Poor Dumb Bastard

Winter 2010. Yeah, it still gets cold.

2010-02-06T20:19:00.003-05:00

Well, it's been quite a winter so far this year. We've had 2 major snowstorms so far and it's only early February. The first snow hung around for almost 2 weeks. This weekend the Northeast and MidAtlantic regions got hit the hardest we've been hit for almost 20 years and the snowfall in Western PA was the 4th heaviest snowfall since they started recording it. Where the hell is Al Gore currently. He should get his butt over here and shovel all this global warming that is surrounding my car. I'm still quite annoyed about how the global warming people are sticking to their guns and taking the attitude of 'you just don't get it' but still do not have any explanation for the debunking of their theories that has been going on for the past 20 years. It's the old 'if we don't pay attention to them, maybe they'll go away' tactic. If you're not on board with them, you are obviously some right wing nut job who is out to destroy the environment and probably kicks his dog when he gets home too. It's a thing called environmental cycles, Al. They happen. I've lived through a few of them now and entering into another one(depending on where you start on your cycles). I wish people would stop running after these clowns in the global warming market and begin taking a common sense approach to the environment. Quite lying and trying to scare the hell out of people about how things are going when all you are doing is trying to create this hysteria so the companies that you own can make a profit off of it. That's all this global warming scare of the past 30 years has been and most of the people of the world fell for it. I think assholes like Mr. Gore should be imprisoned for their role in this and the monies they made from these lies confiscated (gee, this could pay for some of that healthcare that people don't have). Oh, well, what the hell do I know. I'm just one of those right wing conservative nut jobs that want to ruin everything for the sake of a buck.

Maybe it's just me but .....

2010-01-06T23:05:00.002-05:00

I'm thinking many of today's mothers are really helping set kids up for failure later in life. Sure they're making sure they do their homework, shower up, brush their teeth and play well with others. The thing that I've really been noticing, particularly since it's caused some severe stress with the mother of my two boys is that they all seem to have this underlying fear of instilling a good work ethic in the kids. These past couple weeks have seen a large amount of snowfall in western PA. Now, when I was young, this was a God-send to me. My brothers and I, as well as other kids in the neighborhood, would wind up helping neighbors dig out after a good snowfall. This paid fairly well and as I also carried newspapers before school, I had regular customers for the snow shoveling. There were 3 or 4 who I had it pre-arranged to clear their walks and driveways if there was more than an inch or two of snow. This got me $6-10 each snow day. It was a good supplement to the income of $15-20 bucks a week for the newspaper business. Keep in mind, I was 11 years old at this point and it was 1976. At that point in time, my brothers and I were sort of the capitalist pricks of the hill where we lived. We had all of the paper routes that mattered. We had the mall newspaper sales. On top of that, summer grass cutting jobs usually came to us. We worked hard and we were the ones who had the extra money for things like the swimming passes at the pool, our bikes and other items we wanted. We had to budget out the money we earned for the things we wanted. This was also the time when Nike and Adidas shoes were becoming popular. We usually got the good ol' Sears Winner II shoes but my parents would say, if you want to upgrade, we had to cover that cost. Then we had to balance the 'coolness' factor vs the money spent and make our decision.
All that said, my rant today comes from the wonderful time I've had attempting to get the mother of my two boys to understand that it is now time that they learn a bit of responsibility. That means more than just doing homework and cleaning up their room. They are 10 and 12 and easily ready to do even a bit of the things that I did when I was young. They'll begin to learn something when they see what it actually takes to earn their money and have to budget it out for the things they want. I want them to also learn that sometimes there are things in life that you have to do that you might not necessarily want to do. It'd be great if you could just play baseball, wii and other games in life but that doesn't provide for the necessities in life. Unfortunately for them, enter their mother and her ideas on the subject. If it's cold out, she doesn't want them outside working. They might get sick. She has thought of every excuse to get in the way of my little lesson in life for them. Most of the other moms at baseball and neighbors are the exact same way. Let the kids be kids, they say. Well, I got to be a kid too and I did these things. I ran around the hill, played baseball, went sled riding, had bb gun battles (and came home with some nasty welts from it) and lots of other things. My friends were the same way and we grew up fairly normal and are not lacking in our ability or desire to work. We didn't expect handouts, free college or anything else. We still don't. Unfortunately, the kids (mine and others I know) are learning that they don't have to put the kind of effort out that I would like them to. To me this is akin to sending them out into a warzone with only a popgun in hand. This sort of lesson transfers over to other areas in life as they will be growing up. Unfortunately, I believe we have a whole generation that has grown up without learning this and explains why people are always looking for that handout in life. They have an expectation that the great "American Dream" is a right to be had, not a privilege to be worked for. Too many of the kids today do not know what it is to put out the kind of effort that was expected of our parents and particularly our grandparents. If suddenly, the situation demanded that we put out the kind of effort that we had to during WWII, we could not do it. Too many people would be asking 'you expect us to do what?' People freak out when communities institute a recycling program and act like it is just so much extra work and why should we be expected to do this. I find it better to learn to deal with things that might be disagreeable first and then if you don't have to actually follow through on it, that's a bonus earned. We are doing a grave injustice to the people of past generations when we act so spoiled that we can't learn to shoulder the extra burden that our ancestors had to. This injustice will come back and bite us in the ass if we don't get everything back in line and learn that everything in life is NOT free, nor should it be. I hope that my boys do learn the things I want them to and understand this as they grow up. It's a constant lesson to be taught and never forgotten. I hope I can get the other parent involved in this matter to see this at some point and help make my job a bit easier. Now that I've had my little rant, I should probably get back to work...

Front row seats to Hell....

2009-11-25T18:21:00.003-05:00

This past week was certainly an interesting one. After dealing with the news of the demise of our environment and the fact that global warming was pretty much a done deal for the past 30 years (right on the heels of the new ice age scare), there was a small incident at the University of East Anglia. The servers in the Climate Research Unit were hacked and a shitload of correspondence between many of the top scientists there was taken an published on webservers for all to see. And what was seen was a deliberate coverup of faulty research, blatant lies about global warming, and an effort to hide these facts on the part of the top scientists in this area of study. In the coverage of this, these "scientists" have been circling the wagons and claiming that 'this doesn't prove anything'. Of course, neither did they prove anything. Global warming as defined by Al Gore and his types is NOT happening. It's been one big hoax designed to do nothing but raise taxes on a global scale and exert control over populations via these taxes and regulations. How many times have we heard the scientists and politicians screaming about the dangers we were in and try the argument that we have to do something. Well, do something but make DAMN SURE we know what it is we're doing and why. And something of this nature has got to be tranparent to everyone for close examination so the sort of thing that has been going on would get caught early on and we don't waste billions and billions of dollars doing things that do nothing for global warming and in many cases harm our environment(ie catalytic converter and ethanol to name the most glaring examples).

The reaction of the 'environmentalists' who push the global warming theory shows what kind of people we are dealing with. They are more concerned that their info got hacked rather than the fact that they just got caught lying about their work for the past 30+ years. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is a quick peek into hell and I advise everyone to take a good long look, then look at our 'leaders' and be a bit more skeptical about the things they are trying to convince us to support.

In my opinion, the people who have attempted to inflict all of this on us should be freakin jailed, Al Gore, amongst the first. These are outright crimes against the people of this and other countries and should not in any way shape or form be allowed to get a pass. Stand up people and flood your congressman's, senators, governors and all elected officials offices to stop this madness. Be a voice out in public and make sure others hear you. The 912 movements showed what can be accomplished when everyone, I don't care what political party you belong to, what religion you are or aren't, what race you are, whatever persuasion you might be, can accomplish when we all speak up! Let us all begin to right the ship that is our country before it is too late.

HoCo double weekend

2009-11-23T11:33:00.003-05:00

This past weekend was the Howard County Double Cross weekend. My wonderful sense of purpose got me going late on Saturday morning so I wound up leaving a good 30 minutes late. That coupled with a slow traffic day as the police were out in force and I wound up getting to the race venue 50 minutes later than I was thinking I would. So with only 20 minutes before my race start, I bagged it and upped it to the 123s. This would prove to be a dumb move as I got blown away halfway through the first lap. One thing you absolutely not do is ride 1 day in the previous week and just think you're going to jump into even a smaller regional 123 race. After 4 or 5 laps of that silliness, I bailed and and began the warmdown. I was kind of hoping that I would've hung in longer, but the last couple weeks or work along with coming off from an injury and I just wasn't ready for this kind of effort.

The second day at Rockburn went better for me. I was racing in the Elite masters category which was only a small step down from the previous day. This time, I faired better and was hanging with the group through the first couple laps. I finally wound up running down and was then racing for the back of the group when going down the one trail, there was a group of spectators egging us on to do the log pile. I looked at it as I went past and thought, heck I can do that. There's a $5 prime in it? Sure, I'm game. The next lap, no one else had taken them up on it and using the MTB skills, I pulled up the front wheels and set it up and pedaled right up over the pile. It was a pretty good sized pile and I popped up over it. Well, I wasn't going home empty handed at least and there was a good cheer for me. I guess if you're not doing something well, at least be colorful about it. I finished up and didn't even get lapped so it was an ok day, all things considered. Taneytown is next week so maybe I can get rested more as well as some riding in to get me ready. After that, it's off to Reston. If nothing else, I'd like to grab the hole shot again which is something I've done there twice from the 3rd and 4th rows. It'd be cool to do it again.

USGP

2009-11-13T12:14:00.002-05:00

The USGP at Trenton is this weekend. I'm going to do the 45+ this year. I guess even though I don't look it, I'm getting old. Eh, I generally don't worry about it except when people I'm talking to look at me funny when I tell them I remember the American pullout in Saigon. I'm coming off of a two week break after a nasty fall at a hometown race. The knee feels better and finally looks normal again. I don't know if I can push myself as hard as I'd like but the strength in the legs feels like its back. I was kind of hoping for a dry weekend, but that nasty ol' hurricane Ida has soaked the east coast so it's going to be a mess. I can only hope that it will be a very wet day rather than the peanut butter we had last year. I'll need the bikes cleaned alot so I hope I can find someone to help out with that. Past that, my services as a pit bitch are for hire, so if anyone out there needs one, I'm a can do type of guy.

Wonderful day in the free capitalist society!

2009-10-29T10:39:00.002-04:00

Well, it's another wonderful day in this messed up world today. I just talked with a client who let me know that they needed several new computers and a server. GREAT!!!! More business is always good, right? Well, not so fast hot shot. She was disappointed in how they had to do it. Apparently I need to be on an approved vendor list (this is a govt connected operation). To get on this list, you don't have to have any special qualifications with the exception of paying a $500 per year fee. WTF? In looking at this, it's nothing more than legal extortion. We have to pay them for the right to do business. Wow, more and more, Ayn Rand is proving to be right. I am currently re-reading 'Atlas Shrugged' and what is happening now, is much the same as what is happening in the book. The free market system that is currently under attack in this country, is NOT what the free market system is supposed to be. Businesses today are lobbying Washington (and state and local) lawmakers for their business. Does business happen because the government says 'make it so'? Of course not. It happens because people have a need and the businesses are there to provide for it if they can. If they can't, well, their out of business and another company will replace them. This is how it happens(well, in a very simply put way, it's far more complicated but for this rant, I'll keep it simple). The 'wizards' in DC seem to think they have to screw with the formula to keep things fair. Hmmm, how is it fair if rules have to be in place so that a less capable company is able to survive but one that is properly run gets hurt? On top of that, when it comes to things like this little fee I'm bitching about, these are nothing but a drain on the system as not only does it not facilitate business, it raises the cost of doing business and there is no real benefit to it. My head hurts thinking about stuff like this. On the national level, these costs go up and only makes things more difficult and that just creates more problems. Nothing ever gets solved by having more fees for government. All it does is give them more money to do their little social engineering experiments at the cost to you and me and all the other taxpayers in the country. Maybe we all should just start saying 'NO' and take a step away from this wonderful society they are attempting to take from us and replace it with their version where we are in a position to be required to ask the government for our freedoms, benefits and lives for that matter. Oh, well, 'Who is John Galt?'

Granogue/Wissahickon

2009-10-19T15:36:00.002-04:00

A week after Iron Cross and I was beginning to feel like King Freakin Kong. My legs were feeling a lot stronger and I was keeping up with the faster riders in Pittsburgh at the weekly practice at Frick Park. They hadn't done the long stupid race as I had, but I was still matching their starts and staying with them thru the training course. It was going to be a good week. Getting out to Granogue was an exercise in changing schedules. Once I got everything figured out and I wound up leaving later in the evening on Friday. I was going to stay a bit more than halfway over then finish the drive off in the morning. Unfortunately, I had some misfortune in the form of a bad sandwich from Sheetz. I woke up early in the morning not feeling well. My stomach was really starting to talk back. I tried a bit of breakfast, but it all bounced right back up. Ugggghhhh, I needed to get back to sleep for a bit. I got all my stuff out to the car but stayed at the hotel for a while to snooze and try to recover. I wound up sleeping til almost noon time. Scratch Saturday's race. I did drive to the course to catch the tail end of my race. After watching the womens and then the mens elite races, I was a bit bummed out. The course looked to be a good one for me. The areas that had always given me trouble were removed and the long push up to the top of the hill after the woods was now a short drop followed by a run-up. This was very close to the weekly trainly loop I do at the park 2 blocks from my house with the exception that it was shorter then the training course. Dammit, it would've been fun, even with all the rain and mud. So I zipped up to Pottstown for the Wissahickon race. For dinner, I had to scrounge around for something decent and eventually found a good chinese place. The one little Italian restaurant that we ate at last year had closed up so that put a bit of a damper on things. I did get a full nights sleep and felt fairly good for the race the next day but just not strong. I read the start right and on the 180s on the far side of the course, I was able to read how and where to be perfectly. The first one, I was off the bike and pushing through and jumped up on half a dozen riders. The second one, the clusterf*** was even a bit more of a mess but I was able to get past about a dozen or more riders and now was on the high side of the course while most others were fighting along the flat but muddy trail. I bombed the outside of the course heading into the horse corral and made it through to the back side of the course. Well things were going well to this point, except I really didn't have the horsepower to back my good start up. Once the course opened up, I fell towards the back and then having a bit of a chain issue I stopped to fix it and went to the very back. Oh well. Instead of just giving up, I decided I was just going to ride. I caught several riders back from my category and even started to catch some of the junior riders back that stormed past me early on. In the end, I got lapped by only 2 riders, Matt Krause and Roger Aphsolm, both of whom would have been able to finish somewhere between 10th and 15th in the elite race. So all in all, it wasn't that bad. Next week I have a couple local races so it'll be nice to just have those short 20-40 minute drives. Then, on to Beacon. I have my technique down for doing the amphitheater climb so I should do much better. Just stay away from Sheetz food.

Iron Cross

2009-10-19T10:37:00.002-04:00

I completed my third Iron Cross weekend. This year was a bit different in that it was butt-ass cold. I also bunked out in the cabins there which considering the weather, was probably a bit of a mistake. The convenience of not having to drive 20 minutes to a hotel was definitely offset by the fact that to stay warm, not only did I have to have a good sleeping bag, but I also had to put a thermal blanket I brought over top of me and then cover the head. The blank was breathable so air would get through, but it would trap heat. I'm not sure my lungs would've done too well if I'd not done that. Past that, it was a good weekend. Starting out with the Lite race on Saturday, this proper cross race was a fun one. I'd gotten a good start and I actually stayed fairly near to the front for the first 3 laps. I popped after that and had to shift it back a gear but it was a good sign that I'm progressing. I definitely have the feel for the races now and the bike handling skills are at their top end so once the legs start kicking in I should start having some decent results. The big race was also a pretty good one for me. While I missed my goal of breaking 5 hours again, I was certainly on pace to do so. We went out of the gate like a freaking bullet and I actually made it up the hill with people that I really had no business climbing with. In all the excitement, I didn't pay as close attention to my hydration as I should've. So at about an hour and a half, I felt the first twinges of a leg cramp. DAMMIT, start drinking, start drinking, start drinking. Before long we got to the first major hike a bikes. These were really steep climbs where you were getting off the bike no matter how small your gear was. This was where I really felt the cramping first hit. I short stepped it up the first hill and road to the second hike a bike. This one wasn't as tough but I still took it easy. Once at the top, we hit the second check point. I restocked on Heed and some fig bars and a banana. I slowly worked myself back to the point where I could start pushing things. At the single track I was going fairly well and only had to pop off the bike once. I got in with a good group on the road afterwards and we were just plowing along. Again, I was climbing well but had to slow up just a bit and then we hit the long downhills. These were loose graveled roads and at the bottom of one of the descents, there was a very nasty right hander. I got thru it but wasn't shifted down to a low enough cog and spent a bit grinding the gears til I could get the bike going again. Once going, I did a slow climb up conscious of having to look out for the cramping coming back. The group of riders that I'd left on the last road climb were now back to me and passing me. Right after the top though, we hit the really long descent on another fireroad. I left all of them and caught several others and passed them as we charged on towards the 3rd check point. I wasn't so much pushing the pedaling here, but I wasn't touching the brakes. I got to the checkpoint and there were about 10 or 15 riders there. I grabbed food, water and some Hammer electolyte caplets and took off. I'd drank a good cup of heed and slammed the caplets down and hoped they'd kick in quickly. A quick time check showed I was almost 15 minutes ahead of last years time. That was going to put me very close to the 5 hour mark. One thing I've said last year was get a small enough gear and this year, I'd still missed the mark. I was thinking about using a 34x28 as my small gear but just went with the 26 since I had it. Economic reasons were part of the reason for not getting a 28 cogset so I was stuck with what I had. That necessitated a 100 yard walk on the hill where I got passed by my former pace line group. After the first leg of the hill, I was back on the bike and grinding my way up the hill. The big roller coasters last year were a problem for me. This year, I made it up them without getting off the bike. I was dragging as my legs were really on the edge of quitting on me. At the last check point, I'd caught the group that went past me on the hill. This surprised them and we were off again and racing. I was still having to be mindful of how I rode. We were back on the single track after a bit and I started storming through riders. Blasting down a hill and through the streams wound up being my downfall though. Cross the last of the streams I was going way too fast and made a bad decision and smacked a root system coming up out of the stream. Over the bars I went. I was able to do a slow landing and as I was later told, I had really good hang time with the bike overhead. After that, the muscle issues I had began to crop up again. I wound up having to soft pedal the final 45 minutes in. That was basically the difference then in me not being able to crack the 5 hour target again this year. Well, I guess there's next year. Overall though, it was a lot of fun, we got a cool tshirt and of course the socks for finishing as well as the pint glass and a good burrito after the race. The best thing was that aside from the cramping issues, I came out of it feeling really good. Onwards and upwards for the rest of the season.

Opening rounds of cross.

2009-10-05T14:48:00.003-04:00

The first 3 weeks of cross are by. I'd have to say I'm a bit disappointed on the results. The hardest thing I've been trying to overcome this year is back problems. I've pretty much figured out it's coming from a lack of preparation at the start of the season. I've been dealing with a bit of a core-strength issue lately as well as lacking some flexibility. This winds up showing up in a cross race fairly quickly. A few weeks back, I began to combat this by pulling out the old workouts that I did as a diver. I'd gotten a lot of these from the Cornell diving school some years back but as I drifted out of that sport and into cycling, I forgot about them. I had a couple ok races and then hit the beginning of the MAC series by the Trexlertown velodrome. I got a back row start(sort of a theme of my cross racing the last few years). Without a great place to put that quick and dirty move which would get me forward 20 or so places, I just hung out at the back. Once out on the course, there really wasn't any place to pass except in the areas where horsepower was required. Lacking that, I quickly found there really wasn't a spot where finesse or skill would be a factor. So I raced with the back dwellers and had a good time. Then it was off to Charm City. Here, I managed to get a decent, by my standards start spot. I was in the 48th to 56th row out of over 90 riders. At the gun, I almost got into a wreck, but managed to hold up a rider from falling and then pushed him off, then got back into a groove. The course might've been a bit bumpy but there was good flow to it. Kris Auer does know how to make a nice course. The first couple laps were very good for me. I'd worked my way up to almost 20th spot and was feeling strong. Unfortunately, the back had it's say on the 3rd lap. The sand pit was a bit of a maze and there were 3 sections of it. Once again, the mtb'er in me wanted to stay on the bike. In the 2nd section of it, I had to get off after stalling and almost falling. The odd dismount I did tweaked the back wrong. I noticed it up the little climb towards the pits. By the end of the lap, I felt myself slowing and I started losing places. So into cruise control it went. Amazingly, even like this, I came back to a group and held in til the start of the 5th lap. From there I was just out riding. What made it a bit depressing was that after almost 2 full laps of goofing around, the leaders finally came up to me. A more conscious effort would've prevented me from getting lapped that day. The following week was definitely a bad one. I'm finding there are 2 courses that just really hate me. The first is the Ed Sander's race and the second is Hagerstown. I'm not sure what it is about the Ed Sander's course, but the grounds at Hagerstown are just too damn bumpy and hard. Even after a day of riders going over the course, it doesn't get broken down any so you feel it all. To top it off, I got my first cross injury of the year. After going through a drop I had to do a 180 and head back up. Well, I hit the divot in the ground that I was telling myself I had to miss and I dumped it. OUCH, S**T! I popped my thumb out. After smacking it back into place, it took about a lap before I could use it for shifting again. So I finished the race well down after having gotten lapped. Kelley Acres the following day was a bit different. I actually stayed with the group a lot longer and managed to miss the bumblefest at the bottom of the flyover on the first lap. The wonderfulness of carbon seatposts was being revealed for all to see with nasty results. I got thru that traffic and felt really effective on the sections where bike handling was an absolute must. The only thing I didn't like on the course was the long climb out on the back side of the course. I held my own on it for the first 3 laps and then started going backwards. I got caught about halfway through the sixth lap and after the wind went out of the sails only went about a minute further back. I was a bit bummed out for the weekend til I saw the results. The lap times were less than 5 minutes and almost down to 4 minutes each. On full cross courses, this would mean I would've been well out of that getting lapped range. This was against riders who would've done pretty good against the elites at any MAC race so I'm beginning to look at it from a very positive outlook. On top of that, I again helped out several riders in other races in showing them lines and how to take certain parts of the courses. One rider won her race, another had a great start but got beat up by the Hagerstown course and the third rider got 6th. I got some good compliments from them. The one thing I've learned over the years is how to read courses. I might not have the tools to do very well on my own, but it's a good feeling to see others take the info I can see and relate to them and put it to great use. Maybe I should follow the age old saying which goes 'those who can't do, teach'? Sorry to any teachers out there if that sounds a bit of a jerk statement to make, but my results have supported that one in the cross arena.

