Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Off

I took this a.m. off to rest my self and my leg, which is no longer bothering me. I plan to do the Pinegrove TT tomorrow, just to do it. Easy, hard, easy; that’s how it should go. The weather looks to be threatening to rain, but it’s dry thus far. Let’s hope it stays that way for the trail’s sake. Lindsay and I went out to finalize some trail work this eve, but no one else showed up and since we have no tools, we just jetted. Since we have no yard, we have no yard tool and have to rely on others to show up w/ their tools to do any work. Oh well, only a few things need done and they should be able to get taken care of Friday. It’s looking good so far for the B-town DINO race (I’m pumped on the race because this is DINO’s first year back at Wapahani since, like, 2001 or so, and since I live here it’s extra cool).
So, Pinegrove TT tomorrow, off Friday (maybe an evening lap when Jayne and Luth get here, just easy though) then race Sat!

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Easy tempo

I set out on a tempo ride of the Bottom Rd loop this a.m. and it kind turned into an easy tempo ride. That’s below tempo, but above easy. Man, these lines can get blurry when you’re not feeling it, which I wasn’t. I didn’t feel bad, just slow. Then my right hip, started to hurt a little, but on the inside, so more like the pelvis area. Only when I walk though, not pedal. High intensity, high mileage athletes (running, cycling, whatever) have all kinds of little hurts that come and go, so I’m not worried, but I don’t like having things bothering during race weeks. That means I a) have to get rid of it before the weekend and b) possibly re-arrange training to give it rest, which I don’t like to do during race weeks. So, tomorrow is scheduled as a hard/long(er) day, but I’m thinking I’ll ride easy out to the Pinegrove boat ramp and bust the 4 mile TT, then spin back in for about 15-20 miles w/ a hard-ass effort in the middle. We’ll see how it feels when I wake up.

Monday, May 29, 2006

MTB, that's it

Lindsay and I went to Wapahani to get in some pre-riding for next week’s race. Expert is racing 5 laps, so I wanted to ride 6. I rode 5. It just worked out to when I was finishing my 5th everyone else there was finishing up there ride too, so I just packed it in. There were a lot of people there, most of them racers pre-riding. I felt pretty good riding, and hit everything good that I needed to hit. There’s one climb that is very steep and due to the rain a couple days ago it was just wet enough that I couldn’t make it up it. I made it most of the way my first three laps and I omitted the section my last two. It just wasn’t worth getting off and walking up. I was doing 31 minute laps, and doing 28 min w/out that section. I wasn’t riding hard at all, so we’ll see what race day brings. I rode for 2.5 hours, and you have to double MTB mileage because it’s so much harder than road. So it’s like riding about 50 road miles.
There are a couple trees down form last weeks tornado warning weather, so those have to be removed before Sat. We’re having more trail work Wed, but I have to be careful as I got some poison ivy last week.
Tempo day tomorrow after three hard days on a row.

Sunday, May 28, 2006

Nice day, for a ride

It’s 5:30 p.m. and my weather bug still says 90*.
Josh P was going to come down and ride w/ Ryan and I, but he got bogged down in Indy and didn’t make it. So Ryan and I went out and did the Gainseville ride. Gainseville is N/E of Nashville, and the ride loops back around through Nashville before heading back to B-Town. It’s a great ride w/ good roads and some really good hills. It has several big-ring climbs and a few down shift grinders too. It’s a little over 60miles and climbs 2500’. We averaged just over 20mph for the ride; that’s moving.
It was stinkin hot too. The humid kind of hot. It’s nice to be out in the heat w/ just short and a short sleeve jersey w/ no base layer or anything. Finally.
When I got back I sat around for a while then Lindsay and I walked over to the campus "village" area and got fresh juice smoothies form the coffee shop/juice bar, Soma. It hit the spot on a hot ass day after riding a hard 3 hours.
Tomorrow Dan P is coming down to pre-ride Wapahani for next weekend. I think Josh P is coming w. him to ride some MTB w/ us. Should be another steamer. All those poor hillbillies sitting out at the Indy 500…

