More evidence that Moveitfred and solobreak are living the same life. Both seem to be living in lands once ruled by robber barons who left behind vast estates well-suited to morning runs and cyclocross training. Each has a favored field where summertime hay production had gotten out of control, leaving the sweet track lumpy, bumpy, and in the morning, fucking wet. Enter the Apple Festival, or in my case, the Harvest Fair. The custodians of the land have followed the lead of the Brookhaven DPW and suitably mowed the hayfield right down to a sweaty little nub. Screaming urchins and drugged senior citizens alike will continue to further the cause Sunday by taking numerous laps around my circuit in a horse-drawn haycart, thus tamping the track even further. Sweet.
Today's post by Fred deserves rich comment, but since I am not sure what the USCF statute of limitations is on pre-race potty violations next to freshly dug graves in the local cemetary just before the funeral procession rolled in (who knew?), I will keep it to myself. Let's just say it sounds like Little Fred has got what it takes to make it in New England cycling.
This morning was just a run. I still haven't figured out what is going on with all the tree cutting, but I'll get to the bottom of it. Not much else to report. Hanging out with Feldman this week, and he's found that he can harass the local skunk population from his perch in the bathroom window, and has incited sprayings almost every night. Not sweet. Golf tommorow, not sure about Sunday. Thanks for reading!
since 2006
Friday, September 29, 2006
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Three things about me
After all, it's all about me. Here is my problem (well, just one of them). If I don't put anything up here, you'll stop visiting. Right? Yes? No? I am confused already. I can tell you are too. But I don't always have much to say, or anything to write. I'd like to just use a picture now and then, but my camera's woes are well-documented. I've got lots of vintage photos, but I've got a SCSI mismatch problem with my scanner and current PC's (also well-documented), so I can't go there either. I could do 100 things about me, but that would take a while, could only be done once, and would be gayer than Dance with Me by Orleans. So here are three factoids. Next time I'm in a pinch for an entry, maybe you'll get three more.
1) I've never ridden a bike with a suspension fork.
2) I live less than three miles from hospital where I was born (yes, they had hospitals back then, they just weren't very good).
3) I won first place in my age group at the local Ford dealer's Punt, Pass, and Kick competition twice, when I was 9 and again when I was 11, but I never played in any organized sports other than Little League baseball.
Thanks for reading.
1) I've never ridden a bike with a suspension fork.
2) I live less than three miles from hospital where I was born (yes, they had hospitals back then, they just weren't very good).
3) I won first place in my age group at the local Ford dealer's Punt, Pass, and Kick competition twice, when I was 9 and again when I was 11, but I never played in any organized sports other than Little League baseball.
Thanks for reading.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Where do we go from here?
The house felt a little chilly this morning. A quick online check revealed the reported temp at my nearest airport was 37 degrees F. Toto, it's not summer anymore. The road season is all but over. A few fringe events have popped up on the calendar, I fear they will be sparsely attended. Two of them fall on the same weekend as the Gloucester 'cross festival, which has about 450 confirmed entries for each day already. Talk about insane. Not to argue with success, but a 125 rider start funnelling into a three-foot wide track through a beach volleyball pit is not for me. Only in America (Seriously, check out the results from the European races. They put 50 riders, tops, on the course at once). Cross took years to be recognized as a legitimate sport in this country, but this kind of craziness pushes it back into the spectacle days. My opinion on this is apparently not widely shared. I'll just have to stick to the more grassroots events, and hope there is more grass than roots... At Gloucester, if I race I think I'll finally cave and concede to entering the "B" masters field. This is a hard pill to swallow, but the guys I was mixing it up with near at the back of the A field last year have been doing the B's this year, and so far they haven't been winning.
Back to training and pedaling. Smooth power is the key. Cross and MTB riding don't exactly promote high cadence. That is ok, because high cadence is not the answer to all problems. Gewilli posted some comments from this guy Jonathan Baker. He seems like a smart guy, and he comments on the over-specialization of some rider's training, specifically saying that five hour road rides are a good idea for a cross rider. I think that over-specialization in general can be a problem. Back when I started riding, the Eddy B book had just came out, and it was the defacto training bible for most riders, much as Friel's books are now. Eddy B cautioned against having even minute differences in your position from one bike to the next, etc. People also tend to focus on "right" and "wrong" ideas on training. I strive to be more well-rounded. Having bikes with different setups may not perfect your pedaling muscle memory, but so what? Maybe if you are training all summer to be able to do one specific thing, that stuff is important, but if you just want to be a strong, healthy rider, I suspect that mixing things up helps you be a more well-rounded athlete. There are many coaches who caution against running too. I know it hurts my speed on the bike, but it helps me in other ways, and at my level I don't care. I stop during the summer when I am racing every weekend, and that seems like a good compromise to me.
How to pedal constitutes much the same deal. There is no right or wrong way. Both high cadence and low cadence are useful in certain situations, and a complete rider would want to be able to do either effectively. Standing versus sitting is no different. I know a lot of riders who only stand when they are in trouble. They never work on climbing out of the saddle. When I started riding we used to hear a lot about how standing was bad, because climbing while seated is more efficient. That may be true, and when my fitness is good, I find myself sitting more. But watch the pros on video. With their six hour stages, they have no choice but to stand up and stretch once in a while. This also helps "rotate" the use of muscles, rather then using the same ones for an entire ride. I will often stand on climbs early in a race, even though I am not under pressure, just to "save" my sitdown climbing muscles for later. Cadence comes into play while standing too. Maintaining a high cadence out of the saddle is not easy. Training all systems is a must, high cadence seated, low cadence seated, high cadence standing, low cadence standing. I think I've beat on this before, so I must feel it is important.
The TT Worlds were last weekend. Sure enough, the fastest guys did not wear gloves. Hmmmm. From the pictures I saw, DZ and Cancellara had a lot more going for them than that. Their positions and helmets are just better than everyone elses. The article in Bicycling Magazine about the MIT cycling team and their wind tunnels studies was a fluff piece typical of this rag, and details were pretty sparse. Not to mention, the Pros TT at over 50 kph, and for them aerodynamics is everything. We mortals are not in the same league, but nonetheless, my dismal TT performances this year have me rethinking my equipment choices. This kind of sucks; it would be better if the contests were based on athletics rather than budgets.
Then there is doping. Uggghh. Since I am not a pro cycling insider, I've tried to stay out of this, as I rely on the media for all my information, and that means I am as misinformed as most of you. I do not want to bury my head in the sand, and I have to believe that doping is a huge problem. I also don't want to convict anyone without due process. From what I've seen in the media, the current system of testing is corrupt. The Executive VP at my company likes to say there is no such thing as having a lot of integrity. You either have it or you don't. If even one urine test result is leaked (huh-huh), then the lab has lost its integrity. With all the statements attributed to Dick Pound, I have to believe at this point that he is not a person of integrity. With this situation, the testing system and cycling establishment cannot be trusted to neither convict those who are guilty, nor clear those who are not. This is sad.
So ends another crazy bike racing blogger mofo's ramblings for the day. Thanks for reading.
Back to training and pedaling. Smooth power is the key. Cross and MTB riding don't exactly promote high cadence. That is ok, because high cadence is not the answer to all problems. Gewilli posted some comments from this guy Jonathan Baker. He seems like a smart guy, and he comments on the over-specialization of some rider's training, specifically saying that five hour road rides are a good idea for a cross rider. I think that over-specialization in general can be a problem. Back when I started riding, the Eddy B book had just came out, and it was the defacto training bible for most riders, much as Friel's books are now. Eddy B cautioned against having even minute differences in your position from one bike to the next, etc. People also tend to focus on "right" and "wrong" ideas on training. I strive to be more well-rounded. Having bikes with different setups may not perfect your pedaling muscle memory, but so what? Maybe if you are training all summer to be able to do one specific thing, that stuff is important, but if you just want to be a strong, healthy rider, I suspect that mixing things up helps you be a more well-rounded athlete. There are many coaches who caution against running too. I know it hurts my speed on the bike, but it helps me in other ways, and at my level I don't care. I stop during the summer when I am racing every weekend, and that seems like a good compromise to me.
How to pedal constitutes much the same deal. There is no right or wrong way. Both high cadence and low cadence are useful in certain situations, and a complete rider would want to be able to do either effectively. Standing versus sitting is no different. I know a lot of riders who only stand when they are in trouble. They never work on climbing out of the saddle. When I started riding we used to hear a lot about how standing was bad, because climbing while seated is more efficient. That may be true, and when my fitness is good, I find myself sitting more. But watch the pros on video. With their six hour stages, they have no choice but to stand up and stretch once in a while. This also helps "rotate" the use of muscles, rather then using the same ones for an entire ride. I will often stand on climbs early in a race, even though I am not under pressure, just to "save" my sitdown climbing muscles for later. Cadence comes into play while standing too. Maintaining a high cadence out of the saddle is not easy. Training all systems is a must, high cadence seated, low cadence seated, high cadence standing, low cadence standing. I think I've beat on this before, so I must feel it is important.
The TT Worlds were last weekend. Sure enough, the fastest guys did not wear gloves. Hmmmm. From the pictures I saw, DZ and Cancellara had a lot more going for them than that. Their positions and helmets are just better than everyone elses. The article in Bicycling Magazine about the MIT cycling team and their wind tunnels studies was a fluff piece typical of this rag, and details were pretty sparse. Not to mention, the Pros TT at over 50 kph, and for them aerodynamics is everything. We mortals are not in the same league, but nonetheless, my dismal TT performances this year have me rethinking my equipment choices. This kind of sucks; it would be better if the contests were based on athletics rather than budgets.
Then there is doping. Uggghh. Since I am not a pro cycling insider, I've tried to stay out of this, as I rely on the media for all my information, and that means I am as misinformed as most of you. I do not want to bury my head in the sand, and I have to believe that doping is a huge problem. I also don't want to convict anyone without due process. From what I've seen in the media, the current system of testing is corrupt. The Executive VP at my company likes to say there is no such thing as having a lot of integrity. You either have it or you don't. If even one urine test result is leaked (huh-huh), then the lab has lost its integrity. With all the statements attributed to Dick Pound, I have to believe at this point that he is not a person of integrity. With this situation, the testing system and cycling establishment cannot be trusted to neither convict those who are guilty, nor clear those who are not. This is sad.
So ends another crazy bike racing blogger mofo's ramblings for the day. Thanks for reading.
Monday, September 25, 2006
Gotta be cool, relaxed, part 2
Wait a minute, where is part 1? None of your business Pablo, and besides, don't you have more important things to worry about? Publishing this blog is an extremely complex operation that you need not understand, not that you are capable anyway. So leave all that to me. If you must know, transitioning to morning workouts has messed up the blogging process. Wasting precious minutes of daylight spewing BS to keep your mind off work just can't take priority over keep the fat off of me. I'll get it worked out somehow. As of this moment, Part 1 is a draft post containing ideas for things to write about, much like Gewilli's moleskin notebook. Despite not updating my blog lately, I've been reading yours, and hopefully you've noticed that I've been rather generous with the comments lately, which is more than I can say for you. Not to fear, as topping my list of topics is one sure to offend: all bloggers are head cases. I used to think bike racers were the biggest group of nut jobs on Earth. Then along came blogging. Bloggers don't leave any doubt for us, they spell out their lunacy on a daily basis for all the world to read. Combine blogging with bike racing and we have all "you people." No need to elaborate now, I'm sure that's enough to have you all up at night self-analyzing, so I guess I can cross that one off the list.