Cross season beckons!

2009-09-14T09:30:00.003-04:00

It's September and after my last race on the 5th, I've kept to my pledge to keep the road season closed down. Even a local race in Pittsburgh wasn't enough to tempt me back onto the road. I started the training for cross this year by just getting out and riding the bike around. The first efforts were done at Seton Hill at the old race course there. On the first real day of riding, I was able to do 3 laps there that we broke down into 3 sections with 1 30 second effort each section. Nothing fancy, just warming the body up. A couple hours of riding around and I felt a bit tired, considering I'd also riding about 25 miles on the road earlier. Through the week, I'd started some intensity workouts. Nothing major but I still had to get the body used to the kind of efforts I know I'll have to be making if I don't want to embarrass myself this year. The dismounts by the end of the first Tuesday night workout were already feeling natural and I could already tell my remounts were going to be places where if I have a gap in front of me, I know it'll be closed(assuming it's not too big). I've also looked at my starts closer and will be starting with the right foot clipped in instead of the left as I'd done for years. Last year, I'd finally gotten a start near the front at Natz, only to blow it from a bad start. Then after a wreck, I fell apart and the chain breaking only added insult to injury. Hopefully this year will be different.
Yesterday, I'd done the first official race of the year. While I still didn't feel race ready, I'd figured I needed to see just how hard I could push myself. While my technical skills were there as if I'd never stopped racing last year, I did not have that top end. My start, however went very well and after starting in the back third of the group or around 50 or so riders, I was about 15th off the road after a few hundred yards and then a sharp move through a tight corner and I was in the top 10. That's pretty much where I held for the first 20 minutes of the race. There were several sections of single track which caused some cluster f***s a couple of which I was able to ride past after pushing my way through and yelling. About halfway, the back started having it's say and I had to throttle back. I've had a mantra on cross that I've followed the past few years which goes: 'Save the effort, save the body, save the bike!' The technical skills certainly help the first and last, but the body needs to cooperate better for me. I was able to finish strong and only finished a couple minutes down on the winner in 12th place. So all in all, it was a good day. It's time to start ratcheting things up so I'm ready for the meat of the season now.

End of the road season. (Thank God!)

2009-08-23T00:33:00.002-04:00

Well, the end of the road season is winding down. It has been a disappointing one at that. I started the year out really well, unfortunately, I did not do my traditional weight workouts thru early April. So I started out slow and little by little, I died out completely! I do have a couple more events with one that I'm particularly interested in doing well in. The Long Street Tour in Columbus, OH on my birthday, September 5th. That would be a heck of a present to myself, but I'd also take a win from anyone on the team. In this race a few years back, I was just coming out of an injury plagued season after a very nasty crash early in the season. I'd had a couple good races but no sprint. So I was the guy who monitored the front or chased the whole race for out team. Of the 22.25 miles out of 25 that I was in the race, I was on the front for well over 10 miles. If an attack went and one of our team members was not in the it, I'd go to the front and raise the pace 1 or 2 mph. Then motor til the gap came down and a counter could go. From there, I would park myself in third place and just be a total jerk to everyone trying to organize a chase. It took a lot of effort and just when I was thinking we were going to pull off the race as we wanted, I popped. Right after that, the final attack went and the 2 other riders on my team didn't respond. I hated putting that kind of effort out to have it wasted like that but hey, that's baseball. I'll probably be in the same kind of role here, but I will be looking for the opportunist moves. I was able to cross a huge gap at the westlake crit a few weeks ago and I'm pretty sure I can handle repeated moves like that especially as there is a lot of cornering in this race. To prep for it, I will finally be getting down to the track in Pittsburgh for the fixed gear races on next Friday. I've been trying to work that into my schedule all year. Up til 2 of the individual events last year when I was competing on a gear that was too small for the track size we are on, I'd not lost there since I started going down once or twice a year starting in 2003. I did finally get a 15 tooth cog and set matters right in the final two events, a miss and out and then a 10 lap scratch race. This year, I hope to get down there and kick everyone around and now that I know what gearing to use, I'll be there from the gun and going for it. I find that the intensity of track racing really gets the legs going for a crit as long as it isn't the next day. It also works for cross which starts up in a few weeks. I'll be tag teaming my first couple cross races with the finals of the WVMBA MTB Short Track series. The last time I was at one of those, I won handily. Everyone else showed up for a MTB Short Track race and I showed up for a Cross race. Even on the old steel Fort, the race was decided in about 200 yards. The next 20 minutes were a formality. I hope the others work the same way. We'll see in a few weeks!

Strong finish for the road and a history lesson.

2009-08-06T11:47:00.004-04:00

I'm finally feeling like I've got something in the legs. After going through several weeks of dealing with some health issues dealing with fatigue, the body feels like it's responding. Last week, I got some really good cross training in. I was riding the bike around Gettysburg and then jumped in with the Boy Scouts hike around the battlefield. I caught up with them after I'd done about 25 miles. They were about halfway thru their hike and were at Devil's Den on their lunch break. As long as we were on the road, I was on the bike, but once on trails between Little and Big Round Tops and then the fields back up through the left side of the Confederate lines on the battle field, I had the bike shouldered. I road the couple miles to the starting point of Pickett's charge. I acted as a communications man between the front and back of the scout troop as a few had gone on ahead and then a couple stayed back with the stragglers. After having a tough time in the mud coming down from Big Round Top, my boy Ryan got his second wind and was making a point of staying near the front. The battlefield hasn't changed much since I saw it as a kid though they did have a new Visitor and Museum center. It was good to get both my boys in for a bit of education on one of this countries most prolific battles and have them understanding why the conflict was taking place. The final leg of the hike was retracing the steps of Pickett's charge and we were most of the way across when one of the scout leaders realized he'd lost his phone. I hopped back on the bike and took the roadway back to where he figured he'd lost it. A couple other tourists saw me riding by and had found the phone flagged me down and was asking me if I was with the scout group who'd lost the phone. That made looking for it easy. After retrieving the phone, I got back to the start of the charge trail through the field again and I ran the whole way. It's hard to imagine what it's like to do this in a battle. I was trotting my bike and a few extra pounds of stuff in a backpack. The soldiers that did this were marching across with their guns, haversacks, canteens and in uniforms. To top that off, cannons that were firing canister shot (old era version of machine gun fire), and infantry volleys were sending a shower of metal that knocked most of these men down by the time they got across. In the time it took to cross the field which for me was about 6 minutes, for the charging rebels, I would imagine it was around 15 minutes, over 5000 men fell. That is a very sobering thought. In dealing with any of the conflicts that we are faced with in the world, I think it is best to remember the words of Robert E. Lee when it comes to armed conflict: 'It is well that war is so terrible -- lest we should grow too fond of it.'

More time in the mountains

2009-07-17T13:18:00.001-04:00

I'm spending the weekend in the mountains again. Last week, I got a great ride in the Laurel Mountains and got 4 ridge climbs in. I think I'll follow it up again this week and start back up racing at Westlake on Tuesday. Nothing like the scenic climbs on the backroads to help re-ignite the motivation to race.

Second half begins

2009-07-17T12:55:00.002-04:00

Well, the first half of the season had some ups and downs, though usually i've been on the more disappointing side of things. I sat on the wrong wheel at Barbour earlier this month and kinda fell asleep on the initial climb. I finally started paying attention towards the top and all of a sudden we were 25 yards off an accelerating front. No worries, I thought. We'll chase back on as soon as we top off with the 8 or 10 people here. BUUUUZZZZZZZ, wrong answer Bob! I looked back to see who was still with us. Where'd everyone go? Ahhhhhh, crap, now I was forced into chasing mode with Skip Rodgers, who was a decent time trialist, but didn't have the steam to really help get us back. We got to within a few seconds but after a particularly hard pull heading into a climb, I popped. Oh well, it was now a training ride. I got into a group of other riders most of whom were working well, but certainly had problems going hard when I started pressing the pedals. In the end, I was set up for the sprint for 8th or 9th and for the first time in a couple years, I had a mechanical on the bike. I coasted in and was a bit depressed as this was a race I've owned for a couple years now. My race the next day at the Lil' Moes' mtb race was going well and I was sitting in third and I had another mechanical. This time it was a biomechanical as the back started barking big time. So for the second day straight, I was having a long drive home. I continued this string of woes by going to Westlake on Tuesday with a teammate. I wound up popping a spoke on one of my Zipp carbons. Dammit will this never end? I got a spare and since my race was effectively over, I started busting ass for Ted. I closed down a couple dangerous breaks and was telling him where to be and when. He just missed getting to the front in time to get the winning break but did get the second one and finished up in 7th. The one good thing that I was able to take away from this race was my ability to move around in the pack at will. The other teams were using my chasing accelerations to set up moves as I would string the field out quite a bit and even caused a couple splits in it. It was good to be able to hear 'Ok, here it comes' when I rolled up to the front and really pressed on the pedals for a good half mile. Hopefully the second half of the season will go better and then it's time for cross!

The 70s memories are fading....

2009-06-26T10:13:00.004-04:00

A sad passing came upon us this yesterday as one of the great all-time icons for men (and women too) succumbed to cancer. Farrah Fawcett was one of the greatest all-time pinup girls. Adolescent boys as well as men had copies of the famous poster that sold more than 12 million copies. Her stint on Charlie's Angels cemented her into pop culture and her hair was copied by women all over the world. After dealing with her personal relationship issues over the years, she wound up dealing with cancer. I won't go into any special eulogies for her as to how she dealt with it as that is a personal thing, but everyone who lived through the 70s will not forget who she was as well as that famous picture.

24 Hours of Big Bear

2009-06-17T10:20:00.002-04:00

I did my first 24 hours MTB race this past weekend as part of a relay team. The Highland Pirates were Danny Welsch, Steve Green, Rich Raesly, Sara Lampo and myself. We started out well and were holding down 3rd and were pretty close to 2nd. I was on my lap when things started to go awry. I was plowing thru the course and feeling pretty good. Just when I felt like I was at the height of my hero status, I flatted for only the 2nd time in 3 years of MTB racing. Damn, I was just at the part where the downhill was really starting and to lose my pace there really hurt. After getting it fixed, it took me a bit to feel the flow again and I didn't really get it back til I was almost all the way down the hill. That was the first time cost for us on the day. As the night settled in, our second rider Steve took a few tumbles and gashed his knee. Our third rider Rich lost both of his lights and had to follow a junior rider in. I lost one of mine about 30 minutes out. I also had to learn how to ride in the dark. It took me half of the lap to realize that it's best to have the handlebar light positioned right in front of the bike and to use the helmet light to scan ahead. That probably cost me about 10 minutes alone as I was sliding off the trail and bumping around into things that I shouldn't have been. One benefit of the dark though was I wasn't thinking like a single-speeder. I wasn't getting off the bike before I felt I had to and therefore got up some of the bigger hills that I'd walked earlier in the day. It helped that I'd geared down for the night run though. I wound up feeling like I'd gone at least 10 minutes slower than I'd hoped. The girl on our team Sara, unfortunately had issues that were hurting her pedaling and she really had a time of it getting back in on her night run. After the first riders came up for the 3rd round, we were about 17 minutes down and in 4th place. We lost about 4 more then we started a comeback. Steve and Rich got us to 11 minutes down and I began what wound up being our final lap. I did an all or nothing lap. I went out hard and just kept the pressure up being careful not to send myself anerobic. I'm not sure if I lost my bottle or it was yanked from the cage, but I found myself without water for the first 3 miles which later would hurt me. I found a discarded bottle on one of the bumpier sections and stopped to snag it up. That saved me as the day was definitely getting warmer. Unfortunately, the gas was running low and towards the end of the lap, I got into the very technical rock garden and on the climb out, I began to cramp up and popped completely. i did recover but the legs were hurting and i knew that i'd come up short in the attempt to get one more rider out on course. In the end, we wound up 5th overall. Without the miscues and injuries we had, we could have easily been 40 minutes faster. Well, next time, the Pirates will do better.

Making old man noises.

2009-06-01T12:31:00.003-04:00

Today, I've spent the morning making old man noises anytime I've moved out of the desk chair. Yesterday's race was a tough one made tougher by the mud on the course, the mud in my eye, the many crashes because of the mud in the eye, no water on the course and the many crashes because of the mud in they eye. Did I mention I crashed a lot yesteday? I was a bit pissed with the race organizers who failed to have an aid station along the course. The reason given was 'well it was cool in the shade when I was up along the trail'. Ummmm, guess what dude.... There were plenty of parts where there was sun on the course and also, it's just a bit different when you're on the bike than when you're just standing watching. I wound up catching a clop of mud in the eye about an hour into the race. It made it completely impossible to ride with any speed as the eye would tear up as soon as I'd get any speed. I stopped at least a dozen times to try to get the dirt out. If they'd just had the water jug out on the course, I could've irrigated it and been on my way. So I had to fight a nasty muddy course without being able see out of one eye and constantly stopping. I was completely unable to open things up on the sections of the course where my bike typically flies. In the end, I wound up wrecking about 6 times. I would figure I added on at least 20 minutes onto my time. I wouldn't have won but I would've been top 3 or 4. Oh well. I guess nothing works out great all the time.

First notch on the helmet for the year.

2009-05-30T22:23:00.002-04:00

I finally picked up a win this year. I did a short track mountain bike race in West Virginia as part of the WVMBA series. Most of the other riders were treating the race as a mountain bike short track. I looked at it as a cross race. I was one of 2 riders who were on a cross bike and right from the gun, I punched it hard. We started in a barn and coming out I took the short line through the deeper grass and shot away from the pack. I then maintained the pace til I got to a short road section. It was packed enough that I was able to get a good head of steam up and heading back into the trail slung the bike through the sharp turn in. This jumped the gap another 15 or 20 yards. Coming out of the back side of the course, I had a good gap and there were 3 riders working to bring me back. After another short section of road, I accelerated hard down a twisting trail and carried the speed through the mud section. At the end of the first lap I had a couple hundred yard lead. I put it in cruise control at that point. I only punched it when it seemed the riders behind started closing. At the end of the 4th lap, one of them got to within 20 seconds. I did one last hard punch and after slinging myself off the road at a really fast pace which also involved nearly sliding out once on the trail, the gap went way back up as his effort must've been an all-out effort to catch me. Once I disappeared on him, he let up. I came through on the bell lap and was able to cruise it in for the win. It wasn't a big win, but it was a good intensity type ride. I'll do 2 more of the 3 remaining short tracks. I think I'll go after this series to get myself ready for cross this year. After today, we get the XC for the weekend. I'll be back on the single speed so I won't have as much of an easy time though there is alot of rideable but technical single track so maybe I'll have a crack at a high placing. I'm hoping my last week of long stupid miles pays off.

Memorial Day followup

2009-05-27T13:42:00.002-04:00

I completed the weekend efforts on Monday with another day of 2 rides. These were much lower key than the ones in the mountains. I kept to local roads and managed about 50 miles. I did get a bit annoyed when a rider on a hybrid bike time trialed to catch up to me when I was noodling around in the industrial park and then sat on my wheel for for a quarter lap. Then finally pulled up along side and then wanted to chat. I know I'm not a pro or even anything that special of a rider, but I always thought that to invite yourself into someone else's draft without announcing yourself was a bit rude. Then finally he says hi. I did reply but let him know I wasn't much for conversation at that point since I had my own thoughts going in the head at that point.

Tuesday, I was supposed to be heading to Westlake, OH. The weather got in the way of that one. My teammate that was to be going with me and I looked at the weather report and opted out of the 2 hour trip to race in the rain. So I stayed in the Pittsburgh area and marshalled the races in Pittsburgh. I wound up doing a total of about 90 laps last nite and that coupled with a 10+ miler in the morning got me to about 325 miles for the 4 day stretch. This was now the biggest mile week I've done in quit a few years and I have tonites race in Pittsburgh as well as Thursday and Friday to go. I figure I'll have hit about 420 miles total for the 7 days. Not a bad total. I'm hoping to be able to manage about 225-250 a week for the rest of the summer with another couple big stupid weekends like this past one to follow up.

One fun thing about marshalling the races for the beginners and women, is sitting in the back and helping the younger riders understand how the game is played. There was one girl who seemed to be about 15 years old and was having trouble sitting in the pack. I showed her on the fly how to anticipate the moves to minimize the effort needed to stay with them. She hung in well the rest of the race and actually sprinted fairly well at the end. All she has to do is to learn how to move up the line and through the riders as the sprint is going without hitting the wind and she'll do quite well. There were 2 other youngsters who'd fallen off the back and after swapping places with one of the other marshals, I got them working both together and against one another particularly late in the race. In the last 5 laps, they were attacking and winding each other back. It was a lot of fun to watch. Unfortunately, the younger one ran out of gas late in the race. For being on a 24" bike with questionable wheels versus the other on a 700c wheeled bike where the bearings were definitely better, young Lincoln definitely did a great effort. I always make a point of talking with them after the race to let them know things they did well and a few tips to help them get better. After all, if you're not enjoying the racing, you usually don't stay in the sport very long. I think if these two youngsters can get past the car thing when they get their licenses at 16, they could do very well.

Day 2 - Memorial Day Weekend.

2009-05-24T20:32:00.003-04:00

I managed to get up this morning. That was a lot considering I'd done 118 miles yesterday. When I got home, I then went to the fireworks for the local community days. I wound up having to walk about a mile and a half to get into the park and then back out to the car. I didn't feel too good when I got home. I got out on the bike about 9AM and did the morning 20. The legs didn't feel too bad but I could tell, I wasn't going to be climbing as easily as I was yesterday. After lunch and a nap, I struggled to get going after starting to watch the Coke 600 race. I forced myself to break away from it and got out. I didn't have as ambitious of a day planned as yesterday. I still did manage 3 ridge crossings and got back into the Latrobe starting point with about 73 miles in the legs. I did almost come to grief when blasting down a hill, I nearly smacked into a large blackbird. That was just not the kind of thing I needed. I'm now about to sit in an icewater bath now. The legs are screaming right now and I need to take care of them. I'm a bit over 210 miles for the weekend now. I only need 40 to break what I set out to ride. Thankfully, tomorrow will be much easier.

Long stupid miles!

2009-05-23T23:04:00.004-04:00

I'm taking the weekend off from racing. Last weekends results told me it was time. So, I'm just going to get out there and ride some long stupid miles. Each morning will start off with a 20 miler at the Yoop(a 2 mile flat road that I use for light spinning). Then after a good breakfast/lunch, I intend to hit the mountains. On Saturday, the plan is to do 4 major ridge crossings. The route I have takes me up to the 7Springs resort where Nationals was held a couple years ago, then back down, then up the ridge again on the next crossing over to the Hidden Valley resort. I'll have already done Chestnut ridge with a 4 mile crossing. Then after crossing the mini ridge in between the 2 big ones again, I go back up Laurel via the Linn Run Climb. Then I'll do the run back into my launch point in Latrobe. This first day should be a bit more than 100 miles. I'll lop off the 7Springs climb on Sunday which should still give me an 80 mile day. Then Monday, I'll tone it down and do some smaller climbs near home. Welcome to Western Pennsylvania. One bitching climb after another.

Just got back from day one. Morning ride - 20 miles. Afternoon ride, I had to cut the final climb short since I got out a bit late in the afternoon. I road almost 100(96, I just could finish those last few miles) miles but trimmed the final 2 (out of 7) off the Linn Run climb. Damn. My goal was to be 250 miles this weekend, I think I'll pull it off and then some.

New VP bunker location

2009-05-19T09:21:00.006-04:00

"Biden exposes location of VP Bunker."

After opening his yap one too many times, it's been reported that VP Joe Biden will get a new double secret bunker for times of national emergency. It will be located at the 7-Eleven at 3530 Conneticut Ave NW in Washington, DC. This decision was made after the Vice-President announced to the press the location of the previous bunker. When necessary, the VP will be transported under the protection of the secret service, to the bunker where he will serve Slurpies to the customers til the emergency has passed.

I couldn't do it . . . . a third time.

