Back on the horse

So last week I was genuinely disinterested in riding any of my bikes. I thought for a brief time about driving to VT yesterday to do the Root 66 race, but it was only in passing. My body didn't feel up to crashing again and my brain hasn't recovered yet from being sure that I'm going to every time I get into a pack. Saturday I took my mountain bike out for like 45-60 minutes and mostly just tooled around. Wasn't really going anywhere, but needed a short stint of exercise. Yesterday I legitimately went for a ride and it wasn't so bad. It was still only an hour, but the speeds are still up in the 20 range and I'm not really pushing. Today I had to leave my car in Natick and ride in from there which is about an hour. A couple times during the ride I was just enjoying being outside on a bike and making motor noises going around corners. I think I need a while more of that kind of fun and fortunately the calendar is pretty empty for the next few weeks. I have a fear that it's going to take some effort to line up again, but I need to. Multiple reports of sketchiness from the weekend do not have me feeling better so we'll see. I've got multiple days of riding in this week since we've only got 1 car for the week so at least I'll be getting the workouts in. There's still cross to be ready for.

I actually got a chance to do something manual and productive this weekend so that made me feel a whole lot better. We've been talking for at least a couple years about finishing the basement properly (it was really poorly done when we moved in and had to be gutted) to use as a play room and some extra space. After spending a year to do the bathroom, the thing holding me up from starting on the room was primarily cleaning. Saturday I managed to take a truckload and a 1.5 contractor bags of crap out of there and clean up what was left. That went quick enough that I was then able to do one of the first things on the project list which was finish off the giant storage closets I started building years ago. The upper level has been done forever, but the lower level was never properly framed or anything (yes it sounds backwards... long story). I managed to get the wood subfloor down in that part of the room and then go through and properly frame the supports and lower level of cabinets. It's about 16' long so I even have a dedicated Yakima roof box storage cabinet with room for other cabinets. Now that I can see progress being made, hopefully I can keep the motivation up.

Back to work... that is if I can find some motivation to do any...

Running is good

So it's now fair to call the torn groin/leg thing healed. 2 nights in a row of running and no problems (other than being out of practice). For those who don't know, I spent most of 18 years running fairly competitively with moderate local-level success. It's been quite a while since I toed the line, but it's been so long now that it really is second nature. Last night is a good example... 4th run since completely tearing something in my groin, 4 very hilly miles at 7 minute pace. Granted I was pushing at the end to beat the thunder storm, but still. I had said all along that this summer I would cut way back on biking in August to get ready for RTB and I probably still will, but I may also start my training a little earlier by throwing in 2 days a week of running between now and then. Even though I decided at one point that biking would be more sustainable than running because it's lower impact, there's a lot of times that I agree with Kerry and think that running is easier.

Anywho... enough pissing and moaning. Could be kind of a crazy weekend. My wife has an all day soccer tournament tomorrow so I'm chasing the monkeys. I have to find something the 4 of us can do to keep them entertained. It'll be easier in a couple years when the littlest can be more easily included, but there's some things now where he just needs to be contained and thrown in a stroller or something. A 6.5 year old and a 2 year old can't quite do the same stuff sometimes so that's always a challenge. Sunday is up in the air so we'll see.

Enjoy the weekend folks.

Getting there... again

I knew after my latest date with the pavement that it wasn't as bad this time and it seems that I was right. I've gotten to the point of only mild stinging in the shower and only if I'm in there too long. My cut on my elbow has also gradutated from triple-layer non-stick pads and tape to giant band aids (my wife is thrilled because I can manage a big bandaid with one hand solo). I wish the internals of my elbow were progressing as well so that's kind of a big TBD right now. I think the proper diagnosis is "repeatedly banging the shit out of it". I made it through mowing the lawn the last couple nights, but realized that any amount of jarring of that arm isn't so good. Kinda rules out mountain biking and biking on crappy pavement, but I'll probably test it tonight or tomorrow anyways. Haven't biked this week at all (partially due to pain and partially due to temporary lack of interest). I did run last night and it was the first run since the big accident where the groin/leg felt normal. That was a good sign so at least I know I can run for a while to keep the ice cream and beer from setting in too much.

Not much more going on at this point. I'm pulling out of both races this weekend so I'll have to come up with something to do. Maybe I'll finally get started on the next house project (basement cleaning so we can start the room). Might see if the elbow is healthy enough for a round of golf, but I'm not optimistic. Van goes in for repairs next week so I signed up for Zipcar to help get us through the 4 or 5 days they have it (still don't understand why it takes more than 4 hours to just replace the freaking rear gate). Combo of biking in and the short term rent-a-car service should work nice.

Time to be productive (and get more coffee)...

Stop me if you've heard this one before

Well things are finally back to normal in many ways, and unfortunately I'm not liking one of the "norms" I've fallen into. Hit the rewind and strap in...

Friday night my wife misses her connection in Dallas so what should have been a 9ish arrival at home turned into 11:15. Could have been worse, but it meant the 6th straight day I was getting to bed after 11 and then getting up early. What it also meant was that any thoughts of buzzing out to Monson and signing in for the Cyclonauts race were gone since it meant a 5ish in the morning departure.

I'll tangent here for a second and say that the boys really were great last week. The oldest tried very hard to be helpful and the youngest was more manageable than usual. It also gave me a good chance to remember how to be patient with them since it's so easy to just get fired up with them quickly and I just couldn't do that last week or I'd make us all miserable. I joked with them the whole second half of the week that they just had to tell mommy what a great job daddy did.

So Saturday instead turned into karate with the middle one followed by getting the pool hooked up and running (finally) followed by a graduation party for my cousin followed by 35 minutes or so if flying around at warp speed on my bike to remind my legs how to hurt followed by an overly indulgent dinner at The Melting Pot with the inlaws followed by a pint at John Harvard's. Phew... I was tired too.

Sunday I had planned all along to race since I wanted to use my Dad's Day free pass to get away for a bit. I was going to go to Housatonic, but then got shut out of the 4's so I figured I'd just go to Wells. Conflicts with t-ball meant I was driving down and doing the B's. So I get there good and early to do a long warmup and felt ok. I'll note that this was only the 3rd outdoor ride for the Guerch and first race. We get close to start time and they decide to combine the A's and B's. Well this should be interesting... I've never done above the C race at Wells or better than a semi-fast 3/4 anywhere and now I get to race against the big boys... Yeehaw! I'd hazzard a guess that it was 60-70 guys who lined up and we're off. Pace was very sane and I just wanted to spend a while hanging around. My plan going into the B race was that I would try to break away on an early prime lap, take the prime, and then see how long I could stay away before I limped to the back. Needed a new strategy since there was no freaking way I could sprint with the horses that would typically do A's so instead I decided to put myself in a position on every prime I could to go with anything that happened after a prime sprint. That worked well for most of the race and I was really pleased that I was able to put myself near the front almost every time I wanted to. There were a few sketchy guys in the race, but not really any major drama and only one near crash that wasn't that big a deal... just a very quick brake lock by one guy and he was smart enough to get off it. So we make it through basically the whole 40 laps with nobody getting away (or even really trying). I could tell that the official wasn't thinking this was a good thing since he rang 4 or 5 primes in the final 12 laps. I almost fell over when he rang a $20 prime with 3 to go! It was clear he wanted us to mix it up, but after every prime the sprinters sat up and it was back together. So at the end of lap 39, I bust up to the front and find my teammate sitting about 7th or 8th. I jump right on, tell him I'm there, and he starts motoring. Unfortunately, we got crossed up through turn 1, I lost his wheel, and ended up 3 spots back of him. So I just tried to stay near the front hoping for a top 10. We come motoring around the turn and there's 2 cars in the finish stretch so everyone calls them out and we sit up. Great, let's do it again. At this point my teammate who was in front of me just rode off the course and figured he'd had enough fun. So I hang into a decent position as it winds up again. I started sliding back a little, but still had aspirations for a top 10 since I felt good. I hung way wide left going around the final turn to avoid any sketchyness along the right curb and figured I was in a good safe place... WRONG! We hit the start of the straightaway and all of a sudden to my right the world explodes. I hear the unmistakeable sound of impending road rash and broken bodies and now there's bikes and riders spilling left right in front of my nice safe place. I got on the brakes and picked a line through the mess and felt like I was just about to get around the last bike in my way and suddenly I'm sliding on my right side. No idea if someone fell into me, I got hit from behind, or I ran over the mess in front of me, but I was down. The damage this time is WAY less bad than Sturbridge, but I still shaved off the front of my shin, the side of my quad, and my hip/ass. Worst of it was that I banged the crap out of my elbow for the third (or is it 4th) time this year and this time put a decent gash in it. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I'm now a road rash pro so I had the bandages at the ready. As far as the bike, it got off kinda ok, but still needs a thorough going over. To be honest, I've been too frustrated to check it out. It's also worth noting that I got out easy... two guys went home in an ambulance with what looked like pretty serious injuries. I think at least one of them will also be spending quite a bit of time at the dentist. Best to those guys for quick healing.

So now I'm again dreading the shower, messing up the sheets, and supporting 3M, J&J, and the generic factory that slops bacitraicin into a tube. As I was cleaning off the blood and gravel on Sunday I swore to myself that the next time I lined up would be cross season. I've calmed down a little, but I'm still considering just getting a refund on both races this weekend and staying home. I'm actually not 100% sure my elbow will take much abuse for a while because it's pretty screwed up. On top of it, I can't keep paying to fix bikes. I've got stuff that was brand new a week ago that may or may not be trashed. On top of that, I need to go to work on Mondays (unfortunately) so I can't keep doing this to my body. It sucks because mentally, I can't race if I know I'm not going to try to win. The moral victories of a prime or holding good position against fast people wear off quickly. If I have to sit up every time I'm not in a clear break or have a 3 man leadout train in front of me, I'm not going. I think I need to stick to mountain biking (and cross of course). At least then it's my own fault of I get banged up.

