Calm morning ride in

No rain, no wind... glassy. Peaceful, but cold. So relieved that there was no precipitation falling and that the winds were not a hinderance.

Legs felt good yesterday, got a few intense efforts in on the way home, this morning i just kind of puttered in. Probably too fast to call it true recovery, but close enough.  Still felt good on the bike.

Was a nice morning ride in.

Lots to think about over the weekend though.  It has been a tough week in NECX.  But Cait was doing well enough to show up all bundled to hang with her big extended family.  My bikes will be sporting her motto that Brad and co over at Geekhouse put together to show her support.

video highlights from yesterday

Teammate John (his kid Tom was racing with us) made this video of yesterday's 35+/U19 race.

2012 Bay State Cyclocross - Day One from Greyghost815 on Vimeo.

it was a good day

all the way around... on the bike and what not.

Today i raced two very good friends. And i beat them. Wasn't easy, and they were not having bad days...

Today I raced my bike, I had fun, I died a thousand deaths on the course, but hung on.  Brant was killing us when Wade wasn't. Huge thanks to Larocque for getting me and Brant through the scrubs and argy bargy. Watts=good.

This image captures today for me. Last two laps, I lead our group after i tail-gunned for 4 laps. Honestly for 4 laps I was hanging on for dear life.  Some dumb reason I went to the front.  It worked out and we rode through a group of 4 and I rode into my first Verge Points ever.  EVER! 5 of them to be exact.

Brant pointed it out as we were checking the results.

The rest of the day was spent scrambling to try and get Arley's bike going, hoping for a fix tomorrow.  But man.  It was good.

Soups came through with this shot.  Ol'TIMMEEEEEEE was parked with his camper on the corner.  Soups snapped this shot.  THIS was my race. These guys, Wade, Brant, today was bike racing at the best.  For me. The deer hunter rode off at a million miles an hour.  Piles of dudes DNF'd. And I managed to snag 5 vergre points, and beat everyone in my group.

Today was good.  Tomorrow is supposed to be cold. Oh boy.

Photo:

I should really write this up more, and I might. Suffice it to say, yes, Jeffrey B, take it as a positive race report. It was a f'n awesome day.

heddwch,
G

couple of photos

Thanksgiving is

tomorrow...

Sterling is this weekend, forecast down here is calling for rain, up there not so much. We can hope no? Gonna not be warm on Sunday. Either way it will be sterling and there's not so many scrubs showing up in the Elite field. Me and the juniors.

Ice Weasels is currently one spot shy of being filled in the single speed event.  85 people.  Hell if Colin's predictions of 10 no shows is right that's still one HUGE ASS field of singlespeeders.  Gonna get interesting, between handups and all that esp once lapped traffic plays into the mix.

Should be off the hook fun though, Ice Weasels always is.


Thanksgiving time

Nothing like adding to the legions of people lining up to spend money under the vague pretense of saving money, nothing is cheaper (almost) on Black Friday.  And really, camping out in front of a Walfart today?! TODAY for these 'savings'?  I know most of them think they are getting a deal, but I wonder if that is just a pretense for lemming mentality and herding.  Sheeple.  Cry for attention, wanting to feel special that you waited in line for a day or two to get a 'deal.'  Maybe they really do think they are, maybe that is all there is to it.

You won't find me out there.  Hopefully I'll get a chance to ride a bit, and get the bikes and stuff ready for the weekend of racing at Sterling.

heddwch
G

Nov 16th Sunset study

Raw photo dump, sunset on the 16th was impressive... back tracked across the Henderson Bridge on the sidewalk so I could grab the scene and play. Frustrated at times with not having full visual scope on the camera, would be so cool if the optics in these shock proof water proof pocket cameras could go wide enough w/o resorting to stitching. and yes - also, despite the dramatic coloring of the sunset, a black and white jersey pocket camera would be amazing. And no, even if I could afford it, I don't think the Leica Monochrome M would be a jersey pocket camera, def not suited for all weather cycling.

quiet

Fort pop'd this up on G+ this morning.

I enjoyed it.

Quiet is good.  I guess that's one of the biggest draws I have to the Quaker meetings. Silence. Sitting, reflecting, not saying anything.  If someone does say something, there is always a period of silence to reflect on the words.  I have pretty much more or less w/o much question a very atheistic leaning, but sympathetic and appreciative of the cultural framework that the more peaceful (modern incarnation) of some "churches" have, and the Quakers are there at the top of the list regarding respect.

There is a place for noise.  There is a place for cacophony, but there needs to be a place for quiet.

The bike in a way is close to that for me.  I do not ride with headphones.  I do not ride with music unless I'm on the trainer.  Sometimes warming up for a cross race I'll put music on to drown out the other distractions and help focus on the course, or imprint a tune on a particular section.  But the commute.  Quiet. Occasionally and less frequently lately, I will have a conversation with a fellow commuter.

I grew up where there was no sound outside made by man. The house would settle down and be silent at night.  Sometimes I would burn through the night reading, no other sound beside the turning of the page.

That one year I flew back from SEA to BOS, had coffee with JLSCX there at South Station, I boarded the Amtrak and found, much to my delight, the quiet car.  It was packed. No double open seats, so I took the closest one.

It was indeed quiet. It was relaxing and pleasant and much needed after a long flight.  There is nothing quiet about air travel.  And there was something reassuring about being in a train car with people who sought out the quiet. Fellow humans who were looking to escape the loud and inconsiderate.

I was a regular on trains for many years.  That was years ago though.  Back when cell phones were back pack sized and generally only found in cars.  People were quiet on the train.  No laptops, maybe the odd walkman or discman, but mostly we rode the train in respectful silence.  Staring out the window at the abandoned buildings you can only see from the train.  Imaging having a Dirk Pitt style house in one of them.  Randomly someone would strike up a conversation with their seatmate.  I'm too shy to initiate them much, but a few stick out in my mind, and they were memorable.   One man who was my Grandfather's generation, we talked about education, and the state of the demand for degrees beyond High School.  We had a great conversation, each of us making points that gave the other pause to think, reflect, and understand more. Another was a women, maybe my age, a girl i suppose, we talked, she would write in her book a bit here and there...  I dared not to read much but I saw one line that will be always burned in my memory.  Not sure she intended me to see it.  I did.  I never got her name, that's me, never very good with introductions or furthering the conversation or interaction beyond the initial one.

Reading the Quiet Car over lunch brought back a bit of reflection, a good bit of positive memories.

I'm glad I read it.

heddwch
G

Plymouth Day 1 2012 official race report

Never really wrote up Plymouth Day one or Day two to the full extend that they deserve.  Does it matter now? Yes, it always does.  And why now? well, why not and I have time and I'm not racing today, despite wishing I could hit Lowell.  Lowell's a great course, love the elevation change and all that.

Velocross looked amazing yesterday too, would have been pretty awesome to test the fitness level there. But Sleep was needed and finally this weekend managed some good sleep doping.  Caught the end of the Euro races both mornings and got some good family time in.

random thought

bike stuff -

Friday before the Plymouth Eco-cross triple i swapped sides with my rear brake (trailing side was worn to the holder almost). Essentially putting some 'new' material in contact with the rim. What a difference.  Braking was 'amazing.'

Made me [over]think about all the comments when people put new brakes on their bike. Mid season or whenever.

New brake and suddenly they can stop like never before.

And does anyone put new brake hardware on with old glazed used, compressed pads?

How much of this new brake amazeballs is just new compound?

Just a random thought I had commuting on the bike this week, that I managed to poop out into a post.

Might have to go through the pain in the ass of adj all 4 brakes and give the 303s a run on the White Blue.  I think part of the 'feeling' of quickness and fast may be due to the radial driveside spokes on the 303s compared to the Ultegra tubeless wheels.

So far no riding today. No coffee until almost 10am, got some sleep, watched the last 3rd of the Euro race, sun beams filling the kitchen space and the girls stretching and working on ballet on yoga mats...

Now for the crazy part of the day

recharged

Nothing like a sweetheart dance to make it all better.  Literally, it was good. That's what matters.

It is what I need to measure everything by, and by that measure, things are pretty f'n amazing.

A good night.

A new venue too.  I've been going to these for a lot of years now, this was #8 (wtf... woah - seriously) four of them were with both girls, last couple just the youngest (oldest gets her own now again).

