Sorry…
Lots of stuff has been going on. None of it good. Little P underwent a tonsilectomy, Adnoidectomy, and ear tube surgery this week. He's PO'd.
He can't talk so he's resorting to hitting. Great.
In the shop: Aham's rig and SmokinMiles's rig.
Aham's is in for a normal winter re-do. New cables, housings, brake pads, full cleaning, etc.
Smokin's is in for new brakes, new crank and a full teardown. Both are done as far as the teardown goes. Still waiting on some parts for Smokin's
She came by yesterday to pay for parts and brought by some Panera. The soup was just what Little P needed. He ate it up. First real food he's eaten in a long time.
I signed up for Hillsborough-Roubaix yesterday morning. I also signed up for 2 races in the Super Crit series in South Beloit. With everything going on I did not ride this week (outside of an easy ride on Tueday with MJH2). I'll consider this my week off. Need to come back hard. In good news the stress of this week caused me to lose 4 lbs.
Indoor TT at Vision Quest
So 2 Sunday's ago I was looking to ride. It was the first Sunday after the end of Cross season and I was still looking for a way to beat my head in for 1/2 hour. I had a power test that I was going to try to do, but MJH2 called me up and said there was an indoor TT that Vision Quest was putting on for that day.
I checked out the site and decided I would have a more effective power test if it was in actual competition. So we both decided to go.
First off let me say that Vision Quest is owned and run by Ex pro cyclist Robbie Ventura. He rode with Postal and 7-Eleven during his career. He was/is also Floyd Landis's coach. you might remember Floyd as the 3rd Americna to win the Tour de France in 2006 who was later found guilty of doping and stripped of the title, banned, and whose trial turned into a circus of a show that included members of his entourage calling another Tour winner Greg LeMond and threatening him with revealing his secret that he was molested at an early age by his uncle......
....now where were we?
Anyhooo....the TT. First off this was a really nice facility. Top notch. A lot fo money went into this and it shows. The setup is 24 computrainers all wired together in a multi-trainer package. They had a table at the door for registration where they took your bike, wiped off the tires, set it up in the trainer for you while you changed and weighed in.USAC officals and all this was a sanctioned event.
This shot was sent to us in Robbie Ventura's Holiday e-mail. That's myself in the front row next to the red sleeveless jersey guy. MJH2 is right next to me.
The setup from the other side. Notice the large flat displays? Rocky was giving me strength.
So the TT went OK. I ended up placing 8th out of 16 Cat 4/5 racers. I had a lot of caffiene that morning so my HR averaged 185 for the duration of the event. That hurt. For the last sprint I peaked at somewhere near 198 bpm. The USAC official was looking at me like he was going to have to take me to the hospital. Meh.
Good news is I established an FTP or Functional Threshold Power of 266 watts. Not super high, but about 3.3 watts/kg....woughly half what a TdF contender can put out.
On the way out of the locker room I spied this poster:
For those who don't know me that well let me just say that I started riding "seriously" in 1988. That year I was picking up cycling magazines and soaking up everything that was in them. I picked up an issue of Winning at some point and started reading about this squirrelly looking blonde kid wearing a pink jersey.
Hot pink was in back then, but still I thought, "what a panzy. Who would want to wear a pink jersey. I would be so PO'd at the organizers." Then I saw the picture that is in the poster above. It is simply a picture of Andy Hampsten riding across the Gavia wearing shorts on his way to sealing up his 1988 Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy) victory.
It was, and is, the toughest picture in cycling I have ever seen either before or since. Sure there are some other great ones, but this one is mine. I have a copy of the poster sitting in my dining room still unframed that I got by writing a letter to Andy's brother when he was still selling them. This picture changed my life. If you saw it in real life you would know why. Stare at it. Think about all the posting I do about cycling and suffering. Think about the raw will that it takes to ride like that. That is cycling to me. You become a machine blinded by pain and focused on one thing. It's beautiful.
Anyway....to see that poster hanging on the wall autographed by Andy himself.....I just about swooned like a 13 yr old girl at a boy band concert.
