The TODAY Show -Nodcast 7

Cyclocross Season

Your hero, resplendent in his new Hasyun-Weebike GRAPE CRUSH kit, rocking the Sucker Brook course.

How about a quick round of uncreative writing? It's been a while. I'll begin by saying this is NOT the year. I need to get my knee scoped really soon, so I'm operating on one cylinder for the moment. I can't run, I can't jump, I can't sing. In the meantime - bike racing!

Cross season should just be starting. But it's been going for over a month. Fucked up, but beyond my control. If you can't beat them, join them, so I raced the double up in Vermont in September. Hands down the best venue in New England, at least when the weather is nice, which it was for the second year in a row. Totally cool atmosphere, awesome courses, lots of fun. The racing kind of sucked for me, as I'd just torched my knee and could barely walk, but pedaling was OK. I took a bunch of Advil and did my best. Rob took a bunch of pictures. Monday was ugly.

I just had to go check crossresults.com because I couldn't remember what came next -- Sucker Brook! My knee was still totally f'd but this one went pretty well regardless. Since I can't run, I'm starting at the back to avoid getting trampled at the first barrier. This causes me to pace myself and actually ride the races negative split style. SB had a smaller than average field too, with the big gunners doing the 1/2/3 and others skipping out, so I ended up 11th in the 42 rider 45+ field.

Gloucester - I was pre-regged like six months ago, because you have to in order to get in. Sucker Brook had practically left me in a wheelchair, so my race-readiness was doubtful. But, with the promoter openly ridiculing his race participants on twitter for having the audacity to ask for a refund even though he had a huge waiting list, I was left with no choice but to pick up my numbers, just to keep him from reselling the spot and pocketing the extra $45/day. I'd rather take two DNFs, and the SAT-like crossresults scores that went with them.

Saturday's course was shitloads of running. I skipped it and hoped for better on Sunday. Which it was. At least there was some flow, as opposed to Saturday, which seemed thrown together. I started pretty far back, but the first lap went well, and I even got on the handlebar cam. But you've probably already seen it. However, just after riding away from bar cam guy, I railed the turn behind the backstop, rolled the front tire and dumped it.

This left me pretty upset. Until that moment, I'd never rolled a tire in 25 years of racing on tubulars. Hmmm. My faith in 3M Fasttack was shaken, even though this particular tire had been glued on two years ago. Upon investigation though, I realized/remembered that I hadn't used Fasttack for this set. These were the first Challenge tires I'd purchased, so I used the hallowed Vittoria Mastick instead. Raced on them in California a few times, but for the most part they just sat in storage out there. Until it rolled off, ending my 2011 G-ster campaign after a glorious half lap.

I sat Providence out. I wasn't going to preregister, just in case I got my surgery scheduled in time. We went down to watch and hang out, but I saved the $90 and did not race. BTW, I did not do either of the mid-week night races, not so much due to injury, but because I am too old for that shit.

That brings us up to this past weekend. Saturday I went bike riding. My knee felt good. So long as I don't run, jump, try to bend/straighten it fully. So I went to the MRC CX race on Sunday. Did the 1/2/3, as the masters race was early in the morning, and I'm getting really used to not getting up early. I also had a single speed bike with me, just in case I wanted to do that race.

This was my first time at this venue. Years ago there was a cross race right across the street, at the "snowmobile farm," which was hilly. The fairgrounds ? (appeared to be a vacant lot with a tent on it) where the race is now was mostly flat, except for one big hill that went up into some dude's yard. The course seemed OK at first glance, but after racing on it I have to give it the solobreak Seal of Disapproval (S.O.D.) Here is why. (or have a look for yourself. If you make it through this snooze-fest, you'll see that for some reason the 45+ race skipped the flyover, but it was back later in the day when I raced)

Somewhere in the rulebook that nobody reads, it says something like "cross courses shall be a mix of all kinds of shit, with shit sections alternating with OK sections in order to give the riders a chance to recuperate between more difficult shitty sections and less difficult shitty sections" The MRC course did not adhere to this rule. All of the more difficult shitty sections were strung together in one big lump. When you got to the bottom of the world's jankiest flyover (more on that in a minute), you were thrust into boggy/tacky SLOW muck. Cool right? Yes, pure power. It went for about 100 meters, then some barriers which were actually a rest area, a Twizzler feed zone, then another 200 meters of bog grass. That lead to the homestretch, which was flat and sort of paved, straight into the wind, i.e. a power section. At the end of said straightway, there was a fucking hill. On tacky grass. Into the wind. If you made it to the top of that, you descended for about three seconds before turning around and climbing the fucking hill again. This time, at the top, there was a weave back and forth section of tight turns. I was so sick of pedaling by then (and you know I LOVES me pedaling) I just jumped off and ran. Another nanosecond of descending, u-turn, back up the hill to the highest point on the course. End of more difficult shitty section.

From there the rest of the course was the "rest" of the course. About 80 slow-assed turns strung together one after another, sometimes with a few pedal strokes in between. Most of them were single-line, loose, and slow. Leading back to the flyover...

I am a pragmatic mofo. I can understand that having a flyover opens up a lot of possibilities to the course designer, perhaps making it worth the effort. But I have to give this one the Lamest Use of a Flyover Ever award. Having a cross course that can cross itself is kind of cool. You can have a modified figure-8, and an equal number of left hand and right hand turns. There were lots of places they could have put it and done just that. And broken up the more difficult shitty sections, interspersing them with some of the less difficult shitty sections while they were at it. But they didn't. For some reason, the flyover was tucked way over in the corner of the field. I can only imagine they were hiding it to avoid a surprise visit from Mr. Building Inspector. But upon descending, you just made tight loop, clockwise, same as the course, and rode under.

W.

T.

F.

???????

Anyway, I have no fitness, especially with only a half lap of racing in the past two weeks. So I sucked. After two laps, the onebigfuckingmoredifficultshittysection got to me, and I cracked and sat up. After the 75 slow-assed turn section, I was recovered, and started trying to focus again, but then I got lapped by the eventual winner, who I think was one of Reuter's two-hundred housemates.

If I'd any brains I'd have called it a day, but since I'd spent over an hour getting my single speed bike ready, I lined up for that too. They had a Lemans start, great for me now that I can't run. I went through the motions, but climbing the sucky hill on a 42x19 blew dogs. I didn't get lapped though, and finished a 40 minute race after finishing a 50 minute race, making for 90 minutes of cyclocross. Honest to god, I sat on the tailgate of my car motionless for fifteen minutes regaining my composure. So it had that going for it.

So, not too creative. Maybe tomorrow, or later in the week. I'm really tired of hearing all the whining about sandbagging BTW. And age groups. Last time I checked, everyone has exactly one age. Every sport has age groups. From Little League to pro golf. It is the most sensible way to handicap competitors. Categories on the other hand, are totally arbitrary. In case you didn't notice, we have them on the road not because riders have different physical abilities, but because road racing pack dynamics dictate that all participants adhere to group norms in order to keep the mess reasonably safe and orderly. Riders of a given category tend to behave more or less the same, making things predictable. Somewhere along the line someone got the idea that extending this concept to competitions like MTB and cyclocross, which do not have pack racing per se, was a good idea. Now you have totally arbitrary, largely self-assigned handicapping. Of course it's a shit show. Thanks for reading.

