Big tall freak in orange suit trying to scare you.
Did it work? Doubtful.
Well this week has been very interesting. Starting with the no sleep Saturday night and the little one staying home with my wife on Monday to yesterday when my wife hit the urgent-care place with a myriad of symptoms and a guess that she had strep throat (turned out to be an accurate guess) and then me hauling the little one over to her doc's office to confirm that wow, she has it too. Wed night my throat had that dry because the heater's been running all night because it is 10°F and 10% humidity feeling. Last night was a bit worse. Like someone dumped a bag of sand back there. All itchy and ouchy swallowing. Feels fine most of the time. But as a precaution I grabbed my $10 and headed over to the urgent-care after dropping the oldest off at school, the one of us who has actually slept well all week (Hmm, no sleep... get sick, never would have thought that possible).
Throat culture was negative but the doc said my throat looked not good. And my breathing was tight. Made me do a breath test and for a minute there I contemplated what it might be like to join the ranks of the inhaler packing cyclists. But damn it, the damn breath test said I could breath just fine. No problems with my lungs. Good thing I guess, right? So the throat could be bad, could be fine, right now it isn't bad at all. Feels fine actually, just slightly aware when I swallow. Nice relief.
To top it all off i have been fighting something in my right hip area. I can't walk, but I can run, go up stairs and ride the bike pain free. But if I take a step the wrong way I essentially fall down. Can't lift the left leg off the ground without falling over. That was wed and thurs. Today? this morning woke up and it was a touch sore but not a problem right now. I can feel it, but it isn't slowing me down. Still trying not to stress it any more. But with everyone sick and all that's going on I didn't get my planned wed intensity in on the bike although I did commute in. And yesterday, no commute but I got on the bike for a 20-30 minute spin, just to warm up and break a sweat. Not sure if it is in the cards to do a proper opener tonight.
And all that turns what I was hoping would be a targeted plan to be in the best form for tomorrow's race as possible into "don't worry about it, show up and have fun, it will be okay." The plan sort of unraveled saturday night when I slept for no more than 1 hour at a time. But well, there are a few more cross races coming up. But few races when I'm sitting at the bottom of the race predictor (i'm pretty sure all those unknowns will be ahead of me anyway - well at least most of them). I guess it is good that I've got a primo start position. Right behind the half of the field with Verge points and right in front of those who are pissed they don't have verge points yet. What a wonderful place to be.
But it will be fun. I'll have those fancy new Grammos around if anyone wants to take a look at em. I shouldn't be hard to find.
heddwch
G
Friday, October 31, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
natural rubber and solvent hexane
Two ingredients i've had a decent wiff of last night and this morning.
Got the wheels covered in blue tape. A nice even coat on the fresh base tape. Nice even coat on the rim. Then they all got to sit and cure over night. This morning, put a second coat on everything then checked the timing belt (man it looks good still, no cracked teeth from what I could tell). Watched a few minutes of the morning shows, called one of my brothers to chat and got to the real deal. The final coat on the rim and mounting. And doing the secret "Peanut" trick. Tires are now curing in the basement until Saturday.
The rims really do look pretty sharp. Not the lightest but they are nice, well built, beefy spokes tensioned nicely. And the bearings are supah smooth.
So we'll see. The wheels are pretty sharp. The tires were Molly Cameron's (judging by the MC 2 in silver sharpie i'm guessing they were his #2 wheels) picked em up for a great deal, esp considering Fangos in the 34 size vanished about the time I got wheels.
Gluing tubulars is actually one heck of a lot of fun. I do enjoy it. Even feel reasonably competent and confident about it.
Here's to hoping the glue seeps completely into the micropores from the anodizing on the rims and well I know there is a good amount that sucked into the basetape. Second coat was really needed on the tape this morning after the over night drinking up of the glue.
Man, can't quite believe it. GeWilli, actually got tubulars. Wouldn't have been possible with out the absolutely crappy Day 1 at Gloucester and a generous team mate with a set of old 32 grifos on an old set of tubular wheels. Then of course Thom K is a big part of reason I glued a set up. A big part. Hopefully our paths will cross in person and I can shake his hand and say thanks.
SO Mastik*One, do your job and dry nicely. You from a tube containing natural rubber and solvent hexane.
heddwch
G
Got the wheels covered in blue tape. A nice even coat on the fresh base tape. Nice even coat on the rim. Then they all got to sit and cure over night. This morning, put a second coat on everything then checked the timing belt (man it looks good still, no cracked teeth from what I could tell). Watched a few minutes of the morning shows, called one of my brothers to chat and got to the real deal. The final coat on the rim and mounting. And doing the secret "Peanut" trick. Tires are now curing in the basement until Saturday.
The rims really do look pretty sharp. Not the lightest but they are nice, well built, beefy spokes tensioned nicely. And the bearings are supah smooth.
So we'll see. The wheels are pretty sharp. The tires were Molly Cameron's (judging by the MC 2 in silver sharpie i'm guessing they were his #2 wheels) picked em up for a great deal, esp considering Fangos in the 34 size vanished about the time I got wheels.
Gluing tubulars is actually one heck of a lot of fun. I do enjoy it. Even feel reasonably competent and confident about it.
Here's to hoping the glue seeps completely into the micropores from the anodizing on the rims and well I know there is a good amount that sucked into the basetape. Second coat was really needed on the tape this morning after the over night drinking up of the glue.
Man, can't quite believe it. GeWilli, actually got tubulars. Wouldn't have been possible with out the absolutely crappy Day 1 at Gloucester and a generous team mate with a set of old 32 grifos on an old set of tubular wheels. Then of course Thom K is a big part of reason I glued a set up. A big part. Hopefully our paths will cross in person and I can shake his hand and say thanks.
SO Mastik*One, do your job and dry nicely. You from a tube containing natural rubber and solvent hexane.
heddwch
G
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Shots to end the day
These are the brants, a still shot to go with the video...
Bright and sunny and cool this morning....
overcast and gray last night on the way home...
75 Brants 80+ swans
Stopped to count them. Then take picture. Then with the last seconds of the battery left I recorded the Brants talking and chattering.
Amazing. Seriously counted 75 of them. I've never seen more than 20 or so at once that I've tried to count. And the swans had all made their way to the same spot of the cove. The wind sheltered side (man was it windy last night).
Quite amazing. There were even a few cormorants trying to dry their wings on the rocks that the Brants were playing around.
Just a freaking gorgeous day. Amazing amazing ride in. Last night it was spectacular but only for how steel gray the water was on the ride home. Wind was rolling in cold into my face. There have only been one or two days when the wind is stronger than it was last night. Not gust just blowing steady and cold across the water. Flags ripping at the poles. Waves crashing into the rocks. I saw one solitary walker and one old guy riding slowly on a bike stopping periodically to take in the amazing beauty that the wind and the dimming daylight created. I stopped a few times. Even a few sprinkles of hard stinging rain here and there on the way home didn't quench the warmth of awe and appreciation I had for the beauty of my commute.
This morning, much the same. Bright sun lit up the light house. The tree there on the island still holding on to its brown leaves. Flag showing that the wind hasn't quite died down yet.
What a morning. I milked it. Rode slowly. Pedaled easily. Not wanting to over cook the legs for the weekend. I did manage to get a couple sets of 20/40s in last night. Made it through the final set and hit the cool down track before I'd realized I had finished the set. It was one of those mental challenges. Tired, not really wanting to get on the trainer. Would have rather sat and watched House or what ever else is on the TV. But I stuck to the plan. Killed it on the bike in the bike room... And so the ride in I wanted to keep the watts as low as possible, and I spun it in. One or two inclines cause a slight oh, I'm feeling last night. But they don't last long down here (the inclines).
The weather is looking very promising for NoHo. Maybe a touch warm for a high on saturday, but I'll guess that it will still be cool at 10:30am... or hopefully at least cool enough.
Got the photos off from last night and this morning. When the video makes it to Vimeo i'll pop em up.
heddwch
G
Amazing. Seriously counted 75 of them. I've never seen more than 20 or so at once that I've tried to count. And the swans had all made their way to the same spot of the cove. The wind sheltered side (man was it windy last night).
Quite amazing. There were even a few cormorants trying to dry their wings on the rocks that the Brants were playing around.
Just a freaking gorgeous day. Amazing amazing ride in. Last night it was spectacular but only for how steel gray the water was on the ride home. Wind was rolling in cold into my face. There have only been one or two days when the wind is stronger than it was last night. Not gust just blowing steady and cold across the water. Flags ripping at the poles. Waves crashing into the rocks. I saw one solitary walker and one old guy riding slowly on a bike stopping periodically to take in the amazing beauty that the wind and the dimming daylight created. I stopped a few times. Even a few sprinkles of hard stinging rain here and there on the way home didn't quench the warmth of awe and appreciation I had for the beauty of my commute.
This morning, much the same. Bright sun lit up the light house. The tree there on the island still holding on to its brown leaves. Flag showing that the wind hasn't quite died down yet.
What a morning. I milked it. Rode slowly. Pedaled easily. Not wanting to over cook the legs for the weekend. I did manage to get a couple sets of 20/40s in last night. Made it through the final set and hit the cool down track before I'd realized I had finished the set. It was one of those mental challenges. Tired, not really wanting to get on the trainer. Would have rather sat and watched House or what ever else is on the TV. But I stuck to the plan. Killed it on the bike in the bike room... And so the ride in I wanted to keep the watts as low as possible, and I spun it in. One or two inclines cause a slight oh, I'm feeling last night. But they don't last long down here (the inclines).
The weather is looking very promising for NoHo. Maybe a touch warm for a high on saturday, but I'll guess that it will still be cool at 10:30am... or hopefully at least cool enough.
Got the photos off from last night and this morning. When the video makes it to Vimeo i'll pop em up.
heddwch
G
politics with your coffee
"According to expense reports, Sarah Palin charged the state of Alaska over $21,000 for her children to travel with her on official business. In fairness to Gov. Palin, when she leaves them home alone they get pregnant." --Seth Meyers
"Alaska's largest newspaper has endorsed Barack Obama despite the fact that their governor is Sarah Palin. Luckily for Palin, it's one of the 500 newspapers she doesn't read." --Conan O'Brien
"Sarah Palin is taking heat because the Republican National Committee has so far spent $150,000 on wardrobe for her and her family. She spent $50,000 at Saks Fifth Avenue, $75,000 at Neiman Marcus and about $5,000 on hair and makeup. Hey, representing small town, common-folk hockey moms isn't cheap, folks." –Jimmy Kimmel
"It turns out the highest paid person in the McCain campaign, not the campaign manager, not the pollsters -- Palin's makeup artist. I'm not kidding. She flies to every city where Palin appears. And McCain, he just gets the local gal who does the funeral home. It's not as bad as it sounds. The makeup girl is also Palin's top foreign policy adviser." --Bill Maher
"Sarah Palin was asked a question by a third grader and she got it wrong. She apparently still does not know what the vice president does ... She says he or she runs the Senate. No, not in this country. You know I would never accuse George Bush of being a bright man, but when he was elected, at least he knew which building to show up to." --Bill Maher
"Naturally the smart thing to do to solve your economic woes is to demonize the Democrats. And of course, Sarah Palin is more than happy to oblige. She's been saying that Obama hangs out with terrorists. And you know, I think the evangelical lady who's in a video getting blessed by a witch doctor, who's married to a secessionist, and can't name a newspaper -- she's right, Obama is scary." --Bill Maher
"The question she keeps asking at all of the rallies is, 'Who is Barack Obama?' You know what, genius, maybe if you'd picked up a newspaper in the last year you'd know. He's the guy who's kicking your ass." --Bill Maher
"The legislative panel in Alaska investing Troopergate released their report that says Sarah Palin illegally abused her power as governor by firing the state police chief because he wouldn't fire her sister's ex-husband. But they said she didn't actually break the law so she won't go to prison. Which is a pity because it would have been the first time she was ever involved in a complete sentence." --Bill Maher
and one more (Lee found them and man I just had to fit em in over here)
"McCain kept talking about how he could help this man. If McCain really wants to help this guy, you now what he should do? Just have him re-pipe all of McCain's houses. That would be a job for life." --Jay Leno, on Joe the Plumber
A woman at a John McCain rally said that Barack Obama is an Arab. And McCain quickly corrected her. It was really awkward, because McCain had to tell her, 'Look, Governor Palin, you are wrong.'" --Jay Leno
"Barack Obama, what a guy. He is actually going door to door, knocking on doors in a neighborhood, asking people if they'll vote for him. Coincidentally, John McCain is also going door to door, except when he knocks on a door, he says, 'Do I live here?'" --David Letterman
"Sarah Palin had to have her campaign bus make an unscheduled stop at a Wal-Mart in Ohio, so she could pick up a package of diapers. I guess she ran out of diapers, so they pulled over and she went in and everyone followed her. Which is kind of cute, but it turned out Senator McCain didn't need them." --Jimmy Kimmel
"Did you watch the debate last night? I gave up drinking a while ago, but I started again. And I'm watching the debate last night, and I did a shot every time John McCain said, 'My friends.' And so I am just blotto." --David Letterman
"At one point McCain referred to Barack Obama as 'That One.' And McCain later thought maybe something had gone haywire. He apologized, he said he got confused, he thought he was at the bakery." –David Letterman
"It got a little heated at one point during the debate. McCain talked about experience and he said, 'We don't have time for on-the-job training.' Then why did you pick Sarah Palin?" --Jay Leno
"And the only really new proposal last night came from John McCain. McCain proposed buying up bad homeowner mortgages. Not to save the middle class. You know McCain, he just likes buying houses." --Jay Leno
"The second presidential debate is tonight. And beforehand, I don't know if you heard this, John McCain said, 'The gloves are coming off.' That's what he said, yeah. Yeah, then McCain said, 'but don't worry, the diaper is staying on.'" --Conan O'Brien
"Political experts are saying that to succeed in the vice presidential debate, Sarah Palin needs to show that she has the same concerns as everyday Americans. For instance, Palin planned to start the debate by saying she's really troubled by John McCain's choice for vice president." --Conan O'Brien
"Yesterday the stock market suffered its biggest one-day drop in history, falling 777 points. I'm telling you, boy, it's a good thing John McCain blew me off to go save the economy." --David Letterman
"I felt bad about this. Because we were all ready to go with John McCain and with an hour to go, he cancels. I felt bad about it. I was thinking about this, John, John, here's how it works. You don't come to see me? Well, we might not see you on Inauguration Day." --David Letterman
This doesn't smell right. This is not the way a tested hero behaves. Somebody's putting something in his Metamucil." –David Letterman, on John McCain suspending his campaign and canceling his appearance on the Late Show
"McCain suspended his campaign, said the debate had to be canceled, he went to Washington, screwed up the deal, and then un-suspended his campaign and flew to the debate even though there wasn't a deal. Usually when a 72-year-old man acts this way, this is when the kids start calling nursing homes." --Bill Maher
And to be fair and balanced and all that:
"A town in Upstate New York is being accused of being biased 'cause they sent out absentee ballots that say 'Barack Osama.' Today they apologized and printed new ballots that say 'Barack Hussein Osama.'" --Conan O'Brien
"The presidential debate was a town hall format, which is John McCain's favorite way to speak to crowds, as opposed to Barack Obama's favorite way, a Sermon on the Mount." –Jay Leno
"Possible controversy for the Obama campaign. Republicans are now accusing Barack Obama's campaign of voter fraud, because some of the people they've registered sound like they have fake names. Apparently, the fakest-sounding name is Barack Obama." –Conan O'Brien
"People looking into Barack Obama's campaign contributions say that Obama may have received $3.3 million from abroad. Yeah. It turns out that broad is Oprah Winfrey." --Conan O'Brien
"The first presidential debate took place last night, and earlier in the week, Barack Obama said he would be at the debate whether John McCain showed up or not, marking the first time in history that a black man was more eager to go to Mississippi than a white one" --Seth Meyers
"Barack Obama said today the government's $700 billion bailout should not be a blank check. Barack Obama says he knows that $700 billion is a lot of money. In fact, it would take him at least 10 Hollywood fund raisers to come up with that kind of money." --Jay Leno
"At a rally in Florida, Barack Obama was interrupted by a protest group calling themselves 'Blacks Against Obama.' Actually, a pretty small group. It's just Condoleezza Rice and Jesse Jackson." --Jay Leno
"Barack Obama continues to criticize John McCain's economic plan. McCain would like to criticize Obama's plan, but nobody knows what it is yet. So we're still waiting." --Jay Leno
"Speaking of Barack Obama, earlier this week in Colorado, Barack Obama gave a speech in the middle of a rodeo ring. Yeah. Obama began his speech in the rodeo by saying, 'Hello, I am what is known as a black guy.''" –Conan O'Brien
"Barack Obama had a big night last night. Last night, Barack Obama attended a fundraiser headlined by Barbra Streisand that raised $9 million. $9 million. Yeah. It's big. This was historic. This was historic, this is the most money raised in one night, and it's the first time a black man has ever attended a Barbra Streisand concert." --Conan O'Brien
"The big news story today is Sarah Palin. Every day, Sarah Palin. And it is not exactly hard-hitting stuff. I haven't seen the media fawn over a celebrity this much since -- Barack Obama." --Craig Ferguson
"Earlier this evening, Barack Obama was in Hollywood at a big fundraiser, a sold-out fundraiser featuring Barbra Streisand singing. $28,500 a ticket. Barbra Streisand was singing. All the big Hollywood stars were there. It featured dinner prepared by the finest Hollywood chefs serving an array of gourmet food. I believe the topic tonight was how John McCain is out of touch with the common people." --Jay Leno
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
ain't feeling it
too many other quality race reports out there and I just ain't feeling like writing much right now...
