Days Of Thunder

Robert Duvall Character To Tommy-Boy Cruz-" Go through the smoke, Cole! You gotta drive through the smoke!"

Yah, there have been days in my short bike racing time that this advice has come in handy.

The Albany Crit comes to mind. I went through the hole that day, only to find another racer laid out in front of me by the madly exploding crash from hell. Had to eat some of the island that day, glad to come away with nothing more serious than some dirt in my mouth and a sore neck for a coupla days.
Well Pilarcitos #2 kicked up a little smoke taday as well.
Good tough race in the 35+b, I got a spot right behind the blessed ones with the callups.
Hard sprint to the first corner with some shoulder action with another fella right from the get go.
Clipped a wheel on the first barriers but stayed in the front game till I had a small problem that got bigger on the last set of barriers when my bike went out from under me in a dismount.
Me= hacker supreme
Drove over a few wheels as guys would attack before a corner and grease it right out in front of me. Missed more than I hit though, so I guess that's a sign of progress.
Battle in the second group was pretty epic, I fell off and chased back more than a few times.
Almost made it back at the end, diced it up with one fine fellow and held back for the sprint.
Patience not one of my virtues but I forced myself to stay on the wheel and not go early, weathered his attacks, got to the chute, saw the hole on the right.... and he shut the door on me into the barriers.
Perfect move, a little nasty, but perfect.
Gotta give some props out for that one.

LA Large and In Charge

Gotta love that Super Robot Chicken..

A new vid making the rounds...

Juvenile cartoons- one of my guilty pleasures..

Wind, Friends, and Chicken

So while everyone was rolling in the dirt at Soquel High today, a couple of us went to the Riverbank Wine And Cheese Century.
This was supposed to be a tandem-y thing, but Miz C begged off with the Nike Marathon next week and such.
The road bike will be out of commission for a few days more while a hanger gets straight and the boys from Vincenza get some more of my ditch digger pennies.
So I took Snowflake out of retirement for this one, she doesn't get enough miles anymore, partially because I only use her for 3 events a year, but also the old KM40's aren't anything like the new uns. No vertical compliance here, and yes we have a massive seatpost/fairing.
I figured Groove and Nome would put the hammer down and make me grovel, especially with the 4 hours of sleep I got Saturday night.
Good thing they were happy and cruising, as evidenced here- This pic was shot on a particular piece of road that apparently a certain PAB owns the CR for. I got to hear lots of Stanislaus/ Merlock stories(what is a merlock, anyway?) and eat many cookies.
Snowflake was happy and the TT position was fine for a few hours, lots of power and real stable on the downs, though those little wheels kind of beat me up.
After lunch it was time to see a camel-

and roll it home, with a fantastic chicken lunch after.
Doing all of this riding in circles makes me forget that cyclists come in all different shapes and sizes.
But everybody loves cookies.

Maximum Dorkage

How the rear derailleur got into the spokes.......

Ummm, not sure.

Maybe a little Shim/Camp confusion after 4 days on the crosser, whatever.

I'm gonna pay dearly for this one.

When carbon breaks it doesn't goof around.

Just glad I didn't stomp down on the offending pedal and do more damage.

Velomax Circuits- a truly tough wheelset.

New Toy

So I bought Miz C. a new HRM for her birthday.
Sez she- I wanna see how fast I run, how long I run.
We look at Garmin and try one but I'm not liking the water resistance of the thing, as well as the spotty satellite reception under the trees deal.
So I hit E-bay and pick her up a Polar 625x.
This is very similar to OG buyin his first wife a shotgun when they lived outside of Duluth. She might shoot a bird or two, but we all know who really used that shootin' iron.
This thing does all, run speed and distance, bike stuff, available power meter, IR connection.
So I was able to "borrow" it today for my first hard intervals of the cross season.
MAybe I'm a little behind the curve on my training plan for cross, seems like everyone else in the B's has been sharpening the knives since June or some gawdamn thing.
Me, I'm having trouble pushing the accelerator to the floor right now.
But anyhow, I keep looking at WWWoos' world and although I only understand a little of all that graphing, the whole concept of Total Stress Score is very interesting to me. I have a sneaking suspicion I'm overnuking myself lightly all year and may need some kind of graph/number to calm myself down.
Anyhow, I like all the lines, it makes me feel like I'm doing something. And the altitude feature is something that I always thought was stupid, just kind of a ego-stroking number.
But when you put in on a graph with all the other feedback, pretty cool.
Miz C ran the R an R half mary Sunday, while we were all abusing ourselves in some weedwhacked old lot in E- side SJ.
Who was smarter?
I dunno, both involved pain, though I can walk down stairs and she still has the hobble on Wednesday.
I like looking at her graph.
Me = nosy.

