PA States were this weekend. Saturday I raced The B’s. Sunday was the Unofficial Official World, National, PA State Relay Race.

Twenty of us lined up for the start on Saturday. I started in the back row, which was also the second row so it was no big deal. The start was good. Within a couple minutes there was a group of eight who rode the first lap together. I was slotted six or seventh but I knew I wasn’t going to hang with the pace being thrown down or I would have exploded catastrophically. I eased off.

I’m realizing that I’ve got a good minute, maybe two after the gun to go hard but I’m not actually a fast starter. I don’t know if it would help me to not go so hard off the line or go hard and ease into a comfortable pace until things come together, like I have been doing.
Fun Run-up

Anyway, the group of eight turned into a group of five after a few laps. Totaro, Ferrari, Mealy, Szczepanski, Alcorn, and Morgan. I was sorta in no mans land with Fouche(LSV/Kelly) a few seconds behind me. Alcorn had a melt down and Morgan popped out of the front. Fouche caught me.

Brian Fouche and me

Half of Brian and me

We caught Morgan. We had our own race in the final laps, trading pulls. In the last few turns before the finishing straight I rolled third in our group hoping to lay down a nice sprint for 5th overall but Fouche went down in the last corner and Morgan was already full gas by the time I got around Brian. So I ended up 6th. Two minutes off the leaders, which came down to a three-up sprint for the win. I missed all that excitement unfortunately. I felt good about the race. I went 53 minutes. A far cry from winning C’s last year in 26 minutes and change. ‘Cross is so much fun that prolonging the pain for another 20 minutes is actually quite enjoyable. Especially when I’m trading paint, so to speak.

MC Legend

In other news, Dieter ran away with the A crown. Solid work from the Fort/GPOA armada behind made sure no one else had a chance. Poetry on wheels. Nice ride.

Dieter.....cruising

Sunday was a different ball of wax. The relay. I had a feeling this would be a blast. I wasn’t disappointed. VisitPARay and I talked about putting a team together at least a month ago. We grabbed Taylor quick knowing that having a fast Jr such as him would be a huge advantage. Rules stipulated no more than one A and at least one Jr, C, or woman racer. Fill in the rest as you see fit. Ray is our A. I was our B. Taylor our Jr. We tried to get Hebe as our 4th which would have worked perfectly but he held out. Ray’s buddy from NY, Jeremy, ended up our 4th and he did a hell of a job. He raced and finished 11th in the B race Saturday, so there was no doubt he was fast. Nice dude too. Hebe and Leech put something together last minute after sweating about it for the past week needing a 4th. They snagged Taylor’s step mom, Sally AND Chad Totaro, who, oh by the way, is your PA State B Champ. Nice, Your A Champ, B Champ, a wicked fast Master, and a fast B Woman, all in one team. So they were in the game. I knew SSWes had put a team together via FatMarc’s blog. Szczepanski and Fort James filled out their team. They would be strong. Hebe told me Lux, Root, and Kuhn had a team. All fast dudes. I figured the EVO(Go Nate) team would be in the mix as well. I also had good vibes about our team.

Nine teams lined up. Quick math. Top three teams get paid. Our order; Ray, me, Jeremy, Taylor. Btw, Adam S wore a dress.

cross dressing 'crosser

On my first two laps I was chasing a ‘cross dresser and being chased by a ‘cross dresser. Interesting stuff. Hebe’s team got buried early, 4th or 5th until at least halfway. We rode a strong, steady race in the lead. SSWes’s team rolled second. Eventually, Dieter and Hebe started taking their turns, after Chad and Sally rode most of the early laps. Did the strategy backfire?.....allowing too much of a lead? They chipped away at us as the laps dwindled. With 3 to go, Totaro knocked it down to under 10 seconds.

a handoff

I took the handoff for my final lap and wouldn’t you know my fantasy race and my worst nightmare all at once. Hebe was hot on my trail. Fantasy because, afterall, he is The Legend. Nightmare because, he didn’t earn that nickname by being slow.

Coach Hebe going fast

He caught me half a lap in. He passed me in a good spot for me to hang onto his wheel. Through the technical stuff and back around I stayed glued to his wheel. Final lap was VisitPARay and Leech. Those two are buds and Ray is one fast mf’er but Ray’s season ended a couple months ago after winning the MASS Mtb series title. Leech’s season is in full swing. Ray rode an awesome final lap. So did Dieter. Final results will show we lost by only 15 seconds or so. But make no mistake, the Hebe, Leech, Totaro, McLain team left nothing in the tank by the end of the race to make up at least 2 minutes. Helluva job. We won 200 bucks for our efforts so we had no reason to hang our heads. Cash eases the pain.

3rd place Adam-Wes-James-Marc

2nd place Taylor-Ray-Me-Jeremy

1st place Sally-Hebe-Dieter-Chad

group hug

The moral of the story: DO NOT miss this race next year. You will love it. Period. I’m tired. I’m sore. And I feel like I’ve ignored The Wifey so it’s time to spend many hours doing what she wants to do.

Hello, Old Friend

Hebe and I went for a MTB ride this afternoon. What a blast. We went over and poached Pinchot Park. Officially you’re not allowed to ride there except for a small section but we did a loop around the whole joint with a side out-n-back trail thrown in the middle of our ride. Pinchot is perfect for Hebe and I because it’s smack in between our homes. 10 minute drive for both. Not a lot of elevation change. A few rollers. Several tough rock gardens. We ended up riding almost 1hr45min. It was a great workout for ‘cross. Lots of accelerations. I forgot how much power you need to clean rock gardens and accelerating through various technical stuff. I definitely lacked skill in picking good lines in the rocks but the power was there to muscle my way through it. Almost as an afterthought, I realized that I spent 50min in zone 5 today. That’s essentially the same as a ‘cross race. Nice. Before we started I asked Mike if he could remember the last time we rode MTB’s together. Answer. Last century. I can remember Hebe dragging me through the woods at Camp Tuckaho years and years ago when he raced MTB’s. Had to be late 90’s. I raced 24hrs Canaan ’98 & ’99, which was the last time I did any “serious” mountain stuff. But even at that point most of the training I did for that race was all road. Aaahh, memories. It’s nice to reflect back to fun times in the past but it also reminds me that I’m getting old.

