New Upgrade Procedures

So it seems that there have been some adjustments to the upgrade procedures for all you sandbaggers, uh, bike racers out there. Most interesting change to me is the correlation of your CX category to your road or MTB category. There's also the 4 to 3 upgrade based on experience. I'm in for 15+ races in the last calendar year so I could easily take that one, but I think I'll hold off for now until I see how road/MTB season is going. I had no results to indicate I don't belong in the 4's right now so I don't think anyone will be crying about me staying there. Now what I'd still like to see is that enforced automatic upgrade. A lot more time and energy for USAC to track, but shouldn't it be a fancy envelope in your mailbox with your new license/upgrade sticker when you hit it? Sandbaggers everywhere are cowering in anticipation...

You know you're old when...

You realize that only 5 of the players on the Patriots 52 man roster are older than you. Says something about the sport when less than 10% of the players make it to more than age 33 in the league. I like cycling and running for that aspect... lots of guys a lot older than me can still kick my ass... gives me hope for the future :)

Slacking

Well I've been slacking off here so much that even Mrs. Tall Freak was commenting that I'm slacking off. Next up can only be scorn and a public call for content by Gewilli so I figured I'd do an update. So what's to update... um, nuthin good. A distinct sense of chaos setting in as I begin the latest school semester. In an effort to get this foolish degree out of the way, I'm doubling up this spring and next spring with one class each in the summer (road/mtb season) and the fall (cross season). It seems like a flawless plan... I come to the party late since I'm working my arse off for the spring but then I'm in stellar shape for CX and I ride home with the sandbagger laden double play at Glawstah... here's hoping at least :)

Training is going ok in the sense that I've been active more days than I have not. It is winter after all and I did just stop racing 2 weeks ago even though I basically didn't train at all after Nats. Other than focusing on not letting the biking legs forget and building strength, I have no plan or goal for at least another week or two. By then I'll know better if I even have any time to focus on training until April. There's always commuting come March. I am currently limited to my cross bike which has been partially converted to a commuter and my MTB which is fun to tool around on but the snow hasn't cooperated with winter rides so far. My road bike is tied up with getting that elusive 180mm crank set which would have been done if not for some expected oversight. You can only remind people so many times to make sure it's an Italian bottom bracket and the guy placing the order can only note that so many times. At some point though someone in the ordering center must have switched to decaf and the BB predictably came through as English (or is it standard... hell, non-Italian). Ah well, the roads suck anyways so the CX bike with 28mm tires or whatever they are is better right now anyways.

OK, that's enough pointless rambling for the sake of rambling. Maybe I'll do something interesting in the next few days that's worth sharing.

Go Pats!

I got myself a work crew

I figure in about 5 years, we can have the driveway clear in 2.5 minutes flat:

End of an era?

I can't tell if this fits any of the standard categories for a post, but here we go anyways... I'm starting to think my running career may be coming to an end (in terms of racing at least). I had been toying with the idea of passing the next couple months by training for the New Bedford 1/2 with a goal of racing it well (somewhere in the 1:20 to 1:25 range). I know I could go out today and cover the distance so the challenge would be to get enough running legs back to race it. Unfortunately, as with every time I've increased my running volume in the last year or two, my right shin is getting tender again. In college I had a stress fracture from over training and it seems now that every time I try to ramp it up again, I have problems in the same area. I recently got some insole things (sort of poor man's orthotics) from the podiatrist and they've helped some, but the problems are still creeping back in. Now I'm sure this is something I could work out with a few doctors visits and a careful training plan, but I'm probably unlikely to be doing enough running/racing to set up the 3 month plan to get to the point where I can just train regularly. So maybe I'm fully converted... who knows. Running is so ingrained in me at this point that it will never go away, but the glory days of racing may be fading...

Not much else to report. Bikes are in various states of repair as I pick at winter maintenance. Basement project still isn't 100% done thanks to a delivery delay by Home Depot and a lack of time for us to move all the toys down there and figure out what to do with the extra couch. Classes start up again next week so I better get my butt in gear or it will be summer and not much more will be done.

A dose of bike pron...

Mike Flanigan's photo gallery

Fancy bike lugs and such

I was down at ANT last night and the latest step through that he just boxed up to ship out is incredible. Look close at the details on it and you can tell how much work went into it. The Guerch will be sporting a new fork from Mr. Ant in a couple months so I'm looking forward to that.

