ago.
Walking down to the boat to get to work daily as usual.
The only one who officially has entered the Birkenbeinerrittet! No turning back now!

Setbacks

Still haven't recieved my bike. Mailed the company today, and hopefully I'll have a bike soon.
Fell for the trick that there actually was a separate race for foreigners, or swedish people... Some friends Terry and Frank are!
Terrified that Terry and Frank won't enter the race.

Otherwise, I've just started following a training program, that I will try to follow 3 times a week.  First month will be soooo hard on my poor body! But It'll work out just fine =)

A little update.

Long time sice we added content here so Ill give a short update:

Freaking Frank!
Achievements:
Have not smoked for almost two months now.
Started biking to work.  (3.2km downhill to work and 3.2 uphill with wind resistance to get home)
Also running a 3.5km long stretch 3 times a week.

Setbacks:
Just had my front teethes removed and replaced with some funky plastic which renders me  unable to consume meat and most other food products I actually enjoy eating.  So 14 ish days with soft boring food ahead. Yei!

Also, after spending countless working hours researching I have finally picked out my new bicycle.  Just ehm, 1100€ to go and its mine!

TinyTerry!
Alrighty, a small update from me as well...

Achievements:
Stopped smoking for almost a month
Power-walking to work, as my bike is not exactly 100 % yet....
Like Frank, I am also running 3 times a week (Well, first week of running has just started)

Status on bike: Well, if you read the previous post, I had som ehrm... mechanical issues with my bike. I have invested some money in tools and moved the bike from my old apartment to my new apartment to fix it. Somehow, somewhere along the road I managed to lose the bolt keeping the crank in place, so it is still without one pedal (Yes, not a big deal, but I am too lazy to find and buy one at the moment).

Soon, I’ll have a bike to!

Written by Gay Gary

Ok, it's official!

I just won my auction for a KS1800M Mountain Bike, for 860 skr. So now 'll just pay for it and wait until it arrives!  Before you know it, we will be mountain bike gods! (Or at least good enough to stay alive).

Here's a pic of the beauty!

Also, I would like to take the moment to mention that Terry, has made the decision to stop smoking, when his new bike is delivered! Myself decided to go stone cold yesterday, and have now had 2 non-smoking days. I believe that Frank is still going strong on that particular area!

Besides all this, I just want to mention that the Fårikål was AWESOME. Ate what was left of it today! Have a good one people!

Gary’s background story…

Ok, so here it is.

For some reason, two dudes sitting at work gets the brilliant idea to take on the Birkenbeinerrittet.

Sitting in a completly different location, I get the question if I wanna join in. Gettin a crappy image on the course and the info it's about 100 km, I think for myself, hey, that's no biggie!, so of course I agree to take on the task.

A week later, when my two compatriots has arranged the first blog, I actually take a good look on the damn thing and see that it's all uphill.

Telling Terry and Frank that we will die after the first part of the course. They agree but we also agree that there is no turning back now!

Considering my mom always thinking I would die in a bicykle accident when I was a kid, Frank hit a damn construction vehicle loosing his front teeth, and Terry riding into walls in his earlier biking carrier, this can only be a success!

There is a big risk this will be us in august 2010

Flashback by Freaking Frank.

After we started this project some people have come to remember a "less" fortunate experience i had on a bike.  I recon these facts wont go away and small internal remarks will be made so here it is:

This was early a Monday morning when I was around 14 years old, I was very sleepy and since I was late the bicycle was my only option if  I wanted to make school in time. Everything started well, had a good flow and was not even worried about getting late. But as we all know, young people have some weird plans every now and then. When i reached my regular cruising speed of 30kmh I figured that since i have biked this stretch so many times i could always just rest abit on my steering wheel. I mean its straight ahead for a long time so what could go wrong?

After finding a comfortable position on my steering wheel i kinda just closed my eyes and dosed of just for a few seconds. Turns out that this would be a  problem for me later on.

I woke up to due to the fact that a giant construction machine(pictured under) had hit me right on the head. They had parked it a little bit into the road and had his "scrape" up.  This specific part of the machine did hit my mouth, but my shoulder took most of the beating partially saving my mouth.

He is collecting mud.

I got up and walked around abit, immediately noticing blood and that I could not feel my front teethes. At this point a passed out into the ditch, and woke up to the fact that an old neighbor was lifting me into his car.

At the emergency center they patched me up and sent me to the dentist which could confirm that both of my front teethes was crushed into smaller pieces and stuck in the roof of my mouth.

They did dig out the bits of teeth and also gave me some nice plastic replacements. Usually I would have said that this was no biggie, but in this specific case Ill be honest and say it did hurt like hell. I do not like needles so even the part where they gave me shots to take away the pain was horrible. I guess the combination of needles, drama, pain and dentist tool sounds just is to much for me.

Now 10 years after I am about to replace my plastic and put in porcelain, so in few months ill be back stronger than ever. (Priceless they might say, well this time the price is close to 1900€ so someone is for sure getting rich on others mistakes.)

This post does not really have a purpose other than explaining my past bicycle experience. I do not feel this will be a problem considering the upcomming race since its offroad over mountains..?

- Frank