Bier en modder

Back from a week trip to Disney World.  After a week off the bike walking around the parks for about 6+ hours a day eating absolute crap for food, I’m not feeling so healthy.  Ugh.

It reminds me of a) how absolutely disgusting strip drive food (chilisgoldencorralromanosmacaronigrillpizzeriaunoolivegarden) can be.  Stupendously amazing.

And b) how good our food and tap water is here in Portland.  One of the first things I did after getting off the plane at PDX was to take a 5 minute drink at the water fountain.  So good.  Shortly after I had a garden salad.  It’s time to get the mail back on schedule.

The trip itself was good.  My family is good.  Disney was good.  Actually, it was better than good.  There isn’t anything else in the world like Disney.  And most importantly the kids had a real good time.  Owen and Ingrid are now officially roller coaster fans.  I love it.  Kudos all around.

The trip also was kind of a symbolic end of the summer.  We came back to temps in the low 80’s/upper 70’s.  Overcast.  The garden is slowly starting to fade.  Apples on the tree are about ready.  Pumpkins are mostly orange.  Plus school starts for the kids next week.  And, oh yes, cross training starts up full.

I’ve already registered for USGP (Sunday only).  I’ve got my training plan (in pencil) set up for the fall and lists of stuff to take care of before the season starts in full: tune-ups, wheels to be laced and glued, new cables and bar tape, bearings to be inspected and greased.  Exciting.  I like the occasional night in the garage with the music on and a beer while I work on one little item or another.  It’s fun.

Anyway, that’s where we’re at for now.  I don’t anticipate anything terribly interesting until late September when the training really picks up.

Man, it’s been a while. I think Facebook is killing the blog.  We’ll see how this fall plays out though.  There’s plenty of well-written race reports and witty commentators to go around…and sarcasm never goes out of style.

The summer season ended fantastically (is that a word?).  I did my first TOE 50, finishing well…for me at least…in just over 5 hours, despite the ridiculously painful cramps during hour 3.  Things looked good until then with a 2:20 split but the legs unraveled during that second long climb of the loop.  Maybe next year but probably not if it’s Father’s Day.

Remarkably, I didn’t get hurt.  I think I need to start adding this to my response when people ask me how I do.  “I came in 15th and best of all, I didn’t injure or seriously maim myself!”.

In a virtual 180° change of racing styles, short track started the next day.  I skipped the first one but did the rest.  The first short track is just…just…rude.  That’s all.  35 minutes of intense racing.  The first two from this year I finished and thought “Good God, what just happened?”.  It’s way shorter than PIR.  Shorter than a crit.  A bit longer than Tabor but without the rest on the downhill.  Shorter than a cross race but way, way bumpier and ’sprintier’ (another made up word).  Oh yes, plus the dust.

My goal for STXC was just to finish the summer season strong.  Race hard.  Stay positive.  Improve bike handling skills and racing technique.  Most of all, enjoy racing again.  Stuff I can take and build on the the fall cross season.

By all accounts, I’d say it was a success.  I started slow for the first 3 races and really turned it on for the last 3.  I thoroughly enjoyed racing the Anthem, really making an effort to push it, which, on a side note, is an incredibly fast xc bike.  Really.

So STXC ended with me feeling very motivated for this coming season, probably more so than when I won the B35+ a couple years back.  I have a season of A35+ behind me so I know what to look forward to.  I know I’m heading into this season with a far, far stronger base than last year.  The importance of that can’t be understated given the rate and depth which I unraveled at the end of last year.

So no races for a while.  I’ve got Disney World next week (“Hey, I’ve got a great idea…lets go to Florida during the hottest and most humid time of year for a family vacation!!!  Did I mention it’s hurricaine season?”).  I took a rest week after ST and reset training back to endurance/tempo base work to give myself a little break.  I’ll start slowly ramping up once I get back from the House of Mouse.  There’s a long way to go until Nationals in December.

I’m sick.  Head cold with ridiculously raw sinuses.  Started Tuesday and got pretty bad that night and the next morning.  Slept like absolute crap.  Took a long sauna Wednesday during lunch which helped incredibly.

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.

On paper, this could have been a better race for me; flat, long mud bog sections, and a nice long stretch on tarmac/gravel road.  The energy that the crowd and drum corps brought was incredibly motivating.  Ever since my days of ultimate, I really love playing in front of a crowd and I usually rise to the occasion.

Whether I did well or not, the course was impressive.  Straight start that led out to the back where about 100m of what can only be described as mashed potatoes mud waited.  Over the vault – over a couple barriers – through the Yakima bubble arch and up the hill & 4 barriers through the windmill.  Down and around an off-camber section off the hill to a short flat and then another unrideable off camber turn down and up to turn back in.  Go off-camber (again) around the windmill hill and to the asphalt straightaway by the finish.

