I think the title describes my whole weekend. It was the provincials on Saturday and the National championships on Sunday up in Kamloops. I will give the rough scetch of both races.
Saturday- Drove up to Kamloops the day of the race. Nina and I had somewhere to be on Friday night and I did not really want to be away home from for 2 nights. I got to the loop in about 3:20 so it was not too bad a drive. Got there with tons of time to sign up, warm up and pre ride. The course was okay, not really my bag, but still a good challenging course. I got a 3rd row call up. The race was open to everyone who was there for the weekend to race Nationals. Not sure how they did the call ups, but given that it is BC's provincials I think they should have done the call ups for BC guys first. However, third row was fine. This was all racers over the age of 30. I got a good start, however we were all foiled when Meno rolled a tubular early and caused a bit of a back log early. I got around it clean, but had to scrub all my speed and sprint again to get going. The course featrued 2 beach sections and I ran really well on Saturday. I made a lot of hard passes and was overall pretty happy with that part. I was riding in 13th place at one point and came around a 180 after the barriers and washsed my front tire. down I went. I was up quick but not before 4 guys went by me. I was not able to regain those spots except maybe one. I managed to beat and stay within 30 seconds of a really good group. Guys that i don't normally ride with. Cressman beat me for the first time in a few years. He took advantage of my slide out and his superior running skills. He put me in the pain cave on that f-cking sandy run up. I had good power all day, but was just pretty good in all the corners. Man there were a lot of those. I really was staring a top 10 in the face but ended up with a crappy 17th I think. You get what you deserve in cross.
After the Saturdays race I did the proper cool down. The proper eating. The proper stretching. The proper sleeping. Guess what? It helped, but the race the day before took away all my snap. I felt good on the warm up and for any other day my legs felt good. Guys were gunning hard and I was not up for the task. I got a bit of a sub standard start, but actually made it up early. Nowak stacked it this time ( what is with these Frontrunners guys crashing in the first 500 meters of the race?) Got riding with some good guys, but did not have the snap to stay with them as they made forward progress. I just could not get it going. I was faster through all the lines, but overall I was riding slower. Even if I was riding the same, I was for sure running slower. At one point i made my way within about 10 seconds of a group of some strong guys. I was right there and felt that if I could get to them that I could move close to the top ten. I came into one of the dismounts, but bobbled it a bit and gave up about 5 seconds and they must have surged because it ballooned to 20 seconds. I tried to shut it down, but they were racing and I was suffering. My back was hurting and my general energy was getting lower. At one point I came around a corner too hot and went under the marking tape. This would have put me to about 10 seconds of the group in front, by cutting the course that is. I thought about just cutting this little section, but could not do it and burned a 180 back under the tape and back on the course. I finished about the same as I did the day before in a smaller field.
I knew doing a double day would be hard and I knew that having Nationals on the second day meant that I should have just done the one day. Just from a tactical standpoint it would have made more sense. I would have been fresher than 95% of the field and that alone would have made me better. If I could have combined my first days speed power and fitness with the second days overall cornering and bike handeling I would have been pretty stellar.
It is another double weekend this weekend. As of today I don't really care. I am stiff and tired. I was sick all last week and didn't ride and I am not sure how much I will ride this week. Then I may shut it down in about 3 weeks as all of the BC races will be done. Could go to Seattle, but with the new baby coming I want to get some stuff sorted out.
Well that is it for now. Congrats to Kelly Jones for getting 5th in the elite womens race, I hope this gets her to Worlds!
thanks for reading
Brent
Monday, October 22, 2007
Monday, October 15, 2007
some days U R the Hammer........
some days you are the nail.
Vanier BC Cup 4
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The race went on! There has been a city strike for the past 3 months that had basically stopped any and all cross racing from happening in the city of Vancouver. Not able to get permits for the parks. The organiser of yesterdays race held went ahead and held the race without pemitts or they were one of the few that swung a permit for the managment staff that have been working during the strike. Either way, I was racing 15 minutes from home!!!
Get to the race and manage to get a quick lap in before the B's start. I like the course it is both technical and fast. They did a nice little off camber section and a great sandpit.
I got my friend Brad's bike set up in the pits for him and warmed up while the B's were on the course. I went and watched the end of the B race and Brad get secnd in a 5 man sprint. He rode really well.
Onto the A race. It was a descent sized field of about 40 riders. Maybe a bit more. This pales in comparison to the B's that are more that double that. Anyway, I get the thrid line call up ( based on sign in for me and points for the first 2 rows ) and we basicallyget 30 seconds and the "go!" I get a really good start. We did a bit of a start straight for the start only that took us to the sandpit. I had good position and got to the pit in about mid pack. I knew that it would be a cluster so I knew I would have to dismount and run it the first lap. I actually rode half of it then ran the second half making up lots of spots.
The middle part of my race was good. Nto stellar but good. I was in the top 20 for most of the race. I was struggling riding around a few of the guys. Most of the guys in the A 's are well above average cyclists. Most are really strong. Stronger than me. I was riding with this one guy who was riding really bad. He was really strong but he just kept on trying to pass me back really aggresively every time I passed him in the barrier, in the corners, in the sandpit. He is a big man and he would basically elbow me out of the way. I recognize that I am the new kid in the A's and I am not jumping in finishing top 5, so I try race clean and keep my mouth shut. After he kept doing these wild accelerations I had to tell him to chll and just follow my lines for a lap or 2. Just relax! He either did not hear me or did not care because at the end of the lap he stacked it into the barriers and I never saw him again. I rode in 2 good groups that I wanted to stay in. I did not metre out my efforts well. When someone would hit me in the B's I could close it or close it and counter it. In the A's not so much. I ended up getting bounced out of my 3 man group and they eventually went on to catch the group in front of them and gave themselves a chance for a respecatable result. I ended up being caught and riding out the race with 2 other guys. The group in front of use was about 30 seconds up on us. So close but so far away.
There was a group of about 5 off the front of the race and I had to do some quick math as to when and if I was going to get lapped. It never happened, but had the race gone one more lap it would have. I am not sure where i finished but 30 of 40.
I wanted to go to A because I wanted to improve. It is making me better. I feel it more the night after the race. The harsh reality is that the front of the B race is the back portion of the A race. You start to wonder if it is better to hang out in the B's and win some stuff or suffer in the A's. If I can be 3% better I can actually be pretty competitive, but that 3% is pretty elusive at times. I can think of 4 times where my front tire washed and I had to chase back after having been gapped in the corners. That is energy that I don't have to spare. To ride at the front would be unrealistic at this point. I look at the top 5 guys and they are all guys that do really large road programs and are all 15 years younger than me. Not only that, they are very talented indiviuals. They are a big part of Canada's cycling future.
Some of the positves; perfect through the sand, fast on the off camber, fast in the grass corners, good through the barriers.
Some of the negatives; the gravel corners, the odd person heckling me? Most people are really supportive, but there were a few (2 I would say) that were heckling me? Part of me thinks that it is funny, becasue I think that is how it was meant. Part of me is ticked because these are guys that I was racing in the B's with and now that they are spectators they are given' er to me. When you are dying a million deaths and rumaging through your hurt locker you don't really want to hear people mocking you for your effort, or lack there of.
The vast majority of people are really supportive though. They know that you are in tough and they are really wanting to see you succeed! Thanks for the cheers!!!
Vanier BC Cup 4
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The race went on! There has been a city strike for the past 3 months that had basically stopped any and all cross racing from happening in the city of Vancouver. Not able to get permits for the parks. The organiser of yesterdays race held went ahead and held the race without pemitts or they were one of the few that swung a permit for the managment staff that have been working during the strike. Either way, I was racing 15 minutes from home!!!
Get to the race and manage to get a quick lap in before the B's start. I like the course it is both technical and fast. They did a nice little off camber section and a great sandpit.
I got my friend Brad's bike set up in the pits for him and warmed up while the B's were on the course. I went and watched the end of the B race and Brad get secnd in a 5 man sprint. He rode really well.
Onto the A race. It was a descent sized field of about 40 riders. Maybe a bit more. This pales in comparison to the B's that are more that double that. Anyway, I get the thrid line call up ( based on sign in for me and points for the first 2 rows ) and we basicallyget 30 seconds and the "go!" I get a really good start. We did a bit of a start straight for the start only that took us to the sandpit. I had good position and got to the pit in about mid pack. I knew that it would be a cluster so I knew I would have to dismount and run it the first lap. I actually rode half of it then ran the second half making up lots of spots.
The middle part of my race was good. Nto stellar but good. I was in the top 20 for most of the race. I was struggling riding around a few of the guys. Most of the guys in the A 's are well above average cyclists. Most are really strong. Stronger than me. I was riding with this one guy who was riding really bad. He was really strong but he just kept on trying to pass me back really aggresively every time I passed him in the barrier, in the corners, in the sandpit. He is a big man and he would basically elbow me out of the way. I recognize that I am the new kid in the A's and I am not jumping in finishing top 5, so I try race clean and keep my mouth shut. After he kept doing these wild accelerations I had to tell him to chll and just follow my lines for a lap or 2. Just relax! He either did not hear me or did not care because at the end of the lap he stacked it into the barriers and I never saw him again. I rode in 2 good groups that I wanted to stay in. I did not metre out my efforts well. When someone would hit me in the B's I could close it or close it and counter it. In the A's not so much. I ended up getting bounced out of my 3 man group and they eventually went on to catch the group in front of them and gave themselves a chance for a respecatable result. I ended up being caught and riding out the race with 2 other guys. The group in front of use was about 30 seconds up on us. So close but so far away.
There was a group of about 5 off the front of the race and I had to do some quick math as to when and if I was going to get lapped. It never happened, but had the race gone one more lap it would have. I am not sure where i finished but 30 of 40.
I wanted to go to A because I wanted to improve. It is making me better. I feel it more the night after the race. The harsh reality is that the front of the B race is the back portion of the A race. You start to wonder if it is better to hang out in the B's and win some stuff or suffer in the A's. If I can be 3% better I can actually be pretty competitive, but that 3% is pretty elusive at times. I can think of 4 times where my front tire washed and I had to chase back after having been gapped in the corners. That is energy that I don't have to spare. To ride at the front would be unrealistic at this point. I look at the top 5 guys and they are all guys that do really large road programs and are all 15 years younger than me. Not only that, they are very talented indiviuals. They are a big part of Canada's cycling future.
Some of the positves; perfect through the sand, fast on the off camber, fast in the grass corners, good through the barriers.
Some of the negatives; the gravel corners, the odd person heckling me? Most people are really supportive, but there were a few (2 I would say) that were heckling me? Part of me thinks that it is funny, becasue I think that is how it was meant. Part of me is ticked because these are guys that I was racing in the B's with and now that they are spectators they are given' er to me. When you are dying a million deaths and rumaging through your hurt locker you don't really want to hear people mocking you for your effort, or lack there of.
The vast majority of people are really supportive though. They know that you are in tough and they are really wanting to see you succeed! Thanks for the cheers!!!
Saturday, October 6, 2007
A Race
Did my first A race today. Went pretty well. Lets put some perspective around what pretty well means. I stayed on the same lap as the winner. I was probably the third last guy on the same lap, but I was on the same lap. Coming from B I did not have big expectations knowing that you can think that you are a stud riding near or on the front of B, but A is a different world in Cross.
I got the bad call up given that I have no a points. It was not all bad given that it was not a huge field. Weather today was shit! It was raining like crazy. I long ago stopped worrying about the weather. It is what it is and to be good in cross you have to be good in the wet. Whistle goes and we are off. I get a pretty good start, but I end up giving up some spots because the starts are so much faster. Actually not so much faster, but faster longer than I am used to. Today's course was fun, but it lacks elements. It had one set of planks and not much else. Don't get me wrong it was fast swoopy and fun, but it was not a pure cross course.
Back to the race. Basically I settled into a pace I thought that I could maintain with a goal of not blowing. It worked. I did not fully bury myself. If I popped I would be dead. I struggled in the first 2 laps. From about lap 4-10 I rode a strong race. I actually squeezed my brake so hard coming into on corner too hot that my brake straddle slipped leaving me with limited front brake. This was a good thing. Cross is not about who is the strongest ( I prove that weekly ) but who uses their energy the most efficiently. That is more of what I was doing. Working the slick corners better and better every lap. Trying not to go in too fast and coming out accelerating. I was good through the barriers, the only place that you had to run. I hopped on of the barriers on my last lap because the second barrier had been snapped in half due to a crash. Well, the hop was not pretty. Basically after I hopped it someone said "nice save" Jpow has nothing to worry about.
I would guess that I finished 18 of 24? Not sure for sure, but will find out when they are posted. There 3 guys within 10 secs and a lot within a minute. Having said that the winner probably put 3.5-4 minutes into me.
I have to mention one thing. I have been racing in one form or another for 15 years. Mostly as an expert, master expert 3 on the road. I have probably done 4 serious years of cross. Not sure that I should be racing A as I have never in my life raced as and elite or A. Why? Well, simple not good enough in the past. 37 years old with a career, wife and daughter ( one more on the way ) may seem like a strange time to jump into the fold, but I feel good about the way it went. I race casue I love to pin a number on and try to improve. Small victories I guess. I am hoping that next weeks race has more cross feel to because I feel that I can do better than just a pure drag race like this week.
Big thanks to Brad for racing A with me today. He has the start of starts. He was 6th after the first lap. Damn! He has the bad knee and pulled the pin after 45 minutes using it as training. He can race A, just needs to sort out some body issues and he will be killing it. His GF is doing a UCI race in Edmonton tomorrow, good luck Kelly!
I got the bad call up given that I have no a points. It was not all bad given that it was not a huge field. Weather today was shit! It was raining like crazy. I long ago stopped worrying about the weather. It is what it is and to be good in cross you have to be good in the wet. Whistle goes and we are off. I get a pretty good start, but I end up giving up some spots because the starts are so much faster. Actually not so much faster, but faster longer than I am used to. Today's course was fun, but it lacks elements. It had one set of planks and not much else. Don't get me wrong it was fast swoopy and fun, but it was not a pure cross course.
Back to the race. Basically I settled into a pace I thought that I could maintain with a goal of not blowing. It worked. I did not fully bury myself. If I popped I would be dead. I struggled in the first 2 laps. From about lap 4-10 I rode a strong race. I actually squeezed my brake so hard coming into on corner too hot that my brake straddle slipped leaving me with limited front brake. This was a good thing. Cross is not about who is the strongest ( I prove that weekly ) but who uses their energy the most efficiently. That is more of what I was doing. Working the slick corners better and better every lap. Trying not to go in too fast and coming out accelerating. I was good through the barriers, the only place that you had to run. I hopped on of the barriers on my last lap because the second barrier had been snapped in half due to a crash. Well, the hop was not pretty. Basically after I hopped it someone said "nice save" Jpow has nothing to worry about.
I would guess that I finished 18 of 24? Not sure for sure, but will find out when they are posted. There 3 guys within 10 secs and a lot within a minute. Having said that the winner probably put 3.5-4 minutes into me.
I have to mention one thing. I have been racing in one form or another for 15 years. Mostly as an expert, master expert 3 on the road. I have probably done 4 serious years of cross. Not sure that I should be racing A as I have never in my life raced as and elite or A. Why? Well, simple not good enough in the past. 37 years old with a career, wife and daughter ( one more on the way ) may seem like a strange time to jump into the fold, but I feel good about the way it went. I race casue I love to pin a number on and try to improve. Small victories I guess. I am hoping that next weeks race has more cross feel to because I feel that I can do better than just a pure drag race like this week.
Big thanks to Brad for racing A with me today. He has the start of starts. He was 6th after the first lap. Damn! He has the bad knee and pulled the pin after 45 minutes using it as training. He can race A, just needs to sort out some body issues and he will be killing it. His GF is doing a UCI race in Edmonton tomorrow, good luck Kelly!
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
BC Cup
plan on doing a full update on the blog, but here are the highlights.