rode in in the rain but hey, that's nothing unusual. Other than it was my day to drive, but with the rain suddenly showing up my wife decided to drive, so I did a quick change out of street clothes and into the funny bike racer clothing.
and... yeah...
that's about it... came in the same way this morning as yesterday... mellow, just chilling today in the cool drizzle, nice to get some off road sketchyness under the tires occasionally. And now that everyone has file treads, maybe I can hope that we're inundated with Pac NW style precipitation from here until December 8th reducing their advantage.
Itching to get a box from someone with fancy stuff in them... itching to sniff some Mastik.
Was planning on doing a timing belt on the Golf tomorrow (actually one of the biggest pain in the ass timing belts to do on any car, but I think it is fun and really not that hard once ya figure it out) but the tensioner didn't show up in the box with the belt. So maybe waiting to spend 4 hours being over and under and in and over and under and leaning and wrenching in my wicked dirty orange suit (yes i have two of them and if you think the race day suit is dirty, ya should check the second one out) a few days before NoHo isn't a bad thing. I'll just work on wrecking my legs today and tomorrow and letting them recover, not the rest of me being wrecked.
This weekend is catching up. I guess I sort of did a great glen this weekend. Little to no sleep Saturday night. And yes it is caught up with me. Maybe that's where the lack of motivation to get topical and write something is coming from. Fatigue.
Wrentham was fun though. I will say this first. It is a great training race course because it is relentless and hard and challenges me in many ways. And for those same reasons it is so hard to race (for me). I went out hard. Way too hard. My 21st start position wasn't bad. Started next to Jorge. I wanted the inside line. All that practice and I knew i didn't want to line up in the middle. But it is okay. I battled for a wheel, sprinting around people I shouldn't have been just to get in line to follow Foley's wheel. And then it didn't feel too bad. But I was already hot. I hate racing cross in hot weather. The first couple races are one thing. But it should be cold now. Ya know? Not one race yet where long sleeves were needed. Canton arguably but even that race I was perfect in short sleeves. Too damn hot.
Need cold. Like Sven's interview, I prefer his temp range for racing. It may be purely mental, but let me tell you: based on numbers my results are held back more from mental than physical challenges. I should have been okay. But some how gaps grew in certain spots where I just couldn't hold them. There was a good bit of wind and I was doing the pack slide pretty well. Heck it took me 5.5 laps to slide back to Eric who had start number 122 (i was 121). Man if I'd just started with him and moved up. Who knows. But then Maybe i'd just have finished 34th instead of 35th.
More than the course I like hanging with and seeing the folks around the MRC gang. They are good folks. And the rest of the crowd. JTferraro, man that guy has a freaking motor mouth after the race. The juice he was amped on certainly give his mouth a massive motor, red-lining. It was bottom line a very tough and demanding course. I didn't feel like i was railing the corners as hard as I should, I wasn't pussyfooting through them, but I wasn't charging into them as hard as I should. That set up at the top just after the second wheel pit had me befuddled the whole fucking race. Never could figure that out. Mental issues maybe because the rest of the course was the same, that was just changed. I also ran the hill after the small barriers everytime (maybe tried to pedal onces). I found that with sticking in the 46 ring, running the hill was easier than trying to muscle it up to speed in the 46-27. But I know those first two and a half laps I burned 4 laps worth of matches trying to keep contact with the Great One. But as Colin so aptly demonstrated there isn't really anywhere to do a graceful slide on that course. Canton, G-ster: nice graceful wide open areas to settle in.
Settling in is a much better term than "pack sliding" no? So you may have a primo start position, but if you settle in well that gives you and advantage over those who didn't get a nice start position. Settling in is a way to have a good race. Esp if you are a mid-pack fodder racer. (okay fine I'm a back of the middle of the A masters race around here). Considering that Frank and Mark show up somewhat regularly. And the guys that finish behind them or around them are wicked strong "old" guys, the old slow race is really one of the fastest races here in New England. And it is stacked racing. Fun racing too. Guys with skills and power. The challenge is amazing. I relish it. And it gives me a drive to actually get some regular training in (at least to this point in the season, after NoHo I might just say fahk it).
9 races into the season... not counting the 3-4 training races at wrentham. That's a good amount of racing. My cross results numbers are going down because I had some better numbers last year but they are, as much as I wish I could find fault in them, they are a damn good reflection on my status here in new england. Sort of Slow. But NoHo was one of my favorite courses last year. I am just looking forward to having fun and seeing where my name fills in the results sheet...
well hey, this has been sitting here since lunch...
best to hit publish and proof read later
heddwch
g
(i hope i came to at least a gewilli kind of ending and it isn't left mid thought - not that there isn't a whole lot of difference between the two)
rode in in the rain but hey, that's nothing unusual. Other than it was my day to drive, but with the rain suddenly showing up my wife decided to drive, so I did a quick change out of street clothes and into the funny bike racer clothing.
and... yeah...
that's about it... came in the same way this morning as yesterday... mellow, just chilling today in the cool drizzle, nice to get some off road sketchyness under the tires occasionally. And now that everyone has file treads, maybe I can hope that we're inundated with Pac NW style precipitation from here until December 8th reducing their advantage.
Itching to get a box from someone with fancy stuff in them... itching to sniff some Mastik.
Was planning on doing a timing belt on the Golf tomorrow (actually one of the biggest pain in the ass timing belts to do on any car, but I think it is fun and really not that hard once ya figure it out) but the tensioner didn't show up in the box with the belt. So maybe waiting to spend 4 hours being over and under and in and over and under and leaning and wrenching in my wicked dirty orange suit (yes i have two of them and if you think the race day suit is dirty, ya should check the second one out) a few days before NoHo isn't a bad thing. I'll just work on wrecking my legs today and tomorrow and letting them recover, not the rest of me being wrecked.
This weekend is catching up. I guess I sort of did a great glen this weekend. Little to no sleep Saturday night. And yes it is caught up with me. Maybe that's where the lack of motivation to get topical and write something is coming from. Fatigue.
Wrentham was fun though. I will say this first. It is a great training race course because it is relentless and hard and challenges me in many ways. And for those same reasons it is so hard to race (for me). I went out hard. Way too hard. My 21st start position wasn't bad. Started next to Jorge. I wanted the inside line. All that practice and I knew i didn't want to line up in the middle. But it is okay. I battled for a wheel, sprinting around people I shouldn't have been just to get in line to follow Foley's wheel. And then it didn't feel too bad. But I was already hot. I hate racing cross in hot weather. The first couple races are one thing. But it should be cold now. Ya know? Not one race yet where long sleeves were needed. Canton arguably but even that race I was perfect in short sleeves. Too damn hot.
Need cold. Like Sven's interview, I prefer his temp range for racing. It may be purely mental, but let me tell you: based on numbers my results are held back more from mental than physical challenges. I should have been okay. But some how gaps grew in certain spots where I just couldn't hold them. There was a good bit of wind and I was doing the pack slide pretty well. Heck it took me 5.5 laps to slide back to Eric who had start number 122 (i was 121). Man if I'd just started with him and moved up. Who knows. But then Maybe i'd just have finished 34th instead of 35th.
More than the course I like hanging with and seeing the folks around the MRC gang. They are good folks. And the rest of the crowd. JTferraro, man that guy has a freaking motor mouth after the race. The juice he was amped on certainly give his mouth a massive motor, red-lining. It was bottom line a very tough and demanding course. I didn't feel like i was railing the corners as hard as I should, I wasn't pussyfooting through them, but I wasn't charging into them as hard as I should. That set up at the top just after the second wheel pit had me befuddled the whole fucking race. Never could figure that out. Mental issues maybe because the rest of the course was the same, that was just changed. I also ran the hill after the small barriers everytime (maybe tried to pedal onces). I found that with sticking in the 46 ring, running the hill was easier than trying to muscle it up to speed in the 46-27. But I know those first two and a half laps I burned 4 laps worth of matches trying to keep contact with the Great One. But as Colin so aptly demonstrated there isn't really anywhere to do a graceful slide on that course. Canton, G-ster: nice graceful wide open areas to settle in.
Settling in is a much better term than "pack sliding" no? So you may have a primo start position, but if you settle in well that gives you and advantage over those who didn't get a nice start position. Settling in is a way to have a good race. Esp if you are a mid-pack fodder racer. (okay fine I'm a back of the middle of the A masters race around here). Considering that Frank and Mark show up somewhat regularly. And the guys that finish behind them or around them are wicked strong "old" guys, the old slow race is really one of the fastest races here in New England. And it is stacked racing. Fun racing too. Guys with skills and power. The challenge is amazing. I relish it. And it gives me a drive to actually get some regular training in (at least to this point in the season, after NoHo I might just say fahk it).
9 races into the season... not counting the 3-4 training races at wrentham. That's a good amount of racing. My cross results numbers are going down because I had some better numbers last year but they are, as much as I wish I could find fault in them, they are a damn good reflection on my status here in new england. Sort of Slow. But NoHo was one of my favorite courses last year. I am just looking forward to having fun and seeing where my name fills in the results sheet...
well hey, this has been sitting here since lunch...
best to hit publish and proof read later
heddwch
g
(i hope i came to at least a gewilli kind of ending and it isn't left mid thought - not that there isn't a whole lot of difference between the two)
Monday, October 27, 2008
is a decaffeinated life boring?
is my lack of posts that elicit 20-30 comments telling me that I'm an idiot while I try to argue that I'm mis-understood related to the lack of caffeine?
Some people have been maybe correctly suggesting that I'm boring w/o the does of the juice. The mild nervous system stimulant. The stuff I for some reason decided to give up. Is a month long enough? Do I go back to decaf (which really still has about as much caffeine as a coke)? Sometimes I wonder. Maybe I should.
But then I've been sleeping better (when I am able to sleep w/o interruption, of two types, kids and pre-race anxiety/over thinking) than ever before. Like serious good sleep. I'm finally resting. Maybe not getting quite enough sleep, but now I can actually tell when I need more sleep. And my brain says, no we don't need more coffee, we need more sleep dumbass. Even with the Saturday night following a race and a Halloween party of being up once an hour all night and not much of any extra rest yesterday I'm okay. Finding that I have much more of a rest buffer than before. Not running on empty 100% of the time is fantastic.
But.
It seems I'm not finding as much crap online to get riled up about. That or I'm just channeling it into Politics and even that isn't controversial enough anymore. Not this year. A liberal democratic black man might actually get elected as president? That pretty much undermines any controversy that has been plaguing the nation since Regan made "liberal" a bad word and as I read somewhere (maybe Drunkcyclist) even Al Gore and the Clintons are just republican lite. Times are a changing.
What else to get all pissy about? The Yogurt Company? Why bother. It is crazy transparent even without any insider knowledge (if you know what to look for and how to read the packaging, not so much what it says but specifically how it is packaged for example) that they are just another big corporation slave to the dollar, leveraging the "ooh I feel good" green vibe to make more dollars. When unit cost drives your bottom line nothing else matters. What else is there to say? Buy Biodynamic yogurt if you want something real, something good. Want sweet yogurt? Well I'll wager that you might not be able to buy sugar and flavoring and coloring as cheaply as say some giant "organic" yogurt company... BUT you can mix your own when you want to... buy a big 32 oz plain container, if you want it to taste like vanilla, add some vanilla extract. Wow that was tough. But then again. this is the USA. people like everything to be done for them. open the package and here ya go.
Like that messed up lasagna commercial. any difference? nah not really...
I guess back to politics, the only "Brand" that spend more on advertising in the last quarter (iirc) than Obama? McDonalds. Yes. Obama's presidential campaign spent more on adds than Diet Coke, Burger King... the list goes on.
Advertising works.
If you have the profit margins (McDonalds) or donation/revenue stream of people who think they share the same message.
So maybe I don't need caffeine. Maybe I can still stir stuff up and piss people off w/o it. Get people's feathers ruffled. But then...
It is cross season. Energy needs to be focused on racing. And while I'm not like Rich or B-Mac, winning every Cat 4 race they enter this year, nor am I like Curtis who was winning and has since gotten sick and faded. I'm just somewhere in the middle.
I could talk about it but why bother. Someone had obviously a few minutes to put together on Sunday to write about "The Slide" and write about it well he did.
What that story/race report/psychological profile of a mid-pack CX racer did was make me reflect on my totally amazing and kick ass starting position at NoHo. And in a way I almost think to have a good day, and have fun actually racing (like I did at Canton, and day 2 G-ster) I kinda have to get that slide done before the end of the first lap. So why bother registering that early? Well strategy. Pretty simple. That and the fact that I'm still going to be a good number of rows back with the Verge Point getters getting call ups. Starting hard is cross. But it was pretty apparent watching the 1/2/3 field at Wrentham duking it out on that first lap for the $150 that they all paid a big price. At least Colin got enough cash to buy a new wheel. Colin, if you want I'll glue your new wheels for you, gimme glue, tires and wheels and I'll get you a nice well glued up set to race on.
So anyway. Getting so side tracked I'm not sure where the hell I'm going. (Just trying to shake G-Ride off my tail, can't be handing out drafts). Haven't had a moment to write up Wrentham still. As much as I've practiced there the course still doesn't seem to suit me well. At least doing 6 laps at a time. Now if we did 2 laps and then let another field do 2 laps and did another 2, well now I might have a chance to do well.
