above LT for up to an hour?

Ya think those old Europeans knew about Lactate Thresholds when they set up cyclo-cross to be an hour long?

I was taking an apple break and had a moment to read the Lactate Threshold chapter. And when i read this line:

At any rate, measurements in cyclists, runners and skiers demonstrate the fact that elite performers can sustain work levels substantially above the LT for up to one hour.

Freaking brilliant.

Its true, cross should be done above LT the whole time right? I think its a good thing i don't know what my LT is or if i'm over it for the whole race.

Anyway I know KL is all pissy about lame ass bloggers and such just linking other shit - and since she's read it (presumably) awe who'm i making excuses for. Blogs ain't for others - although honestly some people get the wrong idea about them. Yes they can be for others but the deep core of them, and for me at least is documenting me somewhere in a habitual manner.

much like Charles Darwin did. Writing down notes about what interested him. Referencing articles, summarizing them and making personal comments in a gewilliesque manner.

Back to the LT thing, i just wonder... back in the day did they try doing cross races for 3 hours? or was there some innate knowledge that 1 hour was about as long as you could race at an intensity high enough to stay warm.

Given a couple things. #1 Some US/Euro riders have brought this up many times. Pontoni IIRC in the Pure Sweet Hell video (which i've seen thanks to an admirably fast masters cross racer) said the major difference is that in Europe there are hot showers availible to the racers after the race. this brings a couple problems (i'm side tracking - will try and regain original focus in a second), one problem for the americans is the wicked strong puritanical Buulsheet (pronounced by Hollander Director) that makes men feel funny showering with other men... was it wicks treefarm or someone mentioning last year about showering and rubbing asses with Nys or one of the other pros... Euros (in general) have a much healthier attitude, and higher comfort level with their bodies. Americans are soo freaking hung up on that shit. For the guys its like they are afraid they'll turn gay just looking at another man showering or something... the other problem really more is logistics... Are the little rinky dink promoters gonna set up showers? Maybe the UCI needs to add shower requirements to the list or regs for Cyclocross races. But they one might say: "are they needed for the dustbowl that was Gl-ouch-ster this year?" Um yeah, well sweat + dust = need for shower. Hell from what i've noticed the fucking VERGE races can't even get enough freaking toilets, not to mention Brockton's utter lack of them (yes i know there were two across the street, but they weren't set up just for the race).

While cross may be at an all time epic high in participation, imagine the popularity if we tossed in showers too?

Okay - now this aside will be added: The athletes EXPECTING showers are cross are Elite racers. But then, hell maybe that's enough to legitimize the shit here? Maybe they are already doing that out in the Pac NW in Portland and Seattle and surrounding areas. I know they've at least got a hot tub on the courses.

Now where the hell was i? I think i even lost myself in this rambling literary diarrhea... (nice thing about writing is that you can go back and READ what ya wrote - speaking... all fucking bets are off... good luck getting me back on track)

I don't remeber what the #2 or #3 thing i was going to add... but back to the old farts who started my beloved sport of cyclocross...

It can't be mere coincidence that they arrived at 60 minutes in light of the LT stuff. Just a wee bit thought provoking i guess.

The same article that spurred that massive crap above... ALSO mentioned the difference between slow twitch and fast twitch muscles, in that slow twitch produce lower lactate levels than fast twitch... and well which ones are the high RPM muscles and which are the low gear grinding ones?

And fucking hell it clicked.

GD light switch clicked on.

FUCKING EUREKA MOMENT

TRAINED high RPMs mean you use the slow twitch muscles, which have more mitochondria, and produce much less lactic acid than fast twitch muscles.

I went around and around this before a while back. Never quite got a hold on it. Blame it on some mental stubbornness or over education of botanical physiology at the expense of any mammalian phys...

it makes sense now... Higher cadence means ya doing less lactic acid and well... that's a good thing... means longer in the ZONE...

So after having read this:
http://home.hia.no/~stephens/lacthres.htm
other stuff makes sense... and searching for slow twitch and RPM gets a few good articles that now make more sense in light of the Stephens web page.
like this one

Slow-twitch cells can contract 80-100 times per minute and can easily cope with the forces required to pedal in low gear.

100 contractions a minute... that's what... 200 rpm! DAMN those suckers are miss-named. Slow? Me is slow, slow twitch ain't slow (as far as cyclists are concerned). and this last bit:

Ultimately, the high pedaling rates also preserve greater amounts of glycogen in fast-twitch muscle fibres, leading to more explosive 'kicks' to the finish line in closing moments of races.

Damn talk about a side track...

I like this article too... but for me that's 36 grams of carbs ever 15 minutes over 4 hours... hmmm FIG NEWTONS TO THE RESCUE...

I just have to eat three and a quarter fig newtons ever 15 minutes...

that's one HELL of a lot of Fig Newtons.

DAMN

But its pretty damn freaking important if ya racing back to back eh? And granted it is very easy to eat after a race - energy drinks help and all that... but still nearly 600 grams of carbohydrates in 4 hours after racing... that's still alot, nearly two pounds of fig newtons.

DAMN

Well... those that bonk, know the bonk... bonking sucks... those that try and compete on a low carb diet... well if that's the best way to replenish the glycogen... i think Zoo's roid-head trainer would have a heart attack seeing a client consume that many "empty" calories...

but then...

the goals of LOOKING good are VERY VERY different than the goals of being FAST.

Peace out pimps and Hos...

kudos if you managed to follow this pick up sticks mess of ramblings...

And if ya gonna race above LT for 30-60 minutes... make GD sure ya getting enough carbs in your system. IF ya don't yall prolly be slow or get sick or both...

peace out and don't mind the freak behind the keyboard - he's harmless and finally finished with his apple...
G

odd memories

Reading Nasty's comments about Nys buying his own Dugasts and sending the flatted ones off to florida to be fixed...

I remember back in College... or was it at the shop in Seattle... about some old guy somewhere that fixed tubulars, ya sent him your stack of old flat ones and he'd stick a new tube in there, latex or butyl, sew it back up, stick some new base tape on there and ya'd be rolling along for not a lot of cash...

I'd taken a shitty old worn out tubular apart... and honestly - it didn't seem too bad... grab a special foot for a sewing machine or better yet no foot and do it up quick like... certainly would take a bit of practice and all that but then if you don't have patience and fine motor skills the job could be insurmountable...

I only ran tubulars a handful of times... supple and smooth, a lot like riding my 28s... (on the road)... Never had the luxury out side of borrowin C-Burke's Tufo rear bublar at Brockton of ridin them in a cross race. Maybe someday...

but just getting to #3 on Solobreak's list, is all the reasons wrapped up in one why i will prolly never beable to afford to run tubulars... That and i'd actually have to start winning the elite masters races to even justify it to myself... not likely for a while. But that sort of brings the best part of the Brain and Body chapter to the front of thought:

The Long Haul

In college and at the world class level, the clock is always ticking. Athletes feel pressure to reach their peak "this year". In many cases, this leads to yearly cycles that do not consider the ongoing development of the athlete "the next year". As a masters athlete, remember that you are in this game for the long haul. Training is a long process of learning and physical and technical growth. Medals go to those who combine talent with patience, and intensity with intelligence. Ultimately, no matter what your level of performance, the satisfaction of athleticism is sweetest when it enhances your life, not just your VO2 max!

The satisfaction of athleticism is sweetest when it enhances your life...

what a phrase. From Suds getting out and running 5k and feeling the afterglow of exercise, to those waging a series campaign in cross...

Enhancing your life...

Taking lessons from that - peaking not just for now but being cognizant of the impact your actions have down the road. From Molly taking the week off leading up to Rhode Island. Molly's coach is right - rest is as important as training and more important if your immune system is compromised. Getting sick is worse than missing a few days of training, or tapering your intensity outside race efforts.

Thank you KL for passing that on to FnF who posted it. And Yeah...

all that stuff...

Commuting notes:
Rode in with shorts, long sleeve jersey, wind vest and gloves... just below 40 degrees... no embrocation (because that's BAD)... and was cool to cold at the start but plenty warm once i got the groove on.

Embrocation. (okay in the stricktest sense rubbing plain oil on your skin would be an embrocation... so not ALL embrocation is bad for the cold)

What's embrocation you may ask? Or might not [ask] if you've been reading Pez or C-news on a regular basis.

Well... embrocation n. The act or process of moistening and rubbing a part of the body with a liniment or lotion.

Revist the Hula Girl's Ask the Doctor from Velonews article, and scroll down to this point (or read the whole thing, it is a good read if ya haven't read it before):

Skin care, heat balm and keeping covered
I'm old and grumpy enough to observe two recent skin-care fads in cold weather cycling that I find puzzling and medically counterintuitive. The first is bare legs in the snow. I was a junior back when disco was king and all we had to go by was the CONI (Italian Olympic Committee) cycling manual. The good book strictly forbade riding in bare legs below 70 degrees Fahrenheit. These are words to live by, even with the bad English translation. Your skin can only do so much temperature regulation. Cold, bare legs make it harder for your body to maintain core temperature and prevent hypothermia.

Second and even stupider in my opinion are vasodilating balms in a misguided effort to keep bare legs warm when underdressed. By using heat balms you are dilating the blood vessels, thus losing more core temperature. The physiological response to cold exposure is restricting blood flow to the skin and extremities to preserve core temperature. Heat balms to bare cold legs do the opposite and further threaten core temperature. Cold hands and feet and rapidly worsening brain function means you are underdressed, not that you should slap on more wintergreen and capzasin oil and accelerate core hypothermia. There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing. Hypothermia doesn't make you manly and it sure as heck won't win a race.

