HebeCross ’07 hits the fan Saturday. I rolled a couple laps last weekend with The Legend. The course is going to be Fast. With a capital eff. And as a result, will be hard. As in “WTeff, this is hard!” I want to go fast. I will try my hardest to go fast. It’s not even the hard, sharp, little climbs in the course that worry me, it’s all the wide-open dead-flat shite that gets me uptight. I just have to remind myself one more time my season long mantra. No pressure, just have fun. And, this will be a fun race.
I can’t pass up the opportunity to share this video I caught tonight. I nearly shat my pants laughing.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
TLW vs Elwood
Haley has found one of Elwoods toys and started chasing him around the basement whacking the hell out of him any chance he gets. The great part is even though she whips him pretty good he thinks it's playtime and goes right along with it. Hilarious.
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Once an Eagle, always an Eagle
What a tremendously fun weekend! The weather was perfect early November crispy cool and sunny. I got to spend a lot of time hanging out with my two favorite ladies.
It all started early Friday morning with a quick drive down to my former high school, The Berm, to participate in their Healthy Living Day. I spent the day as a representative of Holmes Cyclery, and more to the point, cycling as a part of a healthy lifestyle. I was given a classroom to do my thing and any kids who ended up in my classroom were there because they chose to be. There were approx 30 presenters and the kids had to choose 5 topics they’d like to experience. I had about 25 kids in each of my 5 classes, which was awesome because there were only 25 seats. Maybe every presenter had a full class, I don’t know, but I was happy to see a strong interest in cycling.
What worried me was he 40 minutes I had to fill in each class. I wasn’t so much worried about speaking in front of 25 kids, just how to talk about cycling to 15-18yr olds without boring them to death. I spent some time chatting about safety stuff. Helmets, lights, gloves, blah, blah, blah. Then a bit about maintenance. Air pressure, brakes, clean bike, fixing a flat.
I finished up by discussing the wattage/power based training I do. I had my road sled set up on my indoor trainer. I then had Coach Oswald do a minute in the first class to set a wattage benchmark for kids to shoot for. The rest of the day I let kids volunteer to do a minute to get an idea just how hard cycling can be. I was able to take their avg watts divided by their weight in kg to produce a power-to-weight ratio. With that number I was able to show them on a chart just exactly how big of a disparity there is between regular chumps like me and Coach versus, say for instance Mr Armstrong. It was eye-opening. Some little 112lb wrestler had the highest ratio.
So, anyway, it was real cool to spend the day doing that. I had a great time and I hope at least a couple of the kids came away with something enjoyable and positive. I only saw two sleepers, both in the morning. I also got to walk over to the elementary school during my lunch break to hang out with my little nephew DJ. I sat and had lunch with him then played football with him and the other 4th graders during recess. How could I not mention how much fun I had hanging out with my good friend Coach Oswald all day long. I got a behind the scene glimpse at the new athletic facilities still under construction. Pretty nice stuff. Good times. Thanks for setting the day up for me Brian.
The rest of the weekend was spent just chillin here at the ranch. I got my garage cleaned and organized. It was still in summer party mode. Just a lot of clutter for the most part.
Today, I coulda, shoulda raced at Spring Mtn. Man, if I just didn’t have the desire to drive almost 2hrs both ways to do it. It looked like the best field of 35+ the PA Series has had so far. I was sitting 4th in points but that will change for sure. I had it in my mind to do well in the series so I’ll have to stay on top of my game and come up with something special for the Dec 8th States race in Lancaster. On that topic, at this point Beacon isn’t looking like a reality so my next race is looking like Hebe ‘Cross on the 1st of December. That’s a long time between races so I’ll probably chill for a week then try to build again for that first week in December.
TLW is so tantalizingly close to walking. She can now stand for a period of time without falling over so her balance is improving daily. Now it’s coming up with the courage to put one foot in front of the other without hanging on to something. She’s such a wonderful little lady.
Good v evil. Rebel Alliance v Evil Empire. Frickin’ Evil takes it. Dammit.
It all started early Friday morning with a quick drive down to my former high school, The Berm, to participate in their Healthy Living Day. I spent the day as a representative of Holmes Cyclery, and more to the point, cycling as a part of a healthy lifestyle. I was given a classroom to do my thing and any kids who ended up in my classroom were there because they chose to be. There were approx 30 presenters and the kids had to choose 5 topics they’d like to experience. I had about 25 kids in each of my 5 classes, which was awesome because there were only 25 seats. Maybe every presenter had a full class, I don’t know, but I was happy to see a strong interest in cycling.
What worried me was he 40 minutes I had to fill in each class. I wasn’t so much worried about speaking in front of 25 kids, just how to talk about cycling to 15-18yr olds without boring them to death. I spent some time chatting about safety stuff. Helmets, lights, gloves, blah, blah, blah. Then a bit about maintenance. Air pressure, brakes, clean bike, fixing a flat.
I finished up by discussing the wattage/power based training I do. I had my road sled set up on my indoor trainer. I then had Coach Oswald do a minute in the first class to set a wattage benchmark for kids to shoot for. The rest of the day I let kids volunteer to do a minute to get an idea just how hard cycling can be. I was able to take their avg watts divided by their weight in kg to produce a power-to-weight ratio. With that number I was able to show them on a chart just exactly how big of a disparity there is between regular chumps like me and Coach versus, say for instance Mr Armstrong. It was eye-opening. Some little 112lb wrestler had the highest ratio.
So, anyway, it was real cool to spend the day doing that. I had a great time and I hope at least a couple of the kids came away with something enjoyable and positive. I only saw two sleepers, both in the morning. I also got to walk over to the elementary school during my lunch break to hang out with my little nephew DJ. I sat and had lunch with him then played football with him and the other 4th graders during recess. How could I not mention how much fun I had hanging out with my good friend Coach Oswald all day long. I got a behind the scene glimpse at the new athletic facilities still under construction. Pretty nice stuff. Good times. Thanks for setting the day up for me Brian.
The rest of the weekend was spent just chillin here at the ranch. I got my garage cleaned and organized. It was still in summer party mode. Just a lot of clutter for the most part.
Today, I coulda, shoulda raced at Spring Mtn. Man, if I just didn’t have the desire to drive almost 2hrs both ways to do it. It looked like the best field of 35+ the PA Series has had so far. I was sitting 4th in points but that will change for sure. I had it in my mind to do well in the series so I’ll have to stay on top of my game and come up with something special for the Dec 8th States race in Lancaster. On that topic, at this point Beacon isn’t looking like a reality so my next race is looking like Hebe ‘Cross on the 1st of December. That’s a long time between races so I’ll probably chill for a week then try to build again for that first week in December.
TLW is so tantalizingly close to walking. She can now stand for a period of time without falling over so her balance is improving daily. Now it’s coming up with the courage to put one foot in front of the other without hanging on to something. She’s such a wonderful little lady.
Good v evil. Rebel Alliance v Evil Empire. Frickin’ Evil takes it. Dammit.
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