yeah it saturday... The guesses about the yogurt announcement... almost WAG - okay completely WAGs (wild ass guess)
me no do milford, i'm doing East Falmouth tomorrow.
and it looks like i might not be doing Gloucester... closed out the reg for the B master's race, hell for all the 9am races. Actually i'm not sure i'm as destroyed as i should be. Starting with 125 people on the same freaking course just sort of just doesn't sound a hell of a lot of fun in some respects. There's something nice about racing people in your own catagory on the same course.
Time to suit up and do a couple low intensity drills. Puttin the verdistien tires on the Rolfs and make the tire/wheel decision when i get out there.
I tried a bunch of the panda shots last night on the way home... that and the sun was making the place gorgeous. It really is pretty amazing down here. I know how much i missed the water (salt water, tides) when in michigan. Its invigorating riding past just off the water every day. Really amazing how much i missed it.
its a gorgeous day - time to finish off the pancakes and suit up...
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Friday, September 29, 2006
SUCCESS
woot (i think i spelled success right)...
New water pump installed. All systems back up and everyone here is overjoyed at the turn around. *pats self on back*
Fingers chewed the hell up. Nothing like putting stainless fitting on with hands burried in water for an hour. That and i'm still gonna kick the designer of the system in the nutsack (assuming its a guy - in the way that a woman HAS to be smart enough not to design such a peice of crap).
Nice bit of ahhhh.
I'm trying out the Pandora stuff that Suds talked about. The Hub has it on pretty much every time i'm there. So far it seems a bit like, Yahoo launchcast with a slicker more "modern" interface. The thumbs up thumbs down are pretty one dimensional relative to the don't play this shit again up to i love it in 4 buttons (like Launch cast).
before completely judging it i'll wait.
And Distilled water loaded with copper oxide drys the holy hell out of your hands. Mine feel like i've got a pair of gloves that are way too tight right now. Me need moisture. Ouch.
Left hand looks like i lost a fight to feldman (which of course i'm sure i would if it came down to it, hell He's a fuckin maine coon cat...)
Now i'm wondering what this super mysterious announcement will be by mr yogurt boy? Stonyfield farm is going to sponsor a road team? They are gonna open an O Natural in Providence and Yogurt boy is going to head to the cycling mecca of New England (Providence, DUH) to run the store? Yogurt boy scored a new house away from the arial spraying from the crotchety old farmers intent on poisoning the earth? Stonyfield finally will make the switch to corn containers?
Rampant speculation abound... At least Cronoman will be showing up on Sunday for sure. Way too many wishy washy people. Going for along road ride instead of going to a cross race? The horrors you say. don't do it Dave... RACE... its only $20 and a few in gas. Its a nice drive out there man... With all the super fast folks not racing on a budget or training hard core out in New York it'll be... it'll be like Milford. Maybe one race a weekend for Zooski is plenty, don't want to overtax your engine.
Over at flickr appearantly there's this new thing. Okay i dunno how new, but, i've never heard of it. Its called a Panda Portrait. Yeah yeah i know i'm slow on the bike too. Stuff it. And yeah i have too much aggression. Must channel that into the bike come race day. Anyway, now there's a name for 'taking self portraits while riding the bike' might have to play around with that, see what i can get...
Oh the other thing i was thinking about... maybe i need a coach... i know, i know, back when it was just SB commenting and KL reading it (and Il Brucie in secret) i might have said not so positive things about those who need a coach... prompted by a coach writing about his coach for PEZ or Cyclingnews or something but, now... thinking, i've got questions that i really can't answer myself, q's like "what's the best race strategy for me at this point to approach the cross races" or what specifically do i need to focus on to augment my commuting miles to make me fast. On the other hand i'm a cheap ass bastard. definately inherited from my dad. but still hard core none-the-less. heck that's why i started working on my own car, and when i found its wicked simple and easy to fix cars and that there's freaking NO mystery about them (assuming you get your hands dirty, and actually start the process rather than wonder and speculate). So its been good in some respects. And yes i could probably sit down and figure out what my weaknesses are, esp post race. And figure out exactly what should be done to boost them. One thing i am pretty sure i know i need is at least one solid 2 hour ride a week for base and fitness. That's freaking impossible now though. So... skip that. Combating the cheapskate is the instant gratification urge. I want to know NOW. I don't want to spend years figuring this shit out. Although intutitively i know i need to spend the time to become fast anyway. It isn't like the 'local celebrity PRO'got a sweet kick ass sponsorship deal overnight. Ah well...
Oh and i've been thinking, that tall advantage stuff - our bikes are way freaking bigger than other people's... that means heavier (well more or less in general eh?)
Ahhh last bit put together. The freaking stage controller for the confocal... The last bit of broken bits of scopes is finally fixed. Ahhhhhhhh, the person on there now came out to ask why it wasn't working... the part had just come in... the weekend can finally come and i can race and relax knowing that there'll be a fresh batch of problems to deal with come monday! Whoooot.
Oh well... I think i may try the whole tub of Kozy Shack pre-race on Sunday morning. I'm still grumpy that i missed the farmer's market on Wed, no fresh peaches like the last batch...
So... fruits and nuts... peas and carrots... ladies and germs... this is the Tall skinny slow freak GeW signing off - heading out to the blissfully precipitation free outdoors for a nice mellow spin home... here's to hoping the WNW wind feels enough like a tail wind that i can spin nicely home (and i'm still torn, put a sensible gear on the p-mount to complicate things or stick with the 50 tooth...oh wait... i can't just remembered... i'm running a BB with a shorter spindle than spec and have no space for an inner ring... DUH)... oh well - here's to the spin... love the spin
-g
New water pump installed. All systems back up and everyone here is overjoyed at the turn around. *pats self on back*
Fingers chewed the hell up. Nothing like putting stainless fitting on with hands burried in water for an hour. That and i'm still gonna kick the designer of the system in the nutsack (assuming its a guy - in the way that a woman HAS to be smart enough not to design such a peice of crap).
Nice bit of ahhhh.
I'm trying out the Pandora stuff that Suds talked about. The Hub has it on pretty much every time i'm there. So far it seems a bit like, Yahoo launchcast with a slicker more "modern" interface. The thumbs up thumbs down are pretty one dimensional relative to the don't play this shit again up to i love it in 4 buttons (like Launch cast).
before completely judging it i'll wait.
And Distilled water loaded with copper oxide drys the holy hell out of your hands. Mine feel like i've got a pair of gloves that are way too tight right now. Me need moisture. Ouch.
Left hand looks like i lost a fight to feldman (which of course i'm sure i would if it came down to it, hell He's a fuckin maine coon cat...)
Now i'm wondering what this super mysterious announcement will be by mr yogurt boy? Stonyfield farm is going to sponsor a road team? They are gonna open an O Natural in Providence and Yogurt boy is going to head to the cycling mecca of New England (Providence, DUH) to run the store? Yogurt boy scored a new house away from the arial spraying from the crotchety old farmers intent on poisoning the earth? Stonyfield finally will make the switch to corn containers?
Rampant speculation abound... At least Cronoman will be showing up on Sunday for sure. Way too many wishy washy people. Going for along road ride instead of going to a cross race? The horrors you say. don't do it Dave... RACE... its only $20 and a few in gas. Its a nice drive out there man... With all the super fast folks not racing on a budget or training hard core out in New York it'll be... it'll be like Milford. Maybe one race a weekend for Zooski is plenty, don't want to overtax your engine.
Over at flickr appearantly there's this new thing. Okay i dunno how new, but, i've never heard of it. Its called a Panda Portrait. Yeah yeah i know i'm slow on the bike too. Stuff it. And yeah i have too much aggression. Must channel that into the bike come race day. Anyway, now there's a name for 'taking self portraits while riding the bike' might have to play around with that, see what i can get...
Oh the other thing i was thinking about... maybe i need a coach... i know, i know, back when it was just SB commenting and KL reading it (and Il Brucie in secret) i might have said not so positive things about those who need a coach... prompted by a coach writing about his coach for PEZ or Cyclingnews or something but, now... thinking, i've got questions that i really can't answer myself, q's like "what's the best race strategy for me at this point to approach the cross races" or what specifically do i need to focus on to augment my commuting miles to make me fast. On the other hand i'm a cheap ass bastard. definately inherited from my dad. but still hard core none-the-less. heck that's why i started working on my own car, and when i found its wicked simple and easy to fix cars and that there's freaking NO mystery about them (assuming you get your hands dirty, and actually start the process rather than wonder and speculate). So its been good in some respects. And yes i could probably sit down and figure out what my weaknesses are, esp post race. And figure out exactly what should be done to boost them. One thing i am pretty sure i know i need is at least one solid 2 hour ride a week for base and fitness. That's freaking impossible now though. So... skip that. Combating the cheapskate is the instant gratification urge. I want to know NOW. I don't want to spend years figuring this shit out. Although intutitively i know i need to spend the time to become fast anyway. It isn't like the 'local celebrity PRO'got a sweet kick ass sponsorship deal overnight. Ah well...
Oh and i've been thinking, that tall advantage stuff - our bikes are way freaking bigger than other people's... that means heavier (well more or less in general eh?)
Ahhh last bit put together. The freaking stage controller for the confocal... The last bit of broken bits of scopes is finally fixed. Ahhhhhhhh, the person on there now came out to ask why it wasn't working... the part had just come in... the weekend can finally come and i can race and relax knowing that there'll be a fresh batch of problems to deal with come monday! Whoooot.
Oh well... I think i may try the whole tub of Kozy Shack pre-race on Sunday morning. I'm still grumpy that i missed the farmer's market on Wed, no fresh peaches like the last batch...
So... fruits and nuts... peas and carrots... ladies and germs... this is the Tall skinny slow freak GeW signing off - heading out to the blissfully precipitation free outdoors for a nice mellow spin home... here's to hoping the WNW wind feels enough like a tail wind that i can spin nicely home (and i'm still torn, put a sensible gear on the p-mount to complicate things or stick with the 50 tooth...oh wait... i can't just remembered... i'm running a BB with a shorter spindle than spec and have no space for an inner ring... DUH)... oh well - here's to the spin... love the spin
-g
Hot links for vids
Now i know, they ain't ANYWHERE NEAR the level of Pro that MegA gets with her stuff.
That and these are just raw vid footage... i should take em all and put some music behind em and some transitional words explaining the stuff...
but that takes time...
Cross Vid 1
Cross Vid 2
Cross Vid 3
Cross Vid 4
Jonny's got some good stuff lately too... his content seems to have turned up a notch since getting nailed by the car. I guess sitting around painfully doing nothing all day can cause that.
That and these are just raw vid footage... i should take em all and put some music behind em and some transitional words explaining the stuff...
but that takes time...
Cross Vid 1
Cross Vid 2
Cross Vid 3
Cross Vid 4
Jonny's got some good stuff lately too... his content seems to have turned up a notch since getting nailed by the car. I guess sitting around painfully doing nothing all day can cause that.
Good Morning Fruits and Nuts
That would have been a better title if i'd had some museli for b-fast. Nah i just had a banana, some rasins, grapenuts and granola, with a cup of Hawthorne Valley Plain Organic "Nuturing the land that nutures us" Yogurt and some milk. Shared it with the littlest (we often share breakfast in the morning). So sort of close. But no nuts.
But i'm nuts... so that counts eh?
Good Morning to the Trade Show dival. The diminutive diva, and the even smaller Diva Geraldine. Which incidentally was the name of our toughest Ewe growing up. She was an all black sheep. The only one in the flock. gave birth to lots of the black faced white(ish) wooled lambs, mmm tastey. She was tough. She survived a pack of wild dogs, and lived 2x longer than any ewe we had or a friend (who also raised sheep and where she retired to after we-as a family- stopped having the time to take care of them) had. She was a tough but really gentle sheep. Pretty amazing gal.
That Compton vid that Movitfred the 3rd person talker posted sort of makes me think i should dig out my Nats vids and dump em up on Youtube... something to do between the emails and waiting for the waterpump to arrive...
Thinking about the cross and how to approach the first race, i got some great advice. Well, we'll see how good it turns out to be but it sounds extremely logical, reasonable, and like a perfect plan. It certainly at this point actually gives me a bit more confidence.
I'm starting to wonder about doing the jamestown race. And kinda thinking maybe i should just forgoe it. After racing at Gloucester the day before, and then doing a 38 mile road race? I'm thinkin i should stick with cross, not to mention there's a bunch of stuff i should be doing instead of racing (like getting the stuff out of the barn and into the house).
Here's the first Vid...
Yall smart enough to find the rest of em...
They are just 15f/s images off the digi cam...
so feast on the slop fest that was Nats!
The ride in this morning was rather tough actually. Hooked up with a fellow commuter, and he caught me somewhat early (w/in a mile of me getting on the path) and the tempo was rockin 19-20. Shit. I think the big bowl of cereal and the coffee must have reduced my lung capacity.
Which got me thinking.
Balancing lung capacity and stomach emptying. And hydration and all that.
Just something to think about.
Anyway, it hurt. The lungs were laggin this morning. I was able to carry on a conversation, but it was labored, more so than normal. I had a pretty hard ride home into the freaking wind last night. The Bike Computer is sitting there right now at 100 miles for the week (since monday morning). The average speed doesn't reflect the effort though. That very defensive city riding with the trailer (that's mostly all up hill, and hte down hill part being fraught with lights and stop signs) kills the avg speed. But its just over 8 hours on the bike with the potential to hit 9 hours before the week is over. And those are just commuting hours.
Yes i know, there are many people who get more hours on the bike a week, commuting even. And yes, there will always be people who are able to do much more than that just training. But. Its my step to being as car free as possible. Its my step to keeping that fat off. The amount i accumulated in Michigan was rather asounding. And i'm pissed. All the 34 waisted pants i've purchased over the last few months need belts to stay on. And i've got a pile of 36" pants that are like clown pants. Maybe they can be fabric for my oldest to start making stuff out of. Certainly one hell of a lot of fabric in a 36" 36" loose cut pair of jeans.
We'll see if the wind gives us a break for the ride home. not to mention the rain.
Rode in w/o precipitation. And at 56°F out there it felt positively balmy. I was wicked damn hot by the time i got to work.
Found a busted spoke on the GT (wife's bike) need to get a new one... all the spare spokes i've got are for the road wheels... no Mt bike spokes. Kinda cool though. Its an all LX shimano group from 1994. 7 speed. and pretty damn functional. Those rapid fire things still work perfectly. So hopefully i can dance between the raindrops and pop out to get a spoke its a 264 if i'm measuring it correctly. Downside is: the spoke is from the non-drive side, AND its an inside spoke... gotta pull the cassette. Oh well, no big deal... should be kinda fun eh?
and what's up with yogurt boy? ah well, see SB, you can not post for a week and people still check in... or am i the only one opening up specialfeltslave's ramblings still....
g- OUT
But i'm nuts... so that counts eh?
Good Morning to the Trade Show dival. The diminutive diva, and the even smaller Diva Geraldine. Which incidentally was the name of our toughest Ewe growing up. She was an all black sheep. The only one in the flock. gave birth to lots of the black faced white(ish) wooled lambs, mmm tastey. She was tough. She survived a pack of wild dogs, and lived 2x longer than any ewe we had or a friend (who also raised sheep and where she retired to after we-as a family- stopped having the time to take care of them) had. She was a tough but really gentle sheep. Pretty amazing gal.
That Compton vid that Movitfred the 3rd person talker posted sort of makes me think i should dig out my Nats vids and dump em up on Youtube... something to do between the emails and waiting for the waterpump to arrive...
Thinking about the cross and how to approach the first race, i got some great advice. Well, we'll see how good it turns out to be but it sounds extremely logical, reasonable, and like a perfect plan. It certainly at this point actually gives me a bit more confidence.
I'm starting to wonder about doing the jamestown race. And kinda thinking maybe i should just forgoe it. After racing at Gloucester the day before, and then doing a 38 mile road race? I'm thinkin i should stick with cross, not to mention there's a bunch of stuff i should be doing instead of racing (like getting the stuff out of the barn and into the house).
Here's the first Vid...
Yall smart enough to find the rest of em...
They are just 15f/s images off the digi cam...
so feast on the slop fest that was Nats!
The ride in this morning was rather tough actually. Hooked up with a fellow commuter, and he caught me somewhat early (w/in a mile of me getting on the path) and the tempo was rockin 19-20. Shit. I think the big bowl of cereal and the coffee must have reduced my lung capacity.
Which got me thinking.
Balancing lung capacity and stomach emptying. And hydration and all that.
Just something to think about.
Anyway, it hurt. The lungs were laggin this morning. I was able to carry on a conversation, but it was labored, more so than normal. I had a pretty hard ride home into the freaking wind last night. The Bike Computer is sitting there right now at 100 miles for the week (since monday morning). The average speed doesn't reflect the effort though. That very defensive city riding with the trailer (that's mostly all up hill, and hte down hill part being fraught with lights and stop signs) kills the avg speed. But its just over 8 hours on the bike with the potential to hit 9 hours before the week is over. And those are just commuting hours.
Yes i know, there are many people who get more hours on the bike a week, commuting even. And yes, there will always be people who are able to do much more than that just training. But. Its my step to being as car free as possible. Its my step to keeping that fat off. The amount i accumulated in Michigan was rather asounding. And i'm pissed. All the 34 waisted pants i've purchased over the last few months need belts to stay on. And i've got a pile of 36" pants that are like clown pants. Maybe they can be fabric for my oldest to start making stuff out of. Certainly one hell of a lot of fabric in a 36" 36" loose cut pair of jeans.
We'll see if the wind gives us a break for the ride home. not to mention the rain.
Rode in w/o precipitation. And at 56°F out there it felt positively balmy. I was wicked damn hot by the time i got to work.
Found a busted spoke on the GT (wife's bike) need to get a new one... all the spare spokes i've got are for the road wheels... no Mt bike spokes. Kinda cool though. Its an all LX shimano group from 1994. 7 speed. and pretty damn functional. Those rapid fire things still work perfectly. So hopefully i can dance between the raindrops and pop out to get a spoke its a 264 if i'm measuring it correctly. Downside is: the spoke is from the non-drive side, AND its an inside spoke... gotta pull the cassette. Oh well, no big deal... should be kinda fun eh?
and what's up with yogurt boy? ah well, see SB, you can not post for a week and people still check in... or am i the only one opening up specialfeltslave's ramblings still....
g- OUT
Thursday, September 28, 2006
ahhhhh
post lunch (maybe i just needed calories to feed the brain)
and post diagnosis and solution initiation, i feel much better.
stupid Procon pumps. Peices of shit. Dumb carbon vane pumps. Sure they have advantages. But when i was interviewing here they had someone in fixing them. And i'll wager my headache now is those people who charged a boat load to fix the chiller DID NOT prime the pump before operation. I had another pump that lost prime (on accident) and it lasted less than a year after that. So, new pump ordered. We'll see it tomorrow i hope.