Moving on, happily. Things are good. I have my demons, my struggles, but it will all be okay...

perspective, you lose sight of it in anything you do and everything suffers... must not lose perspective.

heddwch
G

more coffee

Another long night in store today, had someone in who drank a bit of my carefully measured daily dose of coffee and now i need more, am making more.  The best part about making a small pot, it takes WAY less time.  WOO.

Head's tired and fuzzy after last weekend and this week.  So much going on.  And i know I'm not alone, it is pretty standard now, over scheduled and over booked.

I Read this...  I like it, granted racing for years and years gives you a distinct advantage and is part of the reason those old dudes who've been doing it for so long make it look easy, or at least can take the slow parts fast even if they can't pedal as fast anymore.  Referring to the link to this.

I am totally a cranky nut job. No question.  And I agree with this one on his whole post.

little half pot is finished... time to drink some coffee... gotta stay functional well past bedtime. so good i don't have to get in the car and drive 2 hrs tomorrow, as much as I would love to go race at Velocross, i can't.

put that behind and move on

Had the reception for my images hanging in the gallery/theater last night.  Realized while I put the link up here a few times I never did a single post about it. I did plenty of blasting to Faceplace, Tumblr, Twitter...  handed out real post cards to people, talked about it...  and a few people made it. There was a decent amount of food, well except for the milkshakes. They ran out of ice cream before I got one. Salmon mouse, mountains of cheese and veggies and great bread, some fancy grilled cheese and grilled turkey melts.  And there were plenty of people there. One good new potential contact (old photographer guy) but it was small.

I know I can be pretty fucking cryptic here. Put it this way, there were just enough people there for the first 90 min that I was talking and engaged (even if I knew them and they're very familiar with my images -they are in my office), but I would be lying if i said i was happy with it.  I know they've been up for a while, and due to my own inability to get out of my own way I haven't pushed for a solo opening but part of me didn't push for it because I pretty much have come to expect that no one would have shown up if i had done it alone, kind of like last night. I do really appreciate the effort my wife and the museum staff put into getting this together for me and all they've done to give me the chance to show off the images and It has been nice to share with people over the last year or so that they've been hanging.  Some very important people to me have seen them and that makes it worth it. I'm an unloveable jackass most of the time but this just sort of felt like a birthday where people were all invited and no one shows, or the team party i had at my house, cooked piles of food and almost no one showed up.  That's my track record. Consistent. Always has been. Not possible after 40+ years to think it is just random or scheduling conflicts or something.  Chances are if my sister didn't get married on the weekend i turned 40 no one would have shown up for the party i was told i needed to plan if i wanted a party for my 40th.  That's the facts, or at least the working hypothesis that has been tested enough for me to call a theory.  Plenty of reasons why. And yeah this probably reads like a big self pity party. Fuck it.  I'm not feeling sorry for myself, I'm just being analytically clinical, just one of my character "flaws" if you want to call it that.

So yeah, went home and didn't sleep. at least for a while.  At least I'm not racing this weekend in the sleep deprived state. It is what it is. What else is there to do about it. Nothing. Move forward, keep going, keep working, keep trying to make as positive an impact on individuals I come in contact with in person.

Going to try and ride tomorrow. We'll see how that goes. Might just say F'it. What's the point.

heddwch
G

way back

in the dark ages of internet videos and pictures were dug up from unprotected file directories, linked and shared in a very primitive way...

There was one video that was hysterical the first time for me, and still makes me chuckle.  I saw an animated GIF of the movie, but man, just isn't the same w/o the sound track, and all the positions.

What killed me everytime was one of the field service engineers for the SEM we had in Michigan would hang out, and i happened to show him the video. He was in tears, doubled over sobbing he was laughing so hard. Every visit, we had to watch that video.  EVERY. VISIT.  CW is a smart dude, knows his stuff, pretty intelligent and a damn good mechanic and could fix the hell out of the electronics and keep shit tuned.

This one is for you CW...  I think I laugh now more thinking about how funny you thought this was... It has to be watched with sound. Has to be.

Warning - you may not find it funny.

This is awesome

Commercial Algae biodiesel.  
Not to be lumped in with BioFuel by those who would rather not see it happen.  I'm not keen on the whole sugar being used to make it. I'd take a lower yield rate using a waste stream as the carbon source vs the sugar.  BioFuel is used by people who want to prevent Ethanol from being used as a fuel, Biodiesel get a good bit of smear.

Compression ignition is good.  Spark is bad.

Oh well.

Plug-in Diesel Electric hybrid would be a market killer.

also - if you're headed to the reception tomorrow, best to RSVP as the invite requests.

The race to the starting line

Time to cue up some Cake?

Ice Weasels is on tap.

One of the few races that will fill super early.  Could even fill today for some categories.

it is also unsanctioned this year, meaning no USAC, and all the cupcake and whatever (beer) feeds you want. Hell maybe even a cabbage feed again.

Way too early to know what schedules will be like but I know i'm not good enough to race the Jedi old dudes and then the single speed... and well damnit, single speed is just too much fun to pass up.

See you online at noon.  Lets heat up the server closet at Bikereg for lunch.

questionable judgement

Racing today in the P/1/2/3 field with it as stacked as it was after two days of cross and associated everything, soccer games, picking up dropping off, shopping, cooking... was well, to be expected, kind of rough for me.

I knew yesterday that when I was too tired to open a beer, or eat more food, even though I kind of felt hungry, it might not go well.  One day? No problem.  Two days? Yeah usually that works.  Three in a row and an hour on top on a course that kind of demands fresh legs or at least decent fitness (no faking, no relying on strengths, just reserves and speed)...  questionable judgement.

I did wind up falling asleep not too late, but waking up having to get everyone ready to go with me (wife went to work, me and girls headed to the race) and then being about 30 minutes later leaving than I had hoped didn't help much. Exhausted.  Underfueled despite forcing myself to eat as much as I could. Tired from the week and racing two days and all that goes with it.

But hey, it was Eco-cross!!!  Shit is awesome.  Crazy fun. Last year I had a great race, it was fun.  It was also wet, AND it was a Friday going into Plymouth instead of a Monday following.

There was no way possible to get everyone in the car any earlier than i did, making the 3/4 race totally no a possibility, also the Masters Open...  could have done that but I had so much fun racing the extra time and with a different group last year...  oops.

Lined up, started.  Felt fine for the first two laps, started getting gapped on the 3rd lap and by the 4th lap the wheels had fallen off and I'd totally lost any ability to pedal the bike fast.  Like not at all fast.  I wasn't going slowly, but was going slow enough that pretty soon the fast Keough (Nick) came through.  Saw Manny G after his crash, took him a while to work back through me, not sure if he finished or not.  And then Peter G came through, and then pretty much everyone else it seemed. I think maybe half the field lapped me i was going so slowly.  Just. Couldn't. Get. Out. Of. My. Own. Way. Legs were dead. Empty, no fuel in the tank.

That said it was still pretty fun, and I did kind of figure out how to go fast in the corners.  When i felt like it.

I think it looked like i was scored lucky 13th.  15 finishers and one DNF.  Pretty abysmal.  Esp considering if they had decided to make us race one more lap i'd have gone TWO laps down. So insane that i was stoked only to be one lap down.  But Hey. It was what it was.

The girls were there cheering when they saw me go through.  I really wasn't going that slow but compared to Nick or Peter...  yeah... not so much fast in my legs.  The one dismount didn't help. The hills, the two of them, were fine, could go up them with the leaders but the short bursts after the turn wasn't there.  Slow burn power was fine, short intense stuff was GONE.  Old.  Oops.  Mark and Kevin did fine, Mark on his 5th of 6  races over the long weekend, so it isn't exactly age, but then they aren't exactly normal old dudes, not that I am either.

I'm glad I raced though. Was a beautiful day, I felt good on the bike, the shifting was working again, always fun being at the farm and seeing how they run the course.  The girls both had a big plate of pulled pork with rice and beans and stuff.  Caught up with a few folks and headed back home.

And made Pizza.

