1:48mins back, 7 years ago

i was curious when my first cross race was, so i dug through my "cycling folder" that has misc stuff in there. anything from random reciepts from parts that broke 5 years ago, to (lucky for me) results from september of 2000. :)

To the best of my memory, my first race was on 09/30/00. Gearworks Cyclocross. I dont remember where this was...and i only have a faint memory of the race. i DO remember never having gone over a set of barriers before that day. haha.
finished 23 out of 34 in the C's.

One week later (10/07/00). Net1Plus Cross race @ Saima Park in Fitchburg, MA.
This is funny looking at the results:
1. Jamie Driscoll
8. Peter Rubijono
10. me (at 1:48mins)
12. Toby Marzot
19. Kevin Wolfson

I think i took a wrong turn somewhere in the past 7 years. :)

I'm trying to remember what happend the next few years. for various reasons, i didnt race cross again until 2004, I believe. I should try to figure this out at some point.

Race Report: UNH#1 (09/26/07)

testing lungs. 1,2,3,4 testing.
i headed up to unh yesterday afternoon for thier first of 3 training races held at Kingman farm. got there early to get a little extra riding in, and quickly noticed that there was a lot of haying going on. you boston kids dont have to deal with this... but trying to ride at speed, then having to inhale a lung full of hay & pollen aint too good for the asthma.

the course was the same as last year. dirt roads. some mowed grass area. some non-mowed grass areas. and a short singletrack section. fast laps. dunno. 4mins? 4.5mins? something like that.

lined up with about 20 others in the A's, including the likes of Robbie King, josh lipka, damien colfier, ryan fleming, and a couple other "real" elites. bad start for me, but started to move up quickly.

as im moving up, people are droping out. flats. left & right. every lap, people were flatting.

after a couple laps, my lungs were burning from the dust & hay & pollen. when i saw "9 to go", i almost bagged it. but decided to just tone it down a notch & continue. the damage has already been done. if im gonna have an asthma attack, its too late to change it.

with 4 to go, i started to feel a little better. with 2 laps to go, King lapped me (as expected). finished up in 7th, i believe.

my lungs are feeling ok this morning... so im pretty psyched about that. my body on the other hand feels like i got run over by a hay truck.

double standard??

beating of 13 year old kid

just so im clear:
a gang of white kids beating up a single black kid = hate crime
a gang of black kids beating up a single white kid = misdemeanor

personally, im not a fan of 'hate crime' laws. a crime is a crime regardless of what your motivation is for doing it. whats the difference between a gang of douchebags beating up some punk because they dont like the color of thier green hair... or beating up some black kid because they dont like the color of thier skin? nothing, at least in my book. it sucks either way. and its "hateful" either way.

and while im at it, why should someone get a harsher penalty for killing a cop, as opposed to killing a civilian? if someone killed my family member..and then only got 30yrs... but someone else kills a cop, and gets life in prison- does that mean the cop's life has more value than my family member? sure seems that way.

/end rant

do what you love...

what am i going to be when i grow up? man. i have been asking this question for like 30 years now. my co-worker asked "if you love bikes so much, how can you NOT have your own bike shop?" hmm.. good question. "if its something you love, it would be impossible to not be successful". i dont think its quite as simple as that. but he does have a point.

i feel so unmotivated & unproductive at work. mostly cause im bored & not interested in it. what would happen if i woke up every morning & got to do something that i loved. i mean really loved. hmmm.

people do it, right?

my neighbor & i were having this discussion the other day. despite having a great job & making tons of money, she doenst love what she does. she is also still holding onto the idea that there REALLY IS a perfect job out there. I dont know.
maybe. maybe not.

in many respects, my job is great. my boss is a sincerly nice person who cares about his employees. my co-workers are fun & good people. i have a flexable schedule that allows me to leave when i want to ride my bike. but the downside is that im not passionate about what i do. and i think thats something that is going to hold me back from being truely successful.

i keep putting this off, because it stresses me out. i would like to think that at some point i am going to figure this all out.

