Soulja Boy Tellem, the kids' got style.



Chaperoned the sixth-grade dance out in P-town tonight, well, this afternoon.



No pictures allowed of the fun, mortification of certain tween' girls would be certain.



This tune got em all inside again and out of mischief for a bit, though.






Funny, last time I heard this tune was Wednesday night, 72nd and Hamilton in the East O.



Kid was riding a tricked out scraper bike with a stereo the size of a Lazyboy on the front basket.


Like I said, it's got all the kids' dancing.

Costanoa

Campsite all set up for Turkey Day.

Beautiful clear days and cold at night.

The menu- yum. The last time we were here the restaurant wasn't opened yet and they were having a few growing pains.

Their all grown up now.

Petit Baked Brie & Mango Chutney Puff Pastry, Candied Pecans
Choice of Salad or Soup
Organic Hearts of Romaine, Texas Ruby Red Grapefruit, Point Reyes Bleu Cheese, Pomegranate Port Vinaigrett
Curried Butternut Squash Soup with Toasted Coconut
Choice of Entrée
Lemon-Herb Infused Roasted Turkey Breast, Skillet Cornbread & Andouille Sausage Stuffing with Turkey Sage Gravy
Natural Maple Glazed Apple Wood Smoked Ham with House Made Persimmon Preserves
Wild Mushroom, Roasted Winter Vegetable & Herb-Soy Tempeh Pot Pie (Vegetarian)
Entrées served with
Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes with Crème Fraiche and Chives
Candied Yams with Rum & Molasses
Orange Cranberry Relish
Local Organic Wilted Greens: Rainbow Chard, Kale & Spinach
Assorted House Made Warm Breads & Biscuits With Whipped Honey Butter
Choice of House Made Desserts
Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie
Pumpkin Pie with Fresh Whipped Cream
Warm Apple Pie with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, Ollalieberry Sauce
Includes Coffee, Hot Tea and Hot Apple Cider

This guy was hanging out in the stables a couple hundred yards away, a nice Tennessee Walker.

The view out the kitchen window.

" Who's he kidding, everyone knows my dad doesn't consult a map!"

These chairs in the warm fall sunshine sucked us in for a bit, after the yoga class the girls were tired, but not so tired to miss a five mile hike on the beach with some sweet tidepools.









Tidepool jumpin', adventure seekin', yoga stretchin' Little C.

Nice spot for a rest interval.

10 sprintys and I was done and back at the trailer, catching up on a classic read that I've been meaning to finish-

Everywhere I look there's Kentucky Fried Chicken

The location- a super secret trail in the easy bay.

So secret, you have to triple trespass just to get to the start.

Myself and a like minded companion descend for 5 minutes on a leafy trail about a foot wide at best.

The trail ends at a old dump site , tons of blue glass bottles and junk.

We look down and there is a nicely eaten deer carcass at our feet.
And a big big crash in the bushes above us on the ridge.

I can see my house from here but can't figure how to reach it with getting a citation for crossing some big wigs' private idaho.

We backtrack and trespass some more, including fence-hopping this time bushwhacking south.
And find the trail we were looking for.

And jam before we're the dessert.

Infovistas' got mad skillz

Everybody listen to Nicole........

A whole lotta go-get-em in a small package.

It's ok, Mike, your still part of the bunch.

We at Infovista would like all our competitors in the cat 4's and 5's to be intelligent and safe on their bikes.

40 year old collarbones take a lot longer to heal.....

.Some Merkeley pointers on staying upright and fast through the corners were well-taken.



















Not only will she go for a 4 hour car ride to feed a grumpy old man in a cross race, she opened the house up and fed 20 hungry bike racers today-

Thanks Miz C!

Chick Flix

Alright, I may be in danger of getting my Man-Card pulled,
but this show is good stuff.

Thank gawd for Tivo, I have about four of em I watch during the week.

Touchie- Feelie, The best show about TheGame I've ever seen,Smoke em If Ya Got Em, Love So-Cal Style, and Slash And Burn.
Most TV is junk and if I had my way I'd have ala-carte package with HBO, Showtime, Local News with Roberta cause she says hi when she jogs by, and we get out hair cut in the same swank palace of couiffure, and VS. A Broadband feed of Cycling.TV would about top it off.

Cycling TV- the World Cup in The Czech Republic this last week, Nys showed again why he's the best in the world and left the local stud hanging out to dry......

OTC- Chula Vista

Sunday Ride- I think this road goes to Arizona somewheres, but we only had a hour and change before we had to be back :-(

The fires burnt through here and missed completely the only campground or civilization out this way.

The little building on the right is where we practiced sitting for 9 hours a day in a classroom while looking out a window at nice climbs..

The weightroom is on the left- seriously cool set of stuff in there on platforms.

It was interesting the lack of machines and prevalence of pure free stuff and stability gizmos.

The first night in town, we saw a kid doing a easy hop onto a four foot box, some sick plyo and athletic skill on display.

Half of the Track and Field area- I only brought some clunky Merrells, so no chance to rip a 400 off on this legendary field of dreams.

Pictures of many past olympians and monster T & F dudes hanging around, hmmmm, none of Marian Jones now....

The boat house was below this, quite a few rower types in residency right now.

I wish I got a pic of the crit couse, but due to our schedule we rode it at dusk and I was just concentrating on staying between the shadowy bushes. Smooth as glass, though.

The dining hall and one of many hangout areas- excellent food and many choices. I think I gained a pound a day. They really take care of the athletes and let them focus on being great.

Gift shop- very important part ofthe trip, must bring items home to the family if one is ever to be allowed out of the house again.

Nuff' said about that.

Gracias to Merkeley Bike for driving a hard core sixteen hours to be able to ride about 2 and a half total.We had a fun time and learned a lot!

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