Crap...

I know, not the best title for a post...but I'll make it work.

The weekend rides were a little painful with the legs still sore from running, but I got a 30sih mile fixie spin in on Saturday and a shorter MTB spin on the 29er in on Sunday. First time riding the mountain bike since the eight hours down in NC....forgot I still had two broken pedals.

So on to the crap.

It's been raining here since lastnight, so riding is out the window (not worth riding in crappy weather this time of year.) So I told myself that if the rain stopped by noon I'd go running...knowing I was pretty safe because the radar was full of green.

So what do I see outside with my selfmade deadline only half hour away...sunshine. Crap...
Crap.

Running...

is stupid. Yeah that's right, I went running yesterday...twice. And no, there was not any blue light involved....even thou a cop just drove down the street. Weird.

I dropped off the FJ for a new stereo to be put in, and with it only being a little over two miles away I thought why not run home. Even thou like I've said before I run like...

a hippo in water. But I got home and all was well, guessing my speed was a blistering 8-9 minute mile range. A couple hours later I get the call the girl's all done, what the hell...I'll run back. Run number two again went ok.

Then this morning came, and now I feel more like a harpooned hippo. Let's just say the stairs are not gonna be my friends for awhile. With that I say again running is stupid...but I plan on doing it a coupe times a week, it felt pretty good.

And no Wifey, running is not the new twist I'm throwing into the training plan.

Secret Squirrel out.

Cold...

damn cold, that was the best way to sum up the riding the past couple of days.

Winter's made it's way here to the Philly area, and with it the boxes of cold weather riding gear are out of the basement. The 40 degree temps I can deal with, but it's the 10-15 mph wind that's the killer.

But even with the crap weather the fixie is rolling down the streets. Pretty much have the riding/eating/fitness plan worked out, gonna be throwing something off the wall into it this winter (more on that to come.) I love being "cryptic" as the Wifey says.

But with a little over six weeks until the first race of 09 I've still got time to work out the minor deals.

Interesting article on Stan's rims too....who says you can't buy your way to a faster time on the bike.....

Paris-Roubaix...

in PA. No, but that's what part of my past couple road rides have felt like.

I've always loved the Paris-Roubaix race, both for the toughness of the course and that racers end up looking like this more then not...

But thanks to the ever happening (and forever taking) road work here in PA a couple of my favorite riding roads look more like cheese graters and anything else. It felt more like I was riding a jackhammer then the fixie...maybe I can send the Pennsylvania DMV my dental bill, cuz I'm pretty sure I need to go after that mile.

As for the other areas.....paging Dr Wifey.

The best and the worst...

time of year/and or types of days.

With the changing of the clock this past weekend it's now dark (and I'm talking black dark) by a little after five. I still try to ride in the warmer part of the day, so it's not really cutting in to ride time. It just sucks that it's so dark so early...plus the past couple of days (and the rest of the week) the sun is not coming out...AT ALL. Gray, deary and nasty looking outside...kind of like a horror movie.

But with this time of year brings fixie rides, and I love my fixie. Riding a fixie is great for strength and increasing your cadence, plus it's the best thing to work on a fluid pedal stroke. I also love just being able to zone out...no thinking about should I up/down shift, should I sit on this climb and spin, blah, blah, blah. You've got two options, in the saddle or out...other then that you just push the pedals....weather it's 60 rpm's or 110. You can figure out yourself where the sitting and standing are in those numbers.

Now go vote, I'm going riding.

Never gonna live this down...

Wifey made Cycling News, here the article, it's under the Oktoberfest write up.

Time to go put my dress on now...

National MTB Oktoberfest

The laundry is started, water bottles are in the dish washer, the fuzz balls are pasted out after four days in doggie jail...and it's snowing outside....really. Perfect time to do a race report.

So what do you do an hour before the start of an eight hour endurance...

A shot down pit row before the madness started...

The Shortbus (the pit box on wheels) packed full of food, water, fuel and bike parts for three...

After a night, and morning of rain we kicked off the start at noon on to a slick but fun ten mile course...and with no Lemans start....thank God, I run like a wounded three legged Hippo.

Harlan Price looking as cool as the other side of the pillow... Tinker...being Tinker, steady as a rock...
And then there's this smuck...
The first couple of laps were pretty slimy, but after an hour or so things started to dry out pretty nicely...other then the last climb that stayed nasty all the way thru.

Trying to clean a little crap out of the drivetrain...
I think this was the point where I realized they I was having a hard time clipping in (other then the mud.) I'd broke both my pedals, I love Eggbeaters...but I've gone thru about 3-4 pair this year alone....mostly I think it's because of my riding style (crappy) pedals are not meant to be pounded on roots and rocks.

The box of spare pedals seemed a little light when I drug it out of the bus...yep, empty. That's when I remembered I put them on the fixed gear a couple weeks ago...nice job jackass.

So back out I went with what I had and things worked out pretty well.

The cut off time for heading out on laps was 7:30...(my laps were in the 38-40 minutes range) on my tenth lap I was kind of milking it as I tried to convince myself to push harder in order to get back in time for an eleventh lap.

Heading into the last climb I knew I had 10 min's till the cut off...and believe it or not I'd convinced myself to head back out. I looked up and saw Wifey making her way up the slick climb, and yell up to her "are you going back out for a lap?" She throws back "we're done, it's 7:40."

I looked down and saw I had the computer on ride time, not the clock. Hell yeah baby, talking about a pick me up...that last half mile was a blur, the knew what was in the cooler.

So seven and a half hours and 70 miles later I threw an eleventh place in the books. Not to bad with the competitors that were there and my lack of training the past month.

Now it's time to get things back into gear...diet, base miles the whole works. Next years not that far away...and this year my not be done yet either.