Irrelevance

Outdoors, Power Training, and the First race

2010-01-22T09:57:00.002-05:00

I finally put my girly portions away and got outside the past couple weeks. It has been refreshing and invigorating. Riding for so long on an indoor trainer can be negative, at least for me. I was starting to forget about racing, real efforts, and the feel of riding a bike.

My first ride back on the road a few weeks back was with my new team, a bunch of much faster, much more experienced riders, specifically a pile of CAT 1, 2's. On top of that, they were revving up for Tour of Bahamas (which starts tomorrow) and i'm revving up for say....april-may? Needless to say i got dropped a lot. After spending some time outdoors, increasing my intensity, and riding more consistently, i had a much different experience this past weekend, a much more positive one. It bodes well for me and my up coming sophomore season.

This being my 2nd year riding a bike and racing (and this is truly my 2nd year...not "oh i didnt race seriously as a CAT 5...blah blah blah"). I was an overweight, no exercise, beer drinking fool, that in the winter would go hiking. July of 08 i started to commute 7 miles to work, rode a fixed gear till the week of my first race which is when i got my road bike. I guess i've really been just riding for a year and a half. Anyway, my point is, i'm brand new at this. One thing i have no clue about is power specific training. My team mates have me doing 15minx2 interval sets right now. That's increased recently from 12mins and will increase again pretty soon. I was talking to Jared, who pretty much runs our team and he was discussing the TT in the Bahamas and not having put in the power training for the 3 mile merckx style TT. I didnt know what he meant. I know last season i did a lot of 1min and 30sec intervals, but i dont know exactly why. Just like if i did 5minx5 right now, i'd have no idea what the point was? I know a bit why my mates have me doing the long intervals (besides it being a very big weakness of mine), but developing different sets of power as the season nears closer is very foreign to me.

I already mentioned it but members of my elite team have left to go to warmer climates to race their bikes. Jared Neiters, Bryan Vaughn, and Steven Gordon are all down there. Bryan Vaughn has been training very hard and should see some great results. Also, they sent pictures of our new kits and i'm very pleased.

stuck indoors

2009-12-30T10:35:00.002-05:00

I'm not too big of a weenie but i haven't been on my bike outside in about 3 weeks. I got a new trainer, plopped it in front of a TV in my storage room with a big stereo, turned a fan on and the lights off, and haven't really stopped since. hours go by watching dumb action movies, i save movies i actually want to watch for when i'm off the bike. But really am desiring to get outside no matter the temperature, but the main reason for all the indoor riding is that i'm sick of looking like a short-circuiting Christmas tree and still almost getting hit by a car, truck, semi, ambulance, etc.

This past weekend, which would be the only time i get outdoors was monopalized by Family and expectations (and a tad bit of laziness) and the weekend before i was stuck inside due to massive amounts of snow. Hopefully this weekend will be different. Right now i'm in "ride bike at all costs" mode, so shouldn't be too big a deal. Team ride on friday, planned ride with team mate on saturday, ride with buddy on sunday. Possibly ride tomorrow for an hour depending on work schedule, all of which would be outdoors. nice change of pace.

I hope winter ends soon.

Slow riding

2009-11-25T10:42:00.003-05:00

I figured out the other day why i've been so slow...besides out of shape.

I put on an old set of wheels for the off season because they are heavier, cheaper($), and more durable. But, what i didn't know was that my rear wheel's axle was too tight. i had realized my rear wheel didn't spin very effectively, but i'm lazy and just kept on. My buddy at the bike shop said he'd take a look at it for me, so i brought him chipotle and my bike. Later he said it was all fixed and that it was spinning because it was too tight. He greased everything and got it working properly.

Hopefully riding will be a little "easier" now. I heard a quote about mechanics saying, "if you think something is wrong, it probably is".

Dishwashing Gloves...w/o finger brushes

2009-11-16T09:22:00.003-05:00

Last winter season i learned a couple very important lessons.

1.Fenders rule (see image)
2.Riding in the rain longer than 45mins in temps below 50 is brutally painful, but fenders help.

I learned both of these from a friend's brother and telling him i know better despite his riding a bike as long i've probably been alive. or at least close to it.
I also told my wife last winter season, "remind me to ride outdoors even in the brutally cold rain, rather than on the rollers."

So last week, as you may know, was a very wet week. Beyond the stinging pain of very cold wetness on the body, i love the conditions...messy, wet, cold. Really, its just how cold my hands get when they are sopping wet and directly in the wind. I've seen the specialized Scuba gloves (not really scuba gloves, but its what they look like), but they are ridiculously expensive and i dont have an amazing discount anymore. So while shopping around the IKEA discount area for craft projects (yes crafts...or art if that sounds better), and i saw a basket full of black rubber dishwashing gloves for 79 cents a pair. They reminded me of the super expensive Specialized pair, but for a 150th of the price (or something like that). They are super thin but big enough to allow to fit a pair of winter gloves underneathe, keeping my hands both dry and warm. I got to try them out a few times last week, making the cold wet rides much more enjoyable, even at 6 or 7 am. light or dark.

79 cents. yes!

I ended up 4th in the MABRA BAR. I only had a small portion of my season as a CAT 4 so i think that's pretty good. I found out by email this morning that i missed out on a plaque. Bummer. A season of more near misses than Vee's, but i still (by my count) have 2 in the bank.

Updates

2009-11-11T09:20:00.004-05:00

This blog is kind of pointless. a couple people i know just trashed theirs or are on their way to, which is completely understandable. I dont have anything relevant to say and i don't write very well, but yet i continue. so here goes more of irrelevant rambling.

Hiking-
Recently did a sunrise hike up Old Rag. Which included not going to bed due to the early nature of our departure. The hike was fun, sun rise was nice. It was a tad cold or i was a bit under dressed for sitting on a peak as short as it may be (3291 ft). Its the best we have around here for summit type of hiking. I'm going to go trail run it a few times here in the coming weeks. a solid 9 mile loop is good for a bit of running. yes, all you cyclist(ie Bert)...running.

Music-
Missed Saul William's visit to DC (again). If anyone is into good pop check out Head Automatica's album Propaganda or their earlier album Decadence know for its single Beating Heart Baby. Its good fun, catchy music. Their earlier album is good for a bit of dancing.

House-
My basement is finally done. and i'm enjoying it. still a lot 'o' bills to pay off.

Cycling-
I keep starting to put in miles only to be derailed by outside forces...Like a semi or the flu (h1n1). I have a solid commute worked out for the journey home in the dark. including a few miles of nice lightly traveled gravel roads (one of the dogs that always barks finally was loose last night and chased me...a little bit of extra fun). I'm working on a morning coffee ride, just need to find people who may be interested. Also, a once a week lunch ride; i have one taker. I'd do anything to ride in the daylight more than 30% of the week.

Movies-
Best couple movies i've seen lately- The Informant and Where the Wild Things Are. The Men Who Stare at Goats was a bit overdone. It played the quirky card a little too much without any sort of positive execution. The Informant is very very good. Best movie i've seen in a while.

What happens when you are the office prankster and ride a bike to work?
Old pictures. but i just found them. they are kind of funny.

New Team

2009-10-14T10:08:00.002-04:00

Starting to get things ready for next season, which includes for the majority, my mindset. It doesn't help that it was 43 degrees this morning and I've got a while till I'm feeling used to it being cold. I believe i dressed as if it was below 20, at least it would have been the case back in Jan/Feb.

So the real news and big news (for myself) is I'm switching teams from 540cycling to Haymarket. Everything is set in motion, and its a matter of getting new kits at this point, which thankfully my old team will buy off my old ones, despite a few being ravaged a tad by asphalt.

Best Night Ever

2009-10-06T09:20:00.004-04:00

Best Night Ever is what i was thinking sitting in the Trocadora in Philly with an old friend of mine watching the original line-up of Sunny Day Real Estate. Besides that i was receiving multiple texts about Brooks Laich and Ovie scoring 2 goals a piece in the Cap's opener against the Boston Bruins.
Also, right after the show i was going to south Philly to stay with another buddy of mine.

All in all, it was a great night. But i left my friend's place to go home at 1 am. it was a rough drive home.

Saul Williams will be at the Black Cat Nov 1. i also will be there.

Marland AT-Check!

2009-09-28T12:24:00.007-04:00

First off i'll say the trip was a success, but not without a few issues. I'm breaking up the stories into 3rds not including the drive up and back.

Drive-Up:
I didn't know EXACTLY where i was going, because i somehow forgot to get directions to the drop-off and pick-up point. And with my wife following us in her car it makes it bit more stressful doing multiple u-turns in the middle of nowhere. Regardless we made it to Harper's Ferry to drop off Erich's car which we were hiking to, but it just happened to take about a hour and a half longer than it needed to.

1st third (15-16 miles):
We reached the trail head at the Pen-Mar border right at 11. We packed everything up and left a few unnecessary items and then left. We started 2 hours late which turned out to be a good thing. The first third of the trip was in total darkness and went really well except for going off trail a solid 10 times. That section of the AT isn't marked well and it was dark, so no surprises. The first casualty occurred towards the end of this portion when somehow my pack came unzipped and a few things fell out including food, fire kit, and the water filter. The food we found and after double checking we found the fire kit, and checked again, but hours later i realized the water pump was not in my pack. So someone now has a brand new Katadyn Water Filter Pump. bummer...

Around 5am i finally got wicked tired and Erich took over the lead. We were aiming for halfway at sunrise but we found some cliffs which we thought faced east and decided it would be nice to watch the sunrise and take a break. We stopped around 6:45 and completed nearly 16 miles and the next 4-5 miles were flat/slightly downhill. So far so good. We took a quick power nap, rubbed our feet, watched as the sky became lighter (there were clouds, so no sun).2nd third (15 miles):
This section started off terribly. I preface the next little bit with-we were sleep deprived.

So, getting started, we reconnected with the AT from our lookout and started to hike. Thinking that the city in the distance was Fredrick and that we watched the sunrise from the east, it seemed that we were hiking the wrong direction (North). I got Erich to hike back to the cliffs and we pondered how this could be. It would take too long to detail everything out and just how confused we were, but finally we looked and Erich's compass (for the 2nd time) and it said "west", which according to the map would be correct.
The whole "sunrise" happened behind us, being that we were facing west and "Fredrick" happened to be Hagerstown. Bummer. To further illustrate our sleep depravity, Erich trusted me over his GPS compass, which he had checked earlier before we got terribly confused.

It was a nice afternoon, speckled with brief showers that never were intense enough or long enough to get out the gortex until about mile 28 when the rain came down hard and was not showing signs of relenting like previous spurts. This continued the rest of the trip. Not too much else to say except every step hurt like hell until my feet finally went numb.

Before the rain had started we were starting to really feel the effects of the trip, the lack of sleep, and the mundane section of the AT.

3rd...third (14 miles):
I only have one picture from this section and it was immediately as we were starting.
It was raining and raining hard the rest of the trip, so the camera stayed put inside the dry pack of mine. Plus, at this point we were too exhausted to think about being jovial. Most sentences were littered with expletives and phrases like "shut up" and "i don't care" or "you're hallucinating".

In between the 2nd and 3rd sections, we took another power nap exactly where Erich is standing in that picture.

Walking was immensely painful and at this point in the trip there was no pep in our step, i remember saying "we are moving slow" and not being able to lift the pace.

The last sections of the hike was as follows- 4 humpty-humps (not big enough to be hills/climbs, but a noticeable elevation change), a 2 mile descent characterized by terribly awkward switchbacks, 3 miles along the river on the C&O Canal, and finally 2 miles of an incredible steep climb back to the car. We blazed up to the descent and then Erich cracked hard and the descent did him in. We hit the Canal road right at dark and made it to the car nearly 2 hours later. Finally arriving at 830 at the 7-11 we parked at.

Drive Home:
Long and characterized by me saying "are you ok to drive?" and passing out as i was saying i should drive.

Overall:
45+ miles-21 hours-1 Katadyn Water Pump
The trail was easily the worst and most boring section of AT i've done. I'm glad to have knocked it out quickly. The ridge was littered with large rocks, making walking a tricky mess in the dark, rain, and through exhaustion.

I'm looking forward to more but not all at once.

The Hike

2009-09-25T13:51:00.003-04:00

About 2 years ago i thought it would be a great idea to hike the Maryland section of the AT in 24 hours or less. I've heard of people trail running it, but due to my inability not to get injured running long distances (10+ miles) that option was excluded. So taking on a slower pace seemed reasonable and possible if i didn't mind hiking 8 or 9 hours through the dark.

This trip, i believe, will put me and my hiking buddy at about the same "completed" portions of the AT. I'd like to finish it sometime in the next decade, but this past winter's trip fell through, hiking in the summer is not an option, I'm married, and work full time. So i take it small sections, when i can during the winter. I make exceptions during fall/spring. But winter hiking is where its at.

Last fall instead of hiking a large portion of the AT i did 9 or 10 peaks in the Daks. My wife allows 1 big trip a year. This year I'm trading the AT again for the Daks because they are so much more fun and the conditions (during the winter) are more harsh, which i enjoy. So now the Daks are cutting into my completion rate, but its whatever...I'm having fun.

Tonight-meet up with a friend.
hit up chipotle.
drop off car at end point.
get dropped off at trailhead.
hike south.

Warm-up Hike

2009-09-21T10:08:00.005-04:00

I did a little warm-up hike with some friends this past weekend. The reason i say "warm-up" is because i have a very extensive trip this Saturday. We left my house a bit late on Saturday afternoon and got to the parking lot around 5-515. On the trail by around 530, which is really late considering the distance and daylight.

Long story short...we never made it to the peak. we had about 600 more ft to go but we could see it. The reason we stopped is because those last 600 ft is a rock scramble and we didn't want to descend that in the dark.

Brad and Erich (Erich just got back form Iraq this past week.)

I love hiking...
Proof that Alissa went! This is where we stopped. (cell phone pic)

You can see the top up ahead of us, unfortunately...
Side note-forgot the headlamps. which made descending kind of difficult.

Cycling Barriers

2009-09-18T09:56:00.004-04:00

this may ruin my next racing season...
site

A little while back my wife and i bought a xbox 360. It is my first video game system ever. I still loathe video games (partially because they are addicting). I grew up not allowed to have video game systems. So when i purchased one, i played it non stop for 4 days...literally staying up till 4 am the first night. My wife was in Alabama visiting a friend and i was on a 2 week rest period from the bike, so i gorged on wasting time (and food and beer).

