Most of y'all have probably seen it already, i've been busy or distracted other places, Tilford's link to it today got me to sit and read it for a second waiting on a system to come up (there's a lot of waiting in what i do, time isn't something you can tweak easily).

This one rang true in a few ways.

First I got to "One of the things I like about the peleton is that you have to respect each other"

reminds me of the difference between racing with the masters and the kids... the old guys (and maybe it is just my perception from watching the B racers do stupid shit) seem to have a bit of patience SOMETIMES bottle neck at NoHo excepted. There's sort of this fierce competitiveness but also an understanding of when to back off and when to chop, when you can do it cleanly and when you should just wait for the next corner and set up the kill cleanly. Could be my imagination too, or me romanticizing the old fast dudes too much.

Then you get to the meat of everything, the real reason why he's coming back.

Damn that speaks a ton. He's got the gift, I don't but I can offer a different reason, but equally compelling example of perseverance, following a passion that maybe you aren't naturally gifted at, but following it completely and sticking with it when things don't go well, pushing for small glimmers of success, measuring against yourself and pushing through.

Providing an example for my kids, not of someone who won't ever miss their football team on TV, never misses a hockey game on TV or other passive participation in a "passion" no, I think what I've got and am giving is pretty special. Yeah maybe that sounds a bit egotistic, but, it is a strong motivation and being an example to my girls that you can ride a bike year round, that it isn't a big deal. That you can race and be passionate about something and still put dinner on the table and have a job you love. Winning isn't always everything. Sure it is pretty f'n nice, maybe some day I can experience a truly fulfilling win in cyclocross, I don't mean to take anything away from those who do hit that podium regularly. Anyway I'm winning by being able to follow my passion and love for this sport. Being there to watch my friends compete, some for wins and podium spots, some for national championships. It got pretty dark early this season for me, I lost focus, over trained because I thought that would make me stronger, thinking all I needed was more intervals, more intensity, sooner and harder. I didn't...

Anyway, I had a great ride home today, felt pretty good. Wasn't feeling great during the day, but the ride home? Pretty great. Drilled it and it pretty nice.

This sort of makes sense re-reading it but i should really expand it but not now, time to start cooking some dinner.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/science/30farm.html

And more from "I Made That!" dinner rolls... they look so good.

not feeling the writing bug today...

cuisine

in the raw definition sense has turned the culinary gears up to 11 following Todd's tweet this morning:


No - now I'm not saying I can do it well, or make it work successfully, but it got me thinking, quite a bit. Until the next shiny object came along and I ran off down that rabbit hole.

But it doesn't really seem to be too insane of a challenge to merge the two together. They have different flavors most certainly, but oddly the more modern Mexican and traditional Indian cuisines share the same spices, namely cumin and coriander (aka cilantro).

Crazy. The 35+ field gets pretty thin this time of year, the business end of the field is just getting faster and tighter, and the hard core passionate folks stick around.

Despite the slow start this season really has blossomed for me this last month or so. Yeah, it is a pretty standard pattern. But not just results and the legs and all that. Talking with guys in the field I haven't really had a chance to get to know in the past years, learning new twists and tips from folks like Perham. Heck it was great talking to Ryan L post race yesterday. And parking up next to Whitney's Tree service truck gave me the chance to hang out with Timber and talk to Adam on Sunday.

Hell chatting with El Gato was a highlight, damn good guy that Sundt character is. What do we have to do to convince him that he should really just accept it that when he retires he needs to join the ranks of the 35+ masters field ala Mark McCormack. Who's going to lobby Mandy that it HAS TO HAPPEN. Granted that means he probably won't head to New England very often just to race the old farts. Ah well.

Speaking of El Gato, a seattle boy? seriously? damn. Anyway the rusty trusty race wagon performed flawlessly on the way up to Sterling on Saturday.

Got there at the same time as my team mate's black passat TDI wagon (10 years newer). Parked next to eachother even. But damn if it wasn't jealous or depressed Sunday morning.

Headed up 146 and the first rise, not much go juice. Close and closer to Purgatory the car just kept saying "dude I'm not giving you any fuel deal with it."

No powah.

None.

Grrr.

So on the way to Lowell I had put 6 gallons of dinosaur diesel in the remainder of the tank of 100% biod (about 6 gallons left or so). Still had no power going up.

Sat Am on the way up I put ~5 gallons into the tank. Dilute it further to really ensure that I don't have fuel clogging problems.

So Sunday with the now power, well, it wasn't fuel. No smoke meant that something else was going on that caused the car to go into limp mode. This was electronically limiting, not an obvious mechanical issue. Frustrating? yeah.

One down hill somewhere I crested the top of the hill, slipped it out of gear and turned it off. Took out the key. Then cycled the ignition back to on (w/o starting) 3 times (removing the key each time). Started it up at the bottom of the hill and boom POWAH BABY.

Limp mode. Ugh. So that means it can be a few things. Since it happens mostly when it is cold (Turtle Pond, Lowell, Sterling) it is probably a leaking hose somewhere. Now I think there is another component.

Lowell I went a different way, and had a hard acceleration w/in 5-10 minutes of getting on the road. Not quite WOT/Full fuel request but close. Def asking for way more fuel than normal. And then heading to Sterling on Sunday I had a craving for some Coffee Exchange brew and gave it a good bit of fuel on the Gano/195 entrance ramp (car not fully warm - esp hoses).

Current simplest explanation in my head (with looking at the codes - that's a story I'll get to in a second) is the boost hoses that feed the MAP sensor and regulate the N75/Wastegate mechanism are leaking a bit. And either the turbo is over boosting from the leaking or the MAP is seeing less boost than there is and either way the ECU sees a boost differential out of range that sends it into Limp Mode.

Now a code would be thrown but not necessarily a CEL. (If you are confused by these CEL/ECU/N75/MAP things then this rambling is probably not terribly exciting anyway). And yes I would need to pull said code.

I do not have a Scanguage (which would be nice to have esp with this car, on the fly code reading and all the rest that comes with it - ie SO NICE). What I have to check the codes and do the electronic diagnostic work is a 1995 Dell Lattitude 486/DX2 laptop running Win95 that my OBD cable (that I made with help from Ray Clark) plugs into. The only place i have the VWTool software and my Vag-Com is on that computer and currently it will turn on, but not stay on. Phantomly shutting off, and then wants to do the whole scandisk thing when you start it back up. I got frustrated trying to trouble shoot it and had to probably work on making dinner and have left it sitting for now. I have one more old laptop with a serial port (the real reason i can't just stick the old software -if i can find it- on a new laptop).

Anyway - I could probably try and stop at Advance Autoparts or Autozone and have them pull any codes but they just spit out a P number and then it takes a bit more searching vs the read out in Vag-Com.

