Happy New Year! Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!
Good by you crazy decade. 1999 I wasn't a father, I'd had a job out of grad school for 6 months, I had cable and HBO and I hadn't gotten fat from the commute in the car yet.
So much has changed in that decade that has passed. Instead of being close to 30, now, scarily I'm close to 40. Where has the time gone?
No what ifs. No purpose.
We rang in the new year watching Julie and Julia, well not quite rang in. I made an Italian Bean and Pasta soup out of a Christmas present cookbook. My oldest worked on an illustration for a party menu we're having on the 2nd (doll party) and the youngest wanted more and more and more food. A hungry little bird.
I was cleaning up a bit, finishing the last of the second bottle of Harpoon's Ginger Wheat, and thinking, Food. Food does get me excited still, cooking it, eating it, thinking about cooking it. You can but you can't over think food. You can over think pulling a turbo. You either pull it or you don't. Cooking has many more options and few absolute single ways to do something. It isn't like pulling an intake manifold then oil lines and finally the three bolts holding the turbo to the exhaust manifold. No, it isn't.
And no, I'm not prepared to make any promises about this thing here. This outlet. But it is hard not to think about it again after watching a movie about a popular food blogger gone famous/successful. esp since I'm reading the David Byrne book that I got as a present. And of course I didn't know until reading the book that he had a blog: http://journal.davidbyrne.com/. Good kind of pressure to clean up this mess around here. Focus a little more. Be more like solobreak with stories that have beginnings middles and ends. But then those don't always work out well. I could work on actually writing the incomplete reports. Nationals, NBX, and did I ever get around to writing about Sterling?
Life goes on. Time to write seems to be harder and harder to come by. Distractions and obligations, more of the latter than the former fortunately I suppose.
Time slips past. The new year is a time to reflect. Looking for the positive, I've been hanging around this damn planet for nearly four decades, a trifle to some, eons to others, yet I still envy those with the easy and free grasp on a perpetually positive outlook.
Make this next decade positive. Make a difference some how. Stand up and be someone.
Life is short... Patience shouldn't be...
Peace. Heddwch.
Happy New Year. Blwyddyn Newydd Dda.
-GeWilli
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Sitting in the sun
Here in the window is nice, but the temps still are pretty damn cold out there. I guess it means taking the turbo off tomorrow once it warms up a little more, I need that B50 in the passat to warm up a bit before trying to start and move the car onto the ramps for a few days. But I will get out there and hit all the bits with another round of PB Blaster.
The output shaft connector on the log splitter was pretty well rusted in there and man the MAP gas did a number on it. Pretty damn cool. Not going to try and take the studs out without it. The used Downpipe I bought from Peter at TDIParts.com is in perfect shape. Not a hint of rust on it, should be good for a good long time. The new studs are coated and will make the next swap of what ever parts easy and painless.
Time to unpack the bike and put it together. Going to have to go on a beer run and find some more of that Harpoon Ginger Wheat. It is an amazing beer. And yes, I love me some ginger, and ginger beer? Not ginger ale, or the NA ginger beer stuff, this is a beer and man is it good.
The output shaft connector on the log splitter was pretty well rusted in there and man the MAP gas did a number on it. Pretty damn cool. Not going to try and take the studs out without it. The used Downpipe I bought from Peter at TDIParts.com is in perfect shape. Not a hint of rust on it, should be good for a good long time. The new studs are coated and will make the next swap of what ever parts easy and painless.
Time to unpack the bike and put it together. Going to have to go on a beer run and find some more of that Harpoon Ginger Wheat. It is an amazing beer. And yes, I love me some ginger, and ginger beer? Not ginger ale, or the NA ginger beer stuff, this is a beer and man is it good.
some post season introspection
So it is the time of year to figure out what to do next year. How to approach the year in a way to bust into the top 50% of the Elite Masters field in New England. A super tall order for me based on my history but I am starting to find maybe a touch of confidence in my riding that hasn’t really been there before. My tacit success at following the plan, the program ‘my coach’ laid out for me for cyclocross season helped me realize that I can stick to a plan and I can realize results from discipline and hard work. I knew that was possible but well actually following through and making it work are different things.
I moved the computer out of the living room area to get a few minutes w/o project runway disrupting the thought pattern and Lucy followed me right out. She hasn’t been more than 5 feet away from me when I’ve been home over vacation.
Finding the secrets to improve on this year w/o professional assistance probably won’t be easy, hell might not even be possible. I can’t afford a coach like Todd Harriot, who even despite the drunken insanity, impressed me to the point I have lots of respect for him as THE money is no object coach. But flying to Seattle for sessions and buying power cranks and power meters and whatever else his clients need to have aren’t in this year’s budget. Heck even the three coaches I know the most people using around here, Al, Adam and Kurt, are out of my league, even though I know they could probably do what needs to be done to get me where I want to be. Yeah I’m pining for a real coach. My coach doesn’t really know what the hell he’s doing, even though he thought he did a while ago. Maybe that’s progress.
Talk about what to do, junk miles, quality vs quantity, 6 hours of base or it is pointless comments got me thinking, and actually not I a positive direction. My first priority is to get to work, and I can’t stand to drive and park and move the car and deal with the traffic and the people. My productivity goes down when I drive. I NEED to ride to work. Not a negotiable part of the training plan. On one side riding to work is great base/maintenance for the muscles. Great Glen showed me that I can ride for 24 hours with no sleep and no physical issues while everyone fell apart around me. Or mostly just G-ride falling apart I guess, yeah I’m still pissed about that assbag not going out for a double that night. Anyway, somehow I have to work out what to do when and get it done.
Thompson speedway was the first hit. That teaser high quality stuff of what could be. It was fun. Sitting there playing around, racing, then exploding at the end. Good thing the spoke broke probably, keeping hungry. Fall River kind of sucked but it was a pivotal moment where I realized I could stick that bike at any speed in any hole and confidently hit a corner. That was my kryptonite in the past. In college I rode an 18mm front and a 20mm rear tire at 140 and 130 psi respectively. No wonder I had zero cornering confidence. But I could freaking go up a hill being 165 pounds. Things are different now. I’m old, I’m fat(ter), and actually probably hit Bend in better shape than any other time of my life. Given the obstacles, no sleep, awake for 24 hours, bad start position, poor ss gear choice, crashes in the age group race, I feel it was a success. Sure by any other measure (results) I suck. I’m pack fill. But I hope I can build on this year for next. I’m not a natural athlete like most of the guys in the field, I’ve never seen athletic success. And yeah I go back to this a lot. My albatross, mentally screwing me over possibly, but on one hand I have to acknowledge it so I can work with it and focus on maybe overcoming it.
Introspection galore, broken record. Same stuff I’ve been saying for years I guess. How to make it work? How to have success racing as a build towards cyclocross 2010? Is it enough to toss in one morning of intervals on the trainer and then do a ninigret crit now and then? Is that loose enough of a focus to have fun but still work on the build? Last three years I’ve had the grandious and retarded notion of doing Battenkill. That’s a joke for me. I’m just too big to overcome myself to survive in a race like that. I’ve done it. I’ve seen the countryside there. It isn’t special anymore. And I have not been able to realize or measure the benefits on cyclocross season. I still want to head out and ride with the team on the weekend if I can, I’m not planning on changing that side of it but hopefully working on short intervals and then getting some flat crits in may help establish more fitness than in the past. My old tech mt bikes aren’t letting me have much fun racing in the dirt. I know I know, a bike is a bike and I’ve got a nice 26” hard tail. So it only has maybe an inch and a half of travel, people are racing rigid, I know I should be able to have some success. I could probably go and dominate the fatguy/Clydesdale category but it would feel a bit hollow. We don’t seem to have the level of fat guys that were at Bend. And really I had fun racing crits. Me. Had fun at a Crit. I may still pull out the bike for the King of Burlingame. That’s a fun course in a way. I’d like to try and not lose so much time on that first section. Maybe I can get out and figure out the lines on there before race day for a change.
I know I’m not making any resolutions right now. I haven’t looked to see if there is a calendar up yet. Haven’t thought about planning beyond wanting to hit phase 3 a month or two earlier in cross season. I feel maybe I can carry phase 5 more than a week or two. Really want to be able to carry phase 5 level build for a solid month, it might be unrealistic to carry it longer than that, but I think given how I was riding in phase 4 that shouldn’t be a problem. And maybe just re-adjusting my plan from this year by two months will give me what I need to find some success.
I haven’t ridden my bike since the morning of the 23rd. I haven’t really thought about riding it since then. The weather has helped a good deal (being so cold). And I’ve just been trying to catch up on the whole lack of sleep from Bend. Not as in just be functional with coffee awake but actually recover and build a bit more sleep reserve, not so much have a reserve as not be in debt. I’m pretty close to being able to start the New Year fully rested despite the best efforts of the dog.
So, unless there is a real coach wants to work for advertising I’m stuck with my current coach, I’m stuck with me. Which really probably is all I deserve or need, heck is there a coach out there who can work with a client that doesn’t have HR or Power numbers for a workout? Probably not. Probably not. This isn’t helping my mood the way I thought it would. I’m not any more excited about the season or the plan than I was when I started. But at least it is all out of my head now. Okay that’s not totally true, I’m excited to hit the flat crits this spring and summer. I don’t know how many I’ll get to but hopefully enough that my fitness is benefitted and I can do more than just sit in and ride around in the draft until the end of the race. My big stretch goals: cat 3 road and cat 2 cross for the year. That’s the goal, the hope, the plan. Let’s see what the seasons here in New England bring.
heddwch
G
I moved the computer out of the living room area to get a few minutes w/o project runway disrupting the thought pattern and Lucy followed me right out. She hasn’t been more than 5 feet away from me when I’ve been home over vacation.
Finding the secrets to improve on this year w/o professional assistance probably won’t be easy, hell might not even be possible. I can’t afford a coach like Todd Harriot, who even despite the drunken insanity, impressed me to the point I have lots of respect for him as THE money is no object coach. But flying to Seattle for sessions and buying power cranks and power meters and whatever else his clients need to have aren’t in this year’s budget. Heck even the three coaches I know the most people using around here, Al, Adam and Kurt, are out of my league, even though I know they could probably do what needs to be done to get me where I want to be. Yeah I’m pining for a real coach. My coach doesn’t really know what the hell he’s doing, even though he thought he did a while ago. Maybe that’s progress.
Talk about what to do, junk miles, quality vs quantity, 6 hours of base or it is pointless comments got me thinking, and actually not I a positive direction. My first priority is to get to work, and I can’t stand to drive and park and move the car and deal with the traffic and the people. My productivity goes down when I drive. I NEED to ride to work. Not a negotiable part of the training plan. On one side riding to work is great base/maintenance for the muscles. Great Glen showed me that I can ride for 24 hours with no sleep and no physical issues while everyone fell apart around me. Or mostly just G-ride falling apart I guess, yeah I’m still pissed about that assbag not going out for a double that night. Anyway, somehow I have to work out what to do when and get it done.
Thompson speedway was the first hit. That teaser high quality stuff of what could be. It was fun. Sitting there playing around, racing, then exploding at the end. Good thing the spoke broke probably, keeping hungry. Fall River kind of sucked but it was a pivotal moment where I realized I could stick that bike at any speed in any hole and confidently hit a corner. That was my kryptonite in the past. In college I rode an 18mm front and a 20mm rear tire at 140 and 130 psi respectively. No wonder I had zero cornering confidence. But I could freaking go up a hill being 165 pounds. Things are different now. I’m old, I’m fat(ter), and actually probably hit Bend in better shape than any other time of my life. Given the obstacles, no sleep, awake for 24 hours, bad start position, poor ss gear choice, crashes in the age group race, I feel it was a success. Sure by any other measure (results) I suck. I’m pack fill. But I hope I can build on this year for next. I’m not a natural athlete like most of the guys in the field, I’ve never seen athletic success. And yeah I go back to this a lot. My albatross, mentally screwing me over possibly, but on one hand I have to acknowledge it so I can work with it and focus on maybe overcoming it.
Introspection galore, broken record. Same stuff I’ve been saying for years I guess. How to make it work? How to have success racing as a build towards cyclocross 2010? Is it enough to toss in one morning of intervals on the trainer and then do a ninigret crit now and then? Is that loose enough of a focus to have fun but still work on the build? Last three years I’ve had the grandious and retarded notion of doing Battenkill. That’s a joke for me. I’m just too big to overcome myself to survive in a race like that. I’ve done it. I’ve seen the countryside there. It isn’t special anymore. And I have not been able to realize or measure the benefits on cyclocross season. I still want to head out and ride with the team on the weekend if I can, I’m not planning on changing that side of it but hopefully working on short intervals and then getting some flat crits in may help establish more fitness than in the past. My old tech mt bikes aren’t letting me have much fun racing in the dirt. I know I know, a bike is a bike and I’ve got a nice 26” hard tail. So it only has maybe an inch and a half of travel, people are racing rigid, I know I should be able to have some success. I could probably go and dominate the fatguy/Clydesdale category but it would feel a bit hollow. We don’t seem to have the level of fat guys that were at Bend. And really I had fun racing crits. Me. Had fun at a Crit. I may still pull out the bike for the King of Burlingame. That’s a fun course in a way. I’d like to try and not lose so much time on that first section. Maybe I can get out and figure out the lines on there before race day for a change.
I know I’m not making any resolutions right now. I haven’t looked to see if there is a calendar up yet. Haven’t thought about planning beyond wanting to hit phase 3 a month or two earlier in cross season. I feel maybe I can carry phase 5 more than a week or two. Really want to be able to carry phase 5 level build for a solid month, it might be unrealistic to carry it longer than that, but I think given how I was riding in phase 4 that shouldn’t be a problem. And maybe just re-adjusting my plan from this year by two months will give me what I need to find some success.