Saturday, May 27, 2006

Stay down, keep pedalling

That’s what I kept telling myself. Monrovia 40k tt, my first 40k ever. I wasn’t 100% sure what to expect, except pain. I sorta expected to go around 65min for my first try, and chip away at that over the next few to go sub 1 hour. I made am Ipod playlist of Slayer, Pantera and Sepultura, nothing else. I had the songs in an order that made sense. Two hard h\fast songs to get going, then a "slower" (as slow as thrash metal gets) song to find rhythm, then more hard… It actually worked out really well. The morning was early, but perfect. No wind and warm and sunny. We headed out. I took off and turned my computer upside down so I couldn’t see it. I wanted to ride 100% by feel w/ no numbers. As it turns out this was good and bad. It was foggy out and I didn’t wear my contacts due to a spider eye incident (more later), so I couldn’t see very far ahead. When I saw the finish, I kicked on the afterburners, but if I had seen it earlier (or had my computer visible to see my time), I could have kicked it in earlier and gone .16sec faster and broke the hour. That’s right, I missed the hour by .16 sec. I went 60.16. Really, I’m happy that for my first 40k ever. I now know that I can break the hour, I just have to do a couple little things. It’s still averaging just under 25mph, alone for 1 hour. I’ll take that for a 130lb skinny dude on a road bike.
The Eye Situation:
Last night Lindsay and I got home form the co0ncert in Indy (more later) and thee was a little spider on the wall. I thought nothing of it and smashed it w/ my finger. I then rubbed my eye w/ that finger and got dead spider juice in my eye. My eye instantly started burning, turned red and blew up like a balloon. I got my contact out and it got no better. It watered a lot and burned. I went to sleep assuming it would work itself out overnight. No dice. When I woke up it was swollen almost shut and I decided there’s no way I’m going to race like that. I then decided since I’m already up and they day looks to be good, I’m going anyway, but sans contacts. I wore my glasses throughout the day and the swelling has gone down to almost normal It’s a little red, but nothing big. Lesson: don’t rub dead spider juice in your eye.
The Concert:
We checked out a very talented jazz bass players band, led by (bassist) Lyman Mederos. Lyman is based in L.A., but is form Indy and went to Ball State. He lived w/ my brother while at Ball State and that’s how I know him. The show was great, they sounded awesome and were sooo tight and incredibly funky. I highly recommend checking him out if you get the chance and if you’re into jazz, buy his cd. It was good to see Lyman, as I haven’t seen him since last time I was in L.A. visiting my brother, which has been several years. Lyman is doing very well for himself and is going to be rcongnized as a jazz great some day.
Here’s the link to his blog on eblogger, The Backbeat: http://www.lmbass.blogspot.com/. Check him out.
Adam’s Birthday is Monday, May 29. I’ll be 28 I think.
I’m thrashed after the 40k TT, so we’ll see what riding we do tomorrow, I want to do a good long ride still. I should feel fine after some SLEEP (I’ve got up around 5 a.m., raced, worked all day and now I have to fix my MTB and take off my aero bars). Full day fo sho.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Sore arms (trail work); different hill ride

Last night (Wed night) a bunch of us met at Wapahani for trial work. It was a nice night for it ad there were several people riding. I walked most of the course w/ a gas weed whacker and widened/ cleared places that needed it . My arms are sore today form hauling around said weed whacker, but it needs to be done and I’m glad to help. Wapahani used to be an IN MTB destination, but has slipped from that distinction over the past few years, getting over grown and not being ridden. We’re getting it back into shape and I’m proud to be part of the team. We used to drive down here, two hours, to ride there and it’s getting back into the kind of shape where it will be worth the drive. Anywho, I slept really crappy and was up for an hour or so in the middle of the night messing around in the net, so that only added to my general soreness. Whatever.
I rode my normal Thursday 4 hills ride today, but w/ aero bars on. I normally dog it between the hills, but today I went a little harder between and stayed aero as much as possible. The is a very clear verdict to it all: having aero bars on your bike down here totally sucks. There are few sections of road that are flat for long enough to make it a real advantage and they get in the way when you’re climbing. At the shop here we have sold 1 pair since I have been here and keep just one pair in stock at a time, much different from Muncie where we sold an ass-load and stocked a bunch too. I never really thought much about it, I just went with it, because I think aero bars suck generally anyway. Well, B-Town floks, that’s the reason: it sucks to ride this kind terrain w/ them on. Needless to say, they’ll be coming off as soon as I finish the 40k.
I plan to go to Wap and ride at least 5 laps (Expert is 5 laps) Sunday, then do something huge (Nashville 90??) Monday. We’ll see what all goes down, as I broke a linkage bolt on my MTB and ordered 2 new ones form Giant w/ fast shipping and they should be here tomorrow. My suspension is in about 15 pieces right now, so I can’t ride w/out those bolts. Let us pray to the gods of speedy (and expensive) shipping that they make it.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Laying the course; dog days

