2006 Predictions

Here are some things I predict will happen in the coming year.

• Gasoline will be $4.00 per gallon
• I will buy a car that runs on diesel/vegetable oil
• There will be no exit strategy for the war in Iraq
• Andy Bakke will have sexual intercourse
• News programs will have more coverage of Brad and Angelina than genocide, poverty, and AIDS in Africa, combined
• I will break a bicycle rim
• A famous cyclist will fail a drug test and deny he ever doped
• Ivan Basso will win the Giro
• Chris Horner will win a stage in the Tour
• I will win a cyclocross race
• Lance will do all he can to stay in the media spotlight
• George W. Bush will still be an asshole
• I will not shop at Wal-Mart
• I will have a Colorado Paramedic License
• Mary and I will buy a home
• The Mets will win the World Series
• Federer will not win a grand slam
• A record number of athletes will fail drug tests during the Turino Olympics
• Paris Hilton will die
• Sampson will meet Vontoux
• A telemarketer from Calcutta will call and try to get me to consolidate my student loans
• I will drop an F-bomb on said telemarketer
• A Canadian will contract bird flu
• Right-winged yahoos will dismiss global warming
• Scott Johnson will spend a month on our futon, and train with me
• I will vomit from exertion
• Apple will come out with a ghetto blaster/boom box iPod

I'll come back to this list next year and see how many came true. I wish everyone a safe and happy New Year's Eve, and a prosperous 2006!

A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

Holy crap it's stromy here! Wind and rain and craziness. At times I don't think it could possibly rain any harder than it is. There are high surf advisories too. I might walk down to the beach and check it out. If the waves are cool, I'll post some pics.

I finished a 48 hour shift this morning. Nothing too cool to report again. I have a friend who is a paramedic in Arcata, CA, and he has the BEST stories. Weird-ass stuff I can't post on the blog. One story involves a guy who jumped out of the back of the ambulance traveling down the highway. You can imagine the result.

Less than 2 days until I get back on the bike. If the weather continues like it has, I'll be logging a lot of miles on the trainer. Fun fun. I think I want fenders.

You Gotta Make Way for the Homo Superior

This is Megan.

Here are some random facts about Megan...

Megan was the ispiration for the David Bowie masterpiece Hunky Dory.

Megan spent the Festivus holiday of 2004 at Chuck Norris's Sumatran beach home. During the feats of strenth portion of the celebration Megan had to pin Chuck Norris. They wrestled for 3 days, culmunating in Megan roundhouse kicking Chuck in the beard. We know the resulting devistation as the Asia Tsunami.

Megan once had a mild case of diarrhea. Only later did she find out it was the Avian Flu.

Lex Luthor once tried to hire Megan to distroy Superman. Megan declined, and Lex was forced to clone Nuclear Man out of Superman's hair's.

Megan once climed all 14 of the worlds 8000 meter peaks in one day. She never used supplemental oxygen.

After seeing Van Gogh's Starry Night, Megan promptly tracked the Dutch master down and cut off his ear, saying "Never paint such shit again!"

Megan eats nails for breakfast.

Megan is banned from competing in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Don't ask why.

Megan built 2 of the 3 great prymids.

Megan was the choreographer on Napleon Dynamite.

Megan, while holding a flux capacitor and running at 88 mph, can travel back to the future.

When God sneezes, people reply, "Megan bless you."

Megan invented the internet out of a pay phone and an old Speak n' Spell.

The film Delta Force was originally written with Megan in the lead role.

Megan invented the Total Gym. Chuck Norris only sells them to repay Megan for saving his life in Nam.

If you laugh at the picture of Megan, her fist will travel through the matrix and punch you in the face through your computer screen.

Chuck Norris's beard turned red after Megan bitch-slapped him.

Mary in Florida: Day 10

My wife finally comes home tonight. Besides the disgusting moustache I grew while she was gone, I think I still have my sanity. The "Chester A. Arthur" was shaved last Thursday at the request of my boss, but I kept the moustache. Work was incredibly slow yesterday. It just goes to show that most of our calls are because people are bored and have nothing better to do than go to the hospital.

The other day I finished the single front ring project on the cyclocross bike. I used an aero brake-only lever, a 42 tooth chainring, and two carbon fiber chain guides. The inside guide is mounted where the inner chainring would be, the chainring sits where the large, outer ring normally is, with the outer guide set outside of the chainring with 3mm spacers. It's held together by long chainring bolts used for triple ring cranksets. I also took the "oh shit levers" off, since I never used them. Here are some pics.


I wasn't sure if I'd be able to use an inner guide due to chain line issues, but everything clears, and shifts awsome. If the inner guide didn't work, I'd use a thrid-eye and maybe place the chainring in the inner position. I still need to take some links out of the chain so there is no possibility of dropping the chain. It's a pretty clean set-up, and took a quite a few grams off the overall bike weight.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.

Mary in Florida: Day 8

I actually have a day off. The last 2 days of work were horrible. I slept a total of 3 hours, and most of that was in the ambulance. We were busy. This morning Sampson and I were in search of snow. I thought there'd be snow up in the mountains, but it was like 60 degrees, so there was no snow. We went for a little hike anyways, and I let sampson go swimming in the river. The current is pretty strong now, so he got a pretty good workout trying to swim back to shore. Here are some pictures.



I have to work tomorrow, so I'm "celebrating" Christmas today. I have a turkey in the oven, and numerous beers in the fridge. Mary will be home Monday, so we'll have Christmas then.

I wish everyone a merry Christmas, and I hope Santa leaves fun toys in your stockings.

Mary in Florida: Day 5

Another 48 hour shift is complete. Nothing too cool to report on. I have to go back to work tomorrow though for another 48 hours. It's been rainy and windy here in Crescent City the last few days. It looks like its not going to let up until Christmas. My "Chester A. Arthur" is coming in nicely. I'll take some pictures of it before I shave it off. I've been working on changing my cyclocross bike from a double to a single front chainring set-up. I'll post pics of that also when its complete. You guys need to check out this video. It's f'ing cool! Here's a picture of the incident.

I had a message on my answering machine when I got home today. I have an interview for a paramedic postition in Boulder, CO on January 3rd. Wish me luck.

Mary in Florida: Day 2

It's storming here in Crescent City today. Windy and rainy. Sampson and I had a hike planned for today, but I don't think its going to happen. Instead, I put together a little holiday wish/lust list.

Alpha-Q CX cyclocross fork

Ritchey WCS carbon seatpost

Bianchi Pista fixed/track bike

SRM DuraAce powermeter

If anyone has the holiday spirit inside them, and has about $4600 to burn, there it is.

Mary in Florida: Day 1

Well, I wimped out on the Trans-Iowa race. I didn't want to take up one of the coveted 70 spots if I wasn't fully committed to doing it. It would have been a blast, and I only hope they have the race again in 2007. I added a couple new links. One is Stumptown Coffee Roasters in Portland, they do mail order, and have the most delicious coffee. The other is an enormous mail order internet wine shop. Check them out. I took some pictures of Sampson today. I tried to set the camera on the tripod and take portraits of Sampson with me, but it didn't really work. Here are a couple choice pics. Enjoy.

Iowa?

I'm toying with the idea of doing the Trans-Iowa race I read about on Simmons's blog. It sounds pretty fun and I could use my cx bike. Registration opens tomorrow at 11:00, and is limited to 70 racers, so I assume it fills up fast. If I'm feeling it in the morning, I'm going to resgister.

I just watched a video about team CSC at the 2003 tour (the one where Tyler Hamilton broke his collar bone.) It was really cool. Here is the link. Open it in Windows Media Player. It's like an hour long, and some of it's in Dutch, but it's quite interesting, and definately worth watching.

Chester A. Arthur

Hello again to everyone in Bloggerland. I have the whole weekend off, but I might as well be working since Mary left for Florida today. She is spending Christmas with her family. I will be churning out the blog posts in an attempt to curtail the foreseeable craziness that being alone over the holidays will induce. So if anyone has any requests for post topics, let me know (no pics of my chode, Andy.) Work the last 48 hours was pretty shitty. I didn't do much on Wednesday, but at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday night, I had to take a crazy guy to a looney bin in Sacramento, which is 8 hours away. So I returned around 6 p.m last night, and went to bed, and came home this morning.

Why is the title of this post the name of our 21st President, you ask? Because I'm growing one of these sweet beard things while Mary's gone. Here's a picture.

Another One Bites the Dust

I killed another fine citizen of Del Norte County this weekend. Big Suprise. We went on a call where an elderly woman was having chest pain and shortness of breath. This lady was fully concious, alert and talking one minute, and the next minute she was full-on dead. Yep, so that was quite exciting. The call was started out as a typical chest pain call, so I didn't have/need/want additional help in the back of the ambulance with me, so when she died, I had to do CPR and give drugs and everything else by myself. I did get to precordial thump her, so that made my day. We also had our company Christmas party this weekend. It was terrible with terrible food and terrible gifts.

Cyclocross nats were this weekend also. I called it with Todd Wells winning. The Oregon boys did quite well also. Here is a funny picture of Chris Horner looking quite goofy. I dig the waterbottle cage and the textbook shouldering technique. If you don't know what I mean, check out some of the other pics on cyclingnews.

New Direction

Alright guys. I won't bore anyone with any more training theories. I'll bore you with rantings about my 2006 racing schedule instead. It's pretty dependent on us moving to Colorado. The season will be directed at building fitness throughout the spring and summer, with the focus being cyclocross in the fall. Thats all I definitively know for right now.

The tenative Colorado racing calender is on the ACA website, there is a link for it to the right. It looks like I'll be doing numerous crits, since they are very much like cyclocross races. I'll probably do a few time trials and road races also. I just suck at the tactics of road racing, and riding in a pack. It seems I can never get in the winning break when the crunch happens. No mountain bike races yet. Maybe in 2007. It would be fun going back home and racing the ND state championships. It's all still up in the air.

I'll be back on the bike starting January 2nd with serious base miles. I'd like to average 12-15 hours per week on the bike during my base periods. Gym work only until then. I've already started putting on a couple "holiday pounds."

Cyclocross nationals are this weekend. My money is on Todd Wells. Page will probably win another one though. Look out for all the Oregon boys. Trebon, Tonkin, Skerritt, Wicks, Craig, Horner, Dekker. All possible top 10's. Crazy.

Tomorrow I go in to work for a 72 hour shift. I'll post on Monday morning when I'm off. Maybe some cool stuff will go down at work that I can write about.

More on Training

Hi again everyone. I finished a 48 hour shift this morning. Nothing too exciting happened. No six hour naps though. I'm trying to get a couple days off, so I can go to Florida and spend some time with Mary's family. Two other guys need the same days off, so we'll see if it all works out.

I'm sure everyone has been anxiously awaiting the post talking about training zones based on Lactate Thresold Heart Rate, and the Borg Rating of Percieved Exertion. Here is a table showing all 7 training zones with corresponding heart rates.

Zone	Purpose	% of LTHR
1	Recovery	65-81%
2	Aerobic	82-88%
3	Tempo	89-93%
4	Subthreshold	94-100%
5A	Superthreshold	101-102%
5B	Aerobic Capacity	103-105%
5C	Anaerobic Capacity	106%+

Rating of Percieved Exertion (RPE) is another method for measuring the effort of a workout. RPE is a numbered scale from 6 to 20. After a workout you give a number equvalent to the the intensity of the workout. Athletes that have used RPE for many years can accurately pinpoint lactate threshold just from feel. RPE is nice in that you don't need sophisticated training equipment, like a heart rate monitor, or powermeter.

Purpose	Rating	Exertion
Recovery	6
Recovery	7	Very, Very Light
Recovery	8
Recovery	9
Aerobic Development	10
Aeobic Development	11	Fairly Light
Aerobic Development	12
Tempo Development	13	Somewhat Hard
Tempo Development	14
Subthreshold Development	15	Hard
Subthreshold Development	16
Superthreshold Development	17	Very Hard
Aerobic Capacity Development	18
Aerobic Capacity Development	19	Very, Very Hard
Aerobic Capacity Development	20

At around 16 to 17 RPE is lactate threshold. Less then 10 RPE is recovery, and greater then 17 is superthreshold. Holy crap its not easy to put tables in posts. It involves code writing, which I know nothing about.

A third tier to measure training involves power output, but since none of us mere mortals has a powermeter (I assume) I won't talk about Critical Power. Measuring power is the way to go, if you can afford a powermeter. RPE is difficult to subjectively measure, and heart rate can fluctuate wildly due to hydration, rest and stress to name a few, but power remains constant.

In the next post I'll talk about limiters, and how to train to turn your weaknesses into strenghs.

Heart Rate Training Zones

Hello all. Mary and I are spending our Sunday doing laundry. Aren't we exciting? Yesterday we went on a nice bike ride. 2 hours on the road bike. I can't believe the difference between the road bike and the cyclocross bike. The road bike is so much more lively and quick. It felt nice finially riding it again. Last night was the Wild Rivers Multi Sports (Mary's tri club) party. It was pretty fun. I overheard many conversations about base training and heart rates, and I wanted to clarify some misconceptions people have about heart rate training. Here's another long post about exercise physiology. Read it and learn something.

Everyone i talked to last night had an arbitrary number they used to train at during all of base trainig. This number is calculated by subtracting your age from 180. This is a very inaccurate way of determining base training heart rate(s.) A much more accurate way to determine target heart rates is finding your heart rate at lactate thresold. Lactate thresold heart rate (LTHR) is easliy found by a simple test on the bike (a 30 minute time trial) but is harder to find while running or swimming, or some other activity. LTHR varies with each activity. Your LTHR while cycling would be very different then your LTHR while cross country skiing, for example, due to many more muscle groups being used while skiing. For examples we will use my current LTHR, which is 191 beats per minute.

But Brooks, why not train based off maximum heart rate?

Well I'm glad you asked. People like to use the generic 220 minus your age fomula to determine maximum heart rate, and base all heart rate zones from this number. This again is an inacurrate means of figuring out training zones for two reasons. 1. A person's maximum heart rate is rarely 220 minus your age, and 2. Not everyone's LTHR is the same percentage of maximum heart rate. Examples: My maximum heart rate is 205 beats per minute, not 194 (220-26.) Using this generic formula, lactate thresold is 85% of maximum heart rate. Again, my LTHR is 191 beats, or 93% of my maximum, no where near 85%.

What the hell does this mean, Brooks?

Lets say rider "A" has a max heart rate of 192 beats per minute, and his actual LTHR is 163 beats (85% of max,) and rider "B" has a max of 202, and LTHR of 190 (94% of max.) If both riders used the generic 85% of maximum as LTHR, rider "A" would be right at lacate threshold, training would be accurate and he would see improved performances. Rider "B" would be considerably under his LT. Rider "B's" training would suffer, because his training zones were inaccurate, and performances would stagnate, improve very slowly, or even decline.

Back to that 180 minus your age thing. If I used this while base training, I would have to keep my heart rate under 154 beats per minute (180-26=154.) This is at the high end of Zone 1 (65-81% of LTHR.) This trainig zone is for recovery, not for aerobic development! Zone 2 is used for aerobic develpment and is performed at 82-88% of LTHR, in my case 156-168 beats per minute. Zone 2 is an ideal base building heart rate zone.

In future posts, I will list all the training zones as a percentage of LTHR. There is also another, less scientific approach to training, that works incredibly well, called "Rating of Perceived Exertion," or RPE. I will get into RPE later.

So in summary, find your LTHR and base all training zones off of it and you will see improved race results. Train smarter, not harder!

The Weekend...Beeotch!

hello everyone in bloggerland. work was pretty sweet this week. i worked a 48 hour shift on wednesday and thursday at the "vacation station." i went on one call at 9:30 wednesday morning, and didn't leave the station after that. some people would find it boring watching tv, reading, and napping for two straight days, but, as the reigning king of sitting, i thoroughly enjoyed it. its awesome to take a six hour nap knowing you're getting paid. i cleaned the house this morning, and now i have the rest of the weekend to play. it rained like a mofo earlier this morning, but now its sunny and my road bike is ridiculing me. i haven't ridden my road bike in like 3 months. a four hour ride sounds fun (even the inevitable penile numbness.) i haven't figured out my training schedule yet due to not knowing when and where i'll be racing next year (it better be in colorado) so i don't know when i'm to start serious training. probably the next couple weeks.

Its Official

my cycling season is officially over. bring on the off-season! off-season training sounds so much better before you actually start offseason training though. long miles and lonely hours in the cold. this year i'm actually going to lift weights religiously. my spindly legs look funny next to the tree trunks other racers have. power is an area i need to work on anyways. sustained power and aerobic endurance. those are the off-season goals. my anaerobic system is awesome, and power at LT is awsome. weights and long, long miles are what i need. this book is the shit. everyone who is their own coach should read it and follow it. tomorrow i go back to work for a 48 hour shift, so i can get lots of reading in, and figure out my upcoming season's racing goals. i'll let everyone know sometime this weekend.

Change of Plans

well i guess i'm not going to race this weekend after all. Mary's tri club is having a triathlon party on saturday, and that sounds slightly less torturous than cyclocross racing. hopefully i can race on december 18th, but i might be in FL with mary's fam. so my season might be over. so be it if it is. my abbreviated cyclocross season was incredibly promising, and bodes well for next year. i've been itching to start base training of the road racing season anyways. hopefully i'll be racing in colorado the upcoming season. i'll post a link to the american cycling association in the cycling links section. it is the governing body for bicycle racing in colorado. its part of FIAC, like OBRA. mary should hear about a sweet job in longmont, colorado this week, and i applied for a paramedic job in boulder. keep your fingers crossed. boulder county is the epicenter for endurance sports in the u.s.
i came across a copy of photoshop elements the other day. i'm going to start editing photos for framing and feature them on this blog. here is a picture of the confluence of the south and middle forks of the smith river (i think, it sounds smart anyways.) i took this picture last march.

Home...Finally

well, we said good-bye to the house, and we are finally back home in our apartment. its nice to be home, but i really want a house of our own. last week was crazy with work and thanksgiving and running around between apartment and house. now i've got a couple days off to prepare for this weekend's cx races. i race on saturday in salem, and in eugene on sunday. i've hardly been riding, so we'll see how my body handles 2 races in one weekend. its stormy and shitty outside here today. cold and rain and wind. typical crescent city winter weather. sampson's abscess healed, and he no longer needs the lampshade. i think he misses playing with all the dogs while housesitting. thats about all i know. you'd think i'd have more to write about these last 10 days, but i guess not.

Lampshade

my dog is wearing a lampshade. a little over a week ago, mary and sampson were playing at the beach, and sampson rolled in a very dead, and stinky sea lion carcass. we think he cut himself on the sea lion's teeth or something. anyways he had a nice little laceration that was healing up nicely until he decided he wanted to eat the scab from it the other day. so now he is wearing a lampshade so he doesn't lick at it and whatnot. he looks pathetic.

work sucked this week. as i'm writing this, i haven't slept since wednesday night. mary and i have nothing planned for the weekend. we might go on a hike or bike ride, but now i'm going to get caught up on some sleep.

Housesitting, Vegans, and Metalwork

hello all. its been a while since i last posted some stuff, so here's what i've been up to.
mary and i are housesitting for the guy in the picture while he vacations in europe. he is one of mary's triathlon buddies, and a cool dude. his house is great. it makes us really want to get out of crescent city and buy a house of our own. soon.
we decided we are just hanging out this weekend, and not racing. it seems every weekend i'm not working we've been traveling up and down the west coast in search of cyclocross races. it will feel good just to chill for once (and save a little money.)
i added another link to my list of choice internet real estate. molly cameron is a cross racer from portland, who also owns a small bike shop that specializes in everything cyclocross. he's sort of a weirdo, so his life is interesting to read about.
the job search is slow moving. if either of us doesn't have a job soon, we'll be traveling to colorado and doing the whole job application thing in person. probably the first part of next year.
i did a little modification to the cyclocross frame the other day. i grinded off the "lawyer tabs" on the fork to make wheel changes faster and easier. bike companies put these things on forks so half-tards who don't know how to use a quick-release don't sue when their wheel falls off. here are some pictures of my handywork. soon i will do it to my road bike.

Decisions, Decisions

i have a dilemma on my hands, but i'm not complaining. the dilemma deals with cyclocross races. there are races on novemver 19th and 20th in oregon, but there are also races in san francisco the same weekend. the oregon races can be found on the OBRA website, and the SF races are part of the US grand prix of cyclocross series. all the big name pros will be in SF, with the series championships on sunday. saturday's race in SF is cool also. if i can convince mary to race, she could win a sweet lemond poprad cx bike. if there are 15 beginner women racing on saturday, there is a drawing amongst the beginner women, and one of them wins the bike. the odds are pretty decent, and the bike is really nice. the only problem is scrounging up a bike for her to ride. she could ride one of the beater mountain bikes we have lying around. we'll see what happens. i'll have to talk to her about it.
i told heather i'd post some more pics of mary and sampson so here is another one. just for heathrow.
-brooks

Thursday

alright. i'm trying despirately to get some tubular wheels in time for next saturday's race. i have 5 races scheduled in the next couple weeks, so i'm going to be busy. click on the OBRA link to the right and check them out. there was a good article in a local alternative paper up in portland about the popularity of cyclocross up there. click here for it. yesterday i said i'd write a little about cx training, so here goes.
since cyclocross races are so short (45min.) training needs to be ralatively short and intense. i try to get 2 quality workouts in every week. if i'm racing on the weekend, the race counts as a quality workout. i try to get another quality workout in during the midweek. the rest of the week is spent recovering, along with some cyclocross skills training.
quality workouts are workouts that will make me a faster, more efficent racer. workouts typically consist of intervals done at, or just below lactate threshold. what's lactate threshold, you ask? lactate thresold is the point at which your body converts from primarily aerobic metabolism to anaerobic metabolism. during anaerobic metablolsim your body can no longer buffer the amount of lactic acid produced by your muscles, and muscle cramping and fatigue set in quickly. cyclocross races are ususally performed above lactate threshold, so training your body to increase lactate threshold, so you can sustain near maximum efforts longer, is the goal of cyclocross training. sophisticated training tools such as a heart rate monitor, or power meter are needed to measure lactate threshold. i use a heart rate monitor, and with prior tests, i have determined my lactate threshold heart rate (LTHR) to be 191 beats per minute. if using a power meter, you can directly measure lactate threshold in watts/hour. basing training on LTHR is much more accurate then baseing training on maximum heart rate.
a typical quality workout usually involves a 15 minute warm-up at 60-70% of LTHR, with 5 to 10 minute intervals, totalling at least 45 mintes (race distance) done at LTHR. rest between the intervals is usually half the lenth of the previous interval. a 15 minute cool-down done at 60% of LTHR completes the workout. occassonally i will throw in short 1 to 2 minute long intervals done above LTHR in the mix as well. i find that these workouts simulate races very closely.
recovery rides are usually around 2 hours done at 70-80% of LTHR. i try to get in 2 quality workouts and at least 2 recovery rides in each week. quality workouts work really well on a stationary trainer, and i tend to do these at work. well, there's my little exercise physiology lesson for the day. i'm off for a 2 hour ride on the road bike.
-brooks

Rainbows and Unicorns

my blog seems to be morphing into a cyclocross blog, which was not the original intent. here is a post totally unrelated to cyclocross.
the only pictures on my blog are of me in a cycling skinsuit. here are some pics of other stuff. in only one pic is somone wearing a skinsuit. the fist pic is mary during a bike leg of a triathlon. there are some goofy sampson pics, and a pic of mary and her sister susan.
i'm sure i'll post yet another cyclocross entry later tonight, maybe dealing with training.
-brooks

Pics and Rantings

here are some choice pictures for your enjoyment. random race pictures, and one pic of the poor carbon wheel (viewer discretion advised.) here is a pretty good picture from some dude's website. he must have liked the new skinsuit. i've been jonesing hard for anything and everything chris king lately. the company makes such high quality, totally serviceable componets, and they do it in the most enrivonmentally responsible manner possible. i need some chris king hubs laced to tubular rims for cyclocross. i just don't know what rims/nips/spokes. if anyone has some ideas for rims and whatnot, let me know. i'm thinking mavic reflex rims with sapim cx-ray spokes. 28 radial laced front and 32 radial non-driveside, cross 3 driveside rear, or 28 radial non-driveside, cross 2 driveside. sounds really stout, and still remarkably light.
-brooks

My New Philosophy

i'm back from san francisco and my latest cross race. the race went pretty well, if not extremely expensive. the course was fast and dry with a couple of run-ups up staircases, and a couple sets of barriers. i raced the B race and got a very good start and sat on in third place for a couple laps. i felt really relaxed and comfortible. it was nice not having to claw my way through a field. myself and the two leaders had a pretty substantial gap on the field about 15 minutes into the race. on the third lap, i caught some air on a small lip that was immediately followed by a 5ft ditch. my front wheel came down hard on the bottom of the ditch, and i distroyed my beautiful ritchey carbon wheel. there was carbon blown out all over the place. i rode the rest of the lap on the wheel, and changed wheels in the pits. i came out in about 15th place. i ended up getting back up to 8th place, where i finished. i could have podiumed in the B race if i didn't lose so many spots with the wheel change. so here is my new philosophy: saving weight on a cyclocross bike by using lightweight, expensive, carbon wheels is a bad idea. 1300 grams for my ritcheys, or 1450 grams for some bomb-proof mavic/chris kings. i can save 150 grams elsewhere (like a single front chainring, which i'm seriously thinking about.) i'll call ritchey about rebuilding costs, but its probably more than what i paid for the wheels. the good news is the crack on the rear rim didn't grow, and didn't pose any problems during the race. but now i have two damaged carbon wheels. what i need to do is train more and race A's and get a frickin' sponsorship package. it seemed strange racing cross in dry, desert-like conditions. there were giant jack rabbits all over the place that sampson liked to chase. these mofos were huge. like the size of sampson with enormous ears. mary was all confused about them. she thought they were kangaroos or something. she couldn't understand that they make rabbits that big. mary took some pretty sweet pics this time though. she's finally getting the hang of our camera. it turns out having a balls out camera doesn't make it easier for novices to take quality pics. the triathlon was pretty fun to watch. mary's friends kicked some ass. a first, fourth, and second places, respectivley, in there age groups. blogger is being retarded and won't let me post pics. i'll slap some up here later.
-brooks

Home During Work Time

this is one of the few perks of my job. i'm right smack in the middle of a 48hr shift, but i've spent the majority of the time at home since my partner lives across the street. its a good thing considering i have to reglue the wheel for this weekends race. getting the old tape off the rim is a bitch. the tape easily peeled off the base tape of the tire, but the rims another story. i first tried using acetone to soften the old tape, but that wasn't cutting it, so i bought some "Oops," which is some really nasty stuff. i scoured the internet trying to find articles on solvents to use, and i came across one where a guy used this stuff. it apparently doesn't hurt the epoxy in the carbon fiber. so, anyway, i've been srubbing and scraping the rim for the last few hours with minimal success. it does work better then the acetone, however. i'm about half finished, so i figure this is a 3 hour job. i guess it's the price you pay for using tufo tape. a half-tard could apply the tape, so i figure its worth a little effort taking the shit off (with regular tubular glue you can just add more glue over the old glue without removing the old stuff. its a mess to work with though.)
tomorrow afternoon mary, sampson, and i leave for san francisco to watch the treasure island triathlon. mary's tri friends are doing it, and she wanted to watch. i found a cyclocross race to do in dublin, ca which is southwest of oakland. i'm racing cat B since i think the level of competition in portland is higher then anywhere, really (a look at the results of the USGP of cyclocross races supports this.) we shall see though. the C race is only 30 minutes, with B's racing for 45, like i'm used to. i best be getting back to the rim. i think i've lost about half my brain cells by huffing solvents lately. if i end up having a child born without a face, or nipples, you'll know why.
-brooks

The Crack

here are some pics of the infamous cracked rim. as you can see the crack is very small, and i don't think its anything to worry about. i don't think the crack goes through the coating on the braking surface. the wheel is still perfectly true, so i'm going to f- it and continue riding it. if i die a horrible death while cyclocross racing you'll know why.

cleaning, and a lesson about wheels

today i finally got around to cleaning the cross bike from last weekend's muddy hell. there was mud everywhere. it took a couple hours, but now its reasonalbly clean. i do have some bad news to report, however. while cleaning and inspecting the bike, i noticed a small crack in the rear rim on the braking surface. shitty. i hit some rocks and roots pretty hard durnig the race, and with the extremely low psi in the tires, they must have impacted the rim and cracked it. the crack seems pretty superfical, and i think the structural integrity of the rim is unharmed. to add insult to injury the tire easily peeled away from the rim, meaning i need to reglue it. it gives me an excuse to further examine the crack though. i should have rolled the tire during the race by how easily i was able to remove it. for the last couple hours i've been weighing the pros and cons of actually using carbon rimmed wheels for cross.
Pros: light, strong, stiff, cut through the mud due to the aero profile, sexy
Cons: expensive!
i figure carbon has many times the impact resistance of aluminum, so a regular aluminum tubular rim would have been trashed as a result of the impact, where carbon is resilient enough to absorb some of the energy from the impact. if i was using clinchers, the rim would have been done for sure due to the rim's need for a "bead lock" (weak thin-walled sides.) here are some pics to better visualize. the first picture is of a normal clincher rim cross-section, the second pic is a tubular rim cross-section. notice the increased hight of the sidewalls of the clincher rim.


tubular is definately the way to go for cyclocross, due to the infrequency of pinch-flats, and the ability to run really, really low pressure for better traction. the use of carbon tubulars is still up in the air though. i don't think i'd be using them if i didn't get a screaming deal on them from ebay. they work awesome and look pimp, i just wonder if the rim would be damaged at all if i had aluminum tubulars instead. the world will never know. if they die prematurely, i'll probably get some ksyrium tubulars next fall to replace them. i need to go prep the rim for gluing.
-brooks

Flying M Pics

here are some blurry pictures taken by my own personal photographer. i'll cut her some slack since she had to also deal with sampson. the cross crusade guys run a really well organized series with chip timing/lap counting. had some coffee that was made by the chris king. he was at the race in the chis king tent. i watched him overhaul a headset. its pretty cool that a guy thats so respected world-wide for this quality components still goes out to the local races and does his thing.

Cross Crusade-Flying M Ranch

its been a while since i last posted. i'll try to get everyone up to speed on the week that was. i worked last tuesday-thursday, and i think i only ran 2 calls the entire 72hrs. so that was nice. friday when i got home, the power was out, and didn't come back until 4p.m. and the cable was out until saturday morning. some dumb-ass hit a pole in his car and knocked out power to the entire town. saturday morning mary, sampson, and i left for portland (the weather was perfect in crescent city, seems its always nice when we're gone and shitty when we're here.) it had been raining on and off all day saturday in portland, so the race was going to be muddy.
sunday morning came and it was really cold, but dry. the race venue was a hunting/horseback riding resort way in the boonies west of portland. the course was mostly singletrack with a short high-speed pavement section. there was only one set of barriers right before the finish line, with another obsticle, a coffin, out on the course. there were two very long and very muddy run-ups each lap also. i thought this kind of technical single-track racing would suit my strenghts better then the wide-open fast races, but i was mistaken. i never really got in a rhythm. again i had a horrible starting position (they really need call-ups for cat C's (kidding)) and i passed about 50 dudes on the first lap. the run-ups on the first lap were rediculous. there were guys everywhere and it was impossible to pass anyone. while the race leaders were able to run up the run-ups, i was stuck behind 50 guys walking up the hill. in the end i ended up 7th, which was a good placing, but i didn't feel like i put in a 100% effort. i don't know if i was limited by the muddy, technical course, or what. i think if i could start on the front row of the grid that i'd compete for the win. next time i'll make sure i get to the start plenty early and we'll see what happens. i'll post some blurry pics soon.
we stayed after and watched the men's A race. there was an "aid station" on the course that consisted of a keg and 50 drunk spectators. the drunk dudes would offer beer to the racers. there was a guy that would sick his dog on riders he knew. it was pretty rowdy. since it was halloween, there were guys racing in costumes. one guy was dressed as a hockey player, and on the run-ups he could check the other racers, another guy was dressed as pedro from napoleon dynamite (he enjoyed the beer.) anyways, it was a pretty fun weekend. i think mary caught the cyclocross bug and now she wants to give it a try.
-brooks

can't make this shit up

i just got off a 72 hr shift at the ambulance this morning. friday morning to monday morning. this had to be the strangest shift i've ever worked (and thats saying a lot.)
friday...
friday night i went on a call where a 12 year old kid rode his bicycle off the cement dock in the harbor and landed on a smaller wooden dock below that raises and lowers with the tide. the tide was extremely low, so the dock sat about 25 feet lower then the main dock. the kid hit the wooden dock so hard he was knocked unconscious and fell into the water. luckily, some fisherman saw the whole thing and jumped into the water and pulled the kid onto the smaller wooden dock.
when i arrived the kid was still on the lower dock, unconscious, but breathing. there was no way to get onto the lower dock as there is no ladder or stairway. i had the local fire department rig some ropes up so i could repel down to the kid. needless to say i don't have much repelling experience, so i f'ed up my arm on a rusty, barnacle ridden metal pole while trying to get to the kid (on reflection i probably should have gotten a tetanus shot afterward.) anyway, the kid was seriously injured with a broken pelvis with a distended, rigid abdomen. we had a boat come and take the kid and myself back to land and on to the hospital. the kid was quite combative, so treatment was tricky. he kept trying to take off his c-collar and pull out his IV's. the kid was flown away and fixed.
on to saturday...
we were called to a dirt-bag hotel for a man not breathing from an assault. when we arrived there was a man detained by police and a very dead-looking dude in a small hotel room. apparently the dude was being choked-out in a head lock by the other guy when the cops arrived. we tried to revive the guy and shocked him a few times, but he did not make it (obviously.) so now i have to deal with some homocide bs. hopefully i won't have to testify to anything. i estimated the guys age to be 40 and my partner thought mid-40's, but we later found out that homeboy was only 23! meth and the dirt-bag lifestyle had definaltely taken their tolls.
sunday funday...
last night we went to a house with police on scene where a guy was stabbed by his girlfirend with a 5 inch long serrated steak knike. all the way to the hilt in the dude's abdomen. this guy needed immediate medical attention, but waited 3 hours to call 911, and when we arrived he didn't want to fo to the hospital. we finally convinced him to go, but it took a while. amazingly the guy was fine.
i went on numerous other calls too, but these were the highlights. got some good workouts in on the trainer this weekend too. i'm racing up in portland again this weekend. pics and a report will follow.
-brooks

hump day

i had a day off from work today. i've had a bad head cold so i didn't really do anything today. i looked at some wierd-ass shit on the web, took a nap, watched baseball, and blew my nose 287 times. here are some links to the "interesting" stuff i found while occupying my time, and oddly, none of it's porn...

http://www.petcarerx.com/affiliate_product.asp?upi=0&ezid=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx&id=582&product_id=10373&updp=3&upsd=302
EPO!! thats crazy! if your dog wants to win the xc skiing gold medal in the 15k, or maybe try for a record accent of l'alpe d'huez he doesn't even need a Rx. if you search this site hard enough they also sell nandrolone so your hampster can effectively train for the world's strongest man. the EPO is tempting though.

http://pazeme.lv/hilarious/
i don't know what to say

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=irule
this made me laugh

http://www.pizazz.info/pizazz.mov
pizazz, we're gonna give it to ya

well that was my day. i try to keep my mind sharp by looking at this crap. tomorrow i need to get a good workout with LT intervals and dismounting/mounting technique thrown in. i haven't ridden since the race on sunday. my life is exciting.
-brooks

PIR pics

here are some pictures mary took of me during the race. she should really be a professional photographer by looking at the quality of these :) picture one is the start line (obviously.) you can't even see me since i'm at the back. the second pic is my sweet ass. the third pic is the battle for 3rd place over the last set of barriers. for some reason i couldn't get the pictures in the right order (i'm retarded.) the last pic is me over the barriers after the run-up. i'll try to post some more pics from the professonal photographer's website.

Veloshop CX race at PIR

well my first cross race is in the books. all in all i'm quite satisfied with the result. here's how the weekend went down...
mary, sampson and i got up early on saturday and drove to portland. sampson was awsome in the car. sometimes i'd forget he was with us until he'd move around. we stopped and had lunch in eugene, which was delicious. got to portland in the midafternoon, checked in to our hotel, and drove to portland international raceway to see if they had the course set up yet. they didn't, but it was nice to see the race was only about 10 minutes from our hotel. it had been raining off and on friday and saturday in portland, so a muddy race was expected. we ate some dinner near PIR and went back to the hotel. i didn't sleep really well in the hotel room, i was starting to get a head cold and i can never sleep well in hotels knowing all the nasty people slept in the same bed before me ( i know they wash the sheets, but its still nasty.)
woke up early on sunday and ate some breakfast and headed to PIR. got to PIR around 8 o'clock, registered and did some recon laps before the start of the beginners race. got on the trainer when the beginners started and warmed up for about 45 minutes. i ate a clif bar and some gels, and downed a gatorade and some water. rode the course a couple more laps with the race wheels, and put the back-up wheels in the pit.
i got to the start line a little late for the mens C race, so i was stuck on the back row. i was a little annoyed with having to start from the back, but it was my first race, and i didn't know what to expect. at the start i passed about half of the 60 man field on the long flat paved section leading into the first turn, which was a 90 degree left hander onto a loose gravel path. i held my position until the first set of barries which were the normal 40 cm high double barriers, but right after the barriers was a large cement slab that doubled like third barrier. at the barriers i passed quite a few other riders and held my position for a couple hundred meters. about half way through the lap the course was very fast and not very technical at all. about 3/4 through the lap there was a short, steep downhill section that immediately turned and went up the same hill with another set of barriers at the top. the course was so wet and slick with mud that riders where going down all over the place. i dismounted at the top of the hill and ran until after the barriers. i used quite a bit of energy working my way through the field on the first lap. i think i was in about 20th place after the first lap. my legs were screaming, and i glanced at my HRM and saw 198 bpm. the first lap took about 7 1/2 minutes to complete.
the second lap was a lot less hectic since the feild was strung out nicely. i rode pretty hard and passed a couple more people. i crashed hard in the mud befere the second set of barriers on an off-camber downhill corner. i only lost one position, and myself and the bike were unhurt ( i was quite muddy though.) the rest of the race went very smoothly and i kept passing people and was feeling really good. on the last lap i caught 3rd place during the high speed flat section and stayed on his wheel until the last set of barriers. i passed him over the barriers, but he got inside of me on the last corner and retook the place coming out of the corner. i jumped on his wheel and the sprint was on for the finish. my calves cramped up bad, and i was unable to pass him, and i settled for 4th place. i immediately vomited as i crossed the finish line.
after the race i looked at my heart rate monitor again. my average HR was 194, and my max HR was 203. for 45 minutes thats pretty incredible! i think if i had a better start position and was on the front row where i belonged, i probably could have podiumed. i was surprised at how good my cyclocross skills were compared with the other cat C's. i seemed to make up a lot of time on guys during the dismounts, run-ups and over the barriers. weird. teh bike worked flawlessly, but i seemed to get an awful lot of mud caked on my shoes which made cliping into the pedals difficult. i had to tap out the mud often on the side of the pedals. as i'm writing this my left shoulder aches something fierce. i can only assume its from my crash.
when we got home i checked the obra website, and it had my offical place at 8th. the announcer said 4th place, and i know there wasn't 7 riders ahead of me, so who knows what place i got. i know i was competite though, and that was my only goal going into it. my next race is october 29th. my goal there is a top 10 finish. they limit the feild sizes to 100 racers, so a top 10 would be impressive.
till later,

brooks

Rainy, Rainy

well, i just got off of a 48 hr shift on the ambualnce. we were pretty slow, not much going on. i rode the stationary trainer to keep the legs loose at work in anticipation for the race this weekend. i washed the cx bike this morning and mounted tires to a second set of wheels. it started raining just as i finished washing the bike, so its good i didn't put it off. its been raining in portland too, so a muddy race is expected. i'm doing the mens cat C race. there is a beginner class also, but i think my cycling skills and fitness level are higher then a beginner. who knows though since i've never raced cross. we'll see.
no word back on any jobs...the closing date for the colorado springs job was today. they received all by paperwork and resume, etc on tuesday. the hr guy said there was still some positions open, so keep your fingers crossed. it would be so nice to race in your own town instead of driving 6 hours. i might post again tonight, if not i'll post again on sunday night with a lowdown of the race and some pics. thanks for reading.

Cross bike

here is my new cyclocross bike.
i call her "cortez the killer" after the neil young song. i name my bikes after songs i like to rock out to on the ipod while riding.
its a trek xo1 framset with dura ace 9sp, chris king headset, pauls brakes, ritchey pro cockpit, selle italia slr saddle, crank bros candly sl pedals, and sweet-ass ritchey carbon wheels with tufo tubs. its a pretty sweet ride. my first cross race is this weekend in portland. i haven't been training as often as i should (big surprise.) it should still be a fun time if not a little painful. i'll post some pics of the race next week.

First Posting

this is my first post of my new blog. i'll try to keep everyone up to speed with what i've been doing and thinking. i'll post pictures and links to some of my favorite things to look at online.