car, the metallic clacking noise was a seized AC compressor. Need to replace that, but at least the noise and problem are diagnosed and the solution is in process.
Getting the old one off will be more of a challenge than I might like, but it won't be as bad as pulling the transmission.
the Giant TCX has been creaking a bit more than usual.
stopped at the shop while running errands yesterday and took a look at where ErikV and other's have cracked their frames, AFTER i checked the pedal, crank arms and BB (and chainring bolts).
Oh hey.
This doesn't look so good:
Time to recom the croll. and figure out how to get the full coverage fenders on there even it if takes zip ties and duct tape.
There was a point yesterday before I determined the course of action for the Passat when it all bugged me quite a bit. The unknown doesn't sit well with me for some reason. Gotta have a plan.
As far as bike racing, the plan right now is no plan. I'd given some thought to attempting Purgatory again. But accurate and cutting commentary about me and road races has me acknowledging the fact that I don't even have close to the training I need to be competitive. Hell I show up to the easiest crit after a week of no sleep and get dropped. Even if I slept 48 hrs before Purgatory I'd get dropped. But then Matt's house cheering section wouldn't have a hard time picking me out.
Bike Racing? What's that.
In itself, the lack of potential and reasonably races to attempt in the near future is actually somewhat depressing.
Oh well.
There's more to bikes than racing and the Fall will be here soon enough.
The LA camp has never addressed any issue directly. Always the "I've never tested positive." double negative never saying explicitly "I never used PEDs." I think there was one rare moment when LA slipped and nearly said that but then had a quick mental panic look that lasted a ms before he realized he was about to perjure himself and quickly emphasized he's the most tested and blahblahblah.
LA's group has never offered facts, other than "I've been tested 500 times." And such. Nice strong number eh? Exactly 500 times? Or are you just pulling that number out of your PR ass because you don't know. Or have you become so unable to distinguish the testing the WADA/USADA/UCI administered and the ones you do constantly to make sure you'll pass those?
It is a good few moments for the skeptics. The doubters. We get to watch all the "naive bubble-headed optimists who walk around vomiting sunshine" turn into sad doe eyed cry babies that their hero wasn't winning on bread and water and gods genetic gifts alone.
Going to be interesting to see how this plays out. Landis is looking more and more like Mrs O'Leary's cow (even though the cow was only implicated in myth and legend).
The ride home started off having to cross 20cm deep fast moving water flowing down the gutter of Hope street. My feet got soaked with that one. Followed by 3 miles of absolutely some of the heaviest rain I've ridden through. Saving grace was that it was only about 65 so I was just one thin layer of lycra soaking up water (and my backpack).
But it stopped and started clearing and then I had to stop and dig out the camera and grabbed this.
Oh and it seems while I was at a school arts night (choral concert and middle/high school art show) twitter exploded and pooped out another doping allegation. Does it seem to anyone else that Lance's lawyer's excuses are getting more insane and ridiculous each time someone else comes out to say they saw him dope?
Goes back to Jerry's child argument (hopefully results boy is happy with me hyper-linking for a change), Lance's camp is starting to really act more and more like the kid G-ride described.
Boom.
Lets see where this goes. What bothers me is that Horner's going to get screwed by this. Timing sucks. I want to believe he is one of those few dudes who has raw talent to get where he is. If Tilford stands by him, that's good enough for me, for now. Besides, he races CX, or has, and always seems to be on the outside looking in, until now. Maybe now he's a leader because he's just as strong as he always has been and everyone else is mostly off the juice. The ToC timing hasn't been good for me to catch much of the racing live. Giro's been interrupted but that's not maybe a bad thing, although it is a pretty amazing race to watch. One of the best. I didn't think I could get excited about a race with Contadork but you know what? It is a pretty cool race. Hell it is Italy. What's not to love, esp with reliable live video with Sean Kelly and Harmon talking, the two best English language cycling commentators. P joked that Sean Kelly is the only one who has answered every question of a radio interview by nodding.
Okay.
I think the fire that Landis started is spreading...
A gaggle of fredly commuters will be heading north on the East Bay Bike path bound for the Providence BTW Day festivities. Planning to raid the coffee and bagels when we get there. Departing from:
always figure out the bias the author has, esp when it comes to news and reporting, before deciding how relevant it is.
bias is the bullshit that George is talking about. investigate the bullshit/bias and things start to make sense.
if you push the kids to question bias/bullshit, you're fine if the adults in the house aren't making shit up just because. Questioning of the authority is the only way you figure out if the policy is sound or just fucking bullshit.
there are a few good folks out there still bothering to write a race report or a ride report or just plain flat out write.
Twitter is one thing, and fortunately the number of "totally bitching ride" are out numbered by the creative and witty 140 character bits. And most of them actually also write something, on occasion. Okay some rarely. Some never.
Point being it is that FB thing. It sucks to hear about stuff. Good for conversation and getting your momma digs in with parke and how much of a dude cali MJ doesn't act like. But not for telling a good story.
I'm happy that guys like ryan and colin and zen and a few others are still writing. Sometimes rarely, but then it is a refreshing change. I'm not going to bother linking because i like to have the two monitors so i don't have to jump from tab to tab, window to window is more my style, and i'm not working on half a window to writing this now.
Tooth fairy duty tonight. The youngest lost a tooth today at school and somewhere between showing her mother and getting in the car the tooth was lost, as in really lost, not just fallen out, collected by the school nurse and put into a plastic tooth box (yes she has a big(ish) molar shaped plastic container - it's about a cm or two). Which it was. But then subsequently lost in the excitement of getting it out and then putting it back away.
So, she wrote a note and said it was lost at school. No big deal. She's been asleep for a long time (I wish I could say the same thing for myself). Older sister however had some practicing to do for tomorrow and some printing of a report and hair to put up and all sorts of stuff and didn't go to bed till much later and now if the tooth fairy is going to come at all, well I dare not lay down. Really very real possibility that this will push me over the edge and join the rest of the sicky mc-sickenstiens, but I hope not. Maybe I should go chew on a few cloves of garlic before going to bed to ward off any bacteria or virus that might decide to take advantage of my sleep deprived depressed immune system. But then again they are probably well entrenched by now, just waiting for the defenses to weaken just enough.
It is a constant battle to stay healthy. A battle I've been doing pretty okay at.
I keep coming back to a comment someone said after the race "it felt really easy, pretty slow race." This person did make the lead group, but I never saw them put their nose in the wind more than once or twice and that wasn't ever to do much more than jump to a wheel. Yeah, that's smart racing, if you can take advantage of it at the finish. I'm trying to tell myself that I am happier with having blown my guts all over the course on the first half of the race animating or chasing or driving or launching than I would have been just sitting in. Hell I know i could have survived till the end no question had I not wasted watts. But they weren't wasted. And some how I have to get over the negativity of being an idiot. I am my own biggest critic. I am harder on my self for my mistakes than anyone else and I take them far more personally than I really should. I raced as part of a team and am more pissed that I wasn't around to help Paul block or to launch him for a bunch sprint or to help Curtis at the end. Oh well. Dat's racing I guess.
It is what it is. Not much racing (that seems to fit with the schedule and be somewhat close) in the next couple months... hate to leave the spring season (if you can call three races at Ninigret a season) with such a sour note, but I have to tell myself, there are more important things than racing a bike and what I was doing that drain the batteries was/is pretty important for what is really important.
I couldn't quite tell this morning until I was about 1/2 way there that it wasn't going to be pretty. And at that point, hey bike racing, no point turning back.
