fr

two days of blue water ruined by me. the bike coming along well, good projects. new, old music, john e. smoke. managed to ski the spruce loop yesterday without too much trouble, good snow, lots of it. the trail was perfect singletrack with snow. touring is really good right now, perfect snow. gliding thru the trees, watching out for the dogs, silent sports. life is good

avoidance

i didn't do the ride i wanted to yesterday, the wind was a bit more than i felt like dealing with. i still managed an hour on the bike for the day, considering the weather and the traffic, not bad. town is stupid crowded, i didn't get hit, that was my victory yesterday. colder today, roads a lot more icy, overnight scraping/plowing made the ice come out. next week rollers start, two hours or so a week, maybe fixed.

90

the goal is 90 minutes a day, if i can somehow get there i know i'll have road legs. i really miss road racing. maybe i'll treat myself to a new set of wheels, that'd be nice. the long days will start soon, can't wait. 5 hours in the saddle, good stuff for sure. the graupel really hurt today, should have worn the balaclava but it wasn't that cold, that's why there was graupel. the icy roads didn't give me any trouble, opposite of the last few days. it felt good to ride. driving yesterday was the only option so i could get to the nordic center, the snow was pretty good in the trees but out in the open pretty bad, it was over 35 degrees, that didn't help.

math

i don't need all of the answers, i work to get a few, but in the end the effort is worth more than the result. putting together the troubles into a cohesive mix that figures itself out. rolling isn't always a better result, but it sure can help to get the bugs out. looking for the keys will not stop, there's always one more little battle, one more little valley to get across. riding the straightest line isn't always fastest, take the smoother way around. it's more fun and less worrisome.

surfer

here's a story
worth reading, lots of dedication to surf in oregon, pretty cold water.

f-'em

happy festivus all you muthers. no more than that to offer. we skiied today up humbug across to lincoln meadow, rough doing part of a firecracker loop backwards on snow. humbug sucked. can't forget to enjoy the time off. f-'em. the party last friday hasn't left my mind. tco too drunk to remember showing camera phone pics. not really offending anyone. lots of wine and beer but no pbr in the house, maybe a festivus present in the form of a suitcase of it tonight? hint hint. b liked all that he got, the happiest was an old-fashioned track for little toy cars to roll down. kind of like the marble slide i had as a kid that gave me endless hours of entertainment.

faulk

it felt really good to rant last night. i got it out. i think in some way i was rewarded with a few inches of fresh to ride thru, what a great little commute, 30 minutes on the bike gliding silently thru the fresh snow before the plows and cars cut it up. amazing how well a bike will go thru that stuff when it's fresh and uncut. my own pace for the trip getting out of the house before 5 helped make the ride slower but more deliberate, no hurry to get down to town and no hurry gliding the back streets and alleys. headphones going and the warmer temps (15-20 degrees) allowed me to just waer a hat under the helmet and not the full balaclava. i even had a bearclaw, life has it's own small rewards, you don't need overblown holiday fanfare. this story from john henry faulk was played for years on NPR around xmas. i always listened to the whole thing and appreciated the written as well as the spoken bits of it. give it a listen.

cross not gone yet

i'm still angry about nationals. i can't stop thinking about it, the fact that i wasn't allowed to go. nats were going to be on my kind of course. a bit of snow and lots of cold over frozen cambers. why the fat bitches upstairs were so against it i don't know, i never got a straight answer, what the fuck? i have been sitting on the rage i feel for a few weeks now. reluctant because i need my job for the insurance. the money is shit, but the insurance is good. i don't want to get pissed off and tell the corpulent ones to fuck themselves. then i lose my job, and we are the ones getting fucked.

crap

windblown and not very chilly snow made the skiing tonight crappy. i tried to get a rhythm but being my second day i didn't really have much to offer. blue water was the good thing on the day, too much holiday crap to eat though. i avoided most of the cookies and other junk but it just finds its way into the hand that leads to the mouth. i really am trying to like the holidays a bit more than i used to, i just don't enjoy the excess. i hate feeling this way. tomorrow i'll get out on the single for a while, try to ride a bit without seeing many cars, maybe hit up the trails that get ski traffic.

wesley

wesley willis
his stuff is very good. if you are not familiar with wesley willis he is one you should know about. his bio
is not your average "never made it big" story

flow

the pieces fit. i see how the jigsaw isn't too complicated, flow can get it all done. riding along the roads allows the time to put the pieces in the right place. each chilly hour earns that extra bit of power. skiing is different, that has a separate flow. no more work to put the pieces away, just a variation on the original. getting close to the solstice (today?) it's pretty dark right now, i feel the turn coming, more to ski afterwork without a headlamp and more time to get it done.

clock

i seem to hide in plain sight on the bike. the cars really don't see, they look right thru. a flasher on the front all the time? flasher in the back too? i wonder how much time is on the clock. is that bumper with my name on it closer?

