Gloucester Eve

Today is Christmas Eve (if you open presents on the 25th not the 24th for some reason if you open them on the 24th then today is like the 23rd) for New England Cyclocross fanatics.

Tomorrow is Christmas, New Year's Eve, Easter, Valentines day and Fourth of July wrapped into one weekend.

Aka Daytona 500.  Often called New England Worlds, it is pretty close to that.

We've got an international field.  Sure, no Nys or Stybar or those other monsters but hey, we go to watch our friends get destroyed by the course.

I have a feeling that it is going to be so much less of a grass crit this year that people will actually kind of wish for the old days of power riding and going fast.  Some people will.

Here's the list of rumors:

Flyover (look in between the dude with the goggles and the hood of Steven's truck - or here over the thumb)
Steven's Stairs
Barriers
Crazy sea wall run up
Sand Pit*
Hell that's quite a bit esp since most years the sand pit is packed like concrete.

AND it is supposed to rain.

Is this going to be insane or what?

Prep?  For that? What do you do.  Sort of like realizing the final exam isn't just covering the material from the last test but from the whole year...  the day before the test.  Ooops.

This is going to be completely f'n nuts with 110 35+ dudes.  Going to be some crazy first few laps. Oh to have the legs and points to start up front.  Going to be a mental challenge.  Go hard, don't blow up, don't fuck up, pedal to the end.  Destroy the legs where I can pedal and only be douchy in the corners with Nick and Jerry.

Made a bit of breakfast this morning.  Figured I should eat.  Why not.  My brother's stopped by yesterday afternoon following the hospital adventure (no big deal it turned out) and dropped off a mostly empty 12 pack of Harpoon IPA.  And well, you know what?  I had to have a couple.  This week has been, almost, a wash as far as training goes.  Close to the point where I could retroactively call it a rest week.  But I seem to have too many of those lately.

Life is supposed to settle down into a routine.  Yeah.  So much for that.  Sick days galore with all the doctors and dentists and what not these last three weeks.  Training?  Huh?  Who has time for that?  Mid-week racing? Yeah right.

What did GeWilli eat for breakfast? Coffee.  Hah

no actually I did eat more than that.  sauteed a bit of onion and some mushrooms in some butter and olive oil with one habanero pepper (seeds removed because they were funky and black).
Added some rice, napa cabbage, radish greens, hoisin sauce, shoyu sauce and two eggs.

Looked pretty much like dog puke.  Even I was slightly put off by the appearance (needed more bright red peppers or something, ah shit, should have put a pile of turmeric in there -damnit - i knew i forgot more than just the garlic).

BUT it tasted not so bad.

Wound up riding with Tatar on the way in this morning.  Solid case of half-wheeling each other.  We just kept ramping the pace up until we were doing 23mph and talking...  my heart rate was slowly climbing to 150 after a couple miles and with both remarked that we planned to ride in easily...  oh shit, neither of us really intended to half-wheel and we ain't newbies.  But talking about Gloucester has a strange influence.

Of course we had to race up the hill to the parkway...  got the HR to the max and kept it in Zone 5 until we hit the down hill.  legs felt better than lungs, but now legs are feeling it.  either way - calling it a great opener for this weekend.

Broke down and just grabbed the 47s off the shelf at the shop.  There's these nice orange Bontrager RL shoes there.  Not the fancy XLs or anything, the cheap ones.  But those old specialized shoes are dead after two years of CX and two years of commuting.  The toe spikes are frozen in there and worn down to nothing.  Can't even fathom the Sea Wall Scramble w/o spikes.  Taking the eSoles out and replacing it with the ancient Sidi insoles that have migrated from my 1996 Dominators did wonders for fit.  Toe box and shoe volume is still a bit roomier than i would like and the ratchet is at or near the limit but wow.  The difference is way more than I realized.  Those old shoes probably were robbing me of 100 watts (kidding).  And well, if the LGs actually ever show up I will have two pairs of shoes to go back and forth with.  And the orange detail matches the road kit for bonus points.

All over the place today huh.

What the HELL is Boudreau using THIS for?

This weekend is going to be

off

the

hook

See you there.  And yes.  Big Orange will be in effect.  If anyone has a line on an orange skinsuit let me know, warming up in that would be easier than the coveralls.

heddwch
G