Don't do this.

Do not leave a pen in your pants pocket when you do laundry. Trust me on this one. Don't do this. Ever.

The Last Ninigret 2008 and Credit Cards

I've got my motivation to race again - I've got things to settle down in other areas of my life which will free me up to train. The paradox is that the race season is over unless I actually count Jamestown and go to Prospect Park in NY for a 630 AM race. BTW: Next year I'm doing one of those. Well, at least I know I'm not entirely mentally ruined. Ninigret today was a whole lot of fun. It felt great just to be out there. I felt good most of the time too! Except when I did some work - where I felt immediately terrible - what can you expect of an out of shape cyclist.

Great financial news today (sarcastic). Wow. The banks aren't doing well. They fucked up bad. Real bad. I wonder if the bank(s) which hold credit cards will let their lenders off if they fail? Now that would be nice now don't you think?

New lame post about being sick

Shit. Lost voice yesterday - last two periods. Lips would move, brain attempted to produce sound yet nothing came out. PS: I'm a high school teacher. Not being able to speak is a problem - I talk loudly too - like so loud the students cannot possibly have sidebar conversations. I actually thought I was getting better but I had a 100 degree fever last night - all night.

OK. So apart from this I'm totally regenerating my love of cycling. Thanks Mr. Cold. Running is cool, but I like riding better. I hope to hit that Ninigret this weekend, sit in and not get dropped! So my last ride was 9/13. So what. My last workout was 9/17. So what. Yeah, last road ride was 8/31 - albeit it was a great ride. I had some slight momentum prior to this downward spiral so hopefully I'll rebuild some fitness. This illness has taken the wind out of my 'cross season plans a bit. Its not really a big deal at all but it might set me back a bit. Oh well, I'll just spend the money I was going to spend on 'cross on next year's road season. I really haven't put togehter a solid training program since the end of July with some bursts in August. I'm going to put things back together. I need to and I am going to.

I think I've used the first person pronoun "I" way too many times in the previous section.

Check out this video:
http://www.pineapplestudios.com/DOTVideosSite/Blackstone.html
It would have bee uploaded it to Youtube and then connected it here. Mozilla has an easy to access cache that can capture flash video. Just rename them w/ a .flv extension and play them. They are used all the time in our classes. Not a problem. However, the video is in Quicktime and being an Apple product - impossible to service without taking the program apart or by buying some Pro edition that is not being purchased by this author because he has better things to spend money on - like bike shit & grad school. Unlike the vast, overwhelming majority of folks, this computer user not really a fan of a lot of Apple products. Some of their stuff is really innovative, it certainly looks better, it gets less viruses (but PC's can stay clean if you stay off bittorrent and *other* types of sites, but its altogether undetermined if it performs any better - unless you have a full suite of Apple compatitible products which ironically can only be brought through Apple. Hmmm? Just try to take the battery out of an Ipod.

Anyway:

Please be aware of the lack of the usage of the first person pronoun in the final part of this lame post about being sick - which is not way too long because without riding I'm way too bored.

Every Year

I get sick about this time. Every year. Not real sick, just enough to screw up my athletic plans for the weekend. Throat on fire, head clogged with green shit, feel like total crap. Great. Why can't I get the two days of low grade fever during the week instead of Saturday morning? I'll go to work through anything. There is nothing one can do about this either except to wait it out. I've taken some time off the bike anyway because I would have to work really hard to fit it in so I guess the timing of this current sickness isn't bad. I need a break from the bike anyway. I've been running instead- I did 6 miles on Wed. I was brutally sore Thursday and even more sore yesterday but oddly my legs felt great today - relatively speaking.