so in the meantime, if anyone has any pointers for opening a bike shop, or coffee shop, or vegan bakery, or any combination of the three, feel free to let me know.

on the way up (i think)

after friday's visit to the pulm. specialist, i was getting anxious to get back to training. the only thing worse than missing a weekend of racing, is missing all week of training, PLUS the weekend of racing. the prendisone seemed to kick in quick & by mid-day saturday, i was feeling pretty good... i headed out for a easy/light 2hr ride with the occasional 15sec effort (hills, lights, etc). actually felt decent. a little tight, but not too bad.

sunday i woke up, and felt like i took a small step back. ugh.
im sick of not training, so i kitted up & figured i would at least try to ride.
after a good 40min warmup, i did my first 15min LT interval. averaging 25.6mph solo, for a non-aero guy like myself, i was feeling pretty good. of course, on the 2nd, i quickly realized that the tailwind i had may have helped :) cause the headwind was like a brick wall on the way back. regardless, i got 3 blocks in before i headed home.

me & allie headed over to my parents for my dad's birthday. low key, as everyone was pretty pooped. but always nice to spend time with the fam.

today is day 4 on the drugs, and im feeling about 90-95% good sign.
im planning UNH on wed...then Amesbury on Sunday.

the wonders of steriods

this whole week has been low key for training. meaning, i aint dong it. i went for a mellow ride thursday night, just tryin to keep the legs going, without irritating my asthma too much. my hopes were that i would feel great friday morning & be able to sign up for a weekend of racing. not the case. i woke up feeling about where i felt on monday. shit. off to the docs (again).

why is it that as soon as i beg for & get squeezed into an appointment, i immediately start to feel better? ugh. luckily i was still weezing quite a bit when i got there, so we agreed on a 8 day dose of Prendisone. Amazing, after the first day of that, im already feeling better. I got some hardcore dosage of Guafenesin to help get rid of all the crap in my lungs. And a new med that just came out, that I will try in a few weeks, as a replacement for the Advair.

So, no racing for me this weekend, which im bummed about. With the expected small field at New Boston, I was hoping for a good result. oh well. im feeling like im coming out of this bout, and im hoping i can ride easy today, and train tomorrow. The goal is to be racing at UNH wed night. we'll see.

New Music Tuesday

good week of new music.
Les Savy Fav - Lets Stay Friends
I already mentioned it a few times, posted songs, and even some videos. On first listen, i was confused. It wasnt quite what i was expecting, especially after listening to the first released "single", which had a feel of "3/5" or "ROME". The rest of the CD takes a turn. One that took me about 5 days of listening to it non-stop to really get into. I'm not one to love stuff on first listen, and this album isnt an exception. Even "Go Forth" sat on my shelf for about 4 months before I gave it another listen, and then it promply became my favorite album of 2001.

Anyways, go to BV, and download the few songs he posted... or better yet, just sign up for emusic, and use your first free downloads to ge the whole album. (email me for a referal).

Black Francis - Blue Finger
How did I not know about this until a week before it's release. Im listening it to it right now for the first time. Frank Black has always had the struggle of putting out a kick ass album, but then having people like me saying "yeah, but its not 'Doolittle'". Anyways, Frank takes on the "Black Francis" name again and puts out an album that resembles a mix between his first solo album & the last pixies album. Definately a harder take on things than the last 10 years of his solo stuff... but dont expect a new version of 'Surfer Rosa'.

Dan Blakeslee - Lincoln Street Roughs
Dan was in manchester last night & we hung out for a bit at the Bridge Cafe drinking coffee, talking music, and remembering the good ol days at the Elvis Room. Milly's Tavern in manch, is not really the type of place i want to hang out on a Friday night. The type of meatheads that hang out there give manch a bad (worse) name. So I was surprised (nervous) to hear Dan tell me he was playing there. Me & Allie headed down there around 9pm to check it out. Such a good show (aside from the fratboy douchebags behind us). He was planning to have a full band there, which i have never seen him play with... but it didnt work out, so it was just him & the guitar. and it was great. Anyways, we picked up a copy of his new album. I have only listen to a couple songs, but so far its totally solid.

