Computers and bad weather

Today I discovered what happens when your laptop falls 5 feet onto it's side corner.

Miscellaneous hard drive failure problems.

After spending 4 hours of dealing with a computer that kept locking up and rebooting every 5-10 minutes trying to backup all the files that I wanted (still could not get all my documents as they were in corrupted locations) I decided the effort of refomatting the drive and then hoping that the errors did not continue requiring a new hard drive was enough to consider a new laptop.
Into town I went in driving through a blizzard. Found what I wanted at a reasonable price, and drove back through the blizzard home with my new laptop. Lighter, faster, brighter, and much more memory and hard drive space.
The Vista Home operating system is a bit different after being used to XP Professional all these years.

I can't wait to be on the road to the Southwest. This has been the worst winter I have seen since I've been in Wyoming. Snow, wind, cold, and more snow. It got up to a high of 30 degrees (and 40 MPH gusts) today. That's the high til Wednesday where we are forcasted to hit 40.

Jobless II

Well, it's been since 30 November that I'm unemployed. Not that I'm complaining or anything. I've been able to ride outside during the week, wake up when I (or my dogs) want, work on my bathroom, and otherwise relaxed while others drove through the nasty weather that we have had in the last week.

The state requires that I apply at 2 employers a week to draw unemployment benefits. Any one want to vouch for receiving my employment application?

Oh Yeah,

Merry F'n XMAS

more snow

It's snowing and 23 degrees outside. So much for outdoor activities involving anything less than a full winter setup with face mask. I'll stay inside and watch TV and workout on the trainer/weights.

Jobless

The short story is:
I'm on vacation for a while.

You don't have time to hear the long story.

Now if I can only afford to go somewhere with on unemployment.

Snow on the ground and 35 degrees used to keep me indoors for workouts. As this may be my final week of work for a while I'm getting used to riding when others are enjoying their hot mochas and fires. It sure beats indoor riding, and the dogs enjoy it too.
As for work, I should know Tuesday if I'm to continue working this winter or "vacation" it out.
Cyclocross season has been fun but for me It's over with more pressing items in my life to focus on.
I've just about finished my rear entry/washroom remake. A few more touches and I'll start on my main bathroom, or not. That is to say, if I'm out of work -bathroom, still in work -new kitchen countertop.

Job : No Job / CX king : CX gumby

Well it has been an interesting time since my last post. On the 9th (my b-day) I was told that I would be out of a job on 1 December as the company was downsizing 1 technician and instead of experience they have decided to go with seniority. I'm low man on that totem pole. That and Oh by the way, could you head up to Montana and help out the lab up there next week? My response, "OK" (Great, I think there are some cyclocross races enroute).
Two days later I was told that things have changed and a bunch of other stuff. So to myself I'm like "OK, WTF? Does this mean that I have a job or not?" I'll error on the side of caution and start getting ready for unemplyment.

Big Sky Cross and Bozeman Cross
As records indicate I won the 40+ race on Saturday and was 2nd on Sunday. It was fun but the field size and intensity felt no where near Colorado racing. But a win is a win. Whoopi!
The bonus was fly fishing each day after the races. Bozeman is awesome. College town in the middle of fly fishing heaven, oh and the races aren't too bad either.
Then a week of fun in Great Falls. Well not really fun, just work. I would never move there (even though they offered me a job seeing as I was in the market). They do have a nice bike route along the Missouri river that eventually turns into a sweet dirt section that goes on for miles.
After all my success the prior weekend I was hoping that they would need my services for the following week and I could head to Missoula for a weekend of CX.
But alas, I was too efficient and had worked myself out of an extension. So it was back to home (9+ hours driving) and then to the Interlocken race in Broomfield the bext day picking my dogs up from the best kennel anywhere enroute.
needless to say my performance after the long drive was less than stellar, although I was the only rider to rider the sand pit.
So this week at work I was none to interested in working hard. And since there was no real work to do I spent the time sufing the job listings.
I have a possible in Fort Collins and I'm waiting to hear from a company in Boulder as to the position that they are advertising. Both would require me to move. So it's time to finish up all those home improvement projects that I started and then stopped when cycling season started way back in February. Back to work on the projects, got to have the casa ready just in case.

Boulder Cyclocross series at the Boulder Reservoir. After a good week of riding I was looking forward to the race. With the sand I should be able to have a decent race with my twin 25" motors to power me though. What I didn't count on was flats due to goathead thorns. 2 flats on 2 warmup laps then another flat after 1.5 laps of race. 3 flats was enough to tell me that I should have stayed at home, rode some miles on one of the best Sundays in a few weeks and finished up the rear entry in preparation for painting.
Next Saturday's race is at the same location, unless I buy some Tuffy strips I'm only heading to Sunday's smooth, euro style grass course.
L8r

Frisco CX action pic

Cowabunga!

Frisco Cross aka I got Girled

Frisco CX races were this weekend. the 2 dogs and I went down and showed. Day one was definitely a buttkicker. I finished 30 something. Same place I usually place in these races. I don't ever go into these thinking "gee, I might get top 10".

It's fun and challenging. It's just not my strong suit.

Georgia Gould, Luna Bar pro MTBer, passed me on the 2nd lap of many to go on and win the Cat 3 race. My teammate Kevin, snapped his chain so he was unable to give her a run for her money. Too bad because he is riding strong. I actually got double girled in this race as Team Giants Kelli Emmett passed me also.