So the problem might be something different, or unrelated to boost but this is the simplest explanation. Replacing all the vacuum/boost hoses and pinch clamps is going to be the next step.

But at least I managed to finish the drive up to Sterling with POWAH!

And now can plan ANOTHER car project for THIS Christmas break. YEAH! It is turning into an annual event! Supah!

But the racing this weekend was awesome.
Results? Okay, I beat the race predictor by a good handful of places, even not counting the DNFs I wasn't DFL. Big plus, and I was racing.

Pete Smith pointed out that my biggest error on Saturday was trying to race the guy who was sitting on my wheel for two laps, and not focusing more on racing forward, against Michael Zocchi. MZ was dangling there, just 5-10 seconds up, and I had been slowly bringing him back when PM caught onto my wheel. I figured PM would want to come around (since he caught me and all that) and could help reel in Michael. Nope. Peter sat back there, being either gapped off or just sitting on my wheel depending on the section around the course.
In a few of the straighter power sections I actually backed off a bit, hoping maybe that would entice him to come around.

Nope. He sat there. And Michael never got any closer. Then I started going harder again and Peter attacked and gapped me and I couldn't hang on and he slipped away as did Michael. Willsey came through me at the end and With only Jack Hayden in view I dialed back just enough to stay in front of Hayden at the finish. And yes I did stay in front of him despite the timing on the results.

But damn, even if I did screw up and race the guy behind me (and I did - results may not have been different but then again they might have) I was RACING THE WHOLE GOD DAMN RACE!

I did start absolutely DFL after the parade lap. Back there with Wade and the rest of the no Verge point late registering crew. In reality there were very few people who passed me (Willsey, and Miller as mentioned), and poor Gary David and his mechanical issues on Day 1 took a good god damn long time to work up through me, and I tried to hang on his wheel but couldn't.

Post race, I gathered the stuff, planned to head out for a nice 15 min road ride to cool down but naggin rub with the chamois in the skinsuit sent me to the car to change/load up with bag balm, and a cool down on the trainer. Perham made me a bit of his recovery drink stuff, and i worked on not standing around too much and focusing on the recovery. I should have focused on making sure my back was being as well taken care of as my legs, oops.

But still, it was a pretty killer way to start the weekend of racing. Good stuff.

Sunday's race will have to wait for a more expounded version other than it was hella fun trying to stay on Chad's wheel, then mysteriously coming around him, and unfortunately showing him how to ride the one section he couldn't way too early (I'm thinking if my back had held out and I didn't show him that line I had a much better chance of sticking with him yesterday), but only dropping 4 places and about 2 minutes in 2.5 laps with a back completely locked up slowing me in the corners and the straights, hey that's a success. 37/55 wasn't so bad either!

Bring on NBX!

Dinner tonight - oh and it was gloriously delicious. Umami and Sweet, but no sugar added. Savory Deliciousness with a touch of sweetness in a warm wrap you in a blanket taste of awesomeness.

Sometimes "experiments" don't always turn out well, or the whole family isn't so sold on it. This time the kids DEVOURED seconds of the stuff.

So what is it?

GeWilli Recipe to follow:
brown some grassfed ground beef (~1.5# of the stuff)
peel and put in a steamer 3 yams and 2 sweet potatoes (sweet potatoes are white btw - yams are the orange ones) - after peeling slice them into less than 1 cm thick circles before steaming - yes way better than nuking
just before the last pink is gone in the beef add 1 1/2 chopped onion
then add two peeled and cubed organic carrots
toss and cook for a few more minutes
add 1 cubed (similar size to carrots) peeled red beet.

These cubes should be sub cm in size BTW

Then chop two ribs of celery and add it to the beef.

Time to season the beef:
ground sage leaf (tsp - tblsp)
soy sauce (Eden organic Shoyu)
Colman's mustard powder (1/2 tsp or so)
1-2 tblsp 365 brand organic Hoisin Sauce
Dash or four of extra hot cayenne pepper powder
splash of fish sauce
less than but close to a 1/4 cup of red wine

Mix well and let simmer until the potatoes are ready to mash.

Just as you are mashing add some frozen peeled Edemame to the beef.

Now, to mash the potatoes:
Drain the water, remove the steamer basket and put the potatoes back in the pot. Add some extra virgin olive oil, ~1 tblsp of butter, some salt, chili powder (not the hot stuff, the ground mild chili stuff) and cinnamon and less than 1/2 cup of organic whole milk (*because you're just slowly killing yourself if you are using something other than organic milk).

Mash it up.

Oh and have the oven pre-heated to 325 (with convection if you have it).

Put the meat into a nice layer (i used a pyrex lasagna/enchilada pan) smooth it out and try not to devour the hash mix.

Then, now comes the tricky part - plop a bunch of spoonfuls of the mash on top of the hash. I went with two rows of 3 and a couple drops int the middle. Then carefully spread the mash over the hash with the spoon.

This takes some skill and creativity and patience and attention or you'll wind up mixing it all the hell up and defeating the whole reason to pop it in the oven.

You should have a nice layer of potatoes on top when finished. I didn't quite get it perfect but very close. There was some mingling of the bottom layer into the top but only marginally, they stayed pretty much separated.

Then once that's finished - pop it in the oven for 25 min or so.

What you wind up looks something like this:

photo is def not Todd P's level but hey - it is what i got to document it. Don't like the looks of it? WHO CARES this tastes AMAZING.

Wow

so

good

nomnomnomnomnom



*this statement is made somewhat tongue in cheek, list of problems with milk, it is a protein based food and can remove more calcium in bones than it can replace. domestic USA produced milk is from cows with a different protein profile than most Euro cow milk and is very inflamatory vs Euro stuff. Some Kiwi's decided to call it A1 and A2 (look it up). Non-organic won't kill you but farmers can't make it w/o subsidies or resorting to non-sustainable practices that aren't healthy for the planet or the cows making the milk. Organic farmers may not all be perfect but they are making a better product (in general) at a more cost inclusive price (in general) than the alternative. I don't buy ultra-pasteurized stuff tho, am fortunate to be able to buy decent regular homo/past stuff. I don't support drinking it in a glass, pretty gross if you ask me. But this is me, not you. Do what ever the f'you want.

It is indeed a good day to give thanks.

Thanks for Family, for our Friends, real and internet ones even.

I am not cooking a huge feast today, but I did make a few things.

Cooking this meal solo is a feat, one I actually really do enjoy but man it's more exhausting than doing a 24 hour mt bike race. Seriously. Takes every last drop out of you. From the shopping and planning and preparations, the brining, the chopping the pre-cooking the making of stock and then the timing. Have to get the timing right and when you do it yourself, no help no one bringing any main dishes, it is magic.