Ok, that was way longer than it should have been. Still won't stop me from maybe putting up more later.

Almost there

For those who have checked in, yes, I'm alive. We're all hanging in there and I think all 4 of us are starting to miss mommy (a lot). The 2 year old has saved me by not having a "I need mommy" meltdown. The 4 (almost 5) year old has saved me by just being so damn funny (he always is)... he's the type of kid that will probably get away with more than he should in his life just because he's got that thing about him that makes it hard to be mad or even serious with him. The 6 year old has been genuinely trying very hard to be helpful. Me and him have butted heads a couple times, but we do all the time because he's my clone.

Hell, I've even ridden the trainer twice this week so it can't be all bad. Probably racing this weekend... no clue where.

More when I can...

How do they do that?

Ok, I should be working since I was wikid frickin late (thanks traffic), but I had to share this...
It's day 2 of the solo daddy routine and we're hanging in there. I've decided I have an allotment of frustration this week and once I use it up it's gone so I'm trying to spread it out and stay calm as much as I can. This morning I got up a few minutes later than planned so I'm in the shower and the 2 older ones are up. One of them opens the door and is talking really loud so I told him to quiet down since he was right across from the 2 year old's room. He's still trying to tell me something so I stick my head out and there he is with the 2 year old. Apparently he was crying so they decided they'd be nice brothers and go get him. Yes that is nice, but it was 6:05 and he normally sleeps until close to 7. Argh. So I ask them to make sure he doesn't burn the house down and I finish getting ready. As I'm eating breakfast and trying to get all 3 of them moving in the right direction, the 2 year old comes over and just says "Poop". I was hoping he meant he wanted to go to the potty, but I checked the diaper... no luck. Great, now we're having fun. So I get him in his room layed down on the bed and I'm starting to dip into my bucket of frustration. Just then, outta nowhere, he just looks up at me, start clapping and says "Yeah Daddy ride the bike!" Damn, I hate when they get all cute like that. That certainly helped us finish getting ready in one piece.

3 mornings to go...

It's magic

With a simple wave of the hand and collision with a Sentra, I have managed to turn this:
into this:

Yes folks, that's a big damn bike. Components are a combination of new replacements from the crash and stuff that wasn't damaged and I could reuse. Goal is to go to 10-speed campy next year when I have some $$.

Have fun drooling tall guys.

Freaks rejoice

We too can now empty our wallets on some carbon goodness. Sad thing is I'd have to switch to Campy to get longer than 175 cranks in order to get down to an 89cm saddle height. I'm currently between 90 and 90.5 :( Anyone know why Shimano (or anyone other than Campy) isn't on the longer crank bandwagon?

Oh, and to steal one from the Gewilli rant machine, share the farkin bike paths and sidewalks people. If I have to make sure I pass you safely going 20mph on my bike or even 8mph on my feet, you should have to make sure that you:
1) Know which side of the path you're supposed to be on
2) Pay attention to where the hell you're going
3) Shut off the friggin deathpod so I don't look like a dick by having to scream "On your left!"
4) Don't waddle your asses 4 wide across the whole path at 1/4 mile an hour and act annoyed when someone is coming the other way or goes around you from behind.

Ok, I'm done.

Funk

No not like We've got the funk... more like in a funk. After having a pretty good week all around last week, this week has just been weird. From a training standpoint:

Sunday - race
Monday - walk around a golf course in the rain for an hour
Tuesday - nuthin (time constraints)
Wednesday - rode to work
Thursday - 90 minutes in the morning
Today - running
Tomorrow - TBD

On top of it the legs have just felt like crap the couple times I did ride. The wind on the way home Wednesday didn't help at all, but it's still just been bad. Options for tomorrow are driving to CT to do 2 races at the Nutmeg crit or a 3 hour ride to the mountain. Not sure yet... need to decide. Yesterday didn't help my mental state at all either because we had my son's kindergarten "graduation" in the morning so I got in late and worked late. The biggest thing that sucks about working late is that it doesn't mean you can go in late the next morning. It just means your non-working time gets condensed to the point of basically having dinner and going to bed.

Funk can also refer to funky (or maybe it's funny) events of this week. Since my wife started telling people this story herself, I can avoid divorce if I share... Tuesday night I get home from work and the guys are there putting the new liner in the pool. They have one side of the driveway blocked so I park the Explorer behind the minivan (don't start on me about the gas suckage of my cars... that's a whole different rant/conversation). Wednesday morning I go out to hop on the bike and saw that I never moved the truck. I was going to go back in and get the keys, but I got lazy so I figured it would only take her 2 seconds to move it out of the way. When the fam came out to head to school/daycare, she looked at it and said to herself "I'll just get the baby buckled in and then move it". Well as proof of how distracting 3 little boys can be, in the span of buckling in the baby, she forgot that it was there, got in the driver's seat, started it up, and put it in reverse. Now the truck was close enough that by the time she started rolling and looked in the mirror, she was already hearing crunching. Despite the slow speed and the lack of runway however the rear liftgate is pretty well trashed. There was a license plate holder on the front bumper of the truck and there is now a nice deep impression of said holder in the rear gate. The wrinkles also cascaded across the gate because it had to move from somewhere. I tried to take pics last night, but it was too dark. I'll post those later. Fortunately for both of us, my attitude about it has been "Shit happens". She's being hard enough on herself and is somewhere between amused and wanting to cry that she did $2k of damage to our car, in the driveway, by hitting our other car.

I may be going dark for most of next week... my wife is heading to Austin for a conference so I've got daddy duty on top of work and maybe riding on the trainer for a grand total of an hour. I should have lots of rambling to do after all that...

The long version

OK, start at the beginning... So back sometime in December of 1973 my parents were... wait... too far back. Fast forward to this past Saturday morning... My dear wife takes the 3 monkeys out to breakfast with her dad to give me some time to work around the homestead. I pick up the house and head out to do the lawn. I get about 10 minutes in and shut it down to empty the bag and notice smoke coming out from under the engine cover. I didn't think much of it because last year a little bit of dry grass got in there and just kinda burned up and stopped. So I keep going. About 5 minutes later I shut it down again and now smoke is pouring out of the engine. Ok, this isn't going away itself. Time to go get the tools. I start taking apart the lawnmower and the whole thing is still smoking. The thought did cross my mind that I had a full tank of gas and there's oil in there, but hoped for the best. I get the outer couple layers of cosmetic covers off and now I get the bright idea that maybe I can blow the hunk of stuff that's in there (still not being able to see said hunk) with the leaf blower. I go get the leaf blower, plug it in, and fire it up... fire was the appropriate word to use there. I look and I now have flames shooting out from under the engine cover. Ok, this is bad. Shut down the blower and got the flames to stop, but it's still smoking like crazy. I go back to disassembly and finally take out enough screws to find this:



Turns out that one of the friendly local mice had decided to build himself a nest inside my lawnmower engine. Now I'm all down with C Todd's be nice to animals shizzle, but the only redemption here would have been if the little bastard was still in there (he wasn't). Cleaned up the mess and went on my way, but that was an adventure I didn't need.

Saturday afternoon I figure it will be fun to go mountain biking nice and easy to get ready for Sunday. I posted up to see who wanted to go and one of only two takers was a guy who's about 1000 times better than me which is probably why I get hurt every time I ride with him. We headed down to Hopkinton State Park and got at it. The third guy who joined us hadn't been out much this year so he eventually bailed early to head back to the car. Before that however, we're riding up onto a bridge that has a granite step in front of it and I get the front wheel onto the bridge and then slam the rear right into the lip of the step. Pssssssssssssssssssssss... Damn, didn't feel like changing a flat. Get that taken care of and keep going. Other than riding through some crazy deep water at one point, there wasn't much adventure until about 10 minutes to go in the ride. We're going down this not very steep little nothing hill and I misjudged a little hump in it that dropped off right after (I do that a lot). I hit the seat ejector, go flying over the bars, and the bike gets thrown ahead of me. It bounces off a little concrete bridge wall thing and then drops down 5 or 6 feet into the stream bed. The whole thing looked pretty damn dramatic but fortunately the bike survived as did I... mostly. I managed to screw up my ribs again so I nursed that back to the car.

Sunday I felt ok from the crash so I decided to make the trek to Andover, CT for the Channel 3 Kid's Camp MTB race. Had to leave around 6 to get there early enough for a warmup lap etc. Made it down there plenty early, signed in, mounted up, and headed out for the preview. Course was nice and not ultra technical, but you never would have known it from watching me warmup. I swear I was off the bike more than on (not crashing, just getting off) so I was having bad visions for the race. Oh well, I was there to have fun and get dirty. Race kicked off and we headed up the first mild hill with me in 4th, but then one guy exploded (little early for that dude) so I was in third, but it was a distant third already. Most of that lap I spent pulling away from everyone on any uphills and then looking like that roadie who just bought a mountain bike on anything semi-technical. About half way through lap 1, I found one of the top two on the side of the trail putting his chain back together. Now 2nd was mine to lose. Fortunately, I started catching some of the group ahead of us and only got caught by a couple silly fast guys from the group behind. I still really sucked, but I was holding my place. Fortunately, I almost looked like I knew what I was doing by lap 2. There's even some proof here. Now what this doesn't show is that I immediately flubbed it after she took the picture and I almost rode off the right side of the bridge :) I did however finish the race crash free and in second place. I have proof of said podium-goodness as well. The day was capped off with an actual face to face meeting with the one and only CTodd. It was hard to tell if that was more exciting than the podium, but he didn't hand me any free schwag so I'll have to go with the podium.

