Sure i did read the ASI bit on the Cafe Roubaix written by the MAN Steve Frothy, and that started the positive juju flowing...

But then I popped over and saw this splashed all over G+



And yeah... it made me grin even more.

now, cup of coffee in hand,

lets get some microscoping done

Take a minute to watch.

Everyone should.

It is over.

The season.

The last shred of hope that the knee would be healed up enough to race at NBX is gone.

The ride in today wasn't terrible, felt nice, knee was good.

But it isn't strong enough to attempt pedaling. The initial massive inflammation stretched out the tendons and ligaments and there's still enough swelling and residual fluid around the knee that stuff isn't back to normal and there is actually pain now with certain movements.

Driving the minivan around all day yesterday sort of put an odd torsional load on the knee and it didn't like that at all.

The season was pinned on NBX as the finale. Ice Weasels isn't happening for me because I'm flying to Seattle for the final big stretch of concerts. 35th year. Tacoma on Friday, Seattle on Saturday, Mt Vernon on Sunday and Bellevue on Monday. http://magicalstrings.com/YT_2013.html then I fly home.

Nationals aren't in the cards either...

Season is over.

Just like that.

I'd kind of secretly planned on transitioning from the end of cyclocross into doing some running. work on seeing how fast I could do a 5k with May/June as a targeted peak, maybe doing a 5k in March and April as leading re-learning. At this point, I have to rehab knee as priority. Running probably isn't the best idea. AKA the WORST idea.

So yeah. I don't even have CX to carry me through the holiday season. So much pressure, so many expectations to try and meet, I'll figure it out. I'll find a way to make it work. Have to right? No choice. It'll be okay. I just complain too much. Could be way worse I suppose in so many many different ways.

It was a good season. Best yet by many measures. Maybe I can build on it for next year, or at least focus and build to the start of next season in a similar way.  I know what I need to do, so there's that i suppose.

September isn't that far away, is it?

heddwch
G

Elite Men's Race Day 2



so cold and a bit oops on the interviews but they sort of worked and was still fun. Can't really tell that both Tim and I were shaking like the tape the footage Dan got of the race. So cold.

good footage of the course elements though... Imaging that place if it was raining and 45 degrees instead of windy and 20.

Milestones are one thing...

Russ posted this earlier today...

Good memories

Bandit Cross - Wrentham, MA 01.08.2011 from Russ Campbell on Vimeo.

again we should do that, it was fun...

So Supercross Cup was in the books.

I was home. Brutally exhausted, and the weather hadn't warmed up an ounce on Monday morning.

Add to it I had to ride into a headwind. Headwinds are a thing, no big deal, but at 19-20 deg F any headwind makes it just that more brutal.  This isn't a CXy course where the headwindis only on part of it, no this is all the way in.

Into the wind.

I was slow to get out of the house. Unmotivated. But I got dressed, was ready to attack the day. And then...  well...

So I'm riding in. Legs actually feeling not terrible. Pushing a decent gear, going fastish.  Some of the time doing the speed skater with both hands behind my back to warm them up because I still haven't replaced my coldest weather hand gear aka the mittens.

Where to begin? with a fold of course

Supercross Cup today was awesome. My race not so great but I had to keep my head from esssploding while calling the days races with the legend Joe Sailing. Ton of fun grabbing interviews with Tim from Gnarly Monkey.

Tomorrow's course? More superness. I helped Myles's crew set it up tonight and I like the change up. Can't wait to race it bright and early.

You know you want to go, you know you want to be there.

Not sure I was ever expecting this:

Specifically the points...  GeWilli under 300?

WHAT IN THE WORLD?

Won't last likely but then maybe it will.  Shed Park was raced with a completely locked up back/neck. Missing a fair bit of power and due to muscle constrictions and pain could only breath at about 75% lung capacity (fixed it today with a visit to my DO).

Lung capacity would have been nice with the really long pedally sections.  An untimely flat by Motram mean we were hanging out together for a good part of the race.  He'd pit, catch back up, we'd ride together he'd drop me, pitted, got his other bike back, caught back up to me and finished 18th/19th.  Was fun racing.

Kind of typical Shed park. But our race timing was probably a bit skewed due to the fact that they actually neutralized the race to get someone in our field off the course in a gurney.  I guess he crashed, or someone else crashed, a pile up and he had a bad enough broken leg that required emergency surgery and an ambulance trip.

Was fun.  Wasn't me at 100% so I'm pretty damn satisfied with the results...  only race this weekend though. Watched the indoor soccer game on saturday. man that is almost too much for me to take.  Two weeks in a row and I'm still calming down. So exciting.  No, i'm not competitive at all.

Heddwch
G

Pendulm is swinging over to Supercross Cup. Looks like a 4am departure Saturday morning though. I guess there isn't a better time to be driving in CT on a Saturday morning.

So you gonna be there? Right?

Can you handle the awesomeness?

http://www.supercrosscup.com/

Plymouth weekend.

For some reason this is the magic weekend.

Either is it because of the road trips for a couple years with Mark Nicholson, and the last year with him and Lindsey and all that.  He crushed it when he raced there.  CRUSHED IT.

I also met that G-ride dude, the Sachs kit poser who was either beating me or just beating me in the 3/4 masters races all year to that point on that fancy bike with carbon wheels and tubulars.

Slowly over the last pile of years it sort of marked a peak of my season. My super close friend Alfie came out one year, his wife surprised him for his 40th birthday with CX weekend with me. Was awesome.

Mark Introduced me to LPB there, met a few other very key people there to me.

The race is odd. Used to be just one day at Plymouth north, Tatar separated his collarbone the year i drove there with him.  Then they added North and South.  First time I beat Gary David was at Plymouth South.  May have been my first top 10 in the open race. there. The field gets diluted. People are tired from CSI-CX and for various other reasons the fields are thinner but still pretty stacked.

Last year i got in the money on day two.

This year day one had a pile of the Cyclocrossworld.com riders show up. On a road racey course with an annoying but non-selecting mud pit. WIDE OPEN WATTS.  AKA road race.

I had a nice terrible start, SLOW. swarmed by everyone. Suddenly i'm 10 riders behind CTodd!  C-TODD!!!  WTF? gap, sprint around dude, next guy gaps off, sprint around, next guy gaps, sprint around repeat until I get on Whitey's wheel.

I mean go figure there is HORSEPOWER at the front. Like MOTORING. Fuck. So finally go on Whitey's wheel and then there's a gap. This big watty looking dude in a spinarts gets gapped off and i catch up to him eventually and Whitey gets on his wheel and they chase me around.  Vince passed me when i fuck up a corner and Aumiller says "nice job, you did that on purpose to make him work" No. I just fucked up the corner.