The workouts have been going OK. Friday night I tried out the mini-gym at the Lowder Brook building before heading out for five ~1k laps of the campus at dusk. This venue will be able to provide suitable workouts in a pinch. Saturday was especially productive, as I not only got my car inspected, but we also got KL's new cross bike experiment put together before heading out for an hour forty five shakedown spin. Later we went out to run some errands and had a nice little dinner date at Jaipur Cafe. Sunday morning we went out for a trail run, covering ~4 miles at (for me) an uncomfortably fast pace of around 8 minutes/mile before packing up so she could get to TF Green for her flight to Vegas and Interbike. This put me back at home (with houseguest for the week the Mighty F-man) in the early afternoon. I continued my productive weekend by doing some further straightening out of the bikeroom, as well as taking the Slim Chance out of mothballs. Still bearing some mud from racing at Battenkill-Roubaix back in April, the poor bike has sat in the basement since. After swapping on some pedals from the TT rig, I went out in the unseasonably warm temps for 2.5 hours on the road. The bike immediately felt perfect. The frame really is quite a bit more comfortable than my stiffer aluminum bike, and the position is perfect. I'll probably be riding this bike a lot over the next few months.
One bike difference though was the gearing (here you go GeWilli). The (road) racing season is over (probably). 'Cross does not hold the special place in my heart that it does for many of you. I've raced cross since long before many of you ever heard of it, and at times I enjoyed it immensely, but for the most part it has always just been a way to keep fit while doing something a little different. We laughed while reading all the accounts of September 'cross races where riders suffered meltdowns from performing the intensity of cross in the Indian summer heat. No shit Sherlock. The entire sport was invented as a way to ride your bike when it was too friggin' cold to ride on the road. Back-extending the sport into September was never part of the plan. OK, where was I? Oh yeah, so I have no real bike-specific training goals for the short term. I can do whatever I want, or do nothing at all. In the past, sometime I've taken the approach of Murat and gone out and tried to do things like five hour solo centuries. What the hell, right, you have the endurance and fitness, so why not? Good idea, but you have to be careful. In the past at this time of year, I've found myself pounding out mile after mile in the big ring, because I could. RPMs in the eighties have their place, but me and others I've know have tightened up our backs and needlessly beaten up our knees quite often by taking this approach. More importantly, for bike racing purposes, these rides have little value. The ability to mash the 53x16 for four hours straight at 22 mph will get you exactly nothing in our racing world.
A better approach, one which I strive to take, is to take any time you don't have a specific training goal to work on your pedaling. Notice I do not use the term spin. Too many people "spin" by thrashing away at a higher than normal cadence with little to no resistance. As soon as they are under then gun, and the pressure is on, they revert to their usual gear mashing style and grind it out at 80 rpm. Sometimes that works, but to me working on my pedaling means developing the "smooth power" spin defined by even, moderate tension on the chain and a round pedal stroke that appears effortless. Accomplishing this means building the muscle memory to the point that you do not need to concentrate.
You don't need to ride at high cadence all the time, and forcing yourself to climb like Armstrong is probably a bad idea. His extreme cadence under high power output reportedly took years of specific training to adapt to. In the short term, using high cadence in stressful situations will probably be less efficient. This is all the more reason to work on it -- in training. When you get out in a race, hey, whatever works. I tend to use bigger gears and lower cadence when I am sitting in a really fast line. The goal though, is to have all the weapons in your arsenal, so at crunch time you'll have a choice of what to use.
What does this have to do with chainrings? Well, in the meat of the season, sure, we all live in the big ring, and if I wanted to work on smooth power at high cadence, I'd be doing intervals at 40 kph. During the off season this is not the case. As an aging master, I may find myself in zone 2 evem when just tooling along at 25 kph, especially on a windy day or a shallow grade. If I want to ride at 100-105 rpm in my 41 tooth chainring, even the 17 cog will require 30-32 kph. If the conditions require me to slow down to 24 kph in order to stay in or near zone 2, I'd have to go all the way to the 23 cog. Even in these days of 10-speed carpet bombing cassettes, once you get past the 17 you have a two-cog jump between gears. Enter the 36 tooth ring. 100 rpm in a 36x17 comes out to just under 27 kph, not too brisk. Yet if I am feeling spry, I can click my way through the "straight block" portion of the cluster and be going 35 kph (105 rpm in the 36x14) before I even have to think about going to the big ring. In a nutshell, these gears are more suitable for my purposes during off season training. Never mind that when the occasional big climb does come, my 36x27 may be just right for keeping me in the saddle working on form, rather than lugging away with no benefit.
So that's the idea. No proofing, you've made me late already. I'll try to keep up the updates but I'm not sure how consistently I'll get them out in the morning. For now I'll keep extolling my ample wisdom through comments. Thanks for reading, mofos.
The workouts have been going OK. Friday night I tried out the mini-gym at the Lowder Brook building before heading out for five ~1k laps of the campus at dusk. This venue will be able to provide suitable workouts in a pinch. Saturday was especially productive, as I not only got my car inspected, but we also got KL's new cross bike experiment put together before heading out for an hour forty five shakedown spin. Later we went out to run some errands and had a nice little dinner date at Jaipur Cafe. Sunday morning we went out for a trail run, covering ~4 miles at (for me) an uncomfortably fast pace of around 8 minutes/mile before packing up so she could get to TF Green for her flight to Vegas and Interbike. This put me back at home (with houseguest for the week the Mighty F-man) in the early afternoon. I continued my productive weekend by doing some further straightening out of the bikeroom, as well as taking the Slim Chance out of mothballs. Still bearing some mud from racing at Battenkill-Roubaix back in April, the poor bike has sat in the basement since. After swapping on some pedals from the TT rig, I went out in the unseasonably warm temps for 2.5 hours on the road. The bike immediately felt perfect. The frame really is quite a bit more comfortable than my stiffer aluminum bike, and the position is perfect. I'll probably be riding this bike a lot over the next few months.
One bike difference though was the gearing (here you go GeWilli). The (road) racing season is over (probably). 'Cross does not hold the special place in my heart that it does for many of you. I've raced cross since long before many of you ever heard of it, and at times I enjoyed it immensely, but for the most part it has always just been a way to keep fit while doing something a little different. We laughed while reading all the accounts of September 'cross races where riders suffered meltdowns from performing the intensity of cross in the Indian summer heat. No shit Sherlock. The entire sport was invented as a way to ride your bike when it was too friggin' cold to ride on the road. Back-extending the sport into September was never part of the plan. OK, where was I? Oh yeah, so I have no real bike-specific training goals for the short term. I can do whatever I want, or do nothing at all. In the past, sometime I've taken the approach of Murat and gone out and tried to do things like five hour solo centuries. What the hell, right, you have the endurance and fitness, so why not? Good idea, but you have to be careful. In the past at this time of year, I've found myself pounding out mile after mile in the big ring, because I could. RPMs in the eighties have their place, but me and others I've know have tightened up our backs and needlessly beaten up our knees quite often by taking this approach. More importantly, for bike racing purposes, these rides have little value. The ability to mash the 53x16 for four hours straight at 22 mph will get you exactly nothing in our racing world.
A better approach, one which I strive to take, is to take any time you don't have a specific training goal to work on your pedaling. Notice I do not use the term spin. Too many people "spin" by thrashing away at a higher than normal cadence with little to no resistance. As soon as they are under then gun, and the pressure is on, they revert to their usual gear mashing style and grind it out at 80 rpm. Sometimes that works, but to me working on my pedaling means developing the "smooth power" spin defined by even, moderate tension on the chain and a round pedal stroke that appears effortless. Accomplishing this means building the muscle memory to the point that you do not need to concentrate.
You don't need to ride at high cadence all the time, and forcing yourself to climb like Armstrong is probably a bad idea. His extreme cadence under high power output reportedly took years of specific training to adapt to. In the short term, using high cadence in stressful situations will probably be less efficient. This is all the more reason to work on it -- in training. When you get out in a race, hey, whatever works. I tend to use bigger gears and lower cadence when I am sitting in a really fast line. The goal though, is to have all the weapons in your arsenal, so at crunch time you'll have a choice of what to use.
What does this have to do with chainrings? Well, in the meat of the season, sure, we all live in the big ring, and if I wanted to work on smooth power at high cadence, I'd be doing intervals at 40 kph. During the off season this is not the case. As an aging master, I may find myself in zone 2 evem when just tooling along at 25 kph, especially on a windy day or a shallow grade. If I want to ride at 100-105 rpm in my 41 tooth chainring, even the 17 cog will require 30-32 kph. If the conditions require me to slow down to 24 kph in order to stay in or near zone 2, I'd have to go all the way to the 23 cog. Even in these days of 10-speed carpet bombing cassettes, once you get past the 17 you have a two-cog jump between gears. Enter the 36 tooth ring. 100 rpm in a 36x17 comes out to just under 27 kph, not too brisk. Yet if I am feeling spry, I can click my way through the "straight block" portion of the cluster and be going 35 kph (105 rpm in the 36x14) before I even have to think about going to the big ring. In a nutshell, these gears are more suitable for my purposes during off season training. Never mind that when the occasional big climb does come, my 36x27 may be just right for keeping me in the saddle working on form, rather than lugging away with no benefit.
So that's the idea. No proofing, you've made me late already. I'll try to keep up the updates but I'm not sure how consistently I'll get them out in the morning. For now I'll keep extolling my ample wisdom through comments. Thanks for reading, mofos.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
re-intro run number three
MoveitFred may be running with the devil, but I'm right behind him. Last night I dressed my sorry carcass in my spiffy new Adidas running clothes and made it out the door for a 29:12 Tour of the Overlandscaped McMansion Neighborhood in the dark. This was run number three of the 2006-2007 off season. This summer I went 92 days without running, perhaps my shortest break ever. Truth be told, even though I've dabbled in running almost as long as I've been riding, most years I never kept it up enough to gain any benefit, and even my shortest and easiest fall runs usually resulted in crippling hamstring tightness and other maladies. This all changed back in 2002, when I found myself without employment in an extremely tight post-Sept 11 job market. I conceded to living off severance and being an almost full-time student, finally finishing off the bachelor's degree program I'd been slogging through at night for the prior five years. Man can not live by study alone, and so during the day I started to do really long walks with my neighbor's energetic Golden Retriever. These walks, along with some physical therapy I received for persistent low-back pain, conditioned my legs for running in ways that cycling never did.
The primary cause of my back pain had been diagnosed as a gross imbalance in the development of the muscles in the front of my legs when compared with those in the back. Having all friggin' day to stretch and recover didn't hurt either, and eventually I started to run consistently. Running became more that just survival, and I got to the point where I could actually drive my heart rate up a bit before my legs seized. This was all new to me as my cardiovascular system had always been way ahead of my running legs, although at this point in my life I'd been away from bike racing for almost five years and was not exactly a picture of fitness. At any rate, I never ramped up my mileage past fifteen miles a week or so, but at least I could do a run that would pass for a workout, and enter the local 5k and 5 mile road races and not have my finish listed on the last page of the results.