Since then, its slightly effected my motivation for cycling...go ride for a couple hours or go home and play Call of Duty? My inner self-hatred tells me most of the time i'm fat and slow, so i'll usually go ride, but still, its one more barricade to overcome, specially since we are approaching the cold hard winter. Which by the way, yesterday was miserable...low 60's in the mist/rain. Fenders help immensely. Dirt roads in rain = not a great idea...i kept reminding myself "i'm not in Paris-Roubaix, slow down, wrecking sucks".

Hopefully i dont have to permantly sell anything.

Oh, the reason we bought the xbox is
1.i love call of duty
2.wife loves the ever annoying Rock Band/Guitar Hero
3.Netflix streaming!

time to watch a doper win the vuelta...

more of the same

2009-09-17T16:24:00.004-04:00

more cold(er), more rain.

i've lost a bunch of weight over the last week or two, 5-7lbs of real weight (opposed to water weight). wasn't too hard. swap veggies and fruit for...pretty much everything. remain healthy and not too terribly hungry.

This next season i'd rather break the stereotype of a fat crit racer. I'm planning on honing in on as many road races as possible specifically the ones i skipped like Lost River and Page Valley. Poolesville, which was one of my favorites, will be the main goal i think of next season along with Fawn Grove Roubaix. I like Fawn Grove's course...short punchy climbs, a few gravel roads, "peleton" shattered through attrition. This year i'll have teammates to help me in poolesville though. No more- chasing a breakaway for 20 miles solo...between dragging the pack and being way off the front.

Also, Caps 1st preseason game is tonight against the Buffalo Sabers. GO CAPS!

!!! w/pics

2009-09-16T10:21:00.008-04:00

Went to see !!! (or Chik Chik Chik) to dance for a while. awesome show, but not quite as fun as LCD Soundsystem.

i hate "posing" for pics, but the wife doesn't mind.close to matching shirts and green tea bottles (w/out green tea in it)
Dave in typical form.
Warming up before the show.
Funny-Darryl=drunk Me=not. looks are deceiving

The sistersZach and Darryl's plan to hook up with chicks...hand them a note. 1-0. good results so far.

"you seem cool. hit me up on facebook. ******@yahoo.com"And the show hasn't even started yet.
And...how sweaty everyone is after dancing for a couple of hours

Every morning is painful

2009-09-14T09:53:00.002-04:00

Literally every single day my boss is at work he listens to two annoying talk show hosts. I dont know the earlier one, but regardless they are both extremely irritating.

The "show" that's currently on now is the Glen Beck talk show. I've never loathed someone so much. If i didn't have headphones with Radiohead and Saul Williams on, i'd probably box my own ears just to numb the pain.

Glen Beck has hijacked Christianity and posed himself has the republican savior.

In other news one of my best friends is back from Iraq. He's coming over Thursday. Looks like screwdrivers all around. There will be one more missing liter bottle of vodka. shhh!

not again

2009-09-11T09:07:00.004-04:00

Yes it is raining and in the 50's...given the high 50's, but regardless this isn't a good sign. I had planned on not riding today, so it works out well for me. I did plan on swimming and/or running to continue to try and get a bit more fit, but i flaked on swimming this morning and i'm pretty sure i wont go again. I hate chlorine that much. As for running, my legs are still kind of sore (hence the no riding...plus the taint needs a break), so i'd rather not waste my legs running and ruin any upcoming good cycling days.

In other (cycling) news. Ryder Hesjedal is doing awesome. great season.

**UPDATE** what did i say about Hesjedal!? yes...amazing. a stage win a couple hours after i posted that...

finally

2009-09-09T09:32:00.002-04:00

So i'm officially a CAT 3. no email notification or anything. i randomly logged into my usacycling account and saw my new status.

I dont know what took so long. i sent probably 5 emails with the correct format and then submitted via usacycling.org website. Then i got denied because i didn't list everything on the usacycling submission, so sent ANOTHER email saying "i've sent 5 emails with what you asked for" blah blah blah. and still no response. only to randomly log on and see everything is finally done.

i know they have to deal with the entire MABRA region but sending a quick email saying "processing" or something at least acknowledging my email would be nice, not to mention easy.

shaken not stirred

2009-08-28T14:15:00.002-04:00

I got on the bike again today.

My neck is still killing me, as a sprained neck would. And im having continual headaches. If it keeps up i may get it checked out. I slammed my head pretty good. S-works helmets are getting expensive to keep on my head in proper condition.

In other news i had planned on switching teams for 2010 to Haymarket Bikes with the intentions of moving onto their elite team either at the end of next season or beginning of 2011. I even quit working at A-1 cycling, emailed my team, etc. But after more discussion with my teammates i decided to stay. I really like everyone on my team despite all being nearly twice my age. Which also makes for a lot of quick learning if i pay attention.

540 it is

up and down

2009-08-26T17:32:00.003-04:00

i was going to post about how i've been riding hard the past few days and how great it feels. also, about how my basement is now mold free (which it is). But the more interesting story happened this morning on my commute into work and is why i spent all day at home on my couch like a potato.

Cruising into work this morning, about 2 miles from home, a semi turns slowly in front of me, which i think is awesome. he starts to get up to speed and inadvertently starts to pull away from me. Now, i have no computer on the fixie but i know with my gearing(46x15) when i start to max out my cadence i'm going at or around 40mph, which i was approaching max out, so for the story's sake we'll settle for being solid over 30mph. Anyhow, as he starts to pull away i thought, "no way is this dude getting away from me, there are train tracks ahead plus an intersection shortly after", both of which will keep his speed relatively slower. I glance down to dig deep to shorten the decent gap between myself and the tractor trailer and when i look up, it reminded me of a dream where you are falling fast towards the ground. The wall for a truck was approaching (or was i approaching it?) at mach speed (roughly over 30mph). I had maybe a split second to grab my sketchy brakes which did nothing as my front wheel immediately hit him, catapulting me head first into his truck doors.

Within a second i was on my feet dragging my bike out of the road and i lay immediately back down and close my eyes in pain. I lay there as a hispanic fellow jumps out of his pickup and looks at me like my guts were falling out "dude, are you ok?". I told him i was. Another lady comes running over "i got his license plate! I'm on the phone with 911!". Both of which were of no consequence to me since A). it was mostly my fault and B) I'm relatively ok. Regardless it was nice to know that someone would care to stop and take charge of the situation had it been a real hit and run..

Apparently as the story goes, the truck had quickly realized he missed his turn and jammed on the brakes, followed by "oh I'll just go up here and turn around". All the while I'm slamming into the back of him.

While i know it must sound weird that a semi could suddenly stop, but to go from pulling away from me to me flying into him, its the only way possible.

Anyhow, results are as follows-sprained neck, concussion, road rash, slightly untrue front wheel (the fixie is a tank!).

The Bad, Unlucky and the End

2009-08-12T16:18:00.002-04:00

The past few weeks have been a string of negative events.

Besides the usual of my house being F-ed up,

Car #2 broke down...
i tried to fix it and it got worse
Car #1 (2 years old) check engine light came on...failed ECM

So when looking at it, that's just 4 things, house, car#2 (x2), and car #1. But those are 3 very expensive things. We were getting by with the one car for a while, until i could figure the time to do something about car #2.

Yesterday seemed to peak my bad luck and turn over to the positive side. I found my SRAM chain on my primary form of transportation(the bike) was a recall. I only checked further into what chain i bought because my chain exploded when sprinting down a heavy traveled road during rush hour. I f-ed up my knee, but stayed up-right thankfully.

the positive turn of events followed shortly after

Car#2 was fixed by a friend for free. (easy fix. i made a simple mistake when i worked on it..)
Car #1 is still under a 80k miles or 8 year warranty (YES!)
House-so many issues but are slowly coming together thankfully.

I'm ready to get back on the bike and excited about it.

Silly me

2009-08-09T18:57:00.006-04:00

Arrogance got the best of me on Saturday. We had out last 540 series race @ Vint Hill. And since my wife left on Wednesday(till Sunday) to go visit a friend, my life has been a little less organized, typically consisting of not going to bed till 2 am at the earliest, being late for work, eating crap, etc. So with that said i hadn't planned on racing, mostly because I'm fried and partly because i applied for my CAT 3 (but its taking a year to get back?).

So after being up till 230 am on Friday and then getting up Saturday at 545, i decided what the hell, i might as well race. I've realized the silly mistakes I've been making that cause 2nd and 3rd places vs. 1st, so there is a grand chance i could get a win.

Silly me.

I also have yet to mention i stopped riding my bike earlier this week because i can't seem to go very far or very long and enjoy it at all. The plan was to not ride for 2 weeks and then hop back on very lightly till october.

Not riding + no sleep + slow legs = DNF

in a race that i shouldn't have a problem in. granted a breakaway went, and i got up to the front and burnt all my matches destroying myself only to flick the elbow...look back and see 2 NCVC guys waiting for me to burst so they can continue to soft pedal the pack for their 2 teammates in the break. F! that's depressing. i was later explained how to help counter this tactic which would have been good to know during the race.

Example:

All that to say, this is what i'm looking forward to next-

Aug 14-18 - Beach with Alissa
Sept 5th- !!! @ the blackcat in DC (Dance party!)
Sept ? - Hiking Pen-Mar to Harper's Ferry (42+ miles) in less than 24 hours.
Oct 1- Sunny Day Real Estate in Philly
Nov weekend- Hike AT through PA
Some cold weekend in Dec - hiking the AT in NOVA
1 week in Jan - Winter hiking trip in the Daks (via snowshoes...scratch the XC-ski idea)

Dance Party Anyone?

2009-08-07T08:42:00.002-04:00

!!!, also known as Chik Chik Chik, will be playing at the Black Cat in DC on Sept 5th. Tickets go on sale this evening at 5. Count me in.

After repeated attempts to mount the bike and ride fast only to feel an unbearable burn and tiredness in my legs, i've decided to take an extended period of rest, which includes beer, pizza, dairy products, etc. Also to help curb the unavoidable weight gain, i've jumped back into the pool. Which so far has just been painful.

In other news, my wife left the state on wednesday to go visit a friend till sunday. So far my life has been a little unorganized and messy. But like my rest from the bike, the time has been filled with pizza and beer.

"Kettle you're black!"

2009-07-31T08:45:00.003-04:00

In response to Ricco's extension of his suspension he says,
"It's better I don't talk to avoid saying something bad. The rules almost don't exist in cycling."

A doper complaining about the "rules" not being followed? I hate pricks.

more idiocy from....Astarloza

Welcome back

2009-07-30T09:36:00.003-04:00

Yesterday i was planning on skipping the Wednesday "worlds" ride out of Haymarket, i'm so glad i didnt. It started raining on my way home and my legs were feeling decent so i changed routes and headed over to the shop to suffer. I love riding in the rain, at least when it doesnt include hard fast corners. On top of that i knew that one of the heavy hitters is currently in Bend, OR at u23 nationals (and doing pretty well mind you).

The usual nonsense happened, Jared, Ryan, and Joe attacked on the hill. i try in vain to make it up to them, only to get stuck in no mans land. Soon after i'm joined by my 2 teammates having dropped the rest of the riders (kind of surprising when i noticed only 2 made it up to me). Kept rotating through. There is one hill that makes it appear you're gaining on who ever is ahead, but its very deceiving. I thought we were rotating through on the hill and i ended up gapping Larry off the back from Zach and i. Soon after Zach picks up the pace, having towed him up the climb and i'm gapped. then i realize he's trying to gap me. I pass him to roll through the sprint. We all regroup after waiting a bit before the loop.

On the loop, the pace is super high and leading into the town for the sprint, Larry was keeping the pace high with me on his wheel and then he popped a bit too early leaving me out in the wind with too far to sprint. Ryan pulls through to give Jared a perfect drop off spot and i try in vain to charge for the line but i just didnt have the pop last night and Jared's hard to over come like that.

Round two on the loop, Jared and Ryan get away midway, and i make in it for the group sprint.

Heading back to the shop, Chris some how got way up the road. Jared launched up to catch up to him and Larry tried to go too. I never saw Jared again that night. We eventually caught Larry on the uphill, before the long drag race down antioch rd.

**Note** Dont watch Jens Voight's wreck a few times and his hospital video and then go ride down fast descents on wet roads. It's all i could think of descending Waterfall road...hitting the deck at 40-45mph.

Zach sat up on the climb over waterfall, i presume to just go home since he lives out that way. So we were trucking down antioch and after Bryan put in a huge pull, i blow through really hard and once i'm cooked i pull off to see we were down to 3 riders (larry, ryan, and myself), which was kind of my plan. i wanted to shed Bryan for the sprint. With about 1k to go i skipped a pull to let Larry in. Ryan pulled off and sat behind me. Larry kept the pace nice and high. Once the sprint line was about 300m-400m to go i let out my sprint, which was way too far against someone like Ryan who can hold power for a bit. Luckily, he started to gain on me and that last internal gear clicked over and I held him off.

I'm glad i'm feeling a bit better. Its taking me longer to recover from races/hard rides. Sunday we are going out to skyline. should be fun.

My growing team

2009-07-29T08:38:00.004-04:00

Despite the fact that 3 of my teammates are a few years shy from being twice my age, we are a pretty close group. Actually, even the age difference between the remaining teammate (Zach) is around a decade older than myself and another decade to the eldest 3 (we have a small team and yes i said "eldest").

Regardless, we all have fun.

After our first event 540 Development Race, which is geared towards Juniors, Women's 3/4, and Men's 4/5, we had some interest in Juniors racing under the 540 name. Reason being, is we had 2 juniors racing with 540 kits. Larry's and John's sons were both in the 11-14 Junior's race. Monday morning, i got an email saying that Larry's older son (13?) had been out on his bike training, doing about 15 miles each day.

Yesterday i got an email saying-
"Luke made himself a "disc" wheel so he can practice Time trials!!!!"
I believe Luke is 11? So that's pretty sick.

w/pictures-

Also, a quick look at Wes Anderson's new film The Fantastic Mr Fox. Yeah i'm pretty excited, even though its stop motion type film. I see no possible loss in quality despite the different medium.
And since we're on the topic of movies Terrence Malick's Tree of Life is slated for release sometime in 2010, despite already going through post-production...whatever, it will be worth the wait.

NOVA Track Racing

2009-07-28T09:20:00.006-04:00

Something that has been developing this year and looks to start in the spring full swing is a track series. Ben Williams from A-1 Cycling (Manassas) has been wanting to get things running but lacked the support to jump start it, despite having the OK from the speedway. Right now (nothing confirmed) 540 cycling may lend a hand. It would be in Manassas @ the Old Dominion Speedway, probably being run in a similar fashion to the series in Richmond.