After the TT we got to look through the new flagship Trek store atached to the facility. Tons of lance stuff on the walls. I'm not going to say that I ma not a Lance fan. I am not going to poopoo what are great achievements. I'll just say that while in there MJH2 and I both found the Landis stuff more interesting as well as both of us wanted to ask where the LeMond bikes were....
A set of all 7 of "official" TdF yellow jerseys signed by the man himself.
A cool wall of Robbie Ventura's stuff from his career. The bikes are junior track bikes he raced in Northbrook and Kenosha as a kid.
MJH2 posing in front of 2 podium presentation jerseys from Floyd Landis. One from the TdF and one from the Tour of Georgia. These are uber rare as it is. Floyd's story makes them even more interesting. To many they are worthless to some like us...they are priceless.....and shoved in the back corner of the store...
Beauty of a Phonak team jersey from Floyd. "Thanks for the help."
The TT was cool. I want to do another one, but the holidays have my all a jumble. Want to lose some more weight this winter, but lifting has me adding weight right now....lifting weights as well as beer and cookies that is.
Trying to focus.
Funky-Dunk
Sorry about the lack of updates. I'm in a funk. Mix of end of season blues, winter.
Ah, f' it.
My form of therapy for this is to go ride my ass off. I am usually so flooded with endorphins afterwards that you could shoot me in the foot and I'd be like, "Oooo...look at that hole. It goes clear through. Nice shot!" Thank you, mother nature, for making that an impossibility.
Any-whey
Cyclocross is over. Montrose. It was cold. I was wearing 2 layers of tights....seriously. My heavy winter ones to boot. Single digits out there. Hands were so numb I was certain I was going to end up with frostbite damage. They were so cold/numb I couldn't even feel that they were there anymore. No pain or anything.
I got a great start - 3rd in by the end of the starting straight. From there I just started to make mistakes. I let a few guys go by as we got to the hill the first time because I was thinking, "these guys are still going for points, I don't want to take them out from some stupid move, I'm going to pop if I push too hard right now."
From there began the comedy of errors. The conditions changed drastically - getting more icy as the race went on. I had too much pressure in my tires after changing it 3 times...and I was running like 32-34 in clinchers.
This race sealed for me the opinion that you do need tubulars for cross racing. At least when conditions get like what we saw on Sunday.
So....some missed remounts on ice, dropping my chain and having a hell of a time putting it back on with gloves on. For the second venue in a row I kicked my brake caliper into my wheel (under the rim and into the spokes). I had to stop and pull that out. I had to put a foot down and stop so many times it was pathetic.
At one point something happened on the second downhill into the bridge. I had to dismount and run down the rest of the hill, through the tunnel and up the hill over the next barrier. It sucked.
I was a defeated man. I didn't even want to be riding anymore at that point. For the first time I thought about quitting - not because I was physically beat - but because I had lost all my motivation and just didn't want to keep getting beat so bad.
Then Bob passed me. It was similar to the feeling I get those times when Little P doesn't want to give me a hug. No love.
At that point my race was done. I had no desire to do anything other than get the race over with. Someone else passed me somewhere. Then on the home stretch I heard someone moving up on me.
There was a section of pavement near the start/finish that I had wipped out on during a practice lap. I then watched tons of guys go down in the same spot in every race after that. it had a poor transition between the pavement and the grass and the pavement was slick and 100% ice.
I had taken it slow everytime through there just to stay upright and it had cost me about 1 position every lap. This time again I was coasting over that section as this guy was nailing it. I wasn't going to give this one up. He had about half a wheel on me and the momentum when I decided to sprint. I clicked up about 3 or 4 gears and just layed into it.
I realized I hadn't even dug deep at all that entire race. Sad. I had a lot in reserves and took him at the line. He gave me a "Nice finish. How many laps did we do?"
All I could muster was a, "I don't know....3 or 4."
Turns out it was 5. Who knew.
I finished 23/52. Blech. I gave it away. MJH2 got a 7th. Congrats man. Way to go into the offseason with a top 10. Way to stay vertical.
Cross is over. Winter is here. Trainer season has started at Bicycle Heaven. Between Tuesday night and Thursday night sessions there and spending time with my family I hope to remain sane.
The TT build is about 90% there in terms of parts. I tend to hold things off because I like to prolong it. I don't like the thought of having a build complete in December and not getting to ride it outside for months.
