I have been kinda fixated on the Supreme Bowl in LA. The design of the building and ramp just intrigues me. Not that I know anything about that stuff other than it's just rad and I kinda dig it.
Yeah that's the counter and the shop below the bowl, and folks go upstairs to skate. Pretty cool huh..
I got super excited to find some rad footage of Hosoi skating the supreme bowl, but whoever edited it did it in such a stupid way that watching it gave me a migraine. Hosoi doesn't need flashing editing tricks, show the dude skating...
anyway, these guys would never give you a migraine...
life has been killer busy, but I'm looking forward to a nice long weekend and racking up some good miles on the bike....Fairhill 50 maybe on the agenda... Blue Cup ride is tonight... My legs feel like they have been beating with a baseball bat... Be gentle with me boys...
Seriously, Potter went into my zipped up cycling bag and pulled out my MASS number plate.
I clearly can see where he was trying to make my number more aero. Clearly.
I suspect that dog either hates me, or makes it his personal mission to destroy my stuff.
Luckily, I only have 1 or 2 more mtb races this year...
Seriously, he hasn't destroyed anything of Diane's. Seriously.
Finally picked up my new wheels today.
Stan's Crest Rims (per Fort Jame's recommendation before he went AWOL), DT 340 hubs, and DT spokes. All pulled together by wheel building master Slick Rick the Ruler. Nothing like hand build wheels folks!
signed by the master:
I'm pretty excited to take these guys for a ride this weekend...
Diane and I are driving home the other night. We are quiet in the car, and both pretty tired after a busy weekend.
“I hope you have a better cross season this year.” She says out of the blue.
“What do you mean?” I ask a little puzzled.
Diane continues, “you worked really hard last year, and I know you never rode at the level you wanted to. You never seemed to catch a break, it just never clicked. I know you had fun, and you raced as hard as you could, but I also know you were frustrated. I want to see you have a better year this year.”
I responded “fair enough, I plan on having a better year this year…”
my wife is pretty damn cool.
We decided to stop for water ice on the way home. I had a root beergelati. It was awesome.
…
So I strongly believe that we all have a responsibility to be ambassadors for the our sport. That means on the road as well as the mountainbike. I have often espoused that we have to take the high road, and not scream, yell or flip off every person that passes on the road. Sure, there are plenty of jackasses that drive by and yell, or throw stuff. My usual modus operandi in those situations is to just smile and wave and usually make some sarcastic remark about “Americans love their cyclists…”
Last night I was on a quiet road winding through Cecil County riding by myself. Seriously, no traffic on the road at all.I rode my bike at a leisurely pace as I watched a runner coming towards me in my lane. From out of no where a couple of dudes, in a Mustang 5.0 circa Vanilla Ice, run right up on me and lay on the horn. The passenger leaned out the window fired a McDonald’s bag at me. Normally in these situations, I just smile and wave. But tonight, something different came out of my mouth. Before I knew it, I was furious and it came out.
“come on back tough guy, I’m gonna fuck you up.”I yelled, as I sat up and gestured with both hands for the two men to come back.
The runner, who witnessed the entire thing and was coming towards me commented as we passed each other, “I fucking hate people.”
My heart rate calmed, and my anger subsided. I felt a little embarrassed that I reacted that way. They scared the hell of me because I never heard them coming until they were right there. I was also acutely aware that had they stopped it was gonna end badly for someone. Maybe me because I’m not that tough, maybe them because sometimes I do stupid stuff.
This isn’t a cars suck post, or anything. I drove to work today. I love my little Honda Fit. This is just me saying that even though philosophically I believe, and 99% of time behave in the manner that says we should always take the high road, that yesterday, well yesterday I wanted to punish those assholes, not because they don’t know how to deal with a cyclist on the road, but basically because some people are just dickwads.
I didn't race Neshaminy this weekend. I had planned to.
The Clog Factory was sponsoring a Relay for Life team to benefit the American Cancer Association. The concept is similar to 24hr bike racing, except the goal obviously is to have someone walking/running on the track for 24hrs. I figured no one would want to go in the dead black middle of the night, so I signed up for the hours 2am-4am.
