The Hub of my grief...

Late last summer I did the 24 Hours of Great Glen mountain bike race with some of the good folks at MRC. It was a great time, if not wet. It's been great to get back on the trails more the last two years because that's where my passion for bikes began. Amethyst Brook in Amherst, MA, senior year in college on a borrowed rigid hardtail is how this affair all started...



In any event, once upon a time I was an absolute bear about maintaining my mountain bike...these days, not so much. It probably doesn't help that my bike is older than my marriage, and parts are tough to come by. But being the rather frugal yankee I'm trying like hell to keep this limping along. A fancy 29er or full suspension rig just ain't in the budget this year.



As it turns out, I really should have done a better job of cleaning my bike after Great Glen last year....I didn't and one of the cartridge bearings in my circa 1996 Hugi/Coda rear hub has completely seized....

That's about 14 years of trail grime built in there....the seal really wasn't sealing anything at all! I really can't remember if I've seen a sealed bearing actually seize. I mean that inner race has ZERO movement in it! While the other bearing seems to be in terrific shape, it looks like I can get both of them for about 40 bucks shipped. Considering what they are that seems expensive, but assuming I can figure out to press these back into the hub body, it's cheaper than a whole new rear hub. Plus I have been taking a certain amount of pride in keeping this old steed still bouncing off the rocks and roots...

Now if I can just get that god-damned creaking sound out of the bottom bracket (yep, an old White Industries Ti square-taper beauty, same vintage...), all will be well!

Dave at Fenway review....

Have been an ardent fan of Dave Matthews since my senior year in college and have been making it a "guy outing" every year. The last few have been at Great Woods, so it's been a fun tailgating type event. This year however, they're doing the double at Fenway, so the tailgate turned into a mini pub crawl. We decided to start up in Allston at some old hangouts and make our way down to Kenmore Square, keeping in mind that pretty much everything right around Kenmore would be mobbed. The plan worked out really well - we had a beer and food at the Sunset Grill, then stopped at the White Horse.

Then moved further down the road to the other place that Sunset owns near BU (forget the name)...Hugh had joined us at this point making for a quartet of silliness for the afternoon. Steve decided that we ought to start exploring 10% beer in a can (all set for this kid, thanks!), which laid the foundation for...well, for nothing good frankly.

then finally shot down to the House of Blues across the street from Fenway (that's it in the background). Though there was a bit of a line, we had a good time hanging out and revelling with other Lansdowne partiers...

Then we went into the park to see the show....we weren't exactly sure where our seats were at first, but got pretty excited, pretty quickly!

5th row, pretty much center!!!

What a Setlist these guys threw down:

Nanta

Rapunzel

Alligator Pie

Don't Drink...Seven

Gravedigger

So Damn Lucky

Funny the Way it is...

Nancies

Why I am

Spaceman

41

R and R

Squirm

Crush

Time Bomb

Two Step

Encore: Dirty Water and Stay

Simply an AMAZING SHOW!

After the show we decided on some late night eats (definitely due in part to the aforementioned canned beer silliness....). This one is after Guy consumed the biggest double burger concoction I've ever seen....must have been two lbs of meat alone!

Steve followed that "show" up with this lovely display...

I know everyone has an opinion when it comes to music, but as a lifelong fan of the "Jam Band" genre, there aren't many that I enjoy as much as DMB. The Allman Bros. are probably my all-time favorite closely followed by the Dead, Phish, and Widespread. Then there are the "not as commercially well-known offerings from moe., Stringcheese, Dispatch, etc. But Dave is just a fantastic feel good show and the crowd is generally really cool. The only shows that I can think of that I'd classify as somewhat dissappointing were the two that I traveled to in Charlottesville, VA. My brother and sister-in-law were there for her MBA at UVa, so the trip was fun nonetheless. And considering that DMB got their start there, we figured it would be a lights out show. They weren't, and in fact the band seemed pretty tired and ready for a break. But other than that, I guess I'd consider myself pretty lucky.

Wish I had the guts....