I've been tired. It has been a long many weeks since the last race down there and I haven't had more than one day not working in the last two or three weeks, maybe four. Burning the candle at both ends isn't the best way to lead into a race. The legs felt good this week, and really they felt good on the trainer warming up. It was the batteries that were over cycled and not fully charged.
The mysterious GeWilli plan was to go hard from the whistle and string it out for a few laps. I lost count, but I went around up front for a lot of them. There was a 1/2 way prime and with two team mates upfront heading to the line to take the bell for the prime I took the lead and kept the pace. I had recovered a bit in the back but I figured I would be fine.
And I probably would have. Except I was an inattentive idiot.
So I drive the pack around from the front stretch, around the long back stretch into the wind and then around the last two stretches before the final turn and I get there and swing off and Savage takes over, Singmaster was on his wheel and when he didn't jump I knew the counter attack was coming. We hadn't really planned it out but I knew #1 Singmaster was going for the prime or #2 he was going to attack after the prime.
#2 it was.
I should have pulled off the front before getting totally gassed, but I didn't. I shouldn't have allowed the field to come by before jumping in, but I did. Singmaster got in a group with 4 or 5 others, and the pack was strung out. I was sitting tail gunning with the misplaced confidence from the previous races that I could easily come around anyone and close any gap that opened. Except I came around Savage only to find a gap to someone else, who eventually let another gap open and that was all she wrote for me. I dug down and pulled the strung out chasing pack to w/in close striking distance but they weren't slowing down and I had nothing left.
And so it went. I wasn't going to pull off and drop out. So I just rode around. And around. Steady hard tempo but not fast enough to limit my losses. Eventually the pack let another gaggle of guys off the front and a 10 man "break" formed. In essence the field split in half and I had a team mate in both halves.
On the plus side the sun came out before our race and it was dry. It started absolutely DUMPING buckets when I was about 2 paces from the car getting ready to leave. So I jumped in, fired it up and headed north, through the monsoon.
I was the last person placed... 21st maybe? 27 starters. I took a picture of the results but I'm not checking it.
Time to make some pizza tonight. Planning some deep dish style for a change. We'll see how this turns out. I was going to maybe work till 5pm today after racing but booked out of there at 3. Dead batteries.
Gonna see about trying to recharge them, and make a point to come up with a different, smarter, plan if I realize there aren't enough amp/hr to power this big guy through a whole race like I raced the first half.
It was fun, but I am somewhat grumpy at myself for being an idiot and allowing myself to get gapped off. I just needed one more lap of a draft to recover I'm wagering. But I have to take some consolation that my big effort sprung the break and made the race more exciting.
Oh well.
There will be another race.
Pretty funny that we've got a week of forecast rain/showers/crappy weather during bike to work week with BTW day falling on Friday here in PVD. We'll see if we get the typical pouring rain or the atypical sun.
good thing about breaking spokes on the commuter wheels riding on the Giant TCX is there's enough tire clearance to ride home with a wheel going an inch or two laterally.
No no hands riding though. shimmy shimmy shake. Happened accelerating with the cars from a red light
*snap*
"that was a weird noise"
*look down*
"i don't think the wheel is supposed to be moving THAT much"
I made it from Angel to Wickenden before the spoke decided it had had enough of sitting inside the nipple and wanted out.
In the process gave me a nice little cut starting from the base of my knee warmer. Wasn't bad enough to notice until i got home.
Goes along with the old rule of thumb, that once you start breaking spokes on a wheel, the rest of them will follow. Funny thing is most of these spokes have broken at the hub, not the rim. This one popped off in the nipple.
Might have to take it in and play with it at the shop. I think the rim is toast, just a matter if it is worth rebuilding or just make due being down a wheel.
Today was a mellow wicked easy ride in. The sun made everything look warm and summer like but it was still a cool spring like 45°F out there. Not much wind. Not compared to the last two days with the NE blowing. Which has been a solid headwind on the way in but seemed to have shifted ever just enough to the east to be just an annoying crosswind on the way home. either way i've been managing to keep the tempo very high to and from other than the first ride on Monday and this morning.
Yesterday was going to be an easy ride but of course there was a fluorescent yellow rabbit to catch and with the headwind I gave myself until the hill going up to the parkway to make the catch. And I did. Shut it down and let Mike catch up after blowing past as I held the interval until the base of the hill. Then had a nice mellow ride the rest of the way in.
The legs have actually felt pretty good despite everything. Tuesday night's lack of sleep is lingering. But manageable. Energy levels are pretty good today. Will work a whole day tomorrow and then hit the race early on Sunday. Really hoping to be there for a few of our Cat 5 guys that are racing. I just wish I was smart enough WHILE racing to take my own advice off the bike.
Standard GeWilli plan for Sunday. Paul can guess, shawn could probably figure it out w/o much thought. Hoping though to make a change though in the middle. Maybe. Depends on team mates situation and the weather/wind. Right now it is looking like it won't be too windy and maybe a 40% chance of rain, but that's a couple days out still, things can change, and it always seems to be windier than forecast at Ninigret Park.
We'll see how the legs are, hopefully they will have lap cards this time. Not a huge pre-reg field, but then I'm not there on the list, the race predictor would slot me in at 12th, right in front of Savage,
Providence Velo Club will be debuting the new jerseys, can't wait for that. Not a huge visual departure, not exactly as they were planned to look (fade didn't fade as much) but they are nice.
Oh and Super Commuter. I have to do a thank you post and elaborate a bit but I am pretty honored that Planet Bike picked me to be their Spring SuperCommuter. I probably could have picked a different picture but I liked the snow and locals know that location.
I've been listening to this song on loop for the last good handful of minutes, while I'm eating lunch...
and reflecting
today in the giro Robabank rider Tom Jette Slagter (Ned) went down very hard and the reaction from the soigneurs and immediate attendants were frantic and intense. Harmon freaked out, I freaked out. Everyone freaked.
And maybe for good reason he had a cut on his head that was bleeding quite a bit. Head wounds are messy. Even if they are superficial. He was not able to continue and RAI was reporting an ambulance was being called to pick him up. They left him on the ground in the road for quite a long time.
All this hasn't added to the mental replay in my mind of the CSI CX crash I had in 2009. Replay, replay... it has been not quite an impassive review but a tangible reminder of what could have happened... not so much the what ifs but wow was I lucky. But not in a jubilant way, still very much subdued by the impact it had on someone else, and everyone around us there, at that moment.
It keeps playing back.
Yesterday was an awesome day though. Tickets to see Alvin Ailey on tour here we purchased as a christmas present for my oldest but we only had two of them, and somehow I managed to win two more so we could all go. We started off with a rare treat, dinner at Red Stripe and the we headed off to the show.
Wow.
That is all I can say. Wow. That was an unbelievable display of artistry, emotion, power and human spirit.
Inspirational.
It was late when we finally made our way home, but I managed to link up with an online broadcast of the Red Wings game 6 vs the Sharks. The Wings were up. It was the middle of the 3rd period, I had to watch.
And the dominated. And won. Game seven coming up.
And then I couldn't sleep. At all.
or that's what it seemed like.
head spinning constructing sentences for my artist's statement, revisiting the CSI CX crash, the dance, DRW, bike racing, commuting, around and around.
Every ride but Monday morning this week has been full gas. 100% intensity.
Focused.
On what? I don't know for certain. I certainly am not taking for granted any time i have on the bike. Time to do things a bit differently. I'm going to go for a post lunch spin, change shoes and helmet, that's it.
Okay - that 4th is a stretch on better words but he gets it. I don't think i need to remind anyone of NoHo 2009. When I saw the images on the live Eurosport feed this morning, I heard as clear as then, the utterance of a bystander "I think he's dead." Wouter's crash was far more traumatic than mine, after the point at which he was actually not dead, up until that point, those few minutes laying there on the concrete pad in the finish chute... was what I know everyone was feeling today. Please don't be dead, please be okay.
