For simple colds, you can suck down green tea and echinacea until you pee green but over the past couple years, I’ve found nothing beats a sauna to speed up recovery.  From what I’ve read, the sauna is burning it out, not unlike what your body does when it gives itself a fever.  Plus it feels good to just flush your system out.  Whatever it is, it works.

I’m hoping to be at least back to 90% by Saturday.  I’m optimistic of that if I head in for another long sweat today.  My fitness is down a bit but I’ve spent the season learning Form = Fitness x Rest.  I was in better shape than last year but was always tired.  I’ve spent a little time on the bike since Hillsboro trying not to lose too much.  We’ll see how it goes.

Looks like the course will be on the drier side than last year.  No chance of rain until Sunday and that’s a ‘maybe’ as of today.  Should be cool too.  I’m ok with cool, even cold.  Cold is good for me.

One of the many bummers about the cold is that the Holiday Ale Fest is downtown this week and weekend.  Lots of good stuff there.  I had thoughts of going over after work each night for a quick taste or two before heading home.  I’ll think about that later in the day.

After the race, it’ll be time to break down the bike and put it away for the winter.  I’m strongly thinking about having Jacob Rathe clean it.  I’ve heard nothing but good things about the work he’s done.

Also sort of up in the air about a new bike next year.  Not ‘if’ but ‘which one’…road or mtb.  I’m about 90/10 towards the mtb based on a) my existing mtb is running like a beat up 1988 Dodge K car.  Not good.  b) I can probably squeeze one last good year out of the Lemond.  And c) Presto has a lot of off-road riders.  I’d like to race more with them.

Based on that, we had a meeting last week to look & hear about the new rides.  More than a few of us were looking hard at the Anthem X2.  All XT.  4″ of travel.  Solidly made.  I’m having a hard time thinking that I need any more ‘bike’ than that as it’s a steep jump to XTR or SRAM X.0 and better brakes & shocks.

Anyway, there’s tons of fun stuff going on.

First is the delightful Kolsch I made Sunday.  First brew in the new fermenter which is very exciting.  It’ll take a couple brews to work out how best to use it.  For now though, it’s a champ.

The beer itself should come out great.  I hit all the target temperatures, didn’t abuse it during transfers, stayed clean through the cooling, and pitched plenty of yeast.  I even dumped the cold break.

For now, it’s set in the garage with the temp. controller on 56-58°F.  My work is largely done so it’s all up to the yeast.  I’m trying a forced ferment in the basement on about 200 mL to quickly find the final gravity.  I’ll use that to determine when the main ferment is done.

For the most part, my brewing techniques haven’t changed much.  It’s been about 9 months since I brewed last and since then I’ve read a few of the newer books on the subject and also picked up the new fermenter.  I’m trying out a few new things here to see if they make the process any easier or more predictable.   But basically, the bottom line is if any of these changes will produce a better beer.  We’ll see in a few weeks, maybe by the holidays.

Next is a bunch of basketball.  Owen and I are going to a couple games coming up.  First is the Blazers next Friday.  He got a free ticket from the Summer Reading Program through the library so I just needed to pay for mine.  The seats aren’t great but it’ll still be fun.  If we’re too far up, we’ve got the Jumbotron to watch although Greg Oden’s head should be easy enough to see without it.  All I can think of is So I Married an Axe Murderer.  HEAD!  MOVE!

The one I’m really excited about is the one in Seattle: UConn / Gonzaga.  Both will likely stay ranked in the top 5 assuming UConn can run the dreaded Buffalo and Stony Brook gauntlet and the Zags can get through Indiana, WSU and Arizona.  Owen and I will take the train up and back.  Should be a really fun day.

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.


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!