2009-05-17T19:18:00.004-04:00

Well, the form has been coming up so I chose to do a weekend of racing when most of my other teammates weren't able to do the road trip. I've been feeling good but not that good. The first race was the Smoketown Airport Crit in Lancaster. I wound up working in Johnstown, PA (Flood City) which had me an hour on the route to Lancaster so instead of backtracking home, I just did my Friday evening ride there and then drove eastward. I got to the race and even got a decent warmup. I was expecting there to only be around 20 or so riders, but from the original 14 preregged, we wound up with about 35 riders. In this mix were 2 teams, one with 4 riders and the other GS Lancaster had a full compliment of 6. This made it a total bitch as they were able to have their riders roll off the front on a continuous basis. The first 3 went pretty much from the fun. It was a windy day out and I was telling myself, 'not the first move. wait til the second'. BUUUZZZZZZZ - OOOOOOO, wrong answer Bob! It stayed out. A second move involved the remaining Lancaster riders and a few others. When I saw the group form up and start riding away, I realized, I had to go right then. This involved a stretch of 200+ yards into the headwind and then through the turns where a crosswind would still slow you down. I made it out of the nasty headwind but still had a bit of a cross wind going down the backstretch. I punched it hard a second time and got within 25 yards by the bottom turn. I flew through the turn and was on. We seemed to go hard for a couple laps and I saw the remnants of the field falling away. Good, I thought. Less people for the party. Inexplicably, our group let off the gas and we wound up getting caught by all the small groups. Later they said, 'we didn't realize we had a gap'. I remember having that one used on me by the Alliance Environmental boys at Williamsport a few years ago in a nasty rainy crit which I still consider one of my best performances in a race. I'm thinking they were just out trying to waste our energy. It did work as I was unlucky when they attacked again and I was behind slower riders. All of a sudden for a third time, there was another freaking gap. I tried launching again but this time, it just wasn't going to happen. I got halfway across the gap and then the body told my brain to have a nice day and there you have it. I did ride strongly but really need to have teammates with me. It makes it easier when you don't have to be dealing with each and every move. Later Saturday, I drove down to Baltimore for the Kelly Cup. It was cool seeing my friends from the MABRA area. The 35+ race started with around 80 riders and it went hard and fast right from the gun. Did I say it went hard and fast? Inside of 3 laps, half the field was gone. Before we got 6 laps in I was just done. I was sliding back through the field and all of a sudden there was an acceleration which I wasn't able to stay with. I waited for the next rider to come past. After waiting a second and no one came through, I took a quick peek back. WTF!?? Where did everyone go. I was able to see the small group of 9 off the front. The second group has around 10. A third group just ahead of me has a dozen riders in it. Another rider and myself killed it for a couple laps to catch them, but once a prime got called for that group. that was it. I knew I was a bit tired from all the racing I've done in the past 6 days (4 races) but jeez, I should've been able to hold onto it for maybe 10 miles. Seeing riders like Kris Auer in the back group that I'd slipped out of made me feel a bit better, but only slightly. Oh well, it's time to lick the wounds and recover through the week while I prepare to spend all next weekend in the mountains. If things go well and I don't wuss out, I plan to have around 250 miles and at least 10 major ridge crossings in those 3 days. I haven't done a weekend like this for a while and I need to get it to try to get myself up to where I need to be for the next phase of the season. I really like riding in the Laurel Mountains in western PA. There are lots of good roads and you don't see many cars while I'm up there. It should be good.

Feeling the love set in . . . finally.

2009-05-13T10:23:00.004-04:00

I'm back at the desk pretending to do work now. I drove up to Cleveland last evening with a teammate for the Westlake circuit race. They really need to get at least one or two more volunteers (pay them, i'll pay another buck for the race) so we can have both lanes open for the sprint. I would've done a top 5 finish there, but after the pack damn near ran into the back of a pickup truck on the final lap and then about 20 people ignoring the yellow line rule in the rush for the sprint, I wound up about 30 riders back. I got somewhere between 10th and 15th which wasn't too bad considering all I did was roam through the group(with the rider traffic, it was all I could do) til I crossed the line but when you finish and aren't even breathing hard something isn't right. I was happy with the race because about 15 miles in, a break started that looked like it had the right mix and I was able to burst away from the pack, fly past a couple riders who were blowing up from going with it initially and come up to the back, go to the front immediately and do a strong pull. Unfortunately, there was enough horsepower up there to scare the teams in the pack who didn't make it and a general pack reaction happened. When the other riders saw this, they backed off on the throttle, but it was still good to see the reactions of the top riders when I rolled up to them and then past to stoke the fires of the break. They know I'm back and they're beginning to take me serious again. It's a good feeling.

RATL and Westlake

2009-05-11T22:42:00.006-04:00

Wow, it's the first time I've worn a road helmet at a road race in 3 years!

I just finished up the Summit Freewheelers Race at the Lake series for the year. I raced there for one of my teammates who really felt he had a good crack at the win there so after being fairly aggressive throughout the race (including almost picking up one little weasel by the scruff of his neck and tossing him in the weeds) we found ourselves in a pretty good position for the finish. With a lap and a half to go, I went up to the front and wound the pace up. I was able to hold it going fairly quickly for half a mile and heading into the final hill, I hesitated for a couple seconds thinking I'd be able to make a second push over the top of the little rise. Damn, I'd overestimated my strength. I did lead into the hill going around 30 and a bit, but I just don't have that long range ability to keep it going like I need it to. Another 100 yards up over the little rise and I would've been able to stay on it for another quarter mile. Unfortunately in the end, I blew up and Chris left a gap on the right side of the road where he needed to be opening his sprint from and we only wound up with a fourth place. It was a good finish but if I'd just waited before I blew everything out for another lap, we could've had a win. Oh well. On the plus side we'd done a decent race. The bad part of the day was when I started the 123s. Paul Martin and company from the RGF team just wound it from the start and it was hell. I hung in for around 6 laps, but I just wasn't in the frame of mind to be going that fast so soon after my efforts from the first race. When you're flying up the hill in the pack and you're doing over 25 and the pace wasn't cooling off, you know it's going to be a tough day. Most of the main protagonists from the first race blew within 10 miles and the rest of the pack wasn't far behind. There is so much talent there right now with multiple former national champs (Martin and Baldasare) along with the Inferno pro team and a couple top notch amateur teams it is pretty much impossible to double up when there is only a 10 minute break between the 2 races. I'll get a much better crack at them Tuesday at Westlake though. I'll be about a third of the way there and when I link up with a teammate who will be a bit further along the way, it shouldn't be that bad of a trip. I've done very well in the long drag out sprints there and I love the 120 degree turn they have on the one end of the course. Every year there riders go careening off the course when they realize they've overcooked it trying to follow someone like myself through that turn. I almost wish the finish was on that side of the course as I could really create some havoc by nailing it through the turn and blasting my way towards the finish. I at least know that I won't ever get dropped there as even the big boys tread a bit lightly there. Whatever happens, it'll be fun.

Warm and Fuzzy?

2009-05-01T12:08:00.003-04:00

Well, I am just getting the warm and fuzzies with the current business climate here. Chrysler and GM are both being 'sent' into bankruptcy being ordered by Obama to do so. WTF? When does the government get that kind of say. Then part of the terms that are to be coming of this is that the UAW gets somewhere around 50% of it? Double WTF! They aren't putting a freaking penny into the game and they are walking away with half of it? That is just out there! It is a huge crime that is being committed on the tax payers of this country. If anything, the tax payers should be getting that ownership with a definitive plan to spin it off so the government can get on doing the things it should be doing what it should be which is protecting the country. We are seeing a full-blown arrival of what Ayn Rand wrote about 50 years ago. If this doesn't get stopped, we are doomed as a country. We are seeing the same type of economic positioning as was seen in Germany and Italy in the 20s and 30s. Bad things are coming. Get your arms out ready to have the chip implanted now. It's on its way.

First race hell.

2009-04-12T21:55:00.003-04:00

I usually use the first few races of the year to really get my ass kicked. Over the years, I've found this lets me know what I have to work on. This year is no different. Pretty much everything needs help. I got thumped at the opening mtb race. There I would have to say that I really didn't have the right tools for the job. At Tyson's the tools I didn't have fell in the department of a bit of a back problem, but that said, I didn't feel like I was going to be lapping the field that day. Then came the Morgantown RR. This race was a nice rolling course for the first 20 miles and then it sucked from there. It was pretty much one bitching hill after another. I'm about 5lbs overweight from last year when I was really about 10lbs overweight where I need to be before I start climbing well. I really have to just say no to chinese which is an absolute addiction for me. I wonder if they put something in the food that causes that. Maybe the chinese buffets are just like the tobacco industry. Dammit, where's my lawyer? Oops, back to my races. I probably wouldn't have set the world on fire, but I do know I hand grenaded on the first hill mainly due to the work I did being the jerk on the front of the pack that was actively working to goof things up. Unfortunately, we had a mixed field and there was one of the women up in the little group off the front. That prompted Patty Buerkle to be chasing fairly hard. In hindsight, I should've rolled up to her and asked if she realized what the second half of the course was like. It might've saved her race as she had a bit of trouble dealing with Betsy Shogren's climbing prowess. Once we made the turn to begin the return part of the course, I could feel that I was really going to have some trouble if the pace kept up like it was going. It did and I wound up getting spit out the back when the climbing began to get steep. I tried rolling it back to a group, but ultimately was unsuccessful. At that point, I called it a day and declared it a training ride. So I did come up with a definite game plan on what I have to do now. Try to limit the crap food I'm eating, get more miles in get on with the racing. I'll be doing my first oval race in Pittsburgh on Wednesday so I'll go there to see how much I can hammer before I completely blow up. If I can splinter the field when I do that, I'll know I'm getting where I need to be. If I blow up and people roll past me with that 'WTF was that about, Jay' look on their faces, I'll know I've got a lot more work to do.
I did at least determine what wheels I have in stock for racing work well for me and which are training ones. The new Ventos are just a bit heavy and slow reacting so I will keep those as the ones for training. Maybe I should've taken the time to put some of the new tires on the Zipps.

One big long ride

2009-03-30T14:14:00.002-04:00

I got my first century in a couple years in over the weekend. In the past couple years, I haven't had the time or inclination to do one since most of my races have been anywhere from 15 to 60 miles. But I'm busy flogging myself back into shape. The weight is coming down and I'm starting to feel stronger. We got a 102 miler in on Saturday and almost another 50 on Sunday. My knee was playing up a bit from it all since the pedals on the cross bike just don't give me the same float as the trusty old Sampson's do. This weekend followed up a 20 miler on Friday after work in the Johnstown area. I managed more than 2000ft of climbing in that distance so the weekend wound up being a good one for me. I'm now beginning to feel a bit confident for the upcoming races we'll be hitting, the first being Tyson's Corner circuit race. There'll be big packs and most importantly, for the first time in a few years, there'll be a full squad there for our team. We usually hit our stride in May and June so everyone is getting going a bit earlier this year. This will follow the first Wednesday night Hammerfest in Morgantown. I have a teammate a bit incensed with me since we had a little team email list discussion about the merits of spinning versus mashing. Adam is a hell of a good time trialist and road racer, certainly much stronger than myself particularly when the course tilts upwards. He'll be looking to 'prove' his method is better by making me suffer during the ride. I'll just be calm during the hills but for the sprints, I think I'll take him on and see just how strong he is right now. It's when I get to the sprints that I can do the sit-down high spin sprints that I've favored over the past years after a few nasty spills in sprints took some of the leg mashing out of me. I've actually come to like sprinting in the saddle and have noticed that when you come rolling past another rider and they're up out of the saddle, wagging the bike around for all its worth and they see you winding the pedals still seated, it often takes the wind right out of their sails. If I'm having to go through traffic at the finish of a race, I find it also lets me move around with a lot more control. I'm hoping I'm ready for Tyson's. We don't have a specific team leader but I'm hoping the cards fall in my direction. If not, I can screw up the front of the pack pretty well. That's what I like about our squad. All of us are capable of winning on any given day. It just comes down to how we play our cards in the race. We'll try to race a team strategy, but as von Moltke said, “No plan survives contact with the enemy.” We'll go, race and see what happens. GO TEAM!

The season is getting closer...

2009-03-16T10:25:00.002-04:00

Well, finally, the racing season is at hand. After a lackluster winter where I totally missed my goals on training, I'm finding that I feel like I'm going fairly well. I was able to do a high rpm low gear ride for 3 hours on the road and even climb some of the hills at a reasonable clip for this time of year. After a quick cup of coffee and a cinnamon bun, I pulled the mtb out for a couple hours at Baker's Ridge. The group again was small, but because of that, the stragglers weren't holding us back and we kept up a steady hard pace for almost a couple hours. After an effort like that, I was expecting to feel totally wrecked today, but I got up and aside from feeling a bit stiff, I'm not feeling that bad. With the first race coming up in a week, I feel like I'm just about ready for the season. This weekend's race will be interesting because it will be the first time that I'll be racing against mtb riders at my level where the race is a single speed race. I've competed against the vets fields in the WVMBA series but had my single speed versus their gears. Usually that puts me a minute or two down right from the gun. I can make it back through and on some of the days, even hit the podium or close to it, but it is really tough. The real MTBers can tell I'm a cross rider since I'm likely to hop off the bike and run with it a bit to get over some of the tougher sections. I usually look at it as being able to get through it faster rather than not having the real skills. All I can say is that it'll be interesting to see where I stack up against the others when we're racing the same type of bike.

Winter riding

2009-02-22T22:01:00.004-05:00

I've been doing the Morgantown Baker's Ridge rides this year to get myself ready for the season. It's a few hours of good effort but it's also just a fun ride. I have fun on the trails though with the nasty wind storm we had a few weeks ago, the trails have alot more trees down on them. It does make for a bit tougher time but you just have to deal with it. I like the off-road in this weather. You can work as hard as you want, even break a good sweat and not get nasty cold because your speed doesn't go up that much. It's a good break from the hard training regimented days where you go out with a plan that you are going to do this and that to get ready for the Tour de big race. I'm carrying a few more pounds than I'd like to be but it's coming down finally and I might actually be able to make some headway on it this year and get back towards my race weight which I've been over by around 20lbs for the past how many years. If I could even get half way, I'd be competitive in most any race I'd enter this year. It's tough hauling around what amounts to a couple gallons of milk around, especially when the road goes up. I really gotta put the donuts down and get to the matter at hand finally.

Note the wool gloves. These are the best things to have in this weather. Wet, dry, whatever, your hands still stay warm.

Tits on a bull!

2009-02-07T20:46:00.003-05:00

I had a decent ride today right up until the last 3 miles. I was riding through the industrial park near the house and some little bastard decided it would be funny to launch a pop bottle at me. It hit square in the back and after the initial rage that blasted through my mind, I quickly made a note of the make, model and as much of the license plate as I could get. I even got a good look at the little prick who could have been the only one who threw the bottle since he was hanging out the window and yelling like an idiot. Immediately stopping afterwards, I made the call to our wonderful PA State Police. After relaying what info I had, I was informed that there really wasn't anything they could do since I didn't get the complete license plate. Wait, STOP, hold the damn phone. We, the taxpayers of this state, give you people a big ass computer that has a copy of the auto registration files and with the info I gave you, you can't do a quick cross reference on the damn thing? Between, the info I had and location of the incident, I think I would've been able to nail this down to 1 or 2 car owners at which point you can find which of these people have a licensed driver of a young age that fit the age of the driver and there's your freaking car, dammit. Nope, that was more effort than they were willing to do. Did they miss the computer class on cross referencing data tables? Jeeezus, I know high school kids who can figure that one out. Of course, I am talking about the same State Police force who took 2 years to finally bust the chain of oriental massage parlors that were really prostitution rings. Everyone knew that was what was happening. It doesn't take 2 years to get evidence on this. I can see it now, 'Sarge, can I have some petty cash? I need to go collect some more "evidence" on those massage parlors.' So from my several experiences with our police force, it's been my experience that they can't deal with assault cases when I'm on my bike, deal with destruction of property and dumping issues when the culprit is well known and documented, property encroachments and theft from said property. Now they also want to start billing communities who don't have their own police force $100 a head per year. Goddammit, if anyone is going to have to pay for it, then these people better damn well remember that they are here to 'PROTECT AND SERVE' the community. They only seem to be interested in catching traffic violators(of which they are some of the worst, one having almost hitting me when he blew through a stop sign at the bottom of my hill when I was coming down) and doing DUI checkpoints. If they have to do any actual 'WORK' or deal with people who actually might shoot back, WTF are they? Not anywhere close. The only time I saw that was at a standoff and then they showed up with an armored car and full cami gear. This was their "Special Response Unit". I don't know about anyone else, but I'm getting a bit on the concerned side when the State Police has a "Special Response Unit" equipped like this. When did they become a freakin military unit? For the regular law-abiding citizens of the state, this force has become in my eyes exactly what the title of this post is. And we all know what is said about them.

The new priesthood.

2009-01-29T20:55:00.005-05:00

I had a recent conversation with a friend. We were talking about the Ben Stein movie "Expelled" and in one part of the conversation, I was asked, 'Do you really believe that the Bible is really true? I mean come on, most of those stories are made up. It's all fiction and there is no evidence that we were made by a creator.' I was also told that 'any educated person can see the stories in religon are just not true and have no basis in anything in the world.' Well, this got me thinking. I guess I don't really believe in all the mystical hocus pocus type stuff such as raising the dead(don't we do this with a defibrillator?) or making a river run red with blood. The one thing I do believe is that some far greater than ourselves created us. Whether that be God or some alien humanoid race or whatever, we are just too well engineered to just have happened.

That said, we are told today, that religious leaders have pulled the wool over peoples eyes and that we were kept ignorant because they didn't have the answers to why things are the way they are. People were told to believe in the religious teachings as fact and they were inspired by the Infallible One(s) (again, God, Allah, Yahweh, Ra or whatever statue you might burn incense to). Then comes the age of enlightenment, where science has rescued us from these superstitions. Only science can explain with certainty all of life's mysteries. They love to point out that the Bible claims that God just one day created the heavens and the earths from nothingness. It doesn't say how, just that he/she/holy union, etc. We are just supposed to make that leap of faith and accept it. Well science puts forth the theory of evolution and the big bang theory. I can see certain parts of it, but something still had to light that firecracker off. Who? I don't think that one was ever explained by science except to say 'no one knows'. Sounds a lot like 'Well, it's a mystery.' Science has a role, but is it exact? In many cases, yes. But the way science is getting used today, it is replacing the role of the old religons. Much of the global warming and social science studies just are not based in fact. I personally think most of the studies that claim to be based on science fall into the same category as this little math problem. Now math is supposed to be an exact science. So let us begin the lesson:

Let X = 1
From that we can say X² = 1
From that we can say X - 1 = X² -1
Factor it and we get X - 1 = (X + 1)(X - 1)

We can then simplify by following:
X - 1 (X + 1)(X - 1)
----- = ------------
X - 1 (X - 1)

The above equation then becomes
1 = X + 1

Therefore based on the fact that X = 1 we can now say that

1 = 2

It's math, an exact science. Do not doubt this because it is so.

There is a problem, but as with the science of Global Warming, I conveniently ignored certain facts. Bonus points if you can let me know what these are. I'll just shout you down and say you are a naysayer and you just don't understand modern science. Go drive your SUV and pollute the world more. Then I'd somehow manage to make sure people knew you were a bigot too and a total non-believer and that you could care less if the world were destroyed.

The overall lesson here is to be wary of things that people tell you are 'Fact' and always question their methods and motives for advancing what they are preaching. Much of what we are seeing is a rehash of the past few thousand years, just with a new face on it.

Jeeezzus, Where do I begin?

2009-01-26T09:54:00.003-05:00

Well, it's the 7th day. I gave the man a chance. I hate being right sometimes and I do think I am seeing the results of the first 6 days of the new administration. I could go on for several pages but will stick to just a few things here. The flubbed oath and then the blackout of the redone oath. Why didn't they want anyone there? In my mind, he still has not taken the oath of office which should be done publicly and NEVER behind closed doors. It is an insult to the American people. I'll bet the 'so help me God' part was taken out. So was the 'faithfully' part too. The appointees to the cabinet and their troubles, particularly the Treasury department head, Geithner, are completely flabbergasting. His tax situation would negate his employment at any level in the IRS. How and why is he even being considered. If you look at his case, he is either being truthful on it being an honest mistake, which makes him incompetent or he is just flat out lying. Would you want a person like that making the decisions on how this country is going to be run financially? I also heard Robert Reich's wonderful comments on the hundreds of thousands of new government jobs(read dependents) that they are looking to create. I believe this amounts to nothing more than a bunch of patronage jobs where if you get one, your continued employment at one of these bogus jobs depends on making sure you support the people who gave it to you. These will do nothing but create even more of a strain on the economy and suck more from the people who are actually producing something. What happens when these people say enough? We're finished. I really do fear that this country is now running headlong into what can only be looked at a total takeover by the government and that we are able to do what we do, not by out ability but by their permission. Sorry, for me, it's the other way around. And for the people who think that I should support others who don't have my ability (I created my job and have been self employed for over 20 years now), and believe that I should be able to pay for others who aren't able to do so but should still enjoy the same benefits of this that I do without the blood, sweat and tears that go along with it, I will respond with a quote I read once. 'GET OUT OF MY WAY!'
Bonus points if you know the source!

OOOOOO, Today is the day!

2009-01-20T10:01:00.004-05:00

Well, it's the big day today. In a short time, there will be an end to war, everyone in the world will love us again, no poverty after the economy rises up when we're all given jobs building roads, the cars will run on clean energy instead of dirty gas, the world will stop warming up and not go into another ice age off as well, all forms of racism will disappear, disease will end, and no one will every have to worry about their house being repossessed again. The carp we all received in the last few years is a bad memory. Who knows, maybe Obama will do the right things necessary to right the ship, but with the lead up to today, I am doubtful. With the people he is hiring, many Clinton castoffs after the Republicans took control of the Senate and then the house a couple years later, how can we expect anything else. At least he won't be doing the interns like Clinton was. We are going into a rehash of the 90s which while those years weren't bad economically, they were fueled by the fact that we borrowed out our ass from the chinese, sold them off quite a lot of our military secrets, and gave them un-escorted access to the most secure areas of our country. It all came tumbling down when the orgy went from our housing market right over to the energy speculation market. This country uses 23 million barrels of oil a day. For the long term contracts on oil that were bought at almost $150 a barrel, that would represent about a $110 per barrel loss. Hmmm, 23 million barrels times 110 times even 180 days and that represents almost half a trillion dollars lost. The rest is fees and such. Maybe this is why the banks don't want to publicly show where the money went. It would show that we were just witness to the largest heist of money ever. EVER!!!! They didn't even have to drive a getaway car. They just flipped us the bird and took the money. I have believed for years that Ayn Rand was indeed a prophet. Today it is being proven she most certainly was.

Bigger carbon footprints?

2009-01-19T23:39:00.004-05:00

I read a couple weeks back that cows supposedly have a huge hand in global warming since they give off so much methane. They are vegetarians too(at least I don't think they feed cows wings, burgers or hotdogs). I also just saw another report that non-vegetarians tend to have more flatulence than vegetarians do. I'm not sure I buy that one. Most of the vegetarians I know can really rip one out and quite often they are able to take down a buffalo with it. I know I get gas every now and then, but never that bad. Eat a burger, you selfish people. You're ruining our environment. I wonder if I can get a grant to study this. They're wasting our tax dollars on everything else, why not this important piece of the global warming puzzle. I guess I'll put in for the grant after the 20th. Who knows, maybe I won't have to do real work anymore then. Just study farts. The downside would be that I don't think there'd be a good pickup line for the women at the bars in there. 'What do you do for a living?' ummmm.... nah, I really just better stop and go to bed now.