....some people simply shouldn't wear certain things. I wish I had the guts to either a. politely say something or b. snap a photo and post it. Rather, I sort of smile and shake my head and go on my merry way. Some examples:
1. Belly shirts - don't think I need to add any more description here....either you look good in one or you don't. If you don't, then please find something else to wear.

2. Sneakers with suits - as a fellow Metro-west commuter, please, please, PLEASE guys - stop wearing your $100 Mizuno track flats (which have never seen a track by the way) with your suit. Ten years ago when dress shoes were still stiff as hell, not very comfortable, and had leather soles, fine. Today, with the amount of choices in dress shoes that feel and fit like sneakers, get with it. Women, I see the point....well, I don't really see the point of the shoes you wear to work in the first place, but I'm not an afficionado on women's footwear....anyway, sneaks for the commute are ok with me, as I can't imagine walking from North Station to the Financial District in high heels, god that must suck.

3. Fat guys in cycling gear - Ok, this one hits home....I'm a cyclist and I fully realize that you sort of have to be one to get the whole lycra wearing, leg shaving thing. But guys that are north of three bills and are falling out of their regular clothes (let alone their cycling gear)....sorry, just don't get that one.

Last but not least.....when will women's fashionistas figure out that sun dresses with baseball hats and flip flops are what guys want to see girls wearing? A nice tan, zero make up, and sun-drenched curly hair and the above-mentioned ensemble....Pen...you reading this???

What a weekend!

Man, you just can't ask for a better Memorial Day weekend than what we had up in New England. I took Thursday and Friday off to catch up on some MUCH needed landscaping....on Thursday I cleaned out and edged all the planting beds and then on Friday I spread 12 yards of mulch. While my back literally gave out on me toward the end of the day, the yard looked fabulous and ready for our "Stow-folk" party on Saturday. I say Stow-folk because of last year's soiree....we figured we'd throw a little BBQ for those of our friends that didn't have any other place to go and assumed that it would be a smallish affair. Over a 100 people showed up!!! I ended up flippin' burgers for close to 3.5 hours!!! So this year we limited the guest list to just Stow friends and still had over 50 people! And our "one big party" is supposed to Oktoberfest - but truth be told, we love to entertain and house is set up well for it. Seeing all of the kids bookin' around the house and the parents enjoying adult beverages and funny stories is so well worth it.

I managed to get some fantastic riding in too. 3 hours on the road Saturday, 2 hours on the trails Sunday, and then another 3 hours on the road Monday made for quality training. I'm trying to rack up the miles ahead of the B2B which is upon us in just 4 weeks now!! Overall, I'm pretty happy with my mileage thus far....over 1300 in the books in '09. But not as much long rides that I need...and the event calendar is definitely LIGHT in June and July.

On the back front, overall I'd say I'm feeling better (this weekend's marathon mulch spreading notwithstanding), but morning is still just awful. I think it's our mattress being too soft, but considering that we're still paying for it, I may not have many options in the short term other than sleeping on the floor!!! I have been faithfully stretching and doing the PT exercises though. Am considering some yoga/pilates as well.

Adventures in commuting....

So I've decided to try and do some commuting by bicycle, and today was the first day. In my previous position, it was difficult. Dress code and meeting schedules were often difficult to predict, but now I have a bit more control over my schedule. The distance/time is also a bit of a factor...not so much for the going into Boston part, but the coming out - I can leave whenever I need to in the morning. I'm usually out of the house before the kids wake up anyway, but I absolutely hate getting home so late that I don't see them before bed too. Plus with the coaching that I'm doing and my wife working part time a couple of nights per week, I can't afford to have a 2+ hour bike commute home. So I drove part way and rode the rest of the way. This morning it was perfect - 15 miles on the bike, about 45 minutes total, nice cruisin' pace. Great way to start the day.

The one issue though was the tool for the trade....I took my road bike (an older Seven Ti custom beauty). I didn't realize how banged up roads in Waltham and Watertown are....so I ordered up a pair of fat wire bead road tires that I'll put on my 'cross bike and use that. The shorter top tube and more upright position will make bunny hopping a bit easier as well. I thought for sure that I would mis-time a launch at some point and wind up fixing a flat on Mt. Auburn St which would have SUCKED!

