Cross training...

If you count slugging up the sled hill with sleds and munchkins cross training, then i am money!

Brrrrrrr

Westchester, Illinois

10:51 AM on Thursday 10 Dec 2009 (Local Time)

Few Clouds 5°F
Feels Like
-16° Station: KMDW
Humidity: 63%
Wind: 22mph
Dew Point: -5°
Visibility: 10mi

For some reason...

I dig this Bike.

And Tyler Wren rides Pactimo

Missing...

Getting your stuff stolen sucks. But this kid had a VERY funny sign to post!!

Cheers

Must be Friday

Its definitely better in the mornings with the time change. I guess thats the optimistic side of it being dark at 4:30pm. Now i have a good am mount of light for 90% of my ride in. That helps. I noticed on SEVERAL occasions today the wafting of some serious ganja smoking going on while I was pedaling in today. Must be a wake and bake Friday for the residents on my route. The legs were groggy and the SSE wind wasn't helping my motivation. I decided to let the legs dictate the pace and made it a leisurely ride in today. The cycle center was almost empty today, always a welcome event. Attendance has been dropping in relation to the falling temps, but there is a SERIOUS group of die hards that go all year round. I wimp out when the snow flies or it drops below 32.
It is supposed to be a warm evening, which i look forward to already today, and the weekend should be sublime.

Fat Kid - OUT

Off Day pedal

Wrapped up October and looking to ramp up November and get it going early.
I had a day off tuesday, and set out for a 3 hour cross ride. The prairie path was pretty dry and smooth, and the weather was nice for November - high 40's. There was a slight cross headwind going out, I added some extra time to the normal triangle loop, and got a nice tailwind back home down the Great Western Trail.

3 hrs, just over 1900kj, including the second hour where I pumped out 735kj in the hour, and about 75km in the books. Needless to say, the legs were sore tues night, as well as sluggish wednesday AM for the early morning pedal.

Cheers

DPR cross ride

I finally got a chance to get out and join the Alberto's crew for a great CX ride on the DPR trail. Francine said that I like the epic rides, and this one did not disappoint. It was brisk, low 40's with a stout wind; but the woods provided some good shelter. The rains had the path laden with puddles throughout, and several crossings that were impassable making for some fun hike-a-bike sections. The train tracks underpass juts before Adler park was a pretty deep and wide lake, but Brian decided to try it out, only to end up BB deep and with a pretty wet foot / leg!
I decided to try the high road and go up and over the tracks, so after getting our group of 12 riders up there, we scouted for an opening in the fence to get back thru.
Stathy and I had a great flashback from Stand By Me, and rode a ways down the tracks looking for an opening. Wendy finally found our winner, and we were back on the bikes. Brian and Francine led some great skill building for the crew to work on, and a few hot laps at Adler got the heart rate pumping. Brian was victim of a hazard under e leave pile, and got his wheel stuck in a curb, and catapulted himself onto the pavement. I sure hope B's boxer chin heals up quick!

The ride back was incident free and we did a nice combo of trail and road to avoid any more hike-a-bike sections. I took advantage of the bike wash area in the new Alberto's shop to get most of the gunk off the rig, before heading home for final cleaning.

The ride got me up to 32 hours for the month, so a solid recovery from having a week of being sick. Hopefully good things to come for November!

Cheers!

Is this London??

Seems like the rain spell we had back from late spring early summer has re-appeared!
I am usually pretty keen on reading a radar report, but in the last 2 weeks - I have rode in the rain 3 times in the last 7 days.

The good news is that it looked pretty bleak 2 weeks ago to get to 30 hours, and right now I am sitting at 28.5 with a group ride planned for tomorrow morning to end the month off right.

For those of you that have been enjoying the off season, its time to get serious in November. Start lifting ( if you haven't already) and starting logging the hours.

Cheers!

Character.

weather.com said only a 10% chance of rain. rich.com disagrees. full chicken and bluff loop. 3hrs. 80km.
solo. rain. character.

Fenders....

I had a super sweet ride into work today. Despite the rain overnight that left the roads wet and full of puddles, I stayed dry. It was warm, high 50's for the roll in.
If you have ever had a day like I had this am where I looked out the window and though: hmm, I dunno. BUY FENDERS!
There are several bloggers that some of my links have links to that rave about them more than me. I picked up my SKS race blade fenders a few years ago. They were about $50 bucks at the time, and i thought - Man, $50 bucks for once or twice a year?? Let me tell you - that $50 was worth way more than that to - 1 - allow me to ride in instead of HOPING i could get on the trainer later today and 2 - keep me dry and have a great ride despite the weather.