This past winter I ran more than ever, which is still not to say much. I worked my way up to occasionally running just over an hour for a total distance of about eight miles. For the most part though, I stuck to 35-40 minutes and four to five miles or so. This year's plan will be much the same. Since I've got about a ten day headstart on last year, I may be ready to do the 5 mile NRT race here in town on October 1, unless we go to race 'cross in Pittsfield. That's also the same day as the Mud, Sweat, and Gears off-road duathlon, which I've done once before and was pretty fun. After that, I'm thinking about skipping the Gloucesters and racing a duathlon in Elliot, Maine on Oct 7. The jury is still out on doing the Pinnacle Challenge on Oct 15. If my legs withold protest as I ramp up the running mileage in the next few weeks, I just might be foolish enough to attempt it. Duano said that he might be game. My budget has taken quite a beating recently with all the racing, so I'll need to factor that in to the decision making process as well. The third weekend in October is looking like it might be the best time for a foliage ride out of the KL North training center. Who is up for that? That might be the last chance for me to do such a ride, as the last weekend in October the Canton 10K falls on the same day as the Canton 'cross race. I am planning on doing the 10k, so that makes me a doubtful starter for the 'cross race, even though it is right on the run course. The conflicts continue on that day, as the final FIRM duathlon of the season takes place in nearby Wrentham. It's a tough decision, but the Canton foot race is a tradition for me, so it wins. Lower entry fee too.
Back to the top, this morning I took the road bike out over last night's run loop so I could measure the distance, which turned out to be 5.2k/3.2 miles, so my pace was a pedestrian 9:04/mile. At least my average HR was only 114, but I have my work cut out for me for sure.
There are lots of other topics to write about, but the work of the MAN beckons. If I have time I'll spew some words on diverse topics such as the eerie similarities between mine and Moveitfred's training, the TT going on at the World Championships, why I still haven't joined a gym, and the other (besides MoveitFred) tremendous athlete I know from Long Island, former Patchog-Medford wrestling star Paullywog. Oh yeah, then there is the 36 tooth chainring, and it has also been brought to my attention that Vinokourov bears a striking resemblance to Beavis. Thanks for reading!
The primary cause of my back pain had been diagnosed as a gross imbalance in the development of the muscles in the front of my legs when compared with those in the back. Having all friggin' day to stretch and recover didn't hurt either, and eventually I started to run consistently. Running became more that just survival, and I got to the point where I could actually drive my heart rate up a bit before my legs seized. This was all new to me as my cardiovascular system had always been way ahead of my running legs, although at this point in my life I'd been away from bike racing for almost five years and was not exactly a picture of fitness. At any rate, I never ramped up my mileage past fifteen miles a week or so, but at least I could do a run that would pass for a workout, and enter the local 5k and 5 mile road races and not have my finish listed on the last page of the results.
This past winter I ran more than ever, which is still not to say much. I worked my way up to occasionally running just over an hour for a total distance of about eight miles. For the most part though, I stuck to 35-40 minutes and four to five miles or so. This year's plan will be much the same. Since I've got about a ten day headstart on last year, I may be ready to do the 5 mile NRT race here in town on October 1, unless we go to race 'cross in Pittsfield. That's also the same day as the Mud, Sweat, and Gears off-road duathlon, which I've done once before and was pretty fun. After that, I'm thinking about skipping the Gloucesters and racing a duathlon in Elliot, Maine on Oct 7. The jury is still out on doing the Pinnacle Challenge on Oct 15. If my legs withold protest as I ramp up the running mileage in the next few weeks, I just might be foolish enough to attempt it. Duano said that he might be game. My budget has taken quite a beating recently with all the racing, so I'll need to factor that in to the decision making process as well. The third weekend in October is looking like it might be the best time for a foliage ride out of the KL North training center. Who is up for that? That might be the last chance for me to do such a ride, as the last weekend in October the Canton 10K falls on the same day as the Canton 'cross race. I am planning on doing the 10k, so that makes me a doubtful starter for the 'cross race, even though it is right on the run course. The conflicts continue on that day, as the final FIRM duathlon of the season takes place in nearby Wrentham. It's a tough decision, but the Canton foot race is a tradition for me, so it wins. Lower entry fee too.
Back to the top, this morning I took the road bike out over last night's run loop so I could measure the distance, which turned out to be 5.2k/3.2 miles, so my pace was a pedestrian 9:04/mile. At least my average HR was only 114, but I have my work cut out for me for sure.
There are lots of other topics to write about, but the work of the MAN beckons. If I have time I'll spew some words on diverse topics such as the eerie similarities between mine and Moveitfred's training, the TT going on at the World Championships, why I still haven't joined a gym, and the other (besides MoveitFred) tremendous athlete I know from Long Island, former Patchog-Medford wrestling star Paullywog. Oh yeah, then there is the 36 tooth chainring, and it has also been brought to my attention that Vinokourov bears a striking resemblance to Beavis. Thanks for reading!
Monday, September 18, 2006
A terrible thing to waste.
The question is: "What is a sick day?" Today I am really sick. It started last Thursday night. By Friday afternoon, my throat felt like it had swelled shut. I was working down in South Park for the day. Crippled by my misery, job duties alone were all I could handle, which explains why you weren't treated to a pre-weekend blog entry. First I tried battling the germs by going to the new Lebanese grill next door and ordering some mystery fish (whale?) bathed in pungent garlic sauce. Sadly, this did not do much to make me feel better. By 4:30 I was ready to put a gun to my head (thank goodness for the 5 day waiting period), so I left early and headed to the local Thai place for my secret weapon, the Fisherman's Soup. I absolutely, positively cannot even think about putting this stuff down unless I am phlegmed to the max. It is that hot. OK, well maybe I'm a wuss and don't really like hot food. But this is friggin' hot. And kinda thin/brothy, which is unusual. After the initial shock, which came just from licking my finger (huh-huh) after taking off the top of the container, I settled in and finished the whole bowl. Temporary relief was mine.
Of course, on Wednesday night, I was still feeling fine, and with the weekend forecast looking to be OK, I had gone ahead and pre-regged for the Bob Beal Master's Stage Race, right at the deadline. Now here I was, $60 poorer, barely able to move, with an 8 am start for the 42 mile road race Saturday morning, and the 3 mile Time Trial later that afternoon. Sunday's criterium stage would bring yet another 8 am start for the 45-49 men's group. All this was just what I needed. Not.
For anyone who doesn't know, this race is named after Bob Beal (duh). Oddly enough, Bob is still alive (AFAIK). The race has been around for about 20 years, and it has always had the same format. The event is put on by the Masters Cycle Racing Association (MCRA), and is a masters only event. Bob discovered cycling late in life, and he used to race with the other guys in the 60+ race. He continued to compete well into his seventies, even after receiving a pacemaker. Bob had a few extra bucks and he used to go to a lot of criteriums and put up $50 primes in every category. He also had a die made for some pretty fancy medals, and to this day "Bob Beal Medals" are awarded at some of the better events around New England. Bob was on the BOD for the USCF for many years, and he traveled around the world to all the big junior races. He was the patron for several riders, financing them when they needed it. As a master racer, Bob also shared the wealth with the MCRA, and to this day he still sponsors the race which bears his name. So now you know.
Back to my problem. The Bob Beal SR takes place in and around Charlestown, RI, which for me is about 75 miles from home. This falls into the range of far enough to be a pain in the ass to drive back and forth from for two days in a row, but too close to justify getting a motel. For the races down there, normally I just suck it up and deal with the drive. For an 8 am start though, this meant being in the car before 6 am two days in a row, and on Saturday I had to have both the road and TT bikes packed, as well as the trainer, clothes, and enough food/drinks to last all day. And I was sick and didn't feel like doing anything at all. Duano actually had room in his motel room (he lives in NH, so commuting was not an option), but seeing as I was sick, I thought it would be much nicer of me to keep my sickness to myself and not be spooning with a teammate on Saturday night.
Why even race at all? Because I'm an idiot. Besides, it was the last race of the year (maybe) and what if the hot soup did the trick and I started feeling better? I could always bag out after Saturday. Lucky for me, it was warm and dry here on Friday night, and I succeeded in finding the energy to get the car all packed up. Saturday morning, I still felt like shit, so I downed four Advil and just started driving south. Good luck continued, as the weather was extremely mild for this time of year, and there was no rain. Registration was also a breeze (not normal for this race) and I had my bike ready and number pinned up with 20 minutes to spare. After a few nature breaks we lined up and the 45 rider field rolled out.
I had just Duano and Timmmeee! for teammates. The RR course is pretty flat and we started fast. This was also the last race in the year-long MCRA series, and John Grenier (Arc-en-Ciel) and Brian Wolf (Bethel) were in a tight battle for the overall series championship, which brings with it free entry at all MCRA races next year ($500+ value). Not that either one of them seems to need the money (can you say $7000 TT bikes?). The battle was on. Both of these guys are good sprinters, so those teams wanted to keep it all together. Duano is usually right there with them at the end, so we wanted to keep it together too. Demo's Wonder Wheel had four strong riders, all excellent time-trialists, so they were more keen on getting a break going. And they tried. I tried joining them a bit too, but for the most part it was their attacks and the rest of us chasing, and the pace stayed high. Coming into the last few k, it was all together. Duano was up front marking Grenier. I was not in a good spot, but since normally I do well in the TT, it was also important for me to finish in the top 20 in the RR to get some points. I dive bombed the last turn on the inside, and ended up dirt-tracking pretty good when my back wheel slid out about six inches on the sand/mud. I kept it upright and slotted in mid pack as we wound it up in the final 600 meters. With about 300 meters to go my lane opened up, I picked off a few, but didn't have the speed to really get it done. I ended up 18th, and I was TOTALLY gassed from my effort. Grenier won, Duano got second, and Wolfie got fourth. Timmy was just ahead of me in 16th.
The 42 miles were covered in 1:37, not bad for a small group.
With three hours until my TT start, I felt like shit. I tried to re-hydrate and have a bit to eat, but the thought of getting on the trainer was almost too much to bear. The sun was now pretty strong and the temp was pushing 80. I had a nice parking spot with room for the trainer, but no shade. After spreading out my blanket on the ground and nodding off for a bit, I tried to fashion a shade curtain by putting my folding chair on the roof of the Geo and tenting the blanket down around the roof rack. This actually worked, except by the time I got done the sun had risen higher in the sky, and when I hopped on the trainer my head and neck were still in the sun. Whatever. I spun for a half hour to get the junk from the road race out of my legs, then got into my skinsuit and rode the four miles to the start of the TT, doing a few jumps along the way.