Been AGES since I've made pizza.  I was tired - too tired probably, but it has been in production since about 2:45.  Dough made totally by eye. Sure that much yeast? okay, how much water did i use? No idea.  How much flour did i add? enough until it looked ride.  Sauce, bacon, sausage, peppers, mushrooms, olives, cheese... some of it all of it.  They turned out pretty spectacularly.  Oven is off.  There might be enough left over for lunch. or at least 1st lunch.

Of the three courses I loved Day 1 the most.  I think Eco-cross was more fun than Day 2 but day two was slightly better for me. 4th 6th and a 13th. If I'd raced it a bit differently or if Gary A hadn't washed out on that first lap giving the top three a decent gap...  who knows, or if i hadn't soft pedaled following wheels for a lap... in one section...  a podium or better would have been possible.  Still happy with the result.

Satisfied by how fatigued and blown i'm feeling right now.  No racing next weekend for me. Might try and squeeze in a couple hours on the road on Saturday.  We'll see what happens though.

This week is a big one.  Have to get stuff together for the reception on Thursday night (my art stuff - if you're local it would mean a great deal for me to be able to share it, digital display doesn't really do these prints justice), father daughter dance friday night. Some craziness tomorrow and Wednesday too.  Way to start off the short week in a deep hole.

Okay - time to wrap it all up...

oh and put the bikes back together.  Damn it.  I did manage to get both bikes inside the rusty race wagon AND both of the girls.  And everyone had a seatbelt.  But they're sitting kind of waiting to be put together.

One last thing...

no clue what that last thing was/is. Going to put them together... oh right, one last thing to do before trying to get some sleep.  Bikes. Together.

heddwch
G

Here we go

Made some coffee, getting ready to head out for Plymouth Day 2.

Dark. Leaving for a bike race in the dark.  It is like I'm Jerry or something.

Yesterday was a good day.  Woke up, late, made waffles, ate them and drank coffee watching the Euro CX race live, headed to Plymouth, hung out, raced, headed to watch youngest play soccer, hung out at the farm. came home.

Now lets do it all over again.  But differently.

That big nor-easter

forgot to mention it.

kind of windy yesterday.

and raining.

and windy...

Was a f'n challenge, not a big deal. Not as bad as riding home wednesday night realizing how unprepared i was for the weather.  Ouch.

Realizing i need to either find a new clear M-frame lens or buy new glasses (i keep trying lab safety glasses but they all distort things so much i get a headache just wearing them for a few minutes)... riding w/o glasses into a 50+mph gusts with snow and sleet really really hurts.

At least i didn't need the studded tires.

And yes - i had to ride into that wind. Yeah but no big deal.  Just a little wind.  Oh and it was raining, mixed with little balls of ice. No big deal.

what the hell have I done

Signing up for the P/1/2/3 race at Eco-cross when it is on a Friday is one thing.  That's fun.  A good hour, in the morning, nice opener for the Plymouth weekend.

Black and White Lust

http://blog.leica-camera.com/photographers/blog-contributors/fegor-a-fetishists-guide-to-the-monochrom-part3/

"Removing the Bayer filter (and thus the camera’s color capabilities) means over an entire stop of additional light reaches the camera’s sensor. And with no color, there’s no need for color management or white-balancing — both of which require additional signal amplification, which also magnifies the noise. Furthermore, in color cameras, the noise gets processed through the de-mosaicing algorithms right along with the rest of the image. This tends to “spread” the noise even further across the image. When you use software to convert a color photo to B&W, the negative impact of that color noise does not disappear — it merely desaturates while it continues to rob the image of actual detail."

That.

It isn't the same but close to the whole single speed race difference.  Reduces, simplifies...  

AND TOTALLY HAS ME WANTING A BLACK AND WHITE DIGITAL CAMERA

WANT WANT

Want one so much I'm pretty much more or less tempted to try and find one of those zinc air cell batteries for the Asahi and dig out my film tanks.  I have a pile of D-19, might be a bit expired (but then so is the film - might work well enough or maybe give me some Holga-esque artifacts), just need some rapid fix and i'm good.  Maybe some photo-flo too, although I can just use some Distilled water or a drop or two of dish soap.

Maybe I'll even haul the ancient bit of metal and glass out to the next CX race and blow through a roll of TMax400 for the hell of it.  

Still would love that Monochrome from Leica...  although I'm not a huge Range finder fan (SLR i guess is my preference aka my Asahi and R3 cameras... hmm maybe I should just stick with the R3, batteries are easier to find for it I think, but I only have one 50mm Macro lens for the R3, a whole host of lenses for the Pentax).

Yes. Brain is oddly scattered and all over the place.

Trying not to thing too far ahead...  I do think taking and developing pictures might be fun for the girls.  Shit - i'll need a decent scanner too. Ooh. May have a mothballed 'puter with a scanner on it in the lab.  Crisis averted.  One more hurdle removed.

Damn artist brain.  Time to fuel the creative.  Beyond the usual.

heddwch
G

Relief

I've made an effort to keep the politics off of here, to limit it a bit.

But I will make no bones about it when I say, I am hugely relieved regarding the outcome of the election for the POTUS.  Big Bird gets to live, my daughters don't have to freak out about some mysogynist turning off PBS.  Yeah I called the republican party nominee a name. That's what I do best. Label and call people names.

There are a few people in my Twitter/FB feeds that are pretty disappointed and think the world is going to end and the country is going in the wrong direction.  Well I hope they are able to help move the country forward, work with who got elected and make this shit happen.  Please, obstructionist politics don't work. Government needs compromise to happen.  It also needs taxes.  And no you can't say it is the State's responsibility, that is a shell game.

But I don't know what I'm talking about.  I'm a white dude, barely solvent, father of two wonderful girls, I'm worried about their future, and well, I was very worried about what might have happened if things wound up differently.

My isolation from the popular media has also distanced me from the extent of the actual damage caused by Sandy too.  I've heard bits and pieces here and there.  Caught some news now and then but not much.  I watched the Weather Channel short bit on the web page about Athena (named winter storm).  It then rolled over to a few stories about New York, and Red Hook.  Word from Nick the Dick is some people in NJ won't be allowed back for months.  Hannah K's story is the most direct, and impacted me the most I suppose.  And I know she's not unique or the only one.

This morning the winds have already started blasting us.  As much as I wanted to ride in w/o anything on my back to see if I can tweak it back into order, dragging a trailer into 20mph winds and who knows what on the way home was not something I was ready for.  Not potentially going into a triple weekend.  Had a great ride though. At one spot the wind had shifted and I was riding leaning into the wind.  Our new road is opened, greatly improving the modified commute until the new George Redman Linear Park is completed.

Took a bit to realize my expectations for Saturday were way out of wack.  I should have known to really expect to ride poorly, esp not racing at all since Mansfield Hollow, and having more or less the whole week off the bike leading up to it.  It makes sense now.  And Sunday yes, as expected improved.  It went beyond just switching bikes.  Even the lack of sleep wasn't a hinderance.  Dan Coady has a similar ride, better than me on day two though but his comment after the race was sort of a "ohhhhh right" moment.

I have some tweaking to do with the bikes before this weekend.  Some choices to make.  Maybe I continue to alternate? Maybe I switch everything over to the White Blue? I'm super tempted to get a second White Blue and try and sell the Carbon Fiber one to pay for it but I'm thinking maybe about holding out for disc brakes.  I know it means new wheels but at this point with 303 firecrest rims and the wide, non-parallel braking track I essentially can't interchange wheels anyway, not w/o re-doing the brakes.  Yes - disc compatible frame would mean a bit of new hardware needs but hey, I'm running brakes from the 90s on both bikes.  It is probably time to upgrade, no?

Just a crazy dude musing and pondering.

Maybe more later... we'll see if this releases enough words from the brain for the day.

heddwch
G

One of those days

Just can't shake the headache.  Had done pretty well with the caffeine reduction, but I guess sleep helps.  Last night was no sleep.  Why? Two hours of talking, giving a training sitting with my body turned at a weird angle. All of a sudden LOCKDOWN.  One of the stupid small muscles is tight and it hurts.  FALLING APART.

Maybe I have to start planking or something, who knows.

Head is in a dull fog.

This morning was fun, mid 20s to start the day and I still had B100 in the tank.  Oops.  Guess I haven't been driving enough.  It did start and I was able to idle light throttle up to the corner fuel station, and dilute it down to about B60 (60% bio).  And no fuel issues between there and picking my wife up from dropping the minivan off for some warranty servicing and getting her down to work and me up the hill.  Bike ride probably would have been good for the back.  Usually seems to help.