But there was one money corner. The sven line. HOLY SHIT. Ask whitey. we'd come into it and i'd gain a pile of bike lengths just from line choice.. FUCKING ZOOOOOOM.  Was fun. Except for all the pedaling.

But that wasn't too bad.  The 55+ guys on the course at the same time made it very interesting but not a big deal on Saturday as it was COMPLETELY wide open except for the drop into the woods over to the two track.

Wound up 11th. Check the times on the crossresults. Fuuuuck.  I was the fastest of the slowest. 1:20 or so gap to 10th. No chance of making that group for me. but man it was fun racing bikes.

FUN

distracted a bit there that day and my two goals were very selfless and I met them.

The 6:30 am soccer game in the morning wasn't even too bad.  Didn't get there as early as I wanted but I got there early enough.  And L didn't totally kill my phone while i was pre-riding and racing.

And then that was day 1....

11th, stacked field. Beat Whitey (sorry chris, you've been going GOOD this year and it felt awesome to stay in front of you despite my fuck ups).

racing bikes.

FUCK YEAH

was fun

even solo dad for a couple days leading up to it and being totally blown out after NoHo...  i seemed to be able to pedal okay. Shitty start but was fun. And I was racing the whole time.

which is the point. racing the whole time.

fuck yeah bike racing

heddwch
G

That strava stuff? Whats the point when you have crossresults.

Worrying about chasing a KOM/QOMs...  climbing more riding more... social competition is a solid motivator for many people.  And if it gets them riding more? Great. That's a good thing.

But once the racing starts, my racing, cyclocross season...  Strava loses all interest. I am totally out of the habit of tracking every ride. Because all that matters is the actual race. The competition. Lap times between races are nice to see but race conditions change sometimes and the 8am race might have different traction than the noon race than the 3pm race. Those you race with also dictate pace.  But. Bottom line.

You get a result. Sometimes a time, but always a place.  You don't get to go back and do it again because you screwed up the start. Or slowed down before the segment ended.

You have one chance for that one race.

Will you have a good day? Will it be one of those magical days that happens so rarely?

Maybe you start off the day feeling like shit, but habit and routine and going through the well rehearsed checklist sets you up unconsciously to erase the feeling and lets you perform at your best.

Sometimes it just isn't there and sometimes you know it going in, sometimes you get a few laps in and that's all there is and it is over.
The results tell you that.

Sure the phenom that is Resultsboy created something cool and new. What did we used to do before it? Checked bikereg, before that some series had their own online results, sometimes you got them in the mail, sometimes you saw them in the back of a magazine.  But usually you just waited for them to be posted and that was enough. A record of you being there. Competing.

Stepping up.

Yes it is a participation award to see your name there. but this is cross, it isn't about having a PR. there's no way to race yourself event after event, year to year. You're racing the people in front and behind you on that sheet. And there is only ever one winner in each race.

No, everyone is not a winner.  Strava is cool to see where my friends are riding who aren't racing. I don't usually look at the times or the trophies just where, the routes, where they went. That is the cool part to me.

why this now? 'cause i'm not racing Eco-Cross today and have a minute to think i suppose and this was a thought that popped in my head to write about.

heddwch
G

or maybe it is relief for some, no blabbing here for too long. Busy, too much going on in some ways, writing time has gone poof.

the CSI race was already a while ago. Ah the saga of that. The busted cat on Meatball, fixing it with can, spokes and hardware cloth. Driving it up, hanging out, racing, pitting in both the UCI races...  hanging with Jerry and Noah, racing sunday pitting in one of the races got my photo in the pits in VeloNews online.

The racing was racing, and was good. Battled a bit on Saturday, back and forth, blew up on lap 4, recovered a bit. Was fun. Got a bit too far foward i think on the first lap even with a bad start. Pretty much because i was able to pass a dozen people on the first two times up the run up.

Kind of made up for a junior who decided to make a super dumb pass going into Pit 2 the first time. He takes the dumb line. Me and some other old master guy were hitting the turn just right, no brakes and kid blasts around us, then totally washes out and we chain reaction pile into him. Shit Show. Dumb move. And at least I was fortunate enough not to have anything seriously fucked up. Massive bruised on my bicept, smashed my left hand a bit at the index knuckle. bike and tire smashed across my quads, but worst and most critical bit was the shifter. Right shifter was bend in 45 degrees. I pushed it back out but it was loose.  I ride in the hoods pretty much 99% of the time. Sometimes i even sprint in the hoods (and win the sprint for whatever place). So it was loose, and the last two times through that new woods section well I was basically trying to steer with left hand and brake with right but not steer. Was kind of dumb, almost ate it, was slow, no good. Last time through there though AFTER riding through and with the shifter SUPER loose, i kind of realized. Why not go into the drops?????  duh. Shit. Well i did and passed M. Kelly back (he caught and passed me through that woods section).

Nothing was broken, just needed to tighten it back up. But it was kind of interesting. more interesting was Resultsboy's comment "you are looking respectable" while i was racing. or something like that.  But yes. Day one. I was racing. Abysmal start but I worked past and through people until i blew and a pile of them all dropped me hard. oops. Weather was great though. Course was fun. Becca stepped up and raced the UCI race.  Righi helped calm her down with solid advice about the move. It was the right move to move up and not race the 3/4 race. Then I wandered around saying hey to people eventually made it back to the pits to hold the Honey Squirrel's bike.   Left Meatball and my bikes in the park and got in the TRUCK and headed to the hotel. I might have even slept a little. Still wide awake at 2am for an hour or so, then dozed off until 4:30 which my body said HEY TIME CHANGE? FUCK YOU WE WAKE UP NOW. I tried to keep dozing until it was time to head down for the hotel breakfast, stuffed face full of food. and coffee. and more food.

Got to the venue, rode a lap. signed in, did some stuff, rode another lap, some more stuff, rode a lap or something eventually getting to the start. Skinny Craig was less than boisterous but still said he'd see me later. I had a better start but not a great one, more relaxed though and w/o the run up there was a bit different race feel. Shorter laps. Day one in the ball field start I bounced off of Motram in the traffic, maybe more we just kind of kept each other up as people jostled for position. Sunday? Same place a junior tried to stuff his bike in traffic under Shawn into the tape and crash himself and shawn landed on top of him.  That little irish dude was PISSED.  But I got through cleanly and just watted my way up to a good wheel or two and pedaled my butt off. Stayed in line, passed a few here and there that were opening gaps.  Eventually winding up on Kyle's wheel.  Until it felt really slow in some sections. So i passed him. And dropped him and rode up to the next group. and through the next group. one of the groups had skinny craig, going backwards because i saw him and then he was gone. Caught up to Jerry too. He was going backwards but then I dragged him around on the fast pedally sections until he felt better and then dropped me on the turny stuff bridging up to the next group. Was a blast racing though. Good stuff.  Pitted again for the UCI women's race, and then hung out moved things around out of meatball into Becca's car (ride home) and got ready to go. But then there were no keys to be found. Lost. Her. Keys. ho boy.... eventually (after i was dark and only the JAMfun/CSI crew were there) they showed up at the registration and we were able to leave.

