Cupcakes And Nerf Darts

Cracked my noggin on a barrier, gave myself a two day headache.
Dodged the nerf dart machine gunners on the top deck
Wanted a cupcake feed but could not see...
Stayed on the gruppo while wigglin and swervin'
till I could see again.

The LARPD was lotsa fun this year, a definite change from the MTB courses I also like but don't really do well at, some tactics and some luck came into play as well as some fitness- those last two races with the back steps added in were hard and wasted me for the Sunday effort, but who cares.

Shane and his posse really worked hard this year to improve the racing experience and with some small sponsors and some more attendance this thing could hop.

If you haven't been since the VeloBob days with 3 small cones, one piece of caution tape and a old 2 x 8 staked up with concrete stakes, you should check it next year.
P.S.-
Oh yeah, I'm gonna pop the jersey a bit, first one I ever won with all the stud and studette athletes running around these parts, It may "only" be the LARP, but I'm still stoked.
Congrats to all the series champys!

At The LARP.......

There were cupcake feeds....

Elves racin'

Even the dawg was in the spirit....

Hecklers and racers alike were decked out....

Troy passing the grownups on his new bike.....

Kenny rolling up the line and channeling Cancellara a bit here, passing about five guys in this corral section, suuuhweeet!

Fun Fun Times.

Houses of pain II

Time to hunker down and torture myself a bit indoors..... All used other peoples' junk in this HOP, a old TACX set up ,just for me, a Craigslist track bike jumbled together, and a hand-me-down TV in the corner.
The weights and Concept 2 I got in a blind auction when a company down the street closed.
Turn up the tunes, move some laundry to the side, and get down.

Coach Troy killing me with a oldie but goodie VHS tape today- yessss.

Sufferface

Kenny getting that shoulder into it- yes, the steps are back at the LARP.

Kenny has improved soooo much this year, I think his road season will be a blast!

Troy and his new cross bike! Much improved from the old ginormous full suspension beasty-bike!

I never took my camera out today at CCCX, with the nasty rain , but Jasmin and Lainey had another great battle on two wheels today, trading the 2 spot back and forth, a classic battle between solid climbing fitness and awesome technical skills on the downs.

Classy stuff.

Both the LARP and CCCX were filled with mechanicals snafus for me, rolled tires, loose bolts, and crappy pedals.

A super bunch of buddies helped me out both days, though, and I was able to finish both races.

It takes a large helping of suck to appreciate the good sometimes great days where everything goes right, the holeshot comes to you without effort and the Heed tastes like champagne....

Enjoy the rain, peoples!

Houses of Pain

This one is at my work, I like coming in a bit early and pushing some iron around.

.
Finally after a month layoff with the latest weird graybeard injury where I popped a few ribs out , I was able to get in a light workout with no pain later-
Very grateful to be back.
Dr. Rich always seems to put me back together again,
Thanks,
Rich!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Roll Them Miles

Took a break from the racing this weekend, instead we caught up on things, actually hung the Christmas lights before December 24th, did some riding with a couple of talented teens on a cold but clear Diablo, hosted a great houseguest, and hit a team ride today for some more miles.

All good.

All relaxing

Recharged and ready to go.

Sporting Some New Duds

BASP #4 - Golden Gate Park, 2008,
originally uploaded by Cyclocross Magazine.

Picture by Andrew Yee at GGP- I stunk it up bad in many ways but had lots of fun battling for 19th place.

Putting on the new duds still feels kind of like dressing up in fancy clothes, fun and I like it a lot but a bit unsure of how to act in these new situations.
Change is constant whether we admit it or not and challenging myself to be a better teammate and better racer is good stuff for the soul.
Five years and my first cycling team, I'm gonna miss the red ones and wish them the best of luck.


.

Weekend Fun Section Two

photo credit- Rick Rasmussen

After a great day Saturday, both my whole brood and the Parsons Clan piled into the barge and headed south to Manzanita at the crack'o;ass.

Papa P raced first and had mechanicals from hell, ended up finishing on my SS mountain bike while dodging several bad crashes in the B field.

Jas raced one of her best races ever and sold it out on the hill after doing a long day on Saturday, having fun all the way with no pressure. I came across a woman laying in the trail after the first lap woozy as all get out from cracking her helmet in the loose sand, she wanted her bike back to continue, but the old rule goes if you can't stand up straight- no bikey.
Medics were summoned- more work on Sunday than I think they have ever had before at one of those races, and props to Keith and Rod for having them on site every race-
She gathered herself ok and all was well, several people helped out with her and it was very nice to see.
I raced the SS A as usual and didn't feel great in the legs- a two week solid block and a race the day before made things a little slow- but made the front group behind Rich Maile who was ON FIRE, two jerseys for the day, very nice.

Cesar and Julian took off and I should have went too, but contented myself with being in the group with number 2 and 3 in the points, hoping things would go my way.

The hill wasn't that big of a problem and often I chased back on the climb, but I didn't stay focused enough on the turns and descents, and kept getting gapped and needing to chase back on, not good and after 7 laps the elastic popped for good, realistically I doubt the end result would have been different had I stayed on a bit more, but you never know if you don't suffer through it.
Held on for 7th and stayed on the lead lap, no small feat with Justin coming on like a freight train.
Definitely mentally worked from a late night/ early morning wakeup before I even got there and was a bit bitchy about bottle handups and such, really it was my tired mind and a soft bottle that played the biggest part in dropping it two times, must suck up to the feeding crew a bit now...:-)

All in all some fantastic racing at a very high level all day to watch, very sweet!

See you all at GG park and I have a suprise for you all, well, some of you.

Weekend Fun Section One.

DSC_0687,
originally uploaded by liveplayride.

Saturday Gruppo at LARPD. Picture by Shane Huntoon.

As Russell says, the best little series no one does.

