Canton tomorrow

Weather is looking downright horrible tomorrow. Windy (okay that's not normally bad but at Canton it can really suck), Warm, and dry. Seriously?

Canton has grown a bit in the last handful of years, really becoming the mid-season Suckerbrook. The second tier of races below the Verge ones. Just about as well attended. Add it to one of the oldest (Putney on sunday) and you have an epic non-verge weekend for those trying to do the double.

Me? Canton is it. After getting beat up this weekend with a cold/flu what ever it was (probably H1N1, hell that's what everyone around here is sick with apparently) I've got a slight lingering sinus thing, but clear lungs and pretty well rested legs. Not sure about how many minutes are in the tank, but we'll see tomorrow at Noon.

Too bad I didn't get a Pint Glass before some giant internet J-hole went and ruined it for everyone (man that was funny - mostly because it was funny to watch - probably not so entertaining for Todd C).

That course always has wind. And that running track is the worst. Guys have historically bridged up to me and then sat on my wheel into the wind, rested and the dropped me.

I was looking over the flier to see what the day of fee was (none apparently) and yet again, directions on how to get there from EVERY freaking location besides Providence. Wicked cool giant middle finger to that region. Love it. Its okay - i probably don't need directions anymore anyway.

This will be the first race the rest of the clan will be joining me at. I may see about grabbing a spot over by the track. And if not too windy set up a little shade. Gotta remember the chairs.

It has been nice having a weekend free of frantically running around and finding where I'd stashed my shit from the previous weekend and stuffing it in the car and heading to a race. Too bad it was a weekend followed by a day or three of feeling like crap!

See yall out there - way to distracted to make any sense (or say anything outrageously wrong - i hope) today.

heddwch
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Lucy

That's my big sweety

something totally different

learned something new - if you need drugs for your pets (like antibiotics) have you DVM write a script for the human equivalent. If you've got cats, well that might be hard to find dosage small enough, but dogs? Well even w/o insurance drugs like Ciprofloxacin cost less than ten dollars, vs the Dog version Baytril at $70-100.

puppy is happy now - so they aren't the liver flavor tabs. They are just normal pills. But the same thing - targeting the same bacteria.

Here's to a healthy dog in a few weeks! The two of us have bonded even more since thursday. She got sick, and then me taking care of her got me sick and a whole extra day at home with her. Hanging with your dog is good.

Dogs are good.

Life is good.

heddwch
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i'm an idiot

Yeah yeah - no big news. I'm just another monkey with a keyboard. And man did I finally bare a screw up for all to see.

I got it wrong, a false assumption, read a few things and missing the key: when food met caloric needs there is little lippogenesis and carbs above the current need saw a 2-3 fold increase.
Oops. Blindly reading is bad. Good thing everyone knows not to listen to me. And I’m wicked grateful to have friends who are more than happy to tell me when I’m wrong. Damn. What an Idiot I am.
It is rather funny how a couple misread articles tripped up a whole lifetime of my personal “conventional wisdom” – I find it funny now. Insufferably embarrassing but funny. Thanks.
Moment of “Oh Shit” happened riding home leisurely just thinking along.
Yeah the other related oops is 30 grams is a hell of a lot of protein when it comes down to it – that and the article is looking specifically at young adult and senior population. Small point but important – esp since few of either group that they looked at in the study actually are listening to me and telling me I’m wrong.


So now I'm going to go do some gluing of a tire.

sniff some mastik one pro

the good stuff

or at least the old stuff

that or i sit on my ass and watch TV

so far sitting on my ass is winning...

I can race on a clincher front if i have to...

heddwch
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This story gave me goosebumps

Thanks to McNally for sending along the link, this is very cool.

More funny moments

So you see my family has been doing these musical concert things for 31 years now. One of the most amazing people who've joined the series is a 'juggler' Thomas Arthur. Check this stuff out.

promo from Woven Essence on Vimeo.

now see that stuff that starts around 1 minute in? That's his stick. Thomas never does a show without his stick. And he's damn freaking good. Audiences eat his stuff up. Standing ovation eat it up.

He tweeted something today that had me in hysterics. Total bust a gut laughing. Way harder than I was laughing at the muppets earlier today. This is what he said:

For those that know me, you'll recognize my soulmate here: http://bit.ly/3nsnf8

.

I'm still dying laughing at it posting it up.

Nice one Thomas. Nice one!

4 ounces is all you need

Makes freaking sense. My mother has for a very long time been telling me that the best time to eat your protein is in the morning. Have a bit of sausage and egg to start the day and it will help out in the long run.

Well damn if these scientists like study poke and prod test subjects kinda of people didn't go and test it all out and write something up so the media can broadcast it around.

4 ounces a day. A DAY. More than that and ya don't make any more muscle. Eat all your protein at night and it gets turned into fat (not easily) or glucose (again not easily and both at a cost to acidifying your body and pulling calcium from your bones to buffer said acidification).

IE - DON'T EAT TOO MUCH DAMN PROTEIN. Seriously. Like Neils and the rest of the Euro CX dudes say "spaghetti" and lots of it. That's what you need.

No one ever got fat just eating pasta. Can't do it. Well you can if you load 10,000 calories of fat and protein on top of it, suuuuure.

Anyway. So maybe Science Daily isn't the cutting edge of all science but here's the source (cited in the Science Daily bit so they get big credit for handing out primary source):
Symons et al. A Moderate Serving of High-Quality Protein Maximally Stimulates Skeletal Muscle Protein Synthesis in Young and Elderly Subjects. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 2009; 109 (9): 1582 DOI: 10.1016/j.jada.2009.06.369

So. Wanna have big muscles? I always did but never managed to get them (stupid genetics), well here's a good thing to work on. I guess I'd better go back to eating some good protein in the morning!

Oh and all this verge points stuff? Well, Mad Watts Myette decided to declare that I am the fastest 35+ guy without Verge Points. Saddly GCD chimed in begging to differ and rightfully claiming that title from me. I can tell you there are dozens of "pack fodder" masters kicking them selves from monday to NoHo about missing Maine. Seriously, getting lapped AND STILL GETTING POINTS! Outrageous.

Finally got around to starting the gluing process. Got a nice layer on the electrical taped rim, a good coat on the basetape. Going to let them sit and get them all stuck together tomorrow it looks like. I had one tube of Mastik one laying around - grabbed one from THE best FUCKING bike shop in all of Providence (Casters is down in Warwick, they don't count - Dash is a great little shop too) Legend Bicycle. Jack had some Mastik One. Totally on my way home, small shop but he's got a lot of stuff and Jack knows bikes and he knows Cyclocross. Hell he usually shows up just to beat me at the RI state Champs (Sunday at NBX), he had me scared for the first few laps there Saturday in PVD this year. That and he's just a damn fine good all around kind of guy!

Support the local/little guys. And hell any bike shop that isn't a national chain is still a damn little guy in the big scheme of things.

I wasn't sleepy when I started writing but now I am. That's a good thing. Way back when I graduated, that speaker person who "we" invited to talk used that phrase alot "good thing" it was popular back then in the early 90s.

Sleep time...

heddwch
G

Even Better

Morning Laugh

Almost crying laughing so hard.

so much for starting the next phase

I am not going to have the energy to do the stuff my coach laid out for me. Good thing the book he got the training plan out of has a "sick" clause. Don't do anything serious until you're recovered.

So, well. Gonna get back on the bike for the first time since Thursday. Crazy being off the bike that long. Crazy getting sick. Better now than later. Timing is pretty right on though. last year going into NoHo I managed to get strep throat. The year before (or was it two) i got pretty laid up around Halloween. So this is a bit early, but this is the most intense front loaded season yet, and I've got two nights in the last two weeks w/o sleep. And the last one was kind of two nights in a row of getting what sleep i got on the couch, comfortable, but not my bed.

So now at least I'm not blowing through tissues every 2 minutes, but I'm coughing at about that frequency now. But surprisingly pretty clear lungs.

I took Lucy out for a walk this afternoon and well, it felt nice to be ambulatory, when I came back I was hosed. Now that i've had a bit of food I'm starting to feel a bit more ordinary. But still not really all that perfect. No fever and no real ache, just my normal fall cold.

Hopefully I'll pull it together with enough time to get some intensity back in the legs before Canton.

And seriously, I'm getting worried about what I said way back in July. Actually not worried about, more excited really. Could it come true? Have we had a dry weekend after the 19th of Sept? Man next weekend could really prove something. Seriously. When is the last time New England had this much rain during cross season, specifically on the weekends. Everyone around here is complaining about the crappy weather on the weekends. Me? I'm LOVING IT. Bummed to have missed the slog fest in Maine.

IIRC we did canton in the rain last year. It wasn't so bad. But I don't really think it was much more than just wet, it wasn't a slog fest like Wrentham.