Yesterday (Tues) BH from DINO came down and we measured and marked the run/bike course(s) for the race here June 3. It was fun. I can'’ say I got a great workout, but we rode the lap a couple of times, then went through w/ ribbons and paint. We had to stop s few times for distance markers on the first couple, then stop very often while marking to tie ribbons and/or paint arrows. It should be a good course w/ a couple hard grinder climbs. 5 laps for Expert, should be "fun." Plus BH comped my entry for the race for helping. Bonus!
We’re going out to the trail tonight to clear/maintain. There a re a few sections that need trimmed to get rid of things that hit you in the face. Other than a few things, it’s in really good shape. Let’s hope the rain holds off.
This a.m. I rode the Paragon loop solo, w/ aero bars, as I plan to do a 40k this Saturday morn. I wanted to get in a ride or two w/ the aero bars before busting a 40k. I ran over a dog while on the ride. Ran it over. I was in the aero going about 25mph and heard a yipper dog to my left. I looked and saw it running toward the road, so I got out of aero and yelled at it. It kept barreling and next thing I know it’s right in front of my wheel. I braced for impact, hoping to stay up. I ran it over w/ both wheels, just like a speed bump, at around 20mph. It yelped and I looked back. After it recovered from it’s ‘spins’ or ‘flips’ it got up and headed back for it’s yard. I yelled to the house "I just ran over your dog," but no one was outside, so I just kept going. It may have internal damage and die, it may have broken bones, I don’t know. I hope it’s okay, but at least I didn’t crash. That could have caused thousands in equipment damage and/or medical crap. It totally broke my rhythm for the rest of the ride, but I still rode pretty good considering. And it knocked my front wheel a little out of true, but nothing too bad it wasn’t rubbing the brake or anything. I’ll fixit tonight.
Keep your dogs fenced. Even if you live in the country, cars and cyclists are everywhere.

Monday, May 22, 2006

Lazy Monday

Normal lazy Monday easy 1 hour roller spin this a.m. It was a good one after my Nashville war march yesterday. I woke up w/ no soreness at all. That’s good after a hard ride considering I didn’t sleep well last night. I expected to not be fully recovered, but I was. All good.
Tomorrow Brian from DINO is coming down to get the course for Wapahani’s race lain. We’re meeting at Wap at 9:00a.m., so that’s tomorrow’s plan. I want to ride road and get in the bottom loop tempo, but this needs to be done and I want to help out. Plus having lain the course, I (should) know it well enough to consider it an advantage. After we’re done I need to ride it at least a couple more times over the next two weeks to get it dialed. I’m thinking of pulling two-a-days a couple days to get in the MTB ride. I’ll ride road in the morn, then go ride the loop a couple times in the eve, but easy; just practice, nothing else.

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Nashville finally, solo, but KILLED it!