Those years of team 24hr racing on bikes would payoff at some level right?
Frankly I was so freaked out that I might over sleep and miss my shift that I finally just got up and headed out to the local high school where the relay was held. I got there just before midnight.
I have to admit it was pretty cool. Under the lights kids were playing soccer, other families were playing Frisbee, and all the while folks were steady walking around the track. Some folks walked by themselves, some were in groups. Being at the venue I finally relaxed. Knowing I wouldn't sleep through my shift, I was finally able to mellow out a bit and actually crash out for a bit at our little camp spot.
At 1:00, they kicked up the tunes and all the kids came running to the DJ and started dancing. The kids were tearing it up. When the DJ started playing Nelly's "it's getting hot in here" and the kids are started dancing like they "wanna take off all my clothes" they pulled the plug on that song pretty damn quickly. AC/DC's shook me all night didn't last too long either. Hey, this was a family event. That gave me a nice chuckle in the dead of night.
Finally, they played the last dance song, a much more PG "the twist" by Chubby Checker as they turned off the lights in the stadium and announced it would be quiet hours from 2am -5am.
2am- my shift was finally here: A coworker passed me the reigns and I set out on the track.
It was dark, but warm. I'm guessing I was the only person walking the track with a GPS tracking their miles, and I'm also very sure I was the only guy in the stadium wearing compression socks. Yeah, I'm a dork.
As I walked the track, I admit I was surprised at all the kids. Many walking the track, some camped out in their team's tent, and still more disappearing in to the corners of the venue. Groups walked together with energy cheering each other on, and talking about life.
Just as I was contemplating the meaning of the entire thing, a woman who was obviously battling cancer right now walked past me. That landed on me pretty heavily. I felt my pace slow a bit.
I have to admit as I walked around in the darkness it felt very peaceful. I had found a pretty nice moment of Zen. I was struck by the duplicity of the entire event. On the inside of the track the luminaries all had the names of friends and family lost to cancer. This was the reason we were here, walking for their honor and their memory. At the same time, the kids were dancing and hanging out and celebrating life. You know being kids.
And there it was: celebrate the lives that we have lost, support those fighting the fight, demand a cure and live life to fullest that we can. That was my take away from this event.
4am rolled around, and my friend Martha showed up. We walked a couple laps together and talked about the ways of the world as we often do.
I got home just before the sun came up, and I kissed my wife, and dove into bed to catch a couple of hours of rest.
Yes, dear readers this thing is very much still on.
Tonight at the bar with good friends Breyla-la, Buddy the Keg Breaker, Rachel and my beloved Monkey, I wrapped up what might have been on of my best days on the planet earth. Clearly the top 5.
And that was before Breyla-la came up with this Mac and Cheese / Brewers plate that we shared full of bratwurst and sauerkraut.
best ever.
walking through the bar I see a woman that looks a lot like my sister in law. Then I see a dude behind her that looks a lot like my kid brother. Next thing I know I feel myself in a bear hug of wonderfulness. Thank god it was my brother and his wife and not some stranger!
Gonna get up early and ride my bike with some friends.
I recognize I am pretty damn lucky in this life. I've worked very hard, been in the right place at the right time, and had some good breaks. Today was one of those days were it all comes together. Seriously top 5 stuff.
Sometimes it pays to have a good sense of humor.
I'm gonna go kiss my wife now.
I was in NYC for a couple of days for business this week.
I stayed in a nice hotel, totally hipster-ed out.
This was my room:
I kinda liked the room, and frankly for a place I'm going to sleep, watch sportscenter and charge my cell phone, it was perfect.
At about 1:00am Monday night, I was sound asleep in my bed, when the door flew open and a woman dressed an black busted in. The rooms, as you can see were small.
From my bed I look up and offer her a "HEY NOW!!!"
Sadly that as the best I could come up with, as moments ago, I was sound asleep and frankly still a little foggy, as this woman dressed in black is essentially standing at the foot of my bed.
Apparently, she was as startled to see me as I was her, because she let out a blood curling scream.
Followed by a barrage of apologies, as she made a hasty exit from my room.