420!

Bang a Gong

It's 4:35 am and I have to meet Mr. StartFinishBikeNews in less than an hour for the drive out to D2R2. I'm signed up for one of the old man D2R2 Light routes, because I haven't been active enough to take on the real D2R2. If I don't lose power tomorrow, maybe I'll blog about it. Thanks for reading.

Ashmont Train Mutherfuckas!

OK, I stole that title from AFM. But, since we're lacking content around here lately, theft is on the table. So is recycling, and that's exactly what I'm about to do, recycle an email that I sent to Shah-bow earlier today. You see, our hillbilly hero from South Canada, aka Northern Vermont was getting some advice on how to navigate the T from Kendall Square to the $65 a night Motel 6 in Braintree that the skinflint was using for A BUSINESS TRIP! But since there would be alcohol involved, public transit was preferred, and I guess the Quincy Marriot was just too pricey for the already over budget turd polisher project. With any luck he'll be able to scam a few Natty Lights from the wife-beater clad dudes in the room next to his, saving a few more bucks. And of course more good news is that the Red Line is a straight shot from Cambridge to Braintree, with one caveat: the fork in the line. I reminded him to make sure he got his drunken ass on a train marked "Braintree" and not "Ashmont." Which reminded me of a story. Somehow I think maybe I told this one before, but I searched the blog and found no traces, so here goes.

You guys know that I'm a Red Sox fan of sorts. Never been to a Bruins game, nor a Celtics game, and only once went to a Patriots exhibition game. But as a (poor) kid, somehow I still managed to go to a shitload of Red Sox games, and these days I try to attend at least once a year. In elementary school, we used to take a private Brush Hill Transit bus from Stoughton into Mattapan, where we would get the trolley, go to Ashmont, get on the subway, go to Park Street, and then take the green line to Fenway for the afternoon games. I hope all you overprotective parents are paying attention here. Blows me away that people don't let their kids do anything these days. But anyway, one time we go and we of course we spend nearly every dime we have on Sports Bars, cokes, etc. Getting into the game was only 50 cents sometimes when they had the after-school special on right field grandstands. Bleachers were $1.25 at the time. So we each save a quarter for the ride home. The private bus didn't run at night, so my Dad (who would be 82 today, Happy Birthday Dad) was picking us up in the 'pan.

But... we make the mistake of getting on a Quincy line train, which was brand-new at the time (and did not go all the way to Braintree either), and so it confused us, as in the past all Red Line trains went to Ashmont, where you got a free transfer to the trolley.. We get to North Quincy and realize our mistake, but luckily that train deck is in the middle of the tracks, and we can just get out and get right on an inbound train without paying again. But geniuses that we are, we get out at Andrew, where the platforms are on the outside of the tracks. We leave the station... And cannot get back in the outbound side. The guy at the counter is a dick and won't let us in for free, even though we are obviously helpless kids from the suburbs, and not urban hoodlums. Nightfall is approaching. This is in the days before cell phones of course. We use our one remaining thin dime to call Mom at home. Collect, because it is long distance. She calls my Uncle Joe back at the Foley homestead in Hyde Park, and he drives to Mattapan to tell my father of our plight. My dad is there, and has already rescued three of our other stupid friends who had also gone to the game, successfully made there way back to Mattapan, and then realized they too were stranded because the private bus didn't run after 5 pm. So my dad drives in to Andrew and finds us huddled on the sidewalk in big bad Dorchester (just a few blocks from Upham's Corner where my Mom grew up, but still...). Then he gets into it with the T guy who wouldn't let us in, and the guy calls the cops, so we all pile into the Oldsmobile and flee the scene. Good times.

So of course there are a few morals to this story. One, let your fucking kids out of your sight once in a while, so maybe when they're 50 they won't just be writing stories about how they played X-box and went on play dates and took ballet lessons. And two, ASHMONT TRAIN MOTHERFUCKERS! Unless you're Jerry, then make sure you take Braintree.

Douching it up at AToC

Doing the dirty work.



Our boy Ted relaxes in the TT starthouse.



Saturday it was on to Glendora Mountain Road for the Mt. Baldy stage. There is a peloton and caravan down there someplace. This is the road I rode up.



The main field comes through.

Not much riding for me yet, just spectating. Our friends at Rabobank hooked us up with hospitality tent passes for the TT in Solvang on Friday. Food, drink, and schwag, what more could I ask for? Saturday I did get to ride a little bit, doing the main descent on the course and then riding back up to watch at the KOM. Yesterday I rode over to the Balcom Canyon KOM (only about eight miles from the house), rode down it, came back up (nearly put a foot down, no fitness) but did not stick around for the race to come through. We again did the Wayne's World thing with VIP passes, this time from United Healthcare, so we beelined over to Thousand Oaks in time to take in the five laps on the finishing circuit. Schwag haul even better!

Now that's over with and it's time to work on my fitness. Weather looks decent, mid 60s forecast for the entire week. Having ridden three hours total in the past two weeks, this might hurt. Should have time to update later. Thanks for reading.

Half a Season Off

Yo Adrian! I'm down but not out. Today I'm coming off an eight day stretch of not riding a bike. For that matter, I haven't run, or done anything specifically athletic at all during that time. My fitness is... poor right now. But I'm not allowing myself to get too depressed about it, and in fact I sort of planned it this way. You see, over the winter, burnout reared its head quite significantly for me. Last winter (and to a lesser degree the two winters prior), I did not take much of a break from training. With CX races in December, running in January, and favorable weather for riding during the early spring, my training year wound up extending to twelve months. The road bike race calendar starts early these days, so you have to train a lot in February and March to do well. And summer is summer. Then fall, where 10ks and CX keep me busy every weekend. Add it all up and around Christmas 2010 I was completely cooked.

A month off from the bike did nothing it seemed. Maybe that was because I ran enough to finish the Boston Prep 16. But mostly I think it was a deeper fatigue, both mental and physical. I saw my doctor and got my blood checked, and we talked about the dizzy spells I sometimes experience, and she asked me if I eat enough. Yeah I know, hard to believe. My blood numbers were a little better than they were in the fall, but my HCT is still only around 40%, discouraging for a wannabee athlete, but not abnormal. So I started eating more, and the dizzy spells disappeared, but in their place I got my luv handles back. At 175 pounds I'm up over 3 kg from where I stayed in 2008-2009 (yes I mix metric and Ronnie Ray-Gun measures, deal with it), but blogging isn't the only thing I've been skipping out on; I haven't been training much.

