new layout

this is what i worked on instead of cleaning.
im still workin out the bugs... if i lost your linky, drop a comment & let me know

Day off

its friday & im not working. niiiice.
poor allie... she has been working non-stop for 2 weeks now. like 12hr days...saturdays... etc... sucks.

i got alot to do today... alot of cleaning. alot of laundry. alot of organizing my cross gear. alot of coffee :)

i reglued a small section of my tubulars last night. i made a mess. the tyre was peeling back just a tad, so i wanted a better seal in there, but it was kinda hard to do, so i got that shite all over the place. ugh. whats the best way to get glue off of the braking surface? will it just come off in due time?

i feel soo tired today. not sure whats up. after i said how i felt great on wednesday, i went out for my ride, and came to the quick realization that i wasnt feeling so great after all. i should have taken tuesday off, rather than doing intervals... so now im a day behind schedule. ughs. another rest day today, then hard rides on sat/sun.

off to the bank to deposit check & get some quarters for laundry.
and maybe a 2nd cup of coffe :)

Gun Control

is requiring a background check before buying a hand gun concidered "gun control"???
my co-worker thinks anything more than walking into wal-mart with a fist full of cash & walking out with a gun is stepping on his freedom.

im all for the "right to bear arms"... but i have absolutely no problem with background checks & some limitations... and yes, that mean's no uzi's.

discuss.

legs, check. lungs, check

i think im recovered from sundays debotchory (how do you spell that?) both mentally & physically. my legs feel great.. in fact i decided to go ahead & do my intervals last night.. the lungs are almost back to normal. not quite 100% but almost. good enough for some 5min intervals tonight. aww yeah. i think i might do them on the cross bike.. although im not sure if the girls soccer practice will be goign on in the field.. ughs.

custom tee shirts

http://www.teeshirtbodega.com/

these guys are awesome... plus they just told me that i can print to American Appearal. they print whatever text/design you want for $20.
cant beat that.

gmail_banana

gmail_banana
Originally uploaded by argylesocks

huh. for some reason, the title of my Gmail says
"Gmail- mr. bananagraber"

i have no idea how to get rid of it.

kinda funny though.

nice resposne

IM w/ allie's brother:

me: yeah... every job has shitty days...
Chris: yeah mon-fri

quote of the day

my dad just sent me this:

"Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true."

--Leon J. Suenes

hack hack hack

my lungs are hurting today... blah.

Race Report: Agawam (8/26/07)

You want cheese with that whine?

ok. a mountain biker, i am not. Today I drove down to Agawam for what was described as "... pavement, grassy fields and hard-packed single track and fire roads. It’s fast and fun with a few technical sections." sounds like it should have been right up my ally (not allie). i had a hard week of training, with 1-min hill intervals yesterday..so i wasnt expecting much from this race (officially). but i have to admit, with the amount of training i have been doing, i really did expect something. i expected to do well. not necessarily win...but i thought i would do well. i am going to go so far as to say i KNEW i would do well. thats how confident i was.

got there & was psyched to meet up with my friends... Meg, Zank, Yash, Hanson, Pierre, Ctodd, and probably a few others. Prerode the course and was like "hmmm... not what i was expecting". if you are a mountain biker, than you are psyched. if you are not a mountain biker (like me) then you are a little annoyed. I am just gonna come out and say it. I HATE courses like this. 90% trail/singletrack 5% fireroads 4%pavement 1% grass. yeah that shit is fun to ride... even fun to ride on a cross bike... i just dont like racing on it.

i line up...front row spot. whisle blows & i get a good start... paved climb before the woods & i think i go in there at about 4th wheel... not bad.. then the roots & rocks started jumping out of nowhere. ugh. i used to race mnt. but that was like 8 years ago... so maybe those skills are lacking a bit... but there is a reason why i quit racing mnt...

so i think after 1 or 2 laps, Ctodd caught me...& his buddy yells out that we are in 12 place.. ok.. i have moved back a few spots.. but i will make it up.
me & ctodd were together for a bit.. maybe another lap or two.. he was smooth as butter on the singletrack & i was doing my best to stick on his wheel.... we picked up a 3rd guy & rode together for a bit... then that guy got between me & ctodd, and ctodd sped up, while "other guy" slowed down... so that was the last i saw of ctodd (nice riding, bud!).

at this point, im tired. im frustrated. but i am trying to stay positive. i am no way near where i thought i would or should be...but im trying to push hard & make up some spots... but it just wasnt working. i was moving backwards, and fast.

