Laatste ronde!

Week 1 and done

2012-01-09T11:49:00.001-06:00

I know I said 50 miles a week, but I put in a hard 47 miles.

Ride 1: BuRP 15 miles
Ride 2: SMP 12 miles
Ride 3: Trainer town, 20.x miles

Trainer miles aren't that hard, but I must have been tired because I only averaged 15mph on the trainer. Or maybe I'm just weak. Probably weak.

Saturday I was able to squeeze in a couple hour MTB ride out at Shawnee Mission Park. It was fantastic. I remembered why I thought SMP was so rocky, because it is. It doesn't have a lot of larger rock features that the more tech trails at BuRP have, it's just relentless rocks that you have to power through. I just kept turning my pedals over and it seemed to work pretty good.

I can't believe how much technical skill I've lost since I used to race MTB. I was thinking about that while I was riding, and the thought that maybe I am remembering my skill more favorably than it actually was occurred to me. I smirked to myself, and thought, "yea, that's probably it".

I'm sure not fast, but my fitness is very meh right now, and my skill is at about the same level. I'm loving riding though. I always have, and always will.

I was thinking of a ratio to ascribe to off-road riding and running mileage. Both are clearly more difficult than road cycling, at least as far as getting miles in. I thought a 2:1 ratio for MTB mileage, and perhaps a 4:1 ratio for running. That's probably a bit conservative, because I know how trashed I'd be after a 25-mile MTB ride is way more painful than a 50-mile road ride. I think I'd be crawling at the end of a 12.5 mile run!

Nevertheless, I thought I'd get on the trainer last night, and try and use my new Toshiba Thrive to stream YouTube over HDMI to my trainer TV. I quickly remembered that since the TV is old, it only has a DVI connection. DVI is video only, so then I tried running a headphone to RCA y-cable to the audio inputs, but the Thrive wouldn't send the video down HDMI-DVI and then the audio out the headphone jack. So I scrapped the whole thing, and set up a little table in front of my bike, put the Thrive on it, and then listened to it over headphones. It worked pretty good, although disappointed to watch on a 10" screen vs a 50" screen. (www.whitewhine.com).

I watched the NBC 2010 Ironman World Championship, which is 1:30, and I was ready to be off that basement-torture device by then. I just did a steady grind, 80rpm cadence, and thought that was a decent session. Between now and the end of March is nothing but base miles. No specific interval sessions, but that doesn't mean I can't ride up hills hard or whatever to break up the monotony. I can't imagine using the 34T front ring everywhere I go. Ack.

I went ahead and swapped my road stem back on to get my Blue bike out of cross mode, and still need to swap on the 50T front ring. I think I'll race out at the Dam again, and at the Tour of KC and Lawrence. Otherwise, probably a few MTB races and then cross again. At least that's what I'm thinking. We'll see how things go. I think some 3 hour "enduro" races would be fun too. Maybe even a trail run race would be cool. Or the Lawrence off-road duathlon. Yea, I got a few ideas.

Taco Tuesday ride

2012-01-04T12:40:00.001-06:00

Ride #1 of the 2012 happened last night out at BuRP (Blue River Parkway). I got out of work a touch early to pick up some riding gloves from my mother-in-law (THANK YOU!) and got in some miles before meeting up with the rest of the group behind the Sand Trap at 6pm.

I usually ride some of the harder trails like the "wagon wheel" since my tech skills are so poor. I figure if I can be decent at those trails, anything less should be cake. At least I hope so. I managed to completely flip over the bars after getting into a deep rutted downhill and trying (unsuccessfully) to get out of it. Thankfully I'm a good crasher so I just got a little dirty and was able to laugh for a bit about it.

When all met up a 6, we headed over the section of trails that are further north than I go. I just didn't quite know where to find them, although I rode them about a decade ago. The trails up there are super fun, and pretty tech too, so I had quite a bit of walking. It was at night, so I got to use my new trail light, a MagicShine 808-E. It worked great, but I seemed to be having some balance problems, maybe that was due to it being night. I've never felt like that before, but hopefully it's a one-time occurrence.

At some point up on Highline I got lost from the group. I ended up taking a wrong turn on to Blue River Parkway (the road), and then decided to back track and climb back up the hill. I'm not sure how I got separated, but fortunately after hustling back, one of the guys we were riding with, Travis from Bike Source, backtracked into me. Some of the guys were getting a little beat, so I think they appreciated the break although I apologized for pulling some rookie stuff like that. Happens to everyone at some point...

Travis was also kind enough to check out my cassette that had a gear or two slipping under load, and he was able to ascertain that I need a new cassette. That is what I was starting to think, and a little bummed about having to shell out more dough, but this isn't a cheap sport. And to think I started riding to save money because golf was too expensive in college. Ha!

I ended up riding for almost 2:45, which was great. I was pretty tired at the end, and starting to get kind of sloppy. Probably a good thing we stopped when we did, before someone (like me) got hurt.

Hopefully I can find some time this weekend to head back out there since the trails were in nearly perfect shape.

1 month's worth of posting

2012-01-03T15:04:00.002-06:00

Did you know the world was flat? I fell off the edge, that's how I know.

I left you wondering how things went at the State Championship, and let's just say it sucked. The whole weekend sucked. Friday was my 35th birthday, and it didn't go so hot. AB had pink eye, Kieran impacted one of his teeth, my back issues persisted so I didn't get to race, I few other things occurred that just weren't as hoped for. So that just kinda stunk. Badly.

So once that disappointment was over, I decided to hang it up for the race season. Two CX races in 2011 was not what I had hoped for. I really just spent too much time off the bike to make it worth going out there and getting flogged for 50 minutes and $25. I had a plan coming into the year, and it got all messed up once I applied the rest of the family's schedule to it, so I lost a lot of impetus. Instead of making the best of what I had, I just hmmphed my way into mediocrity.

I was able to get out to the Boxing Day CX race as a spectator, and cheer on some of my teammates and a few of the guys on other teams. It was fun. It's funny watching CX, because it looks so slow, but you realize that these guys are fast and you know how much it hurts when you are racing. It's definitely not what it seems from outside the tape. Casey B. had a strong race in the Open class, and David N. and SC had excellent races in the 3/4 race. Peck and I had a good time shooting the race as well. I got to play with some different lenses and different settings on my Nikon D80. It really makes you appreciate good photographers, because it isn't easy pulling off great shots.

Christmas went off great, the boys had a great time, and I finally got a guitar. I'm excited to start learning it. I'm enjoying learning, but there's a long way to go before I'm fit for public consumption.

New Year's Eve/our Anniversary came and went quickly. We had our annual party, the kids destroyed the downstairs, we cleaned up all day New Year's Day, and we all ate and drank too much.

Fast forward to 2012. I am not making resolutions, but I am enacting some lifestyle changes starting on Jan 1. My weight has been creeping up and fitness has been sliding down, so I've decided to make some small, sustainable changes to prevent a recurrence of 2011.

1) Ride at least 50 miles every week. This isn't a huge number, but it would be a vast increase over what I rode last year, sadly. I think this should also keep me from sinking too far and taking too much time off the bike. I've made some allowances for trainer time/miles, because sometimes it's just too cold out.
2) Drink more water. I was pretty good at the beginning of the year, but started getting pretty inconsistent once summer ended.
3) Eat more protein. Protein helps curb over-eating as it makes you feel full, and stay full.
4) Alcohol and sweets once a week. It's amazing how many garbage calories you can consume by having a little bit of sweets and a drink a night.

Well, that's all I got for now. I'm going for a ride...

Peanut Butter Mud

2011-12-06T15:17:00.001-06:00

Seeing as Sunday was my first true "mud" race, I finally got to experience first hand the different types of mud, and why they are important to racing in inclement conditions. Saturday was raining for a great majority of the day, thus it was a runnier form of mud. That's ok. It just gets things dirty, but doesn't collect and clog.

Sunday on the other hand, was peanut butter mud. It had started drying out, and if you rode some of the high lines on the course, you were instantly slowed down by this. And then you'd go on to a grassy stretch, and your sticky, muddy tires would rip the grass out and put it everywhere, your drivetrain, and those tight spots around your brakes and bottom bracket. So it'd create little grass huts all over your bike, and SIGNIFICANTLY increase drivetrain drag as well as cause rear derailleurs to seize, and then snap. Fortunately I didn't run into this, but quite a few people in the later races did.

So it was interesting experiencing something I've only read about.

I finally got my bike cleaned off last night. I hosed it off in the car wash for about 7 minutes, and then last night I chipped a bunch of stuff out and cleared tons of grass out of my drivetrain. Everything looked trashed, but after an hour or so, I got it working again. What a mess. Racing in the mud is awesome until you stop. Then the clean up begins.

As for the race, I almost pulled out before it even started. I go to air up my tires, and my rear is completely flat. I thought that was weird, so I aired it up again and started getting changed. I come back to the bike, and it's flat again. I can hear air leaking by the valve stem, but the valve is tight. I figured that I had a hole in my tubeless strip on the rim, and later I found out I was correct. I only had about 20 minutes before the race, and wasn't sure how I'd even fix it. I went to go get my money back and the promoters hooked me up with a spare SRAM rear wheel. Super generous of them, and they are definitely the best race promoters around. I kinda thought that before that nice gesture...

So I get the rear wheels swapped out, and my friend Ryan Mulbery shows up to cheer me on. Very cool of him, and I know he's going to get to witness quite a spectacle. People are coming back from a single lap of pre-ride just caked in mud.

So I start pre-riding, and end up hanging out at the start line with ample time to line up. That's a first. I think everyone trashed their bikes the day before, because the Master's 30+ and 35+ classes are very small. I lined up with JP Brocket, Chuong, Jon Sink, and me. So I knew from the get go, that it'd be a battle for the last podium spot between Jon and I. Last year we were pretty close in results, but this year I've been not quite as competitive. I figured it'd be a good goal to keep him close and try and finish strong.

The whistle blows, and as expected, JP blows the doors off. He's a fast dude, with fast spawn as well (his daughter Karen is pretty phenom at just 16). I can't remember if I got ahead of Chuong, but it didn't matter, as about half a lap in, I'm flying down this super thick muddy down hill and start edging my way off to the side of the track, hit a big rut, and end up Tango Uniform. Looked like a had a blow out. Chuong got by me at some point, and I hustle it up, and about 3/4's of a lap in, Jon squeaks by me. I'm having a tough time hanging on to my left shifter as it's coated in mud, as is my glove. So there were some difficulties going on.

I keep Jon pretty close, and let him out a bit, then reel him back on the flat soupy parts. I think we raced maybe 6 laps (?), and by lap 4 or so I started to fade and he started getting further and further away. This is why they say base training is so important, right? On the final lap, JP laps me, sitting up riding on the tops of his bar. He is one fast dude. I don't get mad because I realize that I've been pretty deficient in my training.

So at the end of the day, I finish 4th out of 4, but have a smile on my face because the race was super hard, yet fun. It was a real cross race. I had to hustle home to get errands done, so I couldn't stay and watch. I cleaned off my borrowed wheel as best as I could, pulled some long underwear over my muddy legs, and headed back to cupcake land to trash my shower. ;-)

I'm looking forward to KS State on Sunday. I don't have any gigantic aspirations, just to race stronger and harder than I did last week. The weather is looking to be around 40*, so that should be a bit warmer than last Sunday. Now I just gotta watch what I eat with my birthday on Friday, and get some decent training in still.

Boss Cross #5 Pics

2011-12-04T20:55:00.001-06:00

Big thanks to Ryan Mulbery for coming out to cheer me on and photograph the misery. It actually wasn't that miserable, it was pretty fun. I'll post up a race report tomorrow, as there is a lot to talk about!

Prepping for the MO State Championships

2011-11-29T09:49:00.001-06:00

Training has been pretty good. I've realized that I've lost a LOT of base fitness, but I'm feeling a little stronger. I wasn't exactly riding that well during radcross, and I took in a big swig of defeat during that race. I was way off the back, and am riding several levels below where I was last year.

That all being said, I'm trying to recover some modicum of ability, and salvage the season with a strong race or two. Boss Cross #5/MO State is my final tune up race before the KS State Championship next Sunday. I need to ride strong and not have any stupid mechanicals. I think I have the mechanical thing under wraps, and like I said, I've been training hard. Last night, I blew my legs out doing The Sufferfest, Fight Club. See below. I love the Sufferfest, and they love me.

My legs are still achy today, which is pretty good for a one hour workout. I'm lifting tonight with core with some more moderate spinning efforts, and then recover on Wednesday. Blow the legs out again on Thursday night, lift/core/spin on Friday, and then easy spin with some openers on Saturday.

CX weather is finally here, and it looks to be a high of 38 on Sunday. Brrr. Maybe I should have bought that thermal skinsuit. Oh well, there's always next year.

Shawnee Family RadCross

2011-11-21T10:56:00.001-06:00

Yesterday was a mixed bag. I didn't have high hopes for yesterday, but wanted to establish some sort of baseline to which I could improve upon for Boss Cross #4 and then, ultimately, the State Championships on Dec. 11. I really wanted to give it everything I got, because Britton has implored upon me that if you aren't near death at the finish line, you left something out there. I wanted to cross the line feeling near death, if nothing else.

It's tough to say what goes through my mind during a race. The pain hurts. Of course. But other than that, I think it's the realization that my training is pretty bad. I take too much time off and that negates nearly everything I do. I definitely need to be more consistent going forward. I think I've said that before. So anyway, on to the race.

Lap 1 scrum through the sand.

The course was set up perfectly for me. Lots of turns you can carry with speed, minimal climbing, and a good power course. At 186 pounds, I don't need any extended climbs, that's for sure. Before the race started, I'd been having a hell of a time getting my right foot clipped in, and my left foot wasn't that great either. Stupid rookie mistake. Check your equipment before the race. So I needed cleat shims, but of course, who carries spares with them? I wadded up some of the wrapper off of my gu shot, and then put it between the shoe and cleat, hoping it would raise the cleat enough I could cleanly engage. Well, that didn't work. It was better, but no where near where you would want it for a race. But, I was going to race regardless.

Lots of sand. The fast guys rode this, which was impressive.

I lined up what I thought was 2nd row, but ended up being third row. I really love it when asses come to the line late, come through the front row, and just turn around making a 2nd row. Douchebags, if you want a good spot, get there earlier. That ticks me off, but I'm a pacifist enough not to say anything. Plus, it's not like we're racing for big money here. So the official blows the whistle, and we're off. Bam. I get around a few people, and am about 10th in a group of 40. Not bad. I just need to hang with the fast guys for a lap or two, and then I can probably hang in there for a top half finish. I knew I had no base training at all, so wasn't expecting to go set some course records. My cleat came to haunt me again and again. I'd be JRA (just racing along, in this context), and bam, my foot would go flying off the pedal. I'm glad I didn't sink one of my eggbeaters into my shin. There aren't many things that are as painful as that.

Charlie Bartel and me on lap 1

Slowly but surely, I start getting passed. I keep having issues, and I'm going redline fast. I keep pushing though. My legs hurt, and lungs hurt, I'm having fun but suffering terribly. I notice that some of singlespeed guys start passing me. They started 15 seconds behind my class, but there are some fast dudes in there. I tried to jump on some wheels, but my legs fail me. My mind is definitely faster than my body.

We were supposed to get 9 laps in, and I had about 2 laps to go when I burped my rear tubeless tire. I knew it immediately, because my rear end was slithering all over this off-camber turn. In hindsight, I probably should have ran a few more psi to keep that from happening. I really need to pull the tire off, pull of the Stan's rim seal, build up the rim with some Velox, then reapply the Stan's. That'll help keep the tire bead from sliding away from the rim hook, letting the air escape.

So I had about 5 psi in my rear tire, my cleats weren't working, and it was close to the end. I decided to throw my first DNF. Ug. I hate to see that, but somehow, I still came away pretty happy. I learned a few things, and still accomplished what I had hoped to do. I just didn't finish.

JPeck and I looking into the future

I have two weeks to get some more training in, and to get my mechanical issues sorted out. I didn't even come in the house before I was at my work bench fixing my cleat issue. I think I got it sorted out, I just need to double check it in the next day or so. My legs are tired today, so I know I got a good workout. I am excited for the next race on Dec 4th, and hope to do well (at least better) there.

Night rides and Weekend Update with Kevin Nealon

2011-11-14T16:05:00.001-06:00

Blogging has been very unwieldy to me recently. I'm not saying I forgot how to do it, nor that the tech is over my head, it's just that "impetus" and "time" are not lining up. Sprinkle in some lack of motivation, and burning eyes, and here we are. Sub-par blogging updates from me.

My old site, swiii.com, lost it's hosting as I forgot to pay for it. I'm hoping I was able to keep all those pictures, although I have a feeling they are lost. Maybe I have them somewhere. That would be a bummer. At least I still have the naming rights to swiii.com, and I've re-directed them here. At least I think I have; it's not working yet.

I had a 3-day weekend, and it seems like it was only 1.25 days long. Friday night I had a tremendous time out at the Lawrence River Trails. 12 other souls went out around 9pm for a night ride, and it was awesome. Night riding is fun in itself, but when everyone turns their lights off and rides by the light of the full moon, that is something altogether special. We all formed a nice line and had great flow through the trees. Despite what my old friend Max said, I don't think I'd try this out somewhere more technical. LRT is pretty smooth, with lost of smooth berms and little risers. We didn't finish until nearly 1 am, which is pretty late for this domesticated dad. I still got up early and made my dear wife a latte since our machine was broke for a long time.