Why? Well besides burnout, the winter sucked in New England if you didn't notice. So if there was ever a good time for an extended break, this was it. I've also been busier than usual at the workplace. Instead of just talking to myself, I have more people listening to me lately, so I've spent a lot more time figuring out what to say. My capacity for stuff other than relaxing is quite limited, so more of one thing means less of everything else, hence more job = no blogging, less training. Another issue was that my body still refuses to allow me to maintain a regular schedule of running without it complaining about something. This time it was my calf, the one that had a shit fit during the Paddy Kelly 5 miler. I nursed it along for several weeks, but eventually gave up on running almost entirely. By the time it was healed (at least I think it must be), riding season was here and with limited time to get out I've been on the bike whenever possible. It's not like I've been completely sedentary, but with only 70 hours or so on the season, my total volume at this point (running and riding) is less than half what it's been the past several years.

I've tried to make up for it by training harder when I do get out, but that's been offset by a lack of racing. My normal m.o. generally involves just riding, but doing it often, and racing every weekend possible. Not to say I "race my way into shape" like so many others try to do, but I don't slave over intervals on the trainer either. I ride a lot because I like to, and I think those "junky" miles are still beneficial for things like polishing my pedaling technique, and they lay the base for the intensity of racing, which is where the critical abilities get developed. But you have to do the hard stuff sometime, so since I'm not competing (no running races since the PK5, and only two Ninigrets on the bike), when I get out on my bike I've actually been trying to make it count. More on that later maybe.

So what about the past eight days? Certainly not a weather issue. No, this week was something I've known about for a while, and one of the big reasons why I decided to skip the spring road season. Moving! After almost 21 years, cleaning up, packing up, and moving ALL my shit was quite a project, even though I only went about 30 feet west to the other (bigger) side of the duplex. Hence the swap meet to try to unload some of this stuff (plenty more left, I'll post a list soon, promise). This past week was D-Day, or M-Day as it were, thus I had ZERO formal workouts, but plenty of work. Today I'm finally all-out after being all-out for eight days (did not take any time off work either) and now I'm all-in the new side. Things might sort of return to normal. First I'm off to AToC on Thursday for the Solvang, Baldy, and T.O. stages. Keep your fingers crossed that Ted King stays in until I get there this time. That's it, we're out of time, gotta go, more later this week! Thank you for your patience, come again.

Swap Meet

This Saturday, April 30 at the Northeast Velodrome in Londonderry, NH. I will be there trying to sell stuff. Will try to post a list and some pictures tonight. Make plans now! Thanks for reading.

Mega Product Review Post

You've waited a month, so I'll put some effort into this, but not too much. I'm not sure how much energy I'll have for things like fact checking, so don't get too excited over any details. You have been warned.



All the goodies. Bike, trainer, power meter, tires. Let's do this.


Motobecane Le Champion Something

This will be not so much a product review as a history lesson (surprise!) and long-term road test report. The Motobecane name goes back a long way in cycling. There was a time when French bikes were the thing. My first 10 speed was a Lapierre, picked up used in the early 70's, when I was 11 or 12. It came complete with Mafac brakes, Simplex derailleurs, and a "Tour de France" decal on the top tube. Though a thousand times nicer than the Schwinn Varsities, Sears Free Spirits, and Fleetwings ridden by my punkus domesticus contemporaries, the bike was really just a "bike boom" low-end import. But I rode the shit out of it. Later in the decade during my brief foray into high school, my 10th grade business teacher Mr. Law used to commute to South Easton from Cambridge, a rather impressive feat. One day I asked him what kind of bike he rode, and he said a Motobecane. This influenced me into thinking they must be decent bikes.

Fast forward another several years to 1984. I had not touched a bike since, well, the Lapierre fell apart, or was stolen; I really don't remember. Deciding I needed to get some aerobic exercise, I went bike shopping. The shop I ended up in carried three makes: Schwinn, Motobecane, and some new, super expensive bikes called Cannondales. I was on a budget, and the low end Schwinns did not seem so great. Heavy. But the Motobecane Nomade was priced at just $169. I bought one, a 25" frame. Yeah, I know. Turned out it was not such a great bike either, but it got me going and I worked my way up to about 30 miles at a stretch. One thing led to another and a few years later I upgraded to a racing bike, went to Wells Ave, and the rest is history...

Fast forward again for another twenty years, and it's 2006. I'd had only one foot in the sport while attending night school, and my 1994 Slim Chance was my primary ride, having not purchased a new bike in quite a while. Racing regularly again and finding 10-cog cluster were the current norm had me jonesing for a new bike. But my funds were limited. I'm all for supporting the local LBS, but at that time I did not have a shop sponsoring my club, and this new website called bikedirect.com had just appeared. This site had incredible prices on bikes with top-notch components. Most of them were Motobecanes. I thought this was strange, as French bikes hadn't been popular in US racing since the Peugot PX-10s of the late 80s. And the prices were so low, something smelled fishy. Researching revealed that the guy who owned the domain also owned a chain of around thirty bike shops in Texas. Motobecane had gone bankrupt a few years prior. This guy had bought the rights to use the name in the US from them at the liquidation. So now the "real" Motobecanes were marketed as "MBK" in Europe, and they even sponsored a ProTour team or two. But the bikesdirect.com Motobecanes had nothing to do with them. This guy had just figured the name had value in the US because old fucks like me still associated it with good bikes. Like so many other manufacturers, he was having bikes contract-built in Taiwan, and slapping the recognizable brand name on them. What was unique was that he was selling them direct to consumer over the internet as complete bikes, which was not common at that time. And he was spec'ing them with top-shelf components rather than no-name stuff.

The model I selected was this aluminum frame with carbon fork. It came with Ultegra 6600 10 speed shifters, Cane Creek brakes, FSA carbon compact crank, Ritchey cockpit, and American Classic AC 420 wheels shod with Vittoria tires. For $1295 delivered. Even at that time this was a rock bottom price. The wheels alone were around $700 on the internet. Despite having some reservations I took a chance and pulled the trigger. The bike came a week or so later, in a box just like bikes normally arrive at a bike shop. Everything was the way it was supposed to be. Incredible.

The wheels were nice and light but I was never comfortable on them. They felt flimsy so I traded them to a team mate for the cheap aluminum TT bike I still ride. He was psyched and thought I was out of my mind, but whatever. The rest of the stuff has held up well. The fit of this bike was strange, it is marked a 58 but the seat tube is 55 c-to-c and the top tube is short as well. Currently I have a 130mm -17 stem with a few spacers. I've changed that, the saddle, and swapped the annoying 2-bolt Ritchey post for a more manageable Thomson. I'm still running the FSA (FailStayAttached) crank. A lot of people seem to have issues with these. Mine is an ISIS BB, and I've been through a few of those. Some of them suck. As far as crankarms falling off goes, I've had no issues. The torque specification is quite high, way tighter than I ever cranked an Octalink or square taper, so I suspect the people having problems are simply undertightening.

