Two Wheels and Other Things

Real quick… What do you get when you cross 2 guitars with 2 great singers?

Your answer- 2 great songs (duh)

George Harrison and Paul Simon with Here Comes the Sun & Homeward Bound

*Sigh*

After work I ran home to yank the Ritchey Bar/Stem combo off of my Cannondale and high tailed it over to Dustin’s to finish our little project. Obviously we are on a deadline because Mason Lake 1 road race is, gulp, tomorrow and I wanted to give Spanky Van Wyck a day to kick around on it before rolling to the start line.

Hey guess what? Yup, brothers and Sisters, I present to you, D-man’s S-works…

There are still some tweaks to wrench on but we will get to those when his bars and stem come in from Mr. Bicycle Mail Order.

So yeah, there you have it. It’s a pretty sweet bike. We half assed measured the weight on a bathroom scale at it’s a hefty 15.4 pounds WITH the heavy wheels on it and stiff as, well… use your imagination.

OH, Mason Lake Road Race? Just to get the juices flowing, here’s a picture from last years ML #2. That’s Dustins leg to the right. Damn that was a wet race!!!

Thanks to Amara at Wheelsinfocus.com for the picture!

Last night, Rosanna and I went over to Dustin’s for bicycle mechanics, food and drink. Not exactly in that order though. We were planning on doing some modifications to his Flyte for Saturdays race but about 15 minutes into it he brought out his new Specialized S-Works SL frame and fork and I started getting a chubby (duck!).

I looked at the Flyte, then I looked at the Specialized, looked at the Flyte again and slowly turned to Dustin.

“You want to just build the new bike?”

Dustin grinned from ear to ear…

“Hell yeah bro lets do it!”

So he and I spent a few minutes doing one of the only things that’s as fun as building a new bike… tearing an old one down.

I don’t know if any of you have been following Dustin’s progress as a racer but he puts out wattage like my two boxers put out natural gas. The guy has got skills and after pulling his almost frozen bottom bracket from his old bike I can’t imagine who is going to be able to stay on his wheel with a new one that actually moves.

No joke, that thing was SHOT.

We had a small headset issue but we worked through that and before we knew it dinner was ready so we washed off the grease and headed up stairs.

The food and company were outstanding. A few weeks back I wrote about how awesome it is to surround myself with good people… Dustin is one of those as well as his girlfriend.

Even with the pictures of dead deer in the hallway :-)

So tonight it will be finished… the tool of the field destruction known as Dustin’s new bike. I’ll try and get pictures tonight while we finish plugging things in and wiping it down. It’s damn sexy!

Seward, Lake Washington Blvd, Madison, Seward crit course intervals - 22 miles

BMC SL01 51-35 (q rings) x 11-23 Spinergy Stealth wheels

21.8 miles
Avg HR 175.2
Max HR 198.1

Met Dustin at Seward and road past Leschi with him so he could warm up for his hill repeats. We chatted for a while and some dude asked nicely if he could grab our wheels. I like it when folks ask, so polite! We let him sit on until Leschi.

Dustin went to do his repeats and I rode on to Madison. took a left up the hill to the light to Lake Washington Blvd and after the hairpins I ramped up my intensity and wanted to hold it until the bus stop turn around. Dustin and I passed each other at the intersection, gave a wave and then it was recovery time to Leschi. From the bridge to Seward I held 25 mph at 187 bpm and never felt uncomfortable so I think I’m getting over being sick. Back up at Seward I started doing the crit course laps and ran into a Hagens rider. We did 10 on/off interval laps before I had to call it a night, I was spent.

Back home it was Spincih salad, cottage cheese and yes, a pizza. :-)

Oh… 2 beers too.

I guess Dustin was tearing it up… It would have been great to ride with him today but I just couldn’t have done it. I would have slowed him down.

For those who know me, I am a MASSIVE Matt Nathanson fan.

Matt who?

Yeah, I get that a lot.

With his amazing writing, musical and stage skills, he’s just a down right genuine guy and Oh boy can he rock.

Last night Matt was opening for Lifehouse at the Showbox SODO. I must admit, I have never been a fan of Lifehouse so it was mostly Matt I wanted to see. Matt’s set was solid, fun and as usual, I loved every second of it.

As Lifehouse took the stage and everyone started pushing forward, Rosanna her co-worker and a friend tried to slide around the side so they could see better and I followed wondering what kind of music hell I was about to drown myself in.

Okay. Are you ready for this? Rosanna and Allison…. You were right, those guys kick ass live.

I don’t know why I don’t like them so much… Maybe it was just one song, “Hanging by a Moment” Ugh, I hate that song. Really though, I was super impressed with their live show. I wish I recorded it!

Does this make me a Lifehouse super-fan? No… but I will take the “I hate that band” tag off in further conversations. I might actually download some more of their schtuff. :-)

Oh, and if the group of drunk, chatty, stinky girls behind us who kept trying to plow through the crowd… You suck. Shut up!

Frostbite TT 8.4 mile out and back course, flat no wind to speak of.

Bike - Leader TT 53-34 X 11-23 Easton Tempest 2 wheels

I am NOTHING (Can’t stress that enough!) of a Time Trialer and I’m still sick (hopped up on cold medicine and coughing up odd things) so I had very low expectations for myself. I know you aren’t supposed to say crap like that but I needed to be realistic. I wanted to use this as a test for my new bike, the wheels and work on my positioning. So I set a meager goal, just PLEASE beat 23 minutes.

When I arrived at the park everyone was already there. Hell, Tony was already sweating from his warm up. Basically, I was running a little tardy and didn’t get the full warm up I needed. While I was spinning on the trainer Martin went off for hist first TT and promptly came back with a flat rear tire. UGH! so he tossed the disc and had to run a Neuvation spoked rear. I should have offered him my Easton rear as it would have helped him more than me but I didn’t think about it until after he rode away. I looked at the time and I have 3 minutes until my start and roll to the line with 20 seconds to spare :-)

I started at 24mph and pretty nuch held it at that EXACT speed except for the turn around (which I missed… there was no one there!!! so I added about 500 meters to the TT) and the end where I was at 26.5 for the last 1k.

I ended up at 22:29 which I feel OK with.

I wasn’t stressed, I was WAY too comfortable (except I need to get a longer stem) and looking back, I could have gone a hell of a lot harder. I have become way to reliant on the power meter at indoor.

Good times and I am super proud of my teammates. Dustin, Brad, Tony, Martin, Jeff W, RC, Guy, Muse all did really well.

It puts me at 15th place out of 17 in the Cat 3 field, pretty close to the bottom. But that’s the good thing about the bottom… there is no where to go but up.

Home - Bellevue Park and Ride - Home 48 miles.

Bike - BMC SL01 51-35 (q-rings) 11-23 Spinergy Stealth Wheels.

Ride Food - small bottle of Accelerade small bottle of water, snickers bar

GREAT WEATHER!!!!

Spun super easy Down through Alki and over to Leschi. had a cup of coffee and then headed across mercer island to the park and ride. Garage Racing must have 9 million people on their team this year because everywhere I looked there was a Garage kit. Maybe Alex is selling his hits behind the bar? Turned around and thought about doing the rest of the island but 1 look at the miles so far and I thought I might end up overdoing it for tomorrow’s TT.

It was a good ride, although I missed riding with my teammates this morning. I think I needed to get out for a stroll and with being sick, a hard 70 plus ride is not what I needed.

Speaking of sick, my chest is a little worse. Very DEEP cough and my throat is killing me. The Mucus machine has stopped and so have the dizzy spells I was having last night. I hope I’m feeling better tomorrow for the race.

I’ve felt like I’ve been on the verge of getting sick for the past week and last night I think it really hit me. I woke up about 3 this morning and couldnt talk and when I did try talking I immediately had to cough. I felt like I was drowning.

I’m a mucus factory.

I’m so tired. My chest hurts from coughing for the last 3 hours straight and all I want to do is to go back to bed.

Will my 3 cups of green tea help me feel better? Maybe some bacon, eggs and hashbrowns will help. Hold my breath and drink three sips of water? turn my head and cough?

Bleh.

Bike - Leader TT 53-34 x 11-21 Ksyrium wheels

I wouldn’t say today was a waste because it was an incredible workout. The trainer I was on was completely out of whack which was upsetting because I felt SO good on my warm up and I really wanted to match my PR from last week.

My first mile I normally average about 350 watts. Today? 210.

Yes… 210 watts but I was working SO hard to do it. At first I thought it was me, or the bike. I checked my brakes… where they rubbing? Nope.

Then we hit the first hill and my heart rate is at 187 and I’m pulling 240 watts. Then I knew something was wrong. I got off the bike to talk to Devin, Lang moved some wires around and it didn’t seem to do anything. I decided to just tough it out and man it wiped me out. It really felt like I had DOUBLE the resistance.

By the time I finally finished (dead last) I was shaking and dripping with sweat.

Ive decided this will most likely by my last indoor TT. We’ll see how the weather goes and how I perform this Sunday for the Frostbite TT up in Snohomish.

To sum up today in a word… meh.

I got the Cycle U newsletter this morning in my email and over sips of coffee, read Coach Undems latest article. Maybe it was the amount of java I had this morning or the fact that Rosanna and I met the Reverend who will be officiating our wedding last night and I was feeling a little sentimental.

Maybe it was just gas. :-)

I don’t know. One of his paragraphs jumped out at me.

“If you hang out with dogs, as the saying goes, you will get fleas. You can’t choose your family, but once you are an adult you can choose who you will hang out with. If you hang out with guys and gals who live, ride and act like you want to act, you will be drawn to perform at their level. If you join a team where people want to improve and take their sport seriously, you stand a much better chance of doing the same. If you want to get faster, ride with faster people”

It makes sense for training. Back in High School, training with Dale Macomber made me a faster runner. When I got back into road racing, John Nidecker made me faster and as a cat 3 and our racing crew has some soon cat 2 upgrades we have become more structured and we all make each other better racers.

But I think it goes way past just cycling. I look at my family, friends and workmates and realize that I have surrounded myself with the most outstanding people one could find. From the guys/ gals I ride with, my family to the woman I am going to marry in less than 4 months, they all have a positive, healthy influence in my life.

How do you thank them for that? A gift card to REI? :-)

The only way is to reflect the same love and caring.

I sure hope I do that.

Anyone watching the Amgen Tour of California?

A couple of things.

BMC has been super active and though I’m a little upset McSickness didn’t make the race squad I’m really happy with their strategy.

Johnny Sundt! You know, last year I was having a conversation with him at Seward and we got on the subject of bridging the gap. He did exactly opposite today than what he told me to do. Good on ya Johnny! :-/

Seeing Fabien Cancellara (wearing the yellow jersey) give his wheel to a teammate who was in the point chase was awesome. What a great teammate.

Bob Roll, get rid of the comb-over.

Cipo at 41 years old, sprinting for a stage win and barely missing it for a 3rd place. Unbelievable.

Tyler Farrar AND the yellow jersey. ’nuff said!

Leschi South lake loop and Mercer Island clockwise twice 48 miles

Bike - BMC SL01 51-35(q rings) x 11-23 Spnergy Stealth Wheels

Breakfast - Water, PB&J

Ride food - small bottle of accelerade, small bottle of water, 3 shot blocks.

Dustin Killed the sprint on Ranier. I tried to reel in the Dewars guys (they started WAY early) and was able to nail them about 200 from the cross walk and Dustin flew past us like we were standing still. It was AMAZING. We cruised to Coulon and the 95% of the group did May Valley, Dustin and I skipped it, we were way to tired from yesterday.

Side Note. I woke up about 3 this morning with a tennis ball sized cramp in my hamstring. It almost brought tears to my eyes. I had to walk around the house a bit and stretch before falling back asleep. Wow yesterday really took it out of me.

As we finished our first loop around Mercer Dustin had to peel off to head home and I just kept on cruising. I spun lightly, nothing too fast, maybe averaging 15 mph. The sun was out, the bike was feeling good and I was smiling. It’s days like today where it’s just fun to ride.

Leschi - Snoqualmie Falls - Leschi 70 miles.