I don't even remember what happened Saturday, but I'm sure it was fun. I do remember we watched "Due Date", and it was very funny. There were some points where you had to have giant suspensions of disbelief, but the comedy was good. Robert Downey Jr. was funnier than Zach Galifinakis, much to my surprise.

Sunday morning I got up early and headed out for a ride. I rode from home and finally found my way through the horse trail and got to ride Blue River Parkway (BuRP) and rode the surprisingly technical Wagon Wheel trail, and came back on Serengeti. I brought a trail map, but still had a vague idea of where I was. I had a lot of problems riding on Wagon Wheel, as my technical skills aren't very good anymore. Well, they never were that good. I do plan on riding it a lot though, as the stronger I am technically, the faster I'll be everywhere else.

I'm racing again on Sunday, and pretty excited although I know my fitness is teh suck. Well, not that bad, but I'm sure I'll get beat down pretty bad. This is more to blow out the cobwebs in prep for the State Championships on Dec 11.

I read somewhere that it is a 3:1 ratio of time losing fitness to time getting it back. Yes, that's confusing. What I mean is if you take a month off of riding or running or whatever you do, it'll take 3 months to get back to where you were. I don't know if I buy that, but if it is true, that would explain my results. And it would be further supported by the fact that all the fast guys ride year round, at least a few days a week. 6+ days a week during the season. I don't know if I could do that. But I think I should try and at least do 3 days a week, and that would be a vast improvement in my consistency.

That's all for now. Time to sharpen my toe spikes for this weekend's race.

Bwahahahaha

2011-11-08T16:16:00.001-06:00

Well done!

It's almost been a month since we (I) last talked

2011-11-01T16:12:00.001-05:00

I've raced once this CX season. Can't say why. Usually I'm breathing CX by now, but have hardly ridden and am wondering why not. I rode to work today, which felt good, but also felt how dead in the legs I am. I'm in no shape to show up and race Cat 3's, that's no joke.

Woe is me, I suppose. Guess I just to pull my big boy pants on and get a few good races in before it's February and all the real racing is done. I have a little over a month until the State Championship, so I'll make this pledge to all of you, my dear readers, many of whom are my teammates. I'll get back on it. I'll ride. Ride often, and ride hard. I'll do core workouts. I'll stretch. I'll break myself down to come back stronger.

You don't realize how important cycling can be until you stop for awhile, and then get back on it. Then you wonder why you ever stopped...

Just thinking along

2011-10-06T11:18:00.000-05:00

I'm going to ignore that lapse in posts. Let's pretend like that part of time never existed, so there's nothing to talk about.

Having said that, I've been having deep thoughts again. I haven't been drinking that much, so it's not the beer's fault.

I've came to the sudden realization that life is short. Sure, we all know that, but do we really recognize what it means? I have multiple lifetimes of things I'd love to do. Here's the bucket list for when I become an immortal vampire:

1) Be a career man. Focus on climbing the corporate ladder, and then probably realize then all the things I missed out on. But the point would be to know I can do it.
2) Become fluent in German and Italian. Italian is beautiful, but German is closer to my heart. Both are excellent reflections of the the people that speak them. To study a language is to study a country, it's people, and it's history.
3) Be a great cyclist. Ride 10k+ miles a year and multiple years, and see just how good I could become.
4) Climb mountains.
5) Live in enough diverse places to appreciate their uniqueness, and miss the place I just left.
6) Be a ski/bike bum. Not really a bum, just someone who lives without care of their 401k, how tall their grass is, or what their future plans are.
7) Be a great pianist. And guitar player. I might be able to work those in still.
8) Drive a Ferrari. Long enough to throughly enjoy it, and definitely long enough to get it out of my system and realize what a waste/hassle/expense they are. You could replace "Ferrari" with lots of things.
9) Learn to sail
10) Learn to fly a plane
11) Build guitars. I think there is something in working with your hands, and to create something that allows you to create further, well that's pretty cool.
12) Build more houses. Yes I hate it. But I get better at it each time. Maybe eventually it'll get easier.
13) Move somewhere completely foreign, and completely adapt and fit in. Like move to somewhere in Europe where you don't speak the language and have to find a job, make a life. Yes, this would be utterly stressful, but it would test nearly everything you've ever learned.
14) Try harder in college. Somehow my sister's work ethic wasn't ever imparted on me. Things did come too easy to me in school, except for when they didn't. I knew enough to get by. That was rough, and a lesson I'm still dealing with.
15) Read more. The older I get, the more I realize that reading matures a person quicker than nearly anything else. First-hand experience would probably trump it, but I'm sure as shit not going to take up bullfighting.

So maybe the list still has some time to get completed. We'll see.

I also have been thinking about what makes a person "successful". I had some stupid magazine (I think it was KC Places or something like that) delivered on my door yesterday. Rampant materialism is all that I saw. There were a few interesting pieces, I suppose, but ad after ad of expensive trinkets and so forth. I wondered how any of that was going to make anyone any better off than before they had that $2k purse. I think it's a modern Western Civilization thing, but aren't we smarter than that? Seems odd to me all the great minds in the world, but yet we seem to sink to the lowest common denominator. Why do I see so many women with Coach purses shopping in WalMart too? Life's ironies are sometimes a sweet delicacy, but other times a reflection of our short-sightedness and human imperfection.

My wife thinks I'm half Eddie-Vedder-let-society-burn and half-Johnson-County-poster-boy. I'd have to agree, and it ain't easy.

I hope Joey's ok...

2011-09-19T09:12:00.000-05:00

That was spectacular. I don't know Joey, but he's alright in my book.

KCOI/Boulevard CX Clinic #1

2011-09-08T10:22:00.000-05:00

Well, it wasn't pretty, but I think I'd be wondering what happened if if was actually pretty.

Mark Thomas took the "advanced" class and gave a big schpeel (sp?) on step through dismounts. Then we talked about riding through sand. I never really thought there was a more efficient way to ride through sand, and that either you had giant guads and horsepowered through it, or you ran it. Apparently you are supposed to spin through it and keep your front wheel light. That seemed to work ok. I definitely need more practice. Who doesn't though?

Speaking of practice, we did some step-through dismount drills. Boy oh boy, is that scary. The margin for error is slim, but I can see where they would be handy. I think I'll practice them between now and the advanced all-day clinic I'm doing Saturday with Adam Mills.

I did notice while riding around how much different cross is than other racing. Not just what's apparently different, but how much different it is on your body. It is much more taxing, for sure. It's not that road racing isn't hard and hurts, but it seems that you can catch a break during road racing. Cross is all the time pedal to the metal. Very little recovery time. I knew that, but you forget what it feels like until you do it again. It's been 8 months since my last race at the snow-covered Grote Prijs, and it feels like it.

I did find it odd that most of the people who showed up last night (about 50 riders, and a fair amount of women!), that there were very few of the wispy road types. People built more like me. Actually it was a pretty good cross-section of people (pun not intended). Cross brings all types out. Road races tend to be more specific to the hard-core elite athletes. It's not a night and day difference, but it is noticeable. Just an observation more than a statement.

I still need to change my chainrings and get my tubeless set up, but we're getting closer. I'm excited.

Breathe deep, fall is here

2011-09-07T13:59:00.002-05:00

Finally cool days and cooler nights are here. It is so hard getting out of bed in the morning after the windows have been open all night and is feels so cool in the bedroom. I'm hoping Fall lasts awhile, as it often seems to be here and gone in KC.

With cooler temps comes the cyclocross race season. I'm not racing until October this year, but I have clinics tonight and on Saturday. It should be good to work out a few bugs/cobwebs in a non-competitive setting, and to have a set of eyes watching your form. I'm really looking forward to it. I was up until 11pm last night getting my bike ready. It's still not all the way there, I have to change my chainrings and get my tubeless tires set up. No tubulars for me this year. Yes, they are great, but they are pricey and more importantly, time consuming. For the 10 hours you spend cleaning and gluing them up, you could go out and train for those 10 hours and get back whatever time you invested with faster performance on race day. At least that's what I'm telling myself. Training time is gold, as far as I'm concerned.

I had a great weekend activity wise, and I felt like an athlete going for a night jog on Friday night while everyone else is partying. Yea, I'm a nerd like that. Saturday I took the day off, and then Sunday I went for a quick 20 mile ride. It felt good. Monday I went out again for 50 miles and really had quite a time fighting the wind on the way home. I was in the doghouse for not being home as much as I should have getting ready for K's party. My legs were pretty tired at that point, but I felt ok. My cardio seems to be in excellent shape after running, but my cycling legs suck. I have 0 power and 0 endurance. I'm glad I have a month before the next race. I've been bulking up too, I suppose too many calories. I'm at 188 (!) and was thinking I was headed for the 170's for cross, but I don't think that's going to happen. Ug.

Anyway, my wife came through again (kudos to her) and we had another spectacular party. I grilled up pizzas for everyone (nearly 30 people) and K had a great 3rd birthday. He got a giant blow up bounce house for his birthday, and he loved it. He's been asking to "I wan do gin" quite a bit. He really liked the "yake" (lake), roller skating, the bounce house, and opening presents of course. He's so much fun, which is good that he can offset the trying times, but they seem to be getting fewer and fewer. As are his nightly outbursts. We all slept awesome last night and the mood this morning definitely showed that.

So that's that. I'll post up what happens at the clinic tonight. I'm hoping my buddy Mulbery will join me out there tonight. He needs to get out there and race. No more wussy triathlon stuff. There's not enough mud. ;-)

World Bicycle Relief - Sprint to the Finish

2011-09-03T16:41:00.000-05:00

As some of you may be aware, my team and I are raising money to supply bicycles to people in Zambia and sub-Saharan Africa. These bikes are life changing. Please watch the video above, and if you feel compelled, please donate towards our cause. Thank you so much for watching and donating.

Commitment

2011-09-01T14:10:00.000-05:00

http://elizabethfedofsky.blogspot.com/2011/08/commitment.html

This was one of those great blog posts you come across every now and again. If you are doing anything athletic, you owe it to yourself to read that post. Elizabeth's blog is pretty entertaining as well. Even if she is a triathlete. ;-)

Enjoy in good health!

Sweaty fat guy

2011-08-31T09:17:00.000-05:00

Ok, not so fat, but I do seem to be putting some pounds on. Somewhere. I don't look any bigger, yet I've been training some. I hit the scale at 189 this morning, which is the highest I've been in months. I'm a little concerned, but more concerned about my weak legs at this point. I have a feeling if I get the legs in shape, that some of that weight should come off too.

The KC cyclocross calendar looks very light for the first few weeks compared to last year. I think it was mid-Sept when the Swope race was, and that isn't on the calendar. The first big local race that I see is our Manion's race, and I'm sitting that one out to raise money for World Bicycle Relief.

Speaking of World Bicycle Relief, if you haven't checked it out or donated, please look at the link on the right side of my page. If you think that enabling people to have a better living in Africa sounds appealing, then please donate. It would mean a lot to me and even more to the benefactors of your donation. It's really life changing, and the charity is ran very efficiently, which is also important to me.

Now back to my sweaty lameness. The pic to the right is my shirt after riding to work this morning. Kinda gross. It looks like I'm lactating. Maybe. If my nipples were 5 inches closer to each other. Whatever. Moving on.

Obviously I've been procrastinating over blogging. I was going good there for awhile, and then material started piling up, and I got overwhelmed and crawled under my desk and wept quietly. So let's see if I can regurgitate this with both brevity and humour.

Last Tuesday is where we left off, I believe. This was after my mildly-disastrous weekend ride. So I rode to work, then rode to a group ride, did the group ride, and then rode home. I will say it surprised me how dark Mission Road gets at night. My headlamp died just as I turned on to my street. Quiet fortuitous. That blew my legs out, and they were tired little doggies after that.

On Thursday I did my last street run before the North Face Endurance Challenge 5k I did with my sister and B-I-L. I actually ran two miles non-stop, at a decent for a non-runner pace. I felt good coming into the race.

Sunday was the race, and I did pretty well. I took 65th out of 388, with a time of 28:58. I had a goal to beat 30 minutes, which had no factual basis. That was nice. I was surprised how well I paced myself, and that I ran the whole time. The winner had a freakish time of 17:23. I figure it wouldn't be too tough to shave a minute/mile off, which would have put me at 25th. Of course, by that time, I'd be running a 10k. The race was one of the best events I've ever attended, and the definite highlight was the Mich Ultra refresher towel. At first we thought they were margarita bags, since you pulled them out of a icy cooler, but upon opening them, it was a nice, ice-cold wet towel that you could wipe all the sweat grime off your face and body. That was awesome. Little things like that go a long way. The race tee was pretty kick ass too.

My sister and BIL did a great job, and ran hard. I am very proud of them. It's no easy feat to run 3 miles. If it was, everyone would do it. I think Meg is enjoying the running, as she was prodding me to do the Waddell and Reed with her. If my bike legs weren't so bad, I'd consider. But I have a finite amount of time to train, and it'd be best served focusing on my goal of doing well in CX this year.

Riding again...

2011-08-23T11:02:00.001-05:00

Sunday was to be a great ride, and it was for the most part. I got up early, loaded up the water bottles, pumped up my front tire (it has a latex tube), and hit the road by 6:30. I started going north up Mission, just to get to mile 5, then turn around and head south. I figured if I added 10 miles to my "usual" ride to the Louisberg Observatory, I'd get a nice 50-miler in. I wasn't in any hurry, and the weather was awesome. About 65 degrees and very few cars.

I was actually smiling mid-ride it was so nice. And then my good luck caught up with me and my left cleat came off of my shoe. I couldn't pry it off with my multi-tool (at least not safely), and so the calvary was called to come get me. Almost 22 miles in. I wasn't furious, just frustrated. Cleat bolts are just something you should check once-a-month, and I failed to do that. I think one of the screw receptacles in my shoe is partially stripped anyway, and my shoes are ready for retirement. So there's something going on my Christmas list, these:

So the ride wasn't a complete wash, but it left me wanting more. We had a 4pm kickball game, and it was crazy hot out there. I then decided since I was already sweaty to head out for another trail run, and that was a fine decision. I got 2.2 miles in, and ran a great majority of the time. I'm starting to get a little bored with Stanley Nature park, and if I really stretch the park boundaries, I can get 1.1 miles in per lap. It's close and convenient, but I think that I'll be running at Minor Park before too long. That is, if I keep running during CX season. I might a little just to keep things interesting.

So fast forward over Monday, since I had to mow the grass. I'm glad I did, because it's coming back alive and was a lot thicker and taller than I realized. It's unfortunate that mowing is so bad for the environment. Mowing an average sized lawn emits the same amount of pollutants as driving your car 100 miles. But a well-maintained lawn certainly looks nice too. It's ironic how many self-destructive behaviors we engage in.

Anyway, to offset at least part of my mowing (and to get some more miles in), I rode to work today. Totally sweaty when I got to work, but it was a great ride. Plus I'm getting into a group ride tonight with some friends, so it should be great, albeit hot.

Most of you won't get this...

2011-08-22T14:47:00.003-05:00

or at least you'll think it's only kind of funny. IT guys in their 30's will find this immensely funny, since we've whittled many hours away playing Doom, one of the best and earliest first-person-shooter games.

Courtesy of Surly Bikes...a cycling truth

2011-08-19T16:03:00.001-05:00

"Really fast people are frustrating, but they make you faster. When you get faster, you might frustrate someone else."

Read more truth at: Surly Bikes Blog
The list of people that frustrate me is longer than the list of people I frustrate. But that's alright. It's about the smile at the end of the ride.

Sinus infections

2011-08-19T11:06:00.001-05:00

Apparently I shouldn't have been throwing Kieran into the lake a few weekends ago. A week or so later, the yellow goop started coming out of his ear from an infection, which turned into a cold.

He is a loving child, I will say that. To a fault. He wet-face-kissed both Penny and I, and Penny went down hard with a sinus infection and I got it as well. Mine wasn't nearly as bad as hers, but I still felt crappy yesterday and am coughing stuff up today. It's not great for training, and I missed an awesome day of riding yesterday. I'll have to reschedule that for Tuesday.

I have like 9 days until my 5k, but I'm feeling ok about it. Another 3-4 runs and I'll feel much better. And with a few more rides in there too, I might actually feel good.

My newest hobby

2011-08-17T12:21:00.001-05:00

Given my past participation in the Warrior Bake/Dash, and the fact that I have a 5k with my sister in a couple of weekends, I've been running. But running on the pavement is boring. Really, it is. So I decided to get these:

Those are the Brooks Cascadia 6 trail shoes. Ah yes, trail running. It's just like mountain biking, without the bike. They are light, super comfy, and I'm having a great time. I even woke up "early" to go running at 6:00am today. That must be worth something, right? My running is still pretty dismal, but I'm optimistically thinking I can run the whole 5k by the time we get there.

