Tick, tick, tick

Last night I found a tick on me. A freaking deer tick, embedded and engorged. I didn't realize what it was initially because it was in the spot just below and between the shoulder blades that you can just barely reach but can't see too well. I only noticed it because I happened to be scratching in the area, felt it and started to dig at it. Ick. Apparently it has been there for several days because it was already dead. So, I'm going to have to get on the horn with the doc today and get shot up with some antibiotics. Good times. I'm sure its only a coincidence but I've had headaches and achyness for the last several days, just like lyme disease. Yippee!



It was 36 and drizzly when I rode in this morning and I had stupidly underdressed. Idiot. By the time I got in, I could barely move my fingers. To top it off, the shower at work has roughly 1 minute of hot water before it turns tepid so I couldn't even soak to warm up for ten minutes. One thing that I never skimp on though is my visibility. My bike has three flashers on it. Two in the rear and one white flasher in the front. In addition to that, I have reflective accents on my shoes, messenger bag, gloves, jacket. You name it, its reflective. I probably look like the freakin mother ship coming in for a landing but at least I know that there is no way somebody can not see me. They may not be paying attention to what their doing and still plow me over but at least I know that when the jackass puts his cell phone down and stops watching the girls gone wild dvd on his drop down screen that I'll be the first thing he sees. I've actually had a car stop me and tell me how visible I am on the road and as a father that makes me feel good.

yummy

Yesterday, the pooch and I did our weekly Sunday morning ride. Things were a bit wet but otherwise it was a pretty damn sweet ride. Thankfully hunting season is now over so we'll be able to venture out mid-week a bit more. Nothing much of real interest happened during the ride other than I'm getting a really good loop down that takes roughly 1:45 right now and can pretty easily be lengthened to several hours with a bit of out and back or road action thrown in to connect pieces.

What happened after the ride was most interesting. About 15 minutes into the ride Chance wandered off. I had a sneaking suspicion he had found a gut pile from deer left over from hunting season. Not wanting to deal with it at the time, I rode on expecting him to meet me back at the car as he does when we get seperated. About an hour into the ride, I stopped to adjust my headset when I heard his jangling collar approaching. Since he had managed to catch me, I assumed that he had simply wandered off momentarily earlier in the ride and not actually found a steaming pile of disgusting. We finished our ride without incident but when we got to the car my earlier worries proved to be true. Instead of hopping into the car, Chance proceeded to do the ole back arch convulsion and hacked up about 1 1/2 pounds of deer intestines. Excellent. Thankfully he was nice enough to do it before hopping into the car. Unfortunately, he didn't get it all out and I had a nice little suprise waiting for me on the living room carpet this morning. Nice way to start the day.

Photo evidence.















Aren't you glad you checked this blog today? Where else can you find a photo of regurgitated deer intestines? 

Don't try this at home!

New this fall to the Food Network "Lactate Threshold Cooking". Burn some calories before stuffing more down your pie-hole.



















.

dreaming of a white christmas

With Christmas and my birthday quickly approaching all of my available grey matter has obsessing over what to ask for. With the early demise of my heart rate monitor and the fact that I get lost at the drop of a hat, I've been thinking a lot about the Garmin Edge GPS/Heart Rate monitor.

I definitely consider this a lust item and not really a need item. I could easily run out and get another hr monitor for less than a third of the money and do perfectly fine but damn is this thing cool. Its hard to tell from the photo but the computer is only about twice the size of my current cat-eye bike computer and probably smaller than some of the monstrosities they call bike computers that I've seen advertised over the years. But in that small package there are tons of functions with the four most important being: 1. heart rate monitor 2. gps 3. bike computer 4. training software.

I would think that with those four items at my side, I'd be able to kick it up a notch next summer.

Realistically though, it taint gonna happen so if I'm going to set my sights on something so pricey it might as well be the new Salsa Mamasita.

Me likey.

Sunday ride

Its Sunday again and that means one thing, a ride with the pooch. Today we did a nice loop on the local trails ringing in at about 1:30 and 15 miles. Overall it was a pretty damn nice ride. It was a bit wet because of all of the f'ing rain recently but overall things are holding up nicely. If it wasn't for the hunters and their four wheelers and trucks, the ride would have been almost mud free. The pooch continues to impress as well, as the temps drop, his stamina rises as he easily kept up the whole ride. Hopefully we'll be doing lots of miles together this winter. There's lots more to yap about but I'm on my home dial-up and this slow crap is driving me batty.  

Sunday's ride

Here are a couple of pics from B's and my ridey ride on Sunday. What a frickin beautiful day.




