I may complete it earlier than normal though so that I can ride the trainer with it and do the indoor TT series on it this winter as practice for the next season's TT's.
Meh.
Double Meh.
Bah humbug.
Pic of Montrose from velogrrl...
Last weekend Race Reports
The man with the best seat in the house
For those keeping score that's me coming across the line at the end...ready to die....and before you ask - yes that's a girl who finished in front of me. I am sure someone will chime in about her palmares, etc. but ...it's a girl....and she beat me.
Now...I on sunday I was starting to not look forward to racing anymore. I was beat up so badly in Wisconsin that it broke my soul. That performance after Northbrook - which was a loser of a day as well - had me feeling like my season was truly over. I wasn't even sure I wanted to toe the line.
We stopped and ate at a McDonalds - yes...haven't eaten there in forever and it rocked - and I almost couldn't manage to get together enough will to get up from the stool to head out to the race.
Getting crushed at races is an expected thing when you start. It's also an expected thing when your form wanes. That doesn't change the fact that you still feel like a piece of poo when it happens. It just kills a tiny piece of your soul. Hurts. I was not looking forward to the pain
...then we turned the corner and I could see the course. Holy crap my mood did a 180. It was as flat as my first girlfriend (4th grade) and the only things that broke it up were the sandpit and 3 barriers. That's it. It was a grass crit. These things are made for people like me. If you're keeping score that means that it was made for short fat guys who can duck out of the wind and lay down some serious power....Wisconsin guys say it was an FIB course.
I did a happy dance in my mind.
It was still painfully cold though.
This is MJH2 and myself talking about the race/course with Ara who had just gotten done. You can see his wheel on the left hand side. Can you tell we're really f'n cold or that 2 days racing have started taking their toll already?
Here's Ara rockin the pit in the 1/2/3 race. Photo from link off Pegasus blog (Luke). Check out his other photos here
The race was pretty much what I expected. It came down to the start. I got a crappy one. You can see it in the video. I was second row right behind Bob from Beverly. We were all lined up on the left and the right side was the one that made it into the turn first. By the first turn I was right behind MJH2 and we were an easy 20 guys back. It sucked.
I couldn't find a groove early on. The 2 day's of racing had taken their toll. I just didn't have anything deep. It was the kind of course where you could put it in the big ring and ride 99.9% of it there. I was running the sand for sure. I tried to ride it early on in practice and just couldn't hit it at all. There was a barrier before the sand that was close enough to make it hard for me to get up enough speed to carry the sand.
I didn't bend to the crowd pressure and stuck with running. After the first lap I was wanting to quit. I have been feeling that way lately. Sad. I know enough about myself now to know that's just my body getting going. As long as I keep turning the pedals I will come out the other side of it. I gave up some spots. Flanman passed me at one point and I couldn't hold his wheel long. I gave up a lot of ground to others for sure.
Then on the second to last lap I started to feel it. My groove was coming on. I passed 4 riders at once, followed up by some other quick passes. At this point lapped traffic started to filter down through us. Don't know what it is about cross, but lapped traffic is a total PITA. In a crit it's no biggie even if they take the line, but in cross they really slow you down and get in the way. You never have any breath left to yell either.
I got cut off and run into a few times by lapped traffic. Shiz happens I guess.
I really hit a groove on the last lap. I was feeling good, and was actually hoping for another lap or two. This was probably because when I hit the pavement section I looked to see where the next rider was and saw it was Bob from Beverly and he was in the pit. There was no way I was going to be able to catch him before the line.
The pit was crazy. Rabid cross fans feeding on beer, brats and the energy of each other. Check the videos to see what I mean. It's weird because the rest of the course was dead silent with no spectators....then you entered the tunnel of sound. Yelling, bell ringing, people crowding the rout and in the way from time to time. It was crazy....crazy awesome.
I ended up finishing strong, but the damage had already been done. I ended up 20th. Poop.
Video from the Lansing race. You can see me and MJH2 lined up in the front row on the opposite side. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtQ42Lt6qDg
Find more videos like this on veloist
Time.
Don't have a lot fo time right now. The double was interesting. I have bruises and wounds in weird places. Crossers are friggin nuts.
