Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Sauber double scores points..Oh Wait no they don't

I got really excited watching the F1 race Sunday afternoon.  I had to DVR it as per the norm.  After an evening at a water park birthday party I was wiped & couldn't stay up.  Luck had it that I had to go to a bouncy house birthday party Sun at noon so it was late afternoon before I could watch the race.  A great race it was too.  I don't think the movable wing & KERS played as much a part as the tires did.  Most were on a 2 -3 pit strategy.  Except Sauber's Rookie Perez .  He managed to go with just one pit stop & finish just one place in front of Kobi who stopped 3 times.  I was ecstatic.  Both Sauber's in the points in the first race.  

I had been on s self imposed news/web blackout till I could watch the race.  As soon as the race was over I fired up Google Reader & my heart sunk.  Both Sauber's had been been DQ'd because of a rules infringement of the rear wing.  I won't go into detail I linked details below. The car showed pace & I think once all is worked out Sauber is going to surprise a lot of people. Perhaps even with a podium this season.



Scarbs F1 explanation

Good explanation here

Racecar Engineering updated overview of the Sauber C30


Sauber have three versions of the flap available and two were brought to Melbourne. It seems the version raced was not fully checked at the factory and therefore the error was not picked up, whereas the other (un-raced) specification flap was checked and deemed legal. Not every car and every component gets fully checked by the FIA scrutineers. The cars will go through different tests at different points in the weekend. It seems the Sauber flap in question was not tested until after the race.”

Update: Sauber was going to protest but have admitted it was their fault & are taking the punishment.  It was a manufacturing error & one version of the wing hadn't been fully verified & of course it was the one that got them in trouble with the stewards.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Updates coming for sure

I have ride updates & for sure a post about the Melbourne F1 race coming.  Lets just say I'm gutted about the "official" results.

Monday, March 21, 2011

2011 Rides # 7, 8 , & 9 Three Days in a Row.

I know its lazy to do 3 rides in one blog but I was somewhat busy on my days off & this is the first chance I've had.

Ride #7 Windy
Saturday got out for a windy & slightly chilly ride.  Weird strong wind from the East which guaranteed riding home in the wind.  Nothing special just a quick couple hours to spin the legs after 2 straight days of running.  Legs were a little sore from running since hadn't been out since Jan 9.

Ride #8  Hour of Power
Sunday got out early so I could have most of the day free for yard work & to make sure the Frisco Trail was relatively empty.  I like to ride on the Frisco when I do certain power workouts outside since I can make the power chart look like I was on the trainer.  Very consistent.  I hit my goal numbers & even managed to end up with a pretty good Normalized Power for about 2 hours.  That's focused workout numero uno of the year.

 Afterwards I spent the rest of the day doing Spring yard work.  Mowed the yard. Yep it needed it already.  Semi aerated the dead spots in the back yard(thanks dogs) & put down 10lbs of seed.  Hopefully that will thicken out the clumps.  I've come to realize as long as I have two big ass dogs I'll never have a great back yard.  But hopefully I can do some damage control.  Also cleaned out the garden boxes.  Last fall & over the winter some weed took over.  Was a SOB to get out. Very thin web like roots that are hard to break up.  Didn't get potatoes in the ground so will work on that next 4 off.

Ride #9 Break out the razor Spring is here!
There was no way I could sport my winter hairy legs anymore, especially with 76f predicted for today.  A big South wind so decided to venture South for the first time this year.  Did the winter Wednesday night loop which gives me 2ish hours from the house normally.  I avoid South when its cold because of the low water crossings.  I've taken a winter bike swim in Jan before & don't want to do that again, ever.

Back to work tonight.  As long as things don't change this week I'm back on my normal 4&4 so hopefully can get some descent rides in now the weather is getting nicer.  When I decided to do the DU series I got a little panicked when it dawned on me how soon they are.  I laid out a pretty ambitious schedule but should be able to stick to it.  Its not how I envisioned the year going though since I wanted a super slow year with Nats in Jan but it might be good to get some fitness soon so I can race some this summer since I missed Cross last fall.

Also stay tuned for some news about the TT series.  If it happens I think its really going to grow the TT series.  Should find out details this week.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Monday, March 14, 2011

2011 Ride # 6 Race #1 Frozen Waffles Training Race

Lets face it I had ZERO business racing right now but I made a deal & a deal is a deal. there

Jerred Brackett
@TheRealScottyD Oh man, that's a tough one...I'm such a sucky TT'er. But yes I will come out to one if you show up. Deal!

There you have it I did Frozen Waffles now Bracket will be doing some local TT's this year.  I say some because once he does one I think he'll HAVE to do more.  

I pretty much treated this like a $20 group ride.  Especially since there were just 6 Master's.  The 123 field looked descent size for an afternoon training race in Springfield.  I decided weeks ago I was going to mostly tail gun.  Little did I know the eventual winner(Mr. Ski Mask) had the same idea, except for different reasons.  A few guys tried to gap me off several times so I had to inform them I wasn't really racing so quit wasting energy on me.  

After the first 11 mile lap I knew I was screwed going up the Dam hill(it really is a hill up the back side of a dam not a Damn hill).  I'm down on weight but also down on mileage.  I held on & even took some pulls for the first 3 laps. 

On lap 3 I got gapped off a little coming up the hill after the lake.  I managed to tag back on.  After this I decided once we hit the dam hill again I was going to sit up about half way since my legs were burning & my left knee was hurting pretty good. 