A three mile TT may sound easy, but since it is a TT, well, it may be short, but it's not easy. Just ask anyone who runs the 400m on the track how easy that is. This race is just one way, like a dragstrip, and pretty flat. Every second counts in any TT, but in this one, even hundreths count. They have fancy photo-electric timing (beep-beep-beep GO!), and everything. Last year I rode a 6:10 and was third out of everyone. Wolfie won with a 6:04. I really did not have confidence going into this. I had faked my way through the road race, but I could tell that being sick had left me with no reserves and that my power was going to be missing. At the lineup, my 30 second man failed to show up on time, and so I wouldn't even have anyone to chase. After making a smooth, pursuit style start, I settled down in my 54x14 and got a pretty good rhythm going. At the halfway point I think I was doing well, but then I started to fade. I stayed in the same gear all the way, but I was losing rpms. There is a little rise near the end, and I really fell apart there, and lost focus over the final 300 meters. 6:39. Shit, that sucks.
Limping back to the car, I knew my time would not be among the leaders this year. There may have been a touch of headwind, and everyone would be slower, but not by 30 seconds. Back in the lot, Duano came over to see how I did. He didn't believe me, because he had ridden a 6:45, and normally I blow him away in a TT. Wolfie rolled over and confirmed my suckiness when he told us he had posted a 6:20, which turned out to be the winning time. Later I found out I ended up 10th, so I got a few points. I shouldn't feel so bad, because I was sick, and rode my 22 year old, 26 pound converted entry level women's road bike, with 7 speed freewheel and aging HED disc, regular helmet, and no shoe covers against the likes of Wolfie on his custom aero TT frame complete with 808 dimpled rear disc and 808 front rim too, modern teardrop helmet, and every other conceivable TT goodie. I licked my wounds and headed home.
Saturday night I didn't feel so bad, just tired. 4:30 am came on Sunday and it was back on 95 south. The crit is held at Ninigret Park, which is perhaps the only purpose-built criterium course in the world. The park used to be an airbase for B-52's, so the 9 turn course is as flat as a pool table, literally. I checked results, and Duano was down to a tie with some others for 3rd overall behind Wolfie and Grenier, and I was 13th. I didn't get much warmup, so on the second of 24 laps, I took a flyer to get the legs going. Well, soon I was joined by seven others, with the lethargic pack trailing about ten seconds behind. Shit, this was not part of the plan. We had thought that Arc-en-Ciel would try to keep it together, as if Grenier won, Wolfie would have to finish 4th or better to keep the jersey and win the overall. However, their strongest all around guy, Todd "380 watts for an hour" Buckley was in the break and driving it. WTF? I was supposed to be back there helping Duane, but with Buckley in the break, there was no way it was going to go back, so I stayed in and just rotated through, trying to keep a low profile. After a few laps, Todd put in a big surge and the eight of us started to blow apart, with me in a bad spot near the back. Two of the guys gave up and went back to the peloton at this point, but I dug deep and clawed my way back up to the other five, who were regrouping. Buckley seemed satisfied with the damage he had done, and now the six of us rolled away easily, as every team was represented. This was killing our and Arc-en-Ciel's chances for the overall though, and I wasn't sure what to do. Doug O'Neill, normally a CTS rider, but on Demo's for the weekend, was in the break, and he was one of those nearly tied with Duano. Buckley was threatening too, so I thought I had better stay with them and try to finish ahead of them, thus denying them of some points.
Second guessing now won't do any good, but maybe I should have tried to have a word with Buckley to find out what he was doing. This wasn't exactly easy though, so conversation was not on my mind. I got in trouble a few times because my spot in the rotation was just ahead of Todd, and a few times he surged for his double monster pull before I had got out of the crosswind and fully tucked back in. We were up over 30 seconds most of the race. The break didn't sprint for the first prime they offered us, so the announcer gave the rest of them to the field, which was good, because this allowed Duano to pocket some extra cash. With two laps to go, I attacked the break. I was hoping that Todd would come with me and then the two of us could settle it in the sprint. Unfortunately, he just brought them all back up to me. Now the cooperation was over, and it was cat and mouse time. With one to go we were all just playing games, and the field was closing the gap. Most of all I wanted to beat O'Neill, but for some reason he had lined up on my wheel and wouldn't budge. We squirmed and swerved along the backside, and two chasers from the field started getting close. Someone was trying to convince the others that we were in danger and get somebody to jump. On the mini-straight before the final, an AFD guy bit and wound it up. I locked onto the left edge of the pavement to force anyone behind me to come around on the right, in the crosswind. I got Buckley's wheel, and we sailed past a Bill Thompson (Bethel) when he misshifted. There was also a sprinter guy from BiKyle Flyers with us, and he jumped around Todd and they sprinted it out. I fought as hard as I could, hitting 56 kph in the 12 in their draft, but I couldn't come around and went across in third. At least nobody came around me. Third on the stage paid $10. Duano got a $20 prime, plus $15 for second in the RR. He ended up tied with O'Neill on points for 4th, and I think the officials mis-applied the omnium rules and claimed the tie-breaker was the final finish, so they gave fourth to O'Neill and fifth to Duane. He got $50 for that so the three of us split $95 total. Kind of a bummer because Duano still would have had a shot at the overall if things had gone differently. It was still good for me to get third on the stage, and it was a nice way to end the season. I think I was 8th on GC, but the results haven't hit bikereg.com yet.
So back to waste, later Sunday night my nose started running like a faucet. I hate taking sick days when I am actually too sick to do anything, but there is no way I could work today. I am a mess. I did manage to clean a bunch of crap out of the bikeroom though. I pay $33/month for trash pickup, and since I live by myself and recycle most packaging, I am paying an average of $8.25 to get rid of the single kitchen bag of trash I generate each week. Well, today I got my money's worth and packed that fucking bin with all kinds of crap that I should have thrown out years ago. I also found some cool painting that I forgot I had, so now I have to find some hangers and add them to the walls. Yes, this was long, so you can go now. Sorry, but there is nothing much else for me to do. Thanks for reading.
Of course, on Wednesday night, I was still feeling fine, and with the weekend forecast looking to be OK, I had gone ahead and pre-regged for the Bob Beal Master's Stage Race, right at the deadline. Now here I was, $60 poorer, barely able to move, with an 8 am start for the 42 mile road race Saturday morning, and the 3 mile Time Trial later that afternoon. Sunday's criterium stage would bring yet another 8 am start for the 45-49 men's group. All this was just what I needed. Not.
For anyone who doesn't know, this race is named after Bob Beal (duh). Oddly enough, Bob is still alive (AFAIK). The race has been around for about 20 years, and it has always had the same format. The event is put on by the Masters Cycle Racing Association (MCRA), and is a masters only event. Bob discovered cycling late in life, and he used to race with the other guys in the 60+ race. He continued to compete well into his seventies, even after receiving a pacemaker. Bob had a few extra bucks and he used to go to a lot of criteriums and put up $50 primes in every category. He also had a die made for some pretty fancy medals, and to this day "Bob Beal Medals" are awarded at some of the better events around New England. Bob was on the BOD for the USCF for many years, and he traveled around the world to all the big junior races. He was the patron for several riders, financing them when they needed it. As a master racer, Bob also shared the wealth with the MCRA, and to this day he still sponsors the race which bears his name. So now you know.
Back to my problem. The Bob Beal SR takes place in and around Charlestown, RI, which for me is about 75 miles from home. This falls into the range of far enough to be a pain in the ass to drive back and forth from for two days in a row, but too close to justify getting a motel. For the races down there, normally I just suck it up and deal with the drive. For an 8 am start though, this meant being in the car before 6 am two days in a row, and on Saturday I had to have both the road and TT bikes packed, as well as the trainer, clothes, and enough food/drinks to last all day. And I was sick and didn't feel like doing anything at all. Duano actually had room in his motel room (he lives in NH, so commuting was not an option), but seeing as I was sick, I thought it would be much nicer of me to keep my sickness to myself and not be spooning with a teammate on Saturday night.
Why even race at all? Because I'm an idiot. Besides, it was the last race of the year (maybe) and what if the hot soup did the trick and I started feeling better? I could always bag out after Saturday. Lucky for me, it was warm and dry here on Friday night, and I succeeded in finding the energy to get the car all packed up. Saturday morning, I still felt like shit, so I downed four Advil and just started driving south. Good luck continued, as the weather was extremely mild for this time of year, and there was no rain. Registration was also a breeze (not normal for this race) and I had my bike ready and number pinned up with 20 minutes to spare. After a few nature breaks we lined up and the 45 rider field rolled out.
I had just Duano and Timmmeee! for teammates. The RR course is pretty flat and we started fast. This was also the last race in the year-long MCRA series, and John Grenier (Arc-en-Ciel) and Brian Wolf (Bethel) were in a tight battle for the overall series championship, which brings with it free entry at all MCRA races next year ($500+ value). Not that either one of them seems to need the money (can you say $7000 TT bikes?). The battle was on. Both of these guys are good sprinters, so those teams wanted to keep it all together. Duano is usually right there with them at the end, so we wanted to keep it together too. Demo's Wonder Wheel had four strong riders, all excellent time-trialists, so they were more keen on getting a break going. And they tried. I tried joining them a bit too, but for the most part it was their attacks and the rest of us chasing, and the pace stayed high. Coming into the last few k, it was all together. Duano was up front marking Grenier. I was not in a good spot, but since normally I do well in the TT, it was also important for me to finish in the top 20 in the RR to get some points. I dive bombed the last turn on the inside, and ended up dirt-tracking pretty good when my back wheel slid out about six inches on the sand/mud. I kept it upright and slotted in mid pack as we wound it up in the final 600 meters. With about 300 meters to go my lane opened up, I picked off a few, but didn't have the speed to really get it done. I ended up 18th, and I was TOTALLY gassed from my effort. Grenier won, Duano got second, and Wolfie got fourth. Timmy was just ahead of me in 16th.
The 42 miles were covered in 1:37, not bad for a small group.
With three hours until my TT start, I felt like shit. I tried to re-hydrate and have a bit to eat, but the thought of getting on the trainer was almost too much to bear. The sun was now pretty strong and the temp was pushing 80. I had a nice parking spot with room for the trainer, but no shade. After spreading out my blanket on the ground and nodding off for a bit, I tried to fashion a shade curtain by putting my folding chair on the roof of the Geo and tenting the blanket down around the roof rack. This actually worked, except by the time I got done the sun had risen higher in the sky, and when I hopped on the trainer my head and neck were still in the sun. Whatever. I spun for a half hour to get the junk from the road race out of my legs, then got into my skinsuit and rode the four miles to the start of the TT, doing a few jumps along the way.
A three mile TT may sound easy, but since it is a TT, well, it may be short, but it's not easy. Just ask anyone who runs the 400m on the track how easy that is. This race is just one way, like a dragstrip, and pretty flat. Every second counts in any TT, but in this one, even hundreths count. They have fancy photo-electric timing (beep-beep-beep GO!), and everything. Last year I rode a 6:10 and was third out of everyone. Wolfie won with a 6:04. I really did not have confidence going into this. I had faked my way through the road race, but I could tell that being sick had left me with no reserves and that my power was going to be missing. At the lineup, my 30 second man failed to show up on time, and so I wouldn't even have anyone to chase. After making a smooth, pursuit style start, I settled down in my 54x14 and got a pretty good rhythm going. At the halfway point I think I was doing well, but then I started to fade. I stayed in the same gear all the way, but I was losing rpms. There is a little rise near the end, and I really fell apart there, and lost focus over the final 300 meters. 6:39. Shit, that sucks.