I also need to get my morning routine set up once I get to the office. I just assembled an anti-stink/quick cleanup kit with baby wipes, deoderant, and some shampoo. There's no shower at work so that's a bit of an issue that I'll have to work on.

If anyone has any tips to share, please let me know. I'm hoping to ride in twice per week!

Quick Sterling and Sunapee Reports

So after a few crits, I've finally gotten some actual road racing in the books. Here are some impressions of the events.

Last weekend my club hosted it's 15th annual event, the Sterling Road Race. This has become sort of a fixture of the spring season, and this year was well attended by strong fields across the board. While I have a lot of good experience in riding in general but virtually none in competitive road racing I'm starting with the 35+ beginners. The point is to gain the pack-riding experience necessary to be safe in the category 4 races which is my next step. I lined up at 11ish for 3 laps of an 8+ mile course with a pretty big field (north of 75 guys).

This race was a study in positioning-something that isn't really that big of a deal in cyclocross and mountain bike racing. Conversely, it's of critical importance in road racing. On the last lap into town, I found myself feeling pretty strong for the finishing climb but in shite position to help out the other guys on the team. I felt that I could have provided a solid leadout to our strongest guy in the race-bury myself to string out the field going into the base of the climb and then spring him for the finishing sprint. That's something I was planning to carry into the next race for sure-being more mindful of positioning. I finished 26th overall, which isn't bad for my first go around.

Yesterday was my next go at the Lake Sunapee Race in NH. The race featured two laps of a 25 mile circuit around the lake (beautiful spot). Each lap featured ove 1300 of climbing per lap with lots of rolling terrain. I was determined to be more animated and have a few digs on this one to see what I was capable of, as well as ride for and protect my team mates when we got down to the wire. Each lap had a couple of pretty tough climbs for racing. Racing climbs are harder it seems than training climbs. The peloton doesn't ususally recover after them....hard pace up the climb and then full gas over the top. I am finding that I need to work on that ability to apply the power on the climb and then the ability to accelerate. Right now I don't have that. I was able to get into two mini-breaks yesterday and do some quality pulling. I really thought that the second attempt could go. It looked like we had some cooperation going but just as we were ramping up, our group was neutralized by the pace car. Seemed to be a misunderstanding on our group coming around the race in front of us. They literally stopped us on the road and re-grouped us. So for the last 2/3 lap the entire group drove hard. On the last big climb, I came un-glued. There was push in the pace and I couldn't stay on. Broke myself to catch back up before the rollers and then the pace pushed again and I was gone. I'm not sure of how I did overall but I ended up just spinning in the last 5 miles. Probably mid-pack I'd guess.

Both races were fun (in a twisted sort of way) and also great experience. To be honest, they're harder than I thought (and this is coming from someone who is riding in the Cat 5's). The competition is strong and fitness levels are high. My strengths thus far are interesting--I never considered myself the "breakaway" type but I can get out there and pull hard for stints. I did think I was a better climber than I am right now. I can spin ok with a group, but when the screw gets turned, I run out of gas pretty quickly. And when I pop, I really pop. Time to get to work on that one.

All in all though, I enjoy the competition and the team work. The latter is the interesting aspect of road racing. It's real--keeping the strong team mate out of the wind makes a TON of difference for the finishing sprints and a smart riding team can lead out well and deliver victories. And let's face it, my favorite discipline is 'cross and this racing is money in the bank come fall.

Aging right before my eyes...

So this morning before my first cup of joe, I noticed my two year old playing with a stuffed panda bear....he was calling it "my doggy"; I was correcting him as follows: "Ryan, this is a polar bear. Can you say 'polar bear'?"

Thankfully, by lovely wife handed me a cup of coffee and asked me if I was sure it was a polar bear.

MAN, I'm getting old. Unless there's evidence of black and white polar bears, of course.....

BTW, pay no attention to crap kitchen floor....we'll get to THAT project soon enough...