I'll do a race report later for both, but basically Sunday was the complete opposite of Saturday. It was a flatlander's/crit rider's dream...it was a grass crit with a sandbox thrown in.
Even then I still didn't do as well as I should have. I got a horrible start, and that was it.
I started feeling great at the end, but the race ended before I really started reeling people in. I beat "Fake Hauge" and Jorge, but Bob held on for 1 spot on me at the end. MJH2 had a good race (read "he stayed upright").
Ara cheered us on all race, and J-Dub yelled encouragement and took pics. It was kind of a surreal race. Lots of beer, brats (with the occassional brat hand-up), sand castles in the pit, dollar bill handups, etc. Generally a circus atmosphere.
I guess people are afraid of the South Side or at least that's what MJH2 said because a lot of the normal crowd was not there.
Thos who showed were ready to rip legs and burn lungs. Bastards.
More later.
Oh....and I have to move my 1928 Model A finally. I have avoided moving it for 15 years, but the time has come. I need a hand. Anyone got time this Friday/Saturday or early next week to help lend a hand??
…
That was a crappy race. I sucked so bad I had a job offer from Hoover waiting for me at the finish line.
Cold.
Umm....it was a mtn bike course not a cross course. They have this stuff up in Cheeselandia. They call it "hills." They put some on the course. I have never been lapped on a cross course ....before today.
Mechanicals, loss of care, cross-eyed riding the wrong direction ("whaaa...everyone is going the other way....oh look.....tape....). Total suck of a day.
Form is gone I fear. That and I have never been really good at hills....
MJH2 kept it upright - and still got lapped at the line. Flanman rode 2 hard races and came in frotn of both of us. Nice job!
Hope tomorrow is better. This wasn't worth the drive. 
Save Ferris Cross
So I went through there still on the bike with one foot out. Lost time, but usually not position.
I felt like barfing before the race. I don't need that kind of pressure. I'm just too competitive to let it go and relax. I wasn't feeling good. The course wasn't going to totally split up everyone before the widowmaker, and most of the guys had not even ridden a pre-ride lap to know what that corner was even like. It was going to be total carnage.
I followed last wek of getting a front line position behind the top 10 series call-ups. MJH2 got a front line position right on the end of the line. I should have gotten behind him, but I didn't. At the start the two guys I was in between boxed me and got poor starts. I was an easy mid pack before the first turn. Sucked.
I got through the interesting stuff before the hill without issue. i think I either passed supergirl here on the first or second lap...not sure.
The hill was OK. Big steps to run up. No problem. J-Dub was there taking pics and shouting encouragement to me. MJH2 was first to hit the stairs....FIRST. The man is an animal.
I foot dragged the widowmaker. After that I got stuck in slow traffic and passed as much as I could. The long open sections I ripped some legs off people, but I did let a lot of people by me. I had a few bobbles, wheelslides, etc. but all in all I kept it pretty clean.
I just didn't have that deep of a pain cave. I could take the pain, but going for more revealed just nothing there. No response. That doesn't happen to me so I was shocked. Never felt like I could get on top of my gears, just slowly crank them over. Low, slow power. That's all I had.
I put a 27t cog on for this race. I think it was a mistake. I went to it far too often and it was a crutch. I could have ridden the 25t through those sections with no problem. Lesson learned.
So....we're doing 4 laps. On lap 3 (I think) I hear a slide out of the bottom turn on the hill of death just as I am going into the stairs. I can see out of the corner of my eyes that the rider is totall off course and jumping up. It's MJH2. He yells, "It's all you now Rob!" He's such a drama queen. 
Turns out he wrecked his bike on the widowmaker, destroyed his shifter, got back on thinking "I can put it in a gear and just hold the dangling shifter in my hand." Realized right after that this meant he had no rear brakes now. Proceeded to wipe out sliding off course and under the tape in one of the subsequent turns. Yelled at me, and then threw his bike - much to the crowd's pleasure. "Whoah!!!!!!" Destroyed his wheel, bent his derail hanger, broken shifter, probably bent bars, etc. He was in 7th place at the time. The rest of the day was punctuated with "I had a top 10 locked in!" out of nowhere.