I'd ridden aluminum road bikes before when I rode for a Cannondale shop. Those were the earlier "3.0" frames with the cantilevered dropouts. They all had alignment problems and I never liked them so much, but I won races on them. Asking around, I was told the "Motobecane" f/f was made by Kinesis and was the same as the then-current Fuji. I don't know if this is true, but the frame rides pretty well and has held up for five years. The fork has always felt a little bouncy to me, but I've noticed that on other bikes as well (my Madone being an exception) so maybe fork splay is just my pet peeve. Truth be told, realizing this thing was five years old inspired me to write this post. Got to wonder whether racing a five year old aluminum bike with a carbon FSA crank is a good idea anymore? Though it has never been my only bike, and thus the mileage on it probably equates to only three full seasons or so, the thing has been around.

I would certainly buy this bike again. Bikesdirect.com is still in business, but having established themselves as legitimate, their offerings are not quite the value they once were. People used to buy the bikes, especially the Dura-Ace ones, just to strip the parts. You used to be able to scoop up an entire bike for the internet price of just a group. That does not seem to be the case anymore. The prices are higher, and the parts pics are generally not as rich. When they are, the bikes disappear. It's also a shame that most production aluminum bikes have been relegated to the lower end of the market. I realize that Taiwanese carbon bikes are pretty damn good, representing quite a value, but to me there's something about a nicely welded aluminum sculpture too. They make good race bikes, especially for criteriums, which is where I use mine. I don't want to worry about wrecking my $2500 carbon frame in a silly pileup. Not that those don't happen in road races, but in a flat crit I don't need the tiny advantages my lighter carbon bike provides either.



What you were expecting me to take the pic with some awesome peak power number on the display? I continue to disappoint... #winning

CycleOps PowerTap Pro+

Almost two years ago I broke down and bought a power meter. For several years I'd poo-poo'd them, mostly because the power zealots I knew were pretty obnoxious when extolling the virtues of this revolutionary new way to regulate ones training. Lots of my fellow racers bought powermeters, THEN got off their asses and started a focused training program, maybe improved a tiny bit, then wouldn't shut up about how anyone training without one was wasting their time. When you pay $1000 for something that shits the bed every other ride (causing you to insist the entire group stop at the side of the freezing cold road while you fiddled with the wire and cursed repeatedly about how the entire ride was a complete waste if you couldn't record your power data) then you have to convince yourself it was a good investment.

I like training data as much as the next person, but I also think I recognize what equipment is truly important. Unless you have all the money you need to outfit yourself with the best stuff then you need to make choices. I must have heard two dozen people tell me you "had" to buy a PM, and that it was much more important than something like say, deep dish wheels. To which I call bullshit. The deep wheels will make you faster whether you train or not. Racing without them is a handicap. But you can train effectively without a power meter. Honest. It was done for decades...

However, time marched on, and eventually PowerTap evolved, losing its wires first, and getting a more reliable (according to the ad copy) wireless transmission mode later. The price stayed about the same, which is the current smart strategy in the electronics biz. Adding features and making improvements with a steady price protects your margins (see APPL for details). The Pro+ version of the hub in the picture retails for around $875 on the internet. A princely sum no doubt, but with quality hubs such as a Dura-Ace or DT240 now going for close to $400, the premium for power sensing ain't that bad anymore. That is not to say the build quality of this thing matches those. Honestly I don't know. This model has a 12 mm alloy axle and an aluminum cog carrier as upgrades from the much heavier Elite+, which saves you around a hundred bucks over the Pro+. The SL+ and SLC+ cost hundreds more. Those have carried a 15 mm alloy axle all along, and a slightly lighter hub shell. Not sure if the cassette carrier on those is titanium or not, but for the price difference it should be. More on that in a minute. The most expensive version comes with ceramic bearings. Recent ad copy says the Pro+ now has a 15mm axle too. I've read advice that said to stay away from the earlier Pro+ due to the 12mm alloy axle (which matches the diameter of the steel Elite+), but I've had no issues with mine. But for sure you have to wonder why the high end product had the larger design. Looking at CycleOps webpage now, I don't see any announcement about the reason for the change to the Pro+, but the price has increased a bit. So if you're buying one of these this year, make a note as there's still stock of the older ones out there.

This one has been reliable. I don't use it in the rain if I can help it, but I've had no problems. The 2.4 ghz ANT+ setup works great. I purchased mine as a complete setup from wheelbuilder.com. It came with the CycleOps Cervo 2.4 Pro computer unit. I spec'd a DT 465 rim and 32 Sapim CX Ray spokes. Normally I build my own wheels, but I went the purchase route for a few reasons. I'd never done something large-flange like a powertap, and I really wanted to have the CX Ray spokes, but did not know where to get them and get the length correct. They are expensive. More importantly, wheelbuilder.com sells custom-cut disc covers. Ordering the whole schebang together and having them do all the work just made sense. I specified 3x lacing and brass nipples (huh-huh) because the few wheel failures I've had with my own wheels were mostly due to alloy nipples cracking.

As you can see, the powertap has 9700 km on it. The wheel is still perfect. Not surprising, as it's a pretty burly rim with 32 spokes. I'm not sure why they did it identical instead of mirror-image, but I suspect it's either because of the large flange or for dishing reaasons. They are a quality shop and the wheels are laced by hand, that much I know. I would buy from them again. The wheel cover is pretty nice, heavy but it does the job. If I had it to do over again though I would have spec'd a heavier aero rim. I've seen their covers with Zipp wheels before and the cover mates up flush against the rim. With the DT 465 they needed to leave a small gap to avoid the braking track. If I'd gone with the heavier aero 565 it would be better I suspect. And there is obviously no need to spend $45 extra for aero spokes when the cover is in place. But this would be my one and only PowerTap wheel, so I opted for versatility.

That's the downside. This wheel is still not something I want to race on. It's too heavy and slow, even with the fancy spokes. I use it for TT's with the cover and some of my training, but I've only used it in a few crits, and maybe never in a road race with hills. As a bonus pain in the ass, my TT bike is a 9 speed. So to swap I have to remove the cassette, and install or remove the cover. Which in itself is not a huge chore. But the alloy freehub body is pretty soft, and the cassettes tend to gouge their way into the splines. You have to pry the thing off and then clean it up with a file. Which is the big reason this thing only has 9700k on it, which represents maybe 30-40% of my road miles since I've owned it. But it works well, especially the speedometer. Very nice to have no sensors on the bike, as the hub is totally self-contained. Which makes switching it from bike to bike very easy. And a reason why I need to get all 9 speed out of my life. The built in HRM is not that great. The strap is not as reliable as a Polar, and does not work with a Polar either. So sometimes I wear both. I still like the Polar software and its calendar view of your training. I have six years of continuous data for both running and riding and I'm not ready to give that up.

Bringing us to software. The power zealots all rave about WKO+. I have never used it. For one, I have bought a shitload of commercial software in the past, and probably only ended up using about 10% of it enough to justify what I paid. And I sure as shit don't want to pay for updates. And that crap is windows only. So no way am I buying it. The PowerAgent software that comes with the PowerTap is java and slow as shit, but it is fine for analyzing a single ride. There is no calendar view though. And no "performance manager" type of thing that uses "TSS" and all the other WKO+ crap. But the open source program GoldenCheetah has all of that, runs on all major computing platforms, and is supported by an excellent team. The project is very active and constantly improved. So if you want that performance manager stuff, this is what you should use.