Back to work... blech!

Anomaly... as in "I am an..."

anomaly

Main Entry: anom·a·ly
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural anom·a·lies
Date: 1603
1 : the angular distance of a planet from its perihelion as seen from the sun
2 : deviation from the common rule : irregularity
3 : something anomalous : something different, abnormal, peculiar, or not easily classified

Now for the woe is me segment of today's programming...

I've gotten on this kick before... it usually happens when I try to buy pants, running shoes, or do anything related to a bicycle (this edition is being brought to you courtesy of my ill-fitting road and mountain bikes). Average sized guys don't know how easy they have it. Average sized runners and bikers sure don't either.
6'8" 190 pound guys aren't supposed to be reasonably fast distance runners... at least the shoe companies don't think so. Guys with 40.5" legs don't race bikes... at least not stock ones. Those same guys apparently don't wear pants that aren't made by one of two companies (that cost extra). Yes this is all pissing and moaning, but paying extra and having very limited choices just really sucks sometimes.

Ok, rant off...

Intruiging

Is a new course enough to make me go back? BTW, I had heard rumors last year of a course change... interesting to see that it happened. More interested in seeing what the change is.

And so it ends

Well folks, we can now call the New Belgian cross season officially over (unless somehow the guy in the dome up in NH surprises us and pulls off the indoor race). Time to clean the bikes, heal some bumps and bruises, and get read for road rash, uh, I mean road season (or mountain season if you're one of those dirty folks). Headed down to the rescheduled Natz Schmatz race yesterday basically for an excuse to ride my bike. I mentioned in passing last week at home that there was a race this weekend and was told "You should go"... ok, who am I to argue. Nothing really overwhelming to report about the race except that I have a new favorite hoppy beer. There were maybe 11 or 12 in the 4's race. I was riding 4th for a while and then got sloppy in the snow sections and fell back to I think 6th. I got a moral victory by riding the sand pit my last warmup lap and all 3 laps of the race. Now granted it was an easy-ish sand pit (as evidenced by most of the 4's riding it), but it was pretty soft and chewed up in sections and I never ride the sand so I'll take it. Seemed like it could be a really fun course in snowless conditions so I think I'll make a point to go back next year for the mid season event there. Cookie took second behind some dude in a tattered windbreaker who duck taped his number on who I think rode to the race (incognito sandbagger). Came out with a few more bumps than I wanted thanks to some less than graceful incidents in the snow, but I'll be fine.

I think it's on to a couple months of running season for me. I've got LOTS of bike cleaning to do so that may be the extent of my bike contact for a bit. We'll see...

Happy New Year

Nothing like a nice breakfast on New Years morning. The kids wanted to go to the local breakfast place for chocolate chip Mickey Mouse pancakes, but their closed. Instead daddy sprung to action and whipped up a chocolate chip MM pancake, a chocolate chip snowman pancake, and this:


Yes the saddle is missing and there's no way to steer, but for those with limited culinary abilities, this was a pretty valiant effort (and it was delicious). And yes those are chocolate chip hubs... gotta get me some of those.

Hard work feels good

Thanks to my parents (two of the hardest working people you'll ever meet), I've always appreciated an honest day's work and having something to show for your efforts at the end of the day. It's always satisfying to be able to point to or hold something and say "I did that". I certainly got my share of satisfaction this weekend as I tried to put in a surge to get the basement finished and into move-in condition. To the casual observer, the only glaring things to be finished were the carpet tiles and some stick down vinyl tiles outside the bathroom, but there were loads of other odds and ends that added up to tons of work. I probably spent 5 or 6 hours Saturday and another 9 or so yesterday trying to get things finished and I came oh so close. At around 11:20 last night as I realized that I had been on my knees for about 4 hours (insert juvenile joke here) doing carpeting and floor tiles and I also realized I was maybe 3 carpet tiles short of having enough, I packed it in with maybe an hour's worth of work left (once I get more carpet).

On the more athletic side, I think I ran 3 days last week including 45 minutes Friday and 30 hilly minutes on Saturday. It felt good and my stride seems to be fairly smooth right now so I hope I can keep it going for the next couple months with some biking added in. Speaking of the 2 wheeled things... I'm unloading what was my first racing bike that I've accepted is way too small for me (custom bikes tend to spoil you like that). Amazingly I've gotten 5 hits off craigslist since Saturday so there are plenty of us vertically gifted types out there. I've also started bringing together pieces to do some significant fit changes to my newer road bike since it was thrown together last year with whatever I had and never really thought through. I've certainly got plenty of maintenance to do during the dark and cold days in the next couple months.

