Holy crap, I beat Colin at something on a bicycle

This is the short version since I don't have my official time yet, but it seems pretty certain that last night I actually beat Colin at an event which involved moving rapidly on a bicycle. Granted I think it was only by about 15 seconds, but I'll take it. And no I didn't steal Cancellara's motorized bike in order to do this, it was just me in the drops with my only purchased advantage being a moderately sexy front wheel and some shoe covers. Long version once I get an official time...

Excuse

Save for a mention or two of my kids or my house, this basically became a blog about bike racing. Well I haven't been doing any of that, therefore there's not a hell of a lot to say. Don't get me wrong... I've been training my ass off, but right now it seems to be to hold down the title of fastest guy who never races. Hopefully soon I'll be back out there going fast with others. For now it's back to sitting at little league fields and stressing about the addition on my house.

Happy Day

Hastily taken picture (in my kitchen), but you get the idea:

Oh yah, and if anyone wants to buy a 22" Kona Kula 2-9 frame leave me a comment.

Wayne Elliot Circuit Race Report

Fortunately photog Garry Sansoucie saved me the trouble of having to write a long race report from the race up in Merrimac. Quite simply, too much of this:

Leads to this:

Yah, I don't see me at the front at the finish either.

Lagging

I've got two posts drafted in my head, but have had no time to get them down. One is a race report from last weekend (spoiler: I'm still a moron) and the other is a review of my new helmet (spoiler: I love it). Hopefully I can get them up soon.

There will also be increased volume over at the other blog very soon so you can watch as I create an even more chaotic existence for myself. What unbelievable fun that will be.

Oh, and next week is going to be like Christmas... only better. Stay tuned...

Failing as little as possible

I could turn this into a very long and rambling report about Saturday's Massasoit Lung Opener, but I'm short on time today so I'll just say that this could be the happiest I'll ever be with an 8th place finish. This was not at all the course for me with each loop consisting of 7+ miles of rooty, narrow, twisty single-track. There were some sections of loose sand sprinkled in which I didn't hate and the obligatory flat stretch where I could hammer, but otherwise the course just killed me. Don't get me wrong, it was a great park to ride in and I'll probably go back, but I may try to borrow a dual suspension bike when I do and I certainly won't be riding for time the next time.

Great start and slotted in 5th wheel for the 2nd straight week and then I proceeded to hemmorage speed and places on all the turns. There was a certain survival element to the race as one guy told me afterwards that he was right near me until he pulled his cleat out of his shoe. I was much cleaner lap 2, but still wasn't that great. The one bright spot of the day was late in the race when I consciously rode away from 2 guys on a flat section, then pulled a nice cyclocross dismount/uphill charge/remount to lose the other guy who had been in our mini-group. It was a battle for me the whole time so I'll take it.

Not sure what's next... there's way too many conflicts in the coming 4 weeks so I'l trying to see what I can get to. I may hit the pavement this coming weekend... oh wait, I should know better than to use the phrase "hit the pavement"...

Winding Trails Race Report

Hey, remember me... yup, still around. In the grand scheme of my chaotic life, it's been pretty quiet lately. What better way to cure that than to fire up the bike races again? This past Sunday was the Fat Tire Classic at Winding Trails and it was my first opportunity to represent the Seven Development Squad (have I mentioned how awesome that is? ok, just checking). Due to some family conflicts I knew I'd be arriving late and riding straight to the car afterwards, but it was still worth it to make the 90 minute drive and see how the training is really going. I dragged my buddy Paul down with me and we screeched the truckster into the parking lot with about 80 minutes to sign in, get dressed, and warm up. We got good news just before getting there that another MRC friend had won the 50+ beginner race so maybe that was a good omen for the day.

I had just enough time for most of a warmup lap which is always a good thing for me to avoid riding the first lap of a race like a drunken monkey. Except for a little (avoidable) sand pit at the start, a nice tricky little downhill early in the lap, and a couple rooty sections, the course was very cross-like with lots of very fast sections and lots of super fun twisties through the trees. The hole shot was important though because of the sand, a tight turn at the top of the hill, and a little double log hop early on that would clearly be a mess in a big pack. Did I mention that I didn't quite ride the whole lap... that would be important later.

I was ready just in time, got myself right on the line, whistle, clip in... let's boogie! Hit just the line I wanted to around the sand and up the hill and I was slotted right in 5th wheel of a nice line. One guy blew from the start, but a couple guys came around and it was just general high speed lung busting chaos for a while. I was riding pretty well overall and didn't really have any moments where I felt like everyone else was thinking "Who invited the sketchy guy?" Very early on I found myself right in the neighborhood of an NEBC guy who ended up being my main battle for the day.

