This story gave me goosebumps

Thanks to McNally for sending along the link, this is very cool.

More funny moments

So you see my family has been doing these musical concert things for 31 years now. One of the most amazing people who've joined the series is a 'juggler' Thomas Arthur. Check this stuff out.

promo from Woven Essence on Vimeo.

now see that stuff that starts around 1 minute in? That's his stick. Thomas never does a show without his stick. And he's damn freaking good. Audiences eat his stuff up. Standing ovation eat it up.

He tweeted something today that had me in hysterics. Total bust a gut laughing. Way harder than I was laughing at the muppets earlier today. This is what he said:

For those that know me, you'll recognize my soulmate here: http://bit.ly/3nsnf8

.

I'm still dying laughing at it posting it up.

Nice one Thomas. Nice one!

4 ounces is all you need

Makes freaking sense. My mother has for a very long time been telling me that the best time to eat your protein is in the morning. Have a bit of sausage and egg to start the day and it will help out in the long run.

Well damn if these scientists like study poke and prod test subjects kinda of people didn't go and test it all out and write something up so the media can broadcast it around.

4 ounces a day. A DAY. More than that and ya don't make any more muscle. Eat all your protein at night and it gets turned into fat (not easily) or glucose (again not easily and both at a cost to acidifying your body and pulling calcium from your bones to buffer said acidification).

IE - DON'T EAT TOO MUCH DAMN PROTEIN. Seriously. Like Neils and the rest of the Euro CX dudes say "spaghetti" and lots of it. That's what you need.

No one ever got fat just eating pasta. Can't do it. Well you can if you load 10,000 calories of fat and protein on top of it, suuuuure.

Anyway. So maybe Science Daily isn't the cutting edge of all science but here's the source (cited in the Science Daily bit so they get big credit for handing out primary source):
Symons et al. A Moderate Serving of High-Quality Protein Maximally Stimulates Skeletal Muscle Protein Synthesis in Young and Elderly Subjects. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 2009; 109 (9): 1582 DOI: 10.1016/j.jada.2009.06.369

So. Wanna have big muscles? I always did but never managed to get them (stupid genetics), well here's a good thing to work on. I guess I'd better go back to eating some good protein in the morning!

Oh and all this verge points stuff? Well, Mad Watts Myette decided to declare that I am the fastest 35+ guy without Verge Points. Saddly GCD chimed in begging to differ and rightfully claiming that title from me. I can tell you there are dozens of "pack fodder" masters kicking them selves from monday to NoHo about missing Maine. Seriously, getting lapped AND STILL GETTING POINTS! Outrageous.

Finally got around to starting the gluing process. Got a nice layer on the electrical taped rim, a good coat on the basetape. Going to let them sit and get them all stuck together tomorrow it looks like. I had one tube of Mastik one laying around - grabbed one from THE best FUCKING bike shop in all of Providence (Casters is down in Warwick, they don't count - Dash is a great little shop too) Legend Bicycle. Jack had some Mastik One. Totally on my way home, small shop but he's got a lot of stuff and Jack knows bikes and he knows Cyclocross. Hell he usually shows up just to beat me at the RI state Champs (Sunday at NBX), he had me scared for the first few laps there Saturday in PVD this year. That and he's just a damn fine good all around kind of guy!

Support the local/little guys. And hell any bike shop that isn't a national chain is still a damn little guy in the big scheme of things.

I wasn't sleepy when I started writing but now I am. That's a good thing. Way back when I graduated, that speaker person who "we" invited to talk used that phrase alot "good thing" it was popular back then in the early 90s.

Sleep time...

heddwch
G

Even Better

Morning Laugh

Almost crying laughing so hard.

so much for starting the next phase

I am not going to have the energy to do the stuff my coach laid out for me. Good thing the book he got the training plan out of has a "sick" clause. Don't do anything serious until you're recovered.

So, well. Gonna get back on the bike for the first time since Thursday. Crazy being off the bike that long. Crazy getting sick. Better now than later. Timing is pretty right on though. last year going into NoHo I managed to get strep throat. The year before (or was it two) i got pretty laid up around Halloween. So this is a bit early, but this is the most intense front loaded season yet, and I've got two nights in the last two weeks w/o sleep. And the last one was kind of two nights in a row of getting what sleep i got on the couch, comfortable, but not my bed.