I haven’t ridden my bike since the morning of the 23rd. I haven’t really thought about riding it since then. The weather has helped a good deal (being so cold). And I’ve just been trying to catch up on the whole lack of sleep from Bend. Not as in just be functional with coffee awake but actually recover and build a bit more sleep reserve, not so much have a reserve as not be in debt. I’m pretty close to being able to start the New Year fully rested despite the best efforts of the dog.
So, unless there is a real coach wants to work for advertising I’m stuck with my current coach, I’m stuck with me. Which really probably is all I deserve or need, heck is there a coach out there who can work with a client that doesn’t have HR or Power numbers for a workout? Probably not. Probably not. This isn’t helping my mood the way I thought it would. I’m not any more excited about the season or the plan than I was when I started. But at least it is all out of my head now. Okay that’s not totally true, I’m excited to hit the flat crits this spring and summer. I don’t know how many I’ll get to but hopefully enough that my fitness is benefitted and I can do more than just sit in and ride around in the draft until the end of the race. My big stretch goals: cat 3 road and cat 2 cross for the year. That’s the goal, the hope, the plan. Let’s see what the seasons here in New England bring.
heddwch
G
Monday, December 28, 2009
Monday Morning
That limbo space between Christmas and the New Year. Time we've usually spent traveling or in the case of last year chopping lots of wood and being house bound with amazing snow/ice. (panic flashes about trying to drive down to the store and nearly wrecking the car even with chains on).
Schedules are all off - the kids have transitioned into sleeping late and staying up late - Dog still wants to get up and be fed between 6 and 6:30 am.
It is pizza night tonight. Nice social and relaxed time. The holidays are good to spend with family.
I may even unpack the bike, if we get the log splitter running.
Schedules are all off - the kids have transitioned into sleeping late and staying up late - Dog still wants to get up and be fed between 6 and 6:30 am.
It is pizza night tonight. Nice social and relaxed time. The holidays are good to spend with family.
I may even unpack the bike, if we get the log splitter running.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Nadolig Llawen
I trust everyone had a Nadolig Llawen yesterday. We had a great day here - white christmas again this year. Santa did a great job, found the house even for the first time ever.
It was the first christmas morning to be just the four of us here at our house. First time not in Seattle or Virginia. Pretty cool stuff.
I still haven't unpacked the bike. Yeah, I really should I suppose. But after I play a game or two of scrabble with the oldest. Hoping to get over to my brother's and install the new motor and hydros on the old log splitter. Might be enough sweat equity to get a load of wood so we can stop burning Coffee logs in the fire place. Lucy ate part of one of the logs while we were all at Christmas Mass. Pretty funny she had her normal guilty smirk but a wicked twitchy and hyper side to go with it. No wonder - eating coffee grounds in wax can't be all that good. She survived though, back to normal before the day was out.
Really looking forward to this week. A week off, AT HOME. No traveling. Just being here. Hopefully the weather stays dry and I can get the car fixed. Have to pull the turbo then re-install it and put the new exhaust in. Not a big deal, just need to get it done.
The snow is melting, i hope it keeps disappearing it will be nice to have the bike path clear on the 4th.
heddwch
G
Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!
It was the first christmas morning to be just the four of us here at our house. First time not in Seattle or Virginia. Pretty cool stuff.
I still haven't unpacked the bike. Yeah, I really should I suppose. But after I play a game or two of scrabble with the oldest. Hoping to get over to my brother's and install the new motor and hydros on the old log splitter. Might be enough sweat equity to get a load of wood so we can stop burning Coffee logs in the fire place. Lucy ate part of one of the logs while we were all at Christmas Mass. Pretty funny she had her normal guilty smirk but a wicked twitchy and hyper side to go with it. No wonder - eating coffee grounds in wax can't be all that good. She survived though, back to normal before the day was out.
Really looking forward to this week. A week off, AT HOME. No traveling. Just being here. Hopefully the weather stays dry and I can get the car fixed. Have to pull the turbo then re-install it and put the new exhaust in. Not a big deal, just need to get it done.
The snow is melting, i hope it keeps disappearing it will be nice to have the bike path clear on the 4th.
heddwch
G
Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
how did i miss this one
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/5797855/
That is so far the BEST xtranormal ever... that battenkill one going around is wicked lame, and from a quick scan/sampling of the whole internet this morning it seems that most people going haven't gone before. Battenkill will be a total newbie fest of flats and getting dropped.
anyway - that is the best thing it seems i missed while on internet blackout at nats... next time i just have to bring my own damn computer to natz i suppose...
That is so far the BEST xtranormal ever... that battenkill one going around is wicked lame, and from a quick scan/sampling of the whole internet this morning it seems that most people going haven't gone before. Battenkill will be a total newbie fest of flats and getting dropped.
anyway - that is the best thing it seems i missed while on internet blackout at nats... next time i just have to bring my own damn computer to natz i suppose...
Idiots
Yeah. Me, mr. harsh overstated reactionary labeler of people/products and stuff.
But. The web designer here is a freaking idiot. I'll refrain from calling them a douche or moron or something, obviously they have a cool product and can't see past the wicked awesome design layout that something is glaringly wrong with their bike.
Heck maybe it is a new trend and all bikes are going to be that way now. Maybe people will finally get to wear out the left side of their jeans on the chainring. Matching grease marks on their khakis.
I mean don't get me wrong it is a cool idea. I like the monitoring and route suggestions (not for me, i've got a homing pigeon brain according to G-ride), it seems pretty damn cool. And unlike a motorized bike it is an assist, that's good, keeps people at least slightly honest about riding around. Susan Wilson has a nice write up about it here. Seems perfect for the iPhone crowd. The can't get enough information.
Heck toss in watts and power generated and speed and heart rate and you've got some great stuff. What the hell, program it to add resistance and suddenly you can do computrainer type work outs outside, seriously. Program 500 watts resistance for 3 minutes 75 watts recovery for 3 minutes, boom no matter how hard you pedal it will only let you make 500 watts and if your wattage drops you'll just fall over and stop, and then in the recovery phase, the assist will let you pedal at 75 watts but maintain speed over hills or rises so you get the complete recovery.
Brilliant shit. Now will they make it in any color other than red? It would clash with the team Orange and blue color scheme, although it might match the Planet Bike colors pretty well.
And what's with the Ghost bike look? seriously? You want to be associated with a bike people chain up where someone was killed? Not so good thinking, but then it looks like proto-type is in europe and they probably don't do that sort of thing over there.
But. The web designer here is a freaking idiot. I'll refrain from calling them a douche or moron or something, obviously they have a cool product and can't see past the wicked awesome design layout that something is glaringly wrong with their bike.
Heck maybe it is a new trend and all bikes are going to be that way now. Maybe people will finally get to wear out the left side of their jeans on the chainring. Matching grease marks on their khakis.
I mean don't get me wrong it is a cool idea. I like the monitoring and route suggestions (not for me, i've got a homing pigeon brain according to G-ride), it seems pretty damn cool. And unlike a motorized bike it is an assist, that's good, keeps people at least slightly honest about riding around. Susan Wilson has a nice write up about it here. Seems perfect for the iPhone crowd. The can't get enough information.
Heck toss in watts and power generated and speed and heart rate and you've got some great stuff. What the hell, program it to add resistance and suddenly you can do computrainer type work outs outside, seriously. Program 500 watts resistance for 3 minutes 75 watts recovery for 3 minutes, boom no matter how hard you pedal it will only let you make 500 watts and if your wattage drops you'll just fall over and stop, and then in the recovery phase, the assist will let you pedal at 75 watts but maintain speed over hills or rises so you get the complete recovery.
Brilliant shit. Now will they make it in any color other than red? It would clash with the team Orange and blue color scheme, although it might match the Planet Bike colors pretty well.
And what's with the Ghost bike look? seriously? You want to be associated with a bike people chain up where someone was killed? Not so good thinking, but then it looks like proto-type is in europe and they probably don't do that sort of thing over there.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Another cold morning
A bit colder this morning actually. added a thin wool sock layer under the booties and thicker wool socks in the shoes today. Lost one of my coveted JANDD ankle straps on the way in though, very sad. I guess it didn't like two days of salt and keeping the wind pants out of the chain.
Still not recovered sleep wise from the trip to Bend. Still pretty much a zombie. getting stuff done zombie but still a freaking zombie.
The bike is almost all white now. Well not quite but the salt is getting pretty crusty on it.
The roads were pretty mellow today. Some more ice in spots but for the most part pretty dry and clear. Just wicked salty. Only one jackass driver. It just takes me way longer to ride in this way with all the layers needed to stay warm at 15 degrees riding into the wind. Still beats driving and trying to find a place to park. Really should get the passat fixed sooner than later though.
Here are the three shots I grabbed of the bike path this morning. Sadly there are now three trampled paths in the snow, meaning that much more compacted ice and snow lingering on the path. Get through tomorrow and hopefully it will clear out by the 4th.
well it is about time to bundle up and catch a few of the last glimmers of sunlight on the way home.
Ride safe
heddwch
G
Still not recovered sleep wise from the trip to Bend. Still pretty much a zombie. getting stuff done zombie but still a freaking zombie.
The bike is almost all white now. Well not quite but the salt is getting pretty crusty on it.
The roads were pretty mellow today. Some more ice in spots but for the most part pretty dry and clear. Just wicked salty. Only one jackass driver. It just takes me way longer to ride in this way with all the layers needed to stay warm at 15 degrees riding into the wind. Still beats driving and trying to find a place to park. Really should get the passat fixed sooner than later though.
Here are the three shots I grabbed of the bike path this morning. Sadly there are now three trampled paths in the snow, meaning that much more compacted ice and snow lingering on the path. Get through tomorrow and hopefully it will clear out by the 4th.
well it is about time to bundle up and catch a few of the last glimmers of sunlight on the way home.
Ride safe
heddwch
G
Monday, December 21, 2009
nice job battenkill
blowing the doors off registration like you are Gloucester or something.
HUGE props to BikeReg for totally KILLING the ability to reg that many people. Maybe sports base online can take notes - or at least discover that more than 100 people can sign up ever 10 minutes w/o a server crash.
(too mean? ah screw it SBO f'd up big this year with Natz reg)
So there were a lot of people who signed up for Battenkill. Maybe me having done it 3 times so far, never getting a flat, never really making it past that first effin real hill in the race in the main pack, i've decided that, well not this year. Besides last year I signed up way late anyway. There is still a few spots open in the 3rd cat 4 race. Not sure there will be more sag wagons to draft after the first dirt section in the cat 4 race this year than last.
It's great and all that it is filling up so well, that's a testament to how well promoted and how awesome the ride is. Did i call it a ride? ooops, i mean RACE. It is supposed to be a race. But winding up as a ride for me means, no more.
I hear there is some dude who race cross with a big Z on his back planning some equally awesome (using that word instead of epic fwiw) ride to compete with Battenkill. Not that battenkill isn't awesome. Everyone should do it. And last year's course was way better than previous years. So hard.
28c conti 4 seasons with big tubes in there at lower pressure (less than 100psi) is how to make it through w/o a flat. That and knowing how to float over shit (thank you cyclocross).
Oh and best news of the day? I came home to my FIRST JURY SUMMONS! I've NEVER been summoned to jury duty before! Never. EVER. Man this is gonna be very cool or very BORING.
Anyway. Battenkill is open now (or closed if you are too slow and in one special category or another). Spring race season has started and despite my feeling great spinning with the cars on the way home, it is time to get slow and fat, forget about racing for a while. Until when I can take that $75 i would have spent on Battenkill and use it for some flat fat man crits - i mean clydesdale favoring cycling races.
Is ninigret going to favor more heavily on GeWilli's pre-cyclocross schedule this year? Lets face it, anything I do before cyclocross season is pre-CX, and battenkill totally sucks as CX prep.
HUGE props to BikeReg for totally KILLING the ability to reg that many people. Maybe sports base online can take notes - or at least discover that more than 100 people can sign up ever 10 minutes w/o a server crash.
(too mean? ah screw it SBO f'd up big this year with Natz reg)
So there were a lot of people who signed up for Battenkill. Maybe me having done it 3 times so far, never getting a flat, never really making it past that first effin real hill in the race in the main pack, i've decided that, well not this year. Besides last year I signed up way late anyway. There is still a few spots open in the 3rd cat 4 race. Not sure there will be more sag wagons to draft after the first dirt section in the cat 4 race this year than last.
It's great and all that it is filling up so well, that's a testament to how well promoted and how awesome the ride is. Did i call it a ride? ooops, i mean RACE. It is supposed to be a race. But winding up as a ride for me means, no more.
I hear there is some dude who race cross with a big Z on his back planning some equally awesome (using that word instead of epic fwiw) ride to compete with Battenkill. Not that battenkill isn't awesome. Everyone should do it. And last year's course was way better than previous years. So hard.
28c conti 4 seasons with big tubes in there at lower pressure (less than 100psi) is how to make it through w/o a flat. That and knowing how to float over shit (thank you cyclocross).
Oh and best news of the day? I came home to my FIRST JURY SUMMONS! I've NEVER been summoned to jury duty before! Never. EVER. Man this is gonna be very cool or very BORING.
Anyway. Battenkill is open now (or closed if you are too slow and in one special category or another). Spring race season has started and despite my feeling great spinning with the cars on the way home, it is time to get slow and fat, forget about racing for a while. Until when I can take that $75 i would have spent on Battenkill and use it for some flat fat man crits - i mean clydesdale favoring cycling races.
Is ninigret going to favor more heavily on GeWilli's pre-cyclocross schedule this year? Lets face it, anything I do before cyclocross season is pre-CX, and battenkill totally sucks as CX prep.
seriously?
a dude who sits on his ass driving a car gets freaking Athlete of the year? Seriously? They couldn't find any other remarkable performance in SPORTS (hell even golf is more of a sport than driving a damn car in circles). Sure sure it takes stamina and all sorts of strength and stuff to turn left all day long but sport? LAME.
He may be as an individual "an athlete" but - ah i give up. Sure it is logical how they "arrived" at the vote, why he won and all, no shock... just sad... i really shouldn't be surprised.
