.

out with the old.... in with the new

2008-12-26T15:38:00.000-05:00

this is it for 'in these woods'.
you can continue to follow over at (the appropriately named) justinziemba.com

happy new year!!

Quad core, here I come!

2008-11-20T16:47:00.001-05:00

So I broke down and bought some (probably unneeded) upgrades for my computer. I have been eyeing this chip for a while now. With such a good price, i thought it would be a good time to buy some (slightly outdated) technology.

Add in another $25 (!!!) for a second pair of 4GB RAM and I got a nice little upgrade. My christmas vacation will consist of me:

installing new CPU
popping in 8GB of RAM
formating hard drives
installing Vista 64 bit

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3970768&CatId=3406

New XBOX "experience" is out today

2008-11-19T15:51:00.001-05:00

for all my fellow nerds.
http://ebm.email.xbox.com/c/tag/hBJJF7gAlyGDmB7XUHgAsKBqN1I/doc.html

2008-11-19T11:00:00.000-05:00

Dear Government,

I have noticed that my eTrade account is almost entirely colored red. At this point, I would like to request some of the bailout money you seem to be giving to anyone that asks for it.

Sincerely,

Justin

2008-11-18T21:57:00.000-05:00

see more pwn and owned pictures

google maps - street view

2008-11-17T20:43:00.000-05:00

haha. this cracks me up. this is a mural outside a restaurant down the street from me. i love how google blurred out the face of one of the candidates.

new tech tuesday

2008-11-17T19:55:00.000-05:00

so rumor has it that ATT 3G has finally come to manchester. its not showing up on my N95 yet, but im hoping that will change before thanksgiving.

the new Intel i7 chip is now out as well. oh man, would i love to get my hands one one of those. but alas, i did just build this machine. and since 95% of its use is limited to checking my email, i probably don't need anything faster than an overclocked C2D..... or do i??

only 1.5 weeks left before thanksgiving. which brings me into my ultimate happy season. allie and i are leaving for a short trip to nyc the following week. im pretty stoked. we are staying directly across the street from the american museum of natural history . yes!.

that is all.

zzzPhone? Is this a dream come true?

2008-11-09T17:43:00.000-05:00

oh what i would do for this to be legit. I have my doubts, though.
http://www.zzzphone.com/

holding out for android

2008-11-07T09:07:00.000-05:00

with the new Nokia phones hitting the market, its tempting to ditch my N95-3 for something new and exciting. but i just can't seem to shake my excitement about the "google phone" (aka Android OS). while T-Mobile got their grimy mits on the first model to hit the streets, im hopeful that a AT&T version (unlucked) will be out soon.

come on Samsung. give me a 5mp cam, GPS, 30fps video, topped off with Android and I will buy it faster than I can say "goodbye symbian"

here is a good write up on the G1.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/24/t-mobile-g1-impressions-what-we-love-what-we-dont/

Halloween

2008-11-01T07:53:00.001-05:00

Halloween
Originally uploaded by argylesocks

me & allie.

Best. Costume. Ever.

2008-10-31T13:16:00.000-05:00

forgetful mind

2008-10-30T11:39:00.000-05:00

how the hell i forgot to mention this is beyond me. my one desire in all of my 34 years of existence has been a RC car. well, about a month ago, i finally figured it was about time i bought one. more pictures and videos to come. now my one desire is some free time to play with it!

LSF

2008-10-23T19:07:00.000-05:00

I said i was going to try and get a video together. well, that never happened. Someone posted this link below, and it is really really good. so i give you this instead:

Question:

2008-10-23T18:57:00.000-05:00

Is it bad that I want to limit my friends to those whose email ends in @gmail?
Seriously, if you are not on my gtalk list, what is wrong with you?

yes. i drink the google kool-aide. and i love it.

"Gas is less than $3/gallon. Quick, somebody do something!"

2008-10-22T19:38:00.000-05:00

oh, im sorry. I thought that was a good thing.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/21/business/opec.php

lucky..

2008-10-20T14:13:00.000-05:00

I am a pretty lucky guy.

I love my job and i love the company I work for.

secretly i'm timid

2008-10-17T18:56:00.000-05:00

im listening to liz phair at the moment, and I can't for the life of me remember if i saw her play before.
im pretty sure i did. actually im almost positive i did. but its driving me nuts that i have no recollection of this event. it was the avalon....i think.

which reminds me... i lent someone a bootleg copy of some of her old rare stuff. of course, i did that like 12 years ago, and i have no idea who it was. if by chance you are reading this, can i have that back??

i bought those cd's for like $25/each at the now-defunct Mainstreet Music in Durham.

yeah, it had to be the avalon right after whitechocolatespaceegg.

a wbcn show.