Reflection (and lots of food)

First I must start out by declaring that I am The Iron Chef... Yesterday I pulled off another one of my stellar turkey dinners without any major hitches. I tend to make the dinner for my wife's family on Xmas day and yesterday was larger than normal with a total of 14 planned diners (2 last minute no-shows). Thank goodness for my father-in-law who manages the carving and serving of the bird once I have cooked it, but otherwise it's all me. Any I have a really tiny kitchen so this is no small feat. A small part of me thinks I could enjoy cooking if I had the time to do it. It'd also give me more motivation to train since I'd be fattening myself up...

Ok, the reflection part... Hey, everyone's doing it... I wanna be one of the cool kids. It's the end of the season so it's time to look back and think ahead. I've got plenty to look back on and some permanent reminders of the season that was...

This was definitely a season of painful and expensive lessons. I trashed one helmet, one frame, 4 wheels, 2 or 3 sets of bars, a few components, and my body. The crashology went like this:

1/10 - Highly dramatic faceplant while mountain biking

4/26 - Sentra vs. Commuter

4/28 - Sturbridge. I should be far more grateful than I am that I didn't break anything and that my ruptured groin tendon/muscle thing didn't keep me down for longer

6/17 - The Father's Day Wells crash. At least I wasn't the guy who lost his teeth. I walked away from my bike for about 10 days after this

7/8 - The broken hand the day before family vacation ultimately resulting in 3 titanium screws and 9 weeks without riding. At least I got in 90 minutes of riding between breaking it and packing it in for the day

So what is there that's positive about this trainwreck of a season? Well, for starters, I did 14 cross races without a noteable incident. Sure there were a few of the silly fallover types of things that are just part of the game, but nothing worth noting. Secondly, the few races I did complete taught me so much more than I knew... hell, even a couple of the races I crashed out of taught me a lot. I can now recognize much better where to be, when to go, when to sit back, etc. The game of road racing makes a little more sense now so it's just a shame that I'm going to be pack shy for a bit until I make it through a few races in one piece. I also know a lot more about what I am able to do. I hung in a couple of road races much better than expected and I still think I could have won Sturbridge. I podiumed in a MTB race which I still think I suck at. I know that in a cross race everyone in front of me better watch out in the final couple of laps because I'm coming to get ya (lord know what would happen if I knew how to start and there was nobody to catch). So trying to ignore the scars and look forward, I think these are my goals:

- Not crash. Sure this is partially joking, but I think what I mean is to be smarter about where I am and what I'm doing so that I minimize my chances of getting taken out. If I was at fault in my road crashes this year, it was because I put myself in a less than optimal position. Any offroad crashes were pure operator error.

- Suck less off-road. This will be a matter of practice and building confidence for me. I find that a lot of off-road crashes can be caused by being too careful (braking when you don't need too, etc).

- Win a race. Road, MTB, Cross... doesn't matter.

- Finish Great Glen... and despite CTodd's urging, no, it won't be solo. Having retired from Reach the Beach, this will be my bout with epic stupidity for this year.

- Bike to work at least once a week for the entire duration of daylight savings. Target will be 2-3 times, but I'd like to make once a requirement.

So that's my line in the sand subject to being crossed or erased by the tides. Let's hope blogger doesn't eat the post so I can go back next year and see how I did.

Merry Christmas

Here's hoping the jolly man is good to you and your families are happy and well. Spend these next days forgetting about all the day to day nonsense and enjoying the company of good friends and family... that's the stuff that matters. I'm as guilty as the next of forgetting that sometimes so my wish is that I can really take in the raw joy and excitement that kids always know how to add to the day.

Oh, and Santa just had a close call with the oldest in our house... phew...

That's all folks...

Well the racing season has ended so of course it's time for reflection and goal setting. I have a lot in my head about this season so I'll probably keep this short and do the long rambling post later. If I'm counting right, I lined up for 4 road races (2 crashes/DNF's), 2 MTB races (1 broken hand/DNF), and 14 cross races (2 races @ -1 lap). That's probably about half of what I hoped for, but 9 weeks of no riding will do that to you. I definitely have a lot I've learned this season about racing and I know I don't know 1/100th of what there is to know. One benefit of racing less than planned is that I'm not really tired or burned out. I'll take some time off from riding, but really I'm going to keep going with other stuff while I set goals for next year. I'm likely to open with the Tufts Crit again, but it's too early to think about specific events. I've tossed around the idea of a team for 24 Hours of GG, but we'll see (anyone interested?). For now it's time to do some bike tear-downs, wheel truing, and probably e-baying (buying and selling).

