Sunday, May 06, 2007

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

9 comments:

X Bunny said...

it was good talking to you too...it's a little easier to relax and yak with friends when you aren't the racer that day

Merkeley Bike said...

Fun riding on Friday.

Sorry I missed today...well maybe not with all that wind.

Gianni said...

Yep, I really never had one twinge of wanting to race my bike.

Much nicer just to hang out.

And the Womens' race was the best I saw the whole day.
It might have been small, but they got after it big time.

Gianni said...

Merk- a perfect Berkeley day- Cole, Pinehurst( sans naked drummer), Wildcat, Strawberry, and Intermezzo to top it.
Thanks.

~ lauren said...

no naked drummer? ya'll missed out.

well, maybe not. intermezzo makes it all ok.

diskzero said...

Hey man, it was cool meeting you in real life.

Quite a few of us were talking about the general vibe at the race. A lot of the "big" names that usually turn out were off racing somewhere else this year. Also, putting the pro race in the middle of the day is sort of weird. It turned the place into a ghost town for the races after it. Last year, the streets continued to fill as everyone waiting for the pro race.

Of course, every race is important, but the spectators seemed more willing to watch races and hang out before the pro race.

Oh, and Olaf's big party crew at the top of Cat's Hill was missing this year.

Dr. Xeno said...

ouch.

norcalcyclingnews.com said...

good times. good times.


hey, we'll be there next year!

(if they offer more than 1 women's field)

Groove Talking... said...

I liked the part about the dinner and the movie. Was Nome there?? I never remember where he says he is going to race.