A little perspective

The last LARPD today, and the weather finally got a bit cross-like, enough to give the mud that nice slimyness that gets all over the place but doesn't stick.

Lots of fun fighting for last for me, but I still has a blast.

Cesar is riding on another planet right now on that SS machine, it's all I can do to avoid being lapped. Good for him, he obviously did his homework and put in the miles and hard work. Dude got 3rd today in the open A's race with some tough company in the house.

A lot has happened to me since the first LARPD, I rode home from the first one in rippin' shape from a summer of long miles and many hills, holding my weight down at 81 kg and roughly 6 percent pizza and a occasional donut. I finished mid pack in the open A's in 103 degree temps, pushing a ridiculous 48 x 17.I remember being completely stoked about the season's possibilities.

That night, my mom lapsed into a sub conscious state as the final infections raged through her body. After a long night just to get her admitted to St. Josephs because her primary care physician didn't want to come down to admit her personally, she stayed there for 5 days, until I made the decision to take her to hospice, where she finally had some peace, and after 4 days of vigil, she let go.

A day or two later, I flipped my bike over a podunk whoop de do while JRA at lunch and piledrove my face and head into the ground.MAny x-rays and chiro ensued,and Dr Richard did a great job helping me be able to turn my head again.

I was able to race, albeit gingerly, and it took me a while to plunge off the side of a drop again without touching the brakes.

Around late October I pounded myself again, JRA at lunch again, and swore to stop just riding around like that. This time I bruised my coccyx, and there's nothing like violent prison sex with your saddle to get your mind off hammering.
Seeing me get in and out of bed I look like a old old man. My neck hurts, my ass hurts, and god knows what else will be the flavor of the day post race . Sleep this fall has been rather skimpy, to say the least.

Back to LARPD after a fall of mediocrity, December 8th. I used a 42 x 16 that day on a sticky course and definitely had problems pushing it. Grumpiness ensued, followed by bitchiness, like I'm getting paid to be wanking it on two wheels.
A burrito fixed some of the problem, and we went home so I could finish building my kids new bedroom set and at least finish one damn thing this year.
I got a call that night that my dad had broken his hip in a fall and was headed to St Joe's.
It's getting to the point I don't want to answer the phone after a race.

Today I headed over to see him at his new rehab place after LARPD.
I got him cable into his room and he was having trouble with the TV Ears he got for x-mas.
The therapist came in and we went to PT together.
As I watched him struggle to walk 15 feet down a walkway , I reflected on todays' stair run up, and the eight or nine times up that thing.

I really can't complain.

happy holidays

Holiday Trifle-

2 pkg. Vanilla Pudding ( not instant)
quart of milk
1 angel food cake
1 cup raspberry jam
4 cups whipping cream
4 bananas, sliced
canned cherries in syrup 1 can
canned blueberries in syrup 1 can
canned blackberries in syrup, 1 can
canned raspberries in syrup, 1 can
Drain all cans of berries and reserve 2 cups liquid. you can mix berries or keep separate.
1 cup slivered almonds

Early in the day before.... make vanilla pudding per directions on package, then refrigerate until chilled.

1 cut angelfood cake into 1/2 inch slices, layer across bottom of a trifle dish or other 10-12" across dish approx. 12 inches deep.

Spread raspberry preserves on cake

spread layer of bananas

Spread layer of berries
drizzle berry juice ( 1/2 cup per layer)

spread layer of pudding

spread small layer of whipped cream

place another layer of angelfood cake slices

continue with layers 3 times...

cover with wrap and chill for a day or two.

Before serving, top with remaining whipped cream and almonds.

Watch W/kg ratios go spiraling into the abyss.........

break it down- tale of the tape

Easy to see where my season fell apart, the months of September and October are particularly bad from a training time perspective.

For me, a very average athlete I have always done best around 15 hours a week.

I typically set my hours a little low and then try to exceed them( gives me a reachable goal), but I've had trouble even making these conservative numbers this year :-(

Typical masters racer, too much life getting in the way, it's important to realize this stuff doesn't pay the bills.

Looking at the big picture, I hopefully will complete the entire CCCX series this year, that's a first.

I definitely improved my technical skills some this year, the sand no longer fills my heart with dread...

I figured out a few things that work for me on the singlespeeder and will have some sweet sew-ups and race wheels for it next year.

My running got much better, as I ran up the steps at Live-no-more for the ninth time Saturday,I realized I used to always be walking by the fourth lap.

Small victories are still good un's.

Perhaps this influenced my state of mind as I had a good time on Saturday even as I got last place in the A's.

I could have gotten second to last but after sitting on a A40 guys' wheel for like 4 laps I felt it was only right to help him get to the next guy up the line( ended up incinerating myself and getting dropped off, but what the hey, papa didn't raise no punk), a small field all together, A's, SS, Masters A, and junior A.

3 crashes/ wild moments kept things interesting, I tried to avoid the mayhem and stay in a group, this course will punish the man that goes it alone, especially on the big backside.

Props to Shane and his crew for a great local series, making the rodeo grounds SO much better than I expected.

Peace To All,

J

Homemade Fudge With White Chocolate Topping

Thanks to all the well wishes, my Pops is doing better, and after a week in the hospital flirting with pretty Filipino nurses, is now ensconced at a rehab facility for the next month or so, where he alternately watches his new TV/ flirts with pretty Filipino nurses and argues that he needs his mentholatum rub for his sore shoulder/knee/ankle/ anything but his hip.

An old marathon swimmer that once swam 24 miles across Lake Superior, the man knows his embrocation strategies by now and why the doctor is argueing about it is beyond me.

The cross racing is sucking big time, I was bummed a bit , but after looking at my logs, it's easy to see the cause.
I'm so undertrained it's lousy.
But I really don't care.

I'm handling my business well these days and getting priorities in line.

If I have to hang X-mas lights at 10 pm on Saturday Night to race Sunday, so be it.

And as soon as the expectations and frustration left, I started to have fun again.

A spirited race for 5th ensued last Sunday and my fading ass was in it for a while.
Yippee!

Our new boss canceled our X-mas party this year, the grinch.

So we have had two of our own so far this week.

Quite the brotherhood of ditchdiggers I belong to here, I went away a couple of times, but always come back.

We work hard in the mud when it's 30 degrees at four am, laugh about the crazy times in the East O and North Richmond.

Sometimes your niche isn't the easiest or the smartest.

But once you recognize that brotherhood, and we do fight like hated siblings at times, although the fistfights are rare now that alcohol is a no-no on the job, but once you realize that's who you are?

Best thing to do is live it.

This guys' stuff, crackin' me up.

The bike world is a twisted place, he does a nice job shining the light into that dark closet

What has been preoccupying my time lately.

OG got one of these beauties installed today, and we hope to be out of the woods in a few days., but his tickers' wound a little tight right now.

Tuesday Worlds, if the start money can be guaranteed in Belgian chocolate.

