Thanks for nothing

To the a-hole who somehow got their scumbag hands on my credit card number: like I needed to deal with cleaning up after you. Sadly for you, it turns out that those monitoring companies are good at what they do. Nice try. Now get a life.

And sorry for the negative post folks... some people just flat out suck.

Mmmmmm, outside

Things that are good:
- Going from weeks (if not months) of riding inside to getting 5 hours in outside
- My Seven. Thing is farking awesome even if G does hate me.
- Doing some really big big ringing. I'd throw out all kinds of power meter nonsense, but you really don't care anyways.
- Duvel

Things that are bad**:
- Logistic Regression
- Activity Based Costing
** By bad I of course do not mean without merit because I am quiet enjoying both in a bizarre "trying to be positive and find the good in this situation" sort of way, but bad in that I am sitting here pondering both at great depths rather than simply enjoying the 4th good.

Let the "good" weather continue...

Weird things your body does

Monday morning at around 5 a.m. I weighed 201.5.
This morning around 5 a.m. I weighed 195.

As much as I wish it was this easy, 45 minutes on the trainer Monday and 55 minutes on Tuesday did not cause me to loose 6.5 pounds. Especially with the donut I was eating last night at about 10 o'clock. Mmmmm, forbidden donut...

How I'm doing

Frantic, tired, a little chunky, holding it together... The beatdown continues but I'm hanging in there. Here's just some random recent tidbits:

- Training is going very well all things considered which really means that training is going well on the occassions that I get to do it. Quality is there, but volume is down. I think it's supposed to be the other way around this time of year...

- Because I continue to eat like Marlon Brando, the weight is up a couple few maybe 5 or 8 pounds. That should reverse itself once the volume goes back up, but I should probably watch it anyways.

- I finally figured out over the weekend that the SRAM OG cassette with its weird missing tooth thingy has very little tolerance for a stretched (not severely) chain. How I love thee smooth and quiet new Dura Ace chain.

- The good news is I've already blown through the first chain on the new Seven. The bad news is that SRAM 10 speed chains don't seem to be lasting as long as I'd expect. The worse news is that a lot of that wear was done on a trainer.

- I just finished a weekend of Daddy daycare since the wife had a work trip to Cozumel (yes, her work rules). It was the weekend of comedic B-movies. Meet Dave and Paul Blart, Mall Cop are actually pretty entertaining when you assume a 4 to 7 year old sense of humor along with your fellow viewers. Physical comedy and fart jokes never get old.

Ok, times up. Hope everyone is well.

Thoughts on Worlds

I have about 2 seconds to empty out a corner of my brain... I ponied up for the cycling.tv UCI subscription yesterday so I could watch the men's race after reading the coverage of the women on cxmag. As truly awesome as their interactive feed is, I nearly had a stroke waiting for the updates during the women's finale so I went with real time on the men... sort of anti-climactic after all. Stybar put up a hell of a fight and for a second I wondered if Nys could shock everyone, but Albert would have none of it. Never would have expected someone to ride away, but what do I know. Went back later and watched the women's race... smart clearly won out over strong... Hanka and Katie had her schooled on flat out power, but I guess they both got outsmarted. I couldn't believe how many times Katie fought back on just the final lap and did anyone catch how much ground she made up every time down the big descent? Girl can handle her bike. As a nice contrast I also went back later and watched the Roubaix men's race... there's some good crossin for ya... course nothing like the grass crit at Hoogerheide... looked wicked damn fun ya know... ok, now I'm sounding like G... time to go.

Why this site may get a little stale...

I'll check in when I can kids...

You know you're from New England when...

I had this long rambling post almost composed this morning at around 4:45 and then figured out that even I had lost track of what the hell I was saying. The summation was this: You know you're from New England when you have a full understanding and associate fear of ice dams. At 9:30 last night I noticed the kitchen ceiling was wet. At 9:45 I was waking up children and neighbors trying to chip ice off the roof. I quickly gave up and remembered that the task is most easily completed mid day, preferably when it's about 40 degrees... huh, that kinda sounds like the past couple hours so I need not tell you what I've been doing. Damage sufficiently minimized I think. Stupid house...

