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