National Organized Begging Day aka Candy Day

That great tradition where parents dress up their kids before they are old enough to know what Halloween is to get candy. We saw so many parents hauling around babies in costumes last night. Guess where that candy is going? Same place Mia's is; into her parents mouths. Amber & I took Mia out to a few houses to trick or treat. We didn't want to overdo it on the first go around. After all we have years & years of this left.

Mia is still a little shaky with steps. Notice the bag? Its bigger than her, more candy for me that way.

The family pre trick or treat.

Mia got a mini pumpkin from her nana.

Score! more candy for me. That house had Twix bars. Yummy.

We made a stop by Amber's Aunt Penny's house. We got the fat hook up here. Penny made Mia a special package of candy.

Just too cute. The fairy wings had to go to allow the sweater to be worn though.

We stopped by to see how Tigger was doing.

He wouldn't share any of his candy with me. Something about being to big to trick or treat. I told him that's what Mia's for. She's my cover. Still wouldn't hook me up.

Michael is Mia's "Boyfriend" . Mia there will be no riding in cars with boys while I'm around!

VROOM!

Please don't eat too much candy & drive. That's one tired kid. Made it about 400 meters before passing out in the back of the car on the way home.

The weekly change over

Yesterday I had to do the weekly bike conversion to get ready for another week of training. I figured I'd let everyone see the process. Less than 20 min if I don't have to wash the bike 30 if I do. I'm getting it down to a science.

TM & Skip what's missing?

That's right cages. There's no water in cross boys. Harden the F!@# Up! Spraying water on yourselves during a cross race, sacrilege. Wasted time & energy. Tsk, tsk. If your using cages your not racing cross.

To get the bike ready to train for the week I put the cages back on.

Less than 45 seconds with the air ratchet.

If the bike is dirty I give it a good bath. This week it was just dusty so just a quick wipe.

Change the rubber on the pit wheels so I can ride on the road.

Viola! Ready to train in less than 20 minutes. The process is reversed at the end of the week to get ready to race.

After the conversion I got out & enjoyed the unseasonably warm weather to get in a hard long interval workout. Its nice to ride in arm warmers at the end of October. Really motivated me for a practice that hurts a lot. Today is a hard barrier workout to simulate the double run up @ Nationals. Then tonight its time to get me some candy.

Slight change of plans

Edit: Due to me being an idiot looks Like I'll be racing Master's @ the Jingle Cross. You have to have a UCI license to race Elites @ a UCI race. DUH! Not worth 90 beans for one race.


I had to change some plans yesterday when I found out one of the races I had planned on doing was canceled. After a talking to Amber we decided to go to Iowa City, IO for Jingle Bell Cross after Turkey Day. Its a UCI race with lots of money. The 3/4's pay 14 deep. Though if things work out I'll be racing the 1/2 Elites. Yep I didn't stutter. Turns out I'm 7 points away from a mandatory upgrade to 2's in Cross. Now that the USCF has split the licenses you can be a 3 @ one thing lets say the road & a 2 at lets say Cross. With that in mind I'm not going to do the Ironman Double Double again this weekend & just race 3/4's. Need those points. Plus it will be interesting to see how I do fresh or somewhat fresh.

Thanks to the preview of the Nationals course I need to change around my training a little. Which means even more speed. Thus the upgrade I need to be racing with guys much, much faster than me. I can always change my mind & not upgrade & be labeled a sandbagger but race the 1/2/3 races from here on out. Either way I get to duke it out with the Stache on a weekly basis while working on my tolerance to Oxygen debt.


Staches:

I went to Kansas & hit for the cycle

I was going to name this post "I rode my bike more this weekend than Shane did all week" but he says I'm too negative. In an attempt to change my ways & bring more peace & love to the world Shane accept this:
Now I have changed my ways a little race report is in order. I went to Topeka on Saturday for the Capital Cup. This was day one of the double double. Good day. I won the Master's race, after going solo off the front for almost 3 long laps(2.1 miles per). The second part of the double was the 3/4's. Let a guy slip off the front then sat in a group of 5. Got nipped @ the line for the sprint for 2nd taking 3rd. Capital Cup was a great course. A little stretched out but cool venue. It was held at an abandoned Federal Mental Institution. Appropriate for cross & Halloween. It had a nasty run up. You can see how it felt in the slide show.