95% sure.

google earth

2008-10-14T12:46:00.000-05:00

am i the only one fascinated by GE?
maybe its because of the direct interaction between it and Civil 3D , but I love this application.

now its time to learn Sketchup so i can put manchester on the map.

for more goodness:
http://gearthblog.com/

les savy fav

2008-10-12T08:21:00.002-05:00

10112008459
Originally uploaded by argylesocks

reasons why it might be a while before going out to the next show:

there were 2 bikes outside, and 500 kids inside. does everyone need a messenger bag? seriously?
fat ugly girls spilling their beer on me.
fat ugly guys spilling their beer on me.
sitting through 2 horrible bands before the band i want to see goes on ( and while we are at it.....11:30 start time?? come on... im tired!!)
guys with unfathomably tight jeans. seriously? there was one kid with a pair of corduroys so tight, it defied the laws of physics
drinking PBR does not make you cool. it just means you don't know how to order beer.
the amount of stank on some of those people was beyond comprehension. if you stink that bad, please shower before going out.... or better yet, just stay home.
just because I am standing where you want to stand, doesn't mean you can just nudge me out of the way. consider this your warning. next time i punch you in the head.
despite the fact that nobody was coming in our going out of the room, the bouncers STILL won't let people sit on the stairs in the back.
It's the basement of the middle east. its like 120 degrees, people. you do NOT need to be wearing a scarf.

Ok. now that i got all that out of the way. Les Savy Fav, was great, as usual. Tim came out as a wolf. actually, he came out as wolf with a white sheet over his head. im still not sure what that was about. his body and face had full "wolf" paintings, with a single wolf glove (on his right hand). It was a great mix of new and old stuff.. Some of the stuff from "Rome" that i dont recall them playing in the past.

Overall, great show. I recorded some of it, but the sound is so horrible I am not sure it would be worth uploading. I had earplugs in, so i didnt realize how load it was were I was standing... ill see if i can resolve that issue - if so, i will upload it.

That's terrific

2008-09-30T18:31:00.000-05:00

Try getting this little jingle out of your head....

Sucker Brook wrapup (and other junk)

2008-09-24T17:52:00.000-05:00

the 2008 edition of the Sucker Brook cyclocross race came & went this weekend. All in all one of the best years to date. Attendance was just over 300 with big masters and B fields. I'd be lying if I would say i wasn't dissapointed by the size of the elite fields. with the amount of price money we were offering (quite a bit for a small race), i was a little bummed. Oh well. Mark McCormack & Kevin Wolfson put on an exciting final couple of laps with Kevin winning in the sprint.

most of my day was by the side of the one & only mr. dick ring. what a cool cat this guy is. with him coming "out of retirement" to announce this race, he asked for my assistance in keeping track of the "new guys" :) i was happy to oblige.

during course takedown, seeing the course really cut into the grass is when it hit me how much i missed racing. I knew with a new job & getting married that there would be less time to train this year. it kept getting pushed back and pushed back. before i knew it, it was mid-summer and i was barely putting in any saddle time. training was starting to become more of a chore than a pleasure, and thats when i decided to pull the plug.

forcing myself to train, when im mentally & physically not in it....only to finish back of the pack just didnt seem to make sense. i was ok with my decision at first. the last week it has really been nagging me. or better yet, .
depressing me.

i've been running. or more accurately, jogging. i'm slow. i can't go very far. and i'm pretty sure i look retarded. but yeah, thats what i am doing right now. my intention is to attempt a few 5K's sometime this fall. who knows, if i keep it up all winter, i may shoot for something a little more challenging when the snow melts.

thats all.

currently listening to: Sebadoh III

trip to the NB Outlet

2008-08-23T15:01:00.002-05:00

trip to the NB Outlet
Originally uploaded by argylesocks

Yay! I love me some new NB sneaks :)
I'm like New Balance equivalent of Carrie Bradshaw..

Who's the secret gift giver??

2008-08-15T21:41:00.000-05:00

For those of you in the know - Allie & I met at a Les Savy Fav show in boston a few years back. For those of you REALLY in the know - Tim Harrington (of that band) and his wife have this cool business called Deadly Squire.

Earlier this week, we recieved this really nice gift. But we have no idea who sent this. There was no indication or clues in the package. We are going crazy trying to figure this out. PLEEEZE, if you were this kind person, let us know so we can thank you :)

makes me laugh every time

2008-08-13T08:39:00.000-05:00

It doesn't hurt to ask.

2008-08-10T18:42:00.000-05:00

My dad and I had a "discussion" on who had better prices: Shaws or Hannofords. I just happend to get some Hannoford coupons in the mail, so I figured I would give it a shot.

However one of the coupons was "Free rotisserie chicken with the purchase of $30". With nothing to loose, I brought it to the Service Desk and asked what they would do for a vegetarian. At first she looked at me like I was nuts, but I persuided her to ask the manager. Much to my surprise, they gave me a gift card for $7.50.

When I got back to the car and showed Allie, she quickly pointed out that there was a picture of a dead chicken on the gift card.

Guess they got the last laugh.

Jing Project

2008-08-09T14:09:00.002-05:00

Probably the most useful tool on my PC.

http://www.jingproject.com

If you are not using it, you are missing out. :)

CSS? guess not.

2008-08-09T11:28:00.003-05:00

Ticketmaster wants to charge $22 per ticket.
As if that wasn't bad enough, they want me to pay $9 per ticket for a "convenience charge"

How is that convenient??

$62 for 2 tickets. plus 120 miles roundtrip. plus parking.
ugh. no thanks.

for real. what happend to paying $8 for a good show??

yeah, but can your iPhone do this???

2008-08-01T16:52:00.003-05:00

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/07/use-a-nokia-95.html

* Picture taken from Wired

GTD with RTM

2008-07-31T19:18:00.002-05:00

A few months ago I signed up for Remember the Milk (RTM). I will admit that I really didn't use it much. Not because I didn't find it useful, but because I never had the time to really get things in order enough to use it.