First off the course was amazing! The orangizers put up an amazing course. Better than anything I have raced. The elements included 2 volleyball sandpits, a bmx track, off camber grass, at staircase, some wide single track.
First they corall us up for the B men and tell us that the call up will be based on the sign in, not the results from the last BC CUP. That is dumb, I only say that because for the last 4 years it has been based on points. So much for my 6th place at the first BC cup. Too much trouble for what I assume most commasaires think is just lowley cross. I get lined up in the fourth row. Oh well need to make the best of it. Guys are riding everywhere. Trying really hard to keep their nice starting spot, so it is a bit chaotic. We hit the staircase that foreced us to either remount on pavement and negotiate the curb without your feet clipped in or to run up a small grassy rise after the pavement. I choose the later and when I remount on the slight downhill grass I my bike slides right out from under me mid air. Wow! The front wheel just came out form under me and I did a superman on the ground. WTF. I get up hop back on and I am dead last. I think there was 48 in front of me. I get by a few guys before the sandpit and most people that I can see are running, but it is totally rideable. I ride it right to the end and pass about 10 guys. Just as I hit the end I go over the bars. That is twice in 3 minutes. so much for the guys that I passed. Then in the bmx track i came too hot into one of the corners and got tangled in the marking tape. F-ck I could not get out of my own way. I was getting frustrated. I had marking tape in my wheel and I was having a hard time moving through the crowd. At one point I came through some wet corners and that were off camber. One of them goes into a blind corner, as I came through the blind one I ran into the back of the guy in front of me. WTF again. I did not expect to make the catch at that moment. Anyways, all in all I was not having a great day. I passed about 28 guys to round out the top 20. Wtih the race only being 40 min I ran out of time.
I am fine if I get beat, but I was beating myself. I deceided to line up with the A men. On the starting line ( not to mention the regular fast guys ) was Parbo, Danish National champ, and Max Plaxton. If you don't know who Plaxton is,well he is one of the fastest men on a bike. Won a bronze, maybe a silver, at the Worlds 2 years ago for MTB. I had a pretty good idea what my fate would be. Well, I gave it what I had and what I had. For the first half of the race I was actually pretty respectable. I rode about mid pack, perhpaps a bit back. I know I was not up front with Max and Parbo elbowing it out, but I was trying not to be a laughing stock. I had some great moments and at a certain point I gaining a lot of ground on other riders. Then at about 35 minutes the switch flicked and that was it, I was in survival mode. At one point I saw 6 to go and I thought I was going to die. Any form, for cross, that I posses was gone. I had some stumbles, hit the scond sand pit running into it and forgot to pick up my bike. I was bonking and getting that twinge feeling that cramps could be coming. Well, going onto to 2 to go Max and Parbo came by me. They were not pulling riders. Damn. I wanted to stop. I wanted to stop so bad, but I also wanted to keep going in a sick way. Max and Parbo lapped all but the first 6 guys. 1hour 40 minutes of almost non stop cross. Never again! I will however line up as an A for the rest of the year I think. I think with fresh legs I can keep myself from being the laughing stock I probably was. Plaxton beat Parbo in a close finish.
Sydor used the Hutchinson tubeless system and she said they were burping air on the off camber, Tubs are still the way to go....
First off the course was amazing! The orangizers put up an amazing course. Better than anything I have raced. The elements included 2 volleyball sandpits, a bmx track, off camber grass, at staircase, some wide single track.
First they corall us up for the B men and tell us that the call up will be based on the sign in, not the results from the last BC CUP. That is dumb, I only say that because for the last 4 years it has been based on points. So much for my 6th place at the first BC cup. Too much trouble for what I assume most commasaires think is just lowley cross. I get lined up in the fourth row. Oh well need to make the best of it. Guys are riding everywhere. Trying really hard to keep their nice starting spot, so it is a bit chaotic. We hit the staircase that foreced us to either remount on pavement and negotiate the curb without your feet clipped in or to run up a small grassy rise after the pavement. I choose the later and when I remount on the slight downhill grass I my bike slides right out from under me mid air. Wow! The front wheel just came out form under me and I did a superman on the ground. WTF. I get up hop back on and I am dead last. I think there was 48 in front of me. I get by a few guys before the sandpit and most people that I can see are running, but it is totally rideable. I ride it right to the end and pass about 10 guys. Just as I hit the end I go over the bars. That is twice in 3 minutes. so much for the guys that I passed. Then in the bmx track i came too hot into one of the corners and got tangled in the marking tape. F-ck I could not get out of my own way. I was getting frustrated. I had marking tape in my wheel and I was having a hard time moving through the crowd. At one point I came through some wet corners and that were off camber. One of them goes into a blind corner, as I came through the blind one I ran into the back of the guy in front of me. WTF again. I did not expect to make the catch at that moment. Anyways, all in all I was not having a great day. I passed about 28 guys to round out the top 20. Wtih the race only being 40 min I ran out of time.
I am fine if I get beat, but I was beating myself. I deceided to line up with the A men. On the starting line ( not to mention the regular fast guys ) was Parbo, Danish National champ, and Max Plaxton. If you don't know who Plaxton is,well he is one of the fastest men on a bike. Won a bronze, maybe a silver, at the Worlds 2 years ago for MTB. I had a pretty good idea what my fate would be. Well, I gave it what I had and what I had. For the first half of the race I was actually pretty respectable. I rode about mid pack, perhpaps a bit back. I know I was not up front with Max and Parbo elbowing it out, but I was trying not to be a laughing stock. I had some great moments and at a certain point I gaining a lot of ground on other riders. Then at about 35 minutes the switch flicked and that was it, I was in survival mode. At one point I saw 6 to go and I thought I was going to die. Any form, for cross, that I posses was gone. I had some stumbles, hit the scond sand pit running into it and forgot to pick up my bike. I was bonking and getting that twinge feeling that cramps could be coming. Well, going onto to 2 to go Max and Parbo came by me. They were not pulling riders. Damn. I wanted to stop. I wanted to stop so bad, but I also wanted to keep going in a sick way. Max and Parbo lapped all but the first 6 guys. 1hour 40 minutes of almost non stop cross. Never again! I will however line up as an A for the rest of the year I think. I think with fresh legs I can keep myself from being the laughing stock I probably was. Plaxton beat Parbo in a close finish.
Sydor used the Hutchinson tubeless system and she said they were burping air on the off camber, Tubs are still the way to go....
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Monday, September 24, 2007
Well, Starcross was quite the production this year! Went down with Cressman and we decided to leave at 10:15 to get there for a 5:00 pm race. Well, given that our dollar is worth as much as the greenback everyone had to go shopping on Saturday. Now I know this has nothing to do with Cross, but humour me. The dollar has been floating around parity for months now, almost 3 months. The difference on a 1000.00 purchase would be 50.00, compared to a month ago? That is worth sitting in line at the boarder for 2-3 hours? Anyhow, back to Starcross. Our boarder delay was not too bad, but it was still 2 hours. Cressman is an interesting cat, so we chatted about a big range of stuff and generally solved the world’s biggest issues on the way down to Redmond.
We get there and we try to get kitted up and hit the course for a quick lap prior to the start of the master B’s race. No dice we go 150 metres and they announce the B’s have started. There are some guys from the Vancouver area in the race and I can tell they are doing well and sure enough, one of the guys that I race with and with whom I battle back and forth with wins, handily I might add. That is cool, but perhaps he should be racing with the Men ½ (actually he did the next day’s race and killed it for a top 10)
I manage to get on quick lap in prior to the start of my race and do most of it with Christian Huele, he is the number 5 ranked rider in the world and reigning Swiss champ. Funny in warm up he was no faster than me? Get to the start area and I get a second row start. I line up against multiple US National Champion Rich Feldman. We chat about how nice his carbon Colnago cross bike is and that would be the last I ever saw of him because he tore everyone’s legs off and killed EVERYONE!
My race was interesting as I got a pretty good start, but burned off a lot of matches to stay up near the front. I was riding pretty comfortable, but the pace was brisk to say the least. I was hurting right from the start and I knew that the course was bumpy, but man was it bumpy. I just had a hard time really getting consistent on that track. I really like the track, but there are a lot of changes of pace, I prefer something a bit less up and down in terms of effort. Having said that we are all racing the same course and all have to battle the same elements. For the first 3 laps I ride well keeping it in the top 15, but on about lap four I come around a 180 on the pavement and too hot and actually slide out and slide in to the only puddle on the course. So, now I am the only guy who is riding wet on the course. A few guys got by me after that as it took me a few minutes to get my sh!t collected, but once I did I made back some guys. Then I started getting stomach cramps by being bounced around like crazy. I must have had too much liquid in my stomach. For a while there I thought about bailing. Guys were sitting on me and then coming around me after and I was having a hard time staying with them and then I would end up between groups. With 3 to go (I think it is all a bit of a blur) I was counted by the UCI official as 21. I held that within 3-4 places I believe.
Not a great day, but a great venue that just punishes me. Starcross is the type of course that will point out your strengths and weakness really quick. I think that is why I love it so much.
In the women’s race, Kelly Jones from Vancouver rode an amazing race staying with the lead group of Wendy Williams, Wendy Simms (also from BC) and Rachael Lloyd to finish an amazing 6th place. Right there the whole time, but came up short in last 1000 metres of the race. Nice to see.
Men’s race. Too many highlights to list. Kabush rolls his tire early and does not have a bike or wheels so he makes his way to the barriers where the beer garden is and downs 4 beers!!! Then steps off the course. The guy is all class. If you can’t represent your sponsors by racing fast, then do it by drinking with the fans. Chris Sheppard raced after serving out his 2-year suspension for EPO use and finished 7th starting from the back and bringing back a pretty elite group of men. He raced strong and I would have presumed clean, let’s hope that never changes. Then there was the Trebon, Wicks and Huele story. The 3 big men off the front. The 2 Kona boys tried to lay wood to him, but he never looked like he was breathing. I think it takes more than the twin towers to bring down a guy like Huele. He played it perfect, by getting position on the Treefarm in the last corner and winning the sprint. Wicknasty tried the sweetest move, he came up high on the velodrome and dropped in passing Huele and Trebon re-entering the infield, it got away on him as he was too hot for the corner and stacked it. Then he chased back to the 2 leaders.
A lot of guys raced the next day in Seattle, but not me. We got home at about 1:00 am and I just chilled with the family.
We get there and we try to get kitted up and hit the course for a quick lap prior to the start of the master B’s race. No dice we go 150 metres and they announce the B’s have started. There are some guys from the Vancouver area in the race and I can tell they are doing well and sure enough, one of the guys that I race with and with whom I battle back and forth with wins, handily I might add. That is cool, but perhaps he should be racing with the Men ½ (actually he did the next day’s race and killed it for a top 10)
I manage to get on quick lap in prior to the start of my race and do most of it with Christian Huele, he is the number 5 ranked rider in the world and reigning Swiss champ. Funny in warm up he was no faster than me? Get to the start area and I get a second row start. I line up against multiple US National Champion Rich Feldman. We chat about how nice his carbon Colnago cross bike is and that would be the last I ever saw of him because he tore everyone’s legs off and killed EVERYONE!
My race was interesting as I got a pretty good start, but burned off a lot of matches to stay up near the front. I was riding pretty comfortable, but the pace was brisk to say the least. I was hurting right from the start and I knew that the course was bumpy, but man was it bumpy. I just had a hard time really getting consistent on that track. I really like the track, but there are a lot of changes of pace, I prefer something a bit less up and down in terms of effort. Having said that we are all racing the same course and all have to battle the same elements. For the first 3 laps I ride well keeping it in the top 15, but on about lap four I come around a 180 on the pavement and too hot and actually slide out and slide in to the only puddle on the course. So, now I am the only guy who is riding wet on the course. A few guys got by me after that as it took me a few minutes to get my sh!t collected, but once I did I made back some guys. Then I started getting stomach cramps by being bounced around like crazy. I must have had too much liquid in my stomach. For a while there I thought about bailing. Guys were sitting on me and then coming around me after and I was having a hard time staying with them and then I would end up between groups. With 3 to go (I think it is all a bit of a blur) I was counted by the UCI official as 21. I held that within 3-4 places I believe.
Not a great day, but a great venue that just punishes me. Starcross is the type of course that will point out your strengths and weakness really quick. I think that is why I love it so much.
In the women’s race, Kelly Jones from Vancouver rode an amazing race staying with the lead group of Wendy Williams, Wendy Simms (also from BC) and Rachael Lloyd to finish an amazing 6th place. Right there the whole time, but came up short in last 1000 metres of the race. Nice to see.
Men’s race. Too many highlights to list. Kabush rolls his tire early and does not have a bike or wheels so he makes his way to the barriers where the beer garden is and downs 4 beers!!! Then steps off the course. The guy is all class. If you can’t represent your sponsors by racing fast, then do it by drinking with the fans. Chris Sheppard raced after serving out his 2-year suspension for EPO use and finished 7th starting from the back and bringing back a pretty elite group of men. He raced strong and I would have presumed clean, let’s hope that never changes. Then there was the Trebon, Wicks and Huele story. The 3 big men off the front. The 2 Kona boys tried to lay wood to him, but he never looked like he was breathing. I think it takes more than the twin towers to bring down a guy like Huele. He played it perfect, by getting position on the Treefarm in the last corner and winning the sprint. Wicknasty tried the sweetest move, he came up high on the velodrome and dropped in passing Huele and Trebon re-entering the infield, it got away on him as he was too hot for the corner and stacked it. Then he chased back to the 2 leaders.
A lot of guys raced the next day in Seattle, but not me. We got home at about 1:00 am and I just chilled with the family.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Starcross
Well tomorrow is Starcross. Checked the confrimed riders in the master 1/2 category. there are some big hitters. Dale Knapp? Damn!? Rich Feldman, McClugg? Geez, these guys are all super fast. I am excited and nervous all at the same time. This race is really training so riding "up" is way better than riding at a level where you know even on a bad day you are probably not going to be out of the top 15. tomorrow, I could be out of the race early if I ride bad. If I ride well I should be able to stay on the same lap. If I ride out of my socks, then who knows!
Driving up Creeeesman which will be good. I was going to go Han Solo, but that is boring especially when I am driving back at 11:00 pm passing out from being sh!t bagged. Hope I get some sort of descent call up. I have been getting the fire cracker starts lately and I want to keep that going if I can. I would rather go out big and fade a bit than go out soft and pick it up. Having said that you never want to go soft in any circumstance....anyway, I just hope it is a clean run for the first lap. Not like last year when guys could not get up and over the wooden overpass and were getting off. That is a sign that you were not ready for the race at all.
B.C. is going to Vegas after Starcross, what a baller that guy is. He told me he is going to rent a Hummer to carry all of his peelers in the back, should be sweet. I hope the girls have room with all the carbon wheels he is going to have back there.
Talked to D.B. the other day. He is reno-ing his house. Sounds like fun! A.M.S. said it is like little Beruit at their place right now.
The Fashionista has gone all Nocturnal on us.
Driving up Creeeesman which will be good. I was going to go Han Solo, but that is boring especially when I am driving back at 11:00 pm passing out from being sh!t bagged. Hope I get some sort of descent call up. I have been getting the fire cracker starts lately and I want to keep that going if I can. I would rather go out big and fade a bit than go out soft and pick it up. Having said that you never want to go soft in any circumstance....anyway, I just hope it is a clean run for the first lap. Not like last year when guys could not get up and over the wooden overpass and were getting off. That is a sign that you were not ready for the race at all.
B.C. is going to Vegas after Starcross, what a baller that guy is. He told me he is going to rent a Hummer to carry all of his peelers in the back, should be sweet. I hope the girls have room with all the carbon wheels he is going to have back there.
Talked to D.B. the other day. He is reno-ing his house. Sounds like fun! A.M.S. said it is like little Beruit at their place right now.
The Fashionista has gone all Nocturnal on us.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Waiting it out.