So now at least I'm not blowing through tissues every 2 minutes, but I'm coughing at about that frequency now. But surprisingly pretty clear lungs.

I took Lucy out for a walk this afternoon and well, it felt nice to be ambulatory, when I came back I was hosed. Now that i've had a bit of food I'm starting to feel a bit more ordinary. But still not really all that perfect. No fever and no real ache, just my normal fall cold.

Hopefully I'll pull it together with enough time to get some intensity back in the legs before Canton.

And seriously, I'm getting worried about what I said way back in July. Actually not worried about, more excited really. Could it come true? Have we had a dry weekend after the 19th of Sept? Man next weekend could really prove something. Seriously. When is the last time New England had this much rain during cross season, specifically on the weekends. Everyone around here is complaining about the crappy weather on the weekends. Me? I'm LOVING IT. Bummed to have missed the slog fest in Maine.

IIRC we did canton in the rain last year. It wasn't so bad. But I don't really think it was much more than just wet, it wasn't a slog fest like Wrentham.

Only the weather gods know what is in store for us on Saturday.

heddwch
G

not a fan

Of the whole Disney stuff. So I laugh when i see this but then I also worry about it.

But then hey - they are a big bunch of hot princesses eh? And people say the world of fashion is "unhealthy" to the self image of girls in the US. Yeah. You know? Madison Ave together with the fashion industry doesn't have half the influence that Disney does.

Dove? You are missing the target (if your target is young women). Maybe they need to start using Disney like cartoon characters as their next target, instead of that ears hang low add (MAKE IT STOP).

regrets

seeing G-Ride's tweet that he got Verge Points today has me regretting not going up to Maine this weekend. But right now i'm about 1/2 through a box of tissues - nose is running like crazy, feeling not bad but not feeling great.

Seriously, G-Ride with Verge POINTS? Man that's awesome for him, really cool. Must be that new Blue (really we all know it was his SS mt bike racing this summer). He put the time in and the dues to get where he is.

I've got some catching up to do.

Nice Job G-ride, nice job.

Results Boy Gets it

Yes, that's a pretty self supporting statement/title, after all, he is the brains and the initiative behind crossresults.com. Resultsboy certainly does get it and he's way faster than me (by about a lap over 65 minutes). He talks that fast too. Million miles a minute. Anyway - talking a read of his web log today had me mentally swapping it up a bit. Changing the premise from a Pro/1/2 to 2/3 (or 3) to racing in the back of the 1/2/3 35+ race instead of a 3/4 35+ race and it is the pretty much the same thing. It is about racing. About how much g-damn fun it is racing CX, and being pushed and racing those around you.

I'm happy with my 3 status. That's where I am, where i should be. Maybe in a good number of years i'll have more time to be focused about the training, maybe some of the time sinks now will start taking some responsibility on their own and I can find a measure or two of better focus on getting faster. Right now? I'm happy. Very happy to watch my Crossresults ranking go down from last year. G-ride's killing it (compared to me) and Myette's another rung of the ladder faster than he was last year. Watching these guys I'm racing with all step it up every year is pretty cool. We take it seriously. Some more than others, some with more natural gift than others, but god damn it is fun. The elbow to elbow jostling for place, the apologies when people stack it up and hold up their friend and competitor.

This is a fahking awesome sport to participate in. Love it. And as much as I would love to head to Maine and race in a smaller field this weekend, I do need time off. 5 weekends of doubles is a lot, but a great way to jump start the season.

Oh and someone got a shot of my can at G-ster. Or is that one of the many cans i gave away that day.

it is a really good thing

that i'm not racing this weekend. Lucy (our 75-80 pound mixed lab/ridgeback) started the whole bloody urine, needing to go out way too frequently last night. I slept on the couch and got some sleep. She was able to go about 90 minutes between waking me up to have me let her outside.

I was far more rested than the last time when 15 minutes after we went to bed she had made a mess in the kitchen and well i spent the night waking up to clean up the house. And the couch actually is pretty damn comfortable. Good to know.