Regardless if 540 is involved, i'll keep encouraging Ben and for certain if and when it starts, i'll guarantee i'll be racing too. If you aren't interested in Track for competition, then maybe a good way to get a sprint workout in each week to help with the cornicopia of flat, open, industrial park crits that MABRA has so many of.

2nd again

2009-07-27T16:21:00.004-04:00

Got up at 430 to go finish setting everything up for the race. Unfortunately thats a grand total of 4.5 hours of sleep after having to stay up because i forgot to wash my any and all of my race kits. oops. great.

Anyway, set everything up, sat around, helped with stuff around the site. watch kids race. Then finally i had to go get ready.

Get ready and then we race...around and around and around. boring mostly. I decided maybe to put the hammer down and string things out a bit. and i do. i work with a few others and we pop some riders. We get down to a much smaller size group. last lap i move up to the front, wanting to be about 5th wheel into the corner. and a kid shoots up the outside (me on the inside). One other guy follows him and gaps because no one up front reacts. we roll through the corner and i have a nice 30-40 yards between the lead 2 guys and myself the front one dies (as expected) leaving the other fresh to sprint. I unleash my sprint and am gaining on him like he is soft pedaling but i ran out of road again. 36mph sprint up a 1% or so grade. over 1300 watts too. not too bad.

Ran out of road, my fault again. Looking forward to faster last laps of the 3's. less chance of something weird happening.
Typical podium pic right? 1st-YES! 2nd-pissed 3rd-"happy to be up here."

?

2009-07-25T18:32:00.001-04:00

From Velonews:

"Q: Can you tell us you’ve won clean and can you make a strong stand against doping?

AC: Like I’ve said, I am available 365 days to doping control. I am never with an excuse. I am always in favor of the anti-doping controls. It’s good for the sport, for cycling, which I love so much. I always pass the controls with a happy face and I will keep undergoing them."

What?! Didn't Ferrari say something like its not doping if you dont get caught?

Slowing Down

2009-07-24T15:06:00.005-04:00

I want to ride my bike so bad but my legs say no.

I finally had a "hard" day on the bike this past wednesday, and my legs still feel sore/heavy. I got demolished on the group ride...granted it was a smaller group containing riders like DLP pro Steven Gordon, Joe D just coming back from his 9th place at X-C junior nationals, speedweek Jared Neiters , and JP. There were a few others, more at my level, but i was sucking so, i was the bottom of the barrel. Somewhere on our outerloop that we do twice before the rolling/hilly road back to town, Joe went. Jared and Steevo lined up like they were waiting to drag race each other up there. kind of odd but comical. They left us like we were sitting in a parking lot. JP went sometime and made it up easy. I think John went with Joe originally but was hanging off the back of that little group. Around about 3 or 4 miles before the sprint point we turned onto a road only to find that the front group, excluding John, had gotten pulled over by the police for taking a turn through a stop sign at 30+. awesome. I launched off my group to catch john who decided to take advantage and "win the sprint" by himself. I started to catch but he slowed my progress with about 100 yards to go. i stepped it up and thought i would just go ahead and empty myself out to catch. i was sitting well over 400 watts for the last 1-1.5 miles, slowly but surely catching John. which i eventually did, and then sat on until the "sprint" which i tip toed around him. After that it was game over for me. i limped home after hanging with the group for a little and then again after our re-group.

game over. and i thought it was in my head.

Ready for some AT

2009-07-22T15:29:00.003-04:00

I kind of mentally cracked about a week and a half ago. I would say i did physically, but i'm sure if i hadn't quit in my head i could maybe have continued. I was registered for Giro Di Coppi, but after multiple skipped workouts/rides i decided my legs just couldnt continue on at this pace. I cut all workouts last week and riding at all through the weekend, drank a whole bottle of wine(by myself) while playing Call of Duty with a buddy, ate lots of pizza, ate cheeseburgers, doorbell ditched my parent's house while slightly intoxicated, set off fireworks on their porch, slept a lot, ate a butter finger bar, etc.

So i've been goofing off a bit. I haven't been sleeping well or much. I close my eyes and see bikes, sprint finishes, threatening breakaway attempts, and hear the sounds of bikes crunching. Its all very stressful.

With that said i'm doing two more races for fun. I'm "technically" a point shy of my CAT 3 upgrade, because i "technically" didnt win Ride Sally Ride (yes, i'm still bitching about that). but i'm in the top 5 for MABRA BAR CAT 4 which is cool. I believe 3 or 4 of those have upgraded now, which i will too.

Hopefully after that i can turn off competitive cycling in my mind for a bit. Knock some more sections of the AT out with my hiking buddies Dan and Darryl. I'm planning a terrible idea of 42-45 miles straight (Harpers Ferry to PenMar) starting around 5 pm and hopefully ending the next morning around 8 or 9, in time for a large stack of pancakes or something. Also a venture back into winter hiking this Jan with Dan in the Daks via snowshoes (scratch the XC-ski idea).

Now a picture of dissapointment...CAT 4 Crit Championship...last 25-50m.

A Vee for a friend

2009-07-22T15:07:00.004-04:00

My good pal Derek from r1v is taking a vacation at his family's place in OK. And like most self-indulged cyclists, he brought he bike with the intention of riding A LOT and possibly racing. Last night he did a local CAT 3/4 Crit and mopped up. He attacked from the gun staying solo for 8 laps when a lone rider bridged the 25 sec gap and 4 laps later popped leaving Derek alone again for 2 more laps when he decided he was a little tired of riding all by his lonesome and then drifted back to chill in the pack that was containing a fraction of the riders it was when the race started. Then a little later he burst forth once again, this time his brother-in-law in tow, who was popped shortly after and Derek was caught with 10 to go. A little bit later some other riders decided to further annihilate the dwindling pack with 2 to go and Derek went as well. Banking the final corner, Derek was sitting 2nd wheel and the lead rider let out his futile sprint while Derek sucked a wheel and soft pedaled behind him waiting till he finally popped, which he quickly did allowing Derek to spring forward, check over his shoulder once and cruise across the line 1st.

moron discovered.

2009-07-22T11:54:00.000-04:00

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/di-luca-positive-for-cera-in-giro

truly what a dope. As Radiohead put it...No Surprises.

So close...

2009-07-13T00:18:00.005-04:00

I hate reading long race reports so here we go...

Hagerstown Crit Championships
Rain delay for no real reason. Went around in a circle a bunch of times with tons of gaps opening up all the time. dropped most of the field. lots of wrecks. blah blah blah. Last bend i was 5th wheel, and the guy up front shot off with a ton of power...no response from the front 4 and so i drilled it immediately up the inside, passing 1, 2, 3, and the 4th guy and i clipped handlebars inevitably turning his handlebars sideways. I gave it everything i had to catch the guy going for the glory...with a gap of 4o yards on a slight downhill. But i only got within a bike length. i've never been so disappointed in a race result.

I also wish the Peter Warner and i hadn't connected handlebars. i felt really bad. i went back to check on him and apologize. Not sure what to say or what to do about a situation like that. I'm not sure how i passed 3 guys on the same line and connected with the 4th one. I wish i could have taken it back. A gap was there and then it wasn't.

Dawg Days
around around around. i pretty much passed the time by staying out of trouble and making faces at the cameras my wife, mom, and friend's wife were holding. no breakaways were going to go with the way things were going. Last lap i got screwed on the inside through the first stretch and almost went down, and then the "move" went up the outside on the backstretch vs where i was which was the inside...again i'm out of position having to make up about 20 places. sitting about 20th at the top of the hill i open up my sprint and gap the field and almost catch 2nd place at the line, enough that i threw my bike.

another weekend of racing.

One year

2009-07-07T08:15:00.003-04:00

Last week marks my first full year back into cycling and i might as well say it was my first year ever considering how long i rode before and how long ago it was.

This time last year i was riding the 15 miles(total) back and forth to work and exhausted each way. I remember only riding 4 days a week because i was so sore. I was also 45lbs heavier. I'm skinnier now than when i was a veggie-trendy-hipster-rock-star-wannabe with 15lbs of crazy hair on my head.

My favorite cycling quote is from Greg Lemond "it doesn't get easier, you just get faster" or something like that.

In one year:

Made it from CAT 5 to CAT 3 (pending getting one more point...shouldn't be too hard)
Rode straight through winter including 2 sub zero mornings
Bought 3 bikes (Cannondale track bike, Giant TCR [sold], and Look something rather)
Rode my longest ride yet 80 something?
Joined my first team 540Cycling.com
Got my first win (Syns-Fit Crit)
Won a prime (Bryan Park Circuit Race)
Got a flat in a race (Bryan Park Circuit Race)
Did my first "stage-race"
Got a "call up" at a race (even though i wasn't there)
Was off the bike 3 days (only twice) and Off 2 days (Only a hand full of times)
Gave the bird to countless cars
Slapped a few windows in traffic
Wrecked in a race (Reston Grand Prix)
Got dropped in a race (Jeff Cup)
Made the wrong turn in a race (Fawn Grove Roubaix)
Brought my bike on its first vacation (Orlando, FL)
Was towed behind a dump truck down a major high traffic road at 40+ (awesome)
Beat Zach up Bull Run once (slaughtered by him every other time)
Found out that i'm a McFatty sprinter.
Rode 70+ miles on a fixed gear(46x16) on very hilly terrain. twice. and 50+ many many times.

As i only have a few more races for the season i'm thinking i'm light years ahead of where i was this time last year and i am really looking forward to next year. I won a 3-month free coaching service at a race so i'll use that come Jan or Feb and see if i can get a little extra insight. Having teammates that have been racing for 25+ years really helps though.

With that said, the TTT from the tour is on. Its the best part of the whole tour in my opinion. adios.

Karma

2009-06-30T16:13:00.006-04:00

Post wrecking out of the 3/4 at the Reston GP. my buddy from r1v started to make fun of me. Later after calling him to find out his results from the 4 race, he explained his visit with karma.
I have that pic blown up on my background. And each time i lock my computer to get up and go walk around the office (which happens to be a lot), i laugh out loud. without fail, every single time. i wonder how long that will last.

pic thanks to Jim Wilson

P.S. that guy in the red forced him into the curb. not surprising in a race like that though.

Reston Gp (3/4)

2009-06-28T15:57:00.004-04:00

In short. i suffered through my first 3 race. was in the top 10 with 2 to go. had all 3 teammates around including Larry to lead me out and i wrecked.

Possibilities of why-
1.Tubular rolled of the rim when booking around that hard corner.
2.caught the edge of the rim
3.clipped the pedal on the pavement? dont think so.
4. out of ideas.

I'm pretty sure my front tubular rolled of the rim. I was assured that the tires and what not were in great working condition.

my teammate Larry salvaged 4th.

In the 4 race (which i wasn't present for) i got an introduction. wtf? called a sprinting phenom by the race announcer? (i will say this though, it makes my cuts hurt a little less)
pic thanks to Jim Wilson

Poolesville = FUN (field sprint for 6th)

2009-06-27T14:25:00.006-04:00

That race was fun.

Wednesday i came down with a sinus infection...and a little bit a digestive problem. so i thought my chances at winning were shot so i figured aim top 10.

each lap was somewhere around 10 miles.

lap 1
slow boring. moved up. (lost 1 of 2 water bottles on the gravel section)

lap 2.
slow. got stuck on the front at the beginning. gunned it through the gravel section. 2 attacks went near the end. followed by me trying to bridge up.

lap 3
still trying to bridge but 1.wasn't able to shake the field and 2. wasn't able to make it all the way up to the chase.

i ended up bridging a guy to the chase (F!) then i red lined and sat in for a bit and then threw down a bigger attack. the chase group had a good lead on the field and i lost sight of the field, but the closest i got was about 20-30 yards off. that last little bit i couldn't close down despite later hearing from Martin that they were "waiting for me"...makes me feel a little worse. then later it was almost all brought back together but another team bridged two of their guys up plus 2 more guys instead and then turned their team's gear into neutral. so that means the 3 biggest teams in the field have guys up in the break and i'm left solo.

lap 4
tried in vain to chase more and more. rest. chase.rest.chase. but i heard 1:30 and gave up. not to mention still a lot of blocking going on. good for them...bad for me.

the end of lap 4 was a bit faster. hit the last corner with around 300m to go. with 200m to go a couple guys let out their sprint...i just sat on their wheel for a second and then let it rip. I let off a tad but a NCVC guy came running up the side so i had to pump it a bit further and i threw the bike for good measure.

so i got the field sprint for 6th. after being disappointed about not making the break i realized later i'd made my goal...still hacking nastiness up (and not from the race.)

Tomorrow is Reston GP with the 3/4 and 4 fields.

Oh and i was right Martin won.

Sunny Day is back!

2009-06-26T09:17:00.004-04:00

That's right. Sunny Day Real Estate has reunited for another tour with all original members. The only that could have been better would be Fugazi getting back together.

Two dates i'm considering is:
9/27 in NYC (Dan, if you go, i will meet you there)
9/30 @ 930 Club (the date seems intentional)

**just got a text from Dan, its official i'm going to NYC 9/27 to see Sunny Day Real Estate

Saturday = Fun

2009-06-25T11:28:00.004-04:00

This weekend is another triple race weekend for me and is looking to be one of my last weekends racing.

i have a few more races lined up, but i'm 3 points off my upgrade to 3, which i don't plan on sandbagging the 4's, i'd rather line up and probably get my ass kicked which would be the remainder of the season.

So for Saturday its the Poolsville Road Race, which apparently is a big deal since it features a mile of gravel road. I really love gravel roads. Most of my routes features a gravel section or the possibility to add one, in which most cases i take it.

I guess the only difference for this race will be a higher crash/flat probability, though despite hammering away on lots of gravel roads, nailing large potholes, and weird ripple sections i've avoided flats (due to gravel roads) and wrecks (but i have come close). I hope this weekend isn't a first for either of those.

I also heard that unlike the Fawn Grove Roubaix, the "gravel road" will be mostly compact dirt versus a pool of small rocks to sink into like sand which was the case at Fawn Grove. sick!

ToWC

2009-06-22T09:44:00.004-04:00

Lets keep this quick-

Stage 1 RR (with hills...)
Felt like crap (didn't ride due to inoperable bike previous two days). Sat in the pack...was in the middle and looked behind and i was on the back because the "back" had been dropped after the first lap. 3rd lap my chain wrapped around the rear D. Dude in the mechanic van had me back on the bike like Mechov at the Giro. amazingly quick. eventually caught the group, but exhausted. got dropped. caught back on. next lap, got dropped. i figured this would be the trend the rest of the race, but unfortunately i wasn't able to catch on a 3rd time. The top 10 hammered it out. My legs finally came around (despite cramping), and i caught about 10-15 people on the last lap and limited my losses by 2:59. Too bad i went into the RR so terribly

State 2 ITT
With the legs opened up and feeling better, i was a bit confident. Had a nice warm up, got on the course and did my thing. i remembered why i liked TT's as a junior. Threw up in my mouth a couple times, and then once all over myself in the last 2 miles. avg around 307 for watts. time was 29:23 for 12 miles. First time riding in the TT position in 7-8 years. I'm looking forward to next year and doing more ITT's. 29:23 was good enough for 13th moving me up into 17th overall.