stay tuned. he may try to get to Manch for one of his famous halloween shows. :)

i'd trade these lungs for vaccum pumps

yesterday, i moved my morning meetings to the afternoon, as they were in Raymond, and pretty close to UNH. it worked out perfect, so i could cut out of work early, get some training in, and then do the race. only problem? they canceled the race. d'oh.

just as well. the lungs still are messed up. i headed to SBC to do some 15min race efforts. i got one done, and then had to bag it. im hackin up shit left & right. weezing like a smoker, and have this general tightness in my chest that is starting to wear on me.

happens every year. train all spring & summer... come race time, i get sidelined due to asthma. very discouraging. i can take missing a race or two. but missing all my training during the week is killing me.

I'm hoping that things miraculously turn around so i can race on Saturday, but I'm not to optimistic. I just got back from a 1hr easy ride, and had to use my nebulizer.


i love how it shows the mucus dripping from the airways.

new Les Savy Fav released today!!

i downloaded the new album this morning via eMusic.com.

I need to wait a while before i make my decision on it. i will say that its not jumping out at me as thier best album. but then again, i didnt really like "Go Forth" all that much when i first bought it... took me a bit, and then i fell in love & listend to it every day for 12 months straight, questioning my sanity for every doubting the album in the first place.

It definately had a new feel to it, and that might just take some getting used to. Hard to get a good guage on an album while listening to it at work with all the distractions.

Pitchfork already reviewed it and gave it an 8.3. I would say on first listen, i would give it a 7.0, but im sure it will go up a solid point in a week or so :)

Race Report: Sucker Brook Cross (09/16/07)

(picture by alex)

Man, I have been looking foward to this race for TWO years. I had to sit out last year due to my crash. So I have been itchin for awhile now :)

My race started saturday morning around 6:30am when I was at the site setting up the field section. I barely slept the previous night. my mind wouldnt shut off, and before i knew it the night was half gone. ugh. I got there and was tired, but excited about the course layout that I had in my head. It was raining pretty good, but the forcast looked good for Sunday. Me, Jack & the gang were all pretty stoked about how the course looked. really stoked. We took a break early afternoon while the Auburn Duck Race was going on, but came back around 4pm to finish up the sand pit.

Sunday morning, I got there around 6:30am & hung up the Caribou banner on the stairs, check the flagging, and then met up with Jack to find out what else needed to be done. People were pouring in, and we were getting super excited. I helped Barb (Jack's wife) for a bit, but my teamate John L. really helped us out by offering to sit at the registration table all day. I cant thank this guy enough.

After my duties were done, I pulled out the trainer and started my warmup. It was about 11am & I am a little stressed, as its a tad later than what I would like.. but its all cool. My mom, dad, aunt, uncle, allie & angelica all showed up & wished me good luck. My legs felt good on the trainer. nice sign. After a bit, i went for a spin with teamate Tal, and quickly came back to find 3 dozen guys already lined up.. oops. I went all sneaky & got a front row position. (thanks yash). Another couple of dozen guys roll up for a total of about 60 racers.

Whistle blows & I hit the gravel in about 10th place. The start wasnt nearly as fast as i thought it would be, so i hung on, and tried to pace myself a bit, not wanting to blow on the first lap. A few people pass me, but I am in contact, and can see a blue streak of HUPsters: pierre, rosey, and supah star mike zank about 10 secs up.

A few more laps & im hurting... I also dont quite know where I am. Lucky for me, I had alot of people there cheering me on... finally my mom yells out "THIRTEEN". nice. ok. lets move up a bit. I catch up to Coley & we ride together for a bit. I step it up a bit in the field & in true Coley fashion he bids me a polite fairwell on my journey.

