08 AR State TT

Long wknd to "race" 40k. I had ulterior motives so the full aero onslaught wasn't brung. Even without all the weapons still rode a 57:40(3rd in Cat 3's) which is only 15 seconds off my PR on a notoriously slow course. My #'s sucked but leaves plenty of room for improvement in the next 4 weeks before MO State TT. I'm going to try & shoot for 43KPH this year but my legs will make the ultimate decision. Lots of time to be spent on the TT bike between now & then (which means commuting on it yuk!). Racing a 40k with only being on the tt bike twice was not such a hot idea. Weather was good enough to use the long sleeve Ridley skinsuit since I don't have a Slimen skin suit yet. I have a feeling I'll have to break out the old multi color for State, I know how its a crowd favorite.

Amber & Mia gave me the fat hook up for Dad's day. Four wheel Bags, a new rain coat, & a blinky that can be seen from the moon. Broke in the wheel bags this weekend. Why I've never owned any till now is beyond me. It was nice not to get grease in the back of the Volvo. THe blinky I put into use this AM. Holy crap that thing is bright. Its a Planet Bike so the Dunsmuir's are supporting CX. In more ways than one. I'm going to try not to use the rain cape if I can help it. I'm too damn old to be riding in the rain but better safe than sorry with the weather we've been having lately.

Has Jimmy had that kid yet? & if so why are there no pics on his damn blog?

Hijacked

I hijacked these photos from Winghaven

I think the Slimen Unis make me look like a ninja.

click, click, click

The Excalibur has been making a clicking noise that has all but drove me out of my mind. If it wasn't for the Inno I would have lost my mind a few weeks ago. I've pulled the pedals, changed the saddle, adjusted bolts, pulled the BB, tightened crank bolts, & just about everything imaginable to get the annoyance gone but all to no avail. Then one day riding home from work a light bulb came on. What if the noise was the seat post flexing inside the frame? So taking some of my own advice I hacked off the excess & crossed my fingers. Guess what? No more annoying click, click!!!

How freaking Pro is this??

Now the Excalibur is sporting a Scottish flag as will all my other bikes.

Tulsa Tough is just around the corner. It was the last race I did before I broke my collarbone. I think its fitting it will be my first road race back; the Joey @ State crit in '06 doesn't count since I was still hurt. It'll also be the first time sporting the Slimen kit. I'll be going into it with a heavy commuting load but having not raced since Nationals its time to feel the burn again.

Slimen Unis

New team kit showed up this AM. Looks cool all black with old English Lettering.I'm sure TM will rate it high on his list of cool kits in the peloton. Boulevard Brewing Sixth Glass has signed on as a sponsor so even cooler unis will be out this summer.
I have a love/hate relationship with this beer. I found out the hard way you should only drink one bottle at a time (10.5% alc by vol). I'm still saying the tuna played a key roll in it taking me down though.

EPIC!

If I would have known this little tid bit of information Saturday I could have saved myself & Espencotter some time in the saddle. Since I didn't the 100k ride I had planned became a 188k(6:30 hours!). Yikes. Throw in over 10k' of climbing, running out of food, & water & the last 10k were a true nightmare. Needless to say Greg probably won't let me pick the routes anytime soon, or at least till the floods stop. I actually felt pretty good till that last 10k when the gas tank went to below zero. That's the longest ride I've done since breaking my collarbone. Its also the longest I've done in many moons since riding to the lake from my house is 8k shorter.

Bike Fit

Some of you have heard me talking about my "56 cm CX' bike that isn't a 56. Turns out it's a 54 cm. No big deal they say down size for CX anyway. What frustrated me was how much effort I put into trying to make my pit bike match my race bike. The measurements are close but not exact. I keep tweaking so by Nationals I might have them dialed. I did stumble on this on another site which linked to Park bike fit. A nice article with a chart. Having a bunch of bikes this is going to be handy. I have been tossing the idea around of making a jig to simplify matters for myself. I hear Eddy Merckx had one.

Need a trailer? I hear they are great for parties.

Hope Green Beans is alright. He attacked a car & lost.

This is my recovery week, thank God! Not been on the bike or my feet for that matter since Saturday. I suppose I'll get out today for an easy spin on the SS'er. I've been riding it at least once a week. This winter I plan on getting in quite a few Kilometers on it. I even have a Fixie conversion planned for it. It will be Uber Ghetto so I'll share it when done.

Next Thursday is the 13Th Annual Turkey Trot 5k. This year will be my 6Th year in a row. It's become quite the outing for my family. My whole family including in-laws do it now. I was going to try & break my personnel best Turkey Trot(17:29 in 2003). But Jingle Cross is 2 days later so I'll just float it & try & break 20 min. I'm less than 30 days from Nationals so need to focus on the bike not the run.

Training what not

I had a pretty good week of training even though it was only 3 days this week. Hard to sandwich recovery & rest in with intervals. I took the obligatory day off on Monday to lick my wounds from my beating on Sunday. Tuesday was so damn windy I decided I need consistency in my intervals. To get it I broke out the wind trainer & the 2006-2007 World Cross Championships. The wind trainer is BORING but you can be consistent. Wednesday I broke out the practice barriers.

I threw this on & rode over to the local park.

Once set up(a pair) I did 3 10 minute efforts @ around 80% making sure I went over the barriers @ least twice a minute. Harder than it sounds when you throw in tall grass for drag. Thursday I broke out the knickers & braved the wind for some endurance training. In an attempt to save my legs a little for this weekend I even skipped my run. This weekend is the first of back to back double doubles. Two races a day for two straight days. It will either kill me or make me fly. This weekend I plan on "floating" the Masters races & race to train. We'll see how that works out after the gun goes off.

I've been negligent in posting Mia pics. These are from last week. With the mild temps we got out & played with the dogs. No outside time this week with the weather & Mia starting to get a cold.

"Playing" ball with the dogs. More like keep away from Mia.

I distracted the dogs so she could get the ball.

This is from the storm last week that produced the tornado's North of town. We could see the wall cloud blow by our house. Cool to watch but bad for the people it passed over. Did anyone get to see the Space Shuttle pass over Tuesday night? You could make out the wings with powerful binoculars.

I was reading an article the other day that got me to worrying about my protein in take. It said for my weight & activity I should be getting almost 135 grams of protein a day. I added my intake up & its only around 100 grams. Going to do some more research before I bump up another 30+ grams. 135 seems like a hell of a lot.

Lots to do today to get ready for this weekend. Sounds like I'll have some company on Sunday but not on Saturday. TM if you promise not to beat me in the 3's on Sunday I'll loan you a set of TUFOS so you don't have to worry about getting a flat.

Battling the elements

Mia has been doing a lot more sleeping than me this week. Once again I'm sleeping for crap. Figure once I work a full non holiday week I'll get back on track.
Mia's an expert on soggy butt syndrome. After the Celebrity ride I suffered from it due to the wet roads.
Being a great daughter she got me the coolest fenders for XMAS. They are quick connect & fit 700 X 23 tires. How freaking cool is that?

I got out yesterday for 2 hours of blissfully dry butt riding on wet roads thanks to her gift.

That's right, sub 150! Hairy legs & all.