I think Nikki and Axel got more public announcements by Dave Towle the MC than I did during their time with me during the mens open race.

Day 2 was supposed to bring snow/rain/cold. Awaking to sun (and bouncy dogs) I discovered that no snow had fallen (although the Cubs had fallen in 3 straight, swept by the D-Backs)

Temps were in the 30s and rising. Perfect.

Course was a bit easier but my legs were still sore from the previous days effort. Melissa from Tokyo Joes passed me early and I did my best to stay with her before falling victim to my own tiredness and made a few mistakes that I could not recover from. I eventually finished 30th, just behind her.

Girrld again.

afterwards I took the dogs out for a mixer with the other CX dogs. Everyone says that they are so well behaved and that Nikki is the coolest looking dog they've seen. Dave Towle, the announcer, even had a few comments about my "killers".

Now I get to enjoy a 1 day holiday before going back to work on Tuesday,

thanks Chris Columbus

Not Worthy

As a "roadie" I've never been really good in the soft stuff. I've done the occasional MTB race early in my life. They helped me to realize that I would never be great off road.
There have been times that I wonder how I never broke anything off road. the worst was when I was on a narrow single track in NC and clipped my handlebar on my non suspension Cannondale and lauched headlong into the brush. I got back up and finished the race. I remember the course had lots of mud on a hill that I had to run up because I couldn't ride it.

Flash to the World Military Championships and as an alternate for the road team I really wanted to race. There was the Track and Cyclocross disciplines open to ride as team USA did not have a rider for either. Track was out, I've never tried it and didn' t need to die on a cement 33degree banked track. Cyclocross hmm, I've done something like that. OK coach, sign me up. I told my Italian team I needed a CX bike to ride and the next day I'm being driven to the current Italian CX champion's house (Daniele Pontoni) to pick up 2 of his custom Alan CX bikes (1 alu and 1 carbon both with Campy Record) to borrow for the military races. With many thanks I'm back on my way to the team quarters with the 2 sweet rides.
I must admit that I was in awe meeting Daniele Pontoni, and very thankful. He was a 2 or 3 time Italian champion and 1997 World Champion.
Bumming CX lessons from the Dutch, Italian, and French riders helped a bit but in no way prepared me for what lay ahead.
The Worlds course was laid out in a vineyard that I had passed many times in training rides. I warmed up following other riders through the muddy hillside, through the rows of grapes, down though the muddy turns back out to the road which climbed back up to the top of the vineyard.
Dissapointment
I had never raced a CX race before, I'm riding the current Italian CX champs bike, the warmup kicked my ass. What was I thinking?
I can say that I finished the race. I was lapped (possibly multiple times). There is a photo I have of me heading down a steep mud hill with fans and teammates yelling at me.
As I look back at this moment in my past, I think
"Man was that fun"
My Italian teammates were less enthused during the race, they expected more from me. I was sorry that I let them down. But hey, I have never raced CX before in my life. Probably only raced 3-4 MTB races before this.
Not worthy, I washed the borrowed bikes and returned them to Daniele. I thanked him and returned to my road life.
Who would have thought that 12 years later I would be ripping along in CX races in Colorado.
and lovin' it.

Fort Collins midweek Cyclocross

After a few days of rain it was inevitable that the course held behind the New Belgium brewery would have a bit of mud in the previously loose dirt sections.
That mud and the packed dirt that was found on other parts of the course were ideal for me. I didn't have any fear in corners, railing on the packed debris like a Tyco slot car. I got out fast and never looked back as I went on to solo the 30 minute affair.
$20 for the win - woohoo! They have now bumped me up to the A race only.
My once pristine clean Ridley Supercross was now a mudcake.
Well since it's only mud I guess that I might as well race the A race too.
Lapped around fairly easy with Anthony from Rio Grande giving out pointers for the fastest line. It was pretty nice not to have to ride all out. I took my time sitting up when I started gettting too far ahead. This went on for half the race before the leaders passed us up. I had decided that Anthony had had enough of me and took off alone. I was riding pretty good still. even after the first race. What a difference a couple a weeks make. 2 weeks ago I could barely walk after 2 races.
I'm really digging the CX stuff. We'll see how long this high lasts after it turns nasty cold.

Foothills Cross and snow

Yesterday came home from work and saw that there was snowed piled up against the north sides of the house and garage. Not very much mind you but jeez, this is still September.

Finished my first official CX race of the year Sunday. I raced only the 3s. It sure sucks when most of the Cat 3s are half your age and can recover at the speed of light. I did enjoy the race even though due to the bumpy nature of this course my back was screaming - STOP!!
I hope to do much better with a bit more intensity in my diet. Motivation to ride hard sure has dropped since the end of Road Season.

Tonight's practice CX race should be fun if the course is still muddy from the 2 days of rain we had.
Oh yeah, I have a new ride for CX season, a Ridley Supercross in blue and white.

Road season is over. It's SKUNK season now!

Well the road season is over. It is now the time to have fun in the mud/snow/sand as Cyclocross is now at hand.
So I go out yesterday to check out a possible course to set up here in Cheyenne. It's complete with a steep run up, sand, gravel, and grass. I just needed to mark out a loop for the riders here to do laps on.
Not 5 minutes into the ride with my dogs and I smell this HORRIBLE acrid nasty stench. I look back and Nikki is coming toward me with some kind of liquid on her face with one eye closed.
CRAP she got hit by a skunk!
Lucky for me Axel was not involved in the skunk encounter.
I rode back to the truck to wash off her face. I was in front of her buct I was still gagging from the smell.
I had made the mistake of touching her face with my gloves on. So now I'm down for a new pair of gloves (and handlebar tape which has absorbed the skunk oils)
We race home to give her a good washing.