I got thinking about the whole yellow flag rule. And if you want to make Cyclocross fun. Have a yellow flag rule. Stick a "pace" rider out there or something. Make everyone line up 2 wide based on where they were when the cation came out. Certainly would keep people from riding away from the field. Make it more exciting. But then it would reduce the chance that the fastest and best suited rider to the course would win. And this is bike racing not Nascar. Totally silly idea. But in a daze flipping from watching some team try and lose to the Rams to some guys driving in circles, it sort of popped in my head. If we had yellow flags I'd never finish that far down. Heck skip the yellow flags. Just race back to the start. Once everyone is there, and lined back up, you go sprint for another lap. Come back line up as you finish. Sprint for the start. If you don't get back w/in say 1.5 minutes of the start you are out of the race. Maybe that's something for a training race, or a bandit cross. Probably not ready for UCI yet. That would probably wind up as a pretty scary race. Everyone physically gunning for any opening, no one would give any quarter or an inch in that kind of race. Talk about full contact cross. It might change the component dynamics though. No one would be lining up with $1500 wheels with the chance that high they'd be run over... maybe that's not such a bad thing. Putting a premium of cheap wheels and strong frames... Full Contact Cyclocross. Hmmm. Certainly favors those with more mass... and that's not a bad thing from where I'm sitting.
There... total none-sense rambling for the day. Typical as it is filled with a million interruptions.
There ya go.
Race report, maybe tomorrow. Maybe I'll actually get around to transferring the G-ster day 2 from pen and paper to bits and bytes.
heddwch
G
Some people have been maybe correctly suggesting that I'm boring w/o the does of the juice. The mild nervous system stimulant. The stuff I for some reason decided to give up. Is a month long enough? Do I go back to decaf (which really still has about as much caffeine as a coke)? Sometimes I wonder. Maybe I should.
But then I've been sleeping better (when I am able to sleep w/o interruption, of two types, kids and pre-race anxiety/over thinking) than ever before. Like serious good sleep. I'm finally resting. Maybe not getting quite enough sleep, but now I can actually tell when I need more sleep. And my brain says, no we don't need more coffee, we need more sleep dumbass. Even with the Saturday night following a race and a Halloween party of being up once an hour all night and not much of any extra rest yesterday I'm okay. Finding that I have much more of a rest buffer than before. Not running on empty 100% of the time is fantastic.
But.
It seems I'm not finding as much crap online to get riled up about. That or I'm just channeling it into Politics and even that isn't controversial enough anymore. Not this year. A liberal democratic black man might actually get elected as president? That pretty much undermines any controversy that has been plaguing the nation since Regan made "liberal" a bad word and as I read somewhere (maybe Drunkcyclist) even Al Gore and the Clintons are just republican lite. Times are a changing.
What else to get all pissy about? The Yogurt Company? Why bother. It is crazy transparent even without any insider knowledge (if you know what to look for and how to read the packaging, not so much what it says but specifically how it is packaged for example) that they are just another big corporation slave to the dollar, leveraging the "ooh I feel good" green vibe to make more dollars. When unit cost drives your bottom line nothing else matters. What else is there to say? Buy Biodynamic yogurt if you want something real, something good. Want sweet yogurt? Well I'll wager that you might not be able to buy sugar and flavoring and coloring as cheaply as say some giant "organic" yogurt company... BUT you can mix your own when you want to... buy a big 32 oz plain container, if you want it to taste like vanilla, add some vanilla extract. Wow that was tough. But then again. this is the USA. people like everything to be done for them. open the package and here ya go.
Like that messed up lasagna commercial. any difference? nah not really...
I guess back to politics, the only "Brand" that spend more on advertising in the last quarter (iirc) than Obama? McDonalds. Yes. Obama's presidential campaign spent more on adds than Diet Coke, Burger King... the list goes on.
Advertising works.
If you have the profit margins (McDonalds) or donation/revenue stream of people who think they share the same message.
So maybe I don't need caffeine. Maybe I can still stir stuff up and piss people off w/o it. Get people's feathers ruffled. But then...
It is cross season. Energy needs to be focused on racing. And while I'm not like Rich or B-Mac, winning every Cat 4 race they enter this year, nor am I like Curtis who was winning and has since gotten sick and faded. I'm just somewhere in the middle.
I could talk about it but why bother. Someone had obviously a few minutes to put together on Sunday to write about "The Slide" and write about it well he did.
What that story/race report/psychological profile of a mid-pack CX racer did was make me reflect on my totally amazing and kick ass starting position at NoHo. And in a way I almost think to have a good day, and have fun actually racing (like I did at Canton, and day 2 G-ster) I kinda have to get that slide done before the end of the first lap. So why bother registering that early? Well strategy. Pretty simple. That and the fact that I'm still going to be a good number of rows back with the Verge Point getters getting call ups. Starting hard is cross. But it was pretty apparent watching the 1/2/3 field at Wrentham duking it out on that first lap for the $150 that they all paid a big price. At least Colin got enough cash to buy a new wheel. Colin, if you want I'll glue your new wheels for you, gimme glue, tires and wheels and I'll get you a nice well glued up set to race on.
So anyway. Getting so side tracked I'm not sure where the hell I'm going. (Just trying to shake G-Ride off my tail, can't be handing out drafts). Haven't had a moment to write up Wrentham still. As much as I've practiced there the course still doesn't seem to suit me well. At least doing 6 laps at a time. Now if we did 2 laps and then let another field do 2 laps and did another 2, well now I might have a chance to do well.
I got thinking about the whole yellow flag rule. And if you want to make Cyclocross fun. Have a yellow flag rule. Stick a "pace" rider out there or something. Make everyone line up 2 wide based on where they were when the cation came out. Certainly would keep people from riding away from the field. Make it more exciting. But then it would reduce the chance that the fastest and best suited rider to the course would win. And this is bike racing not Nascar. Totally silly idea. But in a daze flipping from watching some team try and lose to the Rams to some guys driving in circles, it sort of popped in my head. If we had yellow flags I'd never finish that far down. Heck skip the yellow flags. Just race back to the start. Once everyone is there, and lined back up, you go sprint for another lap. Come back line up as you finish. Sprint for the start. If you don't get back w/in say 1.5 minutes of the start you are out of the race. Maybe that's something for a training race, or a bandit cross. Probably not ready for UCI yet. That would probably wind up as a pretty scary race. Everyone physically gunning for any opening, no one would give any quarter or an inch in that kind of race. Talk about full contact cross. It might change the component dynamics though. No one would be lining up with $1500 wheels with the chance that high they'd be run over... maybe that's not such a bad thing. Putting a premium of cheap wheels and strong frames... Full Contact Cyclocross. Hmmm. Certainly favors those with more mass... and that's not a bad thing from where I'm sitting.
There... total none-sense rambling for the day. Typical as it is filled with a million interruptions.
There ya go.
Race report, maybe tomorrow. Maybe I'll actually get around to transferring the G-ster day 2 from pen and paper to bits and bytes.
heddwch
G
Fate has a way
Of making it all work out sometimes. Raced Wrentham on Saturday. Got back home as the rest of the gang arrived after some Ballet and the youngest wasn't feeling great. After a quick trip to the dog park for some sprints (me and the dog) and some fast walking to loosen up the muscles, we all headed to the School Halloween party. The youngest was headed down hill. Didn't play much, sat with me and just kind of was blah. Wound up sitting in the car waiting for the rest of the gang to join us. And that lead to a night of no sleep for me. And with my wife working on sunday I figured I should at least be the one getting up all night. And all night.
Sometimes when there is a race you would really like to be at but you can't it sort of clouds the whole day. Nope. Too tired to cloud yesterday. Yeah. A long pre-ambling way of saying I didn't do the Beer Cross in CT, but I hope lots of folks did. I like that course.
At some point I will get to the wrentham write up. Maybe.
I eeked out one extra frame on the camera's card for the ride in.
Wished I'd had a few more when I passed the Cove.
Swans littered about the water like styrofoam. Over 50 this year. One of these mornings I will stop and count. The most I've counted there in the past was 50. This looks to be more than that.
Another amazing sighting was the first three Brants were in the Cove too. Brants are probably my favorite bird of the winter season.
That and taking the scenic route along the water and avoiding the path up by the parkway made for a peaceful ride in. A wee bit later after dropping the oldest off for school but it was a gorgeous morning for a bike ride. Now I get to overthink how I will attempt to prepare for NoHo hoping to be able to have back to back Sunday races instead of a Saturday race and a Sunday race. The new wheels are here, just waiting on the new tires. Oh and I just recalled last year at NoHo someone rolling their Clincher off a rim after on of the rail road crossing jumps... Not only tubulars were rolling off last year.
Last thing to flush. Christine Vardaros's interview with Sven Nys is awesome. Amazing interview. I was falling asleep dead tired, but I managed to stay awake long enough to finish reading all of it. One of the best interview ever. Great stuff. A nice coffee sounds good right now. But I'll just make due with some water I guess.
heddwch
G
Sometimes when there is a race you would really like to be at but you can't it sort of clouds the whole day. Nope. Too tired to cloud yesterday. Yeah. A long pre-ambling way of saying I didn't do the Beer Cross in CT, but I hope lots of folks did. I like that course.
At some point I will get to the wrentham write up. Maybe.
I eeked out one extra frame on the camera's card for the ride in.
Wished I'd had a few more when I passed the Cove.
Swans littered about the water like styrofoam. Over 50 this year. One of these mornings I will stop and count. The most I've counted there in the past was 50. This looks to be more than that.
Another amazing sighting was the first three Brants were in the Cove too. Brants are probably my favorite bird of the winter season.
That and taking the scenic route along the water and avoiding the path up by the parkway made for a peaceful ride in. A wee bit later after dropping the oldest off for school but it was a gorgeous morning for a bike ride. Now I get to overthink how I will attempt to prepare for NoHo hoping to be able to have back to back Sunday races instead of a Saturday race and a Sunday race. The new wheels are here, just waiting on the new tires. Oh and I just recalled last year at NoHo someone rolling their Clincher off a rim after on of the rail road crossing jumps... Not only tubulars were rolling off last year.
Last thing to flush. Christine Vardaros's interview with Sven Nys is awesome. Amazing interview. I was falling asleep dead tired, but I managed to stay awake long enough to finish reading all of it. One of the best interview ever. Great stuff. A nice coffee sounds good right now. But I'll just make due with some water I guess.
heddwch
G
Friday, October 24, 2008
Pre-Race Day
One advantage to commuting on your primary cross bike (assuming you are cool enough or old enough to have accumulated more than one, or just flat out lucky) is your body is well acclimated to the position. One big problem in not having an absolutely dedicated cross machine (even if you use your pit bike as the daily commuter) is getting everything ready to race for Saturday after riding home from work on Friday.
Sure. No big deal. You've got all night to get ready. Afterall what else do you have to do besides switch the wheels over, check the brakes, lube the chain, clean the frame? Oh yeah, clean the other bike, check the tires, make sure bolts are tight, cables are clean, that it shifts on the race wheels. Ya know the important stuff. Then of course you've got to get the interval intensity in the night before to get the legs fired up and ready for the intensity the next day. But of course you need to be careful not to freaking kill it so hard on the trainer that you burn one or two matches for the next day.
Of course remembering to print up directions (momentary panic just now until i remembered i've been to this course a couple times this year already) and figuring out what time you need to leave to get there with time to get number, warm up, get bike to pit, ride one mellow lap to check course, and line up.
Not a big deal to get it all done. Unless you've got to cook dinner for the family, get the living room cleaned up before everyone gets there and then spend a couple hours playing with the youngest and her play date while the oldest is off with her mother most of the night. Yeah. Loads of time to squeeze all that in AND get the most important thing for a good race: Sleep.
There is one person who keeps hammering about the importance of getting enough sleep before you race. Esp for something as intense as cyclocross. So far I have raced better when I've gotten a good night sleep. When I was doped to the gills on coffee last couple years I could never really truly judge how sleep deprived I was. Tired? Just drink another cup of coffee, everything will be fine.
maybe with the coffee I could have found the inspiration to be poetic. But sadly I've found myself in a prose mode. And certainly in a prose mode that won't win anyone any free tires or schwag these days. And isn't that why ya do stuff like that?
I made mention of a thought that occured to me on the ride in. Again a typical GeWilli thought. A rather undeveloped. Sort of a little idea instead of a fancy complex well formed statement. Cyclocross is so real because there really isn't any faking it. Roadies can go out on a club ride and "win" the town line and treat it like a real vicotry. MTB'ers can go out and ride a trail and clean a line better than anyone. Cyclocross is really about the race. Not about anything else. Sure you can use a cross bike as a commuter but you aren't doing cyclocross. You can go to the park and screw around with your racing buddies, go do a training race. But that's not the real thing.
To do cross you really do almost need a number. You need a course. You need competition. You are either going to win or more likely (odds never favor everyone winning) lose. But you will know how you stand up on that day, at that hour, on that course. You can't hide when the results come out. You can make excuses. You can feel bad about your placing, explain it away. But the results are the results. And it doesn't take away from the fact that Cyclocross is a discipline about racing, there is practicing. But unlike road or mtb you don't just go out and cyclocross. Or at least that's not really the norm. eh?
Kind of what makes it cool. The lack of pose[u]r factor. You do it or you don't. No real middle ground. Even Solobreak gets it. Sure calling it an intensity work out and a way to have fun in the fall, keep on the bike, it is still racing cross.
Cyclocross, is just plain old awesome. And tomorrow will see a host of fanatics and racers show up across the country to line up. To sit there at the start, twitching and waiting for the whistle. Waiting to attack. Heart racing, mind calm.
A whole week climaxing for that shrill blast from the official. 45-60 minutes of adrenaline surged pain. That's what we live for.
heddwch
G
Sure. No big deal. You've got all night to get ready. Afterall what else do you have to do besides switch the wheels over, check the brakes, lube the chain, clean the frame? Oh yeah, clean the other bike, check the tires, make sure bolts are tight, cables are clean, that it shifts on the race wheels. Ya know the important stuff. Then of course you've got to get the interval intensity in the night before to get the legs fired up and ready for the intensity the next day. But of course you need to be careful not to freaking kill it so hard on the trainer that you burn one or two matches for the next day.
Of course remembering to print up directions (momentary panic just now until i remembered i've been to this course a couple times this year already) and figuring out what time you need to leave to get there with time to get number, warm up, get bike to pit, ride one mellow lap to check course, and line up.
Not a big deal to get it all done. Unless you've got to cook dinner for the family, get the living room cleaned up before everyone gets there and then spend a couple hours playing with the youngest and her play date while the oldest is off with her mother most of the night. Yeah. Loads of time to squeeze all that in AND get the most important thing for a good race: Sleep.
There is one person who keeps hammering about the importance of getting enough sleep before you race. Esp for something as intense as cyclocross. So far I have raced better when I've gotten a good night sleep. When I was doped to the gills on coffee last couple years I could never really truly judge how sleep deprived I was. Tired? Just drink another cup of coffee, everything will be fine.
maybe with the coffee I could have found the inspiration to be poetic. But sadly I've found myself in a prose mode. And certainly in a prose mode that won't win anyone any free tires or schwag these days. And isn't that why ya do stuff like that?
I made mention of a thought that occured to me on the ride in. Again a typical GeWilli thought. A rather undeveloped. Sort of a little idea instead of a fancy complex well formed statement. Cyclocross is so real because there really isn't any faking it. Roadies can go out on a club ride and "win" the town line and treat it like a real vicotry. MTB'ers can go out and ride a trail and clean a line better than anyone. Cyclocross is really about the race. Not about anything else. Sure you can use a cross bike as a commuter but you aren't doing cyclocross. You can go to the park and screw around with your racing buddies, go do a training race. But that's not the real thing.
To do cross you really do almost need a number. You need a course. You need competition. You are either going to win or more likely (odds never favor everyone winning) lose. But you will know how you stand up on that day, at that hour, on that course. You can't hide when the results come out. You can make excuses. You can feel bad about your placing, explain it away. But the results are the results. And it doesn't take away from the fact that Cyclocross is a discipline about racing, there is practicing. But unlike road or mtb you don't just go out and cyclocross. Or at least that's not really the norm. eh?