Diggin through the pre-reg list for sunday... looking at the catchall Masters 35+ catagory... we've got a handful of 45+ guys with good placings (marro, borrello and callahan) toss in C-burke to that mix i'd wager. And then a bunch of folks all over the map. This race i predict will string the hell out. Will be intersting to see how the groups break down.
Will Borrello, Burke, Callahan and Marro be the front group?
From the promoter:
Reduced bottle neck will be good, i guess... here's to me trying to decide between going for broke at the start hoping to settle in, vs staying w/in the limits and slowly building... my gut and brain think i gotta blast off in the front, stick in the lead and find a point a few minutes into the race to equilize, cause time lost at the start sucks. I've had a shitty start and nothing like having to work through slower riders... but then i've also done the opposite, exploded out of the gate, and pulled the hole shot out of my ass and then had a core meltdown a few laps later... however if i can keep from having the core meldown i should be okay... 'course this is being said having no notion of my current ability stacking up to others outside the crits i got shredded on...
Here's what it looked like the other morning on the bike path:
and post diagnosis and solution initiation, i feel much better.
stupid Procon pumps. Peices of shit. Dumb carbon vane pumps. Sure they have advantages. But when i was interviewing here they had someone in fixing them. And i'll wager my headache now is those people who charged a boat load to fix the chiller DID NOT prime the pump before operation. I had another pump that lost prime (on accident) and it lasted less than a year after that. So, new pump ordered. We'll see it tomorrow i hope.
Diggin through the pre-reg list for sunday... looking at the catchall Masters 35+ catagory... we've got a handful of 45+ guys with good placings (marro, borrello and callahan) toss in C-burke to that mix i'd wager. And then a bunch of folks all over the map. This race i predict will string the hell out. Will be intersting to see how the groups break down.
Will Borrello, Burke, Callahan and Marro be the front group?
From the promoter:
The course is technical, but very fast, even in the rain, with plenty of
areas wide enough for passing; don't expect too much mud either, as the
ground packs nicely. The course is nearly identical to last year, but we
have changed the first two turns to accommodate the start better and
reduce the likelihood of a bottleneck.
Reduced bottle neck will be good, i guess... here's to me trying to decide between going for broke at the start hoping to settle in, vs staying w/in the limits and slowly building... my gut and brain think i gotta blast off in the front, stick in the lead and find a point a few minutes into the race to equilize, cause time lost at the start sucks. I've had a shitty start and nothing like having to work through slower riders... but then i've also done the opposite, exploded out of the gate, and pulled the hole shot out of my ass and then had a core meltdown a few laps later... however if i can keep from having the core meldown i should be okay... 'course this is being said having no notion of my current ability stacking up to others outside the crits i got shredded on...
Here's what it looked like the other morning on the bike path:
this explains alot
cnn on testosterone
explains why Landis sounds like he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer anymore....
explains why Landis sounds like he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer anymore....
its not working
coffee... banana... The Pogues...
Nuttin...
I ripped more or less the whole discography to the HD this AM (cause i own em but not on digital till now)... The Pogues kick ass... Too bad they went the way of most kick ass bands...
MF'n damn good band.
The Chiller ain't fixing itself. Seems its sucked every freaking emotion out of me and motivation to boot. F'n Hell man... F'n Hell...
i think it was the 3:30am Alarm clock followed by the real alarm at 6:15...
Oh and today was too warm for arm warmers. It was 48-50 when i left the house.
no gloves... but to be fair, i have a messenger bag on, and i'm towing the extra load.
But i'm also sleeping at night with just a sheet. Helps to keep the epidermal metabolism running at full steam. Acclimation.
My inspiration is drawn from the Haida (Queen Charlotte Island Native Tribe) who swam in the Straits every morning year round. If you can get the metablolitic motor running ya can keep pretty damn warm. IE wearing just a long sleeve skin suit all year ;)
problems show for the softies who sleep under mountains of blankets dress in billions of layers once the thermometer dips below the magic "60" mark...
Toughen up eh?
i'm in a wicked pisser mood today - no mr positive guy unless i manage to get the chiller working sooner than later... maybe that'll turn it around...
the coffee ain't working...
Nuttin...
I ripped more or less the whole discography to the HD this AM (cause i own em but not on digital till now)... The Pogues kick ass... Too bad they went the way of most kick ass bands...
MF'n damn good band.
The Chiller ain't fixing itself. Seems its sucked every freaking emotion out of me and motivation to boot. F'n Hell man... F'n Hell...
i think it was the 3:30am Alarm clock followed by the real alarm at 6:15...
Oh and today was too warm for arm warmers. It was 48-50 when i left the house.
no gloves... but to be fair, i have a messenger bag on, and i'm towing the extra load.
But i'm also sleeping at night with just a sheet. Helps to keep the epidermal metabolism running at full steam. Acclimation.
My inspiration is drawn from the Haida (Queen Charlotte Island Native Tribe) who swam in the Straits every morning year round. If you can get the metablolitic motor running ya can keep pretty damn warm. IE wearing just a long sleeve skin suit all year ;)
problems show for the softies who sleep under mountains of blankets dress in billions of layers once the thermometer dips below the magic "60" mark...
Toughen up eh?
i'm in a wicked pisser mood today - no mr positive guy unless i manage to get the chiller working sooner than later... maybe that'll turn it around...
the coffee ain't working...
alarm buzzers
Isn't it a wonderful way to start the day. Walk into the facility to hear one of the big systems screaming?
Water chiller took out two scopes. Well, more like temporarily disabled them.
MegA, thanks for the HU on the AHM switch to just plain old AM... that's embarassing...
Got the Croll sorted out. Needed to machine the rear hanger so it'd fit... PITA!
But... its cool... Bike's ready to go...
we'll see about me...
gonna be fun eh?
(fuggin blogger's all F'dUP)
and who ever designed the Haskris Chiller we have should be forced to remove the motors!!! farking NIGHTMARE...
Water chiller took out two scopes. Well, more like temporarily disabled them.
MegA, thanks for the HU on the AHM switch to just plain old AM... that's embarassing...
Got the Croll sorted out. Needed to machine the rear hanger so it'd fit... PITA!
But... its cool... Bike's ready to go...
we'll see about me...
gonna be fun eh?
(fuggin blogger's all F'dUP)
and who ever designed the Haskris Chiller we have should be forced to remove the motors!!! farking NIGHTMARE...
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
a quote for the end of the day
In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite.
- Paul Dirac
- Paul Dirac
Double Doh... and other thoughts
Double doh is BCC related... (the college cycling club here).
Down at the other place after a training i ran into big G, as in Graham Garber. He related to me the disaster from the morning. The ride add goes something like this:
so SB will know the roads and even cronoman too. They are toolin along, on TT bikes, doing 27-28 right around Cater Salvage and a car pulls out in front of them...
A group of at least 4 people, 3 go down. One is the fearless leader of the team (The Mad Frenchman). She is over the bike, the bars, and land on the back of her head and separates her shoulder. and is bleeding and cut up everywhere. The woman driving the car stops, The mad frenchman is screaming on the ground and when the rest of the cyclists head to her aid the woman in the car gets back in and drives off. Police know what driveway and what kinda car it was. So hopefully they'll do their part. Thus ended the ride. Instead of returning to the expected destination by 8:30... they all spend the morning at Miriam Hospital, yet again. Yet again because I guess that's where the mad frenchman went about 3 weeks ago after a phred on the club ride took out a bunch of people, one of them bein... you guessed it.
Double Doh, in that I was chattin at the hub picking up the cable hanger for the Croll, and looking into a set of Velocity Deep V wheels (build up to be bomb proof w/32 holes). And that Italian gal who used to ride for Dansko, first initial G. Walked past, chatted with Jesse, i saw her - waved and went back to talking to Jack and i turn around to leave... she's gone. A wave? That's it? Humph. No hello? No chance to ask if she's gonna pull the cross bike out and race?
Oh well.
Velocity Deep V rims have a damn fine rep with the messenger fixie crowd down at the Hub. Now i just have to decide between droppin 3 bills on a wheel set or like 8 on a complete new commuter bike that's better suited to the purpose than the poor old paramount. Which with its steep seat angles and Ishiwada lugs and Columbus tubing, deserves more than to be hooked up like a freaking pack horse to a buggy for the rest of its life.
Il brucie sent me the add for the Honda Diesel that i guess Big Jonny posted... yeah i've seen it. A year or so ago when they made the introduction in the UK. Guess what. They are a hot seller in that market. Bring them the hell over here. Damnit!
A honda with wicked great fuel economy, no batteries that can run on 100% veggie fuel? Make the farmers happy (at least the soybean ones for now). Ah well.
If ya don't feel like diggin through Big Jonny's porn infested page (i've pretty much given up on clicking on that stuff there, been like way more than 6 months since even opening one of his "links" i mean one of the three up top): here's what El Gordo sent me: http://ventilate.ca/news_updates/smith_03.html
that and a different email with commuter stuff - out of the Denver fishwrap:
http://www.denverpost.com/lifestyles/ci_4386932
http://www.denverpost.com/lifestyles/ci_4387037
More reading over at the LFB from the frame builders:
this guy i like alot
19- there's always a few customers like that at everyshop... we had three or four back in Michigan. In Seattle, there were a few crazies, but the shop honestly wasn't that busy other than the regular bike repair traffic and the folks that brought us their bikes generally came specifically to the shop so it wasn't that bad, the loonies went up the street to the Velo Store's front by REI.
20 - weight paranoia... damn straight pimpin man...
and 30... bwahahahahah... Lance's books must have George W Shrub as the target reading level audience, cause they definately suck major ass on the writing level.
--the crash report just came through the club email list--
it makes me very melancholy to know that a friend was on a ride and got nailed by a car.... and wound up in the ER...
here's to yall being safe out there...
peace out,
G
Down at the other place after a training i ran into big G, as in Graham Garber. He related to me the disaster from the morning. The ride add goes something like this:
OK if you are one of the people that refers to 5 minutes late as "Graham Time" we are meeting at the corner of Waterman and Hope at 6:55am tomorrow morning for the Team Time Trial ride.
If you operate on Swiss precision timing you should be there at 7am.
We will be heading east and looping out past Carter's Auto salvage (Jean this is passing your house at 7:08 am Swiss time, 7:03 am "Graham Time".
The average speed tomorrow will be 20 mph for the entire ride and we will be back by 8:30am - we will be on 118 to rt 44 back in to town.
so SB will know the roads and even cronoman too. They are toolin along, on TT bikes, doing 27-28 right around Cater Salvage and a car pulls out in front of them...
A group of at least 4 people, 3 go down. One is the fearless leader of the team (The Mad Frenchman). She is over the bike, the bars, and land on the back of her head and separates her shoulder. and is bleeding and cut up everywhere. The woman driving the car stops, The mad frenchman is screaming on the ground and when the rest of the cyclists head to her aid the woman in the car gets back in and drives off. Police know what driveway and what kinda car it was. So hopefully they'll do their part. Thus ended the ride. Instead of returning to the expected destination by 8:30... they all spend the morning at Miriam Hospital, yet again. Yet again because I guess that's where the mad frenchman went about 3 weeks ago after a phred on the club ride took out a bunch of people, one of them bein... you guessed it.
Double Doh, in that I was chattin at the hub picking up the cable hanger for the Croll, and looking into a set of Velocity Deep V wheels (build up to be bomb proof w/32 holes). And that Italian gal who used to ride for Dansko, first initial G. Walked past, chatted with Jesse, i saw her - waved and went back to talking to Jack and i turn around to leave... she's gone. A wave? That's it? Humph. No hello? No chance to ask if she's gonna pull the cross bike out and race?
Oh well.
Velocity Deep V rims have a damn fine rep with the messenger fixie crowd down at the Hub. Now i just have to decide between droppin 3 bills on a wheel set or like 8 on a complete new commuter bike that's better suited to the purpose than the poor old paramount. Which with its steep seat angles and Ishiwada lugs and Columbus tubing, deserves more than to be hooked up like a freaking pack horse to a buggy for the rest of its life.
Il brucie sent me the add for the Honda Diesel that i guess Big Jonny posted... yeah i've seen it. A year or so ago when they made the introduction in the UK. Guess what. They are a hot seller in that market. Bring them the hell over here. Damnit!
A honda with wicked great fuel economy, no batteries that can run on 100% veggie fuel? Make the farmers happy (at least the soybean ones for now). Ah well.
If ya don't feel like diggin through Big Jonny's porn infested page (i've pretty much given up on clicking on that stuff there, been like way more than 6 months since even opening one of his "links" i mean one of the three up top): here's what El Gordo sent me: http://ventilate.ca/news_updates/smith_03.html
that and a different email with commuter stuff - out of the Denver fishwrap:
http://www.denverpost.com/lifestyles/ci_4386932
http://www.denverpost.com/lifestyles/ci_4387037
More reading over at the LFB from the frame builders:
this guy i like alot
19. What defines a nightmare client in your experience?
I have had only one bad chap, I told him halfway through building his bike, he can have it and his deposit back. He was mania. He did not seem to trust anything I was doing so I asked him why I was building his bike. He apologised and I made the frame. Later I learnt from friends that he was well known in bike shops in his home city of Canberra and they fear him. The one who has to serve him is the one who did not see him coming through the door.
21. What do you find most funny or peculiar (in a kind way-not brutal) about the cycle-buying public... what don't they get or aren't they seeing?
Irrational paranoia about weight. Also when they don't have the latest hi tech crap then they think their cycling pleasure is compromised, which of course is total nonsense. I get a bit disappointed when they think a piece of "carbon whatever" will actually put more watts on the pedals. Is that too brutal?
27. Could you ever see yourself being Car Free... just using mass-transportation and your bike to get around?
Oh yeah. I only drive to the organic markets on Saturday morning. Bring on the bike movement.
30. If you could say one thing to Lance Armstrong what would it be?
"Tell the truth! and get a decent writer next time for your books"
19- there's always a few customers like that at everyshop... we had three or four back in Michigan. In Seattle, there were a few crazies, but the shop honestly wasn't that busy other than the regular bike repair traffic and the folks that brought us their bikes generally came specifically to the shop so it wasn't that bad, the loonies went up the street to the Velo Store's front by REI.
20 - weight paranoia... damn straight pimpin man...
and 30... bwahahahahah... Lance's books must have George W Shrub as the target reading level audience, cause they definately suck major ass on the writing level.
--the crash report just came through the club email list--
it makes me very melancholy to know that a friend was on a ride and got nailed by a car.... and wound up in the ER...
here's to yall being safe out there...
peace out,
G
FBQ series
i'm only 1/2 through the second one... good stuff:
this comment promted me to document my daily distraction
LOL not terribly well aligned... you can say that again. Its pretty funny. Cause i've seen numerous "fancy" carbon forks have major issues, alignment, noise, debonding, stuff ya rarely see on a well made steel fork.
Sure they save weight, but at what cost? And so you order a Fancy $800 carbon fork, and its hosed. But ya don't find out until the steertube is cut and ya've ridden it.
What then?
i haven't had to deal with the 'what then side of it all' but its still something to think about...
sort of like all the shitty crap aluminum cookie cutter frames on the market. How the hell do you know they are perfectly aligned? Not to mention the aluminum bikes with the intergrated headsets. When that head tube ovalizes (when not if) you are hosed. Ie alloy bikes with integrated headsets (unless they are built like the klein MC stuff) are disposable frames. Just hope ya ain't the one buyin the used up dregs from someone else...
this comment promted me to document my daily distraction
21. What do you find most funny or peculiar (in a kind way-not brutal) about the cycle-buying public... what don't they get or aren't they seeing?
The current fad of carbon forks. They are light but not terrible well aligned or accurate.
LOL not terribly well aligned... you can say that again. Its pretty funny. Cause i've seen numerous "fancy" carbon forks have major issues, alignment, noise, debonding, stuff ya rarely see on a well made steel fork.
Sure they save weight, but at what cost? And so you order a Fancy $800 carbon fork, and its hosed. But ya don't find out until the steertube is cut and ya've ridden it.
What then?
i haven't had to deal with the 'what then side of it all' but its still something to think about...
sort of like all the shitty crap aluminum cookie cutter frames on the market. How the hell do you know they are perfectly aligned? Not to mention the aluminum bikes with the intergrated headsets. When that head tube ovalizes (when not if) you are hosed. Ie alloy bikes with integrated headsets (unless they are built like the klein MC stuff) are disposable frames. Just hope ya ain't the one buyin the used up dregs from someone else...
never fails
The days i'm riding home and think "i'm gonna take it easy" a team mate or someone always seems to appear to prevent that from happening.
Last night it was the new Master's Cross King Curtis. New as in I believe i heard him say its his first year racing 35+. Like me his season is just starting, unlike me he's been doing it in NE for a long time. Unlike me, he's fast. Okay so maybe the sandlot picking somepeople just arn't meant to be althlets comment by the vociferous blabbermouth solobust sort a got to me. Maybe i can't ever be competitive. I hope to prove that wrong. But it leaves me wondering if i'm lacking something somewhere that i can't train into a super competitor. Granted i am wicked competitive. Duh. Oldest of 4 boys, compete compete compete. And when it came to mechanical stuff and putting things together i could often win no problem. But they don't hand medals out to mechanics. And after last nights fumbling with the cross bike (putting on the rear brakes) man, ya'd think i was a hack. It took an hour. Most of which was spent looking through parts for a freaking missing rear bake hanger thing (i made due with zipties for now) and finding tools. Why is it when i am looking for my 9 mm box wrench all i can find are 10mm ones? Last night all i could find were 9mm ones. They don't work so well for setting up cantilever brakes.
I did find my old ancient Deore Brakes. Back when there was Deore and Deore XT (1989). I didn't get around to de-powering the front brakes. I found my second set of clincher cross tires, i thought i had a third set, but i guess not. shit...
So the ride home, while not wicked fast like the previous time crunch ride, Curtis went flyin down the hill off Vet and i took it easy (some what blind sweeping down hill, with trailer and brakes that need some planning to make an emergency stop when going more than 15-20mph). So there was a gap. well fuck lets see what this can do... wind it up... 50-14 hit 33.8 mph (according to the top speed on the computer). With trailer. It hurt. And of course then we kept it around 20-21 so i had to work while recovering. Which was good. and seen as he rode with me all the way to w/in a block of the house... i did a couple blocks really slowly while pedaling backwards to try and help flush and it seems to work well. Legs felt pretty good this morning. And the weather was perfect.
44° when i left the house. Temp was perfect. Wore arm warmers and shorts with plain ss jersey.
Bring on the cold crappy weather! BRING IT ON
Yahoo seems to befucmessing with me... they are stuck on Frazz for 9-25. Crap So search and here we go: 30 days of Frazz i like today's. No cookies? Bring GU. MUAHAHAHAH
that'd be funny.
had a run in this morning - i already got the recounting out of my system and will forgoe boring yall with the details. It was pretty minor and rather amusing. its nice being in complete control sometimes eh? It was post dropping off the kid - so me and empty trailer were able to point out rather illegal and stupid shit someone did... They didn't like the attention. hell i even got him to jump out of the car... but him being down hill added to my massive height... musta made him think more than once about having got out of the car.
