November

So here we are past the halfway mark in November, and I actually have 12 hours on the bike. Generally I have hung up commuting and rely on the odd weekend ride to get any time in. I've been glad to push a few degrees colder and still enjoy some really nice afternoon rides home. ( thanx Pete!)
I'm still protesting the trainer, but it's now set up and ready for me to haul my carcass out of bed in the mornings.
I'm hoping to end with about 20 hours and stay ahead of where I usually am this time of year. I hope you are doing the same!


Cheers!

Results!

82 guys lined up for the masters 30+ race. 82!
I remember way back when there weren't 42 guys racing ALL DAY!
Great course and thanx to Rob Kelly and Bicycle Haven for knocking out another classic cross course.
I finished 66th. Pretty happy about that.

Racing

A wise man once said in order to be a bike racer, you have to race your bike.

So in that case, for the first (and probably last) time in 2010 I will be a bike racer. Im going to line up for a cross race tomorrow, have some fun, probably puke and try not to finish DFL

Wish me luck


Cheers!

Resources

Can't talk enough about how useful myfooddiary.com is. It has about the bigger database I've seen if foods making searches quite easy. It has a 'fridge' feature allowing you to save favorite foods. with that, I can put a whole day of eating in, in about 90 seconds. When I am diligent about using it, I can easily drop 1-2 lbs a week consistently. I'm down about 7 right now and looking to make a big push to drop about 10 mote thru the winter.


Cheers!

almost Door-ed

I will start by saying no one was hurt in the writing of this post.

I was rolling home from work wednesday night, yes, after dark. I had a 200 Lumen helmet light and a 300L bar mounted dual light, and the usual array of seat stay, seat bag, and backpack flashers on the rear. Needless to say, I could be seen.
I was just about home an some guy whipped open the car door oblivious to me being about 3 feet from the car. My lesson learned is to ALWAYS pay attention, and perhaps i need to leave an extra foot from parked cars from what i have been leaving.
The part that chaps my ass is as the guy gets out, I say something low key like "whoa, look out". nothing in bad taste or derogatory. As I look back at him ( with a 200L spotlight) he starts yelling and cussing at me. WTF? dude, you almost took me and my bike out, bent the crap out of your car door, all i said was WHOA and I'm the asshole??? I just don't get peoples attitudes sometimes.

Maybe its time for brighter lights.

WHAT THE?????

Now that just plain funny, i don't care who ya are!!

Church Cross

I local crew puts on a great event known as Church Cross. Its sunday mornings, and as straightforward as it gets. Show up, race, go home. They had a great course this past week, and i was able to finally make it out. I managed to put myself in the hurt locker for about 45 minutes, which is waaaay harder than i would have pushed my self on a solo ride. Yes I puked, so i know i went hard enough.

Thanx again to the Church Cross Crew for a great morning ride!

Rhythm

I think its safe to say that most people that ride are type A personalities, high strung at various levels and in general operate well in a normal repetitious schedule.

For me - i have a very "all or none" type of personality, and when i can lock into a routine and knock that out day in and day out, I'm generally happy and progressing toward some form of a goal.

Happy to say that 4 days thin week i was able to ride. 3 days commute into work, and a cross ride an additional day. I know that fall is quickly returning and daylight will get short fast, but i am very much looking forward to the commuting routine to return.

HUGE THANKS to the SRAM crew for helping a brother out. Looks like my road rig will be back on the road soon, and the cross bike will get a handy upgrade. For those of you that have been kicking around changing groups or adding new parts, i can say that hands down SRAM is the gear to have! the stuff works flawlessly and it supports the home team!

its been such a long time....

what can i say - not much to write about, life happens and rides do not.
Got the cross bike put back together after the July flood. Road bike dumped out about a gallon of water from the head tube when i pulled the fork, no gouda. It needs work. Lighting is my current issue, i have a fleet of different lights, but between smoked batteries and dead chargers from being submerged, i have but a flicker to guide my morning and evening commutes. Gotta tune that up so i can make a return to commuting until the weather turns.

Thinking about 'racing' cross, but then again beer sounds good.

Cheers!!

Its my story, I'll tell it how I want to

thank you to all my loyal readers, all 2 of them.

So in the past few months, I've held off writing as i though i should create more quality stories, more insightful posts.
Ya know what - that ain't me, not a whole lot about me is insightful.

so here is what i have been up to...

a few weeks ago Andy Caron came back into town. Low key chickenride with him, i gutted out a huge effort to roll across to a final effort he rolled across to.
I sat on, jumped, tried to lead him out but he didn't get there, so i soft pedaled and informed the man to 'get up here, its your ride, you oughta win!'

mostly from there, got some crappy rain days, some so so riding into work and back.

July 5th against better judgement i met up with the alberto's crew and we left Gurnee to head to Lake Geneva. 8 of us rolled along smoothly. it gets pretty punchy up there, and i knew the clock was ticking for me.
The way home i tried to take a few turns but mostly hide, and sure enough, BONK. the 100 miles was 5.5 hrs, i was good for 4.5, oh well.