If you dont know where to find them -
Call Albertos - 847-432-0015 or
Call Joe at Columbus Cyclery - 812-372-7486

Cheers

It can't rain all the time...

It can't rain all the time... - Sarah, The Crow

In a fine twist of coincidence, it stopped raining in Chicago finally, and i finally got over being sick. After a week of semi feverish, achy, congested, blah blah blah; I am back in the game.
Rolled the cross bike in today, as its supposed to be a good sunny fall day. First time on the bike in over a week, so everything felt flat. Hopefully the roll home will go better!
Hoping to get back into eating lean, and back to dropping some pounds.
With only 10 hours for the month, its gonna be a tough second half, but trying to re-align and finish off with about 25 hrs of pedaling.

VDB - gone

Breaking news that Frank Vandenbroucke was found dead of a blood clot.
VDB - above winning the 1999 Leige-Bastogne-Liege, had a turbulent career and has most notably been recognized for his off the bike issues more than his performance recently.

Doper or not, they guy made racing interesting, and hats off to his all or none style.

called on an account of rain...

While I have been able to get a few solid days of commuting in recently, the last 3 have been called off due to rain. Now it IS certainly hardman weather, but come on, do I look like that kinda guy to you???
I do appreciate the moderately cool temps, and despite missing the shorts and short sleeve rides, i don't mind the long sleeves and knee warmers at all.

I have spent a few EARLY mornings on the trainer in a quest to stay on track for 30 hrs on the month. Looking to get out for a good CX, but I have been getting heavily punched in the WORK recently and Sundays being the only day off has resulted in family day taking over for CX day.

Hoping to be back in the groove next week and perhaps even meet up with King for a Wednesday pedal.

Cheers to all of you slugging it out with me.

Fat Kid - Out

Thats BRISK baby

its officially fall.. if not by calendar, by the number of layers needed to ride in. 48 degrees this am called for some long sleeves, leg warmers, hat and mitts. It was pleasantly tail-windy on the way in and it calmed down enough by sunset to have a decent ride home. Riding in the dark is always a unique experience, as everything seems to move at a different speed. In some strange way, i dig the commute at this time of year. Cross rig, lights, marching to my own beat. Looking to repeat tomorrow and wrap up September.

Out

Chequamegon Fat Tire and changing seasons.

Its the time of year that all of the racers look forward to. Its the end for the die hard roadies, and the Cross guys are licking their chops. For me its simply September, and a chance to shed a few pounds before Chequamegon.

The last few years I have headed up to the Northwoods with the SRAM crew for some fun. After all, Lenny always loved it. I have a very fond set of memories of being picked up at midnight Friday night, driving the 7 hours north in darkness into the middle of nowhere. Getting in just as the guys were waking up and making breakfast. We got about an hour of sleep, Scott handed me a few pancakes that i literally ate out of my hand, and we headed to the start of the 40 mile MTB race.
Later that weekend, after much underage drinking and a loss of undergarments at a local strip club, 3 of us packed into Lenny's Honda CRX. Yes, that's the one with ONLY 2 seats. Don't ask, but was not too bad stuffed in the back!

Now I head North to remember the fun, honor Lenny, and loose a few golf balls in the annual Lenny Parisi Memorial Northwoods Open. We are a bunch of hacks aside from Scott, but its fun to not keep score, goof off and tell stories. This year did not disappoint. The non golf crew was back at the 'Shangri-Lodge' after a short recon ride and got started making dinner. Kudos to JP and the crew for some super tasty steaks, pasta, vino and all the fixings.

Race day was pretty warm compared to past years. I was able to start in shorts and short sleeves for a change. I started my usual DFL, passed some people on the road and started my off road journey at Rosie's field. I had time splits in my head hoping to shave of another 10-15 minutes from last year. I took advantage of some really nice September weather and had a lot of commuting miles under my belt, a few fast rides as well. I was down 8 lbs from Fat Tire last year, so things were going well. I passed the time check at OO, even faster than I though, and after about another 10 miles at Fire Tower Climb, I was beginning to think i may have a shot of sub 3 hrs. I did start to fade with about 5 miles to go, but just then a Tandem came by and that was just the ride i needed. I snuggled up on their wheel for the next 4 miles, they left me on a section with about a mile to go, but i was home free from there. I crested the final climb, bombed down the ski slope of the Telemark and rolled in with a pretty impressive 2:58:37. Pretty sweet.