Hospital walking "path"















B's first kinda, sorta single track.















lattah

Sponsor plug

Here are a couple pics of B rockin a Bikeman.com Team sponsor t-shirt.






































I'm not sure if Rock Shox approves of tokin on a hooka though.

its a wrap

Its Sunday evening and I just wrapped a fine weekend.  Yesterday, Marcy was in New Hampster at a friend’s baby shower so B-Girl and I were left to our own devices.  We passed the time playing, napping, Christmas shopping for mommy and going for a road ride.  This was our first ride together in over a month and I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome.  It was a beautiful day with temps hovering in the mid 50’s, sunny skies, light breeze.  I also tried a different method of keeping B happy than previously.  Before, I would wait until B was ready for her nap and head out hoping that she would fall asleep during the ride.  Unfortunately, when she wakes from her nap, she freaks and screams bloody murder until we get home.  So with that in mind, yesterday we headed out just after B’s morning nap and sure enough she was happy and content during the whole ride.  I purposely kept the ride short just in case but I never heard a peep (no unhappy ones at least) until we pulled back into the driveway after the ride.  This may have been my last trailer ride with her this year but I’ll certainly remember this come next spring.

Today was spent hanging around the house, doing a bit of work to make some extra coinage for this winter’s copious house renovations.  I was also able to squeeze in a mountain bike ride with the pooch before the rains descended on us.  We got in a sweet 1.5 hour on a new loop that we stumbled upon while exploring.  The funniest thing happened during the ride, because of the previous night’s rains Chance was enjoying himself splashing through all of the puddles.  One puddle on the edge of a swamp proved to be more than a match for the pooch.  It was only about 5’ across but when he tried to run through, he took a header and disappeared from sight.  He emerged a second later, covered in mud and quickly scrambled out the other side with his tail tucked.  Funny shit.  I laughed out loud at the poor s.o.b.  Of course, I wasn’t laughing as much when I had to clean him up when we got home.

La Ruta de los Conquistadores

Same ole, same ole in these here parts. Work my ass off for 10 hrs, go home, have and/or make dinner, play with the spud, put spud to bed, work for another hour (most nights), go to bed, repeat. Thankfully, some of those days have a bit of bike cummuting thrown in for sanity's sake. Yesterday, for example, I had an excellent ride home. 45 deg., clear and cool. The legs were feeling good and nobody tried to force me off of the road. Sweetness. I actually did a cx workout with the pooch in the morning as well and capped the day off with some pilates to work on the core and get things limbered up again so yesterday was a pretty good day.

Just read Adam Craig's write-up on that silly little race down in Central America. Looks pretty brutal but I've got to wonder if the 25 k of rail bed (with the ties) would be better with a 29'er.

From the look of this pic and others on the cycling news website, a 29'er could roll this stuff with the greatest of ease saving both time and energy. Of course, if you screwed up and fell in the river below, you'd be eaten by alligators Indiana Jones style.

whose the man?

I rode two days in a row, Wednesday and Thursday.  I’m so excited I almost peed my pants.  Damn this blog is even more boring than usual.

I’m getting my man-on again this off season and have started doing Pilates again.  They’re sorta gay and you can’t possibly look manly while doing them but they’re a great flexibility and core workout and as we all know, those are two areas that cyclists are notoriously weak in.  I’m secure enough in my manhood to announce that I do them.  For gods sake, I’m secure enough to wear a pink shirt to an office full of work boot wearing construction managers.  They rarely see my shaved legs or spandex though, I may be a man but I’m not stupid.

quickie

Quick weekly update:

Most of my riding has been the occasional commute (usually Wednesday’s). Last Wednesday, on my commute home, I ran into a road construction delay. Being a jackass on a bike, I rode around all of the cars to the front of the line, crossed the street and waited at a cross walk. The flagger waved me through (before the huge line of cars I had just passed) so I proceeded to cross the bridge. Of course the f’in flagger sent me through while there were still cars coming from the other direction so I changed my route to go over the crosswalk behind a cat excavator. Behind the excavator was a pile of railroad ties and some other various construction detritus. I started to snake my way through but halfway there I slipped out and ate serious shit, munging up my hand, glove, knee and ankle. I’m guessing it was karma for passing everybody like an ass.

The scene of the crime.















My poor glove.















wah, wah, my poor hand.















I’m also doing some cx workouts a couple days a week before work. These’ll be good if I actually do a cyclocross race but more importantly it’s a way to liven up my workout schedule.