Limping back to the car, I knew my time would not be among the leaders this year. There may have been a touch of headwind, and everyone would be slower, but not by 30 seconds. Back in the lot, Duano came over to see how I did. He didn't believe me, because he had ridden a 6:45, and normally I blow him away in a TT. Wolfie rolled over and confirmed my suckiness when he told us he had posted a 6:20, which turned out to be the winning time. Later I found out I ended up 10th, so I got a few points. I shouldn't feel so bad, because I was sick, and rode my 22 year old, 26 pound converted entry level women's road bike, with 7 speed freewheel and aging HED disc, regular helmet, and no shoe covers against the likes of Wolfie on his custom aero TT frame complete with 808 dimpled rear disc and 808 front rim too, modern teardrop helmet, and every other conceivable TT goodie. I licked my wounds and headed home.
Saturday night I didn't feel so bad, just tired. 4:30 am came on Sunday and it was back on 95 south. The crit is held at Ninigret Park, which is perhaps the only purpose-built criterium course in the world. The park used to be an airbase for B-52's, so the 9 turn course is as flat as a pool table, literally. I checked results, and Duano was down to a tie with some others for 3rd overall behind Wolfie and Grenier, and I was 13th. I didn't get much warmup, so on the second of 24 laps, I took a flyer to get the legs going. Well, soon I was joined by seven others, with the lethargic pack trailing about ten seconds behind. Shit, this was not part of the plan. We had thought that Arc-en-Ciel would try to keep it together, as if Grenier won, Wolfie would have to finish 4th or better to keep the jersey and win the overall. However, their strongest all around guy, Todd "380 watts for an hour" Buckley was in the break and driving it. WTF? I was supposed to be back there helping Duane, but with Buckley in the break, there was no way it was going to go back, so I stayed in and just rotated through, trying to keep a low profile. After a few laps, Todd put in a big surge and the eight of us started to blow apart, with me in a bad spot near the back. Two of the guys gave up and went back to the peloton at this point, but I dug deep and clawed my way back up to the other five, who were regrouping. Buckley seemed satisfied with the damage he had done, and now the six of us rolled away easily, as every team was represented. This was killing our and Arc-en-Ciel's chances for the overall though, and I wasn't sure what to do. Doug O'Neill, normally a CTS rider, but on Demo's for the weekend, was in the break, and he was one of those nearly tied with Duano. Buckley was threatening too, so I thought I had better stay with them and try to finish ahead of them, thus denying them of some points.
Second guessing now won't do any good, but maybe I should have tried to have a word with Buckley to find out what he was doing. This wasn't exactly easy though, so conversation was not on my mind. I got in trouble a few times because my spot in the rotation was just ahead of Todd, and a few times he surged for his double monster pull before I had got out of the crosswind and fully tucked back in. We were up over 30 seconds most of the race. The break didn't sprint for the first prime they offered us, so the announcer gave the rest of them to the field, which was good, because this allowed Duano to pocket some extra cash. With two laps to go, I attacked the break. I was hoping that Todd would come with me and then the two of us could settle it in the sprint. Unfortunately, he just brought them all back up to me. Now the cooperation was over, and it was cat and mouse time. With one to go we were all just playing games, and the field was closing the gap. Most of all I wanted to beat O'Neill, but for some reason he had lined up on my wheel and wouldn't budge. We squirmed and swerved along the backside, and two chasers from the field started getting close. Someone was trying to convince the others that we were in danger and get somebody to jump. On the mini-straight before the final, an AFD guy bit and wound it up. I locked onto the left edge of the pavement to force anyone behind me to come around on the right, in the crosswind. I got Buckley's wheel, and we sailed past a Bill Thompson (Bethel) when he misshifted. There was also a sprinter guy from BiKyle Flyers with us, and he jumped around Todd and they sprinted it out. I fought as hard as I could, hitting 56 kph in the 12 in their draft, but I couldn't come around and went across in third. At least nobody came around me. Third on the stage paid $10. Duano got a $20 prime, plus $15 for second in the RR. He ended up tied with O'Neill on points for 4th, and I think the officials mis-applied the omnium rules and claimed the tie-breaker was the final finish, so they gave fourth to O'Neill and fifth to Duane. He got $50 for that so the three of us split $95 total. Kind of a bummer because Duano still would have had a shot at the overall if things had gone differently. It was still good for me to get third on the stage, and it was a nice way to end the season. I think I was 8th on GC, but the results haven't hit bikereg.com yet.
So back to waste, later Sunday night my nose started running like a faucet. I hate taking sick days when I am actually too sick to do anything, but there is no way I could work today. I am a mess. I did manage to clean a bunch of crap out of the bikeroom though. I pay $33/month for trash pickup, and since I live by myself and recycle most packaging, I am paying an average of $8.25 to get rid of the single kitchen bag of trash I generate each week. Well, today I got my money's worth and packed that fucking bin with all kinds of crap that I should have thrown out years ago. I also found some cool painting that I forgot I had, so now I have to find some hangers and add them to the walls. Yes, this was long, so you can go now. Sorry, but there is nothing much else for me to do. Thanks for reading.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
My Smelly Skinsuit
I signed up for the Bob Beal stage race last night, right before the deadline. Sandy then extended registration until this morning. I knew I'd regret it if I missed the cutoff. Now we'll see if I regret signing up. Sometimes this race just gives me a headache, but in the end my thoughts were that this would help me preserve the fitness I've achieved this summer for a bit longer, thus giving me more time to ramp up my running program. Yesterday morning, with only a touch of soreness from Monday's inaugural jog, I headed out again, upping the duration to 18 minutes this time. There was some logging activity going on in the woods of the estate behind my house, and this kind of worries me, as I don't want to lose the resource. The owners are filthy rich, old money, so I am not sure what the deal is. I doubt they are selling to developers, as most of their land around town has already been put into a preservation trust. Possibly they are building a new house, as the nine bedroom mansion currently on the property is shown on zillow.com as only having one bathroom, which can't be much fun when you get as old as this guy is. My next-door neighbor is one of the caretakers for the property, so I'll have to ask him what's going on.
Today is Mom's birthday. I'd say Happy Birthday, but Mom lives over on the other side of the digital divide, so she'd never see it. Tonight I'll head over to the elderly housing project for a visit. Last night, in preparation, I trekked to the dreaded outlet mall to browse for a gift. As usual, I spent a lot more on myself. Still having not really updated my work wardrobe since reducing my girth, I sprung for three pair of Dockers. The 33 waist almost would have worked in the relaxed fit (killer thighs you know), but ultimately I settled on the safer 34's. Leg length is more of a problem. I don't know if I've shrunk or if pants have become longer, but I now step on a 34 inseam. Problem is, 32 can be just a bit short, and 33 is a very rare animal. So I went with the flood pants options. I really don't give a shit. After that, I checked the Saucony store, but they didn't have much. My Grid Hurricanes still have less then 50 miles on them anyway. I am not sure if I like them. I miss the cushy ride of the cheaper Grid Jazz that I used to run in, but they didn't have any of those. My running clothes inventory is non-existent, so I then went into the Adidas store and they had all kinds of cool stuff at reasonable prices, so I filled two bags with track pants, shorts, jerseys, and jackets. What a country.
This morning I'm searching high and low for my newest Polar HRM transmitter, which has gone missing since Haverhill. I think I found the strap, but I'm not sure if its the right one. My quest led me to my milk crate of dirty cycling clothes, which, since I've not been training this week, contained only my kit from Sunday at Haverhill. I'll be needing the skinsuit for Bob Beal, so while digging through to see if I'd inadvertently tossed the transmitter in there, I took the time to unpin the Haverhill number before washing it. For a 37 minute race, I managed to stink that thing up pretty good. Nothing like the science project that comes out of the dirty bag after a cross race (ever put your wet, muddy shitz into a grocery bag post-race, then lose it for a few days? Of course you have...), but a fucking nasty way to start my day nonetheless, and still no transmitter.
Hmmmm, I know there was something else, but we're up to 6 am now, and I've got the TT bike setup on the trainer for a little spin before work. My road bike fell over at Haverhill and it seems like the derailleur hanger got pushed in a bit, so I'll need to deal with that too. I forgot that Bob Beal rules make us race only in our own age group (no racing down), so Confocal Boy won't be giving a powerful leadout to his teammate Burke after all. And it's a damn shame that MoveitFred decided to sit this one out too. It could have been a blogspot jamboree on the Rhode Island coast. Oh yeah, now I remember, I was going to talk about psychopharmacologists. I saw this on Francine's blog, and I had to look it up. I thought that maybe I was one back in the "Save the Bales" days of my misspent youth, but I guess maybe that would have been psychopharmacist, although the psychoactiveness of chronic is still up for debate. I'm not really sure; I can't keep up with the kiddies these days. (BTW Francine, the crankset arrived yesterday safe and sound, thanks a lot!) And no, I don't take EPO, but thanks for asking, and thanks for reading.
Today is Mom's birthday. I'd say Happy Birthday, but Mom lives over on the other side of the digital divide, so she'd never see it. Tonight I'll head over to the elderly housing project for a visit. Last night, in preparation, I trekked to the dreaded outlet mall to browse for a gift. As usual, I spent a lot more on myself. Still having not really updated my work wardrobe since reducing my girth, I sprung for three pair of Dockers. The 33 waist almost would have worked in the relaxed fit (killer thighs you know), but ultimately I settled on the safer 34's. Leg length is more of a problem. I don't know if I've shrunk or if pants have become longer, but I now step on a 34 inseam. Problem is, 32 can be just a bit short, and 33 is a very rare animal. So I went with the flood pants options. I really don't give a shit. After that, I checked the Saucony store, but they didn't have much. My Grid Hurricanes still have less then 50 miles on them anyway. I am not sure if I like them. I miss the cushy ride of the cheaper Grid Jazz that I used to run in, but they didn't have any of those. My running clothes inventory is non-existent, so I then went into the Adidas store and they had all kinds of cool stuff at reasonable prices, so I filled two bags with track pants, shorts, jerseys, and jackets. What a country.
This morning I'm searching high and low for my newest Polar HRM transmitter, which has gone missing since Haverhill. I think I found the strap, but I'm not sure if its the right one. My quest led me to my milk crate of dirty cycling clothes, which, since I've not been training this week, contained only my kit from Sunday at Haverhill. I'll be needing the skinsuit for Bob Beal, so while digging through to see if I'd inadvertently tossed the transmitter in there, I took the time to unpin the Haverhill number before washing it. For a 37 minute race, I managed to stink that thing up pretty good. Nothing like the science project that comes out of the dirty bag after a cross race (ever put your wet, muddy shitz into a grocery bag post-race, then lose it for a few days? Of course you have...), but a fucking nasty way to start my day nonetheless, and still no transmitter.
