Thailand and Cambodia...

Yep, just found out this afternoon...Ruth and I will be leading a group of high school students in Thailand and Cambodia this summer. Check it. More to come.

Cherry Blossom Cycling Classic

I guess I am not the only one thinking about this... I went for a ride yesterday and it was all I could do not to push it. Serena makes some good points, and I feel much the same. I think the hardest part for me about training is knowing when enough is enough. It's a balance for me...I know I need to do some hard efforts leading up to a race, but I also know I need rest. Right now I wonder if my legs have it in them to finish strong with 4 races in 3 days...I want to go out and do a long hard ride just to check and be sure...but of course I can't. Instead I will trust that I am ready, I will wait, I will do what I can to be ready.

I tracked down some aero equipment for the time trail, I am doing a fit with Don, I have a bike that is a lot more suitable than the heavy steel cross bike with worn brakes that I have been racing. I have trained, I have rested, I am anxious, but ready.

The weather is looking good.

Spring in New England

There's not much too exciting to write about. It was a relaxing trip. We didn't do anything too thrilling, which was the plan. Hung with the new niece, hung with family, saw some friends, collected some maple sap, did a bunch of riding around on back roads. All in all a good trip, got back last night to Portland at 2am and back to Bend this morning. It's good to be back. Hanging with phife, catching up, gonna do some intervals.

Here are some photos. I really like riding in New England, it's good to have a change of scenery. Lots of old farm houses, dirt roads, hills...I got pretty far out some dirt roads one afternoon some familar roads, others I had no clue where I was. Good times.

A short week and Cherry Blossom this weekend.

All the photos here

Spring Break...

Hanging out in New England... It's been real chill. Gonna sneak some riding in this afternoon, then tap some maple syrup.

Sunny and cool.

Writing...

There is a lot of real quality writing on this site, not just race reports, but insight. Just wanted to give it a plug, it's worth spending some time on.

But, really, the long rides are necessities that I cannot afford to go without. A physical reset button. A place of uninterrupted joy or pain or both. A well of calm and certainty.

http://everydayathleteblog.com/

Well done.

Spring

You know in the spring when it's sunny, warm, birds are out, and it seems like summer is finally arriving. It's those first carefree rides around town in a T-shirt that really make it hit home. Fri was one of those days. Spring break is a week away and it seems like summer is coming fast...

Then you decide to drive over the mountains and race your bike in the rain...Feels like winter all of a sudden again. Sat afternoon saw me making the trip over hood and to Portland for the eve. Sun morning I was on my way out to Hagg Lake for the second installment of ye olde banana belt, where it was very un-summer like. It wasn't merely raining, it was a downpour, sheets of rain, rivers running across the road, grit, grime, and lots of spray. I found myself constantly spitting as we raced, mostly just to get the various road debris out of my mouth. I stayed towards the front to avoid sketchiness, it didn't really help. People went screaming down the hill towards the off camber corner (I'm on the outside in the picture with the black jacket) onto the dam...Me with my worn out cross brakes had to get down the hill and take the turn...one time even putting a foot out because my breaks were working so poorly that I barely kept it upright. Really it was a slow rather boring race. It ramped up a bit on the final few climbs, but nothing unbearable and a very sketchy group sprint to the finish.

Number of laps...4
Number of times people made sketchy moves around pot holes that were in the same spot every lap...4
Number of times I held back from swearing at said people as they nearly took out the pack...3

Managed to stay somewhat warm, I was totally soaked through. The Mad Alchemy medium served me incredibly well, I can't say enough good things about this stuff, sooo choice. I'll dedicate a post to it soon. I told Ruth I would probably slather it on in the morning before school if I didn't think I would be answering questions about why I smelled funny.

The drive back over the mountains was snowy to say the least. I guess it's that time of year, this morning there was a few inches of snow, this afternoon it was gone and the sun was out... a little bit of winter, a little bit of spring. ...I am ready for the latter bit.

A few photos from the trip...