She had been on two weeks of Clavamox, a pretty damn expensive broad spectrum anti-biotic. And all was fine. Until yesterday afternoon. She couldn't hold it till we got home (wasn't even a long day). She stopped the drugs on Tuesday. The vet doesn't have anything today, not even really able to fit her in because the Doc who's been seeing her is off today. So tonight looks to be more of the same. Going to try and start sleeping earlier than 10:30 tonight hopefully. The rest of the family has been dragging a bit in the morning so i think everyone gets an early bedtime, so I might be somewhat functional this weekend.

This really sucks. in many many ways, and a few ways I can't talk about here, which sucks because, well getting stuff down and written here usually helps.

At least I have a tubular to distract me with. The rolled one with the basetape that came off is back from Tire Alert. Time to made the choice about which type of glue to use. Fastack, Mastik 1, that white stuff g-ride loves so much (what the hell is it anyway).

Came across a good link for tubular gluing. Sure yet another one. But those of you who've been reading the History of Cyclocross Part 1 and 2 in Cyclocross Magazine (print issue) the name Laurence Malone may sound familiar. That or if you've been racing cross as long as Paul Curly you've probably raced with the 5 time CX national Champ.

And well hell if anyone knows about gluing that shit it has to be Malone, no? Nothing ground breaking, and yeah it is for road so I'd skip the 80 PSI inflation (to avoid the voids under the basetape).

Best Quote there:

There are lessons to be learned from this story. First: Bill Woodul was a stand-up guy for taking the blame. And two—what we’re concerned with here—tubular tires don’t always stay put. In fact, every year in the Tour, the most important professional event, sew-ups roll. Which tells you that there’s a darn good chance that even if you do everything right, in an extreme enough situation, such as bombing down an alpine pass, the sew-ups may still come off.

No matter what you do, if you do everything perfectly, they can still come off. Nega-Coach said something like "What, did you expect them to stay glued through a nuclear blast?" when I rolled mine at Vermont. Good point. There are always conditions where the best glued 'sew-up'/tubular will come off.

Well, Lucy and I are going to have an interesting day here at work together. And another long night before we can get to the vet in the morning tomorrow.

heddwch
G

deep breath

and fall asleep.

Yesterday was a long day. Well a short day really. Early release for the girls, pick them up, grab a few things from the store head home. Make lunch, go hang out at the playground for an hour with the dog and the girls, head home. Sit on my ass falling asleep while the oldest got her homework done.

Then well instead of just taking a nap i decided to make that apple spice cake. It turned out well. But then when that was finished it was time to make some pizza dough. And prepare the rest of the toppings for it (cook some nice italian sausage, chop up various things mushrooms, olives, pepperocini, grate the cheese, make the sauce). Then the cake came out of the oven and it was time to start making pizzas. Got them all started. Finished eating and then made some ice cream (to go with the cake).

Good thing it is a rest week, i don't have time to train with all this living going on. Got a decent nights sleep but still feel like just putting my head down and closing my eyes. I felt great on the ride in, legs felt alive. But man I'm freaking wiped out. I should have just taken the nap yesterday instead.

I'm looking forward to a weekend off the bike, well maybe i'll get on it for an hour or hour and a half just to get on it, but then again, I might not.

I was supposed to get some running in this morning. But i hit the snooze button and got another 15 minutes of pseudo sleep.

Lets go around the scene real quick like. I've got a handful of pages that have been opened all day. Might as well get this over with. interruptions be damned.

Start with this:

Playing For Change: Song Around the World "Stand By Me" from Playing For Change on Vimeo.

Holy crap. Ain't that awesome? Seriously. There are a whole bunch more of them in the series. and for more about the project check here: playingforchange.com/

Now Al Franken, soo freaking cool to see his delivery as he just completely undresses someone on the panel. That's really pretty damn cool. His delivery is perfect.

From there to England and Dave's pondering the the absurdity of passing a law to make it illegal to discriminate against anyone who is overweight. it is a good read.