I know im closing in on top10, but im hurting. someone yells out 'NINTH'. wow. even better. but we got a few guys on our tail. then there is some passing, some being passed, and some just keeping position. somewhere around 2 laps to go, i hook up with matt myette. we got a gap & we are sitting 10th & 11th. We can see the 2 guys next... soo close. trying to close that gap, but man it just wasnt happening... we hit the woods & i drill it.... thinking i can drop him. i do. but he promptly catches back on. ugh. we go thru the sandbox together for the last time & he drills it, putting in a small gap.. along the fence i give it all i got & catch him just going into the final stretch... we are both sprinting, but i just couldnt come around him. he is one strong dude. i congratulate him on a great race & just about puke up one of my lungs.

so, i almost reached my top10 goal. sooo close. missed it by a 1/2 a bike length. but hey, i feel like my form is finally coming around. and given that i was on a rest week, i was busy with the setup, and i had barely slept the last 2 days, i gotta be happy with my finish. :) While I'm not quite where I want to be, its much better than the last couple races, and I know I will be there soon.

on the positive side, i felt good in all the power sections and corners. However, its abundantly clear that i need some work on my barrier skills. I gotta start adding some skills work to my program. once i can nail that down, and I get a few more weeks or training, and a few more races, i think i can make that front group.

I did a quick cooldown, changed & went back to my race duties. We had a good chunk of people who helped us with teardown, so it went pretty quick. Thanks Alex!!
About this time, my lungs start really hurting. The same hurt I have delt with for the past 2 seasons. The same hurt that has landed me in the ER. The same hurt that crippled my 2005 road season. ugh. I got home, showered, took some meds & drank some hot tea. Things started to calm down a little around 2am, and i finally fell asleep at 2:30am. Back up at 5am to go to work. damn, i need a good night's sleep.

The lungs are feeling better this afternoon. Much better than last night, but not good enough to get on the bike. I am hoping for a light spin tomorrow & be back to normal for Wednesday.

Sucker Brook was a huge success on all acounts. Thanks so much for everyone who came out, watched, cheered, sponsored, volunteered, and raced. 2007 numberes were TWICE as much as 2005. Our B (3/4) field was BIGGER than last years field at Canton. wow.

ok... im off to go eat some of my mom's homemade vegan banana bread :)

see ya next weekend.

cough cough hack hack

man, wish i could sleep... you would think after being up since 4am, i would be tired, right?

my lungs hurt so bad. ugh.

sucker brook - race report soon... but just let me say: 340 racers. insane. :)
sucksessful beyond all expectations! what a great day!

today's the day.

yesterday started at 6:30am with the course setup. things went great & the course is simply amazing. best year yet, by far! jack did up some cool course crossing walk-thru's that will help clear the pavement stretch. kinda gives it that ummm...uci feel :)

anyways. my opening up workout yesterday felt good. good in a way i havent felt in a few weeks. so hopefully the legs will be fast for today. i have been looking foward to this race for soooo long.... and have put soo much pressure on myself to do well. i know im not riding quite where i want to be, so i have toned down my goals for myself this weekend. I finished 8th here 2 years ago, and would like to do that again. we'll see. pretty big field this year, and some good compettion, so i'll be pretty happy with a top 10.

ok.. im outtie. early morning finishing touches & things should be allll good.

see ya out there.

806 albums

i need to go thru & finish ripping the rest of my CD's. I wish I had an easy way of getting my vinyl onto my computer. its such a pain to listen to my turntable....and i have some good stuff on vinyl, than, unfortunately, i never listen to. ;(

i got the day off today. sweet. headin out for a nice hot soy latte... then back here for some serious cleaning. i gotta fit a ride in there at some point. Allie's friend from Brooklyn is coming up tonight..so i gotta get her at the bus station. then we are all heading out for some foods :)

2 more days. reg is really picking up.

i screwed up my paypal payment for my single ring guards, so i gotta wait another week. ugh. oh well.

granny ride.

im working 4 - 10hr days, so i can take friday off. which means im not riding till later in the afternoon, like 5:30. maybe thats norm for most, but im usually out of work at 3, and on the bike by 3:30. Anyways, i have a hard time with recovery rides. there are always hills to kill, stoplights to beat, hot girls to impress, etc. but i made it a point to stay in my 39 last night & just lightly spin. i felt pretty lousy for the first 30mins... but towards the end, the legs were feeling better. I really gotta be careful on this rest week not too rest so much that im gonna be flat on sunday. but on the other side, im cooked & need some time off to build back up. there is a line in there somewhere. i just gotta find it.