Some pics from Oregon Cycling Action.
Gonna strech and chill out with some vino and throw Billie Holiday on Pandora

Motivation

I have been thinking a lot about motivation lately...I guess it has to do with the snow, cold, racing in the rain, driving more hours to a race than the race itself, painful gym workouts, heavy legs, soreness, a general lack of time...However, none of these things have managed to stop me from getting out there, and they are not complaints so much as insight. Why, with all these things do I still manage to get on my bike day after day? It might be that I seem to enjoy the suffering, the pushing myself and seeing how I can improve. I think it is a discovery for me. How well can I shut down the pain, fatigue, the screaming legs, and push through it to make myself stronger? I suppose my motivation has a lot to do with these questions. I certainly haven't answered them all yet and therein is a reason to keep pushing, to keep seeking. I found this quote a while ago and thought it was worth re-posting...

"But if something hurts so much, how can it be enjoyable? At the point where physical stress begins to take you beyond what you imagine to be endurable, you enter new territory of understanding, an expanded psychological landscape. The camaraderie of the hard road is as much in sharing that insight as in the laughs you have, riding in good company. The bike is the perfect vehicle to take you down those secret corridors of illumination. The pleasure comes when you grasp just what has happened inside your head and spirit. It doesn’t stop when the bike stops, when you reach the top of the col or peel off at the end of the ride, so tired you can hardly think or stand straight. That’s where the pleasure begins. The self-knowledge.

Behind glory lies the misery of training, the slog of getting through bad days, the torment of going at less than your best and the absolute conviction that giving up is never an option. Herein lies the heroism of this beautiful sport the inner revelation that makes the cyclist impervious to ordinary weakness because every ride he has ever made exposes him to that defeatist voice; he has known it, faced it and conquered the fear of it, again and again and again." -Graeme Fife

I always try and remember races as a way to motivate myself. Times when I knew I could have gone harder, trained better, suffered a little more. It is these remembrances that motivate me more than most things. But not just the races where I had doubts, also the times when I know I have gone as hard as I could, maybe I didn't win, but I knew I found my limit. I was recently looking at old posts here and came across this post from an old teammate Mark about a the state championship points race at the track...

Okay, so what else happened today? I saw my teammate Matt race the 4’s points race. The story: He was doing fine but was looking bad on his last 10 laps, hanging 30 meters off the back, trying to keep that last nail from being hammered into his coffin (lose a lap and lose 20 points, fyi). He dug super deep and caught back up (his face was a portrait of death), and right as I started to yell at him waytogo type stuff, mofo rides through the group and goes solo for some first place points and then gets caught for I think a second place in the last sprint. Then he wandered into the infield and puked on it. Seriously folks, you wanna know what I dig? I dig somebody that can say f*k it and burn those last 30 calories, you know, those ones your body can’t afford to burn, because of having to keep living and sh!t? Serious A+ for effort.

Why keep this blog, why take the time to write? I guess this blog is a way for me to look back and motivate myself. A way to remember the good races, the bad races, and all the suffering and work that has been done, but especially the knowledge that comes from the pain.

Chutes and...

Got into some sweet snow. It's been too long and it was good to hit some new terrain. Sat found us rolling in Jesse's f-350 that runs on straight veggie oil out at Paulina Peak with some sleds in tow and a bunch of good snow. Jesse and I got into a ridiculous chute first thing. Steep and real narrow, but stable. Had to move down the chute fast as there was a good amount of sluff that would get going. The exit was narrow and a bit blind, we had to just point it and hold on...You can see Jesse in the picture left. The whole set is here.

Was really debating whether I was going to get up early in the AM and drive to Banana Belt #2...Decided against it when there was talk of it being cancelled due to snow...good decision as it was canceled. Solid.

Sunday a little sleeping in and one of the better days all season up at bachelor. Deep, light, and uncrowded, that was the day. Gonna make it an early night and get caught up with the spring forward.

Working on writing a post all about chamois cream and embrocation...Hot topics around the dinner table lately.

listening to...
-Vampire weekend (overdid it on these guys a while back, now back on) Check it
- Fleet Foxes Check it
- Frightened Rabbit Check it

Of handlebars and childhood

At the last banana belt the winner in the mens 4 race got relegated (moved back in the placings) for taking his hands off the bars at the finish... (see the photo in the post below...he was moved back to 16th even though he won). I don't have a strong opinion either way about it. Although I am most certainly not going to throw both my hands up and point at myself if I were to ever win a road race, but I guess if you want to that's your perogative.

