H2-0H!

Got up yesterday AM with every intent on heading up to the STL to race but Amber greeted me with the fact that she was having contractions again. So I figured I'd better stay close to home, besides it was pouring & very windy. Turns out just another false alarm though. I think they're more wishful thinking than false alarms. Amber is done being pregnant & I can't blame her. The 9 months thing is a big fat lie. Full term is 42 weeks. But I digress. Around 1:30 I was starting to go stir crazy so I loaded up my boat & headed down to Shady Rapid for a couple of hours of park 'n play.
Finally got a significant amount of rain. Just over 4" in the last 6 days. About time I thought I'd have to permanently give up boating. Had a good time & the river actually came up while I was on it which is a rare occurrence in Midwest boating.

Had an invite to go boating today as well but the level & the group didn't really fit my tastes. So today after a big fat breakfast with the in-laws @ Cracker Barrel I'm occupying myself with to-do's. Right now I'm taking a break from my all time favorite yard work. Once the rain starts up again I'll move inside to finish up a few projects I started yesterday. Perhaps even take a run over to Lowe's to wander the isles & to some dreaming.

What about biking you ask? Well Since I skipped this weekend my planned month off started a week early & have wrote this week & next off to recovery. Don't get excited its a month off from racing not training. I plan on some super hard intense training to get ready for the summer season. In fact one of this weeks projects is to get the moto up & running for some motor pacing sessions. Now I have to get back to the yard, oh yeah.

3D Mia

Had another ultrascan this AM to make sure Mia was going to become ginormous. She's got 3 more weeks in the oven & she already weighs 7lbs 11 oz or 3.48699134 kilograms for my metric readers or .0549107143 stones for my English readers.

Bob Herbert

Here are some pics from Saturdays Circuit. I will say Coker gets a big Jimmy thumbs up for a very impressive 6th in the TT. For a guy over 80 kilos he had a hell of a time on a hilly TT course. I'd say that result is the start of more to come this season. Quick run down 2nd in TT, 1st in Circuit, 4th in RR, 2nd on GC.
Sundays race was 7 laps of a 6.5 mile loop with some pretty good climbs in it. On the 2nd lap I got in a break with 15 y/o jr Zack Hockett. Watch out for this guy he's headed to Europe this summer on the National team & I think he'll come back with some results. The kid is the real deal. Anyway we stayed away just the 2 of us till 1 lap to go when 1st & 5th on GC bridged up to us. First on GC decided to just sit on my wheel & mark me. Then took me in the sprint for 3rd after not putting his nose in the wind once. Anyway I took a shot @ winning GC & it just didn't pay out. I had nothing to loose & a lot to gain. I had more than one person tell me I made the race.
I do have to say thanks to Ken Norton. Not only did he loan me his Tri Spoke for the TT he went & found me some Goo when I was starting to bonk during my break on Sunday. Also thanks Roger for the stellar hand ups.

Crazed OCC Tifosi cheering for Norton & the Hammer who went 1 & 3 in 50+GC. Think Norton won the TT & the RR as well.

Celebrating my first ever win as a Cat 3

It may not look like it but I'm sprinting for the win(uphill).

Curt up front in the circuit where he spent most of the day.

In one of the 300 breaks I was in during the circuit.

The Man!

Coke setting tempo for me up the climb

Curt powering over the circuit climb.

Coker so close to finishing

What the F?

Super G in the back of the 3 pack?

Another break

Pics courtesy of the OG.

Finally!!!!!!!

Sitting in the hotel room @ Bob Herbert. Good day even though my legs felt like poo. Got 2nd in the TT but lost 22 seconds to a guy who's time tied the winner of the 1/2 race. Then this afternoon in the circuit to make Emory happy I finally won a damn field sprint. That's right today's circuit finshed on a hill so I unleashed the beast. Actually opened up 2 seconds on 2nd. For those of you that don't know Bob Herbert is a timed stage race. With my bonus & 2 seconds I'm now sitting 2nd on GC 7 seconds down. Tomorrow is go to be tough, but I have Coker & Curt E patrolling for me. Have a bunch of pics but connection a little slow so will post when I get home. All for now got to sleep I'm a very sleepy boy.

Wed night & some racin pics

Small turnout for the Wednesday night loop. Just the Hammer & OG. The highlight was OG rolling a brand new Cervelo Soloist. Freaking Pimp ass! All its missing is some 404's. My legs were a little blocked up from taking 2 days off. So the ride was a little harder than I wanted. Though not as hard as last week thank god. Pulled a dumbass & forgot to check my tire pressure & to carry my seat pack(had left it on the TT bike). Luckily Roger was kind enough to let me burn one of his CO2's to get me to close to correct pressure. Ended up with 3 hrs with an avg of around 19mph. Tried to keep the HR under 175, which I was able to accomplish. Hopefully will be able to get out tonight & get a good bike practice on the TT bike.