I finally got in a Nashville ride for the year. I’ve been wanting to do this ride for months, and have had "something come up" or weather crap, or races or…but today, was doing.(period) Through circumstance and circumstance and circumstance I ended up riding alone, but I didn’t care. It was pretty windy, but I decided I would just settle into whatever pace was comfy and go w/ it. Lucky for me that pace just happened to be killer. Nashville is about 60miles (round trip), which by itself isn’t bad, but it has a few major climbs. I go into Nashville via Bear Wallow hill, which gains ~300’ in 1mile. It’s one of my favorite hills around here. It has two tiers in which it gains that elevation. It’s a good one (hard one!) Then I come back via Helmsburg rd, which is another big grinder, then it’s rolling sailing until you get into Yellowood St Forest, which always hurts. On the "flat" sections between Helmsburg and Monroe county, I had the headwind, but I put my head down and pounded it. It was actually a weird wind w/ the way the roads twist around here. I had a headwind or a cross most of the ride, both ways. Never really a true tail wind. BUT, I managed to average 19.9 for a total ave (this includes B-town in town and Nashville, during which I took it easy and ate a Cliff bar). I didn’t stop at all, except to pee just before climbing Bear Wallow. That’s pretty fast. I’m very happy w/ that number. 20 would have been better, but whatever, Nashville via Bear Wallow’s a hard ride no matter how you cut it, especially on a windy(ish) day solo.
For the week I got in 10.5 hrs, 186 miles. Pretty good considering the crapped out weather most mornings.

Friday, May 19, 2006

Been a couple days

Sorry to the faithful, it’s been a couple days. I’ve been busy (which is totally a relative term) and Insight has been "upgrading" the broadband service here, which seems to mean that most evenings there is no internet connection. Hopefully it turns out for the better.
Well, here are the few things I can think of:
I have gotten in a full week of training so far despite wetness and cool a.m. temps. I still have Sunday to get in a long one, but it’s looking doable weather wise thus far. I had to redirect today’s ride due to Russell Road being closed for construction. No biggy, as Friday is a short easier ride anyway, but it did cut off about 2 miles, which on a 18 mile ride is significant. Whatever, I’m just happy to get in full weeks.
It was National Bike To Work Day today. I ride to work everyday, so it’s all the same to me, but it’s cool to have the community recognize "us."
Last night Lindsay and I ate frog legs. My Mom got them for us when she came down to visit and took Lindsay to the market for the phat, madd grocery hook up. I grilled the frog and I must say, it was damn good. Frog is thought of (to my knowledge) as a hillbilly food, not a delicacy at all, but I really liked it. It’s been years since I’ve had frog, and when I got it as a kid it was for the novelty of eating frog, so I was impressed with how good it actually is.
Have a good weekend all, tomorrow’s a day off of riding, then Sunday is long. Maybe I’ll check out the Pinegrove 4 mile TT tomorrow eve after work, we’ll see.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Hard ride; flat; wheels...

Nothing overly exciting to report. Ryan and I rode North Shore/South Shore this a.m. and pretty much killed it. We rode it hard. The wind really picked up on us on the way across South Shore (headed west), so pulls into the headwind w/ no cover was tough. The wind was steady coming off Lake Lemon and made for a tough ride in. Add to this that I flatted once we got off of South Shore and it made for a "blah" ride. Actually it was a good ride. We rode hard, it didn’t rain (the sun actually poked out), but a front flat is always a bummer.
Sun Rims suck. They used to be good, now they suck. I went to rebuild my wheel last night and was having problems w/ getting it dished and round. I went to stress the spokes and I heard a "ping." I new a spoke couldn’t have broke, as there wasn’t enough tension on them yet. What happened was the little plate that is peened at the seem (so if the seem comes apart the rim won’t ‘unravel’) came loose and was rattling around. As it turns out Tim Cote from here build cyclocross wheels w/ the same rime (Sun ME14A) and BOTH of his plates came un-peened within a couple of days. I have seen these plates come unfixed from rims w/ tons of miles on them, but on brnd new rims? C’mon. That’s just dumpster. So I ‘m going to buy a low end pair of Campy wheels for trainers. I’ll sell my Chorus hubset online, w/ the front hub built to a ME14A rim (before they started sucking).
Wish me luck…
P.S. I don’t want jinx anything, but the weather seems to be coming aorund?

