Sterling Race - transcribed from scribble

The thought just occured to me to scan the 4 pages in and save myself the translation, but then... no... why?

Well in college, sophomore year iirc, i discovered that if i took notes, and then re-wrote them i learned the material, actually learned it not memorized. With my first computer at college i did it with everything. Hand wrote (lots of yellow pads - narrow ruled - letter sized) all my notes. Then typed them in, adding or fixing facts and all that.

So the process sort of continues, except now i'm using the one line jots to flesh out thoughts. I can expound on details that were a mere short hand, even for me. Far too Gewilliesque even for me writing to myself here.

Yes - it is lunch. I'm having a bit of soup from yesterday. Got back into the Sunday soup deal. This was made with 1/2 a sweet onion sweat in a heavy dose of extra virgin olive oil, added two stalks of organic celery and reduced (evaporated all the water out) those down on low heat. Then added 4 organic carrots (peeled), 1 small organic Parsnip (peeled), one small Organic Beet, one small turnip (organic.. duh), one organic Jewel Yam, 1 organic acorn squash, ginger (fresh, chopped), 2 cloves organic garlic (rough chopped), 12 fresh green beans (org), 2 org zuchs, a bit of dried basil, some rice wine vinegar, a touch of soy sauce, ground coriander... and a small bit of stock base (this was chicken but could easily have been the vegan veggie stock) a bunch of water (maybe 4-5 cups) and 1.5 cups of red lentils. Cooked at a simmer until the lentils were soft and then blended with a stick blender till smooth. Served over cous-cous (the small french stuff). Oh - i forgot - added 2 tablespoons of tomato paste to the mix...

Anyway - i'll be slurping that down while transcribing...

TRANSCRIPTION TO FOLLOW - ALL EVENTS DEPICTED ARE FOR introspective DOCUMENTATION

Race... to start Saturday off it was food:
8-10oz of Kozy Shack Euro style... side note: Trader Joe's (TJ) stuff is sold in 16 oz tubs, KS is sold in 22 oz tubs... TJs has more sugar... and is only one penny/oz more than KS when KS is not on sale. But the TJs rice is all mushy and the flava just ain't there like the KS. KS wins hands down on all counts in the rice pudding saga, but i may have documented that before - i did a quick cost analysis and reflection this weekend hence the comments.

Okay - ate the 8-10 oz of KS,
Loaded car - just me and my junk
stopped at Dunkin Donuts (instead of making espresso) grabbed a 24oz Black hot coffee and two chocolate glazed (to be eaten post race)
arrived there - after making it through the 146-290 construction in Wu'ster... and the detour DOH!
Get to reg, its 8:09... a fucking LINE? Ya gotta be kidding me... shit...
I gotta take a crap... but the line there was long too... as a pre-warm up sort of i get the bike sorted out... ie front wheel on, check front tire - at 40psi - add 10 psi (i'm too fat to run clinchers any lower) and leave the back alone - somewhere around 40-50psi close enough... ride around looking for the porta-potty - no dice (not till my first practice lap did i spot them) head to the single hole in the visitors locker room - take a massive dump, no way to race with that load - it was one of those that - never mind - TMI even for me (well not really but i'll leave it out)... so after the massive dump i head out... its freaking 8:20 now... race starts at 9am... i gotta get changed... Get number pinned on and suited up by 8:30. did i mention the race was at 9? This is as close to the start as i've cut it and i was up before 6am to get to the race!!!

Pre-race beverage deserves a quick side note as well. Gatorade powder thing had about 1/2 a bottle worth... and all i had was that Accelerade stuff. Figured i'd give it another try. Ya know. Race style prep - in cold weather instead of warm this time. Mix up two bottles of that, drink one before the race after finishing the 24oz DD coffee. 24 oz bottles of water mind ya. No issues with it - tasted decent, one swig of water and no sticky yucky saliva - bonus.

Okay - so back to getting number pinned on... I make it onto the course by 8:30, roll through easy in the straights - reading the course, picking lines, and alternate lines... hit the techincal sections, ooh ice... fun... get one full lap in and part of a second when i notice that there are people already gathering at staging. 'Course i'm expecting a free for all start like all but... wait... for all the races i've done... assuming they'll send the C-men off first and then us (B-masters) then the 55+ guys... anyway i get there - line up in the middle somewhere... shit - they doing the number thing... i have to ask two different people what my number was... and got an answer both times, just didn't happen to remember it the first time... 70 C-men go off before us... that's 7 rows of folks... 68 starters in my race, i was number 157... meant 5th row... lined up with Larry King (Union Velo)... so as it was 70 guys up the road 30 seconds, 50 guys in front of me... and well... my plan was to go hard but not blow my wad at the start (dumb now in hindsight)... I still mowed through the group... passing people all the way to the first run up... but just not enough people... i could have passed more... and then there was the clusterfuck of the first lap run up... we catch the C-men at the bottom of the hill - already people just stopped trying to figure out how to get around the guy stopped in front of them... i'd been sticking with the left side but it was wicked chewed up already from the C-men, but not bad... just tough to get around people who were walking up the hill... ITS A RACE PEOPLE GET A FUCKING MOVE ON...I didn't say that but felt it... way nicer racing with the elite/combined masters field, people actually know how to ride and shit.

So - ooh side note to self: When racing B-masters when starting behind C-men - go balls to the wall 100% from the gun because there WILL be a bottle neck and there WILL be time to recover from the effort and not be on the slow train to the back of the field (like in the combined 1.2.3.4 masters fields).