State 3 Crit
Felt tired. Sat in and suffered. handlebars ended up pointing at the ground after hitting a couple potholes on laps 3 and 5(?)...it was early in the race. Ref said no for the free lap. moved up with 2 to go. and again with 1 to go. Unfortunately for me and Peter Warner, he wrecked in the last corner. For me it caused a gap to open up costing me the win for the crit...i had to settle for 4th. the front 4th got a head start on the sprint and i only caught the 4th one. i hit 1300 watts in that sprint which is pretty avg for sprints now-a-days. Mind you, with jacked up handlebars to boot.

So with the previous goal of 15th overall. i JUST missed it ending 17th overall all thanks to bad legs/mechanicals on the first stage. next year...

New Bike

2009-06-18T12:15:00.003-04:00

While preparing for ToWC's TT last night i finally accepted that i bought a bike way too big. I've been pondering it for quite some time. Its amazing what a few cm's in the wrong direction does.

this is the new bike...mind you i only purchased the frame/fork so everything else i'm swapping over from my other bike and i'll be selling my frame/fork.
My teammate John sold it to me. Hopefully i can get it built before saturday...got to find the time.

My first "Vee"!

2009-06-11T23:11:00.001-04:00

i'm still proud.

http://www.vimeo.com/4233274

the end is all that really counts...

thats my wife in the corner with the white jacket jumping up and down...

What NOT winning looks like...

2009-06-11T12:27:00.005-04:00

The grand look of confusion "I WON! wait...what?"

no i didn't get passed at the line. no chance for that to happen. But i didn't get the "win" due to a restart. i guess its only fair and considering the circumstances it didn't really matter.

at least i found this picture and still got 4th the second time around.

pciture thanks to Amy Jones

Smart Start or Total

2009-06-09T08:43:00.002-04:00

i just had an awesome start to my day...

I woke up at 6 to go ride, felt like crap-tired from going to bed late every night and getting up at 6 every morning to go ride. Its the kind of tired where you fall asleep putting your socks on or for whatever reason you lay down on the living room floor after having put your helmet on and accidentally fall asleep for 10 mins. (i didnt do that this morning but still.)
Kind of rainy out despite no actual precipitation (probably more of a positive thing, but wetness is still wet).
Ride the 7 miles to work only to get a flat within the last mile (better the last mile than the 1st i suppose).
After dropping off my stuff at work and changing the flat, I ride over to the road where i do my sprints. 1st sprint my chain slips and i slam my knee into my handlebars.
felt like crap each and every sprint.

i got my whole workout in which is good.

It always seems to rain on Tuesday and i usually work at the shop tuesday nights so i get to ride in the rain to my real job 7 miles, then ride to the bike shop in the rain 2 miles away, and than at 9:00 at night ride home in the rain another 7 miles.

I like riding in the rain, but having to get geared up 2 extra times in dirty, wet clothes just to ride such a short distance sucks.

Now for breakfast i can't decide. Smart Start or Total.

Ride Sally Ride (CAT 4)

2009-06-06T17:30:00.007-04:00

Our race was called early, about halfway through... they called last lap. i won the sprint and thought we were going home after 10 miles of racing, but no. they called us back to the line.

great.

They posted 10 laps to go. Josh Flexman on the last lap made the move on the inside. i had to solo sprint from the last corner to MAYBE catch the 2 trying to contend with Josh. We also passed the guy on the breakaway attempt from earlier. I was 4th.

They gave me the prime for the initial "win". I also got points for 1st...so that's really what i wanted.

Still kind of disappointing, but 4th isn't bad and a prime and points for 1st.

**note-i'm now hearing that we get BOTH results. for i get results for 1st and 4th. sick.

Man, i love Chipotle

2009-06-01T09:40:00.004-04:00

Did the Bryan Park Circuit race yesterday. It was my first CAT 4 race...not any different than any CAT 5 race i've been in. Not sure what to make of that.

They had prime's (free burrito @ Chipotle) every other lap for the middle part of the race. I went for the first one. got it. made a couple jokes with the guy i beat for it. To be honest it was a fairly boring race but fast enough (for me) that i wouldn't be able to get away and stay away, besides the fact i can fair pretty well in any sprint, so any 'fun' that could be had was well received.

6 laps to go i started sliding out in the turns. rear tire was flat. i panicked, yelled for my wife to grab my other wheels (not in the pit, but in the car...my costly mistake). too late though. pack made it around just before she got back. i said forget it...i got my free burrito, no reason to chase for 5 laps and finish dead last. I should have continued on the half flat tire another lap, my wife would have been back, i could have changed it out and been rolling again.

Dan Baur grabbed 7th, just in the points. thats awesome.

CAT 5 Lessons

2009-05-27T21:01:00.004-04:00

#1 thing i learned as a CAT 5 (and as a married man) is to remember important dates/times. When it comes to cycling/racing i am referring to registering for races you want to race, because as most racers know that when you are a CAT 5 your group for larger, more important events fill up quickly...you have to plan, set aside time, be waiting patiently, clicking the refresh button over and over again.

Now as a CAT 4 its not as important...I'm the first one registered for upcoming races. i also program my phone now too.

i am lame.

Rolling in FL

2009-05-25T22:17:00.003-04:00

I got to my wife's grandparent's on Friday. My wife and i flew down to visit with her family for a few days (fri-wed). Luckily her parents and siblings were driving down so i was able to throw my bike on their car and meet it down here. To prevent any major tragedies (like missing a race or losing my only race bike) i gave them my fixed gear.

Florida is an awesome place to ride a fixed gear...at least compared to NoVa. I did a 75+ ride on Sunday out to titusville (or something) from Orlando and while i am in far better shape than i was back in Jan, it remains that it was MUCH easier than the 70 mile ride i did out past The Plains and back from my house. By the way, its fun riding a fixed gear for so long...not sure why. trance like.

Another bonus of FL so far has been the drivers. Besides the one fat lady in her truck honking at me while she was trying to pull into McD's and the moron who nearly ran into me and the car ahead of her at the light today, all the drivers have been lovely and given me lots'o'room. i think in NoVa i get honked at, called a fag, and a random other act of violence (ie swerved at, reaching out of windows, etc.) once a ride, which as a commuter and racer can equate to a MAX of 3x a day.

tomorrow is a sprint workout...at home i have difficulty finding a proper road to do these on (i like long, flat, straight sections to really exert the legs. I was also advised to use those for the best workout results). Where as here, I'm in no shortage of such roads...as a matter of fact everything is a long straight, flat road. i found myself staring just off my front wheel on my long ride to avoid mental suicide-constantly being able to see 5 miles ahead.

Oh yeah, went to Typhoon lagoon today and Epcot tomorrow. Typhoon Lagoon ruined my memory of the place. Things look drastically different 10-13 years later. I hope its not the same for Epcot.

Season-1st half, 2nd half

2009-05-21T12:50:00.005-04:00

I'm kind of hesitant to blog. i've noticed this thing appears a someone's blog list who is quite the popular rider around here. Its nice but i'm just a CAT 4 (and barely) and i dont think anyone cares what i have to say.

Anyhow. The 1st half of the race season has passed for me. I've achieved almost all my goals for the season too.

I've collected 1 win (goal) (Syns-Fit Crit).
I rode haymarket's Mt Weather ride (which i realize isn't much of a goal, but i set that goal after my 2nd month of riding, when the total 14 mile commute for the day was still a lot).
I've also made it from 5 to 4 in a half of a season (goal) with a total of 4 podiums (bonus).
Lost 40lbs.
Be apart of a winning breakaway [2nd and 3rd places for myself] (1st race at Snowball 10 sec gap on last lap, just rode off the front. Waynesboro does it count with 6 guys annihilate the entire field?)

2nd half season goals

Another win (maybe two)
CAT up to 3 (i've been told by my riding peers that it shouldn't be out of reach)
Top 15 at Tour of Washington County (worried about that TT)
Lose 5-10 more lbs. (i'm apparently building muscle now...so this may be difficult)
Be apart of 2 more winning breakaway's
Lead a teammate out for a win.
Top 3 at Hagerstown State Championship Crit (7/11)
Vint Hill Development Series Overall Winner (home court advantage).

A lot of more goals for the rest of the season but i think most of them are realistic. I dont know if i will be able to lead out a teammate for a win, my chances are limited to a few races being that they are all 3's basically and only one of which is a sprinter so i'd substitute that for wasting myself for one of them if it meant victory in a breakaway.

I've learned a ton through the first half of this year, mostly in my first 2 bigger races which resulted in poor results. I've also learned a ton doing the Wednesday Night Haymarket ride. Those guys are all so good, and i get a ton of advice post ride from different guys. Not to mention the experience i gain from riding at speeds and intensities much higher than any CAT 5 race.

Upgrade status

2009-05-11T22:49:00.003-04:00

status=approved.

i didnt need 10 races after all.

i am a CAT 4. still lowly in ranks but i'm happy with my progress.

Also, quick story-went on a short, VERY slow ride today being a rest day and all. got about 3 or 4 miles away and caught a flat. bummer right? but not a big deal. except after i quickly got it changed and was about to be back on my way my CO2 cartridge failed...it was a dud. major bummer since i left my cell at home and i'm apparently not smart enough to carry more than one cartridge (i usually do but i've not yet replaced the one i used just the other day). ugh.

walked 3 or 4 miles home carrying my bike and shoes (i'd rather walk barefoot than in shoes with Look cleats).

CAPS WON!

Loss of style

2009-05-04T15:41:00.002-04:00

So after a few "good jobs" from my team i receive a hoard of emails, also from my team informing me of my "loss of style"
It seems i left my commuting light on my bike. I noticed it when i was putting my bike back into my car, but obviously that was way too late.

its ok i don't think i really ever had style to begin with.

pic courtesy of Sam Hill

Bunny Hop and possible upgrade

2009-05-04T09:08:00.003-04:00

pics by sam hill
The Bunny Hop Crit was very uneventful. Josh (cyclelife), Derek (route 1 velo) and myself led the first bunch of laps (not sure exactly how many). I did most of the pulls. I felt great and i wanted the tempo to be high. I contemplated trying to attack off the front and i thought since Josh and Derek were sitting right behind they could jump with me...but in the end i didn't have the balls to go for it. It may have worked seeing at the entire pack was strung out already.

Soon after i didn't feel like doing all the work anymore and let a couple other guys set the pace, which they did until about 2 laps to go. during which nothing happened except for a ton of almost wrecks, getting forced hard into the corner by a bunch of dive bombers, and a few nasty comments. one crazy guy sitting behind kept yelling at the top of his lungs with the utmost passion, "They are blocking! Those guys are getting away! Don't let them get away! HURRY!" i told him to shut it, seeing as no one was "blocking" and the guys "getting away" had been dropped and were about to get lapped.

With 1 to go i moved into position about 6th or 7th wheel right next to Josh Flexman and when we were approaching the last corner the guys at the front of the line decided not to keep pedaling causing a quick bunch up and some how i got stuck in the middle. Someone made a jump from behind and Josh caught on (for the win) and i squeezed my way out somehow and powered past everyone for 3rd.

After the race we all went to lunch.

I got home later and sent in my request for an upgrade from 5 to 4. I know i dont have 10 races yet but 4 podiums (including a win) should be enough...so says the guys from my team and they've been doing it a lot longer than i have.

Caps won on saturday! and play again tonight!

Waynesboro Grand Prix #1 (CAT 5)

2009-04-26T21:20:00.007-04:00

95 degrees at the start.

the course-basically one long up hill and one long down hill with a tad bit of flat in between. everything in total= 1 mile.

at the whistle a few guys really jammed it and i grabbed on.

i noticed i felt like crap...repeat of the Jeff Cup race, type of feeling.

decided to do little to no pulling, and try and just hang on.

Did some pulling anyway.

fell of the back of the breakaway a couple of times.

caught back on. got dehydrated.

put in one stupid "attack" on the last lap...(i should have saved it.)

felt horrible.

led up the hill 200m from the finish.

got passed. hit the wheel of the eventual winner.

bike went sideways. caught the bike.

and managed 3rd place.

afterwards i wanted to crawl into a dark cold wet place and die.

Wednesday Night @ Haymarket

2009-04-23T10:11:00.003-04:00

CYCLING
The guys from my team convinced me to show up at the Wednesday night training ride out of Haymarket. I thought i may be getting in over my head knowing some of the people that show up and that they are a much higher caliber group of riders.

I didn't regret it, on the contrary, i was very happy i went through with it. Its been a very long time since i rode in a group like that. I felt like i was 15 again, when i first started riding, very antsy. I would go as far as to say jumpy, a far cry from the smooth and fluid riders that populated the rest of the group.

But, i did my share of pulls, contended in their sprint sections, and made some (short lived & worthless) attacks. And I'm gaining a bit more confidence.

Another (super) short Crit on Sunday...i think 30 mins? geez that's short.

OH! and we got our new kits. they look sweet. pics shortly.

CAPS GAME
...bummer. way to ruin my evening.
Also, a good way to feel weird is to go to sit at the bar by yourself and eat a salad and potato with water.

HOUSE
I'm rebuilding the deck on Monday and Tuesday next week...ripping up the floor boards and putting in new ones. should be nice to have a real deck. AND they are going to start our basement this next week...THANK GOD.

Syns Fit CAT 5 race (1st!)

2009-04-20T08:54:00.005-04:00

The race started off quick. Some of the evolution guys thought it wise to sprint from lap one...which lasted about a lap or two. It was pretty uneventful for a while. a few guys tried to go only to die soon after getting off the front or they would just hover about 3-5 seconds out in front.

About halfway through the race as we rolled up to the first corner, someone in the middle of the pack did something stupid and wrecked, causing a great number of riders to wreck as well. We went from 50(riders) to 25 quick. i got stuck behind the wreck and nearly wrapped up in it but i avoided and then chased to get back on...i didn't have to extend myself that much.

A lap or so after the wreck we were cruising fairly slow so i blew off the front and got a gap. Not only did i get a decent gap but i felt great. i asked the moto-ref if the guy up the road was getting lapped or on a breakaway, which it was the latter. I thought once i got to him maybe we could work together but he couldn't hang. I stayed away for a couple laps, but soon after i was slowly getting caught so i just sat up altogether and jumped back on near the front.

