Getting Mental Again

Wow tonight's ride was a kick in junk. Temps were in the high 80s and possibly 90s on the road and I felt like a fried dog turd. Damn!! I just could NOT get a rhythm going, especially in the breathing department. The first steep ass climb (at mile 1) had me nearly stroking out and seeing Jesus. It must have taken me 45 minutes of my two hour ride to get in the groove.

But everything came around and I got my 33.5 miles in. At a red light at mile 33.0, just after the bottom of a steep ass switchback decent a motorcycle pulls up along side me and the dude says "wow, you were really moving down that hill!", I just said "yeah, coming down is the easy part, going UP is a different story!"

Felt spent mentally and physically tonight. Not something I wanted to feel 4 days before the Wilderness 101, but it did give me a chance to implicated some of the stuff I read over today about the mental side of training and racing.

All forms of riding and racing have their mental aspects, I mean it's ALL tough! I find I'm challenged the most during 12 and 24 hour solos and all the hours in between (13, 18, etc.,).

When you find yourself signing up for events like a 12 and 24 hour solo race, you just kicked it up a notch, and need to hold on tight for some real mind fornication. The Solo "Mental Demon" reaches into your skull grabs your brain, bends it over an empty barrel of HEED and does things to it that I believe may be illegal in many of our southern states. Just when you think the demon has satiated it's want of seeing you suffer, it stuffs your spent brain back in your sleep deprived cranium and tells you that you have another 12 hours to go, laughs and moves on to the next poor bastard that signed up Solo.

Add in the physical aspects like muscle fatigue, sleep deprivation, nutrition, and you have a full on roller coaster ride for the brain. But we're not done yet. You need to through in some financial and logistical pressure of doing the race and/or getting to the race too.

Can you stay calm after a crash or mechanical? Can you deal with a monsoon the night before the race or during the race? Can you adapt to setbacks during the race and roll with the punches that will surely be thrown your way as you ride lap after lap for up to 24 o 25 hours? I for one have answered "no" to many of these questions at least once, and often more in my short racing history.

Then mental aspect of racing (hell, life for that matter) and setting goals for my racing is something that I have needed to work on for years and the following articles that I found on Pez Cycling by USA Cycling Level 2 Coach and licensed psychotherapist Marvin Zauderer are good reading and contain some good tips that I plan on trying to incorporating into the remainder of my 2007 and planning my 2008 season.

1. Train Your Mind Part ONE
2. Train Your Mind Part TWO
3. Positive Self-Talk
4. Managing Emotions
5. Concentration
6. Communication
7. True Suffering

The above articles are also available in PDF format at Wholeathlete.com.

I have come out of every single endurance event I've done learning SOMETHING new about myself and/or racing. I think that's what keeps me going back. It would be so damn easy if it was JUST about riding your bike for 24 hours. Thank God it's not or it wouldn't be nearly as fun!

I'm always on the look out for ways of getting through a Solo suffer fest and these are my most recent finds. I'm sure I'll keep looking and post more as I find them.

Later.

Power Gellin' Cheap

Little shopping tip for cheap-o (broke) racers like me ...

I'm a Hammer Gel guy 75.9% of the time, but sometimes I'm in the mood for something different OR I'm out of HG and need to go with something else in a pinch. Lately I've been finding six packs of PowerBar Gel at some big box retailers like Target, Sprawl-Mart, and some local grocery stores.

I was shocked to see PowerGel on the shelves! I'm not complaining by any means, given that you can pick up a sixer for $5.96 or so. Anytime I can come in under a dollar per gel retail I'm pretty happy. Plus it's nice to be able to get some bike nutrition while you're grabbing your week's groceries.

Just my 2¢ on how to save 2¢.

Later.

Mental Health (or lack there of)

Today was a Mental Health Day.
Off the bike. Off of work. Refresh, regroup, and focus.

Back in the saddle tomorrow.
Trying to lay low this week to avoid any of my normal race week, bad mojo.

Later.

On Auto Pilot

Wow, my legs were hurting today. Not sure if it was poor sleep, poor food, or the freaking hot as balls heat/humidity that we had today or what.

Anyway I did a road ride on the Trek out in Scottdale and at about mile two I had thoughts about bailing. But as with many road rides, I suffered through the first few miles, got warmed up and then put on the auto pilot for 40 miles. Even with the heat it ended up being a good ride and glad I toughed out those first few miles.

Thinking of another race to end the season. Usually I do the 24 Hour Champion Challenge. But this year I'm doing an 18 hour solo two weeks prior. Doesn't seem wise to do a 24 so soon, especially at $230 a pop. I'm kicking around the idea of the 12 or 24 Hours of Mohican on September 15th & 16th.

Solo entry is $95 beans. Pretty good price and it covers some of the trails that we did during the Mohican 100. Not 100% on this yet and thinking maybe the 18 Hours On The Farm will satisfy my remaining solo urges for 2007. Who knows?

Later.

Race The Max!

Headed out on the full knobbed Mamasita to knock out some miles on the road this a.m.

The weather here is full on deep shades of gray with hints of dark gray and as humid as the upper thigh of a chubby girl sporting a leather mini skirt. I started from the Boston Rail Trail and flirted with the idea of riding the trail for a bout 7 miles and then hopping on the road. That was until I arrived at the lot and saw a million folks with their upright bar ends and fuzzy saddles. Uh, I think I'll just start straight away on the road.

As I'm getting ready, two 60+ gents are in my personal space talking to each other. One was telling the other how he was going to stop on the way to buy a jock (as in strap) but he stopped at what must have been his son's house and he had some extras.

First- WHY did he need a jock strap to ride a comfort bike on a rail trail?? 2nd- OUCH I can just imagine the pain the ol taint would get with a f*cking jock on, and 3rd- Did he take a USED jock from his son's or an extra NEW one? I found this ALL very disturbing and did not want to think about it. Get some good bike shorts. If you feel to "exposed" wear them under some other shorts. But damn, take care of your boyz. Leave the jocks for the 300 lb. football buffoons.