What is strangely missing in that description is any semblance of a break.  The course was non-stop, start to finish.  We’re always driving hard throughout the race but for me at least, there’s always a section or two that ’seem’ easier.  Maybe those sections just play to my strengths.  I don’t know.  What I do know is that on the first lap I felt like I got mentally knocked back on my heels during that mud bog and never really recovered.  I felt like I spent the rest of the race just trying to hang on.

For the race, I got points last week so I was able to line up in about the 3rd to 4th row.  Off the start, I think I settled in around 20th or so leading up to the mud.  There was a little down and up leading into the mud.  How many laps did we do?  6?  Well, it took me 5 laps to finally figure out what gear to be in and how to approach that section.  Whomever was heckling me by that section did a very impressive job.  Really.  I mean that with all sincerity and respect.  It’s tough to heckle properly.  It’s sarcastic but funny.  It’s critical without being insulting.  It’s degrading while hinting at encouragement.  Miss one of those and you risk sounding like an ass.  So like I said, they did really well back there.

Back to the race…Over the next lap or 2 I’d moved up a little bit, maybe to 15th.  Doug Evans and Martin Baker were in sight, maybe 10-20 seconds ahead.  About 6 or 8 sports were between us.  I wanted desperately to catch up but just couldn’t get my legs under me to bridge the gap.  I thought I’d be able to make up ground on the asphalt or the mud but each lap they slipped away. After the race, Martin said he was thinking he’d be losing ground through the mud but he was passing people regularly.  I told him I thought I’d be gaining spots through there but I didn’t.  It was like bizarro mud.

By about the midpoint in the race, I was approaching damage control mode.  I don’t have it in me today to pick up any more spots…I just didn’t want to lose any more.  BTW, to everyone along the course that was cheering me on, thanks.  It really helps.  I’m sorry that I can’t look up from the course to acknowledge it but I definitely hear it.

About lap 4, Trebon passed me in an orange blur, churning out 6:30 laps.  About a lap later a few more A’s passed me and then  Sean Babcock and Solomon Woras.  Solomon pulled a dick move, cutting me off on the gravel road after the windmill hill.  There was 2 good tracks on the gravel road and it looked like he was sucking Babcock’s wheel hard.  In trying to stay on and out of the loose gravel area, he cut over to the track I was on and we rubbed tires.  There was no other traffic and nothing else in the way.  He could have very easily taken the other path.  It wasn’t a dangerous move but just a dick move.  That’s all I’ll add about that.

The race was mercifully cut a little short to get the SS race off in time, which only helped me.  Now, a day later, I honestly feel like I crashed.  Deep muscle bruises.  A couple cuts here and there.  I just feel worked over and a little punch-drunk.

Got a week to rest until the finals at Hillsboro.  Rainy forecast for the week.  I need to get my legs back under me to finish up strong.  I also need to clean up from yesterday.  I hate cleaning up.

If I’ve learned nothing else over the past 5 years, it’s that the course at Barton Park demands your full attention and respect. You really need to actively race the course or odds are you’ll end up just another statistic; mechanical, injury or ‘other’. Gravelly corners to wash out on.  Hidden cobbles to pinch flat.  Bottomless chocolate milk puddles.  Thin layers of mud over slick river-run rocks.

Regardless, all the best laid plans won’t guarantee that you or your bike will still get out in one piece.

In a surprising turn of events, I was able to get free early enough to get there with enough time to do a pre-ride.  Took it slow and tried to commit the course to memory.  I’m glad I did.  I’d heard that Barton already claimed one serious injury earlier in the day which caused a course change and a 30 minute delay.  Ouch.

After warming up, I wasn’t in a huge hurry to get to the line.  I still haven’t finished in the points so I go by the number draw.  My number, 1, was DFL in the start order so staying warm was a lot easier.  Hey, nowhere to go but up.

Got a decent start.  A little gap opened up right away and I took it, moving up probably 20 spots right away.  Everyone kept it cool as we wound down and away from the gravel road.  Same for the tricky right turn after the concrete pad.  I can see the whole pack strung out single file, estimating that I’m about 30 back or so.  Well, there’s no hurry so I just stuck on the wheel in front of me and saved energy when I could.

The first run through the little singletrack section was a clusterf___.  Bikes and people everywhere.  I was able to stay clipped in and found a hole to shoot up another 5 spots.  So far, so good.  I found myself in a pack of maybe 6 or 8 that was moving along at a pretty good clip.  I finally had a teammate, Doug Evans, about 30m ahead.  Doug always finishes good so I was very happy with where I was.