More Single Speed than geared in the A race, good to see the world is finally coming around to a simple life .........

This race suits me well, very fast with sweeping turns and some breeze from time to time. The sand was tricky in the AM but race-tracked out for the 11:30 ride.

A good reason to get up early

Kenny and his younger brother Troy racing Saturday in Livermore- getting the hang of things and dealing with those darn barriers- way to go!

Jasmin and Lainey in a great battle at Manzanita on Sunday- both of them rode oh-so-hard.

Fun times and I always learn something myself along the way.

The other guy in the top photo is Jimbo the heckler lover, sweet seeing my buddy suffer like that- the corral at Livermore was loose as hell for the first couple races!

Not even December yet....

Take your neighbor to a bike race and you never know what will end up on the interwebs....

LIKE THIS!

Pumpkin Bread, Choco Chip Cookies and Six Dollar Burgers- oh and strawberries!

A blast of a weekend- Started with a mellow few hours spinning in a wind storm with Merkeley, ate and visited with a new bunch of Juniors the X-man is in charge of, then got some long sleep, waking late to get ready for Ride The World Cups 3, which was blessed by probably some of the nicest weather I've seen.

Some Pictures by Garret Lau here-

With the big turnout I rode the B's and had oh so much fun- I rode a 88 gear and warmed up a bit smaller with 49 x 16, a good tactical extravaganza and the guys that risked won the race, while I played the percentages, kind of a role reversal but it was fun- the highlight was hearing the announcer ( who I didn't even realize was Frankie Andreu I'm such a bonehead) say how many points I had and realize I was counting them correctly in my head while racing- good stuff for this goofball!

I really came for the bake sale and stayed for the racing, though, and the bakers did not disapoint, I sampled a Derby Pie and grabbed a couple loaves of the bread and some excellent cookies, yum!

Sunday came early after eating baked goods and watching Run Fat Boy Run- ok in parts, one thumb up and one down I think.

We headed out with a full load of folks in the Burb for CCCX country, and if possible had even nicer weather today at the coast- wow!

Jasmin did super and had a great battle for second in the B's, she has come a long ways in her technique in a short time!

More importantly she is really having fun racing, and if your not having fun at the amateur level you really need to look at things.........

After getting abused and heckled by middle aged men last week it was a relief to get my hot mama feeding crew back, well, two thirds anyway,they are the lucky charm and with Little C coming out as well I knew I was good.

Smaller race but all five of the guys that are in the points showed up for the SS A race- great course by Keith and Rod - tactical, some sand, some blazing fast turns and a long double stretch of pavement with a small climb that would slowly stretch the elastic.

We took off and quickly formed a small gruppo that hit each other a few times but couldn't break things up- with both Tim and Cesar in the group I was very watchful for the gap-a-rooni but it never came- all the guys in that group are excellent mountain bikers and watching their lines helped me out quite a bit- I felt good and only hit it a few times to get back on or to help split things, Cesar got dropped which about never happens and I hit it hard to solidify the gap with one to go, then rode up front through the tech stuff to control the pace- my seat was leaning bad and felt like it was coming back some- but I was ok for the most part- with about a k to go my seat snapped in half and then fell off- had to ride in standing so ended up 4th- my best placing so far, so I'm really stoked!

Heckler Love

Jimbo sent me this today- gotta love it.

Note the salute to the fan club midway through........

Mr Consistency

Great weekend of living the racers' life - good food, hanging with my old buddy the Seal and Jimbo tagging along.

Lot's of bike and climbing talk, a shopping trip to Sierra Trading Post in Reno where I picked up some shoes that don't slip in the snow and some nice Campy overshoes for the fall.

Reno race- altitude and me don't agree for a day or so and I suffered some, but the Reno guys tried hard and put together a nice course with what they had-looks like parts of the course had seen some bottle shootin' and other high desert pursuits, but the wheelmen raked and cleaned things very well- nice group of folks out that way.
Mantra of the day on the runup- Chili Verde Burrito- ooof.

I had a crazy allergy thing after the race- this getting old crap is ridiculous- I just complained about allergies fer crissake, and don't get me started on my new trick knee or my weird chest pain from getting excited in the gym one day and pulling my superspinatus, it's crazy.

Went back to Tahoe and destroyed a giant pizza and took a couple benadryl so I wouldn't die choking on my own snot, then watched a doubleheader of Dodgeball and Everythings Gone Green wooo big night out.

We woke to snow dusting the porch and bailed out down to warm and sunny Sacramento and Discovery Park for Sacto Cross- this was pretty cool and I remembered my parents in the 70's cutting me loose to ride my bike from Discovery to the end of the trail somewhere far away- up by a school I think?
Anyway, I would ride my little BMX bike for hours out there, never mind the creeps in the bushes, there were always lots of little muddy side trails to jam on while the folks drank chablis and tried to keep a eye on me :-)

So it was fun to be back, I felt pretty good and liked my chances a bit more than Saturday with only 40 feet of vert in a hour- plunked on a big gear and fooled around on my new geared bike a bit, really liking it, too bad it has gears though.

Got a good call up and was stoked, well, maybe too stoked as I came out of both my pedals somehow in the start and got going about dead last out of quite a few guys, they had a 50 buck first lap prime and the field went a bit kajagoogoo trying for that one, so I just went from wheel to wheel when I could and tried not to get crashed out in the cattle drive around the first couple obstacles.

Got up to the second group but we couldn't seem to get closer, all the usual suspects in that one and they were putting along, not pulling away but too far to cross, but we tried to work together until about two to go and I left the station when the B leader who started a minute after us caught us, so I'm happy considering what a cluster the beginning was, and I will be practicing some starts this week and maybe buying some new cleats.....

