Bier en modder

For a week that was supposed to be an off-week, it sure as hell didn’t feel like it.  Lots of background noise going on that made it hard to feel settled and relaxed; rental property stuff, oodles of work, random family things like people being sick, etc.

Oh yeah, plus I had a non-existent birthday on Tuesday….more like a Happy Un-Birthday if you will.  I hadn’t even had time to catch up on that.

Bought myself a nice treat of Patron Añejo Friday.  That was dumb.  That shit is so good.  Reminds me of the time I talked a Peets barista out of a sample of 100% Kona coffee.  Made everything else taste like Folders for a week after that.

Back to my birthday…like I said, it got a little glossed over.  Rachel had her first neighborhood meeting as president that night.  I had to check out a tenant at 10 pm too.  So we made a quick dinner, I took care of the kids while Rach was out, talked to the fam on the east coast for a bit, and then enjoyed a riveting game of Indiana Jones Lego on the laptop until 10 pm.  I was too busy to recognize it at the time but at the week wore on, I feel a little cheated.

Moving on to ‘cross.

Rest week before the final push to Crusade finals and USGP.  Barton - PIR - Wash. Co.  I’m a fan of Barton.  I’ve always done relatively well there.  I’m looking forward to that.  I hope the run-up in the back of the course is still there.

Finally heard back from Schwalbe.  They’re looking into my warrantly claim but did note that they’re out of the Racing Ralph tubulars until next spring.  In some ways, I’m ok with that.  At least I won’t wait around for it.  I should get Fangos on Monday at the team meeting and can glue them up to the Eastons for the rest of the season.

My dad asked me on Tuesday if, at 38, I’m starting to feel a little old.  Seeing as I regularly get my ass handed to me by 40+ year olds on the cross course, I’d have to say no.  I still feel as excited and energetic about stuff as I did when I was 28.  I just feel a little smarter about how to handle my body in terms of level of exertion and recovery.  I told him to talk to me in 10 years and I may have a different answer.  Seems like 50 is the new 40.

And then there’s beer.

Looking ahead, cross season isn’t all that far away from being done for the winter.  I’m already thinking about the brewing I’ll do over the winter.  I set up another page to put brewing related stuff there; recipes, brewing logs, and whatever else I can think of.

I’m going to order a new 14 gallon fermenter which will allow me to move back up to 10 gallon batches.  It’s something I’ve wanted for years.  Takes the same time as 5 gallons but I double the capacity.  I’ve just never had a stable and sanitary fermenter for that batch size.  So I finally saved enough allowance money to take the plunge.  I’ll order it so I can hopefully get a brew in between Cross finals and USGP.


Homebrew meeting last night, hosted as it is every October at Hair of the Dog brewing.  It’s maybe a mile from my house so I just hopped on the bike and coasted down the hill.

Good times all around.  The OBC is a pretty large club, usually around 150+ members.  It’s a decent club.  Probably my only gripe is that a noticeable percentage of the members are basically there to drink beer and don’t have that much to do with actually brewing it.  A more appropriate title would be ‘beer appreciation club’.

Anyway…Alan Sprints, the brewmaster, is a fantastic host and opens up his taps for us.  Basically everything he currently sells is on tap is there for sampling.  Although I’ve had them all before in bottle, kegged beer is usually better.  So I had a little 4-6 oz taster of each.  Adam, Fred, Blue Dot, Doggie Claws, and Fred from the Wood.  I think that was all of them.  So delicious.

I don’t go to many meetings any more.  Caught up with some guys that I like talking with.  Sold some very old hops to another member who needs them to brew up a lambic. There’s a limit to how much you can talk about beer though, so I took off after a couple hours.

On the way out I talked to another member, Dan, who is heading up to Hood River to pick up a bin of apples to press in to cider.  Apparently the bins are $150 for 600# of apples.  He said his yield is about 50 or so gallons, or roughly $3 a gallon.  Some he ferments, the rest the family drinks as cider.  Sounds pretty good to me.  I was interested because I’ve got around 100# or so of apples to press pretty soon.  I’m skipping Astoria so maybe next weekend.

Pretty quiet on the cycling front.  I’ve got a call into Schwalbe on the Racing Ralph tubular that popped last weekend.  The casing got separated from the base tape.  I’m not sure if that cause the pop or was a result of it.  With only 10 miles on it, I figured I’ve give them a shout.

