cyclocross....ever heard of it?

Let me just say, those who showed up to cross practice this week know it was intense...

nobody showed up to cross practice this week. Its cool, the word hasn't really gotten out yet. Also, i flatted in about 10 minutes. 10 minutes of dusty, mouth-breathing, agonizing hell. i decimated the field of frisbee-golf frat dudes and estranged, scared children by a full 10 minutes.

I had flatted earlier this week, so i was fresh out of tubes, and i have yet to outfit my rig with a seat bag. All of these problems will NOT be a part of next weeks practice, so be there, cuz after deliberation with short-haired christy and trevor, the course is every bit as sweet as i conjectured. Also, things to look forward to next week are as follows:

• little orange flags that im gonna set up the course with.
  
• more cheaply made barriers.
  
• more people...?
• Watching yours truly eat complete and total crap trying to execute a flying re-mount.

Walking home from ford park was a little embarrassing, so when i hit cajon i coasted down on the grass. I figured that would be pretty trauma free on both me and the rim of my wheel. My ego was not as easily spared.

Whats funnier than a dude in full lycra walking his bike down a sidewalk? A fully tattooed guy in full lycra walking his bike down a sidewalk.

Whats funnier than a fully tattooed guy in full lycra walking his bike down a sidewalk? Nothing.

glutton for punishment

Feeling very inspired by the video posted on matt freeman's blog of jens voigt proclaiming that bike riding is not rocket science and that if you want to improve you gotta go out there and hurt, today i did just that.

accompanied by the redlands 4 horsemen, JT, Norm, Craig and Zack, we rode through dirt and bums and fat dudes on the way to our eventual destination. Where-the-hell-are-we-ville. I tell you what, not knowing where you are is great motivation to stay on somebody's wheel. I would be totally effed if i got dropped. So stay on i did. it was probably a good 75 miles in today, long and flat like a conversation with a lady at the dmv. Hard. Punishing. Grueling. Exactly what i needed after watching a video like the one matt posted. I knew it was going to be good when we normally turn to go up to yucaipa, not a word was spoken as JT and Craig Took the front and rode in the opposite direction. It was awesome.

the kids

no need for alarm. I dont have any actual kids you have to worry about beating you up and taking your wallet. Not yet anyways.

I do have 2 cats though. I haven't really documented their existence on this here thing yet, and ive been wanting to write about things other than bike riding. A few of the items i will be going over in the next blog entry or 3 will be: the kettlebell, jiu jitsu, old-timey strongmen, and various bad metal bands that i love (as per the usual).

on to the cats:


Name: Bufard
Alias: Bu-Bu, bufard the long, goat
specialties: lurking, advanced math, espionage, Muay Thai

Bufard is our first cat. When we bought bufard he was TINY, and we wanted him to be fat. We fed him like crazy. Bufard is the longest cat in human existence. You know when you see a dude sitting down who is like 6'10", you'd be like "damn, that dude is tall" but when he stands up, you'd probably be like "DAY-UM that dude is TALL". thats bufard. You see him chilling in his usual turkey-position and when he stands up, he takes like 4 steps with his front legs before his back legs even have to engage. He's huge. But not fat. At first it was frustrating, but i let it go. Freakishly tall isnt as funny as fat, but its a good 2nd.




Name: Mildoo
Alias: mil-mil, doo-doo, bunny, waffles
specialties: volume, persistence, athletic ability, jiu jitsu

My wife's first language is french. So when she hears words for the fist time in english, sometimes she'll judge it on the esthetics of the word. She thought the word mildew was cute until i explained to her what it was. We tell the vet the cats name is waffles so they dont think we beat it and stuff. Cat is straight up nuts. And loud. She will act out when she is bored or frustrated or whatever. Sometimes her fur will twitch and she will run around the room or knock stuff over or go mess with bufard. Bufard hates this and yells at her and beats her ass. It takes her about 30 seconds to forget about what happened and do it all again. Nuts.

next blog post will probably be about george hackenschmidt or kettlebells. If its about kettlebells there may be video content (!). You're stoked.

cyclocross practice is a go...

.... kind of.

I am exhausted. i only did an hour of riding, but this was sort of a pre-ride with intensity. If i decide to do a practice at ford park, it'll involve MUCH lappage. It seriously has everything you need. Grass. Pavement. Dirt. Climb. Descent. Places where you HAVE to dismount. A run-up/stairs. Its just really compact. Really. It took me under 10 minutes to do a lap. I dunno exactly how much under, but under. I have a few options.

• add a little length somewhere. Maybe a lap around the la fitness parking lot...?
• just do much laps
• maybe move it to where the trains run, by hulda crook, but that might have some problems...
• implore anybody else who has a better idea for a place to ride to speak up, thus having a different place to ride/thickening my cross posse by a factor of 2.
  

im thinking wednesday nights are going to be the best for it. Until the season begins we can practice at 6:30. When cross season begins, is when it starts to get dark. After the season begins maybe sundays....? i dunno. Practice now, tweak the details later.

im makin flyers, it was a blast!

hot enough for ya?

The summer heat began this year yesterday. Africa hot. Went out with local fasion/weather guru mark foist. He was kind enough to not ride me off his wheel.

mark: Dude, that like a real stream
me: *gasp*
Mark: Like, there could be fish in there
me: *gasp*
Mark: not big fish but still, fish
me: ye*gasp*

luckily my gasp that time sounded kinda like affirmation that mark wanted, and sometimes needs. That shut him up. Thank GOD.

go celtics.

rogue agent

went for my first real real ride in a while yesterday. Went out with joey, and as usual he put the screws to me. Going for a little run today. 6 miles, no big deal. Hopefully i can get up to something that closely resembles in shape for the ride on saturday. I think this stuff might help. I dunno what im doing on thursday, but it certainly aint crit practice, and whatever it is, its gonna be a little late cuz i got clients til like 6. Maybe if i get my new wheelset by then, i can go plot out the cx course at ford park. that'd be fun.

no more coaching for me. At least not from super-coach ashley kipp. I think i might be following the "x-number of ways to ride faster" that come in bicycling magazine every month. Ha. They just tell you to do intervals there too.

Clam Dig

Anybody got a shovel? I need somebody to dig this thing out of my chest. Ive had this stupid weak ass coldish thing since monday. Its getting a little old. Its not even like im sick. Im like 95% NOT sick. Its just that the 5% of me that is sick is the 5% i use to effing breathe. In other news, I need to get out of southern california, and i think i am showing the beginning stages of a rare strain of agoraphobia. This strain is the kind where you dont leave your house unless you're on a bike. Im not stoked on these recent developments. I am stoked on "its always sunny in philadelphia". So funny. And im stoked on really bad metal. That has always been the case though. Venom and Celtic Frost are currently tops on the list.