Remember that kids.

Don't go out and buy all that warming embrocation just cause Pez or Cyclingnews writes the shit up. The Hula Girl spends enough time in the ER dealing with idiots. She knows what the fuck she's talking about. Got it?

Get a nice rub down with some fancy Oil or Vaseline... but skip the shit that "warms" you up... it ain't making heat... its TAKING heat from your body... and dat is not using your BRAIN...

use your brain, read a good book, turn off the TV, hug your friends, smile at strangers, let your actions be a model for others... peace and happiness starts from within

G

Chain Tension

Listen up folks...

I see it all the freaking time at the start... people in the big ring, derailuer no where near max tension...

HELLO...

that chain slapping clanging ya hear just riding along? thats you or your chimpanzee mechanic leaving too many freaking doG namD links in there... SHORTEN THE BITCH please...

Chain should be just short enough to make big big combo... and in cross... the big to little difference is nothing like big to little on a Mt Bike Triple (Ritchey had it right with his 2x9 drive train no one needs a granny with the right cassette and 'middle' ring) or a 53-39 like most roadies run.

Ten teeth at most generally right? maybe 12? i dunno folks... figure the shit out...

It annoys me...

The squealing brakes i can deal with, that chain slap... give your mechanic a kick in the shin if they fucked up your rig (Ctodd needs to give his two kicks for the rolled bubulars) nut yourself on the stem if you did it...

No excuse for those running SRAM chains with that master link...

(finally got that outa my system,,, its been stewing hiding away until recently,,, rearing its head watching a race,,, actually it was Colt's Kona that first ticked me off saying "dude get a new mechanic - fix the gd chain already")

peace and waffles...
G

palate cleanser....

yeah... i feel the need for a palate cleanser...

don't ask me why, cause ya should know... 'debating' with the anonymous coward or just pushing Zoo's buttons...

need something to leave it at for the day...

Bike parts:
So cyclingnews has a review of some wheels... and the first thing that peaks my interest is the name of the company "Williams Cycling Systems"

Of course being an ex-ECCC racer Williams Cycling will always be as Google defines it, Williams College Cycling team.

Not Williams Cycling as mentioned by Cycling news.

The write up is pretty positive. But for just that i'd have not made mention.

I clicked the 30x on their web page and noticed a statistic: max rider weight... well they phrased it like this:
225 pound rider weight limit.

225 pound weight limit? Holy shit. i wonder what the 30 wheels are at? 190? Fuck me. I go from 190-197 just drinkin water... (that's an exaggeration for the accuracy police).

Makes me think... do other companies deal with that issue? I've certainly seen more than my share of big and tall me destroy wheel after wheel, and these are literally JRA kinda things. I've been on rides... all of a sudden BANG spoke broken... and i knew the tension was good on the spokes and it was true - i had checked them over for the guy.

Anyway... those look like some decent wheels... esp the 30x (for me being a big fat lard ass at 190-195 pounds)... was 190 this AM... for the record (for my OWN personal record, as a tracking device).

Anyway... oh... one area i KNOW i need to work on based on the diagram of factors is the Psycological set... but i think there's a bit of improvement. On one hand i sort of want to think i have the legs and the muscle ability to win, but the brain and the pain hold me back... i gotta figure that stuff out.

My wife had mentioned (IIRC) about the junior rowing program and mental training... and i can't help but recognize and admit and observe... the difference at the elite level often isn't the physical ability... its the mental ability...

chew on that for a while...

and peace,

G

(peace with a dash of Edward Abbey's stirring the soup up to keep the shit from settling at the top)

okay... wtf?

Soooo the course designer on Sunday put the triple barriers on the run up for the first races and then pulled em for the women and elites? WTF?

That's fucking Hosebagged if ya ask me. Why change the shit up for different groups? IF ya gonna do that shit re-route the women so they don't have to climb that crap?

didn't realize till i was peeping:
www.trailwatch.net..sterling photos.

woulda been a big advantage for me without those barriers - *sigh*

St. Germain gets PODd

Does Adam know he's been POD'd?

not much to say - had this feeling this am, ain't gonna write much. ain't got much to say.

its warm out... commuting is kick ass... my average speed for yesterday is up 1 mph over the previous weeks. Which isn't saying much but that's somewhat significant. almost double digit % increase... remember its with a trailer + kid + messenger bag + city traffic and stop lights and stop signs and yes, i stop at red lights and i stop at stop signs, unlike way too many arrogant shithead retard motherfuckers who feel that riding a bike is a nice way to flip the bird to the laws of the road...

Meh...

Read a chapter of the Darwin biography thing... talking about Wallace and all that. Darwin is a fucking amazing man i tell ya. The stuff he went through, the meticulousness, the depth and breadth of his learning and writing? UNfuckingBElIEVABLE. Dude is straight up freaking to be admired.

up late, then for some reason was awake at 5am... dozed until about 5:30 then just laid there awake till the littlest wanted out of the crib at 5:45... and then i made waffles.

so...

Peace and Waffles (with nice Grade B Maple Syrup - grade B cause Grade A are for the city folk and morons who don't appreciate the true goodness and intensity of the maple flava).

-G

damn straight

We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on.
- Richard Feynman

Sterling Race - transcribed from scribble

The thought just occured to me to scan the 4 pages in and save myself the translation, but then... no... why?

Well in college, sophomore year iirc, i discovered that if i took notes, and then re-wrote them i learned the material, actually learned it not memorized. With my first computer at college i did it with everything. Hand wrote (lots of yellow pads - narrow ruled - letter sized) all my notes. Then typed them in, adding or fixing facts and all that.

So the process sort of continues, except now i'm using the one line jots to flesh out thoughts. I can expound on details that were a mere short hand, even for me. Far too Gewilliesque even for me writing to myself here.

Yes - it is lunch. I'm having a bit of soup from yesterday. Got back into the Sunday soup deal. This was made with 1/2 a sweet onion sweat in a heavy dose of extra virgin olive oil, added two stalks of organic celery and reduced (evaporated all the water out) those down on low heat. Then added 4 organic carrots (peeled), 1 small organic Parsnip (peeled), one small Organic Beet, one small turnip (organic.. duh), one organic Jewel Yam, 1 organic acorn squash, ginger (fresh, chopped), 2 cloves organic garlic (rough chopped), 12 fresh green beans (org), 2 org zuchs, a bit of dried basil, some rice wine vinegar, a touch of soy sauce, ground coriander... and a small bit of stock base (this was chicken but could easily have been the vegan veggie stock) a bunch of water (maybe 4-5 cups) and 1.5 cups of red lentils. Cooked at a simmer until the lentils were soft and then blended with a stick blender till smooth. Served over cous-cous (the small french stuff). Oh - i forgot - added 2 tablespoons of tomato paste to the mix...

Anyway - i'll be slurping that down while transcribing...

TRANSCRIPTION TO FOLLOW - ALL EVENTS DEPICTED ARE FOR introspective DOCUMENTATION

Race... to start Saturday off it was food:
8-10oz of Kozy Shack Euro style... side note: Trader Joe's (TJ) stuff is sold in 16 oz tubs, KS is sold in 22 oz tubs... TJs has more sugar... and is only one penny/oz more than KS when KS is not on sale. But the TJs rice is all mushy and the flava just ain't there like the KS. KS wins hands down on all counts in the rice pudding saga, but i may have documented that before - i did a quick cost analysis and reflection this weekend hence the comments.

Okay - ate the 8-10 oz of KS,
Loaded car - just me and my junk
stopped at Dunkin Donuts (instead of making espresso) grabbed a 24oz Black hot coffee and two chocolate glazed (to be eaten post race)
arrived there - after making it through the 146-290 construction in Wu'ster... and the detour DOH!
Get to reg, its 8:09... a fucking LINE? Ya gotta be kidding me... shit...
I gotta take a crap... but the line there was long too... as a pre-warm up sort of i get the bike sorted out... ie front wheel on, check front tire - at 40psi - add 10 psi (i'm too fat to run clinchers any lower) and leave the back alone - somewhere around 40-50psi close enough... ride around looking for the porta-potty - no dice (not till my first practice lap did i spot them) head to the single hole in the visitors locker room - take a massive dump, no way to race with that load - it was one of those that - never mind - TMI even for me (well not really but i'll leave it out)... so after the massive dump i head out... its freaking 8:20 now... race starts at 9am... i gotta get changed... Get number pinned on and suited up by 8:30. did i mention the race was at 9? This is as close to the start as i've cut it and i was up before 6am to get to the race!!!

Pre-race beverage deserves a quick side note as well. Gatorade powder thing had about 1/2 a bottle worth... and all i had was that Accelerade stuff. Figured i'd give it another try. Ya know. Race style prep - in cold weather instead of warm this time. Mix up two bottles of that, drink one before the race after finishing the 24oz DD coffee. 24 oz bottles of water mind ya. No issues with it - tasted decent, one swig of water and no sticky yucky saliva - bonus.