Note: consult internet first for proper way to eliminate odor

Tomato juice (as recommended by my neighbor) does not work.

2 washes later and she still stinks, just not as bad. We go for a ride to dry her out (and tire her out as she is going to be spending some time in her crate)

Well my neighbors swore by tomato juice so I tried that after the run. Still no dice so into the crate she went.

Any clothes that made contact should be thrown in the trash not the wash machine. Now I have a wash machine that reeks of skunk. People are telling me to run a bottle of Coca Cola in the wash mashine to clean it out. Hmm, I remember what happened last time I listened to this kind of advice. I'll seach the internet first.

Tonight I will do the proven solution to skunk odors on pets

http://briansplace.ynt1.com/skunk.php

If all goes well the unlucky girl will be sleeping on the bed tonight.

They say there are 2 types of dogs in this case.

(A) Those that learn the first time to stay clear of danger and (B) those that never learn.

I'm stocking up on De-skunking supplies. I'm fairly certain that she is type B.

4 days of racing

4 straight days of hard saddle time has prepared (forced) me to take a short break before the Parker Twilight Crits.
Saturday thru Monday I was riding it out in the Santa Fe Trail stage race. 20 miles of time trial followed by 75 mile road race then a 40 minute criterium. Finished 2nd out of 4 riders in my category, WooHoo!
If that wasn't enough, yesterday I drove down to Ft Collins after feeling sick most of the day and did 2 cyclocross races. Of which I crashed on the last lap of the first race when I was bearing down on the leaders. So after a 35 minute and 45 minute CX race I headed back up home where I promptly put the ice pack on my neck and shoulder. Evenually cleaning myself up to put new bandages on my hip and knee.
And I thought I was through with the med kit for a while.

2 weeks of racing

Road cycling season is almost over. I've done some pretty neat races in the last couple of weeks. The Dillon and Copper Mountain races were at 9000+ feet. I went from the lowest point in my season to one of my highest in 24 hours. Lasting only 5 minutes at Dillon, I rebounded the next day and rode well. the course at Copper featured an uphill section with cobbles. It was a pretty cool course. Unfortunatly I held back as I was a bit timid after the prior day's lesson. Yesterday, at Niwot I felt great again (probably something to do with the Red Bull that was provided by Larry). I rode at or near the front most of the race and when Larry was able to slip into a break KOB and I played the perfect teammates and thwarted all efforts to bridge. Larry eventually finished 7th and I wandered through 22nd. I felt so good that I entered the Pro-1-2 race.
That race was FAST from the gun! I started out well, but a crash in one of the two 120 degree corners broke up the race and I found myself in the second chase group as there was a breakaway up the road. About 30 minutes into the race my inner thigh cramped forcing me to sit up and massage it out. 1/2 lap later I fired up the engines instead of dropping out. I was flying through the course but no way as fast as if I was still in the field. 3 laps later and the leaders caught me and I was whistled out. It was a good race regardless.

Next weekend is the Santa Fe stage race and then the final race on the 15th of September, Parker Twilight Criterium.
In between those 2 races I'll be camping/relaxing with a friend from Indiana. Should be a fun next 3 weeks.

I'm Back

After what seemed like a month off, I'm back to try and finish out the cycling season before returning to the N. Platte to fly fish for some monster trout. The break after High Plains Classic took a bit out of me as I attempted to race the Longmont crit P-1-2 category with 2 easy days of riding. 30 minutes later I was in the beer garden enjoying the free beer. Ahh, to be back on the river fighting 20" bows.

Well that butt kicking was enough to motivate me to try and salvage the rest of my cycling season (shoulder permitting). Riding enough to keep me fit and prepare me for Fed Center and Bannock next week, I tested the waters of fitness yesterday.

The CCC road race, 25 miles of rollers and wind, would let me know if I should just bag it or head south on Saturday. Pretty good competition this year had me just hanging in til there was just 3 of us. Even then I was figuring on getting dropped as I was always the one to bridge back up to John every time he attacked, taking a little out of my legs every time. I made my do or die bid with 3 miles to go on the long uphill before the flat to the finish. 30MPH! holy cow I'm moving. Only Cary could follow. we worked together to the finish and I passed him easily to take the race.

The Friday and Saturday before I was camping up in the Snowies for some hiking, fishing , relaxing, and for the dogs to have some fun. Fishing for brook trout in a small stream with a 3wt is fun, as long as the dogs behave and don't jump in the creek. That's a pretty bad thing to happen when you are targeting fish in a 3' wide creek. After a morning of that we (me and the dogs) headed up past the summit for a hike. Hiking at 10,000 feet is a pretty good workout. 3 hours later I was ready for a breather at lower elevation (and to get back home to do a long ride the next day)

So after another long ride today up toward the summit, it's time to take a midweek break before heading to Denver this weekend.