Day 2 of the double Double was a preview of the Nationals course. Not a good course for me but the addition of some sand will help a little. Got up bright & early to compete in the Master's again. Big group this time 40 some odd old men. I got away in a group of 3: Fish, a guy from Colorado, & myself. I was feeling yesterday & snapped a little with one to go. I did regroup enough to be within site of first & second @ the finish. Third overall placed me second in the 35+.

Warming up for the 3/4's I got the feeling that all I had done all weekend was warm up for races. My game plan was to try & get a good start & hold on for as long as I could. Got a good start & got in a good group. I did little to no work to try & save myself from imploding. Thanks to the work of two Team X guys the group got whittled down to the 3 of us. The same guy who got away yesterday had slipped away again this time. I felt bad for making one guy pull for 3 laps especially after I had used him pretty bad the day before so I gifted him second telling him I wouldn't contest the sprint. I guess I should have paid more attention though. I thought I had gapped his team mate through the final double run up. Nope. He got me on the line for third. So I ended up 4th. Completing the cycle 1,2, 3,4 .

The Springfield Armada was out in force. Skip sporting the baddest stache of all rode well to finish 28th out of a field of almost 50 & not getting lapped by me (I believe that might be a first for him). Must have been the stache. Feagan rode well to get 25th. TM rode really well to get lucky 13. Though if he would have been riding tubulars he would have finished @ least 5 places higher. Because if your not riding tubulars your not racing cross. Cale rode well all race cracking a little @ 1 to go in the 1/2's to get 10th out of 10 (unconfirmed total number of entries).

I also need to thank Nate & his clone (not sure which one took 5th in the Master's) for all the cheering/ heckling. I'm not sure what is going on @ MU but he's managed to clone himself for optimum course coverage cheering. Plus he saved my bonked out mind from not collecting my raffle prize of a case of Pale Ale.

I won the pint glasses @ the Capital Cup plus the cool CX sticker. Good thing I won the beer to fill them with.

Capital Cup 07 Slideshow

All photos jacked form Lanterne Rouge:

BLVD Cup 07 Slides show

All photos jacked from Laterne Rouge

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.

A trip down memory lane

Thanks to Byron for posting a link to Forrest Gladding's blog about the '94 mtb world's & '94 Ironhorse. I was @ both & it really got me to thinking about the good old days of mountain biking.

I still have that bike, though now its a single speed. I even have those Sidi's still. Big Ring all the way with one finger oh shit breaking.

When I finally got good enough to start getting product for free, Spring was like Christmas. Boxes would show up on the doorstep with a seasons worth of goodies. Sunglasses, sunscreen, forks, bikes, tires, etc,. It was great. I'd scour Velo News every Fall and make a list of manufactures. Then I'd send out dozens & dozens of letters & resumes. One by one I'd either get a rejection(thousands of them) or a letter offering me a deal of some sort. Its been a long time since I've been fast enough to get free stuff. Ah the good old days.

I'm slow, what's your excuse?

I wish today's weather would have set in yesterday for Hogan Cross. Damn it was hot. Full unzip, flap in the breeze hot. I guess breeze is the wrong term. Gail force winds was more like it. So windy a limb got blown out of a tree & crashed onto my bike. The only thing that saved me was my crazy mad handling skills. Had to use them several times to keep from the wind blowing me over, the Ridley + my lbs doesn't add up to a lot of gravity staying power.

Good race, pretty good turn out, even some heat. I managed to stay up near the front for a lap & a half. Which is 90% longer than I thought I could. Big thing was I kept $5 out of Butthead's pocket by not getting lapped like Hogan thought I would. I even managed to catch Cale at one point which was short lived. One acceleration & I was smoked. Oh well it's still early in the CX season. Got to lap Skip again this year which made me happy. Didn't lap TM which made me sad; then he didn't cough up his sandbagger money either. I guess I'll let it slide since he raced on a flat. When will people learn tubes are bad for CX?

The right hand turn barriers was a stroke of genius. A true test of my suckage. I don't think I remounted this bad but I was close on the final laps.Where the hell is he throwing that bike too?