The concept is pretty cool. If you don't know how it works and want to, there is plenty of information on the web if you take the time to understand it. But I don't really use it. I would rather have a more spiffy calendar view anyway. That's not the main reason I'm not a believer though. My indifference to the whole TSS thing is because it wouldn't do to much for me. For it to have a ton of value, I think you'd need to use the powermeter and save the data nearly for 100% of your training, for a long period of time. If you have significant "training stress" coming from activities other than bicycle riding, then you'd have to find a way to deal with that too. (BTW, this is a good article. Ignore the source.) Since I don't use mine all the time, and I ride CX, and run, and I do other shit like beat up tires with a sledgehammer, "CTL" and "ATL" don't do me much good. And seriously, do you need a computer to measure your ATL? I can see where this might be pretty useful for a pro who rides 25 hours a week and doesn't do much else, but I just walk up the stairs to visit my friends who work on the third floor. Tells me what I need to know.

So what do I find the power meter useful for? 1) pacing in TTs and long intervals. Yes it is true. It helps for sure. I learned about going out too hard and how it whacks your perceived effort by doing running races. You suffer like a dog and perceive max effort as you go slower and slower each mile. Bike TTs are not different. Funny thing is that years ago I think I naturally held back more in the early stages of long TTs, and did well as a result. Somewhere along the line I started trying too hard. The power meter will show you that even though the first minute or two feels SO EASY, you're pushing 450 watts and will be petering out in another few minutes. Same thing for doing 30 minute cruise intervals, though I generally manage to pace those pretty effectively on my own. 2) Putting a number on your sprint efforts. Definitely nice to have. It's just hard to tell how good a set of sprints is otherwise, as there are so many variables that affect speed, etc. 3) Measuring energy consumption. I went PRO with this, going to the lab, getting my energy expenditure measured via RER and all that, and correlating it to both my power output and my HR. FWIW, I've found that if you setup a Polar with your body weight correct and you VO2 max correct, the energy expenditure values it gives are generally within 10-20% of what you get from the PowerTap. The variability being the way your HR acts depending on fatigue, caffeine, etc. The more intense the effort, the closer the two track (Polar's OwnCal method does not work at super low intensity like walking). OK, I'm bored with this now. Moving on...



Wheelbuilder.com laced the spokes identical rather than mirror-image. I'm not sure why, but it's held up just fine.

Kurt Kinetic Rock and Roll Trainer

It's big, it's bad, it's quiet, it's been discontinued.

Last but not least (ok, maybe least, I'm tired of this and I need to ride) the Kurt Kinetic Rock and Roll trainer. In short, this is a great trainer. The entire bike assembly is rubber-mounted, allowing the bike to rock back and forth. It still sits up straight, but when you stand the bike is not fixed, so you can rock it properly against your pedaling moving. In other words, the bike rocks under you and you stay in one place. I still see riders who have trouble with this. Too many riders think they have to sit down all the time, and only stand when they are in trouble. Standing is a good way to use different muscles, and you should practice it. I wonder if some people don't pay attention when they watch pros race on TV. Those guys stand all a lot. I still see some people standing with their bikes not rocking, while their bodies oscillate back and forth over the bike. WRONG! Of course, on any trainer but this one, if you stand then that is what you have to do. So this is way superior. And it has to reduce stress on the bike, as it has some "give" to the stresses you're applying.

The resistance unit is smooth and quiet. With these tires, it takes about 200 watts for me to maintain just 25 kph. But if I slow down the power falls off nicely, so you can ride very easy if you want to. Doing seated intervals is no problem. There is plenty of resistance with standard road gearing. More than enough. For standing, like most trainers, there is not going to be enough resistance to hold back your very best sprint quite the same as on the road during the jump phase, even in a 52x11. But it's better than most, and in a big gear I can stand and not spin out if I'm pretending to climb tempo up a steep hill. Downsides to this trainer are its huge footprint, non-portability, and high cost. This one is an early model too, so if you have 180 cranks and a size 47 shoe, you're going to hit the clamp with your heel. With 175's and 43.5 shoes I can hit it if I try. Kurt offered to replace the whole thing when I notified them of this, but I passed as it is not really an issue for me. But beware if you're looking at one of these on the used market. The newer green models have a different clamp which should be fine for Bigfoots.

That is all for now. Thanks for continuing to visit my mostly dormant and always boring, un-proofread blog. Come again.

Why I usually train alone

Nicely written piece about behavior on group rides. Remember, motorists don't just hate bikes. They (we) hate each other too. Everyone is in the way. Don't take it personal. Thanks for reading.

Five years

OK, so I missed the fifth anniversary of solobreak.blogspot.com. 813 posts, but not so many lately. It wasn't a plan to abandon it, and no, I'm not distracted by facebook (still do not use it), it's just that I haven't felt like writing. A few ideas for posts have come and gone, but nothing made it. And it's the off-season, so this being primarily a bike racing blog and all, there hasn't been much to cover.

Truth be told, this winter has been a disaster for me from an athletic perspective. After cx season, I took a planned break of about three weeks or so. I did not take any break last winter, and had a great year as a result, but by August it was a struggle just to get out for fun rides. I ran during my break though, and that went decent. Went under five minutes at the Millenium Mile again, crossing in 4:58, exact same as last year. Then there were less races on the schedule, but I finished the Boston Prep 16 with gas in the tank and no injuries. But I've been slow, and confined to a treadmill during the week, because, well, this winter has sucked. So I was looking forward to the Paddy Kelly 5 miler in Brockton last weekend. I've done this race something like four out of the past five years, and it's been a great winter benchmark for my speed.

And that went shitty. Back at the Millenium Mile, I got a nasty "knot" in my calf near the end. It took a week to go away. I've had these before. Playing internet doctor, I'm learning these are actually tears in the fascia, sort of compartment syndrome. The muscle/leg pumps up with blood from the effort, and a small tear develops deep in the calf. Well, I bounced back after the MM, with some rest and easy running. But this is what I get for no speedwork, no outdoor running, no hills. At Brockton I was having a GREAT race. I wasn't fast, but I went out at 6:20 pace and was totally in control. For the first three miles, the splits were perfect, I wasn't breathing hard, and I had 10-15 bpm in reserve for going full gas at the end. But halfway through mile four my calf started to feel "tight." I've never stopped to walk in a race of any length, much less a five miler. I wasn't slowing down, but as the mile four marker approached, the pain went from "annoying" to "shit, you're doing damage." I stopped and tried to shake it out. I still got to the marker at 25:30, but I was toast. I had to walk most of the way to the finish, getting there in 37 something. Fuck.