More people would put in an attack, again, only to die right off the front. That went on till the last lap. I was getting screwed in the corners because no one has the balls to lean a bike over, instead they grab their brakes.... So i was near the middle/back of the pack after turn 1 of 2 on the last lap. My only lane was up the gutter so i gunned it up the gutter inches from the curb, got about 6th wheel into the last corner. the front was fairly spread out and i thought my race was pretty much over...maybe a podium. So again i gunned it and to my own amazement started to pass everyone. i was quicklygaining places-5th, 4th, 3rd (podium!) 2nd, and then 1st by a bike length.

karma in different forms

2009-04-16T13:09:00.006-04:00

Yesterday after making fun of a few people and complaining to one of my "teammates"for not wanting to join me, i ventured forth into the cold rain. Weather.com said "currently 51 and feels like 51". To keep it short...it was not 51 degrees out. it felt more like getting soaking wet and then sitting in front of an A/C unit on full blast. Not to mention i felt like crap anyway. I tried to go do a few hill climbs but once i arrived and ramped up the first steep section i decided that it wouldn't really benefit my body to pound it further into oblivion than it already was.
I'm not sure if it was the cold, not enough rest, not enough nutrition, a combination of those or what, but i couldn't hack it yesterday at all. I basically went straight home; kind of slow.

After a long hot bath (my wife caulked the shower), i went to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the opening playoff game, Caps vs Rangers. Every time i would send Dan a text full of smack talk the Rangers would score. literally every time...4-3 Final score. ugh.
Driving the 2.5 miles home from the bar (which i should have walked to begin with but i was being lazy) , i managed to get a speeding ticket. 64 in a 45. nice guy at least. So now I'm up 3-2 vs my wife. bummer.

We have sent out the contract to get our basement fixed FINALLY. also our lawyers are serving the papers to the people we are suing.

race on saturday...

a litte bit of success

2009-04-11T09:34:00.002-04:00

Didn't get to follow through on riding with Zach on thursday. he got out of work late and i had to get home to get over to the inlaws. kind of a blown day for riding for me...

Yesterday though, we planned on the same thing...meeting up and racing up Bull Run Mt. and the roads we were planning on going up i had confused with some others. I hadn't seen the roads he knew about...that included about 3 straight steep sections and a bunch of hard switchbacks, also in the middle a short flat/downhill to break up your rhythm.

Anyway, the first time he beat me up by over a minute. and the second time i beat him by just a little bit. It would have been more had he not pulled me back just coming up to the top. That was a huge accomplishment for me though...to beat Zach up the Mt. I'm not the best climber and he is actually pretty good at it. Not to mention we made it up in the low 12's (minutes that is), the first time i made it up in about 15 mins.

we are planning on doing that once a week. its a fantastic workout. churning up the hill at a slow 8-9 mph sometimes slower...it was fun. Hopefully i'll be able to beat him again. I pulled a fast one on him on the steep section and managed through the switchbacks.

tomorrow 8 am. Paris-Roubaix. exciting. i'll be avoiding anything and everything cycling until i watch the recorded version i'll have later in the afternoon.

New Stuff old stuff

2009-04-09T13:55:00.003-04:00

A few new things going on.

Like training. One of the guys on my team gave me a very basic workout to include in my typical riding week. And I've really been enjoying it. Along with that i took some other advice which is rest. Oddly enough i find that the difficult part, whether its riding slowly or not at all. I took last Friday off altogether during which i thought i was going to explode from anxiousness, but it worked out; legs recovered and i felt great come Sunday/race time.
Still losing weight, though its becoming more difficult, I'm having to be more meticulous about what i consume and how often.
New commuter bag/day-pack for hiking. (Dan-the one we got from REI sucks...as you know, since you broke the straps 3 times.) Here the old and new side by side-

Ben is trying to get me to go race the track series "Go Fast Turn Left" Tuesday nights. I'm not terribly interested.
I get to race twice a night in May on Wednesdays. I'll Cat up in May for sure now.
Next weekend kicks off nonstop racing for a month and a half. exciting
Today I'm going to go try and keep up with Zach as he goes up and down Bull Run Mt.

OLD

I still have no basement.

Fawn Grove Roubaix (another CAT 5 mistake)

2009-04-06T12:31:00.006-04:00

Fawn Grove brought out all kinds of riders...or at least all different kinds of gear for the bikes. In my group alone i saw a few triple cranksets, camelbacks, and thin worn down 700x23c. Other excentricities included a nice set of super deep carbon wheels (it was really windy and crappy road conditions), a few cross bikes (slighty over the top), and the list goes on.

The hills ended up being very short but also steep, so those along with the trecherously deep gravel section, it broke everything up pretty quickly. Which in my group (4/5) i figured would happen. All of a sudden i was out in front with 4 other decently strong guys chasing down the one guy who was pretty far off the front. And to be honestly fair...we weren't really chasing nor trying to breakaway from the group. Just keeping a mildly hard tempo. We descended the biggest down hill into a T-bone intersection and everyone ahead of me went left, and i followed without thinking. Shortly after i though it was weird that the pack wasn't in sight since it was a long straight uphill. we all turned around expecting the worst...we went the wrong way, which was the case. A guy from NCVC (Dan Paulson) and i rode the rest of the race together, not really pushing it too hard, but still managed to beat most of the field. 27th and 28th.

The most dissapointing thing is that i felt really good and was doing really well. Probably would have done really well too had i not made that silly mistake.

John Nusbaum took 11 in the 3/4 field, which had he done the 40+ group, he very well may have won. Simeon Green (dude from south France) took 6th in the Pro/1/2 field. He rode up with John and i to the race. Really nice guy.

2 weeks till Syns-Fit.

Silly netflix

2009-04-03T11:30:00.007-04:00

I recently returned the movie Marley & Me to netflix. And while having not rated the movie, i logged onto my account to see that they were asking me to rate it so they can recommend two movies i would like depending on my rating.

i would give Marley & Me 3 stars. its decent at best...enjoyable.

So netflix pondered for a moment and searched its database in its entirety, then decided that having given 3 stars to Marley & Me that i would really enjoy the movies Young @ Heart and Synecdoche, New York.

WHAT? How does that make sense? No offense to Marley & Me, but those are two quality movies. Not sure how they justify this conclusion.

redemption?

2009-04-02T09:49:00.007-04:00

Another race is a few days away. I felt pretty embarrassed after the last race and I'm hoping to redeem myself.

The finish sprint-

You can kind of see the havoc going on down the road.

NOTE: I'm not sure if my wife knows the camera has a zoom feature. sorry.

Today's race

2009-03-29T20:50:00.005-04:00

3 laps of a 10 mile rolling course...one minor hill; short. Doesn't seem that bad.

i think a combination of a few things happend:

didn't eat and drink enough before hand
shouldn't have spent all my energy bridging up to the break on the first lap right before a long gradual uphill only to be caught in no man's land and then dropped like a rock off a cliff.
bad week of riding.

i finished probably in 30 or 40-something place.

The fact that the 1/2/3 field lost half of its field is a little reassuring. the 35+ started with 120 and ended with 50...geez.

next sunday is another race. Fawn Grove Roubaix.

Welcome to NOVA cycling

2009-03-27T09:13:00.003-04:00

This Sunday the Jeff Cup 2009 will happen down in Charlottesville. I had heard this was a big deal around here, but i was unaware of just how excited everyone gets around here for this one race. Pretty much everyone in a 100 mile radius of this race will show up. Every field, for the most part, max's out. In fact I've been on the wait list for a month now and I am finally the next one off.

Everyone is making "predictions" for the 1/2/3 field and Bobby Lea is one of those contenders. I'm not sure how Floyd Landis's teammate is a 1/2/3 but again, I'm new here.

I have a bit more confidence now in my riding ability, which is right on time for this "prestigious" event. 3 laps on a rolling 10 mile course, one slight climb and an uphill finish.

With that said, my ankle recently has been giving me problems and the last 3 days have been nearly void of bike riding because of funeral/family stuff going on. I did say nearly, so not entirely. i did what i could.

Mt Weather and more...

2009-03-24T16:27:00.005-04:00

I rode up Mt Weather this past Saturday with John and Zach....it looks something like this:I learned I'm not the strongest climber. While I'm obviously not the greatest rider either and that may have a larger factor, it seems that everyone has their specialty...something they are good at. I'm thinking mine is not ascending and that's fine. I'll continue to find ridiculous climbs and pursue them. I like it.

Tonight the Caps play Toronto and playoffs are just a short period away. That may be a corny way of saying it, but its true and the Caps better start playing stronger or they'll end up in a positioning far less favorable come the first week of playoffs.

Jeff Cup is this Sunday. The course is fairly up and down 30 miles on a 10 mile lap with a single moderate climb and a false flat finish. Its also supposed to rain. I'm excited for that.

adios!

Vint Hill Crit Series

2009-03-20T10:17:00.004-04:00

Yesterday was the 540cycling.com group ride (I'm not sure why everyone includes the ".com" at the end of anything 540cycling, but oh well...I'm new).

It was a little rainy yesterday, and by that i mean it rained all day and weened off around 330-4. So by 530 it was nice out. The road had dried up a bit and it was low 50's. I still figured the group ride would be less than 5 people and i was right. It was John, Zach and myself. I was a tad happy about this because i knew that meant they would want to go hard being that they are both strong riders and they know i can at least hang.

We headed over to the Vint Hill Park where we are organizing a local crit series. We did one lap just chatting and then the fun started; we started attacking each other. One of my biggest weaknesses is my inability to go hard for very long. Which obviously comes with a lot more riding/racing/training. maybe next year...Anyway, it was a ton of fun.

So from now on we are going to use Thursday night group rides as interval/crit practice at that park. it was a ton of fun. A nice mix up for the week.

In other news, my wife's Grandfather died two days ago. and the funeral is on Wednesday. I watched him literally die slowly, and its an experience I'll never forget. I kept thinking about the Death Cab for Cutie song "What Sarah Said", as we watched his blood pressure slowly but surely lower. He died in his sleep sometime after we left the hospital.

Go Caps!

Nothing exciting.

2009-03-19T09:29:00.005-04:00

Nothing awesome happening. Not that there really ever has been. But especially not now.

I had a nice 40 mile bonk through the plains last Saturday (don't be deceived by the town name...a few little hills there).

Mentally trying to recover after multiple bad rides.

Road towards the plains via the fixie (46x15) up short sections of 10% or more. Finally bailed on the switchbacks and continued on towards the plains after i almost wrenched my handlebars off the bike. decent ride all-in-all.

Beautiful day yesterday (over 60 degrees), the white legs are starting to get some sun. 30 miles.

Registered now for 4 races in April. I'm aiming for 5 in May which would make me Cat 4 by June.

Riding with some guys from the team Sat up Mt Weather. I'm excited to test myself, but not excited at the probability of getting dropped.

While i used to be good at climbing and ITT's , I'm slowly realizing I'm bigger now and these skinny guys have a decent advantage over me going up these tough slopes. I still could be decent at ITT's though. I haven't attempted to out of fear of not being as good as i used to be.

I'm apprehensive to try the local Wednesday night ride. A bunch of 1/2/3's show up and pound it out.

Milan-San Remo is 300km? wtf?!

Hiking Season is over for me. I didn't get to go at all. Dan bailed on the only trip we had planned (mind you, it was a good excuse). I did do the daks with him back in Sept though...Looking at two trips for next winter. Also planning on trail running/Fast packing the Pen-Mar Section of the AT (40+ miles) in September with a buddy that is currently in Iraq.

OD on Vitamin C

2009-03-13T08:49:00.007-04:00

I went to the group ride last night. It was nice. We didn't set a hard pace. Mostly a get to know everyone/the route ride. It was only 25 miles. All in all i got in 50 yesterday.

I was planning on 40 this morning because my wife is picking me up from work to go meet Dan, but i was hacking up a lung this morning (still sick) and it was snowing out. So i settled for 25, which seemed to be about right. I thought it was going to be 30 but i miscalculated part of the route. It was a terribly miserable ride...wet, freezing, feeling like crap, pitch black darkness. ugh.

I'm going to try and get in 50 before work(bike shop) tomorrow. Shouldn't be a problem.

riding everyday with a backpack is a bummer.

Paris-Nice

blahg.

2009-03-12T15:41:00.006-04:00

Free Chick-Fil-A continues on the morning commute. tomorrow is the last day. The chicken biscuit.

I'm still losing weight. down to 176. 160 here i come!

I'm also still sick.

Pounded out 30 miles last night. horrible headwind and crosswind. nearly blew me off the bike at one point. huge head wind on a fixed is lots'o'fun.

Supposed to snow tomorrow morning. what? i just packed my winter gear up for the 2nd time.

Bought two new pairs of bibs during my lunch break after having worn the same pair this entire week so far...i know ew gross. i take two showers a day, only because of the shorts issue. Really i just have bad hygiene.

I'm enjoying "watching" Paris-Nice every morning this week.

Caps will probably lose to the Flyers tonight.

I'm meeting up with Dan for dinner tomorrow. He's in Rockville.

Group ride tonight with 540Cycling.com

i often confuse A with 4. weird.

I'm registered (in-time, opposed to wait list) for Fawn Grove Roubaix.

My ankle is doing a tad better.

Ankle Problems

2009-03-10T14:13:00.003-04:00

Today has started off great. i dropped my car off at the auto shop across town, pulled my bike out of the back and left for work. On my way my ankle was giving me a ton of problems. About 3 weeks ago i slipped on my stairs and jammed my foot into the floor sideways in order to prevent myself from falling down the stairs. At this point i think i would have rather fallen down a flight of stairs, mostly because i think the resulting injuries wouldnt be as bad, but its hard to prevent a natural reaction (not that sideways was a natural response).

It actually was giving problems last night post-ride. I took ibuprofen and put an ice pack on as i went to bed. it may have helped a bit, but who knows.

On top of all that i woke up with sinus problems, which isnt uncommon but usually the ride clears that up, except for this instance. ugh

Oh, not to mention i missed another registration opening for another race. So i'm probably not racing till the 29th when i attempt my first road race. This is probably a good thing due to my current ankle issue. Now only if i could convince myself to take it easy for a little.

Any chance it could be caused by a poor cleat placement on my road shoe? idk.

i had a great 40 mile ride last night. new route.