Only the weather gods know what is in store for us on Saturday.

heddwch
G

not a fan

Of the whole Disney stuff. So I laugh when i see this but then I also worry about it.

But then hey - they are a big bunch of hot princesses eh? And people say the world of fashion is "unhealthy" to the self image of girls in the US. Yeah. You know? Madison Ave together with the fashion industry doesn't have half the influence that Disney does.

Dove? You are missing the target (if your target is young women). Maybe they need to start using Disney like cartoon characters as their next target, instead of that ears hang low add (MAKE IT STOP).

regrets

seeing G-Ride's tweet that he got Verge Points today has me regretting not going up to Maine this weekend. But right now i'm about 1/2 through a box of tissues - nose is running like crazy, feeling not bad but not feeling great.

Seriously, G-Ride with Verge POINTS? Man that's awesome for him, really cool. Must be that new Blue (really we all know it was his SS mt bike racing this summer). He put the time in and the dues to get where he is.

I've got some catching up to do.

Nice Job G-ride, nice job.

Results Boy Gets it

Yes, that's a pretty self supporting statement/title, after all, he is the brains and the initiative behind crossresults.com. Resultsboy certainly does get it and he's way faster than me (by about a lap over 65 minutes). He talks that fast too. Million miles a minute. Anyway - talking a read of his web log today had me mentally swapping it up a bit. Changing the premise from a Pro/1/2 to 2/3 (or 3) to racing in the back of the 1/2/3 35+ race instead of a 3/4 35+ race and it is the pretty much the same thing. It is about racing. About how much g-damn fun it is racing CX, and being pushed and racing those around you.

I'm happy with my 3 status. That's where I am, where i should be. Maybe in a good number of years i'll have more time to be focused about the training, maybe some of the time sinks now will start taking some responsibility on their own and I can find a measure or two of better focus on getting faster. Right now? I'm happy. Very happy to watch my Crossresults ranking go down from last year. G-ride's killing it (compared to me) and Myette's another rung of the ladder faster than he was last year. Watching these guys I'm racing with all step it up every year is pretty cool. We take it seriously. Some more than others, some with more natural gift than others, but god damn it is fun. The elbow to elbow jostling for place, the apologies when people stack it up and hold up their friend and competitor.

This is a fahking awesome sport to participate in. Love it. And as much as I would love to head to Maine and race in a smaller field this weekend, I do need time off. 5 weekends of doubles is a lot, but a great way to jump start the season.

Oh and someone got a shot of my can at G-ster. Or is that one of the many cans i gave away that day.

it is a really good thing

that i'm not racing this weekend. Lucy (our 75-80 pound mixed lab/ridgeback) started the whole bloody urine, needing to go out way too frequently last night. I slept on the couch and got some sleep. She was able to go about 90 minutes between waking me up to have me let her outside.

I was far more rested than the last time when 15 minutes after we went to bed she had made a mess in the kitchen and well i spent the night waking up to clean up the house. And the couch actually is pretty damn comfortable. Good to know.

She had been on two weeks of Clavamox, a pretty damn expensive broad spectrum anti-biotic. And all was fine. Until yesterday afternoon. She couldn't hold it till we got home (wasn't even a long day). She stopped the drugs on Tuesday. The vet doesn't have anything today, not even really able to fit her in because the Doc who's been seeing her is off today. So tonight looks to be more of the same. Going to try and start sleeping earlier than 10:30 tonight hopefully. The rest of the family has been dragging a bit in the morning so i think everyone gets an early bedtime, so I might be somewhat functional this weekend.

This really sucks. in many many ways, and a few ways I can't talk about here, which sucks because, well getting stuff down and written here usually helps.

At least I have a tubular to distract me with. The rolled one with the basetape that came off is back from Tire Alert. Time to made the choice about which type of glue to use. Fastack, Mastik 1, that white stuff g-ride loves so much (what the hell is it anyway).

Came across a good link for tubular gluing. Sure yet another one. But those of you who've been reading the History of Cyclocross Part 1 and 2 in Cyclocross Magazine (print issue) the name Laurence Malone may sound familiar. That or if you've been racing cross as long as Paul Curly you've probably raced with the 5 time CX national Champ.

And well hell if anyone knows about gluing that shit it has to be Malone, no? Nothing ground breaking, and yeah it is for road so I'd skip the 80 PSI inflation (to avoid the voids under the basetape).

Best Quote there:

There are lessons to be learned from this story. First: Bill Woodul was a stand-up guy for taking the blame. And two—what we’re concerned with here—tubular tires don’t always stay put. In fact, every year in the Tour, the most important professional event, sew-ups roll. Which tells you that there’s a darn good chance that even if you do everything right, in an extreme enough situation, such as bombing down an alpine pass, the sew-ups may still come off.

No matter what you do, if you do everything perfectly, they can still come off. Nega-Coach said something like "What, did you expect them to stay glued through a nuclear blast?" when I rolled mine at Vermont. Good point. There are always conditions where the best glued 'sew-up'/tubular will come off.

Well, Lucy and I are going to have an interesting day here at work together. And another long night before we can get to the vet in the morning tomorrow.

heddwch
G

deep breath

and fall asleep.

Yesterday was a long day. Well a short day really. Early release for the girls, pick them up, grab a few things from the store head home. Make lunch, go hang out at the playground for an hour with the dog and the girls, head home. Sit on my ass falling asleep while the oldest got her homework done.

Then well instead of just taking a nap i decided to make that apple spice cake. It turned out well. But then when that was finished it was time to make some pizza dough. And prepare the rest of the toppings for it (cook some nice italian sausage, chop up various things mushrooms, olives, pepperocini, grate the cheese, make the sauce). Then the cake came out of the oven and it was time to start making pizzas. Got them all started. Finished eating and then made some ice cream (to go with the cake).

Good thing it is a rest week, i don't have time to train with all this living going on. Got a decent nights sleep but still feel like just putting my head down and closing my eyes. I felt great on the ride in, legs felt alive. But man I'm freaking wiped out. I should have just taken the nap yesterday instead.

I'm looking forward to a weekend off the bike, well maybe i'll get on it for an hour or hour and a half just to get on it, but then again, I might not.

I was supposed to get some running in this morning. But i hit the snooze button and got another 15 minutes of pseudo sleep.

Lets go around the scene real quick like. I've got a handful of pages that have been opened all day. Might as well get this over with. interruptions be damned.

Start with this:

Playing For Change: Song Around the World "Stand By Me" from Playing For Change on Vimeo.

Holy crap. Ain't that awesome? Seriously. There are a whole bunch more of them in the series. and for more about the project check here: playingforchange.com/

Now Al Franken, soo freaking cool to see his delivery as he just completely undresses someone on the panel. That's really pretty damn cool. His delivery is perfect.

From there to England and Dave's pondering the the absurdity of passing a law to make it illegal to discriminate against anyone who is overweight. it is a good read.

Then swinging to running, a popular way people are trying to increase calories out, The times has a couple bits on that barefoot running stuff. A good look at the science (or lack of) behind it here, from the New York Times. Makes a lot of sense (esp the body compensating for it). Then a bit of an interview with that Born to run guy. His rational sounds even more flaky in person that it did on paper based on the video on that link.

Then from running to beer drinking. Rock Art has "won." Well that's awesome. But maybe I missed it in that first video. I guess the problem didn't come about until Rock Art decided to put a trademark on "Vermonster." That tipped off the Hansen company's lawyers. The agreement is that Rock Art won't make energy drinks and Monster won't sue. Hey that's all happy happy now. But damn talk about getting some insane advertising and positive publicity!

time to chill and hope That Change really does Come. It has been a long time coming.

A long time coming...

heddwch
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Wisdom of Old Men...

Every once in a while it takes a profound moment to kind of hit reset. Keep in mind this guy speaking is a life long Republican, a conservative, mostly likely in the truer sense (not the radical Reaganomics type), but that supposition potentially takes away from the message. Not the point.

The point is really hammered home when he mentioned the devastation he has witnessed cause by defined inequality. The video is from April this year, not current news, but man it is some powerful stuff.

Equal Rights means equal rights. That IS what makes this country great.

Now i'm going to go make an Apple Spice Cake. I might even get indulgent and put some chocolate in there. Maybe merging Fatty's Best Cake in the World recipe with that one to make THE BEST CAKE IN THE UNIVERSE.

heddwch
G

me want one

I'll even take a 59cm to have one...

even deal with the brown color... wicked cool though.

my first bike i bought with my own money was a Raleigh Chill. I'd been riding other bikes a lot before them but I wanted a Mt Bike. So I bought one.

I thought last years SSCX bike they made was wicked cool. This is just about as cool, and it would just be nice to have a true to purpose SSCX bike.

