It has been creeping up. If you're out of bed (locally) by 6-6:30 you know. Darkness is already here. The evening commute still has light though, and gorgeous sunsets. (I've been posting them all on IG, there's a link on this page to check the photos out if you like).
Sunday the darkness shifts, shifts to night. Commuting with lights in the dark starts Monday and the months of night riding begin.
I did sign up to race this weekend. I resisted my normal habit of signing up for both days, just because it is a two day race doesn't mean I have to race both of them. It isn't like I've been racing, am competitive or anything else. I want to race, yes. But I think it is the wise move to just do sunday. I would have signed up for both but was encouraged to do just one and that makes sense given where I'm at. Also I've discovered rest. Weird right? Being rested is a good thing. CRAZY TALK. WTF. Not being insanely worn down and tired makes it easier to go harder on the bike? Why hasn't anyone tried to tell me that before?
Took the massive over-training last year even with the bad back to really start to understand, and then the days off, here and there, being rested and pedaling better. Even if it is just a really fast Monday and Tuesday after a light weekend.
Knee is feeling better, well the calf is, but something about the bike position on the Crockett is wrong and it seems to be making the old sub patellar pain come back. I think I can fix it by sliding back on the saddle. I took the Specialized offset post off because the single bolt isn't enough to keep the saddle in the correct angle, I'm too big for a one horizontal bolt seat clamp. Need two bolts or a vertical bolt. And offset. At least I'm guessing it is the offset. Not sure. Need to spend time trying to figure it out. The Black Blue does seem to feel right. The MTB does too. The Crockett and the Surly? Not so much.
Need to work on the second edition of the bike fit jig. Maybe incorporate pedal? I dunno. Would be nice to pedal without pain for once. But the calf is feeling good. Managed to snag a $50 discounted race license so I'm all set. Doesn't feel like it but man 52 looks old on that thing.
So racing sunday in the singlespeed race, against a huge pile of fast folks, none of the slower participatory NECXSS group are there and we're racing with the Cat 2 and Cat 3 kids. I'm hoping Jake Wells slows down a little on day three, maybe everyone will be slow and me and Jason B won't get lapped after two laps. I mean hell I'd love not to get lapped but we'll see how it goes, how the course is. And it will be a smaller field, unlike the crazyfest that will be the masters race with three nearly full fields of 50. At last coutn there were just over 50 people signed up total in our three fields. We'll see if this 44-19 feels as good as I has lately.
It felt really good on the Dirt smack. Only issues were starting on the slow wet uphill roots, but that gave me a chance to run. Why starting on those? New kid got a new old bike. Busted pedals (only could clip in on one side, and first time on them it seemed) and the Di2 stuff is mangled. Bent hanger I think, or bent rear der. Ultegra stuff on a Crockett, the singlespeedable one. I joked that he might just need to ditch the gears, but I think he likes the gears. Most people do. Of course his light died too. And first ride in the woods in the dark? I think he still had fun. I hung out and fixed it and helped and when a wrong turn was taken in the woods a few times I dragged everyone around by feel to the right place. Helps having a bit of a local knowledge and feel of the place. It went long with that and even going slow the gearing was good. Going fast? we did that too, and it actually felt pretty good spinning at 120-130, work but not terrible work. Rode in yesterday a bit late but managed to keep it close to 95rpm all the way.
International Singlespeed day was the 2nd, and well just been a SS week on the crocket. Rode the shifty squishy bike on Sunday. Back of the knee actually was not happy but it also could have been a bit of maintenance inflammation that helped fix it. Because it felt fine on Dirt Smackdown, even with all the running and remounting.
Still need to work on the brakes on the Stache, the front brake hasn't fixed itself sitting there. Probably head to the shop on Saturday. Matt had ordered skinsuits for the team but didn't get anything bigger than an XL and while that has worked for other skinsuits for me, the castelli no so much. They are larger sized than their normal items (like the summer jersey I have that i couldn't get into the XL, the XXL and had to get the XXXL). I tried it on, got one arm in the sleeve, barely, but only the second arm halfway and couldn't quite get the shoulders all the way up and the zipper was already straining at the seams. It would have essploded, if I could get it zipped. There's stretchy fabric and then there's not stretchy enough. This was not stretchy enough. Kind of bummed that everyone else has the cool kit but not really. How many CX races have I done so far and it is November? 1. Last year I raced way more and my back was fucked. Granted yes, I took the kid to regattas and had to let the knee recover (different than back) and some of the regular races just didn't happen. And I race the big MTB race too. Or should I say participated in it. But CX Nats is here in Hartford. We'll see how sunday goes. If it is anywhere passably okay I might break my promise and actually race at nationals, maybe... $115-135 for a race you probably won't be able to finish is pretty steep, but it is Nationals and it is local enough to drive to, and maybe I'm at a place where I can race and enjoy as many laps as I can get. That and racing through the boathouse with what the crew kid has been doing would be cool. I was there with her for the big regatta there. So, maybe I need to race at the same place on the bike? We'll see. Probably should do a few more races. Not many.
Last day of sunset season is tonight. The Biannual photo bombardment. I kind of leaned even more into it this year, why? Because a few people said they appreciate them and really like the photos and, well, there might be others that also like it but aren't saying it directly so, fuck it, there are no rules and it is my feed and I can do what I want. So I have been loading up the servers with photos.
That social media thing though, swerving around jumping into different platforms but forgetting which ones I'm on and well, not sure where everyone will land, but there's some writing on the wall that twitter won't last, but again, we'll see. Kind of makes me long for the days of 140 characters, no photos or gifs or emojis and pure chronological feed, no algorithm... simpler times are behind us indeed.
Time to move on with the morning.
heddwch
G
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