Monday, October 27, 2008

Quick update- USGP, etc

A rainy Friday saw a forced day off of training, and despite being a little sick earlier in the week (and getting up at 4am to get people to their respective starts), I went into the USGP feeling pretty fresh. What gave me that not-so-fresh feeling as my start position. I was in the last row of 89 people; I started dead last. I rode really well, but was totally gassed the whole time.I rode as hard as I could throughout. I rode myself into 37th, which isn't bad considering I had to ride through the entire field to get there.
Second note: my computer isn't booting up, so I may be post-less for a while. We have a second PC, which I am on now, but it has problems too and doesn't work too well. It may be time for a new main system, ugh. I need to talk to the good people at Computer Repair Now here in b-town and see what they think. They've done work for me in the past and are very good and very honest. Last time I was in (about a year ago) they were talking about starting to build/sell comps instead of only fixing them. Options to be explored...

Thursday, October 23, 2008

It's official...

It's cold in the mornings. These are my seasonal best friends, the Merino Sheep. That's right, I've busted out the wool already.
I actually was sick this week. It hit me Monday afternoon, a feverish, stuffy head feeling. I left work early and went straight to bed.
I skipped working out Tuesday to sleep in, worked all day, but went straight to bed after work again.
By Wed I felt much better, so I rode the cross bike a little over an hour; nothing crazy hard or anything, just riding.
Then today (thurs) I felt good enough to resume training. We rode a hard local route (North Shore Dr.) and our current local pro, John Myers went with. This dude is a faaast cat 1 and this was hard ride. just what I needed after being sick for a couple of days. I couldn't have pushed that hard otherwise. I actually felt pretty good and never really felt in danger of being dropped. It was a good, hard ride. I hope he joins us somewhat often to make it interesting.
This weekend is the USGP cross race in Louisville, KY. It is supposed to rain there today and Friday, then be sunny and in the 60's for the weekend. Should make it fun!
I re-geared my cross bike from a standard road 39x53 set up, which the 53 is completely useless in cross, to a 46x39, which may be useful. 53 is way too big of a gear to push on any cx course, but since I ride the bike on training rides in the winter, I wanted to keep a bigger gear on it. But 53 is just too much to be practical, so I got a 46t. I can still race completely in the 39 if the course calls for it, but I have more option now.
So I'm still trying to go to bed early just to give my immune system full recovery. It's 9:15pm, getting close for me...

Monday, October 20, 2008

Hilly weekend

Photo is the misty fog and fall colours over Griffey lake. Taken Friday am (cell pic) after my run at Griffey and prior to ride back in.

Then the weekend was the religious weekend to Southern IN cyclist, the Hilly 100. Per usual I worked it Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Josh and I had a good hilly money wise and stayed very busy and very tired. I'm still tired from the weekend. we were busy enough Sunday that i didn't get to ride like I usually do, but that's okay. We go 50/50 on the weekend's earnings, so it's only fair that I stay so he doesn't get bogged down.
Not riding made my week a little short on training hours, but I'm not too worried about that. This weekend is the USGP cross race in Louisville. It was good last year; kind of overwhelming to be at such a huge race. Cool though.
Speaking of cool, mornings are down right cold now. The past two have been in the 30's. My toes froze this morning and hurt real bad thawing when I got in (I was out for only ~45min, but didn't wear shoe covers).
It was another good Hilly weekend and good to catch up w/ some Muncie folks I don't see too often like Keelo and Jimmy Leffler especially.
Good times.
I hatched a plan to ~try to~ get a new Campy Chorus 11 speed group for my road bike w/ my hilly earnings and the selling of my current group. Hopefully it works out, that'd be sweet!

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

I'm ready to vote

John McCain scares me.
He's trying too hard; I don't think I trust a word this old guy says.
And Palin? WTF???

Monday, October 13, 2008

CX pics

This is the start from two weeks ago in Louisville. I am in the blue w/ the big arrow pointing toward me.

I am pretty sure this is my start from this past weekend. I am in there somehwere. Gives you an idea of how many we started with and I was toward the back of it.

