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