When I make a thanksgiving feast this is what I'll do:
Roast Turkey
Mashed Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes roasted then mashed
cranberry sauce (with orange)
Brussels Sprouts
stuffing (usually two versions, one with giblets and one w/o
peas w/ pear onions
gravy
rolls

So yeah not a big list, but the turkey starts out in a brine. The bring has to be made on Tuesday so it is cool and ready to get the turkey plunked into it on Wednesday.

And these sweet potatoes aren't steamed like I've been doing them lately, I cut them in half skin side down, coat them in olive oil and salt and roast them for 45 min in a 450 oven. Then they get mashed with cream, molasses, and some spices (tiny bit of nutmeg, some cinnamon, I'd add some chili powder if i was going to do it this year).

Stuffing is from scratch usually, although I have in the past purchased some of that Pepperidge farm, pre-cut stuff, but mix it with stock and what not, it gets baked separately not in the turkey.

The rest? I over complicate them a bit but the results? Unbelievably good. Seriously.

Food is about the attention to the little things. Achieving Umami is not easy.

But this year with the Brussels Sprouts? I f'n NAILED IT.

Oh and the pumpkin pies I made last night? so delicious.

Sprouts for 15 (hopefully there'll be some left over but i keep snacking on them):
~3-4 pounds of cleaned then cut in half sprouts.

You have to cook bacon (okay don't have to if you keep a good stash of bacon fat in the freezer). Once you eat the bacon (with some omelets or something) add one small local red onion that you have had kicking around from the last farmer's market all chopped up to the hot bacon fat, let those soften for a bit, then add some olive oil once you've turned the heat off.
Toss the bacon fat and onions and any bacon scrapings from the pan with the sprouts in a large bowl. Add a generous amount of salt while tossing and coating evenly.

The split the batch into two jelly roll (cookie) sheets and stick into a 425 degree convection oven for 10 minutes, then cut the heat back to about 325 and finish until they are nice and black.

Then enjoy.

So good.

The pumpkin pies were made from scratch. We had one pumpkin left over so I backed that thing up in the oven until soft, peeled it, stuck it through the ricer, mixed in 5 medium eggs, 3 cups of heavy cream, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup light brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and salt. Mix that all completely and dispense into 4 pre-made wholefoods frozen pie shells and bake.

Next time I won't use the convection (crust got a bit dark) for the pie.

We're headed over to the farm to hang with family and cousins and everyone. Bringing pies and the sprouts. Mmm.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
G

So first race of the year, and the last one i did, similar points. Finally felt like i was racing the whole time and what do you know - the points are there.

Sweet.

I know, not supposed to pay attention to Crossresults points. no, shouldn't but can't help it. Maybe I am making some progress.

We'll see how Sterling goes. And yeah, I remembered to register before the registration closed. Lets see if I can remember to register before NBX closes.

At least the commute was.

Sunny, warm (48 degrees), no wind...

No gloves, knee warmers and a relaxed ride in. Just the regulars on the path, kind of nice. Soon even most of them will be gone except on the really nice days.

I've been messing up on taking enough food with me during the day, today? oh wow so hungry, it's still early and with just lunch in the bag... i seem to do this way too often. I suppose it is good though, right? Lower calories reduces the effects of aging, not to mention keeps the extra weight off. If i can show even a tiny bit of discipline on Thursday i could probably be sub Clydesdale solidly by NBX. We'll see though, not sure i want to show much restraint, food is sooo good, and yeah, I like thanksgiving. I have to make the Brussels sprouts and probably a desert. the Sprouts I'm going to cook up with some bacon Cut em in half and roll em around in the bacon fat with some olive oil (add complexity to the flavor) some sea salt and maybe not much else, put em in a pan and blast em in the convection oven until they are dark and caramelized and delicious. Ah crap. Thinking/writing about food right now isn't helping. contemplating just going home and making them tonight. Means going shopping tomorrow again though. We'll see what kind of restraint I can show.

Sterling pre-reg closes tomorrow at noon. I should really remember to register. Should probably do that now but then I'd have to unplug and interrupt the flow.

What flow. Yeah I know. Not much going on.

But here, this popped up on the 'open tabs' and man, that looks good. No insect parts in there Murat, unless you suck at washing your own figs. And wow, holy crap, looking at it again I would kill for a big stack of those right now. Okay, i'd kill a bit pile of figs for that.

On a more serious note. One that I should probably post a separate one (might as well) but give it a read until i get there. Or read it again.
Mario Gets it. Seriously. He's got a good balanced point there.

And by balance I don't mean everyone going out to be militant vegans to try and balance the universal scale towards moderation, that works sort of but not nearly as well as focusing on developing good and sustainable ways to address our food situation.

Man I hope the voices rise loud enough to make a difference.

And some people are watching football... some are not.

I am actually feeling pretty liberated by my lack of having an FFL team for the first time in 10+ years. I can actually just watch the game and not worry about one of the players getting a catch or a TD or the defense sacking or intercepting. I can just watch it if I have a chance and just enjoy it. I never know who is playing who and when the games are but that's okay, my schedule allows me to watch when i can and that isn't decided by who is playing.

I did start a Fantasy Cycling league back in Michigan, hmm must have been 1999 IIRC when I started it. Pretty solid too. Taught me a ton about using MS Excel and forms and autofil/sort/automation. Granted most of it I've forgotten. But it was along time ago. I tell ya, it did make you pay attention to those riders down at the bottom of the UCI rankings, and that was good, esp with a sport that isn't analyzed down the last points getting place by ESPN.

The cycling thing was pretty cool. Turned out the winner picked pretty well way down at the bottom, and when the rest of the league figured out how to work the UCI points bracket, well it was less of a run away but still no one ever tied and the winner got some good stuff (no, I never won that).

anyway

Today I raced.

Not just showing up and riding around and placing. No. I raced. I screwed up at least once, as John G pointed out (i wish he had yelled at me in the race - but he's way too nice). Barring that screw up maybe i'd have placed a bit higher. As it was i beat the race predictor by 1 and had a great race and good time racing my bike THE WHOLE FREAKING RACE.

no, no lawnchair. sure i gave John G 30 seconds or so in the last lap but with only whitey behind me I kinda mailed it in, sort of. Not really. Basically i tried to catch Jack Hayden but couldn't make up the difference before we hit the track and looked back and pedaled only hard enough to make sure Chris W didn't come around me in front of Alan's cameras.

It was an odd race.

9:45 is a bit early for me, esp the last couple years.

The car was sooo no happy. Absolutely no power up the hills. So there's either a fuel or boost problem. And the boost is causing the fuel to be cut off. Damn smoke map is pretty damn effective if that is the case.

So I hit the venue exactly as fast as Google Maps said I would.