That was eight days ago. The calf is better now, but I'm going to give it more time. Not that I can run anyway. This weekend I finally got sick, sick as a dog, and wasted the three days completely useless and in misery. So that ended my attempts to at least ride the trainer every day, since I couldn't run. Like I said, disaster. Could be worse, sure. Nothing serious. But I've only got like six hours on the bike THIS YEAR, all of it indoors. My weight is the highest it's been in probably six years. Small wonder, as in lieu of training I have been going out a lot. There will be no need for a weighted vest on my early season training rides. But fuck it.

The insanity of the cycling community and its January training regimens looks totally bizarre from this vantage point. I don't get it. People train more in January than they do in the summertime. Anyway, I have a plan in my head to get back on track. I really want to keep running, so I hope I can get through that. On the bike, I don't think I want to be so serious about the road this year, but once the season starts that's subject to change. I had a lot of fun doing cx though, so maybe that has something to do with my lack of urgency right now.

All right, now that is some crappy writing. You'd think if I wasn't training I could at least find time to write something decent. Sorry. Thanks for checking in anyway.

Boston Prep 16 and my running story

I had a witty title all made up, and a theme to go with it, but I forgot them both. Such is life at my advanced age, and that sums up the way my running races have been going too. There's a reason awards get segregated by age (and they do this from the time you're 3 years old, so get used to it). I am getting slower, or so it seems. That's a lot of weak verbs and we're only four sentences into this. Told you my writing sucks lately too.

Most of you know that I'm not really a runner. I ride bikes, and have raced them for almost 25 years, which also happens to be almost half my life. Running is another story. For the record, I was not an athlete from the time I finished Little League until I started bike racing twelve years or so later. I recall the first few winters that I was a serious rider, those being 86-87 and 87-88 as being pretty rough, sort of like this one. I didn't own a lot of riding clothes or a trainer, and there were no fancy lights for night riding. So I tried running, as what the hell, I was already doing "cyclocross" that first winter up at the BRC training series. I recall doing laps at Field's Park in Brockton with Robin, who I'd met at the old Hojo's Wednesday night training rides. And my calves would get sore, my knees would get sore, everything would hurt. I was already used to doing rides of a couple of hours, without too many ill effects, so being brutalized by less than an hour of running made the activity just seem so damaging. As soon as the roads cleared and the days lengthened I'd get back on the bike and forget running.

Every fall, or almost every fall, I'd do cross and dabble in running again, but never really got past the DOMS that came with it. I wasn't consistent enough. Cross was beating the shit out of my body too, and I was never totally free of nagging injury to begin with. Of course I tried to "cross train" too, because we were athletes, right? Around '90 I moved from lifting weights in my basement to working out at a local gym. Exercise science wasn't quite what it is today, but I did OK in retrospect, following advice from the old Eddie B book as well as other sources. Now I wish that I knew then what I know now, and maybe better understood my natural asymmetry and other physical issues, and maybe I could have prevented more injuries. But that's another story, this is about running. Some people from the gym were going to do a 4 mile running race in Canton, and talked Rob (by now my wife) and I into signing up. This would be my first running race. It was in March, and I think. My time was 34 or 35 minutes. And afterward I could not walk for days...

But now I knew what running races were all about. In the years that followed my consistency got much better. While seeking some professional help for riding/cx related back pain I got my first "hands on" experience with modern physiatry, where I was told my body's musculature was totally imbalanced and that I "had no hamstrings nor back muscles." Starting to address these problems suddenly made me able to run without pain, and I raced more, until 95 when I finally had my left knee cleaned up (torn meniscus). After that I got cautious, and was afraid to run at all. I stopped racing bikes too, as I was going to UMass Lowell at night. I got fat, gaining forty pounds before reversing the trend. By now I was 36. I had the other knee scoped sometime in there too. By 2002 I was laid off from my job, weighed over 200 pounds, and was in the homestretch with school, so I was going nearly full time. The job market sucked. I had a lot of time on my hands. Knowing my severance would run out eventually, and the uncertainty that goes with that kept me from riding my bike as much as I could have. Bike racing is expensive too. So to fill up my idle days I started walking my neighbor's two year old Golden Retriever.

Young dogs have energy, and North Easton is a great town for walking. I was still fat and needed the exercise, and I had all day. After a while we were going out for almost three hours some days. And of course, with young dogs walks turn into runs at some point. Since Murray was not my dog, he wasn't always available, I resorted to walking and running by myself sometimes. All the walking had given me a "base" of sorts, and I wasn't riding all that much either, which probably helped my recovery. All of a sudden, for the first time in my life, I was running consistently (and by that I mean maybe 3x/week) and not getting injured from it. Not big miles, but enough to compete in 5 milers and 10ks. Of course, during this time I found a job, finished school, lost thirty pounds, and started racing bikes again, roughly in that order.

That was around 2003. Since that time I've been pretty steady with the running every winter, still generally letting it go in the summer. Each year I got more serious about it, pushing my start back toward August, keeping it up until June. Compared to the bike, where I sometimes take prizes in the Cat 3s and masters, I had never been the least bit competitive in running races. I was one of those guys who lined up in the back and finished in the middle with the weekend warriors who were just there for the t-shirts and post-race Devil Dogs. Consistent training and more racing made me faster though, and by 2007 or so I was in a quest to break 40 minutes in a 10k, which I succeeded at. By now I also had this blog, so you can follow the rest of the story in ridiculous detail if you want to read all 800+ entries. Suffice to say I'm still a bike racer, but I run a lot more, and got fast enough in 2008 to start finishing on the first page or two of the results at many smaller local races. I've also found new and interesting ways to get injured, with foot and hip issues being the most recent. But this year I'm training cautiously, as my 2009 and 2010 running seasons were both interrupted by physical maladies.

Bringing us (finally!) to Derry and the race report. Last fall I only did a few races, and my 10k times were a minute or two (or three) off my PRs from 2008. The last 10k I ran was the Topanga Turkey Trot X-Terra on Thanksgiving, where I won my age group, but which was so hilly and gnarly that the times are useless as an indicator of fitness. After that no racing until the Millenium Mile on New Year's Day. Normally I would run a five miler that weekend, but the scheduling did not work out. There is no Raynham 15k anymore either, so the Derry 16 would be my first race of any distance in quite a while. And did I mention this is the longest race I've ever done? This would be my third time. 2008 was run in heavy snow. 2009 I was injured. Last year I ran but was slower than 2008 when my hip got seriously cranky at the ten mile mark. I should have dropped out, but instead I soldiered on, died a thousand deaths, and fucked myself up enough that the issue cut my spring running season short, stopping me completely by March. But you read the blog, so you already know about all that right?