Okay - so back to getting number pinned on... I make it onto the course by 8:30, roll through easy in the straights - reading the course, picking lines, and alternate lines... hit the techincal sections, ooh ice... fun... get one full lap in and part of a second when i notice that there are people already gathering at staging. 'Course i'm expecting a free for all start like all but... wait... for all the races i've done... assuming they'll send the C-men off first and then us (B-masters) then the 55+ guys... anyway i get there - line up in the middle somewhere... shit - they doing the number thing... i have to ask two different people what my number was... and got an answer both times, just didn't happen to remember it the first time... 70 C-men go off before us... that's 7 rows of folks... 68 starters in my race, i was number 157... meant 5th row... lined up with Larry King (Union Velo)... so as it was 70 guys up the road 30 seconds, 50 guys in front of me... and well... my plan was to go hard but not blow my wad at the start (dumb now in hindsight)... I still mowed through the group... passing people all the way to the first run up... but just not enough people... i could have passed more... and then there was the clusterfuck of the first lap run up... we catch the C-men at the bottom of the hill - already people just stopped trying to figure out how to get around the guy stopped in front of them... i'd been sticking with the left side but it was wicked chewed up already from the C-men, but not bad... just tough to get around people who were walking up the hill... ITS A RACE PEOPLE GET A FUCKING MOVE ON...I didn't say that but felt it... way nicer racing with the elite/combined masters field, people actually know how to ride and shit.

So - ooh side note to self: When racing B-masters when starting behind C-men - go balls to the wall 100% from the gun because there WILL be a bottle neck and there WILL be time to recover from the effort and not be on the slow train to the back of the field (like in the combined 1.2.3.4 masters fields).

So... Moving through and moving up, battling it out... passing passing passing passing passing

We claw for position... the C-men are like fucking landmines... Props to them for giving it a go but racing through 70 guys with less experience and sometimes seemingly non-existent skills is frustrating and slow.
I don't wanna bitch about them too much but it was a major part of the race. But chatting with Rob, MRC will have a separate B-masters start (Hey Foley - chance for your 5th race and points!!!).

Almost ate a tree... scared the poop outa me (fortunately no poop in me) cost me a hand full of bike lengths and three or four positions (all gained back at the tripple barrier run up) but sucked some major adrenaline outa me -

That 2x log barrier thing, how the hell would KL get up that? I was jumping up over it... damn thing was NOT 40cm, more like 80cm...

Kept passing people but that 1st 50 people, well 27/26 of them beat me to the line... and that kinda blew... but then i did finish in front of more than i finished behind.

overall in the races lately i'm finding i have more bursts ie more gas and goes... call em 5+ race bursts that i maybe had one per ride in August (ala my sprint against Graham Garber at 1200+ watts)... which is nice... gun and go can happen more often... maybe if we were racing Cross until Feb i might be able to have enough gas and gos to podium it... if only we had a promoter that would work it for us. But at anyrate it feels like i'm actually getting into shape... race shape that is...

Oh at the start - JD was walking around checking numbers and stuff and i jokes "Hey JD - Call up! JD I get a Call up right? Come on Man, can't i get a call up?" His somewhat amused reply was "i'm just an employee at this race" call up woulda been nice there at that race...

I don't feel like going over the details of the course... it was good... tough, fair (except that double log IMHO) and oh... can the freaking course folks clear the fucking head level limbs that stick over the only ridable lines? Fer Fuckssake? The last couple laps i'd pass a handful of folks on one part then they'd catch up or pass me on another section. Happened with one little dude with spinergys a couple times (i tried to go on the inside line around him when i almost tree'd myself). But i was generally ahead at the start finish line where it counts... there were a handful of folks on my wheel hitting the pavement... but i gassed it and they weren't there anymore... i'm getting it - knowing that everyone else must be hurting as much as i am that if i can find the mental to gun it that they won't be able to hang unless they've really saved alot. At one point in the race i thought my bars were loose or busted... not fun... but check over yesterday didn't really reveal anything.

So this stone soup cross bike, as G-dawg calls it, isn't any closer to coming together. Well... not in form at least... Stem... now is the big factor...
In addition to weighing it (21.5 pounds vs 22 pound croll) i took a few measurements. I ignored seat tube cause i knew it was a "58" and it don't matter what the croll was, so i measured top tubes. Croll = 60cm c-c effective. Redline 56cm c-c... wouldn't be so bad if i wasn't running a 135mm stem on the croll. The P-mount measures out at a 58cm c-c top tube but i'm running a 140 on there... and have a 150mm Syncro with a 26.4 clamp in the craftsmen chest that was used when it was my primary road bike.

Nice thing about being tall is that you can make up for length with drop... so i just need to find a nice 140 or 150 stem with a clamp compatible with something 26.0 or 25.8... 1 1/8th steer tube. That's the other thing - with a 1 1/18th vs 1" (on the croll) there's a touch of extra length tossed in...

Anyway...

Checked CTodd's ride - didn't realize he was a 'Tex boy... as in vortex... freaking pimped out 1.slow golf. V.cool. although it may be fallin apart - still cool.

oh about the pit bike - could be worse - from what C.V. was saying to me at G'ster's race about euro pit bikes many second bikes are barely rideable... i still count myself very fortunate...

It might have been easier to get a frame.. although its still a great test tfro me and the evaluation of my 2nd bike parts (as in to see what i have)...

CPX30s... THOSE were the rims... heavy, but strong, aero... these CPX33s and 21s still are great, but compared to the old first CPX run... they pale in comparison..

Scored 2 red bulls after the race... shoulda had one before the race tho..

Tried the accelerated (yea i mentioned it earlier - here it is again in my notes). Seemed to work. It didn't get me any super placings like it did KL but definately a better experience although post lunch and 5 hours later i can still taste it.
SIDE NOTE: IF i ever talk about trying this stuff again kick me... i was tasting it untill i went to bed. Even had a few beers and it didn't erase the taste. Only some nice aged Parmesan cheese managed to quelch the taste of the Accelerade lemonade flavor. and then there was the washing the bottles - i'd somehow completely forgotten BOTH of those side affects of the Accelerade. DOH. I also mixed up a sample pack of the Cliff recovery drink, in orange mango - its also protien enhanced. No where near as good as accelerade, but then the taste doesn't linger at all. The Cliff apple drink with caffeine = thumbs up... this stuff? thumbs down.

Besides the frantic start/pre-race and the extra early start to the AM... not a bad day. This is also the lightest mileage week since August. Not counting the weekend before (plymouth and lowell)... hell even counting that weekend i was not on the bike wed thur or friday (or sunday for that matter). Legs felt rested and good. They hurt like a motherfucker right now. But that's good. Pain like this means i left it all on the course (or i'm over trained).

Well i'm outa paper... this has been written sitting in the car, in the sun, with a sleeping 35 pound 22 month old kid taking a much needed nap...

Peace and Waffles

G-out

(thus ends the scribbly transcript that was my Saturday recollections - and yes the water bottles eventually came clean)

Blissfully unconnected

Yes...

its been a while... I haven't checked email or updated this since Wed.

I've got ~50 emails to get through (now that i've deleted the not quite junk but no need to read ones)...

i scribbled some notes post race on saturday... wishing i could have stuck around longer then but i had to blast... B-day party to get to...

Overheated this am... its warming up fast it seems, but looking at the temp... not really... still below 45 degrees...

Found out how badly i bruised my tail bone when i missed a pedal saturday and landed on the nose of the saddle... OUCH...

If ya sent me an email i'll get to it sometime...

i'll get the race report up some time later when i have a minute - might be at lunch...

peace out...
G

Turkey Day

Turkey... The best turkey i've eaten is following the modified Alton Brown method. Modified in that you start off normal breast side up in the hot oven, then instead of putting that stupid tinfoil crap on there you flip the bird upside down and cook it (with thermometer stuck in there, never opening the oven till it hits the right temp). not the most beautiful breast, but ya ain't using the sunofabitch as a center peice, you are gonna eat it... and a fresh turkey brined over night in Brown's method cooked like that is unbelievably good.

Even those who don't like turkey will like this method. Although a vegan still prolly won't eat it...

Hey yall in blogger land... if anyone has a ~44cm non-ergo bend road handle bar hanging around with a 25.8mm clamp diameter... can i borrow it till nats? shallow drop preferred but no required... i'm not looking to break the bank on a new set of bars, and while i'm prolly not as anal and fastidious/sensitive as Treefarm, the bars are a big interaction zone. I've got a saddle i can use, pedals and the rest of the jamboree... but the bars...

Just thought i'd pop the request out there.

I will be at Sterling. But i'm doing the 9am race and may not stick around too much longer. In case someone might have something - some old vintage heavy ass bar'd be fine... hell i'm running the cinelli 65s right now (crit bars)... me love them... I could, i suppose, pull the bars off the Q-Pro... but its a 26.0 clamp and then i'd need a new stem.... which maybe i should do anyway...

Hmmm... shoot... extra stems Hmmm scratch the bar request - if it'd be better to take the cockpit off the Q-P. Use the same shifters on both bikes... So... 1 1/4" stems? with 26.0 clamp? with some drop?

And Sailorman, the avids are fine... ya not supposed to use the brakes to stop, just slow down... I'll prolly re-do the cables anyway seein as they are all frayed on the brakes and too short on the ders... call it a thank you tune up as a return.

Wait a minute... You schemin to get a free tune up for the bike or something? Knowing ya'd get it back in way better shape than ya dropped it off? (Assuming i don't pull a Plymouth Foley and wrap the bike around a tree)...

I like the swapping bars from the Q-P now. And the cranks - can't ride the Ultegras, need to have 180s... so it'll definitely be one of the Mt Cranks to stick on there... we'll see what kinda bottom bracket i have kicking around... hmmm... that'll be tough... but i think i have an old race face somewhere... bigger question... do i have the BB tools... hmm may be time to pay a visit to the team shop...

Anyway...

Wade's write ups are always good.