Hell the only commercials I remember as a kid were the Rainer Beer ones, the Olympia Beer adds and the Hamms Bear Refreshing Beer adds. Although I'm confused as to why They use a likeness of the Hamm's Bear on the head tube but put a PBR label on the seat post.



Hamm's the beer refreshing,
Hamm's the beer refreshing.

Day 2 into a 7 day rest period

or longer I forget what I have planned coming out of next weekend off.

Either way I am tired. Part of it has been the dog has decided that she doesn't want to wait until 5:45 to get up and go outside. She wants out at 5-5:15. Sure that's not that early but she is persistent and as much as I'd like to ignore her I've had enough cleaning up urine in the morning to acquiesce. She still has to wait for food (she's still not wild about waiting for it but she's much more patient after going outside).

Kind of funny, the race that traditionally takes the longest to hit BikeReg if they ever hit it has beaten the MRC results to the server. Seriously? Mansfield Hollow got results up faster than MRC? Crazy.

The mud and rain must have messed them up somehow. I hope they show up because I have no idea who that was between Marvin and myself. I know who was right behind me.

So the race was a bit of a new thing. Hauling the kids along with me and bringing enough stuff that they could stay occupied by climbing all over the inside of the wagon. They seemed to have a blast, even figured out how to take pictures and send them and send text messages using my phone. MRC organizers graciously allowed me to park in the VIP lot so they'd be on the same side of the road as the course and near people to get if they needed something. But these are two pretty imaginative kids. They were well entertained while i was racing.

We got there - drove up in the driving rain. Cold. I had the EZ up on the roof. Part of the plan was to set it up and warm up in it and have a place for the girls to hang out. But the sideways rain and the cold meant it was staying on the roof rack. No point to set it up. Even with sides. That and we got there a bit later than I had planned to. With about an hour before the race I got a number and pinned it on (use the steering wheel folks, pro tip). And Bauer mentioned he was going to do the NorthWest Warm up: Sit in the car with the heat cranked full blast until 10 minutes before your race.

I liked that idea. What was the point of riding around anyway? I took the bike off the roof, put 46 PSI in the front Racing Ralph clincher (i'm dropping weight but still at 200 pounds), and 34 psi in the 34c Fango tubular on the rear. Climbed back in the car put some beeswax based embro on to ward off some of the cold and mostly because putting on clothing just makes you colder, esp with that many puddles and that much rain. thin layers of most clothing, with few exceptions, will not stay warm with repeated splashing through deep puddles of ice water. They may hold body heat but they also suck it out faster than having nothing on. I made two concessions besides the beeswax embro for the cold weather. I rode with gloves on (didn't match the kit even), and put a sleeveless base layer on under the long sleeve skinsuit. I put a hat on but lost the nose piece to my clear oakleys and well - shit i figured they'd get mudded up right quick and I wouldn't be able to see anyway so i hoped the cycling cap would catch most of the spray.

That was about it. Ready to go. Hopped out of the car with about 15 minutes to the start. Went over to the new start location (I like that much better guys - good move), and did a handful of starts up the hill to get the blood into the legs after cheering on the women who were still trudging past.

My lack of pre-riding and faith in my tires would cause me some issues later but hey - at the start i was clean and so was my bike. For all of the 15 seconds it took to get 20 yards into the mucky muck.

I wound up front row between the other tall(er) freak and Thommy P on his single speed Mt bike with nice Bontrager Mud tires. Mike Rowell was on the other side of Thom, and B-mac came swooping in from a last minute pre-ride to line up on the grass between Mike and a big tree that was sheltering us a tiny bit. Good old unflappable Bill Dolan was our starting official. He basically got us off the line efficiently and with minimal jabber and flack. We all knew what we were doing. No lining up with Crossresults points this time. Did it matter? Nope.

Whistle blows and I say screw this I'm starting like yesterday and take off. For some reason the freak on Moby Dick didn't move as fast as me and the guys on my left. Thommy got squished back and it was me mike and b-mac hitting the first turn, i hesitated and followed in line behind. Thommy came barreling down the hill and gave him some space and hooked onto the back of B-mac's wheel. Into the wind I was even getting a bit of a draft of the mid size B-Mac. That's how much wind there was on that straight approaching the draft. Well. I guess B-mac wasn't going fast enough for the Wheelworks guy, but when Wheelworks (I dunno who it was - he usually finishes ahead of me) came by at the slight left before the log and tried to chop my line, he got a solid elbow with 200#s behind it protecting a line. My hands stayed on the bars the whole time. Not that it mattered. The dismount was coming up and we went over it together but I wasn't willing to burn a match to jump hard enough to stay in front of him and I settled back into someone's wheel there past the start finish.

Corner corner corner - all greasy. Not really all that fast. All the lines had been tried to that point in the day and it was pretty much mud and grass soup with little traction from Stake and tape to stake and tape. If there were cones the race course would have been 20 feet wide and still unridable. I held my position. I was going to hold it as long as I could. Sprinting up after the barriers (no tape around them, a total ride around option, but honor system, we all went over the barriers) I managed to hold the wheel through the single track (B-mac's still IIRC) and through the puddle and rock fest where Colin ate it big time last year. One or two guys attacked through there, but i was in wheel following mode. Stick on B-mac's wheel and see if I can glean any technique which he has in abundance. bounced off a few rocks, mud flying in my eyes. Maybe only 5 or 6 times the mud hit my eye and I had to blink and calm down enough to let the tears wash the stuff out. It worked, no damage done, but it slowed me down once or twice (more like took my driving focus off going fast and switched it to "hey i need to see").

Marvin might have worked up to me or I slid back to him. Probably a bit of both. But for a couple laps were were right together then I started eating stakes. The first stake was 3 to go. Oops. There's goes Marvin. Damn it. Let me get him. That let someone else bridge up and then make a move past me as I bobbled something somewhere. But I held on until going past the start finish through the chicane section. Stake attached to front fork drop out. Damn. it isn't coming out. I have to get off to get it off me.

Dead stop. Off bike. Detach stake and get going again. Damn that gap got big. Shit, dig dig. Chase through the back single track. Keep them in sight. Going as fast as I can. Ow crap mud in my eye. Eat a stake trying to make up time through the down hill s-turns. Damn it. Gap gets bigger. Spazz out and screw up the next couple turns trying to race back on. Get up the hill. Attack the flats and try and hold speed through the curves. Oh. I'm bringing them back a bit. Awesome. Dismount clean, run up. Get back on, gap is steady. Dismount clean over barriers, remount go. Gap is the same. Head down the hill and go back up and tag a stake on the inside before going back up. Shit. Gap just got a lot bigger.

Now at MRC they have those three sort of up hill things in the wide open field. Normally totally rideable so they put a barricade in the middle one. Sunday they were not rideable. Not for me and those Fangos that we all now call SlipOs. Fangos totally stink in mud. Absolutely suck. They are essentially slightly more agressive than a semi-slick but with wicked nice side knobs (for grass and dirt, not mud).

Pretty much no one around me was riding those. I don't even know if Thommy P was riding those on his SS mt bike. Probably was. But there was squishy muddy grassy muck from tape to tape.

Good thing though was the rain was coming down so hard and heavy and the puddles in the back woods/rocks section cleaned the bike pretty well every lap. Just grass was building up in the usual places.

So anyway, I hit that tape on the apex down at the bottom and lost some space, and then the wind seemed to really pick up. But I dug deep into that wind, got as small as I could and spun into the wind to the log. Maybe not spinning as fast as I could but I was making an effort not to grind. Hit the log, okay, I made up some space. Cool I'll ride the next section clean and make up more along the top.

Not quite. Ate three stakes or more that time through before the barriers. Lost enough time that when I came out of the woods and past the pit the other Tall(er) freak was able to heckle with "you're lucky there isn't one more lap" taunt. I kept Rich at bay, and the next guy was too far gone at that point that I just focused on riding clean and strong to the finish.

It was fun. The rear tire's total lack of traction in the grassy mud was not that much fun. With a Rhyno maybe I could have ridden those up hill sections and finished a bit higher, maybe I'd have been able to turn and corner better and not have eaten the tape. Marvin and the guy between us were not that far in front of me.

It was hell of a lot of fun. Headed back to the car - hosed off my legs with a few waterbottles. And it was that point, standing around dumping water on myself in the wind trying to get the bulk of the mess off that I finally started getting cold. I wasn't even close to feeling cold once the race started. Legs, feet, hands, face. Nothing was cold until I got to the car and started to WB hose off.

The girls had fun, K managed to correctly identify me in the race by asking if I was #210 (yes i was), even through the fogged up windows of the car. I changed - stuck the bike on the roof - piled the extra wheels in the back with the unused trainer and plastic bags full of mud and grass and water logged clothing and shoes, fired up the turbo diesel and headed home.