Racing

2009-03-09T09:51:00.005-04:00

I didn't make it off the wait list yesterday, so i stayed home while my team travelled up to MD to race in the Trade Zone Series. They did pretty good apparently too. They raced the 3/4 and the 1/2/3 groups. All 3 received top 10 finished in the 3/4 race and top 20 finishes in the 1/2/3 race immediately after. They must have some sick stamina to pull that off. I think John said 65 miles of Crit racing yesterday. That's a stark comparison to my 4 cupcakes and 2 cheeseburgers. haha and still somehow i didn't really eat that much yesterday, but i also didn't ride.

This morning it was a brisk 62 degrees. awesome. Also, chick-fil-a just opened up a few miles from here and so i did a detour and picked up a *free* breakfast...its happening there all week.

I'm waiting to register for the Trade Zone this weekend. If i don't race this weekend (3 weeks since i raced) then it will be possibly another 3 weeks till i race again. I might upgrade by June despite my lack of racing. April and May I'm racing nearly every week. I'm 4th on the wait list for the Jeff Cup so i think I'm likely to get in. SICK!

I'm also racing at Fawn Grove Roubaix in PA. It will be my second road race for the season. and over my two laps i believe its 8 miles of gravel/dirt road. i happen to enjoy that type of riding, but we'll see how it is when it comes to racing on it.

And finally, my team (specifically John and Dave i think) are trying to organize a race in Vint Hill business park, which is all of 5 or 6 miles from my house. A weekly crit series to be more specific. It looks like my bike shop will provide technical support and help with sponsorship. And i believe it will have multiple lower CAT races. to help alleviate the demand for races in those CAT's.
awesome.

Yesterday and Today

2009-03-04T08:14:00.004-05:00

One of my favorite parts of my day is the 10-20mins after i get dressed at work. I grab a big bowl of cereal and a Vitamin Energy drink (the caffeine version of Vitamin Water) and i sit at my desk, eat and check email along with some of the other sites i check daily (or hourly).

The past two weeks I've been taking the super short route to work (6.5 miles), partly because its been so freaking cold in the morning (today: 6 degrees), partly because I'm tired and lazy in the AM, and lastly because I'm doing longer rides in the evenings now. Not sure whats better, two moderate distance rides (15-20miles) or a short and a bit longer than moderate (6.5 + 30 miles).

I've been watching Pro cycling since for the past 9 years. I know that Lance won his first tour 10 years ago and i watched as he won #'s 2-7. It was very exciting as each tour got increasingly faster with stronger attacks, longer breakaways, and more dominant wins (from every winner). So up till the past two years, this was all i knew. The past couple of years have been very important for cycling, with 90% of the top 15 finishers during Lance's heyday being caught, implicated, or investigated for doping, the creation of a "dope-free" squad (Garmin-Chipotle), the slowest tour in 10 years (2008), and a no-tolerance attitude from the cycling community, "a change is a'coming". Or its already happened, but it doesn't leave me without doubt. Childhood hero's crushed by deceit. Who can you root for?

Its been proven the continental scene isn't impervious to idiots like Ivan Stevic and Kayle Leogrande either, and I'm sure there are more out there.

I had a good ride last night after fixing my bike. I dropped off the car at my wife's school at 7 and set out to do 30 (really its a 27 mile route...but whatever, i try hard not to be OCD). It was super cold and pitch black, and the first 10 into the wind, but somehow i still enjoyed it. I was actually disappointed no one honked at me until about 4 miles from home a giant SUV blared its horn in anger. nice!

This morning i got a pat on the back at the convenience store from some stranger that "is a cyclist too", he called me a brave soul for venturing out into the frigid cold. that was a nice encounter, few and far between.

training and racing = cluelessness

2009-03-02T13:48:00.002-05:00

Another snow day to ruin cycling.

I took yesterday off to rest, and i tried real hard to stay away from my bike. Unfortunately if i had gone out like i'd wanted to then i could have taken a proper rest day today when cycling is near impossible (outdoors that is).

Also, another great disapointment is that the Jefferson Cup (CAT 5) filled up in "5 mins". Leaving me to do nothing that weekend except sulk or train. probably the latter or maybe both. Regardless i have to rethink what races i'm going to do.

Fawn Grove Roubaix?
Tysons Corner Crit?
Tour of Walkersville?

i dont know. Certainly not all 3. Fawn Grove sounds like a lot of fun, Tysons is a big event nearby, and i know nothing about Walkersville except its a Road Race that is 40 miles for my CAT.

Honestly, i feel clueless as to what i'm doing. My training is random at best, consistent but random as to the workouts. My plans for racing are also random. I have no idea what i'm good at. And while i feel like i'm training hard, i dont feel that strong. I'm really hoping that working with the guys from 540 Cycling will help immensely. We'll see.

Now i have to go an email to my Uncle, telling him to leave my political convictions alone. ugh.

intervals on the rollers tonight. best i can think of.

Me want FOOOOOOOD! (30 rock)

2009-02-28T23:00:00.003-05:00

This morning i was set to go do my first group ride with team 540 Cycling. I thought about riding the extra 20 miles down to meet them but i didn't want to risk the chance of being obliterated and subsequently embarrassed at my inability to hang on to a moderate pace. So i drove...good choice.

I got up early to switch my tires from my fixie over to my road bike, and do a bit of other bike maintenance, of which all i got done was the tires. I was running late so i grabbed some food (poptarts and a cliff bar) and two liters of water and rolled out.

It was cold out and i was late, half dressed, and slightly unprepared. great start and a great impression. So i hurried up and we set off. Unfortunately i left my cliff bar in the car and all i had eaten was the poptarts. great. So about 30 miles into the ride i started to get tired and eventually i cracked. i struggled desperately the last 12-14 miles. It also didn't help that due to the streamline thinness of my new saddle, that i was sitting about 2 or 3 inches too low and my pedal stroke felt like doing intense squats the whole time.

Besides the poptarts and a post ride bowl of cereal, i didn't eat anything till about 4. so i crashed and felt horrible. i ate again around 6 and now i feel fine.

Also, i just bought an ipod (shuffle). my commutes will become slightly more entertaining.

New stuff

2009-02-25T12:40:00.005-05:00

I had a ton of people pop by here looking for blogs/pictures from the Snowball. If you still are then here are some links to a few photo pages:

Well i had one of the worst rides of my life last night. I figured i would go out and do a longer ride after work. Unfortunately i didn't get out of here until 530. I went a new way, which apparently included a 2-3 mile dirt road. Not to mention on my ride in i got a flat which means my back tire was half full because my CO2 pump wasn't working right. Also, my light decided to die mid-ride, right as it was getting really dark. Oh, my new seat rubbed my inner thigh raw. and finally, the temp dropped about 15 degrees after the sun went down and i was dressed super light. I also cut the ride 10 miles shorter and skipped the climb i was heading to go do...i still got in 30 but it wasn't fun.

oh and my computer is broken and so i have only a general idea of my pace and performance. YES!

Well despite the bad ride, i was still happy. But my thigh is still raw and that seat still sucks, so during my lunch break i took my buddy's truck over to the shop and bought a Specialized Toupe. its a sweet seat. They run about $160. I've put so much money into my new road bike within a week.

Also, it looks like there is a team i can join. 540 cycling. Emailed the guy today and it sounds great. they have a cool kit to boot.

This weekend I'm going to skip the Trade Zone Series and be down trying to climb Mt Weather for the first time. hopefully not alone. we'll see.

Snowball Crit #1 (2nd)

2009-02-23T09:47:00.007-05:00

I had my first race yesterday (Sunday). I was really nervous considering its my first real race. The weather was just how i like it, shitty. Wet, cold (high 30's-low 40's), and dirty (sand, silt, dirt everywhere). I think i heard the word "cyclocross" about 15 times from all the conversations going on around me.
I had a ton of advice from all the cycling friends i have including my dad. Most of that advice was "stay calm/stay up front/don't crash/don't do anything till later in the race", so on lap 2 i took off on the front, mostly because the group was cruising at a slow speed and i wanted to see what would happen. They chased me down like i was a naked woman, and not only that but kept that pace up. I did everything i could to hang on which i did. I worked my way up and then with 8 laps to go chased down a guy with 4 other guys and all of a sudden we had a little gap on the group and i tried to organize a break but we couldn't get it together quick enough and the group caught the back of us. I tried to get another break to go with a couple other guys but we couldn't hold that either. So with 2 laps to go i found a nice spot on the inside near the front and waited. Last lap at the line, one of the stronger guys came blowing through on my left and i grabbed his wheel, and we strung out the group. I yelled at him to let me pull through, and soon we had a gap on the group, he pulled through again into the last turn and we both sprinted which i took and then a guy pulled around my wheel...i didn't know he was there. So i took 2nd. i was happy.

(going to warm up.)

(the start-where's waldo?)

(2nd lap-on the outside)

(mid race)

(2 laps to go-the winner is on the left with the red helmet)

(Me and 3rd place, a nice guy)

It was a super fun experience. i would have thought it was fun even finishing mid-pack. I'm looking forward to more.

Gears are for....

2009-02-20T09:24:00.004-05:00

Well my nervousness was justified. I had a miserable ride last night on my new bike. So many adjustments to be made. I recommend not making your first journey on a new bike be in the dark and during rush hour traffic in NOVA. The worst possible combo.

anyway with out further adu, the new bike-

(the reason for the lights is for commuting purposes and are merely temporary)

At this point i'm hoping to just do decent at the race on sunday. no expectations.

Nervous

2009-02-19T14:39:00.003-05:00

My bike has arrived at the shop, been built, exchanged some parts (like the crank), added Look KeO Sprint pedals, and had a jog around the parking lot.

As excited as i am to venture forth in the cycling world once more on a geared bike, i find myself thinking...gears suck. But, maybe I'm just scared of them. I have grown to love the simplicity of the mantra "pedal faster", being that its the only way to accelerate on a fixed gear bike. Tonight will be my first trip out on my new ride and though its a short route from the shop back to my home, and i am nervous.

I am also nervous about the race in 3 days. I am in good shape despite falling down the stairs last Friday and severely spraining my ankle. As a result i lost out on my high mileage day (Saturday) and took the following day off too to let it heal before i tried riding on it. Monday i did a relaxed ride around town being that i had the day off. it felt OK. Though until this morning i had been noticing it's inflicting pain during the pedaling hours. Even though i am in decent shape, I've been feeling weak and my rides have been good indicators of such, i only hope that goes away soon along with the constantly swollen ankle.

pictures of my new bike soon.

Christmas again!

2009-02-11T10:50:00.003-05:00

Last night i bought my bike!

I am so freaking excited! i had to buy a few new parts like pedals and a crank set (because the one that came on it is "compact") , but other than that I'm set. The first race is a week and a half away. I get so freaking nervous every time i think about it. I am fairly sure I'll vomit the day of the race, i it did nearly before every soccer game and every XC/track event ( i say nearly because i think it actually only happened once or twice, but it felt like i was every time).

Since switching my rear cog from a 16 to a 15 I've been turning out much better times and avg's. That really is a confidence booster. I hope i do really well in my race next Sunday.

46x15 and a "whiny" performance

2009-02-09T11:04:00.004-05:00

My wife and i hung around at my inlaws last night so i could catch the performance by Radiohead on TV. i couldn't care any less for the Grammy's than i already do, but with the prospect of a performance by Radiohead and MIA left me glued to the screen enduring painful acts by The Jonas Brothers, Taylor Swift, Kenny Chesny, and other country acts. The credibility of the Grammy's is bankrupt and somehow manages each year to lose even more integrity with Best New Artist Noms like: Adele, Duffy (who for a while i thought was Hillary Duff trying a new gig), Jonas Brothers, amongst others, while completely ignoring acts like Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, and the Smashing Pumpkins v2.0 (j/k, just to clarify). And while i doubt 90% of that audience and American population know who Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver are, it still stands to say that either of those bands deserves at the very least a nomination, and against that competition, a win.
Yet this year there was some justification...Radiohead winning Best Album of the Year. Daft Punk winning dance album, The Mars Volta in all their insanity got nominated for one and won, Coldplay beat out Metallica for best "rock" album...that's got to hurt, and of course the Radiohead performance, which to me would be worth sitting through that entire God-awful show again. My mother in law leans over during their performance and asks "Now, whats so good about them?" to which i was in such shock all i could manage to say was "Because they are the best band in the world", my wife uttered something more reasonable but i believe it fell on deaf ears.
I also heard from a friend that someone had mentioned the entire show being "good" save the Radiohead portion which they found "whiny"...and if i had that said to me, i might have blacked out, only to have awaken with bloodied fists and a corpse laying dead in front of me.

Saturday i worked at the bike shop and due to all the nasty winter weather i needed to replace parts of my drive chain, particularly the 3/32 chain that was stretched out like a bankrupt whore. I wanted to switch to a realistically more durable chain, so i got a 1/2x1/8 w/o hollow pins...which i think weighs a solid 2 lbs. Also, i had to change the rear cog to a 1/8 type and so i switched from 16t to 15t making my hills just that much harder. i think for my a while my performance on my bike might come off as "whiny".

Ice Day

2009-01-28T10:05:00.006-05:00

Didn't ride in this morning. I'm wishing i had, but hindsight is always 20/20. I knew i would regret it as soon as my boss and i left my house in his car, one because i had a feeling but mostly because i saw that the main roads were just fine.
Ben made it in just fine and as a matter of fact, turned over a decent time going in. He said it was a bit scary but no problems.

The farmers almanac looks something like:
So its been close to being correct. But i bet i could have been "close to being correct" too. I'm just hoping for no more big precipitation days anytime soon which according to Accuweather isn't too far off from "close to being correct":
With all that said about commuting and the weather, i have to think about training and what i should be doing. From reading everyone else's blogs, i gather that i should be logging miles and lots of them and thats about it.
There is an upcoming race i am planning on doing called the Snowball Crit #1. Its in VA Beach and its on Feb 22nd. Thats the goal for the start of my first real racing season.

Snow Day

2009-01-27T16:13:00.006-05:00

This morning it started to snow:
And i took off via bike despite that fact. i pulled up to the exit of my neighborhood and no sooner did i stop at the stop sign, that a car across the road wreck into the guard rail. *AWESOME*. i grabbed my manhood, said a quick prayer, clipped into my bike, and took a right turn to work.
After a short ride the only complaint was my eyes. My eyes took a beating from all the snow. Had i grabbed my ski goggles like i had thought about doing, then i wouldn't have had any real complaints.
If there is a question about wearing ski goggles why riding a bike, well:
Andy Hampsten did it while winning the 88 Giro...so that makes it ok. But, I'm by no means comparing my 6.5 mile journey in the snow from home to work to Andy's crazy break away during a freak snow storm.

I got to work relatively dry but my bike faired different:

With that said...it has started to snow again and i'm out of here.