Kind of what makes it cool. The lack of pose[u]r factor. You do it or you don't. No real middle ground. Even Solobreak gets it. Sure calling it an intensity work out and a way to have fun in the fall, keep on the bike, it is still racing cross.
Cyclocross, is just plain old awesome. And tomorrow will see a host of fanatics and racers show up across the country to line up. To sit there at the start, twitching and waiting for the whistle. Waiting to attack. Heart racing, mind calm.
A whole week climaxing for that shrill blast from the official. 45-60 minutes of adrenaline surged pain. That's what we live for.
heddwch
G
Okay - it was cold
This morning was cold. I even put full tights on, warm gloves, jacket, baselayer, hat under helmet. Didn't cover ears, found that my nice warm PI windnot gloves have holes in the finger joints.
But it was gorgeous. First hard frost here on the bay.
1989-2008, anything really change? Check it out, (thanks to the gnome for the link over at DC) (Part 2).
Part 2. Makes a good political statement. The Soviet Union was our bitter enemy. Right? Not so dissimilar to Iran? No? And we talked with USSR. No? We talked with them alot. No? So how idiotic does it sound to say we won't sit down and talk with the President of Iran? Didn't a few of our past presidents sit down with the heads of USSR? So when the GOP VP says no way in hell will we sit down and talk with North Korea, or Iran... it just doesn't make sense.
Oops.
Too political?
Asimov's pretty damn eloquent and pretty smart. I like what he is saying.
Take 20 minutes and watch it. Even if you don't agree with it, or esp if you disagree with him (have to watch it to know if you do don't ya).
hopped on the trainer last night after making a batch of Pizza. Finally got around to making up a 20-40 interval set. Started with a 15 minute warm up, once the legs got moving I pushed the warm up so I was good and warm going into the first set of 8 20-40s. And like i did with the other interval playlists, effort/interval was done based on the music change. I used a bit of Metallica (older album) for the 20 second segment with the word goodbye keying out the end of the 20 seconds and then I used dry your eyes mate from the streets for a 40 second bit. Each set (did 2 sets) was 8 reps long. I put Furry Happy Monsters in the middle to shake things up between sets. I found the pulsing rhythm in the Streets track to reinforce a deep breathing pattern. And it was tough. There wasn't a whole lot of juice left in the legs when it came to 7 and 8 in the second set. I'm also finding a 46x12 on the trainer to not be a huge amount of resistance, it is still a ton of work and I just cranked the cadence up to get the effort to burn as I was told it should.
I guess in a way I'm not surprised at the mechanism I've found to be successful at getting me on the trainer and doing workouts. All it took was some music, iTunes and an iPod. It is so easy making a playlist and so fast that the only challenging part is finding a track that is the right length. in the case of the 20-40s I had to chop up a few songs. Not a big deal. If you want to try out the 20-40 track I can email it out and you can make your own playlist. My email shouldn't be hard to find (hint scroll to the bottom of the left sidebar and click on profile). It isn't a high fidelity rip of the 20 second one but when you are going all out with headphones on, who cares about the sound quality. If you are worrying about that then you aren't going hard enough.
Wrentham is going to be interesting and fun tomorrow. We'll see which GeWilli shows up. The slow one or the REALLY slow one. By NoHo I should be racing on some custom FMBs glued up to a set of Grammo Tubolari CX wheels. And after last year being shocked at how many people rolled tires there, it should be a good test.
Hopefully if someone does roll one, i'll get as lucky as I did last year when a guy rolled it in front of me on the downhill where JD stood yelling at people (me?) "NO BRAKES". And we'll see if the uber secret "Peanut" gluing technique actually works for a grippy 34c tubular ridden by some 200 pound tall freak.
It was a beautify ride in this morning though. Really spectacular.
heddwch
g
But it was gorgeous. First hard frost here on the bay.
1989-2008, anything really change? Check it out, (thanks to the gnome for the link over at DC) (Part 2).
Part 2. Makes a good political statement. The Soviet Union was our bitter enemy. Right? Not so dissimilar to Iran? No? And we talked with USSR. No? We talked with them alot. No? So how idiotic does it sound to say we won't sit down and talk with the President of Iran? Didn't a few of our past presidents sit down with the heads of USSR? So when the GOP VP says no way in hell will we sit down and talk with North Korea, or Iran... it just doesn't make sense.
Oops.
Too political?
Asimov's pretty damn eloquent and pretty smart. I like what he is saying.
Take 20 minutes and watch it. Even if you don't agree with it, or esp if you disagree with him (have to watch it to know if you do don't ya).
hopped on the trainer last night after making a batch of Pizza. Finally got around to making up a 20-40 interval set. Started with a 15 minute warm up, once the legs got moving I pushed the warm up so I was good and warm going into the first set of 8 20-40s. And like i did with the other interval playlists, effort/interval was done based on the music change. I used a bit of Metallica (older album) for the 20 second segment with the word goodbye keying out the end of the 20 seconds and then I used dry your eyes mate from the streets for a 40 second bit. Each set (did 2 sets) was 8 reps long. I put Furry Happy Monsters in the middle to shake things up between sets. I found the pulsing rhythm in the Streets track to reinforce a deep breathing pattern. And it was tough. There wasn't a whole lot of juice left in the legs when it came to 7 and 8 in the second set. I'm also finding a 46x12 on the trainer to not be a huge amount of resistance, it is still a ton of work and I just cranked the cadence up to get the effort to burn as I was told it should.
I guess in a way I'm not surprised at the mechanism I've found to be successful at getting me on the trainer and doing workouts. All it took was some music, iTunes and an iPod. It is so easy making a playlist and so fast that the only challenging part is finding a track that is the right length. in the case of the 20-40s I had to chop up a few songs. Not a big deal. If you want to try out the 20-40 track I can email it out and you can make your own playlist. My email shouldn't be hard to find (hint scroll to the bottom of the left sidebar and click on profile). It isn't a high fidelity rip of the 20 second one but when you are going all out with headphones on, who cares about the sound quality. If you are worrying about that then you aren't going hard enough.
Wrentham is going to be interesting and fun tomorrow. We'll see which GeWilli shows up. The slow one or the REALLY slow one. By NoHo I should be racing on some custom FMBs glued up to a set of Grammo Tubolari CX wheels. And after last year being shocked at how many people rolled tires there, it should be a good test.
Hopefully if someone does roll one, i'll get as lucky as I did last year when a guy rolled it in front of me on the downhill where JD stood yelling at people (me?) "NO BRAKES". And we'll see if the uber secret "Peanut" gluing technique actually works for a grippy 34c tubular ridden by some 200 pound tall freak.
It was a beautify ride in this morning though. Really spectacular.
heddwch
g
Thursday, October 23, 2008
something heard somewhere
"I can't wish you good luck, but I do wish you well."
I like that saying. Works very well when standing next your friend at the start line of a cross race. You don't want them to have good luck over you, but you don't want to wish them harm, you do genuinely want them to do well, but just do well behind you.
Race well. But just not as fast as me today?
I like that saying. Works very well when standing next your friend at the start line of a cross race. You don't want them to have good luck over you, but you don't want to wish them harm, you do genuinely want them to do well, but just do well behind you.
Race well. But just not as fast as me today?
some links
call them headlines, some are, some aren't other people posted them but I wanted to collect them here...
New Cross bike? Yes, very cool. A Terry 26" CX bike. Awesome. Richard Scwhinn is a damn cool guy. I had numerous phone conversations with him about my old paramount and their new bikes, and while the memory is less distinct than the phone calls about my bikes and customer's bikes, I'm pretty sure I've met him at CABDA. He's one of those guys who gets it. Makes some wicked nice stuff. Gorgeous and impeccable frames.
The same party that went rabid pit bull about a democratic party candidate's hair cut being paid out of campaign funds ($400 one at that) spent $150,000 on the Palin family? I guess she didn't look republican enough to be going out and giving speaches and stuff. Included in that is $4,716.49 in hair and make up. Makes Edward's $400 hair cut seem like a damn good deal.
I guess you really do need lipstick to make a pit bull look beautiful and attractive to the Republican party.
Politico's got a good write up there. (as do many other places but Politico's seems most complete) (saw the "story" first at DC, then at Gwadzilla's)
Scotch Tape and X-rays? Cool pick up there EV. 1.2 inches a second is kind of a lot of tape though. Can it be re-used? Rolled up one way, then the other? Or do you just recycle it for desk use or kids to play with after pulling it off the original roll.
Best cost per dollar kids toys? Kleenex/papertowels in the car and Scotch tape. A $0.50 box of tissues could turn the back of the car into a mess but it can also occupy kids in a creative manner for a long time. Tape is kind of a pain, esp when you find it days, weeks, months later stuck to walls, chairs, floors, desks, appliances, dogs, pianos.... again a relatively inexpensive way for them to be creative (esp if they stick to using it on paper instead of the rest of the house or themselves).
Cool Glasses. Might even almost replace Paul C's mirror and you'd have the vision on both sides. Much better than my glasses from Jamestown where they block 100% of the periphery. Although, like blinders on a horse, focusing only ahead might not be a bad thing. No distractions. No chance you saw the guy before taking them into the tape, not your fault that they were too slow to make the pass before the turn.
Super cool lighting. (clicked over from the scotch tape story). That would be cool. But it would be also nice if you could selectively turn the average wavelength. But then most LEDs just emit the specific wavelength that they are designed for.
And this looks awesome. Using the ion channel pumps to generate electricity? harnessing photosynthesis? Super cool. Suuuuuuper cool.
...
It is always humorous sitting back down at the desk after the auto lights have timed off in the office and finding a web log entry sitting waiting to be published.
Here it is.
Don't forget to pre-reg for wrentham! And the Beer Cross race is flat out awesome in the wet. I'm jealous of those who will be able to make it to both races. If you were to just do one, I'd almost say do Dayville, but then I would never hear the end of it from the MRC mob. I raced the Beer Cross course twice last year. Once in the drizzle, and once in the snow (postponed natz scmatz). It is a fun course. Like a wide open swoopy Mt bike course. It is NOT a grass crit. The run up WILL make you cry. It is awesome. There is enough 2 track to make the fast guys happy. AND a plane of pane. Well I thing we go on the outside of it, but still, it is flat and fast and hard. And fun.
Sign up and do both. Beer Cross last year had tones of Dales Pale Ale (in the can) on hand. It was fun. It will be fun on Sunday. Be sure not to miss it.
heddwch
G
New Cross bike? Yes, very cool. A Terry 26" CX bike. Awesome. Richard Scwhinn is a damn cool guy. I had numerous phone conversations with him about my old paramount and their new bikes, and while the memory is less distinct than the phone calls about my bikes and customer's bikes, I'm pretty sure I've met him at CABDA. He's one of those guys who gets it. Makes some wicked nice stuff. Gorgeous and impeccable frames.
The same party that went rabid pit bull about a democratic party candidate's hair cut being paid out of campaign funds ($400 one at that) spent $150,000 on the Palin family? I guess she didn't look republican enough to be going out and giving speaches and stuff. Included in that is $4,716.49 in hair and make up. Makes Edward's $400 hair cut seem like a damn good deal.
I guess you really do need lipstick to make a pit bull look beautiful and attractive to the Republican party.
Politico's got a good write up there. (as do many other places but Politico's seems most complete) (saw the "story" first at DC, then at Gwadzilla's)
Scotch Tape and X-rays? Cool pick up there EV. 1.2 inches a second is kind of a lot of tape though. Can it be re-used? Rolled up one way, then the other? Or do you just recycle it for desk use or kids to play with after pulling it off the original roll.
Best cost per dollar kids toys? Kleenex/papertowels in the car and Scotch tape. A $0.50 box of tissues could turn the back of the car into a mess but it can also occupy kids in a creative manner for a long time. Tape is kind of a pain, esp when you find it days, weeks, months later stuck to walls, chairs, floors, desks, appliances, dogs, pianos.... again a relatively inexpensive way for them to be creative (esp if they stick to using it on paper instead of the rest of the house or themselves).
Cool Glasses. Might even almost replace Paul C's mirror and you'd have the vision on both sides. Much better than my glasses from Jamestown where they block 100% of the periphery. Although, like blinders on a horse, focusing only ahead might not be a bad thing. No distractions. No chance you saw the guy before taking them into the tape, not your fault that they were too slow to make the pass before the turn.
Super cool lighting. (clicked over from the scotch tape story). That would be cool. But it would be also nice if you could selectively turn the average wavelength. But then most LEDs just emit the specific wavelength that they are designed for.
And this looks awesome. Using the ion channel pumps to generate electricity? harnessing photosynthesis? Super cool. Suuuuuuper cool.
...
It is always humorous sitting back down at the desk after the auto lights have timed off in the office and finding a web log entry sitting waiting to be published.
Here it is.
Don't forget to pre-reg for wrentham! And the Beer Cross race is flat out awesome in the wet. I'm jealous of those who will be able to make it to both races. If you were to just do one, I'd almost say do Dayville, but then I would never hear the end of it from the MRC mob. I raced the Beer Cross course twice last year. Once in the drizzle, and once in the snow (postponed natz scmatz). It is a fun course. Like a wide open swoopy Mt bike course. It is NOT a grass crit. The run up WILL make you cry. It is awesome. There is enough 2 track to make the fast guys happy. AND a plane of pane. Well I thing we go on the outside of it, but still, it is flat and fast and hard. And fun.
Sign up and do both. Beer Cross last year had tones of Dales Pale Ale (in the can) on hand. It was fun. It will be fun on Sunday. Be sure not to miss it.
heddwch
G
Stop Sign in Vancouver BC
Originally uploaded by BikePortland.org
laughed...
tis true cars are the new cigarettes...
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
they are here
the first crop of Fuji apples from the orchards that show up to the farmer's market.
I like fuji apples the best. I will say those early season Gala's weren't too bad but the last batch I bought were old soft and starting to get mealy.
Makes me think it isn't about the apple, but how recently it was picked. But I can tell you this, it doesn't really matter if I pulled it off the tree myself, I'm not a fan of Golden Delicious apples. It is about the apple. The firm tart crisp ones are what I like. And any firm tart crisp apple can turn into a soft mealy sweet mush ball. Yuck.
And then walking over there I encountered another problem with my penchant for "under dressing" when riding to work. I wind up here at work without a freaking jacket. A 8 block round trip stroll outside at a windy 46°F with just a long sleeve shirt is actually pretty chilly. But it didn't take long to warm up.
This morning one variable of warmth that I didn't have when towing the trailer is the messenger bag. I'm actually starting to think that carrying that thing around on the commute may be contributing to a bit more back pain in the race. Last year no messenger bag and my crooked spine wasn't as crooked from not carrying my crap on my back. Almost has me thinking about hauling the trailer just to carry stuff. That or I see about getting a seatpost mounted rack and strapping crap to that. But the bag does trap a fair amount of heat, which is good when it gets cold, IF you are generating heat (ala commuting).
In the vein of winter riding, i saw these bar mitts over at Bike Rumor. They look pretty nice. Better than trying to get a set of those Snowmobile bar mits on a road bike. But a bit overkill for around here, and totally impractical with barcons, but who besides me uses those on a winter bike anyway?
The weather is finally cool. But I feel slighted. Why did I have to bring the plants in already? Why is it so damn cold? What happened to cool. Felt like we went from HOT to COLD like a long post race shower.
