Friday, March 26, 2010

Friday!

Another Spring Fling race tomorrow. Might be raining. I like rain. Some rainy music to get me in the mood here - this guy covers U2 better than the original. Definitely some Jeff Buckleyesque sound going on, too.

Monday, March 22, 2010

High Societweed - final(ly)



Finally got this thing done. Now to get my & my lady's bicycles tuned up for the stroll about town on April 3rd! And some knickers...

Saturday, March 20, 2010

No racing this weekend...



Snow is coming down. I'm not on a bicycle, but I'm finishing up a few paintings along with painting some scrambled St Patrick's Easter eggs with the kids. I needed a Saturday like this.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Tweaser#3


Crap! I need scissorhands...

Spring Fling Crit #2


Made little gain from last week's 10th place effort. Legs felt real strong. It was cool (42°F) and windy again, so the field was a little smaller and the pace was quite slow. My legs were twitching and I headed up front on the first sprint lap but teammate Rick slapped the reality back in my and told me to save the energy. Good call! Not much action going on although there was enough strength in the group to cover each of Velotek Zach's attacks - I gotta give him most aggressive rider on the day because he tried several times to make something stick. A Colavita rider headed up for a couple laps to set a good tempo, but it was pretty much a Sunday ride until each sprint lap rolled around. Zach punched it one last time on the last lap into the wind with 1/2 lap to go and I was sitting 5th wheel in the group of 8 of us. Rick & Kyle were together and jumped up to match him, and I first intended to hop in front of them to bust the wind up, but my momentum had me going right past (I think Zach sat up after seeing Rick on his wheel) them all so I pinned it. I should've called out to the team as I went by so they didn't lose any momentum either, but the opportunity was there. Both Rick and Kyle have some great sprinting legs - probably the top in our category when looking at the first 3 weeks' results - and they were right on my tail in no time. I rounded the last turn and held it down for as long as possible, saw the others breaking around me again and watching Kyle time it perfectly for the win. His first sprint lap was perfect, too - just accelerating through everyone at the precise moment to cross that line first. Rick was in good form on the day, too, and took 4th overall.

I then lined up and raced ~14 laps of the 3/4 race... Got dropped after the first sprint lap (Lap 10?) and couldn't get back on. Legs just too shot from the earlier race. It was good practice and gave me a good sense of the next level. Had I not just raced, I may have been able to hang with the main pack (not the 6 that broke away), but I was pleased with getting out of there before the crampede* hit my legs.

I am addicted to this schidt! Next weekend looks snowy. WTF? Time for a 10:30pm trainer session...

*crampede: cråm-peed' — noun. (pl. charlie horse)

Order




As an artist, I get paid to observe. I love to observe, so good for me. I rarely pick a side in a conflict because I usually see both sides. Perhaps I come off as a fence-setter, but I think I get my laid back pacifistic nature from my Father. Next to life, I can't think of a greater gift!

Anyway I was observing the other day on my way home from my bicycle race in Lawrence. I had noticed earlier in the week that I'd rolled 90,000 on my Ford Focus. I'd always wanted to capture the EXACT moment when a car turned 100K, so with this on my mind I started looking at the numbers on the odometer. It's been a year at least since I'd touched the trip odometer, but about 9 miles before this happened I did the math in my head and realized that my odo would reach a palindromic 90109 on the same mile my trip odo hit 899.8 .... The symmetry fascinated me, but what surprised me as I kept glancing at the dash so I wouldn't miss this event, it happened to roll 90106 and 896.8 - which on a digital readout were the same number flopflipped. Coincidence!?! I don't always think so. I think these things happen so often each day - call it alignment or synchronicity or flow or what have you - you just gotta be looking for it and it's always there. Fascinating!!!

Be still for a moment each day and open your eyes and take it all in. Then go ride yer bike!

Friday, March 12, 2010

Goats & Barley



Probably not the best thing for the training table, but...

Another productive week of working, painting & training. Weather kept me indoors on the trainer but had a few good intense sessions in hopes to improve my sprint finishes. Gonna TRY to race tomorrow if workload allows, and if I do I'll try the Cat3/4 race after my 4s race for some extra exercise. Supposed to be cool and possibly rainy tomorrow so that'll keep the pace down on the corners at least. This may make the yo-yo effect even worse in a crit, I suspect, but I love riding in the rain! Bring it on, & GO FOR THE GUSTO!!!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Slow day...

Timewise, anyway. Usually when I'm this busy the day flies by — but not today. Hoping to get on the bicycle and get some dead end sprints in this evening before the rains so I don't have to set up the trainer again. Of course, there's the 1/2 dozen design projects that need finished, too. Enough rambling, here's a picture of a worm, on a sidewalk, in the rain, on a Monday morning.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

good inTENTHtions


Just got back from my first Cat4 race of the year. Of ever, actually. I'd say things actually went better than planned despite my tenth-place finish. I met two of my new teammates before the race, Rick & Kyle. Great guys, and they had raced last week so they gave me a couple tips on how this field was sized up. Rick had placed 2nd in last week's race, and Kyle I think 8th, so I knew I needed to be around these guys if I wanted to at least finish in the pack. We shot off to a quick start, with a couple bunnies going up the road for a break in the first lap - too windy to make that stick and we reeled them back easily. Lap 6ish was a sprint lap (top 4 on sprint laps earn 4,3,2,1 points toward the series final standings) and the pace picked up considerably. Before that it was paced like your average brisk group ride. I stayed up in the top 10 coming around the final turn, and good legs got me up to fourth for the first sprint. A SPECS rider took first, with Rick & Kyle taking 2 & 3, so I was feeling good about being on this Bicycle Shack team! Second sprint was lap 12ish, and I wasn't in as good of position - I knew I couldn't cross the gap to the 2 guys vying for 4th, so I sat up and rolled across in sixth position. It was about this time when a lone rider seized on the others' efforts and decided to put a solo gap on the field. He kept pulling away for a few laps, gaining about a 15-20sec gap on us at his farthest, then the group realized that the high wind wasn't going to wear this guy out. So with about 4 laps left, the group began slowly reeling him back in, but nobody up front wanted to do any more work than they had to, so it wasn't enough in the end. with about a half lap to go, I looked back and saw Rick a wheel or two back & he & Kyle were looking fresh. I hopped up front hoping to stretch out the pack a bit, and hoping to close some of the now 10-seconds the dude out front had on us. I knew I couldn't hold that pace to the line and eventually the sprints would swallow me up, but I was hoping the stretched out leadout would clear things up for the other Shackers to make a move. 100yds from the line or so I blew — dead straight into a headwind and slightly uphill finish — and I didn't get a chance to pull to one side so I was stuck in the center as they started around me, but I saw Rick come around on my right to take the final sprint for 2nd place. Kyle took 4th. Rick went 2-2-2 for sprint laps; Kyle was 3-3-4 I think. I went 4-6-10, earning only the one point for starting and another for the 4th in the first sprint. It's all good! Fun clean SAFE race. Looking forward to next week.

I wanted to stay today and give the 3/4 race a go, but evening family plans called. Next week, I'm keeping an eye on the rider that broke away and stayed away, then letting some other teams lead out that final push to the sprint stretch.

Ride yer bike!

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Why don't we take a ride



...way up high through the neighborhood
up over the bilboards and the factories and smoke?

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Tweaser #2


Got her dress & bicycle nearly done last eve... rather this morning about 2am...

Monday, March 1, 2010

Tweaser


Here's a teaser pic for the KC Tweed Ride painting that I should have finished by end week... I may just want to keep this one!