Monday, May 15, 2006

Soggy Shoes

Got in my standard easy one-hour roller spin this a.m. It felt good after a fairly hard ride yesterday. My shoes, however, were still kind of wet despite being hung all night and having a fan blowing on them for a few hours yesterday. Putting my feet into wet shoes was just about enough to make me not ride this morning, but the desire to be fast saw me into soggy shoes. I have an old pair of shoes and another pair of cleats; I just haven’t put the cleats on them. With the string of weather that may be something for me to put on my to-do list. I need to rebuild my rear wheel first though and I should have my rim today. That’s most likely my Monday night festivity.
Well, the temps are forecasted to rise and the chance of rain is 30-40% for the next 4-6 days. Maybe us poor Indiana folk will see some relief soon. And it looks like Southern IN has had it a little better too. I know up around Frankfort (my hometown) there’s been a lot more rain. And it looks like the river is way up in Muncie judging by the Start Press online picture of the car under water.
I have the Giro D’ Italia opened in a parallel window right now and I’m not really paying attention to what I’m writing, so I’m out.

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Braving the storm

…or braving the rain, anyway. It was raining around 1 when Ryan and I were planning on riding and Ryan had gone to do some work on their house. I decided I was riding at 2:00; inside or out. I went out and rode the Paragon ride, which is about 42miles. I rode into three (3) rain fronts and was completely soaked. Plus it was 52*, so I was cold too. I had my plastic rain jacket packed, so I put it on toward the end. It kept my dry(er) and warm(er), even though I was already soaked an cold.
Anywho, it sucked, the weather totally sucks lately, but I got in about 40, which is what I wanted to do. That put me about 1.5-2 hours short for the week and about 30 or so miles short. Given the weather, that’s pretty good I guess. It’s really starting to get to me though…
On the plus side, while waiting for a break in the rain this a.m. I caught the Ratt and the Pantera Behind The Music’s. They were both pretty sweet.

The race of truth

The individual time trial, the race of truth. No where to hide, no one to draft, nose to the wind. That’s why they call it "the race of truth." The truth is: riding in the rain when it’s 43* sucks. Ryan and I skipped the Monrovia TT today. I spent last night getting my bike ready, race wheels on, aero bars on and in position, etc. Got my gear packed, food packed, etc. I got up about 5:30am and it was too dark to see anything outside, so I poured some coffee, sat down and the phone rang. It Ryan calling it a bust. It was, indeed, raining, even though I couldn’t really see outside. The radar had a big system over us until about 11:00am. I hadn’t drunk any coffee yet, so I poured it back in the pot and went back to bed.
The sun’s out now and we’re going to try to get in some miles in an hour or so. I’ll let you all know hao what turned out later.
I’ve been watching the Giro D’ Italia live thanks to John Smith finding the feed online. It’s free and it’s the same feed that OLN is using and charging $20 for. The only drawback is the commentary is in Italian, o I can’t understand what they’re saying. I open the Velonews live ticker and read what’s happening while I watch it. It rules. The site, for those interested, is: www.raisport.rai.it. All of the words are written in Italian too, so it’s a little difficult to navigate, but I got it figured out. Here’s the hint: "tapa" means "taped" and "Live" means "Live." Get it?
Happy mothers day to those applicable.