We were driving away just after the Elite race passed the start finish line. Thanks to Bauer for the offer of the pizza, the girls finished it off, despite their picnic of apples, chips, goldfish and hot chocolate. K was most enamoured by the hot chocolate. I filled up my Ibis Hot Unit for them (it has the easiest pour spout), she took great care in being in charge and pouring it out into their Thermos cap cups. It was very cute.

I finally stopped shivering between Canton and Attleboro. I don't remember where exactly between those to places. Just that I was still a bit cold passing Canton thinking about it being my next cross race and oh hey we're almost in RI and realizing I was warmed up. For an oil burner it does crank out a lot of heat! So nice. That rattly old volvo sucked in the winter - HVAC system was pretty hosed in it, nice trade up: tons of play space in the back seat and way back and nice and toasty heat.

Quick rinse of the bike when we got home. A shower to get the fine filtered dirt off that always goes through the skinsuit in the mud. Rinsed off all the close with the hose outside and still managed to have silt and grass in the bottom of the washing machine at the end of the load. But Wrentham dirt does come out in the first wash. That was another bonus.

Fun race but still no results. But really, who cares. They might get posted, maybe not. Heading home and turning on the football game and seeing the snow was pretty cool. The girls thought it was esp when I told them how close the stadium is to the race.

Great weekend racing. Two very tough races for me. A 16th out of 16 finishers and 18 starters at Mansfield (I finished between Colin and Aaron there somewhere around sixty six minutes and 30 seconds). So that was a long race for me. Sure I did one less lap than the top 12, and am consoled a bit that 3 others got lapped. Yeah next time I'm going to try and ride the log.

But despite being two really challenging races, they were both tons of fun. I'd so totally sign up again for that ass beating I got on saturday and I would jump at the chance to race at wrentham in those conditions again. 10 races already this season. A handful more to go, then Nationals. Going to hopefully find some fighting legs for the 35-39 race. The last year I can race in that category.

I had plans of mouse drawing all over a sat image of the wrentham course highlighting the locations of my bobbles and where the SlipOs wouldn't hook up, but well that didn't work out yet. That and I'm hungry again. I've been extra hungry lately. All this racing and prep and training has me eating a fair bit more and not gaining anything - if at all losing weight still. I haven't dipped below 200# much more than before eating... but i'm getting closer and closer to trading that 2 for a 1.

Gotta go score some (more) food if i'm going to be able to ride home tonight with any ease at all.

heddwch
G

rolling with the fast kids

Mistake? Maybe. Maybe not. It was wicked fast (faster at the start with only 17 folks than I've been used to starting in 40th spot at Verge races) at the start. Colin totally ate shit on the first lap trying to clip in. But he came past me on fire and I remembered "seat cam" WOOO.

Actually I realized after not lining up behind Colin that I should have lined up behind him so I could do the Ryan Kelly ie get on seat cam.

So first lap, cool. I'm hanging for most of this. Slightly gapped by the sand but totally sitting in line. Rode the steep hill and passed someone. Wooo not last. Kept riding around people behind, people in front. Sweet.

Start of the second lap i got a wicked side cramp, really painful one. Hurt like a mother. And stuck with me for two laps. Lost the places except one. The last one I gave up about half a lap before getting lapped. was sitting on the wheel until I ate shit in the sand and well - he got clear and I was all alone.

About lap 2-3 I had a realization. "shit, this race is 15 minutes longer than normal, I'm sooooo totally getting lapped."

At that point when I saw 7 to go and did the math and well, yeah - it'll be close. And it was. But those last two laps I dug down. Well until Adam passed me and it was just Colin back there. Colin all by himself. No one anywhere near him front or back.

between the two sand pits i realized i had a choice. I could hit the brakes and let him come through nicely, or I could hold his ass up.

I chose to hit the brakes. I was DFL anyway it would be a total dick move to impeded anyone on the lead lap. So I didn't. but I still got heckled for it. Of course just as I go off camera I wash out the front tire and have to dab. Boom he was gone. 'Sokay. I got on the famous Seat Cam. The goal of all racers slower than Colin!

WOOOO

worth getting my ass kicked. Totally. not just a one lap cameo, a real live special edition. Colin crashing and gewilli getting lapped by colin. So cool.

It was fun. It was hard, it was so totally worth it. I think.

Wrentham tomorrow. Then a full rest week begins. Taking next weekend off.

Next time, yeah I'll stick with the old man's race. Maybe. This was fun. For the first couple laps. Then it kind of sucked but the course was fun enough that even then it didn't suck.

Highlight?

Passing the finish line and having Alan and the whole officiating crew burst out laughing. I thought it may have been the snot hanging off the goatee like slimy fangs, but no, Alan claims it was because everytime I came through I was grinning like i was enjoying it, Chris Horner style. Hell that made my day. Even if a lie it was cool. I did have fun. It was fun and so worth getting DFL and my ass kicked this way and that.

Standing around at the Halloween party on the way home was good too. Maybe not the best recovery but it was a great way to end a great day. Oh and post shower the Leg Salsa is still burning!

On to Wrentham

heddwch
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new pre-race tune

A little techno for some people maybe but I can't find the original song...



okay - nevermind - here's the original (un-remixed version)

>

it works much better in the remix for cross

- sitting here with the belly full of dinner, my legs feel like lead. The ride home with the tail wind was nice, but man they feel like a couple anchors attached to my hips. Could be a good thing though. Maybe I got the day one crap out of the legs by blitzing home with the wicked Nor'easter tailwind.

we'll see

heddwch
G

Cold and wet this morning

First time this year I was cold on the bike... Okay this season. The 40 degrees and rainy wetness gets into you. I even put gloves on for a change.

Snapped a couple shots of the steam rising off the bay.

first week in a while i've just bagged the running and gotten both intervals in, wed AM 30 second zone 6 ones and thurs PM 30 minute zone 4 one. too tired to wake up at 5:45 to get the runs in tues and thurs mornings.

it is what it is. Jumping into the 60 minute race may not be the best idea. But hey it is done and I'm going to see what I can do to hold on to the fast wheels and learn some lines and try and flow and find some power. That and the longer duration will be good. And the later time slot is really appealing.

VERMONSTER

Spread the word (sure it is pretty well spread by now and no one I know drinks Monster sugar water, but hey - every voice counts)!

Long live the Vermonster!

No Dust again?

Can we get so lucky? It hasn't been dusty since the first day of Vermont.

Rain showed up just in time to soak down the G-ster course, dampen Providence and now make a big puddle out of Mansfield and Wrentham.

Yes there are other races going on on Saturday. 4 others to be specific. But I'm ignoring the other three because I'm not going to them. It is great to have that many to choose from. But still - spread out the love. Race in December. Or something.

It will be interesting to see the final Pre-reg numbers when they close.

Going to be cool and wet again. LOVE IT.

Can't wait. Is this our season this year? A cold and wet one? Awesomeness.

Well actually I just hate racing in the dust. If we get much more super slop I might have to bust out the Verdestein 28 cross clinchers and race around at 55 psi. Gonna be fun at any rate. Figuring I'm going to work on not getting lapped by Colin. Why? Because a 2,3,4 race is (IMHO) stupid. Make it a 1,2 or a 1,2,3 or a 3,4 2,3,4 makes no sense. So I'm going to do the 1,2,3 race. Just not the age graded 1,2,3 race.

Gotta keep getting pushed if I'm going to keep motivated to do the work to try and hang with the rest of the west coast Too Tall Crew at Nats. not to mention trying to make up 100 places in the start grid on earlier pre-reg'd G-ride.

I'm liking the new Cat function there over at Crossresults. You can see what cat everyone is. That Moots guy is only a cat 3? Someone needs to hand him a free trip to Cat 1.

After nationals maybe.

Heddwch
G

Poison Ivy at Providence

Caught the tweeting of such reporting.

If you got it it will generally be on your right arm from day 2.

Pre-riding following Jerry he picked the line right through it and I mentioned something about it, but he may not have heard me, but that was the line of choice.

Right through the poison ivy.

Not green leaves, really nice BIG yellow ones. On the side of the tree, the on at the top of the hill after you passed the pits and crossing the road. If you took the perfect inside line you were smack right in the middle of the Poison Ivy.

It was the best line but after that full contact pre-ride lap I managed to hit that line just wide enough to not brush the poison ivy. Still I managed to get one bubble just down from the inside crook of my elbow.

Itchy bugger.

Another thing I noticed.

And not having been at any of the races for the Cat 4 men, and if i was there post race I wasn't so close to the course to hear them all bitching.

"This isn't allowed in cross"
"this section isn't 9' across, it is a dangerous bottle neck, THEY need to fix it."
"Who puts CURBS in cross races, they have NO place in a cross race. TOO Dangerous."

Heard that last one many many times.