Well, I recently started reading "Getting Things Done". Still in the beginning, but i got to thinking if there was a way to implement this methodology into RTM. Did a little googling, and found all sorts of goodness.

Here is a pretty cool link that talks about this in much greater depth than I care to.
http://lifehacker.com/software/getting-things-done/getting-things-done-with-remember-the-milk-229003.php

Me and sarah silverman

2008-07-20T10:41:00.001-05:00

Jealous? Yeah i thought so!

Fun at starbucks

2008-07-20T10:39:00.001-05:00

Amazing how much difference moving a magnet 2 images can make. :)

I did that yesterday and it was still there this morning. Ha ha

Yes i have the maturity level of a 12 year old.

Long overdue update

2008-07-13T05:58:00.002-05:00

7.1.08 Wedding in Burlington,VT
Originally uploaded by Alliezzz

I hate it when people never update thier blog, but then every 3 months get on there and say "wow, i never update this blog"

yeah, thats me. its not intentional. life has just been too busy to deal with some things. and keeping up with a blog is certainly included in that list.

so what have i been doing to keep me so busy? Well, the first thing is getting married. yup. for those that havent heard yet, Allie & I eloped to Burlington, Vt last week. this was our secret plan all along. ha ha. even before we got engaged, actually. the whole wedding drama thing just didnt fit in with our personality. KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). thats my moto. and what is simpler than 2 people getting married on Lake Champlain? not much.

So yup. now when you see Allie, call her Mrs. Ziemba. it makes her giggle.

Burlington was pretty cool. we got a place right on the lake, with a huge room and a hottub in the bathroom. although we spent the whole week up there, there was still quite a few things we never had time for. we wanted this to be a relaxing week, so sticking to a dictated schedule would have defeated the purpose.

After a week of being surrounded by hippies, we were glad to be back in manchester. yeah, we may not be as "hip" as burlington, be we love this city.

what else. well, it wouldnt be a blog post unless i talked about training. or in my case, a lack of training. yeah. it is just not clicking this year. each week is a "i will start next week" i look back at how much i was riding this time last year, and its pretty depressing. i am hoping things turn around soon, or cross season may turn into a spectator sport.

work is still great. love this job. love this company. things are pretty hectic at the moment, as our 7 person team is now down to 4 people. same workload, half the people to do it. this coming week, 2 of the 4 are out of the office for the week.... yeah, me & 1 other guy to do deal with all that caseload. it will be a tad stressful, to say the least. oh well, good thing i work better under pressure.

with the addition of a wife, comes the addition of a whole nother music library. we listen to basically the same stuff... but we both have a laaaaarge collection. luckily we are both about 90% digitized. I moved all of her stuff to my machine to keep things simple (KISS, remember?). then included her imac to my pc network.... after a little bit of fighting, the two agreed to play nicely together (at least for now). ok easy enough, but it sure would be nice to get this library out into the living room.

solution? windows media center extender. after a bit, i decided the easiest way to do this would be to just break down and buy an xbox 360. haha. this thing is amazing. lets just put the gaming part on hold for now. the fact that i can stream all our music, videos, pictures, etc at the touch of a button is soooo great. additionally, i have a tv tuner in my pc so i can stream over recorded content back to the LCD. niiiiice.

Forza2 and Project Gothem Racing 4. any dorks out there playing these and want to play online, let me know!!

i know im like 12 years old... but this really makes me laugh. i love this site.

and lastly, i know this will make some of you jealous (ryan kelly) but check out this photo of me & sarah silverman

ok, breakfast time.
see ya in 3 months.

How do you steer this thing....

2008-05-26T18:17:00.002-05:00

coming home from my ride... about 45 secs from my house. I ride through downtown, which is packed with people waiting for the parade to start. Head down the street & stop at the sign by the old-folks home. This woman in a wheelchair is making her way out at .5mph.

I drop into my granny, stand up to pedal thru the intersection... when BAM! chain drops & i go over the bars, total PVB style (circa Gloucester, 2005).

The old woman asks if she should call an ambulance & then has the best line "I was gonna ask you if you wanted to swap wheels with me". haha.

Engaged

2008-05-21T07:22:00.001-05:00

04192008200
Originally uploaded by argylesocks

I meant to post this 2 weeks ago... oops.

Yup, me & allie are gettin' hitched :)

aww yeah!

2008-04-28T19:26:00.001-05:00

i have no self-control when it comes to Fruity Pebbles.

i ate 2 boxes in the last 24hrs.

excuse me now while i go puke.

quick update

2008-01-10T13:34:00.000-05:00

boy i wish i had some free time to give a proper update... but i will fill you in quickly.

my new job at Autodesk is simply amazing. accepting this job is the single greatest decision of my life. im still doing alot of training and learning, but it really is turning out to be my dream job. oh, and walking 5mins to work is an added bonus (yes, i said WALKING to work). that also means i can walk 5mins back home for lunch...watch some HD, then head back for the afternoon ;) yesterday, i met up with my lovely allie for lunch, walked downtown, ate some falafel, and walked back (we work 3mins from each other.