Roger & I were talking about a TT series. Any interest?

On to the pictures. First 2 are from the Fertilizer Crit courtesy of Emery. He's a pretty good photog, just needs to work on hanging on in the race instead of bailing & taking pics.

This is probably one of the cooler pics I've got of me racing. Notice the visor @ race speed.

This one of the cobble sections @ Hillsboro Roubaix. Pictures stolen from the St. Louis site.

Emory took the above, once again needs to work on racing more taking pictures of the cateagory he's racing less.

Yes I got smoked in the sprint, where were you @?

Up the big climb @ Hillsboro

Got pushed outside the cones.

My watt meter finally came in. Heres a pic of the bad boy.

When does it get too expensive?

With the price of everything going through the roof I'm beginning to wonder at what point do I say it's just too expensive? I've been thinking about that a lot lately. With gas being predicted to be close to $4 /gal this summer racing becomes an evil I can probably do without. That is unless some serious carpooling can be arranged. So far this year I've been lucky & only drove to 2 races by myself. Plus I've been able to arrange places to stay in most cities that I race in cutting out another expense, the hotel room. If gas gets to $3/gal the commuter comes out & I get in an extra 80 miles a week. Maybe with the $$$ I save I'll be able to get those 404's, since no one seems willing to buy me a set.

With that said @ what price is a race entry too high? This weekend is the Bob Herbert Stage Race. Its a good race but $70 for litttle payout seems high. Plus the field will be stacked with about 20 Cat 1(I mean Cat 3) Tyson guys. With those kind of numbers its pretty easy to dictate the outcome of the race. I'm not bitching, it just lowers the motivation a little to know that going into the race your fighting tough odds. But I am feeling pretty descent this week & I've been racing pretty aggressively lately so perhaps I can have a say in the outcome. I have till the 20th to decide. Then I'll have to do some last minute scrambling for ride share & place to stay if I go.

Unfortunately the Easter Bunny didn't bring me a set of 404's. I guess he was busy dropping off Sophia's goodies. I did get a package of Cadbury caramel eggs in the mail though(thanks Mom) mmm, mmm, yummy!

Here's some pics of me trying out my Fast on a hot Sunday afternoon. Got in almost 2 hours on it & was comfortable the whole time. Norton says you have to be super comfortable to take your mind off one less thing. Now if I could figure out how to block out the pain a 40k TT causes I'd be golden. Check out the tan lines & its only April!



Thought I had a RevX Spinergy Front wheel bought for it but some how the deal vanished on me. I'm pretty happy with my position but the set up needs some tweaking, most notably a front wheel. Are we ever really satisfied? I do like the 78 degree seat angle though, feels wicked fast. I rode into a 30 mph headwind & was still able to ride 25mph. Perhaps my goal of sub 56 @ State TT is more reality than fiction.

Rolling with Gunga

Saturday I'd arranged to horn in on Team Hogan's Saturday AM ride. Waking to rain I gave Farasy a call & postponed till noon. It seems everyone else went @ the predetermined time so that left just me & Jim. Riding with Jim is always fun since he has an interesting take on life & some funny stories & a pretty mean turn of speed. 3 hours later we were done riding & it felt like only an hour. Jimmy did treat me to his sprint workout, 5 15 second sprints with 5 minutes between. I held my own for the most part but 15 sec is too short for me since that about how long it takes me to get up to speed. Jim thinks my foot speed is too slow causing me to push too big a gear when sprinting. He might be on to something. I've noticed that during races I'm usually in a bigger gear than those around me. So now I'm going to have to incorporate some fast feet drills into my training, ala Rocky chasing the chicken. Guess I'll have to borrow one from my mom.
Saturday night we bbqued with the In-Laws(always entertaining). After 11 months I finally had to go refill the propane tank. Pretty good since we grill out quite a bit. I think Amber & her dad have talked me into @ least go look @ a new car. They got me to consider the Dodge Caliber. So sometime this week I'll have to go pay a visit to Mr. Nelson & test drive one. They are pretty cool looking & cheap(a big plus).

Doper part deux

If you have asthma your a damn doper. Wait maybe I'll change my mind. Told you Mr. Schoutan would have to change his mind on his very public comments. Can't ride for a super power & say wait ever pops into your head. Cale even took a chunk out of his ass(read the comments). Cale was even man enough to sign his name to his comments not like most chicken shits. Thats all for now got to go hang out with my doper wife(yes she really has asthma).