I got points, MORE verge points, on day two. ME?!!! WHAT? yup. Bumped up my start position by probably NOTHING but still more points is more points and if i manage to have a good start and hold that position maybe i can not blow up and get more points next time.  Granted Al has 420 points and I have a massive 12.  It is seeming to be undeniable, i'm going better this year than i have ever.

I was super tired though on monday, all week last week. oof. exhausted. stressed. everything. super bad emotional day on tuesday on top of everything and then i tried to do the Union Velo training race. Had a good two laps and then... nothing. Couldn't go fast. Couldn't get out of my own way. so i just rolled around, chilled. turned the bike. hung out on the bike...  felt good but was odd to be so dead. Monday was off the bike, tuesday i did ride in and ride home before the training race. then wed on the bike but thursday was off the bike. I did manage to get legit openers in on Friday, wisely or not i book ended the openers with a commute into work and back. But at the start of the opener workout my legs were horrible. By the time we rolled back they felt much better.  Plymouth weekend though. that was last couple days. and will be a separate entry.  Hopefully soon....

heddwch
G

Repeated over and over again.

For everything. Applicable from music to military.

Usually the start of the season finds me helping a few people who need to clean up their technique on the bike.  Kind of has been like that since I needed the help cleaning my shit up.

I was inconsistent for a while. Christine Vardaros helped a pile, Skinny White Dude did too. And watching footage and thinking about it. Probably Cronoman and Solobreak provided some good tips.

But.

I was inconsistent.  Until.

I slowed it down. A lot.

To the point it felt sill, stupid and a waste.

But you know what?

it works.

Specifically talking about the application of getting on and off the bike in cyclocross I am.

I spent a bit of lunch re-reading some old posts, trying to find where I got it from. Maybe Solobreak's steel trap brain hasn't rusted enough and he remembers but I can't find the original source of the 1000s of dismounts/remounts before racing. I want to say it was old Mud and Cowbells or something. I've since given up looking.

Like scales on a violin, you start slowly. Warm up slowly, then as you hit every note perfectly you can start speeding up. But if you speed up before you're ready intonation goes to hell and you're going to fuck up.

Why bother?

hard to say really. mostly because it seems to be just elegant to do it right, and doing it right allows you to not be limited by speed, no top end, just your top end.

it is faster. you save valuable seconds doing it smoothly. if you can get on and off effortlessly and the person you are racing is wasting energy, that might be a place in the race, just because you were smoother.

Or it saves you the embarrassment of landing on your wheel or something. Sure that happens even to the best, an ill timed rock bounce of the back wheel when you're tired at the end of the race can be a disaster even with perfect skills.

Is there real value to it? I think so. I believe there is.

If you want to succeed, or just do your best, Cyclocross gives you the opportunity to focus not just on pedaling fast, but on this whole side of minutia, bike, tires, pressure, shouldering bike, running, barriers, stairs, remounts, turns, sand...  mud...  Not just going as fast as you can pedal.

It is still a bike racing competition and honestly if you've got the legs and the technical nature of the course doesn't totally baffle you, you can fuck up the remounts and everything else and still win. Might not be pretty but, the results still count.

Slow is smooth smooth is fast...

100-200/session. Walking pace, just fast enough that you can sit on the saddle w/o pedaling and not fall over.

This is when having someone help with how you do get on is key. Visual feedback, hand position head, arms, all that.

For me counting 1, 2, 3 then getting on was the key element. CV helped with that tip. Left foot, right foot, left foot, swing knee over and slip forward on saddle keeping moment going forward and then pedaling. not up and down. you're moving forward. Not deflecting energy or wasting it or smashing your leg/thigh/junk on the saddle. Not getting air. just moving foward just high enough to clear the saddle and get on.

Slowly.

Walking pace. On, swing leg over, drop off, 1 2 3 on, pedal, off, on...

slowly.  Let the neurons figure it out, not training muscles, you're training a neural network, teaching the proper firing sequence. Ingraining it. Learning it.

after 200 slowly, speed it up a touch. go faster. not much faster.

get that 200 done...  speed it up a little more...  200...

speed it up even more... 200...

final 200 should feel super smooth and super fast.

As always do these on soft grass, no need to bruise feet trying to dismount and run on hard pack in cycling shoes.

I have had a few extra thoughts about it this year. One after watching Lars VDH at the top of the stairs. He gets on and pauses before beginning to pedal.  not pauses momentum, but he just gets on and coasts, before pedaling.

Would be a great drill to watch or build forward skills after remount. get on and coast, no pedaling. no smashing pedals to cover for poor technique or loss of momentum.

I know pretty much the readership either doesn't give a shit, or already is as smooth or smoother than me getting on and off the bike.

but, this has been sort of brewing in my brain for a month or two. Finally getting it out.
Maybe it was triggered by the #likeavos video:
http://www.cxhairs.com/2013/10/30/likeavos-1-0/

either way it is a sputtering burst of non-cranky writing...

deal with it

heddwch
G

have you exhausted your bottle of chain lube?

Need some more? Out of Pro Gold samples?

Want something that works as well or better?

Pick up some of that EVerLube. Make a gallon of your own for $10-$15. Then fill all your old bottles you have saved and share and convert your friends to this stuff. Sure it doesn't have some big fancy label or decal or brand name behind it but if an OBRA and NECX racer can agree on a lube then, it has to be good.

Dave Moulton put a post up on Friday about how to lube a chain.

I'm not a huge fan of using the gasoline, but it would work too. Mineral spirits work better for me but then again Gasoline is cheaper and may work even better. Fumes though, ugh. At least the odor-less mineral spirits are really actually almost odor-less compared to gasoline.

I mix my chain/lube in a 1:3 ratio of 0W20 synthetic motor oil to mineral spirits (the nasty kind, not the 'green' kind) following the tried and true and well vetted ErikV recipe.

I also actually use a Park chain cleaner thing (fill the chain cleaner with the lube, recycle in screw top jar after cleaning chain, top up with fresh stuff now and then and let junk settle and create sediment layer on the bottom of the jar). Followed by wiping down followed by fresh clean lube.

Or if after a cyclocross race I will hit the chain with the park chain cleaner full of my chain lube mix, then wash the bike down with water and soap. Chain is then brand new clean and silent.