That worked out okay. I got a good three laps before the Cat 4 started (Mike Brier won a race, finally, after 75+) and then proceeded to discover that i'd left all my baselayers at home and well - that meant racing only wearing the skinsuit.

cool - more like oh crap, it is 33 degrees MAYBE and slightly windy and, well, no chance to overheat.

sort of. fast forward to the point of fingers being numb from the cold for a lap and my chest being too cold for that long. The rest of me was fine and the fingers and chest warmed right the hell up after a lap or two.

so yeah - it was a bit cold.

Took me an hour bundled up wearing everything warm I brought before I could drink one of Kurt Maw's beers. Just too cold after the race.

So the race? It was intense. Chad showed up with 2 seconds to spare and started at the back only to some how manage to come through me after 1/2 a lap. And he came through so fast I had no chance to follow the game plan of following him as long as possible.

But soon enough there was CTodd to follow. Nothing like trying to hang with the funemployed. Silly people with more time to train than the rest of us. Good stuff. He raced well, seems odd to see him in the B-sample tho.

And that Crossresults guy. He kept hopping shit and riding the hard core tech areas well but blowing the power/motoring sections like a sorority girl on 4loco at a frat party.

So yeah.

The race today was awesome.

Fun

as

hell

yeah.

it was. Sort of quad cross all over again. Or everything between Quad Cross and today sort of didn't count. No I don't think I managed to break the top 50% but I raced, the whole race and with one idiot exception i was racing the whole time.

And man was it awesome.

Best thing is I didn't let the fact that the the car had zero boost and was wicked slow on the way up get to me. Anytime the road sort of tilted up? well i went from the cruise control set at 75 right down to 65mph. Now that's not a big deal but thanks for the cruise control! Meant i didn't have to have a physical reminder that something wasn't right with the car. It was running smoothly, no smoke, smooth, just gutless. So i did what I knew was acceptable, I ignored it hoping it would clear up ala Turtle Pond this spring.

Short story was, well, nope. It was just as gutless outside the torque peak on the way there as it was on the way home. I'll work on it, soon, maybe.

It was a dark and stormy afternoon when I got home... then the girls showed up and now it is mellow and I'm ready to sleep.

Sterling is up next weekend. I should probably register sooner than later, maybe even tag NBX/Goddard park in on the reg. Good couple weekends of racing coming up. Can't wait. Even if I don't have any verge points or hopes of getting one.

peace, be good,
heddwch
G

Okay?

Read this.

Sorry small biz/restaurant owners - people need to do some stuff for themselves more often.

It's a song that was written about the military cemeteries in Flanders and Northern France. In 1976, my wife and I went to three or four of these military cemeteries and saw all the young soldiers buried there.
—Eric Bogle[1]

Take a look at how many people have covered this song.

it was first burned into my brain by Gordon Bok, Ann Muir and Ed Trickett. Their 1978 verion on their LP "The Ways of Man" is what sticks with me the most. They titled the track "No Man's Land" and the rendition is haunting.

I made a tape copy of that LP we had and literally wore it out. There was a skip on the Golden Vanity track that messes me up when i hear the same song on the CD version.

So my brother stopped by and we had lunch and the Dropkick Murphy's version of the song came on the pandora que...

and now that I have a few minutes between shit i'm fixing, have to share.

Veteran's day is not quite a week past now, but we should never forget... the Dropkick Murphy's version is pretty damn close to how I remember it. Eric Bogle's version (the songwriter) is great, but somehow the purity and meter of the Dropkick's is more to my liking, I just wish they'd slow the song down a bit, the snare and the pipe just make it perfect, but slow the tempo down, let the song lyrics linger.

There isn't a Bok/Muir/Trickett you tube song of it up there...

so take a listen and lets not forget what happened in the mud of flanders or the green fields of france... ever.

Go full screen, turn up the sound...

it is amazing. i've never been overwhelmed by Danny's first couple films but this? Holy shit this is magic.

Fucking brilliant. Soundtrack, scenery, cinematography (okay it isn't perfect, i find the panning of the fisheye to be distracting but i've yet to find something perfect).

Wow...

just fucking wow

where at they?

I dunno. I guess I was holding out for some hope that maybe I would be able to turn the season around and hit stride like years past at Plymouth. But no.

And writing about the races just seems to drive home how well I'm not doing, reality has sunk in and I've got to come to terms with it all somehow. Somehow on a positive level. Yes I need to be reminded that it is fun. And yes, I am having fun racing. Well up until the perspective of "results" comes into play.

So writing about the races just hasn't been something I can get excited about doing.

Northampton was awesome. Great time racing, but explaining that I didn't fold on Day 2, and it was just the simple fact of being gapped off the group in front of me and having a monster gap behind me to sink safely into, well, it meant not that I folded physically but that it didn't matter a heap of anything if I kept the pressure on, time gaps? who cares. It isn't a f'n time trial. Who cares how many minutes you were behind the leader. This sport is based on placing, and places, not times. Time dictates how many laps we do, the only time that matters is if you are going fast enough not to get lapped. Time matters if you can close that gap to the guy in front, or keep the person from catching you.

I've done 5 races in 8 days. I managed to get a slow leak in the 3rd race, but start the 4th thinking it was slow enough that i could make it through. Hey dropping 10psi overnight? no problem. Oops. At least Sykes had the PRO-ness to have neutral support at his races (unlike say PVD) and I was able to take a very quick front wheel change and stay on the lead lap. Although instead of sitting comfortably on Grenier's and Stacy's wheel it meant i was solidly completely 100% alone in solo TT land.

Eco-cross was great, except the 9 lap part and the getting a flat. I was feeling okay, and I was nailing the lines riding behind Derek. He was railing the corners, but... but he got a slight gap when I f'ed up the down hill slalom and nearly hugged a tree and then just about took my head off on the corner of the greenhouse in the big loose round rocks. And with that gap I wasn't able to autopilot his lines and I started to see the trees that would send me on a trip in an ambulance instead of the fast way to ride the course. That and having driven there with my daughters, just the three of us put me into hard core self preservation mode. But doing 9 roughly 4 minute laps at least i had put enough time in on the first 5 laps that when I let Derek drift away i could screw up pretty badly and not get lapped. Yeah i just capitalized 1/3 of the 'I's in the last sentence. Awesome. DON'T CARE. Seriously.

Highlight of the race was coming into the barriers pretty hot and I stuck my left leg out as I hit the loose shit there, problem is, it ain't all that easy to dismount at speed with your left leg in a tripod (unclipped outriggering it). Oops. Managed to unclip the right leg and basically use it's momentum to carry my ass off and over the saddle just in time. No smashing body parts on the barriers in front of my kids. Phew. Scared me for a minute though. Old man instincts and reflexes kept that from happening.