Training is slooooooowly coming around. Im still going to the gym a few days a week... and on the bike maybe another 3 days or so. Just riding for about an hour easy is all im doing. but at least its something, right?

thats all for now... someone at work made vegan chilli so i gotta run. :)

baby steps

2007-12-30T17:21:00.000-05:00

well, its been awhile since i last posted. here is a quick summary of what has been going on:

I finished up my job at PLS. Things went well, and I was sad to go... but I am still really excited about my move to Autodesk. Working for a company for over 6 years, you really get comfortable, both in good and bad ways. I will miss those guys alot & i wish them the best.

Although I will be going through some pretty hefty training once I start, I still wanted to get a leg up on the software, so I have been studying almost daily. Hopefully this will pay off once the real training starts later this week ;)

Christmas was nice. I always get kinda depressed right afterwards.

My tests came back negative for Lyme. This is a good thing. However, I still feel very fatigued when on the bike. Add that to the fact I took a full 2 months completely off from any form of exercise, and it makes even tougher to get going.

Me & allie joined the gym a few weeks ago, and I have been working on the elliptical machine & adding some light jogging. With cyclo-cross a full 9 months away, I dont really see a need to be on the trainer in december. at least in any structured way. That being said, I am still trying to get some saddle time in. Like I said, its been a tough start. After about 30mins, I was dying. I mean, having trouble getting the Powertap to tell me I am doing anything above my recovery zone! yikes. But im sticking with it. Today I rode a full 60mins. which, although sounds really lame, was a good step for me. I think at this point, its just a matter of getting back into shape... and that is just going to take some time. The last time I did any form of actual training was back in September. oh boy.

Well, thats it for now. back to studying.

i want one

2007-12-05T17:28:00.001-05:00

New Changes

2007-12-04T09:34:00.000-05:00

So, i had to keep this under wraps for a bit, but everything is now official, and I am psyched to let you know that I am moving to a new job starting Jan 2nd. I will be working for Autodesk, as a product support analyst for thier Civil 3d software. I am beyond excited about this opportunity. It will be a big, big change for me, but one that I think I will excel at.

I have actually been thiking about this being something I would be interested in for the last few years, but I never pursued it. I have a degree in Wetland Ecology & have always felt kinda guilty for wanting to pursue anything other than that field. Its taken me a while to get to the point where I can admit to myself that I dont like doing wetland work. not at all. i also dont feel like that is were my strengths are. So once i got to the point where I decided to pursue this, it all went fast. really really fast. but thats good.

So I gave my notice yesterday & it couldnt have gone better. my boss was genuinely happy for me, and that was really important to me.

anyways. so thats whats goign on in my life right now. I start Jan 2nd, and am gonna spend the next 4 weeks learning everything I can about the software. Once I start, I will have about 4 weeks of training, as well.

im soo stoked ;)

updates...

2007-11-29T15:48:00.000-05:00

just got back from nyc. im sooo tired.
big changes coming up.... details to follow. but good stuff.

i gotta get on the bike soon. im getting fat. this whole "taking time off" thing has not done my girlish figure well.

ouch.

2007-11-13T20:34:00.000-05:00

we got a new stapler at work. it is super spring loaded & has massive force. it only took a couple hours before we were trying to shoot it into things (walls, ceiling, other people)... but in order to shoot it, you had to put your finger on the "saftey" and then shoot... yeah, about 5 mins into that, seth put one thru the tip of his finger. haha.

i should have learned. cause, as i was trying to shoot him with it, i shot one into my finger... i mean completely in... all the way. ouch.

still hurts 8 hours later.

cha cha cha cha cha changes....

2007-11-13T07:40:00.000-05:00

possibilities.... maybe?

Dell out. Tiger Direct in.

2007-11-12T15:00:00.000-05:00

I called again today for my regular update on why Dell has yet to ship my N95-3. I knew it was bad when the girl said "ummmmm... ummm.... im not sure how to tell you this" im not kiddin thats what she said. so anyways. while other companys are shipping same day... dell cant seem to get any. they said it was back ordered & wouldnt ship till the 29th. umm. yeah, that aint gonna work.

Found a good deal via Tiger Direct. quick & painless order. It will be here wed or thursday. yay! finally.

2007-11-12T13:50:00.001-05:00

fun fact

2007-11-08T07:56:00.001-05:00

did you know that Elvis Costello is a vegan?
i didnt.

another cool nokia app

2007-11-07T20:10:00.000-05:00

Nokmote
Uploaded by soueldi

rudderless

2007-11-06T16:32:00.000-05:00

About every 12 months I go through a Lemonheads phase. It doesnt matter what I am listening to up to that point. It could be Black Flag and Agnostic Front... or it could be Miles Davis. From the time I press 'play' on "Its a Shame About Ray", no other music matters.

...and julianna hatfield's backing vocals?

sigh.

watching is the new racing

2007-11-05T06:43:00.002-05:00

Allie & I headed down to noho yesterday for the Cycle-Smart International. In theory, I love this course. It suites me well. But for some reason, I have never had any luck there, so not racing wasnt a huge kick in the balls for me. In fact, it was great to be on the other side of things. The "shite-giving" side :) I could yell all sorts of things at mike, pierre, mark, ryan, josh & everyone else...and there was nothing they could do about it. ha ha ha. I could get used to this!

So, its been a week of antibiotics and it has made so much of a difference, already.