Of Whales and Woes

2009-01-26T12:20:00.005-05:00

This morning i left the house late and took the short route and i had a ton of time to kill at work, so i did a few laps around the mile(.85) loop in our business park to make up some miles. By the time i had gotten a mile away from work it started snowing slightly and when i was doing laps it was all out snowing. But, it subsided shortly after.
So with this upcoming weather:
Which is obviously very ridable, nothing too terrible to complain about, but I'd rather be prepared with the proper gear. So with those 3 days being today, tomorrow, and Wednesday, on my lunch break i purchased the SKS Race Blade Fenders XL and Fox Fluid Rain Jacket. Both of which should assistant in keeping the exterior wetness on the exterior.

I do remember that day fairly well, even though i was all of 3 or 4 years old. It was my birthday and i got a bike (i think) and i was doing laps around the circle in front of our house. Sold at a young age...

Nice Day

2009-01-25T12:46:00.002-05:00

Woke up at 630 yesterday (Saturday). Big winds (lots of head winds...). 41 degrees. 1 gear. 70 miles. 3hrs 50mins.

it was a nice day.

Saw Frost/Nixon yesterday night after going to PF Chang's with my wife. good movie good food.

Red Tacks

2009-01-22T09:32:00.006-05:00

All signs pointed back towards bed this morning...or at the very least taking the short route to work. It was just one of those mornings. I was tired, my legs were sore, its was an enjoyable 13 degrees outside, i was dragging and procrastinating. But despite all that, in my quest to be a family of 1 motor vehicle, i hopped on my bike. Shortly there after i was cruising along just dandy or as dandy as you can be in 13 degree weather on a bike, and i hear *clunk* *clunk* *clunk*. So i decided to figure out what the hell is making that noise. I stop and spin my back wheel to discover a nice little red tack. a few thought went through my mind at that moment, "maybe i can still ride...no probably not", "maybe i can take it out and nothing will"...pppsssssss....yeah. that didn't work, nice thought though. This was my first test of changing a tube on the road....ever. Its my 3rd flat ever too. I think i have a bit of luck on my side. But, regardless of all that, i did it. I changed the flat and pressed on. I was proud of myself.

More doping comes through the headlines...
I hope they make some progress with Operation Puerto.

The Oscar nods are posted. a few things that have to happen or i won't watch the Oscars again...

Slumdog wins both best picture and director
Rourke wins best actor
Ledger wins support actor
Wall-E animated feature
Wall-E or Slumdog win original score

a few predictions and great expectations.

Go Cardinals!

Saturday & Sunday and being 10

2009-01-18T11:29:00.005-05:00

Today is Sunday. Its about 30 degrees outside, which considering the past couple of days is actually warm. I really find it difficult (and depressing) to try and ride outdoors on the weekends, the days i should be do my 50 mile rides (that's long for me and my fixie). For the past few months I've been slowly (very slowly) accumulating winter cycling gear, but i seem to always be just slightly behind the weather on timing. For instance, I've been waiting (for money) to purchase a certain sweet pair of tights and hardcore gloves, which i could go do today, but i really could have used them this past week. Specially since Friday night's ride home parts of my legs swoll up from the stinging cold. Most of the time i just suck it up once I'm out on the bike but to get out there, its super difficult.

I'm hoping to just hang out a month or two longer and maybe I'll be OK come racing time. I mean, I'm racing CAT 5 and honestly to be "OK" would consist of being able to stay in the pack and not die. I'm hoping to learn about pack racing this season, because up till now the only racing I've done is ITT's and making breaks on intense group rides (back about 7 years ago). Though from what I've read on seasoned racer's blogs, CAT 5 is like a bad group ride gone wrong.

Even farther back about 12 years was this...
I ran the 1 mile kids race in 7:14 at the age of 10. The guy that won the 5k ran barefoot...i think he ran it in 16 or 17 min...barefoot. I thought he was amazing. If you couldn't tell i beat all the other kids and got that cool trophy. I was pretty proud. My dad's pacing and coaching are what helped...

Frozen Beards and Light Grenades

2009-01-16T13:08:00.005-05:00

While this whole week I've been complaining about the wicked cold, this morning i experienced the worst of it. I checked online when i left to get a brief idea of just how cold it was outside, 10 F. I was later told my fellow commuter that there was a windchill of below 0...ouch. Luckily 90% of my hiking is done in the dead of winter so i have winter performance gear which i was able to layer up with this morning in combination with my cycling clothes. Despite the extra clothes my face remained bare (save a little beard) there for rendering my face defenseless against the cold...the result looked like this:
I did put Vaseline on my face before i left hence the nice glistening reflection my face has. But i honestly could feel much and every hair follicle was frozen to its surrounding neighbors. Also unfortunately any precipitation that left my mouth (or nose) became immediately frozen to my facial hair leaving me looking like i have rabies. The Vaseline also froze moments after i left my house, which was a weird feeling.

The ride itself was kind of difficult but nothing over bearing.

I visited the library for another round of free CDs and DVDs. I picked up Incubus's Light Grenades which is slightly disappointing. I'm happy i didn't go to purchase it. I grew up a huge incubus fan and from time to time i still enjoy some of their music, but Light Grenades seems to be the culmination of bad ideas and wasted talent, or it could be just poor song writing. Its not even enjoyable pop.

The movie selection wasn't that great either, but they did have classics such as Jurassic Park and Forest Gump. Jurassic Park is the first movie i ever remember watching in theaters and i saw it in an IMAX theater. I loved it so much that when it came to television a year or two later i recorded on a VHS and promptly watched it everyday for an extended period of my life (i was home schooled so i had tons of time for it). I also picked up Chicago and Miracle...and like Darryl said Chicago is a joke, i couldn't believe it won 6 Academy Awards...are people insane?

Jerrys Subs and Pizza sucks.

2009-01-15T16:03:00.004-05:00

Sometime after lunch i worked up a new logo for Jerry's Subs and Pizza. I went there because they had a 4 inch Philly Cheesesteak for $2.99 which over the radio before I've eaten breakfast sounds mighty good. So thinking I'm being economical, today a co-worker and i went over to Jerry's and took advantage of this "deal". I bought two because it was still slightly cheaper (about $.71) than buying the 8 inch. Thinking about this post-purchase i figured that not only could i have spent nearly the same amount of money for a sub 30% larger than my two combined, but i guarantee it would have been tastier. Upon this realization we (my co-worker and i)started to mentally compare prices of Jerry's (crap-decent food) to any ordinary mom & pop joint (like Mama Mia's or Big Joe's) and you can get more and better pizza from Big Joe's as two slices than you can from Jerry's as a medium pizza and Mama Mia's subs are far superior to Jerry's and 4 inches longer for around the same price....never again. Jerry's is a rip off and for some reason my idiocy makes me angry.

Last i checked (about an hour ago) it was 28 degrees outside, and now with the sun setting I'm preparing to face the cold again. My beard froze on the ride in, kind of weird considering there was no precipitation (you figure that out).

My last two posts had pictures i personally took. A nice change of pace. I'm going to attempt to keep that up.

Shop time

2009-01-14T16:54:00.005-05:00

Finally worked at the shop yesterday evening. They cut hours for the part time guys, so i haven't been there much recently. The title picture is a view of our working area.

One thing i liked about the shop when i first started was the "shop bike". Its kind of like the "shop pet", but in bike form. Also, this bike is a conglomeration of warranty parts and pieces donated, there for making it the "shop mutt". From what I'm told the only part on the bike that has been on every previous "shop bike" is the rickety metal basket mounted on the front (for obvious food transportation from local spots like Mama Mia's or Big Joe's. Mama Mia's for subs, and Big Joe's for pizza).
Needless to say the parts wouldn't conventionally be apart of the same construction but...well there really isn't an excuse. If you happen to take a turn while pedaling, you'll soon find that the wheels and cranks don't belong to that frame, and if you're unlucky you might experience the pain that gravity can inflict.

(There is a better view of that basket.)

Friday's forecast is a high of 22 and a low of 8. oh yeah. I'm so looking forward to that.

Bike Project II

2009-01-13T10:27:00.007-05:00

Last night i stopped by my parent's house just to visit. I needed to go by there regardless of being able to stay and visit or not because i had some stuff to pick up, but i had a bunch of time to kill so my wife and i stayed for a while.

The stuff i had to pick up were two bike frames and a stockpile of wheels and a few other parts like cranks and bottom brackets and such.
(That is my first road bike, which was too small for me and i still rode the crap out of it.)
(This is my dad's racing bike from his HS/College bike. He actually rode it up until about 10 years ago and he bought a new one.)
The first one will be for who ever. But my dad's old frame I'm making for him. It need a bunch of work but i think i can get it put together well and looking great.

With these projects hopefully i can get more people riding. I've also been working on encouraging my wife to start riding a bike to work. Its just barely over 5 miles for her. and it has almost all bike paths the whole way there. and the parts that it doesn't, its a giant *clean* shoulder. So I'll teach her to change a flat and get her hooked up. She probably won't start till there is more sunlight and a bit warmer, but regardless i think this will be great. She's got a little MTB that should work perfectly and if she keeps it up, we can get her something a bit more efficient.

Myself (check)
Darryl (check)
Wife (pending)
Zach (pending)
Sabrina (?)
James (?) (do you own a vehicle? i know you got that VW bus...but a working vehicle?)
Alan (do you ride your bike around, like to class?)
Anyone else?

Good music sounds so much better on headphones. I am listening to Arcade Fire's Neon Bible and i don't believe I've ever listened to this album through headphone. Its quite good, and in fact I'm enjoying it on a completely different level.
(this is not me in the photo, nor anyone i know)

The weather the past two days has been very frigid. Yesterday i got to work and it was 21 degrees and today it was 29 degrees. When i leave the sun hasn't even risen yet so it definitely a bit warmer by the time i reach work. I've been wearing every article of clothing i could find to try and keep myself warm riding in. But despite the extreme cold, I've been performing at a much better level than the past few months.

New Project

2009-01-12T16:40:00.005-05:00

Since buying my fixed gear a while back, many of my friends have asked how they can get one, how much they cost, etc.. And like many other fixie owners i cruise www.fixedgeargallery.com occasionally, well one time i found an interesting contest and the rules are as follows-

Build-Off Rules:
You must start with a complete geared bike - road, mountain, cruiser, etc. This means it must have been at least a 3-speed to begin with, and the finished bike has to have all the parts that a bicycle needs to be ridden. If you dont know what those parts are, then this is your chance to learn.
The bike must be [or have been] purchased used. Please don't use the old: "My Dad gave me an old Hetchins Magnum Opus Mk 3 from the garage." That ain't acceptable.You must use as many original parts as possible.
You cannot spend more than $147.83* US on the ENTIRE build. This includes the purchase price of the bicycle[s]. So shop hard!

Well with that in mind, i saw some of the bikes created and i thought it may be a good idea to try and do the same but for my friends.

Anything to get more people riding bikes. And just maybe i can get people at college campuses interested for a very economical price. Darryl shall help

If you are interested let me know. I start tonight with my old Raleigh.

Winter Weath III: Black Ice

2009-01-08T09:26:00.007-05:00

I hit 40mph behind a bus going uphill. Up till that moment i had only gotten my track bike up to 35mph. It was pretty sick. All in all i had a decent ride today. I kind of fried myself about halfway through but luckily the rest of the way was fairly in my favor, save one short climb a little less than two miles from the end.

The only problem this morning was it was just below freezing and the past two days it has been raining non stop, so the roads were slick. I was pretty careful but i did slip around a couple of times. Lots of black ice everywhere.

My legs are working again, working very well in fact. So i think i'm just going to maintain everything I'm doing at this point. I have a feeling it was vitamins, though. I need to carefully read those ingredients.

There is a joke amongst some of my friends about Michael Bay films, which include:

Armageddon
Transformers
Bad Boys 1 and 2
The Island
The Rock
Pearl Harbor

If you paid attention in your High School English class then you know a plot line or story line goes something like this:
And well the joke is, a Michael Bay movie goes like this:
Enough said.

Sabrina, you should definitely buy the new TV on the Radio album. Specially if you enjoy ANY of their other music at all.

Winter Weather ll

2009-01-07T16:43:00.003-05:00

Equipment to obtain:

Rain Jacket
Fenders
New Gloves (for colder temps)
Tights

I think that about covers it. The past couple of days have been brutal out there. I've actually skipped the last two days of riding due to rain. One was because i didn't want to dirty up the doctors office, but today...i woke up and it was just pouring outside and about 35 degrees...yeah right.

Last time i rode and i it that cold and raining at the same time, i got naked in my front hall of my house. The last time before that, that i was that wet and cold (not riding) was a miserable day in the Great Smoky Mountains.

Regardless, i'm put to shame by Ben who despite all weather conditions rides in, though in a moment here i'm picking him up from the shop to drive him home being that i'm heading his general direction.

I love TV on the Radio...

Variables

2009-01-06T16:41:00.004-05:00

I had an even better ride home. I was close to reaching an avg 21mph. My least favorite stretch happened to be straight into the wind, but i was feeling a bit stronger than the past couple months so i hit it harder and everything worked out nicely...I've been debating on why maybe the loss of power and the gain of power and i changed a few things both times-

Diet

I switched to lots of salads, or less of things like pizza. I cut hamburger and other fatty foods. Relatively no junk food (except pizza).

Vitamins

started taking them and shortly after my power dropped through the floor. my mother-in-law(a nurse) told me if there was metabolism boosters in the vitamins (which i dont know) then it could indirectly effect me, if i'm not eating too much...makes sense in turn with the first variable

Position on bike

i slammed my seat forward the other day which helps but just how much?

With that said i changed all three of those things. I'm still watching my diet but not as strictly. I haven't taken my vitamins in a couple weeks. My position is much better, though my stroke is still jacked up because of my cleat but i'm fixing that tonight

I was about to mount my bike this morning and head out but i had decidedly the night before if it was raining that i wouldn't ride in. Reason being, is because i was going to the doctor's office to have another biopsy done and i thought it might be rude to dirty up their office and chair. Because of this morning i ordered a pair of SKS fenders to eliminate wetness on days when the road is soaked. After much debate i gave in. My buddy's brother has them on his bike, apparently as do many HC commuters. Ben JUST put some on his bike after 6 years of commuting without them. He said he felt stupid for just now realizing the magic these things perform.

Oh, the doctors-
I got 5 stitches in my left forearm, which should have removed all "pre-cancerous" cells.

Again, i LOVE Dear Science by TV on the Radio

Welcome Back...and just in time.