cold roads

out of the frozen tundra for a day or two, road bike over the chilly prairie for a while. my state championship is already a distant memory, the cold weather i ride thru motivated plenty, last season is over the next one began at the nordic center and in the gym last week. it felt good to start the winter penance. the icy roads made me want to have the fixy for better traction instead of rolling the 23mm tires soft for traction. found some dirt roads to ride across, good work for that on the farm roads of what's left of the agri-business around here. houses are more profitable than corn. aaaahhhh suburbia. it makes for good roads ooccasionally, and the quiet farm tracks are always fun on the road bike.

first day

got out to the nordic center today, fresh snow falling and a fair bit already on the ground. somehow i managed to ski pretty well, the v2 was rolling well, still tired and out of ski shape but motivated for more. quietly gliding thru the trees and feeling the soft edges of my skis glide felt like a new season was mine.

i meant to look it up last night but the star in the southwestern sky was unreal last night. it might be a planet or maybe it's a comet on a collision course for earth. that would be bad. nordic center today, let's see if the v2 i worked on all last winter went away over the cycling season. maybe i'll be able to ski like i mean it, instead of being the sissy i normally am on the skinnies, i wonder if high end work in december and january is a good thing or not? the trails are there, the bike isn't the safest thing right now, town is too full with idiots.

p.m.

mitts and balaclava today, i guess about -10 f. whatver the bike felt good even though we aren't riding IGSSC tonight, another year missed. 5.30am from the city is too early. blue water at about 8.15 brightened an already decent day, then the full house with the numbers cemented a decent afternoon. two sevens and three nines.

around

i notice it on the rare occasion that i walk the grocery store alone, the nicotine stained hands and the rotting from the inside out, is that rust? it's in most of the junk foo aisles. i see and smell it all over, less pronounced in the mountains but overall pretty prevalent. rarely in whole foods, the cross section there is thinner. i like to wonder what it is, is it there all the time and we don't notice it? or are the days infrequent that it's around? if i spent anytime in big cities i'd look for it there. neglecting the good in favor of other goals and destinations.

news

fox news ran a story (i don't watch fox news, i saw it on the daily show) about how there is a war on xmas, bill o'reilly being the nazi that he is, blamed jon stewart. fitting. what a joke, 24 hour news manufactures stories to keep the cycle going, even to the extent of picking fights with fake news programs. is the denver post going to say that the onion is hurting football because they ran a (fake) story on the proliferation of drugs in football?

start

not enough coffee today at home. i tried to go get some more to brew but petal and bean was closed. bummer. the season i guess started today, i went to the gym to do core stuff. it felt pretty good to get in the work. now i need to start getting the four and five hour days to build up the foundation, i love base. more snow today, nordic later this week, that'll hurt.

more big music

last night we listened to husker du and the misfits with b, we danced around the house and he made his dad proud, seeing a 2.5 year old dance happily to "new day rising," "teenagers from mars" and "we are 138" made me very happy. for some reason he gives us plastic cookie cutters and a train to run around and dance with, b makes sure we are prepared. these are very big songs to b and me, shaubie enjoys seeing her boys dance.

begin

i think my break is over, i'll start today, i didn't really sleep that well last night, i'm over the cold that b and i were sharing. i guess i'm rested, i'll get on the bike as soon as possible, maybe ride the single over the tundra a bit to get in some slow work. hit the nordic center tomorrow morning for an easy ski. do i remember how to ski? javasport, any ideas or input?

friday

another day at home with b, his cold is now our cold, not too bad, he's feeling better i'm feeling a bit worse, no big deal. happened upon a very well run webpage, check it out: race clean
one of those get your head out of the sand pages that makes you read more and more and see what is going on out there, if you don't care about the problem, you should, they seem to offer a fair bit of speculation on who is dirty and who is not. take it at face value, i do agree with the rant on amgen however, why they would sponsor a cycling race i have no idea, their product is already so abused in the sport, why push it in the face of the clean riders? poor taste for sure. i look at my spam box every few days and marvel at the number of offers i get for hgh, endurance athlete's viagra? read up on this product and it gets scary, cancer causing, and degenerative to the tissue it is supposed to help in the long run. i hope the young riders out there are getting the message, stay clean.

bathroom humor

i know this isn't the classiest bit but i guess if your comedic tastes were that way you certainly wouldn't read my blog.