Most of my predictions of course didn't come true. I did manage to get some Bud cash though nabbing the final spot in 7th; 40 bones & 3 beers not a bad payday. All in all I'm happy with it since I should be racing the B's.

Pettus gave me a cd full of pics which I'm uploading. I'll post the link when I'm done.

Course Recon

Went out this afternoon & pre-rode the Hogan course. Better than last year. With no barriers & a viscous headwind 6 minute laps. Gave Bud some suggestions that will add another 30-40 seconds a lap and make the course even more spectator friendly. The course is going to surprise how hard it is. Real power course. Plus if he makes the ride out of the creek bottom (which is hard already) a run up its going to be brutal. There is a zig zag section in the field that is going to flat sap your legs. If you have the wrong tires or wrong tire pressure your really going to suffer. Oh I forgot to mention it will be very rough. Just the way a good course should be. If its as windy as it was this afternoon drafting will be very important. Which will make for some great racing. If you come out to watch you won't be disappointed.

My opinion, for what its worth, a lot of people are going to be surprised about a lot of things.

Predicitions

Here's my predictions for Sundays Cross a Palooza AKA the Springfield Non international Intergalactic Championships that have no relevance on anything but Bud's ego.

1. With a 5:30 lap over 60 min yes I will get lapped by at least 4 people one of those won't be Cale. That's an extra 20 spot out of Bud's pocket.

2. So many people will make fun of Jimmy's height he will put in a complaint to the LPA. Another 20 spot out of Bud's pocket.

3. Cale will finish exactly one place out of the money no Bud Cash for Cale.

4. The guys placing in the B's race will all deem themselves sand bagger's and turn their Bud Cash over to the A's racers so it can be distributed accordingly.

5. A Cross Vegas style atmosphere will erupt & the fans will start handing out dollar bills. This will be the only way I go home with any cash.

6. Shane will try & goat Cale into a cage match with Butthead. Unfortunately there is so much anger built up inside of each other they piss their pants with excitement & the moment passes.

7. There will be two cowbells. People just don't know how to be good fans anymore.

8. I will drink some of Bud's beer when I am done racing. I will then piss on his lawn.

9. Mertz's dogs will leave 8 steaming piles of poo for #2 to clean up.

10. The winner is? Hell if I know I don't have any pshyco powers. But my money won't be on Butthead unless he's the only heat that shows up.

11a. I will be heckled unmercifully by Bud because of my inability to get any Bud cash. That & he's jealous that I can ride a cross bike & he just sucks.

Stairs! #@$$!!!!!!

Crap now I have to start running stairs. State CX has moved to this "Violation of my Human Rights" (quote stole from Sager).
Cross in Herman, MO. I'll admit I had to look up the location. Its a Bubba race & most of you know my feelings about Bubba races. Now they have a chance to change that opinion. Two days of racing before Nationals is probably a good thing. What sucks is I have to miss a race of the Kansas series. Plus by the looks of it State will only be A,B, &C categories this year. Can I race C's.
To add insult to my hate of stairs Nationals has two sets of them EVERY damn lap. Anybody got an old stair master laying around?

Secret CX training?

Has Cale been doing some secret cross training to get ready for the Hogan crossvegas spectacular?

Kinda hard to remount.

That's just funny.

A 1/2 lap too far

Toed the CX line for the first time since December yesterday in Lawrence @ Chris Cross. Did my usual double Master's & 3/4's. Later this year I will probably race just the 1/2/3's as Nationals gets closer. All in all a pretty good day. Except for the tour of KC we when we missed the turn onto 435. Oh well we made it in plenty of time.

Master's was first. Let a guy get a gap from the gun & then sat in a group chasing the rest of the race with his team mate blocking. Kind of a bone head move on my part but no racing in the legs means no snap. I tried several times to get clear to no avail. Came through the final barrier section in third waiting for the sprint so of course I bobbled the remount just enough to let 2nd get a little gap on me & that was all she wrote. Third overall behind two 45+'s which gave me the win in the 35+'s, though I was still 3rd. The win got me $30 & some shwag, plus a Mia size cowbell which she loves ringing.