Once the bike and chain are wiped down and dry I hit it with a good soaking of the lube, and if the next race is going to be a dry one I'll wipe the excess off very thoroughly, if wet and muddy I will just let it dry with the excess and sometimes add a second coating to double up the lube going into mud and stuff.

Big key to the post that caught my eye more than the lube similarity is the quick link removal trick. Many people have a problem removing quick links without the special tool. that's the other beauty of Dave's post.

And also.

GeWilli recommends running a Shimano Chain with a SRAM/KMC whatever quick link that is the right width for the chain. I've been doing it for ever even though I don't remove my chain to clean it.

have fun, get dirty, clean up and stay lubed...

heddwch
G

I totally blew the start. Rolled the dice on which side and rolled wrong, then let caution tap my brakes in self preservation rather than push it. And wound up in pretty close to last, 35th-40th maybe. not many behind me at the turn into the field.

But it was a pass fest after that.  Pickingoff big groups on the first two laps, then one at a time. 

Finally had a solid sprint to take 10th place. 

Legs were great the whole time, felt like puking at the end.
It was good. But holy crap was it dusty. billows of dust in the mown grass path. the run up was a disaster. Rain. 

We haven't had much, nice for bike commuting but not so much for the soil and the cyclocross conditions.

Anyway. Next weekend is the big daddy of the CX races. I call it NoHo, some call it CSI... official title is long:
23rd Annual Cycle-Smart International /Shimano New England Professional Cyclocross Series Rounds 5 and 6/ Verge Series Round 7 and 8 

if you can at all make it, as a spectator or a competitor this is the race to go to. Sausage tent, Beer, kick ass course, great venue, solid intense racing. F'n legendary.

I will be there.  Hopefully with the rest of the ENGVT team.

I asked the twitters, maybe the blogosphere friends have more links to add?

The thought behind the question was if you could pick just one video to show to someone so they would understand the sport, what would it be.

the verbatim question:
If you could only pick one short video to explain CX what would it be?
what came up?
so... there was the big pile of funny snarky smart ass comments and the completely unhelpful ones.

But mixed in with comments were a pile of great links.
And there are of course the gold mine of resources that Henry has curated and filmed, but linkage over to the left is kind not right it seems but most of his stuff is over on his youtube account: http://www.youtube.com/user/henryj49

now on to the results of the informal poll

Over here: http://www.cxhairs.com/2013/10/18/svenness-2-3/ awesome breakdown and analysis

Tips and stuff for everyone who is a student of CX racing.

here's the embedded bit though.

#SVENNESS 2.3 from In The Crosshairs on Vimeo.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22810464

it isn't that new, but the data sort of supports a very loooooooong held position of mine.

NO SKIM/FAT FREE DAIRY PRODUCTS. It is just so not smart. Agree or not, science seems to
The publication certainly may not be totally conclusive but it makes sense, a lot of sense.

I'm not saying dairy should ever be a big part of your diet, or even a part of the diet, but when/if you choose a dairy product, go with one that is not a reduced fat/fat free option. it will make a difference.

The relationship between high-fat dairy consumption and obesity, cardiovascular, and metabolic disease.

And so little time to catch back up. Or not.

This coming weekend is an off weekend. Have no plans to get in the car and drive a while to race. Need a break from the car or just time to get out for a long road ride and make the muscles do something more than intensity for 40-50 minutes.

We'll see what the weather does, but anyway. Providence Race weekend.

And yes. Totally don't get how it is the Providence Cyclocross Festival Cyclocross (#PCFCX) seems redudant but it sort of goes with the weekend. So awesome in some many ways, and so many routine details we take for granted or that seem obvious completely overlooked.

BEFORE I START THE RANT:
Bottom line. I love this race. I love the course, I have a great and deep appreciation for all that everyone involved in the event did. I just hope at least some of these 'issues' are addressed next year and years to come.

Around the internet some stuff gets seen by everyone...

some stuff we stumble upon...

this i found as the most recent post at http://cabinporn.com/

rare is the gem that draws out the emotions...
(click through and view full screen in HD - this short film doesn't suck)

JACK from Grace Jackson on Vimeo.

but this did for me...

I've always battled internally between the desire for social interaction with the comfort of silence and being alone away from everything. The reading of my youth is probably responsible for most of that, Edward Abbey, Farley Mowat, Tom Brown's the Tracker...  there are piles of others.

But in many ways my passion for cycling, and racing bikes is not compatible with the desire to have an off the grid tiny cabin alone in isolation...  and I suppose that is where Jack's story resonates even deeper with me, in that it was a retreat for him until it was just him. at a point where with drawing makes sense.

My deep connection to the outdoors, to the tall trees of the Pacific Northwest, drew me into my professional field, and remains a part of me that sometimes gets lost in the challenges of life. I suppose in a way you can say Cyclocross is me embodied. A bit of pavement, some urban aspects, mixed with dirt and you're out there ultimately alone trying to do your personal best. It might be a stretch i suppose.

The surprising element was realizing that "Jack" is Jack English the bow maker.
http://bobtowery.typepad.com/bob_towery/2010/05/new-series-the-legend-of-jack-english-day-one.html
http://www.independent.com/news/2013/jan/30/jack/

I've run across his story a few times over the years with the connection in the music world. My bow is well suited to me. Basically a Viola bow. Thick and heavy, too much of both in the opinion of my sister the professional violinist. But combined with my deeply resonating violin and my slower 1st position play when i can/asked style, it works. I would never get enough use out of a bow Jack made to make it worth seeking one out, but the emotional connection makes the short film and the stories about this remarkable individual even more touching.

Honest truth, I had tears in my eyes at the end of this short film.

Riding home in the pouring rain on Friday...  a speech, really a sermon, started to form in my head.

Chipstick had made a few suggestions about how to honor Amy D at the Singlespeed race...  saying a few words was maybe something brought up.

(note: i made a revision to the 'sermon', and I make keep tweaking it a bit as things pop in my head that I meant to put in there originally)

This guy. Love him.
gets it...
http://www.fatmarc.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-gift.html

And what I think is probably one of the best books with advice about training, and getting fast... even if i haven't really applied everything there to trying to get fast, it is a great read:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Obree-Way-Graeme/dp/1408196425/ref=tmm_pap_title_0
Back on the shelf i guess. Been a while since I've read it. Maybe time to re-read.