Lot's o fun and next weekend will be good too- RTWC and CCCX- I thought CCCX was going to Toro Park and I was wincing in pain already, but now I see the DOD course is on tap- way cool.

J

Sweet Form Johnny

My buddy Corey sent this to me-

The horror- the horror......

Livermore CX- Surf City Combo

Livermore on Saturday- small race again- 9 A riders at the start and one singlespeeder- (me).

I felt good and kind of hoppy/ huppy, having fun heckling the previous couple of races and all the peeps, I like this little series and wish it got more attention, and it is nice being able to ride to a race from the house.

Bridged to the lead group containing Cameron F and was feeling groovy when a moment of inattention got me and I ended up on the ground in a gravelly turn with riders trying not to smash into me, I got up slowly with some weird feeling in my quad, like a strain but worse from the hip to the knee.
I figured I would try to move easy and got back onto my bike and made it back to third as Cameron took off with another guy in tow, I rode around for a while wincing but I don't like to quit and I figured why not keep riding and see if it went away, well about 7 laps in I hit the barrier when I didn't clip out quickly enough and did some freaking wild Flying Wallendas move with the bike above me, hopping on the other leg and then somehow hitting my calf with the pedal I'm going to guess but don't really know but now I had a bruised calf as well, now the score was two owies on one leg- I got back to Jay B but lost power a bit and gave up a couple places, ended up 5th and hobbled like a old mare headed to the glue factory, not a succesfull tuneup race by any measure and feeling kind of dorky for not hitting the HOP ride instead and doing three hours upright, not like that's always so safe , but damn.

Miz C and I had a hot date celebrating two decades together, and that wasn't going to be postponed for nothin' , especially something like a sore leg, so after dropping off Little C at Merkely and Alicats ( thanks again, BTW) we headed down to Aptos to this little spot of calm and relaxation, then adjoined to a dinner here.

Wow, sleeping in was fantastic, and after a long breakfast we headed up the One a whole 4 exits to Surf City.

Spent a hour or so yakking with peeps and heckling, then I had to see if I could go for the race, lots of arnica gel seemed to work and I tried to really warmup well before as to not tweak anything further- this was a great course for me, most of it really suited me although I lost time on the turns not wanting to crash and strangely on the grass I sucked- Russell pointed out my low tire pressure which I have been fooling with this year, going lower and lower, perhaps that was the deal, though I probably just sucked :-)

Ended up 6th I believe, the silver lining is really I'm suprised I got out there at all and had fun, which is where it's at- this was a incredibly fun race and thanks to all the volunteers that put it on, the costumes were outlandish and great, and the hanging out was off the hook.

Typing this with two icepacks hanging off me- I remember a old Ironman quote from a ex-football pro who gave it a try- " It was like playing in a intensely tough football game with no hitting above the belt"- yeah , that about sums it up.
But totally worth it.

Zoot Suit Riot

Little C and her partner made the final four tonight, ending up with third.

The first 7th graders to do that in recent memory.

They spun so fast at times I got dizzy watching, the gym was packed and screaming, they both stepped up to the pressure and went faster and faster, wow!

I'm going to miss my daily visit at lunch towatch the competition, it was a fun two weeks!

Swing Dance Fever, baby!

The competition at lunch has gone on for almost two weeks, starting with about 120- 150 couples they are down to 25 with two days of cuts to go.

Not a lot of noon rides for me right now- this is way more fun to watch!

A race in Livermore

As,
originally uploaded by ncnca_kc.

LARPD today, tiny race in the A's.

Too bad because the course was really good.

But those that were there fought it out hard and to the bitter.

In the end it came down to a Lobster, a Beer, and a Spiderman.

Classy move by the Lobster to wait for the Beer after a mishap on the quintuple barrier a few laps in.
Good stuff and I'm bummed to miss Mclaren tommorrow.

photo by Casey Kerrigan- thanks!

Six Dollar Burgers and Carrot Cake

Had to treat myself a bit after a very tough race at Laguna Seca.

200 feet of climbing per lap- 10 laps- 2k in a hour.

Mentally tough to get up for it, that was more than half the battle knowing how much it would hurt, how quickly it would blow apart, a long trip to negative town starting on Saturday night, but I decided while riding around with J to ride my ride, do my thing and not trip out too much.......

Double to 3x the field size today in the single speed, folks coming out of the woodwork to get a piece of that NCNCA pie, I guess.

Some new challengers and some real talent put the hammer to lots of guys but in the end the Buy Cell Duo came real close to going one two again, to only be bested by a young pro mtn bike stud- serious power to weight ratios on display today, folks.

My personal highlight was getting the holeshot to the first climb- I muttered to someone as I rolled by to grab a picture, cause you don't often see me on the front front of one of these affairs.

The hill played havoc with me as well as everyone else and by the 3rd lap I was almost falling off my bike at the top barrier, then struggling with the idea of re clipping for a few moments while bouncing down the other side, not pretty and I probably gave up a minute if you added it up right there.

Anyhow, I did have fun , if your not having a good time you should look at yourself in the mirror some, cause we are all amateurs out there when it's said and done.

I saw cupcakes out there, but never saw the source, or I would have grabbed one.
Tecate feeds don't appeal to me, but I saw that too and appreciate the idea.
I heart the cross crowd oh so much, awwww.

And that cow was good good good after, I rode yesterday with a vegan and watched her turn down Cheese Board Pizza,
AAAAAGH,
vegans can type comments and break it down to your hearts content, I understand personal choice and all and thats' great, but 2k worth of eyeball-popping 42 x 18 pukervals was definitely deserving of some cow and bacon.

YUM

IMG00029.jpg

Just another day in the ditchdigger life........
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

CCCX 2-Travel Camp- I can't drive

Weird rest week for me- every time I tried to go hard I felt crappy and turned it into a easy ride, even today I didn't feel particularly good or have any pop on the warmup.