I laughed. And chuckled. Here are guys in the back half of the Cat 4 men's field bitching about the course. Now I'm all for being passionate about it and knowing the rules but get some experience? Or prepared to get an answer you don't like, along the lines of "suck it up and ride" or really just "shut up and race"

Bitching about not liking some aspect is one thing, saying what does or doesn't belong? To a guy like Tom Stevens? Holy shit that's some nerve. Dude's been designing courses longer than most anyone's been racing them in the US.

I thought the curbs were fine. No problems. None of the masters were complaining about them that I heard. Or at least not with the same vitrol coming out of the 8am guys. Esp the one dude walking away with a flat after that curb on the first lap (yeah the pit couldn't have been any closer and yes Mavic dudes were there with wheels) bitching about being raped by entry fees on a course that wasn't fit to be raced on.

Hopefully many of them stuck around for the Pros because, holy shit those guys (Jamie and Timmy) can ride the shit out of anything. And they didn't flat. And you can learn alot by watching what really good people do. Learn more from watching than reading shit on the internet all day.

Next course - if you all need someone to point out the Poison Ivy, come find me.

heddwch
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Good or not good

I held my position pretty much from the start to the finish. No sliding forwards or back. Well technically I think I went up one place. Good pacing I guess ;) or just a really crappy start. One way or another there was no sliding going on. Makes me think that if I actually started hard, maybe I could gain 20 spots and only lose 15 and be 5 places ahead of where I finished. Something to try next time. Of course I could do that and then blow up and lose 25 spots instead of zero spots. Or be like G-ride and have people stacking into the back of me...

Issue #7 showed up in the mail last night. One big note: Niels don't do Caffeine. How about that shit. But then all he does is train, eat spaghetti, and watch TV. Everyone else does everything else for him. King Albert is the right label. (it is an awesome interview by Christine, Nice JOB!)

A bit cold

to ride in w/o gloves this morning. I guess 38°F commuting into a stiff headwind isn't optimal for no gloves. Everything else was perfectly warm and fine.

Nice brisk morning. Woke up early - hit the trainer for some Z6 intervals. Really didn't want to do them. But blowing off riding monday and tuesday (even skipped the run) wasn't good and I know I needed to get back on track. Mentally still wasn't there. But man after the first couple, finishing up the last few felt good and by the time I got off the bike I had a fire burning and it felt awesome to get the work in.

Can't let up or skip anything else this week.

That's all I got - go read Jonny's Report from this weekend. Yeah that's the race I was in. Amazingly. So awesome not to get caught either day by those guys drilling it at the front the way they did.

Still working out details for the trip to Nationals. A bit crazy but I think finally the pieces are falling into place. It might be a bit of driving but the driving means seeing family. Worth it. Time to finalize it.

Oh and for a handful of days in a row now, i'm a tenth or two under 200#. I guess that's what 4 double weekends back to back will do. And yeah most of that seems to be lost from around the middle. Double score.

heddwch
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destroyed

I'm feeling completely wrecked from this past weekend.

Finally had a decent night sleep and when the alarm went off i just did not want to get up. No waking up every 3 hours finally. No lying in bed trying to calm the mind down enough to sleep. Maybe it was the Leviathan plus tall boy that had the right combo to send me off to sleep land. Maybe it was mentally solving the problem I created by being tired earlier. Either way it was nice to finally get a good night sleep. Running on no where near enough sleep since, well, shit, since Cross started. Go figure.

Packing in the weekend stuff on the nights of the weekdays racing and travel and not resting well. Is taking a toll.

I needed a mental pick up.
So dug up this video:

And it worked for the first half of the what i've got written down to this point.

No where near as awesome footage wise as my earlier post, man that was so awesome, but I will have to admit to being somewhat bored by the Bicycle song being used in cycling videos, despite the on time brilliant editing. I need an audio and video double focused attack to get going some time.

And now that it has worn off I probably won't work in the links to Solo and G-ride and Colin and the rest.

But man - reflecting on last weekend. Everyone was there. Freaking brilliant weekend. Lots of fun racing and that venue really is all it can be. Really challenging racing. And I'm pleased with the results. Everyone seems faster this year. Curtis is faster this year and hell everyone has upped their game, esp freaking G-ride. Man he's on fire. And Myette! Damn that kid, top 20 both days at PVD. Nice.

That said - three weekends (6 races) of pressure cooker Verge racing is exhausting. Take a deep breath exhausting. That shit is INTENSE.

Looking forward to this coming weekend. Planning to hit Mansfield Hollow on Saturday. Where I rolled the front wheel that g-ride loaned me last year and I lost a handful of spots and hard won time. I did really have fun there. Not sure on which race to go for but probably will do the 2,3,4 35+ race. That or maybe man up and do the 1,2,3 for an hour. Hell I was on course for an hour at G-ster. I think I have a day or two to decide. Probably will race "up" to the 1,2,3. Enough mental cogitating. Just need to focus on right now. Focus on the task at hand (finishing the last of a smallish lunch for example).

Oh and Solobreak, it was just two bottles of wine between three of us, and Il Gordo left half of his OE 800 in the fridge. I'm not sure what to do with it, it is too late in the year to worry about catching slugs.

Tom and Richard and Gene and the rest of the organizers who put the show on this weekend? AWESOME. Really cool that so many people I knew were able to volunteer and help make it happen. Interbike was really pretty cool. I wish I could have been there on thursday in the sun instead of friday in the rain, but it is all what it is. Next year.

Next year hopefully it will grow and be bigger. There were definitely more people than at a normal cross race. Maybe dropping the entry fee to $5 would more than double the consumer attendance? It would have been nice to see more visibility by the local shops (with booths and stuff) esp on Consumer days, maybe in conjunction with some of the bigger brands they carry (EP at Giant, Casters at Specialized for example).

It was great. And it was hard. And I'm making improvements. Doing better than I have. There's more strength/speed to find before the big bang at the end of the season.

heddwch
G

Gloucester Video can't miss

Gran Prix of Gloucester - A Cyclocross Film from Benjamin Eckstein on Vimeo.

from here thanks for the heads up Bauer.

Funniest part of the day

Curtis wearing the Planet Bike Blanco kit again but instead of pulling on his big knuckle white gloves...

he races in SHOCKER gloves...

seriously...

Shocker gloves... that and he was too shy to explain why they were called shocker gloves, with two fingers colored pink and one brown:

"Two in the pink, One in the stink!

And if i shouldn't have to explain it anymore than that.

Wow, what a weekend

First off. Flags at half mast for Soups. Mark Suprenaut crashed hard along the lake section and suffered a spiral fracture of his fibula (up near the knee). 'Soups' has surpassed Marro as the nicest guy racing, sorry marro, but it is true.

Toughest is that he busted the right leg, driving is going to be tough for a while (until he figures out how to drive left footed).

That put a big shadow over the end of the day today.

That and me and G-ride not winning the damn SRAM force group they were raffling off.

What a day. Wicked fun. Kerry Litka has a new slogan to yell at her "MAKE IT WORK" sure it is hard to yell at the top of your lungs in a Tim Gunn accent but hey it is the words and the sentiment that count right? So if you see her little pinkness racing, make sure to cheer by yelling "make it work."

It was a hard weekend of racing. I mean really hard. These guys in the 1/2/3 35+ race here in New England are wicked fahking fast. No joke. I'm sort of fast, but man - not like Jonny Fooking Bold, or Kevin motocross Hines, or Mahhhhhk, or Asphlom. Good god those guys are unreal.

Myette - wow he's coming into form and is on FIRE. FIRE. Everyone is faster this year - esp G-ride. Too bad a whole host of folks ran right up his ass and busted his rear der at the start. It didn't break right away but after the repeated bashing from the rear - his der gave up the ghost before he could finish and the worst of it - they didn't have a small enough bike in the pits for him to jump on and prevent a dreaded DNF. Oh the dreaded DNF.

I made it both days without getting lapped. and as fast as those guys were racing up front, it is amazing that I didn't.

Great, and I mean GREAT seeing the CX folks.

The Interbike thing was pretty damn cool too. The folks at Giant (wicked nice that they actually still make a bike that fits tall folks) hooked me up with a rear der hanger. My shifting's been slightly off and as much as I tweak the cable (replace it, lube it, mess with the tension - every damn adjustment) it still was flaky a bit. and It looks like the hanger (I'm not a fan of replaceable ones anyway) was tweaked a touch. It was passable racing in the 46 with the smaller ring is more sensitive to chain line perfection and it was not shifting well at all. Hoping it fixes it.

Another shout out to the awesome folks at Thompson. I've been riding a Thompson post almost exclusively (except for the American Classic breaking and ripping a hole in my sack, yes, that sack). I've bent posts, had issues with adjustments, on most all posts except Thompsons. They are unbelievable. UNbelievable.