The Big Man is Goofy

Nothing like a nice day off to catch a little winter fun with the youngins. The daycare was open so with the schools closed the big boys were able to hit Wa-wa-wa-Wachusett for a little snowboarding fun today. A few years back me and my brother-in-laws went and took a lesson and it was a trainwreck. We still debate whether the one of them had a concussion, the other one gave up and was just sitting on his board and sledding, and I was sore for many days after. After reading up a little before this trip (everything on the internet is true right?) I decided to try something different and switch my stance from the last time I went. Well apparently riding goofy was the secret because I genuinely felt like I got it this time (note I did not even imply that I was good). Couple that with the fact that 6 and 8 year olds do not yet know fear so they had no problem bombing down the hill and I think we'll all be going back. The younger one did give us a scare when he wiped out some lady coming into the bottom of the hill too fast and panicking thus forgetting how to stop quickly. Everyone was ok and she was probably nicer about it than I would have been. The oldest is convinced he's Shaun White now because he sort of half hopped his board about a half inch off the ground on one run so he can't wait to go back and throw some more steezy tricks (see, even old men can learn all the lingo the yutes are using these days).

Oh, and the snow this weekend really f'd up my long ride. I am already starting to hate my trainer and it's looking like I've got a while to go on that bad boy...

Cross training is supposed to be good for you

Over the years I've dabbled in a pretty ridiculous number of sports from running to rock climbing to bike racing to ice hockey. I basically suck at most of them that require any amount of coordination (which explains why running is good for me), but that usually doesn't stop me from trying anyways and having fun reveling in my suckitude. For some off-racing-season fun I managed to hook up with the company ice hockey game. It's not really a league, but it's more than a pickup game too (they pick 2 teams and you basically keep those for about half the season unless there's some week with a bunch of no-shows). As a nice coolness factor, we get to play at Walter Brown Arena, former home of the BU Terriers. I give myself no more credit than being an ok player... maybe a high c-level when I've been practicing a bit. For the bike racers out there, think of it as a cat 3 roadie... you're definitely above the new guys racing in t-shirts and you could show up for the big boys race and not hurt anyone, but you're just going to get smoked if you do. The legitimately good players accentuate my lack of coordination. Ok, wait, I had a point here... oh yah... here it is... So at this morning's skate I tweaked my back a little in a moment of skating grace. It's my extreme lower back to the point that I'm calling it my ass. So it was a bit uncomfortable all day, but nothing exciting. At the end of the day I was sitting down and bent all the way forward to tie my shoes. When I sat up and tried to stand up, I almost fell back down. I could now no longer stand up straight without extreme pain. So now I'm parked in the chair, watching hockey, and hoping Opa Opa IPA works as a muscle relaxer. Right now sitting = good, standing = bad. I'm hoping it's just a weird muscle thing because I've heard all manner of horror stories that sounded like this. Nothing like a lasting reminder that you suck...

Poor man's year in review

My time bank is on overdraft these days so I'll count that as being poor. I'm hoping at least a few caught the irony of calling myself poor man... there I go with the digressions again...

When all was said and done, I got the competitive juices flowing 30 times last year. Yup... 30. Surprised me too. I think this was the breakdown:

17 Cross (including last Jan's Beer Cross)
2 Road
2 Crit
2 Wells (might have been 3)
1 Circuit Race
1 Solo 6-Hour MTB
1 24 Hour Team MTB
1 MTB TT
1 MTB XC
2 Running (1 track, 1 cross country)

How's that for variety? Definitely an off-road bias there and that is likely to continue this coming year although we'll see. Due to that time bank thing (already been interrupted once while writing this), I haven't looked up my goals for last year, but as I've mentioned, I think I hit most/all of them. Progress throughout the season was noticeable. Sure I would have liked more, but I surprised the hell out of myself a couple times so that was good. I have been tossing around some goals for this year, but having a hard time nailing them down. If it snows again this weekend and I get stuck on the trainer for multiple hours again it'll give me time to think about it. One thing I know for certain is that my season will start late because I have to finish up school... 2 classes to go. 5 hours every Wednesday evening for 16 weeks and then they let me out. Have I mentioned it can't come soon enough?

Rare work post

Some may know I'm a manager (stop laughing, yes they put me in charge intentionally). A little while back they expanded my group to become quite sizeable (at least enough for my liking). I have 18 full-time staff. I think it's like 23 total... I should probably know that... but I digress. We just finished our yearly review process. Due to circumstances beyond my control, I was left with a grand total of 2 work days to conduct a performance review and discuss goals with 18 people. At the end of it all one person had told me I clearly put a lot of thought into it and several people had thanked me. I think I may have even done some of that coaching stuff I think I'm supposed to do in there. Yay me. And nobody seemed overly traumatized... then again if you hear of a workplace shooting in Cambridge you may know why.

And the amazing thing was that I was absolutely spent after holding 18 meetings in 2 days. Who'd have known sitting in my chair talking with people could be that taxing.

