off

Today has the prototypical off-season day, normally in the season I would be trying to race the fast guys but today is a mellow, at-home, about town day. we walked around did a bit of-oh, I think it's called shopping, and enjoyed a nice cup of coffee from petal and bean. Really cool stuff, this off-season thing, I like it. No stress, no pressure to produce a good ride, cool feeling for sure. Trying to figure out a skate session for the next week or so, maybe meet the pros from Ned at XG for an evening session. I keep forgetting to eat though, one little morsel earlier in the day and now I'm not hungry b/c I'm past hunger. weird. We did see all kinds of characters walking around town, good people watching and endless possibilities for stories.

Missing

I don't remember being this cold last winter on the commute. I wish I knew what I wore that kept me so warm. I may need Meriwether's snowmobile mitts before long. I think I'm missing the boat somewhere, one component is off, and it's making me cold. I think Shaubie may be going full-boat and buying me a fancy coat, but I'd rather not ride to work in a super-guch coat, I prefer my old windbreaker and vest to the fancy stuff, something about riding in a jacket that costs a week's pay. The ride has been really nice, cold aside, the bike feels great and the legs are happy to do the short ride without any training, none of that until August. Just the winter rides in a few weeks and the new challenge of tele skiing, along with nordic skiing to round it out. I have the parts coming to make a single out of a cross bike, save the mtb for the heavy days and the cross machine for the others.

Underworld

Nobody has told me just how cold it is this morning, it seemed colder than any other day so far. Maybe because I'm on the 1x9 cross bike that is faster than the single but it was butt-ass-cold. I had to stop and put on a turtlefur. It seems the soft tires on the cross bike hook up pretty well overall, not even a slip yesterday or today. I saw a few people out and about (mostly cocooned in metal) but I was the sole participant in the morning in my world. Sometimes it's like I'm hiding beneath a giant shadow as I do my commute, going into the light occasionally for a bearclaw or the Post, but usually darting about in silence and darkness except for the soundtrack in my head. Underworld on the iPod warmed me and got me through to the PO and on to work. Instead of a donut today I used the time to visit the Post Office, I feel oddly productive at that hour of the day getting things done I would normally do after work. Now I can just ride home and get on with my evening after work.

Pics

A couple of pics from this past weekend in the Elite race. I'll try and get some more if they are sent to me. Really good mud, proper cyclocross!

Portland

Portland seems to be very bike-friendly, lots of cool bikes around the race venue and then downtown on Friday night we saw a lot of cool rigs near the hip area of town. I didn't get to see the DOS, I'm sure Bacon thinks that's a sin. But now I may actually go skate again, X-Games park to start and then see what I can do. Anyway we had a great mellow dinner Friday night at an up-scale Thai place called Typhoon, we got out of there for less than $20 a person. Amazing food, Shaubie would have loved it! The knee thing that kept me from sleeping the other night came back in full force Friday and Saturday night, it sucked, no rest! Waking in pain and trying to stretch it out, trying to get rid of the discomfort didn't work. So, I ended up reading a good part of the night, not the best recipe for good form on the cross course. The infamous party wasn't nearly as bad as the one in Kansas City in 2000, this one was similarly packed but not the level that Kansas hit. Lots of drunk, skinny cyclists stumbling around but no real lows, except for purple bathing suit girl. Odd, that a somewhat heavy girl would walk around a party in a suit with a ton single digit body fat athletes. I heard that she is a local crazy, then her brother put on the bathing suit, Yuck! She definitely got a lot of attention. Now it's going to be nearly a month before any work is done, commuting and the odd ski session until the spring racing starts to eat away at me and the weekend long days start.

Nats

I finally have a chance to catch my breath, nats was really hard, anyone who has seen the photos will see that. The course was great, really muddy, but not too technical, bad for me. Mud is good but I need a hard course too. In the age group race I was 27th, not awful but I wasn't happy about it. The start was super fast and then guys kept falling in front of me. I was held up three or four times on the first lap. Once I got going it wasn't too slow, I moved up slowly and then when I relaized it was the last lap as a group of four bridged to me I just easily got away from them, stupid, why wasn't I going harder the whole time? Oh well, I finished strong and called it a day. The helper I spoke with at USA Cycling was very nice a few weeks ago, she spent the time on the phone to help me set up my to race at nats. The problem was that she was WRONG! I needed a UCI Elite License ($150) not a USCF License ($60) I was so pissed. I was torn with what race to do on Sunday, the Elite, and spend the extra $90? Or, the singlespeed race and see what I could find there. The extra money wasn't really the issue as much as the misinformation I was fed over the phone. So I went and bucked up for the UCI Elite. I raced and was doing better than Saturday, I had good legs and was flowing pretty well on the course. The wind on Saturday night dried out the course a ton and they shortened it too, making the laps shorter and faster, scary stuff to come. I got through about six laps before the freight train of Page/Trebon blew past me, a lap down I stopped, pulled over to the side of the course and called it a season. the guys I have been chasing all year in Colorado were lapped just a bit later, what could I do? More tomorrow.

Try

Whenever I get in a moment that seems to be important I try to take a mental picture of it, drink in all the subtleties of it and get the texture commited to memory. A camera helps but a two dimensional image isn't as good as a four dimensional mind. Today was one of those mornings, 15 inches of new snow, 40 mph winds and pretty warm air (25 degrees). I got out of the house at 5.15 and had to run the first 20 meters b/c the drifts were about 2-3 feet deep. Cool way to start the commute! Riding down the snowpacked road I would slow and slip through the drifts and occasionally run and re-mount, good cross work for this weekend. The new tire on the front was great, tracked really well, not much need for brakes, I was steering in to the drifts to slow me and then out onto the more windswept stuff to regain my speed, nobody out there today, not even the plow guy. He must have overslept b/c the power was out most of the night. Walking into Daylight Donuts to get my bearclaw the boys were all sitting around waiting for their day to start. The white out was pretty substantial, a few times the wind would almost blow me over but I survived. The advantage I had was that the wind was blowing in my face most of the way. Instead of getting blown over, it just blew me back.

Commute

The link for the above story got me to relaize again how lucky I am to be living where I do. I'll take 20 minutes in -20 degrees over this anyday.

Catching up

Not much to blog about lately, B is recovering from last week's surgery really well-first and foremost and I am getting over a shitty weekend at states. The kid is really good, another follow-up this morning followed by a visit to the closest thing for church for me, Whole Foods. So much good stuff and such a cool shopping experience. Good olives and cheeses today, seared tuna for dinner tonight, mmmmmm. States was bad, a crash on Saturday in the Elite race and then a flat on Sunday spelled early exits from both events. The bad shit is out of my system, two more races and the game is over until September. The clay in the dirt clogged bikes for nearly every race, lots of broken derailleurs and running over normally rideable terrain. I'm over the bad luck, ready for Saturday and Sunday, top 5 and top 20 are the goals.

Diesel & Phlegm

The first sub-zero day for me this year, about -5 I was told. I guess with all of the recent snow and traffic in town they needed to do snow removal at 5 am, lots of graders, loaders and dumptrucks to clog my lungs with fumes on the trip in. I get spoiled, most days to see one car is a happening. The single is feeling really good, still need to do some subtle tweaks to get the postion right but it sure was good today. Not even a slip. Yesterday went well, the kid amazes me, his eye seems to want to create a new lens after the fact, not something most humans are able to do, maybe they can figure out how to allow him to really make a new lens from the tissue his eye is creating. He is such a tough little person, notihng really fazes him!