Brain is pretty confused about which bike to race this weekend.  I think I can tweak the bars up (rotate them) a touch to match the white blue a bit.  That or i just say f'it and move the 303s and V-brakes over to the White blue for the rest of the season and make the Black Blue the commuter bike.  So confusing ya know?

Broken der hanger sort of set the day, still need to tweak the shifting on both.  Had an issue with skipping in a few gears on the White blue.  With all the stupid rock hauling, even with the new drive train, I may have blown through a cog or two (which would be sort of annoying since the drive train was all new in mid September).  Also kind of embarrassing to be having mechanical issues.  but then I haven't exactly had a ton of time to make working on my bikes a priority.  oh well.  It is what it is. A better working bike, a lighter bike, fill in the blank bike, won't help my placing, also won't really detract from sensations of awesomeness being able to race.

Time to go vote.

heddwch
G

a quote for today

confusing in a GeWilli way too even...  maybe that's why i like it:

"Like everyone else, you want to learn the way to win, but never to accept the way to lose. To accept defeat--to learn to die--is to be liberated from it. Once you accept, you are free to flow and harmonize. Fluidity is the way to an empty mind. So when tomorrow comes, you must free your ambitious mind and learn the art of dying." -bruce lee  (found on internet source not verified with further searching yet)

The tale of two races

This weekend was NoHo. NoHo is have i've been referring to the race for as long as I can remember.  Okay back to 2006.  Long enough.  I don't remember much before then.

More commonly as of late called the Cycle-Smart International Cyclocross Race.  or CSI.

Look Park is the venue and it is consistent but surprisingly different each day, and year to year.

For a while I was doing just one day, but always loving the place and so I started doing the double and staying there.  Was awesome.  Mostly because hanging out with your friends who are all staying in town and around for the weekend while watching the Elites race is pretty f'n amazing.

Trek... gets it pretty darn close, except

for the triple barriers...  that's kind of dumb... but they are trying...

kinda quiet eh

It has been a long time since I've watched a south park episode...
http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s16e13-a-scause-for-applause

That one was good.

Pile more links i suppose.  Not much time.  NoHo is this weekend, got my ass kicked last night at the OpenSprints (goldsprints whatever you want to call head to head 500m fixed gear roller races).
I continued my stead decrease of times from last week. Felt odd on the bike, left adductor (groin) is now pulled (happened the day before I guess - or the pain just finally registered).  back was a wreck on the bike, ribs hurt, everything was like "what the fuck are you doing? this is hard! and you're sucking tonight!"

Was still fun.  Managed to get three runs in, good number of people, wasn't too bad. Next week it starts at 6:30pm.  Caster's on 4th (212 4th street providence).

Wife made it back from DC wednesday afternoon - in time for trick-or-treating.  The girls got quite the haul, but i was admonished not to touch a single piece.  Yeah. We've got candy in the house!  Shocking. AND begrudgingly I'm letting them eat a piece now and then.  Little monster came home from school BOUNCING OFF THE WALL.  Like who gave this kid a Jolt cola wired. Non-stop talking and literally just wound up. Oh you ate what today?. Cupcake, cookie, cookie, candy, cookie...  oh. Got it.  Makes sense, esp seeing the last cooking loaded with maple smelling frosting with half dozen candy corns.  Once a year (or so). Exceptions are always allowed.

NoHo tomorrow.  Really putting the whole not riding much to the test.  Esp after the driving.  It seems my body doesn't like more than two or three consecutive days off the bike.  I know it just sounds like I'm making excuses but this adductor is going to be touch and go, probably not much touching and hopefully still allowing me to go fast over barriers up the hill.  shoulder bursitis/tendinitis is acting up too, seems okay on the bike.  back is super tweaked but functional.

Okay a pile of links before I start wondering in print if the rusty race wagon Millennium Falcon will  make to NoHo and back.

Headphones - decent piece on why not to wear them when riding (also illegal in RI i guess)

Roger C found pictures of the GeWilli fan club at Koppenburg CX yesterday.

Funny as SHIT (bike racing thing)

Also - who wants to road trip through NJ with me?  I'll be driving this (the gastanker in case there was some confusion).

Come see my Food Images; Edible Nanoscape.  What else are you going to do on a Thursday night (besides open sprints- hey maybe we should move the sprints down there!!!)?

Something else...  Politics? I dunno should keep it quiet for a bit.

that's it

heddwch
g

Cooking...

We survived, no big issues, no big deal.

It did get scary for a while there last night when the winds hit their peak. Looking out the window watching the trees get flattened was a bit freaky, didn't lose any branches even with all the leaves on.

High water mark was still really high with the storm surge but was low enough not to even hit the bike path down where we are.  Reports that the bike path bridge down in Warren might have been compromised are a bit concerning, and i wonder what the extent of dead fall and wash over is between here and PVD.

School and work are both shut down again, the day is warm (70) and not terribly breezy. Almost sunny here.

For lunch yesterday we made soup.
Carrots, onions, sweet potato, brussels sprouts, red pepper, garbanzo beans, spices, olive oil
served with some sour cream.  Was good.  Orange, but good.  I did nail it with the stick blender to get a smooth puree.

For lunch today, well, inspired by the curried chicken salad at wholefoods on sunday (was on sale, didn't buy any, did sample it), I made curried chicken salad.

Pulling a curry powder mix recipe from Mark Bittman's book (omitting what I didn't have, important ingredients in the curry but whatever it worked) then using the rough guidelines from Gourmet's curried chicken salad recipe I created something that the girls devoured, and so did it. Really amazingly spectacularly good.

Sauce:
1/2 cup full fat biodynamic yogurt
1/4 cup olive oil
5-6 teaspoons of the curry spice mix
splash or two of organic seasoned rice vinegar
-this was all mixed well and let sit for 10-15 minutes while the rest was chopped and mixed
extra turmeric and olive oil to get coating looking right post mixing

I had roasted a chicken on sunday (roasted beets, onions served with rice).
What we didn't eat (most of the breast meat, the girls and I tend to prefer the dark meat) filled a quart container.  (Whole chickens are on sale at Wholefoods for $0.99/pound - solid value for a decent quality chicken).

Chopped the chicken up into small 1/4" chunks or so.
Chopped one organic apple into similar size pieces.
Chopped one medium onion
1/4-1/2 cup chopped almonds
1/4-1/2 cup raisins

Mix together well, let stand.  I ate mine in a wrap as did the oldest who added some lettuce to her wrap.  Youngest ate it as a salad with a toasted tortilla on the side.  We are all stuffed and there's some left over.

Was amazing. really, really, really, amazing.

Food.
Good.
Eat, well my friends, eat well.

heddwch
G

PS - still no bike ride since Wednesday

hatches battened down

As much as we can here. We have the wind, that is it right now.

Check it out http://hint.fm/wind/ cool way to see the impact everywhere.

Google's crisis map is pretty cool. Tons of info.
http://google.org/crisismap/sandy-2012

much better than Apple maps, yesterday it said Sandy was going to hit Antarctica and now today is says the storm will hit California in on Thursday.

It has been a pretty crazy couple of days. Worth writing about? I don't know, not sure. Everything is totally cancelled here, my wife is stuck in Virginia for who knows how long, might return tomorrow, maybe wednesday, who knows when everyone will get the airplanes back up and running the East Coast.

Oddly the picture factory has closed. It never closes. And right now it is just windy. I should go for a ride but I'm not motivated at all.  I could get super bored and ride the trainer later, esp if the power goes out, but that's going to be some heavy inertia to overcome, but probably something to do esp since I haven't touched a bike since Thursday night's open sprints, and then no commuting since Wednesday.