Been gluing up a Grifo on the Ultegra/Reflex rear wheel for this weekend until I hear back from Schwalbe.  Apparently the team also has Fangos coming in.  If I read the e-mails correctly, our original order of Grifos is backordered so they offered Fangos as a replacement.  Hmm, let me think that over for a sec…(wait for it)…(wait for it)…well, ok.  I suppose I can settle for Fangos.  I will be starting rain dance practice next week, weather permitting.

Didn’t get a buzz on last night but it is the end of a 3 week cycle for me.  I went to bed and woke up pretty pooped, so I skipped the early morning ride.  Sets of 20, 30, 45, and 60 second sprints didn’t seem like it would sit well today.

Happy fall solstice. Equinox (thanks for the correction).

Got an off-week this week.  Very much needed.  Saunas and hot tubs galore.  Time to get things in order before October.

Team picnic yesterday.  Picked up the new Castelli kit.  New colors (no more ‘Laker Girls’ comments).  New graphics.  New team car.  We got totally pimped out.  Sweet.  The Castelli stuff feels a bit weird walking around in it but once you get in riding position on the bike, everything fits like it should.  The shorts are, um, shorter.  Lots of moderately unsightly tan lines visible.  All in all, pretty excellent gear.  I appreciate that they left a black panel in front so we don’t have the sausage-fest appearance colored shorts can get.

Also picked up the new wheels and Schwalbe Racing Ralph tubulars.  Now these are worth getting excited about.  35mm size with a fair amount of volume in the tube.  I’m hoping it’ll give my fat ass a little more cushion on the bumpier sections.  Tread looks good, seems a little tight for shedding mud though.  We’ll see.  I hope to have them ready for this weekend.  It’d be great if the ground got softened up a bit over the week.

I’ve already set aside my post-race beers for the season.  It’s a mix of Hair of the Dog (Doggie Claws ‘04, ‘05, ‘06, ‘07 and Fred from the Wood ‘07), Sierra Nevada Bogfoot ‘05, ‘06, ‘07, and Deschutes (Abyss ‘07 and Black Butte XX).  I don’t know in what order I’ll have them but I’m sure it’ll all work itself out.  Sometimes I’ll stand in front of them and the right beer magically appears in my hand.  You can call me the Beer Whisperer.

Starcrossed was this weekend.  From what I heard and read, it got a little slick up there.  It brings me back to the ugly lessons of last weekend - be prepared for anything.

The week hasn’t started all that well.   I spent a little time Monday and Tuesday trying to coax the powertap back to life. Turns out it wasn’t the battery - although I replaced it anyway.  So I replaced the hub and chest strap batteries since it didn’t seem to be able to pick up a signal.  Nope.  Nada.

Called Saris and spoke with tech support;

“You do this?”
“Yep.”
“How about this…?”
“Yep”
“Well, did you see this on the screen”
“Yep”
“Hmmm, you have another powertap handy that you can check the signal against”
Yes, of course, I have them coming out of my ass, “Um, No, I don’t”
“Well, that doesn’t sound good.  We’ll need to look at both the hub and the head unit. Go ahead and send it back to us”

So that’s where we’re at.  It’s not the end of the world.  My bike is good.  I’m healthy.  Everyone’s doing well.  It’s all good.  I was, however, really enjoying using it and was thinking about covering up the unit’s power readout with black tape to avoid getting analysis paralysis during rides.  Ultimately, it comes down to how you feel when you’re riding.  I’ve been riding long enough to know that I’m pushing as hard as I can on a 20 minute interval.  I don’t need to know how much power I’m putting out to feel that.  So it’s on it’s way back to Wisconsin.

What else.

Called Merrill Lynch to get an old rollover IRA transfered to my regular one.  30 minutes and 4 transfers later, I was told that I couldn’t.  Apparently the address change I submitted 2 years ago never got entered.  So they were getting statements bounced back from my old address and subsequently put my account on hold.  It now needs to be reactivated before they can do anything.  I hate Merrill Lynch.

I’m on a roll now.