And i gotta say - this gang of Cross racers here in new england- one hell of a good group... with pissy grumps like the old man with many national titles excepted... but then personally i don't have any bad interactions with him, but i haven't crashed him out either...

So I'm caught up - The Hub is open... and all that jazz...

Frazz is funny today... and everyday... man i love that strip!!


got directions for Sterling...


ready to split - peace...

happy thanksgiving...

The bike

The loaner at least:


Sit or Stand. Pez with another nice little article.

Regardless, practice remains a vital component of good technique, so keep mixing up your workouts and remember that technique and efficiency remains the key to maximizing cycling performance!

Well...

its not quite friday - but is almost feels like it...

Cliff Builder bars are tastey. But, why do they feel making it all Snickers like is important. Not that i'm complaining... shits good... nummy...

Not as tastey as Kozy Shack Eurostyle rice puddin... but still a nice bit to munch in the middle of the afternoon...

Friends are great

Esp friends who loan ya a spare Cross bike for the remainder of the season...

It ain't perfect, but I am extremely grateful for his generosity. Its a redline Conquest Pro - two, three years old frame in size 58... alloy fork, with 10speed... As a pit bike i couldn't ask for more. Although, part of me wants to switch it over to 9speed or a single speed... so #1 i don't hose his drive train in the event the course is wicked fucked up somewhere... #2 the bars ain't my style, they some goofy Ritchey WCS jobs with funky bends and all that... so i could get another set of bars slap my 9 speed bar cons in and roll with the Dura-Ace aero levers that were originally on the P-Mount and roll all 9 speed or ditch the ders and shifters and go single... might be wise if the course truly is shitty as all that requiring a bike change... But those are things i can get all introspective about to no end... so i won't...

Its just cool. I'm extremely grateful and happy. And Yogurt boy sure is a real sweetheart eh? All jealous of my form. Well MoFo... form is ALL i got... that and a sprint... my CP1 might be 1200-1400 watts but my CP60 is way below where it should be. Nah my CP1 prolly ain 1400...

picked up the bike down on main street at he was headed to CT today. Main is as low in elevation as you can get in Providence, and i work in the building damn near the highest point in elevation... so me... have to get both bikes up here... and i figure, hell i'll just strap it to the trailer. Well it worked... and me, with trailer, in work clothes (wearing my fancy new Cannondale MC900 shoes with spots that hurt my feet - should break in i hope) riding the P-mount slog up College hill in my 50x23. Yeah... trailer + extra bike + me in street clothes + jacket going up 10+% grade i think its way steeper than that in the steep sections... it's probably average 10% from bottom to top. Its steeper than the steepest pitches at Big Blue, that i know for a hard core fact. Anyway - there's me, trailer with bike strapped to the top of it... heading up the hill...

Felt a wee bit slow this morning... like my legs were saying ENOUGH ALREADY... but they'll get plenty of a break the next few days. Sterling is still sort of up in the air. Tough call. Got family commitments but Sunday's racing options are much farther away... Sterling's just a hop skip and a jump from here... right up 146...

And if Yogurt boy shows his face at Sterling, maybe i'll actually be on the circut the same time... o'course if the promoters wanna keep the pissy grumpy complaining old B Masters field placated there'll be nice separate starts... Cause... while i may have only finished 9 spots behind JD in the elite race... i probably still am a B level masters. At least this year... And this past weekend there was only one masters race. Which was nice, cause it meant i could get a great judge of where i lined up with everyone.

Anyway - we'll see... we'll see

Peace, and maybe i'll do blueberry waffles instead of chocolate ones... although i am determined to make a batch of choco ones that taste wicked damn good...

Oh and the Redline is one of the Red frame ones with Black fork. Matches team kit ;)

now i just have to get some of those fancy transfer letters and put GeWilli on all my bikes..... oops i mean on my cross bikes, cause putting them on the road bikes would be fucking LAME...

G-Dog... OUT

Lowell Race report

So where to start… probably where I left off.

Sunday morning, Lowell.

I get up, make some coffee, drink a bit of water, pop a vitamin… and get busting ass loading the car.

Spare wheels and everything. Managed to set off the car alarm at 6:40am… I’m sure the neighbors liked that. Took about 30 seconds of fumbling to get the key fob out of the pocket to disable the alarm. Nice start. Girls are all up at this point, up earlier than normal but not by that much. Load the girls in the car, and nope, no food. Wait, not true, I had 4 or 5 heaping spoonfuls of Kozy Shack. Not a whole tub, but maybe 8 oz of the stuff. And we head out. Hit the B20 pump that wasn’t working, head north. 95-3-495-to the race… quick, very straightforward and not too bad. Well aside from the youngest puking in the car somewhere between 93 and 3 on 95… or was it before 93… I dunno… it was a mess… had to take the car seat out and everthing. Yuck. More puke on the cushions of the poor Golf. My field Glen was right, back in 2001 or so maybe late 2000 I was changing and re-coding some convenience modules in the car and I accidentally knocked a bit of trim off and one of the tabs (it was for the passenger seat by the pivots) got bent, and I got bent outa shape. Glen, in his psychic mode said, you’ll be lucky if that is the least of the damage to the car when you kid (2nd one hadn’t shown up yet) is ready to drive… well its trashed… sort of. Still works, engine kicks ass, stuff is functioning, just need to find time to pull the cushions out of the car and clean em. Its nice having the knowledge and the practical experience stipping your own car to the bare sheet metal. Anyway… this IS a race report of sorts. A documentation of a day in the life of a slow, but slowly improving cyclocross masters racer.

So, we get there. Parking guys wave us up to the top. Near the upper wheel pit. We snag a spot. I gotta take a wicked pissa. The fluids of the morning want to get out and get out now. I find the porta potty after taking the bike off the roof and getting the front wheel installed… pop a helmet on, but leave my shoes on… and then roll out to get my number… see the god cronoman chillin at THE prime spot. I notice the Yogurt clan is starting to emerge from their big white Imported Luxury SUV and see the reason why, the sandbagger is getting ready to start in the C-men field. No chance to say hey to ‘Yogurt boy’ oh well… he doesn’t need any encouragement or cheering, ZoozieQ on the other hand needs all the help he can get… I think I shouted ZOOO or something like that as I paraded over to collect my number and my bottle of Slick Willy dry lube.

Got number, stop in say hey to the god C-man again, he hands over a bag of sweet goodness and inspiration and I truck back up to the car to change and get the number put on. I’m probably the only one who’s warming up with just a longsleeve skinsuit and a regular jersey on over it to put my bottle of Gatorade in. Now as I’m getting dressed that pre-race hum of the trainers is going on… nope… me no have a trainer anymore, me left it in fucking Michigan… damnit… anyway… after racing yesterday I didn’t want to blow too much of the precious glycogen in my legs warming up too much… I need every last mg of the shit to finish. So… I roll around, peep the course, run across C-burke, and we cruise a bit… the C-men race finishes up and somehow I manage to ride part of a warm up… getting ready to hit the course who should roll up but madame MegA and her main squeeze JD. Wicked cool to see her and meet JD finally. Just for the clarification I did reference megs fantastic cinematic work as ‘crap’ but in an affection term for stuff – anyway – prolly shoulda chosen a different word… Nice move on the inside of the track at the start JD… nothing illegal about riding out of bounds … if there’d been tape there JD’d have been a freaking tinsel covered Christmas tree – to his credit and benefit it was just a bunch of red marker flags… no match for his fancy singlespeed. Back to the warm up… rolling through… JD stops to remove one piece of brown glass from the course. But the looks of the rest of the bits of glass strewn around it was once a bud 40 and in no danger of puncturing anyone’s tubes (unlike the concrete and granite steps). Anyway, I roll through, at the top I make a quick exit over by the car and put the spare wheels in the upper pit – ditch the jersey and down a Red Bull. I’ve never tried the stuff but I’m one to two cups of coffee short of my normal caffeine intake so I figured its as good a time as any to give it a shot. Head back on the course and down through the rest of the course, and back to the field in time for line up. I don’t force the issue today, no front row for GeWilli. I line up behind C-Burke on the left side of the field, even tho I KNOW the right side has a better start line. But I’m also planning on not blowing my wad at the start, just start decently and get through. So I do. The start goes… I get clipped in and find myself in the mud line. Riding through the only we parts of the track… ah so what… JD blasts by on the grass inside the course markers (he lined up behind me)… and we hit the stairs… I’m on the outside and well… fuck that I ain’t muscling through so I run around the outside of the center piece instead of fighting for space on the inside… I drop back a few spots because of it… no biggie… everyone’s running through until we get out from the walkway and I fuckup the remount, nice getting back on but the pedals and clipping in was kinda like not working smoothly (as in I lost coordination or something). We head up… I’m pretty much passing people, no one is really going past me yet… We hit the run up… I nail it and ride it clean, passing those who got off, and push on… sit in a bit… I don’t remember the first lap or two, I was hammering and feeling some pain, no crashes, but coming into that slick turn where zoo kept crashing I rode it clean unlike some folks around me and was gone into the one section of stuff I hadn’t pre-ridden. Sittin on a wheel or two… following lines… making notes of what was there… hit the barriers, off and on and go… gun it on the track… catch a group… sit in on their wheel… pass a few of them at the run up, the rest later… always gaining ground heading into the turns and through them… felt pretty good. Got in a rythmn, hit the straights and was able to nail it.

