Just thinking along

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...

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

KCOI/Boulevard CX Clinic #1

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

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

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

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

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.