He may be as an individual "an athlete" but - ah i give up. Sure it is logical how they "arrived" at the vote, why he won and all, no shock... just sad... i really shouldn't be surprised.
dry your eyes mate
Last Minutes with ODEN from phos pictures on Vimeo.
shit - i was doing well until about 2 minute in... not doing so well right now...
Dave Moulton, not sure to thank you for posting that video or not... i don't care if he's a 40 something hipster with a fixed gear with no bar tape in the rain. So totally not even part of the film, so what if he is. So what if he is.
solstice 2 minutes ago
YIPEE!
That means it is going to get lighter and lighter from here on out! MOST AWESOME
i love the winter solstice.
That means it is going to get lighter and lighter from here on out! MOST AWESOME
i love the winter solstice.
Quite a different ride in today
I stopped and froze my fingers in the 17°F weather (the wind was only about 10-15mph from the NW ie headwind) to take a picture of the bike path, but left the DL cable at home. DOH! No snow shots now. Maybe I can upload them tonight.
Either way, my brave plans to ride in on the bike path? Not a chance. I was relegated to the slushy barely plowed shoulder of the road. Like last year.
Except now instead of trying to ride through 4-6 inches we have just about 20 inches of snow. Maybe a pugsly would work, but even that would really suck. Granted if i had no choice but to cut a new trail through the snow, well I probably would. BUT.
But, the road beckoned to me "take the easy way" and i succumbed to the siren song of the plowed salty pavement. The Croll is hating me right now, the salt water etching components and frame, puddling on cardboard here in the office.
Let me tell you that new Planet Bike Fender works SO MUCH BETTER than my other clip on jobbers. SO MUCH BETTER. Seriously. Their stuff flat out ROCKS. Notice that there is a list of replacement parts there.
Really it is amazing. Since I haven't unpacked the cross bike and converted it back to full coverage fendered glory as a daily commuter I'm still abusing the Croll in the snow and ice.
I've got my pair of Blaze 2W on the front lighting the way home and a Superflast Stealth (best tail light on the planet w/o a doubt) on the seat post and a Blinky 3H on the skid lid.
Commuting, i've been doing that bike commuting thing for a looooooong time. A very long time. This planet bike stuff? Awesome. All the time in Michigan and now the Ocean State, i've got a lot of extreme commuter miles. "Extreme"? Yeah, most people would say commuting by bike on a day like today with the roads they way they are is extreme. Seventeen degrees, windchill in the single digits (not counting pedaling induced windchill) on snow and salty slush. Maybe that is why people in their cars were looking at me like I had 3 heads or an extra arm on the ride in. It took a bit longer than normal but man. So worth it.
So worth it.
And that Planet Bike stuff? Totally FTW baby. FTW! (which unless you are up on current stuff means "for the win" don't worry i had to google it the first half dozen times I started seeing it show up).
Where's Waldo? Heck am i the only one not wearing jeans? - well besides the short dude wearing carharts two legs to my left). It was a great place to watch the race. And yell at Myerson as he went by "IT IS JUST ANOTHER BIKE RACE"
Time for some lunch (PBJ FTW)
heddwch
G
Either way, my brave plans to ride in on the bike path? Not a chance. I was relegated to the slushy barely plowed shoulder of the road. Like last year.
Except now instead of trying to ride through 4-6 inches we have just about 20 inches of snow. Maybe a pugsly would work, but even that would really suck. Granted if i had no choice but to cut a new trail through the snow, well I probably would. BUT.
But, the road beckoned to me "take the easy way" and i succumbed to the siren song of the plowed salty pavement. The Croll is hating me right now, the salt water etching components and frame, puddling on cardboard here in the office.
Let me tell you that new Planet Bike Fender works SO MUCH BETTER than my other clip on jobbers. SO MUCH BETTER. Seriously. Their stuff flat out ROCKS. Notice that there is a list of replacement parts there.
Really it is amazing. Since I haven't unpacked the cross bike and converted it back to full coverage fendered glory as a daily commuter I'm still abusing the Croll in the snow and ice.
I've got my pair of Blaze 2W on the front lighting the way home and a Superflast Stealth (best tail light on the planet w/o a doubt) on the seat post and a Blinky 3H on the skid lid.
Commuting, i've been doing that bike commuting thing for a looooooong time. A very long time. This planet bike stuff? Awesome. All the time in Michigan and now the Ocean State, i've got a lot of extreme commuter miles. "Extreme"? Yeah, most people would say commuting by bike on a day like today with the roads they way they are is extreme. Seventeen degrees, windchill in the single digits (not counting pedaling induced windchill) on snow and salty slush. Maybe that is why people in their cars were looking at me like I had 3 heads or an extra arm on the ride in. It took a bit longer than normal but man. So worth it.
So worth it.
And that Planet Bike stuff? Totally FTW baby. FTW! (which unless you are up on current stuff means "for the win" don't worry i had to google it the first half dozen times I started seeing it show up).
Where's Waldo? Heck am i the only one not wearing jeans? - well besides the short dude wearing carharts two legs to my left). It was a great place to watch the race. And yell at Myerson as he went by "IT IS JUST ANOTHER BIKE RACE"
Time for some lunch (PBJ FTW)
heddwch
G
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Post Clydesdale Championship of the Universe Party Photos
I didn't get my camera out, but a few people did. Including Toni, and here are a few. Yes, Jerry and Dan Action are on my shoulders. Pretty much most of the party wound up on there. Jerry was a bit scared (can't tell from this photo) he's not used to being that high.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
398.41
I did it! I freaking DID IT.
Whooo hooo.
Busting through into the three hundred range (barely)! It took all season and even a couple anti-perfect races at Nats didn't kill me too badly.
Yeah, 398 is still pretty "slow" but for me? That's as high as I've ranked ever (rolling 10 race avg anyway).
Progress, progress. Thanks Results Boy for the numerical validation!
Next year who knows what might happen. But I've got a couple months to get fat and slow and then maybe figure out how to hit the season with a bit more form than last year for a stronger build and maybe.
For now, no more cycling thinking. Time to focus on Christmas. Having had zero time to do the shopping and anything (thanks to CX) I get to pack it all in the final stretch. Tree today, shopping during the week next week over lunch I guess. We're supposed to get clobbered with snow tonight. Fingers crossed that happens... sure would be cool to have some white stuff on the ground and not have to race through it.
Looking at the points for the last 10 races, the lowest points hit exactly with my crappiest races, amazing how that works and correlates.
be good out there
heddwch
BTW check RI Velosprints for some Monday Night Fun starting in Jan: http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=9770
Whooo hooo.
Busting through into the three hundred range (barely)! It took all season and even a couple anti-perfect races at Nats didn't kill me too badly.
Yeah, 398 is still pretty "slow" but for me? That's as high as I've ranked ever (rolling 10 race avg anyway).
Progress, progress. Thanks Results Boy for the numerical validation!
Next year who knows what might happen. But I've got a couple months to get fat and slow and then maybe figure out how to hit the season with a bit more form than last year for a stronger build and maybe.
For now, no more cycling thinking. Time to focus on Christmas. Having had zero time to do the shopping and anything (thanks to CX) I get to pack it all in the final stretch. Tree today, shopping during the week next week over lunch I guess. We're supposed to get clobbered with snow tonight. Fingers crossed that happens... sure would be cool to have some white stuff on the ground and not have to race through it.
Looking at the points for the last 10 races, the lowest points hit exactly with my crappiest races, amazing how that works and correlates.
be good out there
heddwch
BTW check RI Velosprints for some Monday Night Fun starting in Jan: http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=9770
Friday, December 18, 2009
my vids from nats
Shot after the elite women's race on the 13th... just crappy windy Stylus Tough Digi Cam vids...
i'll get the pictures up sometime.
Drums at 2009 CX Nats from gewilli on Vimeo.
The warehouse side of the course from gewilli on Vimeo.
More Drums from gewilli on Vimeo.
i'll get the pictures up sometime.
Two Quotes From the week
First was a fortune cookie that Lucy got into:
"He that can't endure the bad will not live to see the good."
The final one came from my sister and her boyfriend:
"BE STRONG! STAY WRONG!"
It is lunch time now. Still really quiet. Funny how that is, at the U when everyone goes home early, grad students, post docs, even faculty and esp undergrads all seem to dissapear. Usually I'm gone right now too. Never really been on the job this close to Christmas. I'm more or less already in Seattle/Tacoma for the concerts. Tonight is the Tacoma show, tomorrow is Seattle, and Sunday is Mt Vernon. This year I managed to at least make it to Bellevue on Monday before flying out.
Anyway. I've got a few pages of scribbles to transcribe. Tempted to just take a photo and be done with it. If my typing is hard to read imagine what the handwriting is like...
here it goes:
Day 1 take 2 Dec 9 2009
trip to CxNats
"He that can't endure the bad will not live to see the good." Fortune cookie that Lucy ate
--
Left house @ 3:49am -> came back for boarding passes and rental car info after L fell out of bed @ 2:30 am and Lucy wanting in the room @ 3 am.
Alarm on @ 3:15 am
Tom Stevens 1st in line 45 min before they open. I drop bags in place, run back to car, park. Didn't get charged in the short term lot. Parked @ the Radison and they drove me right back - 15 min. Counter opened at 5am for a 6:10 flight. Got there no prob. Dumping snow. De-iced then off. About to land in Chicago Midway.
--
Get into B2 at 8:10 flight leaves @ 8:30. Gate was at least in same terminal, no rushing too far B2-B15. PDX had to go to D.
But they had a delay.holding the flight, why not hold it yesterday? Seriously. Further lengthy delays we took off and the Pilot said "we're going as fast as this plane will fly to get back on schedule." It is v.smooth.
--
Should Really write race reports for NBX. 38,000ft clouds have cleared and the fields are snow covered. Hard time trying to start the report. But i have 3 hours of the flight left. Plenty of time. Odd- first ginger ale had round tube ice, this one has flakes. No desire to crack open the bushmills yet. Have 2 - wait till tonight.
Page 2
NBX Day 1
So knowing the weather was coming in and being tired of torque slip w/ the fango (worn smooth) i glued the FMB Racing Ralph tire on. A bit heavier with the thick butyl tube (tire alert) and the cut off clincher tread, but grip, I WANTED GRIP! So thursday night I stayed up and got it on there. But a bit more crooked than hoped bu ya can't tell except on pavement with too much air in there. I was excted to have traction and a sloppy fields course in the rain was what we had in store. With the busted up car I just dragged the tent and a bike adn trainer and gear to skinny's hose where G-ride was staying. Toss it all in the back of the Truck. Set up two cars over from THE mand THE WITHOUT PEER - NICEST GUY in NE. Yes Chip Baker has overtaken Cronoman. Chip is solid good people.
We set up the tent, put on a side to keep the rain from blowing on us during warm up and the awenning on the oather side so Syl could come hang and warm up too. Gride skinny GeWilli and Syl, lined up in the tent howling away on the trainers. Non one bothered with slick road training tires, we just buzzed away on knobbies.
Before doing the trainer warm up and before setting up the tent we hopped on the course to try it out. It was fun. Good stuff. Others my have describe it but the course has everything. UNridable sand, slick wet greasy grassy turns, mud pavement, power climbing barriers. It was awesome. Finished the pre-ride as the 45+ and 55+ went off but I'd left my license in the car. No Dice, go get it. Crap. The only minor negative about NBX race there at goddard park is how far away parking is from the action. It sure would be easier to type this out - hand is cramping and I haven't even gotten to the race yet.
Getting the license and then the number set me back a few minutes. Warm up? What warm up. It consisted of getting on the trainer for about 30 min maybe. Get ewmbro on legs, pinning numbers on everyone listing to THE most important part of the prep = Metallica Death Magnetic.
G-ride had his tunes cranking out the back of the truck. CCR. Yes he was in total gamer mode, CCR was going down, well that was his plan at least, one of the two of us had to get him. But I just cranked up the iPod and focused on my tunres. Depsite the 40°F temp and the rain i went with just the LS skinsuit. No gloves, nothing on legs except a layer of ben-Gay ultra strength and some leg salsa. When it is wet having fabric can be bad on the knees/legs as it just soaks up water. I wasn't cold in the race despite being one of the few with bare legs. There were more bare legs on Sat in the rain than Sunday in the cold and wind.
Head to the start, stash LS thermal jersey under a bush and prepare to line up. Diane just called everyones names instead of calling names with verge points and relegating non-point getters to be called up by number. Either way I was pretty much last row (must get verge point). I tried slotting in on the left of the grid. Dianne sent us off and it was a mess, wheel spray everywhere and I had left my glasses at the house. Not Fun. Then the line chopping started into the first 180 on the pavement, and I jumped around a few more at the straight before we hit the hill. Huge pile up then a 'Bang" someone blew a tire, flat, longish way from the pits. I had to stop and walk around it but got going again. I just raced for places, passing here and there getting up eventually to Buckley and Rings wheel as they were just dangling off helicopter matt's wheel. Racing around not passing many but there were a lot of people just ahead and behind us. I was actually making up time on the technical stuff for a change. In the past I've been blown out of the technical stuff.
Less than 2 hours to go, listening to a PUSH THE NIGHT podcast.
A pair of the Kimi's bike shop guys in green rode up to us, and then through us taking buckley up to matt and gapping carl and me. But before the second guy came through we were shown 3 to go and gride was a minute down and he was the next rider behind me and that green kimi's guy. Carl put some distance into me there, then Kimis' passed me as we left the field section and I couldn't latch on to his wheel. And he pulled CCR farther away. And that was about the end of the race. I slowed down, Jerry got close but it ended up as Kramer, Ring, Williams, Chabot and Cole. The 5 of us sort of have been all over each other this year Victims and Nemesis of each other. Carl might have been the more consistent of us.
That was the race, we came back down, drank lots of beer and hung out with a damn cool group of people.
---------
and that's the end of the writing. I didn't write another word on the paper the whole trip. Too tired, too busy, too much having fun, dancing, racing, talking, reconnecting. All sorts of awesome stuff. Kick ass trip. Totally kick ass.
more stories next week maybe.
heddwch
G
"He that can't endure the bad will not live to see the good."