Finally! Someone says 'MMMM, Let's talk a look at this...'

2009-01-13T09:43:00.002-05:00

Well, the GOP finally grew a set and said to hold up a bit on voting for the release of the next $350B in funding for the bailouts. I do like the line used in the letter sent to Barney Frank (lead asshole on the finance committee) - "Karl Marx famously observed that history repeats itself, first as tragedy and then as farce,". Ol' Barney has been bitching, along with everyone else, that the banks don't want to show what they've spent the money on so far (probably bonuses, parties and hookers). Well, when you give them a whole bunch of money with no preconditions or oversight, what do you think they're going to do? You've now got a bunch of sailors with a wad of cash in their pockets, nothing in particular to do and they're in Singapore! What results do you think you'll get, anything good? Hell, no! Anyone who rammed this bailout through via the scare tactics that were used should be jailed, or at least sat down in the corner with a dunce hat on. I still say, if a company (or bank) isn't making it, it's time to sell them off to someone who can make it work. LET THEM FAIL. The bailout is the most expensive example of attempting to polish a turd! In the end, the same screwups will still be in their corner offices and doing the same stupid crap which in the end is going to require another bailout. I actually heard an economist on the news the other day explaining that the overall debt ratio to GDP is less than what it was during World War II and that it is sustainable. Just because something is sustainable, doesn't make it ok. Just because I can sustain my credit card payments at the minimum payment, doesn't make it a good idea. What if I don't get that bonus I was hoping for or I suddenly need money for something else. Whooops, I'm screwed. This country is in the same boat and the principles are exactly the same. At some point, you'll finally have to admit that it's not going to work when everything falls apart. I think it's time we did start holding politicians feet to the fire and not just at election day. This bailout is exposing total incompetance at all levels. I say, just let me have a whack at fixing things. I won't be nearly as expensive and I can piss money away with the best of them. I'm getting another cup of coffee and walking around the office now, I'm so miffed.

It's a lonely religon.

2008-12-28T21:30:00.004-05:00

On my ride yesterday, I found that I was facing a bit of a crisis towards the end. Before my bike trail incident, I started to feel a bit of a ticking in one of my pedals. Damn! The pedals are my next to last set of Sampson Stratic pedals from the 90s. These pedals are the absolute best pedals for cornering. Over the years, they have bought me an advantage in more than one race since you can pedal through even the tightest of turns without clipping them on the ground. I usually scare the hell out of someone following me through the turns when I do that since I can lean the bike over so far with them. Unfornately, you can only find them on ebay these days and that isn't very often anymore. I think there are 4 or 5 others in the country who bid on them and it has gotten competitive over the last couple years. They usually only last a couple years, but the amount of float and cornering clearance makes them so awesome. Now I find myself at the point of having to make a decision. Do I look for another pedal system or post out to the world to start sending me their old Sampsons and cleats so I can forever remain in the world of 1990s pedal systems. I've fought the conversion question for so long now it's almost like renouncing my religon. Do I remain a heathen or move on to the next great thing?

A wonderful spring day. Oh, wait...

2008-12-28T13:15:00.002-05:00

Well, we had a nice warm day here in the Pittsburgh region yesterday. I had gone down to Morgantown to try and catch the ride. I'm kind of glad I was late since it turned into a hammerfest. I wound up riding 4 hours on my own at a good early season pace. I like days like this, but I also know that I have to force myself a bit more to get out on the bike in the following days as it will be getting colder. These rapid weather changes really goof with my system and the built in barometer I have in my shoulder usually lets me know about the coming changes. It's one of those dull aches that really let you know it's there, but there isn't much you can do about it. Anyway, back to my ride. Riding along in-town trails, you really learn just how much people exist in the world as if they are the only ones there. I look out for others, even if I wish they'd just fall in the stream when I approach sometimes. There was a couple out taking a walk with their kids. One of the kids was in a stroller, the other was on a little toddler bike. This was all well and good, except the one of the bike was about 50 yards behind them and not looking to sure of himself. I slowed almost to a crawl as I got up to him, not wanting to be going to fast past him. At walking speed, I got up to him and with his parents finally calling to him to pull to the other side of the trail, he looks over at me and rides directly at me. I pulled further over and then suddenly my rear wheel hits the edge of the pavement and the wheel starts skittering out from under me. I gave it a quick acceleration to try to right the ship or at least get beyond the little guy when finally, gravity took over and I went down in a heap. I was about 10 or 15 feet beyond him when I hit and I dug up my knee and elbow. Now comes the good part. The parents then went 'Awww Breez, are you ok?' and then scurried him off. Not one freaking word to me like 'we're sorry, are you ok?' Their lack of parenting in the situation caused it and their boy wasn't even touched. I'm lying there bleeding and my bike got scraped up. It took just about all my strength not to be a jerk about it, but damn, how nice are you supposed to be? There was another family riding their bikes who stopped and made sure I was ok and that maybe cooled me down enough to just go on my way, but it wasn't the best way to finish a ride.

Land of the slugs

2008-12-26T22:50:00.003-05:00

Well, I'm just getting done with a vacation to the land of slugs. I've ridden the bike a couple times since Natz finished up but it took me almost a week to recover. Flying to Portland and then driving to KC was definitely over the top and left me more than a bit wasted. Seeing the news for Cross Natz next year is certainly interesting. I know I will be doing a similar trip but I will be looking to stay out in Portland next year and if my work there allows it, I can spend a few days downtown doing the work thing between the races and then rent the van and pickup friends at the airport for the drive to Bend. I've already worked on the logistics of it and it looks like I could wind up being pretty rested up for Natz if I do it this way. Now if I can just get myself into some better condition. I start the base miles training today with an hour on the trainer tonight and then a few hours on the road tomorrow. I'm hoping I can have 150-160 hours on the bike by the end of March. I have found over the last few years that number works to get me ready for the spring races and sets me up for a decent year. Unfortunately, the last couple years I missed that mark by around 40 hours, so the body just hasn't been ready. Also with the way the Munroe Falls races have run their categories, I can't hit those hard early races by doubling up in the 123s and the masters which were essentially another 123 race. Those races gave me a good 50 miles of hard racing and with warm-ups and warm-downs, I was usually doing 80 miles on those days. I really with they'd get their crap together and realize having the masters as a 35+ race was a whole lot better with a much bigger pack. The same guys are winning so the only difference is who is placing 4th through 10th. I won't hit the 45+ class for another couple years so I'm going nuts trying to figure out how to get the extra intensity I need at that time of year.

The team is forming up and everyone is getting pretty antsy about the new year. We had some very good results last year in the West Virginia series with Adam nearly taking the whole thing ahead of Gunnar. Staying out of the wind a bit more and learning to be a bit more wiley about tactics would have giving it to him but he did an awesome job. I'm considering doing some more of the 123 races to help him out this year as I'm really motivated to get back to the level I was at before the nasty wreck I had 4 years ago. The body has recovered, but I've had some problems with my ability to really make myself hurt isn't quite to where it once was. Still, I've won at least a couple races in the last 4 years with 2 years ago the number hitting 7. I'm looking to have another year where I've posted in the neighborhood of 10. I've done that a couple times and I liked it. I'm also looking to raise the game on the mountain bike this year as well. Last year the bike handling was noticeably better and in races, I was finding myself looking for where I was going to go rather than looking out for where not to go. I noticed my ability in this was really there at the Iron Cross this year. I'd gotten passed by a large number of riders on the long road climb before the fire road to the first big single track section. Of the large groups that passed me, I caught and passed back almost all of them and even left the group that I eventually wound up with in the end by almost a minute. (I dropped them in the end, thanks to the 50 tooth chainring and the big road descent). I was feeling the course and moving with it so I didn't have that 'beat up' feeling like I had the previous year. Even though I got stomped in most of the races this year, I think I'm finally ready to get the form back up to where it had been, shed the 10-15lbs I've been trying to get rid of for the past 10 years, and am finally feeling that aggresive streak that I had just a few years back when some of the bigger guns in the region were starting to notice from me. If all goes well, maybe we'll have a few more podium spots and wins for the team next year. Here's hoping.....nah forget about hoping, we're going to do it.

Christmas Eve

2008-12-24T16:35:00.003-05:00

It's that wonderful time of year when jolly ol' St Nick comes marauding through the countryside in his sleigh with the tiny henchmen tagging along ready to back the fat man up in case trouble starts. Well, this year, we're ready for him. We're tired of the damage to the chimneys, the roof shingles ripped off by his sleigh tracks, having to pay him off with the milk and cookies and then all of the incessant noise that comes in the morning when we'd rather be sleeping. I've got the radar set up and Mort has the truck parked out back with a blast wall set up so we don't burn the fence. The fat guy runs around in a red suit, eh? He must be a communist then. We'll be out with a six pack waiting to wish him a Merry Christmas.

The great midwest....

2008-12-18T09:53:00.000-05:00

If you ever get the chance to drive through the great mid-west of this country, I hope there is at least a good reason for you to do it. There's not a lot going on there. It was pretty much a mind-numbing experience but when you hit Rt 70 past St Charles there was the one piece of excitement that was there - Nostalgiaville! They begin getting you all pumped up a few miles past St Charles when you see the first sign.

They keep on coming and it's not long before you see the second one.

And then...well you get the idea... It goes on for around a dozen signs.

Finally, after getting all excited about arriving at the destination, you turn off the exit and here it is. It's a goofy little store and they do have a website too!

If you're into little novelty things from yesteryear, this is the place for you. I think they are able to capitalize on the fact that you've just been driving forever and are so excited about seeing something other than the occasion house or truck stop, that you'll buy lots of memorabilia that they have. It didn't seem to change any from last year but it's an odd little store to see. It did also break up the drive a bit and on the flip side of the highway, you have Ozarkland and a McStop. I didn't get a pic of the McStop but it was something different that we noticed on the way back. It's amazing how easily amused you are after 11+ hours in the car.

The second leg of the journey - Natz

2008-12-17T20:02:00.000-05:00

After Portland, I'd made it back to Pittsburgh and worked a full Tuesday and half Wednesday and then buzzed down to Morgantown to load up the VW bus with Gunnar and Betsy. We dropped of Jackie with Betsy's parents in Dayton and continued on. After a stopover just east of St Louis, we finished off the trip to KC after stopping at Nostagiaville again. We got pics of every sign that had up along the highway. If you've ever driven through the midwest, you'd understand how that can be entertaining. Anyway, once there, we stopped at the course and did a few laps in the mud. It looked like it was going to be a fun weekend. I've been doing well in the slick muddy courses where it's more about handling than horsepower. After checking into the hotel and getting the bike I'd Fedexed from Portland, I was ready.

On Friday, we got to the course and I was able to do 5 laps on the course and then got myself ready to pit for Betsy and Gunnar. We wound up not being busy at all since the course was drying out. So I did my part in being ready and cheering people I knew on during the race. Betsy had a decent ride and finished 10th and Gunnar at least made the race entertaining after the few riders up front had ridden off. After starting fairly far back and beating his way into the top ten, he started falling back but then made a race of it for the last podium spot. He fell short but it was still a really good ride.

My race on Saturday didn't go well from the start. I missed a pedal and lost around 30 spots right from the gun. I got back in and started weaving through riders as they slowed to come off the pavement and then gunned it through the first turn. I'd hit it just right and was flying up the stretch and straight into the wreck that happened just as I got there. The race ended right there. I was in a big gear with fallen riders all around me. Damn. I tried to get restarted, but the morale had just taken too big a dive. I rode it out with a few others and we had our own little race within the race. I was winning that fight til towards the top of the fourth hill, I snapped a chain. This was starting to piss me off. I trotted the bike over the top section but the couple guys I was racing with, passed me by. Through the run-up section at the top, I wound up catching and passing one of them and then actually out coasted him through the next long dip towards the descent back down. It took a few hundred yards for the rider to finally catch and pass me. When I'd slow down, I'd get off and run the bike up to speed and coast it til I needed to repeat the process. All the while, I was shouting 'I wouldn't say no to a push, people'. I made it to the pits and got the spare bike and was off for the little bit of race that was left to me. At the end, I'd gotten lapped and it was the end of a dismal day.

After a painful Saturday night of getting the backup bike set up as a single speed, we'd lined up for the 8AM start. I was in the third row and began behind a couple guys on mountain bikes. I weaved thru them and going past the start line, I was about 7th or 8th and not really thinking about the hole shot. Then all of a sudden I was in third and was punching up the little rise. The 2 others wanted it a bit more than I did and I came back into view in third place. We got past the pits for the first time and I got my moment to feel cool. Then it was a slow slipping back through the field as we climbed. It was a bit too much for me. If we'd had a course like last years, I would've faired much better, but it dragged on about a couple hundred yards too far for me and I really died going across the last little section at the top. I held my position going back down and even gained a few spots, but with as fast as the course was, I wasn't going to make back much on the descents. I had fun on the day though and luckily we finished early. When we left the course at 9:30, it was still nice and warm out. About 10, things started to get ugly as the cold rolled in and did it fast. I had a couple friends in the collegiate race who absolutely suffered. I was back in the pits after breakfast at the hotel and it was pretty cold. I wound up hanging onto 3 different bikes as people came in and out for different reasons but there wasn't a whole lot of need for us. Betsy had an awesome ride from the very back of the field to finish 35th. This was made more amazing as she'd finished 22nd in the single speed race in the morning.

After doing the party on Sunday and loading up the bus so we wouldn't have to do it in the morning, we zonked out for one last night in KC. Monday, we fueled up and began the drive. It wound up being a really long drive back to Mo'town and from there I had to drive another hour to get home. I made it in at 4AM and was then up at 7:30 to get ready for work. I made it to 2PM and fell completely on my flat and was out. Twice across the country in 2 weeks might not have been such a good idea after all.

Portland USGP

2008-12-09T20:04:00.000-05:00

Well, after a few days doing the things that paid my way out to Portland and then a bit, I finally got the bike in from Fedex and tossed it together Friday evening. I road it around a bit to make sure everything was ok and then got some good sleep for the Saturday race. Because this was a late idea, I wound up in the back of the starting grid. I wasn't expecting to do well at all. I'd not had the best tires on the bike yet as I had to use a backup set since the zipps needed serious maintenance. Once started, I'd also found the brakes could've used a bit more attention. I wish there would be a standard width on these things sometimes. Anyhoo, I tried to make the best of it, but just didn't feel confident on the course nor did I really have the energy. In short, I rode like crap. After hanging out and watching the elite races, I got the bike cleaned up and zipped back to the house where I was staying. My friends went out to a Yakima company party with their little girl so I spent Saturday just laying on the couch and watching bad TV. 200+ channels and not a freakin decent thing on. My mind was pudding anyway. I got the tires flip flopped and had the Hutchinson bulldogs ready. Now these tires are seriously good tires. I'm told you shouldn't run clinchers too low but I had these puppies at a hair over 30lbs pressure (I didn't want to say 31lbs and really sound anal about it). Later I watched an Austin Powers movie and some mind numbing thing that I still can't remember. Onward to Sunday.

After finally being able to say I did a cyclocross race on the west coast when it wasn't raining(it was still muddy though), Sunday's race returned me to a more comfortable situation. It was pouring down rain, somehow for my race only though. I guess I'm one of those black cloud people. After not being able to hold anything the previous day, the bulldogs hooked up to the course as if there wasn't any mud at all. I again started at the back, but after the first section of the motocross section of the course, I was almost halfway thru the field. I was on a good one. On the second lap, I was still holding my ground, but got wrecked into on the loop de loops at the start of the lap. That set me back a few places, but I managed to get myself going. I even had a bit of a cheering section as I am finding quite a few people who've moved out there from Western PA. Others that I've met remember the ponytail and know it's me so that helps out more. I let myself get egged on and road the tough little off camber zigzag which then did a 180 at the bottom of the hill and went right back up. I was moving past others who were having alot of trouble with the course and I was starting to feel pretty cool. The third lap, I'd made the hill again but had to do a one step scoot as the mud was really getting wet with the rain. By the 4th lap, I was still in the mid upper 30s place, when coming over the top of the loop de loops, I pedaled to build up a big head of steam to go blowing through the mud and the rider who'd dropped over a few seconds before, suddenly panicked, hit his brakes, got sideways and then road straight into my path. It was at this moment, that I remembered Bill Cosby's line from one of his early stand-up acts. First you say it, then you do it. I broadsided him about 5 yards into the mud. If it had happened closer to the bottom of the hill, both of us probably would've been headed to the hospital. Luckily, the mud took some of the speed from me and it wasn't as bad as it could've been. We both still went ass over tin cups and both of us got a bit banged up and lost 30 seconds or more getting up. I'd also screwed up a wheel so I had to pit and get a spare. It was really nice to have the SRAM guys there with the spare Zipps but the tires they use suck in the mud. When I got to the off-camber section again, I figured my race was done, so let's entertain people. Well, entertain I did. I road strongly through the first section looking like I was Superman and then I hit the corner at the bottom with a bit too much speed. Well, from this part of the race, you'll see why the blog is named what it's named. I laid it down and really coated myself well with mud. It was fun though, but this lap had now cost me almost 3 minutes and it was still only half over and now I was feeling the day. I took it easy for the next half lap and then came through for the 5th lap. The following couple laps I road the first section but due to my lack of confidence in the front wheel,I opted to dismount and just run the last section of the zigzag. I was chasing a few of the other riders but just couldn't keep going like I was earlier. In the end, I road it in and called it a day well spent with the knowledge that I could go well and actually be competitive in the Master's elite field, but I just needed a bit more luck on my side and not the bad kind. I currently have a 3rd row start spot in the Natz 40-44 field. Barring a miracle, I'm not going to win the race but maybe I can pull off the hole shot. I've done that before at a MAC race in the Master's elite against some pretty fast guys. Maybe I can pull it off again.

In the end, I'd had a pretty good week. I got to finally meet my good friends Chuck's and Dawn's little baby girl, ridden a couple fun races, met some great people, had a good couple days of work, got a free round trip ticket to anywhere in the continental United States(I took the bump on the way out), got a couple test model Scott running shoes and will have a pair of Spira hiking boots sent to me, and came back to a work situation that was pretty stable and didn't resemble the aftermath of the London blitz. The guys at I-Generator are also looking to have me come out there 2 times next year so I'm feeling pretty stoked about everything.

Airline efficiency

2008-12-03T11:20:00.000-05:00

I was pretty impressed with how well United's service was going ... until I got to Chicago. We got in with plenty of time to spare but when I got to the gate, there were about a couple thousand people waiting to get on the plane at my gate. They were vastly oversold. So much for my opinion of United's efficiency. I'm now spending the afternoon sitting at O'hara International and waiting for my first class flight thru San Fran and then to Portland. I did get the free air tickets for the troubles. I wasn't going to be doing a whole lot anyway, so I figured, take the bonus plan. I got my tickets paid for me to go out and now I've got another round trip to where ever. I'll have to think about where to use them. In the meantime, I'll resume people watching. So far, the current pick for the most different person was the girl who has the buzz cut and was wearing a short cutoff jean skirt and tights with skulls down the outside of the leg. Along with that, she had an array of piercings. The good thing was, they were at least tastefully done and not the 'oooo, you must have lost a dozzy of a bet' type of piercing.

More people watching. The area where my flight is currently is waiting to board a flight for Vegas. There are some normal business travelers and also some people who'll look like they're taking a few days to go do the slots. I know you really can't judge people by their looks, but it does look like there is a few 'professional' women too. Judging by their attire, I don't think they're working a normal 9 to 5 office job. If they are and the attire is just their 'casual' cloths, where are the companies that have women like that located and are they hiring?

People watching at the airport

2008-12-03T07:29:00.000-05:00

I'm waiting for my flight to Portland this morning. I have fun people watching while in congested areas like this. You do find an interesting cross section of people in certain places. I find it's a lot like high school cliques. You get groups of the same type of people herding together. There must've been a country music convention somewhere that people are going to since there was about 20 people in a large group and everyone of them had their cowboy hats on. As I type this, there is also the stereotypical asian guy with the camera taking pictures out the window at the planes coming in. I guess I'm the stereotypical geek with the notebook doing senseless typing as I wait for my flight. I need another cup of coffee. 4AM came waaaayyyyyy too soon for me.

Pack Pack Pack!

2008-12-02T21:12:00.000-05:00

I'm getting ready for a little work trip that just happens to be at the same bat time and same bat channel as the USGP this weekend. I'm upgrading a network I take care of out there which is paying for this little shin-ding. I've already fedex-ed the bike out there which saved me about $110 compared to what it would've cost me by taking it on the plane. From there, I'll send it on to KC for the following week. The spare bike will be getting a rest this weekend as I will have a spare out there already. It's always hell for me to get away for a few days and this year has been no different. I've gotten this routine down pretty well though and I should not have any problem this year. Portland is a town that I really enjoy going to, since I have some good friends there and it's a great town to visit. I do think I'm a bit too conservative(SARAH 2012! Unless Romney goes again. Some research scientist really needs to figure out how to re-animate the Gipper! ) for most folks out there to tolerate me for too long, but I enjoy it. It's funny how the locals there think Starbuck's is the great Satan of Coffee. There are lots of good coffee shops and sometimes the girls at the one near the office where I'll be are pretty cute. Some might bat from the left side of the plate, but that doesn't stop me from thinking they're cute. By Friday, the bike will be in and I'll slap it together and finish prepping it for the race. I only had enough time to get the worst of the crap off, lube it a bit and stuff it in the box on Monday. Sometimes I hate having a job. I also think I might actually get lucky this year. I've raced cross on the west coast in 5 of the past 6 years and I've never raced when it hasn't been in a downpour. Usually I get in and it's sunny for about the first 4 hours and then it gets cloudy and then goes to hell. I've been watching the forecast and the rain is supposed to have stopped before today and then it'll be sunny till Friday and then cloudy for the weekend. Dammit, I just checked again and they've advanced the rain to Sunday instead of Tuesday of next week. I'm hoping maybe I'll get just this little bit lucky this year.