Saturday, May 13, 2006

the great arctic monsoon of 2006

What is with the weather lately? It has consistently been in the mid to high 40’s in the mornings and rainy/wet. It has rained everyday since Monday, and the ten day has rain forecasted every day except Wed. Temps are supposed to be rising, but slowly and still not up to ‘normal.’ Brian Wilkes on Fox 59 said "remember that mild Jan we had? This is the balancing out of mother nature." WELL, HURRY IT UP LADY!
I did get out for a short Friday jaunt yesterday, but in leg warmers, a jacket, gloves and shoe covers. I’m not too far off track for the week and that’s good, considering. I’m about 1 hour down at this point, and Sunday isn’t looking great, so we’ll see. I may end up a little short this week, whatever. This is always hard for me because I don’t know how/if everyone else is training. I always assume they are training per normal and if I don’t I will pay. Someone once told me that the real difference between Sport and Expert MTB is how much you train. IE: you can’t "call it" on crappy days, or if you do, you have to ride inside. I think that’s partially true, but at the top of Sport class, like the top, say, 3-7 guys, they train no matter what. Or I always did. So it’s nothing new to me, forcing yourself to train through bad weather even if it means riding inside in May.
I’m thinking of going to Monrovia for the 40k TT tomorrow w/ Ryan. I’ve never done a 40k and want to do a couple this year. For you non-cyclist, 40k is 24.8 miles. That means to go under 1hour you have to average 24.8 mph. BUT, there’s a 180* turn around on the course, at which point your speed will drop to around 3mph (or so) you have to make that up by going over 25mph. Basically, you have to go slightly over 25mph for 1 hour to break the hour. That’s tough for a 130lb chicken legged dude like me, but I want to try to break an hour eventually. For reference, I think Ryan Shan’s best time is a high 53min! That’s going something like 28mph for 1 hour alone, no draft! (I just guessed at that 28mph, you’ll have to do the math, which I’m no good at figuring).
Anywho, I’m thinking of going tomorrow. If the rain holds off I probably will. It will be hella cold, but whatever, times will be slow. I would like to get in a long ride Nashville, which has been eluding me for months now.
I also need to rebuild my rear training wheel, as I noticed several of the eyelets connecting to the drive side (which runs at a higher tension than the non drive) have tiny cracks on each side of them. I’ve had these wheels for probably 5 years, so no complaints. I have a rim on order from Sun, but haven’t gotten it yet. I don’t want it to blow up on my while 30 miles from home, but the cracks are tiny and at my weight/riding style I probably don’t have a serious problem for a couple months, but I want to get it fixed and not worry about it.

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Wet, Rainy, Cold is it May?

This a.m. it was raining, completely wet and 51*. By the time I needed to ride, I could have gotten outside, but w/ it being so chilly and puddley wet, I rode the god-foresaken trainer. I would normally ride the ~ 1hour hill ride today, so I rode 1 hour w/ two- ten minute standing intervals instead. It sucked, but went by fairly quickly. The string of weather in the ten day forecast sucks. Unseasonably cool and wet.
It looks like Brian fro the DINO series is coming down Monday morning and a few of us are going to meet him at Wapahani to get the course laid out for the race a couple weeks away. It will be wet, that’s pretty much for sure, but it will be nice to a) set up the course and have it in memory and b) to have the course marked to practice on it.
Not sure what’s on the menu for this weekend, as the forecast doesn’t look great, but we’ll see.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Beat the rain; famous hands

So with my mixed up week, I took yesterday off of workout and rode today (weds) hard ride per normal. I needed yesterday off after the weekend. I felt god today and rode good to boot. I did South Shore and rolling average was 19.7. With town and everything it was 19.5, so that’s rolling pretty good. I was solo, as I didn’t want to make any plans because it was supposed to be raining. I checked the radar and it looked like I had a window, so I went for it and made it. Good deal, I need the miles.
Yesterday the lady from Fox News came into the bike shop to shot some video for a new Jill Behrman story. She wanted vid of some handlebars being twisted, so I twisted them for her and I was on the news! No big deal, really, but kind of cool. It was just my torso and arms, but whatever, I’ll take it.
Oh, and I cut my hair last night and accidentally used the guard I use for the sides on the top, so my hair is extra short this time. It’s fine, it’ll just be longer till I have to cut it again. Sweet!

Monday, May 08, 2006

Changing it up a little

I had to change my ride schedule around a little this week. The owner of the bike shop’s mother-in-law died over the weekend, so he’ll be gone for a few days and I am needed to fill in some. So I did tomorrows ride today, which is the Bottom Rd Loop @ tempo. I rode an easy hour or so yesterday and felt fine, whatever, it’s an easy hours. I finally slept well and got up an hour early to fit in my going-to-work-at-noon-ride before going to work at 11. I felt sluggish today. I didn’t feel good on any hills and felt like I was struggling the whole ride. No big deal, when you get as close to bonking as I did Saturday, it stays w/ you for a couple of days. The hard effort alone will take it’s toll, but throw a near-bonk into the mix and it’s a full on recovery issue then. I ate well and plenty (not good and plentys) the past two days and am feeling good, just not 100% on the bike. I am going to work at 10:00 tomorrow, so I’m going to take the day off, then go hard Wed w/ Ryan (I think, he’s still working on their new house). That’s the plizz-an.
I need to clean up my road bike tonight. It’s pretty messy form wet roads last week (or two). My MTB needs bathed too, but I won’t be riding it for a week or so, so I’ll get to it when I get to it.
RACE RESULTS FROM SATURDAY:
I ended up 30th out of 48. Not a great placing, but as I said, I rode good, but a lot of people did too. People I know I can either beat or at least be competitive with rode better than I did, or got better starts, or something. Whatever, still plenty of racing to do.
(I think I’ve said (written) the word "plenty" more times in this post than I have ever said it before weird)