My old friend, The Mountain Sled

Some of the blogs I read from ‘crossers near and far have talked recently about hopping on the scales of justice this time of year and not liking what they see. It’s inevitable that some lbs are going to find you unless you cut down on your caloric intake. A lot of guys are racing once or twice every weekend and because of shorter days just aren’t getting the time to ride during the week as much. So far I’ve managed to maintain my summer weight. This morning pre-eat-post#2 my Tanita scale read 145.4 and 8.9 bodyfat. I certainly haven’t been doing anything close to the riding I did this summer so I feel somewhat fortunate to not be fighting extra poundage. I still commute to work daily and do ‘cross workouts on the way so that’s helped, for sure.

I have such a love/hate feeling about this time of year. Autumn is my favorite season. And this year, so far, it’s been fantastic. Awesome weather. Hell, I was sweating my nuts off at Lower Allen. The bad news is after November comes December. And we all know what comes after that…..January(yuck)….February(nasty)…..March(a glimmer of hope)…..Finally April rolls around and if the winter blues hasn’t forced you to off yourself you get the biggest tease month of all. You get 70 degrees one day and 35 and snow the next.

I just ate a large bowl of sauerkraut. Mmmmmm. Love that stuff. All that was missing was sandwich. Maybe two pieces of bread and a hunk of cheese and you could call that a meal. Errrr.....uummmmm, almost.

Ketchup

I need to catch up some stuff. I’ve been lazy about posting. The Hinkle wedding was pretty fun and every bit as top shelf as I thought it would be. Everything happened at the Hotel Hershey. The ceremony was outside in some extravagant gardens behind the place. It was a little breezy and a bit chilly but for end of October it was actually a pretty nice day. Back inside for cocktail hour. I started with a Sam Adams but went to red wine for the rest of the evening. I love beer but if I stuck with it all night I’d have been in trouble. Wine tastes great and forces me to sip instead of chug. I guess old age has made me realize that hangovers suck. The reception was cool. We had a choice of fish or cow. Erin and I took divied up our plates so we had a piece of both to eat. Good stuff.

Mark and Phyllis had a DJ spin some tunes. It took a while for our crowd to get on the dance floor but once we did there was no apologies offered. I’m sure the more refined guests in attendance, someone told me at least two were actual rocket scientists, have never seen a bigger collection of well dressed retards. If only I remembered my camera. Probably best I didn’t. Late in the evening we made our way to the Milton S. Hershey Suite where Mark & Phyllis and Brian & Jenn were staying for the night. Pretty sweet little room. It had a long balcony outside that looks out over Hershey. You can see the Park below. I’ve been down there looking up and wondering how nice it would look from up top and now I had my answer.

Eric and Julie were staying over at our place. We made it home in time to see Lance on SNL. Don’t quit your day job Lance.

Fast forward to November 5th. My second ‘cross race of the season. My first MAC race this year. My first Mac B race ever. I was a little tense especially after 55 pre-reged and another 20 or so were expected day of. Ended up being 76 at the start line. Wow! Let me back up a bit. I had been practicing on the course for weeks if not months so I was pretty comfortable with that. Myself, Mike and Nate were there last week doing laps working on the layout some and I helped tape the course Friday night before I got a couple real laps in before dark. I knew it was going to FUN. I was most uptight about the start more than anything. Somehow I managed to slot in around 50th or so.

There was a short prologue lap before we started the big laps. I took a good look at the masters race and noticed on their prologue that it strung out pretty quick but the long line wasn’t moving very fast because of the few twists and turns. Hell, from about 30th on back most of the guys were just coasting, content to be on the wheel of the rider in front of him. Note to myself……I will NOT have a great starting spot, therefore, if I want to even get a sniff of the front I need to bust my balls and go hard in that prologue lap. Whistle and we’re off. Very dry dusty start but I was in the right gear. Once we hit the grass I sprinted, sat down, sprinted, sat down and sprinted again. The first lap through the sand and mulch I believe my father-in-law shouted 31st. I was good with that.

With that many racers it was real strung out for another lap and a half but I just tried to settle into a rhythm and race my race and not worry about anything else. About halfway I really settled in. The course was fast and not as congested by that point. I was picking off people here and there. One by one. A couple crashes took out one or two(or six). I got by some of the guys I really wanted to beat, which was important for my morale.with about two to go Erin’s dad yells 21st. Whoa, I’m really good with that. I was hoping for a top 25 placing. Now I was in the points. I followed Hebe’s teammate Chris for a while thinking if I just stay put I’ve accomplished what I set out to do. Chris is a roadie and has some nice results in ‘cross this season so I guess I was more or less content to ride his wheel in and maybe try to sprint for 20th. Last lap he bobbled in the sand so I got ahead of him. I didn’t attack him I just set a good comfy pace thinking he’d ride my wheel a bit.
Coming back up through the pine trees, which I thought would be the hardest part of the course, I big-ringed it and looked back, hey, a little gap, cool. Again, I didn’t put in a huge effort when I saw I had a gap, just stayed steady. Suddenly I was catching another Fort guy. Colin. In the last 180 before the long straight on the back of the course, about 85% through the lap, he lost his grip and went down. I wanted to say, yo?…..you alright?…but I put in a strong effort there and held it to the line thinking I just pulled off a top twenty, probably 19th. I couldn’t have been happier.

Holy shit! I checked out the results posted on the Verge trailer. 14th!!!! I guess Erin’s dad counted a couple lappers when he yelled 21st with 2 to go. What a great race. Hebe did a hell of a job. I loved last years course. He made this years even better. I loved the high-speed barriers. It was definitely a bike handlers course. I don’t have near the race fitness a lot of these guys have but I can stay upright in some tricky stuff and that’s where I make hay, I suppose. Now I actually feel guilty not racing more than I am. Probably won’t go again until PA States in two weeks.

Taylor borrowed my other ‘cross bike which happens to be the bike Erin rode all season on the road. He was the only UCI Junior to race but he fared pretty well riding with the masters field. It was his first ‘cross race. VisitPA Ray finished 4th in the same race I did. Nice effort from him. His first ‘cross race this season. I ran into FortJames. We raced last year in the C's at Lower Allen. He was friendly enough to say hello last year and recognized my orange handlebar tape and said hello before my race this year. Nice guy. The Fort guys have a good teammate in FortJames. I also said hello to Leech(Dieter). First time I met him. He asked if I owned Holmes Cycling. I said no but I do get to boss his VisitPA.com teammate(Ray) around. All in good fun. We all know that Kenny actually runs the place.

