Blood Lung

Last weekend I "attempted" my first cross race of the year. I crashed hard early in the race on Saturday and landed on my back. My back didn't immediately hurt, but as the race went on, my back became progessively more sore, and would spasm whenever I really powered on the pedals. I drifted off the back of the race and called it quits after 25 minutes. The fitness felt fine, and I would have done alright. So thats that. Saturday night the back was quite sore, so I decided it was not wise to race on Sunday. Not a good start to the season. It was nice to get back home and see the parents though. This Sunday brings the first Wisconsin cyclocross race of the season, so hopefully things go better there. Brian and I practiced on his course last night, the back felt fine, and the legs and lungs felt good. I had a serious case of "blood lung" afterwards though. Do you guys know blood lung? It sucks.

Here's some pictures compliments of Rick Mangan.

Cross Practice, Tubular Headaches, Gordon Lightfoot

Hello, hello my little droogies. Brian made a great cyclocross practice course in a park near his house. The course has it all: fast grass sections, tight corners, high speed corners, bridges, pavement, and a bitch of a run-up. We've been practicing on it a couple times preparing for this fall's races. Things seem to be going really well. I feel strong, and my remount technique is miles ahead of what it was last season. We'll see how everything goes this weekend.

So, I was testing out the race wheels before this weekend, to make sure everything was in order, and I was running really low pressure in the rear tire, probably somewhere around 20-25 psi. There is a small concrete lip between the ground and a foot bridge on Brian's cross course that I managed to whack pretty hard with said rear tire. The tire went flat almost instantly. Shitty. The carcass of the tire is undamaged, I just pinch-flatted the inner tube. The bad news is I have never repaired a tubular, and only vaguely know how. The good news is the glue bond was very, very strong, and I no longer have a fear of rolling a tire after trying for around an hour to pry off the tire from the rim. The better news is a shop in town, Yellow Jersey, is owned by an old-schooler who has repaired hundreds of tubulars. He was reluctant at first, but I told him the tire was a Dugast, and he was willing to do it. I won't have the tire in time for this weekend's races though. I've put Yellow Jersey in the coveted "Cycling Links" section. Check out the website, its crazy.

At least this didn't happen.

Brian and I went to see Gordon Lightfoot in concert tonight. It was awesome. Gord's band is so good, and the little stories he told between songs were delightful. He apparently had a stroke on Friday, and is now unable to use his second, third, and forth digits of his right hand. So he would just strum away on his guitar while another dude would play the actual notes. It was really cool to see him in such an intimate venue. It was like "VH1 Storytellers."

Election Results

The public spoke and chose pink handlebar tape. Ah, but that was the popular vote. With the electoral college, orange was declared the winner. Pink is appealing the decision. Thanks everyone for voting.

Rock the Vote!

With the big mid-term election coming up, and the thought of the Dems gaining control of congress, I'm all giddy to have a little election of my own. Here is your chance to make a real change in this world...by voting for what handlebar tape color I'll run on my steed this cyclocross season!

Here are the color options:

Black, Blue, Red, White, Yellow, Pink, Lymon, Mint, Aegean Blue, Crystal Blue, Purple, Serious Pink, Lunar Orange, Iris, Melon, Crystal Pink, Carbon, Black/White zebra, Black/Yellow marble, Black/Gray marble, Black/Red marble, Black/White marble
Your guess is as good as mine as to what those colors actually look like.

This one is "Lunar Orange"

Vote early, vote often. I'll run whatever hideous color you guys choose. Every few races there will be another opprotunity to humiliate me, unless I get laughed at too much and my fragile psyche can't handle it any longer, or it gets lame and nobody votes.

Sampson is outraged with the plain black handlebar tape, and calls for its impeachment.

Good Luck to all the candidates. We will not be using Diebolds -just cast your vote in the comments section. In case of a tie, we'll let Florida and Ohio decide. I'll post pictures of the democratically elected handlebar tape in full race action.

Jan?

Oh no! Not you too, Jan!

Familiar Weather, Familiar Music, Familiar Family

Hello once again everyone. It feels like I'm back in Crescent City today. Its been rainy and dreary all day. Brian and I did get in a good quality bike ride this afternoon, however.

Last night was the big Journey/Def Leppard concert. I'm a huge Journey fan as most of you know, but I was a bit disappointed. Steve Perry is long gone, but the replacement vocalist sounds exactly like him on the powerful songs like "Anyway You Want It," but is unable to hit the really high tenor notes on songs like "Faithfully." Those songs are sung by the drummer, who has a very good range, but does not sound very much like Steve Perry. It was still pretty cool though. Def Leppard on the other hand kicked ASS! I was blown away as I'm not a big Def Leppard fan. Holy moly they were awesome!

Mary's Dad, Mom, Grandmom, and Sister Pammie were here the last couple days. They're driving Pam out to School at Oregon State in Corvallis. It was nice seeing them again, and nice seeing Mary's Grandma since I don't think I've seen her since Mary and I's wedding. (Is "I's" correct? That sentence seems not right.) They will be back through Sept. 22nd, but I'll be in North Dakota racing my bike. Yes thats right. I'll be racing the Red River Cyclocross Challenge on Saturday Sept. 23 in Moorehead, and The Pork Chop Challenge in St. Cloud the following day. I have my cyclocross schedule pretty much figured out. There are a couple races that fall on a Saturday followed by a much more important race on Sunday, so those races might be scraped.

What the hell is this! Oh Tom. Thats some serious dabbling.

Blogger in Beta is a bit quirky. Don't change over to it until they get all the kinks ironed out.

New Look

Do you guys notice anything different? Let me know what you think.

I'm Back

Greetings faithful readers. I have returned. We now have internet hooked up at our house, so you can expect consistent blog posts. Here's whats been on my mind the last month and a half.

1. Having a house is wonderful
2. Pork tastes good
3. My wife is a really fast triathlete
4. Living in a normal town is great
5. Sampson does not like his invisible fence
6. Being "retired" isn't all its cracked up to be
7. I wish I could watch Twins games
8. Cyclocross intervals are nauseating
9. Journey/Def Leopard/Gordon Lightfoot/Bob Dylan
10. Burritos
11. My carbon footprint
12. Gluing tubulars
13. What happened to my profile picture?
14. Handlebar tape color for my cross bike
15. Heirloom tomatoes
16. Mid-term elections
17. I haven't played disc golf in many moons, yet there is a course like 2 miles from my house

Thats all I could think of right now. I'm sure I'll update again soon. If you're lucky I might even throw in some pictures.