Then swinging to running, a popular way people are trying to increase calories out, The times has a couple bits on that barefoot running stuff. A good look at the science (or lack of) behind it here, from the New York Times. Makes a lot of sense (esp the body compensating for it). Then a bit of an interview with that Born to run guy. His rational sounds even more flaky in person that it did on paper based on the video on that link.

Then from running to beer drinking. Rock Art has "won." Well that's awesome. But maybe I missed it in that first video. I guess the problem didn't come about until Rock Art decided to put a trademark on "Vermonster." That tipped off the Hansen company's lawyers. The agreement is that Rock Art won't make energy drinks and Monster won't sue. Hey that's all happy happy now. But damn talk about getting some insane advertising and positive publicity!

time to chill and hope That Change really does Come. It has been a long time coming.

A long time coming...

heddwch
G

Wisdom of Old Men...

Every once in a while it takes a profound moment to kind of hit reset. Keep in mind this guy speaking is a life long Republican, a conservative, mostly likely in the truer sense (not the radical Reaganomics type), but that supposition potentially takes away from the message. Not the point.

The point is really hammered home when he mentioned the devastation he has witnessed cause by defined inequality. The video is from April this year, not current news, but man it is some powerful stuff.

Equal Rights means equal rights. That IS what makes this country great.

Now i'm going to go make an Apple Spice Cake. I might even get indulgent and put some chocolate in there. Maybe merging Fatty's Best Cake in the World recipe with that one to make THE BEST CAKE IN THE UNIVERSE.

heddwch
G

me want one

I'll even take a 59cm to have one...

even deal with the brown color... wicked cool though.

my first bike i bought with my own money was a Raleigh Chill. I'd been riding other bikes a lot before them but I wanted a Mt Bike. So I bought one.

I thought last years SSCX bike they made was wicked cool. This is just about as cool, and it would just be nice to have a true to purpose SSCX bike.

Hell the only commercials I remember as a kid were the Rainer Beer ones, the Olympia Beer adds and the Hamms Bear Refreshing Beer adds. Although I'm confused as to why They use a likeness of the Hamm's Bear on the head tube but put a PBR label on the seat post.



Hamm's the beer refreshing,
Hamm's the beer refreshing.

Day 2 into a 7 day rest period

or longer I forget what I have planned coming out of next weekend off.

Either way I am tired. Part of it has been the dog has decided that she doesn't want to wait until 5:45 to get up and go outside. She wants out at 5-5:15. Sure that's not that early but she is persistent and as much as I'd like to ignore her I've had enough cleaning up urine in the morning to acquiesce. She still has to wait for food (she's still not wild about waiting for it but she's much more patient after going outside).

Kind of funny, the race that traditionally takes the longest to hit BikeReg if they ever hit it has beaten the MRC results to the server. Seriously? Mansfield Hollow got results up faster than MRC? Crazy.

The mud and rain must have messed them up somehow. I hope they show up because I have no idea who that was between Marvin and myself. I know who was right behind me.

So the race was a bit of a new thing. Hauling the kids along with me and bringing enough stuff that they could stay occupied by climbing all over the inside of the wagon. They seemed to have a blast, even figured out how to take pictures and send them and send text messages using my phone. MRC organizers graciously allowed me to park in the VIP lot so they'd be on the same side of the road as the course and near people to get if they needed something. But these are two pretty imaginative kids. They were well entertained while i was racing.

We got there - drove up in the driving rain. Cold. I had the EZ up on the roof. Part of the plan was to set it up and warm up in it and have a place for the girls to hang out. But the sideways rain and the cold meant it was staying on the roof rack. No point to set it up. Even with sides. That and we got there a bit later than I had planned to. With about an hour before the race I got a number and pinned it on (use the steering wheel folks, pro tip). And Bauer mentioned he was going to do the NorthWest Warm up: Sit in the car with the heat cranked full blast until 10 minutes before your race.