My avg. pace during the run was 10:26/mi, but that was with some walking/shoe tieing too. I'd guess I can hold a 9:30-9:45/mi pace at this point. I just need to work on holding it for longer at this point. Interestingly, my best pace was 7:01/mi, but that was probably obtained shortly after running into a spider web and screaming like a little girl.

Slow and fat

2011-08-12T10:39:00.000-05:00

I can't believe how much fitness I've lost in a month, on top of the 5-6 pounds I've put on. I commuted yesterday, and felt slow, plus I didn't have any legs for the climbs. That in itself is disastrous, since I'm a poor climber to begin with.

I'm trying to keep my head on straight though, and work hard, and work consistently. I should be in ok form by the time the first CX races start, and hope to be in great shape heading into Jingle Cross in Iowa and then into December/January.

I think I've decided to race Masters this year, and maybe a few cat 3 races as well. I imagine the competition will be similar, maybe an edge to the Masters as being faster. I can only hope that I can get better sleep this CX season as Kieran was a beast to deal with last year. He was up nearly every other night, and it was killing us. Now he's just late to bed, early to rise, but we don't hear much from him between 10p and 6a. He's not as good of a sleeper as AB is, and I think that's in part to him being so curious about stuff. He'll get there sooner or later I would imagine. Hopefully sooner. Like once the sun starts going down before bedtime.

So apart from seeing how weak I was yesterday, I've been running a bit to prepare for the North Face Endurance Challenge 5k with my sister. I'm proud that's she's training through it, and she'll probably make me look silly as I'll have to walk the first mile or so. My legs seem to take longer to warm up as I get older. I guess that's a common occurrence.

I'm looking forward to long-sleeved skin suits with cooler temps and leaves crunching under our wheels. The sounds of free-wheeling, then feet stomping and jumping past barriers. The taste of blood in your mouth as you cross the finish line because you gave it everything. The feel of excitement in the pre-race air, because everyone who is there loves to race cross.

Odd weekend

2011-08-08T11:45:00.002-05:00

The weekend felt long physically, but short mentally. Sounds weird, I suppose.

Friday night we cleaned the house, and I hit the trainer for an hour or so while Penny went to bed early.

Saturday we woke up early, headed down to Stockton Lake for a family reunion, and had a great time. The weather was really nice, and the water felt great. AB had a great time tubing and swimming, K had a great time running off from everyone and trying to jump out of speeding boats, Penny had a good time seeing her family, and I had a great time until I got my first migraine ever.

The tubing I did earlier in the day really jammed my neck/spinal cord up, and I instantly started getting a headache. By the time we got back for dinner, I didn't feel like eating, and I took 3 Motrin. Stuff started getting bad; I was getting nauseaous, felt overheated, and my vision was starting to blur. I went to the car and got in the A/C, and that felt a little better. I was trying to drink water but my stomach wasn't up for that either. I ended up stumbling off to the woods to yak all over the place, and that didn't help. I thought I was having a stroke or something, I wasn't sure what was going on. About 9pm everyone cleaned up, and we headed back to hotel over some swervy roads so that was a real hoot. I was having to take deep breaths so I didn't ruin my sweet Audi leather with puke from the abyss. I made it, barely, went to the hotel, took a nice shower and then hit the hay. I was almost back to normal in the morning.

It was a rough wake up as Penny's mom came tearing down to our room at 6:45 telling us AB was gone. Penny flies out of bed, and I under-react as usual. I'm of course a little scared, but more of me wanted to beat his ass for leaving the hotel room. He's too small to tell him what really happens to kids when they disappear, but maybe he'd stay closer at that point. Fortunately he turned up quickly, and he didn't seem to think that anything that bad had happened. Penny and her mom were understandably upset, and I just kind of glared at him hoping he would understand the brevity of his actions. Hopefully it sunk in.

Not to dwell on it, we got packed up and had a great breakfast at "The White Grill" in Nevada. Kind of a cool, old-style greasy joint. They had good breakfast stuff, kinda wish I could have had a hamburger. Maybe a different time. Apparently Harry Truman ate here.

We made great time home, then, met the Smith side of the family for a birthday lunch at Blue Moose. Turkey Burgers and sweet potato fries were good as always. We then headed over to Incredibowl for some bowling, and then the boys crashed out on the way home. Penny and I got them to bed, then we laid out on the couch and snoozed. We woke up for our Sunday afternoon kickball game, and the kids slept another hour or so, so the babysitter had an easy gig. Penny and I went out for dinner/drinks with the team after getting whipped for the third straight week, and then we went home, and everyone was lights out a 9pm.

I didn't get to run nor ride. It's been weeks since I've ridden outside. I better change that in short order otherwise I'm going to DFL my first month's worth of CX races. And that just won't do.

I love golf carts.

2011-08-05T17:09:00.000-05:00

A brief respite in the heat (with a guest appearance from coffee-induced rambling)

2011-08-05T10:03:00.001-05:00

It's nice not to burst into flames as soon as you walk outside. I'm sure it'll be hot again soon, as we have probably 4-6 weeks of potential 90*+ weather left. And then we'll dive into winter. Even with it being so hot, I'm not quite ready for snow. It seems the snow lingered around so long last year, coupled with the fact we aren't going skiing for the first time in 8 years, doesn't have me anxious for the season of wind-chill.

My training has been completely bonkered between the hot weather, A/C being out/back on/out/back on again, Warrior Dash, and another 5k in a few weeks. Maybe I should start running at some point? I need to get shoes...maybe over lunch. I'm looking at getting some New Balance trail running shoes. There's something far sexier about running through the woods instead of pounding the pavement. Maybe it's the risk of getting attacked by a mountain lion.

My sister told me that one of the guys from her work ended up dying from the Warrior Dash. I should say he succumbed to the effects of heat stroke after being in the Warrior Dash. People are quick to offer all kinds of opinions on why we should or shouldn't do races like that on such a hot day or whatever circumstances you wish to call into debate. He (Jeremy) was young, athletic, and the circumstances were tough. I don't know if he trained for this or not. I don't know how much water he had been drinking the days before, nor if he'd gotten beered up before the race. It was hot, and there could have been more water. I raced on Saturday, the cooler of the two days, and there were just two water stations doling out warm water. I hear that there were more accommodations made on Sunday. The only blame I could assign to the organizers were that it took so long to get medical assistance to various parts of the course. It's a short, yet treacherous race.

I'm sure that the death of this young man can equally be shared between himself, the organizers, maybe even his friends. But I don't think there was negligence, just a bad combination of events. It's too bad, but if you get 16,000 people running a race, the odds of one of them experiencing congestive heart failure or arrhythmia is pretty fair. I'd rather break my body on my own accord then let it wilt from inactivity.

It's funny how probably one of the more deterministic traits of your friends is their activity levels. It probably has something to do with finding a group that supports your lifestyle, something I've had a tough time doing with cycling. I have a great team, no doubt, but it's quite a trip to go drive 30-40 minutes to go do a group ride. I wish there were more group rides out south. Maybe I should just start one.

I can barely walk today.

2011-08-01T10:24:00.002-05:00

This is what happens when you significantly undertrain for something called "The Warrior Dash". The race was only a 5k, but with the heat, hills, uneven terrain, and obstacles, it wasn't really conforming to my recent couch loving lifestyle.

Stitz and Jarrett came in from StL, and Mulbery and I repped KC. Off we went at 2pm, in the blazing sun on Saturday. It was HOT. Especially to be running in a field, with lots of humidity. I remembered from running triathlons that it's better to douse your head and keep your core temperature down than it is to drink lots of water and get an upset stomach.

The race started underneath a banner with a giant flamethrower, just in case we weren't hot enough. And it started uphill. We hit our first obstacle about 1/2 mile into the race, and it was a bunch of barriers that you had to alternate going over them and under them. I'm happy I'm not 5' tall, that's all I'm saying. Short people were at a disadvantage for this race. Anyway, the next mile or so had some creek crossings, which everyone took advantage of to get soaked/cool. That worked great, until you had to scramble for 200-300 through rocky, greasy mud. How there weren't people with twisted/broken ankles all over the place is no small miracle.

There were lots of hills, and a few more obstacles to negotiate before the finish. There was a tire agility drill that was about 25 yards long, and a few rope obstacles that you had to manage either climbing over or climb across on your hands and feet, and a few 2x6 crossings where you got about 7-8 feet up in the air. There was also a giant pile of hay you had to climb up and over, and 20-25' rope wall you had to up and over, and then jumped over fire, and dive through a mud pit with barbed wire over your head. You can see some of that in the video below.

The toughest part was standing in line for the hose truck, as one poor guy tried to get people moderately cleaned off while the mob was angry at everyone for taking so long to get out of the way. We probably stood there for 40 minutes. Hopefully they brought up another hose truck for Sunday, as it was much hotter. When we pulled up in the buses there were two hose trucks, but I don't know what happened to the 2nd one when we needed it.

It was fun, indeed. But I am sore and will be for awhile. I need to spin out on the bike tonight, and I'm hoping that I can make it to the car after work. I'm going to stiffen up sitting here in my chair of despair.

Enjoy the vid, and the crazy-ass hot weather if you are in the Midwest. I am envious of my friends in Canada who read this blog. Summer is vastly over-rated.

Love 'em or Love 'em...

2011-07-27T14:03:00.000-05:00

Pearl Jam Twenty from Pearl Jam on Vimeo.

It's too hot to post.

2011-07-19T15:25:00.000-05:00

Yep, that's it. Way too hot to post interest blog topics. Mainly because all I've been doing is sitting on my duffer in the A/C, eating ice cream, and watching the Tour. I'm almost caught up now with my DVR!

This has been one of the craziest tours I've ever seen. Crashes upon crashes, it never seems to end. Those guys are so tough, it's not even funny. How anyone gets sideswiped by a car, hits the ground hard at ~30mph, and then gets back up and carries on is beyond me.

I also can't help but feeling that some of my favorite riders are dirty. Like Thor, for example. He's awesome. He's also a large fella, and shouldn't be climbing like he is. Same for Thomas V. Not a large fella, but he's riding lights out. These guys are doing multiple days of extremely good performances, and I really hope that they are clean. I really do. I wish we could have heroes in cycling again and not be wondering in the back of our minds if these aren't pharmaceutically-enhanced performances.

I sure hope not. It'd be good to have some good news out of Pro Cycling this year. I guess there's always crazy Cadel. Never sure what he is going to do. Case in point.

Riding tonight and then...

2011-07-14T13:48:00.000-05:00

...I'm digging a hole underneath my basement slab and sleeping until cross season. Blue Moose Ride tonight, should be fast, which should be interesting. Mainly because I've only ridden once since the Tour of Lawrence. Kinda lame. At least I've been watching Le Tour a lot, and I think that provides some psycho-somatic muscle stimulation while I sit on the couch.

This heat is dumb. Here's the forecasted highs for the next week. 90, 94, 94, 97, 97, 99, 97.

I'm sure it'll cool off by Warrior Dash.

Tour of Larryville

2011-07-06T17:08:00.000-05:00

Decided to sit out Saturday's Circuit race up and over KU Campus, and instead decided to kick all possible ass at the crit on Sunday in downtown Lawrence.

The whole fam decided to go with me, and AB raced his first race, a downhill, 300-yard dash. How no kids fell down, I have no idea. The age range was probably 3-11, and 150 kids started dashing down Mass Street at the same time. One little boy got bumped or something, but he was upright and seemed ok. Here's the action:

My race was decidedly more fast, and no crashes either! We were driving in pouring rain on the way to Lawrence, but it stopped and dried up for my race and the two races afterwards, then started dumping again. Jake and Casey from my team both crashed in the Cat 4 race at 3pm, but I think they'll heal up quick.

Fix your helmet, newb

Looking semi-PRO, although mid pack

As for my race, it was only 20 minutes long so I knew it'd be a flyer since we didn't have any time. Casey raced in the 5's as well (he is technically a 5), and flew off the front on the 2nd or 3rd lap. All of the sudden I see him way up there, pedaling slowly as I think he was gassed. He's strong, just not quite that strong. He's one of those naturally talented/skinny guys, and once he gets a good racing mind, he'll be super strong. Colavita has a lot of those guys it seems this year, that are making the jump to Cat 3 and will do well. Pretty cool to watch everyone progress as racers.

Any way, back to my amateur hour. Like I said, I knew it'd be a fast race, and I think we averaged a little under 25mph, which is a pretty good clip. I stayed in the middle of the pack the whole race, then tried to sprint at the end. I ending up gaining a place or two at the end, which was cool. I really think that I need to try and get up to the front with 3 laps to go, and then sprint, rather than trying to muscle it out from the middle. It makes sense in hindsight, but I guess that why we all start out in the 5's. The fitness levels are all over the place, but the whole point is to learn about racing. It's more than pedaling around as hard as you can, like cross is. Cross is way more fun, but the variables are more the elements than they are the other riders.

Cross training season officially begins now, although I've started running too since I'm running the Warrior Dash at the end of July, and the North Face Endurance Challenge in August with my sister. Hup hup!

Blogs are slowly coming in...

2011-06-27T10:34:00.002-05:00

I expected more race recaps last night, but I think everyone was whupped from this year's TofKC. Me included. I'll try and do a good job here, but it's a little fuzzy.

Friday was the crit out in Lee's Summit. There was a bit of climbing, but the temps were starting to crank up when we started out at 5pm. I had a large fan club out there, and that was awesome. Even if I was dying a 1000 deaths out there, I still smiled a few times coming through there with everyone cheering me on and the cowbell clanging. I held on for two laps (gasp!) and got blown off the back. I then time trialed the last 10 laps solo mio until Tracy caught up with me for the last 3 laps or so. We tried to help each other a bit, but it was to no avail. I don't think we caught anyone. I finished 15/19. Yuck. I wasn't really expecting too much, as it was only my 2nd crit ever. I did learn to trust my bike a bit more, and really started railing some of the corners. Dang that's fun!

Saturday was up at the Police Academy just north of Worlds of Fun. We raced at 12-something, and it wasn't quite as hot as there was some decent cloud cover. I was out there until half way through the last race when Dan-O mentioned my neck was pretty red. Me being partially 'tarded forgot to put on sunscreen so I skidaddled since I knew I'd be out there again on Sunday. I got a nice burn, but nothing crazy.

As for the race, I pushed it more aggressively this time, and hung on for probably 6-7 laps, about halfway through the race. Not aggressive enough, and time-trialed to the end. I did work with a VeloTek rider (Travis Tesone, I think), and he ended up catching up to the group ahead of us and getting the best of them. Good for him, and I need to be doing that as well. We did pass a few guys though, so it helped. I finished 18/27 on this mostly flat course. The wind was a factor in a couple of spots, so if you were in no-man's-land by yourself, you paid the price. Better race today, still not great.

Sunday was the last day of the Tour. Same course as Saturday, they just ran it backwards. It was hot as anything. I noticed my Garmin said 101* during the race. That doesn't do much to spur you along, so I probably should disable that data field. I pushed a lot harder and fought to stay on. We started out at a decent pace ~23mph, and then there was about a 7-rider break that went off the front during the 2nd of 12 laps. They were never seen again. That is one of things when you ride with the 5's. There are clearly some guys who aren't Cat5 ability, and they are racing their way up to 3's or whatever. Everyone has to pay their dues, so it's ok. Not like we're racing for big money anyway. So, riders off the front, and a 2nd group of about 9 form. I stayed with this group, and tried to conserve energy/wheel suck as much as I could. If I were feeling stronger, I should have pulled and shared the workload. That would have benefited the group if we all pulled, but I don't think anyone was interested in that. Seems that a few guys were content pulling, and seeing that the first group was clearly faster than us, we just tried to shell each other.

I was sitting pretty good coming into the last lap, and figured I'd get up to the front of our group on the last climb, and then cruise down and sprint the last 50 yards into the headwind and see what happened. Unfortunately, everyone decided to gun it on the last climb, and I flogged around and missed my chance. Then I got lazy, and started coasting to the line, and forgot about the guy behind my who nipped me at the line. That made me pretty mad at myself. I was about 50' from the line and heard some teammates telling me to GO GO GO, and I started going and even threw my bike, but I guess it wasn't enough. I thought I had it, and so did he, but the officials didn't, and I didn't want to make a fuss anyway for nothing. I did finish 15 out of 32, so much better. Not great, but I'm starting to get the hang of it.

I need to pound the water, stretch, and roll my legs out today, not sit in a frickin' office chair. Ug.

Tour of Lawrence is this weekend, and I'm 99% sure I'm only going to do the crit on Sunday. There is a circuit race on Saturday too, but I'm feeling cheap and Penny had enough of the boys (mainly K) this weekend. The crit is supposed to be one of the best all year. Plus it's in such a kick ass town.

Go time.

2011-06-24T13:01:00.001-05:00

Leaving work in 2 hours to get ready. I just need to get on my bike and get rid of these jitters. Idle minds are the devil's playground.

http://tourofkc.com/newlongviewcourseinfo.html

Lookin' good so far

2011-06-23T12:38:00.001-05:00

TSB is sitting at -6.x, and should be pretty close to 0 by tomorrow. Close enough. All I need to do is eat well, drink lots of water, keep my nose out of the wind during the race and stay off my brakes in the corners.

Tonight I'll spin my legs for about 40 minutes or so, a couple of hard efforts, and then clean up the bike and do one last quick check over. Then I'll swap on my racing tires and load up the car. I'm sure I'll be very focused at work tomorrow.

