stumble

clumsy is how i feel, the legs are loaded and the head is foggy as a scene from american werewolf in london. i see the break as a good thing but maybe i do crave the structure, should I have joined the army? how well could that have ended? i think that i need to sleep this week off and then get it all together to be quiet for a few months. ready as i'll be for the season of cold and snow and 6 hour days on the bike sprinkled with ski tours lasting nearly that long, classic in the trees, two hour commute on skis! i'm lucky, life is good.

Blur

Cross was a blur of good days and great days. Nothing too awful except for two days. I'll take that season anyday. Now I see that the winter silent work is here and the best part of the winter season is coming. Get your work done. Big news soon.

This is from breck, the third or fourth weekend of racing, I think my vision was so clear that day that this picture is the exact opposite of how I felt, going so hard that everything cleared up in my head/eyes/legs, not that I wasn't ready to throw up. I was. 

Break.

I have sleep in my eyes still, it's been four days since the last race and I'm still tired. Maybe cross is harder than I think. Food doesn't seem to be an issue, I'm eating like a hungry hippo. I feel empty, I wake up more tired than when I went in.

Next

I think the season being over has renewed my interest in the off season, I know that sounds stupid but bike racing is hard, people show up to race, some win, some don't and the guy crossing line is finished. Simple enough, no? Well, with the season being over I get to do what regular do all year; eat wings, drink an extra beer, holy shit I stayed up late last night! That was cool, I felt like an adult, we ate dinner at 9.30 and didn't stress about it. What a decadent lifestyle, this whole adult thing. I get too into the bike racer-monk life that I forget the sweet taste of life outside two wheels. Not that I'm this pious budha in training but the off season however short it is makes me feel uneasy. I like the structure, almost like a veal without the pen keeping it's muscles(flesh) supple, I like being on a tightrope between fit and sick, this time of year it's; hey whatever you want. I never stray from food at any point in the season, I did forego bearclaws for cross season, they kept giving me rot-gut so I stopped. On account of my super-furnace my weight doesn't switch up a whole lot. I should try to rest more and see if I can get into a pseudo-hibernation coma, how cool would that be a like a bear or a trout for two weeks, rest and relax in a vegetative state only waking to eat and evacuate. That is the rest I need all year, or maybe all the time. I want to put on a few pounds, maybe I'll switch to gravy in my coffee instead of half&half. And put sour cream in my sandwiches and mayonnaise, I could deep fry eggs and bacon for breakfast and... Silent sports are here, as soon as the body is done being sore from a season of racing. I'll get out and ski and run and snowboard. Base starts in two weeks, nothing too fast or hard. Time out there doing whatever it is. Get slow for a few months so I can get fast later in '07. Big things for next year, stay tuned.

Tally

I'm over the let down of Saturday. I need to get my shit together for the next season. Put all of my ski stuff in the right pack for skinning up and nordic stuff in order to suffer on the trails. the excitement is growing, I still need a few more days of doing nothing, I like that when I stop sleeping I'll know it's time to do something. Maybe eat some chicken wings, drink an extra few beers, eat the food I avoid whne it counts. I haven't had a bearclaw since 'cross started. The tally is done on the season over 12,200 k, 460 hours-done. Good year, about 12 single day wins with two series wins as well. Cool things to come for next year, new stuff to roll around on, new tics off the list. Stay tuned. This is from last week at Morrison-Red Rocks Elem. School, a better day, much better day than Saturday. You are only as good as your last result-right? No, wrong.

state

First mechanicals of the year were in yesterday's race. I got through 31 races and nothing till yesterday. It happens. Fun course, super muddy and not the roll thru kind, the kind that sticks to everything, soupy heavy slow stuff, great for the skill riders bad for the speedsters without mud technique. Without the mechanicals I think I had a shot but today they all came thick and fast. I go into the break tired and ready to do nothing for a few weeks. Winter is here, time to ski.

How I would do it...

Unfunny

Apparently Michael Richards tirade of N-Bombs helped sales of Season 7 of Seinfeld true, no such thing as bad press. Now other comedians are saying they too will boycott the use of the N-word? WTF? Unfunny-ness for holidays. I think I'll boycott the middle finger for a while as a show solidarity to anyone who has ever been offended by anyone. Maybe I could stop swearing too, nothing but "darnit", and "aw crud", I wouldn't want to offend. I really can't see people going to a comedy club and getting offended by anything? What did they think they were going to see The Wiggles? Let it go, it wasn't funny, at best offensive but to let it get to this point, public apologies so audience members can get paid for having their feelings hurt? Too far.

11 or is it 12

Rest and openers this week, then it's all done, I think three weeks of not much will do the trick, but I probably will stop sleeping by next thursday. Usually it takes about four days of nothing before I need less rest and less down time. Even after season. Yesterday was fun, I didn't have the urge to attack until two or three to go, I rode into the mindset instead of going out with the intention of getting away. Instead of using skills to get away I got to use them to stay close. I could give up little gaps on certain parts of the course, knowing I could hopefully get them back on the next techy bit or bunnyhop. My tires weren't soft enough to rail the off camber parts, my bobble on the last lap was a bit hectic, I thought I was going to get jumped, my attack had scored me enough time to cruise in without worry. Lots of great results this year, all the work and planning for cross has paid off, bikes have been perfect all year. Daisuke raced the same bike I won on to take second in the Cat 4 race, the bars slipped for him, sorry Daisuke! The course took a lot out of me and the bike, I guess.

Sabbath

There is about an hour of racing left in my season. Yesterday was good, lots of snow, slippy, narrow, off camber with a barrier near the top of a hill that I could bunny hop. It didn't decide the race but I did hop it every lap. 9? I think we did about that many laps. Another tricky little drop into a ditch that you could ride, most of the guys weren't. With the hop and the ditch it gave me a little break. Two of us were off the front I followed for a few laps to see what the tricky parts were. Mitch fell with 2.5 laps left and i tried a little attack, short-lived before he and Karl recaught me. Karl had a bad start and was moving up. Karl attacked at the start of the last lap I got around him going into the ditchnailed the ride up the other side and gassed it across to the bunny hop with enough of s gap the little slip on the last bit of off camber didn't matter, 20 seconds in hand, one race left in the season. I have been enjoying 2 below lately. When I left town to go to the race yesterday it was -9, close enough.