Travel Camp- not my favorite course, just too mountainbikey for me to do well and my 185 lbs don't like the hills much.
I have been trying to learn to up the game in the skillz, but have so far to go- I must say the tubies really help a hack like me though.

Usual suspects at the SS A start line, we have had our own start this year which I really really like, with the A's together it get's jumbled and the game gets played differently, chasing geared bikes and getting pulled along.

This year we catch the stragglers in the A's but they don't affect the race.

START-

I stepped down into my pedal and promptly knocked the water bottle off and bent the cage into the crank while everyone rode away, had to bend it back and get my bottle back on the next lap from Jasmin's mom who helped out with the feeds, etc.
Caught back on remarkably and rode around with the three amigos for a lap until the next little stunt- driving into Tim Cannards' wheel repeatedly until taking a spill was required just to right the karmic balance of the world. Took my lumps and caught on again, I was having a few trubbles everytime we went around a corner and let the gap open and did the yo yo for a lap, thne I flipped into a bush, completely ass over tea kettle while bombing down some crap.
Took stock and noticed the red leaves all around me, graaaayte!
Gotta love Tecnu later :-)
Hopped back on and somehow caught on again, at this point I was kind of in disbelief and really wanted to stop crashing, so sat in for a lap or two and tried to drive right.
Heading up the gradual hill- I notice- two Buy Cell at the front with one pulling away while the other rides tempo. Next is Ruben who is spent apparently and cannot chase.
I am in the back in the singletrack now. This is bad. Now I cannot see Tim anymore and Cesar takes a bobble in the loose sand.
We hit the back road and Tim has a 30 second gap.
Putanelli Putanelli Putanelli.
I engage and chase, but have no help. I then try to attack Cesar, one time it looks good, but then I get dragged back. this goes on for three laps until AJM laps us.
The most frustrating thing about today- not understanding the lead lap rule and not realizing we were now on our last lap.
I just rode in for fourth behind those guys- just rode in.

Frustrating but eventually even this blockhead will get it.

Many fun and cool things today though, before this sounds too much like sour grapes and racer woulda shoulda coulda....

Lot's of peeps getting down with the suffer faces and ballet moves over the barriers- you know who you were and it was great to heckle/ cheer.

This year the SS bunch has been tactical all the way-very interesting racing and ton's of battles along the way.
Bring back that dude in the tight shorts, I say!

Crazy drive home with some crash I'm gonna guess at the flea market on 101- we took a detour through Watsonville and got home at 6:30, long day but fun times.

Not My Kid

Saturday whilst I was getting to know the House Of Pain ride a bit better and questioning the intelligence of echeloning over a center line on a open road...

Miz C and Little C did the Back To School run here in town, a little run that happens on the same course as the local triathlon the next day, not anything special, except for the goody bags.

This little gem is sponsored by Nob Hill Foods, and the goody bags are , well, full of goodies and specialty foods.

I came home from my happy hundred famished to find a entire kitchen table full of cool morsels, from green tea drinks to cocoa covered almonds, YUM!
A entire box of Minty electrolyte water in the hallway , and this story......

This run also has a great raffle, not as good as the Bidwell Park race, but pretty good.
Miz C had just broken her MP3 player and was in the hunt.
Some major visualization exercises later, the magic number was drawn and the spouse now has a sparkly green Shuffle, very sweet!

But wait, another number is still in the hat for the kiddo, and yes, she drew one too.

The wife sees some discussion up at the table, then she comes back sans Shuffle.

" I decided I already have one at home.... let someone else get a chance....."

another little girl won it and was ecstatic.

I have no idea where the kid gets that nice giving streak, I woulda traded it for bike parts in a minute :-)

Highly impressed.

Cyclocross Thoughts-

A e-mail sent to me from Jimbo- the boy draws a interesting parallel-

"You know I think the Catholics invented Cyclocross, never spending much time really seated always changing your position
it's all about the suffering and it's usually done on a Sunday."

I think some Jim Carroll may be appropriate for tommorrow's ride........

Sunday I join the Tubular Nation, not just for euro- cool dudes anymore I guess and the craze has filtered down to lil' old me, running Tufo Flexus on some NOS Wolber semi- deeps laced to WTB singlespeed hubs.

Let us pray for no flats, my friend.

You will not see these at old abandoned dumpsite races, I promise you.

The happy trails call, but how cool is it that there are THREE great races on Sunday- CCCX, Chicofest 2008, and Ride The World Cups down at Hellyer.
Fall cycling- just too cool.

LARPD 2 - the heatwave subsides

Much nicer weather this week in Livermore, the fall is my favorite time to ride.

I'm doing some hard blocks now and had my own little stage race with motorpacing Friday, racing Saturday in Livermore, and a hilly 3 hours and change on Sunday involving Sierra Road.

I barely got a blip up in the CTL from all that, though, stuck on the plateau and no matter how hard I hit it I'm kind of treading water fitness wise.

Anyway it's all good and any excuse to ride a bike, no?

A couple tidbits from the weekend-

I can't seem to willingly hit the roller on the motorcycle, I get close but chicken out a bit. I'll bet the next time I do, though.

Cesar is still the big Rott on the porch, I hung for 5 laps and screwed up a corner and away he went with one other guy.
Nice riding on his part with lot's of corner accelerations, slowly broke a couple of us down.
Silver lining the gap never went out of control beyond a minute or so and the only guy that lapped me was AJM on the last lap, that guy is flying already, where you gotta slow down and watch the riding from across the lawn it's so sweet :-)

Great seeing new riders coming out and sampling the racing, I saw some big smiles and some tuff scrapes from the Livermore gravel, good stuff.

Happy Fall!

Autumn Harvest

The last tree- the apples got picked last week, this weekend was the Kawakami pears.