Waiting for my daughter to fall asleep. She usually falls asleep at 8:00 pm, it is 10:00 and she has called us in 10 times and she is in her bed just talking, singing and whinning. I feel bad for her, but man can she come up with the reasons not to want to fall asleep. Kids have the best imaginations! Oh well, it is all part of it. This is about the worst I can remember it being in a while. Not sure what is up. I have to end this as I am being called about covering some toes.....
Legs came back pretty good from Saturday. I painted a bedroom most of the day on Sunday ( rained most of the day ) I wonder if Wellens or Nys paint their kids room after having a great race? That is one way to know that you race for the love of it and not the glory. Well, not in this house anyway. Okay,the toes are really an issue now, gotta fly!
Legs came back pretty good from Saturday. I painted a bedroom most of the day on Sunday ( rained most of the day ) I wonder if Wellens or Nys paint their kids room after having a great race? That is one way to know that you race for the love of it and not the glory. Well, not in this house anyway. Okay,the toes are really an issue now, gotta fly!
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Delta Cross
Lined up for the cross race in North Delta, BC. It is not a BC Cup, however I am thrilled about there being another race on the calender. Good course, one of the bigger pure fitness tests given that there is a long hill ( for cross anyway ) with some fun technical sections in the woods. They started the race from the bottom of the long gravel road, this year, and you hit the climb right at the start and that thins it out nicely.
Given that it is not a BC Cup race, they broke out a masters category! This is a good idea only because it breaks the field size down a bit. They start the B's in front of the masters, we go 1 minute later. I am lined up on the front line with the usual fast guys. They say go and Brad initially goes to the front, after he leads it out I come through and I am leading up the climb. We hit the top of the climb and I am scared to look back as I have a feeling that I just towed the whole group up the hill. I look back once at the top of the climb and BC is on my wheel and that is about all I can see. I feel pretty good at the top of the climb and just try to stay smooth riding in the track. We end up hitting the technical single track first and it is nice being at the front unobstructed. Hit the barriers and I can tell there is a pretty good group with me. I still get over the barriers first and then manage to get over the big hoppable log first as well. We hit the long fast downhill and no one comes by me, I am bit surprised because I am not going as fast as I can because it is a hard right at the bottom that is all loose gravel and don't want to crash. After that we hit the long drag to the start finish line. I give BC the chicken wing to come around, as I am hurting a bit. He does and like last week he almost kills me. I come back around and we hit the climb. I look back and I can see that I have a gap. I decide that I should give it a go! I get clear on the climb and by the top I have a sizable gap.
I ride the whole second and third lap pretty fast knowing that others will be coming. I want to try to stay on it so I can stay away until the end. I know that if I keep this pace up I may slow up towards the end. I ride laps 2-3 fast and smooth. When I come around, after 3, I see 2 to go. I know that I am starting to hurt. I can tell by the way that I am riding the climb. I am not as smooth or as powerful I look back and there are guys behind me and, however I can't tell if they are B's that I have caught or guys that are in my group. I seem to be riding pretty well in the technical which is encouraging. Trying to pedal through all the corners.
I see one to go and it looks like a possibility, I may get the win going wire to wire. Then it happens, just as I see the lap board a guy tags on the back of me and as we start the climb he goes around me. I am in the pain cave. Not much left, but I go absolutely red! As he went by me he told me Tyler Morland was coming at 10 seconds. I manage to stay on the first guys wheel, but he gaps me off to about 4 feet, but I hold it there. The parts are coming off the jalopy at this point. Then just as we hit the top of the climb Tyler comes by me. It is almost all flat or downhill. I tag onto Tyler and we are making up time on the other guy. It might be close, but after we hit the long gravel descent that takes us onto the long drag back to the start finish, Tyler lays the wood to me. That is it! The other guy stays away, I roll it in for 3rd. Missed it by about 5 minutes. 15 seconds between 1-3rd
I had it. I think that I just lost some focus on laps 3-4. It is hard riding by yourself for all 5 laps. I almost pulled it off, which I think would have been an upset. Ah well, it was lots of fun. The other 2 rode a great race, so no shame in third.
Nina and the fashionista were out to the race. Nina said that Sophia was cheering for the wrong guy every lap. I hope he was a Dad too! Nina did not snap any pictures, she would have, had she known I was leading for 95% of the race, but could not tell with all the B's starting in front of us. She never said it but, probably thought that I was pack fodder.
Next up is star crossed!!! Should be fast
Given that it is not a BC Cup race, they broke out a masters category! This is a good idea only because it breaks the field size down a bit. They start the B's in front of the masters, we go 1 minute later. I am lined up on the front line with the usual fast guys. They say go and Brad initially goes to the front, after he leads it out I come through and I am leading up the climb. We hit the top of the climb and I am scared to look back as I have a feeling that I just towed the whole group up the hill. I look back once at the top of the climb and BC is on my wheel and that is about all I can see. I feel pretty good at the top of the climb and just try to stay smooth riding in the track. We end up hitting the technical single track first and it is nice being at the front unobstructed. Hit the barriers and I can tell there is a pretty good group with me. I still get over the barriers first and then manage to get over the big hoppable log first as well. We hit the long fast downhill and no one comes by me, I am bit surprised because I am not going as fast as I can because it is a hard right at the bottom that is all loose gravel and don't want to crash. After that we hit the long drag to the start finish line. I give BC the chicken wing to come around, as I am hurting a bit. He does and like last week he almost kills me. I come back around and we hit the climb. I look back and I can see that I have a gap. I decide that I should give it a go! I get clear on the climb and by the top I have a sizable gap.
I ride the whole second and third lap pretty fast knowing that others will be coming. I want to try to stay on it so I can stay away until the end. I know that if I keep this pace up I may slow up towards the end. I ride laps 2-3 fast and smooth. When I come around, after 3, I see 2 to go. I know that I am starting to hurt. I can tell by the way that I am riding the climb. I am not as smooth or as powerful I look back and there are guys behind me and, however I can't tell if they are B's that I have caught or guys that are in my group. I seem to be riding pretty well in the technical which is encouraging. Trying to pedal through all the corners.
I see one to go and it looks like a possibility, I may get the win going wire to wire. Then it happens, just as I see the lap board a guy tags on the back of me and as we start the climb he goes around me. I am in the pain cave. Not much left, but I go absolutely red! As he went by me he told me Tyler Morland was coming at 10 seconds. I manage to stay on the first guys wheel, but he gaps me off to about 4 feet, but I hold it there. The parts are coming off the jalopy at this point. Then just as we hit the top of the climb Tyler comes by me. It is almost all flat or downhill. I tag onto Tyler and we are making up time on the other guy. It might be close, but after we hit the long gravel descent that takes us onto the long drag back to the start finish, Tyler lays the wood to me. That is it! The other guy stays away, I roll it in for 3rd. Missed it by about 5 minutes. 15 seconds between 1-3rd
I had it. I think that I just lost some focus on laps 3-4. It is hard riding by yourself for all 5 laps. I almost pulled it off, which I think would have been an upset. Ah well, it was lots of fun. The other 2 rode a great race, so no shame in third.
Nina and the fashionista were out to the race. Nina said that Sophia was cheering for the wrong guy every lap. I hope he was a Dad too! Nina did not snap any pictures, she would have, had she known I was leading for 95% of the race, but could not tell with all the B's starting in front of us. She never said it but, probably thought that I was pack fodder.
Next up is star crossed!!! Should be fast
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Karate? You don't need Karate, you can just ring their necks....
Today was the start of the BC Cup Series. It kicked off at Fort Langley. Good turn out all around for the race and the weather was like summer. No need for the heat balm ( who told you to put the balm on? I didn't tell you to put no balm on, do you know what balm does? ) today, it was cooking. Rode the track for a couple of laps and got to witness some suffering going on in the C race. They changed the course this year. There used to be a ball buster of a run, but they took most of it out and cut in some tough switchbacks instead. At the start of the uphill run they had a set of 2 barriers. This all led to a steep Euro shoot and then a log as a barrier that I would guess 90% of people hopped.
Still no masters category this year, just good old A B C, which is fine, but it brings a wide range in the B category. I get a front line starting position with a few guy that I don't remember racing in the top 10 before, but for the most part it was the usual suspects. Gun goes and I get an okay start, but I could not get my foot in that pedal to save my life. I finally get cliced in and we are rounding a sketch turn ( with 56 people in a pack it was a bit sketch ) and I wait for the fire works. There is some guy about 50 meters ahead riding away. No one is riding. I go to bridge up and don't look back, I managed to pass this guy and I am the first one through the single track across the creek and up to the run up. i am towing a few guys with me, but I am pretty happy to be near the front coming into the run up and the climbing single track near the front. One guy gets by me as we are going oer the barriers and about 5 of us are gone. My buddy Brad is there, a guy from Natural Earth is there, a Masi guy is there. There are 3 guys in front of me and Brad, we are tapping it out pretty good. I am riding the uphill paved section, he is riding the long gravel road to the start finish. The first time that he came around me on the start finish line straight he almost killed me. With 3 to go Brad said that a Seattle guy from Ticycles was briding. We did not go deep to stay away, we just kept rolling. He got to us and came by. At first neither or us reacted, but I did not want to let him go, so I went across to him, Brad followed. I got on him and stayed on him pretty good,, but I can't remember what happened, but he got a bit of a gap and I let him go....about 6 feet, and as they say you get dropped 6 feet at a time in cross. He was right there, so we kept it pretty steady, 2 to go I came around Brad in a sandy section and kind popped my self. Some confusion to me as we had lapped a guy in Mighty Riders kit a lap earlier, but now he seemed to be back and went by me going over the barriers? I was WTF? did he tag onto the back of our group? Well he gapped me to, and now Brad is in front of me and so is this guy. Turns out he came up with the Ticycles guy and it was a teammate we had lapped. I am in about 7th place now. I stay on it hard for the last lap and I am making up time on 4-6th, but I am running out of time. Then things get worse, as I am passing a lapped rider he stumbles on the short run up and tells me to go, when I go he starts getting up and whacks me with his bike? On the paved uphill I can see Brad, no catching him, then I see the mighty guy. At this point we are mixed in with some of the lapped A women. I am dodging bodies everywhere basically riding on the centre line. I come around the second to last corner and 6th place is there. I weave through some women and there he is. He doesn't know that I am there, so I leave a small gap and then I start my sprint, it is close, but with a bike throw I get it!
Brad got 4th because the Ticycles guy dropped his chain or something. Brad does not even remember passing him. 6th, not too bad! Happy with that. Brad was happy w/4th!
A race, not sure who won, but they were rolling it fast!!! Rob Britton did not win and that surprised me a bit, I think he flatted and still finished 3rd.
In the womens race "the" Alison Sydor showed up to take the A race, but not without a fight from Kelly Jones. Kelly said that she let her go after 2 or 3 laps. Both women caught a lot of the B's. No women close to Kelly after that.
My 2 women went to a brithday party at a petting zoo and the Fashionista rode a pony!
Nina had the hotwater tank go, while I was gone. First she panicked then she found the shut off in the house( I am not sure I knew where it was) and shut down the water! Damn, smart, pretty and handy!!! no water right now, so I am having some wine. I think the form is getting better! However, that may be the wine talking.....
Still no masters category this year, just good old A B C, which is fine, but it brings a wide range in the B category. I get a front line starting position with a few guy that I don't remember racing in the top 10 before, but for the most part it was the usual suspects. Gun goes and I get an okay start, but I could not get my foot in that pedal to save my life. I finally get cliced in and we are rounding a sketch turn ( with 56 people in a pack it was a bit sketch ) and I wait for the fire works. There is some guy about 50 meters ahead riding away. No one is riding. I go to bridge up and don't look back, I managed to pass this guy and I am the first one through the single track across the creek and up to the run up. i am towing a few guys with me, but I am pretty happy to be near the front coming into the run up and the climbing single track near the front. One guy gets by me as we are going oer the barriers and about 5 of us are gone. My buddy Brad is there, a guy from Natural Earth is there, a Masi guy is there. There are 3 guys in front of me and Brad, we are tapping it out pretty good. I am riding the uphill paved section, he is riding the long gravel road to the start finish. The first time that he came around me on the start finish line straight he almost killed me. With 3 to go Brad said that a Seattle guy from Ticycles was briding. We did not go deep to stay away, we just kept rolling. He got to us and came by. At first neither or us reacted, but I did not want to let him go, so I went across to him, Brad followed. I got on him and stayed on him pretty good,, but I can't remember what happened, but he got a bit of a gap and I let him go....about 6 feet, and as they say you get dropped 6 feet at a time in cross. He was right there, so we kept it pretty steady, 2 to go I came around Brad in a sandy section and kind popped my self. Some confusion to me as we had lapped a guy in Mighty Riders kit a lap earlier, but now he seemed to be back and went by me going over the barriers? I was WTF? did he tag onto the back of our group? Well he gapped me to, and now Brad is in front of me and so is this guy. Turns out he came up with the Ticycles guy and it was a teammate we had lapped. I am in about 7th place now. I stay on it hard for the last lap and I am making up time on 4-6th, but I am running out of time. Then things get worse, as I am passing a lapped rider he stumbles on the short run up and tells me to go, when I go he starts getting up and whacks me with his bike? On the paved uphill I can see Brad, no catching him, then I see the mighty guy. At this point we are mixed in with some of the lapped A women. I am dodging bodies everywhere basically riding on the centre line. I come around the second to last corner and 6th place is there. I weave through some women and there he is. He doesn't know that I am there, so I leave a small gap and then I start my sprint, it is close, but with a bike throw I get it!
Brad got 4th because the Ticycles guy dropped his chain or something. Brad does not even remember passing him. 6th, not too bad! Happy with that. Brad was happy w/4th!
A race, not sure who won, but they were rolling it fast!!! Rob Britton did not win and that surprised me a bit, I think he flatted and still finished 3rd.
In the womens race "the" Alison Sydor showed up to take the A race, but not without a fight from Kelly Jones. Kelly said that she let her go after 2 or 3 laps. Both women caught a lot of the B's. No women close to Kelly after that.
My 2 women went to a brithday party at a petting zoo and the Fashionista rode a pony!
Nina had the hotwater tank go, while I was gone. First she panicked then she found the shut off in the house( I am not sure I knew where it was) and shut down the water! Damn, smart, pretty and handy!!! no water right now, so I am having some wine. I think the form is getting better! However, that may be the wine talking.....
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
The cross bike!
Here is my cross bike for this year. It is a Redline team frame made out of Scandium tubing, with a richey WCS full carbon fork. The parts for the drivetrain are mostly 10 speed Dura Ace. The wheels are Mavic Reflex rims with Tufo Flexus tubular tires. The rear hub is an Italian FRM carbon. I run a single ring set up with an FSA carbon gaurd.
I use a 42 ring up front and a 12-27 in the rear. If you can't get up a hill with that then it is time to start running, it will be faster. The brakes are Empella Froglegs.
My friend Brad helped me spec it and he basically was nice enough to do the build for me. He has a big passion for cross, check out how he routed the front brake off of the stem. Slick! I have not weighed it, but it is somewhere in the 16 pound range. I have some carbon wheels that I may glue some tubulars to, that may skim off some weight, but with this set up I can run about 30psi and if I wreck them it will cost me 60.00 vs. 300.00, plus the time to get the new rim.
MIA
I haven’t touched this thing in a long time! I set it up originally to do cross updates and then got carried away updating it like I was Todd Wells or someone who actually is fast on their bike. Since I went to Europe I have not had a ton of time getting updates on, but I will be good from here on in.
So, I hit my first cross race of the year this year. I raced down in Seattle at South SeaTac. This is my second time racing out there and it is a super well-organized race. I went down with my friends Brad and his wife…actually not wife, but close enough, Kelly and we all raced.
The course has a ton of sand on it and it is pretty technical for a cross course with a lot of fun swoopy single track. The course had 2 run ups and one run up that you could ride if you were a solid rider. The second run was a ball buster for sure that put you in the hurt locker for about a minute after the run. There were also some good paved sections to recover or hammer depending on how you were feeling.