Weekend(wedding/racing)

I went to Muncie Saturday for my friend, Brian Myrick's wedding. Pic above is from the reception; pretty extravagant(by my [low] standards). It was a nice wedding, as far as that goes and I got to see some folks I haven't seen for a while. I didn't know nearly as many people as I expected I would, but a few. Plus I went to a couple Muncie spots of interest to me: Blue Bottle Coffee Shop, my old fav for coffee/pastries, Heorot Pub, my old fav place for hard to find beers (and they'll have it on tap none-the-less) and Kirk's Bike Shop, my old shop. I hung out at the bike shop for a while and talked to the guys there because I know them otherwise (FYI, it's totally annoying when some dude you've never met/seen/heard of... comes in and lays the "I used to work here" drab on you and wants to talk about it all day. Point being, if I hadn't known these guys, I wouldn't have tried to chat them up about my having run the shop for 5 years). The place looked pretty much the same, but was far messier than we ever let it get.
Sunday was the Harbin Park UCI CX race in Cinci, OH. This was the first "big" cx race I'd ever done a couple years ago, and I skipped it last year. It has grown a ton since I've been there and the course was changed quite a bit too. It was very hard overall. It had lots of mil, gradual climbing, but on rough grass ground. It made it very difficult. I felt great though (read: I felt fast, I actually felt like I was going to die at any moment). Being a bigger UCI race they called up riders by points and I have none. So my race had ~60 starters and I started probably !40 or so back I'd guess. I passed tons of people and was passed by only 1 person, and I finished 15th. So I passed over half the field and felt pretty good about it (if I'd have started 15th, I'd have won, right?)
The course had 2 sand pits, one on slight downhill and one on a slight uphill. The dh one was easy and even fast, but the up hill one was difficult. It was ridable (I rode it during pre race laps), but I carried the bike through it every race lap. It just wasn't worth the risk of falling off for me, plus I entered it every lap w/ people, and traffic made it even more difficult. I latched onto two or three groups of 3-5 people at different times in the race, but I was feeling strong, so I rode through and clear of all of them.
Another solid CX race.
Hilly 100 this weekend. BUSY BUSY BUSY for me. 20+ hours of work in two days, really. Fun though, and the weather is looking good.

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Oktober Fest


Wed was dreary, damp and grey. I rode the CX on some dirt/gravel roads and got filthy. (shortly after the 1-2mile stretch of gravel here is a big nasty gravel climb) and (notice my orange shift cable housing, pretty trick eh?)

October in Indiana; my last post highlighted the nice sunny day and great weather. Then the photo above made me think I spoke too soon. Then today it's sunny, but was really chilly. Craziness.
I was really cold this a.m. I needed to take gloves w/ me, but didn't. Live/learn (but to remember is key). I have ridden very well the past two days and felt good. This is good because i was afraid having a cold the past week or so had killed my top-end fitness. I think it's still mostly in tact.
Tuesday we rode to Paynetown (more like pain-town) to run the trail. I planned on running the whole 6 again, but didn't feel up to it on the way out, so stuck to the 3mile. I felt like total crap and had no form at all on the hills out there. I was clamouring up them @ ~my lactic/aerobic threshold and recovering to too high an HR. I ended up PR'ing the 3miles by ~1 1/2 min though. I would not have guess that at any point during the run.
So all in all it's been a pretty good week.
CX in Cinci the Sunday!

Sunday, October 05, 2008

Amber Waves


Beautiful time of year to be a cyclist in Indiana.

I ended up with a cold the past few days. I deemed not bad enough to miss training over, but a slight cough, runny nose, general stuffiness and fatigue got me down for sure.
I rounded out my week well and on schedule. I rode CX to/at Wapahani MTB park wed and tried to be on/off (dismount/mount) as much as reasonably possible. It was a good ride that was probably beneficial.
Thursday we went and rode MTB at BCSP. It was a really good ride. i was riding on rails; super fast and w/ really good lines. I turned in a solid time for the lap we do (starting at north tower, clockwise loop of beg/aimes trail, up HP and back down, finish loop, I turned in a 1hr5min). The trail was in perfect condition and we saw probably 6 deer.
Friday I rode/ran/rode at Griffey.
Thursday aft noon, Friday all day, and Saturday all day (and still, to a lesser degree) I have been w/ this cold. I have been doubling up on the multi vitamins and chugging echinacia herbal tea and it's much better.
Today RS and I did a ~55mile ride up to Martinsville, then into the Morgan-Monroe St Forest via a back route. We busted it out at a good clip, which hopefully won't end up being a bad move and make me sicker.
I also mowed the yard, which hadn't been done for over two weeks. Hopefully it's the last of that for 2008.
This weekend is my good buddy Brian Myrick's wedding in Muncie Saturday, then a big UCI race in Cinci Sunday. I usually only get to Muncie once a year for the Endurathon (which Myrick is the director of), so it'll be cool to be here for a few hours.
Gotta make it through this week first though (and Tuesday's 6mile run!)