I have been both inspired and frustrated by my discovery of the Leica M Monochrome camera. And the user/ad galleries that have been generated since the announcement. Many shots were on pre-production models given out but some are not. Talking with one of my brother's neighbors who was shooting black and white film on an old Conex range finder at the wedding didn't do much to quelch the desire.  We talked at length about film, black and white, leica, my cameras, the thorium coatings that might be yellowing on my Pentax screw mount lenses, and the simple pleasures of developing a roll of film because you can, not because you have to.  It was good.  Except i really kind of want one of these monochrome cameras.  Not because I have time to shoot, but then maybe if I had it I would make time to shoot, and god damn it i would be fucking shooting the hell out of the races with it.  Shit maybe I should work on sorting out the darkroom shit and get the film cameras back out, yelllow lenses in black and white might be okay.  I wonder if i can find a battery for the Pentax Ashai hmmm.

November 15th will be coming along soon.  I would like to invite everyone to come down and check out the images I have on display at the Culinary Museum.  They don't have a link up but the postcards are printed and there will be a small collection at the door to cover food (i'm only one of the three exhibits the reception is for).  I think there's some RSVP stuff involved, will get the full info up when I have a postcard in hand.
I will likely have a small separate table with the images from the builder's ball on display (with the samples). Also will have the food samples there so people can appreciate the scale of the images.

When the power goes out GeWilli goes into analog mode.  We've got some time before the winds build, going to be a few more interesting days i'm guessing.

be safe out there if you're in the path of Sandy, don't be stupid

heddwch
G

Lemond...

One of my all time favorite bikes I built was for a friend. We got a frame in just the right size, super clearance a Lemond, team issue color, pre-trek. Built it with Campy Athena. Was a very cool bike. Wonder where it is now. Erin has a nice Zurich 853, also that bike very cool but not the same flash, but still pure Lemond.

Lemond knew what was going on. Too bad some arrogant rider helped to foster an environment at the big T that was hostile to Greg. We an only move forward from now. But when you're at the end, in a sprint, uncertainty rife, winning is a roll of the dice, winning is for who is willing to push that much harder, no matter how you got there, there was no calculated plan for Greg. He won in dramatic fashion. He barely won, but he won because he wanted it. To me? there's something there to respect and admire. It wasn't a grand complicated ruse set to ensure a specific outcome. Every bit of uncertainty removed, no, it was you against them.

When you're racing someone, be it for 1st, or 50th, when you're battling, there's the finish, and you both want that position, to win is amazing. Thanks Greg.

Fall winds

Blowing strong and cold in a not terribly favorable direction today.  Right into the teeth coming over the Henderson bridge.

Head-cross wind on the causeway.

But hey the winds blowing from the UCI might be full of hot air but at least they seem to have made it a bit more challenging for the faithful, that or actually probably just made the faithful even more adherent to their false god wearing a yellow wrist band.

Snapped a couple shots this morning on the ride in.  Felt nice on the bike.  Cool wind, but gorgeous sun.  Here's to hoping the wind keeps up in strength and direction, will make for a nice ride home later.

No Race Weekend

As much as it pains me to miss a mud race, esp now that I have mud tires on two bikes...  I missed DowneastCX again, never quite have made it there, yet. One of these years.

not today

no slightly off horizon digital snap shots.

was a dreary overcast wet morning and I just didn't feel like slowing down.  even though I was going pretty slow hauling a double load of rocks.

yes. more rocks.

Commute image light house

simpler

as in things just got a whole hell of a lot simpler this morning.

plan was to get the van's brakes checked out, dealer is following up on a warranty issue that we've been chasing for a long time.  Rear driver's side brake makes noise, gets wicked hot, aka not normal, potentially unsafe, but intermittent and a pain in the ass, and kind of a mystery.

So they all take off, in van, drop off at school, head to dealer, pop out to warm up the rusty race wagon... click.  wait what?

Let me try that again, turn key, glow plug light goes off, click. silence.

Starter.  something. So.  repeat of the PVD week.  Hey it THAT was also a Thursday morning.  What do you know.  I get two weeks out of the the new starter I guess.  Could be that it is cold, and when I get home after a day of warming up a few degrees it might fire right up. No hill here or I might have tried push starting it.

I'm making a bigger deal out of it than I should. But it is something that initially frustrated me.  Not something that should be going wrong.  Lots of other stuff can happen, this? Oh well.  Move on.

It makes this weekend much simpler.  No racing, time for some shade tree (street) mechanic working and what not. Hell I think I can probably even get the fucking starter out w/o trying to push the car up on the ramps (like last time, oof, that takes a bit of luck and leg strength to push a +3,000# car up a set of Rhino ramps).

So who wants to go for a long ride?

heddwch
G

A few shots from this morning

pondering

Always a dangerous thing when i start thinking about options.

Best not to have them, just plow through.  (metaphor for singlespeed maybe).

this weekend I usually (last pile of years) don't race.  I have yet to make the trip up to Maine. While I'd love to, it just hasn't worked.  With NoHo coming up as a potential away weekend, plopping another one right now has been tough.  Driving to Maine and back each day isn't an option, nor even just for one day.

This year we've got some attractive choices.  New Hampshire and Hanover on saturday (nearly 3 hr drive each way) or Conn and Southington on Sunday.  Both have a SS race...  but even Sunday's race is nearly 2 hrs from me each way.

Looking ahead to the next weekend, nice close home race in a way in Canton.  But that's Saturday, can't make it.  Sunday? Also, no racing.  So looking at a forced break with no options to ride (other than trainer or a few laps on the BLVD) over that weekend, I'm considering Sloper.  But last night I was posed maybe I might just like to go for a long ride this weekend instead of racing?  Save the drive time.  Tough call.

Last night I got chewed out for saying it would be a 'disaster' to miss two weekends of racing in a row going into NoHo.  Such negative talk and it isn't true, don't even think that way.  good point.

4 hrs in the car, even I was to double up and race the Single Speed and the 1/2/3 race or the 35+ race or some combination of two, still is a pretty heavy commitment for a low key small race.  Maybe a long ride out to Plymouth wouldn't be a terrible idea for Sat.  Catch a soccer game, then get on the bike and ride the rest of the day.  Leave Sunday open for shopping and getting ready for the week and hanging out.  Probably would be one of the smarter things I could chose to do.

But the whole not racing thing is a challenge.  Maybe it is for the better.  Show up to NoHo hungry, fresh? But that long, how much of the edge will be lost, Singlespeed is so much fun... can I pass up a chance to race it again? That and as last weekend's split of the people showed, reduced fields (Portland and Mansfield for example) from multiple dates at small events makes it hard to pull in deep competition, and with a good majority heading to Maine, what's the attendance going to be like in Sloper?  

So i'll be over thinking this shit until the pre-reg deadline closes for the CT race.  Maybe I can wrangle up someone local to go for a nice long ride on Saturday to offset the not racing thing.

Rumor is there might be some Velo Sprints starting up Thursdays at Caster's on 4th here in PVD soon. Maybe this week, maybe next week.  A handful of those are probably decent enough to keep the leg speed sharper than doing nothing in the mean time.

Was a cool ride in.  Had to dig out the tights. Didn't hitch the trailer up, yesterday was kind of rough on the legs with the double rock load and standing high gear intervals/i mean commute.

Also was running late after locating the winter bin of stuff, faster w/o trailer, shocking I know.

I did stop for a photo op that I just couldn't pass up...  will post it separately.

heddwch
G

Tire Savers... they're back

At least until they sell out of stock again.

I've mentioned them here before, if you have a road bike, ride a ton on glass/shell/debris strewn roads these babies can save you many tubes and road side flats w/o going whole hog and riding 9 pound wheels (aka 28c marathon plus tires).

The current commuter has no provisions to add them so I should probably refrain from replacing the worn through pair I'm holding onto for some reason.  Yeah, just some tubing and bent wire. Spokes work. But these are already pre-shaped.

Why now?

Just got the email from them:
"With this email we are announcing our intention to retire in the spring of 2013. We will continue to send out monthly emails for the next several months, advising you of any special deals and any previously unlisted items that we find in our warehouse. Rest assured that all customer information, including your email address, will be “retired” with us."
An era is closing, a remnant from days gone bye.  It is remarkable that they've kept it together and going as long as they have.

The Paramount still has the Sheldon Nuts on it from when I ran these Tire Savers way back when.