Local racing

2008-12-01T11:05:00.000-05:00

It's great to be able to jump in the car and drive off to some of the bigger events. With the larger number of racers, festive atmosphere and the getting out of town with friends thing, it's what keeps me going out there. But every now and then, it's fun to just be able to drive 30 minutes to a race and do the local thing. I've now done 2 weekends of the almost no travel and it hasn't sucked. The Freddie Fu team in Pittsburgh put on a good race yesterday. Too bad more riders didn't come out, but the weather had it's say on the day. Cold, like we experienced last week is one thing. Cold and wet is another. I would've tried a second race but I'm only able to deal with a wet chamois for so long. The course was a very good one and offered a lot of options for riders on the course. It was interesting to see how riders chose different lines and got up the little run-ups. The ride of the day had to be from Mike Mihalik. After crashing and getting swarmed by the 3 Speedgoat riders in the race, he'd fallen back to 6th place on the day. Then after a couple laps, he made the move of the day and burst up on the extreme inside of the first run-up and gapped Andy Gorski and Gerry Pflug. It wasn't just the small gap that yawned a bit but still allowed the others to get back on. It went to 3 or 4 seconds almost immediately and by the time he came back around the tennis courts a minute and a bit later, it was over 10 seconds. Something lit a fire under his ass and he took off. A few laps later, former MAC Masters champ Joe Ruggery came into his sights. On the lap where Mike caught him, Joe forced him to get off his bike the only time up the run-up for the day, but that just wasn't enough. The cold rain seemed to be getting to everyone except Mike. He came back to even closing to inside a minute behind long time leader Steve Cummings but he didn't quite have enough time. Overall, the venue was actually one of the better courses I'd been on this year. It would be a good one even with a pack of 40 or more riders. Maybe next year this will be where states are located and the idea has been floated. On top of the course being a good one for the riders, it was also a very good one for the spectators as you can view almost the entire course from 2 points. There are also a couple good points for being right at the tape and heckling. It was fun egging the riders on to attempt riding up the muddy climb and then the sharp off camber turns only a few yards away made it a really good spectator course. If we can get the Seton Hill cross race back next year, it could certainly make for a very good weekend. Time to start making those plans for next year.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-26T13:31:00.000-05:00

Whether it's spent with family or friends, always take the time to give thanks for everything good in our lives.

So that's what a Double Cross day feels like....

2008-11-23T20:30:00.001-05:00

I did a local cross race today at Bruceton Mills. It's a tough little course but a fun one. I got the brainy idea of doing the Lancaster Dutch Wonderland race yesterday and then do a double today. Lancaster was a dud. My teammate Jeff and I got there with about enough time to get a warm-up or registering and running over to the pits with the spare bike. It took me a few laps to get going since the temperature was in the low 20s. I finally was able to be taking some big digs by the last lap, but it was too little too late. It was a fun course and I did get a good workout, but damn, when it's this cold, I really need at least 45 minutes of good warm-up time. I goofed around again Sunday morning and got to the race with about 15 minutes to spare. I spent the first 2 laps warming up, then raced with another rider up at the front in the B group race. I did a dumb move and nearly slid the bike out on a turn and wound up with a gap. I closed it, but really didn't want to have to do an effort like that and when I got jumped the next time up the hill, I was a bit cold to respond. From there, I put it into cruise control after trying to catch up for a lap and then settled for second. Already the second race was in my mind. When I got there, I might have had the mind on the race, but after a lap, the body wasn't. I was already thinking, I did what? This was going to suck. I battled back to 8th and 9th place after dumping the bike on a turn early on but at the 35 minute point, I finally cracked. I'd made a move that pushed me into 9th and I came right up onto the 8th place rider, then the hill to the finish line hit and POW. It was not the loud firey type explosion, but it did throw me back. I was able to keep my concentration together to realize I still had about 25 seconds on 11th and I wasn't going to lose another spot. I came up to the line a couple laps later and at 54 minutes I asked hopefully, 'Last lap?' Nope, two to go. JR, the race official was joking with the promoter that when I was done, I probably wasn't going to know who I was. He wasn't far off. I did recover enough to put a big enough effort to get into 9th place and then held on to stay 5 seconds ahead of the rider who was chasing for the whole race. My time was right about 1:10:00 for this race. Combined with the 53:00 minute time of the other and I'd spent over 2 hours on the course. I did come home with over $100 bucks worth of schwag as prizes and a trophy, but it felt like the longest 75 minute drive I ever took to get home. I don't think I even felt this bad after Iron Cross and that was a 5 hour effort with a 3 hour drive home. Hopefully there'll be a payoff in my late season form. Right now, I'm just going to eat something small and go to bed. I'll save the whining for tomorrow.

Dumb consumers

2008-11-21T09:44:00.000-05:00

I was driving into work today(yes, I'm stamping down a massive carbon footprint and proud of it) and I heard one of the goofiest commercials on the radio. It was for a gas card. If you buy a drink at a GetGo in my area, you get 1 cent off per gallon of gas. The commercial had the moron who, was of course, a guy, asking the girl who was telling about him about the promotion, 'so you drink 3 cups of coffee a day, that's 3 cents off, right.' 'Yes and that builds up everytime. I got 15 cents per gallon off last week.' He goes on and says 'So what do I get if I get 2 cups of coffee, 2 Pepsis and a fountain drink?' Of course the answer is 5 cents off per gallon. My reply to that though would be 'Hmmmm, hypertension and diabetes?' I guess I woke up in a grumpy mood today.

Bailout

2008-11-19T23:01:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm adding my two cents worth into the multi-trillion dollar bailout that's going on in the country. Currently the Big Three automakers and the UAW are on the hot seat for asking for a bailout. I would say, let them go into chapter 11 and get out from under their union contracts that pay workers who don't work anymore. It would also start having realistic rules for the employees and pay them a normal salary. On top of that, the management shouldn't be able to pull massive salaries and bonuses. WTF, bonuses? Man, if they get millions of dollars for plowing a corporation into the ground, I can do that for far less. Let me make just $1 mil for a year and I could slam the companies into the ground just as well as the current management of any of the car companies. I wouldn't even take a bonus and I'd drive myself to work! Some government officials have mentioned that the government would get a piece of the companies then. That's pretty much what is happening in the banking and insurance industry. Next up, energy companies! Get ready to assume the position. This 'bailout' is amounting to nothing short of the nationalization of the major corporations in this country. It is accelerating out of control currently. President-elect Obama could earn a ton of respect from this conservative by stepping up and saying 'No, we're not going to do this anymore. We're going to let the companies re-organize and become competitive properly, not by taking money out of public coffers.' At this point, even though he says 'there is only 1 president at a time', he should use some of his influence as the President-Elect to stop the massive pillaging of this country. There I go again, expecting someone in government to do the right thing. Velkum to ze Federal Socialist States of Amerika.

GP Day 2

2008-11-18T10:08:00.001-05:00

Today went alot better than the first day. I blew myself apart after the 3rd lap today. I was actually racing with the group for a while today. I tailed off with some riders and stayed with them and even came back to a group. I began to pop about 2/3rds of the way through the 3rd lap but saw Feldman again coming up. I was able to summon up enough effort not to get caught and earned my right to suffer the fourth lap. by the mid point of the lap I'd gotten a couple beer hand-offs and received a 20 second penalty for dropping it when handing one back. I'd also started to get called 'Diamond Dave'(David Lee Roth for everyone on the young side reading this) because of my hair. I've just been too lazy to get it cut. It does get hard to keep the mind of the matter when it doesn't matter how slow you do the last lap. I'd done a few things differently than the first day. One was, I ran a bit more. I was really hoping that we'd be racing in the rain or that it would be wet enough that the course was a good soupy mud. That sort of stuff I can ride in, but peanut butter is another story. Through the long stretches for as long as I could keep the bike on the shoulder, I was running against the tape on the left side of the course and stretching it out so I was on somewhat solid ground. At each of the stakes, I would push it over as if I were hitting the flags on a ski slalom run. I was able to make up alot of ground on people who were slogging it up the right hand side with their bikes on the ground. Thanks a bunch to the C3 pit crew, especially Beth Mason on Saturday. Wade Hess was a big help on the Sunday and I was able to trade off bikes every half lap. I'll make sure to have some beers for everyone at the next race. I guess this will be a prelude as to what Portland will be like. I've never been on the west coast for a cross race where it hasn't been a rainy mess. To my friends out there, I'm known as a rain maker. They could be having great weather to the point of my arrival, but within a day or two, it winds up going all to hell. With my legs finally beginning to start going, I might be able to have a decent race out there. I've got 2 weekends of local races where I'll be able to work on the race form without the wear and tear of being in the car for a dozen or more hours over the weekend, so it might actually be relaxing. I'm sure it will be a tiring kind of relaxing though. Only about a month to go for the big one though.

Trenton - the mud hole

2008-11-15T23:06:00.000-05:00

The first of the USGP races in Trenton proved interesting. I can definitely ride in the slick mud better than a lot of riders. I started in the next to last row and by the end of the lap, I'd worked my way up to the front half of the race. I was able to anticipate the bumblef**k moves riders were making and was able to adjust so that I didn't get caught up in them. Past that, I was able to find some of the lines that let me get around easier than what most people were dealing with. I held there for another half lap but wore myself fighting the heavy mud in the long field stretches. Into the third lap, I blew completely. The course wound up drying out and it was just a bit too much for me. I'm really hoping tomorrow sees rain coming through the area. If it's wet mud, I can definitely hold my position better and not blow up. It just took way too much effort today and once again, my lack of fitness took it's toll. Each race though, I've been able to hang in with the group a bit further. Tomorrow could be interesting as it's raining right now.

I must be getting old

2008-11-14T15:40:00.000-05:00

I was getting ready for work today and I finally noticed my arm was bruised from my elbow to halfway up the arm towards the hand. The scrapes I got from the wreck healed pretty fast but the bruises have taken a bit more. At least it isn't one of those nasty green bruises I'd gotten from some of my other wrecks.

Ouchie!

2008-11-10T09:38:00.001-05:00

It was a good kind of ouch though. I had some mixed fortune this weekend. At Beacon, I had a decent start, but just could not get the engine firing properly. The steps were alot easier as I found a technique that really worked well for my back. Going into the short step, I'd pick the bike up and as I would be making the long terrace step, I was putting the bike down til the next short step up. This gave the back a break and I was able to get up through the amphitheater much easier than in previous years. Unfortunately, I just couldn't make the body work hard. I don't think I'm warming up with enough effort so that could be the issue. That theory seemed to show some as I did get more warmup the following day at Highland Park. I rode about 15 minutes more but I think I need to do a more consistent effort, so I'm going to have to bring the trainer next week. I was able to hold in with the group for about a lap longer than I had in previous races and then I had my crisis lap. It didn't go on as long as it did previously which is a good sign and then all of a sudden, I felt the body begin to fire as I'd been wanting it to. The technical zigzag up the hill was quite easy for me this year and it was one of the places I was catching people. Keeping it in a small gear and keep the legs moving was the trick. Then I was able to pop it up a few gears for the road climb afterwards and kept it going over the top. The downhills were a blast for me. In the first two laps, I was using the sharp left with the slick up and back by the parking lot as a passing point. Most people tip toed through the corner and I had found a line that let me go through with no brakes. The soft mud beforehand took care of trimming the speed so I was able to float through it. The guys who'd left me behind the day before were fighting hard to stay with me and when the legs returned on the 3rd lap, I was creating a bigger gap and pulling some riders back who'd dumped me earlier. Then I hit my first 'Poor Dumb Bastard' moment of the year. I was slinging the bike through the lower off-camber turns and I'd found a fast line on the second one. I was dropping into the turn early and it allowed me to take the high side of the bank. The 4th time through I hit it right but came over a rut and the back wheel bounced. Instead of staying on the gas, I tried compensating for the shift in the bike and when it came down, the rear wheel went right out from under me as I'd hit the greasy mud that was just a bit below my line. I was moving pretty fast and just hit the ground hard, knocking the wind out of me. It took me about 15 or 20 seconds to get myself up and then a few more just to make sure the bike was ok and then I tried to get back on. My hand and arm took the brunt of the impact and weren't responding very well so I took it easy for a bit. Up the climb, one of my pursuers caught me and 2 more were closing. I stayed with him and when we crossed the line with 2 to go and seeing Yozell and Apsholm, I had to increase the pace. Going up the hill, I road away in a desperate attempt not to get lapped. Later after the race the guys who were chasing me were doing a WTF when I did that. I'd sat on the one wheel for half a lap til I could breath again then took off. He hadn't realized what had happened to me and just thought I'd blown up and he caught up. Unfortunately, the cavemen at the front came past, so I played the game of 'let's see how long I can stay with them. They gapped me after I let them pass, but I bombed down the first hill and closed to them and only lost a bit on the 2nd climb. I came through the zigzag as fast as they did but couln't match their speed up the hill. Well, that let me know where I stood - a technical match, but way down on the power scale. The good thing I came away knowing is that the body is finally beginning to be able to make the real intense efforts and I know what I'm having to do a bit more of before the race. I also road alot more after Sunday's race and even after the 5+ hour drive home, I'm feeling ok this morning. The arm and side are still hurting but I'm looking forward to the GP this weekend. I might have something for Nationals and be able to do my third row starting position justice this year.

Joisey

2008-11-07T11:34:00.000-05:00

It's the Beacon/Highland Park(that's no longer at Highland Park) cross weekend! Beacon has always been a bitch for me going up through the amphitheater. The back hasn't given me as much grief this year so maybe it'll go better. I've got to try to hold the efforts a bit longer though and hang in longer with the groups I've wound up in for the last few races. I'm getting tired of getting dropped and have to re-learn how to make myself suffer that bit extra. The thing I'm dreading is the drive. I'll be leaving from work already part way over so that'll help things but it's still a bit of a long drive. 3.5 hours this evening and then another hour in the morning. At least the car is fairly comfortable to drive in.

It's over!

2008-11-05T10:58:00.000-05:00

It's finally over! Obama has won coming off a successful campaign run. Whether we agree or disagree with what he's said in his campaign leading up to his win, he's the new President. Now it's time for us to see what he's really made of. One can only hope that things go well.

NEWSFLASH NEWSFLASH NEWSFLASH
CAMPAIGN 2012 BEGINS IN TWO WEEKS......

c'mon, you know it's going to happen.

GAME ON!!!!!!

2008-11-04T11:51:00.000-05:00

The big game is finally here! There's been a number of reports coming from Ohio where people have been getting nabbed attempting to vote illegally. It's good to see that they are stopping the casual cheats, but to get the people who get bussed around from county to county to vote, they need to work a bit more on. This is instances where there are houses where voters are registering as many as 20 people at one location and doing this in several districts. From there, it's just a long bus ride from one voting booth to the next for these people. I've actually looked into the process and it would not be hard for me to get registered in 6 counties and vote in them all. I know that I could get away with it. I'm just not a cheating piece of shit. Past all that whining, it will be an interesting one today. I like how when I mention cap and trade and what that will do to the concept of electric cars to several of my liberal friends, I get the 'LALALALALALALA, I CAN'T HEAR YOU' from them. I really don't get that. They want to clean up the environment, but the only way I see them doing it is to just legislate us to use less energy. I'm really against government legislated energy prices, nationalized healthcare, i want the gov out of the banking industry as well. In short, 'GET OUT OF MY WAY!' The bonus prize comes from the first person who can email me where that quote came from in the context of this posting. Anyhoo, I'm off for the polls. Then for the long wait. Then it's 2 weeks off til the beginning of the next presidential campaign. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA, my brain is melting.

Forgot to mention ....

2008-10-28T19:37:00.000-04:00

I'm running for President. A nice old couple at Country Buffet told me I should do so the other day when I was going off on one of my scary conservative(Not Republican, thank you very much) rants about the Turd Sandwich and Giant Douche* who are running for the respective parties. There's not much difference between them. One will make you grab the table, the other will make you grab a chair and neither will call in the morning. (one will take the laundry money off the dresser so he can give it to others who 'need' it more than you do) So make sure to write me in. I'm running on the Graft Party ticket. Our party motto is 'There's a cut of the action for everyone..... and now for the fine print - it's just some cuts are bigger than others.' I'll make graft work!

*South Park, episode 119, Douche and Turd

And the snow is hitting!

2008-10-28T19:15:00.000-04:00

Tonight we're getting snow. It's already hit in the foothills and Laurel mountains. I have to drive up through it tomorrow too! I guess it's a good reminder of what Natz will be like but I'm not quite ready for the weather. I always have some problems dealing with the weather changes. I have to pay alot more attention to the body at this time of year as I wind up with dry skin issues. The massage therapist usually notices that she uses a bit more massage oil than normal this time of year. Maybe sometime I'll figure that one out. I'm also trying a new mix in the vitamin fray. Now after taking all the pretty little pills, the pee won't be in thermonuclear green. It'll be plaid. Now that's good chemistry, folks! Hopefully I can figure something out on getting the engine going and beat the chronic fatigue. I don't seem to be worn down by traveling, but I can't muster enough energy to power the bike fast enough. The leg strength is there too, but to actually crank up the steam and keep it there for some reason isn't happening. If the new stuff works, maybe I'll publish the mix here. In the meantime, I have to go ride some. I have a workout that really does seem to help my off bike time in races. I started doing it a couple years ago and it worked quite well. It's been the dismounts and runups where I've really gapped riders that I have been with in the races the past couple years. Each time I gap them, it just gets harder and harder for them to bring me back. I'm not ready to say I'm going to win races, especially since I'm racing up a class, but I'm holding a bit better. If I can just crank up the horsepower now.

DCCX

2008-10-27T01:40:00.001-04:00

I had a pretty good day on Sunday. I didn't place very high or anything, but I also didn't get lapped against some pretty fast guys in DCCX. I held the field for a bit, but again my horsepower is just a bit off or as I later found out, I need to just push a bit of a bigger gear. Coming into the last few hundred yards of the lap with 2 to go, I was able to see the leader, Blair Saunders coming up at about 45 seconds behind. Dammit, I was going to finish this race and it wasn't going to be at a lap down. I pushed it through the road section past the finish line. I'd dumped a small group a couple laps back and was just riding a steady pace. Now I had to put in an actual hard effort. I was worried about getting caught in the far fields where there were some long stretches that required nothing but horsepower, technique was optional. I had it in the big ring and saw I was actually holding my gap. Blair had closed a bit but not too much. In through the uphill barriers, I still did not see him closing and with only half a lap to go, I was feeling confident. In the end, I managed to stay about 20 seconds ahead and was able to push through the final lap. Even though the gun barrels are pretty low right now, I can look at the bright points. I'd not gotten lapped. In the areas where technical skills were a help, I came through clean and my dismounts and mounts were clean and quick. When you are getting back on the bike and it feels like you're just stepping onto the bike and not jumping on, you've got the flow going. I opted to bail out of the second race which would've had me lapped pretty quickly as Wes Schempf is going pretty well now. Instead, I had a beer in the pits and was heckling some riders while pretending to have their bikes ready. Even Melanie had a beer there as she was pitting for Judd. The elite race was cooking and there was a 5 man group of the front. All of a sudden, we heard a call go up about a wreck. With the exception of last years Natz, this was the first time I'd seen a serious injury at a cross race. We'd initially heard it was a leg break, but I think it wound up to be an ankle. Either way, it had to suck for that guy. The lead 4 came through the next time. It stayed like that until about 1.5 laps to go, when something went awry and a couple riders tangled and went down. I guess it's not too surprising that it would turn out like that as the leaders were riding as close as you would as if you were on the road. With the wreck breaking it up, the race went to Wes who won for the second year in a row.

After a bean&cheese burrito and a long drive back with Gunnar and Betsy's dog Jackie on my lap for a good portion of the way, I wound up having to go into work when I got home at around midnight and fix a net connection. Comcast definitely sucks in this department. Someone should put some code in the modem that as soon as net traffic goes down to reboot itself. These pieces of shit go down at the worst time(like today, when I'm 5 hours away from the damn thing). I guess this is why I get paid the big bucks. To go in at midnight and do stupid shit like this. Oh, well. It's a living. I just wish I could clone myself and then pay the clone minimum wage. I might get some training time in then.

Granogue/Wiss weekend

2008-10-21T09:39:00.000-04:00

Late registration was again a nasty thing to me this past weekend. I really have to get my shit together in that department. On the other hand, it does force me to work harder at the start of a race. At Granogue, I did manage to pull up several spots thru the field at the start. Unfortunately, that nasty ghost I have following me around right now called a flat tire got me again. At the top of the hill, I was skittering around since my rear tire only had around 10lbs left in it. On top of alot of off-camber riding, it was very dry this day, so a slowly deflating tire was going to cost me quite alot of time. After losing at least a minute getting to the pits, I set out on the spare bike. Gosh, it's great to have one. Not only did I have the spare bike, but I'd brought 2 spare sets of wheels too! I'm really on a campaign to try to be over prepared this year. It does leave you with options on race day. Once I was back on a bike that was ready to go, I went fairly well. I caught a few riders back and was doing the button hook at the bottom of the big hill well enough that I had a fairly easy ride up. Compact gearing is great. In the end, I fell only a bit short of getting lapped by two of the Westwood Velo cavemen. Without the flat and being in a group to keep me going, I'm fairly certain I would've been a couple minutes faster and only been about 5 minutes down overall.