Yesterday I polished off the weekend with what was supposed to be an ultra swanky golf tournament. I'm getting tired of typing so this part will be short(er). Despite the weather yesterday, some fool decided we should tee off. Let's just say the downpour started 5 minutes before we teed off and got harder for the first hour. Finally they drove around the course and pulled everyone back in... game over. We're rescheduled for sometime in September, but it was purely foolish to have us even try yesterday. The greens were like trying to play mini golf in the ocean with floating golf balls. I wasn't in work and the whole thing was a little funny, but it would have been better if they had been smart enough to just can the whole thing.

Phew... I'm tired now. If you lasted this long you must be tired of listening to me (ok, not listening, but you get the point).

Stories pending

So many stories, so little time. I've got flaming lawnmowers and MTB racing with picture goodness, a brush with greatness, and a sopping wet golf tournament on tap... it will take way more time than this to hit the flush lever on my brain though. Hoping for a long-winded story tonight.

It's sunny... go outside. Hell, even if it starts raining again... go outside.

Brain dump

OK, this may end up being a bit of a rambling Gewilli-esque entry, but I'm trying to catch up from a pretty long week. Last Thursday or Friday (can't even remember), my boss asked me to help him prepare a presentation for the president of the company. He wanted my piece by Wednesday. Friday was busy and nobody was around to get input from. Monday was a holiday. A summer student started Tuesday. A never-ending string of chaos ate up a good chunk of Wednesday. I got an extension to late today and finally got it done, but my white-board list which doubled on Tuesday hasn't been touched. Isn't work grand?

On to more fun stuff: biking. This was my first full unrestricted week back. I didn't really hold back:

Sunday - 2.5 hours
Monday - Cyclonauts crit
Tuesday - ran for the first time in 5 weeks, still managed 3.5 in somewhere under 8's
Wednesday - bike commute, 3 hours total, big-ring power hills the whole way home
Thursday - bike commute, 3 hours total, ambitious ride in and then survival ride home

Tomorrow the most I'm going to exercise is going to get more food and water. Saturday will be an easy MTB spin and then the Channel 3 MTB race on Sunday. First MTB race ever so that will be an adventure. My off-road skills suck, but the legs are firing right now so pray for non-technical uphills... long ones.

While enjoying my rides to work the last couple days, I thought of fun things I like about riding to work. So in no particular order... Fun things about biking to work:

- You can't execute a perfect bunny hop over a pothole in your car
- Your heart rate is above 140 for the right reasons
- Getting clocked on one of those roadside radar setups. Bonus points if you get caught speeding.
- Attacking nobody and then bridging solo up to the guy with the baby seat on the back of his bike (nobody ever said your target had to be fast... just start further away)
- Punching it and blowing someone away off the line in your car on the way to work makes you look like a dick. Doing it on your bike makes you feel like a badass.
- You don't smell the lilacs from inside your car
- The looks you must be getting from everyone you pass in the line at the redlight when they don't see you again until 5 miles up the road.

I had a couple run-ins with annoying drivers, but they were the types of things that would have pissed me off if I was driving or biking so they weren't really close calls. By the way, hooray for tail winds. I might still be riding home tonight if it weren't for that.

Oh and I'm thrilled for my buddy Jeff (no linkage goodness... even though he's the biggest computer/gadget guy I know, he's never set up his own site). He's always been sort of a moderately active guy and usually not afraid to at least try something. We did gym climbing for a while, he played some soccer, but never really latched onto a sport. Recently he got the inclination that running would be good for him. He bought a treadmill, hauled it to the second floor of his house himself (that alone is dedication), and got to it. He's up to 4 miles 5 or 6 times a week, just took his bike to get it tuned so he can ride that, and is thinking of joining a running club. I'm partially excited because he's into something that I love and he's starting to get it. It's also a bit of being impressed by his motivation. Lastly it's one more person up and doing something. Best of all, he did it because he wanted to. I've seen enough cases of all kinds of things to know that that's the only time something works... when it's for you.

OK, that's enough. Publish Post.

Argh

I've had so much in my head I wanted to post this week and everything just keeps taking over. In the mean time, here's a nice fancy lump of unobtainium to hold you over. If this thing ain't bike pron, I don't know what is.

Check and Check

That's right folks... recovery is complete. Saturday was an intentional off day after 3 straight before that just to be sure. Sunday afternoon I got out for 2.5 hours and generally felt good the whole time. Actually, I have to qualify that... last week at some point I somehow screwed up my back. Fortunately it's not that sort of debilitating lower back screwed up thing that leaves you flat on the floor afraid to blink. This instead was something in the back of my ribcage. It actually feels the way I'd expect a broken rib to feel except for the fact that it's not swollen and pressure doesn't hurt. What does hurt however is standing up on a bike and pulling on the bars ala steep climbing. So Sunday I avoided standing at all costs and was fine.

Yesterday I made the decision to get back in the game by heading down to the Cyclonauts Crit at the Stafford Motor Speedway. That's right folks, we're tradin paint and turning left... ok, so there was no paint traded and we rode clockwise, but there was a left turn through the infield chicane... you get the point anyways. So the best parts about this race in terms of a comeback race were that you have this huge wide track, pretty basic turns, no hills to change the pace and only 40 starters in the 3/4. I had actually intended to race the 4's in the morning, but decided to march in the townie Memorial Day parade with my son's t-ball team. Speaking of that, coolest callup of the season goes to yesterday's race: all active duty military, military vets, police, and firemen got the callup... well deserved too.

The race went off in pretty sane fashion, but after about 1 lap the attacks started. Finally a group of 6-8 got away and probably got out to maybe 30 seconds. The loop was < 0.5 miles so it's not like they were hiding from us. A few guys thought about bridging, but none of that worked so we just chugged along. I just sort of moved around and got used to being back in a group. This race was what I expected from a 3/4 unlike the sketch fest at Sturbridge... everyone was smooth through the turns for the most part and if you weren't careful, you were very quickly alone at the back. At the half way point, some guys up front dropped the hammer and the break evaporated in no time at all. It was back together with a little under 15 to go and not a whole lot was going on. About 10-12 to go and there's this roar from near the front as a guy yells out CYCLONAUTS and suddenly those guys swarmed like freaking bees towards the front. Not everyone was willing to let them just set up a 10 man 10 lap leadout so a few flyers went off and enough other guys mixed themselves in the front that the pace stayed high, but it wasn't just the yellow and black boys driving it. I headed up front with about 7 to go and ended up taking a short pull with 4 to go to finish off the last ambitious guy out front. Problem was I got lazy after I pulled off and -boom- I'm at the back again. I had some time to move back up, but never quite got there and when the Cyclonauts boys punched it with 1/2 a lap to go, I was just hanging on. Hung in there and rolled in @st so not a big deal. One other guy from MRC was in the field, but he and I both went in with a survival mindset so we never really had any chance to try anything together. He rolled in right behind me.

All-in-all, I'll call it a victory. Early predictions had me on the trainer still so to be racing again kicks ass. It was a brisk race too so it's not like I was slacking. Almost forgot... Funny Oh Shit moment of the race came with maybe 15 to go when I look to my left and I'm riding next to Paul Curley. I was like WTF... I had no idea this guy was only a 3. I just kinda always figured he was a 1 or 2, but I guess not. It was his second race of the day and he ended up 10th I think.

Otherwise the weekend kicked ass... great weather, lots accomplished, kids had a generally good time with everything. Praying for nice weather next weekend too for Sunday's MTB race and a Monday golf outing.

Back to work... virtual Mondays are harder than real ones...

Recipe for recovery

How to come back from what seems like a severe injury:

1. Rest - check
2. Easy short trainer rides - check
3. Easy short outdoor rides - check
4. Less easy, longer outdoor rides - check
5. Short harder efforts outside - check
6. Hard efforts off-road - check
7. Multiple days of honest efforts - in progress
8. Racing - TBD

So I'm almost there. Bouncing around on the dirt and rocks went pretty good last night. Put in some almost race-like efforts a few times with no issues. Tonight I ride home from work, tomorrow I ride back in. Other than that, there'll just be jumping into a race and seeing if I've turned into a pansy. I think I'll just be planning to sit in the first race and will be backing off if things get even a little hairy.

Back to work. Enjoy the sunshine everyone.

Progress

Got out last night for about 55 minutes, avg 20mph. I'm going to call that good :) I can tell I'm still not pulling up with as much force in the bad leg, but I think the hip muscles still need some more rehab. I'm most likely going to shoot for a mountain bike race on the 3rd so we'll see how that goes.

Crazy week all around. Lots going on in and out of work (more out) and our schedules are all messed up. I'd so much rather be sleeping right now. Putting patio chairs together until 11 will do that to you...

Crib free

So it was a momentus day in the household yesterday... the baby crib has officially been decommissioned. After breakfast my wife got the idea that maybe the 2 year old was ready for a big boy bed and he got all fired up about the idea. Ended up having to make a run to BJs for the finest $99 mattress on hand (we've still got potty training to get through... that's the best he's getting). Amazingly, he did stay in it for his nap and through the night, but we know it's only a matter of time before it occurs to him that he can get out at will. Hopefully that takes a while even though we know the routine so it won't be a big deal.