Training window is limited today. Probably just going to haul some rocks again I guess.

heddwch
G

well that happened... a podium? me? yes

So GeWilli got a podium.  3rd behind MKR (who's winning EVERYTHING) and Doug who's killing it too. I wasn't right on their heals. I think Doug came in at 38:55 and I was 41:07.  There was a gap, but hey, it was brutally hard.  single speed is pretty bad ass. Rode the White blue with the long limit screws, no shifting, thank you screws.  Rocket Ron's tubeless on the Ultegra wheelset too.  (btw - I was running a 46x16 gear)

I did crash a couple times, 4th place was on my wheel breathing down my neck pushing me hard on the last lap...  but I hit the open stretch before the hillside on the road and dumped the watts and used the open sprints legs and created a gap and managed to hold it to the line and make the podium.  Not a huge field, maybe 15 finishers? Still, I'll take what I can get.

INSANE!!!  

Felt pretty awesome.  Definitely going to be targeting the SS races if I can make the timing work.  Can't race tomorrow, next weekend will just be one race likely and the following weekend might be totally off.  

Pretty solid and fun way to wrap up the week.

heddwch

G

Klein...

Gary got it, i hope he still gets it...  some rumors are floating around that his non-compete agreement will expire at some point soon.  Maybe he'll go back to bikes from the telescopes...

“Riding is about rhythm and flow. It’s the wind in your face and the challenge of hammering up a long hill. It’s the reward at the top and the thrill of a high-speed descent. Biking lets you come alive both in body and spirit. After a while the bike disappears beneath you and you feel as if you’re suspended in midair.” 
– Gary Klein

obligatory

so... USADA put up some big document or something.

http://www.cycle-smart.com/blog/2010/05/20/pretty-boy-floyd

I think about the end there:
So burn down Babylon. Burn pro cycling down. There will still be racing, there will still be races. Burn it down, so we can build it up again new. I condemn Landis' original decision to participate in a corrupt, immoral system. But I'll stand in front of the flames with him and watch it burn.

I think about it any time this Lance stuff comes up.  This summary of the report is sounding kind of like someone just poured a couple gallons of kerosene on a smoldering bonfire.

So, pass me a marshmallow, might as well make s'mores while watching it burn.

and in case you want to see the kind of good cycling can do? check Ernest's story on NPR:
http://www.npr.org/2012/10/09/162586325/instead-of-surgery-man-pedals-off-the-pounds

heddwch
G

Monday morning quarterbacking

on tuesday...

So thinking about the race on Sunday, esp after a few comments by Closethedoor, I probably just went to fast and blew sky high. that was probably more of a factor than anything else. But it was pretty cool and re-assuring that I can drive that bike pretty damn well mostly because how annoying the people's lines were around me (sitting on chaboom's wheel his lines were fast and felt right to me).  Must have found myself in the I have power and fitness but no driving skills part of the race, which is usually a bit in front of me and the rest of the 'we can drive but fitness/speed isn't great' gang.

Ah well.

Providence Cyclocross... man what a weekend

You know what they say, sleep is important two nights before, the night before not so much but if you're racing two days you need an awesome night sleep Thursday AND Friday night.  Thursday is for Saturday, Friday is for Sunday.

Well Friday fucked me up.  At least if you believe that crap.

Providence CX today

This week...  wow.

More of a Hell week than a Holy week.

Car problems, required spending all morning yesterday over and under the car so i could get my images to the Builder's Ball last night.

and now the day breaks with the promise of heat, which i guess would be consistent with last year.

no time for writing, or sitting down, or contemplating anything.  No time to eat during the middle of the week.

forcing food and coffee down

First year I haven't inspected the course on Friday.  Sort of have a feel for it helping to construct on Wednesday but no pre-riding...

no sleep either - but hey - it is what it is, if you see me tell me to stop thinking and pedal hahdah.
g

Me... video

Validation

this weekend is why we do this stuff, why we race, for the chance that maybe it will be like this.

Gloucester is the home of The Perfect Storm...

This weekend was the perfect coalescence of cyclocross.

A venue that never fails to disappoint even when the course was shorter and faster and there was almost no running on a dry fast packed day.

A promoter who's been doing this one race so long that he's got an orgnaization put together that makes magic happen.

A region worth traveling to, with national caliber talent at every race, and deep deep talent, filled fields.  This is the race you need to register for early, not for starting position anymore because there are only two fields that don't fill.  The Men's and Women's Elite field.

Combine all that with a long standing tradition, people willing to travel from Vancouver BC (Wendy Simms) Portland (Erik Tonkin) Seattle (Doug Reid) and beyond.  Canadians, French dudes, even some crazy dude named Parbo.  It isn't just local talent that shows up for this race. It is deep in each field.

Now all this can be awesome, and we can have a dry sunny 75 degree day and everyone is running file treads who has them, and it just turns into a road race time trial with a few dismounts.  Even then, even when it is furthest from cyclocross's roots of a winter sport, the venue is still worth showing up at and spectating/racing.  Beer Garden, announcers, HUGE ROCK.  Worth it.

So what brought it all together this weekend?  The weather. The weather. Rain. Cool, but not freezing like Goddard Park in '09 or '08 when it was raining and 33 degrees and windy.

And not a perfectly drained track, water makes a mess here.  But not that horrible slow peanut butter stuff. No, this mud is traction robbing, line erasing, demanding a certain amount of skill, traction and experience.

It was perfect. Esp for the Elite 35+ race on Sunday.  It was raining all morning.  The first races chewed the track up from Snow fence to snow fence, from tape to tape. And it stayed raining during our race. And then when we finished.  It stopped.

There was a massacre at Stage Fort Park this weekend.

It was the Perfect Cyclocross Storm.

Some people were taken down by the course, some people thrived on it.

I thrived on it.

And quite literally.  It was that validation race. Every once in a while you start to think, why am i doing this? Why slog around, try and train for mid-back marker status?

Why?

Why go through the pain of loading the car, driving, dealing with everything a bike racer does?

Because you never know, the next race could be like Gloucester was this weekend.

There is always the potential for the race to be that awesome.

To re-awaken that passion, to re-fire it on all cylinders...

Validation.

This is why we do it.

photo blatantly stolen from Fatmarc's blog http://fatmarc.blogspot.com/

heddwch
G

Is it possible to put it into words?

Gloucester Day 2.

Definitely one of the best days racing a bike. Unequivocally.

It was raining all day. The course was slick and torn up by all the racers before us. The track was slick as hell, muddy and the turns slow for everyone, the straights were the perfect length and felt easy. The run ups were good and I had no trouble with the little used muscles that got strained before.  My back wasn't hurting at all during the race, or at least I didn't notice it.

And if not for a crash when I was latched onto Shawn McCormack's wheel I might have cracked the top 50%, as it was I got damn close.

Lung Loogie Time

Very productive coughing right now. Some asshole bacteria/virus has taken up residency in my airways and I'm doing my best to get em out one cough at a time.

Gloucester day 1 in the books.  IIRC Day 1 is always a high power watt fest.  We'll see what tomorrow brings.

NO MORE STRESS

Fuck it.

Lets just have some fun.

Biggest race in the country this weekend. No some hipster tractor pull with cones in oregon might draw more absolute numbers, and there are a few old fast dudes who can crack the top ten at Nationals that won't be there, but in essence... this is the best, fastest, most talented, field on one of the most polished, professional, organized Venues in the country.

The production value is through the roof.  This shit is going to be fucking awesome.

Esp if it is going to be a bit muddy.

Oh and White Park. First off - got a 30 min late start.  No problem, should still get there before the 9am race to get on course before my 10am race.  Nope.  They were re-surfacing 93 there at the 101 split and traffic was stopped.  20-30 min delay as we all crawled through, piled into one lane, and i got there with 45min before the race.  Oh well. Signed up for two.

I raced the 35+ first, had a decent start, but lost buckets of seconds at the barriers, first Carl asked Politely if he could come by on the left. Every time he does that all I want to do is stuff him in the tape.  But usually I'll sort of try not to cut him off... too much, esp if I know it ain't working well, but if I'm not off the game too much, no, you don't FUCKING ASK TO GO PAST SOMEONE YOU ARE RACING, unless you're lapping them.  Then that's okay. Then Doug and Matt came through.  And Nick and I made a nice sandwich, two CyclcrossRacing.com dudes in our formal black and whites with three Alpine dudes between.

It was all I could do to keep going. The legs felt fine pedaling, but the getting off was agonizing.  But I finished.

And since I had registered for the single speed race, well, lets get it on.