Kelly was the first to race. She did not kill it off the front, but she was in the top 3 for the women’s A race. She rolled in 3rd dangling off the back of the first 2 women by a few seconds at most. She was riding the hard ride/run and catching them back, but they would get a gap after. I think she was losing some time on the twisty track to Kristy Berg…Alec Berg…. (Forget it no one will get that), but as they came to the finish Kelly was right there with the other 2 but effectively needed another 1 lap to take the win. She had a strong race, there was only 5 seconds separating 2 and 3rd and then multiple minutes to 4th.
Next me and Brad line up to roll the Master A men. We start about 1:30 behind the Senior elite men. Our laps will be based off of the times of their laps. Great! I get to have my race based on the times of one of the fastest guys in the US, Shannon Skeritt, so I knew I had my work cut out for me. Only about 15 masters racing today and one junior that was staged with the masters.
Start goes okay and then down the start finish area this little guy punches it and everyone is going full gas to a hill that is loose and a bit rocky. I go into about 3rd from last as I got chopped a bit by the junior making a bit of a dumb move. I gotta start throwing elbows more if I want to do a bit better. Anyway, the junior wads it up going up the hill and I have to run about 10 meters while everyone else rides away. I get going and I am pinned struggling to keep my bike going in a straight line. My saving grace is that when we hit the ride/run up, I ride it clean and make some spots there. I get another here or there and don’t ever give anything back. Brad is up a bit, I can see him early and he must be in the top three. On lap 2 I ride better and on lap 3 I am riding everything fast making more passes. I hit the run and I can see Brad in front of me. He has about 15 seconds on me. It is deceiving because it looks like I can reach him by digging in deep, but when I get to the top he his gone. I drill it on the pavement and I am making up time and then as we hit the start finish he wheels in and grabs a wheel. Makes sense, as I was catching him really quick and I thought that those million dollar carbon wheels he was using might have let out some air. Turns out that it was not flat, but really soft.
Last couple of laps went well, but as I was getting close to finishing off my second last lap I could see a guy in Team Vanilla kit coming in on me. Damn! One of the Elite men. If he laps me I am done. I get placed, but I am done. I start hauling ass, hit the long run up and giver, but near the top he comes by me, just flying! If I can get on his wheel and ride to the finish and ask him to let me go ahead of him, before we cross the line, then I can finish my last lap! The things you think when your brain has no oxygen. When we hit the paved section after the run the only thing I was doing was praying that I did not blow my entire load right there.
I finished 6th. Brad rolled in about 2.5 minutes later in 7th, very respectable considering the wheel change.
I wasn’t great, but not bad either. The race was almost all single track, so with the exception of the run and the ride/run sections I did not feel like I was on the rivet. It was more about being smooth vs. killing it.
Bike rode perfect. Big thanks to Brad for helping me get it all set up. I am on a Redline, with Dura Ace, this year and it a step up over last years bike.
We hit Langley next weekend for the start of the BC cross series. Should be good. I should be suffering a bit less on the run there seeing how I have done some stair running lately! I figured in Rawlyk can run 2400 km by June, that I could bust out 5 flights of stairs 6-8 times once a week…
R-Enns is 40! Nice work buddy. I am sure that you were puking at some point last weekend.
Went to the most bizarre Asian wedding the night before the race. I have never seen anything like it. Their MC was a hired gun! They had Karaoke going during dinner. Man it was Super Fantastic!!!
Oh, so my loving wife mentioned to me that the bride, for a small girl, had the big rack, well her sister goes that gene as well!!!! I have never seen 100-pound women rolling it with that kind of natural talent. I thought that when she walked into the room the should have busted out some INXS “guns in the sky”
So, I hit my first cross race of the year this year. I raced down in Seattle at South SeaTac. This is my second time racing out there and it is a super well-organized race. I went down with my friends Brad and his wife…actually not wife, but close enough, Kelly and we all raced.
The course has a ton of sand on it and it is pretty technical for a cross course with a lot of fun swoopy single track. The course had 2 run ups and one run up that you could ride if you were a solid rider. The second run was a ball buster for sure that put you in the hurt locker for about a minute after the run. There were also some good paved sections to recover or hammer depending on how you were feeling.
Kelly was the first to race. She did not kill it off the front, but she was in the top 3 for the women’s A race. She rolled in 3rd dangling off the back of the first 2 women by a few seconds at most. She was riding the hard ride/run and catching them back, but they would get a gap after. I think she was losing some time on the twisty track to Kristy Berg…Alec Berg…. (Forget it no one will get that), but as they came to the finish Kelly was right there with the other 2 but effectively needed another 1 lap to take the win. She had a strong race, there was only 5 seconds separating 2 and 3rd and then multiple minutes to 4th.
Next me and Brad line up to roll the Master A men. We start about 1:30 behind the Senior elite men. Our laps will be based off of the times of their laps. Great! I get to have my race based on the times of one of the fastest guys in the US, Shannon Skeritt, so I knew I had my work cut out for me. Only about 15 masters racing today and one junior that was staged with the masters.
Start goes okay and then down the start finish area this little guy punches it and everyone is going full gas to a hill that is loose and a bit rocky. I go into about 3rd from last as I got chopped a bit by the junior making a bit of a dumb move. I gotta start throwing elbows more if I want to do a bit better. Anyway, the junior wads it up going up the hill and I have to run about 10 meters while everyone else rides away. I get going and I am pinned struggling to keep my bike going in a straight line. My saving grace is that when we hit the ride/run up, I ride it clean and make some spots there. I get another here or there and don’t ever give anything back. Brad is up a bit, I can see him early and he must be in the top three. On lap 2 I ride better and on lap 3 I am riding everything fast making more passes. I hit the run and I can see Brad in front of me. He has about 15 seconds on me. It is deceiving because it looks like I can reach him by digging in deep, but when I get to the top he his gone. I drill it on the pavement and I am making up time and then as we hit the start finish he wheels in and grabs a wheel. Makes sense, as I was catching him really quick and I thought that those million dollar carbon wheels he was using might have let out some air. Turns out that it was not flat, but really soft.
Last couple of laps went well, but as I was getting close to finishing off my second last lap I could see a guy in Team Vanilla kit coming in on me. Damn! One of the Elite men. If he laps me I am done. I get placed, but I am done. I start hauling ass, hit the long run up and giver, but near the top he comes by me, just flying! If I can get on his wheel and ride to the finish and ask him to let me go ahead of him, before we cross the line, then I can finish my last lap! The things you think when your brain has no oxygen. When we hit the paved section after the run the only thing I was doing was praying that I did not blow my entire load right there.
I finished 6th. Brad rolled in about 2.5 minutes later in 7th, very respectable considering the wheel change.
I wasn’t great, but not bad either. The race was almost all single track, so with the exception of the run and the ride/run sections I did not feel like I was on the rivet. It was more about being smooth vs. killing it.
Bike rode perfect. Big thanks to Brad for helping me get it all set up. I am on a Redline, with Dura Ace, this year and it a step up over last years bike.
We hit Langley next weekend for the start of the BC cross series. Should be good. I should be suffering a bit less on the run there seeing how I have done some stair running lately! I figured in Rawlyk can run 2400 km by June, that I could bust out 5 flights of stairs 6-8 times once a week…
R-Enns is 40! Nice work buddy. I am sure that you were puking at some point last weekend.
Went to the most bizarre Asian wedding the night before the race. I have never seen anything like it. Their MC was a hired gun! They had Karaoke going during dinner. Man it was Super Fantastic!!!
Oh, so my loving wife mentioned to me that the bride, for a small girl, had the big rack, well her sister goes that gene as well!!!! I have never seen 100-pound women rolling it with that kind of natural talent. I thought that when she walked into the room the should have busted out some INXS “guns in the sky”
Saturday, June 16, 2007
shit show!
Raced the Test of Metal today. Sweet race. You and 799 of your best firends. Well things started out really well considering that it was pissing. I got into the start corall in pretty good position, but not amazing. I was able to move up really easy up the paved climb. I passed a ton of people and had good to great legs today. After talking to Ronsonic and getting the recon I deceided to take it chill on the descent that takes you to jacks trail. It goes flat after that and you can catch up. Tons of guys make daring passes and get flats, for nothing, I managed to pass everyone who went by me back. So did I mention that it was raining? Anyways, I got to the runup called roller coaster in a bit under an hour. Not sure if that is fast, but I was riding with strong guys so I think so? Was I Ron? Well after that there are 2 sections that have a ton of turns. At the end of the second set....I broke my chain. Damn! Well, I crossed chained it and with all the mud on it was a bad combo. On the good side it took me a limited amount of time to fix it. I had a sram connector pin taped to my chain tool. This allows you to re attatch your chain quickly and without a tool, pretty pro eh! Well, I got it going again and it was good, but I was bymyself. I got passed by 2 waves, 40 to 50 people I would say. I caught the second wave by the feed zone, then I caught the rest half way up 9 mile hill. I was climbing well. Middle except for one savage, savage steep part. After you turn off the gravel fire road your climb some rockysingle track. I wanted to beg the granny ring there, but it would not shift. At the very top of 9 mile it was freaking cold and just pissing. I had heat balm on my legs and my arms. I did not cramp on the climb at all. I drilled it down to the ring creek rip but my brakes were not working well, it was getting tough to control. What happened is i burned off all the pads on one side of the disk brake caliper so what happens is that only one side of the disk caliper is ppushing in. After I rode one of the harder fast descents I could pull the lever almost to the bar, not good.
Next is Powerhouse Plunge. In the dry I can ride it from top to bottom and it is techincal. In the rain, it is something else. I can't describe it at all. I started to ride the top part really well, then the guy in front of me biffed. I have to stop. Can't get going. Try again, but it is steep rock and root. not the place to get going so I get off and run it. Then I hop back on, then I come up to someone else, they dab, then me too. Off again. It sounds like my brakes are metal on metal. I have no real brake power. I try to ride one steep drop and come into it way too hot and get bounced around, kind of like riding a bull. I don't go down, but it is close and kind of scary. I cannot get on the ribbon and get some flow. I arried at the Plunge at 2:45 into the race. That is not too bad, but it took me a while to get out. I end up running a lot of it and it just seemed more consistant. I think only 2 people rode by me. I passed a few guys. I would say I ran thirty % of the plunge and that is not great. Ah well, at least I get on and off fast. Some people are a little on the slow side on the remount, however others don't need to practice romounting as they never come off. Anyway, I have to ride crumpet woods, pure rolling single track that was rim deep mud. I cleaned the whole thing and did not cramp I had 0 brakes so it was tough. Doubt I lost a ton of time as it is mostly up and I rode everything, all in my middle ring as I still could not get my front shifter to drop. Oh I almost forgot, I had a biff in the plunge. I am running and I hit my foot on a rised root and I am running my foot got caught and down I went. bike ended up on top of me. Jeeezzzzus.
After I get through Crumpet that seemed to take forever it is to some really fast single track. wide open with gradual turns so I don't have to brake much. Then it is too the finish. I finished in aabout 335-340 my fastest time in the bone dry was 320.
things that went well; the long climbs, the start, crumpet woods because I did not blow a quad or a hamstring.
things that went bad; the weather, the plunge, my brakes. I won't put my chain in there because having that conex link was genius....
I had to stop while driving home, I was in downtown and I started cramping in my ankle, ham, and quad, actually had to pull over and was in my car screaming.
Good thing it is fathers day tomorrow as I will be useless.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Okay, so Roberto is calling recumbents gay! I agree, but just a day before he says that puts up this picture of him racing. He has purple anodized bar ends? WTF! Look at the bend on those things! Did he steal those from Ned Overends 1989 Specialized Epic? Hit me with you address buddy and I will send you some stubby black (ritchey WCS ) bar ends I have lying in a box somewhere. I think that he is wearing his wifes helmet as well.....
Pantani called, he wants his earing back!
love ya buddy!!!
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Rusty!
Before I start the Fashionista would like everyone to know that " we don't like Swiper, he is a sneaky fox, Swiper no swiping!!!"
Went and rode mymtb bike today. Awesome, had not riden it in a long time and it showed on my first lap. Man was I bad. Second lap, after an hour on the bike I was pretty close to normal. It was raining the whole time I rode and it was slick. I set my tires up sans tubes, www.notubes.com, and was running them at about 35 psi. As it started to rain harder I dropped them to about 30 psi! Using low tire pressure rocks, I am not using a tire with a lot of tread and they hooked up great. More of the same tomorrow morning. Up at 5:30 today. I will be passing out be 9:00 tonight. It is worth it! Today was awesome!!!
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Quick Step
Well, looks like there is another scandal brewing. Quick Step riders and staff members had their homes raided by Police in Belgium. Nice. No big surprise. I know only one person that does not believe that doping is systematic. Meaning that the Directors of the team don't know. The directors set this crap up and basically force the riders hands to dope. The riders aren't a bunch of victims either, if they win then they end up with a $! At the end of the day that is what it is all about.
Vandenbrouke is in critical condition after attempting suicide. You saw it coming from a mile away. The doping, the legal problems, the marital problems. Just like any other addict he hit rock bottom and now he is on death's door step. I hope he pulls through. Even though, he was one of the dirty one's ( not that many weren't ) maybe he can come back and teach kids the right way to win bike races. We don't need another Pantani, dead with bags of coke around him.
When is Riis going to quit cycling and never come back? I don't really hate Riis, he admitted to something ( just before on of his team staff was going to blow the whistle on him ) that happened a long time ago and to me it does not make him some hero or a villain. I just don't think that he can be trusted to work with riders anymore. He didn't know Basso was involved with the Spanish doctor? Come on! He has to go. Where do you find a good team leader now? In the past 15 years doping has been the norm in cycling, so who do you put in the drivers seat? An ex rider that doped his ass off or someone with no pro experience that is clean?
Riders that escaped without getting caught during their careers, must be getting a bit worried. All these people that were considered nutters ( as David miller would call them prior to his admission of EPO ) seem to have a lot of credibility.
Vandenbrouke is in critical condition after attempting suicide. You saw it coming from a mile away. The doping, the legal problems, the marital problems. Just like any other addict he hit rock bottom and now he is on death's door step. I hope he pulls through. Even though, he was one of the dirty one's ( not that many weren't ) maybe he can come back and teach kids the right way to win bike races. We don't need another Pantani, dead with bags of coke around him.
When is Riis going to quit cycling and never come back? I don't really hate Riis, he admitted to something ( just before on of his team staff was going to blow the whistle on him ) that happened a long time ago and to me it does not make him some hero or a villain. I just don't think that he can be trusted to work with riders anymore. He didn't know Basso was involved with the Spanish doctor? Come on! He has to go. Where do you find a good team leader now? In the past 15 years doping has been the norm in cycling, so who do you put in the drivers seat? An ex rider that doped his ass off or someone with no pro experience that is clean?
Riders that escaped without getting caught during their careers, must be getting a bit worried. All these people that were considered nutters ( as David miller would call them prior to his admission of EPO ) seem to have a lot of credibility.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Here I am where are you?
Sitting here watching all of the post game review of the stanley cup finals. In case you live in a cave with no TV, the Ducks won. Ahh, hoping for the Sens, but there are 3 Manitoba boys on the team and when you factor in Teemu that is actually 4. Not too shabby. I believe 16 of 18 are from Canada so that is cool.