You know, I’ve been slowly coming to an uncomfortable conclusion that I really, really, really dislike other bike commuters.  It’s been building for some time now and I think this summer it’s coming to a head.  We hear commonly that drivers feel that most cyclists ignore the rules of the road.  In my opinion, I think that’s a pretty fair statement.  The shit that I see people do on bikes - day in and day out - sometimes defies logic and explanation.

I think the Portland area drivers have been becoming adjusted to bikes on the road for some time now.  We belong.  And while it’s not the same everywhere, I see and hear less of cyclists getting swerved at or honked at & told to get off the road.  Again, this is not a universal statement but it’s just what I see when and where I ride (east side, west hills, Clackamas Co).  Your mileage, especially in the ‘burbs or up in Vancooter, may vary.

But…I do see and hear far more anger and tension from drivers from people on bikes doing dumb shit.  Blowing lights & stop signs.  Swerving in and out of traffic.  Crap like that.  And while I try not to let it bother me, sometimes it does.  The drivers that I rely on to give me a little extra space or consideration is starting to feel they no longer want to anymore.  In some cases, it’s getting hostile.

I’m probably in the minority where I follow all the rules of the road.  Really.  I don’t clip out & foot down but I do stop & track stand for a split second before moving on even when no one’s around.  I’m even more anal when I have my team kit on.  Doesn’t cost any time but I do know that more often than not, it gets me waved through by any other cars in the area.  I guess I just don’t understand why it’s so hard to just…stop.

I’m not really sure where I’m headed with this although I could write about it for hours.  I certainly don’t have a solution.  I wish I did.  Education?  Stricter enforcement with steeper fines?  I don’t really know.

Whew.  Moving on to the little stuff…

It’s hot.  And being the delicate flower that I am, it’s a little rough on me.  Enough of this 90’s shit.  Gimmie 60’s and 70’s and I’ll be happy.  I don’t like hot.

All of my taps at home are dry.  I need to put a call in to Belmont Station to see what they have.  Aside from the “Pssssst” of a flat tire, there are fewer depressing sounds I know of than a sputtering blown keg.

Lastly, I’m out of coffee here at work.  Great.  I can’t believe it’s only Wednesday.  I gotta go.

Seems like we’re heading into the thick of summer here. The lawns are all drying out. The garlic is harvested. Tomatoes are just shifting from dark to pale green. And the Oregon Brewers Festival was last weekend.

Also, August is just around the corner. Shit…August? Really? Like every other year, I wonder where the hell my summer went. What *have* I been doing? Riding? Check. Camping? Check. BBQs? Check.

While I’m trying to enjoy the moment, I’ve tried to make time to look ahead. The garden is planned out for the fall and winter. Plantings have already started for the fall stuff like cauliflower, spinach, lettuce & carrots. The winter stuff is going in over the next couple weeks. The new hot tub has been deep-cleaned and is full and ready for the cooler late summer and fall evenings that, realistically, aren’t all that far away.

Cycling, well, more specifically ‘cross, got me thinking about the fall way further in advance than I have in year’s past. I’m very thankful for it. I remember very clearly the past couple fall’s where I’d be starting at some empty raised beds, wishing for something – anything – to pick and eat. Or shaking my head at the teeny little seedlings that weren’t planted soon enough going dormant in the alternating crisp/wet October weather. I’m ready for it this year which feels good.

The catalyst for all of that was that I’ve been thinking about and approaching the fall race season with far more respect, planning, and discipline than I ever have. The races will be longer. The field will be much faster. I figure if I repeat last year’s training effort, it’ll be good for somewhere in the middle of the A35+ group. Unfortunately I want more than that. I simply don’t have enough miles on my legs over my short 2 year career to just show up and do well. So while I’ve put in fairly solid tempo at first and gradually added lactate work over the past few months, I feel it’s been rewarding work.

A big part of it was splurging on the used power tap wheel this spring. You can pooh-pooh them all you want but when you start seeing numbers go up and see yourself respond to training with more strength and endurance…well, I’m just saying it’s a huge carrot to stick in front of yourself as you ride. I like to consider myself somewhat of a nerd (engineer) and a motivated athlete so interpreting the data has been pretty easy. Needless to say, I’ve been drinking the Power Tap Kool-Aid.