I was pretty tired @ the start of the 3/4's so my plan was to sit back & hover in the top ten. Didn't happen. As in the Master's race I was riding all the technical sections spot on & manged to bridge up to 2nd place. I stuck on his wheel like glue till a 1/2 lap too go. Then I'm pretty sure you could see the explosion in Lawrence all the way in the SPR. Boom! Went into damage control & got caught just before the barriers to end up 4th(last money spot, $20 to pay for my entry). Not too bad for not racing in a year.

I'm pretty sure I could have got the W if I had been fresh but right now my legs need racing laps. I'm pretty sore this AM with a few bumps for my efforts. I have the usual bump on my right thigh from hitting the pedal in the sandpit. I do it every race at least once. I also have a very sore knot on the back of my right thigh where a guy tried to shove his pedal up my ass. Not really his fault but damn it hurts.

Set up note: If your not riding tubulars your wasting your time racing cross. The Ridley was hooking up in the corners. I was was actually having to check up in the corners to keep from crossing wheels. I think I'm swapping out my brake pads though. Not really liking their feel.

Getting a kiss from my fan club.

The new kit.

It's almost time to race

It's hard to believe its been since December of 2006 since I last raced. I'm not counting state TT since it was me against the clock. I'm excited with a lot of nervous anticipation. Nothing like being excited about making my legs scream out to stop. I think I'm ready though. The bike is about dialed in. Needs one or two small adjustments. Tubies are being glued. New kit is looking sharp.

Body isn't ready yet but I have a lot of racing to do between now & December. I plan on going into Sunday's Race tired. It looks like that is going to happen. After a hard practice on Monday & an even harder one today(If I can get motivated). My legs should be good and tired by Sunday. I'm staying off the dirt this week so my body doesn't get too beat up. I have lots of nice bruises & soreness in interesting places from all the cx practice I've been doing. Hopefully tonight my massage will ease some of those aches & pains before they get chronic.

Sunday will be my usual double race day, Master's & 3/4's. I'm not thrilled that its prizes only for Master's but its race one in the KC series so I'd better do it since I did pretty good in all the Master's races last year. Plus a double day will do me good. No SS this year, not even as a pit bike(I don't think). I almost won the Master's here last year on the SS but had mechanical problems, oops. I don't have high hopes for this weekend except to get some racing in my legs before the Hogan fiasco.

OK I'm about motivated now, better go train.

Subaru headaches

The Scooby has given me its fair share of problems, back when I took in on longgg roads trips every other week. After replacing the head gaskets & treating it with lots of love it became pretty reliable. Its been out East boating probably a dozen times, to god knows how many races, & just about every river in Arkansas & Missouri that has whitewater.

That be 210,000 miles

Lately its been mysteriously not starting. Bump start it & it runs great for a few weeks then mysteriously won't start. Its been going on for about 4 months. Well yesterday it did it again so I said no more & went & bought one of these.

$70 insurance that I replace the right part. Problem narrowed down to the Knock sensor or the Cam position sensor. I'm hoping knock sensor so it will be the cam sensor. Which of course requires removal of most of the front of the engine , again. Like for the head gasket nightmare. Now I have to sit & wait for it not to start again so I can capture the failure code. One nice thing is now I don't have to drive around with my check engine light on. I used to get worried when it went out.

All for now, hopefully the rain will let up so I can go ride. I really don't want to get on the trainer.

State CX?

What the Hell? This is the dumbest thing I have ever heard!

Kansas City, Kan. – Missouri residents who compete in the USA Cycling Cyclocross National Championships in Kansas City will also be vying for the chance to win a Missouri State Cyclocross title.

State championship medals will be awarded to the top three Missourians who are annual license holders within their respective category during the races Dec. 13-16 at Wyandotte County Park.

“It made perfect sense to piggyback the state championship races onto a national-caliber event,” said USA Cyclocross National Championship Race Director Bill Marshall. “No other cyclocross state championship race can boast of such a challenging course and top-notch venue.”