In time i'll have some more of the Patrick O'Grady cross specific toons up... maybe i'll do a few of the doping ones too.
well dopes...
peace out eh?
Last night it was the new Master's Cross King Curtis. New as in I believe i heard him say its his first year racing 35+. Like me his season is just starting, unlike me he's been doing it in NE for a long time. Unlike me, he's fast. Okay so maybe the sandlot picking somepeople just arn't meant to be althlets comment by the vociferous blabbermouth solobust sort a got to me. Maybe i can't ever be competitive. I hope to prove that wrong. But it leaves me wondering if i'm lacking something somewhere that i can't train into a super competitor. Granted i am wicked competitive. Duh. Oldest of 4 boys, compete compete compete. And when it came to mechanical stuff and putting things together i could often win no problem. But they don't hand medals out to mechanics. And after last nights fumbling with the cross bike (putting on the rear brakes) man, ya'd think i was a hack. It took an hour. Most of which was spent looking through parts for a freaking missing rear bake hanger thing (i made due with zipties for now) and finding tools. Why is it when i am looking for my 9 mm box wrench all i can find are 10mm ones? Last night all i could find were 9mm ones. They don't work so well for setting up cantilever brakes.
I did find my old ancient Deore Brakes. Back when there was Deore and Deore XT (1989). I didn't get around to de-powering the front brakes. I found my second set of clincher cross tires, i thought i had a third set, but i guess not. shit...
So the ride home, while not wicked fast like the previous time crunch ride, Curtis went flyin down the hill off Vet and i took it easy (some what blind sweeping down hill, with trailer and brakes that need some planning to make an emergency stop when going more than 15-20mph). So there was a gap. well fuck lets see what this can do... wind it up... 50-14 hit 33.8 mph (according to the top speed on the computer). With trailer. It hurt. And of course then we kept it around 20-21 so i had to work while recovering. Which was good. and seen as he rode with me all the way to w/in a block of the house... i did a couple blocks really slowly while pedaling backwards to try and help flush and it seems to work well. Legs felt pretty good this morning. And the weather was perfect.
44° when i left the house. Temp was perfect. Wore arm warmers and shorts with plain ss jersey.
Bring on the cold crappy weather! BRING IT ON
Yahoo seems to be
that'd be funny.
had a run in this morning - i already got the recounting out of my system and will forgoe boring yall with the details. It was pretty minor and rather amusing. its nice being in complete control sometimes eh? It was post dropping off the kid - so me and empty trailer were able to point out rather illegal and stupid shit someone did... They didn't like the attention. hell i even got him to jump out of the car... but him being down hill added to my massive height... musta made him think more than once about having got out of the car.
In time i'll have some more of the Patrick O'Grady cross specific toons up... maybe i'll do a few of the doping ones too.
well dopes...
peace out eh?
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Cross Cartoonage part 1
The Master Patrick O'Grady Mr. Mad Dog Media Mogule (sitting in Vegas with KL, maybe we'll see the puppet in a cartoon? no? Kerry, get on it!).
Oh and the training thing. SB's comment about listening to the rollers spurred a forgotten thought from the ride in.
My chain is making noise. Not the dry "I NEED LUBE" noise, no its the "i'm loose and wet" yeah kinda like a...never mind - was gonna pull a vegas hooker reference but that's too crude eh?
So anyway this noise, i was noticing, is pretty constant. I forced a fucked up pedaling motion and got it to go from a contant whirr to a WHIRR... WHIRR... cooooool back to the normal whirrrrrrr....
C-burke was commenting when we headed south on the EBBP that his unlubed noise chain was a patent opportunity. A pedal stroke feedback device. Maybe i mentioned it before.
Anyway... as Dave and yogurt boy may have noticed the trailer will start occilating if you have a messed up stroke... smooth application of power yeah baby yeah...
Okay - more Cross Toons to come. All taken from the book: The Season Starts When? Buy your copy NOW (where ever you can find it).
peace out - and time to practice Cross baby Cross...
(for the record i'm probably listening to music that would make Marro put a ball point pen through his ear drums... Basement Jaxx... that is unless the legend that is Marro is grossly mis-represented by SB)
Cross thoughts from the DVD
watching the stick figures like me racing around, compared to the less vertically challenged riders in the vid...
watch the heads... on the barriers... tall dudes heads didn't change altitude, short dudes had to put in some elevation to go over...
elevation = energy
is that a tall dude secret?
or is it that being that skinny the secret?
I know these musing on the advantages of being some freaking tree probably ain't as helpful or motivational for some of the more vertically challenged out there who might happen to stumble over here... but... keep in mind - i need all the positive stuff to help over come and kick my inner critic in the nutsack.
watch the heads... on the barriers... tall dudes heads didn't change altitude, short dudes had to put in some elevation to go over...
elevation = energy
is that a tall dude secret?
or is it that being that skinny the secret?
I know these musing on the advantages of being some freaking tree probably ain't as helpful or motivational for some of the more vertically challenged out there who might happen to stumble over here... but... keep in mind - i need all the positive stuff to help over come and kick my inner critic in the nutsack.
Transition
A review.
Adamn talks too much. But has some good stuff to say. Not enough racing footage, but what is there is great.
Deaner (Geoff Kabush) is nuts, and must be one of the british Canadian's based on those teeth.
its wicked fucking inspiring to see freaks like me competing at the Elite level. Specifically Trebon and Wicks.
It was a great evening last night with the girls while my wife worked a Booze distributor's sales pitch/wine & beer tasting at the Museum. I was late leaving work. Left the Day care at 4:44, i HAVE to be at the school to pick up the oldest by 5:30. Its 8 miles or so home, with the trailer, in heavy traffic (till the EBBP). Where i then have to get in the car, and drive 5-10 minutes to the school.
I made it to the school just after 5:20. Not once did i hit below 20 mph (stop signs and that one hill excluded). After bombing down on to the EBBP i made an observation. I was chuggin away at 22-23 in a big gear, i clicked down, cadence went up, and i felt faster. Wasn't going any faster, but the effort was less and i felt much more efficient. I do believe i'm making progress! WHOOT.
It was a solid interval. hard core all out hell... 10 minute warm up to the day care so at least it wasn't done cold. But i shut it down cold. and my legs were telling me all about it this morning when i woke up and walked downstairs.
This morning wasn't so bad riding in. just a bit cooked
Anyway, got home, whipped up a batch of the soup:
1/2 sweet onion
bottom of pot covered in extra virgin olive oil
2 carrots
1 med size parsnip
2 stalks celery
1 med-sm turnip
1 yukon gold potatoe
1 sm delicata squash
1 sm acorn squash
1 sm garnet yam
1 sm jewel yam
2 zuchinni
5 big leaves of Red Kale
1 cup red lentils
2 tbls BTB veggie stock concetrate
lots of garlic pressed ginger
a touch of dried basil
Corinader, cumin, marsala curry powder (small bit of all)
dash of rice wine vinegar
splash of soy sauce
splash of balsalmic vinegar
Lots of water
Cooked down, then blended with a Braun stick blender
Served with Cous-Cous and Parma Cheese (fresh block stuff, best if shaved with a veggie pealer vs grated) -and for me lots of hot sauce.
Got through making that while they played. We ate.
Homework time so I watched Transition playing with the littlest.
Wife made it home 1.5 hours late with 4 opened bottles and one unopened bottle of spanish sparkling wine. The Pinot Grigio she brought home has a label that KL's new link "Pink Bicycles" would die for. Maybe the wine's in the stores but from what it sounds like it was a mess of unknown wines that the distributor was trying to get restaurants and liquor stores to sell.
I'll get a photo of the label some time.
Transition got me psyced up.
Heck i even tried to work in the bike room with the littlest. She had patience to watch me for about 15 minutes. Long enough for me to find the rear brakes and a straddle cable, but not a rear hanger. I know i have one... I think. but... i may just be doing the ziptie a bit of cable and hope that works to route the rear brakes (no straddle is built into this bike).
Also couldn't help but notice that one or both of the Kona Towers (Treefarm and Nasty) was using the concor saddle. Cool.
I wonder what tires/pressure they run. It was cool seeing adam Mcgrath wrenchin on (gully's?) bikes.
Here's to hoping for shitty weather this year on the weekends, but just shitty enough to be cold and mucky, but not shitty enough to keep the spectators (loved ones) home.
oh and i succumbed to the request for pancakes this morning and made a batch up. Mmmmm pancakes. they go well with coffee and email
oh and read this...
Lots of great cross nuggest there like:
24. In three words or less, describe how you feel about top mount
cross brake levers.
Dead weight.
Zoo and Murat:
30. Is there another rider you train with regularly?
I train by myself.
for me a big "DOH"
31. Why do you think the Europeans are so much faster than the US
crossers?
1. Larger pool of talent is drawn to ‘cross over there; here
other sports siphon off the best athletes. 2. Old-school training
methods; yes, you need to do hard 5 hour training rides for cross. The
U.S training philosophy of specificity (aka, train for 2 hours), does
not quite cut it. 3. Doping. Probably most of the top Euro’s are on some
sort of program.
Adamn talks too much. But has some good stuff to say. Not enough racing footage, but what is there is great.
Deaner (Geoff Kabush) is nuts, and must be one of the british Canadian's based on those teeth.
its wicked fucking inspiring to see freaks like me competing at the Elite level. Specifically Trebon and Wicks.
It was a great evening last night with the girls while my wife worked a Booze distributor's sales pitch/wine & beer tasting at the Museum. I was late leaving work. Left the Day care at 4:44, i HAVE to be at the school to pick up the oldest by 5:30. Its 8 miles or so home, with the trailer, in heavy traffic (till the EBBP). Where i then have to get in the car, and drive 5-10 minutes to the school.
I made it to the school just after 5:20. Not once did i hit below 20 mph (stop signs and that one hill excluded). After bombing down on to the EBBP i made an observation. I was chuggin away at 22-23 in a big gear, i clicked down, cadence went up, and i felt faster. Wasn't going any faster, but the effort was less and i felt much more efficient. I do believe i'm making progress! WHOOT.
It was a solid interval. hard core all out hell... 10 minute warm up to the day care so at least it wasn't done cold. But i shut it down cold. and my legs were telling me all about it this morning when i woke up and walked downstairs.
This morning wasn't so bad riding in. just a bit cooked
Anyway, got home, whipped up a batch of the soup:
1/2 sweet onion
bottom of pot covered in extra virgin olive oil
2 carrots
1 med size parsnip
2 stalks celery
1 med-sm turnip
1 yukon gold potatoe
1 sm delicata squash
1 sm acorn squash
1 sm garnet yam
1 sm jewel yam
2 zuchinni
5 big leaves of Red Kale
1 cup red lentils
2 tbls BTB veggie stock concetrate
lots of garlic pressed ginger
a touch of dried basil
Corinader, cumin, marsala curry powder (small bit of all)
dash of rice wine vinegar
splash of soy sauce
splash of balsalmic vinegar
Lots of water
Cooked down, then blended with a Braun stick blender
Served with Cous-Cous and Parma Cheese (fresh block stuff, best if shaved with a veggie pealer vs grated) -and for me lots of hot sauce.
Got through making that while they played. We ate.
Homework time so I watched Transition playing with the littlest.
Wife made it home 1.5 hours late with 4 opened bottles and one unopened bottle of spanish sparkling wine. The Pinot Grigio she brought home has a label that KL's new link "Pink Bicycles" would die for. Maybe the wine's in the stores but from what it sounds like it was a mess of unknown wines that the distributor was trying to get restaurants and liquor stores to sell.
I'll get a photo of the label some time.
Transition got me psyced up.
Heck i even tried to work in the bike room with the littlest. She had patience to watch me for about 15 minutes. Long enough for me to find the rear brakes and a straddle cable, but not a rear hanger. I know i have one... I think. but... i may just be doing the ziptie a bit of cable and hope that works to route the rear brakes (no straddle is built into this bike).
Also couldn't help but notice that one or both of the Kona Towers (Treefarm and Nasty) was using the concor saddle. Cool.
I wonder what tires/pressure they run. It was cool seeing adam Mcgrath wrenchin on (gully's?) bikes.
Here's to hoping for shitty weather this year on the weekends, but just shitty enough to be cold and mucky, but not shitty enough to keep the spectators (loved ones) home.
oh and i succumbed to the request for pancakes this morning and made a batch up. Mmmmm pancakes. they go well with coffee and email
oh and read this...
Lots of great cross nuggest there like:
24. In three words or less, describe how you feel about top mount
cross brake levers.
Dead weight.
Zoo and Murat:
30. Is there another rider you train with regularly?
I train by myself.
for me a big "DOH"
31. Why do you think the Europeans are so much faster than the US
crossers?
1. Larger pool of talent is drawn to ‘cross over there; here
other sports siphon off the best athletes. 2. Old-school training
methods; yes, you need to do hard 5 hour training rides for cross. The
U.S training philosophy of specificity (aka, train for 2 hours), does
not quite cut it. 3. Doping. Probably most of the top Euro’s are on some
sort of program.
Monday, September 25, 2006
would it reveal too much to say
I am a HUGE fan of Tim Gunn. That guy is flat out a serious role model. To apply his ethic and ability to cycling, microscopy, teaching in any vein would be to succeed beyond the wildest expectations.
His manner, his phrasing, and his command of the language is fantastic.
The questions he fields (in this article) and the answers he offers are refreshingly honest and truthful.
And if you find yourself saying "Who's Tim Gunn?" Dig up Project Runway on Google or go to the source at BravoTV.
We just finished the second season DVD. Can't wait for the 3rd season to hit the shelves. That and watching "tv" w/o commecial interuption is awesome.
His manner, his phrasing, and his command of the language is fantastic.
The questions he fields (in this article) and the answers he offers are refreshingly honest and truthful.
And if you find yourself saying "Who's Tim Gunn?" Dig up Project Runway on Google or go to the source at BravoTV.
We just finished the second season DVD. Can't wait for the 3rd season to hit the shelves. That and watching "tv" w/o commecial interuption is awesome.
who's going?
to Coonamessett Farm, besides Marro?
The Race venue (farm) looks to be pretty cool eh? Would be fun for the Yogurt Girls to run around at? No?
And man if short stuff just simplifies more on her links. Zoo's comments about the demotion musta registered and brought up the adjustment to the front when she added the other links...
Don't it figure - the day i need to go grab lunch and make a few Verizon to Verizon mobile calls (free ya know) my battery dies and i leave the charger at home.
oh well...
that and i'm an idiot... me thought Gloucester MASS was a week later than it is... DOH!!!
so that'll be my 'second' race. Need to decide if i do both. No, i have yet to register. But "my" field isn't so exactly bursting like some of the 125 limted $ paying venues... Maybe i head up Sat morning, race, check things out, come home, sleep, load girls up in the AM Race and then peep the rest o the races and hang out. Much of all of it depends on the grace of my spouse and her state of health. The mono crap has her Immune function wicked depressed. Not good. Fingers cross (cross... eh? funny? no?) she will be good to go sooner than later. Maybe i need to find a race sitter. Race Sitter= bike racer NOT racing in your group that can watch the kids until ya blow up and can wrangle them together, wages often can be enough to cover the Race Sitter's entry fees....
The Race venue (farm) looks to be pretty cool eh? Would be fun for the Yogurt Girls to run around at? No?
And man if short stuff just simplifies more on her links. Zoo's comments about the demotion musta registered and brought up the adjustment to the front when she added the other links...
Don't it figure - the day i need to go grab lunch and make a few Verizon to Verizon mobile calls (free ya know) my battery dies and i leave the charger at home.
oh well...
that and i'm an idiot... me thought Gloucester MASS was a week later than it is... DOH!!!
so that'll be my 'second' race. Need to decide if i do both. No, i have yet to register. But "my" field isn't so exactly bursting like some of the 125 limted $ paying venues... Maybe i head up Sat morning, race, check things out, come home, sleep, load girls up in the AM Race and then peep the rest o the races and hang out. Much of all of it depends on the grace of my spouse and her state of health. The mono crap has her Immune function wicked depressed. Not good. Fingers cross (cross... eh? funny? no?) she will be good to go sooner than later. Maybe i need to find a race sitter. Race Sitter= bike racer NOT racing in your group that can watch the kids until ya blow up and can wrangle them together, wages often can be enough to cover the Race Sitter's entry fees....
so many things
fer craps sake
where do i start?
I've got a daughter saying "Can I have some Kozy Shack" non stop now. What beast did i unleash?
I gotta admit - Euro Style Rice pudding with fresh peachs freaking is the elixir of the gods. SOOOOOOOOOO tastey. MMM filling too. That Kozy shack has the right balance of fat, protein, and carbs. And it tasts good.
Yogurt's nice and all but it ain't Kozy Shack.
And I'd say Horizon is more the Evil Empire than Dannon. At least dannon doesn't make any false claims.
Stupid football. WTF why can't MSU pull a win out of their ass?
The center goes down and they get hosed. Racking up 40 yards in penalties on one drive? 4th and 42 is not a good down. Man that just sucked. What sucked more is that i stayed up till midnight watching the fucking game.
Then i had to see if Denver would pull the miracle and go 12 quarters without allowing a TD. But they decided to get complacent and let Brady actually complete a pass. Maybe the dude on the Bronco's D puking wasn't so good.
On the flip side my FFL team kicks some SERIOUS ass. But it wasn't much of a football day except for the last game of the night.
Managed to collect all my bike parts for the most part into one space. Pulled the Mt bikes out. Man they need to be ridden.
Cross bike pics... hmmm... IIRC i might have a shot of it. Yeah... here's one. Just for dave. Was gonna be a smart ass and say "come out to Falmouth" if ya wanna see it but here it is:
changes.
Rear brakes will match the front. Front pads are getting changed - hopefully... that or i'm oiling the pads...
Tires on there be roadies - it ain't go them now...
w/b cage getting ditched.
But i'm keeping the gearing, for now, gonna keep the double up front.
Running:
On the way in today i tried something, for just over a mile (1600-1800 meters or so) I cranked it over just using the hammies. and noticed a difference. a touch more power there. Its a concious effort on my part to pedal circles. Even when i start mashing, even standing up, its never just quad effort, always drawin on the hammie. And duh yeah ya supposed to. But it wasn't always that way. It ain't always natural. But it also i think helped a bit on the run ups that i do use the Hammies even when bombing around and commuting. The muscles aren't totally hosed there.
But we'll see won't we. We'll see how hosed they are on sunday eh? Whats up with Solobreak and the generousness of the comments? I'm confused. Owing in large part to me being insane (as he also correctly pointed out) i'm sure. Generous in the tone and content? Or Generous in the quantity. I'd hazard he's refering to the former.
There's so much content out there today. So much going on in the real world two. Juggling them both. a challenge itself...