im not sure what happend today. that was the worst i have felt or ridden in a long time. usually you can say "well, my tech skills were killer.. i just dont have the fitness"... or "well, my fitnes was great, but i sucked at the tech stuff". but i kinda sucked at both of them. i had high expectations, even though i knew i had just done a hard week of training. even though i know i suck on these courses. even though its august. nonetheless, it was dissapointing. very much so.

so thats it. i am putting it behind me. i cant see how it is even remotely possible that given all the training i have done over the past 6 months, i wont be fitter than previous years. so i am going to hang my hat on that. i worked hard. i am working hard. and it WILL pay off. (just not on a mnt bike course) :)


I stuck around for a bit... hung with Meg, JD, zank and Yash... good times. :)
Hanson took it home. He deserves this.


ps: the grass you see here is the ONLY grass on the course.

Mr.Bananagrabber

I never should have given up animation rights.
hahahaha

we got stairs!

DSCN1926
Originally uploaded by argylesocks

hopefully will be finished this weekend.... Ctodd wanted me to build a hill at Sucker Brook... but stairs was the best we could do. :)

hello fitness, nice to see you again

with pretty much no racing this summer...its often hard to tell how im doing. so i gotta look to little signs that things are progressing... one of those signs came last night during my AWC workout (5min hill intervals).

In the past 1-min all out efforts have been lacking in my training... well, Steve put a change to that real quick. so after tuesdays handful of efforts i thought i might die... or at least be too tired to do my wed's AWC work.

well, i started my first one at the base of the hill... feeling good... got to the top at 4:15. huh. it normally takes me about 4:35 to get to that point (driveway at the top)... crap, i went to hard & im gonna pay for it on the next 4 of these!!
so coast down & go up for my next one, pacing myself a little better... again 4:15. hmmm. odd. again. 4:18. wow. finished up all 5 of them, and felt really good.... like i could have done a couple more. 15-20 secs doesnt sound like much... but over the course of 4.5mins... thats a 5% improvement over where i was a few weeks ago. i'll take that.

grumpy old man

im grumpy. im having a shitty day. and i think i need a new job.

the good.....

here is a summary of my life lately:

The good

- me & allie met my mom/dad/sis at Cafe Indigo yesterday for an awesome vegan brunch. good time was had by all. if you had asked me 13 years ago what my chance were of having a family vegan meal, it would have been kinda slim.

- saturday i worked on the bridge & stairs for SBC. this is going to be pretty K.A. Allie finished up the poster & mini-flyers. un-freaking-believably cool.

- morning jogs when its 58 degrees

- wearing a sweater & shorts to work today

- Tubulars are glued on (Thanks Zank) & the bike is all built up.

- New Les Savy Fav is due out in September.

The Bad

- My rest weeks tend to spend maybe a tad too much time off the bike. This week was no exception.

- Still need to work thru a couple bugs on the bike. no biggie though.

- Still need to clean & organize my place & cycling gear.

- I have no money.

The Ugly

- I felt horrible on my ride yesterday. Probably due to the limited riding this week... but still.

- I still have no money.

- I'm a few pounds heavier than my ideal race weight...and races are right around the corner. ugh.

- I need to work on my mental attitude towards racing. still.

rest week... hold the rest.

i look foward to my rest weeks..its usually time to get caught up with my personal life, cleaning, finances, work, relaxing, etc. but for some reason, this week seems like anything but a 'rest week'. oh well. im looking foward to next week & getting back to some hard workouts.

im heading down to Newton in a bit to have my new wheels redished. American Classic was very cool & sent me a new road axel to fix the "mix up" on my rear hub. Then im headed to see Mike in Whoostah.
Then back to manch to finish building up the cross bike. yikes. busy day.

I want to go see "Super Bad" soooo much. I am gonna see if i can convince allie to go this weekend ;) i love that kid from "Arrested Development".. .he cracks me up.

excuse me...

ok.. heres a tip. if you are in a car, and you about to pass a cyclist who is going 27mph & looks rather focused, do NOT ride beside them and ask them for directions.
dumbass.

today was my last day of this block of training...finished off with 45mins of threshold work. yeah. i was tired & it was probably my hardest workout, because of that... but i finished it. not as strong as previous workouts..but still within the range of where i should be.

Yesterday I headed down to IBC to pick up some cross supplies. cassette, chain, lube, etc. but then some shoes caught my eye. i have been wearing the same Sidi's for at least 8 years now. Uri suggested the shimano 255s. after trying them on, i was in love. :) sorry sidi.

Fall is almst here

i just got back from a run. 55 degrees out.
now im going to go do my workout on my 'cross bike :)
eRichie is the man & hooked me up with some Grifos.

discouraged or encouraged? i dont know

as i skipped wednesday's threshold workout, i needed to get it done on thursday... what better way to get that work done, then heading up to loudon for the NHIS race.
its a points race, with points awarded to the top3 on those given laps. since my group sprinting days are over, points weren't a concern for me.

my plan was to go hard for 15mins... rest...repeat. maybe it was just me, but things seemed a little faster last night than normal. anyways, at the start, someone went to the front & was pushing hard, i just sat on his wheel for a bit... after 2 laps, my friend rob took to the front... again, me 2nd wheel.... for the 3rd lap it was me pushing the pace. the workout has started :)

i figured i would give it a go on the back hill & jumped... nobody came with, so i just drilled it. got a good little gap & stuck away for a bit... got caught... but still tried to keep the pace up by sitting on the front. im sure people were thinking "what a dumbass, just sitting on the front all night" well... that was the plan.

i tried going a couple more times... bridging gaps, etc. but nobody wanted to go... each time, the guys would quickly sit up. ugh. those repeated efforts wore me out, and i just sat at the back for the last couple laps.

i dont know. i was hoping that i would have seen this huge spike in my fitness & i would have just walked away from everyone. yeah, that didnt happen. but on the other hand, i did do alot of work during the race, and was still able to quickly move from the back to the front on the hills, any time i wanted to. so that was nice...

i have put more time, effort, devotion (and money) into getting ready for this 'cross season, then I ever have in any previous season. so i cant imagine NOT being faster than previous years....but as mark reminded me last night "everyone else is training hard too" time will tell, i guess. I do still have another month of intensity training.... mmmm...intensity training.

this morning i woke up feeling like shit. headache, tired, sore. yeah. i forgot how much racing hurts.

tomorrow, i am meeting up with my friend john, to visit the grave of a girl we were friends with in college. she died of an overdose 10 years ago today. sad. very sad.

I hate missing workouts....

...and i almost never miss them, but i got the worst stomach cramps ever. plus i gotta nasty kink in my neck. plus i slept like shit last night. plus im grumpy & tired. plus its like 105% humidity.

ok.. i still would have ignored all those things and rode... but my stomach issue is a problem... im gonna lay down for a while & see how i feel.. ill probably just swap wed/thurs workouts & be good to roll for tomorrow..

i organized my cyclocross gear this morning at 530am.

growing up, i always loved that couple of weeks right before school started. going & getting my notebooks, pens, paper, etc. i love that stuff. i could spend HOURS in staples. seriously. not sure what my problem is, but i love office supplies.

my mom commented on how this obsession has not translated to 'cross. i love getting my shit all organized way in advance. rebuilding my bike. buying new gear. is it too early to start stocking up on warming rub? i dont think so. in fact, i put some on the other day, just for the hell of it.

oh yeah, as GeWillieeeeee pointed out, Sucker Brook Cross is now open for registration... check out the website.. then go tell Allie how much you like it.

Pickles

08/01/2007
Originally uploaded by argylesocks

he likes the empty tissue box :)

Happy Panama Canal Day

well, its not till August 15th. but i just noticed it on our secretary's calendar... so of course, i tried to use white out on the "C" & the stuff was too drippy, so now i have white out all over my hands. ugh.

new fitness scale...

i had planned on buying a PowerTap this year... but all them bills got in the way. so here is my new method of determening fitness: tanlines



for a pale dude like myself, i think im doing ok. :)
i cant believe how close 'cross is. first race is only 3 weeks away. thats crazy.

last night, i did threshold intervals again. and damn was it hot. 3x15mins. i felt really good. consistantly strong for all three efforts. good sign. but i was dying on the way home... it was soo stinking hot. once i got home, i just crashed. i drank sooo much, and probably ate too much as well. oh well.

so i started a new route to get around "Death Road"...otherwise known as Brown Ave. this new loop adds about 20mins, but its a leasurly ride around the Manchester-Boston Airport. so im cresting this hill, when a car passes me.. i hear another one coming up, and move over a tad, but there is no shoulder, so move as much as a can... then the 'vehicle' is getting louder... much louder. this sounds like a semi coming up behind me. have you ever had this fear that you were going to get hit? yeah, thats what i had. this thing was sooo stinking loud, i thought it had to have been the worlds biggest truck, and that it was going to run me over and not even give it a second thought.

i am almost at the point of impact, and i kinda brace myself for what im believing to be my last 2 seconds on a bicycle... when all of the sudden a plane flys right over my head! i kinda forgot that i had a landing strip about 500' in front of me... there was no giant truck. only a plane coming in for a landing. damn, that was close.