Vegetables are still going strong, I have 10 tomatoes just waiting to be picked for the tomato/ mozzarella insalata....

I want more trees next year!

LARPD CX # 1

Started the day off doing a practice triathlon with roughly 150-200 newbie women triathletes- considering we were expecting 60 we held up well and didn't lose anyone- great enthusiasm out of new athletes is contagious, at one point while marking the run course with flour I realized I was running in a team jacket, helmet, and MTB shoes- such a dork, no wonder the joggers going the other way were snickering :-)
Marshaled the bike course and got in some good efforts chasing down wayward riders, then made my way from Shadow Cliffs to Robertson Park for the opener of the cross season.

Hot hot hot, but I liked the new location, some grass that was incredibly humid in the heat but in a good kind of jungle way, some long crosswind gravel sections, and Woodchip Alley.
This year I have decided to like woodchips and will not fear them.
I practiced my dismounts some before and in general just rode around before the start and practiced getting on and off without incident :-)
I had a big gear on my SS for the ride over and just rolled with it, the course lent itself to a continous effort on the pedals without much on-off.
Roughly 17-20 guys in the A's with 5 SS loons, I just rode my pace from the beginning, 102 degrees or so and a hour race gave me more caution than usual.
I tried to pair up with a geared guy every time over the open sections, thne take my turns on the chips and such, seemed to be fair and I got closer to the main pod after 3 laps, but then it splintered more and more and it turned into catching one guy after another.
Good drool/snot thing going, a hallmark of a good tuff effort and I just kept it on, made it up to probably 7th place or so, then got gapped off on the barriers when he hopped/ rode the uphill and couldn't make it back on, stupid crash with one to go on a gravelly turn that had me taking inventory for a second, but hopped back up and finished in good shape.
Long hot ride home with multiple stops for water along the way, got a chill while talking to Russell apres race and that caught my attention, got to take care of onesself in the heat.
Top step on the podium and that was way cool, anytime the big rottweiler on the porch known as Cesar ain't around us little scamps can play a bit :-)
Good stuff and fun seeing all the cross peeps!
J

Gracias

To the Veloshop bunch-

Handing me up a turbo bottle and a GU 10 miles out of the feedzone when I was spinning the little ring home after the mornings' work day done.....

Classy racers up north, loving the scene.

Eugene Celebration Cat 3

Finish stretch of the queen stage of the Eugene Celebration Stage race- 84 miles of hills and flats.

1k hill at the end saw Nome take the win and 2nd on GC.

Vickerator was en fuego and destroyed all in the ITT.

Wilson from SN helped immensely and the favor will not be forgotten.

The Willamette Valley has some beautiful cycling- a bit of rain in the crit but all good.

A bit of culture shock coming back home today.

Eugene Celebration

Good rides today by all in the first RR.
Nome up a minute with two other guys, I did my best to clean up after.
Good stuff.
J
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

cut em off

It's silly, I know.

And obviously doesn't help with the bikin'

But sometimes gains and goals don't follow reason, just what makes you happy.

And repping the NFL combine weight for bench 7 times today before work gave me a smile all night.

Stronger and lighter than I was 15 years ago.

Yippee!

Middle Palisade

The walk in- you can see Middle Pal and Norman Clyde in the background

A closer view as we approached from the west side of Finger Lake- the glaciers are getting smaller every year.

Kyle ruminating on the value of a shortcut over the glacier while wearing approach shoes, hmmm.

The boys on the summit block, I was on the block to the north, I thought this was the summit till I climbed it and realized the south block was higher, oh well, a good place to shoot a few.

Kyle looking out north towards Norman Clyde and Polemonium and Sill in the background- I hope to go back for Poly and Sill next year.

Norman befits it's namesake and is a bad mo fo that is wayyy over my head.

A happy Seal. Dave handling it all with aplomb.

Bluebird weather, it was colder in the Bay Area tonight when I got home, just a sweet trip.

Welcome Back

Hot damn Carrera was fun- good to see my compadre back at it as well- both of us coming back and shaking the rust off....

I needed Tuesday's legs on Saturday....

but Carrera was a blast anyway!

Good to be back racing, the masters race was quite tuff but safe.

I mostly sat in and struggled to close gaps/not hit my pedal/hide from the headwind. No teammates so I got to watch the shenanigans a bit and learn a couple things .

With 1.5 to go a little lull after a break came back and I saw some daylight for a second and went for the low- percentage last lap flyer, I got gobbled with a half lap to go and got back in line like a little whipped puppy.....

Cat 3 race was definitely more brakes and ballooning than I would prefer, not a lot slower, though. Where I was trying to hang onto a wheel through turns 3 and 4 in the masters, I now was trying not to hit a wheel or just passing folks in the turn-
Not stupid bad but not as fun or smooth.
I also noticed this weird thing where the guys from the back would come up the side, then back off right at the front and not commit, this sucked for me hitching a ride up on their coattails and I would slide back again since 8 across into a corner just seemed like a bad idea to me. This happened a few times, but I was really pretty tired from the previous race and at the end realized I wouldn't know what to do if I did get up there for the inevitable sprint as my legs were about out of pop.

All in all a fun race and maybe more important the Vickerator joined me for the cat 3 race, welcome back, buddy!
That's a tuff first race back.

Locals Only- Shasta Region

Old men don't huck , I took the easy way down...
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Shasta Hillclimb

This is a nice little local race, a mix of guys up for the century the next day and the locals that ride the mountain everyday.

Oh yeah, and throw in about 40 of the DFL crew, makingtheir annual pilgrimage north for a weekend of doing their thing.....

OK, now I will never be accused of being a grimpeur, but the raffle looked like fun and while I am completely unsuited for activities that rely on allez and more allez and especially any venga, I do like to suffer and be timed while doing it.