My friend who's living down in South Carolina came up for this past weekend. Usually one of my best weekends racing, results and fun wise. It was really awesome hanging out with him, and saturday's field turn out was near verge in stackedness. granted pack fill like myette and company didn't show but the business end of the field was there. Ctodd made a rare appearance then took his pedal off the bike mid-race so that Paul would have to buy me a beer. Very nice of Ctodd to do that. The belgian that Paul came up with on Sunday was really very good.

It's all been a whirlwind. And instead of having more clarity about what *I* should do, it is even more confusing. But if you were to ask me to come up with a generic, sort of typical CX training program for someone else I don't have much trouble. I know what works, but some how in many ways miss applied it to myself. I didn't listen early to myself, I pushed to hard to get the program in and screwed it all up. That and all the negative stuff really has weighed heavily on me.

The season is effectively over. There are some great races coming up. Lowell, but 9:45 is wicked early, right now i'd almost pick staying in bed and watching the euro races on the buffer hell live internet feeds. I've got till friday at 5pm to make up my mind.

The thing is I really do basically live for the race. And it is fun, a rush... I love the racing, but getting stuck in the soloTT mode after a few laps is mentally tough.

So yeah, there ya go, that's about all I'm writing up about those last few races. Done. Moving on.

And that trainer is getting left in the car, running shoes are not going to be run in, no running hill intervals, no stair climbing, no sprints... just commuting to work and racing from here on out, can't get any slower, and that stuff takes time that i don't want to sacrifice and right now don't see any point/benefit in doing.

I did have a complete day off the bike today, first time in a couple weeks at least. But in those weeks there were some pretty light, walk the bike kind of riding, very little medium riding either, mostly commuting slowly or as fast as I could/working intervals into it.

So instead of sleeping I'm writing, trying to move on, trying to get a grip. trying to focus on the bounty of positives and not let the handful of negatives weigh me down...

not so easy this year...

the weight of the last 18 months is heavy...

Yeah, it is hockey time.
No unlike half or more of the old farts I'm racing with I never played the game, but damn did I like going to see the Spartans in Munn Arena.

To start every game they'd play this song.
Whole fucking arena would be singing along. Religious ya know? Like singing the opening hymn at church, it is part of it.

I've been to two different College hockey games in this town, three if you could men and women teams from one of the schools. Did they play that song? Nope. Maybe it is some east coast vs mid-west thing. Michigan might as well be Canada when it comes to Hockey, compared at least to the rest of the USA.

Sokay, i've got a better tradition than going to a hockey game and watching other people play a game, I go play a game.

This weekend. Battle of the Mitten on Sunday. All I can do is hope my competition decides to go swim 10,000 yards tomorrow, I don't want him to crash on the way to the pits this year though.

http://www.cxmagazine.com/flemish-mud-veterans-day-2010
Go give it a read.

Powerful stuff. The poem there linked at the end of the article too, read that.

Pretty incomprehensible stuff that is. For me at least. I can try and imagine, but I know there's nothing close in my personal experiences to what my grandfathers and their friends dealt with in WWII, much less the generation who fought in the mud in WWI. The cruelty and destruction and absolute misery, and near certainty that you weren't going home.

(read the article before going any further please)
Dan't comments at the end:

It is, I finally decided. Dulce et decorum est. It is sweet and fitting: we honor the dead by continuing to live. So pedal your bike, revel in the mud, but don’t forget its past.

We honor the dead by continuing to live.

Okay, fahk, I've got something in my eye and I can't form words, much less blink fast enough to keep the screen from blurring out of focus.

Christie, Greg, Elise, Michael, Mark, Bill, Nate...

And those names I don't connect with personal loss, I know how their loved ones feel and family feel:
James
Robert, Dakota, Anthony, Andrew, Dale, Aaron, Randy...

Of all those names I've written, one, just one was able to live their life to the natural end. The only acceptable loss, but one that is not without pain or emptiness.

We honor the dead by continuing to live.

I'm wrung out - this is an interesting week coming off NoHo, adding a mid week race in tire sucking glue like muddish soil course and to follow up with a pair of killer races at Plymouth.

Yeah - no NoHo report, it's like everyone elses: I had an absolute blast, I raced the whole race, had fun, did better than I had expected crossresults points still suck but who cares, it was a good course. Saturday was better for me, but sunday was fun once we got past the incident with a teammate at the off camber 180. Yesterday's race? ~4 min laps, I think we did 9. Tight shortened course at the farm. One dismount per lap, a handful too many tight single track lines with big tree or building penalties for screwing up, added with me there with the girls and having to drive em home i got off Derek's wheel and started riding conservatively in those sections, ie i slowed way the fuck down. On the flip side the RR tubies did well, some loss of traction but very predictably and hell I think where I slipped even a cubus would have had trouble and I never lost it just a minor slide out. it wasn't for lack of traction, more a lack of integrity in the soil.

now to cheer up and focus on this weekend. solid. of course this is my weekend to remember mark and ride my ass off in his memory. try to ride like he did.

awe shit there we go - i'm all emotional again. time to hit the reset button with a walk outside

Thanks to all the Veterans out there who have/are serving this great country of ours.

Words cannot fully express our gratitude.

-GeWilli

Story out of Detroit about a memorial service today.

and man there are so many people who think she's way out in lala loony land...

unfortunately I don't think she is and the reality (i guess as I see it) is way to close to what she's saying...

so i took a look at the bookmarks I've been stacking up. Much like my office they are a crazy unorganized list (at least the bookmarkbar default location is) but i know where everything is that I use regularly. But sometimes it is good to dig through and see what you can find. Even better to sort it all out and toss the junk and put the rest somewhere that you'll never see them again, I mean organize them.

So I'm digging and I see this and I start perusing the recipes and damn, there are some good looking ones. The Guinness burgers look esp tasty. Okay the presentation of the Beef Bouruignon looks to die for tasty. And I'd make that in a heart beat. But that is one heck of an expensive meal. Two bottles of wine, and yeah no brandy or cognac in the house either... have to buy those, then the meat. Sure Chuck is cheap but you can't just use any crappy chuck. And then canned beef broth? Really? I suppose. it would be a fantastic holiday special occasion meal. Might get two meals for my family, but they way the kids are eating stuff that tastes good (like I know they'd devour this) it is probably 1.5 meals for us (ie 6 servings even if I double the number of carrots).

This song gets to me.

It doesn't directly draw in to the loss of another cyclists to GBM. Word reached new england yesterday and spread over Twitter first... ThomP has a nice post about Michael

There are greater songs, probably songs more appropriate to embed. but hey, when pandora throws something at ya, well take the moment and run with it.

Reading Michael's blog, posthumously is tough. Hearing his voice come out through words although the person is gone, the spirit and his memory live on. No I was never fortunate enough to get to know him. I saw him around at races... I remember running into him at the NBX with the snow for some reason. Might be my brain playing tricks, but Michael was one of those guys who you noticed, like Mark Nicholson. They had a glow, an aura.