And I pass two BOB dudes. Nice motivation… for some reason. And I just motor – catching and passing, either cause people ate it in the corners or couldn’t ride the hill, or couldn’t stick with me on the track. Unlike Canton I hit the track and launched and when I launched at Lowell, no one was sticking on my wheel… I was catching twos and threes and it was fun. Gimme another lap and I’d have climbed a few more places… but… I did finish the race pretty well cooked. I’ll embed this here but C-burke would love to hear a recounting of that old dude ripping the guy who crashed him out… so mbutterfly if ya up to transcribing what ya witnessed there are many many would love to read it…

So. I finished. I blew it all, but it mentally was fantastic. I was able to start mellow – maybe a bit too mellow, but importantly I stayed within myself, and I moved through the field when I had to. No danger of getting lapped. Not super high in the standings but hell, it’s a fucking fast field of guys, nearly all of them have way more experience and fitness base measured in years if not decades… It was brilliant. Fun and all that.

Got the girls saddled up, I rode for a quick cool down, hti the car, loaded up, grabbed my pit wheels, and my wife wonders how far away is Acton. Why acton? Well… she wanted to go to O Natural for lunch. So we hit O Natural, I get that soba teriyaki thing again with the smoked tofu (made with too much smoke flavor) and the girls all dig in to various stuffs. Everyone is wicked damn happy after that. Soooooooo much better than any other fast food offerings. Maybe O natural wants to sponsor a Rhode Island team ;)

Turns out there was a trader joes in the same shopping center. I’m thinking damn, finally I get to check out the TJs that everyone’s raving about. Underwhelming. What a fucking ho-back rip-off joint. Crazy. Sure its one of the smaller ones. But still… what’s the big freaking deal? Granted I’m spoiled. Spoiled by one of the best WholeFoods in the country here in Providence, and having grown up with the grand-daddy of the natural markets PCC in Seattle… coupled with my normally skeptical and critical nature, it takes a lot. So I got the whole trader joes fad out of my system. And we headed home.

Only to turn around and hit our wholefoods and top the tank back up, fortunately the pump was working like normal and the last 8 gallons or so flew in the tank.

Legs were sore. I’ll probably go back and fill in the first Monday post before adding todays comments, if I have any.

Peace, if you made it this far? Unbelievable. If you skipped to this point, I don’t blame ya… I should get triple bonus points for having race reports over 1500 words… this one’s close to 1800 I think… at least if I shut up now okay only need ten more to make 1800…

Peace out (there that’s 1803)

bike jokes...

or joke training tips more precisely..

passed on to me from an email:
http://www.calcycling.org/racetips/joketips.php

they've been around the Usnet Rec.bikes before i know... i've read most of them all before...

the Cat 1-5 is pretty funny...

hell it all is...

Zoo... rather than jump on some protein loading roid head body builder all for show work out "guru's" 'Program' you should try these suggestions:

This is a primer on how to become a real(TM) bicycle racer. If you take
these steps seriously, its time to change sports.

Getting Started:

1. Before you even try one race, go out and spend $2000 on a racing
bicycle. Forget trying to put lighter wheels on your present bike, the
Olympics are just around the corner and you can't take chances on
equipment.

2. Forget about joining a racing club. This is bike racing, not a
coffee klatch. You have to spend time on the bike to get stronger, not
sit around learning valuable thing like race tactics.

3. Don't bother to have somebody help you set up your bike position.
Everybody is built differently, so you don't want to be set up like
somebody else.


Training:

1. Always train alone. If you train with other racers you will become
familiar with riding in a pack and will therefore become too comfortable
riding in a group and less likely to try and breakaway during a race.

2. Ride in the biggest gear possible. This is bike racing which means
the big chainring. And since the pros ride the big ring up the hills and
you aspire to becoming a pro, you just gotta mash the big meat.

3. At all costs, do not spin. At RPM's over 90, the bike becomes hard
to control, especially because you are flopping all over the saddle, this
can only be dangerous.

4. Since novice races are only 10 to 25 miles long, that's all the
distance you need to do in training. Hey, why do a 50 miler if you are
only gonna be in a 15 mile criterium. Forget the fact that if you're
planning to move up in category you'll need the mileage. When you get
upgraded you will become stronger by default.

5. Only ride where you can be seen by other racers/members of the
opposite sex. Stay away from hills and backroads, there are no cars there
to observe your fine riding style. Stick to busy streets where you will
be assured of being seen. You spent a lot of money creating this image,
better not waste it.

6. Always go as hard as you can everyday. Rest days are for wimps,
plus this bike racing is hard stuff and you're gonna need every mile you
can get. If you feel yourself getting tired, it is an indication that you
are out of shape. Double your workouts!!!!

7. When you are riding in a paceline and it is your turn to take a
pull at the front, pick up the pack a good 2 or 3 mph. Forget that this
will disrupt the smoothness and efficiency of the group. If the other
riders in the paceline don't want to suffer as much as you obviously want
to, then show them by rocketing off the front, they are wimps and you
don't need them.

8. After your first three rides you have nothing more to learn about
riding a bike. Hey, you have been doing it since you were a kid, that's
experience. If anybody tries to make a helpful suggestion, don't listen!
They are your enemy in a race, why are they trying to help you out now?


Equipment:

1. If alloy wasn't worth it, they would not be selling it. Spend all
your off the bike time searching for aluminum and titanium bolts and
washers, cable housing and the like. Steel stuff went out in the late
60's, time to get with it. Do not worry about the reliability of these
components, the reason the pros do not use the light and trick stuff is
because it's not part of their sponsorship contract.

2. Since wheels are the most important part of the bike, extra effort
is needed here. The fewer the spokes the better, the thinner the spokes
the better. If the wheel folds up, it was built wrong.

3. Tires are critical and weight is far more important than
durability. Everybody flats, so if you happen to lose the race because
your 165gm Seta Triple Extras punctured, your time was due.

4. General thought about components. Buy the most readily unavailable
components you can find. 3-6 month special order items are particularly
desirable. Forget about the fact that if something breaks you cannot
race, the time off the bike can be well spent researching an even more
obscure component that is probably more durable as well.


Preparation the Day Before the Race:

1. It is important that you wait to do any serious bike maintenance
until the night before the race. Repack the headset, put on a new chain
and glue on some new tires. Don't bother to road test the bike. Racing is
much more demanding than road testing so, any really critical problems
will not be found by testing. Problems that arise during the race, like a
new chain skipping on the freewheel were most likely unavoidable anyway.

2. When gluing on your tires, be sure and leave a lot of glue on the
rims. This causes the brakes to squeal and lets everyone know you're
coming. "I mean, get outta my way, Bub".

3. Don't bother washing your racing clothes. If they smell the other
racers will know that you have been training hard and give you more
respect.


Preparation on Race Day:

1. When registering, give everybody a hard time. Push your way in the
line, forget your racing license and be sure and make a big stink about
the prize list. "I mean only $1000 for a category IV criterium, hey a
guy's gotta eat." If the prize list is not in cash, throw an immediate
temper tantrum. These promoters have got to be brought into line. Just
try putting a Sedis Sport chain in your gas tank.

2. Make sure to bitch and moan about your sponsor to anyone within
earshot with comments like, "It's my first year of racing and all my
sponsor gave me was clothing, a frame and 10 Vittoria tires. Geez, no
money, I mean how am I gonna win with support like this."

3. Be sure and remind the registrar to tell the announcer that you
will only be sprinting for $25 CASH(yes, CASH) primes or greater. "Hey,
I'm not laying my body on the line for anything less!"

4. Leave your bike in the car until just before the race. This keeps
it warm, especially on hot days, and if you need to warm up, so does your
bike. Forget about the fact that it softens your rim glue, rolling tires
in a race is just about as common as crashing.

5. Be sure to borrow all sorts of tools from everybody else, but
don't bring your own tool kit or somebody may borrow some of your tools.
Forget about returning any borrowed items, if the owner really wanted
them back he would come to you and ask for them.

6. Be sure to warm up ON the race course, preferably while another
race is in progress. This will give you a really good idea of how the
conditions will be during your race and you can get a much better warm-up
by drafting other riders. Be inconspicuous though, don't draft the
breakaway, just draft off of the pack.

7. When pinning on your number, don't bother to check which side of
the road the place pickers are standing on. Hey, they'll remember you out
of that pack of 90 riders, "I mean c'mon, I'm the classiest guy out
here." When in doubt just put in the upper two pins so the number flaps
up and is totally unreadable from any angle. This will force the dirt bag
promoter to spend $2000 on a photo-finish camera for next year's race.


During the Race:

1. Put your bike in a really large gear, this is bike racing and that
means its gonna be fast. Forget the fact that you can't turn it over
from a standing start, when you become a pro, they'll have rolling starts
and it will no longer matter.

2. Better yet don't do a standing start. Circle about at the back of
the pack and when the gun goes off, go charging into the whole group at
full speed. Just because nobody that is any good ever does this is no
reason not for you to try it, maybe they could be even better.

3. When everyone else is setting up to take a fast line through the
corners, make a move on the inside. Don't forget to yell "Inside, Inside"
to let everyone know about the bozo taking the bad line through the
corner.

4. In criteriums, take full lap pulls. While this will tire you out,
you will appear like a real animal to the crowd and you never know which
pro scouts could be in attendance.

5. In a road race, dangle about 50 to 100 yards off the front. This
shows you have guts and its only a matter of time before the 100 guys
behind you lose their motivation to chase and you're gone!

6. No need to keep a mental note on how many laps are left. Most of
the time the officials are as confused as you are. Hey, if you go with 2
laps left thinking its the bell lap, you might just stay out there long
enough to win.