I liked that idea. What was the point of riding around anyway? I took the bike off the roof, put 46 PSI in the front Racing Ralph clincher (i'm dropping weight but still at 200 pounds), and 34 psi in the 34c Fango tubular on the rear. Climbed back in the car put some beeswax based embro on to ward off some of the cold and mostly because putting on clothing just makes you colder, esp with that many puddles and that much rain. thin layers of most clothing, with few exceptions, will not stay warm with repeated splashing through deep puddles of ice water. They may hold body heat but they also suck it out faster than having nothing on. I made two concessions besides the beeswax embro for the cold weather. I rode with gloves on (didn't match the kit even), and put a sleeveless base layer on under the long sleeve skinsuit. I put a hat on but lost the nose piece to my clear oakleys and well - shit i figured they'd get mudded up right quick and I wouldn't be able to see anyway so i hoped the cycling cap would catch most of the spray.

That was about it. Ready to go. Hopped out of the car with about 15 minutes to the start. Went over to the new start location (I like that much better guys - good move), and did a handful of starts up the hill to get the blood into the legs after cheering on the women who were still trudging past.

My lack of pre-riding and faith in my tires would cause me some issues later but hey - at the start i was clean and so was my bike. For all of the 15 seconds it took to get 20 yards into the mucky muck.

I wound up front row between the other tall(er) freak and Thommy P on his single speed Mt bike with nice Bontrager Mud tires. Mike Rowell was on the other side of Thom, and B-mac came swooping in from a last minute pre-ride to line up on the grass between Mike and a big tree that was sheltering us a tiny bit. Good old unflappable Bill Dolan was our starting official. He basically got us off the line efficiently and with minimal jabber and flack. We all knew what we were doing. No lining up with Crossresults points this time. Did it matter? Nope.

Whistle blows and I say screw this I'm starting like yesterday and take off. For some reason the freak on Moby Dick didn't move as fast as me and the guys on my left. Thommy got squished back and it was me mike and b-mac hitting the first turn, i hesitated and followed in line behind. Thommy came barreling down the hill and gave him some space and hooked onto the back of B-mac's wheel. Into the wind I was even getting a bit of a draft of the mid size B-Mac. That's how much wind there was on that straight approaching the draft. Well. I guess B-mac wasn't going fast enough for the Wheelworks guy, but when Wheelworks (I dunno who it was - he usually finishes ahead of me) came by at the slight left before the log and tried to chop my line, he got a solid elbow with 200#s behind it protecting a line. My hands stayed on the bars the whole time. Not that it mattered. The dismount was coming up and we went over it together but I wasn't willing to burn a match to jump hard enough to stay in front of him and I settled back into someone's wheel there past the start finish.

Corner corner corner - all greasy. Not really all that fast. All the lines had been tried to that point in the day and it was pretty much mud and grass soup with little traction from Stake and tape to stake and tape. If there were cones the race course would have been 20 feet wide and still unridable. I held my position. I was going to hold it as long as I could. Sprinting up after the barriers (no tape around them, a total ride around option, but honor system, we all went over the barriers) I managed to hold the wheel through the single track (B-mac's still IIRC) and through the puddle and rock fest where Colin ate it big time last year. One or two guys attacked through there, but i was in wheel following mode. Stick on B-mac's wheel and see if I can glean any technique which he has in abundance. bounced off a few rocks, mud flying in my eyes. Maybe only 5 or 6 times the mud hit my eye and I had to blink and calm down enough to let the tears wash the stuff out. It worked, no damage done, but it slowed me down once or twice (more like took my driving focus off going fast and switched it to "hey i need to see").

Marvin might have worked up to me or I slid back to him. Probably a bit of both. But for a couple laps were were right together then I started eating stakes. The first stake was 3 to go. Oops. There's goes Marvin. Damn it. Let me get him. That let someone else bridge up and then make a move past me as I bobbled something somewhere. But I held on until going past the start finish through the chicane section. Stake attached to front fork drop out. Damn. it isn't coming out. I have to get off to get it off me.

Dead stop. Off bike. Detach stake and get going again. Damn that gap got big. Shit, dig dig. Chase through the back single track. Keep them in sight. Going as fast as I can. Ow crap mud in my eye. Eat a stake trying to make up time through the down hill s-turns. Damn it. Gap gets bigger. Spazz out and screw up the next couple turns trying to race back on. Get up the hill. Attack the flats and try and hold speed through the curves. Oh. I'm bringing them back a bit. Awesome. Dismount clean, run up. Get back on, gap is steady. Dismount clean over barriers, remount go. Gap is the same. Head down the hill and go back up and tag a stake on the inside before going back up. Shit. Gap just got a lot bigger.