Stevie gave me a call the other night. Just to kinda go over things. While I had heard most of the stuff before, its always nice to hear it from your coach. "its early". "you have been training hard". "you had a mechanical" "you crashed". "you will be flying in october". yeah. i know all these things in my head... but i would be lying if i didnt say that the start of the season has really bummed me out. not even close to where i thought i would be, results-wise.

i wish SBC was one more week away... just so it didnt fall on my rest week. but we'll see. i just gotta make sure im opened up well on saturday...which might be hard to do with all the course work to do. if there is a course out there that i feel really confident in, SBC is it! so im hoping things will come together.

Les Savy Fav - Next Week!

1 more week till new Les Savy Fav. (release date: 9/18, available on emusic.com) :)

Advil vs Advil PM

I just figured out why i was sooo tired & groggy all day.
When i woke up, i was a little sore & my back was killing, so I popped 3 advils.
I guess I should have read the label closer, it was Advil PM!!!!

oops.

I couldnt understand, why after 5 cups of coffee, i was STILL tired.

odd keywords

goog_analytics
Originally uploaded by argylesocks

i linked this site up with Google's Analytics. Lets you track all sorts of neat stuff about your site, including how people found your site.

Its nice to know that someone came to this blog by typing in "girl poop in woods"

Race Report: Milford Cross (09/09/07)

I didnt have too much high hopes for today. I have been pretty tired all week, especially yesterday. Anyways, rain was in the forcast... and rain it did :) thats ok. the slight chill & the wet conditions felt a lot more like cross than Agawam.

Fun course, but I kept seeing the Master's racers finishing with bloody knees and arms.. whats up with that? prerode the course.. ahhh... THATS whats up. lots of pavement. lots of WET pavement. lots of sharp turns & 180s on wet pavement.
felt pretty tired during the warmup, but hoped it would pass.

lined up, front row. good start & hit the top of the dirt climb around 6th or so.... then we start the "milford 180s" on the grass.. fun, but kinda slick. people were taking 'em pretty slow and staying upright. im not sure if it was the first lap or the 2nd, but i guess i was going a little too hot into one of those turns when, bam. down i go. Coley, Mr. Polite, rides past me and says "Justin, are you ok?" "yeah, im fine" "ok... good" haha... shouldnt you be breathing harder, coley?? allie commented on that as well. whenever she would say "good job, coley"... he would always respond "oh, thank you" haha.

anyways.. so yeah, down i go. i was fine.. but i got about 3lbs of wet grass stuck in my right shifter. ugh. so i was between 2 gears for 90% of the race.. ugh.
with 2 to go, i finally pulled over, tied on my wrenchin apron, and got to work. got it working again, but too little too late. i caught a couple of guys and thought i could leave them on the hill...which i did. but the promptly caught me again, and left me behind.

yeah. another shitty race result. so my excuses this week are:
a) i was tired from a hard week of training
b) roads were wet & didnt feel like crashing
c) my bike no workie

thats it. im on a rest week. im hoping that will help.

oh, and im switching to a single 42T ring in the front. im sick of dealing with derailer problems. ;) there. problem solved. see? im a problem solver.

pack & deliver

i was hoping this would be out on emusic. but no luck, and i cant wait any longer.
Best Buy has it on sale for $7.99. any guesses where i am going immediately after i get out of work??

You can listen to 30sec clips on BB (its soooo good)... and then go download the full version of Paper Planes from blogsarefordogs.com

I also downloaded the new Architecture in Helsinki from emusic. much different than thier last 2 albums, but me likey alot.

Huh?

Huh?
Originally uploaded by argylesocks

what the ... ????
only in manch will you find a 'cornhole championship'
and the benefit the kids, no less.