Sunday, May 07, 2006

good race, bad place

Yesterday was DINO #1 @ Winona Lake in Warsaw, IN. It was a perfect day, ~65* sunny, dry and the trail were 100% perfect. Dusty, dry with just enough moisture in the dirt to provide good grip. It really couldn’t have been much better.
I got a not ideal start, somewhere mid pack, which is where I stayed. A couple of the people I wanted to be right with got better starts, so I thought I would try to ride up to them as the 2hour race went on. It wasn’t going to happen. On my pre-race lap, I found all of the good passing places, but at race speed most of those passing places were too short to actually get in a pass. So I sat in mid pack land. Whatever, I rode really well. I kept my heart rate under control, hit good lines, stayed with about 3-4 people (one of whom I have ‘marked’ for the season) and rode fast. I felt like I could have been going fast in the first two of three laps, but had too many people in front of me. That’s MTBing, it’s not like road where you can move up whenever you want to. I thin I ended up somewhere around 30th out of (I’m guessing) 60 or so starters. I know I saw a #57 number plate, so I know there was a large Expert field.
Lindsay flatted in her race and had the wrong size tube in her bag (my bad). She is using the seat bag from my cyclocross bike and I guess I forgot to switch the tube to an MTB tube. She, hence, couldn’t fix her flat and had to walk in. Sorry.
We had a huge day yesterday. We left around 6:30am, raced MTB, hung out at the festival at the race (Northern IN Fat and Skinny Tire Fest), drove to my parents house in Frankfort, ate there, stopped by a wedding reception which my brother was in town for (dressing in cut-off camo shorts and a Slayer t-shirt), hung out w/ him for a while and saw a TON of people who wanted to ‘catch up’ w/ me, then drove to Indy to drop off Dan P’s dog at his house for him, the finally got back to B-Town a little after 11pm. That’s a long string of doing stuff. And bear in mind: in the middle of all this was a MTB race. Probably the hardest I’ve ever ridden MTB at that. I was completely wasted after racing. I just sat and drank Gatorade and ate whatever I could find. I had my nutrition down for winning Sport races, but Expert races are longer/harder so to even fill the pack I need to revamp my pre-race eating (I was about 10 minutes from a full on bonk on the final lap). Anywho, we were "out" for, like, 17 hours or something, totally worked over by the time we got home. Weird thing is: I slept crappy. I should have slept great given the circumstances. I told work I would work the 3 hours we’re opened today since I took off yesterday and I planned on sleeping until 10 or 10:30, going to work, then doing an easy recovery 1 hour on the road. But, I’m already up, I’ve had coffee, I made some slamcakes, and I’m going to ride before work and hope I’m tired enough for a nap in the afternoon. We shall see. Lindsay went to Ride MTB @ Brown County w/ some girls from Indy, she should back when I get back from work. May be a "Lazy Sunday," no Narnia though, just naps.
Adam’s jams while blgging this a.m. and making/eating aforementioned slamcakes: Abba Gold. That’s some good shit.
I’ll post results when they’re up.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Good Wed; MTB @ WAP