Hmmmm, I know there was something else, but we're up to 6 am now, and I've got the TT bike setup on the trainer for a little spin before work. My road bike fell over at Haverhill and it seems like the derailleur hanger got pushed in a bit, so I'll need to deal with that too. I forgot that Bob Beal rules make us race only in our own age group (no racing down), so Confocal Boy won't be giving a powerful leadout to his teammate Burke after all. And it's a damn shame that MoveitFred decided to sit this one out too. It could have been a blogspot jamboree on the Rhode Island coast. Oh yeah, now I remember, I was going to talk about psychopharmacologists. I saw this on Francine's blog, and I had to look it up. I thought that maybe I was one back in the "Save the Bales" days of my misspent youth, but I guess maybe that would have been psychopharmacist, although the psychoactiveness of chronic is still up for debate. I'm not really sure; I can't keep up with the kiddies these days. (BTW Francine, the crankset arrived yesterday safe and sound, thanks a lot!) And no, I don't take EPO, but thanks for asking, and thanks for reading.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
This ain't really life
Who can identify the artist for those lyrics?
Way back when, I wrote that I was considering a post on names I've been called. I think I'll expand that to things that have been said about me. After all, this is all about me. Back in grades K-11 (since I never made it to 12), I was told many times I was too serious. Ironically, I was also told many times I was not serious enough. Seriously. I've read some blogs lately which I think might be too serious, by authors who are taking themselves too seriously. I'm not going to tell you which ones, because your boss says you're already wasting too much time reading blogs, and I shouldn't give you more reasons to let your mind wander at work. Besides, I already said they were too serious, so seriously, why would I want to recommend them? I want this to be fun.
Oooooohhh, let's get serious. Not. I've been called an asshole, an underachiever, a loser, a complainer, a douchebag, and a straw man, and that's just from the people with no imagination. I've also been on the receiving end of the heard too often by any tell-it-like-it-is realist, the "you've got a bad attitude." Then there are those who are a bit more original. After a particularly difficult meeting that included the then-CEO of my former employer (who was shit-canned not long afterwards), he pronounced that I had "an aura of negativity." Shit man, the guy was a suspenders wearing stuffed-shirt dickhead (never been called that...), but I must admit that one to the hall of fame. Woo-hoo! I've got an aura! A line-level employee at the same company, a particularly cantankerous older woman, once yelled at me in a fit of rage "you're nothing but a garbage mouthed flake!" Again, pretty cool. Still though, my absolute all-time favorite goes way, way, back, when my teenage cohort Pimpin' Fred told me frankly "you're critical as a motherfucker."
Critical as a motherfucker. It's been 27 years since I've seen Pimpin' Fred, but that one has stuck with me. You had to hear it coming from PF to appreciate the true meaning. Picture a 19 year old George Jefferson/Sherman Helmsley and you'll get the idea. He had a way with words.
Now my mates call me Fuckin' Foley, or FnF for short. We have our own little private mailing list, and since we are all pals, I can give them the untempered, critical as a motherfucker wisdom I so often keep inside. Even still, the years have left me much kinder and gentler; I am far more aware of the feelings and sensitivities of those I am so priviledged to share the planet with. Not everyone can handle the truth, at least not the way I sometimes interpret it. My teammates are pretty cool, but deep down they are still a bunch of pussies, so even though I let them think they are getting the full monty, it is really FnF light. Sometimes. Seriously. Thanks for reading.
Way back when, I wrote that I was considering a post on names I've been called. I think I'll expand that to things that have been said about me. After all, this is all about me. Back in grades K-11 (since I never made it to 12), I was told many times I was too serious. Ironically, I was also told many times I was not serious enough. Seriously. I've read some blogs lately which I think might be too serious, by authors who are taking themselves too seriously. I'm not going to tell you which ones, because your boss says you're already wasting too much time reading blogs, and I shouldn't give you more reasons to let your mind wander at work. Besides, I already said they were too serious, so seriously, why would I want to recommend them? I want this to be fun.
Oooooohhh, let's get serious. Not. I've been called an asshole, an underachiever, a loser, a complainer, a douchebag, and a straw man, and that's just from the people with no imagination. I've also been on the receiving end of the heard too often by any tell-it-like-it-is realist, the "you've got a bad attitude." Then there are those who are a bit more original. After a particularly difficult meeting that included the then-CEO of my former employer (who was shit-canned not long afterwards), he pronounced that I had "an aura of negativity." Shit man, the guy was a suspenders wearing stuffed-shirt dickhead (never been called that...), but I must admit that one to the hall of fame. Woo-hoo! I've got an aura! A line-level employee at the same company, a particularly cantankerous older woman, once yelled at me in a fit of rage "you're nothing but a garbage mouthed flake!" Again, pretty cool. Still though, my absolute all-time favorite goes way, way, back, when my teenage cohort Pimpin' Fred told me frankly "you're critical as a motherfucker."
Critical as a motherfucker. It's been 27 years since I've seen Pimpin' Fred, but that one has stuck with me. You had to hear it coming from PF to appreciate the true meaning. Picture a 19 year old George Jefferson/Sherman Helmsley and you'll get the idea. He had a way with words.
Now my mates call me Fuckin' Foley, or FnF for short. We have our own little private mailing list, and since we are all pals, I can give them the untempered, critical as a motherfucker wisdom I so often keep inside. Even still, the years have left me much kinder and gentler; I am far more aware of the feelings and sensitivities of those I am so priviledged to share the planet with. Not everyone can handle the truth, at least not the way I sometimes interpret it. My teammates are pretty cool, but deep down they are still a bunch of pussies, so even though I let them think they are getting the full monty, it is really FnF light. Sometimes. Seriously. Thanks for reading.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
End of the Road
Season. At least around here, this weekend is pretty much it. There is one wierd litte race down in Newport on Columbus Day, but other than that I think this is it. Cross already started last week, and from checking the results, it looks like we'll be seeing overflow crowds in the Master's races again this year. Pretty interesting demographic for this sport. I'm still undecided on racing at Bob Beal this weekend, but I still have 36 hours to think about it. Looking around my dwelling, it's pretty obvious I'm never here on the weekends. The place is out of control. If I skip the race and stay home, what are the odds I'll do something about it?
It's been almost a week since I updated. Sorry. You may think that I do this while at work, and since I've been on vacation, I just let it go, but that's not the case. Generally I write these posts first thing in the morning while waking up with coffee. Last week on vacation I slept in and tried to make the most of each day, and spent as little time as possible in front of a screen. After posting on Thursday, I rode an awesome loop that KL told me about on the backside of Newfound Lake. The road has a three-mile stairstep climb of almost a thousand feet, newly paved, smooth as can be. This lead to one of the most killer serpentine descents I've ever ridden. No traffic, just lots of moose crossing signs, as the road wound along a river, but the turns weren't so sharp as to require much braking. Very cool. That ended up being almost a three hour ride. Later that night we headed to Loudon to do the race on the road course at the New Hampshire International Speedway. I hadn't been up there in a few years, and the race is always fun. They had a decent crowd, but some of the better riders were awol and I ended up spending most of the race off the front either alone or with two other guys, pretty much sweeping up all the sprints. This brought my day up to almost five hours total, with some good quality, which was cool because on Friday I agained stayed off the bike and went golfing. Saturday I was back at home, enjoying truly spectacular weather with a two hour ride. Sunday KL and I raced the BOB crit up in Haverhill, but I had so many teammates in the race that we were practically in each other's way and I never got a chance to do more than just surf the front to slow things down while others were away in ultimately unsuccessful breaks. We later headed to the world's coolest wedding before ending the weekend at home.
This week I'm back at work, settling in to my group's new location in our Lowder Brook building. There is also talk of us moving to the Canton building, which would be really cool, as the gym and caf are way better there, not to mention it's at the foot of Blue Hill, and would offer both MTB and road riding right out the door. And it's closer to home as well. I have my fingers crossed, but it appears that I'm the only one in my group who is enthused about this possibility. Yesterday I finally got outside for a short run in the morning. Only fourteen minutes, but I just want to ease back into it. This is still ten days earlier than last year, and since I also kept it up later into the spring, I'm hoping to make rapid progress without sore legs. With any luck I'll have running fitness for a few races in the packed October calendar.
The past six or seven weeks saw me pile up quite a bit of time on the bike, so now, with solar glare already a safety issue during the tiny amount of daylight that is left when I get out of work, this will be a taper week for sure. The time has come to transition to morning workouts, but it usually takes me a bit to get used to the idea. The rest is needed, and with the Massachusetts Democratic primary next Tuesday, I need a little time to research the candidates. We have a three way race for the Gubenatorial candidate, which is odd, because this is a job that nobody seems to really want. The charismatic Deval Patrick seems like the obvious choice, but I can't help but think he's really got his eye on the Senate when Uncle Ted retires, or John "Big Hair" Kerry moves on to something else. We also have Chris Gabrielli, but so far he looks to me like soccer mom candidate who is trying to appeal to the sprawl-clones in the suburbs. Then we have Tom Reilly, who really looks like a patronage job dinosaur, and has found numerous ways to alienate me during his tenure as Attorney General. Not long ago he cut me off in the O'Neill tunnel while speeding through in his black SUV, so he's toast. Up in New Hampshire, their AG, Kelly Ayotte, is not only a cpf of The Cronoman, but she raced road, MTB, and even 'cross back in the day! Her politics leave a lot to be desired though. None of our clowns has anything about bikes on their websites, and so far Massbike doesn't have any endorsement.
Allright, enough of that. And to think I won't post a link to Murat because he is too political. Well, at least I'm local. Looks nice out there, off to Lowder Brook. Stay safe and visible, and have fun! Thanks for reading.
It's been almost a week since I updated. Sorry. You may think that I do this while at work, and since I've been on vacation, I just let it go, but that's not the case. Generally I write these posts first thing in the morning while waking up with coffee. Last week on vacation I slept in and tried to make the most of each day, and spent as little time as possible in front of a screen. After posting on Thursday, I rode an awesome loop that KL told me about on the backside of Newfound Lake. The road has a three-mile stairstep climb of almost a thousand feet, newly paved, smooth as can be. This lead to one of the most killer serpentine descents I've ever ridden. No traffic, just lots of moose crossing signs, as the road wound along a river, but the turns weren't so sharp as to require much braking. Very cool. That ended up being almost a three hour ride. Later that night we headed to Loudon to do the race on the road course at the New Hampshire International Speedway. I hadn't been up there in a few years, and the race is always fun. They had a decent crowd, but some of the better riders were awol and I ended up spending most of the race off the front either alone or with two other guys, pretty much sweeping up all the sprints. This brought my day up to almost five hours total, with some good quality, which was cool because on Friday I agained stayed off the bike and went golfing. Saturday I was back at home, enjoying truly spectacular weather with a two hour ride. Sunday KL and I raced the BOB crit up in Haverhill, but I had so many teammates in the race that we were practically in each other's way and I never got a chance to do more than just surf the front to slow things down while others were away in ultimately unsuccessful breaks. We later headed to the world's coolest wedding before ending the weekend at home.
This week I'm back at work, settling in to my group's new location in our Lowder Brook building. There is also talk of us moving to the Canton building, which would be really cool, as the gym and caf are way better there, not to mention it's at the foot of Blue Hill, and would offer both MTB and road riding right out the door. And it's closer to home as well. I have my fingers crossed, but it appears that I'm the only one in my group who is enthused about this possibility. Yesterday I finally got outside for a short run in the morning. Only fourteen minutes, but I just want to ease back into it. This is still ten days earlier than last year, and since I also kept it up later into the spring, I'm hoping to make rapid progress without sore legs. With any luck I'll have running fitness for a few races in the packed October calendar.