GOODNIGHTNOW!

Poop

I filled my truck with gas on Thursday. Exactly 53 days since the last time I filled the tank. On the day Hurricane Katrina hit I cruised to the local hadji-mart and paid $2.52 per. By the end of that week it was $3.39 per. When I filled my tank on Thursday it was $2.46 per. I gleefully missed all the gouging that took place. Nice.

My first ‘cross race was last Saturday. Also my first B race. It went well. 9th place. I suffered like a dog for the first couple laps. Just didn’t feel great at all. The start was a gradual rise on a dirt/stone road that got steeper about a minute into it. I started in the back. No bigggie only about 25 on line. I’m amazed at the gears some people choose to leave the line in. Regardless of where I start, but especially if I’m starting in the back, I want a gear that will get me haulin ass in a hurry. I use a 46-21 on starts and shift to the 19 pretty quick and go from there. So, about 20 seconds into it, I was hovering around 10th. That’s pretty much where I stayed. Some came back from the front and some went to the front from behind. I raced with a couple dudes but one in particular, who finished just ahead of me, I spent the entire race back and forth with. He was terrible in technical stuff. The barriers, cornering, single track stuff through the woods. I was faster in those spots. But this dude was strong as a mule on straights and the dirt road stuff. His strength was my weakness and vice versa. In the end I was pretty happy with a top ten. The winner was two minutes in front of me. Not bad. My next race will be Lower Allen. 2.5 miles from my humble abode. It’s where do my ‘cross workouts. I’d like to do well. It’s a MAC race so I’ll be racing 60 other ‘crossers instead of 25. Can’t wait.

Coach Hebe crossing the line

This dude was strong where he needed to be

Inflicting pain on eventual 4th place racer

Big Hink is getting married next Saturday. Of all the friends I have in this world, Mark has been there the longest. When I moved to East Berlin way back in second grade my mom rented a house from Mark’s parents. His parents also had a service station/garage behind the house so Mark and I would do what little boys do at that age. Terrorize the next-door neighbor. We called him Mr. Meanie. He would bitch at us if we set on toe nail on his yard. Hell, we had baseballs, kickballs, footballs, any ball you can think of in his yard at any given time. It was a real sense of adventure getting our stuff back. Anyway, good to see Mark and Phylis getting married. The “bach party will be a round of golf at the Dauphin Highlands across the river. Nice joint. I played there once. I haven’t “swung a club in anger” in two years. It will be fun to see how it goes. Hebe, I think you should come out of retirement and dust off your clubs.

It’s now, in my own mind, officially ri-god-damn-diculous how fast years are ticking off. I swear it was only a month ago that spring arrived. Now everything is dying and it’s getting cold again. Next week we turn the clocks back already. Shit. The winter blues won’t be far behind.
No mas.

Ramblings

Wow, Fall has arrived! It rained like hell the past two days. Today I rode to work in a pouring 67degree rain, doing a few hard seated efforts along the way. I’d rather do that than ride indoors. Nothing drives me up the wall and kills my spirit more than setting up indoors on a trainer. By the time 5pm rolled around it was still pouring but the temp dropped to 53degrees. The Legend offered to give me a ride home, (Thanks again for the offer, Coach) but, there is just something exhilarating about riding in weather that makes people question my sanity, or for that matter, my intelligence. Either way, the ride home was a great time.

Tonight we went in to NewCumb to Erin’s parents to watch a highly overrated Ohio State lose to an even more ridiculously overrated Penn State. Big Eleven football rots. No bigger collection of mediocre football teams that get more unwarranted pub and respect has ever been assembled. Needless to say, I despise PSU and root every week for the team playing PSU.

Once again, I know I’m in the vast minority in voicing my love for Hockey, but isn’t it great to have the NHL back. Seems to be a lot more goals being scored and ties have been eliminated. Gotta win in OT or a shootout now. Long overdue rule change IMHO.

My first ‘cross race will be next Saturday at Carlisle. It will be nice to “turn the pedals in anger” as Mrs. Legend’s favorite cycling announcer of all time would say. Should be a fairly low key event to shake out the cobwebs a bit. Perfect. I was talking to Coach Hebe earlier this week about training. In my mind after taking a week+1 off totally from exercising I feel like I’m waaay behind. Especially cardio. Tomorrow I will head over to the park for a structured workout. I can’t wait to see how I feel during and after.

GOODNIGHTNOW!

Showtime

Erin’s sis Emily dropped us off at HIA at 5AM. What a joy to not have to drive down to BWI. Not that BWI is a shitty airport but if I can be at HIA in less than 15min for a few $$ more. Why not? We landed in LV around 11AM/PST and was greeted by a taxi line of about 9000 people. I just about had a meltdown but the line moved quickly and we were at our hotel pretty quick.

I had slept about 3 hours the night before our flight mainly because I stayed up to watch the Phillies lose 6-5 after leading 5-2 in the 8th. Aholes. Put me in a grumpy mood. Cost them a trip to the playoffs. At any rate, when we got to the hotel I was spent. I wanted to go check things out but I had to take a nap. So I did. We stayed at Circus, Circus the first two nights. Not a bad place. More on that later.
The main mission on day two of the Las Vegas trip was to hit Interbike in search of cool schwag and to see new goodies. It did not disappoint. I could have spent at least another half day at the show. More crap on display than I expected. We chatted with Phil about Harrisburg/Hershey which he remembered from the Tour DuPont days. Got an autograph from him on a couple copies of Mike & The Bike. We also got Magnus Backstedt to sign a poster and pose for a pic. He’s tall but not as huge as I expected. I guess he is a roadie after all. Not like he could be as big as Shaq-Fu. Erin also got Levi Leipheimer and Gord Fraser to sign some goods while I was off on shop business. I think Erin had more fun than I did. She had a blast.

Thursday morning we picked up our rental car first thing and hit the high desert road in the direction of Sunny San Diego. I love SD. I always wanted to drive through the desert southwest. Now that I’ve done it I can say without a doubt that I never want to do it again. It only took us 4½hrs to get to SD. Roughly 335 miles in 270 minutes. Do the math. But the first 2½hrs were brutally tedious. Mentally exhausting. If you look at the picture you can see the road in front of you and swear that you’d crest a mountain or pass a town, all in plain view right in front of you, and it would take forever to actually crest that mountain or pass that town. After hours of that I was gassed. And the road signs were telling me I still had over 100 miles to SD. Admittedly the scenery got a little better once we blew through Riverside, CA and further south into SD County. By that point I could already taste the fish tacos or the carne asada.