Ultimately all of our crossed fingers and toes couldn't help.
But in reality RMM is correct:
A few years ago, someone told me that if you become scared of crashing, your racing career is essentially over. Fear and respect are two different things. Having a healthy level of respect and consideration for the wellbeing of your fellow racers does not diminish your own courage.
You can't let the fear take over. Everything in life is full of risk. 40,000 people die a year in the USA in car accidents INSIDE OF A CAR! Risk is in everything. Minimize it to the extent you can, and never let the fear take over.
Someone I know posted this "RIP...Wouter Weylandt....risk vs reward...I will never ride the same again" on facebook. At first I took that to mean he was giving in to the fear, maybe I give him the benefit of the doubt and think that we can enjoy every last second that we are given and allowed to be set free on two wheels.
There is something magical about cycling, that can't be denied. It is a joy, a gift to partake.
I enjoyed my ride home tonight. It was supposed to be a low intensity ride. No effort, walking the bike. But I was late. I had 26 minutes to get home and I hadn't changed yet. 2 minutes later I was out the door. 21 minutes later I was home. My lungs were on fire when I got home from the lack of cool down. legs were fine. Heart still broken from this morning a bit.
Cyclists are a social group, seven degrees of separation? Never that much. Two, maybe three for most of us. Twitter trend #3 all morning was the name of our lost friend.
Someone much more eloquent than myself has written about why the loss of a cyclist strikes each of us so deeply, more so than when we hear of the constant ever present deaths from MVAs. underneath the technology it is still a human powered device, we are united by our passion more tightly than most any other group.
Today was not a good day for the sport of cycling, as Woulter Weylandt was fatally injured in a crash today at the Giro d’Italia. It doesn’t happen very often, but it is a dangerous sport and deaths do occur. I’m surprised that more riders aren’t killed in racing accidents. I really am. But, luckily for us all, our bodies are very resilient and can take unbelievable amounts of trauma sometimes. It is always sad when such a young guy dies tragically, but if he is anything like most of the guys I know, he might not of wanted it to happen any other way. Dying doing something you love isn’t the worst way for it to happen, if that is any consolation. - Steve Tilford
If anything let this renew your passion for this magnificent sport. Be good, be strong, we are not immortal... but Wouter Weylandts now is. None of us will ever forget his name. He has been granted status people will toil their lives for and fail to achieve.
It is a sad day for cycling. The Giro is arguably the most beautiful of all the grand tours, made so by the terrain, the narrow winding roads and the grit and passion that the Italians race it with.
Today the beauty had a dark shadow cast over it. Wouter Weylandt died on the road today. I was in the middle of organizing a [digital] stack of final projects to grade when they mentioned the crash and I was unlucky enough to catch the first glimpse of the fallen rider. RAI producers cut almost immediately away, but not before the magnitude of the crash was absorbed by myself and David Harmon and Sean Kelly, and I'm sure everyone else watching it. A few minutes later the white shirted individual doing chest compressions as glimpsed through the trees was not an encouraging follow up sign.
I first saw the words tweeted by tim johnson and then panic'd as I couldn't find confirmation for a minute or two. Then, and since, as my friends find out grief and condolences, thoughts and prayers, have been flowing and flooding the communication networks.
My cup of coffee has gone cold. I'm no longer hungry.
To you and your mother's out there, for without mothers there would be no grumpy old bastards bitching about being fat and slow on the bike.
Been light on the content. Burning the wick at both ends feels good, esp when I climb into bed, but doesn't leave a whole lot of time for reflection.
Maybe not the worst thing.
Three days off the bike officially make for a rest week. Planning on taking Monday as a super easy day on the bike then ramping up for the Mystic Velo Crit on Sunday. I think the timing is going to work out that I'll only manage one race in the morning, which is fine.
The car has officially passed inspection. Direct fit Mufflers are awesome, new calipers also work. Finding out that the old muffler was not only rusty but plugged up was a good thing. I think the pressure code and limp mode issues have finally been solved. Get some rear shocks on there and boom it's pimp styling (except for the rust and the rattling AC compressor clutch). But I did see a car with way way worse rear damping than mine. An 850 wagon. Looked sharp except the back end kept bouncing and bouncing and bouncing over even the smallest bumps. I'd get a bit of oscillation following over the same bump but just one or two cycles, not the dozens they were getting. I found it pretty funny.
It is a gorgeous day out there here in southern new england. Blue blue skies, the japanese maple in the front 'yard' has nearly fully leafed out providing a deep red contrast against the bright blue sky and the green of the maples by the bike path. Just sitting here with the dog, curled up next to me on the couch. One big old lap dog. A dog that decided that 5:15 was an appropriate time to wake me up. Damn early sun. She even went outside after 10pm so no reason to get up that early, other than she woke up and decided that I should get up and let her outside.
can there be enough coffee to get through the day/week? maybe but one way or another coffee has helped me hit "race" weight, now to find more than one race a month... to see if it makes a difference.
"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. I n fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction....The chain reaction of evil--hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars--must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation."
Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength To Love, 1963.
Something to think about as you carry your life forward.
i'll not pretend to know the names of Mike Neel (I got chills reading that bit) or Jock Boyer, I wish I did know them, but they are from a time before I followed and was a fan of bike racing. Certainly I should know their names.
at least the Yehuda Moon is syndicated here now so new content will be here daily w/o effort on my part.
maybe soon i'll have an opening to announce, maybe an opening night reception to invite everyone to. right now it seems a bit early/presumptive to talk about it but it will happen, hopefully w/in a week or two.
Definitely diggin the shop, great bit of satisfaction cranking through a defined list, brain is liking it. Picture factory is settling down after the craziest spring of the past 5 years or so. Summer plans for the girls, time off all that have almost completely fallen in place.
Life goes on, and moves quickly...
Proud of my wife's 1/2 marathon race today. Sub 10 min pacing, nearly even splits from start to finish on the hillier version of the COX course so far. The even splits and the fact that she was tired but fine at the end (visibly, at least compared to everyone else) was pretty cool. And that performance coming off working all day friday and then standing on her feet volunteering at the girls school till 10:30, and running around with dance soccer and more dance on Saturday. not ideal race prep at all. yet still? pretty impressive. hell I'm impressed.
i've gotta take a look at the planning timing leading up to the next ninigret race and see maybe if i can come up with a way to structure the commutes in a productive manner. that's about all the saddle time i'm seeing lately. But, honestly, for a 60 min race? it is plenty.
So the first bit of getting the car set to pass is finished. It took me longer to get the license plate bulb covers off than it did to change the caliper and bracket and bleed it and hook it all up.
It was a scary minute or so as I was pulling a solid vacuum on the caliper bleed valve and nothing was happening. Why? Well what if the caliper was dead because the brake line was gone or had closed itself off up stream? A bit of panic and then a small drop of fluid. PHEW.
Pulled a good bit of fluid out for measure, topped off the reservoir and buttoned it back up. and it works (again). Might take a bit to polish off the rust on the rotor, but hey, it will get there. And replacing the rear rotors on this thing involves wheel bearings and shit, somewhat of a major pain in the ass apparently, not as bad as the rear suspension I hear.
And in case you didn't know, always replace bulbs in pairs. If one is about to go the other is soon to follow. Easier that way. And very true in the front and rear headlamps and brake lamps that I did on here, and pretty much every other car.