A Teammate (syl) found this shot from the Jamestown race. One of my many pointless, arguably silly (for a cat 4 race) animating attacks on lap one. I came to that race with a book of matches mostly burnt from two days at Gloucester. I came to the line with a bunch of team mates. I had no delusional thoughts about being able to cross the line first, much less in the top 5-10. No, I had a plan. Attack early, and as often as I could. Animate the race. No sedate plodding first lap. No, we were going to go hard. Pedal our damn bikes and I was going to do my damnest to go until I died with dignity.
Here I am, crooked bars (not sure when they got knock out of true), making someone work to bridge the gap. And I never backed off until someone got on my wheel. No sir. Stupid for a guy in a cat 4 race maybe. But damn was it fun. (photo link)
To wrap it up. A bit of Jonny Cash "I am the Nation"
heddwch
G
I like fuji apples the best. I will say those early season Gala's weren't too bad but the last batch I bought were old soft and starting to get mealy.
Makes me think it isn't about the apple, but how recently it was picked. But I can tell you this, it doesn't really matter if I pulled it off the tree myself, I'm not a fan of Golden Delicious apples. It is about the apple. The firm tart crisp ones are what I like. And any firm tart crisp apple can turn into a soft mealy sweet mush ball. Yuck.
And then walking over there I encountered another problem with my penchant for "under dressing" when riding to work. I wind up here at work without a freaking jacket. A 8 block round trip stroll outside at a windy 46°F with just a long sleeve shirt is actually pretty chilly. But it didn't take long to warm up.
This morning one variable of warmth that I didn't have when towing the trailer is the messenger bag. I'm actually starting to think that carrying that thing around on the commute may be contributing to a bit more back pain in the race. Last year no messenger bag and my crooked spine wasn't as crooked from not carrying my crap on my back. Almost has me thinking about hauling the trailer just to carry stuff. That or I see about getting a seatpost mounted rack and strapping crap to that. But the bag does trap a fair amount of heat, which is good when it gets cold, IF you are generating heat (ala commuting).
In the vein of winter riding, i saw these bar mitts over at Bike Rumor. They look pretty nice. Better than trying to get a set of those Snowmobile bar mits on a road bike. But a bit overkill for around here, and totally impractical with barcons, but who besides me uses those on a winter bike anyway?
The weather is finally cool. But I feel slighted. Why did I have to bring the plants in already? Why is it so damn cold? What happened to cool. Felt like we went from HOT to COLD like a long post race shower.
A Teammate (syl) found this shot from the Jamestown race. One of my many pointless, arguably silly (for a cat 4 race) animating attacks on lap one. I came to that race with a book of matches mostly burnt from two days at Gloucester. I came to the line with a bunch of team mates. I had no delusional thoughts about being able to cross the line first, much less in the top 5-10. No, I had a plan. Attack early, and as often as I could. Animate the race. No sedate plodding first lap. No, we were going to go hard. Pedal our damn bikes and I was going to do my damnest to go until I died with dignity.
Here I am, crooked bars (not sure when they got knock out of true), making someone work to bridge the gap. And I never backed off until someone got on my wheel. No sir. Stupid for a guy in a cat 4 race maybe. But damn was it fun. (photo link)
To wrap it up. A bit of Jonny Cash "I am the Nation"
heddwch
G
Race MRC damn it!
Come on everyone. The weather will be awesome for those who don't like it cold and wet. If you want wet BeerCross #1 should full fill your desires.
But yeah, Wrentham is fun. It is a bit earlier and warmer than last year. What 20 degrees or something? So cold the Keg was freezing up. Yeah. Beer Keg frozen cold. It is a nice tough course. No pavement so those non-roadies won't be so scared, but enough fast sections that those with fitness can rock and roll.
Call it a little PSA from a friend of the MRC. You all know ya need the tune up for NoHo.
Registration closes tomorrow night. Don't put it off. Esp cause they are going to start ya based on CrossResults ranking. If you aren't pre-registered you'll be behind all those pre-reg folks and word has it that they will be staging only 5 wide.
sign up, eh?
But yeah, Wrentham is fun. It is a bit earlier and warmer than last year. What 20 degrees or something? So cold the Keg was freezing up. Yeah. Beer Keg frozen cold. It is a nice tough course. No pavement so those non-roadies won't be so scared, but enough fast sections that those with fitness can rock and roll.
Call it a little PSA from a friend of the MRC. You all know ya need the tune up for NoHo.
Registration closes tomorrow night. Don't put it off. Esp cause they are going to start ya based on CrossResults ranking. If you aren't pre-registered you'll be behind all those pre-reg folks and word has it that they will be staging only 5 wide.
sign up, eh?
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Feels like lunch time
And well, I guess, I might as well take lunch now.
Food is important. We've got this digital TV converter box now and PBS2 (create) channel has some extra cooking shows. Kinda like the food network but with only one really annoying chef and a bunch of really good ones instead of the other way around. sara m is one of the ones I kinda like. Sure she's wicked short and cute, but annoying at times. I don't like some of her short cuts or alternative suggestions (low fat-no fat products full of junk) but she has a saying that goes something like use fresh ingredients and it will be good. Then another channel has someone "making" some sad opera chef singing commercial frozen lasagna, two sad looking frozen brick, a bunch of frozen red chunks (sauce or tomatoes?) and they stick it in the oven. *puke* yuck. My wife reminds me though that there are people out there who don't make absolutely every meal from scratch. I know that. But that is sad. Yes food takes a lot of work to make. And in the end it is just calories. I just happen to like the process of making it as well as eating it. Lasagna is one of the more pain in the ass things to make, but. In reality it is just pasta with 10 extra minutes of prep when you are finished making the sauce and 45 minutes of waiting for the mixture to turn into bubbly goodness. (and that's just more time to drink WINE)
This weekend's second day was Canton. G-ride has been telling the world how shitty of a day he had, ready to turn over his bike and wheels to the first person to drive the 400 miles to his house in almost-Canada.
I had a blast. To spoil the punch line, I may have finished way back in 35th, but it was the first time this year that I actually felt like I was racing from start to finish. Mansfield was fun but I had a crappy early part of the race, just couldn't get my heart and mind on the same page as my legs. Canton, from start to finish, was hard, wicked hard, but I worked my ass off and then even played smart to make sure I didn't get beat by the group that I was either drifting back to or being caught by. But then I'm getting ahead of myself.
It was cold. No doubt about it. I got there and had to put the orange suit on just to stay warm enough to walk around and check the place out. I did get a chance to pre-ride in the suit (snagged the saggy seam on the crotch trying to remount more than once, but only crushing my nuts in a minor not painfully debilitating fashion). Same tough hard Canton course. And cold. And windy. Did the pre-ride with ~30 PSI in the rear. Not quite enough pressure. But I think in the race i err'd on the slightly too high side. S'Okay. Didn't matter that much.
I was waiting for the G-ride's glue job from the night before. If I had some glue laying around it would have been no problem but Skinny White Dude did and maybe G-ride felt bad about his glue job rolling on me at Mansfield, so he got it all decked up overnight. G-ride and Skinny showed up Caravan mode. And I pounced looking for the wheel. G-ride doesn't have it in his car, 4 tubulars and a frame but not a 5th. Skinny has two frames and 6 tubulars in the back of his (or the Doc's) truck but not the fixed up one. It got left. In g-ride's defense, one extra wheel in that basement is sort of like one extra tube in a bike shop. Not really something that stands out.
So a slight shot of confidence leaked out. But my pre-ride with the RR on the Vector Pro wasn't so bad and the wind meant maybe the more aero front wheel might be good. But suddenly it was crunch time. Where did the time go? Less than an hour before the race? Pin the number on. Oh. Right, I'm racing in a shortsleeve skin suit today. It was cold. 40 degrees, overcast, wicked windy. Not warm. Not in the least. I should have worn the shortsleeve on saturday and debuted the longsleeve on sunday. But nope. I wasn't that clairvoyant. I should have really just washed the long sleeve saturday night, but I was pre-occupied by among other things following someone on a tour of south providence that included the lead car asking a skinny amped up white woman in a sketchy part of town where the restaurant was.
Short sleeve it was. Most all in the 10 am race were wearing full tights and longsleeves. A good number of ear covers and warm gloves too. Same goes for the 11am race. Maybe more knee warmers than tights, no one IIRC had bare arms. Then there was me, in the Noon race. Most folks went with the long sleeve skinsuit. Some went with knee warmers. Some used leg warmers. Me? I just sat there in my short sleeve skinsuit, no embro, no cap under my helmet, making everyone else feel cold just looking at me. People standing around bundled with winter parkas were looking cold. The folks at registration were wearing lots of layers, hats, mittens and wrapped in blankets and they were cold. Here I was in some summer skinsuit. Not intentionally making a statement. But knowing that while yes, i was a bit chilly there at the start line, i did get a good warm up in, shorter than I wanted, interrupted by a Zanc siting, but I got a few efforts in and I broke a good sweat (that orange suit is actually pretty effective for some single layer fabric).
I also knew that with both Frank and Mark there and the rest of the big well trained fast dudes, going out as hard as I was capable of would be suicide. And I just sort of rolled out. Not dead last. But relaxed, comfortable. Not as slow as I could have gone but I may have figured out how hard I need to start to be able to race. And then I proceeded to race. Sitting in as much as I could. Trying to get around the people who were slower in some sections than me who had leap frogged me in spots where they were faster. At some point I latched on to Matt Hersey's wheel. A big tall freak racing for Bikeman. It was heaven sitting on his wheel. And I think he actually might have sat on my wheel once or twice too. Just ahead of us was the grouppetto GCDavid, Ctodd and a few others. In striking distance. Racing. Going hard. Drilling it out of a corner. All big ring. Big ring is where I seem to need to be. If I'm in the 38 I'm going too slow. If I need the 38 I should just get off and run. And I stayed in the big ring. Spinning it up on the pavement and path sections, and grinding out of the turns. I actually was having fun racing. Racing with my head not at the limits of my legs. And using my head I made one glaring mistake. Matt and Sven(?) took off and got a little gap on me in a section they had been. But I'd been able to get back on over the last couple laps so I rode a tad bit more conservatively than I should have in retrospect. Heck I thought I'd be back on their wheel. But nope. They gapped me and bridged up to the CTodd, GCDavid group. Shit. So I spent that whole lap just going as hard as I could. Which I guess was what everyone else was doing as my effort seemed rather fruitless. But I was trying damn it.
Try try try. So there was this bikebarn train and an IF guy who had eaten crap after the field barriers somewhere. I had a decent gap on them hitting the path section. But by the time I hit the little barriers they were almost on me. Nega-coach shouted GET IN THE 12! and I actually was able to use that to eek out a few more watts. But succeeded in only holding them off until the base of the run up. With the plane of pain up next there was no way I was going to tow two teammates and an IF guy around, and fortunately the bigger of the two bikebarn guys was leading them and I latched onto his wheel, and sat there until the barriers. Nega-coach shouted something again as we headed to that banked turn before the barriers by the pit. I knew I had a chance through the barriers, and I knew that the finish line was a long way off but it was my chance to take. I hit the barriers faster than the Bikebarn guy and had a gap already. And just from that attack after the barriers I was ready to puke, but I figured that's a good thing, because I've never hit the hurl stage of competition. And as soon as I hit the pavement I unleashed every last stored KJ in my legs. The IF guy was pretty hot on my wheel but i had a sizable gap. No way was I going to lose this "sprint for 30th" as I heard the IF guy mutter in a somewhat displeased voice aftewards. No freaking way. And I didn't. I nabbed 35th (36th I think because Ctodd DID finish but seemed to go across the line so slowly the officials must have thought he was just warming up).
It was fun. Sure, sprinting for 35th can be "lame" but it felt like racing. And it was an amazing feeling. The focus was there the whole time. I might not have been as fast as Coady or Boivin or Myette, might never be, but damn it, i was racing and I had a freaking blast.
And I wasn't cold once on the course. I ate up that cold dense oxygen rich autumn air. I sucked it down like it was suburterol(sp).
It was certainly a high point even if it doesn't help my cross results points and even if I does show I still suck. It was fun. And after all. That is what makes this sport kick ass.
Two abjectly different type courses on two different days. The fun one I had a hard time getting the racing mode fired up, the hard one wasn't a problem. Odd, but not really. Maybe in a couple years I can have a lofty goal like Myette's and shoot for Verge points. For now? I'm just really excited to race!
See everyone at Wrentham!
heddwch
G
Food is important. We've got this digital TV converter box now and PBS2 (create) channel has some extra cooking shows. Kinda like the food network but with only one really annoying chef and a bunch of really good ones instead of the other way around. sara m is one of the ones I kinda like. Sure she's wicked short and cute, but annoying at times. I don't like some of her short cuts or alternative suggestions (low fat-no fat products full of junk) but she has a saying that goes something like use fresh ingredients and it will be good. Then another channel has someone "making" some sad opera chef singing commercial frozen lasagna, two sad looking frozen brick, a bunch of frozen red chunks (sauce or tomatoes?) and they stick it in the oven. *puke* yuck. My wife reminds me though that there are people out there who don't make absolutely every meal from scratch. I know that. But that is sad. Yes food takes a lot of work to make. And in the end it is just calories. I just happen to like the process of making it as well as eating it. Lasagna is one of the more pain in the ass things to make, but. In reality it is just pasta with 10 extra minutes of prep when you are finished making the sauce and 45 minutes of waiting for the mixture to turn into bubbly goodness. (and that's just more time to drink WINE)
This weekend's second day was Canton. G-ride has been telling the world how shitty of a day he had, ready to turn over his bike and wheels to the first person to drive the 400 miles to his house in almost-Canada.
I had a blast. To spoil the punch line, I may have finished way back in 35th, but it was the first time this year that I actually felt like I was racing from start to finish. Mansfield was fun but I had a crappy early part of the race, just couldn't get my heart and mind on the same page as my legs. Canton, from start to finish, was hard, wicked hard, but I worked my ass off and then even played smart to make sure I didn't get beat by the group that I was either drifting back to or being caught by. But then I'm getting ahead of myself.
It was cold. No doubt about it. I got there and had to put the orange suit on just to stay warm enough to walk around and check the place out. I did get a chance to pre-ride in the suit (snagged the saggy seam on the crotch trying to remount more than once, but only crushing my nuts in a minor not painfully debilitating fashion). Same tough hard Canton course. And cold. And windy. Did the pre-ride with ~30 PSI in the rear. Not quite enough pressure. But I think in the race i err'd on the slightly too high side. S'Okay. Didn't matter that much.
I was waiting for the G-ride's glue job from the night before. If I had some glue laying around it would have been no problem but Skinny White Dude did and maybe G-ride felt bad about his glue job rolling on me at Mansfield, so he got it all decked up overnight. G-ride and Skinny showed up Caravan mode. And I pounced looking for the wheel. G-ride doesn't have it in his car, 4 tubulars and a frame but not a 5th. Skinny has two frames and 6 tubulars in the back of his (or the Doc's) truck but not the fixed up one. It got left. In g-ride's defense, one extra wheel in that basement is sort of like one extra tube in a bike shop. Not really something that stands out.
So a slight shot of confidence leaked out. But my pre-ride with the RR on the Vector Pro wasn't so bad and the wind meant maybe the more aero front wheel might be good. But suddenly it was crunch time. Where did the time go? Less than an hour before the race? Pin the number on. Oh. Right, I'm racing in a shortsleeve skin suit today. It was cold. 40 degrees, overcast, wicked windy. Not warm. Not in the least. I should have worn the shortsleeve on saturday and debuted the longsleeve on sunday. But nope. I wasn't that clairvoyant. I should have really just washed the long sleeve saturday night, but I was pre-occupied by among other things following someone on a tour of south providence that included the lead car asking a skinny amped up white woman in a sketchy part of town where the restaurant was.