Bike Racing Devils Tower style

I raced the High Plains Classic stage race this past weekend. This race probably qualifes as overkill seeing as it was my 3rd 3 race weekend in a row. (others would call it great training) This year with the race getting a little more turnout than last year was much more competetive. I had hoped to fair better in the 85 mile first stage, but a return of muscle cramps left me just hoping to finish the last 2 miles. As expected, I was unable to hold the pace of the leaders on Bear Lodge Pass which is 6 miles long 30 miles from the finish. In total there was at least 6 climbs on the course including the 2+ mile ascent to the finish. I finished in 7th, 15 minutes down on the winner, not bad since I was basically on my own for 30 miles. Sunday's 2 stage event was a morning 8 mile TT and afternoon 42 mile RR. I did well in the TT (3rd) seeing as I had only spoked Zipp wheels to ride. The RR went off smoothly for the first 21 miles and we even stopped to let the Cat4-5s ride through as we were in no mood to be fighting it out in the heat for the full distance. (Temps were in the 90s both days and the Cat4-5s olnly did 45 miles the day before with less than half the climbing we did) At the turn-around in Avla the smooth ride went into hyperdrive as Brent from MOB Cyclery attacked the climb and everyone jumped to get on his wheel. Then someone else hit the gas and I knew I was in for some pain. As I dropped off the back I could only think of how much I could afford to lose and still catch them on the long descent. As I neared the summit I picked up one of the dropped Saskatchawan jr team riders that came down for the races and told him to grab my wheel and hold on. I knew that if I could not catch them my race would be over. So I opened up the floodgates and picked up as much speed as I could as I downhill timetrialed my way back into the race. When I got there after what seemed like over 5 minutes of chasing, the Junior rider, Steven, that I towed with me was extremely grateful. The thanks was paid back a little later when, unable to grab a bottle in the feed due the high speed, he handed me a bottle of gatorade. I finished 3rd in the field sprint as one of Steven's teammates (there were 6 of them) had attacked on the descent and soloed in the 15+ miles for the win. Next year should be huge after the guys go back and tell their teams (MOB, ColoBikeLaw, Denver Spoke, VC, Montana Velo, etc. about this event.
There is no road race like this in Colorado and once the word gets out about the courses and level of rider support (neutral rolling feeds) The masses will drive more than the 10 hours it took the guys from Team Saskatchawan to make this race.

Emerging from my Pain Cave

2 days after finishing the Dead Dog I have finally emerged from my pain cave. Of course today's one hour massage probably had a lot to do with it.
You can read my interpretation of my road race HERE

musings
Leg cramps are a real biyaatch. Don't want to have any more of them this year.
Always grab a bottle in the feed zone... always.
doctors don't know everything
Back to back to back 3 race weekends are doable

Preparing to enter the paincave

Dead Dog Classic this weekend. It'll be a fast, painful weekend in the 35+ category.

Pain.... I like it, Suffering.... not so much

Am I back?

To answer this question I headed down to do the club's 7.7mile TT this evening to get schooled by JC after his sweep of the Colorado Senior games. I didn't expect much more than sore legs after 3 days of climbing. Wind was out of the south, a cross wind, not much help but not a headwind. Probably the most ideal neutral conditions to be found.
Motivated by the performance of Boonen's prologue TT at the Dauphine Libere, I accelerated out of the saddle sat shifted and sprinted out of the saddle again before settling in on my ride.
My body was rock solid on the TT bars, a product of achieving the ideal bike fit this past winter.
Riding along at about 34 MPH I didn't think that I was on par for for a record as there were times last year that, with tailwind, we were hitting almost 50MPH.

I crossed the line in 13:56

I was elated to hear that I had finally beat John on this course. It's a friendly rivalry and he has definitly helped me to improve my TT.

Then I was told that I had set a new course record breaking the old record by 6 seconds.
That was a goal I had set out for last year but found it difficult to reach.
Now I need to reassess my goals for the TT
Only 10 more club TTs to try and improve on this time.
Hopefully this form carrys over to Dead Dog and High Plains

Climbing,

is there such as thing as too much?
Friday up to USFS sign and back: >1000'
Saturday the Dead Dog RR course, Albany -Ryan Park and back: >6600'
Sunday to the summit, partial DD TT course and back: >2300'
Total for the weekend 165 miles and over 9900' of climbing.
No wonder my legs are tired.

----------------------------------------
The bunny has been relocated. After multiple intercepts by Nikki, it was time for him to move to a new home. So after this mornings capture we walked him to the fields south of the house and released him. I hope he finds a new hole to hang out in. Nikki still runs out to the bush where she usually found her friend.
Sorry Nikki, bunny is gone.

And the verdict is....

The shoulder is intact, no tears. Just a massive strain/pull/ whatever. A couple of months of physical therapy and I should regain full motion according to the ortho doc. I can now officially resume whatever it was I was doing before the May 19 crash put the brakes on.

MMmmm Bunny!

In other news Nikki caught the bunny that lives under the house again. This time I had to step in and take the bunny away as Axel was engaging in the "whatever Nikki has I want" game. Not wanting to have 1/2 a bunny between them, I picked up the little guy and put him in a cat crate to make sure he was fine. All limbs firing, a couple photos later and back under the house he goes.

Snow!?, allergies, and no riding

After 3 days of feeling like crap on account of a major alergic reaction to the pain meds I was taking, I finally am feeling good. Of course riding 2 times in 10 days does not help me if I hope to get through the Dead Dog Classic. It seems that even the weather now will not cooperate for me. It actually snowed today, in JUNE! Yesterday afternoon and through the night I endured average windspeeds of +40MPH with gusts to 65MPH and today a high of 45°. Yeah yeah, I can hear it now, I live in Wyoming. I bring it on myself. Hopefully tomorrow will be better after my orthopedic doc visit. Oh yeah, tomorrow I find out if my shoulder will require surgery or extensive rehab (or both). The way I feel right now, surgery would be a good way to regroup and prepare for next season. As for the allergic reaction I had, it was not what I would want to ever experience again. Itching and rash all over my body with my left foot swelling to twice normal size. Sorry no pics, I was in no mood for it. This weekend is supposed to warm up, we'll see how much.