With that, I’m ready to make a strong run at OUCH this weekend. I’m also feeling more charged up for the next phase which starts after this week’s rest week. No matter how you sugar-coat it, setting out on a ride to do anaerobic or VO2 max work – whether it’s 85°F & sunny out –50°F and raining – or pitch black and you’re indoors on a trainer - is suckalicious. It’s ugly but oh so very necessary. I’ve been talking about it for a couple weeks now but. Just. Haven’t. Done it.

Turned out to be a pretty nice day afterall.  The clouds mostly broke as I was out for a lunch ride of intervals up through the zoo.  Still, I’ve had a little chill that I haven’t been able to shake.  I’m not sure if it’s a cold or severe allergies.  Either way, I’m not feeling that hot.  Rest week next week.  Right on time.

I’m on the fence whether I should go Nuclear with Sudafed Allergy.  And it’s not that wimpy Oregon stuff either.  Pure white Washington-grade psuedoephedrine.

Heading to the coast for a long weekend with the fam.  I may try to squeeze in an easy recovery ride tomorrow morning before we go.  Hopefully I’ll be able to get a ride in Saturday from Cape Meares down to Pacific City.  Looks like temps in the 60’s and mostly sunny.

I’m obviously skipping TOE 50 this weekend.  My thumb, still not 100% from the Mudslinger crash, can’t handle 4+ hours on a MTB with SRAM trigger shifters.  Bummer.

It’s now May and perhaps, just perhaps, La Nina will let go and give us something resembling spring.

So what’s new…

I’ll most likely be taking May off from racing.  First, my right hand is a long ways from being 100%.  I’m getting it worked on now but I know from the riding I have done that a lot of pressure, like from a sprint, is not possible yet.  Second, we’ve got some work around the house to do that will keep me busy for most, if not all, the weekends in May.  I’d love to be able to sneak out for something like Bear Springs but odds are that I’ll have to pass.

Off-road racing isn’t all that much of an option anyway as my eggbeaters are on their way back to Crank Bros. in CA.  I’ve had them a year and a half so they snuck in under the 2 year warranty.  I’m a little concerned because I don’t thrash them that much and certainly don’t use them on a day to day basis.  I may look into different options for cross.  I hear Time pedals/clips work ok.  We’ll see.

Even though I’m not racing, a smart person would be banking miles for TOE 50.  A smarter person would also be getting their ass to Alpenrose during the week for Track Development.  More on that later.

It’s rags to riches with beer lately.  A slew of brewing in April, a few 2-a-days, have me with a pretty exciting inventory of beer for the summer; ipa, imperial ipa, imperial red, stout, porter, pilsner, and a low-gravity bitter.  More beer, combined with the new nitro creamer tap I picked up last month, will make for a hopalicious summer.

The bitter just finished fermenting under the Pacman yeast from Rogue.  Ideally I’d be repitching this yeast once or twice more because yeast is pretty expensive.  I need to think if I have time to brew.  Not every beer is suitable for the nitro tap so I need to pick a decent style or two.  An ESB and a nut brown ale are sounding good right now.

After the Mudslinger crash, my dad noted “You’re not having that great a start to your season, are you?”.  No.  No I am not.  After May, I do hope that I enter short track season fairly healthy, relatively rested, and motivated for cross training in the heat of the summer.  I have the feeling I’ll be needing to put a little extra time to stay competitive up in Master A’s.  I haven’t set a goal for cross yet except ‘go faster’.  Duh.

Had a Brew Crew meeting last night. It was supposed to be at Hopworks but got moved. Hopworks is crazy busy right now and it seemed to me a bit foolish to jam 120+ OBC members in there to stink up the joint. The Prez made a last minute change back to our usual meeting place, Steinbarts. It’s a good thing we don’t have smell-o-vision on the Internets because nearly half the membership soiled their pants when they heard. It was a pretty low-key meeting. I would have skipped it if I didn’t need to pick up free ingredients for a couple batches this weekend.

I’m pretty glad we’re getting a little break from the wet. Wednesday was just about my tipping point. Soaked on the way in. Soaked on my noon lunchtime ride (complete with flat tire). Soaked on the way home. The hot tub heater pump gave up the ghost last week and it’s on it’s way back to CA for warranty repair, so I’ve got no love there either.