Wissahickon was a bit different for me. This was a Murhpy's law day that was intent of giving me the full lesson. Starting at the back(again), A knot of riders got taken out almost immediately when one rider got a very bad start and crossed over several of our wheels. From there, I locked bars and it took a second to come undone. Charging back to the back of the group and burning a match even before I'd started racing, I ran into the cluster f*** at the first hairpin 180. Maybe I should've just gotten off the bike and thrown it over the tape and cut through the pack. I might've grabbed some spots there. It was at that point, the next thing went wrong. I wore my road kit since I hadn't gotten my new skinsuit. Pactimo is a company that really needs to get their shit together and quit being so freakin cheap on zippers. Now, granted, I'm a bit of a fat bastard being 20lbs over my race weight currently, but I never had a zipper blow out on any Voler, Verge or Descente skinsuits I've had over the past 10 years. I've gone through 5 Pactimo zippers in the past 2 years. So there I am, trying to ride and yanking the zipper back down so it doesn't look totally ridiculous. I got into a group at the back and was riding fairly well when the demon gods came again. This time, my front tire felt a bit off. Later when I looked at it, it was still ok but with everything that was going wrong to that point, it just seemed like one more thing hitting me. After nursing the bike around the looping turn above the sand tracks, I slapped the bike down and was hopping back on while the bike was still bouncing. My ass hit at the same time the bike hit the ground and I popped a sewup loose. Dammit, was I going to have to run again? NO! I stopped and forced the tire back on and nursed it to the pit. With a minute gap to the back markers, I at least could make a game of it. Powering the bike through the sand and keeping my pace on the back stretches, I closed steadily til we got to the runup with the barriers. The workouts I've been doing in this department are definitely showing for me now. I was able to come at the boards at a good speed and was off the bike and the momentum carried me up the hill. On the bike quickly and a couple hard pedal strokes and I felt smooth. I closed 5 to 10 seconds every lap on the rabbits I was chasing through this section. After a couple laps, I caught the first guy and sat on his wheel for a spell and then blasted past going into the spiral of death. I gapped him and was closing on the next guy who was a teammate of the rider I'd just passed. We regrouped for a few brief seconds and the next time up the runup, I'd dropped the first and put a small gap on the second rider. He closed it and I stayed with him through the next half lap. Going into the spiral again, I stayed close on his wheel til the final cut to the reverse part. I sliced in and got a jump coming out. I managed a good pace though I got caught again, but we were heading into my best part of the course, the runup. I got a few seconds as it was the last lap, but I didn't press it home hard enough and it turned out to be a sprint between us. We made it look pretty good as Ken Getchell announced us as 5th and 6th. We were a lap down but hey, you have to make it look good. I should've popped it into the big ring and wound up running out of gear so I got pipped at the line. I did manage to close a big gap on some riders though and again, I rode a clean race though my insistence on staying on the bike definitely cost me some time when I could've just run the little hill at the start of the lap, but I'm not at the point where I've been wanting to just quit the races as I had to do last year. At some point, luck might smile on me and I'll get that good start and keep the air in the tires. I've traditionally been a slow starter in cross and it's usually in early November when things pick up for me. We'll be doing Fairhill in the first week which has been one of my better courses. Over the years, I've placed high in the B class and one year I even road the Elite race and gave a nice schooling to a roadie who had way more power than I did but he couldn't figure out why I kept passing him when riding through the muddy tracks in the fields. I'm hoping that the upward trend starts soon. Next week is DCCX. I had a decent race there last year so I'm looking to show improvement in my placings.

The Big Game!

2008-10-15T10:28:00.000-04:00

Well, the big game is on tonite. It's the last debate(Thank God!) The politicians talk about term limits. I think they should have some limits on campaigns. It used to be that candidates tossed their hats in the ring the fall before the primaries. This campaign has been going 2+ years. Where do these people find time to actually do their freakin jobs? If I took that much time off mine, I'd have no clients. Hmmm, maybe I should get into that racket. I recycled this pic(from despair.com) from an earlier post, but it's a good one for tonite. Instead of debate, maybe it should be called a "Bullshitting" contest.

Iron Cross Weekend

2008-10-14T13:40:00.000-04:00

I’ve completed my second Iron Cross weekend. The first day was the IC Lite race which is a traditional cross race. I actually got a good start coming into the grass in 7th and I didn’t have to pay a price to get there. Unfortunately, it was right about then that all the air started to go out of the back tire. After almost losing it through the first 180, I had to lighten up on the effort. I lost a lot of places going through the little zigzag section through the sand and got to the pits for the second bike. I came out 10 seconds behind last place. SHIT. I increased the effort to bring back the first group, road with them for a couple minutes and then pushed past. I caught and passed a few more riders over the following laps, but I’d spent myself. I really wasn’t expecting anything great, but I do feel I could’ve finished at least mid pack. My ability to hold an effort is getting better.

For Sunday’s race, I knew my form wasn’t as good as last year as well as being 6 or 7 lbs heavier so I’d lowered the gun barrels a bit. As feared, my overall climbing was off and there were some really freakin long climbs. I slipped a couple groups and then got in with a few riders who all were in the same position as myself. We were just riding and having a good ol’ time. I was beginning to seriously cramp at miles 35-45 but had gotten some Hammer Electrolyte caplets at the 3rd check point. After they started to kick in I was feeling much better. I wish I’d taken them before the start as that might’ve saved me a good 10+ minutes. The single track sections were a total blast though. Last year, I’d gotten off the bike a few times since I wasn’t as confident on my abilities. This year, I had to get off the bike only for a few yards since I’d run into a knot of riders who didn’t understand what ‘GET OUT OF MY WAY, HOT SOUP COMING THRU’ meant. They just didn't scatter quite fast enough. After remounting, I continued to blast my way past riders who’d left me standing on the hill and put about a minute on them before we got back out onto the road. Later in the race, the same thing happened on the last two sections of rocky single track on I was going faster now. I’d gotten my second wind and was able to pass several riders and on the climb leading into the final walk up(no run ups here since they were usually several hundred yards at a minimum). I short stepped it and closed on them to the step in the middle of the walk up. The riders I was chasing must’ve been cooked since they walked the 100 yard step that was only just more than level trail. I road halfway up the final climb passing a one rider and coming up on the wheel of the second rider. Hopping off, I paced it up the hill just behind. At the top, there was a slight rise we had to remount. Once we were pedaling, the other rider left with me looked over and said ‘man, I am hurting bad’. That was all I needed to hear. I jumped on it(hey, we were racing for 125th or something like that) and pushed up over the little climb. Doing this race the year before, I knew if I could keep my speed over the top, it was followed by some fast rollers and then a big descent back out on real roadway. Hitting pavement, I dumped it into the 50x13 and really launched it. Knowing the guy chasing me was a roadie sprinter, I didn’t want to give him a chance to even come back to me. On a small climb, I could see him 30 to 40 seconds back. The final big descent, I did more of the same. I was using the whole road and hit the next to last turn at a really good clip. With two small pops leading into the finish, I kept my pace going without killing myself. The only real effort I was able to put in for the previous 10 miles was based on leg speed. I could see on the first pop which was the steeper of the two, the gap shrunk to 20 seconds. The good news was, that was his last gasp. Getting to the top of the final rise, I could see the gap yawned back to more than 30 seconds and by the finish, the gap was at least a minute. I wound up being about 3 or 4 minutes slower than last year, but all things considered, it wasn’t a bad ride.

One good thing about the weekend was I had a successful race day coaching debut. I rode Saturdays course with Terri Spanogle, an elite womens rider who is making some progress this year. She’s normally coached by Chris Mayhew who was in Cincy this past weekend. I showed her which lines to take and where and when to put the efforts in that matched her riding style. Up until the 3rd lap, she was all over Betsy Shogren and had even gotten excited enough to try and attack her. That move was a bit more than I wanted her to do, but she was feeling stoked. Unfortunately, on a remount, she knocked her saddle loose and lost about 15 seconds in the next lap. That was pretty much where it stopped. She figured how to compensate for it and was able to put the effort in to stay close. Terri didn't gain any time but she was able to prevent Betsy from coming in for her single speed, which I know she wanted to do. A second bike and no mishaps like the saddle and she might have been able to make a go for the win. It was only after her mishap that she started to forget the clean lines for a bit but all in all, she road a really good race. It’ll be interesting to see how she does at Granouge next weekend. A bit of confidence can go quite a long way.

Computers and the weather

2008-10-09T10:35:00.000-04:00

As a computer consulting/service company, I have 4 extremely busy times of the year. At the beginning and ending of the years, both fiscal and calendar, I have customers who are either trying to use up the rest of last years budgets at the end and then buying new toys for themselves when they get their new years budgets. Those are generally very busy, but fun times since there generally isn't too much that is going wrong with the hardware. That is for early fall and early spring. When the weather swings back and forth with greatly changing temperatures, computers generally start throwing fits at this time. Rapidly fluctuating weather and temperatures will cause the components of the systems to move around as they the metal on them is shrinking and expanding. Usually a quick preventive maintenance takes care of any problems, but every now and then, a few of the systems just decide to take a crap and really make my days miserable. In this past week, I had 2 notebooks and 1 desktop for customers decide they were going to annoy me (as well as my customers). On top of that, I'm now helping a new client out of a miserable mess caused by another computer business where the techs there knew just enough to shoot their foot off and wound up wiping out a server. To top that off, they didn't check to see if there was a proper backup of the server before they started goofing with it. After blowing off questions from the client about the errors they were recieving from the backups, they proceeded to go in half cocked and wipe the drive out. After shooting their foot off then, they proceeded to reload the gun and shoot the other foot off by trying to save the situation by reinstalling the operating system. If they'd just stopped after losing one foot, I could've saved things, but now the customers data for the last year is a 75% loss. They told me to be billing them their emergency rates as they know I've been taking time from other clients to get them back up and running so it's going to be a well paying repair, but it's really eaten up alot of my time. I haven't been on the bike since Saturday and it's really getting at me now. The worst part of it is, the other company is acting all indignant that the customer didn't have a working backup. Well, that was the techs job to make sure one existed before he started fucking around with the server. I really hate the passing the buck on responsibility that we have going on in this country today. The ol' 'I'm a screwup but it's someone elses fault' theory that is being pushed in schools, courts and workplaces is really out of hand and something has to be done to reign it in. Maybe Singapore has it right on their justice system. Beat the hell out of some of these people and maybe they'll start thinking twice about how they do things. Maybe this is a bit extreme and I'm advocating something that might not be the best solution. I'll blame that on the fact that I haven't been able to ride my bike this week. It's certainly not my fault that I'm this wound up...

All bikes are now ready!

2008-10-03T18:10:00.001-04:00

Finally! I got my front line cross bike ready. I'm leaving the carbon wheels off it for the Hagerstown and Iron Cross races, but I'm now up on the bikes I should've been on but didn't get built due to the unfortunate extension of the road season. I have to get a pic of the one I picked up at the end of last year. It was pretty cool looking and also bordered on the stupid light category - 17lbs with the pedals. Now if I could just get myself somewhere close to the stupid light category, I might go a tad faster.

My week of training didn't finish quite as well as I would've liked. Work once again got in its way. I am having to put out a fire at a new client. Once again, I am cleaning up the mess of another company who apparently is in business because they know how to build a pc. The problem for people like this is the age old 'What happens when something goes wrong' concept. That is when these companies fold up tent and disappear into the night leaving people like myself to clean things up and talk people off the ledges when all their data for the past 6 years is now gone. It's good to know that people outside of my direct area of operation are hearing about me and that they're willing to pay me to come to them in situations like this. Maybe I can start cracking up my rates more. I'm actually a bit surprised some computer consultants don't wind up in ditches more often when this sort of shit happens. I don't know if I'll be able to magically fix everything for this customer, but I know at worst case, they'll have lost a couple weeks data. In the meantime, I'll have to make sure I leave the bike in the car if I want to get any riding in early next week. I'll be tired, but it'll be a well paid kind of tired.

Ranting (whining, call it what you like)

2008-10-01T10:59:00.001-04:00

"Now is not the time to affix the blame. Now is the time for senseless bickering!"

I, like millions of other Americans (at least I hope it's that number) have been following the nasty financial bailout tif that is going on in this country right now. All of the politicians as well as financiers and media people are talking about how we have to do it, without mentioning one thing in the whole mess - Responsibility! At what point are people in this country accountable for their actions. It is pretty damn clear that there has been a lot of shenanigans going on over the past couple decades and people who tried blowing the whistle were shut up. If the average person tried this sort of thing, we'd be hauled before a court, tried in a reputation and career shattering fashion and locked up before we knew what hit us. At what point is there going to have to be a few leaders heads on pikes before a sense of proper conduct is brought back to the whole mess called Washington. I keep hearing people on the news say, 'Now is not the time to be pointing the finger. We have to come up with a plan and rescue the situation.' I agree with this to a certain extent. One we come up with a plan and enact it, then it MUST be time to be looking at what was done and then get the pikes out. Anyone who has been using the situation for political posturing should also get a whack on the head at the very least, though I'm being much too kind. Everyone on the House Finance committee should step down and charges should be looked into. If they are that incompetent then they're removal is justified. If they are competent, but chose to overlook the situation because they knew it could create a political gain situation, then off to jail with them. It's time people start taking these people to task and start demanding accountability and following through on it.

Ed Sanders Cross

2008-09-29T09:35:00.000-04:00

This race has been one of the MABRA's early season races for a while now. It's a tough little course since it's fairly marshy, especially if it's been raining. It's held at the Lilypon's Water Gardens. Did I mention it could get a bit marshy there. There are several ponds there that you have to ride between which if you're in a cluster of riders could spell disaster if you're on the wrong side of the collision. A few years ago, I nearly got knocked in. Last year, I was off form and hanging on at the back of the master's elite. Then I flatted. Then after nursing it in to the pits, I got the pit bike came back out and charging after the other back markers and within a half kilometer, I flatted again. It was that type of race. This year, I wasn't even sure if I was going to race. My lead up to the weekend was probably the worst kind you could have. Tuesday, the mailserver at one of my clients melted down. Gunnar and I left at almost 7am, Wednesday after we'd finished the restoration. This server handled all their web crap and it could've been backed up a bit better, but we messed around a bit too long trying to save the old one. I was back in at 9:00am to cover any of the problems that were sure to be noticed. I did manage to ride a bit that afternoon and then again the next day, but they only amounted to 15 miles on the trail that was more of a light maintenance ride than a good training ride. Friday and Saturday were complete blanks. I intended to ride but work got in the way Friday and when I did go to ride Saturday, it started raining. Not one of those light 'yeah, you're going to get wet rains'. It was more one of those 'drop the anchor, otherwise you'd get washed away' type rains. So I woke up at 5AM on Sunday and laid in bed for 30 minutes before deciding to go. I made the 3 hour drive to Maryland. I arrived with plenty of time to get ready and even got an ok warmup, though because of the registration people not really being ready and not having numbers there for us, we were stuck for 20 minutes scratching our butts before they even started on the first rider. Registering at the line pretty much screws you for the day and I started at the back of a field of 59 riders. The prologue lap starts wide open but after a couple hundred yards turns into single track with no opportuniy to pass until you get to the first barrier section. I got past about 15-20 guys on the first grass area at the start. The rider in front of me was a good roadie and I tried following him as I knew he could do well in crits but he left a bit to be desired on this start and I was going into the grass not even breathing hard. Once I hit the grass, I went wide and high and was able to gain some of the ground I was hoping but a bit faster on the road and I would've been 10-15 places further on. I caught up to one group and then was able to make the jump to the next and then that's where it pretty much finished. I got to no man's land and then for the rest of the race I caught people who were blowing up and also go passed by a couple who had a bit more in the tank that I did. I did ride a fairly good technical race in that I was able to pick my points of battle and road a clean race. We were just trying to get in and in the last tough section, I knew that I was having trouble staying in front of the riders on the hills before the drop to the finish. I let a couple riders go by and just maintained on the top. On the flat before the off camber drop towards the finish, I passed the first rider and then the second after taking a 2nd look back and thinking he'd gassed me, I punched it and used the mountain bike descending skills. When we hit the 1st of two mud puddles he heard me and was shocked to see me suddenly right back on his wheel. I waited til going around the building and hitting the finish stretch before finishing him off. It wasn't for a high placing, but I was still able to keep the wits about me for the whole race and still have a bit for a finishing punch. I just need to get myself ready for the quick punches out of the turns at the start of the race so I don't get put into a position of continually having to work back to the group. I think I'll pre-reg next time as well.

It's a good job if you can get it...

2008-09-25T10:09:00.000-04:00

I'm starting with a new client today. I'm basically getting paid for my opinions on how people are doing things in their business. It's a pretty good gig too. I guess I've been down the street enough to know when you're about to be wasting huge amounts of money on technology. Basically doing stupid things just because of the need to have the newest and best. My brother always described this sort of behavior as being left brained. Whenever someone would be talking and making a case for their point and not realized that they'd just gone into the 'stupid' zone, he would refer to it as 'you're going left brain on me'. This is pretty much that type of job. I can add my two cents (or in this case my twenty two cents worth - I'm a guy in demand here, ya know) when I see my ideas would be of more benefit to the organization. Apparently in the last decade, the rush to upgrade computers has gone past what the cost benefits would be. No one seemed to be looking at the concept of 'Faster and newer is not always better'. I guess the best way to put it is I'm being paid to be the voice of reason. To quote Scott Adams, I'm amazed at my ability to get paid for this. This should help make cross season alot less painful from a financial perspective.

...and I heard the 'brown' note!

2008-09-22T10:18:00.000-04:00

Well, I did the final road race of the season. I wasn't really expecting to win it or even be racing in the Mountain State Classic this year. I found out partway up the first climb, I should have just stayed in bed or gone to Baltimore for the Charm City Cross. My knee was still feeling uncomfortable on the climb from the previous weeks bungup. In short, I was ill-prepared, poorly motivated, and not that confident of my chances. So when it came time for me to step up and let the world(at least the small world of West Virginia) know if I was ready to defend my title, I really let a bad one out. I'd heard the 'brown' note and that was pretty much my day. Dammit, I should have driven to eastern PA and Baltimore for the weekend. I really have to stop second guessing myself.

The Road Season Crescendo

2008-09-19T16:27:00.000-04:00

Well, the road season will certainly be finishing with a crescendo for me this year. Hopefully it will be one that leaves a good impression. The Mountain State Classic is only a couple days away. I have to watch 2 riders, so if anyone wants to come and ride away from us because I'll be sucking wheel all day, please do. I've beat both of the riders I have to watch before(though they've both beaten me as well in other races) at this race so it will probably be a close run affair. It'll just depend on how well they do when they're being annoyed at my tactics. I know both are steadier climbers so that will fit me as well. I just hope I don't run out of gas towards the top of the big climbs as I did last year. Since the race is also the WV State Championship race, it will wind up being an 'every man for himself' situation. The body is recovered from last weeks race. The training is about as good as it's going to get. I might have someone handing me off bottles at the tops of the climbs so I won't have to carry quite so much. The only thing that could let me down is me. I'll see how much I can tough things out on this one which will be a good lead-in to cross.

Mo'town Wednesday niter

2008-09-17T12:41:00.000-04:00

I wound up not having to do a long stupid drive to Clarion, PA today, so I'm opting to drive down to Morgantown for the final Wednesday niter of the year. I'm going to be running the race wheels I'll be using on Sunday's Mountain State Classic since I haven't used them in about 6 weeks. Afterwards, we'll be sitting around drinking beer and eating burritos in our chamois at Black Bear. It'll be a nice low key way to close out the road training season. I'm going to try to stir interest in the Tuesday night old man rides again. Those were a lot of fun and they got me pretty fit in the years I did them regularly. Nothing like a 13 mile slow grade uphill which finished with an all out push in the last mile or two. Then after we regrouped, we rode back down the trail with a few sprints along the way. Nothing like pushing yourself really hard and only being able to see via headlights on the bike. It's a surreal experience made a bit difficult when a smartass like Gunnar rides along side you and then stares straight into your face while wearing a helmet mounted light. If I ride from his house, we'd get about 32 miles which is pretty good on the cross bike and on a trail to boot. That with a couple skills training and hill run-up days should make for some decent fitness this year. Bring on the fall now!

It's late...

2008-09-15T01:58:00.000-04:00

and I'm going to bed, but I am registered for Cross Natz. Last year, I got a start spot of somewhere around 1000 (at least it seemed that way). This year, I was NOT going to have any of that. I got the email notice this afternoon and was wired and ready by midnight. An hour of surfing and waiting for that magic time when the registration and WOOOHOOO, I got in 13th. So even if they have the top 5 from last year and maybe another 1 or 2 guys, I should probably be getting a front 2 or 3 row start. It's a hell of alot better than the 20 rows back start which by the time I got moving, the front of the race was halfway up the hill. I'm going to work extra hard to be ready for this one.

I Feel Bad...

2008-09-14T22:30:00.001-04:00

To take a quote from Han Solo after being interrogated, I feel bad. I did the Big Bear Lake Ultra yesterday. I was going at a manageable clip yesterday. I even had outdistanced the guys I was going to be needing to beat in next weeks Mountain State Classic. In the end though, I was freakin beat. That was just off 6 hours of hell and I'd only done 42 miles of the event. I had smacked my knee early on and had to back off, which let Eric Delaney and Kean Bird catch me at the first feed zone. I later left them only to see Kean about 2 hours later when the knee had begun to falter and I was dehydrating. I guess I was expecting them to do something like having the feed zones somewhat evenly spaced but the 16 mile gap between stops 2 and 3 was just a bit too far and I'd run out of water about 4 miles out. At that point, I had to let Kean go and the knee was really starting to talk to me. I was doing the rocky descents and the roads fairly well, but when I had to do serious climbing I was really feeling it. When I got to the 4th feed zone, I assessed the situation. 10 more miles of beating the knee up which was showing some blood down the leg from the earlier hit or just take the final jump in. I put the pride in the shirt pocket and gave myself a shortened day. It would've been good to finish and I would've done it in around 7 hours but my goal is mainly next week. I've got a series to defend and this day had already given me what I was hoping to get and then some. The plus side of things was that I was able to keep a good hard effort up for 4+ hours. Another good sign was that the legs and lower back are feeling ok today. The bad side was my shoulders and arms feel like someone repeatedly punched them. They hurt so bad that the following day, I could not even reach behind the seat and pull my notebook out when I stopped at a coffee shop. To top things off, I get the email notice today at my kid's football game that Cross Natz registration is at 12:01AM. Jeezus, I miss the old days of the scrum of the pack when lining up. I always called it the race before the race. In years past, I'd had decent luck with this, but in the past 3 nationals I started so far back that by the time I would hit the first patch of grass, the leaders were at least a minute up. Hopefully things will go a tad better this year. In the meantime, I'm going to soak in a hot tub for about 3 days.