We hit SD and immediately went to Ocean Beach for some grub. Then cruised over to Coronado and hooked up with our gracious and terminally hyper host, Glen, at the Island Saloon for a couple Pacificos. Then back to his crib where his wonderful wife, Lupe, had more food for us. Steak, taties, and corn. Mmmmm. I couldn’t finish it but it was tastey.
Friday in SD. Back to Coronado for breakfast and then a ferry ride across SD Bay to the USS Midway, A monster aircraft carrier that has be decommissioned and turned into a floating museum. This was one of the things I definitely wanted to do on our trip. We spent 3hrs checking it out. I’m amazed at the sheer mass of this ship. How small the sleeping quarters/bunks are. The tiny little rooms here and there. No wasted space anywhere. 4500 Navy personnel called it home at any given time. Erin’s dad spent time on a ship during the Vietnam War. I think we both took something from our tour of the Midway. The deck was full of jets, planes, and choppers from its era. Pretty cool. I was fascinated by the ridiculous amount of trust a pilot had to have on his own skills and instincts as well as a number of other people on the flight deck just to land. Nutty stuff.
Friday night back to Coronado to the Hotel Del Coronado for dinner. Top shelf stuff here, friends. Maybe next time I’ll spend a weeks pay just to spend the night there but this time dinner would have to do. The marine layer hanging over the coast all day crept inland as the sun was going down. Basically it was sunny in SD but as soon as we crossed the bridge into Coronado halfway down Orange Ave we drove into a thick bank of fog. It would have been nice to see the sun set over the Pacific but we had a nice time anyway.

Saturday we had breakfast in Pacific Beach. Best breakfast of the trip. I had an omelet with all sorts of wonderful veggies and meats. Then we hit OB again for an afternoon sunning at the beach. We took a swim. The water was a bit chilly but saltwater does seem to have a therapeutic nature t it. Then I proceeded to burn the hell out of my pastey belly which doesn’t get sun while I ride all summer. The main event Saturday eve was a trip to Petco Park downtown for a Padres game. Dinner at Chuey’s in Barrio Logan and then a quick trolley ride to the ballpark. What a beautiful stadium. Padres lost but they did have a killer 20 minute fireworks display after the game.

Sunday morning after thanking Glen for putting up with us we were on our way back to LV. 335miles in 255 minutes on our return trip. Good stuff. Once back in LV we checked into Excalibur which is on the opposite end of The Strip. What a HUGE difference. Not that I minded Circus, Circus but on the south end it’s a completely different cookie. You’ll spend a little more but you can see where that extra moola goes. We had lunch in the Luxor(where Mr &Mrs Legend hang) which is connected too and situated between Excalibur and Mandalay Bay. Nice. Luxor is the one shaped like a pyramid. If I ever do go to LV again I will stay there. After lunch we cruised The Strip to do some sightseeing and some shopping. I saw Elvis but he wasn’t signing autographs. Weird thing was it was a skinny Elvis in the fat Elvis get-up.


Back to the hotel for a short nap before a 3:30AM trip to the airport. Monday was spent either in a plane or in an airport. Home by 7:00PM. Long day in the saddle. In summary. LV was exactly what I thought it would be. It didn’t exceed nor did it fall short of my expectations. I’d go back. The Wifey would have to know ahead of time that I’d spend an ENTIRE day in one of the casinos sportsbook. A sports junkies heaven. SD was fun as it always is. I’m never disappointed there. Other than the fog bank we drove into we had great weather the whole trip. And after the fact I realized that Erin and I were never separated the entire trip with the exception of approx 30 minutes. We really had a great time.

Erin double-fisting $8 a cone ice cream at the Billagio. It was damn good ice cream.

More later

Just one of a few celebs we saw from the cycling industry. Phil is a friendly dude. Nice guy. Despite what Mrs Legend says.

Quick Update

What a great time The Wifey and I had out West. Lots of sun and fun. I’ll post a couple pics and a full summary shortly. When I feel less lazy. I didn’t exercise for 8 DAYS! That was the only sucky thing about the trip. I guess we did walk miles every day but that doesn’t count, does it? My heart rate never left double digits. Now it’s back to the drawing board.

It felt strange getting on my bike Tuesday morning to ride to work. After a couple days now I feel my legs coming back. I got out this morning and felt good. Fairly easy ride but I was comfortable. This weekend I’ll step it up another notch.

Flyers lost last night. Aholes. Just prolonging the sting of the Phillies missing the playoffs by one game.

Domestic chores/scams

As it is my day off and I have a small list of chores from The Wifey to get done, I am reminded again of the complete and utter stupidness of a dishwasher. What follows is an excerpt from an email sent to me this morning by the lovely and beautiful Wifey. “Also could you load the dishes, scrub off the grime first andclean the beasts box, thanks I love you have a good day! love, wifey” OK, two things here. First, before I get to the dishwasher, let me explain “the beast” The Beast is only one of our terms of affection for little Elwood. He also responds to Elmer, El, Ebert, Rodent……and The Beast. Or if he’s hungry, which seems to be all the time, he’ll respond to really anything you want to call him. He’s a good little animal. I advocate owning a cat. Lotsa fun.

Now, on to the dishwasher foolishness. I again refer to the The Wifey’s email. Load the dishes, scrub off the grime first. ????? Am I the only one who doesn’t get it? As I’m loading the dishes I’m instructed to clean them first BEFORE inserting. What’s the point? I found myself cleaning them but stopping just short of totally clean just so I could still load a dirty dish. If you can’t load a dirty dish into the dishwasher without some “pre”cleaning, why bother? Just spend the extra two seconds and just totally clean the dish and be done. I’ll never get it. Scholars have tried to explain it to me but I’m too Dunce to comprehend. Sorta like straightening your bed after you sleep in it. If you’re just going to sleep in it again the following evening, again, what’s the point? Funny thing about that is BedSheet scientists have discovered that those little bed critters that feast on your dead skin while you sleep become MORE prevalent when you DO straighten the bed. And yet, the beat goes on.

Makes you want to launder the bed sheets, huh?