We are going to Europe! It is going on a short time line ( 2 weeks ), but it will be a great time! Going to Germany and then doing some driving through Germany, Austria, and then into Croatia. We will then make our way to the Coast where the space-in-laws live. Jetting out on the 21st of this month. I may end up doing another road race this weekend. There is a race about 1 hour away. Man, I have not done this much racing in a long time. Especially road. I think that I am the last one of any of my close friends that I started racing with who has a race license? Things move on I guess. Lets face it bikes are pretty frivolous and there are many other worth while things to be doing. I actually feel bad knowing that a lot of my friends have stopped riding/racing and I forge on. I wonder if I have gotten it all wrong. there are things that I miss out on. Getting up at 5:30-9 so that I can ride on the weekends gets old and I miss the Fashionista waking up. I miss the Mrs when I get up that early. I ride a lot by myself, almost exclusively, for many months of the year. It can be a bit of a lonely proposition. I still love to pin a number on though. Not more than I love my family, but I like riding hard. If I get popped in a race or have a bad race I don't care that much. I know that if I have a good race it is probably because I was smart, not the strongest guy given my hours on the bike. I have had like 7 beers since Palm Springs. Seems like if I am going to get up early beers does not make sense, if I try to have a few after a race or a hard ride I pass out at like 9:00 pm.....not that I stay awake past 10:30 on a stellar night.
Talking to Ronsonic today and he was telling me that he is doing an mtb race with his daughter. Cool!! He can ride! His girl can ride too! What a cool thing to be able to do with your kid. Seeing how I had mine at 34 it may not happen that I do that with my kid, but I hope I can at least ride with her or run with her not just be a useless phuck who has a gut.
They are saying that Teemu will retire. I will never forget when he broke Mike Bossy's rookie scoring record and in celebration he threw his glove in the air and shot it out of the air. That was a long time ago! I am old.
I was told that when I go to Croatia that it will be a cultural awakening. Funny how when I took her to Winnipeg she did not view it as such.
If a couple had no ability to have children of your own would you cut those people slack for stealing someone elses child? They found some missing girl in a couples basement locked away somewhere in the states.... Okay rambling now, I should get off this thing
One of my favorite Seinfeld's was on last night. It is the one where the K man walks in a asks if this where you are doing the interference? the K man also tells George to break up with her to turn the tables on her! I could have used that one once or twice in my dating career. The preemptive strike as Jerry would call it. And last but not least the Pez dispenser and the piano recital. the interference! Classic!
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Cramping!
Raced the Westside Classic today. It is the provincial championships. I raced in the masters 30-39 category. So, the race is held right in Vancouver. We get FULL road closures! Full Grandstand and a big portion of the course is barracaded! It rocks! I have never done another race where you get 100% road closures. This includes SW Marine Drive, 16th Ave. The organizors give all their money to BC cancer. They raised over 120K for the cause. Big props to the Wedgewood cycling club! So, we race together with the 40,50,60,70 year olds. Yes I said 70! So next time you are thinking I can't do this or that, just remember that there are guys who are 70 trying to dangle with guys 40 years younger! I think the few 70 yr old guys got dropped, but two 60 year old guys hung tough to the end. It was like a 200 guy pack. That is big. There was one really hard section on the course, it was the climb up Camousen road. It is bigringable, and it takes about 3 minutes bottom to top. It went well. I rode strong for 6 of 8. on the 6th time up I cramped a bit and was hurting. Did I mention that it was 22 degrees at 7:30am when we started and 28 when we finished. I was drinking a fair bit. Anyway, the group was windleing. I got over the top towards the back but was concerned. On the next lap up I cramped my calf and quads. Ouch. It is getting really thin now and I missed the bus going over the top by abut 6 feet. I chased on the downhill, but the support cars came around me. Way too soon. I basically chased, and chased, knowing that it would ease up. Then someone crashed. I managed to get back on. Last time up I decieded all or nothing and went to the big ring and hammered over the top. It was soooo fast. I was dying. I hurting like a Biotch the whole time. We rolled over the top and I was in the hurt locker, but hung tough, then on the last corner before the start finish straight that was it. I and about 15 others missed the boat for the final sprint. It split and I could not shut down the gap. There are a few small rises and just road it in and watched the other guys sprinting. I was happy with it. Awesome race to do!
What else? someone told me tht they thought that Wille Mitchell of the Canucks was a head hunter for a questionable hit, so I wonder if they would be so liberal with Pronger? What an idiot. That was dirty. Not only dirty, but dirty with intent. that guy may be the best player on his team, but not in the press box he is not.
May be going back to the mother land, no not winnipeg ( that is later in the year), but to the Mrs homeland, Croatia.
Lot of talk about the Test of Metal at the race today. Not a lot of it positive. Todays race brings in a big amount of money and gives it all away. People are starting to think that the TOM organizers need to give some cash money back to the cause, not just volunteers doing trail maint. Not sure I agree. Some people think that given it's size that maybe you need to have time to qualify, sort of like the Boston Marathon. I think people hate the sign up process. It could use some work.
Okay, I have to go look for flights! 3 months to cross!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What else? someone told me tht they thought that Wille Mitchell of the Canucks was a head hunter for a questionable hit, so I wonder if they would be so liberal with Pronger? What an idiot. That was dirty. Not only dirty, but dirty with intent. that guy may be the best player on his team, but not in the press box he is not.
May be going back to the mother land, no not winnipeg ( that is later in the year), but to the Mrs homeland, Croatia.
Lot of talk about the Test of Metal at the race today. Not a lot of it positive. Todays race brings in a big amount of money and gives it all away. People are starting to think that the TOM organizers need to give some cash money back to the cause, not just volunteers doing trail maint. Not sure I agree. Some people think that given it's size that maybe you need to have time to qualify, sort of like the Boston Marathon. I think people hate the sign up process. It could use some work.
Okay, I have to go look for flights! 3 months to cross!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Monday, May 28, 2007
SFU hill repeats
Well, that could not have gone any worse that is for sure. I got slapped around pretty good. The race basically started at the bottom of SFU and then climbed 2 k to the top and then repeat 15 times. There was almost no flat, just climbing or descending. Not really my thing, but felt that I should be there until close to the end. Well, I could not have been more wrong. We hit the climb the first time up and I was fine, but I dropped my chain. By the time I got it back on I had to make a big effort to get to the back of the pack. I got there, rolled over the top and just felt bad. My lungs were fine, but my legs were awful. It was only about 9 degrees and my legs felt cold and tight. I did not really warm up well and the staging to start took a long time not helping matters. By about 4 laps of 15 I was going to get bounced, I could tell by the other lads coming off the back. Then 5th time up someone let a gap go and I could do nothing, but ride my own pace. That is racing. Raced a whole 1:35. Terrible. 55.00 for that? I should have been a lot better, but if I have an excuse it is that I have not done a real race for a bit. When you are trying to get by on minimum training, you need to be racing a bit more. I have had a 3 or 4 week break. That is too long. Also, it may be time to pick my spots a bit better and not enter courses of this style. Straight up and straight down with no flats probably is going to be tough for me to do well at with the hours I ride. Ah, that is an excuse and nothing else. I just stunk it up bad and I am a bit embarrassed by it. i have a race this weekend and hope to do a bit better. From there it is the Test of Metal MTB race and then a holiday of sorts and after that start ramping it up for some cross racing. That is what it is all about for me. I see a lot of the guys I cross race against riding really well right now. I have to hope that they tail off a bit by year end. Having said that most of them can't bunny hop a curb, so that is a big help. If they figure out how to ride their bikes, I am screwed....
What else is going on? not too much. I had a coke for the first time since Palm Springs. It is nectar of the gods. Other than that I have been keeping it real by logging lots of park time with the Fashionista.
Hey! Anyone remember Kramer getting Jerry to pick up the Cubans for him, but it turns out that they are Dominicans? Then Kraemer dresses them up as Cubans and tries to sell them to Earl Hathaway. do you remember Earl Hathaway? He was the guy that Kraemer was betting arrivals with at the airport waiting for Jerry to come in from Ithaca. That is the genius of Seinfeld, how they subtly work people into the line up again and again!!!
Peace,
Spacious
What else is going on? not too much. I had a coke for the first time since Palm Springs. It is nectar of the gods. Other than that I have been keeping it real by logging lots of park time with the Fashionista.
Hey! Anyone remember Kramer getting Jerry to pick up the Cubans for him, but it turns out that they are Dominicans? Then Kraemer dresses them up as Cubans and tries to sell them to Earl Hathaway. do you remember Earl Hathaway? He was the guy that Kraemer was betting arrivals with at the airport waiting for Jerry to come in from Ithaca. That is the genius of Seinfeld, how they subtly work people into the line up again and again!!!
Peace,
Spacious
Friday, May 25, 2007
Test your Metal!!!!
I got into the TEST! So, I will be racing the Test of Metal in about 3 weeks time. I was thinking about just bagging it because i have some road races teed up before that, but now i think that I will just do the road races that will take me to the Test, which only leaves me with one weekend to ride my MTB prior to the race. Oh well, the first year that I did it, I rode it in 3:22 with a flat ( fast change though ) and had never seen the course, Ronsonic just emailed me what to expect. There are really only 2 technical downhill's, actually 3 if you count the ring creek rip. The plunge and one other one. Can't recall it's name, but it is short. The plunge is technical, but if you ran half of the plunge it might make a 2 minute difference in a 3.5 hour race. So, preriding will not be a luxury that I will have this year. Doing the road race out at SFU this Sunday, it should be interesting. It is a super short loop that you do 15 times with a 1.6km climb. I am hoping that it does not detonate in the first few laps as if it gets shattered to pieces early I may just pull the pin, especially if the forecast that is calling for rain is correct.
So, it appears that everyone on the old Team Telecom was doping. Big surprise there. Riis, Mr 64%! Ulrich! Now I am not sad about Zabel, but he rides with class so I would have liked to have believed that he was clean, but you would really have to be an idiot to think that in a nearly 20 year career that he did not dope. That may be pessimistic of me, but just look at the times. It was dirty and still is! One funny thing is, the doctors on the team admit to systematically doping the riders. They lose their jobs at the hospitals that they work at as a result. Riis says that he did it all on his own? I guess now that he is a team owner and DS he does not want people thinking that the DS are involved in the doping, namely his biggest rider Basso. Like he did not know Basso was doping? Come on. Annnnyways, they should strip Riis of his title, then who would it go to? Ulrich ( 2nd ) Virenque (3rd ) or Dufaulx (4th ) all of these guys have been busted in doping cases. Best to leave it with 64%. Should be interesting to see who comes out next week. Oh one other thing about Riis confession was that his wife and kids knew. How would they not I guess, but it still seems weird to me that your spouse would know you are shooting up for a bike race....let alone your kids.
What else....I am skinny now. i had been carrying a few extra lbs with me in spring. I am back to about 160 or below. Just being lazy and not watching portions. I was eating like I was riding 4 hours a day. Well, I ride 2 hours a day ( except weekends ) 4 days a week and that is mostly broken into 2 1 hour rides. So, I go in the habit of only eating small portions through out the day. nothing like a quarter of a bowl of cereal in the morning before leaving, half a muffin when I get to work, half of my lunch at 12:00,. then the other half at 2:00, half a Clif bar before I ride home, eat dinner then grapes while I watch TV.
Been doing the Tuesday night crits. They have been good. I have felt strong doing them, tried to make an escape this last Tuesday, but when you are going 40km plus it is pretty tough to sneak away. My ability to roll it near 50km is pretty limited. I guess I am not that strong after all.
The Fashionista has been waking up at like 5:50, that is not bad for me as I am an early riser. For her mother it is a bit more of a struggle. She is also an early riser since meeting me, but not that early 7 days a week.
I got a sad note from Millertime telling me that his mom has breast cancer. He put it best "it is like a kick in the head when you get the news". It is hard to know what to type, except to say that everyone over here on the left of the country is sending huge prayers her way. I will never forget the time we dropped Millertime off (loaded ) after a party in high school and he went to the wrong house and his mom having to corral him before going to the wrong house. God love our mothers!!!
So, it appears that everyone on the old Team Telecom was doping. Big surprise there. Riis, Mr 64%! Ulrich! Now I am not sad about Zabel, but he rides with class so I would have liked to have believed that he was clean, but you would really have to be an idiot to think that in a nearly 20 year career that he did not dope. That may be pessimistic of me, but just look at the times. It was dirty and still is! One funny thing is, the doctors on the team admit to systematically doping the riders. They lose their jobs at the hospitals that they work at as a result. Riis says that he did it all on his own? I guess now that he is a team owner and DS he does not want people thinking that the DS are involved in the doping, namely his biggest rider Basso. Like he did not know Basso was doping? Come on. Annnnyways, they should strip Riis of his title, then who would it go to? Ulrich ( 2nd ) Virenque (3rd ) or Dufaulx (4th ) all of these guys have been busted in doping cases. Best to leave it with 64%. Should be interesting to see who comes out next week. Oh one other thing about Riis confession was that his wife and kids knew. How would they not I guess, but it still seems weird to me that your spouse would know you are shooting up for a bike race....let alone your kids.
What else....I am skinny now. i had been carrying a few extra lbs with me in spring. I am back to about 160 or below. Just being lazy and not watching portions. I was eating like I was riding 4 hours a day. Well, I ride 2 hours a day ( except weekends ) 4 days a week and that is mostly broken into 2 1 hour rides. So, I go in the habit of only eating small portions through out the day. nothing like a quarter of a bowl of cereal in the morning before leaving, half a muffin when I get to work, half of my lunch at 12:00,. then the other half at 2:00, half a Clif bar before I ride home, eat dinner then grapes while I watch TV.
Been doing the Tuesday night crits. They have been good. I have felt strong doing them, tried to make an escape this last Tuesday, but when you are going 40km plus it is pretty tough to sneak away. My ability to roll it near 50km is pretty limited. I guess I am not that strong after all.
The Fashionista has been waking up at like 5:50, that is not bad for me as I am an early riser. For her mother it is a bit more of a struggle. She is also an early riser since meeting me, but not that early 7 days a week.
I got a sad note from Millertime telling me that his mom has breast cancer. He put it best "it is like a kick in the head when you get the news". It is hard to know what to type, except to say that everyone over here on the left of the country is sending huge prayers her way. I will never forget the time we dropped Millertime off (loaded ) after a party in high school and he went to the wrong house and his mom having to corral him before going to the wrong house. God love our mothers!!!
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Brillo
Okay, check this out http://robertogonzalesdebici.blogspot.com/ this is Enns Jr blog. It is pretty funny. I was re-reading over some of his old entries and he has one about me being in PS and having changed my work phone number to having given my number as the number to call if they did not want to leave a message. Classic, you call me and I tell you to call my number if you want to get in touch with someone.
Well, all the rats are coming out of the woodwork! Basso and Scarponi have admitted their roles in the doping affair. I can't believe they are being praised for these admissions. They had a year to come clean on their own and only when they were nailed to the wall did they do anything admirable. Then Basso comes out and says that he never doped in competition, but he had intended on doping in the 2007 Tour, therefore his previous results are legit? WHATEVER! why do they have records of you paying Fuentes in 05/06/07? Also, I love how all the teams claim they know nothing about this. Just hang the riders out there to die. Yeah, John and Bjarne know nothing about what is going on. Uhh yeah right. I saw another article that Basso's sister ( hot!) may be implicated in a drug ring involving some gyms in Italy. What next? Actually, I hope what next, is that Hamilton get his. there is no way that he can admit his involvement now, especially after his 2 yr fight trying to show that he was a twin in the womb. Double asshat. Valvadre is also being brought into the scandal. He should cop his plea as he is young, and 2 years with his kind of money he could just chill with hot Spanish women!!!
Okay, may have some more Willoy Jen stories. I emailed her to get her view on another dating fiasco. Will keep you posted. Haven't heard from Millertime in a bit. He must be out dropping his handicap. those Winnipeg ballers
Well, all the rats are coming out of the woodwork! Basso and Scarponi have admitted their roles in the doping affair. I can't believe they are being praised for these admissions. They had a year to come clean on their own and only when they were nailed to the wall did they do anything admirable. Then Basso comes out and says that he never doped in competition, but he had intended on doping in the 2007 Tour, therefore his previous results are legit? WHATEVER! why do they have records of you paying Fuentes in 05/06/07? Also, I love how all the teams claim they know nothing about this. Just hang the riders out there to die. Yeah, John and Bjarne know nothing about what is going on. Uhh yeah right. I saw another article that Basso's sister ( hot!) may be implicated in a drug ring involving some gyms in Italy. What next? Actually, I hope what next, is that Hamilton get his. there is no way that he can admit his involvement now, especially after his 2 yr fight trying to show that he was a twin in the womb. Double asshat. Valvadre is also being brought into the scandal. He should cop his plea as he is young, and 2 years with his kind of money he could just chill with hot Spanish women!!!