Hit another chicken just this past week, pretty mellow for the most part, made it up over tough spot to slide into the leadout train. Now i knew i was cooked, but cued in to Andy and tried to get the man a free lift to the finish. He took it, had it locked up and coasted... just enough for Tawse to pimp him on the inside. Kudos to Tawse

Today i rolled in to work, it was just gonna be one of those days. Got pulled out in front of a few times, no biggie, but the icing on the cake was the ass clown that did the 4 lance change from the left side over to chop me, i left a solid handprint in teh front quarter panel to remind her to look before you swerve. Bi - otch.

YELLING!!!

wow, ok so its been over a month, so feel free to jab at me with all kinds of how come no posts comments. I also hate to be a HATER on my first post back..

But I'm gonna!
What the hell is with all the Douchy Drivers out there that can see a vividly colored person with blinkig lights in front of them??
Today alone, I got Bus Fucked - where the bus races in front of you to stop at the next stop, then had on 2 seperate occasions cars turn IMMEDIATELY in front of me.
Come on man, put down the crackberry or the iMaxipad, and pay attention!

I realize there are a lot of people on 2 wheels that have no regard for pedistrians or traffic, but even with that in the picture, what kind of driver and PERSON needs to use a 3500 lb vehicle to threaten someone. If you wanna make a point with me, step out of your vehicle and say something. Punch me if you gotta, but dont hide behind the steel and 4 wheels as you fondle your electronic device then make me out as the scapegoat!

Peace!

Changing seasons...

2 weeks ago it was a BEAUTIFUL friday, then the temps dropped about 30 degrees and we had an up and down week. Got a Chilly Chickenride in last week, but not much else to write home about.

This week is looking GOOD. Supposed to be in the 70's later this week, so I sacked up and pedaled into a chilly AM today, looking forward to a much milder ride home.

More to come

Sunny and warm.. with a chance of snow

A quick recap of the last week or so...
The Midwest if FINALLY starting to escape the grip of winter. Last weekend i got out for a solo Sunday pedal, chilly but i rocked out the knickers. Have i mentioned I LOVE knickers?
Monday i got a good commute in, warm in the morning, and not too shabby at all for the PM ride. Tuesday i was off work and had Daddy duty, so i did spend some time outside, albeit not on the bike. Wednesday = Chickenride - first one of the year. Good to see the crew, MTB Matt proved WAAAAAYYY to strong as usual and put in about 98% of the work. Today i dragged myself out of bed and got the ride to work in, and i am currently looking at warm temps, appx 60; but a stark headwind of about 24mph to greet me in an hour or so.

No for the bad news... Its supposed to snow again Saturday - BLAH.

the bright side is that temps will be seasonable for next week, so i hope for the best there.

Ciao!

Late Nite assault

So I grumbled all afternoon yesterday, after being tricked by some early rain into NOT riding in and taking the train, the skies cleared and produced a 60 degree day with lots of SUN. I was pretty bent that I could not get on the bike.

The wife had some super yummy burgers that we threw on the grill so that always makes my happy, but fatter.

Around 8:30pm once it all quieted down, I cranked through some emails, and noticed it was still 55 degrees outside. I looked at Sarah and said 'screw it.. I'm going!'
she said "downstairs to ride?" - NOPE strapping on the lights and heading out.

My original target was the zoo path, but the recently melted snow left it UBER wet and slimy in most sections. I quickly U-Turned and began my side street assault.
It was SUPER warm, and I was feelin pretty good. It was fun to have to NAV on the fly to get a route going that kept me off many of the usual main roads. Motorola Training Camp Rules were in effect, and aside from a grimy 50m of Prairie Path, i was able to not use any roads twice. I had a blast. No numbers, no intervals, just out cruising in the night.

I had about 600 lumens courtesy of Light in Motion, and as always the SKS Race Blade Fenders kept me dry!

I think I'm gonna throw out the suggestion to get a regular night cruise going, see if I can attract any night owls.

A MUST view

For all of you out there that are on the back side of clothing orders, if you have been 'the clothing guy" for your team, or just plain like you tube spoofs...

March!

So with a little help from my neighbor Jay, i have managed not only a good handful of early morning rides, but a couple of evening sessions of some good intervals as well. I had hoped to be ahead of where i am now, but March is here, i think we may be seeing just enough of a warm up to start riding to work. Now i know good and well it can snow for 3 more months still, but I think mother nature is in my favor now. I sacked up and piled on a ton of lycra both Thursday and Friday for the commute to work. It was slow, but went well. Its always a bit bizarre riding through the city in the dark, but its pretty mellow at least.

Looking forward to getting it done next week as well!

Starting over.. again

this one kinda goes like this..

Blah Blah

Blah Blah Blah

Been sick, got better.. Got some good days in on the trainer so far, hoping to get agood streak started and get some good work in

Thats about all for now

Strapped down

winter in the midwest = indoor trainer season.
There are a few hardmen that ride yearround; I am NOT one of them
i would hesitate to call it a streak yet, but i have several indoor rides for the year already.

woo hoo.