Race Report: NHIS (09/06/07)

After hard training rides on Tues & Wed of this week, I wasnt sure i was up for a Thursday night race. I'm at the end of my intensity phase & im tired... plus, I want to do Milford on Sunday. All good reasons to just stay home & do my planned tempo ride.

But I decided to make the voyage up there. No expectations. Sit in, and get a moderate workout. no attacks. no breaks. no hard efforts. yeah, that lasted about 90 seconds, when on the first hill, some kid attacked & i immediately went. we stayed away for 3 laps and I picked up some series points. cool. but my lungs hurt. after we sat up, i stayed at the back for a few laps to recover. but it wasnt long before I found myself in another break. This cycle of break/recover happend a few times.

With 3 laps to go, I was tired. and sitting comfortable at the back. and by the back, i mean dead last. ha. but for some reason, with 1.5 laps to go, i said "im gonna win tonight". so with the ringing of the bell, i went from dead last to sticking my nose out front. i was hoping someone would be nice & let me in around 3rd wheel. not so. so i sat first wheel. not "quite" where i want to be.

The course has 2 hills in the back section. I hit the first hill, and just gunned it. as hard as i could. got to the top and realized it worked. i was alone. screamed down the hill and then gunned it up the next hill. still solo. cool, but i still got 3/4 of mile to go and this never works. nobody every wins solo for 1/2 of the final lap. but i pushed as hard as i could. hit the final turn before the 500' final stretch & looked back... they were gaining. i pushed & with 100' to go looked back & realized i was safe... coasted across the line solo.

from a training perspective, tonight might not have been the best idea... especially with Milford this weekend. but from a mental perspective, i really needed this. yes, its just a training race. but i needed to know that my hard work is paying off.

Sucker Brook 'Cross

designed by allie, printed by New England Duplicator in Manch.

Boy, its getting close. only 9 days away.
sign up. spread the word.

first weekend of fall

well, maybe not officially....but september 1st means its the start of my "happy season". i ended up taking friday off. despite my grand plans of massive cleaning and organizing, i just hung out, worked on this blog and watched 'cross videos online.

saturday, we headed down to IBC to pick up some tools and then hit Trader Joes for some foods. Allie's favorite store (christmas tree shop) was calling her name, so we stopped thier as well. its not my favorite place, but it was fun to see all the halloweeen stuff out. for putting up with the store, allie bought me a cool sign for my kitchen that says "Organic fruits & veggies"...and it matches perfect! Additionally, i found these small signs that i wanted. they look like vintage signs with cool pictures of motorcycles and cars. when we brought them up to the register, the girl started laughing and said "did you see what this one says?" it was a car wash one with a classic car on it.... the slogan was "Best hand job in town" we all had a good laugh, including the elderly woman on the next register.

sunday we had plans to hit Cafe Indigo. probably the best vegan food place EVER. thier lunch buffet is insane. all you can eat. and man do they have alot of good food. so i headed out on my ride early with the intent of coming back & headin to portsmouth to totallly pig out. I did my 5-min intervals with the thought of vegan pancakes pulling me thru the pain. By the time i get home & shower, we are both ready to pass out from hunger. We jump in the car and do the 30min drive up there... pull into the parking lot and... what?!?!@? closed! seriously, it was like someone stabbed me in the heart. i was beyond dissapointed, i was ready to cry.

after staring at the closed sign for a couple hours, we grabbed some grub at Panera, then headed to portsmouth. actually, im glad it worked out this way, as we had alot of fun. Plus, i finally remembered to get my copy of Dan Blakeslee's Halloween album that has been on hold for me for several months now. ooops.








on Sunday's ride, i found this at a yard sale:
early/mid 70's Motobecane (made in france). $17



Last night, we watched "Year of the Dog" with molly shannon. great movie. not at all what i expected.

that is all.

BOYZ

I know sarah kramer already posted this... but its sooo damn good.


just got in from a ride. i think my legs are back to normal. :)
off for a fun day with my lady.