Okay, may have some more Willoy Jen stories. I emailed her to get her view on another dating fiasco. Will keep you posted. Haven't heard from Millertime in a bit. He must be out dropping his handicap. those Winnipeg ballers
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Livin' large!
So, went to Whistler on Friday night and Saturday. Mrs Space had a conference so we stayed at the Chateau Whistler. Actually, we got upgraded to the gold suites, so we kicked it like real ballers. That was the life. Your own check in, your own lounge, continental breakfast was unbelievable with a chef their to whip you up some waffles or omelette's. Good times! Talked to Enns Senior or Ronsonic as I like to think of him. He set me up with a couple of ride options for Saturday morning. I did the ride from Whistler to Pemberton and then out to Mt Currie to do some climbing. Those are some climbs. 20% at some point. I was slated for about 3.5 hours so I basically just rode out for 1:30 and then turned around. The whole time I rode to Pembi I was thinking this is the nicest ride I have done in a long time. Scenic, nice roads, everything about it was nice. I realized that on the way back it was like that because it was tailwind and downhill. Coming back was a grind. Mostly uphill and straight headwind. It was good, but it was blowing pretty damn hard. I rode about 100km. Can't complain. Did not go really hard, but on Sunday my legs seemed flat, so I figure that I must have went harder than I thought. After my ride on Sunday, me and the Fashionista went to Watermania! It is a wave pool with water slides. Good fun! The first time down the big slide I am not sure that she was loving it. Having lying on my back and rolling it on my heals and shoulder blades and my 2 year old on my chest may not have been the best thing for our first run. I thought I was going to lose her after a couple of corners. We both had no idea what to expect hitting water at the end. I just basically hold her up best I can. She has a life jacket on so she basically goes under then pops back up. She had a blast!! Got home, cracked a few beer and watched the Nucks be horrible on the power play. Have to give them credit, no one gave them a hope. I think the reason is that they get compared to the flames a lot. The Flames are better on paper, but don't play a team defence game. Kipper was amazing, but that D was a joke. They let through 300 shots in 5 games? I doubt Phaneuf liked it when Rhudy called him on being a pussy when he got in a scrum. Put a glove in his face and he runs away. Having said that, after those comments, he did not really change much. The Canucks are going to be in tough against the Ducks for the series win and if they go down 2 games tonight they will almost be out of it. They need to be better on the PP, but their PK looks terrible. Anaheim dumps the puck out at will on the PK, Vancouver? They get hemmed in every time. If their PK is better they win the last game even without scoring on the PP. After the game i had the bad gut. Pissing from my ass so to speak. i think I drank from a grungy bottle on the weekend. It was rough.
OK, that reminds me of a story that Willowy Jen once told me. She, goes on a date with this guy, this was about 10-12 years ago. Well they are at his place ( second date I think ), well he excuses himself after dinner to go to the washroom. So, the guy lives in a small apartment, and he goes and starts dropping a bomb in the crapper. I mean a full load, with explosions and the whole thing! Lets just say that he was not getting anything that night. Her telling me about it later was just soooo classic. Kind of hedging on the description.
That is about it for me. Basso quit Discovery, what a shame. Asshat! Hamilton too. Tells a reporter from Velonews that you can take my hair anytime you want. Yeah, lets see if that is his answer now that they have bags of his blood and are looking fro DNA. Floyd too, go away. Just say you got caught up in something that was wide spread and you regret it. People will forgive you. There is NO grand conspiracy everyone. Just like when they tested the 1999 tour B samples. There were 3 riders that had been found to have EPO in their samples. LA, Beltran and Hamburger. Someone needs to explain to me if they are trying to rail road LA then why add Triki and Hamburger into the mix. To make it look good? LA never address that. It is " the French are out to get me"?
OK, that reminds me of a story that Willowy Jen once told me. She, goes on a date with this guy, this was about 10-12 years ago. Well they are at his place ( second date I think ), well he excuses himself after dinner to go to the washroom. So, the guy lives in a small apartment, and he goes and starts dropping a bomb in the crapper. I mean a full load, with explosions and the whole thing! Lets just say that he was not getting anything that night. Her telling me about it later was just soooo classic. Kind of hedging on the description.
That is about it for me. Basso quit Discovery, what a shame. Asshat! Hamilton too. Tells a reporter from Velonews that you can take my hair anytime you want. Yeah, lets see if that is his answer now that they have bags of his blood and are looking fro DNA. Floyd too, go away. Just say you got caught up in something that was wide spread and you regret it. People will forgive you. There is NO grand conspiracy everyone. Just like when they tested the 1999 tour B samples. There were 3 riders that had been found to have EPO in their samples. LA, Beltran and Hamburger. Someone needs to explain to me if they are trying to rail road LA then why add Triki and Hamburger into the mix. To make it look good? LA never address that. It is " the French are out to get me"?
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Boston Marathon
I just got this update from Willowie Jen! She just ran her first Boston Marathon. 2 kids, and a high maintance husband ( kidding buddy ) and she tapped out a 3:35. We are all inspired in different ways from different things. This for me is one of them. In cycling I do it on a shoe string time budget and I am not the most talented guy, but I do work as hard as I can. This update goes to point out that goals can be met if we want them bad enough. It also goes to prove that the adversity of the situation is what makes it worth while. I said this in a previous update; she is not someone with a really athletic background, but obviously has some talent, but really, did the hard work that needs to come to meet goals. Rawlie on the other hand, well he is upset that he did not go under 3 hours. I feel for you my friend. Next time! That is the good thing about Rawlie, you know he has his calander out with a date checked off to go out and run a 2:55, it is the engineer in him.
Here is the update:
We just got back from Boston late last week and we had a great time. I wanted to share my experience with you. The “Coles” notes are that it was cold, rainy and I didn’t win (ha,ha). But it was awesome and if you would like to know more then read on……….
The lead up to the race was daunting. Nerves and a terrible weather forecast of cold, rainy and windy conditions. A storm was brewing on the East Coast and they were forecasting that it would hit on Marathon Monday. It was predicted that Eastern winds (in the face of the race participants) would gust up to 50 miles per hour and heavy rain was to fall all day.
I continued to be hopeful that it would not be as bad as they said. My plan was to dress as best as I could and keep my running goal intact. I was not going to let the weather conditions defeat me before the race had even started.
“When a lion is chasing an antelope, he doesn’t look back. He has to eat.”
Robert Cheruiyot, 2007, 2006 & 2003 Boston Marathon winner
Monday, April 16, 2007
Race Day……
We were up and out the door by 7:00 am. Pouring rain and gusting winds greeted us when we stepped out of our rented Brownstone. We had to walk about 12 blocks to get to Boston Common Park to catch the buses that take you to the Hopkinton Town start line. We were soaked within 5 minutes. It was horrible.
When we arrived at the park, the line-ups to load the buses were longer than the line-ups at Disneyland but not as much fun. We waited. And the rain kept coming down. In an attempt to stay dry, we put on our outrageously fashionable black garbage bags. And we waited. After an hour, we finally loaded on to the last caravan of buses. I was stressed and anxious to get to the start line.
The bus ride to Hopkinton was warm but long. The length of the ride made you realize that the start line was far AND that you had to run back into town. After 50 minutes, we finally got to the Athletes’ Village at Hopkinton School. It was still cold and pissing rain. The atmosphere was frenzied as the first wave of runners (10:00 am start) were frantically shedding clothes and making their way to the start line.
Like everyone else, I looked for some sort of refuge from the rain. I set up underneath a Genie haudralic lift machine; I sat down, tried to stay warm, shivered and waited. Unfortunately, I sat a little too long. When I realized that it was 10:20 am, I had missed the PA announcement for my seeding corral. I dropped off my bag and joined the masses that were congregating towards the start line. I did not realize that you had to walk at least ½ km from the school to the start line. I was worried I wasn’t going to make it to my corral (corral 16) before the start of the race.
The way to the start line was total carnage. Thousands of people filled every space and walked slowly up the street. Clothing was strewn about everywhere – garbage bags, wind breakers, old sweatshirts, mitts, toques, old running shoes (some of us were smart enough to think of bringing a dry pair of runners to change into just prior to the start of the race) and plastic bags – just randomly discarded. It looked like a garbage dump or a war zone. I trudged along with everyone else – with plastic garbage bags around my upper body and legs and plastic bags covering my runners. Until, I heard that the race was to start in 4 minutes and I was no where near the 16th Corral. At that point, I stripped off all my plastic and ducked in between the metal gates separating the road and the sidewalk. And, I started to run until I got to the my corral. Within seconds of arriving at Corral 16, the race gun went off and the announcer declared the start of the second wave of the race at 10:30 am. And just as the race began, the rain ceased. It still took about 15 minutes before I crossed the official start line and then I was off.
The first mile was insane. Runners everywhere. Barely any room to move other than slightly forward. Imagine rush hour traffic on the 401 but substitute people for cars. Multi-coloured runners flowed through the town and could be seen for miles ahead. It felt like the road was a conveyor belt of people. The mass of runners created barriers to passing. I tried my best to pass but it seemed pointless. The first mile went by so fast but it was slow. I checked my watch and I had done a 8:34 mile when I needed a 7:57 (given the downward slope). I quickly started to doubt my chances of achieving my goal of 3 hours and 35 minutes.
With the positive change in the weather conditions, I quickly became overheated. I then started my wardrobe adjustments - while still continuing to run. So, I undid 2 of the pins of my number bib so that I could unzip my jacket. I then placed my jacket around my waist. Then off came my fleece-lined running hoody and tied it around my waist. I then undid my jacket from my waist and got the bib number off of it. With the bib number clenched in my teeth, I re-tied the jacket around my waist. Then, I re-pinned my number to my short-sleeved running shirt – All of this while still running. I really could have used some Velcro clothing! Somehow I recorded a 2nd mile pace of 8:21. But this was still slower than the 8:06 that I needed and I was now almost a minute behind my goal.
In mile 3, I managed to gain some time back. And, finally by mile 4 there was a bit more room on the road. While there were still hundreds of runners, it was more manageable and a little easier to get around the people ahead of me. I started to settle into my pace and put down consecutive miles that were faster than my required pace. All the while, I weaved in and out of runners – passing what seemed like thousands of people.
A race inside of the race were the Aid Stations. To prevent collisions, water and Gatorade were available immediately after each mile marker and on both sides of the road. But it didn’t matter; the Aid Stations were total chaos and required a whole other set of survival skills. I should have chosen a side and hit the same side at each mile but I wasn’t that swift. I zig-zagged all day.
Miles 5 – 7 were all about making up time and I picked away at my time deficit. At around mile 7, the wind started to gust and it began to rain. On came my beloved hoody again. But this time, I didn’t have the patience to mess around with my number bib.
I lost a bit of time at mile 8 where I had to jump into the bushes and take care of my bladder. Some runners have no shame – I am one of them. Back on the road, I wheeled my time back in and I continued to pass people. I was feeling pretty good. At mile 12, I hit Wellesley College where the "scream tunnel" of raving female college students could be heard for blocks. From a distance it sounded like the thunder of Niagara Falls. Signs like "kiss a girl/boy" may have tempted a few runners to slow down, but for the most part everybody smiled, high fived and kept moving on. Because of the weather, the notorious Boston crowds were probably half the size of other years. But, the girls at Wellesley lived up to their reputation. They were awesome. Just after Wellesley, at mile 13, I had gained back all of my lost time. I was back on track and feeling amazing. After the ½ way point, my mile splits became insanely consistent - 8:03, 8:06, 8:05, - and I passed a tonne of people. But the steepest of hills was yet to come.
Mile 20...the dreaded Heartbreak Hill. It’s one of those hills that creeps up slowly and never allows you to see the top until you've been working at it for over a mile. I had heard lots about it and I was scared of it. So, when I hit the hill, I put my head down and tried not to look ahead. Two feet in front was all I needed to focus on. Half way up the hill, a young male runner passed me holding a good clip. So, I tagged on to him and let him help me up the hill. I imagined that there was a rope connecting us at the waist and pretended that he was pulling me up the hill. In my head I thanked him. I worked hard at Heartbreak Hill (and all the Newton hills) but they were less crippling than I had expected. I did however, lose more time on the hills than I should have- putting my time goal in jeopardy. But, I was still pacing to achieve a PR (personal record). And that felt good.
The last six miles cruised by like a dream. My visual memory is a blur but I can clearly remember hearing the crowds cheering as I approached downtown Boston towards the Finish Line. By Mile 24, I was anxious to be done but I still plugged away holding my mile splits. When I rounded the last corner I felt amazement and pain. The spectacular Finish Line stood proud but it was still ½ km away. I tried to surge down the straightaway but I mostly held steady and listened to the crowds. I happily crossed the finish line at 3:36:16. A PR and a 2008 Boston Qualifying time! One minute slower than my goal but I was still thrilled.
Boston was an amazing experience and I am glad that I had the opportunity to participate. A big thank you to my Coach - “Coach Ryan” for spoon-feeding me my work-outs and for his endless patience and support. Also, a big thanks to the Super Nanny: Grandma June and her support crew for looking after the little bears so that Mamma & Pappa Bear could run Boston!
Cheers,
Jen
Here is the update:
We just got back from Boston late last week and we had a great time. I wanted to share my experience with you. The “Coles” notes are that it was cold, rainy and I didn’t win (ha,ha). But it was awesome and if you would like to know more then read on……….
The lead up to the race was daunting. Nerves and a terrible weather forecast of cold, rainy and windy conditions. A storm was brewing on the East Coast and they were forecasting that it would hit on Marathon Monday. It was predicted that Eastern winds (in the face of the race participants) would gust up to 50 miles per hour and heavy rain was to fall all day.
I continued to be hopeful that it would not be as bad as they said. My plan was to dress as best as I could and keep my running goal intact. I was not going to let the weather conditions defeat me before the race had even started.
“When a lion is chasing an antelope, he doesn’t look back. He has to eat.”
Robert Cheruiyot, 2007, 2006 & 2003 Boston Marathon winner
Monday, April 16, 2007
Race Day……
We were up and out the door by 7:00 am. Pouring rain and gusting winds greeted us when we stepped out of our rented Brownstone. We had to walk about 12 blocks to get to Boston Common Park to catch the buses that take you to the Hopkinton Town start line. We were soaked within 5 minutes. It was horrible.
When we arrived at the park, the line-ups to load the buses were longer than the line-ups at Disneyland but not as much fun. We waited. And the rain kept coming down. In an attempt to stay dry, we put on our outrageously fashionable black garbage bags. And we waited. After an hour, we finally loaded on to the last caravan of buses. I was stressed and anxious to get to the start line.
The bus ride to Hopkinton was warm but long. The length of the ride made you realize that the start line was far AND that you had to run back into town. After 50 minutes, we finally got to the Athletes’ Village at Hopkinton School. It was still cold and pissing rain. The atmosphere was frenzied as the first wave of runners (10:00 am start) were frantically shedding clothes and making their way to the start line.
Like everyone else, I looked for some sort of refuge from the rain. I set up underneath a Genie haudralic lift machine; I sat down, tried to stay warm, shivered and waited. Unfortunately, I sat a little too long. When I realized that it was 10:20 am, I had missed the PA announcement for my seeding corral. I dropped off my bag and joined the masses that were congregating towards the start line. I did not realize that you had to walk at least ½ km from the school to the start line. I was worried I wasn’t going to make it to my corral (corral 16) before the start of the race.