So where was Yash this weekend? slacker.

I put 80% of my life on ebay this weekend. I want to clean things out. by the end of the year, I want to be down to: a bed, computer, bikes, 2 rolls of toilet paper.

Happy Halloween!!!

2007-10-31T12:32:00.000-05:00

A cabbie picks up a Nun. She gets into the cab, and notices that the VERY handsome cab driver won't stop staring at her. She asks him why he is staring. He replies: "I have a question to ask you but I don't want to offend you." She answers, "My son, you cannot offend me. When you're as old as I am and have been a nun as long as I have, you get a chance to see and hear just about everything. I'm sure that there's nothing you could say or ask that I would find offensive."

"Well, I've always had a fantasy to have a nun kiss me."

She responds, "Well, let's see what we can do about that: #1, you have to be single and #2, you must be Catholic." The cab driver is very excited and says, "Yes, I'm single and Catholic!" "OK" the nun says. "Pull into the next alley."

The nun fulfills his fantasy, with a kiss that would make a hooker blush. But when they get back on the road, the cab driver starts crying. "My dear child," says the nun, "why are you crying?" "Forgive me but I've sinned. I lied and I must confess, I'm married and I'm Jewish."

The nun says, "That's OK. My name is Kevin and I'm going to a Halloween party."

Results.. season over.

2007-10-29T09:56:00.000-05:00

just got a call from the docs. positive for lyme disease.
i dont want to say im happy about this... but it certainly explains alot.
4 weeks of antibiotics... then they test me again after 6 weeks.

i felt like such a whiny pussy the last month... but damn, i have been soo tired, unable to train.. dropping out of races.. it was getting pretty discouraging/demoralizing/depressing, to say the least.

probably no point in racing... right now, i am only good for 10-15mins at race pace anyways. they said i caught it early & should recover fine.. but basically to take it easy until things clear up.

so if anyone needs me to pit for them... let me know :)

thanks to John Hanson for suggesting i go get tested!! He went thru all this shit last year.

Race Report: Canton (10/28/07)

2007-10-29T09:55:00.001-05:00

great course... too bad i was only on it for 1 lap.

Dan Blakeslee's Halloween Show

2007-10-26T09:39:00.001-05:00

From Dans show in Manch the other night. For some reason, the video locks up towards the end. I will fix it soon. He is playing again sat night at the stone church in newmarket, nh. along with elsa cross, and hot rod fury.

tests & more tests

2007-10-26T07:05:00.000-05:00

after taking a week off the bike, i though i would be all revived & ready to go. but instead, i have that "not so fresh feeling". i rode wed & even an hour at L2 felt hard. I got blood work done for my iron levels, which came back fine. yesterday, i went back to the docs & explained what is going on, and he ordered up more tests including mono, thyroid, and lyme disease (i got bit this summer).

im not sure whats goign on... im constantly tired.. my legs feel like i just rode a century, even if i havent ridden.. i have to force myself to get up & go to work.. i have no desire to ride, or even race. if my training volume wasnt soo low over the past month, i would be inclined to think overtraining... but given the amount of rest i have had, and even time completely off the bike, makes me question that.

anyways. i went out last night & forced myself to do a 4min effort & a 15min effort just to see where my power was.
4min = 404w, 15min = 320w ave. the 20min effort was only up slightly from where i was last year (after taking the summer off)... and given the fact i have put on a few lbs, my w/kg levels are about the same... ugh.

although, i gotta say i felt like shit during the test, and my ave speed for my test was quite a bit lower thant what i normally do my 15min intervals in (same stretch of road, same wind conditions). I always do my 15min threshold intervals in the same location, so its easy to compare (w/o PT) how im doing. and last night was one of my worst intervals. i was hoping after the first 15min, that i would be ready to go & do a couple more. no go. i was toast. completely toast. like "maybe i need to call someone & have them pick me up" toast. for the 45mins back to my house, i averaged 130w. my L2 STARTS at 167. anything over 170w felt tough.

i got home, showered & just layed in bed watching TV... slept for almost 10hrs last night (2hrs late to work..ooops).

im signed up for canton & i love that race. i really want to go.. but im debating if i should & even can. i should find out the rest of my blood work tests today or monday... hopefully that will shed some light.

on the positive side: 30 Rock is the funniest show on TV. :) although, maybe The Office is. "ohhh D"

i love craigslist.

2007-10-25T07:50:00.000-05:00

got an extra ipod?

blood work...

2007-10-24T11:40:00.000-05:00

you would think after 5 days off the bike, i would be feeling less tired. but i still am just kinda 'blah'. gave my doc a call & he ordered me up a blood test.
gonna check them iron levels. will hear back tomorrow.

dan blakeslee TONIGHT at the Bridge Cafe in Manch.

ouch. my head hurts. bad.

2007-10-23T17:13:00.000-05:00

another day off the bike.

while others were getting ready for a weekend of races......

2007-10-22T05:58:00.001-05:00

back to plan A

2007-10-19T06:19:00.000-05:00

after Glostah, my legs were feeling fine by Tuesday. Rather than give up a week of training, i thought maybe I had enough time to train, then rest the early part of next week. I had alot of personal stuff going on in the next week, so I thought I could figure it all out.