To borrow a line from my man Radio Freddy over at Belgium Knee Warmers....

PRO is PROGRAM GO!

What's so PRO about this? I Finally got Mamasita dialed 99% in with the addition of the Ergon team grips. I was going to hold out for some black Ergon grips, but damn, my hands demand comfort and I want to use the Mamasita at the 101 and that was NOT going to happen without Ergon. Just need some sweet bottle cages (anodized red I believe!) and get my steering tube cut and I'll be set at 100% PRO.

If I added an XTR crank, now THAT would be SO F*cking PRO!!! But I would be SO f*cking BROKE! Thanks to BKW for bringing PRO to the cycling lexicon, and thanks for letting me bring it to the Enduro freaks. Check out Belgium Knee Warmers for more on PRO.

So I headed out and UP to start the ride. There's nothing like riding a mountain bike on the road with full knobbies to make you feel slower than a hung up frozen turd. BUT, I believe it's a damn good work out and if you're in to doing the hundies not a bad idea at all, since you won't be riding your 18 lb. road bike with skinny slicks up those 2 to 3 miles forest road climbs!

I was working hard and listening to the hypnotic whirl of my knobbies on pavement. About 15 miles in I knew I needed to adjust the Ergon's a bit, but it could wait 'till after the ride. Knew I needed my hands a tad flatter.

At about mile 20 I needed to lube up...

Mamasita likes things running smooth and warm during the ride. I felt all dirty just standing by this. I mean HOW does this end up on some back road? YIKES! I guess SOMEONE had a good Friday night.

I put in a nice effort, although be it slow (14.2 avg. speed about 2.5 mph+ slower than on my rod bike), got some nice climbing in and worked on getting the the Mamasita ready for the 101. Finished with about 2:35 of ride time and about 35.5 miles.

One last comment on the set up I have going on the Mamasita. I'm running SRAM X9 triggers. I must say If I had to do it all over again I would go with the XO twisties like I have on my Dos Niner. Over the long haul I find the twists just easier to access and shift. The down fall is SUPER muddy races when glove and shifter get covered with rain/mud. You can NOT twist. BUT having said all that the triggers have been precise and have been shifting flawlessly. I men click- DONE! No mushyness at all.

Going to to go watch the dope show highlight and enjoy a La Fin Du Monde that I acquired.

Later.

What He Said...

Chilling with B-Man, Wifey and Ricky Bobby. Saddle time tomorrow. One week 'till the 101. Sweet!

Later.

Sauerkraut Served On The Softcore Autobus

Wow, all the planets were aligned today, it did NOT storm and the cycling god's deemed me worthy to ACTUALLY ride tonight. Felt good to be back on the bike for a couple hours/32 miles on the road after a few days off with nothing more than a Stankment® session due to rain/bike repairs. I've had better rides, but I have MUCH worse.

This was my first ride with the Maxxis Refuse tires. They mounted up easily enough and only needed a nudge from one tire lever. They are a tad heavier than the Detonators and have and odd tread. Sort of like tiny little pin head bumps all over. Rolled well enough, but not as good as the Detonators. Stick to the road well. Time will tell. Hope they make good with flat protection.

Ate kinda like shit today. Just not enough calories in the hopper for a 2 hour ride after working 8 hours (or as close as I can). Some Colon-Blow and coffee for for breakfast, a Boca Chic Patty Sandwich and some pretzels. Maybe 1500 calories?? All day! What was I thinking?? I guess I was thinking "I know it's gonna rain and I'm gonna get dicked out of a ride, so don't eat like a pig". Combine poor eating with some steamy temps and I was dragging ass by the end.

Kept having mental blows too. Felt silly road riding with all the dope news in the headlines. Not that any folks around here get past page 1 of the sports page. Once they know whether Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger took a shit or not, and how bad he hurt himself shitting/not shitting, they generally lay the paper down, wipe and flush. Maybe it was just that I knew what I thought about it and that was utter disappointment.

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I found myself on the climbs thinking to myself (putting the dope stuff aside) how effortlessly climbers go up most climbs and how I max out 39/25 and leave a busted nut on the side of the road just to get up the hills (although be it steep hills) around here. Kept thinking to myself that I would no doubt be off the back of the autobus,trying to latch on to the bumper of a team car or booking a flight to Italy for a doctor's appointment. Sorry bad joke.

I mean I'm not a BIG (fat) guy but at 6'1"/175 lbs. I don't exactly have a climbers build either. I guess I just have to be happy with my mid pack endurance mountain bike racers body and roll as best I can.

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I've come to the conclusion after smelling 4 or 5 tonight, that raccoon road kill baking in the sun smells JUST like sauerkraut.

Every time I rolled near one I got SO hungry for a hot dog with sauerkraut. Can you pass the mustard??

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Non cycling story...

About 2 years ago when I moved to the Classified Sales art dept. for the paper I work for, I found a calendar in my new desk that belonged to the previous artist. It was some Maxim Magazine desk calendar. One chicky (January?) was really hot. So I hung the calendar up and and left it on January 2005. It was kind of a joke between me and the all female sales staff I work with. They thought it was funny and even drew little notes on Miss November from time to time and no one though anything of it.

Fast forward to today- July 26th, 2007. Apparently before I got to work today one of the paper's CEOs was walking around, nebbing in some cubicles and he saw the calendar, asked the sales assistant who sat there, took it and said it was "unacceptable" in the work place. HA!

He came back later to tell me he took it and why. I could care less, it was just a joke and I even pointed out to him that the calendar was from 2005. Wasn't even bad, no crotch shots or anything, just a swim suit and a nice bum. I mean who doesn't dig a nice bum???? Seriously?? Oh well we all had a good laugh, including the CEO. Nice. First words I speak to the man ever and it's about some model's ass.