Got the oil changed in the fancy new car too. The change oil indicator is pretty cool, not mileage based. It actually uses a duty cycle algorithm, but because I've been running synthetic and I doubt there is a way to have it re-factor it in, it has gone for a bit w/the indicator reminding us to change the oil. Don't worry, I have yet to pay more than $30 for an oil change on this car, oil and filter combined (and yes it takes 5 quarts). I just wish a gallon of fuel didn't cost the same as a quart of synthetic oil.
Time to make up a big batch of oatmeal pancakes and hop in the purring rattle trap (the AC compressor is making a HORRIBLE racket, almost tempting to drive with the AC turned on to make it quiet). But I haven't figured out what to do, if anything, to quiet it down. Half tempted to spray it full of white lithium grease to see if that helps.
Gonna head up and see what kind of task list I can burn through today. Still have to buy a muffler and bolt that on. But I think I've got a line on one that's under $100 that I can do myself.
The picture of the brake caliper piston is pretty funny. I don't think there are supposed to be spider nests inside the boot.
Not sure where or when but at some point I realized I had gotten into a negative cycle of thought/self evaluation.
Other stuff hasn't been helping, but it was something in Josh's latest column that got me to do a quick hockey stop. Actually it was that plus getting home late, working on making some Tikka Masala for K (she's been asking me to make it forEVER) and I was getting snappy with the youngest. Mental hold on happened. PAUSE. Asked her nicely to give Daddy some space and let me focus on cooking, find something to do. She went away, came back and gave me a big hug and then disappeared again (i found her plunked watching videos on PBSkids a bit later).
And I started thinking a bit - not really, I was focused on cooking but it seemed to make sense to say that last night writing this.
I'd just smoked some Flandian dude who didn't know he was in a race, but I smoked him on the bike path into the wind on my falling apart filthy Giant with bald (got my second flat this morning from a literally 1cm piece of bottle glass (from the neck based on the curve radius - lots of indicators on the outside that I had ridden it a good handful of revolutions before the glass worked into the tube) heavy ass tires and janky fenders with a flopping backpack (much lighter load than riding with CD tuesday am).
The wind sucked but I had to get home. Had the last class for the semester and it went great. Really actually something to be pretty f'n proud of. But it was a focus on getting home so I could get dinner finished at a reasonable hour, so I was redlining it on the bike.
After passing the Flandiran kit wearing guy on a TT bike with his iPod and waterbottle dingleberry cage into the wind and getting 500 meters down the path before realizing I was unintentionally too deep in the red but, I thought I should attempt to hold it there so I don't look like too much of a prick and fade enough for him to catch (not that it would have been a bad thing) I just pegged it and held it And ya know what? It stuck. By the time I hit the Squantum club things started to click a bit (I think I also dropped the effort to 90% or so). Through the fog things seemed sort of okay. After a bit I saw Tony. He had stopped to take a call (hard to talk on the phone riding into that wind), and I had just shut the engine room down to let the turbos cool down before parking it to stand on my feet to make some dinner. So we chatted about races coming up.
My concession that I'd just been thinking about Mystic Velo and not much beyond that. He suggested New Britan, but then I think there's a conflict and it is wicked far away (for an off season crit)... and then attleboro (i've never raced that one - spectated a few times but never managed to race for some reason or other)... I had mentioned some measure of desire to try Witches Cup this summer. Not close but maybe I can sort the family summer camp schedule enough to make it happen and see some of Salem before the race or something like that. Long ways away, time and distance i suppose.
I'm watching some Bruins hockey right now.
Or i should say I was. BROOONS just scored. OT over. game 7, OT, wow that's some hockey. No chance on that shot. Thank you internet for making cable pointless. Cable TV that is - i suppose cable is providing me internet right now.
One thing I that hit me tonight is that I rarely think of myself as good enough, never satisfied, confident until I have to put it to the test. I know i can cook circles around most but then confronted/challenged doubts block any confidence and realizing that it isn't just hindering my strengths. Or something.
Getting too introspective. But I'm trying to deal with myself on the couch... trying to take the shackles off this OMP that some kid keeps throwing out there. OMP. Have I found it? Found it by adding more work to the schedule? Relighting a long dormant part of the brain that craves task lists that don't involve teaching highly technical stuff to grad students and post docs?
Focus. I've got to focus.
But focus on the correct stuff. (I've lately been consciously NOT using 'right' when 'correct' is more appropriate).
The positive, what I do have control over. Increase productivity and work on things I can direct an outcome. Commutes no longer are just slogging back and forth. Nope. Even not getting the HRM switched back over to the Giant I know when I'm riding hard and when I'm not. And focusing on a good balance seems to be paying off.
I can make this work. Maybe I won't be any faster in the fall, maybe I will. Maybe everyone else will have figured this much out too and we'll all get closer to the talented end of the field. And maybe I won't give as much of a shit when I do start the season sucking wind at the back, because I will have figured out how to make myself realize that it is just a fucking bike race and while fun and a great way to measure up, it is not the only measure of success. It is a huge aspect (cx) to me, and the identity that i've carved out. Losing it would be a huge blow, but not like losing other stuff.
Right now I'm debating leaving hitting save and proofing this tomorrow, or publishing and reading tomorrow and then pulling if I don't like it.
I think I'm going to save and play that game.
one last comment, it sucks feeling trapped and unable to do absolutely everything for the most important people in your life... working, to change that... in more ways than one
AM post re-read/edit comments That last paragraph might be a bit too cryptic for all but a few, but that's enough.
This is okay I think, to leave as it is and publish.
Drinking coffee on the couch watching the rain out the window, catching up on twitter this morning I was so not motivated to do much of a ride in. At some point the idiot who's trying to train me a bit (yeah, myself) decided that today was going to be a hard day. No fucking taking it easy on the path on the way in. The rain meant it would likely be more deserted than normal.
Sadly even with the shitty weather (by other people's standards) the COX marathon is this weekend and people are out running the route, or parts of it, or more specifically there are a lot more serious runners on the bike path this week. So it wasn't terribly deserted, but the extra traffic was made up of runners wearing idiot devices.
After finally getting out the door, surprisingly it had stopped raining. And I started the ride by down shifting to lowest gear and spinning supah easy up for 500k or so, then just slowly added gear inches until there were no more to add, and then drilled it till i was seeing double, then settling down (in the same gear) until I could see straight and then repeat. And I will silently admit, I put some tunes in one ear. Yes. I. did. And. It was AWESOME.
So awesome in fact and my legs were feeling so awesome with the overcast skies, low 60°F temps, crazy cross wind, that I really actually didn't want to stop pushing until I couldn't turn the pedals anymore.
But I was running later than planned and had to ignore the not so quiet voice suggesting that we take this feeling over to the Boulevard and crank some more intervals out while we were feeling like this.
Mood this morning after that? And still right now? FUCKING AWESOME.
Yes. Good day. So far. And strangely enough, if you focus on the positive shit going on, life is a lot easier. Now.
Lets see if I can pare this list down to size!
One more bit before I hit publish. That D2R2 thing that sounds wicked awesome? Yeah CD was talking about it, JLS just signed up for the 180 and I've been wanting to do it for a year or three now. In CD's words 'well worth the hall pass.' And that's saying a lot. I just, literally JUST took a look at the date. August 27th. I'll be in Seattle that weekend. Just for the weekend, for a family wedding. So D2R2 is off my calendar. Wow there are already 225 people signed up for the 180k version.
You can keep the honors, they were empty then and they are totally desolate now. I am not out there to beat you, or anyone else. I am out there because I once loved to do this, and I find I still do.
This is someone who really gets it.