Rode to the start from camp, my favorite way to go anytime I can, just makes things simpler at times.
My nod to the race? I ditched the frame pump and brought two CO2's and two tubes.
Roughly 70 folks line up in town, they make some announcements and we are off.
My plan was to stay on through town were it is relatively flat and then slip off the back, I figured this would be kind of like a cross start, and it was in ways without the singletrack. I immediately got a tighten up from the bronchial pathways, they haven't gone like this in a while and let me know it, but I just relaxed and tried to stay on for a while- it turns out I stayed on longer than planned and it made things very rough later on, as I rode solo from 15 minutes in.

I tried to hold my threshold all the way but I really blew on the early bits and had a time recovering.
I rode hard for a hour and shut it down to noodle speed, I still had a best one hour power, but ended up finishing 20 minutes back from the real racers- a kid from Army Cycling won, tough little dude that left the bus early, Cameron got second and looked to be having fun and getting his suffer on all weekend, the cross season is coming, boys and girls.

Good stuff.
Oh yeah, I won ( in the raffle) a cooler, a t-shirt, a pass to brewfest at the ski bowl, and a tube.

Gave the pass to a helpful brudda that gave me a ride back to camp and helped me jumpstart the landbarge after I left the back door open.
Sweet.

shasta super summit 08

Not so many pictures this year

, but this one was fun, taken with the old momma earth behind me...

The name of the game was conserve and conserve some more, my two riding partners were much stronger climbers than me and I had to be OK with letting them go from time to time.....

If you think a Powertap is a lame deal- I knocked 40 minutes off this years' time compared to last years and came in 5 lbs heavier.

But I paced well and ate tons of endurolytes.

One more data geek #- 497 TSS points for this day alone.

Gotta train to be able to train.

Thanks to the wife, kid and dawg for handing up a couple bottles and stashing a cooler in the woods. I heard the cowbells!

That's one old muh fuh

Damn this birthday I felt old- maybe it was the new drivers license and throwing the old one away with the picture from the Oakland DMV circa 1989, I'll have to white out some info and put em both up for perusal and some chuckles....

Anyway, I had a crap pre- birthday, 5 flats in a row and a wasted training day, never buy the skinny Velox tape, especially when your friend at the bike shop asks you if your sure you want that stuff, get the wide comfy shit, and don't spend your day in the sun patching things and calling the wife who's home sick to come rescue you....

I was so pissed I walked into the gym at work and just popped the bar up thinking there were only two wheels on each side, damn that's a bit much, but I got off three reps then the linebacking corps noted the extra dimes apiece, thats 245 cold off the street baby, not much to most but more than I've put up in a long long time, and yes, when your a old muh fuh, you have to be grateful and happy for small stoopid things at times.....

Anyhow, I got to sleep in the next morning after working late, and had myself a cool day where folks gave me lots of nice stuff, I got adjusted at the chiro, got some new rim strips and some general love, dropped off some vittles for the dudes that keep my pile of bikes rolling, and threw the track bike in the land barge for a night of this...

Superfast track action, good safe racing, Mike and I had a good time playing in the B's and Mike won, very cool, then we did the A/B points, where I rode majorly dumb and wasted tons of energy but stayed on, then mis-timed getting back onto the line which was hauling ass and got dropped, but it was all in good fun and I didn't kill anybody or myself, saw ton's of bloggers and old friends, got some good luck kisses from the missus who finally decided as nervous as she gets for me messing around down there in San Jose she would still come and support, and like I said I tried to not kill myself on her first visit and maybe she would like the picnic on the grass and the girls playing and it's all good.

Carrot Cake

Homemade Champagne and Grapefruit Sorbet

I really don't need to elaborate on that one, but wow and um, wow.

Oh, and maybe YUM.

Then a sleepover so the grownups could play house?

Very rare around here, it was like being on vacation already.

Sweet.

Now tommorrow we leave for some camping and fun, some crazy hillclimb on Saturday followed by this beast on Sunday.

Good times.

Twitchy

My leg muscles seem to be pretty much deciding when to fire at random right now, little buggers woke me up twice while watching the ITT on VS this afternoon.

They are entertaining to watch, though, squirming around of their own volition, as long as they don't get too crazy......

Sucked cramping all the way down Mines today- felt OK but the buggers had other plans and would kick my ass good if I so much as smelled the front of our little group.
That's my fookin' canyon and I don't like riding in the backseat.

But thanks for towing my sorry ass out of there.

93 is right for me

gear inches, that is......

I went to last Sundays' sprint tournament at the track- I'm a complete newbie which is very fun, actually.
My legs were pretty sore after a long couple days in the saddle on Friday and Saturday, but I really want to get my five starts in this year and get my cat 4 upgrade, so I figured I would ride a easier gear and try to work on some leg speed.

I warmed up and noticed people were pedaling some monster gears, as well as sporting disk wheels and funny helmets.
Hmmm, I'm running a 48 x 15 on my goofy Langster with some Weinmann clinchers, but I really didn't realize what was going on until I had the format explained to me as the first guys did their flying 200's.
I got some great advice on lines and strategies, and even was offered to have a extra minute or so in order to change my gear, but it takes me 10 minutes to get it right anyway, and I didn't want to be some prima donna a-hole holding the deal up so I could get 12th v 13th anyway, so I went with 86- something gear inches- sprinted for the first turn and ran out of gear to stand on, had to flop my ass down and hamster pedal all the way around as well as taking a obscenely bad line and doing a extra 50 meters or something, arggh!

So 13 seconds or so was the result and I got placed into a bracket, this is a fun style of racing where you race against everybody of the same speed and get in lots of racing, so way cool.

I got lots and lots of help and feedback from guys, this match sprinting has lots of permutations with strategies and counters, all in two laps.

I kept my gear on for one match, tried to use it to my advantage with a holeshot and controlling the pace up high, but he came around me on the homestretch and I think he got me.