Reading his account of the treatment is different than say reading fast boy's battle with cancer. Humbling none the less.

I was thinking about Michael, and Mark a bit on the ride in. These two guys loved cycling so much. Mark was on his bike pushing us all to the limit the day before he checked into the hospital for the final time. Michael at least went through hospice, although I'm going to guess what Mark went through after being transfered back to NY was not much different.

It is hard separating these two remarkable people. So much loss.

So much loss.

There was a big race last weekend. Two of them. A while back there was this Canton Cup race. Pint glass and everything. I got it autographed, but it seems while I was in Northampton it got stuck in the dishwasher (i was going to take it to work as a desk trophy) and it isn't signed anymore. Probably for the better.

The wind has been brutal every morning this week. Each day getting slightly better but still not so much fun/easy riding in. The ride home last night was crazy intense because I was so late. But I managed to tickle the 20 minute mark, well just over it, i don't know specifically, other than i when i turned the computer off it was 5:07 and I had parked the bike and taken my backpack off and was inside a few minutes after arriving and noticed the clock was at 5:30.

I've got a pretty good idea of one thing i was doing wrong early part of the season, hopefully the changes I've made will stick and make it a bit more fun/successful.

Hitting the Sykes triple play starting tomorrow. Hard to wrap my head around a 10:30 am race on a Thursday. Will do a few springs on the way home but not too many, The race will be interesting. Very much a B/C race, but you know what? Who cares. I've got a few friends in the race, and lets face it, it's going to be me trying to beat Chad for a change this season and Chad trying to keep his 3 race streak of beating me going. I bested him last year at Lowell and NBX, but he was the one who witnessed my hooking my shorts on the damn saddle going into the barriers are mach 5 and barely making the save to keep from stacking face first into the planks and came around and the adrenaline rush killed the legs and gave him a few seconds of a gap and I just didn't have anything left to sprint him at the line.

Lets see what the weekend brings. Hell lets see what Tomorrow brings.

Gonna be muddy I'm guessing. it might be way out in the sand pile that is the cape but this is a farm, with some nicely improved soil. Meaning it is going to be muddy and rich blackness. Should be fun.

Really want to revist the Northampton races, but so far, motivation and time haven't coincided yet.

This is all i have for now.

Heddwch
G

Some of yall have the day off, some of yall have it off because your kids have it off.

Come out to the farm. Lets race!

(registration closes tonight at 5pm, in less than an hour)

Wow - timely reminder on my part eh?
Been meaning to post this for a couple days.

Also meaning to write up NoHo...

Maybe I'll get to it.

New England lost one of it's most inspiring bad-ass mtb'ers-Michael Patrick. feel lucky to have raced with him.

That's all I know, just Mo's tweet a bit ago.

Sad news indeed.

So I'm casually cruising through the open tabs sporadically as I can between stuff on a crazy monday...

and I read Thom's post about Mike Patrick.

And then i'm left with this posted on a forum two months ago:

I would like to update you on Mike's condition. Mike had a second-opinion de-bulking surgery August 10th in NYC. He had a number of critical post-surgical complications, and was not expected to survive. Mike pulled thru (are you surprised???) and has made it out of the hospital. Although Mike's surgery reduced the horrendous cranial pressure he was suffering, it also revealed that that his cancer is now a GBM IV and is very advanced. The remaining tumor has caused paralyis on his right side and near total aphasia. Amazingly, Mike remains strong and is now in a care facility near his home.

I didn't know Mike well. But that fateful race at Gloucester Grind (I actually won a race - yeah I beat exactly one other sport clydesdale) I was starting to ride a bit of the course before the race with Burke and Mike comes riding up and Burke and Mike started chatting a bit.

I was amazed by this guy's skills. Sure ThomP was crazy mad that race in '08 but I guess Mike wasn't much of a slouch either. He was dancing over the rocks and roots taking to burke and I was dying and had no hope of keeping up. That guy has more mt bike skills in one toe than i have total.

But the ominous post, and the stage four GBM? That's what Nicholson was ultimately struck down with. Brushes with greatness we have at times.

Somewhere is a post about this weekend, but I couldn't go on without a small memorialized of someone I barely knew and met maybe once, but watched from afar as his skills and legend were revealed to me. And yeah He and ThomP rode that course more than 2x faster than I was able to. Thom won that day btw.

Everytime GBM comes up I think of Mark Nicholson.

And yeah, I still miss that guy, his enthusiasm and attitude, just an awesome guy to talk to, go to races with and hang out with.

Next weekend is my weekend of racing to dedicate in his memory. He only did a few CX races but realizing i was at three of the five I know he did and I drove him to three of them and they were Plymouth North in '07 and both days at Plymouth in '08. That sunday at Plymouth south, he raced, finished 2nd then hung out with my youngest while I raced.

'07 was cold and raining and we had Lucy with us. She ate one of his bananas I think. Chabot was miserable that day (probably because I beat him). It was cold in '08 but not too wet. He had dropped the scarf mid race and I picked it up for him. the next day was cold but super sunny.

So totally didn't intent to head this direction today.

Northampton report will be coming up. Hopefully before this weekend rolls around.

up to NoHo.

time to find out if everything is coming together.

one small burrito eaten, steel cut train with grain oats are made (similar recipe to last year), car is loaded (did that last night). Need to toss in GCD and Pahke's tires in there and my clothes and waterbottles and i'll be out of here, with one stop for coffee on the way.

must remember to pre-ride a couple times

must remember to kill the start but w/in my limits

and
-advance as many places as possible at the start
-dial the turns and sprint the corners
-break the course up into focused sections and rip each one looking for the next
-gain advantage on transitions and the run up (if it is there)
-maintain speed over the bumpy root sections
-focus on the positive, language and actions
-have fun
-race my race
-have fun

how'd i miss MKR's web log?

Damn...

grab a bucket of pop-corn and read the post then the comments.

That is of course assuming you can read it. I have to copy and paste it because the green on green is maddeningly annoying.

yeah - commuting in the rain. My feet are still freaking cold, but hey, that's what I get for not digging the booties out from last year.

I saw one person walking, two people running and that's it. Rain and 43°F when I left. Not too bad. But not warm. Got a nice hard ride in. Felt great. I am hesitant to say that maybe it feels like things are coming around, but that's what the races are for. If no race I'd say I'm FLYING right now, but I know that the results sheet will give the answer this weekend. And flying is probably not how you'd describe my speed.

Now I just hope I can get the shoes dry for the ride home.