Rode Saturday for about 35 minutes and the muscles that are taking over for the pulled stuff in the bad leg were tired. Took yesterday off and I'll head out tonight. I hope to ramp back up to riding in near the end of this week especially with pre-holiday traffic on tap. It will be fun to pass everyone on the way home while they sit in line... always is. Also have to try some mountain biking so I can decide if I can race on the 3rd. Looks good now, but I have to try it first.

Back to work. I've been battling a bad case of the Mondays all day and it's getting a little late to get over it at this point. I think it's time for coffee.

It was the beer talking

This just keeps getting funnier:

Stupid Beer

How many times could we all say that?

It's a matter of perspective

The weather this morning at 5:15 a.m. was about 42 degrees and raining... and I went out for a ride. Now if this had been a normal week and today was a scheduled workout, I would have either written it off as a rest day or set up the trainer tonight. The weather was hideous for biking. Instead I got out of bed a little on the early side, got dressed, happily jumped on my mountain bike and went riding around on the town bike path for about 30 minutes. By the time I got home, my legs were completely pink, bordering on red, and numb. I had my rain jacket on, but everything not covered by that was drenched. I had a great time. It was a combination of just enjoying riding a bike and a small sense of accomplishment for being back on one in less than half the time originally predicted. Plus now I am able to take my son to see Shrek tonight and not feel like I missed a chance to ride.

The other night I had seriously considered whether it was wise to jump into Wells this Sunday even if I just rode a few laps and then bailed. I had decided that not having been on a bike outside yet disqualified me from going. Despite having been outside this morning I think it's still a bad idea. I am however starting to take a close look at the upcoming schedules to see when and where I'm racing. I was going to wait until Housatonic on the 17th, but I may go to CT for some mountain biking before then if I can prove to myself I won't hurt myself worse.

Busy day tomorrow, but then quiet Sunday. The youngest turned 2 on Wednesday so the family is coming over tomorrow to have cake and give him more toys that will get piled onto the toy store we already have in the house. I beg them every year with every child to stay under control, but they don't listen. I'll just have to start loading up the truck and dropping the excess back at their houses :)

Oh, and I'm now keeping track of the Floyd case for pure comedic value. The testimony of the lady who did the testing is total crap and LNDD looks like a bunch of lying idiots. And what the hell with Lemond... I think I've finally given up on having an opinion on that guy. You never know what the hell he's going to throw out there...

Every Bandage Counts

That's right folks... as a sequel to the amazing non-seller It's Not About the Road Rash, we have the heart wrenching story of one man's quest to escape the clutches of paper tape and non-stick bandages and his loving wife's dreams of not being woken up at 5:30 every day to bandage his ass.

I think tomorrow may be a bandage free day. I'm down to one on what was clearly the worst spot and I think even that has made it far enough finally. Add to that my first comeback trainer ride (is it a comeback if you were only down two weeks?) last night and I think this crash story may be coming to an end. That is until the next race I get in and I pansy out when things get hairy. I'm probably inside for a few more days and then maybe next week I'll be brave enough to ride in if I have a bike back. The car crash bike is going to be rebuilt starting tomorrow so that will take a bit. The race crash bike is just waiting on new bars and I should have that soon (expected it today). Fortunately I had the single-speed for last night... further proof that you can't have too many bikes.

So totally switching gears... how does a 6 year old lose his sneakers... in the house? He wore them Sunday to dinner, got home, and did something with them. He wouldn't have needed them yesterday or today for school and then they were gone when I went looking for his t-ball stuff tonight. All I can come up with is that they're in the "baby's" room (he's sleeping so I can't exactly flip the light on) or the baby wandered off with them somewhere. We have this little 8x10 mud room that we always go in and out through so there's no reason they wouldn't be there... oh except for they aren't. Anywho... just realized most people don't care about my son's shoes, but then again Kerry found it worthwhile to remind us of Dylan McKay or whatever his name was so I can ramble about shoes I guess... ah the beauty of blog land... ramble at will and people can ignore as needed.

Time for dinner for me and the wife... yes it's almost 9 p.m. Such is life...

A day of chasing

OK, so my job was to chase the pack, but that's besides the point. Saturday's course vehicle experience was kinda fun and the 3 hours went by much quicker than expected. If you're a NASCAR fan in the regards of itching to see the next guy wreck at 200mph, then it wasn't a very exciting race... not so much as a flat tire. Otherwise it was moderately interesting. For me, the good part was 3 hours of ridealong with the USCF official and getting to see what goes on behind the scenes and find out what really drives them nuts and what they'll write your number down for. Note to racers: if you're wandering over or around the yellow line and either the moto drives up next to you and lays on the horn or the follow car lays on the horn, move the f over and stay there. It doesn't mean sneak to the right of the line for a second and then jump back out to move up in the field. If the roads had been wider and we could have gotten the truck up next to the field, the official was ready to just start pulling the repeat offenders. It's also funny to hear the radio chatter that happens during a somewhat uneventful race. We were trying to come up with a plan to get a 25mph handoff of some chocolate cones or iced-coffees, but we never pulled it together.

In other news, I'm one step closer to being back. I got clearance today to resume biking activity that doesn't hurt. First trial will be tonight on the trainer. I've only got one gear since the SS is the only non-wrecked, non-mountain bike at my disposal so hopefully that keeps me in check. I looked at the calendar and if I'm lucky I can still make Housatonic which was hopefully going to be a big one for me. We'll see how the next few weeks pan out.

Hopefully everyone was good to all forms of moms yesterday. The fam congregated at my sister's house in the morning and then last night I tried to keep my wife from doing very much at all. We took her to dinner and then I pulled 3 baths, 3 sets of teeth, and 3 rounds of get into bed rodeo. Fortunately all three were beat and very willingly crashed into the pillow. Mmmmm, sleep...

An argument for exercise

So I've convinced myself that my rapid healing over the past several days is a result of being in shape in the first place. I figure if you have your shit together to start with, all the wound fighters can work their magic on the busted up stuff without having to worry about anything else. It certainly helps that my lack of training (a big number of hours out of my calendar) has given me more time to sleep. Sleep=good especially for rebuilding. So get out there and get your shit together kids... you'll be happy you did the next time you hurt yourself.

So check the sidebar... some updated linkage. Felt a little weird not only linking Solo but also nicknaming him since I don't know him, but a) the dude's got some good stuff to read, and b) you get the other side of the G vs. Solo bickering that way :) I stole G's reference as a nickname because I found it amusing. I'll buy him some coffee for the copyright violation. Need to do some profile updates to put some more stuff about me out there... I'll get to it at some point.

It looks like the sky is about to explode outside so that'll put a damper on a nice walk after lunch. Guess I'll put it off till later if things let up.

Working Sterling as a driver tomorrow so that'll be fun. May be less fun if I pull trail car for the pro race since it'll be 3.5 hours of watching a bunch of dude's asses. Oh well... can't always be the one benefitting from the volunteers. If you're not signed up for Sterling, show up and register. Great race. Some of the big name domestic dopers, uh, racers have even ridden and won there so that can be your link to near fame for the weekend.

Good, Bad, or Ugly?

So the f'd up leg thing... well it's pretty f'd up. I've reached a point that during any given day I flop between wondering if there's permanent damage to thinking maybe I can get out for a ride in the next few days. I can tell for certain that there will be no running for quite some time which has it's own long-term issues, but one thing at a time. A lot of the swelling is gone, but it still varies a bit by time of day and what I've been doing. The bruising will probably take another week or two to fade since it was caused by bleeding from whatever ruptured and was really severe and widespread. It currently feels like you'd expect a really severe groin pull to feel, but it also extends further than that. If I've been either sitting or standing for too long and I switch to the other, I get horrible aching pains that run down the whole inner part of my leg down to my knee. It fades but takes a few minutes sometimes. If I've been sitting too long, I'm really really stiff when I stand up and limp pretty bad for a few minutes. If I walk for long enough the whole thing really loosens up pretty well, but I still have a slight hitch in my step where I can't really reach too far forward with the good leg because it stretches the bad side too much. I did walk up the 4 flights of stairs at work the last 2 mornings and that really didn't make it better or worse. The stairs part definitely did not hurt in and of itself so maybe I'm getting close to trainer rides where there's no risk of falling or sudden dismounts. Follow up appointment on Monday and I'm going to try and keep being good till then. I am going to try and swing the sticks a few times over the next few days and see if a quick round of 9 in the wee hours of Sunday morning is safe. Even if I play horribly, which is a good prediction, I'd feel better about getting out for 90 minutes or so Sunday a.m. and doing something semi-active.

Oatmeal is gone... time to work.

Ok, now what do I do?

Last night was my final exam for the spring semester. I procrastinated like never before and went into yesterday horribly unprepared so I bagged out at 1 and went to hide on campus for a few hours to cram. This was a rare case where I think I retained some knowledge from my cramming because I had just lacked the hours to increase my understanding and it wasn't that I was learning it for the first time. It worked out well because a girl from class came in about 90 minutes before the start to study and she helped me out with some stuff that I just wasn't getting. Turns out that was a major part of the exam so it paid off huge. Too bad the stuff I understood that I was helping her out with wasn't on there anywhere. It was one of these exams where I either got 100 or a 0. The mid-term took me 2 hours and 10 minutes and I was like the third one done. This one took me an hour 20 and that was with doing a recheck. I was definitely that guy who finishes when other people are only half way through and the panic sets in with them as I pick up my stuff and go.