I then told the staff that with my calendar gone they needed to "step up" with some shorter skirts and tighter pants to keep me in good morale. Silence. I suppose I'll be having a mid a.m. meeting with HR tomorrow, ha!

_____________________________________________

Oh, well time to Google "Maxim Calendar Girls 2005" and then go to bed. Later.

My Crank's Got Play

Noticed some play in the Mamasita's XT crank other day. Not happy. So I figure it just needs tightened a tad. Wrong. After a consult with my master mechanic Tom, it appears that it's the XT's bottom bracket cups. Great.

With a busy race schedule approaching and Tom readying himself for some eye surgery and vacation I hit 2 local shops at lunch time in search of cups. Shop "A", knew what I needed but were out and offered to order. Shop "B"'s 16 year old mechanic gave me a wide eyed stare and then said they did not them. Great.

So BACK to the office for some phone calls. Called up Dirty Harry's, one of the "go to" shops in the area. They had them! BUT, I had no time to make the 20 minute drive there. As luck would have it Tom was heading that way and offered to pick them up for me. Big thank you to DH's for actually carrying parts that folks need for repairs. So you kids go buy something from them, ok?

After work it was to Tom's with Mamasita for the repair and of course T found other issues like pedals that needed love, so he hooked me up with a good pedal re-greasing and tightening. Thanks for the help Tom and oh yeah- HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Are there any teams left in the Tour? Just asking? It's gonna look like a local group ride soon.

In real cycling news, did you see the Breckenridge 100 results?? Holy crap, more than half the men's field DNFed! At 13,000' of total elevation gain at altitude I'm sure I would have been one of those oxygen sucking DNFs too! Yikes!

Josh Tostado won the men's race in 9:05:08 and Monique Merrill won the women's in 10:49:28. Congrats to both of them. Check out the Summit Daily News write up.

I would love to hit one of the west races next year. Hey Michigan is WEST of PA!!

I'm getting anxious for next week's Wilderness 101. Should be a good time and good prep for the 18 Hours on the Farm a couple weeks later.

I really, really, really hope to ride something, somewhere or someone tomorrow. Jeezusss! This week has SUCKED for saddle time.

Later.

The OK, The Cute And The WTF?

Great weather all day. 4:00 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. - heavy ass thunderstorms and me with a mountain bike. Great. The rain had stopped by 5 p.m., but the trails would have been a mess and the sky looked both clearing and ominous at the same time. Great.

Drove home, hitting all sorts of bitch ass traffic, and then chamoised up for the Stankment® and time on the trainer with core and weights thrown in. You know, for an hour workout, I got a nice routine down, that could almost be a "simulated" mountain bike ride. I hit all the shit that you work. Abs, arms, back, quads, spinning, etc., Could be worse, for sure.

Tomorrow was scheduled off, but not sure now.

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Gotta post this sweetness. My man KoKo down in F.L.A. sent me pict of his little dude Harrison sporting the Twin-Six colors. Hmmm, wonder who got him that?? ;)

Great pict, but I can't help but think he's telling me to kiss his ass. In due time, in due time.

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Not much else going on. Don't really feel like talking about the druggies, I mean roadies in the Tour today. That's another post. I will leave you with this pict though from MTBS.CZ, and the European Championships...

I mean REALLY! Freaking Mt. Dildo! That can NOT be natural!

Later.

One Degree Away From The Stars & Bars

Not much going down tonight. Night off of the bike and in the yard for some lawn mowing. Great. Might try to get out for some single track tomorrow. I'd like to stay off the road bike 'till I can get my new tires on.

I am proud to say that I'm one degree away from a national champ! Jenny Lewis-Torres, the daughter of my good friends Fernando and Loretta took home the stars and stripes from Mt. Snow last weekend.

In a day and age when many 12 year olds would rather sit around and play video games Jenny has been going out and laying some smack down on the race course with a smile on her face. Of course as sweet as Jenny is "laying smack" may be a bit much.

Congratulations to Jenny on her stars and stripes jersey, I'm very proud. Also congrats to Fernando and Loretta for being the sort of parents that encourage their daughter to race and ride. Wait 'til B-Man gets a look at this! I think his crush on Jenny may just get tad stronger. HA!

Later. Time for food.

A Ride & A Tour Shocker!

Got some more time in today. Nice road ride with some added climbing out at my dad's. Got in about 42.5 miles/2:25. Didn't feel as strong as yesterday, but I'll take today after a week than had nearly 50 miles of single track riding.

Thank God my new road ires will be here Tuesday from Bikeman.com World HQ. My current Maxxis tires are balder than a fresh sphinx job (and for the first time that's NOT a good thing) plus they're starting to show some threads. Me thinks it's time. Giddy up UPS.

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Saw this shocking display on cyclingnews.com today:
He's SO busted!!!

132 pound Michael "chicken" Rasmussen was sighted EATING!! What could he be thinking?? I'm just sick about this. Of course he's most likely peering out the window trying to catch sight of Le Tour's official "mobile vomitorium" that they cart around for all the weight watching, polka-dot jersey lusting climber types.

Later. Time for this 175 lb. rider to get some food and not look for a vomitorium.... right away.

Put This One In The Bank

Today was the kinda of day/ride that you file away in the memory bank for a snowy day in February when all you can think about is wanting to "take a rope to the attic" (yes, KoKo credit to Jules).

The weather was beyond perfect with with sun, temps in the 70s and a nice breeze. The trails were in perfect shape, and my legs were feeling spanky.

Headed over to Boyce early-ish since I needed to get home early afternoon for some B-Man time while Wifey went with a friend to a yoga seminar/class.

I hadn't been on the Dos Niner for a long time, since I've been giving the Mamasita all my love, but today I decided to fire up the Dos. As much as I love the Mamasita, the Dos Niner could be the BEST bike for long rides and enduros- EVER! I'm not kidding.