Really, I'm going to post something interesting

Having missed the chance to ride today, I'd somehow feel a little redeemed if I were able to bang out the obligatory end of year/new years post, but I don't think that's happening easier. My day went like this:

Alarm at 4:15 (and 4:25 and 4:35 and 4:45)
Get ready for work, make lunches for me and the boys
At work (40+ minutes away) by 6:15
Start the first of 9 performance review meetings at 6:30 a.m.
Conduct 8 of the 9 planned reviews by 3:45
Drive 1 hour to pick up 2 of 3 boys
Coach seven 6 to 8 year olds in basketball for an hour
Drive to next town with oldest for a baseball game
Watch U10 indoor baseball until 7:30
Drive home
Get kids ready for bed
Eat dinner at 9:15
Open beer at 9:16

I do this to myself... oh well, time for bed so I can do some more stupid stuff to myself tomorrow.

Here's To a Great '09

Happy new year guys and gals. Genuinely wishing you the very best in '09 and beyond. Thanks for stopping by.

Missing

Somehow less scheduled activity is resulting in less free time. Been trying to enjoy the holidays, reset the brain and body a little, and catch up with the parts of my life that get ignored during school/racing/etc. Rib thing is feeling better, but still reminds me not to be stupid. Rode both days this weekend after 2 weeks of nothing. At work most of this week, but fortunately it will be dead. Maybe I can piece together the year in review if I find the motivation to dig up that old post on goals. Frighteningly, I think I hit most of them. It can only be downhill from here.

And Xmas was fantastic... the boys claimed it was the best ever, family drama was at a minimum, and much fun was had by all. Hope your near the end of December holiday-ish celebration was great too.

Good thing the season is over

After the Ice Weasels race, I noticed that the left side of my ribcage felt like I had pulled a muscle or something. I figured that some combination of hurriedly throwing furniture around and something I did while racing was the culprit... no big deal... sucks to get old. Well that was 9 days ago. Most of last week the pain was sort of back and forth and I noticed after a couple days that there was one very specific spot, about the size of my finger-tip, that was very very tender to the touch. I started thinking "Huh, I bet this is what it would fee like if I broke a rib." Not remembering any sort of impact that would break a rib, I wrote it off. After a weekend of snow removal said rib was particularly angry with me so last night I had to make the promise to the wife that I'd call a doctor today. Doctor's recommendation basically came down to go get an x-ray because we're going to want one anyways. Out of work early and off to the ER I go where I enjoyed about a 100-minute turnaround for 3 chest x-rays and a diagnosis. Sadly, that was pretty quick. The diagnosis: If it hurts, don't do it. There was nothing on the film that indicated a healing break of any kind so the theory is that I severely aggravated the cartilage between my ribs. I was told to basically just take it easy for a bit to let things calm down. I follow up with the doc in the a.m., but I'm not expecting any sort of different story. Of course I then came home and used the snow rake to clear off the bottom few feet of the roof. Fortunately 12 fl. oz. in a glass bottle don't seem to be heavy enough to bother it...

Update: Likely diagnosis is an intercostal muscle tear. Treatment: don't do anything stupid for about 4 weeks. Probability of me following treatment plan: Low.

NTEP, the finale

Finally huh?

When we last left our hero, he was standing in the driveway in a combination of horror and disbelief about destroying his road bike. What to do... what to do? Well it turns out this story has a silver lining. About 3 weeks prior to said incident I had become officially fed up with the poor fit of my road bike and the fact that there was effectively nothing more that could be done. Even with the custom fork, there was just something about the overall setup that wasn't right and I had been getting very uncomfortable on anything more than an hour. Well I had been sitting on part of a bonus from work and my wife graciously agreed to let me go for broke and order... wait for it... my Seven that I had always wanted. So once I was able to speak again, I made a call to the shop and told them what happened. Then I asked if anything could be done to expedite the build. I got a call back that I'd have my new steed within 3 days. So lady and gentleman, meet my silver lining:

A picture taken in my poorly lit garage really doesn't do it justice. Some sunny day I have to do a proper photo shoot.

See... good thing I split that post up... it only took me like 3 months to finish it.

And you think I'm an unusually large Person

I just had to buy my not-even 8 year old son MEN'S size 7 shoes. This poor child is either going to be rich and famous from crushing other large men on a turf field or pointed at and mocked like his old man...

Scam

Apparently ground water intrusion of any type is not covered by insurance, or at least mine. Forget the fact that we've gone to great personal expense to prevent damage to the house and that I've gone to great lengths to minimize the size of any claim I'd be filing from this incident. I knew they'd find a way to weasle out of this... pictures to follow on my other blog (link forthcoming with the pictures).

