Random Randomness

It's getting to be that point in the season. The road season is winding down and CX won't be in full swing for a couple of months. There are still a few road races on the horizon, but the motivation to do well is definitely waning.

On a more positive note, I have a new 2010 Ridley X-Fire on order, new tubular wheels sitting in my dining room/bike gear storage room, and Challenge Fango's stretching. Life is good. When the Ridley arrives, it will be very good.

Last week I spent 5 days in Vegas for work. Long days, too many cocktails, and too little sleep. I managed to hit the gym 3 days but the bikes were less than stellar. 20 bucks a day to work out also. Gotta love Vegas. My first night there UFC 100 was taking place at my hotel. That made for a very interesting crowd. I have the tattoo's, but not the biceps to hang with that crowd. There were a lot of big dude's with sketchy tat's and sketchier women. I had to make a concerted effort not to look at anyone's lady. The last thing I needed was to offend some roidhead all pumped up on UFC night. At 130 something pounds, my ground game isn't that good.

The highlight of the night, was without a doubt, seeing a blond girl in the hallway of my floor with a drink in one hand and a tiny baby strapped to her chest. It was about midnight, so that's gotta be good for a baby. The baby scene's in The Hangover were pretty funny, but seeing it in real life, in Vegas none the less, was an unexpected twist.

After getting home, I tried to stay loose for the Owasco Stage, er uh, road race. Apparently the organizers couldn't pull of an actual stage race and switched it to a one day road race instead. I guess that's better than last year when they canceled the whole thing outright. I went into the race with pretty low expectations. Things have been going too well for me this year, and it was time to suck. Suck I did. Got dropped early, rode as hard as I could and chalked it up to a hard training ride.

Short of a tough TNTS race Tuesday night, this week is supposed to be an easy one. Time to regroup and get ready for the second half of the season.

Hopefully everyone is enjoying the Tour this year. As interesting as this one has been, next years should be far more interesting with Lance and Contador on separate teams. Personally I might be rooting for Andy Schleck. Time will tell.

Humper Dog says so

Yeah it's me -- control yourself. Drumroll is still downstairs scrubbing the stains out of his chamois after riding thru the lightning fest on Saturday. The dumbass was on Lakeport Road in the nice open, flat area just north of Chittenango with lighning snapping all arond in the pouring rain in black shorts, a black jersey while riding on a road with a 6" shoulder where they drive about 75 mph.

Anyway I'm here to rant brfore I get knee deep in a 750 of Rare Vos. Topic de Rant -- The Old Erie Canal path. Let's get it straight people (& dogs), common sense and courtesy will really go along way in making the canal path more enjoyable for all.
(1) If I get a hold of you and your freakin 20 ft dog leash, I'm gonna cram it down your throat with fido attached and pull it out the other end. Pay attention, yes, the dog leash all the way across the path IS in the way.
(2) Let's think of moving along like road traffic -- stay to the right, not half way, not the right of the guy coming the other way -- your right (probably the one you pick your noise with)
(3) Hey teenage d-bag on the bmx bike, take your head outta your arse, turn down the iPod, stop thinking about video games and your sister's hot friend and watch where the hell you're going. As I come towards you (on the right) and you suddenly drift right in front of me as you come the other way, yes, I am going to yell and call you an a-hole -- loudly so you can understand me.
(4) I love coming up on a cute family out for a ride, except when you're too damn stupid to realize , "hey, maybe my three kids bikes laying scattered across the path, with them running all around them, might not be too good of an idea."
(5) Lastly, I don't care if there are 3 or 4 of you that wanna walk side by side and chat. I am even willing to give you the benefit and give you 2/3 of the width but don't get pissy with me cause you actually have to move out of my lane of travel so I can get by. Chances are you'll be the one picking goos poop outta your teeth when I run your saggy butt over.
So there you have -- Canal Path 101 ... cause Humper Dog says so!