 I thought about bailing & heading home to go to work(I forgot to mention I had to go to work a few hours after the race) but hell why not get some miles. So put my head down into the wind & soloed the last lap.  About got lapped on the line by Brad Huff winner of the 123 race(duh).  Oops.

Packed up my stuff rushed home & got ready for work.  Work SUCKED! not only was I tired from no sleep & racing but work was exceptionally busy.  Stupid day light saving time.  Always screws up the computers at work.  Pretty tired this am but going to put on my compression tights & sleep it off.  I might actually wake up to an inch of snow! Wasn't it like 70f Friday?

Sunday, March 13, 2011

2011 Ride #5 Furry Legs on a sunny day

The winter fur.

Saturday was warm & not too windy.  Got out for ride #5 of 2011.  Another 2 hrs @ a Normalized Power of 214.  Other than that nothing special. I did do 20 secs @ 418 watts sprinting away from a dog (638 for 5 sec, 566 for 10 sec).  My HR never got over 150 in those 20 seconds so thats something I guess.  No rush for fitness for me anyway.  If I race more than 3x this summer it will be a miracle.

Granted I'm only up to Ride#5 but I've been on the bike for 21 straight days.  That is till Friday.  All the OT & commuting wore me out.   I had a DR. apt Friday so decided instead of making myself so tired I get sick I drove to work Thursday night.  Actually drove to work twice.  Got to work realized I left my work keys in my bike bag so had to head home & get them.  No keys means no uniform & no tool box access, can't have either of those.

I'm about to do something really stupid.  Going to go and "race" the Frozen Waffles Race Training race in a few hours.  The stupid part? Take your pick: I'm on ride 5 of the year, or the biggie, I have to go to work tonight(just an hour or two after the race). Stupid I know.  Luckily the Master's race is only 44 miles(will also be longest ride of year so far) so hopefully I can race & get home.  I might pull the cord early though if I think I'm gonna be wore out for work.  

I have laid off the coffee for the last month.   Decided today would be a good day to end that with all going on today & tonight.  Hello mass amounts of caffeine.

Sunday, March 06, 2011

2011 Ride #4 & The Stand Off

Saturday before heading to work I got in a quick hour on the windtrainer. Two rides in a row!  That makes me 50/50 for rides this year. 1/2 road 1/2 trainer.  Another SST @ 201 watts.  Didn't feel too bad.  Had to adjust my left cleat a little to attempt to do away with some knee pain I seem to get every spring.  Other than that nothing special about the "ride".
 
Big news Saturday night was the stand off the Sheriff & SWAT had at the house 4 houses down from me.  Amber texted me at work to tell me there were cops all over the place on our street.  Thanks to the Twitter I found out why.  I was able to follow along all night.
 
Twitter / KTTS News: KTTS Breaking News Neighbo ...
KTTS Breaking News Neighborhood Peace Disturbed: No one is hurt and one man ...
twitter.com/KTTSNews/status/20622059411 - Cached
 
Turns out 2 guys held two woman and another man at gunpoint for several hours before 911 was called. A domestic dispute gone bad.  This was all coming to ahead right as I was hopping on the commuter to ride to work.  Guess the police were on their way or had just been called.  Probably would have skipped work if I knew this was going down so Amber & the kids weren't at home alone all night. 
 
Standoff Last for 6 Hours in Southwest Greene County: A standoff with ...
twitter.com/KTTSNews/status/35578866969874434 - Cached
 
SWAT sent in their fancy robot to find out no one was there(glad my tax dollars got some use).  The police arrested one suspect when they released the "hostages". They think in the confusion of locking down the neighborhood the other gunman snuck off.  Besides the robot being sent into an empty house after being surrounded for several hours the story is made funnier(as funny as this situation can be) by the fact that the "gun" they found was a BB pistol. 
 
For what is normally a quiet neighborhood I don't know why my street has to be the epicenter of everything that happens in the entire subdivision.  I've been thinking about getting a hand gun for awhile now.  This pretty much seals the deal.  Amber isn't thrilled about the idea but I'm not thrilled about being at work all night with her home alone with the kids when I'm at work.  I'd get an arm but I just don't have confidence in ADT or the other options.  I guess I could just rig up a panic alarm.  Hmmm might just do that, if nothing else to wake the neighbors up occassionaly.

Friday, March 04, 2011

2011 Ride # 3 Windblown

Got out yesterday before the clouds came in for a pretty descent road ride.  

Headed up towards Bois D'arc to check on the TT course.  Of course that meant a tail wind up & a block head wind back.  Still managed to av 18 mph so not too bad.

Cool old school house at the 3 mile marker of the TT course.
Started out in Knee Warmers but had to ditch them about an hour in.  Stopped at the under pass on the TT course to disrobe.  Ended up with 2:10 with an average of 176 watts or 200 Normalized Watts for 1371Kj.  Not a bad ride for ride # 3 of the year.  Looks like ride #4 today will be on the trainer.  

The above idiot was DT'ing & decided to swerve at me.  Then slammed on his brakes & stopped in the middle of the road & got out of his truck.  This winner was a full on Meth head.  I kept my distance but couldn't help but laugh at him which made him even more pissed.  Thing is the idiot is roofing a house in my neighborhood.  After he said he'd kick my ass I told him I'd go ahead & call the Sheriff since I know where he's working.  He had a change of heart then.  Total Dumb Ass.  I had a better pic of him waving his arms but it didn't turn out.
Google