I didn’t post yesterday because when I got home from riding Lindsay and I got talking and I didn’t get around to it. Then when I got home form work the internet connection wasn’t working. I went through all of the diagnostic crap and none of it fixed it. I gave up and "went for a walk," which turned into me wandering aimlessly around the campus for 2.5 hours. It was nice, really. I wanted to get out and clear my head. This campus is really nice w/ its wooded areas and old buildings. I found a graded somewhere behind the university theatre (not the auditorium) an picked (read: stole) a couple of flowers for Lindsay. Only one made it home fully intact, but it’s the thought. Right?
I had a good quality work out yesterday. I did a loop of the Morgan Monroe forest via up Beanblossom Hill. I averaged just over 19.1mph for the ride, w/ town and everything. For comparison, I did this ride w/ RS and Serriere when we moved here and all three of us (w/ those to hammers doing all of the pissing, uh pulling) we averaged 19.7. Verdict: I’m happy averaging slightly lower than I did w/ "eh hem" the two fastest guy around, by myself.
Today I went to Wapahani and rode MTB for about an hour. I drove there, as I’m on a time budget. I wanted to ride MTB before the weekend, just to freshen up. I wish I could say I rode well, but I didn’t ride, well, great anyway. I rode okay, I guess. A few sections of the course were wet and/or tore up. Add into this that I was riding on dry condition tyres and I had a few problems. Nothing big though. And if I had been on wet tyres, I would have been fine. I’m taking both tyres this weekend and will decide when I get there what to use.
That’s about it. Short/easier tomorrow, then race Sat. We will be going through Frankfort after Sat’s race, as my brother will be ion town. We’re going to go out of the way to stop in and hang for a while. Should be cool.
Early day Saturday…

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Dreary Tues.

Man, it’s a dingy one today. Grey (or gray) and wet. It stormed last night, I remember hearing thunder, and it is definitely wet. It didn’t rain in me this a.m., but I got wet from road spray. I did normal Tuesday, Bottom Rd loop. I think the loc’s (those that are more loc’d than I) call this the Lower Paragon Loop, but I’m not 100% on that. Anywho, I call it the Bottom Rd Loop. I rode good, felt good, but drab weather like this sucks. It brings my whole mood down.
I’m experimenting w/ Cliff Bars because the place I get Power Bar Harvests and GU from is having serious stock problems. I used to eat Cliff before Harvest bars came out, so I’m trying them out again. The distributor seems to have Cliff most of the time and if not they’re $1.00 at Kroger, so they’re available one way or the other. I have a few to eat over the next week or two, so I’ll see what I think. It takes me awhile to test them because I really only eat on the bike if I’m going 35 miles or more. GU is only available to me from one distributor that "will have it in tomorrow" for the past ~4 weeks. I have to buy it retail off the internet if they don’t have it. I’ve tried other gels and GU is the only one that works for me, so retail it is when they’re out. Our customers often think we’re screwing them when it takes a long time to get something in for them, but it happens to employees too. And it sucks for us all the same.

Monday, May 01, 2006

Easy Monday; race week

Typical Monday; easy roller spin for 1 hour. My legs are actually a little sore form trainer yesterday. Weird, but I guess when you ride trainer for 2 hours, your pedaling for 2 hours, no coasting and against resistance. Anyway, it’s probably good.
This is a race week for me (race Sat) so I need to get my full week in. No rain excuses for staying in be on race weeks.
Ryan and Sarah close on their new house today (good for them!), so Ryan is out this week and maybe next, as his dad is coming to town to help fix it up for ten days or so. That means Wed’s. hard ride will be a solo. No big, it’s been solo the past couple, it’s just easier to ride hard when RS is going bore-opened. I’ll manage.
We have a place to stay Friday night in Ft. Wayne if we want it, as Warsaw is around 3hrs from here and about 1hr form Ft. Fun. Not sure if we’re going o take yet or not. If we leave 6:30 or 7:00, it should be fine. Plus we get our bed, our bathroom, our coffee maker, etc. Oh yeah, my Mom brought me a bag of Starbucks store bought coffee to make. While I’m not a fan of Starbucks the machine, they’re coffee is unmatched. Seriously. I bet it causes cancer or something. Or has mass amounts of animal fat in it. Something has to be wrong w/ something so good. Speaking of animal fat, I ate enough at the Irish Lion Sat night to feed a small country and weighed in yesterday at 127lbs. That’s low even for me. I haven’t weighed today, but I normally weigh just over 130, so we’ll see.