The rest of my race consisted of passing one more guy, and then actually racing the 3rd lap - holding off 1 guy. I finally lost my position to him on the last lap on the big hill climb on the back side. He nailed it and just overpowered me. Again....it wouldn't have happened if I hadn't had that 27t on.
I then got nipped in one of the last turns to drop my second spot on the last lap. They placed me 22nd out of 55 who finished. Missing the top 20 by the 2 guys who passed me on the last lap.
All in all a cold day, the racing was stressful for some reason, and I just didn't have the legs. I hope for better next week.
Thanks J-Dub for the encouragement and look forward to seeing your shots on http://www.peloton-pix.com/ . I could always use the rights to a few to post on here with linkys....:D
Hmmm..
Rode 34 miles on the cross bike with MJH2 this morning. Cold, raining and very windy. Perfect cross weather. We did an easy pace so I should be adequately prepped for tomorrow's race.
aham ran an awesome 10K (kudos man), CyLowe put 15 minutes...err...an hour on the dreadmill...all is well.
Powetap is laced and amazingly tensioned and true. It was really easy. I can only say it must be the beefy flanges than helped. Amazing really. This should be the most stout wheel I have ever ridden.
It's super heavy as well though...1220 g ....just for the rear wheel. OOoof.
Going to a movie with little P and Mrs. P. Madagascar 2 I think. This will be his first movie. He's 2 1/2 BTW. This should be fun........
Results….
The results are posted and they have me 14th out of 55 finishers. They did put one guy in front of me that I am pretty sure was not in front of me only because I know him and do not remember him passing me and know I was in front of him at the start, but stuff happens out there. I am sure of nothing.
This means I picked up 17 points in the overall and climbed up into 30th place. MJH2 did a 16/55 for this race and is in 45th because he popped last race and hit a barrier this one (COME ON MAN!). He is sooooooo much better than that and he knows it.
JAnd had a good showing coming in 48/55! I think that might be ones if his best performances to date in terms of the number of guys he beat. The man has talent. More than I think he even knows. MJH2 and I have decided that we've only ever seem at most 60% of his actual current ability and we're pretty sure he isn't even aware of how deep his well really runs. Need to get him on the road circuit this year and serve up some pure pain as a form of demonstration.
JBernaeyge dropped a 25th place after what he calls a miserable performance. He beat supergirl though and he says that's all that matters (Supergirl...no hating here...I'm still one of your biggest fans!).
JMaxwell had a good showing dropping in between myself and MJH2 with one of his best showings to date. Someone send us a pic of him so we can have our eye out for him next time.
EDIT: Special shout-out to velosnaps for nailing the picture of the day of me... here!
Awesome
Awesome race. Robert Kelley and Matt Stewart from my team (Bicycle Heaven) set up the course and all I have to say is....OMG!!! Actually more like OMFG!!
"Where is your license? No license? NO SOUP FOR YOU! NEXT!"
Imagine that...I'm telling a story...
Results came in late, but they have me down at 14th out of 55. Mrs. P was pretty sure I was closer to in the top 10, and so was I when I was getting word I was in 11th while I was out on the course, but things happen and it's hard to keep track. To be honest I didn't even know if MJH2 had finished in front or behind me. When I saw him I asked. He reminded me that I passed him when he hit the barrier. I had already forgotten. That's how violent this stuff is...
Bottom line is I keep getting better....
They say that up to 90% of all "mechanicals" (guys dropping out of the event because of a mechanical failure of the bike) during Time Trials (TTs) really aren't mechanicals, but guys throwing in the towell because they aren't ready to physically handle the pain.... I know I am at my limit when I find myself actually hoping for a flat tire. I did that yesterday.
Again...thanks to everyone who helped put on the race. Thanks to Mrs P and Little P and Nana for enduring. Thanks to Mr and Mrs CyLowe and the inquisitors for joining in the fun and cheering me on. Thanks to Half Acre for the intense aroma of digesting beer coming off their breath as they screamed at us through the corner. Thanks to the dude with the lit cigarette who filled the course with smoke on the last lap...ugh....
Thanks to all the cow bell ringing physchos and families. It felt like a real race. you guys are awesome.
Next week......Northbrook....or the "Save Ferris" cross event!