I ride, therefore I am

Whew, after not riding for a week, riding 3 1/2 hours of hills and wind kicked my butt. I headed out to the Bicycle Station to meet up with the CCC for the Saturday ride after watching most of the VeloNews online live updates of the Giro TT (DiLuca maintains lead). I felt good for most the ride up until the last 7 miles that saw me hit the wall on the face of a 20 MPH headwind. I actually got leg cramps, something that I had not felt in a while. After a couple hours of vegetating (and medicating for the shoulder pain), I headed outside for yardwork. Invasive weed erradicating to be precise. I ripped out all the *species unknown* bad guys before they had time to flower and spread. and along the way discovered that my neighbor was using my property for their compost pile. At least the guys mother came over to appologize for the mistake made by them to cross my property line. Just another reason to get a fence line up this year as I knew it was a matter of time before something like this happened on the far side of my property where the "trailer trash" bordered my acreage.
Shoulder MRI scheduled for Monday and Orthopedist on Friday. Just a week away from knowing the damage. In other news, I've figured I have spent well over $150 in bandages, tape, gauze, Tegaderm, and a new set of gloves since the crash 2 weeks ago. Another month of wound repair and I should be ready for surgery (if that is what it takes to fix my shoulder)
next post: City Park Crit - Masters Criterium Championships

Doctors visit

I'm now officially jealous of Smokes road rash. Not that his is better than mine mind you, but that it is only skin deep. Todays trip to the doc to determine how bad my shoulder is revealed what I already knew when I asked him how bad it was, "it's not good" was the reply to my question. Unable to perform certain movements without bringing myself to pain threshold 8 pretty much sealed my bid for an MRI and a trip to the orthopedist. As for the racing season he tells me that I can't damage it any more than what I've already done. We'll see what the MRI and Ortho doc say's next week. For now it'll be long rides in the hills and fly fishing with the dogs.

After 2 days riding and working in the yard,

I had a nice break from the normally crappy Mondays that usually start my work week. I took advantage of the holiday off to head up the road sans bike but packing 2 dogs and my fly fishing gear. Drove to the beaver ponds located about 30 minutes away. Prior to fishing I had to hike with the dogs for an hour to calm them down so that when they saw the water they wouldn't throw themselves in scaring the brookies away. After about 2 hours fishing and a few fish and ponds later, it was time to unleash the hounds. Well at least my lab, Axel, wanted to swim, and swim, and swim, and... well you get the point. As for the road rash/wounds, my arm still looks like it was attacked by rabid rats and my hip's marks are shrinking slowly, but it's my shoulder that is really bothering me. Hurt's so bad that it woke me up last night to where I had to put on the icepack. Damn tomorrow is a work day.

Naproxen

Works wonders. After a half a day at work with a shoulder that was feeling like crap the Naproxen kicks in and it starts to feel better. so much so that when I got home and was getting ready to help out at the club hill race that I said what the heck, lets see what it feels like if I ride the bike around the house... no pain. Looks like the shoulder injury doesn't hurt unless I'm riding on rough roads (dirt). So off I went, hammering down the road 10 miles to the starting point. I arrived 18 minutes late but didn't care. Everyone was already gone and I just went into chase mode. Noticed I had a rear flat but didn't care, it still had air by the time I crossed the finish. It was drizzly back near the start and the tempurature had dropped about 10 degrees so I opted to catch a ride back to my house but ended up with good power numbers, 30 miles, and a sore butt. Turns out that the crash I had on Saturday had somehow pushed my saddle all the way back. No wonder I was riding on the front edge of the saddle to feel in position. Changing the bandages tonight I noticed reddness and swelling on my arm, signs of infection. It's back to the doc to have that looked at and maybe more meds. The doc today said that due to the pain he was unable to determine if it was in dact my rotator or not. so I'l be re-evaluated next week for a possible referral for an MRI analysis of the shoulder.
Later

N Boulder Crit

There are a few ways to drop out of a race.
1. The easy way like I did in the 35+ race because of side cramps
2. The painful, skin and ligament shredding while falling on your shoulder when another rider falls in front of you at 30mph giving you no way to escape as what happened in the P-1-2 race.
I guess you could say that I was lucky. I didn't break anything and the bike was in one piece. But tell that to my shoulder that feels like, at a minimum, a strained rotator. As I type this I am full under the effect of 2 Percosets and ice on the shoulder in an effort to numb the pain enough to allow me to sleep. It must have been my turn to crash as it seems lately out team has been finding their way to the pavement quite regularly lately. I really appreciate my teammates for everything that they did for me after the crash. Carter, who was with Nikki watching the race, helped me immensely. He got me to the hospital and stayed with me to meke sure everything was all right. DK watched after Nikki and brought me a couple boxes of Tegaderm. And everyone else was checking in or calling to see how I was. I have to stop now I'm having problems focusing feeling a bit nauseous from the meds

Wind...in Wyoming? Naahh

Gotta love the wind. Rode 20 miles at 12mph and 20 miles at 35~45mph. NBA update, Bulls will probably get swept by the Pistons. The Warriors, as entertaining as they are, can't seem to get past the Jazz defense to win a game. They'll lose another heartbreaker tonight.