Well, Wed i took the cross bike out and did some 5x5min intervals. yesterday, I hit the road for some threshold intervals. I normally do straight blocks of 15-20mins. but I wanted to mix it up a bit - the first one, i did an "over/under" set. ouch. very ouch. the next set was a 5on/1off. not too much different than a straight block... but allows you to go just a tad over your LT. I started the 3rd block, and just popped.

so, i wasnt as fresh as I had hoped. I think it really is time for a rest.
so here is my sched for the next week:
fri: easy / play video games - maybe download HL2:EP2
sat: easy ride / hang out with allie
sun: allie's 5k / no ride
mon: easy ride
tues: easy ride
wed: no ride / Dan Blakeslee's Halloween show
thurs: back to training!!
fri: easy
sat: open up for canton
sun: kill it at canton

so that plan will give me 5 days of rest. i hope/think that will help add some snap back into the legs ;)

2007-10-18T13:49:00.000-05:00

just in case you were wondering... this is what i would look like if i had amy winehouse's body.

this was posted in our office... and a service guy just came in and did a double take... then looked at me. then my co-worker unknowing ran down the stairs singing "its raining men, hallelujah". i have never laughed so hard.

we have lots of fun with putting each other heads on various pictures.
i love photochopping.

haha

2007-10-18T11:28:00.001-05:00

i just found this while looking for shows to go to when me & allie head down to NYC next month. we only have a couple days... but hopefully we can find something to go to.

new N95?? Should I?

2007-10-18T06:43:00.000-05:00

yes, im a mobile phone dork. I love my N95, however there are 2 things that bug me:
1. battery life
2. lack of free RAM

well, now they have the N95-3 that just came out, and it solves those 2 problems.
hmmm. do i sell mine, shell out an extra $100 and get the new version? or do i just suck it up and deal with these minor problems? hmmm.

recent conversation

2007-10-15T11:08:00.000-05:00

after seeing the most beautiful white zank this weekend:

justin: oh man, if i had a ton of money, i would buy 2 of those
allie: aww. one for me, and one for you?
justin: umm. ok, i would buy three of those.

Race Report: Gloucester (10/13-14/07)

2007-10-15T07:17:00.000-05:00

Me and allie both took Friday off from work. It was a long week leading up to it, and we figured it would be nice to be "stress free" for a day. well, that part didnt happen. it was alot of running around, errands, packing, banking (yes, banking), and cooking. we left the manch around noon & headed down to the Newton shop to pick up some supplies, before we headed to Zank's pad in gloucester.

Friday night was a blast with mike & the rest of the crew. I wont get into too much of it, as this is a race report. but lets just say that the time off the bike was much more fun :)

Saturday: got there early & did my warmup... lined up 3rd row. Whistle blows. I am still sketched out at some of the starts, so unfortunately, i moved back quite a bit. ugh. i felt like i was riding hard... but i guess everyone was riding harder.
i just kept moving backwards. lungs started hurting at lap 2.
finished mid-pack. ugh. my worst result since my first year in Gloucester :(

saturday night, my lungs got worse... started debating even starting. no sense in destroying the lungs just to finish 70th.. ya know?

Sunday: got up & the lungs were a tad better. figured I might as well start & see how it goes. I knew i was taking corners too slow on saturday... so my only goal was to rail the corners. no worries about anything else. just push the limits on the corners. eary enough.

bike is perfect in warmup. line up 2nd row. whistle blows. what?????? my bike is constantly mis-shifting. the whole sprint im between gears. how the hell did that happen. i knew if i pulled over on the first lap to fix it, i would be all done... so i baby'd it for 2 laps.. allie yelled out i was in 30th. hmm. nice. but i still cant stand & pedal, so i head to the pit. loose some spots. stop again. loose some spots. stop again. loose some spots. still not right. ugh.
at this point, im soo far back that im totally out of the race. the lungs are ok, and figure its best to quite while im ahead. no sense in risking the lungs just to finish in 100th place. oh well.

bike problems aside. the legs felt much better than the previous day.. and i felt like i could have had a much better result if i hadnt have had the mechanical problems. oh well. nothing you can do about that. happens to everyone at some point.

got changed & me & allie had a great rest of the day cheering for the elite races. stopped for some delish mexican food on the way home & topped it off by chillin out in front of the TV. weekends dont get much better than this. :)

drew is funny

2007-10-11T15:32:00.000-05:00

this cracks me up.

im stoked for this weekend. Im still at work... and will be for another 4 or 5 hours. no riding for me tonight. but thats ok. im taking tomorrow off to get my poop together. aww yeah.

i gotta stop eating. im out of control. i keep this up, and i wont fit into my skinsuit.....or at least you wont want to SEE me in my skinsuit. eating a ton was ok when i was on my bike 3-4hrs/day. but these 1hr rides aint really helping.

Rat in mi Kitchen

2007-10-11T13:33:00.001-05:00

not a rat. but a mouse. got up the other night for a drink from the fridge. he looked at me. i looked at him. eh. too tired to try & catch him.
we made a deal though. he dont bug me. i dont bug him. win-win.

Race Report: UNH#3 (10/10/07)

2007-10-11T08:04:00.001-05:00

This really aint much of a race report, but im adding it in here anyway, for consistency's sake.