Tour of KC, here I come!

Taper week!!

2011-06-20T10:06:00.003-05:00

Woooo boy are my numbers low coming into the Tour of KC...

This is the chart I use for training and tapering. You can see all those red dots lined up on the bottom...those are when I decided to take some time off of biking. Not the best of timing. Oh well. That's why I'm a cat 5 I suppose.

So each red dot is a value assigned to the days effort (Training stress score/TSS). The pink line is the ATL (Acute Training Load). That's the short-term (7 days I think) training load on my system. The blue line is my CTL/Chronic Training Load. That is my fitness. So you can see as I have more TSS points, my CTL and ATL go up. That's good. But the yellow line is TSB or Training Stress Balance. Run the yellow line too far down and you're more likely to get injured/sick/etc. I need to have the yellow line above 0 by the beginning of ToKC. Otherwise I'll get dropped all 3 days because my legs will just be too tired. The more you train, the less that TSS effects your TSB. So you can train harder and more often, and not get as tired. That's why my TSB drops so much with a decent training session. You can fix that by riding more consistently. Consistency is everything in life it seems. Whether racing a bike, playing an instrument, or swinging a golf club, repetition of good actions builds success. Seems elementary, but the application is everything.

This week is pretty light. Today is stay off your feet day. Tuesday is 4-90 sec efforts with 5 minutes of rest between efforts. Wed. is a 30 minute light spin. Thursday is the same as Tuesday. You need to put a few efforts in the day before the race. For some reason, it keeps your legs feeling better for the race, instead of coming in with stale legs. You don't want to do enough to get your legs tired, but just enough to blow out some cobwebs.

So that's my week, and I'm sticking to it. I need to be better about following the plan. Following the plan leads to good performances, something I have yet to do this year.

Could it have been any nicer Saturday?

2011-06-12T09:02:00.000-05:00

I got 40 miles in the saddle, wish it could have been double that but we had a busy day!

Here's my favorite rest stop. I usually stop here and stretch out my perpetually tight hamstrings. This is about 50 minutes into my ride. I really like it here, for some reason. It's in Bucyrus, and as far as I can tell, there hasn't been a business in here for a few years. Just kind of a cool old building.

And looking back the other way.

Done Blown Up

2011-06-10T13:21:00.002-05:00

I rode with the Blue Moose crew last night, and it went surprisingly bad. I'm not entirely sure why. If I were to offer two guesses, they would be 1) my rear brake was rubbing the first half of the ride and 2) it was hot, and I think it was my first HOT ride of the year.

I made sure I drank lots of water throughout the day, and I'm sure that helped. It didn't seem to matter though, as when we hit the first climb, I had already started going backwards. Just wasn't feeling it at all, despite being rested. I just had no legs and my heart rate was through the roof. Not a good combo. The front/fast group got a gap, and I wanted to bridge badly but nothing was happening. Once a gap happens on rides like these, you're going to get separated by a stoplight/car/slower riders, so you can't let it happen. I got stuck behind a couple of slower riders, and then one thing led to another, and I'm tailgunning. Yuck.

Then I almost get dropped off the face of the earth on our 2nd climb, and I'm really wondering what's going on. I hadn't felt that slow in a long damned time. JEESH! I wasn't hurting really bad, just had no gas. Like not even fumes. Once I got to the top of then 2nd climb, I caught up with a few fellas (quiet Brian having a nice spin while I'm suffering), and we got stopped at the light to cross Roe. When I finally stopped, if it wasn't 110 degrees I don't know what it was. It was almost so hot it hurt. But the light changed and we carried on.

The 2nd group got larger and larger, and we all got stuck at SMPkwy, and that light took a solid 4-5 minutes to change, which really sucked since you can't really just run it. Shortly thereafter, I got pissed and got off my bike and checked my rear brake. Sure enough, the left arm had about 1mm tolerance so I opened up the quick release and started riding again. It felt a little better, but I was pretty gassed at that point. I hammered up and caught the group, and felt a marginally undeathlike. Towards the end of the ride, there is a pretty good hill and I got up that in pretty short order, as my legs were feeling a bit more whippy at that point.

My left hamstring was giving me problems again, and I need to keep at stretching it. I've been lax in doing that, and it sucks when it flares up. If I can dedicate some efforts into stretching it and still have problems, I probably need to look at getting a real fit done. We'll see.

Anyway, I was pretty whooped by the time we finished the ride, so I just sauntered back home and a state of stupor. I hope to do it again next week and not have so many issues and stay up front.

Still alive and riding...

2011-06-09T13:01:00.000-05:00

Two quick things.

I double dog dare you all to not eat at a chain restaurant for the remainder of June. No McDonald's, Chipotle, Panera, Pizza Hut, nothing.

This will have a few benefits. One being you'll likely eat healthier, higher quality ingredients. Two, you are supporting the local economy, not P/E of some giant restaurant brand. Three, you're going to try some new places. Some will be great, some only good, some bad. But chances are you'll find a new favorite. I suggest Yelp! to help you find some spots. I have a widget on the side of my blog with some of my reviews and you can go from there.

So try that out. Even if it's just a meal or two, try something new. That little place in the strip mall between the dry cleaners and hardware store could be one of the best places to eat in your neighborhood.

The second thing was to watch this video. It's not life changing by any means, but it's laugh out loud funny.

Tornado

2011-05-26T11:01:00.000-05:00

So this oversized dirt-devil decided to traipse through my neighborhood and take out a lot of patio furniture, trampolines, and soft-wood trees. No major damage, thankfully.

I need two more adirondack chairs though. They didn't make it.

Friday night campout

2011-05-25T09:33:00.000-05:00

AB is quite proud!

AB and I went on our first Cub Scout campout last Friday night. We were pretty concerned about the weather, so instead of doing the full campout, we split around 9:30pm, which all but 4 families did as well. It was really muddy, but very fun. The boys had a great time running around, and it reminded me of when I was in scouts. We got to make smores, and had a nice catered cookout (kinda Johnson County, don't you think?). No matter though, there were smiles all around.

Muddy Buddies

This was also the graduation ceremony for each boy to move up into the next rank. The incoming first graders were also indoctrinated as Tiger Cubs. AB, with his buddies, were all super excited. I remember that feeling well. I just wished I would have stuck with it a little longer and gotten my Eagle Scout, but girls and other interests took over.

I had a great conversation with the Cubmaster's father, who is one of AB's buddy's grandpas. Everyone knows him because he has a real teepee. He told me the story of it, and many more stories about him growing up, and about a great scout troop let's the boys run the show. The adults are there to make sure no one gets maimed, but otherwise they stay out of the way. That is how leaders are made.

More Muddy Buddies

I don't think that there are many avenues out there for boys to become leaders and free-thinkers. Most everything these days involving youth seems to reward "average" and to "stay within the lines". I hope AB has fun and gets a lot out of this. I have lots of good memories from Scouts, as does my dad. I'd say we're off to a good start.

Ride to the Stars

2011-05-24T11:12:00.001-05:00

Yea, I know that's a lame title. I rode to the Louisburg Observatory and back. Pretty neat, and a lot smaller than I would have thought. I even stopped to take a few pics like my buddy SC. He's quite the blogger, you know.

It was a really fun ride, despite being into a 20mph headwind the first half of the ride. I just took it easy, figuring to save a little for the trip back home. Lap 1 avg was 15.5, lap 2 was 19.7. I'm actually surprised lap 2 was slow like that. Seemed faster at least. Anyway, it was a great ride, and didn't get chased by any dogs or breezed by any cars. Not much traffic. It'd probably be better if I could get out around 6am and do this ride. Probably less wind, even less traffic, and a little cooler. I'll be needing that soon.

If the weather cooperates, I'll be trying my first crit tonight. We'll see. Doesn't look promising.

Over-eating

2011-05-19T10:04:00.000-05:00

Lack of better judgement. That's what let me get back on the scale after laying off of exercise for 6 weeks. I'd gained 1% body fat and about 3 pounds. Not a huge amount, but it's been a struggle to lose the last 7-10 pounds of fat. I'm re-reading "Racing Weight" now, and that seems to help me regain focus. It's a terrific book for any cyclist or endurance athlete. I've been very impressed with it, and it certainly helps you understand what you, as an athlete, need to be doing.

One of the first statements in the book is a bit of self-marketing, but does have some interesting insight. Most people want to lose weight because they want to look good or feel good, but an endurance athlete has the added goal of wanting to perform at a high level. While our goals and methods are very different from the average person, we both fight some of the same battles. The primary thing holding me back (and a lot of others) is the fact that high-calorie, low-satiety food is everywhere. I can walk into a McD's with $5 and walk out with 1200 calories, no problem. It takes me about 1-1.5 hours of hard riding to burn that off, strictly speaking calorically. (Yea, I made that word up). But what nutritional value did I get from that? And what un-necessary additives/preservatives/chemicals did I ingest as well?

This is less about being a food snob, and more about living well, and not feeling like crap after you ate some manufactured food product. It's hard to eat well in this country. But I think things are getting better. It needs to be cheaper though. How many low-income families are overweight because it's too expensive to eat well? And then they are the same families struggling through medical bills because they are 100 pounds overweight and have diabetes and whatever else? It's a vicious cycle.

So the intent of this post was going to be how I have a tough time walking away from food, and accordingly lose weight pretty slowly. But then it turned into a social opinion piece. Funny how our brains are wired.

Maybe I'll revisit this topic later. But for now, I'll think about riding my bike.

At it again.

2011-05-17T14:08:00.000-05:00

Finally decided I had a long enough break, and am cranking up my workout regiment again. 5 days a week, rest days on Friday and another TBD day. Lots of biking, lots of core work, some weights, and some running. The name of the game is more overall fitness than such a razor sharp focus on cycling. I gotta keep it varied and interesting. I can't just ride 6 days a week anymore. I rode on the trainer (it was late) on Monday pretty hard, and then did a short run last night. I'll be running at least 2x a week. It's great for weight loss, and I enjoy it because it doesn't take long. At this running-impaired state, I can be done in less than half an hour. Hopefully I can increase that as time goes on.

I'm going to start commuting at least once a week, twice would be great. The weather is awesome and there's no excuse, especially with it being bike to work week. I brought my clothes in today so I can ride in tomorrow. Left my wipes at home, but I can fit those in my jersey pocket. I also keep a pair of shoes at work, which is handy.

Tonight I'll probably do some upper-body work, and some core. I'll commute tomorrow, then group ride on Thursday night. Friday off, then get some decent miles in on Saturday, maybe some hill work on Sunday.

Sounds like a plan, at least.

I get to go to the Royals-Cards game on Saturday thanks to my beautiful wife. That should be great. I can't wait.

p.s. You can tell I'm scatter brained today because everything is short choppy sentences. Better than nothing, I suppose.

Another one.

2011-05-11T09:33:00.001-05:00

Yea, this is just becoming my own YouTube site.

Ha HA!

2011-05-09T15:14:00.002-05:00

Cube etiquette

2011-05-04T15:52:00.000-05:00

So if I'm rockin' out on my earbuds and am fidgeting/dancing around and letting out a little whoop and/or singing along, is that a faux pas?

I tend to get lost in my music, so it probably has already happened, and will happen again. Historical performance is indicative of future results, in this case.

It might just be a fun social experiment.

"Hey, it's that singing firewall guy."

"Yea, he's weird."

A tale of two cities

2011-05-02T10:45:00.002-05:00

Saturday: Gorgeous
Sunday: Not so much

So I managed to get my first (mild) sunburn of the year on Saturday. I went out for a ride on Saturday, and got some decent miles in. I put on some of my new sunscreen that I got for Christmas. I got it for triathlons, since it's supposed to be a good active sunblock, but it works great for just cycling too. That was in the morning. I then took a shower, and then goofed around outside most of the rest of the day, and burnt my face, forearms, and calves a bit. Not too bad, but I looked like a dunderhead since I told Penny to make sure to put sunblock on while she was doing a beautiful job planting flowers in the landscaping. AB got burnt too at baseball practice. I sure can look like an irresponsible parent sometimes.

My ride on Saturday was nice. I went at it pretty hard, as I wasn't up for lolly gagging around. My heart rate averaged at 165bpm, which was about 10bpm higher than usual. Some of that was indicative of effort, but some was probably due to me not drinking enough water. I need to get back on to that kick. Nothing will deter an athlete like being dehydrated. Maybe not enough salt, but you gotta have water too. I drained my two bottles on the ride, but should have been drinking a lot more on Friday. Everyday, really.

On Sunday there was a nice Colavita contingent out racing the Sheehan Road Race. It looked fun, and I kinda wish I could have been out there, but I would have gotten killed. At least I think I would have. I need a couple more weeks of training before I start hitting the TNW's and to get ready for the Tour of KC, then Tour of Lawrence. I had planned on going to Tulsa, but I am really doubtful of that now. I am excited to get back on the horse though. I hope to head out for one of the Hill rides, which will probably make me depressed. But getting your ass kicked for free is better than paying $25 for it.

I've been wanting to post this one for awhile.

2011-04-27T11:08:00.001-05:00

There is some naughty language. Really naughty. But it highlights an interesting thing that seems to be ongoing in our society.

And forgive the .5 sec audio lag. It's not my video. If it was, it probably wouldn't have audio.

Group ride!

2011-04-27T09:08:00.001-05:00

I met my buddy and ex-co-worker Phil K. out for a group ride from Elite Cycling last night. I wasn't sure what to expect, so I rode the fast bike last night. I forgot my spare tubie and rear light in my rush to get out the door, and I was wearing less clothes than every one else. Typical CSmith style.

Fortunately, I was perfectly comfortable in my short sleeves/bibs with a long sleeve base layer. Once I got going, I had no problems. It was fun to get on the bike again. The group I rode with was pretty slow (it must be if I'm one of the fast guys), but I did have a chance to test my mettle. The group split up, and Phil, myself, and another fella slowed in confusion. We ended up taking a wrong turn or two, and finally got back on Mission road. At that point, we saw the lead group about 1/2 mile up the road. I made sure Phil was alright then I turned myself inside out trying to bridge the gap before we got back to Elite. I caught them with a few hundred yards to spare, but it made me realize how much fitness I lost.

That's alright though. I felt some fire in the belly last night, and that was a good thing. I'll post up my ride data tonight. It's probably embarrassing, but I guess that's motivation to keep on keeping on.

This really isn't like me...

2011-04-15T11:22:00.001-05:00

...to post about baseball, but the freakin' Royals are 8-4, 1st in AL Central. 1st? What does that mean exactly? I'm not familiar with the Royals being one of the best teams in baseball. They usually play in the basement.

It's kinda nice being able to root for them because of belief, not because of hope. The realist in my knows this won't last forever, but let's keep the dream alive as long as we can. Don't wake me up. Now I'm dreaming of October not only for 'cross season, but post-season baseball.

Two fer

2011-04-14T13:47:00.001-05:00

Two fer two, I'm getting crazy with this blogging thing.

I rode home last night, as anticipated. I felt like I was going fast, but the numbers off of my Garmin belie the fact that I was on my duffer too much for fast riding. Oh well. It felt good.

I changed it up and rode the cross bike in to work today, with my Ritchey Speedmax tires. These tires are great for commuting and the KT trail. Not much else. I think I didn't inflate them as much as they needed to be, but I didn't pinch flat, whatever that's worth. I hit over 1k watts on the way in, which was good for a slow dude like me, especially since I wasn't trying.

So that's been my riding. The other major thing that has been going on is that I changed up my diet a bit. It is more of a re-commitment than anything else. No alcohol, no sweets, and no fried foods. The sweets were really hard to give up the first week or so, because I had been mowing those down like crazy in March. Giving up alcohol hasn't been too hard, mainly because there isn't any good booze in the house besides my Crown Royal Special Reserve. YUM. If there were a bunch of microbrews in the fridge, it might be a different story.

I weighed in at 183.2 on April 1st, and weighed in a few days ago at 182.0. Not bad for not riding. I really want get some good rides in over the next few weeks, and bust through this floor that has stopped me at 181.0. I'm not so tied up in the numbers still, but 17x would be pretty cool. I still have a lot of mid section fat that needs to go. Especially since swimsuit season is coming. I sound like a woman, jeesh. My body kinda looks funny to me because I'm all veined out on my arms with skinny legs, yet still having a fat vest. I want that six pack back.

That's all for now. I still need to talk about guitars and when I'll be racing next. Based upon my recent struggles climbing hills, it might be a bit.

What happened!

2011-04-13T10:08:00.001-05:00

All my motivation just fell off of a cliff, in the early race season. I haven't ridden but 4 times in the last 3 weeks or so. I'm not sure what happened, but the bottom just fell out. I think I just needed a break from such focus on all things cycling. I admittedly get pretty intense about things, and I guess I just needed a big correction.

I'm riding home from work today, and riding back to work in the morning. I'll be dressed out in my full team kit with my race bike this afternoon, so I'm sure I'll get some looks as I leave the building. Oh well. My building is loaded with fat, middle-aged smokers, so I'm not too concerned with what they think.

Yea, that was a bit mean, I suppose. I must need to ride or something.