Now at MRC they have those three sort of up hill things in the wide open field. Normally totally rideable so they put a barricade in the middle one. Sunday they were not rideable. Not for me and those Fangos that we all now call SlipOs. Fangos totally stink in mud. Absolutely suck. They are essentially slightly more agressive than a semi-slick but with wicked nice side knobs (for grass and dirt, not mud).

Pretty much no one around me was riding those. I don't even know if Thommy P was riding those on his SS mt bike. Probably was. But there was squishy muddy grassy muck from tape to tape.

Good thing though was the rain was coming down so hard and heavy and the puddles in the back woods/rocks section cleaned the bike pretty well every lap. Just grass was building up in the usual places.

So anyway, I hit that tape on the apex down at the bottom and lost some space, and then the wind seemed to really pick up. But I dug deep into that wind, got as small as I could and spun into the wind to the log. Maybe not spinning as fast as I could but I was making an effort not to grind. Hit the log, okay, I made up some space. Cool I'll ride the next section clean and make up more along the top.

Not quite. Ate three stakes or more that time through before the barriers. Lost enough time that when I came out of the woods and past the pit the other Tall(er) freak was able to heckle with "you're lucky there isn't one more lap" taunt. I kept Rich at bay, and the next guy was too far gone at that point that I just focused on riding clean and strong to the finish.

It was fun. The rear tire's total lack of traction in the grassy mud was not that much fun. With a Rhyno maybe I could have ridden those up hill sections and finished a bit higher, maybe I'd have been able to turn and corner better and not have eaten the tape. Marvin and the guy between us were not that far in front of me.

It was hell of a lot of fun. Headed back to the car - hosed off my legs with a few waterbottles. And it was that point, standing around dumping water on myself in the wind trying to get the bulk of the mess off that I finally started getting cold. I wasn't even close to feeling cold once the race started. Legs, feet, hands, face. Nothing was cold until I got to the car and started to WB hose off.

The girls had fun, K managed to correctly identify me in the race by asking if I was #210 (yes i was), even through the fogged up windows of the car. I changed - stuck the bike on the roof - piled the extra wheels in the back with the unused trainer and plastic bags full of mud and grass and water logged clothing and shoes, fired up the turbo diesel and headed home.

We were driving away just after the Elite race passed the start finish line. Thanks to Bauer for the offer of the pizza, the girls finished it off, despite their picnic of apples, chips, goldfish and hot chocolate. K was most enamoured by the hot chocolate. I filled up my Ibis Hot Unit for them (it has the easiest pour spout), she took great care in being in charge and pouring it out into their Thermos cap cups. It was very cute.

I finally stopped shivering between Canton and Attleboro. I don't remember where exactly between those to places. Just that I was still a bit cold passing Canton thinking about it being my next cross race and oh hey we're almost in RI and realizing I was warmed up. For an oil burner it does crank out a lot of heat! So nice. That rattly old volvo sucked in the winter - HVAC system was pretty hosed in it, nice trade up: tons of play space in the back seat and way back and nice and toasty heat.

Quick rinse of the bike when we got home. A shower to get the fine filtered dirt off that always goes through the skinsuit in the mud. Rinsed off all the close with the hose outside and still managed to have silt and grass in the bottom of the washing machine at the end of the load. But Wrentham dirt does come out in the first wash. That was another bonus.

Fun race but still no results. But really, who cares. They might get posted, maybe not. Heading home and turning on the football game and seeing the snow was pretty cool. The girls thought it was esp when I told them how close the stadium is to the race.

Great weekend racing. Two very tough races for me. A 16th out of 16 finishers and 18 starters at Mansfield (I finished between Colin and Aaron there somewhere around sixty six minutes and 30 seconds). So that was a long race for me. Sure I did one less lap than the top 12, and am consoled a bit that 3 others got lapped. Yeah next time I'm going to try and ride the log.