Pilarcitos One

Great day in the park, brought along reluctant teammate Jimbobo and the more reluctant daughter o'mine.
Mom was running the Rock'nRoll HAlf Marathon, so I had the childcare du jour.
Super vibe, lots of props and nods, just what cross is all about.
Only bummer was when the ranger asked me to not have our picnic in the road. Huh? I was STRETCHING DUDE and today bikes ruled that parking lot anyhow. The only guy driving around was Ranger Rick.
Fun race, I was busy yakking with Dave from SC when he pointed out I might want one of those places in the 60 guy pack that started the geezer B's. Grabbed a 4th row spot and decided to ride carefully and hit the technical mounts and dismounts well and work my way up.
No crashes and we are off, I moved along into the gaps and employed some new skills I've been practicing on the dismounts, making up spots on the runup every time for the first 4 laps.
Eventually reached a place where I couldn't close to the next racer, I would get close, but he would hold me off.Kept trying though, cause the next group was 10 seconds or so past him and together maybe we could have gotten to them
The back of the course was a weird bumpy with grass over the holes, hard to pick a good line for me, and I lost time here.
Also the juniors ran concurrently and were like little rolling, blocking barriers. Twice I got close to my man and got fouled up by a lapped junior in a barrier section, but that's on me for trying to get around there.
Anyone that bumps a junior while in a race should get a 1 place penalty, new rule. The kids are out there doing their best often with bikes that are too big and heavy as hell to pick up for them,
and for some middle aged loon to scream or otherwise act dumb... just not cool.
Great times, saw so many cool folks out there, I wish I could have stayed and caught the later battles but I had B-day parties and other blah blah to do.

Another Day In Suburbia

Hit the WOT ride this morning after getting about 5 hours sleep, very nice.
So hard to get focused when I've been missing my slumber, and the way the job has been, even after taking two days off the bike this week, have been waking up tired.
Almost all EMC folks out there, probably the fastest no-drop ride in WOT history,21.2 avg.
Anyway, good fun and I got in a little sprint work to open things up-( a term I still don't understand, but get the idea) for tommorrows cross funnies.
Felt more mediocre when I was done than when I started, so we will see manana.
Rode direct to the soccer game and after changin quickly in the burb, caught most of Little C's game.
Little C has played since she was 4 in the San Lorenzo ice cream league. and has always shown a distinct preference for the defensive side of the game. Getting her to cross midfield is like pulling teeth, but she has that natural instinct for the correct angle to play, and loves to roam like Mike Singletary back there. If she was a boy-child, we would have sent her to the football fields without delay.
Little C is kind of like her dad, average athlete that loves a little competition, some good snacks afterwards, and a team to play for. Unfortunately got my asthma as well, another reason to play defense, not so much balls out running.
The new coach, who I have my issues with is very non-competitive and doesn't like to play positions, especially in U-10 house league soccer.
So it was today that I found myself watching my daughter tentatively venturing to the other side of midfield, hovering around to outside, not sure what to do, when the ball came out of the bunch and rolled her way.
She did what she always does when protecting the backfield, she punted that bad boy.

The goalie was on the other side of the net, as it rolled slowly toward the promised land.

And it hit the post and rolled away.

We celebrated anyway. She may never score a goal, but it really don't matter.

bike lust

A dangerous thing.....