The two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a big fat white guy who is threatened by change.
- Seth MacFarlane

A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them.
- P. J. O'Rourke

Yeah call me something unique, or at least truthful. But slacking I have not been unless you are referring to training because I've done absolutely nothing. Well riding to work easily yesterday and Monday, today I put the screws down and got a solid threshold paced commute. So yeah, I guess it has turned into more of a rest week than I planned. Sunday night I watched that football game thinking maybe the Steelers would come back and win and I'd be rewarded for staying up late, but nope. They lost. Monday somehow I found myself watching the last two innings of the baseball game. First baseball I've watched all year and it was the last two innings of the season. Timing is everything. I'd be lying if I said I didn't want the Rangers to come back in the bottom of the ninth to win it and push the series on. I dislike the National League, I've never lived anywhere that actually has a NL team. Seattle, Michigan, New England. Sleep? Yeah what about it.

I've been thinking about those training races I dismissed with such conviction this year. Writing them off as doing no good, too short. Yeah well I'm an idiot. Not that yall didn't already know that much. Seems I may have made it to MRC last year, although I'm digging through the archives (lots of good shit in there - i should recycle some of it) and it seems I spent most of September underneath that silly passat doing the head gasket. Hmm. Might have to work on getting to a training race series next year. Maybe that's what I am missing this year. Hell who knows what I'm missing this year. Chipper's coaching thing has me thinking quite a bit. But then yeah maybe I'm uncoachable, but maybe not. Done dwelling on it now.

Looking forward to two days at NoHo, can't wait.

Then comes Plymouth. The Elites are grumbling about the lack of prize money, or I should say the paying out cash for a non-elite category but only handing out medals for the elites. Not the most popular move by a promoter. I'll wager it'll give Putney a big bump. And I've been considering it but the 45 min drive to Plymouth vs the 2hr and 45 min drive to Putney is the final factor. Well no. A friend is coming into town to race next weekend. He's been talking about coming up to NE to race cross with me one weekend for the last 5 years. We race CX together in Michigan as Bs and well, he's making the trip for Plymouth. Not the best representation of what we have to offer for courses but hey, it isn't about the course, it is about who you line up with no? The race is made by who you are racing against.

The courses make it fun or hard or both. But when it comes right down to it, cyclocross is damn fun. I might have to see about finding a second trainer for him to borrow to warm up, maybe one of the 45+ or gals will have one we can use on race day. He's got a flight out on Sunday and the whole drive time to Putney before a flight all for a CX race is pretty insane, sticking with the close race and the extra time to chill and have a couple beverages post race.

Well we'll see if the season is coming around this weekend I guess. I am going to try and ramp up the intensity to go into the weekend pretty hot (meaning about lukewarm compared to the rest of the field). It looks like with no school for the kids on Thursday next week I might even make it out to hit the corner cycle race promoting trifecta. Someone's gotta pay Bold and Hines salary I guess.

It's getting darker out there and colder, Finally.

Although, honestly, i'd really rather it stayed nice and warm during the week, getting cold and shitty on the weekends. The weather has a snowflake for mid-day Saturday here. Weather could be exciting at NoHo.

I should suit up for the ride home, last dry ride of the week it looks like. No trainer intervals in the back yard, guess I'll make it work on the way to work for the intensity.

heddwch
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to 2006 and 2007... before I got hit the "i know it all" level.

Backpedaling a bit to mess with the cronoman and to make this harder to read/follow.

So there's this typical trend. Get excited about something, suck info off everyone actively, always looking for new stuff, new information, new ways to do something.

UNTIL.

You hit a point where stuff starts to click and you get faster and better and success sort of starts happening.

THEN

You hit the I know it all now level. And don't really improve much over the previous season.

And you start buckling down again, but it is harder, and more familiar and you try to add structure, stuff that others with coaches are doing and it sort of works.

But...

along the way, that newbie edge is gone.

What edge? Well some people never lose that edge. The course studying. Reading reports from the years past about the race. Digging around the internet reading everything that has been written about the race, what riders do better there, tire choices, pressures, gearing, number of dismounts.

Granted when you have written about racing on a course three or four of more times you start to be able to picture it.

You can visualize it if you want.

Okay so what's the point?

CSI.

No not the TV show.

THE RACE.

This race was famous, I remember seeing pictures and video of this long before ever venturing up there. It feels like a haul for me, well I guess it only feels long if I'm driving up alone, last year with Essenfeld (fortunately I had someone to drive me home) didn't seem too bad.

So it has this mystique. People either love the race or hate it. I kind of really like it. Maybe doesn't suit me well but they way I'm going this year nothing suits me well so it is a wash and I can like something even if I suck at it.

Damn where was I going?
Oh yeah.

All that study, probably wasn't a bad thing. Reading and re-reading the Marvin Z articles (haven't done that this year and did it in limited amounts last year). I found my Krabbe book in with stuff from my trip to Richmond in the summer of '09 which means I didn't do my annual reading of it in '10. So that whole positive reinforcement of thinking positive and thinking about things I need to work on to be positive and fast kinda didn't happen. Life happens though. Doesn't take much to get you off your game, esp when it isn't your job.

So it really was a two pronged inspiration to get this out of my head in as confusing manner as possible, thinking about taggin this with food just to mess with those who only read those posts.

Prong One. Not really the whole thing, just the mention of C-S's online article database.

And Prong two, the update to CSI. Specifically the mention of the larger course map and the UCI commissaire report. I took a look and got that flash back (to being prepared, not the medical sections flash back to last year). Preparation. Thank god for a welsh miner's skull.

The routine has become too familiar almost. Although for Mansfield and Canton I did quite a bit of visualization. More for Mansfield and then Ron changed the course on me, less for Canton, but I've already mentioned my dumb thing for saturday (dumb or not I still had a blast).

In 2007, at the start line at NoHo. It was cold. Perfect. I had won the race to registration scoring a front row with the rest of the computer jockey/B masters... driving around at the business end of the group was intense. Even if we were going slowly. And what did I just do? I went back in time. Wow. It reads like I wrote it. Weird. Wait I did. Oh and this should be read before that scribblins link.

Yes. NoHo kicks ass. And I held that hole shot for most of a lap, on no sleep, completely hung over and under caffeinated.

First time at NoHo: 2007 Race it on no sleep after drinking WAY too much with my brothers.
Second time at NoHo: 2008 Raced it on the new tubulars until the rear blew out on the first lap and the antibiotics I'd been on for a few days destroyed me "Put it this way. I was more fatigued driving home from Northampton than I was driving home after racing at 24hr of Great Glen."
Third time at NoHo: 2009... okay we don't need to go there today, still fresh in the memory.

But

What comes out each time is how much fun that damn course is. Like the people who designed it know what they are doing or something. It is technical but it flows. It is bitching hard but so much fun. No faking that course.