I'd be a jerk if I didn't publicly admit that I owe my wife and kids huge for letting me escape for the hours of racing and training and for all the cheers from the boys. Even if I'm slow and fat, I can always go faster when they're screaming their heads off at me. Of course after watching the 10-12 year olds at Nationals I started thinking that the oldest is only 2 years off from being able to compete. How cool will it be to be able to return the cheers...

Cyclo-Roubaix

The overnight temps in the teens with 10-20 mile an hour winds and snow meant that all of the soupy goodness from yesterday turned into frozen ruts for today. Just picture riding the most root-laden trails you can think of, but turn all the roots parallel to the direction you are going and space them 32mm apart... oh, and don't really make them straight... they have to wander around a bit and cross each other now and then. It was REALLY cold at the start and I was heavily bundled. I missed a pedal at the start, but found it quickly and was flying up the hill with the horses. We hit the dip and bang... I took a bad line, hit a rut, and down I went. One guy clipped my head with something and another guy hit my bike. It turned out later that it also mangled a spoke on my front wheel so that was all out of whack (At one point I thought about grabbing a neutral wheel, but knew I wouldn't be out there long enough for it to matter). After that incident, I basically checked out. With all the ruts and ice, you really had to be aggressive, carry some momentum, and bounce over everything and I just wasn't doing it. I think a pre-ride today would have done me a lot of good, but it was too frickin cold to get there for 8 to get on course. I sort of survived two laps before the leaders came by me and that was the day. My bruised elbow, cut knuckle, warped front wheel, and frozen bike hung around to see the finish and then I hurried off to the car to get warm. I would have gladly taken yesterdays mud over this mess... mud is tiring, but way more predictable. This pictures sums up the conditions fairly well:

Natz day 2

Big day for the east coasters in the mud today out here in KC. The youngins tore it up this morning on some frozen rutted stuff and then the sun took hold and the course turned into 1.9 miles of dirt soup. The Goguens represented with Peter taking 5th place, Tommy taking 8th (after the race he was telling his brothers he crashed 7 times), and Manny taking 20th in the oldest juniors. Luke Keough rode away with the 17-18 y.o. race, but the more impressive performance was Gavin Mannion running about half a lap carrying a busted bike and then fighting back to 6th place. Local hero Steve Tillson destroyed the 45+field, but Kevin Hines rolled home with an easy second place. We have no idea what to expect from the course tomorrow with a prediction for 4+ inches of snow tonight and temps in the mid 20's tomorrow with 10-20 mph winds. Epic may not even begin to describe it.

Here's a few shots of the youngsters and some soupy goodness:

Now that's a cross race

Greetings all from KC. It's crazy being out here to race and we're having a blast so far (despite not crashing until about 1:30 last night due to travel delays and a need to eat). Today's B races were a total mudfest. There were way over 100 people registered for the 30-39 and only like 72 started. Of that there were a few who DNF'd. CCC took the hole shot and I got a pretty good start, hitting the grass in maybe 20th. I bobbled the first couple corners and was feeling things out since I never got to pre-ride. Very very quickly, the race just turned into a slog fest. I just tried to keep it upright in all the corners and ride strong through the mud. I gave it just about all I had and was hurting at the end. Rolled home 41st which is a nice upgrade from my 123rd or whatever it was last year in Providence. Here's a few pics of the muddy carnage:

My powers are restored

Now that it's too late to back out, I can let the cat out of the bag for all those traveling to KS... the weather is my fault and as soon as I signed up, you should have backed out in expectation. You see, I have a long history of truly epic weather at events I plan long in advance. The 1998 Detroit Marathon which I trained over 6 months for (and PR'd) was run in torrential rain and 30-45 mph winds. The 2003(might have been 04) Mt Washington Hillclimb was run in weather so bad most wondered why they didn't cancel. I trained for a year for that. I went to so many running and bike races in downpours that I finally bought my own tent to bring to events. Of the 5 Reach the Beach relays I have done, 2 were in hurricanes and 2 more had only short stints of rain, of course while I was on the course. KC could now top them all. So my apologies to crossers everywhere. I still have the ability to bring epic weather events with me to athletic contests. Next time ask me first if I'm planning to register before you do.