SO many aspects of his suffering I'll never understand, or hopefully never understand. But I will also never understand what it is like to be king on the bike like he was once, I'll never know what it is like to work at racing bikes like a pro, like it is your day job. At once I maybe would dream about it. Honestly? I did dream about being a pro-mechanic. I may have been wiser as a youth than a grown up. I knew then that I was a passable cyclist, that I enjoyed the f'out of it, but I was never really that fast. I'm faster now than ever and I'm just a passable cat 4 roadie with dreams of maybe hitting the 3s some day. CX racing is different, but it is road season and I don't really ride Mt bikes out here much at all, I tried to, but it wasn't fun. Why waste precious saddle time trying to make something fun that just isn't? (silly tangents)
Alexi's words are powerful, well crafted and timely. And a source for more introspection.
And honestly can't freaking read this screen (i have a white background with black letters and old eyes and transitioning from Mike's Back Bay blog entry to this is very challenging).
I think i got the words in the right order. I don't see any red squiggles under the words. Good sign.
managed to get some extra time in this morning. hooked up with Chad on his commute from out by the cape to mystic ct and gave him fighter escort through PVD. Although less fighter and more C-141. And long range me sort of managed to figure he had the leaving town part covered once we got to the Cranston path... oops. We went way the fuck off course (aka were supposed to head west on 12 to scituate ave) and I turned around at East. Oops. Sorry Chad. But hey we got from Seekonk HS to the bike path pretty damn smooth with a good non-sketchy gatorade acquisition store in the process.
And I had a nice tempo ride, that said I probably should have had more than a bit of coffee before riding that long. Oh well. It was good.
Here's the final analysis - (fresh off the email wires):
I didn't realize we were on the path for as long as we were. I found some stretches of sweet dirt roads to connect me back to the route. I also found a few stretches of bombed out hairy dirt roads, but all's well. Eight bonus miles.
So that's 118 miles, 6hr 35m ride time. The hills in CT were not insubstantial. There was a headwind. Not the easiest way to get from A to B, but I picked good roads for the most part and hardly saw any cars the whole ride. Pretty awesome.
Now we'll see if I have the energy to do the return trip...I'm pretty cracked right now. Shower, food...must be nap time. No, wait...meeting time.
Lucky f'n bastard! Good luck with the cracked part though... oof, meetings are hard enough pop nearly 120 miles in there and I'd need some toothpick scaffolds for the eyelids!
Oh hey what's this - old post... this little "espresso" trick is a big black mark on his already shaky (and worn out shtick) platform of finding new shit to be creative with the camera about.
Yo, alton... how ya making that steamed milk then? Most milk steaming devices seem to be attached to an espresso maker. I'm sure they make a milk steamer that's not part of a coffee maker thing... but then why bother? Sure that'll foam hot or cold milk and you can just nuke the milk. But really. What's the point? I was thinking he would actually do the whole frothing trick with the french press.
Yall try that? Pop some milk in your coffee in a larger french press (take the grounds out first) then rapidly move the plunger screen through there (shake weight style). Oh hey. Look. FOAM.
THAT is a TRICK.
HE'S JUST MAKING FUCKING COFFEE.
speaking of coffee... i should make some here at work.
forty size and twelve. The gear I stuck it in once I got to Riverside Square after a high cadence high intensity warm up to that point.
eighteen. The recorded sustained [head] wind speed on the commute.
twenty five. The recorded wind gust speed.
Different than the way home when I was turning the 46x12 at max for ~15 seconds then coasting for 15, this morning with the headwind it was stand up and power through and then hold the speed until the cadence dropped and then stood back up and brought the cadence up. A good mile section with the wind demanded that i stand up. I'd sit down and reflexively shift. Then catch myself and then drop it back in the twelve and stand up again. A nice puke-tastic ride to work.
I don't have the hrm hooked up on this bike but it probably wasn't the fastest but it hurt good. Not steady state but not like last night.
I know, i know who cares. Wait, I CARE.
Weight has been stable below 200 pounds for the first time in ages. No longer a clydesdale. Thank you to both coffee for helping to crank the fat metabolism through the roof and as an appetite suppressor, and the lack of any beer besides the odd one or two that get handed to me once a month or so as it seems to have happened.
Oh and it was a barelegged ride this morning. Rubbed down with the GeWilli blend of organic oils (equal parts Avocado, Sunflower, and Olive - okay the olive isn't organic but it is EV) and headed out with shorts (longsleeve jersey and gloves). But hey it was sunny and 54 when I left and I knew I was going to ride hard. It worked.
that's all i got... oh and damn that myerspace dude for bringing up the 15s things yesterday that got me thinking about something other than steadystate as hard as I could ride hard commute days. After a dozen i was ready to puke, but then somehow I made it past that point and just shredded my legs and it felt awesome. This morning was more of a steady grind, more like a rolling hill that never ends trying to climb in a 42x25.
This guy is amazing. His blog is insane and really intense at times. He had some jackasses being dipshits commenting for a while, but results aside, I'm so glad he's racing/riding again. it will take him a couple years to get some racing legs back, and sure, he's old enough to be called old.
But his story is pretty captivating and he writes well.
The "in a haunting lilt" among other entries really show how deep his emotional life has furrowed.
Tilford is another one of those rare gems of writing riders with experience to spare.
So the biggest thing i've been doing with this heart rate device has involved recovery. Keeping the heart rate below 100 or 105 on the way to work. It is actually pretty hard to do. I'll usually focus on getting these super easy rides/days after getting in as hard of a ride to and from as possible or after a race. More or less avoiding any medium rides... Stephen has found a reasonable study looking at recovery. I'm actually not really surprised by his findings.
That said, jumping from a race, into a car just to get out and stand on concrete for 5 hours probably isn't the best way to recover.
Oh well... Like with the food, the only reason to recover quickly is if you need to perform at your best as soon as possible.
There is absolutely (i believe) no reason to pack the recovery drink and foods in post peak activity if you aren't looking to repeat it right away. Racing on Sunday but not until the following week? Why bother packing on the extra food/calories. Don't starve yourself but no need to treat every hard training ride or every race like the saturday of a Verge weekend.
Same with recovery too... these studies focus on improving performance quickly. If you tried to study activity and intensity and recovery methods with compression, cold, active, you pick the recovery matrix and look at peak output with a week between, how different will they be? Problem is, if there is an improvement between times, can that be attributed to recovery or just adaptation to stress irrespective of recovery.
The human system is too complex to have any good and clear answers. But this study that Stephen talks about seems to actually help at least point cyclists into a decent direction as far as recovery info goes. And really, is it anything new? No, not really.
Enjoy the riding, even the wicked slow steerage way, walking the bike speeds.
The movie. If you're crafty you can find it online now. In its entirety (youtube). I watched it over the last 4 days, never quite having the time to sit down and see the whole thing in one stretch.
And wouldn't you know it, just before the credits are rolling my 10 year old daughter (almost 11) walks by and asks what I'm watching and then wonders aloud "why are you watching a bunch of men taking a shower."
I was pretty much stumped. I had no answer but to say, this is how the film makers wanted to end the movie, watching these men wash the dirt of the Paris-Roubaix off all together.
This Sunday I headed back down to Ninigret for the Rick Newhouse race. Last year it was a good race. Gary and Scott got off in a break, Gary's team mate did a nice job disrupting the chase despite Marro's efforts. But the field was skimpy and tame compared to who lined up this year in the 3/4 race. It wasn't stacked like the p123 race, but it had more of the feel of a 35+ than a 4 race. And even considering the wind, it was not so slow.
I'd wanted to race the Strikes at least once, I've got a potential trade in the mix to swap them for a pair of DV46CX tubulars. And well, most smart people were racing box section wheels. It was f'n windy. It was not possible to race using my invisible aero bars, that would have been an instant recipe for hitting the cheese grater.