So... Moving through and moving up, battling it out... passing passing passing passing passing

We claw for position... the C-men are like fucking landmines... Props to them for giving it a go but racing through 70 guys with less experience and sometimes seemingly non-existent skills is frustrating and slow.
I don't wanna bitch about them too much but it was a major part of the race. But chatting with Rob, MRC will have a separate B-masters start (Hey Foley - chance for your 5th race and points!!!).

Almost ate a tree... scared the poop outa me (fortunately no poop in me) cost me a hand full of bike lengths and three or four positions (all gained back at the tripple barrier run up) but sucked some major adrenaline outa me -

That 2x log barrier thing, how the hell would KL get up that? I was jumping up over it... damn thing was NOT 40cm, more like 80cm...

Kept passing people but that 1st 50 people, well 27/26 of them beat me to the line... and that kinda blew... but then i did finish in front of more than i finished behind.

overall in the races lately i'm finding i have more bursts ie more gas and goes... call em 5+ race bursts that i maybe had one per ride in August (ala my sprint against Graham Garber at 1200+ watts)... which is nice... gun and go can happen more often... maybe if we were racing Cross until Feb i might be able to have enough gas and gos to podium it... if only we had a promoter that would work it for us. But at anyrate it feels like i'm actually getting into shape... race shape that is...

Oh at the start - JD was walking around checking numbers and stuff and i jokes "Hey JD - Call up! JD I get a Call up right? Come on Man, can't i get a call up?" His somewhat amused reply was "i'm just an employee at this race" call up woulda been nice there at that race...

I don't feel like going over the details of the course... it was good... tough, fair (except that double log IMHO) and oh... can the freaking course folks clear the fucking head level limbs that stick over the only ridable lines? Fer Fuckssake? The last couple laps i'd pass a handful of folks on one part then they'd catch up or pass me on another section. Happened with one little dude with spinergys a couple times (i tried to go on the inside line around him when i almost tree'd myself). But i was generally ahead at the start finish line where it counts... there were a handful of folks on my wheel hitting the pavement... but i gassed it and they weren't there anymore... i'm getting it - knowing that everyone else must be hurting as much as i am that if i can find the mental to gun it that they won't be able to hang unless they've really saved alot. At one point in the race i thought my bars were loose or busted... not fun... but check over yesterday didn't really reveal anything.

So this stone soup cross bike, as G-dawg calls it, isn't any closer to coming together. Well... not in form at least... Stem... now is the big factor...
In addition to weighing it (21.5 pounds vs 22 pound croll) i took a few measurements. I ignored seat tube cause i knew it was a "58" and it don't matter what the croll was, so i measured top tubes. Croll = 60cm c-c effective. Redline 56cm c-c... wouldn't be so bad if i wasn't running a 135mm stem on the croll. The P-mount measures out at a 58cm c-c top tube but i'm running a 140 on there... and have a 150mm Syncro with a 26.4 clamp in the craftsmen chest that was used when it was my primary road bike.

Nice thing about being tall is that you can make up for length with drop... so i just need to find a nice 140 or 150 stem with a clamp compatible with something 26.0 or 25.8... 1 1/8th steer tube. That's the other thing - with a 1 1/18th vs 1" (on the croll) there's a touch of extra length tossed in...

Anyway...

Checked CTodd's ride - didn't realize he was a 'Tex boy... as in vortex... freaking pimped out 1.slow golf. V.cool. although it may be fallin apart - still cool.

oh about the pit bike - could be worse - from what C.V. was saying to me at G'ster's race about euro pit bikes many second bikes are barely rideable... i still count myself very fortunate...

It might have been easier to get a frame.. although its still a great test tfro me and the evaluation of my 2nd bike parts (as in to see what i have)...

CPX30s... THOSE were the rims... heavy, but strong, aero... these CPX33s and 21s still are great, but compared to the old first CPX run... they pale in comparison..

Scored 2 red bulls after the race... shoulda had one before the race tho..

Tried the accelerated (yea i mentioned it earlier - here it is again in my notes). Seemed to work. It didn't get me any super placings like it did KL but definately a better experience although post lunch and 5 hours later i can still taste it.
SIDE NOTE: IF i ever talk about trying this stuff again kick me... i was tasting it untill i went to bed. Even had a few beers and it didn't erase the taste. Only some nice aged Parmesan cheese managed to quelch the taste of the Accelerade lemonade flavor. and then there was the washing the bottles - i'd somehow completely forgotten BOTH of those side affects of the Accelerade. DOH. I also mixed up a sample pack of the Cliff recovery drink, in orange mango - its also protien enhanced. No where near as good as accelerade, but then the taste doesn't linger at all. The Cliff apple drink with caffeine = thumbs up... this stuff? thumbs down.

Besides the frantic start/pre-race and the extra early start to the AM... not a bad day. This is also the lightest mileage week since August. Not counting the weekend before (plymouth and lowell)... hell even counting that weekend i was not on the bike wed thur or friday (or sunday for that matter). Legs felt rested and good. They hurt like a motherfucker right now. But that's good. Pain like this means i left it all on the course (or i'm over trained).

Well i'm outa paper... this has been written sitting in the car, in the sun, with a sleeping 35 pound 22 month old kid taking a much needed nap...

Peace and Waffles

G-out

(thus ends the scribbly transcript that was my Saturday recollections - and yes the water bottles eventually came clean)