denver post

cool article in the denver post with a bit of an interview with me from saturday's race. (click on the title that reads denver post)

they aren't full ocd, yet. but sometimes i get to the point where it feels like i'm getting close. after i showered last night i'd run around the house cleaning a bit and put some stuff in the basement, i'd worked up a very light sweat. my legs were the tiniest bit sticky. i couldn't sleep, whenever they were together it would keep me from getting a chance to fall asleep. i had to get up and find some pjs to cover them. i really like to wash my hands and i never put them anywhere near my mouth, the concept of the germs that are everywhere gives me shivers but i'm not going thru bars of soap and rolls of towels, yet. i feel a balance sometimes, i'm getting on with my day while observing certain rules i set up to keep it all in order. i like that. i heard it was minus 11 today, i put my shoes near the boiler last night before bed, that kept my feet warm the first 20 minutes of the trip. i was able to get across without too much hassle, the cross bike still feels great, i don't want to hang it up, but the single will have the mitts on there after today and the idea of warm hands is pretty appealing, the lobster paws did just a touch beyond nothing in the chill today. i've been drooling over the new craft catalog, seeing what bits i can justify to myself to keep the frost out this winter. i need some new stuff anyway, maybe the guy who gave me the pro deal a few years ago is still there and will let me outfit myself in full nordic gear for the winter? i hate being cold but really enjoy being out in the cold. no choice up here, i'd really be a shut-in if i couldn't get outside in the cold.

states pics

check out joe's site to see lots of pics from the races, it's the link in the post title. check out joe's site to see lots of pics from the races, it's the link in the post title.

offseason

i just polished off a whole container of grands cinnamon rolls, 8 servings at 150 calories per serving, mmmmmm 1200 calories for breakfast. i love the off season. starting it off right, maybe hot wings later on today.

states

now it's over unless i hit the lottery and go to masters worlds in january in mol, belgium. pretty hectic morning to get down there in time, work till 8, load up and get out in the snow to drive to a cross race too far away to really figure out when we'd arrive. 8 inches on the overnight made the driving more like snow mobiling in a truck. darren drove so i didn't have to worry about that. got there in time to ride a few laps on the b bike in the mud and frozen tundra. the snow they got down there had sort-of melted into a sloppy on top but frozen underneath that made high speeds less than ideal. i started like an idiot, karl and i dropped the field on the first two minutes of the race and we had twenty seconds by the half lap mark, he had already taken advantage of my start pace and attacked me to get a gap, that was about it for the rest of the field. karl and i off alone except i couldn't close him down, his lead grew to about 30 seconds with me riding trying to close it down and not make a mess of the whole thing (like i already thought i had.) starting that hard wasn't necessary, it was going to shake out anyway the way it did, bummer i was dumb. a fast handling course was going to be between me and karl anyway. i had trouble on this downhill flowing chicane, the frozen ground covered with a layer of mud was really slick and i just never found a good line thru it. the front wheel (which i had way too much air in, 50 lbs) slid alot on the turny bits, another mistake i made that cost me. i should have ridden a lap on the race bike to be sure i had the best pressure for the course. the b bike had different tire pressure, dumb. the way they have the pits these days is bad for changing bikes, on road stretches and fast sections that stopping to switch is just too slow. karl was taking advantage of good tire choice and good and good skills to hold his gap. i just maintained the pace i could and tried my hardest to keep karl in sight. i stopped getting splits and was wondering how i screwed up that bad when all of the sudden the gap was 15 seconds nearing the end of the penultimate lap, i pushed hard to get up to him on the road at the bell, sat on for the road stuff, rode thru the first set of barriers and the second road stretch on his wheel, going in to the sand pit barrier section i attacked, remounted and hammered the next 30 seconds as hard as i could to see how well it worked. i heard i had 15 seconds before bunnyhopping the ditch (i'll get pictures soon) karl crashed on the bunnyhop and i had a minute as i crossed the line. season over, i'm state champ. it feels wierd because i only lead the last half lap or so. not the bigger time gaps i had on the other good days this year. i love cross.

boreas#2

i didn't need to do the workout to be faster for saturday, i did it because i wanted to sleep last night. from town to the the top of boreas on the cross bike. white zombie and keith in my head, pushing most of the way, happy to feel the skinny knobbies push thru the deep snow, another foot plus yesterday alone. the bike would bog down a bit and then pop out onto the firmer tracks, good work. descending moonstone was a bit of a challenge, the front brake cable slipped so i ran the last bit. so motivating to roll thru and get home just at dark without a fall ready for saturday.

better

amazing what a good night's sleep will do. i feel better, for whatever reason i don't like trying to peak and rest up and taper, i know states is a big deal but every race is states or nats. peaking is a foreign concept in some ways, i prefer to be good all year, not great for one day. i took it a bit easy in one race this season and that was because i had one less lung from my cold. still mananged a second because the form had finally shown up. now one race left and i'm excited to do it, and be done. no more worrying, if someone comes out of the woodwork and takes me, so be it. i've had great prep and the best results for a long time. can't argue with the form at the last four races. the negative thoughts are gone and the body felt great coming in on the cross bike across the tundra. i did flat, no idea how i manaed that one. isn't snow supposed to be easy on the bike? softer tires tracked perfectly, not even a slip.