Short sleeve it was. Most all in the 10 am race were wearing full tights and longsleeves. A good number of ear covers and warm gloves too. Same goes for the 11am race. Maybe more knee warmers than tights, no one IIRC had bare arms. Then there was me, in the Noon race. Most folks went with the long sleeve skinsuit. Some went with knee warmers. Some used leg warmers. Me? I just sat there in my short sleeve skinsuit, no embro, no cap under my helmet, making everyone else feel cold just looking at me. People standing around bundled with winter parkas were looking cold. The folks at registration were wearing lots of layers, hats, mittens and wrapped in blankets and they were cold. Here I was in some summer skinsuit. Not intentionally making a statement. But knowing that while yes, i was a bit chilly there at the start line, i did get a good warm up in, shorter than I wanted, interrupted by a Zanc siting, but I got a few efforts in and I broke a good sweat (that orange suit is actually pretty effective for some single layer fabric).
I also knew that with both Frank and Mark there and the rest of the big well trained fast dudes, going out as hard as I was capable of would be suicide. And I just sort of rolled out. Not dead last. But relaxed, comfortable. Not as slow as I could have gone but I may have figured out how hard I need to start to be able to race. And then I proceeded to race. Sitting in as much as I could. Trying to get around the people who were slower in some sections than me who had leap frogged me in spots where they were faster. At some point I latched on to Matt Hersey's wheel. A big tall freak racing for Bikeman. It was heaven sitting on his wheel. And I think he actually might have sat on my wheel once or twice too. Just ahead of us was the grouppetto GCDavid, Ctodd and a few others. In striking distance. Racing. Going hard. Drilling it out of a corner. All big ring. Big ring is where I seem to need to be. If I'm in the 38 I'm going too slow. If I need the 38 I should just get off and run. And I stayed in the big ring. Spinning it up on the pavement and path sections, and grinding out of the turns. I actually was having fun racing. Racing with my head not at the limits of my legs. And using my head I made one glaring mistake. Matt and Sven(?) took off and got a little gap on me in a section they had been. But I'd been able to get back on over the last couple laps so I rode a tad bit more conservatively than I should have in retrospect. Heck I thought I'd be back on their wheel. But nope. They gapped me and bridged up to the CTodd, GCDavid group. Shit. So I spent that whole lap just going as hard as I could. Which I guess was what everyone else was doing as my effort seemed rather fruitless. But I was trying damn it.
Try try try. So there was this bikebarn train and an IF guy who had eaten crap after the field barriers somewhere. I had a decent gap on them hitting the path section. But by the time I hit the little barriers they were almost on me. Nega-coach shouted GET IN THE 12! and I actually was able to use that to eek out a few more watts. But succeeded in only holding them off until the base of the run up. With the plane of pain up next there was no way I was going to tow two teammates and an IF guy around, and fortunately the bigger of the two bikebarn guys was leading them and I latched onto his wheel, and sat there until the barriers. Nega-coach shouted something again as we headed to that banked turn before the barriers by the pit. I knew I had a chance through the barriers, and I knew that the finish line was a long way off but it was my chance to take. I hit the barriers faster than the Bikebarn guy and had a gap already. And just from that attack after the barriers I was ready to puke, but I figured that's a good thing, because I've never hit the hurl stage of competition. And as soon as I hit the pavement I unleashed every last stored KJ in my legs. The IF guy was pretty hot on my wheel but i had a sizable gap. No way was I going to lose this "sprint for 30th" as I heard the IF guy mutter in a somewhat displeased voice aftewards. No freaking way. And I didn't. I nabbed 35th (36th I think because Ctodd DID finish but seemed to go across the line so slowly the officials must have thought he was just warming up).
It was fun. Sure, sprinting for 35th can be "lame" but it felt like racing. And it was an amazing feeling. The focus was there the whole time. I might not have been as fast as Coady or Boivin or Myette, might never be, but damn it, i was racing and I had a freaking blast.
And I wasn't cold once on the course. I ate up that cold dense oxygen rich autumn air. I sucked it down like it was suburterol(sp).
It was certainly a high point even if it doesn't help my cross results points and even if I does show I still suck. It was fun. And after all. That is what makes this sport kick ass.
Two abjectly different type courses on two different days. The fun one I had a hard time getting the racing mode fired up, the hard one wasn't a problem. Odd, but not really. Maybe in a couple years I can have a lofty goal like Myette's and shoot for Verge points. For now? I'm just really excited to race!
See everyone at Wrentham!
heddwch
G
This just in....
Cyclocross is LEGIT. No longer a grassroots ignored and misunderstood sport. It is Legit.
according to results boy:
according to results boy:
...Any popular sport will have people dropping big money on equipment. One could argue that you know a sport is legit when there's a market for high-end, questionable-benefit equipment in it.
Cyclocross survey
Go take a moment to fill out the survey:
Go fill it out, eh?
So, I have to do a project for my stats class and I chose cyclocross
bike data as a topic.
Please help a grad student out by going here and taking my survey.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=ZPcXGuYZVvQdWnPPA54JIg_3d_3d
If you don't I will be forced to hunt you down at the races and bother
you before, during, and after your race until I get some answers.
Also, please send it to anyone else you know. It is not racing
specific, it is more on bike/equipment options. If you are a sponsored
rider, think about what you would do if you had to buy your bike(s).
And if you do ride team issue stuff that was given to you for
free/wholesale, fill it in anyway, it's still useful. I am more
interested in frame size/fit data than anything else. Cost of bike is
less important.
Go fill it out, eh?
Monday, October 20, 2008
the truth
from BSNYC
*chuckle*
3) Easy Is Better
The best way to boost participation in an activity is to make sure everybody who participates feels like they can win. That’s why road racing is so popular. There’s nothing more thrilling than riding in a huge pack of people, each of whom is convinced victory can be theirs as long as they avoid doing any actual work until the last 15 seconds of the race. On the other hand, a race in which the strongest people win consistently means the less strong people (and that’s everyone else) won’t want to participate. This is a real problem. Would you play the lottery if only the same four or five people won every week? Of course you wouldn’t. So why would you organize a race that way? Sure, you might have people who come out and race because it’s “fun,” but “fun” is frivolous and if you’ve followed the previous two tips your race is no longer fun. Indeed, it's essential to give people the impression they're just some expensive upgrades and a little wheelsucking away from victory. This is crucial to the growth of the industry and the sport.
*chuckle*
soldering paste
in my nose...
when i breath in deeply all i smell is the rosin-flux-solder paste oder...
maybe I shouldn't have been directly over the soldering gun...
sniff, sniff... almost smells like a conifer... almost
when i breath in deeply all i smell is the rosin-flux-solder paste oder...
maybe I shouldn't have been directly over the soldering gun...
sniff, sniff... almost smells like a conifer... almost
One tough Master
Tough weekend
It is exhausting racing cross. At least this year it seems to be more so. Is the fatigue just showing itself now that I'm not amped up on 1200+ mg of caffeine a day? Or am I actually pushing myself that much harder now that I'm sort of figuring out the racing thing again.
Or I'm just getting old and this racing thing isn't getting easier? I'd like to think I'm just going harder.
It was a great weekend of racing. I have to first thank my family for tolerating this obsession I have with cyclocross. Without their support and patience it wouldn't be possible. I am very lucky.
Esp considering I crashed hard on the couch last night and my legs were pretty solidly hosed. Of course when I got home Lucy and I went for a little walk to the park with some running mixed in for good measure. Stood around there and THEN came back and crashed.
Mansfield hollow was saturday. Got over there and parked next to the nicest guy racing (no offense to cronoman) Ken Scott. I was messing with the shifting in the rear. It seems that it was 'okay' at G-ster in the big ring most of the time. Not great but just okay. There were enough punch ups and stuff that a few times I tried the little ring and the damn cogs didn't seem to be in the right place. I had considered taking the cassette off friday night so I could give it back to G-ride but that didn't happen. I was futzing with the damn shifting and missed the fact that everyone had already lined up. So I rushed over there and got in line in the back. And boom before I knew it we were starting. I found myself behind The Bull in the China shop and Wayne, and well Tom is a great draft and Wayne's been kicking my ass so lets be all smart and just ride their wheels for a while. That lasted a lap and a half. Then GeWilli's heart kind of vanished. I had a moment of what am I doing this hurts, I kind of mentally checked out for a minute. The shifting was wicked distracting. After I got gapped off the back of those two I tried riding the small ring most of the way around. It isn't that small. A 38. But I've found this year, if I am in the 38 I'm sucking and going too slow. Turning the 46 is a lot of work at times but I seem to go faster, or I should say, I slide back less. But Saturday with my not so stellar start it wasn't so much about sliding back and holding my position. I did manage to pass a few people, and suddenly with 3 to go it all clicked. Maybe it was 2.5 to go. In all seriousness it was Tom's bad luck that flipped the switch. I saw him in the pits and someone stoked the locomotive with a fresh shovel of coal and I was off. And racing. Railing turns. Powering through the straights. It was fun.
Coming in I had a gap. In front and a gap behind, but I felt like I was closing in on the one in front. And then I hit a turn hard. Rocking this tubbies has amped the confidence way up. Then, riiiiiiip whup whup whup whup... WTF... Damn it Jerry... I managed to rip about 8-10 inches of the tubbie off the front. Popped it back on and kept going. But that killed that turning confidence. I stopped looking forward and started looking back. "Gotta hold them off." Steve with Joes Garage wound up catching me into the wind as we passed the start line going into the turn that I ripped it on, and I actually raced. I eased off and kind of made him go around. He said something about not really wanting to pull me there. But I sat in (he's not the tallest and the draft wasn't the best, but it was better than being in front) and he railed the turns. But a bobble on the off camber hill climb had me stopping on his wheel. We rolled down the hill and I took off. And scored a nice 18th place finish. Out of? 27? Or something. 5 minutes off the leaders.
So anyway, I finished. The crappy warm up in the morning might have had something to do with it. Instead of getting the ~10-20 minute spin on the trainer with a couple bouts with intensity to tickle the lactic acid release listening to Death Magnetic, i was chatting with a team mate about Jamestown. Then the whole messed up shifting on the pre-ride (done after sitting on the trainer spinning for 10-15 minutes) got me all off kilter. And I miss-judged how warm it would be racing. The sun was out and the long sleeves were too much. Too hot. I don't like too hot. But well that's what I went with. The course was awesome. Lots of getting on and off. Lots of good elements. Wicked fun. Gotta thank the Cronoman for the heckling/cheering, it's always good to hear his voice barking at ya.
Hung out with G-ride's kid while he raced in the Men's B race. We went all over the course. Most of the transitions were done with him riding on my shoulders the whole time. So I guess I didn't feel like I got enough leg work because I did all that walking with a not so small 4.5 year old up there. But we had fun. It was good.
Hit a nice spot for dinner with G-Ride and SWD's kids and what not and all and it was good food, fun times and all that. G-ride re-glued the ripped section of the tubbie and it was going to be ready to go for Canton.
Ah canton.
I'll get to that later. Only first to say how awesome it was to hear everyone yelling around the course... "Go Tall guy" and "PUT IT IN THE 12" and "CTodd's right up there" and all there rest. It was super cool... Great crowd there at a wicked tough (and cold) race. Oh and seeing Mikey Z was a highlight. Dude lights up the room (venue) when he shows up. It was just awesome to see him, we've really all been missing him at the races. Did miss the Tall Freak though. Not many other's missed the racing... even Nega-Coach made an appearance, and Il Bruce showed up to check the scene out.
Rode the bike in this morning. Decided knee warmers would be enough. Couldn't find the black cotton cycling cap to stick under the Giro Helmet so I popped on the Specklized lid that doesn't have enough adjustment to fit anything under it and headed in. Kinda cold. 37°F this morning. And windy. That same damn cold wind yesterday was blowin on my face on the way in. Then met up with a McCormick (not a mccormack fortunately - or maybe that would have been better) and well that McC was drilling it and I haven't chatted with him on the path so I was obliged to give up on my silly slow ass ride and drill it. So much for nice and easy. It was okay though. The legs actually responded. And while McC was pounding his big ring I was able to buck the headwind and chill in the little one. Didn't feel too bad. It has been pretty quiet on the path. Either my timing is way off or the regulars I normally see on the path are using alternative modes to get too and from work.
So yeah...
canton... will get to that soon
heddwch
G
Or I'm just getting old and this racing thing isn't getting easier? I'd like to think I'm just going harder.
It was a great weekend of racing. I have to first thank my family for tolerating this obsession I have with cyclocross. Without their support and patience it wouldn't be possible. I am very lucky.
Esp considering I crashed hard on the couch last night and my legs were pretty solidly hosed. Of course when I got home Lucy and I went for a little walk to the park with some running mixed in for good measure. Stood around there and THEN came back and crashed.
Mansfield hollow was saturday. Got over there and parked next to the nicest guy racing (no offense to cronoman) Ken Scott. I was messing with the shifting in the rear. It seems that it was 'okay' at G-ster in the big ring most of the time. Not great but just okay. There were enough punch ups and stuff that a few times I tried the little ring and the damn cogs didn't seem to be in the right place. I had considered taking the cassette off friday night so I could give it back to G-ride but that didn't happen. I was futzing with the damn shifting and missed the fact that everyone had already lined up. So I rushed over there and got in line in the back. And boom before I knew it we were starting. I found myself behind The Bull in the China shop and Wayne, and well Tom is a great draft and Wayne's been kicking my ass so lets be all smart and just ride their wheels for a while. That lasted a lap and a half. Then GeWilli's heart kind of vanished. I had a moment of what am I doing this hurts, I kind of mentally checked out for a minute. The shifting was wicked distracting. After I got gapped off the back of those two I tried riding the small ring most of the way around. It isn't that small. A 38. But I've found this year, if I am in the 38 I'm sucking and going too slow. Turning the 46 is a lot of work at times but I seem to go faster, or I should say, I slide back less. But Saturday with my not so stellar start it wasn't so much about sliding back and holding my position. I did manage to pass a few people, and suddenly with 3 to go it all clicked. Maybe it was 2.5 to go. In all seriousness it was Tom's bad luck that flipped the switch. I saw him in the pits and someone stoked the locomotive with a fresh shovel of coal and I was off. And racing. Railing turns. Powering through the straights. It was fun.
Coming in I had a gap. In front and a gap behind, but I felt like I was closing in on the one in front. And then I hit a turn hard. Rocking this tubbies has amped the confidence way up. Then, riiiiiiip whup whup whup whup... WTF... Damn it Jerry... I managed to rip about 8-10 inches of the tubbie off the front. Popped it back on and kept going. But that killed that turning confidence. I stopped looking forward and started looking back. "Gotta hold them off." Steve with Joes Garage wound up catching me into the wind as we passed the start line going into the turn that I ripped it on, and I actually raced. I eased off and kind of made him go around. He said something about not really wanting to pull me there. But I sat in (he's not the tallest and the draft wasn't the best, but it was better than being in front) and he railed the turns. But a bobble on the off camber hill climb had me stopping on his wheel. We rolled down the hill and I took off. And scored a nice 18th place finish. Out of? 27? Or something. 5 minutes off the leaders.
So anyway, I finished. The crappy warm up in the morning might have had something to do with it. Instead of getting the ~10-20 minute spin on the trainer with a couple bouts with intensity to tickle the lactic acid release listening to Death Magnetic, i was chatting with a team mate about Jamestown. Then the whole messed up shifting on the pre-ride (done after sitting on the trainer spinning for 10-15 minutes) got me all off kilter. And I miss-judged how warm it would be racing. The sun was out and the long sleeves were too much. Too hot. I don't like too hot. But well that's what I went with. The course was awesome. Lots of getting on and off. Lots of good elements. Wicked fun. Gotta thank the Cronoman for the heckling/cheering, it's always good to hear his voice barking at ya.