So about not riding the whole lap during warmup... at the start someone had said something about whether the mud pit was rideable. Hmmm, I didn't see a mud pit. The good news is that I generally loves me some mud so that was just some good fun when I got there near the tail end of the loop. Now if someone had just said something about the awful steep hill at the end of the loop... it was your standard chin-on-the-stem little kicker, but when you weight 195 those things hurt. Fortunately it hurt lots of others too so I made a couple passes the first time up. Ok, lap 1 done, 2 to go.

Lap 2 fortunately got a little more sane and me and NEBC guy were just trucking around carrying as much speed as possible. About half way through the lap the trail popped out to a little clearing and I figured this was a good time for a drink. It was a fine time for a drink, but it turned out to be not such a good time to put my bottle away. When I reached down I got off-balance just a touch and then dug my front wheel into a little patch of sand... AND DOWN GOES FRASIER! I was perfectly fine, but I had heard a weird wrenching metal sound from my bike. I of course hopped on without checking and figured why not just do inventory while I keep racing. Things seemed mostly ok except my stem was now pointed about 15 degrees left and something in the front end was rattling. That's perfectly safe to race on right? Yah, I thought so too.

Lap 2 finally closed out and I effectively had no concept of where me and NEBC guy were in our field, but there was a group of 5 or so of us together (I was pretty positive the other 3 were from the field ahead of us). My crooked front end had me a little concerned about the steep downhill, but I survived that and a little ways after there was a section of roots that I carried really good speed over. I noticed that I had suddenly dropped my friends so that seemed like as good a time to go as any. Again, a fine plan to go go go... not such a fine plan to go so hard that you hook your bars on a tree. By the time I was going again, sure enough, you know who was charging back up to me. I forget where, but he caught back on and now it was time to wait for one of the late hills to try and make a charge. Who'd have thought that was his plan too? We hit this one gravel covered hill and now he had a gap. Argh... too. tired. to. chase. Some slower guys we were catching were so very kind to slow him down on some single-track so I could catch up... thanks guys. Hanging on for dear life and now it was left to the last steep hill. Well, someone forgot to tell my legs that we weren't done yet and I just flat out stalled about 5 feet from the top. I made sure to finish strong anyways, but that was that.

I had to rush back to the truck and hit the road which was fine because I was nearly certain I was off the podium. Later posting of the results showed I was 7th, about 3:30 back from first. I was definitely hoping for better, but I had really nothing left at the end. I could have beaten my main competitor, but looking at times I need a minute thirty to get up to 5th and I'm not sure where that would have come from. Way more good than bad overall so I'll take it. Next race Saturday. Oh, and congrats if you actually made it through this :)

The Definition of Awesome

Look it up in the dictionary and you'd have a reasonable chance of finding this.

In a word...

Meh. Results went up yesterday. I burned a lot of brain cells yesterday stressing over what to think of the outcome and then just said eff it and reverted to the fact that I felt ok about it when I finished. I've only done this one other time and that was 2 years ago. I was actually 5 seconds slower this time. Course conditions slowed down nearly everyone across the board and last year's king and queen lost about 1:30 each so maybe -5 seconds is actually an "improvement". Placing was pretty awful, but then again there appear to be several individuals who should perhaps reconsider their racing category. Last time I was at about mid-pack in the field, this time more like top 1/3. Different bike, don't even remember what my training or fitness was like 2 springs ago, pre-rode last time and not this time... there I go over-analyzing again. Like I said, I'll go back to feeling ok about some stuff and knowing that I messed up some other stuff and move on. Lots more racing to do this year.

(Not the) King of Burlingame

Imagine that... race report season is back again already. After a lost cross season which left me little to talk about other than how much I sucked, you'd think I'd be just overflowing with things to say about the first race of the season. Well you may end up being right, but let's see how this goes as I start rambling...