Soooo I went to the little 14 tooth, plunked it on and was able to "step into" the gear again, kind of giving me a extra bit of umph.

Not fair to be in that bracket anymore, though.

I hate sandbagging and will give no excuses for it, it wasn't my intention to manipulate the dealie and I don't have that fragile of a ego, I just wanted to try some different things.

I liked the " go from the ringing of the bell move out of turn 4", that was fun and it's so early some folks were caught sleepin'...:-)

Things I practiced-
keeping my peripheral vision going and looking under me at the opponent

using the banking and diving like a zero for a carrier

riding the top of the pole lane to hold someone but keeping smooth, not too good on this one and some of it is the bike, when I borrowed my buddies real track machine I definitely noticed a difference in the precision

tuning up the instinct and reflex of when to go.

being willing to play a bit and see.

Loving it and I'll be down next Wednesday for the racing, taking a vacation night or two.....

Big Ring The Dumbarton

Alameda, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara for a second, and back to Alameda County.

I rode on the 280 freeway for a minute- not too bad.A kind Pen Velo guy showed me the way south.

Now I understand why the folks that ride the bridge are so damn tough, that thing is nasty, but like ya love it nasty.

Lots of microclimates and a big cross section of the Bay Area and some good people watching. Gawd I like GG park, fun stuff.

Signs

that base training is over..

Don't worry about the thousand mile mark, but when you've gone through one of these jars, it's a good sign some suffering has gone down.

When the helmet is soaked in bleach and hot water all night until it is pink instead of red, yet the weird smell comes back on the first hill.

When the spot of sweat has sat in the left hand corner of the PowerTap so long the display looks hazy.

A few more long days and I can speed it up a bit...... maybe Sunday at the track!

A bike commuting route from San Francisco

Cyclists love maps.

Most runners like them too at first, but seem to feel getting lost is part of the journey. but they wear funny gaiters on their feet even in nice weather, soo.

I like figuring out new ways, even the new subdivisions out this way are putting in some nice roads- too bad there are more cars to go along with it, but.......

I have a coaching gig down at the Marina Green next weekend, my favorite newbie triathletes start a new class.

I need to do miles on miles right now, and am thinking about riding the train into the city early, doing the bike class, then riding south down the peninsula on Skyline and over the Dumbarton, then through Niles Canyon and home.

But I don't really know the peninsula, I go on rides once in a while over there, but am usually rather lost and have no idea about a cool way to get from the hills to the bridge.

Not even sure- looking at maps online if Skyline goes through or if it stops around the reservoir.

Hwy 1 I doubt is a good option, and riding through Hunters Point on my silly little bike sounds dumb too.

Any ideas?

J

The Bad Patch

came to visit me on Saturday.

A likely place- Diablo in the afternoon, trying to squeeze in one more time up before heading home.

I've been doing dumb endurance sports long enough to have the bad patch be a old acquaintance, it slowly creeps in , hidden by pride, ego, and adrenaline until it's too late to do anything but hang on and curse.

The little yellow pod on the handlebars warned me first- the HR was high and the power was mediocre.

Then the sun got just sooooo intense that the helmet had to go over the stem.

A stop in the shade came next, along with the mental grumblings and speculation on what normal middle aged men where doing right now.

Hating the wind and sun- a clear sign things are going south.

A push for the top, to be greeted by twinges in the legs and the realization-

"I'm officially in the bad patch"
" Maybe not screwed, but definitely this shit is gonna hurt"

Once the realization came, though, things were oddly better, even though I couldn't stand that warm Perpetuem any longer, and I like Perpetuem.

Cause survival mode is what I do.

It allows me to stop under trees wherever I like .

It let's me stop at the Extra Mile and buy icy cold Fruit Punch Gatorade and drink two bottles while spinning a 39 x 17 home .

It lets me smile when the cramps go from the toes to the tummy when I get up too fast or pedal too hard, " you dumbass..."

I knew the bad patch would end.

That's the gift of the patch, when one realizes as bad as this feels it will be over soon....

If you're never in the bad patch, you'll never appreciate the great days.

Oh, and today I felt great, rode the cross bike for the first time in 6 months.

Friday Openers

The Friday opening up workout-

A staple, a tradition

The makeup changes during the year some- I shorten it

during cross season some if I have a race the next day,

but during the base period it serves to get the hard efforts of Thursday out of the legs,

for me thats' usually a threshold ride or weights that feel like a threshold ride afterwards.

3-4 hours, 10 short sprints, two longer jams. everything easy and chatty in between.

I often solve the worlds' problems on this ride.

No point for me paying to race right now, way too slow, but I'll be on some local rides tommorrow putting in some miles.

The picture above- Castle Lake - the third climb @ Shasta Super Summit.

Six Point Elk Steaks All The Way From Colorado

and lifting with the linebacker squad before work.

I'll never win the local hill climb but I hope to cut my sleeves off by September.

The wind is up some and I hope to have a decent smokeless ride on Hamilton tommorrow.

Mt Diablo Hillclimb- the juniors do some sufferin'

Snuck back into town Saturday afternoon and was able to ride Sunday- the 3 days off the bicycle was just perfect and my legs feel human again.

I rode the mountain from the south side alone, the smoke was stronger there and I could feel it a bit, turned around just below the elbow and headed back down to catch some finishes at the Mt Diablo Hillclimb.

I wish I had the big camera- because every finisher had the suffer- face on.Way to go.

Big props to "Dave Stoler" in his first year, the dude has been a pleasure to help this year, a open book with a great sense of humor. I think with another year of tempering he's going to be on fire.

And Jasmin winning the JPS was great, every JPS winner got a huge goodie bag and other prizes.

Thanks to the organizers of the JPS, all volunteers. I could tell the kids really dug it.