Executive decision made, i was racing in the orange suit for the single speed.   The team sponsor probably didn't like it so much but man it was a hit with the spectators and photographers.  I got more coverage wearing the suit than ever in the formal black and whites.

But I was also in excruciating pain. I couldn't walk without dragging my right leg with the hip. I could pedal fine, walk? Not so much.  David Stacey came to the rescue, or not really dave but he got Peg to help asses and figure out how to make the pain slightly more bearable for the second race.

I got some Kinesio tape (had to stick it on the hair - sure - the one place i needed to tape up, no shave zone - yeah - it hurt taking it off), and i rubbed some extra strength store brand ben-gay stuff in it and all over my leg, and back and hip and everything (managed to fortunately avoid getting any on my balls).  I ate a pile of pastries, drank some energy drink, had a Beer of the Gods, or maybe more than one, and lined up. I was fired up GeWilli.  It was going to suck. But fun.  Gearing? Dunno, it was one gear harder than I ever used in the geared race on the hill, probably could have gone down another gear even.

Lined up in the back.  Blasted to the top 5-10 at the start, took up a ton of space, voodoo guy tried to muscle into my line, i might be skinny but I don't move so much if you ride into the side of me usually, and then lost a pile of time at the barriers.  Baker was right there, I owned that little hill after the barriers, and then after the tree.  So much fun.  Made up all the time I lost on the barriers there the first few times through.  If I hadn't had to slow down so much maybe i'd have cracked a place or two higher in the results.

Either way, it was fun.  The whole just pedal harder, or spin faster, or fuck it - just coast, NO BRAKES, all that shit.  Fun.

Then a couple guys back a bit made a comment as we were passing on a hairpin or something, 'lets get the guy in the orange suit!'

Motivation there man.  A dude with a pulled groin, who can't walk, wearing a big [baggy] orange jumpsuit in the heat of the afternoon sun is kicking your ass, in only his second single speed race ever (first one was Nationals at Bend - way under geared, 100 meters short of making it on the lead lap).  I was only 8th and there was Todd Pre, just up there in front, dangling, of course he could see me and if that isn't motivating you to ride hAHdAH what is?! One of those two that made a comment got on my wheel there for the last lap. But. I managed to go just hard enough, in the spots where you could pass that he couldn't. And I raced it to the end there, hit the twisties before the finish and unloaded the power, PEDAL THROUGH THE CORNAHS! And won that mini-race w/in the race.  Could have done with a bigger gear, but hey.  8th was good enough to get some token "merchandise" prize.

Was great hanging out with everyone, chatting, talking, trivial to serious stuff. It was good. Always good.

Long ass drive home but hey - the old rusty race wagon went from the house to GMCX, and home, then driving everyone around all week in it, and then up to Concord, NH and home on one taken of B100.  100% biodiesel made by the guys at Newport Biodiesel from locally collected recycled cooking oil.  Pretty f'n cool if you ask me.  esp since B100 is about 40-70 (huge range in Diesel prices locally) cents cheaper per gallon.

Got a new GP harness in it this week, and put some different injectors in too.  Total different story - what a mess (the injectors that is, the GP harness was very quick and easy) - might get into it if I can't sleep on Saturday night after the race.

40% and 60% add up to 100% right?  no not quite.  but if the 40%/60% chance of rain means it is raining the 40% of the day before/during our race, that'd be cool.

We'll see.

Just remember "stop thinking and go get that guy" that heckle works, unless there isnt' a guy to get, then the heckle is dumb and I start thinking about how dumb it is and i slow down even more.  makes sense? yeah i didn't think so.

heddwch
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one of those things I wished i'd written

But i didn't. I think my ability to write anything that would get even a touch of circulation is seriously lacking. This is a poop fest of old dude craziness here.

But Ryan wrote something about heckling.  Chances are you've seen the link already, if not? Go read it here.

I like the heckles. Not such a fan of "you're going great!" "you look good" esp when there are three guys behind me on the lead lap and i'm feeling like shit and my form has gone out the window.

Creativity is good. Throwing stuff? Bad. And in general, if you know the person, you have something to draw on to heckle them with some creativity.

Ryan hit all the main rules though. I do like knowing there is someone right up there when I'm feeling good.  WHen I'm feeling like shit, having someone yell that i'm gonna get lapped if i don't start racing is actually pretty damn helpful.

Mostly? Just tell me to turn off the brain and PEDAL HAHDAH.

Jens says "shut up legs"
GeWilli needs to say "Shut up brain" and "stay positive" although negative heckling seems to push me in a positive racing direction where as positive heckling pushes me in the bad racing over thinking self doubt direction - not making any sense am i?

GeWilli's brain is broken, legs are strong.

There's a scary chance that I'll have to walk the barriers again tomorrow...  could blow the whole season right there.

Throat is sore, trying to balance stresses and stuff may have pushed me over the edge, that or it has taken a long time for me to wear down and catch what the rest of the family did.

Raining there today - chance of showers this weekend, passing rain, will the course be dry? or wet?

Will the massacre be muddy?

Who will survive?

we will find out soon enough
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Holy week started

Without me.  Looks like everyone had a damn good time racing their ass off last night.

Gloucester coming up.

still not 100% confident in the leg.

no chance to write the White Park Race Report.

i know it is more or less expected that I turn up the loud volume, bomb the shit out of this place with enthusiastic bullshit writing. not feeling it right now.

focusing on the builder ball images that are going up.

I will probably have a run of limited prints for sale 12x18ish size mounted to take home at the end of the Ball,  if there's the demand I can always have more printed and shipped/delivered somewhere in NECX.

opening for the two images in the Edible Nanoscape collection will be happening in November, the 1st or 15th i think. I'll have details when that is fully official and I have the post card in hand.

It is bad. This year i can't seem to get into a structured training routine at all. Not even close to anything resembling an interval, long or short.  I haven't even had the trailer out with rocks in almost a month, maybe just three weeks, i dunno, long ago enough that I have no clue when it was.

oh well, season just started right? I have time, sort of, not really. Oh well. it is what is is, nothing more.

heddwch
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Is it Wednesday already?

Shit.

So much for not repeating last week!

digging through looking for stuff

George Carlin's new rules posted up here way back in 2007:

So good, SO GOOD! Still

By George Carlin:

New Rule: Stop giving me that pop-up ad for classmates dot com! There's a reason you don't talk to people for 25 years. Because you don't particularly like them! Besides, I already know what the captain of the football team is doing these days: mowing my lawn.

New Rule: Don't eat anything that's served to you out a window unless you're a seagull. People are acting all shocked that a human finger was found in a bowl of Wendy's chili. Hey, it cost less than a dollar. What did you expect it to contain? Trout?

New Rule: Stop saying that teenage boys who have sex with their hot, blonde teachers are permanently damaged. I have a better description for these kids: lucky bastards.

New Rule: If you need to shave and you still collect baseball cards, you're a retard. When you're a kid, the cards are keepsakes of your idols. When you're a grown man, they're pictures of men.

New Rule: Ladies, leave your eyebrows alone. Here's how much men care about your eyebrows: do you have two of them? Okay, we're done.

New Rule: There's no such thing as flavored water. There's a whole aisle of this crap at the supermarket, water, but without that watery taste. Sorry, but flavored water is called a soft drink. You want flavored water? Pour some scotch over ice and let it melt. That's your flavored water.

New Rule: Stop f***ing with old people. Target is introducing a redesigned pill bottle that's square, with a bigger label. And the top is now the bottom. And by the time grandpa figures out how to open it, his ass will be in the morgue. Congratulations, Target, you just solved the Social Security crisis.

New Rule: The more complicated the Starbucks order, the bigger the asshole. If you walk into a Starbucks and order a "decaf grande half-soy, half-low fat, iced vanilla, double-shot, gingerbread cappuccino, extra dry, light ice, with one Sweet-n'-Low and one NutraSweet," Oooh, you're a huge asshole.

New Rule: I'm not the cashier! By the time I look up from sliding my card, selecting 'Debit,' entering my PIN, pressing 'Enter,' verifying the amount, deciding, no, I don't want cash back, and pressing 'Enter' again, the kid who is supposed to be ringing me up is standing there eating my Almond Joy.