Of course, the weather this winter has -- sucked hairy balls. I'm not a big fan of running out between the snowbanks. And in December, the last time there was no snow cover here, I was taking a much needed break from everything. I got my weight up higher than it's been in four years. Not obese, but a good 4-5 kg more than my best racing weight. I'd run heavy all of 2010 as it was though, so really I only added 2-3 kg. I entered the BP16 as motivation to train. And then it snowed. And snowed. WTF? I had about a month to prepare, so I was going to need a long run every weekend. I still refuse to run on consecutive days, as that's a recipe for injury for me. So I'd do shorter days, hopefully hilly, during the week, and bag increasing mileage each weekend. That was the plan. Snow and ice f'd that up, at least for during the week. Blue Hills was out. So was running on the icy streets in the dark at 6 am. This all relegated me to the company gym and the treadmill. I think in the past five years I've run maybe two hours on a treadmill. I don't think it conditions your body for the pounding of running, and it's boring as hell. But I did it this year, and sort of got into it. Two nights a week for the past month anyway. That left the long runs. Somehow, despite the snows, I got them in, with a 10-11-13-14 mile progression over the past month. I'd run at Field's Park, which is semi-plowed and semi-closed to traffic most of the time, and one week resorted to driving to Plymouth to run in Myles Standish State Forest where there was less snow. Neither of these locations has much for hills, certainly nothing like the Derry course. And all these runs were done very slowly. I simply did not have time for more. So while I got in the required durations, my prep for the Prep 16 was far from ideal.

Anybody still reading? Now we're up to the day before the race. I had an appointment at Quad Cycles in Arlington, the bike shop sponsor of my new bike racing team (did I forget to mention that?) on Saturday. That wrapped up in the early afternoon, and being halfway to Derry, I headed up to pre-drive the course before hitting packet pickup at 4. Of course, I did not have a map, don't own a smartphone, don't believe in GPS, and didn't remember that much of it. I got the idea though; the roads were mostly clear. It was forecast to be bitter cold all weekend, but you could see melting in the spots where there were drifts, so I knew it would not be as bad as they said. After getting my number, I gave zencycle a call, meeting him at a nearby pub which happens to be a favorite of mine... Four pints of good brew and a plate of macaroni and cheese later, sabotaging my slim chance of being the least bit competitive was accomplished.

On race day, I took f-ing up to a new level by getting there absolutely last minute. There were a lot of clothing decisions to make and I hadn't packed anything, had to eat, etc. You know me. I slid sideways into the satellite parking lot and jumped on one of the last shuttles at 9:35. Start was at 10. But I had my number and chip already. First person I saw at the school was Iron Mary, I think scoping out the snowbank for a place to pee before chickening out and bitching about the line for the ladies room. Guess she'll never make it as a bike racer. I got dressed and jogged to the start, lining up well back from the front. Only about 700 of the 900 registered showed up I guess. And it was not that cold. I wore wool tights over wicking briefs. On top I had a PI base layer, then a Hasyun wool base layer, a cycling jersey (for the pockets) and a windbreaker. I used a hat plus an earband, and two pair of gloves, one super heavy. That proved to be my only real mistake.

The start was slow as the road is narrow and had a lot of snow pack, but it opened up onto a dry road after a few minutes. I did not feel good. Right away my hands were too warm, something I did not expect. My legs felt tight as hell. So I ran slowly. The first mile was 7:55. Every mile is marked at this race, but with the snowbanks I think they may have had some issues spotting their markers for some of them. Hard to tell because the course is so up-and-down that your splits end up all over the place. The race is unique though as they have timing mats at 5, 10, and 13.1 miles. These were accurately placed I'm sure. It's a very cool feature, and for the $40 entry fee you also get a long sleeve technical base layer, a nylon "backpack" thing, a couple of energy bars, and post-race pizza, chili, etc. Pretty good deal for 16 miles.

Miles 2-4 are mostly downhill, but mile 5 is the steepest climb on the course I think. People all talk about the hills at the end, but this one is harder. I was running sort of by heart rate, trying to maintain 7:30 (slow, I know, but I told you I was not prepared, and I was deathly fearful of falling apart at the end again). I was on track nicely, but with my HR up around 140, pretty high for such a slow pace. Last year my HR was super low all year, but lately it seems to have rebounded a bit. Maybe I really needed that break. Anyhow, on the big climb it was in the 150's, above my normal OBLA number, and higher than I wanted it to go this early. So I backed off. People passed me. Mile 5 took 8:07 and I hit the mat at 37:46, a few seconds/mile behind a two hour pace.

I had to take off my outer gloves too. I had flasks of water in my pockets and I drank some. There is a lot of downhill in the middle of the race, and I got right back on pace, hitting the halfway mark at 59:41. The tenth mile has a pretty good climb in it, and I ran this in a big group, getting there at 1:14:51, still nearly exactly 7:30 pace. Here I started to feel pretty good. The next mile is mostly down, leading into Warner Hill. The location within the race is what makes this so feared, as it's just a long stairstep and really not that steep. Suddenly I was free from the group of ten or so I'd been with for the past four miles, and I moved through traffic all the way to the top. Being within 45 minutes of the finish, I could now disregard HR and run at threshold if my legs would allow it, which they did. According to the markers, I ran the uphill 12th in 7:49. I got to the 13th in 7:17 or something like that, crossing the half-mary mat at 1:38:07, still right on 7:30 pace.

Now we were on the flat to downhill final three miles, where I completely fell apart last year. My legs were fine. So I ran. Mile 14 was around 7 minutes. The mile 15 marker came up in 6:08, so that one had to be in the wrong spot. In contrast to last year, when it felt like I was running backward, nobody had passed me in the final six miles this time. I got to the finish and ended up sprinting to come in under 1:58, officially at 1:57:57, 7:23 pace. I'd run the last three miles averaging 6:52. I was all proud of myself until I realized this was still almost four minutes slower than last year's debacle, and over six slower than my course best (in the friggin' snow) from 2008. But it still felt good to finish strong, and the detailed results with splits show me as one of the few who got faster and moved up.

Obviously, I went out too conservatively, but since I never do this, and was taking this as training, it was the right thing to do. I was not prepared to "race" 16 miles, and I knew it. Other than some expected soreness, I seem to have weathered this one pretty easily, and expect to bounce back. It's good to have this out of the way. I need to decide on goals for the rest of the spring, but I can do whatever I want now. Next up is the Paddy Kelly 5 miler in Brockton on February 13. That will provide a good benchmark for tempo (if the snow stays away long enough for us to actually train). After that I'll probably do the Foxboro 10 on Feb 20, but I'm considering finding a half to try again instead. And of course at some point I need to start riding my bike. We'll see. Reading this must have felt like running 16 miles to you. Thanks for reading.

2010-2011

Since my writing has been uninspired lately, I've resisted trying to post unless I had a photo or two to share. Almost five years ago I started this thing as a place to write, and I used to put a fair amount of effort into creating daily essays with decent form, structure, and themes. Over time I've allowed that to slip, more often than not just shooting from the hip with a hurried piece, or falling back into a diaryesque note, with or without photographic support. Through it all readership has remained steady (near as I bother to estimate), but I'm not sure if held up recently. It's no secret that daily blogs have lost participants due to the popularity of Facebook (a crowded road I've chosen not to ride on) and Twitter. Maybe the former is an easier way for people to share hastily posted photos and daily musings, but for more journalistic content I hope blogs don't die. The real power of blogs is EVERYONE has the opportunity to be their own publisher, to share their voice with others. This is a really big deal. For sure the sheer volume of stuff out their diminishes the impact of each voice (compared to when each major city had one or two news outlets, and cycling had one monthly gazette), but if you've really got something to say, people will find you and take interest. Publishing for the masses.