This through the twitters a bit too...  somewhere...  I dunno
http://www.ironguides.net/triathlon-on-a-low-carb-high-fat-diet/
I'm pretty sure it is impossible to race CX on a restricted LCHF diet. Might be fine if you just race once per weekend and maybe train at CX level stuff once mid-week. But back to back there just isn't enough time to replace all the lost glycogen.  Obviously having a killer fat burning motor is key to success and body shape and power to weight. But like sprinting, CX is short, high intensity the whole time. This isn't a Triathlon where you can rely on steady state aerobic fat burning for a big part of the event. This is Cyclocross.  You don't race that day, all day even, and then the next day for a Tri. You can't. But CX?

training for CX...  i've hashed out so many theories and ideas of the years, trying this, that, getting amazing advice, ignoring it, following it, tweaking it.

I have something that sort of works. when I do it. But racing three days in a row, after racing two in a row the week before, with a not light pedaling week in between there was room for one very specific work out last week.

one.  in addition to the commute.

hill sprints... in shoes. running shoes. no bike.

Not a long run. Nope. Sprints done just after the bike commute so everything is warm and loose.  Jog up and over the couple hundred yards to the spot. three sets. easy, medium, hard. 17-18 sec first one, 14-16 second 11-13 third. same distance. walk back down after each.

Was going to do them this morning. Ran out of time. Life. it gets in the way. Kind of sad looking at the next pile of weeks. Racing on Saturday, then nothing sunday, and nothing the following weekend. But I think that is going to be good. I'm exhausted after this last batch of stuff. Going FLAT FUCKING OUT since quad cross.

And now my two rear race wheels are fucked. busted spoke, blown sidewall. need to make something work for Saturday then address getting everything ready for maybe Canton I guess.

On the plus side maybe w/o the weekend stuff I can focus on some solid training blocks. Maybe even head up for a Tuesday night training race somewhere.

Also. a good pile of CX races and I feel human again. Happy almost. Very strange.

heddwch
G

Rewind a bit...

Gloucester day two?
Yeah we need to cover that I think.  Mostly because I think I had a good race. I say I think because it was a loooooong time ago.

was a roller coaster, both in cross results points, emotions and everything...

maybe i'll get to write about it soon enough

write about anything

sorry...

i know...

will have to make time...

some how...

heddwch
G

Lets pause a moment, set the grief aside and have a moment of celebration of Amy.

Racing bikes.

But I made a mistake.

I checked how many people were registered for PVD in the elite 35+ race

we usually have a nice number.  50-60 riders in the 35+ 1/2/3 field.

WE HAVE 91 FASTFUCKINGDUDES REGISTERED FOR SATURDAY

HOOOOOLY SHIT

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK

But then I have Verge points. Starting no worse than 45th or so, maybe higher depending on who shows up who has points and what not.

But that means there are likely two rows of people starting right behind me that ARE GOING TO BE GOING REALLY REALLY HARD AND FAST WHO WANT TO GET POINTS!

This.

is going

to

be

very

interesting

Oh shit
i gotta leave and ride home and wash bikes and lube chains and get ready for

SINGLE SPEED FREAKOUT TIME TODAY

At work for the morning, then race home. try to figure out something to eat THEN GO RACING

and it may be raining out there. Racing in rain? Awesome. Riding home, not so stoked about it.

I MAY NEED MORE COFFEEEEEEEEE
or not

I'd opened this to write about G-ster day two.

Can't now.

Finishing up lunch i got a text. A friend just said they felt sick, then a DM saying they really felt violently ill.  I was oddly just out enjoying the sun after lunch, in the sun, glorious summer day in early october.

Initially I thought, someone got something at Night Weasels, but then in the DM over to regular twitter section and saw...

my whole feed.

every
single
tweet

finally scrolled down through, not knowing how, or where she was or what happened till i got to one that said:
"American cyclocross racer Amy Dombroski has been hit and killed by a truck while training in Belgium."

and the incredulity and fear as to what happened were instantly replaced with absolute gut wrenching horror, sadness... and tears...

Dombroski

People talk about #NECX as having a distinct identity sometimes. We do. We identify like a family.  A big fucking dysfunctional family but we are, a family. Some of us only talk in person, but we relish the time together when we all do get together.  We can't wait to see each other again at the next race, or on the street, or for coffee, or beer.

We take for granted that we will see each other again....

Life is fragile. It is delicate.

a memory:
The Boston Luna MTB chicks spearheaded by Roz brought Amy down for a woman's CX clinic one year (a few years ago now).  They held it at the old MRC course in Wrentham. Greg W and I were there, he had his daughters and this friend of his, Rachel trying cyclocross for the first time.  My daughter did the clinic, had fun, why? Because Amy made it fun. It was a hugely positive experience for my kid. And Rachel is now a CX racer.

This weekend is going to have a layer of sadness on top of the celebration of bikes. At least it will for me.

Amy will be missed...

http://instagram.com/p/fA80yXsJ3P/
https://twitter.com/CyclismasEditor/status/385829866672648192/photo/1
https://twitter.com/MMDMcMahon/status/385833299291435008

Please so I can get one that fits.

Long story? Blue/CXracing both sort of fucked up. They listed the EX as being made in a XL size. So I ordered and XL. Oh, wait what? They shipped a L? Well lets slap a 130mm stem on instead of my normal 120 and lets see if it works.  Kind of like what happened to the cranks, Oh you have 180 bb30s? for that price? Great. You sure they are? YES. Okay. Hey before is send them and know you need them for this weekend, and can get them to you, they are 177.5 not 180...  Le Sigh.  So that's the short story of how i wound up with a bike that fits but is too small to drive well. Put it this way. I can easily ride a wheelie on the White blue, not on this bike. and the body position (hoods, saddle, BB) are nearly identical.

It worked pretty darn well. until I started racing on the White Blue XL as a single speed/pit bike. At Warwick when I flatted the big difference was weight. But swapping the lighter wheels onto the White bike makes it pretty damn tolerable and evens it out.  Still heavy but being able to corner and drive it better/faster is well worth the weight penalty.

So.

Who wants this EX? anyone? Not crashed (well i've eaten shit riding it but not structurally). Not brand new but it was a $1650 list frameset. Just selling frame, so I can just plug and play a better fitting bike in its place. Somewhat sad to try and unload it, it works great as a road bike, bars flipped a million CMs of drop. Speedy.  Rides and handles very much like the Klein in terms of stiffness and shit the rest of the ENGVT team is rocking these to much better results than I can deliver.

Day one...  we got here already to this point where I was there...

that sentence made more sense when i wrote it the first time, i think referring to the back story post... lets got through the race though, in very impressionist broad brush painting style:

Vermont. It was pretty much bottom of the barrel miserable on day two but day one and me placing IN THE POINTS means...

I HAVE POINTS

meaning all these big races?

I HAVE POINTS AND GET TO START IN FRONT OF EVERYONE WHO DOESN'T HAVE POINTS.

Points are hard to come buy, esp when the field is 60-80 deep.  Points go down to 25th place. Sure VT was a small field but it wasn't a scrub field and I had a good race, and out sprinting Mukunda for 23rd place got me THREE POINTS!!!!!