Hung out with G-ride's kid while he raced in the Men's B race. We went all over the course. Most of the transitions were done with him riding on my shoulders the whole time. So I guess I didn't feel like I got enough leg work because I did all that walking with a not so small 4.5 year old up there. But we had fun. It was good.
Hit a nice spot for dinner with G-Ride and SWD's kids and what not and all and it was good food, fun times and all that. G-ride re-glued the ripped section of the tubbie and it was going to be ready to go for Canton.
Ah canton.
I'll get to that later. Only first to say how awesome it was to hear everyone yelling around the course... "Go Tall guy" and "PUT IT IN THE 12" and "CTodd's right up there" and all there rest. It was super cool... Great crowd there at a wicked tough (and cold) race. Oh and seeing Mikey Z was a highlight. Dude lights up the room (venue) when he shows up. It was just awesome to see him, we've really all been missing him at the races. Did miss the Tall Freak though. Not many other's missed the racing... even Nega-Coach made an appearance, and Il Bruce showed up to check the scene out.
Rode the bike in this morning. Decided knee warmers would be enough. Couldn't find the black cotton cycling cap to stick under the Giro Helmet so I popped on the Specklized lid that doesn't have enough adjustment to fit anything under it and headed in. Kinda cold. 37°F this morning. And windy. That same damn cold wind yesterday was blowin on my face on the way in. Then met up with a McCormick (not a mccormack fortunately - or maybe that would have been better) and well that McC was drilling it and I haven't chatted with him on the path so I was obliged to give up on my silly slow ass ride and drill it. So much for nice and easy. It was okay though. The legs actually responded. And while McC was pounding his big ring I was able to buck the headwind and chill in the little one. Didn't feel too bad. It has been pretty quiet on the path. Either my timing is way off or the regulars I normally see on the path are using alternative modes to get too and from work.
So yeah...
canton... will get to that soon
heddwch
G
Friday, October 17, 2008
so much
for today...
mansfield tomorrow, canton on sunday.
I noticed that the Promoters from Canton feel like giving directions from Fall River, Cape Cod, Points north, Boston, NY, Ontario, Montreal, but not Providence. Not that it is hard to get to, but it would seem judging by a very unscientific survey that more people come from RI than Fall River. I guess, well. Hey, I mentioned it last year maybe, and made some noise about the silly categories they picked to run. But hey. It is their race. In fact both races are rather odd in terms of the categories.
It will be the first trip over to Mansfield. Might be my only CT race outside Dayville maybe in Nov.
Need to get some opening up of the legs on the trainer tonight. A quick lunch time jaunt down to the bike shop of choice in the city (The Hub) left my legs on the way back feeling a bit heavy and odd. Need a good opener tonight. A good solid kick in the pants in prep for tomorrow and sunday...
that or i'll just take a nap...
That and I've worked really hard all week to come up with alternatives besides pasta for dinners. So far everyone's been pretty happy with the food offerings. Tonight. I'm making pasta for me (and them). I could eat pasta every night with all the various sauce recipes floating around in my head and never get tired of it. But I'm not just cooking for me. Tonight it is pasta night. Maybe I can get away with a nice carbonara tonight or tomorrow night and a red sauce the other one... Hmmm cheesey bacony pasta... drooooool...
Oh one other note. It looks like Donnie D has moved the Beer Cross race #1 to a sunday so we can race both at MRC's wrentham race and over in Dayville. Wow. Two weekend with two races all under 60 miles away. Awesome.
If ya make it to the races, save me a beer!
heddwch
G
mansfield tomorrow, canton on sunday.
I noticed that the Promoters from Canton feel like giving directions from Fall River, Cape Cod, Points north, Boston, NY, Ontario, Montreal, but not Providence. Not that it is hard to get to, but it would seem judging by a very unscientific survey that more people come from RI than Fall River. I guess, well. Hey, I mentioned it last year maybe, and made some noise about the silly categories they picked to run. But hey. It is their race. In fact both races are rather odd in terms of the categories.
It will be the first trip over to Mansfield. Might be my only CT race outside Dayville maybe in Nov.
Need to get some opening up of the legs on the trainer tonight. A quick lunch time jaunt down to the bike shop of choice in the city (The Hub) left my legs on the way back feeling a bit heavy and odd. Need a good opener tonight. A good solid kick in the pants in prep for tomorrow and sunday...
that or i'll just take a nap...
That and I've worked really hard all week to come up with alternatives besides pasta for dinners. So far everyone's been pretty happy with the food offerings. Tonight. I'm making pasta for me (and them). I could eat pasta every night with all the various sauce recipes floating around in my head and never get tired of it. But I'm not just cooking for me. Tonight it is pasta night. Maybe I can get away with a nice carbonara tonight or tomorrow night and a red sauce the other one... Hmmm cheesey bacony pasta... drooooool...
Oh one other note. It looks like Donnie D has moved the Beer Cross race #1 to a sunday so we can race both at MRC's wrentham race and over in Dayville. Wow. Two weekend with two races all under 60 miles away. Awesome.
If ya make it to the races, save me a beer!
heddwch
G
Good read of the day
Call it a michigan CPQ... or CQP or PCQ what ever those were...
I do really owe Robert Linden a huge debt of gratitude. He was the one that put something together that was fun and really cool.
Even in the beginning the races were never to be missed. Something for everyone kind of racing. Every venue was unique and different. And they were all hard. I didn't know what the hell i was doing back then but I knew doing it that it was what i wanted to do. Race Cyclocross. First year on a rigid klein adroit running 1.5 contis. Second year I ordered up my Croll. And cross was what counted.
Reading about Mike and Jon and Jeff talk about racing in the Mitten brings back memories. They do really have a kick ass scene there. No it doesn't have the numbers or depth of talent here in New England or over in the Northwest, but they've got Robert Linden and his crew. Not to mention the west side gang at Fun Promotions. Lansing was the place to be. smack dab in the middle of the two hubs GR and Detroit Metro... smack dab in the middle of all the Mt biking in the lower/mid mitten...
It makes me appreciate the scene here in New England. The racers, the friends, the great people. Even that punk ass kid CCC taunting me with coffee, it is good out here.
heddwch
-G
I do really owe Robert Linden a huge debt of gratitude. He was the one that put something together that was fun and really cool.
Even in the beginning the races were never to be missed. Something for everyone kind of racing. Every venue was unique and different. And they were all hard. I didn't know what the hell i was doing back then but I knew doing it that it was what i wanted to do. Race Cyclocross. First year on a rigid klein adroit running 1.5 contis. Second year I ordered up my Croll. And cross was what counted.
Reading about Mike and Jon and Jeff talk about racing in the Mitten brings back memories. They do really have a kick ass scene there. No it doesn't have the numbers or depth of talent here in New England or over in the Northwest, but they've got Robert Linden and his crew. Not to mention the west side gang at Fun Promotions. Lansing was the place to be. smack dab in the middle of the two hubs GR and Detroit Metro... smack dab in the middle of all the Mt biking in the lower/mid mitten...
It makes me appreciate the scene here in New England. The racers, the friends, the great people. Even that punk ass kid CCC taunting me with coffee, it is good out here.
heddwch
-G
I miss you coffee
Every once in a while when I get to the picture factory and change out of the commuting kit, I miss the ritual of walking down the hall, filling up the carafe with water, pulling out a filter, filling it with the wonderful smelling aroma of a fine coffee, and waiting as the dark rich hot liquid is created. Drinking it I don't miss so much. The dependence, the headaches without it. The need for huge volumes of it. I'm actually have somewhat of a trepidation about even just having one cup. Or making a small pot. After almost 20 years of a steadily increasing diet of coffee I'm not sure I can go back to drinking only a small amount. Maybe just limiting myself to an espresso before a race? I haven't even raced cross with caffeine. And if there is a "sport" that you can realized a benefit from caffeine, it is cross, short, intense.
Gloucester - the long version - part 1
Day 1
Really it started with Friday.
Rest and then getting everything ready. All the bike washing destroyed the re-lubed and questionable BB cartridge bearings in the Giant. The cranks were not turning too smoothly.
New bearings, check. Done. Clean all the residual off from the last wet Wrentham training race. Done. Clean, lube chains with the best CX lube on the ‘market.’ Done. Take the Vreds off the back up wheels and put the S Works Baldies on. Done.
Two bikes ready to go. Gear, ready?
Shoes x2 old SIDIs, new specialized
Helmet x2 old Giro, new specialized
Gloves x2 mechanix wear padded gloves, axo team color
Skinsuit x2 long sleeve, short sleeve
Extra socks, PRO bars, Odwalla bars, tubes, trainer, pump, water bottles for trail #3 (pre and post race) and extra water
iPod – charged and ready to go
and this time a towel
last but not least? The orange suit.
All ready for a leisurely 7:40am departure.
I met up with “junior” as the Cronoman calls him, and made the trip up in the geekster, unfortunately only one of my bikes fit inside. I was going with just extra wheels and we were leaving about 20 minutes late.
We got there no problem. Well almost no problem. ‘Junior’ exclaimed as we exited off 128:
“Oh Sh!t”
I replied, “what did you forget…”
“how did you know I forgot something?”
“experience.”
“My skinsuit…”
“I’ve got an extra one, my long sleeve that I’ve been saving for a special race, virginal unused suit.”
“Can I use it?”
“Sure, no problem, it is an XL, should work.”
With the back up team kit covered, we picked up the number, got word that the course was identical to last year. No changes. Not one. No new run up. Same old tough G-ster.
Numbers picked up, fluid drained from bladder.
Time to get the bikes and kit together.
And warm up. And warm up I did. Cyclops/Saris has an array of trainers set up near the start and oh man did I take advantage not only of the newer than my G1 cyclops fluid, but the prime viewing location on the course. I could heckle and yell at all the ¾ masters as they started up the hill. Me with metallica turned up way loud warming up. Mostly though I got 20 minutes of a variable cadence warm up in, No real efforts.
10:45 came and I hopped off the trainer. Swapped rear wheels back to the racing Ralph and took the spares to the pit. I put ~45 psi in the tires and got my gloves, glasses and helmet on.
One last sip of water and Attwood is already calling people to the line. Soups is around, g-ride is hiding in the back. Lego-lord is on my right.
This is a serious bunch but a toga guy says something about this being the fast computer guys not the “fast” guys start position. I try to quote myette’s saying. Then ask him if I got it right.
People are focused.
Official goes through the rules specifically saying “lapped riders WILL be pulled.”
I’m lined up in the second to outer row. Myette is on the far outer row. Whistle blows.
We are off…
In the back of my mind has been the concern of getting lapped. My race predictor has me pretty far down the list. But as silly as it sounds I feel my skills and experience are better suited to the 1/2/3 race instead of the 3/4 race. Still the fear of being lapped was ever present until I started racing. I would honestly rather be in the back half of the 1/2/3 race than the front half of the other race. Call it what you will.
Anyway, I was racing. “Don’t go to hard” but that is still hard enough not to go back too fast. G-ride said he would have caught me by the sea wall super speedway. Nope.
I was going as hard as I could, we were pretty much 3-4 wide going into the right hand turn after the sea wall, it thinned then grew to 2 wide before the barriers. It is actually a remarkable thing. Just how many wide the masters hit each corner on that first lap. Three or four wide taking a turn with one good line but remarkably everyone almost always rode through cleanly. There was a confidence and calm in the group as we raced that first section all packed together.
Then a dismount, shoulder the bike, head up, run through the turn, remount, go.
I avoided getting strangled by the tape this year.
And I kept riding hitting the long straight people gapped me or sat on my wheel. We all rode the sand, powered away and hit the finishing climb.
My climbing Is off this year. But I’m also 5-10# heavier too. And that si how the first three laps felt. Drilling trying to hang, Getting passed, avoiding lots of sketchy riding, crashes, t-bone tubular rolling.
Then G-ride (jerry Chabot dot com) up and catches me on the back straight on lap 3 or 4 and then jumps clear and the stuffing fell out of me. Three laps of intensity is what I had. Then Tom Steamboat Stevens caught me and I started trying to read and ride his lines. He is big and I found myself able to ride his lines. Crossed the line bell lap. “Hey I’m not getting lapped” uh oh. Not getting lapped means: just ride it into the finish. Even Matt Hersey who was having no so great a day with his bike. We caught me and that was it. I became the last rider on the lead lap. Not scored DFL. But hey it was what I had. Someone (colin? Eyebob?) said there was a big crowd behind me. I had noticed the crowd. It is the crowd you don’t want to see. The guys wearing jackets all pre-riding were catching me. I almost laughed but I was in too much pain. Body was not happy.
I didn’t get lapped. That was COOL!
And that is where this part of the long hand transcribed story must pause.
Up next. Beer, Sunburn, Rock.
And day 2
Really it started with Friday.
Rest and then getting everything ready. All the bike washing destroyed the re-lubed and questionable BB cartridge bearings in the Giant. The cranks were not turning too smoothly.
New bearings, check. Done. Clean all the residual off from the last wet Wrentham training race. Done. Clean, lube chains with the best CX lube on the ‘market.’ Done. Take the Vreds off the back up wheels and put the S Works Baldies on. Done.
Two bikes ready to go. Gear, ready?
Shoes x2 old SIDIs, new specialized
Helmet x2 old Giro, new specialized
Gloves x2 mechanix wear padded gloves, axo team color
Skinsuit x2 long sleeve, short sleeve
Extra socks, PRO bars, Odwalla bars, tubes, trainer, pump, water bottles for trail #3 (pre and post race) and extra water
iPod – charged and ready to go
and this time a towel
last but not least? The orange suit.
All ready for a leisurely 7:40am departure.
I met up with “junior” as the Cronoman calls him, and made the trip up in the geekster, unfortunately only one of my bikes fit inside. I was going with just extra wheels and we were leaving about 20 minutes late.
We got there no problem. Well almost no problem. ‘Junior’ exclaimed as we exited off 128:
“Oh Sh!t”
I replied, “what did you forget…”
“how did you know I forgot something?”
“experience.”
“My skinsuit…”
“I’ve got an extra one, my long sleeve that I’ve been saving for a special race, virginal unused suit.”
“Can I use it?”
“Sure, no problem, it is an XL, should work.”
With the back up team kit covered, we picked up the number, got word that the course was identical to last year. No changes. Not one. No new run up. Same old tough G-ster.
Numbers picked up, fluid drained from bladder.
Time to get the bikes and kit together.
And warm up. And warm up I did. Cyclops/Saris has an array of trainers set up near the start and oh man did I take advantage not only of the newer than my G1 cyclops fluid, but the prime viewing location on the course. I could heckle and yell at all the ¾ masters as they started up the hill. Me with metallica turned up way loud warming up. Mostly though I got 20 minutes of a variable cadence warm up in, No real efforts.
10:45 came and I hopped off the trainer. Swapped rear wheels back to the racing Ralph and took the spares to the pit. I put ~45 psi in the tires and got my gloves, glasses and helmet on.
One last sip of water and Attwood is already calling people to the line. Soups is around, g-ride is hiding in the back. Lego-lord is on my right.
This is a serious bunch but a toga guy says something about this being the fast computer guys not the “fast” guys start position. I try to quote myette’s saying. Then ask him if I got it right.
People are focused.
Official goes through the rules specifically saying “lapped riders WILL be pulled.”
I’m lined up in the second to outer row. Myette is on the far outer row. Whistle blows.
We are off…
In the back of my mind has been the concern of getting lapped. My race predictor has me pretty far down the list. But as silly as it sounds I feel my skills and experience are better suited to the 1/2/3 race instead of the 3/4 race. Still the fear of being lapped was ever present until I started racing. I would honestly rather be in the back half of the 1/2/3 race than the front half of the other race. Call it what you will.