Microblogging (since I'm not a Facebooker, I'm talking about Twitter here) has a different sort of potential to spread timely information quickly. Here in the New England cycling world though, the circle I'm in uses it more like a big unruly group ride, sort of an unmoderated chatroom. Not particularly useful, but fun most of the time, and very difficult to ignore once you get sucked in. The fact that about half my blogroll participates doesn't help. So while it fills the void left by the lack of blogging somewhat, as Dougie laments in a recent post, you don't find any "stories" there.

I wish I had a good story for you today, but unfortunately this one is just a diary entry. Having never done any recap of the 2010 season, beginning there makes sense. This was a good year for me competitively. I won a weekend USCF race for the first time in 14 years with a flukey last lap solo against a small but stacked 45+ masters field at Ninigret in April. The rest of the year was decent too, with podiums at the WMSR TT and the 35+ Concord Criterium, which was probably my strongest day on the bike in this millenium. I had lots of fun training rides, including of course D2R2.

Running went OK too, after a tough start with a mysterious hip ailment cutting my winter campaign short back at the Boston Prep 16 in January. After that I ran decent at Paddy Kelly in Brockton, but the pain just wouldn't go away, and my times were all slower than 2008 when I was at my best. So I gave up on running and just rode, which is probably one reason why I had a good year on the bike. In May, a chance to work with Patty from CPSC physical therapy while we both helped out at Goodale's super sale let to me sorting out the cause of my hip problem in just ten minutes. Not completely, but she helped me understand my body's asymmetry and other dysfunction, and what I could do about it, better than anyone ever had before. This put me on a path to a more productive structural maintenance program, which not only got me back running, but has helped my overall fitness as well. This winter I've been able to run a few races without issue, and though I'm not as fast as I was two years ago, at least everything has been going predictably.

The other weird thing that happened was I ended up racing almost as many days of cyclocross as on the road this year. I think it ended up being 25 and 20 respectively, or something like that. Plus 8 running races for a total of 53 competitions. I don't remember whether in total that is more or less than last year. My training hours are down, exactly 400 on the bike and just 63 running. I don't track gym time, but there was more of it for sure, most of it being stretching, bodyweight exercise, and stuff like that rather than traditional gym-ratting. I did not DNF any race all year until the 1/2/3 at Ice Weasels, which was my second race of the day, so that one shouldn't count. And I only dropped out because I was having trouble getting beer feeds. Not to mention doing back to backs helped me realize how poorly my cx bike rides for me. In the singlespeed race I road my P.O.S. Scattante and even that handled better. Combined with coming off of two weekends racing in SoCal on the Fisher I keep out there helped hammer home how the geometry and fit of my ancient Hot Tubes bike simply does not work on tight courses. On faster stuff like Noho it's ok. So I really need to get a new cx bike, and have had one on order since... September. That saga continues. Maybe next year. But for now I have imposed a moratorium on bike-related spending. There's simply too much crap in here now, and I've got to learn to consume less.

Leading all to this month. Last winter I never really took a break from the bike. I think maybe five days at one point. Made for a good season, but by August my enthusiasm waned significantly. Training during CX season proved to be a real struggle. When December finally arrived and the CX season ended, I rode once or twice just to enjoy the road bikes, then hung them up on December 21, not touching them again until yesterday. Thirty-one days has to be a record for me, at least when there was no surgery involved. The weather totally sucking made the whole thing pretty easy. I was ready to ride again a week or so ago, but not in this shit. However, I'm not sure if it's just because the Twitter crowd is younger and more dedicated or what, but I can't recall ever hearing about so much hard-core training going on in the first half of January. It's nuts. People doing five hours, hard intervals, etc. Is there a secret stage race in February that I don't know about? Makes it easier to understand why no promoter can fill a field in the summertime. Does it really take fifteen weeks to get ready for Battenkill when you're coming off a twenty race CX season? Good for them I guess, though I harbor doubts about whether doing group rides between the snowbanks is a smart idea, never mind that it doesn't generate much good will for us. Yeah I know, you have a right to the road, blah, blah, blah. I'll stay hopeful that driving on the clogged arteries with snowbanks taking two feet off of each shoulder will make drivers realize there's plenty of room to share with a bike or two in the summertime. Personally I'll be confined to the trainer for a bit, or at least be down the Cape or something.

Not that I've been totally idle during my break though. I've been running 3x/week, although even some of that has been indoors on a treadmill, something I normally avoid. On New Year's day I got a chance to race at the Millenium Mile again, even managing to squeak in under five minutes, equaling last time's 4:58. And I'm signed up for the Boston Prep 16 again on Sunday... Not sure about this one. Getting in long runs has been a real struggle, but the past three weekends I've pulled it off. Field's Park in Brockton is sort of plowed, but not open to cars some of the time, and has a lane dedicated to runners anyway, so I've gone over there. Last weekend was 15 miles on packed snow, wearing YakTraks. Monday I followed that up with the 3.5 hour snowshoe in the Blue Hills. But I've hardly run any hills, and my overall mileage has been pretty light, with just short sessions on the hamster belt during the week. In total it significantly diminishes the appeal of heading into the slop on Sunday when the forecast high temp is 12 degrees F. Seriously, I know we all hear the HTFU stuff (mostly from people who have never ridden past five hours in their lives, not exactly Jens's if you know what I mean), but this might be a good day to exercise reasonable judgment instead and just bag out. We'll see. Stay tuned. Watch this space. And thanks for reading. This took too long to write, and would take way too long to proofread, so in the unlikely event that you carefully read the entire thing, feel free to suggest edits in the comments. I'll fix them but not publish so you don't look like a nit picker. Speaking of which, I heard there is a lice outbreak in the toney schools of the metrowest region. Good luck with that... Or play it safe and go with the Stuey haircut. Thanks again.

Solo goes to Emerald City

I'm working on a post, honest. But for now, here is your hero enjoying a 360 degree panoramic view of the fair shitty o' Borston and its surroundings, from the summit of Buck Hill. Snow is still ass deep in there. Lots of fallen limbs and trees. Did some bushwhacking and trail blazing. Thanks for reading.

Two more

Here's one of Robin riding at Wompatuck on the famous Marukin, in its second life, after road bike, before TT bike. It had not yet had the Moots mounts installed and was still sportin' sidepulls. This dropoff was so steep that the approach was blind, and some people were afraid to ride down it.




This one is for Gewilli and his cx-in-the-snow fantasies. This has been published before, Alicia G at the old Plymouth CX Stage race one year. Thanks for reading.

Old Pic for the New Year

I am working on some old CX photos that I have not published before. As you can see, I've always had style. Thanks for reading. Here they are.