Blame Nome for this one.

He started it before running off to Vegas, land of the true bike porn dealers.

I'm having a great time with my 25 lb steel beast this year, but next year-

is Christmas coming soon?

CCCX #2

Wow all I can say is from my perspective people are FLYING already.
Had a decent race for me, a coupla bobbles early, then a fairly good race.
Two years ago when I last raced decently, my fitness today would have got me a 5th or so.
Today I got 12th in the 35+B.
I think I'm honestly coming along, learning a few new things, but doing OK fitness wise.
Them boys are just relentless killers.

The B's got a 15 second head start today and were caught by the first barrier.
I saw a few guys sneak into em ,disappear from view, and that was the race-winning move.
I had me a good battle with my buddy Mark from Pen today, I thought I had outfoxed him by rotating off the front on the climb, and got myself dropped from the group when another guy attacked and held it all the way, kicking myself not to have stayed up front in the gutter and controlled.
Rolled around and socialized for a while, then it was time for singlespeed pleasure.
Man, I need a smaller freewheel.
I ran outta gears early and often again.
Changing to a rigid fork helped alot, and I got away with working on my bike the night before a race.
Watching the A race from my bike was a treat, a vicious battle with falling off the group, attacks and bridging all featured, all the good stuff and clean clean lines.
If I could only ride half that smooth.
The cross vibe- just so damn cool. Many of us battle on the road all year and never speak. Maybe the scene is a little bigger, but I think it's the fear and distrust of the mayhem caused with a slip of attention. In the 4/5's you just never know what's coming, and there's a new loon every minute.
Cross has a way of sorting itself out, and the crashes are usually just a matter of some skin. The nature of the suffering brings out a special breed. Welcoming the suffering into every fiber of your being is what it takes.
Great course, I guess 4 zillion homes will be built here soon and our little playground will be taken away. I'm gonna miss it.
Now to take a few easy days and let the training soak in. It's been 3 weeks of hard hard work, time to relax a little before Hell-yah.

Chicken Murderer

Sitting at one of my fave spots last night in Oakland- Los Petates" The best Chicken In Town"- now that's a owner with some confidence, eh?
New guy on the crew pipes up-"You're an eater.
Huh?
"I've been watching you. You love food."
Ummmm, doesn't everybody?
" Just fuel to me."
No joy? No savory goodness? NO GAWDAMN REWARD?
" Just fuel. I'll have a quarter chicken and a box, please."
Hmmm. This boy is awful funny. I'm gonna keep my eye on him.

I like the bird. One of my favorite tri-relay team names -" Eat More Chicken".
I understood.
I used to swear it off, just eat veggies and such. I also used to feel light headed a lot, especially when busting down a big week of miles.
I got some really good eggs at the market the other day- you can really tell the difference, nice and brown, different sizes from different birds, and a little richer. Yum.

Los Petates- Foothill x 42nd Ave, Oakland. Dude BBQ's in the back like all day and night on the charcoal while the birds soak in chile and epazote. Mister Barbacoa is gonna get emphysema by the time he's 40 with no hoods sucking the bird smoke away, but the smoke fills Foothill blvd on a Sunday and pulls folks right out of their cars.Good tortillas and salsa are all you need to get down.
Roli Roti is like no other truck operation around. They hit various farmers' markets and when their done for the day, they pack it up.
Hit the WOT ride in Pleasanton, then stop for a chicken and some potatoes at the market when you return. Grab a cookie from the feel good bakery next tent over and yer set. Squeeze the lime over it and eat the crispy skin.
Headed over on the ferry to see the Gigantes last year and cheer for the doper. Me and OG got dropped off at the ferry building instead of the ballpark by mistake. I'm pissed and getting worse thinking about OG going ten blocks on foot with a walker, when I see the Roli truck with the fiberglass chicken roof on top of the pier at the SF Farmers' Market. Yesss, I score two birds and some potatoes, and we catch a cab and walk to the seats.
Best food in the park that day, bar none.

New Meat

Got me a couple of these today.

Also got some new titanium tubes. Anything that says Ti immediately engages the geek fixation for me.

I woulda got the tufo, but the euro is way high and my wallet is way low right now. 110 bucks for a tire is crazy. Especially when ya pound it and hack it like I do.

On Any Given Sunday.....

It's on from now till January.
Starting with the dry heat and rocks, but you can feel fall in the air when you wake, to the rain and mud of the late season. It's on and I love it.
Prunedale was like Old Home Week yesterday. Big fun seeing all the folks.
I wish I brought my party hat, though. Woke up feeling sleepy/crappy and never improved. Great warmup, checked the lines out well, just not with it mentally. I had some long nights at work this week and while I slept the night before, I think the residual stress just shut me down Sunday.
The first race was the more disappointing of the two, just letting the lead group ride off, then engaging in the battle to hold my position. Blah blah blah, yada yada.
Second race was the Singlespeed, much fun there, and I actually woke up a little. Needed a little more gear to compete, though, the 34 x 16 is great for riding around, but dropping it a little more and going back to the ridgid fork would have helped lots.
I have decided that singlespeedin' is just as geeky as geared riding, although they front like they don't care.I like it. I think it's good for riders like me that beat the hell out of stuff anyway, less to worry about/break. I bet one of those SS cross bikes just explode out of a corner, mmmmm.
It's all good and two races hurt a lot less this week than last.
I used a recommnedation from a new fave blog- Burritophile, to find a absolute gem in Gilroy. Sliced avocados melted in the cheese, juicy chicken rolled in with rice and smoky beans. MAde the ride home much better.
Next week maybe?

Cross Geek

When the air gets that little snap to it, my mind drifts to more exciting things than pavers and plants.
After last season went to out the window due to surgery and overall stress, I've got two years of the itch saved up.
I want some new tires and can't decide. The Tufo clinchers are not as good as advertised, they can be pinch flatted, as I found last week. Also, they require quite a bit of pressure to keep them on the rims. They are very supple things, though, and quite quick and handle well, not usually things that are used in the same sentence regarding cross meats.
I'd go with real tubies, just getting more wheels is kind of a pain in the ass.
I'm thinking Michelin, time honored and supple.
The Kendas are not bad for training.
The Schwalbes are getting some good press as well.

Hmmmmm.

Figuring out the water bottle/ feed thing. Doing C's and B's, if I had no one to feed me things would be ok for the shorter races.
Doing a hour in September? I need to figure something out. I used a cage last week, not as bad as I thought it would be, though my arm has some strange bruises on it.
Camelbacks?
Damn they ain't cool, but they shore do work.
Maybe a bottle in the jersey for the first few laps? Hard to get in the heat of the moment.

hmmmm.

Goofy cross geek.

Cross crashup

Shot up to Folsom today with the Nome, he talked me into doing the A race followed by singlespeed pleasure.
After a easy ride up, ummmm, I guess I didn't leave enough time, as we had roughly 30 minutes to get our gear together and register.
Not too good, I like to look at the bobble-spots, ride em again and again. Sometimes walking the course has proved smart as well.
Possibly worse than no lookie-loo time was the total lack of a warmup, especially racing with mutant a-class younguns and geezers.
We enjoyed a wacky start Le Mans style over a chip pile, and we are off. Hanging in ok, we drop down some rocky trail and I slingshot around a guy on the right, only to see what he was braking for, as I drive into a hole that deepens by the second off to the right. No time to pop it up, it's about a foot + at the end and I'm in the drops anyhoo.
Pow, I eat shit and enjoy a bloody knee, but miss getting run over by the herd. I jump up and get into the flow again, hit a little paved descent to a dirt connector back to pavement. I then proceed to drill a rock dead on with the tire I forgot to pump up from two weeks ago, and flat a new tufo.
Mmmm, welcome back, Dude!
I run around and back to the car/pit and grab wheel two and restart at the very back of the herd. Slowly work my way up a few spots, and go to school on the45+ A guy in front who is carving the sweet lines and cleaning the back barrier/runup that is eluding me.
One to go and I flat on some rock on the descent again and eat the shyte again on the same freeekin' knee.
No more tires available so I go get the SS MTB and do the last lap on that, at least getting a good feel for the MTB on this course.
We take a break at the burb while I pick rocks out of my leg, then the SS guys and 40+ B are ready to roll together.
I'm running a 32 x 16 and could have gone a little taller, maybe a 14 like Nome, who is barking instructions at me from behind on the first lap. I was running out of gears quickly and would get passed back on all the flats and downhills, but it was much fun on the technical stuff, just letting it roll.
I was chasing the ageless John Elgart and making time when the fellow in front of me decided to throw down a full slide tackle that I had to reset after, but all was good and an hour and forty-five at race pace in the bag.
Kind of questionable results, but I wasn't here for that, just to race with buddies and see where I'm at.
My riding, sloppy, man.More technical riding on the crosser is needed badly.
Running- best it has ever been, the work is paying off, the knees stayed high on a pretty tough runup.
Fitness is about where I thought it would be, no short interval work yet, but once I got warm, I felt pretty good. I'm sure there are some pics of me making the ugly on the internet already, but that's just my style, all snot hangin' like.
Fun to see all the bloggo folks, PAb and XB, Groove and Petit, thanks for cheering!
Bummer to the Nome for taking a nail for the team out there, you were bringing the lumber for the second round, dude!

Rest Week

Halfway done with this project, and trying to complete it before the rain comes.
Spent last week jackhammering out the old concrete and the old wood deck.
I think I'm counting this as core work.

MP3 mashup

When the auto-transfer box is checked...

Hers goes in with mine....

And the shuffle is on...

So I got Reveille followed by Sheryl Crow doing the Rolling Stones...well, that doesn't sound right, but you get the picture.

Very strange, Notorious BIG R.E.S.P.E.C.T. mashing right into Tools' forty six and two. Lot's o' panting on that one.

So far the best though- P.O.D. on the last ridgerval, followed by the sweet tones of Luther Vandross on the easy ride home.

Luther was a schmoopmeister, but he owned a great set of pipes and will be missed.

Got the taste......

and it was gooood.
Headed to Sacramento for some of this action.
Fought all kinds of hellish suburban traffic, Tracy can disappear back into the fourth dimension of hell where it came from for all I care.


Stopped in Stockton and picked up Old Gianni and hauled him with me. You will never fall asleep with OG in the car, and you will learn more about horse racing than you probably care to.
After some nifty driving, we got there about 5, race was to start at 6 sharp. Probably 100 folks total, with about 20-25 in the cross class.

The race was billed as no t-shirts, no trophies, no whining, and if there were only 4 people in a cat, they got combined, basically, all experts, then all SS, then all crossers, dunno after that, though there were lots of families and kids, very cool, especially for the low price of
15 bucks for a first timer, then 10 every week afterwards, just racin', no frills.

The place is a state OHV park that is closed on Wednesdays and only opens for us. Real cool descents, whoops, berms, and sand from all the motos blowing it apart. Cross features were a downed tree we hopped and a set of hay bales as barriers, ooof!

Well, it's about 100 degrees and I'm sweating like a dog on the warmup lap, I can't tell if I'm warmed up or just warm, but here we go.
I follow the holeshot guy then let it sort a little. One skinny fella gets a gap and I cross to him, we rolled on just kind of stretching the band a little. I can see the SS bunch ahead of us and figure if we get to them we can use them to hide a little, I guess it worked, because soon we are alone. Another guy joins us and I take a big pull up the hill, then hop the bales. I got a little confused with my direction and the cones and the other two take off spitting gravel behind them.
I catch em but keep burning matches to do it, then flail enough that they get the gap. I then go into a total flail mode with sliding, sand crawling, and hole diving for about five minutes, in which one and two pull away, and three catches me and then drops my sorry ass.
I'm deep in the pain cave and start thinking about golf, then pull myself together and welcome the pain. I think that I won't die in fifteen minutes irregardless of the long line of drool on my chin and the complete inability to spit and actually get face/drool separation.
Once I bucked up, it was much better. I put the glasses away since I can't see through them anyway due to the dust, and start chasing wheels. Unfortunately, 3 is long gone while I wallowed, but I do ride some very nice lines through some gnarl, including a 150 foot drop down a rutted hill with a right turn in a sand pit below, and the sand pits on the back section, which are my personal nemesis.