7. Chase anything that moves and don't forget to tow the pack up with
you. Its not a good idea to make your own jump and bridge up to a
breakaway by yourself because if you could catch them, then the pack is
likely to do the same.

8. Even if you have a teammate in the break, chase it down. You never
know when the guy could bonk and get dropped.

9. If you get lapped, do not drop out, even if commanded by a USCF
official. You paid your entry fee and are allowed to be in the race. If a
breakaway comes by, get in it. You may get towed back up to the field and
you'll definitely pick up some experience about riding in a paceline.
Make sure to do your share of the work, though, even if it means slowing
the pace of the leaders and disrupting the group. There is no reason you
should not have been in the breakaway in the first place, I guess there
is justice after all.

10. In the sprint, just go for it. Don't bother working for position
in the last couple of laps, or trying to get on a good wheel. Just
because a guy won the last 5 prime sprints is no reason to get on his
wheel, after all, he is probably tired and will die in the final sprint.

11. It is important to shift in the middle of the sprint, when you
finally get on top of the gear, get a bigger one, you will go faster.


Post race:

1. Complain about your place no matter how you did. The judges are
usually kind-hearted and you can pick up a few places, especially if you
throw a tantrum.

2. Never trust the place pickers. "Hey I know I got 14th. When all 75
of us were coming across the line at 35mph, I counted and I was 14th. I
want my $2."

3. One of the best ways for your sponsor's name to get remembered is
to be a royal pain in the butt. Even 2 hours after your race is finished,
keep haggling the officials about your placing. Who knows, maybe somebody
didn't claim their prize.

4. When splitting primes, if you have the cash and there is nothing
in writing, it's yours(boy, there are some pretty dumb racers out
there!). On the other hand, if you're splitting and the other guy has the
loot, don't bother to ask politely, demand your share and back it up with
threat of physical violence.

5. Don't bother to help out at any race. Even if it is your own club
putting on the event. Remember, you are a bike racer. Those guys setting
up the finish line couldn't be real bike racers, otherwise they would not
be helping out.

Bruce Hildenbrand
Revision: 1/4/92

Plymouth Cross... Race Report

Once again it’s a Monday, Blogger is hosed. And well I decided its time to get at least one race done. Waiting for the sales guy to show up to do the training seems like as good of a time as any.

So… Plymouth… I head up with a prof here at the Ivory Tower (as FnF likes to call it) who lives down the street from me… we leave at 8am… But I should back up… I wake up, make a pot of coffee, slather on some Arnica gel on the quads and lower back (still bruised and hurting from the crash on it at Brockton), and drop a few Irish Bangers on the pan… and watch the weather (local news, no cable). I get two full draught espressos (basically two quads) inside me before 8… and one sausage… I don’t think I had anything much else besides two bottles of Gatorade that morning. Oh and I’ve been adding that emergen-c to the big pre-race bottles of Gatorade, the extra B vitamins and the C ‘should’ help and aren’t technically performance enhancing but deficiencies of either are bad. Stick a small Dunkin donuts coffee in the mix and that’s pre-race food for Saturday. At least as much as I can remember.

So… hitting the car, driving up… all cool. M had just bought a new cross bike (c-dale), was anxious to try it out after DNF’n in his last two races, flats IIRC, he was at Brockton… and flatted, go figure… anyway, so we got three monster bikes on the top of his passat and roll up to the event with about 20 minutes before the start, (maybe it was 15) of the first race… at anyrate, M gets the shit together first and rolls out… I’m a couple minutes behind him for a pre-race course ride.

Lemme say, riding the course before anyone’s been on it is different, but also rather nice… no pressure, just tool around on the course… fucking lame ass dickwads riding during a race… I’m completely repentant about me being on the course at the wrong time… that said, when I did do that, I was not doing the whole thing, just riding one section at a time… anyway… So I’m tooling along and get to the first barrier, there are three guys on the left side (middle) of the barrier (serves for both directions) and one on the right, these guys are flaggin me to slow down… I’m thinking shit, please, let it be not M. Get closers… sure-nuff… its M. He decided that he wanted to bunny hop this barrier but he didn’t realize how soft the grass was on the other side and thought the barrier was shorter than it was… He knocked the wind out of himself, and at the same time bruised or slightly cracked his ribs AND a second degree separation of his shoulder. Fortunately the emergency room was right across the street and one of the promoters drove him over as I finished my warm up loop on the Vreds and 32 hole wheels. M’s crash didn’t really impact me mentally in terms of caution, and I was able to just focus. I came back from the first loop and had enough time to ride the course once more, so I switched over to the S-works Baldies on the Rolfs… and did another loop. Felt a little better. Slightly more grip in the corners and more air volume, no deep mud or sketchy stuff that the skinnier Vreds would be faster in… so I stuck with the more areo wheels.

Got a good warm up in, lined up at the start in the front row next too Curtis B (Prov Velo), with the rest of the 35+ group… I tried starting behind him but he insisted that I get a front row start, and I figured well, I’m on the outside of the turn, at the least I can block a bit for him and force others to work harder to get up to my teammate. Might have worked for him…. Not so wise for me… At the whistle, I was off, and nailing it pretty good, managed to catch some great air on the ramp up the curb after the start finish and found myself in the first turn in about 8th place… damn… and I held on pretty well through the barriers, and for the rest of the first lap, not too far behind the leaders hitting the long “run-up” after the sidewalk and jaunt around the courts. This run-up, pretty steep, I’d say a bit steeper than Lowell’s. But… I rode the fucker every lap. Every fucking lap. All 8 of them. And most of the guys around me who tried fell off half way up… it was cool, there were spectators at the run up and I got some loving from the crowd for clearing it… maybe they didn’t expect some back of the packer to clean it… I dunno. The flat run around the fields sucked the shit right out of my legs. Not my kinda course, I just don’t like the flat grassy flats… a little up is better, maybe just mentally for me, I dunno. Then the wind picked up. I was getting passed a bit, they also didn’t pull any riders so I was passing a fair handful of lapped guys. But that doesn’t help mentally. And I was generally getting passed more than passing. I did pass a few, but not many. So I finished, I did catch up to a few folks on the last lap. I finished 25th in the 35+ group, 8 minutes behind Curtis. The full 58 minutes was long too. But I left it all on the course. C-Burke won the 45+ so we, as a team took first in two of the masters groups. There were 28 finishers in the 35s and I was the last one on the lead lap and really no danger of getting lapped unless we rode another 3 or 4 laps. Which was pretty decent I thought. Curtis was overall and C-burke was 3rd overall so pretty decent even without age divisions. Placing overall my time would have put me around 16th in the 45+ outa 30 or so IIRC… I didn’t save anything for Sunday at all. I just went and went and went, but went WAY too hard at the front. I could feel that I blew my wad way early… didn’t feel good.

But the course really wasn’t that bad. A double barrier instead of the single would have been nice… But I also discovered that my remounts have been suffering from lack of practicing… I need work on that….right now my legs, groin muscles specifically are wicked sore… at least this’ll be a very light week on the bike. (and the blog prolly).

So I get done, roll around a bit, and I head over to the ER to check on M. he’s there getting ready to be discharged, but all doped up and its his right shoulder so he can’t drive, phew… at least I was there to drive him home. That’d have sucked hard if I wasn’t there… So I head back start loading up the car, go back check for results, buy a $2 hot dog (or should I say a 200 cent hot dog) suck that down and put the bike on the roof, and… the wheel in the trunk… oh shit…my spare wheels… I’d put them in the pit and damn near forgotten them…shit… that was close… I grab em (Merlyn was there which was cool – so I didn’t really need my wheels… anyway) and head over to the ER. They handn’t posted results yet and M was cool with going back while I checked on them (they were posted) and I grabbed another 20 dime hot dog to go with my double strength gatorade.

And we headed home… man was M bummed. That’s the end of cross season for him, two DNFs and a DNS and a brand new C-dale that hasn’t been raced yet. Sucky. Those of us who are lucky so far to make it through injury free, should be thankful. Although most accidents like this, can be somewhat avoidable. Personally, me no bunny hop nutting. I can get off and run fast enough… its just the getting back on that I was loosing a bike length or two…

So I get home – stuff my face with three huge servings of Penne with Bolognese sauce (that I made the night before tandem with the chili). Had to stuff my face in light of the crappy catered dinner at the school for the Thanksgiving liturgy and raffle fundraiser thing.

Problem with Lowell was that it was an early start. And well… getting all three girls going can be a challenge, that coupled with the fuel being a bit too low to make the round trip to fill with B20. So. Well, we do manage to leave at 7…. Hit the card lock pump, doh fucking pump is screwed up somehow, dispensing one gallon in 50 seconds (I timed it with the cell phone). So after 8 gallons I said screw it that’s enough fuel. And headed north. Well it was chilly and someone had the heat on higher than I’d normally put it, and the girls were dressed for outside… and the little one puked all over the place. Pulled over on 95 north to clean her up and the car seat… that minor set back had us on the way… once again I arrived with 1 objective. Find the pisser asap… I thank my genetics that my bladder has the capacity it does…

I get the shit together and then what I dunno… tool around I guess – get ready, I wanted to curtail the warm up a bit…

But then… I should have a separate entry for Lowell… and I will…

Peace (damn that’s a 1,678 word post – do I get bonus points?)

Oh and this is from Paul Weiss's page where M was doing the hop... he was going the opposite direction but you get the idea, some 6'5" dude going over and sticking the front wheel... ouch

The images from the race... on sunday...