Anyway, I was racing. “Don’t go to hard” but that is still hard enough not to go back too fast. G-ride said he would have caught me by the sea wall super speedway. Nope.
I was going as hard as I could, we were pretty much 3-4 wide going into the right hand turn after the sea wall, it thinned then grew to 2 wide before the barriers. It is actually a remarkable thing. Just how many wide the masters hit each corner on that first lap. Three or four wide taking a turn with one good line but remarkably everyone almost always rode through cleanly. There was a confidence and calm in the group as we raced that first section all packed together.
Then a dismount, shoulder the bike, head up, run through the turn, remount, go.
I avoided getting strangled by the tape this year.
And I kept riding hitting the long straight people gapped me or sat on my wheel. We all rode the sand, powered away and hit the finishing climb.
My climbing Is off this year. But I’m also 5-10# heavier too. And that si how the first three laps felt. Drilling trying to hang, Getting passed, avoiding lots of sketchy riding, crashes, t-bone tubular rolling.
Then G-ride (jerry Chabot dot com) up and catches me on the back straight on lap 3 or 4 and then jumps clear and the stuffing fell out of me. Three laps of intensity is what I had. Then Tom Steamboat Stevens caught me and I started trying to read and ride his lines. He is big and I found myself able to ride his lines. Crossed the line bell lap. “Hey I’m not getting lapped” uh oh. Not getting lapped means: just ride it into the finish. Even Matt Hersey who was having no so great a day with his bike. We caught me and that was it. I became the last rider on the lead lap. Not scored DFL. But hey it was what I had. Someone (colin? Eyebob?) said there was a big crowd behind me. I had noticed the crowd. It is the crowd you don’t want to see. The guys wearing jackets all pre-riding were catching me. I almost laughed but I was in too much pain. Body was not happy.
I didn’t get lapped. That was COOL!
And that is where this part of the long hand transcribed story must pause.
Up next. Beer, Sunburn, Rock.
And day 2
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Talk about a good read
This one. First the Beer. Then the race report from G-ster. Nice write up adam... nice.
morning joke
Monkeys and the market
And who says it is hard to understand.....
Once upon a time in a place overrun with monkeys, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.
The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them.
The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish, they became harder to catch, so the villagers stopped their effort.
The man then announced that he would now pay $20 for each one. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. But soon the supply diminished even further and they were ever harder to catch,
so people started going back to their farms and forgot about monkey catching.
The man increased his price to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so sparse that it was an effort to even see a monkey, much less catch one.
The man now announced that he would buy monkeys for $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on his behalf.
While the man was away the assistant told the villagers. "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has bought. I will sell them to you at $35 each and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him
for $50 each."
The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys.
They never saw the man nor his assistant again and once again there were monkeys everywhere.
Now you have a better understanding of how the stock market works.
(thanks lee)
And who says it is hard to understand.....
Once upon a time in a place overrun with monkeys, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.
The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them.
The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish, they became harder to catch, so the villagers stopped their effort.
The man then announced that he would now pay $20 for each one. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. But soon the supply diminished even further and they were ever harder to catch,
so people started going back to their farms and forgot about monkey catching.
The man increased his price to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so sparse that it was an effort to even see a monkey, much less catch one.
The man now announced that he would buy monkeys for $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on his behalf.
While the man was away the assistant told the villagers. "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has bought. I will sell them to you at $35 each and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him
for $50 each."
The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys.
They never saw the man nor his assistant again and once again there were monkeys everywhere.
Now you have a better understanding of how the stock market works.
(thanks lee)
It has started again
What has?
The bombing. Only on the southern stretch for the moment.
But those flying rat bastards are at it again.
The bombing. Only on the southern stretch for the moment.
But those flying rat bastards are at it again.
morning thoughts
nice and warm ride in. first time on the bike since Jamestown... and I just took it easy, not too slow, but mellow. No music in the head this morning. Other thoughts. Bouncing around. Revisiting G-ster in my head.
Oh and what's up with all these "bike swaps"? They all sound more like bike yard sales. or bike flea markets. pay $ for a table, sell your stuff. Doesn't swap sort of imply trading and a somewhat communistic free-for-all? If you pay for a table then you hopefully will sell crap. Less inclined to just straight up trade stuff. Sure you can get value out of a trade. So maybe it isn't a huge deal. Just seems odd to me. Calling it a swap and charging for table space. *shrug* And heck oftn most of the "table" space is actually just part of a parking lot, you gotta bring your own table and tent if you need it.
That debate thing was on again last night. More talking points from McCain, lots of them, and lots of disagreements on "facts" between the two. McCain never refuted the lack of a tax break for the middle class. But kept harping on Obama being a tax and spend democrat. But wait. That's not what Obama said countless times. McCain did that goofy I'm gonna write with a sharpie in a yellow legal pad to make me look all smart and stuff. Wait. He's not smart enough to remember shit from one second to another. No wonder he has to write it all down.
Anyone write in a yellow legal pad with a black fat tip sharpie? Anyone? Ya know what happens? It bleeds all the way through. You could see all the bleed through by about 10pm with countless pages flipped up and folded under. Man talk about a fidget midget. Dude was on some solid meds not to go apeshit. He didn't do a good job of hiding his brash side though.
At some point in the debate I flipped over to "the american experience" on PBS. Actually I was kind of shocked they didn't have the debate coverage. But then FOX had a baseball game on so who knows what the heck that was about. The topic was Jimmy Carter. Man that guy started off sounding pretty awesome. But one thing sort of made me really draw a parallel to now.
Jimmy was an outsider. He brought in lots of "outsiders" into washington and it all backfired. Crazily. Brilliant man. No doubt. One of the most active and amazing ex-presidents with all that he has done and continues doing. Heck he went into the White House with a goal and a mission to change the perception of the Democratic party from a tax and spend fiscally unrestrained party into a Fiscally conservative party. The republicans at that point were well on their way to being Fiscally Radical (cut taxes and increase spending). George W Bush went as far as cutting taxes and increasing spending AND doing the one thing he campaigned against 8 years ago that won him broad support in the red states, he grew the size of government. Anyway. I came away with just the few bits and pieces of watching the show with a renewed respect for Carter, and a hope that maybe if Obama gets elected that he can learn from the lessons and mistakes that Jimmy made.
One quote out of the show goes something like this:
"You can run against Washington, but you have to live there, you have to govern there, you have to understand how it works, and you have to work with the people that are already there."
You have to know how to work the legislature. Jimmy was up against Tip O'Neal and a core of old well entrenched liberal folks who didn't want to cut their projects or funding. Anyway, we all know how many terms Carter served. Maybe in small part to the early year of his presidency. I missed the last part of the show when they presumable talked about the other stuff that happened that lead to the most Fiscally radical president being elected (well up until that point).
McCain couldn't have picked a running mate that knows less about how Washington works. And the early round of interviews shows she really isn't a quick learner either. We're screwed if something happens to McCain in office. And as old as he is and as prone to anger and what not as he appears to be, well. Can't rule anything out.
I got the feeling that you can't really send someone there who doesn't know how it works. We've had 16 years of presidents who may have had great advisors who knew how it worked there but they personally didn't have the level of experience that Obama and Biden bring to the table.
Heck McCain went off to say that his running mate knows all about the struggles of special needs parents. Um. How old is Trigonometry? Less than a year, right? Or even if he's a year, you can't count these last few months since she was rigorously interviewed, can you? Is she ever holding her kid? Seriously. Yeah she know exactly how the special needs parents feel. She's been through all of their struggles. Um. Yeah. That's a strong point to make McCain. Sort of like saying she knows how to deal with teen pregnancy and has a strong record of family values and all that. But, wait. Her oldest daughter is doing the same thing she did. Yeah. Some good core fundamental education going on there.
I'm tired of hearing "Let me just say..." open a response. Um hello, you were given the oportunity to speak by the moderator, why do you need to start with that? Another crutch? Dude you are getting killed here. Stop with the talking points and actually debate ya crazy old man. That's what the guy sitting at the other side of the table is doing, and doing well. You're just looking like a crazy old man with your big black sharpie and the 30 pages folded under your note pad. Hell I wonder if he used up all the pages. I even had the silly idea of 'mocking' up what he was writing. Would be funny to do. But then SNL probably will do it tonight at 9 i'm guessing.
One last thing, then I'll stop with the politics (for a moment).
This kid who knocked up Palin's daughter, well based on this: "The baby is due on December 18. Johnston has left school to take a job on the North Slope oil fields as an apprentice electrician." one quote I came across the other day seems to fit quite well:
"You either work really hard for the next 4 years in high school or you work really hard for the next 40 years of your life."
Dropping out of highschool. Sure, an electrician on an oil field probably makes decent money. Maybe more than I do, but what happens if there is no work? He'll have no high school diploma, no education to compete with. What then? Ah heck, what does it matter. Things will happen as they happen.
But man, do I hope the train wreck of i'm dumb enough to be president ends soon, the last thing we need is another president from the bottom of his class. At least the last one picked a wicked shrewed and evil genius as a VP, not one who took 6 years and 5 schools to get a journalism degree... yikes...
Oh and dinner last night was awesome. One of those shoot from the hip and be amazed at the flavors that come out. Super creamy wicked yummy mashed potatoes (boil some copped red skin potatoes in salted water, toss in two cloves of garlic, when cooked drain the water out, add butter mash, add a splash of milk and gently blend- mmmm tasty), some sauteed carrots (cross sections of a bunch of carrots, a bit of onion in olive oil EVOO of course, some thyme in there with the oil and onion, add some shoyu sauce when you add the carrots to the pan and cook, toss a tiny splash of sesame oil in and more soysauce after you turn the heat off before serving), and some steak with a wicked simple sauce that although simple defies (listing like this). Maybe later, at lunch or something.
heddwch
G
Damn it, now i'm hungry
Oh and what's up with all these "bike swaps"? They all sound more like bike yard sales. or bike flea markets. pay $ for a table, sell your stuff. Doesn't swap sort of imply trading and a somewhat communistic free-for-all? If you pay for a table then you hopefully will sell crap. Less inclined to just straight up trade stuff. Sure you can get value out of a trade. So maybe it isn't a huge deal. Just seems odd to me. Calling it a swap and charging for table space. *shrug* And heck oftn most of the "table" space is actually just part of a parking lot, you gotta bring your own table and tent if you need it.
That debate thing was on again last night. More talking points from McCain, lots of them, and lots of disagreements on "facts" between the two. McCain never refuted the lack of a tax break for the middle class. But kept harping on Obama being a tax and spend democrat. But wait. That's not what Obama said countless times. McCain did that goofy I'm gonna write with a sharpie in a yellow legal pad to make me look all smart and stuff. Wait. He's not smart enough to remember shit from one second to another. No wonder he has to write it all down.
Anyone write in a yellow legal pad with a black fat tip sharpie? Anyone? Ya know what happens? It bleeds all the way through. You could see all the bleed through by about 10pm with countless pages flipped up and folded under. Man talk about a fidget midget. Dude was on some solid meds not to go apeshit. He didn't do a good job of hiding his brash side though.
At some point in the debate I flipped over to "the american experience" on PBS. Actually I was kind of shocked they didn't have the debate coverage. But then FOX had a baseball game on so who knows what the heck that was about. The topic was Jimmy Carter. Man that guy started off sounding pretty awesome. But one thing sort of made me really draw a parallel to now.
Jimmy was an outsider. He brought in lots of "outsiders" into washington and it all backfired. Crazily. Brilliant man. No doubt. One of the most active and amazing ex-presidents with all that he has done and continues doing. Heck he went into the White House with a goal and a mission to change the perception of the Democratic party from a tax and spend fiscally unrestrained party into a Fiscally conservative party. The republicans at that point were well on their way to being Fiscally Radical (cut taxes and increase spending). George W Bush went as far as cutting taxes and increasing spending AND doing the one thing he campaigned against 8 years ago that won him broad support in the red states, he grew the size of government. Anyway. I came away with just the few bits and pieces of watching the show with a renewed respect for Carter, and a hope that maybe if Obama gets elected that he can learn from the lessons and mistakes that Jimmy made.
One quote out of the show goes something like this:
"You can run against Washington, but you have to live there, you have to govern there, you have to understand how it works, and you have to work with the people that are already there."
You have to know how to work the legislature. Jimmy was up against Tip O'Neal and a core of old well entrenched liberal folks who didn't want to cut their projects or funding. Anyway, we all know how many terms Carter served. Maybe in small part to the early year of his presidency. I missed the last part of the show when they presumable talked about the other stuff that happened that lead to the most Fiscally radical president being elected (well up until that point).
McCain couldn't have picked a running mate that knows less about how Washington works. And the early round of interviews shows she really isn't a quick learner either. We're screwed if something happens to McCain in office. And as old as he is and as prone to anger and what not as he appears to be, well. Can't rule anything out.
I got the feeling that you can't really send someone there who doesn't know how it works. We've had 16 years of presidents who may have had great advisors who knew how it worked there but they personally didn't have the level of experience that Obama and Biden bring to the table.
Heck McCain went off to say that his running mate knows all about the struggles of special needs parents. Um. How old is Trigonometry? Less than a year, right? Or even if he's a year, you can't count these last few months since she was rigorously interviewed, can you? Is she ever holding her kid? Seriously. Yeah she know exactly how the special needs parents feel. She's been through all of their struggles. Um. Yeah. That's a strong point to make McCain. Sort of like saying she knows how to deal with teen pregnancy and has a strong record of family values and all that. But, wait. Her oldest daughter is doing the same thing she did. Yeah. Some good core fundamental education going on there.
I'm tired of hearing "Let me just say..." open a response. Um hello, you were given the oportunity to speak by the moderator, why do you need to start with that? Another crutch? Dude you are getting killed here. Stop with the talking points and actually debate ya crazy old man. That's what the guy sitting at the other side of the table is doing, and doing well. You're just looking like a crazy old man with your big black sharpie and the 30 pages folded under your note pad. Hell I wonder if he used up all the pages. I even had the silly idea of 'mocking' up what he was writing. Would be funny to do. But then SNL probably will do it tonight at 9 i'm guessing.
One last thing, then I'll stop with the politics (for a moment).
This kid who knocked up Palin's daughter, well based on this: "The baby is due on December 18. Johnston has left school to take a job on the North Slope oil fields as an apprentice electrician." one quote I came across the other day seems to fit quite well:
"You either work really hard for the next 4 years in high school or you work really hard for the next 40 years of your life."
Dropping out of highschool. Sure, an electrician on an oil field probably makes decent money. Maybe more than I do, but what happens if there is no work? He'll have no high school diploma, no education to compete with. What then? Ah heck, what does it matter. Things will happen as they happen.
But man, do I hope the train wreck of i'm dumb enough to be president ends soon, the last thing we need is another president from the bottom of his class. At least the last one picked a wicked shrewed and evil genius as a VP, not one who took 6 years and 5 schools to get a journalism degree... yikes...
Oh and dinner last night was awesome. One of those shoot from the hip and be amazed at the flavors that come out. Super creamy wicked yummy mashed potatoes (boil some copped red skin potatoes in salted water, toss in two cloves of garlic, when cooked drain the water out, add butter mash, add a splash of milk and gently blend- mmmm tasty), some sauteed carrots (cross sections of a bunch of carrots, a bit of onion in olive oil EVOO of course, some thyme in there with the oil and onion, add some shoyu sauce when you add the carrots to the pan and cook, toss a tiny splash of sesame oil in and more soysauce after you turn the heat off before serving), and some steak with a wicked simple sauce that although simple defies (listing like this). Maybe later, at lunch or something.
heddwch
G
Damn it, now i'm hungry
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