It could be that I have it set up perfect right now for long endurance rides. The Reba set to 100mm, nice and soft, super comfy Ergon grips (I can NOT say enough about these grips!!!), Fizik Nisene HP saddle (the ultimate in ass comfort), and the Salsa Relish shock in my rear giving me a nice inch of cush in the tush. As soon as I started pedaling today it just felt so good.

I believe riding the hard tail (and fast as shit!) Mamasita has made me a better rider on the Dos. Ride the Dos Niner like a hard tail and it will treat you damn good. The 1" of travel in the rear, adds JUST enough help with traction and keep you pedaling through rougher stuff. If you get real lazy and want to ride it like a 4" travel FS, you're gonna be disappointed, but if you start to get tired, the 1" will forgive some minor errors and leave your ass feeling good.

Note the O-Ring on the Relish. Got some nice travel today
and left my back and butt in good shape. Over 20+ miles of single track.

I went from the SUPER plush, heavier, yet efficient (for a FS) Salsa El Santo (26") last year to two 29ers this year with the Dos Niner and Mamasita and really see NO reason to EVER ride a 26" wheeled bike again.

Ended up doing a couple of laps on some of my favorite trails and put in 20.5 miles/2:15 or so. I felt good the whole time, and felt like I could have kept going easily. I went through two bottles of Carbo Pro Plus/Gatorade and 1 bottle of H20.

Did hit my head hard on one low tree at about 11 mph. Thank God for helmets. Anyone not riding with helmet is pretty much a D. Bag. My head would have split open like a water melon. Think you look like a knob wearing a helmet? You'll look like more of a knob with your brain oozing out of your skull in the middle of the woods. Wear your damn helmet!

Speaking of that, on the way home I saw a dude on a road bike, wearing flip flops, no helmet, jean shorts (holy taint rubbage!) riding on the wrong side of the road, and wobbling and swerving like a drunk. Nice.

I could NOT stop thinking how good the Ergon grips felt today. I kept thinking of ways to describe how good they feel. Kept wanting to use a metaphor such as "it's like having sex with your hands" but opted not to use it, since it sounded like WAY too much information. Wait, I guess I just used it. Oh well.

On the subject of things yummy and green, while B-Man napped today
(which he is STILL doing as you see)

I made up some homemade Guacamole. Yum-Ohhh....

Now I can relax this evening, cook up some Mexican, and feast on this green goodness.

Hope you all got some miles in. Good luck to my Bikeman.com teammates racing at Nationals up in Vermont this weekend. Hope the rain they got didn't f the course up too much.

Hope to road ride tomorrow.

Later.

Because... We Must

Because it's Friday, I just made 2 calzones, the Tour is on, I need to inject some cow's blood, the Tour is NOT on German TV, the Decemberists are on my Hi-Fi, there's Bells to drink, a B-man to kiss, crime to fight, a planned Saturday in the saddle on the Dos Niner and this....

Later.

8 Oz. Of Angst & 2KG of Energy

Severe T-Storms were all around WPA today, so I bagged my ride and just did an hour trainer/core workout. Wouldn't seem like much, but the humidi-stank in the Stankment® was turned up to 11. HOLY CRAP! I think I lost about 5lbs. of sweat!

Looking forward to the weekend. If we can get some dry weather Friday I'd like to get an extended mountain bike ride in on Saturday. If not, looks like more road miles.

Ordered up some race nutrition last week. Ordered it from one place and the order apparently didn't go through. Checked my account and apparently it DID go through, and should be on it's way, just took a while to process. In the meantime, thinking I still needed it, I had ordered up some direct from the manufacturer. Needless to say I'm gonna have enough fuel for some BIG efforts in the coming months. Might need to add a big one to cap off the season. God knows I'll have enough carbs!

Later.

It's NOT Like Any Other Love

I really thought I was going to be relegated to the road to tonight. We had a few heavy a.m. showers and a few storms predicted for this evening. But luck was a lady tonight and I got some post work single track for 1:40/14.5 miles.

I presumed the trails would be soggy from M/villes a.m. showers, so I started with some park pavement and thought I'd hit some service roads on the Mamasita and then maybe do some hill repeats. But I ducked onto some single track and it was dry. It was all dry! And what wasn't bone dry was nice and tacky.

Aside from a rear flat to my Maxxis Ignitor cutting into my ride time, the ride rocked. I've alway loved my Ignitors, but as they've worn over the past year they've become more flat prone, so I tend to shy away from using them for anything more than training. Especially when my Panaracer/IRD Fire XCs rock so much.

I spent some plastic today picking up some of what I hope is my last bike part needs of the summer. Got some new rubber for the road bike since my Maxxis Detonators are damn close to turning to rubbery dust anytime now and the team issued Panaracer Extreme Evos are just not working out for me due to their narrow 23c width and their tendancy to want to tear my thumb straight off my hand when mounting.

So I went with the Maxxis ReFuse 25c. I love my Detonators, but I like the idea of the added potential puncture resistance that the ReFuse offers. I'm not one to care about weight or how smooth my tires roll. I get limited time to ride, I really don't feel like sitting along the road changing flats all night.
I know some other folks have had luck with them, I hope I do as well. I'll let you know how they mount up when they come in from Bikeman.com World HQ in few days or so.

Oh well time for a little "me" time.

Later.

Dog Days

Not much going on tonight. Night off the bike to let the meat sticks rest. Made up some portobello & veggie hoagies for me and Wifey. Yum-O. When you marinate portobellos in some red wine vinegar they become a flavor explosion!

Spent some time cleaning up the Mamasita and switched wheels for a possible road/rail trail ride tomorrow. Weather looks "if-y" ate best for the rest of the week. Might get thrown a big ol' t-storm training c*ck block.

My under dog team and Tour wild card team Barloworld pulled off an impressive stage win today...

Enter the maybe the longest name on the Pro Tour: Juan Mauricio Soler Hernandez of Colombia.
That would be him on the LEFT. Photo via EuroSport.com

Then did you see THIS??....



Nice wheel. Holy crap!

Later.