Juniors cycling, way cool and much more interesting to me than a lot of old guys right now.

Various Camping Pics

Myself and Little C- up on the Russian River for a couple of days. Kayaking was good times and chilling with a book was real nice as well.

No bicycles for 3 days, a good thing.

Casini Ranch Campground- not so nice. Dusty, absolutely no privacy in the spots, and too much party in the adjoining spots for me or my kid.

Seems like more and more people when they leave home, whether to camp, go to a sporting event, or just drive around,leave their brains and common courtesy back at the house.... sigh.

I've been having to have the talk with the neighbors/ phone call to security or sheriff way too much the last couple of years. Bummer.

Anyhow- we'll learn not to go there again.

Headed up to Fort Ross on Saturday, I haven't been here in years, and I forgot how nice and well restored it is- a sweet half day trip.

A beautiful bell next to the chapel.

These guys were well- armed. The Spanish took a look around and decided the Russians could have this remote little corner of California, maybe they realized the fur trade wouldn't last forever.

Best Wishes......

To the happy couple.

Off camping for a bit....

Wednesday Track Night

Took a vacation night off and went to Hellyer- I took a rest for a few days after Sierra Century, but still had quite a bit of fatigue in the legs, but as Pops used to tell me when he would get the old pickup hauling ass down hwy 20 while flipping Oly's into the bed- " sometimes you gotta blow the carbon out".

Lotsa fun and some decent racing save for the occasional sitting on even with a OK split forming- BORING!

I was there to get some starts, help Mike a bit if possible, and go hard- so tactics and whatnot were not what Iwas looking for, just hammer and lots of it, plus I have very little sprint anyway right now, so I would prefer everything to come down to something like the pic on top, some suffering times three.

Beautiful night, warm and the lighted racing was a kick!

Now can someone give me a idea how many TSS points a omnium of racing should generate?
Geekarama with the WKO continues....

Sierra Century and a Williams Wheel Story

Ummmm, I shoulda inspected the profile a bit more before clicking yes, especially with the whole MTB racing team going.

Always either up or down, not a easy day for a crit monkey.

The up was steep and the down had holes with steep.

Ejected the PT CPU on one of the damn bumps, but I found it in the bushes and it's all good.

The data is all there which is good because I'm fascinated on geeking out with the WKO and getting the CTL up, how many TSS points, etc. Great way to train and my hour power has risen every week and is the highest ever .

My Williams story- I have some 30X's with a PT that Keith built up for me this winter, my first PT wheel and the wheels have been phenomenal, I raced them through the Valley swing and at Madera, just loved them.
The back one developed a squeak after I skipped a pedal at Visalia, although I couldn't find the source. The rim was true, the hub was OK( good to check this though, I hear it is a common problem with PT hubs to be loose), and the spoke tension was perfect on the drive side with a few off tensions on the non- drive side.
My only guess was the spokes rubbing a bit, and I tried a few different things with that, oiling the j-bends and crosses, but I still couldn't track it down.
Swiss DT 14/15 spokes as well, usually very reliable.

I called Keith on a Monday afternoon and he called me back a half hour later. I really was just curious if he had seen anything that solved this and could help either me or my LBS, who was a bit confused as well.
After talking a bit, Keith offered to rebuild it and check the rim, just to get those variables out of the way, then mentioned he could come by and pick up the wheel on his way home- WOW!
My teammates have had several stories of the fantastic service, but this was a new high point.
I headed out to Stockton on Friday afternoon and picked up the wheel at Keith's' home office, I visit my dad every week anyway and I was headed to Escalon/ Oakdale for a team thing so this was perfect.
Keith had the wheel ready to go and I popped the cassette back on and rode it all day at Sierra ,very rough pavement, banging through holes and shaking the old fillings loose.
Not one noise.
Not one.
I lost a water bottle cage, some allen bolts, and broke my PT mounting bracket.
But the wheel was flawless.

Hmm, will Miz C let me have some 50 carbons?

" If it was smart, that's what I'd do."

VN- Adam Craig on Todd Wells' early season training regimen of " hanging out in Tucson, riding a bunch and doing the group rides"

Supersonic

Rollin' some much needed miles, on a high-iron diet lately, some old school deadlifts and sled throwing, as well as mucho ball work, and finally the injuries from last fall are going away and I feel balanced again.

I just like this pic of Mike throwing Macneill in, gotta love the pink jumpers:-)

We had fun on Saturday out on Mines and tired ourselves out good, and I managed not to knock the happy couple down or even cross wheels, even when cross eyed on the hills.....

Why I love juniors racing- a excerpt of a e-mail from the rainy Sacramento crit this weekend...

I ended up riding w/ a handful of boys to the finish, my sprint was sucky I guess because it was raining too
my tires were slipping on almost every turn when ever I hit a bump while turning it would just slide, but very solemnly.

Just badass.

Congratulations Jasmin!

The phone call made my afternoon yesterday!

The entire club is very proud.

EBC Crit- a couple of pictures

A little behind the scenes look- Did you like your results being posted in a timely manner?

Thank this guy or Dr. X the next time you see them. All day on laptop duty.

Gracias.

Enough medals for top 10 in the Cat 5 and all the kids. Some very swank prizes went into that truck as well.

Complete results posted just to the left of this kind man, usually within 30 minutes of the race finish.

Again, gracias.

Tired race workers enjoying a very tactical 35+ race. Liked the kids' race with Otter Pops and goodie bags? Podium pics? How about 50 bags of soil amendments protecting the fire hydrants from the wayward racers?

Gracias.

Migo walking Bunny. A very nice day to sit on the grass with a beverage in the shade.

Each of the gentlemen in this gruppo has punished me badly in one race or another over the years. I was glad to be snapping pictures this day and not groveling on my stem in the pack.