Looking forward to seeing Sailorman over at the CX race on sunday... he'll make a rare trip off the island, so he says. Life is good. Life is fun. Small feats like fixing the wipers on the car, or finally getting the storage shelves re-built in the basement, and unpacking a few more boxes, and pulling more stuff out of storage. its all positive, helps to overshawdow the challenges. And my inner critic seems to make the challenges always out to be more than they are.
Oh and the soup. didn't get made last night. Team BBQ took precidence and turned into dinner. It was fun. Good group. Small group, but a host of good guys.
Lets move on, be positive. Must be positive. Must be gracious. must not overlook by accident or ommision any opportunity to say thank you or to compliment others.
peace yall
G
where do i start?
I've got a daughter saying "Can I have some Kozy Shack" non stop now. What beast did i unleash?
I gotta admit - Euro Style Rice pudding with fresh peachs freaking is the elixir of the gods. SOOOOOOOOOO tastey. MMM filling too. That Kozy shack has the right balance of fat, protein, and carbs. And it tasts good.
Yogurt's nice and all but it ain't Kozy Shack.
And I'd say Horizon is more the Evil Empire than Dannon. At least dannon doesn't make any false claims.
Stupid football. WTF why can't MSU pull a win out of their ass?
The center goes down and they get hosed. Racking up 40 yards in penalties on one drive? 4th and 42 is not a good down. Man that just sucked. What sucked more is that i stayed up till midnight watching the fucking game.
Then i had to see if Denver would pull the miracle and go 12 quarters without allowing a TD. But they decided to get complacent and let Brady actually complete a pass. Maybe the dude on the Bronco's D puking wasn't so good.
On the flip side my FFL team kicks some SERIOUS ass. But it wasn't much of a football day except for the last game of the night.
Managed to collect all my bike parts for the most part into one space. Pulled the Mt bikes out. Man they need to be ridden.
Cross bike pics... hmmm... IIRC i might have a shot of it. Yeah... here's one. Just for dave. Was gonna be a smart ass and say "come out to Falmouth" if ya wanna see it but here it is:
changes.
Rear brakes will match the front. Front pads are getting changed - hopefully... that or i'm oiling the pads...
Tires on there be roadies - it ain't go them now...
w/b cage getting ditched.
But i'm keeping the gearing, for now, gonna keep the double up front.
Running:
On the way in today i tried something, for just over a mile (1600-1800 meters or so) I cranked it over just using the hammies. and noticed a difference. a touch more power there. Its a concious effort on my part to pedal circles. Even when i start mashing, even standing up, its never just quad effort, always drawin on the hammie. And duh yeah ya supposed to. But it wasn't always that way. It ain't always natural. But it also i think helped a bit on the run ups that i do use the Hammies even when bombing around and commuting. The muscles aren't totally hosed there.
But we'll see won't we. We'll see how hosed they are on sunday eh? Whats up with Solobreak and the generousness of the comments? I'm confused. Owing in large part to me being insane (as he also correctly pointed out) i'm sure. Generous in the tone and content? Or Generous in the quantity. I'd hazard he's refering to the former.
There's so much content out there today. So much going on in the real world two. Juggling them both. a challenge itself...
Looking forward to seeing Sailorman over at the CX race on sunday... he'll make a rare trip off the island, so he says. Life is good. Life is fun. Small feats like fixing the wipers on the car, or finally getting the storage shelves re-built in the basement, and unpacking a few more boxes, and pulling more stuff out of storage. its all positive, helps to overshawdow the challenges. And my inner critic seems to make the challenges always out to be more than they are.
Oh and the soup. didn't get made last night. Team BBQ took precidence and turned into dinner. It was fun. Good group. Small group, but a host of good guys.
Lets move on, be positive. Must be positive. Must be gracious. must not overlook by accident or ommision any opportunity to say thank you or to compliment others.
peace yall
G
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Ahhh sunday
Cross kicks ass. What the hell have I been doing not riding!?!?!?!?
Riding that bike was freaking amazing, cross… hit a nice set of privateer trails at a park one of the teammates spent the summer working at. Trails kick ass.
I'm sore from working the dismounts and mounts. Dismounts, I went and perfected the Adam H-M's style step through. And it seems I can dismount going pretty damn wicked fast. Something with long legs eh? Cross is cool.
Worked on the run ups a bit, not sure about shouldering the bike, carrying by top tube for now is what I'm gonna go with I think. I had the waterbottle still on (from using it as my road bike) which is coming off. The rear brakes are completely worthless – don't stop for shit, and the front, well they stop too well, coupled with the straight blade steel fork they is mostly un-usable.
Gearing seemed pretty damn decent, no need for smaller ones, at least that's how it felt. My re-mounts are hurting big time still… at speed I kept winding up with a stutter step.
But it was a perfect ride. Windy, drizzly, overcast… perfect.
The brakes almost had me eating a tree, but weaving around rocks and picking lines in single track… wooo freakin KICK ASS… I need to go Mt biking again. But for now Cross totally kicks ass.
Me LOOOOOOVE cyclocross… I may suck ass next Sunday bit I know one thing. I'm gonna have some serious fun, unless its 80 degrees out. Then I'll be a bit grumpy but I'll down grade the forcast to just fun.
Oh and White Electric. We stopped there heading to mount/dismount practice on the BLVD and from the park. The Cappuccino I had was amazing. The foam was perfect, just the right amount of milk/foam, not burnt, espresso was perfect. I haven't had that good of a cup of espresso in years. Years. Wicked amazing stuff. Oh and it was made on a lever-pull bianchi machine. Saeco machines suck (comparatively).
Summer's back it seems today. And I pulled a MadDog style trip to Wholefoods. Cutting down the trips there to once a week makes the bill a bit bigger. Oh and its soup time again. KL's prolly the only one who read this back when I was doing the soup things in the winter. Maybe not the only one. Anyway the soup is back. Its hard squash season now folks. Hit your farmer's market, buy a variety of squash, toss in a bunch of other stuff.
I'll hit yall up with today's recipe. Serve it with cous-cous or rice and the red-lentil base makes it a complete meal. 100% vegan. 100% tastey as all freaking heck. 'course ya can use chicken stock if ya want, but veggie stock and some tumeric makes it more complex and seems to be more harmonious flavor wise than the chicken stock.
Gonna see if we can hook up with the net. Get this posted – start doing a couple more projects. Got the wipers fixed on the car. My initial reaction is "wiper motor toast" phew – just a bit of corrosion in one of the pivots. One or two setbacks later (dropped a c clip in the grass, E found it! Thanks to a worm that was squiggling around under the grass. Never doubt the eyes of an archaeologist when looking for dropped bits in the grass. On a bike shop floor I still rule. Lost both springs inside that first style helium free hub… found em both.
Oh well – no net. No stick here for the sneaker net either – will have to remember before tomorrow morning to pull it off.
Riding that bike was freaking amazing, cross… hit a nice set of privateer trails at a park one of the teammates spent the summer working at. Trails kick ass.
I'm sore from working the dismounts and mounts. Dismounts, I went and perfected the Adam H-M's style step through. And it seems I can dismount going pretty damn wicked fast. Something with long legs eh? Cross is cool.
Worked on the run ups a bit, not sure about shouldering the bike, carrying by top tube for now is what I'm gonna go with I think. I had the waterbottle still on (from using it as my road bike) which is coming off. The rear brakes are completely worthless – don't stop for shit, and the front, well they stop too well, coupled with the straight blade steel fork they is mostly un-usable.
Gearing seemed pretty damn decent, no need for smaller ones, at least that's how it felt. My re-mounts are hurting big time still… at speed I kept winding up with a stutter step.
But it was a perfect ride. Windy, drizzly, overcast… perfect.
The brakes almost had me eating a tree, but weaving around rocks and picking lines in single track… wooo freakin KICK ASS… I need to go Mt biking again. But for now Cross totally kicks ass.
Me LOOOOOOVE cyclocross… I may suck ass next Sunday bit I know one thing. I'm gonna have some serious fun, unless its 80 degrees out. Then I'll be a bit grumpy but I'll down grade the forcast to just fun.
Oh and White Electric. We stopped there heading to mount/dismount practice on the BLVD and from the park. The Cappuccino I had was amazing. The foam was perfect, just the right amount of milk/foam, not burnt, espresso was perfect. I haven't had that good of a cup of espresso in years. Years. Wicked amazing stuff. Oh and it was made on a lever-pull bianchi machine. Saeco machines suck (comparatively).
Summer's back it seems today. And I pulled a MadDog style trip to Wholefoods. Cutting down the trips there to once a week makes the bill a bit bigger. Oh and its soup time again. KL's prolly the only one who read this back when I was doing the soup things in the winter. Maybe not the only one. Anyway the soup is back. Its hard squash season now folks. Hit your farmer's market, buy a variety of squash, toss in a bunch of other stuff.
I'll hit yall up with today's recipe. Serve it with cous-cous or rice and the red-lentil base makes it a complete meal. 100% vegan. 100% tastey as all freaking heck. 'course ya can use chicken stock if ya want, but veggie stock and some tumeric makes it more complex and seems to be more harmonious flavor wise than the chicken stock.
Gonna see if we can hook up with the net. Get this posted – start doing a couple more projects. Got the wipers fixed on the car. My initial reaction is "wiper motor toast" phew – just a bit of corrosion in one of the pivots. One or two setbacks later (dropped a c clip in the grass, E found it! Thanks to a worm that was squiggling around under the grass. Never doubt the eyes of an archaeologist when looking for dropped bits in the grass. On a bike shop floor I still rule. Lost both springs inside that first style helium free hub… found em both.
Oh well – no net. No stick here for the sneaker net either – will have to remember before tomorrow morning to pull it off.
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Good Bye Summer, Hello Fall
its windy and raining... Fall is officially here...
today is the first ride of the season on the cross bike!!! WOOOOOT
(there was something just wrong about starting cross in the 'summer')
lets see how truely aweful my skills have become eh? ;)
Oh and Yogurt boy, HVF yogurt is more euro style, less like an organic Dannon or some congeled consistent kinda stuff that the amurican market prefers.
But that said the little flavord yogurts and stuff we buy do support your precious company... its just the big tubs... we go HVF all the way (when we can get it).
peace out and CROSS woooooooooo hoooooooo
today is the first ride of the season on the cross bike!!! WOOOOOT
(there was something just wrong about starting cross in the 'summer')
lets see how truely aweful my skills have become eh? ;)
Oh and Yogurt boy, HVF yogurt is more euro style, less like an organic Dannon or some congeled consistent kinda stuff that the amurican market prefers.
But that said the little flavord yogurts and stuff we buy do support your precious company... its just the big tubs... we go HVF all the way (when we can get it).
peace out and CROSS woooooooooo hoooooooo
Friday, September 22, 2006
SHACK ATTACK
So...
i had meant to swing through wholefoods to grab some more coffee for the office (been getting an organic French roast that they roast in the store - its on sale)...
needed some more of the immue system boosting stuff...
and well the whole chocolate milk thing recently kicked up over on the listserve and so i was hunting for some choco milk. the ONLY tradditional milk (vs soy) was in the glass bottle. I figured i'd pass for today...
i was racking my brain "something else"
and it hit me... KOZY SHACK (this was just after noticing that they didn't have any of the hawthorne valley maple vanilla yogurt in stock)...
SWEEET
and its on sale too! $2.69 (not the deal of 2/$5 at safeway) but damn that's not bad.
So i grab what ya see... two euro style and one original to fuel up for the ride home. Funny thing, the single was cost/pound about the same as the stuff on sale. And it wasn't on sale. Weird.
anyway, this ain't bad. Ain't bad.
"what does kozy shack look like?" Shannon has a shitty picture of the stuff...
here ya go...
Made in Hicksville New York.
WOOT... this little one has a $0.35 coupon... I am gonna be using that!
Kozy Shack... Its all that!
i had meant to swing through wholefoods to grab some more coffee for the office (been getting an organic French roast that they roast in the store - its on sale)...
needed some more of the immue system boosting stuff...
and well the whole chocolate milk thing recently kicked up over on the listserve and so i was hunting for some choco milk. the ONLY tradditional milk (vs soy) was in the glass bottle. I figured i'd pass for today...
i was racking my brain "something else"
and it hit me... KOZY SHACK (this was just after noticing that they didn't have any of the hawthorne valley maple vanilla yogurt in stock)...
SWEEET
and its on sale too! $2.69 (not the deal of 2/$5 at safeway) but damn that's not bad.
So i grab what ya see... two euro style and one original to fuel up for the ride home. Funny thing, the single was cost/pound about the same as the stuff on sale. And it wasn't on sale. Weird.
anyway, this ain't bad. Ain't bad.
"what does kozy shack look like?" Shannon has a shitty picture of the stuff...
here ya go...
Made in Hicksville New York.
WOOT... this little one has a $0.35 coupon... I am gonna be using that!
Kozy Shack... Its all that!
Something new and novel for me...
Ranking over at USCF... appearantly my finishes at Bob Beal put up some new things in my 'user' area...
pretty damn cool... i mean the results aren't anything to get me qualified and hell they need some MAJOR improvement to be anything more than - hey that's cool - but In a small little way its nice to know there are people out there who are slower than me. There might not have been many in my race... but it don't matter.
Sure - those of you doing loads of these things called races gotta be laughin at mr newbie boy here. Remember though, last time my liscense number was active was 1994...
this computer stuff has changed a bit in 12-13 years....
time to go play nice in traffic...
pretty damn cool... i mean the results aren't anything to get me qualified and hell they need some MAJOR improvement to be anything more than - hey that's cool - but In a small little way its nice to know there are people out there who are slower than me. There might not have been many in my race... but it don't matter.
Sure - those of you doing loads of these things called races gotta be laughin at mr newbie boy here. Remember though, last time my liscense number was active was 1994...
this computer stuff has changed a bit in 12-13 years....
time to go play nice in traffic...
coffee time
no - i don't typically have a shower at work, but i also tend to sweat the least of the folks i ride with i notice... not from effort, maybe its surface area?
Anyway - the cooler weather kicks ass for commuting. Never over heating. Today would have been perfect if my shitty worn out Pearl Izumi knee warmers had any stickyness left in the upper band... they went slip sliding away... damn annoying...
Clocked the distance the wheel sucker drafted, a mear 2.2 miles or so. Nothing incredibly long... but mind ya, that was with the trailer, wearing the messenger bag, and the kid in the trailer. just go with the weight alone that's an extra 75 (probably more) pounds not counting wind resistance.
Working on the spin this morning. When i hit the sun my arms almost felt too hot with the black DeFeet armskins soaking the solar radiation in. Its a good day, bike path was slightly under used. Still saw a good number of the regular walkers.
Had a run in with a roofing company van, coming up a street the dude was wicked damn close, needlessly so, and he was stopped at the red light and we 'chatted' i tried to be polite and well it went well. he was genuine and not agressive at all, i didn't accuse him or yell at him, just asked that next time he might consider not runnin me off the road. HurlyRoof i think was the co. Maybe Murat's seen them. I'll hold off on naming the truck number because it was so positive.
Chalk one positive up for the commute. M-M-Good.
I've got Kozy Shack on my mind. Not sure why. I think its Shannon's influence. No not the girl shannon, the 35-39 Cross Nat Champ ('05)
His Cross Tips are almost as good as Kerry's Cross Top Ten list.
Sad note for the innovative Steel bike builders gang. Reading over at 32x16 it seems DeKerf is going TU. One of the kids back at Velocipede Peddler had one. A Mt hard tail painted a gorgeous rootbeer color. Bike looked incredible. Really really well built.
There are lots of builders i've seen come and go. Ralph Cycles. Croll (at least i think they've headed off to do something else).
Do you think Zabriski could have won if he'd chosen to wear the long sleeve skinsuit?
Hmmmm
I like it when a product review starts off like:
I wonder if SRAM needs a loud mouth cross racer to 'try out' the products... wait... IIRC the crank ain't avail in a 180mm...
I heard some chatter about Merlin (the mechanic) giving the pitch to some of the master's racers... they were saying the features he was focusing on were the ones most important to the mechanic, fewer moving parts in the shifters, and the little details that make it easier to set up and more dependable. Good stuff.
The crank on the road group looks remarkably like the Truvativ one and that carbon ain't in the 180 size... would have to sub the Force crank for the Rouler 2.2, which wouldn't be all bad. Still would be SRAM all the way baby.
Hell i've got ESP 9.0 on the Klein Mantra. Anyone remember that old stuff? Oh and Xray shifters with an XT rear der on the Adroit. Damn bikes need some saddle time.
The rain forcasted for sat might interupt my morning cross workout, but me thinks it'd be a good thing. Wake up at the buttcrack of dawn, hit the EBBP in the rain (should be deserted) and have no witnesses to my uncoordinated self falling all over my bike...
Cross... Tonkin on Training... yeah baby - the cycling discipline for those who can't win anywhere else... j/k those Kona kids on the cross team do pretty damn well on the dirt circuit. The full article is damn good - the essence pic is perfect!
How long to stretch? 6 minutes or 30 seconds? Well for me, ANY stretching would be an improvement. But seems maybe now that i'm getting old i should do what we did back in the XC days and make sure i get all my stretching done. I remember most all of them and occasionally do them... but i really should start stretching. Esp if i'm gonna be running more often than during cross races.
This is the nugget from the Tonkin article that i really like:
Pop quiz: Define these words:
Egocasting
Incestuous Amplification
Topsight
That and now biketopia is admittedly stealing content from gwadzilla... not that its anything that hasn't happened before or been done by anyone else...
but then the random stealing, reposting, revisiting is all just more egocasting? no? We may each put our own spin on things but in the end... well in the end... fuggedaboudit i don't have anything insightful to mashout right now...
It might because the littlest decided that she wanted to wake up pretty much ever hour or two last night... Sleep... would love some sleep...
peace out - and no one in New England better be using Kozy Shack other than me for cross races... at least until i determine its performance enhancing benefits.
Anyway - the cooler weather kicks ass for commuting. Never over heating. Today would have been perfect if my shitty worn out Pearl Izumi knee warmers had any stickyness left in the upper band... they went slip sliding away... damn annoying...
Clocked the distance the wheel sucker drafted, a mear 2.2 miles or so. Nothing incredibly long... but mind ya, that was with the trailer, wearing the messenger bag, and the kid in the trailer. just go with the weight alone that's an extra 75 (probably more) pounds not counting wind resistance.
Working on the spin this morning. When i hit the sun my arms almost felt too hot with the black DeFeet armskins soaking the solar radiation in. Its a good day, bike path was slightly under used. Still saw a good number of the regular walkers.
Had a run in with a roofing company van, coming up a street the dude was wicked damn close, needlessly so, and he was stopped at the red light and we 'chatted' i tried to be polite and well it went well. he was genuine and not agressive at all, i didn't accuse him or yell at him, just asked that next time he might consider not runnin me off the road. HurlyRoof i think was the co. Maybe Murat's seen them. I'll hold off on naming the truck number because it was so positive.
Chalk one positive up for the commute. M-M-Good.