The schedule of race dates, times and distances for the state championship races:

Junior Women (10-12, 13-14, 15-16, 17-18) Friday, Dec. 14, 9 a.m. 30 minutes
Junior Men (10-12, 13-14, 15-16) Friday, Dec. 14, 10 a.m. 30 minutes
Junior Men 17-18 Friday, Dec. 14, 11 a.m. 45 minutes
Masters Women (40-44, 45-49, 50-54, 55-59, 60+) Friday, Dec. 14, 1 p.m. 45 minutes
Masters Women (30-34, 35-39) Friday, Dec. 14, 2 p.m. 45 minutes
Masters Men 45-49 Friday, Dec. 14, 3 p.m. 45 minutes
U-23 Women Saturday, Dec. 15, 9 a.m. 45 minutes
U-23 Men Saturday, Dec. 15, 10 a.m. 45 minutes
Masters Men 30-34 Saturday, Dec. 15, 11 a.m. 45 minutes
Masters Men 35-39 Saturday, Dec. 15, 1 p.m. 45 minutes
Masters Men 40-44 Saturday, Dec. 15, 2 p.m. 45 minutes
Masters Men (50-54, 55-59, 60-64, 65+) Saturday, Dec. 15, 3 p.m. 45 minutes
Elite Women Sunday, Dec. 16, noon 45 minutes
Elite Men Sunday, Dec. 16, 1 p.m. 60 minutes

Registration for all categories must be done on-line through the event’s official website, www.kccrossnationals.com. There is no day-of-race registration. Races will be held rain or shine and all USCF cyclocross rules apply.

For more information on the Missouri State Cyclocross State Championships, go to http://www.kccrossnationals.com, or send an e-mail to info@kccrossnationals.com.

CX on a diet

With a little work I have the Ridley down to 17lbs.

Some tips how: Weight loss

Even more tips

The Flying Scotsman

I believe I'll have to get this:

http://www.theflyingscotsmandvd.com/

Training

I haven't talked training in a while so I guess its time. Yes I have been training, end of post.

Nope not really. I have been training though. Quite a few 2 a days. Some cross work, some intervals, some running, some drills, yadda yadda yadda. I'm starting to get a little fitness, plus I'm getting used to the new ride. Still a lot of work to do on both.

This week was a little interesting. Had to cut an interval workout short because I broke my shifter cable. Snapped the end right off. On interval number 13 of all things. Had to make an ss adjustment & call for a bail out. I did have a mid summer fitness type of workout on Wednesday though. I won't share the details because that aspect of my training is secret but Ill say it was pretty damn good. Especially since I'm fighting some sort of upper chest thing which I can't decide if its allergies or a cold but I want it gone. Thursday did cross practice . OK practice except for eating shit on a remount & putting a 15" tire burn on my right leg. How you ask? Well besides being a dumb ass I went out early so I could get some work in on a wet course. I have the spikes in my shoes. The spikes dug in, my leg caught the saddle, & I Superman dragged the rear wheel @ about 24 kph for about 100 meters. Took all the motivation out of that bike practice. Plus it seems I've lost the ability to clip into my pedals at speeds over 16 kph.

I'm sure most of you have seen the bonus money on the line at the Pirtle Palooza Cross for lapping me. That bastard Hogan thinks he's funny, he just better have some damn good beer ready when I finish. I'm taking a goal from Eric Tonkin & will be happy if I don't get lapped. I just wish I could race a few times before, but I'll have to make do.

I've been surfing a lot of cross related blogs lately & have picked up some pretty damn good tips. I might have to share a few of them occasionally but for now they are all mine.

Before I leave if anyone expresses some interest I'd being willing to put on a practice cross series. Say Wednesday's around 5:30 or 6. Make the races no more than 30 min plus a couple laps. Make the courses short 1-2 km so lappers can race. Maybe even have a Halloween race. If your interested let me know & I'll put out a flyer & we'll see what we can do.

Cross Vegas

A little Cross Vegas style to warm you up for the weekend

I hope KC is like this in December

Fun with fire

Amber told me last week that me quitting my job was kind of like winning the lottery, except without the money. In a way it kind of is, we can do what we want when we want, to a degree. Saturday night we went & had dinner at Los Portales, then continued the night at home with Corona's and fire.

Showing my mad survival skills getting the fire started.

I'm working on my winter beard.

AH! Less than 2 weeks we'll have been married 2 whole years; my longest marriage ever!(Amber's line she thinks its funny)

Lacy enjoying the toasty fire & the attention.

Lucky trying to score a beer.

HEHE

That's a fire.