Mr. Brightsides

Wednesday and it's time to put the cry- towel away.

Sundays' disappointments and mucho suckage fade over time,
replaced by a hopeful salvaging of some good patches.

So I'll ignore the tactical errors, the big sprint for the holeshot to nowheresville, and the barrier faux pas on the first lap( sorry Tim), cause who wants to cry anyway?

Sand. Technical turns. My nemesis.

I swapped my tires out for some Cross- Wolfs, and had a pretty good race for me and my level of ability.
Rode the long sandy descent well most of the times, stayed nice and loose, there were a couple of laps in the middle to end where my arms were filling up with lactic acid and other nasty byproducts of hammering and I got tight and tried to muscle it.

And you can't muscle sand, baby.

But considering I would be running that section last year I'm happy with my ride there.

I rode the swoopies fairly well, though the gear choice for me was a little tall still and I had problems jumping out of the corners.

The singlespeedin' is a blast, but figuring out the perfect gear for the cause?
I'm a little ways off.
Thet course for me was a 42 x 18, and I stuck with a 17.

I got dropped every time in the corners and the one punchy hill by guys spinning a little more.
Every lap.

Listening to my instincts would have paid off big time Sunday. Trusting the instinct is key.

Districts is Saturday and I hope it rains like hell. I hope the corral is under water by Friday afternoon.

CCCP on Sunday- I'm coming out for this one, the only BASP race venue I really like.

More sand.Lots of sand.

It finally seems like cross season.

Safety Bike

I think I can find room for one of these in my garage still.....

Soulja Boy Tellem, the kids' got style.



Chaperoned the sixth-grade dance out in P-town tonight, well, this afternoon.



No pictures allowed of the fun, mortification of certain tween' girls would be certain.



This tune got em all inside again and out of mischief for a bit, though.






Funny, last time I heard this tune was Wednesday night, 72nd and Hamilton in the East O.



Kid was riding a tricked out scraper bike with a stereo the size of a Lazyboy on the front basket.


Like I said, it's got all the kids' dancing.

Costanoa

Campsite all set up for Turkey Day.

Beautiful clear days and cold at night.

The menu- yum. The last time we were here the restaurant wasn't opened yet and they were having a few growing pains.

Their all grown up now.

Petit Baked Brie & Mango Chutney Puff Pastry, Candied Pecans
Choice of Salad or Soup
Organic Hearts of Romaine, Texas Ruby Red Grapefruit, Point Reyes Bleu Cheese, Pomegranate Port Vinaigrett
Curried Butternut Squash Soup with Toasted Coconut
Choice of Entrée
Lemon-Herb Infused Roasted Turkey Breast, Skillet Cornbread & Andouille Sausage Stuffing with Turkey Sage Gravy
Natural Maple Glazed Apple Wood Smoked Ham with House Made Persimmon Preserves
Wild Mushroom, Roasted Winter Vegetable & Herb-Soy Tempeh Pot Pie (Vegetarian)
Entrées served with
Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes with Crème Fraiche and Chives
Candied Yams with Rum & Molasses
Orange Cranberry Relish
Local Organic Wilted Greens: Rainbow Chard, Kale & Spinach
Assorted House Made Warm Breads & Biscuits With Whipped Honey Butter
Choice of House Made Desserts
Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie
Pumpkin Pie with Fresh Whipped Cream
Warm Apple Pie with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, Ollalieberry Sauce
Includes Coffee, Hot Tea and Hot Apple Cider

This guy was hanging out in the stables a couple hundred yards away, a nice Tennessee Walker.

The view out the kitchen window.

" Who's he kidding, everyone knows my dad doesn't consult a map!"

These chairs in the warm fall sunshine sucked us in for a bit, after the yoga class the girls were tired, but not so tired to miss a five mile hike on the beach with some sweet tidepools.









Tidepool jumpin', adventure seekin', yoga stretchin' Little C.

Nice spot for a rest interval.

10 sprintys and I was done and back at the trailer, catching up on a classic read that I've been meaning to finish-

Everywhere I look there's Kentucky Fried Chicken

The location- a super secret trail in the easy bay.

So secret, you have to triple trespass just to get to the start.

Myself and a like minded companion descend for 5 minutes on a leafy trail about a foot wide at best.

The trail ends at a old dump site , tons of blue glass bottles and junk.

We look down and there is a nicely eaten deer carcass at our feet.
And a big big crash in the bushes above us on the ridge.

I can see my house from here but can't figure how to reach it with getting a citation for crossing some big wigs' private idaho.

We backtrack and trespass some more, including fence-hopping this time bushwhacking south.
And find the trail we were looking for.

And jam before we're the dessert.

Infovistas' got mad skillz

Everybody listen to Nicole........

A whole lotta go-get-em in a small package.

It's ok, Mike, your still part of the bunch.

We at Infovista would like all our competitors in the cat 4's and 5's to be intelligent and safe on their bikes.

40 year old collarbones take a lot longer to heal.....

.Some Merkeley pointers on staying upright and fast through the corners were well-taken.



















Not only will she go for a 4 hour car ride to feed a grumpy old man in a cross race, she opened the house up and fed 20 hungry bike racers today-

Thanks Miz C!

Chick Flix

Alright, I may be in danger of getting my Man-Card pulled,
but this show is good stuff.

Thank gawd for Tivo, I have about four of em I watch during the week.

Touchie- Feelie, The best show about TheGame I've ever seen,Smoke em If Ya Got Em, Love So-Cal Style, and Slash And Burn.
Most TV is junk and if I had my way I'd have ala-carte package with HBO, Showtime, Local News with Roberta cause she says hi when she jogs by, and we get out hair cut in the same swank palace of couiffure, and VS. A Broadband feed of Cycling.TV would about top it off.

Cycling TV- the World Cup in The Czech Republic this last week, Nys showed again why he's the best in the world and left the local stud hanging out to dry......

OTC- Chula Vista

Sunday Ride- I think this road goes to Arizona somewheres, but we only had a hour and change before we had to be back :-(

The fires burnt through here and missed completely the only campground or civilization out this way.

The little building on the right is where we practiced sitting for 9 hours a day in a classroom while looking out a window at nice climbs..

The weightroom is on the left- seriously cool set of stuff in there on platforms.

It was interesting the lack of machines and prevalence of pure free stuff and stability gizmos.

The first night in town, we saw a kid doing a easy hop onto a four foot box, some sick plyo and athletic skill on display.

Half of the Track and Field area- I only brought some clunky Merrells, so no chance to rip a 400 off on this legendary field of dreams.

Pictures of many past olympians and monster T & F dudes hanging around, hmmmm, none of Marian Jones now....

The boat house was below this, quite a few rower types in residency right now.

I wish I got a pic of the crit couse, but due to our schedule we rode it at dusk and I was just concentrating on staying between the shadowy bushes. Smooth as glass, though.

The dining hall and one of many hangout areas- excellent food and many choices. I think I gained a pound a day. They really take care of the athletes and let them focus on being great.

Gift shop- very important part ofthe trip, must bring items home to the family if one is ever to be allowed out of the house again.

Nuff' said about that.

Gracias to Merkeley Bike for driving a hard core sixteen hours to be able to ride about 2 and a half total.We had a fun time and learned a lot!

What happens on Diablo stays on Diablo

Funny how these creative concepts, problem solving, and resolving conversations come into my head one after another on the climb to the summit.....

And fade into memory on the way home.

Kneewarmers, people. Bring em along.

Track Hack

Two sessions today- the beginner and Larry's intermediate one.

I wanted to get the rest of the mandatory stuff out of the way in case I can get my butt down there to race next year, and had a good time.

Larry's was especially good good stuff, we got to experience the miss'n'out, which is a devilish concoction,but a great way to get pack awareness. I finally understand a few terms bandied about, like blue line, Stay, Rail, etc.


Very cool day and I got some solid efforts in, the session was planned well where you could go hard or not, I chose, ummm, hard.
I think a good meal @ Fresh Choice, some sleep, and a couple hours riding around on the lame-o group ride tommorrow should fit the recovery bill nicely.

Working the big OT tommorrow afternoon and will miss the biggest party of the year down in the Cruz, but I gotta pay for the bike habit somehow :-)

Looking forward to the pics....

Paris- Tours- the new Ambien

Hit the Live-no-more Rodeo Grounds today for some bike rodeo,
Shane and his band of brothers are really getting the course wired, much nicer than Labor Day when I was last there.
Small fields, probably reflective of Candlestick tomorrow, but for my money, a good good race.
40 steps to oblivion went pretty well, which bodes well for December.
Cesar is about unbeatable right now in the SS, as he made the front group with the line of loons blowing apart into the breeze, and I went all Cat 4 and actually thought the loons behind him would keep it together.....
One of the most subtle lies in bike racing to tell yourself," it's fine back here. They'll never let those guys go....... I'm saving up and riding smart..... no pain,.... no pain.... awww fukkkk."

Anyhow, good burrito fest afterwards @ Tequilas' on Main, a cup of Cole after visiting Merkle's lair of tires and hoops, and the most boring race I've watched this year on Versus.
At least until the last 5-8 K, when Pozzato and Gilbert took off with Kroon getting dragged along.
Watch those cameras, boys, Robbie M is a madman to hold it up after smacking the camera with his head and Oscar Freire did a nice job keeping it from being much worse.
I'll miss the Stick tommorrow, not my favorite race anyway, though the racing should be good stuff and tactical as all get out on that flat dump.
Looking forward to the stories...
J

CCCX #3- Fort Ord- Revenge Of The Sand Peoples

New venue,
I was excited, I haven't raced over on this side of Fort Ord for probably 8-10 years, I remember much much sand, surf guitar music playing from giant speakers on top of somones' van, a girl knocking the Seal into a pole on a sandy descent, tough crosser girls even back then, and lots of sand.
Rolled down nice and late loving the 1:30 start, made pancakes for the girls before I left even!
The course was very smooth single track mixed with a few long road sections, one longish run between barriers that I listened to someone smarter than me and ran, rolling the bike next to me, kind of different but it worked fine, and a sand ride-up was the crux and right in front of the vocal parking lot crew, but the 42 x 17 was for once the right gear.
I used a bottle cage today with my feeder of preference off shuttling children to B-day parties, but with no shouldering the bike it wasn't a big deal.
I went with Kenda Small Block Eights today, and should have listened to the instincts and went with a little more knob, like the Panaracers.
We started all together today with the full A contingent, adding a different dimension, as the SS guys were at the end of a very long line of suffering by the first singletrack.
If you missed that bus, homeboy,it was over right there, and I went and bobbled a couple of times in the turns, the SB8's were fine unless I missed the perfect line and only the perfect line would do in that crowd and at that speed, then I would slide into some interesting contortions and was OTB by a lap in or so.
Hung with some stragglers from the geared race for about 3 laps, but kept getting gapped on the long asphalt sections from them.
Fitness felt pretty good, I settled into a rhythm and saved a little, the front group was making a solid 30 seconds a lap on me and lapped me with 4 to go, and I figured I might need a little sumthin' if one of those hapless souls caught out behind me caught up, kind of turned the dial to 7 on the suffer-meter and rode a good hard effort.
Cleaned the sandy hill every time, roughly 10 laps for a hour twenty, a good hard day and a fun fun time.
The buy-cell boys were on fire again today and stayed on the Strawberry/Rocklobster choo choo early, they seem to be able to turn their bikes much better than me, played their cards right for 1,2, that bunch seems to swap the W every week, but they are definitely the ones to watch in the single speeders.
Next week a race close enough to ride to, and I think that's exactly what I'll do. 33 steps of pain and wholesome goodness, repeat till stupid :-)

Blahblahblah

Urp de Urp

My oh my, all the cross happenings, I meant to show up, but had to work Sunday afternoon and began to stress over getting across the Bay Bridge with 30 minutes to spare, and how I like to stay and hang out anyway, and getting right into a car after sucks, and as Vick would say, I am excellent at talking you out of racing, and I did it to myself.

Sounds like a course for heavy clinchers, ummm, like the ones I'm riding right now.

And 50 guys in both the geezer fields is very impressive and cool.

And that SS field looked to be heating up as well.

Anyhow, I got a new SS MTB that I traded with the Seal for my old SS MTB that fit us both better- a 18" for a 17", both steel, just a little better fit, and came home with an extra bike by mistake, a converted road fixie that will be perfect for the rollers in a month or two.

I love silly bikes like this, The Seal built this completely out of parts he found in the trash, nice re-use!

Speaking of re-use, I'm a little frazzled answering questions aboutmy craigslist posting-http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/bik/442677243.html

" What is the size?" Ummmm, I posted it.Let me decipher for you, though. I understand we don't all get the metric system round these parts :-)

"what are the components" Ummm, I thought I got that one too. It works perfectly.

Or the famous e-mail with no questions or preface- "200 bucks."

The more I polish it, move it around the garage, the more I appreciate the old girl and want to keep her.I start to admire the sensibility of a pump peg, or four bottle cages, or a nice rack and bag for the back and how nice riding to the farmers market and coming home with dinner in that bag is, and dammit, I know I promised to clear some junk out, but come on!

This is how come I have 7 bikes in the garage. Easy to buy them, hard to let them go.

I went a little over the edge with this weeks training, lots and lots of tempo and group riding, topped off with riding the SS crosser yesterday on the Sunday hammerfest, trying to get those legs to spin fast fast fast for a hour, a nice micro-cycle of stress, take a day easy, then hit it again.

Finally some stress in my life is resolved and I can push it again on the training side of life,my body doesn't care what type of stress I introduce, when the reservoir is filled, it will react negatively.

A hard lesson for me to learn , that the improvement comes from the recovery. Employing solid recovery strategies even while I couldn't train much helped me through the summer of hell, basic stuff, no mumbo-jumbo, eating right, a multi-vitamin, stretching, building strength and aligning my body has left me in good shape, not very fast, but able, for example, to fall on my face and be able to race that weekend still.

All good stuff and I look forward to this Saturday , a fun filled day for all.I'll be trained up and tired, but will show up and give the gas until I implode, loving the sweet pain of cross again.

J

It's bizness time.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGOohBytKTU

I gotta learn how to get the video to embed into Blogger...

Just loving these guys, though.

Happy Anniversary, Miz C!

J

I wanna quit football and be a cheerleader...

And other stupid thoughts...

Be careful the tunes you listen to on the way home from a self-pummeling and major suckage-fest, they may have new meaning.

10 laps of pain on the plate today for me, after 2 I was hurting, after 5 I was whining about how I was really a B and how did they even let me into this stupid parade of idiocy and self flagellation, at 7 I really felt the spurtle and hairballs coming around, and hoped that my crank would come loose again so I had a good excuse to drop out and go eat meatballs, at 8 I relaxed and greeted the pain instead of fighting it, and somehow held my spot from then on.
Not like I got any faster, really, and by the end even the flattish stuff was leaving me gasping for precious O2, but everybody else hurt too, I guess.

Strawberries for the whole SS bunch today, only 6 of us lining up, and we all deserved em'.

Took Morgans advice and rode what was actually a very nice challenging course with barely any brakes, cool buffed out singletrack mostly and a doode could roll that stuff.

A month off, basically, is what it boiled down to, getting Lifed on.
A pretty important month from a training standpoint, being in a Base 3 kind of way, lots of tempo rides and interval sessions got missed, the stuff that lays a nice ground for the icing on the fitness, but hey, we can't control life sometimes and it's twists and turns, and I'm going to live with it and enjoy the day.
The fitness is sucking but the freshness is high, gotta figure out if I can roll a 3 week block or stay on schedule with a rest week.

Sounds like the Lion was a kick in the pants, I ended up working at the coaching biz a little and Working the See Jane Triathlon, doing some bike support and registration, fun seeing all the clients finish their goal race and talking to them afterwards you could feel the excitement, glad I was a little part of it.

Miz C and I were discussing the lack of spectators today for the A race in Salinas, folks, these are some seriously good athletes out there to watch, that hill was a great shady place to spectate and wipe the grovel off the ground.
I've seen more spectators at a Earlybird Criterium,hmmm..

Nice fall weather right now, so get out and ride!
Horse-traded my old crosser to a teamie today, put the Burley on the Craigs List, making some room in the garage and trying to get my hands on some nice race wheels before the season is done.
Hope your all well and enuff blather from me...

Stuff works, yo.

I still have the hanging chad off the lip that sux, and a few cuts inside the mouth, but lots of ice, ibuprofen, the Soljah have done the trick.

Getting the Chad to repair itself is being tricky, though.

It keeps getting messed up every day, leaving me with some sleepless nights.I even tried a Tegaderm on it today, but no way- it's a lip, man.That shit ain't sticking to a lip.

Vitamin E, Aquaphor, works somewhat but it's slow.

Skeered the snooty parents at Back To School night tonight bad, though, Chad started goobing a little, I wipe it gingerly, then it bleeds while I'm listening to the math teacher explain his homework theory, he was cool, though.Young runner dude, looks like a roadie, understood what taking a header was about. Little C thinks he looks like Justin Timberlake, ooooh, the sixth graders are all in a tizzy!

The shoulder and back are good, working with a chiro for the first time and he does some good good things.

Glam shot for Nome , no leg measurements though :-)

3 weeks of takeout have taken a toll and now I can't eat lettuce. Gawd I miss crunchy vegetables! Soon, young jedi, soon.

Fight Club

When a easy day at the bmx park goes bad.....

A moment of inattention on a set of whoops with the cross bike sure put a whooping on me.

Ask Nome, this was after the cleanup.

Funny tape action is trying to hold my inner lip in one piece till it can heal, damn thing looks like a Mubungi tribesman coming of age ritual gona horribly wrong.

I thought it wasn't all that bad, rode home, scaring little children and the odd tweaking speed freak on Santa Rita.

I saw the inside of my lip and figured I better go see the doc for a stitch or two, but no stitches due to the location inside the mouth. They did freak a little about the neck pain and insisted on a neck collar and a few X-rays to make sure nothing fractured in there, all good. BTW, I bitched about it long and hard and didn't want to go through all that, but if you have the insurance, get a picture if you land on your neck or head. I thanked the doc afterwards for talking me into it.

No clinic for me tommorrow, the new barriers sit all lonesome-like in the garage.

Fookin' Livermore dirt is HAAARD, folks, have a good race this weekend and be safe.

Resolution

Well, today was the day Mom left this world.

85 years is a long long time.

I got railroaded into writing the obit.

And though sometimes we didn't see eye to eye.

I've been doing some tallying.

2 marriages

5 kids

9 grandkids

11 Great- Grandbabies.

Scholarship to Juillard when she graduated high school, turned it down because they didn't offer room and board to women candidates in 1938.

Waited tables and sewed at night to make ends meet with 4 little girls after she left the first guy.

Scholarship at age 42 to UOP

2 masters' degrees when it was over

Taught school and wrote books till she was 65.

Big shoes for a little old lady.

The hospice nurses marveled at her refusal to pass.

Every day they would chuckle as they came onto shift.

She never would do anything until she decided to.

And we were all on her time.

Rest easy, Jeanne.

Apologize for the lack of bloggage...

And I would really like to tell you all about a savage cross race today...
And maybe chew the fat about some new fangled carbonium/ crosstanium goodies


But unfortunately I've been at the hospital this week with Mom.

And the last three days in Hospice care.

She broke her hip the week of the EMC crit in June.
And it has been a long long summer.

And while I've been riding just to keep my sanity

It's kind of trivial right now.

dubble post

A race report from Saturday I wanted to share....

The cross season kicked off today with the earliest race on record, Livermore in September is not very crossy, but it was a savage way to get going.
Rolled out with the WOT ride at 9 in Pleasanton and was nicely warm by Livermore, no real time chatting with the new guys, but I will say the speed was up a few notches.Definitely was glad to be running a 48 x 17, although the downhills I had to let some gaps open.
Showed up at Robertson Park and it was old home week, lots of old friends and several EMC's, including Dave A and Ron and Teresa( who finished her second race today? Nice!)
The race didn't start till 11:30, good job of the promoter to get back on schedule after a few early snafus.
All the A's together, Masters, Elite, Junior, and Singlespeed (Me).
About 25 guys all together, but a very strong bunch for a small race in podunkville, basically the entire Strawberry bunch, headlining with Henry K coming off of the world MTB champs in Europe last week, Howie and the Black Market crew and several of the other top guys poking their heads out for a hard workout.
We start on the blacktop behind the rodeo grounds and turn into a set of barriers, then we joined the regular loop.
I was a little hesitant on the SS to line up front, especially with the fast company I was keeping and not wanting to get in the way, but the sprint was actually rather calm, except for me kicking someone in the chest as I dismounted. I withdrew the offending foot and apologized , no blood, no foul.
Lots of gravel flat turns, taped and coned, serpentine back and forth. A little breeze out there, temps were in the 90's,but a good place to find a wheel and conserve/ work together.
The pack was blowing apart by the second/ third lap, I was rolling along pretty good, making every split to the second chase group, with about 2 guys off already.
Came through the sand pit in the corral and was doing well, then lost it a little to the right and drifted into a plastic pole holding the tape up.
Normally these things fall down but I hooked the bars and got tossed like a episode of Tapout, falling into sand and the bike landing on top of me, then hopping up to not get t-boned by the rest of the loons coming around the corner.
I hop back on and shake it off, A SC guy who I thought was in first in the SS is gone, but I start bridging from wheel to wheel as guys fade in the heat and intensity. I was getting a bottle from GROOVY T every lap after the first and it saved me big time, the early races are so important to have a drink or 10...
I made it back to a guy on a sweet Hunter SS who I thought was second, followed him until he crashed into a trash can we were all drifting around. As the race went on, riding mistake free became more and more important, so easy to go into a corner hot and slide it out. Bridged to the SC guy with 3 to go, followed him up the stadium steps, all 33 of them, then attacked on the back side to another group.
Held on and was careful not to lay it down, but unfortunately maybe a little too conservative, just playing defense, because with two turns to go, I see Cesar Chavez from Buy- cell cruising across the finish,
Crap! I never saw him in front of me, apparently he rode a smooth race in a group of good good guys and never even stressed.....
Second was real good for me though, my guess would be a midpack for the A's as a whole.
Thanks again to Teresa for the Cat 1 handups, I brought my Camelback but left it in the backpack and drank HEED instead, a better choice in the heat anyway, no cramps and I felt good all day!
Ride On, Johnny
__._,_.___

Goat- style

Reminds me of my race today,
I actually met up with some of these little guys in Alamo the other night and now want one.
Pygmy goats like pygmy carrots, I found out.

Stoked

To race in the Gobi this weeekend.

This is way too fukkin' early for a cross race, but I'm going to ride over there and give'r one just to enjoy some wheel to wheel, its been 5 months or so since I lined up and need to get back on that hoss.
Put on some new tires today, the Kenda Small Block Eights in 700 x 32, and they look nice and roll quick. Important for me, they seem to handle predictably as well, I'm not the best bike handler out there especially on low speed windy stuff( like every CCCX race).
Took off the track nuts on the back and tried a QR, I haven't had any extra scratch for another set of race wheels for this rig, and figure I'll need to change a flat at some point.
At first the QR was fine, then I sprinted out of a corner and all hell broke loose and the track nuts promptly went back on.
Maybe if one is spinning a little gear the QR would work, I've used them on road fixies before with no real problems, but I'm rollin' a 48 x 17 tommorrow and the torque is insane in that back end, especially with the giant BB and chainstays that are gussetted alloy.
Picked up a couple of extra rear cogs from WTB , a 18 and a 20, and found out I have a 3/32 system instead of a 1/8 system, which makes my new 44 T ring I e-bayed relatively useless.
Perhaps I'll put it on the Redline Monocog and make a pit bike/ stupid junglecross machine.
Although Junglecross seems to be fading, replaced by dirt crits, like what I expect tommorrow.
Now watch Shane put in 20 sets of barriers and a set of kickers, I need lots of running after two weeks of the rock n' roll lifestyle again.
Got to go take some kids bowling now, I hope you are well and bring a Camelback tommorrow.
J

Game Theory

Post-interval session nosh-

Egg whites
Whole Wheat Tortillas
TJ's low fat cheese mix- 2 tblspoons
Warm the tortillas on the stove
Nuke the egg whites, roughly 2 minutes
Egg whites over the tortillas
Cheese over the egg whites
30 seconds in the micro
Spoon homemade salsa overthe top

Enjoy with a cup of black coffee and fall back into a haze of exhaustion and satisfaction for a few.....

You know your apples are considered jumbo....

When they cast their own shadow.

4.5 inches across.

One fruit on the whole tree.

Nursed this guy all summer, ala James And The Giant Peach.

Time for him to go now..

My post- ride snack today.....

Nightcrawler

I sleep in the day......

Back on the shift work, starting tonight.

I thought the grass was greener, but by January I wanted my old gig back. Took me 6 months to get the job back I struggled to get rid of :-)

Pack those commuter lights away....

Though I will miss my friends I wave at on the boulevard going north every morning. The recumbent dude, beard and baggies. The Red and yellow kitted guy ( synergy?) who actually waves back.

Sad to say a certain bunch refuses to wave and stares curiously...

Really, how threatening can a reflective vest over a backpack and a headlight on a giant Bell helmet be? Is it the creaking old cross bike that calls across the boulevard like a ancient Maori war cry, making eyes narrow and body parts shrink inside the spandex?

Have a good week, everyone!

Time To Refresh.......

and find things that reward me and mine.

This is my fourth year helping coach the See Jane Tri program, every year I get a little more involved and always learn something.

Working with new athletes = where it's at.

I push our bike team towards it because I believe in developing people through sport, because I have seen the changes and true strength people find in the challenges.

When it's all over, not to be melodramatic, but I have a feeling changing lives is going to be a little more rewarding and memorable than making change...

While digging ditches pays the bills, my mind wanders elsewhere.

Three Bears workout today- for those that shred that hill like it's nothing in a bike race , just disregard.
But for a average person, just getting into this ?
Way tough.
Those girls are training hard this season, we sagged NOT ONE person today.
And most of em ran after.
Back over Papa Bear.

I was so inspired, I actually laced up the sneaks as well.
Gawd- Almighty that runnin' is hard!

Nothin' but respect....

Excuses, Excuses

I've got a few.

But instead of focusing on the negative of todays results at Esparto TT, I'm gonna look on the sunny side of life.

Vic was monster super size in his first race as a 3, taking 4th in a real tough group.

Jaz looked great in her bear jersey and was running around with her trophy from the prestige series all day, what a great first year for the kid!

I actually got out for a race and did it, no small feat with the bullshit raining on me all spring and summer. Even though my legs refused to push as hard as they could have, it was good to get reaquainted with the pain cave.

Have a good week , everyone!

The center of the universe.....

I've been planning this trip since last year, when I came up and rode all the climbs but the first one in preparation for getting shelled at Cascade :-0

A profile here ....

Every year we come up here and chill out, and every year we resist coming back down the hill a little more

We have climbed it on foot a couple of times, my daughter made it halfway up in a backpack at a year old, we swim at its foot in Lake Sis, and never stop looking up at it.I understand why this was the center of the universe to those who lived here before us.

This year, the ancient lady barely has any snow on her flanks, awful early to look like this, the climbing must suck in the scree.

This pic taken at about mile 94 of the Super Summit, both Nome and I needed a picture break for a minute.

Castle Lake was just ahead,though, and we needed a pepsi bad. I SO wanted to soak my head and feet in this guy, but we had to roll...

To tackle the last climb up to the ski bowl, not the tuffest one of the day, but coming between mile 106 and mile 120?

These small signs with different sayings along the climb inspired me to keep rolling , along with a well timed vanilla GU....

7,800 hundred feet and the road ends. I wished for the first time all day I hadn't of ditched my vest, the descent was brrrrrrrrr.

Always find a wheel like this one for the first 15 miles....nice fella, we hit the first climb and thanked him profusely....

Note the size of the roads, this was probably the only negative, 10-15 mile climbs were cool, but descending them with folks paperboying up, not so cool, got a little too hairball for me especially with all the bad juju going on in my life right now, I felt it was in my best interests to let a couple of fellas go and not be a statistic...

Right after coming off of the first climb, we saw a line of emergency vehicles hauling ass up the road, hope the folks are all right...

This was unknowingly the winning gap to #, 2 and 3, those two never came back, the gap never changed. The winner by my guesstimation was a Reno Wheelman who looked beyond supa-smooth when he rocked by everyone early and held it all the way.

Not a race, but you do this junk long enough and at least for me I always keep count, no lie here...

I rode well and smart for me, drank a six hour bottle of Perpetuem in six hours, stayed below LT for most of the day and never cramped.

Anything this long always has a crux and a moment when it can all fall into disarray. The bonk, the cramps, the mental exhaustion all are a opportunity as well as a obstacle.

Sunday was a opportunity for me to get a little confidence back and to let a new season unfold.

Ride time 9:42

135 miles

16,500 feet of climbing

YUM.

It's not only that the kernels are mature, Merkeley, but....

The tassels have to get almost like hair blowing in the wind.

That's how it was explained to me last night.

I kept trying to peek under the leaves, exposing the kernels to the 90 degree heat, a no-no.

I would guess another week until the bag shows up on the doorstep from Santa Corn.

Kinders' update= chicken parmesan sausages grilled, then sliced over a spinach salad with a sweet dressing and some tiny chunks of mozzarella. Olive pugliese with lots of olive oil and a few drops of balsamic for dipping......

The Chico Criterium has a olive oil sponsor.

Maybe these beauties will help me snag a bottle.

Altough judging by my performance on recent group rides, perhaps bringing a couple twenties along would ensure I come home with the groceries...:-)

I dunno, but....

I better only race downhill crits if I'm gonna make this place a habit.

The marinated ball tip= addictive.

This is why we do it........

This little morsel coming up next weekend.

I will eat enough.

I will spin the little gears.

I will stay below LT in the first 2 climbs.

And I'm gonna take tons of picx.

Cause the views at the top of these climbs are awesome!

You Feed Us Lies From The Tablecloth

Mmmmmm a rest week, feeling good and perky.

Dropped off my trusty wagon today for a little service in San Ramon and headed to Diablo for the first long threshold test of the season, I hoped for a PR, frankly.

Weight is decent, strength is through the roof, and the last time I went up there in the middle of a training week I PR'ed the first time up, now I'm sporting a compact set of rings until the Shasta ride is over, and I figgered it would only help, sooo?

No cigar, I worked hard at my threshold, had a nice EIA attack halfway up ( no puffer, my rule for training rides, maybe time to rethink the rule) and couldn't push the gear needed for the speeded. Still ended up 4 minutes off the PB , and definitely not a happy camper, but that's the beauty of the local climb and proving ground, there's no bullshitting a clock.Step up or shut up, and I'll be shutting up, laying off the Kinders', and eating more leaves......

There's always a silver lining, though, and while un-cycling related,it brings me happiness....
The Garlic has sprouted!

Thanks Fanelli, I did it!

The Tomatoes are coming in, long strings of Roma's, some nice Early Girls, and a Black Heirloom that should be beautiful with some Buffalo Mozzarella tossed with vinaigrette .

Corn is 7 feet now, and starting to seed, soon every one I know will have a bag on the doorstep :-)
Labs are bringing pears in to eat every night...

One last gardening note- I planted a dwarf nectarine 3 years ago, today I got the first sweet little fruit off it!
The tree is so full of fruit it fell over and I had to stake it today, another week of sunshine and we should be edging off the Safeway grid a little........

Good luck to all the racers at Lafayette, maybe I'll come out to say hi......
J

Old School Hollywood

Looking forward to riding my new toy tommorrow.... only3 months till the real racing begins!

SS is the pure shit for me, something about just picking a gear and living with it for the duration appeals to me, and getting pummeled by SS mutants is always fun as well, now to start looking into some disc wheels for racing, thinking about a Stans' tubeless system, but I know little about such dark arts.....



After CTK last week, it seemed that a Hamilton Loop was in order today. My first time riding it from San Jose, and I liked the gentle climb to the top, plugged in a little System Of A Down for the last few k and it was all good, lots of tempo work, soon the hard stuff will come, but for now I can count the times on one hand I've been over threshold since March.



Good luck to all racing tommorrow and tonight at Carrera, I really wanted to come out, eat a burrito and heckle, but Miz C is still down and out with her bum wheel, and flyin' solo after being gone all day would kinda suck some ass on the home front, so some Borders time with the kid was called for instead, picked up the new Hannah Montana CD for her, she's been helping big time around the house and deserves so much more, ah, the life of a suburbanite.....

Here's to your thin red line, I'm stepping over.

Climb To Kaiser, 2007

My first time at the ride/ race, and what a challenge.

We started in the dark following the CHP moto out through Clovis....

We got it going for a minute or two on the flats heading out, but I couldn't get enough help to really make a dent in the speed, so relaxed and took pics/ pulled occasionally, got out of the way when the real action started.

I had some minor mechanical issues that Tri-Sport mechanics were able to help me with at the second aid station, thanks, guys, the bike worked flawlessly all day after!

And on that topic, the aid stations were excellent and the volunteers tireless, I got massages, popsicles, cold towels, and all the canteloupe and Perpetuem one could stomach :-)

This is halfway up Tollhouse Grade, I was feeling good here , only to start to bonk 30 minutes later.

I don't think Ron was even breathing hard :-)

With all the experience I have going long long, I still made the classic mistake of not riding within myself and eating enough.I guess I just got caught up in it all, but I dug a nice hole for myself.

By the time we hit Shaver lake, I was concerned and had throttled back and ate , but while I caught the bonk early and was fueled up , with the heart and lungs ready to go, a series of vicious cramps started to tear me up and took me off the bike and ready to quit more than once.

Nome moved on, and I was going to go back to Shaver, but started to think about driving home with a DNF, and decided to go on and just see.....

Nome's buddy Tom was along shortly, and he and I rode together for the remainder of the day.

This is Big Creek, the monster climb of climbs.

I was cramping bad here , but got up by paperboying and standing.

Somehow standing was better than sitting, although standing for 8 miles is kind of hard on the rest of ya....

A little snack and I tackled the last big climb up Kaiser, which wasn't that bad, except coming at 80 miles.

The best aid station up there, these massage guys helped me out immensely.

Time for some of the longest, nicest descents around.

Too bad my legs were still locking up.

The last aid station was getting hot, but the cold popsicles were fantastic.

The cramping left for the most part and all the easy riding spent babying my legs over the climbs gave me plenty of gas to pull a big group home.

The post race BBQ was oh- so excellent!

My legs hurt still today in a bad way, that ride truly humbled me.

To envision riding it in 8 and a half hours is unbelievable.

Maybe next year I can come back and challenge myself, although all this distance training is tough on the family, I like the 45-60 minute races!

The Devil never changes

A good weeekend on two wheels, four of the Spidey force on the group ride doing Diablo x 4.

Well, only one of us made 4 times(and can ya guess who that wuz) but the majority got up a few times before turning the rigs for home..

A green smoothie and a long nap and I pummelled myself again today on the MTB for a couple with the Xterra crowd, bastards are sucking me in :-)

The deal with the devil..... free lanes at my favorite pool if I coach a little.....

Getting a few bucks to run some running workouts already... good for cross anyhow.

Place to stay in Kings' beach.

MTB skills are half ass good right now.

Dusty wetsuit looking at me on the shelf....

MMMMMM

PR the first time up Diablo Saturday, took 4 minutes off the best at tempo/ threshold all the way.

Biig confidence builder for CTK, that is one bad mama jamma, and this boy don't go uphill too good :-)

Compact crank is going on this week, hopefully that will save my bacon.......

Blow the Whistle

I keep trying to write a race report for last weekends' race at Laguna Seca, but just have been oh so tired in the head.

Lot's of family issues lately have got me down, and when Miz C. ate some dirt trail running at the ridge last Thursday, the trip almost got canned, a recurring theme all weekend, with me spending 3-4 hours a day on the phone debating whether to pack my shit up and go or stay and race, much vacillating went on, Miz C's leg felt better and then worse, but the little nurse helped out big time.

Vicodin is not a good drug for my wife, that's all I'll say about that.

When is the love of sport turn into a selfish thing, or more clearly, too much of a selfish thing?
This was the burning question for me during the downtime between laps.
My mom, my wife, my kid, all pulling me away from 2 wheel mayhem

Achieving balance is one of several reasons I stay away from Ironmans these days, the 25 hour weeks were sucking me in and bumming the family out too much, I really dig a hard 8-10 hours a week getting up for cross and whatnot and find some semblance of balance in there..... sometimes.

We put together the same team as last year, a good group of middle-aged dads out for a fun escape from yardwork and other suburban bliss.
Can-Am was nice, we were on the corner, so we saw everybody coming through, but didn't have to ride up any obscene hills after a lap.
The kits turned out nice, I believe WM sponsors a team of Cat 2's in Arizona and we got some of their extras, but we looked nice and matching, at least before the dust and blood took over.

Recapping the whole time would be boring, but a few highlights-

Rodney was snakebit fro the get go, I'd like to see a blog posting, but poor dude almost exhausted the entire tube population of Monterey County and still had to run his bike. And that was his FIRST lap.

Jimbo busted his shoulder hard in one of the new sections, a tricky descent on a old trail that grew a rut that looked like the Grand Canyon by the middle of the night, kind of a dusty piece of crap with lots of washboardy holes. Dude still rode 11 miles with a fractured shoulder and kept me from having to go again,- just a stud.

Kareem is getting way fitter than last year. And talking me into a 8 hour pain fest- just savage, dude.

The Seal was a rock as always. Need two laps? Got it. Need some food? Got that too.
Always bring a Seal with ya.

I had a good race, the fitness is coming on. I actually dropped some climber types on the "grind", a longish mostly middle ring kind of affair. A longer course this year and no idea how to keep track of my watch restrain me from throwing out numbers, but for the most part, I was doing well judging by how many people passed me/ I passed.

MY LIGHT SUCKS- I saw corporate team guys out there with HID set ups, looking like a combine coming up behind me on the singletrack.The stuff is everywhere now, how to justify a 600.00 light for once a year, hmmmmm.
The difference between a old halogen and the new stuff is ridiculous, it's soooo easy to outdrive the lights with the old school stuff. I finally just eased up and flowed by feel, it was only when racing the course that the big boomers were really needed.

3 LAPS IN A ROW SUCK TOO- 1st one, cool, just ride tempo.

Second one, light is failing, go to commuter backup and led backpack lamp, still hit the climbs hard.

3rd one (unexpected due to teammates' spectacular urp-fest)- the hammies were doing the shamalamadingdong on the climbs, sucking gatorade and Gu, feeling my own urp-fest coming on soon, good thing I stole his light, or I would bitch about that too :-)

THE FOG IS WEIRD.
It looks cold but is often warm.
You can really freak yourself out riding in it when no one is around.
I was halfway up Hurl Hill before I realized I was ON Hurl Hill.
Lights are kind of useless in it, especially when rummy at 2 am.

The off season weights are paying off, by Tuesday I was recovered enough to to hit some intervals up, my goal out of the weights was not to get majorly stronger, but to bounce back faster and survive my job for 15 more years. By the end of the Valley swing, I couldn't pick up a sack of concrete without hurting myself. I could feel the power coming out of the core muscles on the bigger climbs all weekend, strange how working rotational muscles can help with a vertical axis movement, good stuff.
Now to find some leg speed......
And 2200 bucks donated, with the match from Waste Management we are looking at almost 5k donated to fund ALS research, yeah!

Barely any pics, sad to say with 3 bloggers and a semi-pro aficionado, all we could come up with was a 2 MP snapshot or two.

It is what it is....

The good - The EMC crit came off relatively well. Our (4th?) year and this one was the best, the new pavement and opening up the course really showed itself to be a positive, we were a little worried about people forgetting to turn right every once in a while and protecting a whole other side of a course gave us chills, but except for a couple of bonehead moves, the races looked good.

One of the interesting things about setting up a course is anticipating the lines taken by the beginning classes and then realizing that hay bale won't do any good at all when the pack goes to the complete other side of the course to give their buddies the gutter, yum yum .

Almost got me fired up about racing seeing all that suffering, good thing Yoda and Nome took me out to mines road the day before and thrashed me thouroughly, keeping me out of trubble.

Some family health issues have me spending time in hospitals lately visiting folks and my heart isn't in it yet, more than a little preoccupied with things.

