Make up your damn mind

I had a very schizophrenic week... First I didn't think I'd be racing. Then I was trying to convince people to go to Turtle Pond. Then I was iffy about Turtle Pond because the weather looked sucky. Then I was re-looking at all the races this weekend. Then my wife suggested I go to Wells. Then I thought I decided I would go to Hop Brook tomorrow. Then I tried to get home in time Thursday to pre-reg for Hop Brook, but got home late, so I figured I'd just pay the extra 5 bucks. Then tonight I was 5 minutes away from packing the car for tomorrow and rechecked the directions. I discovered that Hop Brook Dam is 115 miles from here. Then I reconsidered. Now I'm not going to Hop Brook. As of now I'm riding with the team tomorrow and then racing Wells Sunday. That is until whatever happens next...

Good and Bad

I felt good and I dropped Paul which made me feel bad that I dropped Paul... Ah well, he got dropped close to home :) I don't even have a link to the aforementioned Paul. Here's the closest I have... you'll have to settle for Mrs. Paul. So nice to ride in the warm weather. I didn't even mind the headwind (much).

Thursdays are typically my only night off of the week... I have class Monday and Wednesday which means I have homework Sunday through Tuesday. Wednesday is class, Thursday is nothing, Friday starts the weekend. So I try to cram everything into Thursday. Oh wait... that's right... I should be cramming.

Friday yet?

Maybe wishing for Friday isn't such a good idea right now since it's so damn nice out and I think Friday will be less so. Rode in today for the second time this week and didn't feel so awful this morning despite going for a spirited 5k run last night at around 8:15 and then hopping on the bike this morning at 5:45. It was bearably cool with just a double short-sleeve and arm warmers, but I get to leave all kinds of stuff here for the shorts and short sleeves ride home (woo hoo!). I couldn't buy a freaking green light this morning so lets hope for better luck.

I'm 95% sure I'm headed to way the eff out CT Saturday for the Root 66 mudfest. I was going to do Turle Pond, but 30's and wet at the start didn't sound so appealing. Chris Hinds will be a swim meet so that didn't sound fun either. Lets hope I got all the mud out of the gears from last weekend... I should probably check that before Saturday a.m.

I'm hoping this ride home wakes me up... sooooooooo sleepy.

KOB

This will be the short version of the KOB race report since 1) I should be working, 2) I already typed the long race report for the team so my fingers are tired, 3) I'm sleepy.

Overally a wicked fun day. Me and my bike came home functional and covered in mud so how bad could it have been. My goal was sub 40 minutes. I really strolled through a warmup ride of the whole course in 45 so I figured that was do-able. I know I told G that I'd upgrade to sport if I beat him and I could argue either way that I have to now. On one hand, he obviously left out his post about the secret training camp he attended and he smoked his time from last year by like 2 minutes (if I read the results scribbles correctly). On the other hand, I did come in at almost dead even with his time from last year. Who knows... I have to decide if I should keep sandbagging or jump up and take a beating from those who know how to ride a mountain bike.

The goods and bads:
Bad - The guy 30 seconds behind me was already in sight in the first technical section about 5 minutes in.
Good - I never let him go and ultimately finished maybe 10 seconds in front of him
Better - I think I passed 4 of the 5 guys who started ahead of me

Awesome - I somehow had a revelation and figured out my cross remounts yesterday. Many noticed last season that I had this awful clumsy stutter step thing going.
Not so awesome - I had to practice it way too many times since I sucked over some of the tricky stuff

Good - I took home a new Hutchinson tubeless tire as a prize
Less good - I just bought new tires last week
Still good - My new tires kick ass.

Ok... I'm over my goofing off quota for now. More later.

Planning

When you're married with kids and in grad school, you tend to plan things well in advance and put them on the calendar on the wall at home which makes them almost unchangeable. If you do not, there's a risk that these plans get trumped by something. Truth be told, even when they're written down, they could get trumped by something, especially when they are non-required activities like racing. Now the hardcore types will argue that I just committed blaspehmy by calling racing non-required, but the family guys will get it. In order to minimize my chances of getting trumped, I'm trying to put together a race schedule or something that looks like it. In short, it's hard. I think what's going to happen is that I'm going to put as few stakes in the ground as possible, but have a lengthy B list which will get used whenever the opportunity presents itself. As part of this plan, I've determined there's a non-zero chance I may go against everything I've said and do that big stage race thingy that's all the rage around here in July. We shall see...

And in non-bike racing notes (proud dad alert)... my kids are brilliant. Last night was this fair that the elementary school puts on to display their work. Each grade level covers some theme and the kids do a number of projects on that theme. I discovered that my first grader can write, read, and understand words like 'metamorphosis' and 'chrysalis' (yes, I had to check my own spelling on those) and my kindergartener can write complete sentences with near perfect spelling with no assistance (I knew about this one, but I got to see it displayed). At least I know the tuition payments are being put to good use :) Now if the two of them could just keep themselves out of trouble too... boys have a knack for creating ways to get in trouble.

April... first?

I was all ready at lunch time today to join in the web-wide April foolery, but I couldn't go through with what I thought of. I was going to post that all my bikes were for sale. I was going to dig up the old Xray of my busted hand and concoct some story about getting doored on the way to work or something and how I was giving up and getting out of the game. Then it occurred to me that I still had to ride home and I didn't need that sort of bad karma. Karma thanked me and I was rewarded with a killah ride home despite the wind. Wasn't all that super fast (partially due to the wind), but I just felt like the whole time I was able to put down some consistent power. My legs never really quit or screamed at me so things were good. The youngins tell me good is what we're after so I'll take it. Oh, and road crud on a wet day blows. My bike didn't even want to shift by about half way home. Time to do some cleaning.

Oh, and I scored some Sox tix for Patriots Day today. They're only bleachers, but the boys are thrilled. I always take that day off for the marathon anyways so now we'll just hopefully catch the finish instead of the middle.

Finally

After way more grief than it should have been, I have an assembled road bike. Got fitted today and got in just over an hour 40 tonight. It's a pretty big adjustment from the cross bike so I have to get some more miles in to know if it needs adjusted. Yes, there's a lot of spacers. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but most of them are pink. Throwin a little support to the ladies via Chris King

Two milestones

1. I rode in today for the first time in '08
2. This is post #200!

And yes, despite what G may try to claim, it was frickin cold this morning. 24 when I left town. I warmed up nice, but sort of wished I had a neck gaiter or high collar or something. Just went with the double-jersey and base since the jacket is always too much when coupled with the backpack. I was surprised to also find out that I only missed last year's start by 2 days. I figured I was off by a lot more considering daylight savings is a couple weeks old now, but apparently not. We'll see if I make it in on 2 again this week.

Oh, and I apologize 200 times for making you read my babble. I'll apologize 200 more in a year or two :)

I just want to race bikes

There are times I regret getting really into biking. My wife jokes that in running it's just shoes and that's simple... days like today she's right. I was going to go into a big effing tirade, but I've been making her suffer through that all afternoon. Suffice it to say that my road bike is still in pieces and is now in the trunk of my car instead of at the shop. The fork is there too. It has no crown race. I'll stop there or I will rant. Before I even got to this bit of fun I was on my ride this morning and I flatted... when running late... twice. I traveled what would have been the final several miles home in a car. Argh. And I can't even hate my bikes and go to the shop and buy a new one... Hey Landry's guy... what you got sitting around in a 67cm frame? Ok, now I'm ranting.

But the packy near home now has Dale's Pale Ale. So there is a silver lining... or silver lined can as it may be.

Blatant Advertising

My dear children (2 at least so far) attend St. Michael's School in Hudson which is trying to do what every other small private/catholic school does... raise money to keep the lights on. Now if you're reading this there's a good chance that you are either a) family or close friend, or b) a bike racer. If it's a, then guilt can be very powerful. If it's b, then you either have well above average discretionary income or are a risk taker (or both). So what's this latest fundraiser you ask? It's one of those good old high price, high odds raffles. $100 a ticket, max of 2500 tickets. First prize is $50k. Second prize is a car or $10k. Prizes down to 20th. C'mon, think of how many 7 pound bikes you can buy with $50k (ok, maybe it's only 2). And how many races do you go to where you get paid for 20th? Besides, it's for the children. Pony up folks... otherwise when I win I'm not sharing :)

Lost days

I hate getting sick. And it's less because getting sick just really blows and more that I lose all or part of a day to do anything productive when I get sick. I rarely get sick. When I get sick enough to say I am, I'm totally down for the count. Today was one of those days. I didn't sleep well and didn't feel right when I woke up. The first couple hours I was up I kept feeling progressively worse. Finally I hit rock bottom and had to go back to bed at like 10 this morning. I think I took 3 different 2 hour "naps" today. I effectively did nothing. I'm 1) too busy, and 2) too type-A to do nothing for a whole day. Crap. I feel kinda better and in the morning I'm going to decide if it's better enough to go riding. There's lot of other stuff that didn't get done today either so I may have to draw straws on what I catch up on. For starters I'd like to feel well enough to eat something. I went today with one sip of coffee, half a plain bagel with butter, and 2 Ritz. Ah well... I'll start over tomorrow and hope for better.

PSA

Courtesy of CTodd. Pay attention out there folks.

Stick a fork in it...

I was going to go with the title of Fork Me, but I figured that was pushing the limits of family reading (and yes, I know there are family members out there... hi guys). So the local master of steel came through for me and I picked this up tonight. Yes, that's a 500mm steerer. Try finding that off the shelf. The real comedy will be how much (little) I cut off of it for the install...

Well that was fun

Got out early today to hit a 4 p.m. appt which took about 15 minutes. Got home and dressed as quickly as possible and it was out the door, two wheel style. It was sunny, bordering on comfortable, and a lot of roads were dry... it was the first outdoor day of the year for the road bike. With all due respect to my beloved cross bike, that thing is so effin fast! I literally have not done an outdoor ride on the road bike since probably August or September. Even so far this later winter it's been 42x12/26 for everything and on a pretty heavy bike. Contrast that to something probably 5 pounds lighter with 53x12/25 with shiny new 180 cranks. I haven't turned a 53xanything except on the trainer in a long time... I didn't put it away today. I'm still computer-less so I just know it felt fast... real damn fast. Maybe it was just relative to the cross bike, but I have a general sense of what gear gives you what and it was pretty damn fast. Fast is good... and good is what we're after. In my little world of biking, today was good.

And now let more snow begin... dammit... will it just be spring already...

License to Ill

Sorry folks, I'll admit I'm a closet Beastie Boys fan so I had to use that title... My license came today so now I'm officially registered to go out and kick some butt or have mine kicked as the case may be. And what better way to celebrate the arrival of said license by going out for the ever popular reservoir loop after work. To make up for yesterday, I got up way too early and was at my desk by about 6:15. I bugged out at 2:45 so I could get home to meet up with some of the guys around 4. Well a comical series of mishaps had 2 of them hooking up and me evidently chasing them on the whole loop around, but never getting close enough to see them. I'm just saying they got 10 or 15 minutes and the massive solo bridge wasn't in the cards today :) I know they had at least 5 minutes so we'll go with that. The loop is crazy hilly and I felt pretty good for March, solo, on a windy day, on a nearly 30 pound bike (cx bike with fenders, lights, beefy wheels, etc). That loop was a nice measure for me last year just before Sturbridge so let's see how the next month and a half goes. Now I'm sleepy, and hungry, and unmotivated... I may just finish my beer and go to bed.

Here's hoping the weather cooperates enough for both days this weekend.

Oh, and Happy 80th to my wife's Gram. Nice party/lunch in the works for tomorrow so that should be fun.

Sonsabitches

Overslept. Lost my time to go to the gym today. Wife has soccer tonight so I'm on monkey herding duty. Dammit.

Oh, and all the runoff from the rain and snow melt was frozen this morning to the point that tomorrow's ride in is in question. Dammit.

I'm training... sort of

Unfortunately I'm only sort of training and I'm more than sort of feeling it. My last several days:

Thursday: Lifted
Friday: Nada unless you count piggybacking a 55 pound kid from the Garden to the Gov't Center garage
Saturday: 90 minutes on the trainer with some 2 or 3 minute interval-type things
Sunday: 2 hours, primarily saddle time, but a couple of short spirited bursts
Monday: Ran 30 minutes
Today: Spin bike - warmup, 6 sets of 2 minute standing climb w/really high resistance, sprint the last 5-7 seconds, 1 minute seated with resistance lowered.

Sunday felt great... probably the best I have outdoors this calendar year. Tomorrow probably has to be an off day due to class. Thursday I'll lift again, Friday looks like it has strong potential to kick off the bike commuting season. I'm signed up for Palmer and there's a more than slight chance I'll do Wells or something prior to that. I suppose I should have noticed that Palmer is 60 frickin miles before I signed up so merrily, but oh well. Sturbridge last year was 49 and the first 48.75 felt great... we won't revisit the rest again.

More homework... why do I do this again?

Insert Clever Title Here

For some reason I'm all empty in the clever title dept tonight so we'll go with audience participation... just imagine your own either before or after reading. Anywho... so what's up? With me it's basically way too much of everything (except sleep) basically all the time. Too much work, too much stress, too much eating, too many places to go, too many dumbasses... etc, etc. I really can sort of see the end of the tunnel with the work chaos so let's hope there's not a crew down the far end still extending the damn thing. Then again, someone accomplishing something might not be a bad thing.

Training is going well in some ways and not so well in others. The past month or so I've gotten an acceptable amount of riding in on the weekends and have gone to the gym more than I have not during the week. Gym days are really mixed and are kind of a coin toss depending on how packed it is, mood, etc. One thing I have been doing is lifting at least once a week since early January so I'm hoping that pays dividends. And no, it's not an ounce of upper body lifting... you think I'd ruin this skinny white guy physique? I am seeing noticeable gains in the weight I'm using so that must count for something. We'll see how it translates as I start to add more miles. I haven't run for shit since my blister incident a couple weeks back so I need to do some of that. I am starting to weather watch for when commuter season begins and the long-long range looks promising for late next week. Mondays and Wednesdays are out until May when school ends (not riding in to work at 6 a.m. and home from school at 7:30 p.m.), but I'm going to shoot for the Tuesday/Thursday or Tuesday/Friday routine. Other than GG I'm not registered for any races yet, but I really need to buy my license (slacker) and sign up for Palmer and then Burlingame when it opens. Tufts is still a question mark and who knows if there'll even be a USCF race this year since they seem to keep cutting back.

So last weekend I had probably the weirdest virus/bug thingy ever. Wednesday night I just sort of felt like whatever I ate didn't sit well and was going to make a hasty exit. Thursday I woke up and I was just beat. All day Thursday at work I was just the walking useless. I didn't feel really feverish or queasy, but my head was just somewhere else. Thursday night I was in bed at 8:30... I average about 10:30 so this was unprecedented. I also wasn't hungry at all but I ate a little because I knew I should. Friday I felt more with it, but still had zero appetite. Either Thursday or Friday night dinner was an english muffin and I was stuffed. Saturday I was starting to come around, but by now we had a new problem. To spare people unpleasant details, I was just having some digestive issues in the form of none happening. It felt like every crumb I had eaten had formed this ball in my gut and wasn't going anywhere. Saturday night I ate 4 bites of a very nice dinner my wife made and I couldn't put down any more. Friday I had gone to bed at 9 and Saturday I think it was 8:30 or 9 again. Sunday morning I woke up and I could feel that I was coming around and finally my stomach started to sort itself out. By lunch time, I had an appetite back and downed a foot long Subway sandwich in about 30 seconds. It probably took until Tuesday until I really felt normal again. The whole thing was just weird... just 3 days of extreme exhaustion, no appetite, and some weird stomach malfunction. From stories I'm hearing from others, I got off well compared to the flu that's making the rounds. Maybe 7 years of being infected with every strain of everything from the rugrats has made me immune. Who's laying the line on how long till I start puking after making that comment?

Laundry calls as does bed. Maybe I'll catch a break and be able to check in sooner than a week or two.

The rare post

Well sadly, these things are becoming rare lately, but I finally have a few minutes so I wanted to say hi again and empty a little corner of my brain in the blogosphere. Mayhem and chaos still reign at home, but I'm getting everything done that I need to (including some training) so I think I'm winning the battle. It was a pretty good weekend for riding even though mid week last week sucked and then I almost ruined things for myself Friday. I knew I was finally going to have some time at work so I had planned to run "long" 6 or 7 at lunch. I headed out and after the first 5 or 10 minutes I could tell my right heel was going to give me issues. I have strange feet and I always end up with this spot in the padding on the heel cup in my running shoes that wears out. It's not a big deal because it somehow never causes problems and around the time the hole gets big, the shoes are dead anyways. Well I've been wearing new insoles to help support my arches and take some of the strain off my right shin and they raised my foot up in the shoe a good bit and thus just at the top of the developing hole in the heel. That coupled with wearing a crappy pair of socks meant that I could just tell a blister was setting in. Long story short, I had to cut the run to 30 minutes and I still ended up with a large and painful blood blister in the back of my right heel. Fortunately, there's no sliding of my heels in my cycling shoes at all so I still got in an hour on the rollers yesterday and then got out for about 2:45 today. My goal was 3 so I rode from home to the 2 hour team ride and then peeled off to come home at the end. I have to say that the last few miles weren't exactly easy especially into the wind so I was fine being 15 minutes short. I did let myself get roped into a mini-throwdown with another guy on the hills, but he had me beat more than half the time and we weren't going all that hard especially relative to the abuse we'll all give each other on that loop in a few months. The joys of riding with the team.

Just random other stuff going on... finally got my son's tilted skate issue sorted out thanks to this master skate doctor up in Wilmington. He's had a thing where he can't get on the inside edge of his right skate because his foot wants to just tilt out. Turns out his (and my... it's genetic) right foot is naturally turned outwards relative to the centerline of his knee-leg so it wants to go that way when he gets on 2mm of steel on ice. A visit to a podiatrist and a subsequent visit to the skate guy and they made some tweaks that have him up on center. It's actually pretty amazing to see how little they modified the skate and what a dramatic effect it had on him. It was also kinda weird to discover something about myself that I never knew and it sheds all new light on why it's my right shin that acts up first any time I have a problem. Funny how I get this far after how many thousands of miles of running and never knew it.

Ok, time for bed. Day off tomorrow so we're taking the kids to the New England Aquarium. Should be a good time.

Where the hell did Rich go?

Hi there folks (both of you). Yes, I've sort of fallen off the planet lately. The primary reason is that the work beatdown has reached UFC proportions lately and grad school certainly isn't helping. I'm pretty motivated on the school thing right now most because I can clearly see the end. This semester isn't exactly easy, but it could be worse. I had a couple good weeks of training going including riding both days last weekend (1 hour Saturday, 2+ Sunday) and then this week sucked ass. I think I went to the gym once, but I redeemed myself by getting out for an hour today. I had planned to set up the rollers, but then I stepped outside for something, realized it was pretty nice and the weather.com radar was showing that I had at least an hour. As it turns out, I couldn't have planned it better... as I was coming over the last rise around the corner, I felt just a few flakes hit my face and then by the time I was in the garage it had really started. Good luck for a change I guess.

I'll probably be putting some pictures up on the other blog sometime soon of the current disorder of the house. We got the downstairs mostly all set so now the chaos upstairs is beginning. The painter comes in a week or so and then we can get more of the next round of furniture shuffling done. All of this happens slowly these days, but we're getting there.

OK, gotta get ready... Mom volunteered to watch the boys tonight so who are we to argue...