Bier en modder

After a week of milling it over, I’ve got one more race left in me for 2008.  I was seriously on the fence about throwing in the towel for USGP – tired, banged up, cut up, and a very uncomfortable feeling that I wasn’t having fun.  I don’t want to say that I was dreading racing at USGP but for the first few days after Hillsboro, I certainly wasn’t looking forward to it.  To me, that’s a pretty good warning sign right there.

However, by Thursday I began to feel a little snap in my legs just on the ride to and from work and I gave some objective thought towards the rest of the year.  I’ve wanted to race through USGP since the spring when I set plans and goals in motion.  So I’ll compromise with myself here and do one of them.  I’m certain I have one good race left in me.

So back to the plan…this week, whether I was racing or not, was an off week and I’ve tried to rest as efficiently as I can.  Next week is a busy week anyway.  I’ll try to sneak a few hard rides in there just to stay sharp.  Then the following week will be mostly easy with a few bursts here and there.  That should just about do it.  The USGP races are mercifully shorter (45 min).

Odds are that the race will fill up, or at least come close to it.  If the rule about start order holds, there’s the top 8 or so from the USGP (if they’re all there), then the top 8 locals (most likely), and then the rest of us based on registration order.  Last I checked, I was 50th.  Who knows where that’ll put me -  6-8 rows from the front?  If I can start around 50th (give or take) and move up in the 20 to 30s, I’ll be very happy with that.  I’m sure there will be some ringers coming in from out of town; Bay area, the barrier-skipping Seattleites, and I’m sure some from Colorado on west.  On the other hand, with the elimination of the B/35+ group, some will be moving up.

What does that mean?…who the hell knows, and at this point, who cares.  I have enough issues of my own to deal with during a race (e.g. staying upright), without worrying about placement or what other rider to keep in check.  There’s enough people from the Crusade series registered for me to get a strong sense of where I am in the overall picture.  If I keep in sight a few familiar faces (or asses for that matter) I’ll do just fine.

Basically, I just want to have a solid race, start to finish.  Something to get me thinking about next year already.  I felt I haven’t had one this year with the exception of Barton, and my finish there was great (14th).  I’m still trying to go over in my head what was different about that race than the others but I haven’t been able to put my finger on it yet.  Each of the other races, some part of the big picture didn’t seem 100%; be it mechanical, skills, fitness, or just having my head in the right spot.  I need to turn this around.

Over the next weeks, I hope to summarize the season and other related thoughts that have been milling around since early October.  It has been an eye-opening experience moving up through the levels over the past 4 years to reach the A’s.  Without question, no upgrade between levels has been harder than this one.

“You get what you get and you don’t throw a fit…”

A reasonably appropriate saying from Ingrid & Owen’s old day care…You get what you get and you don’t throw a fit…Most people that have been racing long enough probably have some idea of what constitutes a ‘good’ or ‘ideal’ course for them.  Without getting into specifics (hills, mud, whatever), I think most of us prefer a course that challenges skills and fitness without being frustrating.

I firmly believe that the race organizers/course designers do their best to squeeze the most they can out of a particular venue.  Some are fairly constrained; Alpenrose & Rainier come to mind.  But others, like Barton and Estacata seemed to always change just enough for the better.  Similar to riders taking a lap or two to find the best lines during a race, I think it takes organizers a year or two to get feedback on making a course fit the venue.

That said, the immediate general consensus on Hillsboro seems more negative than positive.  Comments seem to range from being a little boring to having to navigate the E Coli arena.  A small percentage of responses have been of the “shut up and ride it” type, which I disagree with a little.  Surprising at it seems, it’s ok to not like a course.  It s even more appropriate to voice it (without sounding like a whiny b____) so the organizers can act on it…or not.

During warm-up, I thought that I’d get a strong chance to finish well.  The long, soft straight-aways, even the bumpy ones, felt like stuff I could power through.  I think I tend to race like a time-trialer.  The less interruption to rhythm I get during a race, the better…or so it seems.

The start got off well with a fairly quick pace around to the back section.  I’ve got people I want to finish near just ahead and I’m not struggling to hang on at all.  So far so good.