They felt fast into the wind, and I could feel a bit of a tug forward when i was on a broad reach.
The race was fun, really fun. I didn't race to win so much as I raced to race. It felt great to never be in difficulty but to be working my ass off. Never dug a hole that I couldn't climb out of. I went to the front for the first few laps or just the first lap, maybe it was two i dunno, but i wanted to feel the wind at speed with the wheels. And honestly it felt good to be hanging out up front and looking back and seeing a string of riders following.
I slid back a bit and chilled at the other end of the pack, then moved up, and back and around... more often than not I found myself in the wind after turn 4 (the sort of turn after the wheel pit on the back side) and it was pretty easy just holding pace... Hell with a handful to go and Brier up the road trying to do something I found myself slipping off the front of a lazy pack. And rather than just totally drill it to see if I could bridge I just rolled around solo. Like an idiot. WTF was I thinking? I have no idea. I should have buried it and pegged the needle to bridge up, but I just kind of rode around at 90% with the pack 1/2 a straight behind me. People kept dissapearing from the group. First it was a handful who got gapped off, then ones and twos. A gap would open and then when they hit the full force of the headwind they'd be done. It felt pretty cool that I was never in a position that I wasn't able to close a gap (from the back to the bunch) that opened. Closing the gap to the break away riders was a different story.
I had enough gas at the end to stay with the sprinting pack but again didn't race as smart maybe as I should. And this is going to sound like, i dunno an excuse for a poor finish, but it was totally a mistake on my part make no bones about it. After my little escapade I re-integrated into the pack and thought I heard Paul call out 3 to go. So I slid up into the front (top 3-8 somewhere) of the pack and then when we came around for what I thought should have been the bell lap, there was no bell, hmmm maybe I counted wrong or something but I was set up perfectly a lap too early and then my brain said WTF and oops, I had drifted back a bit enough and there was a good deal of pack confusing already and I just chalked it up to being an idiot and not paying more attention to the laps. sure it would have helped if there had been lap cards but there weren't and I'm not blaming anyone but myself.
That all said, I don't really care that I got 23/28 finishers... there was no daylight from the 24th place wheel up to the 7th place wheel, and we had a lot of starters (someone said 40-50 which seems right based on the numbers 141 to duane's 191 would give us 50 +/- a handful and that's still a solid number who didn't finish).
Donnie raced his heart out, preserving the breakaway's advantage but sacrificing his chances in the sprint by towing everyone into the wind. Bill Yarbroudy's repeated attempts to bridge the gap were rewarded finally by making it stick but coming up a bit short. And 5th and 6th just managed to hang on. Brier was up there solo in 7th but was swarmed before/at the last turn and didn't/couldn't hang on for a pack finish.
Oh and about Donnie. Donnie F'N Green rode a flat tire for 4 miles at Battenkill (flatted at the bottom of meetinghouse road) and still finished 2nd. He had to flag down someone to borrow a wheel. Took him 4 miles of riding a flat before he could get help. The wheels he had dutifully put in the wheel car were sitting behind the field way back somewhere.
This kid is (as we all know since he holds a UCI CX license) wicked strong. And to get 3rd in your very first crit? and that crit being a 3/4 with guys like Bill with thousands of races under their belt is pretty damn impressive. Impressive enough to get the middle name reserved for the likes of JONNY F'N BOLD and KATIE F'N COMPTON!
I didn't win a prime, I didn't place in the money, but I finished and had a fucking blast racing, boosted my confidence too. My HR numbers were a bit higher than the last race, avg'd 169 if you give a shit about that. Maxed out in the race at 175 (probably an accurate max at this point). For chris hinds my avg was only 162, and i worked a lot harder during that lap to stay away from the field to win the prime than I did in any one lap in this last race (not that means anything in regards to those numbers).
When's the next one? [Rhetorical, i can look at bikereg and actually know the date] I really wish I'd been able to stick around and race the 35+ race. I had to make due with alternatively cheering "FOLEY" and "FATASS" as he appeared to dangle at the back of the 45+ race for a few laps before leaving in the rusty trusty race wagon and heading up to build some hybrids and scott road bikes.
Yesterday was my sunday. Staying home with the girls on their first day of spring break. Today is it all microscopes! That and working on writing an artist statement... time to play with words, and finish eating lunch.
Through the 1960s Yudkin did a series of experiments feeding sugar and starch to rodents, chickens, rabbits, pigs and college students. He found that the sugar invariably raised blood levels of triglycerides (a technical term for fat), which was then, as now, considered a risk factor for heart disease. Sugar also raised insulin levels in Yudkin’s experiments, which linked sugar directly to type 2 diabetes. Few in the medical community took Yudkin’s ideas seriously, largely because he was also arguing that dietary fat and saturated fat were harmless. This set Yudkin’s sugar hypothesis directly against the growing acceptance of the idea, prominent to this day, that dietary fat was the cause of heart disease, a notion championed by the University of Minnesota nutritionist Ancel Keys.
then again - too much fat might be bad - not bad enough to avoid as much as sugar though IMHO
At the time, many of the key observations cited to argue that dietary fat caused heart disease actually support the sugar theory as well. During the Korean War, pathologists doing autopsies on American soldiers killed in battle noticed that many had significant plaques in their arteries, even those who were still teenagers, while the Koreans killed in battle did not. The atherosclerotic plaques in the Americans were attributed to the fact that they ate high-fat diets and the Koreans ate low-fat. But the Americans were also eating high-sugar diets, while the Koreans, like the Japanese, were not.
Put Taubes NY Times piece back to back with DeLaMonte's evidence and documentation and you have some solidly powerful reading that should scare the shit out of any reasonably educated individual.
Monday the legs were feeling fine. But every effort was empty and there was absolutely no fuel in the tank. Glycogen stores were at zero. Not surprising given that I didn't eat much more than a turkey burger, some coleslaw and green beans for dinner (i did break down and have two Sam Noble Pils before the meal). I could really feel that emptiness. No big deal. All I had to do was commute. Get back and forth to work.
The afternoon ride home was pressing and needed to be fast, and actually lunch seemed to top the tanks off enough that I could put some energy into it.
Tuesday I could still feel a bit like there was a boost leak and above the 70% effort level things were not making full power, but it was better than Monday and the ride home was equally good.
Wednesday (yesterday), I rode in and felt awesome. It was pouring rain but I could dig deep and sustain the full out TT mode effort for the 5 miles or so on the bike path (I saw one other person on the path yesterday morning). It was pretty awesome powering through like that. The ride home was equally supercharged. legs felt super.
This morning? Legs felt great, but I took it easy. With blue sky showing itself and real sunlight coming in and little wind, it just felt right to take it easy today. It will be a short commute on the bike up to job #2 tonight but that's okay. I might take it easy tomorrow as well, or not. We'll see what happens. i've been bad about switching the computer back over to the commuter. I have batteries for the second bike speed sensor that I have to install, probably putting that on the Klein. Might ride the Klein tomorrow to make sure it feels good going into Sunday.
Oh and how about that Arc-en-ciel kid? Keith Kelly. That fucker DESTROYED the cat 5 field. I guess the field poked along at about 16mph for 20 miles or so and he and Donnie Green decided "enough with this shit" and took off. Brent has some more details (or the same details over on his web log. Keith is sort of like JONNY FUCKING BOLD. An athletic freak, seriously. Keith has a lung, wicked twiggy and is just insanely gifted and fast. Dave Kellogg pulled the trigger on "signing" him early, and for good reason. Keith's been coming out to the Smack down rides over the last year or two and just destroying everyone (not that anyone of us on that ride are fast other than when Kellogg shows up but even DK gets smoked by KK).