Back At It With More Man/Bike Love

Pushed on for a 3rd day of riding today. Hit Boyce after work with Mamasita for a 14.5 mile loop and some some dry twisty trails. Big thanks to the trail gnomes that cut back some of brush on the trails. Much appreciated. Put in a nice consistent effort and the legs felt good even after two days in a row of road riding.

I've been putting some nice mileage on the Mamasita in the last 3 weeks, and every ride I come away more impressed. So far the ONLY issue I can find with the frame is that using a 24 oz. water bottle on the seat tube cage can be snug and a tad awkward to access at speed.

Mamasita's sweet carbon ass area. Never thought I could think a flat ass was sexy.

My positioning on the frame feels so damn good. The longer top tube gives me a nice stretched out racy feel and the bike just handles super quick through the tighter single track trails that many of my local trails offer. Really has a great feel through corners. I feel really "connected" to the trail.

I do occasional notice the absence of the Dos Niner's Relish shock when I start to tire, get lazy and fail to let the boyz and bunz hover above the seat hard tail style. On certain climbs I think the one inch of travel that the Relish offers adds a bit of traction too, but the Mamasita is lighter and more "flickable" to maneuver, so it all sort of works out.

The only other issue I have with the bike is purely component oriented. As I've mentioned before the Kool Stop brake pads I'm using SSSSSSUCK. Long and hard. Gritty, grabby, howl like a cat in heat, type of sucking. I guess you get what you pay for. The pads retail for only about $15 and they're worth about $5.00.

OK, OK, enough bike love. Sorry. Once I get going it's hard to stop. I'll leave you with my fave pict from the Tour so far...

Classic. I've always wondered if after the race the riders mention some of the freaks they've seen through the day. I know they're concentrating, but damn, how do you ignore a freak like that??

Time to take a day off from riding tomorrow.

Later.

Found: MOJO

Not sure what the problem with yesterday's ride. I think it was out of competition angst. I think this stretch between races has got too long, and ennui set in.

Had a couple folks over for some lasagna and beverages for my birthday last night. Got to bed by 11:30 , but I could NOT sleep. I think I only got about 5 hours, maybe! Not good and I was not anticipating a ride today.

Surprisingly I felt fresh this a.m. and readied the B-Man and bike for a trip out to Scottdale to see my dad and get some road time in.

I hit the road under partly sunny skies, temps in the 80s and some real crotch stank humidity. I was shocked how spanky I felt and had a nice ride. I mapped it out with a new map site that Dancin' Rick just turned me on to. You can check it HERE. Thanks Ricker.

Not a ton of climbing today but a good ride with some shorter power climbs and false flats. The ride came in at 40 miles/2:17.

Later.

Oil & Chip Me, I'm Done

Got sucked into the Tour first thing this a.m., but broke Phil and Paul's hold on me to get a ride of my own in. Forced to the road to avoid the mud pits on the trails.

Felt like I was just going through the motions on today's ride. Head/heart was not into the ride. Not sure why. Did about 37 miles, and some good climbing but I felt like a spoiled side of beef. Many of the roads have received their oil/chip treatment and I was less than happy about that.

No more cruising down hill at 35 mph. More like 20 with full attention given to keep the tire from washing out and loosing skin. On one road I saw the spreader and roller parked for the weekend. I entertained myself with thoughts of going over and pissing on them to perk myself up. Hey it's the thought that counts.

It's not often that I'm mentally not enjoying a ride. Today my legs were moving, but my brain was off somewhere else. Not the best ride I've ever had let alone the best "birthday ride" for sure. Not going would have been worse, but 20 miles in, I just wanted to be home. Not a good sign. Oh well, chalk it up to "issues".

Got home to see final 20K of the Tour being replayed. Good stuff. Great to see a young rider like Linus Gerdemann take the stage. Young like 11.5 years younger than me, YIKES!!!!

That's Linus on the right. You gotta love a shot like this. (taken from Eurosport.com)

One more thing IMHO. I do hate to see Fabian Cancellara out of yellow. He did the jersey proud. Defended it when he could, won two stages and gave it up with a smile on his face when he knew his time was done. The class he showed whilst wearing the yellow was not unnoticed by this sub par cyclist/fan. Congrats to him on his week in yellow.


Oh well, time to go try to pry my head out of my ass and put a smile on.

Later.

The Friday Before the 14th

Tomorrow if you're not riding or racing and you want to check out some racing on TV that's fatter than the Tour, check out the live internet TV coverage of the Salzkammergut Trophy race from Bad Goisern, Austria.
UPDATE: I CAN'T GET THE LINK TO SHOW ANYTHING. GOOD LUCK.

The 209K (130 miles) Marathon will be broadcast live starting at 5 a.m. and go until 10 p.m.. Not often you get to see a mountain bike race broadcast, let alone a endurance event. This would be a kick ass event to race or ride.

I'm not sure what the quality will be like, but it's worth a shot at checking in now in again. Wish I'd be spending my Saturday there tomorrow, rather than the Western PA, back roads.

I had planned to mountain bike, with some over due time on the Dos Niner, but WPA got hella dumped on with rain today, so looks like road time tomorrow. Might take the Mamasita since the Wilderness 101 is only 3 weeks away and it would be nice to get more miles of climbing on it. But who knows, watching 135 pound Tour riders take on the Alps whilst I eat my granola and coffee will probably get my junk jonesing for the road bike.

Later.

Fire In The Hole!

Good time tonight with Wifey. We went to one of our fave restaurants- Mad Mex. I had the Wingo Burrito with "Insane" sauce. Felt great going down, but you know about 8 a.m. tomorrow I'll be biting down on a piece of rubber as the Wingo makes its exit.

All kinds of good drafts too. East End Big Hops, and Legacy Hedonism and Midnight Wit.

Looked like another pretty good Tour stage today. Milram was all over the road. Literally.

Poor bovine. I can just see a bunch of Frenchies hoped up on Farm House Ales working this poor thing over. Photo from CyclingNews.com.