But despite being two really challenging races, they were both tons of fun. I'd so totally sign up again for that ass beating I got on saturday and I would jump at the chance to race at wrentham in those conditions again. 10 races already this season. A handful more to go, then Nationals. Going to hopefully find some fighting legs for the 35-39 race. The last year I can race in that category.

I had plans of mouse drawing all over a sat image of the wrentham course highlighting the locations of my bobbles and where the SlipOs wouldn't hook up, but well that didn't work out yet. That and I'm hungry again. I've been extra hungry lately. All this racing and prep and training has me eating a fair bit more and not gaining anything - if at all losing weight still. I haven't dipped below 200# much more than before eating... but i'm getting closer and closer to trading that 2 for a 1.

Gotta go score some (more) food if i'm going to be able to ride home tonight with any ease at all.

heddwch
G

rolling with the fast kids

Mistake? Maybe. Maybe not. It was wicked fast (faster at the start with only 17 folks than I've been used to starting in 40th spot at Verge races) at the start. Colin totally ate shit on the first lap trying to clip in. But he came past me on fire and I remembered "seat cam" WOOO.

Actually I realized after not lining up behind Colin that I should have lined up behind him so I could do the Ryan Kelly ie get on seat cam.

So first lap, cool. I'm hanging for most of this. Slightly gapped by the sand but totally sitting in line. Rode the steep hill and passed someone. Wooo not last. Kept riding around people behind, people in front. Sweet.

Start of the second lap i got a wicked side cramp, really painful one. Hurt like a mother. And stuck with me for two laps. Lost the places except one. The last one I gave up about half a lap before getting lapped. was sitting on the wheel until I ate shit in the sand and well - he got clear and I was all alone.

About lap 2-3 I had a realization. "shit, this race is 15 minutes longer than normal, I'm sooooo totally getting lapped."

At that point when I saw 7 to go and did the math and well, yeah - it'll be close. And it was. But those last two laps I dug down. Well until Adam passed me and it was just Colin back there. Colin all by himself. No one anywhere near him front or back.

between the two sand pits i realized i had a choice. I could hit the brakes and let him come through nicely, or I could hold his ass up.

I chose to hit the brakes. I was DFL anyway it would be a total dick move to impeded anyone on the lead lap. So I didn't. but I still got heckled for it. Of course just as I go off camera I wash out the front tire and have to dab. Boom he was gone. 'Sokay. I got on the famous Seat Cam. The goal of all racers slower than Colin!

WOOOO

worth getting my ass kicked. Totally. not just a one lap cameo, a real live special edition. Colin crashing and gewilli getting lapped by colin. So cool.

It was fun. It was hard, it was so totally worth it. I think.

Wrentham tomorrow. Then a full rest week begins. Taking next weekend off.

Next time, yeah I'll stick with the old man's race. Maybe. This was fun. For the first couple laps. Then it kind of sucked but the course was fun enough that even then it didn't suck.

Highlight?

Passing the finish line and having Alan and the whole officiating crew burst out laughing. I thought it may have been the snot hanging off the goatee like slimy fangs, but no, Alan claims it was because everytime I came through I was grinning like i was enjoying it, Chris Horner style. Hell that made my day. Even if a lie it was cool. I did have fun. It was fun and so worth getting DFL and my ass kicked this way and that.

Standing around at the Halloween party on the way home was good too. Maybe not the best recovery but it was a great way to end a great day. Oh and post shower the Leg Salsa is still burning!

On to Wrentham

heddwch
G

new pre-race tune

A little techno for some people maybe but I can't find the original song...



okay - nevermind - here's the original (un-remixed version)

>

it works much better in the remix for cross

- sitting here with the belly full of dinner, my legs feel like lead. The ride home with the tail wind was nice, but man they feel like a couple anchors attached to my hips. Could be a good thing though. Maybe I got the day one crap out of the legs by blitzing home with the wicked Nor'easter tailwind.

we'll see

heddwch
G

Cold and wet this morning

First time this year I was cold on the bike... Okay this season. The 40 degrees and rainy wetness gets into you. I even put gloves on for a change.