AB jonesin' for a drum set now

2011-03-24T11:59:00.001-05:00

Despite me prodding him to learn *both* guitar and drums so he could pick up chicks and become Master of the Universe, AB is really wanting to focus on drums. I told him that it might be awhile before we get a drum set, but he still cajoles me every time the word "guitar" comes out of my mouth.

Needless to say, he really enjoyed his time up at Guitar Center a few weeks ago. That has to be his favorite store. I can't imagine why!

Someday

2011-03-23T15:53:00.000-05:00

So I'm thinking about picking up a guitar. Mainly because I got sudden GAS (Guitar Acquisition Syndrome) when AB got a half-scale guitar for Christmas. I've been playing that, and it isn't very comfortable. But at least the easy action strings aren't lighting into my flesh just yet.

Anyway, I was reading a thread in the Acoustic Guitar Forum on "why did you start playing guitar?". One of the members posted this, and I really thought it was both poignant and thought-provoking. So here it is.

"I love music and spent a lot of time attending concerts. As I sat there watching I would think to myself "Someday, I'd like to learn to play guitar". You know how that goes....someday never comes. When a friend passed away my wife said, "He did not die leaving anything undone." Guy was one of those folks that went after every experience never missing an opportunity. He was only 35 when he left us but he had a full life. His death told me that I needed to stop thinking about playing and get after it. It was like looking at a calendar and realizing there was a Monday, Wednesday and Sunday but you'll won't find a Someday. I've been playing for 8 years now. Of course I should have started earlier, but I'm very happy with where I am and plan to just get better each year. Thank you Guy for showing me the way."

So what are you waiting for?

Dam That Hill

2011-03-14T14:30:00.010-05:00

So, yea, I raced yesterday. It was cold as anything with a wonderful wind out of the north that pounded on you for about a mile as you rode across the dam. I was pretty cold during my warm-up, but ended up fairly comfortable once I started the race. Casey and I nearly missed the start as we were warming up. Fortunately we decided to turn around at the end of the dam, and climb the hill up to the start line. We cleared the course about 3 minutes ahead of the start. I'm glad they didn't give us any flack for being on the course that late. It's a good thing we didn't ride a whole lap like we originally planned.

We rode 5 laps of about 5 miles each. It starts off screaming down a hill, then making a left hand bend on to the Lake Perry Dam. Ride on that for about 1 mile, getting buffeted by a cold ass wind the whole way. Then make a couple of right hand turns, then get a downwind/downhill stretch where you can make good time (30-35 mph recovery sections are my favorite). Then you make another right hand turn, onto some slightly uphill, crappy pavement. Ride about 1/2 mile, then another sharper right hand corner. Then you start the climb. 180' climb, over about a half mile stretch. It seemed to have a lesser incline half way up the climb, which wasn't much consolation.

Thanks for the "kind" words, Philip!

Everything was going swimmingly until we hit the first climb. About halfway up my left hamstring started screaming at me with every pedal stroke. It had been sore the last few days, but I'd been trying to take it easy. Not easy enough, apparently. I fell behind a bit, but then caught up with the peloton on the downhill. Apparently some guys have an issue going downhill quickly, as there was frequent brake checking. LAME. Anyway, once we came up to the hill the next time, I got dropped. I made up some time on the down hill, but not enough to catch the peloton.

Pain face in effect

I held the gap, but with the headwind, it was just too much for me to bridge up to them. That gap slightly increased the rest of the race, but I felt I put up a good fight. I passed a handful of stragglers, so that was encouraging as well. Somehow I felt stronger on the last climb, so I climbed it in the big ring. I wish I could have done that every time, but thankfully the season is young, and there will be more races to come.

My goal was to stay upright and learn a lot. And that I did. Hopefully next time I can stay with the group. On a day like Sunday was, that could have made a big difference.

Velobeatdown

2011-03-11T14:33:00.001-06:00

Two things, one takes less 'splaining than the other.

First up, VeloBeats.com. Awesome. Check them out. It's a monthly podcast with about two hours of training music spliced with race soundbytes. It's gotten popular enough that BMC is using it. I found them on Bikeforums.com, and have since downloaded all of their previous mp3s. They are about 170MB, just so you know.

Second up, I'm racing on Sunday. I'm so excited it's not even funny. It's seems like cross season ended about 5 months ago, even though it's only been 9 weeks. I'm stronger than I ever have been before, so hopefully that will allow me to at least hang with the Cat5 pack. Cat5 is the beginner category for road. Cat4 is beginner cross. Cat3 is beginner mountain bike. USAC is 'tarded.

So, to upgrade out of Cat5, you have to have 10 mass start events under your spandex belt. I should be able to do that next year. To upgrade out of the 4's, you have to actually have talent and get enough points to get booted to the 3's. That's not on my calendar at this point.

My goal for Sunday is to not vomit on the hill climb (looks like it's about 150' high, over the course of a mile). My usual hill climb is about 105', but it's over an 1/8th of a mile, so much steeper. Nevertheless, I usually don't climb it 5x at race pace. Should be neat.

The bike is built up, tuned up, lean and mean. I'm ready as I'll ever be. Just gotta take it easy on the ride today and let my legs recover a bit more from the earlier training in the week. My training stress balance is at -16.9, which isn't too bad. Lower is more fatigued, higher is more rested. I'm going to try and take it easy this afternoon, but I don't like to ride easy outside. We'll see.

Enjoy the weather!

Ruminations for the soon-to-be mighty

2011-03-01T15:19:00.000-06:00

"Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat." -- Theodore Roosevelt

That is my blog for today. Enjoy.

Motivation is low.

2011-02-23T15:53:00.000-06:00

My impetus for blogging has seem to hit a low for some reason. I guess there just isn't that much different going on. Different being the key word.

I've been training about 5 days a week, and find myself grumpy on the days I'm not able to pound the pedals with vigor. Not sure what that's all about. Even though I enjoy trainers (believe it or not) there is no replacement for riding outside. Even when the weather is marginal, as it often is this time of year. There's no way I'd get on a trainer for 2-3 hours, but that's no problem outside. And after said ride, my legs are tired, but I feel great. I feel like I actually did something. 70 minutes of zone 2 on the trainer doesn't really lend itself to that feeling.

This month I've tried to stay away from media sites. I did really good until today. There's a lot of stuff going on. But hardly any of it directly impacts me. I found my mood immediately crash and my blood pressure go down upon opening up the Huffington Post. Why I go to that site, I have no idea. All it does is piss me off about corporations, the government, and the Elite. I read an article discussing about what GARBAGE that McDonald's is passing off as oatmeal. Seriously, read the article. It's no wonder that America is one of the fattest nations in the world. It is one of the atrocities of this modern society that we live in that healthy food is a boutique item and economically out of reach for so many families. I'd love to shop at Whole Foods, but I don't know if I can comfortably fork over $150-$200 a week in groceries. Maybe we should try it for a month and see how it goes. The household would probably lose 10 pounds.

At least AB would poop more often.

CRAP.

2011-02-14T09:46:00.001-06:00

I was going to title this blog "horse shit", but I felt that was a little too PG13 so I put it in the first sentence.

Goodbye NEET Moto Series?

In sum, the event series I was planning on getting the majority of my races in this year has been canceled. Hopefully someone can step up and keep it close. I'm not driving up to farkin' Smithville for this stuff. The reason this series was going to be my redeeming grace was that it was Tuesday night, every week, for like 5 months. No weekend conflicts with the myriad of activities the boys do, or our honey-dos and all the other stuff that happens on the weekends. Not that I was opposed to the occasional weekend race, but races on Tuesday night was a sweet setup for me and my family.

If I were a seasoned road racer, I'd be up for promoting it myself. But I'm not. I have 0 road race experience, let alone any promoting experience.

My goal for this season was to get my 10 races in and move up to Cat4. Learn as much as I can, race effectively, and improve my fitness so I can be a solid Cat3 in cyclocross next season. It might be a little tougher to get all that done now. Totally possible, but just a little tougher.

Busy!

2011-02-11T10:52:00.000-06:00

My mind is going quick, so I'm just going to blurt things out as they come to me, kind of like free association, so here we go!

Massive work project going on this weekend, and I have to be in at 5:30am. That'll suck. It's almost like working at DST again. Thank God it's only for one day. Ug.

Kieran got his big boy bed last weekend. Well, most of it. We're waiting on the support rails still, so it's just a head board and a full size box spring/mattress. He loves it. Unfortunately our sleep patterns still aren't very good since he's cutting molars like they were hundred dollar bills. This kid looks like a Great White Shark when he opens his mouth. I'm glad he's out of the biting phase.

I've borrowed a set of rollers from both my teammate Jake and Britton. The ones Britton gave me are pretty nice, they are parabolic to keep you from going off the edge, and it works well. If you go/fall to the edge too hard though, you're going off. It's pretty fun as I've never used rollers before, and I can see their benefit. Maybe I'll pick up a pair before next winter.

Training has been going ok. I've been good about training for 3-4 days, then taking a day off. Sometimes that day off turns into 2 or 3 days, which I REALLY need to get away from doing that. Gotta keep that Chronic Training Load on the upward slope. Only a few bike/endurance nerds will know what that means.

I think that's all I got for now. There's lots more buried in my brain, but it'll have to wait. Enjoy the pending weather warmup!

World Bicycle Relief

2011-02-04T11:31:00.000-06:00

As you may or may have not noticed, there is an clickable icon on the upper right hand corner of this page for World Bicycle Relief. This charity empowers individuals and communities in Africa by donating bicycles that enable people to make long school commutes, service medical emergencies, deliver goods from village to village, and a host of other great things. I have made a goal of raising $250 before October 2011. I have also enlisted the support of my race team, Team Colavita/Parisi Coffee to help in this endeavor as a team. We have a team goal of $4,020, which is roughly 30 bikes (1 for each race team member).

If you can help me out in this endeavor, I'd really appreciate it. This charity is near and dear to my heart, and Barron's ranked it as one of the top 25 most efficient charities.

Thanks in advance for your support!

Rationing topics

2011-01-27T13:08:00.001-06:00

Yea, there's not much going on, so I have to ration out my topics. I'm sure you don't want to hear about my time (or lack thereof) on the trainer anymore than I do. If you think golf is boring to watch, try watching a guy on a trainer. I'm not sure what that makes me, since I'd watch either over Nascar.

Anyway, I promised a rehash of our PC trip, and here is the (not-so) abbreviated version. I waited too long, and have forgotten half of what occurred. All I know is that the snow sucked. Absolutely blew. It was icy and slushy and rainy the entire time we were there. Well, at least until the day we left then there was 6" of fresh snow. I really wanted to stay another day, but it would have been big bucks since our condo rental rate tripled since Sundance was starting. I heard some people rent out their house for Sundance, and make enough money to pay for the mortgage for an entire year. That's a pretty sweet setup, but I'd bet they had been there for a long time and had bought the house when it was a more reasonable RE environment.

Every house we looked at (and the one we stayed at) was about 1.2M to 1.5M, and for about 2400 sq ft. Of course, we were in nearly a perfect location, but still, that's around $700-$800/sq ft. Tony and I had a conversation about this, and both agreed something has got to give. I also noticed that for "just" another million, you could have a hella bad-ass house, something that was actually worth 2.5M. Like 6500 sq ft, impeccably finished, and some land.

It won't be but a couple of more years and the real estate in some of the mountain towns (Park City, Jackson, Breck, etc) is going to have to correct. I think price corrections haven't happened as much in these areas because a lot of people have these as 2nd houses, and would rather sit and wait it out, than take a beating by selling now. So maybe they'll offer it for sale, but it'll be on the market for months.

Someday we'll get one, but I think that someday is a long ways off, plus I think I'd rather build something up. So few people have our tastes! Maybe I just need to save for a few years then go buy 10 acres in the foothills outside of Denver. We can sit on the land until we're ready to build. Or sell for a profit in case things don't go as planned. That's a whole 'nother discussion for a different day.

Wow, that was a long way around talking about the PC trip. I guess I'll recap AB's trip, since it was his first trip to the mountains. AB got pretty bored on the two flights to PC. I'm glad they were short flights, because he was going bonkers. Thankfully he crashed on the shuttle to our condo, because he was a worn-out little dude. I will mention that he was disappointed it wasn't a SPACE shuttle. Funny guy.

Well, we all fought sleep waiting for the Marek's to arrive from Orlando. They had a non-stop, but it was still a LONG flight. Yuck. It definitely is advantageous living in KC for the reason everywhere isn't too far away. Once their space shuttle pulled up, it was great seeing them again, and AB and Max quickly got wound up again (as much as they could). We tried putting them to bed, but as we were all retiring a few minutes later, Julie peeked in on Max only to see him uncomfortably scrunched to one side of the bed and AB was snuggled up to him fast asleep. This setup was in spite of the the fact they had each had a whole bunk bed to themselves. Max wasn't sure of AB, and that was way to close for comfort. HA! Max went back to his parent's room at that point, and then AB came and got me out of my comfy bed and I had to go sleep in the bunk bed with him. I was tired enough it didn't really matter at that point.

The next day started out with all of us waking up relatively early (on CST and EST in MST). We herded everyone the 1/2 mile walk to PC Mountain Resort, and got the boys in ski school, picked up my great Burton Custom snowboard rental, and we all hit the slopes. We had an awesome time, despite the crap snow. No one wiped out too hard, although Penny did wipe out a bit more than she usually does. I did also notice that riding was a bit easier without 35 pounds of body fat, and I didn't feel quite as tired at the end of the day. I did have a few good wipeouts myself, but there were nothing more than just a couple of flips from getting lazy and letting the nose of my board drop into the snow, which then acted like a giant leaf spring and flung me in the air. I bet you can guess what Penny's favorite part of the trip was...

AB did a great job in ski school, and by the third day, he was "shredding" the mountain. The first run he did with Penny ended with her in a full tuck trying to catch him as he was hauling arse down the mountain. The boy has no fear. Good! We negotiated having him follow Penny with me behind AB in case he fell. That worked out great, and everyone went fast enough to have fun. It really makes me proud seeing him ski so well so quickly. I was impressed.

AB was also feeling quite competitive this trip, as he kept calling out Mr. Tony on various challenges. The first was eating as many pancakes as fast as possible, then it was shredding down the mountain, and then it was Uno. Kieran is going to have a wild childhood trying to keep up with Aiden, that's for sure.

By the end of the trip, we were all ready to call it good, even though the new snow was so tempting. We had great flights back only to drive in the snow "storm" in KC, and it took almost 3 1/2 hours to get back to Kieran in Lee's Summit. That made for a long day, but it was good to be back in our beds. The end. ;-)

Pics and vids from Park City

2011-01-20T11:12:00.001-06:00

Here are a few pics from our trip to Park City. I'll write something up in a bit, but enjoy these for now.

AB skiing, day 3:

Occasionally I post things I say I'm going to post

2011-01-11T16:57:00.004-06:00

Like this video, for instance. Yes, it was every bit as cold as it looked. Kudos to the race promoters and all my fellow racers for such a great event.

And that's a wrap

2011-01-10T12:30:00.001-06:00

The 2010 cyclocross season has came to an end for me and much of my KC brethren, and what a great season it was. I've learned more than I can possibly describe/list out, and I'm trying to process all of that, plus identify what my weaknesses were that I can work on starting in August. It's best to think about what worked and what didn't following your last race, as opposed to remember back through the haze of summer into the last time you remounted a bike in a race.

Yesterday's race, the Grote Prijs, which I constantly misspell, was terrific in some ways, and humbling in others. I had a great fan club cheering me on, despite the COLD weather. I really can't say enough how much I enjoy having my family out there. I hope that this helps the boys see how important it is to stay active throughout their lives, and that once high school/college is over, they don't have to go into work/eat/sleep mode.

Ok focus, Chris, back to the race report. Ahem.

This was the first race I DFL'ed (at least I think I did, I haven't checked the results yet). But I also finished the race, and stayed upright which a lot of people did not. I rode pretty good, although I still have lots of core work to do, as my back got tight about lap 5 of 12. Once my back gets tight, my hamstrings get tight, then the only way I can put power down is with my quads, and they get tired pushing me around quickly.

I felt my race performance was actually ok. My power wasn't quite there, and I need to work on some technique on my remounts at speed. The field slowly pulled away from me, but then again, I felt ok because it wasn't like I was way over my head either. I think that next season, if I work hard over the next 7 months, will be a fun and successful campaign for sure.

Once I hit the last lap, and all hope had faded of bridging up to my teammate Jon Sink, I took a few beer handups and tried a pitiful bunny hop over some beer cans on the course. Not my typical style, but it was time for some fun! You can only be serious so long, and although I am competitive at heart, I need to relax a bit on the course and not be too hard on myself. My team captain, Britton, is trying to beat it into my head that to be a good cyclist takes a long time. Years.

I know what I need to do, now I just need to do the work to reap the rewards.

Here are a few pics of my bike yesterday, and I'll have a video as soon as I get it uploaded. Everything on my bike was frozen mud. It was everything a cross race should be, and I hope I can get a few more races in next season in conditions like this. It was great!

Grote Prijs on Sunday.

2011-01-07T15:11:00.001-06:00

Do or die; now is the time to have a great performance. Last cyclocross race for 9 months, and it's supposed to be around 30 degrees and a little snow. Sounds awesome to me. I'm going to turn myself inside out for this one, and not worry about pacing. Smash the pedals (while ankling too)!