After day two of gloucester there were only 28 riders in the field of 70 who had points.  Day 1 fewer and I got a 3rd row start!  Day two I was back in 4th row. No big deal.

BUT A HUGE DEAL FOR ME.  I got a point or two last year at Sterling. And no, i didn't get points this weekend, but starting the race with points in a field this big, makes a difference.

True, true.  Cronoman always says you wind up where you belong at the end of the race.  The difference of being farther forward is undeniable.  Less chance to get caught up in someone else's bad luck, bad choice, or bad line. And with the odd chance your legs are feeling not terrible, you may actually be benefited by the start position.

Day two was certainly better for me and I was 90 seconds or so out of a point. That's pretty much an eternity but compared to past track record? I guess last year i had a couple good races too. But they were muddy and I like mud and if this weekend were muddy, who knows what might have happened.

Anyway. Points are pretty damn sweet. And it feels pretty cool to get your name called up, when the rest of everyone behind gets called up by numbers.

Add to it I didn't realize we were getting called up with Verge points until we were at the start grid, very cool surprise.

Get to the race?
I suppose.

Back up, i got beat up, some knots taken out of the legs and the back loosened up a bit on Friday.
AND, AND I managed to sleep WELL most all of the week. Probably because i was so dead from the previous week.
Dragging ASS all week.

now? just a bit tired but no where near walking dead level of last week.

Got some secret training in on tuesday last week too. May try some again this week. We'll see.

So G-ster.

Dry. Hot. Hard packed. Like always. The only good grass on the whole fucking course was where we chewed the field up last year. Everything else was a fucking disaster, soooo many big rocks in all the racing lines in some sections.

But it was classic Gloucester. Like legit classic stuff. Some slight changes but all the major elements were in play and Saturday was going to be fast. Very fast. I was worried. honestly. Scared more like it.
No new elements, no Half Moon beach, no steep walled of a run up, no flyover.  But there were a dozen sets of stairs it seemed on Saturday and SO MUCH PEDALING.

Pre-ride laps were not terrible. Found some good lines I was able to exploit during the race. Got all the proper warm up and flow and hit my well rehearsed check list right on the money.

Saw tons of people, totally didn't see others, some said hi but i couldn't place a name with a face (sorry, if I don't say your name right away i'm having a total brain vapor lock or i just can't put the face with the internet name/relationship).

And got lined up... and then it really started...

and will have to be continued later

heddwch
G

Is tomorrow.

Now normally sure i should write something about how big it is, how amazing the experience has been racing there over the years. How i've gone from a front row start to last row to mid pack to who knows this year (aka not caring, just accepting) is a story itself.

A better story is what Paully B has gone through over the last year. But thats one not yet to be told i suppose, maybe not by me.

My story should be about how i've tried to recover from last week this week. Gone to efforts...  to well...  try and regain what was lost with no sleep and no riding.

We are here and tonight is now. I still have to shower and shave. It is getting late i suppose, but at least it isn't terribly far away and the race not too early.

Twitter is what it is...  sometimes you get gems that stand out.  Tonight a friend wrote some good stuff

the whole lack of posting lately,

i wrote a tremendous and long post on the airplane flying back to Vegas

about the adventures of Jerry, Rob and GeWilli and all those we hung out with that made it an awesome mid-week weekend.

but the phone ate it, or deleted it and

have been going non-stop since then.

and i think the flow and the content have dissipated a bit, i can try and find time but there isn't any.

I am going to take a few minutes and ignore a handful of problems, and write.

I'm sure you've read it...  But with the sort odd chance maybe you haven't. This is fuckn hilarious.
http://untilthesnowends.blogspot.com/2013/09/green-mountain-cyclocross-race-reports.html

That six to go card for him was my 4 to go. Oh shit. And his 80% was me seeing the junior leader coming and me hoping he was coming in to finish. Then when I got to the line...  Before Peter did, I still had two to go. Meaning #1 I'm getting to ride one lap less, but all the kids are going to spend the next lap riding through me. But hey. I wasn't anywhere near bring lapped by the leaders in my race.

Unlike colon thank you autocorrect...  I mean Colin, I had no legs. I knew it on the warm up. Well no legs compared to the day before. Not feeling exceptionally slow but I have crashed more on that day two course than most any other race. Those turns are in my head. Maybe I'll figure them out someday.

Problem is the day before sort of set expectations. And with Hubbell, David, Czerula, Boivin, and chaboom in the race pressure. Aaron and Gary were racing on fresh legs. Not good sign for me.
Whitey showed up too.

The start was actually really good for me but that was it. Everyone flowed around me there after that on the swoopy stuff. Head was just not in it. Hit the nut punch stairs and my legs felt like lead.
ON THE FIRST LAP.

And the short laps and the high speed turning just sort of got to me in a bad way and I tried. But could not manage to much.

Despite that total breakdown I kind of did what I normally do there. I sucked. Took me most of a scary tired drive home to come to terms with it, and get over the immediate feeling of being bummed.

Temporal blindness. Loss of perspective. Much better now.

ALSO I AM GOING TO VEGAS!!!!!!!!

writing this on my phone on the airport even. Marginally slower and less maybe but not as bad as I expected.

Heddwch
G

I started writing this yesterday.  Got as far as writing the title. And then i of course had to change it just now.

It kicked my butt after a long week with pretty normal stress before the first road trip. It is always something.
But i managed to link two nights of good sleep together. Felt good.  Guess I'm going to need it since I leave to get on a plane here pretty shortly for Cross Vegas. No. I am not bringing a bike. I am not racing. I may be pitting I may be helping but I'm not racing. I'm headed out for a bit of a vacation.  Doubt it will be very restful but it will be a break that doesn't involve worrying about getting everything right for a race.

I'll save that worry for friday trying to get ready for White Park, that or i will just attempt to change the front brake pads and forget about pedaling.

SO HOW DID THE WEEKEND GO?

Saturday was off the hook awesome. Was fun. Had legs. Felt good on that course, the climbs were hard but didn't destroy me this year.  The fast parts I wasn't as slow on as normal and I think i had most of the lines figured out. Good start, measured and relaxed. Held out in the zone with lots of people for a while. Second or third lap i slowed down for a second i guess but then felt stronger as the race kind of went on.  Nick crashed big time right in front of snoop and it was pretty comical. took himself out going up hill on one of the zippers. He crashed clean off the course.