Time to go watch the Tour recap with the B-Man, and drink some 10th Anniversary champagne.

Later.

There Is A Light...

.."if a double-decker bus
crashes into us
to die by your side
is such a heavenly way to die
and if a ten ton truck
kills the both of us
to die by your side
well the pleasure, the privilege is mine
There is a light that never goes out..."

"There Is A Light That Never Goes Out"
- The Smiths

Happy 10 Year Anniversary Wifey!

The above Smiths song- "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" was to be our song at our wedding reception 10 years ago, except the dude who we paid to learn/play the song failed to do so.

Wifey told me she dug it too, but part of me thinks she only agreed to the song as a concession to keep my original plan of running down the aisle throwing gladiolus to "This Charming Man" from coming to fruition.

Marriage can be tough sometimes, life is tough. but there's no one else I'd rather have shared the last 10 years with. Hope she keeps me around for 10+ more.

Later.

I'm A Zit, Watch Me Pop

Today's forecast was for showers and heavy thunderstorms and it was spot on. The early afternoon had heavy rains and I was thankful I didn't bring my road bike. I was mentally prepared for a session in the Stankment®. Had iPodious fired up and ready to go with the new Interpol.

Then about 4 p.m. the rain stops, the sun comes out and the radar shows NO showers. Hmmmm. Well I can NOT ride in the Stankment with the sun out, so I high tail it home, grab my gear and bike and head out to do a slightly shorter version of my normal road ride due to a later start.

About 20 miles into my ride I realized the loop I was now committed to was a shorter version of my WEEKEND ride NOT my weeknight ride. DOH! A. This would have me later than usual and B. My legs now realized they had a good hour's worth of hills left to do. Shheeeeeit.

The night was spanky though. The oppressive heat was gone, the sun was out and I was damn glad to be out on my bike and not on the trainer. Then at about mile 30 I popped like like spandex clad white head zit. I felt like I got vvvvvvvvvverrrrrrrry ssssssssloooooooooowwwww verrrryyyyyyyy fasssssssst.

I still had the biggest climb of the ride to go. I tried to conserve some energy on the smaller climbs and then got out of the saddle for that last bitch of a climb of about a mile. I was shocked I made it up the climb without stopping and weeping like a little girl.

Ride was just over 2 hours and about 34.5 miles. Most of the "popping" was mental due to my error in loop choices and being out of my normal routine of heading straight to the ride post work. Glad I got out though. Spinning in the basement with the sun shining would have sucked hard.

1 bad thing about the ride was seeing a sign informing folks that one of my fave back roads is due to "oiled and chipped" next week. SHIT! I love that THAT is how a road is resurface around here. Dump a bunch of oil on the road and then dump rock chips. Gonna be SLOW going on that stretch for a good while.

No ride tomorrow. Quality time with Wifey scheduled.

Later.

Short Post

Short post because it's freaking hot as ballz in here and I sweat enough tonight's ride.

Did a nice, fast ride at Boyce tonight on Mamasita. 1:30/14 miles. Brake pads continue to be as annoying has hell and I might have to suck up the 13% interest and order a pair of Hope pads.

Seemed like a kick ass (ending) to today's Tour stage. A surprise win by the man in yellow. Gonna go watch it now and eat some tuna noodle bake. Yum.

Later.

P.S. Damn this post was lame. But it is ENTIRELY TOO HOT IN HERE. DAMN!

Not Much Monday

Not much to speak of today. Back to work which was about as fun as could be expected, but it beats working the streets. I suppose.

Rest day and off the bike. Really chapped the ass up yesterday doing some seating climbing. Needs Greyhound Juice to soothe the burn. Good times.... good times...

It's official. I'm sucked into the Tour... AGAIN!

Belgies take it one/two in the sprint today. This pict from CyclingNews.com is awesome.

Tom's saying "hey, doesn't Jason have that SAME helmet except red and white??"

Hope to catch some of it on TV later if B-Man and Wifey cooperate. That or I'll be forced to this 90 degree den of sweat stank that is my "office".

That's it, gonna go hang with B-Man and make some dinner. Later.

On The Road

B-Man and I once again headed out to Pappy-M's so he could get some time with my dad, and I could get some road miles in.

In my world I would have been on the bike by 8 a.m. to beat the predicted 90 degree heat. But with a family you need to make the best of the time you get, so If that means starting at 11, you start at 11. I mean what the hell? Figured I'd just throw an extra bottle in the jersey pocket and let the blaring sun and hot pavement help me in my attempt to turn myself into a human salt lick.

Did a nice 43 mile loop with a good bit of climbing. Came in just over 2:25. Ride was fun and fairly uneventful. At times I found myself close to cursing the heat, but I just made myself think of those rides in March with two pairs of gloves, baggies on my feet, tights, jacket, etc., etc., and then the hot sun didn't feel too damn bad.

On one hill an old man who could barely see over the steering wheel and who's head looked like a peanut with random gray hairs and liver spots REFUSED to pass me. Trailed 15' behind me for about 300 yards. At one point I came to a stand still doing a track stand so he would pass and he just sat there motionless. Grrrrrrr. Finally after I made it to the top he passed. Damn, dude I can see not passing on the crest of the hill, but THAT was a bit much. Oh well, beats getting flipped off or called a fag which more the norm.

___________________________________________________

Found my new hairstyle. Gonna get myself a "Wiggins"...

Holy Shag! Actually this hair would be all to easy for me to replicate. Just let my hair grow out, let it be void of gel (yeah right!), and then get mental with some garden trimmers. Dude finished 4th in the prologue so I guess he can wear his hair how ever he damn well pleases and tell me to piss off.

___________________________________________________

Since the Tour is pretty unavoidable when you're cycling fan I've decided to pick one team to follow to try to get me more interested. I wanted to go with a real unknown rider, but since it's harder to follow one guy who is more of a domestique I thought it would be easier to follow a lesser know TEAM. So Team Barloworld it is!