Update: Bulls pull one out!

And Utah, shuts up the Golden State crowd

Wheels

Wheels of Thunder, what a blast. Nice course with a crazy S curve. Felt pretty good during the first race (35+). Misread the lap counter multiple times as it was on the ground and hard to see. The worst time to misread it though was with 2 to go. Well I can say that winning the lap before the last lap doesn't pay anything. An hour later I was on the line again for the Pro-1-2. It was a fun fast race and I found myself toward the front on a few occasions. The fun ended when a huge blast of wind shattered the field. Lucky were the few that were in the front and able to hang on. 19 of 30 laps was good enough for me. It was a pretty good training day for me. 45 miles of high intensity. Tomorrow easy, next weekend North Boulder and Oredigger

Ahh the TT, gotta love the suffering.

Did Haystack TT Saturday. Finished a respectable 10th @31:11 but was 2 minutes behind the winner. Damn rollers on the backside kicked me in the rear. Went out Sunday for 2.5 hours on the MTB. Felt pretty good. Was feeling it toward the end of the ride so I know I was getting in some sort of workout. Deer Creek road race is next weekend. I'll see if I can last through with the leaders on the rollers that make up that course.

The dirt races are over - BR report

Yesterday was Boulder-Roubaix, the last of 2 races, held on mostly dirt roads North of Boulder. The weather was great, sunny and warm. A bad knee and neck pain had put me in the doubtful category to start but I decided to give it a go. Not much of a warm-up had me a little worried. It seems that that the guys up front are there to thin out everyone in the back. It must have worked as I heard we had dropped 30 guys on the first lap. I was riding, to my surprise, near the front most of the time and didn't notice it. On lap 2 I finally see a familiar face as Mr. Marti (racing because his son called him out) pulls alongside of me. I can only think TR and C-man can't be far behind. I'm busy keeping pace up front and don't have any time to look around for fear of crashing. There had been a break up the road that I let go and it was still there so I attack the hill before the pavement with another rider to join them but he's not working and we eventually are back in the field. I was actually enjoying myself, riding near the front able to respond to the accelerations as they were happening... right up to the time when M Carter attacked at the start of the rollers and strung the entire field out all the way up the feed zone hill where I had my motor shut down as I tried to stand and sprint up the hill. It was disheartening to watch everyone ride by as I dropped my chain to the small ring. Everyone that is except Larry. So I turned around at the top and saw him coming up. Allright, now it's a team training ride. I still felt pretty good and as Larry put it, I basically pulled him around for 3 laps. We weren't alone the entire time as we picked up Patrick from Primus-Mootry. And I didn't pull the entire way. They pulled through on the pavement and some dirt. I did want to catch the riders that were dangling in front of us and set out as we returned to the dirt on the last 1/2 lap to do just that. After the first hill Larry&Pat were off my wheel and I went into TT mode to catch the rider before the feed zone hill, dropped hime there and went after the other 2 that were riding just to finish. I finished right behind them at the line. I felt pretty good about my ride except for the lack of power when it mattered. TR keeps telling me the season is long. Yeah, we should be killing em soon as they burn out. Oh yeah, I finish 37th out of like 90. The course was nice, can't wait till next year

Top 10 in a P-1-2

Two good things actually happened on Sunday. Well make that 3 I forgot the sun came out and heated it up really nice and warm. Did the 75 minute Pro-1-2 crit at the CSU Oval. Wasn't sure if I had enough to last through this but I didn't feel like driving all the way to Boulder in the morning for Stazio. At the start there must have been 15 Rio Grande riders, a group of Mob/Einstiens, and a few Hart guys. OOh boy is this going to be fun. At least there were a few of us veterans, one guy was even asking for the "kind gesture" of a head start for us. Not happening. Typical crit start, blistering for the first 5 minutes in which a good size group got off the front. It was represented by all the strong teams mentioned above and then some. I was jsut content to sit in and follow the accelerations over the next. I was told we were dropping riders every lap so that made me feel good. It's a fast course and 30 minutes in the break was waaay up the road. That didn't stop people from trying to go off the front only to be caught and sometimes shelled out the back. I found myself riding next to Forrest Newman from Spike most of the race. He had a cheering section all around the course. I kept hearing "go Forrest" but in my mind I changed it to "ride Forrest ride" and had a good chuckle. With 15 minutes to go we had closed the break down to less than a minute and were gaining on them. They were self imploding, heard from one of the riders they dropped that they were'nt working together. For some reason I didn't try to move closer to the front on the last lap. It was probably the pace, which after easing up with 2 to go was now in full tilt. I hung in there and when it swung onto the Oval, we caught and passed the break. With no sprint in my legs I just motored in a big gear passing riders up to the line. I'll say it was 10th place but it could have been 9th as I finished right on the wheel of an AF Academy rider that finished 8th per the Officials. I think they misread my number as they had no camera and put down rider 345 in 9th and my number was 348. Seeing as they didn't show 10th I'll take it as there might have been a rider that edged me at the line. Doesn't matter though because I had a great race. On the drive home the next best thing was hearing that my Kings beat the Suns 107-100. Whoo-Hoo, playoff hopes are still alive.

1986 Paris Roubaix

I have this on tape but I found the finish on YouTube. This is probably one of the greatest sprint finishes in the history of PR. I can just watch this over and over. Just watch the man in yellow.