2009-01-05T12:34:00.006-05:00

Cycling
I finally had a nice ride this morning. It was the first time in a long time that i haven't felt like I'm getting on the bike for the first time ever. I added a couple extra turns in my usual route to try and jump up the millage without making a journey down roads i typically avoid. Only they are small gains that really equate to an extra mile or two unfortunately. I'll figure it out soon enough...
Music Review
I picked up TV on the Radio's newest album this afternoon. I attempted to purchase it on Half.com or Amazon.com but both seemed to only save me a small hand full of change and subsequently i would have to wait 3-5 business days or something along those lines. That trade off didn't seem worth it. So i hitched a ride to Bestbuy on my lunch break and purchased it the old fashion way...electronic gift cards. Anyway, onwards to the music portion...The album is very solid. Darryl attempted to allow me to hear it once on our way to Fountainhead MTB Park, but if you know Darryl, you also know he has music ADD with his i-pod. So i heard about 1/3 of a one song and then on to something else.
Again, the album is solid. I won't pronounce them the best new thing or the future of music, or whatever else i deemed them after Return to Cookie Mountain, but i will say they make great music consistently, and its consistently interesting.
Movies
I finished watching Burn After Reading, and despite all that i heard, i enjoyed it immensely. So much so, i would watch it again, probably a few times. It was quite hysterical in a Coen Brother's way. I think the problem most people have with the movie is their perception of what it was supposed to be...Trailers seem to, at times, give people the wrong impression of how a film is supposed to be (i.e. Funny, Sad, Action Packed, etc.).
Take for example: Alien vs. Predator
Most people who have seen the trailer, thought maybe this was an action packed sci-fi thriller, but if you saw the movie you would know that it is quite the opposite...its a comedy. I was under the impression my friends were under the influence when they asked me to go see it with them, not understanding the comedic genius i was about to witness. Upon laughing loudly and hearing the entire theater erupting in the same laughter i realized the trailer had misconstrued what this film really was about.
While this may not have been the best comparison for Burn After Reading's trailer misinterpretation, it will have to suffice. I think people just forget that its a Coen Brother's film. Characters no matter the actor playing them, or how invested you are into certain character, they are all expendable and we'll leave it at that. The ending of the film just makes it that much better. I'd say probably one of their best endings.

Interpol, TV on the Radio, Radiohead, Talking Heads, Gorillaz and Q and Not U.
Burn After Reading, No Country For Old Men, Bottle Rocket, Snatch

Winter Weather

2009-01-02T10:13:00.004-05:00

Holidays are over thankfully

Wednesday's ride was great. I rode in at 630 am in very calm weather. Only to be criticized by my co-workers (like most days) for my "stupidity" on riding in that day, since we were supposed to have wind gusts up to 50mph. Well those gusts happened along with a constant wicked strong wind. I left the bike shop after dropping by for a couple hours of inventory. I got honked at twice followed by a nice guy who waved at me. I chatted with him at the light about idiots that drive cars, commuting, the bike shop, etc. I proceeded on with a gay wave as i passed the guy who honked at me.

I could tell it was super windy, due to the fact that every once in a while i would almost get blown all the way across the lane. Unfortunately i was about to turn straight into the wind. When i did, my little computer started to whimper. I think it may have been embarrassed to be on my bike? Regardless i pressed on. I had noticed earlier some flurries had started to appear but thus far in NOVA we have yet to see some actual snow that has actually stuck around for a while. Well as i continued trudging along the flurry's population grew into almost full on snow. At that moment feeling very Andy Hampsten-esque, so i decided to extend my ride farther. I also dropped by Blockbuster to pick up a movie. Right after that i turned with the wind and my pace increased dramatically.

Into the wind: 8.5mph-10mph (tons'o'effort)
With the wind: 25mph-30mph (no effort)

It was fun.
The movie i got at Blockbuster was Burn After Reading. Thursday morning/afternoon, my wife and i started to watch it. I had heard from many people that this movie sucked, which i took with a grain of salt only because it is by the Cohen Brothers who are notorious for making great movies that a lot of people don't "get" (not saying I do "get" it, but i enjoy their movies none-the-less). In this case, so far I've thoroughly enjoyed the movie, but I've only seen 1/3 of it.

Yesterday my dad and i kept our unusual streak for seeing non-typical Father-Son movies. When i say Father-Son Movies, i think things such as (recent ones) Quantum of Solace, Valkyrie, or (past) Die Hard, The Incredible Hulk, etc. But my dad and i typically change our minds right before we go in and see something else entirely...the (short) list goes as follows in chronological order:

Hotel Rwanda
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Slumdog Millionaire

While you may say,"that's not so unusual." I'd respond, "Why, yes. Yes it is." Generally speaking my Dad isn't very emotional, nor does he typically enjoy quirky movies. So that makes the first two odd, but then Slumdog Millionaire i guess is just so good that anyone can enjoy it. For the record...i cried the entire way through Hotel Rwanda, next to someone who i don't think I've ever seen a tear form.
Slumdog Millionaire is definitely good....Lives up to the hype? That's up to you.

Radiohead is the best.

Holiday Consumption Corruption.

2008-12-31T12:19:00.004-05:00

Holidays are a pain. Both parents live around the corner from each other and one set of my wife's G-rents live less than 20 mins from there. To add to the demand of personal presence i have multiple friends engaging in long trips to the Asian continent just after the 25th; one left Sunday, another yesterday, and the last one today. 2 are going to Iraq and one to India. At this point in time both places have proven fatal. Anyway, on top of the demand of visiting friends and family, there is the added demand of consuming alcohol to make these visits more entertaining or maybe just to get us all through. Regardless though last night was one of the the former, and karma is reminding me that alcohol is fun's credit card, you pay for it later. I'm not a big drinker (not to say i wouldn't like to be if it weren't for all those health risks). And with cycling season quickly approaching (tomorrow is January), the alcohol intake will have to subside. I blame it on the holidays.

On top of increased alcohol %'s in drinks was a decrease in exercise time, and more importantly riding time. I got on the bike once last week and it was for a short jolly ride the neighborhood for 45mins. I couldn't find the means necessary to wear a helmet therefor causing my caution and concern. I did however get out and run 4 times, totaling somewhere around 20 miles. One day was only like 2 miles and that's being generous. Like i said before, the reason for the running, is traveling.

Last night i didn't feel like riding on the rollers when i got home and so i just left the house in the dark. Did some laps around a large loop in our neighborhood with a few intervals just to see how my legs were feeling....they weren't feeling good. A week off the bike (basically) and my legs were terrible. I was happy just to be riding though. I also rode in this morning after two nights of 5 hours or less sleep and a hangover. I thought i was going to vomit a few times. I was also brushed (literally) by an SUV. I tried to chase them down, but they caught the light we were approaching. Idiots.

Thank goodness the Holidays are over after tonight. I might go ride downtown DC tomorrow just for fun. Depends on the wifey-poo and what her plans are.

The bike I'm getting in a couple weeks...

Lace 'em up

2008-12-22T09:34:00.005-05:00

I just had a good week on the bike last week (190miles). Thats good for me right now, specially considering we had weather advisories all last week. I put in another 50+ miles on Saturday. I was aiming for 60 but i got out of the house a little late, 30 mins to be exact. I finished the 50 miles just under 2:40. So i was happy. It was a fun ride. Details in a minute...

Well with Christmas being this week, that means it will be hard to convince my wife to let me go roll around for a few hours on certain days...also with a little holiday trip on the weekend, just long enough that i need to be able to get out and work out, and just short enough that i can't justify bringing the bike. And i imagine there will be a couple days like today where i have to run errands on my lunch break, which means no commuting via bicycle and my rollers are at my parents. So what shall i do....i guess i will do something i vowed never to do again. Run.
I found my running shoes yesterday (and they are @sics, because the only real running shoes are @sics). I'm going to go out for a run tonight. I just hope i don't injure myself. I'm actually looking forward to it, because of all the riding, which is usually just commuting. It gets mentally tiring and a change is good. So if all goes well i shall bring my shoes with me on holiday.

Epic Saturday Ride
Saturday morning i woke up at 6 because i was going to ride to my buddy's(Pete) place about 22 miles away and then go for an hour with him and then meet up Ben at 830 and head to work (A-1 Shop). Well like usual, things don't go as planned. I left at 645 and got there at 8, we left and rode for about 15mins and turned around and headed back towards Ben's. We passed a hand full of other cyclists which is weird because this time of the year a hand full is about how many i see a month. Anyway, on our way back one of the cyclists turned around and chased us down. It was a little odd because i knew who he was, that doesn't happen often. You can find his blog here. We started to chat and he said he would join us for a little while. So we were up to 3 riders and about to pick up Ben. I love riding in groups. So much fun. So we turned onto Ben's street and we were cruising along just fine when a squirrel bolts out in front of us from the left, which isn't the first time i've had a run in with a dumb rodent like that. Well i think this one was an ultra idiot because instead of me just running him over which i was poised to do, he paused for a half a milisecond and then lunged forward right into my spokes, subsequently whipping him counter clockwise into my front fork...and then somehow ricocheting out and into my crank...i looked back and saw his leg twitching in the air. Its not the sight i was wanted...

Like i said we arrived at the shop just under 2:40. Along the way Ben tried multiple track stands, one of the many screw off things we do on our rides, which are composed of tons of fun. Pete and District Cycling peeled off much earlier and returned home.

So yes i killed a squirrel. i felt bad.

For my wife's christmas present she is getting two kittens.
James i know you're not a fan of cats, but my wife is, so...yeah.

i'm excited to go running tonight!

Bosses Desk...

2008-12-19T16:31:00.002-05:00

A little much right?

He's from Minnesota if you didn't gather that.
Also, i'm really not a master of mspaint, but i did figure out how to make text 3-D which is cool. The result is in the previous post...the before is-
I definitely like mine better.

adios for the weekend! Go Philly!

BONK

2008-12-19T10:31:00.004-05:00

I took a new route this morning and i was super excited because for the past few weeks I've completely sucked at cycling and i found that my cleats were maladjusted so i basically pedaling from the middle of my foot. My cycling skills not only suck in the dept of speed and endurance but also maintenance and style (including riding position).

Regardless though, i was hopeful that this could cure my inability to hold a decent pace. So i proceeded forward this morning excited only to continue my slothfulness. I kept pushing forward harder and i took a new road (Catharpin) because it adds a few extra miles onto my route and its less travel by cars. I was feeling strong on all the little hills i climbed but overall i just couldn't hack it. Finally i made another attempt to bolt up a small short climb and right at the top i died. I went gasping for air and i slowed to a running pace. I gained a slight increase in speed but i bonked. I am very familiar with the feeling. At first i thought maybe it was that little climb? But no, every time i thought i could gather momentum, my body reminded me of its lack of energy.

My diet lately has been one of frugality (wow that's actually a word...weird). My diet includes things like chicken salads, black beans and rice with chicken, a light burrito (not eating the whole thing), turkey subs, turkey sandwiches, whole grain cereal, occasionally a few fig newtons or triscuts, and lots of water. I'm still losing weight and I'm thinking my riding performance is a result of my change in diet a little while back. Maybe i should cool it on shedding pounds. I've lost 35lbs since i started this blog. that's a lot. I'm below 180 in the nude, about 180 or 183 fully clothed.
(I'm becoming masterful with mspaint)

Today is my office's Secret Santa day. I got my immediate boss which he's easy. I think he literally has 30 black bears on his desk (I'll take a picture to prove it)...its kind of unbelievable unless you see it. It might even be 34 but i can't remember if that's counting the pictures around too.
Anyway, everyone in the office is playing Christmas music, its awesome. I'm not though. Still switching between Fiona Apple and Bon Iver (which coincidentally means Good Winter so its kind of Christmas music?). Bon Iver will always remind me of a wild Monday...pretty awesome day and Dan and Darryl have proof on their phone and they weren't even there. go figure.

My title pictures will change but the style will stay the same. I took some silly pictures of Zack in Micheal's last week. they make me smile. i hope they do the same for you.

Da Da da DAAAAAAAA

2008-12-18T15:49:00.005-05:00

Before:
After:
The changes are pretty obvious...Handlebars and brakes. I also replaced the tires with Specialized Armadillo's, i added Light and Motion Headlight and a crazy blinky tail-light.
I need to work on it a little bit. I work at the bike shop Saturday, so I'll have a bit of time then.

I found a new love...
As some of you know, I'm an unofficial Netflix promoter, a Redbox whore, and from time to time in moments of desperation i visit blockbuster and keep the movie until they threaten my credit card with an overpriced amount in exchange. Well thanks to Darryl I've discovered borrowing movies from the local library which has a decent selection. Last night they didn't have any good movies in, BUT they had some decent CD's in...one of which was Fiona Apple's Extraordinary Machine:
With the Library being void of a good selection at that time i proceeded over to the nearest redbox and picked up Traitor, staring Don Cheadle and Guy Pierce among others. Rottentomatoes appears to be always correct in their "Consensus" which stated:

Despite another reliable performance from Don Cheadle, Traitor suffers from too many cliches and an unfocused narrative.

I would say that's nearly 100% true of Traitor.

Sick day...

2008-12-15T12:19:00.004-05:00

today I'm taking a break from making bombs at Lockheed. I'm playing hooky. Except i still got up pretty early, so that i could meet Ben on his ride into work.

It was pretty brutal out. I got out on the bypass and there was a nice big head wind, which means until i see Ben and get to turn around its all into the wind for me. We passed each other around 14.5 miles out, so i did a U-E (how do you type that out?). The difference in effort-to-result was astounding...went from like 15-17 mph to 27-29. ugh. Unfortunately i can't pedal that fast because of my lacking more than one gear ratio and its a small one at that. Anyhow, Ben and i screwed around taking turns leaving each other in the dust, though with his bigger gear and the nice tail wind we had, he had a much bigger advantage. It was definitely fun though.

We got to the bike shop and since i had WAY overdressed, i pulled everything off and grabbed a water bottle and left. I was freezing for a bit but it was much better than before when i was sweating like a pig. Its currently super nice outside despite the wind. So i was out in shorts and a jersey...no arm warmers, no knee warmers, no shoe covers, etc. So nice, except for the wind. I went back into the wind after a couple miles and that remained until the last 2 miles which had its share of nasty gusts for crosswinds.

It ended with 50 miles at around 2:45 maybe 2:40. My time on the comp didn't reset, only miles did. But i know about how long i rode yesterday.

I need to do that once or so a week. That was only my second time riding that far (first time on single speed). I feel happy.

Leaving here shortly (one to pick up my winter gear that i left at the shop) and two, to go to my buddies place so we can start our journey to Philly to see Bon Iver!
To hear his music, you can visit here- http://hypem.com/artist/bon+iver

You should have come Darryl...I'll buy you a t-shirt.