Snapped a couple shots of the steam rising off the bay.

first week in a while i've just bagged the running and gotten both intervals in, wed AM 30 second zone 6 ones and thurs PM 30 minute zone 4 one. too tired to wake up at 5:45 to get the runs in tues and thurs mornings.

it is what it is. Jumping into the 60 minute race may not be the best idea. But hey it is done and I'm going to see what I can do to hold on to the fast wheels and learn some lines and try and flow and find some power. That and the longer duration will be good. And the later time slot is really appealing.

VERMONSTER

Spread the word (sure it is pretty well spread by now and no one I know drinks Monster sugar water, but hey - every voice counts)!

Long live the Vermonster!

No Dust again?

Can we get so lucky? It hasn't been dusty since the first day of Vermont.

Rain showed up just in time to soak down the G-ster course, dampen Providence and now make a big puddle out of Mansfield and Wrentham.

Yes there are other races going on on Saturday. 4 others to be specific. But I'm ignoring the other three because I'm not going to them. It is great to have that many to choose from. But still - spread out the love. Race in December. Or something.

It will be interesting to see the final Pre-reg numbers when they close.

Going to be cool and wet again. LOVE IT.

Can't wait. Is this our season this year? A cold and wet one? Awesomeness.

Well actually I just hate racing in the dust. If we get much more super slop I might have to bust out the Verdestein 28 cross clinchers and race around at 55 psi. Gonna be fun at any rate. Figuring I'm going to work on not getting lapped by Colin. Why? Because a 2,3,4 race is (IMHO) stupid. Make it a 1,2 or a 1,2,3 or a 3,4 2,3,4 makes no sense. So I'm going to do the 1,2,3 race. Just not the age graded 1,2,3 race.

Gotta keep getting pushed if I'm going to keep motivated to do the work to try and hang with the rest of the west coast Too Tall Crew at Nats. not to mention trying to make up 100 places in the start grid on earlier pre-reg'd G-ride.

I'm liking the new Cat function there over at Crossresults. You can see what cat everyone is. That Moots guy is only a cat 3? Someone needs to hand him a free trip to Cat 1.

After nationals maybe.

Heddwch
G

Poison Ivy at Providence

Caught the tweeting of such reporting.

If you got it it will generally be on your right arm from day 2.

Pre-riding following Jerry he picked the line right through it and I mentioned something about it, but he may not have heard me, but that was the line of choice.

Right through the poison ivy.

Not green leaves, really nice BIG yellow ones. On the side of the tree, the on at the top of the hill after you passed the pits and crossing the road. If you took the perfect inside line you were smack right in the middle of the Poison Ivy.

It was the best line but after that full contact pre-ride lap I managed to hit that line just wide enough to not brush the poison ivy. Still I managed to get one bubble just down from the inside crook of my elbow.

Itchy bugger.

Another thing I noticed.

And not having been at any of the races for the Cat 4 men, and if i was there post race I wasn't so close to the course to hear them all bitching.

"This isn't allowed in cross"
"this section isn't 9' across, it is a dangerous bottle neck, THEY need to fix it."
"Who puts CURBS in cross races, they have NO place in a cross race. TOO Dangerous."

Heard that last one many many times.

I laughed. And chuckled. Here are guys in the back half of the Cat 4 men's field bitching about the course. Now I'm all for being passionate about it and knowing the rules but get some experience? Or prepared to get an answer you don't like, along the lines of "suck it up and ride" or really just "shut up and race"

Bitching about not liking some aspect is one thing, saying what does or doesn't belong? To a guy like Tom Stevens? Holy shit that's some nerve. Dude's been designing courses longer than most anyone's been racing them in the US.

I thought the curbs were fine. No problems. None of the masters were complaining about them that I heard. Or at least not with the same vitrol coming out of the 8am guys. Esp the one dude walking away with a flat after that curb on the first lap (yeah the pit couldn't have been any closer and yes Mavic dudes were there with wheels) bitching about being raped by entry fees on a course that wasn't fit to be raced on.

Hopefully many of them stuck around for the Pros because, holy shit those guys (Jamie and Timmy) can ride the shit out of anything. And they didn't flat. And you can learn alot by watching what really good people do. Learn more from watching than reading shit on the internet all day.

Next course - if you all need someone to point out the Poison Ivy, come find me.

heddwch
G