I've got Kozy Shack on my mind. Not sure why. I think its Shannon's influence. No not the girl shannon, the 35-39 Cross Nat Champ ('05)
His Cross Tips are almost as good as Kerry's Cross Top Ten list.
Sad note for the innovative Steel bike builders gang. Reading over at 32x16 it seems DeKerf is going TU. One of the kids back at Velocipede Peddler had one. A Mt hard tail painted a gorgeous rootbeer color. Bike looked incredible. Really really well built.
There are lots of builders i've seen come and go. Ralph Cycles. Croll (at least i think they've headed off to do something else).
Do you think Zabriski could have won if he'd chosen to wear the long sleeve skinsuit?
Hmmmm
I like it when a product review starts off like:
If you’re in a hurry – I’ll cut to the chase: Does it work? Yes. Does it work well? Yes. Maybe I’m steppin’ out on a limb here, but I’ll say the new SRAM gruppos are gonna be the rage at Interbike this year. At last consumers have a choice beyond the big two, and PEZ Fans know we’re big on choice… Here’s our close-up look at the SRAM Force group set.
I wonder if SRAM needs a loud mouth cross racer to 'try out' the products... wait... IIRC the crank ain't avail in a 180mm...
I heard some chatter about Merlin (the mechanic) giving the pitch to some of the master's racers... they were saying the features he was focusing on were the ones most important to the mechanic, fewer moving parts in the shifters, and the little details that make it easier to set up and more dependable. Good stuff.
The crank on the road group looks remarkably like the Truvativ one and that carbon ain't in the 180 size... would have to sub the Force crank for the Rouler 2.2, which wouldn't be all bad. Still would be SRAM all the way baby.
Hell i've got ESP 9.0 on the Klein Mantra. Anyone remember that old stuff? Oh and Xray shifters with an XT rear der on the Adroit. Damn bikes need some saddle time.
The rain forcasted for sat might interupt my morning cross workout, but me thinks it'd be a good thing. Wake up at the buttcrack of dawn, hit the EBBP in the rain (should be deserted) and have no witnesses to my uncoordinated self falling all over my bike...
Cross... Tonkin on Training... yeah baby - the cycling discipline for those who can't win anywhere else... j/k those Kona kids on the cross team do pretty damn well on the dirt circuit. The full article is damn good - the essence pic is perfect!
How long to stretch? 6 minutes or 30 seconds? Well for me, ANY stretching would be an improvement. But seems maybe now that i'm getting old i should do what we did back in the XC days and make sure i get all my stretching done. I remember most all of them and occasionally do them... but i really should start stretching. Esp if i'm gonna be running more often than during cross races.
This is the nugget from the Tonkin article that i really like:
Cyclocross is a lot like skate-skiing or hockey or golf—all these sports require a tremendous amount of thought, skill, coordination, and…you name it. Proper technique of anything is complicated, but an expert will make it look easy, whether it be a chef cooking crepes or a cellist making music. The shared truth, however, is that technique is learned behavior: experts are not born; they are made. We need to be conscious of that when in pursuit of cyclocross glory!
Pop quiz: Define these words:
Egocasting
Incestuous Amplification
Topsight
That and now biketopia is admittedly stealing content from gwadzilla... not that its anything that hasn't happened before or been done by anyone else...
but then the random stealing, reposting, revisiting is all just more egocasting? no? We may each put our own spin on things but in the end... well in the end... fuggedaboudit i don't have anything insightful to mashout right now...
It might because the littlest decided that she wanted to wake up pretty much ever hour or two last night... Sleep... would love some sleep...
peace out - and no one in New England better be using Kozy Shack other than me for cross races... at least until i determine its performance enhancing benefits.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
trying to fall asleep
Well,
Pulling a gwadzilla
Instead of sleeping
I am awake
I should be asleep
But I’m awake
Free wifi here at home
Bootleggin
Yes
I know
Bad
Me
Bad
Stealing? I dunno
Here’s to hoping the firewall I’ve got keeps the bad stuff out
30second check of email
AFTER
Freaking autoupdates download
Gotta fix that one of these days – slows EVErything down
When playing pinball on top of it all waiting
So doing the old fashioned night time update.
Off line… in an attempt to prevent a repeat of last night, when I was up for no reason many many times.
Of course, it means that I may be pushing the tired envelope.
Ya know the whole thing with my wife havin Mono eh? Yeah, well. I’m pretty much getting habitualized to the extra bits of stuff. ‘Cept she’s come down with a completely different virus, one that I think the oldest and I have fought off somewhat (we were both much worse on Monday and Tuesday). In some ways it has been tough, in other ways I’m very happy to be able to do what I’ve done.
Work’s kicking into overdrive with the messed up scopes, the new ones coming in, more demand for others that were previously slightly less in demand. This laptop is cooking my nutsack.
I’d like to get out for a run. For a cross training session. The Team has one set to go on Saturday. It starts when ballet ends… if it started when ballet started… well that’d be different. If I could figure out how to watch both girls, get one to ballet and do the cross deal while my wife rests and trys to recover… that’d be soupa… but… me thinks I’ll have to make due with waking up at 6am or so, tossin on some garb and doing an hour or so Saturday morning – getting the cross bike out and all that…
I chide dave for not riding enough, yet he prolly (definitely) does more than I do.
The commute home was great – just after slippin down the hill off the Vet to the causeway I notice some NBW dude sittin on my wheel (of the trailer) and I think, awe fuck it – lets do an interval… 21-22 mph from there till the riverside overpass… solid – no gear changing, steady power rhythm with the trailer, and the messenger bag, with my phone proudly displayed on the strap… I pull, I feel like slowing down, I don’t. I pedal, I push it, thinking come on – if you are someone pull around, no, they sit there, relishing the draft, using it for their own ‘I set my PR on the bike path tonight’ kinda crap. I slow down, one mile or less till home, I need to pedal slowly, well pedal with light effort, spin, spin at 17-18 mph in the 50x19…slightly downhill, barely… that felt good. The smug guy wearing full leg coverings and a fancy schmanzy cycling jacket with some ‘club’ logo on it with his Ipod (I want to die without hearing the car hit me) shoved in his ears…
It was good though. For a change the rabbit wasn’t in front. It was hopping along behind. I think I worked harder that way. I think it was effective. My legs hurt. DOMS. I think that’s what the BCBS health tips book calls it. Fun stuff.
So here it goes – gonna publish tonight.
Peace out, eat your peaches, love your friends, respect your neighbors, and hold on to what ya got.
Pulling a gwadzilla
Instead of sleeping
I am awake
I should be asleep
But I’m awake
Free wifi here at home
Bootleggin
Yes
I know
Bad
Me
Bad
Stealing? I dunno
Here’s to hoping the firewall I’ve got keeps the bad stuff out
30second check of email
AFTER
Freaking autoupdates download
Gotta fix that one of these days – slows EVErything down
When playing pinball on top of it all waiting
So doing the old fashioned night time update.
Off line… in an attempt to prevent a repeat of last night, when I was up for no reason many many times.
Of course, it means that I may be pushing the tired envelope.
Ya know the whole thing with my wife havin Mono eh? Yeah, well. I’m pretty much getting habitualized to the extra bits of stuff. ‘Cept she’s come down with a completely different virus, one that I think the oldest and I have fought off somewhat (we were both much worse on Monday and Tuesday). In some ways it has been tough, in other ways I’m very happy to be able to do what I’ve done.
Work’s kicking into overdrive with the messed up scopes, the new ones coming in, more demand for others that were previously slightly less in demand. This laptop is cooking my nutsack.
I’d like to get out for a run. For a cross training session. The Team has one set to go on Saturday. It starts when ballet ends… if it started when ballet started… well that’d be different. If I could figure out how to watch both girls, get one to ballet and do the cross deal while my wife rests and trys to recover… that’d be soupa… but… me thinks I’ll have to make due with waking up at 6am or so, tossin on some garb and doing an hour or so Saturday morning – getting the cross bike out and all that…
I chide dave for not riding enough, yet he prolly (definitely) does more than I do.
The commute home was great – just after slippin down the hill off the Vet to the causeway I notice some NBW dude sittin on my wheel (of the trailer) and I think, awe fuck it – lets do an interval… 21-22 mph from there till the riverside overpass… solid – no gear changing, steady power rhythm with the trailer, and the messenger bag, with my phone proudly displayed on the strap… I pull, I feel like slowing down, I don’t. I pedal, I push it, thinking come on – if you are someone pull around, no, they sit there, relishing the draft, using it for their own ‘I set my PR on the bike path tonight’ kinda crap. I slow down, one mile or less till home, I need to pedal slowly, well pedal with light effort, spin, spin at 17-18 mph in the 50x19…slightly downhill, barely… that felt good. The smug guy wearing full leg coverings and a fancy schmanzy cycling jacket with some ‘club’ logo on it with his Ipod (I want to die without hearing the car hit me) shoved in his ears…
It was good though. For a change the rabbit wasn’t in front. It was hopping along behind. I think I worked harder that way. I think it was effective. My legs hurt. DOMS. I think that’s what the BCBS health tips book calls it. Fun stuff.
So here it goes – gonna publish tonight.
Peace out, eat your peaches, love your friends, respect your neighbors, and hold on to what ya got.
moleskine notes from lunch and the meeting
title says it baby, handwritten scribble to follow (well my lazy typewritten transcript banged out on the keyboard between phone calls emails McPiss breaks and what not)
Before getting there - Patty OG sounds like he should be on NPR with his voice (link to his MP3 podcast). no?
Off the top here we go:
gal walking up hill past me... walking her fixie WTF? you wanna be trendy then ride the GD bike... like that its just a bigger (barely) version of those fucking gay ass longboard skateboard things people are carting around to class now...
people w/taste in clothes but not the body for them (observation made sitting in the window of pizza place watching the world walk by)
Email list came through just before leaving for lunch:
- - 60º DRESS WARMLY
WHAT!!!!
i'm conditioned to the point now where if its dry i'll do short sleeve and shorts on a ride from 50 or 55 degrees and warmer... This am the arm warmers were a smidge too warm even!!! 60? dress warmly?
Maybe it was the heat that fucked with me on sunday. (see i can have as many excuses as Zoo)
Runners on the street - get the fuck out of the way... back on the sidewalk or the paths that bikes and cars are not allowed on.
Cyclists at intersections... look dumbass mo-fos prepare to stop at an intersection... you come bombing through and i'm stopped and start going but you decide to fucking motor through like I'm a car supposed to wait for you? FUCK.
And the cars waiting for me like i'm not gonna follow the right-of-way. Murat went through that the other day and G-dawg-zilla, all the time.
Bottom line - gimme cars to deal with vs cyclists, at least here in this town.
Leave cross bike as is for first race as in don't fuckwith the gears or put a 12-34 and a mt der on there-yet
Last year 2 slices of 'za at Antonios would have been enough to fill be up, now i'm still hungry... freaking calories. Gotta be in the 2500-3000/day consumption and yet still bouncing between 185-190#s... no increase yet... whish is like double what the biggest looser show says 'i' should be (based on my weight and BMI stuff).
So yes, writing while waiting - got class to deal with. two hours of Haz waste training round #2. Start with 1 - one year later repeat, then it can all be done online, annually... no more sitting through boring 2 hour class.
Ahh power point. crappy canned, unoriginal boring but worse than boring, its lame and boring. The material is okay but between the Subway eaters the lunch crowd... all just waiting for the final hr...
Read through the Bicycling mag in the bookstore between lunch and meeting. man how trite lame and uninspiring a mag it is. How could anyone find it thatway, well, i guess the "mainstream" people - the NBW century bike path type rider
no mention of cross - wicked amount of crap about floyd the doper. some BS fluff about podium girls.
while i'm too mainstream to ride a fixie (or not mainstream enough depending on POV) to work and wear funky clothes and what ever the "modern punk" wears - that big old brand i my soul with the words cyclocross is enough (brand as in cattle brand, not Trek)...
two hours of writing ideas could be a way to burry some thing in...
How to be fast:
what i said months ago:
-ride the damn bike
-miles miles miles...
or km if you are a metric head...
but intensity - intensity is the key...
commuting miles done at low intensity are just 'walking' the bike, worthy but not effective. good to do when sick and as recovery (if you can let rabbits and other speed bait roll past without chase)
Most important factor:
MENTAL
--
Coke has a pH of 3. That's considered Caustic/Corrosive.
I'm falling asleep
cross bike checklist:
-rear brakes (ditch the crappy short 'linear pull' brakes in favor of wicked strong oldschool shimanos)
-Locate and check over the 'race' tires
-shifting, right shifter needs some lube and cable finessing
----
that's the end of the scribbling....
oh check out Racing Union's camel add... freaking cool eh?
and cool...
the Farm i got my reall awesome peaches i ate for breakfast is over here at the place Yogurt Boy Linked - doesn't look like they are claiming full organic though...
gotta ask them about that next week... if not organic whadda they use that isn't? or are they just not payin the cash to be certified?
okay - yall have a pimpin day...
gotta see if i can find me some Kozy Shack. I hear that's all it takes to win the Masters 35-39 catagory at Nationals. Well supposedly that's what worked last year. Kozy shack could be so like - 2005...
hopefully that reference won't be so obscure that no one gets it...
oh and i'm with patty G - whats up with the ugly suits that the US team is wearing?
and antoher question... why are the men wearing shortsleeve ones and the woman wearing long sleeve ones? WTF?
And when did the USA change its colors to Black, Brick red and Auzure Blue?
Before getting there - Patty OG sounds like he should be on NPR with his voice (link to his MP3 podcast). no?
Off the top here we go:
gal walking up hill past me... walking her fixie WTF? you wanna be trendy then ride the GD bike... like that its just a bigger (barely) version of those fucking gay ass longboard skateboard things people are carting around to class now...
people w/taste in clothes but not the body for them (observation made sitting in the window of pizza place watching the world walk by)
Email list came through just before leaving for lunch:
- - 60º DRESS WARMLY
WHAT!!!!
i'm conditioned to the point now where if its dry i'll do short sleeve and shorts on a ride from 50 or 55 degrees and warmer... This am the arm warmers were a smidge too warm even!!! 60? dress warmly?
Maybe it was the heat that fucked with me on sunday. (see i can have as many excuses as Zoo)
Runners on the street - get the fuck out of the way... back on the sidewalk or the paths that bikes and cars are not allowed on.
Cyclists at intersections... look dumbass mo-fos prepare to stop at an intersection... you come bombing through and i'm stopped and start going but you decide to fucking motor through like I'm a car supposed to wait for you? FUCK.
And the cars waiting for me like i'm not gonna follow the right-of-way. Murat went through that the other day and G-dawg-zilla, all the time.
Bottom line - gimme cars to deal with vs cyclists, at least here in this town.
Leave cross bike as is for first race as in don't fuckwith the gears or put a 12-34 and a mt der on there-yet
Last year 2 slices of 'za at Antonios would have been enough to fill be up, now i'm still hungry... freaking calories. Gotta be in the 2500-3000/day consumption and yet still bouncing between 185-190#s... no increase yet... whish is like double what the biggest looser show says 'i' should be (based on my weight and BMI stuff).
So yes, writing while waiting - got class to deal with. two hours of Haz waste training round #2. Start with 1 - one year later repeat, then it can all be done online, annually... no more sitting through boring 2 hour class.
Ahh power point. crappy canned, unoriginal boring but worse than boring, its lame and boring. The material is okay but between the Subway eaters the lunch crowd... all just waiting for the final hr...
Read through the Bicycling mag in the bookstore between lunch and meeting. man how trite lame and uninspiring a mag it is. How could anyone find it thatway, well, i guess the "mainstream" people - the NBW century bike path type rider
no mention of cross - wicked amount of crap about floyd the doper. some BS fluff about podium girls.
while i'm too mainstream to ride a fixie (or not mainstream enough depending on POV) to work and wear funky clothes and what ever the "modern punk" wears - that big old brand i my soul with the words cyclocross is enough (brand as in cattle brand, not Trek)...
two hours of writing ideas could be a way to burry some thing in...
How to be fast:
what i said months ago:
-ride the damn bike
-miles miles miles...
or km if you are a metric head...
but intensity - intensity is the key...
commuting miles done at low intensity are just 'walking' the bike, worthy but not effective. good to do when sick and as recovery (if you can let rabbits and other speed bait roll past without chase)
Most important factor:
MENTAL
--
Coke has a pH of 3. That's considered Caustic/Corrosive.
I'm falling asleep
cross bike checklist:
-rear brakes (ditch the crappy short 'linear pull' brakes in favor of wicked strong oldschool shimanos)
-Locate and check over the 'race' tires
-shifting, right shifter needs some lube and cable finessing
----
that's the end of the scribbling....
oh check out Racing Union's camel add... freaking cool eh?
and cool...
the Farm i got my reall awesome peaches i ate for breakfast is over here at the place Yogurt Boy Linked - doesn't look like they are claiming full organic though...
gotta ask them about that next week... if not organic whadda they use that isn't? or are they just not payin the cash to be certified?
okay - yall have a pimpin day...
gotta see if i can find me some Kozy Shack. I hear that's all it takes to win the Masters 35-39 catagory at Nationals. Well supposedly that's what worked last year. Kozy shack could be so like - 2005...
hopefully that reference won't be so obscure that no one gets it...
oh and i'm with patty G - whats up with the ugly suits that the US team is wearing?
and antoher question... why are the men wearing shortsleeve ones and the woman wearing long sleeve ones? WTF?
And when did the USA change its colors to Black, Brick red and Auzure Blue?
my moment of panic
So here's the thing. These concerts. Annual event for 28 years. Ya can still read last year's letter here. They are a big deal. Less so for me as my actual onstage presence has decreased quite dramatically. Basically i go to support and to let my girls get the onstage fun and excitement that i grew up with. Downside: every year we all get sick traveling out there. We spend nearly zero time at the house i grew up in cause we're running all over the Pac NW. Its exhausting and the post seattle concert dominos game where we drink bottles of Port and beer and Whiskey probably won't seem nearly as fun if i'm not as crocked as everyone else. School isn't out yet, it would have to be a short trip based on my wife's lack of vacation time... And yeah, Il Brucie hit it... its a boatload of cash. But Family is important. But, the two younger brothers who have about as much musically to do with the show and usually more to do with CD sales during and after the concert have missed alternating shows. But they look the same and ya cross your eyes and you can pretend they are both there. I have been feeling rather superfluous on stage. My sister plays violin a million times better than i do. Okay well not a million, but she's a pro, she plays to make her dough, and she's a brilliant classicaly trained violinist who's mastered irish fiddlin.
Next year the 25th moves from monday to tuesday... so maybe the concerts would fall on the 21-22-23 maybe? that or the Cross Nats will be somewhere i have no motivation or cash to get to (more likely the latter not the former).
So where does this all place it? I dunno. Talking with one bro he says - stay here - go to seattle with the family after christmas or something like that. See here's my big 'introspection' problem. I like to analyze and examine every freaking angle before making a stand. So. Yesterday heading home i woulda told ya you were crazy to bet on me staying for cross nats. But now. Now i'm thinkin... you'd be crazy to think otherwise.