So here's today's stage one results for the boys of Barloworld:
21. Robert Hunter (Rsa)
25. Enrico Degano (Ita)
42. Geraint Thomas (Gbr)
48. Paolo Longo Borghini (Ita)
128. Alexander Efimkin (Rus)
155. Mauricio Soler (Col)
166. Kanstantin Siutsou (Blr) (crashed but I believe ok)
176. Giampaolo Cheula (Ita)
177. Fèlix Rafael Cardenas (Col)

I gotta go hydrate, I think I lost 5 pound typing this.

Later.

Lawnmower Man III, Return To Boyce

I was feeling MUCH better today and a bit spanky in the leg region, so I decided to take my ass over to Boyce Park with Mamasita to get some trail time in. I had no plan since I wasn't sure whether I'd last a minute or 2 hours given that two days ago I spent about 17 hours in bed. But I wasn't mentally prepared for another day on the couch, so to the woods it was!

Ride was good and the bike continues to impress. I've mentioned it before and I'm mentioning it again, the bike excels at climbing and at putting the hammer down out of corners. Fast.

I must say the Kool-Stop brake pads SSSSSSUCK! Feel like they're made of a rotor friendly rock shard compound or something. Gri-tee. Soon as I get some spendin' cash, I'm ordering up some genuine Hope brand pads.

About halfway through I pass this kid (20?) on what looked like it might have been a K2 or Jamis. Whatever it was, it had a creaking bottom bracket that could quickly drive one insane. I'm talking full blown, white suits and nets insane. What's worse, he started following me. Grrrr. I couldn't shake him. For about 2 miles I heard the steady tempo of his bottom bracket about 15 or 20 yards behind me. Finally I ditch him.

Then about another 2 miles, there he is. I say hey as I pass, and the following exchange takes place (now imagine him talking like Jeff Spicoli from Fast Times At Ridgemont High)

K2 DUDE: "Hey, I rode with you, I was keeping up, but you lost me on the down hills".
ME: "Yeah, you were really keeping up, nice job."
K2 DUDE: "I'll see if I can stay with you this time"
ME: : "ummm. ahhh. OK....."
K2 DUDE: "I'm Scott. I mow lawns for a living."
ME: "Ah, OK, ah, hi Scott, I'm Jason. Ahhh, ummm Lawns huh? I used to do that too."
K2 DUDE: "hey your bike makes noise when you DON'T pedal, mine makes noise when I DO."
ME: "Yeah, I sorta noticed that. Mine is supposed to make that noise. It's my free hub, I'm not 100% sure yours is supposed to."

So Scott "the lawnmower man" followed me for a few more miles, then I think he either tired of climbing the hills that I do or made another wrong turn. Either way, everyone was happy. He stayed with me for a while, and I lost that creaking noise in my ears.

Seemed like a nice kid with some good fitness. Good luck to him. Hope he gets that bottom bracket looked at. Wasn't trying to be rude with him and hope he didn't think I was. I was just out trying to get some post illness mojo back with some solo zen riding in the woods.

Ended the ride after about 13 miles/1:25. Could have gone longer, but I figured, best not push this whole "feeling better" thing. Sometimes I look at 13 miles in 1:25 and think- Lame! But, Boyce is a twisty maze of tight ass trails and speed is rarely over 11 mph, unless on a service road or double track, so I guess I'll take it.

When I got back to the Soob, my front tire, which as been battling a slow leak for months) looked low again. So I had to stop and air it up on the way home and then later go to the BP down the block to have it looked at. Good thing too. They found the culprit- a thin nail 100% into the tire. Pulled it, plugged it, aired it, done. A nice bonus to using the local folks instead of the big tire stores is that A., they did it in 5 minutes and B., they didn't try to sell my 4 tires in the process. Thanks.

Installed the AC in the living room today, so it should cool off the downstairs enough to make firing up the oven for a hot sausage lasagna, pretty bearable.

So with that I'm off to watch the WORST stage of the Tour... The prologue. Hate this stage. The only one worse it the super lame last stage with all the chit chat, circuits and Champagne drinking.

Later.

My Apologies to the Queen Mary

Must say with illness and no races on the horizon, the blog has gone from "who reads this shit?" to "WHY would anyone read this shit?" Hope to be back in the saddle tomorrow or Sunday. The full body aches/chills are gone and now I just have to get some energy back. I think one of my white pizza stromboli's should do the trick.

Big box o'bottles heading my way from Hammer Nutrition. Since I had some referral credit, but not enough to get too much of any real Hammer goods, I used it to pay for the bottles. So there, I got my "free bottles".

Now I can ditch the bottles that I can't get clean. That or I take them to my dad's to run through the dish washer a few times. Yes, you read right, I do not have dish washer. Houses built in the 20s did not really take dishwashers into consideration when designing the kitchen. We tried once, but it would have been more trouble than it's worth.

So the Tour starts this weekend. Not sure if I care or not. I'm sure I'll get sucked into the mountain stages, but for the most part I just have a bad taste in my mouth from the constant drug talk.

For now I'll just YouTube some XC stuff. Gets me going more than the road stuff.



Hope to ride tomorrow.

Later

So Says The Doc

Went to the docs this a.m. It appears I'm just rocking a virus and it should be gone soon. Temp was up over 100 and while I was sitting on the table sweat was just pouring off me. It was a tad embarassing.

Not much on tap today. Just hanging around the house since I assume riding is a no go with a fever and chills. ;)

Later.

Never Get This Day Back...

Sleep.
Every muscle, bone, hair on me hurts.
Chills.
Sweats.
More sleep.
Doc tomorrow I suppose.
F*ck.
So much for vacation and "training"
Did I say F*ck already?

Later.

Itchy Sick

Got out for a sweet road ride on the 4th. Did a nice 42 mile loop. Highlight of the loop was as I was grinding up the 5 mph-steep-as-shit last climb, an SUV driver coming down the hill extends me the thumbs up sign. Right on Mr. Escalade!

