One Hundred Eighty-Two

Travis and John

Tom Jacobson emailed this picture to me along with a nice note. Here's my reply and his original message:

Hi Tom,

Yes, that's me! Thanks for sending me the picture!! If you haven't seen it yet, this webpage has links to all my Interbike pictures and postings:

www.sabertoothsalmon.com/adventures/2006/Interbike.html

I know what you mean about riding lots and getting burned out. That's sort of how I felt after 2005. It was good to take the winter off and do other things (like learning to ski) to recharge the batteries.

Last weekend I rode to Hood River and did my first cyclocross race. George and Terri came out to watch. That was neat! Tonight I put some 700x37 slicks on my Country Road Bob and went exploring off road. I rode about 15 miles on Lief Erickson Trail and a few more up a fire lane. I've run on that trail countless times, but this was the first time on a bike. It was tons of fun. I really believe that trying different things and finding ways to have fun on the bike is key to success at ultra-distance cycling. It's easy to get tired of all those miles on the road.

Are you thinking about RAO again next year? Any other big races on your schedule yet?

Great to hear from you!!

John

Tom Jacobson wrote:

Hi John,

I have been enjoying reading your blog. I was looking though some pictures at velonews.com, and wondered if that is you in this photo to the right of Travis Brown?

I scaled back my riding after RAO - was finding it hard to get motivated for a couple of months. I'm getting out more now and am trying a real training plan over the winter. I think it will pay off - in the past I have just "ridden lots".

Best of luck in all of your future adventures and I hope to see you at another event.

Tom Jacobson

My good friend and neighbor Matthew Rider noticed too:

Matthew Rider wrote:

VeloNews article on Interbike has a picture from MTB Hall of Fame introductions and who should be there but the Sabertooth Salmon.

Article:
http://velonews.com/tech/report/articles/10955.0.html

Direct link to picture:
http://images.velonews.com/images/report/10955.16591.t.jpg

I see that Leonard Zinn took the picture too. His book, Zinn and the Art of Road Bike Maintenance, taught me a lot about wrenching my own bikes.