Ass Monkeys

I just got finished with today’s workout. Today I finally did a ‘cross specific workout. I had the Giant in full race trim and rode over to the LA Park to do some hard lap intervals. I did 1 hard then 1 easy, 4 times. I felt sorta crappy but I rode the course as close to last years race as possible. Lap times were consistent, about 8 minutes per-including starts each time. I was encouraged mainly because I think it’s a little faster than last year and I’ve only really started to do specific training 2½ weeks ago. Hopefully I can knock a little more off those lap times. I felt crappy probably because my average heart rate per lap was 95% of my max. The course itself was VERY dry(fast!). And I was riding it alone. What to make of it all?

Vegas/San Diego in less than two weeks! Wow, that’s soon. I can’t wait. I’ve made a few appointments with some of our bike reps to go through the ’06 bikes. Should be fun.

I’m fully aware that approx 5 people read this blog, but is it asking too much to tell me who you are when you leave a comment? Or at least start your own damn blog and let me comment anonymously. Now I know by saying that, all 5 of you will leave anonymous comments. I just need to figure out who says what. Clowns!

Hello Wilbur

For lack of nothing else exciting happening other than a fantastically unmotivated yet very productive training ride today maybe I should ramble about nonsensical crap. I briefly caught a few minutes of a travel program on PBS-HD tonight. It’s a cool show on every night at 7:30pm and deals only with travel in Europe. Every night a different small region of any given country. Spain, Italy, Switzerland, France, Croatia. Croatia?? Yep. Tonight’s show was on Croatia. I must confess my thoughts of Croatia before watching tonight’s program was a Croats v Serbs Holy War-torn hole-in-the-ground. What I saw was beautiful coastal towns and islands from a country I would never have given a second thought. Tons of tourists visit this place. It’s just across the Adriatic from Italy. A country I’d love to visit. I’m not saying Croatia would be second on my list. I guess my point is How big/small is this world we live. How many people don’t leave York County, PA? Ever. Or don’t cross state lines, in their entire life? I’ve always loved the idea of traveling. Even if I never seem to do it. I think hoping in a jet and landing 6hrs later on the west coast is fascinating. Isn’t it crazy to think, in the grand scale of time, it was only roughly 100 years ago that the airplane was invented? As Uncle Jack would say, “I got socks older than that!”

So I think of all the places I’ve dreamed of going. And why I haven’t been there or what’s holding me back now. Mexico. Central America-Costa Rica, Belize. South America-Brazil, Argentina, Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego(the end of the road). Europe(see above)-Portugal, Germany, Belgium. Why not Asia too? Nepal, Japan, Hong Kong. Not to mention Australia & New Zealand. Fiji. Tahiti. PNG. The funny thing about all those places is I haven’t even mentioned Alaska, PacNorWest, Montana, NoCal, AZ, TX, CO, WY……blah, blah, blah. The list goes on. That’s a lot of travel. How could I possibly see all that? I only get two weeks vacation a year. Maybe I’ll just become a slacker and not work anymore. Give up my cushy bike job and travel the world. The Wifey can support my trips, eh Wifey? Didn’t think so. I want to take her along. So I’m back to my quandary. Old people travel. Not all, but some. Do I need to wait ‘til I’m old? Will I ever make it to old? Existentialism at work. Do I just need to watch PBS-HD and pretend I’m there? Maybe lottery tickets should be a part of my life. Maybe I’ll just take baby steps and travel to Carlisle Sunday to partake in some good ‘cross practice.

As nice as today was I could not get my ass in gear and start my ride. 30 minutes in I still felt uninterested. So I started a 20 minute “interval” and felt really good while doing it. Pushed it harder than Coach told me to, even after he told me to resist the temptation to do so. 10 minutes rest was actually 6(shh…don’t tell Mike) and another 22 minute “interval” pushed harder than prescribed. Mind you, we’re not talking fullgas here but I was 7-10bpm off of race pace and felt great doing it. 41 miles in total today after not having the motivation to even get started. Not a bad day, I guess.

Raiders are on. Losing but not looking terrible doing it. Football on the double nickel. Phillies are tanking, again. Penn State barely gets over on South Florida?? I root for whoever plays PSU. Hockey less than a month away. ‘Cross in less than 3 weeks. Fall is here.

GoodNightNow! ‘Sup Josh?

Birthday party throwdown

Sunday afternoon we cruised over to Mike & Amy’s for a birthday party/crabfeast. Those little buggers are tastey. Shame they’re such a pain in the ass to eat. Steve made some of the famous pinwheels. Awesome. Pasta salad was yummy. Beer was great.

Later we had a DQ Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard ice cream cake. Wow! The thing weighed 19 pounds. My piece alone, that is.

In between crabs and cake we had a croquet smackdown. I DOMINATED the action from the start with a ridiculous display of talent and skill. I’m sure backyard croquet has rarely seen such a high level of performance, if ever. However, in games of chance, where the brightest star doesn’t always finish first, an unfortunate act of cowardice won the event. Very similar to winning The Singlespeed Worlds race but losing the silly go-cart thing afterwards, I was left an empty and broken warrior with nothing. I sucked on my sour grapes and refused to play game two. It was as much fun to watch. Mike’s neighbor Bob took my place and was launching people to the moon.

That’s Mike after Bob sent him halfway to Goldsboro. Funniest thing I saw all night.
Group photo of the croquet smackdown. The big man(Steve) in the center with the white t-shirt and the skirt won using questionable girlie-man-run-and-hide tactics. Despicable!
Lead play-by-play commentator and gracious host of the day’s events. Mrs. Legend.

In the end, a super fun afternoon/evening. Thanks Mike & Amy and happy b-day to Mike(38?!) and The Wifey(27).

Surprise! err...

And for the big surprise. Erin's b-day gift. A glass cook-top range. She never expected this at all. Although she did mess up my plans a little by coming home from work early on Friday. I was walking circles in the yard mowing the grass and never saw her pull in the driveway and go inside the house. So I missed her reaction to her new toy, but she loved it anyway. I'm sure I'll use it a bunch too.

Happy Birthday to you.....

Erin turns 27 next Monday. She has NO idea what I bought her. I won’t give her any hints either. She’s going to love it though. No doubt in my mind. Can’ wait.