The low point of the ride was arriving home and once again feeling like I got hit by a truck. Full body aches and slight chills. This is the 3rd ride that I have felt like that afterwards. Feel fine before, during, and then when finished BAM. Every joint and bone hurts.

Later on Wifey, B-Man and I headed out to Y&M's for a 4th of July party, and had a great time. Enjoyed some fine Weyerbacher beers and food, unfortunately by the by the time we were getting ready to leave the full on body aches had returned. WTF??

Giving it another day, and if I can't shake whatever needs shook I'm gonna head to the Docs. Maybe the patch of poison on my leg is infected or my bottles are just beyond cleaning and I need to start fresh. Speaking of, what happened to free water bottles? A few years ago, I was always getting free bottles. Now I'm forced to do things like BUY water bottles. YIKES!

Later.

Easy Living, Day II

Another day of vacation. No rides today. Day off after 3 days in a row on the bike. Wifey and I took B-Man to see Ratatouille (rat-a-too-ee) today. Good stuff. My first time in a movie theatre in about 3 years.

Tomorrow will be an a.m. road ride of 2+ hours and then over to Y-Man/Ms. M's house for some 4th of July beer, burgers, brats and potential roller disco...

Rumor has it Y will be busting out some red/white/blue tube socks, matching headband, Daisy Dukes and an Adidas muscle shirt as he rolls on the Mon Valley spouting a beer fueled jingoistic rant, and pumping James Brown's "Living In America" on his vintage Panasonic Boom Box.

Check this out...

Bikeman.com's own Andrew Frey ready to throw down at the Mont Sainte-Anne WC.
Photo from: www.mtbs.cz

Saw some dude selling burgers and dogs at the local mini mall today out of a food stand pulled by a truck that had various "patriotic" stickers on it, including one that said something like "You Live In America, Speak English".

I was going to point out to him that 95% of the folks in the area are the descendants of folks that didn't know how to speak a lick of English (including my great grandfather and great grandmother) when they came here, but still managed to help build up a pretty cool country. That the folks who come here looking for a better life at least deserve a chance. BUT since I didn't want a "99¢ Uncle Sam Burger & Coke Combo" shoved up my ass I opted just to cringe and walk on by.

Speaking of "my people" I saw a cool article about Czech beers and a book about them that is now available. Czech it out HERE.

Well hope you all have safe holiday, get some miles in, don't blow off any fingers lighting your bottle rockets, and don't choke on any hot dog casings.

"You know what the gourmet here wanted? Hotdogs!

You know what they're made of, Chet? Huh? Lips and assholes!"
-Roman, "The Great Outdoors"

Later.

More Mama Ride Time

Low key start to the vay-cay. Wifey wanted to do some back yard garden mulching so me and B-Man headed out for some father/son bonding getting groceries. My fam is sort of whack huh?

Later on it was time for a ride at Boyce on the Mamasita. This ride was much better than the previous ride on dirt. I'm getting used to the X9 triggers, my shock is dialed in, and I'm 99.9% certain that the brake "issue" I'm having is nothing other than a unfriendly pad compound. Anyone have bad results with Kool-Stop pads?

The frame continues to impress me. Not as comfy as my Dos Niner, but that's not why I wanted the frame. I wanted a lighter frame that would handle quicker and climb better, and that's what I got! Doubtful the frame will see the start line at a Solo effort, but for a marathon, XC or training it's freaking great.

It has taken me couple rides to get used to riding a full fledged hard tail again, but I'm digging it. I love the IMMEDIATE acceleration that you get coming off a log pile or out of a corner. It rocks!

Nearly got "skunked" today. Turned a corner near some brush and out of the corner of my eye I see a furry, black and white potential stink bomb. I put the hammer down fast and avoided any stank.

Also avoided a nasty crash. Turned a corner on some damp clay and nearly went down faster than Liberty Ave. hooker. SOMEhow I got my left leg out and avoided any carnage.

Got home to napping B-Man and a Wifey looking to fight crime. So far vacation sort of rocks.

Time to cook up some Mexican and have a Franzi or four.

Later.

Road, Meet Mamasita...

B-Man and I headed out to Pappy-M's today for a visit. B-Man was looking to hang with his Pappy and get some loving, and I was looking to get the Mamasita out on the road for some mileage.

Cruising along at 16 mph. Note the grips. They're in they're last days before
the Ergons make their appearance. The hands are demanding it.

Riding a 29er on the road is 10x better than riding a 26" wheeled mountain bike, but 10x worse than riding a full fledged road bike. I was working like a dog, but needed the work out.

Big Sky country WPA style. I'll take it for sure. That's sweet!

The Mama was feeling good on the road, even with full knobbies and 35 psi. Even though I didn't feel like I was in top form it was a damn nice today to be outside in the sun.

This is fave. Nice rolling straightaway that on a road bike you
can cruise at about 21 mph. Today I'd roll at a "fast" 16 to 17 mph.

This shot is one that I wish you could hear. Other than the whirl of my knobbies on the pavement all you could hear was the crops blowing in the wind and the faint noises of the cattle in the distance.

Don't get me wrong I love all the gadgets and shifters,
but look at this freaking maze of wires just to ride a bike?

All in all a nice ride. A hard one though. Only 30 miles/2:05, but damn I felt like I got hit by a truck. I think that me and B-Man might be fighting something off. I just feel damn tired. I think a stressful rest week has left the body throwing up a middle finger double pump to my legs.

This coming week despite the shit storm that life can sometimes be, I vow to take it easy, enjoy as best I can and relax as best I know how with out the aid of doctor prescribed medication ;) (for now)

It's starts tonight by helping myself out to one of the best Weizens on earth....

Franziskaner could be the best Hefe Weizens ever. The bottles aren't bad either. Many times I get disappointed with bottled versions of fave drafts, but this one really holds up.

Time to open up another and plop my ass on the front porch.

Later