Winding around the campground, I wanted nothing to do with going through the singletrack again behind anyone who might slip up.  I made a break on the pavement to get out in front.  Got through the singletrack clean and kept on moving hard.

Finally caught up with Doug, letting him know I was on his wheel.  Mike Alligood was with us and the group I was with slowly dropped off over the next few laps.  It was basically us three for the rest of the race.  At one point I heard that Jeff Standish was just ahead of us, sitting in around 10th.  10th?  Really?  That really gave me a boost (plus Doug cracking the whip behind me to stay up in the points).  I tried egging Mike on to catch Jeff but I don’t think he took the bait.

Finally got lapped on the last lap.  We all finished out strong; Doug, myself, and Mike (maybe half a foot behind).  Final result?  14th.  Sweet.  Hey…I’ve got 5 points!

Couple things to take away from this:

Doug and I didn’t realize our relative strengths until a little too late.  He was strong through the technical stuff and I was able to pull though on the gravel road and pavement.  Maybe we could have moved up some more, maybe not.  I’m hoping this wasn’t a fluke and that I’ll be able stay up in the top 20.

We (bicycleattorney) now have 5 people in the top 30 for points.  That’s pretty neat.  Unfortunately, McCaffrey and Cramer both had mechanicals.  If they’d placed like they usually do, we could have had 5 in the top 20 yesterday.  That would have been a strong showing.

Wore the glasses yesterday.  They worked but based on the pictures…lets just say it’s good I’m married and not single.

That’s about it.  Next up: PIR.

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.


Rainier yesterday.  Such a nice course.  Would have been nicer if it was a little softer & muddier but that would be splitting hairs.  I’d be a turd if I bitched about it any more than that.

After moving up this year, I’d been wondering where I’d shake out in the results.  Middle of the pack?  Near the top?  Near the bottom?  I had no idea.  After a few races this year, I’d been getting a better sense of my own personal level of effort and where I came out in the results.  So far, I’ve been pretty Steady Eddie:  26th at Alpenrose & 24th last week.  Over the past week, I’ve been feeling pretty strongly that a top 20 or even in the points (top 18) would be a solid accomplishment for my first year in Mst A’s.

With the background noise about the new starting system, I figured it couldn’t possibly hurt me.  I’ve been getting to the start and lining up near the back third, trading start position for a decent warm-up.  As luck would have it, my number (#1) was third in order.  By the time everyone was called up, I was in about the 3rd or 4th row.

Got a decent jump off the start, hanging with the pack until we wound up the hill.  The hill, like for every other category I saw, segregated the group pretty quickly.  By the time we reached the downhill section, I was in the top 20, right where I wanted to be.  I say Jason Crago ahead and Doug Evans about 20 yards ahead, 2 people I knew who consistently finish between 10-20.  I wanted to keep them in sight as long as I could.

Checking in after 1 lap, I feel solid.  I’m cornering probably the sharpest I ever have on a cross bike (thank you Racing Ralphs).  The uphill climb is fair, certainly not spectacular.  With the exception of the hill, it’s not a hard course at all.  All I need to do is to hold on here.

Right.  On lap 2, it thinned out a bit and gaps are opening up between people.  I’m riding caboose on a group of 5 or 6.  I’m noticing that my chain is skipping on gears 2 through 4.  So I’m left with my weenie gear (25) or the 17.  It didn’t show up so much on the 1st lap but now I really need them in the back stretch through the woods and definitely up the hill.  I go with the 25 and I spin way too high and lose speed.  The 17 is too low to turn without really torching my legs.  I decide on the 25 up the hill and end up feeling like I’m hemorrhaging time to the rest of the field.

I contemplate stopping in the pits to check it out but decide against it.  By lap 3 or 4, my group broke up and I’ve lost another spot or two.  I’m on Andrew Reed’s wheel for a couple laps.  We both seem to be at the same pace.  He’d pull away up the hill and I’d get it back throughout the rest of the lap.  I wasn’t sucking his wheel but I wasn’t looking to pass him yet either.

With a few to go, I see Mike Alligood ahead.  Jake Rosenfeld and I are passing each other off and on but he finally pulls away for good.  Greg Talbert is about 15 yards up but I just can’t dig it out to catch up.  Finally got lapped by the A’s with 3 to go.  I’m glad I held them off that long.

Finished out ok, probably somewhere in the 20’s.  (actually 24th)  I reached a bit high in the beginning on a course that is certainly not my strongest.  Of my finishes last year, I did the (relatively) worst here at Rainier.  It’s that f-ing hill.