Then the turns.  Oh, the turns.  If I never see another 180° turn on mud-covered pavement or gravel again, it’ll be too soon.  Let’s be clear: I’m tall.  My bike frame is technically a 66 cm.  I’m also on the heavier side (for cyclists) at 200#.  So my center of gravity is substantially higher than most others out there.  To be blunt, tight turns on loose material turn my bowels to water.  As I worked my way though this section of the course, gaps start opening up.

On the 2nd lap, heading into the last horse stall barn, the tires give out and I’m down hard in a flash.  The front chainring opens up a 3 inch gash my right front leg.  Oh good, the liquid shit arena is just ahead.  Just what the doctor ordered.

And then there was the arena.  Pretty well frayed from crashing, I couldn’t get it together enough to ride it well.  I ended up running it the rest of the race.

The rest of the race for me played out like this; hammer the flats to catch up with or stay with a group, lose them through the turns at the stables, run through the arena, wash, lather, rinse, repeat.

Preliminary results have me near DFL but I’m certain the scorers missed me on some of the laps.  I heard from people in the pits that my number was completely covered in mud, making it unreadable.  I’m guessing it got missed.  Plus, the results look a little funny anyway.  I think some lap counts got mixed up.  I’m sure it’ll get fixed.

I need to take a day or to to take a personal inventory on what I have left for the year.  Right now, I feel totally cashed and have felt worse and worse each race since Barton.  I’m incredibly happy with this first year in the A’s but I’m also contemplating pulling the plug on the rest of the year.  More on that later.

From what I can see on the City’s rain gages, SoPo got the bulk of the rain thie week.  For example, the Harney gage down in Sellwood got a solid 1.32 inches yesterday but the Skyline School gage only got 0.61 – less than half.  In contrast, the Hillsboro gage only has 1.19 inches over the past 72 hours, at least according to NOAA 0.69 for yesterday).  Not quite the drenching I was hoping for.

Here is a map of the rainfall depths for the past 72-hours (as of yesterday morning).  As you can see, the heaviest rains were to the east.  I didn’t have time to track down more gages outside the city’s network.  I should try to set that up some time in the future.

What’s this mean?  Who really knows.  The forecast for the rest of the week looks dry and possibly even a little sunny.  3 days is a decent amount of time to dry out but I doubt it’ll get any drier than a few inches down.  Most soil in the area has a fair amount of clay which means it’ll stay wet until, say, next July.  By the first couple races, my guess is that the course will be pretty chewed up.

Personally, I’m hoping for the mud from Hillsboro of last year as opposed to the stuff we had last weekend at PIR.  I was able to motor through that looser, soupier stuff easier (relatively, of course).  The stiffer mud that has a higher potential to kick your front tire around gives me trouble.

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.

Fairly quiet here.  Busy but quiet.  I’m a big ‘list’ person.  I like to make lists.  Things to do, etc.  I’ll even add “make a list” on my list just to check it off.  Feels good.  After a few weeks, the list is finally getting smaller instead of growing each day.

Up and down week of riding so far.  Some good workouts, some bad ones.  Trying to stay focused.  It’s near the end of the year so a quantum leap in speed or power isn’t all that likely.  But I do still need to keep working at it.  If I do nothing or go light, I lose what I’ve built up over the summer and fall.  That’d suck.

Still no definiative word from Schwalbe on the Ralph tubular.  I should probably start annoying them with e-mails.  Regardless, I’m not likely to get a replacement or even a repair for that matter in time for this season.  I have a Fango on the way which I’ll get glued up next week.  I probably could have gotten it ready for Barton this week but I figured that it wouldn’t rain, thereby jinxing it.  If it’s delightfully muddy this weekend, you have me to thank.

Ordered my conical fermenter, or unitank, as beer nerds like to call it.  The first 6 of my late fall/early winter beers are planned.  I’ll send my order in when the conical arrives, probably in a couple weeks.  I also need to get a dead chest freezer to the dump and get a replacement upright freezer on craigslist this weekend or next.  Very exciting…all of it.  New beer on tap.  A very convenient fermenter.  Moving back up to 10 gallon batches.  Good stuff.

Should also be ready to press cider next weekend too.  I’ve got the food disposal bought and I need to clean it out and make a mounting plate.  My in-laws have a press which I’ll try to get and clean this weekend.  That should be a fun time with the kids.

As a final reminder, as if you didn’t need one, vote early and vote often.  We got our ballots in early last week and the phone & doorbell have been blissfully quiet.

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.