Chris Carmichael’s Train Right series of dvd’s are sort of boring but are actually a good workout and even though they are boring, help to motivate me while on the nowhere bike.

Some IMBA dude sent me and a couple of other people an e-mail about coming to Camden to do a trail care day next summer and wanted us to put in an application. I’m not sure who they got our names from or why they came to us but Jeff Kuller (the Snow Bowl’s manager) got the ap in on time so hopefully we’ll have a sweet trail weekend next summer.

That’s all. 

You still there?

Hey there, I’m still alive.  Honest, I’ve just been so f’in busy with work recently that I’ve barely had time to breath.  I have no time today either so I’m going to steal some verbiage from Bikeman.com’s team manager -Big Gay Al- about an upcoming cx race to be held in Portland this December.  I may try to hit this one since I bagged the New Gloucester races this fall.  Since it will be its first year in existence I should try to get out and support it.  Anyway, here you go:

“Sorry everyone, another shameless plug for New England cyclocross.  I went over course design this morning with the promoter for the Casco Bay Cyclocross slated for December 2nd in Portland, ME.  There is great opportunity for course layout. 
 
What I laid out for a possible course provides for several off camber sections including a STEEP one, lots of chicanes, paved start, some paved recovery sections, some fast sweeping grass turns, some straight grass horsepower sections and one pretty sweet quick descent.  It also has up to three dismounts per lap.  Two are natural, the first being a greater than 50% chance that is has to be run in dry conditions, the other probably right at 50/50 if it is a run or a ride in dry conditions.  The third is a man made dismount in the form of a standard double barrier at fairly good speed.  There is opportunity to see much of the course from one location with spectacular views of Casco Bay.  The course doubles back upon itself in several sections allowing racers and spectators to see racers coming and going.  It also allows for one double pit at nearly the midpoint of the course.
 
This will be a USCF sanctioned event and promoter's intent is to have it at a level above a small, local race like Milford, NH or even Sucker Brook in MA.  His intent is to have it closer to a Verge NECCS event with the same categories and cash payout to the higher categories.  So spread the word.  Hopefully all the New England Bikeman.com crossers will be able to make it.”

Sounds like it has the potential to be a good race.  We’ll see if I actually do this one.

Things have been pretty darn slow riding wise recently. We have been trying to get outside as much as possible though. With hunting season descending on us in a week we've been trying to cram in some last minute outdoorsy stuff. The pics here are of a hike we took last weekend during peak foliage time. Purty huh?































Yesterday, I got out for a mountain bike ride with a good group of guys I only get to ride with a couple times a year because we live and ride in totally different areas within Maine. A few times a year, though, we try to get together for a good group ride. Sunday, we headed down to Mt. Ageminicutinishamalamadingdong or Mt. A for short in southern Maine and spent 2.5 leaf covered, ass puckering hours cruising around the labyrinth of trails, bouncing off of every hidden rock and root. Good fun.

i gotz nothin

Exciting days here in good-ole Maine. Recently my life has consisted of getting up at 4 or 5am, working for 9-10 hours, going home to help with dinner and get Brynna down to bed then doing another 1-3 hours of work. Sounds exciting huh? Thankfully, my presentation is tomorrow so things will settle down a bit after that. Hopefully.

I did manage to get out for a quick (20 min) cx workout in the rain with the pooch this morning. I didn’t really want to go out at 4:45 in the rain but my legs were begging me so I relented. It actually turned out to be a good, if short, workout. Something about cx in the rain just seems right.

To force a bit more riding, I had Marcy drop me off this morning so that I’ll have to ride home after work rain or shine. I’m feeling soggy already.

Season planning

Not much exciting stuff happening riding wise these days. I made a quick recovery from Sunday’s epic mtn bike ride. On Monday I did a nice easy walk with the dog in the morning followed up with a REALLY easy spin on the trainer while watching Scrubs Monday night. The legs felt tired but decent, it was my ass that needed some help. Sitting on a bike seat felt like I was sitting on a belt sander. Yowser. Sitting upright eased the pain enough that I was able to spin for the ½ hour. Tuesday and Wednesday consisted of my commuting for work so allowed me to shake the last of the cobwebs out and today I feel pretty darn spiffy and am planning a quick lunchtime spin with a co-worker. It rained buckets yesterday but I’m hopeful that the trails will be in good condition. We’ll find out.