While most of KC will be watching the Chefs get pummeled by the Ravens, here is what'll be going through my mind at 2:01pm: "Churn those legs. Oh man, this hurts. I think my heart is going to explode. Make those corners tighter. Don't be sloppy. Push it. Push it! Your remounts suck, need to work on that. C'mon, bridge that gap. I don't think I can. Bulls#it. Push it. Last race. Make it count. Arg this hurts. Am I going to have 50 minutes of this? Is someone on my tail? Jesus the open guys are fast."

Hopefully the open guys won't be lapping me at 2:01, but you get the jist of it. I'm a mental chatterbox while racing. As I get better, that should come down a lot. Kinda like when you get better at golf. The internal dialogue slowly fades. The less there is, the more "in the zone" you are. I could use some of that.

I can't wait. Even if my cx bike is still sandy from last weekend, I'm ready to go right NOW.

Grote Prijs Flier 2011 Final

Getting introspective

2011-01-05T16:18:00.002-06:00

I didn't make any resolutions for New Year's, because I think that if you want to resolve something, don't wait for an arbitrary date to do it. That being said, getting introspective was not a resolution, just something that jarred loose out of my frontal lobe while watching "The Cyclocross Meeting". The basic premise of this highly entertaining "documentary" was that despite the vast cultural differences, US racers and Japanese racers throw down all the same, and enjoy the same "sub-culture of a sub-culture".

Whilst watching the movie, I got to thinking, "So self, why do you race?"

I'd be very interested in hearing answers from any endurance athlete. For me personally, it came to light as I was talking to one of my teammates the other day during a ride, and I told him "I race bicycles because I'm terrible at it". Not meaning that I'm just awful at it, but it would seem that there isn't anything in the universe lined up that would lend any sort of successful bike racing career to me. I'm built more like a boxer than a wispy cyclist, for one thing. Even as I've lost a lot of weight, I still look more likely that I could throw down in an MMA cage than sprint for a victory in a crit. Both would be sweet, but I think the crit victory is more likely, and it's a ways away still.

I got to thinking even more about it, and asked myself why I started now. I'm 34. No spring chicken. Only Lance and Chris Horner and Steve Tilford are older than me. Ok, that's obviously not true, but those guys had been racing since they were teenagers or younger. I dabbled in MTB racing when I was 23 or so, but then rode my bike maybe 4-5 times a year until something inside stirred last fall and I decided to start racing again.

First cyclocross, then triathlons, and now road racing. These sports take incredible sums of knowledge to perform well in. Fortunately, I'm quite capable of being a voracious learner/reader when the subject suits me. But I have to be just that, a student driven to excel. I don't have the benefit of just riding around and picking up things as I go. I have limited training time with two kids, an athletic wife, and too big of a house to take care of.

Somedays I wish I was one of those guys on the team that are in their mid-20's, DINKs (dual-income, no kids), and ride 5+ days a week. You can afford to make mistakes and crash and blunder your way to becoming a great racer by the time you're 30. Not so much for me. So I'm always asking questions. Always reading. Always trying to figure out a way to maximize the training/recovery cycle so I can be stronger next week than I am this week. Maybe that's a challenge I like. I like it because I'm not SUPPOSED to be doing something like this. Most guys don't typically have single-digit body fat, love the pain cave, and dance the cyclocross shuffle in snow and mud and hell on the weekends. We beat the hell out of ourselves because to sit in a cube 40 hours a week then veg in front of the TV is to die a slow terrible death. Reality TV is where you turn it off and go outside and do something you've never done before.

I don't intend to have life happen to me. I want to grab hold of it. Have great stories to share my grandkids. Make a stranger smile. Leave this Earth a little better place than it would have been without me.

Man, it's a good thing I wasn't drinking some beer before I started this post.

Well that wasn't so easy...

2011-01-03T12:29:00.000-06:00

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/61674450

First race of the year, and it was pretty hard. Actually, the race was easy, I was just a mess. My legs were really flat, and I don't think I've ever been dead last coming down the initial straight. I'll just tell myself I was taking it easy (right).

The course, like I said, was pretty easy. Very flat, lots of tight twisty stuff, a couple of ride-able sandy sections, and the occasional ice patch with dudes and chicks hitting the ground like it was the secret to 80 degree weather again. I think if I had been feeling a little whippier, I would have really liked the course as it should suit my typical "power" game. "Power" is in quotes, because it's not a strength per se, it's just the least weak of my weaknesses.

Anyway, the race was 50 minutes, so that's 20 minutes longer than the 4 race. Surprisingly, my back didn't tighten up, but I was a bit more careful to stretch out my hamstrings before the start. I tried to warm up well, but I'm not sure if I accomplished that or not. I also decided to embrocate, which I think I will keep in my backpack until the next cold and WET race. If it's just cold, I'll stick to leg warmers. Maybe next season I'll get a fleece-lined CX skinsuit. Anyway, I have to admit that I did start a bit slower on purpose, mainly because I didn't know what kind of engine I was going to have for 50 minutes, and the fact that there was only 10 fellas in the Cat3s. I think getting the hole shot is only useful for glory and if there are more than 25+ racers or so. FYI to the non-cx'ers, hole shot is where you win the sprint on the opening lap straightaway. It can be a wonderful thing to have, especially in Cat4s, where invariably dudes will come in way too hot and overcook the first grass corner and crash, causing massive losses of skin and bike parts.

I passed a couple of guys, and then battled with Edward Smith for a great majority of the race. He was racing his 2nd race of the day, so I really had no excuse to be suffering like he was. Eventually I pulled away from him, as I could see he was tired, and seemed to be burning a lot of matches. 50 minutes is a long time, and maybe that will work to my advantage as I do like to add some strategy and have fun while I'm out there. In the Cat4's and their 30 minute race, all you can do is hammer and try not to make mistakes. There just isn't enough time to assess your situation and work it to your advantage. By the time I cleared Edward, it was halfway through the last lap and Jon Sink (6th) was out of sight. I had just been lapped (it's been awhile since that happened!), so I just held my position. I will remark that the Open guys (eg. FAST) were on the course at the same time as us. I could often feel someone behind me in the corners, and then whoosh they were by me in a hurry. Maybe someday I'll be able to run with those dogs, but I gotta get a handle on the 3's for now.

TCPC represented very well, with 6/10 guys in the Cat3 race, it looked like a group ride. We took 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th. I was in the middle at 7th. 7/10 doesn't sound that great, but I was fairly happy with it. I'm starting to make a list of things I want to put some attention to before next season starts.

Hello stranger

2010-12-30T10:27:00.001-06:00

Things have been pretty busy around here, with Christmas, traveling, training, child-rearing, guitar playing, and reading. I'll recap best I can, because it'll be time to go back to bike mode for the next few posts. Even my grandparents were saying that there is too much bike stuff on my blog. I had to reply that bike stuff is what is usually going through my mind. So sorry, but I'm obsessive like that. Anyway...

Christmas was a grand spectacle. I stopped by my Mom's house on Christmas Eve, then went over to the in-laws' house with my Mom for some appetizers and drinks. We all went to church, which ended up being short-lived because K wasn't in the mood to sit still. I called that one. 20 minutes later, K and I are leaving to go back home because he's being a two-year-old and I'm not getting anything out of it anyway. When everyone got back, it was time to open some presents, eat some soup, and then head back to our house. The next morning Penny made some awesome breakfast bake and coffee cake, and we opened Santa's presents and our gifts to each other. We then drove to StL to have Christmas there and have the big party that night at Ma's house.

I met a family friend that races CX too, so that was fun talking "shop" for a little while. K had been sleeping like complete crap (which killed our sleep too), so I didn't have a lot of energy to stay up late and throw back the brew. I'm hoping in the next year that K will be easier to manage, both day and night. That kid wears us out. It's good he is so cute and ornery, otherwise I would have sold him at a Turkish bazaar my now. Seriously.

AB got a guitar for Christmas, and I think I've been playing it more than he has. I've always thought it was cool, and since my rediscovery of Dave Matthews and his acoustical sets with Tim Reynolds, I've had the hankering to learn. I just wonder how my fingers would hold up. My hyperkeratosis is pretty sensitive, and I have a feeling I'd have a bloody guitar in no time. Kind of a bummer. Maybe I'll try it anyway.

I'll end this post now, as to not sully it with bike chatter. That'll be tomorrow. Hehe.

p.s. my legs are tired.

p.s.s. Speaking of DMB and guitars, here is AB rockin' out...

Well that was easy.

2010-12-22T09:29:00.001-06:00

It's official, I'm now a Cat3 cross racer. No more fat guys and meat shields to beat up on. Not that I was thumping them that solidly anyway. I figured I had more to learn racing 3's than I will racing 4's. Cat4 is technically the beginner class, and with 10 races done, I think it's time to move on as well. I'll just go out there and hammer best I can, and see what ends up happening. I have two races left where I'll race 3's...January 2nd at Epic Holiday Cyclocross and January 9th at Grote Prijs. That's 50 minutes of blood, sweat, and lots of tears. Hopefully it'll be eyeball tears and not muscle tears. Silly synonyms.

Wish me luck...

It's not that cold

2010-12-20T16:02:00.000-06:00

...yet. Park City Mountain Resort has already gotten a load of snow this year, and I'm wishing we had a bit more here in KC. No sense in being stuck inside with cold weather and not being able to get the only upside of winter (IMHO), snow. Well, no bugs is nice too.

In the last week I've gotten sick and then well again, had my back try and go out and then mostly heal up, and got my new road bike built up. The bike is great fun, I rode it yesterday for about 30 minutes and enjoyed being able to go flying around with great ease. I will say it wasn't *quite* warm enough for shorts yesterday. I'm going out again tonight on our Colavita/Parisi recovery ride, which ends at McCoy's. It's a fun ride and it always feels good to stretch the legs and get to see everyone at a more casual venue than races (not that those aren't casual for most).

*30 minutes later*

Sorry, I got distracted and forgot what else I was going to write. Talk at ya later!

Steep-and-Cheap mailers

2010-12-13T06:33:00.000-06:00

One of the best parts of waking up is having Steep-and-Cheap email spam in my mailbox. Maybe I shouldn't call it spam, because I signed up for it, and it would be one of the last auto-delivery emails I'd ever block. Steep-and-cheap is a e-clearinghouse for all sorts of outdoorsy stuff, from camping gear to bike stuff to snowboard stuff. But the deals aren't what amuse me so. What I love is the little stories that come out each day. It's almost as though I type them myself. Here is today's entry, which even strikes a bit of a personal note with me.

"Celebrating one's own birthday is a bit odd if you pause a moment to consider it. After all, you did very little that deserves celebration on your own birthday. You basically just showed up and let other people do all the work. Celebrating this event is pretty self-serving. In an ideal world, the birthday celebrants would be the mothers who gave birth. They'd give a toast to not being able to drink wine for 9 months (x) amount of years ago, and then they'd get free drinks all night at the bar. Sadly, this is not the case. Ultimately it's just another example of how giving mothers can be."

Random bike-related thoughts

2010-12-12T21:02:00.000-06:00

- the UPS man is bringing my new bike tomorrow. I predict I will be going to bed at 2am Monday night because I'll be building it up after the boys get to bed. Vanity pics forthcoming.
- I've been trying different sweet spot training intervals, and they seem to work well. At least I feel good. The idea behind them is to hit the point where you are getting an appropriate amount of exertion, while only necessitating the least amount of recovery possible. You could go harder, but then you'd have to recover longer. Ideally, you set your training up around your recovery times. You get stronger during recovery, not during training.
- Penny made a bread pudding for my birthday dinner. It was awesome, but after eating I feel like I ate 40 pancakes. I'd eat seconds if I wasn't concerned for my personal safety.
- I'm solo with the boys for a few days. Good luck to me.
- It's quiet in the house, and time to go train (SST 3x15).

Don't watch this unless you race.

2010-12-08T15:21:00.000-06:00

You so totally won't get anything what they are saying. Speaking of which, Penny told me that my cyclocross posts use too much jargon. Maybe I'll send out decoder rings.

Kansas State Cyclocross Championships race report, as promised

2010-12-07T16:07:00.000-06:00

Most of the day Saturday was spent catching up on a few things around the house, and wondering how sore my legs were going to get. Perhaps more importantly, how sore were they going to be at 11:00am on Sunday? Fortunately, not that bad.

Sunday marked my first trip to Topeka in FOREVER. It's seriously been like 20 years or something like that, so I had no idea how long it would really take, as immediately after the race I had to book it home and get to AB's first basketball practice. I'd hate to miss that.

As I pull up to the course, I don't see much elevation change, which obviously I like. I couldn't see that much though because a) the morning coffee was trying to punch its way out of my bladder and b) the course was LONG and strung out. Very spectator unfriendly, I think, but so was the 21 degrees of cold we had to contend with. I chose to wear the same thing I did on Saturday, thinking that even though it was colder, it was less windy so shoulda been a wash. I was pretty close to right, although I chose to wear my snowboard gloves instead of my awesome-to-35-degrees Giordana gloves. That was a great choice, because once your fingers get cold, it's all over. For your fingers at least.

I headed over to the Natatorium and get checked in, pee, and get some terrific coffee. It was so great, I drank it black which is pretty unusual for me. I immediately head back over to the car, get out the snowboard gloves, helmet, and shoes and head out for a leisurely pre-ride, making mental notes of the trouble spots.

I found two. Once was a little S-turn on some off-camber grassy area, that looked pretty easy to overcook it coming in and wash out and get tangled in the orange safety fence. The other was coming off the Mound of Mercy (not that bad, really), and then you had to take a hard right before the pits. Not technically difficult, but more than a few people blew that turn.

The course was pretty flat, and was suited to a power rider, which seemed to be me somehow. We had a small field of 19 (smallest field I've ever raced), and I laid it down as hard as I could. I guess that's the point. One thing I've learned about myself over these last 10 races is that I never go hard enough. At least I feel like I don't. The course had you go a long way to the north, around some buildings, and a few sketchy corners with acorns. There was also a couple of sections of zoysia that sucked. It felt like riding with your brakes on. I decided to hit that as fast as possible just to get it over with.

We had a 30 minute race, as opposed to the 40 minute race the day before, so I just buried the needle deep and held on. I came off the start in about 12th or 13th, and passed a few riders before tailing an Emporia guy and finally passing him to move into 8th. Pretty nice indeed. I held on until halfway through the last lap, when I must have slowed down due to my back tightening up. Last I saw I had at least 10 seconds on him, and then all the sudden he was on my ass. I just kept the hammer down, until the last turn off of the grass and onto the pavement for the 500' finishing stretch. I tried feebly to sprint, but the legs looked more like question marks than exclamation points by then, so I relinquished my spot. Notes for next time/off-season training!

9th of out 19 isn't something to write home about (I guess that's what I'm doing anyway), but it was another strong effort, a good race plan, and a successful day. I was pretty happy all in all, so now I have 4 weeks to train until Cross off the Old Year (12/31), followed by Epic CX (1/2) and Grote Prjis (1/9), and then a big bear slumber (until Feb 2011).

MO State Championships

2010-12-06T10:04:00.002-06:00

Saturday, December 4th, 2010. Riverside, Missouri. 33 degrees, winds out of the north at 15mph, just like the weatherman advertised. Dang, it was cold.

I love this venue, mainly because it's flat. Riding at 84kg (you do the math), hills are not my friend. Well, at least the uphill part. Downhills are cool. I guess that makes me "frenemies" with hills. Yes, ok, that was lame. 100 lashings.

So I get to the course about 90 minutes early, which is perfect to get a pre-ride lap in, and then to get pinned-up, jaw jack a bit, then hit the trainer to get the legs loose and the blood flowing. The last thing you want to do is to toe the line completely cold and your muscles don't want to move. I smartly pre-registered, which got me a call-up to the 2nd row. Jeremy, the race promoter, called up the 2009 State Champ, and then the Boss Cross and Bubba Cross (St. Louis) race series leaders, then all the pre-reg guys. So I'm in the front 3rd of a pack of 40 dudes all clad in lycra and shivering. Yea, that's a weird image, especially to non-racers. Hell, it's still weird to me and I wear a one-piece unitard and prance over barriers with a -10 wind chill out. Cyclocross has been called a sub-culture of a sub-culture. I can see why. Anyway, I digress.

The USAC official blows the whistle (or whatever happened, I can't remember) and off we go. I'll put this bluntly, my starts suck. I'm a big dude, and should be putting down big power and stomping the twiggy boys off the line. But I don't. So that's something to work on over the next year. I have a few guys pass me, but I pass a few as well, and off we go. Round and round the course. 40 minute race, and it sure feels it. I'm having a great time though, which is unusual for me in a race. I'm hanging with the usually faster-than-me-teammates Jake S. and Matt O., so I'm pleased as a pickle and think if I can hang with them for the duration, I'll place pretty good.

So in my state of delight, I decide to launch off of a small dropoff where you went from asphalt to the grass. KA-BLAMB! Something slammed hard, I figure I didn't get my rear wheel all the way in the dropoff, as I'm apt to do because I always change wheels with the bike in the air like someone who has never done bike maintenance before and thinks they are cool and can get away with that. Yea, that plan works great until your fat-arse shears off your axle or hoses your dropouts.