Before you ask, the door didn't have a chain, it was a hipster hotel, and I had the deadbolt locked. As it all came together, I realized she was an employee of the hotel, and had a master key or something. A little freaky, but more so funny.
Of course then I couldn't get back to sleep so I was super fresh for my morning meetings.
Good to be home. Hope to get out and ride for a bit tonight if I don't melt first.
Pretty spectacular day. Weather was awesome, course was dry as I have ever seen it, and the racing was great. Riding through the Tent city at the Finish of Iron hill is a pretty spectacular and unique feeling. The crowd gets so loud, I can get goose bumps thinking about people screaming as we rode through there.
Totally awesome.
Potter learned to open the cooler and help himself to a cool drink.
So without any proper warm up or anything, and because it’s an endurance race, I shot off the front of the start. Someone asked me why I started so fast, to which I responded, “you gotta dance with the lady you bring to the dance. That’s the lady I brought, so I’m dancing.” I really wanted to get to the first long decent with a clear path in front of me (fuzzy’s for the locals). My teammate Meatball would bridge up to me just before Fuzzy’s and I’d usher him to the front just as the descent started…
After climbing up the third of three climbs on the lap, I found myself in a very comfortable and friendly group riding 5,6,7 overall with Benny da jeweler, and Travis Sapsford. We could see 2,3,4 about 15 seconds ahead of us, and we were settling in for a nice pace. I was feeling good..
Benny came around the front of our happy little group as we headed for slime hill.
For some unknown reason Benny, then he pile drove himself into slime hill and slid down it. It was an ugly, ugly crash and he looked bad.
Travis and I stopped with him. I stayed with him while Travis ran off to get a course marshall. We maybe lost 15 minutes. Ben was coherent, but I was worried he might go into shock, so we stayed with him.
If presented with the same situation, we’d do it again. I know Ben would do it for us as well.
Benny ended up in a sling for the rest of the day and a jacked up shoulder. Get well soon buddy.
Now, coming into this thing, I had hoped for a top 10 ride. I figured if I didn’t totally blow myself up that would be achievable . A top 5 would be a stretch goal. After spotting the competition so much time, it was pretty clear neither was going to happen.
I will admit to you there is a freedom knowing that you will not be a factor for the podium. The game changes from trying to be tactical and outsmart your competition, to a personal effort of, well how many people can I catch. How much ground can I get back. I gotta tell you, I like to chase carrots. And that’s what Travis and I did for the Next 5 laps as we rode a team time trial to the end.
white shoe covers gave me a clear aero advantage today.
We worked together, chatted each other up, talked smack and generally had a great race. We both felt good, and drove through the course at what I felt was a relentless pace. I kept saying it’s a long race, keep moving forward. We can catch one more guy...
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As we finished up the final lap, we caught up to Garvey, who had 4 flats on this day. I was thinking this was gonna end up a 3 up sprint between friends, and two guys I really like to train with. Jeff caught his pedal on a rock, and it gave Travis and I just a little gap.
As we came into the finishing loop, the amazing tent city at Ironhill, Travis and I pulled alongside each other. We had worked very hard, and would finish Six laps of seven miles in 4:11. We pulled along aside each other and shook hands. We were gonna sprint this out, like two teammates at the end of a long break in the tour or something . I let Travis lead out, thinking I could come around him on tent row, and out kick him at the line. We sped through the tents and I moved up on the left to make my move. I stood to sprint, and so did Travis, he shut the door, and rode in to finish one spot ahead of me.
Garvey was nipping at my wheel as we crossed the line.
A pretty tremendous finish, to an outstanding day.
Last night as I lay in bed with a sore back, sore legs and a slight dehydration headache, I lamented for a second that we almost made that 7th lap. That would have put us in the top 10. We came up just 11 minutes short… Then I smiled, because 1. I’m not so sure I could have done a 7th lap, and 2. it was really an amazing race, and I had a ridiculous amount of fun. I fell asleep shortly thereafter and slept like a baby.
Blake and Travis wait for the hoards of sport riders to come through.
It’s been 5 years since I last raced at Ironhill, it won’t be another 5 years.