Drove up the finishing hill the last time, hop the bale/barriers, and see OG wandering around with a cold bottle, thank God.

I got a lot of work to do, a lot of interval work before October and November, but for being in Base, I'll take it.

OG had a flashback and remembered taking me here when I was a snot nosed BMX kid and me fighting with the moto-heads over trails and such. Some things come full circle, I guess.

Oh yeah, I got 2nd in the Geezey, the first two were younguns. Very tough younguns.

It's gonna be a good year.

Words To Live By

Heard from the back'o D'Burley today-

"If my ass ain't happy......., you ain't happy."

Burned Sausage and other random thoughts this weekend

I like alot of things about Pleasantville. Low crime, fancy downtown, great schools with tons of parent participation. I'm not diggin this get on the loudspeaker and tell a group of cyclists that they have to ride single file in a 6 foot bike lane kinda talk, especially when said lane is full of glass because the beancounters downtown fired the streetsweepers and contract it out to save my tax money, Now the lanes get swept like never or every six months, whichever comes first, and some manager is getting a bonus with my tax money .

One can eat too many chocolate chip cookies, even if they are two for one at Albertsons.

Fun little group ride on Saturday, wide range of folks. We hit the hotspot on Highland, I jump off of the Nome/Groove wagons' wheel and make a nice group with me and one other teamie, a nice fellow from eye- treeple-see and a liv-no-more guy that blows off after skipping 5 or six pulls. We catch another feller that is up the road after skipping the pee stop. We are rolling and the rest of the red n' black clubbies shut it down/ attach themselves like limpets to any bridge action. We get to a K, I make a lame jump that actually gets some room, then chased. Teamie Bob counters, he gets the chase. One more push by the strong young buck for the line, and I go for the sign up the centerline. Damn, there's a gardening truck with a frickin' lawnmower sticking out the side oncoming, and I give it the soft pedal for a few and duck back , then whip it up again, but the young fella is too strong and will not be denied, good for him.Still wondering if I coulda got it, but with the amount of tragedy that road has seen, I'll live to fight another day.

I really want to screw with the training plan and do this on Wednesday. Probably not a base 2 activity, unless I call it a skills practice. A real coach would wash his hands of me pretty quick, but the champing is getting loud in my head. Soon it will be time to play every weekend in the dirt, I love it!

Even burned sausage is still charred meat, and that makes it American.

Happy Labor Day, Everybody!

An old classic revisited

No, not the the goofball in the picture, though I'm getting a little bit more classic every day...
























So we hit Spengers Fish Grotto tonight as a special request from the birthday girl.
Pretty cool with her name printed on the menu.


This place got bought out and the kitchen all redone a couple of years ago. Amazing to look at the pictures and see the old restaurant and fish market from 150 years ago.

The menu is updated, though they still have some old faves. I tried to suck the crawfishes' head off, but the eyes stayed in and I gave up...
Damn fine Cioppino, with lots of sourdough bread to sop it up.

The dessert tray, well, that may have been the highlight. I'm pretty basic, and got a berry pie with sugar cookie crust and vanilla ice cream(pretty much negating the 3 hour ride today).

Mama got a lava cake dealio with ganache in the middle, not quite as good.

They had some chocolate house with a berry torte filling that looked unbelievable, but we couldn't eat another bite.

I would say the atmosphere is so good it outweighs the cooking. the soup was kinda bland, but the salad was good, so, kinda hit and miss.

GREAT PLACE FOR OUT OF TOWN VISITORS!