The final one came from my sister and her boyfriend:
"BE STRONG! STAY WRONG!"
It is lunch time now. Still really quiet. Funny how that is, at the U when everyone goes home early, grad students, post docs, even faculty and esp undergrads all seem to dissapear. Usually I'm gone right now too. Never really been on the job this close to Christmas. I'm more or less already in Seattle/Tacoma for the concerts. Tonight is the Tacoma show, tomorrow is Seattle, and Sunday is Mt Vernon. This year I managed to at least make it to Bellevue on Monday before flying out.
Anyway. I've got a few pages of scribbles to transcribe. Tempted to just take a photo and be done with it. If my typing is hard to read imagine what the handwriting is like...
here it goes:
Day 1 take 2 Dec 9 2009
trip to CxNats
"He that can't endure the bad will not live to see the good." Fortune cookie that Lucy ate
--
Left house @ 3:49am -> came back for boarding passes and rental car info after L fell out of bed @ 2:30 am and Lucy wanting in the room @ 3 am.
Alarm on @ 3:15 am
Tom Stevens 1st in line 45 min before they open. I drop bags in place, run back to car, park. Didn't get charged in the short term lot. Parked @ the Radison and they drove me right back - 15 min. Counter opened at 5am for a 6:10 flight. Got there no prob. Dumping snow. De-iced then off. About to land in Chicago Midway.
--
Get into B2 at 8:10 flight leaves @ 8:30. Gate was at least in same terminal, no rushing too far B2-B15. PDX had to go to D.
But they had a delay.holding the flight, why not hold it yesterday? Seriously. Further lengthy delays we took off and the Pilot said "we're going as fast as this plane will fly to get back on schedule." It is v.smooth.
--
Should Really write race reports for NBX. 38,000ft clouds have cleared and the fields are snow covered. Hard time trying to start the report. But i have 3 hours of the flight left. Plenty of time. Odd- first ginger ale had round tube ice, this one has flakes. No desire to crack open the bushmills yet. Have 2 - wait till tonight.
Page 2
NBX Day 1
So knowing the weather was coming in and being tired of torque slip w/ the fango (worn smooth) i glued the FMB Racing Ralph tire on. A bit heavier with the thick butyl tube (tire alert) and the cut off clincher tread, but grip, I WANTED GRIP! So thursday night I stayed up and got it on there. But a bit more crooked than hoped bu ya can't tell except on pavement with too much air in there. I was excted to have traction and a sloppy fields course in the rain was what we had in store. With the busted up car I just dragged the tent and a bike adn trainer and gear to skinny's hose where G-ride was staying. Toss it all in the back of the Truck. Set up two cars over from THE mand THE WITHOUT PEER - NICEST GUY in NE. Yes Chip Baker has overtaken Cronoman. Chip is solid good people.
We set up the tent, put on a side to keep the rain from blowing on us during warm up and the awenning on the oather side so Syl could come hang and warm up too. Gride skinny GeWilli and Syl, lined up in the tent howling away on the trainers. Non one bothered with slick road training tires, we just buzzed away on knobbies.
Before doing the trainer warm up and before setting up the tent we hopped on the course to try it out. It was fun. Good stuff. Others my have describe it but the course has everything. UNridable sand, slick wet greasy grassy turns, mud pavement, power climbing barriers. It was awesome. Finished the pre-ride as the 45+ and 55+ went off but I'd left my license in the car. No Dice, go get it. Crap. The only minor negative about NBX race there at goddard park is how far away parking is from the action. It sure would be easier to type this out - hand is cramping and I haven't even gotten to the race yet.
Getting the license and then the number set me back a few minutes. Warm up? What warm up. It consisted of getting on the trainer for about 30 min maybe. Get ewmbro on legs, pinning numbers on everyone listing to THE most important part of the prep = Metallica Death Magnetic.
G-ride had his tunes cranking out the back of the truck. CCR. Yes he was in total gamer mode, CCR was going down, well that was his plan at least, one of the two of us had to get him. But I just cranked up the iPod and focused on my tunres. Depsite the 40°F temp and the rain i went with just the LS skinsuit. No gloves, nothing on legs except a layer of ben-Gay ultra strength and some leg salsa. When it is wet having fabric can be bad on the knees/legs as it just soaks up water. I wasn't cold in the race despite being one of the few with bare legs. There were more bare legs on Sat in the rain than Sunday in the cold and wind.
Head to the start, stash LS thermal jersey under a bush and prepare to line up. Diane just called everyones names instead of calling names with verge points and relegating non-point getters to be called up by number. Either way I was pretty much last row (must get verge point). I tried slotting in on the left of the grid. Dianne sent us off and it was a mess, wheel spray everywhere and I had left my glasses at the house. Not Fun. Then the line chopping started into the first 180 on the pavement, and I jumped around a few more at the straight before we hit the hill. Huge pile up then a 'Bang" someone blew a tire, flat, longish way from the pits. I had to stop and walk around it but got going again. I just raced for places, passing here and there getting up eventually to Buckley and Rings wheel as they were just dangling off helicopter matt's wheel. Racing around not passing many but there were a lot of people just ahead and behind us. I was actually making up time on the technical stuff for a change. In the past I've been blown out of the technical stuff.
Less than 2 hours to go, listening to a PUSH THE NIGHT podcast.
A pair of the Kimi's bike shop guys in green rode up to us, and then through us taking buckley up to matt and gapping carl and me. But before the second guy came through we were shown 3 to go and gride was a minute down and he was the next rider behind me and that green kimi's guy. Carl put some distance into me there, then Kimis' passed me as we left the field section and I couldn't latch on to his wheel. And he pulled CCR farther away. And that was about the end of the race. I slowed down, Jerry got close but it ended up as Kramer, Ring, Williams, Chabot and Cole. The 5 of us sort of have been all over each other this year Victims and Nemesis of each other. Carl might have been the more consistent of us.
That was the race, we came back down, drank lots of beer and hung out with a damn cool group of people.
---------
and that's the end of the writing. I didn't write another word on the paper the whole trip. Too tired, too busy, too much having fun, dancing, racing, talking, reconnecting. All sorts of awesome stuff. Kick ass trip. Totally kick ass.
more stories next week maybe.
heddwch
G
More video
I should save it for the 35-39 race description but hell I can't wait.
Check out Skinny coming through there about 20seconds or so in, i didn't count how far back he was at that point.
Then you have a nice clear shot of the big guy from Portland with the wicked good start position (ErikV - in green - hard to miss) then an eternity later there's me. With the little guy carrying his bike behind me. I was totally body checking that little shit, it was cool though, he was at the Planet Bike tent afterwards and we had a laugh about it. Funny shit. But it was a massive cluster trying to get around the corner.
I was already about 30 seconds behind the leaders at the first fucking turn. Traffic was heavy and we were stacked and slowed way down by it at every bottle neck. A nice start like ErikV had and I might not have spotted the leaders the extra 1:06 minutes. As it was Erik spotted Ali (leader on lap one) 1:45. Do the math. My start and then subsequent traffic snarling fucking pile ups and crashes put me 2:51 behind Ali after one lap.
Seriously. That's what 150 riders on the course do to lap times for those in the back.
Still I went from crossing the line pretty much dead freaking last on the first lap to passing 48 people in the laps I had left. It was an incredible race. Conditions, crowd. It was AWESOME racing with that many people lining the course and yelling and screaming and ringing bells.
Everyone should experience that once. Gloucester came close, but it was pretty quiet compared to the din and enthusiasm generated by the spectators in Bend.
Here's a bit later on at the stairs... time has stretched on and on... Freaking Ali in THE CHURCH OF THE BIG RING kit just KILLING IT. Poor Curtis getting absolutely shafted up the ass by the promoters. Oh you were 6th last year? Yeah how about starting 34th. Yeah is that okay with you? Us promoters know you are one of the fastest but we really like sodomizing skinny white dudes.
Here this one captures the crowd sizes pretty well. Nice dramatic music:
Seriously once the 35-39 race started it was on. It was fun. Well honestly once I crashed it was on. Until the crash I was just chilling and cruising and working my way back from the back row slowly. After the crash the fire was lit and it was time to fucking make brap noises. And worship that big ring. I never needed the 38 on that course. It was fast and flat.
Check out Skinny coming through there about 20seconds or so in, i didn't count how far back he was at that point.
Then you have a nice clear shot of the big guy from Portland with the wicked good start position (ErikV - in green - hard to miss) then an eternity later there's me. With the little guy carrying his bike behind me. I was totally body checking that little shit, it was cool though, he was at the Planet Bike tent afterwards and we had a laugh about it. Funny shit. But it was a massive cluster trying to get around the corner.
I was already about 30 seconds behind the leaders at the first fucking turn. Traffic was heavy and we were stacked and slowed way down by it at every bottle neck. A nice start like ErikV had and I might not have spotted the leaders the extra 1:06 minutes. As it was Erik spotted Ali (leader on lap one) 1:45. Do the math. My start and then subsequent traffic snarling fucking pile ups and crashes put me 2:51 behind Ali after one lap.
Seriously. That's what 150 riders on the course do to lap times for those in the back.
Still I went from crossing the line pretty much dead freaking last on the first lap to passing 48 people in the laps I had left. It was an incredible race. Conditions, crowd. It was AWESOME racing with that many people lining the course and yelling and screaming and ringing bells.
Everyone should experience that once. Gloucester came close, but it was pretty quiet compared to the din and enthusiasm generated by the spectators in Bend.
National Cyclocross Championships 35-39 Start from Dale Riley on Vimeo.
Here's a bit later on at the stairs... time has stretched on and on... Freaking Ali in THE CHURCH OF THE BIG RING kit just KILLING IT. Poor Curtis getting absolutely shafted up the ass by the promoters. Oh you were 6th last year? Yeah how about starting 34th. Yeah is that okay with you? Us promoters know you are one of the fastest but we really like sodomizing skinny white dudes.
National Cyclocross Championships 2009 35-39 Lap 1 from Dale Riley on Vimeo.
Here this one captures the crowd sizes pretty well. Nice dramatic music:
Cyclo-Cross National Championships from Ethan Erickson on Vimeo.
Seriously once the 35-39 race started it was on. It was fun. Well honestly once I crashed it was on. Until the crash I was just chilling and cruising and working my way back from the back row slowly. After the crash the fire was lit and it was time to fucking make brap noises. And worship that big ring. I never needed the 38 on that course. It was fast and flat.
Awesome Video from Nats
the 30-34 race, posted at CX Mag and other places.
Too damn good not to make it viral and post here too.
Too damn good not to make it viral and post here too.
CYCLE CROSS BEND OREGON 2009(sat. last race mens) from FARfromEARTH Films on Vimeo.
Falling asleep already
It isn't even 9am, emails and scheduling caught up, quiet as heck down here and I can't stay awake. The drone of the air handler seems especially loud, and the white noise from it is a hypnotic lullaby. Seriously can't seem to stay awake or alert. This is getting close to coffee time. But no, I can't dip into that elixir to solve this dozing off issue. My eye lids are drooping closed every 4 words, and I don't type slowly. I hit the period key and they close for a bit longer.
I pulled out every last ounce of reserve with the coffee this last week. Starting off with being awake for 24 hours.
Yeah. That's how it started. Well the trip was supposed to start on Tuesday with a flight to Seattle, and a nice extra day to get acclimated to the time zone and not get wiped out traveling over a day. Space it out ya know. But nope. That big storm that hit here Wed Morning with snow caused all sorts of delays. Sure I was flying through Phoenix. I planned it that way, fly through Phoenix and avoid the weather delays that you'd see in the Mid-west. Brilliant. Or so it seemed. Until I got to the airport and was told the plane that is taking us to Phoenix was 90 minutes late. I had just under 60 min to make the connecting flight to Seattle. They gave me the choice to try and fly out but likely get stuck there overnight and arrive in Seattle at 10:45 or come back tomorrow and fly out on the 6:10 flight and get in at 11:30. Hmm sleep in my own bed for how ever short, or sleep in an airport.
Really the choice was, get an extra night with the girls or well there really isn't a choice when presented with that one. Of course I turned around and headed home. After the quick stop at the bike shop looking for a tire.
There was no choice. Home with the girls, make pizza. Little cuddle bug was super happy about it too.
What happened next? 3:15 wake up. Shower, get in the exhaustless passat and head to the airport. It hadn't started snowing yet, but it was supposed to. I parked in the short term lot. The plan was to check in the bags and then go park where we normally park. Get to the ticket office and who's camped out at the front of the line? Tom Stevens. He says they aren't going to check in people until 5am. It is 4:15. Shit. Well I ask if he'd keep an eye on the stuff while i go park the car, "No Problem" so I high tail it out of there, get out of the lot quickly enough that they don't charge me anything and get the car parked and a ride back to the airport. I'm back at the gate at 4:25. And we wait.
Flights all go smoothly. De-iced in PVD, de-iced in MDW and off to SEA. Got some great shots of the mountains flying in. Got to SEA and my mother surprised me by being there at the airport with her (Big) puppy. It was great to see her for a few minutes, making up a little for the time we were hoping to have together the day before. I got the man van (Dodge Caravan) and loaded up and headed to my sister's place to hang out and get some lunch. Yes, family is important. All the extra travel to see them was well worth it. I couldn't fly all the way to the west coast and not see them. Is there anything more important than family? No.
We had some food, took a nap, them my mother showed up and I grabbed an early dinner and took off for PDX. G-ride needed a pick up. Got down there comfortably thanks to the wonders of SAT radio (if I had stayed in MI i'd have had to have gotten it - so nice). Chilled in the cell phone lot while his "super awesome planning of flying through PHX to avoid weather delays" flight was delayed an hour.
Once he got in we loaded the Marine's gear and headed West. His surprise at the change of plans in how we were getting there was taken well. Headed west down I-84. IN a man van with no chains, no snow tires and no 4WD, I wasn't ready to hit the passes in the cold temps were were driving in. The Dalles then south to Bend. Only about 40 miles longer than going over Mt Hood and flatter and easier roads to drive (supposedly).