Edit:

I guess I'm pyshic or psychotic but Mr. Schoutan pulled the comment just like I said he would. Sponsor, sponsor, sponsor.

Wednesday Night Big Ring Loop

Wednesday night in PicsLook closely thats a max HR for the ride of 184 which I did 3x. My theoretical max is 188.

The Visor

Jason W & Norton. Jason is killing it right now.

UBallEz & Aquaman looking for some fitness.

Norton @ the top of Jamesville bitching about me being a sandbagger.

Till next time

Dopers?

Wow Tristian Schouten all but came out & called Todd Wells a doper on his blog:

I got a front row seat to watch all the big boys line up in front of me, pull out their Albuteral asthma inhaler, and puff up. Nice guys, nice. Todd Wells and current world marathon world champion Thomas Frishcknecht puffed up right in front of me, and this is not the only two I've seen do this. Sooooo lame guys, so lame! My conclusion is, 100% of the front row has asthma, 75% of the second row does, and by the time you hit the back row there are ZERO athletes with asthma, crazy how that is, everyone in the back row is completely healthy. I think it's ridiculous how those guys can get away with taking a hit of steroids right at the line, I don't see them puffing on them any other time of the day.

That takes some balls. I wonder if Trek is going to let him keep it posted? Since I like Todd (raced Sport class with him back in the day) I doubt it's true. I seem to remember he really does have asthma.

Legs are pretty good after the weekend. Got in a good bike practice last night. Going for a spin tonight to flush out the legs in prep for the Wednesday night big ring loop. If I'm truely lucky Skip will make an appearance & I can test my legs against his obvious run of good form he's having. I hear that he's destroying the MS'ers in the Springbiker rides. If I can take it too him theres no telling what I can do, maybe the Greenways?

If the Merm would ever email me some race pics I'll get them posted.

The visor stays

I forgot to mention the rules of the visor poll, you had to have raced @ least once this year. That puts the eligible voters(from all those that wasted Skips time giving your 2 cents worth) to just 2, so mark that as a landslide victory for the visor. I'd count ICC's vote but needed a way to rig the election ala Florida & do away with all the no votes.

Races 10 & 11 for 2006 are in the book. Hillsboro Roubaix(The Hell of the Middle of No Where) & the Tillis Park crit. Hillsboro kicks Ass! I now know why it gets voted best race every year. It has its problems but those are all related to how entry is done & results posted. The course is classic with by far the coolest finishing circuit I've done. Bricks & lots of them. The course itself has about 500 turns, lots of crappy pot hole filled roads, gravel everywhere, & did I mention the wind? I'd say it was a crosswind but you turn so much once you think your in the draft your in the wind. Some how 2 guys passed the pace car & stayed off the front. Not sure how that happens? I saw the 2 guys afterwards & neither really looked like they could pull off a 30+ mile 2 man break when the pack is avg btwn 22-24mph. One of them had a pretty sizable belly roll. But hey if they actually did it they deserved the win. I managed to avoid a pile up in the finishing circuit & grab the right wheels. Just started my sprint about a bike length to soon, since I got third in the pack sprint(5th overall) by 1/2 a bike.

I had pretty good legs for the Tillis park crit. I got in 4 different breaks(including the final one) & won my 1st & 2nd primes of all time. Of course I ended up 8th in an 8 man sprint. Before you say it I did a ton of work all day& after the 2 primes & killing myself in the final break which I took a solo flyer out of for 2 laps; I just didn't have anything left for the finish. There were 4 guys not working in the break so some one had to do it, right? I would have done the exact same thing if I had teammates blocking as well. But since I didn't & couldn't count on the break sticking I decided a guaranteed 8th was better than taking my chances against 60+ guys in a field sprint.
Not too bad a weekend of racing 5th, 8th, & 2 primes I'll take that.

Lessons learned:
1) If there's crosswinds stay in the top 15 or you'll be chasing back on.
2) Patience, patience, patience in the sprint; learned on Sat put into effect on Sun.
3) Cat 3's get super sketchy in crosswinds.
4) Phish Live 18 will get you from St. Louis to Springfield with most of CD 3 left.

Post #234(134 times more meaningless than Shane)

I've hit the big time kiddies. If you look ever so close on Buttheads blog you'll see me poised to pounce on 7th place. That's right hiding in the rear with the gear. That was the last race sans visor(got it the next day). Which brings me to my current dilemma. The visor. The Big Sharkies are rolling visors this year. Well it just so happens so am I. I ordered a new Rudy helmet & was pleasantly surprised to see it came with a visor. Cool lets me wax nostalgic about my MTB days. Plus I can do my best Todd Wells impersonation. But I don't want to look like a guy who jumped on the band wagon. So lets vote: Visor or no visor? Not a real dilemma but I don't want to cause peleton drama.