BTW Brent's got a good line of thinking up as the most recent post there on his page. A lot like MKR's group ride grumblings. Funny too. Like he's been actually practicing writing serious stuff for real or something.
Everyone should head down and race Ninigret on sunday. Weather is looking (right now) to be rain. And that's just a f'n awesome place to race in the rain. You'll be picking sand out of your teeth for a couple days afterwards if you actually race it, that is unless you go off the front solo and win but don't lap the field.
The weight has been coming off - post RdRV.20 i was 195. But also dehydrated a bit, back up to 199-200 the next day... Today as well right at the clydesdale line. Which is about 8 pounds lighter than last year but more significantly a good bit less fat around the middle. Granted 8 pounds of fat is not trivial, but i'm also not small so the scale is different and 5 pounds for me is only 2.5% not really a significant loss. I'm glad i never hit bonky land on sunday, either food/fuel or hydration. Maybe I might know what the fuck i'm doing when i actually think about it. I'd hope so.
Now it got me thinking a bit. As cyclists and athletes who can and often depend on replenishing glycogen supplies very rapidly (say for racing CX on back to back days) sugar is almost critical. for long rides or training or long races having a dual fuel source is really beneficial. Powerbar and gatorade and those guys with lots of profits have poured a good bit of research into explaining why it is important/helpful that your carbohydrate source contain both glucose and fructose (because there are two separate uptake pathways to offer faster fueling/recovery).
Sugar's great, and yes HFCS is bad shit, vilifying it doesn't do any good if you're just going to replace it with sugar or worse replace it with agave nectar, IF, if you aren't going to be burning those calories with carb fuel exercise. Going out for a walk or a slow run is going to just burn fat for fuel (in general) and while it takes a bit of carbs and simple sugars to actually metabolize fat you need the ultra intense activity (in general) to burn high quantities of sugars. Most people get enough carbs just eating food.
But that dichotomy in sugar needs is just sticking out at me more than normal lately. It is important to sort out dietary recs for intense activity focused athletes and regular sedentary or moderately active folks. And that is often overlooked.
I've seen examples of athletes prescribing their diet to normal people (a certain vegan tri dude) and that just doesn't work.
Hell look at all of us. I'm fucking skinny but still want to drop a few pounds... compared to most people I'm just like the rest of the bike racers: skinny freaks, but i'm a big fat one (compared to say KPerham or Skinnywhitedude or or or or does the list end? well it does but we won't bring jiggles into this).
Need a coach? Here's a new one that's just thrown their hat in the ring. We all know him (I'm assuming if you read this you know who the fuck JONNY FUCKING BOLD is). He ain't no 20 something kid with a USAC digital coaching certificate from an online course and training peaks software doling out regurgitated training plans and suggesting numbers to train at by remotely done FT tests.
Since I'm uncoachable (totally not true) but also not liquid enough to afford to test the theory rather than offer personal testimonials as to how awesome a coach he is, I can just say he's old... he's fast, he's been pro he's won a ton of shit and well, most of the time seems to know what the fuck he's talking about. You know, sort of what you want in a coach.
Not that there aren't other good coaches and services out there. That guy who runs the latter says all the time, you've got to have a good line of communication and trust between the client and the coach and that's important, and to that matter not every coach is going to be right for every client.
I can imagine dropping a chain and a cassette in there and turning it on with a good bit of degreaser and water and taking it out nice and sparkling. It seems it would be a lot less messy/toxic than a Safety Kleen tank and contract.
Oh and
the more I think about it
the more amazed I am at the Ronde v2.0
really - blown away
crazy delay on the impact
it was insanely awesome
huge props to Rosey and Chip and Wilcox and the rest of the crew that made it happen.
My numbers first, old fashioned stuff: (not counting the ride from Scott K's house to the Tavern) 63.78 miles 5:05:18 ride time Avg HR 134 Max 175 (climbing whatever that tower hill was called with Eli at the top) Avg Speed 12.53 mph Max 32.31 mph Barometric measurement of climbing 3424'
James uploaded some data to the strava page. That's the route we took. I don't have a strava account so I don't know what other details are there when you log in.
Food: Coffee, and a bowl of granola w/a banana and some milk and yogurt for breakfast. Another cup of coffee at Scott's house Large coffee from the bakery across the street from the Tavern Vegan Woopie Pie at Ride Studio Cafe, THANKS WILCOX, that was good. One Hammer Espresso flavor gel shot some time later Filled up my one empty bottle of water at the Brugers there in Wellesley (the other bottle was still 1/2 full of water). One more Hammer espresso gel on one of the aquaduct sections.
That was it.
Sunburn hands, legs and face are actually not too burnt, good move not cutting the long hair yet, kept the neck covered.
We rode together as a team. I wish there were enough cue sheets to give to everyone, but it worked. We got around well enough, sort of. To be honest I wasn't expecting to be in the saddle for 5+ hours. Certainly not to be out there that long. And in the back of my mind things were putting a damper on the day, thinking I should have pulled the plug to stay home with the family...
The car got me there no problem, and back. The bike was great. The Zipp 101s worked flawlessly. Even when I ran over Tom. The Racing Ralphs were fine. super smooth on the pavement and plenty of grip every where else. Running them at 60 psi probably helped prevent flats.
I thought maybe the railroad bridge we'd have to cross would have had something cool like a river under it, but nope. Just train tracks.
Riding bare handed maybe wasn't the best idea, but no blisters, just sun burnt lobsters that I'm looking at right now.
It was awesome seeing so many faces and recognizing just about every single person there, even if I didn't know their name there were maybe only a couple faces I couldn't say I had seen before. It would have been nice to hang out at the Tavern afterwards and try my luck at any raffling going on. This was a full day event and I really only had half of a day to play with.
Seeing over $200,000 worth of bikes stacked up outside the tavern when we finally rolled in was pretty cool. Driving away from Scott's house nearly exactly 8 hours after we left his house on the bikes to head to the Tavern was not quite what I had planned. But it is what it is. I should have expected and planned as much or pulled the plug before heading up on Sunday.
It gave me a huge appreciation for the roads we have for cycling down here in RI. I feel pretty fortunate. I can head in so many directions and then be basically out in the country w/o city insanity w/in at most 20 minutes of riding.
I'm glad I had the chance to ride it, it was worth it, but honestly, and partly my fault, I was left short of the expectations that my friends had built this thing up to be. And because I don't usually mince words, I'm not going to, I've had more fun getting dropped at the ToB than getting lost on the Rv2.0.
Next year? We'll cross that bridge when we get there. When I checked the ToB results and noticed the 40+ cat I realized, damn I could have been racing with that group this year! Of course I probably still would have ridden with my team mates in their Cat 4 group and finished where I would normally (OTB) and really it is too much $ for a race i've done enough times in the past.
The ride in [to work] this morning was fine. Contact points are all fine. Legs were surprisingly good. Even took kindly to a few efforts. Back is fine, Knees? also good. Neck? good too. Brain? Mentally I'm pretty fried. It took a lot out of me. I'm not quite luggage today, but I'm fortunate that the schedule for today is light, and the people using the scopes are as well (issues this morning to resolve). I know the DOMS probably won't hit hard until tomorrow, but we'll see. I slept very well last night. But then after two nights of poor sleep and 5+ hours of pedaling, i suppose that is to be expected. I still woke up before the alarm.