If you are going to buy a new post, buy only Thompson. Seriously. I have been assured that the Masterpiece (the light one) is the 5th strongest post on the market. And one of those 5 stronger is the Elite (or the original one), and another of the stronger ones is the wicked heavy kalloy kind. So we're going to drop a few grams off the Giant cyclocross bike and hopefully cure the slipping that has been resulting from sticking a 27.2 inside a sleeve to fit a 30.9 tube.

So looking forward to swapping it in.

Saturday's race was bad. Well good but started bad. I had a first and a half row call up behind the Verge Point guys. Meaning I was mid pack in a field of 71 at the start. I just didn't have the grr i'm getting them at the start and slipped back a few spots into the first turns and settled in decently placed until after the barriers. First you go right down the hill up to the 180 degree right turn followed by the 120 degree left all while going up and down (highest points at the turns if you weren't there). so the final right, i had the inside line, passing people, moving up but then someone turned right in front of me and came to a complete stop. I was moving up hill. Not flat. Had to stop, and just slipped down to the bottom of the slope before i could gain traction enough to get going again. By that point - EVERYONE was ahead of me. All 71 starters. Everyone. And not by just a second, by a LONG shot. It turned into a reel people in race. Place by place. Never feeling super confident in any corner. Working hard to find a rhythm. But man it was still fun. Wicked hard. Any 1/2/3 35+ race is around here (heck probably anywhere).

Race race race, I rode the unridable hill nearly everytime, while not faster I was able to gap most everyone i hit the hill with on the following pavement stretch, and I feel that being able to ride it mean a lot to saving the legs/lungs for riding a very fast stretch. We did 6 laps. My lap time was wicked slow but I still managed 44th. 44th out of 71 starters, when i was 10 seconds behind EVERYONE a 1/3 of the way through the first lap. I HAVE to be happy with that. Yeah?

I am. It was a success. G-ride is killing it out there this year and he was up in the 30s. amazing stuff - he's found something good this year. I really need to focus and work on the power a bit. The knee sort of threw a wrench into things this summer. Not that I need a reason but it was a big factor over the summer, if I didn't screw it up in Maine, just think what might have happened. Maybe nothing really. Either way, it is what it is and I have to work with it. I'm feeling better each weekend and that's what counts right?

Today's race was a bit better focused. Left the house earlier. Got there earlier. Got PRIMO parking spots. Worked the trainer heckling action there as everyone went by. Really focused more, cranked the tunes on the way there. Death magnetic specifically. Cranked that in the iPod on the trainer while cheering/heckling. despite my more focus the start was a bit lackadaisical. But we hit the grass and well - people were stacking it left and right and I managed to slip around most of it all and came out in a decent position. Drilling it to stay on wheels. But I made a bad mental error as we came down the off camber. I had programmed a 180 turn to come back by the pits so I was in conservation mode until I realized - Oh shit - we go straight! Fuck. Hit the afterburners a bit to get back on wheels... and just worked it and worked it and tried to spin more than grind. Used the 46 on some sections.

*just got up to let lucy out and holy Sh!t my legs are KILLING me*

It was brutal. But. BUT i survived on the lead lap. Not lapped. Thought I had the bike barn guy (Kevin?). I attacked him going past the pit on the second to last lap, got a decent gap and killed it to stay in front of him, but by the time we hit the start finish line for the bell lap he'd erased my gains and went through me and I held the gap constant until we started the big pump track stuff up by the road. He gapped me slightly through there and extended it through the up hill before the beer tent (thanks for the cheers Karin) and I managed to pull him back a tough on the hills but was unable to close it down and kind of just worked hard enough not to lose spots before the finish.

*CRAMP CRAMP CRAMP*

hamstring

wow i really nuked my legs today...

ouch

It was a gorgeous day. Hard work. Wicked hard work. Great course.

Awesome as always catching up with folks and enjoying that side of the sport. can't really do that side of things well pre-race. Before the race it is focus, focus, focus on the course, gathering intel, not getting sidetracked from purpose... focus and all that...

Despite the flaky shifting the bike was great. Tire pressure dialed. I discovered that I could roll and mess the rear up adversely running 31 psi in the 34c Fango rear tubular. 36 was perfect. ran 48 up front in the racing ralph clincher and it was freaking HOOOOOOKED up solid. Need more watts.

Too bad i can't afford to fire my coach and hire someone who actually knows what the hell they are doing.

It is all good. Maybe there'll be a good photo from today or yesterday of me in the new kit and I can update the avatar/icon...

My voice is kind of toast after the photo shoot with ROB BAUER... Hats off to Coley for the beer! Those MRC guys are primo (second only to the Planet Bike East Gang of course).

Here's to hoping Soups heals up quick and fast! We'll miss you man! Seriously.

heddwch
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2,500

Damn. I went to write something simple.

This basically:

I have no motivation, like something has been unplugged. Zombie land. Sort of floating through the day. This can't bode well for tomorrow, unless my body is in energy star power save mode.

So that's what I was going to post. Short. Simple.

But this is #2500... not that numbers mean anything... i was going to use the race predictor but i hadn't figured out how to make it work - i missed the whole needing to log in with fb account...

Well that just fahking screws up that line of thought.

Typical for today.

Might as well pack it in, and go see what's to see at the Interbike Show. Perfect timing. The rain's about to start. Brilliant.

No jamestown this year for me. Kind of going to miss the race. Not going to miss the timing following a double weekend of Cross.

once through this weekend and the schedule should mellow. Mansfield, and then MRC. And that goes into a weekend off.

I'm planning to race like day two last weekend both days. That's the plan.

Just not feeling the flow - should just delete it all and leave it at that.
But no.

can't do that. must capture the moment of blah...

So,

I'm going to end with this



flipping wicked cool...

it is going to be a long day

wicked tired still - bailed on the morning run, rode in. But i kind of didn't eat any breakfast and was wicked hungry. So. I finished my lunch by 9am. I've got one dollar bill in my pocket.

I so didn't care until i finished the last piece of left over pizza from last night. Now I'm not hungry but thinking 1pm is going to roll around and I'm going to be needing more calories. Such a fcking idiot sometimes.

Oh and my spinning (i didn't even realize i was spinning at the start) is evident with Henry's 35+ Masters video. check it out. Lap one there i'm doing pretty good sitting in 30th place. A lot more people behind me than in front of me. But that went on to change over the next couple laps.

I don't have time to change the bike before this weekend anyway - i'll just spin the Roger Williams Park course. or something like that. There still is a hell of a lot of cross over between the 38 and the 46, no point changing it. Hell I'm not sure I'm going to have time to WASH the bike before Saturday at this rate.

Anyway - i really started this post to put up a link to Erik Mitchell's blog and the power rankings. Something to watch and keep an eye on IMHO. Cool stuff. I found it from Pavé's blog.

that's all i got, for now

heddwch
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PVD THIS WEEKEND!

So stoked. Weather isn't looking much different from last weekend! Granted it could change a couple different times between now and then but the model says Rain on Saturday! YES. Well maybe. That said wet day 1 is better, last weekend i hit the normal do better on sunday stride, hoping to be more equal between days but if I was to pick one of them to be wet? I'd go with Saturday. Rip up that crap that passes for grass down there and have some solid sweet lines set up for Sunday.

Saw this vid this morning. Good stuff:


Got thinking more about single ring up front. Everyone else is doing it. I've got a usable 40t kicking around to stick on there. An old chewed up 50t that can be ground down to make an outer chain guard. might stick with a Der as the chain watcher for now. But like taping the bars it means working on the bike. Between everything else that is happening I've finally put getting the intervals/training in before the wrenching (well before the optional stuff).

Actually thinking about it - that 40t i have is a 110 bcd, and my worn 50 is as well. Shit. Hmmm.

However, i do have a 42 on the Q-Pro. And as crappy as I'm climbing going to a 38 on that thing might not be a bad idea. Swap between the two and all should be good. Leave the 46 on there and have a pseudo half step. But then, I might as well stick with the 38. I didn't have a problem keeping up using it, could go plenty fast with the 38x12 gearing. Couple more races of trying to leave it in the 38 and just shift the chain around in back before taking any drastic (time consuming) move.

Almost forgot to move the car. Drove in today. And for the last two hours I've been having panic attacks that it was time to move the car. Got up to check on something and the wave of fear crashed over me. SHIT gotta move the car. I was parked there just a few minutes over the 2 hours... remembered right at the right time. Parking shuffle is why perfect weeks are so awesome (and productive).

I wonder if G-Ride is still trapped in his little man-cave.

heddwch
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Pouring rain

Thunder and lightning.

I really hope Tom got most of the course put together yesterday. It's going to be brutal around here until about noon.

40-45mph wind gusts today too, really blowing out there right now. Looks like some folks are calling for rain friday and saturday. Are we looking at a repeat of last weekend? We'll find out I guess.