Setting up for the corner...

Ahhh form... if i only looked that good getting back on the bike...

Power baby power... in the drops... in the big ring... putting in a burst to hook on to the wheel of the guys up front of me...

The list

Solobreak can have his friday list...

i'm gonna have my monday list... hopefully to flush out later...

Hearing my girls and MegA cheering was v. cool... much motivating

Yesterday's race (placing not withstanding) was my best..

Legs absolutely thrashed today - stiff as a fucking board, can barely walk, riding in this am was hard... more sore than anythin - was able to keep normal pace, it just hurt... plus the head wind...

Race food...

Spray Adhesive for numbers...

Start of Plymouth friend ate shit and got a 2nd Degree shoulder separation on the warm up lap...

medicated last night with some of that performance enhancing red wine the guys were talking about at the start line yesterday... helped fall asleep but my legs kept waking me up all night - OUCH

Weight - i'm back to 195, body fat % not higher at least that i can tell, seems to be mostly legs, my results might indicate otherwise but i feel like i'm getting faster and able to use the power i've got...

Rode up every ridable run up this weekend, kicked ass fun - but didn't break the bank placing... but i didn't get lapped, i learned a bunch, i gained some fitness...


no time - no time - race write ups to come... hopefully over lunch or later or tomorrow or who knows when...

gotta deal with the new shoes getting cleats on them, gotta get the new battery wired up, gotta clean the house cause my dad and step mom are headed this way from the mid-atlantic for the Turkey day festivities... too much...

but...

my experiment to see how i responded to two days in a row? Fucking brilliant shit... Fucking brilliant. I may be slower than hell but i'm having fun and i feel like i'm improving and meeting my modest goals set for my first real racing campaign.

more to come, full Plymouth and Lowell write ups... and musings from an introspective psyco-cyclocrossing freak...

Prius Review...

Must watch...

absolute MUST



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOvp69lnZbA

Its friday! Wooot

no bike lock today = no kozy shack stop :(

buuuuummmmmmer...

*shrug*

Joke of the day:

A bicycle can't stand alone; it is two tired.

Blog of the day:
http://christinevardaros.blogspot.com/

Picture of the day:


Couple shots of the Chinese Food Truck:



Yes it really does say Chinese Food Truck on the white board menu... Dudes got a sweet setup and very good food.

That and now there is a new word to add to the Lexicon:
Gewilliesque:

Gewilliesque means talking in great detail about the food you eat, or perhaps talking about work issues that nobody understands except maybe you.

Credit for definition goes to the infinitely wise old man, Solobreak.

Food today was just burritos... tastey... gonna eat an apple and down a dose or two of Emergen-C (lemon lime) to get the anti-oxidant level on the rise going into a race... don't want those free radicals spoiling my day... okay - scratch that - i only have one packet - gonna do ONE does of the stuff...

Oh and after watching some high quality DVDs of Cyclocross racing, i thought VHS was pretty crappy - even the CyclingWorld Production stuff... but then... i am reminded, it can be worse.

just try and watch a YouTube vid full screen....

Science Usually Works

Frazz is just flat out awesome...

This is what you should look like after racing Cross

(click the title - its Decker and Wicks from Vspews)

Came home last night - wicked head wind btw - that sucked ass, or sucked the power right out my ass - anyway, my wife stopped in at Shaws to check on the Kozy Shack sale. Even asked "Do yall have the euro style rice puddin?" Nope, don't stock it. Well they picked up some Chocolate puddin and a six of Black Forest. now i'm sure those are all yummy and stuff. made with natural ingredients and all that shit. But...

it...

ain't...

eurostyle baby... it ain't eurostyle...

So... if it clears up a touch today i may have ta swing through the only place i know that has the custardy goodness...

Like i mentioned in the brief Brockton report... Kozy Shack is best applied post race, for me, a whole tub at a time.

That and i've officially given up on Brockton. No Damn results means no damn points.

oh well...

Missed the rain on the ride in this morning. Caught a quick 30 second shower as i was leaving and it was dry skies (and wet roads) on the way in. The big thunder boomers disrupted the sleep a bit, so i'm sort of tired, hoping it won't kick me in the ass this weekend... If UPS makes the drop i'll have new batteries. I've started charging the bottle all night after riding home. Prolly not so good for the NiCad... if there's one way to create a memory its to burn for the same amount of time before recharging...

Yall be good... smile at strangers... all that warm and fuzzy stuff... just don't share any more morning wood stories in the afternoon like mbutterfly... unless they are really good...

Crank Length...

Now crank length is something bantered around but mostly ignored by folks.

You have few options 165, 170, 175, 177.5, and 180.

170 and 175 seemingly the catchall with KL types hitting the 165 train (at least that'd be my assumption).

If you want 177.5 or 180 cranks your options are wicked wicked limited. Essentially Dura Ace or Record. Recently a few folks like Truvativ have added a 180 for the road.

Me. i roll 180mm levers. they feel good. I can spin without problem, just as fast as i can with shorter cranks, so in my estimation they are not too long.

What is too long?

Is the rumor that Lance Amstrong rode 165mm cranks stamped with 170? Would make sense why he'd wanna keep that stupid high cadence heading up the hill... if he slowed down he'd freaking stop.

Leverage is good. At least as i see it. Assuming you can spin the lever arm fast enough to be efficient.

Cyclingnews had a Q&A about Crank Length, that go me thinking hmmm how does it size up for me?

Well i just did the Fit Kit style inseam measurement. 94cm inseam +/- 0.5 cm or so.

That gives me an 'ideal' crank length of 182.5. Which... um... is LONGER than what i'm using now, so in essence, would i be better/stronger/faster with that than 180?

Well not if i clip my pedal on any more rocks that send me landing on my ass....

So off hand, does anyone have a simple lever animation program?

What i was thinkin to demonstrate and look at it all just in a visiual sense was create a 5 pivot point with the 4 lever arms. The hips and bb are fixed points and to do sort of biomechanical visual conceptualization of the variation on crank length.

I'd dig through the linkage and Zinn's web page for his long articles on determining crank length and all that...

but...

its been done...

the foot size made me think... if lance wants 165s to be called 170s maybe he just has really small feet. And if you have small feet what does that mean? small shoes... no not small penis (penis is the scientific term and should be able to be used without any snickering from the beavis and butthead crowd.... as should vagina.... but then both of those words conjure visuals... well maybe ZoozieQ will have a hard time coming up with a visual for the latter but hey, he does surf the internet all day... )

anyway anatomical diversion aside... Crank length is crazy important, but not a deal breaker.

Sure you may be faster on a different crank, but will you be faster than if you just trained more specifically? Prolly not.

BUT...

it could mean the difference between mid-pack and DFL... certainly getting the right crank isn't gonna take you from mid-pack to winner...

... i wonder if any of that shit made sense ...

registered

Lunch: 1/2 Chilipepper Beef 1/2 Mapo Tofu

mmmm nummy

followed by a nice crisp Fuji Apple.

Trees (by Rush) came through the speakers mid food... mmm like that song

that Cyclocross Tour thing set up by J Page looks cool no? but $3 grand? maybe if i hit the lottery.

But then i'd actually have to PLAY the lottery to hit the lottery...

Sounds like Vreds for Saturday and the Baldies for Sunday... based on wise old solobreak's advice...

Man... I'm bummed... two races with no Bike Reg (or hell ANY online results)... that's a pisser...

Don't wanna call the Travis cycles guys again, they didn't sound all that really positive talkin to me on the phone saying (on tuesday) that results would be up tomorrow (wednesday)...

Its thursday... even the UNH pothead collegiate cyclists got their shit together enough to post em both on their own page and bike reg....

*sigh*

Well... nuttin to do about it but chalk the race up to $25 + one tube and 2 hours of diesel fuel and 1/2 tube of anti-biotic cream.... i'll put the brake pad toasting as normal wear and tear...

Kozy Shack is $2 a tub on sale at Shaws through today i think... i may try and swing over there and see about pickin me up some for post race fuel... gotta replace that glycogen ya know... faster the better and that Euro Style shit just flat out tastes BRILLIANT...

nummy nummy nummy

peace yall

I feel obligated

to put something up...

Gonna do the double this weekend...

Plymouth and Lowell...

Any tire recs for either course from anyone? Options run from the 28c mudders (Vreds), 30c ritchey speedmax, 34c sworks baldies, to the 34c specklized tricross IIs...

gonna grab some chinese food truck nummies today...

gut check?

cross check?

wicked damn heavy...

but room enough for full fenders, studded tires and what not...

drop outs horizontal enough to go singlespeed/fixie ifn i'm so inclined...

not expensive...

not glamorous (good and bad)...

but... they list over 5 pounds for the 62 cm frame.

Bonus, it does come in a freak size...

QPB offers them as complete bikes...

Could double as Pit bike in a cross race...

Comes in Black...

V.good review

Il Brucie and Marky D both ride one, as do innumerable others...

ahh but QBP and Surly do not offer them as complete bikes in the freak size...

damn...

oh...

keep meaning to dig through the "what i've learned" from watching Video of past world championships...

and that the step through is nice, even if slow, in that the right hand side pedal is always in position for jump and go... the double foot dismount (that the super pros use) isn't fool proof in that regard... BUT that said... it is faster and with my pedal shoes its not much of a problem getting going and then clipping in later....

peace out...

Silca Pumps

So Solobreaks little silca pump find the plunger leather game was fun.

and well figure its time to document the various permutations of the pump.