Addendum to Odd

2008-09-12T21:30:00.000-04:00

I got hit with by freakin bat in my face this evening on my ride. Luckily there isn't alot of mass or speed with those little guys or I might've had a problem. It was wierd with the wings fluttering in my face for a few seconds and then after brushing it off, both of us continued on our way.

Odd happenings in my world...

2008-09-12T14:49:00.001-04:00

Odd? ummm, really Jay?

These past couple weeks have been quite a change of pace. On top of the bike racing taking a turn for the better, I've wound up bumping into several old friends from years back. It was nice to see all of them and it brought back lots of good memories. I guess it's not unusual to suddenly catch up with people who you haven't seen in a very long time, but several of them in such a short time was a pleasant surprise. Each of them were an out of the blue occurrence as well and were completely unrelated. I'm not really sure if there is anything of significance in all this, but I just found it interesting in the timing.

The last time I'd had something that ranked in this category was on a day last year when I'd gotten a Chinese fortune cookie at the Super Panda restaurant that said 'You will soon receive an unusual gift'. Later that same day, I was at baseball practice for my youngest son and a lady came up to me and in a shy way asked, 'Do you mind if I ask you your name?' and then proceeded to tell me why. Almost 20 years ago, she'd lost a brother who like me rode his bike all around town just like I had. He had been killed in an accident and not long after that was when she had noticed me riding my bike around. She said she'd seen me all over the region including one time on top of the mountain near Seven Springs about 40 miles from home. What caught her eye was that both her brother and myself had longer blond hair, cut the same way, pretty much the same style rimless glasses and even looked close alike. She'd wanted to ask my name and find out who I was for a long time but never got the opportunity until just then. Several times she'd even turned her car around to try to catch me but by then I was gone. This was over a span of almost 20 years. She also said, the sight of seeing me brought back some good memories of her brother and was kind of comforting to her. She immediately followed this up by saying 'Please, never stop riding your bike'. It's amazing how sometimes you can touch a person without ever knowing or even speaking to them. Losing a sister in an accident myself many years ago, I know what people can go through and sometimes it's little things like this that help us get through the pain of having a loved one wrenched away from long before it was time. It was odd, but that was a fortune cookie message I'd kept even before I'd talked to this other lady about her brother. I didn't know why but maybe there was something telling me this was one to hang onto. I still do have it with me.

Big Bear Lake Ultra

2008-09-11T09:14:00.000-04:00

With the upcoming Mountain State Classic in a week and a half, I felt the need to do something that would get the body prepared for that sort of an effort. Since cross racing and road racing really aren't that compatible, I opted out of doing the opening weekend of the PA Cross series and will be doing the Big Bear Lake MTB Ultra. This will a good 50 mile slog on the single speed. I've got a bit of maintenance to do, but for beating the ol' Fisher rig around for almost 2 years now, it's held up quite well. It'll be interesting to see if my body can match that performance this weekend. Last year, I'd done the Iron Cross and if I didn't do the world's slowest tire change near the end of the race (10+ minutes including eating a clif bar and being pissed off with myself for how I flatted) I would've broken the 5 hour mark. That would've still been well off the leaders, but for a first time effort in a race like that, it wasn't that bad. Anyhoo, the Big Bear Lake should be a fun one. I figure it will be somewhere around a 5-6 hour effort. That should definitely set me up for being a cheap drunk later in the day. One or two beers and I'll be in one of those very suggestible states. I might have to take that camping out option.

Dirt Derby - WVMBA Finals

2008-09-08T09:09:00.000-04:00

The WVMBA Champs were this past weekend. I spent the day before at the Comfort Music Festival which was a Cancer benefit concert. The hospital asked us to set up the tent there and have some promo material. Luckily it was a bit of a lower key concert that didn't get stupid loud. The music was mainly bluegrass (hey, it is West 'by God' Virginia here). That is pretty much a style where you actually have to be able to play unlike most rock acts which rely on volume over talent. On top of that, there's nothing like having some pretty hippie chicks dancing barefoot up near the stage to help divert my mind from all the other pressures of the world. We finished the night up with some sushi and bubble tea at Hibachi in Morgantown then watched 'Grizzly man' back at Chris' house. This was a documentary about Timothy Treadwell, who was a bear enthusiast who went a bit over the edge. He was to grizzly bears what Steve Irwin was to crocodiles. They both pretty much pushed things a bit and in the end which some would call tragic though many call it inevitable, learned that while other species of animals might be interesting to study and look at, piss them off and they won't hesitate to kill you. I think that's pretty much the lesson here. What else can you really get from either of their stories. It's not likely that humans and grizzly bears are ever going to sit down and play a game of cards together so it might be best to observe them from a distance.

Anyway, back to the WVMBA champs. I got an ok start, but the long road section thru the town of Barboursville makes it tough on the single speeders. Once on to the trail, I was doing alot of barking at riders to give me the line. I even prompted a few of the expert riders that I'd caught to pass the riders they were sitting behind. The first section of the course was pretty much a BMX like course. Lots of quick twists and turns, some fast stretches but no big climbs. I was kicking myself for not using the 18 instead of the 20 tooth cog on the back. I really have to have more confidence in the fact I can push the bigger gears. Having even a 19 could have trimmed a couple minutes off my time, especially as there was several fire roads on the course and even noodling along I would've gone a fair amount faster. I road a fairly clean race though I did chicken out on doing the steps where Joey Riddle crashed hard last year and broke some ribs, arm, collarbone and maybe a bit of pride too. I've had a crash like that before so I felt his pain and did not want any of it directly. It only cost me a couple seconds but I was back on and catching some riders so I felt good about my day. I let one rider past a bit more than a mile from the finish and I followed him in. He was doing the descents fairly smooth and I didn't feel like fighting for position heading into the finish. We were closing to another rider just as we came down the descent for the finish. One thing I will say about the single speed is, if you are finishing the race on a hill, it really demoralizes the other riders when they see you stomping past them. It's basically the only option for us. Go hard because we can't down-shift. It wasn't quite enough though and I finished just 6 seconds out of 4th. If I'd used the 19 or even the 18, it could've been 3rd or possibly even 2nd. Even with that, I'd trimmed 8 minutes of last years time so I was quite happy. Now I just have to make the decision on whether to do the start of the PA cross series or the Big Bear Lake Ultra next week. On one hand, it's the start of the cross season. On the other, Big Bear would be a good effort, one that I need to do well in the Mountain State Classic. My mind might be made up by the fact that Big Bear Lake is only 1.5 hours away versus 4.5 hours. 6 less hours in the car might not be a bad thing. My brain hurts now trying to make a choice.

Damn it!

2008-09-05T09:59:00.000-04:00

Well, I'd thought the Mountain State Classic was done for this year. Well to steal a line, the reports of its demise were greatly exaggerated. Damn it! I was already starting over to cross workouts and I'm going to have to do a bit more work for the road. There are 2 mountains that are just bears and I'm going to have to tough it out. There are 4 people who are in the running for the overall road title and all I have to do is finish 3rd while preventing 2 others from finishing ahead of me. Well, the favorite for the win is going to be Eric Delaney who won it last year. Then Kyle McGammon is going well, though the only reason why he and Kean finished ahead of us in the stage race was that we let them go. They got an early advantage and the others were marking me so heavily and I really wasn't able to attack, it nullified any possibility of us running them down. Still with all of our monkeying around on the second half of the race, their initial gap gained before the first climb shrunk, so maybe it won't be so tough for me to keep ahead of them. I do know I'd been riding stronger than Kyle on the Wednesday nite rides lately so maybe that's a good sign. Just have to trim a few pounds off in the next 2 weeks. Well, there goes chinese food and donuts. Again, I will say, DAMN IT!

I HAVE TIRES!!!

2008-09-03T10:16:00.000-04:00

Well, 11 of 14 racing tires passed the 'holding air' test, with 2 of the 3 failing holding for a few hours. I do have tires for the season! WOOO HOOOOO! I got out on the first ride yesterday on the trusty ol' steel Fort. This bike is now 5 years old and still very race-able. I noticed a few improvements that could be made on equipment but as a 3rd cross bike, it's still a very respectable machine. I'll have the backup from last year ready to go this week and early next week, the Carbon-Max will be together. This bike was great last year. I only got a few races on it, but damn, what a difference a bike makes. Saving 4lbs was huge and the wider bars improved the control quite a bit. The Fort bikes are the absolute best I've seen when you look at what you get, how well they last, how well they perform and how much you pay. Take all those factors together and nothing else comes close. Give JJ a call at FortFrames.com and he'll set you up very well. My Carbon-Max weighed in just a bit above my road bike and the old Zipp 340s performed very well. They are light and strong so this again will be the front line bike. I'm really starting to get cranked for the season. Damn, minus 20 points for the bad cycling pun there.

End of a long and unpredictable road season

2008-09-01T14:19:00.000-04:00

Well, the end of the road season finally hit. It looks like the Mountain State Classic won't be happening this year. I'll have finished it up with a mix between a whimper and victory. I'll have won the WV road series for a second year in a row without having to defend the lead on one of the toughest courses of the series and in my final two road races of the year, I had one win and a total dud. The first one was a disaster due to a total screw up on my part. I ate breakfast just a bit too close to the start and at the top of the last hill on the course, I could feel it sitting at the back of the throat. Then on the first climb about a third or the way through the 8 mile lap, I could feel the pressure of breakfast really wanting to come back for a return visit. Unfortunately, there was a very serious attack going on here and I was torn between trying to hang on to the pack and using some finger therapy to force other things along. In the end, I was able to do neither and I got dropped. Dammit, that was such a rookie type mistake. I rode a few more laps of the course and talked one of the women on the course out of quitting. Holly was a first year racer and I showed her a few things along the way including how to position herself a bit better on the bike so she could better take advantage of descents and not lose speed through corners. I do like to help newer riders learn all of the things I had to on my own. If I had someone telling me these sort of things in the start, I would've won lots more races other than the time trials I usually took back then. I had the strength to string things out and be the sprint pylon at the end of the race. In the end she finished and was happy about it. Sunday's race was a bit less well attended and we had to combine a few of the groups. The masters went off with women and the 4/5s. We lost a half dozen on the first climb and at the end of the first lap we had a group of about a dozen that would stay together til the finish. One of the reasons for this was a Cat 2 rider who'd gotten dropped from his race decided he'd be a dickhead and helped his club members in this race. He'd pace them back when at a couple points a few of us attacked, then he also screened myself and one of the other riders when they tried an attack. I was really at the point of just shoving him off the course. Subtle cues like 'DON'T INTERFERE WITH OUR RACE' and 'GET YOUR ASS TO THE BACK OF THIS PACK, PLEASE' didn't quite register with him. Halfway through the last lap, I heard him say 'well, I better sit back otherwise someone might get mad'. Too late, I'd passed go about 15 miles before. There was an attack by one of the masters riders in the group and I was on it quick. We'd gapped the others but dammit, you know who was pacing the rest back to us. On the last climb, one of his club-members attacked and I got up to him. You know who tagged along and in the run-in to the final turn he got in my way and I lost several miles per hour and a few yards on the front group. I got back to one rider after the other and with 100 yards and coming out from the next to last rider to the front, I saw the final rider looking back to his right, so I went left. He thought he had it and 50 yards from the finish, I blew by him going 5 mph faster. Nothing like taking someone by surprise. It was good way to finish the year out. With the exception of doing one more Westlake circuit race to get an extra hard day of training, I'm ready to put the road bike away and pull the cross bikes out.

Is this the change people wanted?

2008-08-28T14:00:00.000-04:00

An interested side note to the Democratic Party convention was the arrest of an an ABC news producer who was on the sidewalk by the hotel where Dem senators and donors were going in and out of. Link to story on cbs newsIs this the message the Dems really want to show? 'Vote for us, but don't you dare try to see what we're doing or who we're meeting with? If these charges stand, this sets a VERY DANGEROUS precedent for free press, no matter who they are. If we are not allowed to stand up and say what we believe in, no matter if it is popular, correct or whatever, we may as well take a sharpie and blacken out the first amendment on the Constitution of this country. Wake up, people. Start bitching about things like this when you see them occurring and make sure your "Elected" leaders know you are paying attention to this sort of thing. Many would think 'Well, it wasn't me, so why bother?' At some point, it just might be you and then because you didn't speak up when you could, you could've thrown away the opportunity to speak your mind. This is not something to be taken lightly and these people should be called on it. I don't care if you are a democrat, republican, or even a larouchey, you have a right to be heard. Do NOT throw this away due to apathy, PLEASE. Do not let our society get to the point where we wind up seeing history repeat itself.

Past that little political rant, I had a fun race in the rain in Pittsburgh last night. A break got away and spent most of the race about a half lap up. Since no one was chasing seriously and I was not really there to win anything, I decided to make it a hard night of training. I did 3 massive pulls at the front. The first one closed it a bit, but no one followed thru. The second did the same. So I tried a third time and after getting a bit of a lead-up to my effort from another rider, I chopped the gap in half after a quarter mile pull that topped out about 35mph. I did succeed in stretching out the pack to the point where it was falling apart. Unfortunately, I got behind someone who was having some trouble following the counters after I'd pulled off. Dammit, I was off and gone. So my season ended pretty much how it started there. Doing massive pulls and blowing apart completely. It was good training for the weekend though where I hope to have a couple good races in Ohio.

Back in the mountains

2008-08-25T10:41:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I had a really good ride in the mountains of Western PA. I started out from Latrobe, which was the former home of the Rolling Rock brewery (a nasty tasting beer, but I do know why the 33 is on the bottle). I'd gone over the 1st ridge and was starting up the 2nd when I was joined by a riding companion, Laura. It was a good ride and we altered the course a bit and even went over a few roads that I hadn't been on in years and then some new ones which I hadn't been on before. It's nice to have someone to chat with when on rides. She was able to climb the hills fairly well and showed some decent strength on the bike. We road past the Rolling Rock farms which was very scenic. It was also nice since we barely saw a car on the roads. I was also amazed that none buzzed us or had any nasty comments to shout out. Laura, I found out is a relative newcomer to racing and has tried the Oval in Pittsburgh, but as most new riders find out, you can't plow at the front lap after lap. A couple lessons in how to maneuver around the pack and a couple lessons on the hows and whens to do things in a race and she could probably do fairly well there. Hopefully she'll add to the growing number of women in the racing scene in the 'burgh which has grown fairly well this year. After she split off for home, I finished a the ride heading back through the Ligonier area and just caught the early traffic for the Sunday evening concert at the Gazebo downtown. If they have a strings concert there sometime, I might have to stop and catch the show sometime. I wound up with just off a good 70 miles for the day. I haven't had too many long rides like that this year and it felt pretty good, especially after a good day of racing the day before. Another weekend of road racing, 2 of mountain biking and then Cross starts up. I'm getting the bikes ready now. Maybe I can have the body ready for it this year.

Valley City, OH

2008-08-24T21:53:00.000-04:00

Valley City, OH, is the Frog Jumping Capital of Ohio. Unfortunately, the race is held a couple weeks after the Frog Jumping festival, but they have their street fair there for the race. The race course reminded me alot of the Western PA Wheelman's ride called the 'one significant hill ride'. This was an absolutely flat ride with the hill being between a couple blocks in Connellsville, PA. The sidewalk there was a staircase and it went for about 100 yards and then back down to the flats. That's pretty much what this race was. I was there by myself for this one again as most of my team is winding their seasons down. There were several teams there as it was the Ohio State championships races. That was going to pick things up or so I thought. Tris Hopkins and another rider from Stark Velo rolled off the front in the first 3 miles and were never heard from again. I couldn't believe it. They just rode off. I was in the back and thinking 'well this isn't my fight, it's their championships.' OOOO, wrong answer, Bob. Common sense was telling me to go with it. Unfortunately, I've made a habit of not listening to the many voices in my head this year. I just wish I had a bag of ass-scratchers to sell to everyone there because that's what we did for the next few laps. It did get a bit fast and towards the end of the 2nd lap, I jumped across to a move and started flogging the riders to work and get the break going. All it took was 2 riders to pull across behind another rider who had just pulled off so they could miss a turn. JEEESSSSUUSSSS, we were not going that fast and between myself and another rider, we were doing the lionshare of the work into the wind. That pretty much killed everything and we got caught since everyone else sat up right after that. After making some comments about certain riders really needing to learn to leave the skirts at home, I'd settled in and waited for the sprint for 3rd these guys wanted to have. A mile out, I'd launched a good attack and figuring no one would be chasing since it would've taken work to catch me, I was flying up the line and then dammit, one of them swung wide over for a turn and blocked me. He didn't do it intentionally. He was just a goof. I just love riders who feel compelled to stay tight in on a turn and only swing wide at the last second so they can make the corner. So, I now was 2nd in line heading into the small high with a long 400 yard stretch to the finish. Well, I was following the one everyone was afraid of in the pack so I didn't worry about it much. We climbed the hill and he put it in the big ring and tried to wind it up. At this point, my mind switched to the scene in 'Better Off Dead' where John Cusack was trying to race a couple oriental guys who spoke like Howard Cosell and right as he tried jumping on the gas, stalled completely. I was right behind that kind of a leadout with 350 yards to go. Well, I was in that great catch22 situation. If I wait, I invite more people to the party. If I go for it now, riders get a great leadout. Damn, I hate having too many people in a sprint party so I went for the long one. 25 meters, 2 riders came by and then 2 more right at the line after I blew to pieces. The one good thing I brought away from this, was I'm going well. The bad part was, I should've gone alot earlier, right about mile 3.

Inspiration for the day!

2008-08-22T11:50:00.001-04:00

You've looked at the image and now it's forever stuck in your brain!

Mo-town Wednesday niter

2008-08-21T11:45:00.000-04:00

I've really got to start getting out of work earlier on Wednesdays when I head down to Morgantown for the evening ride there. It leaves promptly at 5:40. I dumped my car at 5:41 at Gunnar's house and tossed the bike together and rode down the hill. I probably was starting with an 8 minute deficit. The first 4 or 5 miles are generally taken at a lighter pace by the group and they go along the river at about 20mph, then when they turn off the river road, it heats up. I caught up with Betsy and my teammate Chris (Dr. Big Legs) after he'd cracked his saddle. There is really something to be said about having heavier components on a bike. A saddle is one place where stupid light is probably not the answer. They were only about a mile and a half from the turnaround point and I checked over the bike and found the problems for Chris since he wasn't sure why his saddle was not feeling right. I'd managed to close about 3 minutes on the group. On the run back in, I had to do another TT to catch the group back after Chris flatted and I'd stopped for him again. It was certainly not his night. He said to just go and he'd make it back in on his own. I didn't contest the state line sprint since I was still a bit winded but the climb up Rt 19 where I usually fell off, I stayed up in the front part of the group and going over the top the ol' Mavic Cosmic pro wheels carried me past everyone in a coast. I'm starting to feel better if I can use heavy wheels and still climb well. I've got a race this weekend at Valley City, OH , so we'll see how it goes.

The way racing ought to be...

2008-08-18T11:47:00.003-04:00

I just did the Tour of Millersburg this past weekend. I didn't set the world on fire. I didn't really add a whole lot to the race. But I had more fun this past weekend than I've had at a road stage race weekend in years. This town really came out behind this race and made it a super fun weekend for everyone involved. I rolled in Saturday morning for the 12 mile TT. It was a pretty good course and I was doing ok, but just really didn't have the strength to push the bigger gear like I was hoping. I finished rather unimpressively, but felt good spinning down. Maybe that was a sign that I didn't go quite as hard as I could've. After a sandwich and hanging out in the park in town, it was time to get ready for the crit. It was a really good course and the townsfolk were out and watching from their porches. The best scene was the line of older ladies who were out on the sidewalk with their lawnchairs and snack tables, each with a glass of wine on them and they were chatting and having a good ol' time. After the criterium, there was the 'Meet and greet with Bob Roll' at one of the Ned Smith Community Center. This place was pretty cool. It was built to honor Ned Smith, who was a naturalist artist and produced many paintings and prints that now command a pretty hefty piece of change to obtain. Much of his original artwork was there on display and the grounds were absolutely beautiful. While there, I was talking Barry Daub, one of the guys who were helping with the organizing of the race. Earlier in the day, I was asked where I was staying and I'd replied 'eh, I'll find a motel.' I was taking the 'God will provide' approach to finding a place. I was not disappointed this time. I'd told him my plans of getting a hotel room back near Harrisburg and he was instantly saying, 'No no no, don't do that.' He turned to his wife and asked, 'The Rowes are putting up some riders aren't they. Call them and see if they have another bed.' Within 2 minutes, I had a place to stay. Everyone at that point, was heading back to town for dinner. Wayne's Inn, was a pretty good place to eat. Even the people I was staying with, Terry Rowe and his family were there as well as around 30+ racers. There were alot of the riders from the MAC series there and we had a great time there. So many road races that I've gone to seem to be 'yep, let's race and get out of Dodge'. If they stop anywhere to eat, it's with their team and there is very little interaction with other riders. This could not have been more different. Several of the riders were put up at an Amish farm and they had fun by going on cart rides and helping with milking cows and other tasks from their stories. I was able to sleep in a bit as my race didn't go off til 1PM. We had a great breakfast in the morning. Mrs. Rowe was laughing because when she asked what I wanted for breakfast and I'd replied 'pancakes would be fine'. Apparently that is one of the little things that her and her husband don't agree on. He doesn't like pancakes and she does so she doesn't often have them at the house. If she wants pancakes, she said she usually went out to breakfast for them. We ate out on their deck which had a great view of the Susquehanna river as well as a wide open field behind their house. As we were eating, a few deer came out and were poking around. There was also a small flock of wild turkeys as well. It doesn't get much better than that. After helping clean up, it was time to get over to the race course. I got there with 2 hours to go before my race and helped hand off some water bottles to racers coming thru the feed zone. The guys putting on the race were very interested in hearing what we thought would make the race better. Is there anything that could be changed. The answer was unanimous. Not one thing! Keep it as it is, you've got it absolutely right. The road race that afternoon had its spots where there was a bit of a punch to it, but the race was between the racers, not the course. Unfortunately, I didn't pay attention to the fact that I would need the calcium and potassium supplements after the double stage the day before. Even though I kept drinking and eating during the stage (Little Debbie oatmeal cookies rule!), I wound up having a cramp in my hamstring 5 miles out from the finish. I couldn't get it shaken out in time to draft the follow vehicles, so I got left behind. At the finish, I'd found out that there were several riders looking to my wheel to be behind at the finish. I'd goofed up some plans when I disappeared from the pack. Apparently they noticed that I only took smooth lines thru the turns, no jerky movements and was able to move around the pack exactly as I wanted. No effort was wasted and with the exception of almost getting caught behind an effort on the first lap to pinch off a group of riders by the Mainline cycling guys, I was able to stay right near the front without having to put an effort in(I like to make the joke that I'm writing a book on bike racing entitled 'How to stay in the front 10, never take a pull and get away with it). The worst part of cramping up was at that point, I had picked out the couple riders that I was looking to be my sprint markers. If I'm doing that, I know I'm going fairly well. Who knows, maybe I'm coming out of the funk I've been in most of the summer. After the race, the promotors were ready with wraps and cookies for the riders, so after cooling down and getting the wheels back to the car, It was good to get something to eat before the drive home. This is definitely a race to put on your calendar. It is certainly on mine and we'll be bringing the full wrecking crew next year for both the masters and the 123s. It'll be a good one next year without a doubt. I'm getting my reservations for host housing in early next time round.