The way to the start line was total carnage. Thousands of people filled every space and walked slowly up the street. Clothing was strewn about everywhere – garbage bags, wind breakers, old sweatshirts, mitts, toques, old running shoes (some of us were smart enough to think of bringing a dry pair of runners to change into just prior to the start of the race) and plastic bags – just randomly discarded. It looked like a garbage dump or a war zone. I trudged along with everyone else – with plastic garbage bags around my upper body and legs and plastic bags covering my runners. Until, I heard that the race was to start in 4 minutes and I was no where near the 16th Corral. At that point, I stripped off all my plastic and ducked in between the metal gates separating the road and the sidewalk. And, I started to run until I got to the my corral. Within seconds of arriving at Corral 16, the race gun went off and the announcer declared the start of the second wave of the race at 10:30 am. And just as the race began, the rain ceased. It still took about 15 minutes before I crossed the official start line and then I was off.
The first mile was insane. Runners everywhere. Barely any room to move other than slightly forward. Imagine rush hour traffic on the 401 but substitute people for cars. Multi-coloured runners flowed through the town and could be seen for miles ahead. It felt like the road was a conveyor belt of people. The mass of runners created barriers to passing. I tried my best to pass but it seemed pointless. The first mile went by so fast but it was slow. I checked my watch and I had done a 8:34 mile when I needed a 7:57 (given the downward slope). I quickly started to doubt my chances of achieving my goal of 3 hours and 35 minutes.
With the positive change in the weather conditions, I quickly became overheated. I then started my wardrobe adjustments - while still continuing to run. So, I undid 2 of the pins of my number bib so that I could unzip my jacket. I then placed my jacket around my waist. Then off came my fleece-lined running hoody and tied it around my waist. I then undid my jacket from my waist and got the bib number off of it. With the bib number clenched in my teeth, I re-tied the jacket around my waist. Then, I re-pinned my number to my short-sleeved running shirt – All of this while still running. I really could have used some Velcro clothing! Somehow I recorded a 2nd mile pace of 8:21. But this was still slower than the 8:06 that I needed and I was now almost a minute behind my goal.
In mile 3, I managed to gain some time back. And, finally by mile 4 there was a bit more room on the road. While there were still hundreds of runners, it was more manageable and a little easier to get around the people ahead of me. I started to settle into my pace and put down consecutive miles that were faster than my required pace. All the while, I weaved in and out of runners – passing what seemed like thousands of people.
A race inside of the race were the Aid Stations. To prevent collisions, water and Gatorade were available immediately after each mile marker and on both sides of the road. But it didn’t matter; the Aid Stations were total chaos and required a whole other set of survival skills. I should have chosen a side and hit the same side at each mile but I wasn’t that swift. I zig-zagged all day.
Miles 5 – 7 were all about making up time and I picked away at my time deficit. At around mile 7, the wind started to gust and it began to rain. On came my beloved hoody again. But this time, I didn’t have the patience to mess around with my number bib.
I lost a bit of time at mile 8 where I had to jump into the bushes and take care of my bladder. Some runners have no shame – I am one of them. Back on the road, I wheeled my time back in and I continued to pass people. I was feeling pretty good. At mile 12, I hit Wellesley College where the "scream tunnel" of raving female college students could be heard for blocks. From a distance it sounded like the thunder of Niagara Falls. Signs like "kiss a girl/boy" may have tempted a few runners to slow down, but for the most part everybody smiled, high fived and kept moving on. Because of the weather, the notorious Boston crowds were probably half the size of other years. But, the girls at Wellesley lived up to their reputation. They were awesome. Just after Wellesley, at mile 13, I had gained back all of my lost time. I was back on track and feeling amazing. After the ½ way point, my mile splits became insanely consistent - 8:03, 8:06, 8:05, - and I passed a tonne of people. But the steepest of hills was yet to come.
Mile 20...the dreaded Heartbreak Hill. It’s one of those hills that creeps up slowly and never allows you to see the top until you've been working at it for over a mile. I had heard lots about it and I was scared of it. So, when I hit the hill, I put my head down and tried not to look ahead. Two feet in front was all I needed to focus on. Half way up the hill, a young male runner passed me holding a good clip. So, I tagged on to him and let him help me up the hill. I imagined that there was a rope connecting us at the waist and pretended that he was pulling me up the hill. In my head I thanked him. I worked hard at Heartbreak Hill (and all the Newton hills) but they were less crippling than I had expected. I did however, lose more time on the hills than I should have- putting my time goal in jeopardy. But, I was still pacing to achieve a PR (personal record). And that felt good.
The last six miles cruised by like a dream. My visual memory is a blur but I can clearly remember hearing the crowds cheering as I approached downtown Boston towards the Finish Line. By Mile 24, I was anxious to be done but I still plugged away holding my mile splits. When I rounded the last corner I felt amazement and pain. The spectacular Finish Line stood proud but it was still ½ km away. I tried to surge down the straightaway but I mostly held steady and listened to the crowds. I happily crossed the finish line at 3:36:16. A PR and a 2008 Boston Qualifying time! One minute slower than my goal but I was still thrilled.
Boston was an amazing experience and I am glad that I had the opportunity to participate. A big thank you to my Coach - “Coach Ryan” for spoon-feeding me my work-outs and for his endless patience and support. Also, a big thanks to the Super Nanny: Grandma June and her support crew for looking after the little bears so that Mamma & Pappa Bear could run Boston!
Cheers,
Jen
Monday, April 23, 2007
Epic blogging
Okay, I have not updated this thing forever. Sorry about that. A lot has happened since my last update. Went to Palm Springs with the Schlebierds. good times had by most. I only say by most, because the girls complained about how it was the guys vacation given that we got up at 6:00 am most days and went riding. Trust me that they got in a lot of vacation time as well. Got in a fair amount of riding while there. Did about 850k in 8 days of riding. For me it will never get much better than that. Did not do anything too epic, but did manage to hit most of the group rides down there. I like how they have the rides organized down there. It is a good set up, and everyone is welcome to come and puke their guts out while the locals ride you into the ground. It was over 80 every single day. Not sure I would want to be from there, but I sure like visiting there!
Done a couple of races recently! I went out and did the first BC cup of the season. It is called Harris Roubaix. It is run on the same day as the infamous Paris Roubaix in France/Belgium. about 1/3 of the race is run on gravel roads. I almost did not do the race, because I talked to this guy ( who is strong ) and said the thing is a disaster. He did not like the way that you entered the gravel sections, becasue the riders have to squeeze thourgh the posts to get onto the dyke. 60 guys into that small of an area is tight. So either be on the front or be patient and be prepared to accelerate. It was fast the first 2 laps. Guys were getting flicked on the gravel road like crazy. There are 2 8 inch areas to ride on and in between there is loose gravel. There are 2 sections were you hit some deep gravel, but if you have good handeling skills non of this should be an issue. Race went pretty much to plan. I rode mid pack not trying to burn too many matches and be attentive on the gravel sections. We were drilling the gravel at 45 km most times which, even though dead flat is still hard. i had to fill in some good gaps because guys would just give up teh ghost or lose concentration and hit the ditch. Pretty funny actually. So with 2 to go and half the pack gone we are just cruising on the pavement and there is a huge wreck. It was near the front and probably the result of everyone knowing that this thing was coming down to a "kick" to the finish. Well bikes are in the air and I am drinking my bottle. The wave just keeps moving further right as guys go down and I hit the grass/ditch. I managed to ride out but was in a big gear and was basically track standing. BTW I had my bottle in my teeth the whole time. Well ths split the group and, the group that go through laid the smack down. I hooked up with 3 other guys and we tapped it out to get back on. Well, we never really got back on. We chased for a lap, and a bit and as they eased knowing the sprint was coming we just tagged on the back and then it went for the sprint and that was all she wrote. I was screwed. I worked harder chasing for one lap than I did racing for 7 laps. Still I was pretty happy with it all. I managed to get in a good workout and avoid falling. I was exhausted the next day. The race was only 2 hours 15 min and it felt like 4 hours.
This past weekend I did a Masters series race. It is an Australian pursuit. So what happens is the race is handicapped. They send the 70+ guys out first and then 3 minutes later they send the 60+, then 5 minutes later the 40+, then 2 minutes later the 30+ guys go. The idea is to win the whole thing, not just your age. That means the 30 year guys have to bridge the gap to the 40 year olds etc. Well the 40 and 50 year olds had big packs relative to the 30 year olds and their deck was pretty stacked. The 30 year olds had half the numbers and half the horsepower. The 50 year olds looked good too. So from the start the speeds are over 45 km/hr and to me were not ging to sustainable with the number of guys that we had. Only half the guys were pulling through. It was not going to last and we were not catching the 40 or 50 year old guys. they were too big going too fast. The split was growing over the first 2 laps. Well, once we have determined that the race is not going to be fought for the overall it turned to the age groups. They break the 30-35 out for wins and point and the 35-39 out. Same applies for all the other groups. The 30 yr old dudes start attacking one another.. I want no part of this, so I just sit tight. Well it is carnage. I have to deceide do I want to fight it out with these guys and be assured of a win, by virtue of staying with them or race with the guys that are in my age group? Given that I rode for 3 plus hours the day before i opted for latter given that I was riding well, but not out of my socks. I would have had to dug deep to stay with the under 35 cat 1 guys and I may have been in their way. Actually one of the 30 year olds made my mind for me when he let a gap go and I( or anyone else )never filled it in. after he pulled out of the race that was it, 8 35-39 year old guys. I start to pull pretty hard as at first I thought we should make contact back with the group in front of us. Guys are coming around but it is really disorganized. We lose guys and it ends up being 3 of us for 4 laps. As we are rolling it I try to encourage one of the guys to roll through properly. He GIVES it to me. He tells me that he and his buddy are not going to do this becasue it is too hard. He says that if i want to ride like that then go ride ahead by yourself. Ride like that? You mean the way you should ride? Asshole! i tell them that it is easier than taking 4 minute pulls, that if you come through short and snappy things roll better and you don't burn as many matches. So, basically I am racing against two guys who are riding together against me. I would take pulls and then they would attack me. JIT's, I was getting pissed off. We needed to keep it smooth, becasue given the size of some of the other groups and the handicap we could get lapped. I am pretty much driving this thing, but eventually i just sit on. For about a lap. These 2 guys try again and again to drop me. Nothing though. The problem is that they wanted to shake me, but not bad enough to want to sacrafice for the other. so the tactic becomes simple, do nothing. So, everytime they attacked I would not respond. I let the other guy chase down his buddy. I was prepared to give the attacker a lot of rope being fairily confident I could bring him back. They kept trying, and I kept on taking my free ride back up to the attacker. I noticed that on one corner I had a gap so I drilled it. Still 3 to go and I was gone. I had about 20 seconds right away, and expanded it to about 35 seconds pretty quick. They were trying to bridge but they were not getting me back. 3 to go was a long way given how hilly and how much wind there was, but I was confident I would find someone to ride with. We come to another corner and there is a back up of cars. the sign person is waiving them to go through but they are at a standstill causing a back up of cars. I could not get through the intersection and take the corner. I lost my gap. Basically, they started hitting me all the time. Still nothing though. I am guessing the one guy is an average cat4 and the other a strong 4 or weak cat 3. they had 0 tactical sense. So part way through two to go, I drill a conrner and one of the guys comes with me. That is it. The other guys is gone. Now this guy wants to tap it out. His buddy who yelled at me is chasing, but it is over. I attack over some small hills and increase the gap. I am doing most of the work and not shaking my companion. We trade pulls for while and at one point he tells me he really wants to beat his buddy! Maybe they were attacking each other all race? we agreed to work up the big climb and then sort it out with 1 km to go. I could have popped him on the climb, he was struggling a bit, but I made a deal. We hit 200 m to go and he winds it up, but I am on his wheel and then I saw him shift up, that was it, I came around and "showed him a clean set of wheels" ( been saving that saying for about 15 years)for the V! Everyone was yelling for me to raise my arms, but I just did a very very small lift of my arms from the bars. Until that moment I had no idea whether I had won or not. That guys buddy came in a few minutes later. I rode about 5.5 hours for the weekend but they were not easy miles. Saturday I did a hard rolling ride not sure I was even going to ride, let alone race on sunday. So all in all I did pretty well. I did not conquer a huge strong group, but it is nice to "open up the account" once every ten years.
I saw this girl with a huge rack walking over the Burrard St bridge. I just about lost it into the railing. Remindes me of the Seinfeld were the chick is not wearing a bra and the get Jackie Childs involved.
Done a couple of races recently! I went out and did the first BC cup of the season. It is called Harris Roubaix. It is run on the same day as the infamous Paris Roubaix in France/Belgium. about 1/3 of the race is run on gravel roads. I almost did not do the race, because I talked to this guy ( who is strong ) and said the thing is a disaster. He did not like the way that you entered the gravel sections, becasue the riders have to squeeze thourgh the posts to get onto the dyke. 60 guys into that small of an area is tight. So either be on the front or be patient and be prepared to accelerate. It was fast the first 2 laps. Guys were getting flicked on the gravel road like crazy. There are 2 8 inch areas to ride on and in between there is loose gravel. There are 2 sections were you hit some deep gravel, but if you have good handeling skills non of this should be an issue. Race went pretty much to plan. I rode mid pack not trying to burn too many matches and be attentive on the gravel sections. We were drilling the gravel at 45 km most times which, even though dead flat is still hard. i had to fill in some good gaps because guys would just give up teh ghost or lose concentration and hit the ditch. Pretty funny actually. So with 2 to go and half the pack gone we are just cruising on the pavement and there is a huge wreck. It was near the front and probably the result of everyone knowing that this thing was coming down to a "kick" to the finish. Well bikes are in the air and I am drinking my bottle. The wave just keeps moving further right as guys go down and I hit the grass/ditch. I managed to ride out but was in a big gear and was basically track standing. BTW I had my bottle in my teeth the whole time. Well ths split the group and, the group that go through laid the smack down. I hooked up with 3 other guys and we tapped it out to get back on. Well, we never really got back on. We chased for a lap, and a bit and as they eased knowing the sprint was coming we just tagged on the back and then it went for the sprint and that was all she wrote. I was screwed. I worked harder chasing for one lap than I did racing for 7 laps. Still I was pretty happy with it all. I managed to get in a good workout and avoid falling. I was exhausted the next day. The race was only 2 hours 15 min and it felt like 4 hours.