Glen and Lupe

Erin and I cruised down to York last night to hang with Glen and Lupe. Glen married off his daughter Sunday without a hitch. He wanted to get some hardshell crabs to stuff himself with. Can’t get those Maryland blue crabs in San Diego. We went to a place called Kelly’s. OK place. The rest of Glen’s family was there. His Dad, Bro, Sis and their families. They’re all from SD so it was kind of a last night in PA celebration. Or a thank god we’re going back to SD celebration more like it. We had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs. Glen is as funny as always. You can tell being married to Lupe has affected him in all the right ways. Lupe is a class act and a tough chick to settle his ass down. Love ‘em both. Can’t wait to see that whole gang again in a few weeks. We didn’t have any crabs because this Sunday we’re scheduled to power some hardshells down at Mike & Amy’s. I don’t want to ruin my appetite for the little fellas.

Sano como un Caballo

Last Thursday I made a visit to the doctor’s office for a routine physical, my first in17yrs(half my life ago). I wanted to get my cholesterol checked as well as blood sugar and homocysteine levels looked at. Cholesterol is obvious. Are my arteries clogged? Is my heart going to explode? The blood sugar test would tell me if I’m at risk for diabetes. That would suck. Homocysteine is an amino acid in the blood which, if levels are high, can lead to coronary disease or stroke. Both of which also would suck.

First thing I did was stop eating the night before the visit. Fasting. That sucked. I don’t get home from work until 8:15. I couldn’t eat after 9pm. So I crammed down my usual post work snack goodies quick and drank a bunch of water after 9. I couldn’t eat breakfast the next morning either. So I get to the office and the doc wants to weigh and measure my height. 147lbs and 5’7”. You read that right. Five feet, seven inches! Insert smart-ass remarks at your leisure.

Then the doc sits me down and asks me why I’m there. Huh? I was a bit confused but she explained that men my age don’t just walk into the doc’s office unless something is wrong. Otherwise, they just don’t come in. Made sense. Afterall, without the nagging of my beautiful wife, Erin, I wouldn’t have been there. Once my intentions were clear Doc took my pulse, listened to my heart, poked and prodded a bit and that was that. She split, the nurse came in and took my blood and I was out the door. 30 minute ordeal. Easy stuff.

Today I got the results from the tests in the mail. Seems as though all is well. A chart to make sense of all these numbers http://wellness.byu.edu/screenings/cholesterol.php . Total cholesterol is 166. Over 200 is bad. Under 150 is supergood. HDL was 55. Below 45 is bad. Above 60 is phenomenal. LDL is 88. Above 130 is bad. Under 100 is mucho grande. I aced the LDL’s. Triglycerides was 113. Above 150 is bad. Below 100 is fantastic. Blood sugar was 75. Normal range is 70 to 100. Over 100 is considered prediabetic. Over 125 and you are diabetic. Looks like I aced this one too. Last but not least. Homocysteine was 6.9. Over 10 is not good. Over 12 is bad. Sweet. Looks like no worries.
I eat pretty well. Usually a couple bowls of Total in the AM. Red or green tea when I get to work. A yogurt. Sometimes an apple. Always a banana with kiwi and mango all diced up in the afternoon. The guys at work are probably sick of my daily fruit rituals. A little later I’ll have a Hershey’s chocolate bar and a handful of cashews. Love cashews. Chocolate makes ‘em taste even better. Usually dinner(lunch?) is a veggie burger and a can of baked beans. Somedays I’ll get sick of eating this suff all the time but for now all this stuff tastes so good. I can’t stop eating it. I eat like crap when I get home but I’ve eaten so well up to that point that I reward myself with pretzels or chips/salsa and sometimes cookies & cream sneaks in there. Italian ice. Aaaahh. Now it’s Erin’s turn to get her blood tested. My turn to nag. Speaking of which. Erin is up to 739 miles for the year on her road sled. We rode together Sunday for 30 miles and I must say I was impressed. She’s definitely getting faster.

Monday, August 22nd

For those of us who like to look at local cycling results, did you ever notice that some promoters get stuff up real quick and others take days. With today’s cutting edge tech why should it take any more than a few hours. Just a peeve.

I bought little DJ a new bike a couple days ago and gave it to him last night. He’s 7yrs old now. Hard to believe. He’s on a 20” bmx bike now. He wanted to do tricks and jumps so he’s got the right rig for it now. He seems to have pretty good balance for a little punk. Maybe a future ‘crosser. I’ll work on that.

I went shopping Saturday night with Erin after work. I’ve been wanting a new cell phone. Picked up a Motorola V551. Nice little phone. It’s a flipper w/ a built in camera. I gave Erin my old Nokia because she hated her Sony Ericsson. Too small and hard to navigate it’s features. Now everyone seems to be happy.
I rode about 100minutes yesterday in the morning while it was still warm and humid. By the afternoon it cleared out nicely but still hot. No humidity though. Just in time for me to mow the yard. Joy. Made a huge difference. The rest of the week looks awesome. Maybe drive-ins this weekend?

mmmmmmm....Beeer

Nate has a blog he put together some time ago. He’s over in Spain so it’s really the only way to see what’s happening over in his neck of the woods. Check out his blog http://thenateblog.blogspot.com/. He found a picture of Bohemia Beer. Mexican’s can really make a fine beer. All of them are NOT named Corona. Most of my visits to MX have been to the northern parts of Baja while out visiting SD. I did go to Puerto Vallarta for our honeymoon. So, keeping in mind my exposure to this matter is somewhat limited, I’ve noticed that Mexicans don’t even drink Corona. Sure they’ll sell it to us gringos but you won’t catch them drinking that crap. Find yourself a Pacifico or a SOL or the aforementioned Bohemia. All stellar choices. My fave is Pacifico. Bohemia is tough to find in the US.
Speaking of Puerto Vallarta(PV). If your ever down in those parts do yourself a favor and forego the big fancy all-inclusive resort type joints and find a B&B. erin and I stayed in a place called Casa Amorita. Centrally located in the downtown or oldtown area of PV. I imagine most people who visit PV stay in a big resort north of town and never get to see the cobblestone streets and eat in the many neighborhood bars or family owned restaurants. What a beautiful part of the world. Check out the B&B http://www.casaamorita.com/. The place is run by a 50ish woman named Rita Love(wonder where she came up with naming her place Amorita?) who was super friendly. I’d enjoy visiting PV again someday.

Therapy

There is just something soothing about a rainy cool morning. Perhaps it’s knowing I don’t feel as though I MUST go out and ride an hour before work. Two more weeks and we cut our hours at work back to 7pm closing time. It’s only an hour but it makes a huge difference.