Charlestown is one of those places that I know is far, but I can never seem to remember if it's just shy of 90 minutes or just over 90. I split the difference and figured I'd leave 3 hours before the Sport group started and leave myself 90 to get ready and warm up. I had a little panic moment when the GPS told me I'd arrive in 95 minutes and I still had to make a stop or two, but I figured I'd be fine seeing that it was early and I could potentially drive a little recklessly to get there. Sure enough I cut it down to 85 minutes with a DnD stop so we were in business. Got some prime parking next to some car full of pro-type people and thus began the banter about the conditions. Comments were made to the effect of "Oh, you race at 10, maybe it will warm up by then" and "Some sections will have too much water to be muddy". Now for the record, even at 8:30 I didn't think it was that cold and it warmed up a few degrees by 10. Knee warmers, long sleeve jersey, sleeveless base layer, regular cap was perfectly fine. This does not however mean that the standing water on the course was warm and my feet were in fact numb by the finish.

Good warmup mostly on the roads and then headed over to the start area. Riders went at 30 second intervals and I was heading out lucky 13 so not too much time to wait. Yet another reminder of the conditions was the mud puddle about 5 feet into the trail head where you started. There were plenty of jokes about who was going to eat it right there, but unfortunately I didn't see any. 3... 2... 1... Have a good ride big man! (The starter was a funny bastard). I knew from past years that there were some technical sections early and if I made those mostly clean, or at least fast, I'd be in ok shape. Well, I felt fast enough, but I was far from clean and that was capped off by a foot long 1" diameter stick lodging in my rear wheel/crank and sending me over the bike, fortunately at low speed. I was better after that, but not perfect. I have a really awful habit of getting very stiff and putting on a handlebar deathgrip when I start to go "into the pain cave" as they say and since this was a TT, that's where you belong. The fast sections I felt pretty fast, but I was marginal at best on the rooty and/or technical sections that pop up here and there throughout the course. One (barely) shining moment was at the log about 1/4 of the way in which is just big enough to make you (me) question riding or running it and I hit a perfect full speed cross dismount/remount to actually make up ground on a guy and then pass him.

The rest of the course was more of the same... good solid power where you could use it including a satisfying catch and pass going up the long drag from the pond, suspect bike handling when you needed some that wasn't. In the very last section up to the finish I spotted 2 guys up the trail and gunned for them, getting one in the final mud puddle and the other guy just saying ahead. Overall I think I passed 5 or 6 and I was passed by 2, but both were so early on that they had to have started very close behind me and been frickin flying. I didn't have a watch so I don't know my time yet. If I saw correctly when I looked over the lady's shoulder at the results I was 7th in the Sport 19-39. More or less as soon as I knew I wasn't top 5 and getting a wiffle ball bat or a tire off the prize table I blew out of there and didn't hang around to hear times. I'll withold final judgment until I see the times, but I can't say I was thrilled. I easily lost 30 seconds, probably more, to poor technical riding. I have to find me some of those bike handling skills I hear so much about.

I win

If I'm counting right I took 13 town lines during today's ride. Oh wait, I was riding solo. Still, I did ride far enough to hit 13 towns. Yay.

More Than Yesterday...

Less Than Tomorrow

I had never actually heard this saying before my lovely wife and I went shopping for our wedding rings (I lead a sheltered life apparently). She suggested we have it engraved in our rings. At the time it was simply a wish for our marriage. I recently used it to close out the toast I gave at my buddy's wedding too. While trying to think of ideas for more artwork I thought of this and if you think about it, it works as an all-purpose wish for all the good stuff in your life. To add an extra touch I had my 4 year old write the letters for me so I could capture a tiny bit of his childhood forever. The scroll is the artist's own work. I'm pretty pleased with the result. If I'm lucky many bike racers in New England will get plenty of time to admire it while they try in vain to get past me :)

Metrowest Ink

Spent some more quality time at the tattoo parlor last night. I'm up to 6 now. In all honesty fresh tattoos can look kind of ugly since they're all swollen and there's a little blood involved. I'll get a picture up here (and probably facebook) soon. I really have no legitimate explanation for the tattoo fascination. Maybe it's my way of rebelling against all the things I was told not to do as a kid. It's not like my parents were major hardasses or anything so maybe not. I've always avoided getting any that simply look cool for the sake of looking cool. All mine have a story.

Oh and training is going pretty awesome despite Sunday's beating. A beating at the hands of pros and front-of-the-masters-field type of guys is the type of beating where every minute you hang on is a victory. Looking back over the data it was actually a really positive effort despite the implosion. 2 weeks until KOB.

Humbled

I went to a group ride today. Gavin Mannion showed up in full Livestrong team kit and all. I'm not sure he was even the fastest guy there. I got to TT the last hour back by myself. Someone's got some more training to do.