We make it until about midnight. Drove a little less than an hour (or right about an hour) to Hood River. Stopped and grabbed a room at the Vagabond Lodge (g-ride mentioned what happened already) and finally in a bed after being awake for 24 straight hours (well I had a couple short naps, one on the plane, and one at my sisters - neither of which lasted more than 20 minutes).
What a way to start the biggest race weekend of the year. And all that w/o coffee.
I got decent sleep thursday night at the Cumberland house. Friday, not too bad either, in bed pretty much right after Solobreak and Robin left the house. Plenty of sleep that night. Saturday night? two races, no nap and "bed" by 3 or so maybe. That wasn't a restful night. Awake then at 8am or so and then a long day standing and walking around and shouting followed by some partying and driving a wicked drunk Todd Harriot out to where he was staying. Bed was at 2am, with a 3am wake up call on Skinny's phone telling him that his flight was on time. Then the 4am drive his ass to a hotel so he could get a ride the rest of the way to the Airport. Back to sleep at 4:30 and then awake at 8am to frantically clean and get the car loaded and out the door headed to PDX by 9:15am. Dropped G-ride off with 65 minutes to spare before his flight took off. Drove off only to get a phone call "are my glasses in the car? they are in a black fabric bag" "Yup, i'll turn around and be right back."
Hit the road for Bellevue. Getting tired of the same stations and find the Playboy channel, only to realize it is wicked lame and not worth listening to at all. Boooooring. Zzzzz. Back to the Metal station, or Lithium or Faction. Get to the concert venue. And hang out, see my nephew and niece and everyone. The experience of being at the concert was great. The music this year: awesome. Really awesome.
And then it was over, packed up and headed home. I was really tired. Hard time driving tired. Fortunately and a saving grace was needing to stop at the store on the way home. Perfect timing. The short stop woke me up enough to make it home. Cracked open the final swill beer we can't get here on the list (Rainer) and got super dopey sleepy and headed to bed at 1:30am.
Woke up after sleeping like a log at about what i thought was 8am (stupid groggy eyes reading an analog clock) and started organizing my stuff and packing it for the flight. Head down stairs, wait? It is 9am? Shit. I had to leave by 10:45 to get the car returned in time. Damn it. We had a nice walk, checked out my trees, came back and ate some breakfast and I loaded up the Man Van deluxe and took off for the airport.
Got on the flight, scored a window seat, stuck the iPod buds in my ears and promptly pretty much slept nearly all the way to Chicago. Switched planes slept on to PVD. Got in at 11:45, in the car and headed home at 12:15. In bed by 1am. Then awake at 6am to head to work the next day (wed).
Wed was no problem staying awake. Yesterday? That was water-boarding torture trying to stay awake. Today? Not much easier. Ouch. No wonder i'm tired.
Toss in all the pre-riding, the walking around, the dancing, the three races on top? Yeah, my tank is empty. Need sleep. Or coffee, but if I give into the coffee there won't be any going back. Can't do that.
heddwch
G
I pulled out every last ounce of reserve with the coffee this last week. Starting off with being awake for 24 hours.
Yeah. That's how it started. Well the trip was supposed to start on Tuesday with a flight to Seattle, and a nice extra day to get acclimated to the time zone and not get wiped out traveling over a day. Space it out ya know. But nope. That big storm that hit here Wed Morning with snow caused all sorts of delays. Sure I was flying through Phoenix. I planned it that way, fly through Phoenix and avoid the weather delays that you'd see in the Mid-west. Brilliant. Or so it seemed. Until I got to the airport and was told the plane that is taking us to Phoenix was 90 minutes late. I had just under 60 min to make the connecting flight to Seattle. They gave me the choice to try and fly out but likely get stuck there overnight and arrive in Seattle at 10:45 or come back tomorrow and fly out on the 6:10 flight and get in at 11:30. Hmm sleep in my own bed for how ever short, or sleep in an airport.
Really the choice was, get an extra night with the girls or well there really isn't a choice when presented with that one. Of course I turned around and headed home. After the quick stop at the bike shop looking for a tire.
There was no choice. Home with the girls, make pizza. Little cuddle bug was super happy about it too.
What happened next? 3:15 wake up. Shower, get in the exhaustless passat and head to the airport. It hadn't started snowing yet, but it was supposed to. I parked in the short term lot. The plan was to check in the bags and then go park where we normally park. Get to the ticket office and who's camped out at the front of the line? Tom Stevens. He says they aren't going to check in people until 5am. It is 4:15. Shit. Well I ask if he'd keep an eye on the stuff while i go park the car, "No Problem" so I high tail it out of there, get out of the lot quickly enough that they don't charge me anything and get the car parked and a ride back to the airport. I'm back at the gate at 4:25. And we wait.
Flights all go smoothly. De-iced in PVD, de-iced in MDW and off to SEA. Got some great shots of the mountains flying in. Got to SEA and my mother surprised me by being there at the airport with her (Big) puppy. It was great to see her for a few minutes, making up a little for the time we were hoping to have together the day before. I got the man van (Dodge Caravan) and loaded up and headed to my sister's place to hang out and get some lunch. Yes, family is important. All the extra travel to see them was well worth it. I couldn't fly all the way to the west coast and not see them. Is there anything more important than family? No.
We had some food, took a nap, them my mother showed up and I grabbed an early dinner and took off for PDX. G-ride needed a pick up. Got down there comfortably thanks to the wonders of SAT radio (if I had stayed in MI i'd have had to have gotten it - so nice). Chilled in the cell phone lot while his "super awesome planning of flying through PHX to avoid weather delays" flight was delayed an hour.
Once he got in we loaded the Marine's gear and headed West. His surprise at the change of plans in how we were getting there was taken well. Headed west down I-84. IN a man van with no chains, no snow tires and no 4WD, I wasn't ready to hit the passes in the cold temps were were driving in. The Dalles then south to Bend. Only about 40 miles longer than going over Mt Hood and flatter and easier roads to drive (supposedly).
We make it until about midnight. Drove a little less than an hour (or right about an hour) to Hood River. Stopped and grabbed a room at the Vagabond Lodge (g-ride mentioned what happened already) and finally in a bed after being awake for 24 straight hours (well I had a couple short naps, one on the plane, and one at my sisters - neither of which lasted more than 20 minutes).
What a way to start the biggest race weekend of the year. And all that w/o coffee.
I got decent sleep thursday night at the Cumberland house. Friday, not too bad either, in bed pretty much right after Solobreak and Robin left the house. Plenty of sleep that night. Saturday night? two races, no nap and "bed" by 3 or so maybe. That wasn't a restful night. Awake then at 8am or so and then a long day standing and walking around and shouting followed by some partying and driving a wicked drunk Todd Harriot out to where he was staying. Bed was at 2am, with a 3am wake up call on Skinny's phone telling him that his flight was on time. Then the 4am drive his ass to a hotel so he could get a ride the rest of the way to the Airport. Back to sleep at 4:30 and then awake at 8am to frantically clean and get the car loaded and out the door headed to PDX by 9:15am. Dropped G-ride off with 65 minutes to spare before his flight took off. Drove off only to get a phone call "are my glasses in the car? they are in a black fabric bag" "Yup, i'll turn around and be right back."
Hit the road for Bellevue. Getting tired of the same stations and find the Playboy channel, only to realize it is wicked lame and not worth listening to at all. Boooooring. Zzzzz. Back to the Metal station, or Lithium or Faction. Get to the concert venue. And hang out, see my nephew and niece and everyone. The experience of being at the concert was great. The music this year: awesome. Really awesome.
And then it was over, packed up and headed home. I was really tired. Hard time driving tired. Fortunately and a saving grace was needing to stop at the store on the way home. Perfect timing. The short stop woke me up enough to make it home. Cracked open the final swill beer we can't get here on the list (Rainer) and got super dopey sleepy and headed to bed at 1:30am.
Woke up after sleeping like a log at about what i thought was 8am (stupid groggy eyes reading an analog clock) and started organizing my stuff and packing it for the flight. Head down stairs, wait? It is 9am? Shit. I had to leave by 10:45 to get the car returned in time. Damn it. We had a nice walk, checked out my trees, came back and ate some breakfast and I loaded up the Man Van deluxe and took off for the airport.
Got on the flight, scored a window seat, stuck the iPod buds in my ears and promptly pretty much slept nearly all the way to Chicago. Switched planes slept on to PVD. Got in at 11:45, in the car and headed home at 12:15. In bed by 1am. Then awake at 6am to head to work the next day (wed).
Wed was no problem staying awake. Yesterday? That was water-boarding torture trying to stay awake. Today? Not much easier. Ouch. No wonder i'm tired.
Toss in all the pre-riding, the walking around, the dancing, the three races on top? Yeah, my tank is empty. Need sleep. Or coffee, but if I give into the coffee there won't be any going back. Can't do that.
heddwch
G
Tilford's right
these guys really were an awesome part of the race. Throngs of screaming cheering fans stacked deep around the course with the drum corp behind them.
Made Saturday and Sunday's racing so awesome. Esp at night during the Clydesdale race.
I've got a few vid clips on my camera - but until i sort them out this is a damn fine example of one thing that made it so cool to race there. Yes. This is just one of the cumulative things that turned my pissy poor grumpy race on Friday on the ice in single speeds around into one of the most awesome killer fun weekends of cyclocross i've ever experienced.
Made Saturday and Sunday's racing so awesome. Esp at night during the Clydesdale race.
I've got a few vid clips on my camera - but until i sort them out this is a damn fine example of one thing that made it so cool to race there. Yes. This is just one of the cumulative things that turned my pissy poor grumpy race on Friday on the ice in single speeds around into one of the most awesome killer fun weekends of cyclocross i've ever experienced.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Hamm's Beer
So there was a bit of Hamm's to replace the normal Gansett post race swill beer ritual. Oly was the first night but it didn't make it very long (six packs never do).
And I kept doing the theme song bit (the percussion part) and people would look at me like they normally do - like i just crawled out of some monastic cave i've been living in for 20 years.
There are better commercials out there that use the theme song but this is the first one I found:
And I kept doing the theme song bit (the percussion part) and people would look at me like they normally do - like i just crawled out of some monastic cave i've been living in for 20 years.
There are better commercials out there that use the theme song but this is the first one I found:
Quick balance
Too much jubilant praise is being tossed around for Nats. Yes, it was off the hook and fun and all that.
But for me that didn't start until I rolled Chips Tubular in the parking lot just rolling around lamely trying to pedal in an attempt to warm up. The fun didn't start until I rolled a tubular. Yup. Unlike Linnea (fun ended with a rolled tubular - not a spec of glue in the whole stretch was stuck to the rim - glue job fail - new this season too) my fun started with a rolled tubular.
Getting there wasn't bad. But I was tired. More on that later, staying up for 24 hours straight is a great way to start a National Championship race, thanks big stupid winter storm.
Getting there checking the sweet pad that ROB KRAMER scored doing a quick build of the intact from the air handlers bike wasn't bad. Dressed to the nines (photos somewhere) for a quick noon open course ride.
It was so cool how close the venue was. Being able to easily just roll over there totally rocked. So awesome.
But then getting on the course. WTF? You serious? Power straight turn power straight turn weird icy off camber shit, after icy turn after icy turn. Little flow, little rhythm was to be found. NBX day two had fucking AWESOME rhythm, as did Sterling Day two. Non to be found here. The course was two sided. One was landscaping field. Ya know a big field where the city crew moves shit around or takes fill from one place and puts it another and then buries trees for the winter or until they are ready to put in a hole, it sucked. Then we went across the road. and bouncing around on this grass. here and there. good stuff for fans but it was like they packed the flow and twist into small sections and left the rest wide open. Sure it took a wicked intense effort to close some gaps on the wide open stretch but there was no where to regain losses to the cyclists with no skills. People were eating shit on the pre-ride there at Noon left and right.
It was lame. I was un-enthused. Pits were totally absolutely a deal breaker. You pit, you're fucked. seriously. The only person I saw who came in and pitted and didn't pay a price was Katie Fucking Compton.
It was lame. That's how I felt. It was short AND lame, or and aside from a really short power hill thing it was absolutely FLAT.
Single speed race was up next but they'd added a wrinkle in the snow between pre-ride and the next pre-ride. Unfortunately it was off camber in the snow and it was a nightmare - totally unrideable in traffic unless you hit it first. it sucked good and made the course only slightly slower. But that didn't do much to make it less lame.
Tried picking gearing. I'd never done a SS race before, no idea what gear I should run. It was advised that I go with the 46x21. I went with it. WAY TOO EASY. seriously. I wasn't spun out but by the time we'd hit the double left after the finish my HR was pegged and I was cooked, less of a gear and I might not have had to spin at 200 rpm to stay with the guys infront of me (no - it wasn't 200 but it was pretty fucking high). Anyway. Then the course turned to ice on the last couple laps. And riding it with a 32 fango on front and a Racing Ralph Clincher in the back at 45-50 psi sucked on the ice. Sucked. I wouldn't have been over geared in the 46-17.
It got better when the course turned to mud, but if they can change anything for next year, the course. Really needs something.
Put some BMX woops in, a sand pit or two, some better placed barriers, less of a bottle neck at the start (if possible) at least make it much wider or something.
It was, definitely worth going to again, despite the abysmal course. Yes. I'm calling the course crap. Half of it was perfect (the Clydesdale race half), the other half just sucked the life out of you, ice, rocks, ruts, boring straights of soul crushing madness. Then it turned into a super highway for the Pros. It was actually fun in the mud on Saturday. But Friday? SS race? and Pre-riding? Totally absolutely shitty suckfesty poop. Not that it seemed to slow down JONNY BOLD, paul curley, or Kevin Fucking HINES. Stars and Stripes coming home next year!!!