This year - me not scheduling or commmitting to ANYTHING else during the weekend. Last year there were three parties to go to on saturday alone. And a friend to get to the airport on sunday. Maybe i only race one day. Maybe i don't even race at all, maybe i just do what i do better and be a mechanic for someone who has a real chance but needs an ace mechanic in the pits who understands cross. But GD that'd be hellafun!!!
Oh and HOLYCRAP there were a wicked freaking number of hits yesterday... yikes... Well Cross is here and i hopped on this 'fad' after nats from reading about nats in folks blogs and what not.
Its still a CF (clusterfuck for those who were wondering) with the scopes here at work. But, when stuff breaks it means i get to fix em. and THAT's wicked damn fun (shows ya i'm more mechanic than driver eh?).
Got called crazy for draggin the trailer across the washington bridge pedestrian 'sidewalk' everyday. One of the dads at Daycare i know from TDIClub/biodiesel said he rode across with his brother and was freaked out juts being on a bike with not kid or trailer. And he is right - there is only about 3" to spare on each side. But i've been doing the trip with the trailer for weeks now and have yet to even come close to nailing the concrete sides. I'm like "whats the big deal."
Not to mention it was cold this morning - 40 something when i rolled downstairs and checked the boob tube's reporting... broke into 50 by the time we rolled down the bike path. Me wearing... my Team Jersey (Verge Racing cut size large, short sleeves), Ultrasensor bib shorts and my Defeet Armskins. Dats it. Pushed it at 17-18 mph in the 50x19 until we hit Squantum point and the sippy cup had wiggled out of her reach. Stopping and getting back on i just couldn't hit the spin. Maybe the lack of coffee in the morning. But before stopping i was remarking on how well the two farm fresh peaches i had for breakfast were fueling me and settlin my stomach. Wicked awesome. I hope they have more next week.
HOpefully this isn't more disjuncted than normal. Cause it has been written a phrase at a time more or less...
oh and ya know its cross season when the web monkeys at Cyclocrossworld.com start pumpin out the content...
its in the 40s in the morning and things are looking good...
i'm psyc'd to race the Croll. its way good enough for me. no need for pit bike. i don't wanna start sounding like Zoo (j/k dave)...
so...
well...
peace to yall - eat well - support the farmers, they make a helluva lot more money when you buy the local stuff from them than the grocery store... and that's a good thing... they make money, they keep growing good stuff, they keep the green space from turning into McMansion city... and our sliver of New England keeps a touch of its roots. (damn did i just call it 'Our' new england? next time you see me i may start talking like Solobreak)
Next year the 25th moves from monday to tuesday... so maybe the concerts would fall on the 21-22-23 maybe? that or the Cross Nats will be somewhere i have no motivation or cash to get to (more likely the latter not the former).
So where does this all place it? I dunno. Talking with one bro he says - stay here - go to seattle with the family after christmas or something like that. See here's my big 'introspection' problem. I like to analyze and examine every freaking angle before making a stand. So. Yesterday heading home i woulda told ya you were crazy to bet on me staying for cross nats. But now. Now i'm thinkin... you'd be crazy to think otherwise.
This year - me not scheduling or commmitting to ANYTHING else during the weekend. Last year there were three parties to go to on saturday alone. And a friend to get to the airport on sunday. Maybe i only race one day. Maybe i don't even race at all, maybe i just do what i do better and be a mechanic for someone who has a real chance but needs an ace mechanic in the pits who understands cross. But GD that'd be hellafun!!!
Oh and HOLYCRAP there were a wicked freaking number of hits yesterday... yikes... Well Cross is here and i hopped on this 'fad' after nats from reading about nats in folks blogs and what not.
Its still a CF (clusterfuck for those who were wondering) with the scopes here at work. But, when stuff breaks it means i get to fix em. and THAT's wicked damn fun (shows ya i'm more mechanic than driver eh?).
Got called crazy for draggin the trailer across the washington bridge pedestrian 'sidewalk' everyday. One of the dads at Daycare i know from TDIClub/biodiesel said he rode across with his brother and was freaked out juts being on a bike with not kid or trailer. And he is right - there is only about 3" to spare on each side. But i've been doing the trip with the trailer for weeks now and have yet to even come close to nailing the concrete sides. I'm like "whats the big deal."
Not to mention it was cold this morning - 40 something when i rolled downstairs and checked the boob tube's reporting... broke into 50 by the time we rolled down the bike path. Me wearing... my Team Jersey (Verge Racing cut size large, short sleeves), Ultrasensor bib shorts and my Defeet Armskins. Dats it. Pushed it at 17-18 mph in the 50x19 until we hit Squantum point and the sippy cup had wiggled out of her reach. Stopping and getting back on i just couldn't hit the spin. Maybe the lack of coffee in the morning. But before stopping i was remarking on how well the two farm fresh peaches i had for breakfast were fueling me and settlin my stomach. Wicked awesome. I hope they have more next week.
HOpefully this isn't more disjuncted than normal. Cause it has been written a phrase at a time more or less...
oh and ya know its cross season when the web monkeys at Cyclocrossworld.com start pumpin out the content...
its in the 40s in the morning and things are looking good...
i'm psyc'd to race the Croll. its way good enough for me. no need for pit bike. i don't wanna start sounding like Zoo (j/k dave)...
so...
well...
peace to yall - eat well - support the farmers, they make a helluva lot more money when you buy the local stuff from them than the grocery store... and that's a good thing... they make money, they keep growing good stuff, they keep the green space from turning into McMansion city... and our sliver of New England keeps a touch of its roots. (damn did i just call it 'Our' new england? next time you see me i may start talking like Solobreak)
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
oh sh........t
um...
i've been rendered a big pile of jello...
not the good kind...
my shoulders hurt, i'm sweating and flushed
i can't put a string of expletives together to express my horror and fear and dread
Lets put two series of dates together starting with Cross Nats;
They run when? December 15, 16, 17 right? Pretty well established eh?
Now...
Couple that with:
Dec 15 Friday Tacoma, WA
Dec 16 Saturday Seattle, WA
Dec 17 Sunday Mt. Vernon, WA
Dec 18 Monday Bellevue, WA
Nats are in Providence RI.
How the freaking heck am i supposed to be both in Washington AND in RI at the same freaking time.
Its been what - 28 years - and i have yet to miss a season of Celtic Yuletide concerts...
i'm at a loss....
holy insane confrontation batman...
when i was just asked, "what are you leaning towards doing?"
my reply right now is:
I'm ripped fucking right in half.
I shoulda bought a bottle of Jamesons at the NH store after Haverhill on our jaunt to Hanna Andersen in Kittery... maybe its better that i didn't cause i'd prolly drink most of it right now if I could get my hands on it... not that its the right way to deal with it but... fuckdamit
i've been rendered a big pile of jello...
not the good kind...
my shoulders hurt, i'm sweating and flushed
i can't put a string of expletives together to express my horror and fear and dread
Lets put two series of dates together starting with Cross Nats;
They run when? December 15, 16, 17 right? Pretty well established eh?
Now...
Couple that with:
Dec 15 Friday Tacoma, WA
Dec 16 Saturday Seattle, WA
Dec 17 Sunday Mt. Vernon, WA
Dec 18 Monday Bellevue, WA
Nats are in Providence RI.
How the freaking heck am i supposed to be both in Washington AND in RI at the same freaking time.
Its been what - 28 years - and i have yet to miss a season of Celtic Yuletide concerts...
i'm at a loss....
holy insane confrontation batman...
when i was just asked, "what are you leaning towards doing?"
my reply right now is:
I'm ripped fucking right in half.
I shoulda bought a bottle of Jamesons at the NH store after Haverhill on our jaunt to Hanna Andersen in Kittery... maybe its better that i didn't cause i'd prolly drink most of it right now if I could get my hands on it... not that its the right way to deal with it but... fuckdamit
Matt's Daily Blog
Matt's Daily Blog
okay (gwadz style posting) When did i become a famous NE blogger?
*scratchin head*
That Race CX and Molly's pages i hadn't seen yet - wicked freaking good stuff eh?
(see i gotta give props to the Ontario amigos and the Canadian inflections i picked up hangin with dem in da Midwest, Eh? - and then couple it with the wicked... ya got a nice mix)
okay (gwadz style posting) When did i become a famous NE blogger?
*scratchin head*
That Race CX and Molly's pages i hadn't seen yet - wicked freaking good stuff eh?
(see i gotta give props to the Ontario amigos and the Canadian inflections i picked up hangin with dem in da Midwest, Eh? - and then couple it with the wicked... ya got a nice mix)
biketopia: Blog socialising
biketopia: Blog socialising
me like frank's thinking...
and thanks Matt... not like i needed another one... tried resisting linkin the missing ones but i can't...
damn
the next open tabs will be goofy... as it is i have it broken down into two separate folders, priority 1 and priority 2... Matts is definately in Priority 1.
JP's... now that cross season is back i have to recall a whole host of 'dead' links... great... not to mention Cyclocrossworld.com prolly will have more and more updates - gotta get that linked up...
Hell - now if i'd only spend this time running instead of reading, maybe then i'd have results to talk about instead of hot air.
Oh...
today's been phone... talking to the mothership at US HQ for one of the scopes... fun fun fun... yeah... it'll be a week before we can get the service guy out there...
F uh k
me like frank's thinking...
and thanks Matt... not like i needed another one... tried resisting linkin the missing ones but i can't...
damn
the next open tabs will be goofy... as it is i have it broken down into two separate folders, priority 1 and priority 2... Matts is definately in Priority 1.
JP's... now that cross season is back i have to recall a whole host of 'dead' links... great... not to mention Cyclocrossworld.com prolly will have more and more updates - gotta get that linked up...
Hell - now if i'd only spend this time running instead of reading, maybe then i'd have results to talk about instead of hot air.
Oh...
today's been phone... talking to the mothership at US HQ for one of the scopes... fun fun fun... yeah... it'll be a week before we can get the service guy out there...
F uh k
lunchtime musings
i know...
it ain't like its been an eternity:
Thanks to G-dawg i can track using one of the most popular reality shows for the grossly obese. Heck rather than spend an hour exercising away this fat, i'm gonna sit on my ass snacking watching a herd of other fatasses get skinny for the next umpteen weeks. SWEET. Um... HELLO... nevermind... obvious eh?
Their stats show me... last year at:
(image blogger being a pain in the ass - pics later when it behaves
and this year... sweet...
at least i can still walk the runway in Madrid. Assuming the allow tall ugly dudes with cycling tans (if ya can call the variation in my skin a tan) on the runway.
--
PEZ popped up some sweet eye candy... and one potentially affordable set of commuting digs over at Krog. I've got an email inquiry to see if there is a remote chance their digs will fit me. Their shoes stop one size too short (poop). But the lights might be worth looking at.
I picked up 6#s of local peaches for the ride home... might as well load myself down with poundage to get the workout...
it ain't like its been an eternity:
Thanks to G-dawg i can track using one of the most popular reality shows for the grossly obese. Heck rather than spend an hour exercising away this fat, i'm gonna sit on my ass snacking watching a herd of other fatasses get skinny for the next umpteen weeks. SWEET. Um... HELLO... nevermind... obvious eh?
Their stats show me... last year at:
(image blogger being a pain in the ass - pics later when it behaves
and this year... sweet...
at least i can still walk the runway in Madrid. Assuming the allow tall ugly dudes with cycling tans (if ya can call the variation in my skin a tan) on the runway.
--
PEZ popped up some sweet eye candy... and one potentially affordable set of commuting digs over at Krog. I've got an email inquiry to see if there is a remote chance their digs will fit me. Their shoes stop one size too short (poop). But the lights might be worth looking at.
I picked up 6#s of local peaches for the ride home... might as well load myself down with poundage to get the workout...
mileage
Last night i spent some quality time with the bikes. In the bike room. With the repair stand. With the littlest supervising from the steps.
Rain drumming down on the roof.
I finally got around to replacing the rim strip and the slow leaky tube in the rear tire. Touched up the spokes, tweaked the centering on the DA brakes. Took the Ultergra SPDs off the P-mount, put the 747s that were on the cross on the P-mount and put the newly acquired 959s on the cross bike. I also removed the freshly installed computer from the QP and hooked it up to the P-mount. Now i finally know how late i am (in other more positive version: i know what time it is). AND i know how far i'm commuting. Assuming the wheel calibration is sort of right (which i doubt but now too lazy to check/fix) i have a 10.75 mile commute to work (17.3 km for the metrically inclined). That's with the trailer. This morning it was a sedate pace on the EBBP of around 14-16 mph, into a nice strong headwind.
Making crappy coffee this morning. Pulled one of the "DOH" meant to bring a dose in from the home stash, but forgot... lucky for me there's some funky folgers to meet the caffine needs. My bro gave me his Ikea french press till i replace the caraf on my Bodum. the ikea one is smaller and not so asmuch good. (i like that lack of english language applicatino no? speeling pretty con sis tent).
Running - one reason why Solobreak's 'you can never have a small enough gear for cross' rule is sounding wicked appealing is, if the gear is small enough it means less time running. But watching the damn videos it seems unless i can miraculously get out front i'll be forced off by others, not myself... We'll see eh? But bottom line i need to see about making the running muscles do something... not to mention i need to get that remount practiced.
KL's acclerade comments are interesting. I do feel a nagging bit of guilt in that maybe i haven't been absolutely fair in evaluating the product. So seein as i have a few servings left, i'll do an intense raceday type trial like KL did to see how my body does with it. Heck after all I saw one of the wicked fast dudes this past weekend using the Accelerade stuff. Maybe i would have been smarter in the race drinking that than gatorade. Wait - its not a cognitive function booster... wishing they made those.
Dosin up on emergen-c packs (two or three a day) adding the Thymuplex 2x a day and a new food based organic supplemented multi vit in the mix. Topped off with a crazy amount of water, just to fight back this bug. What i'm finding now that i'm more or less consuming zero ETOH is the severity and the duration of the past few "colds" have been significantly dimished. Pretty amazing. Not suprising but definately a good thing. Staying pretty well ahead of the cold, it just feels like i take a few steps back each night...
That and CTodd got me all fricken Verklempt. Damnman, dreging up memories of my G-father's boat. Aurora. A gorgeous Hinckley B-40 Yawl. The summer i spent up there with him, well turned into a month, Hinckley delievered the boat to Camden on a sunday. He asked for the cusions and covers to be brought from the garage. And so i set it up. This was after a trip to Rockland to the big supermarket. He sat on the boat in silence for an hour. Partly spent on deck and partly below. This was his baby. No penny spared. I'd sailed on him for the working part of cruises (back from canada or what not). He went from the boat, back to his house. Took a nap, got up, went to three parties, saw all his friends. And came home and passed away. I was working as a dishwasher at the Waterfront that night, got home late, came up the back steps and had to get up early for the day job. Didn't notice anything till Paula came to help clean up and what not. He never had to deal with it being sold. Sold to some cheapskate from CT who balked at wintering the boat at Hinckley's. At least i know it was built well enough to handle slight neglect from a shitty boat yard. I just hope that boat is still doing well and being sailed. My cousin and I headed out to the boat the day after he died. We went for a long sail on it. Felt strange, just the two of us. In silence we sailed around Penobscot bay. I miss that boat. That feeling of a perfectly balanced helm. I miss cranking the fuckin centerboard till both arms fell off.
So thanks CTOdd, it was an unexpected trip through some memories. Thank you.
Gonna try and hit the Brown Farmer's market today.
Waiting for a next day package with ANOTHER powersupply for the other confocal. The first one they sent didn't even work. So... waiting for another... then it gets loaded in the trailer and i get to be cargo messenger today!
Big Jonny's lead comment is like a sucker punch to the gut...
That and the contractors over in the LSB have to be going nuts. The Fire Alarm's been going off non-stop for what like two days now. On... then off... then on... then off... then on... then off...
I can hear it from here... at least for me it's better than the airchisel...
And the rain stopped for the ride in.
I'm liking it when the fronts pass over at night... perfect for commuting...
That and i need a Dog Tooth Coffee shop close to the house...
Yeah i forgot the book - no Cross toons yet... sooooooooooooooon (uh huh)
G-ooooooooowwwwwwwwtttttttt
Rain drumming down on the roof.
I finally got around to replacing the rim strip and the slow leaky tube in the rear tire. Touched up the spokes, tweaked the centering on the DA brakes. Took the Ultergra SPDs off the P-mount, put the 747s that were on the cross on the P-mount and put the newly acquired 959s on the cross bike. I also removed the freshly installed computer from the QP and hooked it up to the P-mount. Now i finally know how late i am (in other more positive version: i know what time it is). AND i know how far i'm commuting. Assuming the wheel calibration is sort of right (which i doubt but now too lazy to check/fix) i have a 10.75 mile commute to work (17.3 km for the metrically inclined). That's with the trailer. This morning it was a sedate pace on the EBBP of around 14-16 mph, into a nice strong headwind.
Making crappy coffee this morning. Pulled one of the "DOH" meant to bring a dose in from the home stash, but forgot... lucky for me there's some funky folgers to meet the caffine needs. My bro gave me his Ikea french press till i replace the caraf on my Bodum. the ikea one is smaller and not so asmuch good. (i like that lack of english language applicatino no? speeling pretty con sis tent).
Running - one reason why Solobreak's 'you can never have a small enough gear for cross' rule is sounding wicked appealing is, if the gear is small enough it means less time running. But watching the damn videos it seems unless i can miraculously get out front i'll be forced off by others, not myself... We'll see eh? But bottom line i need to see about making the running muscles do something... not to mention i need to get that remount practiced.
KL's acclerade comments are interesting. I do feel a nagging bit of guilt in that maybe i haven't been absolutely fair in evaluating the product. So seein as i have a few servings left, i'll do an intense raceday type trial like KL did to see how my body does with it. Heck after all I saw one of the wicked fast dudes this past weekend using the Accelerade stuff. Maybe i would have been smarter in the race drinking that than gatorade. Wait - its not a cognitive function booster... wishing they made those.
Dosin up on emergen-c packs (two or three a day) adding the Thymuplex 2x a day and a new food based organic supplemented multi vit in the mix. Topped off with a crazy amount of water, just to fight back this bug. What i'm finding now that i'm more or less consuming zero ETOH is the severity and the duration of the past few "colds" have been significantly dimished. Pretty amazing. Not suprising but definately a good thing. Staying pretty well ahead of the cold, it just feels like i take a few steps back each night...