Wrentham Cross #2

Raced Wrentham last PM. Did 1x2x3 laps. I think that the laps last about 7-8 minutes or so - so between 42 and 48 minutes of racing. I was sore from running but I think that it should complement what approximates my attempt at cyclocross. Been running a lot - went tonight. Really sore right now and hungry because all I ate today was a sandwich and some granola bars. Its getting easier - I'm going to do five miles next time. I'll probably hit up Amesbury on Sat. and maybe Wells on Sunday. Not going if its raining - well I might go anyway. I do need to get the fact that my front wheel was rattling in the corners - which did indeed force me to ditch the bike hard once. No Bob Beals. Kinda sucks, but this only frees me up for cyclocross. I need to do some work on my cross bike so thats a project in and of itself. Stuff to do on the cross bike: address front wheel, address rear wheel and its wobble, and adjust shifting. I'm trying a cyclocross season which follows this training plan: run Tues/Thurs and Sat or Sun (depending on race schedule), race on Wed., rides on Tues or Thurs or both or none depending on time. Maybe a Monday run if I feel like it and rides Sat/Sun. So what is that? 5-7 workouts a week with at least 3 and maybe five rides. Should be OK. Actually, it has to be OK because that is all that I'm going to do for training.

Glad

I'm glad that I did not register for Topsfield.  I woke up nice and early this AM ready to consider if I should get the bike and bike stuff ready.   It was pouring.  My dog - "Gus" who isn't afraid of squaring up with the biggest dogs wouldn't even go outside.  I want to post a video of him having a complete spaz when he sees another dog.  Maybe this heavy rain will stop - it looks like its supposed to on the radar so I can get a little road ride in and a run in also (on the track...hmm, maybe the Brown track with some stadium stairs work? - no running on roads yet).  Not sure if they are going to have Wells if this tropical storm moves in - which would kinda suck - meaning not having Wells would suck.  I think the tropical storm is actually kind of exciting in a novelty sort of way although it becomes far less exciting if our bike races are canceled because of it.   

Wed.

Q: When does cyclocross season start for the residents of Peach Ave?
A: Cyclocross season began at 5:30 PM on September 3.
Q: Where?
A: Wrentham. Wednesday training race.
Q: How did the race go?
A: We did three laps to start with. They were not timed so I don't know how long we were out for. Actually, I got a flat on the first lap and the guys were good enough to donate a tube to me. I totally almost went over the bars in one of the corners. Shit...I thought it was going flat.
Q: Were there any more races?
A: Yes. There were two more races.
Q: How did these other races feel?
A: Awful. They both felt awful. Mouth filled with dirt. Body covered in dirt. At threshold or higher the whole time. Just wanting the experience to be over. Lower back having pain - this always happens. It was a great time actually...in some sadistic way.

I haven't decided on Topsfield. I'll probably go up to Haverhill actually as there is no way I'm racing if its raining at this point of the year. Right now, it looks like rain for the weekend.

Apart from this I just listened to Mitt Romney's speech at the Republican convention. Yep, I'm a total dork. Another unimaginative speech repeating the same old Republican party line - family values, stop terror, Democrats tax and spend, Dems. want a society of freeloaders etc... Not sure if he put something in there about guns and religion but he very well could have. Actually he probably should have just for good measure. Last time I checked that war on terror was awfully expensive but what do I know? Oh, the revenue for this is raised not by taxes but by selling T-Bills and other treasury securites to our allies - like China. Quite possibly a great legacy. Check this out too - the Gulf of Mexico oil machinery was shut down for three days to prepare for Gustav. The price went down to the lowest levels its been in a while. Hmm...why? Did speculators (oil companies and their allies) agree to stop buying oil for a little while? Did the RNC have anything to do with this decision?
Frigging Huckabee's on, he just said that a relative's heroes were Jesus, FDR and Elvis. Since when in the USA did it become OK to mention Jesus at a political gathering. Am I missing something here? These politicians using this religion stuff really, really pisses me off. It really does - it has no place in government at all. Nope - don't want to see pictures of my President going to church. Don't care. None of my business.

I love this...

Share the love
















From Flint MI... we should adopt this policy here: