Friday, October 31, 2008

Sweet Form Johnny

My buddy Corey sent this to me-

The horror- the horror......

Sunday, October 26, 2008

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.

Friday, October 24, 2008

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!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

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!

Saturday, October 18, 2008

A race in Livermore

As
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!

Sunday, October 12, 2008

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

Sunday, October 05, 2008

IMG00029.jpg

Just another day in the ditchdigger life........
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