This is a hard ass sport and way of life and when I can't focus 100% ?

It feels like a waste to be signing up.

So I go and train and some days are good, this morning was the first set of intervals for the new season, just some tempo work while heading into work on the crosser, backpack and all, with the Rage Against The Machine Live at The Olympic pouring into my soul, and I forget about the bullshit of life for a while and we are good today and the hemoglobin counts are up and that's what matters.

This weekend is the 24 hour race, we have raised 2100 bucks so far for ALS research, thanks to all the bloggers that contributed, you folks are really fantastic, here is a link to the donation page if you like, we should have some nice pics up soon, camping, racing, buddies, a good cause...

good stuff, all of it.

J

shut yer mouth when yer talkin to me....

As a recent Cat 4 exile, I found this comment by D. D. in cycling news rather interesting...
""It's not that I refuse it," said Di Luca, referring to his lack of an ear piece which many riders in the modern peloton cannot function without. "But after a little while it gives me troubles in my head. In fact, I've had to use my mind instead of just listening to the instructions given by the director. I'm convinced it has helped me improve to the level where I am now. I know what I have to do."

The thinking is the hardest part......

Soul Rebel

Oh the joys of a weekend around the house.

One of the best things about bike racin' ?

The travel and adventure.

Also one of the most exhausting.

Even though I've been taking a sabbatical from racing till I feel the hunger bloom in my belly, the training is going well, well enough that when I realized I had to stay around this weekend due to some standby commitments, well, no bitchin' from me about taking a mini- break.

I've been rollin' out to Oakdale for some weekend pain- fests lately, real good group riding, wind, rollers, and a few good hills out Murphys' way as well. Good stuff from a organized bunch and a nice lunch apres-ride can be found at a local deli.

Looking forward to some reports of goodness out at Mt. Ham tommorrow, some of my compadres look real good right now , I hope a little luck will touch em' and help em' out. early word out of Iowa is good, real good, so I hope we keep it going........

Little C and I took a break from flattening out a area in the back to plant our corn and etc and rode the tandem down to the farmers' market today for some organic chicken and vegan brownies from the Feel Good Bakery van, best thing about the tandem is the ability to talk while riding, very underrated when your dealing with a pre-adolescent girl, I know the game is all going to change in a couple of years tops, she already knows Dad's a geek, but still doesn't despise me for it, and rolling around with me and pulling our flip-flops out of the panniers and tasting all the goodies is still fun.......

Back to getting ready for next weekend, we got a nice race coming up here in Pleasanton, the closed course opened up on the finish is going to speed things up a lot and make the upper category races safer with more runout for you 30 mph burners out there, the good thing is the new pavement is fantastic, I'm out there every Wednesday night for sprints and the stuff hooks up real nice, and that's diving into a bike lane with a open road.

Little Wood Duck

Little C and I spent the day at the old salt mine together.

Actually we spent the day touring the salt mine and snapping pics.....

This is the girls all lined up outside after their safety lecture....

Dad is happy he's not digging ditches today.....

There was a goose egg right next to these two geese in the weeds... hmmmm, who does this belong to?

Boat rides on closed reservoirs are fun!

Especially when you get to drive!

31 eggs in this nesting box south of Moraga.

While all the girls snuck up quietly, even with the ladder, not one hen was to be found. Hopefully out feeding and not a victim of Mr. raccoon.

Lots more on this trip, many nontraditional jobs were explained, etc.

Driving the big yellow machine was cool, but the boat ride got the rave reviews.

Too bad the camera batteries pooped out!

Commuter Blues

The best part of my day today, and it was not a nice day, full of hard feelings and ditchdigger bitchiness, was passing the half-mile of cars on the boulevard while the Musical Youth broke out in some "pass the dutchie".

The wind became my friend again.

I started to gutter imaginary foes on the Iron Horse Trail while peeking over my backpack.

I tucked my headlamp away, the one that makes people smile in their cars cuz I'm such a DAMN GEEK riding around with a headlamp, like Rick Moranis in Honey I Shrunk The Kids.

I hit the freeway bridge where the trail ends and I psuedo-crawl to the Pleasanton side under the ramps, but not before hitting the first full speed/ braking with the back wheel while threading the needle with the right foot/ grabbing the top tube/ dismount of 2007 and tossing that bad boy on my shoulder.

Geek-a-Rama.

Them cars can kiss my ass, though.

Pop that jersey like you mean it

In one week, I sawAfrican tortoises doing the horizontal mambo in a backyard in Orinda,

carried a picket sign for the first time in memory,

discussed knitting methods with Little C,

crawled underneath the 580/ 680 connector ramp twice with my bike taking the shortcut home,

and had ice cream 3 times for no good reason at all.

Life is crazy and takes turns that no one, much less me, can comprehend.

Them damn Warriors got heart right now, though.

The Faceless Man

And yes I have been needing some new music on the player, even on shuffle I'm hearing the same crap again and again....
Though how I rode around for hours without tunes is beyond me :-)

Merkley and X dawggie- a pair of great training partners.

Lot's of times now I really prefer to be off by myself, well, me and my Bean. Some folks, you negotiate some goals for the ride, discuss how hard things should be.... " no problem, dude. We'll be MELLOW."
Then the half wheeling trip to anaerobic oblivion begins, often slowly, cuz they just hafta ride a little too hard for themselves and you.

Bastards.

The two fellas above, though?
They do it right, baby. Piano when it's piano time, and slug Gianni in the face when that time comes as well. 22 seconds never made me smile so big as today.

Hit the cats' hill yesterday, and things are a little different when one is hawking tires and drinking rootbeers. A man's perspective is a little different.
My first time at the BIG RACE and it was cool in some ways, I really enjoyed yakking with XB and Disky, and in general hanging out and people watching.
But I really thought things would be more raucous and wild, like a big NRC race.
I saw the hill, and checked out a few laps, but maybe you gotta race it to appreciate it a little more.
The inevitable squabble about last lap smasheroos in the expo area was in some ways more interesting to myself and the junior sociology major I seem to be raising.
One more observation on the Cat-Boogie- How badass is Larry Nolan? Dude types up the workout to get ready for CH on the NCNCA list, goes out and teaches the workout on Tuesday night a couple of weeks ago, he and JA write a little thing on the CH blog on how to get ready for this race..... not very secretive if ya ask me!
Oh, and I TRIED to do that whole workout the next night at our little Pleasanton thrashfest and could not complete.
The wind was savage today out on Mines, X and I went past the junction to the edge of the Valley Of Death before Ham and turned around into it.
Muy Duro with 5 minute pulls even downhill it hurt, so mmmmmm.
Tried to get a even c-note by riding around my neighborhood for 1.7 more miles, but cramped ridiculously in front of little kids in the park and had to limp home one legged... me= dork.

Now for some of Groovys' recipe Caesar chicken pasta and the best night of TV all week on HBO....
J