I debated most of the day on if i wanted to drive up there. I have been pretty tired & unmotivated. But after taking monday & tuesday completely off, i figured i needed to do some sort of training :)

Basically, I didnt want to do too much before Glostah. Hard first lap, made the front group with Keegan & Fleming.. stuck with them for a lap... backed off a tad... then Mr. Crossnut came up & we rode hard for a couple laps. After 3 laps, i sat up & rested for a lap. Went hard for another lap... then sat up again. rode to my car, grabbed my jacket & went for a little cool down.

Fun time. I cant believe I actually have mud on my bike. yikes. remind me again how to get that stuff off??

Super long day at work today. Super psyched for the weekend. not even the racing, so much as the whole atmosphere & hanging with friends ;)

strawberry fields....forever.

2007-10-09T10:54:00.000-05:00

I LOVE this stuff...and it just happens to be on sale at Shaws for 1/2 price.
i bought a ton last week. a ton last night. and i just went to the Shaw's down the street & bought another 8 boxes. I have no idea what I am going to do with the several dozen boxes of cereal I have bought. Especially, since i did the same thing with the oatmeal that was on sale last month.

seriously, i could survive on nothing but cereal for about the next 2 months.

rusty seeds.

2007-10-09T07:29:00.001-05:00

last night, i spent some more time getting rid of the rust on my $18 Motobecane. man, its soo bad. every little speck of rust turns into a much bigger spot once i get the paint off. I took the bottom bracket out last night & it was soo unbelievably rusty in there. oh man, was it bad. i pulled out these rusty "thingys" that at first i thought were the ball bearings.. just totally rusted into an odd shape. but nope. i broke one open and it was A SEED. haha. all rusted over. soo funny. no idea how that got in there...but there was a few of them. ill try to get some pictures soon.

still trying to get the seatpost out. ugh. that may not happen though.

I'm thinking my plans of racing UNH tomorrow. actually, re-thinking.
I'm kinda tired. As much as I'm not overly concerned about Glostah, I also dont want to be dying, either.

Best. Tshirt. Ever.

2007-10-08T12:41:00.000-05:00

on friday, this is what i stayed late working on.
sent it off to Tee Shirt Bodega & i should have it printed up by tomorrow.

I am beyond stoked.

for those of you who have no idea what im talking about... read this

Race Report: Downeast Cross (10/07/07)

2007-10-07T16:52:00.000-05:00

Allie & I made the voyage up to New Gloucester, Maine this morning. We were both pretty psyched because this is such a cool venue... plus with the leaves changing it was a good oppurtunity to get in some folioage scenery.

After my race at UNH wed, i was feeling good & followed up Thursday with some threshold intervals. Lungs still feeling good as of yesterday, so i was really looking foward to this race. dare i say: confident. my luck has turned around, and i was hoping (umm...expecting) a good result today.

Front row position, with about 35-40 other guys. Unfortunately, I didn get the start, i wanted, and immediately was back a ways. Made up for it by running the first "tech" section, making up a few spots.

It didnt take long for the lungs to start burning. Im spewing mucus out of every orifice of my head. ugh. I kept going, but was bummed at how bad I was doing. Josh was on my wheel for a lap, then opened a gap when the guy in front of me fumbled on the off camber stuff... I could see him for the next lap, about 5 secs up, but i just couldnt make contackt. nice job josh. bad job justin.

I was solo for a bit, then suddenly had 5 guys on my wheel. ugh. Again, I figured I was back mid-20s (or worse). My legs are tired, and my lungs are burning. They pass me, and I got no answer. Next lap, allie yells "you're in 15th!" this was after i just let those 5 guys walk away from me. oh well. didnt matter anyways. i was hurting too bad to do anything, even if i did know i was in 10th place just a lap ago.

anyways, i "held on" for 15th.

The course was awesome. when i think off-camber, i think of new gloucester. and they didnt dissapoint. the venue is sweet, the course is great. and they mix it up every year. and i hate to admit it, but i even liked the runup, even tho i almost started crying after the 5th time up it!!

/end race report
--------------------------------------
/begin personal babble

not the result i wanted. not. at. all.
damn. i felt so confident I was going to place well. My legs & lungs appearantly felt otherwise.

Its frustrating to train soo much harder this year than in years past, but still get similar results.

I gave it some thought on the way home and came up with a few things.

1. the asthma sucks this year. its hit or miss on an attack. fine one week, bad the next. or (like today), sort-of bad during the race...then a delayed problem that night. not a damn thing i can do about this. Mark text'd me on his way home from LI to tell me he had the same problem.

2. The one good result I had so far was at SBC. What was soo different? well, the course suits me better.. but more importantly, I was RESTED. hmm.

3. I have been racing UNH on wed. Then threshold intervals on thursday. While i may be recovered by the weekend, I'm certainly not fresh.

4. Some may say "duh... stop training so close to the weekend" yeah. but its back to problem #1. I race, then either drop out due to asthma, or loose training time due to asthma... so when im feeling good, like the past couple weeks, I feel I need to train to make up for the lost time... this results in poor result on the weekend... and the cycle continues. The earliest races were even worse, as they were during my intensity phase, with even more training during the week, even the day before the race.

5. I told myself a while ago, that I didnt care about results until after Gloucester. Training & preping for Canton, UNH, Plymouth, etc is more important..
So why am I setting myself up for this dissapointment, by expecting to be killing it right now? i dunno... but i am.

Ok... here is the new plan. Basicaly what Steve told me to do a while ago.
STOP training during the week! I gotta scale things back a bit, to make sure im ready to go when its important.

This is the last week of UNH. and by racing, i may be tired for Gloucester. i realize & accept this. That race is soo huge, im not really concernd about results (someone remind me of this statement, when/if i do poorly). So I think i will still go... but this will be my last week of "training"...

the week after glostah, REST. allie has a 5k on sunday...and rather than try to cram a cross race in on saturday, i think i will skip it & do something fun & fall related with her :) maybe carve some more pumpkins.

After that, I am going into a straight 'race & recover' mode... moderate cross workout on wed. thats it. easy riding otherwise. Lets see how this works.

ok.. i need to hack up some mucus. and then head to bed.

/end personal babble.

Race Report: UNH Cross #2 (10/03/07)

2007-10-03T19:47:00.000-05:00

My lungs seemed to heal up much faster than expected. Given how i was feeling while laying on the ground after only 3 laps on Sunday, I kinda figured I was gonna loose a week of training. But Monday I was feeling OK. Last night, I went out for some skills work, but felt soo poopy all over, that I bagged it & went home.

Tonight, I decided to test the lungs (and legs) up at UNH again. Its amazing how big these races have gotten. Just a few years ago, there was only a handful of people total racing. Tonight, I think both the A's and the B's each had close to 20 racers each. Nice!

Got there early & did a nice warmup, then helped a little with the course setup. Lined up in the A's along side Keegan. He goes fast off the line & I jump on his wheel.. nice start, i should do this more often. As we head up the first hill, Josh Austin & Ryan Kelly ride by... we jump on board... Then corey masson swings in...
We stick together for about a lap... then it splits up to ryan & josh... then 5-10secs... then keegan & corey... then 5-10secs... then me (alone)... then 10secs back to the rest of the field... Stays this way for about 4 laps, until Josh flats.

Ryan is out on his own... corey & keegan are right in front of me... but i cant seem to make up tht 10secs. Additionally, i got some dude breathin down my neck.. i still got a little gap, but i wasnt out of his reach.

anyways... some kid who flatted jumped back in for the last 4 laps & sat on my wheel for 2 of them... this was kinda of the motivation i needed to make sure i didnt get caught.

with 2 laps to go, i can see keegan right there, but just couldnt make contact.
i pushed hard on the last lap & finished in 4th, about 10-15secs back from 3rd.

Overall, a really good night.
* lungs hurt.. but not too bad & now a few hours later, im still not wheezing.
* i got a good start
* i rode hard, but still had a good punch when needed
* i rode the wooded section better than i have before.

im hoping this is the start of things turning around for me. I finally felt good racing... .and HAD FUN. :)

it was nice to officially meet Josh. He killed it in the B's... then was riding very strong in the As until he flatted. :(

my new favorite site...

2007-10-03T11:26:00.000-05:00

although it doesnt always show, i cant stand clutter. thats not to say that my place is always spot clean, but at least it drives me nuts when its not.

so here is one of my new favorite sites:
unclutterer

one thing with living in a small place, is i have to be very careful about obtaining too much 'stuff'. its about time i went through & threw away a bunch of stuff. i think i have already ebay'ed everything of value... so i doubt i will make any money on the next purge.. but who knows.

I'm (still) lovin it..

2007-10-03T07:43:00.000-05:00

i cant stop listening to the new MIA. its sooo good.

Power to the people, ya'll

2007-10-02T07:38:00.000-05:00

so anyone with a PowerTap wanna let me borrow it for a day or two, so i can do a threshold test? or maybe you would wanna come up to Manch & go for a hard ride?
i got a sweet, relatively flat (rolling) section of road that works perfect for a 20min threshold test...

Pumpkins!!!

2007-10-02T06:04:00.001-05:00

guess what me & allie did last night?

Race Report: Amesbury (09/30/07)

2007-10-01T06:05:00.000-05:00

DNF - asthma attack

1:48mins back, 7 years ago

2007-09-28T13:31:00.000-05:00

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)

2007-09-27T07:29:00.000-05:00

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??

2007-09-26T07:33:00.000-05:00

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...

2007-09-25T09:40:00.001-05:00

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)

2007-09-24T08:20:00.000-05:00

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

2007-09-22T06:48:00.001-05:00

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

2007-09-22T06:15:00.000-05:00

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

2007-09-20T17:41:00.000-05:00

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!!

2007-09-18T11:28:00.001-05:00

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)

2007-09-17T15:14:00.000-05:00

(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

2007-09-17T00:00:00.000-05:00

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.

2007-09-16T05:03:00.000-05:00

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

2007-09-14T06:42:00.001-05:00

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.

2007-09-13T06:38:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-09-11T08:39:00.001-05:00

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

Advil vs Advil PM

2007-09-10T16:57:00.000-05:00

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

2007-09-10T12:29:00.001-05:00

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)

2007-09-09T19:43:00.000-05:00

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

2007-09-07T10:12:00.000-05:00

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?

2007-09-07T10:01:00.001-05:00

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)

2007-09-06T19:09:00.000-05:00

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

2007-09-06T06:59:00.000-05:00

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

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

.