Skunk'd

Yup, crusin' solo down the canal path and I see something up ahead and HOLY SHEET. A family of skunks -- 5 of them. I was about 15 yds from them when I realized what they were and slammed on the brakes. After realizing I was not being "aimed at", I dismounted, moved way over to the edge of the trail and tried to get by. But nooooo, they wanted to eff w/me and started running up the canal path. I honestly wondered if they were messing with me. Suddenly they stopped and I snuck by. They really were kinda cute but I was glad to be out of the danger zone so to speak. Once I was well beyond any potential situation that would have been difficult to explain, I rode off chuckling to myself knowing that if there were a group of us riding full bore down the canal, only Coapman would have gotten sprayed cause that's just the way the world works.

Oh, btw, if you noted I was riding solo, it's because my alleged teammates and training partners totally blew me off. Anywho, I did keep the Ommegangster tradition alive and enjoyed the sweetest post ride 750 of Hennepin one could imagine in the best way possible ... solo!

In your face Jen T.

As some of you may know, at one time I was something of a runner. Not a great one, but I ran most of the local races and a few marathon's. One thing I noticed at running races was that the old people looked . . . well . . . old. Nasty bow legs, hunched backs, you get the picture. Then I'd ride with the local cyclists and I noticed that a lot of the older cyclists looked pretty fit, even normal as they got older. Since I was always a better cyclist than a runner, the change made sense. I've pretty much stuck to the bike for the last 4 years with very few running transgressions, excluding some training for CX.

A couple of weeks ago my wife asked me to run in the local 5K on the 4th. She caught me in a moment of weakness, no that that moment of weakness perverts. I think I was headed home from one of the Tuesday night races and a little delirious. In any event, I haven't run since CX season so I knew it was going to hurt. I got in two VERY easy runs just to make sure I didn't completely hurt myself and then it was off to the races.

Sadly my old running shorts are pretty short. Too short given my cycling tans lines, but what can you do. I planned on buying some new shorts, but ended up getting lazy and just let my freak flag fly.

I decided it was going to hurt whether I tried to run fast or not, so I just let 'er rip. That's a relative term since as I mentioned I'm not a very good runner. When I let 'er rip it's more like a 7:00 minute mile thing, not a 5:00 minute mile thing. An old high school buddy (Timmy O.) caught up to me on the first hill. He's in the middle of training for a 100 mile running race so he'd been running since 6am. We more or less chatted the whole run, but I was pretty close to my limit. He was running bandit and planning to run the 10 mile race right after the 5k. He swung off with about 100 yards to go and then I heard it. Some punk trying catch and pass me. I should have just held my pace and let them go, but the competitive side of me just couldn't do it. I heard the foot steps and the race was on. I gave it everything I had and barely held my place. Just as we crossed the finish line, I heard the person throw up. Victory was mine. For some reason, probably because I'm a sympathetic puker, I never even turned around, I just wandered over to the people collecting the chip timers. The first thing the guy taking my timer says is "apparently you ride bikes." Must of been the 2-3 inches of bright white skin with the dark tan line that tipped him off.

So off I went to get some water and a bagel. On the way out, my wife and I checked the results. I only ran a 21:15, but it was good enough for 1st in my age group. Apparently all of the fast 35-40 year olds stayed home yesterday. It wasn't until I got home that I remembered the sprint and thought I should see who was behind me. Turns out it was Jen T., the second place female finisher. There wasn't anyone close behind her, so it really was me against her. I guess all that's left to say is . . . In your face Jen T!

Just kidding, actually I feel kind of bad about it. Not that bad, but bad none the less. The good news for Jen is that I won't be running anymore races in the foreseeable future. I can barely even walk today for that matter. I rode a couple of hours and hit some decent hills today and the legs are definitely jacked up. We'll see how long it takes to undue the evils of running. If there's a message in this post, it's "don't run" and in the words of Bernard Hinault, The Badger, "no gifts."

Word.

6 Years in a Cape

More cyclodorkinfo if you can't get enuf ... blog by Joe Parkin (the Dog in a Hat guy)

http://www.6yearsinaraincape.com/