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.