Another rant.

2008-08-13T09:47:00.000-04:00

Well, this past week and a half have been hell at work, so riding has suffered. I do have a day of hookie scheduled for Thursday to go to the Morgantown Grimpeurs ride though. One of my clients wound up with a bit of an issue last week. Their server kept bouncing on and off through the course of a day. I got up there after it bonked completely. I started checking out everything and when I looked at the network switch (the thing all the computers plug into so they can talk to each other) the battery it was sitting on top of was covered in what looked like roofing tar. What the hell? I started looking around at the ceiling and other things to see what or who might have done this. I knew the bank next door was doing construction, but that shouldn't have anything to do with our office. Upon picking up the switch to inspect the battery closer, I saw what happened. The rubber feet on the switch had actually melted off. Well, if you're around things long enough, I find you eventually see everything. Of course, the construction people denied any issues. They either crossed a wire or were causing such a draw on power that the battery heated up to a dangerous level. The law firm next to ours also lost their network, so this was definitely not an isolated incident on just our network. What really pisses me off is when people goof up (it happens to the best of us) and then refuse to accept responsibility for it. Just an admission of 'oops, I'm a moron, sorry' would suffice sometimes. It's an insurance situation, but I look out for my customers and if I screw something up, I don't bill to fix it. I like to think that other people would have the same scruples. I guess I'm hoping for a bit too much here. In the meantime, I've had quite a bit of loss of sleep getting everything back in order.

If you can't do it well, at least be colorful.

2008-08-10T21:58:00.000-04:00

That pretty much sums up my WV Stage race experience. The TT was longer than I'm really up for doing anymore. I can do longer efforts in road races, but my ability to just sit on the bike and go like hell by myself hasn't been there for a few years. I started out riding like a hero at around 28mph, but after 11 miles, I hit a spot where it just wasn't happening for me. In short, I blew to pieces and there was still the 2 big hills on the course to go. I'd started behind Betsy Shogren and passed her within 3 miles, but in the last 2/10s of a mile of the big climb, she rolled up past me and said 'BOOOO'. I stayed with her and rolled down past her after the descent then locked up completely on a small rise just near the finish. She passed me again. I used gravity to go back past her at the finish, but I knew my time was slow. I was expecting a 58 minute time on the course, but with as bad as I blew up, I wound up with a 1:02. The crit later in the day was disappointing as well. Since they were letting people ride individual stages, one of my teammates came down to help out me in my race and then our 123 GC rider Adam in his. Unfortunately, he was trying to run our race strategy off of how he felt, discounting the fact that I'd already done a difficult stage earlier in the day. In the end, I cracked due to his efforts when he thought we had to take a bunch of time in the crit. I wanted to just take the time bonuses and a bit more time in the last lap which would've put me close enough to do the same thing the following day in the road race. I knew I could win the sprints easy enough, but I did not want to have to deal with the extra efforts. After that debacle, I had to accept the fact that I was racing for second. I also had to accept the fact that I was probably going to finish second in the series as well due to the fact that we'd let a rider who slipped into contention in the series due to the fact that everyone else thought he had done another category in the first race and had been scored that way as well. That's for later though. I stayed with the guys I figured I had to stay with and after they tried to crack me on the climbs, it was going to come to the finishing sprint. Everything came together perfectly. Eric Delaney gave his teammate a long leadout to the final quarter mile and then Fritz tried to jump hard to get rid of me. Sorry, nothing doing there. If I can get to the sprint, you're not going to drop me like that. Then disaster struck. Course marshalling at the WV races has been sketchy before, but this time, we were sprinting into cars. As we came around the final bend, I found myself heading straight into a Dodge Neon with a Jeep directly ahead of me going in the same direction we were going. WHOA, not good. I quickly saw the only way out of this situation was swing wide left. In doing so, the bike started kicking out from under me. I compensated and the bike wound up swinging completely in the other direction and was now going sideways. Then finally after the extreme lateral stress, the tire, after already getting torn down to the casing, came off the rim. I skidded to a halt. I tried to slip the tire back on, then quickly realized I was going to have to run for it. Yanking my shoes off and picking the bike up, I did the final 200 yards with my hamstrings screaming in pain. I only lost a couple places and I didn't get hurt, but I was pissed. I snapped a bit at one of the people who were supposed to be marshalling (unofficially though) after she asked me if I was ok. 'NOOOOO', I'd shouted and proceeded to start running. At the line, I completely collapsed. Before long, everyone who was there had heard about the spectacular 'near crash' and that everyone was amazed I wasn't a hood ornament and had also managed to keep the bike upright. It was a Kodak moment, but not a good one. Due to the points fiasco from the night before, it threw me back in the standings of the series. I'm still leading but since it is based off of the top 5 finishes, I now have to win the Mountain State Classic outright. There are 2 5 mile climbs which gain a couple thousand feet so it's definitely not my race. I've done well there before but with the race now being called the 'Jay Downs Beatdown' by several of the other masters riders, I'm going to have my hands full.

WV Stage Race!

2008-08-01T16:58:00.000-04:00

Well, we're racing the WV stage race this weekend. I'm hoping I have enough under the hood to defend my title in the 40+ ranks. We also have a rider in the 123s, Adam Anderson, who should be able to spank the rest of the field in the TT. If he can do that, we have enough other team riders to goof with the rest in the time bonuses and leave the finish to Adam in the road race. The 123 field got smacked around by the Freddie Fu team last year. We're looking to take up that role in the men's fields. We really do need to get a few women on the team though. They're around, just not really into the road racing though. Maybe that will be something to push for next year. Til then, we have to concentrate on what we have on our plates right now. They should be having leaders jerseys this year too. I've never worn a stage race leaders jersy even though I have won two of them. It'd be cool to get one this year. After this, we have a couple more mountain bike and road races to go and then it's it to cross! I'm really kind of getting keyed up for it.

and the Poor Dumb Bastard award for the day goes to...

2008-07-22T16:51:00.000-04:00

John-Lee Augustyn! After taking the 'Souvenir Henri Desgrange' for the highest climb in the tour, he promptly fell off the bike on one of the turns on the descent. He slid down some, but the bike tumbled way down the mountain. It's one of those classic 'and a few seconds more' type situations you see after someone achieves something of note. My personal version which helped me get my nickname(and the name of this blog) was at a cyclocross race near Philly. After starting at the back of the mens B category of around 80 riders, I got to the front of the 2nd group just before the end of the 1st lap. Amazingly, I had passed almost 60 riders in that time. I got annoyed by the pace the other riders at the front were setting and I stepped it up as we headed into the last set of barriers. I was looking cool and fast. Then I forgot everything I knew about dismounts and with a new set of cleats on my shoes, I began to dismount, but didn't disengage the left foot from the pedal. As soon as the right foot touched the ground and the left foot didn't release, the bike shot forward, I tumbled and did a header straight into the first barrier. It made quite a racket and I rolled to my feet not quite sure which way to go. 'Oh, yeah, this way. That's where everyone else is going. I made it about another 100 yards and then the wooziness set in. It was about as good as some good bed spins after a night of drinking. I stopped as a few more riders passed me. Afterwards, I slowly remounted and got to the pit and replaced a wheel. I finished the race in a respectable 32nd, but the razzing I had to put up with after that was one of those things I'd rather not have to deal with again. I'd had others races where I had similar situations though just not right in front of everyone and never quite as embarrassing. I wonder how John-Lee felt when he dumped it today? Is he still asking himself, 'did I just do that?' If so, I wonder for how long?

When, when, when are they going to learn?

2008-07-17T11:39:00.000-04:00

Jeeezuss, what is wrong with people? I can't believe that Saunier Duval just got tossed from the tour because of Ricco testing positive for a new form of EPO. Did he get dropped on his head at an early age? You have to be a total and complete dumb-ass to be doing taking anything, especially during the Tour when they are extra vigilant about this sort of behavior. It's great to win a race, but to do it knowing that you won because you had a bit of 'help'. I don't see the draw unless you just like people cheering your name. Well, I like it too, but I refuse to take a win under those circumstances. I've had them taken away from me under crappy circumstances and have also been the benefactor of decisions that gave me a win. While winning under a technicality isn't the best of wins, it's better than winning by not playing in the same field as others. I imagine Sylvain Chavenal and Thomas Voeckler might've pushed themselves a bit more when the more serious climbing started if they were able to keep up with de la Fuente(guilt only by association, i know). With a few more points than they have now, they theoretically could be back in the hunt for the mountain jersey now rather than being also rans in this competition. I know of a good way to deal with this - Mob justice! Put the team back in the race and let everyone know that these guys have been stealing from you and that it's ok to take action against them. Nothing like a bit of self policing to make sure everyone keeps things above board. It's just like in the military. When someone causes a problem in a unit, generally the whole unit suffers. This is true whether it is just in training or actual combat. The unit as a whole than takes the necessary steps to make sure the 'problem' is solved. Hmmmm, it's probably a good idea that I'm not in control of the disciplinary committee in the sport or anywhere else for that matter.

More politics!

2008-07-16T14:04:00.000-04:00

I really have to stop reading so much and watching the news in the morning. If I had one of those squeezie balls that are supposed to relieve tension, I'd have turned it into dust this morning. Between a local politician getting off the hook for commiting perjury, as well as his kid getting off for allegedly killing his neighbor(the neighbor was determined to have commited suicide - just like Vince Foster), and then the national debates on drilling for oil and the presidential election pandering, my head is ready to explode. I turned to my usual source for humor in these situations and damn if they didn't have the poster which fit this situation. I really have to buy a few things from the folks at despair.com

Chili Day

2008-07-15T18:28:00.000-04:00

I popped home for lunch today. I finally got rid of the laziness I'd been dealing with when it came to making lunches. I made up a big pot of chili. It's pretty filling and tasty too! No dead cow in there either. I now have lunch for the next few days as even just a small batch fills up the big pan. On one of the drives up to the cross races in New England a couple years ago, Gunnar, Betsy and myself cooked up a batch of this and by the time we got into New York, we all still had some. I take a box of Fantastic Foods vege chili mix and put it in the water after bringing it to a boil. Then I add in 1 can of chili beans, 1 can of black beans, chop up a big batch of vegetables. I usually use zucchini, mushrooms, tomatoes, and peppers. I'm not much of an onion person so I leave those out. A quick zip of extra chili powder and it's ready. One thing I also started doing a couple years ago is adding a half pound of rotini noodles to it as well. It makes for an interesting mix. Make sure you use the big pan when cooking it. My base recipe will feed 4 people unless they are really hungry. If there are 6 people, toss in a bit more of the rotini noodles and an extra can of beans. My concoction might even make it onto the menu at one of the cafes here in Greensburg. I'm searching for a name for it, maybe Mexican pasta? Hmmmm, not sure about that but I'm open to suggestions.

Trigger shy

2008-07-14T15:41:00.000-04:00

I must be getting old or something. The past couple years after a very nasty crash, I've found I have been losing that 'in your face, aggressive' streak needed to do well in crits. I went to one of my nemesis races, the Hagertown MABRA crit championships. It's not a particularly hard course, nor are the fields really large. It's just that something always happens when we race downtown for me. One year, it was an allergy attack. Another, it was overheating. Last year, I had a guy get his bike sideways thru the sharp off-camber 2nd turn. He did manage to keep it upright which was pretty impressive to watch though it unnerved the pack behind him for the sprint. This year, I had a rider (the promoter, no less) decide he was going to move to the right going thru the left handed sweeper to set himself up for the previously mentioned off-camber left hander. I got forced into the curb and was feeling the tire rub and then our bars lock for a second. After yelling at him for a second, I got back to the matter at hand. Then the tire that rubbed the curb blew out a lap later going thru, you guessed it, the 2nd turn. I kept the bike upright but dammit I was now getting annoyed. This turn claimed about 30 people to wrecks this day. I at least escaped that fate. It seems people don't understand that if you are on a turn like this, DON'T PEDAL THRU IT! Unless you are using pedals like mine (Classic Sampson Stratics from the mid 90s), you are going to clip the road and wind up going down. After getting a wheel exchange, I jumped back in the group and tried to get settled into the pack. I'd worked my way thru the back third of the pack, when again, the race promoter almost caused another crash. Jesus, where did this guy learn to ride, the KMart school of bikeracing? Then after another close call a few laps later, I decided, I wasn't feeling that great anyway and I had a mountainbike race the next day, I called it quits. Mainly I called it quits because I was really wanting to throw an elbow on someone or run them thru a grate. Unfortunately, I know him and he's generally an ok guy. He just can't handle a bike. Beyond that, when you have thoughts like that going thru your head, it's probably best for everyone that you just pull off and go cool down. I did say something to the officials about it but they were not that receptive of even saying anything to him. Hmmm, I would say that there being a safety issue out there might cause some concern on their part. Even if it isn't anything official, they could at least say 'ummm, *****(I'll leave names out of this), there have been a couple people who've complained about your bike handling. You might want to do something about it. Thanks'. If nothing else, it might be food for thought for him. I let him know how I felt out there on the bike. Others did as well. We all want to keep it nice but if we're in the firing line, when do you stop being nice? After hanging around to watch the women's race I hit a nice BBQ resteraunt with Judd and Melanie. We all had days that could've been better, but the food was good and we got to get caught up as we hadn't seen each other since the cross season, which is coming up in 9 short weeks from now. Damn, this year is going a bit fast for me.

The bridge too far

2008-07-08T15:44:00.000-04:00

Well, one thing I can tell is that I'm still not 100% recovered from the fatigue attack earlier in the year. I got down to St Albans early enough to get a good dinner and a decent hotel room. I didn't notice it til the next day but the famous, or rather infamous, Pink Pony club was located just down the hill from it. When natz was last in Louisville, a friend and I drove past there at about 10PM and it was lit up with bright Pink flood lights. The next morning, the hot topic of conversations was that the guy who had won $330million bucks in the Powerball lottery had 475 grand stolen from the trunk of his car there. What kind of a moron drives around with that amount of cash? Anyway, back to the races. St Albans is a smaller crit, but they always have a decent payout. This year, with most of the riders doing either, Fitchburg, Nationals, the Lil Moe's WVMBA race or a race in Virginia, there was a definite drop in attendance. It was disappointing for the promoters, but for the riders who made the drive, it was worthwhile. I didn't have the same spark I had the day before and I also think I was a bit overconfident in the 40+ race as I repeatedly tried breaking the others by hitting the turn hard and gapping them. This saved me some energy on the climb but after a while, they were all looking at me as the rider who would do the work to bring back any attack which eventually came. In the end, I didn't have it for the finish and only wound up 5th. The 123s brought the same result, but I cracked late in the race when it was down to a few riders. It wound up being the bridge too far and the body told me "NO" when I tried getting that little bit extra ummpff for an acceleration. With the riders who were there, I should've been able to do better, but the body was talking back. I did a deliberately slow drive home after a good lunch in Charleston at the Paris cafe. My teammate Chris was having a good chat with the chef and son of the owner in french and we got to watch some of the Tour. Chris' mother is from France as well so he grew up speaking the language. Overall it was a tiring weekend though and I was glad to be a total veg on the couch on Sunday. I did get the time trialing equipment ready and am getting the front wheel hub re-lubed with the lead lube that I now have in almost all of my hubs. It makes for a bit of a crunchy ride til it gets worked into the metal, but once it does, all I can say is 'who needs to pay for ceramics?' The wheels really do turn much better. I guess that is one area where an engineering background does help. I'm not a trained engineer, but I am quick to learn the hows, whys and ways things work.

First win of the year - Finally!

2008-07-04T23:00:00.000-04:00

I finally got my first win of the year. It was getting a bit annoying and a bit depressing after a few close calls and some definite down times. It was the 3rd race in the WV road series. To this point, I'd gotten a 2nd and a 10th which set me well back on point. I gained a few back and felt pretty strong in the run in. I'll be looking to make it 2 tomorrow at St Albans, WV and I'll be doubling up by doing the 123s as well. Last year, I rode it with a broken hand and after the halfway point, I had to bail because I just couldn't hold onto the handlebars anymore. I'm feeling like I can hang in and make it to the sprint, I can do well. If it's a small group, I feel like I'd be able to win it. I'm just going to get past the 40+ race though as it is the more important for me for the series and then look for the extra scalp later.

Celebrate This!

2008-07-03T10:16:00.000-04:00

I was driving into work this morning and I heard something on the radio that really pissed me off. Someone had given some sort of speech that was being reported on and there was a phrase they used that has been really annoying me lately. 'Celebrate diversity' - I'm sorry, I'm not going to celebrate diversity. Particularly on this day. I'm going to celebrate the fact that if you are a citizen of this country, then you are an American. Nothing short. I'm of Irish/German descent, but I'm an American. I appreciate the fact that people have come to this country from all over the world, but the 'celebrate diversity' types seem to want to remind us that we're all different people. No, we're not different. We might have come from different places, speak different languages, like different things, but dammit, we're still freakin AMERICANS. So when you're watching the fireworks or at the family picnic on the 4th of July, take a moment and remember what we're celebrating here. As for diversity, always remember, the more you deal with it in a society and make special rules for this group and that group, diverse it gets. Get it? I'm going to go get the truck loaded up with beer and stuff now, put the gun in the rack with a fresh box of ammo, load up on the smokes in the glove compartment and use them all before I get home. Why? Because I can. I'm going to appreciate the fact that others sacrificed alot, much more than I ever can imagine, to allow us to do whatever it is in life we are doing.

On another little rant, with oil prices spiraling out of control and people grumbling about how it's just too expensive to do anything, take a moment and google Gull Island. Do a bit or reseach on ANWR. It's looking more and more like the oil markets are becoming much like the diamond markets in the world. Why is the oil so expensive? Because they want it that way. We could be running around with gas that costs about a buck a gallon, even with the increased demand and not be dealing with shortages. As for global warming and the increase in 'greenhouse gasses' from cars, well, do the math. How much extra gas do we have to burn in order to be able to match the original gas when you take into account for the catalytic converter and the reformulated gas. It all comes to about a wash on that account, but forces us to spend an additional $1000 or more per car for the converter, then buying the extra gas for it and the reformulated fuel. We're burning about 10-15% more fuel to get the same result and we also get to have the platinum oxide in the air now too! Give me a car with properly operating Oxygen sensors, and I'll show you a car that will emit the same level or less pollutants than the one with the catalytic converter. The increased gas usage also provides the state and federal government with the additional tax revenues which in PA account for about 51 cents a gallon. Hmmm, I think there are a few million cars in PA that use on average a couple gallons of gas a day. So if we are burning about 5 million gallons(I think we're burning more than this amount though) of gas a day in the state, we are pulling down $2.5Mil a day in taxes. Times 365 and that comes to $912.5Mil a year in taxes. If you drop consumption by 10-15% of that, that's a nice hefty chunk out of State and Fed budgets. Do that over the 50 states, and someone will be bitching when their pork project gets the ax. In the end, it does all end up being about control. Governments used to pass laws about how their people moved about the countries. In this country, laws like that would go over like the proverbial 'fart in church'. So subtlety is required. I'm looking at this as kind of a modern method of saying 'stay in your village, peasant'. I could be paranoid though. I better check and make sure the tin foil hat is properly fastened.

People watching at Starbuck's

2008-06-28T21:40:00.000-04:00

It's a boring Saturday night and I'm here at Starbuck's doing some programming and people watching. I don't normally say things about people, but when Leo Breshnev's eyebrows walk in and there only one of them of this person, I had to say it somewhere and since it's rude to say it aloud, I guess I had to say it here. It's one of those, 'you had to be there' scenarios. All I can say is that was quite a unibrow!

Tour of Pennsylvania

2008-06-27T11:10:00.000-04:00

We've got the Tour of Pennsylvania coming in to town today. I think I'll play hookie and ride out to Latrobe this afternoon for the finish of the race. Latrobe has a few claims to fame. It is the real birthplace of Professional Football (Canton was able to pony up the money for the Hall of Fame though). It used to be the home of Rolling Rock Beer, though I'm not sure that is something to be too proud of. I know what the mountain spring water they used was like. The third is it was the hometown of everyone's (at least people from my generation) favorite toddler TV personality, Mr. Fred Rogers. My dad grew up there and he had quite a few little anecdotes about Fred. One of my favorites was how his father, Jim Rodgers, who was a blue collar type steel mill owner (he married into the one of the richer families in the region which wound up giving Fred a hefty inheritance - yes, people, in case you didn't know it, Fred was loaded. So was Mr. McFeely. Come to think about it, am I the only one who is a bit creeped out by that name?) who was not overly happy about Fred's, shall we say, wimpy mannerisms. So in order to try to change that, he actually paid some of the local bullies to beat him up to try to toughen him up. I'm thinking he should've asked for his money back.