Am I even going to get there?

I'll be honest, I'm starting to worry a bit about the weather in KC:

I guess I don't even know what to expect. Later this week looks to be sunny to partly sunny with temps similar to here. So I guess that means we should be either be expecting mud or to be having a pool party in the Tilly Zone. I guess for starters I'll hope my flight gets there and that my bike gets there. You're going to have 20+ people severly bumming if weather holds up the bike transport trailer. For now, I have too much to do before I leave to let it get to me. I'll start panicking on Wednesday...

Just keep the round side down

And no I don't mean my sort of round head...

Today was the last tuneup before the big dance and my only goal was to not injure myself or my bike. Unfortunately I was riding sans-tubulars since they were off being reglued and I definitely could have used them. After a 5:45 pickup by GD, we made the long trek to Warwick to discover that they had a nice dusting of crunchy snow everywhere. I had no idea what to expect for the course except I knew there'd be some beach and some woods at the venue. The heated indoor bathrooms were a nice treat when we got there (although the high heat added to an unpleasant smell by the time we left) and then it was off to explore. Temps were cold but seemed very tolerable esp compared to Sunday. The course was, well, interesting. Uphill pavement for a long stretch, onto the grass, through a fun little corkscrew thingy in a bowl on the grass, into the woods, onto the beach, some dirt path, a tricky down/up(run)/down through a mulched hillside, long pavement, more woods, a grass off-camber that got real greasy later, back on the pavement, wipe hands on pants, repeat. Note that there were NO barriers. They put them up right before the grassy off-camber, and promptly had to take them down when they realized that whole patch where they were was frozen solid and icy. No idea if they went back up later when it warmed up, but they were gone for the 9, 10, and 11 start times.

The course changed continually during warmups as the snow and ice got ridden on and the sun came out. Very few sections were treacherous, but lots would smack you off your bike if you weren't paying attention. My clinchers sucked on the stuff so I knew I'd have to pay close attention and probably had to be more cautious in the turns. One thing that really sucked was that as the thaw started, my shoes got real wet and it was cold enough that by the end of the race, my feet were totally numb. I was pegged for the 5th row, but with the wide road, it was more like second as people fanned out. Whistle blew and I was off like... well... . I've had 2 races this year where mentally and physically I was somewhere else at the start: Canton and today. At Canton, I didn't feel like I started racing until lap 2 and then I was flying. Today, I felt like I took the first 1/2 lap off which hurt me because we only did 4 (GD only rode for like 33 minutes in his schooling of the B masters). Not sure what it is, but I know part of it today was that I'm still a little gun-shy in a pack from the year I've had and I don't trust crossers in a pack jockeying for the hole shot. Knowing that I almost NEVER get passed in a race, I decided to just sit and take my chances.

With my 1/2 lap parade, about 1/3 of the way through lap 2 I hear "on your left" and some dude in blue flies past. 2 seconds later "Sorry Rich, on your left" and there goes Gary. For a second I was like "He rocks" then I was like "Wait you a-hole, get on his wheel". I tried desperately and held a little contact and then Gary got taken out just before the mulch pit. We made the runup together and when he got to the top, his rear wheel was out of whack so he got stalled. Over by where the barriers should have been he catches up again and I offered him a pull when we hit the pavement... my offer must have sounded like that siren reverb you get when an ambulance speeds by because he passed me that fast... ok, I guess Gary feels good. Rest of the race was fairly non-descript... passed people as usual, but not tons. Rode ok on the turns and hammered the straights. Didn't do anything stupid and kept it upright (goal achieved). I was around the grass off camber when I heard Fries yelling "And here's Gary David and he's the A-student today" which pumped me up to dust a few guys on the finish stretch. I have NO CLUE where I finished... might have been top 20, but barely. Nothing special about my finish except for having fun, getting dirty, and coming home safe.

I'm going to try and blog daily from KS... my kids want to see pictures anyways so I'll see what I can do. Hope to see many of you there.

Update
Results are posted (good to see them get them on the web already despite not being able to get the paper copies up for over an hour after the race) and I came in 15th. With all due respect to the other 4's that busted ass today, I kinda took today off so I'm taking this as a good sign for The Big Show...