But things are looking up though:

I have a Forest Park lunchtime ride planned today, which should be delightful especially with the weather forecast. I’d like to get out to do FR 3. I’ll stop by Fat Tire on the way back in to pick up a middle chainring. I really hope that’s the source of the chain suck I’ve been having in muddy conditions.

I got my nitro regulator and tap in, getting me 2/3’s of the way towards having ales on nitro. A goal for the weekend is to find a tank. There’s an AirGas not too far from my place in SE. I’ll try there first.

Rach’s mom will likely take the kids for a night next weekend, possibly clearing me for Mudslinger that Sunday.

Plus, it’s supposed to be a nice weekend.

And lastly, thanks to YouTube, I’ve finally come across an old favorite commercial of mine: The Coffee Achievers!

As of 7 am this morning, there was a little squall moving in.  Looking out my window at work now (7:45), it looks like it’s here.  The forecast for the next week on NOAA has better than 50% chance of rain.  For those of you who were considering planting your tomatoes and basil this weekend, I’d reconsider.

Ingrid was barfy the past couple days, so it was my turn to stay home with her.  Apparently a bug has been going around her preschool.  Great.  I think I washed the top 3 layers of skin off my hands throughout the day.  She was mostly better yesterday so with the nice weather we went out to do some errands.

We ended up at River City to look for a tire for this weekend (Hornings).  I checked Fat Tire Farm earlier in the week.  They had a decent selection but nothing just right.  They had plenty of UST (which I don’t have), huge DH tires, and a small selection of 29′ers.  They had a bunch of straight 26″ but like I said, nothing really grabbed my eye.

Bike Gallery had maybe 8-10 tires total for anything resembling XC racing or training.  River City had a fair selection.  After a few minutes of comparing, I ended up with the Michelin A/T.  I was hoping for the Mud but they didn’t carry it.

Kris Schamp noted earlier in the week that the course wasn’t that muddy so I’m hoping the A/T’s work.  With rain in the forecast, who knows.  FR1 in Forest Park was fairly soft and loose on Tuesday.  I’ll bring a couple of my extras.  I’ve got a front Velociraptor lying around.  Not the fastest tire in the world but it works.  I forget the others.  Anyway, I’m going to try to get there early and look at the course.

So to finalize my prep for Sunday, I made sure my excuses were in order:

1. Significant recent component change (switch from grip shifters to new SRAM X.9 trigger shifters): Check
2. Erratic and slightly disorganized early-season training schedule: Check.
3. First race of the year: Check.
4. Upgrade to new category (sport to expert): Check.

I’d say everything is in order.  I’ll check back in Sunday or Monday with the details.

I thought about riding this weekend.  Then I just sat quietly and after a couple minutes it went away.  Whew.  That was a relief.

The long-awaited (feared) beer increase will be heading our way very shortly.  Word on the street is that $5 pints aren’t that far off in the future.

The hype over Deschutes Abyss seems to have subsided.  Bottles were going for $40 to 50 on Craigslist and E-Bay.  Some jackass had a case for $600.  Yes, that’s a 400+% markup.

There’s a couple ways to approach this.  First - it’s just beer.  I mean, come on.  Second - since the start of the microbrew revolution 15-odd years ago, beer nerds have been clamoring for ‘respect’ from the general beverage industry, particularly the wine nerds.  It’s an uphill battle at best.

Personally, I don’t think that a vast majority of beer has the year-to-year variance in taste and quality that wine does.  Brewers, at least in the US, strive for consistency, year in and year out.  Wineries get their grapes and make the best wine out of it they can, regardless of whether its a good year or a bad year.  Beer, on the other hand, doesn’t suffer as much from the random, seasonal fluctuations in growing conditions.  The Bridgeport IPA I drink tomorrow will probably taste pretty close to the first one I had when I moved to town 10 years ago.  Not exact but close.

I appreciate the direction that some breweries are going in to make distinctly unique products.  The Bourbon-barrel craze of late is one.  Take an extra strong beer, preferably one that isn’t regularly available, age it in barrels and then package it as a limited edition.  Great.  You’ve created a one-time product that people will now realize that once it’s gone, it’s gone.

Anyway, I’ve added my case of Abyss to the cellar along with all the others.  My tentative plan is 1 or 2/year.