I've forgotten about Embro's site - it is hard to keep up. Came across Jon Page's link to his top ten over there. Kind of makes me wonder what his top ten list would look like for G-ster.

Man it is awesome sitting at home listening to the rain fall outside. Just the rain falling. Really doesn't help motivating to get on the trainer and make up for sleeping in this morning.

Lucy's back to sleeping by my feet right now. She seems to be doing much better.

time to get motivated.

heddwch
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I realized something

about G-ster weekend just now. It took someone telling me something that I didn't think was entirely true, well pretty much not true, to get me thinking about it.

I got chewed out by JD for bitching at the last edition of the Steadman's Cross Race down in south county. Calling as I saw it from face value was I guess not cool esp since I had no idea of the history.

I probably came off as pretty critical with the TJ tire rolling at Glahstah focus that drew all the attention off the race at the front. Yeah he rolled it, yeah he came back, but that's all anyone heard about from the point he went down until the end. Enthusiasm is nice. Local biased coverage is acceptable, heck home field, no worries.

it is what it is - i call it like i see it - and it doesn't always come off free from malice - like the new side bar says: "I am really not as much of a jackass in person as it would seem reading this at times..."

And so you bring it back to that cartoon that has JD written all over it. (I posted it originally here.)

And with that - (I'm realizing I'm doing it all wrong - waiting till the end to be positive but then, well I'm going to assume that one starts at the beginning and waits till the end to form judgement - at least in a short little bit of prose - or what passes for it) - where was I?

Oh yeah. The realizing something. I realized that Chris and Richard called one of the best G-ster's ever. Well the best in the last four years in my worthless opinion. They both hit the combo perfectly. Maybe I'm getting used to their style, but for the first time there wasn't a single phrase that felt like fingernails on a chalk board. Not one. That's a good thing btw. In case anyone gives a shit. Yeah and in case anyone hasn't noticed, i'm pretty hyper critical of everything... making me sound like a freaking insensitive asshole quite often.

Either way I've got a sleeping dog at my feet. She seems to be a bit better tonight. Coach is going to be pissed though, didn't get on the bike today. Oh well. Balancing fatigue is tough. Hopefully this won't throw the plan off. Going to see about getting back on the plan tomorrow. unfortunately I think that the 1 hour of Z3 work i was supposed to get in today probably is really needed. The longest ride I've had in the last few weeks was Gloucester Day 1 (not counting the warm up - and that was even longer than a single ride I'd done). Missing the long rides that the Smack Down gave me. Oh well hey - it is what it is...

alright - i keep falling asleep writing... this entry is going to go down as one of the suckiest... but it is what it is - a reflection of the moment. which is really what all this stuff is. No?

heddwch
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long night

Plans to go to be early were derailed pretty solidly last night. The oldest has some standardized testing starting today, so the goal of getting them all in bed earlier than normal worked. But Lucy managed to confound my plan of sleeping.

not 15 minutes after heading to bed to read some more of the Julia Child issue of Gastronomica, well... Lucy started whining. That's not normal.

She'd been going outside rather excessively but not drinking much more than normal. Something wasn't right. Much like Miss Clavel, afraid of disaster, (I didn't run faster and faster - our house isn't quite like Madeline's) I headed down to find well. A liquid mess to clean up.

And then an hour or so later, much the same.

Various schemes were tried - outside, back porch, blocked in the kitchen. Not until it was all restored to normal, at 4am did thing settle down. But then they didn't really settle down. The alarm went off at 5:45 and i was down again cleaning up the tile and the hardwood, letting her out and all that.

Completely wiped out I should have just gone back to bed. But the girls had a big day, needed to get them up in 30 minutes. And my moronic coach (Solobreak called my coach a f*cking moron on Saturday - granted that was after he was pretty much finished with a 40 of Shaffer) had me scheduled to get a 25 minute run in. It is freaking dark at 6am right now.

I got 30 minutes in. The last 10 minutes were hard. I could feel the fatigue. Sleep is a terrible thing to miss. But so are workouts. Finish what you start. I started this planMy coach drew up the season and the plan, and if I don't stick with it he will never know if it actually had any benefit.

Called the vet when they opened. No appointments today but I could bring her in and leave her so the vet could see her between visits during the day. The Vet Tech seemed to be reassuring and thought it sounded most like a UTI. I'm hoping that it is.

After the girls headed to school Lucy and I were both on the couch, she looked tired and promptly fell right asleep, I was very close to dozing off with her.

But instead I broke the perfect week early and dropped Lucy off. I need to see if I can fit her in the trailer so if things need more attention I can take her with me.

This will make this week much more interesting, either from the sleep debt or working to get her back into full health again.

I hope Steamboat has a good crew today to get the course set up.

heddwch
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Planet Bike

Have I mentioned just exactly how cool it feels riding for a sponsor like Planet Bike?

Now this year I was planning to give the old 1996 vintage Nite rider 15W 6V headlight another go round and I might not be defunct yet, but it has been moved to questionable duty. Sure it has a big battery that lasts pretty much at least two weeks of commuting in the dead of winter. That's not to bad. Pretty convenient. But. It is wicked heavy. The cable going into the light is about ready to fall apart. Bottom line, it works but not reliably (cable is pretty finicky).

We had a chance to get some Planet Bike gear at a reasonable cost (no - not free) and I got a pair of Blaze One Watt and SuperFlash Light Sets. No, they aren't the cheapest. But they are nice. And those few nights riding home after the smackdown before the car stuff and the rest of life got in the way leading up to cross season I had a chance to try them out.

Pitch black is a good way to describe sections of the bike path when there is no moon out and the sun's gone down. The bike path's beauty is also part of a problem at night. It is black. The way the trees grow in places even with a moon you can't see sh!t. I put a pair of these Blaze 1W lights up front. Holy crap. The pair of them light up more of the bike path than the old 15W nite rider. Well I think they do. At least the pair make for a wider beam.

Coming through the city before the path leaving one on steady and one on superflash mode I could see and was making sure to be seen. The superflash mode of the headlight was illuminating street signs three blocks away. It was cool.

The mounting mechanism is nice. It works on oversize bars and even on the skinny old bars I still use.

And the rear light is (I've been told) rather painful to ride behind.

G-ride suggested I make a point to talk to Bob about my commuting and all that. I fit their definition of a supercommuter, at least *I* think I do. I don't commute the farthest but nothing keeps me off the bike, well except dentist appointments and doctor and other stuff like needed rest days. But once cyclocross is over a perfect week is the rule, not the exception. no matter what the weather.

So talking to Bob about all this he mentions a new two watt, well he doesn't so much mention as digs around in the Sprinter Van (yes, I would LOOOOOOVE to have that sprinter van he drove to Gloucester from WI) and comes out with a new light. Not even on the web page yet. Rumored to have sold out already.

This light:
Bob sticks some batteries in and here, on Sunday, bright sunny day. The light turns on and holy crap, it is bright. No I've learned my lesson, do not look into a headlight. That hurts. All in all it was very cool. Twice as bright (roughly) as the one watt Blaze. I got to play with it and handed it back to him. But he said, "No, you keep it." I was a bit floored and excited felt pretty cool being given hot cool stuff like that. Before my awkwardness resulted in my sticking my big foot in my mouth Bob pulled out a 1 watt superflash rear light - prefacing it by saying this is the only one I've got - a demo, can't give it to you but I wanted to show you anyway.

As my old commuting stuff wears out - I will be replacing it with as much Planet Bike gear as I can.

I'm eagerly anticipating the next chance I have to test out the two watt Blaze. The best part? Bob says it has the same battery life as the one watt. That's awesome.

get some planet bike stuff. If your shop doesn't carry it - get them to order some in. QBP carries their stuff. or get it direct.

Now, if someone would kindly get a nice shot of me in the planet bike kit while i'm racing, that'd be super. I've been kinda out of the camera shots lately it seems - that or i've been too busy to search the interwebs for images.

Oh. One more really cool thing about Planet bike?

They've got spare parts for their lights (and decent prices on size N batteries I just noticed).

As it says on the back on the back:

Tread Lightly

• Ride (your bike)
• Rebuild (your stuff)
• Recycle (this packaging)

Tread Lightly indeed.

heddwch
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Glohstah

What can I say. Day one was really really really really hard. I had a poor start (guy in front of me (with Verge points no less) Starts moving at the whistle and then full on STOPS. OKAY. That's going to go well. And Voom off we go. No pre-ride. I did the reverse hole shot really well. And well. that's about it. I managed to pass a few people here and there. Got muddy, crashed a couple times (slipped out in the mud mostly), and finished on the lead lap. I was excited to cross the line with one to go not having been passed by the freaking fast old dudes, esp considering HOW LONG THE RACE WAS. OMG I was out there for over an HOUR.