The past six or seven weeks saw me pile up quite a bit of time on the bike, so now, with solar glare already a safety issue during the tiny amount of daylight that is left when I get out of work, this will be a taper week for sure. The time has come to transition to morning workouts, but it usually takes me a bit to get used to the idea. The rest is needed, and with the Massachusetts Democratic primary next Tuesday, I need a little time to research the candidates. We have a three way race for the Gubenatorial candidate, which is odd, because this is a job that nobody seems to really want. The charismatic Deval Patrick seems like the obvious choice, but I can't help but think he's really got his eye on the Senate when Uncle Ted retires, or John "Big Hair" Kerry moves on to something else. We also have Chris Gabrielli, but so far he looks to me like soccer mom candidate who is trying to appeal to the sprawl-clones in the suburbs. Then we have Tom Reilly, who really looks like a patronage job dinosaur, and has found numerous ways to alienate me during his tenure as Attorney General. Not long ago he cut me off in the O'Neill tunnel while speeding through in his black SUV, so he's toast. Up in New Hampshire, their AG, Kelly Ayotte, is not only a cpf of The Cronoman, but she raced road, MTB, and even 'cross back in the day! Her politics leave a lot to be desired though. None of our clowns has anything about bikes on their websites, and so far Massbike doesn't have any endorsement.
Allright, enough of that. And to think I won't post a link to Murat because he is too political. Well, at least I'm local. Looks nice out there, off to Lowder Brook. Stay safe and visible, and have fun! Thanks for reading.
Thursday, September 7, 2006
Can't catch up with the working crowd
It's 6:10 am. KL just rolled out the door in the dawn's early light for her ride into work. The drone of truck tires on nearby I-93 breaks the morning silence, but other than that it's pretty quiet and isolated here at the KL North Training Center. The house is surrounded by woods, although the front yard is pretty big. I can almost take a full swing with a sand wedge and not reach the far side. That's right, I can hit golf balls right here at home. Of course, I have a better chance of finding the ones that I do drill into the woods than most of those that were lost yesterday at Crotched Mountain Golf Resort. Let's just say my A-game was nowhere to be found, and the thick undergrowth which fills the woods along the exclusively off-camber fairways did not give back anything. Ugly, ugly, golf.
This morning I reviewed the blog log and found many new visitors, as well as the usual suspects have been stopping by to find nothing new. The four computer-free days at GMSR inspired me to try and keep it up for most of this week too, and this vacation will be short enough as it is, but I can't let you down completely. There really hasn't been too much to report. I was pretty tired on Monday. Tuesday morning, it took me almost three hours to clean and lube the bikes. We've been having lube wars around here lately (there's a visual for you). KL has decreed that Pedro's Syn Lube attracts too much dirt and leads to filthy chains, so she has been using some sort of White Lightning stuff. Before D2R2 I cleaned up everything and generously applied some Pedro's Ice Wax to the chains on both cross bikes, and that seemed to work out well. There is a downside though; since it is water-based, everything has to be totally clean before applying it. The other issues I've found is that as a cable lube, the wax has too much stiction and causes issues with shifting.
Last month I got a bunch of Shimano-branded lube syringes from Nashbar for 99 cents each. I'm not sure what the lube is, but the applicators are terrific. Lubing up the cables and pivot points on the components is a piece of cake, very easy to get the lube where you want it, and keep it off anywhere you don't. Nice. Bad news is I forgot to bring one of these with me. Not to fear, as during the same purchasing experiment, I broke my aerosol boycott and picked up two cans of Finish Line Teflon dry lube. This is what I used on the chains and components Tuesday. I'd given each bike a rare, but needed, detergent scrubbing, leaving everything bare metal. The FL lube comes out of the tube quite thin, but it doesn't foam up, nor fly out like a jet the way some aerosol lubes do. Actually, it was quite easy to liberally apply it to the chains without getting it all over the place.
Once everything was done, I tooled on over to Laconia to visit Myles at MC Cycle Sport for some new brake pads. The drivetrain felt amazing! Everything was silky smooth and quiet. Maybe if I'd done this before GMSR, I'd have made top 65 in the prologue instead of top 75... Anyway, Myles was an official bike shop for the Timberman Half Ironman tri a few weeks ago, and he'd struck some kind of deal with race sponsor Aegis. His small shop was crammed with high end bikes, both Aegis' and Felts. He had a demo felt TT bike there that looked about my size, very tempting... He fixed up my brake pads and sent me on my way, fortunately without any damage to the plastic...
I felt OK on the ride home, but clearly my legs were still pretty cooked. There's not a lot of flat road around here, and I felt fast, with a good spin on the downhills, but seated climbing was, errr, painful. This made the decision to stay off the bike and just golf yesterday easy. Today I'm not quite sure what to do. We are planning on heading over to the Nascar track in Loudon tonight to race in the New Hampshire Cycling Club training series. The race will run on the road course, with its nine turns and two hills, including the infamous high speed "bowl" turn. I've not been there to race in several years, so it should be fun. It is run as a points race, with sprints every three 1.6 mile laps, and I should have a few BOB mates there too. Today, I'm tempted to go out on the quiet local roads here for a nice, long, relaxing morning ride. I'm just not sure whether all this would be too much. I hate to pass up the opportunity to ride in this area, and what the hell, I'm on vacation. I'll just have to see how I feel when I get out there. This might also be a good day to start running, but right now it looks like that is not going to happen.
Tommorow will bring a trip back to Mass, and some more golf. The prereg list for the Haverhill crit is not filling up too fast. I hope we get a respectable turnout. The weather looks pretty good. The start of cross season keeps getting earlier and earlier, and this seems to be hurting the end of season road races. The calendar is super crowded the next two months. We want to put together another epic group ride from here up to Tripoli Road and Waterville Valley sometime soon, but finding a suitable date could prove difficult. We'll do it though. That settles it, I'm heading out to scout some routes so that we can turn the ride into a legitimate 100 miler, as the direct path only comes to about 75. Thanks for reading.
This morning I reviewed the blog log and found many new visitors, as well as the usual suspects have been stopping by to find nothing new. The four computer-free days at GMSR inspired me to try and keep it up for most of this week too, and this vacation will be short enough as it is, but I can't let you down completely. There really hasn't been too much to report. I was pretty tired on Monday. Tuesday morning, it took me almost three hours to clean and lube the bikes. We've been having lube wars around here lately (there's a visual for you). KL has decreed that Pedro's Syn Lube attracts too much dirt and leads to filthy chains, so she has been using some sort of White Lightning stuff. Before D2R2 I cleaned up everything and generously applied some Pedro's Ice Wax to the chains on both cross bikes, and that seemed to work out well. There is a downside though; since it is water-based, everything has to be totally clean before applying it. The other issues I've found is that as a cable lube, the wax has too much stiction and causes issues with shifting.
Last month I got a bunch of Shimano-branded lube syringes from Nashbar for 99 cents each. I'm not sure what the lube is, but the applicators are terrific. Lubing up the cables and pivot points on the components is a piece of cake, very easy to get the lube where you want it, and keep it off anywhere you don't. Nice. Bad news is I forgot to bring one of these with me. Not to fear, as during the same purchasing experiment, I broke my aerosol boycott and picked up two cans of Finish Line Teflon dry lube. This is what I used on the chains and components Tuesday. I'd given each bike a rare, but needed, detergent scrubbing, leaving everything bare metal. The FL lube comes out of the tube quite thin, but it doesn't foam up, nor fly out like a jet the way some aerosol lubes do. Actually, it was quite easy to liberally apply it to the chains without getting it all over the place.
Once everything was done, I tooled on over to Laconia to visit Myles at MC Cycle Sport for some new brake pads. The drivetrain felt amazing! Everything was silky smooth and quiet. Maybe if I'd done this before GMSR, I'd have made top 65 in the prologue instead of top 75... Anyway, Myles was an official bike shop for the Timberman Half Ironman tri a few weeks ago, and he'd struck some kind of deal with race sponsor Aegis. His small shop was crammed with high end bikes, both Aegis' and Felts. He had a demo felt TT bike there that looked about my size, very tempting... He fixed up my brake pads and sent me on my way, fortunately without any damage to the plastic...
I felt OK on the ride home, but clearly my legs were still pretty cooked. There's not a lot of flat road around here, and I felt fast, with a good spin on the downhills, but seated climbing was, errr, painful. This made the decision to stay off the bike and just golf yesterday easy. Today I'm not quite sure what to do. We are planning on heading over to the Nascar track in Loudon tonight to race in the New Hampshire Cycling Club training series. The race will run on the road course, with its nine turns and two hills, including the infamous high speed "bowl" turn. I've not been there to race in several years, so it should be fun. It is run as a points race, with sprints every three 1.6 mile laps, and I should have a few BOB mates there too. Today, I'm tempted to go out on the quiet local roads here for a nice, long, relaxing morning ride. I'm just not sure whether all this would be too much. I hate to pass up the opportunity to ride in this area, and what the hell, I'm on vacation. I'll just have to see how I feel when I get out there. This might also be a good day to start running, but right now it looks like that is not going to happen.
Tommorow will bring a trip back to Mass, and some more golf. The prereg list for the Haverhill crit is not filling up too fast. I hope we get a respectable turnout. The weather looks pretty good. The start of cross season keeps getting earlier and earlier, and this seems to be hurting the end of season road races. The calendar is super crowded the next two months. We want to put together another epic group ride from here up to Tripoli Road and Waterville Valley sometime soon, but finding a suitable date could prove difficult. We'll do it though. That settles it, I'm heading out to scout some routes so that we can turn the ride into a legitimate 100 miler, as the direct path only comes to about 75. Thanks for reading.
Tuesday, September 5, 2006
Paper or plastic?
That's the story of my criterium at GMSR, because I decided to bag it and go home without racing. The first three stages went OK, but by Monday morning my desire to start my vacation and take a rest easily conquerred my waning enthusiasm to continue racing. I was riding OK, but I did not taper at all going into this race, and I probably did too much in the last few days before.
At the prologue, I felt pretty good in warmup, but I just could not keep my rhythm when the going got steep and I finished pretty far down. In the circuit race, everything was fine. The finish was fast, sort of like the old Pepsi Road Race, but not as downhill and on a nice wide road. On the two hotspot sprints, we flew through there double file, so I thought I might be able to move up at the end. On the finish lap though, it totally bunched up and they didn't start the sprint until about 100 meters to go (no shit) and so I was boxed in.