Time to take myself back to school. Read the articles. Study the courses a bit more. Go back and read about the last races, what did I do wrong and what could I have done better. I've actually got a pretty decent archive. Completely and totally uselessly unsearchable except by date, but the stuff is there, and I really should work on learning from my mistakes.

I wonder if I got to where I was going. Oh. Shit. Habit. I keep meaning to stop doing the double space thing after a period. Seems that's for typewriters and not computers. Oops.

heddwch
G

this morning.

but right now I can't remember exactly the flow that I had and had strung together in a premeditated manner.

It started with something, maybe the rest day, maybe just wearing work clothes (jeans and a nice shirt) with a winter cycling jacket and gloves to keep the chilly 34°F morning tolerable. Riding in non-cycling gear is a good way to mentally separate a training ride or regular commute into a "hey take it easy man" kind of ride in. And I did. And it was nice. And because I wasn't focused on 1 minute-ish intervals or trying to get 10 100m bursts in w/o affecting any other users on the trail before getting home or getting to work to do something else, my brain was free to wander. Maybe that's one of those sentences that marro was razzin me about yesterday, although that one seems kind of short.

I did get a chance to watch the race on Sunday. It was great. In a way wishing for courses closer to that level of challenge than the wide open Canton Super Speedway. But I suck at Canton, what's to make me think I will suck less on a course like Zonhoven? And despite being a massive grass crit, Canton took a fair share of prisoners. Sadly watching Sully get hauled off in a meat wagon was not the highlight of the day, but fortunately he sounds like he'll be fine.

Hmm, now I'm remembering what I was going to call this post:
DAMN HORSES.
Lead off with an aerial shot of canton from google maps you can see the actual course pretty well. I noticed that last week, hmm interesting. Yeah it is from 2010 it seems (watermark there by the track).

How in the world do they keep a cyclocross course that clear year round.

About lap 2 or 3 trying to pedal through that first section of grass it hit me. One there isn't a smooth fucking line in that whole field, and from edge to edge it is worked into a bumpy mess by damn horses. Now yes, they are theraputic and do a wonderful job with the kids at the Hospital School. Don't get me wrong, they're GREAT (as tony would say). It's just riding on that is tough, esp if you don't pre-ride and take a WAG on air pressure for the first race using a new set of tires. Yeah. Awesome me.
38 was too high. No bottoming out, just bounced the hell around.

Oops.

And thinking about that, in reference to Zonhoven, and thinking about how few seconds separate those guys and ErikV's post kind of clicked. One spot, 3 seconds 5 laps is only 15 seconds (i think). But 15 seconds is the gap that Stybar made in 1/2 a lap and he was out of sight!

Not pre-riding really hurt my results because I was wasting a ton of energy on the first and part of the second lap trying to stay with the group up there. I'd take a second too long here or there, slow down way too much on the right hander after the log jump, and go deep in the red every time trying to overcome for my mistakes.

I was flying over and making up time on the barriers, but that's about it. Carrie said I looked really smooth, I felt it, but wish I could take that and make the rest of my race that effortless. Oh up the run up too. I felt like I was just lifted up. But that's three places where I could gain maybe 1 second if someone screwed up, not nearly enough to compensate for my not figuring out the course on the first lap. I mean it is Canton. I've been racing there a ton. I missed it one year now that I think of it, drove up there with my girls on a day my wife was working, but the course doesn't really change much. Long laps, wide open fields. Yet somehow I still haven't figured it out.

The fact that it was less than an hour away seemed to reduce my desire to get out of the house as fast as possible, until it was too late to get changed and out for a lap. I actually probably did have time to do a lap if I hurried to get the bike ready and I just pre-rode before I changed, or if I'd been waiting at the start finish line when the 45+ race ended and did a lap around. I didn't. I elected to be relaxed, and get warmed up, on the trainer while heckling. Really got a decent warm up. Actually felt pretty good. Wound up with a 3rd row start right behind Sally, looking good in her fancy Crossresults.com skinsuit. Didn't plan to line up there, actually lined up behind Chad but he said "There is a high probability that I'm going to miss my pedal." "No seriously Geoff, you don't want to start behind me." So I moved over one and lined up behind Sally.

Compared to the starts in the B Masters (back in 06, thanks Crossresults.com although I never did the Chimborazo Cross Race - weird) or maybe in 08 in combined 35+ race with a good number of people it was a mellow not so bar banging brawl. That or I just hung in, found a wheel and motored. Sally had a great start but the front row was bookended by 1st and 2nd with 3rd right in the middle. And like a seine net the two ends met in the middle pretty quickly.

Of note CTodd came out of "retirement/funemployment" to race. And man he's like wicked way skinnier than he was last racing here. Granted he was never a big guy but he's CurtB or KurtP skinny right now. And Marro was racing with us too. Along with Chad, Scott, Burke, Stevens and the normal fast 35+ guys. In reality all that was missing? Asphlom and Hines and Boivin and you've got the front of the verge race more or less in tact.

I hemoraged time screwing up the corners that first lap. I was reeling in CTodd pretty well, then we saw "2 to go" for the second time and I knew he was cooked and I had plenty of time to make the pass, not just cooked but I came around him (actually he stopped before the gravel S turns asking for a draft) and he folded like a lawn chair. A cheap chabot kind. I was making headway and then Burke suddenly appeared in front of me, and I got pretty close coming onto the section before the track but he had 200 meters on me when I got up the run up, and there was no contesting him for 23rd place. I was cooked, felt I raced better and better, and had fun the whole time. After the first lap it was just me passing a couple people.

I was slow, am slower than I was last year but I had fun. A metric ton of it racing. I wished I'd run maybe 36 or 35 psi in the tires instead of the 38 but hey, it wouldn't have amounted to much of a difference compared to all my other screw ups (over cooking that turn really screwed me up, even the last lap). But hey, it wasn't too hot and I was racing.

I did manage to slowly nurse the last couple gallons in the tank home, slowly, in the rusty trusty race wagon. I need to transfer the 18 gallons of 100% bio into that tank before NoHo that i have in the shed. The car seems to move on down the road okay though. No issues getting there or back, as long as the road stays nice and smooth.

Oh to add insanity to this post - not that there isn't enough rambling and stuff in here to begin with... I had this week as a planned rest week, but I'm not feeling fatigued, kind of feeling hungry for some more pain. So. I'm going to make a change based on how I feel. Since I'm not feeling anything more than a bit sleepy, I'm going to keep pouring it on going into NoHo and then hit the rest week before Plymouth. Yeah Plymouth is generally my highlight, but hey, this year is different, and maybe i can make it to Eco-Cross and that will fire up the engines for the weekend races. I think I just made up my mind. Now I just have to remember to register for NoHo!

*deep breath*
no way in hell am i going to go back and read that/edit right now

heddwch
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