Laying low

Although I should have posted a follow up to the last post explaining how my SRAM double-tap lever snapped off while readjusting everything, that bit of comedy is now fully resolved and I missed the window of high quality sarcastic commentary. Honestly not really a lot going on. Training, working, taxes, laundry, karate classes, lacrosse clinics, a little pickup basketball... just kinda relaxing and enjoying right now. The household chaos meter is historically low right now, but fear not, it will be set to 11 before you know it. We'll have 3 playing baseball this year and all three at different levels which means totally different schedules, fields, etc. We'll also have one doubling up in lacrosse. Good thing I've gotten into the habit of jumping on the bike around 4:45 before work and gettin er done. First race registration is in (KOB TT). Maybe I should actually renew my license. Need sleep.

Tool

Ah yes, the dual meaning title...

I've become a reasonably ok bike mechanic. When I say reasonably ok I do not in any way mean that you should trust me to work on your $5000 bike and not eff it up, but I at least trust myself to work on my own expensive bike and then ride it. I do have a bad habit though of letting maintenance type stuff go way too long and then of course it ends up being more expensive and a big pain in the ass. Case in point: I finally got around to pulling apart the whole front end of my steel cross bike for the first time in 2 years. Let's just say that I got some quality time with some sandpaper while I cleaned the rust off of the steerer tube. Anyways... so my latest is that the rear shifting on my road bike has been getting kinda stiff and flaky for a while. I knew it was time to change out the lower piece of housing at least and probably replace the cable too. Well tonight I tried to just swap out the housing and grease up the cable a little. Lacking a very good cutter (the proper TOOL), the ends of the housing were a little ragged. In the process of threading the used cable through with it's imperfect end, I got a couple of strands caught and proceeded to peel them a ways back and basically destroy the cable. Of course I didn't have a spare on hand. So I have now disabled my bike over a $2 part because I procrastinated and wasn't careful (I am a TOOL). Ah well... easy problem to back out of at least.

whyidonotplayhoops

Two weekends ago I played basketball twice in 3 days. I had fun. I even played respectably well, then again it wasn't exactly a high caliber game. The day after the second game I felt like I had pulled a muscle in the right side of my chest. It got progressively more acute over the next few days and I finally reached the conclusion that I probably cracked a rib. I can tell I've turned the corner and it's getting better as long as I don't do anything stupid (unlikely). That'll teach skinny guys like me to jump in with the big boys.

Oh, and I missed the window of opportunity on the hideous looking elbow. More or less picture implanting a Twinkie in your arm. Now picture what your arm would look like once all that blood/fluid distributes itself throughout your elbow and forearm. Guess I'll just have to get on the pictures right away the next time I hurt myself. You know by now it won't be that long of a wait.

Fail

I can't remember if I made it public, but I had put my name in for Leadville this year. I got the "We regret to inform you..." email today. Major bummer since a guy from the club that I really enjoy riding with got in. Of the 7 of us I know that put in, it looks like he may have been the only lucky one. Sadly, there's no way I can burn a hall pass to go out to crew for him and/or help with the race. Have to save those for the events I'm in. Ah well... better luck next year.

If I get ambitious tonight I have to get a picture of my arm up here. I took a huge hit on my elbow 10 days ago when I hit a patch of ice and it's still hideous. Definitely worst contusion I've ever had and that's saying sumthin.

Bear with me

I'm going to be doing some redecorating around here so bear with me while I get things in order.

Speaking of redecorating, you can go check out some exciting news over here. That will also double as my pre-built excuse for why I suck this season.

That was weird

If you've ever even met me you've probably figured out that I don't sleep much. I can carry on with what sounds like not a lot of sleep for quite a while, but it does catch up with me now and then. Yesterday I pulled a marathon day where I got up at 4 to go to a teammate's house for a spin and CX Worlds viewing party. Who could say no to a trainer workout with company while watching the best of the best and chasing it with beer and waffles? Anywho... by late afternoon I was pretty beat, but hung in there until maybe 9:30. This morning I got up at 4 (typical for work day) and I just could. not. wake. up. On the drive to work I almost turned around 3 times because I felt like I was not all that safe to be driving. Chugging my first cup of joe wasn't helping. 2 more cups when I got to work and there was still nothing firing. I found myself apologizing to everyone because I was being a grouchy jerk and I just generally avoided people. Finally around 11:30 I just admitted I was just wasting the electricity to light my office and went home. I basically went right to bed and slept for the better part of 4 hours. I think that did the trick, but I'm still trying to get over the groggy daytime sleeping feeling. Definitely seem more coherent. We'll see how it goes when the kid circus starts in a little while.