Chequamegon gave me 28 hours on the month, and I was hunting for around 40. I decided to honor the changing seasons and get the cross bike ready to take on the riding duties. Monday morning was some pretty wet roads, and Tuesday was worse. I did get to ride in and out on Wednesday, but today i am punched in the work excuse.

I am hoping to get it in tomorrow, even though i will need to have a rain cape ready for the roll home. SKS race blade fenders will do the job of keeping me dry if the skies open. I doubt i have a shot at 40 hrs now, but 35 seems reasonable.

I am down 7 lbs from where i started the 'off season' last year, and hoping to shed some more before i have to start the indoor regime!

Cheers!

Original Homeboy

The Chickenride had a surprise guest last nite. Christian Vande Velde was in town before he heads down for the Tour of Missouri and he made it out for a ride with us.

Ridin Durty

Got some good time logged on the MTB this weekend. Met Tawse and King from Western Springs to ride down to Palos for some good off road. Hit some trails over by Swallow Cliff and some of the oldies but goodies. Worked our way over toward Bullfrog to check out the action at the Palos Meltdown MTB race. Skirted the course and rode home to round out the day. It was good to get several hours in the saddle on the MTB heading into Chequamegon in just 3 weeks. Im down a few more pounds, with a goal of being down 10lbs total from last year's Chimmie Change weight.

Sprint work

So about the only recent glimmer has been the ability to commute into work on a consistent basis for August. Its good to keep the legs going and help keep the weight going down, especially with Chequamegon getting closer.

I hooked up with some SRAMmies on the roll home tuesday - Tawse, Ritzler, Paul, and Schupe. The Badger had angst in the veins and stated ripping of red light sprints from the get go. Once things settled down on Washington blvd, there was some serious sections of speed laid down. We finally broke Shupe's spirit on East ave, only to have him and Ritzler lay down a serious effort while yours truly was on point.
Very fun and very hard ride home, backpacks and all!

News Flash from the Onion!

if you have not seen this yet - its classic stuff!!

The Onion

aug 1 = cross bike??

given the weather and the mood.. I opted for the cross bike today. its 71 degrees, cloudy, and a mist in the air. I figure I made the right choice for the october weather.

rollin the trailer.

now my waistline has been expanding and all, but its been a while since I thre on the 75# load for a ride. With Sarah home tending to new baby Owen, it was a good chance for me to get out and get some time with the boys. I think now that they are entirely smashed into each othere there, they actually fight less!

MERCY!

Okay - so its been a ridiculously long time since the last post. Most of the reason is that when you don't ride, there is not much to write about. The laundry list of excuses I am sure are familiar to you all. I got punched in the work, rain, schedule, family, etc. Long story short, my legs are hairy, my belly is big, and my motivation is low.
I rode to work tuesday, then doubled my milage for the month and rode home.
The good news is that i have shaken off the excuses, dusted off the bike, and im going to start stringing it together, again.
Our family is about to expand, again, any day now, so i am looking forward to some trailer rides with the boys to give mom some quality time with the newborn.

Thats about it for now - see you all at the Glenview Grand Prix!

Action on the 1/4 mile oval!

Thursday nite racing at Northbrook Velodrome!
It has been a few years since I suited up for a track race, especially with any intent on being competitive. The 1/4 mile is the same as i remember it, just smoother now. Having 20+ years of going in circles there, i had no issues adjusting to the fixed gear, and i felt back at home in just a few laps.

Event 1 was a Danish, or win and out. there are 3 laps of racing, then the bell rings and the next rider is 1st place, ring the bell again, next lap 2nd place, etc.
Rarely do i PLAN on contesting the V, but as the bell rang and the acceleration went, i was actually pretty surprised how well i handled it. Ended up boxed to take the win, but i had a good feeling about second. Down the backside, again I was able to match the acceleration, move around the first guy moving backwards, and going through turn 3, i was sitting 2nd wheel. A rider was coming over the top of me to leave me boxed, but 20 years of the oval was on my side. A quick flip of the bars opened a substantial whole, i was shocked at how much the guy freaked out. I gassed it, and boom, 2nd place. I was happy to go sit down and not have to keep burning matches.