Oh, and I hand in my final today... One. Semester. Left.

I almost didn't goeth

Rewind back to Friday early morning... About 4 a.m. when my brain was starting to spark to life my wife pointed out that she thought the power had just gone out. Once it registered, I looked at the clock and saw that it was on so I thought she was crazy or it was just a blip. About 30 minutes later I was more conscious and noticed when the power really did go out. Probably 5 minutes after that the overflow alarm on my sump pump started to go off and thus started the mad scramble to save anything we could. Despite being in line at Home Depot when they opened the doors at 6 to buy a generator (fortunately the next town didn't lose power until a couple hours later), we still ended up with about 4" of water in some parts of the basement. Saturday morning as I was tearing out more sections of the floor that was destroyed, I contemplated whether I should just bail and attend to that, but was then given the green light by my wife since it was the last race of the season and it would be a good stress relief (have I mentioned she rocks?)

Now just because I had the go-ahead, didn't mean I was prepared. I think I was half packed, it was already 11:15, the race was at 2, and I hadn't eaten lunch. I had to take the gamble and go with 2 junior bacon cheeseburgers from Wendy's while driving as pre-race food. Fortunately there was no second coming of the burgers so that part worked out ok I guess. Got to Wretham about 12:40 which left me barely enough time to get myself organized. With the small race and parking right there it was no problem to get to reg and see a couple of the noon racers going by at the end of their festivities. Just then Coley says "Ooh, they're done, I can get a lap in" so I'm thinking "Oh yah, I should probably check out the course, but I have about 10 minutes to do that". Run back to the car and throw on the bare essentials... shoes and helmet and even the shoes were debated. So my course preview was in jeans and a work jacket... oh well, I was warm. Someone had warned me the course "would make you learn how to turn your bike" and they were certainly right. Note to self, set your expectations low when the course is designed by 2 nearly pro mountain bikers and they have very little space to work with. All the twists and turns were pretty fun and I was actually more worried about the drop of death on the backside of the course. If it had been smooth it would have been a no-brakes thrill ride, but it was riddled with potholes so it was instead an attempt to not injure myself.

With the course checked out I got suited up quickly and then hit the oh-so-pro warmup area in the barn. Let me tell you, pro treatment when you're lining up for your first big kids race is... well... pro. The lineup was uneventful except that Colin was still standing casually in front of the field shooting the shit with the officials when Chris yelled "15 seconds"... dude puts on a race and he thinks he can do what he wants ;) Whistle blows and I am VERY quickly reminded that I need some big adjustments to my starting mentality when racing fast people. Everyone was off like a shot and by about 2 minutes into the race I realized that me, GD, and lil Stevie are bringing up the rear of the field convincingly. Well I'd like to tell you that I got my act together and went blazing through the field from there, but you'd know I was lying. Some high/lowlights from the rest of the race:

- Passing a guy going into the super narrow 180 and then crashing hard while doing a 3-point turn on my giant bike and making him and GD stand there while I insulted myself

- Thinking I was taking a Bud Light handup only to discover it was a malt liquor handup. I think it's good that I then hit a pothole and spilled half of it.

- Getting a free Colt 45 fueled Nega-Coach session in the middle of the race. After screaming a bunch of stuff about being fast and power and all kinds of other nonsense he eloquently summed it up by screaming "DON'T SUCK!" Amen brother.

- Realizing that I was gaining on Coley and CCC only to have them mock me to try and catch them and later find out that they had "shut it down" and realized they should pick it up when I started getting close

- Being mocked by a tri guy for my bike handling skills

- Not getting lapped despite deserving it with the way I rode

Overall it was a killer race and I was definitely sore and tired Saturday night. I didn't feel great during the race, but it's unclear if that's because I sucked or if the race was just that fast and the speed was killing me. All the twisties were definitely not made for me, but I held my own on the 2 long straights and barrier sections. There's definitely improvements to be made, but whether it's the 3-4 minutes worth of improvements I'd need to actually compete in that field remains to be seen. Sounds like a goal for another season...

What do we do next weekend?

Yes kids, I think the withdrawal has begun already. I'm pretty beat from the past couple days and I'll give the long story on all that tomorrow. For now I just have to give it up to Results Boy and Thom for putting on a hell of a race today. There's got to be some sort of award for making the most out of very little space and these guys would win it. Seriously, I think they packed about 3-4 minutes of a 7 minute-ish course into a space about 150' x 150'. Although I will request that next year they use my bike to gauge the width of some of those 180's ;)

So for now I'll leave you with this Mr (and Ms) Cyclocross Racer... to a season well done: