Pictures from Amesbury

A little late, but...

When we were in VT last weekend, I bought some gummies. They were in a paper bag, which I left on the counter. The next morning, Ed got all upset that I'd eaten all the gummy coke bottles. But I didn't. The mouse did. Proven by the mouse shit in the bag. I knew mice ate lots of things, but gummies? I hope that mouse got sick, because those were MINE.

The competitive spirit is coming out. Its about time...

With the times (almost)

My cross bike is now officially a 9-speed beast. No more of this 8-speed-can't-change-out-wheels-shifts-like-a-dinosaur-playing-soccer drivetrain. Actually, it shifted fine. If its not broke, don't fix it. But, I just wanted to be able to swap out wheels and go road riding. Or be able to take a wheel from neutral support at races. You know, little things. I also figured I would put on cantilever brakes while I had her all stripped down. These were free brakes, and I soon discovered why. The rear one had a cracked plastic doohickey that is supposed to hold the spring rigid, and the front ones don't fit on my posts. Maybe I can get that part for the rear one. So, we're still stuck with the damn mini-V brakes that have the smallest possible margin between getting the cable tight enough that I can actually slow down and rubbing against the rim. Hopeless. This is when a barrel adjuster would be nice.

Anyway, you learn things about your bike every time you take things apart. Like, the part that goes into the frame thats connected to my stem is ridiculously short (I didn't call it a thing! I called it a part!), and that is why I have that ridiculous-looking spacer on there. Or, the cable guide under my bottom bracket is held on by a spoke nipple, because the a**holes that put my bike together way back when must have been too lazy to freakn tap the screw hole.

After I noticed that my cable guide was held in by a spoke nipple, I was laughing so hard that I put my derailleur cable through the brake cable hole on my rear shifter. I saw this, and still laughing, realized that was wrong. For some reason, instead of taking the cable out, I put it through the derailleur cable hole on the other shifter. I proceeded to collapse on the floor because I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe. It was a neat-looking little spiderweb, but I probably would have a little trouble shifting.

so, yeah, everything works now. I have a modern bike!

And more training

Instead of racing my bike last weekend I elected to go hike the Franconia ridge with Anna and some friends of hers. This is my favorite hike of all time, heading up the bridle trail and down falling waters trail, a relatively short 9 miles that can be done in 4 hours and leaves you plenty of time to find ice cream afterwards. Anna, however, is peak bagging this summer, so wanted to get Flume and Liberty also, and the Flume slide trail is much more enjoyable going up than down. So after some car shenanigans including drive the wrong way down a one way highway onramp (I wasn't driving), we start hiking, and it quickly turns out that these friends of Anna's aren't really in that great shape.

The trail starts really flat for a long time, and I was just itching to run, but didn't want to be an asshole, since it is nice to have company. By the top though, the frustration was getting to be a bit much, and it took another peak before I could calm myself down. Am I that much of a jerk that I can't enjoy a nice hike in great weather without thinking of training zones? Apparently I am. Granted, its October, and I have 47 days until my first race. Eventually I got to a good place in my mind, and relaxed to enjoy my favorite views of my favorite mountains. By the top of Lafayette, Mike (one of the non-skiers) was dragging a bit, so since we were ensconced in a herd of French Canadians and couldn't seem to break free of them, he started teaching me German. Es tut nier lide, aber ich spreche kein Deutsch. Sprechen ze English? Sorry for the spelling, we weren't doing a spelling session so let it lie.

By the time we got to the hut it started to rain, and since I was just wearing Linnea's hot, hot, blue hibiscus spandex and a polypro I got really cold, even after I put on the rain jacket. It was a long slow hike down to the car, solidly cold and almost miserable, but we were chatting and having a good time so that made it better. Until we went in search of ice cream and all three ice cream shops in Lincoln were closed. We had to settle for dunkin donuts coffee and ice cream from the freezer in a mini-mart. Sad.

Spent the night in Vermont and skied my favorite rollerski loop on sunday. The first time I did this loop, back in the day, it took me 3.5 hrs skating, it was the middle of the day in July, I had one small bike bottle and no food, and 10 miles of the ski were spent trailing a line-painting truck inhaling some deliciously toxic fumes... Those were in the days when 3.5 hrs of skiing would really wipe me out, and the paint truck didn't help. Things have gotten considerably better now, and there weren't any line-painting trucks, although it would be nice if they repaved that section of road again... Started in Londonderry, since there was an antique show in Weston and I couldn't park there, and made good time to the base of the big hill. Then I climbed uphill for 20 minutes and 15 seconds. Sometimes, I can delude myself into thinking that Boston is fine for training. And then I do things like an OD with a 20 minute hill in it, and I realize, there is a good reason I come to VT to do these things. The day was gorgeous, fall colors out in their glory, there is no better way to be a leaf peeper than playing outdoors. I wouldn't mind some snow, though... http://www.fasterskier.com/news4604.html

Bike shop interactions

I walked into the bike shop last night.

Me: "Hey, I got a call that my front centerpull doohickey is here"
Justin: "We don't sell doohickeys here"
Me: "Uh oh. Do you sell whoosiwhatsits?"
Justin: "Yeah, I think we have a couple of those".
Me: "Oh, good. I'll take three"

Two years ago in Maine:
Setting: Alex has just bought a compact crank complete with bottom bracket. She is attempting to change this herself. Alex goes to bike shop

Me: "Hey Paul! I'm changing my bottom bracket. I have the take-er-out-er tool, but I need the put-er-in-er tool"

And from that day forth I was known as the whoosiwhatsit girl.

Curse you Fizik!!

So, you develop this product, and refine it, and everybody loves it. Everybody. And then, you change it. WHY?!?

I know you changed your saddle a year ago, and I'm a little slow in getting around to complaining, but the fact is, I'm still mad that you changed a good thing.

Although, the pink and white is a hot look.

Cyclocrossing Goals

Inspired by Colin, I've decided to post some of my goals for cross season so that I will supposedly feel obligated to meet them. As usual, I probably put way too much thought into this.

Cross:
-Two weeks of focus for Gloucester
-develop some leg power by riding my bike
-Increase mileage to more than zero miles a week

-Gloucester: (I would like to meet any one of these tiers of goals, 3 being most likely and 1 being least likely)
-Tier 1 goals(exceptional):
-5% back from leaders
-Top 20 placing either day
-beat Pauline Frascone, Melody Chase, or Perri Mertens (relatively random
names)
-Not get lapped by Lynne Bessette (or anyone else)
-Tier 2 goals(reach):
-10% back from leaders
-Top 30 placing either day
-beat Hannah Kirshner, Meg Bilodeau or Marci Titus-Hall
-Place as well or better on second day
-Tier 3 goals (almost realistic):
-13% back from leaders
-Top 40 placing either day
-beat Allie Kenzer, Sue Mclean, or Erin Duggan
-Place as well or better on second day
-All three tiers: ride cleanly, smooth technique, put on time in runups, ride intelligently/draft the flats, start relaxed not too hard, move up from there

-Other CX races:
-Top 20 in a VERGE
-8% back in a VERGE
-top 5 at any race
-Get better at riding runups/stop being scared of trying it
-Get better at riding flats fast (or maybe just riding fast?)
-No DFLs, or DNS, DNF (unless there is a DAMN good reason)
-No pressure, remember that I'm not training for this, so why expect results
-stop going out too fast and then fading

I've got skiing goals too, but they're less interesting since they're all about training and time trials at this time of year. So we'll stick with cross, and see if I can reach any of these goals. Stay tuned...