There is and was only one original silca pump head:
Kinda small picture but ya get the idea. Simple barbed fitting rubber valve/gasket. Pump and fill tire.

They went from there to this POC design at somepoint:
Why? Well because the beauty of that chuck is that its reversible. Kinda like the Zefal HPx things. Ya take it apart, fiddle with two or three internal bits and you can fill either type of valve. Problem was, the presta side wore out way faster than the orignal and the schreader side sucked ass (still had to screw the bitch on). And the screwing on of it meant the barbs were spinning inside the hose... meaning ya ain't putting 150 psi in your 18c TT tires.

But it would be remiss not to mention the Disc wheel head. Available for a long time kinda always... Pretty much the only way to put air in your solid disc wheels.
Then the final/or 'best' version they came up with.
BTW images courtesy of GOOGLE image search... mostly these guys: http://www.lickbike.com/

So with this new one... the Old Presta head is back but its threaded in schrader fashion, and the schrader side actaully spins on the barb so the hose doesn't get all chewed the hell up.

I like this final version. Worth buying to resurrect an old Silca pump with the shitty switchable style brass head? Debatable. I'm sure the new pump head is probably as much $$ as a cheap ass floor pump that works well in all but bike shop/pro racer environments.

Here's the pro version of the images... all together... notice they make a Schrader to Presta adapter... pretty cool eh? maybe that's the way to go instead of the other way around eh?

I dunno whats up with the black parts other than its prolly not brass anymore... 2220 is the schrader to presta adapter...

link to Silca is here.

The foot thing looks to be changed from the old school metal toe pinching stuff... And don't forget to take a look at the 60s catalog... I'm wondering if Zoo can figure out how to turn the pages LOL

Think about racing at Plymouth and maybe even Lowell. Might be nice to get a double weekend in to see how the legs will react... at least before the RI double and "Nats"

We'll see if scheduling allows it.

Does anyone know the critical pressure and temperature of water and CO2? Or want to hazard a guess why we use CO2 as a Critical point drying fluid instead of water?

call it your science moment...

Peace

Holy Crap that was creepy

What was?

Well... gwadzilla posted a link up to Dirtrags stuff... and there i clicked over to gapingvoid and scrolled down to this cartoon that i thought was hysterically funny and true... and i had a second while eating some nummy leftover lasagna and i watched this interview on youtube.

Scary sacry shit. And that first comment on the you tube site: "Ew, that Ted guy is creepy. No wonder he pays for it." made me laugh and laugh... honestly does that haggart guy have a non-effeminate bone in his body? not that being effeminate is wrong for men. no problems for me with that. but... living such a freaking hypocritical life? The ending is great... i won't spoil it...

but man...

i tell ya that's just flat out freaking CREEEEEEEEEPY *shiver*

oh and E17's Ostriches entry.... and successive link... is damn funny... damn funny

I haven't yet added his blog to the open tabs yet - mostly cause i got way too many... its a spider web of entaglement... curious from a sociological standpoint... and the seven degrees of separation seems eerily apropos. Cf course you can probably link 75% of the internet cycling community through Big Jonny. So that makes the separation degrees pretty minor.

But i look through that list from dirt rag... and its all way too serious. Along the lines of Sailorman's stuff. I get all glazey eyed with that many words. Francine's stuff... long entry today... damn scary reminder of my highschool days in a way. I was stuck off on my own... didn't usually want to be tho... ah well... not getting into it... but can't change it, and thankful for it as it has me here where i am now not somewhere else in the time space continuum.

Still no BikeReg. And yeah. I woulda stuck around or gone back for confirmation of the placing... but... the comment "The results will be up on BikeReg" placated me and i guess i expected it... esp since it came from someone rather 'official'

and damn... add hacking (this is more to my liking of the story than the vnews fluff) to doping for Floyd's crew...

crazy shizzle out there in the world folks... crazy shizzle...

driving....

yup... drove the car today.

Pressure from my wife suggesting that it just makes much more sense to drive if i have to pick up both girls tonight. And well, a day off isn't a bad thing right?

Not to mention i got a nice wicked deep gouge out of my left knee from the crash and the wonderfully clean mud from Brockton probably isn't helping the healing. So, after spending lots of time cleaning it last night and this morning letting it settle for a day behind a bandage won't be a bad thing for it...

Just gotta deal with parking. Gonna go play the 10am shuffle. As in moving the car from the first spot to an all day but after 10am spot. Its like the thing to do here. So i'll join the party in moving cars. can't wait.

I've been thinking a bit about the singlespeed stuff... For me, i like having the ability to jump from low to high gear... ala the two speed. And yes, technically there'd need to be a derailuer on there it could be super tight and much up out of the way. I've got a handful of old ones in various states of fuckedupness in the tool box that could be resurected for the purpose. But maybe this idea should be implemented on the Mt bike first. I've got a 1x1 hub built up for that beast... and a single speed freewheel... make the mantra truely a bastard and a 3 speed... hmmmmm

But part of me really like gears... i like to shift a little... but then its probably just habit.

Ah well...

Still no results from the Brockton race... damn it... yeah yeah so i'm one of those jackass racers who expects to see the results online... ah well... looks like UNH is behind the 8 ball as well....

peace out yall...

were they reading our conversations?

http://crossbabble.blogspot.com/2006/10/bikeregcom-600-natz-registrants-in.html

hmmmm

'shop'ing

Hit the bike shop. the team shop. Yeah they are the team shop once again. Signed up for '07 after a few issues. Anyway... that's hopefully all water under the bridge.

I walked in with a list:
Brake Pads (inserts) for my Shimano XT cantis (old school on cross bike)
cable end caps
bolt for trail-a-bike
tube for 38s (il bruce... that rim tape job ya handed me sucked ass)
valve/seal/grommet thing for the Super Pista Pump

Got em all. Freaking amazing. Great stuff. They had that shizzle in stock.

now. for the score...

they're blowing out ALL their old stock shoes for $25 a pair. Some shoes you can save $215. I grabbed two pair. A Cannondale Mt Bike shoe with a crossover casual look, in black, $25. And a set of Sidi, MT shoes... only two velcro straps, no ratchet, BUT... did i mention $25.

Sure, they ain't as super secure as say the ratchety models, and the two straps is inferior to three... but... $25.

I passed on a set of Road Shimanos. R125s Also $25. but... i decided the road shoes i have are working better than the mt shoes, i don't need to buy three pairs of shoes today.

Wicked damn good score. Also scored time with the wife and oldest. Schools out today and they were in town and we made it a family trip out to Prov Bike.

its nice to know that the team shop has the shit in stock. even with an obscure laundry list of shit...

I'll save the new chains and 12-27 cassettes for later. Although...

about gearing... i got to thinking... Why not just run a 2 speed for cross. Stick a 18 or 19 singlespeed freewheel in the back and run a 38-46 or 38-48 or something... bang bang highspeed, lowspeed... simple... durable...

just a thought... is it better than having single front and 9 in the back?

On thing i've consciously done is to remove the computer before a cross race. normally i have the thing on when i'm commuting with it (cause i don't have a watch and its what i use to gauge time and all that)... so i dunno how fast i'm going... in the race, although i don't think it matters much - ya go as hard as ya can go, trying to make what ya got last to the end of the race...

Cyclocrossworld.com has the Dugast tires in stock... kinda makes me wanna have a nice big fat account to pull cash from to buy shit like that... ah well... i think if i go with another set of tires i'll try and get some Vreds... maybe go with the 34mm size... I'm still pretty amazed at how freaking well they worked in the muck and all that... just wishing they had a bit more volume... flats suck... And i'm sure solobreak will get a kick out of the next bit: My AirB tube... flat... *crying* ah... well... kinda stupid to be riding around with $15 tubes anyway... *sigh*

I guess right now my biggest question: Will the results be posted? Will i get bonus DFL points?

Peace, Chocolate Waffles, and Cross... The most fun you can have on two wheels...

Okay...

Yogurt boy's KS reference que'd the last bit of sunday. The missing part.

So. Car loaded up. I got a bottle of Gatorade to drink on the way home. And i do.

Unload the car. Wash the bike. Take wet back of mud soaked clothes, shake out most of mud, take rest of clothes into shower for pre-wash. Washing caked mud out of hairy legs is a major pain. I'm shaven the sunsofbitchsticks i'm standing on if any course even threatens to be muddy.

So i get cleaned up. Load the wet dirty clothes into the washer, extra soap, presoak, extra rinse set... and i realize... i'm wicked freaking HUNGRY. I down first a StonerFarms Strawberry smoothie (i mean stonyfield) in one gulp. And think, what else? Well, a tub of Kozy Shack EuroStyle Rice puddin is looking tempting... and i sit down watching some Redskin and Patriot dismantlation and finish the whole thing. Nummy. Tummy feels way better. Then i polish off four waffles. And grab one of the Octoberfest Beers, otter creek IIRC.

That then completed the post race recovery. The fish and chips, onion rings, clam cakes probably aren't the best post race dinner... but i'm pretty sure the Kozy Shack made up for it.

Maybe that's how it works for me. Eat the Shack AFTER the race. Post race fuel. Hmmmm....

Another permutation of preparation to be habitualized...

next week... next week... might there be a chance to see the Yogurt Boy at a race since what... Gloucester? its like he's avoiding me... or V/V

That and KL has had the same Links of the Day up for like way many days...

kinda funny...

but then as inactive as she's been bloggin, not suprising...

That and Solobreak things just posting 50bazillion images today is like acceptable or something...