So now that that class is done, I've got over a month with no school commitments, possibly a month of no serious training if any at all, and work is still sort of slow. Hmmmm... what to do. I told my wife that our house is going to be gorgeous by the time I'm allowed back on the bike if it goes a while. There's no way I'm going to sit and do nothing so maybe I can catch up on everything I've been putting off. Not my first choice, but an acceptable short-term fill in since I wish I had more time to do mini-projects anyways. I think I'm also going to try and get some golf in since my neighbor is a golf junkie and I've got a couple tournaments this summer. I can probably walk 9, but if we go a full round I'll have to take a cart for now.

So advice to bike racers... keep your road rash covered and moist and it heals amazingly fast. I've got spots that I was sure were going to be weeks in healing and they're almost gone. I've got a spot on my leg that wasn't bad so I never covered it and it's probably going to take the longest. I found one really good article here. This one helped a lot.

My torn whateveritis in my leg is still pretty f'd up, but more about that later.

It's not about the road rash

Minimal whining today. Stuff hurts. Stuff is healing. I'll live. And like I said before, man am I going to be pissed when I come back. How many days till cross?

Not much on tap for the weekend. Was going to do the MTB race in RI on Sunday, but... Usual Saturday morning chaos tomorrow and then dinner with some old friends tomorrow night. Sunday I may attempt to hobble around and mow the lawn. I sort of have no choice because I'll need to buy livestock soon if I don't cut it and I refuse to let a few week setback fuel any desires to buy a riding mower. I can run 50 miles... I can walk around the yard for 90 minutes and cut the grass even if it is on 1.5 legs.

Good luck to anyone racing Jiminy or Blue Hills this weekend (or Glocester for the dirt inclined). If you're not signed up for Sterling, do it. That blue team hooks you up with a great race and the weather can't possibly be worse than last year :) I think I'm driving a lead or trail car for the afternoon so hope to see people there.

Reality sets in

So the extent of my injuries is really starting to set in... I figure I've got at least a week before nothing stings in the shower. If anything the progress on the torn muscle has been backwards. The bruises are going to be here for a while. On Sunday when I was still being super optimistic I seriously considered setting up the single-speed on a trainer to see if I could pedal. Right now it doesn't sound like a good idea or even a little fun. Some of this will be funny some day... it took me 5 minutes to put on socks this morning. My wife will hear years of jokes about having to bandage my ass. I'll have scars that I can show off and say with a smile "Hey, remember that time I got launched in the finish at Sturbridge... man that sucked". Today however I have to stay real still and hope I don't rub anything the wrong way. That is for the 30 minutes or so that I stay sitting before I have to move around in order to keep my leg loose. Argh, this is hard.

On the positive side, I've got a couple areas that are almost bandage free and according to my wife I somehow had a good healing day yesterday. I've also started formulating my negotiation plan with the doctor and a list of activities that may not aggravate the injury... stairs don't hurt, rowing might work, if I'm real careful throwing a leg over and I stay inside I think I can pedal. I know there's no need to push it, but not pushing it and trying not to lose your mind are two different things.

I'm hoping for good news from insurance land today or tomorrow. Waiting on confirmation that they have all the documents and then an estimate of when they hope to resolve this. I'm hoping the answer is quickly, but I've obviously got some time to get the bike back.

Choosing to be positive

The dojo the boys go to is always good for posting inspirational and/or informational articles and stories on the wall. The latest is this big long story about the guy who's obnoxiously positive all the time and he tells the guy who asks him that he realized at some point that he wakes up every day with the choice to be positive or to be negative about what happens to him and he chooses to look on the bright side. He later falls off a tower and is in real bad shape. He's being wheeled into the OR and he can see that the doctors are thinking he's a goner. The nurse is asking him if he's allergic to anything and he yells out "Yes... gravity!" When everyone stops laughing he tells them he's not going anywhere and they better treat him that way. In any case... if I can ever find an electronic copy of the whole thing, I'll post it.

So I'm trying my best to make that positive choice. In the span of 4 days I got hit by a car and then threw my body awkwardly into pavement at high speed while wearing 2 oz of clothing and a plastic bowl on my head. I have no broken bones, I was able to kiss my boys goodnight, and my mental function is no worse than it was before. Yes I'm down and out for way longer than I think I can tolerate, but I'm here. Ask me again in 4 weeks if I'm able to be as chipper, but for today I'll be corny and sappy.

It's only been about 60 hours and the 12" x 3" scab on my shin didn't sting in the shower today... see, I'm getting there already.

Down and out

I'll keep this short to avoid veering off into a flaming rant...

Diagnosis from the doctor is a likely 6 weeks of no leg-related aerobic exercise. I've got a significant tear of some tendon in my right groin and it just need to heal and the stuff around it needs to strengthen to support it. Progress check in 2 weeks so I'll behave until then, but then we'll see how limited I am. Keep that cross counter rolling G... I'm going to be good and pissed by then so it looks like cross may have to be my main season after all.

I could have taken a more subtle hint

If someone out there doesn't want me riding a bike, why couldn't they have just gotten them stolen or something? Yesterday, my week went from bad to ridiculous.

Headed out to Sturbridge for the 3/4 race yesterday. This was my first 3/4 road race and really I don't remember if I've done any 4 or 4/5 races since I upgraded. Racing up builds character (or something). Field was probably about 100 and the weather was quite nice... shorts and short sleeves all the way even though I saw several sets of arm and knee warmers around. The race was 7 laps of a reportedly 7 mile loop, although my computer at the end of the race said something like 43.5 miles so they rounded up I guess. We rolled out last on the day and the rollout was uneventful even though I did end up at the back which worried me for a second in case some guys were ambitious and took off. Not to worry though as NEBC sent one guy up the road like they do in every race I've ever been in, but we knew he'd be back. About a mile past the S/F line, there's a REALLY sketchy right turn that's about 130 degrees and sort of off-camber. Amazingly there were no serious mishaps on that turn, but it's always a tough one because it goes mildly downhill after and guys always go screaming off of the turn. If you're too far back it requires quite a sprint to stay on. Then it's probably close to a mile uphill, most of it almost false-flat-ish, but the last 400m or so is legit, although still big-ringable. Legs were responding very well on the uphill and I just followed the pace of the crowd. Then it's a short screaming down, some flats, a keep you honest short uphill, and then the finish stretch of about 1.5k which is really fast. The RD managed to arrange closed road for the entire loop which is amazing, but it was only partially meaningful for most of the race because there were cars coming the other way the whole race. I will throw out props to the Blue Angels who lead/trail the fields at this race on their m'cycles and do an awesome job.

It's fair to say that for whatever reason, the field was just plain sketchy. We'd go from like 23 to 18 in 2 seconds on an open section of road with nobody off the front. I almost got taken out going up the hill because some guy squeezed me, I got my bars partially hooked, and then me and that guy had to untangle on the move. I got elbowed into the left gutter even though I clearly had a lane. Then I had to return the favor to a guy who tried to squeeze me off the road on the right. I think the whole open road thing hurt in this case because everyone wanted the front row even though nobody wanted to do anything when they got there. We even had a crash on lap one on a dead flat section of the widest road. There was a steady stream of 1-4 guys who'd go off the front, their team(s) might try to block a little, and they'd get maybe 20-30 seconds max. On lap 4, partially as an experiment, I tried a solo bridge up to 2 guys who were out about 20 seconds. I got off the front pretty easily and then realized I had one with me. This could have been good because 4 of us might have stayed off for a while, but I got 2/3 of the way and realized I just didn't have enough legs. I sat up just before the keep-you-honest hill so I could get a breath and latch back on. Other than that nonsense, I just tried to stay invisible and do very little work.

With 1 to go, I made sure I was in the front third. I was probably 20th going through the sketchy turn and then stayed near the front on the long hill and followed pace. I hauled up the last hill and got 15th or 20th through the last turn onto the finish road. Then things blew up. Instead of one of the teams that had 4 or 5 gunning it and forming the pointy end of the race, it almost immediately went like 6 or 7 wide with everyone filling the whole road. There was maybe a 3 guy train on the right, but then it was just a mass of speeding bikers. I was staying left and catching on to guys going forward with the hopes that we'd be the fast line and we'd surprise the right train. I was in an ok position, but looking back now, I might have been able to get in the top 20, but I wasn't going to win from where I was. With about 500m to go, some guy to the right of me squeezed over and all hell broke loose. I tried to hold him off, but got pushed far enough left that I think my front wheel caught on something and I got launched forwards. One other guy got taken out too and I honestly don't know if he hit me or if he got knocked down also. One guy who was on the back said all of a sudden he just looked up and saw my bike about 10 feet in the air. The good news is no bones broken and my squash is intact. I have more road rash than anyone deserves and if you must know, a lot of it is on my ass which is making for a very pleasant experience. The most concerning injury is some sort of groin muscle pull or tear that I could feel pop during the crash. It's swollen and almost feels like there's something missing where there should be a muscle.

The bright side, if there is one, is that I definitely had the fitness going on. Computer said avg speed of 24.5 mph, avg HR 145, max 175, distance 43.5ish. I looked down at one point on the finish road about half way through the race and HR was 119. Let's see how long it takes me to get back on the horse, that is when I have one to get back on. I've got one road bike that's trapped in insurance land and another that needs a damage assessment. I've got two wrecked Ksyriums and who knows what else. We'll see if they can be rebuilt or what. I've still got the SS and the mountain bike, so we'll see when me leg lets me get out.

There you go G... how's that for a report? Oh, I did see Kerry at the race. She said it was a pack finish in the women's pro and looked semi-satisfied. My teammate saw her later and says "Pink wheels... that's awesome!" :) There you go Kerry, tell the sponsors the crowd likes 'em too.

That's all bike racers and friends. Time to go change some bandages. Oh, and by the way, hold your lines please.

My "Holy crap" moment

So normally I don't get too hung up on what could have happened. I, like most parents, of course have visions of the horrible things that could happen if you're not careful ( You'll shoot your eye out), but once something is over and done I don't waste much energy on what could have happened because it didn't. Yesterday was a little bit of an exception. I was replaying in my head the impact with the car. For anyone who's ever been in any kind of accident and wasn't very seriously hurt, this stuff usually plays back in crystal clear HD for as long as you want it to. What occurred to me is how little the guy missed my leg by. The impact was basically his driver's front corner right on the rear quick release. Next time you're on your bike, put your left leg in any position you want and look at how close your foot/ankle/leg is to where the guy hit me. That sunk in a little yesterday and a sense of 'Holy Shit!' set in for a few. Oh well, like I said, it didn't happen so no sense worrying.

Damage estimate is in... this guy is probably going to fall over when he finds out the price of bike parts. Oh well... maybe it'll teach him to pay attention. Then again, I still won't assume he sees me...

Bright Side: It could have been an Escalade

Well, my ride home last night was way more exciting than I wanted. Here's the short version which I posted elsewhere:

So I rode into work today as I've been trying to do once or twice a week. All rides so far have been uneventful. Today... not so much. I wasn't thrilled that the weather nerds got it wrong again, but no big deal. My route takes me on route 20 through the main part of Waltham which can be an adventure, but usually just requires being awake and watching everyone. I went through the light at Prospect St right in front of Frank's and was cruising along without any traffic around me (I think they got held up by someone turning). There are a few side streets on the right and I see this car up the road stopped like he was going to take a left into one of the streets, but he looks like he has overshot the turn so he's almost making a partial u-turn to go into the street. He waited a long time to actually turn and I could see he had been staring in my direction so I figured he was waiting. Just as I got close enough to not really have an out, he hits the gas and goes for the street. I knew I couldn't stop in time to not ride right into the side of the car and he sort of checked up mid-turn so I figured he saw me and was stopping. I went in front of him in an arc into the side street figuring worst case he'll see me when I'm in front of him. Well, I think the first time he saw me was when I was sliding through the crosswalk. I had made it most of the way by, but then he drove right into the rear wheel. Him hitting me along with the wheel getting tacoed and coming to a dead stop sort of just tossed me over sideways. I landed primarily on my hip/butt and have a pretty impressive bruise/raspberry to show for it. I was able to roll on my back and skid on my backpack a few feet so really the damage to me was minimal. The bike is an unknown... obviously destroyed rear wheel (sorry Neil... that free wheel WAS working great), bars should be replaced because the hit the ground and got scratched up, frame might be bent. If there's a bright spot, I carried it a block to Frank's and asked him to go over it for me and then he let me hang out and wait for a ride.

The colorful version:
The way they guy was making the turn it was obvious that he couldn't drive which f'd me up more. He sort of paused twice in the middle of doing it so it gave me the sense (twice) that he saw me. When he ever accelerated and drove right into me it was just sheer disbelief. I probably scared the life out of him because I bounced up pretty quickly and walked towards the car using of course the highest quality of language to express my displeasure :) I think it was something to the effect of "What the f$&k were you looking at?" I was really worried for a minute because he immediately started in with asking me how much it would cost to fix everything and that he wanted to pay me so it didn't go against his insurance. I was waiting for the follow up of "I don't have insurance". The shop is supposed to call today with the damage assessment and then I'm going to write it up and give him a very limited time to pay me. A small part of me wants to do it through his insurance so he gets several years worth of painful reminders to pay attention while he's driving. Heaven forbid one of those hooligans on a two-wheeled machine try to share the road with him and get in his way. Honestly, as long as he pays up I'll just let it go. It could have been sooooooooo much worse. My wife actually handled it VERY well. I did have to make that phone call which started out with "First I'll tell you I'm fine, but..." It worked out extra well because the first call I made was to tell her I needed a ride since she was over 20 miles away and I knew it would take a while. I told her to get me at the shop and she just sort of assumed the bike came apart on me or something and said she'd call me back. She's just thankful and will be fine eventually.

Ok, time to work. I'm going to have to get up every 30 minutes or so and walk around today to try and keep this hip loose. I'll find out tonight how it feels while riding.

Commuting day

Wrapping up the hard part of the pre-race week with the trek in and back today. I was going to write up this big long thing this morning because I was all juiced with my ride in, but now my lack of sleep is setting in so let's just sum it up by saying it was fast and fun. Primarily green lights and elapsed time was down. Ride home may not be so forgiving with the weather moving in. We shall find out.

Bad week for the bikes... brought the race rig in for a tuneup and ended up having to replace the carbon seatpost because it was cracked. Then I got it home last night and put it on the trainer (no time to go out in the daylight) and found out that I and the shop had missed the fact that the BB was loose or something. Creaks when climbing and if you tourqued the arms around you could see it moving a little. Swapped the wheel on the commuter and put that on the trainer to finish the workout and realized the whole steering stack was loose so things were rattling (should have checked this earlier because I thought I was getting some weirdness going over the roots on the bike path). Got that all tightened up so it's happy again. Let's hope things go right with the race bike... what was that rule about never doing work right before a race? Must get out on it tomorrow night and/or Friday to be sure. If Sturbridge were going unusually well and I had a mechanical I would not at all be pleased. I really wish I had more time to work on my bikes myself, but I just have to rely on the shop/sponsor or the things would be coming apart under me when I didn't maintain them. Gotta make the tradeoffs...

Need food...

Too early to be nervous?

Ok, Sturbridge isn't till Saturday and I'm already nervous. I think the last time I was this anxious this far ahead of an event I ran 7hrs 31min for 50 miles... good sign... we'll see. Fitness test yesterday morning went pretty well. 40 miles, 1hour 58min. I never really pushed it at all. Not a shred of flat road on the loop. I told my wife I'm cautiously optimistic. Who knows, I could be OTB 5 miles in. Too many days away to worry about it so I should just calm down. Ok, enough rambling on that.

So I'm not sure if this one gets filed under PSA, TMI, PITA, or FUBAR, but it's kinda funny nonetheless. Let's start by saying that when your saddle sits 90.5cm above the bottom bracket, shaving is a bit more time consuming than for most. Because I'm both busy and sorta lazy with some things, I decided to take the advice of a friend and try that hair remover creme stuff. To cut to the chase, I think I'm going to stick to a razor. For starters, they can flavor that stuff with all the melon/lavendar/perfume that they want, it freaking stinks. It reminds me of when I was little and was stuck hanging around while my mom got her hair permed. Secondly, maybe it's just my skin, but it stung like a mofo. Lastly, I still had spots I have to shave so it was only partially worthwhile.

Dropped the bike off Friday because the rear shifting had just gone sloppy on me. Got the call today that while they were working on it they found that my carbon seatpost had a crack in it... dammit. I've got the steel frame waiting in the wings for next season so I decided to go with a trick Thompson aluminum post instead of another carbon. Cheapest carbon worth buying was still $30 more. Who knows... the bike may ride like crap now, but let's see. 4 days to try it out and get used to it.

Back to 24 (the one show I actually sit and watch)

Friday blowoff

The combination of one of the first legitimately nice days in a long time and school vacation has made this place just a comedy of absence today. I think the first 3 people I looked for on an important issue were all out for the day so then I just gave up. Oh well, maybe that means I won't get yelled at today.

Unfortunately the warmth did take it's sweet old time settling in today. I had all my clothes for the ride laid out last night and then after opening the door to let the dog out I grabbed an extra layer. It was 28 at the house this morning and it felt at least that cold until I got the blood flowing. Going to be a weird ride home... I came in with winter booties, 2 pairs of gloves, leg warmers, and a winter hat and I'll probably ride home in shorts and short sleeves. Another bonus is that unless it shifts, I've got sort of a cross-tail wind which should be a nice break from the dead on headwind I had last week.

No race plans this weekend despite the opportunities. The motorcycle will officially change ownership tomorrow so I have to wrap that up and then Sunday we've got some plans. On top of it, I've got 3 races in 4 weeks starting with Sturbridge so I'm trying to not burn all my points at once. Should be able to get some miles in in any case so hopefully I get to enjoy the sun.

Not sure if I mentioned it before, but the garage got a little more full this week... through a long chain of events, I picked up a sweet Guerciotti steel racing frame for cheap. It will replace the current race rig for next season so in the meantime I get to just drool on it and scope out a few parts on ebay. I had considered just selling the current bike as a whole bike and then getting all new for this one, but I don't think I can make enough to offset the cost of a new gruppo, etc. Might have to just transfer as much as possible and then sell off what's left for cheap. We'll see how many pennies I can save and then decide. Besides, I've got a cross bike to build this summer so I get to play with new parts there :)

Playing catch up

Need to catch up on everything... updates here, work, sleep, training, etc. Let's see... weekend recap first:

Saturday, kid's stuff, yard work, got to play 9 holes of golf (earliest I have ever been on a course), then not much Sat night.