I may be one of a dozen or so people to truly be excited by this but Hockey got their act together and will start a new season October 5th. The Flyers have made some pretty nice moves to put themselves in a great position to dominate. Although anyone who knows anything about Philly sports knows that you can’t celebrate BEFORE the season starts. Phillies, Flyers, Sixers, Eagles. In fact the reason I’m a Raiders fan today is because way back in 1980 the Eagles went to the Super Bowl to take on the mighty Raiders. I was in 4th grade and loved the Eagles. The freakin Raiders crushed them poor little Eagles. I was devastated. I went to bed and cried. I swore I’d never let a team let me down like that again. So at that point in time, my only logical course of action was to root for the champs, The Raiders. Not that they accomplished a whole hell of a lot since then either. Anyway, hockey. Mark it on your calender. 10/5/05. Flyers v. Rangers. HiDef.

Priceless

Moss admits smoking marijuana since entering NFL
Associated Press
NEW YORK -- Oakland Raiders receiver Randy Moss admits he has used marijuana since entering the NFL seven years ago and still smokes it "every blue moon."

As a Raider fan, I can't wait for this season to get underway. It should be a helluva year with this clown on the feild. And by clown, I mean an incredible football player and an even better entertainer.

Little did we know......

Another funny old pic. Halloween 2000. Me, Mike, Amy, and The Future Mrs. Kessel. She didn't know it yet, but she would marry me 2 1/2 years later. My magic was working well that night. Check out Ragedy Ann & Andy.

New Holmes Unis

Way back in the beginning of the year I started the task of creating a new Holmes’ Cycling jersey and short for the masses to wear. We used Garneau for the actual garments which turned out fantastic. My original plan was to approach the local Market Street businesses to see about logo placement/sponsorship type stuff but not a single one was interested. We weren’t even asking for a big commitment. Losers. So plan B was customers with business and that worked much better. We signed up an eye doctor, a realtor, and EDS. Along with them we got Giant, Trek, and Serotta on board as well. The end result is a pretty sharp jersey. Orange and navy blue. Bibshorts kick ass. I’d especially like to thank TeamPete/ReMAX for stepping up big time to buy the prime sleeves/ass logo spots which are primo. Although he’ll have to forgive me for cutting the sleeves out of my jersey. Just too damn hot this summer for sleeves. I’ll wear sleeves this Fall. Look for the Holmes team uni at the rear of a ‘cross field near you shortly.

Which brings me to my gripe of the day. Hebe called me yesterday to inform me that I will NOT be racing 35+ this fall. The way age is calculated was changed from last year. Now my race age as of January 1st 2006 is what I go by. Which means I’m no longer 35. I’m 34. No biggie.
Today was such a beautiful day. 85 and low humidity. Not much wind. I put in almost 3hrs. mostly flat stuff but I did do the Whiskey Springs climb which is always a good time. Now I feel as though I need to lay down in the hammock and nap. Later.

Old Pics

Flaze, Eric, Me, Mike, Steve

Mike, Eric, Me, Steve

Years ago we gathered at Mike and Eric's mom's place for July 4th festivities. To add to the fun we worked a theme into the mix a couple of the years. These pictures are the incriminating evidence.

Old Friends

In the next couple weeks I will see some friends I haven’t seen in years. Nate will be home, it seems, from Spain. It’s only been since late last year that I’ve seen him but his appearance gives me more indication that ‘cross is near. Someone to talk euro-pro cycling with.
Then there is John Parham. He’ll be visiting PA for a few days. He worked at Holmes’ way back when we were still in that hole-in-the-wall shop down the street from where we are now. That’s been 11 years or so. JP turned me on to some good writers back in the day that’s given me plenty of reading enjoyment throughout the years. Hunter S. Thompson. Brautigan. Tim Cahill. Road Fever is still one of my favorite books of all time. JP lives in Argentina, which happens to be one of my favorite parts of the book. Good stuff. A High Speed Travelogue, for sure.
Last but not least, my old buddie Glen from San Diego. I met Glen waaa back in ’90 when I had my first and only REAL job. Concrete curbing and things of that nature. Hard work. Glen moved to Hanover(Hangover) PA with his wife and little girl to check out the scenery. Glen and I got a job with the same company around the same time. He was somehow related to the owners of said company and I was not but we both ended up being the two clowns no one wanted to work with so they made us work with each other. I never had so much fun working that hard. We drove all over Maryland and southern PA sawing expansion joints in miles of curbing at a time. It’s all the stuff we did to and from and everywhere in between all that hard work that got us “layed off”. I got work at Holmes’, Glen went back to SD, his wife and little girl stayed in Hangover. Now, 15 years later, his little girl is getting married. I’ve been out to visit Glen in SD quite a few times but I believe this might be his first visit back. Then Erin and I will be staying at his new joint in SD a month later. Can’t wait for that trip. Erin’s sister is moving up here this coming weekend. The whole family is back together again. She’s cool. She’ll give Erin someone to chill with.

Raw Fish

Last night I went out for some sushi with VisitPA Ray, Steve, Allen and Scott. I work with Ray and Steve and Allen is the big boss man at Holmes’ Cycling. Scott is our finance/retirement guy. He was sponsoring last night’s food. So, of course we ordered waaay to much sushi. A lot of dead fish on the table. It was super tastey. Love that stuff.
Looks like rain today. I’ll try to commute in anyway. Maybe I can miss it. 10-8.

Ode to fast guys

Holy shit, it’s hot outside. I told you it wouldn’t be 3 months ‘til my next post. 3 hours. Just got back from a 2hr ride and just about melted. Stiff little breeze for such a warm day. Ordinarily you’d think such a stinkin’ hot day would not have any wind to speak of. So, today’s ride brings me to 2150+ road miles. Last year at this time I had approx 1100 or so. Just about double to this point. And yet I still have all kinds of self doubt about getting anything accomplished this fall. Maybe it’s the heat. I never minded the heat. It’s far from what I’d call great weather but maybe I just don’t respond well to 95 degrees. To be a top cyclist, someone who races and rides at the front, takes drive and determination that I admire and respect and, quite frankly, don’t know how they do it all year long. My hats off. Out.

WtF

Is he trying to fart/poop his pants/hold one in?