For the App Gap stage, the forecast for the 9 am start was 53 degrees and rain... uggh. We drove to the start, because it was pouring (it was only 4 miles from the condo, but all uphill). So then as my race went off, it stopped raining. There is about five miles neutral down off the mountain, and as soon as we descended it starting raining (pretty hard) again. It wasn't as cold as they forecast, so not too bad. Most riders had knee warmers, but I had full leg warmers on. Everyone had booties, and most had rain capes. I had long sleeve base layer, long sleeve BOB jersey, and a clear rain cape. It rained all the way to Middlebury Gap (about 28 miles). I took off my cape and stuffed it up the front of my jersey just before the road started to go up. The climb is about 3k long. The first k I moved up about halfway through the field, then I was near my limit so I just hung on, but I think I blew myself up, as I started falling back. One by one, the back half of the field came by me. At 1k to the summit, the wheel van was already coming by me. I continued to fade, and I swear I might have been the last one to reach the top. I knew it was now a training ride, so I stopped and put my jacket on for the descent. As soon as I started descending, I heard my rear brake pads clicking the spokes on my Shimano wheels. These wheels have funky spokes, and you can't let your pads get too worn. Well, apparently on the neutral descent in the gritty rain, I wore them out. So now I had to descend with just front brake, and only light feathering of the rear brake. Luckily, I was alone, and on that side of the mountains the weather was clearer and the road dried out about a mile down, just passing Middlebury College. My goal was just to get to the bottom, past all the hairy corners, before getting caught by the Cat 4 field from behind. I caught Paul Weiss (cross photographer guy) on the way down, and we made it to the bottom.
Once we got on the flat, we just rode, not too hard. Then a VT Statie came up behind us. I thought it was the 4's, but I don't know what the deal was, as just the two of us had a police escort for the next six miles or so. Finally, the lead group of the young 4's (there were two races, old and young) caught us. We tagged on, but after about a half mile I hear the officials beeping the horn, so I dropped back. The official in the car was a guy I've known for years, he runs the Wednesday Wompatuck, so I was a little Pee-Ohhh'd that he beeped me out (although this was the lead group, but I was just taking a little pace from the back). Weiss stayed in there too. I dropped back, then let the first chase group go too, then when another group of 4's came, maybe ten guys, I got in with them, as there were no officials to be seen at this point. They weren't good climbers, so I was able to pace with the best of them up the little wall before the dirt road.
We stayed together all the way to Baby Gap. One of these guys had a Brown U. jersey on, so I asked him if he knew Gewilli, and at first he said no, but then I described him as a 6'-6" guy who rides a Klein, and he immediately knew who I was talking about. I had my best Baby Gap ever, and went ahead with the better riders, and we swept up more 4's along the way. There is about 10k of flat/downhill between Baby Gap and the start of App Gap proper, and the hurricane winds were unreal! We came upon a horrific crash from the 4's, where 3 guys had been taken down by the wind on a descent. They were all going in ambulances. I almost got blown over. By now we had ridden though some more Masters (including Paul W.) from my group and there were four of us together. One guy starts giving me shit for sitting on some of the 4's. It was bullshit, as by now we are all off the back by 25 minutes and it was just onesies and twosies slogging up the final 4k climb. Me and one other 40+ were able to stay with and eventually drop the 4's, and we forged ahead. The wind was unreal, and going through the switchbacks sometimes it would be a tailwind that was so strong it was like getting a push. You would accelerate by about 5 mph, right on the steep! Sometimes it was a crosswind or a headwind too, as the switchbacks go back on forth.
Finally we got to the last pitch, which is about 500 meters at 20%, totally heinous. The crowds were wild, and I outsprinted the other master to take 59th or something, so I took about 10 spots on Baby Gap and App Gap, my best ever. As soon as we crossed the line, through the gap, it was raining and zero visiblity on the other side of the mountains. I put my jacket back on, and rode back down, then back up the climb to the ski area where the car was. That sucked. It ended up being almost four hours. I was fine afterwards, but after the way I got dropped on Middlebury Gap, I was kind of demoralized. My bike was filthy and my brake pads were toast. I finished the stage strong, but I still felt like I hadn't rested my legs enough before the race, and I was digging myself into a hole. I could have cleaned up my bike, got neutral support to replace my brake pads, and probably finished with the group in the crit, but I just decided to treat myself to a day off and bag it. I would have only moved up to 38th on GC by finishing with the group, and I already had a good season, so I started my vacation a day early. So this week I am playing some golf in NH with my team mates, doing some easy training, stretching, and maybe I'll start running. I'll see how I feel at Haverhill, but I'll only enter Bob Beal if I feel good and the weather forecast looks solid. It's been a long year, and I sort of feel like the road season is over now. I had fun up there though, and at least my endurance is good and I am nice and healthy for the start of the off-season. I hope you all had a fun and productive weekend. Thanks for reading.
At the prologue, I felt pretty good in warmup, but I just could not keep my rhythm when the going got steep and I finished pretty far down. In the circuit race, everything was fine. The finish was fast, sort of like the old Pepsi Road Race, but not as downhill and on a nice wide road. On the two hotspot sprints, we flew through there double file, so I thought I might be able to move up at the end. On the finish lap though, it totally bunched up and they didn't start the sprint until about 100 meters to go (no shit) and so I was boxed in.
For the App Gap stage, the forecast for the 9 am start was 53 degrees and rain... uggh. We drove to the start, because it was pouring (it was only 4 miles from the condo, but all uphill). So then as my race went off, it stopped raining. There is about five miles neutral down off the mountain, and as soon as we descended it starting raining (pretty hard) again. It wasn't as cold as they forecast, so not too bad. Most riders had knee warmers, but I had full leg warmers on. Everyone had booties, and most had rain capes. I had long sleeve base layer, long sleeve BOB jersey, and a clear rain cape. It rained all the way to Middlebury Gap (about 28 miles). I took off my cape and stuffed it up the front of my jersey just before the road started to go up. The climb is about 3k long. The first k I moved up about halfway through the field, then I was near my limit so I just hung on, but I think I blew myself up, as I started falling back. One by one, the back half of the field came by me. At 1k to the summit, the wheel van was already coming by me. I continued to fade, and I swear I might have been the last one to reach the top. I knew it was now a training ride, so I stopped and put my jacket on for the descent. As soon as I started descending, I heard my rear brake pads clicking the spokes on my Shimano wheels. These wheels have funky spokes, and you can't let your pads get too worn. Well, apparently on the neutral descent in the gritty rain, I wore them out. So now I had to descend with just front brake, and only light feathering of the rear brake. Luckily, I was alone, and on that side of the mountains the weather was clearer and the road dried out about a mile down, just passing Middlebury College. My goal was just to get to the bottom, past all the hairy corners, before getting caught by the Cat 4 field from behind. I caught Paul Weiss (cross photographer guy) on the way down, and we made it to the bottom.
Once we got on the flat, we just rode, not too hard. Then a VT Statie came up behind us. I thought it was the 4's, but I don't know what the deal was, as just the two of us had a police escort for the next six miles or so. Finally, the lead group of the young 4's (there were two races, old and young) caught us. We tagged on, but after about a half mile I hear the officials beeping the horn, so I dropped back. The official in the car was a guy I've known for years, he runs the Wednesday Wompatuck, so I was a little Pee-Ohhh'd that he beeped me out (although this was the lead group, but I was just taking a little pace from the back). Weiss stayed in there too. I dropped back, then let the first chase group go too, then when another group of 4's came, maybe ten guys, I got in with them, as there were no officials to be seen at this point. They weren't good climbers, so I was able to pace with the best of them up the little wall before the dirt road.
We stayed together all the way to Baby Gap. One of these guys had a Brown U. jersey on, so I asked him if he knew Gewilli, and at first he said no, but then I described him as a 6'-6" guy who rides a Klein, and he immediately knew who I was talking about. I had my best Baby Gap ever, and went ahead with the better riders, and we swept up more 4's along the way. There is about 10k of flat/downhill between Baby Gap and the start of App Gap proper, and the hurricane winds were unreal! We came upon a horrific crash from the 4's, where 3 guys had been taken down by the wind on a descent. They were all going in ambulances. I almost got blown over. By now we had ridden though some more Masters (including Paul W.) from my group and there were four of us together. One guy starts giving me shit for sitting on some of the 4's. It was bullshit, as by now we are all off the back by 25 minutes and it was just onesies and twosies slogging up the final 4k climb. Me and one other 40+ were able to stay with and eventually drop the 4's, and we forged ahead. The wind was unreal, and going through the switchbacks sometimes it would be a tailwind that was so strong it was like getting a push. You would accelerate by about 5 mph, right on the steep! Sometimes it was a crosswind or a headwind too, as the switchbacks go back on forth.
Finally we got to the last pitch, which is about 500 meters at 20%, totally heinous. The crowds were wild, and I outsprinted the other master to take 59th or something, so I took about 10 spots on Baby Gap and App Gap, my best ever. As soon as we crossed the line, through the gap, it was raining and zero visiblity on the other side of the mountains. I put my jacket back on, and rode back down, then back up the climb to the ski area where the car was. That sucked. It ended up being almost four hours. I was fine afterwards, but after the way I got dropped on Middlebury Gap, I was kind of demoralized. My bike was filthy and my brake pads were toast. I finished the stage strong, but I still felt like I hadn't rested my legs enough before the race, and I was digging myself into a hole. I could have cleaned up my bike, got neutral support to replace my brake pads, and probably finished with the group in the crit, but I just decided to treat myself to a day off and bag it. I would have only moved up to 38th on GC by finishing with the group, and I already had a good season, so I started my vacation a day early. So this week I am playing some golf in NH with my team mates, doing some easy training, stretching, and maybe I'll start running. I'll see how I feel at Haverhill, but I'll only enter Bob Beal if I feel good and the weather forecast looks solid. It's been a long year, and I sort of feel like the road season is over now. I had fun up there though, and at least my endurance is good and I am nice and healthy for the start of the off-season. I hope you all had a fun and productive weekend. Thanks for reading.
Friday, September 1, 2006
FKDIGT
Somehow this one got left out on dance week. Although deciphering this acronym will be far less difficult than making sense out of most posts on the Team BOB mailing list, you're of course free to venture a guess. My choice of spelling might be subject to debate, but hey, it's my blog.
The Green Mountain Stage Race starts today, which means I have to be on the starting line in Vermont in about ten hours. Since it's almost a five hour drive, this will have to be short. My prep this week wasn't so great, no riding Sunday-Tuesday due to rain, but I did get a massage on Monday. Wednesday night I headed down for the last Cat 3-4-5 amateur night at Wompatuck (Tuesday night Titans rained out), winning handily, but most of the Wednesday guys don't even race on the weekends. Last night I went over to Big Blue for a few repeats, which may not have been the best idea, but I didn't feel like riding in traffic. That brought me up to 47 hours on the bike in August (biggest month this year), and 271 for the year so far. This also marked the end of three years using the Polar training software, and I have 1052 hours on the bike logged in those 36 months.
So we'll see how it goes at GMSR. This is not an "A" race for me by any means. My knees are a little cranky today, and it might be rainy up there, and it'll definetly be cooler than I'd like it. I had to get the sweatshirts out this morning, as it is chilly outside already. Last year I didn't start running until Sept 26, so if I can start next week, I'll be starting a full three weeks sooner. I've also got golf partners from BOB lined up for next Wednesday, so that should be a fun rest day.
Not sure if we'll have internet access at the condo, so maybe there'll be no updates until next week. Not sure WTF is up with Gewilli's last post, I can only assume he got into the catnip on his birthday or something. Hope you all enjoy a nice long weekend, stay dry, stay fit, and stay sane. Thanks for reading.
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