Sunday, found out that sometimes it pays to procrastinate... I had planned to be out on the roads at 6:30 for an attack/interval workout to beat the weather and not conflict with my wife's plans. Lounged around in bed and by the time I got ready it was around 7. Literally just as I'm about to put my shoes on I see the wet dots forming on the front walk. I was already dressed so I stripped off the warm stuff and set up in the garage. Turned up some loud angry music way too loud and off I went. Great workout... probably the best I've felt in a while. Later in the day tried to change the oil on the m'cycle before I get it sold and found out that the drain plug is impossible to get to without a lift. I don't have one so I need to borrow one or bring it to a shop. We'll see, but that bike should be gone soon which will provide cash for the cross bike.

Yesterday I pulled on the full rain gear and went out to cheer on the crazies at the marathon. It is amazingly hard to pick your friends out of a moving crowd that big and of the 20 or so people I knew running, I somehow missed every one of them. Weather ended up being less of a factor than expected, but still a factor so huge props to everyone who finished. Some people I know even got PR's so it couldn't have been all bad.

Next 2 days I'm in class at work so it's a little bit of a mental blowoff. I'll make sure that things aren't imploding during breaks, but that's about it. Unless we get shut out by the crowds tonight, my wife and I are going to catch the advanced showing of The Flying Scotsman which is coming out in May. Should be fun.

So a little tangent here because I was thinking about it over the weekend... I'm curious to find out if I'm just simply not cut out for this cycling thing or if maybe, the elitist nature of the sport extends into how many hours you spent training. There does seem to be an air of "I trained more hours than you and my bike is shinier" about this sport which is obviously not completely connected to race results. I got on this because I was feeling pretty good about my 8.5 hours or so of saddle time last week and then I was clicking around through a maze of linked blogs and I find a guy (i think he's a 3) who was talking about a relatively easy week of 18.5 training hours. One thing I know for certain is that unless I start commuting the 57 round trip every day, I will probably never approach 20 hours of saddle time in a week. Part of me thinks back to my hard core running days when I was reasonably successful on 40-50 miles a week of training. I knew other guys who really were no more successful on 80 miles a week or more. Christ, I think my longest every marathon training week was under 70 and that was the year I ran 2:53 in terrible weather. So I wonder in the back of my head if I can pull this cycling thing off on being the focused-training-with-low-mileage-guy or if I'm going to get schooled. We shall see. I'm still REALLY looking forward to some mountain bike races this season (never did one before) because mentally the race will be easier for me. Pretty much the same as running... go faster than everyone else. I think it will forever drive me nuts that in road races, the fastest guy in a field has little guarantee that he will win.

I suppose it could be worse

Ways that dealing with the weather could be worse:

1) I could be racing BKR this weekend
2) I could be running Boston on Monday
3) It could be icy in the morning so either I couldn't ride or I crashed a lot

I was going to fire up the rant machine, but everyone knows the weather sucks so I'll spare you. My #1 hope is that all the 3's and 4's out there are trying to stay warm and dry and will be less ready than me for Sturbridge. I doubt it, but here's hoping.

Quiet weekend on tap and I'm taking Monday off. I firmly believe that the state should just shut down on Patriots day so everyone can enjoy the marathon and the Sox game. It's hit or miss around here and it turns out I missed at this place. Oh well, I have a vaca day I can use. Odds are very good that we won't bring the whole fam, but I'll probably head down to watch some true suffering. Good luck to everyone who's going to attempt it. I've run one in that kind of wind and rain, but it was at least 30 degrees warmer than they're saying.

What are the chances that the wind will die down or shift to a tail wind for the ride home? Probably way lower that I'd hope...

It might be sunny and break 50 tomorrow... go enjoy it before it snows again.

Just plain awful

What a contrast in rides today. This morning I got up and bundled up for the lovely 30 degree temps and headed out at little later than planned. Last time I rode in I was a mess in the morning and it was a slow ugly ride. Today I planned to head out at a nice steady clip, pick one gear and stick with it for a while since it's mainly flat the first 6 or so miles and actually warm up. Got into a nice groove and then continued to feel better and better. I didn't ride yesterday and ran instead, but I ran too hard so I figured I'd be toast this morning... not so. By the time I got to work, including getting stuck at two of the longest traffic lights on the route, I was 6 minutes faster than the ugly ride last week. I was curious to see how that would effect the ride home and unfortunately I got to find out.

The ride home can only be described as an exercise in suffering. It's good to learn how to suffer so that when you get there in a race you can say "Been there, done that" and you know that you're not really going to fall over dead on the spot. Now if practicing it just didn't suck so much. The trip was a brutal combination of dead legs from the morning, a dead on strong headwind, getting stuck at every light imaginable, and getting cut off and nearly taken out by idiots most of the way. The last several miles I was just preaching to myself that some day, in a race when it matters, I'm going to be better off for that ride. Let's just hope it's true.

Hard to get really excited that the Sox destroyed the Mariners, but it was opening day and they did put a beat down on them so I'll forget that they kinda stink :)

Oh, and by the way, I can't find it in my own archive, but I know that back when we were sunbathing and wanting to reopen the pools in December, I know I called it that by the end of the winter we'd all still be bitching that we wanted it to end. Well put me on the list of people proving me right... I should not be wearing wool socks and 3 layers to ride in mid-April. Enough already...

Anyone want a dog?

Ok, so I have one of the most disobedient dogs on the planet. I'll wholeheartedly admit that I'm a terrible doggy parent, but before all the dog people start on me, she's very well cared for, has more than she deserves for comfort, and I will admit that she misbehaves because I never trained her. In any case... years ago we fenced in the back yard so she could get some exercise and we could feel better about not walking her several times a day which she could probably use but we don't have time for. Before too long, she learned how to jump the fence. Now she's a little 20lb dog and it's a 42" fence so it's some decent determination for her to get out. My wife threw in the towel like 2 years ago and now will not let her out without a leash on, period. I have hung in there and I'll let her run around the back yard free, but I stand there and watch her the whole time. Well tonight I let her out when we get home and then I stop watching her for a second. She went around the one corner of the house where I can't see her, but figured she was doing her business. After a minute or so of her not appearing, I look around the corner and find that someone had left the gate open. What I had not mentioned yet was that my neighbors have about 15 grandchildren who are the most poorly behaved, poorly supervised (you think there's a connection) children on the planet. I know for a fact that they are constantly in our yard and this is not the first time they've left the gate open. To cut to the chase, the dog ran free for 3 hours before I finally was able to tackle her (we're talking full sprawl NFL open field tackle) when she came over to say hi to a dog that was being walked by her owner. She, as always, had rolled in some other dogs business so of course she had to go straight in the tub and I am not yet sure if I killed the smell. All these years I've said that I wouldn't get rid of her because I cared about her just enough that I didn't want her to end up with people who were mean to her. It's nights like this that make me figure she's tough and she'll do fine...

Observations

Random collection of thoughts from this week...

Things that are pissing me off:
1) People who cross sidewalks without looking. I almost took out a Harvard and an MIT student this week because they strolled across a busy sidewalk with their head up their ass and didn't check first. So much for those being the smart schools.
2) People who walk 4 wide across sidewalks that are regularly used by runners and bikers. C'mon people, let's share.
3) People who make decisions without considering the consequences. Also known as people who don't know what the hell they're talking about when they sign off on something.

Things that frustrate me:
Being outside the mass market average. Can't just go anywhere and buy pants. Can't go anywhere at all and buy a bike. Get this band of numbness about 4 inches above my ankle where the tights don't go down far enough and the shoe covers don't come up high enough. I understand how business works so I get it, but I still get screwed.

Things that made me jealous this week:
Pseudo-pro or not, KL got hooked up. Good for her... sort of makes me want to train harder.

Got a laugh out of:
This week's Todcast... 3 appearances from the Tufts crit footage for me including video evidence of me giving away 11th place. Oh, and the Chaz Michael Michaels comment was freaking hilarious.

Back to work...

Season Opener

Lot's to talk about today so this may get broken into multiple posts...

Kicked the season off yesterday with the Tufts Criterium which is a USCF race thrown in with the Beanpot collegiate weekend. Sick course... 1k loop, 6 90 degree corners, one is downhill at 25+ mph, short steep section into the start/finish road. Last year I did this race and it was my first real (non-Wells) crit ever. I got lapped twice and pulled. Field was way smaller this year, I think partially because of Marblehead. I got a spot right on the line which was great and then blew it by missing a pedal and not getting out quick. Proved to be fatal because a crash on turn 2 (the fast downhill) about 8 guys ahead of me on lap one split the field and that was that. Fortunately, we were able to get some groups together and eventually the race came down to 2 groups. Leaders were probably a minute up and then there was my group. I stupidly took the lead at the bell and got hung out there. Tried to make it happen the last time up the hill, but it didn't work and I got 7th in the group. Just finishing was major progress since it was a 3/4 race so I was pleased overall, but proved to myself how critical the start is in a tough crit. There were lots of good things that happened during the race though... felt real smooth tearing through corners, rode well in a groups, had a couple times that I had to chase a guy that I really needed to be behind and I did. All in all a good kickoff to the season. I think the key was shaving off the winter fur yesterday morning :)

Hmmm, other biking news... the MRC crew showed some force in the b's and c's at Wells yesterday and took 2 seconds. Lots of guys got a chance to try lots of stuff which is the whole point of that race so they were all happy. Also a guy I know won the masters at Marblehead and looks to have outsprinted Johnny Bold to do it... I'm officially impressed. I know he's pumped about it so kudos to him.

Ok... back to work... funny children stories later.