This post on sosovelo cracked me up

I learned how to ride with no hands when I was a wee lad. I thought it made me look cool. The same way my trapper keeper and Boba Fett underoos T-shirt made me look cool. I knew that underoos were made for bed and handlebars were made for holding. But rules be damned, I looked awesome! I remember one time I was trying to impress a girl who lived down my street named Regina, and I ate shit right in front of her house. It was raining, and I’d I’d somehow racked my 7 year old boyhood on the stem of my bmx bike. I remember standing in the middle of the street, soaking wet, and staring down my pants to see if anything was broken in an obvious and/or shocking way. I looked up and saw Regina watching me through her window. I gave up my courtship of her soon after. Girls don’t like boys who fall off their bikes and stare at their junk. It was a real low point of my childhood, and I became skeptical of no-handed riding. >>>Keep Reading

It's a great blog with some hilarious content regarless of how into bikes you are...check it out, maybe it's my childish sense of humor, but this one is a personal favorite.

Now have a listen
Flobots - Handlebars
one of Ruth's favorites!

Thinking about road racing...

I came across this post by Heidi Swift and I really liked it. It articulates a lot of what I can't explain about road racing and cyclocross.

We get caught up in other things. We want to be first or best or cat-up sooner. I did a lot of time spinning my wheels in this rut. It is fine to chase victories or nemeses or glory, but chasing effort, pain, and PRs will bring you more happiness in the end.

I’m a competitive person. I want to win. This is no secret.

But winning is secondary. Winning is a side-effect that might come if your heart is squarely focused on your own self-improvement, your own personal growth, your own agonizing effort and daily commitment.

I love cyclocross because it rewards these efforts directly. Barring a mechanical, your race performance is a direct reflection of your fitness, your skill, and your dedication.

This is not the case with road racing. >>>Keep Reading

I find myself thinking a lot about cyclocross when I road race...and this is really well put. Read the whole post here.

Banana Belt

It was a seriously long weekend behind the dashboard. I was feeling really sick all last week, but felt better by the end of Fri and made my way to Portland. Fri night worked a fair for Global Routes. The Bender family was nice enough to put me up for the weekend so I ended up out with Mr. Bender...Too much whiskey, but some good music and good times. An early morning Sat as I drove up to Seattle for another fair. Met with some friends for coffee, worked the fair for 3 hours, drove back with stop in Tacoma to see an old housemate that I hadn't seen in 9 years. Another stop in Vancouver for dinner with Roberto and his lady...and a late night arrival in PDX...a long day of driving....

Another early morning Sun saw me making my way out to a grey and ominous looking Hagg Lake for Banana Belt numero uno...I won't do a huge race report, but I will say I had a fun race, I felt strong and never felt like I was using up too much energy. I stayed towards the front, chased down a few breaks, and charged the hills pretty hard. On the last lap the pace didn't pick up like I thought. I figured when we hit the dam it would go hard and I told myself that I would do whatever to stay on front...It wasn't as bad as I figured, we were all together on the hill, but it picked up going down. I just kept working to be in the front but not on the front. I think there was a little chaos on the climb/descent that broke up the group a little. The sprint came quick and I was in a good position. I got boxed out a little and couldn't really get an open lane, but I was really happy with the result and how I felt when it was said and done.

Back behind the dashboard. A little stop in Hood River for coffee with friends and back over the mountains. I think I drove something like 14 hours this weekend, listned to a ton of NPR, and put some 800 miles on the subaru. But it was a great weekend, with good friends, and some good biking. I'm thinking I need to do a couple more of these races. I am looking for the upgrade before the cherry blossom stage race and if I could place well in the next couple I could move up a category. It's a long drive for a short bike race, but there are friends in portland and folks to share the driving with...we shall see.

Back to the grind, coaching lacrosse, pilates, weights, spinnning, work...that's my week. Looks like rain.