I’ve also decided to bag the cx races this weekend in New Gloucester. I had hoped to hit one for shits-n-giggles but the weekend is filling up fast and that’s one thing that is easy to axe from the schedule. Sorry cx freaks. Also, since last weekends long ride, I’m beginning to realize (of course I’ve sort of known this for a while) that I really need to start focusing on longer races rather than short races. My body just isn’t wired for the quick, intense efforts required for a sport like cyclocross. It is, on the other hand, wired for long distance riding and racing. The longer a ride/race is, the better I typically do. With that in mind, I’m beginning to think about next years race schedule and I think I might try to incorporate some 6, 12 & 24 hour races and bag some of the shorter races I typically do. It’ll be nice to race at some new venues and will allow me to use my natural abilities to a greater extent. I’ll still do some shorter xc races but will be a bit more choosy about which I do. The two Camden races will definitely still be on the list as well as Bradbury (especially since they say it will be close to a 50 miler next year) but the all the others are more iffy.

Of course, with my potential change in focus for next year, I really need to start thinking about getting a real training plan going. I’ve gandered a bit at Training Peaks and it seems to have potential. I think that with just the tiniest bit of structure next summer, I’ll be able to improve my results without a significant increase in time involved. Of course I said the same thing this spring and I never did get structured but next year I will. Really.

Itty bitty bike

Here are some pics from the last race of me riding Al's teeny tiny bike.




















good stuff huh? 

mmmm photos 1

obligatory dos shot.















This log is always the highlight of the ride for me. The last two times I wobbled so much while in the center of the log that I was sure that I was going for a swim. This year though, I took the bike shoes off and crossed in socks and I got across without incident. Phew! This is Steve crossing. He, by the way coined the phrase "tinglesack".














Here's my exhausted face and silly hair after being jammed in a helmet for 9+ hours. 

mmmm photos 2

big ass conveyor














big ass nose















ouchie, broken seat post bolt. thankfully we were able to fix it.
















my first pee at around hour 7. 

mmmm photos 3

The group, pre-ride.















Rest stop no. 1. Fig Newman's good!
















Paceline




















The one and only injury on the day. It doesn't look like much but I'd estimate the cut is about 1/4" deep and almost to the bone. Very nice job. 

Tinglesack

This past Sunday was the semi-annual Mike’s Metric Mountain Mash or MMMMmmmm for short. It’s a 100k mountain bike ride on some of mid-coast Maine’s finest trails which basically means 100k of very challenging double track, bits of singletrack and some short road connectors. Despite the fact that there is very little singletrack, it is always a good time. It’s a semi supported ride with food and water stashed in four strategic locations along the route and finish time is usually expected to be in the 8.5-9.5 hour range depending on many factors including allowing time to nurse ailing bikes and bodies. Because of the layout of the route, there are many possible bail-out points for anyone who finds themselves over their heads, cramping excessively etc. A typical year will have an attrition rate of between 25 & 50%. This year we had a total of five guys show for the punishment ahead.

We rolled out at an easy pace at 8:30 after some delish egg sammiches and some anti-smack talk (you know the type “I’ll probably be slow today, my culo is sore” etc.). It was a much more comfortable pace that what was set two years ago (the last time I did this ride) because the two young-uns weren’t there to push the pace early and then crumble mightily and slow the pace later. Despite the easy pace, I often found myself towards the back of the pack for the first couple of hours while waiting for my legs to wake up and began to wonder if my pre-ride anti smack was actually true. By about hour 4, after our second snack stop, I finally began to feel ok and started riding in the front and pushing the pace a bit. Not enough to crack the pack but enough to get us somewhat back on track time wise. This was about the time that I also started to feel the flow of the bike and was able to let it do the work for me on the very rocky, rooty, leave strewn downhills. I was finally having fun.

By about hour 6, I was feeling so good that I started whooping it up and jumping anything remotely resembling a ramp sometimes getting as much as 6” of mad air! I gotz the skillz yo! Unfortunately, this was also around the time that two of the riders in the group really started to feel the mileage so we were forced to slow the pace a bit and re-group more often.

As hour 8 crept up on us, I was still feeling like a million bucks and it was beginning to look like the two bonkers were going to pull through and finish strong so after our final rest stop I hit the road planning to put the hurt on for the final leg of the ride. 1 ½ hours later, the group arrived at our departure point tired but happy with a long, hard, fulfilling day in the saddle.

Our overall time at 9:45 was a bit slow because of a couple of nice mechanicals, the bazillion leaves covering every nasty root that lay in our paths and probably some overly long brakes but this isn’t really a test of speed so much as just a nice long ride with good guys. I suspect with 2-3 like minded riders and only one refuel stop, we could complete the same route in roughly 6-7 hours and as a matter of fact, I may just suggest that to Mike sometime and see what we can do.

mucho pics to follow.