That and CTodd got me all fricken Verklempt. Damnman, dreging up memories of my G-father's boat. Aurora. A gorgeous Hinckley B-40 Yawl. The summer i spent up there with him, well turned into a month, Hinckley delievered the boat to Camden on a sunday. He asked for the cusions and covers to be brought from the garage. And so i set it up. This was after a trip to Rockland to the big supermarket. He sat on the boat in silence for an hour. Partly spent on deck and partly below. This was his baby. No penny spared. I'd sailed on him for the working part of cruises (back from canada or what not). He went from the boat, back to his house. Took a nap, got up, went to three parties, saw all his friends. And came home and passed away. I was working as a dishwasher at the Waterfront that night, got home late, came up the back steps and had to get up early for the day job. Didn't notice anything till Paula came to help clean up and what not. He never had to deal with it being sold. Sold to some cheapskate from CT who balked at wintering the boat at Hinckley's. At least i know it was built well enough to handle slight neglect from a shitty boat yard. I just hope that boat is still doing well and being sailed. My cousin and I headed out to the boat the day after he died. We went for a long sail on it. Felt strange, just the two of us. In silence we sailed around Penobscot bay. I miss that boat. That feeling of a perfectly balanced helm. I miss cranking the fuckin centerboard till both arms fell off.
So thanks CTOdd, it was an unexpected trip through some memories. Thank you.
Gonna try and hit the Brown Farmer's market today.
Waiting for a next day package with ANOTHER powersupply for the other confocal. The first one they sent didn't even work. So... waiting for another... then it gets loaded in the trailer and i get to be cargo messenger today!
Big Jonny's lead comment is like a sucker punch to the gut...
That and the contractors over in the LSB have to be going nuts. The Fire Alarm's been going off non-stop for what like two days now. On... then off... then on... then off... then on... then off...
I can hear it from here... at least for me it's better than the airchisel...
And the rain stopped for the ride in.
I'm liking it when the fronts pass over at night... perfect for commuting...
That and i need a Dog Tooth Coffee shop close to the house...
Yeah i forgot the book - no Cross toons yet... sooooooooooooooon (uh huh)
G-ooooooooowwwwwwwwtttttttt
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
A few words about "Zowie Zoa"
in reference to MegA's entry...
Now, granted, i met Zoe waiting around at Faunce to ride out to Rohoboth, might have been my first one i think. We were the first two and hung out for a bit and chatted while waiting.
Then chatted on the way back while Boyfriend Brad motorpaced (on his bike) us(me) back...
she's the GDest most positive inspiring person out there. Anyway. Reading that brought back some good vibes. Oh and yeah she blew me away that day at the TT. Duh. By an astounding 1:23. She was using fancy bontrager carbon aero bars and what not, and i had my famous spinach bars (maybe they are tainted with ecoli - maybe that's what makes me slow - could be my freaking head sticking out of my shoulders). granted she was just shy of two minutes slower than big Graham G that day and that was the fastest day on the course of the summer. Wicked impressive eh? Hell i'm impressed.
Anyway, but with that as a setting point it jumps nicely into:
Kerry's Top Ten Times Two:
Point by point eh (cause well something as well crafted as that deserves the aproach with the microscope)
First up:
Top 10 Reasons to Race Cyclocross in New England:
10.) You need to justify the $3k you just spent on your new pit bike
Sounds like the reason to show up for Bob Beal but with TT bike... a new bike is always a good reason to show up at a race
9.) You own a long sleeve skinsuit
BING BING BING (maybe ding is better) Yes i NOW own a LS Skinsuit! So this tall freak can look even freakier than normal... I think i have to, just out of sheer do it something wear it for each cross race... hoping not to pull a Marianne Stover before Nats. (She holed her skinsuit in the Sunday Race at Nats).
8.) You need an excuse for why you had a crappy road season, and "I am really focusing on cross this year" is as good as any.
Yup - that works for me - hell i've been saying it all along! WOOO HOOO
(now here's to hoping it gets really shitty out there by october)
7.) Your name is Paul Curley
Nope... but... i've a feeling one of these days i'll meet the legend that seems to be PC
6.) You don't mind the cold
I freaking LOVE THE COLD - i commute on the bike year round... is that enough?
5.) You didn't get enough of Rich Fries' screaming during downtown crits
Combine #7 and #8
4.) It's almost considered sacrilege to be from New England and NOT race cross
I'm not 'FROM' New England, but i've spent a damn hell uv a lotta time out here and i live here now... guess that qualifies?
3.) East coast mud tastes better than West coast mud.
Oh now that... that's harsh... IF you want to separate that crap California calls mud... but NE mud cannot be compared to the sweet tastey mud from Washington state. That Oregon stuff sort of wants to be like its far superior neighbor to the north but winds up more like the crap from the south than they admit. Midwest mud is just boring.
2.)You were unsuccesful in picking up any women during summer and figured that hanging out in the pit is a great way to meet chicks
Mechanic Chicks? SWEET... now THEM's a rare find... any guy lucky enough to date a wrench is LUCKY indeed!
1.) You drove half way across the country to some sparsely attended UCI race in the middle of nowhere so you could get your 1 UCI point and "earn" a call up to the front row.
Hmmm call up... well that'd be kinda cool to get a call up... but me not doing that for it...
Top 10 Reasons Not to Race Cyclcocross in New England
10.) You don't have a pit bike, because apparently you NEED a pit bike, even if you race the C race
Yeah, pit bike... me need pit bike, 'cept i don't have one, have to rely on my superior wrench skills (assuming i'm not too tired to check the bike over the night before) and spare wheels...
9.) You're from the west coast and think that 45degrees is "cold"
Cold is when its -45 wind chill... only then do real Crosser's start to think about putting on a jacket.
8.) Your cycling wardrobe doesn't include anything thermal
Gotta remember to order those damn wool knee warmers damnit
7.) You can't fathom racing in leg warmers or anything other than one layer of lycra
wait a minute... knee warmers and a thermal baselayer under skinsuit... wait - that'd validate this as a not to... (says to self) moving on idiot (doh there i go letting my inner critic kick me in the nuts again)
6.) You've never raced a bike on snow
Never raced on snow? Who's the sensible freak who has never raced in snow? Dude snow's freaking like AWESOME...
5.) You don't understand why Lewis Black's routine on "Weather in Boston" is funny
i get it
4.)You already crashed into a barrier and somehow managed to get a chainring stuck in your forehead once already, no need to do it again.
Hoping not to do make this a reason, ever...
3.) Your name is Duane Skofield.
farking brilliant - won't see DS any other way now...
2.) You didn't sign up before the other 95 people in your category and now you won't get a prime starting position
I was thinkin - yeah so what... till i saw a few of the cross vids on Youtube... now i'm seriously thinkin its a good reason.
1.) You can't pronounce "Gloucester" or "Worcester" correctly and you didn't think racing Providence nats in the snow was "wicked pissa".
A'yuh, A'yuh
Those cross vids... damn man i tell ya... get ya heart pumpin... and the thought of "GET TO THE LINE EARLY" and hope they don't fuckin seed ya based on when ya registered... cause that'd suck for last minute stickbugs like me...
Staying positive... Keep the mental Zoe impression in my file card in my brain. No way i'd recognize her on the street out of the 1k2go kit. But, its the attitude that gives me that warm - positive feelin.
On the other side i find it pretty goofy why i wound up positioned where i was in the RR. NO way in hell should i have been where i was, when i was, and really i should have been able to hang in the group. I kinda knew it but also was balancing the "hell i'm feeling great" on the bike feeling, which turned out to be my body messin with my mind. Sit in... sit in... sit in... What i needed to do was sit in, sit in and sit in... i needed to mentally train to match the physical side. It probably would not have helped in the crit, but if I had sat in instead of getting shelled my TT time should have been better and i may have been able to last in the crit until someone else popped off the back. All lessons to take to heart, remember and grow with.
All that and now i'm getting excited and a bit nervous about cross. How badly am i gonna get shelled? Will i get shelled? But that said i'm okay with writing this season off as a 'rebuilding' period. yeah i've said it before but this is where the local train is going... ya can get off and catch the express anytime ya like... I don't have wicked high standards for this year, but i do have a goal: To have fun and get back into Racing. cause ya know, commuting just ain't the same without the competition.
Peace Out
Now, granted, i met Zoe waiting around at Faunce to ride out to Rohoboth, might have been my first one i think. We were the first two and hung out for a bit and chatted while waiting.
Then chatted on the way back while Boyfriend Brad motorpaced (on his bike) us(me) back...
she's the GDest most positive inspiring person out there. Anyway. Reading that brought back some good vibes. Oh and yeah she blew me away that day at the TT. Duh. By an astounding 1:23. She was using fancy bontrager carbon aero bars and what not, and i had my famous spinach bars (maybe they are tainted with ecoli - maybe that's what makes me slow - could be my freaking head sticking out of my shoulders). granted she was just shy of two minutes slower than big Graham G that day and that was the fastest day on the course of the summer. Wicked impressive eh? Hell i'm impressed.
Anyway, but with that as a setting point it jumps nicely into:
Kerry's Top Ten Times Two:
Point by point eh (cause well something as well crafted as that deserves the aproach with the microscope)
First up:
Top 10 Reasons to Race Cyclocross in New England:
10.) You need to justify the $3k you just spent on your new pit bike
Sounds like the reason to show up for Bob Beal but with TT bike... a new bike is always a good reason to show up at a race
9.) You own a long sleeve skinsuit
BING BING BING (maybe ding is better) Yes i NOW own a LS Skinsuit! So this tall freak can look even freakier than normal... I think i have to, just out of sheer do it something wear it for each cross race... hoping not to pull a Marianne Stover before Nats. (She holed her skinsuit in the Sunday Race at Nats).
8.) You need an excuse for why you had a crappy road season, and "I am really focusing on cross this year" is as good as any.
Yup - that works for me - hell i've been saying it all along! WOOO HOOO
(now here's to hoping it gets really shitty out there by october)
7.) Your name is Paul Curley
Nope... but... i've a feeling one of these days i'll meet the legend that seems to be PC
6.) You don't mind the cold
I freaking LOVE THE COLD - i commute on the bike year round... is that enough?
5.) You didn't get enough of Rich Fries' screaming during downtown crits
Combine #7 and #8
4.) It's almost considered sacrilege to be from New England and NOT race cross
I'm not 'FROM' New England, but i've spent a damn hell uv a lotta time out here and i live here now... guess that qualifies?
3.) East coast mud tastes better than West coast mud.
Oh now that... that's harsh... IF you want to separate that crap California calls mud... but NE mud cannot be compared to the sweet tastey mud from Washington state. That Oregon stuff sort of wants to be like its far superior neighbor to the north but winds up more like the crap from the south than they admit. Midwest mud is just boring.
2.)You were unsuccesful in picking up any women during summer and figured that hanging out in the pit is a great way to meet chicks
Mechanic Chicks? SWEET... now THEM's a rare find... any guy lucky enough to date a wrench is LUCKY indeed!
1.) You drove half way across the country to some sparsely attended UCI race in the middle of nowhere so you could get your 1 UCI point and "earn" a call up to the front row.
Hmmm call up... well that'd be kinda cool to get a call up... but me not doing that for it...
Top 10 Reasons Not to Race Cyclcocross in New England
10.) You don't have a pit bike, because apparently you NEED a pit bike, even if you race the C race
Yeah, pit bike... me need pit bike, 'cept i don't have one, have to rely on my superior wrench skills (assuming i'm not too tired to check the bike over the night before) and spare wheels...
9.) You're from the west coast and think that 45degrees is "cold"
Cold is when its -45 wind chill... only then do real Crosser's start to think about putting on a jacket.
8.) Your cycling wardrobe doesn't include anything thermal
Gotta remember to order those damn wool knee warmers damnit
7.) You can't fathom racing in leg warmers or anything other than one layer of lycra
wait a minute... knee warmers and a thermal baselayer under skinsuit... wait - that'd validate this as a not to... (says to self) moving on idiot (doh there i go letting my inner critic kick me in the nuts again)
6.) You've never raced a bike on snow
Never raced on snow? Who's the sensible freak who has never raced in snow? Dude snow's freaking like AWESOME...
5.) You don't understand why Lewis Black's routine on "Weather in Boston" is funny
i get it
4.)You already crashed into a barrier and somehow managed to get a chainring stuck in your forehead once already, no need to do it again.
Hoping not to do make this a reason, ever...
3.) Your name is Duane Skofield.
farking brilliant - won't see DS any other way now...
2.) You didn't sign up before the other 95 people in your category and now you won't get a prime starting position
I was thinkin - yeah so what... till i saw a few of the cross vids on Youtube... now i'm seriously thinkin its a good reason.
1.) You can't pronounce "Gloucester" or "Worcester" correctly and you didn't think racing Providence nats in the snow was "wicked pissa".
A'yuh, A'yuh
Those cross vids... damn man i tell ya... get ya heart pumpin... and the thought of "GET TO THE LINE EARLY" and hope they don't fuckin seed ya based on when ya registered... cause that'd suck for last minute stickbugs like me...
Staying positive... Keep the mental Zoe impression in my file card in my brain. No way i'd recognize her on the street out of the 1k2go kit. But, its the attitude that gives me that warm - positive feelin.
On the other side i find it pretty goofy why i wound up positioned where i was in the RR. NO way in hell should i have been where i was, when i was, and really i should have been able to hang in the group. I kinda knew it but also was balancing the "hell i'm feeling great" on the bike feeling, which turned out to be my body messin with my mind. Sit in... sit in... sit in... What i needed to do was sit in, sit in and sit in... i needed to mentally train to match the physical side. It probably would not have helped in the crit, but if I had sat in instead of getting shelled my TT time should have been better and i may have been able to last in the crit until someone else popped off the back. All lessons to take to heart, remember and grow with.
All that and now i'm getting excited and a bit nervous about cross. How badly am i gonna get shelled? Will i get shelled? But that said i'm okay with writing this season off as a 'rebuilding' period. yeah i've said it before but this is where the local train is going... ya can get off and catch the express anytime ya like... I don't have wicked high standards for this year, but i do have a goal: To have fun and get back into Racing. cause ya know, commuting just ain't the same without the competition.
Peace Out
the morning phlem
ain't it great to wake up and have the build up of crap in the deep back of the sinuses... not enough to imped the breathing but the drainage yuck?
Yeah i'm pushing the sick envelope... but i'm feeling okay and should beable to pull through.
One thing i noticed... i was physcologically able to push my self way farther when offering support to Ted when we were off the back. Alone i couldn't seem to find the same reserves to push it around. If i'd gone off the back of the crit with one other i'd have probably stuck it out. Something strange that i always seem to be able to work harder and better for others than myself. In most everything it seems.
That and the BCBS health newsletter showed up yesterday and the last 'blurb' was about "Silencing your inner critic."
DOH. Yup, definately need to work on that. Need to spend more time with vocally positive folks like Zoe. Fuck i'm more negative than FnF, it would seem, at least about myself. Its a big change to focus positive first. And one that in general i am constantly amazed at the fact of how much better i feel when i can work the positive side rather than the negative side.
And yeah, its official, i didn't get scored for even starting the Crit. That effin blows. hard to stay positive when i don't even get a smidge more credit than the no shows. Mentally i'm still having trouble wrapping my head around that. Not being listed when we left on Sunday dumped me in a hole that i was able to mentally crawl out of but it was tough, woulda been nice to be recognized as starting. But yes. I know, its an Omnium scoring... and yeah i know, i didn't get any points on any day. And the field was wicked strong and very fast and i was WAY over my head. And yeah i am pretty happy with how it went when i push some of the negative thoughts out of the way.
Time to gear up for cross though... time to work on mounts and dismounts and the running stuff... fingers crossed my meager clincher tire selection that served me well on the michigan courses holds up this year... i'm thinking though that i'll need one more set, as wide as i can go... to balance out the choices.
well...
peace out... ride fast... stay positive
Yeah i'm pushing the sick envelope... but i'm feeling okay and should beable to pull through.
One thing i noticed... i was physcologically able to push my self way farther when offering support to Ted when we were off the back. Alone i couldn't seem to find the same reserves to push it around. If i'd gone off the back of the crit with one other i'd have probably stuck it out. Something strange that i always seem to be able to work harder and better for others than myself. In most everything it seems.
That and the BCBS health newsletter showed up yesterday and the last 'blurb' was about "Silencing your inner critic."
DOH. Yup, definately need to work on that. Need to spend more time with vocally positive folks like Zoe. Fuck i'm more negative than FnF, it would seem, at least about myself. Its a big change to focus positive first. And one that in general i am constantly amazed at the fact of how much better i feel when i can work the positive side rather than the negative side.
And yeah, its official, i didn't get scored for even starting the Crit. That effin blows. hard to stay positive when i don't even get a smidge more credit than the no shows. Mentally i'm still having trouble wrapping my head around that. Not being listed when we left on Sunday dumped me in a hole that i was able to mentally crawl out of but it was tough, woulda been nice to be recognized as starting. But yes. I know, its an Omnium scoring... and yeah i know, i didn't get any points on any day. And the field was wicked strong and very fast and i was WAY over my head. And yeah i am pretty happy with how it went when i push some of the negative thoughts out of the way.
Time to gear up for cross though... time to work on mounts and dismounts and the running stuff... fingers crossed my meager clincher tire selection that served me well on the michigan courses holds up this year... i'm thinking though that i'll need one more set, as wide as i can go... to balance out the choices.
well...
peace out... ride fast... stay positive
Monday, September 18, 2006
monday stuff
Treefarm gets a "mainstream" press shout out.
the brilliant MegA puts out a nice cross vid and a whole encyclopedia of entries.
reading through the Sucka Brook banter i'm thinkin: "sweet, now i can get my ass handed to me in a 4th dissypline(sic)"
(1st: RR, 2nd: TT, 3rd: Crit, 4th: Cross)
The whole 'spinach' deal is crazy. I feel for the producer. That's gotta really feel like shoving a spruce tree up your ass if you are counting the beans.
Oh and Horizon. I didn't know about the boycot until i pulled up this link searching for info on why my mother told me. That PCC (a wholefoods like co-op that's been around longer than Wholefoods... see, seattle didn't just start the Coffee trend, they started the "natural" grocery store chain too) dropped Horizon because they investigated and determined the cows were not seeing enough sun or getting enough grass for their standards. So buh buy Horizon.
Which i just learned is owned by Dean Foods. No shit? Wow. Anyway. My only hope is that Horizon isn't the producer that is making the 365 Organic branded dairy products.
read all about it with this google search
one of the better articles comes from the Seattle Weekly, and scary bit from there is Walfart's diving headfirst (more like cannon ball) into the organics market. WE're Fucked, or should i say the organic dairy industry is, unless these standards are tightened down.
finally the direct link for one of the PCC statements.
PCC is cool. Since 1953... But then what do ya expect from a place like Seattle.
And Patty O'G has given the thumbs up to posting some cross nuggets from the book.
Gonna try and make that a regular thing. Maybe see if i can get em all scanned and then use them to set the ton for how i did in the races... Oh and the commentary about the Great Dane is a do not miss, he's got a bit about the shitty bacteria... haha...shitty bacteria...
nevermind, must be lunch time (after actually) and the blood sugar is dropping...
And seems that the U got their act together and sent out the PO... which is nice... cause if they had blown $47 grand by being late... that would have been a sucky thing to have hangin over the scope.