This past weekend I did a Masters series race. It is an Australian pursuit. So what happens is the race is handicapped. They send the 70+ guys out first and then 3 minutes later they send the 60+, then 5 minutes later the 40+, then 2 minutes later the 30+ guys go. The idea is to win the whole thing, not just your age. That means the 30 year guys have to bridge the gap to the 40 year olds etc. Well the 40 and 50 year olds had big packs relative to the 30 year olds and their deck was pretty stacked. The 30 year olds had half the numbers and half the horsepower. The 50 year olds looked good too. So from the start the speeds are over 45 km/hr and to me were not ging to sustainable with the number of guys that we had. Only half the guys were pulling through. It was not going to last and we were not catching the 40 or 50 year old guys. they were too big going too fast. The split was growing over the first 2 laps. Well, once we have determined that the race is not going to be fought for the overall it turned to the age groups. They break the 30-35 out for wins and point and the 35-39 out. Same applies for all the other groups. The 30 yr old dudes start attacking one another.. I want no part of this, so I just sit tight. Well it is carnage. I have to deceide do I want to fight it out with these guys and be assured of a win, by virtue of staying with them or race with the guys that are in my age group? Given that I rode for 3 plus hours the day before i opted for latter given that I was riding well, but not out of my socks. I would have had to dug deep to stay with the under 35 cat 1 guys and I may have been in their way. Actually one of the 30 year olds made my mind for me when he let a gap go and I( or anyone else )never filled it in. after he pulled out of the race that was it, 8 35-39 year old guys. I start to pull pretty hard as at first I thought we should make contact back with the group in front of us. Guys are coming around but it is really disorganized. We lose guys and it ends up being 3 of us for 4 laps. As we are rolling it I try to encourage one of the guys to roll through properly. He GIVES it to me. He tells me that he and his buddy are not going to do this becasue it is too hard. He says that if i want to ride like that then go ride ahead by yourself. Ride like that? You mean the way you should ride? Asshole! i tell them that it is easier than taking 4 minute pulls, that if you come through short and snappy things roll better and you don't burn as many matches. So, basically I am racing against two guys who are riding together against me. I would take pulls and then they would attack me. JIT's, I was getting pissed off. We needed to keep it smooth, becasue given the size of some of the other groups and the handicap we could get lapped. I am pretty much driving this thing, but eventually i just sit on. For about a lap. These 2 guys try again and again to drop me. Nothing though. The problem is that they wanted to shake me, but not bad enough to want to sacrafice for the other. so the tactic becomes simple, do nothing. So, everytime they attacked I would not respond. I let the other guy chase down his buddy. I was prepared to give the attacker a lot of rope being fairily confident I could bring him back. They kept trying, and I kept on taking my free ride back up to the attacker. I noticed that on one corner I had a gap so I drilled it. Still 3 to go and I was gone. I had about 20 seconds right away, and expanded it to about 35 seconds pretty quick. They were trying to bridge but they were not getting me back. 3 to go was a long way given how hilly and how much wind there was, but I was confident I would find someone to ride with. We come to another corner and there is a back up of cars. the sign person is waiving them to go through but they are at a standstill causing a back up of cars. I could not get through the intersection and take the corner. I lost my gap. Basically, they started hitting me all the time. Still nothing though. I am guessing the one guy is an average cat4 and the other a strong 4 or weak cat 3. they had 0 tactical sense. So part way through two to go, I drill a conrner and one of the guys comes with me. That is it. The other guys is gone. Now this guy wants to tap it out. His buddy who yelled at me is chasing, but it is over. I attack over some small hills and increase the gap. I am doing most of the work and not shaking my companion. We trade pulls for while and at one point he tells me he really wants to beat his buddy! Maybe they were attacking each other all race? we agreed to work up the big climb and then sort it out with 1 km to go. I could have popped him on the climb, he was struggling a bit, but I made a deal. We hit 200 m to go and he winds it up, but I am on his wheel and then I saw him shift up, that was it, I came around and "showed him a clean set of wheels" ( been saving that saying for about 15 years)for the V! Everyone was yelling for me to raise my arms, but I just did a very very small lift of my arms from the bars. Until that moment I had no idea whether I had won or not. That guys buddy came in a few minutes later. I rode about 5.5 hours for the weekend but they were not easy miles. Saturday I did a hard rolling ride not sure I was even going to ride, let alone race on sunday. So all in all I did pretty well. I did not conquer a huge strong group, but it is nice to "open up the account" once every ten years.
I saw this girl with a huge rack walking over the Burrard St bridge. I just about lost it into the railing. Remindes me of the Seinfeld were the chick is not wearing a bra and the get Jackie Childs involved.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Hurting
Well, went and did my last spring series race. Today's race was the Bradner course. It is selective. It has tons of hard rollers. It is constantly up and down. I have been suffering with a slight head cold so I was not sure of how I would do. Right when I got on my bike I knew that I would have some legs.
We basically rolled out with about 80-100 guys. Nice weather, 10 degrees overcast. The race was pretty standard for the first few laps. The first real selection was when we caught the A race. I guess they were riding "piano", so we caught them with at about 2 laps in. When we went by it was a bit of a cluster, I was mid towards the back of the group. Well 150 riders trying to ride on one side of the road made it hectic. They are supposed to neutralize and they did, but it was wierd. I was not dying to muscle one of these guys to get by faster. So I notice that our group has split and half the group is by the A group and starting to role it. I had to just about die to get across to the main group. It hurt but I was still withing myself, so that is a good thing. Eventually the bergs " Alex Berg" ( does anyone get these references? Millertime does, he loved the Jackie Childs " balm " shtick.
Anyway, back to the bergs. Guys were getting popped 2-3 at a time per lap. Next thing you know it is the last lap and there is about 40 guys, from the original 80-100 that started. I had some moments where I had to jump across because somoene folded their tent and left me hanging, but always within myself. Coming to 2 to go I moved up a bit because it looked like it would be a bunch kick. On the last lap a 3 man break went up the road. It was dangling pretty good. I thought about joining, but I thought it was coming back. Well we hit the last long hill to the finish and we caught the break and they were going about 6 km slower. We almost plowed right into them. This broke up the sprint, which is too bad because on a hill like that it is a lottery. I rode well. Really happy with how it went. Given my work to this point my form is getting there. Hopefully after Cali I can get a bit more base down and then hit a few more races. Just shows, if you go and do it good things will happen.
At the end of my drive home I could feel my calf cramping. It went away. Well when I got out of the car, my inner thigh cramped and on my right legs, so I sat down in my car seat. It did not go away, so I got up, then my left tigh cramped, so now I have the double cramp going. I couldn't walk and thought I was dying. I fell onto the grass and got out my cell phone to tell the Croatian to come help me, but she was downstairs without the phone. I could not get up and was screaming. Finally I got up, after about 5 minutes.
After, the race, I mowed the lawn,cleaned my bike, vacumed both cars, cleaned the inside, Fixed the trunk on the Cavalier', trimmed the hedges, had dinner ( chili on rice, thanks Mrs Spacemanrides )then redid the bar tape on my bike and got some clothes ready for the trip. That is a big day. The Fashionista helped clean the bike. She like to get right in there. dunking her hands in the pail, slathering soapy water all over it. She was soaking wet 5 mintes into the process.
I hurt like crazy, but let me tell you if you want to feel young, go bang bars with kids half your age. Go suffer with people who could technically be your kids and you will feel young. Only 3 dicks who drive duallies tried to mow us down.
10:00 pm, have to go to bed.
Almost forgot, Canucks pimp slapped the Wings! Ha!
We basically rolled out with about 80-100 guys. Nice weather, 10 degrees overcast. The race was pretty standard for the first few laps. The first real selection was when we caught the A race. I guess they were riding "piano", so we caught them with at about 2 laps in. When we went by it was a bit of a cluster, I was mid towards the back of the group. Well 150 riders trying to ride on one side of the road made it hectic. They are supposed to neutralize and they did, but it was wierd. I was not dying to muscle one of these guys to get by faster. So I notice that our group has split and half the group is by the A group and starting to role it. I had to just about die to get across to the main group. It hurt but I was still withing myself, so that is a good thing. Eventually the bergs " Alex Berg" ( does anyone get these references? Millertime does, he loved the Jackie Childs " balm " shtick.
Anyway, back to the bergs. Guys were getting popped 2-3 at a time per lap. Next thing you know it is the last lap and there is about 40 guys, from the original 80-100 that started. I had some moments where I had to jump across because somoene folded their tent and left me hanging, but always within myself. Coming to 2 to go I moved up a bit because it looked like it would be a bunch kick. On the last lap a 3 man break went up the road. It was dangling pretty good. I thought about joining, but I thought it was coming back. Well we hit the last long hill to the finish and we caught the break and they were going about 6 km slower. We almost plowed right into them. This broke up the sprint, which is too bad because on a hill like that it is a lottery. I rode well. Really happy with how it went. Given my work to this point my form is getting there. Hopefully after Cali I can get a bit more base down and then hit a few more races. Just shows, if you go and do it good things will happen.
At the end of my drive home I could feel my calf cramping. It went away. Well when I got out of the car, my inner thigh cramped and on my right legs, so I sat down in my car seat. It did not go away, so I got up, then my left tigh cramped, so now I have the double cramp going. I couldn't walk and thought I was dying. I fell onto the grass and got out my cell phone to tell the Croatian to come help me, but she was downstairs without the phone. I could not get up and was screaming. Finally I got up, after about 5 minutes.
After, the race, I mowed the lawn,cleaned my bike, vacumed both cars, cleaned the inside, Fixed the trunk on the Cavalier', trimmed the hedges, had dinner ( chili on rice, thanks Mrs Spacemanrides )then redid the bar tape on my bike and got some clothes ready for the trip. That is a big day. The Fashionista helped clean the bike. She like to get right in there. dunking her hands in the pail, slathering soapy water all over it. She was soaking wet 5 mintes into the process.
I hurt like crazy, but let me tell you if you want to feel young, go bang bars with kids half your age. Go suffer with people who could technically be your kids and you will feel young. Only 3 dicks who drive duallies tried to mow us down.
10:00 pm, have to go to bed.
Almost forgot, Canucks pimp slapped the Wings! Ha!
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Saturday and Coffee
Just sitting here with the family, having some coffee. In 4 days I will be in Palm Springs! I think it is going to cool off when we arrive from 37 to 26 C, not sure how I am going to survive that. We went out for dinner for the Croatians B-day, it was nice.
Willow emailed me yesterday saying that she read the blog and that she did indeed do sports growing up. Cheerleading may technically be a sport.....
She also told me that she is getting geared up to run Boston and that the other girls that are going are going to do it for the experience? I agree with her on this, what the hell is the EXPERIENCE? It is a running race, you go and give it your best. That does not mean that you trample people to do well, there has to be respect, but you have to go out and do your best. Apparently these women want to run together, Willow plans on going into the suit case of courage and tearing some legs off! Good for her! It is the Boston Marathon, not the 5k run for the cure.
The Fashionista is wearing her bib like a cape,sort of like of like Uncle Leo.....
Looks like I will try to hit the road race tomorrow. It is about 50/50 at this point.
Willow emailed me yesterday saying that she read the blog and that she did indeed do sports growing up. Cheerleading may technically be a sport.....
She also told me that she is getting geared up to run Boston and that the other girls that are going are going to do it for the experience? I agree with her on this, what the hell is the EXPERIENCE? It is a running race, you go and give it your best. That does not mean that you trample people to do well, there has to be respect, but you have to go out and do your best. Apparently these women want to run together, Willow plans on going into the suit case of courage and tearing some legs off! Good for her! It is the Boston Marathon, not the 5k run for the cure.
The Fashionista is wearing her bib like a cape,sort of like of like Uncle Leo.....
Looks like I will try to hit the road race tomorrow. It is about 50/50 at this point.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
The 40 Year Old Virgin
Hey! It was Mr Convincings 40th yesterday! Happy Birthday bigman. It is also AHHHZINGA's B- day right around now too. So a shout out to him as well.
I wonder now that Convincing is 40 if he will retire some of those Levi 501's he has been holding onto. He likes to run all of his stuff right to failure, so you never know. Been riding a bit, but looks like another monsoon may be on it's way, so good chance I am done riding until SoCal on Wednesday. I can't wait to get on vacation.
In my mind, I am already there....
Also, it is the Croatian B-day on Friday. I guess I will have to bust out my best moves for Friday night. I may bust out the swirl.
I wonder now that Convincing is 40 if he will retire some of those Levi 501's he has been holding onto. He likes to run all of his stuff right to failure, so you never know. Been riding a bit, but looks like another monsoon may be on it's way, so good chance I am done riding until SoCal on Wednesday. I can't wait to get on vacation.
In my mind, I am already there....
Also, it is the Croatian B-day on Friday. I guess I will have to bust out my best moves for Friday night. I may bust out the swirl.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Penants
Was I doing some penants today. I should start by saying that we have monsoon conditions here. Wow, I can't remember the last time it rained this hard. I was not sure that I should go today. If I didn't go race I knew I would do nothing at all. I stayed home all day saturday and cleaned the house while the Croatian went and got all the shopping done, because as you all know we need stuff from the mall.....
Anyway, drove to Fort Langley for the hardest race course of the spring series. It has around a 3 km climb and we did 11 eleven laps. Eleven times up this thing in the driving rain! Great!!!
Uh, not. Anyways, we got rolling and it was "a bloc'" from the start. We hit the long downhill in torrential conditions at about 60km an hour. It was a little nerve wracking. We rode the bottom flat part of the course pretty mellow ( that lasted 8 minutes ) and then it was up Armstrong. Holy crap, it was fast. I am not sure I was ready for that. I was on the rivet. I could hear myself breathing like crazy. The group splintered like crazy. Although it did come back together with the exception of 8-9 guys. This repeated itself for about 6 laps when I was uncermonously dropped. First it is 2 feet, the 4 feet, then 8 feet, 16 feet and that is it. From there I rode solo for a lap in no mans land and then the gruppetto picked me up. Rode in a group of about 12 for the most of the race. The climb was really hard. I was pretty disappointed to be dispatched, but I haven't done a lot of intensity this year....make that none, so it was a pretty good effort. This where penants come into it. If you don't do some work you don't get some result. I never planned on being in great shape at this time of the year, but I didn't need to sit around and do nothing for nearly 2 months after cyclocross ended. I did manage to do pretty well with my diet in that time. I layed off the beer which will pretty much sink ya. Other than that I did nothing.
It was warm out, but I still opted for the heat balm " balm who gave you balm? I never told you to put on any balm?" The Maistro gave me the balm! " the Maistro gave me the balm, who is the Maistro" I digress. The balm does work well to help keep you warm when you are soaking wet. The age old rain cape works better than you would think for PVC.
I called convincing tonight. I had some engineering questions for him. I think he get tired of my engineering questions, but he still answers them with gusto. Also, I like the fact that he is amazed that planes fly. He know the physics and he is still amazed. Run it through your brain, it boggles this bloggers mind. Anway, he was riding in the city of Millionaires and came across the A brothers and the Gooner. Convincing said that the Gooner layed the wood to him in the cross winds.
The Croatian is talking about how she needs to buy some bra's? I always wonder how that involves me? I am always gunning for the push up variety!
The Fashionista did not nap today, what a treat she was at about 6 pm. Noting like ME having to be the one to moderate the diputes.
gotta go.
Anyway, drove to Fort Langley for the hardest race course of the spring series. It has around a 3 km climb and we did 11 eleven laps. Eleven times up this thing in the driving rain! Great!!!
Uh, not. Anyways, we got rolling and it was "a bloc'" from the start. We hit the long downhill in torrential conditions at about 60km an hour. It was a little nerve wracking. We rode the bottom flat part of the course pretty mellow ( that lasted 8 minutes ) and then it was up Armstrong. Holy crap, it was fast. I am not sure I was ready for that. I was on the rivet. I could hear myself breathing like crazy. The group splintered like crazy. Although it did come back together with the exception of 8-9 guys. This repeated itself for about 6 laps when I was uncermonously dropped. First it is 2 feet, the 4 feet, then 8 feet, 16 feet and that is it. From there I rode solo for a lap in no mans land and then the gruppetto picked me up. Rode in a group of about 12 for the most of the race. The climb was really hard. I was pretty disappointed to be dispatched, but I haven't done a lot of intensity this year....make that none, so it was a pretty good effort. This where penants come into it. If you don't do some work you don't get some result. I never planned on being in great shape at this time of the year, but I didn't need to sit around and do nothing for nearly 2 months after cyclocross ended. I did manage to do pretty well with my diet in that time. I layed off the beer which will pretty much sink ya. Other than that I did nothing.
It was warm out, but I still opted for the heat balm " balm who gave you balm? I never told you to put on any balm?" The Maistro gave me the balm! " the Maistro gave me the balm, who is the Maistro" I digress. The balm does work well to help keep you warm when you are soaking wet. The age old rain cape works better than you would think for PVC.
I called convincing tonight. I had some engineering questions for him. I think he get tired of my engineering questions, but he still answers them with gusto. Also, I like the fact that he is amazed that planes fly. He know the physics and he is still amazed. Run it through your brain, it boggles this bloggers mind. Anway, he was riding in the city of Millionaires and came across the A brothers and the Gooner. Convincing said that the Gooner layed the wood to him in the cross winds.
The Croatian is talking about how she needs to buy some bra's? I always wonder how that involves me? I am always gunning for the push up variety!
The Fashionista did not nap today, what a treat she was at about 6 pm. Noting like ME having to be the one to moderate the diputes.
gotta go.
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