Boulder Beer Race

Living here in Wyoming you have to learn to deal with wind if you want to ride. Somehow, I'm not sure how they did it, but they moved a portion of Wyoming south of Boulder CO along hwy 128. It comes complete with a wind reseach center. So yesterday, I drove down to "Little Wyoming" where they closed the road down so we could race back and forth on it. The race for me and a few of my compadres lasted about 2 laps before it became a ride to finish. And finish we did, 5 minutes before they reopened the roads to traffic. Heck, I was the last official finisher... sweet.

Thursday rant

WTF? Monday its 65° and NO wind, Tuesday it's 70°, yesterday it's gale force winds but a manageable 63°, and today a freakin cold 35°. It makes you want to just sit in a easy chair with a beer watching TV, and that's just what I'm doing. Looking at the forecast it's calling for 60° Friday. I may have to drive down to Ft. Collins if I get out of work early as it'll be 65°. Looking at the forecast for Boulder they are showing wind warnings because of 20mph winds for tomorrow. Ha, that wouldn't even get an honorable mention up here in Wyo.

Done ranting, back to my beer.

3-11 Stazio Crit

Here is the post I placed on the Team page. No sense to post it twice or make myself look better here.

Just a bit windy

When the wind blows, it blows hard.

Yesterday afternoon I went out for a spin and encountered a 20+mph headwind. This made for a very good low cadence-Hi wattage workout for the first 3/4 of the ride. the last quarter was spent at Hi wattage-Hi speed as I zipped along at 40-45 mph. Too bad there wasn't a TT here today, there would have been an all time wind aided record set for sure. Worst part of all this wind is how it sounds at home with every window and vent creaking and moaning while getting pounded. Wind Lesson#1: always park into the wind so that you don't lose your doors when opening.

After 2 days of hard (power wise) riding I am looking forward to my rest ride tomorrow and a long steady ride on Saturday before I see what this Stazio stuff is like. Yesterday was 4X11 at LT and today was 2X30 tempo 70RPMs (I actually don't mind those). So now I sit with my legs in the air, eating a "recovery" pizza, and typing on the laptop. It's been warm lately but not as warm as my co-patriots down south who are planning a Stazio takeover. I can only hope that my fitness will be enough to aid in the cause. I always feel like that early on as I never feel like I'm riding well till mid season anyway. Sacramento Kings play the San Antonio Spurs in a short while so it's off to the showers before the game starts.

50+ degrees - WooHoo!

Got out for a ride tody with Carter and 2 new teammates, Andy and Kevin, down in the Peoples Republic of Boulder for 3 hours today. TR tried to drag me into the Stazio but I said no way. Ran into him and DK after their race in which they did pretty good in the 35+ race. Things are looking good for the orange and blue.

VOS aftermath

Wow, lack of elevation can really boost one's oxygen uptake (and ego). After 2 months of not much more than indoor riding, I headed to PHX entered in the cat2 field. Not sure what I was thinking when I did it other than for the extra racing distance to make it worth the drive. I was really looking forward to meeting up with some of my teammates even if we weren't racing in the same races. We had been planning this for months and I was pretty excited. Got down Wednesday with CF and previewed the road course Thursday. One look at the hill and I started having second thoughts on what I was trying to accomplish by having a bunch of 20 somethings pound me around for 89miles with a sizable hill to add to the mix. CF had already calculated that it would be about 9 minutes of suffering per lap, great. Headed to the TT course to do some openers and actually ride in this warm environ. Was feeling pretty good about myself till I did the a few intervals. It felt like my legs were going to burst and breathing wasn't as good either. Doh! I forgot to take a hit off my inhaler prior to offset my EIB. After good nights rest I was all set to do the TT. I had set a goal to be within 3 minutes of the winner and ended up 2:35 down, goal 1 accomplished. I was then off with my sister Chris and my 2.5 year old niece Katie to get something to eat and find Katie a helmet for the kids race on Sunday. After enduring "Potty Training with Elmo" about 6 times we finally made it to the Performance shop and picked out a nice helmet with bumblebees on it. Next days road race unfolded not as I had hoped for. I ended up lining at the back because I showed up late. Big mistake, the leaders attacked at the first corner into the wind shattering the peloton. I ended up in a group of 3 chasing hard and picking up stragglers for the next 1.5 laps before I decided that I needed to choose wisely when to put out power if I was going to survive the next 4 laps. All went well and I met my goal of finishing, 8:23 behind the leader. By now my legs were really sore and I was really doubting my chances of finishing the criterium. About Tempe, other than the fact that traffic sucked it's also impossible to locate a sitdown restaraunt there must be a million fast food places there. After driving around for what seemed like an hour CF and I stumbled across a Thai place. Woohoo food at last. which was a good thing because CF was bumming about the RR and we needed something quick to occupy his mind. Hey, it's good to be a cat 2 as most races start later allowing for relax time prior to start. Learning from my previous days lesson I was at the barricades waiting to start 20 minutes early. The whole race was pretty much a blur for the first few laps and at about 12 minutes in I was wondering how long I'll hold on. Everything was clicking well though and with the exceptions of the prime laps there were no real surges and nobody got away. I crossed the line in line in the pack and patted myself on the back. There must be something to this lower elevation thing as I was never really out of breath just lacking that punch. I did one cool down lap and headed up to the line again where my niece was under full steam on her tricycle in the kids race. She of course beat me. Next stop: Bouder's March races