Cross tips... i was unable to take in the 'local' camps, and will have to make due with practicing with Shannon's kinda tips in mind. Hell he is the '05 Men's 35-39 National Champ. Guys like him showed up at Bob Beal this weekend. Make me out for laughing stock cannon fodder.
mmm butter... well me not so much but i don't skimp on the meat stuff... me no vegan eh?! one (one of my broz) in the family is enough. But the commuting to and from work.
I would like to try and get the cross bike suited up for commuter duty and well that means the three sets of wheels shared by the Croll, Klien and P-mount would all become property of the 'Croll' The Rolf VectorPro's get designated as 'race' wheels. Yes they are clincher... i'm gonna have to suck it up riding them cause there ain't NO budget for a set of boobulars, the current cross wheels on the croll potentially get set up for road training or second cross wheels. and the beat to shit P-mount wheels get left doing commuter duty. Now... to see if i can make the Trailer work with the cross bike with the different bracket (can't use the drop out hook up with the Ritchey dropouts on the croll...
That was the other 'DOH' factor this weekend. I hadn't been on the Klein since Sunday. And the geometry IS different between the Pmount and the Klein and while the seat position and all that is close, the disparity between the size of the bike, the bottom brackets and the rest of the crap... makes me look lazy for not having it exactly the same. Oh well. Cross is coming up soon. Right?
the brilliant MegA puts out a nice cross vid and a whole encyclopedia of entries.
reading through the Sucka Brook banter i'm thinkin: "sweet, now i can get my ass handed to me in a 4th dissypline(sic)"
(1st: RR, 2nd: TT, 3rd: Crit, 4th: Cross)
The whole 'spinach' deal is crazy. I feel for the producer. That's gotta really feel like shoving a spruce tree up your ass if you are counting the beans.
Oh and Horizon. I didn't know about the boycot until i pulled up this link searching for info on why my mother told me. That PCC (a wholefoods like co-op that's been around longer than Wholefoods... see, seattle didn't just start the Coffee trend, they started the "natural" grocery store chain too) dropped Horizon because they investigated and determined the cows were not seeing enough sun or getting enough grass for their standards. So buh buy Horizon.
Which i just learned is owned by Dean Foods. No shit? Wow. Anyway. My only hope is that Horizon isn't the producer that is making the 365 Organic branded dairy products.
read all about it with this google search
one of the better articles comes from the Seattle Weekly, and scary bit from there is Walfart's diving headfirst (more like cannon ball) into the organics market. WE're Fucked, or should i say the organic dairy industry is, unless these standards are tightened down.
finally the direct link for one of the PCC statements.
PCC is cool. Since 1953... But then what do ya expect from a place like Seattle.
And Patty O'G has given the thumbs up to posting some cross nuggets from the book.
Gonna try and make that a regular thing. Maybe see if i can get em all scanned and then use them to set the ton for how i did in the races... Oh and the commentary about the Great Dane is a do not miss, he's got a bit about the shitty bacteria... haha...shitty bacteria...
nevermind, must be lunch time (after actually) and the blood sugar is dropping...
And seems that the U got their act together and sent out the PO... which is nice... cause if they had blown $47 grand by being late... that would have been a sucky thing to have hangin over the scope.
Cross tips... i was unable to take in the 'local' camps, and will have to make due with practicing with Shannon's kinda tips in mind. Hell he is the '05 Men's 35-39 National Champ. Guys like him showed up at Bob Beal this weekend. Make me out for laughing stock cannon fodder.
3. What's a good training plan?
Well, there's a few schools of thought. You can do like Tonkin does and ride your bike as much as humanly possible. I'm talking every waking hour when you're not at work. This works well if you work 60 hrs/week like he does, but plan on giving up a social life. It does help if you eat butter.
I try to ride less, but skip the butter. My goal is to ride as little as possible but still be able to win races. You'll have to experiment a little, because that amount of riding varies from person to person. I've pretty much settled in on commuting to and from work.
mmm butter... well me not so much but i don't skimp on the meat stuff... me no vegan eh?! one (one of my broz) in the family is enough. But the commuting to and from work.
I would like to try and get the cross bike suited up for commuter duty and well that means the three sets of wheels shared by the Croll, Klien and P-mount would all become property of the 'Croll' The Rolf VectorPro's get designated as 'race' wheels. Yes they are clincher... i'm gonna have to suck it up riding them cause there ain't NO budget for a set of boobulars, the current cross wheels on the croll potentially get set up for road training or second cross wheels. and the beat to shit P-mount wheels get left doing commuter duty. Now... to see if i can make the Trailer work with the cross bike with the different bracket (can't use the drop out hook up with the Ritchey dropouts on the croll...
That was the other 'DOH' factor this weekend. I hadn't been on the Klein since Sunday. And the geometry IS different between the Pmount and the Klein and while the seat position and all that is close, the disparity between the size of the bike, the bottom brackets and the rest of the crap... makes me look lazy for not having it exactly the same. Oh well. Cross is coming up soon. Right?
DNS vs DNF (or The Bob Beal Masters Race)
which one is worse? Well DNS by a small margin right? I dunno.
What needs to be said is i'm wicked freaking humbled. And an absolutely confirmed B Masters racer. All these Cat 1s in the race (well that's the rumor and the word)... I'm a 'rookie' Cat 4 racing for the second time this year...
I got my ass handed to me. Saturday was fun. Lots of fun. Sunday sucked. Well sort of - it was fun racing with the wicked fast boys... The 30-34 guys started 30 seconds in front, and well... the 35-39 guys at the start were bitching that we were a bigger field with, specifically, Kyle Wolfe. Christian Young, and all the Stage 1 riders in their bubbles. It was f'n insane... And well turns out the older group did catch and pass the younger one... loads of bitching overheard afterwards about how the officials kept yelling at the racers to ride a separate race, no mixing of the fields...
Totally stupid. The race was fast. Way faster than the 3/4 race up in havrill i thought. it was completely flat with a headwind on the backside (tailwind for finishing sprint)... but then everyone but me has probably raced at Ninigret before. The corners weren't a problem... it was the out of the saddle accelerations after each corner from the dudes up front.
Oh and that Eugene Boronow dude... riding for Mengoni, he sat in the back for the first five or more laps then blew to the front and rode away from the field... I think we stayed between 25 and 35 mph the whole time i was hooked up in the crit.
But... i didn't say hooked up... and while maybe i should have ridden the last 14 laps solo to get lapped 5-10 times... my legs were not responding... I could hold 20 with signficant effort but that was about it... and those guys - going 5-15 mph faster... i'd have just been a road hazard... I pulled myself... so full of shame...
but...
like the entry says - there were a few guys who did not start the crit. and maybe they are smarter than me... maybe? probably...
I raced like a rookie, but the cornering in the crit, no problem, the field really wasn't yo-yoing too much in the crit... just a solid line, strung out single file or double file almost every lap, with a few moments of slowing down... and bunching up.
So anyway - that was sunday... Sucky... legs though, after Saturday? Kinda makes sense. It also proves to me, i'm NOT ready to race twice in a weekend. So these 'double' days... Maine, Gloucester... me not do both... that'd be fucking stupid.
Saturday. Now saturday was cool... Well. It was fun. And a great learning experience. I learned i need more prepration.
The Road race felt great for the first 1/2 lap, i surfed the front wheels between 2-6th wheel... then the pack slowed way the hell down and i was coasting and wound up in front and did no work (i thought) and well... then a few rolled through... then the rollers started... and i was feeling okay... working... not seeing any or much wind... and then someone thought it'd be a good idea to motor down one hill at 40 mph and then hold about 35 up the next long rise... well... i slunk to the back and started the dreadful yo-yo... and these guys were not slowing down... I burried myself everytime it went up and they didn't slow down... racing with Cat 1 guys... man... that's rather intense for my second race back...
anyway - i eventually was chewed up spit out the back... but it was just after we turned back onto 112, so most of a whole lap i managed to stay on...
came through the finish and saw a dude way back... i ate shit and kept trying to push it, sayin "finish, finish" and the guy was makign up time on me through the risers... and i said well fuck this lets see, he's prolly in my group. Sure'nuff. Well we raced the next two laps together... Met up with the 40+ field some asshole in a white jersey... (he might have been wearing BOB kit in the Cox masters race when he wasn't supposed to be) yelled at me to get out of the field cause i'm slowing it down... um... jackass, i was sitting in ON THE FUCKING BACK, minding my own bizz and this ass hats sitting on my wheel... the Navy guy from our field had fallen off the back so i slowed up, waved the SRAM car past and well... wouldn't ya know it... those 40 dudes slowed right down and we caught back up in no time. Turning onto 112 they musta smelled blood or something cause there were a few attacks and what not and Ted was dropped hard...
I dunno, i supposed i should have put my head down and let him hang alone, but for me, i hung back to work with him. He was fresh outa Japan, and used to climbing but not the flats or the wind... So i did the driving on the flats in the power section and i hung on his wheel as we climbed through the back side and what not.
As it was, we finished, about 15 minutes down from the field, but still completing the 42 miles in 1hr 53m, for an average speed of just over 22 mph.
Fast... it hurt... Sucked every ounce out of me.
Part of the dropping issue was preparation, and i wasn't as rested as i should have been going into the weekend. Foley and Burke said there were no hills really... well, Burke said the hills were my kind of power hills... and well... maybe they were... but mentally i didn't know where they were coming in, how many, and i felt 'too good' sitting towards the front. A power meter would have been telling me YO IDIOT - SIT THE FUCK IN ya gonna blow... and well maybe next time...
Hung out with some of the AFD guys... before the TT... Chatted with Ted, snacked and rested, stretched... then put the Spinachi bars on for the TT...
and put on my first skinsuit. Yes... you read that right. My very first skinsuit. *shock* *amazement* no way?! Yeah, they are coooooool. This one though is long sleeve (perfect for cross), and the long sleeves made me feel faster, couldn't feel the wind on my arm hair.
The TT is a slight uphill on the TT, not much of one, but ya feel it. And i feel pretty good about the 7:18 i put in. It was the one race of the weekend that i actually felt confident about doing it right. Well makes sense. Its what i've been doing this summer. TTs. Short ones. It was probably one of my better ones, even with the leg blowing morning and getting caught by Kyle Wolf at the 1.5 mile mark (he was my 30s behind me and the TT winner). I felt managing to average 24.7 or so was an acheivement. I tried to sprint through the finish but found the tank completely empty... Which, meant to me that i left it all out there.
it was a very 'refreshing' awakening to the 'Masters' scene. I can shoot for next year. Maybe like Zoo and the Fitch... Bobby Beal race can be *my* goal. The goal? To score some fucking points.
And, its time to retire the P-mount from commuting duty and make it a TT bike. Heck its time to start looking for an old 126mm spaced disk wheel with a freewheel. Or something like that. But i've got till the summer or so to make it a TT bike, and to pick up an aero helment, cause ya know, an aero helment is worth the same gain in time as the most aero wheels.
It was a successful weekend. The girls got to seem me riding around in circles, and my wife remarked that they were going FAST. Um. yeah... There are a few pics of the lanky slowass me to prove that i did actually start the crit... even if i don't get scored. Maybe a DNF in the crit means you don't get the privelage of being listed in the final results. That'd suck but... *shrug* i wasn't gonna ride around for 14 laps alone as those guys went zipping by...
So the take home message for myself is: I raced like a rookie, and yes i KNOW what to do, but knowing and being told what to do and then actually DOING IT are two different things it would seem. And well my TT thinking is getting on track (even if my legs were fucking hosed for the race), the Crit is getting closer, and the road race could use some work. Hopefully i can *work* on the road racing with some of those cool races i read about in the spring. The Crit stuff? Well maybe i need to hit Wells, Tuc or Ninigret next summer, repeatedly.
This morning's ride in with the trailer was slower than normal, but the cadence was high and the legs didn't feel like mine. But i made em work.
It was great to meet Murat and some new faces... Moocho respect for the guys who hung on to the tails of the fast dudes in our race.
Time for some coffee. And some light reading (you guessed it, manuals and textbooks).
G, just maybe the slowest 35-39 racer this past weekend
What needs to be said is i'm wicked freaking humbled. And an absolutely confirmed B Masters racer. All these Cat 1s in the race (well that's the rumor and the word)... I'm a 'rookie' Cat 4 racing for the second time this year...
I got my ass handed to me. Saturday was fun. Lots of fun. Sunday sucked. Well sort of - it was fun racing with the wicked fast boys... The 30-34 guys started 30 seconds in front, and well... the 35-39 guys at the start were bitching that we were a bigger field with, specifically, Kyle Wolfe. Christian Young, and all the Stage 1 riders in their bubbles. It was f'n insane... And well turns out the older group did catch and pass the younger one... loads of bitching overheard afterwards about how the officials kept yelling at the racers to ride a separate race, no mixing of the fields...
Totally stupid. The race was fast. Way faster than the 3/4 race up in havrill i thought. it was completely flat with a headwind on the backside (tailwind for finishing sprint)... but then everyone but me has probably raced at Ninigret before. The corners weren't a problem... it was the out of the saddle accelerations after each corner from the dudes up front.
Oh and that Eugene Boronow dude... riding for Mengoni, he sat in the back for the first five or more laps then blew to the front and rode away from the field... I think we stayed between 25 and 35 mph the whole time i was hooked up in the crit.
But... i didn't say hooked up... and while maybe i should have ridden the last 14 laps solo to get lapped 5-10 times... my legs were not responding... I could hold 20 with signficant effort but that was about it... and those guys - going 5-15 mph faster... i'd have just been a road hazard... I pulled myself... so full of shame...
but...
like the entry says - there were a few guys who did not start the crit. and maybe they are smarter than me... maybe? probably...
I raced like a rookie, but the cornering in the crit, no problem, the field really wasn't yo-yoing too much in the crit... just a solid line, strung out single file or double file almost every lap, with a few moments of slowing down... and bunching up.
So anyway - that was sunday... Sucky... legs though, after Saturday? Kinda makes sense. It also proves to me, i'm NOT ready to race twice in a weekend. So these 'double' days... Maine, Gloucester... me not do both... that'd be fucking stupid.
Saturday. Now saturday was cool... Well. It was fun. And a great learning experience. I learned i need more prepration.
The Road race felt great for the first 1/2 lap, i surfed the front wheels between 2-6th wheel... then the pack slowed way the hell down and i was coasting and wound up in front and did no work (i thought) and well... then a few rolled through... then the rollers started... and i was feeling okay... working... not seeing any or much wind... and then someone thought it'd be a good idea to motor down one hill at 40 mph and then hold about 35 up the next long rise... well... i slunk to the back and started the dreadful yo-yo... and these guys were not slowing down... I burried myself everytime it went up and they didn't slow down... racing with Cat 1 guys... man... that's rather intense for my second race back...
anyway - i eventually was chewed up spit out the back... but it was just after we turned back onto 112, so most of a whole lap i managed to stay on...
came through the finish and saw a dude way back... i ate shit and kept trying to push it, sayin "finish, finish" and the guy was makign up time on me through the risers... and i said well fuck this lets see, he's prolly in my group. Sure'nuff. Well we raced the next two laps together... Met up with the 40+ field some asshole in a white jersey... (he might have been wearing BOB kit in the Cox masters race when he wasn't supposed to be) yelled at me to get out of the field cause i'm slowing it down... um... jackass, i was sitting in ON THE FUCKING BACK, minding my own bizz and this ass hats sitting on my wheel... the Navy guy from our field had fallen off the back so i slowed up, waved the SRAM car past and well... wouldn't ya know it... those 40 dudes slowed right down and we caught back up in no time. Turning onto 112 they musta smelled blood or something cause there were a few attacks and what not and Ted was dropped hard...
I dunno, i supposed i should have put my head down and let him hang alone, but for me, i hung back to work with him. He was fresh outa Japan, and used to climbing but not the flats or the wind... So i did the driving on the flats in the power section and i hung on his wheel as we climbed through the back side and what not.
As it was, we finished, about 15 minutes down from the field, but still completing the 42 miles in 1hr 53m, for an average speed of just over 22 mph.
Fast... it hurt... Sucked every ounce out of me.
Part of the dropping issue was preparation, and i wasn't as rested as i should have been going into the weekend. Foley and Burke said there were no hills really... well, Burke said the hills were my kind of power hills... and well... maybe they were... but mentally i didn't know where they were coming in, how many, and i felt 'too good' sitting towards the front. A power meter would have been telling me YO IDIOT - SIT THE FUCK IN ya gonna blow... and well maybe next time...
Hung out with some of the AFD guys... before the TT... Chatted with Ted, snacked and rested, stretched... then put the Spinachi bars on for the TT...
and put on my first skinsuit. Yes... you read that right. My very first skinsuit. *shock* *amazement* no way?! Yeah, they are coooooool. This one though is long sleeve (perfect for cross), and the long sleeves made me feel faster, couldn't feel the wind on my arm hair.
The TT is a slight uphill on the TT, not much of one, but ya feel it. And i feel pretty good about the 7:18 i put in. It was the one race of the weekend that i actually felt confident about doing it right. Well makes sense. Its what i've been doing this summer. TTs. Short ones. It was probably one of my better ones, even with the leg blowing morning and getting caught by Kyle Wolf at the 1.5 mile mark (he was my 30s behind me and the TT winner). I felt managing to average 24.7 or so was an acheivement. I tried to sprint through the finish but found the tank completely empty... Which, meant to me that i left it all out there.
it was a very 'refreshing' awakening to the 'Masters' scene. I can shoot for next year. Maybe like Zoo and the Fitch... Bobby Beal race can be *my* goal. The goal? To score some fucking points.
And, its time to retire the P-mount from commuting duty and make it a TT bike. Heck its time to start looking for an old 126mm spaced disk wheel with a freewheel. Or something like that. But i've got till the summer or so to make it a TT bike, and to pick up an aero helment, cause ya know, an aero helment is worth the same gain in time as the most aero wheels.
It was a successful weekend. The girls got to seem me riding around in circles, and my wife remarked that they were going FAST. Um. yeah... There are a few pics of the lanky slowass me to prove that i did actually start the crit... even if i don't get scored. Maybe a DNF in the crit means you don't get the privelage of being listed in the final results. That'd suck but... *shrug* i wasn't gonna ride around for 14 laps alone as those guys went zipping by...
So the take home message for myself is: I raced like a rookie, and yes i KNOW what to do, but knowing and being told what to do and then actually DOING IT are two different things it would seem. And well my TT thinking is getting on track (even if my legs were fucking hosed for the race), the Crit is getting closer, and the road race could use some work. Hopefully i can *work* on the road racing with some of those cool races i read about in the spring. The Crit stuff? Well maybe i need to hit Wells, Tuc or Ninigret next summer, repeatedly.
This morning's ride in with the trailer was slower than normal, but the cadence was high and the legs didn't feel like mine. But i made em work.
It was great to meet Murat and some new faces... Moocho respect for the guys who hung on to the tails of the fast dudes in our race.
Time for some coffee. And some light reading (you guessed it, manuals and textbooks).
G, just maybe the slowest 35-39 racer this past weekend
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