Stripes

It wasn't too cold today, there were stripes of warm air, then cool/damp stripes too. It made the ride in more interesting trying to figure out where it was going to change. In SCUBA they call it a thermocline, I think. Something like that, sweaty and happy today, I smelled bad all day.

Template

New plastic and clean everything. Puzzles mixing together, trying to do three at once, but all of the pieces are in one pile. New challenges to test the mind, legs and lycra. The template is set and the piles are getting broken out into their individual jobs. Linear, not scattered.

Mashers

Getting ready to close the doors for a while, mid season break to glue it back together for the last month of racing. Putting it all together in favor of the Late Season, to be fresh when the rest of the bread is stale.

Dog food

I think my vision is going. I keep seeing things maybe it's through frozen eyes, at 15 degrees, trying to see if the black ice melted. Almost through the midpoint of cross and I am lackluster to put it nicely. I feel like dog food today. A full-on cluster yesterday at the start. Who has heard of a rolling "neutral" start to a cross race at a venue that allows for a proper start? It was totally fucked. I rode the first bit of the race after being on the front row in the mid 20s, not my preferred starting plan. After burning matches to get near the top 10 the front group was GONE. Riding around trying to catch first lap heroes and get to the first sheet placings wore me out. Less gas than I needed and I rolled in 6th. Oh well, at least the official knew he f-ed it up. And, more importantly it won't happen again.

I think I'll go look for this spot. I know where it is but I need to get there.

Soon

Poetry

I stole this from here. Great idea and something I could dump a ton of time into. Maybe that'll be the project for the next few weeks. I just need to find an online method of writing one. Instead of the messy magnets all over the place. I guess the direction I would like to go is a lot like this short posts that are vague, take what you want from them or just leave them alone.

Nights to Day

This is a good night. Only one though because if I down more than that it throws the whole pattern off balance. The pattern is key these days. I take one day off the bike completely because of work and weather and I feel like ass getting on the thing this morning. It was 6 degrees, but that doesn't make it right to feel that off. I arrived at work chilled, java chip chilled.

Iced

Sometimes the glasses get iced over or the rain/snow/graupel pelt the clear vision away and leave views like this, only minutes from home, struggling to get inside before the full chill takes hold and stays for hours.

BTUs

Pushing on the pedals a lot these days has the system in overdrive. I never get cold, even riding in the snow downhill. The furnace is moving a lot heat.

The view from here

Ok

This is where I went today. Pretty sweet, I think. Oh, by the way, don't buy any products from Reynolds; forks, wheels, whatever. They're crap.

Ice

Icy as I crawl over the patches sure to take down a skinny wheel. Clear spots are the rest I need on thicker than normal legs. I hope I can clear them at lunch.

Commute

This is what I had for the ride home. It was prefect. Turning circles well in the wet, clearing it out from the lunch ride's work.

Pine

I felt clear, another little stop at the top of the hill to see the destruction the Pine Beetles are wreaking. Once you couldn't see anything because of the trees, now you see everything but the trees. Miles of nothing or just vistas where there weren't.

Order

Not too long before the ridge will be white instead of whatever you call that rocky, dirt color. Clearing the legs with punchy efforts to cram in an hour of riding. Waking up too early to make coffee, not filling the list, only half of the equation... out of 1/2&1/2. New efforts, only around the house, order. 

Envelopes

This is going to be blanketed soon, I did get mine on the full suspension rigid, just felt right. Rolling around the turns in my own little envelope. Tightly packed and comfy.

Clusters

Early days and the others seem to roll endlessly through the hours. Today was in between, put together the paper for a ride, clustered it completely. No compromise, just clearing up the vision and getting closer to another goal. 

Link

Check out pics from Saturday here browse the gallery there are a ton of cool shots. Back after it, trying to work out the break in a few weeks. Come out strong and be faster when it counts.