New Rule: Girls, just because your tattoo has Chinese characters in it doesn't make you spiritual. It's right above the crack of your ass. And it translates to "beef with broccoli." The last time you did anything spiritual, you were praying to God you weren't pregnant. You're not spiritual. You're just high.

New Rule: Competitive eating isn't a sport. It's one of the seven deadly sins. ESPN recently televised the US Open of Competitive Eating, because watching those athletes at the poker table was just too damned exciting. What's next, competitive farting? Oh wait. They're already doing that. It's called "The Howard Stern Show."

New Rule: I don't need a bigger mega M&M. If I'm extra hungry for M&Ms, I'll go nuts and eat two.

New Rule: If you're going to insist on making movies based on crappy, old television shows, then you have to give everyone in the Cineplex a remote so we can see what's playing on the other screens. Let's remember the reason something was a television show in the first place is that the idea wasn't good enough to be a movie.

New Rule: No more gift registries. You know, it used to be just for weddings. Now it's for babies and new homes and graduations from rehab. Picking out the stuff you want and having other people buy it for you isn't gift giving, it's the white people version of looting.

not the smartest by a long shot

a VERY long shot.

me
a
big
dumb
moron

why?

Who will survive?

The lengths we go through... just to try and survive the Stage Fort Park Massacre every year.

This is no ordinary race.  This is no ordinary course.

This is legend in the making.  Year in, year out.  The best in the world show up. Rainbow stripes and all.  National Champions in the race, some have many former national champions.  All are fast.

The slow races are packed full.  You have a bad start, get stuck in the back, get caught behind a crash and kiss your hopes of a good finish good bye.

This is no sissy course.  This race demands everything of you. But it can give back so much more.

The massacre at Stage Fort Park.  It will be. Bodies may get broken.  Bikes destroyed.  Souls crushed and points accumulated.

How much faster can you go up that hill. Do you unload everything in hopes of recovering? or do you save a bit.

Which line do you take in traffic, how to you keep moving forward without blowing up unless you're the strongest and can ride away from everyone?

The stage fort park race...  it is legendary.  If you need instructions how to get there, you're not a local NECX racer.  We don't need directions.  We can drive there by heart, with our eyes closed.

Tent row. Expo center. Beer tent. The big fucking rock. The pits.  The bike wash.

Where will we find you?  You know where to find me. look for the tall guy in the orange jumpsuit.

See you there.
heddwch
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2012 GMCX Day 2 (video)

So here it is. I guess I only lost a few spots with my tokyo drift.

Mentally checked out though i guess. or something.

at least the camera isn't all me

longest 5 minutes ever

Waiting for the coffee pot to brew.  Damn drip thing takes longest when you need it the most.

Such a wreck, such a wreck.  Pull/re-aggravated the groin (probably should have done some running i guess, oops) last night helping to coach soccer practice. Haven't ridden the bike all week except for a random trip to the remote facility (very short). Finally on the bike.

not feeling terrible but man...  i could feel better.  So tired. But hey, that's the same song and dance i've been going around and around for years. Life. It is what you chose, you have to live with the choices, and they are often well worth it, and honestly bike racing isn't top priority.  It feels like it is some times, I'd love it to be but it can't be at the moment. I know, two days in a row of complaining how wrecked I am.

oh

coffee is done.

watch this


New one for me there is the nail gun... i like it. But i try not to break the bottle removing the cap. Hard to drink it that way.

i'm gonna drink coffee.

Day 2 video is up now. will post it soon. Write up maybe as well. or not. Day two was typical suckitude. Head not in it for a few laps because I got in the oooo i'm riding around alone mode complacency. AKA not racing. But still managed to stay on lead lap (barely) despite just rolling around feeling like poop on the bike.

Coffee... mmm

the antithesis of last week

Last week was pretty much completely a perfect week.

This week? I haven't commuted by bike ONCE. NOT ONCE. I did get out for just about an hour on Monday for a light spin. Tuesday I did ride down to the remote facility but that barely makes 3 miles round trip. Yesterday? Nope. Today? Again maybe a trip or two to the remote facility. tomorrow? Maybe. MAYBE i can ride in. maybe.

Saw a quick preview of the Day 2 video. looks good. Mostly because it isn't my camera.

still not caught up on sleep from last weekend, and I didn't even stay up to watch cross vegas.

so wrecked.

so planning on getting my ass kicked at Nick's race. Y'all should consider going. Was a great course last year, sounds like he's made some sweet improvements.  I'll probably still find some way to be slower than my potential but hey, i'm GeWilli...  what the hell would happen if i actually started to race well? Would be boring.

heddwch
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2012 GMCX day 1 video

Nick put a bit of time in the editing studio to bring you the first video in the production series for the 2012 season

2012 GMCX... saturday's race

Okay so I should probably take a minute here during lunch to try and bang out at least one race, no?  Probably not but I'm going to give it a shot anyway.

My memory is fading and I'm probably forgetting everything anyway.  When the video is ready I'm sure there will be some corrections.

2012 GMCX: attempt #1

Vermont, Catamount... the real wake up call at the start of the season.

A predictor of the rest of the year sometimes.

The Catch 22 race, go and get destroyed, stay home and miss the insane intensity and pain and suffering.

Granted you can actually get out of the Catch 22 by racing and training in the summer. Last year went better with the TTs leading up to it.

But yeah I didn't.

A crank old man I admire greatly

Take a few minutes, listen, and pass the message along.

*slam*

hit the wall about 10 minutes ago

It is hard work staying on the lead lap, trying to stay with little guys like Jerry.

very sobering looking at the past results. oof, i have rarely gone well.  The points this year probably got a bit tweaked with all the juniors, but hey - they all pretty much beat me, I deserve what I got. It ain't about the points.  Have to remember that.

Matt Wilson and I battled back in 2010...  he got the short straw and gapped me enough that I got lapped as he crossed the line.  He had to keep going around...  Last year might actually not have sucked so much, i dunno, i was a bit more prepared, TTs went later, more focused stuff even though it all went to shit at the end of august.

but man - the intensity of the racing.  The Catch 22 nature of GMCX. Go w/o form and you get pummelled, stay home and you don't benefit from the pummeling.  Yes, of course, the third option, show up WITH form and fitness.

Someday. Maybe.

now i'm just ready for bed...

Well that happened...

Green Mountain Cyclocross. aka Catamount.

BRUTAL

Totally un-rested going into it, suspect fitness...  what could go wrong?

Well not much I guess. Day 1 I had decent legs, Day 2, not so much. BUT. Looking back I'm pretty much on par or better than in the past at that place.

Catamount is tough. A test of fitness.

I was pretty drained and bummed on the 4+ hr drive home, not much better last night, again another night of poor/marginal sleep. Got to the picture factory to find most of the microscopes having issues, all but one are resolved at the moment, but got them stable and went for a recovery ride.

Despite the horrible getting there part, Once at Roger Williams Park, I tooled around for a bit, that place is awesome.  It is cyclocross for me.

When we moved back in 2005, I found out nationals were going to be here.  I was out of the loop.  Completely. I was poised and ready to head down and spectate on Friday but the weather rolled in and rumor spread of them cancelling races.  So I didn't make it until the weekend.

It was there at nationals, it all came back, the few years off the bike, away from Cyclocross came flooding back. I had no clue what I was about to get into here.

Short story made longer than need be, riding around that place has good juju for me. Last year was pretty close to the most suffering and pain i've experienced on a bike.  But still.  There is something pretty awesome about that place...

It put into perspective the whole GMCX event.  Last weekend is awesome if you're coming off a summer of racing, good fitness and all that.  If not? It is a death march of a race.  Relentless hills, and if you can't recover quickly day two is always more of a shit show.  Sometimes the legs come around, but not really.

Jerry said those who complained about day 2 probably were not going slow on day 1.  Maybe i emptied the tank on day 1, no question actually.

It was empty.

The drive home brutal.

I'm sore everywhere but not in the debilitating way of the past.  Now more of a, yeah I raced cyclocross this weekend.  Got run over by a dumptruck.

There is rumor of some video production elements coming from our attempt as a team to race around.

I will do more full write up later, maybe.  Now I want to take a nap.

But no rest for the wicked or the weary.

heddwch
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BTW - photocredit me i suppose off of NickCz's ion camera