There were some really really cool things about Nationals. the whole Planet Bike Squad, corner cycles going nuts, clydesdale race, drum corp, beer, parties, friends, the list goes on - BBQ - i mean it had it all, except an exciting course.
We're spoiled in New England. But then cross, even with a boring, lame course can be fun if the conditions are right. But then they stop being lame under certain conditions. And from watching it, we had those conditions that weekend in one race, and one race only. The 35-39 race. I guess I was lucky afterall.
But don't go thinking that just because it was awesome and Nats was off the hook (I seriously dare anyone to think IWC was a better time than the Nats weekend) that the course totally ruled. It didn't, the course sucked (hell IWC was probably not a whole lot shorter). But I hope that Colin gets his skinny fast ass in gear and makes the trip to Bend next year and is forced to do IWC the weekend after. Because we all need one more bash after Nats. Just think, if he'd done it after nats this year JONNY BOLD and crew could have had the Stars and Stripes on racing in NE right away.
The lack of sleep hit me hard today - this may be one of the most unreadable pieces of shit written (meaning it is right up there with my standard quality) - and it may piss off people - i'm too tired to give a fuck, and after a week of hanging out with potty mouth adults my fucking language is scatted with f-bombs. Or was i the only potty mouth adult. Hard for me to judge as the week fades into a sleep deprived fog.
heddwch
G
But for me that didn't start until I rolled Chips Tubular in the parking lot just rolling around lamely trying to pedal in an attempt to warm up. The fun didn't start until I rolled a tubular. Yup. Unlike Linnea (fun ended with a rolled tubular - not a spec of glue in the whole stretch was stuck to the rim - glue job fail - new this season too) my fun started with a rolled tubular.
Getting there wasn't bad. But I was tired. More on that later, staying up for 24 hours straight is a great way to start a National Championship race, thanks big stupid winter storm.
Getting there checking the sweet pad that ROB KRAMER scored doing a quick build of the intact from the air handlers bike wasn't bad. Dressed to the nines (photos somewhere) for a quick noon open course ride.
It was so cool how close the venue was. Being able to easily just roll over there totally rocked. So awesome.
But then getting on the course. WTF? You serious? Power straight turn power straight turn weird icy off camber shit, after icy turn after icy turn. Little flow, little rhythm was to be found. NBX day two had fucking AWESOME rhythm, as did Sterling Day two. Non to be found here. The course was two sided. One was landscaping field. Ya know a big field where the city crew moves shit around or takes fill from one place and puts it another and then buries trees for the winter or until they are ready to put in a hole, it sucked. Then we went across the road. and bouncing around on this grass. here and there. good stuff for fans but it was like they packed the flow and twist into small sections and left the rest wide open. Sure it took a wicked intense effort to close some gaps on the wide open stretch but there was no where to regain losses to the cyclists with no skills. People were eating shit on the pre-ride there at Noon left and right.
It was lame. I was un-enthused. Pits were totally absolutely a deal breaker. You pit, you're fucked. seriously. The only person I saw who came in and pitted and didn't pay a price was Katie Fucking Compton.
It was lame. That's how I felt. It was short AND lame, or and aside from a really short power hill thing it was absolutely FLAT.
Single speed race was up next but they'd added a wrinkle in the snow between pre-ride and the next pre-ride. Unfortunately it was off camber in the snow and it was a nightmare - totally unrideable in traffic unless you hit it first. it sucked good and made the course only slightly slower. But that didn't do much to make it less lame.
Tried picking gearing. I'd never done a SS race before, no idea what gear I should run. It was advised that I go with the 46x21. I went with it. WAY TOO EASY. seriously. I wasn't spun out but by the time we'd hit the double left after the finish my HR was pegged and I was cooked, less of a gear and I might not have had to spin at 200 rpm to stay with the guys infront of me (no - it wasn't 200 but it was pretty fucking high). Anyway. Then the course turned to ice on the last couple laps. And riding it with a 32 fango on front and a Racing Ralph Clincher in the back at 45-50 psi sucked on the ice. Sucked. I wouldn't have been over geared in the 46-17.
It got better when the course turned to mud, but if they can change anything for next year, the course. Really needs something.
Put some BMX woops in, a sand pit or two, some better placed barriers, less of a bottle neck at the start (if possible) at least make it much wider or something.
It was, definitely worth going to again, despite the abysmal course. Yes. I'm calling the course crap. Half of it was perfect (the Clydesdale race half), the other half just sucked the life out of you, ice, rocks, ruts, boring straights of soul crushing madness. Then it turned into a super highway for the Pros. It was actually fun in the mud on Saturday. But Friday? SS race? and Pre-riding? Totally absolutely shitty suckfesty poop. Not that it seemed to slow down JONNY BOLD, paul curley, or Kevin Fucking HINES. Stars and Stripes coming home next year!!!
There were some really really cool things about Nationals. the whole Planet Bike Squad, corner cycles going nuts, clydesdale race, drum corp, beer, parties, friends, the list goes on - BBQ - i mean it had it all, except an exciting course.
We're spoiled in New England. But then cross, even with a boring, lame course can be fun if the conditions are right. But then they stop being lame under certain conditions. And from watching it, we had those conditions that weekend in one race, and one race only. The 35-39 race. I guess I was lucky afterall.
But don't go thinking that just because it was awesome and Nats was off the hook (I seriously dare anyone to think IWC was a better time than the Nats weekend) that the course totally ruled. It didn't, the course sucked (hell IWC was probably not a whole lot shorter). But I hope that Colin gets his skinny fast ass in gear and makes the trip to Bend next year and is forced to do IWC the weekend after. Because we all need one more bash after Nats. Just think, if he'd done it after nats this year JONNY BOLD and crew could have had the Stars and Stripes on racing in NE right away.
The lack of sleep hit me hard today - this may be one of the most unreadable pieces of shit written (meaning it is right up there with my standard quality) - and it may piss off people - i'm too tired to give a fuck, and after a week of hanging out with potty mouth adults my fucking language is scatted with f-bombs. Or was i the only potty mouth adult. Hard for me to judge as the week fades into a sleep deprived fog.
heddwch
G
if you
are not reading it you should be. Tilford strolled through the Sunday night party - did shots with a wicked wicked way drunk guy with the initials TH, and National Champ Timmie and Bart Bowen. He was seen through out the weekend, just not on his bike.
I'd heard of his blog but never really read it. Hit it this morning and the entry about Risk was pretty much up there. I certainly wasn't taking as many risks as I could have been in the Single Speed race, but crashing as hard as I did in the 35-39 race and the Cyclocross Clydesdale Championship of the Universe, I know I wasn't holding back too much. I'm still very much like I was in College, hoping I don't break the bike because I can't afford to replace busted stuff, my body will heal, my bike? Not so much.
Wicked cold (for how i dressed). 20°F (it never was 23 at the house) with a 20-30mph headwind. That is kind of cold.
I'd heard of his blog but never really read it. Hit it this morning and the entry about Risk was pretty much up there. I certainly wasn't taking as many risks as I could have been in the Single Speed race, but crashing as hard as I did in the 35-39 race and the Cyclocross Clydesdale Championship of the Universe, I know I wasn't holding back too much. I'm still very much like I was in College, hoping I don't break the bike because I can't afford to replace busted stuff, my body will heal, my bike? Not so much.
Wicked cold (for how i dressed). 20°F (it never was 23 at the house) with a 20-30mph headwind. That is kind of cold.
There I am
Racing single speed. Nice slide to the left at 51 seconds in.
And if you believe it, the course got worse with two laps to go. Seriously it was pretty f*cking challenging. G-ride loved it. Me? Not so much. I'm blaming it on not being able to run 20 psi in some fat tubbies.
And if you believe it, the course got worse with two laps to go. Seriously it was pretty f*cking challenging. G-ride loved it. Me? Not so much. I'm blaming it on not being able to run 20 psi in some fat tubbies.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Crazy Long Exhausting Fun Emotional week
Yeah. All of the above.
How the hell am I going to capture it all. I will try.
I wrote long hand on the flight out, then didn't touch the pen/paper or touch fingers to a keyboard with thoughts of organizing ideas to post here until now.
I've recounted the trip a few times and man, what a good story all together.
I haven't bothered to check the online results. The paper ones were correct and the officials I talked to assured me that the printed paper ones are official and the online ones are not. Too bad Results boy probably is going to use unofficial wrong results to tabulate ranking shit from Nats.
The worst parts? The course on Thursday. It was icy, snowy and lame and short, and flat and fucking sketchy. SS race on Friday wasn't much better except the snow had been swept off by all the tires and the temps dropped and it was the slickest of every race out there (more tack in the morning even).
Anyway I will try and get into it more later. The story is well worth documenting. I had a blast. There are great photos from the "Clydesdale Cyclocross Championship of the Universe" and a handful of videos. I'm about 4th off the first turn, and then 10th in the off camber section (i hooked the bars on a stake and let too many of the thundering herd pass me at that point).
It was off the hook crazy, esp the party afterwards. They needed 3x the capacity to get all the fans at the Fat Guy race into the warehouse. If they had, the party REALLY would have been off the hook.
anyway - more later - eventually.
heddwch
G
How the hell am I going to capture it all. I will try.
I wrote long hand on the flight out, then didn't touch the pen/paper or touch fingers to a keyboard with thoughts of organizing ideas to post here until now.
I've recounted the trip a few times and man, what a good story all together.
I haven't bothered to check the online results. The paper ones were correct and the officials I talked to assured me that the printed paper ones are official and the online ones are not. Too bad Results boy probably is going to use unofficial wrong results to tabulate ranking shit from Nats.
The worst parts? The course on Thursday. It was icy, snowy and lame and short, and flat and fucking sketchy. SS race on Friday wasn't much better except the snow had been swept off by all the tires and the temps dropped and it was the slickest of every race out there (more tack in the morning even).
Anyway I will try and get into it more later. The story is well worth documenting. I had a blast. There are great photos from the "Clydesdale Cyclocross Championship of the Universe" and a handful of videos. I'm about 4th off the first turn, and then 10th in the off camber section (i hooked the bars on a stake and let too many of the thundering herd pass me at that point).
It was off the hook crazy, esp the party afterwards. They needed 3x the capacity to get all the fans at the Fat Guy race into the warehouse. If they had, the party REALLY would have been off the hook.
anyway - more later - eventually.
heddwch
G
Monday, December 07, 2009
I'm supposed to be packing
But, well I'm not. I'm having a Grimbergen, contemplating the fates of the last couple weeks.
I keep reminding myself that the tubular I glued on to the rear wheel brought me a bronze medal in the 35+ Rhode Island state championships. So what if it now looks like this. It is off the rim, and i stuck the worn old Fango on (not glued yet) for travel. So what if I stayed up late thursday night gluing it on. It freaking HOOKED up in the stuff there. It was amazing riding it. Now it is dead. And no, for some reason I can't bring myself to pack the clinchers. This is nationals. Clinchers? Not me, not my fat ass bouncing off rocks and roots and sticking like glue. May have to resort to take up friends on generous offers. Such is life. Such is life.
I'll bring glue and gloves and just get this together wed when i have a minute or two. If nothing else it will work well enough to survive and have fun.
enough delaying the packing. time to put the bike in the box on the kitchen floor. Nothing like having to be at the airport before lunch to motivate packing at the last minute. Maybe i'd better just have another Grimbergen. Or maybe one of the other ones, a Sterkens White Ale.
heddwch,
g
I keep reminding myself that the tubular I glued on to the rear wheel brought me a bronze medal in the 35+ Rhode Island state championships. So what if it now looks like this. It is off the rim, and i stuck the worn old Fango on (not glued yet) for travel. So what if I stayed up late thursday night gluing it on. It freaking HOOKED up in the stuff there. It was amazing riding it. Now it is dead. And no, for some reason I can't bring myself to pack the clinchers. This is nationals. Clinchers? Not me, not my fat ass bouncing off rocks and roots and sticking like glue. May have to resort to take up friends on generous offers. Such is life. Such is life.
I'll bring glue and gloves and just get this together wed when i have a minute or two. If nothing else it will work well enough to survive and have fun.
enough delaying the packing. time to put the bike in the box on the kitchen floor. Nothing like having to be at the airport before lunch to motivate packing at the last minute. Maybe i'd better just have another Grimbergen. Or maybe one of the other ones, a Sterkens White Ale.
heddwch,
g
NBX NBX yes yes yes
Freaking AWESOME.
Briefest of reports:
Race hard both days. Horrible start both days. Different finishes both days.
Day one it was 38-40°F and raining and windy. Cold and ideal conditions for cross. The course was tough and demanding. But that back tire was HOOKING UP. Still when I passed the finish line and saw 3 to go? Oh man that was it. Carl Ring was just up ahead and poof - i was in no man's land between Carl and G-ride. No chance for G-ride to catch me, but i didn't have the Fiah-Powah to close the gap on the little roadie jockey. Finished pretty well even for feeling like dog poop the last couple laps.
Day two? Colder. Couldn't have been much more than 35°F and WINDY. I even put a sleeveless baselayer on AND knee warmers. Still went bare handed (hands were fine) and unzipped part way through, but it was a great day. Jumping from group to group, riding through groups and all the way up to and through Carl. A great finish. I saw 2 to go and I Carl pretty much at the same time and thought: "only two? OH YEAH!" And I nuked it and it was just AWESOME.
Raised the bars up to the top of the fork, and i'm cornering much better. Power is there and that second day is still working for me. One of these days I'll have to figure out how to get faster on Day 1. Maybe my extended hard opener on Friday helped a little, but not quite enough.
Oh and Jack Chapman got a few pictures of me. One of them he caught me unaware while i was changing back at the truck.
I've got some more pictures to post I think. Nothing as NSFW as the one above fortunately.
Flying out to the west coast tomorrow. Going to see my folks for a day and then head to PDX to pick up G-ride and drive down to BEND! I'm racing the Single Speed race on friday and then the 35-39 race on Saturday. Finishing off my season with a bit of fun in the Clydesdale race Saturday night! Then the Planet Bike gang will be cheering on Jonathan Page.