Awesome weather for a change here in Wyoming. Today it hit 50 and sunny. Got to ride for an hour on the road in the typical 10+ MPH wnds that make it so enjoyable. If it weren't for the 38MPH cruise on the way back home I probably wouldn't have enjoyed the 12MPH ride out. Then I took it to the dirt for an hour with the dogs. Maybe 2 warm days in a row? Probably not because the forecast says cloudy hi of 42, 30% snow. Monday is worse, hi of 37 and 50% chance. At least Phoenix will be upper 60s lower 70s

Wow! a non cycling post

As I was in the process of shutting down for the night, I realized the XM radio that I was listening to through my Direct TV had stopped. The reason, my signal was lost. The reason for that, my dish had been ripped off the house siding. Well it had probably come loose in last weekends high winds (nearing 50+mph) and this evenings winds probably finished it off. I was wondering why some channels were breaking up sometimes, I just thought it was the sattelite. Upon inspection I could see the real culprit was the installer that did not use long enough bolts. They were just long enough to go through but not grab onto what was underneath. Not wishing to waste to much time I blocked it up using some large rocks and a concrete block. Presto! Now I need to find the time between training and dogs and work to reattach it properly. That'll probably be in about 8 months

New Shoes!

Wow, my addiction has returned and with it the need for comfort. Since I couldn't find stock cycling shoes that could accomodate my orthotics and even though my Shimano R215Bs were as close to comfort as I could find, they still didn't eliminated the pain and hotspots that forced me to adjust strap tension constantly. Enter D2 Custom Shoes, after reading the writeup in Pez cycle news and talking at length with Dan or Don (D2 get it) I was convinced that this would be the way to go. I got my fit kit in and returned to them this week. Don (or was it Dan) called me back to go over any fit issues I may have and the style of riding that I do. Comfortable with what we discussed it was now time to choose a color. I has asked earlier about colors other than what was listed and was lucky enough that they were working on some Team Slipstream (TIAA-CREF) shoes with orange and blue. Always one to show some color I was really interested in them. Lucky for me they had extra material left over from the TS shoes and I did not have to pay extra for the choice. Here is an example of the color scheme. I think it's sweet. They should look good with the new team kit which is just as bright. They should be ready mid March. That's when I'll take a road trip down to the shop to pick them up. This will also allow them to make any corrections to the fit while I ride a stationary bike (hopefully) ensuring that no return trips are needed.

New Bike on the way!

The NOAH! I have to give some thanks to the folks at Sinclaire Imports that hooked me up with a Ridley Noah and Dura-Ace components below wholesale prices. It's great when a company is willing to cover, out of pocket, the cost to help get their products visible in the marketplace. They were actually as excited as I was to put me on the saddle of their flagship bike. It was a nice treatment too how they took down al my info and made sure I had everything I needed, kinda made me feel like a pro. Too bad I won't have it built up before I go to Valley of the Sun SR in Arizona. And Saris, the maker of PowerTap, has sent out a replacement computer unit to exchange for the one I have. Everything is coming together. Now if I can only find an oil company to provide me gasoline sponsorsorship... Hmmmm

PowerTap 2.4 problems 2.0

Well I finally had it with this units display fading out and losing data. After back and forth emails of what I think the problem stems from, I have asked that a replacement be sent. It's obvious that a battery should last more than 4 hours of use before requiring replacement. I expect them to come through as they are just as baffled at why my unit is screwing up. Apparently no one else has reported this problem. That or they have a lot of disposeable cash to buy other units. In any case I hope the next one comes problem free. At least I still was able to get my data for the indoor ride before it reset itself.

Had a pretty good day today. I did some trainer time for an hour and XC skiing with the dogs for 1.5 hours. Picked up some fresh batteries for the computer unit, hope they end all the problems I have been having.
First rider off at the VOS TT in 18 days, 12 hours, 43 minutes. And just a few hours later I'll be looking for a respirator after my effort.

Electronic devices and the cold

Cold weather makes for lost data on the powertap I found out. Two days in a row I'm able to put some time on the road and nothing to show. Yesterday it blanked out several times leaving me with nothing to download. Today I figured "what the heck if it's too cold for it I'll just put it in an inside pocket after it starts up and that'll be that". It worked, all my data was still there when I got home. Hooked it up to the laptop and nothing! It must have lost it all again, time and date were reset 3 minutes ago per the display of 12:03. Crap! OK, so now I put in a new battery as Carter had suggested. I won't know if it fixed it or not as I'm indoor ridin for the next week per the weather man. I've been reinstalling Windows on my computer all night since it has been acting badly. I think I'm on my 10th reboot after updates now as the message keeps flashing on the screen.

The world is coming to an end now. Got my ACA racing license today with a road category of 2. Must be the fastest upgrade ever. Never got to do a Cat3 race but that's OK, I didn't care to mess around with a bunch of upgraded 4s anyway. Put in 1.5 hours on the trainer with the new toy. It's really humbling how low my numbers are right now early in the year. On the homefront, snow is melting everywhere here with today's hi of 44 degrees and tomorrow expected to make it to 49 before turning below freezing for the weekend.

Just got my PowerTap SL 2.4 mounted on a Mavic Open4 delivered today from Competetive Cyclist, can't wait to hook that baby up and see how it performs.

Blogging now active

Now I too have a place to vent frustrations, talk crap, foretell of disasters, and whatever else comes to mind.