But I keep pedaling, and then the bike starts making a hellacious noise. I'm getting mad, because I feel like I'm kicking ass, and if I have to DNF due to a mechanical, I'd have an aneurysm so hard I'd spray blood all the way over to the Argosy. It sounded like my hub had shelled itself (nice, that'll be cheap to fix), but I noticed it stopped when I was in the big ring. So in the big ring I stayed. That means no little ring to spin your legs out on the climb. It was mash mash mash on the pedals...stomp on the pedals! C'mon Frank the Tank, stomp stomp STOMP. Fortunately, like I said there wasn't much climbing, so I probably ended up going a lot faster than I usually do.

Somewhere along the line, I got ahead of Jake, Matt, and a couple of other guys. I'm wondering how long that is going to last, because Jake can flat hammer, and Matt is a strong road rider, so he'll pass me on the paved parts. I think I was ahead for a couple of laps, then by lap 5/6, everyone in that group of 4 had passed me, and had enough gap to where I didn't have the engine to bridge the gap. I held steady, and felt like I had a solid race.

30 minutes later or so, results post up. I'm thinking I was 10-15th, somewhere in there. Ah no. 22 out of 37. WTF? I didn't know what to make of that. Someone said the StL guys were bagging it up, and maybe a couple were (as if there aren't any KC baggers), but I was still surprised.

I'd still call it a successful race. I felt good, rode strong, and identified some areas to work on. I hate those races where you have no idea why you did so bad, so you aren't sure what to work on.

Kansas State Championship race report coming up tomorrow.

The pain train cometh

2010-12-03T15:58:00.000-06:00

So THE Weekend has arrived, and I have to primo race events this weekend. Once again, I'm not nearly as prepared as I had hoped, but we'll throw what I have against the wall and hopefully beat a good chunk of people. I am interested to see how the legs will recover/respond on Sunday. They probably will feel pretty good, until I have to start digging deep, which is about 3 seconds after the start whistle. Should be a fun day.

But at the end of the day, I'm racing. I'm upright, healthy, and throwing it down. I can complain (obviously) about not having enough saddle time/sleep/good nutrition (pizza tonight), but the more I race, the more I realize it isn't a fitness contest, especially in cross.

Sure, there will always be hammerheads I can't keep up with because they are pushing 6.0watts/kg in a Cat4 race, and I'm pushing about 2.2watts/kg. But I can certainly keep that gap tight by doing a few things...

1) Start better. Make people pass you.
2) Stay off the damned brakes. Frickin' roadies are always lockin' em up every corner, so stay away from them. You can't be fastest if you are perpetually slowing down.
3) Rail the corners, trust the tires. If you are going to crash in any cycling discipline, cross is it. I've crashed twice hard this year, and the worst that happened was a partially rolled tubie and a elbow missing some skin.
4) Dig deeper, hurt fiercer, and make people work. When you are hurting, they are hurting. Hit them then, and will your place in the race.
5) Find more meat shields, especially on Saturday. 15mph out of the North, 35 degrees. Sunday should be better, 7mph out of the north, 31 degrees. Time to bust out the embro! Or leg warmers. Hmmm...

Have a great weekend, and keep me in your thoughts as I embrace my Cat4-ness around Riverside, MO and Topeka KS.

Do or die

2010-11-29T12:55:00.001-06:00

So this is supposed to be my A race weekend, the state championships. Somehow, I'm coming in with worse form than I've had all year. One of my teammates and I went for a ride in the breezy conditions yesterday and I didn't feel that great. We had a terribly slow average speed, and just couldn't get into a groove. Those crosswinds kept you from getting in a rhythm because you had to work to not swerve and stay upright. Good thing I wasn't riding with deep section rims.

So anyway, about this race thing. Saturday is the Missouri Championships, and they are at E.H. Young Park besides Argosy Casino. I really liked that venue at Boss Cross #2, so I at least feel good about that. Sunday is in Topeka, at Hummer Sports Park. I haven't been to Topeka in a 100 years, so I have no idea about that place. I do wonder what the old legs (exactly how they feel these days) will do after back to back days of racing. If I were riding as much as I intended to be, it shouldn't be that big of a deal. But I haven't. So I will be suffering hard on Sunday. Or maybe not. Racing is funny that way.

You can pre-ride like Sven Nys, feel great and zippy, and then blow halfway into your first lap, with your tongue tickling your spokes. Other times you feel lethargic, generally crappy and once the start whistle blows, you put the watts down like your life depended on it.

Racing allows you a real-life representation of what you are doing the other 167 hours in a week.

If that isn't humiliating, I don't know what is.

At least I had Whole Foods for lunch.

The giving of Thanks

2010-11-25T10:01:00.000-06:00

I'm sure I'm not the only blogger out there telling everyone to take a few minutes and slow down to recognize all we have to be thankful for. So why aren't you doing it?

We've been covering prayer a lot in church, and how it ought to be vs. how it often is. Often we are asking God for things we want, and not listening or asking how we can help.

I'm not a super-religious guy, I'd call myself more spiritual than religious. But often I fail to take the time to recognize that important part of myself. Often I just give a nod to my spirituality and go about my worldly ways. But when I take the time to slow down, and the more often I think about what to pray "for", the more I realize that I want nothing for myself. My heart hurts for those that are hungry, homeless, sick, and not fortunate enough to be born into circumstances as lucky as I am.

So what am I doing about it? I need to do more and not focus so much on myself. I don't think I'm terribly selfish, at least I hope I'm not. But I do see that dissonance of what I believe and what I do. It's too easy to be selfish in this society of "me".

So in addition to being thankful for your circumstances, why not also help out someone who isn't as lucky? Consider donating to St. Jude, World Bicycle Relief, Livestrong, or another charity important to you? Go down and help at the City Mission, or Harvesters. Just do something.

Manion's, redux

2010-11-23T09:23:00.001-06:00

View on ExposureRoom

The above cam was worn by my team captain, Britton, in the fast guy class. Towards the end of the lap, you can #18, that's Steve Tilford. He's a multiple-time, multi-discipline national and world champion cyclist. Pretty cool he lives in Topeka and does a lot of the races here. Anyway, I digress.

So I've read a few race reports from last weekend, and thought my race report was lacking. I thought I'd take this chance to replay the race, a bit more throughly, so you can know, instead of wonder, what is going through my mind.

So here we go! The race started with us running out of a barn, which is called a Le Mans style start. Not the barn, the running part. So we ran a bit, jumped on the bikes, and pedaled furiously into a slight uphill with a nice 20-mph wind. That sucked. Fortunately I found a fat guy to ride/draft behind. I guess that is one benefit to racing 4's, is that there are plenty of meat shields. I'm sure I've played the part more than once myself.

Anyway, when you weren't going up, you were going down. And they weren't easy downhills, they require concentration and bike handling. Ask my friend Chuong, how that goes. The first descent was a swoopy, switchback style cruise, with often a little something on the straights to make sure you were paying attention. The first large crevice we had to hop, I got slowed down by people freaking out (one of the drawbacks of racing 4's) so I hit the crevice too slowly, slammed my rear wheel into the opposite lip, and dropped my chain. What seemed like 5 seconds putting my chain back on, must have been longer, because like 15 people went past me. That fueled my impotent rage.

We had a huge Colavita contingent on hand, so that was great. I bet we had at least 15 guys out there, and we even got a few roadies out there to play in the dirt with us. I then started slowly reeling people back in, and passing them one by one. I passed a handful of teammates, which is good because I have a fair amount of respect for every one of them. Better than passing some faceless/teamless drone bee, and wondering if you just moved out of 36 of 37th place.

So then there were more uphills, which quickly demonstrated that I haven't been riding/training for crap. I got out of my groove since I've been sick, and didn't pick it up as much as I should have. Now I'm paying for that apathy, right in the heart of race season. That's pretty weak sauce, and I hope to redeem myself on the 4th and 5th (state Championships).

Anyway, my legs are blown about 2 and half laps in (we did 4 laps I think). I have nothing left. I dropped my chain yet another time for what looked like no reason at all. Again, more impotent rage. I was pedaling squares, as they say. Actually they were more like triangles. Pretty sloppy. I didn't crash, but then I wasn't going fast enough to crash.

The hills were painful, and I had nothing in the tank. Even my arms were getting tired from pumping the handlebars, and I don't think that's ever happened to me in a cross race. Pretty pathetic. Hopefully I can take something away from this.

Halfway through the last lap I saw a guy about 200 yards behind me. I thought, cool, I can hold that gap and be done with this madness. But he found his inner whoop-ass and passed me like I was going backwards. That made me more mad. So I crossed the finish line and tried not to act like a complete ass to my wonderful wife and children who came out and screamed and shook the cowbells and were terrific. They were the best part of the race by far. Even when I rode by that one time and they were all looking up at the sky at an airplane. Haha!

I guess this should just be more impetus for me to kick ass in training this last month and a half. Then it's time to hit the gym/weights/running again to try and shed these last 10-15 pounds of fat. Hopefully I can put on a few pounds of muscle too while I'm at it.

Anyway, thanks for reading the long winded post/recap. I feel a little better now. A little.

Huzzah!

2010-11-22T12:57:00.001-06:00

I'm not sure what that means, but it popped into my head when I decided to post up today. Yes, I've been a lame blogger, but to my defense...wait, I don't have any defense. So I'll recount a few things and then end with a big old race report.

- Saw Harry Potter #7 Saturday night. Freaking awesome, but INTENSE. Definitely not for the under 12 crowd, which isn't good for AB.
- Speaking of AB, we had a follow-up appointment this morning. The surgeons said it looks like it is healing up great, and that he should be ready for basketball here in a couple of weeks. He just has a couple of band-aids and a metal splint on it right now, and after next week, maybe just a band-aid. The doctor said kids grow fingertips back like newts, so it shouldn't be long at all before he's good to go.
- Looks like it is going to be cold sooner rather than later. I have mixed feelings about that. Better cold than hot, I guess.
- My team put on a race on Sunday, Manion's Cross #2. It was hard, especially since I haven't been riding very often. I kind of got out of my routine after I got sick, and just haven't been putting in the miles. The course was hilly, and lots of fun. I dropped my chain twice (where it comes off of the big rings up front), and that ticked me off. I was in some serious pain/wind suckage the last lap and a half, and didn't have anything. I had a couple of people pass me that had no business passing me, and I had no answer. I was pretty mad after the race was over, and thought I was in the last 5 racers. I looked around on the last lap, and hardly saw anyone. I ended up getting 17th out of 32, which surprised me.

I need to get some serious time in between now and the state championships, and hopefully get a top 10 one of the two days. I have to rip my bike apart between now and then to get it cleaned up and tuned, it's falling to pieces as I haven't been loving it enough, apparently.

That's it for now. Talk at you all later.

Rough night

2010-11-16T10:40:00.000-06:00

So I'm getting ready to leave work a few minutes after five last night, when I get the phone call from Penny that AB was at Y-care and got his left pinky finger smashed in a door and blew the tip off. I made some calls, got Kieran taken care of, and headed down to Children's Mercy South.

Penny and AB got there, and he had bled a good bit, but was doing ok all things considered. It was hurting him a good bit, but he kept his brave face on and watched some TV while we had nearly every doctor in the building looked at his finger. In the end, I had to take him to downtown Children's Mercy at 10:00pm to meet an Orthopedic surgeon for a consult. His bone was too close to the surface of the wound, so they had to nibble off some bone to keep the infection risk at a minimum. He then folded the pulp of his finger (meaty part) around to protect that, put a few stitches on, and cut the nail off. If you were going to have the tip of a finger blown off, this was the one to have blown off and in the right manner.

During the operation, I had to leave the room since a) I hadn't eaten in 12 hours, b) I slept like crap the night before, and wasn't going to do any better last night, and c) it was tough watching him in a dazed state while the surgeon was working on his pinky.

The surgery went well, and I was glad to be done with doctor's and hospitals and for AB to get some rest. We got home about 2:30am, and everyone is pretty tired (except Kieran, of course). AB got some good meds, and he's doing ok, just watching some TV and chillin' today.

He has a big ol' wrap around his fingers for the next week, and hopefully within a month or so, it should be all healed up and eventually you shouldn't be able to tell other than the fact his left pinky will be about 2-3mm shorter than the other one.

I raise 'em tough, I'll tell you that. All the nurses and doctors were impressed with AB's fortitude and toughness. The only time he got really sad was when the RN did a mediocre job with his first IV. That hurt him pretty bad, but another RN came in and nailed it. Everything was smooth sailing after that.

That's all the detail I have for now, and hopefully the healing process will be non-eventful and he can show off some cool scars at Christmas.

Blah! Arg! I want a refund!

2010-11-15T11:20:00.000-06:00

So I REALLY wanted to race this weekend, and had a tentative plan to carry it out, but I just couldn't shake the sickness until Sunday morning, and I hadn't prepped or anything, so I missed the Leavenworth race too. Looking at all the pics it looked like so much fun, so I'm super bummed. The race season is coming to close quickly, although I have 6 opportunities left, that's it until next September. Maybe I can get in some criterium racing this spring/early summer.

I'm still hacking stuff out of my lungs, but at least I feel better. I went up to Lifetime yesterday and lifted/rowed and felt good. I got my body fat tested too, and I was at 15%. Pretty thick for a good cyclist, but I was definitely excited to look at where I was on the graph and I was on the lean average of optimum. Optimum for normal people, but I race in a skinny man's sport, for better or worse. Besides, I don't see that six-pack yet. I'm not losing weight very fast, but not adding it on either. Could be several years before I get down to a fighting weight. The rate of weight loss is starting to agitate me, but I have to remember that I measure success on race performance. They don't just weigh everyone and hand out medals (thankfully).

My team is putting on another race on Sunday, and so I'm going to up the ante and race the 3/4 (three/four) race. In sum, that's the slower half of the Cat3's with the faster half of the Cat4's. The fast 3's race Open (1/2/3). It's kind of a screwy way to do categories, but it's a nice way to see how you stack up against 3's without having to actually upgrade. That'll be next season. After Manion's I have a week off, and then the next weekend is both State Championships. I might just do both races, since I need as much experience as I can get before next year.

After the championships, I'm planning on switching my bike over to a singlespeed and racing Singlespeed the last few races. We'll see if my knees can take it. I plan on having my ass handed to me in those races since there are some real hammerheads in those categories. That which doesn't kill me...

Sickness is not fun

2010-11-09T14:30:00.000-06:00

My malaise won't decide if it's coming or leaving. But instead of complaining about that, I'll simply ask you, what are you doing this weekend?

Here is what I'm doing!

Shut up legs

2010-11-02T11:45:00.000-05:00

I've been riding lots (comparatively speaking), and even doing yoga, all in preparation to hopefully peak for the Kansas State Championships on Dec 5th.

Saturday: Hard 90 minute ride. Felt good, and had a decent (for me) avg speed.
Sunday: Yoga. Killed me. Sweating like a fat man in a donut shop 20 minutes into the session. Legs super sore, but at least my back felt good.
Monday: "Recovery" ride at Volker. 1 hour of cruising through midtown with some of the guys on the team. That was great fun, and ended up at McCoy's for a delicious black bean burger and craft root beer. Yea, that was still a 2k calorie dinner, but oh-so-worth-it.
Tuesday (tonight): Tabatas. 3 sets of 8 intervals. 20 seconds max effort, 10 seconds recovery. If you want to lose weight, do intervals. Fo realz.
Wednesday (tomorrow): Probably 30 minutes of recovery spinning, but commuting to work too, so that's 40 minutes each way of good, hard riding, dodging cars, and sprinting from the lights. Love it. Except for the DBs in Lexus'.
Thursday: 2x20 intervals. 20 minutes as hard as you can, spin for 5 minutes. Do it again.
Friday: rest!
Saturday: start over, rinse and repeat.

This is a seriously great video

2010-10-25T16:35:00.003-05:00

1950's Cyclocross...ok so the video isn't *that* great, but it's still cool to watch. Those were the original hard men, that all of us fancy lycra-ed up cyclists wish we were.

Smithville CX

2010-10-25T10:29:00.002-05:00

Race pics from yesterday...

I made the wicked-long-haul up to Smithville Lake for what was a really great race. We had a lot of Colavita presence up there, and it was fun to see everyone.

The course was setup with a little bit of everything, with a nice run-up immediately followed by a money tree (tree with money clipped onto branches, which you tried to grab when you went past). There was some beach riding, and lots of twisting around trees as well. Some good little climbs here and there, and I enjoyed the course.

There was one particular 120 degree corner that gave me some difficulty on lap 2. You came in pretty hot to it, and then there was some really rough ground, a sharp bend/climb up to the right, and then around a tree, and up a climb. Well, I came in way too hot, lost control on the rough ground, and crashed hard enough to peel about eight inches of my tubular off the rim. I started riding again before I noticed it, and then stopped and hammered it back onto the rim. I wasn't able to corner nearly as hard as I liked, and the crash took a lot out of me, although I didn't notice it until late in the race when I was whooped.

I let a few guys by while I was fixing my bike, but still took 18th out of 41. Not great, but definitely things are getting better. It was nice getting the pre-registration bonus of lining up at the front, that makes such a nice difference when you can put some space in between yourself and everyone else (people who crash on the first corner).

