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.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
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.
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.
Friday, September 19, 2008
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.
"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.
Monday, September 15, 2008
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!
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!
Thursday, September 11, 2008
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!
Sunday, September 07, 2008
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
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
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
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.
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