Had a good week of training with a couple of really good bike practices. Tonight I leave for the STL for the weekend. Hillsboro & Tiles Park crit. I'm not sure if I'll stick around Sunday afternoon for the opportunity to take a beating with the BMC north boys. May just cut bait & come home unless my legs feel good. Will have to see, no racing next weekend so might just have to destroy myself.

Last night was Lemans. Saw a nipple & some pubic hair in the nightly video, not one mention of vagina. Pretty uneventful except for the one guy who got the giggles so bad he had to leave. I guess contractions are funny to him. After, work sucked Ass but what's new?

NWA not just a rap group anymore

For some reason that I'm not quite sure of I went to the NW Arkansas Spring Classic today. I know better than to race @ the end of a rest week, but smart is something I don't list on my resume. I would have been much better off to stay home & put the $35(that's right Highway robbery!) to something like coffee & a newspaper. Coker was dead set on going so I couldn't say no. For those of you who have never been to this race its got 2 small hills & LOTS OF F'ING WIND! about 40mph worth.

Short story long, first 5 miles Coker & I had to ride into the left side ditch to miss a road wide crash. Then 3 miles later I got a flat. No biggie have wheels in the wheel car. So I pull off my flat rear wheel & start to wait, & wait, wait, & wait, & wait some more. After almost 10 min I throw the flat back on & start riding back toward the start. After a mile I find the car. I had to ride in front of it to get it to stop. Then they gave me a 9 speed wheel, doesn't shift so well with a 10 speed set up. So then I get to chase back on from about 5 miles down. Thankfully the USCF official took mercy on me & let me motor pace @ about 40 mph. At the base of the big climb I finally caught on after 10 or so miles of chasing. Shit that hurt bad.

Not 10 miles after I caught back on I flatted my front tire. This change went text book. Then Coker & I started team time trialling to catch back on. I guess he got a little carried away & did his best baseball slide into a ditch, very spectacular. Pretty much the end of the race for us.

Lessons learned:
1: Don't race @ the end of a rest week.
2: Don't yell @ the official because you might need them to motor pace you back.
3: $35 is a ton of cash for nothing.
4: It sucks to drop out of races, don't know why its so popular.(this was the first cat 3 race I've ever DNF'D 2nd race all time)
5: I'm going to train my ass off because my legs told me some good things today.
6: If your in a break away make sure TJ is in it with you.

Rest week

This past week I hung up the wheels & took some much needed rest. That's right 4 whole days without getting on the Felt. Unfortunately work was unbelievably stressful this week(real stress not the imagined Skip kind). I got loads of sleep but not the mental break I would have liked. I avg about 10hrs of sleep a day new record week for sleep. Last night I got my second 12 hour night/day.

Thursday was week one for Lemans(really Lemaze but it aggravates Amber when I call it that). The first class was pretty boring, no gory movies, not much huffing & puffing, just a lot of talk. I'm guessing it will pick up as the weeks go on. Week one I only heard "vagina" 4 times. I'm on pins & needles waiting for "the movie". Its the flick all expecting fathers hear about from their friends with kids. You get to see up close & personal the video of an actual birth. I hear there's not a dry eye in the house when its over.

Work was a total pain this week. Monday night one of our larger more important machines broke a 24" diameter drive shaft. We got to spend 3 days pulling a 13,000 lb roll & putting a new one back in. Of course production didn't stop so I had to deal with the broken drive shaft & everything else broke in the plant. It seems this week brought out the absolute worst in laziness. Once everyone learned that we couldn't rush right over to their break down all kinds of mysterious "break downs" started to happen. Basically nothing wrong they just wanted to milk the downtime while they listen to my name being paged every 15 minutes on the intercom. Shitheads! This week really made me think about my career path.

I did get to use the lathe this week to modify a Shimano square taper BB tool to use on an Octalink BB. Why the modification? To put the crank on my tt bike. She's all built up & even took the inaugural spin around the block. This afternoon worked on getting my position dialed in. Now I just need to find an aero front wheel for it. Maybe one of those fancy Zipp wheels.

Yard work stretched out too long so didn't get out before the rain. Tomorrow is the NW Arkansas Classic. Probably not the best idea to race during a rest week, but I'm ever so close to having enough upgrade points to move up to 2's.