Event 2 - 30 lap points race. 1st sprint, sat in, no points. 2ns sprint, I took 1 point. 2 lapps later they rang up a Prime, and all I needed to hear was cash, so I lit the rocket on the backside from the front, and a quick glance over my shoulder between 3 and 4 - I WAS CLEAN! no response. $10 bucks in pocket and now - Crap, 2 laps to go for points, and I am still clean. Settle in, get smooth, SUFFER. SUFFER.
Made it to take 1st place points. Field comes through and I am OTB almost immediately as there is a counter attack to my catch. I get caught by another straggler, whom I immediately hang onto and milk for what its worth. I had resigned to finish OTB. but wait, i can take a turn, then the other guys is motoring again. I think we are closing. Another turn for me, and other guy makes a BIG effort to close.. wait, yes.. we will get there. I'm thinking no way, we are gonna get there at the bell. Through 2 to go the kid is HAULING, I am HURTING! I know I have to follow him no matter what. We catch the back just out of turn 4 with the bell ringing. The other guy was dumb enough to work 80% of the time we were together, but smart enough to go immediately over the top when we catch. He lights it going into turn 2, I'm in tow. I punch his ticket going into 3, we are clean, win another points sprint on the final. Haas has to catch me, because i have been cross eyed and drooling for several laps. ended up in 2nd place for the event. I don't think I have placed in a points race in at least 5 years, and was very happy to sack up and put on a decent display of suffering.

Love the Oval.

A fantastic reason to pedal

Enough said.

Bone Ride - Fail

So i was super pumped about Bone Ride this year. I had some great miles, feeling pretty fit, dropped a bunch of weight, and even a decent race under the belt already.
Has a great a SRAM crew heading up - Tawse, Bos, King, Feltz, JP, Lyle, danger Dan, and sweet Pete.
Forecast was top notch - starting temp in the low 70's, high in the 80's. Then there was the wind. WSW winds in the 20's with gusts in the 30's.
Rollout from Tom Schuler's house was lighthearted and mellow. Some herky jerky with all the stoplights and high turnout was to be expected, so it was high alert for the first hour.
My weaponry was the 'Dale with my tubbie 404's to keep the train rollin. The SRAMmies had some serious hoops to combat the wind. Tawse was riding Lenny's Cervelo and was sporting an 808 rear with a 404 front. Very slick.

Once we got out of town the severity of the cross-headwind was felt. Very quickly i realized there would be no hiding today, and it would be 4.5 hrs of gutterball just to make it to Madison. General Bone diet is a bunch of bars and gels on the way up, and usually 2 bottles gets you through, maybe a topoff somewhere at a red light. The warm temps were welcome, but i realized that by about halfway there, I was done with a bottle and a half. Ed was the man as always in the SRAM Volvo and usually i can get a quick bottle serviced at a red light. This year he was swamped with takers at all of the convenient locations. I had to get one fillup and chase with a very small group for about 10 minutes to get back into the fold. Several matches burnt there. Several occasions i had to pump out 500w+ to close gaps or to move up to get out of stupid situations. More matches.

The effort took its toll and i was popped off about 10 miles outside Madison, got a bumper ride for some of it. One funny situation, after a bumper ride and seeing that ED needed to move for traffic, the group i was with fanned out, as Ed came back into position, 3 dudes were parked on the bumper already. I looked at the guy closest to me and said 'move'. He was like "what the?" i told him, "see my jersey ( i was fully kitted in SRAM).. thats my bumper". Not long after that i was completely wrecked and pedaled into town solo and cooked.

There was a major inner battle in my head as to if i was going to attempt to even start to head back with the group, or in the car. My ego won. I got some food down, a few cokes, and started to feel a bit better. I can say that this year i was more wasted GETTING to Madison, that in the years I have finished the entire ride.

So we rolled out. It took me about 20 minutes to get close to comfortable again, but i was doing ok. It was less of a crosswind that I anticipated, and we were rolling at about 30-34kph pretty easily. Not bad, on pace for a 4 hour return.
Out of town we caught a section of tailwind and the natives were restless to prove how fast they could go in a tailwind. There was a rotating paceline that started, and it accelerated almost 20kph! WTF? i was popped off on the first rise, several others were dangling, and the group of 18 that we had was left with about 5 guys working. Dumb. Ed came by and i jammed my elbow in the door jam of the Volvo, he gave me a 60kph return to the back of the group with instructions to tell them to slow the hell down! The group listened and we were bar to bar again. Not bad. I recomposed myself, thought positive thoughts, and had convinced myself that I was going to finish this year again!
There is a BP gas station at 200km, which is a key landmark. Its a nice stop for a coke, it means there is only about 55km left to the end, and a huge mental hurdle.
Unfortunately i was no longer able to tell myself I was going to finish, sadly, i packed it in and got in the Volvo.
The group pushed on, and from the backseat of the Volvo, i was able to see the groups form deteriorate, and see who was close to detonating themselves. I was very happy to have jugs of water on hand and to be able to provide bottle service on the fly for the guys, which is a huge benefit with 130 miles in your legs.