Nacht

With Saturday's effort but away in my head as a good one with a lesson, happy that I spent the time to clean the bike while it was still wet because as I slid out the door way too late to do anything like I wanted. Full moon, empty path. Breaking rules I shouldn't, darkness and too much motivation and not enough light. Passing only one pathlete in the time out there eased my head, too good right now to have a collision. December knocks on the door and a break comes soon. 

Shabbat

This is my new beer, it is from an enormous Belgian owned brewery, it is yummy. I like it a lot. I rode well today, it was muddy, rainy, soggy...beautiful. Lack of foresight and one lap less than what I needed relegated me to the second step, again. It was the most fun I have had in a cross race in a few years, epic. Life is about days like this. Ride well.

Copenhagen Bike Bell

Copenhagen Bike Bell
Originally uploaded by [Zakkaliciousness]

This bell belongs on my bike. Maybe on the road bike. Better on the mtb though I think.

Run

Back at it, maybe two days again this weekend. Pieces come together now to full fruition. No overall goals, just good racing and proper suffering. Cherry pick the better courses and better racing. They seem to pad the crappy courses as part of an overall series in Colorado, just race your bike. Be well.

Paid in Full

The new fork works well, it doesn't do much which I guess is what I want. Looking back at the last 3 weeks I think I fell a few times due to the dropout slipping out of the leg and locking up the brake. Once I was JRA, and boom, on the ground. Bleeding, embarrassing. I feel 100% confident in the new Alpha Q. Perfect. Now I can get back to riding my bike. 3 days on the single this week has me feeling like a big training week is paying off.

Utensil

This is new-ness on the older machine. We'll see how it all pans out this weekend. I need one more step up on the podium. Trying to get back to my place.

Coyotes

They wake me up a lot in the middle of the night. The cackle laugh shoots right through my sleep and leaves we laying there, mostly asleep wondering if they caught or are catching something. The laugh/call echoes through the valley, bouncing around the 'hood too. The natural order, I suppose, "fish gotta swim, birds gotta eat." I don't know how many of there are, nor how they travel in packs or pairs. They're talking to someone.

Image

Evidence that the course Saturday required riding under control, that probably kept me from being last. Thanks to Jeff for the image. I'd like to think I didn't embarrass myself, I rode well from the back row and maybe knocked on the door to the top 10 before the bike and body lost sync and I stumbled home.

Not far off

Early fall, not much snow, soon it'll all be road, icy and snowpacked.

Days

Saturday I did the regular open race, starting at the back really sucks, I pegged it just to get into the top 20 but paid for it on the 2nd lap as 10 guys went past me. it sucked. I know I have top 10 power as even with a broken fork on the last lap I ended up 13th or so. Not bad. The fork leg separated from the dropout, thinking about the three falls I have in cross this season makes me think maybe this wasn't the 1st time it happened. Bummer, but thanks to the lack of help at Reynolds, I have a shiny new Alpha Q CX20 on the way! The service was unreal, great company!

Sunday on a borrowed bike I went with the 35+ and had a good day. Not real confident on a foreign machine but riding with decent power. Out of sorts and riding. I kept it together and showed a decent result. Great course thanks to the promoters laying out an epic loop. Mark and I had separation after a few laps and then he worked me over w/ 1.5 to go to take the W, I quietly rolled in 2nd.

Loam

Lucky to be clear of head as the season rolls into barriers and cold temps. Damp and frosty, not the beer yet, too early for that. Clinchers of another sort, the dirt-kind are keeping me grounded, in a good way that the fall allows. Carving trail on freshly moistened loamy, sandy soil lucky to have made the choices, secure in the heavy pack making me work. I have never felt better than this season, not the wins, better than that, comfortable in all that's done and happy about the work to be done. There's always more, never enough, enough.

One Day

Quick

This season is great no matter two wheeled machine is getting me around. What about you? I keep finding the gaps between the roots and rocks, liquid braille. Preventing the cup from overflowing, emptying it half way every day.

Enough Watts

Rolling around on various fat tires, slightly fatter than normal brings it's own reward. Working off lunches and big dinners turning those into fresh watts. How many watts I don't know, only that is almost enough, never enough, only almost enough.