Attack of the snooze alarm

So I'm a chronic snooze-alarm abuser. The average day is anywhere from 15-30 minutes of hitting (ok slamming) the little button every 8 minutes. I think my record is 2 hours. Occassionally, I go a step further and convince myself that I'm truly awake and I shut the alarm off. About half the time when I do that, I was not really awake and I wake up some time later in a panic. Today was that day. I'm supposed to be up around 5 for work. On a day I'm riding it's important I get up close to that so that I can be dressed, fed, and on my bike before 6. Today when I finished the snooze dance and then the I'm awake so I'll shut the alarm off but I wasn't really awake so I fell back asleep game, it was 6 when I jumped up in a panic. After much deliberation, and the temperature this morning didn't help, I bagged it and proceeded to sit in traffic for an hour+ drive in. I should have just ridden anyways. I know that the snoozing game comes down to habit as well as not sleeping enough. But a) how do you break a habit that's so ingrained that you do it when you're semi-conscious, and b) I don't have the energy to get into a discussion of how my life is an endless circle of not having enough time and therefore suffering on sleep. Anywho... Hopefully I can get out of here early enough to head out after work. I don't even want to guess at the mood I'll be in if I get stuck tonight and get home too late.

Mmmmm, food

Soggy and chilly ride in this morning. I guess more grungy than soggy. No rain falling but plenty of spray coming up. Temp was 38 and I had to stop 5 miles in for a second layer of gloves. Nice and toasty after that. New distance with the crappy road taken out is 28.6 and I made it in just a touch faster. Kept it in the fun ring for the last 12 miles or so so the speed was up some. Breakfast was a breakfast cookie and coffee before the ride and then a banana, oatmeal with walnuts added, a muffin, and coffee at work. Lunch so far is a meatball sub and fries (file under bad) and there's sure to be at least one snack later. Temps in the 60's for the ride home so should be fun. Need to decide how much to rest up before Tufts on Sunday. I'd like to make a better showing than last year, but you have to have a special kind of race to contend at that one. Debating skipping Thursday ride in, but we'll see how I feel tonight. It really gets down to business at Sturbridge so I could afford to train through this one. Back to work (and food)...

Mini rant on...

So I can sum up the last 5 miles or so of Friday's ride home in one word: suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck! Ok, maybe that's an overstatement, but... I was feeling pretty good about myself because the wind was dead in my face the whole way home and I had made it well past the 50 mile point for the day feeling ok. I was sort of counting the miles until I came unglued and sure enough it happened with about 3 miles to go. I talked myself through the rest of it which went by very painfully and I finally roll into the driveway after a little over an hour 40. I don't know what even made me check, but as I'm rolling into the garage I check the rear wheel only to find out that a spoke had gone loose as a noodle so the wheel would not spin once around without being stopped by the brake. Well, that was some unneccessary suffering. No idea when it busted, but long story short the wheel is trashed. My hope is that it goes back to the cross race where I dinged it up and it was worse than they thought when they trued it back. Worst case scenario is that the very minor bend in the seat stay on the Lemond shredded the wheel. I may find that out tomorrow if I wreck another wheel. Biggest suckage comes from the fact that the wheel is out of warranty, rebuild cost is about $10 less than the cost of new, and even a 105 hub with an open pro rim is about $140 which I really hadn't planned on spending. If anyone out there has a 9-speed Shimano they want to sell me cheap, feel free to let me know.

Oh, and the blinky thing is long gone. Either I missed it or it's on the really crappy road that I skipped. New one will be firmly strapped to the frame tonight for the morning.

Midterm tonight... argh.

/Rant

28.25

That's the official mileage on the ride in. Left home around 6:05 and it took about 1.5 hours to get here. Couple sections of road that I may have to rethink because the pavement really sucks, but I think the mods will add distance. Not sure I want to add more than a mile or so, but we'll see. Might try one change on the way home.

It ended up being an absolutely beautiful morning to be riding (I know G would say every morning is beautiful to be riding in). 2 thin long sleeve layers and a wind jacket and I was too warm. Almost lost the jacket at one point, but I kept hitting cold patches on the back roads so I kept it. I'll feel almost naked on the way home with the almost 60 degree temps. One mishap of the trip was that the brand new blinky tail light is gonzo. Had it clipped onto the loop on the seat bag and apparently that wasn't good enough. I've been telling people I hope it survived the fall and didn't get run over because it will make it easier to find on the way home :) I've accepted that it's $20 down the drain so we'll see if I get lucky.

It's going to take a while to figure out the ride day diet. Went with the standard breakfast which probably wasn't enough and I was probably low on fluids due to being overdressed so I just haven't felt right all morning. Just scarfed some pizza and gatorade and I'm thinking about where more food will come from. May hit the caf for round 2 or maybe go to the coffee shop for caffeine and fat/sugar. There's always the 4 pounds of trail mix I have left...

Ok, I'm supposed to be working through lunch to get out of here on time...

Nutritional Information

OK, 2 reactions to this article: 1) Is anyone actually surprised by this? and 2) Did I really need to see the actual numbers? I know that my diet sometimes leaves much to be desired, but I have 2 theories on that: I'm content with categorizing foods as "bad" and "not bad" and making conscious decisions based on that and also one of my favorite book quotes "If the fire's hot enough, anything will burn, even Big Macs." To steal an offer from solo... free leadout to anyone who can name the book.

Time to get back to work I suppose. Need to go collect my free small iced in a bit from DnD.

Nutritional Information

OK, 2 reactions to this article: 1) Is anyone actually surprised by this? and 2) Did I really need to see the actual numbers? I know that my diet sometimes leaves much to be desired, but I have 2 theories on that: I'm content with categorizing foods as "bad" and "not bad" and making conscious decisions based on that and also one of my favorite book quotes "If the fire's hot enough, anything will burn, even Big Macs." To steal an offer from solo... free leadout to anyone who can name the book.

Time to get back to work I suppose. Need to go collect my free small iced in a bit from DnD.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.........

Ah, the joy of Monday morning. Being away last week and then being jet lagged, I think I had some excessive paranoia about getting up this morning so I was awake at 3:45, then at some point the middle one came in to inform us that he was going to the bathroom, then I was pretty much awake at 5 even though I lounged in bed for a while. Legs are pretty much cooked today from 4+ hours on the trainer between Friday night and yesterday. Climbing repeats during a 2 hour session Saturday and then a high cadence/increasing resistance workout yesterday didn't help. If all goes as planned, I'll ride in sometime later this week and then hit Wells Sunday. The bike is almost completely set up now... I'm just finishing up a light mount that I had to rig up because I couldn't get it to sit right on the bars. Pictures when it's finished.





Ok, Monday humor:

Snow cleanup actually sucked a little less than I expected Saturday. Got the oldest to help me shovel the neighbor's steps and our back steps so he got paid and he was thrilled. Of course his brother then wanted to be paid for dutifully kicking all the icicles off the cars... he was so cute about it we had to give in.

Anywho... I need to search for some productive energy. It wasn't at the bottom of my bowl of oatmeal so maybe it's hiding in the coffee...

Oh the horror...

Well I've reached the point of blog neglect that I am starting to get all sorts of crap from both of my readers :) I guess it's time to update everyone. I'm actually quite pleased to say that I am currently sitting outdoors in San Jose enjoying the very pleasant 75ish degree weather. While 55+ back in Bahstun is quite nice for March, 75 and palm trees still wins. I'm not a big fan of the left coast in general, but this is kinda nice. Speaking of this other coast, flying in here from Vegas on a nice clear day I realized that I do have to come back at some point with a bike to ride. Looks like some beautiful roads up through the hills and farm land.

So what's going on you ask... well... training is going sort of ok and I've at least reached the point where I have a race schedule that my wife has bought into. It's all subject to change, but at least it's a goal. I believe I'm heading to Forrest Park Sunday, then maybe Wells the next week, then definitely Tufts for a good ole whooping. This past weekend I went all in with the long ride kickoff for the season and put in 72 miles between the 2 days with 46 of it Sunday. Turns out that once we hit midseason, Wells is a very tolerable 23 or so miles from home so I could legitimately ride down there, suck some wheels in the B's and then ride home. We'll see if that plan ever gets put into use. Sadly I am losing the weekend momentum as I am bikeless out here in San Josey so it's just running for a couple days.

At home, the next phase of the never ending quest to turn our shack into less of a dump kicked off yesterday with Dad replacing the staircase to the basement and putting up the first couple walls. I sooooooooooooooooo wish I had the stones to quit my job and go into business with him so I didn't have to hire him to do work like this, but it will probably never happen so I just have to admire his hard work while I type away.

Ok, so I should probably catch up on emails some more even though everyone at work is long gone. This trip is panning out well and I'm getting to see some friends that I see rarely. Lunch with one today and dinner with some more tonight. Tomorrow it's a long day with more conference in the a.m. and then the long trek home starting around noon. Maybe if I get bored in the Vegas airport on the way back I'll copy KL and throw something up here. Till then...

Blech!

What a crappy day. Actually I shouldn't be bitching because there's been lots of sun lately and the last two days were beautiful (for Feb/March). The issue is that my office window faces almost directly south so I currently get a very nice view most days of the sun going left to right over the buildings down the street. I also get here early enough that I get to see most of the cycle. On a day like today, part of my brain thinks it never gets past 6:30 or 7 because the grayness across the way never goes away. Add to that it being Friday and you get me posting blog stuff in the middle of the morning instead of being productive. How about some humor to try and make things better:

Ok, I feel just a little better. Anywho... I suppose I'll do something. Riding is going to be screwed up this weekend because we're going "away" (to Hartford) for a show Saturday night. I'll probably be on the gerbil wheel at odd hours trying to get some time in.