Got these killer 6 spoke wheels for my car. Love this Audi,but not the price. The Volvo is just as fast


My new whip,except mine is Aspen White


Copyright J. Sternbach


Dateline Friday


So the last 2 weeks have been for the most part hum drum. I'm back up to speed on my run workouts as I'm pretty sure I'm going to do the Cape May mary on the 25th. The more I think about it, the better it sounds as its going to really eat away at me not knowing where my mary time sits at this level of fitness.

I realize that I've taken a huge leap as compared to last year,but getting it official is more validating.

T and I did our first ever Totally Hard Core Winter Run. What did this entail you ask ? Well, Tuesday's weather was one for the record books. At 9 am it was -5 w/ the windchill, and we both needed to get a long run in, and the treadmill w/o at the Y the other day was hideous....so I layered up as if I was climbing K2 and hit the road at 9:20.

The first 1.5 miles wasn't too bad, having ski goggles on really helped as it insured that I had no exposed skin, which is the key to regulating body temp.

By mile 8 we were better than expected and actually ended the run with 7 repeats of strides at 100 strikes. Man do I feel good. I'm not sure if T is tired because of all the swimming he's been doing, but I was right next to him on all of them, and I felt like I had to hold off a bit on the last 2 so as not to pass him.

Last year, it was not even close. He could drop me at will and a few times he would just disappear down the road.

Anyways.......I've decided not to detail my w/o's in my blog after today. Its the same old routine for all of us, and its just taking up bandwidth space, so I'll summarize and move on to more anecdotal stuff.

Good News

This is the last day of our arctic blast. Weather dude says this weekend will be close to 50 F and by Wed next week 50ish. I am going to go nuts on the bike I tell ya !
I'll stick to the mtb for now , as there's still salt on the roads. Gotta order my fat slicks to put on the K2 so I can get more road time on her.

The extra resistance from that bike during climbs will pay off for Placid as I did a lot of climbing on the Fuji hardtail last year. The only diff will be the changeover from nobbies to slickies.

I also promised Sam and Mac a great play session as soon as it warms up. My 2 boys have been such great sports this month, considering they've been couped up inside in this sucky ass weather. I owe em big time!

What else.......

Bought another car last week. I'm a car nut ! Always have been.
I bought an Audi a few months ago after my Volvo 850 R got totalled. I thought the Audi would be a fun car as I love the way they look and being AWD , it would be great during the winter. I spent some money getting her pimped up with 18 inch Rs4 wheels and tires and was going for the S4 look. The only problem is that the 2.8 v6 engine is kinda boring. Compared to the 275hp beast that was in the Volvo...it was downright slow.

There aren't too many folks that are aware of the rare 850R Volvo's. The R line was introduced in 1995 to compete directly with BMW's M3 and Audi S4.
The Volvo came w/ a 5 cylinder turbo charged motor that put out 240 hp. The car was pretty light and boasted 0-60 times in 6.6 secs, which still hold strong in todays acceleration figures.

The BMW had similar performance, but did not have the durability of the Volvo motor which was originally designed by Porsche in 6 cylinder format. The Beemer did have superior handling however.

The Volvo has become a cult status car. There are now forums that exist for this particular R model as well as the 2nd generation S & V 70 R and T5 cars. Same chassis , just more refined body lines, bigger turbo and refined interior. The last R model was 07. This car came in AWD form and boasted 300 hp ! Nasty fun.

After deciding that I missed having one, I spent a ridiculous amount of time searching for one.It was between a 96 850R and a 98 V70 T5.

At a coins flip I went with the v70t5. It was at a dealer close by. They priced it right and its super clean. A full service was included. New timing belt, tranny and oil flush, brakes and everything on the factory schedule was done.

Its white with tan leather interior and its faster than my 850R was when I got it. So it makes a better platform for some mods like ECU chip, exhaust and suspension upgrades.

Its a wagon, so I can get my bike in the back w/ no problems. No more roof rack for my P3c.


Mike's Thinking Ahead Segment

Back in Cali wasy back when.........I had dreams of being a surfer dude. In high school I had some friends that were hardcore. The drummer of my band Tom Goodno was a great surfer and even had this 56 BelAir that we cruised to the beach with.
Another friend Tim Delaney was always talking surf. Had a very cool 61 VW bug w/ a surf board permanently attached to the roof. He surfed San Clemente a lot.

Then there was my best friend through out the 80's Ron Ortiz.

Ron and I met at Art Center College of Design. We hit it off right away and hung out all the time and did some crazy shit. Crusing in his convertible Karmann Ghia was very cool and those were some of the best days of my life ( Bryan Adams in the background please ).
Ron was my best man at our wedding.

We never had a falling out, but we lost touch as soon as the wedding passed. Its just one of those strange things in life where a sea change happens to relationships.

Where am I going with this.......Oh yeah, as I was running the other day , I was loving the Jack Johnson on my iPod. The guy is amazing. Ex- surf champ, brilliant musician, great voice and he just is one of those "Guys Guy".

Although I hung out with surfers I really neve got a chance to officially become one. A lot of the reasons were mostly lame, but the surfing community in Cali, especially Zuma, County line and Leo Carillo beach were owned by a tough crowd. Considering I was living in Malibu with my folks at the time, I can't believe I didn't take advantage of this.

So this summer I'm getting a long board . We haven't been to Maine since 99 and surfing in Old Orchard Beach is supposed to be good.
Parlaying this into my work is also in the back of my head. I could bring my camera and start documenting Surf Culture. I can really visualize Cyanotype images of surfers and the ocean landscape itself. This is something I should have probably done with triathlon too, but its hard to go to a race and not race.

I guess I'm looking at what else to do when my interest in endurance events wane. Life's too short just to stay in one box, and the idea of a new challenge is what keeps me feeling alive.

When I see the whole picture....I imagine my car at the beach with the trunk up.My 2 dogs happy as a clam that Dad's surfing. , 3 boards on the roof of my wagon, one for me, one for Claudia & Mandy...and nothing but the sun and the oceans embrace greeting us.

I attached a photograph by Joni Sternbach who like myself works with an old 8x10 view camera from the turn of the century. This image is where I want to be . I can taste the sea spray when I look at this shot. A wonderful image.

Gotta go. Peace.