I finished pretty slowly as I had a big gap on 19th, and he tried hard to get me, but I played it smart and had a 100' gap at the finish. Great race, and wish I could have stayed longer cheering everyone on, but it was time to get home and enjoy the day with the fam. Next race is a night race in Topeka, Nov 13th. I can't wait, although it'll be good to get some training and more core strengthening in.

Smithville showdown

2010-10-23T21:27:00.000-05:00

Race is tomorrow, leaving way too early to make the long haul to my hometown-but-not-really. I should get to bed!

http://www.kansascitycross.com/images/stories/Smithvillecx10.pdf

Boulevard Cup 2010, post race recap

2010-10-18T09:58:00.003-05:00

I'll start with the real important race first...Penny's Marathon. She blazed to terrific finish, especially for a first timer.

overall place: 599 out of 1425
division place: 35 out of 119
gender place: 158 out of 525
time: 4:14:23
pace: 9:43

Everyone is super proud of her, and I'm really impressed with how she did. Hopefully she can get some good rest in now so she can PR at the Turkey Trot. Or Gobbler Grind. Whatever it is. All I know is that it's a half marathon which involved running and I AM OUT.

I jogged with her from 20 to about 21.5, and she was right behind a guy who was doing a 100 marathons. Crazy. Anyway, this guy who was also right behind him had some friends right at mile 21.5 who thought it would be a great idea to chuck a football to their runner friend. Except for the fact that a) it was a 30 yard toss, b) their friend was in no way going to make a leaping grab or whatever, c) all the runners had their backs turned, and d) they pegged the guy doing the 100 marathons right in back of the head. I heard he slowed down, and those jackasses just earned a solid year of bad karma. Seriously stupid douchebags. In no way shape or form was that a good idea. At all. I hope the runner was ok.

Ok, now on from slow and steady to fast and furious. That was a lame blend of two cliches.

I felt pretty flat coming in to this week, as my legs weren't necessarily tired, but certainly didn't feel fresh. You need fresh in cyclocross to accelerate hard and break people's spirits. Yea, you read that right. I'm not out there to make friends. Not until I cross the line.

So I lined up a good bit better in the 3rd row, and still managed to flub my start by not getting into my right cleat. I had a lot of people pass me, and there just wasn't much passing. I got past a few people the first half lap, then just kept applying pressure where and when I could. There were a few instances where it got crowded and I was waiting on people to move out of the way, which stunk. I'm certainly stronger in the technical riding parts than having sheer fitness, so when the carcasses start piling up in the technical areas, I have to burn matches to get past the mayhem and get going again.

We had a great team turn out, and the Colavita Corner had more instruments and noise makers than I've seen in awhile. Thanks to my family that came out and cheered me on, and to my teammates that showed the other teams how to make some noise and tear it up in the race.

Kinda cool

2010-10-15T12:36:00.002-05:00

I started tracking my weight on Livestrong.com almost a month before my first cyclocross race. It's kinda cool seeing how far I've come. I'm sneaking closer to my first goal (176 lbs), and it has been an interesting journey for me.

The biggest change I've noticed is just that my clothes pretty much unwearable now. Not because of style reasons (or maybe it is), but because I've lost a solid 4 inches off my waist. I wore some slacks yesterday that actually slid off of me.

Some people think you have lots more energy, and I haven't really noticed this. Maybe it's just Kieran wearing us down (up at 3:56 this morning), or maybe the change has just been gradual. I don't know.

My back does feel a lot better, so that's a good thing for sure. It still gets tight, but not carrying so much extra weight has taken the pressure off of my lower back. I still have a long ways to go in terms of core strength, and making sure to stretch. I need to incorporate that into a routine because I haven't been as vigilant as I would like in keeping up to snuff in core strength. I can really feel it after I've been on the bike for longer than an hour, as my hamstrings get tight and start pulling on my lower back something fierce. I usually have to stop and stretch, and then I'm ok for another hour or so.

That's all for now, and my goal is to get to 17x by Christmas time. Seems pretty attainable, that's less than a pound a week.

Weekend of suffering

2010-10-15T10:50:00.000-05:00

First and foremost, Penny's first marathon is kicking off at 7:30am tomorrow. I'm so excited and proud for her. I think she is starting to get pretty anxious, and is ready to get started. We'll be there cheering her on, so if you want to meet up, give me a call. Here's the info for the race: KC Marathon

On Sunday, my beloved Boulevard Cup race kicks off, and I'm expecting a massive turnout and a huge field. This is probably the premier race in the KC area for spectating, so I hope to see some of you out there. If you want to see me in a skinsuit, with snot hanging out at least 18 inches out of my nose and bulging eyes, here is your chance. I'm going to do my damnest to get in the top half of the field. Hurdle the dead and trample the weak. My race kicks off at 1:00pm. Drinking commences whenever you get there.

Golden Arches

2010-10-13T16:10:00.004-05:00

I'm completely at a loss what to say
.

McDonald's the Ageless Wonder

NOMNOMNOMNOM

Vimeo is the greatest video site

2010-10-12T12:06:00.002-05:00

I say this because honestly, it is. Youtube is great and all, but the quality of content on Vimeo is staggering. There are so many well-produced videos on there, it isn't even funny. This one particularly caught my eye, and I really enjoyed it. I hope you do to.

Winters of My Life from Jonathan Burhop on Vimeo.

Winters of My Life is a portrait of Howard Weamer. For the past 35 years he has spent his winters as a hutkeeper in Yosemite's backcountry. He fills his days writing, reading, photographing, and being an ambassador to mountain culture. This is a brief look into his world and why he chooses to stay.

Directed by
Jonathan Burhop

Edited by
Marlon Singleton

Music by
Mike McCarthy

RACE REPORT

2010-10-08T10:41:00.002-05:00

I'm posting this at least 3 days after I intended too, so I figured I'd bold the title and make it look like an internet shout in case your attention was waning.

So if you've been reading my blog for, oh say 2 months, you know I raced last weekend and I did my damnest to make sure I didn't look like an insufferable fat carcass with gangrene in my legs (which would explain the stench and slowness).

I can't say enough nice things about this event, the weather was awesome, the course was great for a sprinter (read non-wisp-like marginally overweight guy), and there was a nice TCPC (Team Colavita/Parisi Coffee) contingent on hand. It's always good to see a bunch of familiar faces, although some of these guys I'd never seen before. I guess that's one of the few problems with being on a team with a 50+ member roster. I think I'm 3rd oldest (sorry DanO and Erik)(fact check, there are a handful of guys older than me).

Anyway, on to the race. I rode a prelap to try and mitigate any possible "oh shits" I might have during the race, and I found a few and managed to avoid them every lap. +1 there for me. I got to the line about 3 minutes before go time (-3 points for lining up in the back), and that cost me some spots. I need to really get there about 10 minutes before go time to get a good spot. CX is such a sprint type race, there isn't tons of passing unless your fitness is just through the roof. If that's the case, you shouldn't be racing in Cat 4. CTFU.

So I started in the back of the field, and passed a handful of people through out the race. My cornering felt solid, and barriers were mostly ok, although there was a set of barriers going uphill, and I tried to carry too much speed and dismounted too late. Then on the last lap, 400 meters before the finish, I totally ate it while being lazy/tired and not properly unclipping out of my pedal to hop the barriers. No love lost, as I only bled just a little bit, and most importantly, didn't lose any spots.

As I said before, the course was great. There were a few features that stood out to me. There was a curvy section of the course that had you kind of S turn up and over this dirt "hill", and there was a lot of off-camber bits to keep you honest. There was also a rather steep incline that had you doing an up and over, and you had to make sure to stay off your brakes otherwise you'd stall out and cost yourself a LOT of time. Then there were two sand pits, one through a volleyball court that the Open class just breezed through (see first vid below), and then one down and around junk by the river. There were two sets of barriers as well, so lots of dismount opportunities. I actually found myself passing a lot of people (roadies) through the technical stuff, so that was cool.

I felt strong, but think I need to push harder for Boulevard (next SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY). I still had snot running out of my nose and hard breathing, but this race was 40 minutes instead of the usual 30, so I wasn't so sure how hard I could push it and not blow sky high and lose a bunch of spots while I had to pull over and yak lung butter out.

Here's a few vids from the race, I took the first two, and then Chuong Doan had a great first-person cam of the race too.

View on ExposureRoom

Boss Cross #2, Chris Cross #1

2010-10-04T10:07:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I raced hard, and had a great time. I can't say enough about what a terrific venue E.H. Young Park was for the races, and how perfect the weather was. I'll have a full race report later today, but I felt like I did real well, but didn't place as well as I thought I did. I think starting in the back of the field had something to do with that. I need to get to the line quicker.

Anyway, I'll have some vids of the Open categories and some more pics later.

Don't hate me

2010-09-30T15:09:00.001-05:00

I know, it's like a damn car wreck. You just can't look away.

Long ride weekend

2010-09-28T16:21:00.000-05:00

...or not.

I had a boy's trip scheduled this weekend to meet up in Columbia and ride the Katy Trail all weekend. We were graciously hosted in Columbia by my buddy Ryan's old professor, Doug. He was a terrific host even though he was fighting a massive ear infection, and the accommodations were very much appreciated.

Ryan and I got into town rather late on Friday night, and we called it a night at about 1am. We didn't hit the trail until about 9:30 on Saturday morning. The plan was to ride to Jeff City and back, making it about a 65-70 mile ride. We got to Hartsburg, MO, at about 12:10, and were starving. Plus they had a BBQ fundraiser going on, and Jeff City was about another hour away. Needless to say, our stomachs won out there, and we ate some of the best BBQ I've had in awhile. Pork steak, potato salad, and baked beans for $8. Can't beat that with a big stick. They took our picture, so we are somewhere out there on Facebook stuffing our faces.

We decided at that point, to turn around, and go past Columbia and ride to Rocheport. We made the trek back in what seemed like half the time, but thunderstorms were looming and we were starting to get a bit tired. My hearts and lungs certainly weren't strained, and neither my legs, but my saddle region was killing me. I let a good bit of pressure out of my tires to help ease the constant hammering, but the Katy Trail is no place for a race saddle. I'll be rolling with a nice, cushy couch cushion next time. I'm still a little sore, but I'll see how sore tonight when I try and get some intervals in before my next race.

October 3rd is my next race, Boss Cross #3, and I'm SO looking forward to it. I'll even wear sleeves this time!

So anyway, back to the trip. We ended up going back to Doug's house, getting cleaned up, and had a great dinner at the Flat Branch restaurant in Columbia. I had a beer and a half on Saturday, figuring I earned it with my calorie exertion. The food there was terrific, as was the company. The weather was starting to head downhill, and by the time we got back to Doug's casa, it started raining pretty good, and it didn't let up until the wee hours of the morning (not that I knew, I was out by 9:30).

By the time we all were roused, we looked outside and saw the damp, cold morning awaiting us and we headed to the movies and saw "The Town". Not too bad. We had some great cheap lunch at some place I can't remember the name of then went back to Doug's, packed up, and headed back to Kansas.

Kind of a lame riding weekend, but it was good to see the guys and get out of the house. Now back to work!

Is this your first race?

2010-09-22T09:43:00.000-05:00

So I already posted this on one of my bike forums, but it saves me from having to type a whole 'nother blog. Feast upon my idiocy, and enjoy!

Saturday was supposed to be my first cx race of the season, but somehow I managed to turn it into a festival of follies.

First up, I left my USAC racing license at home. I have the number memorized, but that's always been good enough. Not this time, USAC official needs to see it, because my last registration was for a 1-day license. Which is way wrong, but whatever, burden of proof is with me. So I hoof it back to the car, grab my Sprint Evo and try and login to the site, taking up precious warm up time while I decode my password. Finally get it, get my number and get kitted up. Not a big deal, but there's more to come.

Second, I was checking the bike out the night before trying to silence my banshee brakes, and noticed my chain was wicked stretched out. Thankfully my team captain/shop owner checks his email late at night and was super courteous and brought me a chain from the shop. T-minus 33 minutes and I'm swapping chains.

Now it's time to get to the line, and he and I are starting down the hill to the start line when he tells me I can't rock the sleeveless. I don't have a normal jersey, just this tri/bike jersey and long-sleeved cross jerseys. At this point, it's about 4 minutes to GO, and I say oh well, let's see if the official calls me out. I barely get down the hill in all my 110db brake squealing-glory when she starts rattling off the rule number at me and tells me to go change.

I'm like WTF, there's no time. So I sprint back up the hill, get flustered, and then call it a day. My spirit had been broken at that point, and figured it's early in the season. So I stayed and cheered on my team, and watched people try and auger themselves into the ground with 6" barriers.

It's early in the season, and I'm glad a day like this is behind me. It was all self-inflicted, but damn, that wasn't much fun.

My next race is Oct. 3rd in Parkville, for Boss Cross #2. I have cross clinic tonight, and boys' trip/Katy Trail this weekend. Of course, as luck would have it, my team is putting on a race this weekend, and needs lots of help in doing so. This race was scheduled about 3 weeks ago, and my boy's trip has been on for months. This is a fine example of my main grievance with the team. Their sense of scheduling works great for a single person living in midtown. It works like ass for a married guy with two kids, and lives in deep south OP. /rant

Dialing it in

2010-09-17T09:56:00.000-05:00

Had a nice pre-ride/race at Swope last night. Darkness came quick, so I was only able to get maybe 3 laps in. I played around a lot with tire pressure, and then once I finally got it dialed in, it was terrific. I still need to learn to trust the tires when cornering in the grass, but with all the nuts (walnuts?) on the ground, your bike got loose in a hurry.

Should be a great race, and I'm raring to go (as soon as my back loosens up).

Somebody got me thinking today...

2010-09-16T16:50:00.000-05:00

Given the seeming instability of the market, the growing gap between rich and poor, and the repercussions of a society built on consumption and the procurement of material goods, that maybe the American Dream is changing.

It started with a nice house with a white picket fence. Then we added a 3 car garage (at first for excess stuff, then for our 3rd cars). Then we went from 1500 square feet to 3k. Then to 5k. And beyond.

It started with finding a company that would take care of you for your whole life. A relationship was formed between employee and employer. Then we added 401k's instead of pensions. Then we added outsourcing. Layoffs. 200x-300x CEO comps over the common employee. Corporate jets with golden parachutes.

It started with having a few conveniences. Then we added remote controls. Then cordless phones. Giant SUVs, bluetooth, cooling/heating/massaging seats came next. Social networks replaced real social interactions.

Where is it all leading too? I think the lucky few are rediscovering a more simple life. Condensing instead of consuming. Handshakes instead of tweets. Smaller homes with smaller utility bills, less cleaning, less clutter and more contact.

Maybe I'm just a crazy old 30-something, but I'm starting to see more value in slowing down. As I was driving to work on a beautiful 72 degree day, I noticed I was the only one with their windows down. Have we gotten so used to air-conditioning, or is it that we shun contact? I don't know.

Ok, now I'm going to go for a bike ride. A hard ride in the mud with people faster than me. I'll try in vain to keep up, feeling my lungs sear and my vision blur. Somehow through this cleansing process, the world will seem to be a bit more warm and kind, maybe a bit more human.

Laatste ronde!

Week 1 and done

Taco Tuesday ride

1 month's worth of posting

Peanut Butter Mud

Boss Cross #5 Pics

Prepping for the MO State Championships

Shawnee Family RadCross

Night rides and Weekend Update with Kevin Nealon

Bwahahahaha

It's almost been a month since we (I) last talked

Just thinking along

I hope Joey's ok...

KCOI/Boulevard CX Clinic #1

Breathe deep, fall is here

World Bicycle Relief - Sprint to the Finish

Commitment

Sweaty fat guy

Riding again...

Most of you won't get this...

Courtesy of Surly Bikes...a cycling truth

Sinus infections

My newest hobby

Slow and fat

Odd weekend

I love golf carts.

A brief respite in the heat (with a guest appearance from coffee-induced rambling)

I can barely walk today.

Love 'em or Love 'em...

It's too hot to post.

Riding tonight and then...

Tour of Larryville

Blogs are slowly coming in...

Go time.

Lookin' good so far

Taper week!!

Could it have been any nicer Saturday?

Done Blown Up

Still alive and riding...

Tornado

Friday night campout

Ride to the Stars

Over-eating

At it again.

Another one.

Ha HA!

Cube etiquette

A tale of two cities

I've been wanting to post this one for awhile.

Group ride!

This *really* isn't like me...

Two fer

What happened!

AB jonesin' for a drum set now

Someday

Dam That Hill

Velobeatdown

Ruminations for the soon-to-be mighty

Motivation is low.

CRAP.

Busy!

World Bicycle Relief

Rationing topics

Pics and vids from Park City

Occasionally I post things I say I'm going to post

And that's a wrap

Grote Prijs on Sunday.

Getting introspective

Well that wasn't so easy...

Hello stranger

Well that was easy.

It's not that cold

Steep-and-Cheap mailers

Random bike-related thoughts

Don't watch this unless you race.

Kansas State Cyclocross Championships race report, as promised

MO State Championships

The pain train cometh

Do or die

The giving of Thanks

This really isn't like me...