Bike BMC SL01 51-35(q-rings) x 11-21 Ksyrium SL Wheels

Breakfast Ensure, PB&J, 2 Aleve, 5 sportleg tablets and water

Ride food 1 large bottle of Accelerade, small bottle of water, 1 bag of shot blocks and a gu shot

Welcome to the story of Brian’s 70 mile ride that required a 45 mile warm up. Last night I went to bed feeling like I was coming down with a fever… chills, hot head, congestion and an upset stomach. Luckily I woke up feeling completely fine. Maybe I was just tired? As I was eating I went downstairs to my shop and grabbed the Cannondale only to find the Bottom Bracket was making an AWFUL grinding noise. D’OH! So I grabbed the BMC and pulled the fender of the Cannondale only to leave it at home :-( So I had to ride in the back of the pack with Brad. You think that means I get a free ride all day with the groups draft but since Brad didn’t have a fender either (and Kurts wasn’t working for shit) I had to back way off as I was getting sprayed like crazy. So not only was I NOT getting the draft I had to fight like CRAZY just to hang on because we were absoulutely flying down Newport. I was able to catch my breath on Sunset and spun comfortably right behind the pack up to the stop lights. It’s amazing how well you do by not panicking and focusing on spinning and breathing. I felt great at the top. When we hit Fall City Greg and Martin had a bit of a gap and it looked like they were trying to get away so I tried to bridge which I almost did but Martin put the hammer down on the downhill and I didn’t want to risk it on the corners (yup.. slicks) so Tony flew past me and then Brad caught me. we pushed the first hill and Brad shot off and then I popped. I waited for Dustin and we did the rest of the climb together and then desceneded. The ride up to the falls was a good pace, I didn’t feel like I was pushing all that hard. We passed a small group and one of the guys jumped in our paceline RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME! It threw my concentration off but I held on anyway. As we made the final turn one of the guys stood up (Martin?) and it was on. Unfortunately our visitor wanted to play too and threw his bike back as he stood and almost took me out. I came around him and almost caught up to the group before the stop at the top.

On the ride back the roads were drying out and it got a bit warmer. I started feeling much stronger and was able to put a pretty good move on Issaquah Fall City. I couldn’t catch Dustin but I came close. Dustin and I put the nail in the coffin though with a quick move in Samammish. I put my head down on the hill and pushed my HR up to 199. Dustin said he was pushing over 1000 watts. We didn’t see the rest of the group again until the slough where we waited for them, then just cruised on back to Leschi. I suggested a trip around Mercer Island but it got shot down. I really was feeling good.

All in all it was a good ride, great company too!!

One of the greatest things to ever come out of Seattle, Green Apple Quickstep. First album hitting the streets in 1995, disbanded in 2001.

Their music is a mix of psychedelia, rock, blues, and groove. They rock hard with the best, fill the air with sound so thick you can grab it, and have a groove a mile deep. The lyrics are a bit esoteric but quite often profound. The band also has a wicked (if sometimes sophomoric) sense of humor; their name is an euphemism for diahrrea (if you eat green apples, you do the quickstep to the bathroom), and Ty is still waiting for aliens to come pick him up, and one of their new songs on Reloaded is an ode to saddle shoes.

“Feel My Way”

“Stereo”

This is going to be quick as I need to go to bed…

Indoor TT Standard Rolling 10k course

Bike - BMC SL01 51-35 (q-rings) x 11-21 Ksyrium SL wheels

I’m happy :-)

1st TT - 15:50 @ 303 watts

2nd TT - 15:21 @ 323 watts

Results can be seen here!

I guess I broke 16 minutes!

Holy shit, that hurt SO bad. I almost threw up that last mile.

Got home about 4:30 and to my surprise, it was still light outside! So here was my problem… should I go for a ride OUTSIDE on a weekday, or should I take the dogs for a walk.

I took one for the team and took the dogs for a walk and boy were they happy. We trekked down the hill toward the Ferry dock and then back up. Annabelle is still a “I have to sniff EVERYTHING dog” and Maggie has turned into a “stare and contemplate dog” which is nice but they throw the rythm of the walk off.

Back home I set up the TT bike and spun for about an hour and a half. First race is right around the corner… the TT up in Snohomish! watched a couple episodes of Family guy and decided that everytime they poked fun at Meg I would sprint for 15 seconds. Now THAT was a workout.