Come around past the pits after the barriers there was a big mud bog. Pre-riding i new the middle was dicey with a big wide deep rut, and the left was a conga line of 5-10 guys. Inside baby. I railed over to the inside and powered up and passed everyone who took the outside boggy line and then PVD tried to impale himself on a stake and held em up even more. Or he did that on lap two or something. Anyway, that section was my money maker. Gave me enough room to survive my shitty driving through the swoops over to the finish 'straight'.  Usually Day one is a shit show due to legs or just being out of shape. or something. Saturday was my best ever result there and I got points.  LEGIT POINTS!!!!

And the whole PVB battle. He kept me pushing it. F'n Nick killed it racing his ass off, no crash and he might have been able to give Curtis a run for the top billing on the team in that race.

Of course there was Mckittrick. Actually rode with him and Snoop for a long time then I slowed down or something stupid for a lap, and he got away, only for me to catch back up to him after an unfortunate bike change. AND THEN I PASSED HIM ON THE HILL?  WHAT? And he passed me back somewhere else BUT THEN I PASSED HIM AGAIN AND SAID SEEE YA. As i heckled him saying "Dude if you don't stay on my wheel and beat me you will NEVER hear the end of it from everyone else." Sure enough. He wasn't able to. But man he made it tough. I was looking for that last finishing straight battle, as I'm pretty sure he was on my heels hitting that mud bog turn where I kept passing people and PVB tried to impale himself.

Last time through there, there was one guy leading through. took my line and then totally yardsaled across the course forcing me over to the muck that forced lots of people off the bike.  TORQUE FTW. I managed to not run dude over or his bike and He sort of effectively gave me JUST enough of a gap to get through the swoopy stuff i sucked at before the finishing stretch.

So i get there. There's a light colored kit dude on my wheel. And he starts to sprint just when I thought he might, i was expecting Mckittrick, but it was a smaller dude. OH SHIT THAT'S Mukunda. Uh oh. GeWilli lit up the fuel map and matched his initial acceleration and then pulled a touch a way and Mukunda conceded but I pedaled my ass off and unloaded everything for good measure. And scored a verge point. And had a good race on a course i have NEVER EVER done well at.

Sure could have been better but man I'm super happy with it given the time of year and all that.

Sunday? well sunday... lets leave that for another time and focus on the awesomeness that was Saturday.

Right now I gotta get in the car and head over to the airport for a flight out to VEGAS. Me. Going to Vegas. Well it ain't Disney, and there's a big ass Cross Race tomorrow. And Interbike. Hoping to get into the show at least for a few.

But yeah G-ride and GeWilli gonna be lighting that shit up. What could go wrong?

updates may be happening, we'll see. going purely computer in the pocket, no keyboard. traveling light. Like holy shit am i bringing enough stuff? And of course i managed to be a total fucking moron and early in the day remembered i needed to check in for the flight and then got working on trying to switch a fucking broken "new" switch in to replace a broken old one and it not working frustrating taking apart putting back together no resolution.... kind of took me off the game and well I will be last on the SWA flight. But it is just me. lets see what sort of luck i have with seating.

Time to shove off and head over and sit around and wait for the flight to leave.

heddwch
G

Boom gone.

what to show for it?

no sleep (yeah back on the no sleep cycle again)

no training

I did finally get around to washing the bike last night.  But washing bikes in the dark with poor lighting and nothing but a hose and a rag sometimes doesn't produce the best results.

But goal was to clean and lube the chain and put the SRAM cassette on the Zipps.  One race and i had to improvise a chain whip to get the shimano cassette off. I'm not a fan of the alloy freehub bodies.

The SRAM cassettes do have more spline teeth so hopefully that will make a difference. But that's done at least.

Both chains are clean and since today was a drive in day, well they are staying clean even in the rain.

Except driving in i went light today. nothing to pack for lunch so I was just going to grab something.

Looks like I'm grabbing coffee too... left the coffee making stuff (the ground up beans) at home. After a night of little to no sleep, just lots of tossing and turning and all that, no coffee isn't good.

But i did get at least the grinding side of the rear brakes on the car replaced.

Of course it wasn't simple. Should have been. the actually brake pad replacing was simple.

But yeah the wheel was stuck. Drove around for a while with the bolts loose and the one i needed to do came loose. second and third trip had no success at knocking the driver's side one loose. Guess I go at that later, after vermont or something.  Or find a bigger hammer.

Not packed for this weekend... food beer bikes kit... that's it.

the solo drive is going to suck something fierce at least on the way home on Sunday. But I know the way at least. just have to remember to grab the EZpass thing.

at least it is a somewhat slow morning here so far. busted scope is going on day 4 of service engineer making problems worse.  nothing like the very last one in the territory and a scope from what? 1989? Probably assembled in 1990, but design is solid mid-late 80s. It was working. Now it isn't. But it did take out an super overpriced pressure switch on the facility air compressor.  I gotta get that changed, some what complex to get it on, may mean removal of the pump from the tank to get the switch on and then all the wiring and stuff. not. this. morning.

The legs are going to be interesting this weekend.  Heavy course sounds good, but i bet it drains super well. Only maybe thing we can hope for on the course (if they did actually get rain) is that it won't be dusty.

heddwch
g

I went.

I raced.

I had fun.

photo credit for this shot goes to Ginelle Czerula (this is single speed race, longer shadows and empty parking lot).

Either everyone else slowed down as much as I did from the end of the season (at maybe an arguable peak of my fitness) or i've not lost as much as I normally do.

And I raced TWO races and managed to only blow up half-way through the second, which is a feat itself. Cronoman always picks up on when i go thermonuclear. It happened in the singlespeed race. But still held on and one dumb mental error (opening up the inside of a turn while trying to block the rider behind) in the last almost time to finish section cost me two spots, but then if i had legs i'd have been much closer to the podium than I was.

http://www.crossresults.com/race/3233

That's the race..

Kind of have had the good fortune that Colin's web site was here to document my return to cyclocross...  Sure my first race was back in '97 which seems like not that long ago or compared to some of the old cranky masters to be like i'm still wet behind the ears in this sport.

and 125 races (minus a few mechanical DNFs or unreported races or something) since '06 when i got back to racing after the relocation to the east coast, they are all there.

I can go over and see a nice very slow progression in points.

But I can also see that I start the year slower and now recall that, oh boy, kiss these nice crossresults points goodbye until i get fast if i get fast this year.

The new Course performance feature is pretty cool.  Looks like a tweak or two since their debut because I've improved a bit more in the wet and the hard conditions.  And consistently suck at Green Mountain, the one with most hills.  So yeah.  Hill not good for me. SHOCKING.

But gimme some water? Oh yeah.  Love me some wet slop.  Probably due in part to trailer hauling torque and riding the white blue as a commuter with a rear wheel assembly (all but the QR) weighing 2.42kg

Course Performances
yeah... straight from the kind code monkey, or one of his minions.