Some observations.

First, I skipped contacts and went with the sturdy black frame glasses and a nerdy glasses strap (One at a time, ladies!…One at a time!).  Much better.  I was getting a lazy eye or the contact was drying out and I’d get double vision during a race.  I’d go through periods where I”d have no depth perception.  Not good.  Sooner or later, something bad was going to happen.  The glasses fixed that.  Don’t know what the hell I’ll do when it gets rainy or muddy but I’ll cross that bridge later.

Second, I finally put on a third eye chain watcher.  Seeing as my chain did not fall off for once, I’ll call that a success too.  Thanks Jeff Standish and Chris Taucher for the reminder.

Third, given the longer length of the A race, if there’s a mechanical issue that could possibly be corrected – like turning the tension barrel on the rear derailleur, for example – I need to try and think straight and just stop to fix it.  Our team has a couple guys hanging around the pits to help out.  I don’t know how much time I lost on the 8 laps of that race going up that hill and also not attacking through the woods when I felt the freshest of each lap.  Probably more than the 10-30 seconds it would have taken to stop in the pits.  Plus a lot less mental energy wasted on thinking about it.

Rest week this week.  No Astoria either.  I’m glad for the break.  More later.

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.

Perusing through the photos Rachel took at Wilsonville.  Mostly of the Kiddie Cross.  Only one or 2 of me.  it must have been because I was moving so fast.  Yeah…that’s it.

One caught my eye that needed a closer look…Do you see it yet?

No?  How about a little closer…

Almost there…

Bingo.

At the end of the final gunfight of Clint Eastwood’s The Unforgiven, William Munny (Eastwood) stands over a wounded Little Bill (Gene Hackman) getting ready to end it.  “I don’t deserve this”, begs Little Bill.  “Deserve’s got nothin’ to do with it”, mumbles Munny, pulling the trigger.

A lot of shit happens during races, a lot of which feels like it’s way beyond our control; flats, crashes, mechanicals, weather, course conditions, the list goes on.  How much of this do we ‘deserve’?  I’m don’t know.  Most of it for sure.  We certainly make a choice to line up for it week in and week out.  No one’s paying me to get out there.  So in a way we’re severely compromising our right to bitch about it.

Did we deserve Wilsonville?  I’d say yes.  It’s good to get kicked in the ass once in a while.  I didn’t like the course at all but I’ll race it just the same if it shows up on the schedule next year.

Rough course this week.  Wilsonville will probably divide people the same way Barton does – you either like it or you don’t.  Less than 24 hours later, I’ve read and heard of enough comparisons to a MTB short track course.  I can agree with that.  Technical.  Very punishing.  Minimal passing room.  Relentless.  Yeah, that fits; relentless.

I got there in time to get the kids to the Kiddie Cross.  That’s always fun.  Just on the edge of chaos but the kids love it.  I’d like to start lobbying for a ribbon when I finish but I’ll just let it go for now.  While we were waiting for the kids race to start, the B/SS race was finishing up.  Hmm, there’s a lot of people carrying their bikes.

Didn’t get a pre-ride in.  I haven’t pre-ridden in 5 years – why start now?  Set up the trainer instead and got a great warmup in, hearing about the course from Kurt and Rich.  Once that was done, I decided on adding another 5# to the tires, moving them up to 40-41 psi.

Lined up and shortly after that, the race started.  Wow, this is like singletrack.  In a fairly short amount of time, the field strung out.  I picked my spots to pass (the short, bouncy uphills) and waited them out.  Many of the corners were dicey and had only one line.  Not too many places to pass.  I found myself waiting in traffic a few times until I could pass.

Dropped a chain twice, especially after the barriers, both times cost me about 5-7 spots.  I must be putting my bike down too hard.  Anyway, the first time it took about a lap to get those spots back.  The second time I only recovered one, maybe 2 spots.  That sucked.

With a couple laps to go, the course was wearing me down.  A little less snap out of the corners.  I’m sitting back on the bumpy uphills and getting thrown around.  My hands are raw and slightly numb.  I finish the race out and find the rear wheel is slowly getting flat.  Crap.  A brand new tubular.

Preliminary results have me at 23rd out of 72.  A slight improvement from last week but a little disappointing because of the lost spots getting my chain back on.  I don’t even want to talk about the tubular.

Got home and cleaned up.  Picked out Hair of the Dog – Fred From The Wood as a post-race beer.  Seemed to be appropriate.

Got an easy hour spin into work this morning.  I feel it in my legs and especially my shoulders.  Ouch.  Could be a day or so until this wears off.