Dinner was a chicken, egg noodles and cottage cheese over spinich with wheat bread and garlic butter. A glass of water and a beer. Yup, it’s training season. Gone is the cheesburger dinners with a side of pizza.

Damn.

Tomorrow is indoor TT. I will break 16.

Tomorrow is also the anniversary of Ro and I being engaged. :-)

Word is they cancelled TST, which was my A race this year since I have a split season. I was pretty upset but I just have to focus my effort on Walla Walla and help Dustin and Greg in the RR and Crit and push my A race to Longbranch.

A season without TST? WTF?

It’s review time here at the workplace and the new corporate buzz word is “Self Eval“

Basically, I have a 5 page list of items that I rank myself using a 1-5 score. 1 being Unsatisfactory and 5 an Outstanding Performer (there is also an N/A but since I wrote my own job description, which this is EXACTLY based on, I better not put N/A on anything!).

So what to do? Well, I’m 4’s and 5’s straight down the line, of course! :-)

I’m having flashbacks of high school, as I never did well on multiple question tests and I wish this was more of a “describe how you perform” instead of just picking a number. I like to write, or Bull Shit as my mom calls it.

I’m sure they don’t really care what I think. This seems to be an excercize in futility. I’ll guess I’ll find out…

Dogbert- OUT!

Bike Cannondale R2000 50-34 x 12-23 Swiss Threat Wheels

Breakfast food, PB&J, Ensure, Water

Ride Food - Water and a gu shot

Felt good this morning so I wanted to start a little something on Ranier. Brad and Dustin were right behind me and a couple of Dewars guys were on the front. After a wave to Brad I jumped out and the wind hit me something FIERCE, almost felt like I was being blown backwards. Brad came off my right and Dustin came off my left and the sprint was on. I couldn’t believe Dustin’s power, it was unbelievable. Dustin took the sprint, Brad second and me 3rd.

I was only planning to do the south end but D and B convinced me to hit May Valley. After the hill up we settled into a rolling paceline until the first light. When it hit green we fumbled back into our line and one of the (team name deleted) racers started moving into me. It’s alright, it happens, I mean he should have glanced behind him but oh well. I reached out and tapped him on the hip and told him I was there and he EXPLODED on me. Started lecturing me about pack dynamics and how if I did that in a 1/2 race I would get my ass kicked. WTF? dude you’re a Cat 1? congrats… now act like it. Then I dusted him on Front Street :-) Next time you lecture someone, be in better shape

Touche!

He came up and apologized later. It was much appreciated.

It was a fast day and I really hadn’t completely recovered from yesterday. I had to take a detour at Newport to grab a Snickers bar and some water but luckily I caught up to Dustin and Jeff W by Mercer Island. I was toast by the time we got across the bridge. Yup, right about the time I noticed my front wheel was flat.

Fitting ending to the ride.

Bike - Cannondale R2000 50-34 x 12-25 Swiss Threat wheels.

Breakfast - Water & peanut butter toast

Ride Food - Water & Gu shot

I was running late for the ride and skipped a very much needed breakfast and since I forgot my sandwich at home, I also missed my lunch.

Hey, guess what? Yeah, I bonked like a sunofabitch about mile 40. Luckily Greg gave me a gu shot right before he and Tony headed north and Martin, Jeff and I went south. I had to dig pretty damn deep for the last 20 miles. After a quick stop for some Gatorade (yup, I ran out of water too) and a snickers bar I nutted up and pulled a bunch because Martin’s back was really starting to hurt him and Jeff was close to bonk stage.

It really was a pretty good ride considering some stupid mistakes. Note to self, eat more damnit.

As I was mapping my ride, I must have missed a turn. My computer says 69.4 miles but the map says 62.6.

Whatever…

Saturday night was also our team party and it turned out great. Mickey Gendler showing up was awesome. Pictures are on my Flickr site-

At first, you feel as if the interviewer grabs this guy because he is a young black man who might be an uneducated fella just holding a sign for another black man. You feel angry at the interviewer… why put this guy on the spot just to make a fool out of them?

but then it happens.

The guy knows his stuff. He is well spoken, has great points, holds his ground and is passionate.

where is this in todays youth? I don’t agree with everything he says but his points are very well put.

I wish ALL of us, especially our young folk, were as passionate as this.