This all brought on by the coming Quad Cross and thoughts of what race to enter.  1/2/3? or maybe the 40+ and Singlespeed... only single speed...  the Singlespeed option only is a nice one but the double race is a better kick in the fitness nuts to start the season off with, however a full 60 minutes (or until i get pulled) racing the 1/2/3 is probably the best of both, in that it will be faster up front and more motivating (fear) to go batshitcrazy till i blow up.  But the 1/2/3 means no singlespeed, but then no singlespeed means i don't have to think about trying to get shit together for it decide on gear and then i can just heckle the hell out of Jerry and the rest of the one gear gang.
And then there are the crossresults points.

Damn points.

I do not care about them but they are there. Can't but look at them.  Sort of like... ah hell you pick your own colorful analogy.

Good think I have loads of time to ponder said question.  Also I feel rather nice that I haven't needed to register for the big races, my fields are not empty but they aren't closed or full.

That and I have to race the Quad...  too much of a system shock rolling into the grass of the slopes of Catamount w/o a race under the belt.

CXy time is here. Legs? Pfft, we'll see.  Could be a disaster. But damn even the worst shit show results can be tons of fun.

heddwch
G

Links?

yeah
http://sc-velo.com/2013/09/03/step-off-sucka/

there go read that

aka the reason why step through was there...  also it is dumb.

super dumb.

but that's because

i'm Walter



and yeah...

anyway, probably true. I'm rarely wrong (but hell occasionally am) i'm an over thinking critical observer that tends to point out when shit is wrong and I guess people don't like that sometimes and yes...
I'm an asshole.

no surprise this song

probably should just be my theme song without an asterix

I try not to be but it was casually pointed out that generally there is almost no objection by anyone or by very few at least when i self describe that way. Honestly it kind of hurts because I am kind of soft and squishy and stuff inside but yeah, i see where it is coming from.

so switch to not asshole is Ezra. The anti-one. He is so the anti-asshole they took his out completely.
catch up
http://www.teachingcancertocry.com/

bidding ended on his assless and UTA bikes but catch the video and the story so far if you've missed it.

Got a nice ride in on Friday. Had coffee in boston, rode to the top of blue hill and home. then headed to farm...

not much riding outside of that though.  Legs are going to be fresh maybe for Sunday, fast though? who knows.

i'll try and get back to writing more regularly sorry about the infrequent postings my friends...

heddwch
G

Absolutely fantastic


Brussels Express from Sander Vandenbroucke on Vimeo.

"We are all traffic."

we are... indeed. Has it changed much? I don't know but I am actually surprised how much more American the city acts than say the standard perception I have of European cities.

I'm not a messenger, i don't ride, no have ever owned a fixed gear city bike. But as a cyclists who's experience urban riding w/o any cycling infrastructure I can relate.

I think it was Joel Gwadz who first labeled the city riding as like constantly being in the matrix. Once you start to see the code suddenly it makes sense. You can spot the stuff out of sequence usually early enough.

Sometimes though once you leave the city you blink and the matrix is gone and you miss something, luckily instinct and good fortune have been with me and made a difference.

I rode the bike in this morning. It was absolutely pouring when I got in the shower to clean up before the ride in, but by the time I had put the shoes on, my cycling cap and my helmet it was a steady drizzle.

And warm.

It was peaceful. It was a ride in after a couple pretty shitty nights sleep that I decided was going to be an easy one. I've put the old sigma with HRM on the white blue, to monitor and reign in and avoid medium rides on the commute.

Every time i stick a leg over the saddle right now has to have meaning and purpose. The season starts too soon to be lackadaisical.

This mornings ride was just me. And the bike path.

There wasn't anyone else. Not a soul did I encounter once I turned onto the path in my neighborhood.

And maybe for the first time almost ever, both parking lots for the bike path up off of the parkway were completely empty. Not a car. not even the usual delivery drivers drinking coffee, or the morning crowd to watch the day unfold from the seat of their car looking over the city.

It was steady, and warm. Each seam in the pavement on the path would jostle a shower of water drops off my arms and the bike. The rain was light enough that my legs just had a consistent beaded load of drops, no sheeting just small drops of water as I propelled myself in, in the rain.

I found a new high, low speed though. 15 mph with 80 beats per minute heart rate, on the flats, on the heavy commuter wheels and bike. Was nice to note. Still was a slow commute but it was a bit focus and the rain is always magic I think.

Colin added a new metric to Crossresults.com one showing where you do better/worse. I'm significantly better when it is wet than anything else. Bring on the rain.

I can't deny it, the cool dampness, the better heat loss and the change in traction/torque dynamics are things that just make me feel good. The rain itself. That brief time I had a power meter, the rain would always give me a handful of watts, usually at least 20, sometimes more for a given RPE. Was it really changing things? Maybe, maybe only in my head. But my head, my mental framework is often my biggest limiter. I'm not slow, and I can be steady for a while, and I can be faster than most when I am challenged, but I can also find myself too easily and too early pulling the plug and saving something. Like last wed when Dave Kellogg and Becca showed up for the ride. Pine they just sort of took off after I had done a couple monster pulls. And I might have had something but I didn't feel like i did. it was an odd moment where the lungs were the limiter and not the legs. Up rocky hill a bit later, and after I dug deep to catch them and then pull a good bit down homestead my legs died and had nothing, were on fire, but the lungs were all set. Hillside? I had caught back up and more or less set tempo all the way to the base of hillside and I expected Dave and Becca to ride away from me. Dave took the pace down a notch and i was able to match it as we started that first section. And then gain a touch of ground and hold speed even. Then we hit the final little up down before the last steep pitch and Dave stood up and also slowed down over the crest but fatman here (me) held my same speed and then went for it attacking on the downhill and dug super deep to put a big gap in on the tiny legend of a man. And then out of fear of being caught just as I was literally fading I found another gear and emptied absolutely everything and held on for the win. I was luggage up Rocky hill the steep way. Mentally more than anything I think.

It is and probably will always be my challenge, this mental side of the game. Physically I think I've made some huge improvements over the years, esp in understanding what it takes to get fast, and get faster than I am, but also balancing what I know could be done with what I can do.

So it is mornings like this morning. Drizzling, riding slowly, super easily. That I almost love the most.

The bike path to myself, a commute with a good and required purpose, no stress about parking the car or moving it.

Just ride,

door to door,

in the rain.

I am traffic.
We are all traffic.

I think tonight my plan is to keep it simple, keep it solo, go home, put the knobbies on the black blue and make some turns on my course. Sprint from tree to tree, or at least make that attempt, and if nothing else get in a pile of dismount/remount to condition those muscles a bit more.

Watch that film if you haven't. It is worth the 19 min of investment.

heddwch
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