And shit my hands are red (I didn't think about sunscreen or bug spray until we were standing around in the sun before the start stripping layers off).
oh well
One more remark. Cruising through Wellesley... we turned left on to Benvienue(sp) and flashback to 2010 and parking 3 times in that lot there on the corner for memorial services at the Friends Meeting across the street. Scott's commenting about the name of the tunnel we rode through in Cutler (Suicide Tunnel) certainly didn't help push the loss from last year out of the brain.
oh and we spend a good bit of time riding around with the Pedal Power gang. DP's streamers were first class. I want a pair. We were sitting behind them after the covered bridge and so I sat up and put the camera in my left hand to take a shot. One hand was still on the bars but up in the middle by the stem, when, before I could snap the shutter, James washed out and crashed. Scott might have been in front or just enough behind to ride around, he didn't go down. But Tom was just infront of me and he ran into the back of James and then I plowed right into the back of Tom. no brakes, no chance to slow down. It knocked the wheel loose in the drop out but those 101s ran straight. Couldn't say the same for Tom's rear wheel. But since he was riding a single speed 29er with disc brakes, it didn't matter so much. He used my spoke wrench to tweak it slightly back into shape while James was changing his second flat tire of the day (he pinched the rear getting to the Tavern and the front on the aquaduct).
Maybe the song sort of crystalized it all but I would be hard pressed to say I have met people as awesome or amazing as the NECX crew. Wilcox and Rosenthal stand out big time. These guys are awesome. And really is there a cooler more awesome pair of people than Mat and Meaux? The rest of the whole gang = awesomeness. The positives of the ride were huge. It was great. Just seeing these people, seeing Mike Z, Myette, Ctodd, even grumpy Chabot. That was awesome. Gotta focus on the positive, and the positives were there. it was cool. the team shot at the top of Prospect Hill is awesome and will be what i remember.
I actually felt like i was picking pretty good lines through the single tracky stuff, granted it is all pretty tame, esp if you're on a big tired 29er but hey, i didn't exactly suck THAT much in it and I felt good about the lines I was taking.
And I still had lots of go juice riding back to get the car. Even eating as little as I did. Body has to be doing something right. But then an avg hr of only 135 isn't exactly race pace.
Sitting here, forcing myself to focus on the positives, really leads me to one conclusion, maybe next time i need to just volunteer to run a check point or something to help out instead of trying to 'compete.'
Hey would you look at that - just by writing and thinking about it, PMA prevails with a hard core win.
Just got to ask: What would dave wilcox do or matt roy or or or or
Thanks to Scott and the rest of the crew who put the Ronde V2.0 together.
I'll get the photos I took up at some point soon... hopefully
Cant wait for sunday. well i can, sort of wish it was a different day, so much going on. it is what it is and it will be great. looking forward to seeing who ever happens to show up there for it.
Today was spent a bit differently. Needed a break from the picture factory, so I tried standing on a concrete floor for 7.5 hours. Was kind of fun. We'll see if it winds up feeding any new material to write about.
Some jackass quipped that I race like a Cat 5. Maybe I do. I certainly don't race enough to get any better on the road at least. CX i guess I'm hopeless. If I still suck this much after this many years of that many races, well, maybe i should hang it up and offer professional pit mechanic services as a way to stay involved in the sport, or maybe not bother with that either.
CX is a long way off at this point, too many other things to tackle and make it through before it is time to think about what the fall will bring.
One thing at a time.
So anyway I'm just not feeling crazy inspired to write lately. Those moments here and there that I used to find just haven't been there. And if they have, yeah, just nothing positive to say that i want to share.
be good out there. remember that even the small stuff matters.
Like racing, someone was interviewed (I don't remember who now) saying winning was 50% physical conditioning, the rest? 1% here 1% there it is all the little things that add up, life is the same. The little things do add up. Pay attention to them.
Each time I read it, something different sticks out. Maybe they are the same things, but they seem new, and seeming new is enough for me.
Last night I hit a passage that resonated a bit more than in the past:
...I worked my way up in those races through the hierarchy of being dropped, of sticking with the bunch, or taking part in a break, taking part in the break, of placing, of winning.
It caused me to stop and ponder a bit.
I would like to say it was what kept me up last night, but it wasn't. Brain just wouldn't settle down. Heck I couldn't even count for 60 seconds w/o the brain wandering off to think about something else. Sometimes when I'm trying to settle down I'll watch the clock, wait for the readout on the clock to tick over a new minute and then count pulses. Last night I counted three times, first time something happened around 30 and changed lanes in the brain and oops what number was I on? The next minute I made it to 40. When I'm most relaxed I never make it to 40. Not last night. Finally wound up hitting 56. FIFTY SIX! That isn't a resting, nor a restful heart rate. No wonder my brain was firing like an out of control pressure washer nozzle.
Anyway. Back to the passage. I made it to Kilometer 69 before closing the book, but this morning I kept coming back to that passage. Maybe it didn't mean much to me because until last year I was still well entrenched in the getting dropped hierarchy of road racing. Hell if I hit a road race I probably am still there.
Today I had fun.
The short of it was that after a short handful of laps we angled into the wind there and I was on the left and held my speed and the pack seemed to hit their brakes. Big guys = winning into a headwind. And well, I just held my speed, didn't slow and looked down going into the second to last turn expecting to see a shadow on my wheel but nope. Hmmm.
I made the turn and looked back, wtf? Ah god damnit. I didn't want to be off the front. Fuck. Well I have a tail wind lets just roll it out hit the final turn clean and sit up a bit. I figured on the pack rolling back on the front stretch.
But as I'm getting to the finish line, the pack is still pretty well bunched and some wise guy up there in the white officials house rings the prime bell. SERIOUSLY?
Shit. Well I have a gap, I guess it is time to see if I can hold it for a lap.
From my POV looking back the field got a bit skinnier when they heard the bell, but maybe they were "letting me go."
Either way by the time I hit that second to last turn after the headwind there was a distinct chase group and the rest of the field was strung out.
I don't know how close it was, not very from what it seemed in terms of being threatened to take the prime, but I won the first prime, promptly sat the fuck up and motored around in the sprinter's bus for a lap or two, or three. I don't remember. Except that maybe i went forward a bit too soon.
And Uri saw me and made a remark "there you are" and promptly launched. Paul S went and I said, awe fuck it lets go. My legs weren't there to do any extra work so I sat up and let the two of them ride away.
Team mate and friend up the road, lets see how big I can get. And thus the fun began. It was effortless and thoughtless moving through the field today. Sure it was small, and none of us were all that fast, but I didn't have to think about it. I was never in trouble. I certainly hit the limit a few times but managed to recover just fine.
In short, i had fun. I worked my ass off, and while I think I'm figuring it out a bit, I'm also probably in a bit better shape than maybe past years.
I rolled in at the tail of the pack I think I had some leg left but somehow thought that most of the money was up the road and just rolled in at a somewhat conversational pace (still in the group) with Chris C from Bikeworks. Didn't sprint, didn't try to... just rolled in with enough speed to stay in contact.
I almost wish I'd been able to stick around for the 35+ race but I had stuff to get to and bailed 2 laps into the 1/2/3 race.
I like that course. It's just fun racing. Congrats to Uri and Curtis, and awesome racing with everyone else.
Hopefully the stars will align and I'll be able to hit it again on the 17th.
Happy Saint Sheldon Brown day. Are you going to be like JLS and eat a pound of Product W to make sure you're wicked fast for the race tomorrow? Going with some Superleggero bearings for Battenkill? Nanodrive? Or like superfreak Person the Carrababy so he can get back on the bike again.
Will those who are carrying on the ShelBroCo legacy come up with anything good this year? We will see.
I can tell you this, Saint Sheldon is loving the snow on his day!