Yes. I know. Wicked way longer than the others. But hey. I finished. I wasn't last, I was on the lead lap. And as much fun as the mud is, doing a Tom Steven's nightmare course with 30 turns or so in 2-6 inch mud being 202 pounds is tough. Power only gets you so far in the straights. Those turns. Fahk. They hurt. Minutes were lost on each one it felt like. If the day had been normal Glahstah weather (dry and warm) it would have been bitching fun to rail the turns. However, I still would have sucked in the dry. No question there.

It hurt. It was hard. I just wasn't feeling it again. Dread and fear crept into my head for a few minutes, is VT and G-ster going to fore shadow the season? Shit this could suck. Somehow (fortunately) I completely forgot that thought.

Day two? Awesomeness. It wasn't dry, but it wasn't wet. The course was tightening up. Mud was drying. And the layout? Brilliant. REALLY brilliant. It was a bit long but man it was awesome. It just had flow.

I had a great start. And had a great first lap. Actually two really good laps before I started to really struggle. But it was awesome those first two laps. I CAN ride as fast as those top 20 guys. I CAN. But apparently just not for as many laps as they did. And maybe not two whole laps. More like that first lap (short one) then the next one, and half of the second 'full' lap. But we did 4.5 laps. And unlike VT and Day 1 at Gloucester the race was NOT over when the whistle blew.

Got the pressure just right for day 2. Day 1? Who knows. I couldn't turn anyway, didn't really matter.

And I did something I'd never done before. I forgot to start in the big ring. And I raced the whole first lap and a half before I realized I was in the little ring. What? I CAN ride fast in the little ring? DAMN. Day 1 I never shifted out of the 46 because I was worried I'd just slow way down. Day 2 I left it in there because I realized that I could ride with the top 20 in the 38. So. Yeah. GeWilli's thinking about a smaller ring for the big ring now. Hell I've even almost started entertaining the idea of going to a single front ring. We'll see if I wise up before Providence or not.

Lots more to talk about. Esp meeting the most awesome sponsor ever. Planet Bike Bob. What a great guy. It is with great pride I wear the team kit. (which is red btw, in case you were looking for the old tax kit this year). And being sponsored by a company as dedicated to commuting as I am? Awesome.

Their lights and pumps and gear and fenders are among (if not) the best on the market. Bob's passion was really apparent in the few conversations we had.

I was fired up from Sunday's race. Just a great freaking day. Great race.

All good.

Seeing all the great folks in the cyclocross scene... just was icing on the cake of a great weekend.

I can't wait for this weekend.

gonna be OFF THE HOOK!!!!

heddwch
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I noticed the weather for tomorrow

Doesn't really look all that great for the fans of dry hot dusty cross racing at G-ster.

At least it won't be too hot. And there is a much lower chance that I'll be painfully sunburned for Sunday.

GeWilli's cyclocross theme song: Someday I Suppose

Someday I Suppose I might not be wicked slow... Someday I suppose...

In the mean time - Saddle up boys and girls the biggest race in the country is about to happen and happen with the wrath of the gods pounding Stage Fort Park.

heddwch
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Oh Boy Oh Boy

Just released - Bend schedule

Who has one or...

Where are they?

When this thing hit Paris-Roubaix I said it was the best thing going for those folks who's custom frame builder doesn't give them enough room to run a double chain guard on the bike.

But then, digging up the link and looking at the design, I realized. If these guys had a derailleur on then well they probably wouldn't drop the chain anyway and well there you go - pointless device I guess. But.

But how hard would it be to take that and add it to a dog fang/third eye chain watcher thing?

Can you FEEL IT?

The excitement building before New Belgium Worlds this weekend?

Actually it hasn't hit me yet.

But i'm fully expecting to go into panic mode after lunch. My plan to get the bars re-taped for G-ster hasn't happened yet. I haven't gotten the grass out of the bike from Vermont yet. Heck I haven't figured out which front wheel I'm bringing, nor which tire will be on that wheel yet. So in other words, i'm totally unprepared for racing tomorrow. Damn good thing I'm driving up tomorrow and not riding up with skinny today like i have the last couple weeks.

Top it off it was a perfect week. Good or bad I don't think it will matter for this weekend honestly. I'm not feeling excessively fatigued. Monday was a wicked slow ride in, yesterday was intense enough on the way in and the way home that I knew adding more riding would be bad, so I didn't. And today was a nice slow mellow ride in. Nice temp.

I'm now liking riding at 45°F. Too bad it will be warm this weekend. But maybe warm and wet is better than cold and wet right now. People will already be miserable enough in the rain. Not since 2005 has it be wet at G-ster, and that was snow (and I wasn't there). That was before I started racing in New England again.

The Mayor is bringing an umbrella to keep his beer from getting watered down. I guess he doesn't drink em very fast.

Now what I'm expecting is the fine dry dust just to be not airborne. Some how mud and that park do not seem to go hand in hand. Unless Paul has us going up and down the run up he added last year. I can see that loamy stuff getting muddy. But the grass will probably still be as grippy as ever. We'll find out tomorrow. Maybe it'll be a downpour of the quality that we saw at Thompson Speedway this summer. THAT would be freaking AWESOME.

Okay.

Sh1t. I'm wicked fahking excited right now. This is going to be sooooo much fun.

G-ster followed by Providence. WOOOT.

I guess I'm really hoping to have more of a chance to hang out and socialize with the rest of the best cyclocross scene in the world at one of the best venues.

But I'm not sure about hanging out on top of the rock in the rain.

And yeah - keep an eye out for the tall freak in the dirty orange jumpsuit - either to avoid him or to say hey.

heddwch
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why is it

that talking about my coach makes me feel much better? sure my coach is me, no big secret. I was just surprised how much better it made me feel when I started talking about what my coach said. When I say all that stuff to myself, here, it seems to work. It seems to make it better.

just a weird observation, i can't rationally explain it...

I mean i didn't even go through all these things, and if I did, well it might actually be too good of a match.

Getting cooler out there

Temperature wise.

Still not riding with gloves but yesterday and today I put an extra layer on.

This morning was perfect for running though. 44°F is ideal. Actually I could have tolerated it closer to 40°F, with shorts and a t-shirt I was still slightly overheated when I got back home and not the least bit cold. But then I only ran for 20 minutes or so.

Yesterday I rode in and with temps sitting at 55°F when I left I grabbed arm and knee warmers and wore the fancy new team vest for the first time. Oh man is that stuff nice. Vermarc clothing is really very luxurious. The arm and knee warmers really are very warm. And the vest was slightly overkill both days but I'll take being slightly sweaty vs freezing ass cold. Maybe it is a sign that I'm getting old. More I'm just taking it as a sign I'm not quite acclimated to the colder weather yet.

Still no gloves and that's good. Hands felt fine. Part of change for this year, racing cross without gloves - at least until the snow flies or something equally cold (like RI last year).

One of the cool things about separating the 45 and the 35 fields this year is having Paul Weiss not in my race anymore. He's out running around taking pictures. Even got a couple of me from VT day 2.

And well what's this? Tired of sorting through my links to see who's in New England? Go over to http://necxblogs.blogspot.com/ looking through it, well, it appears i've been slacking. I have been missing a handful of blogs. Damn. At least someone is pickup up where i've kind of let it slip a bit.

That and one I haven't seen "Party At The Back: Because Racing is Like a Mullet... Business in the Front, Party at the Back."

so true, and of course shopengarten is the one who seems to be behind the necxblogs thing...

another good one, and maybe the most appropriate person to ask if they are tired of the Zamboni Song. That said, being a former season ticket holder to Munn Arena, my bias lies with the Olympia. Seriously. They make the Zamboni look kinda boring. And kinda cool, they both have electric versions now.

And well, there really are only three up there that I haven't read/linked (I can't remember if EBT is over on the left, might not be because the page is impossible to read). The last one is the squirt gun show.

Oddly, this morning I had a bit of juice that the girls didn't finish and boom - instant runny nose. And i'm backing up a bit in the sinuses right now. WTF. I feel good, maybe it is a touch of the alergies. Damn heck of a lot of pollen in the air right now. Golden Rod is in full force as are a handful of shrubs and other late flowers. Could be just a touch of allergy? Hopefully? It was crazy watching the transition from mr. sniffles to completely clear as we drove from PVD to Burlington on Friday. Curtis went from completely plugged up to breathing free the next day. And sure enough the morning after getting to PVD, he sounded the same as when we left Friday afternoon.

We've got some crazy plants down these parts i guess. Out to get everyone.

Gloucester is coming up soon. And if i can get the work out in that's called for tonight i'll have nailed the week perfectly... at least according to the only Coach I could afford. Good thing he bought a book about this stuff, or I might not have hired him this year.

heddwch
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