Go West, young man

I believe when I last posted I had every intention of making it a regular post. That was 3 months ago. Summer has come and almost gone. Not like I’ve been busy. Other than the bike shop being a complete zoo all summer, that is.

We had a big party here at the ranch on July 3rd. Beer, food, friends, badminton, did I mention food. A good time was had by all.

I bought our tickets for the Vegas trip. We’re headed to the Bike Show for a couple days then we’re going to drive to San Diego for 4 days of r&r before driving back to Vegas to catch our plane home. I’ve never been to Vegas so I’m looking forward to it but I must say the 4 days in SD is what I’m most looking forward to. I love that town. We’ll be staying with my old friend Glen and his wife Lupe. I wish Glen didn’t live so damn far away. Fun dude. I’m going to try to talk him into cruising to Mex to hit Puerto Nuevo, a little village about 45 minutes below TJ. It’s best known for the fresh lobster served with all you can shove beans, rice and tortillas. Throw in a few Pacificos or Bohemias and an awesome rooftop view of the Pacific and that’s what I call a killer way to spend an afternoon. Add in some quality street shopping too (picture a flea market combined w/ town wide yard sale). I bought tickets to see the Padres play the Dodgers in the new ballpark. We’re also going to tour the USS Midway. The Midway is a WWII era aircraft carrier that’s been decommissioned and now acts as a floating museum/attraction in SD Bay. Not that I’m a war nut or a military fanatic but I do think it would be fascinating to see first hand the grand scale of a carrier. Those things are HUGE.

Anyway Vegas will be fun too. I’m going to pack an empty suitcase just top bring back all the schwag.

The ‘cross scheds are all posted. I’m excited on one hand but I’ve been struggling all summer to stay motivated. I’ve ridden more miles on the rode this year than ever before. And it’s still only 8/11. All it’s done though, really, is kept me skinny. I guess at this point, I should send Hebe my annual groveling email begging for training help. I kept last years workouts on a floppy but I’m looking at ‘em and thinking, man this sucks. Why is it that I know what I should do, but I can’t motivate myself to go out and do it? I need Hebe to tell me all over again what to do and when to do it. Somehow it’s totally different when I get that email Sunday night with the coming weeks workouts. Besides all that, I haven’t really decided which races I’m doing yet. I’d like to do the Baltimore race 9/25 but then I’m out west for a solid week after that with no ability to train while out there unless you count a hotel exerbike. Maybe I could do some running. Scary thought. Anyway, Carlisle on 10/15 is definite. Hebe’s race 11/05 is definite. PA States 11/19-20 for sure. Everything else, who knows. I loved Beacon but it’s a long haul and my in-laws don’t live down there anymore, plus the wifey needs to be home Sunday night for a work thing which eliminates all possibility of staying in Cape May for an extra day or two. We’ll see. Hebe might set me up to wrench for the Fort/GPOA team at nationals in Providence, RI 12/9-11. From what I hear they’re a good bunch of guys. VisitPARay races with FlyinRyan and SSwes on the MTB team and has good things to say about both. I met Fergie out at Hebe’s a month ago. Should be a good time. Hopefully not too cold.

Hinkles wedding is 10/29 at the Hershey Hotel. Should be an amazingly good time. Top shelf all the way on that one. Josh and Beths wedding was really cool. Which is not to say it wasn’t hot as a mf’er(it was) but to say that it was fun. Good to see those two. We need to visit them one of these days. NoCal.

Speaking of VisitPA.com. I must say I’m really impressed with what Ray and Kuhn put together last winter. Those guys did a lot of work to put a sponsor together with a bunch of fast mtb’ers to come up with a pretty successful year so far. Nice work.

It won’t be 3 months ‘til my next post.

Another month gone by and not much new going on. The weather has been much better so riding hasn't been an issue at all. Although I feel like I need something to do to hold my interest or keep me motivated. I'm just short of 1000 miles after todays ride but lately i'm starting to feel lethargy creeping in. Maybe if I find a race to do to inspire me. I think there is an MTB race at Roundtop next month I might look into. It's only 5 miles away from my house so I really would have no traveling excuses to use. Too bad it's a MTB race though. I have ZERO motivation to ride my mtn sled. We'll see. I felt great today on the bike. 62 and partly sunny. 10mph wind outta the south. Although it seemed as though it was in my face no matter which way I was headed. Any cyclist will tell you thats always the case.

Been busy as hell at the bike shop. Good thing we got Frannie (Ray) on board last year. I can't imagine what that place would be like without him. Yesssssssss. Thats for you Ray. Might get Nate back in a month or so to help out as well. Rumor has it he might be back in the States come June. I can taste 'cross already Nate. October is right around the corner, right?

At the homestead me and the wifey have been doing a little digging and planting. A flowerbed next to the garage and a dogwood for the front yard. Dress the place up a bit. Speaking of upgrading the house, I've been forgetting to mention the new toy I bought back in January to spiff up the basement. 55" of pure beauty. The Queen Mother of Entertainment. A Sony Wega LCD tele. Sweetness. I wanted to get a 61" just so I could tell Hebe mine was bigger than his (he has the same tele in a 60") but the price jump was hard to justify. The double nickle works perfectly. Let me say this about High Definition programming. It will change your life, my friends. I never cared much for network television but I'll watch just about anything now if it's broadcast in HD. Never watched CSI until now. A couple other shows here and there. Unbelievable picture. the Super Bowl was amazing. Nascar in HD, wow! Do yourself a favor when you buy your next tele. Get something HD capable.

Elwood is growing nicely. The Little Rodent, as we affectionately call him, is so much fun.

Josh and Beth's wedding is next weekend. Can't wait to see the two of them.

I learned my good friend Mark has set his wedding date for the end of October. That will be a great time for sure. I think Mark is really the last good friend of mine to get hitched. I've know Mark longer than anyone else. Since the second grade. He lives down in Cary, NC running a mega computer company of some sort. Nicest dude you'll ever meet. Bach party will be interesting to say the least.

Not that anyone cares but my morning routine for years was listening to Tony Bruno on Fox Sports Radio until they failed to renew his contract late last year. FSR replaced him with a train-wreck of a show that is unlistenable. Well, great news. He's back on the air. I have to listen thru the internet but thats good enough. Dude is funny as hell about sports and whatever else. Starts my morning off on the right foot after six months of feeling lost.

That'll do it for this edition. Out

The Little Rodent 

My new toy