Can't wait. And I'll even get to catch the Bellevue concert on Monday night before flying back home.
So much to do. No time for words.
heddwch
G
Briefest of reports:
Race hard both days. Horrible start both days. Different finishes both days.
Day one it was 38-40°F and raining and windy. Cold and ideal conditions for cross. The course was tough and demanding. But that back tire was HOOKING UP. Still when I passed the finish line and saw 3 to go? Oh man that was it. Carl Ring was just up ahead and poof - i was in no man's land between Carl and G-ride. No chance for G-ride to catch me, but i didn't have the Fiah-Powah to close the gap on the little roadie jockey. Finished pretty well even for feeling like dog poop the last couple laps.
Day two? Colder. Couldn't have been much more than 35°F and WINDY. I even put a sleeveless baselayer on AND knee warmers. Still went bare handed (hands were fine) and unzipped part way through, but it was a great day. Jumping from group to group, riding through groups and all the way up to and through Carl. A great finish. I saw 2 to go and I Carl pretty much at the same time and thought: "only two? OH YEAH!" And I nuked it and it was just AWESOME.
Raised the bars up to the top of the fork, and i'm cornering much better. Power is there and that second day is still working for me. One of these days I'll have to figure out how to get faster on Day 1. Maybe my extended hard opener on Friday helped a little, but not quite enough.
Oh and Jack Chapman got a few pictures of me. One of them he caught me unaware while i was changing back at the truck.
I've got some more pictures to post I think. Nothing as NSFW as the one above fortunately.
Flying out to the west coast tomorrow. Going to see my folks for a day and then head to PDX to pick up G-ride and drive down to BEND! I'm racing the Single Speed race on friday and then the 35-39 race on Saturday. Finishing off my season with a bit of fun in the Clydesdale race Saturday night! Then the Planet Bike gang will be cheering on Jonathan Page.
Can't wait. And I'll even get to catch the Bellevue concert on Monday night before flying back home.
So much to do. No time for words.
heddwch
G
Friday, December 04, 2009
Ooof it is done
I managed to get on the bike and do some "openers" (yeah i'm getting tired of that word too - overuse burnout). First time I got really effective trainer based stuff in on the bike on a Friday before a verge race maybe all season.
We'll see if it makes any difference. Hell I might even have to go for a coffee in the morning. Just to add some intensity. Or i wait and get a cup at the Race. Word is they're going to have a coffee vendor in the carousel building (and beer). I added the patches to the suit (well I added one and my wife sewed the other one in). Just have to work out getting there so I can sort of get close to the routine.
The bike fits in the box i borrowed. With the Giant's slightly sloping TT it fits w/o having to take the crank off. The rear tire is swapped. Took off the nearly completely worn down Fango (in one year the tread is worn) and replaced it with the not super straight generation one FMB grippo (it isn't straight and my 11pm glue job didn't do it any favors). Shouldn't be too noticeable at race pressure. We'll see. Re-glue is a possibility if it don't ride great this weekend.
Looking forward to NBX. The sunday course is usually more to my liking, I hope we get to go UP the hill at least one of the days (preferably both days). By UP i mean race up the road instead of down it.
well - it is a daddy at home day and we've all gotta get ready to head to Ballet soon.
Tomorrow, BRING IT!
heddwch
G
We'll see if it makes any difference. Hell I might even have to go for a coffee in the morning. Just to add some intensity. Or i wait and get a cup at the Race. Word is they're going to have a coffee vendor in the carousel building (and beer). I added the patches to the suit (well I added one and my wife sewed the other one in). Just have to work out getting there so I can sort of get close to the routine.
The bike fits in the box i borrowed. With the Giant's slightly sloping TT it fits w/o having to take the crank off. The rear tire is swapped. Took off the nearly completely worn down Fango (in one year the tread is worn) and replaced it with the not super straight generation one FMB grippo (it isn't straight and my 11pm glue job didn't do it any favors). Shouldn't be too noticeable at race pressure. We'll see. Re-glue is a possibility if it don't ride great this weekend.
Looking forward to NBX. The sunday course is usually more to my liking, I hope we get to go UP the hill at least one of the days (preferably both days). By UP i mean race up the road instead of down it.
well - it is a daddy at home day and we've all gotta get ready to head to Ballet soon.
Tomorrow, BRING IT!
heddwch
G
One Wine Bottle and 3 Jugglers?
Pretty cool (thanks TA)
and some more linkage from ROB BAUER (yeah you gotta say it the same way as JONNY BOLD). "Cycling Negatives Worth Mentioning"
Thursday, December 03, 2009
NBX Pre-Reg is Re-Opening
NBX pre-reg is re-opening until 6 pm tonight and the day of fee is now $5. Please pass it along.
No no excuse, esp if you missed signing in yesterday. Nice work Adam!
No no excuse, esp if you missed signing in yesterday. Nice work Adam!
Bitching Tail Wind
What a ride in. Was going to try and drill it on the way in but I stopped to take pictures here and there. What a damn nice day as well. 64°F.
The water was pretty high with the perfect combination of strong gale force winds from the south, full moon high tide and rain. But the rain hit earlier, and the wind was starting to slacken at high tide so it wasn't nearly as spectacular riding in this morning as it was last year in that flooded bike path storm.
Going to try and get the photos up sometime soon. No workout yesterday. No trainer, no riding outside, nothing. This morning was a wash too. Plans to wake up at 5:45 and get a quick 30-40 minute interval session in were thwarted by the dog. She wanted to go out at 4am, then she wouldn't stop barking from downstairs. With her drain tubes and the injury we have to keep her off the stairs, and well she doesn't like being alone. I tried to go to sleep a few times after letting her out only to have a progression of soft woof barks all the way up to full on COME DOWN NOW barks. Wound up trying to sleep on the couch, but then didn't wake up until 6:20. So much for that session.
The ride in was photographic. Tonight I'm picking up the bike box after dinner so maybe i can get something in on the way home, or late tonight. At least maybe I'll be fresh for the weekend. Maybe Gary will do 8800 yards in the pool on Friday after doing 5500 yards today.
Weather is looking good though. Looking good for Nats as well. Gonna be most awesome! Pictures. Right. Coming right up.
The water was pretty high with the perfect combination of strong gale force winds from the south, full moon high tide and rain. But the rain hit earlier, and the wind was starting to slacken at high tide so it wasn't nearly as spectacular riding in this morning as it was last year in that flooded bike path storm.
Going to try and get the photos up sometime soon. No workout yesterday. No trainer, no riding outside, nothing. This morning was a wash too. Plans to wake up at 5:45 and get a quick 30-40 minute interval session in were thwarted by the dog. She wanted to go out at 4am, then she wouldn't stop barking from downstairs. With her drain tubes and the injury we have to keep her off the stairs, and well she doesn't like being alone. I tried to go to sleep a few times after letting her out only to have a progression of soft woof barks all the way up to full on COME DOWN NOW barks. Wound up trying to sleep on the couch, but then didn't wake up until 6:20. So much for that session.
The ride in was photographic. Tonight I'm picking up the bike box after dinner so maybe i can get something in on the way home, or late tonight. At least maybe I'll be fresh for the weekend. Maybe Gary will do 8800 yards in the pool on Friday after doing 5500 yards today.
Weather is looking good though. Looking good for Nats as well. Gonna be most awesome! Pictures. Right. Coming right up.
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
Chillin with the trouble maker
IE Lucy (our dog). But not just her, we're chilling eating some lunch watching Sid the Science guy. The littlest has been sniffly and this morning was looking pretty wiped, since I was hanging out with the post surgery dog, might as well let L get some more rest and get better.
Lucy's got two subcutaneous drainage tubes in her chest and a big bandage on her front leg. She's no where back to her old self yet and well needs some monitoring and all that at least until the tubes come out on Friday. There was a good deal of damage from her fight, the other two dogs must have been pretty solid scappers to do this much damage while hey were on a leash, poor lucy's paying a big price for wandering off after two dogs saturday afternoon.
Nice thing about not needing coffee is being able to get more sleep, so nice. Resting up for the last bout of racing isn't a bad thing.
Lucy's got two subcutaneous drainage tubes in her chest and a big bandage on her front leg. She's no where back to her old self yet and well needs some monitoring and all that at least until the tubes come out on Friday. There was a good deal of damage from her fight, the other two dogs must have been pretty solid scappers to do this much damage while hey were on a leash, poor lucy's paying a big price for wandering off after two dogs saturday afternoon.
Nice thing about not needing coffee is being able to get more sleep, so nice. Resting up for the last bout of racing isn't a bad thing.
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Proud of this country
Why? for the first time in countless years i can actually listen to a presidential speech. This guy is F'n good.
He's a damn good man for the job, i wish him the success he deserves.
Good Stuff Mr. President.
Thank you.
G
(okay now back to the regular heckling of east coast vs west coast and internal local rivalries)
-edit i've always been proud of this country, just more so now-
he ain't perfect, can't agree with everything, but at least i feel much more respect for the positions he is taking and what he is trying to do
He's a damn good man for the job, i wish him the success he deserves.
Good Stuff Mr. President.
Thank you.
G
(okay now back to the regular heckling of east coast vs west coast and internal local rivalries)
-edit i've always been proud of this country, just more so now-
he ain't perfect, can't agree with everything, but at least i feel much more respect for the positions he is taking and what he is trying to do
23? Seriously? 23?
That's it? Pre-reg closes tomorrow and there are only 23 signed up? What is everyone else planning to day of? I know that's the cool thing to do when you have Verge points and all. But 23? Burn out? Is NBX taking the brunt of the loooong verge series? I hope not.
I generally love this course. Well usually prefering day two. Maybe it has nothing to do with the course and always just the second day of racing. Sort of like the weekend after a rest week. The body forgets how to go hard.
Anyway. i'd be great to see everyone showing up and racing. It is one of the better spectator friendly venues (and we might even get snow saturday night like usual) even if it can be cold.
Go sign up. Bring a friend. Get them hooked just in time for Ice Weezers and next year.
I generally love this course. Well usually prefering day two. Maybe it has nothing to do with the course and always just the second day of racing. Sort of like the weekend after a rest week. The body forgets how to go hard.
Anyway. i'd be great to see everyone showing up and racing. It is one of the better spectator friendly venues (and we might even get snow saturday night like usual) even if it can be cold.
Go sign up. Bring a friend. Get them hooked just in time for Ice Weezers and next year.
fork me i'm done
well not really - just too damn busy to write.
The trip to nationals is falling into place. Stuff is happening to move it on. Dog's getting sewn back up today, the Passat may have a used performance downpipe in its future (still have to pull the damn turbo and replace the busted studs).
But the time to write about the race reports, and trust me i want to write about them, isn't happening. Hell i haven't even read the whole internet once in the last week. Seriously. I'm a week behind on keeping up.
I'm slacking. about 5% caught up this morning. 4.5% of that was reading G_ride's fear and self loathing in sterling saga.
The other 0.5% was watching this:
Okay so my % are off - I read through G-ride's reports in less time than the video takes, much less. Reading fast can be good for somethings. Practice kids, practice reading so you can be good at it too. For the record I came across the Muppets link here.
Soups got some great shots from Sterling, maybe I'll skip eating lunch today and just try and write. Long list of stuff to sort out before then though. Before Lunch that is.
For the record I'm getting as tired of hearing about burning matches as I am about Ryan saying "SLAM THAT STEM." Okay, honestly I'm not tired of Ryan saying that, it is still funny and not annoying. Burning matches at the start, while an appropriate analogy, is just as annoying and over-used as 'Epic' but that's just my feeling on the matter.
Got my run in this morning though. Lucy was awake and asking to go outside at 5am though. I tried to climb back in bed to sleep for another half hour or 45 minutes before lacing up the running shoes, but she would have none of that. She wanted to eat. But she wasn't supposed to, she needed to be fasting for surgery today to close up a wound from Saturday afternoon. Yeah so while G-ride was under the car breaking off studs on my turbo, she managed to get let out by the youngest and find a couple dogs to tussle with. great afternoon. But her persistance got me running at 5:30. pretty damn dark. little LED headlamp made it work. I headed to the sand of the Riverside Beach to do sprints in it to prepare for NBX. But the tide was way high, so I had to made do with heading to my stairs from the top and going up and down them like usual. Running in the dark with a headlamp isn't nearly as fun as riding in the dark. Disappointed not to run on the sand, but I can't control the tides or the opportunity windows. It got me back in time to make waffles this morning and that's never a bad thing.
So what if I'm going to be a zombie later today. Swap rear tires? Yeah, going to have to do that. Probably should start that tonight so it has a good chance to set up well enough for Saturday. I like to do base tape and rim one night and then stick them together the next day. Just seems to work.
Being on hold is a great time to unload the brain. Not race report unload, random stuff that is log-jamming the report. Get all that out of there and it is like the morning coffee for some (same effect).
I'm feeling the crash though from Sunday. A pre-ride crash. Paul Curly came in hot and on the topside without any space in a pre-ride with traffic in front of me and slid out and took me down on top of his bike. The contusions on my leg are painful but my neck is pretty damn sore. Funny, more pain from getting wiped out there than busting up my helmet. Oh well. He apologized and said it was a stupid move. It was, and things happen. One person using the facility remarked that I crash a lot. Crashing a lot for me is Carl Crashing Ring. I'm going down once a weekend roughly. Not 10 times in a race. But maybe that is still a lot for non-CXers.
My list is getting shorter! (not the bullet list in my head - the one on paper to get through today).
race report? someday? maybe I will try and finagle a way to take the computer with me - but i'm guessing it will be a resounding "you are not taking the house computer with you to OR" - to write stuff up. May just wind up doing the old school paper thing... sometimes that works better.
heddwch
G
oh and Joe Parkin on Brussel Sprouts? No way. Way.
The trip to nationals is falling into place. Stuff is happening to move it on. Dog's getting sewn back up today, the Passat may have a used performance downpipe in its future (still have to pull the damn turbo and replace the busted studs).
But the time to write about the race reports, and trust me i want to write about them, isn't happening. Hell i haven't even read the whole internet once in the last week. Seriously. I'm a week behind on keeping up.
I'm slacking. about 5% caught up this morning. 4.5% of that was reading G_ride's fear and self loathing in sterling saga.
The other 0.5% was watching this:
Okay so my % are off - I read through G-ride's reports in less time than the video takes, much less. Reading fast can be good for somethings. Practice kids, practice reading so you can be good at it too. For the record I came across the Muppets link here.
Soups got some great shots from Sterling, maybe I'll skip eating lunch today and just try and write. Long list of stuff to sort out before then though. Before Lunch that is.
For the record I'm getting as tired of hearing about burning matches as I am about Ryan saying "SLAM THAT STEM." Okay, honestly I'm not tired of Ryan saying that, it is still funny and not annoying. Burning matches at the start, while an appropriate analogy, is just as annoying and over-used as 'Epic' but that's just my feeling on the matter.
Got my run in this morning though. Lucy was awake and asking to go outside at 5am though. I tried to climb back in bed to sleep for another half hour or 45 minutes before lacing up the running shoes, but she would have none of that. She wanted to eat. But she wasn't supposed to, she needed to be fasting for surgery today to close up a wound from Saturday afternoon. Yeah so while G-ride was under the car breaking off studs on my turbo, she managed to get let out by the youngest and find a couple dogs to tussle with. great afternoon. But her persistance got me running at 5:30. pretty damn dark. little LED headlamp made it work. I headed to the sand of the Riverside Beach to do sprints in it to prepare for NBX. But the tide was way high, so I had to made do with heading to my stairs from the top and going up and down them like usual. Running in the dark with a headlamp isn't nearly as fun as riding in the dark. Disappointed not to run on the sand, but I can't control the tides or the opportunity windows. It got me back in time to make waffles this morning and that's never a bad thing.
So what if I'm going to be a zombie later today. Swap rear tires? Yeah, going to have to do that. Probably should start that tonight so it has a good chance to set up well enough for Saturday. I like to do base tape and rim one night and then stick them together the next day. Just seems to work.
Being on hold is a great time to unload the brain. Not race report unload, random stuff that is log-jamming the report. Get all that out of there and it is like the morning coffee for some (same effect).
I'm feeling the crash though from Sunday. A pre-ride crash. Paul Curly came in hot and on the topside without any space in a pre-ride with traffic in front of me and slid out and took me down on top of his bike. The contusions on my leg are painful but my neck is pretty damn sore. Funny, more pain from getting wiped out there than busting up my helmet. Oh well. He apologized and said it was a stupid move. It was, and things happen. One person using the facility remarked that I crash a lot. Crashing a lot for me is Carl Crashing Ring. I'm going down once a weekend roughly. Not 10 times in a race. But maybe that is still a lot for non-CXers.
My list is getting shorter! (not the bullet list in my head - the one on paper to get through today).
race report? someday? maybe I will try and finagle a way to take the computer with me - but i'm guessing it will be a resounding "you are not taking the house computer with you to OR" - to write stuff up. May just wind up doing the old school paper thing... sometimes that works better.
heddwch
G
oh and Joe Parkin on Brussel Sprouts? No way. Way.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Survived the weekend
But still wicked sore from the racing, and knee is feeling tweeked again from the upped intensity over the last week.
Sterling in the briefest of briefs was a typical race and not quite feel it on saturday and have a freaking blast actually racing on sunday. some day i'll figure out how to make it work both days. Sat course seemed much more techincal, twisty, and harder than sunday. Sunday just flowed really well for me, and I felt like was racing.
more later...
have to deal with the saga from Saturday afternoon... more on that later...
Sterling in the briefest of briefs was a typical race and not quite feel it on saturday and have a freaking blast actually racing on sunday. some day i'll figure out how to make it work both days. Sat course seemed much more techincal, twisty, and harder than sunday. Sunday just flowed really well for me, and I felt like was racing.
more later...
have to deal with the saga from Saturday afternoon... more on that later...
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Amazing Grace
How sweet the sound. Esp coming from The Drop Kick Murphy's
Yeah they're up there as a favorite of mine with Black47, Young Dubliners, The Pogues, the list goes on.
Happy Thanksgiving MoFos
Diolchgarwch Hapus for you Welsh MoFos
Yeah they're up there as a favorite of mine with Black47, Young Dubliners, The Pogues, the list goes on.
Happy Thanksgiving MoFos
Diolchgarwch Hapus for you Welsh MoFos
Big Guys Rumbling
Best value race at Nationals?
I think it just might be.
I'm kinda screwed with the whole weighing in at the start - gonna be another back row start. But that's still gonna be a damn good time racing around in the Herd.
Extra beer ticket too? Brilliant.
I think it just might be.
I'm kinda screwed with the whole weighing in at the start - gonna be another back row start. But that's still gonna be a damn good time racing around in the Herd.
Extra beer ticket too? Brilliant.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Not the biggest fan
but man I noticed this and thought - now that's cool.
free reusable cups to encourage purchasing of the quart containers. LOVE that ideal.
well done SF.
free reusable cups to encourage purchasing of the quart containers. LOVE that ideal.
well done SF.
Running in the dark
6am and out the door, shorts and t-shirt. Running in the dark. The tuesday morning route is actually pretty well lit with the exception of my street and the short stretch of bike path. The rest could be done in the middle of the night. Well strike that. I forgot about the Beach section and the Stairs. Those sections were pretty dark and by the time I got to the stairs the sky was getting just light enough to illuminate the dark wet wood of the sprint work section. That's the downside of running along a west facing shoreline. Still it was good hard lung burning work.
odd having the temps at 48°F bright and early on November 24th.
Got the girls out the door and suited up. Knee warmers and shoes were right were I left them from last nights ride home in the pouring rain. And they were soaked.
So I went with no knee warmers and wet shoes. Gloves were soaked too, so bare handed the ride in. It wasn't raining but on the run i felt a vicious headwind. Running into a headwind sucks more than riding into one.
Slathered up the legs with a bit of the top coat oil (nothing added to it) for the ride in. And said screw it and just hammered. Coach has an hour of Z3 with 10 150m sprints for this afternoon. I don't know if i can get a continuous hour of Z3 but I can probably book it home at Z3 and hook up the trainer and hit the balance of the remainder of the hour at the intensity on the trainer and then add the 150m sprints. Which I think might work out to being about 10-15second efforts. Feel free to correct me, i'm usually wrong and my intervals are all time based, i have no bike computer, no power meter, no nothing. And yeah, time based meaning I use the iPod on the trainer to keep track of the work out/intervals by making a playlist for what ever the work out is supposed to be.
I haven't done an interval outside yet, besides the longer 20-30minute ones that are incorporated into the commute. Yeah. I don't do the outside interval thing. For some reason I prefer the tunes and the predictability of the trainer. It more closely approximates a race course. Training on the road you have to be constantly aware of what's going on, and I just can't turn that mental focus off except on the trainer and on the cross course.
So anyway - i have a few more thoughts and comments about Lowell and Battenkill, but i'll save those for later.
heddwch
G
odd having the temps at 48°F bright and early on November 24th.
Got the girls out the door and suited up. Knee warmers and shoes were right were I left them from last nights ride home in the pouring rain. And they were soaked.
So I went with no knee warmers and wet shoes. Gloves were soaked too, so bare handed the ride in. It wasn't raining but on the run i felt a vicious headwind. Running into a headwind sucks more than riding into one.
Slathered up the legs with a bit of the top coat oil (nothing added to it) for the ride in. And said screw it and just hammered. Coach has an hour of Z3 with 10 150m sprints for this afternoon. I don't know if i can get a continuous hour of Z3 but I can probably book it home at Z3 and hook up the trainer and hit the balance of the remainder of the hour at the intensity on the trainer and then add the 150m sprints. Which I think might work out to being about 10-15second efforts. Feel free to correct me, i'm usually wrong and my intervals are all time based, i have no bike computer, no power meter, no nothing. And yeah, time based meaning I use the iPod on the trainer to keep track of the work out/intervals by making a playlist for what ever the work out is supposed to be.
I haven't done an interval outside yet, besides the longer 20-30minute ones that are incorporated into the commute. Yeah. I don't do the outside interval thing. For some reason I prefer the tunes and the predictability of the trainer. It more closely approximates a race course. Training on the road you have to be constantly aware of what's going on, and I just can't turn that mental focus off except on the trainer and on the cross course.
So anyway - i have a few more thoughts and comments about Lowell and Battenkill, but i'll save those for later.
heddwch
G
battenkill fees
What dieter did makes sense. I'm sure he ran it at a loss last year even with the huge fields. More fields means more cops more officials more this more that more more more more...
Supply and Demand. At the prices last year ($45?) he filled what 3 cat 4 fields. Certainly $ was not a limiting factor and that's an ungainly number of racers and it led to totally eff'd results.
Raising the entry fee makes sense. People came out because it is an awesome race. Where else can you get that kind of experience. Heck people pay nearly 4x as much to do Mt Washington. Talk about expensive.
Put it all in perspective. i'd love to do Mt Washington just to do it but I can't justify, much less afford, to spend that kind of money to race. I'd like to go do battenkill again, but I can't justify the drive out to pay $75 to race around and get dropped. Because without a doubt even if i get down to 5% body fat and really train hard and intelligently I'll still probably get dropped.
That and i've finally (after 3-4 years) come to the realization that i'm a big guy and I have more fun and do better on those boring flat crit things (ala thompson speedway). I'd rather pony up and do two or three races at an event like that than get my ass whupped at battenkill.
Here are a few other povs from the local tubes
http://stokepoges.blogspot.com/2009/11/take-stand.html (pulled i guess)
exit17: calling-the-whambulance-bike-races-are-expensive/
euphoriabeforetotalimplosion: creeping-fees-in-competitive-cycling.html (I'm diggin Dylan's comments there towards the bottom)
When it comes down to it $75 isn't that much. It is what a Verge weekend costs. When you look at traveling to VT/Catamount it probably is cheaper to race at Battenkill. And at least battenkill you get one long ass hard hilly wicked competitive (drop your ass) well supported race vs two grassy hilly slog fests. Me I'd rather do the cross stuff but, I tell ya. I hate battenkill (the race) but I love it just the same.
3 years in a row, there was a reason I kept coming back. Last year I had pretty much decided not to return, this new price structure sort of doesn't make it likely that I'll change my mind. Which is a good thing. We've got some great roads out west of the big city, plenty of dirt and rolling hills. Maybe one of the guys on the team will do it and need some company on training rides. That's enough for me.
So. Yeah, nothing ground breaking or different or what not. I wish Dieter all the best and to everyone heading out there, have fun. The race is still way cheaper than the other "epic" (overused i know) races (VT50, Great Glen 24hrs, Mt Washington...). And unlike D2R2, it is actually a race, that is if you don't suck and get dropped, and even then, you're still racing.
And Racing is different than riding around. Even a smack down isn't a race.
That's why cross is so cool. No pretending, you race or you ain't a cyclocrosser.
heddwch
G
Footnote:
Shedd Park Comments:
-Fix the start/finish so it makes sense and works for the field sizes
-put officials on platform with start/finish fencing (metal or snow fence- ala Plymouth N/S, NoHo)
-hire a results service (JD or Attwood for example)
-make sure there are HUP cakes next year
Supply and Demand. At the prices last year ($45?) he filled what 3 cat 4 fields. Certainly $ was not a limiting factor and that's an ungainly number of racers and it led to totally eff'd results.
Raising the entry fee makes sense. People came out because it is an awesome race. Where else can you get that kind of experience. Heck people pay nearly 4x as much to do Mt Washington. Talk about expensive.
Put it all in perspective. i'd love to do Mt Washington just to do it but I can't justify, much less afford, to spend that kind of money to race. I'd like to go do battenkill again, but I can't justify the drive out to pay $75 to race around and get dropped. Because without a doubt even if i get down to 5% body fat and really train hard and intelligently I'll still probably get dropped.
That and i've finally (after 3-4 years) come to the realization that i'm a big guy and I have more fun and do better on those boring flat crit things (ala thompson speedway). I'd rather pony up and do two or three races at an event like that than get my ass whupped at battenkill.
Here are a few other povs from the local tubes
http://stokepoges.blogspot.com/2009/11/take-stand.html (pulled i guess)
exit17: calling-the-whambulance-bike-races-are-expensive/
euphoriabeforetotalimplosion: creeping-fees-in-competitive-cycling.html (I'm diggin Dylan's comments there towards the bottom)
When it comes down to it $75 isn't that much. It is what a Verge weekend costs. When you look at traveling to VT/Catamount it probably is cheaper to race at Battenkill. And at least battenkill you get one long ass hard hilly wicked competitive (drop your ass) well supported race vs two grassy hilly slog fests. Me I'd rather do the cross stuff but, I tell ya. I hate battenkill (the race) but I love it just the same.
3 years in a row, there was a reason I kept coming back. Last year I had pretty much decided not to return, this new price structure sort of doesn't make it likely that I'll change my mind. Which is a good thing. We've got some great roads out west of the big city, plenty of dirt and rolling hills. Maybe one of the guys on the team will do it and need some company on training rides. That's enough for me.
So. Yeah, nothing ground breaking or different or what not. I wish Dieter all the best and to everyone heading out there, have fun. The race is still way cheaper than the other "epic" (overused i know) races (VT50, Great Glen 24hrs, Mt Washington...). And unlike D2R2, it is actually a race, that is if you don't suck and get dropped, and even then, you're still racing.
And Racing is different than riding around. Even a smack down isn't a race.
That's why cross is so cool. No pretending, you race or you ain't a cyclocrosser.
heddwch
G
Footnote:
Shedd Park Comments:
-Fix the start/finish so it makes sense and works for the field sizes
-put officials on platform with start/finish fencing (metal or snow fence- ala Plymouth N/S, NoHo)
-hire a results service (JD or Attwood for example)
-make sure there are HUP cakes next year
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