Kudos to Tawse for finishing on very limited riding this year, and to King who rode the Bone on a BORROWED bike! He most definitely had an inner battle going on to ride or to stop, for most of the ride.



Bone Ride 2010 is only 355 days away - May 19, 2010

misty chicken

A small group rolled out for a misty ride. King navigated an alternate route claiming he is starting a new wednesday nite crit series. I think he was several turns short to call it a crit. A fun time was had by all.

Vernon Hills

I toed the line at the Vernon Hills race - Masters 30+ for me.
I am lined up next to my rock star teammate, Brian Haas, and an old friend Steve Driscoll. He has a great write up about the race here .

Albertos managed to get a guy in the break, Haas made the next split so i figured i was along for the ride and some training. I was pumped up to be able to match the accelerations pretty easily, and to even throw in an occasional effort of my own.
The 1st split and 2nd split came back together with about 5 min to go before laps, and i completely spaced it that there were only 3 guys up the road. I offered a speedy wheel to Haas, and we were well positioned when we took the bell. Jason Garner was the first to light the candle, and i matched it and waited for the second effort. I was waiting for Ventura to go full Ktownmotor on it, as i was ready to get sucked along, but he never went all in. My rear wheel got a bit skippy in the 4th turn sweeper, and Haas kinda got spooked, so i lit the 11 Cog for myself, and gave it good gas, lifted about 50m from the finish thinking i was good for a top 20 or so. Back to the part about forgetting how many guys were up the road, by lifting off before the line, a few guys slid by, and i ended up 9th. Nothing to write home about, but i was pretty happy with it all things considered.

Now i have a few good days of commuting, a Chicken and a Monsters of the Midway to keep things rollin for me.

Not so fat kid - OUT

RAD

Rad, dance scene from BooomBastic on Vimeo.

Man on man - 1986

I think this movie was one of the reasons i started working at the bike shop!
I had a sweet Schwinn Predator, converted from dirt to street: Skyway tuffwheel II's, California freestyle bars, Potts mod, ACS rotor.. oh yeah

Randy Tischman was a local kid that got picked up by Kuwahara to ride flatland, but the kid could get good air too!

and this movie.. oh man who didn't want to try to ride Helltrack, or even better take "Cru Jones'" spot to show off with Lori Loughlin's character "Christian Hollings". This was and is one of my fav cheesy bike flicks.

Chicken fly by

Here is a quick fly by of the crew on the Chicken. This was about the only time it was slow enough to get the camera out.

Neighborhood crit...

Lining up for a corner like a champ.

bare knees in april...

is always a good thing. especially on a sunny afternoon on your day off.
I was able to get out for 2 hours today, there was a decent wind so i took it uopn myself to put the hurt on myself a bit. I felt good, and always glad to try to turn my pasty skin a deeper shade of red.

Out

Against better judgement....

So against better judgement - i bundeled up and rode into work yesterday, it was a balmy 33 degrees when i left. I didn't want to pass up on the opportunity for a big day by riding in, out AND getting the Chickenride in. The temps warmed up on the afternoon, and the SRAM car was great enough to swing by and grab my bag and i was able to ride load-free on the way out. The ride out was snappy, but not too uncomfortable and Dixon made an appearence and it was good to talk to him on the roll out. The ride was well attended, Brian and Francine Haas made it out, so it was good to see them and have teammates. It was a stiff westerly breeze, which made watching the sprint on frontage road quite an adventure in judging who went too soon.
Needless to say, the turnaround to head back east resembled a Nascar race with the paceline stretching way out with the 18+ riders we had, and rolling at speeds nearing 30mph. MTB Matt was doing all he could to break it open, but the large group would not allow for it. I was able to make it up over Joliet rd hill with the group, and be in decent position coming into the last turn. I had a Feltz in tow, and MTB Matt blasted through the last turn with Bos, Dixon, and JP in front of me still. Dickos gave it a very good roll, Bos put in a monster effort to close the gap, MTB Matt finally had enough leaving Bos on Point, and JP and i trying to close in on it. Feltz was still on my hip, but Bos took the V with myself in tow for 2nd.
Great group ride today, everyone made it to the end together, and there was no lack of speed.

I ended up with just over 4 hrs, and 115km on the day!

Nash-vegas Training Camp 2009